The Omnitrix Hero

Chapters

Season 1, Episode 3: Save The Trees
Season 1, Episode 4: Power Outage
Season 1, Episode 5: Crystal Clarity
Season 1, Episode 6: Birthday Bash
Season 1, Episode 7: Like Looking in a Mirror
Season 1, Episode 8: Prehistoric Panic
Season 1, Episode 9: Rise of the Technovore
Season 1, Episode 10: Bemusement Ride
Season 1, Episode 11: Bloodsuckers
Season 1, Episode 12: The Hunt is On
Season 1, Episode 13: Lady Masquerade
Season 1, Episode 14: Ice to Meet You
Season 1, Episode 15: Revelations
Behind the Alien: Volt-Edge
Behind the Alien: Firefly
Behind the Alien: Riot-Horn
Behind the Alien: Bushwhacker
Behind the Alien: Vapaw
Season 2, Episode 1: Plumbing School
Season 2, Episode 3: Grounded
Season 2, Episode 4: Ten Aliens and a Baby
Season 2, Episode 5: They Came From the Deep
Season 2, Episode 6: Hot Rods and Hot Dates
Season 2, Episode 7: Return of the Masquerade
Season 2, Episode 8: Trixie's Destiny
Season 2, Episode 9: The Visitor
Season 2, Episode 10: A Villain's Level Up
Season 2, Episode 12: Taking Flight
Season 2, Episode 14: The Invasion of Canterlot
Season 2, Episode 15: Secrets of the Omnitrix
Behind the Alien: Lindwhirl
Behind the Alien: Kagenobi
Behind the Alien: U-Reek-Ah
Season 3, Episode 1: World Famous
Season 3, Episode 2: The Mysterious Creature
Season 3, Episode 3: Old Friends, New Friends
Season 3, Episode 4: Ready to Rumble
Season 3, Episode 5: Hunter of Pearl
Season 3, Episode 6: Good Copy, Bad Copy
Season 3, Episode 7: A Dazzling Dispute
Season 3, Episode 8: Tick Tock, Slows the Clock
Season 3, Episode 9: Viral Infection
Season 3, Episode 10: Smashing the Competition
Season 3, Episode 11: Base Invaders
Season 3, Episode 12: Age is Just a Number
Season 3, Episode 13: Tirek's Scheme
Season 3, Episode 14: Tirek's Crimes
Season 3, Episode 15: Tirek's Rampage
Behind the Alien: Hybrids
Season 4, Episode 2: From Time to Time PT2
Season 4, Episode 3: Get in the Zone Spider
Season 4, Episode 4: Digital Dilemma
Season 4, Episode 5: No One Can Hear You Scream
Season 4, Episode 6: Love Lost
Season 4, Episode 7: Break Up Reaction
Season 4, Episode 8: Twilight's Haunting
Season 4, Episode 9: Group Therapy
Season 4, Episode 10: Ghostfreaked Out
Season 4, Episode 11: Parental Misguidance
Season 4, Episode 12: Stars and Shields Forever
Season 4, Episode 13: Ten V Ten
Season 4, Episode 14: The Ultimate Opponent PT1
Behind the Alien: Cat-Apult
Behind the Alien: Gemini
Behind the Alien: Lantool
Transformations: Playlist 1
Transformations: Playlist 2
Transformations: Playlist 3
Season 1, Episode 1: To the Power of Ten
Season 1, Episode 2: Animal Harm
Season 2, Episode 2: New Alien On the Block
Season 2, Episode 11: Glitches
Season 2, Episode 13: Freeze Ups and Melt Downs
Season 4, Episode 1: From Time to Time PT1
Season 4, Episode 15: The Ultimate Opponent PT2

Season 1, Episode 3: Save The Trees

Despite the summer months having come to an end, the days were still quite nice. Wanting to take advantage of said nice weather, many people of Canterlot were outside enjoying themselves.

One of the places many people enjoyed spending their time was in a large forest that was located near the city. This forest was the same one that Camp Everfree was located in, though the area they were currently in was on the complete opposite side of the forest.

Currently, Flash and several of his friends from school had come to the forest and set up show in a natural clearing that was a well known picnic sight. "Okay boy," Flash showed his dog, Banana, the frisbee and the hound let out an excited bark as Flash threw it and he chased after it.

Over by the side, Twilight, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie were laying around on a blanket reading some of their favourite books. Trixie was also there, she and Sunset sitting side by side listening to a new song the bacon-haired girl had recently downloaded. At the same time, Rainbow, Applejack, Scootaloo, Applebloom and Sweetie were playing a game with several other people from school. They were throwing a ball back and forth, standing in a circle and bouncing it into the air for as long as possible.

Flash smirked as he looked around, seeing many people filling up the clearing. Some he recognised, others he didn't.

In the very center of the clearing were two individuals Flash knew better then anyone: His parents. Misty Vail, a silver skinned woman with purple hair, and Trail Blazer, a man who looked almost exactly like Flash but with a beard, sat side by side on a blanket. Misty appeared to be drawing something whilst Trail was reading a book, but the pair also smiled when Banana ran up with the frisbee in his mouth.

"Ahh," Misty sighed as she scratched Banana's head. "I'm glad we decided to come out here. What better way to recharge."

"Couldn't agree more," Trail nodded. "Sometimes you've just gotta get out of the museum and smell the roses." Both Flash's parents worked at a museum in the city, that actually being how they met, with his mother working in the artefacts division whilst his father worked in the palaeontology section. The pair had recently been working night and day on a bunch of new exhibits, but now that they had finished they were taking some time off to recharge.

Trail reached into the picnic basket and took out a trio of juice boxes, handing one to his mother and throwing another to Flash. The teen caught it and sipped it whilst walking off with Banana on his heel. As he walked around, he noticed somebody else arrive that he recognised. Shining and Cadance.

And they weren't alone, as Cadance was carrying pink skinned child of about a year or so in age with hair that was a mixture of dark pink and light blue. Shining noticed Flash and smirked, waving him over. "Hey guys," Flash smiled back as he reached them. He then turned to the baby, "and who's this little cutie?" The baby laughed at him as he tickled her tummy, Cadance and Shining smiling back.

"This is Flurry Heart," Cadance told him. "Shining must have told you about her considering how much you two have hung out together." That was true. Ever since Shining had learned about Flash's aliens and chosen to help him, they and Trixie had been spending a lot more time together.

"He might have mentioned her. Didn't tell me how cute she was though."

"Shame on you," Cadance joked at her husband. Shining rolled his eyes as Twilight and Spike began to make their way over to them.

"Hey Flurry," the glasses wearing girl smiled as the baby held her hands out to her. "How's my favourite niece?" She took the toddler from Cadance and started spinning her around, Flurry laughing at this whilst the others smiled.

"Wow," Flash smirked, "didn't know Twilight was so good with kids."

"She just really loves Flurry," Cadance told him. "Hopefully she'll feel the same way about her own kids when she has them."

"In about twenty years," Shining stated with crossed arms. Cadance rolled her eyes at this as Spike and Banana ran off to have fun, Cadance stepping over to Twilight and putting a blanket down before taking her daughter back. She placed Flurry on the ground and Twilight tried to get her to walk towards her. Flurry tried to crawl, but Cadance picked her up and placed her on her feet.

Flurry seemed to understand and tried to walk, but staggered and fell forwards onto her hands and knees before she started crying. As Cadance and Twilight comforted her, Flash turned to Shining.

"Having a kid looks like it's fun."

"It's a lot of work," Shining told him. "But it's definitely worth it. Though when she was first born, I was terrified of going to work. The thought of getting hurt and leaving her without a dad paralysed me for a good while."

"Really?" Flash asked, amazed to hear this.

"It's quite a common issue for cops who become parents. We have a whole team of shrinks specially trained for this exact issue."

"Wow," Flash nodded. As he thought about that, he realised his adventures as a superhero were pretty dangerous. If we wasn't careful, he could end up hurt worse than some police officers. At the moment this would cause his parents and friends a lot of pain. But what about in the future. Would he ever be able to have a relationship, knowing he could cause them a lot of pain because of what he did?

He and Shining continued to watch the many people enjoy their day. But then the peaceful serenity of the forest was broken by a low rumbling sound.

"What's that?" Flash asked.

"Thunder?" Shining guessed, but looked up and saw there wasn't a cloud in the sky. As he watched, the rumbling sound grew louder and louder.

Then, suddenly, a bunch of vehicles rolled into the clearing. These vehicles all had a logo of a shield with a tree in it on the doors and hoods, the trucks beginning to circle them. This caused everyone to worry, as men wearing the same clothing jumped out of the vehicles and had the same logo on their cloths.

One of the men, a green skinned individual with orange hair led the rest forward. "I'm sorry everyone," he told them. "But I'm afraid you will all need to leave this area immediately."

"Under whose authority?" Shining asked, moving to the front of the group. The man stepped forward and held up a piece of paper.

"My name is Cedar Oakheart, founder and chairman of the Sen-Trees. And we just managed to get an environmental protection order signed that allows us to keep this forest safe. Now no unauthorised humans are allowed into these woods."

"That's nuts!" Trixie cried, "you can't just kick us out of here. People have been coming to this forest for years." Those around her nodded, but Shining looked over the document and frowned.

"I'm afraid it's official," he told them. "Court approved. Nobody is allowed in these woods without authorisation given by the Sen-Trees."

"It's for the good of the forest," Oakheart told them. "The less people in these woods, the less environmental damage done to it."

"We wouldn't damage the forest," Pinkie frowned. "We love this place." Rarity, Rainbow and Applejack all nodded, but Oakheart remained steadfast.

"Humans affect the environment just by existing," he stated. "These trees could make great homes for multiple animals, but no animals are around because of how often humans come around here and scare them off. The best way to keep this forest pure is to limit the amount of human contact it has. So please, leave this place before my men are forced to remove you."

"No need for violence," Cadance told them as she held Flurry. "We'll leave." The others nodded, but they weren't happy about it. They all quickly began to pack up their things and once they had, they began to leave whilst the Sen-Trees got back into their vehicles.

Flash huffed as he carried the picnic basket. "If they want to protect the forest, not riding around in large gas guzzling off-roaders might help." The others all agreed as they began to make their way out of the clearing and head towards the car park.

"They might be right though," Fluttershy told them. "We humans can't help but change the world around us, even if we try to keep things the way. Every step we take effects the environment. Sometimes that's a good thing, but a lot of the time we end up doing more harm than good." They wanted to deny that, but knew Fluttershy was likely right. Mankind just couldn't help but affect the world around them. It was in their very nature.

"Too bad we can't just talk to trees," Twilight sighed. "If we could, they could tell us how they want to be looked after." Those that heard this laughed, Flash more than any of them. The reason he was laughing was because he had an alien that could do just that. Not that he could ever tell any of them this of course.

As they made their way through the woods back towards the car park, the sound of rustling filled the air. Everyone heard it and looked up, seeing the trees sway back and forth as if a strong breeze was blowing.

However, there was no wind of any kind around. This put a lot of them on edge, the parents ushering their kids to hurry up. But as they did so, something happened that none of them were expecting. From out of the tree, a long green tendril shot down and grabbed one of the men around the waist.

"WHAT?" Was all he could say before he was suddenly hoisted into the air, making those around him scream as they saw him be pulled up towards the tree that had unleashed the vine. They weren't able to stand their panicking for long, as in that moment another vine shot down. Then another and another, until tons of vines began slithering towards them.

"RUN!" Shining roared, many of the woman and children doing just that. Several men stayed behind to try and save the one already caught, whilst the Rainbooms did the same. "Twilight!" His sister nodded and tried to use her magic, managing to enchant the vine and take control of it. But as she tried to free him, several more vines caught hold of him.

"There's too many!" She cried, as several vines shot down to try and grab them. Luckily, Rarity was there and created a shield around them.

"We've gotta get out of here!" Sunset cried, she and Fluttershy holding Rainbow up so they could more easily escape. But there were so many vines around, that there was no clear escape.

"We're trapped!" Fluttershy cried.

"Someone help!" Pinkie yelled as she threw a cupcake bomb at some vines and destroyed them, only for more vines to appear to take their place.

Luckily, help was on the way. Flash had run off with the others, but only so he could slip away and transform unseen. Managing to get away from his parents, the teen leapt behind a non-killer tree and activated the watch. "I don't know what's making the trees do this, but I'm betting Bushwhacker will be able to control them better."

The image of the alien he had chosen appeared and with a smirk, he slammed the dial down as the watch unleashed a bright light.

When it faded, Flash had been replaced by one of is alien heroes. But not the one he had been hoping for. "Hey," he hissed as he saw he was in the body of his super speed alien. "I wanted Bushwhacker, not XLR8. Stupid watch." More cries filled the air and made him look back, his visor lowering and using its zoom function to see several more people being lifted into the air by some vines. "Aw man, here goes nothing."

Back with the Rainbooms, Applejack had leapt up and grabbed a vine before ripping it in two behind where the man it was holding hung.

They both fell to the ground and as they did, more and more vines appeared. "What the hay is goin' on here?"

"Sunset," Twilight turned to the girl, "could this be Equestrian Magic?" The girl thought about it, since they had seen Equestrian Magic do this exact same thing. But something about this situation didn't feel the same.

"I don't think so."

"Well whatever's causing it," Rainbow started. "We gotta stop if before it hurts someone." Several of the men all cried out as the vines started squeezing them tightly, Twilight trying to free them but the vines were just to strong.

But before any of them could pop, a blue blur suddenly shot passed and leapt into the air. Shooting passed one of the men, the vine behind him cut and he fell towards the ground. As he did, the blur stopped beneath him and revealed himself to be one of the alien heroes.

"XLR8!" Twilight cried as the raptor caught them man, then zoomed off through the trees. "Where's he going?"

In an open section of the forest, where the many cars were parked, people were running to safety. Luckily, none of the trees around there seemed to be alive so they could all rest easy when they got to their cars.

"Hey!" Misty asked as she looked around, "where's Flash?" Banana barked as Trail looked around, the parents turning back towards the forest. "You don't think he was grabbed by one of those trees, do you?" Before Trail could say anything, a sound filled the air.

The source of that sound soon appeared when a blue blur shot into the parking lot and stopped, revealing the man carrying alien. "You might want to check to make sure he's okay," the alien told them all as it put the man down before zooming back into the forest.

"What...just happened?" Trail asked as they watched XLR8 vanish into the trees.

The raptor alien blasted through the woods until he reached the area the others were in. "Here he comes!" He heard Shining cry out, "now!" He watched as Rarity threw one of her crystal shields at a vine holding someone and it cut through the vine, making the man drop. XLR8 easily sped forward and grabbed him, managing to get back through the trees to the parking lot to drop him off before returning.

They managed to get into quite a system, with one of the Rainbooms freeing someone in the vines as XLR8 flew passed and grabbed them. Soon enough, all the people grabbed by the vines were free and safely with the others. "That's everyone," he hissed as he sped up to them and Rarity let him into her crystal dome. "Now for you guys!"

"Rainbow first," Sunset told him. XLR8 nodded and grabbed the girl.

"Hey!" She moaned as he hoisted her up, "going fast is my thing!"

XLR8 hissed, "then I guess going faster than you is my thing." Rainbow looked outraged, but the alien shot out of the dome and flew back to the parking lot before she could complain and dropped her off before returning to the rest of the girls. He quickly grabbed Fluttershy and brought her back to the parking lot, then Sunset followed by Pinkie, Applejack, Twilight and finally Shining.

When he returned, Rarity was looking rather tired. "I can't hold this much longer."

"Well luckily, you don't have too." He grabbed hold of her. "Ready?" She nodded and dropped the shield, XLR8 speeding through the forest until he reached the others. "There," he stopped and put her down, "that's everyone."

"No it isn't!" He turned and was surprised to see his own mother rushing up to him, "our son's missing. We think he might still be in the woods."

"Oh," XLR8 panicked, "right. I'll...go look for him." He sped off before they could ask any questions and tried to think of some way out of this. But as he did, he suddenly found another vine flying towards him. "Wow!" He narrowly dodged it, only for another vine to attack. "What is this, The Happening?" He asked as a vine shot at him and he used his claws to cut it apart. "That's right," he snapped his claws. "Stay back unless you want a serious pruning!" But as he said that, a new sound filled the air. A strange sound he had only heard the night he found the watch: Lasers. "Huh?" He shot through the woods until he reached the source of the sounds.

It was the Sen-Tree People, only there was something different about them. Now they were dressed in full body armor that you would see SWAT officers wear, whilst in their hands were a bunch of weird guns that unleashed red beams of light. Whenever a beam struck a vine, the tendril shrivelled up.

"That's it men!" One of the shooters yelled, XLR8 realising it was Oakheart. "Don't let a single one survive!" They kept firing at the vines until each and every one was a shrivelled up husk that fell to the ground. When the last vine was destroyed, the gunmen lowered their weapons.

"Wow," they then heard before turning to see XLR8. "For a bunch of people who were going on about saving the forest, you sure pack some deadly weed whackers." The men all looked shocked to see him, with Oakheart being the first to react. "Hey!" He cried when Oakheart pointed his blaster at him, "what are you-WOW!" He barely dodged a laser, "you crazy!" Several more soldiers fired at him and if it wasn't for XLR8's super speed, he would have been hit multiple times.

"Don't let him escape!" Oakheart yelled, with XLR8 deciding to get the heck out of there.

"Later!" He hissed before zooming off, dodging several more lasers until he got out of ranger. "That was nuts. What the heck are those people up too?" As he got closer to the parking lot, he realised he needed to find a way to explain his disappearance. Luckily, the watch chose this moment to start beeping.

In a burst of light, XLR8 was replaced by Flash and the teen kept running until he reached the parking lot. "FLASH!" His mother yelled, running over to him and pulling the teen into a tight hug. "You had us all so worried."

"What happened to you?" Trail asked, Banana letting out a bark.

"Sorry," Flash told them. "One of those trees got the jump on me and tried to pull me away. I managed to struggle free but I got split up from the rest of you."

"Dude!" Rainbow rushed up to him, "you totally missed it. One of those alien superheroes showed up and helped us."

"The speedy one," Flash smirked. "I saw him too. He grabbed me and sped me over here before disappearing into the trees. He was awesome." They all nodded at this, whilst Flash turned to Shining. "But I saw something else before XLR8 sped me away." Several individuals looked rather confused, some wondering how he knew its name and others wondering what he saw. "It was those Sen-Tree guys. I walked in on them fighting against the trees."

"That doesn't sound too plant friendly," Pinkie frowned.

"It gets weirder," Flash told them. "They had these super high-tech guns that shot these weird lasers, that made the vines shrivel up. It was like that guy who chose poorly in that Daring Do movie."

"They had real lasers?" Shining asked, "like real ones." Flash nodded.

"Maybe they were trying to keep the trees from hurting people," Rarity suggested. "Whatever those tree things were, they were clearly dangerous."

"Yeah," Flash nodded, "but when XLR8 showed up they turned them on him. If he hadn't been so fast, those guys would have turned him into forest fertiliser." Everyone's eyes went wide at this, none more so than Trixie and Shining's since they both knew who XLR8 really was.

"But he saved us," Fluttershy pointed out. "Why would they attack him?"

Shining hummed, "I think this Ceder Oakheart needs a little looking into." He turned to everyone else, "let's go people. This area of the forest might seem safe, but I'd rather not take any chances. Everyone back to town and spread the word to stay away from the forest until further notice." They all nodded and began to get into their cars, Flash going with his parents.

As he did, he and Shining locked eyes and both nodded. They would need to meet up and speak about this situation further.

Word of the mysterious living forest had spread throughout the city like wildfire. Footage of the vine attack and the alien that showed up was uploaded to the internet almost immediately, the footage making the city news and getting everyone talking about it.

The police were also looked into it, getting in contact with Oakheart.

The man stated his people were looking into it and would keep the public informed. However, the questions about the strange weapons they had were laughed off as the mad ramblings of a silly teenager so scared he had been seeing things.

"Silly teenager so scared he was seeing things?" Flash growled when he heard this news. He and Trixie were at a cafe, waiting for Shining to show up and tell them when he had discovered. "When I get my hands on that Oakheart guy..."

"Oh relax Flash," Trixie told him as she sipped on her tiny coffee. "What would you expect a big company to say? That they do have extremely dangerous and possible illegal weapons, which they sic on aliens and teenagers who show up at the wrong time?"

"I guess you're right," Flash leaned back. "But still, those guys are up to something and I'm gonna find out what it is. Even if I have to go back to that forest and search every inch of it."

"I'm afraid that's not gonna happen." They turned to see Shining step up and sit down besides them. "The Sen-Trees have just put an order up to prevent anyone not part of the charity from entering the area. The entire forest has been quarantined until they figure out how to stop those killer vines."

"So what did you find out about the Sen-Trees?" Trixie asked, "anything that would explain where they got those killer weapons from?"

"Are you kidding?" Shining asked, "I haven't even been able to figure out where they get their paper clips from. Everything about the charities financial records is tied up with so much red tape, you'd think they were secretly drug smugglers or something."

"So you haven't been able to find out anything?" Flash asked, making Shining sigh.

"Nope. I can't even find out where they get their funding from. And my boss refuses to dig any deeper because Oakheart sends yearly donations to the police force. He won't act on any suspicion I have unless I get some serious proof that something's not right. And since all I have to go on is the word of a minor and an alien, there's no way to prove they're up to no good."

Flash and Trixie groaned at this, Flash slumping in his seat until he gave Shining a serious look. "Then I'll get you some proof." Shining raised an eyebrow at this, "do you have the location of the Sen-Tree's home base?" Shining nodded, "can you send me it? I'm gonna do a little investigation work. Or should I say, an alien friend of mine is gonna do some investigation."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Trixie asked, "what if you get caught? And what if you time out in front of someone and they discover your secret."

"I'll be fine," Flash assured her. "If the Sen-Trees are up to something, we have to find out. If they're willing to turn their weapons on a super powered alien, who's to say they won't do the same to a person that accidently walks in on them. We've gotta find out the truth."

Shining was a little hesitant, but chose to trust in Flash and sent him the address of the base. But as he did, he suggested Flash wait until evening to make it less likely that he would be discovered. And so after getting the stink eye from Trixie, who wanted to go with him but was left behind since being with him would only make it harder for him to sneak in, Flash headed off towards the forest.

Typing the address into his sat nav, Flash realised the place wasn't all that far from the parking lot near the area they had been to the previous day. So as the sun began to set, Flash drove over to parking lot. Luckily, there weren't any patrols stopping him from entering the lot. And as the sun drew closer and closer to the horizon, Flash snuck through the forest until he reached the area he was looking for.

A large clearing with a building in the center of it, that was a seven story glass skyscraper that had a metal fence around it and several large off-road vehicles. Flash spotted several people in the kind of gear one would see a soldier wear, but none of them had the weapons he had seen before.

Flash looked up at the top of the building and realised that must be Oakheart's office. There was no way to get up there without being seen. At least, no way for a guy who couldn't transform into a super powered alien hero.

Flash activated the watch and cycled through his aliens until he found the one he was looking for, smirking as he slapped the dial down and unleashed a bright green light.

When it faded, Flash was replaced by a long lizard-like creature whose body was greyish purple with dark purple stripes covering it. The top of its head was black with a long pointed fin on it, whilst its mouth was large and had many sharp teeth within it. It had three triangular eyes, the middle one being blue with a red one on the right and a green one on the left. From the tip of its tail, a long black stinger appeared and the watch symbol was on its chest.

The lizard alien got down on all fours and started crawling along the ground, slowly making his way towards the building. As he did, several guards showed up and were talking. The lizard stopped and watched, as the guards spoke to one another. One then turned in his direction, but when he did Flash was gone.

He raised an eyebrow at this, but then shrugged and the two walked off. When they were gone, the lizard suddenly reappeared where he had been and continued crawling until he reached the building. As he did, he once again completely vanished. Footsteps could be seen as the alien reached the outer wall and used his lizard-like abilities to scale up it.

The alien, who Flash had dubbed Chamalien, climbed up the walls without any issues and remained invisible as he searched for a room he could use to get some information. It didn't take him long to find one, as he arrived at the top floor and found Oakheart sitting at a desk typing away at a computer.

Chamalien tried to see what he was typing, but couldn't get a good enough angle. After a minute of so of this, the door opened and someone stepped inside. The pair talked about something that Chamalien couldn't hear, but eventually Oakheart stood up and the pair left the room.

Oakheart gone, Chamalien moved over to the window opening and raised his tail. Using the black stinger, he picked the lock and managed open it. Quickly crawling inside and turning visible, Chamalien rushed to the laptop and opened it back up. Oakheart hadn't switch it off, meaning all of his file were free for him to look through.

"Let's see what you've been hiding," he told Oakheart as he typed away at the computer. He noticed several files and quickly opened them up, speed reading through them as his three eyes went wide. "No way." It turned out, Oakheart wasn't as tree loving as he stated. Many of the files were about his many investments that included a bunch of different industrial processes. Anything from nucular energy to trash pick up and chemical experimentation laboratories.

"Why would a guy that makes his living off of harming the environment, start up a group meant to protect trees?" He then noticed another file, which had the forest's name for the title. He clicked it and the file contained a large map, which Chamalien realised was of the forest. Several sections of the mad had circles around them, which were labelled as 'dump sites'. "Dump sites." Chamalien hissed with a frowned, "Shining will want to see this." He looked around and smiled when he spotted a flashdrive on the desk.

He quickly grabbed it and stuffed it in the computer, the device activating and bringing up a file requesting to copy all files. Chamalien pressed yes and a loading bar appeared before slowly filling. He waited...and waited...and waited, as the files were slowly copied onto the drive. It was a slow process and Chamalien was beginning to get worried, fearing the possibility he would be discovered or he would time out and be stuck in the room.

And sure enough, as the bar grew closer to one hundred percent, he heard movement outside the room. "Hang on," he heard. "I left some documents in my office." Chamalien's eyes went wide and he looked down at the bar, which suddenly slowed the a crawl inches from being full.

"Come on." He told it, "come on!"

Outside, Oakheart marched towards his office completely unaware that it was occupied. Chamalien sweated as the bar continued to slowly fill, whilst the door handle began to jiggle. But eventually, the bar completely filled seconds before the door opened and the Oakheart stepped inside followed by another man. Neither noticed anything out of the ordinary, the room was completely empty.

He walked over to his desk and grabbed a few files, spotting his computer shut with no flashdrive in it. He looked through his pages and saw everything he needed. But as he was about to leave, one of the loose pages on his desk fluttered off due to a wind that flowed in through the open window. "Huh?" He looked at said window, appearing confused. "I could have sworn I locked that." He moved over to shut and lock it before he turned to the man, "how are we doing in preparation for tonight?"

"Good. The mech's ready for the dump. But the men are worried about those trees. That area's been dumped in before, so it might have been affected."

"They're just trees," Oakheart told him. "A bunch of overgrown weeds. With our weapons, there's nothing they can do to stop us. We'll wipe them all out and continue our operation, no matter how many trees we need to destroy." His employee nodded and the two headed back out the room.

When he closed the door, Chamalien reappeared outside said window. "Phew," he sighed before opening his closed fist where the flashdrive was sitting. "Alright," he began to climb down the window, "time to get this to Shining." He reached the bottom and looked around, seeing nobody in sight. He attempted to escape, but before he could a truck drove into the area from out of the trees.

"Hurry!" He heard someone yell, "they're coming!" Chamalien watched as from the trees, a bunch of vines shot out and flew towards the truck. Several grabbed the vehicle and lifted it into the air, the men inside leaping to safety but not getting their weapons in time.

The remaining men on the ground started firing at the vines, but they seemed to have adapted since the last confrontation. Now they were snaking around through the air, avoiding the blasters before shooting forward and grabbing the guns. One by one, the weapons were yanked out of the men's grasps and crushed within the vines.

"This can't be good," Chamalien gulped as several vines shot down and grabbed the men before lifting them into the air. Chamalien acted fast and turned invisible, rushing forward and jumping up to grab the nearest vine. He quickly bit through it with his sharp teeth, freeing the captured man before leaping to another vine.

"What's happening?" One of the men asked as Chamalien used his tail-spike to cut through the vine. The men continued to fall to the ground as Chamalien freed them, each one running towards the building once on the ground.

As they did this, Oakheart stepped outside armed with a blaster and growled. "They even came here?" He noticed the vines getting cut and wondered what was going on, getting his answer when a vine shot up and slammed into something after the vine it was on was cut.

"Ahhh!" He heard as a strange lizard creature appeared and landed on the ground, moaning as he pushed himself back to his feet.

"Another of those aliens," one of the men cried.

"Well don't just stand there!" Oakheart yelled, pointing his pistol at Chamalien. "Roast him!" He fired and Chamalien barely managed to avoid it.

"Hey!" He cried, turning invisible. "I'm on your side you idiots!" The men didn't listen and kept firing, Chamalien running as fast as he could. "Fine, save yourselves then!" But as he made a break for the trees, a laser hit the ground and caused it to explode. "Augh!" He was sent flying and accidently lost his grip on his flashdrive, not seeing where it had landed.

"We've got it!" Oakheart yelled, preparing to fire again. But Chamalien used all his power of concentration to vanish before he could. He still fired, but his shot missed and he looked around. "It's gone." He then turned his attention back on the vines and started firing, hitting multiple and destroying them. Eventually, the trees gave up and retreated. "That'll show them." he turned to his men. "Pack up. Let's get to the dump site as fast as possible. I want this operation complete before day break!" The men nodded and got to work, Oakheart turning back to when Chamalien had been. "Just back off you alien freaks. This is just good business."

Back where Flash had parked, Chamalien leapt out of the trees and landed besides his car. He panted heavily as he leaned against the vehicle, glad he was out of there.

"That...was too close." As he said that, the watch started beeping before turning him back to human. Flash sighed again, getting into the car. Despite getting out of the situation unharmed, he wasn't happy. "I can't believe I lost the flashdrive." He pulled out of the car park and headed towards the city.

Along the way, he called Shining and Trixie. They agreed to meet up at a cafe Shining frequented, Flash heading straight there.

When he arrived, he found Shining standing next to his police cruiser. As Flash pulled up, Trixie arrived on her push bike. "So what happened?" She asked, chaining her bike up before the three headed into the cafe.

"What'd you find out?" Shining asked as they sat down. Flash began to explain everything that he found on Oakheart's computer, Shining and Trixie gasping when he explained the map of the forest that was marked as dump sites. "Sounds like Sen-Trees in illegally dumping in the forest."

"How can they do that?" Trixie asked. "Acting like they're friends to the forest and then doing something that'd destroy it."

"It's actually a smart move," Shining told her. "Nobody would think a group dedicated to helping trees would do something like this and since they're claiming to be protecting the areas that they cornered off, they can keep people away so nobody discovers their nasty little secret."

"Then we've gotta stop them," Trixie frowned. "We gotta prove what they're doing."

Flash sighed as he leaned back, whilst the waitress brought them their drinks. "If only I hadn't dropped that flashdrive. We would have had all the proof we need to get the cops involved."

"Yeah," Shining nodded. "I talked to my supervisor and he said the only way they can get a warrant to properly investigate the Sen-Trees, was if we had some form a physical evidence." He thought for a moment, then hummed as an idea formed in his head. "Flash, do you remember where any of those dump sites were located?"

Flash nodded, "yeah. There was one not to far from where we were today."

"I guess that explains why they tried to get us out of there," Trixie smiled. "What are you planning?"

"We go to the forest and look for proof. If those guys really are dumping there, we'll find something that'll allow me to get a warrant for a more in-depth investigation." He took a big swig of his drink, "you guys with me?" The teens nodded and quickly finished off their drinks, they headed for the forest.

As they drove, Trixie riding in Flash's car, they spoke to Shining over the phone. "So do you think this dumping caused the trees to come to life?"

"I don't know," Shining told them. "I mean, I guess it depends on what it was they're dumping. But lots of areas have had toxic waste dumped there and none of them have even caused the trees to turn into dangerous monsters."

"I don't think the trees are attacking just because they've come alive," Flash told him. "We don't have the full story. They might have attacked, but so would any wounded animal. Humans have done nothing but harm this forest for as long as they can remember. Maybe they attacked us because they don't know there are people out there that want to really help them."

"Maybe," Shining told him, "but if they keep attacking then we'll have no choice but to destroy them." Flash didn't like the sound of that, but knew there was a way he could stop the trees from attacking. His eyes fell on the watch.

They soon arrived back at the forest and parked up in the area without sentient trees. The three slowly made their way through the woods, glad that the place didn't come alive and go all evil dead on them.

"You sure this is one of the areas you saw on the map?" Shining asked, Flash nodding. "Hopefully, there'll be something here that we can use to prove what Oakheart's up too." But as he said that, a sound caught their attention and made them look ahead. It was a strange whiring noise that was followed with the sound of the ground being dug up.

"I think they might be using this site," Trixie pointed out. They rushed forward and as they did, they came across a large area of trees that was being dug up. The thing doing the digging was a giant mech suit, which had a large cab in the chest, four robotic legs and a pair of robotic arms with shovel claws for hands.

"Wow," Flash whispered, "where did they get that?" The mech spun around and when it did, they spotted Oakheart in the cab control the robot. Several Sen-Tree gunmen where also there, keeping a watchful eye out as Oakheart extended the mech's arm and used it to scoop up a large amount of soil out of the ground at the base of a tree.

Several men then rolled some barrels towards the hole and pushed them inside, Oakheart quickly releasing some of the soil to bury them. "You're right!" Trixie told Flash, "they are dumping waste here."

Shining took out his phone and started taking pictures, Oakheart digging up another tree. But as he did, Flash noticed movement above the grew. "Uh oh," he pointed at the canopy. "Look!" Vines shot down towards the dumpers, Oakheart appearing to notice this.

"Oh no you don't!" He yelled as he raised his shovel claws and used them to cut the vines, whilst the gunmen started firing at them.

"I gotta get in there!" Flash activated the watch, "I've gotta stop them before they do any more harm to the forest." He found the alien he was looking for and slapped the dial down, a green light filling the forest.

When it faded, Flash was now replaced by a strange plant-like creature. The first noticeable thing about it was its head, which looked like a twelve sided die made of brown wood. Two of the connecting sides had a hole on them that glowed blue, resembling eyes, whilst the side below the eyes had another opening that seemed to resemble a mouth. The rest of the body was a mix of different plants. A bunch of leaves made up the chest and shoulders, whilst vines made up its waist and arms. Its hands were made out of wood and it had three legs that were also wooden and had four root-like limbs sticking out the end that it was standing on. Sticking out of its back were a pair of giant leaves that looked like wings, whilst the watch symbol was on its head on the side right above the eyes.

"Yes!" Flash cheered, "Bushwhacker in the house!" He charged forward and as he did, Trixie and Shining started recording. The dumpers spotted him coming and looked shocked by his appearance, but quickly recovered and held up their guns. But before they could fire, Bushwhacker thrust an arm forward. The vine-like arm extended and grabbed the closest gun, pulling it out of the gunman's grip before swinging it around and knocking the rest of the guns out of their hands.

"Hey!" Oakheart yelled, "not cool." He began to step forward, his mech's claws snapping open and shut. As he did, the living trees shot down and tried to grab him. But he simply ripped them apart as Bushwhacker ran towards the mech, Oakheart's men charging at him.

"I don't think so!" He cried, as he swung his leaf wings around and unleashed a powerful gust of wind that knocked the men off their feet. As this was happening, Oakheart stepped forward and lifted his claw up before swinging it downwards. Bushwhacker barely managed to leap away in time as the claw struck the ground, causing cracks to appear as the alien landed besides one of the living trees.

Bushwhacker's hand brushed against the trunk and as it did, he heard something. "Pain." Bushwhacker turned to the tree, as its vines sways around listlessly. "So much pain."

"Pain?" Bushwhacker asked, "what pain?" The humans wondered what he was talking about, Bushwhacker placing a hand on the trunk. Closing his eyes, he used his chloro-psychic abilities. In a flash, he was inside the tree's mind and saw multiple images.

Those images were of Oakheart, constantly dumping barrels into holes below trees and covering them up. Over time, the barrels started leaking their toxic waste into the ground, where the roots of many trees began soaking them up. Over time, the waste had caused a mutation and gave the trees life.

"So that's it." He pulled his hand away and pointed at Oakheart, "how long have you been dumping waste in this forest? Years? It's caused the trees to mutate and come alive, causing them pain." Oakheart simply sat in his mech's cab, looking stoic. "Don't you have any remorse what what you've done? To the forest you claim to protect!" Then, Oakheart did something Bushwhacker wasn't expecting. He laughed.

"Listen...whatever the heck you are. A forest is nothing important. There's hundreds of them all over the world. And protecting the trees doesn't pay the bills." He reached down and grabbed one of the remaining barrels, holding it up. "A lot of companies are willing to pay a lot of money to dispose of their excess waste. The amounts I charge are still cheaper then the amount they would need to pay to have it dealt with the way those tree hugging babies force them too. They get rid of it cheaper, I get paid and nobody gets hurt."

Flash didn't know if it was the fact he was an actual plant right now, but those words seriously ticked him off. "Nobody! Can't you see the damage you've done?" The trees haven't just come alive, they're feeling pain. And it's not just them you're hurting. Lots of creatures call this place home. What gives you the right to ruin their lives just to make a quick buck?"

Oakheart smirked, "survival of the fittest. And there's nothing you can do about it. Who are the authorities gonna believe? Me, a well known environmental protection group leader, or you, some kind of mutant freak?" Bushwhacker glared at him, then smiled.

"They won't believe me. But they will believe your confession." Oakheart wondered what he meant, but in that moment he noticed movement off to the side and looked around. There, he saw Trixie and Shining standing off to the side. Then, he spotted the phone Shining was holding up.

"You've been recording this?" He cried, Shining smirking with a nod.

"And when I send it to my boss, he'll have every officer in Canterlot down here to arrest you." But when he looked down at his phone, his smile faded and he started moving the device around. "As soon as...I...get a signal." Trixie looked at her phone and found it had zero bars as well.

"The reception around here is terrible." The pair heard robotic footsteps and looked up to see Oakheart charging at them, only to stop when Bushwhacker extended his arms and grabbed the robot's back legs.

"Oh no you don't!" He cried, managing to hold the machine back. He then turned to the others, "run!" The pair nodded and rushed off through the woods, as Oakheart turned to his men.

"Get them!" They nodded and charged after them, whilst Oakheart turned back to Bushwhacker. "Big mistake moss for brains. In the battle between nature and technology, technology always win!" He swung his claws around and struck Bushwhacker's arms, ripping through them as the plant alien fell back. "Now you're gonna be buried here along with all this toxic waste."

Bushwhacker pushed himself back to his feet and stepped backwards towards the trees. placing his damaged arms against them. A moment later, the tree's bark broke off and reformed around the tips of his regrown vine arms to form new hands. "I don't think so." He leapt forward, his root-like toes extending as he shot into the air. As he did, his wooden fists reshaped themselves into hammers.

Oakheart swung his claws at him, but he managed to avoid it as he root-toes snapped off and he fell towards the cab. As he did, he swung his hammer down and smashed it into the glass of the cab. "Augh!" Oakheart cried as his container rattled, the glass in front of his cracking apart. Bushwhacker raised his hammer and prepared to smash it downwards again, but Oakheart was quicker and started fiddling with the controls.

Suddenly, parts of the mech above the cab opened up and unfolded a pair of pipes. And from those pipes, streams of black smoke shot out and hit Bushwhacker in the face. "Gyah!" He cried, staggering backwards. As he did, Oakheart swung the claw around and hit him. "Augh!" He was sent flying and crashed into the ground, rolling along the forest floor until he came to a stop at the base of a tree.

Oakheart's mech stepped forward and raised his claw, "it's over." But as he swung it downwards, something stopped him. "What?"

Bushwhacker opened his eyes and looked up, amazed to see multiple vines had grabbed the mech's arms and were holding them in place. And as he picked himself up, he placed his hand against the trunk and heard the voice. "You care about us. You...friend?"

Bushwhacker chuckled, "yeah. I'm your friend." He then heard the machine move and looked back at Oakheart, who was ripping the vines apart. "So let's take this guy down together, as friends!" He charged again and this time, he aimed for the legs. He grabbed one of them and ran around it, his arm extending until it coiled around the mechanical limb before rushing to the next one and doing the same. When both legs were thoroughly tied up, he pulled on the arm as hard as he could.

Oakheart was focused on the vines, he hadn't noticed any of this until he got a warning. "What?" He looked down at the screen and saw it tell him two of his legs were getting to close together. Any closer and he would lose balance. "No you don't!" He started moving the legs to try and rip Bushwhacker's arms off, but the plant alien held on whilst the trees continued to attack his cab.

But he eventually cut through the last vine and then swung his claws around, cutting through the vine arms and causing both he and Bushwhacker to go staggering in different directions. They both hit a tree and whilst Bushwhacker used it to regain his balance and re-arm himself, Oakheart's mech ended up ripping his down. "NO!" Bushwhacker yelled, as Oakheart's robot landed on the tree and shattered it.

"That hurt," the man moaned before pushing his machine back up. "But probably not as much as it did for that tree." he laughed and charged again, Bushwhacker doing the same. He was done playing around.

Shining and Trixie ran through the forest, the Sen-Tree gunmen running behind them and firing whenever they got a shot. Luckily, they fell under the normal idiom of bad guys being terrible aims.

"Look out!" Trixie cried as she grabbed Shining and pulled him behind a tree, seconds before a laser flew passed the spot he had been. "What do we do?"

"Good question," Shining gulped as he looked around. He then got an idea and smirked, "you got any smoke bombs?"

"Please," Trixie told him, "the great and powerful Trixie restocks her supplies daily." She reached into her pocket and as the gunmen got closer, she threw them towards the ground and caused a large cloud of smoke to appear. The gunmen fired into the smoke, expecting the two to make a break for it. But they didn't hit anything and when the smoke cleared, they were gone.

They looked in every direction, but there was no sign of either of them. Every direction except one: Up.

Suddenly, Shining and Trixie flew down from above and tackled two of the gunmen. They fell to the ground and the pair quickly grabbed the fallen guns, whilst the remaining gunmen spun around and were shocked by what they saw. The two started firing, proving quite the skilled marksman as they hit the remaining guns without touching the people.

One by one, the guns were all destroyed and the men were left helpless. "Don't even think about running," Shining told them. "You are all under arrest." The men looked terrified, but didn't try to escape and put their hands up as Shining turned to Trixie. "Where'd you learn to shoot like that?"

"Video games." Shining chuckled and took out his phone, seeing they were out of the dead zone. He quickly sent the video to his boss, knowing the chief would act on it immediately. Hopefully, Flash would have dealt with Oakheart before the police got there.

Bushwhacker ran around the giant mech, which was doing everything in its power to try and destroy him. It swung its giant claw down to try and cut him in two, but Bushwhacker extended his toes to get out of the way seconds before the shovel clamped down on them and cut through the wood.

"Ow!" He cried, as he felt back to the ground. "That hurt!"

"Good!" Oakheart yelled before thrusting his claw at him again. "And I hope this hurts even more!" But before it could get him, more vines shot at him and grabbed his arm. "Stupid overgrown weeds!" He ripped the vine out, "most trees would probably thank me for giving you life!"

"They probably would if it didn't also cause them great pain!" Bushwhacker yelled, running around the mech. As he did, he noticed someone on the machine's back. A large metal box with several wires sticking out of it. Those wires went off in different directions around the machine, Bushwhacker quickly realising what the box was. "If I can't damage the machine. I'll cut its power!" Focusing, he sent the mental image of the box and wires to the trees. They quickly caught on and started aiming for the box.

"Hey!" Oakheart yelled as a vine grabbed one of the wires, but he reached up and cut it before it could do anything. "You know how much this thing cost? I'm already gonna pay a ton getting the window repaired." More and more vines flew down to try and rip the power source off, but Oakheart continued to fight against them. As he did, Bushwhacker ran forward and turned both his hands into blades.

As Oakheart ripped a vine out, the alien leapt up and slashed at one of the wires. This caused an alarm to go off, Oakheart looking at the console before laughing. "Ha, you only took out my headlights!" He turned to Bushwhacker and swung his claw at him, but a vine shot down and wrapped around the alien's waist before pulling him away.

"Then I'll hit another one!" Bushwhacker swung around on the vine, using his ability to speak with the trees to direct them, and managed to get around behind the mech before flying forwards. He swung passed and cut two more wires, one powering one of the legs and another Oakheart's seat-warmer.

"Raaah!" He cried, trying to manoeuvre around using the remaining three legs. But without the fourth, he just couldn't keep up with Bushwhacker as he swung around and cut through another wire. This one caused one of the arms to die, the mechanic limb slumping to the ground and hitting one of the remaining legs along the way. "Stop this!"

"Not happening!" Bushwhacker cried as he swung back again, Oakheart swinging his remaining claw at him. But Bushwhacker had the tree let him go and he went flying under the arm. He shot under its armpit and as he flew behind him, he swung around and extended his arms. This time, he grabbed every remaining cable and wire coming out of the power pack. And as he landed on the ground, he pulled at the wires with all his strength.

Oakheart quickly caught onto this and realised what was about to happen. "NOOOOOO!" He screamed as the wires were finally ripped out of the mech, causing every system in it to power down. "No!" He tried to do something, but nothing responded. "No, no, no, NO!" Things only got worse for him when the vines shot down and started wrapping around his dead mech before slowly pulling it in multiple directions.

The whole thing creaked and groaned until, finally, the metal monstrosity was pulled apart at the seams and only the cab remained. The glass box fell to the ground and the glass shattered, Oakheart quickly unbuckling himself and climbing out. But when he tried to make a run for it, the mangled limbs of his broken toy fell in front of him.

"Augh!" He cried when he felt something wrap around his legs before pulling him into the air, the man screaming as more vines wrapped around his wrists and neck in preparation of doing to him what they did to this machine. "Help me!"

"STOP!" Bushwhacker yelled, running to him and looking towards the trees. "Don't do this! I know he hurt you, but this isn't the way." He looked up at Oakheart, who was still terrified. "He sees you as nothing but a bunch of monsters, but you're not. You didn't ask for this to happen and everything you've done so far has been completely justified. But if you do this, it won't be self defence. It'll be cold blooded murder and it'll prove he was right about you being monsters." He looked back at the trees, "prove him wrong. Show him you are capable of more mercy then he ever could be. Please."

With that, he stood and waited. Oakheart remained where he was for several moments, the vine's grip tightening a tiny bit and making him squeak. But then, they began to loosen as the vines lowered him to the ground. Oakheart sighed as he was dropped onto the floor, taking deep breaths as he brushed himself off. He was about to run, but then felt a presence and looked behind himself to see Bushwhacker glaring at him.

Before Oakheart could say anything, the alien threw a punch into his face and the fusion of flesh and bark caused him to go flying until he hit the ground and was knocked out. "Keep him tied up until the police arrive. I'm sure they'll be able to find a cell cramped enough for him." He turned back to the trees and placed his hand on one. "I know you're in pain, but there are humans out there that'll help you. They'll find a way to counteract the toxins you absorbed and keep you safe, but only if you stop attacking innocent people."

He waited, hoping the trees would respond to him. And eventually, they all spoke back. "We promise. Only hurt people in defence."

Bushwhacker smiled at this, as the watch symbol started beeping and he reverted back to his human form. As he did, Shining and Trixie showed up. They looked around at the trees, but Flash turned to them and nodded.

Several hours later, the police arrived with a bunch of prisoner transports.

Oakheart was the first to be arrested and thrown into the transport, his men soon following. "You'll never make the charges stick!" He yelled from the back of the van, "you really think a jury will convict me when you tell them I was beaten by an alien. I'll be out soon enough!" That was all he said before the van slammed shut, the transport being driven away.

"Good work Armor," Shining's boss told him. "With the confession you recorded, we have enough evidence to do a thorough investigation of the company. If there's anything at all illegal, we'll deal with it."

"I hope you find something," Shining sighed. "I'd hate to see him walk after what he's done. I also hope his flunkies don't try and purge their systems when they hear he's been arrested."

"Yes," his boss nodded. "That could be a problem." But as he said that, one of the trees started moving and a vine whipped down. "What the?" His boss reached for his gun, but Shining stopped him and told the officer around him not to attack. They all stared at the vine as it tried to mime something, but none of them could figure out what it was saying.

But then, another vine came down and they saw it was holding something. A flashdrive. "Wait," Shining reached out and took it. "Could this be..." An officer with a portable laptop stepped over and they plugged it into the device, opening it up and finding a bunch of files with the Sen-Tree logo all over them.

"Where did this come from?"

"Don't know," Shining shrugged. "I guess Oakheart or one of his men had it and dropped it during all the excitement."

"I guess that's possible. I'll have the team properly go over this later. For now Shining, you deserve some time off for all the hard work you did."

"Thank you sir, but it wasn't just me. If it wasn't for the alien hero, I might not be here right now."

"Huh, I guess those aliens can be useful after all."

"They sure can sir," Shining looked up at the trees. "They sure can." Up in said tree, Flash and Trixie were watching and hiding from the police. When Flash locked eyes with Shining, he smirked back at the man before he and Trixie bumped fists. Mission complete.

Several days later.

Things had certainly changed in the forest. A real environmental protection agency soon arrived and using the information on the flashdrive, found and removed the toxic waste Oakheart had dumped inside the forest. They also managed to find a way to neutralise the waste's painful effects on the trees, causing them to stop feel pain. This didn't negate the other effect, allowing the trees to remain conscious. It was a new breakthrough in botany, one that many scientist would spend the next few decades studying.

The protection agency also allowed people to return to the forest as long as they promised to respect it and the living trees. The people were happy to do so, returning to the clearing to enjoy themselves again.

"Ready boy?" Flash asked Banana, holding up a frisbee, his dog barking happily before Flash threw the disk. The pup charged after it, but before he could catch it a strong gust of wind picked it up and caused it to go flying into one of the trees. Flash frowned at this, but then smiled when he saw a vine appear and grab the disk.

It then threw the frisbee like Flash had, Banana barking happily as he chased after it. As his dog ran around and played, Flash looked around. The trees were a lot more happy to have people there now, the vines playing with many of the kids by acting as makeshift swings and climbing ropes.

The Rainbooms were off to the side, sitting under a tree with Applejack reading a story book to one of them. Apparently, she did that with some of her trees back home and the trees appeared to be interested in the story as it was holding up the book for her and flipping the pages. Flash spotted his parents in the center of the center of the clearing, enjoying the sun as they laughed and fed one another.

Shining and Cadance were also by one of the trees, Cadance holding Flurry as Shining tried to get her to walk. And sure enough, the toddler began to push herself up and stagger towards him. And when she fell, a vine flew down and caught her before she hurt herself.

It helped her back up and the baby laughed as she continued walking towards Shining. He caught her as she reached him and held her up, making her laugh as her parents smiled. Flash also smiled, looking up at the trees and nodding. Yes, these things might have come alive through human cruelty and felt nothing but pain up to this point, but that pain hadn't turned them into monsters. Instead, it had made them kind.

It just goes to show that a kind heart can be found in even the most unlikely of places. Hopefully, this would mark a new beginning for mankind and its connection to nature. Help form a future that was truly green.

Author's Note

We finally get to see the last two aliens in Flash's rotation. Hope you like my choices and the designs I've come up with. If anyone's an artist and wants to give making my OC aliens a try, I look forward to see how they look.

Season 1, Episode 4: Power Outage

Canterlot traffic had always been pretty good. The highway system was great, so ending up in gridlock was a rare thing. That was usually loved by most citizens, but there were times the police hated it.

One such time was in that moment, as three police cars were chasing another car as it zipped through the streets. Inside that car, three men in masks laughed as the one in the back look to the seat next to him. "What a haul!" He cheered as he opened one of six dufflebags chock full of money.

"Now we just gotta get away from the pigs," the shotgun passenger laughed as the driver swerved between the many cars on the road.

"No problem," the driver stated. "Nobody can out drive me."

In the police cruiser, Shining Armor was sitting in the passenger seat as his fellow officer drove. The man was giving commands to base about where the chase was heading. "They just turned left into Roswell Avenue!" He yelled into the radio, as his partner groaned whilst turning the corner.

"They're not going where we expect them to go. How are we supposed to set up a trap if we don't know where they're going?" Shining thought the same thing, but then noticed something atop a nearby building that made him smirk.

"I think we might be getting some help."

Up on the roof of an apartment building, a giant grey lion was running in the same direction as the cards. The smoke coming off his neck, paws and tail were all flickering in the wind, as he continued to run and looked down at the cars below. "Here goes!" He cried before leaping off the roof and falling towards the street. He then used a street land to slow his fall and swing himself in the car's direction.

The crooks were in for a serious surprise when suddenly, something slammed down onto the roof of their car. "What was that?" One asked before a pair of claws could be seen wrapped around the sides. Then, the head of a lion popped down from above and glared at them. That got the criminals screaming.

"Pull over!" Vapaw roared, as the crooks continued to scream. "Fine!" He then used his claw to cut a hole in the window before reaching in and grabbing the wheel. Quickly turning it, the car swerved into a fenced off parking lot. It was here that the driver finally realised what was happening and hit the break. He did so fast enough that Vapaw was thrown clear off the roof, but also ripped off the steering wheel and shattered the windscreen as he did so. "Ahh!" He cried as he hit the ground, rolling to a stop as the crooks tried to bail.

He got up and saw them all running out of the car, each carrying two bags of cash apiece.

"Oh, I don't think so." He leapt into the air with enough force to sail over them before landing on the ground, his mane suddenly exploding and sending smoke out around him. Within seconds, the crooks were surrounded in a smokescreen and couldn't see.

"Where'd it go?" One asked as he dropped a bag, then pulled out a gun and pointed it in the alien's direction. But before he could fire, something grabbed him from behind and pulled him out of sight. "AHHHHH!" His friends turned to where he had been, dropping their bags and pulling out their guns. But then another felt something grab his leg and pull it out from under him, making him scream as he fell to the ground before getting dragged into the darkness.

The final criminal began spinning around constantly, not wanting to be taken by surprise. "Where are you?" He asked, constantly looking around but seeing no sign of the creature. "Show yourself!" He was about to fire into the smoke, but before he did a gray furry hand reached out and grabbed his wrist. He looked around before the lion's face appeared out of the smoke.

"Boo."

"AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRHHHHHHHHHH!" He screamed before he fainted, Vapaw grabbing him before he hit the ground. As he put him down, the smoke began to far away and return to just his mane, tail and feet. Doing so revealed the other crooks, unconscious but otherwise unharmed, whilst also allowing the police who had been waiting outside the smokescreen to get close.

Vapaw leapt into the air before any of the cops could ask questions, landing on top of a building besides the parking lot before running out of sight.

"Where the heck are those things coming from?" The other officer asked as they started cuffing the criminals before they came around, Shining shrugging.

"I don't know. But it's clear they wanna help out. And he managed to do it with very little damage." The other officer nodded, unable to deny that. Even so, the idea that aliens would just show up out of nowhere to do who knows what kind of freaked him out. Where did they come from? Why were they here? And where did they go whenever there wasn't a problem that needed to be dealt with?

Two alleys away, Vapaw was doing his best to hide.

The lion, monkey, smoke machine hybrid was curling up as best he could behind a large dumpster, staring down at the symbol on his chest. "I really wish you came with an off button." Just then, the dial started flashing red and beeping. He sighed in relief before he was consumed by the light, reverting back to Flash Sentry.

"Perfect," he smirked before taking out his phone. When he saw the time, his eyes went wide. "Not perfect!" That little detour had taken way longer than he expected and the watch wielding superhero rushed out of the alley towards where he had parked his car.

Getting in, he saw his guitar in the back and quickly pulled out. Fifteen minutes later, he arrived in a suburban area of Canterlot and pulled up in front of a certain house.

He grabbed his guitar and ran towards the garage, where he spotted his band-mates waiting for him. Ringo was busy tuning his base whilst Brawly was leaning against his drum kit, the pair seeing Flash and frowning. "Sorry I'm late."

"Twenty-five minutes late," Ringo pointed out. "What the heck, man?"

"I'm sorry," Flash repeated. "I got...sidetracked."

"By what?" Brawly asked, "this is the third time you've been late to practise this month."

"No, it's the third time he's shown up at all." Ringo took off his shades and glared at him, "the other six times he's nowhere to be found and his phone seems to be off." Flash frowned, remembering that many of those times he had been doing his hero thing. As for his phone...he honestly had no idea where that went whenever he transformed. "What's causing you to be so late?"

"It's...complicated," Flash explained. "And kinda personal."

"Personal?" Brawly asked, "I thought we were friends."

"We are," Flash nodded. "But...I'm sorry."

Ringo and Brawly were clearly not happy with that answer. "Look man," Ringo told him. "You gotta tell us if you're not interested in being in the band anymore." Flash's eyes went wide, "cause Brawly and I wanna make a name for ourselves as musicians and we can't do that with someone who's isn't serious about it."

"I am serious about it," Flash told them. "It's just...I've got a lot of stuff to do right now."

"Stuff that might keep you from the concert tomorrow?" Brawly asked. He was talking about a charity event that had been plan a while back. Lots of bands in the school had signed up for it, including the Rainbooms as the girls were using it to show that Rainbow's leg was completely recovered. "This is a really important event. Not just for charity, but for us as well."

"There'll be a bunch of people from music labels at this event. If they see us and like us, they might consider signing us to a record deal."

"I know," Flash told Ringo. "And I promise, I'll be there." The boys frowned at this, but sighed and nodded. "Alright, then let's get practising. We'll never impress anyone if he can't play our music right." They nodded again and Flash Drive began to play, all the while Flash thought about what the guys had said.

He loved being a musician and how his music made people happy and excited, but ever since he had become an alien hero he had experienced so many wonders and saved people's lives. It might interrupt his social life, but he knew what he did was important. What would he do if he ended up having to pick between saving a life and playing with his band.

That night.

Just outside the city, between it and the forest, a large hill housed the city's nuclear power station. The place supplied power to the entire city and all the waste was dealt with properly, so there had never been any environmental damage to the surrounding area.

But on this night, as the stars twinkled in the sky, something out of the ordinary was about to happen.

One of those stars suddenly grew larger and larger, transforming into a streak that moved across the sky. Many who saw it believed it was simply a shooting star and made a wish upon it, but this star was not the kind you put your dreams into.

The streak shot towards the earth and flew over the power plant before crashing into the forest below, the light coming off it quickly dying down to reveal its true nature. A giant coin-shaped space vehicle, which slid along the ground and knocked down several trees.

The machine continued this for several hundred meters until it finally came to a stop, smoke coming off the machine. A minute later, the ship whined as it was suddenly elevated by four extending legs. Once it was high enough off the ground, it stopped before a light came out the middle of the bottom. When that light hit the ground, it caused a bunch of figures to appear.

Hidden in the shadow of the night, their features were hard to make out. But they were humanoid, standing at around ten feet and each having two long tendrils sticking out the top of their heads and curling down to give them a twin pigtails appearance.

They all began to march towards the power plant, a plan in their minds. And as they got closer and closer, the giant ship suddenly vanished.

The next day, Flash and Trixie were hanging out at Sugarcube Corner.

Flash was making sure his guitar was properly tuned for that night, not wanting anything to ruin it. "You seem tense," Trixie told him. "Alien problems got you down?"

"I've been missing a couple of band practises because of my...extra curricular activities." Flash put his guitar down and took a sip of his milkshake, "Ringo and Brawly are pretty mad. If tonight doesn't go well, I don't know what's gonna happen with us."

"Yeah," Trixie nodded, "Trixie wishes she could perform with the Illusions. If only Lavender Lace hadn't had to move schools." She turned to smile at Flash, "think Ringo and Brawly will be looking for a new guitar and lead singer?" Flash turned to glare at her as she laughed, but that laughter was quickly cut short when the lights of the cafe began to flicker for a few moments before stabilising. "What was that?"

"Probably nothing," Flash told her. "Likely just a hiccup with the grid." Trixie shrugged, appearing to agree with him. This wouldn't be the only time that day that electrical areas of the city began to act strange. All over Canterlot, lights would flicker and some devices would die for no reason due to the power going out for a minute or so.

Luckily, important things like the traffic lights and other electrical equipment remained on and life went on as normal.

That evening, at Canterlot's modern theatre, the bands were arriving to do sound checks and determine where they would put everything on stage. Ringo and Brawly arrived together and as they carried Brawly's drum kit in, they looked around at the many students who were preparing themselves.

They noticed the Rainbooms off in one corner, laughing at something Pinkie had said as Rarity did some final checks for the costumes they were wearing. Now Ringo and Brawly had nothing against the Rainbooms, especially after everything that the girls had done for the school. But ever since the battle of the bands, they had taken Flash Drive's spot as CHS's number one band.

It was a little hard to not feel jealous about that, given that Flash Drive actually wanted to become a famous band whilst the girls only did it as a fun past time. But hopefully, tonight would prove that Flash Drive were meant to be number one. So long as Flash didn't leave them high and dry.

"Where is he?" Ringo asked, looking around. "He better be here."

"You looking for Flash?" They turned to Octavia, who was sitting on a stool tuning her cello. She pointed her bow at another corner of the backstage. "I think he was the first one here." Sure enough, Flash was there strumming at his guitar.

Ringo and Brawly smiled as they moved over to him, "you're here."

"Told you I would be," Flash assured them as Trixie stepped over carrying a pair of sodas. "Is it okay that I let Trixie in with me? She agreed to help get everything we need set up."

"Sure," Brawly smirked. "She can help me bring my drums in." Trixie sighed and gave Flash his drink, then followed the drummer back towards where he had parked his van. Ringo sat next to Flash, smiling as he took out his base.

"Glad you're here man. Had to admit, I was starting to think you had better things to do then be in the band."

Flash smirked at this, "I wanna be a part of Flash Drive. But...there's a lot more going on in my life at the moment."

"Stuff you can't tell us about," Ringo frowned with Flash shrugging. "Well whatever it is, I hope it gets sorted soon or Flash Drive are never gonna get the big break we've been looking for." Flash knew he was right, but once again he couldn't think of ever giving up on being an alien hero. But that didn't mean he couldn't take a few days off from it every now and then. It's not like the city would go to heck with him not going hero every once in a while.

As if the universe was trying to laugh at him, the lights of the theatre instantly went out. Everyone cried out at this, some like Fluttershy getting rather scared of the darkness that now surrounded them. "What happened?" Rainbow asked, many others wondering the same thing. But it wasn't just them that were experiencing this.

All over the city, the lights and electrical devices went out. Some people were watching TV and found it cutting out halfway through their soaps, whilst others were driving only for the traffic lights to cut out and force them to stop or crash.

Even at the hospital, many of the lights and machines went out. It had a generator, but that could only go for so long.

Near the outskirts of the city, Shining was on patrol when the lights went out.

"What the?" He asked, looking out of his car at the darkness. "That can't be good." The traffic in his area wasn't very thick, so he was able to drive around without much issue. "I hope this is just a normal blackout."

In that moment, the radio went off. "Dispatch. Any officers near the area of the power plant? All attempts at communications have yielded little results."

"This is Detective Armor," Shining stated into the radio. "I'm roughly ten minutes away from the plant and will investigate. Be ready to send backup if required."

"Roger that Detective. And if there is no call from you in the next hour, we'll send backup as well."

"Copy," Shining nodded before driving off in that direction. It only took him five minutes to get to the plant once he had activated his blues and twos, the man pulling up the dirt road to the giant building located outside of town.

He spotted several other cars parked outside and pulled up, getting out and heading towards the closest entrance.

"Hello?" He called out, "anyone around?" But there was no answer, making him frown. That frown grew darker when he noticed the door, which had no door handle. Where one would be was a hole with burn marks around it. Shining had a bad feeling about this and pulled his gun, carefully opening the door and looking around.

The building had power, but they flickered in several spots as he made his way through the building.

Nothing seemed suspicious, if you didn't count the fact there were no people around a place that should have a few workers there. Shining continued down the halls searching for any sign of life, about to call in the disappearance of the worker, only to hear a crashing sound coming from further down.

He moved quickly and stealthily, arriving at the spot he had heard the crash. When he did, he saw a large barrel that appeared to have been knocked to the ground and rolled into view from an area around a corner. He was about to call out, but then noticed a shadow on the wall that was getting closer.

This shadow was of a humanoid figure, but it had a pair of large chords sticking out of its head. Shining's eyes went wide as he saw the chord shadow move, seconds before a long black tendril with a metal plug-like object on the end slithered out from behind the corner.

It curled around the barrel and lifted it up, as the owner of the tendril stepped into view. Shining had no doubt it was an alien, this one being over ten feet tall with pitch black skin under some kind of orange jumpsuit with no arms and boots. It had a single yellow eye in the middle of its face below a mouth and a bunch of metal nodes running down its arms. Its fingers ended in metal squares with holes in the end and its feet ended in a pair of toes that curved towards one another.

The alien put the barrel down and didn't seem to notice Shining, at least until the light behind the cop flickered and caused a shadow to appear within its vision. It turned to see Shining and its face became one of shock, Shining mirroring it as best he could until it began to glare at him with its big yellow eye.

"Stay back!" Shining told it, pointing his gun at the alien. "Who are you? What are you doing here?" The alien didn't say anything and instead, raised its hands as the plugs on its fingers began to spark with lightning. Before Shining could do anything, it thrust its hands forward and unleashed a bolt of lightning.

Shining gasped as the bolt struck the ground in front of him and blasted him back, his gun falling from his hands. He hit the ground and slid backwards, as the alien began to run forward with more lightning sparking around his hand.

Shining leapt to his feet and ran for it, rushing down a hallway as fast as he could with the alien on his tail. It was likely faster than him, but the hallway they were in wasn't very big so it couldn't manoeuvre as fast. Shining turned a corner and as he did, two more aliens stepped into view.

One was like the first only it had a blue eye, whilst the second looked more feminine with a pink eyes. When they both saw him, they looked shocked until the first alien appeared and yelled something in their own language. The two glared as Shining and charged up their hands, firing at him until he leapt down another hallway to escape.

Shining knew he had no chance of beating these things alone. And calling for human backup would likely cause a serious incident. There was only one person who could fix this.

Flash and his friends were still standing in the darkened concert hall, the multiple bands around them continuing to complain about the loss of power. "I'm sorry," the hall worker told them. "But it's not just us. Power's out all over the city."

"This is just great," Ringo sighed. "How are we supposed to perform without power?" The others agreed, hating every moment of this. Flash was also upset, but that vanished when he heard his phone ringing.

"Huh?" He looked at it and saw Shining's name on it, making him frown since that would only mean one thing. "I gotta take this." He left the room, his band mates frowning as he disappeared whilst Trixie caught the look on his face.

In the corridor, Flash answered the phone. "Hey Shining. This isn't really a great time to go hero."

"FLASH!" Shining's voice called back, "you need to get over to the city power plant now!" The tone of his voice put Flash on edge instantly. "There's some kind of creatures here. Alien creatures." Flash's eyes went wide at this. "They're what's causing the blackout. If we can't find a way to stop them, the power will remain off for a long time. There are lots of places that need power, mainly the hospital."

Flash frowned, feeling like he was in a catch twenty-two. He was worried about letting down his friends, but he needed to do something. He quickly hung up and rushed for the nearest door, Trixie following after him. Once they were in the back alley, Trixie turned to Flash. "I'm coming with you."

Flash wanted to argue, but knew there was no point. He quickly activated the watch and dialled through his aliens until he found the one he needed, slamming it down and transforming into XLR8. The alien velociraptor lowered his visor before grabbing Trixie and flying off in a burst of speed.

Shining was still being chased by the aliens, the cop quickly jumping around a corner to avoid a lightning blast that had been sent his way.

A moment later, the alien was rushing around the corner and continued to chase after him. It thrust its hand forward and fired another lightning blast, which shot passed Shining and hit a piece of machinery in front of him. It exploded, knocking the man backwards. "Ahhh!" He cried, hitting the ground as the alien stepped forward. And as he tried to get up to run, it sent one of its tendrils towards him and slammed into his chest. Before Shining could react, he was zapped. "AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRHHHHHHHHHH!" He screamed before the alien stopped, the man falling to the ground whilst smoking.

"Shouldn't have tried to escape." The alien grabbed him by the back of his jacket, "I'll enjoy you personally later." He began to drag Shining away, the man's last thought before he went unconscious being a hope that Flash got there soon.

Outside the plant, XLR8 arrived and put Trixie down. "Is this the place?"

"How many other power plants exist around here?" Trixie asked as they noticed an open door and headed over to it, pushing it open and slowly making their way inside. They looked around, finding the power of the building was still running despite the outage of the city.

Trixie tried to call Shining, but her phone kept going to voicemail. "I hope he's okay?" But as she said that, they heard a noise coming from down the hallway and both hid, the pair chancing a look and see two of the aliens Shining had mentioned.

"How much longer until we can get off this planet?" One of them asked the other.

"The ship should be ready in about another hour," the other explained. "Now quit complaining. It could be worst. At least we're not the ones guarding those humans. See that blue furred one Glick caught?" Hearing that made XLR8 realise they had Shining, so stepped out from behind where he was hiding.

"Hey!" He hissed, catching the pair's attention, "where's the humans? You better not have harmed them."

"A kineceleran?" One asked, "what are you doing here?"

"Protecting people and taking you guys down," XLR8 announced before lowering his visor and shooting forward. The aliens both fired blasts of lightning, but XLR8 was easily able to dodge the bolts like they were moving in slow motion. He then got in close and shot passed them, grabbing their tendrils as he did.

Before the aliens could react, they were pulled back by XLR8's speed and the speedster ran as fast as he could down the corridor until he suddenly stopped and let them go. They kept flying through it until they slammed into a wall hard enough to crack the wall, both falling to the ground and going still. XLR8 looked them over and saw they were unconscious, Trixie rushing up to them.

"We gotta find the captives," she told him.

"I know," he nodded before grabbing her and shooting down the hallway. The alien began searching each and every hallway, finding no trace of the aliens or the captives. But as they got further and further into the building, they started hearing noise. The sound of crackling lightning filled the air, the pair rushing towards it.

But when they turned the corner, they were met with the sight of two more aliens standing in front of a door. The aliens noticed them and instantly took a battle stance, their fingers sparking with energy as XLR8 put Trixie down and charged. Once again, the speed alien dodged the lightning bolts as they were thrown at him. He jumped to the side to avoid the first, then leapt onto the wall and ran along it to avoid another before hitting the ground and sliding on his knees to duck under another.

He finally reached the aliens and threw a punch at one, then at the other. Moving at rapid speed, he kept punching them one after the other before either could react and eventually he spun around and slammed his tail into them both to knock them flying into the door they were guarding.

They broke through it and XLR8 was about to rush inside, only for several more of the aliens to step into view on the other side. They all frowned at XLR8 and started moving towards him, summoning their own electrical energy. "Bring it," XLR8 smirked as he prepared to fight them all. But before he could the watch started beeping and he reverted back to normal, Flash now standing there with a worried look on his face. "Um...hi?" The aliens charged as Flash turned to run the other way, barely dodging a lightning blast.

As he reached where Trixie was hiding, she leapt out. "Time to go!" She cried as she took out her smoke bombs and threw them to the ground, filling the corridor with smoke. The aliens stepped forward and started swinging their tendrils around to blow the smoke away. But when it vanished, Flash and Trixie were both gone.

"Where'd they go?" One asked.

"Find them!" Another yelled, causing the aliens to run off in search of them. "They have to be here somewhere." And they were, but not where the aliens expected.

Up above them, within the large ventilation shafts that were located all throughout the plant, Flash and Trixie were hiding. They stayed perfectly still, not daring to even breathe as the aliens stood under the grate they had used to jump into it. The metal box was big enough that they could easily curl up within it and sit, waiting for it to leave. And after a few moment, it did.

"Phew," Flash sighed, "that was too close."

"What do we do now?" Trixie asked, but Flash was already in motion. He began to crawl down the shaft, it the direction the the room that the aliens had been in was. "Great," she sighed before following after him, "now I know what a TV dinner feels like." They moved through the maze of metal grates, trying to find one that opened up to the room they were looking for. It took several minutes, but they finally found one.

Looking down into the room, they spotted several of the aliens next to a bunch of machines. Their tendrils and plugs were connected to them and sucking the power right out of the place, causing the power levels in the plant to drop more and more.

They dropped so much that the lights in the plant were starting to flicker. "I think the stores are almost tapped out," one alien said as he stopped draining power and moved over to another part of the room. This was where a bunch of cables were hanging from the ceiling, coming out of something the humans couldn't see. "But hopefully, this should be enough." He grabbed the cables and let the energy he had stolen free, causing it to run into the cables and up towards whatever they were connected to.

"All this for electricity?" Trixie asked, wondering what it was they were powering. Flash was more concerned with something else he spotted.

"Shining!" He pointed at a corner of the room where Shining Armor was located. There, the police officer was tied up alongside several people Flash guessed worked there. They all appeared unconscious, but that was soon about to change.

Shining let out a moan as he started coming around, the man opening his eyes and looked around. His brain quickly leapt into gear when he saw the situation he was in. "What the?" He spotted the aliens and frowned, seeing them charging up the cables and looking up to she what they led up to. A large hole in the ceiling, which allowed him to see the sky above them. But strangely, the wires weren't connected to anything. They were just hanging from midair, making Shining raise an eyebrow. "What's going on?"

"Huh," one of the aliens looked over and smirked. "Well, looks like our little detective is awake."

"What are you guys?" Shining asked, only to hear movement at the side and turn to see more of the aliens enter the room. Some of them were being held up by the others, looking like they had just been smacked around.

"Oh," one of them frowned, "so he's awake." He rushed over to Shining and used his tendril to hook him by his coat and lift him up. "Who'd you contact? Are you a plumber? How many more are coming?"

"Plumber?" Shining asked.

"Don't try and play dumb. We saw a kineceleran wearing a plumber badge, only for it to turn into another one of you. What's happening here?" Shining smirked, now knowing that Flash was here. The alien glared at him and threw the man back to the ground. "Whatever, doesn't matter." He held up his wrist and Shining saw a watch-like device on it that he pressed several buttons on. How he did this with those giant plug-ended fingers he didn't know, but after a few presses something happened.

The hole in the ceiling was suddenly filled, allowing him to look up and see the wires were now sticking into some kind of machine. "A spaceship?"

"Huh," the alien smirked, "that's right. Our ship. Which is now fully charged." Shining slowly put the pieces together.

"You did all this because you needed fuel."

"Of course. Our ships only run on the purest of electricity. We usually use cosmic storms to recharge, but the only one we could find had a to'kustar living in it. We conductoids are powerful, but we're not stupid enough to take those things on. When we started running low, we had to find a planet that could supply us with the energy we needed."

"But why attack?" Shining asked, "you could have just contacted us. We would have helped you!"

"Yeah right," the leader smirked. "I've only been on this planet a day and I can tell your species would betray us at the first chance, cutting us open and taking our ship apart to figure out how to increase your own pathetic tech level. No, this is the best way to do things."

Shining wanted to deny that, but had to admit he had a point. "Fine, then get out of here. And untie me. I promise I won't try and attack you."

"Oh, I don't think so." He hooked one of his plugs around Shining's coat and began to pull him along the ground, Shining struggling and demanding to know what they were doing. "You and the others are coming for a ride. We'll be needing a snack that won't drain our ship's power core."

Shining thought they were nuts, "I don't have electricity. I'm a human being and we don't-" He stopped when he realised that humans did produce electricity. His brain. "You're gonna drain the electrical pulses of my brain." Flash and Trixie's eyes went wide hearing this, as the conductoid laughed and stated that's exactly what they were gonna do. There was no telling what kind of damage that could cause.

"We've got to do something!" Trixie cried as the watch suddenly turned green.

"Hero time!" Flash cried before punching the vent open. As the netting fell to the ground, catching the conductoid's attention, Flash leapt out of the vent and fell to the ground. "Watch out!" He cried as he fell, "this next part's sure to shock you!" He slammed the watch down and in a flash, he was replaced by the electrical alien known as Volt-Edge.

The conductoid's eyes went wide as Volt-Edge flew down towards him before spinning around and slamming a foot into its chest. The alien grunted as he was thrown back, dropping Shining as Volt-Edge landed next to the tied up man before using his tail to catch Trixie before she hit the ground.

"Flash!" Shining cried as Volt-Edge used one of his claws to cut through the ropes holding him, "thanks." They all turned towards the conductoids as the leader picked himself up, Volt-Edge stepping forward and charging his body with lightning. But the conductoids just smirked and held up their plug-ended appendages ready to absorb anything he threw at them. "You know, turning into a lightning throwing alien might not have been the best move against a lightning eating opponent."

The electric lizard just smirked, "Volt-Edge is more than just his lightning." He pointed at the other scientists, "free the others. I'll handle these guys!" With that, he charged towards the conductoids and they charged as well, Volt-Edge leaping into the air and landing in the middle of them. "Surprise!" He cried as he slashed at a conductoid, his sharp claws cutting the beast's skin and knocking it back. He started throwing punches and kicks around himself, being sure the sharpest parts of his body were at the edge of the attacks.

The conductoids were quickly becoming wary and moved away to a safe distance. They then charged up their own electrical attacks and shot them at Volt-Edge, but the raiden reptile simply stood there and let the lightning strike him. But to the conductoid's surprise, he wasn't at all hurt.

"What?" He asked, "did you really not see that coming?" He tried to keep up a facade, but inwardly he was worried. Unlike those conductoids, he couldn't sap electricity out of the source. If they realised that, he was gonna be in big trouble.

Over with Shining and Trixie, they were working to awaken and snap awake the plant workers. "Wha?" One of them asked, "what's going on?"

"Trust me, you wouldn't believe us if we told you." Trixie did her best to try and untie him, but the knots had been done really well.

"Trixie!" Shining cried, "behind you!" She looked around and saw a conductoid heading towards her, looking ready to zap them. The worker saw this and fainted again, as Trixie looked around and saw that Volt-Edge was currently engaging with the others. The alien hero a little too busy to notice the one coming towards them, meaning they were on their own.

She looked back at the alien approaching and noticed the giant single eye it had, an idea forming in her head. "You like electricity?" She asked, taking out her phone. "Well so do I. Without it, Trixie's phone would be dead and it is oh so useful to her day to day life." The beast growled and charged only for Trixie to hold up the phone and hit the app.

A light shined out the back of it, right into the conductoid's eye. The alien quickly shut it whilst letting out a cry, giving Shining the opening he needed to run in and punch the alien in the face. As it fell, Shining turned to nod back at Trixie. She nodded back and they continued to try and undo the knots once again.

Meanwhile, Volt-Edge was starting to grow tired. He punched, slashed and kicked the conductoids again and again. Eventually, the lot of them were down and looking just as tired as him. But just as he was about to tell them to give up, the aliens ran over to one of the generators and attached their plugs to it.

"Oh no!" He cried, as the aliens started summoning the electrical energy into them. This completely re-energised the lot of them, and as they turned back to Volt-Edge and electric lizard gulped.

As they approached, Volt-Edge slowly shuffled backwards. He needed to think of a way to end this fight, since he was likely to time out before he could beat them for good. He had to think. What did he have that the conductoids didn't?

It was then that the ship above them started humming, making him look up at the machine. "It's almost completely charged," he realised before a smirk appeared on his face. "You wanna get off this planet, right?"

"Of course," the lead conductoid smirked. "I'll admit this place has some interesting technology, but the electricity here's just too stale. It'll work in a pinch, but I don't intend to make it my steady diet." Volt-Edge smirked at this.

"Then leave now, without any humans. Do that and I won't strand you here forever." The aliens looked at him in confusion, then shared a look with one another before bursting out laughing.

"And how'd you plan to do that?" One asked, only for Volt-Edge to started summoning electrical power. The conductoids wondered what he was doing, until he shot towards the wires hanging from the ship and grabbing them. The lightning he was generating flew into them and then into the ship, powering it up.

The conductoids all looked at him like he was crazy, wondering what the heck he was trying to pull. But then the realised what he was planning. "Stop!" The lead conductoid cried, "you'll overload it!"

"That's the idea!" Volt-Edge yelled, as the conductoid's charged at it. He simply leapt about to avoid them, all the while continuing to hold the wires and unleash his energy into them and the ship. The aliens started hearing warning alarms coming from the ship, indicating its batteries were completely full and started to get overcharged.

"Stop!" A conductoid yelled as he tried to charge at Volt-Edge, but the lizard leapt away and landed upon the grate he had removed earlier. Suddenly, some of the electrical energy flowed into it before the grate started floating off the ground.

"Wow!" Volt-Edge cried, looking down at it in surprise. The others watching were just as amazed, as Volt-Edge pushed more lightning into it and allowed the grate to fly up towards the ship.

"Stop him!" A conductoid cried as they fired more and more energy at Volt-Edge, only for him to use his hover-board as a shield until he reached the ship. He leapt upon it and thrust both his claws into the ship, unleashing as much power as he could into it. "We have to drain it!"

"Drain it as much as you like!" Volt-Edge cried. "I'm willing to bet I can overload it faster then you guys can drain it." He pumped up the juice, causing more warning lights to go off.

"Please stop!" A conductoid cried, "you'll destroy this place."

"Then get off my planet!" Volt-Edge yelled, "and leave the humans behind!" The conductoids all frowned and shared a look, but then sighed and nodded.

"Okay," the leader agreed, "you win!" Volt-Edge smirked at this and stopped overloading the ship, but stayed where he was unless they trained anything.

"Please don't time out on me now," he begged the watch. The conductoids all moved to under the ship and one pressed a button on the device he wore. The ship unleashed a beam that surrounded them, the lot glaring up at Volt-Edge.

"You win this time," the leader stated. "But you better hope we never meet again." With that, they all vanished and the beams disappeared. Volt-Edge leapt off the ship and flew down on the grate, as the spaceship powered up. It slowly lifted itself up off of the building, pulling out several wires it was still connected to whilst the place shook. And once it was high enough in the sky, it shifted positions before shooting upwards faster than the eye could follow. They were gone.

Volt-Edge leapt off the grate and rushed to the others, who had only managed to get three of the workers un-tied. "Nice work Flash!" Shining told him, "way to get them to leave." Volt-Edge smiled and quickly slashed through the ropes of the workers, then turned towards the rest of the plant.

"They took almost all the power here," he told them. "It'll take hours to generate enough to get the city working again."

"Maybe days," Shining sighed. "Without power going into the machines, they can't do what they need to to generate anymore. Who knows how long it'll take to get that from another power plant. The city's gonna be back in the dark ages for a while."

"Maybe not," Trixie smirked as she held up one of the wires connected to the machines. Volt-Edge raised an eyebrow at this, then smirked when he realised what she was planning. He rushed over to the wire and grabbed it, whilst she and Shining rushed away and pulled the workers away. Volt-Edge then started channeling his power and it surged into the wire, flying through it and into the machine.

It sparked for several seconds and everyone was terrified it was about to explode. But then, the sparking stopped and was replaced by a low humming. Slowly, the machine came to life and soon the lights in the building followed. Many other machines started powering up, the power plant coming back to life.

"It's working," Shining cheered. "It's working!" Volt-Edge kept supplying power to the machine, just enough so the device didn't completely explode. Soon the dials indicating the amount of power being produced began to rise and eventually, the power plant become self powered and the reptile stopped.

Seconds later, the watch started beeping and he transformed back to human form.

"Just in time," Trixie smiled as Flash dropped the wire and smiled at them. It was then that the workers started moaning, the three realising they were about to wake up.

"Let's go!" Shining cried, "let em think it was all a dream or something." They nodded and all rushed out of the room, right as the first worker came around. Rushing through the building, managed to find the exit and rushed out the door just in time to see the city below start to come back to life.

"Beautiful," Trixie whispered as Shining stepped over to Flash.

"You did good kid." Flash smiled back at him, his eyes then going wide as he pulled out his phone. He had several missed calls and texts from his band-mates, Flash quickly realising what was likely going to happen soon.

"I have to get back to town right now!" Flash looked down at the watch, but it was still in the red. "Come on!" He tapped the dial, "I don't need anything big. Just two minutes of XLR8." But the watch remained in the red, "no."

"Come on!" Shining pulled him over to where his car was parked, I'll give you a police escort." Flash smiled, but feared there wouldn't be enough time to get there in a car. Flash hoped the show had been cancelled.

As soon as the power came back on, the students of CHS all cheered.

"Alright!" The hall worker stated as he checked the time, "looks like we're just about to make it. But don't expect a lot of people in the seats with the blackout." He headed towards the front stage and looked out, surprised to see a bunch of people in the stands. "Wow." Guess charity work drew a crowd even without electricity. "Okay, first band. Get ready."

Ringo rushed up to Brawly, "where's Flash?"

"I saw him earlier," Brawly stated. "But I haven't seen him in a while." Ringo groaned at this and rushed over to the sheet of band orders, seeing that they were number eight.

"He'd better get here soon."

Flash could barely remain still as he, Shining and Trixie sat in the man's car. Unfortunately, they weren't going anywhere.

The power outage had caused a major traffic jam and even with the lights on, none of the cars were able to move. "Come on!" Trixie cried out the window, "move it already!" She turned to Shining, "can't you put the sirens on?"

"I want too," Shining told him. "But I can't do that without a serious cause and unfortunately, getting Flash to a concert isn't a good enough reason." He looked out at the traffic as the car in front moved a few inches, allowing him to move forward too. "Besides, even if I could flash the lights none of these cars have anywhere to move to so I could pass." Flash groaned as he hit his head on the dashboard, all the while looking down at the watch.

"Come on," he begged. "Turn green." But the dial remained red, causing him to sigh.

Ringo and Brawly watched as Octavia played an amazing piece on her cello, she being the seventh player to perform. Their spot up next.

"Hey guys." They turned to see Rainbow step up to them, as the rest of the Rainbooms were behind her. "You guys are looking a little worried. Everything okay?"

"No," Ringo growled, "Flash completely bailed on us." This caught the girls off guard, the lot of them knowing Flash's loyalty was only outdone by Rainbow. They looked around and sure enough, he was nowhere in sight.

"That is weird," Sunset frowned as Twilight nodded. "What are you guys going to do?"

"Flash Drive," the theatre worker announced. "You're up next." The boys flinched and Ringo turned to him.

"We've got a bit of a problem. We can't play right now." The worker frowned at this, "is there anyway we can wait?"

"We can't leave the audience waiting for who knows how long," he told him. But seeing the teen's frowns, he sighed. "Tell you what. I'll push you guys back to the last spot. But if you can't perform by then, we'll have to end the show early." They thanked him and he went off to get another band, whilst Brawly took out his phone.

"Where are you?" He asked as he tried calling Flash.

His heart stopped when his phone rang, showing it was Brawly. "Aren't you gonna answer it?" Shining asked, but Flash sighed.

"And tell him what? That I'm in a cop car heading towards the theatre. How am I supposed to explain that?" They frowned, but knew he was right. All they could do was hope they could get there in time. But as the traffic got more and more packed, it was looking less likely.

Flash spent every second of the drive shifting his gaze between the time and his watch, flinching every time a minute passed and the watch remained red. They finally managed to get out of the traffic and get some actual speed, praying that they still had time.

The Rainbooms had just finished their song. It was time for the final performance of the night, but Flash Drive were still missing their most important member.

"Well?" The theatre worker asked, "are you boys going on or what?"

The theatre had just come into view and Flash sent his band a text, telling him he was moments away. And as the car pulled up and Flash got out, the watch turned green.

"Seriously?" He asked as he ran towards the building's back entrance, seeing an open door and running in. "Guys!" He called out, "I'm here. Is our turn up?" But he didn't hear anyone reply. In fact, he didn't see or hear anything. "Guys?" He made his way through the theatre until he reached the stage, finding it almost complete empty.

Ringo and Brawly were standing there, staring out at the empty seats. The concert was over and Flash Drive had missed their turn.

"Guys," he whispered as they slowly turned to him, "I...I'm sorry."

"Are you?" Ringo asked, "if you are then tell us where the heck you went?" Flash frowned, knowing he couldn't tell them. And he didn't want to lie to them either.

"I can't," he told them. "But you've gotta trust me. I had to go." The pair were clearly not happy with this, looking away from them. "I'll make it up to you?"

"How?" Ringo asked, "by promising this'll never happen again? I get the feeling you can't promise that. That whatever reason you missed this will come up again and you'll have to bail on us." Flash tried to say something, but stopped because he knew Ringo was right. Tell us honestly. Could this happen again? Could, for whatever reason, you have to run off and leave us high and dry when we're about to perform?"

Flash looked down at the ground, then at his watch. Yes, this could definitely happen again. As long as Flash had this watch, as long as he had the power to help people, he was going to drop everything to do it. How could he not. "Yes," he finally said, "it could. And I'm sorry."

Ringo and Brawly sighed before the drummer spoke up, "not as sorry as we are. But you've left us no choice." Flash looked up at them, his heart clutching as he waited for the words he knew were coming.

Twenty minutes later, Shining and Trixie stepped into the theatre and look around. Flash hadn't come out yet, though they had seen his band mates leave a while ago.

They then spotted Flash sitting on the stage, looking down at the watch on his wrist whilst his guitar lay besides him. "Flash?" Trixie asked as they stepped closer, "are you okay?" Flash didn't reply, but they could see on his face that he wasn't okay.

"Sorry you missed the concert," Shining told him. "How mad were they?"

"Really mad," Flash told them.

"You'll make it up to them," Trixie smiled.

"They kicked me out." That shocked them, "they kicked me out of the band. They don't wanna be in a band with someone who isn't giving it their complete attention." The two frowned, both feeling bad for the kid.

Shining climbed up onto the stage and put a hand on Flash's shoulder, "I'm sorry."

"Don't be," Flash told him. "You did the right thing calling me." He took a deep breath and forced his frown away, "I don't regret leaving. If I hadn't, you'd be up in space acting as an alien's dinner and the city'd still be stuck in a blackout. I saved lives tonight." He looked at his guitar, "I just wish I could have saved my friendship with Ringo and Brawly."

"I don't think your friendship is dead," Trixie told him. "They might not wanna be in a band with you, but I doubt they'd wanna stop being friends. They're just a little mad right now. Give'em time to calm down and who knows, they might even want you back in the band."

"Maybe," Flash nodded, "but I've been thinking." He picked up his guitar, "I became a musician because when I played I made people happy. And I still wanna do that. But I've helped way more people as an alien than I have as a guitar player."

"What are you saying?" Shining asked, "are you gonna give up being a guitar player?" Flash shook his head.

"No. I don't wanna stop cold turkey. I love playing. But I can't divide my life between being a musician and being a hero." He held up the watch, "I don't know how long I'll end up having this thing. But as long as I do, I'm gonna become the hero I always wanted to be. If that means I have to give up trying to be a rock star, that's okay." Shining and Trixie smiled at this, happy Flash wasn't taking losing his band so hard.

"Come on," Shining patted his shoulder. "I'll buy you a treat for saving my life." Flash smiled at this and nodded, jumping down off stage and heading to the door with his friends. His life as Flash Sentry, master guitarist and future music legend might be over. But his life as Flash Sentry, alien superhero and future defender of the earth was only just beginning. Flash didn't know what the future held for him, but he was sure he had made the right choice.

Author's Note

Well, the life of a hero isn't always fun and games. Flash was kicked out of his band, but what choice did he have. At least now he can focus on his hero work. I just hope I didn't make his band mates too mean. I figured what I did was a reasonable reaction. Tell me what you all think.

Season 1, Episode 5: Crystal Clarity

Most teens spent their days off from school hanging out with friends, playing video games, doing homework and simply recharging after a long week. But not Flash.

Instead, he was sitting in a junkyard on the hood of his car as he waited for Shining to finish work on his little project.

He felt good right now. Despite having been kicked out of his band, he had never been happier. In the last week, he had stopped three bank robberies, saved people from four different burning buildings and saved two cats from trees. Each of these situations had been no problem for him.

Shining, however, had decided Flash needed to do a little training to keep his skills sharp. That was why Flash was currently in a junkyard, Trixie sitting next to him reading a magazine.

"Okay," Shining smirked as he attached the last cable to his creation. Flash looked around and saw a bunch of rope littered around him, hanging off the piles of cars and all leading to a squared off section Shining would be controlling the course from. "Alright Flash, you ready?"

The teen smiled and jumped off his car before stepping forward, activating the watch as he did so. He cycled through his aliens until he reached the one he intended to use, Trixie looking up from her magazine to see which one it would be. Flash slapped his hand down and in a flash, he was replaced by the crystalline alien: Diamondhead.

"Oh yeah," he smirked as he stepped into the course. "This'll be a snap."

"Focus Flash," Shining told him. "Don't just try and power your way through this. I wanna see you think. Brute strength is useless if it doesn't have a plan behind its power."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Diamondhead assured him as his hands turned to jaggard spikes. "I got it. Let's get this started." Shining and Trixie shared a look, worrying Flash was starting to get a big head with his alien powers. Either way, Shining pulled on a leaver and doing so catapulted several soda cans into the air towards him.

Diamondhead spun around and fired some projectiles, hitting every can before they could even get close.

Shining pulled on a cable and dropped down several targets, only for Diamondhead to effortlessly spin and hit each of them bulleyes. The alien smirked and took a few steps backwards, ready to fire at anything that came his way. That included a dummy that suddenly shot up from behind a car with a paintball gun, which fired at him only for Diamondhead to roll out of the way before firing a shard that went right through its head.

Several targets appeared from the ground and Diamondhead shot at them with barely a look. He smirked as his arms reverted to normal, the alien blowing his finger like a gun. As he did, Trixie rolled her eyes.

"Show-off," she told him.

"Flash!" Shining cried, "focus!" Diamondhead rolled his eyes as he ducked under several more cans.

"Relax!" He told him, completely unaware that a tire was currently swinging towards him. "I've got this no-AUGH!" He was knocked forwards by the tire, causing him to accidently fire several shards into the air.

"Aaaaah!" Trixie screamed as she saw the shards flying at her, the teen jumping down behind Flash's car seconds before they flew over her and embedded themselves into the junk behind her. She pulled herself up and noticed her magazine hadn't been so lucky, as a large hole was now located right in the middle of every page. "FLASH!"

Diamondhead gave her a nervous smile and chuckle before turning to Shining, who did not look amused by this turn of events. The crystal alien could tell he was in trouble. And hopefully, that was all the trouble he would be having that day.

Up above the planet, completely invisible to all the planet's ways of detecting it, a half-destroyed spaceship continued to orbit it.

Within the ship, inside a dark room, three figures stood and waited patiently. The first was a robotic creature made out of bronze steel, with four spider legs in an X form and a large pincer for a left hand. The second was a lean humanoid figure wearing a purple bodysuit, with black and grey armour around its chest and legs. The final member was also humanoid but was more buff then the others, wearing a black armoured suit with a domed helmet that had a small triangular visor.

The three were stood atop a floating platform, waiting for something. That something, was the snarling voice of the alien that had once sent drones after Flash. "Begin the audition."

The purple suited alien started, a jetpack folding out of its back that allowed it to take to the air. As it did, several drones appeared before it. A compartment in its leg opened, where it pulled out a blaster and shot several down. It then leapt to the side to avoid some lasers before firing missiles from a compartment in its arm. As they exploded, it pulled out a metallic egg that it then threw at some more.

As the egg exploded, the robot jumped down from the platform and used its massive claw to swat and crush some drones. It pulled a katana out of its back, using it to slash at some and cut them to shreds.

From the ceiling, a battle droid dropped down. The third fighter pulled out a round disc that expanded and floated in mid-air, the figure jumping aboard and flying towards the drone. The robot fired its lasers at him, hitting him head on and causing an explosion. But when the smoke faded, the figure floated there looking none the worse for wear.

Despite still smoking, the figure leapt forward and punched straight through the robot's chest. As he landed, the robot's remains fell down besides him whilst the hoverboard returned to him.

"Impressive," they all turned to see a holoscreen of the alien's face appear, "you are all hired." The footage changed to that of the watch. "Your objective, to retrieve the Omnitrix. Whoever succeeds gets the reward. Do not disappoint me."

Several minutes later, three pods were jettisoned from the ship. They all shot towards the planet, heading for an empty area they wouldn't attract much attention. Each of them were feared throughout the galaxy as some of the best bounty hunters to have ever lived, so the three of them being assigned to the same target meant that whoever they were after would need to be on their guard.

Flash let out a huff as he drove back to town from the junkyard, a very annoyed Trixie sitting beside him whilst Shining drove ahead in his car. Shining was also on speaker with them and Flash let out another sigh, "I said I was sorry."

"Hmm," Trixie continued to pout and looked out the window.

"What more do you want from me?" He asked, only for Shining to speak up.

"We want you to take that thing on your wrist more seriously. It's not a toy."

"I know that," Flash told him.

"I decided not to turn you in because you showed me you could be responsible with that device. And you've shown several times you're able to be mature with it. But now I'm worried all that power is going to your head."

"You're starting to get as bad as Rainbow was," Trixie told him. They both remembered how, when Rainbow got her super speed, she started using it for every little thing.

"Okay," Flash nodded, "I get it. I'll start thinking more when I use the watch, okay." They didn't believe he was gonna do that for a second, but it wasn't like they had much more choice.

"Alright," Shining announced as they entered the city, "I gotta go on patrol. The two of you stay out of trouble."

"Come on," Flash smirked. "This is me we're talking about."

"My point exactly," Shining replied before hanging up and leaving an eerie silence between Flash and his passenger.

"Look, I'm sorry alright?" Flash tried to think of a way to make it up to her, "what if I take you to the mall and pay for anything you wanna do?" Trixie remained silent. "Come on, you like the mall right?" Still nothing, "we're about to pass the turn off." Zilch, "here it comes..."

"You may take me to the mall," Trixie announced and Flash turned.

Back at the junkyard, the three alien bounty hunters had arrived.

The domed alien walked up to Shining's contraption, holding a round device that was beeping louder and louder as he got closer. "This is where the Omnitrix was last activated," he stated whilst taking a closer look. As he did, the other two were standing atop piles of junk looking down at him.

The purple alien turned to the robot and said something in an alien language before flying off.

"You can say that again," the robot stated. "A rock pile like this is better off space dust." He jumped down as the domed alien continued to search the area. When he did he spotted something on the ground.

It was a soda can with a crystal shard in it, which he tried to pick up only for a small cable to shoot forward and grab it before him. He looked up as the cable retracted back to the purple alien, only for the domed one to reach out and grab the wire. With a yank, the wire snapped and the two instantly got into a fighting stance. The domed alien reached for a blaster on his hip whilst the purple alien's shoulder opened to reveal a strange cream-colours tentacle with fingers.

The purple alien said something and the robot chuckled as he stepped up behind the domed alien. "Big talk from a gear-head."

The domed alien lean forward. "Get in my way again and I'll teach you how to say dismantled." The purple alien glared back at him, "just try me SixSix." He glanced back at the robot, "you too Kraab."

"Relax," the robot told him, "I'm not stupid enough to take on the legendary Tetrax...in a fair fight." He leapt into the air and as he did, his lower half started spinning to create a drill-like from that he used to burrow into the ground. SixSix also flew off, leaving Tetrax alone to walk away from the training course.

As he did, he accidently pulled on a ground wire and caused several targets to flip up.

In the blink of an eye, he pulled out his blaster and fired a beam that vaporised the targets, the training course and half the junkyard. Luckily nobody was around to be hurt or see the light form the explosion, whilst Tetrax leapt on his hoverboard and flew away.

When the smoke cleared, all that was left was a single soda can with a crystal shard stuck through it.

Flash was beginning to regret his promise to pay for whatever Trixie wanted to do.

They had been to the arcade, checked out several clothing and game stores and were now enjoying some smoothies at the stand Applejack worked at.

Trixie's previous sour mood was all but gone, now that she got to enjoy a banana grape smoothie and had a new video game she had been looking forward to getting. Flash meanwhile, moaned as he looked down at his much thinner wallet. "Another?" Applejack asked as she cleaned out the blender she had just used.

"I'm good," Trixie told her much to Flash's relief. As she said that, Twilight, Rainbow, Sunset and Fluttershy walked over to them. Each was dressed in their weekend job outfits, having all gone on lunch break. Pinkie and Rarity had their own jobs outside of the mall, so they wouldn't be joining them.

"Hey you two," Sunset smiled seeing Flash and Trixie together. "What are you doing here?"

"Just...hanging out," Flash explained.

"Huh," Twilight looked at them curiously, "you two have been doing that a lot lately."

"Is that so wrong?" Trixie asked, Twilight shaking her head.

"No," she told her, "just something I noticed." She and the others moved over to Applejack's fruit stand, the five all glancing at one another before taking occasional glances at Flash and Trixie. When Trixie laughed at something Flash said, they were pretty much sure of what it meant.

"When do ya'h think that started?" Applejack asked.

"I'm not sure," Sunset replied. "When did they start hanging out with one another so much?" They all thought for a moment and Twilight remembered.

"That night those aliens first showed up," she explained. "The giant robot and diamond guy. Flash took Trixie home that day. After that, I think I started noticing them together more and more." This surprised the girls as they glanced back at them, realising there could only be one reason they would want to hang out so much.

"Huh," Rainbow smirked, "never saw her and Flash's type."

"I think they're cute together," Fluttershy smiled. "And I guess it makes sense. Trixie's super flashy and likes to brag, whilst Flash is more grounded and humble. I think they'd balance each other out really well." They couldn't help but agreed as Applejack made their smoothies.

"So why do you think they're keeping it a secret?" Sunset asked, taking her smoothie and slurping it up.

"Are they keeping it a secret?" Twilight asked, "maybe they just didn't see any reason to announce it to the world." She took her drink and did the same.

"Maybe," Applejack nodded. "But ya'd think they'd do somethin that we'd ah noticed. Other then them hangin out, have any ya'll seen them do anything together? Holdin hands...sharin food...kissin?" They all shook their heads, none of them having seen the pair do anything like that. "Then are ya'h sure they're even together?"

"We could ask," Rainbow stated.

"No way," Sunset told her. "If they aren't dating, that'd be really embarrassing." The others agreed, deciding to simply keep an eye on them and see if they noticed anything else that would prove their apparent relationship.

"STOP!" They suddenly heard someone yell, making them look around to see a guy pointing at someone who was running through the mall with something under his arm. "Thief!" They all realised they had a shoplifter on their hands, Flash smirking as he got up.

"Time to XLR8." He ran off and around a corner, activating the watch and dialled up the alien before slapping it down when he was sure nobody was watching.

Whilst flying above the city, SixSix suddenly heard a beeping sound and looked down at his wrist. A screen on the back of his head was showing a map of the city, with a green dot blinking several times out of nowhere. The alien, of course, knew that this was the Omnitrix's activation signal. It had found its target.

Back in the mall, the man ran as fast as he could trying to escape with his stolen goods.

But before he could get away, a blue blur shot passed and tripped him up. "WOW!" He cried, hitting the ground and sliding along it for several moments before coming to a stop. He moaned as he sat himself up, looking over and seeing the game console he had stolen was right beside him.

He tried to grab it, but the blue blur shot passed again and it vanished. "Looking for something?" He heard someone asked, looking around to see the one who had tripped him up: Rainbow Dash. "You realise you're supposed to pay for the things you want, right?" The guy glared at her and tried to get up to attack, only to find his body couldn't move.

"What the hell?" He cried, Rainbow noticing the purple aura around him and looking behind him to see Twilight keeping him still with her magic.

The security guards soon arrived and Rainbow handed the box over to them, the guards thanking her whilst grabbing the guy as Twilight let him go. He cried out as they dragged him off to the mall's jail, Rainbow and Twilight high-fiving as celebrated a job well done.

"Great work girls," Sunset smiled.

"Yup," Rainbow sat down, "gotta show everyone those aliens aren't the only superheroes in town." She looked around and noticed someone was missing, "where's Flash?"

"Good question," Trixie hummed before sneaking off. Once she was sure they weren't looking, she rushed around the corner Flash had run around and looked for any sign of him. "Flash?"

"Up here?" She looked up and didn't see anything, until Chamalien appeared for the briefest moments before vanishing again. "Stupid watch gave me the wrong alien."

"Maybe it's trying to tell you you don't need to hero up at every opportunity," Trixie pointed out with a smirk. "So are you just gonna stay up there until you turn back?"

"That's the plan," Chamalien replied. However, in that moment the ground beneath their feet began to shake.

"What's that?" Trixie asked, the two rushing towards the sound and looking over towards the mall's central fountain. The ground beneath the fountain began to crack and break apart, as water started flooding out of them. Then, suddenly, something exploded out of the ground and sent bits of the fountain flying everywhere.

Kraab was now standing where the fountain had once been, the water gushing up behind him raining down as he searched the area. Many people who had seen this instantly began to run for the exits, but the Rainbooms, Chamalien and Trixie stayed where they were. Big mistake.

Kraab's eyes turned red as his head spun around, seeing everything in inferred. It was then he spotted Chamalien and found the signal of his target, the robot beginning to walk forwards. "I know you're there!" He yelled, "show yourself!" Chamalien had a feeling he was talking to him, made even more so when the robot raised its giant claw and opened it up to fire a laser at him.

Trixie screamed until Chamalien tackled her out of the way, the laser hitting the wall behind them as they rolled to a safe distance. "Run!" The alien cried before getting up and running around, finally turning visible so the robot would focus on him.

Kraab's eyes returned to normal as the lizard glared him down. "Hand over the Omnitrix and I promise you won't suffer...much."

"The what a kicks?" Chamalien asked, as Trixie rushed over whilst hearing this too. "Sorry buddy, no clue what you're talking about."

"Don't try and play dumb," Kraab cried before firing at him. Chamalien leapt into the air and turned invisible, planning to sneak up behind him and pull some wires out of it. But as he rushed around him, Kraab's eyes turned red again and he spun his head until it landed on his image. "You can't hide from me!" He pointed his claw and unleashed a strange blue liquid, which struck Chamalien and covered him head to toe.

"Ahhh!" He cried as the liquid instantly started to dry, making him visible even whilst camouflaged. "What is this stuff?"

"You're not the first merlinisapian I've had to deal with," Kraab announced. "And now that your only form of defence is gone, you're all out of options."

"Hardly," Chamalien hissed before he charged forward. "It's time you learned that messing with me is the biggest mistake of your life!" He leapt at the robot and prepared to claw at him, but Kraab simply raised his claw and grabbed him before he could get close. "Ahhh!" He cried as he felt the vice-like clamp squeeze him around the middle.

"You are as arrogant as you are dimwitted!" Kraab told him before throwing him up into the air, then socking him right in the face with his humanoid hand when Chamalien fell back to earth.

"AUGH!" He cried at the impact, being sent flying backwards before crashing through a store window. "That hurt."

"This could have all been avoided if you had just given me the Omnitrix," Kraab told him. He pointed his claw at him as the laser charged up, Chamalien still having not recovered from the impact to avoid it. But just as he was about to fire, something grabbed his claw and jerked it up. "HEY!" He cried as he fired the laser towards the ceiling, looking down to see Applejack was the one that had grabbed him. "Why you little-" A blue blur shot passed and Applejack was gone, right as the damaged piece of ceiling began to fall. "Oh great." With that, he was buried by the debris.

Rainbow and Applejack high-fived from where they stood, whilst Twilight, Sunset, Trixie and Fluttershy ran over to where Chamalien was. "You okay?" Twilight asked as the alien picked himself up.

"I've been better," he hissed whilst rubbing his head. "But who was that guy?"

"Doesn't matter," Rainbow smirked. "He's scrap metal now." As if the universe itself was against her, there was a large explosion from the debris and Kraab raised out of it completely undamaged. "Or not."

Chamalien wanted to fight, but the pain was still stuck to him and his sides really hurt. "You need to get out of here," Twilight told him. Trixie grabbed him.

"I'll help him get away. You girls keep that giant robot busy." She pulled him out of the store before the girls could argue, Kraab trying to chase after them only to get hit by another piece of rubble.

"Hey!" He cried, turning to the girls as Twilight, Rainbow and Applejack were ready to fight, whilst Sunset and Fluttershy wished they had gone with Trixie.

"Let's go you giant bucket of bolts!" Rainbow cried as she shot forward and started body checking the robot, hitting him several times in quick succession. He grunt with each attack and quickly grew annoyed at this.

"You think you're the first speeder I've fought?" He swung his claw around but Rainbow slid under it, "compared to a kineceleran, you're moving in slow motion!" His upper half spun around as he fired a strange liquid from his claw, which hit the ground all around him. When Rainbow tried to tackle him again, she slipped on it.

"WOW!" She cried as she fell to her butt and slid away, whilst Applejack picked up a piece of debris and threw it at him.

Kraab easily destroyed it before glaring at the others, ready to deal with them and go back to chasing his true target.

Trixie and Chamalien rushed through the now empty mall, right as the watch began to beep.

Trixie quickly pulled him into an abandoned clothing store, happy to see nobody was there to see as the green flash signalled Flash's transformation back to human form. Flash looked himself over and sighed seeing the paint was gone. "Finally," he then heard a crashing sound and frowned, "I should be out there."

"Right now you can't do squat!" Trixie pointed to the red dialled watch as her phone rang, the girl seeing it was Shining.

"Guys!" He cried out as soon as Trixie answered, "I just got a report that some kind of attack is happening at the mall. Please tell me you two aren't there."

"We're there," the pair replied with Shining groaning. "Shining," Flash spoke up, "another robot showed up. I think it's after the watch, but it kept calling it the...Om..ni...trix. Yeah, yeah I think that's what he said."

"At least we finally know what that thing is called. Alright, you think you can take it down."

"Of course," Flash smirked whilst Trixie frowned.

"He might be in trouble," she told the cop. "This robot isn't like the one he fought before. It's...smart. It took him down without even breaking a sweat."

"Hey," Flash frowned, "it got me by surprise. Plus I was stuck in one of my weaker aliens. Once I go Riot-Horn, I'll turn it into a giant tin can."

"Don't do anything stupid. Just wait for me to get there and stay out of sight. Has it seen you in human form?"

"No."

"Then try and hide the watch and keep a low profile."

"I can't just sit around," Flash told him. "Twilight and the others are fighting that thing!" This seemed to give Shining pause, the man clearly not happy with his sister fighting against a dangerous robot.

"Just stay where you are until I get there. Then we'll find a way to take that thing down." Shining hung up before Flash could argue, making the teen groan. As he did, Trixie grabbed a scarf from a nearby manikin and began tying it around his wrist.

"What are you doing?"

"This should stop that thing from seeing the watch if it shows up," Trixie told him. "Let's just hope it can't detect it when it's not in use." She didn't know if it could detect the watch at all, but something had to have drawn it there. "Hopefully Sunset and the others will be able to take that thing down before it causes too much damage."

Flash frowned, hating this. He thought his days of sitting on the sidelines and letting the Rainbooms save him were over. Now it stung even more, since he had all this power and was still forced to do just that. It might have been wrong, but he hoped the girls didn't win.

"Take this!" Twilight cried as she threw another piece of rubble at the robot, Kraab smashing it with a single swing of his claw.

"Is that all you got!?" But as he said that, Applejack suddenly jumped onto him from behind.

"Now a'h gotcha!" She cried as she started pulling at his head, hoping to pry it off. But before she could, Kraab started spinning around and she found herself being flunk around. "Wow, wow, wow, wow, WOW!" She finally lost her grip and was sent flying towards a wall, likely heading for several broken bones. Luckily, Twilight managed to grab her in her magic inches away from it.

"I gotcha," she assured the girl. Applejack smiled, but then gasp.

"Twi, look out!" She turned back to Kraab as he fired a something at her. She gasped before feeling someone pushing her out of the way, the girl falling to the ground as she heard someone cry out.

Twilight dropped Applejack and looked around, seeing Sunset had been hit with a strange white goop seconds after pushing Twilight away. It struck with such force that she was knocked backwards until she hit a wall, the goop instantly drying into a concrete-like substance.

"Sunset!" Twilight cried, as Rainbow ran forward. Alas, the robot was still surrounded by the slippy substance so she couldn't get close. Instead, she began running around the machine to form a tornado. But Kraab seemed ready for this as well, as he fired a line of the white goop out in one direction. Rainbow ended up running straight into it.

"Gyah!" She cried when she did, feeling it solidify within seconds. It covered the top of her legs so she was instantly brought to a stop and fell to the ground, being stuck from just below the neck to her knees. "Gross!"

Kraab acted fast and fired another blast of the stuff at Applejack, sticking her to the wall she had barely avoiding crashing into. He then turned to Fluttershy as she tried to break through Rainbow's cocoon with a piece of ceiling, only to get hit and cocooned herself. That just left Twilight, who glared at the robot.

He fired the goop, but Twilight used her magic to grab it before it touched her and throwing the hardened substance back at him. Kraab broke through it and leapt away, over the slippery stuff and landing close to where Sunset had been stuck to. He launched a laser at her and Twilight gasped, using her magic to grab the last of the destroyed ceiling and using it to shield Sunset. Kraab tried to use this opening to goop her, but Twilight managed to switch her focus to it just in time.

"Would you stop that!" He cried, as Twilight threw the white rock at him.

"Why are you doing this?" She asked as Kraab shattered the rock, "what are you after?"

"Like you'd know what it is," Kraab told her. "Let's just say that I'm after the ultimate weapon and it's right here on this pathetic excuse for a planet." Twilight raised her eye at this, only for something new to catch her attention.

A noise coming from above them made the pair look up in time to see SixSix fly down through the hole in the roof. It looked at Twilight in curiosity before turning to Kraab, saying something she didn't understand.

"No she doesn't have the Omnitrix," Kraab told him. "It's in here somewhere, but these annoying humans got in my way before I could get it." SixSix said something else, "I don't know where it is. It's deactivated so the signal's gone. And even if I did know, I wouldn't tell you."

The humans watched the argument and became even more confused, as well as worried since there was now a second alien after whatever the first robot was after. It was then that SixSix said something that angered Kraab.

"That's it!" He fired a laser and the alien dodged it, firing several missiles all over the place. As they exploded, they sent debris flying everywhere and Twilight had a hard time catching it all before it hit her friends. But as she did, Kraab fired another goop blob at her and this one she couldn't stop.

"Ahhh!" She cried as she was knocked back and slammed into a wall near Sunset, Kraab chuckling.

"I ain't done with you yet!" He cried before focusing back on SixSix and drawing his sword, "now get down here and fight like a mechanoid!"

Outside the mall, Shining Armor pulled up and saw many people staying outside and looking terrified.

Leaping out of his car, he ran for the entrance and got in before anyone could stop him. Drawing his gun, he looked around and worried Twilight had gotten hurt or something. And then he heard footsteps and readied himself for a fight, the cop rushing towards a corner and leaping around it. "Freeze!" The reply he got was two screams from Flash and Trixie, the man putting his weapon down. "You guys okay?"

"Yeah," Flash nodded before they heard an explosion, "but clearly the girls need my help."

Shining frowned, still not sure what to do. He got his answer when something flew towards them. SixSix. The armoured alien flew down the hallway and threw an egg bomb behind him, causing an explosion that made the entire building shake. Flash and Trixie were shocked when they saw this.

"Where did that thing come from?" Trixie asked as SixSix turned to them, then held up a pair of blasters.

"Move!" Shining cried as he pushed the teens away, the three running as the alien fired at them. "So that's not the thing that attacked you?"

"The first one was more...crabby," Flash explained as SixSix flew after them. It threw another egg in front of them and the three barely stopped in time before it exploded, throwing them all backwards. Flash's arm scarf caught fire and the teen quickly pulled it off and threw it to the ground, revealing the watch to SixSix.

The alien said something Flash's couldn't understand and pointed its blaster at him, Flash glaring at it.

"You want this?" Flash activated it when he saw it was back to green, the others gasping.

"Flash wait!" But Flash slapped the dial down and in the blink of an eye, he had once again morphed into Diamondhead. The crystal alien looked up at SixSix and instantly threw several projectiles at it, SixSix firing its blasters and deflecting them all before diving down.

The two charged at one another and Diamondhead threw a punch, only for SixSix to barrel-roll away from it. "Huh?" He glanced towards SixSix just in time to see the robot swing around and slam a foot into his face, "augh!" He was thrown backwards and crashed into the wall, as SixSix pulled out his blasters. But before he could fire, a bullet bounced off his armour and he turned to Shining.

The cop frown, really wishing he had a weapon more suited to dealing with aliens. SixSix's shoulder opened to reveal the tentacle that pulled out an egg and threw it at the pair, Shining grabbing Trixie and pulling her away before it exploded.

"Guys!" Diamondhead cried, then turned to glare at SixSix before charging forward. "Leave them alone!" He turned his hands into blades and slashed at SixSix, but the alien easy avoided his attack and fired his blasters. The lasers bounced off Diamondhead, but the impact still pushed him backwards. He fired his own projectiles, but SixSix used his shoulder hands to pull out a pair of energy knifes that he used to slash the gems in half.

Diamondhead couldn't believe how powerful this guy was. And if things couldn't get any worse, the ground shook before exploding to reveal Kraab leaping out of a hole. "Miss me?"

"Like a rash," Diamondhead ran forward and tried slashing at him. Kraab easily managed to block the attack as SixSix got in close, Diamondhead needing to split his focus and try and get a hit in on them. But the two were obviously the better combatants.

As he slashed at Kraab, the machine caught him in his claw and began to spin around at high speed before releasing him. He smashed into a wall and quickly rolled back to his feet, though he was off balance as the two charged. SixSix's right hand suddenly morphed into a spinning energy saw that he used to cut into Diamondhead's arm and making him flinch, whilst Kraab fired a laser that knocked him back.

He tried to regain his footing and fired several more shards, but SixSix flew over them whilst Kraab fired his white glue that stopped them in midair. SixSix landed behind him and slashed at his back, knocking him staggering forward into Kraab as the robot opened its claw and grabbed him around the waist. He was suddenly lifted into the air before being slammed into the ground and then thrown backwards, the crystalline alien getting a good ten meters before crashing into another wall.

He fell to the ground and didn't look like he would be getting up soon, the bounty hunters moving forward to collect their prize. And they might have gotten it, had their greed not gotten the best of them.

"Back off!" Kraab told SixSix, "that reward's mine." SixSix replied by saying something in his own language. "Well, you don't have to get personal." It was in that moment that something flew in from out of sight. That something was a metal orb, which bounced along the ground before stopping at the bounty hunter's feet.

They looked down at it, just as the orb started spitting streams of grey smoke that surrounded the pair. Both of them tried to cover their mouths, but couldn't stop from breathing it in. They both fell to the ground, half conscious but aware enough to see Tetrax floating towards them on his hoverboard.

After putting the gun he fired the smoke bomb with from away, he shot passed the pair and grabbed Diamondhead by the back spike. Shining and Trixie could only watch as they disappeared down the hall, fearing what might happen if they couldn't help. But neither were in much state to do anything, especially as the bounty hunters were starting to recover.

Diamondhead moaned as he started coming around, but could feel himself fly through the air.

As he opened his eyes, he saw that he was actually flying and looked around to see yet another alien that was holding him. Before he could think to fight back, they arrived at an empty area of the mall and the alien threw him to the ground. "Augh!" He hit the ground and slide around until he slammed into a wall, whilst the bounty hunter stared him down.

"Billions of beings on this planet, and the Omnitrix winds up on the wrist of a foolhardy youth."

Diamond glared at him as he picked himself up, standing as tall as he could though the alien was still taller. "Well like I told your buddies, this thing doesn't come off. I've tried."

"Of course it doesn't," Tetrax stepped forward so that his visor was inches from Diamondhead's face. "Its power utilises alien DNA," he turned away from him. "Which binds to the host's own genetic structure, to allow for the manipulation of their DNA into the chosen form. It cannot simply be removed like taking off a hat." As he had been saying this, Diamondhead formed an arm blade and charged. He tried to slash at Tetrax, but even without seeing the bounty hunter ducked under it before spinning around to clock him in the face.

"AUGH!" He cried as he was thrown a good ten feet before slamming into the ground, his back spikes sticking into the ground and trapping him in one spot.

"Your choice of warriors is based purely on brute strength, without regard for any strategy." Diamondhead swung his legs around and finally managed to roll himself back to his feet, pulling the spikes out of the ground. "Do you ever stop to consider your actions at all?"

"Hey!" Diamondhead pointed at him, "I kick more than my share of alien butt!"

"Such as your recent success before with the bounty hunters."

"It was two against one," Diamondhead cried before charging forward. He tried to impale the alien with twin hand spikes, but Tetrax easily avoided, deflected or simply caught each of his attacks.

"You were moments away from losing your life, and the Omnitrix." He blocked Diamondhead's punch with his elbow and punched him back, "victory should have been swift and effortless." He dodged another slash and spun around, sweeping Diamondhead's legs and knocking him to the ground with a cry of pain. "The Omnitrix is not some toy for your amusement. It's the most powerful device in the galaxy. The key to an epic battle between good and evil."

"And whose side are you one?" Diamondhead picked himself up.

"You're still alive, aren't you?"

Diamondhead's eyes went wide, as he realised what he was saying. "You're a good guy?" He could hardly believe it, considering every alien creature that had shown up in his life since getting the watch hadn't been too friendly.

"My mission is to retrieve the Omnitrix at all costs. Since it is attached to you," he poked the symbol on his belt. "I will take you back for its removal."

"Oh no," Diamondhead pushed his hand away. "Sorry man, but I'm strictly an earthbound hero. No space adventures for this guy."

"It's not your choice."

"It is now!" Diamondhead tackled the bounty hunter, pinning him to the ground and causing him to drop his hoverboard. But Tetrax quickly recovered and grabbed him by the neck, throwing him a good ten feet and smashing him through a sporting goods store's window.

"It's disturbing how little you know of this alien's strengths of weaknesses," he told the teen. "You've barely scratched the surface of its potential."

"Ahh," Diamondhead picked himself up and brushed the glass off of him, "and what makes you such an expert?" His answer came when the front section of Tetrax's helmet pulled away from the rest of it, sliding downwards whilst the rest folded back. This revealed his face and Diamondhead was shocked to see his own staring back at him. "You're...me?"

"Wrong," Tetrax growled, "I am a noble warrior." He poked him, "you are an impulsive annoyance." As he said that, the Omnitrix beeped and Diamondhead returned to human form in a flash of light. "We have wasted enough time." He reached down and grabbed Flash by the jacket, lifting him off the ground.

"Hey!" He cried, struggling against Tetrax's strength. "Let go! I'm not leaving earth!" Tetrax ignored him and looked around, spotting his hoverboard a short ways away. But as he moved to get it, a familiar wire shot down and grabbed the board.

The device was thrown into the air and caught by Kraab, as the wire retracted around the corner. "Looking for this?" He asked, holding the board up. "You're not getting off this planet with the Omnitrix. And just to be sure."

Sixsix stepped out from behind the corner, holding Trixie and Shining in his clutches. "Get off me!" Trixie cried, whilst Shining appeared unconscious after putting up a fight. "Flash, you have to run."

Flash frowned but knew he was useless with the Omnitrix timed out.

"See," Kraab explained, "we've decided to work together and split the reward, and you, in half." He snapped his claw and Flash knew they were in serious trouble, especially when Kraab fired a laser at them that Tetrax had to shield Flash from. As it exploded against him, Tetrax used the smoke as cover to rush into a nearby store.

He threw Flash to the ground, as Kraab moved in close and started firing laser after laser that Tetrax defended him against. "What are we waiting for?" Flash picked himself up, "we have to save them." He went to run out of the store, but Tetrax grabbed him by the hood and pulled him back.

"Don't be foolish. Keeping the Omnitrix secure is the only priority here."

"Not to me," Flash glared at him. "Those are my friends out there and I won't bail on them."

"You cannot save them," Tetrax stated. "You would soon be overpowered and captured. The obvious choice if for me to retrieve my hoverboard so that we may leave the planet."

"What about my friends?" Flash asked.

"With us gone, they may decide hurting them is too much work."

"May decide?"

"Stay here," Tetrax threw him to the ground and rushed back outside. He jumped through an explosion Kraab created and launched a bunch of crystals, hitting SixSix and knocking him back as he dropped the hostages. He then ran at Kraab, diving over his claw and reaching out to grab his hoverboard.

Pulling it from Kraab's grasp, Tetrax rolled along the ground and jumped onto the disk. He took to the air and began flying around, avoiding SixSix's blasts before diving down towards them. He leapt off the board and before anyone could stop him, tackled SixSix with enough force to create a crater beneath them. Trixie helped Shining to his feet and the pair ran for cover, whilst Kraab watched as the two began to duke it out in the crater.

Tetrax grabbed SixSix's neck and lifted him up, dealing a powerful punch to his face and then his chest that sent him flying. The alien hit the ground by as he slid back, he fired several missiles from his arm that Tetrax made a crystal wall to shield himself from. As the wall was blown apart, Kraab leapt behind Tetrax and tried to slam him on the head. But Tetrax easy caught his claw and threw him away, the robot landing not far from the store Flash was hiding in.

Said teen had watched the fight and had to admit, Tetrax had skill.

He then heard a dinging sound and looked down to see the watch was recharged, Flash smirking at this. "Alright, time to get back in the fight." But as he said this, Kraab picked himself up and saw him.

The teen rushed back into the store and Kraab chuckled, seeing SixSix and Tetrax were too distracted to notice him. He made his way into the store, looking around and seeing no sign of him.

Flash had hidden behind the counter and quickly activated the watch, Kraab sensing this but unable to get an exact lock. He cycled through his aliens until he found Riot-Horn, the teen getting ready to slap it down. But before he did, Shining and Tetrax's words began to ring in his head.

"Don't just try and power your way through this. I wanna see you think. Brute strength is useless if it doesn't have a plan behind its power."

"Your choice of warriors is based purely on brute strength, without regard for any strategy. Do you ever stop to consider your actions at all?"

Flash realised they were right. It hadn't been strength that had beaten Oakheart, but attacking the right spot on his machine. Flash hadn't beaten the Conductoids because he was stronger, but because he was able to find a way to force their surrender. And using brute strength hadn't gotten him anywhere.

Flash began cycling through his aliens, trying to figure out which one could stop these robots. Then he found one and an idea formed in his head.

Moments later, Kraab saw a bright green light and looked over to the counter. He drew his sword and slashed at the counter, only to find nothing behind it. He looked around, but still saw no sign of Flash or any of his aliens. As he searched, something shot behind him and he sensed the motion.

Spinning around, he searched for the teen but still saw nothing before sensing more movement behind him. He spun around again and nothing, with another waft of wind on his back. "Show yourself!" He roared as he continuously spun around to search for him, "where are you?"

"Right here!" He heard a gargled voice cry behind him, making him spin around one last time and see a burst of green flying towards him. The next thing he knew, his head was surrounded by a slimy substance that began to slip into the gaps of his body.

"Hey!" He tried to pry it off, but it refused the budge, "get off me you little pest!"

"No thanks," Goop told him as more of his body infected Kraab's. "It's time you were on the back foot for once." Once his body was deep enough, he turned the composition acidic. The next thing Kraab knew, wires and gears were starting to melt.

"AAAAARRRRRHHHHH!" He screamed as he staggered backwards out of the store, "you're frying my circuits!"

"That's the idea!" Goop told him as he pushed more of his corrosive body into Kraab, damaging more of him. Eventually, enough to Kraab's systems were melted that he went into full shut down. The robot cried out one last time before his eyes grew dim and he fell backwards onto the floor. "One down." Goop's anti-gravity device flew passed Kraab and sucked his body right out of him, Goop standing tall and looking over to see Tetrax and SixSix still brawling.

SixSix dodged Tetrax's punch and got behind him, throwing his arms around his neck before firing his jetpack. They flew upwards and crashed through the ceiling, allowing those outside to see them for a moment before SixSix tossed Tetrax towards the ground.

The crystal alien crashed into the floor and seemed to actually be hurt by this, as SixSix flew down ready to end it. But before he could, something slammed into his back.

"Guess who!?" Goop cried as he started spreading his slime across SixSix's body, instantly going acidic and melting parts of his armor.

Tetrax had recovered and picked himself up, just in time to see Goop melt through SixSix's gear. "I told you to stay out of my way." But Goop didn't listen and kept burying his slime into SixSix's armor, getting deeper and deeper into the machinery. Eventually, the mechanical sections started the short-circuit and the jetpack fired. The pair of them were sent flying all around the mall, Goop pulling SixSix in multiple directions so he kept slamming his then uncovered head into every wall they flew towards.

Then they flew into another clothing store and Goop finally pulled himself off of SixSix, the alien bounty hunter crashing into multiple racks of clothing before rolling in the air and flying back out of the store. When he did, Goop threw a whip of slime at him that coiled around his neck and allowed the slime alien to fling him towards the ground.

The alien finally lost consciousness and kept flying forwards along the ground, until his jetpack finally gave out and he slid to a stop not far from Kraab whilst dressed in a frilly nightgown, summer hat and blue scarf.

Goop and the others moved over to them, Goop looking down at SixSix and laughing at his new clothing choice. "That new outfit suits him, don't you think?" He turned to Tetrax, who smirked at him.

"Pretty smart, for a human." Goop decided to take the compliment and Tetrax stepped forward, taking out a strange looking gun with a green energy cube on the end. He fired it and the cube shot off towards the pair, landing between them before growing in size until it completely encased them before shrinking back to its original size with them likely inside. Tetrax picked up the cube and turned to Flash, as the Omnitrix beeped once again and he reverted back to human. "I will return as soon as I am able."

"What about this?" He held up the watch, Tetrax smiling.

"It's in good hands until then." Flash smiled at this, the other two smiling with him. Then, Tetrax handed him his hoverboard. "This may be of some use in the meantime."

"Seriously?" He asked, taking the device and looking at it like a kid on christmas. Then he remembered something, "wait." He gave him a quizzical look, "I thought you needed this to get off the planet?"

"Selective disinformation." Flash had no idea what that meant, turning to Shining for context.

"He lied." Flash frowned at this as Tetrax's turned away from him.

"Wait," Tetrax looked back, "who was it that sent those bounty hunters after me? Someone must have hired them?" Tetrax nodded.

"His name is Vilgax and he's one of the most dangerous warlords in the galaxy." They wanted to know more, helmet reappeared on his head before the alien took something from his belt and pressed a button. In a flash of red, he was gone and the three looked down at the hoverboard he had left.

"Why do you get all the cool alien gizmos?" Trixie asked.

Flash smirked as he spun the board on his finger, "more my style." But then the disk fell off and clattered to the ground, Trixie and Shining laughing before Shining got serious.

"You need to get out of here," he told Flash. "Use that thing and fly away before anyone comes to investigate. Trixie and I will go find Twilight and make sure they're okay." Flash nodded and after a few seconds of figuring out how the device worked, jumped onto the hoverboard and and flew up towards the hole that Tetrax and SixSix had made.

Shining and Trixie rushed back to where Trixie had last seen his sister, the pair finding the girls still stuck where they were. "Twily!" Shining cried rushing to her side and seeing she was trapped inside the concrete. "You okay?"

"I'll be fine once we get out of here," Twilight told him before turning to Trixie. "What happened to the aliens?"

"Chamalien got beamed up out of nowhere," Trixie lied. "Then Diamondhead and Goop appeared and took those two other aliens down."

"That's good," Sunset sighed. "These alien situations are getting seriously out of hand." Shining called the rest of the force and told them what had happened, his captain promising to send some workers with jackhammers to free the girls. They would have a lot of questions to answer about what happened, Shining and Trixie knowing they would need to fudge some of the details the keep Flash's secret.

Meanwhile, the teen was flying above the city on his new ride. He had always wanted something like this, but figured it would be impossible. It seemed some dreams do come true.

Up in space, the alien known as Vilgax watched the monitors. When he saw a burst of red light shoot up off of the planet, he thought the bounty hunters had completed their mission. But then the energy shoot off into space and disappeared from view. "Betrayed!"

His minion turned to him, "sensors indicate the Omnitrix is not with the mercenaries."

Vilgax growled at this, "it appears the creature that possess the Omnitrix..." He gasped for air, "is as clever as it is fierce." He took another breath, "but I shall not be denied." No matter what, he would have the Omnitrix and make whoever was foiling his plans pay. They would suffer.

Author's Note

Those of you who have actually seen the show will recognize where I got this idea from. Hope you enjoyed my version of it as much as you enjoyed the actual episode. And at least Flash learned who Vilgax was in this.

Season 1, Episode 6: Birthday Bash

It was another busy day in Canterlot and the citizens of the city were going about their daily lives.

On one of the sidewalks, an old woman had just stepped up to some lights and was waiting for it to turn green. After a minute of so, the last car passed by and the road was clear. The light chose this moment to turn green and she began to calmly make her way across the road. But as she did, a loud screeching sound filled the air.

She looked around and her old heart nearly gave out when she saw a bus rushing down the road at what was probably forty miles an hour. It swerved from side the side and as it got closer, it looked like it was about to hit the woman. But before it could, somebody rushed up to her.

"Look out!" She was grabbed and lifted off her feet, the next thing she knew being she was now standing on the sidewalk as the bus zoomed passed.

She looked around and saw a cream coloured teen with green dreadlocks was the one who had pulled her out of the way, the teen turning to her. "You okay ma'am?"

"Oh yes," she nodded, "Thank you." She stared down the street and saw the bus was still zooming out of control, "what on earth is that driver thinking?" The teen looked like he was about to reply, but in that moment something else moving at incredible speed shot passed them.

"Wow!" The wind almost knocked him off his feet, the teen named Sandalwood looking around and seeing a blue blur running passed. "Oh yeah, Rainbow!" But then he thought, "or is it one of those aliens?"

It was an alien, the speed alien known as XLR8.

The armoured velociraptor was zooming down the street and easily managed to catch up to the bus, looking through the window and seeing the driver appeared terrified. His fear only heightened when XLR8 tapped on the glass of the door, making him jump and look over to see him.

The alien made a gesture and the driver seemed to understand, so opened the door and allowed him to jump on board. "Hey," his visor lifted to show his face, "what are you doing? You need to slow this bus down before you hurt somebody."

"Don't you think I know that?" The man asked, showing him the peddle he was stepping on. "The breaks aren't working."

"Oh," XLR8 nodded as he looked up the bus and saw six passengers that were all terrified. "Can't you just take you foot off the accelerator so it'll slow down."

"We're going down hill," the driver pointed out. "And at these speeds trying to turn around could roll the bus." XLR8 nodded again as the driver had to turn sharply to avoid hitting another car, the alien slowly coming up with a plan.

"Alright, keep the door open."

"Why?" He asked, only for XLR8 to zip up the bus and grab someone before zooming out of the door with them. A moment later, he was back and grabbed someone else.

For the next few moments, a blue blur would shoot out of the bus and deposit someone of the sidewalk. Eventually, this included the bus driver who went staggering when he was let go.

"Hey!" He turned in time to see the blur fly back into the bus before it lost control, XLR8 sitting behind the wheel and doing his best to keep control of it.

"Need to find a way to stop this thing before I hit someone," XLR8 cried as he tried to think. It was then that he noticed a camping store just ahead of him, an idea forming in his brain. "Hope this works!" He shot out of the bus and into the store, returning a moment later carrying several long pieces of tent lines.

He rushed ahead of the bus to an area with two street lamps exactly opposite each other, the alien quickly tying the ends of the lines to each one. Soon enough, a web-like construct was made between the posts and all the people that were near them realised what the alien was doing and ran away.

XLR8 returned to the bus and drove it straight for the centre of the web, then vacated the bus when it was inches from it.

Everyone watching from a safe distance saw the bus hit the net, the elasticity of the rope causing it to stretch whilst the bus' windows cracked from the sudden stop. The lampposts buckled and bent but remained in place, though it was likely the rope would soon snap.

Luckily, XLR8 rushed back into the vehicle and put the parking brake on before they did. The bus screeched as its wheels locked and had it been going any faster, it would have likely flipped over. But it came to a complete stop right as the ropes gave out.

XLR8 quickly rushed out of the bus and caught the snapped wires before they hit anything, placing them at the foot of the lampposts before doing a quick check of everything else. As he made sure nothing else bad would happen with the bus, he heard people cheering at him.

"Thank you," he waved. "Thank you. It was nothing, really." He then heard police sirens and decided to leave before he timed out, the superspeed raptor vanishing in a burst of wind back up the street. He quickly arrived at the area he had originally transformed in, spotting his car park at the side with a clearly bored Trixie leaning against it.

Ducking into an alleyway before anyone could see him, he hid behind some dumpsters and waited for the Omnitrix to time out. As he did, Trixie stepped into the alleyway. She was carrying a pair of nicely wrapped presents and looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Took you long enough," she told him. "The next time you decide to rush off to save the day, the least you could do is give Trixie your car keys so she can listen to the radio."

XLR8 laughed at this, "like I'd trust you with my car. I heard what you did during your last drivers test."

"Not my fault someone moved the one way sign." As she said that, the Omnitrix began to beep and transformed the alien back into Flash Sentry.

The teen stretched, not wanting to cramp up after all that running. He then took out his keys and opened the car, letting him and Trixie get it. "Got the presents?"

"Safe and sound," Trixie told him before placing them carefully on the back seat. Once they were safely secured, he started up the car and pulled on onto the street. "Good thing we decided to get them early, or else that little hero moment of yours would have made us late."

"Always make extra time when you can," Flash stated. "It's better to be early then late I always say."

"Unless you're a baby," Trixie pointed out with the pair laughing. As they drove, Flash thought back to the other week when Shining had invited him to the event they were heading towards. Flash had to admit, he was actually honoured Shining wanted him there for this event. Though it wasn't a big surprise considering how many times the pair had saved each other's lives over the last few weeks.

However, this didn't stop him from feeling a bit nervous. A teenager going to a baby's birthday didn't sound like it would be much fun for the teenager. He had been to a lot of kids birthdays as the entertainment back when he was with Flash Drive, but that had been work and the kids there had been much older. What the heck did Shining expect him to do for the whole afternoon?

As Flash pulled into Shining's street, he saw multiple cars on said street. If he didn't know where Shining's house was, he would have been able to tell by the decorations covering the place.

"Pinkie outdid herself," Trixie chuckled as they pulled up to the curb. They got out and grabbed the presents before heading to the backyard, the music catching their ear as one of those horrible baby CDs parents buy because their children have no real taste in music.

When they arrived, they found the backyard was full of many parents running around after young toddlers and babies. Balloons of multiple colours were floating around and they quickly spotted Pinkie Pie in one corner making balloon animals.

"Here you go," she smiled as she handed the little girl her kitty. The toddler laughed and hugged the cat before running off, allowing another kid to step up and ask for an elephant.

"Flash!" They looked around to see Twilight walking over to them, "Trixie. Glad you guys could make it."

"Sure," Flash told her before holding out the present. "Sorry I couldn't get anything better. Wasn't really sure what to get for someone who hasn't even started potty training yet." Twilight laughed at this and took the present, Trixie handing hers over as well.

"I'm sure she'll love it. Make yourself comfortable. I know a baby's birthday isn't the funnest place to be for someone our age, but I'm sure Flurry will appreciate you being here." Flash nodded before her and Trixie headed into the house, where the refreshments were being handed out.

The one handing them out was Shining, who smirked seeing them. "Great. Glad you could make it."

"Sorry we're a bit late," Flash scratched the back of his head. "We...ran into a bit of trouble on the way here." He slyly gestured to his watch, Shining nodding as he understood what that meant. "Want some help dishing stuff out?"

"You're our guests."

"Better then standing around doing nothing." Shining couldn't argue with that and agreed, Flash beginning to fill plastic cups with the soda asked for. Trixie snuck away before she could be roped into helping and the two men simply worked extra hard to make up for it.

Soon enough, everyone had a drink and the two could rest and enjoy their own drinks. "Thanks," Shining smirked, "you made that a lot easier."

"Happy to help," Flash smirked before taking a sip. "So, where is the birthday girl?"

"Cadance is getting her ready," Shining replied. "She's been worrying over making this the best birthday Flurry's ever had."

"But it's the only birthday she's ever had?"

"That's what I told her. I know Flurry's not gonna remember this, but Cadance wants to videotape every second of it so Flurry can watch it back when she's older."

"Really?" Flash looked around but didn't see anyone outside with a camera, "who's recording right now?" Shining smirked and pointed upwards, Flash looking to the sky and seeing a familiar looking drone. "Is that-"

"My custom made selfie drone." He turned to Twilight as the girl smirked, "yes it is. When Cadance said she wanted footage of Flurry's party, I thought getting an aerial shot would be the best way to do it."

"Makes sense," Flash smirked. "That way you can get a good view of everything without needing to shove a camera in someone's face." Twilight nodded at this and as the drone flew away, footsteps made them look around and see the rest of the Rainbooms arrive.

"Hello everyone," Rarity waved and was dressed as one would expect her to be. She had chosen to wear a flowing blue summer dress with red ribbons and a large white hat on her head, obviously clothing of her own creation. "I hope we're not too late for everything."

"Nope," Twilight smiled, "you're right on time." The Rainbooms each handed her a present that she took and carefully floated over to the table with the other one without anyone else noticing her magic. As she did, Sunset turned to Flash and Trixie.

"Didn't expect to see you two here."

Flash shrugged, "Shining invited us. Believe it or not, he and I have gotten on quite good terms lately." Sunset nodded at this, but wondered what the two of them would have in common to warrant a close enough relationship to earn an invite. She then turned to Trixie who was sipping her own drink, the girl wondering if she was only there because Flash was.

"Alright everyone," they suddenly heard another woman speak. That woman was Twilight and Shining's mother, Twilight Velvet, who was walking out of the house with Cadance next to her.

"Time to welcome the birthday girl," Cadance smiled. Everyone began to crowd around them, many parents holding up their kids to see, and looked down to see a young girl in question. She was dressed in a pink dress with a ribbon on the front and a bow in her hair.

She looked around at all the people, all the while holding her mother and grandmother's hands. She appeared curious about the many people and tilted her head, making everyone who saw this go 'awe.'

"That is just adorable," Trixie smirked as Cadance picked her daughter up and walked her into her garden. Twilight's drone was hovering silently above them, getting a great image of the family as Shining joined them.

Flash smirked and wondered what his first birthday was like, having never thought to ask his parents. Maybe they had some videos of it. "Okay Flurry," Cadance put the little girl down on the blanket with the others children her age. "Have fun playing with the other kids. After that it'll be time to open presents, then some entertainment before the birthday cake."

Rainbow leaned over to Applejack, "she knows that baby has no idea what she's saying, right?"

"Doesn't mean she shouldn't talk ta her like a real person," Applejack pointed out. The others nodded as Flurry started playing with some of the other kids, though she seemed more concerned with nibbling on her own foot instead.

Everyone watched the babies play and appeared so enraptured by it that nobody could look away. Nobody except Flash, who felt like the babies would ask them to stop gawking at them if they could. He moved over to a nearby table and sat down, feeling rather at unease due to simply being surrounded by a bunch of parents he didn't know watching a bunch of kids he didn't know. He had a feeling he was gonna spend a good portion of the day bored out of his skull. But he didn't want to feel rude after Shining happily invited him over.

So he spent the next few minutes sitting there, watching as Shining's father named Night Light began playing peekaboo with Flurry and making her laugh. It was then that something happened as the speaker playing the kids music made a rather odd noise, Shining quickly switching it off before it upset the kids.

"What happened?" Cadance asked him as he looked it over.

"Ahhh," he groaned, "I knew I shouldn't have trusted this old thing. Gizmo really needs to invest in more up to date music systems." Twilight rushed over to look it over, whilst Shining unplugged the CD player from the speaker. Under its own power, however, the music it played wasn't loud enough to be heard over the crowd.

"I can fix this," Twilight told them. "But it's gonna take some time." They didn't seem to have time, as the babies were starting to get annoyed their favourite music wasn't being played. Flurry especially, appeared close to a tantrum.

The adults appeared to be panicking and as they did, Flash had an idea and quickly got up to run back to his car. A minute later, he returned and caught everyone's attention seeing he had his guitar and amp.

Quickly plugging it in, he started strumming a few chords and got the kid's attention. They all stared at him until he started playing music similar to what had been playing before, though with a much more electric feel to it. They were quickly enraptured by said music and the tantrums were quickly averted.

Flash played every kids song he knew, thankful he had been keeping up his guitar skills despite choosing to put his music career behind him. The kids laughed as he made funny faces whilst the parents were happy they weren't balling their eyes out.

"Good thing Flash brought his instrument with him," Rarity smiled at the back of the garden.

"I should have done that," Rainbow moaned as the others shook their heads.

"And how would ya'h fit an amp onto ya'h bike?" Applejack asked, Rainbow shrugging and reply that she would have thought of something.

"I'm just thankful Flash thought of a way to stop the children from being upset," Fluttershy smiled. "It's a good thing Shining invited him and Flash decided to help keep the kids entertained."

"That's just who Flash is," Trixie told her. "Always looking for a way to help out when he can." They all nodded in agreement as Flash continued playing song after song, entertaining the children as Twilight worked.

At this point, a man in a clown costume was driving down the street in a van. Said van had the words 'Slippy's Party Clown' written on the side.

"Now where was the house I was going to?" He asked as he pulled up and checked his map, trying to find the address he had been given over the phone. "Am I looking for two eight four or four eight two?" He wondered, completely oblivious to anything else.

Had he been paying more attention, he probably would have noticed something flying down towards his van. That something was a strange misty light, which flew down and managed to sneak through the gaps of the van's door. Once inside it swirled around completely unnoticed, then flew down and hit a machine that was part of the clown's act.

"Huh?" The clown looked up from his map as he finally noticed a bright light behind him, but when he looked back the light was completely gone. He stared into the back of his van for a few moments, then shrugged assuming he had imagined it. Focusing back on the map, he seemed to find his destination and drove off. All the while, he was completely oblivious to the soft glow his device was giving off.

"I think that should do it," Twilight announced as Flash came close to ending the last kids song he knew how to play. She plugged it into the CD player and hit play, the music beginning to boom out of the speaker better than it had before.

"Great work sis."

"Glad to be of help," Twilight smiled as Flash began to unhook his musical equipment. Once she was sure nobody was looking, she used her magic to help Flash lift his amp and he turned to smile at her. The pair headed back to his car, Twilight taking the amp fully in her magic once they were out of sight.

"That was some pretty quick thinking back there," Twilight told him as they reached his car. "If you hadn't been there to distract them, I'd have probably been too distracted by them screaming to fix it."

"Always happy to help," Flash smirked as he put his guitar in the back seat and Twilight put his amp in his boot. "I'm just glad I knew enough kids songs to keep them entertained. Guess all those kids birthdays I did with Flash Drive were more useful than I thought."

"Yeah," Twilight nodded, "why did you stop playing with them? I know Ringo and Brawly were pretty hurt with you leaving."

"I didn't leave," Flash told her. "They kicked me out, though I don't blame them. Life...just got too busy for me. I loved playing music, but I had to start focusing on my future. And as much as I hate to admit it, my future doesn't involve a world number one and a possible invitation to Eurovision."

Twilight laughed at this and nodded, as Flash locked his car and they headed back into the house towards the kitchen in order to get a drink. "So what are you gonna do with your life if music isn't an option?" Flash wasn't sure how to answer that, knowing he couldn't tell her he was hoping to become a full time alien superhero.

"Don't know," Flash finally replied as they grabbed a soda. "But I do wanna help people. Save those in need."

"Like those aliens," Twilight smiled. "I can't believe how they just show up to save people and then vanish. I wonder why they chose to come here and focus on helping Canterlot? There hasn't been any other reports of alien activities in other cities."

Flash shrugged, "maybe they like it here. Or maybe this is the only city they can operate in."

"Or maybe they came here because of the Equestrian Magic," Twilight guessed. "It would make sense since they'd obviously have superior technology to us and be able to detect something like that." Flash couldn't deny that was a possibility, since some of the aliens he had met so far could possibly have that kind of technology. But hopefully, whoever was gonna show up next wouldn't try and capture them to drain away. "Anyway," Twilight then changed the subject, "which alien do you think is the best? Rainbow really likes XLR8 and Rarity thinks Diamondhead is simply stunning." She mimicked Rarity's voice at this and they both laughed as Flash thought about it.

He went through all ten of his alien forms and tried to think, which alien would he pick if someone told him he could only keep one. Honestly, he had extra fond memories of all his alien alter-egos. Each one had been on he had a particularly important encounter as. Volt-Edge was his first, Diamondhead was the first alien he saved people as, XLR8's speed could get him out of a heck of a lot of jams. In all honesty, he couldn't pick one. It was like picking which of his teeth he wanted to keep in his mouth. They weren't just tools or shells he could step into. They were apart of him.

"Flash?" He turned to Twilight, "you okay? You spaced out there for a second."

"I'm fine," Flash told her. "Just trying to see which alien I like. Honestly, can't pick one. They're all super cool. Goop, Firefly, Molestache."

"Molestache?" Twilight asked, "I don't think I know that one." Flash quickly realised he had never really used that particular alien in a public fight, despite how useful it could be given the right circumstances.

"Little mole alien. Has a mustache that he can turn into fists and other tools. Shining's seen him, so he can give you a better lowdown." Twilight nodded at this and as she did, her phone buzzed and her attention was drawn to it before she smiled. "Someone send you something funny?"

"Just Timber, asking to tell Flurry a happy birthday from him." For some reason, hearing that made Flash's stomach roll. He knew he shouldn't feel annoyed about Twilight and Timber, but even now it sometimes stung to hear their relationship was going so well.

"Is he not coming? I would have thought you'd have invited him."

"I did, but he said he had a lot of work at the camp and couldn't come."

"How've things been going with you two? I know he sometimes comes to town, but long distance relationships are never easy." Twilight nodded at this as she finished texting Timber back.

"It's hard. We have to plan dates way in advance to make sure we're both not busy on that day. And even then something comes up occasionally. We haven't had a chance to hang out in a while. Since before the aliens showed up. Even phone calls have taken a backseat to texts."

"Well...don't let it get you down. Lots of relationships hit rough patches due to real life. The trick is to work through them, especially if that relationship is worth it." Twilight smiled at this and nodded, giving Flash her thanks. As she did, they heard a new voice appear over the sound of everyone outside.

"Hey kids!" They stepped out and were surprised to find a man dressed as a clown, pulling a large cart behind him that was full of different things. "Who's ready to have some fun?" The clown began doing a funny dance and then pretended to hurt his back, making a funny face that got the older kids to start laughing. "Now, where's the birthday girl?" Cadance was sitting with Flurry on her lap and made her daughter wave, the clown waving back before reaching into his baggy clown pants.

"That's just wrong," Rainbow moaned as she looked away. The other teens also looked away, not wanting to see what the clown was gonna pull out of his pants. Instead, they moved over to the furthest table so they could talk without disturbing the performance.

"Did you guys see the newest update to the alien blog?" Sunset asked, showing them said update. The blog had been started by a bunch of people that wanted to learn more about the aliens, so had started posting any photo or footage that they could find of Flash in his other forms. This newest update had a video that Sunset played, everyone amazed seeing XLR8 save the bus.

"Wow," Twilight smiled, "he's really good."

"How do we even know it's a he?" Fluttershy asked, "maybe aliens like him don't have genders."

"I'm willing to bet that horrible slime one doesn't," Rarity looked disgusted mentioning Goop. "But you have a point, he could be a she for all we know. Or some weird third gender that we can't even imagine. Who knows how those creatures evolved on their planet."

"Like those ball things on XLR8's feet," Rainbow swiped to a still image of the speedster alien. "You think those things come off, or are they a part of the alien." Flash knew he could answer all their questions, but also knew he had to play it cool.

"Do you think Firefly's always been like that?" Pinkie asked as she swiped to the fire bug alien's photo, "or was he a fire breathing caterpillar before."

"He can shoot silk," Fluttershy pointed out.

"There's so much we don't know about them," Twilight stared at the phone. "What I wouldn't give for five minutes alone with one of them."

"Yeah," Rainbow nodded, "we can ask them why the heck they're here. They're cool and all, but they're totally stealing our thunder as superheroes."

"Speak for yourself," Rarity huffed. "I'd much rather they do all the heroic stuff and let us live more normal lives."

"But they can't be expected to deal with everything," Sunset told her. "We still need to be ready if Equestrian Magic shows up. I don't wanna know what might happen if one of those aliens gets their hands on it." Flash frowned, knowing him having Equestrian Magic would likely be a bad thing. As he thought about that, he looked down at the watch and wondered if it could be enchanted with magic given other electronic devices had been before.

He took this moment to look back at the clown, who was now doing so card tricks despite Flurry likely not understanding what he was doing. He then flicked a card out of the deck and caught it before showing it to one of the kids. "Is this your card?"

The kid looked at the card before shaking his head, the clown looking shocked.

"Oh?" He flicked through the deck, trying to locate the real card. "That's strange. It doesn't seem to be here." He turned back to the boy, "maybe it fell in your pocket." The kid reached into his pockets and was shocked when he pulled out a card, "is that your card?"

"No," the kid replied with everyone laughing as the clown's face fell.

"Well," he corrected his bowtie, "magic was never really this clown's fotay." He reached over to his cart and picked something up off of it. "Why don't we have some bubble fun!" The kids cheered at this as the clown put it down on the table and pressed a button to bring it to life.

As soon as the machine was on, the girls could tell something was wrong. Within seconds, the device started glowing a strange light they only knew from one thing. Equestrian Magic.

"Turn it off!" Sunset cried, but it was too late. The device unleashed a bunch of bubbles that the kids all laughed at as they flew towards them. However, that amusement quickly vanished when the bubbles continued to grow. Within seconds, it was the size of a small child.

"That can't be good," Flash gulped as one of the kids ran forward.

"Don't!" Twilight cried, only for the boy to try and pop it with his hands. But it didn't pop, and instead the boy's hands were sucked inside. This was followed by the rest of him, the young boy soon trapped within the bubble as it started floating upwards.

"Mint!" His mother screamed as everyone tried to grab him, but this simply distracted him from the other growing bubbles. As soon as the bubbles touched something, they would be pulled inside. Tables, chairs and, of course, people.

Within seconds eight people and children were trapped within the soapy prisons, which began to float upwards as the other party goers grabbed the children not stolen by the bubbles and run. "Cadance!" Shining yelled as he saw his wife grab Flurry and try to run, only for a bubble to hit her back and pull her in. "NO!" Cadance tried to put Flurry down, but she didn't have time and soon both were inside and floating away.

"Hang on!" Twilight cried as she and Rainbow grabbed their geodes, transforming into their pony-girl forms and taking off. But they were so focused on saving those captured, they didn't notice two bubbles floating near them until they floated between them and Cadance.

"WOW!" Rainbow cried as she flew straight into hers, getting trapped within seconds as her pony form vanished. Twilight tried to stop, but her foot got caught inside.

"No, no, no, no!" She tried to pull it out, but it was no use and she was soon enveloped and her pony form faded. "Not good."

"Twilight!" Sunset yelled, "Rainbow!"

"Turn that thing off!" Shining told the clown, who nodded and tried to switch off the machine. But as if the Equestrian Magic knew what he was doing, it shoot a bubble at him the second his hand reached for the switch. He cried out as his hand was enveloped and soon, he was trapped inside and floating away as well. "Ahhh!" Shining pulled out his gun and fired at the machine, but the bubbles were quickly caught in bubbles as well. "No way."

During all this, Trixie and Flash had been watching in shock. Alien problems were one thing, but they knew better then to try and fight against Equestrian Magic. "We gotta get to safety!" Trixie told him. They both tried to escape but as they did, a bubble floated towards them.

"Trixie!" Sunset rushed over and pushed her away, the bubble hitting her instead.

"Sunset!" Trixie cried, Sunset banging against the inside of the bubble as she lifted into the air. She turned to the other Rainbooms, seeing Rarity try to shield them with her gems that did little to stop the bubble. Pinkie tried to blow them up, but the bubble simply absorbed the explosions. Applejack and Fluttershy could do nothing, since Applejack's strength was worthless against something that could absorb everything it touched.

Up in the air, Rainbow was stomping on the bubble whilst those with short objects like keys and hairpins tried popping them with little success. "These things are indestructible!"

Twilight tried using her magic to pry the bubbles open, but for some reason it refused to activate within it. "They're dampening our powers!" She cried, then heard Flurry start to cry.

"It's okay," Cadance hugged her daughter. "It's okay. Daddy's gonna find a way to save us." She was saying that partly to try and calm herself down, as she had no idea how Shining planned to save them.

Down on the ground, Flash, Trixie and Shining rushed around the back of the house. The remaining Rainbooms were trying to keep the bubbles at pay, throwing things into them that would stop them from catching anybody else.

"We've gotta do something!" Shining cried, as Flash activated the Omnitrix.

"I've got an idea, but it might not work." He found the alien he was looking for, "worth a try though!" He slammed the dial down and in a flash of green, Flash was replaced with the alien insect known as Firefly.

The bug spread his flame patterned wings and shot into the air, nobody seeing where he came from but quickly noting his presence as he got closer and closer to the bubbles. He showed amazing aerial agility, allowing him to duck and dive around the bubbles in the air until he reached the ones holding Twilight and the others.

"Firefly!" Twilight smiled, "you've gotta get us out of here."

"Working on it," he told them as he raised his arm. But before he lit it aflame, he stopped as if he had a thought. "Hang on." He moved over to a bubble containing a chair, "better practise first." He launched a fireball from his gauntlet and it hit the bubble, but it did nothing. "Alright." He gauntlet unleashed a torch-like flame that he pushed towards the bubble, the tip of the flame hitting the orb but doing nothing. He then upped the power, preparing to memorise the heat needed to pop it. But still, nothing happened.

"It's not working!" Rainbow cried.

"How strong are these things?" Cadance asked as Firefly continued to increase the heat. As he did, he noticed the wood chair inside was starting to get darker and darker.

"Ahh," he stopped burning it, "if I make the flame too hot it'll burn whatever's inside."

"You've gotta do something!" Sunset told him, "maybe that bubble's just really strong. Try another one." Firefly nodded and flew to another bubble, repeating the process on that one with the only result being the table cloth inside catching fire.

"Oh come on!" Rainbow cried as Firefly moved to another bubble and tried to same thing, then another and another. Each time it was the same. The bubble remained intact and whatever was inside became much more tanned. "Isn't there anything else you can do?"

Firefly tried to think, then had an idea. "This is a long shot, but be ready to grab." Before Rainbow could ask what he was talking about, Firefly shot a string of sink from his mouth that shot towards Rainbow and flew into the bubble.

"Eww," Rainbow cried as it hit her stomach. She then realised what he was doing and held on tight, as Firefly pulled the string tight. But all this did was pull the bubble around as it grew larger, sucking in more of the string as the silk inside didn't go taut. It was clear once something was inside, it couldn't be pulled out.

Firefly cut the string with his teeth and Rainbow quickly pulled it all in to keep the bubble from expanding any more. Firefly felt bad at having failed, but couldn't think of anything else to do. What was worst was he wasn't sure how much longer he had before he changed back. "I'm sorry," he told them. "It's clear I'm not the alien that can help you."

"Well which one can?" Cadance asked, continuing to comfort Flurry.

Firefly wasn't sure, since the Equestrian Magic was proving tougher to deal with then he thought. "Sorry," he started flying away, "I promise one of my...teammates will show up to help once we've got a plan." With that, he flew off as fast as he could. The girls begged him not to go and he hated that he had too, but he was glad he did when the Omnitrix started beeping.

Moving as fast as he could, he shot towards a house opposite Shining's that was currently vacant. This allowed him to land in the back garden just as the watch transformed him back, with nobody seeing him. He waited a minute or so in case Twilight or someone had been watching him fly behind the house, then rush around it and back over to Shining and Trixie.

"What happened?" Shining asked, clearly unhappy his wife, sister and daughter were still trapped.

"I'm sorry. My fire wouldn't work and I couldn't pull them out with my string." He looked up as the bubbles got higher, "I don't know which alien can help them." They then heard a scream and rushed back around the house.

When they arrived, they spotted Velvet was now trapped within a bubble and being lifted into the air. Night Light tried to save his wife, but quickly found another bubble grabbing him. "NO!" Shining cried.

"We've gotta do something about that machine!" Applejack cried, the lot turning towards the bubble blower that was constantly unleashing bubble. "We gotta turn it off!"

"How?" Rarity asked, "anyone who gets near it is a sitting duck for getting captured."

"There has to be something we can do!" Pinkie was still throwing sprinkles at the bubbles, the explosions being absorbed and sent into the air. As they did, Shining stared at the stupid machine and slowly formed a strategy.

"Pinkie, try and get behind it. Applejack, be ready to throw whatever you can at it if needs be. Rarity, on my signal try and put up as many shields as you can around it. Flash, Trixie and Fluttershy, you guys stay back in case something bad happens." They all nodded at this and Pinkie rushed around the entire house, rushing into the neighbour's yard to get behind their fense right behind the machine.

Applejack grabbed a table whilst Flash, Trixie and Fluttershy stepped back. Several bubbles flew out of it as they did, Shining throwing cups, streamers and whatever else was close to hand in order to get them out of the way.

"Alright Pinkie...NOW!" Pinkie threw some sprinkles and hit the back of the machine, the explosion knocking it into the air. "Rarity!" The girls surrounded the machine with crystal shields, which moved with the machine as it flew through the air. As it did, bubbles started appearing and managed to capture each of the crystals.

But as it did, Shining rushed forward much to everyone's shock. He then dove under the machine as it pointed upwards and grabbed it, stopping it from firing bubbles at him. It shot several into the air and as it did, Shining reached around and hit the off button.

As soon as he did, the lights on it switched off and it stopped spraying bubbles. Everyone remained on alert in case the magic switch it back on, but after a few seconds of no activity they sighed in relief.

"Great," Shining put it down, "now we don't have to worry about it spraying any more bubbles." It was then that one of the bubbles floated towards Pinkie as the girl jumped over the fence, Fluttershy seeing this and gasping.

"Look out!" She ran over and tried to push Pinkie away, but doing so caused the bubble to hit her instead.

"Fluttershy!" Pinkie cried as she grabbed the girls hand, trying to pull her out. But all this did was get her dragged inside the bubble with Fluttershy. "You okay?" Fluttershy nodded, though she quickly clung to Pinkie as the pair began to float upwards.

"Oh no," Flash cried as they saw the two vanished. But as they did, Flash noticed something. Their geodes were glowing. "What?" He remembered what Twilight said, about how the bubbles dampened their magic so much they couldn't use their powers. But these two's magic appeared to be working, but why?

"Something wrong?" Rarity asked, "other then the obvious." Flash wasn't sure, but knew he had to try and test it. He pulled his phone and called Pinkie, waiting for several seconds until it picked up.

"Hello?" Pinkie's voice replied on the other line.

"Pinkie, I want you to try and use your magic."

"Whilst we're trapped in a bubble. Are you cray cray?"

"It doesn't have to be a big one. Just a single sprinkle."

Pinkie frowned but reached into her hair, pulling out a can of sprinkles that she opened up and took a single one out.

It glowed and she quickly threw it at the bubble, an tiny explosion occurring as it made contact. "Alright," she called back to him, "I did it. Now what?"

"Your magic worked?"

"Yeah, why?"

"I have an idea. Call you guys back soon." He then hung up, leaving Pinkie and Fluttershy very confused.

"Their magic is working," Flash told the others as he called Twilight.

"So?" Applejack asked, then remembered what Twilight had said before. "Oh, but why?" She would get her answer when Twilight picked up.

"Twilight, I've figured it out. The bubbles can dampen your powers when your alone in a bubble, but they can't dampen them when they're unified."

"Of course. I can't believe I didn't think of that. If we can combine our magic, it'll grow too strong for the bubble to contain. We'll be free."

"But how are we gonna combine our magic?" Rarity asked, "five of you are trapped and only two are sharing a bubble."

"Maybe if you and I drop into one of the bubbles," Applejack suggested. "Maybe three of us together will be enough."

"How are you gonna do that?" Shining asked, "you two can't fly and the others are way too high up to get too. I could call in a helicopter, but by the time it got here they might be too high up."

"And I don't think it's a good idea for all of us to get trapped," Twilight explained. "If Flash's plan doesn't work, you two will be our last hope to free us." Everyone frowned, wanting to come up with a way to combined their magic. Then, Trixie suddenly had an idea.

"What if you all combined your bubbles?" They all turned to her, "these things absorb whatever they touch right? So what might happen if they touch each other."

"It's possible they'll absorb each other," Twilight guess. "Or...they might combined and share everything inside the original bubbles. Trixie, you're a genius!"

"Was that ever in doubt?"

"But how are ya'll gonna get ya'h bubbles to merge?" Applejack asked as they tried to think, none of them having any idea what to do. In that moment, Flash's watch turned green and he realised he could save them. But he had to sneak away and transform without Applejack and Rarity noticing.

"Look!" Trixie had seen the watch turn green as well, so had pointed to something. "I think I saw a bubble over there. You'd better put a gem in it before it catches someone." Rarity and Applejack moved to take a closer look, allowing Flash to carefully move away and run inside the house.

After he was sure nobody was looking inside, he activated the Omnitrix and dialled up Firefly again. "Time to fly!" He slapped the dial down and in a flash of light, he transformed. But not into the alien he wanted. "I say," Molestache looked himself over and sighed. "Well this is a fine how'd you do. I need a flyer and I get a burrower." He crossed his arms and tapped his foot, "maybe I can work with this. But how?" He then had an idea and snapped his fingers, "that might work." With that, he ran for the front door and stepped through it.

Once outside, he grew his mustache so that it moved up and around the back of his head. Once there, the two ends spiralled around one another and grew some more before they started spinning at incredible speeds. Eventually, they span so fast that Molestache was lifted off the ground and took to the air.

"It works!" He cheered as he flew higher and higher, being sure to avoid the bubbles as soon as he reached them. As he did, Twilight and the rest of the captured Rainbooms noticed him. "What hoe!" He waved as he got closer, "my comrade Firefly said you were in a spot of bother."

"Please help us!" Fluttershy cried.

"We need Firefly," Twilight told him. "He can use his string to pull the bubbles together so they can combined."

"I'm afraid he won't be able to come," Molestache frowned. "However, I am here and will do my best to help in any way I can. You need to move the bubbles?"

"Can you get them to connect?" Sunset asked, as Molestache flew towards her and then spun around. His helicopter stache began unleashing winds that started blowing against the bubble, everyone watching and hoping it worked. And sure enough, Sunset's bubble started moving away from Molestache. They cheered as the alien rodent worked to maneuver the orb through the sky until it finally connected with Twilight's.

Everyone prayed their plan would work and sure enough, the bubbles began to absorb each other and eventually merge. Twilight and Sunset found themselves together, both hugging one another as Molestache moved over to Rainbow's bubble.

He repeated what he did before and managed to push this bubble towards Twilight and Sunset's, the bubble combining with the bigger one and throwing Rainbow in with them.

"Now us! Now us!" Pinkie cried as Molestache flew over and pushed the bubbles closer together. As he did, Twilight, Sunset and Rainbow held hands and channelled their magic. Slowly, the power began to build in their geodes and they glowed. When Pinkie and Fluttershy's bubble merged with theirs, the two grabbed each others hands and then grabbed Rainbow and Sunset's. This caused their power to spike and slowly, the bubble began to shake.

"It can't handle the power!" Twilight cried, as their bodies began to glow. "Keep going. As much power as you can muster!" They kept concentrating and soon enough, the bubble exploded and the five girls were suddenly transformed into their pony girl forms.

"YES!" Rainbow cheered as she flew around at incredible speed, then grabbed Pinkie before she could fall. Twilight grabbed Sunset and the three winged girls began to fly down.

Twilight glanced back at Cadance and Flurry, but Molestache floated next to their bubble. "Don't worry my dear, I'll stay by them. If the bubbles pop, I'll catch them. You have my word." Twilight smiled and nodded before flying down towards the ground, leaving Molestache to turn to Cadance.

Flurry stared at the strange creature, clearly curious about what it was. "Hello my dear. I don't suppose you know what an alien like me is, do you? Don't worry, I'll keep you and your momma safe." The baby laughed at this, probably amused by his british accent.

Down below, Applejack and Rarity watched as the rest of their friends flew down towards them.

As they got closer, they entered their pony forms and grabbed each other's hand. Channelling their magic, their began to float into the air and held out their free hands. Pinkie and Fluttershy grabbed those hands and the girls formed a chain of power whilst turning their attention back to the machine.

"Time to put an end to this party!" Sunset yelled as they glowed, then each unleashed an coloured energy blast that merged into a rainbow. The laser shot at the machine and spiralled around it, causing the machine to activate and try to defend itself. But any bubble it created was quickly burst by their magic as the magic inside was slowly sucked out.

Once it was all gone, the tornado surrounding the machine exploded outwards in every direction.

It flew into the air and when it struck the bubbles in the sky, they all popped and whatever was inside was free. This terrified the people as they thought they would fall, Molestache preparing to catch as many as he could, only to then realise they weren't falling. In fact, they remained where they were as a strange light covered them. Then, they slowly descended to the ground.

"Well done girls," Molestache smiled before flying off someplace to wait out the rest of his transformation.

When the formly trapped items and individuals reached the ground, the light faded away and their were gently dropped. "Cadance!" Shining rushed over to her, "Flurry!" He hugged them both and Cadance hugged him back, everyone else smiling at this before Shining turned to the Rainbooms. "Thank you."

"Just doing our job," Rainbow smirked as Twilight moved over to take her niece and hug her. "It was nice to get to be the heroes for once." Everyone rolled their eyes at this, as Trixie spoke up.

"You gotta give props to Molestache. If he hadn't shown up, you girls would still be stuck in there." They couldn't deny that and looked up at the sky, finding that the alien wasn't there.

"I wish they would stick around," Twilight sighed before turning to Flurry. "I bet you'd like to have an alien at your birthday party. Not many kids would be able to say that." The baby laughed at this and everyone seemed to think this was a good time to end the party, with many of those who had been trapped in the bubbles going home since there didn't appear to be any injury done to them or their children.

The clown apologised to them all, but the Rainbooms assured him it wasn't his fault since he didn't know that magic had infested his machine. He was a little hesitant to take the machine back after what had happened, but Pinkie had happily proved the bubbles it now created were the fun none-magical kind.

As the clown packed his things up and left, Flash arrived and was holding his nose. "Hey!" Twilight called out to him, "there you are. Where'd you get too?"

"I...thought I saw someone being carried away by a bubble. Didn't know if they were gonna be okay if it popped so I rushed after them." Flash could have come up with a better excuse, but his sore nose was distracting him too much to think of anything.

Luckily, Twilight seemed to buy this and nodded as she used her magic to help clean everything up. Shining, Night, Sunset, Rainbow, Applejack and Rarity were also helping. Flash began to pitch in and noticed Cadance was in the kitchen with Flurry, Trixie, Fluttershy, Pinkie and Velvet. Flurry was constantly laughing, clearly having had the time of her life despite how terrifying it had been.

"So," Flash turned to Twilight, "think Flurry will remember this whole event like Cadance wanted?"

Twilight laughed, "I doubt it. But not to worry." She pointed at a nearby table, "my drone captured everything." Flash turned to see the machine was completely undamaged, making his eyes go wide as he realised it might have caught him transforming if it had been flying around the place. "Well, not everything. It was one of the first things that got caught by the bubbles. I'll need to re-edit the footage of it inside the bubble out so it doesn't get boring. But hopefully it'll have caught the aliens when they showed up."

"Will it have anything on what we did on the ground?" Flash asked, Twilight shaking her head.

"No, the camera's range is only twenty feet. I really need to improve on that limit." Flash sighed in relief, knowing there was no way Twilight could have caught him transforming.

"Hey!" They heard Trixie cry out to those outside, "everything's ready!" They all headed inside and found the girls had been busy making the remaining food into a new dinner that they could all enjoy. As they did, they started handing Flurry the presents she didn't get to open before the insanity began.

When it got to Flash's present, the teen looked uncomfortable as Cadance opened the present for Flurry and pulled out...a cuddly snail. "Seriously Flash?" Rainbow asked when they held the toy up to Flurry, "a snail?"

"What?" He asked, "I thought it looked cute." He instantly regretted the choice, kicking himself for thinking a baby girl would like a snail. But to his shock, Flurry stared at the toy curiously before she took and hugged it.

"Wha," she cried out, "wham!" She held it up and joyfully swung it around, "wham! Whammy!" Nobody could deny that was the cutest thing and as they continued opening the other toys, Flurry kept hold of the snail and didn't seem to want to be parted with it. By the end, it was clear what her favourite present was.

"Nice going Flash," Shining smirked once the last one was open. "Looks like you get her the best present." Flash smirked at this and was a little embarrassed, but also happy Flurry loved his present so much.

"Alright everyone," Velvet told them as she carried something towards the kitchen table. "All together now." She had a large cake in her hand with a lit number one candle, the lot of them smiling before.

"Happy birthday to you," they sang. "Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday dear Flurry Heart. Happy birthday to you." They put the cake down in front of her and Flurry stared at it, the lot of them making blowing gestures. She laughed and mimicked them, managing to blow out the candle and get a round of applause from everyone.

Despite being too young for cake, Flurry still seemed happy about her cake and Flash was given the first piece since he had gotten the best present. Everyone continued to talk and laugh as Flurry played with her new toys, eventually falling asleep with her newly christened whammy clutched to her chest.

As Flash and Trixie left to head home, the teen couldn't help but smile. Despite everything, he was glad he came to this party. It was definitely one he would never forget and he was looking forward to attending Flurry's second birthday.

Author's Note

Well this was fun. Hope you lot didn't think that just because this series focused on aliens stuff, I would leave out the Equestrian Magic situations. Hope you enjoyed it and now that we know the names of every alien, let me know which one is your favourite.

Season 1, Episode 7: Like Looking in a Mirror

It was another busy day in Canterlot, with downtown being particularly busy as many people had a lot to do and barely any time to do it.

That included Canterlot Bank, which had many people talking to staff about the overly complicated system that existed to try and make them more money. But one person soon stepped into the building that had a far more easier way of making money in mind. Steal it.

That person was a man dressed in rather unusual attire, wearing light green clothing over what appeared to be dark green football armour. He had red tape wrapped around his arms and legs, whilst his hood was up blocking his face from view. On his back was a strange looking device that looked like a leaf blower backpack, which had a large pole sticking out the top that ended in a satellite dish. A cable came off the device and was connected to a strange looking shield on his arm, which had red metal on the edges with green spots and the very centre was a purely reflective surface.

The minute he stepped into the room, all eyes were upon him. And many of them had lived in Canterlot long enough to know when you saw something out of the ordinary, you shouldn't just dismiss it as a weirdo with terrible fashion sense.

The bank's manager had been in the room when he arrived, so quickly noticed the man and moved over to him. "Can I help you with something...mister?"

"Yes," the man replied as he looked at the manager and allowed him to see he had a large bare of aviator goggles over his eyes. "I'd like to make a withdrawal."

"I'm sorry, but I don't think you have an account with us. I'm sure I'd remember such an...interesting client." The man said nothing and the manager frowned, "how much are you planning on withdrawing?"

"All the money in this bank," he explained. "And I must thank you in advance for giving it all to me." Before the manager could say anything, the man held up the shield on his arm. The minute the manager's reflection appeared in the glass, the device on his arm lit up and began to make noise.

That noise caught everyone's attention and as the manager stepped backwards, the satellite began to power up and spark with energy that quickly shot off. As it struck the ground, a form began to appear from out of it. Soon a pair of feet appeared, followed by some legs, a waist, stomach, chest, shoulders, arms, neck and head. Within a second, a perfect copy of the manager stood before the real one. The only difference being the second one's eyes, which were grey.

"What?" The bank manager gasped as his copy smirked and rushed forward, throwing a punch to his face that sent him falling to the ground out cold.

This action terrified the people and the security guards rushed forward. But before they could get close, the hooded man held up the shield and caught each of their reflections in the mirror. The device on his back powered up and unleashed the energy, creating perfect copies of the security guards.

The copies charged at their lookalikes and soon multiple fights broke out, the rest of the people running to the exit with a few getting caught in the mirror and copied. Those copies along with the bank manager's clone headed towards the back of the bank, leaving the security guards in a stalemate with their new twins.

Once at the back, the bank manager typed the code into an electronic keypad connected to a large vault. The vault swung open, revealing the large stacks of cash located inside. "Paydirt!" The man smirked before the many copies rushed into the vault and started filling dufflebags he had brought with him full of cash.

Within a minute, every bag was brimming with green and they began to make their way out of the vault. The security guards were still fighting themselves as they made their way towards the exit, the shield-wearer smirking. "Thanks for the loan. I'll be sure to pay it back...in about a million years." He laughed as he and his army stepped outside, only to find themselves running into a new obstacle.

Suddenly, a powerful gust of wind shot passed them and one of the clones cried out as he was knocked off his feet and the dufflebag he was carrying vanished. "What?" Was all his creator could say before another gust of wind did the same to another clone, then another and another.

Eventually, only the weirdly dressed man was left standing with his money bag. He looked around, holding up his shield as he tried to find who did this. Then he got his answer.

"Dude, what the heck is with that outfit?" The man spun around and spotted an armored dinosaur staring at him, this being the super speed hero XLR8. "And I thought I dressed weird wearing this stuff," he gestured to himself. "Oh well, I'm sure the nice people at the prison will be able to fit you for a nice orange jumpsuit."

The man stared at him for a moment before smirking, "so you're one of those aliens. I've heard of you."

"Join the club," XLR8 stated before looking at the shield. "So what exactly's the deal with that weird shield anyway. Are you so vain you'd want to look at your own reflection in the middle of a fight?"

The man chuckled, "why don't I show you." He pointed his shield and caught the alien in its reflection, causing the device on his back to power up. XLR8 didn't know what it was, but he knew it was bad news. As such, he shot forward. But as he did, the satellite fired the beam straight at him.

XLR8 was fast, but only a little faster than it and barely dodged the beam as it struck the ground. But this caused him to miss his target and fly passed the man, causing his hood to fly down and reveal him to be a pale yellow skinned man of middle age with pale blue hair that was graying. XLR8's claw had also nicked his goggle straps, causing them to break and make them fall away to reveal his pale grey eyes.

XLR8 skidded to a stop and spun around, as the man slowly turned to show his face to him. "Huh, not much in the looks department. You need to get out of the basement or wherever you crawled out of, get some sun on your skin. Better hope prison has big windows." He charged forward but before he could hit the guy, something shot passed him and right in front of XLR8. "What?" He was shocked to see an exact copy of him appear, the XLR8 clone speeding passed the man and throwing a punch at him.

XLR8 managed to slid under the claws and zoom to a safe distance, still shocked by what he saw.

"Another me?" He asked, "how is there another me?" The other XLR8 didn't give him time to explain, rushing forward and attacking with full force. XLR8 frowned but attacked back, the pair moving towards one another at super speed before they started throwing super speed attacks at one another. Both were equally as fast and equally as strong, so neither had the advantage. They were in a perfect stalemate.

"Have fun with your new friend," the man chuckled before pulling his hood back up and running with the single dufflebag of money he had remaining.

"Hey!" XLR8 tried to chase after him, but his clone managed to grab his tail and throw him back before he could. "Great." He glanced passed his clone and saw the man jump into a van, then turned back to the copy. "You're really starting to annoy me."

"Good," his clone chuckled before his visor opened to reveal XLR8's face, except his eyes were grey in place of blue. "Now what are you gonna do next? As if I don't already know."

XLR8 shot off down the road, his copy following him at the exact same speed. Their fight quickly turned into a race, with XLR8 trying to escape from his lookalike hoping to find the guy that created it and try to get some answers. But his clone was just too even with him and seemed to know everything he was about to do before he even thought about doing it. Every time he made a sudden turn, the other did the same. He tried to run up a build or curve back around halfway up and the other moved at the same time. It was like trying to escape his shadow.

"I am so done with this!" He roared before skidding to a stop and spinning his tail around, trying to slam it into the clone. Said clone was able grab his tail and spin on the spot, causing XLR8 to be pulled around before he was sent flying.

"WOW!" He cried as he flew into a nearby alleyway and crashed through some trash cans, making a big mess as he rolled along the ground and finally came to a stop. "Ow." He pushed himself up as his clone moved towards him, the alien trying to think of a plan. But before he could, the Omnitrix started beeping. "Not now!" In a flash, he reverted back to his human form. "No, no, no, no!" He cried, shuffling backwards as his copy moved forward.

"Looks like your time's up." He raised his claws and shot forward, ready to stab Flash in the chest. But when it was inches away, he suddenly exploded into particles of light.

Flash panted as he lay back, catching his breath as he was barely able to believe what had just happened. He had almost been killed by himself. "This takes self loathing to a whole other level." As he said that, he heard his phone ringing and pulled it out to see it was Shining Armor.

"Hey," he answered, "guess you're calling about the bank robbery. The guy got away." He listened and sighed, "it's not like I let him escape. And I did manage to get most of the money he would have left with away from him. You'll find it on the roof of a building near the bank. I'll text you the address. But listen, this guy's not your ordinary crook." He listened again and nodded, "so you've already heard. Okay. I'll meet you when you're done with the scene. Maybe we can figure out who the heck this is." With that, he hung up and sighed whilst laying back on the ground.

XLR8 didn't get tired, but a lot of his power could wear on Flash when he turned back to normal.

In an unknown location, the man was driving his van and keeping as low a profile as he could. Pulling into a back alley behind a building, he pulled to a stop and looked back at the single dufflebag of cash he had managed to obtain.

"Ahhh," he groaned as he picked the bag up and exited the vehicle. "This won't be nearly enough." He slammed the door shut and locked it before moving over to the doorway to the building he had parked behind. Several locks were in place on the door, the man taking several minutes to undo them all and finally step inside before locking them back up. "Honey, I'm home." He chuckled to himself as he stepped into the room, hitting a switch on the wall that illuminated the entire place.

The room was a fusion of a lab and a living room, but the entire place looked like someone had left a weed whacker on and threw it to the ground. The lab area had many pieces of machinery that were half destroyed, with beakers and other science equipment scattered around and broken. Meanwhile, the living room section had many takeaway tubes scattered around the place and the TV in the corner had its screen kicked in. All in all, it looked like the kind of place someone living a not so great life would live.

The man threw the dufflebag onto the couch before carefully taking off the strange device and shield, placing them both in the lab area and beginning to inspect the device. "Looks like the power cells are holding," he smirked before frowning. "Now if only I can get the constructs to become stable. I know it's possible but I just need more power."

He shut the device and moved over to a door that had just as many padlocks as the front door, the man reaching to open a small slot in the door that allowed him to look inside. "I'm happy to report the machine is nearly complete, though I guess you don't see that as good news. I'm just missing a few key parts and I'm sure once I have enough money to get them, we'll be able to complete our work." Movement could be heard inside the room, the sounds of rattling chains and moans filling the air.

The man laughed before closing the slot, the sound becoming muffled out. He moved over to the dufflebag and took out all the money. Most of it were hundred dollar bills, the man quickly counting them all. Once he was done, he totalled a little over thirty five thousand dollars.

"Still not enough," he sighed before looking over at the machine. He had been lucky the first robbery had been as successful as it was, especially with those aliens on the loose. Could he really risk trying for a second theft?

As soon as Flash had recovered from his race, he had headed over to Sugarcube Corner.

Trixie had been there and when he arrived, he quickly sat down next to her as she went to get him a drink. Once she returned, he explained everything that happened. "He created another you?"

"Yup," he nodded before taking a sip. "This guy didn't just look like me. He acted liked me, thought like me and could use his alien form as well as me. There was nothing I had the edge over him on."

"That's nuts," she frowned. "How can something like that be possible?" She looked around, then leaned forward. "You think this might have something to do with Equestrian Magic? Maybe that shield's an Equestrian Relic that was sent here and he found it."

Flash frowned as he thought about this, "it's possible. But that shield didn't seem all that magical. But we should probably tell Twilight and the others about it."

"Tell us about what?" He jumped and looked around to see Twilight, Sunset, Pinkie and Fluttershy standing next to him.

"How long have you guys been there?" Trixie asked, fearing they might have heard Flash talk about his alien forms.

"We just arrived," Sunset told her. "We saw you, but didn't want to interrupt...whatever you guys were doing. But then I thought I heard you say something about Equestrian Magic." She frowned, clearly wanting to know why they were discussing her world's rogue magic.

Trixie and Flash tried to think of a way to explain it, but then Trixie noticed something playing on the wall TV. "Look!" She pointed at it and they all looked around to see a news report on the bank robbery. First it showed the surveillance camera footage inside the bank, then changed to a street image that was taken from a camera across the street. "That's what we were talking about. Flash was there."

"You were?" Twilight asked, the girls looking worried.

"I wasn't there exactly," Flash fibbed. "I just happened to be walking down that street when it happened. But watch." They returned their attention to the screen as XLR8 appeared, the girls being surprised when they saw the second alien appear. "Do you think that could have been Equestrian Magic?"

Sunset frowned as she watched, but clearly wasn't sure. "I don't know. It's possible that's an Equestrian Artifact, but I've never heard of a mirror that can create duplicates of others. Cloning magic like that's a highly complicated piece of spellwork and it requires a piece of the person's DNA. I don't think something like that could simply create an exact copy like that."

"It looks like the shield is just a receiver," Twilight guessed after pushing her glasses up. "The device on his back is what created the clone, so I'm guessing whatever it is uses the reflection as a blueprint for the machine to create the copy."

"That sounds even more impossible," Pinkie frowned. "I thought making clones and goofy stuff like that was all science fiction. Though I guess magic used to seem just as impossible. Aliens too." She bopped herself on the head, "silly me." They continued to stare at the TV, as the news froze on an image of the man's face.

This caused Twilight to acquire a funny look, the girl moving closer to the screen. "You okay Twi?" Sunset asked, but Twilight just kept looking at the screen.

"I...I know him?" That was a surprise, the lot of them giving her a shocked look. "I know who that is."

"Who?" Flash asked, wondering how Twilight could know such a hardened criminal.

"He's a scientist. He hasn't had many great accomplishments, but he's well known in several scientific fields. Doctor Positine. He's known to be rather reclusive, but has designed several interesting theories that have become the groundwork to even nobel prize winning theories."

"Do you know if he's got any criminal history?" Flash asked, with Twilight shaking her head.

"As far as I've heard, he's never even gotten a parking ticket. His signature research topic is energy and the different types that have yet to be discovered. The Magic Scanner I used back in the Friendship Games was based on technology he designed."

"Shining Armor will wanna hear about this," Trixie pointed out. "He's on this case, so you should call and tell him."

Twilight nodded and took out his phone, getting through to him and explaining what she had just told them. A few moments later, she nodded. "Okay, I'll meet you there as soon as I can." She hung up and turned to the others. "I'm gonna go talk to him. He's got some info he thinks I might be able to help with."

"Isn't it against the law to show evidence like that to a civilian?" Fluttershy asked.

Twilight shrugged, "he thinks this might be Equestrian Magic as well. You guys should stay on alert in case that man shows up again." They nodded and Twilight headed for the door, only for Flash to step up besides her.

"Why don't I give you a ride. I'm interested in seeing what Shining has as well." Twilight frowned at this, but eventually nodded. Trixie went with them, calling shotgun before they even reached the car. When they got inside, Twilight gave Flash the address and they drove off to a diner not to far from Shining's police precinct.

The man was already there, going through a bunch of files and having a laptop open on the table as well. "Twilight," he smiled before noticing Flash and Trixie. "What are you guys doing here?"

"Giving Twilight a lift," Flash replied. "plus it gives me a chance to learn about the guy I saw earlier." Shining looked worried at him, clearly fearing Twilight might figure out his alien secret. But when Twilight wasn't looking, Flash mouthed. "I told Twilight I was a witness to the crime." Shining nodded, having learned to read lips to help with stakeouts his first year on the force.

"Alright Twilight," he pushed a laptop towards her. "Tell me everything you know about this Positine guy. He's a legal blackspot with not a single record against him. I get the feeling he hasn't even littered before with how squeaky clean he is." Twilight nodded and started typing away at the computer, bringing up several scientific articles. About his small but respectable accomplishments. He was born in the United Kingdom, studied at Cambridge and received his doctorate before he was aged twenty-one. He had travelled to multiple different countries working with some of the top scientists in the world before moving to the states and working on something special several years ago. It was just as Shining had said, he was the perfect law abiding citizen.

"Okay," Trixie frowned, "so how does a guy like that go from geek to crook?" Twilight frowned at her calling him a geek, but knew it was a good question. As she thought about it, Shining's phone beeped at a text he had received.

"Well there's no denying it," he stated. "The lab just confirmed facial recognition on Positine based on the image captured by the security camera compared to his last public address. It's him alright."

"Do they have an address?" Flash asked, Shining nodding but stating there hadn't been any confirmation that he still lived there in three months. "Maybe we should check it out? Even if he isn't there, we might find something that'll lead us too him."

"We?" Twilight asked, clearly wondering why Flash and Trixie would come along. "No offence guys, but this guy's dangerous. If he really is using Equestrian Magic, you guys being there wouldn't be good."

"And who was it that figured out how to save you all at Flurry's birthday?" Trixie asked, smirking as Twilight frowned.

Flash and Shining shared a look, Shining obviously wanting to bring Flash but knowing Twilight being there would make it difficult for him to transform. "I still think you guys should stay here," Twilight stated. "It's not safe and if Shining's boss finds out he brought a bunch of kids with him to a crime scene, he could get in serious trouble."

"Twilight's right," Shining nodded before getting up. "I'll just take her with me. You guys just do whatever it is you'd normally do around now." He paid for the drink he had just finished and headed off after collecting the files and his laptop, Twilight going with him whilst Flash and Trixie sighed.

"Great," Flash moaned, "now what do we do?"

"Wanna see if there's any good movies?" Trixie replied before Flash got a text, the teen looking it over and being surprised to see it was from Shining. "What did he send?" Trixie asked, with Flash smirking.

Twilight and Shining had driven across town and it was getting pretty late in the day, the sun growing closer and closer to kissing the horizon as they found the area they were looking for.

"This is it," Shining pulled into an alleyway down the street from the one they were looking for so as to not draw attention to themselves. They quickly made their way over to the building with the address and moved around behind it, stepping into the alleyway and not seeing anything of note. "Flash said he saw Positine escape in a white van." As he said that, he noticed a patch of dirt hidden in the shadow of he building. Said dirt had tire tracks in it, the cop taking a closer look and smiling. "These are the types of tracks made by the van Flash described."

"So Positine is here?"

"That doesn't prove anything," Shining stated. "And even if it did, it means Positine either fled or is out causing more problems."

"Which means he won't be around to stop us from taking a look inside," Twilight smiled as she moved over to the door and saw all the locks on it. She quickly used her magic to undo them all, Shining taking out his gun in case Positine actually was inside and attacked.

Twilight slowly opened the door and looked around, seeing the messy state the place was in. "Geez," Shining frowned as he picked up a takeout container full of very old noodles. "I guess his hygiene went the same was as his law abiding skills."

Twilight moved over to the lab, staring at all the equipment and wondering what he was working on in it. She found a bunch of files and saw there was multiple papers talking about one single theory. "Molecular Energy Printing?"

"What?"

"It's a theory that many scientists have tried to prove, but have had very little success. It's theorised that every atom in existence is held together by a special kind of energy. Like a magnet that connects two pieces of metal together. Scientists believe that if someone can find a way to access this energy, they can use it to make practically anything out of thin air."

"Anything?" Shining asked.

"Yup." Twilight realised what this meant, "including aliens and people. Positine's figured out how to do it." She frowned, "this could have made him a millionaire. Why would he throw all that away to rob a bank?"

"Who knows," Shining shrugged as they heard a sound coming from outside. It sounded like a trashcan being knocked over, causing the siblings to go on alert with Shining reaching for his gun once again. They turned towards the doorway and prepared for anything, only to then hear a voice they recognised.

"You ever hear about being sneaky?" That was Flash's voice.

"Trixie doesn't do low key."

"Obviously." In that moment, Flash appeared and the doorway with Trixie behind him. "Hey."

"What are you doing here?" Twilight looked horrified, as Flash stepped into the room. "How'd you even find this place. Did you follow us?"

"No," Trixie moved over to the living room, "but we have our ways."

"You weren't supposed to actually come in," Shining whispered to Flash. "I figured you'd stay outside and only interfere in things go bad."

"Oh," Flash looked sheepish. "Sorry." Shining rolled his eyes and as he did, they suddenly heard something coming from the next room. "What was that?"

Shining turned to the door and listened closely, also noticing the many locks on this door. The sound of chains rattling filled the air, along with what appeared to be moans. "Twilight." The girl nodded and used her magic to grab the many locks and undo them, Shining aiming his gun as he stepped in front of the door. He nodded and Twilight opened the door, Shining darting in and seeing it was some kind of bedroom.

It was just as much of a mess as the rest of the place and in the centre of it, chained to a bed with a tie gagging him, was Positine.

"What the?" The others came in and gasped when they saw him, Twilight moving over to unchain him. "Don't you make a move," Shining explained as Twilight pulled out his gag. "Try anything and I'll shoot."

"You don't understand," Positine explained. "I'm not the one you're after." Flash took a closer look and when he did, he noticed something about Positine that was different from the last time he saw him.

"His eyes are a different colour." Shining gave him a confused look, then stared back at Positine and noticed his eyes were blue instead of the gray he had seen in the footage.

"Could have worn contacts," Shining pointed out.

"I'm not the one you're after," Positine repeated. "I know how this looks, but you have to believe me. My face has been stolen and is being used to ruin my good name." The four shared a look, not sure if they should believe him.

"Why don't you start from the beginning," Twilight told him. Positine nodded as Twilight undid the shackles holding him.

"It all started two weeks ago, during that big thunder storm." They nodded, remembering said storm. It had been a real doozy. "I was working on a device that would have won me the nobel prize. A way to end the need for transplant lists and saving hundreds of lives. I created a device that could take the imagine of an object and create an exact copy of it using molecular energy printing. I was getting close to a breakthrough when it happened."

Two weeks ago.

Thunder boomed and lightning flashed outside, as Positine was working on his device. It was a large fridge-sized device with an metal arm that had a satellite on it, with a wire connecting it to the mirror shield. Positine wheeled it over to another section of the lab, all the while being careful not to pull on any of the wires connecting it to the mains.

"Alright," he smiled as he shut the device and picked up the shield. He then turned towards the table, where a single sausage could be seen. "Beginning test one oh four." He activated the device and pointed the shield at the sausage, the image becoming locked on within the reflection.

This caused the device to power up as the information from the shield was transmitted into it, the energy beginning to spark around the satellite. After a few seconds, the energy exploded off and hit the table next to the sausage. A few moments later, something appeared within the energy. A second, identical, sausage.

"It works!" He laughed as he switched off the machine and inspected his creation, seeing it looked exactly like the original. But then he smelled it, causing him to gag at the foul stench it was giving off. He almost threw up and quickly pulled out a knife to cut it open, finding the inside was full of mold.

He wasn't sure what the heck had gone wrong, cutting open the other sausage to see if it was moldy. But it wasn't. And even stranger was the second sausage suddenly vanished, transforming into wisps of light that quickly faded.

"What happened?" He asked, looking over at the machine and staring at the mirror. But as he did, something that would change his life forever happened.

A massive boom filled the air and a blinding light exploded, as every electrical device in the room went haywire. This included his machine, which sparked and had parts explode but began to power up. Positine gasped at this and looked down at the mirror, which continued to show his face in the reflection.

The next thing Positine knew, he was being thrown against the room and smashed into the wall. As he fell to the ground the machine kept powering up before the satellite unleashed a massive burst of energy that struck the ground.

As Positine recovered and opened his eyes, he saw a figure appear before him. Himself.

The second Positine turned towards him, his face hard and his grey eyes glaring down at him. Positine quickly realised he was looking at every bad part of himself, the pure opposite of who he truly was.

"I don't know why, but the machine somehow creates a copy of the original that's the exact opposite personality wise." Positine rubbed his wrists as he sat up. "The clone was pure evil. All the darkness hidden within me, given flesh. I honestly don't know how it happened."

"Maybe because you used a mirror," Trixie guessed with the others turning to her in confusion. "If the machines were using the reflections as the blueprint to create them, it was using a blueprint that's the exact opposite of the person. After all, a reflection is pretty much the opposite of the original." The others didn't seen to buy that, "well you come up with a better reason for him being evil."

"It doesn't matter why he's evil," Twilight stated. "This other Positine is bad news and he needs to be stopped."

"Negatine." They turned to Positine, "that's what he wants to be called. Negatine." That confused them more than anything else that had happened so far, as Flash remembered something.

"You said the sausage you cloned vanished after a minute or so. The fakes...Negatine created disappeared after about five. So if this guy was made two weeks ago, how is he still around?"

"I've also wondered that," Positine frowned. "My best bet is that the lightning supercharged the energy that created him, allowing his physical structure to stabilize. He's now as real as you or me."

Trixie frowned. "So instead of being your evil clone, he's more like your evil twin."

"And he's just the first of many." The five of them gasped and turned towards the doorway, where Negatine could be seen standing there with the device on his back. "Hello there. If I'd known I was going to have guests, I'd have prepared snacks." Shining held up his gun but Negatine was faster, capturing the four of them in his shield's reflection.

The machine kicked into gear and unleashed the energy, Negatine leaping back as it hit the ground and began forming the four individuals. In the blink of an eye, grey-eyed versions of Flash, Trixie, Shining and Twilight stood before them.

Twilight's clone acted before the rest of them could, holding up her hands as they glowed purple. The real Twilight gasped as she realised her clone had her powers, only to suddenly feel her body going stiff. The others also felt themselves get stuck in place, unable to move a muscle with their arms moving down to their sides.

Positine was then pulled towards Negatine, who frowned at him before instructing Flash to grab some rob from the lab. "Guess I'll have to find another place to hide. Luckily, I managed to find someone who's willing to sell me the power cell I need to complete the machine." Flash returned with the rope and quickly tied Positine up.

As this was happening, Twilight was taking several deep breaths and focusing. She managed to connect to her geode and in doing so, her own hands began to glow and the light spread to the rest of her. "Huh?" Her clone asked as she noticed this, but not in time to stop Twilight from unleashing a magic wave that cancelled hers out. "What?"

Negatine saw this and was shocked to see the others now free, with Shining being the first to react. He leapt at his clone and tackled him to the ground, Trixie and Flash following close behind with Twilight and her clone beginning to magical fight. Negatine pulled Positine to the back of the room as they watched the four struggle against their lookalikes.

Flash frowned as his clone pushed him away, the teen staggering towards the door. As he did, he realised he had an opening. "It's a little crowded in here." He ran towards the door, "let's take this outside!"

"Get him!" Negatine ordered, with Flash's clone rushing after the original whilst the others continued their struggle.

As soon as Flash was outside and out of Twilight's view, he stopped running. His clone stopped with him and smirked, "realised you can't escape?"

"Nope," Flash turned to him, "now I can fight back properly." He activated the Omnitrix and cycled through his aliens before slamming it down, a bright flash of green light blinding his clone for a second before it faded to reveal his new form.

"What the heck?" His clone asked, staring at the humanoid rhino that now towered above him. "How...how'd you do that?" Riot-Horn smirked before leaping forward with his fist raised, "WAIT!" But Riot-Horn slammed his fist down on him and he exploded into a million tiny pieces of light, the alien standing up and clapping his hands together.

"Accept no substitute," he chuckled before turning back to the building. As he did, he spotted Negatine pulling Positine out of it. "HEY!" He roared, charging forward as the two men turned to see him.

"What?" Positine gasped seeing the alien rushing towards him, whilst Negatine frowned.

"Another of those aliens," he growled before a smirk appeared on his face. "No matter." He pushed Positine in front of him, causing Riot-Horn to slide to a stop before he could hurt him. Negatine then pointed his shield at Riot-Horn, catching him in its reflection. "Gotcha!" The decide on his back activated and unleashed the energy, which flew over Positine and struck the ground in front of Riot-Horn.

"No!" He cried as an exact copy of him, with the grey eyes, stared back at him.

"Have fun with your new friend," Negatine smirked as he pulled Positine away. Riot-Horn tried to go after him, but he was quickly tackled by his clone.

"Augh!" He cried as he was pushed backwards, his copy attacking him like a football player. Before either of them could slam into something, Riot-Horn thrust his legs back into the ground and ripped it up as they slowed to a stop. He then raised his fists and swung them both downwards into his copy's back, fake Riot-Horn crying out as he was sent into the floor hard enough to shake it.

Riot-Horn attempted to jump over him and rush over to Negatine, who had just thrown Positine into the back of a white van, but his clone quickly rolled to his side and grabbed him by the foot. "WOW!" He roared as he was thrown to the ground, but kicked his feet out of his copy's grasp and rolled away. Both aliens quickly got onto their feet and glared one another down, their fists quickly getting covered by the hard round shell that came out of their wrists.

They rushed forward and threw a punch at one another, the fists colliding with a perfectly equal force that sent out a shockwave. Windows all around them shattered, both aliens pulling away from one another and throwing another punch that had the same equal force.

One after another, the pair traded blows but couldn't land a single one on each other. Every strike was either deflected, blocked or dodged. "Raaah!" Riot-Horn slammed his fist into the ground, causing a pavement around him to explode.

"Raaah!" His fake smashed both his fists into the ground and created a shockwave that deflected Riot-Horn's attack, then charged forward with a fist pulled back. Riot-Horn duck under the punch and threw his own into its chest, the fake flinching as he was knocked back.

The pair continued to trade blows with one another for several minutes, Riot-Horn managing to keep his clone from doing any collateral damage. Eventually, both aliens panted as they stared one another down. They then charged and let out might roars before throwing a punch at each other. But just as their fists connected, the fake Riot-Horn exploded into a million tiny pieces.

Threat gone, Riot-Horn sighed in relief. "Flash?" He then heard Twilight call out from inside, the alien realising her clone must have vanished as well.

He rushed over to and around a corner, looking out the alleyway and seeing the main street with nobody walking passed to see him. He looked down at the Omnitrix, really wishing this thing came with an off button as he heard Twilight's voice call out again.

"Flash, are you out here?" He then heard her gasping, "what happened out here?"

"Come on!" Riot-Horn began tapping the dial, "turn back turn back turn back!" It was then that the Omnitrix started beeping, Riot-Horn letting out a sigh before also hearing footsteps approaching his direction. A green flash filled the alley seconds before Twilight stepped around the corner, seeing Flash leaning against the wall.

"Are you okay?" She asked, Flash nodding back.

"I'm fine. Just a little winded after fighting...myself."

"What was that noise before?" She frowned, looking around. "I heard a weird beeping and I thought I saw a green light appear." Flash tried to think, saying the first insane thing that came to mind.

"Yeah, I heard that beeping too. I think it was somebody's car as they drove passed. And the green light was...the sunset. You've heard of the green flash, right?" Twilight frowned as she turned to the sun, which was still setting. From what she knew of the green flash, it happened in the last moments before the sun completely vanished.

"Okay...well what happened out here?" She pointed the the half destroyed back alley, Flash thinking fast and deciding to simply tell her the truth...mostly.

"An alien showed up!" Flash announced, "Riot-Horn. He tried to stop Negatine and got copied. They fought against one another and the copy eventually vanished." Twilight looked shocked by this and then frowned.

"Then he left?" Flash nodded. "Of course he did. Well, do you know where Positine and Negatine went?" Flash frowned.

"Negatine threw Positine into the back of his van and drove off." Twilight sighed at this, but nodded.

"We have to find them." She rushed back into the building and Flash followed behind, the pair finding Shining and Trixie looking through the documents.

"They're nowhere to be found, right?" Shining asked as the pair nodded. "Thought so. Let's hope something here can tell us where they went." They continued rifling through the papers, but only Twilight understood what it all meant. The rest could have been reading latin for all they knew.

"There's nothing here!" Trixie cried.

"We have to find where they're going," Flash stated. "You heard what Negatine said. He's gonna get the part he needs to complete his machine. If that happens, he'll be able to make a bunch of copies that are as real as he is." They all frowned at this, not like the sound of that at all. "Twilight, you know more about Positine than anybody. You must have some idea where he would go to hide."

Twilight sighed and began rubbing her temples, trying to think of the answer they seeked. Then, a thought slowly popped into her head. "There...there is an old lab on the outskirts of town. It was abandoned a few years ago but it might have the equipment Negatine needs to add the power cell to the device."

"It's as good a place to start as any," Shining stated before heading for the door. They followed him and all rushed to Shining's police cruiser, Twilight typing the address into the satnav. As they drove, Shining sent a call into his precinct. "All units, I need backup at the following address. Possible location of the assailant who robbed the back this afternoon. I need as many officers as can be spared to apprehend the suspect." The person on the other line acknowledged this request and confirmed the backup would be on its way. "Let's just hope we get there in time."

Over at the lab Twilight had talked about, Negatine's van pulled up to it as several black cars arrived.

Negatine got out of the van with his device on as suited individuals got out of the cars, the two groups moving over to one another. "You have them?" Negatine asked, the men nodding before one stepped forward with a briefcase. He opened it up to reveal a bunch of strange looking tubes made of metal and glass that had a red light flowing out of the glass parts.

"You have the money?" The man asked, Negatine holding up the dufflebag.

"Now before we do this," Negatine raised his shield and caught each of them in its reflection. The men were shocked when the device powered up and shot the energy around Negatine, each of them pulling out a gun. But they stopped when they saw copies of themselves standing before them. "Sorry for the shock, but I needed backup in case you decided to double cross me."

"How is this possible?" The man asked, but Negatine just threw the dufflebag at him and he was barely able to catch it. Negatine then pulled the briefcase out of his hands and walked towards the building.

"You have your money. Now leave before my new friends do something you won't like." The men frowned, but nodded and returned to their cars. They drove off and Negatine told the other clones to get Positine and bring him in. Once the professor was dragged out of the van, they made their way into the building. It was filled with many stairs and different rooms, the lot marching their way through it. "Here it is." Negatine pushed open the doors to the lab right as the other clones vanished.

The place was a big open area which had once held a bunch of valuable equipment. Now all that machinery was gone but some more devices were still there. Several doors could be seen surrounding the place and on the far side, a large workbench was just sitting there waiting to be used.

"Alright," Negatine pushed Positine towards the bench. He then took off the device's backpack and started plugging it into the walls. The place was abandoned, but the power was still there and could keep the machine going whilst he installed the power cells. "Now, you're gonna help me complete your greatest creation."

"Why would I do that?" Positine asked, only for Negatine to take a knife out of his jacket and show it to him. Positine frowned, wondering if he could take his clone. But before he could try, Negatine raised the shield and the device powered up. "You wouldn't." He did. A burst of energy from the plugged in machine hit the ground behind him and began to form a new person, a perfect copy of Positine now standing there with a frown.

"Do it, or we'll figure it out without you." Positine sighed, but knew he had no choice. Negatine put the briefcase down and the three began to work.

As Shining's car drew closer to the lab, Twilight was on his laptop trying to hack into the building's security system.

"Anything?" He asked as his sister kept typing away, but the security system had gone offline and she would need to do some serious rerouting to get it working again.

"Sorry," she frowned, "it's not working." She then noticed something, "but I was able to hack into the power grid. The building's started drawing a lot of power from it."

"Negatine must be working on his machine," Flash frowned. "If he gets that power cell locked in, nothing's gonna be able to stop him." They finally reached the lab and as they pulled up next to it, Trixie noticed a flash of light coming from a third story window.

"Up there!" She cried, pointing to it. The others saw it and nodded before getting out of the car. They ran inside and as they did, a bunch of sirens filled the air. They looked back and saw several police vans racing up the hill, the four of them not stopping in case they were close to completing the machine.

They rushed up the stairs and as they reached the third floor, they heard sounds coming from a nearby room. Shining pulled out his gun and kicked the door in, surprising the occupants as Shining aimed his gun at Negatine.

But the man grabbed his twin and pulled him in front, treating him like a human shield. "Don't even think about it!" As he said this, the other Positine lifted up the shield.

Flash leapt behind some boxes as the other three were caught in the reflection, the device powering up and unleashing the energy. In a flash, Shining, Twilight and Trixie were facing their lookalikes and the clones charged. The three began fighting with the Twilights using their magic to try and grab hold of each other. Trixie and her clone were trying to strangle each other whilst Shining was wrestling with his clone for the gun.

Flash tried to think of a way to sneak towards Negatine and grab him, but he couldn't think of a way to get to him without getting cloned. It was then he heard many more footsteps coming up behind him, Flash realising the police SWAT team were there. He quickly opened a nearby door, deciding to duck out and find a way to help without anyone seeing.

As he did, a few dozen police officers rushed into the room carrying guns and other weapons. "Freeze!" They cried as they spotted Negatine, then noticed Shining, Twilight and Trixie fighting themselves. This was all the distraction Negatine needed and he quickly raised his shield, catching the SWAT team in its reflection before the machine unleashed the energy.

In the blink of an eye, the SWAT team were cloned and soon a full on riot broke out in the lab with the clones doing everything they could to protect Negatine and the two Positine. As the clone of the scientist disappeared, they managed to implant half the needed power cells.

Twilight saw this and tried to pull the machine away from them, but her clone actually leapt onto her back and tried to strangle her. Twilight gagged as she tried to throw the fake off of her, but the clone suddenly transformed into her pony form. Before Twilight could do the same, she was pulled into the air and thrown through a doorway.

"Twilight!" Shining cried as he saw this, though he wasn't sure if he had seen his sister or her clone be thrown. Either way, the other one flew after her and they both vanished. "Flash," he growled as he pushed his clone away, "you better figure out a way to end this."

Flash was three rooms away from battle and once he was clear, he slammed the door shut and tried to get his breathing under control.

As he did, he looked down at his watch and activated it. Cycling through his aliens, he tried to think of which alien could best stop that psychopath. "XLR8?" He stared at that silhouette for a moment, "maybe if I'm fast enough I can grab the mirror before he can reflect me." But then he sighed, "but if he gets me I'll have to deal with another super speed opponent." He flicked to Riot-Horn, but knew Negatine would definitely be able to copy him if he did that. Molestache was a possibility, but again he was still dealing with the issue of how to avoid getting copied.

"Ahhh!" He eventually cried, feeling rather annoyed at how hard picking an alien was. "Damn it. Any way I look at this, going alien is just gonna make things worse. As long as he can get a reflection of me-" It was then that he stopped, realising the answer had been obvious from the very beginning. "That's it." He cycled through his aliens until he found it, "you're my only hope." With that, he slammed the dial down and the room was filled with light.

Back in the lab, Positine added the final powercell.

"There," he sighed before unplugging the machine, "it's done. The clones you create from now on will now be supercharged like you, making them as real as the original."

"Excellent," Negatine smirked as he looked over the device. He nodded seeing nothing that told him Positine had sabotaged it, so turned to his brother. "Thank you for this. You've just helped bring new about a new age. The age of clones." He pushed Positine away and the scientist tripped into a bunch of materials, whilst Negatine began to put the device on. "Now," he looked around, "who should I copy first?" He spotted Shining Armor still fighting his clone and knew the fake wouldn't last much longer.

He thought about copying him, but then remembered that strange girl. "Yes, I'll need to make a copy of her more then anyone. Now, where is she?" But before he could even attempt to look for her, something happened that he never saw coming.

"Augh!" He cried as he suddenly found himself getting punched in the face, making him stagger back before regaining his footing and looking around. "Who did that?" He raised his shield, but couldn't see anything. "Where are you?"

"Right in front of you," a voice replied before he felt a presence leap towards him. He was suddenly tackled and thrown to the ground, Negatine feeling a pressure on his chest that quickly leapt off it.

As this happened, Shining and Trixie's clones vanished and the pair were able to stop fighting. They looked around and spotted Negatine on the ground, both wondering what had happened. That was until they saw something appear on the ceiling. "Chamalien!" Trixie cheered as the alien lizard smirked down at Negatine from his spot on the roof, having just made himself visible to glare at the criminal.

"Another one?" Negatine asked before grabbing his shield, "then you can be the first to add yourself to my collection." He pointed his shield at Chamalien but before he could reflect and copy him, the lizard vanished. "Where'd he go?"

"I'm still here!" Chamalien's voice replied before the alien leapt down on the roof, Negatine having rolled away from where he had been and accidently dodging the attack. "You can't copy me if your shield has nothing to reflect!"

"Damn you!" Negatine growled before getting punched in the face and sent staggering, the reflection regaining his balance and swinging his fist to try and punch back. But all he hit was air and he quickly felt his legs being swept by Chamalien's tail. "Ahhh!" He groaned as he sat himself up, still trying to capture Chamalien in his shield's reflection. "Stop this. Come out and fight like a man!"

"Gladly!" Chamalien's voice replied, "once you do the same and get rid of that shield." Negatine growled at this, whilst more of the clones started vanishing.

In a stairwell, Twilight was fighting her clone using whatever came to hand with their magic.

Fake-Twilight pulled a fire extinguisher off the wall and threw it, but Twilight caught it half-way towards her before moving the nozzle and pulling the lever. "Ahhh!" Her clone cried as she staggered backwards, moving towards the top of the stairs leading down.

Twilight then had an idea and dropped the extinguisher, then grabbed Fake-Twilight's shoes and pulled them towards her. This made her clone scream as she fell backwards, beginning to roll down the stairs several times. Twilight rushed to the top and saw her clone fall to the bottom of the stairs, vanishing as she did so and letting the girl sigh. But she didn't have any time to celebrate and rushd back the way she and her clone had fought.

As she got closer, the sounds of battle were getting quieter and quieter. She then pushed through the doorway and what she saw amazed her.

"Augh!" Negatine cried as he was punched by an invisible force, then had his hood pulled down over his head before receiving a wedgie. "AYYYYY!" He squealed, only to get kicked in the butt and sent falling forwards. Twilight couldn't help but laugh, then notice several police officers were starting to fade away.

"Whatever's doing this, they need to hurry up and stop him before he makes any more minions." It seems Negatine had the same idea, as he noticed Twilight.

"Fine!" He yelled, holding up his shield and pointing it at Twilight. "I'll just have her be my first minion!" As the reflection of Twilight began to form, the girl gasped believing she was about to have a permanent evil twin. But before the device could activate, a loud whipping sound filled the air that was followed by the sound of shattering glass.

Said glass sound came from the shield, which shockingly exploded as something nobody was able to see seemed to stab it. That something quickly became visible and revealed itself to be Chamalien, who had used his tail spike to break the glass and send it flying in every direction.

"Gotcha!" He smirked, retracting his tail blade before leaping up and swinging a leg around to kick the shield out of Negatine's hand. The wires connecting it to the machine snapped as Negatine staggered back, whilst the rest of the clones all faded away.

"No!" He cried, quickly rushing forward and attempting to punch Chamalien. But it was clear that without his army, this criminal was no real threat and Chamalien quickly ducked under the punch before throwing his own right into Negatine's gut. "Gyah!" He was knocked backwards and as he tried to regain his balance, Shining Armor rushed forward and tackled him to the ground.

"You're under arrest!" The cop quickly cuffed his hands behind his back as the rest of the police force rushed into action, whilst Chamalien made himself invisible and rushed towards the nearest exit. Twilight tried to keep track of him, managing to notice a few shifts in the area that Chamalien was mimicking, but eventually she lost sight of him.

"There they go again," she sighed as Shining pulled Negatine to his feet. "Saving the day and disappearing before anyone can thank them." It was then she noticed someone was missing, worrying filling her as she looked around. "Wait, where's Flash?"

Shining and Trixie heard this and frowned, knowing Flash likely had a good few minutes left before turning back to normal. "I saw him run off to try and escape his double," Shining explained whilst Negatine looked confused. "I'm sure he's around here somewhere. Probably got lost after his double faded."

"I never made a double of that boy," Negatine exclaimed as the other police officers dragged him away.

"Sure you did. You made so many doubles, are you really surprised you lost track of them all." Negatine still looked confused, as he was pulled away by the rest of the police force. Shining moved over to Positine, who was staring down at the destroyed remains of his shield. "You okay?"

The doctor picked the shattered mirror up, a single shard remaining in it that reflected his face. But all he could see was Negatine's face staring back at him. He then pulled the shard out and tossed it to the ground, the glass shattering as he put the shield down on the table so the police could take it as evidence.

"That's your life's work," Twilight told him.

"And it almost caused a lot of harm," Positine pointed out. "Maybe the world just isn't ready for this kind of technology. I can write a paper on it and explain how it works, but I will never attempt to rebuild this machine. It's just too dangerous."

Twilight sighed, but nodded. Maybe he was right.

A few minutes later, the police threw Negatine into the police van and began to drive away. As they did, Twilight, Shining, Trixie and Positine stepped out of the building. The police had dropped all charges against Positine, but they still wanted a statement about what the heck happened. Positine was happy to come down to the station and give that statement, so there they were stepping out of the building.

When they did, they spotted Flash off at the side waiting for them. "Where did you get to?" Twilight asked him, the teen smirking.

"Things were getting a bit too crowded in there for me, so I managed to maneuver my double into another room. I tried to go back in when the clone vanished, but everything was so hectic. So what I miss?"

"One of those aliens appeared," Twilight smiled. "It was Chamalien and they were able to stop Negatine because he couldn't copy something invisible."

"Cool," Flash smirked before looking up at the night sky, "we don't have to go to the station and give a statement do we? I don't think my parents would appreciate me being out that late or getting tangled up with the cops." The others laughed and Shining told them he would give them all a lift home.

Positine was placed in the care of other officers and soon enough, Shining was driving them all back into the city. "You think Positine is right?" Twilight asked a few minutes into the drive.

"Right about what?" Flash asked.

"About some technologies being too much for the world to handle. All my life, I've dreamed about inventing something to improve the world by leaps and bounds. I thought I had it when I made my magic catcher, but look how that turned out. And now Positine's possible nobel winner turned his life into a nightmare. I mean, just imagine the most powerful device you can think of that could be used to change the world forever." The other three all thought about the same device, the one strapped onto Flash's wrist. "If it's used wrongly, it could change the world but in a bad way."

Flash thought about those worlds and realised Twilight was right. He used the Omnitrix for good, but he could easily use it for bad. Like robbing banks or even being an assassin. With the Omnitrix, who could stop him if he wanted too?

"You're thinking too narrow minded," Shining told him. "It's not a matter of whether the technology is evil. What matters is the person using it. Yes, Positine's device created evil copies. But that's only because it was used to copy good people. Imagine what would happen if someone used it on a criminal."

"You'd make a copy of them that's good," Trixie realised.

"Exactly. Technology isn't good or evil. It's just what you make of it. Maybe the world isn't ready for Positine's invention. Maybe it never will be. But the technology itself isn't what's the blame for that. It's the world."

"I guess you're right," Twilight nodded. "The world isn't perfect, but it's got enough good people in it that a machine like that doesn't have a place in it...yet. But I do hope one day Positine can find a way to use it the way he had intended to." The others all agreed and slowly fell into a comfortable silence. But as they did, Flash looked down at the watch and wondered something.

Flash had used the Omnitrix to become a hero and save people, but what was it originally designed for? Who had actually created it and what were they hoping to accomplish with its creation? Flash could only hope we would one day get to find out.

Author's Note

Well this was an interesting chapter. Hope you enjoyed it.

Season 1, Episode 8: Prehistoric Panic

Excitement filled the air inside the two Canterlot High Buses. Inside the lead bus, students were laughing and cheering as they watched the environment outside it fly by.

They were a good ways outside of Canterlot at that moment, having left from school at half six this morning. It was now almost ten o'clock and they were far far away from the city now, with many mansion sized rocks on either side of the road.

"Okay everyone," Principal Celestia stood up and looked back at the kids sitting in the bus. "We're getting close to our destination. Now, I want you to remember that this fieldtrip his happening thanks to the generosity of my old friend Ancient Bones. Usually, civilians wouldn't be allowed anywhere near an active digsite like this one. So please remember to be on your best behaviour and don't mess around. Is that understood?"

"Yes Principal Celestia," they all nodded.

As they continued down the road, those at the back of the bus continued speaking. "I can't wait!" Pinkie bounced up and down on her seat. "We get to see real life dinosaur bones!"

Twilight nodded as she pushed her glasses up. "Just think of it. These bones haven't been seen in over sixty-five million years and we'll get to be the first ones to actually see them."

"This is gonna be awesome!" Rainbow cheered, Fluttershy nodding as she sat next to her.

Flash and Trixie were also sitting with them, the pair just as excited to be on this trip. After all the insanity they had been going through, a normal adventure was just what they were hoping for. "Hey!" Trixie told them, "favourite dinosaur? Go!"

"Ooh," Pinkie smiled, "pachycephalosaurus. I like how they headbutt each other."

"You realise they didn't actually do that, right?" Twilight asked, "that was just something made up for a kids movie." Pinkie pouted, her expression screaming don't kill my dreams. "I'd have to go with the plesiosaurus. I guess all those years wondering if the Loch Ness Monster was real made me like them."

"Velociraptor," Rainbow smirked. "It was the fastest dino around."

"Well a'h like the carnotaurus," Applejack smirked. "Bet that beast was pretty strong."

"Who cares about the dinosaurs," Spike smirked. "Their bones all taste the same."

"I've never really thought about my favourite dinosaur," Rarity stated as she filed her nails. "But I guess an ankylosaurus knew the value of a good accessory. A strong shell and tail hammer. Now that's function and fashion."

"Parasaurolophus," Fluttershy then said. "I heard they sung to one another. It sounds beautiful." They turned to the last two, Sunset shrugging.

"I...never really thought about it. They don't have dinosaurs where I come from, so I guess I'll go with the obvious T-rex." They nodded at this before turning to Flash, who smirked.

"Therizinosaurus," he stated. Everyone except Twilight looked confused, "those things are mad cool. Super long claws that could probably slash through anything. I bet a T-rex would be pretty scared if it every ran into one of those." They continued to talk about dinos as the landscape began to change.

Slowly, the rocks began to have trees growing on and around them. First it was a few, then a couple, then a couple couples, then a lot and finally there was nothing but trees all around them. As this was going on, the buses pulled off the main road and onto a dirt path. After a few more minutes, they arrived at an area of wood devoid of trees that had many cars parked there.

When the buses stopped, Celestia told them to file out and remain outside the bus. They did so as the rest of their classes did the same with the other bus, Luna stepping out with them. As they did, someone stepped out of the woods. That someone was a man Celestia's age, with pale skin and light brown hair. He wore a brown buttoned up vest over a green shirt, dark brown pants, a brown beret and round glasses over his eyes.

"Hello there," the man smiled as he stepped up to them. "It's nice to meet you all. My name is Bones, Ancient Bones. Doctor of Paleontology and the leader of this dig. I'm sure you're all looking forward to this trip, aren't you?" They all nodded at this as the man smiled, seeing so many interested individuals. "I guess it's true. Doesn't matter how old you are, everyone loves dinosaurs. Now, follow me towards an adventure into the past."

With that, they all began to make their way into the forest. Completely unaware that there was great danger waiting for them.

In another section of the wooded cliffs, near an area that dropped into a wooded valley, three individuals had just stepped up a path from the valley.

The first was a man with green skin along with a brown beard and hair, wearing a black suit like outfit with a money-bag symbol on the chest pocket. The second was the shortest of the group, who had silver skin and yellow hair along with wearing a black leather jacket with a wind like image on the back. He also had brown leather pants and an earring in his right ear. The last man was the biggest of the group, bulky and heavyweight with gray skin and black hair. He was wearing a white vest with a boulder logo on the back and black pants.

The three individuals here all carrying large rucksacks on their backs. "Alright," the first man told the others, "you know what to do. We position these things in just the right place to cause a scene and scare the people away, allowing us to swoop in and grab the loot."

"Got it boss," the second man smirked as the third nodded. "But seriously, who's going to buy a bunch of old bones?"

"You'd be surprised how much a bunch of old bones goes for when sold to the right buyer," the man smirked. "Trust me. Big Score always has a nose for these types of things. Alright, Rickashay, you head that way. Boulder, you head the other. I'll head straight and we'll meet up on the far side of the digsite once everything is set up."

"Got it," Rickashay nodded before taking something out of his backpack. "Should we change into these now?" The something turned out to be an orange jacket and pants, with pickaxe symbols on the shoulders.

"Yes," Score nodded as he started to remove his jacket. He and Boulder took out their own orange clothing and within a few moments, the three were dressed into completely new attire. "Alright, break!" With that, they all headed in different directions. They all chuckled as they got to work, expecting a big payday from this.

Back with the students, they were all excited when they finally arrived at the digsite.

Large holes could be seen in the ground surrounded by trees, the students looking down into them and seeing people in orange clothing brushing dirt away from what they had all come to see. "And here we have one of the first discoveries at this site," Bones explained as they stared at the half unburied skeleton. "The remains of a stegosaurus genera named hesperosaurus."

"Cool," Flash smirked with the others nodding.

"Yes," Bones then led them to another hole, "and not too far away we have one of the smaller species found here: Apatoraptor." They looked down and saw what appeared to be the remains of some kind of emu-like dinosaur, the kids all staring at it in confusion.

Twilight had to keep a tight grip on Spike, knowing he would use any chance he got to try and snack on one of the bones.

Bones continued to show them many different holes that had many different dinosaurs, the teens all amazed by the number of different species located in one place. As time went one, they started seeing dinosaurs the teens had never heard of. There was Judiceratops, iguanacolossus, lambeosaurus, leptoceratops, sarahsaurus and so many more.

Eventually, they arrived at an area of the digsite which had red tape surrounding it. A large tent could be seen built atop this area. "And now, you're in for a very special treat. Something that I haven't even made public yet." The teens got excited as he stepped past the tape and turned to them. "The discovery of an entirely new breed of dinosaur."

This statement go everyone murmuring. "A new breed of dinosaur?" Twilight asked, "what do you think it could be?"

"Maybe a new subspecies of an existing dinosaur," Sunset guessed. "A variant that were only starting to become their own thing before they were wiped out." Everyone anxiously waited for the reveal, as Ancient Bones headed into the tent and returned pussing a large wheeled table with something on it covered by a sheet.

"Behold," he pulled the sheet off, "the new breed of dinosaur." The students were all amazed by the skull that was revealed, at first thinking it was some kind of triceratops.

It was certainly triceratops like, having three horns in the right place with a large frill on the back. But the rest of the head was more like that of a T-rex-like dinosaur. The thing was large enough to fit a small child in its mouth, or an adult from the head to the waist. It was certainly like no dinosaur they had ever seen before.

"Is that thing even real?" Micro Chips asked, Ancient Bones laughing at this.

"Yes indeed. We've managed to find a complete skeleton of this beauty and we've determined it is in fact real. In fact, I sent one of the bones off for carbon dating and should be getting the results back any time. Until then, allow me to show you what the creature might have looked like back in its day."

He headed back into the tent and after a few moments, returned with a TV screen on another table. As he positioned it, everyone gathered around in order to get a good look. He then switched it on and showed a computer generated of what he thought the dinosaur might have looked like.

Its body was shaped like a komodo dragon, only its front legs were much larger than the modern day ones and almost looked like arms. It had three long claws on each of its limbs and a tail almost as long as its body, with the head looking just like the skull.

The image showed it looking scale-covered like many dinosaurs, being mostly brown or grey in colour. The image then changed the show its body with feathers, the students realising these images were basically rough guesses of what Bones believed it looked like. Then the image showed the dinosaur next to a silhouette of a person, comparing its size to them. Another silhouette appeared showing a T-Rex, with the new dinosaur being about halfway size-wise between the person and the T-rex.

"We've yet to give this creature a name and we're still working to determine whether it was a carnivore, herbivore or omnivore. With its build I'm assuming it's a climber, using its large claws and strong muscles to pull itself up large cliffs and sturdy trees. But only time will tell."

"This is amazing!" Twilight smiled, "you'll become world famous for this."

"Thank you," Bones nodded. "But this job isn't about fame. It's about uncovering the truth behind our world's great prehistoric mysteries. After all, the seeds of the future lay buried in the past. The only way to understand what could happen to this world in the future, is to figure out what happened to it in the past. Don't you all agree?"

Most of the students had no idea what he was talking about, but decided to simply agree with him as he continued to give them a tour.

At the same time, Big Score and his cronies were wandering around the outskirts of the digsite.

When he was sure nobody was looking, Score reached into his bag and pulled out a rather odd object. A stick of dynamite connect to a strange device on the end of it where the fuzz would be.

He quickly dug a small hole and struck the stick inside, leaving only the device above ground. He then pressed a button of the device, making the red light turn green before he covered it in leaves. Once that was done, he rushed off and as he did, Rickashay and Boulder appeared. "Did you do it?"

"Yup," Rickashay smirked as Boulder nodded, "every stick carefully hidden with the receivers activated." Boulder nodded again.

"Good," he smirked, "now let's get to a safe area before he detonate." He began to make his way towards the digsite and the other two followed, the three stepping into the site and casually walking through it. "Alright," he pulled out a strange looking remote. "Once we're in the right spot, I'll hit this and everything will go cablowy. Then, when everyone's run off out of fear, we'll swoop in and nab the-"

"Hey!" They all spun around and saw a woman in orange moving towards them. "What do you think you're doing?" They gulped, thinking they were busted. "It's not break time. And you know phones aren't allowed on site." She then took a closer look at the three of them, "I don't think I know you. Who's your section leader?"

The three were really panicking now, knowing that the gig was up. Score knew he didn't have any choice, so he hit the button.

The students were all continuing to examine the many different bones that had already been collected from the pits. Many tables were behind the red tape, allowing them to see them up close without touching them.

"Looks like this dinosaur was attacked by something," Twilight pointed to a stegosaur back plate that had a large chunk taken out of it. "Maybe it was done by that strange new dinosaur Bones has found." The others nodded, also interested in knowing more about this strange new creature.

In that moment, Bone's phone rang. "Hello?" He answer, smiling as he did. "That's great. So what's the result?" He then frowned, "what? That can't be right." The others turned to him, wondering what the problem was. "Date it again." He frowned some more, "then quintuple check it." He hung up, looking very unhappy.

"What's wrong?" Celestia asked, with Bones turning to frown at her.

"The carbon dating on the new dinosaur just came in. According to the lab, the sample taken from the bone indicates it's only...fifty thousand years old." Those who heard and understood this were shocked, Rainbow leaning over to Twilight.

"Is that old?"

"Not old enough to be a dinosaur," Twilight explained. "how can those bones be so young?"

Bones didn't say anything, instead simply looking over at the skull and slowly moving over to it. He looked the skull right where its eyes should be, looking like he was about to talk to it. "What are you?"

KABOOM!

Everyone was suddenly shocked by a massive explosion that occurred a mile or so away from the digsite, many students screaming in horror as Flash and the Rainbooms, minus Fluttershy, instinctively got into a fighting stance.

KABOOM!

Another blast in the opposite direction shocked them again, everyone beginning to really panic.

KABOOM...KABOOM...KABOOM!

More and more explosion shook the ground around them, many of the people in the holes seeing the sides starting to shake and threaten to collapse and bury them.

"EVERYONE TO THE BUSES!" Luna yelled, the students beginning to run away but more explosions made them fear any moment the spot they were standing on would blow.

"What's happening?" Bones cried, fearing his many hard discovered fossils would be destroyed by one of these explosions. "Someone...please make this stop."

As the explosions continued, Flash and Trixie managed to sneak off to the side and hide behind one of the large rocks. "Time to get everybody out of here!" Flash stated as he activated the Omnitrix, dialing up XLR8 and slapping the watch down.

A green flash filled the air as he transformed, only not into the alien he chose. "Huh?" He looked down and saw his claws weren't that of XLR8, but of his electrical alien.

"Oh, great!" Trixie groaned as the sight of Volt-Edge, "now what are you supposed to do?"

Volt-Edge frowned, but shook it off as he knew he didn't have time to waste so he needed to get into action. "I can still get everyone out of here...somehow." But as he was about to jump into action, he spotted something. "Huh?"

Three figures in expedition clothing that were running away from the area. His alien eyes allowed him to look with better detail than his human ones, so he was able to see one of them hold up a remote of some kind and press a button. As soon as he did, another explosion occurred not far off.

"So you're the ones doing this!" He cried before rushing forwards, Trixie looking confused but following after the electric alien as they journeyed deeper into the canyon forest. Volt-Edge was able to leap up onto some trees and started skipping from one to the other, quickly closing the gap between himself and the ones responsible.

The three eventually made their way to a cliff edge, which happened to have a zigzagging path that led down the side of it into a lower area of the forest covered valley. They headed down the path as Volt-Edge reached the top, Trixie not far behind. They watched them disappear down into the valley.

"Let's go!" Trixie cried, Volt-Edge picking her up before jumping off the side of the cliff and landing on one of the paths. He did this several more times until they reached the bottom, as the criminals continued to make their way through the woods. They kept following and eventually, they came to a clearing surrounding by trees with a rock-face on the far side.

As he stepped into the clearing, he spotted the three criminals taking something out of a hole in the rock-face. His lizard eyes zeroed in on the hole and was shocked when he spotted a small pile of explosives sitting there. The three were holding litteral sticks of dynamite, likely planning to use it to scare the rest of the crew off.

"Hey!" He roared, shocking the three as they spun around to see the alien land in front of them. "What the heck do you think you're doing?"

"It's one of those alien freaks!" Rickashay told his boss, Big Score frowning before holding up the remote.

"Don't take another step. One wrong move and I blow this whole forest to kingdom come." Volt-Edge growled at this, taking a deep breath as he stared the man down. They both stood opposite one another, trying to figure out if the other was gonna make a move.

Volt-Edge summoned a tiny spark of energy whilst Big Score prepared to press the button. Neither was sure if they wanted to risk an attempt to stop the other, so it appeared to be a stalemate. At least until Trixie suddenly appeared and snapped a photo.

"Gotcha!" Trixie smirked as she started typing away. "Pretty soon the whole world's gonna know who it was blowing this place up." Big Score gasped seeing this and the distraction was all Volt-Edge needed, the electric lizard firing a tiny lightning bolt that flew across the field and struck the remote.

"Augh!" He cried, dropping it as the machine was fried. "You little..." Score and his cronies each pulled out a gun and fired at him, Volt-Edge unleashing a burst of lightning intending to stop them in their tracks. But the bullets simply flew through the electricity and continued towards him, Volt-Edge gasping as he swung his claws around and managed to cut the bullets in half before they struck his skin.

Before the criminals could fire again, he launched another burst of lightning straight towards them. It struck the guns but they weren't conducting, though the electricity managed to find a few pieces on the inside to grab hold of. Volt-Edge yanked them out of the crook's hands and threw them as far as his limit grip could throw.

"HEY!" Score cried as he growled at the alien, "I've had enough of you!" He charged forward with his cronies and the three looked ready to brawl with the alien. But Volt-Edge smirked and started building up electricity. And as he did, Trixie realised what could happen if he fired it.

"WAIT!" She screamed, rushing towards him. But as she did, she happened to trip on a rock and stagger forwards until she tackled Volt-Edge.

"WOW!" The alien cried as he and Trixie fell to the ground, causing him to accidently launch his lightning blast into the air. It then arched down and landed...right inside the dynamite filled cave.

Time seemed to stop for the five of them, as they realised they were now in really big trouble. The lightning set each of the fusses alight and quickly burned through them, Volt-Edge quickly grabbing Trixie and trying to run for it. He got halfway across the clearing before it finally happened.

KABOOM!

Over with the still terrified school kids and adults, they were starting to calm down only for a massive boom to fill the air and shatter every piece of glass on the buses they were running towards.

They turned towards the boom and saw a massive smoke cloud filling the air, the lot of them hoping whoever set that explosion was nowhere near it when it went off.

Volt-Edge had managed to shield Trixie when the bombs went off, protecting her from the best whilst unleashing an electrical field to protect himself.

As the smoke from the explosion began to fade away, he looked back at the cave and saw the entire cliff-face was covered in cracks and already some pieces were breaking off. Big Score and his flunkies were all looking a little worse for wears, the lot of them covered in soot with their hair sticking up.

"We've gotta get out of here!" Volt-Edge told them all, as he picked up Trixie intending to run. However, the ground beneath his feet had also been shaken up. And for some reason, this caused the ground to crack and break apart. Volt-Edge quickly realised his only meant one thing. They were standing on something hollow. "MOVE!" But it was too late.

The ground shattered and before Volt-Edge could jump, he, Trixie and the criminals were falling down a very dark passageway. A few seconds later, the cliff-face finally gave way and the rocks began to fall towards the newly formed hole. In less than a minute, a large pile of rocks was jammed inside the whole and it was sealed shut. The only proof anyone was even there was a single shattered phone.

Back with the rest of the school students and teachers, they had managed to get back to the buses. When they did, Celestia began to do register.

"Lyra Heartstrings?"

"Here."

"Bright Idea?"

"Here."

"Cloudy Kicks?"

"Here."

"Sweet Leaves?"

"Here."

"Trixie Lulamoon?"

"..."

"Trixie Lulamoon?" She looked up, but saw no sign of Trixie. This worried Celestia, along with Trixie's friends. "Who was Trixie's buddy?"

"Flash," Sunset replied, "but...I don't see him either." Now Celestia was really worried, the woman telling the teens to stay as she went to search for them. But the Rainbooms ran forward. "We can protect ourselves from those explosions better than you can. Let us help look."

Celestia didn't like the idea of her students being near danger, but also knew how useful their magic could be. "Very well. But we have to be careful." They nodded and headed back towards the digsite, all the while hoping Flash and Trixie were okay.

Volt-Edge moaned as he felt himself coming round, quickly feeling something laying on top of him.

He opened his eyes and looked down to see Trixie was the one doing that, the girl's head laid on his chest as she too was unconscious. He then looked around and saw he was in some kind of rocky cave, with a weird glowing green substance lining areas of the wall that lit the place up. Looking straight up, he saw he was laying right below a long tunnel leading up to the surface that they had likely fallen through.

"Trixie," he rolled her off of him and tried to shake her away. "Trixie, wake up." But still no reply, making him sigh as he touched her cheek with his claw before sending a tiny volt through it.

"EEEEYEEEE!" Trixie shot up awake, "what happened? What year is this? Is The Rock president?"

"Easy," he told her. "We're fine. We're just a little...stuck." Trixie looked up whilst Volt-Edge looked around the room they were in and spotted several holes in the whole, all connected to tunnels that swerved off in different directions. He then noticed the three crooks on the ground a ways off, all looking fine though unconscious.

"How'd we survive such a long fall?" Trixie asked, Volt-Edge unsure how to answer that.

In that moment, they heard a groaning sound and looked back at the crooks as Score began to come around. Rickashay was next followed by Boulder, the three pushing themselves up before noticing Trixie and the alien. "YOU!" Score roared, the three jumping to their feet and getting into a fighting stance.

"Will you knock it off," Volt-Edge told them. "Look around. We're not in a great position to be fighting." The crooks did look around and realise he was right, but that didn't stop them from eyeing the two down as they looked up at the ceiling.

"Do you think you can jump it?" Trixie asked, "maybe jump back and forth between the walls until you reach the top?"

"I don't know. Maybe, but I'd probably time out before I reach the top. And even if I did get there, there's no way I can blast my way through the rocks. I think we're stuck here."

"Great!" Score cried, "just great. Nice work, getting us all trapped down here."

"Us?" Volt-Edge glared at him, "how is this our fault?"

"You lit the dynamite!" Rickashay told him.

"That you idiots brought!" Volt-Edge roared. "If I hadn't ignited the sticks, you morons probably would have done it yourself eventually." The alien and the criminals continued arguing with one another, Trixie rolling her eyes at this. And as she did, something caught her ear.

"Huh?" She looked towards one of the tunnels and listened, trying to tune out the others as they argues. Then she heard it again. A weird noise that sounded like a mix of a growl and a purr, coming closer and closer by the second. "F...Flash," she poked Volt-Edge's shoulder and the alien turned to her before focusing on the tunnel.

The criminals did the same and they all heard the noise, making them all get defensive and prepared for battle. A shadow appeared to fill the tunnel and moved closer and closer, the growling getting louder. They all felt like prey, about to be pounced on any moment. And then the source of the noise jumped out of the tunnel and it was...a strange looking creature the size of a big cat or a small dog.

"Huh?" They all said as they looked the creature over. Volt-Edge and Trixie were reminded of the creature they had seen on Ancient Bone's computer, it being the cross between a lizard and a triceratops. This one was pure white with red stripes and the tips of its frill were also red.

The little creature let out several cute growls as it moved towards them, sniffing the air to try and figure out what they were. When it spotted Volt-Edge, it seemed to smile and move towards him. "Ouh," Trixie smirked as she watched the little creature pant at Volt-Edge's feet like a dog, "he likes you."

"Yay," Volt-Edge frowned as he stared at the creature, "what the heck is it?"

Trixie knelt down and scratched it behind its ear...or where she figured the ear was. "I think it's that creature Ancient Bones was digging up. But it's alive."

"A living dinosaur?" Volt-Edge asked, "how's that possible?"

"Lots of creatures were able to survive when the dinosaurs died out. Crocodiles, rodents, some insects. This little guy must have hid down here and did the same."

"And now it's gonna make me a but ton of money." They turned to Big Score, as he and his crooks stepped forward with smirks on their faces. "Hand it over."

"Or what?" Volt-Edge fired a bolt of lightning that struck close to their feet, making the crooks jump back. They glared at him and Volt-Edge smirked, but knew he would likely turn back any moment. What could he do?

He didn't get a chance to come up with an answer, as in that moment a new sound filled the air. It was a roar, the type one would hear in old dinosaur movies. A few seconds later, the ground started vibrating. "What, is, that?" Rickashay asked, as Trixie looked down at the creature she had just been scratching the belly of.

She then remembered that the bone of the creature she saw were a lot bigger than this one, making her realise a horrifying truth. "This is a baby," she told the others. "Which means...the shaking must be being caused by..." Another roar echoed through the tunnel before the owner of it appeared.

It was the creature they had seen on Bone's diagram, only it was a lot bigger then it. This one was the size of a T-Rex, maybe a tiny bit bigger, with bright red skin and yellow stripes. The beast looked down at them and growled, then spotted the baby at their feet and let out a mighty roar. It then swung its giant claws around, trying to either cut them in half or crush them under its large hands.

"AAAAARRRRRHHHHH!" Score screamed as he and his flunkies leapt away, Volt-Edge grabbing Trixie and pushing her away as well. The beast's claws ripped into the ground and the baby let out a laugh-like growl, clearly finding this whole thing enjoyable. Score and his minions then rushed into the nearest tunnel, whilst Volt-Edge stood up and started charging power.

"Take this!" He cried, launching a thunderbolt that shot towards the dinosaur and hit in in the head. This made it stagger back a bit, but didn't really hurt it. As it did, Trixie tried to push the baby towards it.

"Time to go home little guy." But the baby wasn't listening and just let out a cute growl as it ran around her again, "come on!" Volt-Edge fired another bolt and struck the creature, preventing it from attacking again. But as he did, the Omnitrix started beeping.

"RUN!" Volt-Edge grabbed Trixie and leapt into one of the tunnels, getting as far as he could before he transformed back. "WOW!" They cried as they fell to the floor, the dinosaur still recovering from the shock. They quickly got to their feet and ran for it, only for the beast to finally recover and start chasing them. "Why are you coming after us?" Flash asked, but then heard a sound and looked down.

"What are you doing?" Trixie asked the baby, who was running with them as the momma chased after them. "Go home!" But the baby wasn't listening and the beast was getting closer. "What do we do?"

Flash then noticed another tunnel in the side of the wall, one that looked about ten feet in diameter. Too small for momma dino. "LEFT!" He curved around and ran into the tunnel, Trixie and the baby following behind. The adult arrived at the entrance and looked inside, seeing the two with its child running away and letting out a roar as it was unable to go after them.

If Flash and Trixie could understand its roars, they would be feeling very scared in that moment.

Back up top, Celestia and the Rainbooms were continuing to search for their friends.

They had tried their phones, but both didn't even make it to voicemail. "FLASH!" Twilight called out, with no reply. Spike was sniffing the ground, but the young pup couldn't find any trace of the two teens. "TRIXIE! Where are you?"

"If you're hurt, call out to us!" Celestia cried, but still there was no answer. "Where could they be?" It was then she heard noise and looked around to see someone walking towards them. "Flash? Trixie?" But it wasn't them.

"Celestia?" Ancient Bones stepped out of the tree's shadows, "what are you doing out here with these explosions going off?"

"Two of my students are missing," Celestia told him. "Have you seen them anywhere?" Bones shook his head, explaining that he was trying to find the cause of the explosions. He hadn't seen anyone since that last big boom.

"They've gotta be somewhere," Applejack told them. But as she said that, a suddenly blur of speed shot towards them and stopped to reveal a very freaked out Rainbow.

"What's wrong?" Twilight asked, as the rainbow-haired speedster held up something she was holding.

"I went to check out where that big explosion was and...and I found this." They all stared at the object and realised it was Trixie's phone, the lot of them now absolutely terrified. "Guys. I found this by a massive pile of rocks." They didn't need to be told any more. The lot of them followed Rainbow towards the area she found the rocks, praying that Trixie and Flash were both okay.

Flash and Trixie made their way further into the tunnel knowing that the way they came was out of the question as an escape route. All the while, their new friend was tagging along behind them.

"Do you think there's another way out of here?" Trixie asked, as they turned a corner. Flash wasn't sure how to respond, though his first thought to that question was the fact that since these creatures had never been seen before, it was very unlikely there was another way out.

The baby dinosaur growled a happy growl as he ran ahead of them, jumping onto a large rock in the tunnel and beginning to gnaw on it. "I'm hoping so," Flash eventually told her. "But if all else fails, we'll head back to the cavern we came in from and I'll fly us out of here as Firefly."

"What about those crooks?" Trixie asked.

"I do want to try and save them, but with all these tunnels down here who knows which direction they ran in." Trixie nodded and as they turned another corner, Flash suddenly stopped and held out his hand. "Do you feel that?" Trixie held up her hand and sure enough, she felt it.

"A breeze."

"Which must mean there's a way out!" Flash cheered, running forward with Trixie and the baby behind him. They followed the breeze through the many tunnels, the air getting fresher and fresher by the moment. And eventually, they turned a corner and spotted a bright light at the end of a tunnel. "Freedom!" But as soon as he was out of the tunnel, he realised he was anything but free.

The tunnel had led into a giant underground chamber, which was full of lush vegetation such as fruit trees they had never seen before and multiple small rivers originating from several holes in the walls that fed a large central lake. Giant pillars were sticking out of the ground and went all the way to the ceiling, these pillars being covered in moss and other plants. And the very top of the chamber had a large hole in it and surrounding that hole, was a circle of crystals giving off as much light as a superpowered high-beam.

But the most shocking thing about this chamber were the many dinosaurs that inhabited it. The same dinosaur they had just gotten very well acquainted with, all of differing colours and stripes.

Some were eating fruit off the trees. Others were diving into the water and coming back up with fish in their mouths. And many more were simply lying around looking content.

"Wow," both Flash and Trixie whispered as they saw it all. As they did, their new friend rushed down into the chamber looking happy to be home. They then spotted the mother dinosaur they had escaped coming out of another hole, the pair leaping behind a rock and watching as the mother spotted its baby and quickly scooped it up.

It looked around and the pair ducked down, not wanting to be seen. "I can't believe there's an entire species living underground," Trixie whispered.

"I can't believe we're the ones that discovered them." Flash continued to look around, amazed by these creatures. He spotted a small area besides one of the tunnels that looked like it was some kind of nursery, as many of the babies could be seen playing inside a circle of rocks too big for them to climb over. But as he watched, he saw something that made him frowned. "Great."

"What?" Trixie asked, Flash pointing towards the nursery. She frowned when she saw someone climbing over the wall. Rickashay. Big Score and Boulder were on the other side of the rock, as Rickashay landed inside the nursery and tried to grab one of the babies. "Seriously? They saw what doing that with one giant dinosaur around did. Are they really stupid enough to try it with hundreds."

Flash sighed, "guess I'd better go save him." He started sneaking down the side of the stone path they were on, heading down into the chamber whilst doing his best to stay out of sight. Trixie went with him and as they moved, Rickashay managed to grab one of the babies.

"Come along little guy," he picked the pink with yellow stripes dinosaur up. "You're going to be auctioned off to a nice new owner." But the baby didn't seem to like that idea and managed to bite down on his hand. "YOW!" His cries echoed through the chamber, catching the dinosaur's attention.

One by one, they all turned towards the nursery and saw the three strange new creatures that had invaded their home and now threatened their offspring. The mother who had seen them before growled and jumped towards them, several others doing the same as Rickashay climbed back over the rocks.

"You idiot!" Score told him, as the dinosaurs began to surround them. Flash saw this and knew he had to step in, so activated the Omnitrix and rushed forwards before slapping it down and unleashing a bright light. "Don't eat us!" But as one of the dinosaur's tried to slash at him, a crystal spike shot out of the ground and blocked it.

"He's right you know." They turned to the voice and all saw Diamondhead standing there with a hand on the ground, "you really shouldn't eat them. Humans are just full of saturated fats." The dinosaurs roared as they charged, with Diamondhead charging as well. "Sorry about this!" He turned his fists into giant hammers and swung them about, knocking the dinosaurs away as he and Trixie ran towards the crooks. "We're getting out of here!"

"No way!" Score cried, "not without at least one money making reptile." Diamondhead rolled his eyes at this and hit the ground, causing something to appear under their feet. It was a crystal platform, which confused them until the crystal suddenly started growing in the spherical fashion. "WAIT!" Within seconds, he was sealed within a crystal sphere with a few small gaps in it that would allow them to breath.

"Raaaah!" Diamondhead punched the ground and in doing so, a pillar shot out of the ground under the sphere and knocked it flying into the air. The crooks screamed as they flew into one of the holes and started rolling through it, whilst Diamondhead continued to fight the beasts attacking them.

He reached back and pulled out his shoulder spikes, which took the shape of boomerangs that he threw and used to knock down several dinosaurs. But the number of dinosaurs attacking them were getting larger and larger by the moments.

"Hold on!" He grabbed Trixie underarm and stomped his feet, causing another pillar to shoot out from under them and fling them into the air. Trixie screamed as Diamondhead flipped through the air several times, the alien then shooting a path of diamonds that formed a slide they landed on and slid towards the hole on.

Once they were inside the tunnel, Diamondhead created a wall of crystals that blocked it off completely.

"That...was too close," Trixie panted as she picked herself up. "We need to get out of here before those things find us again." Diamondhead agreed and turned towards the crystal cage, which had stopped rolling several feet away. When they reached it, he created another pillar that hit the cage and knocked it rolling down the tunnel. They would keep doing this until he timed out or they found a way out of there.

The red and white dinosaur slashed at the crystal wall, trying to break through it with little success.

It let out a roar of anger, wanting to get back at the creatures that invaded their home and tried to steal their children. And so, it turned towards the ceiling and stared at the crystal surrounded hole before letting out a mighty roar. That roar echoed through the cavern and eventually reached the hole, allowing what was inside it to hear.

A few moments later, movement could be seen within the hole and a pair of bright red eyes illuminated it.

Trixie and Diamondhead continued to make their way through the tunnels, Diamondhead knocking the cage forward every few feet with the crooks inside screaming and crying out that they would be sick.

Trixie frowned as she looked at all the holes in the walls. "Those things aren't gonna sit around for very long. They'll find us." Diamondhead knew she was right, but didn't know what to say. Until they could find a way out of there, there were nothing but sitting ducks. Then he looked ahead and saw something.

"Hey," he moved forward and knocked the cage into a chamber up ahead. When they reached this chamber, he looked up and smiled. "Well what do you know." Trixie looked up and saw a long tunnel heading straight up, with a bunch of rocks filling the top.

"Is this?"

"The same place we came in," Diamondhead nodded. "Yup.

"How do we get up there?" Trixie asked, with Diamondhead smirking as he tried to crack his uncrackable knuckles.

"Simple. I just make a tower beneath us that'll lift us to the surface. Then I'll break through the top and we'll be free." Trixie nodded with a smirk as Diamondhead prepared to do just that. But before they could, something caught their attention.

A roar. It wasn't a loud one, but they had a feeling it would be if it was up close. They looked towards one of the tunnels and as they did, the ground beneath their feet shook.

"I don't like the sound of that," Trixie gulped. "Get us out of here!" Diamondhead didn't need to be told twice and he slammed his hands into the ground, causing a crystal bowl to grow out of the ground around them. The bowl was then lifted upwards, pushing them towards the surface.

Trixie moved to and looked over the edge, hearing another roar that was much louder echo out of the tunnel. And the one that made it leapt out and revealed itself. "Whoa," she whispered at the sight of it.

It was bigger than the other ones. Thinking back to the diagram she saw earlier, this one was a half size bigger then a T-Rex. It was light blue and covered in white stripes. And it did not look happy.

It looked up at the tower and spotted her, Trixie gasping and pulling her head back. "Flash. Can you go faster?"

"I'm...going as fast as I can," Diamondhead replied. "Relax, we're safe. It's not like it can knock this thing over." Trixie wanted to believe him, but the size of that thing made her think differently. And sure enough, a moment later the entire tower shook.

She rushed over to the side, expecting to see the beast attacking the tower. But it wasn't. It was climbing it. "FLASH!" She rushed over to him and Diamondhead had a feeling he had to get ready for a fight. And seconds later, the beast arrived at the top of the tower and snarled.

"WOW!" Diamondhead cried before touching the floor again, causing the side of the bowl to grow spikes.

The beast leapt off the tower and used its claws to dig into the side of the walls around them, then quickly moved up above them with incredible speed. Trixie and Diamondhead saw and watched as it turned to glare at them, then leapt off the wall and feel right towards them.

"Oh no you don't!" Diamondhead cried as he made more spike grow out of the bowl's top, the beast about to land right on top of them. But then, it did something they weren't expecting.

It brought its arms to its side and pulled them away, doing so revealing a yellow coloured membrane that connected its wrists to its knees. "No...way," the pair said in unison. The beast used its knew wings to stop its descent, allowing it to hover above them.

It then tried to slash at them with its claws, Diamondhead quickly turning the bowl into an orb. The claw slashed against it and the orb shook, but remained in tact.

"Since when do those things have wings?" Trixie asked in shock.

"Maybe it's something they develop later in life," Diamondhead guessed. "Or...maybe that one is just special. Either way, it's a problem."

"Maybe if we stay in here, it'll get bored and leave." The orb shook, though remained in tact.

"I don't think it'll get bored. And we can't stay in here forever. This thing is airtight, meaning the only air we have is whatever was in it when I sealed it."

"Then lift us up to the top!" Trixie cried.

"And let that thing out? It'll attack anything it sees. And anyone." Trixie realised what he meant and nodded, Diamondhead looking up as the orb shook again. "We have to trap it beneath us before sealing it under here." He hit the floor and doing so caused the orb to shatter and fly in every direction, the beast pulling back and barely managing to keep itself from getting stabbed. As it did, some of the shards hit the rocks sealing the roof and caused them to break apart and fall away.

As the creature clung to the wall, Diamondhead made the tower go upwards and once they were above it, he made the gems grow sideways to try and seal it. It might have worked, if the Omnitrix didn't start beeping.

"No, no, NOOO!" Diamondhead cried as he was consumed by light and reverted back to his human form. "Not now!" The tower shook and as it did, the teen rushed over to the criminal's cage and hid behind it. The beast pulled its head up and looked around, trying to find them as the pair did their best to make as little noise as possible.

It pulled itself up onto the platform and moved towards the cage, sniffing the air. It then leapt up and stuck its feet onto the cage, Flash and Trixie crying out and jumping away as it tried to snap at them.

The beast growled but before it could attack, something hit its head. It looked up and saw the rocks above them were starting to give way, allowing light to flow in and shine down upon them.

The creature appeared curious about this mysterious new world that had been open to it, so got into a leaping position. "It's gonna fly up out of the cave!" Trixie cried, Flash realising they couldn't let it leave them behind.

"Move!" He grabbed Trixie and pulled her towards the beast, both of them managing to grab onto its tail. "Going up!" Flash cried as the beast took off, pulling them up along with it. "Top floor, sporting goods and mens wear!" As they flew upwards, they realised the cage had become lodged in the beast claws and was coming up with them. And quickly, they reached the top of the cave. "Hold on!"

Rewind a few minutes.

Up above, the Rainbooms were hard at work trying to get the rocks away. But they had quickly discovered the truth about them, how they were actually acting as a plug that blocked a hole they had no idea how deep it was. As such, the lot of them were forced to stay off the rocks for fear of the pile falling into the hole with them falling along with it.

Celestia had gone off the call a rescue crew and later returned with the entire student body, the lot of them quickly helping in whatever way they could.

"Hurry!" Twilight cried as she lifted another big rock with her magic, Applejack doing the same to another one and throwing it. "They can't have that much air left!"

"We've been digging non-stop!" Rainbow cried, "how have we not reached the bottom yet?" The others didn't want to answer, fearing what that could mean for Flash and Trixie.

Then, Spike's ears perked up. "Hey, I think I just heard something." He listened out and lowered his head to the ground, "sounds like it's coming from below."

"Is it Flash and Trixie?" Sunset asked, but got her answer when they all heard a quiet but noticeable roar.

"That didn't sound like Flash and Trixie," Fluttershy gulped. They continued listening and heard more roars, wondering what the heck was happening under there. Then they heard voices, the lot of them realising it must have been their trapped friends. Something must have been attacking them.

"Keep digging!" Applejack yelled as she started punching the rocks to break them apart. But as she did, something suddenly impacted against the other side of the rocks, causing the whole thing to pulse. "WOW!" Applejack fell backwards, as something stuck out of the rock she had been next too.

"What's that?" Pinkie asked, the lot taking a closer look and seeing it was a very familiar crystal spike.

"Diamondhead," Twilight realised as she tried to use her magic to pull the crystal out. "Diamondhead must be under there." They were all about to ask how an alien got under there, but Twilight pried the crystal free before they could. This caused the rocks to start shifting, a few falling downwards.

"Everybody off the rock pile!" Celestia cried, "it's gonna collapse again!" They all began to climb off the rocks and as they did, they heard another roar coming from below. And seconds later, the rock pile exploded.

Everyone cried out as they ran to avoid the rocks, Twilight grabbing as many as she could in her magic whilst Rarity put up as many shields as she was able. And as they did, they were greeted to the sight of a giant reptile soaring up out of the hole.

Ancient Bones stared at the creature and when it was fully revealed, he couldn't believe his eyes. "Impossible."

"Ain't that the creature that's supposed to be dead?" Applejack asked, with the others nodding and unable to believe they were seeing a real life dinosaur in the flesh. "And since when can it fly?" As she said that, the creature reached a good twenty feet in the air and they saw it was carrying a crystal orb. Then they noticed who was holding onto the end of its tail.

"FLASH!" Twilight cried.

"TRIXIE!" Sunset gasped as the beast floated in the air and looked around, seeing the many strange new things all around it.

Then it began to glide over the forest, letting out a mighty roar as it tried to find something to eat. As it did, the crystal cage finally broke off of its claws and fell towards the ground. Luckily for those trapped inside, the trees began to break its fall.

Flash and Trixie noticed the trees and realised this was their best chance. "Jump!" Flash yelled, he and Trixie letting go of the tail and falling. Flash was able to grab onto a branch and Trixie's hood got caught on another, the pair hanging there and watching as the giant dinosaur glided above the trees.

"What do we do now?" Trixie asked, Flash answering by beginning to climb down. "Right."

Back at the site of the hole, Ancient Bones had moved back to look down the tunnel.

"Professor!" Celestia called out to him, "it's not safe. The edge could give way and you could fall." But Bones wasn't listening, to preoccupied with what he had just seen.

"It's alive. This is the find of the century. Maybe the millenium. It's alive and has been living down there all this time. Who knows how many more of them there could be." Others were also interested in the tunnel, many making their way over to it.

And as they did, the beast stopped sightseeing to look back at its way home. And when it saw the many people gathering around it, its instincts took over and it let out a mighty roar. One that made everyone around the hole take notice and turn to it. They all gasped when the dinosaur changed directions and flew towards them.

"It's coming back!" Pinkie cried, as the beast let out another roar.

Fluttershy's geode glowed and as it did, she gasped. "It's telling us to keep away!" The others turned to her in surprise, as the beast roared again. "It thinks we're after the rest of its nest."

"Rest of its nest?" Bones asked, but was grabbed by Principal Celestia.

"We need to go...now!" She dragged him away and the rest of the people began to run, as the beast got closer and closer. The dinosaur landed near the hole and retracted its wings, instead beginning to slash at anyone still close to the hole. It would have cut someone in two, had Rarity not but up a shield to deflect its claws.

"Back off!" Rainbow cried, though she wasn't sure what her super speed could do against such a large creature. Pinkie threw some sprinkles at it, whilst Applejack and Twilight threw the rocks that had been blown away from the hole. But none of these things did anything to harm the creature, the explosions not even scratching its scaly hide whilst it cut the rocks to pebbles.

"That didn't work like we hoped," Applejack gulped as the beast raised its claws and thrust them down as if trying to crush them under its hand. Luckily, Rarity was able to shield them all. But the force of the impact caused her dome to crack.

"I...can't hold this forever!" She cried, as the lizard pulled its arm up to strike again. But Twilight managed to grab the creature in her magic before it could, pushing it back a little bit since its size wasn't something she could lift. As it staggered back, Rarity dropped most of the shield and they ran away from it, whilst the creature looked ready to take flight again.

"Wait!" Sunset told them, stopping in her tracks. "We can't let that thing take to the air. What if it attacks our class, or heads towards a city? We have to keep it here!"

"How?" Rarity asked, putting up another shield around them in case the beast charged.

"Spread out!" Sunset yelled, the lot of the splitting up and circling around the dinosaur. As the creature regained its balance, it looked around and saw the girls making noise with some even throwing boulders, gems and explosions at it.

As this was going on, Flash and Trixie arrived at the edge of the woods. They looked out and saw the Rainbooms distracting the beast, who swung at them with its claws and tail. Rainbow began to run around it in a circle, trying to make it dizzy. But the beast simple slammed its tail onto the ground hard enough to shake it.

"WOW!" She cried, losing balance and falling to the ground.

"There's no way they can beat that thing!" Trixie cried as Rarity shielded Rainbow, who barely managed to get up and run to a safe distance. "If that thing was made of Equestrian Magic, they'd have probably beaten it by now. But..."

Flash frowned as Twilight threw another rock at the monster, who backhanded it back towards her and made her leap to safety. As the rock shattered and sent other pieces flying, Flash heard a ding and saw the Omnitrix turn green. "Yes." He activated it and started flicking through his aliens, "it's time to bury this living fossil." He found his alien of choice and slapped it down.

As Twilight picked herself up, the creature looked ready to swallow the lot of them whole.

The beast spread its wings and looked ready to take off, likely bored with these silly games and wanting to chow down on a more fruitful and less magical prey. But as it leapt up to take flight, something grabbed onto its tail and the dinosaur suddenly found itself falling to the ground and crashing into the field.

"Gotcha!" They all heard, the lot of them looking around the beast and seeing an alien rhino holding the creature's tail. As the dinosaur recovered, Riot-Horn began pulling it backwards towards the hole. "Alright, big guy. Time for you to go home!" But as he said that, the beast shook its head to blow away the cobwebs before it started swinging its tail around. "Wow!" He was swung to the left, he was swung to the right, he was swung up and down.

"We've gotta help him!" Twilight cried, seeing the alien wouldn't be able to hold on much longer. She grabbed some more rocks and threw them at the creature, trying to aim for its eyes. It clearly didn't appreciate that so spun on the spot, swinging its tail around.

"GYAH!" Riot-Horn roared as he was pulled along for the ride, the Rainbooms ducking down to avoid getting their heads lopped off. The dinosaur swung its tail back around and then tried to slam it down on Twilight and the others, but Riot-Horn managed to dig his feet into the ground and stop that.

"Are you okay?" Fluttershy asked, as Riot-Horn let out a groan.

"Peachy!" The dinosaur then lifted its tail up again and Riot-Horn was pulled along, the girls gasping as they saw the creature crouch down again.

"It's gonna take off!" Twilight cried as she looked up at Riot-Horn. "Let go of its tail!" But before he could, the beast shot straight up and let out a massive wave of wind that Rarity barely shielded them all against. "Don't let go of its tail!"

Riot-Horn clutched the beast's tail as hard as it could, the monster swinging it around trying to dislodge him as it reached the top of its leap. It spread its wings and floated in the air, all the while lifting its tail up to try and slash at the alien clutching it.

"I'm starting to get the feeling this was a bad idea!" Riot-Horn yelled as the creature began flying around and swinging its tail, the alien trying to think of a way to end this without getting himself killed.

It was then that they floated above the hole, Riot-Horn getting an idea but not really liking it.

"Not sure I have much more of a choice!" He cried as the creature's tail in a bunch of different directions. He waited for just the right moment and...the tail swung upwards. "Now!" He let go and the momentum sent the alien flying straight up, the dinosaur not expecting this or the uppercut that slammed into its chin.

It roared in pain as Riot-Horn flew up above it, allowing his horns to soak up as much sunlight as possible. And as gravity began to take effect, he pulled his fist back and covered it up as the energy flew from his horns into it.

"It's time you went home!" He roared as he fell towards the beast and just before he slammed into it, he threw his fist forward with all the strength he was able to muster. "SOLAR STRIKER!" His covered fist smashed into the creature's stomach so hard, a loud booming sound filled the air.

The Rainbooms covered their ears as the dinosaur let out a mighty roar of pain, the force of the punch sending it flying downwards so fast its wings couldn't stop it. It fell into the hole and disappeared from sight, as Riot-Horn fell towards the ground and lifted his fists up.

"MOVE!" Sunset cried when she realised what was about to happen, the Rainbooms all running as fast as they could. When Riot-Horn hit the ground, he slammed both fists into it and caused a massive shockwave to spread throughout the earth and make it shake.

This caused earth around the hole to break apart and start to fall into it, causing the entire area to sink a little as the tunnel leading down into the earth was sealed up. A large amount of dust was kicked up by this and the Rainbooms coughed when they tried to see what had happened.

When the dust finally began to settle, all they saw was a large crater where the clearing had once been. The rocks and mud that used to make up the field was packed in tight around the edges, sealing off the hole that had once been there. "Riot-Horn!" Twilight cried, looking around and seeing no sign of the humanoid rhino. "What happened to him."

"You think he got buried?" Rarity asked, the lot looking fearful. But Sunset shook her head.

"I don't think so. He might seem like a meathead, but he's not stupid enough to bury himself with his own attack."

Sure enough, Riot-Horn had managed to escape the crater and was now hiding deep within the trees.

He leaned against a tree panting as he waited for his time to run out, Trixie stepping up to him with a smirk. "Not bad dino-slayer." Riot-Horn smirked but knew he didn't have time to sit around. He picked himself up and headed back towards the area the crystal cage was waiting.

Fifteen minutes later, the Rainbooms continued to search for the alien and their friends.

As it turned out, they found two of those things. "Flash!" Sunset cried as they spotted him and Trixie sitting against a giant crystal sphere. "Trixie. You're both okay."

"Barely," Flash told them. "We almost got eaten a bunch of times down there."

"What the heck happened to you guys?" Twilight asked, then turned to the crystal prison. "And what is this thing." She looked inside, only to see three barely conscious and very dizzy individuals laying inside. "Who are these three."

"The ones that set off the explosions," Trixie explained. "It's...a long story."

"I get the feeling there's gonna be a lot of questions when we get back to the bus," Twilight sighed. "Especially about where the heck that dinosaur came from." She gave them a serious look, "are there more of them underground."

"Hundreds," Flash told her before realising something. "But...I don't think they are dinosaurs." The others gave him a curious look. "Remember what Bones said, about the fossil only being a few thousand years old?" They nodded as Flash looked up at the sky. "Something like that, that was so big but still able to fly like that and fight so well. I don't think something like that could have evolved on earth."

"Are you trying to say you think it's an alien?" Rarity asked, with Flash just shrugging back.

"it's a possibility. Who knows. Maybe a few thousand years ago, they managed to find a way onto this planet. Then they were trapped underground and have been living there ever since. I don't know. It just feels like that's what happened."

The girls couldn't deny that for some reason, that seemed to make sense. A creature like that, evolving on earth just didn't seem possible. And they knew aliens were real, so maybe that creature really was an alien dinosaur.

Either way, they all knew they had a lot of questions to answer when they got back. The police would take the criminals into custody, Flash and Trixie would make up an elaborate story about why they were trapped underground and Bones would want to know everything they had seen whilst trapped.

Flash hoped nobody would attempt to uncover those creatures again. After what he had seen, he felt they were better off left alone. Clearly this was a species that didn't need humanity messing things up for them. But he knew one day, their two races would meet again. And hopefully, that meeting would be a good one.

Author's Note

Who doesn't love dinosaurs? Hope you enjoyed this chapter, cause it was a lot of fun for me to write.

Season 1, Episode 9: Rise of the Technovore

In the furthest corners of the solar system, at an area referred to as the oort cloud, a ship was zooming through space.

In the cockpit of the ship, the pilot was busy making sure the ship didn't accidently crash into an asteroid or part of the long since destroyed planet Ceres. But then, they picked up a distress signal coming from within the solar system.

Seeing no reason not to investigate, the pilot plotted a course and hit the faster than light drive. In the blink of an eye, the ship zipped all the way from the oort cloud to just passed Mars. As they slowed down, though they were still going several thousand miles an hour, the ship that had sent the distress signal was coming into sensor range.

The pilot saw the ship's design and felt it looked familiar. But by the time they realised what it was, it was too late.

The wrecked ship suddenly fired several lasers towards its wouldbe savior, hitting it right in the power and propulsion areas. The ship exploded in several places and was forced to drift closer and closer to the attacking ship, which then shot another stronger blast that struck and caused the whole thing to explode.

Aboard the ship, Vilgax watched from his tube as the ship was almost completely destroyed. "FOOL!" He growled, "I told you to only use enough power to disable the ship."

The robot that had just fired the beam turned towards its master. "My apologies. Sensors indicated that the vessel's shields would weaken the blast's impact and allow only minor damage to it. However, those shields cut out seconds before the laser struck."

Vilgax growled again, "send drones to retrieve what materials they can salvage. For your sake, there had better be something worth all this trouble."

Back in the cold vacuum of space, the remains of the ship were floating about as the other ship unleashed its robotic workers to collect whatever they could find.

The drones had to stay away from some of the wreckage, for it had already drawn too close to the planet in order to safely retrieve. Sure enough, the gravity of the planet began to drag it down towards it. Much of the wreckage began to burn up into nothingness as it fell. But one piece of tech was withstanding the head of reentry.

It continued to fall and fall and fall, until it finally crashed down in a wooded area with a loud bang. However, this area was almost completely deserted and only one person was close enough to see it.

That person spent the next hour rushing through the forest towards the crash-sight, eventually arriving and looking down to see a crater as large as a hot-tub. And inside that crater was a rather unusual sight.

It was an egg-shaped device about the size of a soda can, made out of a silvery white metal covered in red metal bumps.

The person jumped down into the crater and reached for the device, fearing for a moment that it might be too hot. But to their amazement, it was perfectly fine. So they picked it up and looked it over. "What do we have here?" The voice asked, as they looked it over. "I think I know someone who'll be interested in seeing you."

A few days later.

School had ended, but many students were still there since they had club activities.

On of those clubs was the chemistry club, where we find Flash and Twilight working on a formula whilst Rarity was helping Derpy get some goop she had made out of her hair. Currently, Flash was holding a dropper above the mixture. "Careful," he whispered as he gently squeezed the dropper, "careful." A tiny drop of blue liquid fell out of it and into the mixture, turning it green. "Yes!" He pulled back and returned the rest of the liquid to the container. "The mixture is complete. What's the next step?" But Twilight didn't reply, "Twilight?"

He looked over at her and saw the girl staring at the notebook, an almost bored expression on her face.

"Twilight?" He poked her and she jumped, turning to him and suddenly looking embarrassed. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Twilight shook her head. "Sorry. Guess I was a little out of it."

"It's not like you not to pay attention to anything science related. You're usually super eager to complete these assignment." He gave her a worried look, "so what's wrong?"

Twilight sighed as she sat down, "I guess this kind of thing doesn't interest me anymore." Flash's eyes went wide whilst Rarity and Derpy turned to her in shock. "I mean...yeah chemistry is amazing. But let's face it. Our science pales in comparison."

"In comparison to what?"

"To the aliens!" Twilight cried. "They had the power to travel entire solar systems. Compared to that, this level of chemistry is probably taught to kindergarteners."

"So you don't want to bother with our science cause you think the alien science would be even better."

"They're a highly advanced race," Twilight told her. "Imagine what secrets they could hold. The cure to cancer. A non-pollution making fuel source. They might even have a way to decontaminate chernobyl. That's the kind of science I want to see, if only they would be willing to share it with us."

"Now Twilight," Rarity told her. "You can't expect them to simply hand over their technology like that." She finally managed to get the last of the gunk out of Derpy's hair. "Where would the triumph be if we were simply handed all the answers to questions we've been searching for. We wouldn't be evolving darling. We would be reengineered by an entirely new species. Progress never comes with any shortcuts."

"I'm with Rarity," Derpy nodded. "Besides, even if they did give us a bunch of technology, would it really be smart for us to have it? I mean...imagine giving a caveman a car. He wouldn't know what to do with it and would probably have caused more harm than good."

Flash wanted to agree, but then his eyes shifted down to the Omnitrix and he was feeling very hot under the collar. Luckily, before anyone could ask him what he thought, Twilight's phone went off and she quickly excused herself to answer it. Seeing that it was getting close to the end of club time anyway, Flash decided to clear up the classroom and put their experiment in a safe location so they could complete it when Twilight was more on the ball.

Every now and then, he would happen to glance over at Twilight and see a smile on her lips. Clearly she was excited to talk to whoever she was one the phone with. And as she cut the call, Rarity spoke up. "You seemed overjoyed whilst on the phone. Was the person on the other line someone special in particular."

"Timber," Twilight smiled. Flash didn't know why, but he rolled his eyes at this.

Timber was an okay guy, but something about him rubbed Flash the wrong way. Part of him was telling Flash Timber stole his girl from him, but then another part had to remind him Twilight was never their girl to begin with. Even so, there was just something about Timber that he couldn't get over.

"What did he want to talk about?" Derpy asked as she took off her lab-coat.

"He's coming over tomorrow," Twilight explained. "And he said he's got a really big surprise for me." This statement got a bunch of squeals from the girls, making Flash wish he could transform into an alien that was deaf.

"We need to go shopping and buy you something special for the date." Before Twilight could argue against that, Rarity grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the science room with Derpy hot on their tails.

This left Flash on his own to do the rest of the clean-up, the teen groaned as he needed to wash the used beakers, sweep the floor and return the science key to the key pot. "Seriously." He then got an idea and smirked as he activated the Omnitrix, "XLR8'll have this place cleaned up before you can say-" He slapped the watch down and in a flash, he found he wasn't the alien he wanted. "Chamalien? Seriously?" He let out a groan and quickly went invisible, the alien choosing to still clean up instead of waiting to time out.

Luckily, nobody happened to walk by the lab. If they had, they would have been in for the shock of their life seeing a broom sweeping the floor without anyone holding it or beakers floating into the sink and washing themselves.

He finished cleaning up right as the watch timed out, Flash returning to normal and heading off to return the lab key.

He then headed out and as he did, he noticed a familiar police car pulling into the parking lot and rolling in next to his car. "Hey man!" Shining got out, "you know when Twilight's gonna be out?"

"Err....Twilight left ages ago?"

"What?" Shining asked, "but she asked for a ride home since the bus wasn't gonna come for an hour."

"Well...she got a call from Timber. Apparently he's coming over tomorrow and Rarity pulled her out of the door to go shopping." He leaned against his own car, "leaving me to clean the lab up."

"Timber," Shining had a look that told Flash he wasn't happy to hear that name.

"You don't like Timber?"

"I don't don't like him," Shining leaned against his own car. "Though he's not exactly the kind of guy I'd want to hang out with given the chance. I don't know, I just don't think he and Twilight go well together." Flash was surprised to hear this, since everyone else who saw the two together seemed to thing they were a match made in heaven. "Maybe it's just me being the overprotective big brother type."

"What don't you like about him?" Flash asked, "he and Twilight share a lot of the same interests. They're both super into science, Timber makes her laugh and he's always complimenting her."

Shining thought about it as he leaned back. "Growing up, I never really envisioned Twilight ever having an actual relationship. Heck, I figured she would try to build a boyfriend before finding one." Flash couldn't help but laugh at this, "but I always thought Twilight needed someone the balance out her nerdy side. Someone who knows enough about the stuff she's interested in to understand her, but no so interested that all they do is talk about those thing and keep her from experiencing something new."

"So someone who shares a few of her interests, but has their own things that she might not like."

"Exactly. Cadance and I don't have the exact same likes. She enjoys boring soap operas and I enjoy Ogres and Oubliettes. She likes going to the beauty parlour and I like building models. But we both enjoy several of the same movies, we both share our favourite restaurants and Cadance even got me into a pear and guava fruit drink I really like. And I hate pears."

"Well I don't know if Twilight and Timber share all the same interests. But he makes her laugh."

Shining didn't look convinced. "I've seen the two of them together and when he makes Twilight laugh, he's actually trying really hard to do it. Twilight can't tell, but it's clear he's purposely saying what he's saying to get that reaction out of her. Real relationships don't require that kind of effort. It should come naturally." As he said that, he felt something wet land on his head and looked up.

Dark clouds had been hanging over Canterlot all day. And now it appeared that the heavens were finally starting to open up.

"I'd better get home. Hopefully Twilight will get back before the rain picks up to much." Flash nodded and the two got into their cars, giving one final wave to each other before setting off and heading home. As they did, Flash started his wipers and found a squeaking noise coming from one of them. Taking a closer look, he saw part of the rubber of one wiper had come off of the blade. He knew what he was doing tomorrow.

It rained well into the night, not stopping until about midnight. Luckily when the sun rose the next day, most of the water had dried up and there wasn't a cloud in the sky.

This made Twilight happy, as she caught the bus too the middle of town where she was planning to meet Timber. She was glad her parents had agreed to watch Spike, allowing her to focus on Timber the entire time. She also couldn't wait to see what Timber thought of her new dress.

She was currently wearing a light blue summer dress that flowed all the way down to her knees, with her legs covered in white socks and wearing shoes that matched her dress. Twilight liked it, but was glad she had talked Rarity out of making her get the large sun-hat that she thought went well with it.

She waited patiently, wondering how much longer Timber was gonna be. Then she suddenly found someone covering her eyes. "Guess who?" She spun around and smiled seeing Timber, who was dressed in his usual non-Camp Everfree clothing with a backpack slung over his shoulder.

"Timber!" She cheered, throwing her arms around him. Timber hugged back as the pair laughed. "I'm so glad you could come."

"Of course I came," Timber smirked as he pulled away. "I wouldn't miss the chance to see my favourite glasses wearing girl." Twilight blushed at this, "besides, I have something interesting to show you." Now Twilight was really interested, "but that can wait until later. What do you wanna do today? Go grab a bite? Head to the arcade? See a movie?" Twilight tried to think, but the only thing on her mind was the surprise Timber had for her.

"I guess we could have some lunch," Twilight told him off the top of her head. Timber smirked and the pair headed towards the nearest burger joint. As they did, Twilight told Timber everything that had been going on. And much to Timber's amazement, it mostly involved aliens. "And then Riot-Horn was thrown up and punched the dinosaur right in the jaw. That dazed the beast so much, it didn't defend itself when Riot-Horn fell back down and hit it square in the chest."

"Are you sure this actually happened?" Timber asked, "maybe you bumped your head or something and just imagined it." Twilight frowned at this. "What? A large rhino alien fighting a massive gliding dinosaur that came out of the earth. That's kinda hard to believe."

Twilight pulled out her phone and showed him images of all the aliens, Timber taking a closer look.

"Yeah, I've seen these pics. But how do you know they're not just guys in suits?" Twilight frowned, flipping to an image of Goop which clearly showed he was transparent. "Okay, fair enough. I guess I don't have anything to debunk, given what happened a few days ago."

"What do you mean?" Twilight asked, wondering if it had something to do with her surprise.

Timber sighed as they reached the burger place and was about to go inside, but knew Twilight was likely going to be asking about her surprise the entire time. So, he took off his bag and reached into it. Twilight was curious about what he was taking out, her eyes then going wide when she saw something that did no look like it was made on earth.

"Here." He held it out, "I found this a few days ago. More accurately, it crashed into the forest a few days ago when Gloriosa was out bulk buying a bunch of stuff for the camp." Twilight took the egg-shaped the device and turned it over in her hands, her eyes going wider and wider as she listened to Timber's explanation. "It was a giant ball of fire when it crashed, but when I touched it there wasn't any heat. I don't know of any metal that can do that."

"That's because there isn't one," Twilight stated. "At least...not one on earth." She realised what this was and couldn't believe it. "This is alien. An actual alien device. And now I have it." This was turning into the greatest day of her life. "I have to figure out how it works."

Flash had just stepped out of a nearby autostore, his new wiper blades in hand.

He placed the new blade into his car when his stomach began to grumble, the teen realising it was about lunch time. Knowing there was a good burger place within walking distance, he left his car since he didn't think he would be able to find a parking spot near the place.

As he made his way through the streets, he heard a familiar voice. "Come on Twilight," he looked around and spotted Timber Spruce along with Twilight walking up the street. "You can play with that thing any old time." Flash turned his attention to the device in Twilight's hands, whatever it is clearly being something interesting to the girl. "Can't you wait until later to have a look?"

"I only want to see what kind of power source it has," she told him. "It won't take that long."

"Twilight." They both looked ahead and Twilight smiled when she saw Flash, "hey. What's up?"

"Hey Flash," Twilight waved before turning to Timber. "You remember Flash, right? From camp."

"Right," Timber nodded, "Flash...um...hey."

"You have no idea who I am, do you?" Timber laughed and rubbed the back of his neck, Flash rolling his eyes and turning back to Twilight. "So what's that? Some kind of new gaming console or something."

"Nope," Twilight looked like christmas had come three times over, "it's alien technology." Flash's eyes went wide and he quickly looked down at the device, asking how she got it. As Timber explained, Flash was reminded of the night the Omnitrix had fallen into his hands. This made him gulp.

"Don't you think you should take that thing to the proper authorities?" He asked, making Twilight raise an eyebrow. "It could be dangerous. For all you know, that thing is a bomb waiting for somebody to mess around with it and make it explode." Twilight frowned, whilst Timber shook his head.

"It'll be fine." He put an arm around his girlfriend, "Twilight's smart enough not to do anything stupid with it. Cut her some slack."

Flash wasn't so sure. "Twilight, you know the kind of trouble messing with something you don't understand can cause. We both know you don't want another Friendship Games fiasco. You need to give it to Shining or someone who can properly figure out how to make it safe."

The techie stared down at the object and wondered if he was right. But before she could, Timber took it from her. "Well I found it, so it's mine. And I say Twilight's the perfect person to figure out what it does...after our day out together." Flash frowned at this and stepped forward.

"Don't be an idiot!" He reached for the device, but Timber held it up above his head. "That thing might not be safe." He reached for it but Timber was taller and kept it out of arm's reach, Twilight frowning as she feared a fight might be about to start.

"You guys, stop it!" But they didn't listen and Flash kept trying to grab the device, with the Omnitrix getting within inches of it. As it did, the dial of the watch glowed for a second before a tiny spark of green energy moved from it to the device.

When it did so, the red light on it lit up. This got the three's attention and the boys stopped fighting and stared at it. "What did you do?" Flash asked, Timber not replying.

Twilight quickly grabbed the device in her magic and pulled it over to her, the science genius looking the machine over. "Maybe you hit a switch or something." But before she could figure out what happened, the device suddenly jolted out of her hands. "Ahh!" She cried, trying to grab it. But the egg fell to the ground and began to roll towards a nearby vending machine.

As it did, one of the red domes retracted into the device to reveal a hole. A hole that suddenly shot a metal cable out that struck the vending machine. "Oh that can't be good," Flash gulped. The cable retracted and pulled he device towards the vending machine, sparks flying off of it and surrounding it.

"What's going on?" TImber asked, the other two having no idea what was happening.

They soon figured it out when the vending machine suddenly started transforming, its rectangular body morphing as a quartet of legs appeared from the side and hoisted it up, whilst the device was moved up to the top to act like a giant eye. Finally, an opening appeared before some kind of gun folded out.

"That really can't be good," Flash gulped. Many other people had seen this and were curious about what had happened, but that curiocity turned to fear when the machine started firing high-velocity cans from out of its gun. They screamed as the projectiles flew through the air and smashed anything they came in contact with, causing the people to flee.

"Wow!" Flash cried as he was swept along with these people, whilst Timber grabbed Twilight's arm and pulled her away as the machine continued to attack.

"FLASH!" Twilight cried, staring at the teen as he was pulled in the other direction. "Timber, let me go!"

"We gotta get out of here!" Timber cried as the machine fired a can that sailed right over his head, Twilight turning back to where Flash had been and seeing he had vanished.

Flash had managed to pull himself out of the crowd and ran into a nearby alleyway, the teen activating the Omnitrix as soon as he did.

"Those cans won't even scratch Diamondhead." He dialed up the alien and slammed it down, a bright green light filling the air as he did so. When the light faded, Flash saw he wasn't the alien he had picked. "Goop!?" The living slime groaned, "fine!" The ufo above him shot back towards the street and pulled his gelatinous form behind it.

He spotted the machine and flew at it, the former vending machine appearing to sense him and pointing its can blaster at him. But as it fired, the cans simply flew through his body and did nothing to hurt him.

"Nice try!" He cried before takinging humanoid form and swinging his arms around, whipping at the machine's legs. With every strike, his acidic form burnt a little of the metal. And as it tried to fire back, the cans continued to fly right through him. "Hahaa!" He reached out and grabbed the legs entirely, working to melt through the metal as fast as possible. "This should deal with you." But as he said that, the device controlling the machine looked around.

Eventually, it spotted a pair of cars across the street.

"Huh?" Goop looked up as he heard a whirring sound and saw the machine unleash two more cables from the red spots on its body, the cables flying across the street and hitting the two cards. "Uh oh." The cables retracted and pulled the vending machine towards the cars, its legs breaking away from the areas that had been melted.

When the three machines connected, lightning surged out of the device and started surrounding them. As it did, the machines started to transform and merge together, slowly creating an entirely new form.

"What is this thing?" He asked as the mech took a more beastly form, creating four mechanical legs that had tires for feet and a large head that appeared to be the mix of a lizard and a tiger. Once it was completely transformed, it let out an actual roar that Goop realised was a variation of the car horns.

It then leapt forward and tried to crush him underfoot, Goop's ufo flying away and letting his body get smooshed. Luckily, he didn't feel a thing and quickly flew out from under the foot as the ufo flew back and pulled it upwards. Goop quickly started spiraling around its leg, melting it before flying off so it couldn't try and eat him.

The damaged leg creaked as sparks flew out of it, Goop hoping this would stop it once and for all. But instead, the machine ran over to a nearby ATM and ripped it out of the wall with its mouth. As it chewed the machine up and swallowed it down, the damage to its leg was starting to be repaired. At the same time, a section of its back opened up and started spitting out money.

"This thing eats technology and then makes it apart of itself," Goop realised. "It's some kind of...technology carnivore!" As he said this, he heard sirens from down the street and realised the police were coming. "Not good." He leapt into the air, hoping to finish this thing off before it could cause any harm.

He shot up to the beast and swung a ball of acidic slime towards it. This struck the beast's shoulder and melted through it just a little, Goop quickly using this chance to fly towards it. Planning to take it down the same way he did the bounty hunters, he stuck his head into the techno carnivore's damaged shoulder.

The beast saw this and growled before doing something unexpected.

Suddenly, Goop found himself getting zapped by electricity. "YOW!" He cried, his ufo flying in and pulling him out of the hole. As he flew to a safe distance, the lightning died down. "Was it using the car batteries?" As he asked this, the beast chomped down on a motorcycle and healed its shoulder. "Well I'm not beaten that easily!" He charged again and continued to fire slimeballs at it, but every time he burned through the metal the creature ate more tech to repair it. They were at a standstill.

The police cruisers flew into the scene and as it did, the creature tried to swallow Goop's ufo. He knew if that happened, it would gain the power to float and Goop couldn't allow that. As such, he flew away from the beast and spotted Shining amongst the officers getting out of the cop cars.

When he saw them reach for their guns, he gasped. "DON'T!" He flew down and landed on one of the cars, surprising the cops. "Don't use your guns!"

"Why?" One of the officers asked, "and what is that thing?"

"Right now, I'm thinking of calling it a technovore." They raised their eyebrows at this, "long story short. This thing eats technology to build and repair its body. And anything it eats, it gains the powers of. If it gets one of your guns, it's gonna turn into a walking shotgun."

Shining nodded, "guns away men. We'll have to think of some other way to stop this thing." The officers nodded as the technovore charged, letting out a car horn roar as its mouth opened and unleashed a bunch of tongue-like cables.

The police and Goop all leapt away as the beast grabbed hold of a cruiser and started assimilating it. "Hey!" A cop cried as it pulled the car into its mouth and began chomping down on it, causing the mech to start growing larger whilst police sirens appeared on its head. "Do you know how much paperwork damaged police cars come with."

The technovore turned to this police officer and raised a clawed foot, ready to slash him to bits. But before he could, a purple aura appeared around it and pulled the mechanical ligament away.

"Huh?" Shining and Goop looked around to see Twilight standing further down the street, the teen using her magic to hold the technovore in place. As the police officer got out from under the paw, Twilight groaned as she tried to envelope the entire machine with her magic. But something this big, which was fighting against her the whole time, wasn't something she was well equipped the hold.

"Ahhhh!" She groaned, as she pulled her hands apart. Doing so caused the technovore to start making weird sounds and they all realised she was trying to pull the machine apart.

The beast didn't like that and slowly turned towards Twilight, then raised its head as part of it opened up to unfold a gun. "Uh oh," Goop gulped. "Look out!" Twilight gasped as the technovore began firing a bunch of cans towards her, forcing her to let it go and focus on grabbing them. But this allowed the technovore to charge forward and leap into the air, ready to crush Twilight below its feet.

Luckily, Goop shot forward and managed to grab Twilight before it could and pull her out of the way. The technovore still slammed its foot into the ground and did it so hard, it crashed right through the pavement and into the piping below

"Ew!" She cried as she landed on the ground, covered in Goop slime.

"Sorry," he told her before pulling the slime off of her whilst the technovore found itself stuck. Shining used this chance to rush over to Goop and Twilight, whilst the other officers were trying to find a way to fight it.

"Twilight!" He cried, "what are you doing here?"

"Trying to clean up my mess," she frowned much to Shining's confusion. "I'm...kind of responsible for this." Shining's eyes went wide as the technovore pulled its leg free, the trio quickly running to a safe distance. "Maybe if we can disconnect the original device from the body, the thing will fall apart."

"What device?" Shining asked, Twilight turning to Goop.

"I don't suppose the thing Timber found belonged to you and your friends?" She asked as the technovore chased them.

"Nope," Goop told her, "never seen it before. But clearly, it's not something humans are ready to be messing with yet." Twilight frowned, "alien technology is very dangerous. Especially when in the hands of someone who doesn't know what they doing." Twilight continued to look upset, whilst Shining shot him an, 'are you serious', look.

Before Goop could say anything else, the technovore stopped in its tracks and lifted its head. It mimicked sniffing before turning to look down another street. "What's it doing?" Shining asked, only for the mechanical beast to rush off in another direction. "HEY!"

"I think it picked up the signal of something it'd rather eat then us," Twilight realised.

"Well it's not gonna get its fangs on it!" Goop flew into the air using his ufo and chased after the beast as fast as he could go, Twilight and Shining following behind. As he got closer, he tried to look for a weakness. But so far, he couldn't think of any way to beat it.

In that moment, the Omnitrix beeped and he sighed before flying into an alleyway and out into another deserted street. As he landed, he transformed back.

"Well I wasn't having much luck as him anyway," Flash sighed as an explosion rocked the ground and made him look around to see the head of the technovore appear over the building between him and it. He quickly rushed back down the alleyway as the beast stomped further down the street. When he rushed out of it, he found Shining and Twilight had finally reached him.

"Flash!" Twilight cried, "you're okay!"

"Yeah," Flash nodded, "that crowd swept me away before I could think what was happening." He then looked over as the beast began munching on another car, causing it to grow and make even more people run in fear. "How the heck are we gonna stop this thing?"

"I don't know," Shining frowned at Twilight. "I hope you realise how much trouble you've started." Twilight looked down, clearly not happy her brother was upset with her. "You and I are gonna have a serious talk about this later, but right now I've gotta focus on stopping that thing and protecting people. And Twilight, if that thing hurts anyone I won't be able to protect your or Timber from facing severe consequences."

Twilight gulped and Flash felt bad for her, but knew they had more pressing matters to focus on. "Come on!" He ran forward and the other two followed, as the technovore started firing more soda cans until the flow suddenly stopped. "Looks like it's out of cans."

"Finally, some good news." The beast looked around, clearly trying to figure out how to replenish its ammo.

"Hey," Twilight looked around, "where'd Goop go?" She seemed to just now realise the alien slime creature was nowhere in sight, "he was fighting the technovore before."

"Must have realised he couldn't beat the thing," Flash stated. "Don't worry, I'm sure another alien will show up soon to help." He looked down at the Omnitrix and saw it was still red, "I hope."

"Right now, we've gotta figure out a way to stop this thing." Shining frowned as the beast swallowed another motorcycle whole a grew again. "If we don't, it'll get so big it'll start pushing buildings over just by walking."

"But how?" Flash asked, "every time we damage it it rebuilds itself. And we can't risk calling for some big piece of heavy machinery, cause it might eat it all down and get even stronger. How the heck are you supposed to beat something made of tech...without any tech?"

Twilight thought about this and as the technovore continued down the street, she noticed it pass a small computer store. It was then that she had an idea. "I know how to stop it." The boys turned to her in surprise, "but you've gotta give me time." She ran towards the store, "this'll work!"

As she ran inside, Shining turned to Flash. "You really think she can build something to get us out of this?"

"It's Twilight," Flash told him. "She's probably got a hundred ways to stop that thing. Now come on!" They ran forward, rushing between the beast's legs whilst it was busy gnawing on a lamppost. They had to keep it distracted from the rest of the populace, but luckily it appeared there were no other people around.

"HEY!" Shining cried, "over here you oversized robopet!" The technovore looked down at them, Shining reaching down to grab a rock off the ground and throw it. The stone bounced off the beast's metal body without leaving a scratch, causing the creature to let out a loud roar that was a mix of horn, buzzer and siren.

The two leapt to the side in order to avoid its giant foot stomping on them. "That the best you got?" Flash asked before throwing a rock at it, with the same results as the previous time.

The technovore turned to Flash and opened its mouth, "that the best you got?" Flash and Shining gasped hearing Flash's voice come out of it, the pair realising one of the cars it ate must have had a tape recorder or some form of recording software.

"Officer Armor!" Shining pulled out his radio, "We have your position. We're bringing in the heavy machinery to deal with this creature."

"Don't!" Shining took out his radio. "This thing's dangerous. It eats and absorbs tech. Don't bring any heavy weapons."

"Sorry officer, what was that? Had a bit of interference!" Before Shining could repeat, one of the technovore's cable tongues shot out and grabbed the radio.

"HEY!" Shining cried as it pulled the radio into its mouth and it swallowed. A few seconds later, an antenna stuck out the top of its head.

"This thing's dangerous," it copied Shining's voice. "Bring heavy weapons!"

"NO!" Shining cried, hoping the other officer knew it wasn't him. Alas...

"Roger, we're moving to your position."

Inside the electronics store, Twilight had grabbed a bunch of different pieces of tech.

She was busy soldering a bunch of items together, hoping her plan would work and being thankful the store owner had run off when the technovore attacked. She prayed she could get this done fast enough.

"Twilight!" She looked up from her work at the sound of her boyfriend, who sounded terrified. "Twilight, where are you?"

"In here!" She called back, not stopping what she was doing. A few moments later, Timber rushed into the store and saw her working on her creation.

"What are you doing?" He rushed over to her, "we have to get out of here before that thing comes back." He then noticed the device, "what the heck are you even making at a time like this?"

"Something I hope will end that creature," she stated. "An EMP!"

Flash and Shining were still at the technovore's mercy, Flash looking down at the Omnitrix and seeing it was still red.

They had just dodged another attempt by it to slash at them when they felt the ground beginning to vibrate. "Huh?" Flash asked before looking around, only to go wide eyed when he saw a large tank rolling down the street. "What the heck?" The tank was white with a police badge logo on it. "Why the heck does the CCPD have a tank?"

"Because super powered aliens, giant robots and mutant animals kept making us look like a joke."

"Point taken." The two rushed towards it, "if the technovore eats that thing, it'll be unstoppable." Shining nodded and rushed in front of the tank, which rolled to a stop.

"Don't get too close!" He yelled to the riders inside. "If you do, that thing will consume you and turn itself into a tank. Fire before it gets to you!" The ones inside seemed to hear this, as the turret started moving and pointing at the technovore's head.

The creature saw this and seemed to realise the tank was a threat, so quickly grabbed a car in its many tongues. As it lifted it into the air, the tank fired. But before the shell could land, the beast threw the car towards it. The two collided in midair and exploded, ringing the ears of Flash and Shining as smoke filled the street.

Seconds later, the tongues shot through the smoke and grabbed the tank. "NO!" They cried, as the machine was lifted into the air. As the technovore pulled it closer, the tank's top opened and the police started climbing out. But they were a good twenty feet in the air.

"We have to do something!" Shining cried, right as a dinging sound filled the air.

Flash looked down to see the Omnitrix go green and smirked, the teen rushing into a nearby alleyway as he dialed up his choice of alien. "If you're not gonna give me this, give me something that can save those people." He slapped the watch down and too his joy, he got his alien of choice.

Seconds later, the first cop lost his grip on the tank and fell as the technovore pulled it towards its mouth. But before he could hit the ground, he was caught by something moving really fast before being zoomed a good distance away. The others then lost their grips and where equally saved, as XLR8 managed to catch each and every one of them.

As the last cop was safely delivered out of harm's way, the technovore munched down on the tank. "Oh," the alien groaned seeing this, "that's really not good." Sure enough, the technovore grew even larger than before. As it did, its back opened up and started projecting something. A tank turret.

"Oh great," Shining gulped as the technovore turned towards them. As it did, the turret shifted down and pointed towards them. "FLASH!" XLR8 rushed up and pulled him out of the way, as the turret fired and blew up where they had just been.

The ground shook and several shelves fell over, Timber covering his head to protect it as he turned back to Twilight. "We have to go, now!"

"I'm almost done," Twilight told him. "With this EMP generator, we can stop that thing before it causes any more damage." Another explosion rocked the store, making Timber cry out.

"Why are you risking your neck to stop that thing. It's not your job to take it down?"

"This is our fault," Twilight cried. "Flash was right. We never should have messed with that device. I should have taken it to Shining the moment I realised it wasn't from earth. You should have too. We caused this and if anyone gets hurt, it'll be our fault."

"How is anything that monster does our fault? We're not the ones controlling it. We're as much victims as anyone else." The store shook again and part of the roof broke apart and crushed a nearby shelf. "That's it, I'm getting you somewhere safe. Let someone else handle it like they're supposed to." He grabbed her arm and tried to pull her away, but Twilight pulled back and added one final piece to her device.

"It's done!" She announced, rushing towards the door. Timber followed suit and when they were outside, Twilight saw the technovore further down the street.

"Where are you going?" Timber cried, "just turn that thing on and leave it."

"This thing isn't that powerful!" Twilight called back, "it needs to be really close if it's going to work!"

"Twilight!" Timber cried, but remained where he was. "Don't be a hero. Heroes don't live long lives!" But Twilight didn't listen and kept running.

The technovore kept firing its tank turret, destroy a bunch of different buildings that had luckily been abandoned when it showed up.

Atop one of these building, XLR8 and Shining were watching the devastation. XLR8 raised his visor and looked the machine over, "I don't think any of my aliens can stop this thing now."

"Maybe Firefly can burn it," Shining suggested. "Or Volt-Edge can make it short-circuit." As he said that, he noticed something appearing behind the technovore. "TWILIGHT!" XLR8 turned in that direction and lowered his visor, which zoomed in to show Twilight running towards the beast. "What's she doing?" XLR8 didn't answer, instead rushing down the building.

Twilight was soon close enough and prepared to activate her EMP, planning to connect it to the technovore using her magic. But just as she was about to flip the switch, the robot seemed to notice her. It spun around, its head smashing through another building, and growled before pointing its turret at her.

She gasped and as it fired, a blur shot passed the machine and grabbed Twilight.

In the blink of an eye, Twilight was up on a roof besides her brother and XLR8. "Twilight!" Shining cried, "what were you thinking?"

"I was trying to stop that thing," she stated before showing them the device. "This EMP should cause the device that start all this to deactivate. Though, since it's alien technology I can't be sure it's not shield from this kind of thing."

"It's better than not trying anything," XLR8 took the device. "I'll get it on the thing. You just tell me how it works." Twilight did so as the technovore continued to look around for more large technology to devour. Once XLR8 knew how to work it, he shot down the building and onto the street.

The technovore noticed him and growled before pointing its turret at him, firing a round towards him that the alien managed to side-step and outrun the explosion off. It fired again with the same result and then a third time, with XLR8 leaping into the air and onto the side of a nearby building to avoid. As he did, he flipped the switch on the EMP whilst running along the side of the building.

He then leapt forward and with his incredible speed, zoomed through the air and grabbed onto the turret of the technovore.

Before the beast could fire, he threw the device down the barrel before running along it himself onto the robot's back. He then avoided all the moving parts as he shot down its body and leapt off its back, right as the generator unleashed the electromagnetic pulse.

This wave shot throughout the technovore's entire body, causing the beast to suddenly freeze in place before it started vibrating. The wave then continued, XLR8 looking behind him and seeing the energy through his visor. He didn't want to know what that would do to the Omnitrix, so ran at his top speed and managed to keep ahead of it. As the wave began to weaken, the Omnitrix beeped.

In a flash of green light, he returned to normal and cried out as he started rolling along the ground before eventually stopping. "Ow."

The technovore's body began to collapse, as pieces of the beast slowly started to fall off it. First was all the stuff on its back, then parts of its head and shoulders followed by the rest of its body. Soon enough, its once dangerous form transformed into a giant pile of scrap metal. And sitting atop that pile of scrap was the egg-like device, which flickered its lights in an attempt to stay alive. But it just couldn't hold on and died.

Twilight had ponied up and carried her brother down the building, letting him go two feet off the ground before flying over to the scrap pile. She saw the device and picked it up, happy to see her EMP had done its job. As she flew back to her brother, Flash moved up to them and she saw his clothes were badly ripped up and he had a few scratches. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," he told her. "Just a few bumps and bruises. Would have been a lot worst if XLR8 hadn't pulled me out of the way." As he said that, they heard more footsteps and spotted Timber slowly making his way towards them.

"Is it over?" He asked.

"Relax cool guy," Flash told him. "It's dead." He turned to Twilight, "it is dead right?"

Twilight shook the device, hearing a lot of rattling coming from inside. "I think so. The technovore's collapse must have damaged something inside. I don't think it'll be coming back to life any time soon."

"Even so," Shining yanked the device out of her hands. "I'm taking this back to the precinct and getting in contact with officials that can study it in a safe environment." Twilight and Timber saw his still upset face and looked down, clearly worried they were in trouble. "And I won't tell them where it came from." They smiled and looked up at him, "as long as you promise never to pull something like this again. Alien technology is not a toy."

"I promise," Twilight stated. "If I ever find something like this again, I'll report in immediately."

Timber looked away, "I still don't see what the big fuss is about. Nobody got hurt." The others decided to ignore him as sounds filled the air. More police cars, ambulances and other emergency services began to race towards them with the technovore's destruction being their signal to get in close.

The lot of them would be given several look overs to make sure they weren't all injured, whilst Shining passed the device to the first high class officer he could find. They agreed to keep it looked in a very low-tech storage device until it could be determined what would happen to it.

Flash and Shining were both sitting on the back of an ambulance as the paramedics determined they were unharmed.

They spotted Twilight and Timber, the pair apparently getting over the previous spat as Twilight laughed at something Timber said. Shining couldn't bare to watch and looked away, then noticed Flash looking down at his watch. "You okay?"

"We both had such a go at Twilight for messing with alien tech," Flash told him. "But how am I any different? I've been messing with it even more than her."

"True," Shining nodded, "and when this all started I thought the same thing of you that I thought of Twilight. That you were a kid that can't handle that kind of technology. But you proved me wrong." He turned to Flash, "I'm not worried about you having that thing because you've proven you can be responsible with it."

"Twilight might have learned to be responsible with that device...if I hadn't gotten in the way and fought with Timber."

"True, but there's a difference. That device wasn't stuck to any of you. If it had, I would have been more open to keeping it a secret. I don't want Twilight or anyone I care about to end up a government lab experiment. This whole situation is just like with what happened with Negatine. It's not the tech that was the problem, but the person. Twilight isn't the right person to handle technology she doesn't understand. But you've proven you are."

Flash smiled at this and looked up at the sky, "I just wish I knew where the heck that thing came from."

Up in space, Vilgax's ship was being repaired using the materials they had salvaged from their destroyed rescuers.

Inside his ship, Vilgax waited to hear a status report. Sure enough, one of his robots stepped up to his tube. "Repairs to the ship are now at seventy three percent. We should have full flight capability within the next week or so."

"And what of the technology scavenged from the ship?" Vilgax growled.

"The absorption and adaptation technology has been studied. We are currently working to integrate it with our drone technology. Once fully installed, they should be able to repair and improve themselves should they end up damaged or destroyed."

"Good," Vilgax smiled, "soon the Omnitrix will be where it rightfully belongs. And the one who keeps it from me should suffer."

Author's Note

An interesting chapter with Timber in it. Hope you enjoyed and tell me what you thought of the technovore.

Season 1, Episode 10: Bemusement Ride

In a jewelry store in the middle of Canterlot, alarms rang as a trio of crooks rushed out of the building carrying bags full of valuables.

The three quickly saw a police officer on patrol in front of them and dashed to the left into a walkway with trees lining it on either side, the officer giving chase but not being able to match their speed. The three men laughed as they pulled ahead, only for something to suddenly grab them from behind and make them cry out as thy were lifted into the air.

They looked around and found the branches of the trees were the ones doing this, as they had somehow come to life and reached out to grab them with their branches.

"Naughty, naughty, naughty." They looked forward and gasped seeing an alien plant slowly walking towards them, the alien reaching out to them as his vine arm extended and grabbed their bags before they could get a better hold of them. "You known these aren't yours." The policeman arrived and Bushwhacker threw him the bags, the man smiling at him as he turned to leave.

Later that day, at CHS, Flash Sentry was sitting in his science class with his phone out watching footage of Bushwhacker's amazing crime bust on his phone.

"Okay!" The teacher told the class, "how do we calculate linear acceleration between points A and B?" She looked around and saw a hand rise, "Trixie?"

"It's a product of sine of the angle and gravity divided by the mass.?"

"Nope," the teacher replied before noticing a student looking down at his desk. "Flash?" The teen's head shot up, quickly hiding his phone under a book. "You still with us?" Flash nodded. "Then maybe you'd like to answer this?" Flash looked up at the board and saw the equation, thanking god he had Twilight as a tutor.

"Err...mass cancels out, so it's just gravity times sine."

"Correct." Flash looked over at Trixie and the girl looked back to smirk, the friends turning back to the teacher as she put up another equation.

A man had been driving across a bridge over the river when his tyre suddenly gave out, causing him to swerve and crash through the divider.

He screamed as his car began to tip over the edge, the water looking to be his next destination. But before he could fall, something grew out of the bridge's side and the tip of his car landed on it. That something was a platform of crystal, which saved him from his watery fate.

The next thing he knew, something big appeared behind him and pushed down on his car's rear. This brought him back up onto the bridge, allowing him to drive backwards out of danger. When he looked out, he saw Diamondhead smiling at him as he moved over to repair the bridge.

Flash was in gym class, playing dodgeball with the rest of his friends.

A rubber projectile shot towards him and he dived out of the way. He then dodged a second, caught a third and used it to deflect a forth before firing it towards Sandalwood and hitting him in the chest. His team cheered as one of Flash's teammates returned to the field due to him catching a ball, the pair and the rest of their active teammates continuing to whoop some butt.

A little girl was sitting in a tall branch of the tree, having climbed up to try and bring her cat down.

But now that she had her car, she realised she couldn't get down without looking downwards and that caused her to freeze up in fear. But before she could scream for help, she felt something wrap around her waist and lift her off the branch.

Looking down, she couldn't see anything but she could feel something smooth and scaly. She was about to scream, but quickly found herself being lifted down towards the ground. And once her feet were on it, the thing around her waist uncoiled itself.

She turned towards the tree and saw a lizardy head appear for a brief moment before giving her a wave and disappearing, with just its grinning mouth and three coloured eyes remaining for a few seconds only to vanish as well.

Flash was in baking club, he and Pinkie working on a delicious looking cake.

Flash had just finished mixing the batter and slid the bowl over to Pinkie, who grabbed it without even looking before pouring it into the baking tray. There was still some left over, so she slid the bowl back towards Flash who started spooning it into cupcake tins.

An hour or so later, the pair were enjoying two of the cupcakes whilst pouring icing on the rest.

At a construction sight, a man had had an accident. Part of the area he was working on had collapsed and he was trapped under a metal beam.

He wasn't hurt, but none of his coworkers could lift the heavy beam off of him and more of the building was beginning to come apart. If they didn't get him out of there soon, he would be a dead man.

Luckily, help came in the form of a green pool of living slime that flew into the construction site much to their surprise. "Get ready to pull him up." Goop wrapped both arms around the beam on either side of the man, the workers watching as the metal was slowly eaten away until the beam was split into three parts.

They quickly pulled their trapped friend out from under the smaller beam that pinned him, right as the building collapsed and crushed Goop beneath a half ton of metal and concrete.

But before anyone could mourn the fallen alien, drops of green slime slithered out from the gaps of the mound and reform the humanoid. They all cheered as Goop waved before flying away.

Trixie had just arrived at school and as she stepped into the building, all she could hear anyone talk about was Flash.

Technically, they were talking about all the different aliens and how they had been on fire the last week with saving the day. But since she knew who those aliens were, she couldn't help but feel a little worried. And that worry intensified when she spotted Flash at his locker looking rather tired.

"You okay?" She asked, stepping up to him as he closed his locker. "You look like you didn't get enough sleep last night."

"I'm fine," Flash assured her. "Just had to finish my english homework. And my math, science, history..." Trixie frowned, knowing Flash was up late doing all the homework he couldn't do earlier because he was out saving people. "It's fine. I got it all done."

"What was the last subject you did?" She asked, Flash replying history. "Can Trixie take a look at it for a moment."

"I'm not letting you copy off of me."

"Just hand it over!" Flash rolled his eyes and pulled it out, handing it to Trixie who quickly started flipping through it. "Huh, interesting. I thought we were supposed to be writing our reports on the Cold War, not the Bold War." Flash's eyes went wide and he quickly snatched it away from her, moaning at the sight of the B in place of all those Cs in the report. And that wasn't his only spelling mistake. "Clearly, someone is overdoing it. All this hero work is making you mess up in other parts of life."

"I'm fine," he assured her. "So I made a little mistake. I'll just say my spellchecker glitched and I didn't realise it."

"And what if your other homework has a few mistakes. You know how hard Mr Doodle comes down on people who make mistakes in their homework."

"I'm fine," Flash assured her before turning to leave.

Trixie watched him and sighed, "he needs a break." She had to think of a way to get him to take a day off. Even if he didn't mess up the rest of his homework, Trixie knew that all work and no play would lead to nothing but disaster. And luckily, she knew just the person to help her.

"Flash needs to have fun?" Pinkie asked, as Trixie joined the Rainbooms at lunch that day. "Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"Is Flash really in need of a break?" Rainbow asked. "What exactly could he be doing outside of school? He's not in his band anymore." The Rainbooms frowned at her, knowing that was a sore subject to bring up. "Did he get a job or something?"

"I don't remember seein' him at the mall or anyplace a teen could get a job," Applejack pointed out. "What exactly's the lad doin' these days?"

"That's...not my secret to tell," Trixie explained. "But come on. The guy needs a serious break. Look at everything he's been through. The stuff at Flurry's birthday, that Negatine guy, us being trapped underground with dinosaurs, that tech eating robot and other stuff I can't even begin to describe." The Rainbooms frowned, then looked over and saw Flash walking in with a tray of food and they saw he did appear a little exhausted.

"Maybe you're right," Sunset nodded. "Maybe he does need a break."

"Maybe we all do," Twilight explained. "Most of us were around during those same events."

"Exactly," Trixie nodded. "You all need a day off from being magical girls. So why don't we do something fun this Saturday. Something that doesn't involve dangerous monsters, aliens and magically enchanted objects."

"We're all up for that," Rarity told her. "But it might not be so easy to get a day away from all the insane things that have started following us. It's almost like the magic is drawn to us. Like it's trying to get in the way of our lives."

"Well let it find another day to mess with you," Trixie stated. "This Saturday is all about us and Flash having fun. You girls with me?" They all nodded, as Fluttershy spoke up.

"But how are you gonna get Flash to have fun? If he's so into what he's been doing, he might not let himself take time off."

"Don't worry," the blue skinned girl smirked. "Trixie has an idea. All we'll need is for Twilight to borrow something from her brother." Twilight wasn't sure she liked where this was going.

On Saturday morning, Flash and Trixie were driving out of town on the way to an amusement park.

This park wasn't as big or as glamorous as Equestria Land, but it still had a lot of fun rides, great games and the tastiest most unhealthy fast food money could buy. It was a great place to spend the day.

"Thanks for driving me," Trixie told Flash. "I'm sure you're eager to be out looking for people to save in alien form." Flash smirked at her, appearing to think she had forgotten about their little disagreement the other day.

"No problem. Who knows, we might find somebody on the way that needs alien help." But they didn't, much to Trixie joy. Their trip to the park was uneventful, with the only exciting thing being the pair singing to a song they both enjoyed when it came on the radio.

Eventually, they arrived at the amusement park and Flash pulled into the lot where he spotted a bunch of very familiar vehicles. "Is that Fluttershy's car?" He asked when he saw the pink and white compact. "And is that Rainbow's bike...and Applejack's truck?"

"Huh," Trixie pulled out her phone, "the Rainbooms must have come here as well. What are the chances?" Flash shot her a look as he pulled into an empty slot, wondering what she was up to. But before he could ask, her phone's call got through. "The butter is in the pan. Turn on the heat!"

"What?" In a blur of motion, his car was suddenly locked into place. "Huh?" He got out of his car and looked down at the wheel, being shocked to see a certain item wrapped around it. "You booted my car!"

"Sorry Flash," Trixie got out. "But this is for your own good." The rest of the Rainbooms appeared and stepped up to him. "The girls an I all agree that you need to have a day off from...you're very busy life." Flash frowned at this.

"Come on Flash!" Pinkie cried out, "this'll be fun!"

"It's not like we're giving you much of a choice," Rainbow laughed as Flash let out a groan.

Trixie stepped up next to him and spoke quietly, "do yourself a favour Flash. Even cops have days off. If you don't have some fun, you're gonna hit burnout."

"But what if someone needs me?"

"I doubt the world is gonna end just because you decided to spend one whole day as a human. Come on. If you're not doing it for yourself, do it for me." She gave Flash puppy dog eyes and Flash groaned.

"Fine," he growled before pointing at her, "but you're paying for my ticket."

"Trixie expected that," she smirked before they all began to head towards the entrance. Luckily, they were one of the first people there so there wasn't much of a line to get in. When they stepped through the gates, they found the place was a mixture of old and new rides. There were many rollercoasters, but there were also a bunch of booths filled with games and even a carousel.

"Wow," Flash whistled. "Okay, this could be fun." The girls smiled at this and knowing they would likely all want to experience different things, and wanting to give Flash and Trixie some alone time, the Rainbooms rushed off and split up. "So...what do you wanna do first?"

"Not sure," Trixie frowned. "What's the most exciting ride in the park?"

"None of these rides are exciting." The pair stopped walking and turned towards the voice, where they spotted a man in his late twenties wearing a jumpsuit with the park's logo on it. He was currently crouching down next to an electronic map and billboard, working one the machinery that powered it. "Sorry to tell you this, you wasted your money if you came looking for something fun to do. Every ride here is super boring."

"Really?" Flash asked, looking over at one of the rollercoasters. "That one looks fun."

The man glanced at it and rolled his eyes. "Please, that one lost its spark years ago. Rides today aren't epic enough to get the blood pumping. That one could easily have three more loops, a sudden drop and be twice as fast."

"Doesn't sound very safe," Trixie frowned.

The man shrugged as he used his spanner to tighten something before closing the machine's door. Doing so made it switch on, showing a map of the park but also showing different adverts for soft drinks and other interesting items that sponsored the park.

The man began to put his tools away as Trixie pulled Flash away from him, the pair disappearing into the crowd before he could start complaining again. He did try to do just that, but found the teens were gone and groaned before turning to head to his next assignment.

"That guy needs to learn to enjoy the little things," Trixie told Flash.

"Yeah. Not everything has to be big and epic." He spotted a bunch of kids on a kiddie swing ride, the lot of them enjoying it without it needing to do anything extreme. "Whatever, let's forget about him and start having fun."

"Now you're getting into the spirit!" Trixie smirked before the pair ran off to find the first thing they could enjoy. That first thing was a rollercoaster, the pair managing to get one the front car and both cried out as it shot forwards with great speed.

Flash was so used to moving at superspeed, that the feel of the wind against his skin was barely anything. Even so, he still enjoyed the ride as it flew around the track.

After the rollercoaster, the two of them headed over to the waltz and found Pinkie and Twilight. The four shared a booth and enjoyed the constant spinning motion and multitude of colours that spiralled above them as they did. Afterwards, they headed over to another rollercoaster and spotted Fluttershy and a very bored Rainbow enjoying the carousel, then spotted Applejack, Sunset and Rarity playing games in the booths.

It was one rollercoaster, then a house of mirrors, another rollercoaster, a river rapids ride, twenty minutes in the drying chamber. Every now and then, the group would split up to do something separately but met up many times when they found a ride they all liked. Throughout the entire event, Flash didn't once look at the Omnitrix or worry about who might need him as an alien. He enjoyed himself the way teenagers are supposed to and it was amazing.

Meanwhile, the maintenance man Flash and Trixie had spoken to before was busy working on one of the rides that was currently down for maintenance.

It was a simple rollercoaster, one meant for kids who wanted a less intense ride. In others words, it was rather boring and the man absolutely hated it. "I can't believe the park wasted their money making this hunk of junk. I bet I could have come up with something way better at half the cost." Ever since he was a child, this man had always loved amusement parks. It was his dream to one day own his own and decide exactly what kind of rides would get to be built to entertain the masses. Working as someone who only got to fix the boring rides that should never have been built was not his idea of a dream job.

He was currently tightening and replacing some old bolts, the man using his spanner to loosen a bolt that he then took off by hand. As he put the spanner down and found a replacement bolt, something began to fly around above him. A small cloud of Equestrian Magic.

The cloud seemed drawn to him, as he found the bolt and started screwing it on. It floated behind his back for a second before drifting downwards towards his ever handy tool.

As soon as it touched the spanner, the metal tool sucked it in before it began to glow and suddenly transformed. In a flash, the metal turned bright red with a skull on the side of it.

Right after transforming, he picked it up and let out a sigh as he reached to tighten the bolt. "If only I had the chance to improve this ride. I bet I could make it a million times better. Double the speed, put on a bunch of loop-the-loops and make it zigzag several times." As he said that, he pressed the spanner onto the bolt and something happened.

A light flew out of the spanner and into the ride, causing it to start glowing. As it did, the rollercoaster started to change. It gained a paint job similar to the spanners and several more loop-the-loops appeared on a flat stretch of the track. Another straight section also morphed so that cart would constantly change direction a bunch of times. Finally, the cart itself transformed to gain a hot-rod paint job with a devil painted on the front.

He stared up at the coaster and couldn't believe his eyes. It was just how he imagined it. But...how?

He looked down at his spanner and realised it had changed, the mechanic's mind putting the pieces together. "Oh," he smirked, "this is perfect. When they saw how much better I've made the park, they're gonna promote me for sure." He ran off, but not before switching the closed sign to open.

Surprisingly, no one else had noticed the suddenly transformation of the coaster. So when they saw the ride was open and ready to be ridden, they rushed over to get in line.

As this was going on, Flash and Trixie had just grabbed something to eat at a food truck.

Trixie had gotten a hot-dog smothered in onions, ketchup and mustard, whilst Flash had gotten a double decker burger with cheese in the middle, onions and ketchup on one side and relish and gherkins on the other. It was delicious. "Um!" He moaned after the first bite, he and Trixie enjoying their lunches whilst looking around at all the games. They had gotten their fill of rides for the moment and decided to try out some of the booths, but couldn't decide which one to play at first.

"Maybe we should try going for an old classic," Trixie suggested as she finished off her hot-dog and spotted one of the booths with just what she was looking for. "Over there!" She rushed over to a booth as Flash shoved the rest of his burger into his mouth and followed, the pair seeing it was a simple game that involved throwing a ball and knocking over some bottles.

"You kids interested?" The booth runner asked, Trixie nodding as he handed her three balls.

She smirked as she picked up the first one and aimed, letting the ball loose to go soaring towards the bottles. Alas, she missed and the ball sailed over them. She then tried with the second, getting closer but still missing. "Ahh!" She grabbed the last one and threw it as hard as she could, the ball shooting across the booth towards the bottles. But it also missed, making Trixie scream out in frustration as Flash chuckled. "Alright, smart guy." She pushed him in front of the booth, "you try."

Flash smirked as he handed over a ticket and got three balls. He held the first one in his hand for a few moments, getting used to its weight and the feel of it. He then focused on the bottles and determined their distance. After a few seconds, he prepared his shot. But just as Flash was about to throw it, something happened.

CRASH!

Flash dropped the ball in surprise, he and Trixie looking over to see a nearby rollercoaster falling apart. One of the loops had come off the track after the cart flew through it, the metal breaking and causing it to fall down through the wooden structure below.

And what was worse. The cart was still racing along the track and would soon make a second circuit, meaning it was end up flying off the end of the track and go flying through the air.

Trixie turned to Flash and saw he had already started running towards the coaster, the girl sighing as she ran after him. "Can't the universe give the guy a break for one day?"

Flash activated the watch and cycled through it until he found the alien he wanted, the teen slapping it down as he rushed between two booths out of sight. A bright flash of green flew out of that area and as Trixie got closer, she saw Vapaw leap out from behind it.

The people around this area saw the alien and screamed in surprise, as he grabbed onto a lamppost up above the booths and started at the coaster. He quickly swung back and forth before letting go, the smoke lion flying towards the coaster and swinging atop two more lamps before reaching it.

As soon as he landed on the wooden structure, he started climbing up it towards the quickly approaching rollercoaster. As he did, the Rainbooms rushed onto the scene and saw what was happening. "What's going on?" Twilight asked, as someone who had been watching turned to her.

"That coaster was going way too fast!" He cried, "like a hundred miles an hour!" Sure enough, the cart was going incredible fast. Monsterably fast, which meant stopping it wasn't going to be easy.

"We gotta do something!" Rainbow cried, looking ready to run to it.

"How?" Fluttershy asked, "we can't stop something like that."

"But maybe he can," Rarity pointed at Vapaw, who had just reached the top of the coaster. He ran forwards as the cart flew towards him, the alien knowing something very concerning.

"This is gonna hurt!" He braced himself and dug his back paws into the tracks before thrusting his claws out, the cart slamming into him with enough force that almost broke his bone. "RAAAAAAAAAAH!" He roared in pain, as he was pushed backwards with his paws ripping through the wood of the tracks. This was slowing the cart down, but not enough to stop them before they reached the end of the tracks.

The people's screams deafened him and he hoped something would happen to save them. And as it happened, something did.

A blue blur shot up along the tracks, moving fast enough to go through all the loop-the-loops and zig-zags before reaching the cart. Within seconds, Applejack was deposited on the back of the last cart whilst the blue blur grabbed the people on said cart and whisked them away. "Need a hand?" She asked before summoning her magical super strength.

She forced her feet into the tracks and pulled back, causing the cart to also slow down. But it still wasn't enough to stop it before it reached the end of the tracks.

However, it did slow it down enough for Rainbow to act. The girl quickly zipped back and forth between the coaster and the platform, grabbing someone from out of the carts and running them to safety. As the coaster reached the end of the track, only two people were left in the coaster and Rainbow was running back to them.

Vapaw saw she wasn't gonna make it, so pulled himself up. "Time to go!" He ripped the bar holding the two off and pulled them up onto his shoulders, Applejack seeing this and letting go whilst Vapaw leapt into the air.

Down on the ground, everyone gasped when the coaster flew off the tracks and came crashing down into the rest of the ride. It smashed through the wood and send debris flying in every direction, the people screaming and running for cover. Luckily, Rarity made a bunch of shields above them whilst Twilight caught the bigger pieces and Pinkie blasted several more.

Vapaw had leapt over to another part of the ride, hanging from the wooden supports with to last two riders over his shoulders. "You two okay?" He asked, the pair nodding though they looked like the wind had been knocked out of them.

A burst of wind made him look up and see Rainbow standing on the track above them. "Need a hand?" She reached out and Vapaw hoisted one of them up, Rainbow pulling them up onto the track before they repeated the process. But as they did, a loud of snapping caught their ear and their looked down.

To their shock, the wooden supports beneath them were beginning to break apart. And those weren't the only ones. All over the coaster, the wooden sections were breaking apart due to the damage done by the loop and coaster crashing through them.

"MOVE!" Vapaw told the girl above, Rainbow grabbing the two and speeding them off. Vapaw turned to leap to safety, but then noticed Applejack was still over on the other side. Her section of the track was more damaged than any other, so she was in serious danger. "Hang on!" Vapaw leapt over to that side of the coaster, grabbing onto one of the supports below her. But when he did, it broke and he fell. "WOW!" He managed to grab another one and stop himself just short of being impaled by jaggard wood.

He quickly pulled himself up the coaster, several parts breaking under him as he did. He eventually managed to reach the top as the supports at the bottom broke and the track began to sway back and forth. "Wow!" Applejack cried, barely managing to keep her balance. Vapaw pulled himself up and grabbed her, "hey!"

"Hang on!" As the coaster swayed towards the crowd, he ran towards the edge and kicked off with all his strength. This propelled him into the air and pushed the coaster back towards the rest of the ride, as the wood finally broke and the whole thing fell in on itself.

Vapaw managed to grab onto a lamppost before swinging down and landing atop one of Rarity's crystal. "Careful!" She told him, the sudden weight almost making her lose her grip. Vapaw placed Applejack on another crystal before leaping into the air, unleashing a cloud of smoke that blinded everyone around as he did. When the smoke finally faded, the alien was gone.

"You okay?" Twilight asked as Rarity lowered Applejack to the ground.

"A'm fine. Glad he managed to get me out of there. A'h might have been swiss cheese if he hadn't." The rest of the crowd were beginning to complain, unable to believe the part would build such an unsafe ride.

In that moment, park security arrived and began trying to move everyone away from the destruction. As the park goers condemned them for this, one of the security guards mentioned they had never seen this ride before. Whatever it was, it hadn't been sanctioned by the park's health and safety board.

Hearing this, Sunset had a gut feeling about something. "Twilight," she nudged her friend, "can you get me a piece of the wreckage. Doesn't have to be big." Twilight nodded and used her magic to grab a small shard of wood before pulling it over, the girl grabbing and handing it over to Sunset.

The girl had a feeling she knew what had caused this mess. And sure enough, as she touched the shard her geode began to glow.

"I knew it," she whispered as Trixie happened to arrive on the scene. "Equestrian Magic." The girls all frowned and looked over the destroyed coaster. "Someone must have used it to upgrade this ride passed the point of being safe."

"So we gotta find 'em and stop 'em before they do anything else ta da park," Applejack realised. The girls all nodded and turned to leave, but noticed Trixie was there.

"Hey, where's Flash?" Pinkie asked, wondering where the blue haired rocker was. "He missed all the fun."

"I wouldn't call what just happened fun," Fluttershy frowned.

"He...went to the bathroom," Trixie nodded. "I'll find him. You girls...go look for whatever caused this."

"Got it. And if you see anyone acting suspicious, call us." Trixie nodded as they ran off, the magician beginning her search for the alien hero.

She tried calling him but it kept saying the phone was out of service, letting her know he was likely still in alien form. She tried to think of where he would be and realised he would hide somewhere close but deserted. She then remembered an area that had a bunch of large dumpsters, which she quickly rushed too.

"Flash?" She asked when she arrived and saw several large metal containers, "are you there? Flash? I'm on my own." She suddenly heard a banging coming from one of them, the girl rushing over to it and banging on the sides. Three more taps confirmed someone was inside. "You still alien in there?" Before Flash could answer, a beeping sound could be heard before a green light flew out the gaps in the bin.

Seconds later, the top flew off and Flash stood up covered in trash. "I have got to figure out how to turn this thing off when I need too." He climbed out the bin and luckily, his clothes hadn't been stained. "What I miss?"

"Sunset's figured out the coaster was transformed using Equestrian Magic," Trixie explained. "They're gonna try and find it before anyone else gets hurt."

"Great. Hopefully they'll find them soon."

"Yeah," Trixie sighed, "but I guess our relaxing day of fun has come to an end." Flash could see from the look on Trixie's face she was annoyed, the alien hero frowning.

"Trixie, are you mad at them for going after the Equestrian Magic? They can't just ignore it, especially if it puts people in danger."

"I'm not mad at them," Trixie assured him. "I'm mad that this is happening. I just wanted you guys to have one day without needing to save the world, but the universe couldn't give us that, could it?"

"Trixie," Flash leaned against the dumpster, "this is who we are. The girls didn't choose this life, but they're willing to do what needs to be done. And you're right, we do all deserve one day where we can just relax and forget everything that's going on. But we don't always get to choose when that day is." As he said that, a bunch of screams filled the air above the normal levels. "And it's clear that day is not today." He ran off, Trixie following suit.

They ran towards the area they heard the screams and found it was coming from a carousel. But this carousel wasn't like the others.

Instead of being a bunch of horses going in a circle, dangerous looking robot steeds were galloping around the track whilst blowing fire from their noses. Those riding them had their legs strapped to the metal, preventing them from jumping off. And things got even more insane when the horses leapt off the carousel and began charging through the crowd.

"Look out!" Flash pushed Trixie to the side as a red horse ran passed and almost set them on fire, Flash looking down and seeing the watch was still in the red.

"You can't do anything," Trixie told him. "You're just a human." Flash frowned, then heard a clattering and looked over to see a nearby tool box that had been knocked over.

Amongst the tools scattered around the floor, a pair of strong looking pair of scissors that appeared were meant for cutting metal. Flash had another idea for them.

"What are you doing?" Trixie asked as Flash grabbed the scissors and rushed towards the nearest horse, narrowly dodging its firebreath as he ran to its side and leapt onto its back behind the trapped rider.

"Help!" She cried, Flash quickly using the scissors to cut through the leather holding her leg. He then did the same with the other and once she was free, the girl leapt from the steed and was caught by more of the crowd.

"Come on!" Flash grabbed the reins and pulled, actually managing to maneuver the horse around. Those watching were amazed, as he rode the horse towards another. And as he pulled up alongside, he reached over and cut through one of the leg straps.

Getting his horse to slow down for a second was tough, but he managed it and then sped back up once the other horse was ahead and moved to cut the straps on the other leg. When the leg was free, the guy jumped off and landed in a bush. Flash then tried to get his horse to go after another one, but by this point the mechanical steed had had enough of its ride and came to a complete stop.

"WOW!" Flash screamed as he was thrown over the horse's head and landed on the ground, moaning at the impact. He then opened his eyes and saw the horse rise up to stomp on him. "Ahhhh!" He flinched, but a crystal shield appeared and blocked the hooves.

"Flash!" He looked around to see the Rainbooms running towards him, Twilight quickly grabbing the horse in her magic and tearing it apart.

Seeing a bunch more people still strapped to the horses, he grabbed the scissors and threw them at Rainbow. "Catch!" The prismatic haired girl caught the scissors and rushed off, zipping around the place and cutting the trapped riders free. Whenever a horse was made riderless, Twilight grabbed them and pulled them apart or Pinkie blew them up with candy.

Eventually, the last horse was torn apart and everyone sighed in relief. But before they could relax, more screams filled the air. "What now?" Sunset asked before they ran off. Over the next half hour, they found themselves dealing with one nightmare after another.

Bumper cars with saws and weapons on the side, a ferris wheel that went over a hundred miles an hour, a rotor ride that had an extendable arm that twisted and turned so much several people were thrown out and had to be caught by them.

The Rainbooms were exhausted after that last one, with many of the rides being shut down. But still there were some rides being kept activate and people were still going on them. "Can we not catch a break?" Applejack asked, the others moaning the same thing.

They were all taking this moment of piece to rest and catch their breath, Trixie quickly rushing off to get them some refreshments, but they knew this wouldn't last. "Any idea where the one causing this is?" Flash asked, the girls shaking their heads.

"Whoever's doing this has to be able to move about the park and get to the rides without anybody thinking they're out of place," Sunset told them. "That means it has to be one of the people working here."

"Or a kid who thinks the rides are really boring," Rainbow told her. This statement made something in Flash's head ping.

"The rides are boring," he repeated with the girls turning to him. "Where have I heard that before?" He slowly put the pieces together, the teen remembering a moment from earlier. "There was this guy. A maintenance guy. He was complaining about how the rides weren't epic enough."

"You think he's the one doing this?" Twilight asked, Flash shrugging as Trixie arrived with drinks.

"It's possible. Like Sunset said, it needs to be someone who can travel around the park without being stopped."

"So we've gotta find a maintenance man?" Rarity asked, "where could he be?" They all thought about it, trying to think where he would strike next.

"Well..." Fluttershy spoke up, "think about all the rides he's transformed already. They were all really old rides that have probably fallen out of fashion. If he wants to make all the rides less boring, wouldn't he go after the most boring ones first?" Everyone let this thought dwell in their minds, the lot of them realising she was absolutely right.

"What's the oldest ride in the park that hasn't been hit?" Sunset asked, Pinkie reaching into her hair and pulling out a map of the park. They all looked it over and Rarity pointed it out.

"There. It's a smaller than normal rollercoaster. He'll probably want to make it bigger and more exhilarating." They nodded and the Rainbooms rushed off, Sunset turning to Flash and Trixie.

"You guys stay here. We'll call you if we managed to stop this guy." And before either of them could argue back, she left and Trixie turned to Flash.

"You're not gonna stay here, are you?"

"What do you think?" He asked before running off towards the coaster they had seen. Trixie let out a sigh and followed, the pair making their way through the park.

The Rainbooms quickly arrived at the rollercoaster, which was a large metal one that didn't have cars. Instead, it had a bunch of seats one was strapped into before they rotated ninety degrees backwards so that you were practically flying.

The track was pretty standard, having several loops and a corkscrew section. It was still fun, but wouldn't be seen as such by the one doing this. "See anyone?" Twilight asked, the girls all looked around.

It was then that Pinkie spotted a man walking towards the ride in the park's uniform. And when she saw a rather interesting coloured spanner in his hands, she gasped. "Over there!" She rushed after him and the others followed suit, but the man quickly passed an area that wasn't open to the general public. "I got this." Pinkie pulled some sprinkles out and threw them, the lot exploding harmlessly but causing a large cloud of differently coloured smoke.

The girls used this distraction to rush passed the workers that would have stopped them and ran into the area the maintenance man disappeared behind, the seven looking around. "Hey!" Rainbow then cried, pointing at a nearby support beam that the man stood next to. He had his spanner out and was about to touch a nut. "Drop the spanner!"

"Why?" He asked, "I work here and I'm doing some maintenance on this ride."

"No," Sunset frowned, "you're changing it the same way you changed the other rides and made them unsafe." The man's eyes went wide as he discovered her was found out, then frowned.

"They're not unsafe. They're awesome."

"That rollercoaster collapsed!" Twilight cried.

"Only because that alien thing showed up and ripped it apart. Couldn't handle how extreme it was." The girls quickly realised this man must have already been affected by the magic in the spanner.

"Just put da'h spanner down and walk away," Applejack told him.

"Not gonna happen." He placed the spanner around the bolt and they both glowed, "I'm not gonna stop until every ride in this park is awesome!" With that, the ride was entirely enveloped by the light and began to transform.

The girls gasped as the track for the ride grew larger and large, many more loops appearing along it whilst the spirals were longer. One of the sections grew so tall it was a miracle it didn't topple the entire ride over. And the area where the riders sat had double the number of chairs it had, though that didn't matter since the ride had already been in use when it was transformed.

Those riding the coaster had been in for quite the shock when they suddenly found themselves on an entirely different ride, whilst their seats rocket forwards at twice the normal speed. Their screams quickly turned to horror, not enjoyment as they spun around a loop so fast many felt themselves get horrible whiplash, whilst the corkscrew area made many of them feel incredibly sick.

"What have you done?" Sunset cried, the man laughing his head off as he moved away.

"Made it awesome!" He ran off and the girls chased after him, knowing they would need to stop him before they could try and save the people.

In the control box for the ride, the controller was completely lost about what had just happened.

"Command!" He cried into his radio, "come in. We have a serious situation with the ride. It's...I don't know what happened it's just gone nuts. The speed is way beyond its safety limits and it's only one level one speed."

"Shut it down!" His boss cried, "before someone gets hurt!" He nodded and tried to turn it off, only for the control console to suddenly start sparking.

"Wow!" He leapt back as the whole thing exploded, with not a piece of the machine surviving. This should have stopped the ride where it was, but to his shock the coaster continued to fly around the track. And now he realised the problem. "The controls have completely fried and the ride won't stop. I don't think we can stop it!"

Flash and Trixie arrived at the coaster and saw it had already been transformed.

The people on the ride continued to scream as they were forced to constantly endure the horrors that occurred whenever they flew through a loop or spun in a spiral. "We've gotta do something!" Flash cried, as Trixie took out her phone and used its zoom function to get a better look.

"Flash, we've gotta problem." He looked at the phone and saw it was focused on an area of the track. This section of the track had a small crack in the metal, Flash wondering how that had happened until the ride shot passed and made the crack grow even larger.

"It's moving too fast. The metal can't handle the vibrations caused by that much speed."

"What are you gonna do?" Flash knew exactly what he would do, the teen running behind one of the booths. He looked around and made sure nobody was watching, then activated the Omnitrix.

A few moments later, a green flash appeared from behind one of the booths. The people watching the horrifying scene barely noticed, but they did notice when a giant armored insect shot out from behind the booth and flew up towards the ride. "It's those alien things!" One man cried, "what's it doing?"

Trixie rushed forward, "it's gonna find a way to save those people."

Firefly flew up towards the area Trixie had shown him and kept an eye on the ones riding it, seeing there was absolutely no way to get them out of there. Instead, he would focus on the track. And as he reached the area, he saw the crack had already spread to half the pole.

"Alright," he raised his right arm as the armour covering it opened up, "time to do some repairs." A small but powerful flame appeared on the tip of his hand that almost burned blue, the alien holding it onto the metal as sparks began to fly.

"Is that thing...welding the ride together?" One woman asked as park security arrived and looked up at Firefly, seeing him working on the ride.

"What is that thing doing?" Trixie heard this and hoped they wouldn't try to get in Flash's way, so rushed over to them.

"Excuse me," she told them. They turned to her with raised eyebrows. "That alien's trying to fix the ride. I saw a crack in that area from all the vibrating the ride is causing. If he doesn't fix it, it'll break apart."

The guard seemed curious about this girl's statement and took out a pair of binoculars, using them to try and get a better look at what Firefly was doing. Though the bright light of the welding made it hard, he saw that Trixie appeared to be correct.

Firefly then stopped his welding and pulled away, allowing the man to see a freshly repaired track pole that was still glowing bright hot. And as he did, the ride was quickly zooming towards that area. "If the ride goes over that now, the hot metal will bend and twist the track so much it'll cause major incident."

Trixie gasped and looked back at Firefly, who appeared to also realise this. As such, he spat a bunch of silk from his mouth and struck the super hot metal. He did this several times until the whole section was encased, the silk quickly solidifying and Firefly pulling away second before the ride shot passed. His good work allowed the pole to withstand the vibrations, keeping the riders safe. But the job wasn't done yet.

"I can see some more cracks forming!" Another guard cried, looking through his own binoculars and seeing another section of the pole begin to break. "And another. And...there's way too many of them!"

Firefly flew towards the closest one and quickly got to work, but knew he couldn't keep this up. If this ride wasn't stopped, the whole thing would be shaken apart. "Hurry up girls!"

The maintenance man ran as fast as he could through the metal supports of the ride, the Rainbooms right behind him.

Rainbow couldn't use her superspeed here, since the multiple horizontal supports made moving fast dangerous. The man had some major agility, shown as he practically skipped through, over and around the supports.

"He's getting away!" Rainbow cried, the less athletic members of the group all falling behind.

Twilight panted as she tried to use her magic on the spanner, but every time she tried the spanner's own magic thought against it and she couldn't get a grip. "There has to be some way to stop him." As she said that, the ride shot overhead and the whole place rattled.

"You hear that?" The man asked with a laugh, the lot of them hearing the constant screams. "That's the sound of people having the ride of their lives."

"They're terrified!" Sunset told him, "these rides you're making aren't safe!"

"That's probably what they said to the inventor of the rollercoaster!" He told them whilst jumping over and X-shaped support. "Just you watch. You'll all be riding on it by the end of the day and love every minute of it." The girls continued to race after him, all the while hoping the rollercoaster would survive until they could catch him.

Firefly had just finished welding another section of the ride and moved over to the next. The insect was getting tired, since producing such a small and powerful flame took a lot of energy.

As he reached the crack, which he saw was almost completely broken through, he prepared his flame. But before he could use it, the ride shot towards him and he was forced to pull away. And as it flew passed the crack, the vibrations completely broke it off. "NO!"

The people saw this and gasped as they saw the metal pole bend, having lost the support that had been a few feet away from that section. All of its weight fell on the other end, which couldn't take it due to another crack that was between it and the next support.

Before Firefly could save it, the metal snapped and fell to the ground. Luckily, nobody or any of the track was under it. But now the place ride had become a literal death trap.

Firefly saw the ride had already made it a third of the way around the track, the alien insect shooting towards it. "I've gotta stop this thing!" He cried, "or slow it down for the girls to stop that psycho." He got ahead of the ride and started coating the track with silk, hoping it would be enough to gum up the works and stop it. He got as much on as he could before the ride reached him, Firefly flying up out of the way as it shot over the sticky piece of track.

And to his amazement, it did slow down. The silk stuck to the metal and began to be sucked into the gears, making it slowly lose speed.

Everyone cheered at this, but then the ride cleared the silked up area and continued forwards. The silk had slowed it, but not stopped it. "Augh!" Firefly growled as he shot forward, sending out bursts of flames behind him that sped him up and allowed him to get ahead of the ride.

As the coaster flew through a loop, which looked like it wouldn't survive another go around anyway, he created as many silk strings as he could in his mouth and fired them. They all struck the coaster's front and wrapped around the sides, as Firefly quickly tied the other ends around his waist.

Seconds before the string went tight, he flew in the other direction and fired his flamethrowers at max power. This tightened the strings, which managed to remain attached to both Firefly and the coaster despite the incredible force suddenly placed upon them.

The coaster once again slowed down, as Firefly flew forwards with all his might. But the coaster was stronger and he was pulled backwards, however now the coaster was only going about ten miles an hour. "Ahhhh!" He cried, giving it his all to try and increase the power of his flames. But this was as strong as he could make them.

Everyone down below knew Firefly had just given the riders a heck of a lot more time, but it was still a losing battle. "Come on girls," Trixie whispered.

The maintenance man was getting closer to the edge of the rollercoaster. If he escaped into the crowd, the girls might never find him.

"We have to stop him now!" Sunset cried, as Pinkie threw a few sprinkles at him. They exploded, but he seemed to enjoy this and whooped as he leapt through the coloured smoke. "Hey!" Pinkie frowned whilst Rarity tried to make a shield to block his escape. But he managed to sidestep most of them as he got closer and closer to the end of the coaster's area.

"Let's try this!" Rarity created a wall of shields that filled the exit, stopping him in his track.

It was at this moment Twilight noticed some rope on the ground, curiosity of how it got there quickly fading. She grabbed it in her magic and threw it at the man, the rope shooting through the air until it reached him.

"Huh?" He looked down to see his wrist being tied up by one end of the rope before crying out as it was pulled back and tied to one of the support. "What the heck?" He tried to untie himself, but Twilight's knot was way to good. "What are you people?"

"Give us the spanner!" Sunset told him, but the man shot a glare at them and started swinging the spanner around threateningly. "Fine. We gave you a chance, but now we do things the hard way." The girls all touched their geodes and were enveloped by light, the man gasping as he watched them all grow larger ears, longer hair and wings in three of them's case.

The girls all floated up and grabbed each other's hands, the light flowing through them and combining into a brilliant rainbow. That rainbow exploded off of them and shot towards the man, who cried out as he and his spanner were enveloped by the light.

Back with Firefly, he continued to pull as hard as he could. But they stere still getting closer and closer to the end of the track.

And whilst the string was strong, it wasn't unbreakable. After so long of have a ton of pressure placed onto it, the threats began to snap. "No!" Firefly cried when he felt his, looking back but being unable to get a good aim to fire more. Enough threads finally gave out that the remainder couldn't take the pressure and they all snapped. "WOW!" Firefly shot forward in surprise, as the ride shot forward and increased speed.

Everyone gasped at this and many covered their eyes, not wanting to see what happened next. But before the ride reached the end of the track, a light from below the rollercoaster shot out and spread to it.

Firefly and Trixie both smirked as the light completely consumed the ride and unleashed a brilliant flash, which blinded them all, and spread the light across the entire park. And when the light faded, the rollercoaster had been returned to normal along with every other ride that had been upgraded by Equestrian Magic.

The riders also found the broken piece of track had been repaired, allowing them to fly passed that section without much problem. The ride was now back at its rightful speed and as it pulled into the station, the controller quickly used the newly repaired controls to bring it to a stop. Firefly flew down and checked on them all, "everyone okay?"

The riders were finally released from their chairs and when they stepped out of them, they all fell over from how dizzy and nauseous they were. "They'll live." Firefly turned to see some security guards approaching. "But they would have been in a far worst state if you hadn't come along to fix the rides."

"Happy to be of service," Firefly smirked before flying off to find someplace to hide.

Back below the ride, the Rainbooms returned to normal as the maintenance man was released.

His spanner lay on the ground, having been dropped during the ride's restoration. The metal had returned to normal and the skull had vanished. It was a normal spanner again, just as it should have been. "NO!" The man cried, picking it up and trying to use it. "Come on. You were so cool before." But the rollercoaster remained as it was. "You girls have ruined everything!"

"We saved people," Twilight told him. "It's alright to want to make something fun, but there has to be limits. You put a lot of people in danger because of what you did. You'll be lucky if the park isn't sued. What's the point of making fun rides, if they're so unsafe the park gets shut down before anyone can enjoy them?"

The man said nothing and kept staring at the spanner, the girls knowing there was no point in them trying to explain. So they left, leaving him to wallow in pity.

The entire park was forced to close after this, with the owners wanting the entire place investigated to figure out what had happened.

The Rainbooms found themselves wondering where Flash and Trixie were, as they were forced out of the park with many over park goers. Luckily, they spotted the pair sitting on Flash's car bonnet smiling as they arrived. "Hey there heroes," Flash smirked. "Nice work in there. You managed to find the guy?"

"Yup," Pinkie smiled, "and his days of ride design are officially over."

"Good thing too," Rarity nodded. "When we left, we heard what happened with the ride. If that alien hadn't shown up, all those people might have been killed."

"Yeah," Trixie sighed, "good thing we came." The girls noticed how she said that and knew something was up.

"You okay?" Sunset asked, Trixie getting up.

"I'm fine. I just wish our day of fun didn't have to be ruined by crazy magic and alien stuff. Just have one day where we can all be normal kids again."

"I hear that," Rainbow nodded. "But hey, it's not like every day's filled with this kinda stuff. And even if it were, we're not fighting against magic and aliens twenty-four seven. We just gotta enjoy the time we have that's not super crazy." The others all agreed, having all accepted that this was their life. They just had to roll with it.

"Come on!" Flash told them. "Just because our day at the amusement park is over doesn't mean we have to stop having fun. Maybe we can all go see a movie or something." The girls smiled and liked that idea, Rainbow quickly unbooting his car so that they could all head back to the city.

On the way, Flash tuned into the radio and got a news station. It spoke about the lack of alien activity in the city that day, likely due to the lack of serious incidents. Flash smirked at this, glad that Trixie had made him come. If he hadn't, he would have spent the day looking around for non-existent threats whilst the people on that ride would likely be dead. It just went to show Flash couldn't always predict where his alien powers were needed. He shouldn't be looking for trouble, but be ready when it showed itself.

Meanwhile, Trixie thought back to the whole day. Whilst she was glad she was able to get Flash to enjoy himself, seeing him and the Rainbooms save the day made her feel a great amount of inadequacy. If only she had the power to help people the way they did. If only.

Author's Note

Trixie showing her softer side in trying to help Flash and the others. Too bad it didn't go the way she wanted. Hope you wall enjoyed this chapter.

Season 1, Episode 11: Bloodsuckers

It was another beautiful Saturday in Canterlot.

The sun was shining. The birds were singing. And Flash Sentry was busy picking up trash. That's right, the super powered teen of ten aliens was on litter patrol. And he wasn't the only one.

Multiple members of Canterlot's youth were cleaning up the park. Fluttershy had organised this event to help the wildlife of Canterlot and make the place look more pleasant. Flash and Trixie were litter picking with Rarity, Rainbow Dash and a couple more kids from school.

The area they were cleaning up was around a large lake that was also suffering from a lot of trash being thrown in it. As such, nothing lived within its waters. This was what prompted Fluttershy to start this whole event in the first place. There, she, Sunset, Pinkie and Applejack were working on cleaning it up.

Twilight was also there, using her magic to lift large amounts of filth out of the lake.

"Thanks everyone," Fluttershy told them after they filled what was probably their hundredth garbage bag. "I know this is a lot of work, but helping animals in need is always worth it. Soon this lake will be thriving with life. Cute little duckies, happy insects and maybe even a few frogs. And they'll have you all to thank for it."

"No problem," Shining told her. He had been roped into this by Twilight, the police officer happy to help the community when he could. "I'm just sorry we can't clean the place up faster."

"Yeah," Flash nodded, "what I wouldn't give for super speed." A lot of them assumed he was thinking of Rainbow, but in actuality the teen was thinking about one of his aliens that he wished he could turn into at that moment.

"Alright everyone," Pinkie smiled as she added another bag to the trash pile. "We've been working hard. I think it's time we take a break and enjoy ourselves." Everyone cheered as Rainbow rushed off, then zipped around handing out bottles of everyone's favourite juice that Pinkie had gotten them.

Flash was handed an orange and passion fruit which he moved over to the shade of a tree to enjoy. As he sat down, he saw Spike was resting in the shadow chewing on a fake bone. The puppy noticed Flash but didn't say anything, not having a problem with him sitting there.

But as he sat there, he couldn't help but be annoyed by a light that was suddenly shining onto his face. He growled and rolled out of the way, looking towards the source and seeing it was something on Flash's wrist. "Do you mind? Your watch is reflecting the light right into my face."

"Sorry," Flash pulled his arm up out of the sun's path and allowed Spike to get a better look at the watch.

"That thing looks pretty cool. Where'd you get it?"

"Um...cereal." Spike had a feeling that wasn't the truth, but then Twilight and the others sat down besides them.

"This turned out to be a lot more fun than I thought it'd be," Sunset told them as they nodded in agreement. "So, how long do you think it'll be before this place is done? I can't wait to see what it looks like spotless?"

"Probably another hour or two," Twilight suggested. "We managed to get the bulk of it done, so I think we should be able to finish it sooner than we thought." Everybody liked the sound of that.

"It's a shame Trixie's darling Glamour doesn't enjoy a lot of exercise," the magician stated after downing a lime and kiwi. She was talking about her pet gerbil, which many of them had seen her push around the pet show in a baby stroller. "With all the hard work she put it, she would like a reason to come and see this place more often."

"You don't need a pet to come enjoy this place," Shining told her.

"Just come and enjoy the great outdoors every now and then," Flash looked around. "Though a part of me is worried this place won't be so great for long." The others looked confused. "This place got trashed before. Who's to say it won't happen again after we finish cleaning up?"

"Thanks for the thought," Rainbow frowned. "Can't let a girl enjoy her hard work, huh?"

"It is a little strange this place has become so filthy," Sunset pointed out. "You'd think this park would have someone working the grounds."

"I think it does," Rarity stated. "I'm sure I've seen him around in other parts of the park." She looked over at the lake, "I guess he's not getting paid to keep this area clean. I can't think why though." The others all wondered the same thing, as they finished off their drinks and decided to get back to work.

Flash had joined the lake cleaning crew, having agreed to go into the actual lake when Twilight was sure doing so wasn't dangerous. He and Applejack had changed into swimwear and dived down towards the bottom, looking around for anything that might have sunk there.

As they skimmed the lake, scooping several objects up in nets, they spotted something in the very middle of the lake. That something was a giant round wooden object that was so big, Flash could have lain on it and his entire body could have touched it.

They couldn't help but take a look at it, Flash touching it and finding the edges of it were rather sharp when he suddenly felt his finger slice open.

They swam back to the surface and when they did, the others noticed Flash flexing one of his fingers. "Are you okay?" Shining asked, as Flash wrapped all the fingers of his other hand around it.

"Yeah. Just nicked myself on something in the lake."

"You didn't cut yourself on anything metal, did you?" Fluttershy looked worried, "you might need a tetanus shot."

"No," Flash shook his head, "it was...I don't know what it is. It's stuck at the bottom of the lake."

"Looked kinda like a giant bath plug ta me," Applejack stated. The others frowned and wondered what it was, the lot moving over to duck their faces into the lake. It was pretty far down, so they couldn't really see it. "A'h think it's wedged into something," Applejack stated. "We could probably get it out if we had some rope."

"Ooh!" Pinkie pulled something out of her hair, revealing it to be the end of a rope. She kept pulling more and more of it out until there was more rope then Pinkie as a person. "That enough?" She asked after unleashing about twelve meters of it.

"Uh...sure," Applejack and the others just stared at the girl. They didn't think they should be surprised anymore, but still Pinkie proved to be a complete mystery.

"Let's get to work," Shining stated.

"WAIT!" They all stopped and turned towards the voice, seeing someone walking into the area.

It was a man of around fifty or sixty, who had like blue skin like Rainbow but his hair was a graying peach colour. He also had a large graying peach beard, which went down right to his stomach. He was dressed in an orange shirt and brown pants, carrying a walking stick he used to stay upright.

The man walked towards them as fast as he could, looking rather worried. "You must not touch that plug!"

"Why?" Twilight asked, "who are you?"

"I'm the man in charge of keeping this park safe," he stated. "I've been the groundskeeper here almost my entire life, taking over from my father who took over from his father. My family has kept this park safe for years."

"Well you kinda dropped the ball in this area," Rainbow pointed to the giant pile of litter they had picked up.

The man shook his head. "Long ago, my ancestors trapped a creature of unimaginable power within this lake. That wooden seal was used to contain them and is the only thing between that monster and the outside world. You must no remove it."

"Seriously?" Trixie asked, "you trapped an ancient monster under a lake in the middle of a park?" The man nodded, "how?"

"I don't know," he told them. "But the story has been passed down in my family for generations. You must not remove that plug, or you may doom us all."

"Don't take this the wrong way oldtimer," Shining stated. "But I'm betting that story was just something your ancestor told his kids to make his job sound cool. Obviously along the way, someone forgot to tell their kid they were joking."

"This is no joke!" He cried, looking very angry. "If you removed that plug, you'll regret it."

"I think we can handle it," Rainbow smirked. "Not to brag or anything, but we've handled a bunch of stuff that's probably way worse then whatever your great great grandpappy stuck down there." The man glared at them but turned to leave, clearly seeing he could not stop them.

"You'll regret this!"

Once he was gone, Trixie turned to the others. "Someone clearly forgot to take his meds today."

"I don't know," Fluttershy frowned. "What if he's right? What if there's an Equestrian creature down there?" Sunset had also been thinking the same thing and moved over to the lake, holding her geode and putting her hands in the water.

"I'm not sensing any Equestrian Magic," she stated. "I think we're safe from that problem."

"But there could still be something down there," Rarity pointed out. "Maybe it's best we leave it alone."

"Why?" Flash asked, "if there's something down there we can't just leave it there. What if someone else comes along and lets it out. At least you girls have the powers to fight off whatever it is. And even if you couldn't beat it, I'm betting one of those aliens will show up and help out. Maybe it's better for us to release it."

"Flash has a point," Twilight nodded. "If it's nothing, no harm done. But if it is something dangerous, we'll deal with it." The others realised they were right and so, they prepared to remove the plug.

Flash and Applejack swam back down and tied the rope around the plug, Twilight and the others up on the shore getting the rest ready.

They used a pulley wheel Twilight had for some unknown reason and looped the rope around it, Twilight using her magic to lift it up above the lake. When Flash and Applejack returned, they all grabbed the rope. "On three," Twilight announced. "One...two...THREE!" They pulled and found the plug was stuck on tight. Whatever had been used to stuff it into the hole, it had done a pretty good job.

They tugged and tugged and tugged and tugged, but still the plug remained in place.

Applejack then touched her geode and called upon her Equestrian Magic, giving the rope one good pull which caused the plug to finally move. They kept pulling and with every Applejack powered yank, the plug came more and more undone. "Almost there!" Twilight cried as they all put everything they had into one final pull, only to all fall back as the plug came out and shot up to the surface.

Applejack quickly pulled on the rope some more and the plug finally came out of the water, the lot of them getting the chance to see it and realise it was shaped like a bottle cork. They quickly pulled it over until it was no longer above the lake, the lot of them carefully dropping it.

"Wow," Twilight looked the cork over, "this is amazing. It must have been under the water for over a hundred years, but it doesn't appear to have sustained any warping from it. Whatever they made this out of must have been some pretty strong stuff."

"But what about the creature?" Rarity asked, the lot of them turning towards the lake.

They waited and waited and waited, but nothing came out of the lake. "So where's this unstoppable monster?" Spike asked, finally bored of waiting.

"Knew I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up," Rainbow frowned as Flash decided to take a closer look. He dived under the water and Applejack followed, the pair swimming down to the bottom of the lake. When they got there, they saw the area where the plug had been and saw that it was hiding a dark hole.

Swimming to the edge of it, they looked down but the hole was pitch black. They couldn't even see the bottom, and neither wanted to swim down into it in case they got stuck.

When they swam back up and told the others, Shining suggested they leave the hole alone. They all agreed, now confident the old man had truly been off their rocker. If only they knew how wrong they were.

As they continued to finish up their work, something floated down through the water towards the hole. A drop of blood, which disappeared into said hole. As it did, a strange noise began to echo through the water. A sound that was being muffled by the water, but grew louder with every passing minute. The sound...of croaking

And as the hours passed and night eventually fell, the park was completely deserted.

If someone was there, they would have been in for quite a sight. As the sound of splashing filled the air, caused by something moving through the water. Something that soon changed when the source of the splashing finally pulled itself up from the water, ready to find the one it needed.

The next morning.

Flash let out a yawn as he slowly began to wake up, the teen's natural clock telling him to wake up a few minutes before his alarm was to go off.

He rolled onto his back and rubbed the sleep from his eyes, all the while shifting his body to try and get the stiffness out of them. Around seventy percent awake, the teen sat up and blinked his eyes open. And as he did, she saw something sitting on the end of his bed looking at him. A giant frog.

"WOW!" Flash leapt out of his bed, now completely awake as he stared at the creature. "Wha...wha..."

"Flash?" He heard his mother call out to him, "are you okay?" He heard footsteps and didn't want his mother to come in and see this.

"I'm fine!" Flash assured her. "Just...stubbed my toe waking up." His mother seemed to believe this and asked if he was coming down for breakfast. "Um...maybe." His eyes remained focused on the on his bed, taking in its appearance.

It was a giant frog or toad, whose body was bright orange and it had big blue eyes. But the strangest thing about it was how it had a head of blue hair on its head. This was no ordinary amphibian.

"Er...hey little guy," Flash quickly got out of his pajamas and put his day clothes on, his eyes not leaving the creature. "Where...where did you come from?" The frog leapt onto the ground and hoped towards him, Flash staring at it and thinking it was harmless. He then crouched down and stared it in the eye, smirking as he realised the colour of its skin, hair and even eyes were exactly like his. "Well aren't you handsome." He reached over to pet the creature, wondering if Bananas would be jealous if he kept it. But before it could make plans to buy a frog tank, the creature reached out and sucked Flash's entire hand into its mouth. "YOW!" He leapt up, but the frog remained latched to him.

He spun around the room and tried to shake the creature off, but it was stuck on good. He then felt something touch the cut on his finger, making him flinch as he felt it reopen. He then sensed another feeling running through that finger and spreading to the rest of his hand. It was going numb, like there wasn't any blood flowing through it.

"Are you, sucking my blood?" The creature just remained latched to him and Flash kept swinging his arm around, with little success. At the same time, he heard his mother calling up to him again.

"Get off me!" And before the creature could start sucking blood out of his arm, his alarm clock suddenly rang.

The sudden sound made the creature flinch and let go, falling to the floor as Flash staggered back and grabbed a baseball bat out of the corner.

"Stay back!" He cried, expecting it to attack him. But instead, the creature turned to his clock and opened its mouth before a long tongue shot out and grabbed it. "Hey!" He cried as the clock was pulled into the frog's mouth, the creature swallowing it hold. "Great," he sighed, only for the frog to then vibrate. "What now?" He got his answer when the creature spat out a ball of slimy stuff the same size as it, Flash ready to vomit at the sight of it.

He was then in for a major shock when he saw the slime begin to harden before legs popped out the sides and a blue hair grew from the top. In seconds, another identical frog creature was standing next to the first.

"Wow." They then turned towards him, Flash's eyes going wide as he saw hunger within theirs. "Um...you don't want my blood." He moved back towards the window, "I eat a bunch of junk food. I'm super high in sodium." But the creatures continued to hop forward and Flash knew it was time to go, the teen pushing open the window and jumping out. He was glad there was a tree outside his window, the teen grabbing onto it and swinging onto the trunk.

He slid down to the ground as he looked up, the frogs bouncing over to the window. He ran out onto the road, not expecting them to follow. But then they leapt from the window and landed upon the ground without injury, Flash gulping at this.

As they approached, Flash quickly activated the Omnitrix and looked around. Seeing nobody was watching him, he slapped the dial down. In a burst of green, Flash was replaced with Firefly and shot into the air. "Hahaa," he smirked, "can't get to me now." But as he was considering roasting these creatures, something happened to them.

The backs of their bodies began to slowly bubble as slime popped out of them. Firefly watched in confusion as the slime moved outwards, then began to take shape. To the alien insect's shock and horror, both frogs were suddenly sporting a pair of wings. And not just any wings. Wings the same shape and pattern as Firefly's.

"What the..." He frogs took to the air, flying towards him as he was absolutely shocked. "How is something like that possible?" But the frogs didn't answer, instead flying closer to him. "Stay away!" He launched a bunch of fireballs at them, but the frogs avoided them all and Firefly quickly flew off in the opposite direction.

But despite being bigger, the frogs were able to keep up with him. Down below, the people of Canterlot were surprised to see one of the alien heroes flying through the sky when there wasn't any emergency for them to deal with. They then noticed the two smaller creatures following and wondered if that mad scientist was back and making a bunch of new mutations.

Firefly did everything he could to try and shake the beasts. He flew through power lines hoping to zap them, but the frogs seemed to sense the danger and avoided them as well. He then tried to fly as fast and as randomly as possible, hoping to lose them. But every time he seemed to be out of sight of them, it was like they were sniffing him out or something. Finally, he flew into heavy traffic hoping to get them to splat on a windshield.

He dived down into the oncoming vehicles, surprising those driving, zigzagging around cars whilst the frogs followed after him. And as a giant truck approached at high speeds, he flew straight at it with the creatures hot on his tail. And seconds before he slammed into it, he shot straight up. But the frogs were not so lucky and splatted again the metal front.

"Gotcha!" He chuckled, seeing the truck come to a stop in front of some lights whilst the driver looked out of his cab and gave him a look that told him he was nuts. "Sorry. Had a bit of a pest problem." He stared at the slime covering the front of the truck, hoping it would wash off. But then it slid off the front onto the ground in two slimy piles. But before he could think to clean it up, the slop began to move on its own. "Huh?"

The slime began to bubble and morph, slowly taking shape before solidifying in areas.

"No...way." Within seconds, the two frogs were back to normal and turned to the truck. Firefly had a feeling he knew what was about to happen. "Get out of there!" He cried to the driver, who looked confused until part of his truck was suddenly ripped off the rest by a very powerful tongue.

He cried out and threw his door open, only for that door to be grabbed and pulled off its hinges. As he leapt out, the two frogs pulled the metal pieces into their mouths and swallowed them whole. After a few seconds, they spat out slime that hit the ground and took form. Now four giant frogs were filling the street. And it wasn't stopping there.

The people around the truck that saw this quickly got out of their cars and ran, as the frogs turned to the truck and once again pulled pieces of metal off of it. Doing so caused each of them to replicate again, the now eight frogs all ripping apart the last of the truck and duplicating themselves again.

"Oh geez," Firefly gulped at the sight of the sixteen frogs. Each one were exactly the same and all had the same pair of Firefly wings. When the last eight finished replicating, they turned to the alien and began to take flight after him. "Leave me alone!" He flew off and they all gave chase, Firefly continuing to try and lose them for a good few minutes.

As he flew into another suburban area, Firefly guessed he was a minute or so from changing back.

Looking around, Firefly tried to think of something he could do. But as far as he could tell, Firefly had no chance of stopping these things. But just as he was about to moan, he remembered who lived in this area and flew towards the house. As it came into view, the Omnitrix began to beep.

"Not now!" He dived down and landed right as the light exploded around him, causing Flash to be thrown forwards and roll out of the light. "Ow!" He groaned as he quickly sat up and rushed towards the door, "oh please be home." He slammed his fist against the door, praying the one who answered was the one he wanted.

And sure enough, the door opened and Trixie looked out at him. "Flash, what are you-" She stopped when she saw the frogs flying down towards them, "what the heck!"

"We have to get out of here!" Flash told her, "those things won't stop chasing me and every time they eat something metal, they multiply!" Trixie looked shocked at this and pulled Flash inside, "Trixie!" She slammed the door shut as the frogs landed, the lot of them staring at the door and deciding which of them should eat it.

But before they could, the garage suddenly opened and something shot out after them. That something was Trixie, riding her bike with Flash riding on the spokes behind her. They quickly shot off down the street, the frogs staring at them before taking off to give chase.

"Where the heck did these things come from?"

"There was only one at first!" Flash cried, "I woke up and it was in my room. Then it ate my alarm clock and doubled itself. Then they ate a truck and...well that's the result."

"So where did the first one come from?" Trixie spun around a corner hoping to lose them, but that didn't work.

"I have no idea." He frowned, knowing he needed to call Shining Armor. But in his haste to escape, he left his phone charging in his room. "Do you have your phone on you?"

Shining sighed as he rolled towards the precinct in his police cruiser, a cup of coffee in his cup-holder.

He grabbed the mug to take a sip and as he did, his phone rang. "Hello?" He answered on speaker-phone, only to hear something very strange coming from the other side.

"Shining!" Flash's voice instantly made him alert, the cop putting down his cup and focusing his attention on the teen. "We need help!"

"What's wrong?" Flash began to explain and Shining sighed, wondering how the heck one kid can get himself into so much trouble. "Alright, I'll be there as soon as I can. Try and lead them to an area that's not well inhabited."

"I'll try," Flash nodded. "But the only person these things seem interested in is me."

Trixie swerved away from a busy street as the sixteen frog creatures followed after them without any trouble. "I think I might know where we can lose them!" She zigzagged through the streets, focusing on the backroads that might be less crowd. And then they found what she was looking for.

"A junkyard?" Flash asked, as they flew through the gates towards the maze of junk. "Trixie, this is a really bad idea!"

"Why?" Trixie asked, only for them to look back and get the answer. As the frogs flew into the junkyard, they saw the large amount of scrap metal surrounding it. One of them reached out and grabbed a rusty exhaust, but let it go as soon as its tongue tasted it. It looked sickened by it, Flash realising they must not be able to eat rusted metal.

"Trixie, I take back what I said. Smart move." Trixie smiled as she flew around another corner, the frogs still giving chase. But then they arrived at an area full of metal that wasn't rusted yet, the teens gulping as six of the frogs pulled these pieces into their mouths. Within moments, the number of flying frogs rose to twenty-two. "I'm giving back what I said. Not a smart move."

Some more frogs found non-rusted metal and devoured them, the number of these creature raising above what Flash could quickly count. The teen frowned at this, but then his watch turned green. "Yes!" He activated it as Trixie pulled to a stop, Flash getting off her bike and rushing forward. "Lets see how well these things like the taste of Volt-Edge's steel!" He slammed the dial down and in a burst of green light, Flash was replaced with Molestache. "Of course," he frowned.

Trixie wanted to laugh, but then notices something that made he get serious. "Look!" Molestache focused on the frogs as the lot of them stopped moving. As they did, their faces started to bubble.

"Now what?" He asked, wondering what the heck they were doing now. They got their answer when each of the frog's upper lips began to grow hair. Hair just like Molestache's, "I say!" The frog's mustaches began to stretch and grab a bunch of metal, Molestache realising the mistake he had just made. "They...they're copying the powers of my aliens."

"Maybe it's a good thing you got the wrong alien," Trixie stated as the frogs doublicated themselves again. Now they were facing a small army of them. "But why are they still following you?"

Molestache didn't answer as one of the frogs tried to attack him, the alien quickly using his mustache to form boxing hands. "Back off you insidious cur!" He punched the frog away and several more attacked, each of them extending their mustaches to try and grab him. "I said leave me alone!" He began punching the mustaches and attacking the frogs, but there were just too many of them.

At one point, a few of the frogs managed to grab his stache in theirs and lift him up. "Flash!"

"Unhand me you amphibious miscreants!" He tried to punch them with his stache, but more frogs grabbed it whilst the others licked their lips ready to drain more of his blood. "Why are you so insistent on sucking my blood? My blood isn't even human anymore."

The frogs didn't answer and some of them prepared to fly up to him. But before they could, a bunch of smoke bombs slammed into the faces of the frogs holding Molestache. They flinched and accidently dropped him, allowing Molestache to fall and use his mustache as a glider to fly away.

Trixie biked after him and as they escaped, the frogs reached out and grabbed pieces of metal in their staches. But instead of eating them, they threw them at the pair.

"WOW!" Trixie pulled herself to the side and barely avoided a car that would have crushed her. But this made her lose her balance on her bike and she fell off it. "Ow." She held her head and looked around, as the frogs flew towards her. She tried to get up and grab her bike, but one of the frogs grabbed it in their staches and pulled it into their mouths. "HEY!" As it multiplied, she steamed. "You know how much a new bike costs!?"

"Not now Trixie!" Molestache flew down and grabbed her by the back of her hood, turning his stache into a helicopter that lifted them both into the air. They flew out of the junkyard, the frogs flying behind them. Molestache was having trouble keeping ahead of them, since carrying both him and Trixie was strength the strength of his stache's power. "Sorry, I'm going to have to put you down!"

"Huh?" Trixie looked up at him, as he dived towards the street and released her. "WOW!" She fell two feet before landing, staggering forward Molestache flew back up. "WAIT!" She chased after him as as she did, she saw the frogs all shift positions in the air for some reason.

Molestache then did a quick turn around a building, clearly trying to escape them. But the way the frogs had positioned themselves in the air allowed them to turn without a seconds thought. Trixie stared at this and wondered how the heck they knew Molestache was going to do that, then realised something. "They look like Flash and take the attributes of the aliens he becomes. They...they're connected to him." That always made her realise something else. How they were able to predict his tricks and maybe even track him.

Molestache flew into a nearby park, hoping to lose them within the trees.

As he entered it, his stache stopped spinning due to overuse. He fell to the ground and managed to grab a tree branch to stop his fall, as the frogs flew down towards him. He sent his stache out to grab another branch and pulled himself forward, quickly using his stache to swing from branch to branch.

"How on earth are these horrible things keeping pace with me?" He kept swinging but eventually ran out of trees, so dropped down and ran for his life. "This is absurd. I've fought and defeated many more powerful creature and villains before. How is it that a bunch of frogs have me running for my life?" Several frogs suddenly flew down and landed in front of him, with others landing behind him and even more staying above him.

Molestache looked around, but couldn't see any gap in their defenses. He then looked down and realised this was his only hope, so started tunnelling straight down. The frogs hopped towards his hole, but he quickly collapsed it behind him and dug fast before he could run out of air.

Moments later, he hit something located ten feet beneath the park. A piece of stone. "Huh?" He quickly punched it with his stache, the stone breaking away and allowing him fresh air. Well...fresh wasn't a good word to describe it. "AHHH!" He plugged his nose and looked down, seeing he had broken through to the sewer.

He leapt down and swung onto the tunnel's sidewalk, the rodent alien running as fast as he could to escape from the frogs.

"There's no way those creatures will be able to locate me down here." But his british accent proved false for when he turned a corner, he heard a manhole being opened from above and looked up to see the frogs flying in. "Oh come now. This is getting quite ridiculous." He ran in the other direction, the frogs giving chase as they sped through the sewers.

The amount of frogs and the narrowness of the sewers made flying difficult for them. As such, they landed on the ground and hoped after him instead.

After a few minutes of this, Molestache had had enough of the smell and spotted another manhole up ahead on the other side of the river.

He leapt forward, using his stache to grab the ladder and pull him over the river. As he climbed to the top, several frogs leapt over the river only to fall short. Several fell into the murky water, the creatures attempting to get out but couldn't. They seemed unable to swim, causing them to sink. And after a few seconds, their bodies began to break down and melt.

"Incredible," he whispered in amazement. This had to be put on hold, however, as the non-melting frogs began to bounce towards him. As such, he punched the lid off the manhole and pulled himself through. When he did, he found he was in the middle of a busy street and several cars were driving towards him.

One almost hit him, but stopped just in time. "HEY!" The driver yelled, "get off the road you nutcase!" Molestache quickly ran and as he did, more of the frogs flew out and chased him down.

He ran through the alleyways and eventually, he couldn't run any longer. "Must...rest." He came to a stop and panted, trying to catch his breath. As he did, the Omnitrix beeped and he groaned before changing back.

Flash sighed as he looked behind himself, seeing the frogs flying forward. "Can't you just leave me alone!" He kept running and did so without any plan of where he was going. He knew that water could beat them, but how the heck was he going to get them damp? "Ten aliens on this thing and out of all the elements they don't control, water was the one it decided to leave out!"

He kept running for a good five minutes as the frogs kept up with him, clearly trying to tire him out before diving down to finish him off. He eventually arrived at the park again, but was still clueless about how the heck he was gonna free himself of these creatures.

But before he could scream, someone grabbed his jacket and pulled him behind a tree. "Shh," Trixie told him, "I know how they're following you."

"Huh?"

"Those things are connected to you somehow. They look like you and can mimic any alien you become, so it's clear they have a link to you. And I think that link is partly psychic. That's why they're always able to find you and why you can't trick them. They're reading your mind."

"Seriously?" He asked, as the frog's croaking got closer. "So I can't escape them."

"They might if you stop thinking," Trixie explained. "You have to completely shut off your brain so they can't hear your thoughts."

"How the heck does that work?" Flash asked, the croaking getting loader. "You can't just shut off your brain and stop-" He didn't get to finish as in that moment, Trixie grabbed his head and pulled it towards her. Before Flash knew what was happening, his lips were on hers and the pair were kissing.

Trixie's plan worked and Flash's mind went completely blank, the teen unable to put thoughts to this.

They kept this up as the frogs flew passed him, being completely oblivious to the two and fly off in a completely different direction. But Trixie didn't stop, wanting to make sure the frogs lost his trail before stopping. But as she did, seven individuals happened to be walking through the park at that moment.

Twilight, Applejack, Sunset, Rainbow, Fluttershy, Pinkie and Rarity had all decided to take their pets out for a day of fun in the park. But as they stepped through the park, they spotted two people they recognised doing something they had assumed they had done many times before.

Flash's brain finally started to reboot and as it did, his eyes happened to spot the girls and their pets off to the side. Of course, this led to him pushing Trixie away from him as the Rainbooms smirked. "This is not what it looks like!" He cried, Trixie turning to see them.

"Hey now," Applejack smirked. "No need to be embarrassed. We've known for a while now."

Flash's heartbeat soared. "Known what?"

"That you two were dating," Sunset smirked before the Rainbooms saw the pairs eyes turn to that of shock. They glanced at one another, as if having a mental conversation. Then...they burst out laughing. "What's so funny?"

"You think we're dating?" Trixie asked, "that's hilarious. Like I'd be caught dead dating this goofball."

"Oh like you're any better," Flash told her through his laughs. "Girls, we're not dating."

"You're not?" Pinkie asked, "but you were just kissing."

"I was trying to make him stop thinking," Trixie explained. "Listen, we'll explain the details later. But right now, we need to get Flash somewhere safe. Something's after him." The Rainbooms looked worried.

"Who?" Sunset asked, only for them to hear a bunch of croaking coming from behind them.

"Them!" Trixie cried as the girls turned to see the flying mustachioed frogs heading towards them. "We don't know why, but they're after Flash."

"What the heck?" Rainbow asked, as the frogs dived towards them.

"Everyone get together!" Rarity cried, the lot of them bunching up with their pets as she touched her geode and created a dome of crystals around them. "What are these horrible things?"

"And where did they come from?" Twilight asked, the lot of them turning to Flash.

"I don't know. I just woke up and it was in my room!"

"It?" Sunset asked.

"There was just one at first. But wherever they eat metal, they puke up a perfect copy of themselves."

"Fascinating," Twilight whispered before turning to take a closer look. Then she noticed something about their appearance. "Those wings. The mustaches. They...they look familiar."

Flash panicked, unsure how to explain it to her. Maybe it was time to tell her the truth. "It's the aliens," Trixie spoke up before he could. "They showed up to try and help him. But nothing they did could stop them. What's worse, every time one of them show up the frogs mimic the best aspects of them." One frog punched a shield with a stache fist, "so the aliens realised they couldn't call in their friends since it might make them even stronger."

Twilight looked amazed by this, pushing up her glasses. "Amazing. Could these be aliens as well?"

"But why are they after Flash?" Spike cried, Flash wanting to know that answer as well.

"They want your blood." They all turned to Fluttershy, shocked she would say that. "It's all they're saying. Blood, blood, give us blood. Every drop, gives us life."

"Every drop?" Flash looked at his hand, "the first one managed to grab hold of my hand and sucked a lot of my blood out."

"Gives us life?" Twilight whispered, "did it start replicating after it sucked your blood?" Flash nodded. "Maybe that's it. Maybe these things need blood in order to copy themselves. Metal must be one ingredient, but your blood must be another. Maybe every time they copy themselves, the amount of blood they have is split. That's why they haven't done it again."

"So they want to drain Flash and use his blood to make an army of froggy monsters?"

"Great," Flash groaned, "they're not gonna stop until they get every last drop."

Sunset hummed, wondering something. "The first one. Did it look like they do now, minus the wings and stash?" Flash nodded, "so that means it must have gotten a sample of your blood before...right?" They realised she was right, Flash trying to think about when he could have gotten his blood to them.

Then, he held up his finger and stared at the still healing cut that the frog had sucked his blood out of. Slowly, he was putting the pieces together. "The lake." The girls turned to him, "I cut myself in the lake yesterday. Don't you remember?"

"That man," Twilight caught on. "These must be the evil he was trying to warn us about!" As she said that, a cracking sound made them look up and see the frogs were starting to break through the shield.

"We need to talk to that guy," Sunset told them. "But we have to get Flash to safety first."

"That's gonna be tricky," Trixie stated. "These things seem to have a psychic link with Flash. As long as he's thinking, they'll be able to hear his thoughts and know where he is."

"That could be a problem," Twilight gulped before he brain started calculating ideas. "Alright, I know what to do." Trixie rushed over to plug Flash's ears, explaining him knowing the plan was a bad idea. Flash watched as Twilight pointed at the others and spoke, his brain automatically trying to put her plan together. Knowing that wasn't smart, he closed his eyes and waited until Trixie unplugged his ears.

"Let's do this!" Rainbow cheered as Pinkie pulled out a pair of sprinkle cans, channeling her magic into them. Rainbow then grabbed Flash and before he could ask what was happening, Rarity then dropping the shields around them.

The frogs prepared to charge, but Pinkie was faster and thrust the sprinkles onto the ground to make them explode.

In the blink of an eye, they were all engulfed by a multiple coloured cloud of smoke. Flash then felt Rainbow pull him along, her superspeed allowing them to zoom through the park. Flash tried his best to make his mind go blank, hoping it was working but guessing it wasn't.

Eventually, Rainbow came to a stop and Flash opened his eyes. He found they were back at the lakeside, with the plug still there. As he looked out at the lake, he remembered what had happened in the sewer. He couldn't believe he had forgotten to tell them about the frogs apparent weakness to water.

"HEY!" Rainbow cried out, "weird dude. You out here?" No one replied, "come on. We really need your help. Look, you were right okay!" There was still no reply and the pair let out a sigh. But then-

"Let me guess." They spun around to see the old man moving towards them, his walking stick being dragged along the ground with every step. "A strange creature has appeared and you have no way to stop it."

"Yes!" Flash told him, "those creatures are after me. They wanna suck my blood and make an army of them." He strode towards him, "you've got to tell me how to stop them before they drain me dry."

"There's only one way to stop them," he explained before poking Flash in the chest. "Keeping them locked inside the lake under the seal. But no. You decided to move it because young people think they know best."

Flash sighed at the old man, really not in the mood for a lecture after the day he had had.

"Flash!" He looked around and spotted Shining, who was running towards him. "Glad I finally found you. Trixie sent me a text saying where you were going. You okay?"

"I'm being chased by a bunch of vampire frogs that won't stop pursuing me," Flash replied. "I have had better days." He turned back to the old man, "there has to be something we can do. Those creatures were sealed up before."

"There were," he nodded. "But how has been lost to time. That's why it was so important to keep the plug where it was. You kids should have listen to me." They frowned, knowing he was right. Flash deserved what was happening.

"FLASH!" They looked around and saw Trixie, the Rainbooms and their pets running towards them. The frogs were right behind them, their focus quickly locking of Flash. "RUN!" Trixie cried as Rarity slid to a stop and created a large wall of crystals.

Flash frowned, knowing he had to find a way to stop them. "Try and get them in the water!" He cried, pointing to the lake. "These things melt in water." Twilight heard this and nodded, the girls turning her attention to the frogs before activating her magic. Several frogs suddenly glowed and were thrown downwards, splashing into the water and beginning to sink.

Twilight smiled at this and tried to grab so more, but before she could one of the frogs threw a mustache punch at her. "WOW!" She barely managed to avoid it and tripped, falling to the ground as the other saved the frogs that fell in the water. "There's too many of them!"

"Flash, get out of here!" Sunset yelled, Flash seeing no choice but to run as Shining and Trixie went with him. As they did, the Rainbooms continued trying to fend off the frogs. But some of them managed to get passed and chase after the three of them.

They kept running and Shining had them hide behind a tree.

"This isn't gonna work," Flash told him. "Those things are linked to me. As long as I know what we're doing, they're gonna be surprised." Flash groaned as he heard croaking approaching.

"You need to go alien!" Trixie told him, grabbing his arm and hitting the Omnitrix button. But before she could chose an alien, Flash pulled his arm away.

"No way! If I transform again, those things are just gonna gain whatever powers my aliens have!" Before he could switch it off however, the frogs arrived.

"Get away!" Shining pulled out his gun and fired, but the frogs dodged and charged at Flash. The teen leapt back to avoid the attack and as he did, he tripped and fell towards a tree. As he did, the Omnitrix's dial hit the trunk and was pushed down.

A burst of green light filled the woods and as it did, Trixie and Shining were greeted to the sight of the plant alien known as Bushwhacker. "You okay?" Trixie asked, as Bushwhacker looked himself over then stared up at the frogs as they stared at him. However, they didn't change or start to bubble.

"What's going on?" He asked, only for the frogs to dive towards him with their mustaches ready. He quickly reached and called upon the trees, getting them to move and slam their branches into the frogs. The lot of them were sent flying backwards, as Bushwhacker remained confused. "Why didn't they change?"

"Maybe they couldn't," Shining told him. "You said they were using your blood, right?"

"Right," Bushwhacker nodded as he used his leaf wings to blow some more frogs away.

"And you had a link. Maybe that link caused the blood they had to change whenever you changed. That's why they gained your alien powers." He stepped up to Bushwhacker and grabbed his head, pulling it off the rest of his body which suddenly went limp. "This form might not have any blood, so the frogs didn't change either."

"And they can't drain your blood in that form!" Trixie cheered, "it's the perfect alien to fight them as." Shining returned his head and Bushwhacker smiled as he turned his attention back to where the frogs had first come from.

The Rainbooms continued their fight against the frogs, Rainbow running beneath them at high speed to form a tornado whilst Applejack batted at them with a tree branch.

Twilight was trying to grab as many as she could, but she couldn't catch all of them and any she didn't catch ended up freeing the others. Rarity kept throwing her shields at them whilst Pinkie threw sprinkles, only to soon run out whilst Sunset, Fluttershy and the old man watched them struggle.

"It's impossible," the man cried. "Nothing will stop these creatures now."

"I wouldn't be so sure!" They all looked around, seconds before a wood fist shot forward and punched a frog. Bushwhacker rushed towards them, smirking as he prepared for battle. "These things don't seem to like the taste of vegetables!" He whipped his extend arms around and started clobbering the frogs, knocking them into the water before they could react.

For the frogs, they were all very confused. They knew this creature was the one they were after, but for some reason they couldn't hear his thoughts. As such, they couldn't react in time to stop the alien as he attacked.

He grabbed several in his hands and threw them into the water, whilst the leaves that made up his upper body rustled before shooting off like a bunch of ninja stars. They struck the frogs and made them croak in pair, as their wings and mustaches were cut. As several charged forward, the vines that made up his arms released the wood hands and split into multiple long tendrils.

He swung them around and struck the frogs, sending them flying as everyone watched in surprise. But Twilight quickly recovered and used this chance to grab as many of the dazed ones as possible before throwing them into the water. Rarity also recovered and quickly form a large barrier that covered most of the water, leaving a single opening in the middle that allowed Twilight to throw them in.

This prevented the frogs from flying back out, whilst the opening constantly being bombarded by new frogs.

Several of the creatures tried to attack from below, hoping they would go under Bushwhacker's radar. But as they got close, a bunch of roots broke out of the ground and wrapped around them. They squeezed them all until they exploded, Rainbow seeing this and rushing over as Pinkie threw her a bucket she pulled out of nowhere.

Before the slime hit the ground, Rainbow grabbed it all inside the bucket and ran over Rarity's shields to deposit it into the water.

Seeing this, Bushwhacker smirked and started upping the power. He grabbed his fists again as the wood transformed into hammer shapes, which he started swinging around to crush the frogs into paste that Rainbow quickly picked up. And he wasn't the only one doing this.

Applejack started stomping on the frogs with all her strength, flinching a bit at the feel of the slime sticking to her boots. Luckily, it all came off with a quick scrape on the ground and Rainbow was able to pick it all up and throw it into the water.

The old man watched in amazement as the tide was suddenly turned, with the number of frogs quickly dwindling. "Incredible," he whispered as he looked into the water and saw it being filled with the slime that was slowly mixing together. "But wait..."

"There's only one left!" Pinkie cheered, the lot of them looking at the creature that was hovering high above the lake.

"Bring it on!" Bushwhacker cried. "If you know what's good for you, you'll leave and never come back!" But the frog didn't do that. Instead, the creature dived down and seemed to commit suicide as it flew into the water. "Huh?"

"That was easier than I thought it'd be," Rainbow frowned. "Kinda expected it to do something surprising as the final boss." The others agreed and wondered what was happening, but quickly got their answer.

As the final frog melted, its form merged with the rest before it slowly started bubbling. Then, the giant puddle of goop began to raise up. "What's it doing?" Sunset asked as the goop pushed against Rarity's shield, the girls flinching as she tried to keep it contained. But she couldn't and the crystals shattered, allowing the back of the creature to leave the lake before the slime shot upwards.

Everyone watched in horror as a giant pair of Firefly wings formed and began to beat, unleashing a powerful gust that blew everyone except Bushwhacker back. His roots kept him secure and he was able to watch as the force of the wind pushed the goop up and out of the water. Doing so allowed the rest of the body to solidify, creating a giant version of the frogs that was the size of an elephant. "No...way."

As soon as its entire body was free, its giant mustache shot towards him in an attempt to catch the alien. Bushwhacker unrooted himself and ducked under the first threat, then jump back to avoid the next few. As he did, he sent some more leaves shooting forward to cut through the facial hair. But the strands simply grew back.

Thinking fast, Bushwhacker turned his hands into blades and started swinging them around as fast as he could. This allowed him to cut through the strands and slowly move closer to the frog, but it flew up to keep out of range.

The old man and the Rainbooms finally recovered and were amazed to see the giant frog. "Since when could they do that?" Rainbow asked, Sunset stepping forward.

"No more holding back girls!" They touched their geodes and transformed, amazing the old man as the girls rushed forward. Rainbow and Twilight flew up with Rainbow speeding towards the frog and dealing a good kick to its face. But the creature was like rubber and she simply bounced off of it with Twilight catching her.

Bushwhacker finally got closer enough to throw his blade hands at the creature, whipping his arms around and cutting into its flesh. But the gash simply closed the second the blade left it, leaving the creature completely unharmed. "This isn't working!" He cried, unable to believe merging had made them so strong. "What do we do."

Sunset looked around, then spotted the plug before looking into the water. "The same thing the people that did it last time did." They all looked confused about this as Sunset motioned for the fliers to come back down. "Girls, we're gonna rainbow blast it. It might not work, but it should blind the creature long enough for Bushwhacker to take it out."

"How?" The living plant asked, but the girls didn't answer and instead joined hands.

The giant frog looked down at them, as their magic began to pulse and join together. And as it prepared to attack the with everything it had, the magic exploded upwards and morphed into a rainbow that struck it. This caused it to croak in surprise, but the magic washing over it did nothing to the creature except blind it for a second.

"Now Applejack!" Sunset cried, the farm girl letting go of her friends and rushing over to Bushwhacker.

"What are you doing?" He asked, only for Applejack to grab him by two of his feet. "WAIT!" But Applejack threw him up with all her strength, the alien crying out as he shot into the air and up passed the frog.

"Rarity!" Sunset yelled, the fashionista summoning her magic and thrusting her hands towards the alien plant creature. As she did, one of her shields appeared behind him and he got the picture.

Spinning around, he thrust his feet into the shield as all the energy from Applejack's toss flew through him and into the shield. This caused them both to be thrown in opposite directions, Bushwhacker falling towards the still blind frog. As he did, he morphed his fist into a drill and spun it around.

As the frog looked away from the source of the rainbow light, Bushwhacker found he was going to fly right into its mouth. "CHEW ON THIS!" He cried before flying down its throat.

The girls stopped their rainbow blast and watched, as the frog subconsciously swallowed the alien and they all began to worry. Shining and Trixie arrived at this time and also saw it, gasping when they did so and fearing the worst. But then, the frog suddenly looked sick and began gagging as its body started spazzing out.

They got their answer why a moment later, when the frog suddenly exploded and Bushwhacker fell out of that explosion and into the water.

The slime began to rain down and likely would have reformed all the frogs, but Sunset turned to Twilight. "NOW!" Twilight called upon all her power and grabbed every last piece of the goo before it could hit the ground. Without it trying to escape, this was a lot easier and she was able to funnel it all into the lake towards the bottom.

At the same time, Bushwhacker was under the water by the edge and saw the slime flying down and into the bottom of the lake. Twilight's aim was good as she managed to direct it all into the hole, Bushwhacker acting quickly and sending his vines up out of the water.

Rainbow saw this and when she saw the vines feeling around, she rushed over to grab one and pull it towards the plug. As soon as the vine touched it, the rest followed and wrapped around the heavy object. Applejack ran over to help and together, they lifted the plug off the ground and pushed it back into the lake.

As Twilight managed to get the last of the slime into the hole, Bushwhacker pulled the plug through the water until it was hovering right above the hole. He then pushed it down, the plug hitting the hole and sealing it shut as he pushed down with all his force. Eventually, the plug was wedged firmly into place. The frogs were trapped once again.

Bushwhacker sighed but as he did, the Omnitrix began to beep and he panicked.

Back up on the edge of the lake, the Rainbooms and old man watched and wondered if Bushwhacker had done it.

But suddenly, a green flash flew out of the water. "What was that?" Rainbow asked, the others unable to answer. Shining and Trixie knew, which made them panic once again as someone's head broke out of the water.

"Flash?" Twilight asked as the teen took a deep breath, "what were you doing down there? And where's Bushwhacker?" Flash's brain completely stopped, the rocker unable to think of a good excuse.

"Flash!" Trixie cried, rushing over to him. "Thank god you're back. When Bushwhacker took you, we were really worried." Flash and the girls all looked confused.

"What do you mean he took Flash?" Rainbow asked, as Fluttershy helped Flash out of the water.

Shining caught on. "Right when the frogs were about to get Flash, he suddenly vanished in a green light and was replaced with the alien. Bushwhacker said they warped him up to their ship out of harm's way."

"You got to go to their spaceship?" Rainbow asked, looking super jealous whilst the rest of the girls stared at him in amazement.

Flash looked over at Trixie and Shining, but both motioned for him to play along. "Yeah," he nodded, "but...I don't remember anything. The last thing I remember was a green flash and the next thing I know, I'm underwater almost drowning."

"Amazing," Twilight whispered, "we've got to get to my lab. Maybe you'll have some of that transporter energy on you." Flash frowned at this and turned his attention to the old man, who was staring down at the lake.

He stepped over to him and when they were side-by-side, Flash gave him a look. "I'm sorry I didn't believe you. That we didn't believe you. If we had, none of this would have happened. I deserve what I got today."

"Your apology is received," he nodded. "I just hope this has taught you the importance of listening to your elders. I didn't get this old by accident, you know." Flash and the others nodded as they looked down at the lake, wondering what the frog creatures were doing.

Were they even still alive by now? Had they melted away into nothing, or were they just waiting for the next foolish person to release them. Hopefully, that fool wouldn't come around for a long long time. Whatever those creatures were, they were best left where they were.

Author's Note

I admit, this is probably my most random chapter of this story. Consider it Flash's version of Tourist Trap. Maybe I'll even bring the frogs back, but probably not. Hope you enjoyed it.

Season 1, Episode 12: The Hunt is On

Up in space, Vilgax's ship continued to float above the planet without any of the countries of that planet knowing it was there.

Suddenly, a hatch on the ship opened up before two metal disks were sent flying out. They flew forward and then dived towards the planet, heading for the same location the previous machines and bounty hunters had gone. Inside, the robot that launched them turned towards its master in the tube.

"The drones have launched," it told Vilgax. "Equipped with the improved internal tracking systems, along with the absorption and adaptation technology we recently acquired, they should have no problem finding and retrieving the Omnitrix."

The tube gasped as the one inside spoke. "They may find it." A long wheeze followed, "but retrieving it will not be easy. Whoever possesses the Omnitrix, continues to be an opponent of extreme danger. And inspiring brilliance."

Flash burped as he stuffed another handful of potato chips into his mouth, Trixie, Twilight and Rainbow frowning at him as they looked up from their own choice of snacks.

"Really?" Trixie asked, as Flash shrugged.

"What? I'm just making sure the chips are good enough to keep everyone satisfied for the night." He plucked out another chip and pointed it at them. "Do you want to spend the entire movie eating the wrong type of chips?" The girls rolled their eyes and tried to find their own choice of snacks.

As they continued to make their selection, they heard the store open and a voice they recognised. "Well what do we have here?" They spun around and spotted Shining Armor, a smirk on his face as he stepped up to them. "You kids aren't looking to buy anything you shouldn't, are you?" He smirked at the joke, as the teens rolled their eyes.

"What are you doing here?" Trixie asked, but Twilight had a guess.

"Diapers?" Shining nodded at this, sighing as he did so.

"The sooner Flurry starts potty training, the happier I'll be." They all nodded, knowing that none of them wanted to have to do such a horrible thing any time soon. "So what are you kids looking for?"

"Applejack found a bunch of old movies in her family's attic," Twilight explained. "She also found an old timey movie projector, so she invited all her friends to come and watch the movies."

Flash laughed. "We're probably gonna spend the whole time laughing at the terrible production of movies back in the day." The girls laughed with him, Shining rolling his eyes before grabbing diapers off a shelf.

Once they had all made their purchases, the lot of them stepped outside the store. As they did, Twilight turned to Shining. "Shouldn't you be at work right now?"

"Actually," Shining smirked, "crimes been down a lot lately. With all those aliens showing up, it's like the crooks are afraid to come out and do crime. Which means I can complete my paperwork without having to worry about ten more files appearing on my desk by the time I've finished one."

Twilight laughed at this. "Yeah, ever since they showed up things have certainly gotten a lot more interesting." The lot of them grabbed their chosen snacks and moved over to the cashier to pay for them, "but I can't help but still wonder why they only show up here."

"Who knows," Flash shrugged. "Maybe they really like Canterlot." Nobody had anyway to deny that and once they paid, they headed out the store. But as they did, a rumbling filled the air. "What's that?"

"I don't know?" Shining looked around, the others doing the same.

"Sounds kinda like a stampede," Rainbow stated.

"In the city?" Trixie rolled her eyes. As she did, she noticed something and pointed down the street. "Look!" They did so and saw the cause of the rumbling. A butt tone of large trucks, which were rolling down the street.

As they flew passed, Flash noticed they were a combo of red and black with a logo on the side that showed a red D on a green background with three claw-marks running over it. Rainbow gasped. "No way!"

"You know what that is?" Twilight asked.

"Yeah. It's Dynamo Danger. He's a TV star that has his own show. Dynamo Dangers, the Monster Hunter."

"Monster Hunters?" Flash asked, Rainbow nodding.

"Yeah. Every episode has him tracking down some rare breed of animal or creature, then capturing it."

"What?" Trixie looked apald, "that's sick! How is something like that legal."

"Well all his methods are considered humane and he doesn't kill the animals he hunts. He captures them and, depending on the animal, lets them go once he's shown the wold a close up look or sends them to an animal sanctuary. Last season, he managed to save a rare white rhino that was living in the wild and moved it to a safer place to avoid poachers. Another time, he had to capture a rare and deadly scorpion in order to get its venom to make a special medicine."

"Oh," Trixie frowned, "I guess that's alright."

"Yeah," Rainbow frowned, "but sometimes he goes a bit to far. He once managed to track down Fifty-Two Blue and planned to capture it for a zoo." That didn't sit well with them. "And every season opener, he tries to hunt down a mythological creature to prove they're real. Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, Chupacabra..."

"Let me guess," Flash frowned. "None of those episodes had him find them."

"Well...a few seasons back he climbed to have captured Moby-Dick, but apparently some do-gooders as he calls them, released it before he could show the world." Everyone frowned at this as the sixth truck flew by, the lot of them interested to see what this guy was doing in Canterlot.

As it turned out, the trucks pulled into a large parking lot and parked in a large U-shape. A large crowd gathered and Shining was about to march over and tell them that they couldn't park like that. But before he could, one of the trucks opened up and something flew out of it.

That something was a drone, which began to drop objects on the ground. These things sprung up to form a three foot high barrier, that blocked off the top of the U. As it did, something jumped out of another truck.

It was a man around Shining's age, with brown skin and red hair that was combed to the side, wearing a gray V-neck under a black and red sleeveless lifejacket and orange pants with about a thousand pockets on them. Around his neck, he wore a shark tooth necklace.

The man walked with a smug arrogance that reminded Flash of many Crystal Prep boys, the man waving at the crowd as if they were screaming and begging for his autograph. Then, another drone appeared and floated down behind him, whilst two of the trucks suddenly unfolded a large screen onto the side of them.

He spun around around as the screens turned on, showing the image of him that the drone was recording. "Welcome back, Danger Fans. I'm Dynamo Danger, the Monster Hunter."

"He's recording an episode?" Rainbow asked, "what the heck could he be planning to hunt in a city?" Flash had a guess and it made him sweat.

"I've travelled all across this planet, capturing the most powerful beasts and creatures that have evolved here. But today, I intend to set my sights on a new kind of prey. One that is certainly out of this world." As he said that, the screens changed to show images of the many aliens that had made Canterlot their home.

Trixie and Shining gave Flash a look, the teen gulping as he did so.

"For a good while now, these invaders have been showing up and causing major property damage and who knows how much injury." As he said that, an image on the screen showed Riot-Horn crashing through a wall. Flash remembered that as the time a horrible gas leak had occurred and he needed to increase the ventilation before a huge explosion followed. "Why have these horrible creatures come to our planet? Are they the vanguard of a full on invasion? We'll find out after I capture one of them for interrogation."

"HEY!" Rainbow called out to him, "are you nuts!?" Dynamo turned to her with a raised eyebrow, the camera focusing on her. "The aliens have only been helping us. They save people."

"That's right," Twilight nodded. "One of those aliens saved my life once. Canterlot's a better place thanks to them."

"Oh dear viewers!" Dynamo cried, hamming it up a bit. "It's as I feared." He marched over to the girls, "the aliens have already started to brainwash our impressionable youth." He placed a hand on their shoulders, "what did they do? Did they take you up to their ships? Did they prob you? How many eggs did they implant?" The girls looked ready to barf at this statement, as he turned back to the camera. "We must stop these horrible creatures before they weasel their way into everyone's minds and start breeding alien human hybrids!" The audience who heard this stepped away from the girls, who rolled their eyes.

"This guy's nuts," Trixie shook her head.

"No," Shining told her, "he's just seen one too many movies."

Dynamo stepped away from the crowd, the camera flying backwards to keep him in shot. "I intend to prove without a shadow of a doubt that these creatures are a danger to our planet's very safety. And when I capture one, it shall see that coming to this planet was the biggest mistake of its six-legged life."

"None of the aliens have six legs!" Rainbow told him.

"This guy's getting on my nerves," Flash frowned as he activated the Omnitrix. "I think it's time he saw what us aliens can do." He was about to slip away to transform, but Shining stopped him.

"That's a bad idea," he stated so Twilight and Rainbow couldn't hear. "This guy might be an idiot, but it's clear he's a heavily armed idiot. He probably has at least one weapon that can hurt each of your aliens."

"So what am I supposed to do?" Flash hit the button again and the dial returned to the watch.

"Lay low. There's no way this guy's gonna stick around if the aliens don't show up. Take a break for a while and he'll get bored and leave." But no sooner had he said this, something occurred that would force Flash's hand.

Suddenly, a laser beam shot down and blasted one of Dynamo's trucks. The man gasped at this and looked up to see a bunch of drones flying down, Flash and Trixie recognising them from Flash's first day as an alien hero.

"LOOK OUT!" Twilight cried as the machines pointed their weapons at them and started firing, the magical girls grabbing a nearby trash can in her magic and lifted it up to block the beam. As the can exploded, making trash rain down upon them, the other drone fired a beam which hit the building behind them.

Parts of it began to fall towards Flash and Trixie, Flash instinctively going to his watch only to be zipped away by a blue blur. The next second, he and Trixie were dropped off in an alleyway by Rainbow.

"You okay?" She asked, the pair of them nodding before Rainbow rushed back towards the battlefield.

"This has gotta be that Vilgax guy Tetrax warned us about," Trixie stated as Flash activated the Omnitrix. "They must be here for the watch."

"Well they're gonna get it," he stated once he found his choice of alien and slapped the dial down.

The drones continued to fire, having detected the Omnitrix but not being able to hone in on it.

As such, they followed their programming to cause as much mayhem as possible in order to flush the user out. They blasted another of Dynamo's trucks, shot down several of his cameras and terrified the man half to death. "Do you believe this viewers," he told one of his remaining cameras. "Not even a minute after my declaration of war, and the alien monsters have sent a bunch of machines in order to silence me. Clearly, they're scared to come out and face me in person."

"RAAAAAAAAAAH!" Suddenly, something shot out of the smoke of the many explosions. That something was the alien: Riot-Horn, who smashed his fist into one of the drones and pushed it down into the ground. The two smashed into one another and was completely destroyed, whilst the remaining drone began firing at him. "Back off!" He cried, raising his arms to protect his head.

As he did, Dynamo rushed over to one of his remaining trucks and pulled out a set of keys. With a press of a button, the back of the truck opened up and revealed a ton of different weapons. He began going through them. "Sonic disruptor? Too noisy. Flamethrower? Too slow. Net gun? Too small."

Shining rushed up to him, "what are you doing? Get out there before that robots blasts you!"

"I will not leave until I'm fully equipped to take down that monster."

"Leave taking it down to Riot-Horn?"

"I'm talking about the alien," Dynamo cried as he grabbed a tranquilizer gun. "This should work. I used this same weapon to dart a rare white rhino in order to transport it to a nature preserve." He turned towards the camera and smiled, "but those who've bought my season four DVD should already know that." Shining swore his tooth actually sparkled in that moment.

As he was doing this, Twilight grabbed the robot in her magic and kept it in place. This allowed Riot-Horn to leap up and smash his fist through it, but not before the drone fired a laser from every blaster it had.

One of those lasers struck the side of Dynamo's truck, Shining seeing this and grabbing the man. "MOVE!" He threw Dynamo away as the truck exploded, Shining managing to leap away from the blast but the force carried him and he was sent sailing into the side of a building as a sickening crack filled the air.

"SHINING!" Twilight screamed, causing Riot-Horn to stop when he lifted his fist out of the destroyed robot and look over at his fallen friend. Seeing Shining laying on the ground, not moving, causing his entire body to freeze up. Millions of emotions flooded through his body, as he watched Twilight and Rainbow run up next to him and see if he was okay.

"No," he whispered in horror. For the first time since he had gotten the Omnitrix, someone had been hurt whilst he was trying the save the day. And the fact that someone was a person close to him made Riot-Horn want to be sick.

He didn't have time to throw up however, as in that moment something bounced off his shoulder. Looking around, he saw Dynamo pointing the tranquilizer at him. "Freeze!" He yelled, but Riot-Horn growled before reaching down. "I said stop!" He fired again and the dart bounced off his hand before the alien grabbed the gun and yanked it from him, "hey!"

Riot-Horn twisted the gun around, forming a pretzel shape before throwing it back to him. "You better leave me...and my friends alone. We're not your enemies." He turned back to Shining and saw Twilight had lifted him up in her magic before placing him on a large piece of flat metal that used to be part of the truck.

Sitting on the now floating metal, Twilight continued to take care of her brother as Rainbow used her superspeed to push it down the street.

Riot-Horn felt a flood of emotions racing through him at the thought of Shining's fate, but could do nothing but wait until he changed back before he got the see what happened to him. "RAAAAAH!" He punched another piece of Dynamo's truck, smashing it to bits before he power jumped into the air.

"Get back here!" Dynamo yelled, but Riot-Horn was gone and all he could do was look around the place.

All his equipment was destroyed and even his cameras were totalled, "so much for the scoop of the century." He started moving through the wreckage, wanting to grab as much salvageable equipment as he could before the police arrived.

He then spotted the remains of the drones and looked them over, "very advanced. I wonder what you can do." He picked up a piece of the robot's head and lifted it up, trying to figure out how it worked.

But suddenly, the drone's lights came on before a cable shot out of it and struck Dynamo's neck. His eyes went wide as he felt something hot flowing through him, his veins turning bright red followed by the rest of his skin.

"AHHH!" He cried as his body grew about a foot in height, whilst also bulking up a great deal which caused him to rip through some of his cloths.

As he did, more cables shot out of the drone and struck several pieces of Dynamo's destroyed gear. All of it began to fly towards the man, as parts of his body mutated to grow slows and holes that the machinery connected too.

In the blink of an eye, the red hulk was suited up in a robotic battle-suit. It was mostly black with red trim, with his right arm being completely hidden from the elbow down by a large mechanical blaster. His left arms was covered in spikes and he had long metal claws in place of fingers.

His chest was covered in a metal chestplate that looked like lt opened, whilst his shoulders had large red spheres sticking out of them. Those same spheres were covering most of his face, blocking his eyes and making him look like a fly.

The half human half machine hybrid panted as he looked himself over, then screamed at the top of his lungs.

As soon as Flash was back to his human self, he and Trixie rushed over to the hospital.

When they got their, the rest of Shining's family was already there. The visitors number was already full, so the pair stayed out in the corridor waiting to hear if everything was okay.

As they waited, Flash leaned against the wall and sighed. "This is all my fault."

"Don't be ridiculous Flash," Trixie told him. "None of this was your fault. Shining was doing his job, getting an idiot who thought he knew everything out of the way."

Flash held up the Omnitrix. "But if I didn't have this, those drones wouldn't have been there."

"You don't know that. You found the Omnitrix but you didn't make it fall to earth. If you hadn't found it, I could be wearing it. Or someone else might have found it and they might not have chosen to use it the way you've used it. Things could be a lot worst."

"Maybe," Flash looked out the window, "but Shining might not have been hurt."

Up in space, Vilgax was not happy to hear his minion's report. "The drones were destroyed."

He hissed in anger, "send out more!" But as he said this, the robot was looking at a tablet-like device which showed a signal coming from the supposed destroyed drones.

"We may not need to. It seems the drones have somehow merged. I am receiving one combined signal. And that signal is on the move." The alien within the tube hummed hearing this, trying to think of what to do.

"Perhaps one head is better then two."

Dynamo had run off and hidden in a back alleyway, still freaking out about what had happened to him.

He panted and looked himself over, staring at his large metal claws and then at the blaster on his right arm. "What am I?" He asked, remembering this was one of his own weapons. The sonic disruptor.

He couldn't see the trigger and as soon as he thought about firing it, the machine powered up before unleashing a powerful blast of sound that struck a trash can and threw it against a wall so hard, it was flattened.

"Huh," he smirked. Now that he had had time to calm down, he thought about this. He looked his body over and realised he was a living weapon. As he wondered what else he could do, his vision suddenly changed to what he realised was infrared. He hummed at this before thinking and sure enough, the right concentration allowed him to switch to X-ray.

He looked through several walls and spotted a woman in an apartment building, who was moving towards the bathroom as she was slowly taking off her clothes.

But before he could see anything juicy, he suddenly felt a great amount of pain in his head. "AUGH!" He screamed, clutching his head as he fell to his knees. It was like nothing he had ever felt before. And just as he was about to pass out, a voice spoke.

"Listen to me. Whoever you are."

"Where are you?" He asked, "who are you? How did you get in my head?"

"No questions!" The voice hissed, "you are here to serve me!"

"Dynamo Danger doesn't serve anybody!" But as he said that, another explosion of pain rocked through him. "AUGH!" He clutched his eyes shut and when they opened, he found he was in a multi-coloured void. And from that void, a strange octopus creature appeared in front of him.

"You now possess power you could have never imagined. But unless you find a way to use it correctly, it will be worthless." Dynamo felt absolute fear flow through him. "Fulfil my demand and I will teach you. Fail me, and I will turn you to dust."

"You're with those other aliens," he realised. "What, are you their leader?" The alien looked at him strangely.

"Tell me about these aliens."

"They've been showing up and causing havoc, then tricking people into thinking they're heroes."

"Do any of them appear together." He shook his head, "those are no aliens. They are someone who has gotten their hands on a technology far too powerful for them." The Omnitrix appeared between them, "this is your mission. Find whoever wears this device and take it from them."

"Fine," Dynamo frowned, "but how the heck am I supposed to find it?"

"The programming to locate it is already within you. All you must do is wait for it to activate." With that, everything around him vanished along with the pain. In the blink of an eye, he was back in the alleyway.

"Alright," Dynamo looked himself over, "looks like the hunt is on."

Back at the hospital, Flash and Trixie had finally been allowed in to see Shining.

"So you're gonna be okay?" Flash asked, seeing Shining was in bed with several bandages around his body. Luckily, nothing was in a cast.

"I'm fine," Shining assured him. "Nothing's broken, though if I had hit that wall any harder I would have broken a rib or two." Flash frowned at this and sat down next to him.

"I'm sorry." Shining looked confused, whilst Trixie rolled her eyes.

"He thinks it's his fault you're in here." Now Shining rolled his eyes.

"This isn't your fault. And even if it was, you shouldn't let this get you down. I never expected you to be able to save everyone. If you could, it would be a miracle." Flash didn't reply, still looking upset at what had happened. "I get it. You're upset you failed to keep me safe. Now what are you gonna do? Cause pouting about it isn't gonna help."

"What do I do?" Flash asked.

"Learn. Figure out what went wrong this time and improve yourself so it doesn't happen again. Not learning from a failure is just doubling that failure." Flash sighed, but nodded as the doors opened to show a nurse. She told the pair that they would need to leave for a bit, as Shining needed to have a few more test done soon.

The pair nodded and after saying goodbye to Shining, they headed outside and down the hall. As they did, they spotted Twilight coming back. "Hey," she inquired, "is Shining okay?" Clearly she was wondering why they left him alone.

"They need to do a few more tests," Trixie explained as Twilight nodded. The three headed down to the cafeteria and Trixie offered to get them some drinks from the vending machine, Flash and Twilight sitting at a table.

"Where's the rest of your family?" Flash asked.

"Cadance went to get Shining some change of clothes. Mom and dad offered to look after Flurry, so they took her home." Flash nodded and the pair sat there in silence, Flash unsure what to say to her. "Thanks for coming to check on him. You and Shining have really gotten close lately."

"Thanks," Flash smiled, "he's...like the big brother I never got to have. He's been helping me a lot lately, so I couldn't just stay away when he's here." Twilight nodded at that, then changed to subject to something Flash would rather avoid.

"Weird how those drones showed up like that. Do you think Dynamo was right about the aliens sending them to stop his show?" Flash shook his head.

"No way. They wouldn't do that. Those robots showed up because..." He wasn't sure what to say next, "cause someone's clearly trying to cause trouble and it's those aliens that saved us." Twilight nodded as Flash looked down, "even though they couldn't help Shining."

"It's not their fault this happened," Twilight explained. "Though I guess if more then one of them had shown up, they could have stop those things before Shining got hurt."

"Yeah," Flash wished that were possible. He looked down at his watch and switched it on, the aliens he could become appearing one by one in the dial. "Too bad there isn't an alien that can heal wounds." At that moment in time, Flash would have traded any of his ten aliens for one with that power.

At the same moment, Dynamo's head shot up.

It was like there was a sudden urge flowing through him to head in a certain direction, the hunter realising this is what that alien meant when he said he was programmed to find the device. Suddenly, the orbs on his shoulders detached to reveal mechanical arms beneath that coming out of his body. They then curved backwards and unleashed a red energy behind him, whilst his feet also unleashed the same energy that propelled him into the air.

He shot through the sky and headed in the direction he was being drawn in.

"That would be cool," Twilight nodded. "But I'm still grateful for the aliens that are already here. They've done so much to help the city, we shouldn't blame them if they slip up every now and then."

"Maybe," Flash deactivated the watch and saw Trixie walking towards them, "but I guess it depends on the slip up."

"Okay," Trixie handed Flash an orange soda and Twilight a diet cherry. "I guess Applejack will be cancelling her movie night." Twilight nodded at this.

"Rainbow ran over to tell everyone else what happened. They called earlier asking if I was okay and even though I said it was okay to keep their plans, they said they would have the movie night another time."

"I guess those robots ruined everyone's day," Trixie frowned. But in that moment, something happened that would ruin their day even more. Suddenly, the entire hospital shook so violently that the teens were knocked off their chairs.

"WOW!" Flash cried as he hit the ground, but quickly recovered as the hospital shook again.

He looked towards a nearby window and was shocked to see a red laser shoot passed it before the building shook again. "What was that?" Twilight asked, as the teens ran to the window and looked down to see the course of the havoc currently terrifying the patients and medical staff.

The human hybrid fired another laser, then turned to a nearby ambulance and raised its arm to fire a sonic blast that knocked it over. "What is that thing?" Trixie asked, Twilight examining it.

"I think it's one of those robot things that attacked earlier," she finally said. "But...what's it doing here?" Flash knew why it was there and frowned, the teen moving away from the wall and walking off. "Where are you going?"

"Err...I'm gonna go make sure Shining's alright. You're obviously gonna fight that thing, right?" Twilight nodded as Trixie moved with him, the girl smiling at them both.

"Keep him safe."

"Promise," he assured her as Trixie saluted. Twilight then ran off and the two did the same, looking for an empty room with a window. When they finally found one, he opened it up and activated the Omnitrix.

"What's your plan?" Trixie asked whilst she opened the window.

"I've gotta lead that thing away. So, it's time to fly. Firefly!" When he found the alien, he slapped the dial down and the room was filled with green light. But when the light faded, Volt-Edge stood in Flash's place. "Seriously?" He groaned before running to the window, grabbing a metal tray that happened to be on the bedside table as he opened it.

Dynamo kept firing, knowing the Omnitrix was somewhere close. He just had to bring the one holding it out.

"Show yourself, you coward!" He fired another sonic blast that destroyed another ambulance, then lowers his arm and turned to slash at a sign. "I should have known you would be too scared to face me."

"Who you calling scared?" Dynamo looked up and spotted Volt-Edge sliding down the side of the building, using the metal tray as a hoverboard to reach the bottom before jumping into the air. "Hope this isn't too...shocking!" He launch a burst of lightning, which flew towards Dynamo.

But before they could hit him, his shoulder blasters extended. He pointed the orbs at the lightning and unleashed the lasers he had been firing at the hospital, which struck the lightning and cancelled it out as Volt-Edge landed.

"Okay," he frowned before slamming his gauntlets together to unleash a powerful burst of lightning. And when he slammed them into the ground, the lightning exploded off of them and flew out in a crescent wave.

But Dynamo's blasters curved back and fired, his feet doing the same and propelling him up and above the lightning. Volt-Edge growled at this as the hybrid cut the power and fell towards him, the claws on his left hand extending as he did.

He slashed at Volt-Edge and the alien raised his claws to block, the claws cutting into the metal of his gauntlets and leaving scratches. As the two pushed against one another, he got a closer look at the monster's face and realised he had seen it somewhere before. "You're that monster hunter. The one that attacked me-...Riot-Horn."

"Don't bother," Dynamo told him. "I know you're really some guy with a device far more powerful then you should have. Hand over the Omnitrix!"

"You know about that?" He asked, fearing what else this guy might know.

Dynamo then leapt back and jetted into the air, cutting the power and turning the lasers around to fire at him. Volt-Edge quickly let out a burst of lightning, which formed a dome around him that the lasers bounced off.

One of the lasers flew towards a window of the hospital and Volt-Edge gasped, only for a piece of rubble to suddenly fly up and intercept it.

As it exploded, Volt-Edge looked down to see Twilight standing there using her magic. He smiled before turning to glare at Dynamo, knowing he needed to move the danger away from the hospital. As such, he ran forwards and grabbed a piece of metal off the ground. "Come and get me!" He jumped onto the metal and floated it up into the air, allowing him to skateboard down the road.

"Get back here!" Dynamo yelled as he took flight and flew after the alien.

Volt-Edge expected him to start firing from above, but he didn't and the two continued to race through the city. But then Dynamo shot ahead of him and landed down the street, putting his thrusters away and holding up his blaster arm. He fired a sound pulse towards Volt-Edge, who gasped and raised his metal hoverboard to block it.

It did but he was still propelled backwards, as a fuel truck happened to pull up from around a corner. He slammed into the container with enough force that it almost tripped the truck over, his horn piecing the metal. He tried to pull himself free of the gas truck, but as he did Dynamo charged towards him with his claws drawn.

Luckily, he managed to pull himself free of the gas truck and flip himself backwards over the hybrid before the gas could fly out and drench him. Instead, it flew out and struck Dynamo. The hybrid was knocked backwards as the liquid fuel spilled out and covered him head to toe.

Volt-Edge did a few more backflips until he was a safe distance away, quickly shaking the fuel on his horn off, then looked around to see everyone in the immediate area had already vacated. That included the truck driver, meaning Volt-Edge was safe to charge up a bolt of lightning and fire it towards the truck.

The spark struck the fuel and ignited it, flames spreading everywhere including Dynamo. Luckily for him, his new body was completely fireproof.

But when the fire flew up the gas stream pouring out of the truck, the flaming pressure being too much as it exploded with a loud boom. The flames flew everywhere, though luckily nothing around the explosion was flammable. Volt-Edge sighed at this and began to walk away, thinking that was the end.

But then he heard screaming and looked back, as a figure began to stagger out of the smoke.

He quickly grabbed a piece of the truck that had landed near him and used it to fly up to the top of a nearby building, the alien watching as Dynamo stepped out of the flames looking unharmed but exhausted. "You can't hide forever!" He looked around with Volt-Edge stepping away from the edge to keep from being seen. "I'll find you again. As long as you have that watch on, I'll always be able to track you down. I will find you again and no matter what, I'll get that watch off of you!"

Volt-Edge didn't stay to hear anymore, the alien flying off the other side of the building and getting as far away as he could.

He quickly hid in the back streets until the Omnitrix powered down, Flash sighing as he stepped out into the light and began heading towards the hospital. But he stopped before he got even one street closer, as Dynamo's words echoed through his mind.

As long as he had the Omnitrix, Dynamo...anyone who wanted it would come after him.

He remembered what had happened to Shining. What had almost happened to the hospital, all because of him. His mind flashed to all the people he hung around. Trixie, the Rainbooms, his parents and the students of CHS. Then he started imagining them all being attacked by Dynamo, by those drones or the bounty hunters he fought.

"I'm not safe to be around," he whispered before turning to leave in the other direction. He remembered what Shining had told him. He had to learn from his mistakes and now, he realised being around anyone important was a huge mistake. There was only one thing he could do to make sure nobody he cared about was ever hurt again.

Back with Dynamo, he had run off before the police could arrive and cause him any more trouble.

Hang out behind a large warehouse, the hybrid growled as he realised he had allowed his prey to escape. "DAMN IT!" He blasted a trash can, doing so barely helping with his frustrations. But before he could blast anything else, he suddenly felt incredible pain rush through his head. "AUGH!" He fell to his knees, as his mind retreated into itself and was back in the void.

The squid alien appeared above him and glared down at him. "The Omnitrix!" He growled, "where is it?"

"I lost track of it," Dynamo frowned. "The one using it was better than I anticipated. But I'll find them again and get it for you." He cried out in pain again, as Vilgax continued to torture him.

"Do not fail me again. And this time, make him come to you." With that, the vision ended and Dynamo opened his eyes to find himself back behind the warehouse.

"You wanna go the bait route, huh? Fine. it's not a method I prefer but I can work with it. Now...how to get these aliens to come to me?"

Flash had chosen to risk a return to his home to get everything he needed.

He grabbed the largest bag he could find and stuffed it full of as many clothes that he could, along with all the money he had managed to save up. As he packed, he heard panting and looked around to see his family dog, Banana.

"Hey boy," he knelt down as the dog moved up to him and let its owner scratch him behind the ear. "Sorry, but you can't come with me. I need to be away from everyone special to me." He stood up and looked at a picture on the wall. That picture was of him and his parents, having been taken about a year ago during a ski trip. Flash stared at them for several moments, then took out his phone and placed it on the desk. "I'm sorry. But this is for the best."

With that, he headed out his room and left his home for what he believed would be the last time. He didn't know what his life would be like from this point on, but he knew he had to keep those he cared about safe.

Back in his hospital room, Shining and Trixie were in his room staring at her phone.

After hearing from Trixie about the strange robot that had attacked the hospital, he had used her laptop to search the web. Sure enough, a bunch of people had recorded the machine's rampage and had uploaded it. He watched Volt-Edge fighting it and felt something was off about it.

But before he could figure it out, a knock on the door caught his attention. "Come in." Twilight stepped in "Hey sis? You okay?" Twilight nodded, having had to use her magic to try and do some repairs to the hospital in order to keep it from falling apart. The police had then arrived and forced her to answer some question, which had been rather taxing for the girl.

"I'm fine. A little exhausted, but nothing serious. What about you guys?"

"We're good," Trixie assured her. "Luckily, that attack didn't do any damage to Shining's room."

Twilight nodded and looked around. "Where's Flash?" Trixie and Shining suddenly got worried, "he said he was going to make sure you were okay when that robot thing attacked. Did he not show up?"

"He did," Trixie nodded. "But after things calmed down, he got a call from his parents. They needed him to come home right away."

"Yeah," Shining nodded, "he wanted to stick around, but I didn't think getting him in trouble would be a good idea." Twilight nodded at this, but then her phone rang and she turned away to answer it.

"Hey Fluttershy. What's up?" She listened, then got confused and worried. "Wow, wow, wow. What do you mean missing?" Now the others were just as worried. "He was here earlier, but Trixie said he went home. I don't know where he is. Are you sure? Okay, I'll keep an eye for him." She hung up and turned to the others, "Fluttershy just got a call from Rainbow, who got a call from Derpy. Apparently, Flash's parents have been calling around all his friends."

"Why?"

"He's not at home and his closet's been emptied out. They tried calling him, but his phone's been left in his room. They're worried he might have run away or something."

"Why would Flash run away?" Trixie asked, but Shining suddenly looked concerned since he knew why Flash would want to run away.

"I don't know," Twilight told her. "Do you know if Flash was having any issues? You guys have been hanging out a lot."

"Nope," Trixie shook her head, "nothing I can think of." She also realised why Flash might have left, but she couldn't tell her either. "I'm sure he'll show up. Probably went over to a friend/s and forgot his phone." Twilight thought about this and shrugged, thinking she might be right. When she wasn't looking, the pair turned to one another and was worried.

Flash had moved over to the less filled section of the city, where he knew practically nobody he knew would search for him.

As the sun began to set, he arrived outside the same building he had once been handcuffed inside of by the man he had sent to the hospital. It would be the last place anyone would look for him. He looked around and nobody was on the street, meaning he wouldn't be seen as he stepped inside and headed up to the room he had told Shining the truth it.

Once there, he placed his bag down and dug through it to pull out a radio. With his phone no longer an option to have, he needed this to keep himself entertained. He quickly tuned into a music station and once he found a song he liked, he stepped over to the bed and sat down.

He knew the bed was not going to be a comfortable, but it was the best he could expect. So he laid down and let the music of the radio flow through him.

Back in the hospital, Trixie and Shining waited until Twilight left to really talk.

"What is that idiot thinking?" Trixie cried, "just leaving without telling us anything. What's he gonna do if that robot thing appears and attacks him again? He can't do this alone."

"I think he's more concerned about what might happen to us than he is about what'll happen to him," Shining pointed out. He looked down at his laptop, having asked Cadance to bring it for him. She was currently with Twilight, trying to figure out when Shining could be discharged.

He was continuing to try and locate footage on the hybrid that had attacked earlier and as he did, he notice popped up from his work computer.

"What?" He opened it up and saw it was a city wide police alert. "The police training center is under attack."

"By who?" Trixie asked.

"Unknown assailant," Shining replied. "But they seem to have high-tech weapons." He turned to Trixie, "it's that robot. It must be trying to flush Flash out."

Trixie frowned, wondering if Flash would even hear about this.

At that moment, Flash was listening to a song he really liked when the radio stopped.

"We interrupt this song for an important police announcement. An odd creature is attacking the police training grounds on twenty-fifth and west." Flash instantly sat up hearing this, knowing what it had to be. "All citizens are advised to steal clear of that area."

"Yeah right," Flash leapt off the bed and activated the Omnitrix. "XLR8 should get me there in ten seconds flat." He slammed the dial down and the room was filled with green light.

Trixie rushed towards the door, "where are you going?"

"Flash needs help," Trixie stated. "I don't care if I don't have any powers or weapons, I'm going to go and help in whatever way I can." Before Shining could say anything else, she ran out of the room and through the hospital.

Once she was outside, she spotted Flash's car from when they originally arrived there. And as luck would have it, Trixie had a set of keys Flash had given her in case she ever needed to drive whilst he was doing alien stuff.

"Okay Trixie," the girl told herself as she sat in the car. "Relax," she started the engine, "you're licenced to go on the road. Might just be a learners permit, but it still counts." She drove off, the car's gears grinding as she did so. "Hang on Flash!" The car jolted a bit, "Trixie's coming to save you!"

Outside the Canterlot police training centre, a police car fell to the ground and broke apart from the impact.

The police officers on the scene were all dressed in riot gear, having seen how ineffective normal police equipment was against their opponent. Dynamo stepped forwards and several of them opened fire, but the blasters on his shoulders fired lasers that atomised every bullet that would have hit him.

He then raised his blaster arm and fired a pulse of sound, which struck the men and made them scream as they reached to cover their ears. Some who weren't in range charged forward with batons, attempting to beat him into submission. But the hybrid easily cut them down to size with a single swing of his claws.

The police gulped as the shoulder lasers fired again and blasted them all back, though luckily none of them were hurt from this. "Now," he looked around, "where are you?" He got his answer when a bunch of spinning razor leaves shot towards him and bounced off his metal body.

He turned to see Bushwhacker staring back at him, the alien plant glaring at him. "Enough of this. I'm the one you want."

"True," Dynamo raised his sound blaster and fired it at him. The sonic bullet shot through the air and struck Bushwhacker, knocking him backwards into another police car. "If he wants his Omnitrix, he can have it. As long as he lets me keep these powers and frees me. With them, I'll become the greatest hunter ever known."

"He?" Bushwhacker groaned, then realised he must have been talking about Vilgax. He didn't get to make sure of this, as Dynamo charged with his bladed hands raised. "Wow!" He raised his arms and turned his hands into shields, the claws slashing through the wood and doing some serious damage. But as they did, Bushwhacker launched his root feet forward and wrapped them around both Dynamo's feet.

The hybrid felt this and looked down, allowing Bushwhacker to pull his legs out from under him.

"Augh!" He slammed into the ground and the alien picked himself up, repairing his hands and turning them into hammers. He raised them up before swinging them downwards, slamming them into Dynamo's chest. But the metal of his chest protected him and when Bushwhacker pulled back, the chest opened up to release the cannon that fired a blast directly into Bushwhacker's chest.

"Gyah!" He cried, flying backwards before crashing into the ground. As he did, Dynamo stood up and heard a rumbling. He looked over to see a tank moving towards him, the machine aiming the barrel towards him.

The hybrid just stood there as the shell was fired towards him, Bushwhacker picking him up in time to see Dynamo be surrounded by an explosion. He waited and watched, wondering if that had been enough. But then the tank rolled through the smoke, making him sigh.

However, that relief was short lived when the tank was suddenly lifted into the air. Dynamo was underneath, smirking as his apparent unstoppability. As the drivers inside leapt to safety, he threw the tank towards Bushwhacker. The plant alien reached out to grab a nearby lamppost and pulled himself away, seconds before the tank slammed into the ground and exploded.

He then swung around and used the lamp to catapult himself towards Dynamo, turning his fist into a mace as he swung it at him. But the wooden weapon shattered upon contact with Dymano's face, the alien pointing both his shoulder cannons at him before firing.

"AUGH!" He crashed into the side of a building and fell to the floor, Dynamo smirking as he approached.

Bushwhacker let out a moan as he picked himself up. As they did, the Omnitrix started beeping. "Not now." But the watch didn't listen to him and in a flash, he reverted back to his human form.

Dynamo saw this and was shocked by what he saw. "A kid." He marched forward and Flash staggered back, "those aliens are just a kid." Flash gulped, knowing he was in trouble.

He tried to run, but Dynamo reached out and grabbed his Omnitrix arm. "AUGH!" He was listed up as Dynamo squeezed his metal claws tightly around Flash's wrist, the teen scared they was begin to cut through it. As he did, his chest opened up and unleashed a cable that slithered up and connected itself to the watch's dial.

Multiple strange noises began to come from the Omnitrix, as it seemed to spark and flash multiple colours. Flash assumed the hybrid was trying to hack into it, likely trying to remove it from him. He fought against the hybrid, kicking and punching him with his free arms, but the mechanical body was too strong for him.

And just when it seemed all hope was lost, a loud engine filled the air.

They looked around and saw a police car right in front of them a good thirty feet away, when it had gotten there being lost on them. And behind the wheel, Trixie Lulamoon glared at them.

The girl put the vehicle into drive and stepped on the gas, the car exploding towards them as fast as it could get. Dynamo raised arm cannon and as he did, Flash heard the noises from the Omnitrix stop as the hacking ceased. And just as he was about to fire, Flash swung up and kicked it off target. Moments later, the car rammed into him and he was knocked backwards whilst releasing Flash.

The teen fell to the ground and rolled to a stop, as the car pinned the hybrid to the wall. He moaned as he picked himself up, then looked over towards the car and saw the front was highly compacted. "Trixie!" He rushed over to the car, as the door opened and Trixie staggered out. Flash caught her, "are you okay?"

"Thank god for airbags," she groaned before they heard Dynamo beginning to recover. "We have to go!" Flash nodded and pulled her away, the pair running around the precinct as Dynamo threw the car away from him.

Once they were around the other side, Flash turned to Trixie. "What are you doing here?"

"Making sure you don't get killed," Trixie glared at him. "What were you thinking? You can't do this alone!"

"I have too." He held up the Omnitrix, "as long as I have this thing I'll always be a target. And I don't want those I care about getting caught in the crossfire."

"That's our choice to make," Trixie stated. "The Rainbooms seem to attract just as much trouble as you, but they don't hide themselves away. You need us." Flash was about to argue, but Dynamo flew in and landed before firing at them again. The pair managed to avoid getting fried and spotted an open door, the pair rushing in to what they assumed was the training's centre cafeteria.

Flash quickly closed and barred the door, as Trixie continued to stare at him.

"You can't let the fear of what might happen stop you from living your life. What happened to Shining is terrible but it's not your fault. Shining doesn't blame you for what happened and you can't let this whole situation make you push those that just want to help you away." The door jolted as the hybrid tried to break it down, the pair running out of the room seconds before Dynamo blasted through it.

He stepped inside and looked around, his vision going X-ray as he picked up on two running down a corridor towards the gym.

As Flash and Trixie ran as fast as they could, Trixie's phone went off and she quickly answered when she saw who it was. "Not a good time," she cried as they reached the gym. But then she threw it to Flash, "it's for you."

Flash caught and placed it too his ear, "hello?"

"Flash!" Shining's voice called out, "glad I got through to you."

"If this is a lecture about me trying to distance myself-"

"Just listen. I've been reviewing the hybrid footage online.

Shining was sitting in his bed, staring at a laptop. "I'm not one hundred percent sure, but I think I've found a chink in his armour."

"I'm listening."

"In all the footage I've seen, he hasn't doubled up his abilities." Shining watched as Dynamo flew through the air, dodging police fire, then landed before firing his arm cannon. "Even though it gives him an advantage, he never uses one weapon at the same time he's flying or holding something heavy. My guess is the reason he's doing that..."

"Is because he can't," Flash realised. He remembered before, when Trixie rammed Dynamo. He needed to stop hacking the Omnitrix to do it. "Shining, you might be right."

"If you can force him to use one of his weaker abilities, you might have a chance at beating him. Gotta go, I think Cadance is coming." He hung up as Flash passed the phone back to Trixie, who was smirking.

"Good thing Shining can be just as stubborn as you are." They then heard a lot of noise coming towards them, the pair leaping behind some workout equipment, right as the Omnitrix turned green.

Flash tried to think of a way to keep Dynamo using a weaker ability and quickly got an idea, turning to Trixie. "Thanks for everything. Now get out of here so he doesn't hit you by mistake." Trixie raised an eyebrow as he activated the Omnitrix, then saw which alien he had dialed up and understood.

Seconds later, Dynamo exploded through the doors and had his weapon ready. He then noticed movement and prepared to fire, but heard Flash's voice. "HEY!" He looked straight ahead and saw the teen standing in front of him, then glanced back and saw the girl was the one he had noticed. "You want this!" Flash held up the Omnitrix, "come and get it." Dynamo activated his shoulder cannons but before he could fire, Flash slammed the dial down and unleashed a green light.

When the light faded, Dynamo was greeted with the sight of a giant lion alien with a smoking mane. "Is this supposed to be a joke?" He asked, "I've hunted lions my entire life."

"Not ones like me," Vapaw growled before his mane suddenly extended and filled the entire room.

"What?" He asked, as he found himself blind. He looked around with his weapons primed, trying to see the alien through the smoke, but he couldn't. And the next thing he knew, he was suddenly being slashed by sharp claws. "AUGH!" He spun around and fired when the slash had come from. And whilst there was an explosion, he heard no cries of pain. "GYAH!" He was suddenly slashed in the back and spun around, firing again with the same results as last time.

"What's the matter?" He heard Vapaw ask, "those high-tech eyes of yours can't see through smoke."

"I'll show you!" His vision switched to infrared and he quickly spotted Vapaw jumping around the place, leaping towards him with his claws ready. "Gotcha!" He charged up his weapons. But as he did, he lost his vision.

The laser fired and struck nothing. "Swing and a miss," he heard Vapaw announced from behind him.

"Stop hiding!" He turned his infrared back on just in time to see Vapaw charged at him, slamming him down to the ground. As his shoulder cannons powered up, he was blind again but quickly felt the metal arm on the cannon be bitten into. "Ahhhh!" He tried to fire, but the blast missed its target. "Are you trying to mock me?"

"Maybe," a voice within the darkness stated. "You've been making a mockery out of me. Calling me a monster and freak. Saying I'm trying to hurt people when all I've done is help them. Now tell me who you're working for. Who's controlling you? Is it Vilgax?"

"Tell you what?" He continued to point his blaster in random directions. "Give yourself up and I'll take you to meet him."

"No thanks. But you could invite him here, so I can talk to him face to face." Dynamo was tackled again and slashed on the chest, the hybrid trying to slash him back but getting nothing as his target vanished into the darkness again.

Dynamo growled, but then heard something behind him. He spun around and fired, an explosion occurring along with a mild grunt. His target had narrowly avoided being hit. That was when he realised he was more than just his fancy tech. He was a trained tracker, though his new appearance had made him forget that.

Instead of searching for the alien, he stood still and listened. Slowly, a sound filled the air. Breathing.

He smirked and powered up his arm cannon, waiting for the right moment. And that moment eventually came, as the alien lion's breath hitched behind him.

He spun around and fired, right as Vapaw leapt towards him. He was in for quite the surprise when the sound blast slammed into his chest, making him cry out as he was knocked backwards and slammed into something.

The smoke slowly began to fade, allowing Dynamo to see the alien laying atop a broken weight lifting bench in a slight daze. He stepped forward and picked up a heavy dumbell, reaching Vapaw right as he was coming around. "Augh!" The alien hissed as the heavy weight was dropped down onto his chest and rolled down under his chin, Dynamo's extra weight keeping it down as it pinned him and his arms down.

"Gotcha," Dynamo smirked before his chest opened up again and unleashed the cable. It attached itself to the Omnitrix and once again, it started buzzing and whirring as it tried to hack into it.

"Gyah!" Vapaw could barely breathe, as he tried to push the weight off of him. But it was no use and he could tell the Omnitrix was going to be effected. If it didn't remove it, it would likely deactivate it or make it blow up. None of those were good for him. "Get...off me!"

"No," Dynamo smiled, "I've captured my prey. And now, I will take my trophy." But as he said that, he started flinching and clutched his head. "No!" He cried in pain, "not now. I'm...doing it!" His whole body sparked as he seemed to be going haywire.

Vapaw had no idea why, but he got worried when sparks began to fly down the cable and into the Omnitrix. "GYAH!" He cried, as he was electrocuted. It appeared the cable connecting the Omnitrix to Dynamo, was also connecting the two of them as well. Vapaw's brain was suddenly overwhelmed and as he was, his consciousness was sent someplace else.

When Vapaw opened his eyes, he was in a dark void.

Before he could say or do anything, the darkness vanished as a giant face appeared in front of him. A horribly tentacled face, of a strange looking alien that was clearing down at him. "Listen to every word," the alien told him. "Be very afraid." Vapaw wanted to say something, but it was like he was frozen as the alien threatened him. "You cannot run. You cannot hide from me. I will find you. And when I do, I will retrieve my Omnitrix and destroy you!"

Vapaw gasped as the alien opened its mouth and swallowed him whole.

"AHHHHHHHHHH!" Vapaw cried, his fear giving him extra strength that he used to finally throw the still screaming Dynamo off of him with the cable being ripped off the Omnitrix.

Dynamo staggered back as Vapaw picked himself up, shaking his head to try and get what he had just seen out of it. "That was nuts." He turned back to Dynamo and saw he was starting to recover. He needed to end this now.

Luckily, he spotted a fuse box behind the hybrid and got an idea.

He rushed forward and before Dynamo could react, grabbed him by the shoulders and pushed him backwards into the fuse box. "AUGH!" He screamed as the box was crushed and unleashed a butt ton of power into his body. Doing so caused his electrical pieces to short-circuit, as pieces of his body exploded off of him.

Vapaw watched an hoped this would work, or at least knock him out enough to put in some kind of restraints.

After a few moments, the lightning stopped as the building's power went out. And then, parts of Dynamo's mechanical body began to fall off of him as his skin slowly returned to normal. He fell to the ground as he was completely restored, the monster hunter looking how he was when Flash had first met him, though his clothes were a wreck.

Vapaw sighed as he saw this, but then remembered that vision he had seen. Had that been the alien Dynamo was talking about before? Was he the one sending those robots to take the Omnitrix? Was he Vilgax?

From atop a nearby building, Vapaw watched as Dynamo was wheeled out of the building.

The man moaned as his head shifted from side to side, the police accompanying the paramedics planning to make enquiries about what the heck had happened. The alien then spotted Trixie a ways off, the girl looking up at the rooftops and spotting him.

The pair locked eyes and Vapaw smiled at her, nodding his head as he did so before turning to leave. Trixie smiled back, knowing he wouldn't be disappearing forever like he had hoped.

A few days later, Shining was released from the hospital. He would still have to take it easy for a week or so, meaning no work for him, but either way he would make a full recovery.

As Cadance and Twilight led him out of the hospital, Flash, Trixie and the Rainbooms were all waiting for them and clapped as he left. Shining smiled at this and turned to Flash, who had had a heck of a time explaining his sudden disappearance to his friends and family.

As Cadance and Twilight went to get the car, Shining, Trixie and Flash leaned against a wall. "Glad to see you came to your senses," Shining smirked at him. "When I said you needed to take steps to improve and make sure people didn't get hurt, I didn't mean completely blacklisting everyone you care about."

"I know," Flash nodded. "And I'm sorry. You guys are right. I need you, even if it comes in the form of a scalding."

"On the bright side," Trixie smirked. "Did you hear guys know that Dynamo's at this very hospital." That surprised them all. "Turns out, he doesn't remember anything that he did when he was a robot. The last thing he remembers is driving towards Canterlot. Everything after that's a complete blank for him."

Flash sighed in relief, since that meant Dynamo wouldn't remember he was the one with the Omnitrix. But then he remembered what he saw in his visions. "You okay?" Shining asked him.

Flash sighed. "When I was fighting Dynamo, I saw something. Maybe it was a hallucination, but I think I saw the one whose sending those robots after me. He looked dangerous and...he said I should be afraid." He turned to them, "and I am."

They frowned at this, but then they both smiled. "Don't be," Shining told him. "As long as we're here, you won't have to face anything alone." Trixie nodded and Flash smiled, knowing he was right. No matter what, Flash wasn't in this alone. And that was what would always give him the edge. The Omnitrix might give him power, but his friends were what gave him strength.

Author's Note

A classic ben 10 episode, redone for the MLP lover. Hope you enjoyed it and can anyone guess where the inspiration of Dynamo Danger came from. Give you a clue, the voice actor for Flash also worked on this show.

Season 1, Episode 13: Lady Masquerade

Our story opens not in Canterlot, but in an entirely different place.

It was the dead of night in this place and there wasn't a cloud in the sky, allowing whoever was still up to see the moon in full. Though full wouldn't exactly fit this moon, as a large chunk of one side was gone with large rocks filling the crescent hole.

Down on the planet itself, the calm clear night was the only thing tranquil.

A large castle, located top a mountain that had many houses built around it all the way to the base, was under siege from an army.

Said army were a bunch of figures dressed in dark robes, hoods covering their faces as they fought against a bunch of knights. Said knights weren't your typical medieval warriors, as many of them were carrying strange looking shotguns. The attackers were all armed with staffs that had differently coloured gems on them.

The red gems shot blasts of fire. Blue gems shot shards of ice. Green gems unleashed gusts of wind or lightning. Black gems shot sand and rocks. Yellow gems shot lasers and purple gems unleashed shadowy attacks.

As the attackers got closer, many of the knights stopped firing their guns and charged forward. As they did, the guns transformed in their hands into swords as they took round shields off their backs. They slashed at the figured, who did their best to avoid these attacks whilst trying to stay back and firing. But one of the attackers was not like the others.

He was a violet skinned man wearing a red cloak over a yellow shirt and orange pants. He was carrying a large wooden staff with a clear crystal on the end of it, that had a metal ring below it that had seven other crystal orbs embedded into it.

As several knights charged, he spun the ring until a red orb was underneath an arrow etched into the wood. The top gem then turned red and he thrust it forward, unleashing an explosion of flames that engulfed many of the knights and knocked them backwards.

He laughed as he walked through the courtyard and continued launching fire in all directions, knocking many more knights back. Then, heard heard someone scream. "Devious!" He spun around to see a figure in more regal looking knights attire, who ran forwards whilst drawing a sword from a white sheave. That same sheave then transformed into a shield, which connected to his arm.

"Ah," he smiled, "Prince Aareus. Sorry for barging in like this. Hope you weren't too attached to those guarding the lower town." The knight charged with a mighty roar, as he spun the ring on his staff to change it to a green orb. The crystal turned green and he launched a blast of air from it. The air struck the knight and knocked him backwards, as several more knights charged.

He then slammed the staff into the ground and created a tornado beneath his feet, which launched him into the air and protected him from several shots coming from the knights. He then thrust himself forward towards one of the castle window.

In a shattering of glass, he flew through it and landed in his intended destination. The castle throne room, which was long and made out of glistening marble. Adorning the room were many banners, which were black in colour with a silver crescent moon shape within the centre that had a blue cat in its middle.

He stood tall and turned towards the end of the room, where a large throne could be seen. And sitting upon it was a tall woman with pink skin and shining silvery blue hair, wearing a light blue dress.

Covering everything but her mouth and chin, was a masquerade mask the same blue as the rest of her outfit. On the forehead of the mask was a strange coin, which was black with a silver crescent moon shape around the edges and a blue cat in the middle. A pair of blue cat ears could be seen sticking out of her head and around her waist was a leather belt so long, that it wrapped around her waist and then trailed behind her like a tail.

Devious smiled as he bowed, "Miragina. I hope my sudden appearance hasn't startled the all mighty Luna Cat Queen."

"Hardly," the woman frowned as she stood up. "You dare attack my kingdom and come to threaten me. You have a lot of nerve coming here."

"I only seek what was rightfully mine. I am the true born heir of this kingdom. My ancestor should have ruled, but the coin was passed to your ancestors instead."

"Your ancestor was a cruel tyrant. The medallion chose the more worthy of the potential heirs." She reached up and touched the coin, "and I will use its power to protect this kingdom." With that, the coin glowed and she reached for her belt. It was undone and she swung it around, the tip beginning to glow as well. She then whipped it at him and in doing so, the light shot off and took shape to form a pair of elephant-sized tigers that roared before charging at Devious.

The man swung his staff around and unleashed a blade of lightning, which beheaded the tigers and made them explode back into the light. As he did, Miragina whipped the belt as it suddenly went straight and rigid. It turned into a staff, which she held up to summon more light and morphed it around to form a large spear. It shot towards Devious, but he spun the ring to the black orb and touched the ground in order to create a wall of earth.

"Impressive," Devious smirked as the spear broke through the wall and stopped with the tip inches from his face. "Not many are capable of creating solid illusions." The spear vanished as the wall retracted, "you've gained a lot of power. I'll have a tough time equalling that skill once the medallion is mine."

"The medallion will never be yours," Miragina glared at him as she prepared to attack with her staff. But before she could, Devious turned the ring on his staff to the seventh clear orb. The crystal also turned clear and he pointed it at Miragina.

Before she could do anything, the crystal unleashed a wave of light that struck her.

"Augh!" She cried, her magic suddenly vanishing as she fell to her knees and her staff returned to being a belt. "No...it can't be." Devious stepped forward, still holding his crystal, "a null gem."

"That's right," Devious smirked before pointing to the larger one. "With an amplifier gem of this size, any magical being will be rendered weak. Anyone except the wielder, obviously." He held up a hand. "Now, hand it over."

Miragina removed the mask from her face and looked like she was about to hand it over. But before she did, she whispered something to it. As she did, the coin began to glow and pulse with light. Devious' eyes went wide seeing this, as the light spread to the rest of the mask.

"NOOOOO!" He screamed, running towards her only for the mask and coin to vanish. "What did you do?"

"I renounced it," Miragina smirked. "The medallion is no longer mine."

Devious growled as he changed his staff to the fire orb. "You're a fool. All you've done is shift the target to your son." But then he saw her smile, "why are you smirking?"

Miragina didn't say anything and simply closed her eyes, as Devious pointed the staff at her. 'I'm smiling because whilst it could go to Aareus, there is another.' With that, the staff unleashed the flames.

Canterlot.

Trixie was making her way through the streets of the city towards her house, pushing her bike instead of riding it so she could watch live coverage on her phone.

That live coverage was about a bunch of criminals that had just stolen a rather expensive car, who were trying to escape as the police attempted to chase them down. And as she reached her house, she saw something appear from the helicopter footage being shown. XLR8

"If you're joining us now. One of the aliens has just arrived on the scene." The superspeed alien was keeping level with the police car, apparently talking to the officers inside. Suddenly, he accelerated forwards and reached the stolen vehicle. In the blink of an eye, he shot through one side's door and out the other.

He then shot towards the police car and did the same thing, returning to the stolen car before running through it again. All this happened in two seconds and a few moments later, both the stolen car and the police cruisers slowly came to a stop. When they did, a police officer stepped out of the stolen car.

"I'm not sure what really happened, but I think the alien pulled the criminals out of the stolen car and replaced them with an officer from the cruiser. I'm willing to bet the criminals are safely cuffed up in the back of said cruiser. Looks like another victory for our alien heroes. Canterlot is sure grateful to have them."

Trixie sighed as she sat on the front steps, thinking about everything Flash had done since gaining the Omnitrix. He had helped so many people, all the while not taking any credit for it. Oh how Trixie wished she could do something like that.

The Rainbooms had their magic and were constantly saving people, whilst Shining had his police duties that kept the city safe. If only she could do something like that?

Trixie looked up at the sky, sighing as she did so. "What I wouldn't give to have powers like their's. Even a lame one would be enough, so long as I could use it to help like them." She closed her eyes, knowing something like that would never happen. Oh how wrong she was.

At that moment, a bright light suddenly appeared in front of her and forced her to open her eyes. She gasped seeing this light and stood up, wondering if this was another alien encounter or Equestrian Magic situation.

Slowly, the light morphed and changed to take shape. And when it did, Trixie looked confused. "A mask?" She asked, seeing it appear in front of her. When her eyes fell upon the coin on its forehead, she felt something inside be being drawn towards it. And slowly, she reached out and took the mask.

When she did, the light spread up her arm and around her entire body. She gasped at this, feeling a strange sensation that was almost overwhelming. Her body was almost moving on its own, as her arm reached up and placed the mask upon her face.

The next day.

Twilight and Sunset were walking down the street after school, both girls laughing at something Sunset had said. "Pinkie really said that?" Twilight asked, Sunset nodding. "Typical Pinkie." She pushed her glasses up and when she did, she looked at her phone but saw no texts from anyone. "I don't need to be anywhere for awhile. You wanna go to your place and do our homework together?"

"Sure," Sunset then reached into her bag, "but I'm gonna need to drop by Trixie's place first. Ms Cheerilee asked me to drop her homework off."

"Oh yeah," Twilight realised she hadn't seen the magician at school that day. They assumed she was just sick, so Sunset had been tasked with dropping off some homework for her. So the girls began to head towards her house, passing through the shopping district as they did.

But then, they heard a bunch of alarms coming from a nearby bank. Looking around, they saw the doors open up before a bunch of men ran out of it caring cases the girls assumed were full of money. The pair jumped into an alleyway, not wanting to be seen and shot at. The men ran towards several cars, as security guards ran out of the bank and prepared to shoot them.

Several of the criminals shot at them first, forcing the guards jump for cover. The crooks continued towards the car, but one suddenly felt his feet be swept out from under him. The others saw this and figured he tripped, but then another was suddenly tackled by something they couldn't see.

"What was that?" A crook asked as he raised his gun and pointed it in several directions, only to feel something hit him in the gut. "Augh!" He fell back, as the others turned to see Chamalien appear in front of them.

"Greetings boys," he smirked as the crooks fired at him. But he leapt into the air and vanished as he did, the crooks heading one of the car's roof crumble from something landing on it. They fired and Chamalien seemed to have leapt away, because the bullets hit nothing and one of the crooks was suddenly punched in the face.

It was in this moment that the man he had first knocked over had recovered. And seeing his friend be knocked down by something he couldn't see, he grabbed a bunch of dirt off the ground and threw it into the air. Doing so caused Chamalien to be covered in the dust, making him completely visible.

"Uh oh," he gulped when he saw this. The crooks all pointed their guns at him and the two Rainbooms were just about to try and help, but they wouldn't need to.

For in that moment, a wall of fire erupted from the ground and surrounded Chamalien. The alien was just as surprised as the crooks, as from the flames several tendrils of fire sprouted out and took the form of snakes. "What's going on?" Sunset asked, Twilight wondering the same thing as the crooks tried to shoot the fire snakes with little success.

"How is this happening?" One cried, only for a feminine voice to call out to him.

"Surrender you villains!" Everyone looked up and saw someone standing atop a nearby building, the figure striking a heroic pose. "For you are to be the first victims of Canterlot's newest superhero!" With that, they leapt off the building and did several flips through the air.

When they landed, they saw it was a girl around the same height as Twilight and Sunset, wearing a strange looking outfit.

It was mostly a collection of blue, silver and black, as she wore a silver body suit that had a blue poncho over it with gaps in the sides for her arms to move freely through. She was wearing elbow and knee length gloves and boots that were the same blue as the poncho, along with a knee length skirt that was also blue. The poncho and skirt had a bunch of black crescent moons shapes printed on them whilst the gloves and boots had a bunch of black paw markings. Her hair was a mixture of white and blue and her face, what little of it they could see, was light blue. A strange masquerade mask was on her head, which had an unusual coin connected to it. A pair of blue cat ears could be seen sticking out of her head and around her waist was a long black belt, so long that it looped around and formed a tail behind her.

Everyone was completely stumped by what they were seeing. "Okay," Chamalien finally spoke up, "wasn't expecting that."

The crooks also recovered and pointed their gurns at the girl, but she thrust her hand out as lights shot off her fingers and hit the guns. To their shock and horror, the guns all burst into flames and they dropped them. This allowed her to rush forward and begin performing some pretty impressive fighting maneuvers, the girl leaping around like gravity was only half effective on her.

She dealt several powerful kicks to their faces, chests and...other areas, dodging their own attempts to punch and kick them. Some staggered back but could still fight, so she removed the belt from her waist and used it as a whip to knock a few down.

Others then charged and the whip morphed into a staff, the girl spinning it around with impressive skill and knocking them all back.

Once they were all knocked onto their butts, the girl's hands glowed as giant and dangerous animals appeared around them in the circle. They all cried out, huddling together in absolute terror. "I wouldn't move if I was you. Wouldn't want to make them think you were trying to hurt them." As she said that, sirens went off as the police flew down the street.

They pulled themselves to a stop and Shining was one of the officers getting out of the cars, he and the other cops shocked by what they saw. "What's...going?"

"Oh," the girl smirked at them, "glad you're here. You can take them away now." The cops looked confused and turned to the animals. "Don't worry, they're not real." She lowered her arms as the animals vanished, everyone realising they were just a bunch of illusions. "Well, I should be off."

"Wait!" A cop cried, "who are you?"

"Who am I?" She asked before doing a twirl and striking a pose, "I'm Lady Masquerade!" As she said that, fireworks exploded above her and formed letters spelling her name. They were still rather confused about all this, as the superheroine smiled before snapping her fingers. Smoke suddenly appeared and filled the street, stopping everyone from seeing her as she escaped.

Chamalien also used this chance to escape, since he was still covered in dust and unable to go invisible.

He leapt onto a nearby building and scaled it to the rooftop, scuttling along as he heard the cops call out asking where they both went. He reached the other side of the building and jumped down into an alleyway, right as the Omnitrix beeped.

In a flash, he reverted back to human and sighed. "Lady Masquerade? What kind of name is that?"

"At least I have a super hero name." Flash jumped and looked up, seeing the very hero standing on the railing of a fire escape. "What are you gonna call yourself. Alien Watch-Man?" Flash gulped, realising he had been made. But the woman smiled as she leaned forward off the railing and fell several feet before landing perfect.

As she did, Flash stared at her and felt she looked...familiar. "Do...do I know you?" Masquerade smiled before she reached up and removed the mask from her face, doing so causing her to be engulfed by light for a moment. And when it faded, he was shocked by who was standing in Lady Masquerade's place. "TRIXIE!" He cried, Trixie smiling at him. "But...when...how...you..." Flash couldn't put the words into sentences, as Trixie smiled. "What is going on?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Trixie smirked, "I'm finally a superhero. Just like you."

"But...how? Since when could you do stuff like that?"

"Since this showed up," Trixie held up the mask and Flash looked it over. "I don't know why, but it suddenly appeared in front of me yesterday and I was drawn to it. When I put it on, I was transformed into what you saw and had a bunch of cool new powers."

"Like summoning animals and fire out of nowhere?" Flash asked.

"Actually, they weren't real." She put the mask on and in a flash of light, she was transformed back into her costume. She then held up her hand as fire appeared on her palm, Flash sensing no heat from it. When he touched it, he didn't feel anything. "Whatever this is, it gives me the power to create illusions. If I can envision it, it appears. Plus I'm faster, stronger and more agile. It's awesome."

"So this is why you weren't at school today?" Flash asked, "you were playing around with these new powers."

"I was practising with them," Trixie killed the fire and removed the mask. When she was back to normal, she smiled. "Isn't this great? Now I can help you save the day."

"Trixie, this is dangerous. It has to be Equestrian Magic. If you keep using it, you could be transformed into a monster and hurt someone."

"I don't think it's Equestrian Magic," Trixie told him. "I've felt Equestrian Magic enough times to know what it is and this isn't it." Flash glared at her, "why are you so worried? How is this any different than you with the Omnitrix?"

"The difference is I can't take this off," Flash explained. "If I could, don't you think I'd have given it to the cops the first chance I got? You need to tell someone who knows about this kind of stuff, to make sure it's safe."

Trixie sighed, "you want me to go to Sunset and the others, don't you?" Flash nodded and she groaned, "fine. But they're gonna tell you the same thing I did. This-"

"Isn't Equestrian Magic," Sunset proclaimed once Trixie had told them everything that had happened.

They were currently at Sunset's apartment, the seven Rainbooms having just heard everything Trixie had just told them. When they examined the mask, Sunset used her geode but it didn't react to it. "See," Trixie smirked at Flash.

"You're sure it's not magic?" Flash asked, "how else could she have done all those things if it wasn't?"

"I didn't say it wasn't magic," Sunset explained. "I said it's not Equestrian Magic." She brushed her finger over the mask and then touched the coin. "I'd always wondered if magic was real in this world, and it looks like we have proof." She continued to touch the coin and felt something coming from it. "I think the coin is what's magical. The mask is just a way to wield it."

"So it's non-Equestrian Magic?" Rainbow asked, Sunset nodding as the girl smirked and swiped the mask. "Cool. Let's see what happens when someone has both."

"Rainbow wait!" Sunset cried, but Rainbow put the mask on and nothing happened.

"Huh?" She took it off and tried again, but still there was no response. "What gives?" She turned to Trixie, "is there a magic word to use it?"

"No," Trixie shook her head, "I just put it on and it transforms me." Rarity took the mask and tried it on.

"It looks splendid," she told them as she looked in a nearby mirror. "But it's not doing anything to me either." She passed it to Pinkie, who passed it to Applejack when it didn't work for her. Soon the mask was tried by each of them, but it didn't work.

Trixie took it back and put it on, transforming into Lady Masquerade. "Maybe it's like our geodes," Twilight guessed. "We're the only ones that can use them, so maybe the same is said for the mask and coin."

"So what do we do?" Flash asked, as Trixie created an illusion of a little bunny that bounced around the room and made Fluttershy and Pinkie giggle. "Trixie can't keep it."

"Why not?" She asked.

"We don't know where it came from," Sunset told her. "Who knows what it could do if you keep using it. I think you should stop."

Trixie frowned at this and reached out to touch the coin, feeling its power flow through her. And in doing so, she felt like it was speaking too her. Telling her that she mustn't stop. That she has to get stronger with it. And she listened. "No." Flash and the girls frowned. "I get you're worried about me. But this isn't your area of expertise. If it was Equestrian Magic, I'd agree. But it's not and it came to me. Would you girls listen if someone told you to stop using your geodes because they think something might happen, even if they had no idea what it was?" Unfortunately, none of them could answer that without proving a point.

"Trixie," Sunset stood up, "you need to be smart. You saw what happened when Twilight messed with magic she didn't understand."

"Then she learned how to properly use it," Trixie stated. "And I'm gonna do the same. Because this is my magic, not yours." She could tell she wasn't gonna win this arguement, so she summoned her power and created a smokescreen that filled the room.

"Trixie!" Flash cried, trying to reach out and grab her. But he couldn't and almost tripped over Sunset's couch. When the smoke finally faded, Trixie was nowhere in sight and they heard the door slam shut. "Great. Now what do we do?"

"I don't know," Sunset sighed. "But she might be right. it wouldn't be fair to take this away from her without giving her the chance to prove she can use it responsibly." She moved over to the window and spotted Trixie on the street in her regular clothing. She glanced back at the window and frowned before walking off. "I just hope this doesn't go to her head."

The next day, a woman was walking down the street when someone rushed passed and grabbed her bag.

She screamed for someone to stop him and as she did, a brick wall appeared in front of the thief. He saw this and gasped, trying to stop, but couldn't and slammed into the wall. But he simply went through it without injury, though his attempt to stop had knocked him off balance and caused him to trip.

Before he could recover, Lady Masquerade jumped down and punched him in the face. She took the bag and handed it back to the woman, who thanked her before Lady Masquerade leapt up and parkoured to a rooftop.

The day after that, a fire had broken out in a nearby park.

Flash had been nearby and attempted to turn into Firefly, but got Bushwhacker instead. The alien plant tried to help despite this, but found himself catching fire as he tried to save someone who was trapped under a fallen burnt tree.

Lady Masquerade then leapt into the picture, tying her length changing belt around the tree and using her reflexes to jump over another tree and use it to pull the downed tree off the man. He thanked her as Bushwhacker was forced to retreat.

A few days later, Vapaw was running after a car that's brakes had broken.

He ran up behind it and grabbed onto the back bumper, using his back feet to try and pull the car to a stop. But before it could even lose five miles an hour, the bumper came off and he fell backwards rolling.

The driver cried out as he thought about jumping out, but then an holographic arrow appeared pointing left and he decided to take it. He turned left as Vapaw was about to run up and grab the car again, the driver being greeted to the sight of a long black belt that was tied between two lamp posts. The car hit it and the belt stretched as it did so, this slowing the car down without bringing it to a sudden stop that might have hurt him.

The driver got out of the car and spotted and masked hero crouching on top of a lamp post the way a cat would. She smirked before jumping off, whilst Vapaw ran around the corner and found his save had been hijacked.

If that wasn't bad enough, Trixie stood tall and started kissing towards the people and letting them take pictures off her. That was the last straw.

"I don't see what the big deal is?" Shining asked when he and Flash met up at a cafe. "So she's been helping out a lot. Now you know how the police felt when those aliens started showing up and doing our jobs for us."

"This isn't the same thing," Flash crossed his arm. "I go in, do what is needed and then leave. I don't stick around to take selfies with people or sign autographs." He pointed towards one of the other people in the cafe, who were showing off a photo of Lady Masquerade which was signed.

"You only do that because you're on a time limit," Shining sipped his coffee. "Can you look me in the eye and tell me you wouldn't do the same thing, if you could stay alien for as long as you want?" Flash was about to say yes, but then stopped as he couldn't bring himself to lie. He wanted to think he wouldn't do that, but then really thought about it. "Exactly."

Flash sighed as he grabbed his drink, "this couldn't get any worse." The universe chose that moment to rub salt in Flash's wounds.

"Did you hear?" One of two patrons asked as they walked passed with their drinks. "The Mayor's thinking of giving the key to the city to Lady Masquerade and making her the official hero of Canterlot." Flash groaned hearing this, knowing that would likely triple Trixie's already inflating ego.

"It's cool that we have a real hero in town," the other one said. "Those aliens are cool and all, but it's way better that a human's the one saving us. Don't have to rely on them any more." Flash groaned and slammed his head onto the table, Shining patting him on the shoulder.

Meanwhile, Trixie was strutting down the street looking like someone had just offered her a million dollars.

She smiled at the people who saw her, giving some a wink and the gun. Many thought she was nuts, though had she been wearing her costume their reactions would probably be different.

She walked past the diner where Pinkie worked and decided to head inside, spotting Pinkie rolling around taking orders and spotting Twilight, Sunset, Applejack and Rarity at one of the tables.

"Hello ladies," she smirked as she slid into their booth. Pinkie then rolled up next to them, "a round of drinks for Trixie's friends. On her." Pinkie looked confused and gave her friends a questioning expression, the rest of them shrugging before she rolled off.

"You're acting strangely chariable," Twilight told her. "What's got you in such a good mood?"

"How could I not be?" Trixie smirked, "I've saved the day every day this week. Everyone loves me and I don't think it'll be long before someone shows up and offers me a movie or TV deal."

"Trixie," Sunset frowned, "you seem to be forgetting that nobody knows it's you under that mask. The only way you'd be able to get that kind of deal is if you revealed who you really are."

"Then maybe that's what I'll do," Trixie smirked. "Why not? What has keeping a secret identity ever done to benefit super heroes?"

"Stopped criminals they beat from taking revenge on them through those they love," Applejack pointed out.

"If that were true, every police officer in the world would have a bunch of crooks out for blood." That statement didn't convince them, though it did make Twilight feel a little queasy at the thought of her family. "Look, I'm fine. I've done a bunch of good for those who need help, so what's the big deal with showing who I am?" The girls sighed, this being what they had feared. "I mean, you girls are practically superheroes and a bunch of people know who you are?"

"That's cause we're not actively seeking out villains," Rarity pointed out as Pinkie arrived with their drinks.

Trixie smirked as she took her drink and slurped it down. "Whatever. This is my secret identity and I decide if I wanna keep it. Soon the whole world will see how amazing the Great and Powerful TRRRRIXIEEEEE really is." The girls sighed, having not missed the girl's flamboyant attitude. Ever since she started hanging out with Flash more, Trixie's ego had slowly been going down. But now it was back with great force.

The lot of them wished something would show up to knock the braggart off her high horse.

Ask and you shall receive, for in that moment a brilliant flash of light occurred outside the diner. The girls all looked up from their drinks, as the light formed some kind of portal in the middle of the street.

A car had to serve to avoid driving into it, resulting in them crashing into a street lamp instead.

"What's going on?" Pinkie asked as she rolled up to them, Trixie reaching into her bag and taking out the mask. As she did, someone stepped out of the portal.

Devious looked around and found himself in a strange place. The buildings were oddly designed and the people around his portal were all dressed rather strangely.

"So," he walked forward, "this is where the medallion was sent. What would compel Miragina to send it to such a weak world? The magic in this dimension is almost nothing." He then heard a sound and looked around to see a car moving towards him, the driving hitting the breaks to come to a stop inches from hitting him.

"HEY!" The driver cried, "lousy jaywalker. The streets are for cars!" Devious didn't seem to take this well and pointed his staff at the car, unleashing a blast of fire that set the front ablaze. The driver screamed and fled the car, Devious unleashing a burst of wind that pushed it away.

He looked around and saw many people running to escape him, making him chuckle. "Pathetic. These weaklings don't deserve magical power. Whoever has the medallion must be using it terribly."

"HEY!" He spun around to see the five Rainbooms run out of the diner, the magical man sensing a magic-like energy coming off of them.

"You five aren't like these other maggots. You might actually put up a fight."

"You bet we will!" Applejack cried as she ran over to the crashed car and threw it at Devious, only for him to unleash a blast of wind that knocked it away. He then launched a bolt of lightning towards them, Rarity putting up a shield to block it as Twilight and Pinkie armed themselves.

Once the lightning stopped, Rarity dropped the shield as Pinkie tossed a bunch of explosive cupcakes and Twilight launched several pieces of scrap metal. They shot towards Devious, who spun the dial on his staff and hit the ground.

A rock wall shot up out of it and blocked the attacks, the metal bouncing off of it whilst the cupcakes exploded and made the wall crack and crumble. Devious smirked as the wall fell apart, focusing on the girls. "You are all impressive." He focused on Sunset, "I bet your powers are just as good." Sunset frowned, "too bad I'm not here for you." He turned the dial and his gem turned clear, "so let's end this fight right now." The crystal unleashed a wave of energy, which struck the five girls.

As soon as it did, their geodes stopped glowing and they suddenly felt themselves growing weak.

"What?" Sunset fell to her knees, the others doing the same. "What's...what's happening?" Devious smirked at the girls and looked them over, seeing Applejack and Pinkie trying to force themselves back to their feet.

"My legs!" Rarity cried, "what's happening."

"Your magic might be different," Devious explained. "But it can still be affected by my null crystal. Now...do any of you know where the Luna Cat Medallion is?" The girls gave him a confused look, wondering what the heck he was talking about. "Magic is very limited here. So someone with those kinds of powers must have become someone of note by now. They would be able to cast illusions and have increased physical abilities." When he saw their eyes go wide, he knew they were familiar with this power. "Come now, I know it's nearby. My spell was designed to bring me directly to the mask's general location. Now...who has it?"

"No idea what you're talking about," Sunset groaned. Devious clearly didn't believe that and raised his staff, which began to turn red. The girls braced themselves for what was about to come, only it didn't.

"HEY!" Devious looked up, just in time to see Lady Masquerade falling towards him with her staff held high. She swung it down and Devious leapt back, the attack missing as the staff clanged against the ground.

Seeing the mask she was wearing, Deviou smiled a wicked smile.

"So, you're the one." He looked her up and down, whilst Trixie stood tall and spun her staff around. As this was happening, the girls could feel their strength coming back. "Um...not much to look out. Why on earth would Miragina send you the Medallion?" Trixie raised an eyebrow at this, until she heard Sunset speak up.

"He's after the coin! He knows about it and what it can do. I think he wants to take it!" This surprised Trixie for a moment, only to then smile as she was reminded of the same issue being faced by Flash.

"So..." She smirked, "this is my Vilgax." The end of the staff glowed, "you want my power. Well you can have it!" She thrust the staff forward and in doing so, unleashed the light which shot up and began to take form.

In the blink of an eye, a giant dragon was standing in the street. It let out a mighty roar and thrust its head forwards, Trixie expecting Devious to scream. But he didn't. He just stood there and let the dragon swallow him, only to then disappear as he remained standing with a smirk on his lips.

"Nice try." He stepped forward, "but that ability only works if the person doesn't know your creations aren't real." Trixie's eyes went wide as he held up his staff, the crystal turning green. "Let me show you real magic." Wind exploded out of the crystal and slammed into Trixie, who cried out as she was knocked flying backwards.

The Rainbooms gasped as Trixie began to fall, the superhero turning her staff into a belt and throwing the extendable fabric over to a lamp post. Using it to swing around and back into the air, she landed atop a nearby building and glared down at Devious.

The man smirked at her before charging forward, thrusting his staff into the ground and creating a tornado that propelled him towards Trixie. Lady Masquerade created a cloud of smoke that covered the building, blocking Devious from seeing where she was.

At the same time, Twilight took out her phone and sent a text to Shining Armor. He might not have any abilities, but she knew he would want to hear about this. Especially since Trixie was his friend. "We have to help her," Rarity moaned as Twilight did so.

"Anyone else still feeling weaker then a stick under a ton of apples?"

"Yeah," Pinkie moaned, "that wave made my legs feel like jelly. And not the good kind." They could still feel their strength and magic returning, but it was a very slow process.

Devious continued to walk through the smoke, not bothering to try and blow it away since wind had no effect on something that wasn't really there.

So he walked blindly through the dark cloud, waiting to see if his prey did the smart thing. She did not. "YAAAAR!" He turned to see Lady Masquerade rushing out of the smoke with her staff, the girl swinging it towards him. But he was easily able to block the attack with his staff.

"Pathetic!" He pushed Trixie back, "you've barely scratch the surface of the Medallion's power."

"What makes you such an expert?" Trixie asked before charging again, Devious easily blocking or avoiding her attacks.

"I am the descendant of an ancient line of rulers, that were meant to take the throne from the previous king. But my family was denied because the Medallion chose my ancestor's younger brother to bond with instead of me."

"Chose?" Trixie leapt back as the smoke faded away, "you're talking about this coin like it's alive."

"It's not," Devious smirked. "But the magic inside of it is like nothing you could ever understand. Though not alive, it has a consciousness. So whenever the previous wielder dies or renounces their claim, it seeks out those worthy of it that are in the line of succession." He raised an eyebrow at her, "so why did it chose you after the queen renounced her claim?"

Trixie was starting to wonder that same thing, but knew she couldn't let that thought distract her. She might not know much about this Medallion and why it had come to her, but she knew she couldn't let this guy get it.

So, she slammed her staff onto the ground and created a bunch of illusions. These ones took the shape of her, Devious quickly finding himself facing off against an army of Lady Masquerades on the rooftop. They all moved in perfect harmony, ponting their staff at him.

"Nice try. But just because you made copies of yourself, that doesn't mean you've moved." He pointed his staff at her and the army quickly started moving around one another, Devious feeling like he was playing that ball under a cup game.

He tried to follow the real Trixie, but lost sight of her. He growled as the army circled around him, then felt someone thrust their staff into his back. He grunted and staggered forward, quickly spinning around to fire at the one responsible. But he hit nothing but illusions, which weren't affected by the flames.

Another strike hit him in the back, then another struck him in the chest and then the back of his knee. He grunted with every hit and growled, then changed to his wind crystal before slamming it into the ground. A burst of wind exploded out from him, hitting the many illusions.

But instead of only one being knocked back like he expected, they all seemed to be blown back. "Think you can trick me by having your fakes copy you when I attack them all? Not bad, but you're not the first to rely on that trick." The army of girls began running around him again and he expected to be struck one again. But he wasn't going to wait and try to counter her.

Instead, he turned the wheel to the yellow orb and pointing his staff upwards. Suddenly, a bright sphere of light appeared above them. The mini sun rose up high and unleashed its light, causing the many Trixie clones to stop and shield their eyes.

Devious knew only one of them needed to do that, mentally praising Trixie for commanding her clones to do that and keep her location a secret. But there was one thing she forgot to account for.

"Nice shadow!" He joked before launching a lightning bolt towards the only one who was casting one, Lady Masquerade gasping as she brought her staff forward to try and block the attack. But she couldn't and as the sun above them vanished, she was struck in the chest and screamed as she was blasted back off the roof.

Down on the ground, many people who had stuck nearby and seen the sun above a building and noticed the blast of lightning. They heard a scream and all gasped when Lady Masquerade was knocked off the roof and sent falling towards the ground.

"NO!" Her friends cried as Twilight tried to use what little magic she had regained to grab her, managing to get hold of her staff as it reverted back to its belt form. Once she did, she wrapped it around Trixie's chest and pulled on the edge. This slowed Trixie down enough so when she hit the ground, she didn't break any bones.

They ran to her side as she moaned, the front of her costume being burnt. "Are you okay?" Sunset asked, only for them to hear the sound of a tornado forming above them.

Devious appeared from the building and slowly flew towards them, the Rainbooms picking Trixie up. "Come on!" Applejack cried, as they started running away from him.

"Stop," Trixie moaned as she was still recovering, "I can take him."

"Yeah right," Pinkie told her. The six ran as fast as they could, whilst Devious began launching lightning bolts and fireball towards them. They screamed and Rarity put up a barrier behind them, shielding them as they ran around a building onto another street.

Devious followed and when he arrived on the other street, he spotted the girls running into an alleyway between two buildings. He again followed them through the alleyway, his eyes shifting around several times to try and locate them. But they were nowhere in sight.

He then stopped in front of a brick wall and focused on an open door, only to then raise his staff. As he did, Applejack suddenly shot out of the wall looking ready to punch him. But she slammed into a wall of wind and knocked back through the wall. Said wall quickly vanished to reveal the girls hiding behind it, Pinkie acting quickly and a piece of candy she had at his feet.

Devious leapt back as it exploded, Rarity using this to make a barrier that she threw at him. As he was in midair when it struck, he was unable to protect against it and was pushed backwards into the far wall.

The girls used this chance to get out of their hiding place and run back the way they came. But as they did, Devious used a dark spell to destroy the shield and free himself. As he fell to the ground, he glared at the girls and ran after them. He turned the dial to the null gem and as the girls continued running, he slammed the staff onto the ground to send out a wave of magic.

The girls cried out as the wave struck them all, the lot falling to the ground as they lost their strength. Trixie was also feeling it, trying to make an illusion but having no luck. She rolled onto her back as Devious stepped towards her, the superheroine trying to pull herself back.

"What are you going to do?" She asked in absolute terror, "kill me?"

"Maybe," he smirked as he raised his staff. "It depends on how strong you are. You might survive this process, but you'll probably wish you were dead once it's complete."

"Once what's complete?" Trixie asked, as his staff glowed brighter and brighter. Her friends gasped seeing this, knowing it wouldn't be good. But before any of them could do anything, it unleashed a beam that struck her in the chest. "AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRHHHHHHHHHH!"

"TRIXIE!" They all screamed, the lot trying to pick themselves up but still feeling too weak.

Trixie was in absolute agony, feeling like every cell in her body was being pulled apart. She had never felt fear like this before. When she had gotten her powers, she thought she was invincible. But now, as pain like she had never felt before surged through her, she realised she was anything but.

The others could only watch as their friend was torture, whilst the Medallion on her mask began to glow. That glow began to flow off the coin and towards Devious, the girls realising he was attempting to steal it. And there was nothing they could do to help.

Trixie could feel the Medallion's power slowly slipping from her metaphysical hands. It was still connected to her, but any moment now she would lose it and the power would belong to her attacker.

Devious smirked as he drew closer and closer to finally gaining what was rightfully his. "I win."

"I don't think so!" Suddenly, something shot towards Devious and his danger senses kicked in. He cut the power to his spell and leapt backwards narrowly avoiding being impaled.

Trixie gasped as the pain suddenly stopped, she and the Rainbooms turning to see a bunch of crystal sticking out of the ground that Devious had been standing on. They turned towards the voice they had just heard and all smiled when they saw Diamondhead standing there.

The crystalline alien pulled his arm back and smirked, the girls sighing in relief whilst Devious glared at him. "You're an interesting one." He stood tall, "I'm not sensing any magic coming from you." He raised his staff as it turned red, "no matter!" He launched a stream of fire that engulfed Diamondhead, the girls all gasping. But when the fire died down, the alien was revealed to not have a scratch on him.

He smirked before charging forward, turning his arms to blades. Devious' eyes went wide as he fired a lightning bolt, but the electricity just bounced off Diamondhead and towards the girls. They all gasped at this and he quickly slammed his fist into the ground, causing a circle of crystal to grow out of the ground and protect them.

"Gaaah," Devious growled as he launched a laser at him. But Diamondhead cupped his hands, the laser hitting it and causing the beam to reflect from one onto the other and then back towards Devious. He gasped and the laser slammed into him, Diamondhead smirking as he moved towards him.

As he did, Shining ran onto the scene and saw the diamond circle. When he reached it, he looked over the crystals at the girls. "You okay?"

"A little weak," Twilight told him. "But we'll be fine." They were all circled around Trixie, who was laid out on the ground. "Come on," she shook her. "Get up."

Trixie moaned as her eyes opened. "What happened?"

"You almost died!" Sunset told her. "That guy almost ripped the power out of you. One of the aliens showed up and saved you just in time." Trixie was shocked to hear this. She knew Flash was annoyed at her and figured if she was in trouble, he would tell her to fix it herself. It was then she realised that was something she would do, not him. Because he wasn't like her. He was a real hero.

They helped her stand up and look over the crystal wall, as Diamondhead slashed at Devious. The man tried to blast him with his magic, but nothing he did had any affect on the alien. "Wow," Pinkie gasped, "he's not even flinching."

Twilight smiled. "Diamonds are the most durable substances in the world. An alien made of them is practically invincible."

Diamondhead leapt over a fireball and grabbed his back spikes, pulling them out and throwing them like javelins. They shot towards Devious as he slammed his staff into the ground and created a wall that the crystals stabbed themselves through, slowing them down so Devious could leap out of the way.

The alien then created a path of crystal to slide upon and surf around the fireballs Devious struck. As he did, the red orb on the diel suddenly stopped glowing before it shattered and fell away. The fireballs stopped and Devious growled, this being noticed by Trixie and the others.

"You see that?" Twilight asked.

"Those small crystals are what's powering the staff," Sunset realised. "And they're not unlimited." But then Devious reached into his cloak and took out another red orb, replacing the first one as the larger crystal turned red again.

Diamondhead stopped surfing and jumped towards the ground, slamming his fist into the ground and creating a line of diamonds that shot towards Devious. He replied by unleashing a cloud of darkness, which shot towards the crystals and engulfed them. When the cloud faded, the crystals were gone.

Devious smirked at this and Diamondhead realised he was in trouble.

"I think he just found Diamondhead's kryptonite," Pinkie gulped as the others looked at her in confusion. They didn't have time to ask what she meant, as Devious fired another dark cloud which shot towards Diamondhead. The alien ducked down and as he did, the tip of his shoulder spike was hit by the cloud.

He flinched and rolled away, everyone seeing the crystal had melted. "It's like acid!" Shining realised as he took out his gun.

He tried to shoot at Devious, but the magician noticed the movement and spun around. As he did, the staff unleashed a cloud of darkness that formed a circle around him that flew outwards. Shining gasped at this and ducked behind the gem circle, dropping his gun as he did, whilst Diamondhead slammed his hands into the ground and created a pillar that lifted him upwards.

The cloud slammed into the gems and gun, melting them away and causing Diamondhead to fall towards the ground. The girls watched the shadows fade away, with the crystals protecting them now gone.

"Move!" Sunset cried, the lot running around so they were once again protected. They watched as Diamondhead kept firing at Devious, but all his projectiles were melted away.

"Can't you do something?" Shining asked the girls, focusing on Twilight. "Grab his staff in your magic to pull away, or something?"

"I can't!" Twilight told her. "He hit us with some kind of anti-magic wave. It nullified our magic and made us as weak as a baby." They saw Diamondhead was getting tied, panting as he avoided another shadow blast. As he stood up, Trixie frowned and felt horrible.

Flash was in trouble because of her. And she could do nothing to help him. Or could she?

She reached up and touched her coin, drawing on all the power she could. Her body was still recovering from the agony she had felt before, so the coin was resisting her. It seemed to know she was in no fit state to wield its power, but she didn't care and forced it to obey her. And sure enough, her hands started glowing.

Devious prepared to fire another blast at Diamondhead. But before he could, Diamondhead suddenly vanished. "What?" He looked around, but couldn't see him. "Where are you?"

"Right here!" He spun around, only to be punched by something invisible.

"AUGH!" He was knocked backwards, but managed to roll back to his feet. As he did, diamond bullets shot towards him out of nowhere. He didn't have time to fire a shadow at them, instead jumping out of the way. As he did, he spun around and unleashed another cloud circle. It shot out and a small crystal pillar shot out of the ground, flinging the invisible alien over the cloud.

Trixie gasped and had to stop her illusion as the cloud flew towards them, the lot jumping back as the shadows consumed the last of the crystal circle that remained.

Diamondhead fired more shards at Devious and he leapt back, firing another shadow blast at him as the hero landed. Diamondhead protected himself from it with a crystal wall, whilst Trixie summoned more magic and made him invisible again.

Devious had to avoid another barrage of crystals and growled as he turned to Lady Masquerade, the fiend spinning the dial to his null gem. "Raaaaah!" He slammed his staff into the ground and sent out a wave of energy, hitting the girls again and causing them to all grow weak.

They cried out as Trixie's nose began to bleed, Shining seeing them all fall to the ground.

Devious smirked at this and as Diamondhead reappeared, he realised he shouldn't be attacking Devious.

Before the magician could switch back to the dark gem, he fired a crystal towards him. With perfect aim, he struck the large gem on the staff. "NO!" Devious cried as it shattered, Diamondhead quickly firing several more crystals that ripped through the staff and turned it to splinters.

As the many gems fell to the ground and rolled everywhere, Diamondhead rushed forward. Devious tried to escape, but the alien was faster. "Game...OVER!" He thrust his fist forward and smacked him right in the face, making him cry out as he fell back.

Diamondhead then thrust his hands into the ground and in doing so, gems grew out from under Devious. Within seconds, everything but his head and feet were sealed in the crystal coffin.

"No," Devious tried to escape, but couldn't. "NOOOOOO!"

Diamondhead sighed before turning to the others. "Everyone okay?"

"We're fine," Twilight assured him. She then turned to Trixie as she wiped her nose, "are you?"

Trixie sighed, but nodded. "I'll live." She then looked guilty, "I'm sorry I made such a mess of things." Everyone smiled, happy she was okay.

But then, suddenly, there was another flash of light and they all got into a fighting stance as they saw the light swirl into a familiar looking portal. "What's that?" Diamondhead asked, as the girls gasped.

"That's the thing he came out of," Twilight cried as someone began to come through it.

"Get ready," Diamondhead told them. "He might have called for backup." But what came out of the portal wasn't what they expected. Not by a long shot.

A bunch of medieval knights marched out, all armed with funny looking shotguns. The took a defencive position around the portal and looked around the place, spotting them and seeing Devious. "Friend or foe!?" One of the knights cried, the lot of them pointing their guns at them.

They quickly raised their arms, Shining stepping forward. "That depends?" He pointed at Devious, "you friends of his? If so, then I guess we're foe." The knights understood this and then spotted Trixie, the lot lowering their weapons before one threw a green ball back into the portal.

A moment later, someone in differently designed armor stepped out from it. He was a pink skinned young man or around twenty, with white hair and a regal appearance

He looked around and spotted Devious, then noticed Trixie. He walked forward, those from this side of the portal realising he was someone important. "Greetings."

"Who are you?" Diamondhead asked, Aareus appearing totally unphased by the crystal being talking to him.

"I am Aareus Saintworthy. Son of Queen Miragina Saintworthy. Prince of the Luna Cat Kingdom."

"The Luna Cat Kingdom?" Sunset asked, turning to Trixie and nodding towards the coin on her mask. "This guy called that thing the Luna Cat Medallion."

Trixie nodded as she removed the mask, transforming back into her street clothes. "He said the Medallion chose me after Miragina renounced it." She looked towards Aareus, "do you know why it came to me?"

Aareus shook his head. "I don't. All I know is that my mother renounced it and Devious attempted to find it after he escaped from us. When we found his hideout, we learned he had created a portal to another world." He looked around, "it appears this place is a weak point of your dimension's barrier. It's possible there are other gaps in the barrier to other worlds."

Everyone shared a look, knowing that was true due to the portal to Equestria.

"My best guess is that mother used her magic to open a dimension portal like Devious did and sent the Medallion through it. When it arrived, it bounded itself to the person it had the best affinity with. As it turns out, that's you." He held out his hand. "Please, give me the Medallion. It's the most important artefact of my people. It must be returned to our kingdom."

Trixie frowned at the mask, but it looked like she was about to give it up. But before she could, Sunset stopped her. "Hang on. How do we know this guy isn't just pretending to be the prince of this kingdom?" She gestured to Devious, "he might be this guy's lackey."

The others all frowned. "She has a point," Twilight nodded. "It is a bit of a coincidence that they showed up right as we beat him."

Aareus frowned, "what do I have to do to prove I'm not your enemy?" Sunset replied by holding out her hand.

"I can read memories. Let me see yours. If you're lying, I'll know." Aareus appeared interested in this and stepped forward, the knights looking worried as he grasped Sunset's hand. They watched as her eyes went white, waiting as she was shown Aareus' memories. After a few moments, they returned to normal and Sunset let him go. As she did, she gave him a sorrowful look. "I'm sorry about your mother. I..." She looked ready to be sick, "I never want to find anyone I care about like that."

"Yes," Aareus nodded, "it wasn't easy. But hopefully it proves I'm not your enemy." Sunset nodded and turned to Trixie.

"He's not lying. The mask belonged to his mother and needs to go back." Trixie sighed at this, but nodded and stepped forward. As she did, she looked down at the mask and remembered everything she had done with it.

"When this thing came to me, I thought I could use it to become a hero. And I thought I did." She then frowned, "but I was never a hero. I was just someone looking to get attention." She gave the others a sorrowful look. "I'm sorry. I understand now why being a hero isn't my destiny." She turned back to Aareus and held out the mask.

"Destiny is what we make of it," the prince announced as he took it. "You used the Medallion's power for good, did you not?" Trixie nodded. "Even if it was for a hollow reason, helping others is always the right thing to do. Remember that and have pride in what you've accomplished."

Trixie smiled and nodded, as Aareus' men ran over to Devious. Diamondhead detached the crystals holding him from the ground and they pushed him onto his side. "Hey!" He cried before they started rolling him towards the portal. "Mark my words. You have not seen the last of-" He didn't get to finish before he disappeared into the portal, Aareus beginning to follow him.

He stopped right in front of the portal, turning back to Trixie. "Thank you, for keeping the Medallion safe." The look he gave Trixie was an unusual one. "You...remind me a lot of someone."

"You barely know me," Trixie pointed out.

"I know," he nodded. "But...your aura's really similar to hers."

"Who?"

Aareus seemed pained by the answer, "my mother." With that, Aareus stepped through the portal. The knights followed him and once the last one was gone, the portal began to fade away.

"What do you think that meant?" Pinkie asked as it disappeared from view, everyone turning to Trixie who wasn't sure.

She barely thought about it, instead already beginning to miss having her powers. But she knew this was for the best. She wasn't ready to be a hero. Not yet anyway. "If it hadn't been for Diamondhead, I would be..." She sighed and turned to the alien, "thank you for-" She was speaking to dead air.

"Hey!" Applejack frowned, "where'd he go?"

"He must have snuck off when we weren't looking," Twilight frowned.

"Why do they keep doing that?" Pinkie asked, but Trixie knew why. And she knew where she would find the alien she needed to thank.

Flash was sitting on his front porch, Banana on his lap, as the sun was beginning to set.

He smirked as he saw Trixie walking towards him, looking rather sheepish as she did so. "Hey." Flash was silent and turned back to the sunset. "I get it. You're not happy with me. I know I've been stealing the spotlight for a while."

"I don't care that you were hogging all the action," he finally spoke. "If you had been doing this for the right reasons, I wouldn't have had a problem with you being a hero. But you weren't."

"I know," Trixie sighed as she sat next to him. "It just felt...so amazing to be the hero for once." She turned to him, "do you remember what we were talking about right before you got the Omnitrix? You wanted to help people, but felt like you couldn't because the Rainbooms had magic and you didn't. Well...Trixie's been feeling the same way lately. Ever since you got the Omnitrix, you've been able to do whatever you want and everyone loves you for it."

"They don't know it's me though," Flash told her.

"I know, but you know you're appreciated." She sighed and curled herself up, Banana moving over to put his head on her lap. "I just wanted to be able to do something like that. To show people that I could be someone they could rely on too. But...I let all the attention go to my head."

"Yeah," Flash nodded, "I guess this kind of stuff is addicting. And heck, I've thought about what it would be like if the world knew my secret and treated me like a movie star. But there are more important things about being a hero then getting rich and famous."

"I get that now," Trixie nodded. "A little too late. Now that I don't have my powers any more."

"Hey," Flash punched her on her shoulder. "You might not be a hero, but you're still my hero. I'd have been dead tons of times if you hadn't been there to save my butt." Trixie smiled at this, the pair laughing and making up as they watched the sunset together. Trixie might not have had her powers any more, but as long as she could help Flash in his heroics, that would be enough.

Back in the Luna Cat Kingdom, a knight walked towards a cell carrying a tray of horrible food.

"Grubs up!" He announced before opening a catflap on the bottom of the door and sliding the tray inside. "Hope you like it. You'll be eating it until the day you die." He laughed as he left, whilst the prisoner moved over to the tray.

Devious growled as he was forced to eat it with his bare hands. "Just wait. I'll get out of here. And when I do, you'll all be sorry."

Author's Note

Trixie's Lucky Girl episode. You guys asked for it and I hope it was to your liking. Let me know what you guys thought about it.

Season 1, Episode 14: Ice to Meet You

Up in space, the warship of the mighty Vilgax continued floating above the planet completely unaware.

The many machines that worked there were trying to devise a way to acquire the Omnitrix, when an alarm suddenly went off. This awoke Vilgax, who had been resting whilst his body continued to undergo repairs.

"Report!" He growled, as a robot moved over to the computer connected to the alarm.

"Proximity detector has picked up a vessel moving towards us. It has just passed the planet that the earthlings refer to as Mars."

"Why did we not detect it sooner?"

"Sensors indicate the vessel is a small craft. Likely an escape pod of some kind. The computer is scanning it now." He waited a few seconds and nodded. "A level twelve mark eight escape capsule, complete with no onboard controls. It is programmed to scan until hitting a planet with a tech level of ten or higher, then automatically head to it."

"I see," Vilgax growled. "it must have picked up the Omnitrix's signal."

"The capsule will likely land within fifty miles of the Omnitrix. Would you like to send more drones to follow and try to retrieve the device?"

"No," Vilgax growled. "Send a surveillance drone. I think it's time we find out more about the individual wielding the device." The robot nodded and waited for the capsure to approach earth. As it did, the ship's doors opened and a single device shot out.

Unlike the other drones, this was was round and shot through space. As it did, something shot towards the planet at blinding speed.

It was the middle of the night and despite this, the city of Canterlot was still active.

One of the less busy people still awake was looking at the sky, smirking when he spotted a shooting star fly across the black void. But it wasn't a star. It was a rocket shaped vehicle the size of a car. It shot passed the city and crashed down just outside of the metropolis.

Once it had crashed, creating a large trench upon impact, it came to a stop as the rockets on it stopped firing.

The pod was red hot, it being a miracle that it didn't burn up upon reentry. But suddenly, a door in the side of it flew open and a pure white mist flew out of it. When this mist touched the surrounding trees, the wooden pillars suddenly turned to ice.

Something then stepped out of the capsule, whatever it is being hidden by the darkness of the night. If someone were there to see it, all they would be able to tell was that it was standing on four legs.

The figure moved through the trees, letting out long breaths that filled the air with the same white mist. They eventually reached the top of a hill and looked down at Canterlot. "Great," the figure then announced with an almost columbian accent, "I'm not alone on this rock. How the heck does this place have level ten technology?" They shrugged, "whatever. They've gotta have something good to nab here." With that, they headed down towards the city.

The next day.

The people of Canterlot were out in full swing that day, many going to the parks or any place they could enjoy the particularly hot weather.

One person who wasn't enjoying the heat was Flash Sentry, the teen having forgone his usual attire due to the heat. Instead of his leather jacket and jeans, Flash was wearing his old white emblem shirt and blue shorts with tennis shoes. He was currently inside the Canterlot Mall, which was one on the only public buildings in town that was air conditioned, sitting outside the smoothy place Applejack worked at.

As he sat there, Trixie and Sunset were standing at the actual stand getting drinks. Sunset was dressed in her sushi store uniform, currently on break from the smelly place. Once they got their drinks, they headed to Flash's table and noticed the teen currently sweating like mad.

"Wow," Trixie smirked as they sat down, "you really don't like heat?" Flash grabbed his drink and used it to cool down his head, sighing as he felt the coldness flow over his head.

"I'm not a heat guy. If someone told me to pick whether or not to live in constant summer or constant winter, I'd pick winter every time." Trixie and Sunset laughed at this as they slurped down their smoothies. then tried to think of something Flash and Trixie could do that didn't involve getting super hot.

Meanwhile, not far from the mall, a jewelry store was experiencing a big boom.

Thanks to its air conditioning, many hot customers were coming in to escape the heat. And as they did, they started looking around at all the fancy gems and body decorations filling the store.

But what the store didn't know, was that across the street in an alleyway there was a figure just waiting for the right moment to strike. And that moment came when they noticed someone walk into the store carrying a large dufflebag. The perfect piece of equipment.

"This is gonna be a cool day." The figure chuckled at his own joke, as a cloud of mist came out of his mouth.

"Maybe you can go swimming?" Sunset suggested, as the three finished their smoothies.

"Already tried that," Flash sighed. "Did you know you have to book a place at public pools now?" He sighed as he threw his empty cup into the trash. "Something about fire codes requiring only a certain amount of people in the building at any one time. How the heck does a place that's defining part is water, have to worry about fire?"

"Well I'm sure you'll figure something out," Sunset slurped up the last of her smoothie. "Count yourself lucky. Fluttershy and Rarity are working today and their jobs don't have air conditioning. I get the feeling Rarity's gonna be crying by the time she gets home, screaming that her hair is ruined." Flash and Trixie couldn't help but imagine Rarity with frizzy hair, the pair laughing at this as Sunset got up. "I'll see you guys later."

The pair waved her off as she headed back to the sushi place, Flash not wanting to think what raw fish smelled like in this heat.

"I don't get it," Trixie spoke up. "Your alien forms must be really hot. Firefly has fire right in its name, and Volt-Edge shoots bolts of super hot lightning. How come you never complain when you're them?"

"When I'm an alien I'm not hot," Flash explained. "I don't know how, but Firefly's completely heat proof. No matter how hot I make the flames, I don't so much as sweat. Same with my other aliens. Even when I'm Vapaw, all that fur and smoke is pretty cool."

"Huh," Trixie hummed, "maybe all their home planets are really hot. Who knows, Firefly's planet could be a giant volcano covered planet that's always spilling magma. You'd need to be heat proof to live somewhere like that."

"Makes sense, which is odd for you. You've been hanging out with Twilight too much." He laughed as Trixie rolled her eyes, only for Flash's phone started ringing and the teen answered. "Hello?"

"Flash, we might have a problem." Flash realised it was Shining Armor and the teen quickly sat up. "I'm outside of town at a sight of something that's crashed down to earth. Something that looks alien." Now Flash was really concerned.

Shining was hiding behind a tree, watching as a bunch of high ranking police officers, scientists and the bomb squad were gathered around a large rocket-like space shuttle.

He had been one of the first on the scene and had gotten look at the thing before a higher ranking officer told them to clear the area and called in backup. "Listen, I might not be an expert on alien stuff, but I've seen enough of it to recognise it when I see it. Something's crashed here on earth. Something not of this world. And so far, when something alien shows up, nine out of ten times they've been looking for the same thing."

"The Omnitrix."

"Exactly," Shining nodded. "You need to be on alert. Who knows what's gonna be coming after you."

"Got it. Any clue about what we might be facing?"

"Not sure," Shining shook his head at the rocket. "Whoever built this thing seemed to do so for it to be able to fit any form of life inside. I didn't get much of a look, but the seat appeared changeable so it could fit any type of body that needed to sit in it. Plus it's not that big. My Sci-Fi brain is telling me this thing's some kind of ship to ground transport, maybe even an escape pod."

"Right," Flash nodded. Hearing this made him think about his own time watching Sci-Fi movies. "Wouldn't that mean they don't have a way off the planet?"

"Well they're not getting off it using this thing. Even if we didn't find it, there doesn't seem to be any power left in it. Unless they have another way to escape, they're stuck here."

"Alright," Flash got up and headed for the exit.

"Hey!" Trixie cried as she ran after him. "Mind telling me what that was about?" She asked after he hung up, "I only got half the conversation and understood even less." As they headed for Flash's car, he explained what Shining had told him. "That doesn't sound good. Think it's this Vilgax guy?" Flash shuddered as he remembered the tentacled alien, still unsure if what he had seen back then was real or not.

"I don't know," Flash got in his car and they drove away. "But I'm not letting what happened last time happen again. If this thing is after me, I'll head somewhere I can fight them without needing to worry about collateral damage."

"Just so long as you don't try and take them down on your own," Trixie reminded him. Flash smirked and nodded as he flew through the streets of Canterlot, all the while trying to think of someplace to go where a fight against whatever was there wouldn't cause any problems.

But as he was about to turn a corner, something came flying out from around it. "WOW!" He hit he breaks and Trixie grunted as her seatbelt went tourt.

The something that came flying was a car, which had driven completely out of control and didn't stop until it hit a fire hydrant.

Flash quickly got out of his car and ran to the crashed on, as the front door opened and someone leapt out. "Are you okay?" He asked, the man standing up and looking himself over before stating he was fine. "What the heck just happened?"

"I don't know," he cried. "One minute I was driving normally and the next, it was like I was sliding on ice." Flash would have asked more, but another loud crashing sound made him and Trixie look around to see another car had just crashed into the side of a building. This was followed by another and another, creating a large mass of wreckage.

"What the heck is going on?" Trixie asked, Flash looked to the ground and was shocked to see it was frozen solid. A single section of road was a miniature ice rink.

"What the heck?" Flash moved towards it. But as he did, a building beside the ice-rink exploded as a giant spike of ice shot out of it. "WOW!" He leapt back and everyone else ran, he and Trixie wondering what the heck was happening. But then, they heard the sound of laughter coming from out of the mist that had followed the ice spike.

Looking up at the tip of the spike, they saw something standing on it. Something that was quadrupedal and bulky-looking.

Slowly, the mist began to fade and reveal the one responsible for this whole mess. It was strange-looking lizard creature, whose body was light blue despite only its head and chest being visible.

On said head, it had a pair of bright yellow eyes surrounded by black patches. Each patch had a black line that ran down below its eyes, then zigged upwards towards the forehead. This caused the lines to cross, forming an X-shape. It was wearing some kind of gray coat over its back, which also covered the extra long arms it seemed to have. Three blue spikes stuck out of the back of the coat and under it, on the creature's waist, three pairs of black gills were on either side. Its crotch and legs were inside a pair of orange pants and its feet had a trio of short blue claws sticking out of the pants whilst two long blue fingers and a thumb stuck out the end of the coat sleeves.

The odd looking creature smirked as he looked around, Flash figuring he had found the new alien that had appeared. He then noticed a dufflebag slung over his shoulder, the teen looking towards the destroyed building and seeing it was actually a jewelry store.

The lizard chuckled again. "This place might be low-tech, but it's got a lot of great stuff to steal." He took a deep breath and when he breathed out, a blue laser shot out of his mouth. That laser struck the side of the ice spike and caused an ice path to appear from it, the alien leaping onto said path and sliding down it down the street.

"It's getting away!" Trixie cried, as Flash activated the Omnitrix.

"Not if I can help it!" He slammed it down and in a flash, he was replaced by XLR8. "Let's roll!" He shot off and Trixie looked around, sighing when she saw nobody was around. It was then she realised she had been left behind.

"HEY!" She ran after him, almost slipping on some ice, whilst taking out her phone to call in the cavalry.

XLR8 zoomed through the streets after the fleeing arctic iguana.

The speed alien managed to catch up to him as he left his ice path down the street, then zoomed ahead. The alien barely had a moment to realise something had passed him before that something spun around and shot towards him, the lizard getting slammed in the head by something fast enough to send him flying off his ice path.

But instead of slamming into the side of a building, he spun around and landed on it. Much like Chamalien, this alien could stick to walls and didn't seem happy about being slammed in the head.

"HEY!" He cried, glaring at XLR8 as he came to a stop. He then noticed the mark on his chest, "how'd you guys track me down so fast?"

"What?" XLR8 asked, wondering what he meant.

"Well forget it!" The lizard cried, "nobody's taking Gelidafur to jail. Plumbers like you are nothing but problems for hard working thieves like me."

"Plumbers?" He tilted his head, wondering what the heck he was talking about. "Look...Gelidafur, was it?" The alien nodded, "I have no idea what you're talking about. All I know is, you stole something and put people in danger. That means you're going down!"

"I don't think so!" Gelidafur cried before unleashing his freeze breath, but XLR8 managed to speed away from the spot as it turned to ice. Gelidafur then smirked and leapt off the building, falling towards the ground and freezing it as he did so. When he landed, he was surrounded by ice in every direction. "What'cha gonna do now?" The lizard asked the armored dinosaur, who didn't seem at all worried

"Kick your butt, duh." He shot forward but as soon as he hit the ice, his feet suddenly stopped obeying him. "WOW!" He fell to the ground and slid along it, Gelidafur stepping to the side as the alien flew passed him. "HEY!" XLR8 tried to use his claws to stop himself. But as he did, Gelidafur flew off on another ice path.

XLR8 growled as he tried to get back to his feet, but slipped on it once again. He did this over and over, really glad nobody was around to see his humiliation. But what he didn't know was that something was watching him.

Above him, the sphere that had been propelled from Vilgax's ship hovered in place. It had a little helicopter rotor coming out the top, which kept it aloft as a camera on the front of it recorded everything.

"This is the fool keeping the Omnitrix from me!?" Vilgax almost roared, "how pitiful!"

"It appears the user has very limited understanding of ice's effect on moving objects," the robot announced. "Calculations have determined their ability to defeat the retrieval drones must have been down to either luck, or outside interference"

"Possible," Vilgax nodded. "But we shall see just how effective this being is when the battle has concluded."

XLR8 finally managed to get off of the ice, using his tail to push himself along until he reached solid road.

Once off the slippery surface, he jumped back to his feet and raced after Gelidafur once again. He followed the ice path and managed to catch the lizard as he came to a stop in front of another jewelry store. "I don't think so!" He cried, catching the ice alien's attention.

Gelidafur blasted some more ice towards the ground, freezing the entire road, but XLR8 never fell for the same trick twice. So when he reached the ice road, he leapt up and did several flips through the air. As he fell towards Gelidafur, he spun around to try and hit him with his tail. But the alien leapt back and fired a beam straight at XLR8.

Despite being fast, XLR8 couldn't escape in time and was barely able to raise his arms in an X before the ice struck him. In a flash, he was transformed into a giant ice statue.

Gelidafur smirked at this and turned towards the store, slamming his fist into the door hard enough that the whole thing was broken off its hinges. He stepped inside and saw all the scared humans, who were now hiding behind the counters of the store, making him smirk as he began smashing the glass cases holding the jewelry that he started scooping into his bag.

"Hey!" One of the men cried, getting up to tell him he couldn't do that. But before he could say anything else, Gelidafur spun around and launched a freeze blast at him. He was slammed backwards into the wall and everything except his hands and head were frozen to the wall.

Gelidafur turned to the others, "anyone else wanna be a hero?" They all shook their heads, "I didn't think so."

Back outside, the XLR8 statue was vibrating. Inside it, the speed alien had been shaking as best he could to create friction. This melted the ice and weakened it enough so the shaking began to break it apart. And eventually, the ice exploded off of him as he fell to the ground.

His visor opened and he let out a gasp, Gelidafur noticing this and smirking. "Not bad. I'll have to go extra hard on you next time." He took a deep breath and XLR8 prepared for battle, only for the Omnitrix to start beeping.

"Oh, come on!" He shot off, making it a half-mile and flying into a back alley before being consumed by light. Flash gasped as he leaned against the wall and slid down it, still freezing from his stint in the ice block. He was suddenly beginning to appreciate the hot weather a lot more.

Before he could think about what to do next, his phone began to ring.

"Hey man," he shivered out when he saw it was Shining.

"Hey. You okay. Trixie said you went racing after the alien whose pod we found."

"Yeah. Icy little devil that one. He's robbing a bunch of jewelry stores and freezing anyone who gets in his way. Including me." He picked himself up and frowned when he realised Gelidafur had likely raced off by now. "Sorry man. No idea where he is."

"Call Trixie to pick you up. I get the feeling we're gonna need your help taking this guy down." Flash nodded as Shining hung up, Flash texting the magician his location. Hopefully, she would be able to get to him through the chaos the alien was likely spreading throughout the city.

"Ahhh!" A police officer cried as he was knocked to the ground, frozen from the neck down as his gun fell to the ground in a block of ice.

Gelidafur jumped on top of him and smirked, "that wasn't very nice now, was it?" The cop began to quiver at the sight of him. "Tell you what. Tell me where I can find more valuable things and I'll leave your head uncovered." The cop seemed to want to keep some dignity, making the alien sigh. "Fine." He breathed in and was about to fire when-

"The bank!" He stopped his freeze ray, gesturing for him to continue. "There's a bank not far from here. It has safety deposit boxes that'll be full of valuable things."

"Is that so," Gelidafur smirked before jumping off the man. He was about to create a new ice path for himself, but something was about to show up to get in his way.

"Hey!" He looked around to see a car flying towards him, the lizard unleashing an ice blast that froze the car in its place as a pole of ice connected it to the ground. He then leapt up onto it and saw the one who threw it.

Applejack, Rainbow, Twilight and Pinkie stood there, the four girls having rushed to the scene when Trixie called them. "Who the heck are you? That was a pretty good throw for a bunch of weaklings."

"Weakings?" Rainbow asked, cracking her knuckles. "Who you calling weak?"

"Well from what I've seen, your species doesn't seem to have any particular powers or abilities. At least the revonnahganders could jump higher than they were tall. Compared to the rest of the universe, you guys are just...lame." He smirked, "which is fine by me. Means nobody can stop me. Especially since that kineceleran ran for the hills." With that, he unleashed his ice blast towards the girls.

Pinkie acted fast and pulled out some sprinkles, throwing them into the air and making them explode as soon as they hit the beam. This explosion caused it to start snowing, whilst Twilight used her magic to grab a chunk of ice below the alien.

Gelidafur leapt off that ice and onto the side of a building, launching another ice blast at the girl. Applejack was the one to the rescue this time, grabbing another car off the street and throwing it. The beam struck the vehicle and covered it in ice, Twilight grabbing it as it fell back towards them.

But this allowed Gelidafur to leap off the building and escape using an ice path. "Hey!" Rainbow chased after him, the alien looking back and seeing her approaching

"Another speedster?" He leapt off the path and fired at the ground, freezing it as Rainbow stepped onto it. She screamed as she fell to her but and slid along the ground, causing her to crash into the side of a car as Gelidafur created another ice path and escaped down the street.

"Rainbow!" Twilight cried as the others found her, but noticed the ice on the ground. Pinkie quickly started sprinkling it, blowing the ice away and making a path for them to follow to her. "Are you okay?"

Rainbow hissed as she held her arm, a long cut running down it. "You need to get to a hospital," Applejack told her.

"But what about that alien guy?" Rainbow asked.

"Looks like we'll have to leave it to the other aliens," Twilight sighed. Pinkie then spoke up.

"I'll get her to the hospital. You two go after him. Maybe you can slow him down until the heroes get here." They nodded before Twilight and Applejack ran off down the road, following the ice path left by Gelidafur whilst Pinkie helped Rainbow up. Hopefully, Rainbow's injury wasn't server and the heroic aliens would arrive soon.

Said hero was in his own car, being driven by Trixie as he turned the heater on full blast.

"So this guy's a jewel thief?" She asked, as Flash nodded. "Why would he want to steal jewels? The only way they could be worth anything is if he could sell them and I doubt any other store would be willing to do that."

"Who knows," Flash told her. "Maybe his plan is to sell them off world. Maybe gemstones are just as precious on other planets as they are here."

"Maybe," Trixie nodded, "or maybe they're what power that pod thing he came here in." Flash then got a text and opened it up, "Shining?"

"He just got a call from Twilight. She and her friends had a run in with him and he got away. Said he's heading west from Soulston Avenue."

"But there are no jewelry stories in that part of town," Trixie pointed out. "Why the heck would he go there?" She thought, then gasped. "Unless." She did a sharp turn that caused Flash to headbutt the window, "tell Shining Armor he might be heading for a Bank of Spade Street. It's got a huge vault there full of gold and tons of safety deposit boxes."

"Right," Flash nodded and text Shining back. Luckily, they weren't far from the bank and as they arrived, they spotted path of ice that trailed from around the street to the front of the bank. Unfortunately, the front had been frozen on the other side. Gelidafur had sealed himself in.

Inside, the surveillance drone hovered in the air and watched as Gelidafur threatened the people there. "That's right," the lizard told the owner of the bank. "Show me the vault. I want all the gold you've got."

"But we don't have any gold," he told him. "Our vault is cash only." But Gelidafur didn't believe him and pushed him forward, the man screaming as he turned to see a security guard that was frozen from the neck down and had his gun out in front of him. A thin trail of ice was coming out of the gun, with the end encasing a bullet that had been stopped in mid air.

They reached the vault and the man typed in the combination, causing the locks to undo and allow him to spin the wheel in the centre.

The door opened and Gelidafur rushed inside, only to see piles and piles of green paper. "What?" He picked them up and saw images printed on them, "what's this?" He knocked the piles over, hoping to uncover something valuable, but there was nothing. "Where's the gold. The jewels. The taydens?" The man didn't know what that last thing was, but his curiosity vanished when the alien turned to him. "This is a safe. Where you put important things!"

"I told you!" He cried, "we use cash in place of things like gold or jewels. That money is equal to many gold bars."

"Not on other planets!" Gelidafur growled as he prepared to freeze the man solid. "Don't you have anything precious here?" The man shivered and stammered.

"M-m-maybe in the-the safety deposit boxes." Gelidafur smirked and told him to take him there. He gulped and they headed out of the vault. But as they did, a loud banging filled the air.

"What was that?" Gelidafur frowned as he ran back to the front door, which seemed to be the source of the sound. Something was slamming against it, causing the ice holding it closed to crack. "What?" He was about to refreeze it, but the ice wall shattered and the doors flew open to allow something in.

"Surprise!" Riot-Horn cried as he punched the ground, causing it to shake and knock Gelidafur off balance. It also caused the ice covering the security guard to shatter, leaving him safe and free to run out of the building along with everything else. "You want to get behind a locked door so badly, I'll be happy to help you."

"Ha!" Gelidafur stood up, "another plumber. Like you guys could catch me." He fired an ice beam and Riot-Horn leapt to the side. The rhino alien quickly picked up a desk and threw it at the arctic iguana, who leapt into the air and stuck onto a wall before firing another ice beam.

As this was happening, Trixie was watching from the doorway and heard a police siren behind her. Looking around, she sighed seeing Shining Armor was the one getting out of it, the man rushing to her side. "Well?"

"Riot-Horn's holding it off, but I'm not sure if he can keep it up!" They then heard a cry of pain coming from their friend and looked inside, seeing Gelidafur had hit him on the shoulder and covered it in ice. But this didn't stop the alien, who simply flexed and caused the ice to shatter off of him.

"Nice try," he told Gelidafur. "But that trick's not gonna beat me this time." He ran forward as Gelidafur launched another freeze ray, the rhino crossing his arms as both were covered in ice and he got close. Once Gelidafur stopped to breath, Riot-Horn ripped his arms out of the ice and reached out to grab him.

"Uh oh!" He cried as the rhino slammed him into the wall behind him, then spun him around and sent him flying through the air until he hit the other wall. He cried out as he fell to the ground, but seemed relatively unharmed.

"Study little guy," Trixie frowned as Shining headed inside.

Gelidafur saw this as he picked himself up and smirked, then launched a blast of ice towards Shining. The cop gasped and rolled behind a desk, using it to shield himself as the ice beam struck and began to freeze it over. Gelidafur had to stop when Riot-Horn charged at him, the lizard pointing the beam at the ground.

This had two results. The first was that it propelled him into the air and away from Riot-Horn, whilst also causing almost half the bank's floor to freeze over. As such, Riot-Horn's foot hit the ground and began to slip, making him cry out as he fell to the ground and slid until he hit the wall.

Shining and Trixie flinched at this, Gelidafur smirking as he reached the wall and started crawling towards the exit. "He's trying to get away!" Trixie cried, Shining and Riot-Horn seeing this with Shining pulling out his gun.

He fired, but Gelidafur managed to avoid the three bullets before firing a laser at him. Shining once again dodging out of the way as Riot-Horn picked himself up.

Instead of tripping on the ice again, Riot-Horn slammed his fists into the ground and caused the entire building to shake. This resulted the ice breaking apart and no longer covering the ground, allowing Riot-Horn to pick up a large junk and throw it at Gelidafur.

The lizard leapt off the ground and as he did, he launched another freeze ray towards Riot-Horn. He once again crossed his arms but since he didn't have time to brace himself, the impact caused him to be sent flying backwards. He crashed into the back of the vault and hit it so hard, the whole thing was ripped out of the wall and fell back a few feet until it finally stopped.

Riot-Horn moaned as he sat himself up and broke the ice off his arms, but then heard a beeping sound. "Not now!" In a flash, he was reverted back to human and picked himself up. He was slightly off balance, but he managed to make it to the door.

But as he did, Gelidafur took a deep breath ready to seal him inside the vault. "NO!" Shining leapt at him and tackled the lizard as he fired, causing him to instead hit the roof and cause it to freeze over. It also struck the drone, pinning it to the ceiling as it tried to look inside the vault and see who had the Omnitrix. The pair struggled against one another as Flash escaped th vault, the teen trying to think of a way to stop him. "Augh!" Shining was then pinned to the ground with Gelidafur on top.

"Bad move!" He took a deep breath and prepared to freeze his head. But before he could he was suddenly thrown off Shining as a purple aura appeared around him. "What?"

Flash and Shining turned to the door and saw Twilight and Applejack, both of them standing besides Trixie with Twilight holding her hands up. "Nice try!" She glared at the alien, "but nobody hurts my BBBFF!" Gelidafur growled and fired a beam at her, Twilight forced to let him go and jump away to escape.

Shining quickly got up and rushed for his gun, as Gelidafur landed and fired at him again. Unfortunately, the man was struck below the waist. "Augh!" He quickly found himself stuck in a block of ice, Flash and the girls gasping at this.

Applejack ran into the bank and grabbed a table, throwing it at Gelidafur. The lizard fired a freeze ray and struck the table, turning it to a block of ice that was pushed back towards Applejack. She leapt to the side as it hit the ground, the ice breaking off and going flying through the air.

One piece struck the spot the drone was frozen too, breaking the ice and freeing the machine. It flew back down to the vault and looked around it, but saw no sign of anyone wearing the Omnitrix.

Flash had snuck out the back door so as to not give away his secret. Hopefully, the girls would find a way to beat Gelidafur before he caused any more damage.

"Ahhh," Shining as he tried to punch the ice again and again.

Trixie had rushed over to him as the other girls fought against Gelidafur, grabbing his gun and using the butt to break the ice away. "Hold still!" They heard Applejack cry, as she threw another hunk of ice.

Gelidafur leapt over the ice as Twilight tried to throw some more at him, but the lizard fired at it and pushed the ice back towards her. She and Applejack leapt away as Gelidafur landed at the doors. "This has been fun," he told them. "But I have more jewels to find." He leapt back and fired his beam at the door, freezing it completely solid.

Flash saw this and frowned, but his Omnitrix was still timed out.

Sirens then filled the air as more police arrived, but Gelidafur was quickly to react and fired at the floor. The street was quickly frozen over and the police cruisers were sent spinning out of control, several flipping when half their bodies went over elevated pieces of ice.

Flash flinched at this and saw Gelidafur race off down the street, the teen rushing to his car and going after him. He had to take another street to avoid the ice, but luckily he was able to get back onto the one the alien was sliding down. He stayed far enough back that Gelidafur didn't see him, but the arctic lizard was quickly beginning to speed up.

"Stay perfectly still!" Trixie cried, pointing the gun at the ice block.

"Wait!" Shining cried, but Trixie fired and the bullet slammed into the ice. The block began to crack and eventually shattered, leaving Shining's legs uncovered. Luckily, Trixie had avoided his legs. "Don't...do that...again!" Trixie gave him a sheepish expression as Shining moved over to the door, which Twilight and Applejack were trying to break through. "We gotta get out of here and take that guy down."

"Be a lot easier if those alien things showed up," Applejack grunted behind slamming her shoulder into the door.

"One did," Trixie told them. "But they...got injured. I think their friends beamed them back up or something." She gestured to the vault, "that's what happened when they tried to fight that thing." Shining looked at the vault and sighed, since Gelidafur was clearly very strong. The ice beam combined with all that jumping around meant there was almost no way to beat him.

"Wait," Shining whispered, "I think I might know how to beat this thing." He sighed and looked back at the door, "but it might involve a little damage to this wall." Applejack then used all her strength to punch the wall, causing it to explode and send ice, concrete and metal doors flying everywhere. Luckily, the police that had appeared earlier had left to try and chase after the alien. "That works." Shining turned to his sister and her friend, "how much weight can you two lift together?" The girls raised an eyebrow at this.

The surveillance drone continued to follow the ice path down the street, hoping that whoever had the Omnitrix was doing the same.

It was right, as Flash continued to drive as fast as he could through Canterlot to follow Gelidafur. The alien had yet to notice him, but kept zigzagging through the streets in order to avoid the many police officers that now filled them hoping to stop the menace terrorising their city.

Flash had to pull to a stop when he found himself coming across a section of the street where Gelidafur had formed a path that covered the entire road. He was about to reverse and try a different way, but then his watch turned green. "Yes!" Parking up, he got out of his car and ran into an alleyway. Whilst driving, he had realised the perfect alien to use against the ice user.

The drone had arrived at this section of the street and would have simply passed it, had a green flash not caught its attention.

Turning towards the alleyway, it spotted a black and red blur shoot out from between the building and into the sky. Firefly propelled himself forward using his fire and followed the ice path through the town, eventually spotting Gelidafur up ahead. "Time to heat this battle up!" He launched a fireball at the lizard, who noticed it just in time to leap off his ice path as the flames caused it to explode.

Gelidafur landed as Firefly stopped, the lizard looking worried. "Another plumber? What's with this planet? I've never even heard of it before and it has three plumbers in one city?" He fired a laser at Firefly, who unleashed a wave of heat that acted as a shield against the sub-zero energy.

He then launched a firestream at Gelidafur, who leapt to the side and fired another laser. Firefly kept launching fire and the two attacks collided, creating a cloud of stream that filled the area.

Gelidafur looked into the steam, unable to see where Firefly had gone. But before he could say anything, something shot out at him. "WOW!" He leapt back as a white string struck the ground and went taut, then went limp as the rest of it fell out of the cloud.

Firefly then shot through the steam, launching rapid fireballs in Gelidafur's direction. The lizard began jumping around as Firefly finally got in close, turning his flames into a pair of small but super hot welding torches that he started swinging at him like sword.

"Wow! Hey! Watch it!" Gelidafur fired his laser again and Firefly leapt into the air, "you need to watch it with those things. You could put someone's eye out with them."

"I'm alright with that!" Firefly gave him asmirk as he flew around, "so long as they're yours." He unleashed a flamethrower at him, but Gelidafur launched himself into the air with his laser and avoided it, the flamethrower and beam's end colliding to create another steam clouds. Firefly launched several several more fireballs at Gelidafur, but the lizard stopped his beam and fell into the steam.

Firefly was so focused on the lizard, he didn't realise his fireballs had kept going. Most of them simply burned out, but one of them hit something: The surveillance drone.

The flame slammed into the machine and causing it to be blasted backwards, cracking its camera, causing it to crash into a building behind it and break its propeller. Falling to the ground, the camera complete shattered upon impact and caused it to go offline. Up in space, the ones watching were not happy.

The two aliens continued to battle it out, both of them at a dead even. Every time one of them fired their elemental attack at the other, they either dodged it or blocked it with their own.

"RAAAAAH!" Firefly launched a barrage of fireballs towards Gelidafur, who created an ice wall that shielded him from the ones coming at him. Firefly then dived down and cut through the wall with his fire blade, allowing him to get in close and slash at him.

Gelidafur dodged these attacked, but Firefly managed to fire his silk thread as he did and hit Gelidafur's chest.

"Gotcha!" He cried before propelling himself into the air in order to pull the lizard with him, but Gelidafur quickly breathed a small cloud of cold air around the string. This caused it to freeze and shatter when Firefly pulled it taught. This surprised and annoyed him as he stopped in mid-air, Gelidafur launching his freeze ray at Firefly which he protected using a heat shield. "This is getting me nowhere!"

"Just give it up!" Gelidafur smirked, "we're too evenly matched. You're not gonna take me down." Firefly knew he was right. And the worst part was that he was on a time limit. If he didn't come up with a way to win soon, he would timeout and Gelidafur would get away. He needed help.

It was then that Firefly noticed something moving down the street. Something big and floating.

"Huh?" He tilted his head when he realised it was the vault from the bank, which wasn't actually floating. It was on top of Shining Armor's police cruiser, Twilight using her magic to take some of its weight whilst Applejack was pushing up on the car's ceiling so it didn't crush them under its weight.

And when Shining saw the two battling, he smirked before coming to a sudden stop. The vault flew off and Twilight used her magic to keep it from spinning, allowing it to fall to the ground with the door pointed towards Gelidafur.

"What's this?" The lizard asked, as Firefly watched the door open. It was then he realised what they must have been planning.

"Oh yeah!" He cried before diving down. Gelidafur saw this and fired his beam, Firefly creating the heat barrier to protect himself. He then started launching fireballs at the lizard, who jumped backwards in order to avoid the all. But this caused him to get closer and closer to the safe, the ice reptile realising what they were trying to do.

"Oh no you don't!" He cried before launching himself into the air with his laser, but Applejack quickly grabbed a car and tossed it into the air with her tremendous strength. It would have flown over Gelidafur, but Twilight used her magic to stop it right above the lizard.

This resulted in him slamming right into it, making him cry out and stop his laser as Firefly flew up towards him and covered his right gauntlet in fire. Before Gelidafur could react, Firefly slugged him in the face and made him cry out as he was knocked towards the ground.

But as he fell, he fired a laser at the humans and forced them to leap to safety and not try and grab him to throw in the safe. This allowed him to land as Firefly launched another flamethrower, the lizard retaliating with his own elemental attack. The two forces slammed into one another and created a cloud of steam, blocking Firefly from Gelidafur's view.

Moments later a familiar string shot out of the cloud towards him, but Gelidafur leapt into the air to avoid it.

However, Twilight saw this and quickly reacted. She grabbed the end of the string in her magic and sent it towards Gelidafur, who was surprised with the sudden change in its trajectory. Before he could try and freeze it, the thread was wrapped around his middle.

"HEY!" He cried, about to fire the laser but suddenly feeling the thread jerk and squeeze the wind out of him as he cried out.

Firefly flew out of the steam and pulled Gelidafur with him towards the vault. And as the lizard was about to regain his breath, he swung the thread around and let it go. The lizard cried out as he flew through the air and slammed into the empty vault, hitting it so hard the metal box was almost knocked onto its back.

And as it fell back to the ground, Applejack ran over to the door and pushed it closed.

"Wait!" Gelidafur cried, as the metal doors slammed shut. Firefly then started flying around the metal box and unleashing a flamethrower, which heated the vault but not so much it melted.

"Yeah," Twilight smirked, "no way he'll be able to stand that. I give it three hours before the air in there is completely gone."

Firefly frowned, knowing he couldn't stick around that long. Plus, he didn't want to kill Gelidafur. "We'll let him out before he suffocates," Shining told his sister. "The question of the moment is, what do we do with him? I doubt any jail we have can hold him." But before anyone could reply to that, the blazing sun was suddenly gone.

"Huh?" Twilight looked up and they saw that something was blocking the sunlight. Something floating above them that appeared circular in design with two semicircles connected to the sides. And as their eyes got used to the darkness, they saw it was a spaceship.

"No way," Trixie whispered as the ship slowly floated downwards. As they did, they saw an image on the side of it. The same image they had seen on all the alien heroes.

Firefly was suddenly very worried and when nobody was looking, he snuck away and flew into an alleyway but kept close enough to hear them. "What's going on?" Applejack asked, only for the spaceship to extend four legs that allowed it to touch down.

When it did, a part of the bottom opened up to allow a ramp to extend downwards. Moments later, two figures appeared from out of the ship.

They were a pair of aliens that they had never seen before. Both were wearing a white and black suit with the hourglass symbol on the chest, with one having a glass helmet on its head. The one with the helmet was some kind of fish alien, whose helmet was filled with water, with large teeth and an angler fish antenna on its head. The other appeared to be made out of rock, though they could only see a collar of this sticking out of the suit, whilst its head was on fire and made its face look like a flaming mask.

The fish turned to the hothead, "we have natives who have been exposed."

"Might as well do our duty," the fire alien announced. "Not like anyone will believe them." Twilight took out her phone but when she tried to turn on the camera, something caused the picture to go all funny. "Do you have his readings?" The fish took out a device and when he pointed it at the safe, it beeped.

"There it is." They moved forward, but Shining jumped in front of it.

"Who are you?" The aliens looked at him, curious by either his courage or idiocy.

"I'm Magister Fuego," the fire-headed alien stated before gesturing to the fish. "This is Magister Glug." They gestured to the badged on their chest, "we are the Plumbers sent here to reacquire the escaped convict known as Gelidafur."

"And from what we can tell," Glug pointed at the safe. "He's in there." The humans frowned, wondering if they should trust them. But Twilight stepped forward.

"I think we can trust them," she explained. "They have the same badges those other aliens have." She turned around, "right?" Only then did she realised Firefly wasn't there. "Where'd he go?"

"What is this about other aliens?" Fuego asked, only for Twilight to show them her phone and the pictures she had of the aliens. "What?" They watched as she kept scrolling, showing all ten of them. "Those aliens are not plumbers. Must be a renegade group attempting to pass as plumbers."

"We'll need to inform headquarters of this," Glug told him. "But for now, we need to focus on Gelidafur." He pressed something on the device and the spaceship unleashed a laser that struck the vault, cutting through the door and causing it to fall to the ground. Doing so revealed Gelidafur, unconscious but alive.

Fuego threw a cube like the one Tetrax had used at him and the arctic iguana was soon trapped inside. Once it shrank back down, the dufflebag of stolen goods remaining where it was, the fire alien picked it up and turned to the humans. "You were the ones that defeated him?"

"Kinda," Trixie shrugged. "It was...one of those aliens that did most of the work." She pointed at Shining, "but this one is the one that came up with the idea to trap him like that."

"Interesting," Glug hummed as he and Fuego stared at Shining. "You are an officer of the law on this planet?"

"That's right," Shining nodded. "Why?"

"No reason," Glug told him before taking something out and throwing it to Shining. The man caught it and saw it was another badge like their's. "This will allow us to find you when we return. I'm sure headquarters will want to hear everything about these alien heroes you talk of. For now, keep that on you and don't tell anyone about this."

"O...kay," Shining was confused as the pair headed back to their ship. "Why are you being so open about this? Aliens usually try to hide themselves from humans, or at least that's how it seems."

"Maybe most aliens try that," Fuego told them. "But the Plumbers have a vast interest in your species. By the sounds of things, your planet's starting to become an alien hotspot. That means if the Plumbers plan to keep order in this part of the galaxy, they'll need humans who can help them keep that peace." They didn't really get what these aliens were talking about, but the pair didn't say anything else and boarded their ship.

All they could do was watch as the ship took off and floated above the city for a moment, then shot into the air faster than they could blink.

The situation over, the humans continued to stare at the sky before Shining looked down at the badge. The others moved over to him, curious about the device. And none more so than Flash, who had reverted back to human right before the aliens left.

As the blazing sun began to set, the city was still in turmoil.

Many of the jewelry stories had been trashed and some of their best merchandise had been taken into evidence, though with all the insanity there would likely never be any kind of court case, and many of the streets were closed due to the large amount of ice that could be found there.

On the bright side, many people got to enjoy a cooling ice skate before the ice began to melt.

One of the people not getting to enjoy the ice skating was Rainbow, whose arm had been stitched up and expected to heal up in a week or two. She had been quite bummed to hear she missed her chance to meet more aliens, wanting to hear every second of the story from Twilight and Applejack when they went to see her.

Shining Armor was at his house, not looking forward to the report he would need to write come tomorrow. He was currently sitting in his garden, a drink in his hand as Cadance put Flurry to bed. He then reached into his jacket and took out the badge that the aliens had given him, wondering if it was a better idea to simply throw it away so they didn't come back.

"Hey." He looked up to see Flash standing on the other side of his fense. Shining smirked and put the badge away, gesturing for Flash to come in. Flash did so and sat down next to him. "Crazy day, huh?"

"They seem to show up a lot more frequently ever since I met you," Shining joked before taking a swing of his drink.

Flash chuckled as he felt a refreshing evening breeze blow over them. "What do you think those aliens are gonna do with Gelidafur?"

"Hopefully, lock him in a cell and throw away the key." Shining glanced back at him and saw a worried look, the teen fiddling with the watch on his wrist. "You worried they're gonna come back?"

"They said they would be," Flash pointed out. "They know there are aliens on this planet, so of course they're gonna come back. And they probably know what the Omnitrix is, so they might figure out that's what's going on and track me down."

"Well I don't think you have to worry," Shining assured him. "I might not have met them for very long, but I get the feeling these plumbers are the good guys of the universe. I'm sure once we explain the situation to them, they'll understand and won't do anything bad. Who knows, that Tetrax guy might know them. If he does, he might throw in a good word."

"I hope so," Flash nodded as he looked down at the Omnitrix. "Ever since this thing showed up in my life, it's been one insane situation after another. And I love having it and helping people. But...I just wonder how long I'm gonna have until everything comes crashing down on me."

"We both know you being those aliens isn't gonna stay a secret forever. Eventually, you'll timeout surrounded by people or just be forced to reveal who and what you are. Hopefully, that time won't be for a long time. But when it comes, you need to be ready."

"I know," Flash nodded as he looked up at the darkening sky. "Who knows what's gonna come after me next time."

Up in space, the Plumber ship had just left the solar system.

As it did, the other spaceship came out from behind the moon. "The plumber ship is no longer in sensor range," the robot told Vilgax. "All readings show they did not detect our presence."

"Good," Vilgax growled, "the last thing I need are those intergalactic do-gooding fools getting in my way." The screens then appeared around the tube, showing the images the drone had recorded before getting destroyed. "Now I can focus on getting my prize from this fool of a human, whoever they are."

"Shall we dispatch more drones to retrieve it?" The robot asked.

"No," he growled before something unexpected occurred. The tube began to open, unleashing a tone of steam. As the steam failed, a figure stood within it. A large, bulky figure with cybernetics in its arms and a mask covering his mouth. Vilgax, bigger and better than ever. "I will see to this task myself."

Author's Note

Well, you wanted to see the plumbers in this. Hopefully, this'll tied you over until they make a bigger appearance. Hope you enjoyed it and enjoyed seeing another of Ben 10's aliens.

Season 1, Episode 15: Revelations

It was a late night in Canterlot and almost every teenager in the city was fast asleep. All except one.

Within her room, Twilight Sparkle was staring at her computer. On said computer were the images of the ten aliens that had been saving her town for the last few months. The young girl stared at them, all the while trying to think about what had happened just a few short days ago.

The alien criminal, Gelidafur, had raged havoc on the town until he was finally captured. And when he was, a bunch of new aliens claiming to be intergalactic police officers appeared to take him away. When she showed them pictures of other aliens with the same logo they had, these space cops stated they were imposters.

Twilight was now more curious than ever about these aliens, wondering who the heck they were and why they kept showing up in Canterlot.

A yawn broke her out of her super focus, making her spin in her chair and see Spike getting up from out of his bed. "Twilight," he rubbed his eyes and moved over to her, "what are you doing still up? You've got school tomorrow." Oh how he sounded like a parent saying that.

"Sorry Spike. I'm just trying to get my head around the alien heroes." Spike moved over to jump on her lap. "Why are they here? What makes Canterlot so special that they only show up here? And why only one at a time?"

"Maybe they want access to Equestrian Magic here."

"Maybe. But if that's the case, why not just talk to us? They've helped us so many times. If they're interested in magic, they could have asked us."

"Maybe they wanna figure it out themselves. Or plan on using it for something and know you might not agree with it. I guess you can't know for sure unless you actually talk to them about it." Twilight knew that was true, but given that they kept vanishing whenever the situations they fix ended, that wasn't a very good option.

"I just need something to work backwards from." She zoomed in on a part of XLR8's chest, "like why are they wearing these badges on their bodies. I thought they might be something special and they are. Those other aliens who called themselves the plumbers had them and gave one to Shining. So they must be important. But when I showed them the ten aliens, they said they weren't apart of the plumbers. So why do they have these symbols on them?"

Spike stared at the image, getting a strange sense of familiarity from it. "Hey...I think I've seen that somewhere before." Twilight raised an eyebrow at this, "on something other than these aliens." He stared at the symbol for a few moments, groaning as he tried to remember where he had seen it before.

Twilight couldn't help but wonder where Spike of all people could have seen it. Then he gasped.

"That guy!"

"What guy?"

"Flash...Flash...um."

"Flash Sentry?"

"Yeah," Spike nodded. "When we were cleaning up the park that one time. He was wearing a watch on his wrist that had this same symbol on it." Twilight was shocked to hear this and pulled up some of the pictures she had of Flash, though there were only a few. One was of their time at the amusement park, which she remembered was one of the few spots outside Canterlot that the aliens had appeared.

The picture showed him, Pinkie, Twilight and Trixie in front of a ride and Flash had his arms around Pinkie and Trixie. She focused in on his arm and saw the watch, trying to zoom in as best she could without making it fuzzy. And sure enough, the watch she had never really paid attention to had the same symbol on it. The white part was green, but it was definitely the same symbol.

"No way," she whispered at this. She then leaned back and tried to think. Had she ever seen Flash and an alien together?

Slowly, she realised she had never seen Flash around any alien. She had heard him talk about the aliens appearing in front of him, but had never seen it herself. In fact, Flash seemed to have a nasty habit of vanishing whenever an alien was about to show up. But why?

"Flash Sentry," she stared at his pictured. "What secrets are you hiding?"

Meanwhile, up in space, the spaceship of Vilgax was hovering above the planet.

Inside, preparations were being made. Specially designed robot drones were currently being constructed in the hanger, these ones being more beetle-themed than the disk-like ones that had previously been sent. Meanwhile, on the main bridge, several robots were showing their newly reborn master a satellite image of Canterlot.

"This is where the Omnitrix's signals have been originating from. Some occasions have had it be located elsewhere, but the majority of them have come from this area."

"I see," Vilgax growled as he sat in his throne. The bridge was so dark, he was hidden by the lack of light.

"We will not be able to detect the Omnitrix until it has activated again," the robot spoke. But then Vilgax pressed a button on his chair and caused a bunch of holographic images to appear.

"We do not need to wait." Said images showed footage of the many Omnitrix aliens, using their powers to save people and fight against villains. "The wielder has already revealed his greatest weakness. And when I find them, they will not live to regret caring for others over themself."

The next day.

Flash was singing to himself as he rolled down the street leading to Canterlot High, his radio blasting out one of his favourite songs.

He was in a good mood, having yesterday stopped two bank robberies and saved a little old lady from being run over. He knew he shouldn't feel arrogant, but it was hard not to be smug when so many things were going his way. And as he turned into the parking lot and finished his song, he seemed to be on the verge of another good day.

He got out of his car and headed into the school, navigating straight to his locker to deposit his unneeded books.

But when he arrived, he spotted something that put him on edge. The Rainbooms, all gathered around his locker, talking about something that appeared to have them worried. And when they noticed him approaching, they all stood firm. "Hey," he reached them, "what's going on?"

"Twilight was just telling us something very interesting," Sunset told him. "About a possible revelation involving the aliens."

"Oh?" Flash suddenly felt very warm, "what kind of revelation?"

"Well," Rainbow spoke, "we were hoping you could help us out with that." Rainbow had just gotten her cast off the previous day, having sliced her arm open during the event with the ice breathing lizard. But somehow, likely due to her magical superspeed, she had healed up super quick without even getting a scar.

Twilight stepped forward and looked down at the device on his wrist. "That's a really interesting watch you have on"

"Oh," Flash tried to keep his panic under control, "thanks."

"Where'd you get it?" Pinkie asked, looking at him with less suspicion then the others.

"Er...cereal box."

"Really?" Rarity raised an eyebrow, "which cereal?"

"Um..."

"Oh for Granny's sake!" Applejack was clearly done beating around the bush. "Flash, why does your watch have the same symbol those aliens do?" Flash forgot how to breath for a second, as Twilight grabbed his wrist to take a closer look and see it really was the same.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Flash pulled away.

"Come on Flash," Sunset told him. "What's your connection to the aliens."

"Nothing," Flash frowned, "I don't have a connection to the aliens."

"Really?" Twilight asked, "so you just happen to never be around when the aliens show up. And all the times you said you were near them, nobody else was around to see it?"

"Trixie and Shining were around when Bushwhacker showed up to save me," Flash told them. "And just because you guys haven't seen me around other aliens, that doesn't mean I haven't been. The world doesn't revolve around you girls, you know."

The girls frowned at him, Fluttershy then stepping forward. "Flash, we're your friends. We care about you. So if something is happening, then we want to help you."

"Well," Flash rubbed his arm, "something is happening."

"What?" Rainbow moved in close, too close, eager to get answers.

Flash glared at her. "This bunch of girls are hounding me for no reason and it's really getting on my nerves!" The Rainbooms all frowned as Flash began to walk off, deciding to just hold all his books until he was next free.

"Hey!" Rainbow cried, "don't just walk off. You're giving us an answer and we're not leaving you until we get them."

"Yeah right," Flash told her. "The only class I have with some of you isn't until after lunch, so forget it." He continued to walk through the halls with the girls hard on his tail, eventually deciding to go to the one place they couldn't follow.

"Hey!" Rainbow cried, seeing him duck into the boy's bathroom. "You can't stay in there forever."

"I don't have too," Flash cried back before the bell rang. The girls all moaned and considered skipping class, but then Celestia walked by.

"Bell girls," she told them. "Time to get to class." They sighed and walked off, Twilight glancing back at the bathroom and wondering what Flash was being so defensive of.

Once they were all gone, Flash stepped out of the bathroom and sighed. But he knew this was just a brief reprieve. The girls were onto him and he needed to think of a way to get them off of him. But how?

Outside of Canterlot, the large forest that was halfway between the city and Camp Everfree stood.

The creatures of the forest were busy minding their own business, enjoying their normal forest dwelling lives, when something unexpected arrived to disrupt. For from up above, a large spaceship flew down completely under the radar of every piece of sensory technology on that planet.

That ship flew down and stopped several feet above the forest, the expelling of jets that kept it elevated causing the trees around it to be ripped out of the ground and sent flying. The ship continued hovering for several moment before a section of the undership opened up.

Several of the newly built drones flew out of it and they weren't alone, as a giant red sphere also fell out of it. Said sphere was covered in spikes, giving it the appearance of a flail ball. It slammed into the ground and started rolling in the direction of Canterlot, the drones following it as the orb knocked down several more trees in its journey. Its objective, find the one who had the driver's prize.

Flash had just gotten out of his second class, and was currently enjoying the fifteen minute snack break he and many of his classmates had. Though enjoying it might not have been the right words.

He knew he only had one more class before lunch and when that happened, the Rainbooms would be on him once again. Luckily, he had found Trixie and was currently explaining everything to her and Shining over the phone. "So that's the situation," he finished telling and Trixie was looking pretty worried. "How the heck am I supposed to convince the girls I've got nothing to do with the aliens?"

"I don't think you can," Shining told him. "Once Twilight's found something she wants to learn the truth behind, she won't stop until she sees proof her assumptions are wrong."

"But she's not," Trixie sighed. "And there's no way to fake you being near the aliens." She sighed, "if only I could still make illusions."

Flash groaned as he opened his locker and put his books away, "so what do I do?"

"I think there's only one thing you can do. Come clean and tell them."

"Is there no other way?" Trixie asked.

"Not unless Flash suddenly has an alien he can use to wipe their memories of this idea." Flash sighed, knowing he didn't have any other choice.

"I gotta tell them." He closed his locker and put his head against it, "I just hope they don't start seeing me as some kind of freak."

"Hey, they're more likely to be seen as freaks than you. Your abilities come from a piece of technology. Theirs comes from magic nobody knows about. I doubt they have a leg to stand on." Flash couldn't deny that, but it didn't make this thought any easy.

"Wait until after school," Shining told him. "I'll come by after work to try and help explain things."

"Thanks Shining," Flash told him before hanging up.

Shining sighed as he sat in the van he was currently driving. Several officers were still off sick due to injuries they had sustained during the fight against the ice alien, so Shining had been roped in to driving the large van that was used to haul away large numbers of criminals when needed.

The ''Perp Van'', as it was called, swung around a corner ready to be called to action at any moment. But as he was about to pass a green light, a piece of the road suddenly exploded. "WOW!" He hit the brakes and was glad he did, since a chunk of debris hit the spot he would have driven to if he hadn't.

He looked around and saw a bunch of familiar drones fly passed shooting lasers, Shining reaching for his phone but dropping it when another laser almost hit his vehicle. Instead, he kicked it into gear and reversed away as a drone flew down the street at him. "Oh great!"

Flash and Trixie were sitting in their next class listening to Ms Cheerilee talk about something they were barely interested in, all the while Flash tried to think of what he was going to tell the girls.

He knew telling them was needed, but he feared he would end up saying the wrong thing during his explanation and make them more angry than they were likely gonna be about him keeping this secret from them. His explanation had to be spot on, or he would only make things worse. But what should he say?

However, before he could think of something, Sweet Leaf suddenly spoke up and broke him out of his thoughts. "Hey, what's that?" Everyone turned towards the window and looked out to see a bunch of smoke coming out from behind several buildings.

"That can't be good," Ms Cheerilee stated. She got up and stared at the clouds for several moments, as more of them began to appear. And before anyone could say anything, the PA system suddenly came online.

"This is an emergency announcement," Principal Celestia spoke out. "All students head to the gymnasium in an orderly fashion." The students began to worry at this, the lot of them getting up and heading for the door. One of the last ones was Flash, he and Trixie catching each other's eye and nodding.

They remained at the back of the group as they made their way through the corridors. And when they passed a bathroom whilst nobody was looking, the pair leapt into the room and waited. "Hope they don't take too long," Trixie told him as Flash activated his watch.

Outside the school, the Rainbooms ran out and headed towards their vehicles. "What do you think it is this time?" Applejack asked.

"I don't know," Sunset sighed as she, Rarity, Pinkie and Twilight jumped onto the farmgirl's truck. "I'm hoping it's Equestrian magic that we can deal with quickly. If not..."

"I hope one of those aliens show up," Fluttershy gulped as she put on a helmet and got on Rainbow's bike behind her. Twilight was thinking the same thing, all the while wondering if Flash was calling them in that moment.

Up on the roof, Flash and Trixie managed to get out to it once everyone was gone.

As they did, a massive explosion shot up from behind the buildings that caused the school to shake and a couple of windows to break. "This isn't something small," Trixie realised as Flash dialed in his chosen alien.

"Then I'd better bring something big," Flash smirked before slapping it down. And in a burst of light, he was transformed into Volt-Edge. "Oh yeah," he took several steps back before running forward and exploding into the air with a blast of lightning. The leap sent him flying over the street and landing on the foot of a house before leaping again, jumping from house to house on his way there.

Trixie watched from the roof and smiled as she saw him disappear, then sighed wishing she could help. She subconsciously reached up and touched her forehead, where she wished the coin that had given her power was still sitting.

After a few moments, she looked over at her bike on the stand and nodded before running for the door.

The Rainbooms arrived at the half destroyed street and found the cause was from a bunch of robots that they recognised.

"Not these things again!" Rainbow groaned as she got off her bike, the others doing the same. "Where the heck do these things keep coming from?" The others said nothing, since they had no idea. All they knew was that these robots were dangerous and needed to be taken down.

"Let's go!" Applejack cried as she ran forward, transforming into her ponied up form. The others did the same and ran into battle, Applejack leaping up and grabbing a drone to pull it down and smash it into the ground. Rainbow ran around the many lasers, keeping the drones distracted as Twilight used her magic to grab and crush them.

Rarity shielded the others, as Pinkie took out some sugary treats that she threw towards the droids to destroy them. Sunset and Fluttershy also threw some super charged treats at them, Fluttershy surprising everyone with her pretty good arm. But the droids quickly grew tired of them and started surrounding the girls, forcing Rarity to make a dome to protect them.

The others saw this and would have stepped in, but at that moment a bolt of lightning flew down and struck one.

They all looked up and saw Volt-Edge, the armored lizard smirking as he leapt up into the air before diving down towards the ground. Spinning like a top, he unleashed tendrils of lightning that struck the drones and short circuited them. He then spun around and landed on his feet, as he pulled the drones around to smash them into other drones.

Another drone shot towards him, a buzzsaw on the end of its arm. But Volt-Edge shot forward before jumping down to slide on his knee guards, the lizard flying under the drone and stuffing his claws into it. He then threw the machine around, causing it to break apart again a wall.

"He's good," Sunset smirked as the rest of the Rainbooms grouped up.

"We're just as good," Rainbow smirked only for Volt-Edge to leap up onto a drone and stick himself to it before steering it around to crash into another. "Okay...we can't do that."

"Ha!" Volt-Edge smirked as he landed, "who's next?" He got his answer when about thirty more robots appeared and circled around him. "Ah, man! Why do I get the feeling you were expecting me." He launched blades of lightning in all directions, cutting the robots in half and short-circuiting others.

The Rainbooms helped as well, using their magic to take out the robots as they only seemed to be focusing on the alien. Volt-Edge leapt over one drone as it tried to get him and blasted his way through another, landing right next to the girls as Twilight crushed another in her magic.

"Are you aliens connected to Flash Sentry?" Volt-Edge hadn't been expecting her to ask that.

"What?" He glanced at her, Twilight pointing at his chest.

"That symbol on your chest. It's the same one as a friend of ours. The one you guys beamed up to save a while back." Volt-Edge couldn't believe she was asking him this now, especially as several more drones headed towards them.

"Rarity, shield everyone but me!" Rarity didn't argue and put a dome up around all the girls, which Volt-Edge leapt onto. He then built up a bunch of electricity between his claws before slamming them together, this causing the lightning to explode off and shoot out in a circular wave.

This wave caused the drones to all go haywire before exploding, leading not a single one left floating.

Volt-Edge smirked at this and thought his job was done, but in that moment something shot towards him through the smoke. It was a bunch of cables, which slammed into him and sent him flying backwards. "Volt-Edge!" He heard Twilight cry as he slammed into the side of a building, the cables impaling themselves into it to trap him.

A rumbling sound them caught his attention, making him look up to see the mace ball rolling down the street towards him. "Now what?" He asked as the Rainbooms were forced to run out of Rarity's dome and jump into an alleyway to keep from getting crushed by it. Once it was a few feet from him, the ball stopped and split in two.

Smoke escaped the ball as something appeared within it. A large figure who slowly began to step towards him. And when he saw who it was, his eyes went wide.

"It's you!" He cried, seeing the head of the squid-faced alien standing before him. "You're the alien from my vision!" Said alien stood at almost fifteen feet in height, his body covered by a red metallic armor that also covered his shoulders, feet, legs, knees and hands. His bulky green arms were covered in red veins, whilst black rods could be seen sticking out of them. Finally, his mouth was covered by a mask that had tubes sticking out the side that ran around to his back. "Vilgax."

"At last, we meet." Volt-Edge had a feeling he was smiling behind his mask. "The being that has caused me so much trouble."

"Me?" He asked, trying to play coy. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"I have come for the Omnitrix!" Vilgax growled, "relinquish it to me or suffer the consequences."

"Omnitrix?" Twilight asked, the Rainbooms having heard every word of this transaction. And they were all just as confused as Twilight was.

"What the heck is going on?" Rainbow asked, "who is that guy?"

"A'h don't know," Applejack replied. "But a'm guessin' he's not with the good guys." The others didn't get to say anything, for in that moment Volt-Edge unleashed a huge surge of electrical energy that almost blinded them.

The lightning caused the cables holding him to melt and weaken, allowing him to cut through them before leaping into the air. He let out a mighty cry as he swung an electrofied claw at Vilgax, slashing down his armored chest until he landed before dealing several more slashes to his leg. But these attacks did nothing to the alien that was almost twice his height.

Instead, he reached down and grabbed Volt-Edge by the horn before lifting him up. The lizard cried as he was swung around before getting thrown through the air, the Rainbooms screaming at the sight as he smashed through a building.

Literally, he was smashed right through the building. Going in one side and coming out the other, then going through another building before flying out and slamming into the ground. All the while, he cried out in pain with every hit and as he formed a trench in the street, his body was screaming at him.

"Okay," Volt-Edge pulled himself up out of the debris. "This guy's tough. Really tough." He knew he was understating it. This alien might just be the most powerful opponent he had ever faced. And as he picked himself up, he heard a voice he recognised.

"Flash!" He looked around and was shocked to see Trixie biking towards him.

"What are you doing here?"

"I couldn't just sit around and let you do this all again. So, who are we up against?" She got the answer when a loud booming sound filled the air, the pair turning to the source and seeing Vilgax flying up into the air and over the buildings he had just been thrown Volt-Edge through.

"No way," the lizard whispered as the alien came crashing into the ground. The pavement shattered at the impact and Vilgax didn't have a scratch. "What is this guy?" Volt-Edge asked as he tried to think of a way to stop him, spotting a cement mixing truck a short ways away.

As Vilgax moved towards him, Volt-Edge shot out bolts of lightning that struck the truck and lifted it into the air. Vilgax clearly didn't know what the truck was, for he did nothing as it was lifted over his head. Volt-Edge smiled and ripped the tanker open, causing the liquid the come flying out and crashing down upon the squid.

"Yes!" Trixie cheered, "that's got him."

Volt-Edge shook his head, "that won't hold him for long. I need to figure out what his weakness is." Alas, a familiar beeping put an end to his planning session.

Dropping the cement truck on the ground between him and Vilgax, he was consumed by light and reverted back to human. "Okay," Flash gulped, "this is a problem." He could already hear Vilgax pulling himself out of the drying cement, making him panic until he heard an engine.

Looking around, they saw a police van driving towards them before skidding to a stop. "Get in!" Shining cried, the two not arguing and getting into the back as Shining drove off. As he did, Vilgax finally pulled himself out of the liquid earth. "Wanna fill me in here!?"

"That's Vilgax!" Flash cried, both Shining and Trixie flinching as they remembered that name.

"So," Shining sighed, "the big cheese has finally stopped sending his underlings."

"I don't get why he didn't come sooner," Flash gulped. "Nothing I did left a scratch on him." As he said that, the ground besides the van exploded and Shining almost lost control.

Looking in his mirrors, he saw a pair of drones flying towards them. "Hold on!" He started swerving through the streets, zigzagging around to avoid the lasers. At one point, he had to do a full hundred and eighty degree turn that caused a lot of screeching tires. They did this for several minutes and no matter what they did, they just could not shake the robots.

"This is insane!" Trixie cried. "If we don't do something soon, the whole town's gonna end up being nothing but rubble!" As she said that, the Omnitrix turned green.

"Yes!" He activated the watch, "it's me they're after."

"Flash, wait!" Shining's cries weren't listened too and Flash slammed the dial down, transforming him into Firefly. The alien insect threw open the van's doors and and took off, the drones seeing him and attempting to blast them. But he easily avoided the lasers and shot a pair of fireballs at them.

The drones dodged the flames and attempted to blast him, but Firefly shot some thread at one of the drone's blasters. The laser was covered up and formed a balloon, which quickly expanded before blowing up and destroying the machine. Firefly then landed on the second drone and used his welding flame to slice through the back, destroying its propulsion and causing it to fall towards the ground.

Firefly leapt off and smirked as he watched it smash into the ground, exploding as the insect hovered over it. "Oh yeah. Who's bad?" But in that moment, he was tackled by something behind him. "WOW!" He spun through the air and what tackled him fell off, but managed to grab his foot and pull him towards the ground through the weight.

Firefly looked down and saw Vilgax glaring up at him, "give me the Omnitrix!"

"Counter suggestion!" Firefly launched a bunch of flames that slammed into Vilgax and made him release his foot, allowing Firefly to fly higher.

Vilgax crashed into the ground, but instantly recovered and leapt into the air to try and grab him again. But Firefly managed to dodge him and Vilgax fell back onto the street, slamming into the ground as Shining was driving the van down it.

The cop ground his vehicle to a stop and locked eyes with Vilgax, then quickly pushed the van into reverse to escape.

Vilgax had no interest in them, instead seeing Firefly rocket away. He started running, moving at speeds that would make Rainbow be impressed. He chased after the Omnitrix wielder and leapt up several times, attempting to grab him but just managing to miss.

As this was happening, the Rainbooms were following the battle from the explosions that had been occurring.

"What the heck is goin' on here?" Applejack asked, the girls unsure how to answer. They then spotted Firefly flying over a building as Vilgax leapt onto its roof, then shot into the air and tackled Firefly towards the ground. The pair fell towards the ground so far, Twilight knew what would happen next.

"SHIELD!" Rarity barely managed to put the dome up around them as the pair crashed into the ground, unleashing a wave of force that knocked them flying backwards. If not for the shield, the girls would have been ripped apart by the debris sent at them.

When the shockwave ended, they all moaned as they began to pick themselves up. When they did, they saw Vilgax holding Firefly around the waist. "I grow tired of this!" The alien growled as Firefly struggled against him. He was about to launch flames at him. But before he could, Vilgax reached over and pushed against the Omnitrix.

A green flash filled the air, blinding the girls for a moment. When it died down, they opened their eyes and were shocked by what they saw. "Flash?"

Flash Sentry was now in the alien's grip, looking shocked by the fact he was human again. "Hey, how'd you do that?"

Vilgax also appeared shocked. "A child? The Omnitrix is in the hands of a mere child?" Flash saw the watch was still green and was about to reach for it, but Vilgax reached for it first and attempted to access it. But before he could, the device started unleashing green bolts of lightning.

"What the?" Flash asked before feeling a sudden pulse of energy that blast him and Vilgax apart, Flash crying out as he crashed into the ground.

Vilgax smashed into the side of a wall, crying out as he fell to the ground but not even resting for a second as he picked himself back up. "It appears the Omnitrix has already bonded with your DNA."

"You bet it has," Flash smirked as he prepared to activate it again. But before he did, he spotted something. The Rainbooms.

The girls were all staring at him in absolute shock, clearly lost about what was going on. However, this moment of hesitation gave Vilgax the time he needed.

His arms suddenly started bulging as the rods sticking out of them were absorbed into his flesh. Once fully expanded, he raised his arms up and smashed them into the ground to create another shockwave. This once slammed the humans backwards, Flash hitting the ground and blacking out from the impact.

Twilight managed to use her magic to grab the girls and slow them down enough, so that when they slammed into the side of a building none of them were badly hurt. But as they fell to the ground, Vilgax's arms unleashed a bunch of steam and deflated as he moved over to pick Flash up.

As he did, the wrecking ball from before smashed through a building as it headed towards them. Stopping, it opened up and Vilgax threw the unconscious boy inside.

"FLASH!" His friends all cried as the sphere closed up and started rolling away, crashing through another building as it did. Moments later, a police van rolled up to the street and someone got out of it.

"FLASH!" Twilight heard her brother yell, making her turn to gasp seeing him and Trixie there.

"Shining?" They turned to the girls and looked shocked to see them, as they slowly picked themselves up. "What is going on?" She moved towards them, "why are you two here? Who was that alien that took Flash and how the heck did Flash suddenly appear in place of one of the aliens?"

The pair shared a look, seeing that their secret was out. Shining sighed, "get in the van." He rushed back into it, Trixie getting into the back as the girls got closer.

"You didn't answer my question."

"I will," Shining told her. "But right now, Flash is in trouble and he needs our help to save him. So get in the van!" The girls didn't argue and climbed in, Twilight getting in next to her brother as he started following the path of destruction the wrecking ball had created.

"So what's going on?"

"Yeah?" Rainbow nodded, "what was with that squid guy. He said he was after something."

"The Omnitrix," Trixie sighed. "It's the watch on Flash's arm." She had her phone out and was typing something, whilst the Rainbooms looked confused.

"What exactly is an Omnitrix?" Sunset asked, "and how the heck does Flash have it?"

"Does it act as a signal to those aliens?" Rarity asked. "Allows him to contact them and trade places with them so they can save the day?"

"Of course not," Trixie sighed. "The watch turns Flash into the aliens. All of them. All ten of those alien heroes have actually been Flash, using the Omnitrix to save the day. That's why no two of them have ever been seen together." As she said that, her phone beeped. "Got him!"

"Got who?" Pinkie asked.

"Flash. I've got his phone's GPS. Figured we might need it in case we run out of wreckage to follow."

"Though I doubt that's gonna happen," Shining explained as he looked around at the line of devastation they were following. "I just hope Vilgax isn't doing anything horrible to Flash right now."

"Hang on," Sunset spoke up. "I can buy Flash having a watch that turns him into an alien, but how the heck did he get something like that? And how did you two get involved in all of this?" Trixie sighed at this, not in the mood to answer a bunch of questions.

Instead, she grabbed Sunset's wrist and pulled her hand up to touch her forehead. Doing so caused Sunset's magic to kick in and let her see everything that had happened since Flash got the Omnitrix. Or, at least the parts that Trixie had been present for. In the space of a few seconds, she lived through Flash finding the watch, using it the first time, becoming a hero and when Trixie was told about Shining learning the truth.

Once the final memory was shown to her, her eyes returned to normal and she pulled away from Trixie with a gasp.

"Wow," she whispered, "that really all happened?" Trixie nodded as the others looked curious, wondering what it was that Sunset had seen.

Everyone except Shining and Trixie began listening as Sunset retold what she had just seen, the two already in the know continuing to follow the destruction as it lead out of the city. All the while hoping Flash was okay and doing whatever he could to save himself long enough for them to get there and help.

Flash let out a moan as he felt himself beginning to come around.

When he opened his eyes, he found himself inside a very dark room with little illumination. Said illumination was coming from a glowing orb on the ceiling, along with a strange energy that was enveloping his right hand and both feet. The energy was coming out of a metal ring he was inside, which was suspended in the air as Flash's left arm was inside a weird tube.

His vision slowly grew stronger and as it did, Flash saw he was surrounded by several robotic drones.

He then spotted Vilgax on the other side of the room. The alien was looking at a holographic screen, showing scans of Flash and the data it had given him. "A child. I should have expected as much. The Omnitrix being used as a play toy."

"Who you calling a child?" Flash asked, "I'll be eighteen a year from next month." Vilgax turned to glare at him. "And for the record, I've not been playing with the Omnitrix. I've been using it to help others and stop bad guys. Bad guys like you." Vilgax moved closer to him and glared at the teen.

"You hold the key to a power struggle so ancient, so vast, it is beyond your feeble comprehension. Picture an entire army, each in command of an Omnitrix. All at my command." Flash was imagining it, picturing multiples of his aliens all attacking innocent people. "I will be invincible. I will rule the universe." As he said that, the floor beneath Flash opened up. "And the only thing standing between me and my destiny...is you."

Flash heard a noise and looked down, seeing a bunch of metal tools extended out of the ground. "Ah."

"Prepare for takeoff!" Vilgax told a robot, who ran off as he leaned in closer to Flash. "Once we're in orbit, I will have the pleasure of destroying this miserable planet, once and for all." Flash's eyes widened, the teen realising just how much trouble he and his world were in.

As Shining continued to drive the van through the woods, Trixie kept navigating and Sunset was finishing her story.

"That's everything I saw," She stated. "And there's probably even more that happened that Trixie wasn't there for."

"You have no idea," Trixie replied. "Flash can give you all the details later. Right now, we need to focus on saving his butt before Vilgax finds a way to get the Omnitrix off of him." They nodded, knowing she was right. But the whole situation was still insane to them.

"Why didn't Flash tell us any of this?" Twilight asked, "we're his friends. He could trust us not to tell anyone this secret."

"I think Flash didn't wanna change how you girls saw him," Shining explained. "Flash doesn't do what he does for the praise. He just wants to help people and live as normal a life as possible. That includes being friends with you because you like him, not because you like what he can do."

The girls frowned, knowing he was right. They thought back to when the aliens had first started showing up, how amazed they were at them and curious about them. Twilight remembered how eager she had been to learn about alien technology. If she had known about the Omnitrix, she would have wanted to study it non-stop. And since it was connected to Flash, she would have kept asking him to hang out in her lab whilst she examined it. Only now, that she had grown closer to Flash thanks to his friendship with Shining, did she see how that might have upset him.

Trixie looked at them all. "When this is all over, please don't treat Flash any differently. I know the alien stuff is insane, but you guys know more than anyone what it's like to be seen as different because of something you never asked for." The girls couldn't deny that. And as she said that, they arrived at the top of a hill overlooking a large clearing full of crushed trees. The thing that crushed said trees was a giant spaceship, the lot of them staring at it in amazement.

"Wow," Rainbow whispered, "an actual alien spaceship."

"And Flash is inside it," Trixie told them. As Shining was putting the van into drive, they realised the ship was beginning to hover off the ground. "It's taking off!"

"What do we do?" Fluttershy asked, but the others smirked as they all had a plan.

As Shining kicked the van into full speed, Rarity and Twilight activated their geodes. Twilight was using her magic to lift the van and everyone inside it up, doing so not allowing them to fly but did lighten it considerably. Light enough that when Rarity created a line of large gem shards, the van racing over them didn't cause them to shatter.

The van rushed up the line as they acted like a ramp, the ship getting higher and higher into the air. Applejack and Pinkie got out of the back and climbed onto the roof, Pinkie taking out every piece of sugary substance she had on her. "Hold on!" Shining cried as they shot off the final platform and flew through the air, getting closer to the ship.

As they did, Pinkie enchanted all the treats and Applejack grabbed them. Using her strength, she threw the treats right ahead. They slammed into the ship hard enough to cause a dent, seconds before they blew up.

Flash watched as Vilgax took out a strange looking gun and pulled the trigger, causing it to fire out an energy that quickly took the shape of a blade.

The squid alien moved over to him and placed the blade close to his left arm, Flash gulping as he pulled the blade back ready to cut it off in a single swing. But before that could happen, the wall to their right suddenly exploded.

The force of this explosion knocked several robots away, Vilgax using the weapon to cut one heading towards him in half. Moments later, a police van shot through the hole that had been blown into the hull. Flash couldn't believe what he was seeing, as the van bounced around and headed straight towards Vilgax.

The alien prepared to slash it in half as well, but Twilight managed to use her magic to push him backwards through a wall before he could.

As this was all happening, a robotic voice spoke overhead. "Warning: Hull Breach! Power Surge!"

Shining pulled the van to a stop and rushed out with everyone else in toe. "Guys!" Flash cried, amazed that they were here and thankful they had arrived before he lost his arm. He then saw the Rainbooms, who were looking at him with new eyes. But before he could say anything, sparks began to occur all over the room. Several monitors were going haywire and the robot drones were freaking out.

"I don't think that's a good thing," Pinkie gulped.

"Better than them attacking us," Trixie pointed out. "Let's get Flash down and get out of here." Nobody argued and they ran around Flash, but had no idea what they had to do to free him.

However, they wouldn't get a chance to try as a jolt of energy flew into the tube holding Flash's arm. The teen flinched as he felt this, then felt something new. Suddenly, his entire body shifted as he transformed into XLR8 in a different manner to how he usually did. "Hey!" He cried before his body reacted again, changing him from XLR8 into Volt-Edge. "What's going..." He changed into Vapaw, "on?"

"Power surge must have affected the watch," Shining realised. As he did, Flash changed into Diamondhead. He quickly used this chance to turn his trapped arm into a bunch of blades, ripping through the tube and freeing himself. He then cut through the rest of the ring, getting rid of the energy holding him.

As he did, one of the doors opened and several functioning drones flew in. "Look out!" Fluttershy cried, the girl rushing over to Rarity so she could shield them.

Diamondhead smirked and ran forward, hand turned to a blade to slash at the robot. But as he swung it, he suddenly transformed into Chamalien and ended up karate chopping the drones to little affect. "Ow," he staggered back as the drones fired at him. But as it did, he changed into Molestache and the laser flew over his head. "I say!" He leapt into the air and punched the drone with a mustache fist, knocking it flying into another.

As he did, Applejack punched through another whilst Rainbow ran around and pulled several by the mechanical arms. Twilight grabbed several more in her magic and sent them crashing into a nearby wall, causing them to explode whilst Molestache turned into Goop.

The explosion caused the ship to suddenly stop dead in its tracks, its thruster somehow cutting out and causing it to begin falling back towards the ground.

"We're going down!" Pinkie screamed, as Goop seeped his body into a drone and melted it from the inside out.

"We gotta get out of here!" Trixie cried, as Shining rushed over to a console.

"Maybe I can figure out how to steer this thing away from anywhere populated." But looking over the controls, he had zero clue how anyone was supposed to control this thing.

Sunset was watching from behind Rarity's shield, as Flash turned into Riot-Horn and smashed two more drones. But when she turned to Shining, she gasped seeing a dark figure looming over him. "LOOK OUT!"

Shining heard this and finally noticed the presence, turning just in time to see a hand reach out and grab him. He cried out as he was thrown towards the hole in the ship, landing just next to it. He moaned and tried to pick himself up, only to feel a heavy foot slam down on him.

Looking up, he saw Vilgax glaring at him. "Humans, always getting in my way. First you destroyed my cherry tree, then you tried to destroy me with one of your confounded nucular weapons. And now you try to stop me from attaining my ultimate prize." He raised a claw, "well this time, you won't stop me."

"NOOOOOOOOOO!" Everyone screamed, Riot-Horn leaping into action and rushing towards Vilgax.

The ship shook as he charged, Vilgax turning to see him seconds before the rhino body-checked him. Everyone gasped as they saw the two aliens fall through the hole towards the ground, Vilgax attempting to slash at Riot-Horn but falling out of reach.

Riot-Horn would have started panicking, had he not suddenly transformed into Firefly. "WHOA!" He cried, spreading his wings but falling too fast to get them straight. He quickly fired his gauntlets to slow his fall, managing to kill his speed enough to start gliding towards the ground.

But then he looked up at the ship and saw it was still going down, his friends trapped inside.

And just as he was about to fly back up, he transformed again into Bushwhacker. "Oh no." He fell the remaining hundred or so feet before crashing into the ground, his plant body shattering upon the impact though his head remained undamaged. However, the crash had knocked his brain spinning and he couldn't get the proper focus he needed to reconstruct his body. "Gaaaah! Sometimes, I hate this watch!"

Back on the ship, Shining Armor had recovered from his earlier attack and the last of the drones had been taken out.

Alas, the ship was still crashing and none of them had any idea how to stop it from doing so. "We've gotta get out of here!" Shining told the girls, the lot of them rushing back towards the van. "Think you can do what you did before?"

"We can try," Rarity told him.

"But last time we were on a stationary surface," Twilight explained. "This might be too much for us." Another explosion shook the ship, the lot scrambling faster into the van.

"Well I'd rather risk it than stay here!" Trixie cried, the others nodding. But when they looked at the hole, the saw it was pointing in the direction they were falling. If they got out that way, the ship would crush them.

"I have an idea," Twilight announced as she picked up several pieces of destroyed drones.

Back on the ground, Bushwhacker continued to put his body back together. But so far, he had only managed to rebuild his chest and waist. His arms and legs were still pulling themselves into one piece.

In that moment, something shot up from behind some nearby trees. It shot through the air and arched back down towards Bushwhacker, crashing into the ground next to it so hard it shot the forest and created a crater. When the dust settled, VIlgax stood over Bushwhacker. "Oh," the plant alien gulped, "fancy meeting you here."

"You are a slippery little weed, child!" Vilgax growled before reaching for the Omnitrix, "but no longer." He was inches away from touching it, when Bushwhacker's form went blurry. And in a whoosh of wind, he disappeared and Vilgax growled.

"I can still give you a run for your money." He turned just in time to see XLR8 before he zipped off, vanishing into the trees.

Vilgax remained where he was, looking around the many trees that surrounded him. "Give up. No matter where you go, you will never escape me. You can't hide forever." As he said that, a burst of speed came out of the trees behind him.

"Wasn't planning on it!" XLR8 smirked as he kicked into his top speed, right as Vilgax turned towards him. "Surprise!" He slammed into Vilgax, the impact kicking up more dirt that blocked them from vision. But when the cloud settled, XLR8 staggered backwards as his body was racked with pain. "Okay," he fell to his knees, "that's gonna leave a mark." He fell to the ground as Vilgax stood there, not having moved an inch from the impact.

"No matter." He raised his arms, "you won't be around long enough to show it!" As he said that, his arms bulged as the rods sank into his flesh and he swung them down into the ground with enough force to make the entire clearing ground crumble and break apart.

Luckily, XLR8 had managed to recover just in time to pick himself up and shoot off out of the blast zone. Vilgax continued to follow him and throw punch after punch, the alien speedster's injuries slowing him down to where he was only a little faster then the squid man.

"You can't escape me!" He growled, as XLR8 ducked under a very strong punch. He then tried to slash at Vilgax, but found his wrist being caught before he was swung around and thrown through three trees. Vilgax prepared to charge again, but suddenly found a bunch of crystals flying towards him as Diamondhead appeared from under the trees and fired at him.

"It's time you got the point!" He got in close and ducked under another punch, quickly dealing several of his own to Vilgax's legs. "I'm not giving you this watch!" But every punch only resulted in his fists breaking apart, until eventually he had nothing above the wrists. "Huh, should have seen that coming." And as he tried to grow them back, Vilgax grabbed him by the head. "Ahhh!"

"I tire of these games!" Vilgax held him up and slammed him into the ground a hard as he could, Flash thankful he was Diamondhead since he probably wouldn't have survived as any other alien.

But Vilgax pulled back for another, more deadly punch. And as he did, Diamondhead's body morphed and melted.

Vilgax thrust his fist forward, only to slam the ground and kick up a bunch of dirt and dust instead of hitting diamond. When the cloud settled, he saw the reason he had missed was because Diamondhead had changed into a slimy green alien who had a hole where his fist had landed.

"Huh?" Goop looked himself over and saw what he was, "yes! Sometimes, I love this watch!" Before Vilgax could try anything, he shot off and flew into the darkness of the trees.

Vilgax growled as he stood up, his arms deflating as steam poured out of them. As he did, he looked up and saw his ship flying overhead. The vessel was now dangerously close to the ground, the tip of it hitting the forest floor and ripping through it.

Inside, Shining was driving through the large hallways of the ship as the girls held on in the back.

Fluttershy, Rarity and Trixie screamed with every sharp turn, as the others simply held on for dear life. Twilight was busy tinkering with the robot pieces they had grabbed, hoping her plan actually worked.

"Twilight!" Shining cried, "we're running out of room!"

"Okay!" Twilight threw the robot pieces to Trixie, Sunset, Rainbow and Pinkie. "Let's do this!" The girls nodded and Twilight used her magic to remove the van window, the glass breaking off and falling to the side as Shining drove towards a wall. The girls held up drone arms and pulled the section Twilight had shown them, which acted as a jury rigged trigger that caused the lasers to fire.

The beams struck the wall and blew a hole through it, allowing the van to drive right through it into the next room. They fired again and blasted their way through a second wall, then a third and forth until the fifth wall revealed the outside world with the ground coming up fast.

"DO IT!" Shining roared, Rarity doing her best and managed to create a ramp of diamonds seconds before the van drove out of the hole. Twilight used her magic to lift the van up, allowing it to fly along the track until the last diamond. Luckily, that platform was only five feet off the ground. The van slammed into the trench the ship had carved and bounced a few times before landing on the ground.

They all cried out as this happened, but settled down as the van came to a steady and Shining put the breaks on. They all panted at this, unable to believe they had actually survived. The ship finished crashing several meters ahead and also came to a stop, as several parts of it began to smoke.

Their breathing slowly settled before Pinkie started laughing, "that...was...a...BLAST!" The others started laughing as well, the absurdity of the situation getting the best of them.

But before they could relax and start looking for Flash, something suddenly crashed down in front of them with enough force to rock the van and force Shining to put on the parking brake. The dust this caused quickly gave way to reveal a large figure moving towards them. Vilgax.

They all stared at him through the windscreen, his glaring gaze filling them with dread.

Shining gave a nervous chuckle and for some reason he couldn't explain, locked the doors.

A ways back, Goop continued to fly through the forest. But then he heard a loud banging and came across a hill overlooking the forest where the ship had crashed.

"Oh no," he worried before flying towards it. Along the way, his body began to solidify and morph into Vapaw. This didn't stop him though and he kept moving, running and swinging through the trees as fast as he could.

Eventually, he leapt out of the trees and landed in the trench. He ran up it and as he did, he spotted Shining's van ahead. And when he realised it had been thrown onto its side and ripped apart, his stomach starting churning.

"Guys!" He leapt onto it and looked through the door window, seeing nothing. His ears then picked up the sound of Twilight's voice, which was crying out in pain. "No!" He ran towards it, moving closer and closer to the ship. And eventually, he saw it.

Vilgax was standing over his friends, who all looked pretty badly beaten up. And Twilight was being held by her neck, up above the tentacled alien.

Said alien looked over at Vapaw, who growled and looked ready to kill him. "LET HER GO!"

"Go ahead," Vilgax laughed. "Attack me. You know you won't be able to reach me before I pop her head off like bottle top." Vapaw stopped his attempted advance, staying where he was and hoping his next alien was XLR8. "It's your choice, hero. You or them."

Vapaw just looked down, knowing he only had once choice. "Don't do it!" He looked over at Twilight, who was staring at him with fear. "I don't know everything that's going on, but I know you can't let him have the watch." Vilgax tightened his grip, making her cry out. "We're...not worth it."

Vapaw stared at her for a moment, then sighed. "You are to me." He glared at Vilgax, "you win." Vilgax moved closer, throwing Twilight over to her unconscious brother before reaching down and tapping the Omnitrix. In a flash, he was back to his human form.

"How noble." But just to be safe, he struck Flash on the head. The teen grunted as he lost consciousness, Vilgax grabbing him by the back of his jacket and moving towards the ship.

"Flash," Twilight groaned as she tried to pick herself. But no matter how hard she tried, her arms and legs gave out and she fell to the ground. "No."

Vilgax leapt through the hole they blasted in the side of the ship, throwing Flash to the side as he gave the command to take off.

Vilgax looked out the ship, at the planet he was going to enjoy blowing into space debris once he was in space. However, his enjoyment quickly vanished when an alarm began to go off. "What?" He rushed to a console and brought up the problem, his eyes going wide. "The hyperdrive is powering up! Why?" He typed away at it, but found the power surge had done serious damage to the ship's systems.

As this was happening, Flash began to come around. He let out a moan and looked around, seeing he was back on the ship as it shook.

"If the hyperdrive activates without the proper safeties, the ship will keep flying through space without proper navigation. We'll eventually crash into something!" As he said that, the ship jolted and a large cable fell out of place on the wall. It landed right next to Flash and was sparking heavily, but Vilgax didn't seem to notice. "Humans. Why do they continue to be a thorn in my side!"

"It's just something we're naturally good at!" Vilgax heard Flash's voice and spun around, only to feel something be jammed into one of the pipes on his arm.

"AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRHHHHHHHHHH!" He roared as his insides were being cooked alive, Flash smirking as he leapt back.

The ship then spoke. "Hyperdrive firing in ten...nine...eight..." He rushed towards the hole in the ship and activated the Omnitrix. "Seven...six...five..." He slapped the dial down and in a burst of green, he transformed into the first alien he ever became and grabbed a sheet of metal. "Four...three...two..." He leapt through the hole and fell towards the ground, "One!" The ship's engines suddenly burst into action and the ship shot into the sky so face, a powerful burst of wind followed that pushed Volt-Edge spinning and created a bright flash.

Down on the ground, Twilight and the rest of her friends were recovering when they saw the bright flash.

They gasped as they looked up and saw the ship vanish, a miniature sun taking its place. Silence filled the group as they stared up at the light, believing they had lost their friend forever. "FLASH!" Trixie screamed, falling to her knees.

Shining, who was still on his knees, punched the ground and let out a roar of anger. The others just stood there, hating themselves for not being able to help him. They all looked down, all except one.

Twilight continued to stare at the light, then noticed something coming out of it. A dot. "What's that?" She pointed at it and everyone else looked up, seeing the dot and realising it was getting closer. And when it was close enough, they gasped when they realised what it was.

"WOOOOOOOW-HOO!" Volt-Edge cheered as he soared through the sky, using the metal sheet he was attached to as a hoverboard. He sailed on the wind that was cushioning his fall, as he fell towards the ground and shot past his friends. The lot of them watched as he disappeared behind some trees, all pushing their battered and bruised bodies up and out of the trench.

They headed over to where they had seen Volt-Edge land, a green flash catching their attention as they got closer. And eventually, they found Flash sitting on a tree stump with the metal plank laid next to him.

The teen looked up and saw his friends, the lot of them relieved to see him and not appearing permanently harmed. The Rainbooms then gave him a look that told him one thing. He had a lot of explaining to do.

Author's Note

Well, this is it. The first season of my MLP Ben 10 story. I hope you all enjoyed it and let me know which was your favourite episode, if any of my original aliens could beat the canon ones for your favourite and what you look forward to see when the story continues. Until the next time this story is updated.

Behind the Alien: Volt-Edge

Good evening, explorers and omni-planetary travellers. I welcome you to this amazing tour, as we delve into the many mysteries and incredible environments that make up our ever expanding universe.

I will be your guide, as we visit several of the home planets of some of Flash Sentry's alien transformations. I hope that this journey will help you understand how amazing some of these aliens are, as we learn about their lives and cultures and see how they go about their lives.

We'll be starting our tour with the home planet of Flash's most electrifying alien, Volt-Edge.

Before he head off, please remove any electrically conductive items from your person. Trust me, you'll be thankful you did when we arrive.

The scene opens on a planet that is completely covered in a thick layer of dark clouds, with only a few brown spikes sticking out through them

Serravoltia. One of the most unusual planets in its system and from afar, it might just look like a giant electrical storm cloud. In truth, it is actually the result of a planet-sized chunk of iron ore that drew in large amounts of rock and water from space to form the planet you see before you.

Zooming in through the clouds, the planet's surface is shown to be a mixture of brown, blue and dark green. The brown parts are actually giant mountains, sticking out of the planet's surface whilst the green parts are forests and the blue spots are lakes and oceans of different shapes and sizes.

The multiple giant mountains that cover the planet are actually only the tips of the iron rock that the rest of the planet had formed around. Despite only being the tips, the smallest of these mountains is still six miles taller than the Mount Everest of your planet.

The space rocks that were once pulled down to the planet have since transformed into soil, which is now wrapped around the iron ore and in most places, can be as deep and your planet's crust. Multiple sections have also filled with water to form lakes and oceans of varying sizes and depths. The deepest of these oceans is roughly twelve hundred feet.

Due to the high concentration of iron ore that is permeated within the planet's rocky body, electrical energy gathers in its atmosphere. Because of this, the planet is constantly covered in a planet-sized lightning storm. This means that very little sunlight touches the planet's surface and most of the life on Serravoltia, have developed within the dark environment. This includes the main topic of our journey today. The Serravoltians.

Name: Serravoltian
Alien Type: Intelligent reptile
Intelligence: 3/20
Abilities: Lightning generation. Enhanced jumping. Enhanced agility. Sharp claws. Electromagnetic Abilities
Form: Blue lizard standing at between six and eight feet in full height. Black armor covering upper head, chest, back, hands, feet, knees and upper-legs. Lightning-bolt shaped horn and claws, with foot-long claws on feet.

Serravoltians. A reptilian alien best known for their electrical abilities and the sharp metal blades on their claws, feet, back and head. They live inside the many mountains that cover their planet, using their claws to cut through the rock to form caves and tunnels.

Zooming in on one of the mountains, we arrive at a cave halfway up it. Going inside, we find a small family of Serravoltians consisting of two adults and three younglings. Each of these younglings appear in a different state of grow.

The smallest is about the size of a human baby, being mostly blue with a small patch of white on its chest and around its mouth. On its large round head were a pair of long ears, which struck backwards and zigzagged in a lightning-bolt fashion.

The second smallest youngling is around two feet in height, its head being less round as it seemed to be in the process of reshaping itself into a more reptilian shape.

The third one is around five and a half feet, its head now completely lizard like but lacking the metal face-mask its parents wore. It did have armor on its chest, feet and knees though, whilst a small lightning-bolt horn was sticking out of its forehead.

Being born in these caves, Serravoltians also dig into them to find their main source of food. Iron Ore.

The adults begin slashing at the cave wall, a chunk rock falls off and the parents give it to the smallest youngling.

At some point in their evolution, these reptiles began mining out the ore and started eating it. This has caused their bodies to adapt and begin absorbing the ore and using it to grow the metal armoring on their bodies along with the claws and horns they later grow.

The oldest youngling begins slashing at the cave itself, ripping off two chunks of the rock with it throwing one of them towards the middle child. They both begin eating them.

It is unknown when they started developing this trait, but the evolution has granted them to ability to grow their own inbuilt weapons. And that's not the only ability they've gained from living on this planet. As the name of Flash's alien suggests, these creatures can launch incredible amounts of electricity from their bodies. But how did this occur, you might ask?

Leaving the cave, the camera pans upwards to show a storm cloud around the mountain. Said storm cloud unleashes a burst of lightning, which hits the mountain. Said lightning surges throughout the entire mountain, including the Serravoltian cave.

Inside said cave, the reptiles are continuing to do what they were doing before. But as the lightning flew through the cave, they stopped and let the electricity shoot into them. Instead of being hurt, this effect caused them all to sigh in contentment.

Whenever lightning hits the many mountains on the planet, the electrical energy surges through the metal veins running through the mountain. Because of this, the Serravoltians are often struck by these electrical burst. Many have theorized that during their evolution, the Serravoltian ancestors remained near the base of the mountains where the electrical energy is low.

This allowed them to slowly gain a resistance to it over time and as that resistance rose, they began living higher and higher up the mountain. With each generation likely becoming more resistant then the next, over time they adapted so that they were not only able to resist the electricity but store it and later learned to generate it themselves

One of the adults removed a chunk of ore and held it in its claws, using the electrical energy to melt it in a way that made the ore more to its liking. At the same time, the oldest youngling starts summoning its own electrical energy. The lightning flew into the metal on its body and then out its horn, flying towards another chunk of ore.

The other two also tried, but their lightning exploded out of them without any control and hit several random areas.

The combination of their metallic body sections and their electricity generation, has effectively turned the Serravoltians into living tasers. They can either charge their metal spikes in order to add an extra kick to their slashes, or use the metal to focus the lightning and expel it in a controlled burst. However, Serravoltians who haven't developed their metal armour will be unable to control their electricity, resulting in the energy exploding out of them at random.

Because of this, most Serravoltians do not leave their mountain homes until they have grown enough metal armor to control their electrical powers.

One of the Serravoltian adults slashes at a piece of the wall, causing a chunk to break off and create a hole in the wall. From this hole, a thin stream of water flies out. The young Serravoltians rush over at this and start drinking the water, whilst the older three step back.

Aside from the ore, Serravoltians must consume water on a semi-regular basis. Due to the danger of them leaving the caves, any water found in the mountains will always be given to the youngest members of the family. The rest must journey out to find it on the surface.

The camera leaves the cave once again and heads down to the base of the mountain, where a large group of Serravoltians were looking out at the forest surrounding their home.

An adult Serravoltian can go approximately two and a half months without water. But when they must drink, they always head out in packs in order to increase their chances of survival.

The lead Serravoltian ran forward and leapt off the side of the mountain, flying through the air and falling towards the trees. The rest followed after and they all fell through the canopy, then thrust their claws out to imbed them in the wood.

Years of these water missions have sculpted the Serravoltians into athletic masters with an incredible jumping ability. Coupled with their sharp claws, they can travel from the mountains to the water without ever needing to touch the ground.

The group began leaping from one tree to the next, using every trick they knew to make their way through the woods. But as one landed on a branch, the wood snapped and they fell towards the ground.

And the last thing they want is to touch the ground. Cause when they do, they run the risk of calling the attention of the planet's most dangerous predator.

The Serravoltian landed on the ground and quickly recovered, getting back on their feet and leaping up towards the tree. But it was too late. The ground started shaking and as the Serravoltians continued to make their way to the water, the earth beneath them exploded.

When it did, the lizards stopped and looked around to see a giant tube-like create slither out of the ground. Its entire head was a giant mouth, with multiple spinning teeth on the inside.

The Burricina.

Name: Burricina
Alien Type: Predatory Reptile
Intelligence: 0/20
Abilities: Burrowing. Vibration detection. Electric grounding.
Form: Worm-like alien with a brown tube-like body split into multiple sections. Four long chord-like yellow tendrils coming out of every section. Head is one big mouth with seven rows or rotating teeth. Tail has four blades sticking out the end.

Despite their worm-like appearance, the Burricina are reptilian in makeup. A burrowing species, they live in the soil mantle of the planet and constantly dig around looking for food. Despite how much they likely want to, they are unable to dig into the metal-filled rocks of the mountains. This is most likely what led the Serravoltians to originally begin living there, for against these creatures they had practically no defense due to how the Burricina have evolved.

The Burricina's tendrils pressed against the ground, as if trying to locate something.

The Serravoltians all remained perfectly still, not daring to make a move. But then one chose to make a break for it, jumping off the tree and causing it to shake. This seemed to affect the tendril closest to it and catch the worm's attention. The tendril shot up towards the Serravoltian, who launched a bolt of lightning towards it.

The lightning flew into the tendril and spread to the rest of the Burricina's body. But the creature didn't even seem affected by this, the tendril continuing to move forward and wrapping around the Serravoltian's body.

The long chords covering its body allow it to sense even the most minute vibrations. This allows it to track its prey and capture them, but it is its other ability that makes it such an incredible hunter on this planet.

Due to the rubber-like substance that makes up its skin, the Burricina have the ability to ground themselves so no electrical energy can damage them. As long as more than half its body is buried beneath the surface, there is no limit to how much electricity it can be struck by without injury.

The other Serravoltians all launch blasts of lightning at the worm, but none of them have any effect on the Burricina as it attacks with its tendrils. The reptiles all begin leaping away, but several more are caught. They attempt to slash through the tendrils, but whatever it's made out of won't cut. They're helpless as the Burricina lifts them up towards its mouth.

The other Serravoltians can only flee as they hear their brethren's screams, sad but all know this is the way of the world.

Unlike most creatures, Burricina have no recorded length limit. It is believed that they do not stop growing throughout their entire lives, which is likely a beneficial advantage given the requirements of their lightning negation. The longest recorded Burricina has been over seventy five meters in length.

The camera shifts to another area of the forest, where a large body of water can be found. It is here that the remaining Serravoltians arrive, the lot of them jumping down from the trees.

Due to their intense size, Burricina avoid areas surrounding bodies of water. Due to their mass and body density, they do not float and are therefore at risk of drowning should they fall in the water. This means the Serravoltians are free to drink to their heart's content. Their journey was not without its casualties, but it was worth to risk. Not only can the Serravoltians quench their thirst, but they have the chance to enjoy a rare delicacy for their kind.

As the Serravoltians drank, sparks appeared upon the water's surface. Said sparks were caused by small insectoid aliens that were flying over it.

Name: Zapperfly
Alien Type: Insect
Intelligence: 0/20
Abilities: Flight. Low level lightning generation.
Form: Light blue fly-like insect of between ten and fifteen centimetres in height. Lightning bolt-shaped mouth, legs and stinger with clear wings that give off lightning when it flies.

The Zapperfly is the third and final advanced life form on this planet, who only live around watery areas. The Zapperfly spends eighty percent of its life under the water. Much like the earth dragonfly, it lives an aquatic lifestyle from the moment it is hatched as a small wingless larvae.

The young Zapperfly move through the water using their low-level electrical abilities, sending out a charge of lightning through the water and pulling itself along it like a rope. It does this in order to hunt for food, which are a species of creature that exist all over the world, even on your planet. Tardigrades.

After three years of this, the Zapperfly will grow too large to survive on the tardigrades alone. For this reason, they eventually leave the safety of their aquatic home and head on up to dry land. And much like the earth dragonfly, as soon as they leave the water they begin to transform into their adult form.

The Zapperflies buzz around the lake, the Serravoltians seeing them and licking their lips. Each of them holds up their claws and starts giving off a low level electrical charge, which seems to attract the Zapperflies. When they get in close, the Serravoltians grab them in their claws.

The insects try to zap themselves free, but it does nothing against the electric lizards who quickly throw them in their mouths.

Though their diet primarily consists of iron ore, Serravoltians have also gained a stomach for the tasty insects that zap around their lakes. The electric surges these bugs are known for also give them an extra kick of flavour, making them a treat well worth risking themselves for. But some Serravoltians don't need to risk themselves, for they have developed a new strategy in reaching the lake.

As the Serravoltians continue drinking, something appears from above the trees. More Serravoltians, but these ones are somehow flying. Looking up, the first group see the Serravoltians are all standing on metal planks and disks, which they are electrifying with their claws.

In recent years, many Serravoltians have developed the ability to produce electromagnetism. Though unable to use it to lift themselves, they are able to lift many other metallic objects. The limits of this new ability seem to very from alien to alien, but so far the heaviest object discovered to be liftable was six metric tons.

Because of this, many of these Serravoltians have started forging metal disks and boards that they can use to ride and carry themselves over the forest. If this new ability continues to develop, the Burricina may find themselves going rather hungry over the next few generations.

Back at the mountain, several Serravoltians are sparring against one another.

Some are fencing with their metal claws, attempting to overpower the other, whilst some are launching lightning bolts at one another to try and see which one can generate the strongest blasts. Another group were practising their electromagnetism, watching as one stood on a metal disk and blasted it with electricity.

Soon that Serravoltian was lifted into the air, the others doing the same with mixed results for each of them.

Younger Serravoltians are watching, many in different stages of their life. Some were watching how the older ones slashed and attacked with their claws, whilst others watch the lightning contest or the flying lessons. Clearly, they were trying to pick up tips on how to best survive in this harsh world.

Higher up the mountain, a lone Serravoltian was climbing up it and eventually reached a point where the rock went straight up with no path leading higher. As such, it quickly stabbed its feet claws into the rock and pushed itself up before doing the same with the other foot. It was using its hand claws as extra grip, as it started scaling up the large mountain.

Higher and higher it climbed, as the air started getting thin. With every inch it climbed, the lightning storm above it drew closer. And once it was high enough, what it was hoping for happened.

A bolt of lightning exploded out of the cloud and struck the spikes on its back. This caused the alien to cry out as a huge surge of power flowed through him, well passed its normal electrical limits. He flinched as he was forced to absorb it all, but this is what he had climbed up to do.

When the last of the lightning faded, the Serravoltian panted as he continued to feel the backlash of the shock. But eventually, he began to climb down and when he reached the part he could stand on, he jumped off. Once he had his balance back, the Serravoltian looked himself over before summoning all the lightning he could muster.

The electrical voltage exploded out of him, a vast improvement from what he had originally been able to store before. Now his electrical power was greater than ever.

Serravoltia. A hostile and dangerous planet to be sure. But thankfully, we were just visiting. I think it's time we moved on to the next planet. Be sure to pack your mosquito netting, for the inhabitants of this hostile environment can get a bit peckish. Onwards, to our next big adventure.

Author's Note

So this was something fun I'd thought I'd do. Since my aliens aren't canon, I thought I'd show their homeworlds since I won't have to worry about saying something that might be contradicted by something later released. I also thought it might make them seem more real.

Some of you might have realised this looks familiar and it does. I got this idea from the Ink Tank's And Beyond Series along with the Reboots planet shorts. Hope you enjoyed this and the next four to come.

Behind the Alien: Firefly

Good evening, explorers and omni-planetary travellers. I welcome you back to our exciting galactic tour, as we arrive at the next planet on our list of places to see and explore.

Today's planet is the homeworld of Flash Sentry most hot-headed alien, Firefly.

Please be sure to keep all forms of insect repellent stored out of sight as we travel through the planet's terrain. The locals are not big fans and can be rather temperamental.

The scene opens up on a planet that appears similar to earth. However, it is almost entirely green with only a few areas of water.

Hivexus. Much like earth, it is the only planet in its system that contains any life. The entire planet consists of one large continent with very few areas on the surface that contain large bodies or water. Despite the low number of lakes and oceans that exist here, millions of rivers and streams cover the planet and constantly run in a single direction across the planet. This has kept the planet's ground well nourished, allowing a multitude of different plant and animal life to flourish.

The only lifeforms on this planet are insectoid in nature, these creatures living within the large jungles that cover the landscape.

The camera zooms in on the planet, entering one of the jungles and revealing the place to be filled with multiple different trees and other flora. One of the most interesting trees were massive red ones with trunks so large, a person could fit an entire house inside of one. Moving higher, roughly fifteen meter high, large branches could be seen sticking out of the sides.

And hanging from these branches were a bunch of odd looking structures made of a white silk-like substance. They were either cone or cylindrical in shape, making them resemble hanging tents.

Moving inside these structures, we find it is full of three strange creatures.

Name: Larvanti
Alien Type: Intelligent Insect
Intelligence: 4/20
Abilities: Wall crawling. Fireproof silk creation.
Form: Black caterpillar body with large round head and green sideways mouth, with two long ribbon antenna sticking out the top. Body split into five sections with a large round rear on end that has a green band around it, with two short pincer-like spikes on the end. Each section has a stubby leg with a green spike on the end.

Larvanti. A small but interesting creature that live in almost every jungle on Hivexus. These caterpillar aliens live their lives in the fireproof Flonk trees that also grow all over the planet.

One of the Larvanti crawls out of its house and up the side and string until it reaches the branch, where several more Larvanti can also be seen crawling along the branch towards the end of it. On the edge of the branch is a cable made of the same white silk as the houses, which is stuck to a large log that has the other end connected to another tree's branch end.

Acting as a bridge, this log allows them to move over the gap and reach the other branch. This branch didn't have any houses on it. Instead, a large number of fruit were growing off the branches. This fruit was a red egg-shape with yellow stripes, which the Larvanti reached and pulled up to start snacking on.

The Flonk tree will produce a large assortment of Flonk Fruit, which is a special fruit only Larvanti are allowed to consume. This is because the chemical composition is needed to allow the Larvanti to undergo a special metamorphosis after a decade of eating the fruit.

One of the Larvanti finishes eating the fruit, then begins crawling over to the trunk of the tree. At said trunk, a large hole can be seen leading to an interior chamber that has been carved out of the wood by something. Inside the chamber, multiple cocoons can be seen hanging from the ceiling.

Said cocoons are green in colour, an effect of the Larvanti silk mixing with the Flonk Fruit.

The Larvanti climbed up the wall and once on the ceiling, started covering itself in the green silk. Layer upon layer of the green slime covered its body, wrapping it up more and more until it was completely covered. As the silk hardened, it formed a tough outer shell which is completely fireproof and almost entirely unbreakable.

A Larvanti will remain in this cocoon for almost two months, left almost completely defenceless and under the watchful eye of what they are aspiring to become. Ignisect.

Name: Ignisect
Alien Type: Intelligent Insect
Intelligence: 6/20
Abilities: Flight. Fireproof silk creation. Fire production and expulsion.
Form: A black humanoid insect of between three and four feet in height, wearing red fire patterned armor covering everything except its mouth, neck, shoulders, upper-arms and lower legs. Two fire patterned butterfly wings on its back an a large red sideways mouth. Armoured hand guards that open at the ends to allow fire to be released.

An Ignisect flies into the chamber, eating another piece of fruit and looking up at the many cocoons.

Ignisects. An interesting species that is born as a result of the Larvanti's metamorphosis. Having hatched from the cocoon, this new insect has gained a myriad of new abilities that include flight and fire production. Their new ability to launch fire is a result of a new internal organ that produces a form of non-toxic acetylene gas, which can be sent to their arms using special veins.

The Ignisect holds out an arm as if to check the temperature and then looks unhappy, so opens its arm and unleashes a stream of fire that fills the room. Nothing inside burns, but this causes the heat within the room to increase.

Larvanti cocoons need to remain in a high temperature in order to complete their metamorphosis. Should the room they are become too cold for too long, they will never hatch. This is why keeping the room at a steady temperature is a must for the Ignisect. The future of their race depends on it. And if they manage to keep the cocoons warm...

One of the cocoons started moving, slowly swinging back and forth before a crack appeared on the side. That crack grew larger and larger, until eventually something broke out of it. That something was an Ignisect, the other one flying up and helping it pull the cocoon away from its body.

As it pulled itself out, the fire patterned wings on its back started unfurling themselves. This allowed the new Ignisect to fly out of the remains of its former prison and fly down towards the ground with the first one. As it did, it looked itself over and was amazed by its new body.

The first Ignisect patted it on the shoulder and held up a piece of fruit. The new one happily took it and started chowing down, as the pair stepped out of the trunk chamber and looked around to see many more Ignisect flying around. Some were carrying food around to feed the Larvanti and others of their kinds, whilst others were building and repairing the silk tents using their own silk.

And some were carrying mud and rocks as they flew down and placed them on a crack that had appeared on the Flonk tree, using their fire to melt the rock and dry to mud so that it sealed this crack up.

The new Ignisect spread its wings and took to the air, but seemed to have trouble properly controlling its flight. But after a while, it managed to get the hang of things as a group heading out of the nest offered to let it come.

The Ignisects often spend their days foraging for food, building their homes and patrolling to make sure nothing enters their territory. If something other than a member of their hive were to do this, they would need to announce it to the king of their hive.

For the Larvanti and Ignisect are not the only intelligent species of insect on this planet. There is another that rules over them all.

One of the Larvanti leaves its silky home and reveals themselves to not be like the others. Instead of being black with a green stripe on its rear, this one is mostly green with a black tail stripe. It crawls along the branch and the other Larvanti seem to be giving it a wide berth.

Every so often, about five percent of the time, a Larventi is born that is different from the others. Not only is it a different colour, but it is destined to transform into something else entirely. The most powerful insect on Hivexus.

As the Larvanti reached the trunk, something flew down from above and landed on the branch in front of it. The leader of its nest and the one the Larvanti might have to replace one day.

The Vesparmis.

Name: Vesparmis
Alien Type: Intelligent Insect
Intelligence: 4/20
Abilities: High speed flight. Armoured exoskeleton. Arm mounted energy stingers that can paralyse.
Form: Humanoid insect of between six and seven feet in height, with green exoskeleton, big red bug-eyes, red hair around back of its neck and long ribbon-like antenna striped red and green. Black shoulder coverings with spikes running along the outside, black forearm gauntlets with five white clawed fingers and a black tube on the back of the arms with a white spike on the end. Black armour covering the thighs and feet, with two large white toe-like spikes covering them. Four see-through dragonfly wings on back.

The Vesparmis. The king of the insects on Hivexus. Despite them both originating from the same creature, after the metamorphosis its DNA is completely different to that of the Ignisect.

The Vesparmis picks up the green Larvanti and leaps off the branch, summoning its wings and flying through the air at incredibly high speeds. The Larvanti is amazed by this, as it and its adult form move through the forest patrolling it for anything that could threaten the nest.

Unlike the Ignisect, Vesparmis did not develop the ability to produce fire. Instead, its flying power has risen to incredible levels. Whilst a Ignisect can fly at about thirty miles an hour for about thirty minutes, Vesparmis can reach speeds of up to seventy and can fly for over four hours at this speed without needing to stop. They have also developed their own form of offensive power, which they use to protect the nest from one of Hivexus' most dangerous predators.

The two suddenly see a large stream of fire shoot up above the trees and ignite a few trees, the pair flying towards it and arriving to see a group of Ignisect fighting against something huge.

Name: Metamicidae
Alien Type: Predatory Insect
Intelligence: 0/20
Abilities: Fireproof armor. Powerful scissor jaws. Acid spitting rear.
Form: Ant-like alien the size of an elephant, whose head, body and rear are made of metal. Six long black ant legs, dowsing rod antenna with metal balls on the end and metal mandivils that link to form a crescent moon-shape.

Metamicidae, the creature at the top of Hivexus' food chain. This giant ant-like alien is equipped with everything it would need to take down Ignisect.

An Ignisect launched a stream of fire at the Metamicidae, but its metal body didn't even warp as it was consumed by the flames. The ant crawled out of the flaming area unharmed, then raised its rear end before firing a stream of green liquid out of it.

The Ignisect managed to avoid it, but when the liquid struck a tree it caused the trunk to start melting. As it fell, an Ignisect spat a bunch a silk out of its mouth, hitting the ant's feet and sticking the ones on its left side to the ground. But the Metamicidae shot out more acid that covered its legs and melted the silk, whilst its legs didn't even look burnt.

Its metallic body can protect it from from almost anything and due to its diet of eating Flonk Trees, the metal has evolved to be able to withstand heats of over four thousand degrees. This along with its razor sharp claws and dangerous acid have allowed it to become an Ignisect's worst nightmare.

The Metamicidae shot out another blast of acid, which an Ignisect barely missed getting hit by. But a few splashes off it managed to land on its wings, causing it to cry out in pain and begin to fall towards the ground. The Metamicidae moved towards it, snapping its jaws ready to snack down on it. But before it could, something flew down and slammed its foot into the ant's head. The Vesparmis.

The humanoid insect kicked the predatory one away and turned to the Ignisect, which was now being aided by two others. As they helped it back into the air, the Vesparmis pointed at a branch with the green Larvanti on it. Another Ignisect picked the worm up and they all flew away, as their leader turned back to the Metamicidae.

The pair stared one another down before the ant fired its acid at the humanoid insect. The Vesparmis quickly took to the air and avoided the acid, using its high speed to avoid the multiple blasts that were sent its way. As it did, the spikes on the back of its arms suddenly glowed purple before they extended into blades the size of swords.

Despite not wielding fire like its nest mates, the Vesparmis can generate a form of energy that it can solidify into a blade-like weapon. When this energy stinger is stabbed into something, the energy will be distributed throughout it. Should the the target be a life form, the string will cause a numbing affected that can cause complete paralysis should enough of it be injected into it.

The Vesparmis zigzagged back and forth, using the trees as shields to protect it from the acid shot. Once the Metamicidae was out of acid, the hornet-like alien shot forward and pulled its arm back. And before the ant could think of a way to defend itself, the Vesparmis reached its back and thrust the blade forward.

The energy blade pieced the metal body, which seemed to have no defense against this attack. The energy then exploded outwards and zapped the entire alien, making it cry out as its body began to go numb. It then fell to the ground, alive but unable to move.

The Vesparmis landed on its back in triumph, then raised its other stinger ready to end this threat to its home.

If too much of the paralytic energy enters the body, the target will finds all its organs begin to become paralysed. And that can only lead to one thing.

Back at the nest, the Ignisect and Larvanti waited to see if their leader would return.

Many seemed worried, but others seemed to have complete faith in their leader. And sure enough, that faith was well warranted. For moments later, the Vesparmis flew back towards them looking entirely unharmed. The Ignisect all cheered and launched fire into the air in celebration, whilst the Larvanti all looked on in admiration. The green Larvanti seemed a little intimidated, as the Vesparmis flew up to the top of the central Flonk Tree where a silk and wood castle of sorts had been made for it.

Due to the Vesparmis' protection, the Ignisect have been able to survive and thrive despite the constant threat of Metamicidae attack. This has caused the Ignisect to develop a natural indebted nature towards the Vesparmis, causing a rudimentary cast system to develop with the Vesparmis on top.

The humanoid hornet entered the castle a sat upon a large throne, whilst several female Ignisects fly over to him holding bowls of fruit and other delicious oddities.

A few moments later, the Ignisect that had protected the green Larvanti flew in carrying the royal worm in its arms. The green one looked up at its future form, whilst the Vesparmis nodded back at it.

Nobody is sure what causes the birth of a Vesparmis Larvanti, since research has shown that any combination of an Ignisect or Vesparmis can produce one. Two Vesparmis could sire a hundred younglings and only birth the black variant, whilst two Ignisect could possibly have the green variant on their very first try. This truly is a question only the universe could possibly answer.

Due to the extreme rarity of a green Larvanti being born, its birth is always celebrated when it happens. Many nests hope that a new green Larvanti will be born as the last one is taking over for the previous one, forming a line of succession. When a new Vesparmis finishes its metamorphosis, the previous one will begin teaching it how to fight and protect the nest from threats.

A right of passage seen in many nests is for a young Vesparmis to head out and defeat a Metamicidae on its own. Should it succeed and return, the previous leader will step down and allow its heir to take control of the kingdom whilst they take an elder and advisory role.

But just because the birth of a green Larvanti is rare, it doesn't mean there's never been a situation where more than one hatches around the same time. And when that happens, it can turn into quite the show.

Moving to another section of the jungle, we find another nest of Ignisect and Larvanti.

But this nest had three Vesparmis. One standing on a branch looking down at the other two, this one appearing much older then the pair as they stared one another down. Behind both of the Vesparmis were groups of Ignisect, who cheered for the one in front of them.

Should two Vesparmis hatch relatively close to one another and both prove themselves worthy of leading the nest, the choice of who becomes the next leader can only be decided one way. Ritual combat.

The two Vesparmis charged at one another, both creating their energy blades and beginning to slash at one another. Their blades clashes, being the only things in the known universe that could be touched by the other, whilst the insects tried a variety of different ways to incapacitate the other.

When their blades didn't work, they started throwing punches, kicks, attempted to catch the opponent's attack and so much more. As this happened, the Ignisects and Larvanti watched with worry about the future of their nest. And eventually, one of them managed to catch the other's kick and swing it around.

The other Vesparmis was thrown against the trunk of the Flonk Tree and before it could push itself away, the opponent stabbed its energy blade into its back.

It was only a third of the blade, but this was enough to paralyse the Vesparmis entirely. So when the opponent pulled away, it began to fall towards the ground. With the Ignisects cheering for it unable to help, all they could do was watch as their chosen champion hit the ground.

It laid there as its opponent flew down and pointed its blade at its neck, giving it a simple command. Yield.

Seeing no other option, the paralysed bug admitted defeat for all to hear. The Ignisect on the victor's side cheered as the winner flew up, whilst the others flew down to help their fallen friend. The winner flew up to the elder Vesparmis, who nodded in recognition that this one was the next leader.

This day will be one of great pride for the winner, but one of great shame for the loser.

The victor turned to its fallen competitor, as the paralysis was beginning to wear off. The Vesparmis pointed into the jungle, showing the loser that he was no longer welcome there. Once it could fly, it turned to fly off. The Ignisect that had supported it turned to the new leader, who was giving them a decision. Submit, or leave.

After a few moments, several of the Ignisect turned to follow the Vesparmis whilst others flew up to the new leader and knelt for them.

Losers of this battle will be forced out of the nest and either have to survive on their own, or attempt to make a new nest with whatever Ignisect they can find and convince to join them. It won't be easy, since finding a new Flonk tree to live in will be hard to do. But if they can overcome this challenge, they will be able to make a nest how they want it.

As they flew through the jungle, they saw many other insectoid aliens that look like ones from earth. Humanoid stag and rhinoceros beetles. Millipedes the size of horses. Man sized mantises with metal scythes for arms. Giant dragonflies with drills on the end of their tails and so many more.

Hivexus. A dangerous planet to live on for sure. Luckily, we won't be making our residence here permanent. Now I think it's time we head off to the next planet on our tour. I hope you packed plenty of sunblock, for our next destination is a sweltering place. Onwards, to our next big adventure.

Author's Note

Hope you enjoyed a look at Firefly's home planet. What part was you favourite? Let me know in the comments below.

Behind the Alien: Riot-Horn

Good evening, explorers and omni-planetary travellers. I welcome you back to our adventure traversing the worlds that make up this universe, with the next planet on our list coming up now.

This planet is the homeworld of Flash Sentry's strongest alien: Riot-Horn.

For those of you who forgot to pack any, sunglasses and protection cream are provided for you. I would suggest wearing them, since sunburn and lost of retina may be impossible to prevent otherwise.

The scene opens up on a planet that looks almost entirely dead, for the surface has no visible signs of water or flora.

Barrenora. An interesting planet situated in an area of space that is rather strange when visiting it. This solar system has not one, but three suns at the centre of it. Each of the sun's are the exact same size and have the same gravitational pull. Most scientists would state that they would all pull themselves into each other, resulting in either a neutron star or a black hole.

However, for some unknown reason, these three suns all seem to be in a perfect gravitational alignment with one another. Because of this, they have remained the same distance from one another and created a rather interesting environment for the rest of the planets in the system.

This particular system is a lot hotter than many others and the life forms that live here have had to adapt to that heat in order to survive.

This includes Barrenora, which is a very hot and dry planet on its surface.

The scene zooms in on the planet, which is revealed to be similar to an African savanna but for the entire planet. Large mountains can be seen in multiple different areas and many open fields can be found with dried knee high grass and an occasional thin tree spread out around the place.

With three suns in the sky, the amount of heat the planet receives can be quite high. Depending on the time of year, all three suns will be in the sky and give off heat. But luckily, most of the time one sun is blocked out by another and the amount of heat radiating the planet isn't as high.

Due to Barronora's distance from the suns being the same as the Planet Jupiter's distance from your sun, most days on this planet are between ninety and a hundred degrees when all three suns are in the sky. Much like the deserts of earth, this results in incredibly hot days and incredibly cold nights.

Throughout the day, any water that was on the day side's surface would evaporate into vapour that would be lifted into the air. However, as soon as the sun sets, that water would cool and form heavy rain clouds that would likely flood most areas of the planet until the suns rose the next morning to evaporate it.

The species that have managed to survive on this planet have done so by developing interesting survival tactics and using the planet's extreme weathers to their advantage. This includes the first alien species we will be looking at today. The Solarhinos.

Name: Solarhinos
Alien Type: Intelligent Mammal
Intelligence: 3/20
Abilities: Super strength. Durability, Solar absorption. Strength increase using solar energy
Form: Ten foot tall brown humanoid rhino, with a large horn coming out its nose and to large spikes sticking out of its arms. Elf-like ears, small eyes and hair of multiple colours and styles sticking out the top of its head. Bands wrapped around their wrist that grow to cover the fists in white orbs and clothing of multiple different styles and designs covering their body.

The scene changes to show a village of Solarhinos, which consist of a bunch of large stone slabs laid out on the ground with small stone stairs built into a ditch.

Moving through the village were the aliens in question, all wearing caveman-style loincloths and dresses. Two Solarhinos were carrying a large stone slab through the village, towards a large hole that had been dug into the ground. The Solarhinos in the hole continued to dig more and more of the hard soil out of it, making it large and deep enough for a family to live in it without much issue.

Solarhinos. These rhino-like aliens are the planet's most physically strong inhabitants. Their hard skin is able to protect them against the heat of the planet and their great strength has made them capable of building structures capable of helping them survive come rain or shine.

On their own, fully grown Solarhinos can lift between thirty to forty tons before being overwhelmed by the weight. But this is not the limit on their strength. The spikes and horns covering their bodies have properties similar to solar panels, allowing them to absorb and store solar radiation.

As they worked, the Solarhinos' horns and spikes began to glow. The longer they worked out in the hot sun, the brighter their spikes became.

The Solarhinos digging the pit then found a rock stuck in the ground. It tried to pull the rock out, but found that it was so big even it couldn't budge it. But it just smiled at this and stood tall, as the light within its spikes suddenly started flying into its body and causing its veins to glow.

Whenever they want to, a Solarhinos can transfer that solar energy throughout their body. This can result in up to a four times strength increase, allowing them to lift so much more. But this power is just as good for demolition and construction.

The bands around the Solarhinos wrists started glow grow until they formed boxing glove like coverings that all the solar energy flew into. As it did so, the Solarhinos raised its fist before thrusting it down into the rock. The impacted caused the ground itself to shake, as millions of cracks to appeared on the rocks surface. It then disintegrated, turning to powder and causing a massive hole to form.

The Solarhinos rushed over to the pile of dirt it had previous dug out and quickly started shovelling it into the hole, filling it in as the slab carrying Solarhinos arrived and placed the rock down. This created another house that would protect the family that would soon move into it.

Solarhinos always build their houses into the ground, allowing them to stay cool during the day and warm during the rainy nights.

The scene fast forwards to the night time, when it starts raining and the downpour hits the Solarhinos village. The water hits the rock and begins to pour down it and into the hole home. Inside, the Solarhinos are all sleeping as the water flows into the home. But instead of drenching the sleeping aliens, it runs through gutters that have been dug into the sides of the house. Slowly, it fills up a stone bowl in one corner.

Fast forward again to the next day and the Solarhinos use the water in this bowl to keep themselves hydrated.

Heading outside, we find several Solarhinos working on a small farm. There they were taking care of alien fruits and vegetables, which would feed the village and keep them alive for years to come.

Solarhinos, despite their hulking form and tremendous power, are a particularly friendly species. With that amazing strength and almost impenetrable skin, nothing on Barranora can hurt them. As such, they have no reason to fear anything and are not easily scared or angered. But not everything on this planet is so friendly.

In another part of the planet, on another plain with lots of tall grass, a creature is walking through the grass and eating it. This something is similar to an earth zebra, only it was a mix of red and blue and on its head were a pair of ampala horns.

The alien stepped through the grass and nibbled at it here and there, all the while listening at for anything that might show up and attack it. Sure enough, several meters away, something was hiding within the tall grass and staring out at the creature. Every second it managed to get closer and closer to it, a low purr escaping its throat as it moved in on its target.

Whilst the Solarhinos' tactic of strength, defence and agriculture has proven an effective method of survival on Barronora, some of the planet's inhabitants chose to take a much more...aggressive manner of finding something to eat. This includes the highly dangerous Acinobatusons.

Name: Acinobatuson
Alien Type: Intelligent Feline
Intelligence: 3/20
Abilities: Short range high speed. Claws. Acute sense of smell. Climbing
Form: Humanoid cat alien of between five and six feet, with yellow and gray fur. A gray face with large red eyes and yellow on the rest of its head, except its ears, with a gray neck above a yellow furred chest covered in black sports. A gray stomach, shoulders and thighs with the rest being yellow and spotted. Large black claws on the hands and feet, black blades sticking out of elbows and a long yellow tail.

Despite being predatory in nature, the Acinobatusons have the same intelligence level as an average human. This allows it to device impressive hunting tactics that allow it to capture its prey.

The Acinobatuson drew closer to its prey and when it did, it made a sound that caused the creature to look up. The cheetah alien then shot forward, the zebra running in the opposite direction. Moving on all fours, the Acinobatuson managed to pick up speed and close the gap between it and its prey.

The zebra, however, suddenly turned and moved in the opposite direction. The Acinobatuson attempted to turn, but at the incredible speed it ended up losing control and rolling off in the direction it was heading.

The zebra kept running and looked back to see its pursuer was down, but this had all been part of the plan. For moments later, another Acinobatuson leapt out of the grass in front of it. Before the zebra even knew what was happening, it was tackled to the ground and let out a scream of horror.

Several more Acinobatusons appeared out of the grass, all walking on their hind legs as they moved to surround their food. The one that had chased the prey down moved in, being allowed first dibs on it along with the one that actually caught it.

The scene moves to an area of the savannah, full of multiple trees that had thick leaves. Many Acinobatusons were sitting in and below these trees, keeping out of the sun and attempting to sleep when they can. After all, they wouldn't be getting much sleep when the sun went down.

Acinobatusons are a very prideful race, not willing to accept help from any creatures outside of their kind. Because of this, they are forced to live a hard life because they are unable to build homes like the Solarhinos and unwilling to ask for help doing so.

Fast forward to the night time when it's raining and the Acinobatusons are all huddled up in and under the trees, attempting to stay as warm and as dry as possible. The younger Acinobatusons are being protected by the adults, but even still they were still drenched by the water.

Despite the difficulties this species faces, their pride and stubbornness has allowed them to power through the harsh times and remain strong. Many on the planet often joke that the Acinobatusons would likely be the only species to survive some form of apocalyptic disaster merely because they would be too stubborn to let it kill them.

The main contributors of this joke are the alien we will be looking at next.

In a rare area of the planet, one with multiple tall trees that are grouped together, we find a bunch of aliens that are swinging from the treetops.

Name: Elastrimate
Alien Type: Intelligent Primate
Intelligence: 5/20
Abilities: Elastic body capable of stretching and limited shape shifting
Form: Gorilla-like alien of between seven and eight feet, with brown and grey fur with puffy white cloud-like hair on its head that runs down its back. Face, chest, feet and hands are gray whilst the rest is light brown, with white cloud-like hair wrapped around its wrists and waist.

Elastrimates. Considered the wisest species on this planet, these ape-like aliens live atop tall trees that have grown in some of the rare areas of the planet that are mostly shielded from the harsh extremes of the day or night cycle. Living in such high environments, the Elastrimates have developed an interesting biological ability to allow for movement and protection from falling.

One of the Elastrimates is hanging from a branch, wearing clothing much like the Solarhinos and looking over at another that seemed too far away for it to reach. But then, its arms began to extend and its body slowly lowered itself to the ground like they were made out of rubber. Once its arms were a good twelve feet long, it started swinging back and forth until its body reached the branch.

Once it did, it grabbed the branch with its feet and let the other one go. Its arms flopped down and hung there limply, only to then slowly return to their normal length a few moments later and allow it to pull itself right side up.

Another Elastrimate is also swinging through the trees, only to slip and begin to fall. But it didn't seem at all worried, even when it struck the ground and went splat against it. But seconds later, it pulled itself up and its body began to return to its normal shape.

Known as the silly putty alien, the Elastrimate's cell structure is in a state of polymerization and are bonded at the atomic level. Because of this, Elastrimate's bodies can be stretched, flattened and twisted without causing any serious harm to them. This makes Elastrimates completely immune to any form of harm aside from acid, which is a very rare thing on Barronora, so much like the Solarhinos they have almost nothing to be afraid of on the planet.

Due to this, the Elastrimates are an incredibly friendly and sociable species. They are known for trading with the Solarhinos, swapping the food the Solarhinos grow for the fruit only an Elastrimate can reach.

Up on one of the tall trees, a strange fruit is growing that looks like a banana but is around at the bottom. An Elastrimate climbs up and reaches it, plucking it from the tree and dropping it down. Another Elastrimate thrusts their arm out and it stretches, allowing it to grab the fruit before the arm retracted and it dropped it into the basket.

Down on the ground, a Solarhinos is waiting with a basket of its food. The Elastrimate stretches down a good ten meters, placing its basket on the ground before grabbing the one the Solarhinos was carrying as it returned to normal. The Solarhinos picked up the other basket and thanked them as it walked off, the Elastrimate returning to their home.

Said homes were a bunch of sturdy looking tree houses, being built with the help of other Solarhinos. The rhino aliens were carrying the materials needed around, using a pulley system to lift them up into place so the Elastrimate needled a thin but strong thread through a hole and tied the walls together.

Meanwhile, some more Elastrimate were busy in the trees. They had a bunch of cotton-like substances, which grew quite well on the hot planet with the trees protecting it from the heavy downpours. With this cotton, they were making a bunch of clothing for themselves and the Solarhinos.

As the treehouse was finished, some Elastrimate stretched down and handed on of them a piece of clothing that the Solarhinos happily accepted.

With both species able to fill a need the other has, the Solarhinos and Elastrimates have developed a symbiotic relationship. This relationship has gone on for many generations and will likely remain for many more. In such a harsh environment, cooperation is key for survival.

As the Elastrimates stepped into their new treehouse home, something was crawling up the trunk of the tree. Something the size of a mouse.

But there are some creatures on this planet that choose less honourable methods of survival.

The creature reached the tree house and headed inside, spotting a basket of fruit that it rushed over to. Moments later, that something was pulling the entire basket towards the door.

Name: Rodormidant
Alien Type: Intelligent Rodent
Intelligence: 4/20
Abilities: Shrinking ability
Form: A humanoid rat alien of between three and four feet in height, being a combination of black and brown. Its lower mouth, paws and stomach are brown whilst the rest is black. Large ears on its head, long black curved tail and large front teeth

Rodormidants. This alien sneak is Barronora's master of stealth. Capable of altering its size in a similar manner to a Vaxasaurian, it can shrink its body down to minimum height of around five inches. This allows it to sneak into almost anywhere without being spotted, as it attempts to steal enough food to keep itself alive.

The Rodormidant was almost too the door. But before it could a large hand reached down and grabbed it, lifting it up as an annoyed Elastrimate glared at it. The alien rat looked sheepish before it suddenly grew to two feet in height, forcing the ape's hand open and allowing it to shrink back down.

Free, the rat rushed out the door but was leaving empty handed.

Though it failed this time, the Rodormaidant almost never learns its lesson. It will return and attempt again, though it'll likely wait until the target's guard is lowered.

Once out of the tree house, it scurried down the ground and returned to normal size as it ran towards its home. Said home was a small cave, which it had to shrink down in order to enter through the foot-wide hole. Once inside, it returned to normal size and looked around at all the food it had managed to steal from the other species on the planet.

Unlike the other three intelligent forms of life, Rodormidants live by a code of looking out for number one. The only time they'll pair up is too reproduce, which will only last until the birth of the younglings. Once born, the parents will leave them to their own devices. Rodormidants usually birth between ten and eighteen offspring, but due to their nature roughly seventy percent of the brood will survive to adulthood.

In another part of the planet, a Rodormidant is running through the grasslands carrying a basket of stolen food.

But before it can think of tasting the yummy food, an Acinobatuson stands up out of the tall grass. The rodent stops in its tracks and looks up at the taller and much more ferocious alien, who licks its lips at the sight of it. The Rodormidant drops the basket and runs in the opposite directions, whilst the Acinobatuson gets limbered up before dashing forward to play a little game of cat and mouse.

Barely a minute later, a loud squeal fills the air as the Acinobatuson begins to chow down.

Barronora. A harsh and vicious environment to call home. But luckily, we were just visiting. It's time to head to the next planet on our list, which will be a place all you vegetarians will find tricky to stomach. Onwards, to our next big adventure

Author's Note

Hope you enjoyed seeing Riot-Horn's home. Now onto the next planet. But first, who here can guess why I chose those three animals in particular to make new aliens about along with the rhino. A cookie if you can get it.

Behind the Alien: Bushwhacker

Good evening, explorers and omni-planetary travellers. Welcome back to the next stage of our planet hopping adventure. What amazing sights and sounds will we find this go around? Only time will tell.

Today, we will be taking a look at the homeworld of Flash Sentry's greenest alien. Bushwhacker.

Please refrain from using all lighters and any other flametary devices. The locals are not big fans of fire and I don't want to be responsible for losing any explorers, especially since I'm still on notice from the last time it happened. Let's go.

The scene opens on a planet that looks just like earth, with an equal amount of land and water.

Herbagarden. A lush and vibrant planet in a perfect goldilocks zone in its system. This zone is closer to the system's sun due to said sun being much smaller than many others, but being just as strong. Because of this, the planet rotates around the sun at a much faster rate and spins on its own axis much faster. This results in days and nights that only last around six or seven hours each.

But the most amazing part of this planet is a strange energy field that radiates through every part of it. This energy is not found in any other place in the universe and has a strong psycho-kinetic effect on the creatures that have developed there. This energy, dubbed Flower-Power, allows those that can harness it to connect to and control any form of non-sapient flora around them. This includes the main focus of our expedition here today.

The camera zooms in on a planet, flying down towards the planet that is completely covered in trees.

But one such tree stands out amongst the rest. This tree is brown but instead of being round, it had grown in a hexagon shape with no branches. Instead, it had a bunch of large black leaves on the top.

The Psychloro Tree, an unusual type of tree that has evolved upon Hebagarden. Taking usually twenty years to reach its full ten meter height, this tree requires three components to grow. Sunlight, water and Flower-Power. The psychic energy that flows through the soil of the planet is the most important nourishment for this tree. Without it, the tree will die. But if it is able to absorb enough of this energy, it will start to develop conscious thought once fully grown.

Zooming in on the tree, a crack can be seen in the side of trunk. A crack that is letting out a mild glow.

Taking another twenty five years or so for this consciousness to form, the process will lead to the Psychloro Tree to break apart.

The crack goes all the way up the trunk and once it reached the top and bottom, the whole thing broke in half. As the tree fell in two different directions, something that had been inside the tree falls free. A twelve sided wooden die, which falls to the forest floor and lands in several bushes.

Name: Psychloron
Alien Type: Intelligent Plant
Intelligence: 7/20
Abilities: Photosynthesis. Chlorokinesis
Form: A twelve-sided wooden die with two glowing eye holes and a mouth.

After a few moments, a hole in two of the die's sides appeared and glowed white. Another hole appeared on the side below them, as the flowers and plants around the die began to move towards it.

Psychlorons, an oddity in the universe that's completely dependant of the surrounding plant life to survive. Its body only consists of a twelve-sided die-shaped head roughly the size of a basketball, which is full of all the Flower-Power that the Psychloro Tree managed to absorb during its time.

Nobody is sure whether its consciousness is the Flower-Power itself, or just being fuelled by it. However, it uses this Flower-Power to fuel its chlorokinesis. This allows it to manipulate the vegetation around it, which allows it to form a body that it can use to move around and defend itself with.

The plants form a small body for the Psychloron, made out of vines and a few pieces of wood, which ends up only being the size of a human baby.

Despite having large amounts of Flower-Power within its mind, its cholokinesis is still weak. This ability will increase with time, allowing it to form larger and larger bodies as it ages, but until that time it is as weak and defenceless as human babies.

The small Psychloron drags itself through the woods, trying to find some place it can remain safe until it is strong enough to defend itself. However, there was nothing in sight.

And as the sun begins to go down, the baby plant alien begins to grow worried that something might attack it. Its fears grew as a sound filled the air. A beautiful, but haunting sound that felt like a siren song.

But as the forest is dropped into a great amount of darkness, something does appear out of the shadows. More Psychlorons, who are all different from one another due to having their plant bodies made up of different plants and trees. Some of them were seven foot tall and some were two. There were some with four arms, some with none. Some with short legs, some with long ones. They all looked completely different and the only part that looked the same, were the twelve-sides heads they all had.

One of the Psychlorons, which seemed to have a more feminine body, stepped forward and picked the baby one up. Holding it like a mother would, she rocked it in her vine-like arms and comforted the child. It had found its home.

Due to their slow growth rate in gaining more powerful chlorokinesis, Psychlorons will live in large tribes that protect the weaker members until they grow strong enough to protect themselves.

The tribe of waking trees marched through the woods, looking very active as they searched for a safe place to remain.

Fast forward to the next morning and the tribe find a large clearing which the sun is shining brightly into. They rush to the centre of the clearing and as the sun climbs higher and higher, their feet begin to dig into the ground and root themselves into the soil before pointing as much of their bodies up into the sun's light.

Despite the plant bodies not being part of their physiology, the vegetation still requires sunlight and water so as to not whiffer and die. As such, the Psychlorons have adopted a nocturnal lifestyle and spend the planet's days sleeping as they soak up the sun. And when the sun sets, they are constantly on the move.

At night, the Psychlorons pull themselves from the soil and starts travelling into the forest. All the while, they look absolutely terrified. The beautiful music began playing again, sounding like it was coming from the forest itself.

They cannot remain in place for too long. For as soon as the sun sets, they are constantly in danger of being attacked by Hebagarden's most dangerous predator.

The tribe continue through the forest and come across a long grassy lump in the forest floor that was covered in flowers. But as they climbed over it, the lump suddenly started growing. They all looked scared at this and begin to run, as the lump pushes itself up to reveal it had three pairs of legs. And from it, ten brown tendrils appear out of the darkness.

The Psychloron Vampire.

Name: Psychloron Vampire
Alien Type: Predatory Reptile
Intelligence: 0/20
Abilities: Mental energy draining.
Form: A twelve meter long reptile-like alien with six legs. Green sunflower-shaped head surrounded by red leaf-shaped fins, with long brown whisker-like tendrils sticking out of the face instead of eyes and a mouth. Grass-like fur growing out of its body and legs, covered in flower-shaped adornments of different colours. Root-like toes coming off the feet and two long root-like tails sticking out its rear.

The Psychloron Vampire. Despite looking like a plant, this giant lizard is the only form of organic life on the planet. Having developed a plant-like appearance, this creature hides in wait for its prey walk by it so that it can attack. Despite not having a mouth, nose or eyes, it can see perfectly well using a form of echo location that uses its Flower-Power instead of sound.

Its tendrils can unleash a weak wave of this energy, as well as suck up water from the ground as well as its main source of food. A mixture of Flower-Power and psychic energy. And as you may recall, Psychlorons are made up entirely of those two things.

The tendrils thrust themselves at the Psychlorons, who either fight or flee. Those that attempt to fight begin to command the trees around them, using them to grab the tendrils or attack the main body. This seems to work and the Vampire is unable to get to them. Once it's tied up and trapped beneath the vines, the Psychloron run away as fast as they can.

The vampire thrashes about at this, angry that it lost its meal.

Fast forwarding back to the daytime again, where we find another Psychlorons Vampire marching through the forest.

Using its echo location, it is able to navigate through it without worry of accidently slammed into trees. As it does, it senses movement up above and its tendrils move closer to take a...'look'.

And when it does, it finds a group of creatures hanging from the branches.

Name: Wiggulbus
Alien Type: Intelligent Plant
Intelligence: 2/20
Abilities: Photosynthesis. Vine growth
Form: Round pink radish-like alien of around one foot in height, with six short pink tendrils on its bottom and a large blue and yellow flower on its head just above its eyes and mouth. fifteen inch long red vine in the centre of said flower.

A group of Wiggulbus are hanging from the trees, not looking at all worried that the most dangerous predator on their planet was beneath them.

Wiggulbus. A low intelligence species that survive using a mixture of photosynthesis and using their long head vine to suck the nutrients out of trees. Large colonies of these creatures can be found near lakes and ponds, where their vine can also be used as a straw to suck up as much water as it wants.

A Wiggulbus moved along the ground, its tiny foot tendrils wiggling around and allowing it to shuffle forwards. It then spotted the Vampire and its friends up on a tree. When the reptile walked away, the little radish moved under the branch. As it did, its head vine suddenly extended until it reached the branch. Wrapping around the branch, the vine began to shrink lifting it into the air until it was hanging next to the rest of its friends.

Fast forward to that night as as the sun began to set, the Wiggulbus in the tree, on the ground and all over the planet huddled together for warmth. As they did, they started singing in unison.

Wiggulbus live in clusters for protection, so when the night comes they begin to sing in order to attract others of their kind to themselves.

Sure enough, the music caught the attention of another Wiggulbus that was all on its own. That Wiggulbus waddled over to the tree and when it found the cause of the music, it used its vine to pull itself up to the branch. Once up there, the plants pushed themselves together to stay warm and wrapped their head vines around one another so one wouldn't be lost.

This singing as become known as Hebagarden's Lullaby and is one of the most beautiful sounds throughout the universe.

It once again turns to day and the Wiggulbus have come down from the trees and made their way through the forest towards a lake, where many more Wiggulbus are hanging around and enjoying the water there. In some areas of the lake-shore, the same blue and yellow flowers were sticking out of the ground but all were closed up.

One Wiggulbus stopped by the lake shore and started shaking its entire body. Doing so caused a bunch of tiny seeds to fly out of its flower and hit the ground.

A single Wiggulbus will develop around ten to twenty seeds a month and scatter them near places close to water. Out of these seeds, around seventy percent of them will be able to take root. And only fifty will manage to survive to full flowering age.

One of the buds began to bloom, as the light of the sun began to shine down on it. A minute or so later, the soil beneath the floor began to shift as the Wiggulbus pulled itself free of the earth. Once out of the soil, the alien plant opened its eyes and looked around. The other Wiggulbus all smiled at it, as the newborn's flower began to grow the vine on the top of its head.

One of the reasons Habegarden is so fertile is due to there being absolutely no salt on the planet.

Even the oceans are completely salt free, making them as safe to drink as what you would get out of your taps. This has allowed plant life to grow, even in the darkest depths of the planet.

The camera shifts to under the ocean, where a bunch of different plants were growing under it. Living amongst these plants were a bunch of alien fish, which are all fish-like plants, that are swimming around. One of these fish, which has a flower on its forehead, moves over to a bunch of seaweed and starts pecking at it.

But as it did so, it was completely unaware that something was within that seaweed. And before it realised what was happening, something shot out of weeds and grabbed it. It wrapped around the fish and pulled it into the weeds, as the other fish swam away in fear.

Moments later, the one responsible swam out of the weeds.

Name: Selafolian
Alien Type: Intelligent Plant
Intelligence: 4/20
Abilities: Swimming. Breathing underwater. Extendable vine tongue
Form: Green shark-like alien between four and five feet in length, with leaf-shaped fins on its sides and on the tip of its tail. Grass-like fur running along its back with a dorsal fin that appears to be made of wood.

The plant shark swam around, using its leafy fins to move through the water with amazing speed. As it got close to another plant fish, it opened its mouth and its tongue shot out at incredible velocity.

Selafolian. This living plant acts like a venus flytrap, using its incredibly stretchy tongue-like vine to capture prey and pull them into its mouth. It does this to steal the nutrients in the prey, allowing it to survive without needing to stay rooted in place.

Once the Selafolian had its fill, it swam up to the surface. The water's surface worked to magnify the sun's rays, increasing the amount of photosynthesis the alien shark plant managed to produce.

Back on the surface, Psychloron Vampire is making its way through the forest when it comes across an open field.

There its special sight detects a bunch of Psychlorons, all asleep as they took in sunlight. The vampire moved closer and reaches out to try and grab one. But as soon as its tendril entered the sunlight, the limb started smoking as the brown parts of it turned white.

If it had a mouth, it probably would have screamed as it pulled its tendril back.

For some unknown reason, the Psychloron Vampires cannot stand even the dullest of sunlights. This is partly why the Psychloron adopted their nocturnal lifestyle, since they can easily sleep so long as they are in the sunlight. However, sometimes the world decides to make things difficult for them.

In that moment, a cloud drifts in the way of the sun. This causes the sun to be almost completely blocked out, leading to the Psychlorons to all wake up. And they are not the only ones who noticed the lack of sunlight.

The Vampire rushes out of the trees, scaring the Psychlorons as they attempt to run for their lives. But the Vampire manages to reach them before they can and a tendrils flies down towards one of the older Psychlorons. The sucker on the end of the tendril slams down on one of its die sides and sticks to it, allowing the Vampire to pull it away from the body.

The others are shocked by this, as the Psychloron cries out. All they can do is watch as a light flows out of its head and into the tendril. It flows all the way down the whisker until it reaches the Vampire's body, causing the Vampire to glow. Some attempt to save their brethren, but stop when the other tendrils attempt to grab them and do the same thing.

Eventually, the Psychloron is completely drained of its Flower-Power and the sucker releases it. The head falls to the ground, its eyes and mouth no longer glowing as the Vampire turned its attention to the others. However, in that moment the sun came out from behind the cloud.

The sunlight struck the Vampire and made it feel intense pain as it runs back towards the forest and leaves the Psychlorons safe.

A terrible tragedy for the Psychlorons. But such is an every day, and night, occurance on such a planet. However, the death of the Psychloron does not mean the end of it. For it will live on in the next generation.

The Psychlorons gather around the remains of their fallen friend and as they reach down and pick the head up, the wood that made it up began to slowly crack and break apart. As it crumbled, something was revealed to be inside the head. A seed.

As the sun begins to set, the Psychlorons head back into the forest. They search for the most Flower-Power rich area of soil they can find and when they do, they dig a hole deep enough for the seed to be safe in. Once that is done, the Psychlorons listen to the Forest's Lullaby as they talk about all the good times with their friend.

And like a funeral service, they lay their friend to rest within the earth before burying it. They all say their final farewells before leaving, since they can't stay too long for fear of a Vampire arriving to hunt them down. That seed would one day grow into a hexagon-shaped tree and within that tree, a new Psychloron would begin to form. The circle of life.

There is many debate about the lifecycle of the Psychlorons. Many believe that when the seed is freed from the head, that is when the new Psychloron's life begins. Others believe that Psychloro Tree is actually the final stage of life for the Psychloron, which ends once the head inside manages to gain enough Flower-Power and the tree breaks apart. Others still believe that the Psychloron never truly die, but instead are in a constant cycle of death and rebirth. The truth may never be revealed, but what do you think is the correct answer.

As the Psychloron tribe continue to move through the forest, they eventually come across something they hadn't been expecting. Another Psychloro Tree.

The leader stepped up to the tree and could feel it was close to being ready to open. Another year or two and the Psychloron would be free. But why wait?

They stood in a circle around the tree and reached out to touch it, closing their eyes and causing some of their power spark around their heads. That energy then flew through their bodies and into the tree they were touching. This caused the tree to start glowing as a crack appeared inside it, which grew larger and larger until it completely broke in half.

As the tree-halves fall to the ground, the Psychloron head falls to the ground only to be caught by one of its own kind. As its eyes open, the tribe smile at it before placing it down on the ground. The plants begin to form around it and create its new body, the Psychlorons happy they were able to help a newborn not be alone. They may have lost a member, but they had gained a new one. Life continued on.

Habegarden. A beautiful place to live, but one filled with many dangers. Now we can head off to the final planet on our tour. Hope you didn't pack any fresh meat, cause this place's residents have a pretty good sense of smell. Onwards, to our next big adventure.

Author's Note

Well, that's Bushwhacker's planet. Hope you enjoyed it. I found this one really interesting to write. Anyway. One last planet to check out before season 2.

Behind the Alien: Vapaw

Good evening, explorers and omni-planetary travellers. I welcome you to the final destination of our planet-hopping adventure. This may be the last stop, but it hopefully won't be the least.

Today's trip has us taking a look at Flash Sentry's smokey alien, Vapaw. Please keep from rolling down the windows, as we are not equipped with gas masks.

The scene opens up on a grey-looking planet that has black oceans and many rocky mountains that surround its coastline. Surrounding the planet is a thin layer of some kind of gas.

Shroudose. This highly dangerous planet holds very little vegetation on its surface. This is mostly due to its atmosphere being filled with a strange gas that appears to be a chemical mixture of hydrogen and sulphur dioxide, the combination of these two gases producing a new gas that is both lighter than air and highly poisonous to breath for most forms of life. But that doesn't mean nothing is able to live here.

We zoom down to the planet and find ourselves on the coastline, which is covered in volcanoes all across the cliffs.

The planet is separated into five main parts. The top layer of the planet is made up entirely of rock, much like earth's crust, which is roughly ten miles thick. In certain areas this rock is entirely solid, whilst other areas are broken up. Beneath this crust is a thin layer of soil that is roughly ten or twenty miles thick, sandwiched between the top crust and a secondary one that is another fifty miles thick.

Not much is known about the mantle of the planet, which is roughly fifteen hundred miles deep. And in the very centre of the planet is the core. Said core is an unusual design that is mostly spherical, but with inwards bubbles that trap the hydrogen and sulphur mixture as it spins around. Every so often, one of these bubbles will spin in line with a vent that leads up to one of the volcano-like structure on the surface.

This results in the gas being expelled outwards from the bubble, up through the vent and out the top into the atmosphere. These tall volcanoes have multiple relief tubes, which cause the gas to be expelled in multiple different directions and surround the mountain. And it is here that we find the first and most dangerous form of life on the planet. The Fogavians

Name: Fogavian
Alien Type: Predatory bird.
Intelligence: 0/20
Abilities: Flight. Claws. Sulphur spray
Form: A bird-like alien of around three or four feet in height, with a long gray toucan beak and dark gray feathers covering its body. Sharp black claws on its wings and feet.

The Fogavians are hanging around the volcanos, trying to get as close to the vents as possible. Many have even built rock nests near them, whilst others simply fly around.

Fogavians. Unlike most forms of carbon based life, these creatures have developed the ability to instead breath the normally dangerous sulphur mix.

The Fogavians stick their heads in the vent and breath in the gas as its expelled, whilst others higher up the mountain simply breath wherever they want due to the large amount of it in the air.

Due to the mix of Hydrogen in the gas, Fogavians are also capable of flight despite how heavy their bodies appear to be. And this is quite useful when they need to make it down the mountain in order to hunt.

One of the Fogavians jump into a nearby cloud of gas and open its large mouth, allowing it to suck up as much gasp as they can before diving down towards the ground.

Fogavians have three separate sets of lungs that they use to store this gas. The first is specifically designed for breathing, whilst the second set is designed for storing a large quantity of the gas and separating the mixture. The Hydrogen removed from the sulphur is transferred to a flight blader, whilst the remaining gas remains so that it can be used as a weapon.

The Fogavian looks around, trying to find something it can take down and eat before it runs out of gas.

Down on the ground, something was wandering along the rocky landscape. It was a grey-coloured warthog-like creature that had six legs along with green tusks, ears and tail tip. The area it was walking through was made up entirely of rocks as far a the eye could see. It was like the entire land had been broken up by a jackhammer and left where it was.

The warthog sniffed the ground before coming across a large rock, which it lifted up to reveal a bunch of small bug-like aliens crawling around. The pig started devouring them, completely unaware of the danger up above it.

The Fogavian was flying down towards it and once it was low enough, by which point the warthog realised it was there, it opened its beak and let out a squawk that caused the sulphur it had previously breathed in to fire out and form a cloud around it.

The warthog tried to escape, but it had already breathed it in. Seconds later, it fell to the ground as the Fogavian glided down and used its claws to finish the job. Once the pig was dead, the alien-bird started ripping it apart to start eating.

Fogavians can go roughly thirty minutes or so without needing to breath, which does not leave much time for it to enjoy its meal. Most times, the Fogavian will only eat around a third of their hunted prey before needing to return to the sulphur filled air. And to do that quickly, they've developed an interesting method of take off.

Spreading its wings, the Fogavian begins to shake its rear as the hydrogen in its flight blader begin to move lower through its body. Then, that hydrogen is expelled and combusts as it does so. This shoots the Fogavian into the air, allowing it to fly up super high and reach the sulphur filled air.

As the Fogavian returns to its volcano home, another one glides down and sees the remains of the warthog down on the ground.

Though mostly predatory in nature, the Fogavians will chose a free meal when it come around since it means they don't have to use their sulphur blast.

The bird begins to feast upon the carcass, as two more Fogavians fly down and see it. They dive and the eating one notices them, the bird looking at them and getting into a defencive stance as it does. The other two reach it and the three get into a fight, attempting to earn this delicious meal.

Fogavians will happily attempt to steal from one another in order to survive. They may even steal from Shroudose's other top predator.

In another area of the planet, more inland where the sulphur-canoes aren't close too, a large group of warthogs are making their way through a boulder field.

These large rocks make the perfect ambush area, which puts the pigs on edge. And sure enough, something is staring at them from atop one of these rocks. A creature with a similar hunting tactic of using smoke to capture its target, but in an entirely different way.

Name: Smogleo
Alien Type: Intelligent Feline
Intelligence: 2/20
Abilities: Claws and fangs. Strong sense of smell. Black smoke production.
Form: Grey lion-like alien with no mane, that stands at around four to four and a half feet tall. Black hand-like front paws, with a tail of between four and six feet in length. Gills on the neck, just behind its back legs and around its ankles, that produce a thick black smoke. Pipe-like appendage on tail tip that also produces smoke.

Smogleos. Despite their predatory nature, these aliens have developed the ability to speak alongside their other amazing abilities. Male Smogleos can produce and expel a large amount of black non-toxic smoke, which they use in conjunction with their powerful sense of smell, long versatile tails and sharp claws and fangs in order to ambush their prey.

A male Smogleo is looking down at the warthogs from atop a large rock. And once they're close enough, the creature flares its mane and sends the smoke flying out and completely covering the area.

The pigs begin to panic and run, but each of them begin to crash into the rocks filling the area. The impact dazes them, as they stagger around slightly concussed. As they do, the rest of the Smogleo's pride attack.

Suddenly, something wraps around a pig's neck and pulls it backwards before everything ends. Another pig is suddenly tackled and it squeals as something sharps slices through it. And finally, another pig is caught and a strong pair of jaws finishes it.

The smoke begins to fade away and as it does, the Smogleo females are revealed. Unlike the males, they didn't have large manes of smoke surrounding their heads, neck and upper bodies. Instead. they had a single vent in the top of their heads that unleashed a thin stream of smoke that looked like a ponytail.

Females of the species do not have the ability to produce large amounts of endless smoke. In place of that ability, their sense of smell is much more defined than the males alongside their vision, which can see in almost pitch black.

The females used their tails to drag the warthogs away, the male jumping down and leading them back towards their home. Said home was about a mile or so away, which turned out to be a giant stone slab being held up by a bunch of smaller rocks on either side of it. This created a large cave that had a roof that completely protected the lower rocks from anything that might fall from above.

A triangular rock also worked as a ramp, which they were able to walk to get to the cave. Inside, a bunch more female Smogleos were resting and taking care of younger members of their pride.

A single Smogleo pride will consist of a single male and several females, with their birth rate being roughly one male born for ever eight females born. Because of this, a single male Smogleo will live a polygamist life with multiple females.

The Smogleo male ate first with one of the cubs eating alongside him, this being the male's first born male cub. Once they had their fill, the two males headed out of the cave whilst the females began to take their fill. The pair moved around the back of the cave until they reached a section lower to the ground then the front, the older one picking its child up in its mouth and climbing up onto the rock.

They both headed up to the very top of the rock, where they could look out at the entire area they had as a territory.

A ways off was another rock pile, which was actually the home of another pride. And another rock pile could be seen even further away in the opposite direction. There were many prides in the large area, all having their own territories that they protected and were not happy should a member of another pride enter it.

What appears to be a peaceful home here, can turn to a very disharmonious situation with the slightest of differences. For example, two males being born into a pride. When that happens, things can get very complicated.

The scene changes to another pride of Smogleos, who are all looking down from atop their rocky home.

The lot of them were looking down at a pair of younger males, who glared each other down as they circled themselves around. They then charged forward and started fighting, leaping at one another and wrestling against their opponent to try and pin them.

They both launched out their smoke, trying to blind the other. But all this simply made it just as difficult for them as their opponent and the two started using their claws and fangs to try and take the other one down. All the leader and females could do was listen, as the sounds of their future ruler fighting for its kingdom could be heard. And after a few minutes of this, the smoke started to fade and reveal one pinning the other.

The loser had a large cut going down his left eye, the pain having distracted him enough for his opponent to get the upper hand. The leader announced the end of the battle and the winner let to loser go, the loser picking itself up and beginning to stagger away.

It gave one final look back at its former home before it began to leave, now a rogue without a place to call his own

Fast forwarding a few weeks, the Smogleo rogue was continuing to wander in search of a new place to call home. The cut over his eyes had healed into a scar, something many Smogleos usually had by the time they were adults.

He's currently in an area that hasn't been claimed by anyone, but that's because the area would be terrible as a Smogleo home since the rocks are all too small. But as he gets closer to it, he sees movement and looks up to see something small up on the rocks.

Name: Illumeeruk
Alien Type: Intelligent Rodent
Intelligence: 3/20
Abilities: X-ray and night vision. Illuminating the stripes on its body
Form: A marron meerkat-like alien, standing at around one and one and a half feet in height. Its body and tail wrapped in yellow stripes that mimic a vest. Large front teeth sticking out of its mouth, with white feet, hands, and tip of its two foot-long tails.

Though it won't be exactly filling, an Illumeeruk should fill it up enough to keep going until it can find something more substantial to eat.

The Smogleo licked its lips and charge forward, catching the rodent's notice and making it look around to see the charging lion-alien. The Smogleo unleashed the smoke and attempted to blind the rodent, but the Illumeeruk's eyes suddenly changed from white and black to entirely green.

Illumeeruks are an interesting species, able to see in both infrared and x-ray vision. Because of this, a Smogleo's normal tactic will not be enough to make it panic.

The Smogleo charged at the rat with his teeth primed. But before he could get him, the Illumeeruk leapt to the side and avoided it entirely. The Smogleo caught its scent and attempted again, spinning around and diving at him again. But this time, the Illumeerak closed its eyes as the yellow parts of its body suddenly exploded with light.

The Smogleo's eyes had not been expecting this and it roared in pain, closing its eyes and covering them as they stung. The Illumeeruk cut its lights and opened its eyes, using its night vision to rush out of the smoke and return to its hole.

Illumeeruks are the smartest creatures on this planet, using multitude of abilities to survive as it searches for food for it and its rather large family.

The Illumeeruk uses its night vision to see in the darkness of the rock tunnel, but then stopped when it was deep enough and charged to a different form of vision. Its eyes turned to red as it looked around, being able to see through the rocks all around it. It then smiled when it spotted a bunch of bugs about five meters away and it started moving the rocks around, eventually finding the area where the bugs were located.

It started stuffing its mouth with some of them and once it had its fill, it grabbed a bunch more and once it had incapacitated them, it stuffed them in the fur of its tail. It then headed back the way it had come and then went further down through the tunnel, all the way to the soil layer where a burrow had been dug out for it.

Inside this burrow was a female Illumeeruk, who used a lower level of her light to keep the burrow bright so its children could see. Said children were half the size of their parents, their fur being mostly brown with no yellow on them and their eyes couldn't change to their special ones yet.

A few moments later, the father returned and started passing out the bugs for his children to enjoy. They fed of the bugs as the parents moved to one another and held each other tight. Their world was a tough one to live in, but they would survive.

Back on the surface, the Smogleo was staggering across the land looking like he was about to pass out.

Many young rogues don't survive their first year on their own. Without the more talented females to do the hunting, many end up unable to feed themselves. This Smogleo probably won't have long to live. Unless...

The Smogleo staggered over a rocky hill and as it did, he heard squawking and looked up to see several Fogavians flying up a ways away. And when he saw what they were hunting, his eyes went wide.

It was a female Smogleo, who was running as fast as she could to stay away from the avian danger. But there were too many of them.

The male knew he had to help her and rushed forward, none of them noticing him until he was close enough to unleash a large cloud of smoke. This blinded the Fogavians, but allowed the female to grab one in her tail and pull it towards the ground. The male rushed over and slashed it, ending one of the threats whilst the female brought the other two down and finished them off.

When the smoke cleared, the two Smogleos looked at one another. The male looked a little worried and grabbed one of the birds in his tail, hoping she would let him take one. Instead, the female told him to follow her and bring the food. The pair pulled the three birds across the land until they reached a mountain, which was one of the few on the planet that wasn't a sulphur vent.

In the side of that mountain was a large cave, which they walked up to and dragged the food inside. Doing so allowed the male to see it was full of many female Smogleos. He was inside a pride's den.

And as he stepped inside, he spotted a male that was at the back. One who looked very old and unable to move anymore. The female dropped the bird and pulled him towards the male with her tail, the older leader of the pride lifting his head and staring at the younger male.

The two stared at one another and the older one smiled, the younger realising what was happening. This was an old male. Too old to hunt and too old to have any more offspring. And he appeared to have been unable to sire a male child, or had one but lost it to the harsh world outside the cave.

The pair continued to look at one another and both nodded, knowing what was gonna happen.

Fast forward to almost a year later and that same young lion was sitting at the mouth of his new cave home.

A moment later, the female he had saved the previous year stepped out of the cave. Her stomach was much larger now, hopefully carrying the future leader of the pride. The pair sat besides one another as the female placed her head on his shoulder, the male looking back at the cave where the older male was still resting but smiling as he looked around at all his pregnant children. Hopefully, he would live long enough to see all his amazing new grandchildren.

Shroudose, a truly harsh world to live in. But luckily, we were just visiting. And thus ends our look at some of the amazing planets that gave birth to the aliens Flash Sentry wields. I hope to see you again on our next tour and can't wait to see what new aliens will be waiting for us there. Onwards, to our next big adventure.

Author's Note

Well, that was the last planet we'll be visiting. You know what that means. Time for season 2. Can't wait to see what you guys think and which planet was your favourite.

Season 2, Episode 1: Plumbing School

Several days had passed since Canterlot's near destruction at the hand of the alien overlord known as Vilgax. Many people who had seen parts of the battle had feared that it was the end of days, but since that day everything had been perfectly normal...ish.

The alien that destroyed half the town had vanished without a trace and the damage done was slowly being repaired. Made even easier by the help of the alien heroes.

Technically, only one hero was helping with the reconstruction. One minute people were working on a slow repair and rebuild of a building when, suddenly, a blue blur explodes onto the scene and does three month's worth of work in ten minutes before rushing off. It had happened several times over the last few days and thanks to it, the city was getting closer and closer to being rebuilt.

One such reconstruction was going on right now. The builders had arrived at a building and found many of its bricks and other junk lying around the ground. It looked like it was gonna take forever to sort through it all, but in that moment something shot passed them and started running around the worksite.

That something created a tornado around it and did this for several minutes before rushing off, revealing a neat stack of bricks and piles of other stuff they could use to rebuild the building. The workers were surprised, but wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth.

Said gift horse had just shot into an alleyway and revealed himself as the alien hero, XLR8.

XLR8 sighed as his visor lifted up, the alien stretching his body out as he felt exhausted from all the hard work he had been doing to help fix the buildings he had accidently destroyed when fighting Vilgax. He was hoping if he helped repair things, people wouldn't be angry at him.

In that moment, the dial on his chest started beeping and in a flash, he reverted back to his human self. Flash Sentry huffed and headed out of the alleyway towards his next destination. Sugarcube Corner.

Stepping into it, he spotted his friends over by a couch. Trixie Lulamoon and the Rainbooms all smiled when they saw him arrive, Sunset holding up his favourite milkshake. "Tough day?" She asked, as Flash sat between her and Twilight.

"You have no idea. And I'm gonna have to head back out once the Omnitrix recharges." This statement made the girls, minus Trixie, all feel weird. Despite having seen Flash transform into all those aliens, the fact he actually was them still seemed absolutely bizarre to them.

Flash had explained everything to them since his fight with Vilgax. Finding the Omnitrix. Discovering what it could do. Having his identity revealed to Shining and every insane adventure they had enjoyed. The girls had felt a little dumb for not putting the pieces together, but even still they were amazed by it all.

Twilight looked down at the Omnitrix, still intrigued by its ability to rewrite a person's DNA. She wanted nothing more than to try and open it up and see how it works, but then she remembered the last time she tried messing with alien technology. The last thing she wanted was to mess with a device fused to her friend and could do serious harm to him if it malfunctioned.

"Maybe you should take a break from the rebuilds," Trixie told him as Flash began to slurp at his milkshake. "You've been working non-stop on it since the whole event with Vilgax. You should rest up a bit so you don't overdo it."

"I guess," Flash nodded. "I'm just glad things have been quiet since then. But I'm betting the peace won't last long. Something or someone's gonna show up to cause problems again."

"Well now you won't have to worry about facing them alone," Twilight assured him. "Now that we know about the Omnitrix, we can help you."

"Yeah," Rainbow smirked, "or you can leave some of the fun to us." The girls rolled their eyes at this, Rarity speaking up.

"Twilight's right though. I'm sure that with our help, you can do your whole alien hero thing much easier than before." Flash smiled at this and nodded. One of the biggest issues before was finding a reason to escape the girls and transform. Now that they were in the loop, he could transform around them without issue. Now he just had to worry about the whole rest of the city's populace. "And maybe, in return, you could use some of your alien's powers to help us."

Flash raised an eyebrow at this, "meaning..."

"Well...I would love to have some of those crystal shards you make as Diamondhead so I can decorate my next design. Or...maybe lend me some Firefly silk. I could make an entire line of fireproof clothing with it. Just a suggestion." They all laughed at this. All except Fluttershy.

"Are we even sure using the Omnitrix is safe." They all looked at her in confusion. "It's just...what if something goes wrong with it. You said it's turned you into the wrong alien before. What if it malfunctions and you can't turn back? Or what if it puts you back together the wrong way? We just don't know that much about the Omnitrix."

"She kinda has a point," Applejack nodded. "What if somethin' goes wrong?"

"You girls worry too much," Flash assured them. "Sure, the Omnitrix isn't perfect. But I doubt VIlgax would want it so badly if something like that could happen."

"But it still could happen," Fluttershy looked worried.

"I don't think it'll be a problem," Pinkie smirked. "If it does, we'll just call tech support to fix it. What's the intergalactic number again?" They all laughed at this and continued to talk, Flash deciding to take Trixie's advice and lay off the help rebuilding for the day. He was gonna need to be on his A-game when something big happened. And he had a feeling it was gonna be soon.

That night, something flew into the planet's airspace completely invisible to any detection device.

It was a ship that turned invisible before it passed the moon, which now floated above the planet scanning for something. And inside, those that were controlling the ship stared at a console. "No sign of the Omnitrix," one of the figures explained.

"I know the basic idea of where it is," another figure replied. "I'm setting the coordinates for the City of Canterlot, in the Country known as America. Once there, we'll have to wait for the Omnitrix to be used."

"How do we know this individual can be trusted with the Omnitrix?" A voice asked, sounding it was trying to talk whilst underwater.

"I've seen what he is capable of," the figure in the middle of the room announced. "He might be young and immature at times, but he's got a good heart."

"A good heart isn't enough," the first figure replied. "What matters is skill and ability. Without those things, we can't trust this human to wield the most powerful object in the world. You understand what'll have to happen if this doesn't work out, don't you."

The figure in the middle of the room stepped forward, revealing the alien bounty hunter known as Tetrax. "I do." With that, the ship began to descend towards the planet. They would have to wait, but hopefully their patience would soon be rewarded with results.

The next day.

The Rainbooms were all in a junkyard, the same one Flash had once trained in, watching as Riot-Horn held up six junk cars. Trixie and Shining were also there, watching as Twilight lifted another car up. "You ready?" She asked, Riot-Horn nodding as she placed the car on top of the pile.

Riot-Horn almost lost his balance for a moment, but that wasn't due to the amount of weight he was currently carrying. In fact, he felt like he could carry another three of four cars before he even felt like he was gonna struggle. "Still good," he smirked at them.

"Great," Shining nodded, "try another one." Twilight lifted up the car and Rarity, who had needed a lot of convincing to get to come to the junkyard, coughed at the dust that was kicked into the air.

"Did we really need to come all the way out here to test Flash's abilities?"

"Where else are we gonna do it?" Applejack asked, "this place is completely deserted. Anywhere else and someone might see him transform."

"Remind me why we're doing this again?" Trixie asked Shining, who smirked.

"Well we've had a basic guess of what Flash can do, but we've never been able to actually test the full limits of Flash's powers. If his fight against Vilgax proved anything, it's that he's not unbeatable. We need to know exactly what Flash can and can't do so we'll be ready in the future. And now that the girls are in on the secret, they can help us test him."

"Well I'm ready to try another car!" Riot-Horn cried, Twilight placing the car on top. He flinched for a second, but was still able to hold them all up. This amazed them all, but they they started to panic when the Omnitrix started beeping. "Uh oh!" He quickly threw the cars off him and they all came tumbling down around him before he was consumed by a green light.

They all gasped seeing this, but sighed in relief when Flash stepped out of the light. "You okay?" Shining asked, Flash nodding back.

"So you've had to deal with that thing turning you back without you getting a say in the matter?" Rainbow asked, Flash nodding again. "Well that sucks."

"You have no idea." Flash sat on one of the cars he dropped and sighed, knowing he would need to wait for the watch to recharge before he could do anything else. But before he could, another beeping caught their attention.

This one was coming from Shining, the man reaching into his coat and taking out something many of them had forgotten he had. The Plumber Badge. "What's it doing?" Twilight asked, as Shining held the badge up and had no idea. But then, the green parts unleashed a light that formed a hologram above the badge.

"Wow!" Shining flinched at the sight, as the hologram was of a radar-like screen with a dot in the middle. Another dot could be seen near it and drawing closer. "What?" The others gathered around him and saw the same thing, all wondering what the heck it was as the moving dot eventually merged with the middle one.

They got their answer about it when, suddenly, a powerful gust of wind almost knocked them all over. They looked up and were shocked to see something appear above them. A spaceship.

At first, they thought Vilgax had returned. But then they realised that they recognised the ship, or at least some of them did, from when they had beaten the alien criminal: Gelidafur. The ship floated down and landed on the ground, only to then vanish again whilst those on the ground were confused. At least until the invisible bottom opened up and unleashed a ramp that extended to the ground.

Flash gulped, wishing the Omnitrix would time in so he could XLR8 away. But all his fears vanished when he saw something stepping down the ramp. Someone he knew. "Tetrax!" He cheered, rushing towards the ship as the others wondered who the dome-headed figure was.

"You know that guy?" Rainbow asked, Shining nodded.

"Alien bounty hunter. He's actually the same race as Diamondhead." That surprised them, as Flash stepped up to him.

"Long time no see."

"Indeed," Tetrax nodded as his helmet retracted. "I'm glad to see you're doing well. Hoverboard working for you?"

"I...haven't had a lot of chances to use it. But I found that message you left in it." Said message had been an instruction manual about how to use it, which had also had Tetrax's name in it. "So what are you doing here? Don't get me wrong, it's great to see you. But you said were would come back as soon as possible and it's been months."

Tetrax nodded. "I had planned to return as soon as possible, but I got waylaid along the way. Then I was contacted by the Plumbers, who had discovered that the Omnitrix was on this planet." That surprised Flash. "I rushed over to them and explained my meeting with you and how Vilgax was after you. However, by the time we were ready to return and rage an assault on him, he left the planet. We feared he had taken the Omnitrix, so we tried to give chase. But then we picked up the Omnitrix's signal and found it was still here."

"Yeah," Flash scratched the back of his head, "that was kind of a close call." As he said that, Shining, Trixie and the Rainbooms stepped up and Tetrax noticed the new people there.

"It seems many things have occured since my last meeting with you." He gestured to the ship, "let's get inside before someone notices us." They nodded and all headed into the ship, which closed up behind them and completely went invisible.

Meanwhile, across town, someone was busy working on a little project.

That someone was Animac, the mad scientist smirking as he worked on his device. The same animal fusion device he had created and attempted to mutate the entire city with. As he worked, the scientist thought back to the moment several days ago when he was being transferred to a new prison after he started a mild fire in the old one. It was amazing how flammable everyday prison items could be.

During the transfer, the bus had been rammed by a giant metal spikeball. Said ball had sent the bus spinning out of control and knocking it over, causing the guards to be knocked unconscious and allowing the genius to escape. Now he was free to make the world a better place.

"Almost done," he smirked as he looked over at another desk. There, a cage full of white mice sat next to an ant farm. "Once I have this working, this city will regret trying to lock my genius up." He laughed at this and kept working, eventually completing one of his gauntlets and moving onto the next one.

Flash and his friends were all staring in absolute awe at the sight of the ship's interior, which was much different from the warship they had previously been on.

Tetrax walked ahead of them, turning around one of the corners with them right ahead. "Wow," Twilight whispered, "everything looks so high-tech." She noticed one of the doors suddenly open and looked inside, finding a large room with a bunch of gridlines. Her nerd brain instantly recognised it, "a holodeck?"

"Don't wander off," Tetrax called back. Twilight didn't want to look away, leading Trixie and Sunset to have to drag her away. Eventually, they reached a door that led to what they believed was the ship's main bridge. Stepping out onto it, they found the room had many different computers lining the walls and a large screen was up at the front of it.

As they stepped into the room, they found two more figures standing there. Aliens that some of them recognised.

"Hello again," Majester Fuego smirked seeing Shining Armor. He fire alien stepped forward, "I was hoping we'd meet you again." The fish alien, Majester Glug, nodded as he walked forward as well. "So, you had the Omnitrix this whole time. No wonder you were able to beat Gelidafur." But then they saw Shining's wrists and found neither of them had the Omnitrix on.

"Wait," Glug looked confused, "where's the Omnitrix?" Shining raised an eyebrow at this, "you don't have it?"

"No," Shining told them, "what made you think I did?"

"We saw the Omnitrix's signal was close to the badge we gave you. We just figured...so then where's the Omnitrix?" Flash chose this moment to step forward and pulled his sleeve back, revealing the watch in question.

Tetrax spoke up. "Majesters. Meet Flash Sentry. Wielder of the Omnitrix." The pair turned to Flash and looked him over, not appearing impressed.

"This is the one that defeated Vilgax?" Fuego asked, looking him over and poking his arm to try and feel for muscles.

"Well," Flash stepped back, "I didn't exactly beat Vilgax." This confused the three, leading the lot of them to explain what had happened when Vilgax appeared. The three aliens looked shocked and horrified at some spots.

"So you managed to escape...through dumb luck?" Glug asked, the teen nodding as the fish didn't look happy.

"And Vilgax is still alive?" Fuego asked, Flash nodding again. "That's not good."

"Why isn't it good?" Rainbow asked, "he doesn't have the Omnitrix?"

"Which means he'll be back," Tetrax told them. "Once he's fixed whatever happened on his ship, he'll head straight back here. Trust me, Vilgax doesn't give up. He'll be back and when he does, he's not gonna be taking you lightly like he did before."

"Lightly?" Flash asked, "he was gonna cut my arm off!"

"Next time, he probably won't bother cutting. He'll just grab your arm and pull until it comes off." Everyone gasped at this, Fluttershy looking like she was about to be sick. Shining stepped forward.

"So what do we do?"

"It's clear your friend isn't ready to face Vilgax," Fuego told him. "The Omnitrix is too powerful to allow a civilian to have. It needs to be in the hands of a trained plumber."

"Yeah," Sunset held a hand up, "question. Who exactly are the plumbers? You talk about them like they're some big organisation, so who are they?"

The aliens smirked as Glug moved over to a computer and typed something into it. When he did, an image appeared on the screen showing a bunch of individuals. One of which they had seen before...in a history book. "Is that Gorge Washingteeth?" Rarity asked, the pair nodding.

"Indeed. Gorge was the founder and original leader of the Plumbers. Back then, they were known as the Plumbiers. They vowed to protect the world from paranormal threats to their new world, which led to them fighting against aliens that originally came to this planet. One of those aliens was Vilgax, who Gorge destroyed the ship of during his first attempt to invade the planet."

"The Plumbers started on earth?" Shining asked, amazed to hear this.

"Yes," Glug nodded. "They've been working in secret, keeping the public in the dark about the existence of aliens for centuries. Every leader of your country's government was a Plumber. And over the years, the Plumbers went from simply fighting aliens to getting to know them. Several species made friendly contact with the Plumbers, helping them catch dangerous criminals and even giving them more advanced weapons. Eventually, the Plumbers became an intergalactic law enforcement brigade."

"And it all started on earth?" Flash asked, with the Plumbers nodding.

"At least until about forty years ago. That's when the number of aliens appearances on earth started to dwindle. Many species realised earth had become too dangerous to approach, so began to keep their distances. Eventually, the Earth Branch was shut down and the remaining Plumbers were put on semi-active duty."

"But now it seems the earth is starting to be brought back into the limelight," Tetrax stated. "The Omnitrix coming here has set things in motion that will lead to earth's branch of Plumbers being brought out of retirement."

"The guys who were fighting aliens forty years ago?" Shining asked. "Don't take this the wrong way, but I don't think any of those guys are gonna be in much fit state to start protecting the earth again." The Plumbers frowned at this.

"We know that. That's why we're here."

"You three are gonna protect earth from aliens?" Applejack asked.

"Nope," Tetrax told her. "I'm not even a Plumber. I just work with them occasionally. We're here to train someone who can be this planet's protector." They all slowly turned their attention to Flash, the teen suddenly noticing all eyes were on him.

"Me?" Flash looked shocked, "you want me to become a plumber?"

"Who else?" Tetrax smirked. "You've been using the Omnitrix to protect the planet already. But now you can do it in an official capacity."

"If he can pass the tests," Fuego pointed out. "If not, we'll have to find someone else to become the Plumber of this sector. And if he fails..." He looked down at the Omnitrix, Flash realising what they were talking about.

"You're gonna take it away?" He asked, holding it protectively.

"We told you we couldn't let the Omnitrix remain in the hands of a civilian," Glug pointed out. "You either join the Plumbers or we take it away. That's the hard truth of the matter."

Flash frowned as he stared down at the watch, then turned to the others. "What do you guys think?"

Trixie was the first to speak up. "You should do it." She stepped forward, "you said you wanted to use the Omnitrix to help people. If you become a plumber, you'll be doing just that. Plus, you'll be working in the footsteps of some of our country's greatest heroes. You might even get to be president someday."

Flash looked at the others and they all nodded, thinking the same thing. Flash smirked and nodded back, "alright." He turned to the aliens, "I'm in. Where do I start?"

"We'll need to put you through a few exercises," Fuego explained. "Manage to complete them and you'll gain Provisional Plumber Status"

"Provision Status?" Shining asked, "what would that entail?"

"Flash will become a plumber, but he'll be monitored carefully and will need to make regular reports about what he does whilst working as plumbers here. But if he does a good enough job he'll be invited to the Plumber Academy in order to complete his training and become a fully deputised member of the plumbers."

"And anyone can do this?" Shining asked, the aliens shrugging.

"Well this is a special case. If he didn't have the Omnitrix, we wouldn't be offering this chance to him."

Shining seemed to be thinking about something, Twilight stepping over to him. "What are you planning?" She asked, knowing that look on her brother's face. Shining then stepped forward.

"I want to be tested to." The plumbers were surprised by this. "I might not have an Omnitrix, but I've worked as a police officer for years. I know my time on the force will have given me some useful skills that'd help with plumber work. Will you let me try?"

The pair stared at each other, then turned to Tetrax. The crystal alien nodded, the pair turning back to him.

"Alright," Glug nodded. "You can try. But these tests won't be easy. Sure you wanna do it?" Shining nodded and the pair agreed to let them in. "But before we start. Tetrax." In that moment, Tetrax stepped up behind Flash and suddenly slammed something onto his wrist.

"Huh?" Flash looked down and saw a large metal tube was now encasing his arm, completely blocking him off from the Omnitrix. "What the heck?"

"Sorry kid," Fuego told him. "Like we said, the Omnitrix is too dangerous to be in the hands of a civilian."

Glug nodded. "So until you prove to us you've got what it takes, the Omnitrix is off limits to you." Flash frowned at this, as the plumbers headed out of the room and told them to follow. They did so with Tetrax and the girls following behind. Tetrax led the girls into one room, which turned out of the a windowed control room for the one Flash and Shining stepped into.

"Welcome to the holodeck," Fuego stated as they looked around the gridded room. "Here, we'll simulate any environment to determine your skills in a safe and controlled manner."

"Cool," Flash whispered and smirked at the girls watching. Glug then coughed and they turned to him, as Tetrax activated the room.

Flash and Shining expected the place to transform into some kind of environment, but instead only two things appeared.

They stood facing one another and looked at what had appeared. A pair of tables, each with a wire loop game on them and a bell on the end of it. They looked at the handle they had to move through the wire and saw it had a round metal ball on the end that they could use to ring the bell.

"First test," Fuego told them. "You must ring the bell on the end of the wire."

"Huh," Flash smirked, "no problem. We have this game at the fair every year."

"Really?" Glug took out a handkerchief, then threw it into the air. "Did those games give out a ten thousand volt shock?" The handkerchief hit the wire and in a blast of lightning, turned to ash and fell to the ground. "Flash Sentry, you go first."

Flash smirked and grabbed the loop, picking it up as Glug started the timer. He carefully started moving it along the wire, being careful not to let the metal touch. The girls watched from the control room and Pinkie had to cover her mouth to stop from cheering, not wanting to surprise Flash into failing. "Come on Flash," Twilight whispered.

He did his best and managed to get about halfway, but then his loop touched the wire and a large bolt of lightning shot into his body. "YOW!" He was blasted backwards and everyone flinched as he hit the ground, moaning in pain. After a few moments, he sat himself up and everyone stared at him, the teen reaching up and realising his hair was stuck up.

"Okay," Fuego turned to Shining as Flash staggered forward. "You ready?" He nodded as Glug started the stopwatch, only to stop it when he heard the bell ring thanks to Shining hitting it with a pen. "Zero point five seconds. Not bad."

"What!" Flash cried, "he didn't use the wire!"

"The rules just said to ring the bell," Shining told him. "They didn't say anything about the bell." Flash wanted to argue, but couldn't think of a way to say that was wrong. And by the way the other two were smiling, he could tell that was well within the rules.

"That's not very fair," Sunset frowned.

"Plumbers need to be able to think outside the box," Tetrax pointed out. "There are a lot of different kinds of alien out in the universe, with strange and complicated abilities. Flash will need to be able to find ways of beating them that exist outside the norm." They all frowned as the wires disappeared and was replaced with something else.

This time, the tables each had a large metal lunchbox-like object on it. The humans took a closer look and saw it had a combination of it. "Next test," Fuego stated. "Open the box and remove the contents before time runs out." He showed them a watch with fifteen minutes on it, which he started.

The two got to work examining the box, both finding four long lines of numbers and math symbols. They quickly realised they needed to solve these equations in order to open the box, but that was gonna be tricky since they didn't have anything to write the numbers down so they needed to do them in their head.

Flash tried to answer the questions, but math had never been his strong suit. And even if he could answer them all, it would take forever to figure out which order they went in.

Suddenly, he remembered the last test and how Shining had managed to solve it easily. He smirked and grabbed the box's two sides, using all his strength to pry them apart. But as soon as it opened, something shot out of the box and splattered against his face.

Everyone flinched at the green goo covering Flash, Fuego shaking his head. "I should have probably mentioned that any attempt to force it open, will activate the booby trap."

"You think?" Flash asked, as Shining continued to do the equations. Eventually, he figured them all out and had the four digits. He managed to get them in the right order on his third try, opening the box with two minutes to spare.

"Very good," Glug told him. Flash suddenly had a very nervous feeling that this wasn't gonna be as easy as he had hoped.

And sure enough, over the next two hours, Flash was subjected to one horror after another. At one point, he had to carry a bucket of water over a rolling log on top of a lava pit and fell in. Shining also did, but managed to get more water over before Flash did.

They then had to catch a bunch of holographic birds in nets that would sting them if they couldn't catch them in time. Flash managed to get three by the end of the time and Shining had seven and a lot less stings on his face.

They then had the pair run through an obstacle course that looked like something you would see on TV shows, with a climbing wall that had boxing gloves flying out of it, spinning platforms they had to jump on and swinging pendulums on walkways that electrocuted anyone that touched them. They both got punched in the face, but Shining managed to stay on the platform and avoid getting zapped. Flash did not.

"Impressive," Fuego told Shining when they chose to give the pair a break. "You're score is most definitely a passing grade. You certainly know what you're doing in the physical aspects of the job."

"Thanks," Shining smiled as he saw a still smoking Flash walk out of the room. "Listen. Don't be too hard on Flash. He might not be great in his human form, but he's amazing when he's fighting as an alien."

The plumbers frowned. "I know he's your friend," Glug stated. "And maybe he is good with the Omnitrix. But imagine how amazing someone more physically skilled could be with it. Like you, for instance."

"Me?" Shining looked shocked by this.

"Why not," Fuego nodded. "You've clearly got the physical skills. And you must know what each of the aliens the Omnitrix has can do. Once we've figured out how to remove it from Flash, I'm sure you'll do much better then him." This made Shining frown.

"Thanks, but no thanks. It wouldn't feel right. Flash has proven time and again that he's worthy of handling the Omnitrix. You might not be able to see it, but I wouldn't be able to hold a candle to him using the Omnitrix." He turned to walk away before either of them could say anything, whilst the girls looked upset.

"This is nuts!" Rainbow cried, "of course Shining's gonna be better at this. He's already trained himself as a cop."

"Yeah," Pinkie crossed her arms. "If they let Flash use his aliens, he'd have passed those silly tests no problem." The others nodded in agreement, Tetrax agreeing but knowing why they weren't letting him use the Omnitrix.

"I'm not saying Flash isn't good with the Omnitrix, but there needs to be more than that if he wants to be a plumber. Normal members have to get by with only their natural abilities. If Flash can't do the same, it wouldn't be fair to let him become a plumber. Besides, what'll happen if the Omnitrix is timed out? If Flash can't defend himself whilst it's not working, he won't survive as a Plumber."

Twilight could see the logic in this, but still felt bad for Flash. She just hoped that these failures wouldn't make him doubt himself.

Unfortunately, that's exactly what Flash was doing.

He had left the ship and was sitting on the ramp of it, thinking about his failures and how well Shining Armor had done. He looked down at the tube locked around his arm, keeping him from turning alien and showing off his true power. But...was that his problem? Had he grown too attached to the Omnitrix?

"Hey." Flash looked around and saw Twilight walking down the ramp until she was next to him, then sat down besides him. "You okay?"

"No," Flash sighed, "you saw how bad I was. I couldn't do a single one of those tests right. There's no way they're gonna make me a plumber."

"You don't know that," Twilight tried to assure him. "There are a lot of people out there that don't do well under test situations. Rainbow tried to learn how to drive from a book, but couldn't. And when she was actually out, driving, she picked it up faster than anyone."

"Not exactly the same thing."

"My point is, Fuego and Glug haven't seen you in action. If they had seen how you beat Animac, Negatine and that dinosaur, they wouldn't be so quick to judge you."

"But that wasn't me," Flash pointed out. "It was the Omnitrix. Everything I've done, I've only been able to do as an alien. Without the Omnitrix, I'm as useless as I've always been."

"You're not useless," Twilight told him.

"Really? How many times have I been brainwashed or forced to hide when magical stuff appeared?" Twilight wasn't sure, since she hadn't been around since the start of the magic situations. "Let's just say, it's a lot. And when I got the Omnitrix, I thought it meant I'd never have to be useless again. But now...now I've become so dependant on it I'm even worse than before I got it."

"That's not true. You might have used the Omnitrix to do a lot of good, but it was still you doing it. Power is nothing if it's not being used right. You were the one using those powers to the best of their ability. And the Omnitrix isn't perfect. You've said it yourself that it didn't always give you the alien you wanted."

"I guess," Flash sighed.

"And even then, you were able to get the job done and save the day. Because you're not useless. You're a hero." Flash wanted to let Twilight's words help him, but he just couldn't feel himself lightening up. Even if she was right, Flash still felt useless without the Omnitrix.

But in that moment, something caught their attention and threw Flash's thoughts out of his head.

A massive explosion over in the city, which instantly causes Flash to stand up and look up to see the smoke cloud not to far away coming up from behind several buildings. "Something's going on." As he said that, the others rush out of the ship.

"What was that?" Rainbow asked, the lot of them seeing the smoke cloud.

"Something bad must have happened," Sunset frowned. "What do we do." Glug stepped up and patted Shining on the shoulder.

"I think this is a good opportunity for you to show us what you can do in the field." Shining looked surprised by this and Fuego held out another plumber badge, spinning the outer edge before placing it on Shining's waist. This caused the badge to suddenly unleash a black liquid that wrapped around his waist and formed a utility belt with many compartments. Fuego then pushed the badge buckle inwards and this caused the belt to unleash a strange gray substance that began to form around his body

The man gasped at this, as the substance covered him. The others were worried he might suffocate, especially as it began to form fit to him. But then it started changing colour in places, transforming into a gray suit with black on the neck, shoulders, upper arms and around the knees. He was wearing black gloves and boots with white cuffs, along with white zipper running up his chest to his neck. On his legs were a pair of holsters, the right holding what looked like a metal H that was curved inwards at one end whilst the left held a metal rod of some kind.

His head was surrounded by a gray helmet that looked like something out of the kids TV show, having a black visor covering his eyes and a white mouthpiece with actual lips carved into it. The rest of the helmet was gray and covered his entire head.

Shining looked himself over and was shocked by the sudden transformation. "Wow. What is this?"

"Plumber suit," Fuego explained. "Not the same make as ours, but this one seems to suit you better. It's actually based on some of the early plumber suit designs. What do you think?"

"I think this feels great. I'd better head out." He turned to Flash, "you ready?" But Flash didn't look so sure, the teen frowning as he looked away. "What's up?"

"I...I don't think I should go with you." This surprised them, Flash looking back at them. "Maybe it would be best if you go without me. I might mess up." The others groaned at this, Shining wanting to argue, but an explosion made him realise he didn't have time.

"I think you're wrong," he told Flash. "But we'll need to discuss this later. I gotta get going."

"Left holster," Glug announced. Shining reached down and took out the rod. When he did, his visor suddenly showed a bunch of different vehicles and their states. "Hard Light Vehicle producer. Perfect for a Plumber who doesn't know what terrain he'll be one."

Shining smirked at this and picked a vehicle, then held the rod with both hands and pulled the ends apart. Doing so caused a light green light to shoot out the front of the gap and form a shape beneath him, Shining sitting down and finding the light was actually physical. In the blink of an eye, he was sitting on what looked like an ATV. Except it didn't have any back wheels and instead, something similar to a tank tread was there instead.

"Wow," Rainbow cried, "that is awesome."

"Hard light," Twilight whispered. "Amazing."

Shining smirked and kicked the machine into gear, the vehicle revving up with the wheels spinning in place for a second before it shot off at amazing speed. As he disappeared, Tetrax turned to the others. "Come on. We'll watch from the ship." They nodded and all rushed inside, the girls staring at Flash with worry.

Shining couldn't believe how fast he was going. The speed he was currently zooming through the streets at was insane and despite that, his visor was letting him see everything perfectly.

Another explosion caught his attention and he turned towards it, skidding around a building and onto a street full of smoke. And thanks to his visor, he could see through the smoke and was shocked by what he saw was causing the explosions. Giant mice, whose bodies were covered in a brown armouring. They had large antenna on their heads and their mouths were sideways with mandibles sticking out of their cheeks.

The large mutants were all over the place, being the size of lions and digging through the ground chomping through anything they found. The cause of the explosions were from them cutting into gas lines, their mandibles cutting through the metal and sparks that made them explode.

Shining was shocked by what he saw, but quickly realised who must be the cause. "Animac!" He stopped his bike and pushed the rod together, causing the light to vanish as he stood up. "Animac! Where are you?"

"Oh." He looked over at a building and saw the man in question standing atop it. "I don't think we've been introduced. But obviously, you're a fan of mine."

"Hardly." Shining put the rod away and reached for his other leg, taking out the strange H device. As soon as he did, his visor started showing him multiple different weapons. Some were close combat weapons like swords and axes, whilst others were different forms of gun. He quickly picked one and the device suddenly transformed into a futuristic pistol that he started firing at Animac.

The man gasped and leapt back, the lasers missing him as he focused on his creations. "Rip him to shreds!" The mutants didn't hesitate and started attacking him, Shining quickly blasting them but finding there were quite a few he had to deal with.

Back at the ship, everyone had tuned into Shining's helmet cam and were watching the battle unfold.

They had seen Animac and frowned when they saw he was back, having hoped they had seen the last of him. But now they were more worried about Shining Armor and his issues. "Anyone else feel like they're watching someone play a first person shooter?" Rainbow asked, as Shining switched his gun to a two-handed blaster and started firing. The others gave her a look, "just saying."

"Is Shining gonna be alright?" Twilight asked Tetrax, as Glug and Fuego watched.

"His suit's equipped with some impressive tech," Fuego told her. "He shouldn't have any trouble with these creatures. Plumbers have to deal with these kind of problems all the time."

"But not on their own," Sunset pointed out. "I looked through some of the data on Plumbers and they always have partners. Shining's fighting on his own." She turned to Flash, Twilight and the others doing the same.

Flash stared at the screen, hoping Shining could do this on his own.

Shining could not do this on his own.

The suit he was wearing was strong. It allowed him to jump three times his normal jumping height and doubled his physical strength, evident when he managed to punch one of the ant-mice away, plus it could take a beating as one of them mutants slashed at his back but it didn't even tear the suit. However, it wasn't enough to help him beat these creatures.

He blasted one down but their armoured bodies were meant that the blasts were equal to getting punched in the face. And these creatures could obviously take a punch.

He stopped blasting and switched up his weapon, changing it to a saw-style broadsword that he started swinging around. The blade managed to scratch the ant armor, but it would take a few slashes to actually break through it. "Guys!" He cried out when he was surrounded by them, "I could use a little backup here!" The creatures charged and he was barely able to change his weapon into a round shield, which he held up so it would unleash some hard-light that formed a dome around him. "GUYS!"

"Ahhh!" Flash cried, seeing his friend in trouble making him forget all about his previous self doubt. "Enough of this. I've gotta help him!"

"Heck yeah!" Rainbow told him, "let's do this!" Flash turned to the plumbers and held up his arm.

"Take this thing off!" Glug and Fuego frowned.

"You haven't been cleared to use that," the fish alien told him.

"I don't care what you think. I might not have been able to pass your dumb tests, but I've overcome way harder challenges when it actually mattered. Take this thing off and I'll show you what I can do." The pair didn't looked like they agreed, Flash turning to Tetrax. "Please."

The crystal alien stared at him for a moment, then nodded. "Alright." He reached over and typed in the release code, the plumbers going wide-eyed at this.

"What are you doing?" Fuego cried.

"Flash is right. He might not be able to do much as a human, but when he's an alien he's almost unstoppable." Flash smiled an activated the Omnitrix, slapping it down and transforming into XLR8.

"Just watch," the raptor lowered his visor. "I'm gonna show you just how good I am." Before either plumber could say anything, he shot out of the ship and rushed towards the battlefield. As he did, everyone else looked back at the fight.

Shining groaned as the hard-light shield was beginning to crack, as the mutants slashed and bit at it.

"Ahh!" He groaned, "any moment now would be good." He looked through his visor and tried to find a weapon that could help him out, finding a setting that might help but also leave his power reserves low. "Better than nothing." He selected the setting and the shield he was holding up began to spark before unleashing a wave of energy, which zapped the ant-mice and caused several of them to go numb and fall to the ground.

This also caused his shield to turn off, needing a minute or so to recharge. And as it did, the mutants that had been standing behind the now numb ones approached.

From the rooftop, Animac chuckled seeing his foe in trouble. But before he could start gloating, he noticing movement to his right. That movement was coming from a blue blur, which shot down the street and reached the battle ground. "What?" He cried as the blur knocked down several of his creations, stopping right next to the armoured figure and revealing the alien speedster. "Not again!"

Shining smirked as he and XLR8 stood back to back. "Glad to see you decided to stop feeling sorry for yourself."

"Yeah," XLR8 nodded, "sorry about that. I might not be good at tests, but when I'm in the field I can kick butt like nobody else." With that, he started running circles around Shining Armor. Any mutant that got too close found itself getting kicked, punched or tail-slapped away.

Shining used this to reactivate his weapon, changing it to a double-handed blaster that he started firing through the small tornado XLR8 created. He aimed for the cracks that appeared on the mice's chest armor with every hit XLR8 dealt to them, breaking through it and causing them to actually feel the volts being shot at them.

Animac growled at this and as XLR8 stopped circling Shining, the alien grabbed a mutant's mandibles and held them in place. "You're not getting to have a bite out of me," he groaned before jumping up and flying over the creature. Doing so allowed him to pull the mutant's head backwards and allowing Shining to hit the gap in its armor at the neck.

As XLR8 landed, he looked up at the building that held Animac and ran up it. "Stay back!" He yelled throwing a pair of glass tubes into the air. One of them held a praying mantis and the others held a hornet, XLR8 stopping as Animac fired the beams from his gauntlets. As he did, a pigeon happened the fly passed and got caught in the beam along with the two insects.

In a flash of light, a giant mutant appeared in the air. Said mutant had the body and stinger of the hornet, wings and feet of the pigeon and head and arms of the mantis. "Wow," XLR8 stepped back, "that's just freaky."

Animac smirked. "Not what I was going for, but I can work with this." He leapt up and landed on the creature's back, "attack my pet!" The mutant launched its stinger at XLR8, who managed to avoid it. But unlike normal hornets, this one was able to regrow its stinger and fire again.

XLR8 quickly found himself on the defensive, dodging the stingers as the mutant flew higher. Meanwhile, the numbed ground mutants started to recover and Shining started shooting at them.

XLR8 ran forward after the mutant fired the stinger and leapt up attempting to slash at the creature but it was just too high. "You can't reach us," Animac laughed as he pet fired another stinger, which XLR8 barely managed to avoid when he landed. The beast then dived down and slashed at him with its arm blades, XLR8 rushing over to the other side of the building and getting ready to attack from behind it.

But then, he heard Shining cry out and looked down to see one of the mice had grabbed his leg in its mandibles. The suited man groaned as he tried to kick it, XLR8 quickly rushing down the building as the flying mutant fired its stinger at him.

Before the ant-mouse could tried to tear Shining's leg off, XLR8 shot passed and pulled him away in a blur of motion. The pair reached the end of the street and caught their breath. "You okay?"

"I'm good," Shining nodded. "We should focus on Animac. Get that device off his head and everything turns back to normal. At least, I hope it will." XLR8 nodded and was about to do that, only for his Omnitrix to start beeping.

"Oh come on!" He grabbed Shining and rushed off, speeding the pair around a building seconds before he was consumed by light and returned to human. "Great. Now what do we do?"

"Ahhh," Glug sighed. "See, he wasted time and let his power run out."

Fuego nodded, "he should have stopped playing around and taken that scientist down before it was too late." He and Glug turned to head to the ship's exit. "Clearly, we're gonna have to deal with this situation ourselves."

"Would you guys cool it!" Twilight told them. "Flash did his best. It's not his fault the Omnitrix has a freaking time limit on it." The others nodded. "Besides, who knows what Animac has up his sleeve. You don't know what you're walking into, but Flash does. He just needs to buy time for the watch to recharge."

"Twilight's right." Tetrax nodded before opening a panel on the wall, which revealed a bunch of plumber weapons.

"What are you doing?" Glug asked, as Tetrax removed one of the smaller blasters and a face mask. "That is plumber tech and can only be used by licenced plumbers."

"Sue me," Tetrax pressed several buttons and the devices suddenly vanished in a flash of light.

Flash and Shining watched as the mutants drew closer, Shining preparing to defend Flash until the watch recharged.

But before he could leap out, a flash of light caught their attention and they looked down to see the blaster and mask on the ground. The pair stared at them for a moment before Flash smirked and grabbed them, placing the mask over his face and feeling the sides and back of his head being encased within it. Now the only part of him that could be seen was he blue hair.

The two nodded at each other as the mutants got closer, both of them leaping out from behind the wall and starting to blast any that were close by. They once again aimed for the gaps in the armor, but found the ant-mice were protecting those spots now. They were then bombarded by the flying mutant's stinger attacks, the pair leaping around to avoid it.

Shining changed his gun to a flail that had an energy cord connecting the head to the handle, which he started swinging around and slamming into the mutant's heads. Animac saw this and whilst he wondered what happened to the alien, he smirked seeing the two do gooders were on the ropes.

"Nothing can stop me now!" He laughed, as the mutants began to surround the heroes.

"Don't be so sure!" Animac spun around, just in time to see a trio and strange suited individuals flying towards him. He gasped as he attempted to pull his triple chimera away, but Tetrax managed to fire a blunt crystal at him and knocked him off his creation.

He screamed as he fell, but luckily one of his ant-mice managed to catch him.

Tetrax then threw another gem at the ground between Flash and Shining, which suddenly exploded and formed a large ring of gemstones around them. The pair smirked at this, as this had pushed the mutants back and gave them something to hide behind as they fired at them.

Fuego held up his hands and launched waves of fire at the mutants, but Flash gasped. "Don't!" He cried, making Fuego stop and looked back at him.

"What do you mean, don't?"

"These are innocent creatures," Flash told him. "They didn't ask to be turned into these monsters and Animac is the one controlling them. If we can stop him, they'll turn back to normal." Fuego and Glug frowned at him, Flash removing his helmet so they could see how serious he was. "You said it's a plumber's job to protect the innocent. That includes these creatures." The pair seemed surprised by this, as Shining and Tetrax smiled.

"Fine," Glug told him, "what do you suggest?" Before Flash could answer, the flying mutant charged forward and attacked the pair gasped at this and took evasive manoeuvres.

Flash turned to Animac as he replaced the mask and tried to think, as Tetrax landed besides him. "Those creatures will try to protect him. We need to sneak up on this fool and take him out quickly." Flash nodded and as he did, the Omnitrix turned green.

"Yes," he activated it, "sneaking is something Chamalien does best." He found the alien in question and slapped the dial down, causing a green light to fill the crystal circle. But when it died down, Flash wasn't the alien he wanted. "Molestache," the rodent sighed, "I said sneaking not squeaking." The jumped up and looked over the crystals, as Twilight's words entered his head.

Fuego and Glug both saw this as they continued to distract the flying mutant, frowning at him becoming an alien that had no chance of helping them. But then a look appeared on Molestache's face, as an idea formed in his head.

"I've got it!" He jumped down, "cover me!" With that, he started slashing at the ground until he managed to scrape away the asphalt and continued to dig. Shining and Tetrax kept the rest of the mutants at bay, whilst Glug and Fuego leapt off their hoverboards and landed on the triple mutant's back.

"Time to ground this bird!" Fuego cried as he and Glug each grabbed the pigeon wings, making it cry out as it was unable to fly and started falling towards the ground. They aimed the beast towards Animac and the man gasped, leaping to the side in order to avoid getting crushed.

The mutant and aliens landed and the plumbers were both thrown off, Glug's glass helmet cracking at the impact. As he picked himself up, he gasped seeing the crack which was beginning to let what dribble out of it. "You fools!" Animac stood up, "nothing you do can defeat me." He pointed at them and the mutants began to turn their attention of the plumbers, the lot slowly moving forward with their teeth at the ready.

Fuego frowned and prepared to blast them all, not willing to lose his life to keep a bunch of mutated animals alive.

But before he could blast them, the ground beneath Animac's feet suddenly broke apart. "What hoe!" Animac looked down just in time to see Molestache smiling at him before the alien rodent leapt up and punched him with a stache fist, sending him staggering back and allowing Molestache to jump at him and land on his shoulders with his nose-hair wrapping around the mad scientist's head.

"HEY!" He cried, trying to get the alien off of him. "Let go of me!" He roared, swinging his head around but Molestache was able to keep hold of him. The alien grabbed the antennas of his helmet and pulled on them, managing to rip them off the helmet. "NOOOOO!" He roared as his device lost its power, the mutants all being freed from his control.

Molestache finally leapt off of him and coptered into the air, Animac gasping as he opened his eyes and saw all his servants turning to glare at him.

"What have you done?" He asked, Molestache crossing his arms as the mutants moved towards him. Even the flying one had gotten up and was pointing his stinger at Animac.

"They're free. Free to make their own choices. And they seem to have chosen to make you their next meal." Animac's eyes went wide at this, as the chimeras got closer. "Guess you've only got two options. Turn them back to normal so they can't hurt you, or hope they suddenly decide to go vegetarian." Animac knew he was bluffing. Any moment now, one of them would jump in and save him...right?

The mutants got closer and closer, but still the heroes did nothing but watch and smile. Then, one of the mice leapt at him. "AHHHH!" He thrust his hand forward and launched a laser from his gauntlet, which struck the mutant and in a flash, it returned to normal and split into a mouse and ant.

The returned to normal animals ran off, whilst the rest of the mutants got closer. Animac had no other choice and fired several more beams, hitting multiple mutants and turning them back to normal. The last one reverted back was the flying one, the pigeon and mantis escaping whilst the hornet decided to sting him.

"Ow!" He cried at the sting, only to hear the sound of a blaster powering itself up. He looked around and saw Shining pointing the weapon at his head, Glug and Molestache doing the same with their weapons whilst Tetrax and Fuego held up their fists. Animac gulped, "I'd like to go to jail now." They all smiled at this, then at each other.

Later, after they had destroyed Animac's gear, they left him tied to a lamppost as the cops arrived.

They then returned to the ship, where the Rainbooms cheered for their victory. "You guys did it!" Trixie punched Flash in the shoulder, "that was awesome what you did. Forcing Animac to undo his own work. Man, I wish I could have taken a picture of his face."

Fluttershy smiled, "I'm glad you were able to help those poor animals. I could hear them through Shining's helmet. They hated what they were doing, but couldn't stop themselves." Flash smiled back at her, glad he had gotten Glug and Fuego to not hurt the animals.

"So what happens now?" Twilight then asked, catching their attention and focusing on the two plumbers.

They were focusing on repairing the crack in Glug's helmet, the water level having dropped almost halfway. Once the helmet was fixed, the pair turned to Flash and saw him looking worried. They then looked at one another, shrugging at each other. "I'll admit," Fuego spoke up. "Despite your less than stellar test results, in the field you've proven good at thinking on your feet."

Glug nodded. "Plus, you have taken the plumber's most important teachings to heart. Protecting the innocent, whether they be senitiant or mindless animals."

"What does that mean?" Flash asked, the plumbers sighing as they turned to Shining Armor.

"You truly think he has what it takes to be a plumber?" Fuego asked, Shining nodding.

"He still has stuff to learn, but you can trust him with the Omnitrix. And if anything happens, I'll take full responsibility." The pair nodded at this before moving over to them, Flash and Shining curious about what they intended on doing.

"Flash Sentry and Shining Armor. We deem you worthy of Provisional Plumber status." Everyone gasped at this. "So long as you both maintain regular reports and don't do anything to make us regret it, you will have the authority to arrest any alien criminal that might arrive. Do a good job, and you'll be on your way to the Plumber's Academy in no time."

"Seriously," Flash smirked, "that's awesome!" Fuego nodded before turning to Shining.

"Remember, he's your responsibility. If he messes up, or starts using the Omnitrix irresponsibly, you have to inform us. If not, you'll lose your plumber provision. Is that understood?" Shining nodded. He knew Flash wouldn't ever mess with the Omnitrix, so he wouldn't need to tell them.

"Alright," Glug pointed at Shining. "Your badges." Shining looked confused and took out the two badges he had been given. Glug took the first one and held out another badge, which unleashed a light that hit the one that had formed his suit before. "There. You're now in the plumber system. As long as you show that badge to any galactic criminal or officer that might show up, they'll know you're a plumber."

Shining smirked at this, whilst Flash looked at them hopefully. "You've got the Omnitrix," Fuego stated. "That's more than enough for you." Flash pouted at this, as the two went on. "As of this moment, the two of you are the only law in this quadrant. Do a good job." They nodded as the pair turned away. "Well, we need to get going. Headquarters will want a full report on what happened."

Tetrax stepped forward, "I have my own duties to attend to. This'll be it for now." They all nodded as the plumbers prepared to take off, Tetrax giving them a look. "You guys might wanna leave. Can't protect the planet if you hitchhike with us to outer space." The others didn't need to be told twice and the lot of them rushed for the exit, running down the ramp and getting off it seconds before it raised.

The ship then took off and became visible for a second before shooting into the sky at warp speed, the ten humans watching it go before letting what had just happened sink in. Shining held up his badge and as he clutched it, he felt a sense of pride. He was now part of something bigger than himself and he couldn't wait to see what the future held for him.

As for Flash, he looked down at the Omnitrix and smirked. This event might have made him doubt himself, but that doubt was gone. He was worthy of the Omnitrix and though he still had a lot to learn, he would one day become worthy of the title plumber.

"So," Trixie looked to the others, "what do we do now?"

"Now," Flash smirked at them, "we get ready for whatever the universe throws at us. Whether it be alien, magic or human, we're not gonna let it mess with our planet. You with me?"

"YEAH!" They all cheered, knowing Flash was right. Whatever came their way, they would handle it...together. The plumber, the magical girls, the magician and the alien hero. The ten of them would handle any threat.

Author's Note

Whelp, the first chapter of season 2 is here. Hope you enjoyed it. Now, what will our heroes' next challenge be?

Season 2, Episode 3: Grounded

It was another busy day in Canterlot and on the freeway, people were driving as fast as they could to get to their intended destination. But there were those that were driving even faster.

A large armored truck was zooming down the road, zigzagging through the vehicles around it to try and escape the pursuing police cruisers. They managed to get far ahead of them and even outrun the stingers that were being deployed, as the last of the civilian cars were forced to stop or go onto a different route to keep the highway safe.

But before the drivers could start singing their 'I outran the cops' song, a wall of crystals suddenly exploded upwards from out of the ground.

The truck skidded to a stop before it could crash and as the driver got into reverse, someone appeared standing atop the crystal wall. Diamondhead, who smirked at them before leaping up and over the truck. Landing behind it, he quickly punched the ground and caused a line of gems to fly out of the ground until it struck the truck. This pushed it forwards until it hit the crystal wall, locking it into place.

The crooks inside the truck got out, but pulled a hostage out with them. They had a gun pointed at his head, "don't try any funny stuff."

Diamondhead nodded and raised his hands, making the crooks relax. But then, he flexed his finger and unleashed a tiny shard. It shot over and struck the gun before he could fire it, impaling the barrel and making it unfireable.

Then, before the crook could do anything else, Diamondhead ran forward and punched him in the face just hard enough to knock him out. He then grabbed the hostage and pulled him behind himself, protecting him as the other two criminals pulled out their guns. But Diamondhead simply punched the ground and their legs were encased in crystal, preventing their escape.

This allowed Diamondhead to pick the hostage up and jump up and over the crystal wall, right as the cops arrived to arrest the men.

The whole scene then froze before becoming captured in a tiny box, which hovered right beside a news announcer. "This footage was caught by highway surveillance, showing another appearance of the heroic aliens. Nobody knows where they came from or why they're focusing on Canterlot, but it's clear everyone feels safer knowing they're here. But one can only wonder what these aliens do when they're not saving us earthlings. I wish I knew what they were doing right now."

"Grounded!?" Flash cried at his parents. He was currently in his house, having just gotten home from school. He hadn't been expecting his parents to be there, waiting for him on the couch. "What for?"

"Let's jog your memory," Trail took out a piece of paper and looked it over. "Monday morning, absent from gym class." Flash's body went rigid as he remember why he was absent, having had to save a police helicopter from crashing after its engine failed. The pilot certainly hadn't been expecting Bushwhacker to use a bunch of trees to catch it.

"I was in...study hall." Trail raised an eyebrow at this and looked back at the letter.

"Friday..." He showed Flash the not, "absent from study hall." Flash blinked before trying to remember, then shivered at the memory of a tree stuck cat launching itself at Vapaw with claws drawn.

"I was in gym." Trail frowned at him as Misty stood up.

"You're never where you're supposed to be." She placed a hand on his shoulder, "the only way we can keep track of you is by keeping you here. So until further notice, you're grounded." Flash groaned at this, his parents looking at him in concern. "Flash, we're worried about you."

"Why? Just because I've been late to a few classes?"

"It's not just this," Trail told him. "What about when you come home limping, bruised or exhausted?"

"Those aren't my fault," Flash pointed out. "A giant monster appeared in the middle of town the other week. I wasn't the only one hurt by that!"

"Yet this keeps happening," Misty stated. "Either you have the worst luck when it comes to running into these situations, or you're using them to cover something else up. What are you even doing in these locations?"

"You used to barely go anywhere," Trail sighed. "Most of the time, it was only to hang out at the mall, practising with your band or doing a gig with them."

Misty nodded. "Why did you even stop playing in your band? You loved it so much, but I don't think you've even picked up your guitar in weeks."

Flash frowned, pulling his jacket sleeve down over the Omnitrix. "I just...realised it wasn't what I wanted to spend my life doing. I've been focusing on that."

"And what is it you want to do with your life?" Trail asked, Flash trying to think of what that was.

"I...I wanna be a police officer." He wasn't far off and his parents seemed surprised by that. "I wanna help people and getting to know Shining Armor, I realised that's what I wanna be when I leave school."

"I see," Misty nodded. "Well, I'm happy you know what you want to do with your life. But you'll never be able to become a police officer if you keep missing classes. So until these are dealt with, I'm sorry to say you're grounded." Flash groaned again and headed up to his room, his parents looking sad as they watched him disappear. "We're doing the right thing, aren't we?"

Trail placed a hand on her shoulder, "I think so. He'll thank us for this when he's older."

Flash threw his bag down and dropped onto his bed, his face pushed into the pillow as he tried to think of a way to still be a hero despite being grounded.

His phone then rang and he picked it up and put it on speaker, "hello?"

"Hey," Trixie's voice called out to him. "Saw your work earlier today. Nice one."

"Thanks," Flash sighed, "hope you enjoyed it. Might be the last bit of alien action I get to do for a while." He could tell Trixie was about to ask why, "my parents just grounded me."

"What, why?"

"I might have missed a few classes here and there. I got sidetracked."

"I see. Well it's your own fault. I've told you again and again that you don't need to drop everything and rush in to help. You're too nice for your own good sometimes." Flash rolled his eyes. "Well now you're not gonna have any choice. You'll have to cut back on the alien thing. Probably do you some good. Your grades have been slipping a little bit."

"Yeah, I need to deal with that before my parents notice." As he said that, he heard his parents climbing the stairs.

"Flash. Are you on the phone. No phones." Flash groaned and told Trixie he had to go, hanging up before she could say anything. He was glad his parents trusted him enough not to take the phone away from him. Instead, he laid on his bed and moaned to himself about how uncool things were gonna be for a good while.

Several days later.

All over the city, people were curious why the aliens hadn't been showing up as much as they had been recently. In the last few days, only two or three sightings of them had been noticed. Other times, it was like they were never there to begin with.

And a lot of people were starting to take notice. Some of those people were the police, who found themselves with a lot of extra work since the aliens weren't being their usual helpful selves. But this was fine for them.

The police force had really been low on moral since Flash's aliens appeared, so they were all waiting for the chance to show they were just as effective as the extra-terrestrial heroes. And that chance had just walked through the front door of the precinct.

He was a man in his mid twenties, with cream coloured skin and shiny blonde hair that was combed back with what was probably a bunch of hair gel. He was wearing a white shirt under a black vest, with a black bowtie and pants. He also had a white plastic headband on his head, which had a blackish purple gemstone on it. The white gloves and black cape he was also wearing really gave him the appearance of a stage magician.

The man looked around and smiled, whilst the officer at the front desk raised an eyebrow at him. "Can I help you, sir?"

The man looked at him and smiled, then he reached into his pants. The officer was instantly on guard, but then he saw all he had taken out of his pants were deck of cards. "Hello there," he announced to everyone in the room. "It's so nice to see so many new friends. I'm sure we're all going to get on like a house on fire."

"What do you want?" One of the cops asked as the man shuffled the deck.

"I want to make friends. Friends are so great, aren't they. Especially when they do things for you." With that, he took out several cards and touched each of them to his forehead. They started glowing as he threw them towards the officer that spoke along with several others.

The cops all cried out as they felt their minds going completely blank. Then, their bodies went stiff and they stood completely still.

Upstairs, Shining Armor was working at his desk completely unaware of what was going on.

Despite being a plumber, he still had his day job as a police detective. It might not have been as exciting as the alien fighting life, but being a plumber didn't exactly pay the bills. So there he was, trying to get as much of his paperwork done so he could go home and spend time with his family.

He had just finished processing his last perp when it happened. All the uniformed officers from downstairs suddenly marched into it. Shining turned to them and when he saw their eyes, he knew something was off. Their eyes were blank and lacked any life, whilst their movements were all synchronized.

"What's going on here?" His captain asked as he stepped into the room, only for the oddly dressed man to step out from between the officers.

"I apologise for so rudely interrupting," he took out the deck of cards. "Care to see a magic trick." The captain crossed his arms and didn't look happy.

"Is it teleporting you into a cell, because that would entertain me greatly." The man smiled before touching the card to his head before pressing it into the captain's chest. His eyes went wide at this and his body stiff, making the detectives around him instantly go on alert.

But the uniformed officers outnumbered them and quickly grabbed them. The detectives flinched as they tried to fight them off, but one by one the man struck them with a card and brought them under his control.

Shining was the last one still fighting and managed to knock several officers down before reaching for his Plumber Badge, but more quickly grabbed hold of him and he was soon subdued. As he was pushed to his knees and his arms pulled backwards, the man stepped forward and took out another card. "Who are you?"

He smiled and held out the card, "I'm The Hypnotist." With that, the card touched his chest and everything went blank.

Later, Twilight and her friends were at Sugarcube Corner.

Twilight and Sunset were up at the counter, waiting for their drink orders when they heard someone speaking up about the aliens. "Maybe they're starting to go to other cities."

"I don't think so," his friend told him. "We would have heard something if they had." The girls grabbed their drinks and moved over to where their friends were sitting, who seemed just as worried as Twilight was feeling.

"I was afraid of this," Sunset stated. "People are starting to notice."

"This could be a problem," Twilight gulped. "If Flash starts going full alien again when he's ungrounded, people might notice."

"I don't think we have to worry that much," Trixie told them. "Barely anyone knows Flash is grounded. And even if they did, they're hardly gonna connect it to the alien's sudden vacation." The others knew she was right, but they were still worried someone would notice.

Plus, every day Flash was grounded was a day he couldn't train as an alien. The thought that an alien like Vilgax might show up and cause trouble worried the lot of them. If they couldn't find a way to get him ungrounded soon, things were likely to get problematic.

"I really hope nothing big happens," Fluttershy quivered. "I usually don't want anything big and dangerous to happen, but right now is a really bad time." The others couldn't agree more. Each of them did a silent pray that things would remain quiet until Flash wasn't stuck at home.

"Hey," they then heard someone call out, "what's going on?" He pointed to the TV and everyone turned to see a new broadcast. Said broadcast was showing a bank the Rainbooms recognised as the one they had fought Gelidafur at.

From out of the bank, several police officers were marching out of it carrying bags they assumed was stuff with money.

Mrs Cake turned it up and they heard the newscaster speak up. "As you can see. The entire CCPD has began looting the bank of anything valuable." As she said this, several officers fired their guns into the air. People screamed and ran whilst the newscaster and cameraman tried to hide. "It is unclear why the CCPD have suddenly turned criminal, but they have already attacked two other banks before this one and don't look to be stopping."

"This can't actually be happening," Sunset gasped as someone walked into view. That someone was Shining Armor, pulling along another bag of money.

"No way!" Twilight cried, standing up and staring at her brother in horror. "Shining would never do anything like this." As she said that, someone else stepped into view. The only dressed individual.

"Who's that?" Pinkie asked as two police officers pulled something towards this man, who took out a deck of cards. He then placed it against his head before touching it to the man, who suddenly went limp before standing up. The police let him go and he started helping out.

"Did you see that?" Rarity asked, "you don't think..."

"They're brainwashed," Sunset gasped. One of the police officers walked close enough to the camera to show his eyes and sure enough, his eyes were blank. Sunset had only seen that one place before. When she had brainwashed the entire student body. "We need to do something." They others nodded and rushed out the dinner, heading towards the area they thought the crowd was.

"But Flash is grounded," Trixie pointed out, "how are we supposed to stop that many without him?"

"Oh please," Rainbow told her. "We were dealing with situations like this way before he got the Omnitrix. I think we can handle one bout of brainwashing without his help." The others agreed as they reached Applejack's truck, the lot of them climbing in and driving off. Silently, they all hoped they could handle this situation. Because they probably weren't getting Flash's help.

The alien hero was currently in his room, working on some homework assignments he had fallen behind with during his alien work.

His brain was absolutely fried as he finished his math work. "What I wouldn't give for an alien with super smarts." He heard his phone going off and quickly checked it, rolling his eyes when he saw who it was. "Hey mom."

"Hey hon. Just checking in. How is everything?"

"Same as half an hour ago. I'm stuck in my room, trying not to die of boredom."

"Well just remember, we're doing this for your own good. Maybe you could use this time to improve yourself in some way. You know, I was grounded when I was a little younger than you and used that time to learn Prench."

"Really?" Flash asked. "Cause that year we went to Prance, you kept getting us lost reading the street signs."

"I never said I became fluent in it. But I learnt enough to ask where the bathroom is."

"Then why do I have the strangest memory of needing to cross my legs for three hours before giving up and going in a bush?" Misty didn't answer that, Flash knowing he had her.

"My point still stands. You never know how useful being grounded at this time might be for you. Try and use it to-HEY!" Flash was on edge, hearing his mother cry out.

"You okay?"

"I'm fine. Some idiot just jumped in front of the car. Talk to you later." She hung up and Flash wondered who would jump out in front of the car.

"What are you thinking?" Misty asked as she and Trail got out of the car, whilst the man they had almost run over simply stood there. "Do you have any idea how dangerous that was."

The girls had finally arrived at the area that had been on TV and by the looks of things, what they saw had only been a taste of what was to come.

Getting out of the truck, they spotted more police officers beginning to ransack buildings and stores now. "What are they doing?" Fluttershy asked, looking scared as she watched some police officers walking out with everything valuable. Then they started pulling those that had actually been in the store out.

"Let me go!" A lady cried as the cop carried her over his shoulder, "this is police brutality!" Twilight acted quickly, grabbing the man's arm and pulling it off of her. This allowed her to leap down as the man remained completely immobile.

"Run!" Sunset told her, the woman running off whilst the cops turned to them. Seeing they were under their master's control, they moved in to grab them. But Rainbow exploded into motion, changing into her pony form, using her magic to zip by them and trip them up when she did. She then ran ahead.

"Rainbow!" Applejack cried, "don't run ahead!" The girls went after her, Rarity using her shield to protect them as they saw her run around a corner.

"Gotcha!" They heard Rainbow cry out.

"What the!" They then heard a man cry, as they got around the corner and saw Rainbow standing next to the man. They thought she had caught him, but then Rainbow turned towards them and showed her eyes were blank.

"RAINBOW!"

The man smirked as he looked her over, "wasn't expecting that. This girl is like lightning. Glad I was holding a card when she came at me." The rest of the Rainbooms transformed into their pony forms, as Trixie rushed over to take cover. "Oh," he noticed Twilight's hands glowing and Rarity forming a pair of small shields, "you can do stuff like that too? Interesting."

"Give it up!" Sunset cried, "I don't know who you are, but you're messing with forces that are beyond your kin."

The man rolled his eyes and took out some card, tapping them onto his forehead. "I am the Hypnotist." He gave the cards to Rainbow, "and I look forward to adding you all to my collection." Rainbow shot forward and in the blink of an eye, she was behind each of the Rainbooms as the cards were stuck to their chest.

Trixie's eyes went wide as she watched the girls go limp for a moment, then look up with their eyes completely blank. "Oh no." The Hypnotist laughed and jumped on the spot with a clap, then looked them over.

"Alright," he pointed at Twilight, "what's that purpley stuff?"

"My Equestrian Magic?" Twilight replied, "it allows me to lift things with my mind."

"I see," he nodded before turning to Applejack. "And what can you do?" He went on to ask what each of them could do, looking bored when Fluttershy and Sunset explained their powers. As this was happening, Trixie chose this moment to escape. Luckily, th alleyway wasn't blocked off and she could run for it.

But she accidently kicked a trash can as she fled, catching the Hypnotist's attention.

"Who's there?" Trixie didn't respond, "go look!" She heard Rainbow's whoosh of wind and knew she only had seconds, so quickly grabbed the trash can and threw it to the ground. Rainbow ran in as it hit the ground and accidently tripped over it. This allowed Trixie to keep running.

But as she left the alleyway, her eyes went wide when she saw Shining and several more police officers moving towards her. Shining reached into his coat and took out his badge, attaching it to his waist and activating the suit. Once he was kitted up, he took out his weapon and turned it into a laser blaster.

"Oh boy." Trixie pulled out several smoke bombs and threw them to the ground, creating a large cloud of smoke that blocked her from view. When it faded, Trixie had vanished.

Flash sighed as he finished his last piece of homework.

He threw his book over to the others and laid on his bed, with absolutely nothing to do. He looked over at his guitar and was tempted to start playing, but his phone went off before he could. "Hello?" He asked, only to hear Trixie's terrified voice.

"FLASH!" He pulled his phone away from his ear, "you have to get down here."

Flash sighed. "I can't. I'm grounded, remember. My parents call in every thirty minutes to make sure I'm in the house."

"Flash, some crazy guy's shown up and he's using some kind of magic to take control of people. He's got an entire army of everyday people that are grabbing others to recruit." Flash hadn't been expecting that, but it didn't change anything.

"If it's magic, Twilight and the rest of the Rainbooms can deal with it. They did before I got the Omnitrix."

"They could, if this Hypnotist guys hadn't already used his magic to brainwash them. He's got Shining too. You're the only one that can stop him. If you don't do something, the entire city's gonna eventually be under his control." She screamed as Flash heard a lot of movement. It appeared Trixie had been found. "Get down here. NOW!" She hung up and Flash frowned.

Flash knew she was right and knew that if he was fast, he could stop this guy and be back before his parents called.

Throwing his phone down and activating the Omnitrix, he cycled through his aliens before slapping the dial down. In a flash, he was replaced by Firefly and quickly climbed out of his window. Flying into the air, he launched a bunch of flames and propelled himself towards the town. As he did, he noticed a bunch of people walking like zombies through town.

They were walking into stores and houses and stepping back out carrying anything valuable. Money, TVs, jewelry the works. He even spotted a few classmates from school, Sandalwood and Micro Chips were carrying a big computer and Wallflower Blush was carrying what he assumed was a rare and probably valuable plant.

He followed them and when he did, he spotted a giant mountain of stuff in the middle of the road. And sitting on a comfy chair in the middle of it was the person Firefly assumed was the villain.

"Yes!" The Hypnotist cheered, "bring me more riches, my minions. Soon I will have everything valuable in this city." As he said that, two police officers walked up to him pulling a man with them. "Oh? Who's this? Another willing participant?" The man begged to be released as the Hypnotist stood up and stepped down the mountain of stuff, pulling out a card as he did so.

Firefly saw him hold it up to his head before bringing it down to the man. "Oh no you don't!" He launched a fireball towards them and they all noticed the flames coming at the last second, the Hypnotist leaping back as the fire incinerated the card.

He looked up and saw Firefly, a smirk appearing on his lips. "Finally. I was wondering when you'd show up."

Firefly tilted his head, "were you expecting me?"

"Of course," he told him. "Why do you think I came here? The city with a bunch of strange creatures calling themselves aliens. The perfect place to build my army. An army that includes a bunch of powerful monsters." Firefly realised what he was talking about.

"You did all this to draw me out!"

"Not just you," The Hypnotist stated. "All of your alien friends. Where are they? I would like to complete my collection before going to bed."

"They're not coming," Firefly ignited his arms. "I'm all the alien needed to take you down." He launched a flamethrower straight at the Hypnotist, who simply smiled and didn't look at all worried. And he had a reason not to be worried.

A wall of energy gems appeared in front of him and blocked the flames, making Firefly's eyes go wide. He stopped the flames and looked around, spotting Rarity stepping out from behind the pile of junk. The Hypnotist smiled. "As you can see, I've added some pretty powerful beauties to my ranks. I wasn't expecting to run into humans with these kinds of powerful, but I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth."

Suddenly, something flew towards Firefly. The alien insect dived down to avoid the car, as he looked down to see Applejack was the one who had thrown it. The car fell towards someone and Firefly gasped, quickly shooting out a blast of thread that hit the car and stopped it as he attached the other end to a lamppost.

As he did this, several of the TVs in the pile glowed before shooting towards him. He gasped and launched fireballs to deflect them, the bug looking around and spotting Twilight on the roof of a building with Rainbow and Fluttershy.

Twilight kept throwing more and more objects at him, whilst Rainbow leapt into the air and flew towards him. Firefly was barely able to keep from getting struck, as Rainbow reached him and threw a kick. He blocked with his arm guards, but grunted at how fast the impact was. "Rainbow!" He pushed her away, "snap out of it." But Rainbow kept attacking, throwing a bunch of superspeed punches that made him flinch with ever impact. "Knock it off!"

The Hypnotist laughed. "You can't get through to them. They are under my control and nothing you say or do with change that."

Firefly ducked under another punch before firing a thread at her, hitting her chest and quickly swinging her around. Rainbow tried to pull herself free, but Firefly let her go and she flew back before slamming into the wall. Another shot of webbing later and she was stuck in place.

He didn't have time to rest, as Twilight continued to throw things at him and he had to dive down to avoid her gaze. But this just put him in range of Applejack, who had pulled a mailbox out of ground and tried to club him with it. "WOW!" He flew up, but ended up smacking into a ceiling of Rarity's gems. Applejack threw the mailbox and he blasted it, feeling bad for all the mail he was accidently burning up in the process.

Rarity tried to trap him inside a sphere of her shields, but Firefly rocketed out of it just in time. But he wasn't out of the woods yet, for an explosion occurred right in front of him. "Augh!" He was knocked back and hit the ground, moaning as he rolled back to his feet before looking up and seeing both Pinkie and Sunset moving towards him.

Pinkie took some more sprinkles out of a can, charging them with magic before throwing them at him.

Firefly spat some thread at them and managed to wrap them up, right before they blew and made the thread ball expand. He then leapt into the air before Pinkie could try again and shot some thread at their feet, sticking them to the ground. Twilight, Fluttershy, Rarity and Applejack stepped towards them and Firefly knew he couldn't beat all of them at once.

He quickly fired his jets and rocketed away from them before they could attempt to attack him again. He flew as fast as he could before flying around a building. "Alright," he sighed, "if that guy's the one controlling them...I'll just have to take him out first. Hopefully, knocking him out will free the others." He flew down another street, planning to sneak up behind The Hypnotist.

But before he could get there, a laser suddenly flew up and hit his wing. He screamed in pain as he fell to the ground and crashed into it, rolling down the street to an eventual stop. He let out a moan as he picked himself up, then looked around and was shocked to see Shining Armor walking towards him.

He was dressed in his Plumber Suit, holding his laser pistol in his hands as he marched towards him. "Uh oh." Shining fired at him and he deflected the attacks with several fireballs, then rocketed himself forward. "Sorry Shining!" He tackled the man to the ground and caused him to lose his weapon. He quickly spat webbing at Shining, trapping everything but his head inside a cocoon. "Trust me. You'll thank me for this later." But as he stepped away, Shining grunted and groaned as he pulled against the thread.

Firefly wasn't sure he could break through the webbing, but he had never really seen the limits of Shining's suit. It did increase his strength, but was it enough to break free?

He got his answer when the webbing began to slowly tear, Firefly quickly taking flight and getting as far from him as he could. But just as he turned a corner, the Omnitrix started beeping. "Not now!" He flew down and hid behind a dumpster, right as the device unleashed the light and returned him to human. "Great. Now what do I do?" He tried to think, then realised this guy couldn't remember every person he had in his control. "If I act like everyone else, maybe I can get close enough to take him down."

He knew it was a risky move, but he also knew he didn't have much of a choice until the Omnitrix powered up again.

He moved to the edge of the alley and looked out at the people walking like zombies through the street, carefully seeing how they moved. As he did, his eyes went wide when he saw two figures walking side by side. "Mom. Dad." Trail Blazer and Misty Vail marched together, carrying another large TV. Flash frowned, though he also realised this meant they wouldn't be checking in on him. One upside.

Taking a deep breath, he stepped out of the alley and started walking like the others. He spotted a group of mind controlled people outside an electronics store, being handed items by another zombie to add to the pile. Flash got in line and was given a games console, the teen carrying it over to the Hypnotist. As he approached, he saw the others had gotten Rainbow Dash down.

They were all gathered around the pile and Flash was worried they would recognise him and blow his cover. But when Sunset turned towards him, she didn't even give him a second look. He was able to march past them and place the games console down on the ground.

"You there." Flash tried not to react to this statement, turning towards the Hypnotist as he sat in his lazy-boy throne. "Bring that to me." He picked the games console up and marched up to the man, who looked excited. "Great. I've been wanting one of these for a while. Someone bring me a TV, a hundred extender leads and every game you can find for this console." Several slaves walked off whilst Flash stood there, the Hypnotist looking at him for a moment. Then he looked back at him, giving him a strange expression.

Flash had a feeling he was expecting Flash to do something, so quickly turned to walk away.

"Halt!" He stopped at the bottom of the pile, turning back to him. The man continued to give him several looks, the last one being a frown. "I just ordered you to do a bunch of star jumps. The fact you didn't do them tells me you're not under my control." Flash's eyes went wide, the Hypnotist appearing to now have his suspicions confirmed. "SEIZE HIM!"

Flash turned to run off, but Rainbow sped up and tripped him. "Augh!" He hit the ground and before he could get up, Applejack grabbed him and pulled his arms behind his back. He groaned in pain as he was pulled to his feet and turned to face the Hypnotist.

"So," he smirked, "tried to sneak your way close to me." He slowly moved down the pile. "You're either very brave or very foolish." Flash tried to struggle, but Applejack's hold on him was too strong.

"Why are you doing this?" Flash asked, glaring at the mind controller.

His smile slowly turned to a frown, "have you ever had a choice in your life?" Flash raised an eyebrow at this. "Do people make you do things, even when you'd rather be doing something else? Forced you into doing boring things when you'd rather be off, having fun and playing games? Your parents ever ground you for no reason?"

Flash had to admit, this guy chose a pretty good time to ask this. Flash thought back to his parent's words and how they had grounded. But he knew they had a reason. "What about it?"

"I've never had a choice in my life. My parents controlled everything I did. Every class I took in school. All my extracurriculars. Even what I did when I was out of school. And when I was finally old enough to leave, I had to take jobs I hated in order to survive. You ever clean the bathrooms at a fast food joint. I tell you, it ain't pretty."

"You did all this, just to get out of scrubbing floors?"

"I did it to give myself some control. Now I can do what I want, when I want. From now on, others will have to follow my orders. And if anyone tries to stop me, I'll add them to my army."

"You're insane," Flash growled.

"Don't try and get all high and mighty on me. If you had this power, you'd use it the exact same way." Flash glared at him, as the Hypnotist took out a card. "Now, I think that's enough delightful conversation." He reached up and touched the card to his forehead.

Flash watched carefully and noticed a light. But it wasn't coming from the card. It was coming from the gem on his headband, which quickly spread to the card. It was then that Flash realised where this lunatic's powers must come from. But it appeared he had figured it out too late.

"Goodbye," he held the card towards Flash. "And welcome to the winning team." Flash continued to struggle, but Applejack was still too strong.

But as the card got inches away from him, a loud banging caught their attention. The Hypnotist turned in the boom's direction and saw the cause was a firework that exploded in the middle of the street. Several more fireworks then exploded all around them, along with several smoke bombs which filled the entire place.

"What's happening?" The Hypnotist roared, "who's doing this?" In that moment, someone ran through the smoke and tackled Applejack. This freed Flash and he rolled back to his feet, only to feel someone grab his arm.

After a few moments, the smoke and lights began to fade and the blinded people were all free to see again. And as The Hypnotist looked around, he saw that Flash was gone.

"Where is he?" He brushed himself off and straightened his headband. "Find him!" His slaves began to look around, all of them looking in every alleyway and inside every dumpster. But instead of looking straight or up, as some began to check out the buildings, they should have been looking down.

Flash sighed in relief, though the smell of the sewer made him hesitant to breath in. "Thanks, Trixie."

Trixie smirked as she looked up at the manhole they had used to escape, glad to see she had managed to put it back on before the smoke faded. "Don't mention it. The Great and Powerful Trixie is always happy to come in and save your butt. Though she's a little miffed you didn't come and look for her."

"I thought you'd already been captured. Your call cut out all of a sudden and I rushed over as soon as it did. When I saw how many people he'd brainwashed, I feared you were one of them. Shining and the Rainbooms didn't really give me a chance to look for you."

"Fair enough. Some of his goons did find me and almost caught me, but I was able to shake them off with a smoke bomb." She then frowned, "but we're clearly in trouble. We might be the last two people in the area not under that guy's control."

Flash nodded. "And it won't be long before it spreads to the rest of the town."

"Great," Trixie sat next to him. "What do we do? We have no way of stopping him without the girls."

"I don't think this is Equestrian Magic," Flash told her. "Usually, whenever Equestrian Magic captures the girls, it superchargers it and transforms the wielder. But this guy hasn't turned into a monster. At least no more than what he already was."

"Okay, so it's not Equestrian Magic. Still doesn't help up beat him."

"Actually, I think I might know how we can take this guy down. Or at least, how he can free everyone under his control." Trixie looked surprised by this. "When he was about to take me over, he held a card up to his head. I thought the power he had was his own, but then I noticed the light that lit up the card was coming from the gem on his headband."

"You think that's the source of his power?"

"Why not. Even if it's not Equestrian Magic, it's similar to how the girls have their powers. It's possible that if we get that gem away from him, it'll break the spell and free everyone." Trixie smiled at this, liking the sound of Flash's plan.

"Great, so what are you gonna do?" That was a good question. One Flash didn't have an answer for yet.

"Maybe go Chamalien and sneak up on him. I just need to get close enough to pull that headband off." But as he said that, the manhole cover slid open and they looked up to see someone they didn't know. That someone stared down at them before looking away.

"They're down here!" The pair gasped and got up, running as fast as they could down the sewer system.

As they did, the Hypnotist arrived and looked down into the sewer. He frowned as the pair disappeared into the darkness before pulling his head back out. "I'm not so eager to have these two in my friendship circle anymore." He turned to the Rainbooms. "You, pink one." Pinkie stepped forward. "Do that thing you do and do as much damage as you can. Crush them! Drown them! I don't care, just get rid of them."

Pinkie nodded and she moved over to the manhole cover, taking out some sprinkles and powering them up before tossing them down into the sewer. Seconds later, a boom could be heard as the ground shook.

"Keep going. I want to be sure they're gone. The rest of you help her." Rainbow grabbed both Pinkie and Twilight before flying off down the street, Twilight using her magic to lift every manhole before Pinkie dropped more sprinkles down into it.

More and more explosions filled the air as the sewers were ripped apart, with the walls and other safeguards crumbling. This caused the sewer water that had been held back to suddenly overflow. Soon enough, a tidalwave of sewage rocket through the tunnels.

Flash and Trixie continued to run as they heard the explosions going off.

"What the heck is he doing?" Trixie asked, as they had to stop to catch their breath. But as they did, the explosion sounds were replaced by a new sound. The sound of rumbling and rocking, which the pair felt they recognised. "Is that what I think it is?"

Flash gulped. "If you think it's a bunch of water moving towards us, I think it is." They looked up the tunnel and sure enough, a bunch of water splashed around a corner. "RUN!" They did so, but the filthy water was much faster and would catch them any moment. Luckily, the Omnitrix had timed in before this and Flash knew he had to use it.

Activating the watch, he found the only alien that could save them and slapped the dial down.

In a flash, he was replaced by XLR8 and grabbed Trixie. He shot down the sewer and outran the water, allowing him to jump up and through another manhole cover. He landed on the street right before the water rushed passed the hole, both of them sighing in relief. Drowning in sewage wasn't how they wanted to go out.

They didn't have much time to celebrate, however, since another explosion occurred next to them. They looked around and saw Pinkie, Rainbow and Twilight standing at the other end of the street, Pinkie throwing more explosive sprinkles towards them.

Trixie leapt onto XLR8's back as he shot forward, avoiding the explosions. But Twilight started throwing anything that wasn't nailed down at them, whilst Rainbow ran forward at top speed. XLR8 managed to avoid the objects thrown at him, but barely managed to jump over Rainbow's kick. Trixie had an idea and as Rainbow rushed around to come at them again, she took out another smoke bomb and threw it to the ground.

Rainbow ran right into the smoke cloud, blinding her so she couldn't see XLR8's tail right in front of her. She tripped over it and went flying out of the smoke cloud, where she bowled straight into Twilight and Pinkie. Both girls cried out as they were knocked down, whilst XLR8 shot passed them.

"Remind me to apologise to them later," XLR8 told Trixie as they headed back in the direction of the Hypnotist's treasure pile. Trixie took out some more smoke bombs, ready to use them at a moments notice. When they arrived, Applejack, Rarity, Shining, Sunset and Fluttershy stood there and prepared for whatever XLR8 was planning.

The Hypnotist was back on his throne and smirked seeing XLR8. "Another one. Good. I was wondering when you'd show up." One of his slaves handed him a drink with a super long and bendy straw. "Take them!" He cried. Shining summoned a weapon that looked a handheld gatling gun, which he started firing at them.

The lasers shot towards him and XLR8 was forced to avoid them, whilst Trixie threw smoke bombs in their direction. Rarity created a bunch of shields to block them, whilst Applejack threw a TV in their direction so fast it would likely shatter a few bones on impact.

XLR8 ducked under the TV, but was then struck a bunch of lasers. "Augh!" He was knocked backwards and crashed into a wall, as Rarity started putting shields around them. Luckily, in her mind controlled state, she wasn't able to do this fast and XLR8 was able to get out just in time.

He grabbed Trixie and rushed her over to another part of the street, "stay here!" She hid in an alleyway, as XLR8 rushed back towards the others. "This is gonna hurt me a lot more then it'll hurt you." With that, he started running in a circle. Faster and faster he went, making a vacuum that created a mini tornado.

This tornado began to drag the others into it, pulling them off their feet. And as soon as they were in the air, XLR8 stopped running and they fell to the ground. As they hit the ground, XLR8 ran towards the Hypnotist. But before he could reach him, another wall of people stepped in front of him. This wall included his parents and as much as he knew he had to take them down, he couldn't do it.

He stopped as another group of slaves arrived behind him. Then another group to his left and his right, surrounding him. XLR8 growled as he stepped backwards, but then spotted something that made him smirk beneath his visor. "You haven't beaten me yet!" He started spinning on the spot, sweeping his tail around to form another tornado.

This one was even smaller, unable to pick anyone up but strong enough to suck up all the dirt and dust in the area. The tornado formed a dust cloud that grew larger and larger, only to then explode outwards when XLR8 instantly stopped and swung his arms and tail around. This unleashed a wave of wind that knocked everyone staggering back and threw the dirt in their faces, blinding them.

It also flew up the treasure piles and hit the Hypnotist, knocking him backwards until he slammed into his chair. He groaned, dropping his drink as he did so, whilst his head leaned back. And in that moment, someone grabbed his headband.

He gasped as he felt it be pulled from his head, the Hypnotist opening his eyes. "Hi," Trixie smiled before leaping down the treasure pile.

"Give that back!" He roared, looking absolutely terrified. Trixie looked around, expecting everyone to be freed from its control. But they kept attempting to grab XLR8, clearly still following their last command. She put the headband on and pointed at them, "let him go!" And they did so, stopping their attack and standing completely still. "What do you know. Ordering henchmen around is pretty fun." They looked up at the pile and saw the Hypnotist running away, Trixie turning to the crowd of people. "Let him through!"

The crowd split and created a path of XLR8 to run through, the alien shooting passed them and over the pile. He zipped by the Hypnotist and used his tail to slam him backwards, knocking him to the ground. As it happened, a sporting goods store was on the street and XLR8 zoomed into it before returning a second later. In the blink of an eye, the Hypnotist was tied up.

"Ahh!" He struggled against the ropes, "let me go!"

"Not gonna happen," XLR8 told him. "You ain't going anywhere until you tell us how to free everyone."

"Never!" The pair frowned and looked at one another, then at the group of mind slaves.

"I guess it's not gonna be as easy as saying I release you from my control." But as soon as she said that, the gem burst into light, which quickly spread to the rest of the people on the street. They all glowed before the light exploded off of them, causing them to all stagger around and clutch their head.

"Ahhh," they all moaned, "what happened?" Shining asked. XLR8 quickly rushed up to him and deactivated his Plumber Suit, returning him to normal before anyone could notice him. When they all recovered, Trixie pulled the Hypnotist to the front of the group.

"People of Canterlot!" He pointed at him, many of them recognising him as the man they had been talking to before everything went blank. "This man has been controlling you. Forcing you to do criminal acts for his own amusement." This statement shocked them all, as the man continued to struggle against his binds.

"No. She's lying to you. I managed to save you from that alien's control," he gestured towards XLR8. "He was the one brainwashing you and I managed to save you. He's still controlling this weak minded girl into trying to make me the bad guy."

"Hey!" Trixie kicked him in the butt, "nobody calls Trixie weak minded."

"And we all know the aliens are good guys," Shining told him. As he said that, Twilight, Rainbow and Pinkie arrived and all of them were looking pretty badly bruised. "And I remember you from the police station. You were the one doing all this." Many others nodded, not believing this man's claims of innocence for even a second.

The Hypnotist gulped as several police officers rushed over to pick him up, cuffing him before untying the ropes. As they did, Trixie handed Sunset the headband. "This is what he was using to control us?" She asked, Trixie nodding as she and the Rainbooms examined it. "I'm not sensing any Equestrian Magic."

"Really?" Shining asked, "but then how was he using it to take control of us?" That was a good question, but one that they would need to think about later. Sunset, begrudgingly, handed Shining the headband to take in as evidence. They knew letting a magical artifact out of their sight might be risky, but they didn't have a choice.

XLR8, meanwhile, looked around and spotted his parents. Focusing on them, his helmet allowed him to zero in on them and hear them speak. "Ahh," Trail moaned, "my head is killing me."

"Same," Misty sighed, "but at least nothing else seemed to happen to us. Oh dear, what do you think happened to Flash?" XLR8 began to panic and chose this moment to shoot off, surprising everyone since they were hoping he would stick around and answer some questions.

"Do you still have your phone on you?"

"No," Misty frowned, "I left it in the car." The pair knew they should have stayed and gotten checked out by the medics currently being called in, but they had to find out what happened to their son. So they snuck away and headed for where they had last seen their car.

XLR8 moved at top speed, praying the Omnitrix wouldn't cut out until he got home.

He finally got onto his street as the Omnitrix started beeping, the alien speedster rushing inside and up to his room. He arrived just as he transformed back, causing him to stagger forwards and land on his bed as his phone started beeping.

"Hello?" He picked up, sighing when he heard his mother's voice.

"Flash, are you okay!?"

"I'm fine. Are you okay? You didn't call when I expected you to call and you're sounding kind of distraught."

"We're fine. Just...had a bit of a strange situation."

"Really?" Flash looked smug, "what are the chances of that happening."

"Haha. So you're okay. Nothing weird's been happening?"

"Nope. Everything's perfectly normal. Been practising my guitar. Like you said, I should use this time to better myself. Just because I'm not playing in a band anymore, doesn't mean I can let my music skills slide."

"Alright. We'll talk to you later. Love you."

"Love you too mom." Flash hung up and sighed as he laid on his bed, happy he had managed to get away with this. Hopefully, he could undo his grounding and wouldn't have to jump through any hoops for long.

Several days later.

All over the city, people were watching the news as it did a story on the mysterious Hypnotist. "Breaking news," the announcer claimed. "The Hypnotist has been identified as Periwinkle Primrose and has been officially sentenced today for countless acts of theft, vandalism and assault." The image of the man appeared on the screen, then was replaced by the picture of a young girl. "The evidence was gathered by Ms Trixie Lulamoon, who was at the scene of the fight between Periwinkle and the alien heroes that stopped him.

The video then cut to Trixie, giving an interview about everything that happened. In the Sentry household, Flash was only half paying attention. He was too busy focusing on his parents, who were both smiling at him. "Looks like you weren't absent or late all week," Trail told him. "Excellent work, Flash."

"Does this mean what I think it means?" Flash asked, the pair nodding.

"Your grounding is officially over," Misty replied as Flash leapt up with a cheer. "But don't think this means you can start slacking off again. If we find you've been late even once for the next week, you're grounded again."

"Don't worry," Flash assured them. "I learned my lesson. I'll be on time. So does this mean I can go hang out with my friends?" They nodded and Flash thanked them both before rushing out the room. The pair smiled as they moved to the window and saw Flash drive out in his car. He raced along the street, cheering at his new found freedom.

As he did, he thought back to what the Hypnotist had said about never being allowed to do what he wanted. It was true that that could suck, but getting to do whatever you want, whenever you want, would just spoil someone. Times like these needed to be earned and Flash was glad that he had earned his freedom.

Now he could enjoy it more and he intended to, along with getting to go back to hero work. From here on out, things were gonna be seriously fun.

Author's Note

A simple little chapter about Flash's alien life clashing with his personal life. It's tough balancing superhero work with school and other things. Hope you enjoyed it and looked forward to next week's chapter.

Season 2, Episode 4: Ten Aliens and a Baby

It was a late night in Canterlot, where our story begins within the warehouse district of the city.

Inside one of the unused buildings, a group of individuals was sitting around a table. A single light was shining down on it from the table lamp, leaving the group's faces hidden in the darkness. The table had a bunch of maps and other documents scattered around it, as the group looked down at it.

"Alright," one of them said, "The bank receives its shipment tomorrow. That's when we move in." He pointed at the map, which showed the building he was talking about across the street from a local park. "We'll all head inside once our tech support confirms the alarm system has been shut down."

"How do we know this guy's gonna pull through?" Another guy replied.

"He needs the money as much as we want it. Plus, he's supposed to be some kind of computer genius. He can hack into the alarms and shut them off. After that, we make our move. As soon as he confirms he's shut it down, we head inside disguised as bank goers. Then we take the place hostage before they realise they don't have any security."

"And this guy said he can get into the vault, right?" Another member of the group asked.

"Yup." He took something out of his pocket and placed it on the table in front of him. "He said all we need to do is plug this into their computer and he'll open the vault." That something was a flashdrive of some kind, which had a light on it that they assumed would light up when it was activated.

"But what about the aliens?" Yet another member of the group asked. "If one of them shows up, we'll be done for."

"How are they gonna know about us?" The first asked. "I bet these aliens have hacked into the police radio or something. If the police don't know we're robbing the bank, neither will the aliens." The others weren't so sure about that. Those aliens had a nasty habit of showing up wherever they weren't wanted. They just hoped tomorrow would be a day they all decided to sleep in or something. But what were the chances of that happening?

Flash snored loudly as he enjoyed his Saturday morning lie in.

The alien superhero had turned his alarm off last night, deciding that today was gonna be a day for him to relax. And he felt he earned it, given everything that was happening. Twilight and the rest of the Rainbooms were out of town doing a Rainboom gig, Trixie had gone to visit some family with her father and his parents had to work that day.

Flash had nobody to really hang out with, plus he had also been hitting it pretty hard alien hero wise. So he decided that today, he was just going to rest and recharge. Lay in until ten o'clock, then spend the day watching TV or playing video games. Basically, he just planned to spend the day as a regular teenager.

That was, however, until his phone went off.

The teen groaned and tried to ignore it, but the phone just kept ringing and he eventually gave up and rolled over to answer it. "Hello?"

"Flash," it was Shining, "are you busy right now?"

"No." He heard Shining sigh at this.

"Great. I need a really big favour."

"How big?"

"I need you to babysit." Flash's eyes went wide and he shot up in his bed.

"What?"

"Please. I really need your help. I've gotta be in court today to testify and Cadance has a big meeting with a bunch of other principals. Our regular babysitter just called in sick, my parents are spending the weekend away and Twilight's doing her gig. You're the only person left I could think of."

Flash moaned and laid back on his bed, the teen realising his relaxing day off had just gone down the toilet. Flash knew he had every right to refuse, but that didn't sit well with him. As a hero and Shining's friend, he had to do this. "When do you need to leave?"

"Think you can get here in an hour?"

"Yeah. But you owe me for this." Shining thanked him and he shut in phone. He laid there for another five minutes before finally getting up and getting dressed. As he did, he was suddenly overwhelmed with realisation. He was going to have to look after a baby.

Flash had had plenty experience being around kids, doing lots of childrens parties as a member of Flash Drive. But on those occasions, he had had adult supervision. If a kid scraped their knee, spilled something or gotten into trouble, he didn't have to worry since the parents would be able to deal with it.

But now he would be the responsible adult. Shining was trusting him with the safety and care of his daughter, who might just be the most important person in the man's life. If Flash let anything happen to her, Shining might never trust him with anything ever again.

"Relax," he sighed as he entered his kitchen to grab a quick bite. "You can do this. You've faced off against criminals, aliens and disasters a bunch of times over. Looking after one small baby isn't going to kill you. Just go there, play with her. Make sure she eats her vegetables and don't let her out of your sight. How hard can that be?"

He constantly said these words again and again to himself as he left his place and made his way over to Shining's place. But no matter how many times he said it, the uneasy feeling he had didn't go away.

How was it Flash found fighting bad guys and saving people's lives less worrying then looking after a baby?

He arrived at Shining's place and headed up to the front door. It opened before he could get there, Shining being there dressed for court and looking a little frazzled. "Great, you're here." He grabbed Flash's arm and pulled him inside, Flash crying out at the sudden pull into the house. "Okay," they arrived at the kitchen, "I've pre-prepared everything you'll need for the day and written instructions on what to do in almost any emergency." He turned to Flash and held up a small folded piece of paper.

"Huh," Flash took it, "can't be that much." But then he unfolded it, then unfolded it again. And again, and again and again until the paper reached all the way to the floor. "Oh."

Shining pointed at the kitchen table, which was covered in a bunch of two different things. "Mashed peas," he pointed at the several jars of the stuff. "Her favourite. And diapers."

"Diapers?" Flash looked at the small mountain of baby undies. "You haven't potty trained her yet?"

"She's barely over a year old," Shining told him. "Babies don't learn to go until they're at least eighteen months." Flash went white at the thought of needing to deal with the smelly disgusting mess Flurry had cooking inside her at the moment.

"Where is Flurry anyway?" Shining pointed at the living room and Flash looked in to see the baby bouncing up and down in her swing. She was laughing and clearly having a good time, but Flash felt that wouldn't last.

Shining pulled his attention back to him, showing another list. "These are all the numbers you can dial if anything goes wrong. First is the doctor's, then my cell phone, Cadance's, Twilight and so on. If something, anything, happens, call us and we'll be here as soon as possible."

Flash frowned as he took the list. "I know I'm a little worried about doing this on my own, but you could put a little trust in me."

"I do trust you," Shining told him. "But the world is unpredictable. You could do everything perfect and something completely out of left field can happen without your control. I just want you to be prepared in case something like that happens."

"Right," Flash nodded, "I won't let you down."

"I know you won't. Oh, one more thing." He ran into the room and returned with something Flash recognised. The toy snail he had gotten Flurry for her birthday. "You remember this? It's Flurry's favourite toy. She calls it her Whammy. If she gets fussy, just give it to her and she should calm right down."

Flash took the toy and couldn't help but feel a little bit touched that it was her favourite. He nodded, "got it." Shining nodded back as his watch beeped.

"I gotta go!" He headed into the room with Flash and caught Flurry's attention, the baby holding out her hands wanting to be lifted up. Shining did so and kissed her on the cheek. "Okay sweetie. Daddy has to go out for a little bit. But don't worry. His very good friend is here to play with you." The baby turned to Flash, who waved at her whilst she waved back.

Shining held his daughter out and Flash gulped, once again feeling a little nervous. he just hoped he didn't get so sweaty, he accidently dropped her.

He reached out and took the baby, Shining showing him how to probably hold her. "There, see. You're a natural."

"Huh huh," Flash nodded as Shining gave Flurry one last look before heading out the door. "Don't worry," Flash assured him. "Everything's gonna be perfectly fine." Shining closed the door and Flash was on his own, the teen having no idea what to do next.

He turned to the baby and she looked at him. "So...how's life as a baby working out for you?" Flurry tilted her head, not helping Flash's nerves. The nerves increased when Flurry started looking upset. "No, no, no, no, no!" He tried to rock her, but Flurry burst into tears. Clearly, she didn't like her daddy leaving her with a virtual stranger. "It's okay. it's okay. I'm a friend."

His brain started to fry as he tried to think of what to do, but all he could think of was to call Shining and tell him he couldn't do this.

But then, he noticed the toy snail he had put on the table and rushed over to pick it up. "See," he waved the toy in front of her, "Whammy." The baby heard this and opened her eyes, seeing her favourite toy. This seemed to calm her down as she reached out and grabbed it. "There we go," he smiled as she hugged the snail. "See, you can like me. I promise I'll do anything I need to make you happy."

The baby smiled, but then gave him an uncomfortable face. Flash worried she was about to cry again, but then the face went away and she looked happy. But Flash quickly smelled what the uncomfortable face was about.

"Oh no," he lifted her up and smelled her underside before gagging. "Oh god. Why?" He looked Flurry in the face, "I know I said anything but...really?" The baby actually crossed her arms at this and pouted. Flash knew he wasn't getting out of this one. "Great. Now what do I do?" But then, he noticed the Omnitrix on his arm and an idea popped into his head.

Not too far away, next to a small but fun park, several groups of individuals were walking down the street.

Some were dressed in suits, carrying briefcases and looking important, whilst others were dressed as everyday people carrying backpacks over their shoulders. They made their way towards the same building. A Canterlot bank.

As they arrived at the building's entrance, one of them got a text. Opening it up, he smiled seeing two words. Security's down. "Let's begin." They all stepped inside, looking like normal everyday individuals wanting to do their business. They looked behind the counter, where the large vault was currently located. A digital vault that could only be opened by a keycard and a combination.

Once they were all deep enough inside, the men opened their cases and bags to pull out a bunch of guns. "This is a robbery!" The lead criminal yelled, pointing his gun in the air and firing it. It had a silencer, so it didn't make a loud noise, but the damage done to the building had those inside worried.

One of the workers hit the panic button, thinking the police would soon arrive, but one of the criminals moved around the desk and grabbed her. "Don't bother trying to alert the cops. We've already taken care of it." He pulled her away and she looked back to see another criminal plug something into a computer.

"Alright," the leader smirked as they grabbed some keys from a worker and locked the door. Once the closed sign was placed on it, they pulled all their hostages into another room out of sight. "Now we just gotta play it cool until our man on the outside gets this vault open." His face went serious, "he'd better not fail us."

Outside the bank and across the street, someone was sitting under a tree with a laptop in hand. With the connection formed, the man started typing.

Back at Shining's house, Flurry laughed as she watched her toys dance around above her head.

This was being done thanks to Molestache, who was standing at the other side of the room. He was lifting her toys with strands of mustache, whilst other strands were doing the horrible work of cleaning up after Flurry's accident. "That's right," he spoke in a sophisticated manner. "Just pay attention to the toys. Keep happy whilst I finish you up." He finished cleaning her rear ended and tied the baby wipe up in a bag alongside the used diaper.

He then took out another diaper and managed to fit it on her, though was having trouble figuring out how to make it stick. After a few moments of trying and failing, he gave up and grabbed some duct-tape from the kitchen. "Done," he smirked once the diaper was properly sealed.

He would have used his beard to throw the dirty bag away, but in that moment the Omnitrix beeped before he transformed back to normal. "Well, at least the worst of it's over." He picked Flurry up along with the bag, throwing said bag into a nearby trash can. "Alright little girl. What should we do to pass the time?" He set her down and waited to see if she did anything.

Sure enough, she moved over to where the rest of her toys had fallen when Molestache went away. Flash smirked and moved over to sit besides her, the pair beginning to play with the toys. But Flurry quickly proved to wanna do more than play make believe, as she started throwing the toys all over the place.

"Hey!" Flash cried when he almost got hit in the head by one. "Now that's not nice." But Flurry kept throwing more and more toys, making Flash frown as he found himself in a pickle. He knew he couldn't yell at her to stop, so what was he supposed to do?

Getting an idea, he rushed over to where Shining had placed the instructions and started going through them until he found something useful.

"Hahaa!" He found it, "when she starts to play rough it means she's restless. When this happens, take her somewhere she can burn off the energy without causing too much damage. Maybe a park." He turned to Flurry, "then let's go to the park." Flurry tilted her head as Flash started gathering everything he thought he would need to have fun outside.

However, he quickly realised he wouldn't be able to carry it all. He didn't have a baby seat, which meant he couldn't drive her to the park. His only choice was the walk, which meant he would need to pack light. "Great."

On the streets of Canterlot, a business man was driving along in his brand new smart car.

He was loving the new, cleaner, vehicle that had a bunch of tech inside that meant he would never have to worry about accidently hitting someone again. Plus, it came with a subscription to one of his favorite classical music stations. This was what he was currently listening to, basking in the harmonic tunes of Mozart.

However, his radio station suddenly changed and he found himself listening to a heavy metal song.

He raised an eyebrow at this and changed the station back, but it switched back to the heavy metal almost instantly. "What?" He tried again with the same result, groaning at the apparent bug in his new car. But that wasn't the only bug.

As the approaching light changed, he hit the brake pedal. But it didn't work and instead, he started speeding up. This caused...a bit of a panic.

"WOW!" He swerved, barely missing another car as he drove through the lights. "Sorry!" He tried to stop, but it wouldn't. He tried the parking brake, but it refused to move. He even tried cutting the ignition, but the engine remained on no matter how many time he hit the button. "HELP!"

Flash and Flurry were getting close to the park.

Flash had to admit, babysitting wasn't as bad as he thought it would be. As long as Flurry didn't need another change for the rest of the day, he shouldn't have any issue. He was currently carrying Flurry on his back, using a backpack like device Shining had left him, whilst a bag with some extra changing equipment, food and the Whammy was in his hand.

Flurry laughed as Flash reached a crosswalk across from the park, her hand on his shoulder whilst her legs softly kicked him in the sides.

However, as he waited for the light to turn green, he heard a loud horn and looked around to see a fancy looking car racing down the street and barely missing the ones in front or on the other side of the road. It shot passed the crosswalk, despite the light being red, and Flash looked inside to see the driver not holding the wheel and screaming for help.

Instincts kicking in, Flash reached for the Omnitrix. But then he stopped and remembered he currently had a baby to look after.

He felt himself torn, as he tried to think of what to do.

He couldn't just put Flurry down somewhere and go off to help the driver, but he also couldn't leave the driver to get himself killed. Seeing no other option, he rushed into an nearby alleyway. A flash of green soon followed and from the alleyway, a blue blur shot out.

XLR8 chased after the car, with Flurry still strapped to his back.

The baby didn't seem at all bothered by the speed she was moving at, instead appearing to absolutely love it due to the laughter she let out. They soon reached the car and XLR8 looked inside, seeing the driver still having no control. He looked ahead and saw that up ahead, there were two turns. The left turn lead to runaway truck lane whilst the right turn would lead to a street he knew had construction on it.

"Gotta turn him left. Hold on, Flurry!" He raced up to the car and prepared to push him in that direction, but in that moment a large truck came around the turn. "WOW!" XLR8 was forced to pull away and the driver turned right, heading down the construction street. "Oh, great." He pushed his super speed brain to the limit and had a crazy idea, but he couldn't think of anything else.

Two streets over, a mechanic was working on a car's engine.

He pulled a spanner out of the toolbox and slotted it into place, using a hammer to untighten the bolt. As he did, a burst of wind blew passed him. He barely noticed it and focused on his work, untightening the bolt and returning the spanner to his toolbox. A toolbox that was no longer there.

He looked around, unable to find where it had gone. "What the?"

Back with the driver, he was screaming as he saw a bunch of stone dividers in front of him.

He looked at his speedometer and realised at the speed he was going, the impact with the dividers was going to crush where he was into a tiny cube with him inside. But before he could think to jump out the still moving vehicle, XLR8 returned and started running around the car.

In a flurry of motion, the car started coming apart. The body work vanished first, followed by the unimportant pieces of machinery and so on. The driver screamed as this was happening, clutching the wheel as he prepared for the end. But when XLR8 stopped circling the vehicle, all that was left of it was the driver, his wheel and the seat he was sitting on.

Said seat slowly ground along the pavement before coming to a stop right in front of the stone dividers, though the driver was still screaming despite now being safe.

XLR8 flew up next to him and looked him over, sighing when he saw the man wasn't hurt. Flurry let out a laugh, having clearly enjoyed the whole event and catching the driver's attention. But XLR8 ran off before he could see Flurry, leaving him sitting there surrounded by the parts that used to be part of his expensive new car.

He really hoped his insurance would cover this.

After XLR8 returned the tools, he shot back into the alleyway he had originally transformed in.

Once there, he hid behind a dumpster and grabbed the bag he had been forced to abandon. He quickly looked inside it and was happy to see nothing inside was missing, especially Whammy. "Here you go," he leaned back and gave Flurry the toy. "You're gonna have to play with that until we can get out of here. And we can't do that until I change back."

Flurry took the toy and held it close, but quickly seemed to get bored of hanging around in the alleyway.

Luckily, she noticed XLR8's tail moving behind her and laughed at it. The alien noticed this and smirked before bringing it up and tickling her with it. The baby loved this and XLR8 was happy she hadn't been freaked out by his transformation.

Eventually, the baby's fun with his tail ended as the Omnitrix beeped and her babysitter was reverted back to his human form. Flurry looked instantly upset, but Flash quickly started rocking her in a way that made her happy again. "Alright," he told her, "time to head to the park." He stepped out of the alleyway and back over to the crosswalk, which he was able to step over without any smart cars going berserk.

As he did, he thought back to that situation and wondered how the heck the car had malfunctioned like that.

He had heard all about smart cars, Twilight having talked his ear off about it multiple times. They were top of the range and tested within an inch of their lives. So the fact that one would be allowed off the lot with such a dangerous defect made him curious.

They arrived at the park and looked around, seeing multiple kids already there and playing a lot of rides she could go on. There was also a sandbox and no animals that could cause her accidental harm. It was perfect.

He walked over to some empty swings and as he did, he noticed several parents staring at him as he removed Flurry from the backpack and put her in the bucket swing. He started carefully pushing her, being sure not to do it to high so she wouldn't get scared.

As he did, a woman moved over with her own child and placed him in the swing. "Such a cute baby," she told him as she looked Flurry over. "I'm guessing from her looks, she takes after her mother."

Flash frowned, wondering why she would think that. Then he realised what she and the other parents must be thinking, seeing him walk into the park with a baby. "Actually, she's a good mix of both mom and dad." The woman looked confused as Flash pushed Flurry more. "Really good parents, they are. Asked me to babysit when they both had a lot on their plate." The woman seemed to realise her forpar, making her blush. "Next time, don't just assume the worst of a teenager because he has a baby with him."

The woman blushed some more and quickly removed her child from the swing before walking off. As she did, Flash turned to Flurry and smiled.

"That felt good." He knew Flurry didn't understand, but she smiled back at him as he kept pushing the swing back and forth. As he did, he looked around to see what else in the park Flurry could go on. Roundabout was a definite no. The slide was a bit high and the seesaw might be a bit too dangerous.

He would need to get creative if he wanted Flurry to have any fun whilst he was there. Hopefully, nothing else bad would happen and he could focus all his attention of giving her a good time.

A little ways away, a large vehicle was driving through the town.

That vehicle was a top of the line transport truck for the town zoo. It was currently hauling a bunch of wolves to their new home, having been a group that was being bullied by others at their old home. Hopefully, they would be able to make a fresh start for themselves in Canterlot.

But as the vehicle drove by the park, something happened.

An alert sounded on the driver's tablet, telling him that an error had occurred in the back. He frowned, worried something might have happened to the animals. So he parked on the first open space he could find before getting out and heading into the back.

Using his digital passkey, he opened the back of the truck and began to look inside. The wolves were all in large cages, big enough for them to walk around in but not so big that the zoo needed more than one truck to move them all.

He checked the cages and didn't find any issues. The ventilation system was working perfect and there didn't appear to be anything wrong with the food or water they had. He wondered why the tablet had told him something was wrong.

However, he soon got his answer when a beeping sound caught his attention.

Looking towards the source of the sound, he gasped when he saw the green light that signalled the door was locked was actually red. The door slowly fell open and he rushed towards it, hoping to close it before the wolf noticed. But it did and pushed its way through the door before the driver could stop it.

"Oh no," he gulped as he slowly stepped backwards. As he did, more of the locks came undone and all seven wolves found themselves free. Pushing the doors open, they stepped out into the truck and looked towards freedom. "No! No! No! NO!" The driver ran out of the truck and the wolves followed before he could try and shut the door, leaping out onto the street.

Many people screamed seeing the wolves and ran for their lives, whilst the driver rushed into the cab and took out his phone.

Flurry laughed as she and Flash flew down the slide and came to a stop at the bottom. Flash might have been a wee too big for the slide, but they went down well enough.

When they hit the bottom, Flash instantly jumped up and threw his arms up high as he held Flurry. "Blast off!" Flurry laughed as they moved so another kid could ride the slide. Flash moved over to where the bag of stuff was located, glad to see it was still there. "We having fun?" Flurry laughed and clapped her hands, making Flash smile. "Hopefully, you'll burn yourself out and I won't get another peep out of you when we get back.

However, Flurry seemed to have a lot of energy left in her and Flash wondered what to do next.

It was then that he heard a bunch of loud screams, causing his instincts to kick in. Putting Flurry back on his back, he ran towards the screams with the baby laughing all the way. And when he saw what was going on, he was in for quite the shock. "What the!?" He saw the wolves running about all over the place and one seemed to notice him, its attention being on the little girl on Flash's back. Clearly, it thought Flurry would make a lovely snack.

It charged and Flash gasped before activating the Omnitrix, slamming it down before he even knew which alien he had chosen. In a burst of green light, the teen was replaced by a giant smoke covered lion that towered over the wolf. This stopped the hound in its tracks, as Vapaw let out a mighty roar.

Flurry was sitting atop his back, Vapaw focusing on not igniting his mane, and looking like she was enjoying this sudden ponyback ride. She also didn't seem scared by the roar Vapaw was creating, instead laughing as she grabbed onto the fur on his back.

Vapaw flinch at the fur pulling, but focused on the wolf. He continued to growl at the beast, who suddenly lost all its previous hostility. It lowered itself to the ground, bowing in a way that made Vapaw think it was submitting. "Very good." He turned to walk away and the wolf followed, as he spotted the other wolves running amuck. "Let's get these things under control." He ran forwards and leapt into the air, grab onto a lamppost above a lady and looking down at the wolf running towards her. "BACK OFF!" He roared again and the wolf stopped where it was.

He then dropped down and glared at the creature, making it start to panic whilst the other wolf ran over. The lady screamed, but Vapaw turned to her. "Don't worry, I'll keep you safe." The woman didn't seem to believe that one bit, but she didn't seem to have much choice.

He roared at the wolf again and it submitted as well, Vapaw running over to deal with another that was chasing a man.

He used his tail to grab the wolf and lift it into the air, whilst Flurry laughed from all the excitement she was experiencing. He quickly slammed the wolf into the ground and caused it to submit, whilst the remaining four wolves seemed to notice what was going on.

They all charged forward, appearing to think they could get the drop on him by attacking as one. But Vapaw wasn't gonna let that happen. Letting the other wolf go, he wrapped his tail around Flurry enough so she wouldn't breath in any smoke before unleashing a large cloud.

The wolves were all surrounded and had no idea what was going on. The smoke cloud only lasted a moment though, but when it faded they saw no trace of the alien lion.

"Peekaboo!" Vapaw cried out as he suddenly flew down from above and landed on a wolf, pinning it to the ground with his back feet before leaping back up. He spun around and slammed his tail into another two, knocking them away whilst the last wolf charged. But Vapaw simply thrusted his hand out and grabbed the wolf, lifting it into the air before throwing it.

The wolf hit the side of a building and fell to the ground, moaning in pain as it did so. Vapaw smirked as Flurry laughed, still having a great time. He then let out a mighty roar that frightened the wolves and caused them all to submit like the others. Vapaw smirked at this, looking the beasts over and seeing none of them seemed to have any idea of attacking him again.

"Good doggies," he told them. As he did, he noticed a nearby truck with the zoo's logo on it. He then leapt over the wolves and roared, making them run in the direction of the truck. He then leapt up and swung onto a lamppost before jumping down so that the wolves ran between him and the truck. He roared again, forcing them to run in the direction of the truck.

Finally, he leapt onto the truck's roof and unleashed a jet of smoke from his tail. It covered everything around the truck, making the wolves think the only safe spot was inside it. So they all leapt in and when the last one was inside, he swung the doors closed.

"That should hold'em, right Flurry?" The baby laughed as he heard police sirens, making him realise now was his time to make like a tree.

The driver from before remained terrified of leaving the truck, having called the police and prayed they would arrive before the wolves caused any real harm. But then, he heard a beeping sound and pulled out his tablet. It showed movement in the back and changed to the security camera, which surprised as he saw all seven wolves were back in the truck.

Some had returned to their cages, but others were simply laying or wondering around the storage bay. "What is going on?"

The police arrived and they surrounded the truck, as the driver got out and moved over to who he thought was in charge. "You the one who let the wolves out?"

"I didn't let the wolves out," the driver cried. "Something went wrong with the digital locks. They opened on their own. But look," he showed them the footage of the wolves. "I don't know how, but the wolves were all locked back inside the truck."

"That's good, isn't it?" The police officer asked, with the truck driver nodding.

"But I can't drive away unless I get them all back in their cages. Did you bring the tranquilizers?" They nodded as several officers walked towards them holding the dark guns.

As this was happening, Vapaw had been listening from within a tree. Flurry was still having fun playing with his fur and Flash flinched a little as he listened, wondering how the digital locks on the cages were unlocked. But before he could think of what to do next, the Omnitrix beeped. In a flash, he reverted back to human and was still clinging onto the tree.

Flurry frowned, already missing her furry friend. But when she started pulling on Flash's hair, making the teen flinch as he began climbing down the tree. "Stop it," he told the baby. "That's not nice." He reached the bottom and jumped down, the police not noticing anything as they focused on tranquilizing the wolves.

He decided to get out of there, not wanting to go up against them again with the watch out of power.

He ran over to where he had left Flurry's things and was happy to see nothing had been taken. He handed Flurry the Whammy to make up for Vapaw's disappearance. But then, she gave him a look he recognised from earlier. "Oh no." Flurry eventually looked happy and Flash gave her a sniff and, sure enough, she needed yet another diaper change.

Flash looked at the watch, but it was still in the red. Besides, it wasn't like he could transform into Molestache and change her right then and there. He looked around, trying to find a good place the change her where he wouldn't need to carry a smelly diaper around all day.

Then he noticed a shady spot near a trash can. "That'll do." Her carried Flurry and the bag over to it, all the while noticing someone sitting there.

It was a man around Shining's age, with creamy white skin, brown hair and spots all over his face. He was wearing a collared gray shirt with suspenders coming off his green pants along with a green bowtie. He was leaning against a tree with a laptop on his lap, focusing on whatever was on the screen.

"Hey," Flash moved under the tree. The man looked up at him. "Sorry if you smell anything bad. Gotta change her."

"Oh," he pushed his glasses up, "that's fine. With my seasonal allergies, I don't really smell anything." Flash nodded and started working on cleaning Flurry up, really wishing he had seasonal allergies.

Meanwhile, the cops had finished tranquing the tigers and the truck was finally back on its way.

One of the officers was doing patrols on the area and checking to make sure everything was alright after the terrifying situation. But everyone he talked too seemed to be perfectly fine and unharmed thanks to the efforts of the alien hero.

However, when he reached a bank, he noticed it appeared closed with the sign in the window confirming it. This confused him, since he knew this bank didn't close at this time of day. He moved up to investigate it, looking inside and noticing several individuals in suits sitting at desks typing something.

He knocked on the door window, catching their attention and making them come to the door to unlock it. "Yes?"

"Just wondering why you're closed. This bank is usually open at this time." He stared at the man, who seemed to be considering his options. "Mind if I come take a look around? Just to make sure everything's on the up and up." The man frowned, but stepped aside to let him in.

The officer looked around, nodding as he examined the place. "Everything's fine. We're just a little short staffed, so we had to close up and do some paperwork."

"I see," the officer nodded before noticing something about one of the desks. Something was leaning against the inside of it, the bottom of it visible through the gap between the desk and the floor. A machine gun. "Well, I won't waste anymore of your time." He turned to leave and as he did, the man he was talking too frowned.

So when the cop turned his back to him, the man reached behind his back to pull out a hidden gun.

But before he could shoot, the cop spun around and kicked the gun from his hand. He then spun around and kicked the criminal in the chest, knocking him to the ground. The other criminals saw this and all got up, each of them reaching for their guns. The cop had been expecting this and used the brief opening to head for the door, running out as a gunshot was fired.

The window of the door shattered by he managed to escape, taking out his radio as he did. "We have a bank robbery in progress. Armed assailants and possible hostages. I need backup here, now!"

Back inside, the crooks all began angry. "What the hell!?" One of them cried, "this wasn't supposed to go like this. We should have been in the vault by now. What is that nerd doing?"

"That's it," Flash told Flurry as he placed the new diaper on her. "Good girl." He once again tried closing it up, but still couldn't figure out how it worked and eventually switched the the duct tape.

As he did, the man on his computer frowned as whatever he was working on clearly wasn't working. "Ahhh!" He stopped typing and leaned back against the tree, rubbing his eyes to stop the strain on them.

"You okay?" Flash asked, as the man looked over at him. "You look a little...frustrated."

"Just...having trouble getting something I'm working on to do what it's supposed to. I thought this would be easy, but the technology I'm working with isn't as reliable as I thought. "

Flash nodded, "wish I could help but computers really aren't my thing." With Flurry cleaned up, he picked her up and closed up the rest of the bag. "Well, hope you can figure it out." He nodded as Flash began to walk away, whilst the man typed away at his computer again.

Flash looked around the area, spotting the sandbox was empty. Perfect place for Flurry to play without causing any problems with other kids.

However, in that moment he heard a bunch of alarms going off. He ran towards them and saw that the sound was coming from a nearby bank.

Multiple police officers had already surrounded the entrance and were firing at the men inside, who Flash saw were armed with a bunch of machine guns. The two sides appeared to be at a standoff, the robbers likely having hostages they could use to escape and prevent to police from doing anything drastic.

Flash sighed, wishing he could help. But with such a dangerous situation, there was no way he could put Flurry into it. Even though the Omnitrix was green, he wasn't gonna be able to go hero.

However, Flurry seemed to have other ideas.

The baby looked between him and the bank, seeing something was happening. Didn't Flash help when something was happening? That appeared to be how things worked.

Whether she knew what was going on, or just wanted to play with it, Flurry reached down and started tapping the watch. Flash didn't notice this until he heard the Omnitrix click up, making him look down and see Flurry spinning the dial. "Wait!" But it was too late. Flurry pushed the dial down and in a burst of green light, Flash was transformed into his physically strongest alien.

"Flurry," Riot-Horn groaned, "what did you do!?" The baby laughed at the sight of her new friend and Riot-Horn sighed, then heard a scream coming from within the bank. Looking between it and the baby he was protecting, he sighed before returning to where they had put their things.

Reaching down, he plopped Flurry in the baby backpack and strapped her onto his chest. The straps barely lengthened enough for him to fit it around his hulking frame, but he and Flurry were soon ready for battle. "Alright pipsqueak," he told the baby. "You better not make me regret this." He covered her with one colossal hand and rushed forward. Once he was close enough, he leapt into the air and flew over the street and cop barricade.

As he fell, he punched the ground as hard as he could with his free hand. This caused the ground to start shaking and knocked everyone around him, including those in the bank, off their feet. He used this opening to charge forward, smashing through the front door and sending debris flying everywhere.

Luckily, nobody was hurt by this and the criminals quickly grabbed their guns before firing at him. But the bullets merely bounced off his metal hard skin. Several bullets struck his chest covering hand and made him frown as he heard Flurry begin to get upset, clearly not enjoying the sound of guns.

"RAAAAAAH!" He raised a foot and stomped it onto the ground as hard as he could, creating yet another earthquake that knocked the criminals staggering. He then rushed up to the closest one and kicked him across the room, doing the same with several more. He took the liberty of stepping on any gun he found on the ground, crushing it underfoot.

When the last member of the criminals were taken down, Riot-Horn sighed. "Alright!" He called out, is there any other crook in here that I should know about?" No one answered, "don't make me have to repeat myself." Sure enough, another criminal stepped out from around a corner and pulled a woman Riot-Horn guessed worked there out with him.

"Don't do anything stupid!" The crook held the woman in front of him with his gun pointed at her head. "Now, put your hands in the air." Riot-Horn frowned, but lifted his right hand. "Both of them!" His frown increased, as he tried to figure out the best way to get out of this situation without revealing Flurry. "NOW!"

Riot-Horn sighed, but was about to lift his arm. However, a shot filled the air before the crook suddenly screamed. He dropped his gun and the woman was able to struggle free, as the criminal staggered back and clutched his arm.

Riot-Horn spun around and saw a police officer at the destroyed entrance, his gun pointed at the criminal. Riot-Horn smirked at him and continued to covered Flurry, as more cops showed up and began to arrest the criminals. At the same time, the other hostages were released from a back room.

"Thank you," the bank manager told them.

"Just happy to help," Riot-Horn smirked. "Now if you'll excuse me, I've got places I need to be." But as he turned to walk away, the vault began to open.

"What's happening?" An officer asked, as one of the workers moved over to a computer.

"The digital lock on the vault's been undone," she explained. "That's not possible. Only the manager has the access key and that should be the only way to open it." The manager took out a card and showed it hadn't been used. "The only other way is if someone hacked into the system. But our system is on a secure server. They shouldn't have a way of hacking in unless they were inside the building."

"Maybe they are," Riot-Horn suggested. "Maybe he came in before the robbers and planned to act as a hostage whilst he got through your security."

"Wait," another bank employee called out, "I remember seeing one of them plug something into one of the computers when they grabbed me." She pointed at said computer and everyone moved over to it, where they saw some kind of flashdrive plugged into it with a green blinking light.

A cop pulled it out and when he did, the light turned red. "I know this. It's a wireless connector. If one's plugged into one laptop it would allow another laptop to access its systems. But they're not very reliable. The signal can get muddled with other electrical devices and they don't have that large a range." As he said that, Riot-Horn thought about everything that had happened to him that day.

The smart car going haywire. The digital locks on the transport malfunctioning and now this. Three digital problem, all of which happening around the park.

He then remembered who he had been talking to right before this all happened. "I think I might know where you can find this hacker." He ran out of the bank before the others could ask him any further question, the alien quickly leaping through the air and flying into the park.

Gizmo panicked as his connection was cut.

He quickly shut his laptop and put it away before attempting to escape. But as he did, something came crashing down from the sky. That something slammed into the ground and caused it to shake, knocking the highly uncoordinated man off balance.

As he was struggling to stay upright, a hand reached out and grabbed him by the back of the shirt. "AUGH!" He was lifted into the air and accidently dropped his laptop, then turned to see Riot-Horn smiling at him. This caused him to scream louder, catching the attention of the police officers that had chased after the alien.

"Is this him?" A cop asked, as Riot-Horn threw Gizmo at them. They caught him as the alien carefully lifted the laptop bag and handed it to them, the cops pulling the device out.

"Hey!" Gizmo cried, "you can't just go looking through my personal laptop like that. You at least need a warrant." The cops rolled their eyes as they opened it up and looked at the windows currently open. One such window made them look disgusted.

"Geez, you seriously need to get a girlfriend." He deleted that window and looked at the others, whilst another cop searched the bag and found the other wireless connector.

"Looks like we found our hacker," he smirked as they took out a pair of handcuffs. As they did this, Riot-Horn began to walk away. "Hey!" He looked back at them. "Thanks for the help, but I'm curious. Why are you covering your stomach like that? Did you get hit by one of the bullets?"

"Nope," Riot-Horn told him. "Just...holding something important." He turned away, "gotta go!" He took a running start and leapt into the air, flying through it and out of sight. The police all wondered what it was he was protecting. What was important to an alien?

Shining and Cadance both arrived home at around the same time, both of them wondering how Flash's day with their daughter had gone.

They half expected the place to be a complete and total mess. But were amazed to find their house was exactly the way they left it. And when they reached the living room, they found Flash on the couch with Flurry on his lap and one of her story books open.

The little girl looked rather tired, but she seemed to perk right up when she saw her mommy and daddy had gotten home. "Hey sweetheart," Cadance smiled as she reached over and picked her up. "How have you been today? Did Flash take care of you?" Flurry laughed as Cadance turned to Flash, Shining stepping up next to her. "How was she?"

"She was great," Flash assured her. "A little restless at the start, but she tired out pretty quickly when we went to the park."

"That's good," Shining smirked before Cadance stepped out of the room. "So...did anything unexpected happen?" Flash knew he was asking if Flash went alien and Flash couldn't lie.

"A few instances. But nothing I couldn't deal with whilst keeping Flurry safe."

Shining nodded, "good. So long as Flurry was safe, that's what matters." As he said that, Cadance returned with Flurry and a quizzical expression on her face.

"So," she asked before pulling up Flurry's dress and revealing her taped together diaper, "couldn't figure out how to work it?" Flash blushed as Shining and Cadance laughed. "It's fine. You should have seen Shining when he first tried to change her. He had it backwards, then inside out. Then backwards again." Flash burst out laughing, whilst Shining blushed.

"I figured it out in the end. And I'll show you the trick to it so that you'll be ready the next time you babysit her. If you're willing to, that is." Flash smirked as he looked down at Flurry, who was smiling back at him and hugging her Whammy.

"Sure," Flash nodded, "anytime you need me." Shining and Cadance smiled, "just give me a little more heads up the next time."

"Of course," Cadance nodded. "I hope you're willing to stay for dinner. Call it a thank you for helping us out." Flash nodded as Cadance smiled. "Good. I'll get it started once I've gotten Flurry to sleep. She looks like she's had a rather exciting day." They walked out of the room and Flash smirked.

"Oh, you have no idea." He and Shining chuckled before they sat down, Shining wanting to hear everything that happened that day.

Author's Note

Well that was an interesting chapter. Everyone's favourite baby got a lot more screen time in this chapter. Hope you all enjoyed it.

Season 2, Episode 5: They Came From the Deep

The moon shined brightly in the sky, its light reflecting off the water of the ocean a half-mile from the beach.

A man could be seen swimming through the water, happily enjoying a night time dip despite the alleged danger that doing so put him in. But he liked a little bit of danger and sighed as he came to a stop, treading on water as he looked around. Everything was so peaceful.

However, that peace was soon broken when he felt something grab his leg and pulled him down. He gasped and kicked wildly, managing to untangle his foot and swim back to the surface. He looked down and as he did, he saw something glowing red beneath him.

He quickly started swimming back to shore, frantically moving as fast as he could. But he didn't get to far before whatever was attacking him grabbed his leg again, tighter this time. He let out a single scream before being pulled under the waves, bubbles exploding out the water where had once been.

And after a few seconds, the bubbles ceased.

It was a beautiful day at the Canterlot Beachfront. The sun was shining and there wasn't a cloud in the sky, which of course meant a lot of people had chosen to come and spend the day at the beach.

This included Flash Sentry, who was there alongside Trixie and the Rainbooms. He was dressed in black shorts with yellow rings around the legs and his emblem stitched into the side. The rest of the girls were all wearing their regular beachwear, the lot of them enjoying the oddly hot day given the time of year.

Twilight, Spike, Trixie and Rarity were sitting on deck chairs, reading books or magazines whilst Pinkie and Fluttershy were working on a sandcastle. Flash, Sunset, Rainbow and Applejack were playing beach volleyball, enjoying themselves as they knocked the ball back and forth.

Flash laughed as he hit the ball before wiping his brow, feeling himself working up an enjoyable sweat as Applejack failed to hit the ball back. He and Sunset cheered, both high-fiving as they decided to take a break. They moved over to where the others were, grabbing some drinks out of their bags and re-hydrating.

As they did, Fluttershy and Pinkie put the finishing touches to their castle right before a crab scuttled inside. "There you go," Fluttershy laughed. "A lovely home for you to enjoy...at least until the tide comes in."

Flash sat on a chair next to Twilight and started drinking, sighing once he had his fill. "Man, I needed this. Seven alien situations in six days."

"You definitely needed a break," Twilight agreed as she looked out to the sea. She saw a boat off in the distance and wondered who was on it, but shrugged it off and returned to focusing on her book. Flash also looked out at the ocean, wondering if the waves were gonna get any bigger since he was itching to do some surfing.

He laughed as he imagined what surfing would be like in each of his alien forms.

He started reapplying his sunscreen as the others kept enjoying themselves, whilst Fluttershy went off to tell some little kids the dangers of digging a deep hole in the beach. Apparently, sea-turtles could end up stuck inside them and result in fatal injury.

Flash was just starting to relax, when a bunch of screams suddenly filled the air. Everyone looked out to the ocean, where they saw the boat in the distance appeared to be sinking. Currently, one end was tipping upwards and likely filling with water.

Twilight watched in amazement and horror before noticing movement, the teen looking to see Flash running down the beach towards the pier. She gave chase and when she caught up with him, he had already activated the watch. "What are you gonna do? None of your aliens are aquatic."

"Maybe," Flash found his chosen alien, "but XLR8 can move fast enough to run on water." He slammed the dial down and in a flash, he transformed. But not into the alien he was hoping for, as he was now his newest alien. "Lindwhirl!" He cried, looking him over. "Ahhh!"

"Great," Twilight sighed, "now what?" But Lindwhirl didn't seem put off by this. Looking around and seeing nobody had noticed him, he rolled up and barrelled towards the water. By the time someone noticed something big moving under the pier, he managed to dive down into the water and and found it was deep enough for him to be submerged.

Moving his arms and tail as fast as he could, he was surprised to find the usually clumsy alien was actually quite a good swimmer. He swam through the water as fast as he could, quickly reaching the ship and seeing people were trying to get on lifeboats to escape.

Taking a deep breath, he dived under the water and swam beneath the ship. As he did, he spotted something on the side of the hull. A hole.

He picked up as much speed as he could and swam straight up, tackling the ship in an attempt to push it back up. And he was actually succeeding. Using his tail like a rotor, he managed to push the ship's rear upwards and stabilized it. He knew he couldn't do this for long, but just long enough for the lifeboats to get on the water.

He looked up and saw the first touchdown, followed by another and another. He smirked and as he felt his breath slowly running out, he saw no more boats land. As such, he let the ship go and swam towards the surface. But as he did, he was unaware of a red light that appeared in the ship's broken hull.

Hitting the surface, he gasped as he looked towards the ships. None of them noticed him and were too focused on getting to shore. But just as Lindwhirl was about to swim after them, something grabbed his tail. "WOW!" He cried, barely having time to take a breath before being dragged under.

He quickly looked down and was shocked to see what was pulling him below the waves.

It was a squid. A robot squid whose body was about five feet in length, with long cable-like tentacles that added another six feet to it. The top four feet of its head was made up a mechanical drill device, with two foot-long bands below it. The bottom band was where the cables were coming out of and the middle one had a round red light on it that Lindwhirl guessed was the eye, which spun around and allowed it to see everything.

The robo-squid had its tentacles wrapped around his tail, but Lindwhirl quickly pulled it towards him and slashed the mech with his claws. He cut through the tentacles and it fell back, as he swam up towards the surface. But as he did, the squid's drill head spun and propelled it forwards.

He broke through the water and took a breath, then swam to the side to avoid getting drilled into. The squid missed him and he slashed at it again, this time cutting right through the machine's eye section and breaking its red light. This seemed to kill the robot, who went still and began to sink.

Lindwhirl swam down to watch it vanished into the darkness. But as it did, something new appeared in the shadows. Another red light, followed by another, then another and another. Lindwhirl's eyes went wide as he found he was surrounded by these lights on every side. And before he realised what was happening, hundreds more squids appeared out of the darkness and shot towards him.

He swam as fast as he could, trying to outrun the bots as he propelled himself out of the water. He got a good ten feet of air, as several squids flew out behind him. He then curled up and spun towards them, crashing through them before diving into the water. This caused him to lose all momentum though, as more squids attacked.

He started slashing away at them, cutting through their tentacles and eyes to power them down. But there were too many of them and he was starting to get overwhelmed. One then slammed into his back, knocking him deeper into the water. And as he reached back to tear it apart, another one swam up to him.

It raised its tentacle and Lindwhirl saw a nozzle on the end, which fired out a jet of black liquid. It hit Lindwhirl's mouth but that was all it touched, as he pushed himself back and swam straight up. But when he hit the surface, he found this strange black liquid suddenly began to harden. Within a second, it turned into a rock that covered his snout.

This, of course, caused a serious problem. Lindwhirl couldn't breath. He tried to pry it off, but his lack of oxygen caused him to start panicking. And as he struggled, the squids swam off towards...the lifeboats.

He cried out, or at least he tried, and began to swim after them. But this just caused his oxygen-deprivation to increase, the alien eventually feeling himself blacking out. The last thing he heard were a bunch of screams before everything went black.

"Kid...kid, wake up!" Flash heard a voice speak out through the darkness, as his mind began to clear.

He realised he could breathe again and as he opened his eyes, he saw a man looking down at him. He was a light blue skinned individual, with a beard and hair that was mostly dark blue with strands of white here and there.

The man looked him over and saw he was coming around, "you're still with us. That's good." Flash reached up and felt his face, the ink rock no longer then. He realised he must have timed out after going unconscious, causing the rock to fall from his face.

He took a deep breath and looked around, seeing he was on a boat of some kind. The people on deck were all dressed in the same uniform, Flash realising they must be the coastguard. "What happened?"

"We were hoping you'd tell us," the man told him. "We found you in the water, unconscious. You don't appear to be injured, but we assumed you were on the boat that just sank." Flash gulped, unsure if they would have a way to tell if he was lying. "I'm the man in charge of this vessel. Command Master Chief, Petty Officer Ripple."

"Flash Sentry. And yeah, I was on the boat. But then something made it start to sink." He then remember what had happened and gasped, "aliens!" The coastguards all jumped at this, "they sank the boat. There were these robotic squids that made a hole in our boat. And when we tried to escape, they destroyed our liferaft."

"I see," Ripple frowned. "I knew this day would come. Those monsters are starting to attack our seas. We should have dealt with them when they first showed up."

Flash raised an eyebrow. "You know not all the aliens are bad, right?" Ripple turned to them, "one of those alien heroes even showed up to help. He's the reason we were able to get off the boats before it sank. And he fought the squids off for a bit to help us escape. But...he went down against them. The squids shot this black ink that turned to rock as soon as he left the water."

"Don't let those things fool you," Ripple told him. "All aliens are bad. And now they've abducted our citizens in our oceans. Well, I'm not gonna let them get away with this." Flash frowned, but had a feeling this guy wouldn't be easily convinced of his alter-egos innocence.

They made their way to land and Flash did a full statement, though luckily they didn't ask why he was on the boat and in nothing but swim trunks. The coastguard medics gave him a good bill of health, but considered calling his parents to have them come pick him up.

This terrified Flash, since it could ruin his story. But luckily, the guards all had to head off to deal with another incident when they got to the merina. They told Flash to stay where he was, but Flash used this chance to sneak off the boat and out of sight before they could return and ask for his parent's number.

Once he was off the marina, he headed for the beach. But he found his friends before that, the lot of them on the boardwalk. "Flash!!" Trixie cried out, seeing him heading over to them. They all rushed over and started asking a million questions, the lot of them having been worried when he and the boat riders didn't return.

Flash quickly started explaining as they walked along the boardwalk and arrived at the pier. The girls weren't happy when they heard about the people that were kidnapped. "But you're okay?" Fluttershy asked.

"Yeah, but that was a close one. If I hadn't timed out when I did, I might have suffocated." The girls all looked worried, clearly not liking the sound of that happening to him. "But I can't think about that right now. I've gotta focus on the finding where those robo-squids took everybody."

"I wonder why they took them?" Twilight asked.

Pinkie shivered. "You don't think they're using them for...spare parts, do you?" The others shivered, not liking that thought at all. Flash knew he needed to find where those squids were hiding before it was too late

As this was happening, a man was leaning against the railing and looking down at the water. He then noticed something just below the surface and before he could take a closer look, that something exploded out of the sea and revealed itself as a robo-squid.

He cried out, staggering backwards as the squid pulled itself up onto the pier. As it did, it fired ink at the man and it solidified as soon as it hit him. In a second, he was trapped in the black rock-like substance before the robo-squid picked him up and threw him into the water.

Flash and his friends saw this and gasped, the Rainbooms rushing off to try and save them whilst Flash and Trixie ran behind a food shack. As everyone else was running, nobody noticed Flash activate the Omnitrix. Octavia Melody happened to be running by when a flash of green caught her attention. She didn't have a chance to see what it was, as ink struck her legs and made her fall to the ground.

The squid that sprayed her leapt in and was about to grab her, only to suddenly get electrocuted and fall to the ground.

Volt-Edge leapt out from behind the shed and landed next to the girl, using his claws to slash through the rock holding her legs. Once freed, Trixie ran in and helped her up before they both fled. This left Volt-Edge to focus on the squids and charged forwards, electrifying his claws as he started slashing through them.

The rest of the Rainbooms were also fighting, Twilight throwing the robots around whilst Applejack threw things at them and Pinkie blew them up with snacks from a nearby sweet shake. Rainbow used her super speed to grab them by their tentacles and whip them around, whilst Rarity was shielding people as Sunset and Fluttershy helped them get to safety.

Volt-Edge kept slashing wildly at the machines, being sure to avoid getting struck by the ink whilst sending out bolts of lightning in order to kill them. Whenever a squid was damaged, another grabbed it and tossed it into the water. Volt-Edge targeted one of these robots and fried it, causing it to fall to the ground.

He then grabbed the now useless drill attachment and ripped it off the main body, expecting to see a bunch of wires inside. And whilst he did see wires, he also saw something else. "Wow," he stared at it.

It was another squid. But not like the ones on earth. This squid was white in colour, but had a bunch of black markings covering its body and tentacle. A single eye was in the centre of its head, right above a very human looking jaw. Several short white tentacles were under its mouth, whilst two large tentacles were sticking out the sides of its body. On the ends of these tentacles were three large black claw-like fingers.

The alien looked scared as it was unable to protect itself, the creature frantically pressing buttons and pulling levers. "What are you?" He asked, only to drop the machine and leap back to avoid getting inked. The squid that fired quickly grabbed the downed one and threw it into the water, whilst Volt-Edge prepared to launch more lightning.

But before he could, a scream made him look around and he gasped when he saw Rarity get struck by ink and fall to the ground.

Everything but her head and feet was soon trapped by the ink, the others gasping as they saw a squid fly down and grab her. "Rarity!" Twilight cried, about to grab the squid in her magic. But another squid quickly fired ink at her. She soon found herself cocooned like Rarity, Volt-Edge and the others attempting to save them but getting surrounded by more squids.

And as they took them down, Rarity and Twilight were both picked up and thrown into the water. "NO!" Volt-Edge roared, as the two sank beneath the waves. This angered the electric alien, causing his entire body to radiate lightning that sparked wildly. "RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" The stream of electricity blasted off of him, the Rainbooms barely managing to avoid it.

The squids weren't so lucky and many of them were electrofied, causing them to fall to the ground.

Volt-Edge panted as he turned towards the water, but saw no sign of Twilight or Rarity. He did see more squids, which rose out of the water ready for a fight. However, the thing that stopped it wasn't him but a bullet.

Said bullet struck one of the squids in the eye, knocking it into the water. More bullets hit the other squids, as Volt-Edge turned to see Ripple walking towards them with several men. "They've taken people prisoner," Volt-Edge cried. "We've gotta-" He didn't get to finish, as Ripple quickly turned his gun on him. "WOW!" He barely managed to leap into the air and avoid a bullet.

"Hey!" Rainbow cried, "what are you doing?" Ripple fired again and Volt-Edge dodged again, as the squids started to escape. "He's on our side and the bad aliens are getting away!"

Ripple just kept firing, "they're all in league together. This one appears able to talk, so we'll capture it for questioning." He and several other members of his squad kept firing, as Volt-Edge grabbed some metal in his electricity and used it to shield himself. He watched as the last few squids disappeared into the water, angering him since he now had no way of telling where his friends had been taken too.

"RAAAAAH!" He punched the ground and unleashed a blast of lightning, which knocked the coastguards and even Rainbow and Applejack down. The light of the electrical blast blinded everyone and when the light faded, Volt-Edge was gone.

"Ahhh!" A numb Ripple picked himself up, "it got away."

"He's not the one you were supposed to be fighting!" Sunset told him. "Those squids were the ones attacking people and you focused your attention on the alien protecting people. Thanks to you, two of our friends were kidnapped and are having who knows what done to them!" Ripple could tell she was upset.

"Relax sweetheart. We'll find your friends. We fought several of those things on the way over here and I slapped a tracer on one of them before letting it get away. We'll find them." The coastguards walked away and the girls shared a worried look.

"You think he can save them?" Spike asked, looking at the water and worrying for Twilight and Rarity.

"A'h hope so," Applejack sighed. "But honestly, a'h don't think those guys stand a snowball's chance in a desert against those things." The others agreed. They knew the only one able to save them was Flash. But where was he?

Flash, still in alien form, had jumped under the pier and held on as he waited for the coastguard to leave. As such, he had heard everything Ripple had said. If he was gonna be going after his friends, Flash was gonna be going with him.

An hour later, Ripple were just about ready to go after the captured people.

Their large coastguard boat was fuelled up and they had the weapons and gear they would need to save the hostages and deal with the aliens. "You men ready?" He asked, the guards all nodding as he got behind the wheel. But as he kicked the boat into action, he sensed something behind him.

He looked, but there was nothing there.

The boat shot out of the marina and raced out to sea, Ripple following the tracer's location on the boat's computer. The boat was quite fast, so it wasn't long before they were a good distance away from the shore. But as they flew over the water, Ripple couldn't help but feel like there was someone there that shouldn't be.

He told another member of the crew to take the helm and as they did, he moved over to the side of boat. His men were busy preparing their dive gear and he pretended to watch them. But then, he pulled a knife from his belt and slashed at something.

"Ahhhh!" Blood covered his blade, as the one he cut became visible.

Chamalien held his tail as part of it was cut, he then leapt off the side of the ship as Ripple slashed at him. The other guards rushed over and held up guns, "surrender!"

"Wait!" Chamalien held up his hands, "I'm on your side. I'm just trying to find the captured humans."

"More like stop us from saving them," Ripple stated. "I don't know what you and your friends are planning," he took out a gun. "But it stops here." But before he could fire, the Omnitrix stated beeping. Chamalien's eyes went wide with fear, as he suddenly transformed back to human. Ripple was shocked by what he saw. "You."

Flash gulped, "hi?" He continued to keep his hands up, as the coastguards surrounded him. A minute later, Flash was sitting on the edge of the deck with his hands cuffed to the railing.

"Alright," Ripple stated. "You better start explaining. What are you? Alien taking human form? Or did you and that alien switch places?" He noticed the watch on Flash's arm and saw the symbol on it. "Does it have something to do with this thing?"

Flash sighed, "fine. I'll tell." And he did, explaining the Omnitrix, how it got there and why he was there. "I'm telling the truth. I just wanna save my friends."

"A likely story," Ripple told him. "Nothing good can come from alien technology and if you have it, you're dangerous. So you're gonna tell me how to remove it or I'm removing it the hard way."

Flash rolled his eyes, "it doesn't come off. It's bound to my DNA and if you try to force it off, it lets out a pulse that'll likely rip this ship apart." The coastguards frowned at this, whilst Ripple seemed to believe him.

"Fine, then we'll give you over to the government. They'll decide what to do with you." As he said that, the ship came to a stop and the driver told them they were right on top of the tracer. "After we save those victims." The lot of them had changed into wetsuits and were armed with guns and knives of every kind.

Ripple was the first to dive into the water, the rest of his crew following behind. Flash was surprised they didn't leave someone behind, but was glad since that meant he didn't have to worry about anyone stopping him. He waited until the Omnitrix turned green and as he did, he looked over the edge to try and see if he could spot any action down there. But he couldn't, for the seabed was too far down.

Time passed and Flash wondered how Ripple and his crew were doing, whilst also wondering how he was gonna weasel his way out of them revealing his secret. He knew this was his own fault, sneaking onto the ship without thinking about the possibility of being found. Now he was gonna have to deal with everyone in the world knowing his secret.

But as the watch turned green, he knew he still had a chance. Show Ripple he wasn't the enemy and help them stop these things.

He activated the device and found the only alien he knew could survive underwater, then pushed the dial down. In a flash, he transformed into Goop and slid out of the handlebars. He then dived into the water, whilst anti-gravity disk pulling him deeper and deeper beneath the waves.

It quickly got dark, but Goop could just about see as he found himself at the bottom of the ocean. Sand was all he could see in every direction and he began to worry he had no way of locating Ripple and the others. But he began his search and as he did, he noticed something on the ground. A bullet shell.

He picked it up and looked around, noticing another one not to far off. Going in that direction, he saw a bunch of rocks off in the distance. Likely a good place to find a bunch of robotic squids.

He flew through the water and as he did, he spotted something else on the seafloor. An actual gun. It was broken in half, likely due to a struggle. He quickly found more and more as he got closer to the rocks, wondering what could have happened.

When he finally found the rocks, he spotted movement and dived behind some of them. Looking up, he saw the movement was coming from a pair of robo-squids, which used the drills on their heads as propellers to move them through the water. He watched them as they swam above the rocks before suddenly diving and disappearing, Goop slithering around the rocks in the direction they disappeared.

He then came to a stop when he found himself at the edge of a trench, the alien looking to see that it went on further then he could see in both directions. The other side was about ten meters across and as he looked down, he couldn't see any sign of the squids.

He quickly dived down and stared at the trench walls, eventually spotting something. A hole in the side of the trench

Swimming into it, he saw it led to a diagonal tunnel going down further and further. He worried he would time out and drown, but before that panic kicked in he found the tunnel leveled out before coming to an end. Looking up, he noticed a light of some kind and realised he was looking through an entrance to an area devoid of water.

Lifting himself out of the water, he looked around and found he was inside a large cave. It was likely some kind of air pocket, whilst Goop started flying around to try and locate everyone.

There were multiple tunnels, some appearing to be natural whilst others looked like they had been dug out using the squid's drill heads. He tried to figure out which way his friends were in, but at that moment he heard someone speaking up.

"Let me go!" It was Ripple, Goop locating his voice coming from a central tunnel. He flew down it, keeping himself low to the ground so as to not be noticed if a squid-bot showed up. Ripple continued to yell, Goop wondering why his was the only voice he heard.

Eventually, he came to the end of the tunnel. It had a large metal door blocking it, making Goop frown until he noticed a hole in the wall that Ripple's voice was coming out of. He was just about to slide through it, when the door started retracting upwards.

He quickly stuck himself to the ceiling, as several squid-bots pulled themselves out of the room. The door quickly began to close and Goop barely had enough time to fly under it before it shut. As he did, he was greeted to the sight of another large tunnel. This one was bigger than the last and lining the walls were a bunch of strange egg-like devices, which were attacked to the walls and each had a window on the front of them.

Goop took a closer look and when he did, he was shocked to see that the egg had someone inside it. A woman who appeared to be asleep, whilst appearing dressed to go to the beach. Goop quickly realised this must have been one of the people who was kidnapped that day, then looked around and saw a bunch more people in all the other eggs.

A roar of pain then filled the air and Goop realised it was Ripple, whose voice was coming from further down.

He rushed forward, the lights coming from the pods his only source of light in such a dark place. When Ripple finally came into view, he realised he was at the very end of the tunnel. He was stuck to the tunnel, that strange black rock-like substance plastering his body and arms to it. A bunch of squids were doing something to him and as he flew in to save him, something caught the alien's eye.

Twilight and Rarity. The two were each inside an egg, asleep and unaware of the danger they were in.

Seeing them just angered Goop and as the robo-squids noticed him, he quickly grabbed one and swung it around to smash into the wall. The other squids started firing ink at him, but Goop was able to avoid all the attacks and get in close.

He managed to hit them all with an acidic limb that caused their robotic bodies to malfunction, whilst Goop landed in front of Ripple. As the squids fell to the ground, Goop looked Ripple over. "Hang on. I'll get you out of there." But before he could melt through the ink, the Omnitrix started beeping.

"No!" He cried before turning back to human, "not now!" He looked around, hoping to find something else to break through the rock with. But as he did, Ripple noticed something behind him.

"Look out!" Flash spun around and saw that one of the squids were still working, or at least enough to raise its one tentacle and fire a blast of ink.

It struck Flash and he was thrown backwards, as everything but his head and lower arms were covered in the quickly solidifying ink. The squid died at this and as it did, several more robo-squids flew in and saw the havoc done. One flew up to Flash and looked him over, whilst the others picked up their fallen comrades.

"What are you looking at?" Flash asked, glaring at the squid-bot. The creature raised a tendril as a needle suddenly popped out of it, Flash's eyes going wide before the squid stabbed him in the right arm. Flash screamed in pain, as his blood was sucked out of his arm. It wasn't much, but it caused Flash to feel lightheaded when it was done.

It pulled the needle out and turned to leave with the others, causing Flash to moan as he let his remaining blood spread out more. "You'll be okay," Ripple told him. "Did the same thing to me and my men before they stuffed them in these egg things."

"Right," Flash blinked, "why aren't you inside one?"

"I think they might have ran out. I don't see any empty ones, do you?" Flash looked around and realised he didn't. All the capsules were full of someone. "You shouldn't have come down here. Those things got the jump on us before we could even get inside the cave. Knocked out our weapons and damaged our air tanks. If they hadn't brought us down here, we'd be dead."

"You should have taken me with you," Flash stated. "I could have helped." Ripple stared at him, "I'm not your enemy. All I've tried to do since getting the Omnitrix is help people. I haven't always succeeded, but I've done my best. I'm not trying to hurt anyone."

"Maybe," Ripple frowned, "but I don't trust alien technology. It's done nothing but bad."

"You sound like aliens hurt you," Flash rolled his eyes before noticing a look on Ripple's face. "This isn't your first alien encounter, is it?"

"No," Ripple shook his head. "When I was a kid, I used to spend my weekends on my father's fishing boat. He loved the sea and he taught me to love it too. But then, one night, something happened. We had just pulled up a big haul when something appeared in the sky. Something big came crashing down towards us. We thought it was a meteor, but when we tried to outrun it it started chasing us. Eventually, it crashed into the water behind us and created a wave that turned our boat."

"What happened to your dad?" Flash asked, Ripple looking hurt at the question.

"He went down with the ship. I was thrown overboard, but the vessel was sunk and my father went with it. I found some driftwood to hold onto and eventually floated to shore, but my father was lost."

"You think that thing was alien?"

"What else could have moved like that? It was nothing human, I'm sure of that. It was an alien, just like these creatures."

"You think these things are the same creatures that sank your boat?" Ripple shook his head.

"If they were, they're a long way from where it happened. My father and I lived on the other side of the country. Different sea. But I knew what happened to us could happen again, so I swore to be prepared. My father loved the sea and I will defend it from all sorts of threats. Even alien ones." As he said that, a ding from the Omnitrix signalled its recharge.

Flash tried to activate it, but the way his arms were locked in place he couldn't get them close enough. He then looked over to Ripple. "You don't have to trust in the Omnitrix. Just trust in me, at least until we get out of here and save everyone." Ripple stared at him for a moment, then nodded. "Great, see if you can switch it on. Round green button."

Ripple tried to reach over and Flash did the same, the pair's hands only inches from one another. Ripple pointed with his finger so hard, he feared he might dislocate it. But eventually, he managed to hit the button to switch the watch on and Flash instantly pushed it against the wall.

He hoped he would get something strong, like Diamondhead or Riot-Horn. But what he became was like nothing he had ever been before.

When the green light faded, Ripple saw the alien in front of him. It was a strange orange squid-like creature, with a head that had a darker orange helmet on top along with a mouth and blue eyes. Everything below its neck was nothing but nine long tentacle appendages that ended in a flat egg-shaped hand that had suckers on the underside. The Omnitrix could be seen on its chest.

"What the heck is that?" Ripple asked, as Flash looked himself over.

"Beats me. I never went him before." He suddenly found his wiggly body wasn't as stuck in the rock as before and he managed to slide down and out of it before standing on his many tentacles. He then spun around and slammed a tentacle into Ripple's restraint, shattering it and freeing the man. "But I like what he can do."

Ripple stretched as the pair looked towards the pods holding the others. Flash moved onto to the one holding Twilight and looked it over, not seeing any kind of hatch on door that could free her. But as he touched it, a part opened up and unleashed a cable with some kind of sucker. It shot out and hit Flash in the head.

"WOW!" He cried, as he felt his brain buzz.

"You okay?" Ripple pulled a knife out of his boot.

"I think so," Flash nodded. He didn't feel any pain or effect it was having on his brain. "Whatever this is, hopefully it can help me free Twilight." But as he said that, something happened.

The pod suddenly split in two. The front detached from the back and swung open, releasing a strange white mist that entered the room. Flash shielded his mouth as the mist fell to the ground and Twilight fell forward, allowing him to catch her. "Twilight, come on." He pulled the cable off, "wake up." Twilight's eyes began to flick open and as they did, she moaned and looked up into his face.

When their eyes met, Twilight blinked for a moment before screaming. "AHHHHH!" She used her magic and threw Flash backwards, making him cry out as he was slammed against the wall between two pods. But when he was, she saw the Omnitrix.

"Twilight...it's me!"

"Flash?" He nodded and she let him down, "what happened?" She looked him over, "when have you had this alien?" She then looked around, "and where are we?" She clutched her head. "The last thing I remember...we were all heading to the beach."

"You don't remember the robo-squids?" Flash asked, Twilight shaking her head.

"No," Twilight told him, "I don't. What happened?"

"Story for later," Ripple stated before turning to Flash. "How'd you free her?"

Flash turned to Rarity's pod and touched it, the cable shooting out and hitting his head. "I just thought about freeing her and-" The pod suddenly opened like before and Rarity fell forward, Flash grabbing her and placing her on the ground. He stepped away as Twilight moved to her side, Rarity moaning as she awakened.

"What on earth happened?" She asked, only to then notice Flash and gasp. But seeing the Omnitrix made her relax, "where are we?" Flash quickly explained everything that had happened, whilst Twilight started examining the pod she had been in.

"Amazing," she whispered as the cable attached to her head. "These pods are some kind of stasis devices. Clearly meant to preserve whatever's inside for long space travel."

"Interesting," Flash told her, "but that doesn't help us. We've gotta find a way to get everyone out of here and quick."

"Let's just release them and escape," Ripple told him.

"How?" Rarity asked. "This many people would never be able to sneak through the caves. These creatures you talked about will find and catch us again. And this time, they might not be so willing to simply pod us."

"Wait," Twilight gasped, "I think these might be escape pods. They're probably how the squids got here in the first place. And I bet they work on mental commands."

"Guess it makes sense," Flash stated. "These things don't appear to be very dexstruss. They must control everything, even those robot bodies, through the mind."

Twilight nodded as her body suddenly glowed. Then, in a flash of light, it suddenly disappeared and reappeared further up the tunnel. "Teleportation."

"You think we can teleport them all out of here?" Flash asked, Twilight nodding.

"I just need the longitude and latitude of where they have to go." As she said that, movement could be heard from up ahead. Looking around, they saw several more robo-squids shuffling towards them. They saw what Twilight was doing and fired ink at her, Rarity barely putting up a shield.

Flash shot forward and avoided the ink blasts, managing to grab two of the robo-squids with in his tentacles before swinging them around. They smashed into the walls, but another squid struck Flash and knocked him to the ground. He cried out as he did so, only for something to shoot out of his mouth. The same black substance that the other aliens were firing. Ink.

It shot into the robot's eye and blinded it, allowing Flash to pick himself up. He then leapt at the robot and wrapped his tentacles around it, constricting them as hard as he could. Eventually, the machine was crushed and went dead. "Not bad," Ripple told him. But as he did, an alarm filled the air. "What's happening?"

"They must have sent out an alert!" Twilight cried as the pod's cable retracted from her head and disappeared into the device. "NO!" She tried open the hatch, but it wouldn't give. "They must have cut power to it." Flash frowned and grabbed the three in his tentacles, pulling them behind him as he flew down the tunnel. "What are you doing?"

"Getting us out of her," Flash announced. "If there's an alert, they're gonna try and shut us inside." Sure enough, as he reached the end of the tunnel he saw the metal door begin to close. He threw the trio and they flew under the door before it closer, Rarity using her shields to give them a smooth landing. Flash then leapt into the air and as he looked at the small hole in the wall, he felt an instinct to try and get through it.

Having felt this kind of thing before, he pushed his head through it and found his squishy body was like putty that pushed its way through the hole as the others looked a little freaked out. His entire head soon made its way through, followed by his neck and several tentacles. It took a little effort to get the Omnitrix through, but once it did the rest of him followed easy enough.

"Alright," he told them, "which way now?" He couldn't remember which way he had come through to escape.

"What about the people in that room?" Twilight asked.

"We'll come back for them," Ripple assured her. "But the four of us aren't gonna free them all." Flash nodded before hearing something coming from one of the tunnels. He went to investigate and saw several more squids making their way towards him. He quickly pushed himself against the wall and as he did, his body changed to the same colour and texture as the wall.

"Cool." He used this to move in close and once he was, he grabbed the robots and slammed them against the wall. Some more saw him and prepared to attack, but Twilight jumped in and used her magic to pull them apart. The pair smirked at on another before they headed down the tunnel. And as they did, they found the tunnel was starting to get steeper and steeper.

And eventually, it was so steep it was like a slide. One that Rarity ended up tripping down. "Ahhh!" She fell and knocked into Ripple, pushing him into Twilight. The three fell into Flash and the alien was quick to wrap his tendrils around them all, wrapping them up and protecting them as they all tumbled down the tunnel.

Flash flinched with every impact, but his squishy and durable body managed to take them without damage. And when they finally reached the end of the tunnel, they flew out and Flash used his tendrils to grab onto the ceiling. The other three were wrapped up in his tentacles, as they looked around to see a large cavern.

A giant pool was at the far end and along the wall were a bunch of machine parts.

Flash lowered the others down and Twilight rushed over to machines. "I think this might be where they operate everything." But as she touched the machine, the pool exploded as multiple squids leapt out.

Flash jumped into action and swung from stalactite to stalactite, grabbing the squids and destroying them with relative ease. As he did, Rarity put up a wall of diamonds to protect herself and Twilight whilst she rushed to the computer. And to her relief, the device activated upon touch and unleashed a chord.

It stuck to her head and she found herself seeing images and other things she barely understood. Clearly, the device was streaming info straight into her head. A normal person would likely be overwhelmed by the input, but Twilight found herself just managing to follow it.

"Do you know what this stuff all does?" Ripple asked, Twilight nodding.

"Yup. This computer is their main control centre." A loud crash was heard, as Flash destroyed another squid. "In controls everything, including the escape pods." She smiled. "Activating teleportation. Inputting longitude and latitude of arrival location. Programming them to release upon arrival."

the remaining squids flew at the magical wall and slammed their drills into it, boring away at Rarity's crystals. "Hurry!" Rarity cried, as Flash landed behind the robots and grabbed them in his tendril. He swung them around until they crashed into the ground, being broken apart.

Once the last squid was damaged, the creatures inside pulled themselves out and started dragging their weak bodies to the water. "That's right, run away!" Flash smirked as Twilight clapped.

"I did it!" They turned to her, "the escape pods have teleported themselves to the area I chose near the beach. They should start waking up soon."

"Good," Ripple nodded, "but see what else you can find in there. Maybe why they were kidnapping people to begin with." Twilight nodded and asked the computer why the humans were being stored away. But as she did, something exploded out of the water.

That something was huge. So huge that when it pulled itself out of the water, its top almost hit the ceiling. Said ceiling was almost twelve feet high and as the water on it rolled down its body, it was revealed to be a larger version of the squids that had been inside the robots.

"Wow!" Flash gasped, "I think we just met the mommy squid." As he said that, the creature's one colossal eye looked down towards them. "Er...hi."

"Cephalod-ae," the creature spoke. They hadn't been expecting that, "your presence on this planet was not expected. Why are you here?"

"I could ask you the same question," Flash told him. "Why are you on this planet? And why are you trying to kidnap humans." As he said that, Twilight found something in the computer that interested her.

"We are here for colonisation," the giant squid explained. "And you are impeding our progress."

"Colonisation?" Ripple growled, "you came here to steal our planet?" He looked outraged, "how dare you!"

"We require this planet," the squid announced. "We are the last of our species. To survive, we require this planet." It started pulling its large tentacles out of the water. "Humans are a threat. They take from this world and leave nothing but pollution and devastation in their wake. This planet's oceans are a suitable environment for my kind to thrive in. But human pollution could make it inhospitable for us."

"So you're stealing people to try and stop them from polluting?" Flash asked, "how does that work? You've only taken a small group of people and that filled up your escape pods pretty fast."

"The abductions were needed for our plan," the squid replied. "Soon the human threat shall be neutralised." The humans all looked confused, until Twilight gasped.

"Flash!" She called out, "they have a bomb." That got their attention, the lot of them turning to glare at the squid.

"A weapon from the ancient times of my world. A relic preserved during the golden age, now restored and ready to be detonated. It will target the DNA of any creature programmed into it and will only attack cells containing it. The deaths shall be quick and painless."

"You monster," Ripple growled. "You kidnapped people and took their DNA to fuel your doomsday weapon."

"We had hoped only one or two samples would be required, but you humans are so complicated. Unlike us, your DNA is too radically different from each person. However, we have managed to acquire enough data to successfully destroy ninety percent of the human population on this planet."

"You'll be killing billions!" Rarity screamed.

"This must be done. The technology I have is limited. It can clean these waters, but not fast enough to keep up with the amount of pollution humanity produces. The only option is to destroy the pollution at its source."

"We're not letting you do this," Ripple told him.

"Too right," Flash nodded before leaping into the air. The larger squid attacked with its tentacles, attempting to slash at him with the claws. But Flash swung from one stalactite to another, avoiding them whilst shooting out blasts of ink to try and hit its eyes. But the larger cephalopod was able to block these with its other tentacles.

At the same time, Ripple started slashing at the other tentacles that got too close to the magic wall. He slashed at one tendril and actually managed to cut the tip off, whilst Twilight was busy trying to mentally hack into the bomb. Rarity was growing tired, her gems starting to flicker.

"Twilight, how much longer?"

"I'm into the bomb's system," Twilight explained. "But it doesn't have a DNA delete function." She told the computer to deactivate the bomb, but it didn't work. This bomb was set to blow, even if she didn't know when. "The only way to get rid of the DNA samples is to scan something new into the system. Something that isn't human."

Ripple heard this and as Flash was batted away by a tendril, he spotted the small piece he had cut off that was still wiggling on the ground. He reached down and grabbed it, "here!" He threw it at Twilight, Rarity making a hole in her shield that it flew through.

She caught it in her magic and brought it to her, Twilight's eyes going wide as she realised what Ripple wanted her to do.

"Hurry," he told her before slashing at another tendril. Twilight looked at the wriggling tentacle tip, then at the machine. Taking a deep breath, she reached out and told the machine to scan it. As she did, Flash managed to finally get an ink hit on the squid's eye.

It roared in pain and accidently hit the ceiling with its tentacle, causing several stalactites to fall. Rarity changed her shield to block them from hitting the ground, but this pushed her passed her limit and the shield ripped apart. Flash then leapt at the creature and swung his tentacles around, hitting the creature in the ink-stained eye as hard as he could.

The beast roared as Flash leapt backwards. But as he landed, the Omnitrix beeped. "Not now!" But he couldn't help it and was returned to normal, the now powerless teen stepping back as the tentacles weaved around. As it did, Twilight watched a beam that was flying out of the computer and moving over the tentacle tip.

"There," she said when it finished. She gave the command and this DNA replaced the one already in its database, the computer then opened a slot before firing out a tube with a button on the end of it. She caught it and turned towards the squid, holding the device up. "You'd better stop if you know what's good for you."

The squid splashed water on its eye and cleaned it out, allowing it to see the tube in her hand. "The detonator!"

"That's right," Twilight nodded. "Now the bomb is set to your DNA." She held her thumb over the button. "You said it yourself. Your species' DNA isn't as jumbled up and wild as ours. I'm guessing that means your DNA will make the bomb target every member of your race on this planet."

"NO!" The squid swung its arms around attempted to strike Twilight, Rarity putting a shield up in front of them. But the tentacle managed to push the gem into them, knocking the two to the ground and causing Twilight to accidently throw the trigger.

Flash saw this and ran for it, managing to catch it before it hit the device. He held it up and placed a thumb over the button. "One wrong move and I set this thing to blow."

"You would wipe out my entire race?" The alien asked. "You would dare commit genocide?"

"I don't want to do it," Flash told him. "But I will if you leave me no other option." The squid stared at him, then retracted the tentacle back into the water.

"What do you wish from me?"

"I'm giving you a choice," Flash stated whilst the others looked at him in shock. "I am a dully deputised member of the plumbers. I can get in contact with them and they can relocate you to a planet you can survive on without interference. But if you really want to stay on this planet, then you have to make peace with our kind. Humans can be good people if you treat them with respect. They care about this planet. Our government will be willing to let you stay here if you promise not to hurt anyone."

"He's right," Twilight nodded. "And if you're telling the truth about being able to clean up the pollution, then I'm sure many countries will be happy to let you live in their oceans."

"We don't have to be enemies," Flash stated. "Please, do the right thing for your race."

The squid stared at them, as if contemplating the offer. "I have studied your race upon arrival and have determined that they have a great talent...for hypocrisy." They looked worried at that statement. "You claim the human race cares for this planet, yet they do almost nothing to protect it. They continue to use dangerous polluting machines, dump their waste someplace out of sight, thinking that is good enough. And then there are those that attempt to fix the damage."

"Yes," Rarity told him, "many people want to help the environment."

"A small number. And whenever it appears like change will begin, something louder and more exciting happens to make those changes disappear. Your species is incapable of change and cannot be trusted."

"Then leave this planet," Flash demanded.

"No. This planet is the only one I was able to find that could house my species. This must be our home."

"Won't leave and won't agree to peaceful cohabitation," Ripple glared at him. "Then you leave us no choice. Flash, fry'em!" Flash pushed his thumb against the button, only needing a single press to activate it. But before he could, the squid spoke.

"Go ahead. Wipe out the last of our kind. Doom my race to extinction. I hope you can live with yourself."

"I have to do it." But Flash's thumb wouldn't move.

"You claim to be a plumber. A hero that protects all life. Yet now you consider mass murder to get what you want. I was willing to become a monster for my race's future. Are you willing to do the same?" Flash still couldn't push the button, as the girls looked worried. "What are you? Coward or killer?"

Flash roared, trying to force himself to press it. But as his cry ended, he dropped the device as it fell to the ground. "Coward. Every time." He knew he might be dooming his race, but he just couldn't do it.

The squid chuckled as Ripple moved over to Flash and picked the device up. "It's okay kid. You didn't do anything wrong. The world needs more people like you." Flash smiled at him, only to see him raise the device. "And less people like me." With that, he pressed the button and it lit up.

Suddenly, the ceiling above them shook as a wave of energy flew out and struck the squid. The beast roared as its body bubbled, parts of its tentacles starting to slowly melt. The humans gasped at this. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?" He looked down into the water, a thousands of screams reverberated through the water. "You're killing them!" The tentacles shot out of the water and started thrashing about.

Ripple dropped the device and held up his knife, as a tentacle almost knocked him and Flash over. "Get out of here!" He yelled to the teen, "I'll hold it off."

"You can't stay!" Flash cried, only to have to dodge a stone spike. "You'll die!"

"Go!" Ripple yelled, as a tentacle flew at him. "Keep this world safe. That's an order!" He charged at the beast, as Twilight grabbed Flash and pulled him away. The three ran into another tunnel, this one being a lot straighter then the last, which quickly collapsed behind them. Now trapped, Ripple glared the monster down. "Hello beastie!" The squid roared before throwing itself at Ripple, its mouth open as he charged forward. He leapt into its mouth, knife thrust forward as the cavern collapsed down upon them.

Flash and the girls continued to run, as the tunnel collapsed behind them. It was gaining on them.

But in that moment, Flash's watched turned green. "Yes!" He quickly dialled up an alien and slammed it down, transforming him into XLR8. "Hold on!" He grabbed the girls and zipped down the tunnel, managing to out run the collapse. At least until they reached the end of the tunnel.

Said end was met by a large pool of water, which they hoped led to the surface. "Can you swim in this form?" Rarity asked, XLR8 unsure. Even if he could, they were likely so far underwater the girls would drown before they reached the surface.

"I have an idea," Twilight cried as the collapse approached. "Rarity, put a shield around us and hold your breath." Rarity did so, making a sphere that completely enveloped them. XLR8 pushed the sphere onto the water, right as the ceiling above them collapsed.

They were pushed down into the water, but the shield remained still and floated in place. XLR8 then started pushing to ball forwards, using the nightvision in his visor to show him where to go. It wasn't too long of a tunnel, so they were soon out of it. And when they were, the air inside the sphere pushed them upwards.

The girls could barely hold their breath and both gasped for air, Rarity accidently releasing the sphere as she did. But XLR8 held them tight and started moving his tail and legs as fast as he could. This resulted in them flying up and eventually reaching the surface.

The girls gasped for air again and XLR8 continued to move, his fast acting legs pushing the water around them lower and thrusting him forwards. Eventually, he reached the speed needed that he could actually run on the water. The girls looked back at where they had just been, realising that Ripple was gone.

XLR8 also thought that, the alien continuing to think the situation over again and again. He knew Ripple had done the right thing and Flash didn't hate himself for not going through with it himself. He knew that if he took a life, countless lives, he could never call himself a hero again.

They eventually reached the shore and as they got closer, the Omnitrix beeped. They reached the beach and zoomed under the pier as a green light filled the air. Flash was back to being a human and they were all standing there, wondering what to do next.

However, they got their answer when they heard a bunch of noise coming from the boardwalk.

They climbed out from under the pier and saw a bunch of people gathered around, looking rather confused. And as they got closer, they noticed a large pile of escape pods. Twilight remembered this was where she had teleported the kidnapped people, who were clearly still confused about what had happened.

But as they climbed onto the boardwalk, they heard Pinkie's voice. "TWILIGHT! RARITY!" They looked around and saw her and the rest of their friends running towards them, along with Twilight and Rarity's parents. Shining was also there, having been taking statement from those that had appeared.

"What happened?" Rainbow asked, "we were worried when the others came back but you weren't with them. And then we couldn't find Flash...what happened to you guys?"

"I asked around," Shining said. "Nobody remembers anything. Even the coastguards don't seem to remember anything." Flash inwardly smiled at that, since it meant his secret was safe. Then he frowned and got serious. He rushed over to a nearby bench and stood on it.

"Everyone...LISTEN!" They all stopped and turned to him. "I know a lot of you are confused about what happened. You all waking up here with no memory and being told you were abducted. Well it's true. I was there and I saw it all." This shocked the people. "And I saw the man who saved you. His name was Ripple."

The coastguard heard this and were shocked, as Flash kept talking.

"Those aliens feared us and planned on wiping us out before we could hurt them. Ripple stopped them from doing that. He saved me, my friends and around ninety percent of the earth's population. He didn't do it for fame, or glory, or even out of anger. He did it because it was something that needed to be done. And even though he had to commit a horrific act to save us, we should all consider him a hero. I know I will."

The crowd finished listening and broke out into a myriad of questions, Flash jumping down and being asked by Ripple's crew about what happened.

Flash pretended to be one of the people taken from the surface, Twilight and Rarity agreeing with this and explaining how they were taken into the underwater cave system. How the squids had run out of pods when they captured Ripple and his team.

He then stated that a new alien appeared and saved them, allowing the lot of them to escape and discover the robo-squid's plans. How Ripple managed to stop the plans and fought off the monstrous alien, allowing the heroic aliens to get the three of them out of there and to safety.

The guards all looked heartbroken by Ripple's loss, but Flash assured them they all went out a hero.

Later on, Flash and his friends were all at the pier. They stared out into the setting sun, wondering if the squid aliens were all really gone. Flash was also looking at his newest alien on the Omnitrix, wondering what he should call him. But that was something he could focus on later, as Trixie spoke up.

"You think those squids are really all gone?"

"I don't know," Flash told her.

Twilight nodded. "They seemed pretty sure the DNA bomb would destroy every last member whose DNA was inside of it. Maybe a few of them survived, but I doubt they're gonna be able to do much of anything on their own now."

"Well I hope they're all gone," Rainbow frowned with Fluttershy scolding her. "What, they tried to wipe us out. They got what was coming to them. Right Flash?" They all looked at Flash, wondering what he was thinking about.

"I'm not happy they're gone. Honestly, I'm just sad." This was a surprise. "They did what they did because they didn't think they could trust humans. And they had some pretty good reasons for not trusting us. We've done so much damage to the planet and it's only now we've tried to make things better. And even then, it's slow going." The others realised he was right and as the sun completely set, he looked up and the night sky. "I just hope one day, the human race can become one that no aliens are afraid to trust."

Flash knew the chances of such a thing were likely impossible, but he would continue to hope for the best. And until that day came, he would do what he could to help his race grow better and better. But only time would tell if he would ever be successful.

Author's Note

Well, that was kind of a gut punch ending. Flash saved the day, but someone had to die to do it. Just shows that sometimes, heroes have to make the ultimate sacrifice to save the world.

Hope you liked Flash's new alien. The hardcore Ben 10 fans might actually recognise it from somewhere. Hope to see you next time.

Season 2, Episode 6: Hot Rods and Hot Dates

In the Canterlot City, we find Flash walking down the road looking rather well dressed.

Instead of his usual jeans and hoodie look, he was dressed in black dress pants, a blue shirt and black blazer. His hair was styled into a more gentlemanly look and his shoes were the kind he usually wore for weddings, funerals and anything Rarity invited him to.

The teen sighed as he took out his phone and looked at the time, seeing it was getting close to the time he was meant to meet them. Nerves were flooding his entire body, as he thought about what he was about to do. How was it that fighting against Vilgax and all the other aliens insanities he had faced, was less stressing then what was about to happen?

"How did I let Trixie talk me into this?"

Flash and Trixie were at Flash's place, doing some homework as the news was on in the background.

"And in other news. The world famous Slipstream supercar will be on display in Canterlot starting next week. The limited edition car will be auctioned off the opening day, but will remain on display for three weeks following its buying. This car is said to be the fastest road legal car ever made."

"How's this look?" Trixie showed Flash her homework and Flash looked it over, having grown quite comfortable thanks to Twilight's tutoring.

"Looks good. You divided perfectly." Trixie pumped her arm, as her phone went off and she smiled.

"Perfect. Great homework and great match. Everything's coming up Trixie." Flash looked at her confused, wondering what the heck she was talking about.

"Great match?"

"Yup," Trixie held up her phone, "on this dating site I've joined. You leave out your name and it has no picture, then input all your likes and dislikes. The site then matches you up with anyone you have between sixty and eighty-five compatibility with."

"Why not those with higher than eighty-five?"

"I'm not sure. The site's entry page said something about differences breeding harmony. If you're too compatible with one another, it doesn't leave you any room to grow with your respective partner."

"Guess that makes sense," Flash nodded as he remembered Shining saying something similar once. "So you've been on this site for how long?"

"Couple of weeks. Whenever I'm matched up with someone, I message them through the site's PM system and we talk. But we leave out who we are so that if things don't work out, we don't have those awkward moments if we meet in real life." Flash could see the logic in that, but then Trixie smiled an evil smile. "You know, you should join the site."

"What?" Flash asked, "no way."

"Come on. You haven't had a date with anything since Princess Twilight."

"I don't wanna date anyone right now. I've got way too much going on in my life. Besides, if I did want a new girlfriend, I'm not gonna use a blind dating site. That's like giving up. It's the male equivalent of getting a cat."

"Come on," Trixie pouted. "Just try it. See who you get matched up with. You never know, the two of you might really hit it off."

Flash frowned. "Let's say I do this and do find someone I really like?" He held up his watch, "what am I supposed to tell her when I need to run off in the middle of a date to save someone from a burning building?"

Trixie shrugged, "maybe you'll like her so much you'll decide to tell her the truth." Flash raised an eyebrow at this. "Come on. You realise if you don't do this, I'll do it myself and see who you get matched up with."

"Yeah right." Flash smirked, but then saw Trixie hold up his phone and start typing away. "Hey!" He checked his pockets, "where'd you get that." Trixie smirked and kept typing.

"Let's see. Username...Alien boy." Flash's eyes went wide. "Favourite food...super spicy curry."

"I hate spicy food!" Flash finally nabbed his phone back. "Fine. I'll do it myself." Trixie smiled as he started inputting the info, though of course leaving off what he usually did in his spare time. After a while, he finished and activated his site to be matched up. "There, you happy?"

"I will be, when you get matched up." And sure enough, the site had already found his first match. "Oow, who'd you get?" Flash kept this secret and looked through their webpage, his interest growing with every paragraph.

And thus a week of messaging commenced.

Flash had to admit, that this girl sounded great. She was the oldest of three siblings, enjoyed past times that included listening to music, watching movies, singing and occasionally cooking. She liked guys that were fit, but not over brawny meatheads, smart but not dorky brainiacs and mentally strong but not so much that they tried to make her do whatever he wanted.

They had messaged over the last week and Flash was really looking forward to meeting her, so had asked if she wanted to. As it turned out, she did. So they set a date, time and location.

Said location was a nice restaurant that wasn't too expensive, but still better than a cheap burger joint. The only downside was the place was in such an enjoyed area, that Flash had to park over three blocks away. He arrived at the restaurant and waited outside, since they had agreed to meet there.

Flash sighed as he looked around, waiting to see who it was that showed up. And again, the nerves were beginning to rattle inside of him. He was terrified the girl was gonna be either some horrible monster, or a gorgeous supermodel he would be too tongue tied to talk to.

"Flash?" His heart leapt and he spun around, surprised to see Twilight Sparkle walking towards him. She was dressed up looking like she was preparing for a date, whilst looking him over and appearing to think the same thing. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh," Flash blushed, "I'm...meeting someone." Twilight looked surprised, then smiled.

"Oh, going on a date?"

"Maybe. What about you? No, let me guess. Timber's coming."

"Someone say my name?" They looked around to see Timber, dressed in cream khakis and a white shirt under a green sweater. Twilight smiled and hugged him, Timber then turning to Flash. "Hey. Flash right?" He nodded, "you here for a date to?"

"Yes," Flash nodded, "it's a blind date. I don't know who it is."

"Oh, never saw the appeal of a blind date. I'd hate to have to spend the whole day with someone if they didn't look good." Twilight slapped his shoulder as Flash rolled his eyes.

"Come on," she told him. "Let's go before she shows up. Might be awkward if she saw us here with him. Good luck Flash. Maybe if things go well, we can double date." Flash shrugged as the two headed inside, Flash once again forced to wait around for whoever was supposed to show up.

"Cool-Guy-531?" That was his username. It was her.

"Yup," he turned to her, "Super-Songstress-" He stopped and his eyes went wide at the sight of who was walking towards him. Someone he had hoped never to see again. Adagio Dazzle.

The evil Equestrian strode towards him, dressed in a dark blue knee-length coat covering her body along with a pink belt around her waist. She was also dressed in a pair of pink leggings, with hearts on them, and red high-heeled boots.

She looked him over and smiled, clearly not recognising him and liking what she saw. "Hey handsome." She looked at the restaurant. "So, we gonna go in or what?" Flash frowned at her and slowly stepped backwards, getting ready to use the Omnitrix whilst she looked confused. "What is with you?" But then she seemed to put the pieces together, "have we met before?"

"You could say that," he told her. "You brainwashed me into competing in a battle of the bands and made me so angry, I yelled at someone who meant a lot to me."

"Oh," Adagio pouted, "you got to that school." He nodded. "Well you don't have to worry about that happening again. I don't have any magic, so I couldn't control you even if I wanted to."

"Right," he replied slowly.

"So," she pointed at the building again, "we going in?"

"Are you nuts? Why would I wanna be anywhere near you?"

"Come on. Don't be like that. We've been texting over the last week and got on like a house on fire."

"That was before I knew you were an evil sea monster from another world," Flash growled. "What the heck were you even doing on a dating site anyway? Can't you just hoodwink a guy into dating you like a bunch of other golddiggers?" Adagio rolled her eyes.

"I like to have fun every now and then. Sometimes that involves meeting a guy and seeing how things turn out. As for the dating site, most humans turn into gibbering messes when they see me. So this site works perfectly for me." Flash frowned at her, Adagio sighing. "Well, you're clearly not one to let bygones be bygones." She flicked her hair out of her face and walked towards the door.

"Where are you going?"

"You might not want to have this date with me, but I spent ages getting ready for this and I've been wanting to check this restaurant out for a while. So you can either be a grown up and join me for this date, or go home and let me enjoy the good food this place offers."

Flash wanted to argue that he was the one who made the arrangement, so he should be the one to eat there. But he really wasn't in the mood for any more arguing. "Fine, but I'm warning you. There's a Rainboom in there and if she thinks you're doing anything, she won't hesitate to call the others and you'll be in serious trouble."

"Fine," Adagio sighed before they both headed inside. As they did, the smell of great food wafted into their nostrils and they both found themselves growing hungry.

Twilight and Timber were sat at their table, having just finished ordering. They were talking, but Twilight's tongue froze the second she saw who Flash stepped inside with. "What is she doing here?" Timber looked around and saw who Flash was with.

"Wow, she's hot."

"She's evil." He looked surprised by this. "She's one of the Dazzlings. Creatures from Equestria, just like Sunset. They were sent to this world a thousand years ago, hoping they would become less dangerous. They tried to use Equestrian magic to brainwash everyone, but my friends were able to stop them."

"Oh," Timber looked at her again, "then why is she here with him?"

"I don't know." She and Flash locked eyes and the pair had a silent conversation, Twilight asking him why she was with him. He shrugged back as they reached their table, Adagio taking off her coat and revealing a white top with a skirted bottom that flowed around her waist.

They sat down and Flash instantly grabbed the menu and started looking through it, not wanting to share eye contact with Adagio.

Twilight kept staring at them, making Timber frown. "Hey," he snapped his fingers, "they don't look like there's anything going on between them. Let's not ruin our date worrying about those two. If anything happens, we'll deal with it then. For now, let's enjoy ourselves."

Twilight didn't look happy about that idea, but knew she didn't want to upset Timber by focusing on someone else.

However, she sneakily took out her phone and started texting under the table. She sent a message to Sunset, telling her about what was happening and how she would keep an eye on everything and call them if anything should happen. Hopefully, nothing would.

The pair quickly ordered and once the waiter was gone, they sat in a rather uncomfortable silence. "You know," Adagio told him. "This won't be a very good date if we don't talk to one another."

"I guess," Flash ate up his chip. "Well...what do you wanna talk about?"

Adagio thought for a moment, "alright human. I know you're an alright guitar player, but what else do you enjoy doing? When you're not playing music, in school or ignoring gorgeous girls, how do you spend your time?"

Flash wasn't sure how to answer that. He didn't want to tell an evil monster turned girl from another universe, that he could transform into a variety of different alien creatures and used them to be a superhero. What was he supposed to tell her instead?

"Same as any other kid my age. Video games, hanging with my friends, doing school activities like Chemistry and baking."

"You bake?"

"Yeah," Flash nodded, "I'm not as good as Pinkie but I can make something halfway decent most of the time." Adagio smiled at this, "what?"

"Nothing. Just remembering the first time Sonata ate chocolate. It didn't exist in Equestria when we were there, so the first time she ate it was a sight to see. Be thankful she didn't have any magic back then, or she might have found a way to make it rain chocolate rain."

"That so," Flash nodded. "You care about your sister, huh?"

"Of course. The pair of them drive me crazy sometimes, but we're still sisters." Adagio sat back. "It's tough being the oldest. Having to make sure the other two don't get themselves killed and finding enough to eat so we didn't fade away."

"Fade away?" Flash raised an eyebrow, "what's that supposed to mean?"

"Why do you think we were so desperate to get our magic back? If we don't get enough negative emotions, we fade away. It's like how you humans need water to survive. Same basic thing for us. Or...at least it was."

"Huh?"

Adagio shrugged. "I don't know what your friends did, but when they blasted us with their magic laser and broke our medallions, they transformed us. Before, we were our true forms locked inside what you see. But now we really are three teenage girls. I think we might even be aging now."

"Isn't that good?" Flash asked. "You don't have to try and suck negative emotions out of people anymore. You can just live your lives without hurting people."

"I guess," Adagio told him. "Still, it wasn't an easy transition." Flash could understand that. He knew what it meant to completely change your species in a second. Maybe he and Adagio had more in common then he thought.

Meanwhile, across the street, there was a car dealership that sold only the finest in high-power sports cars.

The dealership's owner smiled as he handed a man off to an employee, so that they could sign the paperwork on a newly bought car. He felt like everything in his life was going great. But then something happened that made his smile disappear.

Someone stepped inside. He was a tall and lanky man, wearing a black bodysuit. He had a white belt around his waist, which had metal suspender-like straps running from the central buckle up over his shoulders. He gloves were white and around the ends of them and the tops of his black boots, tire-like cuffs could be seen. On his chest was an emblem that looked like a spinning tire surrounded by flames, whilst his head had a large black helmet. On said helmet, chrome piping was around his eyes and mouth, which here the only two things that weren't being covered by his helmet.

The man looked around and instantly zeroed in on a car that was being spun around on a giant lazy susan. He stepped up to the convertible and looked it over, and the dealership owner approached. "Nice car," he told the owner. "Is it fast?"

"Very fast," the owner nodded. "Nort to sixty in zero point six seconds." The man whistled, "but I doubt this car is really your cup of tea mister..."

"Dragstar," the man replied. "And I think this car is perfect." He suddenly leapt into the car and got comfortable, "i think I'll take it out for a spin."

"Um...this is a floor model. Doesn't have any fuel in it."

"That's fine." The man reached into his belt and took something out. It was a strange black tube that he stabbed into the dashboard, "it just needs an upgrade." With that, the device let out a bunch of green light-lines. These lines suddenly started spreading throughout the entire car and this caused it to start transforming.

The dealership owner gasped and staggered back, as his car grew in size with the wheels growing larger and the man inside becoming surrounded by metal. Within seconds, it was a giant tank-like vehicles with wheels twice the size of him and a large gun on the top of it. It was mostly black in colour with green lines surrounding it.

The man and everyone else in the dealership screamed, as the tank came to life and started rolling around the dealership. As it did, the bottom of it opened up and launched cables out. These cables struck the cars and attached using magnets, allowing the tank to pull the cars inside of it.

Dragstar was in the main cockpit, laughing as he put his foot down.

Back with Flash and Adagio, they continued to talk as their food arrived. Flash was having steak and chips whilst Adagio had order a lasagna.

Flash had to admit, lowering his guard had allowed him to learn more about Adagio that he didn't think he'd ever know. She wasn't just a onenote villain that only cared about getting magic and attention. She enjoyed watching old movies with her sister, baking sweet treats for her other sister and had a pretty interesting sense of humour.

If Flash had never met her before and been brainwashed by her, he might actually consider her to be the perfect girl for him.

The pair laughed at something Adagio had said and as he was getting his breath back, Flash noticed something happening outside. A bunch of people were running out of the building across the road, all of them looking absolutely terrified.

"Excuse me a moment." Adagio looked confused, as he got up and ran for the door. Adagio watched him in shock, whilst Timber just smirked from his table.

"Not very gentlemanly, huh?" Twilight frowned, knowing Flash would never just up and abandon his date. Even if they were super evil. What was going on?

Flash rushed out the restaurant and as he did, the building across the road suddenly exploded.

"WOW!" He staggered back, as metal and glass flew everywhere. He quickly ran into an alleyway as a giant tank rolled out of the car dealership. "What the heck?" He tank opened itself up and launched out more cables, grabbing several cars that hadn't been destroyed when the store opened up and pulling them towards it.

"Oh no you don't," Flash activated the Omnitrix and started searching for his alien of choice. "Diamondhead should cut that tin can open." But as he said that, the tank rolled over a destroyed car and part of it got stuck in the wheel. Some of the tank opened up and sucked this wreckage inside, whilst a port on the top opened up.

Suddenly, a cube of metal exploded out and flew towards Flash's alleyway.

The teen saw this and gasped, leaping out of the way and barely managing to avoid getting flattened. As he did, he accidently pushed the dial down on the wrong alien.

In a flash of light, he was transformed into Firefly. "Oh, great." He shook his head. "That's fine," he spread his wings. "I'll just melt that thing's wheels and pulled whoever's driving out. He shot into the air and flew towards the tank.

Inside the tank, Dragstar laughed as he was having a blast.

However, in that moment the tank gave him a warning. "Huh?" He looked at the screen and saw that an intense heat source had been detected. It was hitting his back wheel. He pressed a button and outside, a cable flew out the top with a telescope lense on it.

It looked around and saw Firefly, who was currently launching a stream of fire at the wheel.

"Oh, trying to melt my ride?" He started pressing buttons, "I don't think so." The gun on the top of the tank spun around and pointed towards Firefly, who was so focused on melting the wheels he didn't notice.

He did notice when the humming started, making him look up and see the barrel had opened up to form a railgun. A railgun currently filling with energy. "WOW!" He shot away, right as the gun fired and caused the spot he had been standing to explode. Dust filled the air with such force, it struck Firefly and knocked him out of control. "GYAH!"

At the restaurant, several people rushed out to see the alien insect roll through the air out of control. When he disappeared behind the roof of another building, they turned towards the tank and gasped. The railgun slowly turned in their direction and many people turned to run away, Timber included.

"Come on!" He grabbed Twilight and tried to pull her with him, but Twilight pulled her arm free.

"I have to help!" She cried, running forward.

"TWILIGHT!" Timber screamed, whilst Adagio watched in both shock and intrigued. She then looked around, wondering where the heck Flash had gone. He had been outside when this all started, so it was likely he ran away. Or worse.

Twilight stared at the giant machine, as it started rolling away. The wheel hadn't even been warped by the flames that struck it, allowing the tank to move without issue. At least until Twilight grabbed it in her magic. She moaned as she tried to pull the tank apart, but whatever it was made out of was some pretty strong stuff.

Dragstar turned his camera on her and raised an eyebrow, "that's new." He pressed a button and the railgun turned towards her, Twilight gasping when she saw this.

Timber cried out as it charged up, only for something to suddenly fly past from above. "Huh?" He looked up and saw Firefly, soaring into action. He spat out a stream of thread, which struck Twilight in the back and allowed him to pull her up. The railgun then fired and struck the spot she had been in, Twilight using her magic to push the dust away so it didn't hit them.

Firefly pulled her up and held her in his arms, "you okay?"

"Yeah. Thanks for the save. But whatever this tank is made out of, it's tough stuff." Firefly nodded, as the railgun moved up and pointed at them. "Look out!" It fired and Firefly barely managed to avoid the energy ball, which exploded behind them as they flew down. Twilight then noticed the camera cable, "aim for the end of that?"

"You got it!" Firefly shot a blast of silk, which struck the cable's telescope lense.

"HEY!" Dragstar cried from within. He then activated the speaker system. "You freaks think that's enough to stop me? You just made things a whole lot worse for yourselves." He uncovered a big red button and slammed his fist down upon it.

Outside the tank, multiple clicking noises filled the air as parts of the tank started opening. Doing so revealed a bunch of cannon-like weapons that started firing randomly. "WOW!" Firefly cried, pulling Twilight around as best he could and avoiding the blasts. These cannons were firing not just at them, but everything around it. Clearly, without sight Dragstar had simply decided to destroy everything

Timber screamed for Twilight, as a blast flew towards him. Adagio grabbed his hand and pulled him away, the pair barely managing to avoid getting pulverised.

The same couldn't be said for Twilight and Firefly, who dodged a blast only for it to hit a building and explode. The resulting shockwave struck the pair and sent them spinning, Firefly quickly curling his body and wings around Twilight as they hit the ground.

He cried out as they bounced over the street, eventually coming to a stop with Twilight rolling out of Firefly's grasp. She looked him over and saw he was out cold, making her panic as the tank's camera looked like it was trying to remove the web covering.

She tried to lift him up, but he was pretty heavy. "Twilight!" She looked around and saw Timber running towards her, Adagio right behind him. "We gotta get out of here."

"I'm not leaving him," Twilight explained. "Help me!" Timber looked surprised she demanded this, but decided not to argue. The pair grabbed him by the shoulders and lifted Firefly up, dragging his feet along the ground as they tried to escape. Adagio then surprised them by picking up Firefly's feet. "Why are you helping?"

"Why not? First time I've got to meet an actual alien. No fun if he gets blown up before I get a chance to poke him a little." They managed to get Firefly through the alleyway and onto the next street before the camera finally freed itself, allowing Dragstar to look around.

"HA!" He laughed, "perfect. That'll teach those alien creeps not to mess with me. Now," he shifted gears and hit the gas, "let's get somewhere I can examine the goods!" The tank rolled down the street, crushing anything and everything that was in its way. All the while laughing at what was turning out to be a rather fun day.

Once they managed to get away from Dragstar, Twilight motioned them into yet another alleyway. There, they put Firefly down behind a dumpster where nobody could see him.

"Come on," Twilight looked the bug over. "Wake up." She then noticed Timber taking out his phone, "what are you doing?"

"Calling the police," Timber stated. "We got him out of danger, now let's get him put away somewhere he can't lay eggs in our brains." Twilight grabbed his phone and pulled it away.

"You're not turning him into the police!" Adagio raised an eyebrow at this, the former singing pony monster putting two and two together.

"You act like you know this alien," Twilight's eyes went wide. "The way you're worrying about him isn't in a way someone would worry about someone they just happened to know. You and this thing are friends, aren't you?" Timber looked shocked by this, whilst Twilight remind quiet.

"Is that true?" Timber asked, "are you and this creepy crawly...friends?"

Twilight frowned as she turned to the insect, only for the Omnitrix on his chest to beep and make her gasp. "No! No! No! No!" But it was too late. The light filled the alleyway and when it faded, Firefly was replaced by Adagio's date.

"What the?" Adagio tilted her head, "Sentry? How did...why did...when did..." She then noticed the watch on his arm, seeing the same symbol that was on the alien. "What's going on here?" Flash let out a moan and started coming around, the transformation back appearing to have woken him up.

He sat up and held his head, "ow. What happened?" He opened his eyes and saw Twilight next to him, then noticed Timber and Adagio as the memories of what happened returned. He looked at the watch and saw it was red, then turned to Twilight. "Um...how long have they been here?"

"They saw," Twilight replied. "They saw you turn back from Firefly." Flash sighed at this, whilst Timber and Adagio both looked at him warily.

"What the heck are you?" Timber asked, as Flash turned to Adagio.

"Remember you asked me what I did in my spare time?" She nodded. "Well..." He held up the watch, "I'm a superhero."

In a more empty part of the city, something was moving down the street completely invisible.

This was the super tank Dragstar had stolen, having turned it invisible in order to keep the cops from finding him. He knew he could just blow them all away, but he would never get anything done if he had to spend the whole time blowing up cops.

Instead, he activated the stealth functions and had used it to get away. Now he had arrived at his hangout, taking a remote out of his belt and using it to open the doors of one of the buildings. He then pressed several buttons on the tank console, causing the tank to become visible whilst also reshaping its exterior.

He had to do this in order to get through the doors and once he was through, he shut them again before pressing another button. This caused the bottom of the tank to open and one by one, it started spitting out the other cars. Once all the stolen cars were out of its storage, the tank started transforming again until it was back as the car Dragstar had originally stolen.

He pulled the tube device out of the dashboard and smirked as he got up, pressing a button on the side of his helmet as he did. This caused the helmet to split in half, allowing him to take it off and reveal he was a pink-skinned man with white hair.

He moved over to a table and put the helmet down next to a laptop and camera, the man taking the camera and using it to take pictures of the cars he had stolen. He laughed as he thought about how much money he was gonna make selling these things, Dragstar taking out the tube that had given him everything he needed.

He couldn't help but think back to several months ago, around the time that giant robotic beast that people called the technovore attacked. He had been a simple mechanic that never got any respect. His boss didn't even let him drive any of the cars he fixed, all because he liked to go fast.

But that all changed when he found the tube on the ground. He had found it on the ground one morning, the device looking like it had smashed into the ground hard given the cracks and broken cement surrounding it. It had taken him weeks of tinkering, but he finally managed to figure out how to get whatever it was to work.

Now he could take any vehicle he wanted and turn it into the greatest roadster that ever existed. And as he plugged his camera into his laptop, he knew he was gonna make a ton of money selling these bad boys. So much that he could probably by an even better car and race it around without needing to worry about it being a stolen vehicle. Life was good.

When the last image was uploaded, he placed them into his private auction sight and wrote a small bio-pick for each one. He started the auction and leaned back, seeing the timer her had set up slowly countdown. The money quickly started coming in and he smirked as each one brought more and more money in every second.

Quickly getting bored, he changed to a different website and started looking through other pieces of news. Then, he saw something that caught his attention. Something that made him smile, "oh you are beautiful. And soon, you'll be mine."

"And that's everything," Flash finished explaining. He, Twilight, Timber and Adagio were sitting at a street bench, Flash having told the pair everything about the Omnitrix.

Adagio looked impressed by this story, whilst Timber looked absolutely shocked. "So all this time, you've been those alien creatures everyone's raving about?" Flash shrugged, nodding his head as Timber turned to Twilight. "And you knew about all this?"

"Not at first. I only found out about it recently." Twilight stared at Timber, a pleading look appearing in her eyes. "Please, don't tell anybody. Flash just wants to live his life and help when he can. If you tell anyone about this, he'll end up as some government labrat."

Timber glanced between her and Flash, then sighed. "Fine. I won't tell anyone." Twilight smiled and gave him a hug, whilst Flash turned to Adagio.

"Don't worry hero," she smiled. "I won't tell anyone." Flash was surprised by this, having expected her to try and blackmail him or something. "It's always more fun to have a secret then blurting it out. That way, I can mentally go 'I know something you don't know', to anyone I want."

"Wow," Flash told her, "that's kind of...immature." Adagio frowned at this, "but I'll take it. Thank you."

"Don't think you're getting off scott free. I expect an actual date to replace the one that just got ruined by you playing hero." Flash frowned, but knew that was fair. "Especially since I'm guessing you plan on going after whatever nut job was behind the wheel of that super tank."

"That's the plan," Flash nodded. "Just need to think of a way to find them."

"Why not just leave it to the police?" Timber asked, "you'd be putting yourself in danger for no reason. Nobody's making you fight against these things. Why not just leave it to those actually paid to take down these kinds of threats?"

Flash turned to him and frowned. "You're right, nobody's making me do any of this. But I'm still gonna do it, because I have the moral obligation to do it." He showed him the Omnitrix. "This doesn't come off. I'm the only one who can use it. If I had all this power and didn't use it to help those in need and stop criminals from causing problems, I'd be wasting the chance to do the right thing."

"Even though it might get you killed?" Timber asked. "If it hadn't been for us, you would have been blown to bits. Do yourself a favour and quit while you're ahead." Flash rolled his eyes and ignored Timber, instead trying to think of where he might find this Dragstar guy.

"Think! Where would a guy like that strike?"

"That dealership he robbed was full of some pretty good cars," Twilight pointed out. "So clearly, he likes targeting quality cars." Timber looked at her in shock, obviously not expecting her to going along with Flash and his nonsense.

"Right," Flash nodded, "so his next target must be another high quality car." Saying that made something click in Adagio's mind, as she took out her phone and started searching for something.

"I think I remember seeing something online earlier about a high quality car that's being displayed here." Flash and Twilight moved over to look over her shoulder, as she found the news article. "Here it is. The Slipstream. One of the fastest road legal cars ever made. Only a hundred of them have been made and one is being displayed here in Canterlot. The opening of the display is tonight."

"Perfect," Flash clapped, "this guy's gotta be planning on swiping it. I just gotta get there first and stop him."

"How?" Timber asked, "you couldn't even scratch his tank before. Why do you think you'll have better luck taking him down this time?" Flash frowned, but Adagio was the one that spoke up.

"Well he'll just have to use a different alien." Timber turned to her. "So that thing's fireproof. He'll just use an alien that doesn't use fire."

"Exactly," Flash noded. "I've got twelve aliens to pick from. One of them has to be able to stop whatever that guy throws at me." He began to walk off, "I'm going. You guys can stay here if you want, but I'd rather have the extra help." Twilight followed him, Timber looking shocked she was, whilst Adagio smiled.

"Oh, this night's just getting better and better." She ran after them and they all made it to Flash's car, Flash glad he had had to park so far from the restaurant. They got it and Adagio programmed the satnav with the location the Slipstream was being shown at.

Timber and Twilight sat in the back, Timber looking upset he was there, whilst Adagio started looking through the internet and finding all the different aliens that Flash had appeared as. "So this is really you?" She showed him an image of Bushwhacker, Flash nodding. "Weird. And I thought turning into a human was a major shift. You turn into a walking plant."

"Wait," Timber looked at Adagio, "what do you mean turning into a human?"

Adagio kept her mouth shut, as Flash spoke up. "Actually, in that form I'm just the head. The rest of the body are just pieces of plants I control using my mind. It was pretty weird when I first became that alien, and all the other aliens, but I got over it. Honestly, sometimes I feel more comfortable as an alien then I do when I'm human."

The others gave him a curious look, but decided not to say anything about that. Instead, Adagio just kept looking through his alien forms and came across one that was apparently a recent addition. She tilted her head as she saw all its tentacles and wondered if Flash would mind becoming that one for...certain activities, should a relationship ever become a thing between them.

Dragstar was back on the open road, having grabbed a normal car off the street in order to transform into a super fast speedster.

The black and green car zipped down the street faster then any car had ever driven through the street. It was also able to move from side to side with amazing speed, allowing him to over take the many annoying slowcoaches that boringly went the speed limit. "WHOOOOO!" He cheered, as his location was coming up.

A large building that currently had the amazing Slipstream car within it. According to the web, a bunch of rich people were going to be there in order to bid for the car. Of course, they would just be wasting their time. "There's only one person that deserves to be behind the wheel of such a car. ME!" He kicked his car into high gear and gained another ten miles an hour. Any faster and he would be breaking the speed limit.

Inside the building, many people were dressed in fancy clothing as they walked around the showroom.

Said showroom was full of many different top of the line vehicles, but there was only one car they were all interested in. It was silver in colour and its front wheels appeared to be a single cylindrical device, that filled the entire front of the car and had dome-like ends that glowed blue. Meanwhile, its back wheels were spherical and appeared to not even be connected to the car. Instead, the car seemed to float over them. It had gullwing doors and multiple lights. It was truly out of this world.

The richest of the rich in Canterlot was there to try and bid for one, some wanting it due to how fast it went whilst others merely wanted it to increase their own status. Some didn't even plan to drive it, instead expecting to put it on display for party guests.

But before the auction could even begin, a loud smashing sound filled the air as a large black and green car flew through a window wall. The people near it screamed and ran away, whilst the car hit the ground and raced through the building.

Security rushed it to try and stop it, but the car started spinning as something flew out of a compartment that opened. Those something were metal balls, which rolled along the ground before unleashing chains on energy that connected them to the sphere nearest them. As such, this created a moving lightning trap that zapped the guards when they passed them.

The car came to a stop right in front of the Slipstream and returned to its normal car form, as Dragstar leapt out of it and stabbed the tube into the super car's roof. "That's right!" He smirked as the green lines began to spread across it, "now you're mine." He leapt into the driver's seat, as the car turned black and completely surrounded him to become the racing car he had arrived in. "Now, for a few more upgrades."

The tube sparked before unleashing bolts of green lightning, which struck the car Dragstar came in and several overs.

The people still in the room watched in shock as the many cars began to melt into a black liquid that was surrounded by the green energy. The liquid was then pulled towards the enhanced Slipstream and started merging with it, transforming the vehicle even further.

They watched in horror as the monstrocity greet taller and taller, gaining arms and legs.

Flash beeped at the person in front, who was too focused on their phone to see the green light. He groaned when it turned red, the others rolling their eyes.

Twilight had turned on the radio, which she had returned to pick up police broadcasts, the lot of them listening to see if anything was going on. But even if there was anything happening, they were still a good mile away from the place the Slipstream was supposed to be at.

"Come on!" Flash cried as the car in front finally moved, allowing him to drive and turn in the direction of the building. But they quickly found themselves at the back of another traffic jam. "Ahhh!"

Adagio turned to him, "at this point it might be easier just to run." Flash was starting to agree with her, especially when the radio got an all squads alert.

"Attention all officers. Major attack at twenty-four Flighter Road. Assailant is armed with highly dangerous equipment and causing major damage. Requires all available units to attempt to prevent escape."

"That's it!" Flash spotted a parking spot on the side of the road and pulled into it, then got out of the car. He started running, shocking the others as they also got out of the car and followed him. Alas, Adagio's shoes meant running wasn't an option and Twilight's lack of physical fitness meant she was quickly winded. Timber clearly didn't want to go to this battle zone and stayed beside Twilight, as they watched Flash run at full speed without any strain.

The teen knew XLR8 would be quicker, but wanted to keep his choice of aliens open in case he needed something else. So he ran as fast as he could, eventually arriving at the street near the building he was heading for.

He stopped and panted, catching his breath as he looked around. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but then he felt a shaking coming from further down the street. He gulped and waited to see what would appear. And sure enough, from around a building came a large black and gray leg that stomped on the ground.

A gray hand with a black arm then appeared and grabbed the side of a building, pulling the body around to reveal itself.

It was a giant robot, standing at around fifteen meters in height. It was a mixture of black, gray and green, being mostly black in the main body parts with the shoulders, knees and other joints being gray. The black parts were also covered in green light, whilst the head was a large car-like object that sat atop the main body without a neck.

"Oh," Flash gulped, "you've got to be kidding me." The robot began to slowly walk towards him, causing the ground to shake with every step it took. Flash quickly ran around a corner and when he saw nobody else around, he activated the water and dialed up Diamondhead.

Slamming the watch down, he transformed into the crystalline alien and quickly rushed out towards the robot.

Inside the transformed car-head, Dragstar smirked as he enjoyed his newest creation. He might have overdone it a little, but didn't care since driving this thing was too awesome.

He then got an alert and one of the screen windows showed the image of Diamondhead running towards him. "Another of those things?" He shifted gears and turned up the music. "No matter. I'll take him out like I did the other one." The robot charged forward and swung its foot towards Diamondhead, who topped running and braced himself.

"GYAH!" He cried as the foot slammed into him, Diamondhead grabbing it and digging his fingers into the metal. This stopped him from going flying, making the robot begin to swing its foot around to try and dislodge him. Diamondhead groaned at the constantly movement, as the metal he held onto began to bend and eventually break.

He fell towards the ground and slammed into it, as the robot grabbed onto the buildings beside it to keep balanced. It then thrust its foot down, trying to crush Diamondhead. But the alien quickly slammed his hands into the ground and caused crystals to grow out of it, sealing Diamondhead inside a teepee-like construct that the foot slammed into. This completely destroyed it, making the machine hope backwards.

"Ha!" Diamondhead walked out of the crystal teepee, "nice try." He started firing at the machine, aiming for its other leg and managing to destroy its knee. This caused it to fall onto one knee and Diamondhead prepared to fire again, only for the robot to raise its large hand and thrust it downwards. "WOW!" The next thing he knew, he was flattened between the ground and the robot. When it pulled its fist back, he was laid flat inside a crater. "That would have hurt if I could feel pain."

In that moment, police cars and SWAT vehicles rolled into the street. The robot saw this and turned towards the vehicles, as the tiny tube-device on its head beeped. And as the vehicles got closer, the tube unleashed a burst of green energy that struck a cruiser and SWAT vehicle.

The drivers inside cried out as the energy took control of their vehicles, which started melting around them.

They quickly escaped, as the melting vehicles were pulled towards the robot and merged with it. This allowed it to repair the damage Diamondhead had done to it, the mech pushing itself back to its feet and standing tall.

"You've gotta be kidding me," Diamondhead pulled himself out of the crater. "It merges with tech to repair itself. That's just like the technovore. Only this one has a madman behind its wheel." As he said that, the vehicles spoke up using a new speaker system stolen from the police cruiser.

"Nice try pigs. But Dragstar isn't going down that easy. From now on, I rule the road. So unless you losers wanna challenge me to a race, you'd best make like a banana and split." He laughed as the machine reached down and picked up another car, crushing it after the cops leapt out and throwing the ball of steel into another SWAT vehicle.

Diamondhead ran towards him and it was at this moment that Twilight, Timber and Adagio arrived on the scene. "What the hell?" Timber asked, as Diamondhead leapt onto the machine's leg. He started slashing at it, trying the cut the foot off, but the robot managed to kick him away.

It then launched another blast of green energy, which hit another car and melted it. Twilight watched as the black metal flew into the mech and repaired the damage. "It's using piece of tech to repair itself."

"Great," Timber sighed, "another one. Don't suppose you have another EMP up your sleeve." Twilight did not and she had no idea how to stop it this time, especially as Diamondhead pushed himself back to his feet and started firing at it. "Think. Think."

Adagio looked up and saw the car it had for a head. "Do you think that's where the driver is?" She pointed at it, Twilight seeing the car and realising she must be right. "Maybe if we take that down, the rest of this thing will fall as well."

"It's possible." But as she said that, the mechs arms began to change. Instead of being mechanical claws, they morphed into a pair of cannons that started firing energy blasts. The police screamed as they ran for safety, whilst Diamondhead ran over to them and punched the ground. This created a wall of crystals, which blocked the energy blast. "But against that much firepower, how are we supposed to get to something so high."

In that moment, someone else arrived on the scene. Shining Armor.

He was dressed in his Plumber Suit, flying a large jet made of hard light. The jet flew in, doing several barrel rolls as it did. Shining had his weapon plugged into the slot, allowing the jet to fire weapons from the tips of its wings. The mech shielded its car head with its arm and when the jet flew passed, he spun around to fire at it.

"WOW!" Shining pulled to the left and the energy ball flew passed him, "that was too close." He pulled around and as he did, his inbuilt phone began to ring and he saw it was Twilight. "Not a good time sis."

"Shining, I'm here."

"You are?" The computer locked in on her phone and brought an image of her, Timber and Adagio into his visor. "Er...Twilight, you know you're not alone, right?"

"I know. They...they saw Flash transform. They know everything." Shining sighed as he fired at the mech, but the damage was quickly repaired by absorbing another car.

"Great. We'll deal with that later. Right now, I've gotta take this thing down." He noticed Flash charging at the mech and using a crystal pillar to shoot him into the air. This got him to the mech's waist, which he tried to slash at but missed.

"We think the car on top is where the driver is. If you can disable it, maybe the whole thing will stop."

"Worth a try." He spun around and started firing at the car-head, but was shocked when something appeared out of the machine. A glass dome, which completely sealed the car within. He fired, but the glass was somehow laser-proof. "Oh come on!"

The mech then turned towards him and thrust its right arm out, the cannon returning to its hand form and grabbing the jet. Shining gasped as his vehicle was caught, the Plumber attempting to activate the weapons. But the hands tried crushing his jet. However, the hard-light proved stronger then what the machine was made out of.

"Pretty tough ride you got!" Dragstar told him. "I think I'll add it to my own." The dome retracted and Shining watched as something on the car sparked, his visor zooming in and seeing the tube. Before he could properly scan it, the device shot out a blast of energy. He gasped and deactivated the control rod, causing his jet to vanish.

He fell out of the hand's clutches before the lightning could hit him, Shining falling several feet before activating the rod again. Doing so rebuilt the jet and he quickly shot off before the mech could grab him again, but the machine fired its cannon and struck one of his wings.

"AH!" Shining lost control and started going down. "Mayday! Mayday! Losing altitude here!" He managed to stop from crashing into buildings aimed for a street three over, where his jet crashed into the ground and skidded along it until he finally came to a stop. He moaned, glad he had been strapped in. But the rod had lost a lot of power from that crash and the jet glitched out, making him fall to the ground with a grunt. "That hurt."

He picked himself up and as he did, his phone went off again. "Shining!" Twilight cried when he answered, "are you okay?"

"Yeah," he assured her, "I'm uninjured. But it's gonna take me a while to get back there." He started running and as he did, he remembered what happened. "Listen, there's something on that car that I think might be allowing this guy to do all this stuff. It's a tube-like thing. Maybe if you pull it off, the machine will shut it off."

"Alright," Twilight nodded, "we'll try and figure out how to help Flash get to it." As she said that, Diamondhead was surfing on a crystal track up towards the machine.

"Raaah!" He leapt at its chest, spinning around as his hands became blades. He ground against the metal like a buzzsaw, managing to actually cut through it and get into the body. "Yes!" He smirked, preparing to cut through it and do some serious damage. But before he could, blobs of black liquid flew out and grabbed him. "Hey!" He started cutting through it, but multiple blobs tried to grab him again and again. "Let...me...GO!"

Outside, everyone watched as the machine's body flopped around. It continued to fire its arm cannon, but these blasts were all wild. "WOW!" Timber cried as he leapt behind the corner of a building, "this is insane. This shouldn't be happening. Aliens, giant robots and magical girls. When did the world get so crazy!?"

Twilight would have calmed him down, but in that moment Diamondhead was thrown out of the hole. As he slammed into the ground, the mech quickly launched another beam that struck a car and melted it into its body.

Diamondhead picked himself up and saw the mech repair the hole he had made. "Can people please stop bringing vehicles for it to snack on!" But before he could try and attack again, the mech spun around and fired it cannon at him. He quickly form a wall of crystals in front of him, which was struck by the energy ball and exploded.

As Diamondhead was thrown backwards, Adagio watched the mech and focused on its legs. Then, she had an idea and gasped before running over to Diamondhead. "What are you doing!?" Twilight cried, as Adagio reached him. As he picked himself up, Adagio whispered something in his ear. Something that made his eyes go wide.

"Oh, of course. Can't believe I didn't think of that myself." He ran forward as the mech prepared to fire its cannon. But before it did, he punched the ground and caused crystals to grow out of the ground. Crystals that had ground around the machine's feet, locking it in place.

"Hey!" Dragstar tried to move the robot's feet, but they wouldn't. "What's going on?" But before he could figure it out, Diamondhead ran forward and used another pillar to catapult himself into the air.

"The bigger they are..." He reached its chest and threw a punch, "THE HARDER THEY FALL!" Punching the mech with all of his strength, he knocked it backwards. Had its legs been free, it could have staggered back. But with them locked in crystal, all the machine could do was fall backwards.

Luckily, nobody was behind it when it hit the ground and caused a small earthquake.

Dragstar was thrown around in the car and this allowed Diamondhead to land on the mech and start encasing it in diamond. But before it could reach the car-head, Dragstar recovered and realised he had no choice. "I'm getting out of here!"

The car suddenly detached from the body, which caused it to start melting as the car shot down the street passed Diamondhead with incredible speed. But before he could escape, Twilight jumped in front of him. "Oh no you don't!" She activated her magic and lifted the car up, the weight making it so she could only lift it a few inches off the ground.

But this was enough to stop the car in its tracks. "HEY!" Dragstar cried, attempting to escape but finding nothing working. He would have activated the weapons, but in that moment Adagio ran up and lept onto the roof.

"I'll take this!" She grabbed the tube on the roof and pulled it off, causing the car to revert back to its original form.

"NO!" Dragstar screamed, his the car died due to having no fuel in it. Twilight dropped it and panted as she fell to her knees, whilst Adagio ran away from the car. Dragstar then leapt out of the car and glared Adagio down, "give it back. Give me that thing back!"

"I don't think so," Adagio told him. The man roared and ran at her, "heads up!" She threw the device over his head and Twilight managed to grab it, whilst Dragstar threw a punch at her. But Adagio quickly avoided the attack and thrust her knee into his groin, making Dragstar scream.

She then pushed him away and the suited man staggered around, only to feel his back run into something that made him look up and see Diamondhead. "Hey there." Before Dragstar could protect, Diamondhead raised a fist and slammed it down on the top of his head. Dragstar cried out again, as his helmet began to crack apart. It crumbled off of him as a large bump appeared on his head, followed by him falling to the ground unconscious.

Adagio laughed, "nighty night." Diamondhead smiled before turning to see the police approaching, so quickly made his escape before he timed out. The others remained where they were, needing to answer some questions. Shining arrived at this time and saw Dragstar being pulled away.

"I'm guessing I missed something," he stated. The others nodded as Dragstar was driven away, whilst the rest of the damage was starting to be cleaned up.

Somehow, the cars that had all been used to make the mech had returned to normal the second he abandoned them. They along with the Slipstream didn't even have a scratch on them, which the returning people that originally owned them were happy to see.

Once they had answered all their questions, Twilight, Timber, Adagio and even Shining were all allowed to leave. They returned to Flash's car, where they found the teen waiting for them. Adagio smirked. "Well, this was certainly an interesting night to be sure. If I ever have another first date, they're gonna have a lot to live up to."

Flash smirked, "thanks for before. Your idea to trip him up worked perfectly."

Twilight nodded, "where did you get that idea anyway?"

"I saw it in one of Aria's old sci-fi movies. Star...something. Doesn't matter. What matters is that psycho driver is taken care of and won't be hurting anyone else."

"Exactly," Shining nodded, "now about you two knowing Flash's little secret."

Adagio smiled, "I already promised not to tell anyone. So long as he doesn't do anything to really annoy me." Flash chuckled, but wasn't sure if that was a joke or not. Shining then turned to Timber.

"I won't say anything, I swear." Timbr looked deathly afraid for some reason. "But seriously, isn't it a little hypocritical of you to let him have that thing? You had a go at me and Twilight when we were messing with alien tech. But you let him use it."

"Flash has been given authorization to use it," Shining stated. "Speaking of alien tech. Twilight, do you still have it?" Twilight nodded and held up the tube Adagio had pulled from the car. Shining waved his badge over the device, which beeped as it scanned whatever it was.

"What are you doing?" Timber asked.

"Trying to see if I can figure out where this thing came from. It's definitely not human tech, since there's no way anything like this could be made here with our technology."

Flash chuckled. "You say that, but we've faced people who've been able to fuse animals together and a guy that can make evil doppelgangers of whoever he catches in his mirror. Is this really such a stretch?"

Shining shrugged as his badge stopped scanning and showed the results. "Weird. It can't figure out what this is. I'll have to send a message to the plumbers and ask them to come give it a better once over. I really need to get my own plumber base." Twilight held it out for Shining to take, but her brother smiled. "You hold onto it."

"Really?" Twilight looked shocked, "but after last time..."

"You know the dangers of what it can do now, so I trust you not to mess with it. Besides, I get the feeling we'll be facing more and more alien stuff as time goes on. And as much as I wanna keep you away from it, you have a nasty habit of running into these situations. The more you know about alien tech, the better."

Twilight smiled and hugged her brother, happy he was trusting her more with these kinds of things.

Timber, meanwhile, sighed. "Things are never just gonna be normal around here, are they?" The others nodded with a smile, making Adagio laughed.

"Good. Being normal is so boring. I'd rather fight aliens then spend my day doing small talk." She stepped up next to Flash. "Now, if you all don't mind. We still have the rest of our date to continue." Flash smirked and held out an arm, which Adagio took so they could walk off together.

The others smiled, Shining happy Flash was seeing someone whilst Twilight had to admit that Adagio didn't seem as bad as the others had talked about. Timber, meanwhile, just wished he could find a way to make all this insane alien stuff not happen. He didn't care if it was boring, he wanted to have a normal life.

"Come on," Twilight told him. "We still have a bit of time to enjoy ourselves. And look at it this way. Now that all the craziness has ended, we can have fun without needing to worry that something insane will happen to ruin it." Timber sighed, but nodded and allowed Twilight to lead him away.

Shining watched and wondered if Timber was gonna be able to handle all the crazy things that came with being associated with Flash and Twilight. Magic, aliens and whatever else was a lot to take in. Only time would tell if Timber could go through it all without going crazy. Only time would tell.

Author's Note

I bet you weren't expecting Adagio to show up, huh? Well don't think you've seen the last of her. Hope you enjoyed the chapter and what was with that strange device Dragstar had. Only time will tell.

Season 2, Episode 7: Return of the Masquerade

In a dark area, screams could be heard coming from a man.

That man was being lifted into the air by streams of lightning, which wrapped around him and electrocuted him in the process. The lightning was coming from a metal staff with a serpentine dragon coiled around the top, which had multiple coins attached to it.

He screamed at the top of his lungs, then stopped as his body went limp. In this moment, a flash of light appeared at his chest and something appeared from it.

That something was a metal coin, which was dragged away from the man by the lightning. The man was dropped to the ground as the coin was pulled towards the staff, being carried by someone hidden in the darkness. When the coin reached the staff, it attached itself besides the other nine coins.

The one holding the staff smirked. "And then there was one."

It was another brilliant day in Canterlot and in the main street, a truck was making its way towards the hospital.

It was currently carrying containers full of hydrogen, which would be used for medical and scientific purposes. But what the driver didn't know was that the intern that worked at his company, hadn't properly secured one of the straps holding a canister.

As such, when he hit a pothole the strap snapped.

The can was sent flying, the metal bouncing off the street and getting dented with every impact. Then, it hit the corner of a building and the can ripped open.

An explosion filled the air. Luckily, nobody was around to be hurt by it. But the explosion caused the building to start to crack and break apart, making the place start to shake. The people inside screamed as dust began to fall from the ceiling, the lot of them terrified they were gonna end up crushed.

But before the building could collapse, something pushed against it and propped it up.

Many people ran out of the building and were amazed to see Riot-Horn, who was pushing against the building as hard as he could. And he wasn't alone, for the oddly dressed individual who had started appearing along with the aliens was also there.

"Alright," he told the alien, "hold it as straight as you can."

"I am," Riot-Horn stated. "But hurry up. This is heavy, even for me." The man nodded as he held up the odd-looking device, which suddenly transformed into a gun-like object. He pointed it at the part of the building that was destroyed by the explosion and pulled the trigger.

A laser flew out and struck the spot, slowly rebuilding and remaking the destroyed brick and metal. It was a slow process, but bit by bit the building was repaired. And as it was, the last of the people evacuated the building.

"And that...should...do it," the figure in the suit announced as he stopped firing. Riot-Horn stopped pushing at the building and stepped back, nodding as he looked up at the structure. The building was almost completely repaired. It would still need some work, but it should collapse before anyone can get out to fix it.

The people around them all cheered, Riot-Horn and the figure waving at them and welcoming their thanks.

At her house, Trixie was watching Flash and Shining save the day once again.

As she did, someone else walked into the room carrying a bowl of chips. He was a plus skinned man with white hair, dressed in a tank-top and jeans. This was Trixie's father, Jackpot, who was a master magician and did great shows in some of the best cities in the country. But right now, he was just a dad spending time with his daughter.

"Wow," Jackpot smirked, "those aliens saved the day again?"

"Looks like it," Trixie nodded. "Guess we're lucky they're here."

"And that other guy. The one in the weird suit with awesome tech. Wonder what people are gonna start calling him?" Trixie shrugged, wishing her father would talk about the other superhero Canterlot had had for a short time. "Well, let's put the movie in and have a fun night." Trixie nodded and as Jackpot moved over to their movie collection.

As he did, she reached into her pocket and took out her phone. Looking through his images, she found some saved photos of herself back when she truly was Great and Powerful.

Lady Masquerade. The one time in her life when she could do amazing things. All thanks to the Luna Cat Medallion she had somehow acquired. She still wondered sometimes, why that medallion had appeared to her. But for whatever reason, she had used it to become the amazing hero that had given Flash a run for his money.

But now, she was back to being plain old Trixie. The power was back where it belonged and the one who attempted to steal it was behind bars.

Sometimes she would look up at the stars and wonder about the world that Medallion had come from. What it looked like and how different it was from hers. And she also wondered what was happening over there.

It was a peaceful night in the Luna Cat Kingdom, which was still recovering from the loss of its ruler and the attack that had led to that loss.

Inside the palace, Prince Aareus was sitting on the throne looking at the mask that his mother used to wear. The Cat and moon symbol on it reflected into his eyes, as he remembered all the amazing things he had seen his mother do in the past.

He then turned the mask around and placed it over his face, hoping that maybe this time it would work like it was supposed to. But it didn't. "Ahhh!" He stood up and pulled the mask from his face, then reached into his pocket and took out a crystal.

Squeezing it, the crystal unleashed a light for formed a misty spiral. Inside that mist, an image appeared. Like a video on a mobile, he watched a recording of two individuals in this very room.

"What did you do?" Devious asked, glaring at the recording of his mother

"I renounced it," she told him. "The medallion is no longer mine."

"You're a fool," Devious stated. "All you've done is shift the target to your son." Aareus wished that was true, as Devious spoke up. "Why are you smirking?"

Aareus watched his mother close her eyes, as her thoughts had also been recorded. 'I'm smiling because whilst it could go to Aareus, there is another.'

"Another..." He whispered, "that girl that had the mask. But why her?" Before he could think anything else, the doors flew open.

"Your majesty!" Aareus saw a messenger rushing towards him, "another message has just arrived. This one's from the Dash Rabbit kingdom." Aareus' eyes went wide as he took the message and read it over, an expression of fear slowly forming on his face. "Does it say what I think is says?"

Aareus moved over to the throne and sat down, "yes." He held his hands to his face, the mask continuing to hang from it.

"Your highness," the messenger looked worried. "That makes eleven messages, all saying the same thing. The Medallions have all been stolen and yours is the only one left. If whoever's doing this manages to get the Luna Cat Medallion, the devastation will be like nothing we could possibly imagine."

"I know that," Aareus looked at the mask and coin. "But what am I supposed to do? The Medallion will not lend its power to me. And if this person was able to take the rest of the medallions despite their powers, what chance do I have without one." He thought for a few moments and sighed, knowing there was only one option left. "I must return the Medallion to the only one who can actually use it."

The next day.

Flash was hanging out at the arcade, trying to beat his high-score on meteor blaster. "Yeah!" He cheered, watching the triangle spin around and shoot dots and the old approaching space rocks. "Take that! And that and that!" He saw he was only a few hundred points form beating his record. "That's it. So long as nothing distracts me, this record will be mine!"

In another part of town, the people of Canterlot were going about their daily business.

However, that business was interrupted when a mighty flash of light caught their attention. Said light spiralled around, forming a portal that grew larger and larger by the second.

Of course, many people who lived in Canterlot were used to this kind of thing. As such, they knew that when something like this happened, it was best to turn and run. Which is what many people did. They ran and screamed, several calling the police to be ready in case something flew out and started attacking.

Flash watched as his score grew higher and higher. Any minute now, he was gonna beat his record.

But in that moment, his phone rang. This distracted him and he missed a meteor, which slammed into his ship and exploded. "NOOOOO!" He cried, seeing he had only been one rock away. He quickly pulled his phone out and saw it was Shining answer, the teen answering him in a huff. "Yes?"

"Flash, we've got a situation."

Aareus stepped through the portal as it slowly began to vanish behind him.

The prince looked around, amazed at the many sights and sounds around him. The last time he was in this universe, he was too focused on capturing Devious and reclaiming the Medallion to really take in everything around him. But now, he was in utter awe.

Moving out of the street that the portal had been in, he found normal people who were looking at him funny. The prince raised an eyebrow at this, wondering why they were looking at him. "Do they know that I'm royalty?" Had he taken a closer look, he would have realised everyone was looking at him because of how he was dressed. Nobody else was wearing medieval clothes, armor and had a sword strapped to their side.

He continued down the street, but stopped when he saw a big screen TV on the side of a building.

"So they have giants here," he stated when he saw a woman on the screen holding up a bottle of soda. "Giants that like holding up big green bottles. Guess this world isn't so strange after all." But as he said that, syrens caught his attention and made him look around.

Police cruisers rushed into the scene and skidded to a stop around him. Police got out and looked him over, as Aareus drew his sword and activated his shield. "Alright renaissance fair," a cop stated. "Drop the sword and put your hands on your head."

"You dare command a prince!" He growled, getting ready to cut this fool's tongue out.

"Oh boy," the cop reached for his taser. "Wonder how many meds they forgot to give this one." But before a fight could break out, something happened.

A rush of wind flew passed the cop and came to a stop in front of Aareus.

XLR8 stood before him and looked the prince over, "hey." He stood straight and his visor flew up, "I know you. You're that Prince guy. The one that took away Devious." Aareus tilted his head.

"Have we met before?" XLR8 would have answered, but noticed the cop looking upset.

"Relax man. This guy's cool. I'm...just gonna take him." Before either could reply, XLR8 grabbed him and zipped off. He heard the cop yell out behind him, but ignored him as he flew through the streets and into an alleyway. Once they were behind a dumpster, he put a queasy looking Aareus down.

"Oh," the prince stagger forward and looked ready to hurl.

"Yeah, sorry about that. You'll get used to it. Anyway, my friend Diamondhead was at the fight with that Devious guy. I was watching the whole thing, so I know who you are. Luna Cat Kingdom Prince."

"Good," Aareus took a deep breath, "at least I won't have any problems with you."

"So what are you doing here? Canterlot's great, but there are better ways to take a vacation."

"I'm not here on vacation." Aareus then took something out. The Luna Cat Mask. "I've come because I need to talk to the girl who had this mask before."

"Oh," XLR8 nodded. "Okay. Hold on."

"Wha-" Was all he got to say before XLR8 grabbed him and zipped the prince out of the alleyway. They shot through the city at high speed, Aareus barely managing to hold onto the mask as they did. It only took them a few minutes to get to the suburbs that Trixie lived in, reaching her street and arriving at her front door.

XLR8 dropped Aareus at the front door and zipped into the area between the house and next door. The darkness of the shadows kept him hidden, whilst Aareus once again fought to stop himself from puking.

He quickly knocked, hoping this girl was actually in here and he wasn't knocking on some rando's door. But as he heard movement on the other side, a voice spoke up. "Who is it?"

XLR8 suddenly shot back to the front of the door, "it's me!" Trixie opened the door and was surprised to see him, XLR8 running inside. "Your dad around?" Trixie would have answered no, but then she saw Aareus and gasped as she remembered him. "Yeah, brought you someone who wants to see you. If you don't mind, gonna get a drink." He rolled into the kitchen, whilst Trixie stared at the prince.

"May I come in?" He asked, Trixie stepping aside and allowing him to enter her home. "Nice place. Always interested in the dwelling of peasants." As he said that, a beeping sound caught their attention before a flash of light came from the kitchen. "What was that?" He reached for his sword, but Flash stepped into view carrying class of water.

"Relax," Trixie told him, "that was just Flash turning back to normal." Flash gave her a look. "What, how was I supposed to explain you being here and the alien raptor not? Besides, he comes from an entirely different universe. Hardly gonna be able to blab."

Flash shrugged, "true." Aareus looked confused, as Trixie led him into the living room. As he did, Flash took out his phone. "I'll text Shining and tell him what happened. He'll probably have a few questions for you." Aareus nodded at this as he looked around the room, curious at all the modern devices he saw. He then noticed a picture on the mantelpiece and moved over to take a look, seeing a younger Trixie being held up by Jackpot.

"Is this your father?" Trixie nodded, "what about your mother?" That statement got a frown the girl, who sat on the couch.

"I don't know. She abandoned me when I was born." Flash looked at her in shock, clearly not being privy to this detail. "According to my dad, he found me on his doorstep one night. Apparently, he had a bit too much fun when he was younger. Can't even guess who my mother really is."

"Ouch," Flash sighed, "I'm sorry to hear that. Why didn't you ever say anything?"

Trixie shrugged, "I guess it was the one thing about Trixie she didn't want anyone to know about. Didn't want anyone looking at her in pity."

"I can understand how you feel," Aareus sat on a chair opposite her. "I never got to know my father. My mother refused to tell anyone who he was. Even me."

"Wasn't she the queen?" Flash asked, Aareus nodded. "How could she have a kid and not have the father known. Doesn't being born out of wedlock make you illegitimate to the throne?" Aareus looked at him like he was crazy.

"That's stupid. Just because my parents weren't married doesn't diminish my rights to the throne. I don't know how this kind of thing works in your world, but in mine the throne can go to anyone who's deemed worthy." Flash nodded, understanding that. "And to answer your question, I don't know who my father is because my mother was missing when I was born." The pair didn't get that. "Before she took the throne, she went on a soul searching journey of some kind. A year after she left, she returned with me in her arms."

"I see," Trixie nodded before shaking her head. "We're clearly getting off topic. Why are you here?"

Aareus shook his head, refocusing himself. "Right." He reached into his pocket and took the Luna Cat Mask out, Trixie's eyes going wide. "This is why I'm here." He held the mask out and Trixie, slowly, reached out and took it from him. Just holding the former source of her great power made her feel a rush of strength and confidence. "Put it on." Trixie was shocked, but Aareus nodded.

She took a deep breath and placed the mask over her face. And in a flash of light, she was suddenly transformed into the cat-themed costume she had once been famous for wearing. Lady Masquerade had returned.

Aareus sighed, "it's still bound to you."

"What do you mean?"

"When my mother renounced her claim on the mask, she did so to keep Devious from getting his hands on it. Somehow, it managed to traverse worlds and came here. I thought it only did that to keep Devious from getting it, but even after he was captured the mask refused to give its power to me. It's supposed to only share its power to those that are connected to the previous wielder. So why has it bound to you?"

"I don't know," Trixie swore. "But...if you really need it, I could renounce it like your mother did."

Aareus sighed, "that could work. But who's to say it'll come to me? It passed over me once, it could do so again and go to someone else completely random. Besides, I don't have time to learn to control it."

"Don't have time?" Flash asked. "What, is there a countdown to mastering it after the previous wielder's death?"

"No, but someone's coming after it." That got them concerned. "They've already managed to get the other Medallions and now, only this one is left."

"Other Medallions?" They both asked, Trixie continuing her question. "There are other Medallions that grant powers?"

"Yes. Twelve in total. Legends says that a great god existed in my world centuries ago, who had the power to rewrite reality with the blink of an eye. Many people feared its wrath, so a mighty army came together and managed to slay the god. His power was then split into twelve pieces, each one embodying a particular power the god wielded."

"And those pieces became the Medallions?" Flash guessed, Aareus nodding.

"When the Medallions were created, each of them suddenly bonded to a warrior the power it granted best synced with. These twelve individuals could sense that the Medallions, when brought together, could use the same reality warping powers of the god. That's why, they each chose to split apart. Each of them took a Medallion and anyone who wished to follow them and journeyed across the land. And eventually, each of them settled in an area that they turned into the twelve kingdoms."

"And each kingdom has a Medallion?" Flash asked, "in the possession of the king or queen."

Aareus nodded again. "The ruler of the kingdom's sacred duty is to protect the Medallions. To keep them separated from the others in order to prevent reality from being changed."

"But what's the big deal with changing reality?" Trixie asked, "sounds like something anyone would want to do."

"Are you nuts?" Flash asked, "imagine if some idiot got that kind of power. They could turn the sea into lava, make humans have no eyes or who knows what else. Nobody should have that kind of power."

"And that's just the ethical implications," Aareus stated. "If the legends are true, bringing all twelve Medallions together will end the world." That made the pair worry, as Aareus stood up and moved over to the window. "In order to change something in this world, you must first break down what was in its place. The Medallions don't just change a single thing in the world. They destroy the entire world and rebuild a new one with the changes asked for."

Flash and Twilight realised what he was say. "And...everyone in the world when it was destroyed?"

"Would die," Aareus told Trixie. "They would be blinked out of existence and replaced with an exact copy. But it still wouldn't be them. At least, that's how the legend goes."

Flash gulped. "Well I for one would rather not test to see if that part of the legend is true." They both nodded, as Trixie reached up and touched the Medallion she was wearing.

"This is the only one left?"

"All the others have been stolen," Aareus turned to her. "If it's all by the same person, we can't risk this Medallion falling into their hands." He moved over and knelt down in front of her. "Trixie Lulamoon. You were chosen by the Medallion to be its wielder. I don't know why, but there must have been a reason. What I'm asking you is a big deal, but please...keep this Medallion safe."

Trixie took the mask off, reverting back to her normal appearance, and looked at the Medallion. "But, am I worthy? Last time I had this, I let the power go to my head. What if I do the same thing now? What if the power corrupts me and I try and take the other Medallions myself?"

"I won't let that happen," Flash promised her. He stepped forward and showed her the Omnitrix. "You believed I could use this for good when I first got it and you've saved my butt countless times. You are worthy and the Medallion can see it." Trixie smiled at him. "And it won't just be me helping you. Shining, Twilight, all the Rainbooms will wanna help. Together, we'll beat whoever's coming after these Medallions and take'em down."

"Thanks Flash," Trixie nodded. She then placed the mask back on her face and transformed back into her super-powered form, feeling much more comfortable then she had before. "Alright, so what's the plan?"

"We'll need to tell the others," Flash pointed out. "But I think the best idea for you is to not be alone without me or someone else. Whoever took those Medallions must have some way of beating them without a fight. If they didn't, they wouldn't have been able to take the Medallions in the first place."

Trixie frowned, thinking back to when she had fought Devious. She had been so confident when she faced him, but that magic nullifying crystal had made her and the Rainbooms completely useless. If this person had one of those, she was gonna be in serious trouble.

"I don't think I should be alone," Trixie stated. "If they have a way of stopping the Medallion's power, I'll need someone to help and undo whatever they do." Flash nodded in agreement, hoping Shining got there soon. Aareus was almost in agreement, only to suddenly turn his gaze to the window pointing out at the street.

"Someone's coming." This confused the pair, only for a bright light to catch their attention.

They rushed outside, as a portal just like the one Aareus had come through appeared. And from it stepped a figure they all recognised. "Devious," the prince growled.

It was Devious, wearing a costume similar to what he wore last time. Only this time, he was dressed in a red overcoat with patterns that depicted orange flames, yellow lightning bolts, blue snowflakes and green gusts of wind. His overcoat was closed at the top, opening up just above the waist with black pants and boots along with yellow gloves. HIs head was almost completely covered by a red mask that covered all but his mouth and eyes, which had a dragon-head attached to the forehead with the rest hidden under his red hood. He was carrying a long metal staff with a serpentine dragon coiled around the top, which had multiple coins attached to it.

He looked around and quickly spotted the three, who got into a fighting stance. "Lady Masquerade. I've been hoping I would have the honour to seeing you again."

"What's this guy doing here?" Flash asked, "I thought we dealt with him."

Aareus growled, "he escaped before he could be brought to trial. I should have known you were the one behind this." He stared at the mask he was wearing, noting the medallion inside the dragon's mouth that was gold with a dragon emblazoned on it. "The Radiant Dragon Medallion."

Devious smiled as he reached up to rub his fingers over the coin. "I'll admit, whilst the Luna Cat Medallion is my birthright, this medallion really speaks to me." He pointed the staff at Trixie. "Now, give me your medallion."

"Not gonna happen!" Trixie cried, "I know this is all you need to complete your insane ritual." She pulled out her belt and transformed it into her staff, "I'm not gonna let you do that!" She charged forward, swinging the staff around whilst the medallion's power made copies of her.

But Devious' medallion glowed as he swung his staff around, unleashing a stream of fire that flew towards the Trixie army. The fakes all ran into the flames and disappeared, whilst the real one used her staff to pole-vault over it. She let out a scream as she swung her staff towards him, but Devious thrust out his hand and created a powerful gust of wind.

"Augh!" She was thrown backwards and crashed into the ground, Aareus rushing over to her.

"The Radiant Dragon Medallion gives its wielder control over the elements. Fire, ice, wind and lightning."

"Oh," Trixie moaned, "couldn't have said that sooner?"

Flash looked around and, seeing nobody else in sight, activated the Omnitrix and slammed it down. Aareus looked around and was shocked to see Flash be replaced by a wolf, snake, bear hybrid. "Let's rock and whirl!" He leapt forward, curling into his tire form and rolling towards the villain.

Devious thrust his staff forwards and launched a blast of fire and lightning towards him, but they simply bounced off Lindwhirl's impenetrable hide as he got closed. Devious was forced to leap to the side, using a blast of wind to propel him away from Lindwhirl.

The alien quickly used his claws to cut into the ground and curve around, once again launching himself at Devious. This time, the psychotic magician hit the ground with his staff and created an ice ramp. Lindwhirl couldn't stop in time and was thrown into the air, flying straight up.

Devious smiled, but then saw Lindwhirl stop and begin to fall towards him. As he did, he uncurled himself and started spinning in a tornado fashion. And as Devious leapt to the side, Trixie suddenly appeared and struck him in the face with her staff.

"Augh!" He was thrown into his ice ramp and bounced off it, as Lindwhirl reached him. But before he could slash at him, Devious created an ice dome that shielded him. Lindwhirl slashed at the ice, tearing it apart, but didn't hit Devious as he leapt out of the only hole the dome had.

Aareus watched this and frowned, wishing he could help. However, against Devious he wouldn't stand a chance. "Mother was the best sorceress of her age, why am I so bad at it?" As Devious fired lightning at Trixie, he had had enough and pulled out his sword and shield. "Raaaaah!" Devious saw him running at him, but rolled his eyes and thrust his hands forward.

This unleashed a powerful gust of wind, which struck Aareus and threw him backwards. He cried out as he slammed into the side of Trixie's house, falling into the bushes in front. "Watch yourself, junior. The big kids are playing." He dodged Lindwhirl's slash and blocked the second with his staff, whilst Trixie leapt behind him and thrust her staff towards his back.

But Devious ducked down and the staff struck Lindwhirl's chest, making him flinch as Devious kicked upwards and knocked the staff from her hands. He then spun around and his feet unleashed burst of wind, pushing the pair backwards. Lindwhirl used this momentum to curl up and spin, turning into a tire that flew towards Devious. "Now I gotcha!"

"You've got nothing!" Devious created another ice ramp, this one structured so Lindwhirl was sent flying over his head. Lindwhirl caught Trixie's eyes as he did and the pair knew what the other was thinking, Trixie using her illusion as Lindwhirl took a breath.

"Flame on!" He roared and a blast of fire flew from his mouth, which soared towards Devious. He leapt to the side to avoid it, but the fireball struck the ground and exploded into several more fireballs. Devious' eyes went wide as he started to avoid them, but these smaller flames followed him wherever he went.

"Stop it!" He swung his staff around, unleashed a wave of wind. But the fireballs flew through it without a problem. This made Devious raise an eyebrow and he let the flames slam into him, but they simply phased through him. "Nice try!" He launched a blast of lightning towards Trixie, who spun her staff around to avoid it.

As this was happening, Jackpot was driving home. He pulled into the street and instantly stopped when he saw what was going on.

He watched as Lady Masquerade was fighting against Devious, the pair slamming their staffs into one another. He got a look at the female fighter and when he saw her, his eyes went wide. "Beatrice!" He got out and rushed towards the scene, "what's happening?" This caught everyone's attention, as Trixie's eyes went wide.

"Dad, get out of here!" She covered her mouth, realising she had let the cat out of the bag.

Devious heard this and smirked, the man thrusting his hand forward and blasting her back with wind. Her father gasped at this and before he could act, Devious was upon him. "Augh!" He was suddenly zapped by lightning and fell to his knees, as Devious grabbed him by the hair and held the flaming staff tip to his face.

Trixie, Aareus and Lindwhirl pushed themselves up, only to see Trixie's father in trouble. "NO!" Trixie cried, getting up and rushing forward.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you!" Devious told her before the flames drew closer to her father, making him hiss. "Now, I think we can come to an agreement. Hand over the Luna Cat Medallion."

"Luna...Cat?" Her father grunted. He looked at Trixie, who stood there and appeared to actually be considering it.

"You can't!" He looked over at Aareus and his eyes went wide. "If you give him the Medallion, you'll be playing right into his hands." Trixie still remained where she was, as Devious laughed.

"Oh, this is beautiful. You would actually give up your power for your father. How pathetic. This is why things like love and friendship are weaknesses. They make you vulnerable."

"True." A voice behind him spoke up before Devious suddenly felt an intense impact and burning in his back, making him cry out and loosen his grip on Jackpot. The man quickly rolled away and ran to his daughter, as she and the others looked behind Devious. "But they can also help you get out of a vulnerable spot," Shining stated as he was dressed in his plumber suit.

"Trixie!" Jackpot ran to her, "what's happening here? Why are you dressed like that?" Trixie wasn't sure how to answer that, but Devious' growls made her look back at him as he picked himself up.

He turned to Shining and got ready to blast him, but before he could he sensed something flying towards him. Looking around, his eyes went wide at the sight of Lindwhirl rolling towards him. And before the magician could stop him, the alien unfurled and smashed his tail into him.

He cried out as he was knocked flying backwards, crashing into Jackpot's car. "Ha!" Lindwhirl smirked, "now we got you." He, Shining and Trixie stood in line, each ready to use their powers to take him down. But before they could, the Omnitrix beeped and he transformed back. "Ah!" Flash groaned, "great."

"Don't worry," Shining assured him. "Lady Masquerade and I can take him out." But as he said that, Devious raised his staff and created a massive fireball right in front of him.

It grew bigger and bigger by the second, the heat forcing the three to step backwards. "Gyah!" Flash groaned, "so hot!" They moved over to where Jackpot and Aareus were, the lot of them knowing getting hit by that fireball was gonna be big trouble.

Seeing no other choice, Aareus reached into his pocket and pulled something out. A crystal.

He threw the crystal behind them and it shattered, the light it unleashed swirling together to form a portal. He then grabbed Trixie and threw her through the portal, Trixie crying out as she vanished. He did the same with Jackpot, whilst Flash and Shining decided that was better than getting roasted.

As Devious fired the attack, the three leapt through the portal and it vanished. The fireball struck the ground and exploded, shaking the ground. When the smoke vanished, Devious saw his prey were gone. "You can try and run, but I'll find you. And that Medallion will be mine."

Trixie cried out as she fell through the portal onto a carpeted floor, her father following behind her.

Flash, Shining and Aareus jumped through the portal and it closed behind them, the lot sighing in relief. "That was too close," Flash then looked around. "Where are we?" The others looked around and saw the room was a large throne made of marble, with the Luna Cat symbol on many tapestries along with stain glass windows.

"You're in the Luna Cat Kingdom's throne-room," Aareus moved over to a throne. "We should be safe here for a little while, since Devious won't be able to warp directly into this room like us." They nodded as they continued to look around, only for Jackpot to come to a complete stop when he saw something.

Flash noticed this and followed his gaze, which was on a large portrait that was hanging behind the throne. It depicted a stunning woman with pink skin and silvery blue hair, wearing a mask Flash instantly knew. "Who is she?" Flash gestured to the portrait, Aareus looking at it and sighing.

"That's my mother. The Former Queen of the Luna Cat Kingdom. Miragina Saintworthy." They all focused on the picture and Flash saw how Jackpot was staring at her. It was a look someone gave to someone special, that they hadn't seen in a long time.

"Do you...know her?" Everyone focused on Jackpot, who continued to stare at the picture.

Yes, Jackpot did know her. He was reminded of a time from his past. A time he knew he would need to tell his daughter about when he saw her in that costume and when he saw Aareus. "It was almost twenty years ago."

A younger Jackpot was standing on a stage, dressed in a magician's outfit much like his daughter would wear in the years to come.

"Now," he told the man on stage with him, "pick a card." He held up a bunch of cards and the man took one, "look at it and put it back in the deck!" He did so and Jackpot started shuffling them before walking over to a table. "Now," he put the deck down before lifting a large box onto it, "watch as I destroy all but the card my young friend picked." He took out a wand and slammed the end onto the box, which suddenly burst into flames.

The fire was only meant to burn up the box and cards and drop the fireproof card in their place. But instead, the flames flew outwards and set the rest of the stage on fire.

"Uh oh," he gulped before stomping on the ground to try and put the fire out. But the flames spread too quickly and soon, the entire stage was set alight. "Not good."

"Get him!" The owner of the club yelled as Jackpot ran out of the back entrance, carrying his box of magic stuff with him and barely managing to keep hold of his hat.

The club's employees ran after him, ready to make him pay for the damage done to the club. Jackpot ran into the night, not daring to stop or look back. He dived into an alleyway and then into another and another, slowly losing his pursuers. After an hour of running, he was finally comfortable enough to stop.

Now he was just walking through the street, exhausted, unpaid and likely not to get another magic gig ever. He groaned as he looked up at the full moon, wondering if he was ever gonna get his big break or be stuck in his menial dead end job for the rest of his life.

But then, a light caught his attention from between two buildings.

Deciding to take a chance, he let his curiosity get the better of him and moved to the entrance of the alley to look inside. What he saw was a swirling spiral of light, which was floating in the middle of the alleyway. Jackpot stared at it in amazement, that amazement doubling when a figure appeared within the light.

That figure was a woman, who was around his age with pink skin and silvery blue hair. She was dressed oddly, wearing a medieval dress that was white with brown around the chest and running down the sides.

The young woman stood there and as the light faded, she staggered forwards and looked like she was gonna fall face-first into a puddle.

Jackpot's eyes went wide as he rushed forward and caught her, "you okay?"

The woman moaned, "I'm okay. Just a little woozy. That portal wasn't exactly stable."

"Portal?" Jackpot asked, wondering who the heck this was. But before he could ask her, she closed her eyes and seemed to fall unconscious. "Hey! Hey, wake up!" But she didn't, which worried him. "Great. Now what do I do?"

The first thing Miragina felt when she woke up was a strange uncomfortable surface below her.

Her eyes flickered open and she found herself laying on one of the lumpiest beds she had ever been on. She picked herself up and looked around, seeing she was inside a small room. She thought it was some kind of dungeon, given how sparse it was, but she was actually inside Jackpot's apartment.

Speaking of Jackpot, she noticed him sleeping on the ground at the other end of the room.

As she rolled on the bed, it let out a creaking noise loud enough to wake the man up. "Wha?" He sat up and looked around, only to see her. "Oh, that wasn't a dream." She frowned at this, as the man picked himself up and started stretching his body.

"Where are we?" She asked, as he moved over to a strange white box. "Have we been captured? Imprisoned?"

"No," he told her, "this is my apartment. I know it isn't much, but it's better then nothing." He opened the box's door and looked inside, "fraid I can't offer you much. Some milk, few cucumbers and a jar of stuff that was in the fridge when I moved in."

"Why am I here?" She asked.

"You collapsed," he told her. "You might be a stranger, but I couldn't exactly just leave you passed out in the middle of the street. But you're awake, so you're not my problem anymore." She frowned at this.

"You're very rude."

"I've had a rough week," he pulled out the cucumber and started eating it. "Made even weirder when some strange lady staggers out of something she calls a portal before collapsing. What the heck even was that back there."

"It's as I said. A portal. An unstable one, but I'm sure I'll improve with practise."

"Right. Portal. Sorry, but that kind of thing doesn't happen unless you're in a sci-fi or fantasy movie. So what was it really?" She frowned.

"LIke I said, it's a portal. If you don't have transport magic in this world, how do you get around."

"If you can afford it, a car. If you're me, you walk. But what did you say. Magic? Like...real magic?" She rolled her eyes and reached into her dress pocket, taking out a small red crystal. He raised an eyebrow as she rubbed her finger over it, then held that finger up to show a flame appear on the tip of it.

His eyes went wide and he slowly moved closer, staring at the flame and feeling the heat coming off it. He knew enough about illusions to realise this was no trick. She was casting some kind of spell and making fire.

"How...who are you?"

"Miragina Sinclair," she replied. "Princess of the Luna Cat Kingdom."

"Luna Cat Kingdom? Wait, you're a princess?" She nodded, "what the heck are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in some big castle, living the life of luxury or something?" She rolled her eyes.

"Being a princess isn't all it's cracked up to be. I just...needed some time away from being royalty. I knew I couldn't escape in my world, so I used a dimension spell to travel to this one." She reached into her pocket and took out another crystal, "this'll let me go home when I'm ready to."

"Huh," he nodded, "that's cool. I'm Jackpot by the way."

"Nice to meet you," she nodded before pointing at the cloths hanging from the door. "I take it from your outfit that you are some kind of court jester." Jackpot frowned, but honestly couldn't deny that given how he felt.

"I'm trying to be an entertainer," he moved to the door and took his magic stuff down. "Real magic doesn't exist here, so people are a lot more impressed by things they can't blame on magic." He turned to her, "but I'm not as good as I'd like to be." He could see Miragina looking ready to say something out of pity. "But that's beside the point. The real question is, what do you plan to do now?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, you're a princess. I'm guessing you don't know much about how peasants like me live. And I'm guessing your world doesn't have stuff like the almighty dollar. So basically, you're broke." She frowned, clearly not happy to hear that but nodding. She had come to this world without actually thinking about what she might do. "Well, I guess you can stay here until you get yourself sorted out." She looked up at him in amazement. "But you're gonna get a job and pay your way, got it princess."

"Of course," she nodded. "I'll do whatever I need to."

"So...aside from magic, what kind of skills do you have?"

"Um...I can sow." Jackpot frowned, wondering if there were any jobs around that could use that skill. But he couldn't think of a thing.

"Anything else?" They spent the entire day discussing what Miragina could actually do, but alas it appeared her skills were limited. Jackpot also had to teach her about many modern things that her world didn't have, such as motor vehicles, TV and anything else that might make her have a panic attack when she saw it.

For the first week of her being there, she failed at cooking, cleaning, buying groceries and anything a person needed to be able to do to survive.

On the seventh day of her being there, she and Jackpot were sitting on her bed eating takeout. "Umm," she smiled, "this is so good. I wish we had stuff like this back home."

Jackpot chuckled. "it's been a week since you left. Won't people start worrying about you?"

"I doubt it. Probably hasn't even been a day over there." Jackpot raised an eyebrow at this. "I picked this world because its time is out of sync with my world. One day on the other side could be weeks on this side. That's why I came here. I could spend ages on this side having fun and get back home before they can think to look for me in this one."

"Wow," Jackpot whispered, "that's sounds so cool. You could end up going home looking older than your parents if you're not careful."

"True. And the time sync constantly changes. In about five or ten years in this world, the time will shift so it's in perfect balance with mine. And in another decade or so, it'll shift again so that time will move quicker in my world."

"Huh," Jackpot held his head, "I'm confused."

"Of course you are," she smiled. "Basically, it'll be months before they realise that I'm likely in another universe. And that could be years on this world. Plenty of time for me to enjoy myself and not have to worry about being a princess."

"No. Instead, you just have to worry about starving to death and not paying the rent on time." Miragina turned to give him a smirk, whilst continue to eat her takeout.

As it turned out, Miragina managed to get a job two days later.

It turned out she was incredibly talented in hairstyling, which was something she enjoyed doing back home as her servants often showed her different styles and how to make them. She got a job at a beauty parlour and became one of the best employees there. By the end of her first week, she was completely booked up with people wanting her to work her magic again on them.

With both of them working, they were able to afford much more comforts in living. They were able to get their own TV and Miragina enjoyed watching soaps and romance movies. She also started learning how to properly cook and clean, with Jackpot helping teach her more amazing things about his world.

He took her to an amusement park, taught her how to drive a car and even managed to set up a bank account so she could get her own credit card. Day after day, Miragina became more and more used to the world she now called home. And it wasn't just Jackpot showing her things.

Miragina might have been able to do real magic, but she became just as fascinated by the illusions and tricks Jackpot tried to master. And as he showed her some of his tricks, she noticed what he was doing wrong. A few suggestions from her and Jackpot's tricks became more and more amazing.

She also helped him come up with some new tricks, which Jackpot was able to master with her help and amaze the crowds of parks and streets. He was so good, that he even managed to get a job at a child's birthday. Miragina had agreed to be his lovely assistant, and help if anything went wrong, resulting in her wearing an amazing red dress covered in sparkles.

The performance was amazing and the kids absolutely loved all of his tricks, with one of the parents in the audience happening to own a club Jackpot hadn't been banned from.

He offered to give him a trial run, Jackpot gladly accepting and thanking Miragina for helping him get this far. Miragina felt great pride for helping him, but there was something else she felt when he hugged her.

As the months together had passed, something inside her heart had begun to grow for the princess. What started as the embers of friendship, slowly grew into a mighty wildfire of emotion.

"Cheers," the two tapped their glasses together as they sat in their much more lavished apartment. "Hard to believe it's been a year since we met," Jackpot smiled as they took a drink.

"Yeah," Miragina nodded. "and I'm curious how long it's been back home."

"Oh," Jackpot frowned, "are you...wanting to go back."

She shook her head, "not yet. I do miss it, but I love this place just as much." Jackpot smiled as they both enjoy the pizza they had bought to celebrate. "So here's something interesting. One of my regulars tried to set me up with their brother."

"Oh?" Jackpot's appetite suddenly vanished. "And...what did you tell her?"

"I told her no thanks," she replied. "She was wondering why not and asked if I had a boyfriend. Of course, I said no. She then asked if there was anyone I had feeling for and was waiting to be asked out by."

"And..."

"I said yes." Jackpot's eyes went wide. "I told her there was this one guy in my life I really liked, who I think might like me back. But, he doesn't seem to have the guts to ask me out."

"Oh," Jackpot nodded, "what did she have to say about that."

"She gave me this big speech about not letting a boy decide when a relationship starts. That if I'm sure he likes me, I should bite my nerve and make the first move. And she's right. I've decided the next time I see this guy, I'm gonna kiss him square on the lips."

"I see," Jackpot nodded. "Well, I hope he makes you happy."

Miragina nodded, "he really does." She then closed her eyes, confusing him. But when she opens her eyes, her head flew forward and her lips met his. Jackpot was surprised by this, unable to believe it was happening. But slowly, the surprise was replaced by great joy as he started kissing her back.

The two hugged one another and continued to kiss, their pizza completely forgotten.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" A man cried as he stood on stage. "Please give a great round of applause to the Amazing Jackpot and his lovely assistant, Miragina!"

The crowd cheered as the pair came out onto the stage, Jackpot quickly doing so amazing magical tricks. He put Miragina in a box and somehow teleported her into another box. He put her into another box, which suddenly caught fire and burned into nothingness with Miragina gone.

He then held up a large sack that was empty, only to somehow pull out a large box. He showed it was completely light and opened it to show she wasn't inside, only to then put it down and open it up again before helping her climb out. The crowd cheered at the amazing magic, which continued for almost two hours.

It was an amazing show, the best Jackpot had ever done. And when it was time to leave, the crowd were applauding like he had never gotten before. The two ran offstage and laughed as they did so, Jackpot pulling her into a kiss as they did so. They then headed off the to dressing rooms, leaving half an hour later and rushing out the back exit.

Running out onto the street, the many sights and sounds around them were something they would never forget. They were in the sin city, having been invited there after a one of their magic performances was put on the internet and went viral. They could now enjoy a night they would never forget, with the person they loved more than anyone else.

Miragina was sitting on a couch, knitting something as she did so.

Someone then walked into the living room she was in, that someone being Jackpot carrying a large box. He put it with a bunch of other boxes, wiping his brow as he did so. Miragina smiled at his, only to flinch and drop what she was knitting.

Doing so revealed a round stomach, which she clutched as Jackpot moved over to her. "You okay?"

"Yes," she nodded, "she's just kicking."

Jackpot smiled, "what do you mean she?" He reached out and placed a hand on her stomach, "my family's always had boys born first. He's showing off what a great football player he's gonna be."

"Don't be silly. It's a mother's instinct to know what she's having. There's a girl in here. I can assure you." Jackpot smiled as just kept feeling her stomach and eventually felt a kick.

"Doesn't matter what we have. They'll be amazing." Miragina nodded, as she rubbed her stomach. "Because their mother will be amazing." She smiled and kissed before Jackpot leaned forward and kissed her, then turned to unpack the boxes.

Cries filled the house as a very tired Miragina laid in her bed, panting after the stressful and painful experience.

Jackpot was in a chair next to her, holding a pair of blankets in his arms. Each one held a beautiful newborn baby, one a boy and one a girl. He could hardly believe it. He was a father. "They're amazing."

Miragina smiled, "and it looks like we were both right." Jackpot laughed as they tried to think of names for them. "Aareus," she suggested as Jackpot placed the boy in her arms. "The first king of the Luna Cat Kingdom was Aareus. I think that's the perfect name for him."

Jackpot nodded as he held his daughter, an name coming into his head. "Beatrice." She looked at him, "it was my mother's name, but she shortened it to Trixie." He smiled at her, "you certainly pulled quite an appearing act on us. We weren't expecting two."

Miragina nodded, liking that name. Aareus and Beatrice were placed in the crib, both sleeping peacefully whilst the new parents kissed. Things were perfect. They had the perfect life and the perfect family. And as long as things stayed perfect, they would always be happy.

Jackpot arrived home and was looking forward to spending the night with his lover and children. But as he walked into the living room, he saw Miragina on the couch with a gloom look on her face.

"What's wrong?" He moved over to place a hand on her shoulder, but noticed she had something in her hands that she was looking at. He looked down and saw it was a mask of some kind, with a coin that had a cat and moon on it. Memories of the stories she told him came to his head. "Is this..."

"The Luna Cat Medallion," she whispered. "It showed up an hour ago."

"What does this mean?"

"I don't know." Miragina sniffed, "it could mean my father renounced it. But...there's another reason it would come to me. If he...he..."

"Oh," Jackpot looked down, "I see."

"I have to go home," she stated. "The Medallion has chosen me. I'm no longer a princess."

"You're a queen," Jackpot stated. Miragina nodded, "alright. When do we leave?" She looked at him in shock, "you think I wouldn't go with you. I love you and I'm not gonna stay whilst you go rule a kingdom all on your lonesome." He placed a hand on her shoulder, "you helped me become the magician I couldn't be on my own. Now let me help you become the queen you need to be."

Miragina shook her head, "I can't." She got up and left. "I can't take you with me."

"Why not?" Jackpot asked.

"Many reasons. For one, the crystal I need to go home wouldn't be able to handle carrying us all. You, me and the twins. It wouldn't be able to handle it. It could maybe take the two of us or me and one of the kids, but not all of us." Jackpot frowned, but knew there had to be a way around it. "And what would you do in my world? You don't know anything about ruling a kingdom. You can't use magic and in my world, your skills wouldn't impress anyone. You would have nothing to do."

"I'd find something."

"No," she shook her head, "you're a magician. An entertainer. That's who you're supposed to be. I can't take that from you."

"I don't care."

"I do!" Miragina cried, loud enough that it caused Trixie to start crying. She moved over to pick her up, holding her tightly. "And even if you did find something to do, you'd have to spend the rest of your life dodging assassins and constantly being guarded."

"What?" Jackpot asked, "why?"

"I'm the queen," Miragina stated. "That means men are going to want to be with me. To become the ruler and make an heir that could compete for the crown. If they want to do that, they would need to get rid of you first. I can't let that happen."

Jackpot's hands shook, "can't you renounce it?" Miragina looked shocked, "you said the mask would go to the next worthy heir if the ruler renounced it. So why don't you renounce it. Let someone else take the burden."

"I can't do that," Miragina shook her head. "My family has protected the kingdom for generations. I can't just turn my back on all that and let someone who might do an even worse job take the reigns. Besides," she looked at her daughter, "what if the Medallion chooses one of them." She returned Trixie to the crib and focused back on Jackpot. "No ruler has ever renounced their Medallion when their child was a baby. But there have been ten year olds who've gained the power, so I can't risk it. I have to go back."

Jackpot knew she was right and Miragina moved over to hug him, "what about the children?"

"I don't know," Miragina looked ready to start crying. "I don't want to leave them, but I can't take them from you either."

Jackpot hugged her back, trying to think of what he could possibly do. Then he realised something, "there are two." Miragina heard this and caught on to what he was saying, pulling away from him.

"You want to split them up?" She asked, Jackpot looking down.

"I don't want to. But it's the best option. Besides, you said that crystal will only be able to transport two people. Return home and take one of the kids. Raise them to be a great ruler and when you decide to renounce your power, the mask will choose them."

Miragina truly burst out crying now, unable to believe she was splitting up her family so much. But she knew this was the right thing to do.

And so, Jackpot and Miragina spent the entire night hugging one another and holding their children. They also spent that time making the hardest choice imaginable. Deciding which child each of them keep.

In the end, they decided Jackpot would keep Trixie on earth and Miragina would take Aareus back to her world. At this point in time, the two worlds should by in temporal sync with each other. Both of them would spend the next few years growing up at the same rate, but then it would again shift and make it so Aareus would age faster. Being the oldest, that made sense.

And so, Miragina packed a small bag and placed it over her shoulder. She then stood in the living room, holding Trixie tightly to her. "Oh my baby," she whispered into her ear. "I know it's gonna feel like I abandoned you, but this is for the best. Be strong and know that momma loves you. And hopefully, we'll get to meet again one day."

She turned to Jackpot, who was hugging Aareus and whispering something to him. It broke her heart to know that it might be the last time she ever saw him. But she had to be strong. This was her destiny.

Jackpot moved over to her and after the parents gave their child one final hug and kiss, they swapped babies. They then stared at one another and both kissed each other, the final kiss they would ever share. When it was over, Miragina took out the gem she had held onto all these years.

Jackpot held Trixie tightly, as her mother smashed the crystal onto the ground. Doing so caused it to unleash a brilliant flash of light, which swirled into a portal. Miragina stepped up to it, the now queen looking back at half her family. She then took out the mask and placed it on her face, causing it to transform her into her super-powered form. And before either of them could say anything or change their minds, Miragina stepped through the portal.

Trixie cried as her mother and brother vanished into the light, the portal disappearing. Jackpot was now all alone, a single father who would need to raise his daughter whilst lying to her about where she came from. All he could do was hope and pray, that one day their family would be reunited.

And it would be. But not completely.

Author's Note

I bet you weren't expecting that, huh? How will Trixie take this news and how will in change things for her. Only time will tell, so be sure to tune in again next week.

Season 2, Episode 8: Trixie's Destiny

Trixie and Aareus were in absolute shock, Flash and Shining being just as amazed as Jackpot finished telling his tale.

The two turned to one another and stared at each other in absolute bewilderment. Then, Aareus' shock turned to anger. "No," he turned back to Jackpot, "I don't believe you." He marched up to him, "you really expect me to believe that you're my father?" He pointed to Trixie, "that she's my sister?"

"It's the truth," Jackpot told him. He reached out to place a hand on Aareus' shoulder, but the man pulled back.

"No!" He shook his head, "I can't believe that."

"Why?" Jackpot asked, "what makes you think I'm lying?"

"Well," Trixie spoke up. "You said we're supposed to be twins, but look at us. He's clearly older than me." Aareus nodded, "I'm seventeen. And he's...like twenty."

"Twenty-two," he stated. "So we can't be siblings. Which means you're lying to me."

"He might not be," Flash spoke up. "Remember what he said your mom told him. About how time between the worlds is constantly changing."

"Exactly," Jackpot nodded. "Your mother came to our world and was there for years. But it was likely only a few months on this side. Maybe one year, I don't know. But then the worlds synced up and time flowed the same way, or at least it should have according to your mother."

"Then it sped up," Trixie sighed. "You spent years on this side and it was probably only one on mine. That's why you're older." Aareus still looked unsure, but then Jackpot reached into his pocket. He pulled out his wallet, moving over to the pair as he did. "Dad? What are you doing?"

"Something I should have done for you a long time ago." Jackpot took something out of his wallet and held it out to the pair, Aareus taking it and seeing it was a photo.

In said photo, Jackpot was standing beside the woman Trixie saw in the portrait. The pair were each holding something in their arms. Babies, one looking like a smaller Trixie and the other being a smaller Aareus. The prince couldn't believe what he was seeing.

As he stared at the image, the doors of the throne room opened up and someone stepped inside. It was an old man in his seventies, wearing the kind of clothes one would see a monk wear. "Your majesty! You've returned." He then noticed the other four, "with company."

Aareus stared at him, then at the picture before looking back to him. "Maister Groff! I need a DNA scroll, now!" The man looked surprised by this, but the look his ruler was giving him told him not to argue and he rushed off to do what he was told.

"What are you doing?" Trixie asked.

"A DNA scroll has magic that'll prove whether or not you are my sister."

"Don't we have more important things to be worrying about?" Shining asked, "like Devious coming after Trixie to get her Medallion."

"We'll be fine," Aareus told him. "The throne room's shielded from portals coming in here that weren't specially designed to bypass it. Devious can't get in here. Besides, time flows differently here. By the time he's able to get back to this world, weeks or months could pass. Plenty of time to come up with a plan."

"Are you sure?" Flash asked.

"How long has it been since you guys last saw me before today?"

"Couple of months," Trixie replied.

"Well it's been a year and a half for me." They had not been expecting that, but it did explain how Devious had managed to escape from prison and steal all the Medallions in such a short time.

"Maybe you're right," Flash sighed. "Maybe we will have some time before he shows up."

Just outside the city of the Luna Cat, a portal opened up as Devious stepped out of it.

The man sighed as he found himself back in his home world. He was getting tired of needing to constantly skip from one world to the next. Despite that, he had to admit that other world looked interesting. Despite only being there a short while, he could tell is had many ups compared to his world.

Sure, there was no magic, but that just meant less magical people to get in his way. But he had to focus.

"Get the Medallion, then decide if you want to conquer that world." He marched towards the city, rubbing his finger over the Medallion on his mask. He then looked down at the Medallions on his staff, smirking as he decided to use a little extra power to make sure he got what he wanted.

Soon, the world would be remade in his image.

Trixie watched Aareus pull a hair from his head, whilst Maister Groff held up a piece of parchment.

Said parchment had a bunch of strange symbols written upon it, along with a pair of circles that were connected to a smaller circle by lines. Aareus placed the hair within one of the circles, then looked over at Trixie. She sighed and pulled a hair from her own head, flinching as she handed it to Aareus.

He took it and placed it on the other circle, whilst Groff took out a yellow gem and placed it on the parchment.

This caused the symbols to start glowing, the circles following afterwards. The rings filled with light, which touched the hairs and caused them to burn up as they were absorbed into the parchment. The light then moved out of the rings and into the lines, both reaching the central ring at the exact same time.

After a few seconds, the central ring glowed green and Groff looked amazed. "Positive. The DNA is a match." He turned to Aareus, who really did look shocked this time. "This girl is your sister."

"See," Trixie told him. She watched as he moved over to a column and leaned against it, this confirmation finally shattering any denial he had. "We're siblings. Family."

Aareus sighed, "you realise what this means."

"It means Trixie's a princess," Flash pointed out. "Wasn't expecting that." Trixie rolled her eyes, whilst Aareus frowned.

"She's not a princess. She's a queen."

"What?" Trixie hadn't been expecting that, as Maister Groff stepped forward.

"You were chosen to wield the Luna Cat Medallion. That means you have also been chosen to lead our kingdom. You will succeed your mother and become the new ruler." Trixie suddenly felt very hot under the collar. The thought of being a Princess was cool, but being queen felt like too much.

"You guys are kidding, right?" They shook their head, "I can't be queen."

"Why not?" Shining asked.

"You already act like you were born with a silver spoon in your mouth," Flash pointed out. "This just makes it official." Trixie frowned at him. "Look, what's the big deal? So you're queen. So what?"

"I don't wanna be queen," Trixie cried. "I can't handle that kind of responsibility."

Jackpot moved over to place a hand on her shoulder. "Trixie. The Medallion chose you. It must see the same thing it saw in your mother. I'm sure you'll be able to make her proud."

Trixie looked at the mask she was holding and then up at the portrait. Her mother had renounced the Medallion and entrusted it into her care. Could Trixie really make Miragina proud and become ruler of this kingdom.

"Mom," she whispered. She had always wondered about her mother, and now she knew the truth. She was a woman who had been willing to give up everything for the kingdom, even if it meant splitting her family up. Trixie knew leaving her and her father must have taken a lot of strength. Trixie couldn't bring shame to her mother by refusing this calling. "Okay," she nodded, "but I have no idea what I'm supposed to do now."

In that moment, a large explosion rocketed outside the castle.

The lot of them rushed towards the window and opened it up, looking down at the town and seeing a building being blown up. Lightning exploded out of a spot and struck another building, causing it to explode as well and making them realise who it had to be.

"Devious," Aareus growled.

"I thought you said we had more time," Trixie asked.

"Actually," the minister told her, "I am willing to guess that our world has synched up with your world's time stream again. So we're moving at the same speed as it." Flash was getting a headache from all this shifting time stream talk, whilst Aareus rushed over to grab his shield and sword.

"Who cares how he got here so quickly," the prince announced. "He's here and we have to stop him." They nodded and all got ready for a fight, Shining putting his suit back on whilst Trixie placed her mask on her face. Flash activated the Omnitrix and they all rushed out the throne room, Jackpot wondering what he should do.

"Stay here!" Trixie told him. "If Devious sees you, he might try and use you as a hostage again. Just wait here until we come back." Jackpot sighed, but nodded. All he could do is watch, as both his children ran out into a dangerous fight.

Devious laughed as he blasted several guards away, zapping them with lightning or blowing them away with a blast of wind.

Several civilians were running in an attempt to escape his attack, but he had struck the ground and caused ice to grow out and trap them in a cage of it. He laughed some more, as several magicians arrived. They pointed their staffs at him and unleashed blasts of wind, water, fire and lightning towards him. But he simply thrust his staff forward and unleashed a blast of wind, which struck the elements and pushed them all back towards the magicians.

They screamed as the area around them exploded. "Oh, this is too easy."

"Then why not try fighting against someone that can actually fight back!" He looked around and saw four figures flying towards him. Shining and Aareus were gliding down on Shining's hang-glider, whilst Trixie was holding onto Molestache's feet as he helicoptered them down.

Trixie released his feet and fell towards him, Devious launching a blast of fire towards her only for Trixie to swing her belt around to deflect it. She then turned it into a staff and tried to strike Devious in the head, only for him to shield himself using his staff.

Shining and Aareus landed as Molestache flew over to the people trapped in ice, the alien rodent punching the cage with his stache fist and shattered it. "Quickly now!" He stated in his british accent, "get away before that vagabond tries something else." They nodded and ran, whilst Shining fired at Devious.

The sorcerer pushed Trixie away and spun his staff around. This created an ice wall, which protect him from the attacks as Aareus and Molestache rushed around it. The pair charged from opposite directions, ready to punch and slash at the madman.

But Devious spun on the spot and unleashed a power gust of wind, knocking the pair backwards. "Don't you understand?" He asked them, as Shining used a machine gun to shatter the ice. "I have the power of the elements on my side. Nothing you do will allow you fools to defeat me."

Trixie ran forward and swung her staff at him, Devious blocking with his own. "No power is unbeatable," she growled as she pushed him back. She then created several duplicates of herself, who all took different stances. "It's just a matter of finding yours." The Lady Masquerades charged and all attacked in different ways, Devious simply slamming his staff onto the ground and causing a wall of fire to appear around him.

Trixie was forced to leap back as her fakes were destroyed, allowing Devious to fire a blast of lightning towards her. But before it could strike, Aareus leapt in front of her with his shield raised. The lightning bounced off and Trixie smiled at her brother, who smirked back whilst Devious stopped his attack.

As he did, Shining pointed his snipe blaster at him. "One wrong move, and you'll have a new hole in your head." Molestache was also ready to fight, putting up his dukes and moving his feet back and forth.

"It's over," Aareus told him. "Return the Medallions and give yourself up."

"Or we'll be forced to give you a thorough thrashing!" Molestache stated, "your elemental attacks can't stop us all."

"True," Devious nodded. "But it's a good thing that's not all I've got." As he said that, two of the Medallions began to glow. This caught the others off guard, whilst Aareus' eyes went wide.

"That's impossible." And before he could say anything else, Devious suddenly vanished in a flurry of wind.

"What?" Trixie gasped, "where'd he go?" But Molestache pointed behind her and she looked around to see Devious standing several feet away.

He smiled before grabbing a large beam that had been part of a destroyed house. He then lifted it up without issue and threw it at them, the four gasping as they all leapt away. It crashed into the ground as they rolled along the ground, whilst Devious shot forward with incredible speed.

He flew past Trixie and as he did, he blasted her with a bolt of lightning.

Trixie screamed as she was blasted into the air, whilst Devious stopped next to another chunk of destroyed house and threw it at her.

She gasped as it flew towards her, the masked hero unable to save herself in midair. Luckily, Shining managed to blast it away before it could hit her and Molestache caught her. "Since when did he have super strength and speed?" The alien asked, as he flew them down to the ground.

"He's using the abilities of the other Medallions," Aareus stated. "I don't know how, but he's accessing their power without needing to replace the one he's wearing."

"I'm guessing that's not supposed to be possible?" Shining asked, with Aareus nodding.

"He's more dangerous than I realised." They watched as Devious picked up another large chunk of destroyed building and held it without issue.

"Impressive, wouldn't you say?" He threw the chunk upwards and blasted it with lightning, causing it to explode into multiple pieces that rained down upon them. They all shielded themselves in different ways, Shining turning his blaster into an energy shield that formed a dome, whilst Molestache wrapped his mustache around him like a cocoon.

Trixie spun her belt around to knock the pieces away and Aareus held up his shield. "How is this possible?" The prince asked, flinching when a small piece of debris hit his shoulder.

Devious smirked. "Now you see why I was meant to inherit the power of a Medallion. Not only was I worthy, but I can do something no one else can." He stared at the two glowing coins on his staff. "Who else do you know that can synchronise with multiple Medallions and use them all simultaneously?" He launched fireballs at the four, Shining needing to run over so Molestache didn't get burned, with the lot of them barely able to protect themselves. "Sure, I might not be as fast or strong as I would be if I used the Medallions on their own. But with this combination of power, I'm unbeatable."

"Nobody's unbeatable!" Trixie growled as she deflected the last rock.

"I am. You were right about the Radiant Dragon having weaknesses. But with these two powers and who knows what others I'll get, I truly am unbeatable." He slammed his staff into the ground and a massive combination of fire and wind swirled around him.

The flames exploded upwards, as they all watched in shock. If they were hit by that attack, they were gonna be in serious trouble.

"Trixie," Aareus held up a crystal, "we have to get out of here."

"I can't just leave!" She told him, but Shining moved over to her. "We can beat him. We just have to work together." But as she said that, a fireball exploded off the tornado and flew down towards them.

Shining blasted it with his gun, then turned to Trixie. "No, you have to go. If you lose your Medallion, the world will be lost forever. It's not cowardly to protect what we can't allow to fall into the enemy's hands." Aareus nodded and smashed the crystal into the ground.

This caused a portal to form and as it did, the tornado exploded and sent hundreds of fireballs towards them.

Shining used his energy shield to block them, whilst Molestache grabbed pieces of debris off the ground and threw them to counter the flames. "GO!" The plumber yelled, Trixie frowning but running through the portal with Aareus.

From within the smoke of the fire explosion, Devious saw what had happened. He frowned, since he didn't have any more dimensional crystals. If those two got away, he would have to find another crystal before he could chase after them.

He pressed his finger to one of the coins on his staff, making it glow brighter as he also glowed. He then shot forward, as Shining fired at him and Molestache threw some more debris. The magician zigzagged around to avoid the attacked before launching a lightning bolt, which struck the pair and blasted them backwards.

"Augh!" Molestache cried, as his nose hair became frizzy.

Shining groaned as he sat himself up and looked over at the portal, which Devious rushed through as it began to close. "Come on!" He pushed himself to his feet as Molestache used his stache to pull himself along the ground, then threw himself at the portal. Shining did the same, both of them managing to get through it seconds before it completely shut.

The few kingdom citizens who had been near came out of hiding, the lot of them looking at where the portal had been.

Many of them hoped their leader and his friends could stop Devious. If they couldn't, they didn't want to know what horror that madman might cause. Many were also wondering why that girl none of them knew was able to use the Luna Cat Medallion, whilst also wondering what that must mean for their supposide leader.

Canterlot was still in a state of alert, due to what had happened early that day.

First, a portal had opened up and a strange figure had stepped through. Then, an alien had arrived and taken the figure away. And now, part of a street had been destroyed in some kind of brawl.

It was clearly gonna be an insane day, made even more insane with the portal that opened up in the middle of downtown. Everyone around it screamed as they began to run, not wanting to be caught up in this fight. And they were glad they did, since moments later Aareus and Lady Masquerade leapt through it.

The pair rolled along the ground and both got ready for a fight, as Devious leapt through the portal.

"You're mine!" He fired a blast of lightning, but Lady Masquerade swung her staff around and deflected the bolt. As she did, Molestache and Shining leapt through the portal as well.

Shining quickly blasted him, but Devious blocked it with a column of ice that appeared behind him. Molestache quickly ran forward, attempting to throw a punch at him whilst Aareus charged with his sword. The two attached simultaneously, but Devious quickly proved stronger and avoided both attacks. He then leapt back and launched a blast of wind, which struck the pairs and blasted them backwards.

Aareus slammed into the side of a building and Molestache was sent into an alleyway. And as he crashed into the ground and rolled towards a pile of metal pipes, the Omnitrix beeped. In a burst of light, he reverted back to Flash and moaned as he held his head. "Great."

Devious and Lady Masquerade swung their staffs at one another, but Devious' increased speed allowed him to block her strike and deal his own in a second whilst also avoiding Shining's blasts. He then blasted her with fire, Trixie barely managing to block it with her staff but the explosion knocked her backwards.

Shining then charged, changing his blaster to a sword that he slashed at him with. Devious used his super speed to avoid this and side-step around Shining, appearing behind him as he called upon his super strength. Shining spin to him, but got punched in the chest so hard he was knocked flying backwards. He cried out as he smashed into a building fell to the ground besides Aareus.

Flash ran out of the alleyway and checked them both over, whilst Trixie pushed herself to her feet.

"It's over," Devious told her. "Hand over the Medallion. You were never meant to have it to begin with."

Trixie panted as she clutched her staff. "You're wrong," she stated with her head down.

"Oh?" Devious asked, "and why's that?"

"I was meant to have the Medallion," Trixie touched the coin on her head. "When I first got it, all I cared about was having super powers. But now I know what having this coin means." She looked up and glared at him, "it means I'm walking in the footsteps of my mother."

"Your mother?" Devious asked, only for him to slowly put the pieces together. "Oh. That explains a lot."

Trixie stood tall, raising her staff to fight. "My mother, gave up these powers to keep them from you. She trusted in me to protect them and use them for good. I don't know what she would think of me, but I want to believe I've made her proud. And I'll keep making her proud, by defeating you."

Devious chuckled. "Oh please. You really think you can defeat me? Your mother couldn't beat me and she was far more powerful than you. She didn't even need the mask to be powerful. But even with it, she was no match for me. And when she renounced the power, all she did was make herself an easy target for me to finish her off." Trixie could feel her anger growing, "you should have heard her screams when I ended her. The last thing she ever saw, was me. And she cried like a baby."

"SHUT UP!" Trixie charged, but Flash gasped.

"Trixie, no! It's a trick!" Trixie attempting to strike Devious, but the man vanished in a flurry of wind.

She gasped as she felt the presence behind her, the masked girl spinning around as Devious unleashed a blast of lightning from his staff. It struck her and she screamed, as the lightning wrapped around her body and made her drop her staff. Pain raced through her body, as she was lifted into the air.

Flash gasped as he watched Trixie scream louder and louder, then saw the Medallion be pulled from the mask on her head and make her revert back to normal. "NO!" He yelled, running forward as the coin was pulled further and further from her.

Devious saw this and was forced to leap away, his electrical attack stopping as he tried to blast Flash with fire. Trixie fell to the ground and her Medallion fell with her, the clanking of the metal on the pavement filling he air.

Devious heard this and turned to see the coin on the ground, Flash also seeing it but further away due to needing to dodge the flames. Trixie groaned as she picked her head up, seeing the coin several feet in front of her. Her eyes went wide and she forced herself to her feet, attempting to dive for the coin. But Devious shot past in a flurry of speed and the coin was gone.

"NOOOOO!" She turned to see him holding the coin in his hand. He laughed at the sight and placed it on the staff, the medallion connecting to it along with the others.

"Finally," he smiled, "I have them all."

"No," Trixie shook her head. She couldn't believe it. She had failed.

Devious turned to the four, as Shining and Aareus began to recover. Flash moved over to help Trixie up, whilst he simply smiled. "This has been fun." He formed a fireball in his hands, "but now it's time to bring this game to an end." With that, the launched a massive blast of fire towards them.

They gasped, none of them having a way to protect themselves. All they could do was brace themselves, as the flames got closer. But they never struck.

Opening their eyes, they looked back and saw a large wall of diamonds blocking the flames. They also heard movement behind them and looked around to see the Rainbooms walking towards them. "Hey!" Twilight smiled, "did you guys have a party without us?"

The four smiled as the flames and shield vanished, the girls reaching them and seeing Devious. "Who's that?" Rainbow asked, "he looks familiar."

"It's Devious," Flash told them. "And he's got the Luna Cat Medallion." The Rainbooms looked at Trixie in shock, seeing she was wearing her mask but didn't have the coin.

Devious chuckled. "More friends?" He asked, "it matters not. Now that I have all twelve Medallions, I can rewrite this world in my own image. Where I am and always have been its ruler."

"Come again?" Applejack asked.

"it's complicated," Trixie explained. "But why would you want to rule this world?"

"Why not?" Devious asked. "It's clearly better than my old one. And there's barely any magical beings here that can get in my way. I'll rebuild this world and make myself the undisputed ruler."

"But you'll destroy this world to remake it!" Aareus cried, "you'll kill billions of lives. You can't do that."

"Can and will." Devious slammed his staff into the ground and created a powerful gust of wind, which him them all and knocked them flying backwards. At the same time, Devious was pushed into the air and flew up to the roof of the tallest building around. "Now, to unleash ultimate power." He reached up and pulled the coin from his mask, causing him be consumed by light that quickly died down and revealed his black shirt and brown pants.

Attaching the final coin to his staff, he suddenly felt a tremendous surge of energy flowing through him.

"Yes!" He cheered, as the coins all glowed. He then looked down at the ground and saw the others picking themselves up. "Can't let those fools get in my way." He slammed his staff onto the ground and called upon the small amount of energy he had access to, which flowed through the building and into the ground beneath it.

As everyone recovered, some holding their heads, they looked around. "Where'd he go?" Pinkie asked, only to feel the shaking. "WOW!"

"What's happening?" Fluttershy asked, looking terrified.

Trixie turned to Aareus, "is this it? Is he going to destroy our world?"

Aareus shook his. "It shouldn't be this quick. The legend says the ritual to recreate the world requires time for all the Medallions to unify." As he said that, parts of the ground broke apart. Those pieces started clumping together and forming humanoid bodies. They weren't exactly perfect, since their bodies were too circular whilst their arms and heads were located on random parts of the spherical form. Some even had three or four arms and several heads.

The rock monsters charged, surprising them as Rarity put up a wall of diamonds. But the rock monsters punched them and did so hard enough that the gems began to crack. This knocked Rarity off balance, making the shields flicker. "Get ready!" Shining prepared his shotgun blaster and Aareus held up his sword and shield.

Sunset and Fluttershy ran over to Flash and Trixie, grabbing their arms and pulling them away as Rarity's shields broke. The remaining Rainbooms charged into battle, as the four rushed into the alleyway full of pipes. "We can't just sit here and let them fight on their own!" Trixie cried.

"I know," Sunset sighed. "I don't like it anymore then you, but our powers aren't very suited for fighting non-Equestrian threats. Flash needs time to charge back up and you..."

Trixie sighed, "yeah." She looked away, "I'm useless."

"I didn't say that," Sunset stated as Applejack picked up a rock monster and threw it into another. "But you don't have your Medallion."

"I'm useless even with it," Trixie leaned against the wall and slid down to curl herself up. "I promised I would protect it and make my mom proud, but I failed. Devious is right. I'm nothing compared to her." Sunset and Fluttershy turned to Flash, clearly confused about what she was saying.

He moved forward and knelt down in front of her. "Trixie, listen to me." Twilight grabbed a rock monster in her magic and threw it into a building, whilst Shining blasted through two of them and Aareus stabbed between the rock parts to break them apart. "You shouldn't try and compare yourself to your mother."

"Why not?" She asked. "The first time I had the Medallion, I let the power go to my head and almost lost it to Devious. And now I actually have lost it. She never let anything like that happen."

"She couldn't beat Devious either," Flash pointed out. "And she wasn't perfect. Don't forget, she ran off to an entirely new world and abandoned her duty as a princess. I wouldn't exactly call that great princess behaviour." Trixie couldn't argue there. "Besides, you can't compare yourself to your mother, because you don't know how great you're gonna be with your Medallion. Your mother had years to master its power. I'm way better with the Omnitrix now then I was when I first got it. Nobody's a master of something when they first start out. I bet you'll reach her level in half the time."

"But I don't have the Medallion anymore," Trixie stated as Rainbow ran around three rock monsters and made them dizzy. "And because I lost it, our world might end up getting destroyed."

"It won't. We're gonna stop him and get your Medallion back."

"How? I don't have any way of fighting without the Luna Cat Medallion."

Flash smirked, "how many times have you told me I'm not a hero just because I have super powers?" Trixie shrugged, "I've found myself in trouble countless times and had the watch either out of power or giving me the wrong alien. I could have given up then, but I didn't. Because I had you and all my friends guarding my back. And you've got us to help you out."

"He's right," Sunset nodded. "Our magic isn't suited for fighting, but we'll still fight if our friends need us." Fluttershy nodded and in that moment, one of the rock monsters managed to get passed Pinkie and ran towards the alleyway. They heard the growling and saw it coming at them, Flash thinking fast and grabbing a pipe from the nearby pile.

"Like right now!" He charged at the rock monster and slammed the pipe into it, knocking it backwards but not doing much damage.

Sunset and Fluttershy grabbed their own pipes and ran at it. "Go!" Sunset yelled, shoving a pipe into a gap between the monster's rocks. "We'll hold it off as long as we can."

"You can do this!" Fluttershy assured her. Trixie watched as the three pushed the rock monster backwards, as Flash's words echoed in her head.

She knew her friends were right. If she gave up now, she'd just be proving she wasn't worthy of being Lady Masquerade. She might be the only one that could stop Devious, but how was she gonna get to him?

She looked around and spotted the fire-escape that led up the side of the building.

She started coming up with a plan. An insane plan, but a plan nonetheless. So she quickly started climbing the fire-escape, the sounds of the fight filling her ear. She heard Applejack grunting with every punch. Pinkie's explosions. Twilight calling out to her brother as she threw a monster into the air, allowing Shining to blast it. And she heard her own brother's battle cry.

That word made Trixie feel weird. She had a brother. A twin brother that was several years older than her. When did her life get so weird?

Flash slammed the rock monster upside its third head, but the pipe simply broke as it did.

The beast then threw a punch at him, Flash barely managing to avoid getting hit. As he did, the Omnitrix timed in. "Yes!" He activated the watch, "time for this horn to riot!" He slammed the dial down and in a flash, he was transformed. But not into the alien he was going for. "Squidstrictor?" He looked over his tentacle covered body, quickly shaking his head. He couldn't let this upset stop him.

The rock monster charged and he was able to jump over it, then grab it in his tentacle arms and pull himself in from behind. Pinning the monsters arms to its body, his other tentacles wrapped around it and squeezed as tightly as possible. After a few seconds, the rock monster shattered and fell to the ground.

Squidstrictor smirked before turning to the closest monster, who charged forward but was met by the alien spinning his tentacles around and smashing through it. Squidstrictor turned into a mini tornado, spinning as fast as he could and smashing his way through several golems before grabbing another and squeezing it tightly.

The others smirked as the rock monsters were dropping in number faster then whatever spell Devious used could make more.

Speaking of Devious, the power he had been channeling was now much greater. With each passing second, the energy flowing through him got stronger and stronger. "Yes!" He laughed, as he held the staff up. "Now, create the world I truly desire!" With that, he thrust the staff into the building's roof. "A world where I am the unquestioned ruler of everything."

The staff glowed brighter, as the Medallions all detached from it. The magic they unleashed formed a sphere around the staff's tip, which the medallions were floating on as they circled it. The sphere then shot up a beam of light, which hit the sky and unleashed pulse after pulse.

Everyone on the ground saw this and worried this might be the end, but they also knew there was still time. Someone just had to get up there.

Someone already was, as Trixie ran along a roof next to Devious. She used all her strength to leap over the edge, landing on the roof and rolling along it for a moment. Devious noticed this and his eyes went wide, as Trixie pushed herself back to her feet and ran forward. "Get back!" He unleashed a wave of force towards her, attempting to knock her off the roof.

But Trixie jumped to the ground and rolled forward, reaching into her pocket as she did so. When she pushed herself back to her feet, she threw something to the ground and a large cloud of smoke covered the roof.

"You think this will stop me?" Devious growled, holding the staff as tightly as he could. But before he could blow the smoke away, a pair of hands reached out and grabbed the staff. "NO!" The smoke cleared and Trixie was standing there.

"I won't let you destroy my world!" She pulled on the staff and managed to dislodge it from the spot in the roof, causing the magic forming the sphere to fluctuate. The column in the sky broke and the pulsing stopped, but Devious wasn't beaten yet.

"No!" He pulled on the staff and Trixie almost lost her grip, but managed to just hold on. "You won't stop me!"

"Why do you want to destroy our world?" Trixie asked, "just so you can make another world that kisses your feet? If that's all you care about, it's no wonder the Luna Cat Medallion didn't pick your ancestor."

"Shut up!" Devious growled. "My family has been disrespected for generations. First, we were overlooked to become the wielders of the Medallion. Then we were banished just because we tried to take what was rightfully ours. And when I attempted to take it back, I was denied again and it was sent to a worthless child."

"I'm not worthless!" The pair continued pulling the staff around, trying to get it out of their opponent's hands. "I might have misused the power before, but I won't make that mistake again. I'm getting my Medallion back and taking the rest of them from you as well."

"Admit it!" Devious growled, "you just want the Medallions so you can remake the world yourself!" As he said that, the orb unleashed a blast of magic, which struck a building across the street.

Those on the ground gasped at the explosion and saw rubble falling towards them. Squidstrictor acted fast and leapt into the air, spinning around and smashing his tentacles into the large pieces of rubble to smash them into pieces. These smaller pieces were easy for Twilight and Rarity to grab in their magic, the girls using it to crush more rock monsters.

"That's not true!" Trixie told him. "I don't want to remake the world. Especially if that meant destroying this one and everyone I know and care about."

"Do they really care about you?" Devious asked. "You call them friends, but I bet there have been times when they made fun of you. When they insulted you and did something that you absolutely hated. Things that made you wish they never existed."

Trixie stopped for a moment, as she remembered those exact things happening. The Rainbooms, who used to laugh at her whenever she made a fool of herself. Who stole her time in the spotlight during the Battle of the Bands, who wouldn't let her help in the Friendship Games and who barely put her in last year's yearbook.

She then thought about Flash, who probably wouldn't have let her help with all his alien stuff if she didn't see him get the Omnitrix. Heck, he definitely wouldn't have told her about it.

Devious smiled, seeing her looking doubtful. "See. I could help you if you let me." Trixie looked at him. "I could remake this world and keep you from being destroyed. I'll make it so that you have a position of power. Or I could make it so that your family never had to be seperated. Think about it. Getting to grow up with your mother and brother. Living a happy life together. Doesn't that sound amazing?"

"It...it does," she nodded. Devious smirked and attempted to pull the staff from her, but Trixie redoubled her grip. "But it wouldn't be my family." She pulled on the staff and Devious almost lost his grip, magic flying out and hitting the ground whilst destroying several rock monsters. "I want nothing more then to meet my mom, but I won't destroy this world and all my friends to do it."

"But what about all the things they did to you?"

"Yeah, those things hurt. But I'll admit, I had most of them coming. And even if they did bully me without a reason, that doesn't mean they deserve to be wiped out and replaced with a bunch of brainwashed zombies!" She gripped the staff as hard as she could, "I won't let you hurt them. I know my mom wouldn't want to be brought back to life if it cost the rest of the world its future. So I'm gonna make her proud and stop you, once and for all!"

"Never! The world will be mine." They struggled more and launched another blast of magic, which flew down and almost struck Pinkie and Applejack.

The pair gasped, but Rarity managed to shield them before it could. "We have to stop this!" Sunset yelled as Squidstrictor destroyed another rock monster. There were only three left and the others would soon have it destroyed. The alien looked up and saw Trixie fighting against Devious, Squidstrictor nodding.

"Applejack!" The girl turned to him, as he held up a tentacle. "Give me a lift!" She nodded and grabbed his tentacle, holding it as hard as she could before she started spinning around on the spot. Squidstrictor flinched, as he tried to stop himself from getting dizzy. And after a few spins, Applejack unleashed a mighty roar and sent him flying towards the building.

Trixie and Devious were locked in a stalemate, unable to overpower the other which forced them to remain in place.

This was just what Squidstrictor had been hoping for, when he shot passed them so fast they barely noticed until the sun was blocked out. Both looked up and saw the alien floating above them, then started spinning around as he fell towards them.

Devious gasped and tried to pull the staff away, but Trixie pulled back and they remained in place. As such, Squidstrictor struck the magical sphere with his tentacles and the impact shattered the orb.

An explosion of light knocked the three backwards, Squidstrictor almost falling off the roof but managed to hold onto the edge. Trixie and Devious were blown to opposite sides of the roof, but neither were able to close their eyes as they looked up and the massive light that formed above them. Inside that light, differently coloured streams of light were bouncing around inside of it. They both knew what they were and it terrified them. The Medallions.

Devious glared at Squidstrictor, "what have you DONE!?"

The alien pulled himself up and smirked, "saved the day." As he said that, the orb shattered and the lights went flying off in random directions throughout the city.

Two of them remained and shot down towards Trixie and Devious, hitting them both in the chest and making them glow. They looked down at themselves, as the light spread throughout their entire bodies. When it faded, the pair was revealed to be back in their superpowered forms. Trixie reached up and gasped when she felt the Medallion on her head, then saw Devious had the Radiant Dragon on his.

Devious did not look happy and rushed over to where his staff had fallen, picking it up and finding none of the Medallions were on it. He quickly set it ablaze as Squidstrictor rushed over to Trixie, helping her up before the pair focused on them. "You will pay!" He launched a fireball, but the pair leapt away as it struck the ground and exploded.

Trixie pulled off her belt and morphed it into the staff, then slammed it onto the ground. An illusionary wave flew out and struck both her and Squidstrictor, causing them both to disappear.

Devious looked around and was about to launch a wind blast to knock them back, but he was struck by something he couldn't see and was knocked staggering. Something else then hit him and knocked him away again, the masked villain finding himself a pinball, knocked towards invisible objects that knocked him back and forth.

After what was probably the seventh hit, he had had enough and let out a roar alongside a mighty blast of lightning. It flew across the rooftop and zapped both Trixie and Squidstrictor, the pair crying out as they became visible again. When the lightning ended, both fell to the ground panting as Devious prepared to finish them off.

But before he could, a laser struck the ground at his feet. "Augh!" He staggered backwards and looked around to see Shining, who had flown up using the rod that had morphed into a helicopter stick. He pointed his blaster at him, as Aareus and the Rainbooms flew up using Rarity's crystals for the ones that couldn't fly.

Devious glared at them, as he slowly moved backwards until he reached the edge of the roof. As he did, Trixie and Squidstrictor picked themselves up. "It's over," Aareus stated. "Come quietly."

Devious growled, "never. This isn't over. I will get the world I deserve." He slammed his staff into the ground and made a shard of ice explode between him and then, only to then blast it with fire. This created a steam cloud, which filled the air and blocked everyone's vision.

Squidstrictor swung his tentacles around, blowing the steam away. But when it finally cleared, Devious was gone. "Where'd he go?" Trixie asked, as they looked around but couldn't find any trace of him.

"He'll be back," Aareus assured her. "This world has something he wants."

"What was that light show?" Rainbow asked, "and those lights that shot off all over the place?"

"I think they were the Medallions," Trixie explained. "Flash destroyed the orb holding them and they flew off all over the place."

"Was that wrong?" Squidstrictor asked, "I didn't really have a lot of time to come up with a plan. I figured doing that was better than letting whatever Devious was gonna do happen."

"Yes," Aareus nodded, "you did the right thing. You got the Medallions away from Devious and helped my sister retrieve hers." Squidstrictor smiled, whilst Aareus looked out at the city. "But the Medallions have been lost. We know the location of two of them, so that leaves ten more unaccounted for."

"What happened to them?" Shining asked, removing his suit as he did. Aareus frowned as he tried to think.

"Best guess, Devious severed his link with them when he tried to use them to rebuild the world. So when Flash destroyed the orb, they didn't automatically return to him. The Radiant Dragon and Luna Cat Medallions, likely went to Trixie and Devious because the two had previously synchronised with them. If that's the case, the others must have searched for whoever they're most compatible with."

"So you're saying they could be anywhere?" Trixie asked, "anyone in the world could have one." Aareus shook his head.

"No. I doubt they could get that far. They're probably still within the limits of the city, linking to whoever could unify the powers they grant." He frowned, "Devious probably knows this to. He'll be after the Medallions again."

"So what do we do?" Squidstrictor asked, as the Omnitrix beeped and turned him back to normal. As he did, Aareus thought and eventually nodded. He had a plan.

Back in the Luna Cat Kingdom, Jackpot remained in the throne room.

He was worried sick about this children, but was still in absolute shock that he got to meet his son. He looked up at his lover's portrait, a wave of pain washing over him. He knew the fight had ended a while ago, but didn't want to risk getting captured again so stayed where he was like Aareus had told him.

A flash of light caught his attention, making him look towards the centre of the room as a portal formed. Aareus and Trixie walked through it, Jackpot sighing in relief as he stood up. "What happened? When did you guys return to our world?"

"It's a long story," Trixie told him.

"Get him up to speed," Aareus told her. "I've gotta go talk to my ministers." Trixie nodded and Aareus ran out of the room, leaving the father and daughter alone.

Jackpot turned to her, as she removed her mask. "What happened? Did you beat him?" Trixie shrugged, telling him kind of. They saw down and Trixie explained everything that had happened, Jackpot being amazed to hear this.

"So now the Medallions are somewhere in Canterlot and bonded to who knows who." Jackpot didn't like the sound of that. Their home had become crazy enough lately without a bunch of people suddenly gaining superpowers. "I hope Aareus can figure out how to get them back." As she said that, the door of the room opened.

Aareus walked inside, followed by several older gentlemen.

Said men looked Trixie over, raising an eyebrow as they seemed to think little of her. Aareus motioned for her to put her mask on. She did so and was once again transformed into her superhero persona. Seeing her as Lady Masquerade, the ministers seemed to see her in a new light.

Aareus spoke up. "Trixie Lulamoon. Step forward." She did so, her father looking worried. "You have managed to save your world from being rewritten by Devious and freed many of the stolen Medallions from him. But in doing so, those Medallions were lost."

"I know," Trixie nodded. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be. What you did was right. But now, we must reclaim the lost Medallions and return them to their respective kingdoms."

"How?"

"You must find them." Trixie hadn't been expecting that. "You will search for the Medallions and reclaim them before Devious can locate them. And once you have returned the Medallions, you must stop him and get the Radiant Dragon Medallion back. Do you accept this quest?"

Trixie didn't look sure. Could she really get back the lost eleven Medallions?

But when she looked back at her father, he nodded and smiled at her. She smiled back and turned to her brother, who also nodded. They believed in her and so did all her friend back home. She nodded, "I accept. I'll get the rest of the Medallions back."

"Excellent," Aareus smiled. "Then I shall rule the kingdom in your stead. Hopefully, by the time you get all the Medallions back, you'll be a little more comfortable with the idea of ruling." Trixie nodded, glad she didn't have to leave her friends and the world she knew behind. At least not yet.

When Trixie and her father returned home, she called her friends over to her house and explained everything.

Flash and Shining had told the Rainbooms everything they had learned in the other world, which had certainly shocked them. "So you're really a princess?" Rarity asked, Trixie nodding as they all sat in her living room. "And once you've got all the Medallions back, you'll be going to live and rule there?"

"Yup," Trixie nodded again before Rarity squealled.

"Darling, you have to let me design your coronation outfit. So many ideas."

"Hold on," Sunset told her. "Trixie's probably a long way off being crowned queen. She still has to find the other Medallions first and who knows how long that could take."

"Yeah," Trixie nodded, "I hope I haven't bitten off more then I can chew."

"Relax," Flash told her, "you can do this. And it's not like you'll be alone." He gestured to the lot of them in the room, "we'll be there to help you. Right guys?" They all nodded, smiling at Trixie as they did so. Trixie smiled back, happy she wasn't doing this alone. "And you know what this means?" Flash got up and moved over to her, holding out a hand. "Now you can continue to be a superhero, just like Shining and me."

Trixie smiled as she took his hand and was pulled up to her feet, Shining moving over and doing the same. The three smirked, whilst the Rainbooms and Jackpot all smiled at them. The original team was now up to full power. And they would use that power for the betterment of the city.

Night had fallen as Flash, Trixie and Shining stood atop the roofs of a tall building.

As they did, sirens caught their attention and they all smirked at one another. Trixie and Shining put on their mask and badge, whilst Flash activated the Omnitrix. In a flash of light, Firefly, Lady Masquerade and the Plumber replaced them and all leapt off the roof.

Using their individual powers and gear, the three headed off towards the sirens. With these three working together, nothing would be able to threaten Canterlot again.

Author's Note

Well, Trixie's powers are here to stay. Plus, now she has a goal she'll need to work through. Will she be able to find the Medallions before Devious? And what other powers do they grant the wielder? Only time will tell.

Season 2, Episode 9: The Visitor

It was the middle of the night, up in the Canadian winterland.

The moon was full with not a cloud in the sky, meaning it was truly bright out despite being the middle of the night. As such, it was the perfect snowmobiling weather for those silly enough to think such a thing.

Two of these silly individuals were currently racing across the snow on their snow bikes, the teens cheering as they did so. They were racing and each managed to pull ahead every so often, only to lose the lead almost immediately. But just as one managed to retake the lead, something appeared out of the snow.

Actually, it had always been there, but only now was it close enough to see. A large shard of metal, sticking out of the snow.

The rider cried out and swerved to avoid it, causing them to lose control and fall off the bike. They hit the ground and rolled for several moments before finally coming to a stop, their friend laughing as they stopped too. The teen picked himself up and looked at the metal shard, wondering where it came from.

Before he could investigate, the ground beneath him shook and collapsed.

He cried out as he fell into a hole, his friend rushing to the edge and looking down into it. When he did, he found his friend surrounded by a bunch of metal pieces that looked like it came from some kind of aircraft. And leaning against the side was a metal tube of some kind, the teen getting up and wiping away some of the frost on it.

Suddenly, the tube opened up and unleashed a white mist.

As it did, a figure of some kind appeared from within the tube. A figure that did not look human.

The teen screamed as he backed away, then turned to run away. His friend reached down and helped him up, the pair rushing to their snowmobiles and escaping as fast as they could. As they did, the figure stepped out of the tube and whispered only two words. "The Omnitrix."

The next day.

It was another great day in Canterlot, where the alien heroes were always showing up to help save the day.

Things were even more interesting now that Lady Masquerade had returned, the illusion hero now helping the aliens and the suited individual known as the Plumber. Together, these great heroes were keeping the citizens safe from the many dangers that had been showing up in the city as of late.

But right now, these heroes weren't protecting the town from bank robbers or alien invaders. Instead, they were all at Shining and Cadance's house.

"Wow!" Flash cheered as he rod around on his hoverboard, using it to lift paper hearts that he was hanging from the fences. As he did, Twilight and Trixie were working on setting a table in the middle of the garden.

The pair looked up at Flash, Twilight rolling her eyes. "Flash, do you really need to float to put the hearts up. The top of the fence is shorter than your arm's width."

"Maybe," Flash smirked, "but I never get to use this thing." Flash had decided to start carrying his hoverboard around with him, since it might help out if he was ever timed out of the Omnitrix. "I agreed to help with this. That means I get to do whatever I want to enjoy it. Besides, I gotta practise with it if I wanna use it when I need it."

Trixie rolled her eyes, "boys." She and Twilight finished setting the table, as Shining stepped outside looking quite well dressed. "Well don't you look dapper."

"Funny," Shining told her. "Is everything ready?"

"Yup," Twilight assured him. "Table's set. Decorations are looking good and once we get the food started, you and Cadance can enjoy a night of wedded bliss."

Shining smirked. "Thanks guys. Cadance and I really need this. I've been so busy with work, Flurry and my plumber duties that we haven't really had any time to spend together. Hopefully, this'll make up for it."

"Where is Flurry anyway?" Flash asked, as he crouched down on his hoverboard and floated down to the ground.

"Parents have her for the night. We are officially baby free and nothing should get in our way." But as he said that, his phone rang and he flinched. "Please don't let that be something that'll ruin this." He answered and sighed, "hey chief." The others frowned, "what? Oh no. Right, right. I'll be there as soon as I can be." He hung up and groaned, "stupid."

"What happened?"

"I forget to hand some files in at the precinct. They're important for a case I've been working on."

"Oh," Twilight frowned, "does it need to be given in today?" Shining nodded, as Twilight looked around at all the effort they had put into the place.

"But it shouldn't take too long. I just need to go in, drop the file off and I'll be out of there. I should be back before Cadance gets here."

"Then go," Flash told him. "We'll finish things off here." The girls nodded and Shining smiled before running for his car. As he did, Flash, Twilight and Trixie continued getting everything ready. They then headed inside to start the food, which was pan fried duck breast with spring vegetables.

"Weird choice for a romantic meal," Flash told them as they got everything out of the fridge.

Twilight laughed, "Cadance really likes duck. So Shining looked up romantic meals that have duck in it. This was the best he could find." Flash shrugged, understanding that. But as Twilight got to work, she looked worried. "Uh oh. No lemon."

"So?" Trixie asked.

"Apparently, the lemon is what brings this all together."

"No problem," Flash got up and headed for the door. "I'll go get one." Twilight smiled and thanked him before he headed out the door. He quickly got into his car and drove towards a nearby store. Luckily, they had lemons in and Flash was able to get what he needed.

Driving back to Shining's place, he looked back at the hoverboard on his back seat. He shrugged, wondering when he would get the chance to actually use it.

But his thoughts were quickly lost when his car suddenly jolted to a stop, "what the heck?" He then felt the vehicle move upwards, as if it was floating in midair. "Twilight, I hope this is just a very unfunny prank." He opened the door and tried to jump out, only to find himself floating away from the car. "WOW!"

"The Omnitrix!" He then heard a voice call out, making him look around to see something floating towards him. "Where did you get it?"

Flash got a good look at the thing and realised it was an alien of some sorts, being green in colour and wearing a blue jumpsuit. Its head looked like two long tendrils that stuck backwards and covered the entire top of its head, with a mouth beneath it and three eyes located in the middle of the head. Its legs appeared insectoid in nature, divided into three sections that zigzagged to make them look like a lightning bolt. It also had three claw-like toes, two on the front and one on the back of the foot. Finally, a long green tail was sticking out its rear.

"What?" Flash asked, but quickly realised he was in trouble. "You want the Omnitrix?" He activated the watch, "too bad." He slammed it down and in a flash, he was replaced by the alien known as Volt-Edge. "Cause you ain't getting it!" His body sparked before he thrust his claws together, causing lightning to shoot towards the alien.

She gasped as the bolt struck her, knocking her backwards and cutting the telepathic hold she had on Volt-Edge and his car.

He fell towards the ground, but managed to grab his car in his lightning. This stopped the machine from hitting the ground too hard, Volt-Edge lowering it down as the alien picked herself up.

"Give me the Omnitrix!" She cried, using her powers to pull several mailboxes out of the ground and throw them at him.

Volt-Edge frowned before exploding off the car, shooting towards her and spinning around. This morphed him into a lightning drill, which shot towards her and knocked the mailboxes away.

The alien quickly used her powers to lift up a huge chunk of earth from the road, Volt-Edge slamming into it and being knocked backwards. "Augh!" And he laid on the ground, the alien floated over to him.

"I won't say it again. Give me the Omnitrix." But before she could do anything else, another car drove into the street. One that Volt-Edge recognised.

The car accelerated forward and swerved around Flash's car before stopping, the driver rolling out of the vehicle before it even came to a complete stop. Shining Armor, dressed in his plumber suit, held up his weapon as it turned into a gun. "Freeze!"

The alien turned to him and seemed to recognise him, or at least his suit. She spotted the badge on his chest and looked intrigued. "You're a plumber?"

"Maybe," Shining stated, "what's it to you?" Before she could answer, Volt-Edge shot a blast of lightning that forced her away. "Flash, you okay?"

"I will be when we take her down," Volt-Edge jumped to his feet as the alien looked between the two.

"You two know each other?" She asked, the pair nodding. She then focused on Volt-Edge, "are you a plumber as well?"

"Yeah, and I'm looking forward to throwing your butt in the closest space jail." He sparked his claws, but the alien stopped floating.

"No need for that. We're on the same side."

"Yeah, right. You just wanna lower my guard so you can fly in and take the Omnitrix. Well it's not gonna happen." Volt-Edge prepared to attack, but Shining stepped in front of him and held up his arm.

"Hold on." He turned to the alien. "Who are you and why should we trust you, especially if you're after the Omnitrix?"

"My name is Xylene," she explained. "And of course I'm after the Omnitrix." She held something up. And Omnitrix badge. "I'm it's protector and the one who sent it to this planet in the first place. I might not be an official plumber, but I'm an agent working under their jurisdiction." This statement caught the pair off guard, though Flash didn't believe it for a second.

Shining, however, had a feeling she wasn't lying. But he knew there was only one way to determine the truth. "I'm gonna need Twilight to call Sunset."

Back in Canada, the snowmobilers returned to the crash site.

This time, they had brought another friend with them. One that had wanted to see this strange creature they wouldn't shut up about. And as they arrived at the hole, the three looked around. The first two were still terrified, but their friend got off his bike and looked down into the hole.

Leaping into it, he looked around and frowned. "I don't see any big lizard," he told them. "All I see is a bunch of junk." But as he said that, the ground beneath his feet began to crack. "Huh?" He looked down, right as something exploded from the ground.

That something was a giant beyblade-like object that was a mixture of red and brown. It spun through the air and folded out, revealing itself to be one of Vilgax's drones.

The teens screamed as they ran for it, whilst the machine looked around and saw many pieces of tech for it to use. Cables shot out of it and started pulling the pieces of spaceship towards it, ready to be used to help it in its one goal. Obtaining the Omnitrix.

Back in Canterlot, Shining and Flash had taken Xylene back to his house.

Twilight and Trixie had been surprised by the sudden arrival of an alien, though they quickly called the others. Soon enough, the whole Rainboom team was there and ready to act should this alien try anything. "I'm not sure about this," Sunset told Shining. "I've never tried to read an alien's mind before."

"Can you at least try?" Shining asked, "we need to know whether or not we can trust her. If she's telling the truth, great. If not, we need to know so we can act." Sunset sighed, but nodded and stepped forward.

Xylene remained still, as Sunset looked her over. "I have nothing to hide," she held out her hand. "Though I'm surprised. Last time I was here, humans didn't have this ability." Sunset said nothing and simply touched her arm, her magic activating and allowing her to see into Xylene's memories.

Sure enough, she was greeted to the sight of Xylene piloting a ship. Said ship exploded as a screen appeared, showing the image of a ship Sunset remembered from the day she discovered Flash's secret. Xylene ran into another part of the ship and over to a strange metal orb, which opened up as something floated down into it. The Omnitrix.

When the orb closed, Xylene hurriedly typed away at a computer. As she did, the doors started being impacted. She finally launched the orb and as it was placed in a rocket, she ran over to another part of the ship and into a metal tube. But in that moment, the doors exploded.

A robot stepped inside, looking just like the ones VIlgax had used. Xylene gasped as the metal pod shut and was filled with gas, the vision ending in that moment.

Sunset staggered back and took a breath, "she's telling the truth. She sent the Omnitrix to earth." The others sighed, happy they didn't have to fight this alien.

"Good," Xylene smiled. "Now we can get down to the meat of the situation. What to do with the Omnitrix. I'll admit, given how long I was asleep I'm surprised Vilgax hasn't already attempted to take the Omnitrix."

"He has," Flash told her. "Came down. Tried to get the watch. Fought me. Ended up getting warp drived into who knows where." Xylene seemed shocked by this, the alien turning to Shining as he nodded to confirm that actually happened.

"I see. And there's been no other attempts to take the Omnitrix?"

"Not since Vilgax was taken care of," Shining replied. "And even if there were, I'm sure Flash can handle anything that's thrown at him. Especially with the rest of us helping him." They all nodded, as Xylene looked curious. "You don't have to worry. Flash was given permission from the Plumbers to keep the Omnitrix. You can trust him to take care of it." Xylene still didn't look convinced

"So what are you gonna do now?" Rainbow asked. "No offence, but you don't exactly blend in. If anyone sees you, they'll realise an alien's on the planet and call who knows how many authorities."

Xylene reached into her suit's pockets and took out a strange looking rod, which she pointed at the sky before pressing a button. The rod sent out a beam of light, everyone raising an eyebrow. "A transport ship should arrive in about twelve hours." She turned back to Flash. "Until then, I can determine for myself whether or not you're worthy of holding onto the Omnitrix."

Flash frowned at her, not liking what she was saying.

But in that moment, Twilight's phone buzzed and she took it out before gasping. "That's the tracker I put on Cadance's car. She's coming!" Everyone began to freak out.

"Ahhh!" Shining looked around, "this whole situation couldn't have waited for another day. Alright. I'll keep Cadance distracted. You guys...find someplace the hide her!" He gestured to Xylene and rushed into the house, Xylene looking confused.

"Who is this Cadance? An enemy?"

"Hardly," Flash told her. "She's Shining's wife. I guess you would call her his mate, or whatever you do on your planet." He gestured around the back garden, "they were supposed to be having a romantic dinner together. And if we don't want to ruin their night, we've got to get you out of here."

"How?" Rarity asked, "it was a miracle you got her here without anyone noticing. How are we supposed to get her away without anyone else, especially Cadance, noticing?" That was a good question.

Shining panicked as he heard the front door open and close. "I'm home!" Cadance stepped into the kitchen, smiling when she saw Shining dressed up. "Well, don't you look dashing." Shining smirked, "was that Flash's car outside? What's he doing here?"

"Um...helping."

"Helping with what?" Cadance asked, before sniffing the air. "Do you smell something burning?" Shining looked confused, until he remembered.

"Oh no!" He rushed over to the over and pulled it open, as smoke flew out of it. "Great." He grabbed the oven mits and pulled the dish out, revealing a slightly overcooked duck dish.

Cadance laughed, "and that's why I normally do the cooking." She looked at the meal, then at Shining. "What's going on here? Were you planning something special? Is that what Flash was helping you with?" Shining frowned, hoping that the others had gotten Xylene out of the backyard.

Unfortunately, they hadn't. "What if we cover her in a sheet?" Pinkie asked, "then we could sneak her away on one of our bikes."

"I really doubt that would work," Applejack told her. "Why not just stuff her in the back of Flash's car."

"You are not stuffing me in the back of anywhere," Xylene stated. "Isn't there another way you humans could hide me? If one of you can read minds, there must be something else you can do." Trixie's eyes went wide.

"Oh, of course." She took out her mask, "why don't I just make an illusion of her as a normal woman? Then she could just walk through town without issue." The others realised that was the best idea they had. Hopefully, they could do that before Cadance came out and saw Xylene.

However, before Trixie could transform, Xylene sensed something and looked up before gasping. "Look out!" She grabbed them all in her telepathy and pulled them out of the way, as something came crashing down out of the sky.

They all looked around and were surprised to see a familiar looking type of machine, which was standing on four spider-like legs with a red and orange tube-like body. I also had a ring around its body that had mechanical arms sticking out of it. "Isn't that one of Vilgax's drones?" Twilight asked, expecting to never see anything like that again.

"Must be after the watch," Flash frowned as Xylene flew into the air. She quickly used her telepathy to rip the ground open and send rocks flying at the machine, right as Cadance and Shining Armor arrived outside.

"What on earth?" Cadance asked, unable to believe a robot and alien were fighting in her backyard. She then saw Flash stand up and activate the Omnitrix.

"You want this!?" Before Shining could yell out no, Flash slammed the watch down and a green burst of light filled the garden. And from that light, Vapaw leapt out and charged at the machine.

"Flash?" Cadance gasped, as Vapaw grabbed hold of the robot's leg. He bit into it and as the robot looked down at him, he unleashed a cloud of smoke to stop it from seeing.

Xylene flew back to avoid getting consumed by the smoke. "Fool! I can't fight if I can't see!"

"Then let me fight it!" Vapaw growled as he leapt off the leg, "I'm used to fighting giant Vilgax robots." But as he said that, he ran forward and accidently crashed into another leg. "Ow!" A moment later, a large cable flew down and wrapped around his body. "HEY!" He was pulled up, as the smoke began to clear. The machine saw him and part of its body opened up, a machine gun folding out of it.

Vapaw struggled against the cable, as the machine gun fired. Luckily, Rarity was able to put a shield between him and the bullets. This gave him time to bite through the cable and free himself.

Trixie had changed into her hero persona, as the rest of the Rainbooms used their magic to attack. Applejack rushed over and grabbed one of the legs, attempting to rip it off, whilst Pinkie threw some sprinkles onto it and Rainbow began running around. Sunset and Fluttershy even grabbed some pieces of destroyed robot to slam into it, as Twilight grabbed the machine and tried to pull it apart.

But all of their efforts were for nort, as the machine swung its cables around and grabbed them all. Trixie and Vapaw managed to escape, whilst Xylene flew up.

Another cable shot out towards Shining and Cadance, the woman screaming as she braced to be struck. But it didn't come.

She opened her eyes and was shocked to see someone standing in front of her, holding some kind of energy shield and wearing a suit she had seen on the news. And when she saw her husband wasn't beside her, she realised who it must be. "Shining?"

The figure in the suit looked back at her, Cadance telling a frown was beneath the helmet. He then pushed the cable away and transformed his shield into a blaster, which he used to shoot through all the other cables. "Flash, use your tail and aim for the head!"

Vapaw nodded and and ran forward, leaping up as high as he could as everyone else fell to the ground. Xylene caught them as Vapaw thrust his tail forward, unleashing a stream of smoke that surrounded the mechs head.

The robot was blind, allowing the Rainbooms to continue what they were doing. Applejack ripped some more metal, Twilight and Xylene doing the same. Pinkie launched explosive candy into the openings they made, as Vapaw and Rarity slashed through it with their claws and gems.

Shining then ran forward and morphed his weapon into a bazooka, whilst Twilight and Xylene grabbed the mech in their telekinesis. They threw it as high as they good, getting a good few hundred feet into the air as Shining fired his weapon.

The laser blast shot straight up and struck the robot before it could defend itself. A massive explosion followed that ripped the robot apart and destroyed the metal that made up its body. Many people surrounding the area heard this, but Trixie quickly pointed her staff at it.

The cloud vanished from view before anyone could turn to see it, the people who heard and felt the explosion quickly shrugging it off as someone launching a firework or something.

When the invisible explosion faded, metal began raining down on the yard. Rarity put up a large barrier, the metal Twilight and Xylene not able to catch bouncing off it. Everyone sighed, glad that the threat was gone. But a whole new problem was only just beginning.

"What...the heck...is happening!?" Cadance cried, everyone turning to her and realising the cat was out of the bag.

In another part of the suburbs, a man was returning home from work.

He got out of his car and headed around the back, where his pool was located. But to his shock, he found everything in his backyard was wet through. And his pool was less full than it should have been, leading to him looking down into the water and gasping when he saw a massive crack circle at the bottom of it.

Something had landed in the pool with immense force. Something that managed to pull itself out of the water and escape before he got back.

What he didn't know was that the robot had pulled itself onto the roof of his house after crashing down into the pool. The only part of the machine that had survived was its head and a few tentacle-like cables. But that was all that was needed to survive. It jumped down onto the ground and started pulling parts off the car, using them to rebuild itself into a form that could continue its mission.

As it did, it replayed the entire battle. All those creatures around the one with the Omnitrix were powerful. But one seemed to be less willing to fight then the other. That would be its target.

Back at Shining house, Flash had returned to normal as he, Xylene, Trixie and the Rainbooms stayed outside.

Inside, Shining and Cadance were having a very heated discussion. "And that's everything," Shining finished explaining everything he had been through since learning of Flash and the Omnitrix.

Cadance paced back and forth. "So all this time, you've been running into dangerous situations. You've fought against aliens, robots, mutants and who knows what else. All the while, keeping this secret from me."

"I couldn't tell you," Shining sighed. "It wasn't my secret to tell. Flash is the one with the Omnitrix. I couldn't betray his trust like that."

"What about my trust?" Cadance asked, "we're supposed to be a team. If you had told me all this and asked me to not tell anyone, I would have." Shining frowned. "And then let's move onto you taking an entirely new job without even consulting me."

"It's not a new job."

"Right, cause that would imply you get paid. Instead, you decided to take up some very dangerous volunteer work. Throwing yourself into danger and for what? Because you think it's cool? You get bored working for the police?"

"That's not it. Flash needs help and I was offered the chance to help him. He can't do this alone."

"He shouldn't even be doing this at all. He's a kid!"

Everyone outside was busy scooping up the remains of the robot, whilst Shining and Cadance's voices occasionally heightened enough to hear them.

Twilight looked worried. "I hope those two can patch things up." The others nodded. They wanted to believe that Cadance and Shining's relationship was stronger than this secret, but this was a pretty big secret to keep.

Xylene heard their arguments and lifted an eyebrow. "This human female seems to be acting a little over dramatic. Being a plumber is a great honour."

"It's not him being a plumber that's the problem," Flash told her. "It's the fact that he kept this secret from her. I don't know how relationships work on your planet, but trust is a big part of them hear. If Cadance doesn't think she can trust Shining...who knows what'll happen."

"I see," Xylene hummed. "Be that as it may, Shining Armor is quite an amazing fighter. Directing you in the way to use the Omnitrix. Makes me think maybe he should be the one wearing it."

"What?" Trixie asked, "you wanna give Shining the Omnitrix?"

"Of course. He was able to determine the best way to use Sentry's screw up to or advantage. Clearly, he'd do better with the Omnitrix then him."

"Shows what you know," Rainbow glared at her. "Flash is awesome with the Omnitrix. He's won tons of tough battles, managing to use whatever alien he has."

"Even when the Omnitrix gives him something he didn't pick," Fluttershy nodded.

"I'll admit he's been lucky. But as you said earlier, you barely managed to defeat Vilgax the first time. You really think you're gonna be lucky enough to beat him again when he shows back up. Best to give the Omnitrix to someone who can use it correctly. Why it even went to you, I'll never know."

"You shot it into space," Flash pointed out. "You're lucky it didn't fall in the hands of a criminal or something."

"I didn't just shoot it into space on a whim," Xylene told him. "Before it launched, I programmed the pod to scan the planet for a suitable user. Someone with the right mental factors. Someone who could fill Max's shoes."

"Max?" Twilight raised an eyebrow, "who's Max?" A look of pain appeared on Xylene's face.

"Max Tennyson was a plumber. He was a friend of mine from many years ago. One of the best plumbers that ever lived. He was smart, kind, courageous and knew when to take risks and when to play it cautiously. He was my first choice to give the Omnitrix to."

"So why didn't you?" Rarity asked, but Sunset had an idea.

"He's not around, is he?" Xylene frowned, the others catching on. "What happened to him?"

"He died on a plumber assignment, right before the earth branch was shut down. The planet lost a great hero that day. And I lost a good friend." Everyone looked down at this, the lot of them couldn't help but feel a little bad for her. "But that's beside the point. I had no other choice but to launch the Omnitrix to earth. So I programmed the pod to search for someone with similar mental faculties to Max." She turned to Flash, "and it seemed to find you."

Flash looked down, amazed by what he was hearing. For so long, he figured he had just gotten the Omnitrix by luck. But now he was being told he had been chosen. "So I'm like this Max guy?"

"Hardly," Xylene frowned. "You haven't shown anything that reminds me of Max. Clearly, the pod suffered some kind of malfunction or something sent it off course. It probably locked onto Shining or someone, but ended up crashing near you instead."

"You're wrong." Surprisingly, it was Fluttershy that spoke up. "Flash is worthy of the Omnitrix. He's proven again and again that he's the right person to use it."

"Yeah," Pinkie nodded, "Flash is the best alien hero ever. So don't go giving him any lip. He's the best." The others nodded as Flash smiled, whilst Xylene rolled her eyes. Clearly, the alien didn't think the opinion of children mattered much.

Back inside, Shining and Cadance's argument continued. Shining was standing over by the mantle, looking at a pictured of him, Cadance and Flurry.

Cadance saw this and thought about her daughter. "Did you ever think about what could have happened to you?" Shining turned to her, "It was one thing when you put yourself in danger against criminals. But you've been facing monsters and aliens and...and who knows what else? Didn't you ever think of the consequences? What if those things had hurt you. What if you got injured beyond a few scrapes and bruises. Did you ever think how Flurry would feel if she grew up without a father, because you were out thrill seeking."

"Of course I did," Shining told her. "And I wasn't doing this for fun. I did this because it was the right thing to do. Every villian I help Flash put away means there's less danger for Flurry to live with."

"And why does it have to be you!?" Cadance turned to him, tears in her eyes. "Let someone else help Flash. Someone who doesn't have a family. Who doesn't have a future."

Shining looked down, "I can't do that. I can't just sit around and let the world remain dangerous." He looked her in the eye, "you and Flurry are the most important things in the world to me. So as long as I draw breath, I'll do whatever I need to to keep you safe."

"Even if that results in you no longer drawing breath?" Cadance asked, Shining saying nothing to defend himself this time. He reached out to place a hand on her shoulder, but Cadance stepped away. "I can't be around you right now. I...I need time to think about this." She turned and walked away.

"Cadance!" Shining tried to follow her, "don't walk away!" But she did. She was out the door and out of the house, the woman rushing over to her car and getting in.

Before anyone in the garden could rush up to stop her, she started the engine and drove away. She took a deep breath as she drove down the road, letting everything she had just learn sink in. It was all...too much. How was she supposed to accept that her husband was out fighting aliens, and had been for months, without telling her?

Her mind was racing and she took several deep breaths, trying to calm herself down. But before she could, something suddenly dropped down in front of her.

She gasped as she saw the repaired robot, the woman instantly hitting the brake to stop herself before she ran into it. She tried to throw it into reverse, but the droid shot its cables out and grabbed her. She screamed as her car was lifted into the air, the droid staring her down. It had its hostage and now, it could claim its prize.

Back at his house, Shining stepped out into the backyard and sighed as he closed the door.

The others were all standing around, looking worried. Twilight moved over to him, "please tell me Cadance is coming back. She can't be that mad about you being a plumber, can she?" Shining didn't know how to answer that, but did know he had a lot of stuff to think about.

"I don't know. Cadance just needs some space right now. And hopefully, she'll cool down and we can properly discuss this. So what have you guys been talking about?

"Oh, nothing," Flash crossed his arms before gesturing to Xylene. "Except she wants to give you the Omnitrix instead of me." Shining's eyes went wide.

"What? You can't do that. Flash is great with the Omnitrix. And even if he wasn't, I wouldn't want it."

"Why not?" Xylene asked, "you'd obviously be great with it."

Shining frowned. "Flash might be okay transforming into a bunch of different aliens, but I'd rather stay human. Besides, how would you even take that thing off? It's locked to Flash's wrist." The others nodded before Xylene removed something from around her neck. It was a key of some sort, which had the Omnitrix symbol on the round top.

"What's that?" Trixie asked.

"An Omnitrix Access Key," she explained. "A very rare item with the power to unlock all the Omnitrix's secrets." Everyone narrowed in on the key, amazed by what she was saying. "It can only be used to do one thing, and I can use it to access the Omnitrix's systems and disengage the lock on Sentry's DNA."

Flash was suddenly very worried. Xylene was clearly tough and would be able to overpower him if she decided to take the watch away from him. Could this be the end of Flash's heroic journey?

But before she could us it, Shining's phone rings.

He took it out and was surprised when he saw it was Cadance, not expecting to hear from her so soon. He answered the call and as he did, he pulled the phone away from his ear. "SHINING!" Panic instantly flew through his heart, the way she screamed being full of fear.

"What's wrong?" He put it on speaker and Cadance's terrified voice filled the air.

"It's that robot! It's back and it's got me!" Everyone's eyes went wide, "please! Help!" But before they could say anything else, the phone on the other line started clunking like she had dropped it.

"I thought you beat that thing?" Twilight asked, Xylene frowning.

"Enough of it must have survived and rebuilt itself," she explained. "This isn't good. It must have grabbed her because it knew she was close to Flash."

"It's a trap," Flash realised before he rushed off.

"Where are you going?" Xylene asked.

"Where do you think!?" Flash told her. "You can take the Omnitrix if you want, but before you do I'm using it to take that thing down and save Cadance."

"You really think you can stop it?" Xylene asked, "you have no idea how strong it's gotten now. All you'd be doing is put yourself in unnecessary danger and threaten the safety of the Omnitrix."

"Maybe. But let me ask you something? Would Max not do the same thing?" Xylene was stumped at that statement, whilst Flash smirked knowing he had her. "We've gotta find where this thing went with her."

"Way ahead of you," Shining was typing something on his phone. "Cadance loses her phone almost as often as Twilight."

"Hey!"

"There she is," Shining showed them the map on his phone and a ping showing Cadance's location. It was moving.

"She's heading for the junkyard," Trixie realised. Flash remembered the junkyard in the middle of town, the same one that he had fought those bloodsucking toads inside. "You think it's gonna try and use that busted up old machinery to power itself up?"

Xylene nodded. "It should be able to rebuild itself using those parts. Anything that's broken will be ignored. But I'm guessing there's enough machinery in this place to make it a force to be reckoned with."

"Well so are we," Flash stated.

Night was falling as Flash made his way to the junkyard, having flown there on his hoverboard.

Arriving at the entrance, he flew into it and looked around. "I know you're in here!" He called out as he stared at all the piles of junk surrounding him. "Show yourself!" He waited and sure enough, one of the junk piles exploded. Flash barely managed to avoid the flying metal, as the machine rose itself out and into the light.

It now stood on four legs, each of them having tank treads that allowed it to move around. Its right arm was a giant chainsaw, whilst its left one looked like a giant turbine. Its head was that of the robot and in its chest was Cadance's car, where the terrified woman was located.

"FLASH!" Cadance screamed, banging on the window of her car.

"Hang on!" Flash yelled as the machine pointed its turbine arm at him, the inside of it beginning to spin. "WOW!" Flash turned to fly away, as the machine unleashed a powerful blast of wind. It flew forward and Flash barely managed to avoid it, only for a pile of junk to be struck and blown over. "NOW!" He cried, having caught the robot's attention.

In that moment, Xylene, Shining and Trixie leapt out from behind another pile of junk. Xylene used her telepathy to pick up some pieces of metal and throw them at the robot, but the mech spun around and the metal threatened to slam into Cadance's car and hurt her.

Luckily, Xylene was able to pull the metal back before it hit. Unluckily, this allowed the droid to swing its chainsaw arm around and attempt to cut them in half. But Shining was able to hold his weapon out as it morphed into a shield. The chainsaw slammed into it and ground against the energy barrier, causing it crack.

Trixie used this opening to touch her Medallion and caused the tip of her staff to glow, which she swung around. The light flew off and shot passed the machine, hitting the ground behind it and exploding in a burst of light.

The robot spun back around and when it did, a perfect copy of it appeared out of the light. The mech quickly swung its chainsaw around, cutting through the illusion. But all this did was make it fizzle for a moment before solidifying again.

Shining quickly changed his shield to a machine gun, the plumber unloading a bunch of energy bullets into the machine. The robot roared as it staggered forward, Flash attempting to use the opportunity to fly in close and save Cadance. But the machine seemed to realise what the illusion was and began to ignore it, focusing its attention back on Flash and the others.

"WOW!" Flash dodged the chainsaw as it attempted to slash at him, allowing him to grind down the flat of the blade before leaping into the air.

He tried to fly away, but the robot pointed its turbine arm at him. This time, it spun in the opposite direction and started sucking air in. This caused Flash to be pulled towards it, Flash gulping as he held onto the board. But as he got closer to the turbine, Xylene flew in and threw some more metal into the turbine. Enough that th spinning came to an abrupt stop.

"GYAH!" Flash was sent flying forwards and almost fell off his board, but managed remain balanced and stopped himself right in front of a large scrap pile. Xylene flew over to him, as the robot removed and blew the metal out of its turbine. "Time for round two!" Flash yelled, as the Rainbooms suddenly appeared and flew in on their wings and Rarity's crystals.

Applejack leapt down and grabbed some metal, picking it up and throwing it whilst Pinkie threw sprinkles and Twilight more scrap. But the machine swung its chainsaw around and slashed through it all, whilst Rainbow tried to fly in close to Cadance's car.

But as she did, the machine's shoulders opened up and folded out a pair of cannons. They fired and Rainbow gasped, as the laser exploded in midair and blasted her backwards. Rarity was able to catch her before she hit anything jaggard, Sunset and Fluttershy running over to make sure she was alright.

Shining and Trixie ran around the machine, Shining continuing to blast away at it. But its backside was too well shielded. And he didn't dare attempt to fire at its chest, not without Cadance being removed.

Xylene saw this and as Twilight tried to pull the car out of its chest, she saw that the vehicle was too ingrained into the machine. "We have to get her out of the car before we can hope to destroy it."

"Not gonna be easy," Flash sighed. "Chainsaw, turbine and laser guns are a heck of a defence."

"True. But this machine doesn't appear to have any way of seeing other than with its normal camera sight. If we can sneak in, we should be able to free her without activating its defences."

"Sneaking?" Flash asked, a smirk on his lips. "Sounds like a job for Chamalien." He reached for the Omnitrix, but Xylene grabbed his wrist before he could do anything.

"I have a better idea. But you must trust me." She took out the Omnitrix Access Key and Flash's eyes went wide, but Cadance's screams made him look back to see her being thrown about inside her car.

He frowned and turned to Xylene, nodding at her. Xylene nodded back and held the key over the Omnitrix dial, tiny lightning appearing between them that caused an opening to occur that she placed the key inside. Rotating it a full three sixty, the key was suddenly pulled into the device before a holographic screen appeared above it.

Flash watched as Xylene poked and pressed several spots on this screen, before a holographic keypad appeared. "What's that?"

"DNA library code. Every sample of DNA inside the Omnitrix has a particular number in the order it was collected in." The robot fired the turbine and Rarity created a wall of shields, as Xylene typed something into the keypad. Once she finished, the numbers zero, zero, two, nine, four, eleven could be seen. The Omnitrix beeped several times before the dial shot up, as a new silhouette appeared within it.

Flash looked at it, then at Xylene. She nodded and Flash slapped the dial down, a bright flash of light occurring that filled the junkyard.

Everyone turned to Flash and saw him be replaced by an entirely new alien. He was a humanoid figure, who was dressed in black and grey clothing. He was the same height as Flash and wearing a hooded black cloak over a grey suit with black gloves and boots, his mouth and nose being covered by a grey scarf that flowed out the front of his hood as the rest of his face was hidden in the hood's shadow. Only a pair of blue lights could be seen within the hood, whilst the Omnitrix was in the centre of his chest.

They all wondered what he was, but Pinkie looked impressed. "Oow. Ninja!"

Flash looked himself over, amazed by this new form. "So...what's this thing supposed to do?" But before Xylene could answer, a car was sent flying towards him.

Xylene leapt into the air and the car crashed down on Flash, making every gasp. "FLASH!" Twilight screamed, only for something to catch her attack.

From under the car, the shadow that had formed when it blocked out the light suddenly stretch. It then detached from the main shadow and flew across the ground before moving upwards out of the ground, forming the humanoid shape before the darkness vanished. Flash's new alien stood there, completely unharmed.

"Wow," he whispered, "that was weird."

"That's your power!" Xylene announced, "you're a Ninjage. The master of shadows."

"Master of shadow?" Flash asked, before smiling under his scarf. "Oh yeah!" He looked up at the machine, "you are so much trouble." The machine pointed its turbine towards him and started sucking everything towards him, but Flash rushed forward and transformed back into a shadow.

He merged with the ground and flew across it, not even feeling the suction. He shot towards the robot like a large black snake, merging into the shadow the machine cast. The robot saw this and started firing its guns at it, but this did nothing to Flash, who shot out of the shadow and landed on its back.

As it did, the others continued attacking the robot to keep it distracted. Xylene and Twilight threw machines at it whilst Shining fired and Pinkie threw explosive candy at it. Rarity kept the others protected as Flash merged with the robot and moved along its body.

"You should be able to get inside the car!" Xylene announced. "You can also pull people into your shadows with you and move them. But you have to be quick, since they won't be able to breath."

Flash quickly made his way towards the machine's chest, hiding in the dark areas of the machine like the armpit or under the car. When he reached said car, he managed to squeeze through the gap in the door and rematerialise inside it. Cadance gasped at this, but sighed in relief when she realised it was Flash.

"You okay?" He asked.

"I will be when you get me out of here. Please tell me you can get me out of here."

"Yup, just hold your breath." Cadance took a deep breath in and Flash exploded into shadows that completely surrounded her, sucking her inside his body before he melted back into the shadowy puddle. He quickly flew out of the car and down the machine's body, only for him to be noticed by the robot.

The machine fired at itself, only to cause part of it to explode.

That part happened to have Flash on it, the piece of metal being thrown into the air. Flash was also dislodged by this, making him accidently spit Cadance out.

Everyone gasped at this, with Shining leaping into action. Taking out his rod, he ran forward and used his suit's increased strength to leap high into the air. He flew towards Cadance and tackled her, wrapping his arms around her before thrusting the pole upwards.

Cadance clung onto him as the rod morphed into a helicopter, the spinning blades rotating and bringing their fall to a halt.

Cadance finally opened her eyes and looked up at the man she had married. Though she couldn't see his face through his mask, she could see the fire that was burning in his eyes. The fire of justice that he followed without fear, always wanting to do what was right no matter what. And now he was making that fire burn brighter than ever, all across the universe.

They finally landed and Shining looked down at her, "you okay?"

She nodded, "yes." The robot then let out a mechanical roar as they turned to it, the machine unleashing a bunch of cables that it used to rebuild the damaged section.

Flash, who had splattered against the ground without injury, flew over to Shining and pulled himself out of the ground. "Sorry to cut this reunion short, but we've still got a giant robot to destroy."

"How are we supposed to destroy it?" Trixie asked as she moved over to them, only for the machine to use its turbine arm to try and suck them up. But before it could, Xylene grabbed more metal and threw it at the robot.

"We have to destroy the original mechanoid," she explained as the turbine clogged.

"Alright," Shining stated. "Twilight, you and your friends keep Cadance safe." The others nodded and Rarity created a dome of shields, which Twilight pulled Cadance into. "Time to put this walking scrap heap down for good."

"Flash," Xylene told the alien ninja, "you have one final ability. But you'll need to find a natural shadow to use it." As she said that, the robot swung its chainsaw towards them. Trixie and Shining leapt away, as Flash morphed into the ground and flew over to a stack of cars that was casting a shadow.

Once he reached it, he leapt out of the ground. "Now what?"

"Reach into the shadow!" Xylene cried as the robot managed to launch the metal out of its turbine, the alien psychic grabbing that metal and throwing it away. "And imagine a weapon of some kind."

Flash wondered what she was talking about, but reached into the shadow and felt like he was dipping his arm into a pool of water. He also imagine a simple katana, like the ones he had seen in animes. As he did, he suddenly felt something in the shadow. A handle of some kind.

He pulled his arm back and as he did, a katana made entirely out of shadows was pulled out with it. The others saw this and were amazed, though Twilight raised an eyebrow. "How is that even scientifically possible?"

Flash didn't know and he didn't care, especially when the robot kicked a car flying towards her. Flash swung the sword around and cut right through the car, the sharpness of the blade amazing him. "Wow." He wondered what other weapons he could make and smirked, liking this alien more and more.

He charged forward and as he did, the robot unleashed a powerful gust of wind that sent scrap metal flying towards him. But he used his shadow saber to cut through them without problem. As he did, Trixie used her illusions to making Shining and herself invisible.

This allowed Shining to use his helicopter staff to fly up towards the robot. As he did, he fired his blaster towards it and did some serious damage as its left eye was shattered. The robot roared and looked around, trying to find Shining but seeing nothing. As it did, its chainsaw arm cast a shadow and Flash reached it.

Reaching inside, he pulled out several shadowy kunai that he sent flying into the machine. The kunai cut through the metal, breaking away parts of its weapon. This distracted it from Shining, who continued firing at it. The droid roared as its tank treads spun, allowing it to move forward.

"WOW!" Shining had to pull himself up, barely managing to avoid the robot headbutting him. Trixie also had to leap to the side to avoid getting crushed, this causing herself and Shining to reappear. Shining fired at the back of its head, but the damage barely did anything.

Xylene picked up several pieces of metal, Flash flying under them and pulling out another shadow sword before she threw them towards the machine. But it used its turbine arm to push the metal backwards. The scrap flew all over the place, even bouncing off Rarity's shield.

"So they've been doing this ever since those aliens, which are actually all Flash, started showing up?" Cadance asked the girls, who nodded.

"Pretty much," Twilight nodded. As she said that, Shining flew down and blasted the robot's other eye. The robot roared and swung its chainsaw at him, but he morphed his blaster into a shield. It blocked the blades and allowed him to roll onto the flat of it.

As he flew off the end, Trixie used her belt to allow Flash to bungee up as he held the shadow sword. He swung the blade around as the chainsaw stopped moving, the shadow saber cutting into the metal and managing to slice through half of it before getting stuck. He fell towards the ground as Shining, who had landed on a car pile, morphed his weapon into a sniper pistol.

He fired at the area next to the cut, blasting it in a line that caused hole in the machine. Each hole started producing cracks and before the robot could grab some more parts to repair itself, Trixie threw her staff like a javelin. It struck the damaged blade and the impact caused the chainsaw to finally break apart.

The girls cheered, as Xylene grabbed some more metal and threw it into the turbine. Shining nodded before turning to the ninja alien.

"Flash! Take this thing down!"

"With pleasure!" He rushed forward and reached into a nearby shadow, where he pulled out a shuriken that was almost as large as he was. Xylene then flew over to him and used surrounding metal to create a giant staircase, which Flash leapt up and bounced from one to another.

When he landed on the top piece of metal, she pushed it forward and launched him up into the air. The robot had no idea he was right above it, holding the shadow shuriken in his grasp. He then spun around, moving faster and faster as he pulled the shuriken around. And eventually, he let it go with a mighty roar.

Everyone watched as the spinning wheel of death spun through the air and hoped the machine would remain in place. But then, it began to move forwards out of the shuriken's range. They gasped, but Shining quickly acted and transformed his weapon into a bazooka.

Barely aiming it, he pulled the trigger and unleashed a blast of energy that moved faster than the shuriken. It struck the robot's chest, making Cadance's car explode, and knocked it backwards, right into the path of the shuriken.

The shadow weapon slammed into its head and tore right through the metal, making it roar as its entire body began to spark. And eventually, the robot's head exploded and it fell to the ground whilst its body fell apart.

Flash landed on its chest and quickly moved over to its destroyed head, taking out a shadowy hammer that he swung down onto the machine. He crushed it again and again, as Xylene flew down to him and gave a quizzical look. "Just...making...sure!" The alien nodded as Shining moved over to the girls, taking off his suit as Rarity lowered the shield.

Cadance stepped out and looked Shining over, "so are most days helping Flash like this?" Shining shrugged, making Cadance smile. "I guess you wouldn't be you if you weren't trying to help someone." Shining smiled, hoping this meant Cadance wasn't upset with him anymore.

Once they were absolutely sure the robot was dead, they got out of the junkyard before the cops could show up.

They all headed out of town, as Xylene's transport had arrived faster than expected. They were out in the woods, far from praying eyes, and watching the sky as the ship had yet to appear. But Xylene could tell it was coming. "Well," she turned to them, "I guess this is it."

"Too bad you couldn't stay longer," Shining told her. "But I guess you need to check in with the plumbers."

"Indeed. We need to be ready in case Vilgax arrives again." She then turned to Flash, who looked worried. "Since my Access Key has been used up, I guess I'll have to trust you with the Omnitrix."

"Well I hope I was able to show you that you can trust me with it," Flash told her.

Xylene nodded. "I'll admit, you were able to get the hang of the Ninjage form quickly despite it being your first time using it. Maybe you do have some talent with the Omnitrix after all." Flash wasn't sure that was a compliment or not. "But I can tell you've still got a lot to learn about the Omnitrix, so I guess I should tell you everything I know about it."

Flash's eyes went wide and nodded, eager to learn more as Xylene held it up.

"I don't know everything about the Omnitrix, but I do know one thing." She pressed one of the green side buttons and the Omnitrix's dial shot up, Flash remembering doing the same when he first got the Omnitrix. She turned the dial and it changed to different colours. "This is how you change the Omnitrix to different modes."

"Modes?"

"Green is transformation. Red is recharge. Yellow is Capture. Blue, Recalibration."

"What's orange?"

"Self destruction. Don't use that one." Flash didn't need to be told twice. "The blue one should come in handy if you ever find the Omnitrix acting strangely. It'll do a system restart and update, which should fix it." Flash nodded and deactivated the watch.

In that moment, a strong gust of wind made them all look up and see and ship appear above them. It quickly landed and opened up a hatch, extending a ramp that Xylene headed towards. But before she left, Flash realised something. "Wait!" She turned to him, as he ran forward. "You were the guardian of the Omnitrix, but that doesn't mean you were it's creator." She nodded, "so who did create the Omnitrix? Why did he make it and why did he give it to you?"

Xylene seemed to be considering something, then just smiled. "It was created by the smartest being in three galaxies, possibly five galaxies, and is known as the first thinker. He created the Omnitrix to help foster peace throughout the galaxy. I'm not sure what he would think about how you're using the Omnitrix, but I guess that's just something we'll have to wait and find out."

"What's his name?"

Xylene just smirked, "I'll leave that a mystery and let you figure it out yourself. Have fun." With that, she headed into the ship and the ramp retracted.

"HEY!" Flash called out, but the ship took off and flew into the sky before he could do anything. Within seconds, it was gone and all his answers were gone with them. "Great," Flash sighed, "just when I could have gotten my answers." The others moved over and patted him on the shoulder, as he looked down at the watch. "First thinker, huh?" They all began to leave, each of them climbing into one of their own vehicles.

Shining and Cadance ended up alone as Flash agreed to take Twilight home.

As the married couple drove back home, they thought about the crazy night they had had. Cadance had promised Flash she would keep her lips shut about the Omnitrix, but Shining was still uncertain about what she wanted him to do. "Cadance," she turned to him, "if you want me to give up being a Plumber...I will." He sighed, "it wasn't right for me to keep this secret from you."

"Agreed," Cadance nodded. "But...are you sure you want to do that?"

"It doesn't matter what I want," he told her. "We're a team and any life decisions should be made together. You were right that when I agreed to become a Plumber, I didn't think about the consequences. What might happen to you and Flurry if something happened to me. Well, I'm thinking about them now. So if you want me to stop, I will."

Cadance thought about what he said, then looked up at the sky. Aliens were real and they were coming to earth. If she made Shining stop being a plumber, wouldn't that put the world in danger. Maybe he was right about using his alien tech to keep the world safe.

"No," she told him, "I don't want you to stop." Shining looked shocked by this. "I won't force you to do something you don't want to do. You're right about us being a team. And as a team, let's make this decision together. Do you want to still be a Plumber, more than anything?"

"Almost anything," Shining told her. "After being your husband and Flurry's father."

Cadance smiled, "then keep protecting our world from alien threats." Shining smiled, as she placed a hand on his arm. "Just promise me you'll always come home to us. And promise you'll do whatever it takes to keep Flash, Twilight and all the others safe."

Shining nodded, "I will." With that, he pulled her into a kiss and the pair smooched for several moments, Shining barely able to keep his eye on the road. The day had certainly been a trying one, but in the end they had come out of it all the better.

They had met the Omnitrix's guardian, gained a new ally and had even unlocked a new and powerful alien for Flash to use. No doubt, the future for the Omnitrix team was looking bright.

Author's Note

Well, now Cadance knows Flash's secret. Geez, he's worse than Ben at keeping this a secret. Hope you enjoyed this episode adaptation and tell me what you think of Flash's new alien. Upchuck's always grossed me out, so I'm definitely not using it. Hope you like the new alien instead. I really like how it turned out.

Season 2, Episode 10: A Villain's Level Up

It was another beautiful day in Canterlot and in it, we find Flash walking down the street with none other than Adagio Dazzle.

Ever since she had discovered the truth about Flash, the pair had actually been going on several dates. Flash never thought he would be going on more than one date with the former evil sea-pony monster. But after their exciting first date, the pair had found they actually did enjoy hanging out with one another.

They had had dinner together several times, but had also gone to see some movies, hung out at an arcade and spent time at Flash's place whilst his parents were at work.

His dog Banana had warmed up quickly to Adagio, who didn't seem like much of an animal person. But she and the dog seemed to like one another quite well, with her constantly sneaking him doggy treats whenever she thought Flash wasn't looking.

Flash was amazed at how different Adagio was from how she used to be. Whilst it was true that most of his previous experience with her was a bit of a haze, he knew she was definitely better than she used to be. He had expected her to be one of those constantly condescending nightmare girlfriends, similar to how Sunset used to be before she changed her ways, but she was hardly ever like that.

She did occasionally make a joke at his expense, but it was no worse then the jokes Trixie made every now and again.

"Then I punched it and it went flying down into the hole," Flash finished telling Adagio the story of his and Trixie's adventure underground.

"There's no way that actually happened," Adagio gave him a suspicious look. But the confident smirk Flash gave her as he ate his hotdog made her think he was telling her the truth. "Alright, fine. You punched a dinosaur. Cool story." She took a bite of her hotdog, "doesn't make up for you forgetting your wallet and needing to buy me dinner with the change in your pocket."

"This is the first time it's ever happened," Flash assured her. "And just so you know, my grandparents met at a hotdog stand. Grandpa bought her a hotdog and later discovered the penny he got was a rare one. Bought their first house with the money he got from it."

"Right," Adagio rolled her eyes. "You're just lucky there are places that sell stuff for a dollar fifty." Flash rolled his eyes, then realised something.

"Actually, the hotdogs were only a dollar forty-nine." He reached into his pocket and took out a penny, looking it over before huffing. "Twenty-twelve."

Adagio laughed, "who knows. Maybe it fourty years, you might be able to buy me a house."

"How dare you," Flash mocked as they turned a corner. When they did, they found a bunch of people laying on the ground in a line.

"Huh," Adagio looked them over, "what's going on here?"

"Looks like they're waiting in line for something," Flash stated as he tried to see the front of the line.

"Yeah, but for what?"

"I don't know. Usually there's a Clungoff of Tempetest-Guard in line to give you some indication." Adagio laughed as they made their way further up the line, Flash catching sight of something. "But I think I might know someone who can tell us." Adagio followed his sight and was surprised to find Sunset Shimmer, who was currently sitting on the side of the road looking ready to spend an entire night there.

She looked up and spotted them, smiling at Flash but frowning when she saw Adagio. "Hey Flash. Dazzle."

"Shimmer," Adagio nodded. "So...what brings you to this fine street line?"

"Yeah?" Flash looked further ahead, "what are you waiting for?"

"I'm in line for a new game," Sunset explained. "We all are." She gestured to a store further up the street. "This store is the only one in the city that was able to stock this game. If I don't get it now, it could be months before I get to play it."

"Huh," Adagio looked impressed, "didn't think a game would be worth freezing your rear off. But it would seriously take months to get it if you missed it here? Is it really that special?"

"It's said to be the best game ever," Sunset explained. "Insectibles has you getting shrunk down by a mad scientist and forcing you to fight a bunch of cyborg bugs he created."

"Huh," Flash frowned, "doesn't sound like a groundbreaking game."

"The story probably won't be anything above average, but the graphics are said to be out of this world. It'll be so realistic, you wouldn't be able to tell it was computer generated if you didn't know. If this game is as good as it's believed to be, it'll force the gaming world into the next stage of evolution."

"I see," Adagio nodded whilst grabbing Flash's arm. "Well, have fun with that. Maybe when you get it, we can come around and play together sometime." Sunset frowned at this, clearly not liking the idea of this girl in her home.

Flash and Adagio walked off, Flash turning to the girl. "You know, you're gonna have to get over what happened between you and the Rainbooms. They're my friends and if the two of us are gonna keep hanging out, you're gonna end up spending time with them."

"I know. But it's not exactly easy to put what happened behind me. They took away my magic."

"After you brainwashed an entire school and forced everyone to angrily compete against one another." Flash wasn't trying to be spiteful, but he hoped Adagio would one day come to regret what she and her sisters had done.

"I guess. Still, would it have killed them to leave us a bit of magic? At least enough to keep us from aging." Flash wasn't sure how to answer that and just kept walking, hoping to change the subject and have their outing not be ruined.

Night fell a few hours laters and Sunset remained in line, the girl looking into her bag hoping she had something to keep her warm and less hungry.

To her amazement, she found a pink flask inside her bag that she was sure wasn't in there the last time she had looked inside. She picked it up and found a note taped to it. "Dear Sunset," it read with Pinkie's voice echoing in her head. "Sorry I couldn't hang in line with you, but I had to work and nobody likes cuts. Anyway, hope this soup keeps you warm and ready to beat the rest of those wannabe gamers to the prize. Love, Pinkie Pie."

Sunset smiled and opened the flanks, taking a swig of it and sighing in relief at the heat filling her body. With this, she should be good to go all night.

Inside, the store had already been set up for tomorrow's insanity.

The many boxes holding the games were currently stacked together on display, just waiting for their respective owners to come by and get them. The store had a pretty good surveillance system, along with a guard watching the monitors watching carefully in case something happened.

But in that moment, the screens in the security room started glitching. The guard frowned as was about to head out into the store, but then the screens returned to normal. He sighed and sat back, completely unaware that the footage had just been put on a loop. So he had no idea about what was about to happen.

Suddenly, one of the grates for the store's vents came off and almost fell to the ground. But someone reached down and grabbed the grate before it could alert anyone.

Once the grate was pulled back up, something was lowered down into the store by a thick rope. It was large and bulky and when it was carefully placed on the ground, someone then began to climb down the rope. They were hidden by the shadows and when they got low enough, they jumped onto the ground before turning to untie what had been lowered down.

They then hoisted it onto their back, it being a large rectangular device with a satellite sticking out the top. A chord was also sticking out of it, which was connected to some kind of glove. A glove that the figure placed on their hand before turning towards the display holding the the games.

The figure finally stepped into the light and revealed themselves to be one of Canterlot's most dangerous criminals. Negatine.

The insane and evil clone stepped forward, being sure to make sure the large device on his back wouldn't fall off. "Finally," he grabbed the game, "just what I needed." He opened the box and laughed seeing the disk inside. "Don't they know to never leave the game in the box?" He removed the disk and reached around to place it into a slot on the side of the box. "Thanks for the great graphics. They're just what I need to create my army." However, in that moment he made a slight mistake.

He turned around and as he did, his device knocked into something. That something was a rack of older games on sale, which was knocked over and hit the ground with a great clatter. The noise caught the attention of the people outside, those nearest the doors looking into the store and seeing him.

"HEY!" One of them yelled, "someone's breaking in. They're taking the game!"

"Ah," Negatine turned to them and saw a lot had their phones out. Either they were calling the police, or taking photos of him. "Well, I needed to test this out." He held up the glove, which was covered in buttons. He pressed one with his thumb and a holographic screen appeared, Negatine beginning to type away at it. "Let's see how good these graphics really are."

His backpack activated and as it did, the satellite on the device began to spark before unleashing a blast of lightning. The lightning flew through the air and stopped, as an orb formed on the end of it. And inside that orb, a shape appeared that grew larger and larger by the second.

Then, that shape flew out the lightning and revealed itself to be a large humanoid bee of some kind. It was a combo of purple and yellow, with clear blue wings and a large drill on the end of its tail.

The insect buzzed around the store before he pointed at the people outside. "Attack!"

Outside, Sunset had heard the commotion and looked around to see people staring into the building and yelling things. Before she could ask what was going on, the front of the store suddenly exploded. "WOW!" She cried, as the human-sized cyborg-bee flew out. "What the heck!?"

People screamed and ran, as the monster flew around trying to stab people with its drill stinger. Sunset rushed into an alleyway and as she did, she saw Negatine step outside.

Flash was having the best dream ever.

He had just defeated Vilgax, eliminated all evil in the galaxy and discovered a way to make cabbage taste like ice cream. Everyone was cheering for him as he was given a bouquet and sash saying 'Hero of Heroes.' But his dream was cut short as he was about to kiss the pretty supermodel on his arm, by the sound of his phone going off.

He sat up and groaned before reaching over and answering it, glad his parent's room was far enough away not to hear it. "Hello?"

"Flash!" Sunset screamed, "you need to get over here right now!"

"What?" Flash looked at his alarm clock, "it's three o'clock at night."

"Negatine is back!" Flash's eyes went wide, "and he seems to be up to his old tricks. You've gotta do something. Hurry up and-" Flash didn't bother to listen to anymore, hanging up the phone and grabbing his clothes. Once he was dressed, he snuck out of his window.

Activating the Omnitrix, he jumped down and slapped the dial down. In a flash of light, XLR8 landed on the ground before shooting off.

He shot through the suburbs and into the city, still half-asleep but ready to deal with whatever Negatine was doing. He knew he would likely have to deal with the mirror again, but he should be able to get everyone to safety and follow Negatine. Once that was done, he would transform into Chamalien as soon as he could and repeat what he did before.

Negatine laughed as he watched his bee attack more and more people, the man casually making his way down the street.

Several people tripped from fear and fell to the ground, making him laugh as he raised his gauntlet and pressed a few more buttons. The satellite then sparked before unleashing the energy, which hit the ground and created something else.

It was a snail, but its shell opened up to reveal a pair of monster truck tyres that folded down to the ground and pushed the snail up. Now, it was being lifted by the tyres and looked like it could move rather quickly. "Roller-snail! Run them over!" The snail turned to the people as its truck tyres began to spin in place, its sticky body keeping it stuck to the ground.

But then it lifted itself up and shot forward, the speed it moved being equal to a motorway car. The people who had fallen tried to get up and run, but the snail was getting closer and closer. Any second now, it would run them over.

But in that moment, something moving even fast shot up to its and swung its tail into the side. This caused it to spin out of control and roll over, as the blur grabbed the people and flew them away.

Negatine frowned as he saw his snail slam into a nearby building, causing it to explode into a burst of pixels. "So, they've arrived." He typed away on his gauntlet before his machine exploded with lightning, which created several more snail and bee monsters.

In that moment, XLR8 arrived back on the scene and stopped when he saw the army of insects in front of him. "Negatine," he turned to the man and saw he no longer had his shield, "what the heck is all this?"

"Like it?" Negatine held up his glove, "I've improved the concept behind my original design. Now, instead of using a reflection, all I need is a data scan of something. And with this game, I have an army of insectoid minions I can summon at a moment's notice."

XLR8 chuckled, "you think that's enough to scare me? Without your shield, I don't have to worry about you copying me. Which means, I can take you out without a problem." But as he said that, Negatine pressed something on his glove.

Doing so caused the satellite to unleash a blast of lightning, which hit the ground. In the blink of an eye, something appeared in front of XLR8. It was a giant caterpillar, with a large helicopter fan on its back that spun around and lifted the creature into the air. Its stomach had a pouch on the front of it, kind of like a kangaroo's.

It along with the drill-bee hovered above XLR8, confusing the alien. Then, the caterpillar's human-like arms reached into the pulled out a bunch of apples. It then threw them at XLR8, who stepped back expecting it to just go splat against the ground. But when it made contact, it explode with enough force to blast the alien backwards.

"WOW!" He slammed into the ground and slid along it for a moment, moaning as he laid there. "Okay, wasn't expecting that." He picked himself up, as Negatine raised his gauntlet.

Before XLR8 could stop him, the palm of the glove unleashed a burst of light that flew over XLR8.

"What are you doing?" He jumped out of the way, but it was too late. He removed a small disk from within the glove as the caterpillar started throwing more apples at XLR8, who didn't let it slam into him this time. Instead, he was able to avoid each of the explosions whilst the bee dived down towards him.

It tried to impale him with its drill, but XLR8 slid onto his knees and leaned back to avoid the attack. Once he was behind the bee, he grabbed it by the wings. "Gotcha!" He threw the bee towards the caterpillar, the pair colliding with one another and exploding at the impact.

Negatine shrugged as he slotted the disk into the slot on the machine. "Still working on the durability."

"Well you're not gonna get the chance to finish your little device," XLR8 stated. "Cause I'm taking you down, right here and right now." Negatine just smirked before the satellite fired again, the lightning hitting the ground in front of the alien. XLR8 was ready for whatever bug Negatine was throwing at him. But it wasn't a bug sent his way. "What?"

A perfect copy of XLR8 was standing in front of him, Negatine smirking as the alien got a sense of deja vu.

"Not again."

"Impressed?" Negatine asked. "All I need is a scan of someone and I can make a perfect copy. Even your chameleon friend won't be able to hide from this. I'll be able to scan any of you aliens, even if you're invisible. And the best part is, I only have to get you once and you're mine forever." XLR8 frowned, as his clone lowered its visor.

The pair began to do battle against one another, throwing super speed punches and kicks. Neither was able to get the upper hand on the other, leaving Negatine to smirk as he turned away from them. He pressed a button and his device fired the lightning, which printed another XLR8.

The real alien saw this and his eyes went wide, the distraction causing his first clone to slam a foot into his chest. He cried out and was thrown backwards, as Negatine climbed onto the second fake's back. "Later." With that, the alien shot off with incredible speed.

XLR8 moaned as he laid on the ground, whilst his clone shot forward and threw a punch towards him. XLR8's tail shot up and caught the arm, the alien raptor quickly rolling on the ground to swing him around. As the clone slammed into the ground, XLR8 quickly got up and punched him multiple times.

As this was happening, Sunset came out of hiding after seeing everything that had happened. She watched as XLR8 unleashed a barrage on his fake, hoping that he was the real one. She sighed when the fake exploded into tiny lights, the real XLR8 panting as he raised his visor.

"You okay?" XLR8 looked over at her, the alien nodding until they heard sirens. "Go find Negatine. I'll tell them what happened." He nodded and shot off, flying down the street in the direction Negatine had gone. But by the time he had dispatched his first clone, the second could have gotten anywhere in the city with him.

And he didn't have time to search the entire city, especially as the Omnitrix started beeping.

He flew into an alleyway and once he was behind a dumpster, he transformed back to human. "Great." He stood up and pulled out his phone, planning to call Shining Armor. But he knew Shining didn't work the night shift. Even though Cadance was in on the secret right now, he didn't want to upset her by waking her, Shining and probably Flurry up at this time of night. "Looks like I'm gonna have to wait until morning before I can call him."

He put his phone away and decided to go home. But then he realised that he didn't have his car with him, nore did he have any money for a taxi or bus. He groaned and leaned against the wall, knowing he was gonna have to wait until the Omnitrix powered up before he could get home.

The next morning, Flash had called Shining and found he was already one the case.

Since he was the one to arrest Negatine last time, he had been put on the case and was already trying to track his movements. Sunset had played her part and told the police officers everything. Not too long ago, a man who can bring video game characters to life would have gotten Sunset a drug test. But with Negatine's track record, they knew not to take him likely.

Currently, Sunset, and the rest of her friends were wall at Sugarcube Corner. Even Adagio had joined them, wanting to know how Flash intended to capture this criminal.

"I was able to get in contact with Positine," Twilight announced to her brother on speaker. "He was shocked to hear about Negatine and even more shocked to hear that he was able to remake his device."

Flash shook his head. "Whatever that device was, it's leagues better than what he had before. He didn't need a mirror to make a copy of me like before."

"He scanned you," Sunset pointed out. "It's almost like he has a photocopier. Only this one can copy living things along with video game characters."

Shining sighed as he listened over the phone. "And apparently, he only needs one scan to make multiple copies. This is really bad. If his machine is anything like the last one, we could be facing an army of XLR8. One's almost unstoppable, so facing a bunch of them doesn't sound great."

The others gulped, as Adagio stirred her drink. "So what are we waiting for? Let's track this guy down and beat him up before he decides to do that." The Rainbooms, minus Twilight, frowned at her. Unlike Twilight, each of them had a personal history with this girl. Having her here now, was a little weird for them.

"It's not that simple," Flash told her. "We have no idea where Negatine could be. So unless someone happens to find him and tell the cops, all we can do is wait until he shows up again. And who knows how long that could take."

"Okay," Adagio nodded. "But I do have a question. Why did he go to so many lengths just to steal a video game?"

"That's a good question," Shining told her. "I can hazard a guess. You said this game was supposed to have the best graphics ever seen, right?"

"Yup," Sunset noded. "That's what all the trailers said. It uses a special engine to run on and is meant to be so realistic, you'll think everything you see was caught on camera."

"Well maybe the device Negatine used needs that. The more realistic something is, the easier time the machine will have to print whatever it's creating."

"I guess that makes sense," Rarity nodded. "After all, why would Negatine go through the trouble of scanning you if he could have gotten it from something like a photo. There are a bunch of them for each of your aliens. If I was him, I'd have used photos to get images of each of your aliens."

"She's right," Twilight realised. "The video game characters were all given three-D models to be put in the game. They're so detailed it makes sense he would use the games. And when he scanned you, he must have been scanning more than just your image. He was taking your height, weight and who knows what else." She took out her phone. "I'll let Positine know this. It might help him figure out a way to beat or track that device."

"And in the meantime," Shining stated. "I'll work on tracking him down the old fashioned way. We got a bunch of CCTV footage, but most of it not much help."

"Why?" Adagio asked, "can't you just follow where he went?"

"Nope. XLR8 moves so fast, the cameras can barely register him. Why do you think nobody's been able to track Flash when he transforms back from him?" Adagio nodded as Shining continued to work. "Flash, be ready for when I call you. No doubt, we're gonna need one alien to beat the one Negetine has."

Flash nodded, as Shining hung up. He just hoped he would be able to hold his own against himself.

He then felt a flick on his ear, making him flinch. "Ow!" He turned to Adagio, who smiled as she drank her milkshake. "What was that for?" The others frowned as Adagio smirked.

"You had that look in your eye. The one that said you were doubting yourself. Couldn't let you get into your own head, could I? If you think you can't win a fight, you've already lost."

"She has a point," Trixie nodded. "You have a tendency to doubt yourself when you come up to an obstacle. Could have gotten him out of that mindset a better way, but she was right to do it."

Adagio nodded as the Rainbooms all frowned at her. "Look, I know we have a bit of a history. But I'm not trying to do anything. And if you think I'm only dating Flash so I can get close to you for revenge, you need to realise the world doesn't revolve around you."

"Well we're still gonna keep an eye on you," Applejack told her. "Especially if you find a way to get your magic back. We can't take any chances." Adagio rolled her eyes, whilst the others frowned. They knew Flash could take care of himself, but the idea of him dating this girl was still an unpleasant one.

But when they turned to Flash, the look he gave them was enough for them to know what he was thinking. 'Come on guys, give her a break. Sure, she's done some bad things in the past. But Sunset and Twilight were no different and you forgave them.' They all continued to frown, but decided they would trust Flash on this one.

She did know his secret, so it might be a bad idea to get her upset.

Shining was sitting at his desk, going over all the CCTV footage he could get his hands on.

He continued to stare at the screen, watching as Negatine created another XLR8 clone. The two aliens thought one another and were so fast, the camera couldn't process the movement and turned them into a bunch of pixels. He then watched as Negatine created a second clone and used it to escape.

"Come on," he sighed as he hit the button on the computer to pause the image. It was nothing but a bunch of pixels that blurred the image, but Shining wasn't going to give up so easy. "Okay. Let's see if I can't track you a little." He did a bit of computer work, though he knew Twilight would likely be better at this. However, he was able to slow down the footage just enough so he could actually track XLR8 on the screen.

The blurry image flew passed the camera and reached a corner, Shining slowing it down even more. But no matter how slow he made it, XLR8 was too quick. The footage just looked like XLR8 was standing there one moment, then disappeared in the next without revealing which way he went.

He sighed and leaned back, trying to think of a way to track him. He switched to a camera that was across the street from the T junktion, also slowing it down so it was just a bunch of still images. But once again, XLR8 reached the junktion in one second and was gone the next.

Shining was about to give up, but at that moment he noticed something. One of the stores had a pole sticking out from their store that had a sign hanging from it. And between shots, that sign went from hanging downwards to being at a one eighty angle.

Speeding the footage up, he ignored XLR8 and focused on the sign. It was still one moment before suddenly flying up into the angle he saw before, Shining realising it was due to the incredible speed XLR8 must have flown passed it with. "Gotcha." He smirked before switching to another camera down the street in that direction, slowing it right down.

He didn't see XLR8, but something did blow a newspaper out of a trash can.

And so it was that Shining was able to track XLR8 all the way through the town, occasionally managing to capture blurred images of XLR8. But most of the time, he was tracking him through the disturbances the alien was making. He really hoped he didn't have to explain how he was able to track Negatine to anyone. If he did, someone else might decide to try and track XLR8 that way and discover Flash's secret.

It took time, but he managed to follow Negatine until he reached an area of the city full of warehouses. Unfortunately, that was where the trail ran cold. He didn't have any footage from within the warehouses, but he was sure that was where Negatine was hiding out.

"Sargent," he called out. His commanding officer headed up to him, "I think I've found the rough area Negatine is hiding out in. But we're gonna need a lot of officers to comb the place and find his exact location."

"Good work Armor," his sargent nodded before calling out to the rest of the precinct that they they had their man. The captain came out and upon hearing this, called in to another precinct to add to their numbers. Soon enough, the entire police force would be zeroing in on Negatine.

Shining sent a text to Flash, telling him to get over there and be ready. He hoped the police could handle this, but if not they were gonna need some alien assistance. He rushed down into the precinct parking lot and into his cruiser, several other officers doing the same.

As they all headed out, the captain sent out a team wide text. Turns out, those warehouses weren't being used at the moment. As such, none of them should be drawing any power. The captain was calling into the power company and inquiring if any of the warehouses were being powered. If they were, they would have their location.

Shining smirked. "Watch out Negatine. You're going down."

At a warehouse, Negatine was hard at work.

"Come on," he told the device he was tinkering with. "The old one could make countless clones. I need you to make more then three at a time." He continued to jigger with it. "Almost there. Alright, let's see what we've got." He activated the device and it launched a bolt of energy out, which struck the ground and formed a roller-snail. He smirked and typed away on his gauntlet, the satellite making another bolt that form a rotor-pillar.

He then made a drill-bee, the three minions standing at attention waiting for orders.

"Good. Now, let's try for four." He pressed the button and the energy shot out of it, hitting the ground and making another drill-bee. He smiled and created another roller-snail, then another rotor-pillar. But it was then that the constructs all started glitching. "Come on." He could tell the six were having trouble staying in one piece, so he turned a screwdriver inside the machine. Slowly, they all stabilized. "Good." It was a slow process, but Negatine would have this device perfected soon.

However, he didn't get to finish his work. For in that moment, the doors of the warehouse burst open. "FREEZE!" He heard a police officer yell, as they rushed into the room. Negatine turned to them and saw the cops pointing their guns at him, then looked over at the other exit he had. "I SAID FREEZE!"

"Attack!" He ordered, causing the six minions to charge at the cops. The rotor-pillar threw the explosive apples towards them, the cops jumping back unaware of what this fruits could do. As such, they were in for quite a surprise when they exploded and knocked them all back.

This allowed Negatine to shut the device and lift it onto his back, as he tried to make a break for the exit.

But the door flew open before he could get to it, as more police rushed inside.

The roller-snails saw this and raced forward, moving at high speed to run the cops over. One of the drill-bees then charged, its drill spinning as it attempted to impale another cop. This forced the officers back outside, allowing Negatine to escape through the door with his minions.

The police waiting outside began firing as soon as they were, with Negatine hiding behind his roller-snail's shell. The rotor-pillars threw their fruit at them, but Shining was amongst them and had gotten the down-low from Sunset. He shot an apple and it exploded, making the other police officers catch on. They also shot the fruit and blew them up, then focused back on the flying caterpillar and shot it several time.

The video game character cried out as it dissolved into data bits. "Ha!" Negative laughed, "thanks." He pressed a few buttons on his gauntlet and the satellite sparked, "now you've opened up space for my strongest minion." The energy flew off and struck the ground, Shining's eyes going wide as he watched XLR8 appear in front of him.

"Not good," he gulped. He tried to shoot the alien, but XLR8 shot forward before he could pull the trigger and kicked his gun out of his hand. He then spun around and slammed his tail into Shining, knocking him backwards.

The rest of the cops started firing, but XLR8 moved at incredible speed. Shooting passed the officers, the cops were knocked flying by an incredible force of wind.

The other minions also helped, the roller-snails driving around forcing the cops to avoid getting run over. Same with the drill-bees and remaining rotor-pillars, forcing the lot of them on the defensive. Negatine laughed as he watched this, whilst the police that had been inside the warehouse finally rushed outside. But XLR8 quickly dealt with them as well.

Shining groaned as he picked himself up, Negatine chuckling. "With an alien on my side, nothing can stop me!"

"I wouldn't be so sure about that!" A gruff voice made him look up, as Riot-Horn began to fly down from where he had been hiding on a nearby roof.

He slammed his fist into the ground, strong enough to unleash a shockwave that slammed into all the minions. The insects were smashed into a wall and destroyed, whilst XLR8 hit the ground but remained stable.

Shining smirked as Riot-Horn stood up and focused on Negatine, who had been knocked down by the shockwave. He smirked and cracked his knuckles, as the mad scientist tried to pick himself up. "Time to crush that machine." He charged at Negatine, ready to grab the device and rip it apart.

But before he could reach him, a blur shot passed and Negatine disappeared.

"Huh?" He looked around and found Negatine, being carried by the XLR8 clone. The man smirked and held up his gauntlet, which unleashed a burst of light that struck Riot-Horn. He tried to stay out of it, but the light flew over him as XLR8 put Negatine down.

"Gotcha!" He laughed as the disk slotted out of the device. Riot-Horn growled before charging forward, XLR8 putting Negatine down and flying forwards. Riot-Horn punched the ground, causing a shockwave that knocked XLR8 off balance. Riot-Horn then grabbed him by the tail and swung him around, eventually smashing him into the ground.

XLR8 cried out as he exploded, leaving Negatine with nothing to protect himself. Or so it seemed.

Negatine laughed as he placed the disk into the device, the data being uploaded to it. "Now I've got even more power." The satellite sparked before unleashing a blast of energy, which hit the ground. And in seconds, Riot-Horn was facing himself. "Now my slave. Destroy him!"

The second Riot-Horn roared as he charged forward, the original bracing himself as his clone slammed into him.

The pair impacted with incredible force, Riot-Horn's feet dragging across the ground as he was pushed backwards. But he managed to quickly regain his footing and stop, the pair pushing against one another like a pair of sumo wrestlers attempting to overpower the other.

"Riot-Horn!" Shining cried, picking himself up and grabbing his gun. "Hold still!" He aimed his gun at the fake and fired, but the bullet just bounced right off its shoulder. "Ahh, he's just as thick skinned as the real one." As he said that, a flash of light made him look around and see Negatine create another roller-snail. "HAULT!"

"I don't think so!" Negatine jumped on the snail's back before it raced off, leaving them to deal with the alien duplicate.

Riot-Horn did everything he could think of to overpower his clone, but it was like the creature could read his mind. Whenever he did something, the fake countered it perfectly. "Come on!" He roared, trying to step on his fake's feet and he clutched his shoulders. "Fall already!"

Negative-Riot-Horn laughed. "I don't think so." He thrust his head forward, trying to stab Riot-Horn in the eye with his horn.

"Hey!" He pulled his head back, this knocking him off balance and allowing Negatine-Riot-Horn to push him backwards more. Riot-Horn growled as the cops recovered from the previous fight. As they did, they found a pair of aliens fighting against one another.

"Who do we help?" One officer asked, Shining about to tell them. But then, Negative-Riot-Horn spun the pair of them around several times. Shining tried to follow the real one, but lost track.

"I have no idea."

Riot-Horn grunted as he finally stopped the pair of them spinning. He had to think of a way to overpower his opponent, but they were equally matched. Or were they?

He quickly realised that there was something he had over his opponent. Currently, they were both in the shadow of the warehouse. But before, he had been in the sunlight whilst on the roof. "Yes!" He summoned the solar energy stored within his horn. This pumped up his muscles, increasing his strength. "RAAAAAH!" He suddenly began to overpower his opponent and push him backwards, the added strength allowing him to knock the fake off balance.

He then let go of his fake and Negatine-Riot-Horn fell backwards. He then quickly grabbed his opponent's arm and with the last of his enhanced strength, threw him up into the air.

Shining had a feeling the now airbound alien was the fake, so raised his gun and started firing. The other cops followed his lead, the lot of them hitting the alien. The bullets might not be able to pierce his skin, but they were still gonna hurt as much as a paintball shot.

The fake Riot-Horn flinched with every hit, distracting him as he fell to the ground.

The real Riot-Horn then charged and when the fake got in range, he thrust his fist forward and slammed it into the fake's stomach. The creature let out a roar of pain, as a miniature sonic boom rocked the backstreet as the fake Riot-Horn was sent flying. It crashed into the ground and as it did, it exploded into lights.

Riot-Horn sighed at no longer having to fight his own clone. But he then growled as he realised something, "Negatine got away." Before anyone could say anything, he ran forward and leapt high into the air. Everyone watched him, as he flew through the sky and disappeared behind another building.

Shining looked around, "we've gotta find this guy. He's getting more and more dangerous by the minute. Fan out and search the area. Maybe he's only hiding a short distance away." The police nodded and rushed off, whilst Shining tried to think of what Negatine would do now. "Could he be planning another bank heist. He's gonna need parts if he want to continue his evil experiments. And those parts are gonna cost money."

Negatine did want money. But at the moment, he was hiding atop a building as he tinkered more with his machine.

"I know I can make it create more than six," he told himself. "Come on. I can do this." He continued to fiddle with several wires and parts. He re-adjusted the power cells and the data analysis systems. He was hoping he wouldn't need some very expensive piece of tech to make it work. If he did, he was gonna have a hard time getting it.

Shining Armor was driving through the streets on his own, trying to find any sign of Negatine. But there wasn't.

He had sent out an alert to every bank in a ten mile radius, warning them that a wanted criminal might be attempting to rob them. Hopefully, that would allow the banks to be ready in case he attacked. There had been enough bank robberies in the city already.

He turned a corner and as he did, he spotted Flash walking down the street.

He beeped and Flash spun around, seeing him pull up and allow Flash into the car. "Find anything?" The teen asked, Shining shaking his head.

"I've warned the banks, but who knows where he went."

Flash sighed, "and now he's armed with two of my aliens. What are we gonna do?"

"I don't know," Shining told him. "But they're your aliens. You know them better then anyone. Like back there, when you were able to overpower the fake Riot-Horn."

"Yeah, but that took time and let Negatine escape. I can't keep wasting time dealing with my own reflections. And it's not like I can used Chamalien again. He should be able to scan me, even if I am invisible."

"You'll figure out a way. Just think about each of your aliens and their greatest weaknesses. That way, you can deal with them the second you go up against." Flash wasn't sure if that was possible. But in that moment, something happened that caught their attention.

A large blast of lightning exploded off of a building two streets away. it shot straight into the sky and from it, a drill-bee flew out. It was then followed by another and another and another. The pair of them were shocked to see an entire swarm appear out of the lightning, terrifying the people below as they began to dive down.

"HAHAA!" Negatine cheered, as he watched his creations come to life with an incredible amount. "That's right. Fly, my pretties. Fly! Fly!" He lifted the device onto his back and created a rotor-pillar, which carried him down to the ground.

As it did, he started creating more roller-snails and rotor-pillars. Soon, tons of the three types of robo-bugs were littering the streets. He jumped on top of the roller-snail as it shot down the road, watching as people ran for their lives to avoid getting drilled, bombarded or run over. He continued to laugh, all the while wondering what he should do now that he had his new army.

Shining and Flash watched in shock, as the army of insects filled the streets.

Flash looked down at his watch and found it was still out of charge, whilst Shining took out his Plumber Badge and attacked it to his waist. Once the belt formed, he pushed it in and transformed into his Plumber Suit. As he did, a drill-bee appeared and he took off his weapon.

Rolling down the window, he pointed it out and transformed it into a blaster.

Flash watched as he started firing at the monsters in front of them, the lasers damaging them enough that one blast was enough to make them disintegrate. Several rotor-pillars noticed this and started throwing their fruit bombs towards them, forcing Shining to stop blasting and focus on driving away from the explosions.

"Here!" He threw the blaster at Flash, the teen catching it as Shining zigzagged around. "Start blasting." Flash didn't need to be told twice and rolled down the window, pointing the weapon out of it and firing. But when he did, the recoil pushed his arm back and it hit the back of the window.

"Ahhh!" He cried, holding his arm and barely stopping himself from dropping the gun. "Yeah, I don't think this is meant to be fired outside of your suit." Shining frowned and continued to avoid the fruits, as several roller-snails appeared in front of the car.

As they worked to avoid them, Shining phone went off and he saw it was an unknown number. "Not a good time," Shining told whoever it was.

"Is this Shining Armor?" The pair recognised the voice.

"Professor Postine?" Flash asked, as an explosion almost knocked the car over. "What are you doing?"

"Twilight gave me Shining's number. I've found a way to track Negatine." This shocked them. "His device uses an energy range that very few devices use. And it's using so much energy creating them, he's become a huge beacon I can track for you."

"That's great!" Shining smiled, only to need to break to stop a roller-snail from T-boning him. As it shot passed in front of him, he hit the gas and flew off again as an apple bomb fell behind them. "Can you tell us where he is right now?"

"Of course. I'm actually tracking your phone through its signal. I'll direction to his very location." Shining nodded as Positine told him to take a left, Shining doing so. As they avoided the minions, Flash continued to think about which alien he should use when the time came. Hopefully, he could figure out which one was the least dangerous to give to Negatine if he should scan him.

Negatine laughed as he stepped towards the bank, which was full of hysterical people running for their lives as his insect minions drove them out.

Once the last person was gone, he stepped inside and saw his drill-bees burrowing away at the vault and safety deposit boxes. He laughed as the metal doors gave way, revealing a bunch of cash laying on large tables.

He then created a copy of XLR8, ordering it to find some bags. It raced off, as he looked through all the cash he would use to fund his scientific exploits for years. It eventually returned with a bunch of bags, the alien using its superspeed to fill the bags as Negatine stepped outside.

The drill-bees began carrying the bags out, whilst he began to think of how he was going to get out of there with all his hard earned cash. But then, he heard an engine and looked around to see the police car racing towards him. "Seriously?" He sighed and prepared his gauntlet, ready to get a scan of whoever was stupid enough to fight against him. "Attack!"

The video game villains charged, as the car slid to a stop. And from it, the Plumber dived out and rolled to a stop as his weapon changed to a blaster. He quickly started firing at the creatures, destroying them and reverting them back to pixels before they could do any damage. This included XLR8, who stepped out of the bank at normal speed only to be blasted and destroyed.

As he did, Flash jumped out of the car and ran towards Negatine.

The man watched and recognised this boy from before he was incarcerated before. He chuckled and raised his gauntlet, unleashing a beam to take a physical image of him. As he did, Flash raised his watch and the beam ran over it. As the data was being processed, Flash activated the Omnitrix.

He wondered which alien to use and as he did, he thought back to Shining's advice. He knew all his alien's weaknesses, which meant he had to know of one that could be exploited by the alien itself. It was then that he had an idea and dialed up the alien, right as a roller-snail charged towards him.

Negatine took the disk he had just processed out of his gauntlet and was about to slot it into his device. But in that moment, a green flash appeared that caught his attention.

When he looked back, he saw his roller-snail slam into something green a slimy.

Goop laughed as his body was run through, the alien turning his slime acidic as the video game villain raced through it. This caused its body to partly melt, resulting it the creature bursting like its friends. Goop then turned to Negatine, whose eyes were wide at the sight before him.

"What?" He looked around, "where'd you come from? Where'd that kid go?" Goop didn't answer and instead, shot forward and zigzagged between minions that Shining didn't destroy. He made sure to slam into each of them with acidic slime, damaging them into disintegrating.

The insect minions tried to fight back, the roller-snails attempting to run him over, the drill-bees slamming their drills into him and the rotor-pillars throwing their bombs at him. But none of them did any damage. The worst that was done was cause some of his slime to splatter away. But his anti-gravity UFO was able to grab it before it got too far away.

"STOP!" Negatine roared when his last minion was destroyed. He put his disk in his pocket and raised his gauntlet, unleashing the beam of light that ran over Goop's body. "You think you're so strong? Well I'm gonna take your power and make it mine." The data quickly processed and he removed the disk from his gauntlet, slotting it into his machine as Goop landed in front of him.

"Go ahead!" The alien slimeball told him, as the satellite unleashed a blast of lightning that hit the ground in front of him.

In a flash, another Goop appeared and it glared at him. Negatine laughed, "now you've done it. I'll have this thing melt the entire city into nothingness.

"I don't think so!" Goop told him before shooting towards his clone. The second Goop prepared for another fight, but the real one then did something it didn't expect. It shot upwards, as the fake swung its arms around to try and hit him. But he completely avoided the extended whips and as he did, his body slammed into the UFO floating above it.

"What?" Negatine asked, as Goop's entire body flew over the device. And when he flew off and landed behind the fake, the UFO sparked and shook as its outer hull was corroded. It then fell into the clone's body, which fell to the ground in a massive puddle. "What did you do?"

Goop chuckled, not giving away the secret. He shot forward and the criminal clone pressed something on his gauntlet, as the satellite fired the lightning again. Another Goop was quickly formed in front of him, but before it could do anything the real one shot up and melted the UFO again.

"STOP THAT!" He roared, as the second clone fell to the ground. He then noticed the Plumber destroy the last of his minions and held his gauntlet up to scan him. But Goop wouldn't allow that and threw a ball of slime at him. He gasped as the slime slammed into his gauntlet and caused it to smoke. "NOOOOO!" He quickly pulled it off before it could melt through to his skin, throwing the glove to the ground.

"All out of power now!" Goop laughed as he finally reached Negatine and swung his arms around. Before Negatine to stop him, the slime slammed into him on both side. It pinned his arms to his side and solidified enough for Goop to pick him up.

The Plumber smirked as he moved over to them, seeing Negatine kicking his legs back and forth. He then reached out for his machine and ripped the side open, allowing him to start pulling wires out of it. "Stop!" Negatine cried, as his miracle of science was slowly destroyed.

This also caused something else to happen. With the machine destroyed, the minions scattered all throughout the city started glitching. Many police officers had been pushed to their limits keeping the people safe, but when they started glitching they realised someone must have stopped Negatine.

Eventually, all the insect creatures disappeared and the city was once again safe.

As soon as Shining was sure the machine was destroyed beyond repair, he pulled out his blaster and nodded at Goop. The alien nodded back before throwing Negatine at a wall, as Shining's weapon transformed into a water pistol-like weapon.

As Negatine hit the wall, Shining pulled the trigger and some form of cement shot out of it. It struck Negatine and instantly hardened, trapping everything except Negatine's head inside a rock cocoon plastered to the wall. "Hey!" He cried, "let me go."

"Don't think so," Goop told him before he and started walking off. "You can stay there until the police find a nice warm cell for you." They returned to the police cruiser, Shining getting in and driving off whilst Goop flew away. The plan was for Shining to turn back once he was out of sight, then drive back to find Negatine.

The criminal pulled against the cement, hoping he could possibly break parts of it off and escape. But whatever this was made of, it was too strong for him to break. He was trapped and had no way to escape.

The police managed to take Negatine into custody and brought his device in for evidence.

The game he had stolen and used in his device was also returned to the store. Luckily, whatever Negatine had done hadn't damaged it in any way. As such, it and the rest of the games were soon given to the people that had waited extra patiently to get their hands on it.

"Yes!" Sunset cheered, as her character leapt over the roller-snail in front of it. She and the rest of her friends were all at her apartment, the lot wanting to see what the big fuss about this game was supposed to be.

"No!" Sunset's co-player groaned, she being Adagio. The pair were on her couch, playing two player and seeing who could get through each level faster. But Adagio's character had just gotten blasted back by a rotor-pillar's fruit.

Flash laughed, "I know that feeling. Try rolling forward. That might let you survive." Adagio shrugged and tried it, only to once again get blasted. "Oops." Adagio gave him a glare, Flash shrugging. "Guess it's easier to avoid those fruits when you've got alien super powers." The others laughed as Sunset and Adagio continued playing.

"I can see why you were so determined to get this game," Twilight stated. "These graphics are out of this world."

"Yeah," Flash nodded. "I guess that's why Negatine wanted it so much. The data his device needed had to be perfect, down to the detail."

Twilight agreed. "Positine studied what remained of the device you guys broke. He thinks Negatine intended to use those insects as stand ins until he was able to scan all your aliens. Luckily, the data he picked up was all deleted when you destroyed it. Now you don't need to worry about any more clones of you."

"That's good," Adagio smirked as she managed to catch up to Sunset. "As fun as you are to be around, the world doesn't need two Flash Sentrys walking around." The others agreed with a laughed, making Flash roll his eyes before using his hands to cover Adagio's eyes. "HEY!" They all laughed as Adagio tried to play blind, with little luck in doing so.

Flash might have taken it as an insult, but he had to agree. One of him was the limit he was willing to put up with.

Negatine was sitting in his prison cell, angry that he wasn't even allowed a radio for fear he might create a small death-ray and escape.

"Supper time!" He heard a guard yell as he placed his tray through the opening, allowing Negatine to take it. He sighed at the sight of the unfrozen veggies and slab of meat. As he ate, he thought about the fight that led him to that moment. The teen that had been there one moment, then disappeared the second he looked away and was replaced by the alien that captured him.

The more he thought about it, the more he felt there had to be a connection. But what?

As he finished his meal, he put it on the floor before lifting his mattress. Doing so revealed a small round disk, the same type Negatine had been recording all his scans on. He picked it up and thought about the person he had scanned to get it, along with the lengths he had to go through in order to keep it from being taken when he was arrested.

"You're hiding something," he stated. "And when I get out of here, I'm gonna figure it out and this little thing will help me."

Author's Note

Negatine returns and with an upgrade. How will things go from here involving him? Only time will tell.

Season 2, Episode 12: Taking Flight

In a dark area of Canterlot, a particular individual was moving around whilst spinning a staff that was in his hand.

Devious, the wielder of the Radiant Dragon Medallion and the one attempting to steal all the other Medallions, in a hope of using their power to rewrite reality in his image. This madman was currently training, trying to keep his skills sharp so that he would be ready when the first Medallion appeared. He wasn't entirely in his normal clothes, instead being in a white shirt and black pants, but his mask and staff were still on hand.

He launched several fireballs at some soda cans on a wall, knocking them over as he did so. He then grabbed a wooden plank and threw it into the air, firing a blast of lightning that made it explode. He panted, tired but sure he would be ready for the next time he faced off against Lady Masquerade and her annoying friends.

He looked around the warehouse he was currently situated in, hating that he had been reduced to this. He should have been living as a king. Not a peasant. "Just wait," he panted. "I'll be living the high life soon enough."

In another part of town, Trixie was busy training herself.

The Luna Cat Princess currently had a staff in her hand, the girl training in her back garden so she could be on the top of her game when she was ready to face Devious again. But as she continued to train, she thought about her powers. As amazing as her illusions were, they had done very little in the times went she had had to face Devious alone.

If she wanted to be able to get back all the Medallions, including the Radiant Dragon, she was gonna need to be stronger. "Just wait," she panted. "I'll stop you, Devious. I'll get those Medallions back."

In the city, a man was atop a window washer platform on a skyscraper.

He was currently cleaning one of the highest windows, humming to himself as he did his work, and finished cleaning the window whilst reaching over to activate the pulley system. But as soon as he hit the button, the system sparked and the whole thing dropped uncontrollably.

He screamed, as he was knocked staggering. And as soon as he let go of the button, the platform stopped.

The sudden jolt caused him to accidently trip over the side and fall, the man barely able to grab onto the side. He tried to pull himself up, but he just didn't have the arm strength. As he tried, his spray bottle unhooked from his belt and fell.

It hit the ground and caught the attention of several people, who screamed when they saw him eight stories up.

"Someone help him!" A woman cried.

"One of those aliens might show up!" A man suggested.

"But what if they don't?" The woman who asked looked around, hoping to see Firefly or an alien with a power to help him. But whilst she didn't see an alien, she did see something else. "What's that?" Everyone else looked away to see something flying through the air.

That something appeared humanoid, but it also had wings of some kind on its back. It didn't seem to be an alien, but after that ninja one they had seen they had stopped taking chances.

Up on the platform, the window washer felt like any minute now he would lose his grip. He looked around, praying something would could to save him. That's when he saw her.

The first thing to notice about her was her back, where a pair of large butterfly wings here coming from. They were white in colour, looking almost transparent, but had blue patterns on them.

The next part he noticed was her face, which was completely covered by a helmet of some kind with only her mouth being visible. The helmet was light blue in colour and had a scale pattern, whilst her eyes were covered by large yellow goggles that had a bunch of hexagons filling them.

Her neck and chest were covered by a yellow fabric that went down from her helmet and covered her chest and parts of her shoulders. Her shoulders, arms, hands and chest were covered by light blue fabric, whilst her stomach was white and her legs up to her knees were wearing blue high-heeled boots. A white skirt was flowing around her uppers legs, starting at the waist and being open at the front. It was also covered in blue lines. with yellow at the top where it connected to the waist.

The winged woman flew through the air and as she got closer, the window washer's grip finally gave out.

He fell to the ground and as he screamed, the winged woman dived down and managed to catch his arms. She pulled and after a few moments, slowed him to a gradual stop until they were right above the ground. "You okay?" She asked, the man nodding as she let him go.

He fell the last foot and landed without injury, allowing her to begin to fly up. "Wait!" A woman cried as she did, "who are you?"

The winged woman smiled, "I am Icarus. The newest hero in Canterlot. And my wings will keep all those that are scared safe." With that, she took off and flew through the air. As she did, people videoed her from their phones. They had been doing that since they first saw the washer hanging for his life. It wouldn't even be an hour before this footage was up online for all to see.

The next day, Trixie arrived at school and found that everyone was one their phones looking at a video.

As she stepped into the halls, she heard whispers and wondered what the heck they were talking about. But given the many insane things that happened in Canterlot, she had a feeling it had something to do with Flash's aliens.

Whens he found the teen at his locker, she leaned up next to it. "So, what did you do yesterday that's got everyone so hyped up?" Flash looked confused as he turned to her, holding his check as he did so.

"Nothing. I didn't go alien yesterday." Trixie looked confused as Flash rubbed his cheek. "My mom dragged me to the dentist and I had to get two fillings." He shuddered, "I swear I can still feel the drill on my teeth. Anyway, they shot me up with so much numbing agent I was super sleepy afterwards. Totally zonked out when I got home."

"Huh?" Trixie turned to see Octavia showing Vinyl something on her phone. "Then what the heck has everyone so excited?"

"GUYS!" They looked around to see Pinkie running up to them, "found you!"

"What's up?" Flash asked, only for Pinkie to grab him and Trixie by the sleeve and pull them down the hallway. They both cried out, trying to pull themselves free, but Pinkie was ungodly strong and managed to keep hold of them all the way to an empty classroom.

As they were dragged inside, they found the rest of the Rainbooms sitting around a desk as Twilight had an open laptop on it. "Can someone explain what the heck is happening?" Trixie cried, surprising the pair.

"You haven't heard?" Rainbow asked.

"Heard what?" Flash asked, "I was kind of out of it yesterday. Did I miss something?" The others shared a look before Twilight turned her laptop around, Flash and Trixie staring at the image on screen and seeing it was footage of someone flying over the town and saving a window washer. "What the heck?"

"Is that an alien?" Trixie asked, the others shaking their head.

"Apparently, it's a new superhero." Sunset looked back at the screen, "one who apparently has the power to fly. She's calling herself Icarus."

"Another new superhero?" Flash asked, "Canterlot's getting kind of full of those." He then realised why Pinkie must have been in such a rush, "you think she's got Equestrian Magic?"

"It's possible," Sunset nodded. "We're not certain, but we need to know for sure. If it is Equestrian Magic, we'll need to make sure it's not gonna go out of control." The others nodded as they continued to watch the footage, the lot of them impressed with how well this person could fly. Flash, Twilight, Fluttershy and Rainbow were especially impressed, since they all had experience with having actual wings.

Trixie also watched and as she did, she felt a twinge of something went off in her mind. As she stared at the image, she couldn't help be feel like she knew that person. But how?

In another part of Canterlot, Devious had also learned about the individual known as Icarus.

Somehow, he had gotten his hands on a laptop and was currently watching the footage of the new hero over and over again. At one point, he hit the spacebar and the footage froze, allowing him to finally get a good look at the hero. At least, the best look he could get with the terrible video quality. But one thing was for sure.

"The Sky Butterfly Medallion." He stood up and as he did, the Medallion on his mask glowed before his body burst into a blast of fire, lightning and both hot and cold wind.

When the elements exploded off of him, he was revealed to be in his Radiant Dragon outfit and his staff appeared in a burst of fire.

As soon as school let out, the nine of them headed out to search for this new hero.

They had no idea where she could possibly be, especially since someone with the ability to fly could get almost anywhere at any time. Twilight eventually decided to have them all meet at the building that Icarus had first been seen at. Since she was flying around that area when it happened, it was likely she was located in that general idea.

"See anything?" Applejack asked when they looked at the sky from where they had all met up.

"Nothing," Fluttershy was using her bird watching binoculars to try and spot this hero. "I can't even see a normal bird in the sky." She huffed, "one of them might have known where she was. But I can't see her anywhere."

"We'll find her," Rarity assured them. "We just have to keep looking. And if we can't find them, there's always plan B?"

"We have a plan B?" Rainbow asked.

Rarity smirked, "we get Trixie, Flash and maybe Shining to film a video asking to meet this Icarus and put it online. I'm sure once she sees that, she'll show up where we ask her to."

"Along with probably half the city and every news reporter hoping to figure out who the superheroes are," Flash pointed out. "No offence, but I am not letting you put a video of me online."

"Fair point," Rarity nodded. "But how else are we going to find this superhero?" None of them had any answer, so all they could do was continue to search for her. But as they did that, something else began to happen that would force their attention away from their search.

Up the street, a large truck was pulling a trailer with a large concrete pipe on it.

The driver had just gotten a piping hot coffee from a nearby service station. As he drove, he took a sip only to find it extremely hot. "Augh!" He cried, pulling the cup away only for some to splash on his hand. "GYAH!" He dropped it, right on his lap. "HOWOOOO!" He accidently spun the wheel, causing the vehicle to go completely out of control.

As he fought through the blazing hot pain to retake control, the trailer swung around and the pipe pushed against the cables holding it. And as the truck swerved, the cables finally gave out and the pipe fell off the trailer.

This sound caught everyone's attention, the lot looking around and gasping when they saw the pipe rolling down the street. "We gotta stop that thing!" Twilight cried, as Flash activated the Omnitrix.

Quick as a flash, he slammed the watch down and transformed into his ninja alien: Kagenobi. The shadow assassin turned to Applejack. "Hold your breath!" She did so, as Kagenobi turned into a shadow and completely wrapped around her. Once he had her inside his shadow void, he morphed into the ground and shot towards the pipe with incredible speed.

The pipe rolled down the street and crushed everything it came in contact with. Due to it being big enough for somebody to stand up inside it and weighing a ton, anyone in front of the pipe quickly ran to get away from it. This included a little old lady, who had been crossing the street when the pipe appeared.

The woman's eyes weren't all that great, so she didn't see the pipe coming.

Kagenobi shot past the pipe, using his shadow powers to fly under it and come out on its other side directly in its path. As he did, he opened himself up and allowed Applejack to jump out. The farm girl gasped for air, wishing she had packed a scuba tank, but quickly recovered before standing tall and turning towards the pipe.

Kagenobi noticed the little old lady and quickly ran to her rescue, whilst Applejack braced herself. She activated her geode magic and thrust her hands out, slamming them into the pipe as she tried to stop it. But the pipe was moving too fast as she felt her hands grind against the concrete and make her flinch.

She pushed her feet into the ground, as she tried to stop it. But all she could do was slow it down.

Meanwhile, Kagenobi shot towards the old woman and tried to think of a way to pull her to safety without needing to pull her into his void. But as he was about to reach her, something else got to her first.

That something swooped down and grabbed the old lady by her shoulders, then pulled her straight up into the air.

This didn't seem to even go noticed by the woman, who continued to move as if she was still walking on the ground. Meanwhile, Kagenobi stopped moving and jumped out of the the ground. "What the?" He focused on the image in front of him and was shocked to see the winged woman from the video he had seen. "Icarus?"

The hero turned back to him, "glad to know you aliens have heard of me. Sorry about the save block. Why don't you go help that other girl whose being crushed under the pipe." Kagenobi looked back at Applejack and saw she was still having trouble holding up the pipe.

It had stopped moving, but Applejack knew if she jumped out from under it the thing would just roll again. She needed a way to stop it.

Luckily, Kagenobi rushed in and was happy to help. The alien ninja grabbed onto some nearby shadows and used them to pull out a pair of large shadow shurikens. He quickly threw them at the pipe, slashing through the concrete on either side of Applejack.

The two pieces of the pipe's end rolled towards him and after he pulled a katanna out of the shadows, he sliced them up several times.

Applejack was able to lift the central part of the pipe up and turned it around before placing it on a flat piece of ground, the chunks of broken concrete falling into it and filling up. "There," Applejack waved her very sore hands around, "that should keep the stuff out of the way until someone can deal with it." As she said that, the others rushed up to them.

"Did anyone get hurt?" Twilight asked, Kagenobi shaking his head.

"That Icarus hero swooped in and saved a woman right when I was about to." He crossed his arms, "clearly she never read the superhero rule about stealing someone else's save."

"Seriously?" Trixie asked, "where did she go?" Kagenobi shrugged, then had an idea.

"Stay here!" He dived into the ground and flew through the concrete, up the side of a building and arriving at the roof. He hoped he could still catch sight of her and sure enough, Icarus appeared in the sky. "There you are." He reached into a shadow and pulled out a chain and hook, which he used to latch onto a nearby building and swing over.

The others saw this and followed him, as he landed on the roof and ninja ran across it before leaping over a large gap between the buildings.

Icarus appeared not to notice him, the shadow ninja following her at enough of a distance that she didn't notice. Hopefully, she would land at some point and he could catch up to her before the Omnitrix powered down. But for several minutes, she simply flew through the city enjoying herself and even helping a few people.

She got a cat out of a tree, helped yet another old lady that was trying to cross the road and got a kid's frisbee off the roof of a building.

Kagenobi was worried he would time out and lose her, but in that moment she flew behind a row of two story buildings and landed in the back alley. As Kagenobi rushed over to the roof, he got there just in time to see Icarus consumed by a light.

"Huh?" He took a closer looked and the light faded, revealing Icarus' true identity. She was a teenager, just like them. Staring at her, he felt like they were looking at Trixie's twin. Well...triplet.

Her skin was light blue and her hair was pure white. But unlike Trixie, her hair was shorter and styled up and back. She was wearing a yellow tank top under a dark blue sleeveless hoodie and pink shorts with dark blue sneakers and white soaks.

She didn't seem to notice him and sighed before beginning to walk off, but Kagenobi decided to make his presence known. "That was some pretty impressive hero work." She jumped and spun around, looking up to see the alien as he leapt off the roof and splattered against the floor. Her eyes went wide at this, only for him to reform his body and look her over. "So...Icarus. That your real name, or are you trying to protect your identity too?"

The girl stepped backwards, "how did you find me?"

"I followed you," Kagenobi replied. "Sorry for the scare, but my friends and I needed to find you and make sure your power wasn't something dangerous."

"Friends?" She asked, "what are you talking about my power being dangerous? I use it to safe people." Kagenobi wasn't sure if he should be the one to explain it, or to leave it for Sunset and the others to talk about.

However, before he could decide, the Omnitrix started beeping. "Not now!" Before he could try to escape, the device unleashed a flash of light and he reverted back to human. The girl in front of him was absolutely shocked, seeing one of the alien heroes she had admired turn into a boy her age.

"What the?"

Flash smirked, scratching the back of his head. "Hey. Guess now we both know who the other is." As he said that, he had reached into his jacket and took out his phone. Before she could ask what he was doing, he held it up and snapped a photo. "Sorry, had to be able to figure out who you are in case you decided to make a break for it."

"Who are you?" She asked, "and why are you so desperate to know who I am?"

"I'm Flash Sentry," the teen held up the Omnitrix. "I'm the one who's been protecting this town. Me and my friends just want to be sure you're not using something that's gonna get you in trouble." The girl looked at him suspiciously, clearly worried he was gonna blab to the world about her secret identity.

"My name's Fleetfoot," she stated. "What's this about me getting into trouble with my power?" Flash had been texting the others his location as she asked this, hoping they were at least nearby.

Sure enough, the lot of them arrived not five minutes after Flash sent them his location. As he waited, he tried to explain everything he could about what was going on.

"Magic?" She asked, as the Rainbooms arrived in the back alleyway. "You really expect me to believe that magic is real?"

"It's real," Sunset told her. "And you clearly have it." Fleetfoot looked at her in confusion, only to notice Rainbow and look shocked.

"Hey, you're that girl that beat my team last month." Rainbow looked at he closely and realised she recognised her.

"Oh yeah. You were on the Cloudsdale Soccer Team. You were pretty good." Fleetfoot raised an eyebrow as she looked back towards Sunset and the others.

"I'm still having a hard time believing I have magic. Where did it even come from?"

"Magic has a tendency to infect items," Twilight explained. "Do you have something on you that could be allowing you to transform?" Fleetfoot frowned and looked herself over, all the while the others did the same and tried to sense Equestrian Magic on her. But they couldn't feel anything.

It was at this moment Trixie arrived, having had to find a place to park Flash's car. And as she ran into the alleyway, she locked eyes on Fleetfoot and suddenly sensed something.

Fleetfoot also seemed to sense it, the pair glancing at one another. And as they did, the world around them seemed to vanish. Instead, they were now alone in a colourful void. The two just stood there, both feeling a power emanating off the other.

A light appeared around the pair of them, which flew off and formed a shape behind them. Trixie watched as Fleetfoot's energy formed a large blue butterfly, which beat its wings as it took off. She then looked behind herself and saw a giant silver cat, flicking its tail as it stood behind her.

She looked back at Fleetfoot and as she did, she knew what this was.

The world seemed to return to normal, the others appearing and looking concerned. "Are you okay?" Flash asked them both, Pinkie waving a hand in front of Fleetfoot.

"Helloooo?" This seemed to snap the pair out of it, Fleetfoot staggering back whilst Trixie stood firm.

The girl began to stride forward and as she did, she took out her mask and put it on. Everyone was surprised to see this, as Trixie transformed into her Lady Masquerade persona. "What are you doing?" Sunset asked her, as Trixie moved towards her.

"She doesn't have Equestrian Magic," she explained. "Her power...comes from the Medallion she holds." That was certainly a shock for the lot of them, Flash and the Rainbooms turning back to a very confused Fleetfoot.

"Medallion?" She asked, "what the heck are you talking about?"

"The Medallion," Trixie pointed at the one on her forehead. "Something like this. An object of great power, which comes from another world. That's what's allowing you the power to fly."

"Huh," Fleetfoot looked interested, "so you're saying my power comes from another world?" Trixie nodded, "how did I get it?" Trixie sighed, knowing this was gonna be a long conversation.

"It's a long story. But basically, someone stole the Medallions from that world and brought them here. He wanted to use their power to rewrite the world in his own image, but he was stopped and the Medallions were scattered all across the city. The Medallions always need someone to be connected to, so they bonded to people who synchronised with them best."

"And I was one of them?" Fleetfoot asked, Trixie nodding. "Cool."

"Which Medallion do you think it is?" Flash asked, Trixie crossing her arms and thinking.

"Is Flight the only thing you seem to be able to do?" Fleetfoot nodded, "then you must have the Sky Butterfly Medallion. It grants the user the power to fly and walk on the air."

"Guess that makes sense," Rainbow nodded. "Given the wings. But where is it?" The others looked to her, "where's the Medallion. Trixie has to put her mask on to transform, but you don't seem to have to do that?"

"Yeah," Fleetfoot nodded and closed her eyes, "I just have to think." She glowed before her entire body was consumed with light, which quickly faded to reveal her in her suit. "See."

"How'd you even learn you could do that?" Applejack asked, as Fleetfoot looked up at the sky.

"I've always wanted to fly. The thought of being up in the sky, where you could see everything. I dreamed of one day becoming a bird. Then, one day, I felt this overwhelming urge to jump off the school roof. I couldn't help it and the next thing I knew, I stepped off the roof and was transformed."

"I guess it's a good thing you had the Medallion," Rarity stated. "I'd hate to have an urge like that and not be able to stop myself from splatting on the ground."

"I think it was the Medallion that gave her that urge," Twilight pointed out.

"Oh."

"Anyway," Fleetfoot continued, "I learned how to summon the suit on command and now...I'm a superhero." She smirked as she flapped her wings, Trixie being impressed.

"I guess you were more in sync with the Medallion than my brother thought you could be. He assumed you'd only get the powers because you don't come from the same plain as them." Fleetfoot didn't seem to understand any part of that, whilst Pinkie spoke up.

"But what happens now?" They all looked towards her. "Trixie, you were charged with collecting the Medallions. So what are you gonna do?"

Trixie looked back at Fleetfoot, who raised an eyebrow as Lady Masquerade tried to think of something. "I guess, it depends on you?"

"Me?"

"I was given a mission. To find all the Medallions and return them safely to the world they come from. That includes the one you have." Fleetfoot frowned, "but that doesn't have to happen right now." She looked up, "I need all the help I can get. The one who's after the Medallions has one of his own and is really strong. I can't stop him on my own and my friends might not always be around to help when I need it."

"So you want me to join your...team?"

"Why not?" Trixie asked, "you clearly want to help people. If you help me retrieve the rest of the Medallions, you'll be helping more people then you know. And you'll get to keep your Medallion even longer. So what do you say?"

"And what if I don't wanna help?"

Trixie frowned, "then I'll have to take the Medallion from you. It's nothing personal, but I can't let someone have one of these and play around with them. It'd put the world, and you, in too much danger." Flash and the Rainbooms were amazed at how serious Trixie was being. They knew she cared about collecting all the coins, but she was sounding like someone who was giving a criminal an ultimatum.

Fleetfoot looked down for a moment, clearly weighing her options. She then smiled and nodded.

"Alright. I'm in." She spread her wings and took to the sky. "Consider the hero Icarus a part of your team of superheroes." Everyone smiled at this, happy they had another person to help keep Canterlot and the world safe.

But then, something shot towards her before she could notice and the next thing she knew, she was being electrocuted.

"AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRHHHHHHHHHH!" They all gasped at her scream, the lightning bolt stopped and Fleetfoot began to fall. Luckily, Rainbow ran in and managed to catch her before she hit the ground. As she did, the others looked over at where the lightning had come from. And sure enough, standing on the roof of a building, he was there.

"Devious," Trixie glared at the masked man that had almost killed her.

"Lady Masquerade," he smirked as he placed his staff over his shoulder. "I guess I should have known you'd show up. I'm afraid I don't have time to play with you today." He turned his attention back to Fleetfoot, who was still smoking as Rainbow helped her to her feet. "The Sky Butterfly Medallion. Give it to me."

"No way!" Flash activated the Omnitrix and transformed into XLR8, "but you're gonna give us your Medallion!" He shot forwards as Devious launched several fireballs towards him, but XLR8 managed to out run each and every one of them before reaching the building.

Using his super speed, he shot up the wall as Devious leapt away from the edge.

XLR8 tried to claw at him, but the magician managed to avoid the claws. And as XLR8 landed, Devious slammed his staff into the ground. "GOTCHA!" XLR8 charged, only to run headfirst into a wall of wind before he could pick up any speed. "Augh!" He was blown backwards over the edge, everyone watching as he fell through the air and crashed into the ground.

Devious took this moment to rush forward and leap off the roof, the tornado swirling around him keeping him aloft in the air.

Rainbow pulled the still smoking Fleetfoot away from him as Twilight used her magic to grab a nearby trash can and throw it. But the tornado around Devious protected him, as XLR8 picked himself up. "Not cool." He sped up and rushed towards the man, but the tornado continued to blow strongly around him.

XLR8 tried to force himself through, but even his speed was having a hard time busting through it. Devious smirked as he saw this and with a tap of his staff, flames exploded at the base of the tornado and began to replace the wind.

"WOW!" XLR8 leapt back, barely avoiding getting barbequed.

It was at this moment that Fleetfoot began to come around, the girl looking up and seeing the flaming twister. "How'd we get here?"

"You okay?" Fluttershy asked, Fleetfoot nodding. She was still a little numb from what happened, but amazed her injuries were so minor after she was electrocuted.

"What's happening? Who is that guy?"

"Devious," Trixie took out her mask, "he's the one who first stole the Medallions and brought them here. Now he's gonna try and take your Medallion as well." Fleetfoot frowned at this, not willing to let some stranger take her power. "Don't underestimate him." Trixie placed her mask over her face and transformed, "he's strong. "

In that moment, Devious slammed his staff onto the ground and caused the fire tornado to explode. Fireballs were sent rocketing everywhere, making them all cry out as Rarity created a wall of crystals to defend them all.

XLR8 and Rainbow managed to outrun them, whilst Trixie took off her belt and morphed it into a staff. "Let's do this thing!" She cried, rushing forward once the last fireball exploded.

Devious glared at her and prepared to launch a blast of lightning, but Trixie swung her staff around and went completely invisible. As she did, XLR8 and Rainbow rushed in ready to take him out. But as they did, he tapped his staff on the ground and caused the ground to suddenly become covered in ice.

"WOW!" Rainbow cried, as she slipped on the ice along with XLR8. "Not again!" She cried, about to slam into the side of a dumpster. Luckily, Rarity's shield appeared in front of her and XLR8, stopping them from crashing into anything that might hurt them.

Devious smirked by then looked around, trying to see where Trixie might have gone. He then heard movement atop one of the dumpsters and launched a fireball at it, the dumpster exploding but Trixie appeared having leapt off of it and losing focus on her illusion.

Devious growled and fired a bolt of lightning at her, but she swung her staff around to deflect the lightning.

As she did, Pinkie took out some sprinkles end threw them at the ice. Applejack also pounded her fist into the ice, sending cracks all throughout it. When Pinkie's sprinkles connected, they exploded and sent the cracked ice flying and breaking it apart even more.

Rarity put shields up around the lot of them, shielding all but Devious from the ice as it rained down around them.

Devious saw this as knew that if he wanted to get his Medallions, he needed to take out Trixie's support. So, as soon as the shields went down, Devious thrust his staff out and unleashed an extra powerful blast of wind. It shot towards the Fleetfoot and the Rainbooms at incredible speed, so fast that Rarity didn't have time to put up another shield.

Fleetfoot's instincts kicked in and she grabbed the two nearest girls to her, Sunset and Fluttershy, then leapt into the air. This allowed them to avoid the gust of wind, but Twilight, Applejack, Rarity and Pinkie weren't so lucky. "NO!" Fluttershy screamed, as the four were all blown backwards.

Pinkie pulled a rope of some kind out of her hair and used it to lasso a nearby door handle, stopping her from slamming into a back wall. But Applejack, Twilight and Rarity weren't so lucky.

The three of them were slammed into the side of the building behind them, Applejack flinching but managing to remain conscious. Twilight and Rarity weren't so lucky, since they didn't have the same physical strength and endurance Applejack had.

XLR8 and Rainbow's eyes went wide, as the pair shot forward. They flew past Devious, who had put up another tornado shield, then reached the three before they began to fall towards the ground. XLR8 managed to catch Twilight and Rarity, whilst Rainbow could only cushion the fall for her much heavier friend.

"Twilight!" The alien looked her over and saw she was completely unconscious, "Rarity!?" The same was true for the fashionista, the alien putting them both down as The others rushed over to them. Fleetfoot landed, allowing Fluttershy to use the little first aid she knew to examine them.

Devious laughed at this, only for Trixie to run up to him. "RAAAAH!" She attempted to slam her staff into his head, but Devious easily blocked it and pushed her back. She tried again, but the wind tornado quickly appeared around him and blew he back.

"I think they're okay," Fluttershy stated. "They might have a concussion, but other then that they should be fine."

"Damn him!" XLR8 shot forward and attempted to break through the wall of wind, but Devious quickly changed it into the fire spiral once again.

Fleetfoot saw how powerful Devious was. And according to the others, he only wanted one thing. To take her Medallion. "You should get out of here." She turned to Sunset in shock. "You're the one that Devious wants. Use your wings and fly out of here before he can stop you."

"I can't just run away!" Fleetfoot cried, "I'm a hero. I thought you guys wanted me to help you."

"But this is different. If Devious gets to you, he'll try and take your Medallion." Fleetfoot didn't look scared, "the same thing happened to Trixie once. Devious was able to beat her down and tried to take her Medallion. If he had succeeded, Trixie might have died." Fleetfoot's eyes went wide, she looked back to see Trixie avoiding fireballs that flew out of the fire tornado. "This isn't a game. It's serious and that means it has serious stakes. You might think being a hero is all fun and games, but it's not."

"AUGH!" XLR8 had tried to unravel it, running around the flame-nado in the opposite direction, but Devious had simply launched a blast of fire that struck him backwards and slammed him into the wall.

"We're not just doing this because it's what we want to do. We're doing it because it's what we need to do. I'm not saying you shouldn't be a hero, but being a hero means you have to tough it out through the hard times as well as the fun times. Do you really think you can do that?" Fleetfoot wasn't sure. She looked down at the two girls that were unconscious. They hadn't asked for this and if they had hit that wall any harder, they might not have been waking up.

Devious finally shot out of the fire tornado and thrust his staff into Trixie's stomach, making her cry out as she was knocked backwards. She crashed into the ground, as Applejack and Pinkie rushed past her to help XLR8 and Rainbow.

Fleetfoot stared at Trixie for a moment, as the girl groaned and picked herself up. Clearly, she needed a rest and was having trouble against Devious. But she wasn't giving up.

Devious unleashed another tornado, protecting him from whatever the heroes attempted to throw at him. Fleetfoot stared at the cyclone and realised there was no way to overcome it. At least...no way to overcome it from the air.

An idea formed and Fleetfoot rushed over to Trixie, grabbing her shoulder before the girl could take off and attack again. "Make us invisible."

"What?" Trixie asked.

"Make us invisible. Hurry!" Trixie didn't argue and activated her power, the magic flowing over both of them and causing them to vanish from sight. Once they were, Fleetfoot grabbed Trixie under the arms and spread her wings. Before Lady Masquerade could ask what she was doing, the pair took off into the sky. "You wanna deal a big blow to him, right?" Trixie nodded, though Fleetfoot couldn't see. "Well the part of a tornado that has the weakest wind...is at the eye of the storm."

Trixie's eyes went wide, as she realised what Fleetfoot was trying to get at.

The pair of them flew over the tornado, completely unseen by Devious and the other fighters. They waited and watched, as the others continued to try and fight Devious but had little luck with his high powered air shield. As it did, the twister's body waved from side to side like one of those inflatable tube men.

But eventually, the tornado solidified as everyone else jumped back to avoiding a lightning attack Devious unleashed through the wind. "NOW!" Trixie cried, Fleetfoot diving down into the tornado. The pair shot through it as fast as they could, letting the weak suction of the twister pull them right down at an even faster rate.

As they did, Trixie's magic faded and the pair became visible again. This was as they were right above Devious, who looked up just in time to see the two superheroines charging at him.

"Take this!" Lady Masquerade swung her staff around, smashing Devious in the head and making him cry out in agony. At the same time, Icarus spun around and dealt a stomp kick right into Devious' chest. The two attacks blasted Devious backwards, the mad man slamming into his own tornado and being sucked inside it.

He screamed as he was spun around the tornado three times before his magic ceased and the twister vanished. This sent him flying out the tornado and crashing into a wall.

The others watched in amazement, as Devious fell to the ground and seemed to be knocked unconscious. This caught them all by surprise, since the madman had seemed unstoppable with his wind. But Fleetfoot, the newbie, had not only discovered the weak point, but had been able to help Trixie capitalise on it.

Lady Masquerade turned to her new partner and smiled, "you did great. Nice work back there." Icarus smiled, happy she had been able to help. "Now, let's get that Radiant Dragon Medallion." She turned towards Devious and prepared to take the coin.

But before she could, Devious' eyes shot open and he spun over to grab his staff.

The others gasped and Trixie tried to attack, but Devious launched his own blast of fire right at her. Lady Masquerade was slammed by the attack and knocked backwards, XLR8 catching her. Then, Devious turned to Icarus and thrust his staff at her. A blast of energy was then unleashed from it, hitting Icarus before anyone could try and save her.

Fleetfoot screamed as she was lifted into the air, her entire body feeling like it was being split apart. "NO!" Trixie leapt out of XLR8's arms and tried to run to help her, the alien doing the same along with the others. But before any of them could reach the pair, Devious created a tornado of fire.

It exploded around him and Fleetfoot, completely blocking them from getting through. "I can get through this!" XLR8 cried, only for the Omnitrix to beep and transform him back to human. "Not now!" He cried, as Fleetfoot's screams filled the air.

"Hang on!" Trixie cried, trying to think of a way to save her. But she saw no other choice but to force her way into the flames, Lady Masquerade rushing towards the fire.

"No!" Sunset yelled at her, "you'll be cooked alive." Trixie got as close to the flames as she could, the heat beginning to build and make it difficult for her to even breath. But she wouldn't let this stop her.

As Fleetfoot felt her power being ripped away from her, she heard Trixie's cries and looked over to see her forcing her way through the wall of fire. "Trixie?" The super hero flinched when the flames touched her arm, making her pull back. But Fleetfoot could tell she was seconds away from leaping through and trying to save her. "No...I have to do something."

It was then that the light coming off of her began to make a shape, forming into a coin like the one on Trixie's mask. Fleetfoot stared at it, realising this was the source of her power. And if she didn't do something quick, she would lose it to this psycho.

"NO!" She cried, fighting through the pain and grabbing the coin.

"What are you doing?" Devious growled, preparing to use the flames to torch her.

"This is my power!" Fleetfoot yelled, "it came to me. I decide what it's used for." She turned to Trixie, "and if I have to lose it to someone...it'll be someone who will use it for good!" She then threw it at Lady Masquerade, the coin shooting through the fire towards her.

"NO!" Devious cried, as Trixie grabbed the coin. As she did, Fleetfoot sighed.

"I renounce the Sky Butterfly Medallion." With that, the light around her changed and exploded off of her. She fell to the ground, cutting Devious' spell as the light caught the flames around them to vanish. It then shot towards Trixie and into her hand, the Medallion glowing as it absorbed the light that had been inside Fleetfoot.

It then flew out and spread around Trixie, who recognised this sensation from when the Luna Cat Medallion first came to her. The power was bonding too her.

"NO!" Devious launched several fireballs towards Trixie, but she quickly swung her staff around and deflected them. As she did, the light around her faded and the Medallion stopped glowing. Then, it completely vanished much to Trixie's confusion. "Give that back!" Devious raised his staff and slammed it into the ground, causing spikes of ice to explode out of the ground.

Trixie gasped as they shot towards her, the others screaming her name as she was consumed by a cloud of cold mist before the spikes shot towards them.

Rainbow had to rush forward to grab Flash and pull him away, Applejack and Sunset grabbing Twilight and Rarity to pull to safety as the ice engulfed most of the area. They stopped right before reaching them, as they all looked back in absolute terror at what had happened to their friend.

The mist faded and revealed no sign of her, making them fear she had been frozen solid. However, something then blocked out the sun on Sunset's face for a moment and made her look up. And when she did, she was absolutely shocked. "Look!"

They all looked up and when they did, they were amazed to see Trixie up in the air.

However, she was no longer dressed in her Luna Cat costume. Instead, she was now dressed in a nearly perfect copy of Fleetfoot's Icarus costume. The only difference was that she wasn't wearing a helmet, instead having a white masquerade mask that had the same yellow compound eyes Fleetfoot had had. On the forehead of this mask was a white and blue coin, which had a butterfly on it along with a cloud right next to it.

At this moment, Fleetfoot was beginning to come around and as she looked up, she was amazed to see Trixie wearing a version of her costume. For some reason, it looked better on her then she had looked.

Trixie looked herself over, then back to see her beautiful butterfly wings. "Wow," she whispered, "this is amazing."

"Go Trixie!" Pinkie cheered, the others cheering as well whilst Devious just growled.

"You think flight with let you defeat me!?" He roared before thrusting his staff up and launching a stream of fire. But Trixie's instincts kicked in and she shot to the side, the flames flying passed her.

As she did that, she grabbed something that didn't appear to be their before swinging her arms around. This created a gust of wind and from it, a fencing sabre appeared in her hand that had a butterfly-styled crossguard. She swung the blade around, the air whooshing as she did so. She then shot down, moving fast as she instantly closed the gap between her and Devious.

"Get away!" He fired a bolt of lightning, but Trixie flew up to avoid it before swinging her sword around. This caused Devious to get a cut in his cheek, whilst Trixie spun around before dealing a flying kick right to his chest. The man roared as he was blasted backwards, causing him to land on his ice path and slide around.

Trixie took this moment to grab Fleetfoot and pull her over to the others. "Trixie!" Flash cheered as she reached them, "you look awesome!"

"Yeah!" Fleetfoot nodded, "I didn't know you could summon a sword." Trixie smiled before turning to Devious, who was picking himself up.

"Give up!" She told him, "you won't win this fight. Hand over the Radiant Dragon Medallion."

Devious growled, "NEVER!" He looked ready to start fighting, but noticed the others standing besides her. Rarity and Twilight were also awake, both ready to deal him a lot of pain. Flash activated his watch, ready to transform at the moment's notice. He was outnumbered. "This isn't over!" He slammed his staff into the ground, as a powerful blast of steam filled the air.

Trixie quickly flew up above the cloud, hoping to see which way Devious went. But she couldn't see any sign of him and when the cloud faded, he was gone. "How does he do that?" She flew down to the others, who continued to stare at her in amazement.

"Trixie," Fluttershy whispered, "you look amazing."

"Absolutely divine," Rarity nodded.

Trixie smiled, then turned to Fleetfoot. "I'm...sure there's a way we can give the Medallion back to you. Maybe if you're holding it when I renounce it." But Fleetfoot shook her head.

"No, I don't think I should have it." Trixie was amazed to hear this, especially after how much Fleetfoot stated she loved her powers. "I think it's best that you keep the Medallion. Having the power to fly and cast illusions is a pretty interesting combo of powers. Even if you can only use them one at a time."

"Are you sure?" Trixie asked, "you realise what this means?"

"Yeah," Fleetfoot looked up at the sky. "I'll never be able to fly again. Icarus will be no more." Everyone frowned, "but that's okay." They gave her a curious look. "Your friend, Sunset, said something. That being a hero wasn't all fun and games." They nodded, "I didn't realise that until now. When I saw you guys on TV, you made being a hero seem so easy. So when I got my powers, I thought I could be a hero without a problem." She sighed, "but it's not easy, is it?"

"No," Flash told her, "it's a lot of hard work and sacrifices. I've had to give up a whole lot so I could be the hero I wanted to be. Same for Trixie."

Fleetfoot nodded, "when that Devious guy caught me...I thought I was gonna die. I don't think I could handle living that kind of life. Knowing you're just one mistake away from losing it all." She turned to Trixie, "keep the Medallion. It's clear you need it more then me. Besides," she smirked, "that suit looks way better on you then it did me."

Trixie smiled and nodded, "thank you, Fleetfoot."

"No problem. Besides, you said I would have had to give the power up eventually. Better now than later, when I grew more attached to it."

Trixie nodded before taking off her mask, returning to her normal clothing.

"Hey," Flash tilted his head, "where's your other mask? And where did you even get that one?" The others were wondering the same thing, Trixie shrugging as a thought occurred to her.

"I...don't know." She looked down at the mask, staring at the Medallion on its forehead. "When I wanted to get away from the spikes, this suddenly appeared in place of my normal one and I was transformed. I don't know where my other mask is." She gulped, "I really hope my Luna Cat Medallion is okay." As she said that, the mask suddenly unleashed a burst of light. "Huh?"

Everyone was surprised by this, as the light faded to reveal Trixie's original mask. "What just happened?" Twilight asked.

Trixie put the mask on and transformed into her Luna Car form, looking herself over as she did. Everything felt normal. "But where's the other Medallion?"

"Well it disappeared when it bonded to you," Sunset pointed out. "Maybe it's being stored inside you like it was Fleetfoot. And whenever you need its power, it'll swap places with you Luna Cat Medallion. Just a guess."

"Huh?" Trixie tried to think, "Sky Butterfly!" And sure enough, the Medallion on her mask suddenly unleashed a light before being replaced by the new Medallion. Moments later, her suit transformed and she was back in the winged outfit. "Luna Cat!" She transformed again, swapping between the two forms again and again until she was comfortable she wouldn't have a problem controlling her form.

"Well," Twilight turned to Fleetfoot, "I guess this is the end of Icarus as a hero."

"Yeah," Fleetfoot sighed. "But that's okay, I'm sure this was the right thing to do. And I was able to help a few people in the short time I had the Medallion, so that's what matters." They all nodded, glad Fleetfoot wasn't upset.

"Don't worry," Trixie assured her. "Icarus might be no more, but Lady Masquerade will use her powers to protect many more. So in a way, you're still a hero." Fleetfoot smiled at this, nodding as Trixie spread her wings and took to the air.

Flash smirked and activated the Omnitrix, transforming into Firefly and taking to the air. "Come on!" He laughed, "I'm sure there's a few tricks I can teach you." He shot up and Trixie laughed, flying after him whilst Rainbow, Twilight and even Fluttershy all shared a look and nodded. They each grabbed their geodes and activated their pony forms.

Fleetfoot was surprised by this. "You guys have wings too?" They nodded, "why didn't you use these forms in the fight? They could have been useful."

"These forms are hard to maintain for long periods of time," Twilight explained. "Better to save them for when we really need them."

"Or for when we wanna show off how awesome we are!" Rainbow cheered before shooting into the air. Twilight and Fluttershy followed her and the three girls joined the others. Trixie laughed as she saw her friends flying around with her. With her new flight power, she was gonna be on a whole new level. And with it, she would continue to protect Canterlot and defeat Devious.

Three Medallions had been found, with two of them retrieved for Trixie. She just had to find nine more and retrieve all ten. It wouldn't be easy, but she had some amazing friends to help her pull it off.

Author's Note

Trixie gets her new medallion and can now take to the sky. Her powers are growing stronger everyday. Will she get anymore by the time this story's over? You'll just have to keep reading to find out.

Season 2, Episode 14: The Invasion of Canterlot

Fall had come to Canterlot and at CHS, that meant one of the biggest events of the year was coming up. The Fall Formal.

In the hall, the Rainbooms were busy getting the place ready for the big night. Twilight was busy working on the electrics, whilst Applejack was doing the heavy lifting and Rainbow was running around getting everything where it was supposed to be. Rarity was making a platform for Sunset and Fluttershy, who were standing on it to tie balloons to the ceiling.

Meanwhile, Pinkie was busy going over everything on her checklist.

"Check, check, checkity check!" She cheered, seeing everything was going to plan. "This is gonna be the best Fall Formal EVER!" The others smiled at her excitement, knowing how she could be with these kinds of events.

"It sure will be," Applejack nodded. "A'h just hope the end of the night isn't as exciting as last year's events." They all knew what they were talking about, each of them giving Sunset a glance as the girl sighed. It might have been a year, but that event still stung.

"It's almost hard to believe so many strange things have happened since that night," Rarity stated as she lowered the others down. "I thought it was strange when we just had magic to deal with. But now we also have aliens a part of our lives. My word, I never thought my life would be this unusual."

"It might be unusual," Twilight smiled. "But I wouldn't trade it for the world. If I hadn't been interested in the magic, I never would have become friends with you guys. I never would have transferred here and gained so many more friends. And I never would have met Timber."

"That's true," Fluttershy smiled. "Speaking of. Is Timber coming to the Fall Formal?"

Twilight sighed, "he wanted to. But he couldn't get away from Camp Everfree."

"How much work could he have at a Summer Camp, that he couldn't get away for one night?" Rainbow asked, the others wondering the same thing as Twilight screwed in another light bulb.

"Camp Everfree's expanding its business to keep up with things. Even though it's fall, there are still lots of stuff they can do there. So they're having new campers that are younger and have more free time." The others nodded, as Twilight used her magic to lift a bunch of lights into the air and start wrapping them around the ceiling fixtures.

"Well it's too bad you can't go with Timber," Sunset stated. "Guess that just means the seven of us will have to have a good time on our own."

"Eight," Pinkie smiled. "Don't forget Trixie's gonna be riding with us to the dance."

"That reminds me," Rarity hummed. "I still need to do that size alteration on Trixie's dress. All that fighting and superheroing she's been doing has caused her to lose a few pounds and gain an ab stomach. I'll need to cushion the belly area so she doesn't show off a six pack."

"Where is Trixie, anyway?" Applejack asked. "Would have thought she'd be here helpin out."

"Out on patrol with Flash," Sunset explained. "She needs to be ready to act if she manages to come across another Medallion wielder. Devious could be ready to strike at any moment."

In another part of the city, Trixie was using her Sky Butterfly form to soar above the city.

Firefly was currently next to her, the pair being on the lookout for anything they might need to step in and deal with. All the while, Trixie was rolling her eyes at the alien's constant indecision. "I just don't know if it's a good idea."

"Then don't invite her," Trixie told him as the insect sighed.

"But I really wanna take Adagio to the Fall Formal. It seems like the kind of night she would enjoy."

"Then invite her."

"But what's everyone else gonna think when they see her? I wouldn't wanna step on any toes." Trixie groaned, having had this same repeating argument six times in the last few minutes. "What I wouldn't give for an alien that could see into the future. Then I'd be able to know exactly how the night would play out."

"I don't know what to tell you," Trixie sighed. "The future's never gonna turn out how you think it will. I mean, look at us. Did you ever think this would be how we ended up spending our days after school?"

"Definitely not," Firefly nodded.

"Exactly. Nobody knows what's gonna happen next. The best you can do is pick what you think will have the best outcome and see what that does." Firefly still didn't look like he was convinced. But then Trixie had a thought, "why not just talk to Adagio. Ask her what she wants to do. She might not even want to go to the Fall Formal."

"Huh," he nodded, "I guess that could work." As he said that, sirens caught his attention and made them look down to see a car being chased by police cruisers. The pair shared a look and nodded, then dived down towards the street. If only their civilian lives could seem as easy as they made their hero work look.

Up in space, Vilgax's ship was flying through the cosmos.

It had just passed Mars and as it did, the robot currently flying the patched up ship turned towards its master. "At current speed, we should arrive at the planet in three and a half days." The one he was talking to swiveled in his chair.

Vilgax did not look happy, wanting to be at the planet now instead of having to wait three and a half days. "Is there no way to repair the warp drive?"

"Unfortunately, the patch up we did to the drive was unable to withstand the warp jump we attempted. Had we not cut power to it when we reached the outskirts of this system, the entire ship would have made it to earth but would have been in three point eight million pieces. The damage done to the drive, also fried the warp crystals. So even if we could repair the drive, we have nothing left to power it."

Vilgax growled. "I told you to disable to plumber ship, not destroy it. If you had, we would have had the crystals and parts and be there by now." The robot said nothing and turned back to the computer, as Vilgax looked out at the viewing screen. "This time. This time I won't be stopped. Vengeance...and the Omnitrix, will be mine."

Back on earth, Flash had gone out to search for Adagio as soon as he and Trixie finished their hero work.

He drove up to Adagio's apartment, pulling up right outside the building and running up to the doorway. He looked over the buttons and found with his Adagio's name on it, pressing it and making a buzzing sound. A few moments later, Sonata answered.

"Who is it?"

"It's Flash. Is Adagio there?"

"Give me a sec." A few moments passed and a new voice replaced the first.

"Hey rocker boy. What are you doing here?"

"I need to talk to you about something," he explained. "Can you come down? Or would you rather I come up?" He waited as she seemed to be making a decision.

"I'll be down in a minute." Flash nodded and stepped away from the door, noticing a bench besides the building and moving over to sit upon it. After a minute or so, the door opened and Adagio walked out in sweats and a hoodie. "Hey," she sat down besides him, "so what's the sitch?"

"There's something I wanted to ask you," Flash replied. "My schools having this big dance in a few days and I wanted to ask you there. But...well..."

"You don't want everyone at your school to know you're dating the psycho that took control of them." Flash blushed as Adagio sighed.

"Look, I'm not saying I'm ashamed of you. But if we go together, everyone's gonna spend the whole night giving you the stink eye or asking me if you've brainwashed me...again." Adagio chuckled, "but Trixie told me I shouldn't be the one to decide this. If you don't want to go, then I won't force you. Maybe we could do something else that night."

"Nah," Adagio smirked, "I'd rather go see what your school's version of a party looks like." Flash hadn't been expecting that. "Who cares what other people think. If you wanna take me, I'm happy to go with you." She then stood up and walked away.

"Hey, where are you going?"

"To go talk to your fashionista friend. I'm gonna need to look my best if I want to make every guy at your school jealous of you." With that, she was gone and Flash could only blink before laughing. He could hardly believe he had been so worried about asking her. It seemed much less terrifying now.

He got up and started walking down the street. As he did, he got a phone call from his mother. "Hey mom. What's up?"

"I just got your tux back from the cleaners" She replied. "Are you sure you don't want another one. Showing up in the same clothing as last year might seem a little..."

"It's fine mom," Flash assured her. "I mean, I probably won't be the only one that'll be wearing the same suit as last year. Besides, everyone will probably be too focused on Adagio to notice."

"So she is coming. I hope this means your father and I will finally get to meet her." Flash gulped at this, unsure how Adagio would feel about meeting his parents. "Don't even think about making an excuse. I want to meet this girl before you take her to the Fall Formal. Bring her around before you have to go. Maybe she can get changed in my room whilst she and I get to know each other." Flash groaned as his mother hung up, Flash's previous fears about the night returning in full force.

Several days later, the warship had finally gotten close enough to the earth that its external cameras could see the planet.

Inside, Vilgax chuckled at the sight. "Finally." As he said that, one of the robots stepped into the room. They were carrying something on a flat tray. A strange looking gun that had a domed flashlight on the end. "What is it?"

"We have completed repairs to the device," the machine explained. "As we assumed, the device is a dimensional warp portal projector."

Vilgax growled, "a Null Void Projector. I had thought the plumbers had stopped using this device." He picked it up, "their mistake. With this, I will make Sentry suffer once I have the Omnitrix." He then looked back at the planet. "The creator was a fool not to give it to me. He'll soon find that keeping it from me has only greatened my anger. Once I have it in my possession, I will use it to destroy everything he cares about."

The night of the Fall Formal had finally arrived.

Currently, Flash was in his living room with his dad. He was already dressed up and looking rather nervous, as he thought about what Adagio and his mother were doing up in his room.

Adagio had been excited to finally meet Flash's parents, having been eager to do so ever since Flash had properly met her sisters. When Flash had introduced her to them, Adagio had been surprisingly cortual. Misty smiled at her and took them up to her room, whilst Flash had quickly changed into the cloths he had worn the previous year.

Now he was waiting with his dad, as the man prepared the TV for the movie he and Misty were going to watch. Trail looked over at Flash and smirked, "somebody's obviously a little worried."

"Well, yeah. I like her and I don't want her to accidently say something that'll make you hate her."

"Why do you think she would do that?"

"She...has a way of rubbing people the wrong way the first time they met her. I didn't even like her the first time we met." Trail looked curious at this, but at that moment Misty stepped down the stairs. Flash quickly stood up and moved over to her, wondering what her first reaction was gonna be.

He got his answer when she smiled at him, "she is such a lovely girl." Flash was surprised to hear this. "I don't see why you held off on introducing her to us until now." Flash couldn't answer, the only thing he was able to do being to give a vocal ahhhh. "She's just touching herself up. She should be down in a moment." They heard a cough and looked up, Flash's eyes going wide.

At CHS, the party was in full swing. Many cars were parked outside and letting out the people who would be attending the night's festivities.

Some guys were arriving stag, whilst others had managed to get a date for the big event.

Much like the previous year, the Rainbooms arrived by a limo. It pulled up to the school and the seven girls stepped out the vehicle, each one dressed up thanks to Rarity. Trixie was also there, dressed up as well and ready for a night of fun. They all headed inside and as they did, most of them smirked as the male members of the student body were looking over them and clearly liking what they saw.

They made their way over to the punch bowl, each getting a drink as they listened to the music being played by Vinyl.

"Pinkie," Sunset smirked, "this place looks great."

"Thanks," the party girl smirked. "Having magic to decorate is way easier then not having it." The others nodded, getting what she was going at. As they did this, Ringo and Brawly stepped up to the punch table. "Hey guys," Pinkie waved as they nodded. The Rainbooms hadn't seen much of Flash's old bandmates after their split up.

"Still can't find anyone to replace Flash?" Rainbow asked. The two had been looking for someone who could both sing and play the guitar, which they both lacked the skill for, but so far nothing had come up.

"Yeah," Ringo nodded. "Things haven't been going well. Flash wrote most of our songs, so we can't use any of them. We'll be starting from scratch unless he comes back."

"You two kicked him out," Applejack pointed out.

"He didn't leave us much of a choice," Brawly stated. "Since he kept missing important events without telling us why. Would you girls let each other get away with that?" The girls didn't answer, since they knew why Flash couldn't tell them. But they also knew the two had a point. A band was nothing without trust.

"See," Ringo nodded. "So unless he tells us why he kept missing our practises and gigs, we can't accept him back." In that moment, they all heard the people around them gasp and looked around. Everyone was looking towards the entrance, so they all did the same. And when they did, they saw something that made Ringo and Brawly almost drop their drinks. "What the heck!?"

Flash smirked as he walked into the room, with someone hanging from his arm. Adagio.

The girl was dressed in a sparkly purple dress, which went down to just below her knees and had matching heels. She was also wearing a replica of her old gem necklace, the girl smiling her devilish smile as the pair stepped further into the room.

"What the heck is he doing?" Brawly cried, "why is he with her?"

"Oh," Rarity smirked, "they stated dating a little while back." The two looked at the girls in horror.

"You knew about this?" Ringo asked. "And you did nothing?"

"I know it's hard to believe," Sunset told them. "We were doubtful of her to. But she...I wouldn't say changed. She's not a threat, so you don't have to worry about her."

The pair gave her a suspicious look, then looked back at Flash as he and Adagio walked for a few moments before Flash stepped away from her. He made his way towards them, smiling when he saw the Rainbooms. Then he saw his old band mates and frowned, clearly feeling awkward as he got closer.

"Hey," he told them, "how's it been?"

"Seriously?" Ringo asked, "what are you doing with her? She brainwashed us. She knocked us out of the battle of the bands. What's wrong with you?"

Flash sighed, as he poured a pair of drinks. "Look, who I date is none of your business. Adagio isn't as bad as you think she is. Can you just...drop it."

"What happened to you?" Brawly asked. "You've been acting weird even before you left the band." Flash frowned, fighting the urge to tell them he didn't leave. "What is wrong with you?"

"We deserve to know," Ringo stated. "First you start skipping out on us, then you start disappearing whenever something strange is happening. And now we find our you're dating a psycho pony monster from another world. How can you have time to date her, when you couldn't even make it to band practise. What, is she more important then us?"

"Guys," Flash sighed. "I want to tell you what's been going on. But I can't. Can we please just leave it at that, enjoy this night and not cause any kind of a scene." Ringo and Brawly stared at him, clearly not buying it.

"I call brainwashed," Brawly stated. "He's been bewitched."

"She must have gotten her powers back," Ringo agreed.

"No, I haven't." The pair spun around and saw Adagio, both leaping back in surprise and fear. "I can assure you, you're friend is completely in his right mind. I just happen to find him fun, so I'm sticking around him. Now if you're done bullying him, I would like to get back to this dance."

Flash handed her a drink that Adagio happily took, smiling at him as she sipped it. She then heard a song and gulped the rest down before grabbing Flash, pulling him over to the dance floor. Everyone watched in shock, as the pair started dancing together.

Trixie and the Rainbooms also stepped out and started dancing, making many of the students believe that they didn't have to worry about Adagio. Ringo and Brawly continued to watch, clearly not happy about all this insanity that was going on. Something was up with their former lead singer and they were going to get to the bottom of it.

In the middle of the city, people was enjoying their night.

Some were driving around, others were eating at restaurants and some were just taking a nice walk and enjoying the crisp night air. But then, something appeared in the sky that caused their amazing night to come to an end.

Vilgax's ship blocked out the light of the moon, as it floated just above the largest building.

In that moment, the side opened as something shot out of it. That something was a bunch of rockets, which slammed into the ground and quickly opened up to reveal the giant mantis robots that had attacked some months ago.

The mechs started firing their lasers at the buildings, causing people to scream and run for their lives. The machines were following a simple order. Cause as much destruction as you can, drawing out the one their master was after. And it was working.

Back at the dance, the party was in full swing.

Most of the students had forgotten Adagio was even there, too wrapped up in how much fun they were having at the moment. And as the song they were all dancing to came to an end, Celestia stepped up on stage as Luna walked over carrying a large box.

"Okay everyone," the principal smiled at the large group. "It's time to announce this year's Fall Formal Princess." Everyone was wondering who it could be, many looking to Sunset expecting her to be the winner. Celestia opened the envelope and took out the results, looking at the name with a smile. "And the winner is-" She didn't get to finish.

In that moment, the entire room shook as a loud explosion filled the air and created a shockwave.

Flash, Trixie, Adagio and the Rainbooms all quickly pushed their way through the very scared crowd, the lot of them heading for the exit. They made their way through the halls and eventually reached the outside, leaping through the doors of the school the same way Princess Twilight had led them out to stop Sunset a year ago. And when they did, what they saw shocked them.

A massive explosion, located two or three streets away. The massive smoke cloud flew up from behind the buildings, worrying the lot of them since something like that couldn't be made by accident. But what caused that accident is what truly terrified them, as it flew out of the smoke and floated above the town.

"No," Flash whispered, "It can't be."

"Flash?" Adagio gave him a curious look, then turned to the ship that had likely just blown something up. "You know what that is?" Flash didn't answer, to focused on the ship as the others turned to her.

"That's Vilgax's Ship." Adagio's eyes went wide, as she remembered the story Flash had told her about the alien warlord that had almost killed him not long again. "I can't believe he's back," Twilight told the alien hero. "What do we do?"

"We fight him," Flash replied before walking forwards.

"You can't be serious?" Trixie cried, the others agreeing. "He wiped the floor with you last time. It was complete luck you got out of there alive."

"I know," Flash told her. "But what other choice do we have? Nobody else can hope to stand a chance against him. Besides, this won't be like last time." He smirked at her, "I've got Lady Masquerade on my side." Trixie smirked. "And Shining's probably heading there to. Plus, I've got way more aliens that I can use against him." He held up the Omnitrix, as he looked up at the ship. "Vilgax won't know what hit him. I'll take him down without a problem." But as he said that, his phone beeped.

His wasn't the only one. Everyone's phones beeped, the lot of them taking them out to see the screens going dead for a moment. "What's going on?" Fluttershy asked, only for them to all come on at the exact same time. And when they did, they showed a face Flash had hoped he would never have to see again.

"Vilgax," he growled.

Inside the hall, everyone had been wondering what had happened.

Celestia had stated nobody could leave until they were sure it was safe. It was then that their phones all beeped, the teachers and students taking them out and seeing the alien squid on them.

"Greetings, puny insects. I...am Vilgax. And right now, the fate of your world's future is in my hands." This statement worried many of them, as Vilgax continued to speak. "Your planet has been a thorn in my side for centuries. And now, I will make you all bow to my demands. Or else." The image of the Omnitrix appeared on the screens.

"Hey," Derpy raised an eyebrow, "I've seen that somewhere."

"A member of your species has stolen this device from me. And I will have it back, or you will all suffer." More images appeared on the phones, showing the alien heroes that had been protecting the city for months. "These alien heroes that you love so much, aren't even real aliens. But simply the disguises of a single earthling, that has been playing hero for his own amusement. And he has been using my Omnitrix to do it."

Trixie, Adagio and the Rainbooms all gasped, as they realised what Vilgax was planning on doing.

Sure enough, the image changed again. "And the one who has been doing these acts is known...as Flash Sentry." Sure enough, the image showed Flash. And this wasn't just an image. It was a video, of when Flash was captured by Vilgax.

The video showed Shining, Trixie and the Rainbooms, though their backs were all turned to the footage, but it clearly showed Flash's face. Then it showed Flash transforming into XLR8, then Volt-Edge, Vapaw and so on until he escaped the containment device and moved out of footage.

The students of CHS were all completely shocked, unable to believe they had just seen someone they all knew so well suddenly turn into a variety of aliens.

Ringo and Brawl were the most shocked, has they suddenly started putting the pieces together. Flash had been acting strange ever since the aliens first appeared. And now, they knew why. "This can't be real," they heard Octavia state. But many of them knew there was a big chance this very much was real. And they weren't the only ones seeing this.

All over the city, people's phones, laptops and anything else connected to the internet and broadcasting signals were watching as Vilgax revealed the truth to the world.

Sonata and Aria were both in their apartment, watching their TV together as Flash was shown. "Isn't that Adagio's boyfriend?" The blue skinned Dazzling asked, as Aria hummed.

"Now I'm starting to see why she's so interested in the guy."

Misty Vail and Trail Blazer had also been watching TV when they saw this footage, Trail's mouth dropping the popcorn that had been in it when Flash's name was announced. "Flash?" Misty whispered.

"No way," Trial stated.

Flash's friends were horrified by this, whilst the teen himself simply remained silent.

"Flash Sentry, I now send this message straight to you. You will surrender yourself and my Omnitrix to me, or I will level this pathetic city. And if that isn't enough to convince you, then I will level another city. Then another and another and another, until there isn't a single building left standing on this planet. Know this. Any damage caused to this planet from this point on, is your fault." With that, the screens went dead.

Everyone stood in total silence, as they tried to register what had just happened.

Flash's secret was gone. The entire city had likely seen that video and now, everyone knew who Flash was and what he could do. "Flash?" Rainbow asked, "what are you gonna do?"

"I'm gonna take Vilgax down," Flash stated before walking off. "He thinks he can throw me with that threat. He's dead wrong. We all know he'll likely still destroy the city, even if I gave up the Omnitrix. The only way to save Canterlot is to take him down. I'll deal with what happens next once he's gone." He glanced back at them, "you with me?" They all nodded and charged after him, the ten of them ready to do whatever it took to save their planet.

In the midst of the attacked area, Shining Armor raced down the road.

The plumber had suited up the moment he had heard the explosion and was now on his hard-light cycle, having seen Vilgax's message whilst driving to the site. He had tried to cut the footage, but Vilgax's video had ended before he could. And now Flash's secret was out.

"This is bad," he growled as he turned into the street where the ship had been hovering. As he did, several robots could be seen flying through the streets and the giant mantis robots were walking around.

They quickly noticed Shining and the flying ones shot towards him, firing at him. But he quickly drove around the lasers and disabled his bike to roll to a stop, taking out his Multi-Striker as he did so.

He transformed it into a laser rifle and started firing, cutting through the robots without much issue. When they were taken out, Shining turned to the larger robots as they held up their arm lasers. But before they could fire, Shining ran forward and changed his weapon into a sword.

He let out a roar and he leapt up, swinging his sword around and cutting through its arm.

He landed on its knee and leapt up again, cutting right through its chest and causing the whole top to fall to the ground. A second robot then fired at him and he shifted to his energy shield, using it to protect himself as the laser fired. But this locked him in place, preventing him from attacking as some more drones flew towards him.

But before he could think of a way out, the robot suddenly found something cutting its arm right off.

That something was Lindwhirl, the chimera alien having slashed at it with his claws before falling to the ground. He then used his tail as a spring, bouncing off the ground again and curling up to spin right through the robot's chest.

As the machine fell to the ground, Shining regained his bearings as the drones flew in for an attack. But before they could fire, one found itself getting stabbed by a rapier. "Gotcha!" Trixie cheered, cutting right through its cameras she pulled back and flew to a safe distance, as purple energy swirled around the other drone and threw it into the blind one.

Shining looked around and saw Adagio running up to him with the Rainbooms, the lot of them having changed into more battle ready clothing. "Shining!" Twilight cried, "you okay?"

"I'm fine," Shining assured her. Lindwhirl had just taken down another giant robot and rolled back to them, sliding to a stop right in front of Shining. "I saw what Vilgax did. I'm sorry." Lindwhirl nodded, a frown on his face. "I think the cat's out of the bag."

"I know. But I'll deal with the city knowing my secret later."

"Flash, it's not just the city. That footage went out to the entire world." This caused Flash's eyes to go wide, the others just as shocked. But they didn't have time to worry about it, as more robots appeared and started firing at them. Rarity put up a shield, as Lindwhril rolled towards them.

The rest of the Rainbooms charged forward, as Shining turned to Sunset, Fluttershy and Adagio.

"Catch." He hit a button on the side of his belt and his badge unleashed a trio of lights that flew towards them. They each caught the light and found they transformed into identical blasters. "New upgrade the Plumbers sent me when they picked up Hectrix. They're not as strong as mine, but they should be able to take these things down." They nodded and the four rushed in to help the others, the girls firing their blasters and finding they still possessed a serious kick.

At the same time, Lindwhirl rolled forward and took out the robot's feet. Rainbow used her super speed to run around the robots and lift them off the ground with a tornado, whilst Applejack grabbed them and ripped their legs out.

Pinkie threw some sprinkles at the drones, whilst Twilight used her magic to turn their weapons on each other. Rarity focused on defence, protecting anyone who didn't notice a blast was about to take them out. At the same time, Trixie continued to fly around and cut through the robots.

Up in his ship, Vilgax watched as the robots continued to fight against the humans.

"Fools," he growled, "they fight knowing it is hopeless." But as he focused on Flash, he realised the alien hero was using a form he had no used during their last confrontation. "So, the child has gained more access to the Omnitrix's secrets." This actually worried him.

Whilst he knew he was powerful, he was not so arrogant that he thought he was unstoppable. Even with his enhancements, you could think of a dozen alien species that could beat him.

"If this boy has gained one of those aliens, I will not be able to stop him. I must wear him down and finish him before he can become one of those creatures." He started typing on his computer. "But before then, let's show this world why it's truly futile to resist me."

All over the city, the people of Canterlot continued to think about the message they had seen.

Many believed it couldn't be real, whilst others were wondering what other secrets were being kept from them. And before they could think about what was gonna happen next, their phones, laptops and TVs all began to beep again.

This time, when they checked them, they were surprised to see footage of a battle happening in the city. Those that knew about magic were surprised to see the Rainbooms, then saw the Plumber and Lady Masquerade fighting against a bunch of robots. But what they mostly focused on, was the alien that was ripping through the machines. An alien that, if the last message was to be believed, was actually a human being.

"Flash," Misty whispered as she stared as the screen. She and her husband had rushed out to find their son when he didn't answer their calls. They were currently in their car, hoping he wasn't actually in the middle of this fight.

Lindwhirl shot through another robot's leg, causing it to fall to the ground.

A laser then shot down and tried to blast him, but he catapulted himself into the air before he reached the spot it would have hit. The explosion propelled him forwards and he slashed his claws through the neck of the machine, decapitating it as he landed behind it.

But despite destroying yet another machine, another appeared from between the buildings. "Ahh," he groaned, "how are there so many of them?"

"Tell me about it!" Shining cried as he blasted another drone out of the sky, only for two more to appear out of the smoke the explosion caused. "How does Vilgax get enough materials for all these things?"

"We just have to keep fighting!" Twilight cried, grabbing another drone before it could blast Trixie. She turned its guns towards another, blasting it as Trixie thrust her foot into the side and ripped right through it. "Vilgax will run out eventually."

"Maybe," Sunset fired, "but we can't exactly do this forever either." She destroyed one's thrusters, causing it to fall to the ground and allow Lindwhirl to flatten it. But as he did, the Omnitrix began to beep.

"NO!" He cried, leaping into the air and cutting through a trio of drones before being consumed by green light. "WOW!" He screamed as his human body fell towards the ground, Rarity catching him on her crystal. He groaned as Rarity floated him towards the ground, completely unaware that the entire world had just seen him transform from alien to human.

"Catch!" Shining cried as he fired a light towards him, Flash catching it as it morphed into a blaster.

He quickly started shooting as he moved over to Adagio, who looked like she was having a blast. "So, this night as fun as I promised?"

"Better," Adagio laughed as she took down another robot. But still, more were coming. And they weren't the only thing they had to worry about. For as Rainbow and Applejack knocked down another pair of robots, the ship opened up and something leapt out of it.

"What's that?" Pinkie cried, as the humanoid shape fell towards the earth. Shining's visor zoomed in on it and his eyes went wide.

"Oh no. Rarity!" Rainbow used her speed to bring everyone together, right as the thing crashed into the ground and unleashed a shockwave that Rarity barely managed to protect them all from. The wave flew up to the shield and slammed into it, Rarity barely able to keep the dome up.

When the force of the wave weakened, she lowered the shield as Vilgax walked out of the crater he had made. "Sentry."

"Vilgax," Flash growled. He was ready to fight, but Shining put his hand on his shoulder and shook his head. The Plumber, Lady Masquerade, Rainbow, Pinkie and Applejack charged. The Rainbooms transformed into their ponied up forms, whilst Lady Masquerade switched to her Luna Cat form.

She used her illusion power to make the five of them invisible, stopping Vilgax from seeing them. But somehow, Vilgax was able to avoid Shining's blast and Pinkie's explosion before reaching out and grabbing the pair. They lifted them both up, Shining by the helmeted head and Pinkie by the waist. He then threw the still invisible Pinkie at something and both her and Applejack's cries filled the air.

Shining used this chance to point his blaster at Vilgax's face, but the alien simply tilted his head and the laser blast missed. The alien then swung an leg around and Rainbow's cries of pain exploded out of that spot, Vilgax then leaping back as the sound of Trixie's staff hitting the ground could be heard.

This was when Vilgax smashed Shining into the ground before leaping forward and punching the air, Trixie screaming as she suddenly appeared on the other end of his fist. The others also became visible, as Trixie was sent flying until Twilight caught her in her magic.

Pinkie and Applejack were starting to recover. But before they could get up, Vilgax punched the ground and a giant rock was sent flying at them. Pinkie barely had enough time to throw a single sprinkle to destroy it, but that only made the rock smaller and Applejack had to back hand it away.

The winded Rainbow pushed herself to her feet, Shining doing the same as he readied his weapon. But before he could fire, Vilgax swung both his arms around with enough force to create a burst of wind. One that was so strong, the four of them were all sent flying backwards.

Shining and Rainbow crashed into the side of a building, whilst Pinkie and Applejack crashed into the ground in front of the others. "Guys!" Flash cried, rushing to their side.

"You did this." Flash looked up at Vilgax, who was making his way towards him. "I gave you the chance to surrender. But you would rather fight. So much for the noble hero."

"Don't think you're the good guy here," Flash growled. "We both know me surrendering wouldn't have stopped you from turning Canterlot into a crater."

"Maybe," Vilgax cried as Twilight and Rarity ran forward. Twilight tried to grab Vilgax and paralyse him, but the alien was able to fight through her grip. Rarity threw her gems, but they shattered off his body without leaving a scratch. Vilgax simply inflated his arms, then broke through Twilight hold and smashed the ground.

This sent out another shockwave, causing both girls to be sent flying backwards. "NO!" Flash cried, seeing the pair being blown backwards. Sunset, Fluttershy and Adagio rushed over to them, as Flash saw he was the last one standing.

"Now," Vilgax charged, "GIVE ME THE OMNITRIX!" Flash held his ground and fired his blaster, but the lasers did nothing. And just when it seemed he was dead meat, the Omnitrix timed in.

Everyone watched as a green light filled the air, Vilgax staggering through this light only to feel nothing between his claws. When the light faded, her found that his target was nowhere in sight.

"Where are you?" He growled, "show yourself." The others looked just as worried, along with all those watching. What had happened to Flash?

They got their answer when the shadows at Vilgax's feet began to shift and shake. And before the alien warlord noticed, something shot out of it. Kagenobi. "Surprise!" He cried, a shadow katanna in hand. And as Vilgax spun towards him, Kagenobi slashed at him.

"Augh!" Vilgax roared, staggering back as Kagenobi fell to the ground and melted back into the darkness. Vilgax looked around, seeing the shadow moving away from him. "There you are!" He punched the ground and caused the earth around him to shatter. The destruction chased after Kagenobi, who leapt out of the ground seconds before it cracked apart.

He landed on the ground and slid backwards, placing his hand inside the darkness of the night he did so. Pulling out several shurikens, he tossed them in Vilgax's direction. But without the element of surprise, Vilgax wasn't such an easy target.

He slashed the shadow weapons away and as he did, sirens filled the air.

Police cruisers swerved around the corner, along with SWAT vans and whatever else the CCPD could get going fast enough. They shot towards the battlefield, as others showed up as well. Civilians and other people had also arrived, watching from as close as they dared go in a hopes of seeing the fight take place.

Misty and Trail were amongst these people, both staring at the ninja alien looking worried. "Flash!" Misty screamed, catching the hero's attention.

This distraction allowed Vilgax to charge forward and attempt to grab him, but Kagenobi managed to leap up and avoid the attack before exploding into a shadowy mist that quickly merged with the ground. It flew around in a random way, not giving Vilgax a chance to catch on to where he was going before shifting directions.

Eventually, he shot out and slashed at Vilgax. The alien warlord managed to block this attack with his arms, Kagenobi melting back into the ground and trying again. But it simply got the same result with Vilgax blocking, the ninja jumping into the ground.

"Annoying bug!" He growled and before Kagenobi could attack, Vilgax leapt over and slammed his fist into the ground. And to everyone's shock, his claw had hit the moving shadow before it could escape. His claws had melted into the ground for a moment before he pulled back, Kagenobi being shocked that he felt himself being pulled out of the darkness.

"No way." Vilgax pulled him up and Kagenobi's body was forced to reform, Vilgax growling at him. He then slammed him into the ground, making him cry out as he was lifted up and slammed down again. Then again and again and again. After the fifth smash, he spun around and threw Kagenobi across the street.

Everyone watched as the alien rolled through the air until he crashed into the side of a building, causing him to fall to the ground. His parents gasped, whilst the police had had enough of watching from the sidelines. As such, the lot of them rushed over with their guns.

Vilgax heard the shots and turned towards the police officers, as the bullets bounced off his body without even leaving a scratch. He growled at the annoyances, as he turned towards his ship. "Remove these flies from my sight!" Whoever was onboard clearly heard him, as moments later a bunch of drones flew out of the ship and started blasting them.

The people screamed as they ran away, whilst Kagenobi picked himself up and looked around to see everyone in peril.

This included his parents and the hero's instincts kicked in, causing him to leap off the ground and morph into a shadow. First, he flew over to his friends and grabbed them each in his shadows before flying over to his parents. The two screamed as a laser was about to hit them, but Kagenobi swallowed them up before it could and he escaped down an alleyway.

Vilgax growled seeing his prey escape. "You can't hide forever!"

When Kagenobi was sure they were safe, for now, he spat everyone out before they could suffocate.

Misty and Trail cried out, as they along with Flash's friends fell to the ground and the alien ninja materialised. As he did, the Omnitrix started beeping. His parents watched in shock, as the alien transformed back into their son. Until this moment, they had hoped this whole situation had been some kind of misunderstanding. But now, seeing Flash standing there and staggering over to a wall, they knew it was true.

"You really are those alien heroes," Misty whispered.

"Yeah," Flash nodded, "I'm sorry I didn't tell you. But I doubted you would have taken it well if I had." The pair stared at them, a million questions going through their minds. But before they could even ask one, Vilgax roared.

"SENTRY!" They all hid against the wall, as his voice echoed through the alleyway as he stepped passed it. "I know you're still here. Come out and face me you coward." Flash tried to weigh his options, seeing his friends were all still in pretty bad shape.

He turned to the still unconscious Shining and picked up his blaster, glad it remained in tacts even with him down. His parents saw this and watched him head towards the alley, "you can't!" Misty grabbed his arm, "he'll kill you."

"I don't have a choice," Flash stated. "He wants me and he's not gonna stop until he gets what he wants."

"Then give it to him," Trail cried out. "If he wants this Omnitrix thing, then just give it to him and he'll leave." But Flash shook his head.

"He won't. He's been shamed too many times by this planet. The only way earth's coming out of this is if I can beat him. And to do that, I gotta keep him from destroying the place long enough for the others to recover and the Omnitrix to recharge." He pulled his arm free and ran through the alleyway.

"Flash!" Misty cried, as the others started coming around.

Flash jumped out the other alley and started firing at Vilgax, getting his attention as the lasers bounced off his skin. He spun around and growled, Flash quickly leaping out of the way expecting him to punch the ground. Vilgax laughed, "you really think that tiny peashooter can harm me?"

"No," Flash stood tall, "but it can annoy you and stop you from concentrating. And if that's all I can do right now, then so be it."

"You need to realise something," Vilgax growled as Flash's parents reached the alleyway. "You can't defeat me. You might be able to use the Omnitrix effectively, but you've barely scratched the surface of what it can do. At the level of skill you have now, you cannot hope to overpower me." As he said that, he took out the strange flashlight gun.

"What is that?"

"A little something I got off of some plumbers I destroyed before coming here. And with it, you will surrender." He pulled the trigger and the flashlight end lit up. It then unleashed a bright laser, which flew passed Flash before spreading into a ring.

Flash saw this and his eyes went wide, seeing some kind of portal that began to spin around. And as it did, a powerful suction formed and grabbed the teen. The force of the wind caused him to stagger towards it, but he quickly stopped and tried to grab onto the ground to braced himself. "What are you doing?"

"Giving you an ultimatum," Vilgax announced. "Either surrender the Omnitrix, or spend the rest of your life trapped in the worst place you can possibly imagine." Flash tried to move out of the pull of the portal, but it was like hitting a wall of wind as he tried. The only direction he could move away from the portal was towards Vilgax, who was waiting to take the Omnitrix away.

Flash had zero clue what he was supposed to do to get out of this, as the Omnitrix was still timed out.

The others finally arrived and saw Flash was in trouble, the lot of them gasping. "Hang on!" Shining cried, running out along with Trixie, Applejack and Twilight. But as they did, some of Vilgax's drones flew into the area and started firing at them. They all cried out, as the ground around them exploded.

Flash gasped and doubled his efforts to try and escape, but the pull was still too strong. Then it happened.

Twilight grabbed one of the droids in her magic pushed it back, the machine hitting another one and making it fire a laser. This laser shot down and hit the spot right in front of Flash, causing the ground to explode and knock him into the air. "FLASH!" They all screamed, as Vilgax's eyes went wide in horror.

With nothing to hold onto, Flash had no way to fight against the force of the portal. As such, he was pulled towards it.

The teen could only give his friends the quickest of glances. He looked over the scared faces of the Rainbooms, of Trixie and Shining. Of Adagio, who looked more terrified then when she had lost her magic. And then, his parents. Both of them screamed his name, Flash's heart breaking at the sight of them in such a state.

"Sorry guys," he whispered before hitting the portal. "Keep Canterlot safe." With that, he fell into the light and was completely consumed. Moments later, the portal vanished

"FLASH!" They all screamed, fearing the worst as Vilgax growled.

"Pathetic human. Couldn't even fall for a bluff correctly." He then saw something flying at him and swung his arm around, destroying the rock Twilight had thrown at him. "You dare attack me?"

"Bring him back," Twilight stated.

"With pleasure. And instead, I'll stick you in that portal. I'm sure he'll be more agreeable if his friends and loved ones are trapped in that hellhole." But when he held up the device, he found the end of it was broken. "What?" He looked at it and saw a piece of rock that had smashed the lense, likely from the drone's blast.

The device sparked and exploded, Vilgax dropping it as it fell to the ground and smashed apart. Everyone gasped. Without that device, they couldn't get Flash back.

"No," Misty looked close to tears. The others looked angry, but Shining kept his cool. He knew they couldn't beat Vilgax, especially with the robots that were around him. They only had one choice.

"Trixie," Lady Masquerade turned to him, "we need cover." The girl nodded and slammed her staff into the ground, causing a massive cloud of smoke to appear around Vilgax and the robots.

Vilgax swung his arms around to try and remove the smoke, but when it didn't happen he realised the smoke wasn't real. As such, he ran out of the smoke and looked around. The humans were all gone, having escaped whilst he was distracted. This only irritated him more. "Sentry. I will find you. But before I do, I am going to make this city pay for your actions. You will die, knowing your home was destroyed due to you're actions."

Flash's brain was spinning, as he felt himself coming around.

That portal had done a serious number on him and even as he recovered, he felt like he had just spent three hours on the world's loopiest roller-coaster. He opened his eyes and looked up at the sky, only to see that it wasn't the sky he knew.

Instead, the sky was bright red and full of multiple rocks that were floating above him. He groaned as he picked himself up and looked around, realising he wasn't in Canterlot anymore. He saw that he was on some kind of rocky surface, the teen heading in one direction. But it barely walked a hundred yards before reaching the very edge of it. And that's when he realised he was on another rock.

A bad feeling filled his stomach, as he remembered what Vilgax had said about this place. "What could be so bad about this place?" He got his answer, when a mighty roar filled the air and made him look up to see a bunch of monsters flying towards him.

They were giant white eels, with large back wings and multiple tails. These creatures let out a roar at Flash, he realised he really was in serious trouble. So he quickly got to his feet and ran in the opposite direction that they were flying at him in.

"Not good, not good, NOT GOOD!" He saw the other end of the rock was coming up and he panicked. But the roar of the creatures made him decide to simply take a chance. So he ran as fast as he could and once he reached the edge, he jumped as hard as he could.

He flew through the air, praying he wouldn't fall to his death. But as he did, he realised something wasn't right.

He wasn't falling at all, even after reaching the point he should have fallen. He just kept moving through the air, as if he was being affected by gravity. Then, when he got in close to the other rock, he found himself finally being pulled down. "Wow!" He fell towards the rock and landed, staggering a bit but was able to keep going.

The monsters continued to chase after him and were drawing closer, Flash trying to think of a way to save himself as he kept running. Then, something new happened.

A bright flash of purple made him look up and see some energy, which was swirling into a whirlpool form that span faster and faster. "What now?" He got his answer when he suddenly found himself being grabbed by a powerful suction, which pulled him into the air. "WOW!"

He wasn't the only one being pulled into the vortex, as the eels were caught in the suction as well.

Flash had no idea what to do, but suddenly heard a ding and realised the Omnitrix was recharged. Activating it, he slapped the dial down and transformed into Bushwhacker. He thrust his hand out and his vine arms extended, allowing him to grab the rock and keep him from being sucked inside.

The force of the vortex was too strong. He knew that any minute, his arm would likely break off and he would be sucked in along with the eels.

However, he soon found the force of the vortex was weakening. Slowly, the suction grew weaker and weaker until the whirlpool of purple energy vanished. When it did, Bushwhacker fell towards the rock and crashed into it. Luckily, his head wasn't damage. But he had to spend a while getting the rest of his body back together.

As he did, he looked around and was starting to realise that this place really was dangerous. If he didn't get out of there soon, he was gonna be in serious trouble.

Meanwhile, in a dark area, someone was looking at a computer screen.

That someone stared at the alien texts flying passed it at lightspeed, not having any trouble reading it. They then sighed when something appeared. "So, my Omnitrix has fallen into the Null Void. Then I have no other choice. It's time to collect my creation myself."

Author's Note

Vilgax has returned. Flash's secret is no more. Canterlot is under siege and Flash is stuck in the Null Void. Damn this chapter was fun. Hope you liked it. And next week, the season comes to an end.

Season 2, Episode 15: Secrets of the Omnitrix

Flash hated his life right about now.

He had thought the worst he had to worry about tonight was taking Adagio to the Fall Formal. But now, his secret identity was revealed. His home had been invaded by his mortal enemy. And now, he was stuck in a strange realm and had almost been eaten alive by a bunch of eel aliens.

The teen walked over to the edge of the rock he was on and after spotting another one a ways away, he took a deep breath and several steps back. He then ran forward and leapt off the rock, flying through the air and floating on his own until he reached the other rock.

Once he was in its gravity, it pulled him down onto it and he staggered along the ground. "This place is just too weird," he sighed as he looked up at the red sky. "Hopefully, I can find a way out of here and back home." He wasn't sure how long he had been in this place. One moment, it felt like only an hour. Another moment, it felt like a week. Who knew how long he had been there and what had been happening back on earth whilst he wandered around aimlessly.

Back on earth, the sun began to rise upon a very different looking Canterlot.

Vilgax's ship continued to float above the city, ready to blast anything and anyone who attempted to fly at it for an attack. Meanwhile, down on the ground, the city was a mess. Multiple buildings had been destroyed and cars were either flipped over, cut to ribbons or simply melted into piles of molten crud.

On one of the streets, a family of people were attempting to make their way through it. But as they ran down the street, a trio of drones appeared and flew after them.

The drones began firing nets at the people, one catching a man and his son, another catching a woman and the third catching the last two children. The drones then flew down and picked up the nets, carrying the people inside towards the spaceship.

Inside of said ship, Vilgax sat on his throne and stared out at the deverstation he had brought.

This should be making him feel better, but it wasn't. As long as the Omnitrix remained out of his grasp, he would not be satisfied. But with it now trapped in the Null Void, all he could do was capture as many humans as he could before destroying this miserable excuse for a planet.

"I'll stick as many of these worthless creatures in a zoo back on Vilgaxia as possible, to show the rest of the universe what happens when a planet tries to stand against me." He pressed a button on his throne, causing a screen to appear in front of him and shot one of his robots someplace else. "What of the Null Void Projector?"

"I'm sorry master," the robot replied. "But the damage done to it is beyond our capability to repair. You will need to locate another projector in order to enter the Null Void." Vilgax growled at this, shutting it off.

"Flash Sentry, you will not elude me forever."

At the same time, inside one of the few buildings left standing on its block, Shining Armor and his friends were all hiding.

Shining was currently up on a higher floor, trying to get a signal to Cadance to make sure she and Flurry were safe. But Vilgax was clearly blocking the signal, as he had tried contacting the Plumbers in order to get backup with little success.

He growled as the call refused to go through, so he headed back downstairs. There, he found the rest of his friends all sitting around a trash can they had set alight for warmth. Flash's parents were also there, still coming to terms with the fact their son had been an alien hero and was now trapped who knows where.

Trixie had been the one to tell them everything that had happened since he got the Omnitrix, having been there from the very beginning.

"Still can't get through?" Twilight asked her brother, who nodded as he sat down next to her. "Don't worry, you guys live pretty far away from where Vilgax attacked. Cadance would have known to get Flurry and run."

"I hope you're right," Shining nodded. "But still, not knowing is killing me." He looked over at Flash's parents, knowing they were probably feeling even worse. "I'm sorry, for what happened to him." The looked up at Shining, "Flash is a tough kid. I don't know where he is, but I'm sure he's okay."

"How can you be so sure?" Trail asked.

"Because I've seen him do the impossible countless times. He'll find a way back here. And when he does, we'll be ready to help stop Vilgax."

"How?" Rainbow asked, "Flash couldn't stand up to that guy even with his new aliens. He's just too strong." They wanted to argue, but each of them were starting to think the same thing. Defeating Vilgax appeared impossible.

"Are you kidding?" Adagio stood up and looked around at everyone, "you're really just gonna quit? We can't just give up."

"What do you want us to do?" Sunset asked, "Flash and the Omnitrix were the only things that could stop Vilgax."

"You didn't need Flash and his watch to defeat me and my sisters," Adagio stated. "And you don't need them to stop this guy. You're all super powerful magical girls. You can lift three tons of weight. Turn sugar into grenades and make super realistic illusions."

"And we didn't stand a chance when we fought against Vilgax."

"So you're just going to stand around and hope for a miracle?" Adagio asked, "I'm actually glad Flash isn't here right now." This statement shocked them, "he would be ashamed to see you all just giving up. He never stopped trying, even when the Omnitrix was out of power. I hope he'll be back but if he doesn't, then you have to take over for him and live up to the standards he set for you."

Shining let these words sink in and realised, "she's right." Everyone turned to him, "I can't just sit around and do nothing. I became a plumber to help people. I refuse to let Vilgax win." He moved over to a nearby window and looked out of it, at the ship still floating above the city. Drones were also flying in and out of it. "I'm going to find a way to save the people Vilgax captured." He turned to them, "you guys with me?" They all shared a look and then nodded.

Trail and Misty both looked worried, fearing that a bunch of children would soon have the same fate as their son.

Flash continued to make his way through this insane universe, jumping from one rock to another as he tried to figure out how the heck he was supposed to get home.

After taking a large leap, he managed to float over to a large stretch of land with several rocks that acted as caves. He worried something would come out and attack him, but when nothing did he assumed the rocks were empty.

He frowned and continued to look around, only to see a purple flash form another portal up above him. This portal wasn't close enough to suck him or anything around him up into it, but it did suck several nearby rocks into it before disappearing. "Maybe I can get back home through that?"

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Flash gasped and spun around, now seeing a large eye illuminating one of the caves. "Those rifts only lead to other places in the Null Void. And you never know what part of it you might appear in. It could either be a place like this, or something you couldn't possibly survive."

"Who's there?" Flash asked, as the eye moved towards the exit of the cave. When it did, the rest of its body was revealed. The eye turned out to be on the chest of its owner, its head being eyeless but its shoulders, arms and hands were covered in a bunch of smaller eyes that were all gazing at him. "I don't want any trouble," Flash told him. "I just wanna get out of here."

The alien smirked, "I don't think you'll be going anywhere for a long time."

"Yeah?" Flash smirked, "and who's gonna stop me?" He got his answer when a loud howl filled the air, making him look around and see something leap out of a bunch of spiky rocks. That something was a wolf-like alien, which had a jaw that opened up four ways.

He then heard the crackle of lightning and looked around to see a frankenstein-like alien leap out from beneath the rock they were on, along with a bunch of bandages that flew around before swirling together into a mummy form. Finally, a blue humanoid moth alien flew down and started phasing in and out of existence as it breathed out a cold mist.

They all moved closer, now circling Flash as they stared him down. "Don't make this any harder than it has to be," the eyeball stated. "Just give us the Omnitrix."

Flash's expression shifted to shock, "who do you know about the Omnitrix?"

"Everyone in the galaxy knows about it," the moth wheezed. "And that Vilgax wants it. Imagine how much he'll pay us, when we hand the device over to him. Now, give it up."

"You guys want it?" Flash asked, activating the Omnitrix. "You got it!" He slammed it down and in a flash, he was transformed into Volt-Edge. The alien lizard quickly unleashed a powerful blast of lightning, hitting them all and knocking all but the frankenstein backwards.

The frankenstein shrugged off the lightning before thrusting its fists forward, unleashing a blast of lightning from the conductors strapped to his back. Volt-Edge quickly fired his own lightning blast, the two attacks colliding and exploding as the mummy and wolf shot forward.

The mummy tried to wrap him up, but Volt-Edge quickly used his blades to slash through the bandages as the wolf got in close. Its mouth opened four ways before it unleashed a powerful sonic howl, which slammed into Volt-Edge and knocked him backwards as his eardrums screamed.

He slid backwards past the eyeball and moth aliens, who got up and attacked. The eyeball alien unleashed a bunch of lasers from its many eyes, which Volt-Edge barely managed to avoid by leaping into the air. But the moth flew up and Volt-Edge tried to fry him, only for him to vanish for a moment and causing the lightning to miss.

The next thing Volt-Edge knew, a cold chill ran through him before he felt a pair of hands on his back spikes.

Before he could look around, he was suddenly flung towards the ground and smashed into the rock hard. He groaned as he tried to pick himself up, only for the moth to fly down and breath out a blast of white mist. This mist surrounded Volt-Edge and solidified, forming a block of ice that he was trapped inside.

"There," the moth landed, "that'll keep him fresh until we're ready for him." The others nodded, only for the ice to start cracking. "What?" The next thing he knew, the ice block exploded in a burst of lightning. The ice and electricity shot out and slammed into the aliens, knocking them all back.

Volt-Edge fell to the ground, panting as he did so. He looked up at the five as they recovered, the hero knowing his fight wasn't over yet.

But as the moth looked ready to charge, a new voice spoke up. "Necrofriggian, that's enough!" The voice made the five suddenly look scared, as they all turned towards its source.

Volt-Edge looked over at a nearby floating rock, where a familiar looking alien wearing green robes could be seen. "Gray Matter?" Volt-Edge asked, seeing one of his newly acquired aliens standing there. He looked back at the five, as they all looked terrified.

"My apologies," the moth stepped backwards. "He's all yours, Azmuth." He quickly leapt into the air and flew away, the others escaping as well.

"Don't think you've seen the last of us," the eye guy stated before walking away. "Sleep with one eye open."

"They're scared of this guy?" Volt-Edge asked, looking confused as the alien turned his attention on him. He then glared at the hero before speaking.

"Give me the Omnitrix! No need to struggle!" Volt-Edge glared at him, electrical energy pulsing off of him as he built up power.

"If Vilgax wants it so bad, he should come get it himself. Not send some shrimp!" With that, he exploded off the rock and shot towards the alien like a bolt of lightning. But the older looking Gray Matter didn't at all seem scared, simply holding out his hand as Volt-Edge got close.

The next thing the hero knew, a sudden flash of light filled the void and he was sent rolling along the rock. When he stopped rolling, he realised he wasn't Volt-Edge anymore.

"Wait?" Flash looked himself over, "did he just time me out?"

"This is what defeated Vilgax?" The one called Azmuth asked, "you're just a larvae."

"Larvae?" He growled, "look who's talking you shrivelled up Gray Matter!" As he said that, his watch turned green. "Oh, timed in already." He activated it and quickly transformed, turning into Riot-Horn who let out a mighty roar before charging.

Azmuth didn't seem at all worried and jumped up, avoiding the punch Riot-Horn sent him and leaping towards his chest. Hitting the dial again, he made it flash green before Riot-Horn found himself changing again. This time, he was turned into Molestache and kicked away by Azmuth.

"Augh!" He landed on the rock, holding his head as he picked himself up. "I say, how did you do that?"

"The fact that you can't despite having that device for so long, shows just how inept you truly are." Molestache growled before charging, attempting to wail on Azmuth with his stache fists. But the frog alien easily avoided them all before grabbing the hair, then leapt up and over Molestache only to land behind him and tie the mustache up.

"What?" Molestache tried to free himself, as Azmuth jumped back around and slammed the Omnitrix again.

He quickly found himself being human once again, Flash staggering to the ground as Azmuth leapt up and onto his arm. "I grow tired of these games." He grabbed onto the Omnitrix's dial and gave it a few turns, Flash attempting to stop him only for Azmuth to pull. The next thing Flash knew, the Omnitrix's dial had been pulled out of the watch.

"HEY!" He couldn't believe this. Azmuth leapt away from him, still holding the now detached part of the Omnitrix. "What did you do? Give that back?"

"Why should I?" He asked as he started walking away, "it's my watch. I made it after all."

"What?" Flash could hardly believe it. "You created the Omnitrix?" Azmuth didn't reply, instead jumping over the side of the rock. Flash's eyes went wide as he rushed over to the side, only to see Azmuth down the vertical surface. "Wait! If you created the Omnitrix, why are you here?"

"I came to retrieve the device," he replied. "It's clearly not safe in your hands." Flash glared at him and, though scared, slid himself over the edge and found he could still walk on it. "I created the Omnitrix as a way to help foster peace and understanding throughout the galaxy. To allow species that are very different from one another, to understand each other by walking in one another's skin."

"Really?" Flash asked, "wow."

"Yes. But then Vilgax discovered what it could do and decided it was better to use it as a way to conquer the galaxy. He attacked my lab and attempted to steal the Omnitrix. I could not allow that to happen."

"So you sent the Omnitrix away." Azmuth nodded as he leapt off the edge of the rock and landed on another one.

"Vilgax foolishly believed I would never be parted from my masterpiece, so when I escaped he assumed I had the Omnitrix and gave chase. This allowed the plumbers I had asked to help to escape with the Omnitrix and Access Keys I had given them. By the time he realised the Omnitrix was not in my possession and tracked it down, the device was near your planet."

"So that's how I got it," Flash looked at the now depowered device. "But ever since then, I've used the Omnitrix to help others. I've saved people from disasters and stopped those like Vilgax from using it. Please, I need the Omnitrix. Without it, I don't stand a chance against Vilgax."

"You clearly don't stand a chance with it," Azmuth leapt away again and Flash took a large leap to chase after him. He wouldn't let this be the end.

Back on earth, people continued to be captured as they attempted to escape from the city.

One group of drones were carrying several nets, with one of them holding a pair of familiar individuals. "You can't do this!" Luna screamed, as she and Celestia struggled to try and break through the net. "Isn't there some kind of intergalactic law against this kind of thing?"

Celestia looked over at one of the other nets, which held Derpy, Bulk and Wallflower Blush. Another net held Ringo, Brawly, Vinyl and Octavia. "Please. If not us, then let the children go." But the drones didn't respond and flew into the ship, flying through the corridors that filled it until they reached an area full of square holes leading to cube-like rooms.

The drones threw the nets into these rooms before a flash of light revealed the appearance of a force field, keeping those trapped inside from getting out.

Celestia and Luna got out of the nets and as Celestia helped her students, Luna rushed over to the invisible wall and tried to punch through it. But all that got her was a shock. Looking into the other cells, There she saw many others who were trapped behind the energy walls.

Most of them were people Luna didn't know, but some of them were individuals she recognised. Some more students and their parents, the guy who worked at the hairdressers she liked to go to and even a pizza man she remembered being mad at because he didn't give her any change.

They were all trapped inside these cells, the prisoners of this alien psychopath they had never done anything to.

"Is everyone okay?" Celestia asked, Luna turning towards her cellmates and seeing the teens looking unharmed.

"Yeah," Derpy nodded, "but what are we gonna do?" She looked around, "we're gonna get out of this, right?" They didn't answer, mostly because they had absolutely no idea. "The alien heroes will save us, right?"

"You mean Flash?" Ringo sat on a metal bench, "he vanished last night. Who knows where he is?"

"You think he abandoned us?" Octavia asked, "ran when this monster arrived and revealed his identity?" That question didn't sit right with anyone. Even before this whole alien thing started, they all knew Flash wasn't the kind of person to leave others in danger to save his own skin. But if Flash really was the alien heroes, why wasn't he doing his thing right now?

"Come on Flash," Brawly sighed. "Where are you?" They all hoped that if Flash really was the hero he had claimed to be, he and whoever else could help would arrive soon to save them.

Outside the ship, something had taken to the air from an area Shining and the others had been hiding inside. It was a large jet, made of hard-light energy, that Shining was piloting as the others were riding in seats behind him. The lot made a beeline towards Vilgax's ship, Trixie wearing her Luna Cat costume and touching the ship as she channelled its energy.

Misty and Trail were terrified that the ship was gonna blast them out of the sky. But the others assured them they wouldn't be, as Trixie's illusion caused the entire ship to vanish from the outside. Hopefully, this would be able to fool Vilgax's sensors.

Flash leapt from one rock to another, but had lost sight of Azmuth a while ago. But considering he had been going in a straight line, Flash hoped he would be able to catch up to him at some point.

"Raaaah!" Flash leapt off of one rock and flew through the strangely gravitational air before reaching the next. He panted as he did so, this whole day being an exhausting one. But he didn't let that stop him, as he took another breath and ran towards the edge. "HYAAAH!" He flew through the air and as he did, he noticed something on a rocky in the distance. A metal structure.

He landed and continued to run towards it, seeing the structure was actually some kind of metal ship. It didn't look like any of the spaceships he had seen so far, this one being about the size of a jumbo jet. It was white with bits of green and legs that looked like they belonged to a frog.

Flash managed to get over to the rock it was on and carefully made his way towards it, worried he might accidently set an alarm off or something. But as he drew closer, the Omnitrix beeped. This seemed to cause the ship's airlock to open, allowing Flash inside.

He found there was very little space in the airlock, which was about the size of a standard bathtub. He squeezed in as the door shut, the other door opening up and making him fall to the floor. He found the hallway he was now in was the same size as the airlock, forcing him to crawl on his hands and knees.

"Guess I shouldn't have expected such a small alien to have a human sized ship." As he said that, he came to a door and looked inside. When he did, he found the room didn't have Azmuth inside. What it did have, was a computer that was switched on.

Curious, Flash took a closer look and saw the computer was showing the image of a red and white alien covered with a few spikes. Despite these spikes, it didn't appear particularly impressive. He looked up and saw a title, along with a bunch of other text, but it was all in a language he couldn't understand.

But then, the Omnitrix beeped again and the text began to change. In seconds, it was now written in english.

Specimen sample 0542310: To'Kustar

Flash read the rest of the information and his eyes went wide seeing the height data. He read most of it, skipping a few more words he didn't understand, but was amazed by what he saw.

He then heard a sound coming from down the hall, Flash quickly pulling away from the computer and crawling towards it. The sound was coming from behind another door and as Flash stepped up to it, it slid open and Flash saw Azmuth and the Omnitrix dial.

Said dial had a wire plugged into it, which was also plugged into a large computer Azmuth was sitting at.

"What are you doing?" Flash asked, as he stared at the computer. As he did, he realised he was watching something he had already seen. An image from his point of view as Riot-Horn.

"I tapped into the Omnitrix's memory database," Azmuth told him. "Everything you've seen since putting the Omnitrix on is recorded. And I've been going over it to see what's been happening since you acquired it."

"Everything?" Flash asked, fearing this little frog dude might have seen him doing...private things.

"I skipped passed most of the boring parts. Mainly focusing on the times you transformed, though I had to rewind most times to understand the full situation. I must say, you've used my Omnitrix in some rather interesting ways. But I also noticed you sometimes have an issue looking at the females of your species in the eye." Flash blushed hearing that, "I'd be amazed if you could describe this Cadance woman you know since you seem to spend so much time staring at her-"

"Can we change the subject!?" Flash begged.

"Very well. I'll admit, you've certainly used the Omnitrix in interesting ways. I can see you weren't lying about trying to use it for good, though you have used it selfishly a few times." Flash felt a bit sheepish at this. "But the good certainly outweighs the bad."

"Then you understand I need to Omnitrix to stop Vilgax." Azmuth frowned and pressed a button, causing the screen to show the fight with Vilgax before Flash had been sent here.

"You can't defeat Vilgax. Not as you are. If I let you have the Omnitrix back, you would simply die at his hands and he would have my device."

"You don't know that. I beat him once."

"You did not beat him." Azmuth spun in his chair to stare at him. "You merely escaped him, and even that was by pure luck. You might have done amazing things with the Omnitrix, but you've only scratched the surface of what it's capable of. The Omnitrix is more then just a device. It bonds to the wearers DNA and becomes a part of them. But you still use the Omnitrix like a device. If you had learned how to tap into the Omnitrix's true potential, you wouldn't find yourself limited to one transformation at a time."

Flash remembered how Azmuth had made him change aliens and returned him to human. He also remembered how Vilgax had done the same when they first met. "Then teach me. Teach me how to use the Omnitrix like that."

Azmuth frowned, "that way of using the Omnitrix cannot be taught. Only learned. I'm sorry, but I will not be letting you have the Omnitrix back." He turned away from him and back to the computer. "I will remove the device from you and hide it somewhere Vilgax will never find it. And I am willing to send you to any planet you wish. There are many where you can start a new life."

Flash frowned, "the only planet I'm going to is earth."

"Your planet is probably already gone. And even if it wasn't, it will be."

"Not if I can help it!" Flash cried, "I'll find a way to stop Vilgax with or without the Omnitrix." Azmuth turned to him in shock, "he's been stopped before without the Omnitrix."

"Maybe, but those times weren't exactly easy. You would really be willing to go up against Vilgax, even if I took the Omnitrix away from you?" Flash nodded. "You're either very brave or very foolish."

"I'm both," Flash stated. "That's what makes me a hero." Azmuth actually chuckled at this.

"Very well then. I will give you the chance to prove you can defeat Vilgax. But first, you must pass a very dangerous test. Pass, and the Omnitrix is yours. Fail and I take it away, leaving you to your doom on earth. Are we in agreement?"

Flash smirked, "bring it on." Azmuth smirked before unplugging the dial from the device. He then took out a remote of some kind before pressing it, the pair vanishing in a flash of light and appearing right outside the ship. "Thank you," Flash stood up and cracked his back.

"Don't thank me yet," Azmuth walked away. "Follow me." Flash did and they headed deeper into the Null Void, Flash wondering what this test was meant to be.

Vilgax's cell block had been completely filled up.

The alien warlord was ready to leave this planet and find a way into the Null Void. But before he did, he had one final bit of business left on this planet. "Is it ready?" He asked a robot, who was currently working on a large bullet-shaped device even bigger then Vilgax.

"Yes master," the robot nodded. "The explosive is ready and will activate as soon as you give it the command."

"Good," Vilgax nodded, "then let us finally be rid of this planet." He turned to walk away but as he did, an alarm suddenly sounded and Vilgax growled. "Now what?" One of the robots ran up to a computer.

"Energy weapons have just collided with the outside of the hull. Sensors indicate it is of a tech level far beyond what this planet should have."

Vilgax brought up a screen and showed footage from outside the ship, attempting to locate the weapon that had attacked. But he couldn't see anything. At least until a bunch of lasers flew out of nowhere and collided with it. "What?" He activated the external sensors, but he wasn't picking up any energy signatures. "Cloaked? How?"

"Nice shot," Twilight told her brother.

Shining's hard-light jet continued to fly around, launching lasers at the same spot. "Get ready. Vilgax is probably gonna send out some drones or something to fight us!" He swung around again and fired at the same spot, doing more and more damage.

As he did, several drones flew out of the ship and headed towards them. "I got them!" Twilight focused her magic and managed to grab two of the machines, then smashed them together. Several drones attempted to fire at them, but Rarity quickly put up a shield that blocked the lasers and Twilight made the drones turn towards one another and fire at each other.

Trixie panted, "I don't think I can keep us invisible much longer." More drones also appeared, as Shining swerved towards the ship.

"Increasing power to maximum!" He cried, his Multi-Striker humming as he pulled the trigger. The jet unleashed an extra powerful laser, which hit the damaged metal and finally broke through it. "Yes!" He shot towards the hole as Trixie's illusion finally failed.

At that moment, a drone suddenly appeared and fired at them. Rarity tried to put up a shield, the the laser passed it before it formed and struck the back of the jet. "We're hit!" Pinkie cried, Fluttershy screaming as Shining tried to control the vehicle.

Luckily, he was able to get them into the hole seconds before the hard-light jet vanished and they all went flying down the hallway. Shining and Trixie managed to roll onto their feet, as the drone flew into the ship and fire at them. Trixie deflected the blast away, Shining quickly forming a blaster and firing.

The drone blew up and hit the ground, but an alarm sounded as soon as they did. "I think they know we're here," Adagio groaned as they all got up.

"Then let's not stick around," Applejack suggested. Shining activated his helmet and managed to find the life signs on the ship. One was Vilgax, whilst the other was a giant group that registered as human.

"This way!" He rushed down the hall, the others following as Shining activated a bunch of blasters. He passed one to Sunset, Fluttershy, Adagio, Misty and Trail. The oldest pair of the group felt a little unsure about holding a weapon, but they quickly got over it when some drones appeared with saw blade arms.

Trail quickly fired and blasted the saw off its arm, whilst Applejack ran forward and leapt into the air. Before the drone could react, she kicked her foot right through it and it was dead. "Hurry!" Shining cried, the lot of them making their way through the ship.

It was a long trip, filled with many encounters with Vilgax's drones. But Trixie had recovered enough to make some illusions, allowing them to become invisible and get close enough to destroy the robots. And eventually, they reached the room where the captured humans were.

"Coming through!" Applejack kicked her way through the door, sending it flying all the way to the opposite wall. This caught the attention of those inside, who looked out and saw eleven of them stepping through.

"Twilight!" Celestia cried, relieved but shocked to see her student here.

"It's the Plumber!" A teen cried.

"And Lady Masquerade!" Another cheered, "we're saved!" They began to look over the room as try to figure out how to undo the locks on the forcefields. "We are saved, right?"

"We're working on it," Sunset stated. Rarity created a diamond and placed it into the forcefield. She hoped the gem could pass through and allow her to make doorways. But it didn't work.

Twilight found a computer screen, but it was written in an alien language she couldn't understand. "If I knew what this all said, I might be able to hack into it."

"Here," Shining pressed his badge and it unleashed a light that hit the computer. "Universal translator." The computer beeped several times before the symbols changed to english. Twilight smiled and started typing away, as the others assured them they would be out soon.

"Where's Flash?" Ringo asked when the Rainbooms reached their cell. "We figured he would be here trying to save us."

"He would be," Rainbow told him. "But Vilgax..."

"Flash is gone," Fluttershy looked ready to start crying. The others all gasped, realising what she was talking about. Those that knew Flash could hardly believe it.

"I think I'm in," Twilight stated from the computer.

"You got into the cell's controls?" Trixie asked.

"I got into everything!" Twilight cheered, as the cell's force fields suddenly vanished. Everyone cheered as they got out of their prisons. "Everyone hold on!"

"Why?" Pinkie asked, only to suddenly got flying when the ship flew downwards at high speed.

"Twilight!" Sunset cried, "is this you?" Twilight nodded as the ship levelled out, everyone able to pick themselves up.

"Sorry. I got control of the attitude systems. I had them make the ship head down to the ground. Once we land, I've programmed them to shut down. That should hopefully give us enough time to escape." Everyone liked the sound of that, Applejack motioning for everyone to follow them.

They all made their way out of the prison and headed back the way they came, hoping to find the hole they had entered through. They expected to run into some more robots, but the halls were strangely empty.

However, they turned a corner and came face to face with something even more terrifying. "Vilgax," Shining growled as the squid alien glared at them.

"So...you thought you could free my prey?" He slowly stepped towards them, "you humans are truly a foolish species."

Shining pointed his blaster at him, "we're taking these people out of here. We won't let you stop us." Vilgax stopped and stared at him, then laughed. This was not the reaction any of them had been expecting.

"You humans don't realise how idiotic you're being. If you escape this ship, you will only doom yourself."

"What?" Twilight asked.

"At this very moment, my robotic minions are preparing to place a bomb down on your planet. A bomb so powerful, it will wipe this entire continent of the face of your planet." Their eyes went wide at the sound of this. "And the shockwaves will likely rip the rest of the planet to pieces, completely exterminating all life on it."

Fear flew through the hearts of everyone there. "You would destroy this planet, just because we beat you?" Adagio asked.

"This planet is a stain on my reputation. Every time I have come here, I have been met with defeat. There is only one way to reclaim the fear I have throughout the universe and set an example to all those that would dare oppose me."

"You're sick," Shining growled. "Twilight, you've gotta get off this ship and find that bomb. Do whatever you need to in order to deactivate it." Twilight nodded, as she and many others in the group ran down another hallway. The only one that didn't leave, were Shining, Trixie, Applejack and Rainbow Dash. "Let's take this guy down. For Flash!"

"FOR FLASH!" They all charged forward, Vilgax charging at them as well.

Back in the Null Void, Flash and Azmuth made their way through the alien world.

They leapt from one rock to another, Flash surprised they weren't being attacked by anything. But given how scared those other aliens had been of Azmuth, maybe the guy had an aura to him that made things wanna keep their distance.

They finally reached their intended destination, which was a giant rock shaped like a pipe that had purple veins running along it. "This is my test?" He asked, with Azmuth nodding as he turned towards the teen.

"Kneel." Flash did so, "stick out your arm." Again, Flash did so and Azmuth placed the Omnitrix dial into the device. "I'm reactivating the Omnitrix and setting a timer."

"So it is a watch," Flash smirked.

Azmuth said nothing as the device powered up and glowed orange. As it did, the watch dial showed a symbol Flash didn't know but assumed was a number. "Until the time runs out, the Omnitrix will return you back to normal every time you take damage. But you'll also be able to transform as soon as you're human again."

"Wow, really?" Azmuth stepped into the tube, turning back to Flash as he did so.

"Your trial is a simple one." He patted the ground and a lump of rock broke off with him atop of it. "Reach me before the timer on the Omnitrix ends, and you'll have proven yourself worthy. Fail, and the Omnitrix will power down and deactivate."

"That's it?" Flash asked, Azmuth smirking.

"That's it. See, simple."

"Yeah," Flash looked around the tunnel, "it's simple. But is it easy?" He slowly began to walk forward, not wanting to transform into the wrong thing if he needed a particular alien. At first, everything seemed fine. It appeared to be just a normal rock tube. But then, the tube began to vibrate. "Huh?"

Azmuth smirked as the first test appeared, a spike of rock exploding out of the ground and almost stabbing Flash.

"WOW!" He leapt back, as more spikes appeared out of the inside of the tunnel. He began dancing around, keeping himself from getting stabbed as he was forced back out of the tunnel. When he finally reached the end, the rocks stopped attacking and retracted back into the tunnel. The place looked exactly the same. "Okay, definitely not easy."

"Come on kid," Azmuth crossed his arms. "How do you expect to beat Vilgax, when you can't even get through a tunnel." Flash frowned and activated the Omnitrix, slapping it down and transforming into Vapaw.

The alien lion leapt forward, the rocks sticking out of the ground only to be slashed apart by him. Vapaw smirked as he managed to get passed them. "See, I'm not gonna let a bunch of puny rocks stop me from saving the world."

Azmuth rolled his eyes, as he pulled a tea kettle out of nowhere. "You should focus on saving yourself first." As he said that, the rocks Vapaw cut apart melted and morphed into a single liquid, which flew into the air and formed a sphere.

"Huh?" Vapaw looked up, as the sphere formed a barrel that pointed at him before lighting up. "Lasers? No fair!" He leapt away, barely managing to avoid the lasers. But then, a rock shot out of the ground and Vapaw ran into it. "Augh!" He staggered back, as the laser fired and blasted him backwards.

As he hit the end of the tunnel, he morphed back to human. "Ow." He knew he didn't have time to wallow in pain. As such, he rolled onto his back and ran forward, transforming into Diamondhead as he did so. He quickly started firing crystals at the orb, cutting through it. But all this did was make it divide into a bunch of smaller orbs that started firing at him.

Diamondhead quickly made a bunch of shields, protecting himself as he got further into the tunnel. But before he could think he was gonna make it, stone pillars shot out of the wall on either side of him.

"Gyah!" He was crushed between them, transforming back when they retracted. He fell to the ground as they flew forward again, trying to crush him again. But he quickly transformed into Riot-Horn and used his strength to stop them. But the lasers fired into his back and he cried out.

The impact knocked him staggering forward as he transformed back to human, a spike shooting up and grabbing him by his jacket's hood. "WOW!" He suddenly found himself pulled backwards towards the entrance of the tunnel, the teen quickly transforming into Arctiguana to escape.

Azmuth smirked as he poured himself a drink. "I'll admit, you are quite adaptable." He sipped his tea as Arctiguana attempted to freeze the rocks in place. "Those aliens all have vastly different powers and body types, yet you're able to use them without much thought in the blink of an eye." The rocks broke through the ice and slammed into him, knocking him backwards as he crashed into the ground and returned to human form.

"Of course!" Flash groaned as he pushed himself back to his feet.. "These aliens aren't just suits I slip into. They're me and I'm them. Even if it takes me a while to learn how to use them properly, once I'm used to them they're just another part of me I can use. That's all there is too it."

"And yet you are unable to use them whenever your want or need," Azmuth sipped his cup as Flash looked around. "Many of your fights would have been over in seconds, if you had used a particular alien, But because the Omnitrix is still a prototype, it sometimes gets the codon stream signals mixed up. And you're stuck as the alien it gave you, unable to do anything except try to use what it gave you to the best of its advantages."

Flash frowned, as he glared at the tube. No matter what, he would find a way through here.

Back on earth, Vilgax's ship had finally landed upon the ground.

it slammed into the street and ground along it, crushing several buildings at it did so. The suddenly shaking had knocked everyone off balance and sent many of them staggering down the hallway. "We're gonna die!" Someone screamed, getting into the fetal position.

"Not if I can help it!" Sunset grabbed him and pulled him back to his feet, as the large group of people made their way through the halls. They eventually came to a door and Twilight slammed the button to open the door and as it slid into the wall, they found themselves in a large room with very little light.

"What is this place?" Derpy asked, but they got their answer when the lights came on.

When it did, they were greeted to the sight of many robots, hanging from the ceiling and in pieces. They quickly realised they must be in Vilgax's robot factory. And as they moved through the room, they spotted something else. Something that looked a lot like a bomb.

Three robots were working on the device, one of them shutting a panel on the side as it lit up. "Stop that thing!" Sunset yelled, as the humanoid robots turned to them.

Each of them pressed several buttons, causing the other robots around them to all activate. Those that were whole fell down from the ceiling, The machines quickly turned on the humans, many of them screaming as the Rainbooms worked to protect them.

As they did, several drones flew down and grabbed the bomb in their mechanical arms. Then, an opening appeared in the back of the room that led outside. Twilight quickly realised this was where the robots and drones were deployed from, which meant it was there way out.

"Everyone, quick, head for the door!" The robots attacked, but Rarity brought up a shield to protect as many as possible. Pinkie then threw the last of her sprinkles in an arch around the robots. The explosion that followed knocked them all staggering back, allowing the humans to make for the exit.

The drones flew out of the ship with the bomb, attempting to fly far away to keep it safe for an explosion. But before they could, Twilight grabbed many of them in her magic. She pulled them away and the other drones had trouble carrying the bomb, managing to only get a few meters away from the ship before they were blasted by the humans still carrying the weapons Shining had given them.

Now free from the ship, the people ran for their lives into the alleyways and other locations hoping to get to safety. But if that bomb went off, there would be no safe place.

Adagio, Flash's parents and the remaining Rainbooms ran over to the bomb, hoping to stop it. But as they did, an explosion occurred on a higher area of the ship.

They looked up and saw Shining and Applejack, both of them falling towards the ground. "NO!" Twilight screamed, using her magic to grab the pair and slow them down. As she did, Rarity created some gem to shield them so they didn't fall if Twilight lost them.

The pair were lowered to the ground and as they were, someone else leapt out of the ship and came crashing down upon the ground. Vilgax.

The alien warlord held onto Rainbow and Trixie, clutching them by the shirts. He then threw the pair away as he focused on the others. "Do you see how hopeless it is now?" He asked, as Shining groaned.

"It's...not hopeless!" He held onto his blaster and started firing it, but Vilgax laughed as the lasers bounced off his body. At that moment, something flew out of the ship. Drones.

The robots quickly fired a bunch of ropes at them, managing to tie up Rainbow and Trixie before they could pick themselves up. Fluttershy, Sunset and Adagio were next, Misty and Trail firing their blasters at them but getting tied up as well. Rarity shielded herself against a few of them, but eventually fell as well.

Twilight, Applejack and Shining continued to attack, Twilight trying to grab the ropes and throw them at Vilgax. But the warlord's claws tore through them, as Shining swung his sword at him only for it to be deflected. Applejack threw a punch that he dodged, allowing a drone to tie her up.

Now all that were left were the siblings, both exhausted and clearly outmatch. They needed to find a way to turn the tables, but how?

Back in the Null Void, Flash had turned into the alien gorilla known as Bloxx.

He tried to swing from one spike to another, whilst trying to use his segmented body to avoid the lasers and rocks. And he was doing quite well, managing to get a good way into the tunnel. But then, a large ring began to fill the tunnel and expand inwards.

Bloxx's eyes went wide as he tried to leap for the centre, but the hole grew to small and he ended up slamming into it as the wall completely sealed. Then, the wall shot through the tunnel and as Flash returned to human, it stopped and threw him all the way back to the entrance.

"AUGH!" He cried, rolling to a stop as the wall retracted. Flash let out a groan as he picked himself up, looking the tunnel over. "None of my aliens can get me through this thing. It's got too many ways to stop me. One alien can get through one area, but the next stops it cold." It was then that he realised what he needed to do, Azmuth's words echoing in his head. "You're trying to make me learn how to switch between forms. But I can't."

"Not with that attitude," Azmuth stated. "If you can't master this ability, Vilgax will eat you alive. You claim the aliens you become are a part of you, but if so you should be able to become any of them whenever you wish. It's not a matter of thinking, but doing. You must truly become one with the Omnitrix."

"I don't understand!" Flash cried, only for his arm to suddenly be grasped by something.

"Then perhaps, you should let us give it a try." Flash cried out as his arm was hoisted into the air, as the humanoid moth suddenly appeared and held his arm tight.

"You," he growled before turning to Azmuth. "Hey, aren't you gonna help me. They're trying to take the Omnitrix."

Azmuth sipped his tea, "aren't you supposed to be the hero? You'd better hurry, cause your time's running out." Flash began to struggle against the mothman, kicking at him as he tried to pull himself free.

"Let me go you big chilly brute!"

The moth laughed, "maybe you'll like my Opticoid friend instead!" He threw Flash away from the tunnel, the gravity making him fly towards a rock where the eyeball alien was waiting.

"WOW!" Flash transformed into Firefly, using his fire to blast himself away from the alien.

"Hey!" He dodged the flames coming his way and fired a laser, but Firefly managed to avoid it and shoot back toward the tunnel. As he did, the moth appeared and threw a punch at him. Firefly spun to avoid it and landed on the tunnel, causing spikes to appear out and attack him.

He began flying around, avoiding the ice and lasers coming from the pair that were trying to kill him. But whilst they weren't able to hit him, a rock fly out and smashed into him. "Augh!" He reverted back to human and hit the ground, as Azmuth finished his drink.

"You're wasting your time. And you don't have much of it left."

Flash groaned as he pushed himself back up, the opticoid and necrofriggian rushing forward. "He's right, I've got no time for this." He slammed the dial down and became Lindwhirl, "I've got a world to save!" He leapt forward and rolled at the pair, the moth unleashing an ice blast that made a wall Lindwhirl broke through. But then the opticoid fired a laser that made the ground besides him explode.

Lindwhirl was sent flying into the air, a spike shooting out at him that he grabbed and swung around. He attempted to fly past the pair and through the tunnel, the moth phasing through the floor.

He rolled up and smashed his way through several spikes, but then the necrofriggian appeared in front of him and created another ice wall. He broke through it, but this slowed him down enough for a rock pillar to slam into him and knock him back. "Augh!" He turned back to human and hit the ground, as the ice moth flew towards him.

"Enough games. Time to reap my reward." But as he said that, a broken piece of rock suddenly moved towards the end of the tunnel.

It passed Flash, catching his attention, then towards the opticoid. "What are you looking at?" He asked, only to then feel the pull. "Huh?" He looked around, only to see the swirling purple vortex that was beginning to form at the entrance of the rock. "Uh oh." He tried to run, but the pull was too strong.

Flash and the eyeball were sent flying backwards, Flash managing to grab onto one of the vines whilst the other guy was sucked all the way to the edge. The force of the vortex was so strong, he didn't have a chance of holding on long enough to outride.

"Well," the moth stated, "I'm out of here." He phased through the floor and flew off.

"Hey!" Eye-man stated, "I thought we were in this together?"

"That's no longer my concern." With that, he was gone and Flash could only pull himself along. But each try only earned him a few inches.

"I...have to make it! For Shining. For Trixie. Adagio. Twilight. EVERYONE!" But the force of the portal was just too strong and he didn't know which of his aliens could overpower it. Then, he heard the opticoid scream.

"Help me!" He looked back and saw he was seconds away from losing his grip. "Please. You gotta save me!"

Flash groaned, "how can I save him when I can't even pass this dumb test!?" He looked through the tunnel, at all the obstacles he had to overcome. Each one had an alien he knew could overcome it, but he still couldn't figure out how he was supposed to make the Omnitrix change him. "What am I missing...THINK!" But as he said that, he heard the alien behind him scream.

Looking back, he saw him falling towards the portal.

"NO!" Flash let go and jumped forward, activating the watch and transforming without a thought. In a second, he was replaced by Goop and the slime alien quickly grabbed hold of the opticoid. "Gotcha!" He stated, as his slime consumed everything but his head.

"We're still heading for the portal though."

"Are we?" Goop chuckled as his UFO kicked up the gravity, the force overpowering the portal's pull. The next thing the eye-dude knew, he was being pulled away from the portal and back towards the tunnel. But that didn't help Goop, who doubted even this alien could overcome this test.

However, he then realised something. He had just saved this guy without any effort. He hadn't thought, but trusted his instincts and the Omnitrix to. 'Wait? Was that what Azmuth was talking about before?' He drew closer to the tunnel and as he did, he cleared his mind and thought about all the aliens he could become. Then he stopped thinking and just felt, as one alien suddenly appeared in his mind. "I can do this!"

"What?" Eye-person asked, as they reached the tunnel. The next thing he knew, Goop threw him out of his body and made him hit the ground.

"Arctiguana!" He slammed the Omnitrix and in a flash, he was suddenly transformed into the alien lizard.

The ice alien launched his freeze ray, hitting the guy and trapping him onto the rocks. "Hey!" Arctiguana then leapt forward, as the rocks stuck out and tried to skew him. But he hit the Omnitrix.

"Kagenobi!" In a flash, he switched aliens again. This time, he was the shadow ninja that melted into the ground and flew through it before the lasers reached him. "Diamondhead!" The crystal alien appeared and blocked the lasers has he made his way through, only for the rocks to fly out and try to crush him. "Riot-Horn!" He morphed into the alien rhino and punched his way through the rocks without injury, with more rock spikes attacking him. "Squidstrictor!" The alien squid began swinging from spike to spike, contorting his body as he got closer to the tunnel's exit.

"Not bad," Azmuth nodded as Squidstrictor fell to the ground.

"XLR8!" In a flash, the alien raptor hit the ground and sped forward. He managed to outrun the remaining attacks. But as the end came up, the rock ring appeared the filled the tunnel up again. XLR8 leapt straight for the centre, "Molestache!" The alien mole replaced him and managed to squeeze through the hole, seconds before it slammed shut. "I'm gonna make it." But as he said that, the timer on the watch hit a number and stayed like that.

Inches from the exit, Molestache was consumed by light and reverted back to Flash.

The teen fell to the ground. "No, no, no, no, no!" He looked at the Omnitrix, trying to power it up with no result. "I WAS SO CLOSE!" He slammed his fists into the ground, as Azmuth leapt down and walked towards him. "I can't believe I lost. Everyone was counting on me and I...I..."

"Saved him." Flash looked up at Azmuth, as he stared at the boy. "Had you not tried to help that individual, you might have made it. But you chose to save him, even though he tried to kill you, take the Omnitrix and threatened the time you had to save your planet."

"Of course I did," Flash stated. "Even if he's a bad guy, nobody deserves that. Letting someone else get hurt, even if it meant I saved more people, isn't something I can do."

"That way of thinking isn't one that's shared by a lot of beings in this universe."

"Doesn't matter," Flash sighed. "I failed and now Vilgax will destroy my world."

"Oh quit the theatrics, kid." Azmuth started fiddling with the Omnitrix, "you've earned yourself a bit more time."

"What?" Flash's eyes went wide, "why?"

"Call me surprised that altruism still exists in this galaxy." Flash had no idea what that meant, but knew it meant he could use the Omnitrix again. "I'm going to trust you with the Omnitrix. Now that you've learned to shift between the forms, you might actually stand a chance against Vilgax."

"I don't really know how I did that," Flash told him. "I just knew I needed an alien and the next thing I knew, I was it."

"Yes. The Omnitrix responded to your heart and allowed you to synchronise with it on a deeper level. You're still a long way from mastering it, but it's starting to look possible." Flash smirked, "but be careful. Each switch will drain the Omnitrix of energy. Use it too much and you'll find you're transformations will only last a minute or so."

"Got it," Flash nodded before looking around. "Now all I need to do is find a way out of this place."

"I can do that," he took out the remote and pressed a few buttons on it. "Your friend, Shining, has a plumber badge doesn't he?" Flash nodded, "I can open a portal to earth and have it lock onto a plumber badge's location. Since your friend is the only Plumber there, you'll be sent straight to his location."

Flash smiled, unable to believe this. "Thank you. What...what can I do to repay you?"

"Keep the universe safe from Vilgax," Azmuth stated. "Stopping his reign of terror is the most important thing that must happen. And to do that, I have one final gift for you." He took something out of his cloak and held it up, Flash's eyes going wide at the sight of it.

Back on earth, Shining and Twilight had managed stay free of the robot's ropes. But the pair were completely exhausted.

Vilgax, meanwhile, was as fresh as a daisy. The others were still trapped, unable to even budge. "Come on guys!" Rainbow cried, "you can beat him." She hoped she was right, but it wasn't looking like it.

Several drones fired their lasers at the pair, who were forced to take evasive maneuvers to escape. As they did, Vilgax charged and slammed his fist into the ground. This sent out a shockwave that knocked the pair flying and forced everyone to try and protect themselves from flying debris.

One of the drones finally managed to hit Twilight, the ropes wrapping around her body and completely trapping her. "Twilight!" Shining cried, then turned to charge at VIlgax. He roared as he fired at the warlord, but the blasts didn't even phase him.

"Pathetic!" Vilgax stated before rushing forward and punching Shining before the plumber could escape. Shining cried out as he was knocked backwards, as a drone fired a piece of rope. It hit him before he landed and wrapped around his body. He could only lay there as Vilgax stepped over to him, placing his foot on the man's waist. "You really thought you could defeat me?" He pushed down on the badge and it broke, Shining crying out at the pressure as his suit vanished.

"Shining!" Twilight cried, only for the ship to begin to take off. Seems they had undone her hacking and now, the ship was ready to leave the planet.

"Now, to end this miserable world." The drones began to fly down and grab the tied up humans, dragging them along the ground as Vilgax moved over to the bomb. "Activate." The device beeped several times before switching on, the alien countdown beginning.

As the defeated heroes were being dragged away, they couldn't believe this was how it ended. Their world destroyed by an alien psychopath and them thrown in an alien zoo. It seemed nothing could save them now.

But then, suddenly, a blast of purple light filled the street and everyone turned to see a portal appear in front of them.

And from that portal, someone leapt out. Someone many of them believed they would never see again. "FLASH!" Shining cheered, as the alien hero landed on the ground before the portal he came from vanished.

Flash quickly looked around and assessed the situation, activating the Omnitrix and transforming. In a flash, XLR8 appeared the shot down the street. "Sentry!" Vilgax roared, attempting to swat the alien only for XLR8 to slid under his arms.

He laughed as he got behind Vilgax and shot towards the others, spinning around them to undo their bindings and freeing them. Once they were all free, he slid to a stop and hit the Omnitrix. In a flash, and much to his friend's shock, Volt-Edge replaced the raptor.

"Flash?" Twilight was shocked, "how did you-" She didn't get to finish, as several drones flew down to attack. But as they did, Volt-Edge charged himself up.

"Rarity!" The girl didn't need any other instruction, putting up shields that protected them and Volt-Edge unleashed a powerful discharge of lightning. The electricity surged through the street, Vilgax roaring as he felt himself getting zapped.

He was able to withstand it, but his drones were quickly short circuited. One by one, the machines exploded and fell to the ground in a heap.

When the surge stopped, Volt-Edge turned towards Vilgax. The smoking alien growled. "You think you can win? I will destroy you, then I will destroy your planet!"

Volt-Edge glared at him, "that's what makes me mad." He suddenly vanished in a flash of light, Vilgax looking around before seeing a blue blur flying towards him. "Bad enough you wanna ruin my day!" He reached Vilgax and morphed into Riot-Horn, "but now you wanna wreck everyone else's!" He threw a super-speed punch into Vilgax's face, knocking him backwards as Flash transformed into Squidstrictor and grabbed his arm. He pulled him back towards him, then switched to Firefly in order to roast him.

He then changed to Diamondhead, slashing at Vilgax, before switching to Bushwhacker and slamming a wooden hammer into his face. All the while, his friends were watching in utter shock. "How is he doing that?" Trixie asked, everyone else unable to answer.

Flash changed into Arctiguana, leaping into the air and blasting Vilgax with ice. Once the alien was frozen solid, he landed and hit the Omnitrix to transform back to normal. Flash panted, really tired after everything he had gone through. But he knew the fight wasn't over yet.

The ice quickly cracked before shattering off of Vilgax, who roared in anger as he had had enough. "Enough of this. You know you can't defeat me. Even if you can suddenly transform into any alien, it must use up a lot of power. You can't stop me before the Omnitrix runs out of power."

He expected Flash to look worried, angry or annoyed. But instead, Flash just smirked. "Guess it's a good thing I have an ace in the hole." He stood up straight and took something out that Vilgax and the others instantly recognised.

"An Omnitrix Access Key. But how?"

"A gift from a new friend." Flash slotted the key into the device and as he did, he accessed the Omnitrix's DNA files. "Unlocking sample Zero, five four. Twenty-three...TEN!" Something about that number gave Vilgax a sense of dread, like Flash knew what transformation he had just unlocked.

And sure enough, when Flash slapped it down the green light it emitted was so strong, it blinded everyone.

When the light faded, the sun was suddenly blotted out. And when they looked up, they saw the alien Flash had turned into. "Wow," Rainbow whispered, "he got way big." Sure enough, Flash was now a giant red and white alien, who was over a hundred feet tall with large red fin blades on its elbows and the top of its head. The Omnitrix was on its chest and just by looking at the alien, everyone knew it was probably one of the most powerful creatures in the universe.

Flash looked himself over and then looked down at the mouse-sized people he called his friends. "Oh yeah! This is awesome!" As he said that, several drones flew at him along with several robots. But Flash wasn't worried.

He swatted the drones out of the sky with a single swing of his arm, the robots following swiftly by being crushed under Flash's enormous feet. Then, he heard a sound coming from behind and spun around to see Vilgax's ship moving closer. And as it did, the weapons began to power up.

Flash smirked before taking a deep breath, then brought his arms together to form a cross. As the lasers fired, a sphere of energy formed in front of Flash that exploded into a beam. It shot forward and connected with the ship's attack, the impact creating a shockwave that shattered several windows.

The two lasers pushed against one another, but then Flash's attack began to overpower the ship's. It pushed the attack back towards the vessel and eventually, the energy collided with the ship.

Vilgax's eyes went wide at the side of his warship being ripped apart, the laser causing the whole thing to explode into millions of pieces. "Impossible." Flash then turned towards him and smirked, the alien slowly leaning down and reaching out a hand. Vilgax tried to run, but couldn't escape from the giant hand. Everyone watched as Flash lifted Vilgax up and was soon face to face with him. "Unhand me! Or suffer the consequences!"

Flash smirked, "such big talk from such a puny guy!" VIlgax finally managed to pull an arm free and stabbed his claws into Flash's hand, making him roar in pain and anger. "That's it! Time for you to get out of here!"

"FLASH!" He stopped and looked down, seeing Twilight pointing at a strange device. "He's set off a bomb! If it blows, it'll destroy the entire planet.

Flash's eyes went wide before he glared at Vilgax, "disarm it!"

"Never!" Vilgax growled, "this planet will pay for the humiliations it has brought against me. If I cannot have the Omnitrix, you cannot have a planet to protect." Flash glared, wanting desperately to squish him like a grape. But then he had another idea.

"Oh, I don't think so." He turned to Twilight, "get me some strong stripes of metal." Twilight looked confused, but did so. She started pulling bits of metal away from the destroyed robots, as Flash picked up the bomb.

"What are you doing?" Vilgax asked, only for Flash to pin him against the bomb as Twilight brought the metal over to him. Flash then pushed the metal against Vilgax, bending it all the way so it wrapped around the bomb and trapped Vilgax to it. "Let me go!"

"Gladly!" Flash smirked, as he held his captive like a baseball and got into a pitchers stance. "Everyone, you'd better cover your ears." They didn't argue and covered them, Rarity putting up another shield as Flash threw his arms around before pelting Vilgax and his explosive into the air.

The force that he threw them at created a sonic boom, Vilgax screaming as he was sent flying into the sky with enough speed to reach escape velocity. He could barely handle the enormous G force that assaulted his body, until he finally left the earth's atmosphere.

"SENTRY!" He roared, as he shot through space like a comet with nothing stopping him from moving. As he did, the bomb continued to count down. And when it was a few thousand miles past the moon, the device finally blew and Vilgax was consumed by a huge explosion.

The explosion had been so far away, only Flash could see it with his alien's incredible eyesight. The explosion was big, but not as big as it would have been had it happened in the planet's atmosphere.

Once the explosion completely vanished, Flash sighed before reaching up and touching the Omnitrix. A burst of light reverted him back to human, the teen falling on his butt due to how exhausted he was. The Omnitrix was in the red and with everything he had done with it that day, he wouldn't be surprised if it stayed red for hours.

"FLASH!" He looked around and saw his parents and friends running towards him.

He pushed himself to his feet, but was tackled back to the ground by his mother. "Do you have any idea how worried we were!?" She cried, holding him tightly. "We thought we'd never see you again." Flash frowned, hugging them both back.

"I'm sorry." The others arrived and crowded around him, amazed that Flash was actually back and had defeated Vilgax so easily.

"How did you change like that?" Sunset asked, "you were so many different aliens it was almost hard to keep track." Flash smirked, knowing he had a lot of explaining to do. However, before he could start, he heard movement and looked around to see people coming out of nearby alleyways.

More people were also appearing at the windows of buildings that had luckily survived Vilgax's attack, many of them with phones that had recorded the whole event. Flash knew they had seen everything and that meant one thing. His secret was well a truly out.

Everything had changed.

Author's Note

And thus, the second season of the story comes to an end. Hope you all enjoyed it and look forward to season 3. But first, we need to visit the homeworlds of some of our new alien friends. See you then.

Behind the Alien: Lindwhirl

Good evening and welcome back, explorers and omni-planetary travellers. Thank you for returning to take yet another tour of our ever expanding universe, where every planet holds its own secrets and discoveries.

The first planet on our tour is the homeworld of one of Flash's new aliens. The powerful and ferocious Lindwhirl.

The animal lovers on our tour are sure to be in for a treat, as this world is brimming with multiple species of different animals. Just be sure not to try and pet any of the wild life. Even the cutest beasts on this planet will be happy to take a finger if they get the chance.

The scene opens up on a planet that appears similar to earth, having many different biomes on its many continents. Around the planet was a ring of rocks and other space junk spiralling around the planet.

Chimenic. The only planet in its solar system to contain life, it is a world very similar to your planet earth. Though six point three percent smaller then your planet, the two are basically the same in every other way. And much like earth, an abundance of life has come to be here on Chimenic.

The scene zooms in on the planet, which quickly changed to show many different biomes with many different creatures within it. Strangely, these creatures appeared to be combinations of earth animals. There were spiders with bird wings, sharks that ran upon big cats feet and snakes with scorpion tails and bull horns. Pick any two or three animals on earth and this planet had a mix of them.

Despite the large number of creatures that call this place home, only three have obtained the level of intelligence required to be used in the Omnitrix. Each of these creatures occupy a different area of the planet, so none of them ever interact in a negative way.

The scene changes to show a large rocky area, full of mountains and other large rocks that look like they went on for miles.

Welcome to one of the many rock lands of Chimenic, which are scattered all across the planet. The largest of these being roughly the size of the country you call India. Large mountains cover the lands, with boulder fields located between them. Many different creatures live in this area, including the mighty lindracus.

Name: Lindracus
Alien Type: Intelligent Beast
Intelligence: 2/20
Abilities: Claws, fangs, curling into a ball and spinning at high speed
Form: Chimera-like body made of multiple animals. Head of a wolf with bat ears and long fangs sticking out of mouth, with horns on its head. Body and arms of a bear, with the tail of a snake for its lower half and spikes running down its body.

The scene zooms in on one of the boulder fields, where a bunch of lindracus are rolling around crushing anything in sight. When one rolls up to a large rock, it doesn't stop and simply smashes through it without any issue. The pieces of this rock go flying in every directions and even hit some of the other lindracus, but they simply bounce off the beasts without causing a scratch.

lindracus. A rather wild creature, it would appear its lack of legs would cause this species to have a tough time moving and surviving. But this is not the case, due to the interesting method of travel these aliens have developed. By biting upon their tail tips, they simply roll along the grounds.

lindracus can reach incredibly high speeds, not needing to worry about hurting themselves thanks to their incredibly tough hides. It is so strong, that only a blade made of mostly taydenite can cut through it. With this hide and their almost iron-like skeleton structure, lindracus have no natural predators and will almost never sustain a fatal injury.

With their strong hides, they can roll at high speeds without needing to worry about getting hurt. Though they don't usually care where they roll too, their strong sense of smell and hearing allows them to detect oncoming obstacles. And any obstacle they do come across that isn't smashed upon the first hit, will eventually succumb to the relentless grinding of their steel fur and spiked spines. As such, they can run as wild as they like without needing to worry about injuring themselves. Everything around them, however...

The scene changes to show a bunch of tapirs with armadillo shells on their backs. They are making their way towards something when they feel a rumbling on the ground. They looked around and are shocked to see the lindracus rolling towards them.

They become terrified and try to run away, but the lindracus have caught onto their sent and managed to turn so that they head in their direction. The tapirs have no other choice but to try and outrun them, the lot rolling up themselves and rolling. But the lindracus have too much of a head start, catching up to them before they can build up any speed.

The camera turns away before it can record the lindracus crushing the poor creatures beneath them.

Like many planets on this system, it's survival of the fittest here. And with the lindracus' incredible speed and durability, it appears these creatures will be remaining the fittest beast in the biome for quite some time.

The camera pans down to the lindracus again, the beasts having finally stopped rolling to devour the remains of the poor creatures they had just crushed.

lindracus fangs are so strong, they can bite through anything. Even bone. Scavengers on this planet know not to bother expecting leftovers from a lindracus feast.

Once they finished devouring their food, the lindracus started rolling along the rocky ground again. Creating a trail of destruction as they rolled, the group appear to be heading some place. A large lake.

This lake is roughly the size of a football field and as the lindracus got in close, they stopped spinning and extended their tails to propel themselves into the air. Eventually, the came crashing down into the water and dived right down to the bottom. There, they started swimming around and enjoying themselves whilst a few found hexagon-shaped clams at the bottom that they pried open with their claws to get to the crunchy delicious pearl on the inside.

Up on the surface, many more lindracus were hanging around the lake's shore. Some were laying on large rocks, soaking up the sun, whilst others were watching smaller lindracus learn how to swim in the water. And others were staring one another down before charging at one another and rolling up.

The pair were playing chicken with one another, clearly wanting to see which had the more guts. But it seemed like their guts were equal, as they smashed into one another and bounced back as they let out a howl.

Though the lindracus are the masters of the rocky mountains, other beasts have their own specialities on this planet.

The scene changes to show a large forest, which was full of large bugs that seemed to be combos of different bugs. Some had horns and shot webs, whilst others had stingers and rolled into balls.

Welcome to the jungles of Chimenic, lush and fertile biomes teaming with life. Though many of the creatures that live here are insectoid in nature, there is one species that dominate the area. The bestiscere.

From one of the taller trees, something jumped off and began to fly through the forest. That something is a strange monkey, rabbit creature with gliding flaps under its arms.

Name: Bestiscere
Alien Type: Intelligent beast
Intelligence: 4/20
Abilities: Climbing, jumping, gliding, super hearing, pincer tail.
Form: Chimp body and arms with the head of a rabbit and feet of a bird, standing at between two and three feet. Long monkey tail with a scorpion pincer on the end and retractable gliding membrane between the arms and legs.

Bestiscere, the smartest species that lives on Chimenic. Like all other beings here, this race of creature is an amalgamation of many different beasts found on the planet earth. Their high intelligence combined with their vast array of abilities, have allowed them to survive in this hostile environment despite the many dangers that live here.

The bestiscere flies through the air, catching bugs in its mouth as it glides.

A bestiscere's main survival tools include its incredible sense of hearing, combined with its ability to glide through the forest the second it picks up any sign of danger. It also uses its strong sense of hearing to detect any prey it might wish to consume.

As the bestiscere gets close to the ground, it shifts its position and begins to fly towards a tree. As it gets in close, in brings its arms down to its sides before reaching out again. The membrane was no longer connected to its arms, allowing it to grab onto the tree trunk and begin to pull itself up without issue.

As it made its way up, it stopped at one of the branches were a bunch of nuts and berries could be found. It quickly pulled them off the branch and curled its tail into a bowl that it stored the food inside, then continued up the tree until it was high enough.

In these higher branches were a bunch of nests, which were egg-shaped and made out of a bunch of leaves that appeared to be sewn together. Some were hanging from the branches, whilst others were tied to the trunk or bunched together around the branch.

Many different bestiscere were currently living there, eating nuts and berries from below. Those eating the nuts placed them between the pincer on its tail, they snapped the claw shut to crack the shell.

Bestiscere usually live in large groups, consisting of several families of these highly skittish creatures. A matriarchal society, they all live under the rule of a single alpha female that is in charge of gathering food and building supplies, along with making sure their home is safe from the jungle's top predatory species.

Down below, another bestiscere was flying through the forest and trying to grab a tree like the first one. But when it retracted its gliders, it found itself missing the tree and crashing into the ground. It rolled around before coming to a stop. It pushed itself to its feet and when it did, it realised the danger it was in and attempted to get back to the tree.

But as it got to the tree, the ground started shaking and something exploded out of the dirt.

The shovedon

Name: Shovedon
Alien Type: Predatory beast
Intelligence: 0/20
Abilities: Burrowing, digging, cutting down trees, strong sense of smell
Form: Rhino head surrounded by a lion's mane and a seven foot long serpent body, with two long scorpion arms that end in large shovel-like claws. Ten centipede legs running along the body and a large hook on the end of its tail.

The creature spotted the bestiscere attempting to climb up the side of the tree and swung around, driving its hook tail into the trunk and pulling. The tree eventually broke apart, the hook coming flying as the trunk split in half and began to fall with the bestiscere along with it.

The shovedon quickly charged and rammed its horned head into the falling tree, causing it to explode into a million splinters as the bestiscere fell to the ground. And as it crashed into the earth, the shovedon pinned it with its shovel claws. All it could do was unleash an extremely high pitched scream, which echoed through the forest.

A highly ferocious creature, the shovedon uses its keen sense of smell to detect prey from underground. There it lies in wait, until something large enough to satisfy its hunger arrives. Because of this, bestiscere have adopted a policy of staying as high in the air as they can. The further they are from the ground, the harder time shovedons will have detecting them. But once a shovedon finds the nest of a bestiscere troop...

Once the shovedon finished its meal, it started knocking down more trees. It either pulled them down with its hooked tail, or dug the trees up by shoving its claws into the ground and uprooting the tree. The entire area was soon going timber, the trees falling to the ground and bringing the bestiscere village down with it.

However, the bestiscere were not in this village.

In order to protect the villages from their predators, the bestiscere will let out a high pitched wail whenever a shovadon is seen. With their powerful ears, the other bestiscere are able to hear the wail and quickly evacuate the village. Sometimes, the village remains standing and they can return home once the shovadon is gone. This time, however, they will need to search for a new home.

The scene changes once again, this time to a snowy wasteland not unlike the earth's arctic and antarctic.

Moving up north, we arrive at the final biome found on Chimenic. That of eternal snowlands that exist on the planet's highest continent. With temperatures ranging from between minus fifty and minus eighty degrees, very few species have evolved in order to survive in such frigid conditions.

One of the creatures that lives here is the final creature we will be exploring today, and one some mythology nuts might recognise. The mighty, akhlut.

Running across the snow was a large pack of strange looking creatures, which appear to be a fusion of a wolf and an orca. The beasts were large, so large that it was amazing they didn't fall through the snow as they ran across it.

Name: Akhlut
Alien Type: Intelligent mammal
Intelligence: 3/20
Abilities: Swimming, scent tracking, transformation
Form: An elephant sized wolf-like body with orca skin in place of fur, with small ears and a long nose. White lower jaw, chin, front of neck, underbelly and feet below the knees with the rest being black. Long orca tail and and fins on its back and legs.

Ranging from between twenty and twenty-five feet in length, these large creatures are some of the most powerful beasts on this planet. With a powerful sense of smell, a strong jaw that could bite through steel and an ability that makes it dangerous on land or in the water, these beasts are considered one of the greatest hunters on Chimenic. But what is this ability, you might ask?

The group soon arrived at the edge of the water and all leapt into it. As soon as they did, their bodies transformed. Their necks vanished which caused their necks to fuse with their bodies, whilst their legs merged with their bodies and made the fins on their knees stick out.

In this new form, the creatures swim around far easier then they could in their landforms.

Much like piscciss volanns, akhlut possess the power to metamorph between an aquatic form and a landform. In these aquatic forms, they can hold their breath for up to thirty minutes at a time and move through the water and over forty knots an hour. This ability allows them to hunt almost anywhere for food, be that food be a form of fish or land creature.

The akhlut swim around and start hunting a bunch of fish they found, swimming around them at high speeds to form a small whirlpool that disoritates the fish and allows the akhlut to snack down on them before they can swim away.

Living in pods or packs of between six and thirteen, akhlut need to consumed at least five hundred pounds of food a day to maintain their body weight in these icy waters.

Once the pod had finished eating, they all headed back to the surface and leapt out of the water. Transforming back into their landforms, they each hit the snow and shake off the icy water before it can freeze into place. They run back the way they came, to an area of the snowy wasteland that is full of large caves in the side of an glacial cliff.

Some of you might recognise these creatures from a one of your cultures folklore. Centuries ago, a group of poachers were said to have captured a large collection of akhlut and attempted to place the lot of them in an alien zoo. However, on their way to said zoo, engine trouble caused the ship to crash on a then very underdeveloped planet. Earth.

Luckily for the akhlut, the ship ended up landing in a cold region of your planet. There, they escaped and managed to find places to live and breed for several generations. However, this caused problems for the natives of the planet becoming a favourite food of the akhlut. Luckily, several species that would later go on to co-found the plumbers arrived to capture and return them back to Chimenic where they belong.

The scene changes back to the rocky area, where the lindracus continue to roll across the landscape.

Eventually, they arrive at the base of a small mountain where a bunch of caves are carved into the rock. And much like at the lake, more lindracus can be found sunbathing, fighting or watching younger lindracus as they learn to roll up and spin like a wheel. However, these young lindracus clearly need to get the technique down since they can only roll a few feet before falling over.

Several of the returning lindracus are carrying junks of meat, which they drop upon the ground for the little ones to drag themselves over to and start eating.

Meanwhile, higher up the mountain, several lindracus are pulling themselves up it. The lindracus thrust their claws into the rock, able to dig right into the cliffside and keep themselves from falling as they pull themselves further up it and repeat the process with its other claws.

The beasts keep climbing higher and higher. Some were using this to strengthen their bodies, whilst others were just trying to see how high they can get. But all of them were looking forward to what would eventually come.

Once they were as high as they could or wanted to go, the lindracus release the sides of the mountain and fall towards the ground. As they do, they roll up and ride the mountainside whilst picking up speeds they could never reach on their own.

The group transformed into flaming meteors that smashed through any piece of the mountain that stuck out and was in their path. After a while, each of them crashed into a hole covered area of the ground. With each impact, a shockwave exploded out and sent a wave of dust and debris out in all directions.

When the smoke finally cleared, the lindracus pulled themselves out of the craters and all let out laugh-like roars as none of them even had a scratch.

Chimenic. A harsh and dangerous place to call home. But thankfully, we were just visiting. Now I think it's time we head off to the next planet on our tour. Be sure to pack a flashlight, as our next destination is one you'll have a hard time seeing in without one. Onwards, to our next big adventure.

Author's Note

Behind the Alien is back with Lindwhirl's planet. Hope you enjoyed seeing it and liked the creature fusions I made. Now, onto the next planet.

Behind the Alien: Kagenobi

Good evening, explorers and omni-planetary travellers. I welcome you back to our exciting galactic tour, as we arrive at the next planet on our list of places to see and explore.

Today, we'll be visiting the homeworld of Flash's stealthiest alien: Kagenobi.

You history nuts will be in for a treat, since we'll be visiting a place that had seen many great wars and struggles. But please, no flash photography. Our hosts are not so big on the lights. Let's go

The scene opens up in an entire solar system, where multiple planets and other bodies could be seen circularing a single yellow sun. This is the solar system known as Aequilis.

It then zooms into one of the two largest planets in the solar system. Said planet is a dark world surrounded by a dense smog-like atmosphere.

Sekayoru. One of two planets in aequilis that contain a form of life. The entire planet is surrounded by an atmosphere filled with a dark gas that is not poisonous but blocks out over ninety nine percent of the sun's light. Because of this, the planet appears to be in a state of constant night that occasionally turns absolutely pitch black when on the part of the planet not facing the sun.

Zooming through the fog, we arrive at the planet's surface where the whole place looks like a scene out of an edo period movie. Japanese buildings litter the landscape, everything from simple but traditional huts to giant temples and castles. The place looks so traditional, that there's even a spot where you can see the stereotypical moon behind the castle scene. This is actually the sun, since Sekayoru has no moon.

Centuries ago, this planet entered a time period similar to the ancient japanese period of earth. its culture has remained like this ever since, with the native species of the planet living a very traditional life.

Suddenly, figures began to move through the darkness in a strange fashion.

Name: Ninjage
Alien Type: Intelligent elemental humanoid
Intelligence: 4/20
Abilities: Shadow metamorphosis, shadow shape manipulation
Form: Humanoid figure between six and seven feet in height. Bodies made entirely out of dark shadows, with different coloured eyes and no other features.

The dark figures are the ninjage, who aren't wearing the usual clothing that Flash normally wears when he is Kagenobi. They ninja run across the landscape, leaping onto houses and over vast distances until they reach the trees of a nearby forest.

Ninjage. An unusual species whose bodies are made of a strange black gas-like substance similar to that found in the planet's atmosphere. Many believe that the ninjage were originally the gas itself, which mutated due to some outside force affecting it. Either way, the ninjage quickly multiplied after appearing on the planet and became the dominant species.

The ninjage rush through the forest, jumping from branch to branch as they searched for their prey. Eventually, they spot a boar-like creature and each stop on the branches without making a sound.

The leader of the ninjage did several hand signs to the others, who all nodded before jumping away and the leader turned towards the boar. Then, the ninjage's body suddenly shifted and melted into a liquid form that merged with the tree. It moved through the barely visible light towards the boar.

The ninjage's shadowy gas-like bodies can undergo a density shift that allows them to morph into a shadowy puddle. In this form, they can move across the ground without being detected and push their bodies through gaps that are the widths of a hair. With this, the ninjage become masters of stealth and agility. And that's not the only ability they have that allow them to survive.

The ninjage leader makes its way closer and closer to the boar, getting within inches of itself. As it does, the boar finally notices the moving shadow. Living on this planet, the creature had evolved to know what this meant and ran for its life.

But before it could get away, a ninjage leapt out of the ground in front of it. As it did, it pulled something out of the surrounding darkness. A knife made entirely out of shadow.

It is unclear how this ability works, but the ninjage have the ability to manipulate any surrounding shadow that is not connected to them and morph it into any shape or form. These shapes can range from simple tools like hammers and forks, to dangerous weapons like swords or throwing knifes. As long as a ninjage is in darkness, it is never without weapons.

The ninjage threw the knife at the boar, who attempted to escape and got its sides pierced open as it continued to run in another direction. But the other ninjage appeared out of the shadows, each holding a different weapon as they surrounded it. Moments later, the boar's squeal filled the air.

At a ninjage village, a bunch of different ninjage are working and living their lives.

Some are farming vegetables that have evolved to not need that much sunlight, whilst other ninjage are carrying pitchers of water from a nearby well. Some of the ninjage are seen wearing clothes, this likely being something that the richer members of society all wear.

The ninjage all appeared almost identical, the only differences able to be seen being their heights and the colour of their eyes. Other then that, the ninjage are impossible to tell apart.

In ancient times, the ninjage were all split into different clans. It is unsure why they were, but these different clans constantly fought against one another for food, territory and whatever supplies they needed. But in more recent years, the clans have all but dissolved and the ninjage planet is unified. However, this doesn't mean aequilis is at peace.

In one of the castle, despite the outside being traditional in appearance, the inside appeared like a laboratory. Computers and other devices line the wall, as the scientist ninjage work to develop new technologies for their species.

Despite sekayoru's traditional appearance, the planet has developed to a space faring race due to many of the ninjage having a yearning to see what the world is like passed their dark atmosphere. But this was not without its challenges, the first of which being discovered when the first ninjage managed to make it past the barrier.

Rewind to when the first ninjage escaped the bonds of their planet.

The ninja aliens created a rocket much like mankind, which they used to blast off into space. The ninjage are all sitting in their seats, not looking the least bit affected by the G-forces. Eventually, they made it passed the atmospheric cloud and shot into space.

There, the ninjage looked out at the great cosmos and were amazed by the sight in front of them. However, it was then that the sunlight appeared through their window. The next thing they knew, their bodies were burning and they could barely stand the heat. If the pilot hadn't managed to turn the rocket so the window was away from the sun, they might have all been destroyed.

Evolving on a planet with little to no sunlight, the ninjage have developed a weakness to sunlight. Much like ectonurites and vladats, long term exposure to UV rays will cause the molecules of their body to heat up and spread too thin. This will result in them literally evaporating into nothing and result in almost certain death.

Many members of the ninjage race believed this meant they were not supposed to leave sekayoru and suggested the space project be shut down. But the more stubborn members of their species refused to let this stop them.

The scene changes to show the ninjage scientists working on a bunch of dark clothing that one tries on. This makes it look a lot more like Kagenobi, though the style was slightly different. The ninjage then morphs into a shadow, but this causes the clothing to fall off of it and results in it being naked again when it retakes humanoid form.

A little while later, the ninjage tries another piece of clothing that the scientist developed. This time, the clothing transformed into a shadow just like it did.

Using ninjage science, they managed to develop a form of clothing that can became part of the shadows as well. Thanks to this, the ninjage were able to enter the galaxy without worrying about dying of super sunburn.

Another rocket launches a bunch of now clothed ninjage into space again, the group worried their new protection would not work against the supreme light of the sun. But when the sunlight flew in through the window, the ninjage are happy to see that they aren't burning.

With that new fashion, the ninjage began sending many teams into space to explore the rest of their solar system. And it was here that they ended up meeting another species that had been just as curious about the rest of the universe as the ninjage.

A group of ninjage were searching an asteroid when they found themselves coming face to face with a bunch of armored individuals.

The nikkobushi

The scene moves to another section of aequilis, to a planet that was on the exact opposite side of the sun from sekayoru. The surface of this planet appears to be made out of crystals, which capture the light of the sun and reflecting it onto other crystals which do the same thing over and over again.

Akemugen. Sharing the same orbit as sekayoru, this planet's crust is made out of a highly reflective crystal. Because of these crystals, light on the planet is constantly being spread around. As such, the world exists in a state of eternal daytime and has temperatures ranging between sixty to a hundred degrees on the side of the planet not illuminated by the sun.

On this planet, only one form of life has come to exist. The nikkobushi.

Name: Nikkobushi
Alien Type: Intelligent Elemental humanoid
Intelligence: 4/20
Abilities: Solar energy absorption, solar energy manipulation
Form: Humanoid figure between seven and eight feet in height. Bodies made entirely out of mostly white energy, with a rainbow aura surrounding them and different coloured eyes with no other features.

Nikkobushi are a group of energy life forms that make their homes out of the crystals found on the lower areas of the planet. Many believe that, like the ninjage, they were also brought into being due to the intervention of a mutagene affecting something on the planet. This time, it's believed that solar radiation was what was mutated into these creatures.

The nikkobushi fly around the planet, their bodies morphing into streaks of light that shoot through the air the air at high speed. Those that weren't flying around were simply walking around on the crystals or sitting on them soaking up the rays.

Nikkobushi do not require food or water to survive. Instead, much like plants, they soak up solar radiation and use that to replenish the energy they exert unleashing their abilities. These abilities, aside from the ability to fly, allow them to manipulate their stored up solar energy and shape it into a variety of tools and weapons.

One of the nikkobushi uses its powers to create a pickaxe of light, which it starts hitting a crystal with to dig into it. Slowly, the crystal breaks off and it begins to work itself into it. Fast forward to when it was finished and the crystal was now hollowed out, turning it into the perfect home for the nikkobushi.

The place was a perfect home for it to live in, allowing it to meditate and recharge its solar energy in piece.

The nikkobushi's solar manipulation abilities are not something they naturally have at birth. Instead, they require much study and concentration to use. If the nikkobushi does not have a clear mind, its solar weapons will not remain solid.

In another area of the planet, a bunch of young nikkobushi are training. Some are meditating, attempting to master shaping their solar energy into a dagger shape. Others who can use this ability, are now learning the art of light sword fighting.

They swing their energy blades in perfect unity, each of them attempting to stop at just the right time to not hit a crystal they were meant to avoid.

On another part of the training ground, the nikkobushi are sparring against one another using lightsabers. The blades spark with each contact, making a buzzing sound as they move around at high speed. Some appear to be newbies, nervously touching each others blades as they hoped back and forth, whilst others were moving with the speed and precision of a master.

Nikkobushi, when fully charged with energy, have the ability to propel themselves so far into the air they can break through the very thin atmosphere of akemugen and fly into space. If they are to take off from the sun facing side, their solar energy will remain high even after escaping the planet. But taking off from the other side of the planet will not have the same result.

The nikkobushi fly through space, enjoying themselves as this is their first time off of the planet. However, that enjoyment quickly fades when they feel something. Something they have never felt before. Hunger.

It feels like their solar energy is rather low, burning off quickly as they fly through space and burn super hot to keep from freezing in the cold vacuum.

Despite being capable of surviving in space, the nikkobushi must burn through a significant amount of their solar energy whilst in this dark realm. Due to the solar power not being as concentrated as it is on their planet, they found they burned through their energy faster then they can replenish it.

One of the nikkobushi finds itself losing to much power. It tried to fly back to its planet, but finds its power completely running out.

As such, its propulsion vanishes and its body returns to its normal state. It floats aimlessly through space, continuing to burn away at its power faster then it can regenerate. The sun was too far away and wasn't giving off enough light, causing it to slowly shrink.

Luckily, another nikkobushi arrives and grabs it. It uses all of its solar power to get them back to the planet, barely making it before the first one vanished into nothing. The pair crash down onto the planet and start soaking up the solar energy, thanking whatever gods nikkobushi believe in they survived.

In order to survive out in space, the nikkobushi began experimenting with ways in which to conserve their solar energy. And one of them eventually came up with the answer.

One of the nikkobushi was mining in a nearby asteroid and found some metal ore within it. Taking some of the ore back to the planet, he starts using his energy tools to beat and meld the metal into different shapes. Eventually, it welded them together into a new form. A giant metal suit.

The other nikkobushi were surprised to see the finished armor, which looked like robotic samurai with LED lights covering it. The nikkobushi inside showed off how maneuverable the armor was, then showed it could still create its energy weapons through the armor. It could even expel its energy out of the feet, creating a pair of rocket boots it used to fly into space.

Now in the robotic armor, the nikkobushi was able to remain in the void of space and not burn up as much of its solar energy as quickly. Plus, the suit had also been built with powerful solar panels, absorbing the light of the sun and transferring it to the nikkobushi inside. Though it wasn't absorbing as much as it could on its planet, the energy being absorbed now equalled the amount being exerted by the alien.

Soon enough, every nikkobushi had their own suit of armor. Each one was in a different colour and had differing ornamentation, but they all looked like robotic samurai.

With these new robotic suits, the nikkobushi were able to explore the vast depths of aequilis. But in doing so, they eventually met the ninjage.

A group of armored nikkobushi were exploring an asteroid, when they suddenly came across the group of ninjage also exploring the asteroid. The two groups stared one another down, unsure what they were doing with the other.

A ninjage then stepped forward, holding out a hand to offer in peace. The lead nikkobushi stepped forward and took the hand, also wanting peace. But when their hands met, the ninjage screamed in pain. The nikkobushi's armored hand was red hot, burning him.

The ninjage staggered back, as his comrades mistook this as an attack. They each formed a weapon of shadow and attacked back, slaying the lead nikkobushi. The other nikkobushi formed their own weapons and attacked back, the two groups breaking out in an all out battle.

It was an accident, which would reshape aequilis.

Fast forward to a long time in the future and the two forces are at war. With neither side able to survive on the other's homeworld, even in their suits, they quickly began to create outposts on the other planetary bodies of the solar system. The nikkobushi transferred crystals from their home world and placed them in areas close to the sun, allowing the nikkobushi places to rest and recharge out of their suits. Meanwhile, the ninjage created their own outposts within the darkest caves of asteroids and other rocks.

The scene changes to show two large forces of nikkobushi and ninjage, both charging at one another. The ninjage leapt onto the ground, morphing into shadows that flew across the rocks and shot towards the nikkobushi. The armored light aliens quickly created their sun weapons, using them to attack the shadows and try to destroy them.

The two sides appeared to be perfectly matched, with the ninjage weak to the light attacks but the armor of the nikkobushi was easy to damage and force the nikkobushi to abandon and retreat to their homeworld.

The wars lasted over two centuries, with neither side ever really getting the upper hand over their opponents. It took the intervention of another group to put a stop to the fighting.

Halfway through a battle, a spaceship appeared. This spaceship belonged to the plumbers, who saw the fighting that was taking place. They didn't intend to intervene, but the two waring races stopped when they noticed the ships.

This team of plumbers were part of an exploratory core, which was coming the galaxy. They were searching for planets that were space capable, wanting to bring them in to the planetary alliance that was still relatively new. This statement made both the nikkobushi and ninjage curious, as they to wished to see what more was out there.

The plumbers were happy to let them join, but only if they were willing to put an end to the war. Since it was meant to be an alliance of planets, having two members at war with one another wouldn't do. As such, the plumbers were able to broker a peace accord between the two planets.

It wasn't easy, putting the two centuries of hate aside. But the curiosity they held outweighed their desire to wage war and the battles came to an end.

The leaders of the ninjage and nikkobushi both shake hands, the plumbers using a special forcefield between the hands to prevent the same issue that started this pointless war in the first place.

These days, both sekayoru and akemugen enjoy an uneasy peace. Though a few skirmishes break out now and then, the two species share their solar system and train in order to go out into the universe and discover new amazing things to enjoy.

A large group of nikkobushi can be seen flying through space, whilst the ninjage are piloting spaceships that the plumbers helped them build to go further into space and see the wonders of the galaxy.

Aequilis, a tough place to live in for sure. But thankfully, we were just visiting. Now I think it's time we head off to the next planet on our tour. I hope you all packed some nose plugs, because our next destination isn't one for the weak of nose. Onwards, to our next big adventure.

Author's Note

Well, now you've seen Kagenobi's planet and met what could be a future alien for Flash. If anyone has any names for Flash's sun samurai, let me know. I have no clue what to call it.

Behind the Alien: U-Reek-Ah

Good evening, explorers and omni-planetary travellers. I welcome you back to our exciting galactic tour, as we arrive at the final planet on our list of places to see and explore.

This final expedition will have us exploring the homeplanet of Flash's smelliest alien. U-Reek-Ah

Whilst we explore the planet, please refrain from opening the windows in an attempt to get some fresh air. I am not equipped with barf bags. Hold your breath and plug your nose, as we dive into a world of interesting smells.

The scene opens up on a large planet that appears to be one large jungle, though several mountains can be seen sticking out of the forests.

Multifoetor. The smallest planet in its solar system, multifoetor is an interesting planet completely covered in a dense foliage. A single continent makes up the planet, with a multitude of underground rivers running through it and occasionally exploding out onto the surface through springs, lakes and swamps. This has allowed Multifoetor to become a fertile environment where a myriad of vegetation grows.

The scene zooms in on the planet, passing through the trees and allowing the dense jungles to be seen from ground view. The trees are roughly fifteen to twenty meters in height, with light foliage that allows plenty of sunlight to break through the canopy.

On the jungle floor, multiple bushes were scattered around the place. Each bush appeared to have a different kind of fruit, one having pink bananas growing out of it whilst another bush had a piece of fruit that was shaped like a baby's pacifier. There was one piece of fruit that was half green and half blue, whilst another had yellow apples with green rings on it. There were more fruit, but listing them all could take all day.

With the abundance of edible food that exists in this ecosystem, it's able to support many different forms of life.

From out of the woods, several different alien animals appeared. One group looked like centaurs, only their horse bodies appeared to be more goat or sheep-like, their upper bodies appearing to be covered in white fur whilst its head was that of a ram with long curved horns.

Another group were a bunch of yellow dog sized frogs, with orange fur covering their backs and large claws sticking out of their feet. A bunch of lizards flew down from the trees, being green with bits of pink on their lower halves and a long tail.

They all moved over to one of the bushes, not bothering one another as they pulled food off the bushes without getting in each other's way.

And when there is an abundance of plant eaters, there is also an abundance of meat eaters that prey upon them.

As they were eating, the animals suddenly heard a noise and looked up to see something leap out of the trees. It was a giant green and yellow tiger, with two heads and a blade on its tail. The beast pounced at the animals, who all rushed to escape. But the tiger was quicker and managed to grab one of the frogs in its mouth.

A dangerous place to call home, that's for sure. But one of the creatures that live here find they don't have to worry much about getting eaten.

In another area of the forest, a tiger was skulking through the underbrush. It heard movement and turned towards it, feeling a presence and it prepared to attack. But as it got closer, whatever it was stalking seemed to sense its approach. Moments later, a giant cloud of yellow gas shot towards it.

The tiger was completely enveloped and as soon as it breathed in, it was assaulted by a horrible stench that began to drive it crazy. It roared in nazzal agony and turned to run away, not wanting to be anywhere near the stench.

As the gas began to dissipate, the one responsible for making it stepped out of the trees carrying a basket of different fruits.

Name: Mephitiosus
Alien Type: intelligent mammal
Intelligence: 12/20
Abilities: Super Intelligence, Stink blast
Form: Humanoid skunk standing at around two feet in height, having blue fur in place of black. A bushy tail on its back that is almost as long as it was tall.

Mephitiosus. The smartest creatures on the planet as well as one of the most foul. They are skunk-like aliens that can produce a highly pungent odor. They have evolved this method of defence in order to survive in multifactor's survival of the fittest ecosystem.

Several mephitiosus were walking through the bushes, plucking the fruit from the bushes. Most, they placed in the basket. But some of it, they ate themselves.

Ninety percent of the fruit and vegetables found on this planet are high in fibre and other non-digestible carbohydrates. A mephitiosus' digestive system contains extra powerful bacteria, which allows them to fermentate these carbohydrates into a power and sometimes noxious gas. This gas is then filtered out of the digestive system, into a sack located inside the mephitiosus' tail. A mephitiosus will hold this gas inside their tail as long as they need too, only expelling it in two events.

The first is when the gas sack is full, resulting in a slow expulsion that is almost unnoticeable. The second event is when the mephitiosus are under attack. In this event, they will expel all of the noxious gas in the direction of the attacker. In doing so, they will either force the predator to retreat or simply collapse from over exposure.

Due to the many dangers of their planet, mephitiosus will expel this gas a large number of times. Because of this, they have evolved away their sense of smell to avoid suffering blow back from their attacks. They also only use their gas attacks when all other plans have failed.

The mephitiosus group make their way through the forest, many of their gas tanks still full and ready to fire. But there was no need, since every creature that might think to harm them had fled after the first blast.

Due to the intense stench that seems to follow the mephitiosus wherever they go, most other species avoid them if they can help it. Because of this, mephitiosus are able to live in pretty large numbers without fear.

The group arrived home. It was a large village full of houses made of stone, wood and concrete. These houses look comfortable and strong, as the mephitiosus there live their lives to the fullest. Young mephitiosus play all over the place, whilst some are busy running market stalls whilst others are shopping at said stalls. It looks like the perfect paradise.

However. There are creatures on this planet that can not only tolerate the horrible smell of the mephitiosus, but are absolutely immune to it.

The scene changes to one of the mountains that are surrounded by the forest, it being the dead of night

On the side of that mountain is a large cave, which is dark, cold and wet. A terrible place for most creatures, but a perfect lair for the one living inside of it. And as the camera zooms in on this cave, a growling sound fills the air and grows louder by the second.

Suddenly, something shoots out of the cave and takes to the dark night air. Something big, ugly and dangerous.

Name: Chiroditus
Alien Type: Predatory Mammal
Intelligence: 0/20
Abilities: Flight, super hearing, paralysing scream
Form: Black humanoid bat standing at between eight and nine feet in height. Large wings with single metal hook for a claw and sharp grasping talons on feet. Head with no eyes and nose, instead having a pair of large ears that cover the entire top half of the head whilst a large jaw fills the rest of it.

Chiroditus. These powerful bat like creatures are the top predators on Multifoetor. The deadly creature's greatest asset is its powerful sense of hearing. If a pin dropped a hundred miles away, it would be able to hear that pin even if a million other sounds were occuring around it.

The chiroditus flew through the air, almost completely invisible as its black body merged with the night. Its large ears allowed it to see everything, despite having no eyes. And quickly, they picked up on the sounds of its favourite food. Mephitiosus.

The bat alien dived down towards the village, which looked completely deserted due to it being the middle of the night. However, there were still some mephitiosus awake.

They were standing watch, located on a lookout post built around one of the large trees. When one of them saw the chiroditus, it quickly rang the alarm and the entire village was on alert. And as the chiroditus drew closer, the guard pointed its tail at the beast and let it rip.

But the gas the chiroditus seemed to fly into had no effect, the giant bat simply soaring through the green cloud and attacking the lookout post.

With no nose to smell with and no eyes to make water, the noxious mephitiosus gas has no effect on chiroditus. Their greatest defence, rendered powerless against this mighty creature. And that's not the only advantage this beast has over them.

As the mephitiosus guard attempted to escape, the chiroditus took a deep breath and unleashed a powerful screeching sound from its mouth. That sound echoed across the forest and all those that heard it, felt like they were hearing a million nails running down a chalkboard.

Using a special vocal chord, the chiroditus can unleash a high pitched sonic blast that can immobilize anything that hears it. It is unknown why this does not affect them, considering their powerful hearing, but the chiroditus are completely immune to their own screams and use it to disable anything they wish to devour.

The sound is so horrible, every part of the mephitiosus' body froze up as their brain was being scrambled. This allowed the bat alien to use its taloned feet to grasp the guard that had warned everyone else before taking off into the air.

The other mephitiosus had recovered and tried to save their comrade, throwing their spears and other weapons at it. But it was already too high up for the attacks to reach. And so, the chiroditus vanished into the night with its captured prey in its clutches.

It's rare that an encounter with a chiroditus doesn't result in at least one casualty. Being completely immune to the mephitiosus' stink blast, and being the only creature on the planet that wants to be around them, the chiroditus have free reign to hunt them as much as they want without any competition.

But the mephitiosus are a strong species. They knew their stink blasts were useless against these creatures, so they used their other special power to find a way to fight against them. Their super intelligence.

The scene changes to an underground building the mephitiosus built, which was made of metal and was full of equipment.

Several mephitiosus were dressed in lab coats and were working together, some mixing a variety of chemicals whilst others were working on some kind of machine. Others were standing in front of a large tube, full of liquid and strange blue string-like objects that glowed blue.

Mephitiosus intelligence far exceeds that of human and many other creatures in the galaxy. Whilst not on the level of Galvin or Cerebrocrustacean, their knowledge and ability to think is still incredible. As such, when the chiroditus threat began to escalate, the finest minds on the planet came together and began working on a solution.

And so, a fusion of bio-genetics, mechanics and several other fields gave life to a new inhabitant of Multifoetor.

The mephitiosus began to put the pieces together. They built a suit of armor that was wired using the strange blue string that they had developed, which was now out of the water and noticeably alive. Once the string was properly wired into the different parts, they put each of them together and began to power it up.

Name: Mephitiosus Gyroid
Alien Type: Intelligent Cyborg
Intelligence: 4/20
Abilities: Flight, Tornado generation, Durability
Form: Robotic body standing at between seven and eight feet in height. Spherical chest and waist, connected by thick metal tube, with three smaller spheres on the chest and back that are shoulders. Tube-like arms coming off these shoulders, connected to another tube with a cone-shape on its other side that completes the arms. Three flat fingers on the outside of each cone bottom, which bend in two places. Three more limbs like the arms coming out of the bottom sphere, acting like three legs. Top of the chest sphere is flat with a dome on top of it, with two large holes that have eyes sticking out of it and rotate three hundred and sixty degrees.

The mephitiosus gyroid is a techno-organic lifeform created by the mephitiosus. Known more commonly as gyroids, their bodies are made of rotating segments that can spin at high speeds. These speeds allow them to produce powerful gusts of wind and tornados, which they can use offensively, defensively and even to fly.

These creatures live off a special fuel the mephitiosus developed, using the planet's fruit that allows the organic wiring that is threaded throughout the metal suit to act as a nervasystem.

They were originally designed to be simple minded creatures that were meant to follow orders and protect their creators from the predators. However, the mephitiosus' genius proved greater then even they realised.

The mephitiosus stepped away, as their creation activated with its eyes opening. The mechanical creature began to look around and then started moving its body around. As it tried to walk, it was a little clumsy at first but managed to get the hang of movement. It then span the different parts of its body, unleashing powerful blasts of wind that knocked over several objects.

The scene changes to outside, where the scientist mephitiosus are showing the gyroid around the village it will be protecting. Many of the mephitiosus that saw it looked worried, thinking it would start attacking them as well. But then, one of the mephitiosus on a lookout post leaned against a rotted bit of bannister.

The wood broke and they fell, death almost assured from that height. However, they were saved by a cushion of wind that appeared below them.

The gyroid had seen this and jumped into action without being ordered, usings its arms to create a weak tornado that caught the falling mephitiosus. Everyone was shocked by this, having not expected the gyroid to act without orders. But before they could discuss this, the alarm rang and they looked up to see a chiroditus flying overhead.

Though normally a nocturnal hunter, the chiroditus will sometimes come out in the day if it finds itself hungry enough.

The chiroditus focuses on the village and unleashes a sonic blasts, which disables the mephitiosus. But the gyroid is completely unaffected by the sonic blast. As such, seeing its new friends in pain, the robotic alien held its arm up before creating a powerful tornado.

The tornado hit the chiroditus and blew it backwards, stopping its sonic blast and allowing the mephitiosus to recover from it. As they did, they saw that the gyroid had once again protected them without needing to be told.

The chiroditus tried to attack again, but this time the gyroid jumped into the air and spun its bottom half. The wind completely wrapped around its waist and legs, making it look like its entire lower half was now a large tornado. This allowed it to fly into the air and meet the chiroditus, the two beginning to fight against one another.

The chiroditus attempted to slash and claw at the robot, but even its metal hooks couldn't get through the gyroid's armor. This allowed it to blow the beast away, the chiroditus eventually giving up and deciding to try someplace else to get food.

The gyroid flew back down, the mephitiosus cheering at their new defender. The scientists were the most impressed, but not at its fighting ability. They were amazed at how the gyroid was way smarter and more conscious then they had originally thought it was.

Despite only being built to serve and protect them, the mephitiosus realised they were more then just mindless fighting machines. They were an entirely new species, which they had the responsibility to educate and help grow as individuals.

The mephitiosus are back in the lab, working on an upgrade to the gyroid's system. Once the upgrade was complete, they asked the gyroid a question and the gyroid replied with actual words. The new speaker system they designed to turn thoughts into words, allowing the gyroid to communicate with them.

The gyroid and mephitiosus celebrate, happy they managed to give their new friend the chance to truly speak his mind.

The scene fast forward to sometime in the future.

The mephitiosus village has developed to have large buildings, where the many gyroids that now live there can live when they aren't protecting the mephitiosus from chiroditus attacks. The many gyroids come in many different colours, some painted to look just how they wanna look.

Some gyroids are flying over the village, patrolling it for threats.

Slightly outside the village, a gyroid and young mephitiosus are using some binoculars to see a tiger alien a good mile or so away. The pair turn to one another and nod, the gyroid using his eyes to smirk. The mephitiosus turned its tail towards the tiger and fired its stink blast, which the gyroid propelled forward using a weak tornado.

The breeze sent the stink flying towards the tiger, which suddenly began to gag and run in the other direction. They both laughed at this, only to feel something hard hit them both on the head.

That something hard was the leader of the gyroids, the first one that ever existed, who was glaring at the pair as they looked sheepish.

In the years following the creation of this new species, the mephitiosus and gyroid have entered and symbiotic relationship with one another. Almost every mephitiosus village contains at least one gyroid, which acts as the mephitiosus' protectors whilst the mephitiosus keep the gyroid's mechanical bodies working and fuelled up.

And when they're not doing one of these things, they are simply having fun together.

Now completely safe from any form of danger, the mephitiosus were free to expand their knowledge and continue to study the universe around them. And eventually, they developed into a space faring race with many gyroids heading out into the cosmos with them to explore.

The scene changes to show a ship, which is flying through space looking for other forms of life. And as they do, they come across another ship. A galvin ship.

The footage shows the galvin and mephitiosus meeting, the galvin impressed as they examine the gyroids and ask how they were constructed. In return, they start showing the mephitiosus many types of sciences the skunks had yet to discover. It was a truly excited exchange of information, one which would help the mephitiosus grow and truly become one of the smartest species in the galaxy.

Multifoetor. An unusual and unpleasant place to call home. But fortunately, we won't be making our stay here permanent. This concludes our second set of adventures on the homeworlds of Flash's aliens. I hope to see you again on our next tour and can't wait to see what new aliens will be waiting for us there. Onwards, to our next big adventure.

Author's Note

That brings this set of planet hops to an end. Now, it's on to our next season. How will things change and what enemies are awaiting us there? Only time will tell.

Season 3, Episode 1: World Famous

Canterlot, the city had been in the spotlight for a while given everything that had happened there.

But now, a full on alien invasion had brought it into the limelight once again. Large sections of the city had been practically destroyed, with it being a miracle that nobody had actually lost their lives.

One such teen had been running through the city, using his phone to document everything. "See," the teen told his camera as a large robot marched down the street, "these things have taken the entire place over." The camera changed to show the teen's face, said face being a bespectacled one covered in zits. "I'm risking my life because someone has to document these historical events." He then turned the camera towards a couple of buildings. "A few minutes ago, the ship that brought all these robots crashed down. And now-WAIT!"

In that moment, the ship that had crashed began to hover into the air.

"The ship's back up. I wonder what brought it down before?" He continued to watch as several robots and drones past him, the teen glad he was hiding in the alleyway. "I hate to say this, but I think this might be the end of earth as we know it." But as he said that, a bright flash of green light exploded. "WOW!"

When the light faded, the kid holding the camera had to slowly point it higher.

"What the heck?" And then the image was shown. A giant red and white alien figure, standing taller than any of the skyscrapers around him. The footage showed the giant stomping around and swatting the drones out of the sky, followed by it unleashing a laser that hit the ship and destroying it.

The camera moved through the streets, eventually coming to the one the giant was on.

The next thing the teen recording knew, the alien threw something into the air with a powerful sonic boom. Whatever it threw disappeared into the sky, likely being thrown out of the atmosphere and into space. That was when the alien reached up and touched its chest, unleashing another burst of green light.

From that light, the alien vanished and someone much smaller stood in its place. The camera shifted down and eventually showed the one who had done all of this, the teen turning towards the camera and unknowingly revealing his face. Flash Sentry.

The footage then shrank into a small window, as a news anchor appeared beside it and turned towards the camera. "What you just watched was amature footage showing Flash Sentry, who has recently been revealed to be a one man alien invasion." The screen changed to show footage of aliens doing multiple different things. XLR8 speeding past, Firefly launching fireballs, Riot-Horn crashing through a wall and many many others.

"Three days ago, Canterlot suffered an attack from an alien warlord. The reason for this attack was due to Flash Sentry being in possession of an alien weapon that apparently turned him into those alien. And upon this revelation, we went down to the street to ask what the citizens of Canterlot think about this latest development."

The screen changed to show a young man dressed in a Crystal Prep uniform. "That guy's the reason half our city got destroyed. I hope they lock him up and throw away the key."

The screen changed again, this time to an woman carrying a baby. "That plant alien saved my baby when her carraige almost rolled into traffic. If all those aliens were actually one person, I say he's a hero."

It then changed to an old couple, sitting on a park bench. "If the device that teen used to transform is what the alien was after, I'm glad it was in the hands of someone who used it for good," the woman stated.

"Yes," the man agreed, "who knows what that alien would have done if it got its hands of that thing."

The screen changed to show a police officer, "that kid shouldn't have been playing hero. He should have handed that device into the proper authorities instead of putting everyone in danger."

It changed to show a bunch of kids. "I think those aliens were all heroes," a teen kid cried. "I wish I had a watch like that, so I could be his alien hero sidekick." The others agreed, all wishing they could have super powers like that.

The screen changed again to a member of the fire department. "When those aliens first showed up, I was annoyed they were doing our jobs for us. But then I realised that if the aliens are saving the people, we can focus on the fires and save even more people. And now that I know those aliens were all just one guy, I'm even more happy they're using their powers for good. I hope I get to say thanks to that guy."

The screen changed back to the news anchor, as the screen beside him showed Flash being led away by a bunch of police officers. "After the events of the invasion came to an end, Flash was led away by the authorities for questioning. Rumors say that the President is heading to Canterlot to investigate the situation himself. One can only wonder what Sentry is thinking about right now."

"This food sucks," Flash groaned as he finished the ham sandwich that had just been delivered to his cell.

He sighed as he sat on his bed, looking around at the jail cell he had been thrown into after getting arrested. All thought of a phone call or seeing a lawyer seemed to be thrown out of the window, as he remained trapped in the room that was barely bigger than his bedroom.

He had been there for three days, bored out of his mind without any of his friends coming to see him. Though he doubted that was by their choice.

He looked down at his arm, which had a metal band locked around it to keep him from activating the Omnitrix. But even if he could use the watch, he wouldn't. The last thing he needed was to worsen his situation. He would rather be stuck in a cell forever, then be on the run from the law.

"Just gotta be patient and hope my friends can get me out of here."

"You can't keep us from seeing our son!" Misty screamed at the officer guarding the police station.

"I'm sorry ma'am," the officer announced. "But until further notice, nobody is allowed to see the prisoner. Those are the orders we were given." Misty glared at him, though she wasn't the only one. Trail, Shining, Adagio, Trixie and all the Rainbooms were there. They had been trying to get in and see Flash since he was arrested, but none of them were allowed.

Even Shining was barred, since he was also under investigation due to him being a friend of Flash.

"You can't do this!" Twilight told them, "what are you even holding Flash for anyway? You can't just lock up whoever you choose."

"I'm not at liberty to say," the guard stated. The others glared at him, but in that moment their attention was cut off by something else. A powerful wind, which was blowing down on them and threatened to knock everything away.

They looked up and saw the cause was a helicopter, which hovered down towards the ground. As it landed, the doors opened and several figures in black suits leapt out. They looked around, as the precinct opened with the captain of police and several officers rushing out.

"Clear?" One of them asked, the others repeating the word in confirmation. "All clear!" Suddenly, someone stepped out of the helicopter.

He was a brown skinned man with short black hair, wearing a suit that he adjusted the tie of as he stepped onto the ground. This was someone that they all knew from TV and radio. The President of the United States.

The cops all gasped at this, the others being just as surprised as the president marched forward. "Who's in charge of this precinct?" He asked the cops, the captain stepping forward.

"I...I am."

"Well not anymore," he explained. "From this point on, the Secret Service will be in charge of dealing with the individual in question.

"Hey!" They all turned to see Trail, who marched forward whilst the men in black prepared to tackle him. "The individual you're talking about is my son. So if you have any questions for him, you'll need to do it whilst I'm there. He's still a minor, so unless you want the whole internet the know the president is a kidnapper, you'll let us see him."

The president started at him, clearly impressed with his fatherly protection. "Did you know about your Son's...hobby?"

Trail sighed, "no. My wife and I found out the same way the rest of the world did."

"I understand," he nodded before turning to the others. "Did any of you know?" They all shared a look, then nodded at him. To say the cops were shocked to hear about Shining being in on this was an understatement. "Very well. I would like to question each of you about what you knew. However, as was just pointed out to me, those that are minors will need to have your parents or guardians present during this." He turned to the captain of police, "please hand him over to my agents."

The captain nodded and turned to another officer, who rushed inside and came out a minute or so later with Flash.

The teen looked around, seeing his parents and friends who all looked worried. They were especially concerned when they saw Flash was handcuffed. "Those won't be necessary," Shining told the president. "Flash isn't a threat."

"Until I can be sure of that, the cuffs stay on." He pointed at a car that had just driven up, "this will take Mr Sentry to the area we've prepared for questioning. His parents may accompany him." Flash nodded and made his way over to the car, his parents going with him as the others took out their phones and started calling their parents. They all knew this was gonna be a really long day.

Meanwhile, across town, one of the banks that had survived Vilgax's attack was currently being inspected by those that work there.

With the city in such a state, it would be a while before the place could reopen. But what those inspecting the pace didn't know was that the place was being watched by a bunch of crooks that were looking to score some paydirt.

"Oh yeah," one of the large group smirked. "The place has no security and just a couple of dweebs keeping an eye on the place. Getting into that vault's gonna be a cakewalk."

"Are you sure about this?" Another of the crooks asked. "What about those alien heroes?"

"Haven't you been watching the news?" Another of the large group asked. "Those aliens were all one guy. And he got arrested." This seemed to calm that criminal down. "That whole invasion thing was a blessing in disguise. Now Canterlot's in such disarray, the cops probably won't show up if an alarm is triggered."

"So what do we do?" A fourth member of the group asked. "Go in, guns blazing, and hope one of those bankers can open the vault for us?"

"Who needs one of them," another crook asked. "I've made something super special that'll blow that vault wide open." He opened his bang and showed everyone what was inside. The other nine criminals all looked inside and were absolutely astonished by it.

"Wow," they whispered, "and that'll get us into the vault?" He nodded, "then what are we waiting for?" The ten moved over to a van that was in the alleyway, the lot opening it up and showing it was full of dangerous rapid fire guns that would surely give them the edge.

Flash was sitting in another room, his parents in there with him, wondering what was gonna happen.

As soon as he had arrived at his location, which turned out to be the town's hall, the guards had ushered him and his parents into this room in order to question his friends first. The three had sat in silence, Flash knowing his parents had many questions for him but didn't want to say anything in case the room had been bugged.

After what was probably an hour of waiting, the door opened and a suit walked in. "We're ready for you now." Flash sighed and got up, being lead through the building until her arrived at the large hall that town meetings were usually held in.

As Flash entered, he spotted his friends in one of the corners along with their parents. He then turned towards the main stage, which was where the president was currently sitting. But behind him, a large screen could be seen with multiple faces on it.

Flash quickly realised it was an internet group chat and Flash recognised a few of the people on the screen as leaders of other countries. "Okay," he gulped, "this just got a lot more serious." He was led to a desk and three chairs, told to sit down along with his parents.

"Welcome," the president stated. "I took the liberty of questioning your friends first. Just be warned that if your story doesn't match theirs, it could have big consequences for them. Understand?" Flash nodded, "good. Now. Let us begin the questioning. Let's start with your name."

"Flash Sentry."

"And now, tell us how you acquired that unusual device on your arm? The one that almost caused our entire world to be destroyed by an alien." Flash sighed and started explaining everything that had happened to him. How he got the Omnitrix, how it stuck itself to his arm and how he chose to use it to save those around him who needed help.

It was a long tale, Flash going into more detail than the others due to actually being there the whole time. Then he explained what had happened when he was thrown into the Null Void, shocking his parents and friends since they hadn't had a chance to be told all this.

Flash's tale eventually ended and the many world leaders stared down at him.

"I see," the president spoke. "I must admit, you've been on quite the adventure. But it's time to stop messing around." Flash didn't like the sound of that, "we can't allow someone so young to wield such a dangerous weapon. You shall remove it and hand it over to the government, so that we may begin tests and search for someone more qualified to use it."

"You can't do that!" Rainbow cried, "nobody deserves that watch more then Flash." The guards all glared at her, but Rainbow clearly wasn't backing down. The others were also in agreement, but those on the screen clearly didn't care what she thought.

"A device of such power cannot belong to a child," the leader of an asian country stated. "Nor should it belong to any one nation."

"I'm in agreement," the russian leader announced. "Have him remove that watch, then we shall work to reverse engineer it so that every country will have one." This statement was met by the most unusual of responses. A laugh.

Everyone focused on Flash, who couldn't help himself from laughing. "Is something funny?" The president asked.

"Yes. The fact that you think you can remake something like this." He held up his manacled arm, "this device is the most complex piece of machinery in the universe. It took the smartest mind in five galaxies centuries to complete it. Nothing we have would even let you take it apart to study."

"I think you're underestimating earth's ability to adapt to new technology," the president stated.

"No, you're underestimating how complex this thing is. Us trying to learn how this thing works would be like a caveman trying to figure out how a phone works. It's not gonna happen." He turned to the world leaders, "I'm not trying to mock you. But there is only one Omnitrix. And unless you plan to time share it, it's not gonna be something you can all have. Besides, it won't even come off."

"It must have some method of removal," the british prime minister stated.

"Not one that I know of," Flash replied. "This thing has a bunch of different settings, but none of them allow you to remove the Omnitrix. And for the record, one of the settings is a self destruct. So I'd be careful when messing with it." The leaders all looked annoyed, clearly feeling like Flash was holding out on them.

"Enough of this," another of the asian leaders called out. "I say we just cut the thing off the boy."

"How?" The french leader asked. "If it really is as well made as he says, then it's possible anything earth has would break before it left a scratch." Flash nodded, agreeing with that statement as the previous speaker spoke up.

"I don't mean cut the device." Flash quickly realised what he was talking about and suddenly got very protective of his arm, his parents and friends all looked horrified and enraged by this statement. Luckily, the president also felt the same way.

"I am not having any of my citizens getting their arms cut off just so we can possibly get this device." They all sighed, "there must be some other way to remove it." Flash was about to speak up, but somebody else did so before him.

"Nothing your limited technology can perform." In that moment, a bright flash of light exploded on the table in front of Flash. Everyone gasped at the light, whilst Flash was in shock due to recognising the voice. And as the light faded, the one in question was revealed.

"Azmuth." The galvin stood before him, wearing the same clothes he had worn in the Null Void. The tiny alien looked around, taking stock of everything that was around him.

"That's Azmuth?" Applejack asked.

"The creator of the Omnitrix," Twilight whispered in amazement.

"Huh," Adagio looked confused. "I wasn't expecting the smartest mind in the universe to be so...small." The suits rushed forward and pointed their guns at the alien.

"Hands in the air!" One ordered. "We order you to surrender in the name of the secret service."

"And what if I don't?" Azmuth asked, "and do put those away. I already sent out a signal that's excited the copper atoms enough to make them worthless." The suits all looked confused as one of them tried to shoot the floor, but the gun wouldn't fire. "See."

"What are you doing here?" The president asked, clearly not phased by the alien in the room.

"I've come to get my Omnitrix back," Azmuth stated. "It does belong to me, after all." Flash frowned, having expected this when he realised Azmuth was there. He held up his arms and showed the frog his manacled arm, Azmuth sighing before taking something out of his cloak.

He pointed it at Flash and the handcuffs fell off, followed by the Omnitrix cover. The watch was revealed, the president and other world leaders all staring at it in amazement.

Azmuth quickly looked the watch over, "you've taken good care of it. I would have expected a species like yours to do something stupid like...accidently break the faceplate off or something."

"Please," Flash rolled his eyes, "what kind of idiot would do that. Anyway, thanks for giving me the chance to save my world. That key you gave me was just what I needed to stop Vilgax from blowing the whole thing up." He prepared himself to lose the Omnitrix, "don't make me have to wait."

Azmuth sighed, "it's a shame you couldn't keep it."

"What do you mean?" Trail asked, having finally gotten over the appearance of the alien. "You actually want Flash to keep it?"

"I've seen what your son can do with this device," Azmuth explained. "The Omnitrix was never built to be used the way he has used it, but it's clear he's done more good with it than I could ever do. He's clearly proven he's worthy of the Omnitrix's great power. If I had it my way, I would have simply let him keep it. However..." He turned towards the president, "it's clear him keeping it would cause more harm than good for him. Tell me, what would you have done if you couldn't remove the watch from Flash's arm?"

"I don't know," the president replied.

"I think you do. You likely would have kept him locked up to stop people from panicking, then start using him in some kind of war you started."

"How dare you," the president growled. "I would never do that."

"You say that now, but you humans have a nasty habit of going back on your word when you think you have no choice. You or one of your replacements will eventually decide that Flash needs to be used a weapon."

"I wouldn't even let them use me as a weapon," Flash told him. "They could drop me in the middle of a warzone and the only thing I'd use the Omnitrix for is getting the heck out of there." Azmuth smirked, liking that attitude. It was truly a shame he couldn't keep the Omnitrix.

"So that's it then," the president sat down. "You let your device fall into this boy's hands, causing our planet to be put in danger, then come and take it away and leave us without any way of defending ourselves against possible future threats." Azmuth raised an eyebrow at the president. "From what Flash told me, this Vilgax was quite the famous alien. I assume that word of his defeat will quickly spread to every other planet that holds life on it."

"Yes," Azmuth nodded, "the universe is big but that kind of info moves through it fast."

"So tell me, what should we do if another threat should show itself? What if another alien comes to try and make a name for themselves, by attempting to destroy our planet. If something like that happens, you would leave us to defend ourselves?"

"There are galactic organisations out there that could protect your world," Azmuth stated. "But if you really wish for a human to be your protector, then I am willing to let the Omnitrix stay on this planet." That shocked the humans, as Azmuth turned to Flash. "But only if this young man is the one using it." That shocked them even more. "And you must promise not to try and turn him into a weapon. If I let you keep the Omnitrix and find you tried to make him end a war you fools started, I'll remove the Omnitrix and never give it back."

"You can't be serious," the president cried. "He's a boy. He's not even a legal adult yet."

"Compared to me, none of you are considered adults. But that is my demand. If you want to keep the Omnitrix, Flash Sentry will be the only human who can have it. And he'll continue to work under the authority of the Plumbers." The president glared at him, as the other world leaders complained that this was an outrage.

Back at the bank, the workers had finished their inspection of the building.

"Everything looks in order," the bank manager announced. "Glad nothing here got damaged." The others employees nodded, also happy to see this. They all discussed what they would do once they got the place closed up again. With some of the city a total wreck, there weren't a lot of places open for them to go have a drink and enjoy themselves.

But before any of them could suggest something, the doors were flung open and ten individuals rushed in.

The criminals smirked as they showed off their guns, which they started firing at the ceiling to show they really were real. The bankers screamed as they held up their hands, praying these crooks wouldn't use them on them. "Please don't hurt us!" The bank manager cried, as the criminals moved forward. "Relax, we're not gonna hurt you. Just leave!" The bankers didn't argue and ran for it, the lot of them making for the door. And as the manager was about to leave, he saw one of the criminals pull something out that made him want to scream.

"Why did they let us go?" One of the bankers asked, once they were out and safely away from the building. "Didn't they think hostages would be a useful thing?"

"Why are you complaining?" Another banker asked, "did you want to be held hostage?"

"No. It's just weird."

"They probably thought they didn't need any," the manager announced as he took out his phone. "With the way the city is, the police are probably swamped dealing with all the insanity that's been going on."

"So why are you phoning them?" His employee asked.

"I'm not phoning the police. I'm phoning a friend who works in the mayor's office. He'll want to hear about what I saw." He waited and was thankful he eventually picked up, the friend asking why he called. "Listen, we've got a serious problem. Some crazed crooks have taken over my bank. And they have a bomb!"

Back with Flash and the others, the president was still trying to comprehend what Azmuth had suggested.

"So you want me to let this boy run around, completely unsupervised, with a device that is on the same level as a nuclear bomb strapped to his arm?" Flash frowned, really wishing people would stop calling him a boy or a kid. It wasn't like he was a ten year old. "In what galaxy do you think that is a good idea?"

"Flash won't be unsupervised," Azmuth replied. "As I stated earlier, he will work under the authority of the plumbers. Should he do anything that is considered undeserving of the Omnitrix, then I shall see to it that the device is removed. But until he give me a reason not to trust him, I say you should let him keep the Omnitrix."

"This is ridiculous," the russian leader cried. "Why should we rely on a bunch of space pipe makers to protect ourselves? You should let us use that device how we see fit. We are the planet you put in danger by sending it here."

"I didn't send it here," Azmuth stated. "The Omnitrix's transport was attacked by Vilgax as it past your planet. Not my fault you're in a part of the galaxy that is rather clear of obstacles and makes a good space run shortcut."

"That's beside the point," the german leader cried. "If America gets to have that device, you should build one for each of us."

"I can't," Azmuth replied. "Making only one took me centuries. The materials that make it aren't exactly easy to manufacture. You would all be dust before I had the time to make another one." The other leaders all glared at him, whilst the president let what Azmuth said sink in.

"Please," he turned to Flash, "just give me a chance. I might be young, but that just means I'll have more time to learn what it takes to be a real hero. I'm not asking you to trust me right away, but don't I deserve the chance to earn your trust?" The president sat back and let those words swirl around in his head.

The other leaders looked annoyed he was even considering it, the lot about to yell out in refusal.

But before they could, the doors of the building flew open and a suit rushed in. "Mr President!" He cried, running to the man's side. "We have a situation. A bomb threat has been called in." They all looked absolutely shocked to hear this, the president standing up.

"Tell me more?"

Back at the bank, seven of the ten criminals were standing at the doors of the building and were firing their weapons into the streets.

Many cops were gathered outside, all of them hiding behind their cruisers to shield themselves from the hail of bullets. They attempted to fire back, but their shots weren't even getting close to the criminals.

A bunch of cops tried to get in close, but they all found themselves getting shot and were forced to take cover once again. "We've got them pinned."

"But we're also trapped!" Another yelled. "You and your no hostages idea. Why did you let those guys go?"

"The police shouldn't have reacted this fast. How'd they know about the bomb?" He had almost had a heart attack when one of the officers called out for them to turn over their explosive device. But he wasn't worried. Their weaponry was far superior to the cops. They could outgun them, no problem.

"What's the situation?" The president asked.

"The officers we relieved of Sentry have rushed onto the scene. But several more officers aren't gonna be able to get there for a while. Much of the police force of this city was injured during the invasion. Their forces are spread thin."

"Then let me go!" They all turned to Flash, "I've dealt with bank robbers before. Heck, I've dealt with alien bank robbers before. And I'm even better now then I was during those times." He held up the Omnitrix, "let me prove to that I can be trusted with this device. If I fail, you can take the Omnitrix and give it to someone you think is worthy."

The president stared at the teen, then looked over at Azmuth. The galvin nodded, clearly agreeing to this plan. Whether or not he was agreeing to Flash's terms was another story altogether.

"Very well," he stated before turning to his suits. "Do any of you have a camera collar?" They all nodded and took something out of their jackets. They were a bunch of small boxes with a glass circle on it and a strap coming out the back. "Give one to him." The lead suit stepped up to Flash, placing it around his neck. "This will allow me to see everything you do. Prove to me that you are worthy of my trust."

Flash smiled as the camera was activated. "Thank you." He activated the Omnitrix and brought up XLR8, the teen looking back at his friends and then his parents. His friends all smiled at him, knowing he would be okay, whilst his parents looked scared. "Don't worry. I'll be okay." They didn't look any less scared and Flash slammed the Omnitrix down, a bright flash of light engulfing him before fading to show the velociraptor alien. "Gotta run!" With that, he lowered his visor and exploded out the door with a gust of wind.

"Good luck," Misty whispered as the president turned to his fellow leaders.

"Apologies. But I'll be needing this screen to see how he does." The leaders all frowned as he hung up on them, whilst Azmuth leapt onto the table next to him. The others all began to make their way close, as the president fiddled with his laptop. "Ah, here it is." The big screen suddenly changed to show a bunch of blurry pictures, "what's going on?"

"I doubt that camera you gave him could detect movement of such speed," Azmuth told him. He then took out the device from earlier and pressed it, causing something to appear next to him. A device that looked like a microphone connected to a box. "Here, this should allow us to talk to him. Sentry?"

"What the?"

"Relax. I've set up a communication link with the Omnitrix. This should allow use to talk to you."

"Oh, got it."

"Be careful Flash," Shining told him. "Remember what we discussed when entering a hostile place."

"Case the environment and make sure to leave no room for surprises. Got it. Luckily, XLR8 can do that in three seconds. I'll check the area out and go in to help the cops. Hopefully, they're all still alive."

Back at the bank, the criminals continued to fire away at the cops.

Many officers had been shot by their heavy machinery, the lot barely able to pull themselves behind their cruisers to shield themselves as they tried to stop themselves from bleeding out.

"Ahhh!" One of them cried, as he held his bloodied leg. He knew if he didn't get medical help soon, he would either bleed out of be forced to have his leg amputated. But there was no way he could possibly escape, since any time any of the officers attempted to get away the crooks fired at them. It was a miracle nobody was hurt.

But that might soon change, since three of the criminals walked out. "Piggies," one sang, "come out to play." They cocked their guns, ready to shoot them, whilst the cops gulped.

"I think this might be the end," another of the officers stated. They were about to agree with them, but then something happened that changed everything.

A powerful gust of wind suddenly shot past the crooks, knocking all three of them into the air. They screamed as their guns also vanished, the three hitting the ground and finding their arms and legs were tied behind their backs.

"What was that?" One of the crooks cried, only to see one of the cops who had stood up to get a look at the situation. "Now I've got you!" But before he could fire, the blue blur shot past and the cop vanished. "Where'd he go?" Another blur shot past and the crooks saw that one of the other cops that had been hiding also vanished. It shot past again and took another cop, then another and another and another.

"What's going on!?" Another crook cried, as the three tied up criminals tried to free themselves.

"Come out here and help us!" One of them told the crooks inside, but the cowards were too scared to step outside. And sure enough, once the last cop had been zipped away, the blur appeared in front of the criminals. And when it stopped moving, they figured out what had been causing them problems.

"It's that kid!" One of the criminals cried, seeing XLR8 standing there. The camera was still around his neck, recording everything that the alien hero was doing.

"See," Shining told the president, "Flash disabled the danger and saved the injured cops."

"Maybe," the president nodded, "but that doesn't mean him having that device is a good idea." As he said that, the crooks pointed their guns at him. They all wondered what Flash would do next, expecting him to dodge the bullets. But he didn't.

"Hold it," Flash cried. "If you do that, the only ones you'll end up hitting are your friends on the ground." The crooks on the ground began to panic, whilst those pointing their guns at him seemed to be considering what to do. They then shrugged and prepared to fire anyway. "Fine, have it your way." Suddenly, the footage turned completely green.

The criminals started firing into the green light and as they did, they heard the bullet bouncing off of something.

When the light faded, they saw the thing they had hit was a crystal wall. It had appeared in front of the crooks and protected them, the bullets not even cracking them and falling to the ground. This shocked the crooks, only for something to leap out from behind it. Diamondhead.

The crystal alien flew through the air and landed at the front of the bank, then charged inside as the criminals fired. The bullets did as much damage to him as they did to the wall, Diamondhead quickly rushing into the building and sliding to the middle of the room.

As he did, he spun around and fired several shards at th crooks. These hit the guns right in the barrel and cut them up, preventing them from being fired again. The petrosapien then began to charge at each of the crooks, dealing simple but effective punches that knocked them down and allowed him to stick them to the ground with crystal manacles.

One by one, the criminals all went down. When the last one was stuck to the ground, with only a few cracked ribs, Diamondhead looked around. "How many more crooks are there?"

"We think about three," Shining replied. "But it could be more. Be careful." Flash nodded and touched the Omnitrix, transforming into Chamalien and leaping onto the ceiling before turning invisible. He began to make his way through the bank, following Shining's instructions on how to get to the vault

He really wished the camera collar wasn't around his neck, since it prevented him from being completely invisible. He just had to be more careful.

And as he drew closer to where the vault was supposed to be, he heard voices coming from a room up ahead. "I don't hear any commotion outside. Think the others managed to deal with the cops?"

"Who cares. That's not our job. Our job is to get this freaking vault open."

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" A third voice asked. "That things seems pretty powerful. What if it blows the whole place up and us with it?"

"Would you relax. I know what I'm doing. I watched a video about it online." Chamalien frowned hearing this and knew he had to find a way to take them down. But he was worried that if they shot at him, he might accidently hit the bomb and blow them all to kingdom come.

He looked around and spotted a chair, the lizard smirking as he turned visible and used his tail to hook the back and lift it up. He then threw it against the wall and caused a loud clattering sound, catching the crooks attention. "What was that?" Chamalien went invisible again and scurried towards the door, are they opened and three crooks ran out holding guns.

They spotted the chair and all went to investigate it, allowing the alien his chance.

Chamalien flew down from the ceiling and landed on two of the crooks, whilst using his tail to sweep the legs of the third. The three cried out and hit the ground, Chamalien grabbing their weapons and leaping for the door.

He flew inside and threw the weapons away, hitting the Omnitrix to transform back to human. As he did, the crooks begin to recover. They turned towards the door and saw Flash smirking at them, the teen slamming the door shut and using a chair to bar the door closed.

The crooks rushed towards the door and tried to get inside, but are unable to get through.

Flash turned towards the vault, seeing the door had something on it. The bomb. "You guys seeing this?" He asked, moving over to the bomb and taking a closer look. As he did, his eyes went wide seeing the timer was counting down. He only had about five minutes before it blew.

"Yes," Azmuth replied, "and this isn't good. Clearly those fools had no idea what kind of bomb they had. It'll blow that door off and destroy anything inside that's valuable. And it'll cause the entire building and likely the ones around it to be destroyed as well." Hearing this made Flash worry, since he didn't want any of the crooks to die.

"How do I defuse it?"

"Remove the panel around the timer." Flash did so, revealing a bunch of different wires and mechanisms connected to the timer. "Alright. Now listen closely and do exactly what I tell you." Azmuth started explaining what he needed to do, but Flash had absolutely no idea what he was saying with all the technobabble the galvin was telling him. "What are you waiting for? Hurry."

"Wait a minute!" Flash cried, "I don't even understand half the words you just said." Azmuth sighed in his ear, clearly about to try and explain it simpler. But before he could, Twilight spoke up.

"Flash, change into Grey Matter. If you're a galvin, you'll understand what Azmuth's telling you."

"Got it!" Flash activated the Omnitrix and cycled through the aliens until he found the one he was looking for. "Let's go!" He slammed the watch down, transforming. But when the light faded, he realised he wasn't the alien he wanted. "Oh no," he gulped seeing he was the skunk alien he had unlocked along with Grey Matter. "This stinks."

"Flash," Twilight cried, "you've gotta change into Grey Matter. Hurry!" Flash reached up to hit the dial, but Azmuth spoke up before he could.

"Don't change. You don't need to." Flash was confused, but then Azmuth told him to look up at the bomb. When he did, he realised he understood what the bomb parts did.

"Wow," Flash jumped up and hung onto the bomb, "this is so simple." He started taking the parts Azmuth had told him to remove off, amazed at how smart he felt right now.

"Wait?" Shining turned to Azmuth, "that alien's smart?"

"Not as smart as we galvin, but still smarter then humans. Intelligence wise, if I was a normal human and you were a caveman, this alien would be about as intelligent as your species was in the...eighteenth century." The humans who heard this all let that information sink in, the president turning to one of his men.

"I'm not sure, but I think I was just insulted."

"I'm sure," his guard replied as Flash spoke up.

"Okay, what next."

Flash listened closely, as Azmuth explained everything he needed to do.

He was still amazed at how he understood all this, having not pegged this particular alien for being very smart. "I guess it had to have something going for it aside from a horrible smell." As he said that, the doors banged loudly as the crooks on the other side rammed themselves against them. As they did, the chair holding the doors closed shifted a bit.

"Alright. Now simply pull out the blue wire that should be hidden beneath all the other wires" Flash moved the many wires out of the way, revealing the blue one. But then, he saw that there were two wires of that colour. "Um...which blue wire?"

Azmuth frowned, "there shouldn't be a second wire."

"It must be a failsafe," Shining stated. "They put in two wires to stop the bomb from being disarmed. One will shut it down, but I'm guessing the other will make it explode." This statement terrified everyone, especially Flash's parents. They looked back at the screen, trying to figure out a way to tell which one was the one they needed to cut. But the wires were perfectly identical and connected to the exact same spots.

"What do we do?" Twilight asked, clearly worried Flash was about to blow up.

Flash stared at the wires, his skunk brain trying to formulate a plan.

Then, he had an idea and jumped down off the bomb before moving over to the vault. He quickly started fiddling with it, using his ears to listen as he spun the vault's wheel several times. "What are you doing?" He heard Shining ask as he worked, the skunk not responding as he heard several clicks.

"That should do it!" He spun the wheel and the vault unlocked, swinging open and revealing a ton of money and other things inside as Azmuth spoke up.

"Flash, placing the bomb inside the vault won't be enough to stop the explosion from destroying everything."

"I'm not gonna put it in the vault." He rushed over to the door and pulled the chair away, just as the crooks attempted to tackle the door. They all fell to the ground, groaning as they did, then turned to see Flash.

They glared at him, but then he pointed at the vault and showed it was open. "We're rich!" They cried, about to run into it. But then they noticed the bomb was still counting down.

"Not if that bomb blows all your precious money up." The crooks looked horrified and rushed towards the bomb, the one who set it up quickly getting to work.

"Flash!" Twilight cried, "what are you doing?"

"I had a eureka moment," Flash stated. "Why risk blowing myself up, when I can have the guys who made the bomb do the job for me." And sure enough, the bomber cut the correct wire and the bomb stopped with less then a minute left.

"Alright," the crook cheered, "now to get the cash."

"Oh, I don't think so." They turned to Flash, who was standing in front of where he had thrown their guns. "The only thing you're getting, is a couple years in the slammer."

"And what are you gonna do about it?" A crook asked, "shoot us with our own guns?"

"I don't use guns," Flash replied. "I'm not weak, like you."

"Weak!?" One of the crooks growled, "I'll show you who's weak. A pipsqueak like you probably can't even lift one of our guns!"

"You're right," the skunk nodded. "But I don't want to, or need to." With that, he turned around and pointed his tail at them. Before the bombers could ask what he was doing, a strange gas exploded out of the tail and shot towards them.

The minute they were consumed, their noses were assaulted by a horrible stench. The three of them screamed as they tried to block out the smell, whilst Flash laughed.

"Now that's what I call a U-Reek-Ah moment." The criminals screamed and ran for the door, as the skunk pushed the vault closed. They ran through the bank, hoping to escape the horrible smell. But no matter how fast they ran, they couldn't outrun the smell.

"Hey!" One of their friends cried as they ran into the bank's lobby, "get us out of here!" But they didn't listen and ran out of the bank, where a bunch of cops were waiting.

"Freeze!" The crooks happily surrendered, so long as the cops kept that horrible monster away from them.

Said monster stepped out of the bank, the crooks screaming in fear and begging to be taken away. The cops were completely shocked, wondering what such a small and cute creature could have done to make them so scared.

The Omnitrix beeped and for the first time ever, Flash wasn't worried about changing back in front of people. He returned to normal and stepped towards the cops, then smiled at them as he walked past. "The rest of the crooks are trapped inside." They then heard cries of horror, as the smell from the stink blast had finally reached the lobby. "You...might wanna give it five minutes." The criminals begged to be arrested, as Flash walked down the street.

But before he could get away, a car drove up and Flash knew it was the president's personal guard. They had come to make sure he didn't run for it, Flash knowing this would happen.

Flash was soon returned to the town hall, where he was placed inside the room he had been in before.

The president was reviewing the footage along with all the other recordings made on Flash's heroics. Hopefully, what he saw would be enough to convince him to trust Flash. But for right now, all he could do was wait and hope.

The door finally opened and Flash saw a suit, who told him to come with him. Flash followed him through the hall and eventually came to the main meeting room. The president was once again on the stage, Azmuth standing besides him. Flash was directed back to the chair, his friends and parents all sitting at the back of the room.

Once he was sat down, the president spoke. "I've gone over the images from the bank, along with several other pieces of footage online and even provided by your friend here," he gestured to Azmuth. "And whilst I still think it might be a mistake to allow someone so young to possess so much power, I've decided to take a risk and allow you to keep the watch." Flash went wide-eyed at the sound of this. "And I will not attempt to turn you into a weapon. I will allow the Plumbers to keep an eye on you."

"Thank you," Flash smiled before looking curious. "If you don't mind me asking, how much do you know about the plumbers? I don't think we really discussed what a plumber is in our last meeting."

The president smirked, "I know everything about the plumbers. Have since the moment I took office."

"WHAT?" Flash and everyone else cried, unable to believe such a thing.

"It's true. After all, our first president was also the first plumber. He and several that followed were all plumbers. And when a non-plumber was elected, they were made aware of the plumbers and that has been the tradition ever since. I was quite shocked when I discovered the truth about aliens being real. And now I get to meet a real plumber."

"Thank you," Flash smirked. "Though I'm only a provisional plumber."

"I wasn't talking about you," the president stated before turning to Shining Armor. "I was actually sent a message several months ago by the plumbers, using a device passed down from one president to another." He reached into his jacket and took out a familiar badge. A plumber's badge. "They sent me a message, telling me that a human plumber had been assigned to protect earth. Had Flash not been outed during this little event, I would have asked to see Shining myself."

"They told you about me?" Shining stood up. "But not about Flash?" The president shook his head.

"Guess they wanted to keep his identity a secret due to his age. But that's beside the point now. Flash will continue to use the Omnitrix and protect this planet, working under Shining Armor's supervision. Is that agreed?" Flash and Shining both nodded with a smirk. "Very well. I'll want reports from you about what Flash does from this point on. If I see something I don't like, I may end up reneging on my decision to trust you. Is that understood?"

"Yes sir," they nodded as the president smiled.

"Good. Now we can talk about some of the issues my decision has already run into." Flash and Shining raised an eyebrow at this. "As long as Flash carries the Omnitrix, any attempt to go to another country by him without permission will be considered an act of war. The other leaders aren't happy about us having such a powerful device, but as long as we keep it inside our country then we won't have any issues."

Flash sighed, "so much for my dream of one day going to see the great wall of China." He knew it would be a small price to pay to keep his powers. And who knows, it might be possible to one day be invited to another country if he built up enough of a reputation.

"Now," Azmuth turned to the president, "about what you said earlier about your planet becoming more known to the rest of the universe. You're right that Earth will likely be getting a lot of attention. So I think you need more of a plumber presence here."

"What do you mean?" The president asked.

"You already have two plumbers on earth. But if you had more, then I'm sure the universe won't be so quick to write the planet off as someplace they can come and cause problems."

"Really?" Flash smirked, liking the idea of more plumbers appearing.

"Why not? The organisation started on this planet. I think it's time you returned to the fold." Flash and Shining, along with the others, all smiled whilst the president nodded.

"Yes, I like this idea. At the very least, the United States will once again become members of the plumbers. If the rest of the countries wish to follow suit, it should go a long way to improving the situation. There'll need to be a base set up somewhere. I think there's still one in Mount Rushmore that might work, if Mr Sentry and Armor are willing to move there." The look on the two's face showed they weren't big on such a thing.

"I think they would rather stay in this city. From what I've seen, it's not just the Omnitrix that has caused the many strange events that have occurred. This city seems to be a magnet for trouble."

"You want to build the base here?" The president asked. "But half of it's been destroyed. By the time we manage to rebuild it, we could have built ten bases anywhere else." Azmuth simply smirked as he moved along the edge of the table.

"Follow me."

They followed Azmuth outside the town hall, though Flash ended up carrying him to cut down on the time.

Once they were outside, Azmuth took that device out of his robes again and pressed. Doing so caused something to appear above the town hall. The same spaceship Flash had seen in the Null Void. Azmuth pressed another button and this caused the ship to fly forwards, towards an area of the city that had been damaged.

To say the people on the streets were scared was an understatement, especially when the ship unleashed a strange green beam.

But the beam ended up hitting a pile of rubble, causing the debris to shake before it started moving through the air. This caught everyone's attention, as they watched the bricks and metal moving together and merging. It was like someone was placing a house getting destroyed in reverse. Within seconds, the building was completely restored.

"Wow," everyone whispered as the ship moved over to repair another building. "How'd you do that?" PInkie asked.

"Just a little something to apologise for all the issues my Omnitrix has caused since coming here. The city should be restored by the end of the day." They could hardly believe that, but it was clear from how fast the ship was fixing up the buildings that he wasn't kidding.

The president laughed. "Impressive. Guess that's alien technology for you. Alright," he turned to Flash and Shining, "you can have a base here." The pair cheered, high-fiving at this. "Shining Armor, you'll need to leave the police force. I know that might seem like a sudden change in career, but-"

"I understand," Shining nodded. "Honestly, I always assumed I'd end up going full time with being a plumber. Didn't think it would happen this soon, but I'm okay with that. Plus, now I won't have to hide whose under my suit anymore."

The president nodded and turned to Flash. "One more thing." The teen looked at him. "Whilst I am willing to let you continue on as a hero, I'm afraid you being a minor does cause one small issue. In order to continue using the Omnitrix, you'll need parental allowance that can be removed whenever they chose. This'll change when you turn eighteen, but until then..." They all turned to Trail and Misty, who still appeared concerned for their son.

"Mom," Flash stepped forward, "Dad. I know you guys are worried about me. I don't blame you." He showed them the Omnitrix, "I know having this device means I'll end up going through some pretty crazy times. But I don't regret it. And I know this wasn't just an accident. Having the Omnitrix and using it to protect others is my destiny."

"We know," Misty sighed. "I always knew you were meant for something great. I just didn't think it would be this."

Trail turned to Shining, "promise to protect him?"

Shining nodded, "and give him a quick kick up the backside if he ever needs it." The others laughed at this, Flash pouting at the statement. Once they finished laughing, Misty turned back to Flash.

"Okay, you can keep being an alien hero." Flash smiled and moved over to hug them, the family hugging him back tightly. But then, Misty pulled back and looked him in the eye. "But don't think this means you can shirk your education. If we find out you missed school or your grades dropped because you were off being a little green man, don't think you won't be grounded again."

Flash's face fell. "Wait, I have to keep going to school?" They nodded, Flash moaning as he fell to his knees and the others laughed.

A few days later.

Flash gulped as he stared at the building in front of him. The school had finally reopened after everything that had happened and in the few days that had passed since Flash's meeting with the president, news that he was now working as a government sanctioned superhero quickly spread.

Shining had also been outed by the news, which had resulted in an interesting conversation with his parents, but Flash was still the one who was in the spotlight. And now, he would have to forget about all that for a few hours until school was over. That is...if he could actually get up the nerve to walk into the building.

"Scared?" He turned to Twilight, as she, the Rainbooms and Trixie stepped up besides him.

"Terrified," he replied.

Trixie rolled her eyes. "A few days ago, you were staring down a bomb after surviving being sent to a hell dimension. You can't seriously be scared of a bunch of teenagers."

"But everything's gonna be different now," Flash sighed.

"Now you know how we felt after the Fall Formal last year," Rainbow pointed out. "Come on man. If anyone gives you any lip, we'll handle them." The others nodded and Rainbow pushed Flash towards the door, the teen sighing before stepping into the building.

As soon as he did, the students and teachers stopped talking and turned to see him. Flash was feeling very exposed, as he made his way into the round section of the entry hall. Once he was there, he looked around and saw everyone staring at him. He couldn't read their faces, but a part of him was saying they weren't happy to see him.

Then, two people stepped up to him. Ringo and Brawly.

"Hey guys," Flash looked worriedly at them. "So...yeah, now you know why I was always late to practise. I'm sorry I kept this from you, but would you have really believed me if I told you?" The pair continued to stare at him, Flash feeling like a yell or something was about to come.

But instead, Ringo started to slowly clap. Brawly followed suit, shocking Flash as they applause increased. The others around them all followed suit, both students and teachers clapping and cheering for Flash.

"I...I don't understand."

"Dude," Ringo laughed, "you're an alien superhero. You saved the world and who knows how many lives. We totally get why you were late. And we're sorry we kicked you out of the band."

"But I think we all know being a superhero is your real destiny," Brawly smirked. Flash couldn't help but feel his heart grow warm and their praise. And as Celestia and Luna stepped forward, he saw her give him the same warm smile she had only given the Rainbooms after they saved the day.

"Flash, you've done this school proud."

"Yes," Luna nodded, "but I hope you'll refrain from transforming into an alien around school. Unless we're suddenly invaded by some kind of alien monster, of course." Everyone laughed and Flash nodded, promising to stay human if he could help it.

Flash had been so worried his life would change for the worse when his secret go out, but it seemed one of the most important things in his life would remain the same. His friendships.

He wasn't sure what more the future held for him, but he would face those challenges head on. Because as long as he had his friends besides him, he knew he could handle anything the universe threw at him.

In a dark lab, a figure stood in front of a large computer.

That figure was hidden within the shadows, watching as the news footage of Flash and the announcement of the plumbers and their presence of earth was reported. "So," he spoke in a gruff voice, "the plumbers have returned to earth." He spun in his chair, as he held something in his hand. A plumber badge, "this'll be interesting. Maybe they can help me find my missing experiments." The chair turned towards the back of the room, where five empty glass tubes stood.

Each one was meant to be filled by something, but they weren't...yet.

In a part of the city that had been destroyed and rebuilt, something was laid out on the roof of a building.

That thing was a strange tube device, which looked like something out of a sci-fi movie. The front of it was glass, surrounded by grey metal with black lines. The glass showed some kind of gas inside the device, with an electronic display beneath it.

Suddenly, the lights on the display lit up and words appeared. 'Stasis fail.'

Suddenly, part of the device separated from the rest. This caused the gas inside the device to be released, as the door of the capsule slowly swung open. And as it did, a growling sound filled the air before an arm of some kind rose within.

Said arm was covered in green feathers that went up to halfway between its hand and elbow. The hand and rest of the arm was yellow in colour, with long sharp yellow claws on the ends of the hand that looked like they could cut through anything. And sure enough, as the claws grasped the side of the container, they dug into the metal like it was snow.

Author's Note

Welcome, to season 3 of the Omnitrix Hero. Now Flash is famous and free to be a hero. How will things play out from here on out? And who was that mysterious individual and the strange creature in the tube. Only time will tell.

Season 3, Episode 2: The Mysterious Creature

It had been an interesting week for the people of Canterlot.

After the all out alien invasion, they now knew the identity of the heroes that had been saving them for so long. Flash Sentry had become a name that everyone knew and whilst several individuals were still a little suspicious of him and his Omnitrix, most of the city had come to respect and admire Flash for everything he did.

But the biggest change had to be the new building that was currently being built in a large empty sector of the city that hadn't had any plans for it in a while.

This building would soon be the place where earth's protectors, the plumbers, would be stationed.

Despite there only being two of them on earth, the building was being built with the expectation of their being dozens if not hundreds of plumbers in the near future. But right now, it was only a construction sight that had yet to take actual form.

The rest of the city was starting to get back to normal.

Whilst the buildings had been repaired, anything inside them had not been so lucky. So many of the people who either lived or worked in these buildings were forced to replace everything that had been lost whilst getting rid of the destroyed objects. That was where we find a bunch of men, who had been hired to do just that.

One of them was pushing a wheelbarrow of damaged office chairs towards a large truck, that would haul the stuff away to be safely recycled. "How many more floors do we have to do again?"

"As many as we can," another replied as he started emptying the stuff into the truck. "The sooner we get everything out, the sooner the people that work here can start making money again." The guy sighed as they went back inside, whilst another man walked across the street to a nearby hotdog stand.

He bought said hotdog and licked his lips, wanting to look forward to this as he prepared to take a bite. But as he did, a shadow of something large flew over him. He looked up, but couldn't see anything. "Huh?" He prepared to eat his hotdog again, but the shadow returned. And this time, it stayed.

The man looked up and saw something flying down towards him, causing him to scream as he saw it was big and covered in sharp claws. The last thing he heard before everything went blank, was a loud squawk.

Back at the construction sight of the plumber base, a smaller but still large metal building was standing.

This was Azmuth's portable lab, where the galvin could do his experiments no matter what planet he was on. And inside, the galvin was hard at work tinkering with the Omnitrix. As such, Flash was sitting there letting Azmuth work on the device strapped to his arm.

"That should do it," Azmuth then spoke as he finished doing whatever he was doing. "The locking mechanism is in place. But are you sure you want this?"

"Yes," Flash nodded. "This isn't like it was before. I can't go making mistakes that might stop people from trusting me." As he said that, the doors of the lab opened up.

Trixie and the Rainbooms had arrived, having had to stay back at school due to extra-curricular activities. "Hey," Trixie saw Azmuth had been fiddling with the Omnitrix. "Is something wrong?"

"No," Azmuth told her. "I've just added a feature Flash requested." This surprised the girls, who turned to Flash as he stood up.

"I asked Azmuth if he could fix the problem I've been having. Changing into the wrong alien." The girls instantly understood what he was getting at. "But apparently, he can't."

Azmuth nodded. "Yes, it's an issue I've had with it from the start. Likely an issue with its base software. I'll need to try and fix them in the next model."

"Next model?" Twilight looked confused, "I thought you said you couldn't make another Omnitrix for a long time?"

"I just said that to stop those other leaders from demanding their own. I could make another one if I wanted, but it would still be difficult. Besides, the Omnitrix Flash has is only a prototype. If I'm going to make another Omnitrix, I won't insult myself by trying to make it exactly the same. I'll improve it."

They all nodded, getting what he was saying. "So," Sunset turned to Flash, "what was he doing? If he wasn't fixing that problem, what was he doing to the Omnitrix?"

"Adding a locking mechanism," Flash explained. "If I can't stop myself from accidently changing into the wrong alien, I can at least stop myself from becoming something dangerous."

Azmuth nodded, "this new system will allow him to lock himself out of a particular transformation. That way, even if he does mistransform, he won't become the alien that's locked away. And if he does want to become that alien, he simply has to unlock it using a code he inputs."

"So how many aliens are you locking up?" Rainbow asked.

"Just one. Way Big." The others thought back to that particular alien and knew just how powerful it could be. "Remember when I took out those bank robbers. Back then, the Omnitrix turned me into U-Reek-Ah. But what if it had turned me into Way Big?" They quickly imagined the event of Flash crashing through the roof of the bank and likely crushing everyone inside.

"Good point," Rarity nodded. "Best to lock that one away until you really need it?"

"How does the lock work?" Applejack asked, as the others started looking around Azmuth's lab.

"Simple," Azmuth replied. "When he picks that alien, a screen will come up that needs seven digits. Only after he types it in will he be able to unlock the alien."

"Yup," Flash finished typing it in. "The old birthday's a good seven digits." The lock became activate and now, Way Big was no longer a possible accident.

"However, Flash won't be able to transform into the to'kustar whilst in alien form. He'll have to turn human and unlock it. So remember that when you feel you need it." Flash nodded as Pinkie picked something up.

"Oooow. What's this?" Azmuth saw the device she was holding and gasped.

"Put that down!" Pinkie did so. "And none of you touch anything. The objects in this lab are dangerous in the wrong hands. I doubt any of you will want to explode or turn yourselves inside out." The Rainbooms quickly shuffled away from the devices in the room. Azmuth sighed, wishing he hadn't made this lab easy to get into. "Anyway, Flash. I also took the liberty of adding a few more functions to the Omnitrix."

"You did?"

"Well, these were functions I've been meaning to upload to it for a while. If you recalibrated the Omnitrix regularly, I could have done it then. But the one time you did, I wasn't ready." Flash looked sheepish at this, "you should recalibrate the Omnitrix every month or so. That way, it'll be able to evolve along with you as you grow."

"Got it. It won't cause me to lose any of my aliens though, right?"

"Only if the recalibration is big enough. If you didn't use the Omnitrix for a few years, the recalibration needed to keep it working would probably reset the aliens back to ten new ones." Flash gulped, deciding he would definitely be recalibrating the Omnitrix from now on. "Anyway, I've added two new features. First is the vocalisation feature. That'll allow the Omnitrix to tell you if there is a problem." That surprised him. "Second is the long range scan function."

"Long range?" Flash thought about that, "you mean the yellow setting?"

"Yes. Previously, the Omnitrix needed physical contact in order to scan a DNA sample and unlock it. Now, you can do it at a distance. Whenever you see an alien you wish to become, activate the yellow setting and point it at whatever you wish to scan."

"Got it!"

"Cool," Rainbow smirked. "With those new functions and your ability to switch between aliens, being a hero's gonna be a snap." Flash wanted to be humble, but he had to agree with Rainbow.

"Now you just need something bad to happen so you can stop it," Sunset pointed out.

Flash sighed, since the last few days had been rather quiet since the bank robbery. "Typical. I finally get permission to be a superhero and nothing needing one happens."

"At least it gives you more time to work on your image," Trixie smirked. "Hey, I had an idea for something you can do." Flash raised an eyebrow. "Whenever you transform, you should yell out the name of the alien you become."

"Why?"

"Why not? It would be awesome! Think about it. You're facing down a crook and suddenly, you transform into a giant rhino and yell out Riot-Horn!" She made her voice super lower when she said that, "it'll terrify your opponent and let everyone you're saving know who's come to their rescue."

Flash had to admit, that actually sounded cool. "Hmmm, maybe I will give that a try." As he said that, the Omnitrix beeped to signal he had gotten a call from someone with the Omnitrix's number. And that could only be one person. "What's up, Shining?" Flash answered the way Azmuth had shown him.

"Flash, get down town. Something's attacking everything down there and it's either alien or magical." Flash didn't need to be told anything else, hanging up and nodding towards the girls. They nodded back and everyone rushed out of the lab.

Azmuth watched them leave, interested how things would play out.

Flash and the Rainbooms flew down the street in their vehicles, Trixie flying above them in her Sky Butterfly form.

Twilight was next to Flash, fiddling with something on her glasses. "Azmuth, you seeing this?" The galvin had shown Twilight some of his best inventions over the last few days, Twilight eager to learn about alien tech from someone who actually knew what they were doing. One of the inventions had been a super tiny camera, one of which Twilight had anchored to her glasses so that anything she saw was recorded.

"Everything's coming in clearly." He stated over the phone. "Not bad for your first time working with this device. There might be a little galvin in you." Twilight smiled as Flash turned a corner into the street that was under attack.

As he did, they found the place was a serious reck. Buildings were missing plains of glass, cars were overturned and large claw marks could be seen all over the place. "What happened here?" Fluttershy asked, as Flash pulled up and stopped along with Applejack's truck and Rainbow's bike.

They got out as Trixie flew down and landed next to them, the nine of them searching for any sign of the creature that Shining had called about.

Speaking of Shining, he rolled up on his hard-light quad-bike and stopped right in front of them. "You're here," Shining got off it. "Any sign of the creature?"

"Nope. We thought you were fighting it."

"No, but I got a call about it at the precinct." Despite no longer being a member of the police force, Shining would still be working there until the base was completed. "Be on the lookout. It can't have gotten far." They all split up and started searching the area, Flash going down a street as he spotted several people in one of the buildings next to him.

Two of them happened to be a news crew, who were doing a story on the rebuilt city when this all happened.

"Flash Sentry!" the reporter rushed out, holding her microphone. "What have you done to deal with this creature's sudden appearance?"

"Um?" Flash still wasn't used to the whole being famous thing, "I just arrived. But I'm on the lookout for this creature." He turned to the people, "can any of you tell me what it was that attacked you?" They all looked scared, but one man stepped forward.

"It was a terrifying monster. Big, with wings and giant claws. And it let out a loud sound that was like getting hit by a bus." Flash wondered what it could be, only for someone else to yell out.

"LOOK!" Flash spun around and saw something flying through the sky, heading right towards them.

It appeared to be a fusion of a man, bird and lion. It was humanoid in shape, but its bottom half was that of a feline of some kind. Its stomach, legs and feet were covered in brown fur with the feet having cat-like paws and a long tail that appeared to be that of a lion's. Its top half was green and appeared more bird-like, being covered in feathers with a large green head that had yellow feathers on the top that were shaped like a mohawk.

Its arms were green up until halfway between its hands and elbow, the rest being yellow bird feet with a three claws pointing one way and the fourth pointing the other. A pair of large green wings were sticking out of its back, with some of the feathers being yellow. Its beak was yellow whilst its tail tip and the area of its lion knees were green.

The beast shot down and as it did, it took a deep breath before unleashing a high pitched scream. One that caused a blast of force to explode out of its mouth. The sonic blast flew down and hit the ground, causing it to explode as it flew towards them.

"Everybody move!" Flash screamed, pushing the reporter away before diving out of the way as the debris flew passed him. At that moment, Twilight and Sunset arrived on the scene.

"What is that thing?" Sunset asked, Twilight steadying her camera as the bird lion combo flew around.

"Azmuth, are you getting this?"

"I am," Azmuth replied. "But I've never seen anything like this creature before."

Twilight turned to Sunset, "anything you know from Equestria?"

Sunset shook her head, "no. But it looks familiar." As she said that, Flash pushed himself back to his feet and looked up at the creature. It flew down and landed on a nearby lamppost, crouching as it glared at them all.

"Alright," Flash activated the Omnitrix, "I'm sure Firefly can singe those feathers of yours!" He slapped the dial down, but nothing happened. "Huh?" He looked down, as the watch didn't work. "Come on!" He tried again, but the device refused to activate. Then, it did something he wasn't expecting.

"Uncatalogued DNA detected!" It spoke in his voice, "function not available. Please stand by."

"What?" Flash tried again, but it just repeated the statement. "Azmuth, what did you do?" Azmuth heard this and was also intrigued, the creature continuing to stare at them for a moment.

Then, its entire body started thrashing about and it leapt into the air before shooting down towards Flash.

"Gyah!" Flash dived to the ground to avoid getting slashed at by its claws, whilst Twilight used her magic to throw the debris towards the beast.

It managed to fly around, avoiding the incoming rocks before unleashing a sonic blast towards the girls.

Both were blasted back and knocked flying to the ground, making those watching gasp as they looked back to see Flash still fiddling with the Omnitrix. "Come on!" He hit the watch, but it refused to work.

In that moment, Trixie and Shining arrived with the others close behind. They saw Flash seemed to be having trouble and Shining started blasting the creature, whilst Trixie charged with her rapier. But before she could get close, the beast unleashed a sonic blast and knocked her backwards.

"Come on!" Flash cried, "WORK!" The Omnitrix repeated the statement before suddenly turning yellow, surprising Flash as the dial then popped up and unleashed a yellow beam that flew towards the creature. As it did, it morphed into a yellow line of light that hit the beast. It moved up and down, going over its entire body before finally stopping.

Once that was done, the dial moved back down. "Unknown DNA sample acquired," the watch stated. "Scan complete."

"Huh?" Flash tried it and the Omnitrix popped up, finally working. "Yes!" He brought up the alien of choice and slammed the dial down, a green flash of light filling the street before the alien appeared. "Firefly!" He cried out, just like Trixie suggested.

The creature squawked and dived towards him, Firefly quickly thrusting his hands forward to unleash a blast of fire towards it. But the beast fired the sonic blast and the wall of sound blocked the flames, knocking them back towards him.

"WOW!" He closed his eyes to keep the smoke out, as the flames passed over him without causing any problems. And when he opened his eyes he saw the bird charging towards him. He ducked to avoid getting his face cut in half before spitting his silk thread into its chest, the bird noticing this as Firefly prepared to fly around it and tie it up.

But as he did just that, the bird slashed its claws at the silk and cut it off.

It then spun around and unleashed another sonic blast, Firefly dodging it only for the attack to hit the building behind him. The same building the people were watching the fight from. As such, the impact caused much of the building to be ripped apart and start falling to the ground.

"Oh no!" Twilight had recovered from the earlier blast and quickly used her magic to catch as much debris as possible. But she couldn't get it all.

Firefly flew down and hit the watch, a flash of light revealing his change in alien. "Arctiguana!" He landed and quickly unleashed a blast of ice towards the building, hitting the pieces falling to the ground and freezing them to the side of the structure. He then created several ice sections that froze the building in place, stopping it from falling apart. "Get the people out of there!"

Rainbow used her super speed and started grabbing several individuals, Rarity creating crystal shields to do the same whilst the others simply helped direct those who were scared to a place they could stay safe.

As this was happening, Shining continued to train his blaster on the creature. But it seemed to decide it was bored of this and flew off, Shining trying to blast it but missing. Trixie wanted to fly after it, but didn't want to get hit by that sonic blast.

Once the last of the people were safely out of the building, Arctiguana froze it in several more places. The weather was getting colder outside, so the ice should remain long enough for someone to make the building structurally secure.

"Thank you." An old woman told Pinkie, who smiled at her as the ice lizard finished his work before returning to human form.

"Flash Sentry?" The reporter moved over to him, "would you like to explain why it was you didn't transform right away? That creature almost killed you and all of use."

"Well," Flash scratched his head, "the Omnitrix...well."

"The watch you use to transform wasn't working correctly," the woman replied. "Many people were led to believe you understood everything about that device. Is this not true?" Flash really didn't like this. He wanted to know everything, but there was a lot to learn.

But the most important thing to worry about was what the heck that creature was. And where had it gone?

In a dark area, the creature was hiding in an abandoned building.

It was panting, as it flapped its wings to help it fly through the place and move from rafter to rafter. But as it did, its body suddenly jerked as a burst of pain raced through its body. This caused it to miss the rafter beam and make its wings freeze up, the beast falling to the ground.

Hitting the floor, it rived around in agony and wished it knew why it was there and what was causing it so much pain.

Back at Azmuth's lab, everyone was watching the news as it showed the footage of Flash fiddling with the Omnitrix.

"Well," Flash sighed, "so much for my first official fight going well." He was once against holding his arm up, Azmuth attaching a cable to the Omnitrix that connected it to his computer. "Azmuth, what the heck happened?"

"The Omnitrix was never made for battle," Azmuth replied. "It's original function was to store DNA and protect it in case a species went extinct. When it detected a new form of life, it would lock out all other functions until it acquired the new DNA. And it's not something I can simply take out." Flash frowned, as Twilight stepped up to the computer.

"So that creature was a species that wasn't originally inside the Omnitrix?"

"Exactly," Azmuth nodded. "But it's strange. I was sure I had acquired the DNA of all milky way specimens." As he said that, the computer showed a strand of DNA. Then, it suddenly split into three. "That's strange."

"What?"

"The DNA appears to be a hybrid of three different strands. And there are genetic markers indicating that it had been artificially aged up. Whatever the creature was, it wasn't naturally born." He started typing away as the DNA strands were scanned. "One of the DNA strands is Loboan, which would explain that sonic attack it used. The second strand appears to be the dominant one, but it's also...unknown. Whatever this creature is, its primary form comes from this unknown DNA strand."

"So there's an alien out there that's part bird and part cat?" Rainbow asked, that statement making Sunset hum.

"What about the last strand?" Shining asked, "what does that come from?"

Azmuth typed away at the computer before his eyes went wide. "It's...human." That statement shocked everyone, the lot of them thinking back to the creature and how savage it had been.

"That thing was human?" Applejack asked.

"Part human. A very minor part. The three DNA strands were coded to give this creature all the benefits of the species used. It's possible the unknown DNA sample wasn't originally humanoid, but the addition of the human cells shifted its body shape."

"Bird...cat...not humanoid," Sunset whispered. Slowly, he mind was putting these pieces together. "A griffon." The others looked at her, "what if the unknown DNA was that of a griffon."

"Griffon?" Flash looked confused, "the mythological creature?"

"Mythological in this world," Sunset explained. "But they exist in large amounts in Equestria."

"What are you saying?" Rarity asked, "that a creature from Equestria has fallen into this world and somehow gotten mixed with the DNA of a human and...whatever that third species is?"

"Of course not," Sunset stated. "But what if someone found a way to go to Equestria and get the DNA of a Griffon? Then brought it back. We know ponies become humans and dragons become dogs. But we don't know what happens to griffons that come to this world. Maybe they don't transform like the others."

"That's a possibility," Azmuth nodded. "And it would explain why the Omnitrix didn't have its DNA."

"Where it came from doesn't matter right now," Shining explained. "For now, we need to focus on capturing that thing before it does any more damage. Whatever it is, it's dangerous." As he said this, Fluttershy had been watching the news footage and saw how the creature acted.

For a moment, it seemed perfectly calm and simply stared at the camera. Then she saw it thrashing about and appeared to be in pain. "What if it's not dangerous?" The others looked at her in shock.

"Fluttershy, that thing tried to rip me to pieces!" Flash told her.

"A dog could do the same thing and we don't consider them dangerous. What if this creature doesn't understand what's going on?" She pointed at the screen, "it looked like it was in pain for a moment. What if it's hurt and just acting out because it's scared?"

"That is possible," Azmuth agreed. "Plus, we're not sure how old this creature is. The genetic markings on the DNA indicate it was aged up. Whilst its body might be that of an adult, its mind could be that of a child. A scared child that might not know where it is."

"So what do you want us to do?" Flash asked, "walk up to it and try to talk it into letting us throw it in a cage somewhere."

"Who said we need a cage," Trixie pointed out. "If it really is a confused kid in pain, maybe we can keep them somewhere un-cagey until we figure out what to do with it." Flash actually liked that idea, but he also knew he shouldn't expect it to be so easy.

"This is all pointless if we can't actually find it," Shining pointed out.

"I might be able to help with that," Azmuth told them. "I programmed my ship to scan the city for any DNA signature that matches the one I placed in the computer. If that creature is as one of a kind as I think it is, it won't be long before-" A loud beep could be heard, indicating the creature had been found. "Ah, there we are."

"You found it?" Applejack asked, Azmuth nodding.

"Alright," Flash turned to Shining and Trixie. "Let's go. The three of us will try and bring it in without hurting it. Taking too many of us might make this thing feel like it's being ganged up on." They nodded and all headed out of the lab, the others having to sit around and wait to see what happens.

The three took Flash's car, the lot of them heading to the coordinates that Azmuth sent them. As they drove, Trixie turned on the radio and regretted it the moment she did.

"And as you can see, Flash Sentry is simply standing there doing nothing whilst this creature attacks. He's meant to be our city's protector, but he didn't do anything." Flash groaned as he tried to keep his attention on the road.

"I don't think that's fair. Flash Sentry is still young. It's clear he just panicked due to the danger of the situation." Flash wasn't sure if that was worse or not. "From what we know, Flash has no formal training. He should have received some form of combat training before being sent into the field"

"Combat training? I've fought a bunch of different aliens and villains that required way more fighting skill then the police probably teach." Shining decided to turn off the radio. "This sucks. My rep is shot."

"So you messed up," Trixie shrugged. "So what? Just keep trying and you'll eventually show everyone what you can really do."

"She's right," Shining told her. "Things are different now. You'll have to get over people constantly trying to find fault with everything you do. It's human nature for people to look at someone well known and try to find anything that makes them look less perfect. Now you can either keep moaning about it, or work to improve yourself so you make less and less of these mistakes."

Flash sighed, "can I moan about it whilst working to improve myself?"

"Sure."

"Then that's what I pick," he stated as they turned into the area that had the creature inside of it. Said area was full of different factories, Shining using his badge to call Azmuth who was watching the signal of the Omnitrix and DNA signature.

"Alright, it should be right ahead of you." They stopped and stared at one of the factories, the lot turning to one another and nodding.

"Let me handle this," Flash told the pair. "Three might be too many and scare it. I'll head in and if you think I'm in trouble, come help."

"Alright," Shining activated his plumber suit. "Just be careful." Flash nodded back as Trixie put on her Luna Cat mask, Flash stepping towards the building and activating the Omnitrix.

Dialing up his alien of choice, he slapped it down and a bright flash of light surrounded him. "Volt-Edge!" He roared when the light faded, surprising the other two.

"I like that you're taking my advice," Trixie smirked. "But who was that announcement for?"

"Nobody. Just trying to make it more of a reflex." Volt-Edge headed inside the factory, his alien vision allowing him to see in the dark building as he tried to find it. "Here birdy," he whispered. "You in here?" He got further and further into the building, which was full of all machinery and other bits and bobs that looked like they were from the industrial revolution. "Nobody's gonna hurt you."

In that moment, he heard movement coming from above him. He went on guard and was ready to fight, but held back the lightning. He scanned the rafters and eventually, he spotted the source of the movement as it jumped around.

"There you are." He stood still and watched as the bird, lion, man hybrid flew around. "You can come out. I know you're there." The beast flew down and landed atop a piece of machinery.

The two aliens stared at one another, Volt-Edge staying calm whilst the hybrid let out a intimidating screech.

"I'm not gonna hurt you. I just wanna talk." The creature stared at him, seeing the alien wasn't doing anything to warrant fear. "My name is Flash Sentry. I know what you are and that you were created. I don't know why, but I want to help you." He carefully moved towards the bird, who got ready to attack. "I don't want to hurt you. Please, just let me help you. If something's wrong, we'll do whatever we can to fix it."

The beast continued to glare at him, but its features softened slightly.

"Do...do you have a name?" The creature tilted its head, "a name. Something to be called by." He gestured to himself, "I'm Flash. Do you go by something?" Appearing to understand him, the creature shook its head. "Okay...let me think." He looked around, hoping he might have some idea. Then, he spotted a plastic bag that was being blown around by a gentle breeze coming in from outside. "How about...Drift?" He turned to it, "does that sound like a good name?"

The creature chirped a few times before doing something he hadn't expect. It spoke. "Dra...dra...Drift." Volt-Edge was shocked, but realised this creature's DNA came from three species that could obviously talk. Of course it could do the same.

"Right. Drift. Do you like that name?" The bird nodded, Volt-Edge smiled and slowly stepped forward. "I want to help you. Let me take you someplace we can keep you safe. I promise, you'll like it there." The creature appeared to understand this and as Volt-Edge held up a claw, it held its claws out to do the same.

But before it could accept, the creature clutched its neck and screamed as it appeared to suddenly be in pain.

"Wow!" Volt-Edge leapt back, "what's going on?" The hybrid screamed loud enough to create an explosion of sound, which rocketed towards Volt-Edge and made him cry out as he was blasted back.

Drift fired its sonic blasts again and again, hitting the walls and ceiling and blowing holes in them. This caught the attention of Flash's teammates, who all rushed in as Shining turned his weapon into a stun gun. They quickly spotted Volt-Edge as he stood up, whilst Drift flew around and blasted everything.

"Freeze!" Shining started firing, but the hybrid dodged every one. Trixie quickly used the power of her Medallion and caused a bunch of metal walls to appear around Drift, trying to make it think it had nowhere to go so Shining could get a better shot.

"I hate to do this," Volt-Edge launched the lightning as well. The electricity helped keep Drift in place, allowing Shining to get a shot.

"Now I got you!" He fired, but the hybrid acted as he did and let out a sonic squawk.

The sound blast struck the energy bullet and caused it to explode, making it rain energy upon the ground as Drift began to constantly unleash the sound blast. As it did, it spun around and started carving through the walls.

"Stop!" Volt-Edge cried, "you're gonna bring the entire building down!" But Drift didn't listen and pointed its beak upwards, the sound blast hitting the roof and ripping right through it. As he did, the building started shaking to show it was no longer able to support its own wait.

Drift flew up and as he did, the building collapsed on top of the three. It flew through the ceiling and escaped, flying into the sky as it continued to scream in pain.

The factory was now a complete mess, now nothing more then a pile of rubble that was throwing dust into the air. And as the dust slowly started the settle, something appeared out of the rubble.

A crystal spike, which grew upwards before splitting into four and dividing. As it did, Diamondhead was revealed to be inside along with Shining and Trixie.

"Wow," Shining panted, "that was too close."

"Yeah," Trixie turned to Diamondhead, "thanks for the save." The alien nodded before looking around. "Did it get away?"

"Yeah," Diamondhead nodded, "but Azmuth should be able to track it." He thought back to what had happened before and nodded, "Fluttershy's right. Drift is smart, but stunted." The pair wondered who Drift was, "and I think there's something wrong with him. He was about to accept my offer, but something happened that drove him crazy."

"So this isn't just a capture mission," Shining realised. "It's a rescue mission."

"But how are we supposed to stop it?" Trixie asked, as Flash turned himself back to human. "Even if we want to help it, we're gonna need to fight it to capture it. How do we stop it without hurting it?" Shining was wondering the same thing, whilst Flash thought about it. Then, an idea formed in his head.

"I know what we've gotta do."

Drift flew through the air, as the sun was starting to set.

His mind was barely making complex thoughts, the pain he was feeling causing his instincts to kick in and preventing him from doing anything but preserve everything around it as a threat. As such, when it flew through a street it saw the people on the ground and started firing its sonic attacks.

The people screamed and ran for their lives, as the beast shot down and landed on a car roof hard enough to bend it and break the glass.

A police officer was nearby and rushed over, pulling its gun which he pointed at the bird lion hybrid.

Drift saw this and unleashed his sonic blast, knocking the cop flying backwards and bursting his eardrums. The man fell towards mailbox and would have broken his back, had Lady Masquerade now flown in and caught him before he could.

Now in her Sky Butterfly form, the masked hero flew him over to a safe spot and put him down. "Get to safety!" She cried, though he didn't hear a thing as she flew back towards the hybrid. As she did, Flash's car swerved around the corner as he and Shining rod inside.

The creature glared at them and launched another sonic blast, but Shining was one step ahead and pointed his blaster out of the window. The blaster had morphed into a megaphone-shaped device, which fired out its own sonic attack. The two slammed into one another and both completely vanished, as Flash pulled his car to a stop.

The pair got out, as Trixie flew behind Drift. Hopefully, she could keep him from flying away again. "How's it looking?" Flash asked Shining, who checked his weapon.

"Counter frequencies working perfectly. Good thing I was able to get a recording of its sonic attack." They stared at the creature, who beat its wings to hover in place. "Now what exactly is your plan? Just know, you've got a lot of people watching you."

Flash looked around and saw he was right. Many people had taken cover, many with their phones out waiting for him to go alien. "I'm not gonna transform if I can help it," Flash explained. "Drift needs to see I'm not a threat." He slowly walked forward, the hybrid staring at him as he did so. "Hey. Remember me? I'm the one who gave you the cool name."

Drift chirped as he stared at him, appearing to recognise him.

"Come on. You've gotta fight whatever's hurting you. I can't help if you attack me again." Drift slowly floated towards the ground, landing as he folded his wings in. "Come on. Show me what hurts." The bird slowly shifted to show his neck, Flash seeing some kind of lump on said neck. Something was under it. "That's not good. But I'm sure my friends can get it out. You just need to hold on long enough for us to do so."

Everyone was watching and was amazed, as Flash held up a hand and placed it on the creature's head.

Many were worried Flash would get his hand bitten or cut off, but Drift was able to stay calm. "See. Now let's get you-" He didn't get to finish, as the hybrid suddenly screamed in pain. "WOW!" Flash leapt back, as Drift grabbed his neck and keeled over in pain.

"Flash!" Shining told him, "whatever's hurting him isn't gonna stop. And it's clearly too painful for him to block out."

"He's gonna rampage again!" Trixie cried, but Flash wasn't gonna let that happen.

"Alright!" Flash activate the Omnitrix, "time to end this!" He slammed the dial down and in a burst of green light, he transformed into an alien nobody expected him to become. "Pesky Dust!" The fairy alien fluttered around and let out a girly giggle.

"Huh?" Shining and Trixie tilted their heads, unable to believe he had transformed into that alien. At first, they thought he had accidently gotten the wrong alien. But then, Pesky Dust smirked and flew over to Drift without a second of hesitation. "What are you doing?" Shining cried, only for Pesky Dust to start waving his hands around.

Doing so caused the sparkly fog to appear, which flew over to Drift and surrounded his head. "That's it," he told him as his eyes went droopy. "Go to sleep and dream pleasant dreams. We'll fix you up whilst you do." Shining and Trixie both realised what Flash was doing and both thought it was brilliant.

Eventually, Drift fell to the ground and started snoozing. Hopefully, the sleep would allow him to block out the pain.

Once the hybrid was asleep, Pesky Dust stopped making the mist and flew down to check on him. He then touched the Omnitrix and transformed again, "XLR8!" The alien raptor picked the griffon up. "I'll take him back to Azmuth. Think you can handle things here?" He didn't wait for an answer and shot off, leaving Shining and Trixie to deal with fixing the mess Drift had made.

Back at the lab, the others had been waited as Flash arrived with the unconscious hybrid.

As soon as he arrived, Azmuth summoned a large enough examination tube to comfortably house the creature. This tube was a large metal and glass cylinder, which had a bunch of metal arms that would allow Azmuth to perform a proper exam on him.

Everyone watched from the other side of the room, as Azmuth examined Drift thoroughly. The computer behind them had an X-ray of the beast, allowing him to see the problem. "Yes, Flash was right. There is something in its neck."

"Can you take it out?" Flash asked, Azmuth humming.

"I'll need to run a few more test to make sure it isn't some kind of explosive. If it is, it might be designed to trigger when removed. But, I've given him a powerful painkiller that should stop him from feeling whatever it's doing to him. His body appears quite strong. Whoever created him did a rather good job. He should be healed up in no time, provided I can remove the object in his neck."

Shining and Trixie finally arrived back at the lab at this moment, having been able to get everything sorted out back at the battle site. Shining smirked when he turned to Flash, "have you seen the news?" Flash looked confused, as Trixie switched on the TV and tuned it to the right channel.

The screen showed Flash standing in front of Drift, talking it down. It was clearly footage from somebody's phone, as they watched Flash place his hand on the creature's head. The reporter then spoke. "It appears that Flash Sentry doesn't need to transform to stop creatures from rampaging. Reports from the scene indicate he was able to stop the creature's rampage without hurting it. It was also discovered that this creature, whatever it was, had only been rampaging due to being subjected to some form of pain."

Everyone smiled, happy to see Flash was starting to get the respect he deserved.

But then, the footage showed Drift in pain and Flash transforming into Pesky Dust. "And I think we've found the alien every girl will want a plushie of." They laughed at Flash's embarrassment. Flash hadn't wanted to use that particular alien if he could help it, but he knew it had to be done to help Drift.

"Done," Azmuth announced. "The scan of the device is complete."

"Well," Flash got up, "is it safe to remove?"

"Yes. It appears to be some kind of beacon. Likely a tracking device, designed to allow whoever created him to find him. But it was likely damaged somehow, causing it unleash a small but painful electrical pulse through its body. If it continued, it likely would have caused permanent damage." The robot arms got to work, one slowly and carefully cutting into Drift's neck before another reached inside and pulled out a tiny device.

The arm then placed the device inside an opening in the side, which closed up before the other side opened up.

Azmuth reached in and took out the tracker, looking it over with disgust as the others moved over to examine it. "Very poor quality. Clearly made in a rush, so it was no surprise it broke the way it did."

"You said it could track Drift," Twilight pointed out. "Does that mean we can trace the signal back to whoever was tracking it?"

"Possibly. But with the device damaged, the signal was likely lost."

"So we might have no way of figuring out who made him?" Rainbow asked, as they gathered around the tube to stare at Drift. Azmuth nodded as he put the device down and started trying to find the signal.

"Maybe he can tell us when he wakes up," Fluttershy suggested. The others weren't sure, given how little intelligence Drift seemed to exhibit. Since the only word he had spoken was his own name, it was unlikely he could give them a detailed description of who created him and why.

"There has to be some way to figure out who made him," Applejack frowned as they all tried to think.

Then, Trixie had an idea. "Sunset, you were able to read Xylene's mind. Think you can read his?"

Sunset hummed, "he is part human. I don't see why it wouldn't be possible."

"Only one way to find out," Twilight pressed a few buttons and the tube opened up. Drift remained asleep, as Sunset stepped over to his head. She was a little nervous, not wanting to touch something that could bite her arm off, but she knew she had to try.

"Alright," she took a deep breath and placed her hands on his head.

As soon as she did, her eyes went wide as the memories of the creature flew into her mind.

The next thing she knew, she was trapped in some kind of glass tube. She looked around, seeing she was inside Drift's body. From what she could tell, Drift was just waking up from a rather hazy sleep.

She looked to the side, but the glass stopped here and was replaced by metal. She was barely able to see four other tubes that looked just like hers, each with something inside that she couldn't properly identify. She then looked forward and as she did, she saw a computer on the other side of the room.

The screen had a bunch of different images on it, Sunset straining her eyes to try and see them. She quickly recognised one of the images as a griffon, just like what she was. She then spotted an image of a strange mix of insect and pony, Sunset realising it was a changeling.

The images were all of creatures from Equestria. There was a dragon, a pegasus, a tatzelwurm, yak, diamond dog, sphinx, unicorn, minotaur, phoenix, manticore, hippogriff, seapony, chimera and several other creatures she had only ever seen in Equestria. They were all there, right next to a box with a DNA strand next to it.

Those images were then replaced by images of creatures Sunset didn't know. That was a lie, as she then noticed an image of a creature she had seen Flash become known as Diamondhead and Bloxx. She quickly realised these had o be a bunch of aliens, Sunset's eyes scanning them and seeing many different kinds. There was one that looked like a wolf, one that looked like Majister Glug, another that looked like a muscular creature whose entire body was covered in hair and many others. Each of these also had a DNA box next to it.

Sunset noticed someone sitting in front of the computer, but their back was turned to her and she couldn't see who it was.

Then, an alarm sounded and the figure rushed out of the room before she could see who they were. The alarm kept sounding for several moments before the entire room shook, rocking the tube and her inside of it. And as it did, the screen beeped as something appeared on it.

'Activating stasis and jettison procedure.'

That was all Sunset was able to see before the entire body filled with a strange gas. It completely blinded her and as she felt herself beginning to drift off, the tube suddenly moved as if it was being fired out of a cannon.

This was when the memories ceased, Drift likely not remembering anything after this before waiting up and attacking. She staggered back and clutched her head, the others moving over to help her. "What did you see?" Rarity asked, as Twilight closed the tube up before Drift could wake up.

"He was in some kind of lab. I...I saw a computer that had a bunch of different alien images. I think it had their DNA in it."

"Sounds like a genetics lab," Azmuth stated. "Genetic resequencing was a trend in several parts of the galaxy a few decades back. The plumbers shut them down because the resulting creation was mentally and physically unstable."

"That's not all I saw," Sunset sat down. "There were other images too. These ones showed creatures from Equestria. I'm sure they were from there."

"So someone went to Equestria and gathered a bunch of their DNA?" Flash asked, "what for?"

"I don't know," Sunset sighed. "But there's something else. I saw another four tubes besides the one Drift was inside. I couldn't see into them, but I think they had something inside of them."

"More griffon creatures?" Shining asked, Sunset unsure.

"I don't know. Maybe. Or maybe a bunch of different combos of human, alien and equestrian." They all frowned at this. If they were like Drift, they could handle them. But if they were a different mix, then who knows what they were capable of. "I'm not sure what happened, but somehow Drift was separated from wherever he was. And if he got out of there..."

"The others might escape as well," Flash realised.

He was right on the money. In four different areas of Canterlot, a capsule like the one Drift had been in was hidden from sight. Each one was still working, but it would only be a matter of time before they failed and the ones inside would be released. And when that happened, Flash Sentry would be in for a heck of a time.

Author's Note

That's right, I'm doing something similar to the Andromeda aliens from Ultimate Alien. Only my five creatures will be Equestrian creatures mixed with human and other DNA. Hope you like this twist. What other four Equestrians will Flash get to add to his collection and what will he end up calling them? Only time will tell.

Season 3, Episode 3: Old Friends, New Friends

In a laboratory of such, someone was watching a large computer screen as it showed a recent battle that had taken place.

The footage showed Flash Sentry, alien superhero, as he fought against a strange bird creature that had rampaged through the town. The footage also showed him talking to the beast, calming it down and putting it to sleep when it appeared to be in pain.

"So, one managed to wake up. And now it's in the hands of the plumbers. This is not good. I can't allow my masterpieces to fall into the wrong hands. But how can I get them back?" They thought for a few moments, then smiled. "Oh, that's brilliant." He started typing on a computer, sending commands to some place else.

In a dark area, lights came on and revealed a giant metal room full of different pieces of machinery.

In the middle of the room, was a tall metal figure. It appeared to be some kind of large mechanical skeleton, being mostly white with bits of blue here and there. Its head was white with a black visor section covering the area of the eyes, the mechanical giant standing completely still as no power was running through it at the moment.

Then, a bunch of mechanical arms started coming out of the ceiling and walls.

These arms began picking up pieces of machinery and moving it towards the skeleton, ready to build it up into something that would give Flash a hard time.

In the city of Canterlot, many people were taking time out of their day to head to a specific spot of the city. That spot was the location of the new plumber headquarters.

The building had finally been completed. At least, it appeared to be completed. Said building was a large round building surrounded by a fenced off area that was covered in grass and stone walkways along with a road leading up to the entrance. The Omnitrix Symbol was plastered on the front of the building above the entrance, the building looking no larger then a normal office building or police precinct.

But whilst it looked boring from the outside, the inside looked completely different.

Stepping into the building, it again looked completely normal. There was a currently empty reception desk, surrounded by many hallways leading to different rooms where meetings took place. There was a gym where the plumbers could work out and keep in shape, showers and locker room where they could change after a hard day's work and so much more.

All in all, it looked rather unimpressive considering it was meant to be an alien police force and prison.

But at one part of the building, an elevator could be found. And that elevator allowed whoever had access to descend down into the true base of operations.

Said base was still under construction, with galvin machines digging a large tunnel down which would soon be filled with alien tech and gear. But it was gonna be a slow process and they didn't have unlimited funds to do whatever they wanted.

As such, they were still reliant on Azmuth's mobile lab for anything they needed with plumber relations.

Currently, Sunset, Shining, Trixie and Fluttershy were there. Two others were also in the room, one of them being Azmuth. But the second one was the one everyone was focusing on. It was the strange hybrid creature that had been named Drift, the bird, lion, human combo currently eating a bunch of food pellets Fluttershy had gotten from the pet store.

Ever since removing the device that had been hurting him, Drift had become much more pleasant. As long as he was kept well fed, he didn't seem to have any desire to attack.

"Does that taste good," Fluttershy smiled at him. The bird squawked and nodded, still learning how to actually talk. "What do you say?"

"Tha...thank you." Fluttershy smiled at him, glad he was doing so well.

"So have you guys had any luck figuring out who made Drift?" Trixie asked, as Sunset was busy staring at her journal. Azmuth and Shining shook their heads.

"I've tried to trace the tracker's signal, but it's too badly damaged." Azmuth placed the device down. "I'm afraid we might never figure out who did this."

"I'm asking around," Shining told them. "But none of my old contacts know anything about weird science experiments going on. Especially not anything on this level."

Trixie nodded, understanding he was right. "So, any idea what we're gonna do with him?" The others looked at her in confusion, "I mean...it's not like we can just let him go. What, is he gonna get a job...house...mortgage? He can't just be locked up for the rest of his life. He needs somewhere he can be free and not have to worry about being hunted."

"She's right," Azmuth nodded. "But I can't think of any planets we could take him to that he could live on, especially not on his own."

"Yeah," Shining frowned as they stared at the young creature, "what to do with you?" They got their answer when Sunset's journal suddenly started glowing. She opened it up and read what was on the page, her eyes going wide.

"I might know someone who could help." The others looked at her, as Sunset smiled at them. "Princess Twilight's on her way over."

Meanwhile, in another part of town, Adagio was sitting at one of her favourite coffee shops.

She was currently working on writing a new song, which happened to be one of her favourite past times. She was humming to herself, trying to come up with the right melody to fit the words. However, the melody part wasn't really her area of expertise.

The Dazzlings were so good as a group because each of them had a part of play. Adagio wrote the songs whilst Sonata, who was surprisingly a musical genius, came up with the music. Aria would then come up with the dance moves when the song was completed and they had a hit.

Adagio smiled as she thought about her sisters. Ever since learning about Flash's true identity, they had wanted to really meet him and not the guy he was pretending to be. She had to admit, it was funny how annoyed they were at not getting to see Flash transform.

As she wrote her song, someone walked into the store. It was a teen she didn't know, but she seemed to know Adagio.

When she saw her, the girl looked shocked. "Excuse me?" Adagio looked up at her, "don't I know you from somewhere?" Adagio smirked, sitting back expecting her to remember her from her concerts or something. "Yeah, you're that girl that's always hanging around Flash Sentry."

The moment she said that name, every head in the store looked up. "Flash Sentry?" A guy asked, "where?"

"Her," the girl pointed at Adagio. She then took out her phone and started looking on it, "here it is." She showed Adagio the screen, "that's you, right?" Adagio looked and sure enough, it was a photo of her and Flash driving in his car. The girl swiped to the next picture and another one showed Adagio and Flash together, then another and another.

"Where are you finding all those?" Adagio asked, as the girl leaned forward.

"So what's he really like? Are you his girlfriend?" Everyone else in the store started crowding around Adagio, who smiled at all the attention she was getting. She had never actually called herself this, but she nodded.

"Yes, I'm his girlfriend."

Sunset and Shining were standing in front of CHS, both waiting for their guest to arrive.

Fluttershy and Trixie were back at the lab, whilst the others were all busy with other commitments at that moment. The only one who could come was Flash, the teen pulling up to the curb and getting out of his car. "Hey guys," he waved. "You said to meet you here. What's up?"

"Just waiting for someone," Sunset smiled as Flash raised an eyebrow. But before he could ask what she was talking about, the portal to Equestria glowed.

Flash's eyes went wide as someone suddenly flew out of portal. A familiar cry filled the air, as the one in question fell to the ground. Princess Twilight Sparkle.

"Twilight," Sunset rushed over to her. The pony turned human looked up and smiled at her, as Sunset held out a hand. "Long time no see."

Twilight nodded as she took the hand. "Yeah," she was helped back to her feet, "sorry I haven't been able to come. Really busy. And from what I heard, you've had a bunch of stuff keeping you busy to."

"You have no idea," Sunset smiled before stepping aside. "Anyway, I don't think I need to introduce who's with me." Twilight turned to the pair. First she saw Flash, smiling at him as he looked a little sheepish, then turned her attention on Shining.

"Wow," the plumber looked at her, "you really do look just like Twilight."

"That's because I am Twilight," she told him. "At least, the Twilight from another world." She looked around, "so where is the other me?"

"Mom needed her help at home," Shining replied. "Probably a good things, since it might get confusing if we had to talk to one of you and you both answered to that name." They realised he was right and knew they would need to come up with a way to distinguish between the two when they were together.

Sunset smiled, "I know. Why don't we call your Twilight Twilight and this one Princess. That should stop any confusion." The others nodded, Princess Twilight agreeing to that measure. "Alright then. We should get going. Flash, you mind giving Princess a lift?"

Flash, who had remained quiet up until now, nodded at them as he and Princess shared an awkward look. "It's really good to see you again," the ruler of Equestria told him.

"Thanks," Flash nodded. "You look great." Princess smiled and noticed the device on his arm.

"Is that the Omnitrix that Sunset told me about?"

"Yup," Flash showed it to her, "the one and only. Pretty cool, huh?" Princess nodded as Flash stepped towards his car, the pony turned human following behind.

Sunset could still see how awkward they were together, remembering their past and sighing. "I'm...gonna go with them. Don't want them sitting in silence with one another." Shining looked confused, as Sunset followed after the pair. The plumber just stared at the three, wondering if Flash and his sister's doppelganger had a history of some kind.

Once the three were in the car, Flash took off towards Azmuth's lab.

They sat in silence as they drove, Sunset feeling like the tension between these two could be cut with a knife. "So," she finally spoke, "Princess. Spike didn't come with you?"

"No," she shook her head, "Dragon Lord Ember asked him to help with something in the Dragon Lands. It's strange. She's been asking for him to go and help with stuff a lot lately." Sunset smiled, glad Spike was showing how great he could be to his fellow Dragons.

She then noticed Twilight's eyes shifting to Flash every now and then, focusing mainly on his wrist. "Do you have any questions for Flash?" She then asked, surprising the pair. "I know our Twilight had a bunch, so you must to."

"I guess I have a few," Princess turned to Flash. "What's it like, transforming into so many different types of creatures? I had a hard enough time just gaining a pair of wings. I've also been a breezie and a sea-pony for a short time, but it's probably nothing compared to what you've done."

"Yeah," Flash replied nervously, "it gets a little weird sometimes. Aliens like Goop and Squidstrictor took some getting used to, but after a while you don't really feel any different."

"Huh," Princess nodded, "I see. So...how many aliens do you have now? I know you originally had ten, but you've gotten more since then right?"

"Yeah," Flash hadn't actually counted how many aliens he had at the moment.

Sunset held up her hand and started counting off the newer aliens in his playlist. "Then Grey Matter, Arctiguana and finally Way Big." She looked at the number of fingers held up and realised all ten were. "Am I missing anyone?"

"Don't forget Drift," Flash told her. "I had to scan him before I could transform when we met him."

"So you can become the creature I've come to see?" Princess looked amazed by that, "part griffon, part human and part...what's the other part."

"Some kind of space werewolf," Flash replied. "And I can't become Drift. Just the same species as him. I'll look completely different from him."

"Why?"

"Azmuth told me the Omnitrix can only hold one strain of a specific species. When it scanned Drift, it scanned the three DNA strands that make him up. It then deleted the human and laboan DNA and replaced it with samples that were already in the Omnitrix. And the human sample in its database is...well, mine."

"Yours?" Sunset asked, not knowing this.

"Well it wasn't always mine. But when the Omnitrix latched onto me, it took a sample of my DNA to replace the human DNA already inside of it. So when it scanned Drift, it combined his griffon DNA with mine and the loboan sample. So now, the new form will basically be me in griffon form. At least, that's what Azmuth told me."

"Amazing," Princess was quite impressed by this. She had several more questions, Flash attempting to answer them all as they finally arrived at the plumber base and rolled over to where Azmuth's lab had been placed.

Shining arrived a minute or so later, the four of them heading into the lab.

When they got there, they found Azmuth staring at his computer whilst Trixie and Fluttershy continued to play with Drift. The girls looked up when they saw them step into the room, smiling at the sight of Princess. Fluttershy got up and moved over to hug her, Princess hugging back.

"It's great to see you," she told the pink haired girl.

"You too," Fluttershy smiled before they pulled back and Princess turned to Drift. The bird creature looked at her curiously, Princess stepping forward and looking at him kindly.

"Hello," she told him, "my name's Twilight Sparkle. I hear you don't have a home."

"No...home," Drift spoke shyly.

"Don't worry. I know it's hard, not knowing what you are and where you belong. But I wanna help you."

"Do you think you can take him back to Equestria with you?" Sunset asked, as Twilight looked him over. "I mean, Equestria's friends with the griffons. You can help set him up and teach him everything he'll need to survive there."

"I'm not sure," Princess sighed. "I mean, I'm sure I can help him get settled in Equestria. But what I'm worried about is what the portal will do to him."

"What do you mean?" Trixie asked, Princess turning to her.

"I'm a pony. That's what I was born as. When I travel through the portal, I turn human. But when I go back, I'm a pony again." She turned back to Drift, "you said he's part human. So what'll happen to him if he steps through the portal?"

"I see," Azmuth turned to her. "You're worried the process might affect him in a negative way. His DNA strands might become destabilized if they suddenly change from human to pony."

"Exactly," Princess nodded.

Azmuth hummed as he turned towards his computer. "I think I might be able to do something about that." They turned their attention to him. "DNA resequencing is easy for one such as myself. If I can understand the process that occurs during your transfer to this other world, I should be able to find a way to make it so that he can be sent there without any issues."

"You can do that?" Flash asked, "but this is magic. Are you telling me you've studied magic?"

"What you call magic, in any universe, is simply the ability to manipulate energy in a certain way. Everything, even magic, can be explained through science. There are species in this universe that can use magic, only the energy they manipulate is called mana."

"He's right," Princess nodded. "Magic is a science. Even the Magic of Friendship has scientific principles attached to it." She knelt down and patted Drift on the head. "I'll get in contact with the griffons when I return to Equestria. I'm sure...somepony, will be willing to take him in once he's been properly educated."

"If you're sure," Shining turned to Azmuth. "So how do we analysis what happens to her when she steps back through the portal?"

"I can whip up a little something in a few hours that should be able to scan the portal she uses without destabilizing it." They all nodded and decided to leave Azmuth to do with work. Plus, Drift looked like he was getting antsy.

Despite being well behaved, the hybrid was still young. And his natural bird instincts to fly weren't easily deterred. As such, they took him outside where he could spread his wings. So long as he didn't fly passed the boards of the base compound, he could do whatever he wanted.

Shining, Sunset and Fluttershy watched whilst Trixie had transformed into her Sky Butterfly form, which she used to keep Drift company in the air. Flash and Princess were also watching, but Princess' stomach suddenly told reminded her of something.

"Sorry. I've been in such a rush getting everything ready, so I wouldn't have anything to worry about coming here. Guess I forgot to eat." The others smirked, knowing their Twilight had that same bad habit.

"Come on," Flash told her. "There's a place down the street that you can grab a bite at." Princess nodded and followed Flash, as the others continued to keep an eye on Drift. The pair stepped out of the compound and made their way down the street, unaware that the place was being watch. Watched by the most vile species in this and any other galaxy. Paparazzi.

The pair watched a good distance, the previous awkwardness between each other all but forgotten. They laughed at a joke Flash told Princess, only for him to suddenly notice a flash of light coming from across the road.

"What's wrong?" Princess asked, as Flash glared at an alleyway. But before he could answer, the world around him suddenly got very crowded.

In the blink of an eye, the pair were surrounded by a bunch of people taking pictures of the pair of them. Twilight screamed at the many flashes of light, whilst Flash just looked annoyed. "Flash Sentry!" One called out, "who is this young lady you're with? A potential girlfriend?"

"Are you not currently in a relationship with a girl name Adagio Dazzle?" Another asked.

"Who'd have thought. The world famous superhero is a two-timer." Flash frowned, hating that this was his life now.

"Is it against the rules for me to be friends with a girl that's not my girlfriend?" He asked, but the press didn't seem to care about that statement. "That's it!" He activated the Omnitrix and slapped it down.

Everyone gasped as they leapt away, fearing Flash might have snapped and was about to attack.

The light faded to reveal an alien none of them had seen before. He looked just like Drift, only his body was orange whilst his head and neck were blue. The Omnitrix was on his chest and his claws were mainly white along with his beak, whilst his orange tail had blue on the end of it. The top of his head had feathers styled just like his normal haircut. "Gryforce!"

"Wow," Twilight finally got to see Flash transform. And she had to admit, she was impressed by how quickly it happened without magic.

The alien known as Gryforce turned towards her, grabbing the girl and picking her up bridal style. The next thing Twilight knew, they shot into the air and away from the press as they continued to take pictures.

"Wow," Princess looked around, "so is that normal for you?"

"Kinda," he squawked. "Ever since my identity was revealed, I've had a bunch of reporters trying to snap me in compromising positions all the time. Last week, one climbed up a tree outside my house to try and get a picture of me in my underwear."

Princess frowned as they flew over the city, Gryforce gliding down towards the street. "I know what that's like. When I became a princess, suddenly all anypony could see was my crown. It took a long time before I was able to get them to see me for who I really was." They landed as Gryforce let her down. "Don't worry. I'm sure they'll get bored of trying to take pictures of you."

"I hope so," he nodded before hitting the Omnitrix and turning back to human. Flash sighed as he looked around, "well I guess that place I suggested is off the table. But there's another spot nearby we could get lunch at." Princess nodded with a smile, only for them to hear someone clear her throat.

They looked around and was surprised to see Adagio, standing a little further down the street with her hands on her hips. "Hey, am I interrupting something?"

Princess glared at her, as Adagio stepped forward and stood besides Flash. "Dazzle," she frowned.

"Sparkle," Adagio smirked. "So, when did you get here?"

"Not too long ago. I came to meet Drift."

"I see. And why were you being carried by my boyfriend." Both Princess and Flash looked shocked to hear Adagio say those words, the princess' eyes drifting between them.

"You two are dating?" Adagio smirked as she put an arm around Flash and pulled him in close, Flash looking at her confused as Princess seemed a little suspicious of her.

"Relax," he told her, "Adagio's changed since you last met her. She's actually helped me a lot since finding out about the Omnitrix.

"I see," Princess hummed. "I just...never expected the two of you to be in a relationship, that's all."

"Really?" Adagio smirked, "and who would you rather him date. You?" Flash feared a cat fight was about to start and was thankful these two didn't have any magic to blast themselves with. Although, whoever started pulling hair first was gonna look like a real child.

Princess frowned at her. "No. If you must know, I'm in a relationship with somepony else." Now Flash was even more shocked, having not expect that. But then, he frowned as he realised who it must be.

"Is his name Timber, by any chance?"

"Who?" Princess asked, surprising him. But before Flash could explain, a growling sound filled the air and they all realised Flash and Princess were still both hungry. "Please tell me that food place is nearby. I really need something before I pass out."

Adagio laughed and turned to walk away, "follow me." Princess frowned, but Flash nodded at her to follow. She did so, the three heading down the street until they arrived at a cafe.

Since it was such a nice day, they decided to take a seat outside the place and grabbed one of the menus to see what they had available. Princess, being a horse by nature, was actually a vegetarian. Apparently, she had thrown up when she discovered what a hamburger actually was. As such, she had to select something from the meat free section and decided to have an egg sandwich.

Flash chose a sausage sandwich whilst Adagio went with the pasta. The waitress that worked there quickly took their orders and the three of them sat around the table, Flash telling Adagio about what had happened before they met one another.

"Yeah, I can see that happening. Whenever a male and female who aren't related are seen together, the press always jump to thinking there's something more going on there. It's so ridiculous." The pair nodded, agreeing whole heartedly. "I once saw an article in a magazine about two celebrities who hated each other and constantly stated this. But one picture of them working on the same movie and everyone thinks they're secretly knocking boots."

Flash groaned, "I'm never gonna be able to hang around another girl without the press thinking I'm a two-timer." The girls felt sorry for Flash, as their meals arrived and they started digging in. "So," Flash turned to Adagio, "how's your life been today?"

"Pretty good," Adagio smirked. "Turns out, being the girlfriend of the most famous man in the world can get you quite a bit of attention."

"What?" Princess asked.

"I was just sitting in my favourite coffee shop when, suddenly, a bunch of people recognise me from pictures of Flash and started asking what it's like to date a superhero."

"So you two really are dating?" Princess asked.

"I guess," Flash nodded. "I mean...we've been on a few dates together. I took her to the Fall Formal and we had a nice time. Well...until the alien invasion kind of ruined it." Flash turned to Adagio, "but you've never called me your boyfriend before."

"Better late then never," Adagio smirked. Princess frowned at this. She had a feeling Adagio was just calling Flash her boyfriend because it was getting her attention. Clearly, she was still the same attention hog she had been when Princess and the Rainbooms defeated her before.

She was about to speak up, but something happened at that moment to pull their attention away from the conversation. A limo suddenly appeared from up the street and made its way towards them.

The long vehicle rolled to a stop right in front of the cafe. This caught the three's attention, Flash looking over as a man in a shofer suit stepped out of the limo and opened the back door. As he did, someone stepped outside.

That someone was a red skinned individual that looked to be in his late fifties, early sixties. He was a rather skinny individual, who looked like he hadn't eaten a decent meal in many years. His hair was a mix of black and white, being white at the top and black around the sides and back. He also had a white beard, which ran down the side of his face, underside of his mouth and up his chin.

Flash, Princess and Adagio all stared at him in confusion, as he slowly walked towards them. "Hello there," he smiled when he reached their table. "Would you three mind if I joined you?" The three all stared at him suspiciously. Flash had a feeling this guy was someone he needed to be careful with, whilst Adagio just didn't like his attitude walking up to them like that.

However, it was Princess who was the most suspicious. Staring at this man, she couldn't help but feel like she knew him somehow. His voice was very familiar.

The man pulled out a chair and sat down before the three could say anything, sighing as he did so. "That's good. These old bones don't do so well holding me up long."

"Who are you?" Flash asked, trying not to sound rude.

"Of course. Introductions. My name is Tirek." Princess' eyes went wide, as he smiled at her. "I've been hoping to meet you for a while now, Flash Sentry. I was quite amazed when I learned I had a new colleague." Flash looked confused, "you and I are in the same business, my boy."

"What are you-" Flash didn't finish, as in that moment Tirek reached into his suit jacket and pulled something out. A plumber badge. "No way."

"You're a plumber?" Adagio asked in shock, Princess looking just as surprised.

"I was. A long time ago. I was very young when I first joined the plumbers, getting partnered up with the greatest plumber who ever lived."

"Wait," Flash remembered hearing this before, "you weren't with...Max Tennyson, were you?" Tirek smiled and nodded, Flash amazed by that.

"Yes. However, I was only a member of the plumbers for about five years. By the time I joined the force, aliens started avoiding this planet after hearing how much trouble it was to come here. Eventually, the earth branch was shut down and my life of adventure came to an end."

"Hold on," Adagio stared at him for a few moment before her eyes went wide. "I know you. You're the CEO of that multi-billion dollar tech company. You've released a ton of world changing tech." Flash and Twilight turned to Tirek in shock, Twilight slowly putting the pieces together.

"You didn't...steal alien technology, did you?" Tirek turned to her, "did you keep your plumber tech and started selling it?"

"Of course not," he crossed his arms. "I admit, I didn't come up with a lot of the technology I invented. But when the plumbers were shut down, all my equipment was taken away. But years of studying that technology and figuring out how it worked, allowed me to recreate some of it using earth level parts and science."

"But I thought the plumbers were against alien technology influencing lower level planets?" Flash asked.

"How do you know we weren't already influenced?" Tirek asked. "How do we know the cavemen didn't meet an alien and see it use one of its weapons to protect itself, inspiring those cavemen to create their spears and bows?" The three weren't sure how to answer that. "Anyway, that's not why I'm here."

"Why are you here?" Flash asked.

"To help. I loved being a plumber and what they did for this planet. I want to help re-establish them here on earth anyway I can. From what I've heard, the base that's being built is supposed to have been completed. But I'm willing to bet that only what the public is meant to see. How are things really going?"

"Slow," Flash told him. "The plumbers are eager to get this base built, but they're currently working on many other projects so the base has had to be pushed base in its completion. Azmuth's helped a lot, but he doesn't want us to be to dependant on him."

"And that's where I come in," Tirek smiled. "I can help you build that base completely within a few weeks. Funding, materials, whatever you need. I will gladly help wherever I can. We plumbers need to stick together. And given what almost happened in this city, it's important we get the earth branch up and running as soon as possible."

"You'd really be willing to help?" Flash asked, Tirek nodding. Flash still wasn't sure about any of this. Princess was even more suspicious, especially since she was now sure who this man really was. "Well, I'll have to discuss it with Shining and Azmuth. They're the ones who are actually focusing on building the base."

"Well then why don't we discuss this again later?" Tirek asked, "I could have you and your friends over for dinner at my mansion. I'm sure a big hero like you won't mind needing to ride in a helicopter there. What do you say?" Flash was really lost for words right now. He had no idea what he was supposed to say in response to that.

Luckily, something happened that caught his complete attention. An explosion.

The entire street shook as a large blast came from further up it, Flash's instincts kicking in as soon as he heard it. Whilst the others were covered their ears, Flash was on his feet and leaping over the table. "Flash!" Princess cried, trying to stop him. But as she got up, Adagio help up her arm to stop her.

"Don't bother. He's in hero mode. You won't be able to stop him."

"But what was that?" Princess asked, Adagio unsure and turning to see Flash run as fast as he could.

He looked around and saw many people had been knocked to the ground by the explosion, then looked ahead to see a large cloud of smoke in front of him. That smoke was slowly being blown away, revealing something that was stepping out of a crater made in the ground.

It was a giant robot, about seven meters in height.

It was a combo of yellow and white, having a white chest with yellow on the sides and shoulders. Its forearms were white and lower arms were yellow, whilst its upper legs were white and lower legs yellow. Its waist was surrounded by a metal skirt, which was white at the front and yellow on the sides and back. Its left arm ended in a pair of rotating gatling guns, whilst it right arm ended in a glowing blue buzzsaw. Its head looked like one of those helmets seen on anime helmet, which was styled after a hercules beetle being mostly yellow with white where the mouth would be. Its horn was yellow and stuck up before splitting into a Y-shape, only the ends were a pair of black metal tubes that pointed forwards.

It continued to walk forward until it stepped completely out of the crater it had made, then slowly looked down as its visor eyes spotted Flash in front of it.

Flash sighed, "robots. Why did it have to be a robot?" He looked the machine over and didn't recognise it. It definitely wasn't one of Vilgax's, since the squid guy would never use that colour scheme. But wherever it came from, Flash had to take it down before it hurt anyone. "Alright," he activated the Omnitrix, "time to recycle this hunk of junk!" He slapped the dial down and in a flash, he was transformed. "Lindwhirl!"

The robot stared down at the serpentine hybrid, who glared up at it before curling himself up into a wheel and spinning on the spot. He then shot forward, moving at high speed towards the robot.

The machine raised its gun arm and started firing, the bullets raining down on the alien. But they did nothing against his super hard skin, Lindwhirl using his tail to propel himself into the air as soon as he was close enough. He shot towards its chest and slashed at the metal, his claws ripping through the metal like a hot knife through butter.

The robot staggered forward, looking down at its damaged chest as Lindwhirl landed. But before the alien could attack again, the mech pulled one of its legs back and swung it forward.

"GYAH!" Lindwhirl was sent flying, crashing a good fifty feet away as Princess, Adagio and Tirek arrived on the scene. Princess saw him smash into the ground and gasped, but Adagio didn't look worried. She knew when Flash was in trouble and this wasn't it.

And sure enough, the alien pushed himself up and growled at the robot. The machine looked a little off balance after that kicked and needed to steady itself, leaning forward to catch itself on its feet as it looked Flash over.

"You want some!?" He growled, preparing to roll at it again. But before he could, smoke escaped the tubes on its horn before blasts of fire exploded out of them both. Lindwhirl gasped and turned to the others, leaping at them and covering their with his body.

The three panicked as the alien bear hugged them all, the flames slamming into his back and making him roar. He wasn't burning, but the heat was still making him feel uncomfortable.

When the flames finally died down, Lindwhirl let the three go. "Run!" He told them, knowing protecting them was gonna make beating this thing impossible. They nodded and ran off, as Lindwhirl turned back towards the robot.

The machine raised its gun hand again, ready to launch a barrage of bullets. Lindwhirl knew he could take it, but that buzzsaw had him worried. It looked like it had some kind of energy coming off of it and he didn't want to risk it actually being able to cut him.

As such, he leapt up into the air to avoid the bullets before hitting the Omnitrix. And it a green flash, he transformed into a new alien. "Goop!" The slime alien shot down towards the robot, who fired some more bullets with little to no effect as they flew right through his body.

Goop smirked and as the robot swung its saw arm around, he simply split his body in half so it could flow between them. And as it did, he shot down its arm and slithered towards its chest. The robot didn't know until it was too late, but Goop had been aiming for the gashes in its chest.

"What's he doing?" Princess asked, the three having taken shelter in a nearby alleyway, but Adagio smirked.

"He's planning to take it down from the inside out. Probably gonna melt the circuits or something."

"I see," Tirek looked impressed. "Interesting." They watched as the slime alien got most of his body into the gashes, ready to start melting it. But before he could, the robot stopped moving.

Suddenly, a surge of energy flew through its body. The parts and circuits inside of it were completely safe, but Goop wasn't so lucky. "GYAH!" He was electrocuted and forced to pull himself free of the robot, his UFO pulling at his slimy body as hard as it could.

Once Goop had completely escaped from the robot, the machine activated again and swung its arm around.

It backhanded the anti-grave unit and sent Goop flying with it, the alien screaming as he went splat into the side of the wall. "Oow," Adagio flinched, "he's probably happy he didn't have bones for that."

"Is he gonna be okay?" Tirek asked, as the slime alien slid down the wall until he hit the ground.

"Oh yeah," Adagio nodded. "He does this kind of thing all the time." Goop finally picked himself up and growled, deciding to change things up. He hit the Omnitrix again, the street being full of light again as he transformed.

"Kagenobi!" He cried, rushing forward and morphing into the ground.

He shot towards the robot again and as he did, its legs opened up as a bunch of missiles. They fired and flew towards Kagenobi, who started zigzagging around to avoid them as the rockets caused the street to be destroyed.

Once he was in the shadow of the robot, the alien ninja leapt out of the ground and pulled out a sword of darkness. He quickly swung the blade around and cut right through the leg of the machine.

The robot suddenly found itself staggering around, as Kagenobi leapt up and swung his sword through the buzzsaw arm and cut it off. The robot fell to the ground and attempted to fire its gatling guns, but Kagenobi spun around and sliced the ends of the guns off. He quickly slashed several more times, cutting the arm to ribbons.

This caused a lot of explosions to start rocketing through the robot, blowing it up even more.

Kagenobi leapt back several feet and landed in one of the building shadows, which he used to pull out a shadow bow and arrow. He quickly notched the weapon and as the machine continued to struggle to get up, he aimed for the hole in its chest before firing.

The arrow soared through the air and impaled the robot, flying through the hole and all the way through until it shot out the other end. That was all the machine could handle, the robot falling to the ground as its eye visor stopped glowing.

The threat taken care of, the alien moved towards the robot as the Omnitrix started beeping. In a burst of light, Flash reverted back to human and moved over to the machine's remains. As he did, Tirek and the girls stepped out of the alleyway.

"Is it dead?" Princess asked, Flash taking a closer look at the machine's head.

It didn't appear to be about to attack again, so Flash believed it was dead. "Yeah, it's not gonna be moving any time soon." Flash was right in that regard, but it didn't need to move.

As he walked away from it, the robot's visor lit up and smoke appeared out of the tubes on its horns. "FLASH!" The girls screamed, as Flash spun around. But he was too late to react, as fire exploded out of the robot's head and shot towards him.

It would have been the end of him, had someone not tackled him out of the way.

The fire slammed into the ground where Flash had been standing, Princess and Adagio leaping back to avoid getting hit by embers. They both feared Flash might have been killed, but then the fire died down.

As it did, they saw the teen laying on the ground with someone next to him. Tirek.

Flash moaned as he picked himself up and saw the robot's eyes die once again. He then turned to Tirek, who sat up and looked like he had hurt his back when he hit the ground. "You saved me?"

Tirek smiled at him, "you saved me. You saved everyone on this planet, so I figured I owed you." Flash stared at him for a moment, but then smiled as Tirek did the same.

Adagio and Twilight sighed in relief, as a motor caught their attention and made them look around to see Shining rolling up to the street on his quad-bike. "Guys!" He pulled his bike to a stop, as Trixie appeared from above in her flight mode.

The pair looked around and saw the damage done to the street, then noticed the robot remains. "What the heck happened?" Trixie asked.

"You don't want to know," Flash sighed as Tirek stepped forward.

"Ah, you must be Shining Armor." The suited man stared at Tirek curiously, clearly wondering who he is. But then, the Plumber's suit ran a facial recognition on him.

"Tirek Scorpan?" He read before another alert appeared. "Former Plumber Agent."

Tirek laughed, "those high tech plumber suits. Coming with all the latest gadgets, I'm guessing. The suits we had in the old days were never as impressive." Shining stared at him in amazement, the man smiling as Flash stepped up to him.

"He came because he wanted to help the earth plumbers." Flash then turned to the robot, "but I guess you can see how that all turned out." Shining and Trixie nodded, both wondering where the robot had come from.

Azmuth had teleported the robot's remains to the Plumber Base.

Once the pieces were all there, the galvin looked the machine over. "Well?" Sunset asked, as Azmuth climbed about inside the robot's structure. The frog alien pulled himself out of the robot's head, shaking his head.

"This isn't an alien made robot. It's all using level three technology."

"So this wasn't an alien attack?" Shining asked, Azmuth nodded as he leapt out of the machine. "I guess that's a first. But how can something like this be made on earth. Sure, robotics have become really advanced. But it shouldn't be this advanced."

"Indeed," Azmuth nodded. "This is the most advanced piece of machinery I've ever seen on earth, that wasn't developed by the plumbers."

"Yes," Tirek nodded, "even my company is years away from developing something so advanced. Even if we focused all our efforts on it, we wouldn't be able to even come close for about a decade or two." Everyone wondered who could have made such a high tech piece of machinery. It was a mystery. One they would need to solve before it happened again.

"Well it'll be awhile before we can try and solve it," Shining sighed. "Until the base is completely operational, we won't be able to conduct a proper investigation."

"Yes," Tirek nodded. He moved over to Shining, looking in pain as he moved due to his earlier fall. "As Flash mentioned earlier, I wish to help you establish the new plumber branch here on earth."

"You'd really be willing to help us with that?" Shining asked, amazed by the good fortune.

"Of course," Tirek nodded. "I was a plumber, after all. We were forced to live in the shadows, our exploits remaining hidden to all but a select few. Now that the cat's out of the box about aliens, I wish to help truly make my mark on the word and help bring us into the light in any way I can."

Shining smiled. "Thank you. That'll be a big help to us."

Tirek nodded, "my company is at your disposal. Anything you need, feel free to ask." Shining and Flash smiled hearing this. It appeared that their hope to create their plumber base wasn't so far off as they hoped.

As this was going on, Azmuth moved over to Princess and jumped onto her shoulder. "I have completed the device." He handed it to her and Princess saw it looked like a laser pointer of some kind, with a tiny camera on the back. "I had a little extra time, so I decided to add a few more features to it. It'll automatically scan the portal when you pass through it and determine how it works, sending me the data. But if you press the button, it'll protect a hologram connecting you to any computer I set up to receive it."

"I get it," Princess nodded. "So the screen's for letting me see you and the camera is for you guys seeing me."

"Exactly," Azmuth nodded. "Smart young lady." Princess nodded, knowing she would soon be returning home. But before she left, she had to do one final thing.

Adagio watched as Flash and Shining told Tirek what they were thinking for the base. She was so focused on them, she didn't notice Princess step up to her until she was standing right besides her. "I don't want to sound like I'm judging you for what happened in our past." Adagio looked at her in confusion. "So please don't get offended by what I'm about to ask." She looked Adagio right in the eye, "are you only dating Flash to get attention for yourself?"

Adagio looked insulted by this question, but stopped herself before she yelled out at Twilight. She took a deep breath and let the question sink in. "I'll admit, it's definitely a plus to being with him. But I was dating Flash before he was world famous."

"Flash said you never called him your boyfriend before."

"Yes, but that doesn't mean I'm using him." Princess still didn't look convinced. "I like Flash. He's a lot of fun. Life certainly hasn't been boring since we started going out. I do like the attention dating him gives me, but that's just the cherry on top. I promise, I'm not using him."

Princess stared at her for a moment, then sighed and nodded. "Okay. But if I find out you've been lying to me, there will be consequences." Adagio rolled her eyes, but nodded. She then had an idea and as Tirek bid his farewells to return to his company, she pulled Princess over to Flash.

"What are you doing?" Flash asked, as Adagio took out her phone.

"Just showing the world that just because you have a lot of girl friends, I'm your one and only girlfriend." The three stood side by side, as Adagio stood next to Sunset with Princess on her other side. She held up the phone and snapped the picture, which she intended to put online before those vultures at the press ran any kind of story on them.

They took a few more photos with the rest of their friends that were there, wanting to make sure there were as many of Flash and Adagio with different girls to show Flash wasn't a two-timer. They did this for a while, until it was time for Princess to return to Equestria.

She wished she could stay longer, but with her duties in Equestria she barely had a free moment. But she promised to find a proper home for Drift if they found a way to send him there without complications.

Meanwhile, Tirek had returned to his company despite how badly his back was hurting.

His chauffeur watched him limp out of the limo and head towards the building. "Mr Tirek. Are you sure you don't want me to take you to the hospital? You did take a rather nasty fall before."

"Thank you for your concern," Tirek smiled. "But I can assure you that I'm fine. Just need to rest and the couch in my office has amazing lumber support. Some relaxation on it and I'll be as good as gold." The man didn't look convinced, but Tirek would say no more and continued struggling to the building.

He headed inside and everyone who saw him nodded as he lumbered passed, eventually reaching the elevator and getting into it. But as soon as the doors closed, all the pain from Tirek's face drained away and he stood much more straight.

He let out a sigh, as he adjusted his tie, "playing the part of the weak old man isn't something I find rather appealing." He reached into his jacket and took out a key, which he used to open a hatch on the elevator to reveal a hidden button.

He pressed it and the elevator suddenly stopped and started moving, going back down without the floor display showing this. It dived further and further down, passed the ground floor and into an area below the building. Eventually, the elevator came to a stop and slowly opened.

Doing so revealed a large room the size of an airforce hanger. And inside that hanger were a bunch of different alien gadgets and gizmos, from blasters to communication devices and so much more. But the most surprising thing about the room, were the many robotic parts that looked exactly like the robot that had attacked the city that day.

He stepped forward and towards a computer, pressing a button on his watch as he did so.

The computer activated and started showing images of the fight, Tirek sitting down as he did so. "Flash Sentry," he smiled as he watched the fight take place. "You are impressive indeed. I doubt Max would have done as well with the Omnitrix. But you're in my way." The screen changed to show an image of Flash and Drift, the still image of the teen with his hand on the creature's head having spread all across the world.

Tirek growled at the sight before standing up and pressing something on the computer.

Suddenly, he was surrounded by light and blinded for a moment. When the light began to fade, he was standing in a completely different room. This one was better lit, made entirely out of metal and appearing to be full of different machinery.

Another large computer stood in front of him and as he looked around, five glass containers were leaned up against the wall. They looked just like the capsule Drift had escaped from, Tirek walking forwards. "I'll get you all back," he announced. "You five are the key to my future and I'm not going to let some kid keep me away from my greatest creations." He chuckled as he moved out of the room and into another one.

This one looked like the bridge of a spaceship. And that was exactly what it was.

A large red spaceship, which was currently parked atop his company's building. The ship was completely invisible, hidden thanks to the cloaking device that kept it from being seen. From there, Tirek would begin his plan. A plan to collect the creatures he had created. And not even Flash Sentry, would stop him from getting back what was his.

Author's Note

And thus, we have our villain for the season. I can't believe you all thought it was Aggregor that'd be the main villain. You know, MLP has villains to you know. Anyway, hope you enjoyed it and liked the design and name of Flash's new alien.

Season 3, Episode 4: Ready to Rumble

Devious was once again in his warehouse hideout, swinging his staff around as he summoned the power of the Radiant Dragon Medallion.

He then thrust the staff forward and unleashed a blast of ice magic, using it to create an actual structure instead of just a random form. This structure was that of a lion, making him smirk as the sculpture was complete.

"Good," he nodded, "I managed to get the shape perfect. Now to work on the next step." He stepped over to the table that his laptop was on, sitting down as he started typing away at it. Thanks to the internet, searching for the Medallions was easier then he had expected.

He typed certain keywords into the search bar, hoping someone had caught something and put it online like with the Sky Butterfly Medallion. So far, he hadn't found anything. But maybe today would be the day.

"Hello," he smiled when he saw a news headline. "World's strongest wrestler. Interesting."

Canterlot City was enjoying a rare moment of piece, with no monster attacks, alien invasions or robot assaults.

Crime was at an all time low, thanks to Flash Sentry and Shining Armor being able to more openly combat it without needing to worry about revealing their identities. As such, life in Canterlot seemed to be getting back to normal after all the craziness of the last few weeks. People were doing the things they loved. Shopping, going to arcades and watching sporting events.

And this is where we find ourselves, as Flash Sentry's car pulled up to a particular arena in the city.

Said arena was Canterlot's fighting stadium, where sports like boxing, kickboxing, wrestling and martial arts tournaments were held. Flash pulled into the parking lot and smiled when he saw the large crowd outside it. Usually, he would need to wait for hours to get in and enjoy the event. But not today.

One of the perks of being a famous superhero was that he was offered a bunch of special gifts. Flash, of course, wasn't in the superhero gig to get free stuff. But it would be rude to refuse, especially when one of those free things were five front row passes to an American Wrestling Federation match.

He stepped out of the car with Adagio and Trixie, having invited them to see the match as well. Most of his friends hadn't been keen on coming, but one of them was interested and knew the perfect person to give the last ticket to.

"See 'em?" Flash asked, looking around. Trixie did the same and spotted the ones they were looking for.

"There they are." Flash and Adagio looked around and spotted Applejack and her brother, Big Mac, walking towards them. Mac was apparently a big AWF fan, so being invited to see a match like this was a dream come true for him.

"Hey guys," Flash waved them over as they headed to the stadium. "Excited to see the match in person?"

"Yup," Mac smirked. Despite his quiet demeanor, they could tell he was barely holding himself back from excitedly celebrating actually being there.

They stepped up to the entrance and when they showed their VIP tickets to the guard, he nodded and stepped aside. "This is awesome," Adagio smiled as they made their way inside. Flash tried not to look over at the line, not wanting to make those waiting patiently think he was being snobbish.

They stepped into the building and made their way towards the arena, heading up some stairs and finding themselves in a balcony overlooking the ring in the centre of the room. Several rows of seats surrounded the stage, with an area behind it for more people to stand and watch.

They all took their seats and watched as more and more people filed in below, Flash looking around but not recognising anyone as they took their seats.

Eventually, the last seat was filled with more people standing behind the seats. Once the last paying customer was inside, the lights died down as an announcer stepped out from nowhere. "Ladies and gentlemen. Welcome, to the American Wrestling Federation!" The crowd cheered at the sound of this, applauding as they did. The announcer stepped into the centre of the ring and pointed towards one of the entry. "Today, we have a pair of highly skilled individuals that will fight to prove they are the best of the best."

"Best of the best?" Flash asked, "it's not exactly like they're real fighters."

"But they are real fighters," Mac told him.

"No they're not. They're just a bunch of actors!"

"This isn't a play," Mac frowned. "This is a seriously competitive sport, where you have to push yourself to be the winner. A bunch of fighters have had to drop out when they started losing too many matches."

"What?" Flash looked down at the ring, "this sport's real? I just figured it was all scripted out." The others agreed, Mac looked offended that he would even suggest such a thing.

In that moment, the announcer called out for one of the wrestlers to appear and he stepped out in a rather unusual outfit. The next wrestler stepped out of the other exit, the pair entering the ring and giving a bit of trash talk to each other. The announcer then counted down and they started fighting.

"So...what are the rules of this game?" Flash asked Mac, who didn't take his eyes off the match.

"The winner is the guy that pins their opponent or throws them from the ring. They also win if the opponent surrenders." One of the wrestlers did a lariat on the other and knocked him off his feet. "There's no punching or kicking allowed along with attacking a spot below the stomach. Other then that, they can do whatever they want."

Sure enough, one of the wrestlers was able to drag the opponent to the floor and pin them down until the announcer finished counter. The bell rang and the crowd cheered, those up in the balcony nodding at the skill he had used.

"This is pretty good," Flash smirked as the wrestlers stepped out of the ring and were replaced with two new ones.

For the next hour or so, everyone watched as wrestlers competed against one another. Some matches were over in just a minute or so, whilst others took a while to have a winner be announced. Some were pinned, others were knocked out of the ring and a couple surrendered.

"And now," the announcer proclaimed after the last match. "It's time for the match you've all been waiting for!" The crowd cheered, as he turned towards the entryway. "Please welcome the strongest wrestler in the federation, who's been rapidly climbing the ranks. IRON WILL!" Someone suddenly rushed out in the areas, screaming as he did so.

He was a bulky blue skinned man, with a dark blue mohawk and a blue beard on his chin. He was the buffest man Flash had ever seen, wearing a black workout shirt with a bull's head on the front and blue shorts. But the most noteworthy thing about his appearance, was the nose ring he was wearing.

"YEAH!" He roared, marching towards the ring as the audience all screamed at his appearance.

"Wow," Adagio was impressed, "these people really love him."

"Yup!" Mac nodded before actually speaking, "everyone loves his story. He was a real underdog up until a few weeks ago, losing almost every fight he was in and almost getting dropped from the league. But then, he suddenly started winning no stop and showing amazing feats of strength."

"Really?" Flash was impressed. "Are they sure he isn't just taking drugs?"

"They test him, but are pretty positive he's not on anything."

"How strong is he?" Applejack asked, Mac unsure.

Iron Will was finally in the ring and took the mic from the announced. "Listen up, loyal fans. Are you ready, to see Iron Will crush his opponent and prove just how incredible he is?" The crowd cheered, "Iron Will can't hear you!" They cheered even louder. "That's right. Because Iron Will is the master of the ring. The master of the mat-"

"The master of talking about himself in the third person," Trixie laughed. "Seriously, who does that?" Flash and Applejack gave her a look, unable to believe she had actually asked that question.

The announcer took back the mic and spoke up. "And his opponent. Currently eleventh in the league and looking to break into the top ten. Give it up for Bone Button!" The spotlight moved to the other entrance and a green skinned muscle man with a blue shirt, black shorts, black leather jacket and red headband walked out. His leather jacket was covered in different badges and buttons, the man stepping into the ring and taking the mic.

"I've fought all over this country. In every state on the map. And I've won a match in all but one of them. This state. That changes today!" The crowd cheered as Button handed the mic back to the announcer, the pair turning towards one another as the announcer left the ring and started counting down.

"Four...three...two...one...FIGHT!" The two charged at one another, tackling each other in an insane attempt to overpower the other.

Everyone cheered for their favourite wrestler, whilst Flash and his friends watched with intrigue.

Button fell to the ground and Iron prepared to pin him, but Button rolled away before he could. And as Iron staggered from his near dive, allowing Button to get around him and by the time Iron stood tall, he was able to slide his arms under Iron's before trapping him in a full nelson.

"Now I got yah!" Button cried, keeping Iron in place as he tried to wrestle him to the ground. But Iron refused to let himself be taken down so easy. He staggered backwards and slammed Button into the rope, trying to bounce himself free. But Button was able to stay where he was as Iron spun around, his opponent remaining in place.

"Let Iron Will go!" He roared before reaching back and managing to grab onto the back of Button's jacket. As he did, Trixie suddenly felt a surge of something.

"Huh?" She looked around, only to be pulled back to focus on the ring when Button was suddenly flying through the air. "What happened?"

"Iron Will threw him off him," Adagio cried. "It was insane. One moment he was trapped, the next he was tossing the man over the rope." Sure enough, Bone Button crashed into the ground in front of the first row of chairs.

The crowd cheered at this, as Iron Will struck a pose. "YEAH!" He yelled, as the announcer rushed up and stated he had claimed victory. Iron Will then took the mic again to address the crowd. "Now do you see. There is nobody Iron Will cannot defeat. Not on this or any planet. And now, Iron Will will prove it!" He pointed up at a particular balcony. "Flash Sentry. Iron Will challenges you!"

Flash's eyes went wide, as all eyes turned towards him. The teen looked around, seeing the people watching him expectantly. He then turned to the others. "You guys get the feeling, I only got those ticket for this exact reason?" The others all nodded, thinking the same thing.

Iron kept yelling, "come down here! Come test your strength against the might of Iron Will! YEAH!"

Flash frowned at him, "I'm not gonna fight you. Unless you plan on robbing a grocery store, I have no reason to use my aliens on you." Iron laughed.

"See that. The mighty hero is scared. Scared of facing Iron Will and his unstoppable muscles!" Flash frowned. "You claim to be our protector. But can you defeat evil if you refuse this simple challenge?" Flash frowned, whilst the people around him started cheering for him to fight.

He then turned to the others, who all nodded in agreement. "Fine!" Flash leapt off the balcony and transformed into Gryforce, the alien avian flying through the air before diving down and landing in front of Iron Will. As he did, he hit the Omnitrix and transformed again. "RIOT-HORN!" He roared, making the ring shake as he glared at Iron. "You asked for this, so don't complain when I beat you!"

Iron Will laughed as he cracked his knuckles, the crowd all cheering for what was bound to be an awesome match.

"Go on Flash!" Adagio cried, "you can't lose to this guy!"

Riot-Horn and Iron Will stared each other down, as the announcer counted down, the crowd excited to see what would happen. "Three...two...one...FIGHT!" The pair charged forward, Iron and Riot-Horn both grabbing one another's shoulders and pushing against each other.

"Yeah!" Adagio cried, "get him!"

"There's no way Iron Will can overpower Riot-Horn," Trixie stated. "Flash once lifted part of a building up. Iron might be strong, but nobody's that strong." They watched as the pair struggled against each other, Riot-Horn only using about a third of his normal strength.

"This alien's holding back on Iron Will!" The wrestler suddenly called out, catching the audience's attention. "Big mistake!" He started pushing and Riot-Horn found himself sliding backwards in the ring.

"What?" Trixie cried, as the alien rhino found himself getting close to the ring. "Flash! Stop clowning around and beat this guy!" Riot-Horn heard this and knew she was right. He didn't want to hurt Iron Will, but he also didn't want to look like a laughing stock.

As such, he upped the strength and started pushing Iron Will back.

The man smiled as he was overpowered, but quickly used this to his advantage. As the next thing Riot-Horn knew, Iron fell backwards and dragged him with him. When Iron was on his back, he managed to push his feet into Riot-Horns chest and threw him over him.

Riot-Horn cried out, as he was thrown feet over head and crashed into the ring. His friends flinched as the announcer proclaimed Iron's amazing skill, whilst Riot-Horn growled at being humiliated.

He jumped back to his feet, as Iron Will did the same and the pair stared one another down. The alien then charged forward, attempting to grab Iron. But the wrestler ducked under his arm and grabbed it before spinning on the spot, making Riot-Horn cry out as he was thrown around again.

He crashed into the ring and Iron Will held his arm, keeping a foot on his back and stopping him from getting up. The announcer started counting, but Riot-Horn wasn't gonna let this end so easily.

Instead, he summoned all his strength and started pushing. Iron was surprised by the sudden search in strength and before he could react, Riot-Horn managed to throw him off him. He staggered back at the announcer stopped counting, as Riot-Horn spun around and charged again.

The pair collided and Riot-Horn tried to push Iron out of the ring, but Iron suddenly stopped moving and was impossible to move. "What?" Riot-Horn tried to use all his strength, but even that wasn't enough.

From the crowd, the others were just as surprised.

Trixie stared at the wrestler and as she did, she suddenly sensed something again. And this time, she was able to tell what it was. "No way." She knew this sensation, the others looking over at her only to instantly look back at the sound of Riot-Horn's cries.

Iron Will was pushing him backwards, shocking everyone. And then, he grabbed the rhino under the arms and pushed up. "Augh!" Riot-Horn found himself lifted into the air, shocking the crowd.

"Iron Will is the strongest!" He cried, "Iron Will is the mightiest! Iron Will is the BEST!" Before Riot-Horn could try and escape, Iron spun around and threw him over the ropes of the ring.

The rhino roared as he tried to save himself, but it was useless. He flew over the ropes and out of the ring, crashing down on the ground in front of the front row.

"RING OUT!" The announcer roared. "Flash Sentry has been defeated. Iron Will is still our champion!" The crowd roared in applause, as Riot-Horn sat himself up with a moan.

"Are you okay?" Adagio, Applejack, Mac and Trixie rushed over to him after climbing down from the balcony. "How many fingers am I holding up?"

"What fingers?" He was way to dizzy to see anything, the others frowning as he reached down to tapped the Omnitrix. Turning back to human, he still didn't feel right as Mac helped him to his feet. "What the heck just happened?"

"That's what I'd like ta know," Applejack turned back to the ring. "There's no way he should have been able to beat you."

"There is a way." They all looked over at Trixie, who stared at the ring. "I sensed it when he lifted you up." All but Mac realised what she was getting at. "Iron Will has a Medallion."

"Which one?" Applejack asked, Trixie thinking back to her book on the Medallions and all their powers.

"The Mighty Bull. That has to be the one. It grants the wielder super strength, just like Applejack." The others frowned as they watched Iron Will continuing to get the crowd to cheer, demanding another newcomer. Trixie wanted to talk to him, but something caught their attention before she could.

"I'll be your opponent!" Their eyes went wide, as they saw someone leap out from behind the crowd and hover over it using a powerful gust of wind.

Devious landed upon the ring's post, the man staring at Iron Will as the wrestler smiled. "Oh yeah! I'm glad my manager managed to get another opponent lined up for me." He flexed his muscles, "that last match barely had me breaking a sweat." Flash frowned at this, whilst Trixie rushed off to find a place to transform.

Devious smirked at Iron Will before leaping down and charging forward, not waiting for the announcer to say anything.

Iron Will was shocked by this, even more so when Devious raised his staff and launched a fireball. Iron leapt to the side, as the flames struck the ring and set the rope on fire. Luckily, fire extinguishers were close by and able to put it out. Iron then shot forward and threw a punch at Devious, who tried to block with a barrier of wind.

But Iron's strength was too much and pushed through it, only slowed down enough that the impact slammed Devious into the air.

He roared, as he was thrown straight up and out of the ring. He would have crashed onto the crowd, had he not created a tornado to stop himself. As such, he flew into the air and glared down at the wrestle. "Well, you've clearly synched up with the Medallion more than I expected." Iron Will looked confused by that statement. "But it doesn't matter. I will get that Medallion and have my super strength back."

Flash was suddenly reminded of when Devious last had said Medallion. His super strength had been an issue to deal with. If he got it back, they were gonna be in serious trouble.

But before Devious could try and attack again, someone else leapt out from behind the crowd. "Devious!" Lady Masquerade flew towards him, her Sky Butterfly form propelling her forwards as she tried to stab him with her rapier.

Devious flew away and landed by a window near the roof. "You!" Trixie prepared to charge again. "I don't have time for you right now." He raised his staff and unleashed a burst of smoke, the masked heroine attempting to get to him before it could conceal him.

But the cloud completely covered him and by the time she reached the area, he was gone. "No!" She turned towards the ground and saw the crowd looking up at her, all clearly worried about her being there since that meant that man hadn't been a performer.

She turned to Iron Will, who looked confused more then anything. "We need to talk!" She told him, gliding down to the ring.

After that, everything seemed to run at light speed and in the blink of an eye, the area had been evacuated by everyone except Flash, Adagio, Applejack, Mac, Lady Masquerade and Iron Will. During that time, Trixie told Iron about the Medallions and their abilities.

"Hmm," Iron was leant against the rope of the ring and stroked his beard. "Your story intrigues Iron Will. You say this Mighty Bull Medallion is what has given him this incredible super strength?"

"It's the only explanation," Flash told him. "Sure, you're strong. But there's no way a normal human being should have been able to beat Riot-Horn like you did." Iron looked a little insulted by that statement.

"You do have the Medallion," Trixie told him. "I could sense it when you used it. And Devious attacking you is all the proof you need." Iron let this info sink in, as spun around to look out at the ring.

"Iron Will was at the bottom of the league until a couple months ago, when he suddenly felt a new surge of power!" He flexed his muscles. "He thought it had been the new protein shake he had switched to, but now he sees it was this Medallion that made him stronger."

"Exactly," Trixie nodded. "And as long as you have it, it puts a target on your back."

"So what," Iron turned to her. "Iron Will isn't scared of that guy. Let him come and Iron Will will give him some of this!" He punched the air, "and this and some of this!" He kept punching the air, the others not impressed.

"Listen to me," Trixie told him. "The Medallions don't belong in this world. I was charged with gathering them, so I need you to hand it over." Iron Will looked shocked by this, "it's for the greater good."

"No way hosay," Iron stated. "Iron Will is finally on top and if it's thanks to this Medallion, he won't give it up. This Medallion will stick with Iron Will until he retire from the sport, in about ten years."

"You can't have the Medallion that long!" Trixie cried.

"What are you gonna do about it?" Iron smirked, "Iron won't give it up and if you could take it on your own, you would have already."

Trixie frowned, turning to the others who were just as perplexed about this.

They were reminded of Fleetfoot, who had been just as adamant about keeping her Medallion. But unlike her, this guy clearly didn't care about being a hero. They had to get the Medallion from him, but how?

"There has to be some way to get you to give it to us," Flash told him. "What'll it take?"

Iron will smirked as he flexed his muscles, "Iron Will follows the rules of the ring. Only those strong enough to defeat me will get my agreement. If you want Iron Will's Medallion, you must battle him for it and win."

"You can't be serious," Adagio cried.

Mac nodded, "it's true. The rules of the ring are an established part of the wrestling federation. Anyone can challenge a member and demand something if they win, but have to put something up that's of equal value."

"Exactly," Iron nodded. "So if you want this Medallion, you're gonna have to bet something for the chance to win it from Iron Will!"

"But we don't have anything!" Flash stated before Iron Will pointed at him.

"If you win, Iron Will will give you his Medallion. But if you lose, you've gotta join Iron Will for his next tour. The audience love you and watching you get your butt handed to you will really up Iron Will's fanbase. YEAH!" They looked at him like he was crazy.

"I'm not a performer. I'm a superhero, who's trying to save your ungrateful behind!" Iron wasn't paying attention, clearly picturing another match where the crowd would scream for him. Flash groaned, knowing he wasn't going to listen to anything else. "Fine, you've got a deal."

Iron heard this and smirked, "great. We'll have our match in three days. No point fighting if everyone else is too scared to come watch." He held out his hand, "may the best wrestler win." Flash grabbed his hand and gripped it tightly, only for Iron to almost crush his hand making Flash gasp. He was thankful Iron didn't use his Medallion power.

Once the deal was made, Iron headed off towards the locker rooms to shower and go home. "What if Devious attacks him before tomorrow?" Trixie asked, removing her mask and returning to normal when she was sure nobody was around to see.

"Don't worry," Flash took out his phone. "I've got this." He brought up Shining's number, knowing the guy still had some contacts in the police force despite now being a full time plumber. "Hey, Shining." He nodded, "you hear about what happened at the arena yet? Right, well Iron Will has a Medallion." He nodded, "but he's refusing to give it up and doesn't wanna help us beat Devious. He might end up getting targeted by him before we can figure out how to get it away from him. Got it. Thanks." He hung up.

"Well?" Adagio asked.

"Shining's gonna look into getting some police protection for Iron Will. And if he can't, he'll keep an eye on him himself."

"Good," Applejack told him. "That means you can focus on training to beat him." They all nodded, Flash having an idea about how to do just that.

Soon enough, they were all at the Plumber Base.

Twilight, Sunset, Rainbow, Pinkie, Rarity, Fluttershy and Spike were all there already, many of them smiling as they stared at a glass wall in front of them. On the other side, Drift the hybrid was happily enjoying his own special habitat. The room had been built especially for him, letting him live in a large room where he could fly around without worry and had many perches for him to stand on.

They smiled as they looked around the rest of the room, which had just been completed inside the base. It was a circular room, with a circular tube in the very centre that was the elevator leading to the rest of the base. The part the humans were in was a small round area with glass walls surrounding it, divided into five sections with only one having something on the other side of it.

The plan was that if Sunset was right about there being four other creatures like Drift, then they could all be held there until they found a way to return them to Equestria.

Fluttershy had filled a bowl full of bird food and opened a small hatch on the glass wall, allowing her to push the bowl through. "Hope you're hungry." Drift heard this and flew down, landing in front of the bowl and licking his lips.

"Thank you." His speech had gotten much better as of late, showing just how intelligent he really was."

In that moment, the elevator opened up and Flash, Trixie, Adagio, Applejack and Mac stepped out of it. Mac was amazed as he looked around the room, Flash focusing on Twilight. "Hey," she looked up at him, "were you able to do what I asked?"

"Yup," Twilight nodded as she showed him the laptop she had connected to the base's computer system. "I uploaded every piece of info on this Iron Will guy. Videos, interviews the whole shebang."

"How's that supposed to help with beating Iron Will?" Adagio asked, as Flash smirked and suggested following him.

They all got back in the elevator, though it was a bit of a tight squeeze, and rod it down to the lowest level that had been constructed in the base so far. When the doors opened up, they found themselves in another circular room. Only this one was much smaller and the walls had ten doors running along it.

Twilight stepped up to the door in front of them and started playing with a touchpad next to it. "Iron Will Training One, uploaded and ready to go." Flash smirked and stepped forward into the room.

The others followed and found themselves stepping out into the same arena that Iron Will had fought in before. "What the heck?" Trixie asked, the others just as amazed.

"Welcome to the plumber training ground," Flash told them. "It's a holodeck, designed to let plumbers practise their plumber skills in any environment they can think of." As he said that, a flash appeared on the ring and they saw Iron Will appear.

"YEAH!" He cried, flexing in several positions. "YEAH! YEAH! YEAH!"

"You're gonna train against that?" Rainbow asked, Flash nodding as he stepped towards the ring. Twilight smiled and turned to them.

"I've uploaded all the data I was able to get into the computer and had it create a perfect copy of him. This hologram will move, fight and respond the exact same way Iron Will would."

Flash leapt over the ring and landed in front of Iron Will, the others moving over to the stands to watch as Flash activated the Omnitrix and slapped it down. In a flash, Riot-Horn appeared and got ready to fight. "Let's rumble!" He charged forward and the fake Iron Will did the same, both of them colliding in the middle of the ring and beginning to brawl with one another.

Riot-Horn remembered everything Mac had told him about the rules of the sport, so couldn't punch him. Apparently, the rule was you could hit the opponent with any part of the body except the fists, feet, head, knees and elbows. Anything else was fair game.

Everyone watched as Riot-Horn started to overpower Iron, his superior strength clear against him as he didn't use his Medallion power. But then, as Riot-Horn swung his arm around to try and karate chop the wrestler, Iron caught him by the wrist and stopped him cold.

It was clear he was using the Medallion's power and before Riot-Horn could pull himself free, Iron spun around and dragged him around with him. "GYAH!" He screamed as he was flung over the ropes and towards the ground.

"OOW!" Everyone screamed, flinching at the sight of the hero being thrown out of the ring. He moaned as he lay on the floor, his friends watching him with worry.

"Are you okay?" Adagio asked, as Riot-Horn growled as he picked himself up.

"I'm fine!" He rushed forward and leapt back into the ring, but was thrown out of it a minute later. His friends quickly realised Riot-Horn wasn't gonna be able to muscle his way out of this. Clearly, Iron Will was stronger than him. Over the next ten minutes, Riot-Horn was thrown out of the ring five times.

On the fifth, he crashed into the ground as the Omnitrix started beeping.

"Great," he moaned as the device reverted him back to human. He sat up and looked up at Iron Will, who was throwing some of his annoying phrases whilst the others watched with worry.

"Getting that Medallion might not be so easy," Applejack stated as the others frowned.

Meanwhile, in another part of the city, Devious sat in his hideout.

The man knew where to find Iron Will and could go to him at any time. But against the man's super strength, beating him would be more trouble than it was worth. As such, he ha a new plan.

Actually, it was an old plan. The same one he used against the last Mighty Bull wielder.

"What a drag," he growled as he put everything he needed down on the floor. A bunch of paper, a brush and several pots of paint. "Can't believe this universe doesn't even have runes in it. Enchanting this stuff's gonna be a pain." He opened the lid and looked in at the black liquid. He raised a hand over it and started chanting, her Medallion glowing as he did so.

Whilst the Medallions could usually only use their magic to use their individual powers, someone with enough skill can channel the magic and cast rather simple spells. For what Devious needed, his skill would be enough.

The paint began to glow, as Devious kept chanting for several minutes. Then, he finally stopped and lowered his hand. "Alright," he panted, "that's the easy part done. Now to get to work." He picked up the brush and paper, carefully dipping it in the paint and lifting it over the paper.

He carefully started drawing an array of symbols, being careful so as to not make a single error. Just one mistake was all it would take to ruin this.

"This is gonna take a while."

Three days later.

Shining and Trixie were both standing atop an apartment building, Shining using his plumber suit to scan the building opposite and focus on one apartment in particular.

Inside, Iron Will was bench pressing some insanely large weights. So large that there was no way a normal person could possibly lift it. "Is this seriously all he does?" Shining asked as he watched Iron Will lift it with ease. "Eat, sleep, train. Eat, sleep, train. Eat, sleep, train. That's all he's done over the last three days."

"And there hasn't been any sign of Devious," Trixie frowned. "I don't get it. I figured he'd try something by now."

"Well lets hope he doesn't try anything until tonight," Shining sighed. "If Flash can beat him, then Devious won't be able to get the Medallion."

"If Flash can beat him," Trixie sighed. Over the last three days, Flash had been training none stop trying to beat the hologram. But so far, he hadn't even come close to beating the fake one.

"Gyah!" Riot-Horn cried, as he was once again frown from the ring and crashed into the ground.

He moaned, getting really sick of being thrown around like a ragdoll. "YEAH!" He heard Iron yell again, the rhino pushing himself up to his feet and about to enter the ring for the hundredth time. But before he could, the Omnitrix beeped and he was returned to human form.

Flash groaned as he moved over to a bench, Iron Will continuing to quip catchy lines until Flash paused the program. He picked his water bottle off the bench and took a deep swig, then used the rest of the water to drench his head and cool down. But it didn't make him feel any better.

"There has to be some way I can beat him."

"These isn't." Flash looked around and saw Applejack, who was leaning against the wall having clearly been watching his humiliation. "Sorry Flash, but you can't beat this guy."

"You don't know that," Flash told her.

"I read Trixie's book on the Mighty Bull Medallion," Applejack explained. "It's pretty busted." Flash was curious, wanting to know what she found out. "It doesn't really grant the user super strength. Accordin' ta da'h book, it magnifies da'h person's own strength." She moved over to sit next to him. "Since Iron Will was so strong to begin with, the Medallion made him stronger than what should be humanly possible. He'd probably be able to break a mountain in half if he tried."

Flash gulped hearing this. If Applejack was right, then he really didn't stand a chance against Iron Will. The man's strength was way more then what Riot-Horn, even fully charged, could take on. "What do I do? If I can't find a way to stop Iron Will, I'll be stuck going on tour with him and Devious will have another shot at getting the Medallion."

Applejack smirked as she looked up at Iron Will's frozen form. "Ya'h can't out muscle him. That's just a fact." Flash sighed, "but that doesn't mean you can't beat him." He looked at her in shock, whilst Applejack smiled at him. "A'h know a'm the muscle of ma'h friends, but that's not all I am."

"What do you mean?" Applejack flexed her arm, showing the muscles in it.

"A'h might be able to lift a truck over ma'h head, but all these muscles would be useless without this one." She tapped her head, "Iron Will's a mindless brute. It's clear he only uses his strength and nothing else. Probably why he was always losing before he got the Medallion."

"So what you're saying is, I need to stop trying to out muscle him and start trying to outthink him?"

"Exactly," Applejack stood up. "Ya'h got more then one alien on that think. Don't forget that." She tipped her hat, "this ain't the first time ya've fought against someone stronger then ya'h. And you didn't need to be stronger to beat 'em." She turned to leave, letting Flash think about what she had said as the Omnitrix beeped and turned green.

He turned towards the holographic Iron Will and activated the watch, cycling through all the aliens he had at his disposal.

Applejack was right. He couldn't just rely on Riot-Horn to muscle his way out of this. He needed to be smart, like when he fought against Kraab and Sixsix. Slowly, he started formulating a plan and smirked as an idea formed in his head. He knew how to stop Iron Will and if it worked, the wrestler wouldn't be able to lay a finger on him.

"Alright," he rushed into the ring and got into a fighting stance. "Let's see if this works." He slapped the watch down.

The crowd cheered as they waited for the wrestling match to begin.

Trixie, Adagio, Twilight and Shining were in the crowd, the four keeping a watchful eye out in case Devious showed up. But so far, there didn't appear to be any sign of him. "Perimeter check," Shining spoke over the radios. "You girls see anything?"

"Nope," Twilight replied.

"Nothing," Adagio stated.

"No sign of him," Trixie explained.

Shining frowned as his gaze swept over the crowd, seeing no sign of him. But as he did, the commentator spoke up. "It's time, ladies and gentlemen!" The crowd cheered as a spotlight appeared on one of the entrances, "here he is. That man with the might of the bull. Iron Will!"

Iron Will flexed and let out several mighty roars, as he and his manager moved down the ramp towards the ring.

Once there, he jumped over the rope and looked around. "Iron Will is here to pulverise all challengers. He's gonna crush the competition, like how an overbearing mother crushes her children's self-esteem." He pointed to the other exit. "Flash Sentry thinks he's tough...but Iron Will is stronger. He's ready to prove that he's the strongest in the whole galaxy."

Trixie rolled her eyes from her spot in the crowd, the girl turning towards said crowd and looked around. As she did, her eyes went wide at the sight of Devious. "Guys!" She tried to call them over the radio, but the crowd was too loud for them to hear. "Guys!" She groaned and decided to rush after Devious, who spotted her and began to push through the crowd and head towards one of the exits.

The pair eventually reached the exit and ran out into the hallway, Trixie taking out her mask.

"Devious!" He stopped and spun around, staring at her as Trixie placed her mask over her eyes. In a flash of light, Lady Masquerade appeared in front of him. "This ends now!" She took out her staff and prepared for a fight, whilst Devious cloths burned away to reveal his battle form.

The staff appeared in his hands and he charged forward, Trixie doing the same and using her illusions to become invisible. But Devious quickly acted and used his ice power to create a veil of mist, which shifted when the invisible girl moved through it. "There you are!" He launched a thunderbolt and Trixie used her staff to block it.

The pair glared at one another, knowing that a fight in such a narrow corridor wasn't gonna be easy.

Back in the stadium, the spotlight illuminated the other entrance.

"And now!" The announcer. "The challenger! Will this fight turn out better then last time? Let's find out! It's Flash Sentry!" The teen stepped out, Applejack and Mac besides him. The three stepped down the catwalk and when they arrived at the ring, Flash stepped inside as Mac and Applejack nodded to him.

Iron Will laughed as he saw him, "come to get destroyed once again? You really need to learn when to not pick a fight you can't win. Especially when the one you're facing is the all great IRON WILL! YEAH!" The crowd cheered, as Flash just frowned at him.

"So what if you're strong," Flash told him. "There are more important things then strength. I forgot about that but now, I'm ready to take you down!"

Iron Will laughed, "you've got a lot of spunk. I like that. Come on! Turn into that rhino and let's throw down."

Flash smirked, activating the Omnitrix. "Who said I'm using Riot-Horn!?" He slapped it down and in a burst of green light, he transformed. "Chamalien!" The light faded to reveal the lizard alien, who smiled as all three eyes narrowed in focus.

"What is this?" Iron Will asked, laughing as he did so. "You dare challenge the great Iron Will, using such a puny creature." He pointed at Chamalien, "Iron Will, will destroy you!"

"Then come at me!" Chamalien smirked, as the announcer cried out for the fight to begin. As soon as he did, Iron Will charged forward with a roar. But before he could throw a single punch, Chamalien vanished.

"What?" Iron Will looked around, seeing no sign of him. "You dare run away."

"Whose running?" Chamalien's voice spoke from behind Iron, who spun around but still saw nothing. "I'm just levelling the playing field. If I can't out strength you, I can out think you." Someone suddenly tackled him from behind, knocking him off balance as something else swept his legs out from under him.

He cried out as he fell to the ground, but quickly rolled back to his feet and moved to the corner of the ring. He knew that Flash had to be somewhere in front of him. As long as he kept his back protected, he would be fine.

"What's the matter," Chamalien appeared in front of him. "Don't like your opponent having an unfair advantage? Not so good when the shoe's on the other foot, huh?"

"Be quiet," Iron Will rushed forward to try and grab him for a toss. But Chamalien leapt straight into the air and out of his reach. He then spun forward and swung his tail down to slam into his head, making Iron cry out as he was sent staggering back into the ring's ropes.

The people watching laughed, loving that the fight they fought would be so one-sided was turning out rather even. But this wasn't making Iron happy, as the man pushed himself far back into the net before catapulting himself forward.

He moved with incredible speed and looked ready to liariet Chamalien, but the alien slammed the Omnitrix and a green flash blinded Iron as he attempted to attack his neck. But as he did, he felt something slimy cover his arm. And as he did, a watery voice spoke up. "Goop!" The light faded and the slime alien was standing where Chamalien had just been, Iron's arm having cut through his neck but done nothing.

"Ahh!" Iron saw his arm was covered in the slime and flung it around to get it off, making Goop laugh. "You dare mock Iron Will!"

"What can I say," Goop told him as Iron tried to punch him with little effect. "I mock. I'm a mocker!" He suddenly exploded and slammed himself into Iron Will, turning into slimy rops that wrapped around his body and arms. Iron Will suddenly found himself being pulled around without any control, "also a puller, a tugger a yanker." The next thing Iron Will knew, his fist was suddenly flying up and hitting him in the face.

"Augh!" His other fist quickly followed, everyone watching in shock as Goop controlled his body effortlessly.

"Stop hitting yourself," the alien laughed. "Stop hitting yourself. Stop hitting yourself!" Laughter filled the area, with even Shining and the other members of the team unable to hold themselves back from laughing their heads off.

But despite busting a gut, Shining's focus remained on the task. There was no sign of Devious, but that didn't mean he wasn't there.

"Wait," Shining looked around, "where's Trixie?" He was only now realising that the other dimensional princess wasn't there. "Trixie, come in!"

Trixie was thrown back by a powerful gust of wind, groaning as she fell to the ground. "A little busy!"

Devious smirked as he spun his staff around, fireballs exploding off the end and rocketing towards Trixie with incredible speed. Trixie pushed herself to her feet and leapt around, but the narrow corridor made it impossible to get far from the flames fast enough.

The fireballs exploded and unleashed a shockwave that knocked Trixie backwards, Lady Masquerade groaning as she crashed into the ground. "Ow."

Devious laughed. "Clearly, you haven't been practising with your powers." Trixie rolled back to her feet as he moved forward. "If you had, you would have pushed your abilities to the next level."

"Next level?" Trixie asked, wondering what the heck he was talking about.

Devious held up his staff, "let me show you!" He slammed his staff into the ground and when he did, a bunch of ice appeared in front of him that took the shape of a lion. The ice sculpture stood there and Trixie wondered what the heck was such an improvement, only for the lion to suddenly charge towards her.

"WOW!" She screamed, as the beast bounced. She was barely able to swing her staff fast enough to behead it, the ice felling to the ground and shattering. "Living ice?"

Devious smirked, "it's a shame that you can't do something like that." He slammed his staff into the ground again, causing another ice lion to appear along with a shark, tiger, eagle and bison. The five charged and Trixie knew she was in trouble.

Goop had finally gotten bored of punching Iron Will with his own fist.

The wrestler roared as he finally summoned all his super strength and fought against the slime. He reached back and managed to grab the one part of Goop that couldn't slide out of his gasp, the Omnitrix. "Hey!" He felt Iron pull on it and feared he might rip it off his slimy body, so let himself liquify and be pulled off.

"Oh!" The announcer cried, "Iron Will has Flash. Could this be the end?" Iron looked ready to throw him from the ring, but Goop managed to slide a tendril under his hand and tap the Omnitrix.

"Molestache!" The rodent alien replaced the slimeball and used his mustache to punch Iron in the nose, making him cry out as he dropped the alien. Molestache laughed as he hit the ground and used his tache to wrapped up Iron's legs, lifting him up before he could recover.

Iron cried out as he was lifted up before being dropped onto the floor, groaning as he hit it whilst Molestache put up his dukes. Iron growled as he rolled onto his front and pushed himself forward, attempting to grab Molestache and throw him out of the ring.

But Molestache used his tache to throw himself into the air. Iron ended up body checking the ring and bouncing back to the centre, barely able to stay on his feet as he looked up at the rodent alien. He cracked his knuckles as he saw Molestache flying above him using his mustache-copter, really getting annoyed by him as he stopped spinning his rotor and fell to the ground.

Iron prepared to counter when he fell back to the ground, planning to punch him out of the ring.

However, as Molestache got within punching range, he hit the Omnitrix again with another flash of light blinding Iron. The wrestler punched at him, but hit thin air. And when the light faded, there was no sign of him anywhere. "Where'd he go?" He looked around, but saw no sign of him. "Did he go invisible again?" Everyone in the crowd started laughing, annoying him. "Do not laugh at Iron Will. Iron Will terrified that weakling into running away!"

"Dude!" One of the audience cried out, "he's right behind you!" Iron spun around, but he wasn't there. "Still behind you?" He spun again, still nothing. He kept spinning and spinning like a dog chasing his tail, making the laughter grow louder.

"Where are you?" Iron Will roared, his frustrations making him slam his fist into the ring and make part of it break.

"Right here!" He heard a voice, causing him to look around and see a small frog alien staring back at him. "Hi." Iron Will tried to grab him, but Grey Matter leapt out of reach and kept crawling along his back. "Let's see." He poked a part of his back, then twist another before poking a lower part and twisting another. "And now! Frog Slap!" He thrust his palm into the very centre of his back and in doing so, Iron Will's entire body went rigid.

"What?" Iron cried before he began to fall forwards, "oh no." He slammed face first into the ring, his entire body still as Grey Matter leapt off of him and brushed his hands.

"What did you do ta him?" Applejack asked as Grey Matter stepped over to his side of the ring, leaning against a post.

"I hit a few key pressure points. He won't be getting up for a good while." Sure enough, Iron Will's body refused to even budge. He was completely weak and helpless, as the ref came on stage and began to count down.

"No!" He cried, "this isn't how this fight ends. Iron Will is strong! Iron Will is unbeatable! Iron Will-" The ref finished counting and the match was over, "has just been beaten by a frog!" The crowd cheered as Grey Matter returned to human form, Flash sighing as he leaned against the ring.

"There you have it, folks. The unstoppable Iron Will has just been bested by Flash Sentry, not because of the teen's strength but because of his mind. Just goes to show that being the strongest doesn't make you the best. And now Iron Will's winning streak has come to an end."

Flash moved over to Iron Will, who continued to lay on the ground.

"This is impossible," Iron told himself. "Iron's strength...it failed him. How?"

Flash sighed as he sat down in front of him, "there are different kinds of strength. I forgot about that last time and my back still hurts because of it. But listen, you agreed that you'd give the Medallion up if I managed to beat you."

"But...without that Medallion...Iron Will's career as a wrestler will be over."

"You don't know that," Flash stated. "Besides, it wasn't real. You weren't using your own power to be the best. If you only ever won because of that Medallion, you didn't deserve to win. That's a harsh, but true fact of life. Nothing worth having comes easy."

Iron Will sighed, knowing Flash was right.

However, before he could say anything, a nearby wall suddenly exploded as a massive serpentine dragon flew out of it with something in its mouth. This sudden appearance caused everyone to start screaming, as Flash and the others saw the thing in the dragon's mouth was Trixie.

The girl flinched as he held her staff within the beast's mouth, which was the only thing stopping it from closing its jaw and stabbing her with its icicle fangs.

She cried out, as the dragon flew down and smashed into the ground whilst she was sent crashing into some chairs as the dragon exploded. As she did, Devious stepped out of the hole the dragon had caused. He then looked up and saw Iron Will on the ground. "Thanks for weakening the meathead for me. Now he shouldn't have any chance of fighting against my drain."

"I don't think so!" Flash prepared to activate the Omnitrix, but realised it was in the red due to all the fast switching he had done. "Um..." Devious launched a fireball towards him and it exploded at his feet, knocking Flash flying backwards into the ring.

He bounced off the ropes and fell to the ground, Devious smirking only to almost get blasted.

He looked around and saw Shining charging at him, Twilight and Applejack besides him as they both held up chairs ready to throw at him. "You're not getting that Medallion!" The plumber cried, firing another laser at him that Devious blocked with a thunderbolt.

Twilight and Applejack started throwing the chairs, Devious leaping away as Trixie started picking herself up.

As this was happening, Adagio and Mac rushed into the ring. "You okay?" She asked Flash, who moaned as he pushed himself up.

"Yeah. But that knocked me for a loop." Mac took this time to roll Iron Will onto his back before sitting him up, but the man's bulk was gonna make lifting him a struggle. "Iron, Devious won't stop hunting you as long as you have the Medallion. You need to choose. Join us, or give it up!"

Iron thought for a moment, watching as Trixie ran over and started avoiding fireballs and ice birds. He made up his mind.

"Iron Will is no hero. He fights, but not in battles like this." He sighed, "Iron Will relinquishes claim on the Medallion." As soon as he said that, light appeared around his body.

Everyone saw this and watched, as the black energy flew up and started forming something above Iron Will. In a flash, a black coin with a brown bull appeared above the wrestling ring.

The coin then flew over to Flash, clearly expecting him to take it. But he smirked and shook his head, "no." He turned to Trixie, "she's the one you want." Devious heard this and couldn't believe it, as the coin shot towards Trixie who caught it in her hand.

As soon as she did, the coin exploded into black energy that flowed around her entire body.

Trixie could feel the energy flowing through her body, unable to believe she had gotten a new Medallion. Devious, meanwhile, turned to glare at Flash. "You would throw away that power. The power you worked so hard to acquire. Why?"

"Because I don't need it," Flash smirked. "I can already become super strong. Now Trixie can can power up as well."

Devious growled as he turned back to Trixie. "You think you can beat me with a power you didn't even earn. I won't let someone who's just handed power keep me from my goals."

Trixie smiled. "Yeah, I didn't earn this power. But Flash entrusted me with it. So I'm gonna use it to beat you. Just watch me!" With that, she took a deep breath as the Medallion on her mask glowed. "Mighty Bull!" As soon as she said that, the Medallion transformed into the one she had just acquired.

In a flash of light, her mask transformed into a more bull-themed design. It had a pair of horns coming out the sides, just above her eyebrows, being brown in colour whilst the horns were white.

The rest of her costume quickly changed as well, the lot of them expecting her to grow muscles like in movies. But she remained as she was, whilst a brown leather jacket appeared on her body with an upturned collar. Her legs were in brown spandex, whilst black boots gloves appeared in black along with black leather shoulderpads. Finally, a black dog-collar appeared around her neck with a small metal bell hanging from it.

Everyone stared at Trixie as she looked over her body, amazed by how strong she felt.

The others were just as amazed, but Devious just glared at her and slammed his staff into the ground. Doing so caused a bunch of ice dragons to explode out of it and fly towards her, as Trixie braced herself for what she was about to do.

Having seen Applejack use her strength a bunch of times, Trixie had a pretty good idea on how to use it. As such, she swung her arms in front of her and smacked her hands together.

The force of the clap unleashed a shockwave, which struck the ice sculptures and blew them all backwards whilst crumbling them to icy shards. It then continued forward until it reach Devious, who went wide-eyed as he was suddenly blasted backwards. He screamed as he was smashed into the back wall, falling to the ground once the shockwave faded.

But the clap also caused Trixie's hands to scream in pain, the girl crying out as she started waving them around and blowing on them. The others laughed at this, as Devious pushed himself back to his feet. "You think this is a joke!?"

"We think you're a joke," Flash laughed. "That's for sure." The others nodded as Devious stood tall.

"You wouldn't be laughing if you knew what was about to happen." The others looked curious until he took out a paper tag, with weird symbols drawn onto it. "It's time you learned how I managed to get all those Medallions in the first place. If there's one skill I have that trumps all others in my world, its runes!" He threw the tag into the air and everyone watched it fly higher then it should.

When it hit the ceiling, it stuck to it and started glowing.

This was followed by several more spots that glowed, the lot of them looking around and seeing a bunch more tags stuck to the walls surrounding them The light flowed out of them and connected to the other tags, forming a room of light.

As soon as the room was formed, the lot of them found themselves feeling like their clothes and even their hair was a hundred pounds heavier. They all crumbled beneath the strain of the weight, falling to the ground with cries of pain. They tried to fight it, but it was like a house had been placed on their backs.

"What's...happening?" Twilight cried, her glasses hurting as they were pushed down into her face.

Devious chuckled, completely unaffected by what was happening. "Gravity runes. Anything inside this barrier is now a hundred times heavier."

"Great," Adagio groaned, "I was hoping to loss a few pounds. Now they're gonna be crushed out of me." They grunted and groaned, but nothing worked. Even Trixie and Applejack were unable to fight against it.

"Give it up," Devious stated. "Even the Mighty Bull can't save you. This is how I defeated the last one."

"Why isn't he being crushed?" Applejack asked, but got her answer when Devious turned to her and showed another tag stuck to his chest. Clearly, he was using it to negate the effects of the field.

"Gotta...do something," Flash groaned. As he said that, the Omnitrix turned green. "Yes!" He struggled to move his hand, barely managing to reach the device and lift his finger to hit the button. The dial popped up and Flash prayed for an alien that could fight against the gravity. And when he saw what silhouette was on the display, he nodded. "Good enough!" He pulled his arm towards him and headbutted the dial.

The green flash caught Devious' attention, making him look around to see the annoying teen vanish. When the light faded, nothing was there. "Where are you?" The others tried to find him, but saw no sign of any of his alien forms. They weren't even sure which of his aliens could move under so much gravity.

However, Trixie spotted something moving along the ground. A shadow.

Kagenobi shot along the ground and headed towards the wall with a rune tag, completely unphased by the high gravity. He shot up the wall and reached the tag, right as Devious noticed him. "NO!" He launched a fireball, but it was too late.

Kagenobi pulled the tag into his shadowy body, breaking the chain that kept the barrier up.

The energy began to melt away and as it did, everyone felt themselves growing lighter. "Yes!" Trixie smiled, jumping up once she could and happily moving around freely. The others did the same, as the shadow ninja leapt off the wall and landed on the ground next to her.

Devious growled and prepared to fire another attack, but Trixie was quicker.

She touched the bell around her neck and it suddenly morphed into a light, which felt onto her hand and transformed into a larger bell she gripped the handle of. She summoned all her strength and swung it around before smashing it onto the ground, the bell unleashing a mighty ring that blasted out a soundwave.

The attack shot towards Devious and before the man could protect himself, it slammed into him and he was sent flying backwards.

Everyone watched as he was sent rocketing towards the wall and the soundwave hit it before Devious, causing it to break apart before he hit it. This caused him to smash through the wall, as the ringing echoed throughout the stadium.

Once the sound finally died down, most of them needing to cover their ears with how loud the attack was, they all focused on the hole Devious had been blasted through. "I didn't kill him, did I?" Trixie asked as Kagenobi went to check through the hole.

Sliding along the ground, he passed through the wall and looked around and saw no sign of Devious. "He's gone!" He returned to human form and hit the Omnitrix, returning to human as the others gathered around Trixie.

"Loving the new look," Adagio told her. "How's it feel?"

"Amazing," Trixie smirked. "I've never felt so strong before." However, she looked over at the wall and realised she had overdone it. "I need to learn to control this power. If I use it on someone who's not supercharge by magic, I might end up squashing them like a grape."

"Don't worry," Applejack told her. "A'll help ya'h get the hang of it. A'h was da'h same way when a'h got ma'h magic. But just remember," Applejack pointed at Trixie's head. "This is da'h strongest muscle. Don't forget ta train this as well as these," she poked Trixie's newly muscled arms and they all laughed, agreeing with her as they turned to iron Will.

The man looked down at his hands, trying to summon his strength. But it truly was gone.

"You okay?" Flash asked, Iron turning to him and nodding. "You did the right thing. That power was winning the matches, not you. Now when you win, you'll know you've really earned it."

Iron Will sighed, "you're right. Iron Will will start again. And this time, he'll prove that he truly is the greatest in the world." The others smiled, happy that Iron wasn't upset. They had managed to get the Medallion back and stopped Devious once again. Hopefully, the rest of the Medallions would soon follow them and they could keep them away from the psycho.

Outside the stadium, Devious growled as he dragged himself along a wall.

His body was battered and his hearing was shot, but he wouldn't let this upset stop him. "Just you wait. I'll get those Medallions back. Enjoy your victory whilst you can. it'll be your last."

Author's Note

Flash earns himself another victory and Trixie gets a new Medallion. Everybody wins, except Devious. Hope you enjoyed the chapter and how Flash managed to win.

Season 3, Episode 5: Hunter of Pearl

Night had fallen on the Canterlot beach front, with barely anyone there despite how beautiful the light of the moon was on the ocean's surface.

Several miles out at sea, a boat was anchored off shore. It was a fishing boat, which had a trio of workers attempting to net themselves a nice haul to sell tomorrow. But it seemed the rumors they had heard about the fish coming out at night were false. As they pulled their nets up, they barely had anything in them.

"Some tuna and a few salmon," the captain sighed. "Not much, but it's better than nothing." He turned to his shipmates, "put them in the freezer." They nodded and quickly emptied the net into the hull, turning on the device that would keep the fish fresh until they got back to shore.

Once that was done, the captain went to pull up the anchor so they could return home. But then it happened.

The ship violently rocked as if something slammed into it, making them cry out as they were thrown about. And as they picked themselves up, they got that sinking feeling.

They rushed over to the edge of the boat and sure enough, there was a large hole in the side of it. One that the water was quickly seeping into. "No, no, no, NO!" The captain cried, rushing into the cabin in order to grab the emergency supplies. He returned a few minutes later, carrying a package labelled 'life raft'.

The ship suddenly rocked again and they rushed over to see another hole on the opposite side of the boat.

The captain acted fast and pulled the string, causing the box to explode as the inflatable blew up like a balloon. He and the shipmate got on board, waiting for their ship to sink, but the third one wasn't able to get to it.

The ship rocked again and he was thrown over the edge, splashing into the water and barely managing to get a breath before he was submerged.

He looked up at the sinking ship, praying that whatever had attacked it wouldn't want him. But he couldn't for the life of him, think what it could be that had attacked. There was nothing that lived in this part of the world that could or would rip a hole in a boat. Right?

Suddenly, he heard a sound coming from below him.

It was a strong, musical sound. It was almost like someone was singing, which did not feel right since he was underwater. He looked down and listened, completely forgetting that he was needing to get to the surface for breath. Then, he saw it.

Coming up from the darkness below, a creature was swimming towards him. He couldn't make out what it was, since it was like nothing he had ever seen before. It looked humanoid, but had no legs. Instead, it had a long tail with a shell-shaped fin on the end.

He could hardly believe what he was seeing. A mermaid.

The creature continued to sing as it swam towards him, getting closer. And as it did, he remembered the stories about mermaids and what they were known to do with sailors at sea.

His need for oxygen finally snapped him out of it and he started swimming up towards the surface. As he did, the creature swam faster and would soon catch up. But as he feared for his life, something began to move towards him from above. The boat.

The sunken vessel had finally been submerged and flew past him, heading straight for the creature.

The mermaid saw the ship and its attention seemed divided between it and him, clearly unsure which one was more important. But eventually, the ship became its target and it swam inside the hole.

This allowed him to swim to the surface and break through the water, gasping for air as he tried to figure out what the heck he had just seen. "Hey!" He heard his captain yell, "over here." He looked around and found the life raft floating near him, the fisherman swimming over and getting pulled into it. "Are you okay?" He didn't answer, still shocked from his discovery.

"You look like you've seen a ghost," his shipmate told him.

"I saw something way more crazy than a ghost. We need to get to shore and tell someone about this. Especially that guy who's supposed to handle stuff like this. What's his name?"

"Flash Sentry?"

"No, the other one. The Monster Hunter."

Two days later.

Flash Sentry sighed as he let the cool sea breeze flow over him, the teen looking out at the ocean that he had come to. The last time he had been here, he had just escaped a collapsing underwater cave and watched a man sacrifice his life to stop and alien genocide attempt. And now he was back to investigate a similar situation.

"You really think there's something in there?" He heard someone ask, making him look around to see Adagio walking towards him. She had just gotten out of his car, which also had Rarity and Trixie in it.

Two other vehicles were also there. Applejack's, who was carrying Rainbow, Fluttershy, Pinkie and the owner, and Shining's. Twilight and Sunset got out of his car, Cadance and Flurry also being there along with Spike. They had all come after hearing rumors of a creature attacking ships.

"It's possible," Flash answered Adagio. "This was where those squid aliens were. If even one of them survived, it could be attacking in revenge for what happened to their species." Adagio nodded, agreeing with that thought.

Cadance was currently applying sunscreen to her daughter, having chosen to come to the beach when she heard Shining would be coming. "Remember what I told you," her husband repeated for the tenth time. "Stay-"

"Stay out of the water until you've confirmed it's safe," Cadance smiled at him. "I know. Flurry and I can have just as much fun on the beach with Spike and the girls. Right sweetheart?" Flurry cheered in agreement, saying several words she had recently learned to use.

Shining smiled at this, glad she was listening to him. Ever since becoming a known plumber, Shining had been incredibly busy. Despite this being work, he was glad his family was here with him.

"So what's the plan?" Rainbow asked, "how are we supposed to find this thing?"

"I managed to get a police boat through my connections in the police department," Shining explained. "Flash and I are gonna go out to the sight of the latest ship sinking and check it out. Hopefully, they'll be something that'll help us find out what attacked it and where it went."

"Sounds like a plan," Flash smirked. "Let's get going to the harbour." They nodded and headed in that direction, whilst Cadance, Flurry, Spike, Trixie, Fluttershy, Pinkie and Rarity headed for the beach. The place was to divide and conquer. They would stay on the beach and be ready in case whatever this was decided to attack the beach. Meanwhile, the rest of them would focus on finding this thing.

However, as they arrived at the harbour, they noticed a large crowd standing around it. "Wonder what they're here for?" Twilight asked, the others wondering the same thing. But then, music started playing. Music Rainbow recognised.

"No way," she whispered. "I know that theme tune." And sure enough, as the lot of them got closer, the crowd moved a little and they were able to see someone they had hoped they would never have to see again.

"Dynamo Danger?" Flash cried, as the TV presenter smiled for his drone camera. "What's he doing here? I thought he was in jail?"

"They couldn't make the charges stick," Shining sighed. "His lawyer convinced the jury that since he was possessed by the alien technology, and nobody could prove he was in control, they couldn't convict him."

"Great," Flash had hoped he would never have to see Dynamo again. The last time they had met, the Monster Hunter had been after his alien alter egos and planned to capture them to prevent an alien invasion. Things got even worse when Dynamo somehow merged with some of Vilgax's drones and turned into an unstoppable cyborg predator.

They watched as the man smiled at the crowd, then turned to his drone. "Welcome back, my loyal viewers. I know it's been a while since my last hunt. But situations out of my control prevented me from doing what I do best." He slicked his hair back. "But now I'm back and ready to begin another hunt. For now, a creature has been attacking ships out at sea around this area. Those that managed to get away have all confirmed seeing a creature that is not of this Earth. A beautiful songstress, that is as dangerous as it is deadly. A mermaid."

"A mermaid?" Applejack asked, "seriously?"

"Like the things we've faced aren't any stranger?" Sunset asked, Applejack seeing she had a point.

"Only I, the great Monster Hunter, can hope to find and capture this creature before it takes another soul down to the murky depths."

"Cut!" Shining yelled, making Dynamo trip over his words and break character.

"Excuse me!" He glared at them, "you don't get to say that!" He then seemed to recognise them, as he and Flash moved towards him. "Do I know you from somewhere?"

"You should," Flash showed him the Omnitrix. "Considering you tried to kill me not to long ago." The rest of the crowd turned to him in shock, Dynamo catching on.

"Oh, you're that alien kid." He pointed at Flash, "you can't be mad at me for that. I was under alien control. You should know all about that, given what that thing does to you." Flash let out a sigh, really not want to get into an arguement with this guy.

Shining chose this moment to step forward. "Dynamo, you're not hunting any kind of creature."

"Oh yeah," Dynamo crossed his arms. "And why not?" Shining showed him his badge, "is that supposed to mean something?"

"I am a duly deputised member of the plumbers."

"Again, is that supposed to mean anything?" Shining frowned, "I've heard of you guys. The space police, right? Well, this isn't space. You've got no authority here."

"Wrong," Twilight told him. "The president signed a proclamation three weeks ago. The United States is now part of the plumber's galactic alliance."

Shining nodded, "which gives me all the jurisdiction of a high ranking police official. As such, I'm denying you the right to hunt for this creature. Me and my team will investigate and if it turns out to be an alien, we'll handle it."

"You can't do this," Dynamo told him. "I have my right and will not be bullied."

"This isn't bullying. This is a person with authority making sure an idiot doesn't get himself killed."

"Does it really matter if he tries to find this thing?" Adagio asked. "I mean, what the heck is he gonna use to find it anyway?" Dynamo smirked as he took out a remote and pressed a button.

Suddenly, something exploded out of the water and made them all stagger back in shock. It was a ten foot robotic mech that had a cockpit in the middle of it, which opened up for Dynamo to climb up into. Other then having no head, the only thing that kept it from looking like a normal robotic humanoid were the stubby little legs it had. Of course, it was painted red and had Dynamo's insignia on it.

"What the heck is that?" Flash asked, as the machine pulled itself onto the deck.

"It's my mech suit," Dynamo laughed. "Let's just say that a very generous backer donated it to me." The cockpit opened up and he climbed into it, Shining rushing up to him.

"Get down from there!" Shining ordered him. "I'm warning you. If you get in our way, there'll be serious consequences!" Dynamo didn't listen and closed the cockpit, the mech leaping into the water and disappearing below the waves. "DYNAMO!"

"I can't believe that guy!" Rainbow cried.

"What do we do?" Twilight asked.

"There's nothing we can do," Shining sighed. "We've just gotta find that creature before Dynamo has a chance to." They nodded and Shining turned back to Rainbow and Applejack. "You two head back to the beach. If Dynamo finds it before us, he could cause it to get angry and attack to beach. The more people protecting it, the better."

The two didn't seem happy about this, but nodded anyway and returned to the beach. As they did, Shining took the others to the spot the police boat was docked.

Said boat was the standard high-speed ship with a cabin on the top to defend from the elements and oncoming fire. The lot of them got on board as Shining started it up, Twilight beginning to get to grips with the tech onboard. And as they pulled out of the harbour, Flash and the others looked around the cabin and stared out at the open ocean.

Somewhere out there, something was laying in wait. Now they just needed to find it.

Within a dark cave, a creature was crouched in the darkness.

Said creature let out a type of squawk as it was fiddling with something in its clawed hands. Then, whatever it was broke open and the creature looked inside before letting out an annoyed squawk. They threw it away from them, the object being a clam of some kind.

It stood up, spreading what appeared to be a pair of wings that it used to take to the air and fly through the air. It then dived down into a pool of water, a bright flash of light illuminating the cave as the creature's body changed to that of the form the fishermen had all seen. And as quick as a flash, the creature disappeared within the water.

Once the boat was in the area of the attacks, Shining dropped the anchor and the others got ready.

Flash was dressed in a pair of black shorts whilst Shining was wearing purple ones. They were now just waiting for the last member of their group to exit the cabin, as Shining prepared their gear. He placed his badge on his waist and summoned his belt, having set it so that only his Multi-Striker and holder appeared on his leg.

"Here," he handed Flash a mask that was almost entirely glass with a blue plastic outline. "This mask will be able to let you breath for up to an hour underwater. As long as the battery's full, it'll be able to separate the oxygen from the water you breath in."

"Cool," Flash put it on and found the plastic fit around his entire face and let him see without anything in the way. "Love this plumber tech. But do I really need it? I'm gonna transform as soon as I'm down there."

"Yes, but what if you time out whilst you're at the bottom of the ocean?" Flash saw his point and decided to keep the mask.

As he decided this, the cabin opened and the girls stepped out. Twilight and Sunset were still dressed in their normal clothing, but Adagio had changed into a purple two-piece swimsuit. Flash couldn't help but go wide-eyed at the sight, Adagio smirking.

"You like?" Flash only nodded, Shining rolling his eyes.

"Focus," he told the teen before turning to Adagio. "Are you sure you should come down? I know you said you were a good swimmer, but you don't have any abilities you could use to defend yourselves."

"Maybe not," Adagio smirked. "But were you born at the bottom of the ocean and spent a few decades living there before deciding to try and conquer the surface world?" Shining remained silent, "my point exactly. I'm the only one who's been down someplace like that. Now come on." She rushed over to the edge of the boat and leapt into the water, doing a perfect dive as they others rushed to the side.

A few moments later, Adagio surfaced with her hair having lost a lot of its volume. She pushed her wet locks away from her face and smiled at Flash, who had to admit she looked hot with that appearance.

Shining threw her a mask and as she put it on, the boys dived into the water. Twilight and Sunset set up their gear, attaching a plumber laptop to the ship's sonar system that would allow them to get a map of the area and track those with the masks.

"You guys ready?" Shining asked, Flash activating the watch.

"You turn me into Vapaw, you're dead meat." Flash slammed the dial down and in a burst of light, he was transformed into the cephalopod alien. "Squidstrictor!" He dived under the water, Shining and Adagio following behind.

They swam down deep, Adagio showing just how good a swimmer she was since she was able to keep up with Squidstrictor as they descended. "Twilight, you hearing us okay?"

"Loud and clear," she told her brother over the radio. "And we've got your signals. We'll let you know if anything shows up." Shining nodded as they kept swimming down towards the bottom of the ocean, which didn't take long thanks when Squidstrictor grabbed them both around the waist and pulled them down.

When they reached the bottom, they found something they hadn't been expecting to find so quickly. A sunken ship.

It was a fishing boat, with holes in the bottom of it that looked like they had been created by something sharp clawing at it. "This doesn't look like one of those squid's work," Squidstrictor announced as Shining and Adagio began to inspect it.

Squidstrictor swam around a little more, trying to find any sign of what might have caused this.

Back on the boat, the girls stared at the screen as the sonar pinged several times.

It showed nothing but the three's signals, making them glad since it meant they wouldn't be attacked. However, that all changed when something big appeared on the edge of the screen. "Oh no," Twilight whispered as Sunset activated the radio.

"Flash, can you hear me? You've got something coming your way. Something big."

Squidstrictor looked around, trying to see the creature that was coming at him. But there was no sign of anything that looked even remotely like what had been described.

"Are you sure?" He asked his communicator in the Omnitrix, "I don't see-AUGH!" Suddenly, something grabbed him from behind and pinned his arms to his side. And before he could do anything, he was suddenly zapped by what felt like a million bolts of lightning.

The scream had been heard over the communicators, Shining and Adagio leaving the sunken ship and swimming over to Squidstrictor. As they did, they saw the thing that was holding him was actually a metal hand with three fingers. They recognised it as being part of Dynamo's mech, the hand being connected to a long cable that started retracting and pulling the alien backwards.

"HEY!" Adagio cried, but neither of them were fast enough to catch up.

Squidstrictor moaned as he was pulled towards the mech, which was swimming towards him as he pulled the hand back to itself. "HA!" Dynamo cried from within the cockpit, "and that, dear views, is how you capture a monster in record time. I'd like to see Flash Sentry do that."

"You idiot!" Squidstrictor told him, having recovered from the shock enough to squeeze himself out of the grasp. Once free, he turned to Dynamo. "I am Flash Sentry!" He pointed at the Omnitrix and Dynamo realised his mistake.

"Ah." Shining and Adagio arrived at that moment.

"Dynamo!" Shining growled, "what did I say about getting in our way?"

"It's not my fault," Dynamo argued. "I saw a creature that wasn't like anything on Earth. What else was I supposed to think?"

"Hmm," Adagio acted, "there's a creature there that doesn't look like it's supposed to be on Earth. And I know a kid who can turn into aliens is around. I should probably make sure it's not him before I do anything, or else I'll look like an A-grade idiot." Dynamo glared at them, wanting to argue but being unsure how he was supposed to.

"Dynamo," Shining told him, "leave. I'm not gonna be so forgiving the next time you get in our way." Dynamo glared at him, as the three turned away from him and swam back to the wreck.

"You just watch. I'm gonna find that creature before you and show the world there's only one person meant to be called the Monster Hunter." As he said that, his systems picked something up. "Huh?" He looked down and found a life sign nearby. One that was moving rather fast. "Hello." He headed off in that direction and as he did, he found the object he had picked up was remaining in one spot.

After a few minutes, he found himself staring at a crevice in the seafloor. The perfect hiding space. "Perfect." He activated his camera. "Dear viewers, I may have found the creature I've been seeking. Now, it's time to get a good look at what has been terrorising the seas." He looked into the crevice but saw nothing inside of it, "what?" He frowned, "are you kidding me!"

Then, he noticed something was inside the crevice. But it wasn't something spectacular. Just a clam, which he reached inside and picked up.

"Well, if anything else I'll be able to make a nifty pearl necklace."

As this was happening, something shot up form behind him. It had escaped the crevice when it realised something was coming and hid behind a rock, which the mech had its back to. As such, Dynamo didn't know what had hit him until it was too late.

The three returned to the shipwreck, but couldn't find anything that would help them figure out what had attacked it.

"It's clear why the ship was attacked though," Shining showed them to damaged fish container. "It must have been looking for food." The others nodded and wondered where it could be. But then, their communicators were filled with noise.

"HELP!" They flinched at the loud sound, the three realising it was Dynamo.

"What did we tell you about-" Shining didn't get to finish.

"I'M UNDER ATTACK!" The three didn't need to be told anything else, Squidstrictor grabbing them and shooting off in the direction Dynamo had gone. Twilight and Sunset moved to the location Dynamo had gone and sure enough, the sonar confirmed something else was down there.

And when they arrived, they found the water mech being attacked by something. Whatever it was, it was moving too fast for them to get a good look at. And too fast for Dynamo's slow mech to fight back against. "What is that thing?" Adagio asked, as they got in close.

Squidstrictor shot forward, his speed barely managing to equal the strange creature.

It shot down towards Dynamo's mech and slammed into it, its hands digging into the metal the machine's arm and tearing into it. The mech was covered in many more holes, the systems inside going haywire. Dynamo tried to get it under control, but the machine's power was dying.

The creature then slammed into the front, its claws slashing at the glass cockpit. This caused several leaks to occur, Dynamo gasping as water began to get in.

"That's enough!" Squidstrictor swung his arms around and caught the creature, stopping it in the water and letting them finally get a proper look at it.

It was some kind of mermaid, but it was nothing like the ones Flash had seen on TV and movies.

It's body was light blue and from the waist up, it was covered in some kind of fur Flash had only really seen on horses and other equines. Its head was actually pretty equine in appearance, being shaped just like a horse but not having hair on its head. Instead, it had what appeared to be a white fin of some kind that ran from its forehead all the way down the back of its neck. It had the same kind of fins on its back, though these ones were much thinner and looked translucent.

Its arms were covered in the same blue fur as its body and its hands were white, having large claws on the front similar to Flash's Gryforce alien. Only the claws had webbing between them, whilst its lower half was more fish-like.

It was still blue, but now it was covered in scales instead of fur and had a white fish fin on the end of it.

"Wow," Squidstrictor was amazed by it. As he tried to pull it in closer, the Omnitrix beeped. "Huh?"

"Uncatalogued DNA detected," it stated. Those words surprised Squidstrictor, remembering the last time he had heard them.

"No way." He looked up at it and realised it could only be one thing, "a hybrid." The shock loosened his grip, allowing the creature to start wiggling its tail. "WOW!" He cried, being pulled up before he could fight back. The creature swam towards the surface, moving so fast he couldn't slow it down.

The others watched them vanish, as Dynamo continued to panic. "HELP!" He cried, Shining and Adagio frowning since they had to help him.

Squidstrictor tried to pull the hybrid to a stop, but it was too strong and moving too fast.

He saw the surface coming close and realised the creature would need to slow down, which would give him the opening. But it didn't slow down. "Hey, what are you doing?" He got his answer when the creature exploded out of the water, pulling him out with it. "Bad move. I've got better maneuverability out of the water." But as he said that, the hybrid was suddenly consumed by light. "What?"

When the light faded, Squidstrictor saw he was now holding an entirely new creature.

Its top half was pretty much the same, but it had a few differences. One of them was that instead of having a normal horse mouth, it had a large white beak and the webbing between its claws was gone. The fin on its head had been replaced by a waft of white hair and its back fins were now a pair of blue bird wings that were almost as long as it was tall.

But it was its lower half that was truly different. Instead of having a long scaly fish tail, it had a pair of legs covered in the same blue fur. Instead of claws, it had a pair of white hooves on the ends of its legs and sticking out of its backside was a long white tail.

"No way." The creature spread its wings and shot through the air, continuing to pull him along for the ride. It did several flips and spins along the way, making it hard for him to hold on. But eventually, it turned harshly and he lost his grip. "NO!" He cried, falling towards the water.

But before he could hit it, he stopped in mid air. "You okay?" He looked around and saw Twilight and Sunset, the police boat moving towards him.

"Yeah," he nodded, "thanks." He hit the Omnitrix and transformed, "Firefly!" Now able to fly on his own, Twilight let him go and they all focused on the creature in the air. "I think it's a hybrid, like Drift."

"Really?" Sunset asked, focusing on the creature's appearance. "It's a hippogriff."

"It didn't look that way before," Firefly explained. "It looked more like a mix of a horse and a fish."

Sunset nodded, "that's what hippogriffs can do in Equestria. Change into seaponies. But...it shouldn't be able to do that without the magic pearl Twilight told me about." Before they could guess how it was doing this, the hybrid shot off.

"HEY!" He flew after it, firing his jets attempting to catch up. He saw the creature was heading towards the beach and knew that if it got there, it could cause a lot of problems. As such, he increased the power to his flames and rocketed passed the hybrid. "Got you now!" He shot several fireballs at the creature, who spun around in the air before heading towards the water. "NO!" Before he could stop it, the hybrid dived down into the ocean as a light surrounded it.

He realised it must have transformed again, the insect preparing to return to Squidstrictor and chase after it. But before he could, the Omnitrix started beeping.

"GYAH!" He cried, falling out of the sky. Twilight and Sunset saw this, but Flash was too far away for Twilight to catch. As such, he splashed into the water as the boat pulled up next to him.

"You okay?" Sunset asked, as he surfaced and was glad he was wearing his mask.

"Peachy," he sighed as something else surfaced next to them.

It was Dynamo's mech, which was now completely full of water. The hatch quickly opened and Dynamo's head flew out, gasping and spitting out water as Shining and Adagio appeared besides him. "This is all your fault!" He pointed at Flash, "you call yourself a hero? Why didn't you stop that creature?"

Flash rolled his eyes and turned to Shining, "this thing's a hybrid. It's made from Equestrian creatures." Shining and Adagio were shocked to hear this.

When they made it back to shore, dragging the water mech so as to not litter the ocean, the others were waiting for them and wanted to know what they found.

"You think it's Equestrian?" Rarity asked, amazed as the others nodded. "Well, it seems those other tubes weren't holding more griffon creatures."

"You said it's called a hippogriff?" Rainbow asked, Sunset nodding as she was sure that's what it was. "I don't know that much about mythology, but aren't hippogriffs supposed to be flying creatures. How the heck can it swim."

Sunset sighed. "In Equestria, the hippogriffs were attacked by the Storm King. In order to protect themselves, they used a magical pearl that allowed them to transform into seaponies. When the Storm King was defeated, that pearl was broken up and passed around them. Now they can shift between sea and sky whenever they want."

"That's pretty cool," Pinkie smiled.

"But it doesn't explain how this thing is able to change," Shining frowned.

"There might be a way." They all looked down at his badge, which was on the table they were currently sitting around, as Azmuth spoke. "If whoever collected the DNA of a hippogriff and seapony, got it from the same creature. It's possible they could have used another type of DNA to act as a shifting catalyst to allow this creature to transform. If I'd hazard a guess, it's probably part piscciss volann."

"Great," Flash nodded, "but that doesn't help us find this thing. And I doubt Dynamo's gonna listen to us when we tell him to back off." He had a point. As soon as they got back to shore, Dynamo had rushed off vowing to capture that creature and make it pay for what it did. Shining had tried to tell him to stay out of it, but he hadn't listened. "We've gotta do something."

"You need to capture it," Azmuth stated. "If I can study it, I might be able to determine how to remove its human DNA along with Drift's. Then we can send them to Equestria, where they belong."

"But how are we supposed to find it?" Pinkie asked. "It's got an entire ocean to hide in."

"Maybe," Twilight hummed. "But maybe we can trace it."

"How?" Cadance asked, "did you put a tracker on it or something?"

"No, but it might already have one on it." She looked down at the badge, "can you send the signal for Drift's tracker to Shining's badge?"

"I see what you're planning and it's brilliant."

"Huh?" Flash clearly wasn't following, as Trixie sighed.

"It's simple," she told the teen. "If this thing has the same tracker Drift had and it's working, we can follow it to wherever this creature's hiding." Flash caught on and nodded, smiling as Azmuth sent over the signal data. Hopefully, the creature's tracker would be intact. Meaning they could find it and maybe trace it back to whoever put it in it in the first place.

Meanwhile, Dynamo was in the hanger he had rented out.

He was working on something that would allow him to find his prize and capture it, the object in question being hidden under a tarp as he was welding something. "Stupid kids. Think they can tell me what to do. I'll show them. Dynamo Danger doesn't give up so easily."

He stopped welding and stepped out from under the tarp and over to a computer, typing away at it as the sound of an engine filled the room.

"My employer wanted it in one piece and I'll deliver. Have to thank him after the generous donation he gave me. But just because it has to be in one piece, doesn't mean I'll be delivering it to him unharmed." He turned towards the device as the tarp was blown off by something, revealing a bright red vehicle that looked like some kind of spaceship.

It was bullet shaped with a pair of wings on either side of it, the front having a large round window whilst the back had a large propeller surrounding by three fins. Dynamo smirked, loving his creation and knowing it would be the perfect weapon against the creature and those that got in his way.

The sun was beginning to set as the heroes returned to the police boat.

This time, Fluttershy and Trixie had chosen to come with them. Fluttershy was dressed in her wetsuit outfit and had think flippers on her feet. Twilight was also dressed in her own swimming gear, she and Fluttershy holding the same masks Flash, Adagio and Shining had.

"Alright," Shining stared at his badge as it showed a holographic map. "The tracker should be right under us and it doesn't appear to have moved much since we headed out. I think we've found its home."

"Then let's get going," Flash smirked before Fluttershy grabbed his shoulder.

"Hold on. Remember, this creature's like Drift. That means it's smart but young. I'm sure if we show it we're not a threat, it won't attack us."

"I'm not so sure," Adagio told her. "It didn't seem to need a reason to attack Dynamo before. And all those boats didn't sink themselves."

"She's right," Twilight nodded. "Just because it's intelligent, that doesn't mean it's not dangerous. There are plenty of humans out there that do bad things for no reason. We shouldn't assume anything about it."

"Right," Flash nodded as he looked down at his Omnitrix.

"What's wrong?" Sunset asked.

"Just wondering if I should transform now before we head down there. If the Omnitrix detects the DNA, it might not let me transform if this thing attacks."

"Better to save the transformation," Shining explained. "Don't wanna time out at the wrong moment." He attached his badge to his plumber belt and moved over to the edge of the boat. "You guys ready?" They all nodded and Shining dived down into the water, the others diving in after him as Sunset and Trixie watched.

"Alright guys," Trixie took out her Sky Butterfly mask. "I'll be ready to fight it if it comes up. You guys just be careful down there."

"We will," Twilight assured her as the five of them swam down towards the bottom of the seafloor.

Shining's mask had the signal map, so he was able to see that they were getting close. As they swam, Flash and Twilight realised they knew this area of the ocean. "This is where those squids were," Flash stated. "But those caves collapsed."

"It's possible part of the cave is still open," Twilight suggested. "Or it managed to open up a new cave." They reached the trench Flash had dived down into once and Shining's tracker showed the signal was straight bellow them.

"Are you sure we can survive that deep?" Fluttershy asked, "what if we're crushed by the pressure?"

"Relax," Twilight told her. "Human bone is a lot stronger than you think. The amount of pressure needed to crush us is three times more then the deepest part of the ocean." They swam into the trench. "The only reason people can't survive in deep water is because their air tanks get crushed. Not a problem with these things."

"Doesn't mean we can take our time," Shining replied. "Remember, these things only last an hour before-there!" He pointed at a hole in the wall and they all swam towards it, being ready in case the creature attacked. But it didn't show up.

Instead, they headed into the cave and found a long tunnel that was slightly narrow in places.

They could tell just from looking that the cavern was barely staying together. Instead of looking like the normal structures caves usually were, this one was large chunks of rock that were balanced against one another to form openings for them to pass through.

"This must be one of the caves that collapsed," Flash realised as he swam through a hole. "Careful guys. Touching these rocks might cause them to collapse."

"We shouldn't go too far in," Shining also stated. "We don't want to get lost and run out of air." But Flash then saw something that made that statement mute.

"There's an air pocket!" He looked at a spot above them that wasn't filled with water, the teen swimming up and surfacing. When he did, he saw a large cave that was pitch black. Luckily, his mask allowed him to see in the dark. The place was the size of a house and had many rocks stacked around the place. The ceiling looked stable, but Flash knew a few strong hits would likely make the whole place come crumbling down.

He pulled himself out of the pool, being careful not to step on any sharp rocks. The others followed and they were all amazed by the place. "Wow," Adagio whispered, "not a great place to call home."

"But perfect if you're a creature who lives in both and sea and on land," Fluttershy pointed out.

Shining detached his badge and placed it on the ground, as it unleashed a light that filled the cave. This allowed them to take off their masks and look around properly, seeing claw marks on the walls and rocks along with a bunch of fish remains. There were also a bunch of clams in the corner of the cave, with several pearls scattered around them

"This thing clearly likes pearls," Adagio picked one up and smiled at it. "But where is it?"

"I'm not sure," Shining frowned as he used his badge to check the tracker. "It must be close." But as he said that, they all heard something. A sound. A beautiful sound that made them all feel like all their troubles could just melt away.

"You hear that?" Flash asked.

"Singing," Fluttershy smiled. "It's so beautiful." They followed the singing and turned off the light, putting their helmets back on as they made their way to another part of the cave. There was a hole in one of the walls that lead into another, smaller, room. This one was filled with much more water, with a large rock in the centre of the pool.

And sitting upon that rock was the hybrid, who sang its song to nobody. Now that they were closer, the group realised this was not a happy song. It was a song full of pain and loneliness, one of sorrow and longing. It made them want to cry.

They were so focused on the song, Fluttershy wasn't paying attention and accidently kicked a small rock. It bounced along the ground and fell into the water, a loud splash filling the room and making the hybrid stop singing.

It looked around and when it saw them, its eyesight clearly excellent in the dark, it suddenly transformed into its hippogriff form and squawked dangerously at them. "WAIT!" Flash cried, remembering what Fluttershy had said. "Listen to me. We're not trying to hurt you." Shining chose this moment to turn on his badge light, making the creature get defensive but seeing them all take off their mask. "Look. If you don't attack us, we won't attack you. Alright?"

The creature stared at them, obviously trying to figure out if it could trust them or not. But eventually, it relaxed and stared at them.

"Good. Now, you can understand us? RIght?" It nodded, "good. Alright, I'm Flash and these are all my friends. We didn't come to hurt you. We came because you've been attacking ships and causing problems for people." The hippogriff frowned, Flash getting the feeling it was guilty. "We can help you. We know you're all alone here and want somewhere to call home. We can take you to that place."

The hippogriff appeared interested, as Flash and the others moved towards the edge of the pool.

They then sat down, putting their feet in the water and showing them they weren't going to hurt it. As the creature began to relax, Flash realised they needed a name for it. "Now, what to call you?" He had a feeling it was a female, so he needed to come up with a feminine name.

Twilight noticed several clams on the rock, pride open with some more pearls around them. "You really like pearls, don't you?" The creature looked confused, as Twilight pointed at the round orbs. "Those things. They're called pearls."

The creature picked up one of them and looked it over, "p...pearl." They all smiled, seeing it really was smart enough to talk.

"That's right," Flash told her. "Do you like that name? We can call you that if you like it." The creature thought for a moment and nodded, wanting to be named after the shiny things it liked so much. "Alright Pearl. We want to take you someplace you'll be safe. There's some bad people out there that want to hurt you and we want to help. So will you come with us?"

Pearl thought for a moment and after looked around, she nodded.

"Great," Flash held up his hand, "glad to help." But he would soon learn this was a mistake. For in that moment, the Omnitrix turned yellow.

"Uncatalogued DNA detected." The sudden voice spooked Pearl, followed by the yellow light that shot out and flew over her body. And just like that, all the trust she had vanished and she was back in an offensive stance. "Unknown DNA sample acquired," the watch stated. "Scan complete."

"You couldn't have waited!?" He screamed at the device, as Pearl let out a loud squawk with fury in her eyes. "Wait, it's not what you think!" But Pearl wasn't listening and leapt at him, the hybrid almost clawing his eyes out until Twilight used her magic to pull him into the air and out of harm's way. "Just calm down!"

"She's not listening!" Adagio cried.

"Flash," Shining had an idea, "do what you did with Drift. Put her to sleep." Flash nodded and activated the Omnitrix, as Pearl attempted to attack him again.

Twilight moved him in the air, but Flash's weight forced her to put him down as he found his alien. "Alright, time for you to take a nap!" He slammed it down and in a burst of light, he transformed. However, he wasn't the alien he wanted. "Oh man," The Worst pulled his eyelids in frustration.

Pearl shot forward and grabbed the alien, lifting him into the air and through the hole into the next room. "FLASH!" They all cried, Fluttershy grabbing his discarded mask as they chased after them.

But a loud splash could be heard and by the time they got into the next room, the aliens were gone. "Don't tell me!" Shining looked down at the pool.

The Worst barely managed to hold his breath, as Pearl pushed him through the water.

Her claws dug into his flesh and hurt like heck, but they couldn't seem to break his skin. Azmuth had told him this alien species was physically indestructible, able to survive even a point blank nucular warhead. But it didn't make Flash immortal. He still needed to breath and unless he found a way to save himself, he was gonna drown.

Pearl swam them out of the cave and into the open ocean, planning to outrun Flash's friends and make him drown. However, something would happen that would be Flash's salvation.

As it turned out, that something was Dynamo. For suddenly, out of nowhere, the vehicle he had been working on appeared. "There you are!" The man cried from within the cockpit. The vehicle's propeller span, shooting the large sub forward and catching Pearl's attention. "I knew tracking that police boat would help me find you." He charge forward and intended to ram the creature.

Pearl saw it coming and threw The Worst at it, the alien bouncing off the window and sliding up it as the speed of the vehicle pushed him away. Pearl charged forward, her webbed claws ready to slash at the vehicle. But Dynamo smirked before shifting the joystick to the left.

This caused a bunch of jets on the tips of the wings to fire, making the sub spin in the water and avoid the claws. He then hit a button on the dashboard, which caused a wire to shoot out from under the vehicle.

This wire slammed onto Pearl's chest and delivered a few hundred volts to her. She screamed in pain, quickly using her claws to cut through the metal cable. She swam away as the vehicle moved through the water, arching around to turn to face her again.

She then focused her attention of the driver, planning to do the same thing she did the last time she ran into this intruder.

She saw forward as fast as she could, her claws primed to cut through the metal and the glass. But Dynamo didn't look worried at all. "Bring it on." The hybrid slammed into the sub and slashed at the glass, but her claws didn't even scratch the glass. "Ha! Extra reinforced. I'm not letting you drown me again." The hybrid didn't like this and kept slash at the glass, not doing a thing against it. "My turn." He flicked a switch.

Suddenly, an electrical surge exploded out of the metal and struck Pearl. She screamed in pain as her entire body was on fire. Eventually, she couldn't take any more and fell unconscious.

"Gotcha!" He laughed before moving to retrieve her.

The Worst had seen this all and watch as a part of the sub opened up, revealing a glass egg that opened up and scooped Pearl into it before closing. The egg remained on the bottom, as the sub began to move away. "Dynamo!" He cried, only to realise he had released his air and was now without any oxygen.

He panicked as he covered his mouth, trying to swim up to the surface. But his body was not built for being underwater. He tried to calm down, since he wouldn't be able to shift aliens if he wasn't calm. But it was no good. He could just hear that horrible music that meant drowning was about to happen in his favourite video game.

But before he could lose consciousness, something was placed over his face and the water was sucked away. A blast of air then filled his lungs, allowing him to breath and open his eyes to find Shining holding the mask over his squishy face. "You okay?" He looked around and saw the others had finally reached them.

"Dynamo has Pearl!" He stated, looking where he had been but saw he was gone. "Ahhh, he's gone."

Shining held up his badge and found the tracker was still online. "I've got them. Them they're moving really fast." He looked in the direction they went, "we'll never catch up to them."

"I can," The Worth stated. They all looked confused until he took a deep breath and pressed the Omnitrix, a light filling the dark ocean as he changed forms. And when the light faded, they were shocked by what they saw.

Dynamo's ship moved through the water and swam higher and higher, eventually breaking the surface of the water.

The sub shot into the night air and before it could fall back into the water, parts of the wings opened up and revealed a bunch of thrusters. These thrusters fired and allowed the vehicle to take to the air.

They shot into the sky, Dynamo laughing at having captured his pray. "With this sub, nothing will be able to stop me!" However, as he said that, something appeared on his radar. It was behind him and coming up fast. "What's this?" He activated the backwards camera and turned to the screen, allowing him to see what was coming after him.

Flash could hardly believe how easy it was to adapt to this new form. It was a form very similar to Pearl, only his body was orange with a blue mane and tail. His beak, claws and hooves were all a darker shade of orange, almost brown, and he had the Omnitrix on his chest.

"Ah yeah!" He laughed as he flew after the jet, "You're not getting away!" He managed to catch up to the jet and as he did, Pearl was beginning to come around. "Hang on!" He told her, flying under the jet so she could see him. "I'm gonna get you out of there!" The hybrid was shocked to see another like it, whilst Dynamo smiled.

"I bet he'll pay double for the other one." He flew down, attempting to zap him as he charged up the ship's electrical field.

Flash felt the energy and knew he couldn't let it touch him. Instead, he flew further down and tried to think of a way to stop Dynamo. But as he did, the ship fired several cables towards him. "Oh no you don't!" He dodged every single one and as he did, he realised something.

Pearl wasn't being electrocuted. That had to mean her case was shielded from the energy.

"Perfect!" He shot up, avoiding the wire, and grabbed onto Pearl's container. "Hold on!" Using his claws, he started slashing at the glass and found it was really tough. But he wouldn't give up. He focused his attacks on the exact same spot, doing more and more damage with every second. Until, eventually, a scratch appeared on the glass. "There we go!"

Pearl watched in amazement, as Flash kept slashing more and more at the scratch and making it bigger. And eventually, he slashed at it hard enough to completely break the glass.

Her eyes went wide, as the water inside the egg started shooting out of it. This allowed her to return to her hippogriff form, whilst the cracks on the glass spread to the rest of it.

Flash then grabbed the sides and brought his hooves up, swinging back before slamming them both forward with all his strength. The impact was enough to shatter the glass, sending it flying in every direction and freeing the captured hybrid.

Pearl quickly leapt out and took to the air, she and Flash flying away from the ship as Dynamo saw what had happened. "NO!" He roared, turning his ship to face the pair. When he did, he saw the second hybrid and noticed the Omnitrix. "Sentry! This is your doing?"

"That's right!" Flash smirked as he looked himself over and nodded. "The name's Skydiver. And if you want to capture my friend, you'll have to go through me first!" Dynamo roared and charged forward, his ship electrified and ready to zap them.

The pair flew in opposite directions, the ship flying between them. They began flying around the ship, trying to avoid Dynamo's attempts to hit them with the electrical cables or slamming into them and shocking them. Skydiver saw this and knew that getting zapped wouldn't be a good idea. However, he realised something.

"Coating that thing in so much energy must take a heck of a lot of juice." He smirked as he realised what they needed to do, turning to Pearl as she flew close to him. "We just need to outlast him." She looked confused. "This thing must have some pretty big batteries, but they can't be limitless. Eventually, it'll run out of juice." They dodged some more cables and started flying around again, "we just need to stay safe until he uses up all of his energy."

Pearl nodded and they both dived down, flying towards the water as Dynamo dived after them.

The pair splashed down into the water, both being surrounded by light as they morphed into their water forms. Skydiver now looked like a mermaid, his claws remaining only now having webbing whilst his back legs and tail merged into one large blue fish tail. His wings suddenly morphed into a pair of fins, whilst the Omnitrix remained in the same place.

"Hahaa!" Skydiver cheered, swimming down as fast as he could along with Pearl.

Dynamo's sub splashed down after them, using a lot of its power as it tried to catch up to them. Dynamo wanted to launch a powerful electrical wave from the sub and fry them both, but he looked at his energy levels and found they were starting to get low. "Knew I shouldn't have skimmed on getting that generator."

He tried to catch up with the pair, trying to fire his cables at them. But they both avoided them and dove deeper, eventually reaching the seafloor before separating and swimming in different directions. Dynamo chased after Pearl, hoping to catch her before Skydiver could return to her aid.

She swam along the seafloor and as Dynamo started to catch up, she suddenly shot up. "Get back here!" He pulled up and the sub began to follow her, as they headed back to the surface.

As he chased her, Skydiver suddenly appeared besides him. "Give it up!" He told the man. "I won't let you have her. She's under my protection and as long as she's on this planet, I'll do whatever I need to do to keep her safe."

"No way!" He told him, "I was paid to capture this creature and nothing stops Dynamo Danger from delivering his pray!" Skydiver frowned at this, as they were about to escape the water. "YOU'RE MINE!" He fired a cable at Pearl and it would have hit her, had Skydiver not caught it first.

"AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRHHHHHHHHHH!" He screamed as his body was electrocuted, Pearl seeing this and looking shocked.

The energy flowed into him and made him scream, as he felt himself becoming overwhelmed. But as the energy shocked him, Dynamo's gauge began to beep stating almost all his power had been used up. "No, no, no, no!"

Skydiver let the cable go and he began to sink, right as the Omnitrix started beeping.

Pearl looked down, as a green flash blinded her for a moment before fading to reveal the human she saw earlier. She quickly realised he had been the one that had saved her and as Flash began to sink, she dived down after him.

Trixie and Sunset had followed the signal of Flash's Omnitrix, the police boat flying through the water.

"Any sign of them?" Trixie asked, Sunset continuing to look around but not seeing anything. However, a moment later, something exploded out of the water in front of them. "WOW!" Trixie had to swerve the boat around, barely managing to miss the giant submarine that had appeared in front of them.

As they moved around the ship, they spotted Dynamo in the cockpit. "Come on," he cried. "WORK!" But nothing he did had any result. The ship was completely dead in the water.

The girls frowned seeing him, only for another splash to catch their attention and make them look around. Pearl had pulled Flash out of the water, reverting to her hippogriff form as she flew him up. They looked shocked seeing Flash unconscious, Trixie about to put on her mask, but then Pearl saw them and flew down to deposit Flash on the boat.

They both looked him over and after a few seconds, Flash breathed in and sat up. "Are you okay?" Sunset asked, Flash coughing as he spat out some water. He moaned, but nodded.

"Yeah, I'm alright." He looked up at Pearl, who was perched on the side of the boat, smiling as he did so. "You saved me?" She nodded, "thank you." She smiled back, as Dynamo roared in frustration. "Dynamo!" He looked around and glared at Flash, "I hope you've got that thing registered. Because if not, I'm gonna be adding another charge to your list of crimes."

"What crimes?" Flash held up his Omnitrix, using it like his badge.

"As a member of the plumber's galactic alliance, America must grant any sapient creature of human level intelligence the rights and privileges of any human. As such, your attempts to capture Pearl are basically kidnapping and illegal imprisonment." Dynamo frown, not thinking those charges would stick. But Flash didn't care. He turned to Pearl, holding out a hand to her. "Will you trust me to take you somewhere safe? I promise, I'll keep you safe."

Pearl stared at him for a moment, then took his hands in her claws. As she did, Shining and the others arrived at their destination. "Found you guys," Adagio sighed as Shining held up his badge. They spotted Pearl and then saw the giant ship, Shining frowning at Dynamo.

"I hope you've registered that thing." Dynamo moaned as he tried again to get his ship to work. But it was useless. He was going nowhere.

Sure enough, Dynamo didn't register the ship.

As such, he was arrested by the coast guard and taken away for processing. His TV career was likely over now that he was gonna have a criminal record, the man promising he would be back on the air one day.

Meanwhile, Azmuth had arrived in his ship and had set up a tank for Pearl to be transported in. She was currently swimming around within it, Azmuth having set the robots back at the base to making her a habitat to live in until they could get her to Equestria.

"Hmm," Azmuth had a computer connected to Flash's Omnitrix. "Yup, looks like I was right. This new DNA sample is a mix of four different DNAs. Human and piscciss volann, with the volann DNA used to act as a buffer between the two dominant DNAs. quite an amazing feat of engineering."

"Is she gonna be okay?" Fluttershy asked, placing a hand on the tank Pearl was swimming around inside of. Pearl looked at her and smiled, having become quite friendly with them once they earned her trust. "Going from living in the ocean to living in a tank can't be natural."

"Don't worry," Shining assured her. "It won't be forever. And once she's adjusted to the base, we can let her have a bit of extra freedom. In the meantime, it'll be up to us to help educate her." Fluttershy smiled at this, as Adagio and Trixie walked towards the tank carrying buckets of something.

"Besides," the dazzling stated, "we went back and got something that'll make her feel much more relaxed." Twilight realised what it was and smiled, so used her magic to lift the buckets up and tipped them into the tank.

Pearl was amazed when a bunch of her pearl collection filled the water, making her very happy. This made her start singing, but it wasn't the same song they had heard before. This one was much bright and happier. A beautiful melody that made them all glad they had helped her. And as they listened to her sing, Sunset's journal glowed from within her bag.

She took it out and read it. "Looks like Princess got the message we sent her. And she's already gotten in contact with the hippogriff queen. The Queen said she would be happy to let Pearl live with them if she wants to and they would teach her everything about being both a hippogriff and seapony."

"That's great," Pinkie smiled whilst the others nodded. The only one who didn't celebrate with this was Flash, the lot of them turning to him and seeing the hero was looking up at the night sky.

"Flash?" Twilight asked, "what's wrong?"

Flash turned to them, "just something Dynamo said. Someone paid him to captured Pearl." That was a surprise to hear, "I think it's the one who made her and the others."

"I guess we shouldn't be surprised," Shining frowned. "Whoever made them clearly went to a lot of effort to get their abilities right. Guess it would make sense that they would want to get them back."

"They must have used the tracker to locate her," Sunset realised. "We'll need to get rid of it before we release her to Equestria." They nodded, all the while frowning. Whoever had created the five was clearly after them and there was no telling what they would do to get them.

Tirek frowned as he read about Dynamo's arrest and Flash Sentry's victory.

He changed his computer screen to show the tracer signals. Three of them were in activate and wouldn't activate whilst the ones they were inside were in stasis. He then focused on Pearl's tracker and deactivated it, so Azmuth wouldn't be able to track him. "I'll need to think of another way to get my hands on them. But how?"

Author's Note

Another hybrid found and another new alien for Flash. Hope you guys like my choice of Equestrians so far. What's Tirek planning and what will the next hybrid be? Only time will tell.

Season 3, Episode 6: Good Copy, Bad Copy

Thunder and lightning exploded over the night sky of Canterlot, the electrical energy pulsing through the air.

Many people had locked themselves inside, fearing the storm's awesome power. But they had no reason to fear. The lightning would not strike any of their houses that night.

The electrical energy was being drawn towards one building in particular, one of the many warehouses that lay unused by the city. A large metal antenna had been fastened to the top, causing the lightning to be pulled in and channelled inside.

There, tons of machines were littered around the place. Wires and cables were scattered along the ground and were all connected to a large machine in the centre of it.

That machine was lighting up like a christmas tree, being a large oval shaped chamber with a glass door on the front of it. Energy was exploding inside the chamber, illuminating a human figure that was inside.

Someone stood beside it, watching from a safe distance as the machine pulsed with energy.

"More power!" He cried, pulling a lever that caused the lightning being gathered to be sent directly into the machine. He laughed as the power reached its zenith. And as it did so, the figure inside began to move. "It's alive." He laughed, "IT'S ALIVE!" But as he said that, one of the surrounding machines exploded. "NO! NO! NO!" The man rushed into the light and revealed who he was.

Negatine started fiddling with his machines, trying to compensate for the sudden loss of one.

"Come on!" He cried, "don't give up on me now. We're so close." Another machine exploded, followed by another and then the chamber itself began to smoke. "NO!" He rushed towards it and at the last moment, the device blew up and he was thrown backwards.

He groaned as he lay on the ground, a small fire occurring beside him as smoke filled the room. When he recovered, he sat himself up and looked over at the device. He expected it to be a mess, but the chamber was intact. But it was open.

As the smoke faded, a figure was revealed standing out of the chamber. That figure stepped out of the smoke and as they did, they were revealed to be a teenager with bright orange skin and blue hair. He was wearing a black zip up jacket with blue pants and a lightning shield symbol on the shoulders. And on his left wrist was a strange looking watch with many buttons and an hourglass symbol on the dial.

Negatine stared at him in shock and disbelief, as a smirk appeared. "It worked." He picked himself up and moved over to him. "Hello...my son."

One week later

Twilight and Sunset were walking through the street, having decided to spend the day hanging out and being normal girls for a little while. But as they did, Twilight was constantly fiddling with her glasses. Sunset noticed this, seeing her moving them up every minute or so or repositioning them.

"Are you okay?" Twilight turned to her, "you keep messing with your glasses. Is something wrong with them?"

"Kinda. I added something to them that's making them slide down my nose from the added weight." She tapped the side of her glasses and Sunset stared at them for a moment, only to notice a small green light flashing.

"Is that...a camera?"

"A super small, super strong camara. Clearest picture you've ever seen and with great audio. If I can see and hear it, so can the camera."

"Wow. I didn't know they made cameras so small. And able to fit into a pair of glasses with you barely noticing it."

"I based it on a camera Azmuth showed me. It still needs a little work, but I think it'll come in handy. Now I can record anything I see with the tap of the button. I can either upload it to a personal file or send it out on the internet for everyone to see."

"You can?" Sunset was surprised, "you might want to be careful with that. What if you accidently switch it on whilst you and Timber are alone together?" Twilight thought about that and her face went red, Sunset laughing as they continued walking. They kept talking for a few minutes, only to turn a corner just as a building in front of them exploded.

The pair leapt back in shock, as they saw the windows shatter outwards due to blasts of lightning flying out of it.

"What was that?" Twilight cried, as smoke began to fly out of it. "Come on!" Sunset nodded and the pair rushed towards it, only to see someone step out of the smoke. Someone the girls were surprised to see. "Flash?"

Volt-Edge stood before the smoking building, a bag slung over his shoulder that looked like it was bursting with something. The alien looked back at the store he had just been in and smiled before he started walking away. "Flash!" He turned to see the girls running towards him. "What's going on?" Sunset then remembered the lightning that had exploded out of the building, "did you do this?"

Volt-Edge smirked, "maybe." The trio then heard screaming coming out of the building, which shocked the girls since it meant people were trapped inside. "Gotta fly." He pressed the Omnitrix and in a flash of light, he was replaced by Gryforce who leapt into the air with the bag still slung over his shoulder.

"Wait!" Twilight cried, but the alien hero did nothing and just kept flying. "What's going on?" The screams caught their attention, making them realise they had more important things to worry about.

The girls rushed towards the building and saw several people trapped behind some fallen and burning rubble. "Hold on!" Twilight summoned her magic and began to lift the rubble out of the water, allowing the people inside to rush out. The roof was beginning to give way and Twilight also had to keep that up, the strain proving difficult for her.

Eventually, the last person who had been in the building got out and Twilight was able to let go of the rubble. She fell to the ground as a trickle of blood came out of her nose, the destroyed store beginning to fall apart. As it did, the fire department arrived and quickly got to work.

They managed to put the fire out before it spread to the rest of the street, whilst several ambulances had also arrived to make sure the people who had been in the fire were alright.

"It was Flash Sentry!" The store owner cried when a fireman asked how it had started. "He just showed up and asked for a bunch of random gadgets." Twilight only now realised this was an electronics store. "When I asked how he was gonna pay, he made some joke about being charged and turned into that alien. The next thing I know, the whole place was being blasted by lightning and he just walked away."

"I can't believe him!" A woman cried, "I trusted him. My kids looked up to him."

"My son has a wall covered drawings of his aliens," a man yelled. "How could he do this?" Twilight and Sunset were also wondering that same thing. Clearly, something wasn't right here. And if they didn't figure out what, Flash was gonna be in serious trouble.

At the plumber base, which was almost completely finished, Fluttershy was with the hybrids along with Pinkie, Rarity and Applejack.

"Alright Pearl," Fluttershy showed the amphibious hybrid a picture with an animal's face on it. "What's this?" The hybrid stared at it through the glass of her enclosure, which was almost exactly like the cave she had been in when they first found her. Several pools leading to a watery tank was scattered around, along with having enough room to fly around in.

Finally, Pearl smiled. "It's a rabbit!"

"Good," Fluttershy smiled before placing a fish flavoured biscuit through a slot that released it into the enclosure. Fluttershy then picked up another card and showed it to Drift, who saw it was a delicious cupcake. "Now what's this?"

Drift stared at it for a moment before humming. "Trifle?"

"No," Fluttershy shook her head, "this is a cupcake. You shouldn't just try and guess what they are." Drift frowned, knowing he wasn't getting a treat. "Now," she showed him another card, "what's this?" This one, Drift was sure he knew.

"Hot air balloon." Fluttershy smiled.

"Very good," she handed him a treat as the others smiled.

"Fluttershy's working really well with them," Rarity smiled. "I'm sure once Azmuth figures out how to return them to Equestria, she'll have taught them everything they need to know." The others nodded, as Fluttershy continued to teach the pair. Applejack then turned to the others.

"Any idea how long Azmuth's gonna need to figure out how to make 'em none human?" They shrugged, having no idea how close Azmuth was to the answer he needed.

And they were no closer to figuring out who created Drift and Pearl, since when they removed Pearl's tracer the signal suddenly died. Whoever made it knew they were after them and wanted to keep themselves unknown. But they would find out who was behind this eventually.

At the same time, Flash and Shining were in the training room.

Said training room had been transformed into a simple dojo with a cushioned floor. The pair were dressed in normal gym clothes, whilst Rainbow, Trixie and Adagio were off to the side watching. "You ready Flash?" Shining asked, the pair circling against each other.

"I guess," Flash nodded before rushing forward. He threw a punch, but Shining easily avoided it and grabbed his arm. He quickly tried to flip Flash over, the teen crying out as he was thrown to the ground. Luckily, he was able to land on his feet and pulled his arm away, swinging his leg around trying to sweep Shining's.

But the man leapt back, avoiding the attack completely. Flash then rushed at him, trying to deliver a chop that Shining blocked before thrusting his foot into Flash's chest and making him fall back. The girls flinched at his, Flash hitting the ground hard and moaning.

Shining smirked as he looked at him, "you're gonna need to do better then that."

"Remind me why I'm doing this again," Flash asked as Shining helped him up. "Learning to fight like this isn't gonna help me when I go alien."

"True, but it will help when you're not alien. If you learn to fight as a human, you'll be able to defend yourself better when you time out. And you might one day find yourself in a situation where becoming an alien isn't an option. The more options you have, the better chance of victory you'll gain." Flash didn't seem to agree with this. "Remember Flash, your greatest power doesn't come from turning into a bunch of aliens. Your greatest power comes from being human, the most unpredictable race in the universe. Now come on. Let's try again."

Flash sighed, knowing he wasn't gonna be let off so easily.

The pair continued to spar against one another, Shining showing Flash a bunch of different techniques that might come in handy one day. Time flew by and eventually, the pair were tired and needed a break. They got changed into their normal clothing as Rainbow decided to give those moves she saw Shining show him a try, bringing up a holographic opponent to practise on.

Annoyingly, she seemed to have picked up the moves better than he had.

"Relax," Shining told him, "you'll get it eventually. You just gotta keep practising." Flash wasn't so sure and was about to reply, only for the door to open as Twilight and Sunset rushed inside.

"Flash!" Sunset cried, "what the heck is wrong with you?"

"Huh?" Was all Flash could say, not sure how to answer that. "What are you talking about?"

"We're talking about you," Twilight pointed at him. "You torched an electronics store as Volt-Edge and flew off with a bunch of stolen stuff." The five in the room shared a look, completely shocked by this accusation.

"No I didn't," Flash stated. "Why would I do that?"

"We don't know," Sunset told him. "That's what we want to know."

"Flash didn't blow up any store," Trixie claimed. "He's been here with us all morning." Rainbow and Adagio nodded, but the other girls didn't look convinced.

"It had to be you," Twilight crossed her arms. "I mean, I know it's not something you would do. But we thought maybe you were under mind control or something was going on that we didn't know about. But it had to be you."

"But he's been here with us all morning," Shining stated. "I've thrown him to the ground enough times to confirm it." He thought for a moment, "are you sure it's wasn't just an actual alien. Flash's heroes are all species that exist in the universe. Could have been an actual Serravoltian."

"But this guy flew off after transforming into Gryforce," Twilight stated. "Flash, something's going on. If it wasn't you who did it, then someone's trying to frame you." Flash frowned, thinking about what the public might be thinking.

They all headed out of the dojo and into the main control room, where a large computer had been located. The others had joined them from the hybrid's room and as Twilight turned the computer on, they explained what was going on.

"Someone's framing Flash?" Rarity gasped, "how?"

"Good question," Shining frowned. "It's possible someone with an illusion ability like Trixie's is trying to get him in trouble. But Trixie's powers don't copy the abilities of whatever they're making, right?" Trixie nodded.

"Yeah. I could make a copy of Volt-Edge and even make him blast out lightning, but that lightning wouldn't hurt anything." As she said that, Twilight had the computer up and tuned into the local news station.

A woman behind a desk was speaking. "Sentry suddenly walked into a store in the middle of town before transforming into one of his alien heroes," she said likely halfway through the news segment. The screen then changed to show CCTV footage that had somehow survived the destruction. They watched as Flash Sentry walked into the room, looking just like the Flash they were all with.

He started picking up various pieces of equipment and bringing them over to the front desk. After talking with the desk clerk, he suddenly transformed into Volt-Edge and unleashed an electrical blast in all directions.

The footage cut out and everyone was shocked, unable to figure out how this could be possible. "Officials are still attempting to get in contact with the plumbers, wanting to know why Flash has suddenly turned against the law. But there as still-" The news reporter then stopped and went to her ear piece. "We...we're just now getting reports that Flash Sentry is attacking an armored car meant to deliver money to a Canterlot bank."

"What?" Flash cried, as the screen suddenly changed to a news copter's footage.

Said footage showed the armored car that the reporter had been talking about. And behind it was Vapaw, running as fast as he could attempting to catch up to it. Everyone watched in shock, looking between Flash and the live footage. "What the heck is going on?" Rainbow asked, as the footage showed Vapaw finally catching up to the truck.

The alien leapt at it and used his claws to slash at the tires, causing the vehicle to lose control and be forced to stop.

Vapaw's claws then ripped through the metal doors in the back, whilst smoke exploded off his main and turned the entire street into a gas cloud. "That's gotta be some kind of trick," Trixie stated.

Flash had had enough and activated the Omnitrix, Shining seeing this and rushing to stop him. "Wait!" But Flash slapped the device down and in a flash, he was transformed.

"XLR8!" The alien raptor shot off at high speed before anyone could stop him, running out of the base and into the street. Anger filled his very being, as he thought about the hard work he had done to prove himself to everyone as a hero. "You'll pay for ruining it!"

He shot through the streets and eventually arrived at the spot that had been filled with smoke, rushing into it before anyone on the street could see him. His visor switched to infrared, allowing him to see through the smoke so he didn't crash into anything.

He stopped in front of the truck, hearing noises coming out of it. "I don't know who you are, but you're giving hard working superheroes a bad name." The movement inside of the truck stopped before something shot out of it, XLR8 dodging it and seeing it was a large sack of money. Several more bags of money flew towards him and he was able to avoid every one of them, only for something else to then leap out of the truck. It was Vapaw himself.

"Give it up!" The lion roared as he slashed at XLR8, who avoided it and got a good distance away. "Allow me to hit you and I promise, your dispatchment will be swift and have minimal pain" Flash had no idea what this guy's deal was, but he knew he wasn't someone to be taken lightly.

"Who are you? And why are you attacking people pretending to be me?"

"I am you," Vapaw replied. "Everything you are and everything you could be. The ultimate form of you." XLR8 didn't believe that and shot forward, attempting to deal a quick blow. But Vapaw simply leapt into the air and landed on the top of the truck. "Gotta run. Have fun explaining all this." He hit the Omnitrix and transformed into Chamalien, who instantly turned invisible.

"Wait!" But he was gone and the smoke began to fade away, revealing himself to the people who had been trapped inside the fog unable to escape. They all looked at XLR8, surrounded by bags of money and looking ready to make off with them. "Hey, listen. This is all just a big misunderstanding." In that moment, a bunch of police cars appeared and raced down the street. "Oh goodie."

The cars swerved to a stop and the cops rushed out, all carrying tasers that they pointed at Flash. "FREEZE!"

"Wait a minute!" XLR8 yelled, "this is not what you think. I wasn't the one who did this." He pointed at the truck, "it was the other guy."

"Don't think you can trick us," then officer stated. "No one else on this planet has the abilities to turn into those creatures. You're under arrest."

"Just listen to me!" He hit the watch and turned back to his human form, Flash holding his hands up. "See, I could have easily run and you wouldn't have caught me. But I didn't. I'm not the criminal." The cops stared at him, "you've gotta believe me. The real criminal's getting away. We've gotta-GYAH!" He cried as he was suddenly hit with something and every fibre of his body was struck by what felt like a million volts.

When the shocking finally ended, Flash felt himself falling to the ground and blacking out.

Everything after that was weird for Flash, as the world was suddenly full of many bizarre shapes and images. As they flashed in front of him, a pretty catchy tune played in his head as he saw images of his friends dancing to it before morphing into weird shapes. The song came to an end when an image of Pinkie dressed as the Statue of Liberty smashed her torch into his face, making him see stars before he felt himself beginning to come around.

He moaned as he opened his eyes and found himself looking up at a ceiling with a small light.

His head was killing him and as he raised his arm to wipe his brow, he realised something was wrapped around his left wrist. It was the same tube-like manicle that had been placed on him when his secret was revealed. And as he sat himself up, he realised he was in a holding pen of kinds.

"You can't do this!" He heard his mother's voice cry out, making him look around and see a glass wall next to the bed he was on that had a single metal door attached to it. He got up, his legs feeling like jelly as he staggered over to the wall and looked out of it.

He was in the police precinct, his parents standing in front of it with Shining and Azmuth on his shoulder. "It's bad enough you assaulted him with a taser!" Trail roared, "but now you're locking him up despite him being innocent."

"Innocent?" The captain asked, "he blew up a store and attacked an armored car. The last time I checked, that's not something an innocent person does."

"But it wasn't me!" Flash cried, catching everyone's attention.

"Flash!" His mother rushed over to him. "Don't worry sweetheart, we're gonna get you out of here."

"What can you tell me about the one who framed you?" Azmuth asked, clearly interested about the possibility of someone copying his masterpiece. "Did they have an actual Omnitrix?"

"Looked like one. One minute he was Vapaw, the next he was Chamalien. It could have been an illusion, but then how did he copy my alien's abilities?"

"We'll figure it out," Shining told him. "But this is what happens when you go off half cocked. If you had stayed at the base, you would have had an alibi for that armored car heist. Now, even if we take out the store robbery, they have a lot of evidence to say you're the one who did it."

"But I didn't do it," Flash cried. "And whilst I'm stuck in here, the real crooks gonna strike again."

"I doubt it," Azmuth told him. "If he was trying to frame you, he'll keep himself hidden away so it seems like you really did do those crimes." Flash frowned, knowing he was right.

"But don't worry," Shining assured him. "We'll find this guy and prove you're innocent. Just hang on until then." Flash nodded as Shining and Azmuth headed out, Flash's parents staying behind. Since Flash was a minor, his parents were allowed to remain with him until an actual sentencing could occur.

As Shining and Azmuth stepped out of the police precinct, they pondered how someone could have replicated Flash's abilities.

"Is it possible there's another Omnitrix out there?" Shining asked, since it was clear that device was the only thing that could do that particular thing.

"No," Azmuth shook his head, "only I know how to create an Omnitrix. There was one other who possessed the knowledge and ability to replicate the device, but he died a long time ago. However, I cannot think of any other way someone could make it appear like Flash was the culprit."

"Guess we'll have to find whoever did this and get them to divulge how."

"Indeed." Azmuth agreed. "I'll return to my ship. If there is another Omnitrix out there, I'll be able to detect it once I've set the computers to scan for its signal. But it might take time, since I'll only be able to follow the signal whilst the wielder is actually using it." Shining nodded and Azmuth vanished, whilst the plumber began his own investigation.

"Whoever did this is gonna regret it. I'll make sure of it."

Negatine was in the warehouse, looking over a familiar but different looking device.

It was a metal box that was the size of a standard backpack, with multiple cables and wires sticking out of it and connecting to a pair of metal gloves that looked like something out of a science fiction show. He smirked at it, amazed by how well it had come together. He never through something like this could be made so compact.

In that moment, the warehouse doors opened and he looked around to see Flash walk into the building with a bag slung over his shoulder. "How'd it go?"

Flash smirked, "that fool won't be a problem anymore. He's safely locked up. So long as I'm not discovered, he'll remain that way for the rest of his life. Either that, or he'll have his Omnitrix removed. Doesn't matter what happens, so long as he's no longer a thorn in our side."

Negatine nodded as Flash stepped up to the table, taking several objects out of his backpack. "In the meantime, I've gathered the final parts required to complete your device."

"And it'll work?" Negatine asked. He was smart, but this level of science was completely beyond him.

"Of course it'll work," Flash took out the electrical devices and started taking them apart. "Once it's complete, you'll be able to scan a large quantity of individuals at once and create copies that'll last up to an hour.

Negatine smiled as he watched him slowly add the finishing touches to device. "I can't believe how much smarter you are. Those tweaks I made to the data worked out perfectly."

Flash nodded, Negatine moving over to what remained of the machine that had been used to create his masterpiece. He moved over to the computer and opened a disk port, taking out a computer disk he had kept safe ever since the day he had scanned it.

He smiled as he remembered the last time he had faced Flash Sentry. Whilst his transformation had shocked Negatine, learning the truth about the teen had intrigued him. The invasion had allowed Negatine the chance to escape, the man remembering when the drones had attacked the prison. The chaos had given Negatine to opening he needed to get out of there and after learning what Flash was, he had vowed to make that power his own.

"It's done!" Flash told him, as the machine began to power up.

Negatine smirked and stepped over to it, seeing the perfected device working perfectly filling him with joy. "Perfect. Now I can begin my work."

"Are you sure going out is a good stratagem?" Flash asked. "You've faced Sentry before. If his friends see you, they'll figure out who played a part in framing him."

"Maybe," Negatine placed the device on his back. "But they won't have any proof. Even if they catch me, I'll never talk and they'll be forced to keep him locked up whilst knowing the truth. And that makes me very happy." Flash wanted to argue, but knew that talking back to his creator wasn't a smart move. "Just stay here and watch your old man have the time of his life." WIth that, he left the warehouse and Flash could only wait and see how everything turned out.

Flash continued to sit in his cell, completely bored with nothing to do.

Adagio had come over and wanted to try and keep him entertained, but the cops had refused to allow her in. She was now arguing along with Flash's parents, but the cops were all being adamant about treating Flash as the criminal he was.

He huffed, really wishing he had thought like Shining said and not rushed into the situation. All he could think about now, was how he had been framed. "Come on Shining," he prayed. "Figure out how to get me out of here without me breaking the law."

"Anything?" Sunset asked Twilight, who was staring at the plumber computer going over the footage of the robberies.

Twilight groaned as she watched Vapaw fill the street with smoke again. She hoped the footage would show just a hint that XLR8 had run into it, but there wasn't. The camera hadn't been at the right angle to catch any sign of him. "I'm sorry," she told the others. "But there's nothing. Nothing that'll help prove Flash's innocence."

"But Flash was here during the first robbery?" Pinkie pointed out. "And at the start of the second one. Doesn't that prove anything?"

"Not without proof of him actually being here." They all turned to Shining Armor, who was making his way over to them. "Unfortunately, we don't have any proof. The base's security cameras aren't up yet. If they were, we could show footage of him in the training room at the time of the first attack. Same with the second. Unfortunately, whoever did this picked the right time to frame Flash."

Rainbow groaned, "this is insane. There's gotta be some way to prove Flash is innocent."

Twilight sighed. "At this point, the only way to prove it is to find the one actually responsible. But they'd have to be an idiot to show up now that Flash has been arrested."

Negatine had finally arrived at a bank he was planning to rob and activated his new device, heading towards the building as he brought up the info he needed. "Perfect!" He stepped inside and as soon as he did, his gloves unleashed beams of light that shot into the air and started taking shape.

The people inside were shocked when a bunch of bat-winged goblins appeared and started terrorising the place. As the bank tellers ran to escape, Negatine used his gloves to take digital scans of them.

"Oh, I love these new things." He created copies of the bankers, ordering them to go open the vaults. As he did, he heard sirens filling the air. "Well, they've certainly upped their game." He walked towards the exit and saw a bunch of police cars stopping outside, Negatine quickly raising his gloves and unleashed a wide scan.

The cops all got out of their cars and started pointing their guns at him. "FREEZE!" Negatine stopped, "hands in the air!" He did so but as he raised them, his gloves lit up and both unleashed a bright light that flew towards the cops.

The police officers leapt back, as the lights hit the ground and took form. When the light faded, perfect copies of them stood before them and instantly attacked.

Shining and the others were back at the base, trying to figure out what was going on.

It was at that moment they got an alert, Shining rushing over to the base's main computer and typing away at it. The screen changed to show footage from an CCTV camera, the heroes finding several police officers fighting against themselves. "What's going on?" Pinkie asked, only for Twilight to see it.

"Negatine!" They pointed at the man in question, the lot of them gasping when they realised what this had to mean.

"Of course!" Shining groaned, "Negatine. He must have made copies of Flash and used them to frame him." They all frowned, unable to believe they hadn't realised this. Of course one of Flash's old foes would want to frame him now that his identity was public knowledge.

"We gotta stop him!" Rainbow cried. "We catch him and make him confess." They all nodded as they rushed for the exit, Twilight taking out her phone as she did so.

Flash remained in lockup, Adagio and his parents still trying to convince the cops to let him go.

As he did, Adagio's phone rang and she saw it was Twilight. "Hello?" She listened and frowned, "wait? What? What's this about Negatine?" Flash's head stuck up at this, the teen getting up and moving to the bars. "Really? That's great. I'll let him know." She hung up and turned to Flash, "that Negatine guy just showed up and attacked a bank."

"Negatine?" Trail thought for a moment, "isn't that the guy you told us about?"

"Yeah," Flash nodded, "I can't believe I didn't think of that. He must have copied my aliens somehow. They're the ones that framed me." Misty turned towards the police captain, who also seemed intrigued by this statement.

"See, it wasn't him. You need to release him."

"I'm sorry," the captain stated. "I know Negatine and what he can do, but him being around doesn't make your son innocent. The only way I can let him out is if I'm shown proof Negatine was the one who did those crimes. Until then, I'm afraid your son has to remain locked up." They all groaned as Adagio began to text the others. Hopefully, they could get Negatine and make him confess.

Meanwhile, Flash thought about the possibility of Negatine creating a duplicate of him. Whilst he knew he could copy Flash's alien forms, he wasn't sure if those copies could change aliens like he could. He hadn't had that skill the last time he faced Negatine, but was it possible? And if it wasn't, how had that Vapaw changed to Chamalien?

Back at the bank, Negatine's banker minions had filled multiple dufflebags with money.

Once the bags were full, he prepared to head out with the cops continuing to struggle against their evil twins. But as he stepped outside, a loud engine caught his attention and made him look up to see a green jet flying overhead. It shot down towards the street and as it got close to the ground, it suddenly vanished with people falling to the ground beneath it.

Negatine frowned when he saw them, a suited up Shining and Luna Cat Trixie standing at the front of the group. "Negatine!" The plumber cried whilst taking out his blaster, "you framed Flash for all those crimes, didn't you?"

"What?" Negatine tried his best to stay ignorant. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Don't play dumb," Twilight stepped forward as she fiddled with her glasses. "You made a copy of Flash and tried to frame him for all those crimes."

"Yeah," Rainbow nodded, "not a smart move starting your crimewave the same day Flash was arrested. That's just screaming that you did it."

"Again, I don't know what you're talking about." He raised his gauntlet and unleashed a light, which flew over the lot of them before any of them could stop him. "But it doesn't matter. You guys won't stop me and with Sentry in jail, I'm free to do whatever I want." His gauntlet unleashed a light and in a flash, perfect copies of the heroes appeared.

The clones got into a fighting stance and charged before the heroes could respond, fake-Shining firing his blaster at them that Rarity quickly blocked with a wall of crystals. The Applejack clone then thrust her hands forward, smashing through the gems and allowing the clones to get to them.

Fluttershy screamed as her more aggressive clone leapt at her, only for Trixie to appear in front of her. "Oh no you don't!" She thrust her staff into the fake-Fluttershy's stomach and she was thrown backwards, whilst the fake-Trixie attacked with her own staff.

The two started duelling, Shining and the rest of the Rainbooms fighting against their own clones. Twilight and her clone started throwing things at one another, Rarity and Pinkie doing the same against their twins with their gems and explosions. Sunset and her copy started using some fighting moves nobody knew Sunset knew against each other, whilst Rainbow and her clone started throwing super fast attacks at each other.

Applejack and the fake slammed their hands into the other's shoulders and tried to push the other to the ground, but the two were evenly matched. And Shining had switched to his sword and slashed at the fake, who countered with his own sword.

Negatine watched the heroes and cops continuing to fight against themselves, unable to get the upper hand. He laughed and began to run off, money bags in hand. "HEY!" Twilight cried, wanting to go after him. But her clone refused to let her pass. "Out of my way!"

"Not gonna happen!" The fake cried, only for Twilight to suddenly go invisible. "Hey, where'd she go!"

Twilight also saw she was invisible and was about to freak out, only to then notice Trixie still fighting her clone as the coin on her mask glowed. "Go, Twilight!" The girl smiled and rushed after Negatine, whilst her clone continued to look confused.

Twilight ran around a corner and as she did, Trixie's spell faded and she became visible again. But she had escaped and spotted Negatine ahead of her. "STOP!" She ran after him. She might not have been the most physically fit girl, but Negatine wasn't that fit either and was weighed down by many bags of money.

The man looked behind her and glared, seeing the girl catching up. "Drop the money."

"What?" He realised he was being spoken to through his radio, "how do you know I'm being chased."

"I added a camera into your pack. I can see she's catching up."

"I won't let this girl make me drop my hard earned money," he told him. He activated his device and the gauntlets unleashed a bright light, creating a bunch of flying gremlins.

They flew at Twilight, but she wasn't going to let them stop her.

She used her magic to grab some trash cans and threw them at the gremlins, the five quickly getting scooped up by the metal cylinder before it was thrown behind Twilight. This angered Negatine, who prepared to create more minions. But Twilight had had it with that particular piece of technology.

"What?" Negatine suddenly felt his backpack jerk backwards, the man looking back and seeing the device glowing purple. This had also stopped him from running as Twilight pulled him backwards, Negatine attempting to pull himself free.

Twilight magically pulled on the pack again and when she did, the straps holding it to Negatine's back gave out and broke. This allowed her to pull the machine towards her, ripping several wires out of it that connected it to the gauntlets on Negatine's arms.

"You little b-" He didn't get to finish as Twilight threw the device back at him, attempting to hit him on the head. But he ducked to the left into an alleyway to avoid it, Twilight running after him.

In attempting to escape, he found the alleyway had a metal fence in the middle of it and had nothing but some metal rods on the ground. He ran to the fence and saw it was about ten feet up, the man attempting to climb it. But before he could, the metal rods on the ground suddenly came alive and shot towards him.

They bent into a U-shape and slammed into him, moving through the fence and bending at the ends to stop Negatine from escaping.

He spun around, and two more bent rods flew at him and captured his arms. "AUGH!" He was trapped, as Twilight moved towards him.

"Now," she fiddled with her glasses, "admit it. You framed Flash."

Negatine smirked, "prove it." Twilight glared at him, the girl unsure how she could prove it. Sunset could read his mind, but the police were hardly going to accept that as proof. She needed some way to prove Negatine was the one responsible.

Suddenly, a powerful gust of wind shot passed and Twilight was knocked off her feet and into the wall.

The source of the wind appeared in front of Negatine, XLR8 coming to a stop as the man glared at the alien. "You were supposed to stay hidden." XLR8 tapped the watch and in a flash, morphed into Volt-Edge.

"I couldn't just let you be captured." He unleashed electrical bolts, which grabbed the metal and pulled it away from Negatine. As he did, Twilight picked herself up and looked up at them.

"I knew it," she stood up. "You did make a fake of Flash." The two turned towards her and laughed as Volt-Edge stepped forward.

"Oh, I am far more then just a mere fake. I am the antithesis of Flash Sentry. All of his best qualities and none of his weaknesses." He touched the Omnitrix and was consumed by light, which Flash Sentry then stepped out of. Twilight stared at him curiously. "What you're looking at isn't just a fake like the rest of my father's creations. I am supercharged, my cellular structure stabilized so I won't be vanishing." He held up his wrist and showed a perfect copy of the Omnitrix, "he was even able to make a replica of this."

Twilight was now sure she wasn't talking to the real Flash Sentry. "Why do you sound...smarter?" His eyebrow quirked, "Flash is smart but he doesn't make a habit of speaking like that. The way you speak is that of someone trying to show they're mentally superior to someone else. And you'd only do that if you had a high IQ to boast."

The fake chuckled. "You're good. Yes, I am smarter than Flash Sentry. In fact, I'm the smartest human in existence thanks to a few tweaks my father made to me when he created me. Using data he collected on Flash Sentry's Grey Matter form, he was able to upload that mental capacity into me. It wasn't a complete success, but I'm now one hundred IQ points higher than the smartest human ever known."

Twilight frowned, "that is smart."

"It is," the faker asked. "And you know what the best part of this whole situation is?" Twilight shook her head, "the pain you're going to feel knowing the truth about your friend, but being unable to prove it." He and Negatine laughed as he was about to activate his Omnitrix. But as he was about to, Twilight started laughing. "What are you snickering about?"

Twilight smiled, "the fact you're so smart but don't even realise you just got played." The pair looked confused, until Twilight pointed up at her glasses. They couldn't tell at first, due to the distance, but they saw a green light blinking on them. And they quickly realised what that meant.

"A camera?" Negatine cried, Twilight nodding as she patted her specs.

"Been recording since we entered the alley. Which means your creation's arrival and his little speech has all been uploaded onto the internet." The faces of both villains turned bright white, the Flash clone unable to believe he had been deceived so easily.

"You...you're bluffing," he told her. Twilight just smiled and as she did, a blast of wind shot passed her.

This wind stopped right in front of the girl, revealing the speed alien the clone had arrived as. XLR8 stood tall, opening his visor and glaring at his clone before touching the Omnitrix. As the alley filled with green light, Twilight stepped around to get a good look at the two Flash Sentry teens that stood face to face.

"See that," Flash pointed at his clone. "That's the guy who framed me."

"Framed is such an ugly word," the fake stated. "I prefer the term, showing the world your true self." He pointed at the teen, "look upon your improved self. I am everything that makes you good without all the flaws that keep you from being great. I'm your ultimate form."

"Wrong," Flash growled. "You're all my worst parts, without anything that makes me the human I am. You're nothing but the darkness I ignore, a shadow cast by the light of the original."

"I take offence at that," the fake stated. "But I'll admit, I like the name." He focused on Twilight, pointing at her as he talked to the people of the world. "Look upon the mightiest human on your planet. Shadow, the greatest, smartest and most brilliant human on earth."

Flash rolled his eyes. "Geez, can I really be this boastful?"

Twilight frowned. "Clearly, he took out your humility when he was created." Flash laughed at this, whilst Shadow glared at him and activated his Omnitrix. This stopped Flash's laugh and he was quick to activate his, Shadow being faster and transforming into Firefly.

The flaming insect shot into the air and unleashed an explosion of fire towards them, Twilight bracing herself only for another flash to appear before the light of the flames was blocked out. "Diamondhead!" When she opened her eyes, she saw the crystal alien in front of her blocking the flames.

Firefly glared at him and shot down, hitting the Omnitrix and morphing into Riot-Horn. The fusion of his strength mixed with the fall, made the punch he threw even more powerful. So the impact with Diamondhead's arms, knocked the alien flying backwards over Twilight as his crystals cracked.

When Diamondhead smashed into the side of a building, doing a lot of damage to it, Twilight gasped before looking up and seeing the alien rhino glaring down at her.

But before he could attempt to harm her, a flash made her look back and see Diamondhead replaced by another alien. "Squidstrictor!" The alien sea creature threw his arms at Riot-Horn and wrapped them around the beast, then spun around to pull him away from Twilight.

Riot-Horn quickly hit the Omnitrix and swapped to Gray Matter, allowing him to slip out of the tentacles before changing again. This time, he turned into Lindwhirl and rolled into his wheel form.

Squidstrictor watched him fly towards him, likely planning to crush him, but he quickly hit the Omnitrix and transformed again. "Goop!" The slime alien split his body apart, letting the rolling alien fly between him and into the building. As Lindwhirl crashed through the wall, Goop flew out of the alleyway and into the street.

"Flash!" He looked around, seeing Shining, Trixie and the Rainbooms rushing towards him with a bunch of police. But before anyone could say anything, the building wall exploded and Lindwhirl flew out with a mighty roar. He got in close and as he did, they both hit their Omnitrix and transformed.

Everyone was blinded by the light and when it faded, Bloxx was jumping around and Arctiguana began shooting ice blasts at him. The gorilla jumped from side to side, dodging the attacks and using the ice ramps it formed slide around and get in close enough to punch the lizard.

"Augh!" Arctiguana was thrown backwards, as Twilight ran out of the alleyway. She spotted the others and rushed towards them, as Bloxx swung in to punch Arctiguana again.

But before he could, the lizard transformed into Kagenobi and melted into the ground.

"Guys!" Twilight cried, "the Flash that did all those crimes was a fake. He's-"

"We know," Shining told her. "We got an update when your video went live. Nice work, sis." As he said that, Kagenobi leapt out of the ground and swung a sword towards Bloxx. But before it could connect, the ape transformed into Pesky Dust and dodged it. He then tried to put his opponent to sleep, but Kagenobi transformed into Gryforce and unleashed a sonic blast the blew the dust and the fairy away. "Which one's the real one?"

Twilight tried to figure that out, but she had no idea. "I don't know. They've transformed so many times, I've lost track."

Pesky Dust changed into Skydiver and shot towards Gryforce, claws at the ready as the hybrid alien prepared to attack. But before Skydiver got in close, he hit the Omnitrix again and completely vanished. This surprised Gryforce, until something he couldn't see slammed into him and knocked him to the ground.

The bird man cried out, as Chamalien appeared and reached his tail stinger. The others had no idea what to do, unsure if Chamalien was friend or foe. All they could do was watch and hope.

As Chamalien tried to stab him, Gryforce hit the Omnitrix and transformed into Bushwhacker. As such, the stinger stabbed harmlessly into the wood, allowing the alien to punch the lizard in the fast with a wood hammer. He knocked Chamalien off of him and as he rolled around, both of their watches began to beep.

"NO!" They cried, only to be transformed back into human state. They glared at one another, everyone else still unable to tell who was the good guy. As such, the two teen rushed at one another and collided. "I don't need an Omnitrix to dispatch you!" One cried, Twilight feeling that was Shadow.

The pair spun around several times, trying to overpower the other until the were pushed apart. They then ran forward and threw a punch at each other. However, this was when things got weird.

As the two watches moved past one another, their dials suddenly popped up and were drawn to one another. In a the blink of an eye, the faceplates locked together and the pair were stuck. "HEY!" Flash cried, "what the heck!?" They tried to pull away from each other, but their watches refused to seperate. "What's...going on?" They fell to the ground, still stuck.

"Ahh!" Shadow groaned, "their proximity must be creating a bio-energy feedback." Flash had no idea what that meant. All he knew was, the Omnitrix was beginning to spark green lightning and that wasn't good.

The others saw this and became terrified, fearing the watches might explode and kill them all. "What do we do?" Rainbow asked, as the blasts of lightning began to increase. Rarity put up a wall of shields, with nobody else knowing what else to do.

"Flash," Twilight whispered as he heard the pair crying out.

Flash kept pulling, as the lightning got more violent. Luckily, it wasn't hurting him yet. But he didn't want to wait around and see if that was gonna change. "How...do we separate them?"

Shadow groaned as the lightning almost hit him, "maybe...if one of use were to die..."

"Be...my guest." They kept rolling around and eventually got back to their feet, the two pulling at their arms as the energy built. And as it did, it started hitting Shadow.

"AAAAARRRRRHHHHH!" The lightning burned him, whilst Flash remained safe for some reason. And as the lightning touched him, his body began to change. His clothes changed colour, his jacket turning red whilst his pants turned black. The lightning insignia on his shoulders changed to a black shield with a red lightning bolt, whilst his skin turned darker.

His hair and eyes also began to change colour, his hair turning black with red streaks appearing, whilst his eyes turned from blue to red.

Everyone was absolutely shocked when they saw this, fearing Flash might have been damaged. But Twilight had a feeling that wasn't Flash who had been changed. "At least we can tell them apart now," Pinkie pointed out.

As she said this, the watches finally came apart and the pair staggered away from each other. Shadow grunted in pain, his entire body feeling like it was on fire as he looked himself over and saw how different he was. "What have you done to me!?" He glared daggers at Flash, trying to activate his Omnitrix.

Flash tried to do the same but before he could, "THAT'S ENOUGH!" A voice was broadcast from above them, making them all look up and see Azmuth's ship appear.

In a flash of light, the galvin appeared and did no look happy. "Azmuth," Flash whispered, "you're here."

"You're darn right I am," Azmuth nodded. "Here to stop you idiots before you overload those two Omnitrixes into self destructing. All those non-stop transformations are gonna break it."

"Wasn't my fault," Flash told him. "He-"

"I know," Azmuth replied. As he said that, Shining rushed over and tackled Shadow. The teen cried out, but with his Omnitrix out of power he could do nothing to stop Shining as he pinned him to the ground. As he did, Azmuth moved over to him and stared at the Omnitrix on his wrist. "A digital copy given form. Impressive. But still inferior to the original."

"Really?" Twilight asked, "it was able to do everything Flash could."

"It was able to transform him, yes. But as you can see, this Omnitrix was unable to protect the wearer from genetic damage. Though if you hadn't gotten them apart when you did, I fear Flash might have also been hurt." Flash nodded as Azmuth grabbed the face plate and started fiddling with it.

"What are you doing?" Shadow asked, Azmuth pulling the dial up and removing the entire power core from the watch. "NO!" Azmuth stepped away from him, dodging his hand as it tried to grab him. "Give that back!"

"No," Azmuth stated. "You have proven from your actions that you are not worthy of an Omnitrix. You may be smarter than Flash, but you lack the heart and soul required to truly wield it." Flash smiled at this, as Shining pulled Shadow's arms behind his back and cuffed them together.

At the same time, Negatine had also been detained. He had tried to escape whilst Flash and Shadow fought, but had been captured by some cops he couldn't defeat with his device damaged.

The pair were soon taken away, a police van arriving to collect them. "This isn't over!" Shadow yelled, as he was dragged into the back of the van. "Just watch, Sentry! I'll get you back for this. If my Omnitrix will not function, I shall have yours. Sleep with one eye open!" WIth that, the van slammed shut and was driven away.

Flash sighed as he fell to the ground, exhausted from the insane situation he had just been through. "That was nuts."

Azmuth turned to him, "don't take his threats seriously. I'm the only one in the universe capable of creating an Omnitrix. There's no way he can rebuilt it. And without his powers, he's just a regular human."

Flash nodded. "I hope you're right. He managed to make one before." He focused on the power core Azmuth had taken from Shadow, "what are you gonna do with that thing anyway?"

"Properly dispose of it," Azmuth replied. "It's too dangerous to be considered as a possible replacement if the other gets damaged. Who knows how many flaws were made in its creation." Flash nodded as Azmuth warped back to his ship, then looked over at his friends.

He smiled at Twilight, "thanks for clearing my name."

Twilight smiled back, "any time." The police officers stepped over and offered their most sincere apologies, Flash understanding they were just doing their job. He was still a little sore about the tasing, however.

The rest of the city would soon see the footage, with the fighting between Flash and Shadow being broadcast on every news channel. It wasn't long before Flash had the trust of the people back. But he now knew that trust was fragile. He would need to work even harder to make sure nothing like this would ever happen again. And he was fine with that.

Author's Note

Many of you were asking if Flash was gonna get his own Kevin 11 or Albedo and here you go. Hope it meets your standards. So, will Shadow return one day? Will his threat be made real? Only time will tell.

Season 3, Episode 7: A Dazzling Dispute

It was a late night in Canterlot and a woman was making her way through the streets.

This woman was dressed in fancy clothing, wearing a golden necklace around her neck, with many gems in it, along with fancy earrings and a gemmed ring on each hand. She walked down the street with an air of superiority to her, her heels clicking as she did so. But as she got closer to her car, she got the strangest feeling she was being watched.

She looked around, but there didn't appear to be anyone else around her. She was completely alone...or was she?

She had no idea that high above her, something was glaring down at her and licking its lips. It flew through the air above the woman and as she focused her attention on what was in front of her, the creature stalking her dived down with incredible speed.

She didn't hear it until the very last minute, a flapping sound, which made her spin around. And the last thing she saw before letting out a mighty scream into the night, was a strange winged creature with a tail, sharp claws and a lot of sharp teeth.

The next day.

Adagio Dazzle was walking towards the plumber base, a smirk on her lips as she stared at her phone. Said phone was currently on a gossip website, which had an article about Adagio and her sisters. But mostly, the article was focusing on her and her relationship to Flash.

As she stepped into the building, she noticed Twilight, Spike, Sunset and Rainbow were there and waiting for the elevator.

"Hey," she smirked before showing them all her phone, "guess who's the talk of the town again?" They all rolled their eyes at this, as Adagio was constantly bragging whenever something about her appeared online due to her relationship with Flash. "I've gotta tell ya. The world just can't get enough of me."

"Are you sure all this publicity is a good thing?" Twilight asked as the elevator arrived. "What if people get curious about who you are?"

"That'd be great," she smirked as they stepped into the elevator and started heading down to the real base.

"Really?" Sunset asked. "You and your sisters have no official form of ID. No birth certificate, no parents to talk of and haven't even spent a day in school outside of your plan to steal our Equestrian Magic. Don't you think people might be suspicious?"

"Don't you fall under most of those categories?" Adagio asked, "aren't you scared people might get suspicious?"

"Sunset has all the stuff she mentioned," Twilight pointed out. Adagio was surprised by this, the girl turning to Sunset who shrugged.

"When I came here, I had a bunch of gems and bits that I could use. I was able to use them to get myself everything I'd need to look like I'd been here all my life. How do you think I'm able to afford my apartment on a sushi waitress' salary." The elevator came to a stop and they stepped out into the hybrid's enclosures.

Fluttershy was there along with Drift and Pearl, both of which were sitting on the ground playing a board game with the girl. She had done wonders with the two, teaching them so much. The pair could now talk in simple sentences and read pretty well.

"Hello," Fluttershy smiled at them. Drift and Pearl also smiled, Pearl waving happily as Drift overtook her on the game board.

"Everything seems to be going well here," Twilight smiled. "Are these two giving you any trouble?"

"No," Fluttershy shook her head, "they're being perfectly behaved. So long as I can keep the treats coming." She threw them both a flavoured biscuit, the pair munching them down as the others smiled.

"I hope the other three hybrids are just as well trained," Rainbow stated. "We've been pretty lucky so far. But the next one might not be so easily tamed." The others knew she was right, but hopefully the next one to show up would be weak so Flash could easily subdue it.

Speaking of Flash, he was currently in the main control room with two other people.

One was Shining Armor, who was sitting at a computer looking over a bunch of police report. The other was Tirek, who had come to see how well the new base was holding up. He had asked for a full tour, though his civilian status had meant he wasn't allowed anywhere too important.

"I see you've quickly gotten the hang of the plumber computer," the old man smiled when he saw how easily Shining had adapted to the technology. "I remember when I first started using the plumber tech. I kept hitting the wrong buttons for a while. Almost depressurised the entire spaceship once. The others certainly had a good laugh about that."

Shining smiled at this. "Well, the technology's a lot more universal now."

"So what are you looking at?" Tirek asked, looking curious as he stared at the many reports. Shining wondered if he should tell Tirek, but Flash spoke up first.

"Apparently, some kind of monster attacked someone last night."

"Monster, you say?" Tirek looked intrigued, whilst Shining frowned. Flash really needed to learn when to keep his mouth shut.

"Yes," Shining nodded, "it apparently swooped down and attacked the woman when she wasn't expecting it. She was seriously injured, but nothing permanent or life threatening."

"I get the feeling that might have only been due to luck," Tirek stated. "Any leads on what it could be?"

"None," Shining sighed. "The attack happened so fast that the victim was knocked out before she saw any major details. All she knew was that it had wings and teeth. But I doubt this'll be the only attack that'll happen. If we don't figure out what this thing is, people will start being too scared to leave their homes." Tirek nodded and decided now would be a good time to leave.

"I won't distract you anymore then," he started making his way towards the elevator. "I hope you manage to catch that creature and put it wherever it belongs." Shining and Flash nodded as Tirek reached the elevator, only for it to open up with Twilight, Spike and Adagio stepping out of it. "Oh, hello again girls. Long time no see."

Adagio and Twilight smiled at him. Twilight knew he was mistaking her for her Equestrian counterpart, but she wasn't in the mood to explain the difference. "It's good to meet you again," Twilight smiled as Tirek scratched Spike behind the ear.

"Oh yeah," he groaned. "That's the spot." Tirek didn't seem to even notice the talking dog, as he turned to Adagio.

"Ms Dazzle. I've been hearing some interesting things about you as of late. Apparently, you've been getting quite a lot of attention recently."

"Of course," Adagio smiled a cocky smile. "The media can't get enough of me." She flicked her hair, Twilight rolling her eyes as Tirek smiled.

"Yes, apparently. How would you like to increase your fame?" Adagio gave him a curious look, telling him to keep talking. "Well, my company has started getting into the fashion business. But we don't have any models. How would you like to be one of my models and get your face in a few fashion magazines?" Adagio's eyes went wide, unable to believe she was being offered such an opportunity.

"Are you kidding?" She asked as he nodded, "oh I am in."

"Excellent," Tirek smiled. "I don't suppose you know anyone else that might be interested in that kind of work? The more models we have, the better." Adagio smirked, knowing exactly who to get to help her. "Anyway, here's the card of the man running the photoshoot." He handed her a piece of cardboard, Adagio happily taking it. "Give him a ring and you should be able to get everything sorted out."

"Perfect," Adagio smirked, "I'll call him as soon as I talk to my sisters." Tirek nodded and stepped into the elevator, Adagio and Twilight waving at him as he the doors closed. When they did, Twilight turned to move to the computer only for Adagio to grab her shoulder. "I need all the ID and documents that'll stop others from realising I wasn't born on this planet. You're good with computers. Think you can whip something up for me and my sisters on that big computer?" Twilight groaned, knowing this was gonna be a pain.

Two days later, Adagio and her sisters had all the documentation they needed to pass as normal people.

That was also the day they had their photoshoot, Flash having given them a ride there. The teen stood behind the camera, as the photographer made the final preparations. "Alright girls!" He then called out, "how's it going in there?"

"Almost done," Sonata sang. And sure enough, the Dazzlings appeared a minute later in amazing clothing. Flash had to admit, the three looked great in the tops, skirts and dresses they had been shown.

"What do you think?" Adagio asked him, Flash unable to put words together and simply nodding. This made Adagio laugh as she and the other two stepped up in front of the green screen.

"Alright lovelies," he told them. "Now, strike a pose!" The three did so, looking like they had done this a hundred times. He started snapping pictures and they quickly started shifting between poses to give him a bunch of different angles. "Oh, beautiful darlings. Simply marvelous. The camera loves you."

"Of course it does," Adagio smirked. "What's not to love." Flash rolled his eyes with a smile, Adagio's slight ego being one of her more endearing qualities in his opinion. As long as she didn't let it get out of control, Flash didn't see any serious issues occuring.

At the same time, Shining was investigating another attack by this strange monster.

The plumber was studying the the street that had been the site of the attack. He placed his badge one the and once he activated it, it started unleashing a light similar to the one Flash's Omnitrix used to scan aliens. It swept through the area, set to pick up anything that didn't appear human.

As he did, he started searching the street himself.

"Figure anything out?" Shining looked up and saw an officer he was friends with back in his cop days. Shining smirked at him, but shook his head.

"Nothing yet. But if what we were looking for was easy to find, you guys would have already figured out what this was." The cop nodded as he looked over at Shining's badge.

"Man, your alien stuff's pretty cool. Wish I could have something like that."

"Plumbers are always looking for new members," Shining joked. As he did, something caught his eye and made him flinch. He looked around and spotted something on the ground, reflecting the sun into his face. It was under a nearby dumpster, likely falling fallen there when the victim was attack.

He moved over to it and reached under the dumpster, pulling out a small blue gemstone. "That shouldn't be there," the cop stated. "The woman who was attacked stated the creature grabbed her necklace. Must have come off in the struggle."

"Why would a monster want gems?" Shining wondered, thinking about the other attack report. "The one attacked the other night was also wearing a lot of jewels."

"So this monster is a jewel thief?" The cop asked, "what would it want with fancy jewelry?" Shining was also wondering that and when his badge beeped, he got his answer.

Picking it up, he saw a compass appear on the screen and point him towards something. Following it, he found something on the ground that was almost two small to notice. A speck of red, which he carefully picked up to see was some kind of scale. "What's this?" He placed the scale on his badge and started properly scanning it, but it would likely take a while to complete a thorough examination.

"So what do we do now?" The cop asked, with Shining unsure how to answer that. He just wished he knew what this thing was and why it was after gemstones.

In an underground cavern, a part of the city's sewers that had been destroyed during the situation with the Hypnotist, something was living inside the cavern.

Hidden in the shadows, that something was staring at a bunch of gemstones that were scattered about the place. It then reached out and grabbed one, throwing it into its mouth and munching on it with growls of satisfaction. But this wasn't enough. It needed more. More gems. More food. And it would do whatever it took to get it.

The last few days had been a dream come true for Adagio.

The photos she and her sisters had taken were already plastered all over the net, causing the trio to become quite the talk of the town. Now, the three couldn't walk down the street without anyone stopping to ask for her autograph. The attention was like a drug to Adagio and she was completely hooked.

However, whilst Flash was happy for her success, he couldn't help but notice it was having a bit of a negative affect on her. One that was on full display when the pair went to a fancy restaurant for lunch to celebrate Adagio's latest achievement. A commercial.

"Welcome," the hostess smiled at them. "Sentry, table for two."

"That's right," Adagio stated before Flash could speak up. "Please make sure it's a window table that's close to the bathroom so we don't have to go far if we need it, but not so close that he can hear them flush. I really don't need that whilst I'm eating." The hostess was surprised by these demands, but nodded.

"We'll...we'll try our best." She walked off to see if such a table even existed, whilst Flash frowned at Adagio.

"Don't you think that was a bit much?" Flash asked. "I doubt you can even hear the bathrooms from this part of the restaurant."

"Well I don't want to take the risk," Adagio told them. "This is supposed to be a celebration. This beautiful face is finally going to be on TV, where it belongs." Flash frowned, worried Adagio was letting all this attention turn her into something she wasn't.

Correction. It was turning her into something she used to be.

Flash frowned as he thought about the Adagio that had tried to take over the world, who Flash had feared she was when they met again. He no longer saw her like that, but she was starting to act like it again. Flash wondered if he should say something, but was worried she would take offence to this.

The hostess returned and had a table ready for them, the pair sitting down and quickly seeing what was on the menu.

"Nothing childish," Adagio told him. "Imagine what people will think if they saw you eat something uncultured." Flash frowned, since he wasn't sure what was uncultured. "Absolutely not," she stated when he asked if he could get the spaghetti and meatballs. "If people see you slurping that up and getting your face covered in sauce, we'll be made the laughing stokes of the city."

"I doubt people care what I eat," Flash told her. Adagio gave him a look and he wasn't in the mood to argue. "Fine. What do you suggest?" Adagio looked through the menu and smiled when she found something for them, ordering it before even telling Flash what it was.

A little while later, the waitress returned with a plate full of a strange mix of different leaves. Flash tilted his head, since it did not look filling at all. And sure enough, when he tried one it tasted gross and didn't satisfy him at all.

But the look Adagio was giving him told the teen he needed to finish it, Flash deciding he would get a burger as soon as Adagio wasn't around. They finished their ''meal'' and as soon as they did, they headed out to pick up Adagio's sisters to head to the shoot.

At the same time, Shining was in the base looking over the info he had gotten.

He had been out on patrol the last three nights and not once, did he run into the creature on the prowl. And it had been out there. Six more attacks had been documented, one of them being in the middle of the day. And even then, there had been no way to tell what kind of creature it was that was attacking the people. No other witnesses and no CCTV.

"Either this thing is smart enough to not get caught, or it's been really really lucky." As he said that, a beeping sound caught his attention.

He rolled over to one of the computers, realising it was the one his badge had sent the scale scan to in order to do a thorough scan. And the process was finally complete.

"Finally," he brought up the data. "Now, what the heck are you?" When he saw the answer, his eyes went wide. "Human?" The DNA was human, but not entirely human. There were two other strands that were apart of the DNA mixture, with only one of them having a name. The other strand was an unknown, which made Shining frown. "There's only one thing I know of with that kind of DNA." He took out his phone and tried to get through to Flash, only to hear a ringing sound coming from behind him.

Looking around, he saw Flash's phone on one of the tables.

Flash was completely oblivious to the fact he had forgotten his phone, having been run ragged by Adagio using him as her personal taxi.

Currently, the teen was driving the Dazzlings towards their commercial shoot. "Didn't you just hear about this shoot?" Flash asked as the girls worked on their makeup. "How were they able to set everything up so quickly?"

"Well we weren't the first choice for the actresses," Sonata explained. "The three girls who were supposed to do it all go sick, so they asked us to fill in for them." Flash nodded, seeing that that made more sense now.

"But it doesn't matter that we're just the fill ins," Adagio told him. "We're gonna be on TV and it'll mean our careers are gonna explode." Flash wanted to point out that not every commercial lead to a successful acting career, but he didn't want to upset Adagio.

What did upset Adagio, was then they came to a stop at a crosswalk as an old woman began to cross the road.

Adagio's hands tapped against the dashboard, impatience clear on her face as the elderly woman went as fast as she could. "Come on grandma. Don't make us get old waiting for you!" The old woman frowned at her, Flash also looking shocked by Adagio saying that. "Finally!" The woman stepped out of the road and Flash was able to drive off, "old people need to just stay indoors." Flash could hardly believe she said that.

He was really starting to get sick of Adagio acting like a spoiled brat. But he didn't get the chance to say anything, as in that moment he turned a corner only to hear a loud scream and looked ahead.

Down the street, a woman was getting chased by something flying after her. It was some kind of winged humanoid reptile, which appeared to be a little taller then Flash. Its body was mostly red, but it lower jaw was orange in colour. That orange also went down the front of its neck, its chest, stomach, waist and the underside of its long red tail. Its wings were red and had orange on the inside, whilst a mohawk of yellow spins could be seen on its head and running down its back to the tip of its tail.

"Seriously?" Adagio asked, as he car was pulled to a stop. "Why now?"

"Stay here!" Flash got out of the car and ran towards the creature, the Dazzlings watching with Sonata and Aria interested in seeing Flash transform. "Leave her alone!" The creature looked up and when it did, it noticed Flash and quickly spat out a blast of fire. "WOW!" Flash leapt to the side, the flames exploding against the ground. "That was close!" He turned to it, amazed when he realised this creature was an actual freaking dragon. "Let's go hot head!" He activated the Omnitrix but as he did, it suddenly spoke.

"Uncatalogued DNA detected!" Flash's eyes went wide, "function not available. Please stand by."

"Now?" He looked up and gasped when the dragon fired another burst of fire towards him, Flash leaping to safety as he put the pieces together. "A dragon?" He remembered what the others had said about Spike's Equestrian counterpart. Dragons were real in that universe, which must mean... "It's an Equestrian Hybrid."

The creature flew down and tried to slash at him, Flash rushing over to grab a trash can lid and use it as a shield.

The creature's claws hit the metal and tore right through it, making Flash gulp as he swung the metal around to hit it in the head. The beast roared in pain, staggering back as Flash ran to a safe distance. As he did, he tried to activate the Omnitrix's scan function. But before he could, a blast of fire came up from behind him and he had to stop doing that and jump to safety.

"Augh!" He hit the ground, as the dragon flew towards him with its claws at the ready.

But before it could slash at him, a laser slammed into it and it was blasted backwards. "Gotcha!" Flash spun around to see Shining on his bike, which had just blasted the creature as he drove towards Flash. "What are you doing? Transform."

"I can't," Flash told him. "It's a hybrid and the Omnitrix wants its DNA."

"Right," Shining nodded as his bike vanished. "I'll buy you some time." He pulled out his blaster and charged at the recovering dragon, how got up and launched a fire stream at the plumber.

Shining leapt to the side and fired his blaster as he did, hitting the creature several times with it. But its thick scales protected it from getting hurt, as Flash activated the scanning function. "Here goes!" He pointed it at the dragon and unleashed the beam, hitting the dragon and running over its body.

The hybrid noticed this and roared at him, the scan completing before it could try and escape. "Unknown DNA sample acquired," the Omnitrix announced. "Scan complete."

"Oh yeah!" Flash activated the Omnitrix and slapped it down, a blast of light filling the street as he transformed. "Volt-Edge!" The alien roared before unleashing a blast of lightning towards the creature.

The dragon leapt into the air, avoiding the lightning as he fired a stream of flames towards Volt-Edge. But Volt-Edge was able to leap out the way and bounced off the side of the building to catapult him towards the creature. But the beast simply flew straight up and Volt-Edge was unable to get a good slash in.

"Dang it!" He cried, landing on the ground and looking around.

With that trash can destroyed, there was no other metal disks that he could use to lift himself into the air. As such, the dragon had the advantage as it launched a fireball towards him. Volt-Edge retorted with an electrical blast, the two colliding and making an explosion of fireworks.

"Wow," Sonata marvelled at the sight whilst Aria was impressed.

"That guy's good," she stated. "Getting to see him up close like this is pretty awesome." Sonata nodded, but Adagio didn't seem so impressed. Instead, she checked her watch and looked rather annoyed.

"Come on Flash," she growled. "Stop playing around and just take it down already. Go Way Big and stomp on it." The rest of the Dazzlings looked at her in surprise, as another firework explosion filled the air.

"Come on!" Shining groaned as he launched a laser at the dragon. But the hybrid easily avoid it and launched a stream of fire towards him. Shining quickly changed his blaster to a shield and blocked the blast, letting it be deflected as the dragon tried to overpower it. "That's right, keep your focus on me."

The dragon was so focused on Shining, he didn't notice Volt-Edge leap into an alleyway. Then, he zigzagged up the sides of the buildings and landed on the roof. Using as much speed as he could muster, he leapt off the roof and shot towards the dragon.

The lizard didn't notice him until the last minute, Flash tackling it to the ground. "Just calm down!" He cried, but the dragon began struggling and attempting to bite him. "Alright, you asked for it." With that, he unleashed a blast of lightning that electrocuted the hybrid.

It roared out in agony, the lightning zapping it painfully. But it refused to let this stop it and kept flapping his wings, keeping it in the air. It suddenly started spinning around and as it did, Volt-Edge found himself having trouble holding on. He kept unleashing all the lightning within him, hoping he could overwhelm the beast. But eventually, his arms gave out and he was thrown off the dragon.

"GYAH!" He cried, falling to the ground and crashing into it. "Augh!"

"Flash!" Shining rushed over to him, firing at the dragon as he did. But the winged lizard dodged them and flew off, as Volt-Edge remained laid out on the ground. "You okay?"

"I've been better," he groaned before hitting the Omnitrix and turning back to human. "Ow." He sat himself up and staggered around before getting his balance. "That could have gone better."

"Yeah," Shining nodded, "I don't think this one's gonna be interested in talking it out." Flash nodded as they turned in the direction the dragon went. "Come on. We've gotta stop that thing before it hurts anyone else." Flash nodded, turning back to his car as Adagio got out of it.

"Took you long enough," she told him. "Come on. We're gonna be late for the shoot."

Flash could hardly believe she said this. "Adagio, I've gotta go after that thing." Adagio frowned, crossing her arms. "It attacked someone. If I don't stop it, it could attack someone else."

"It will attack someone else," Shining stated. "The only thing this creature seems interested in is jewelry. All its victims were woman with lots of it on their person."

"Guess that makes sense," Aria nodded. "Equestrian dragon's favourite food are gemstones. They'll do anything to get as many as they can and horde them. If this thing is part dragon, it'd also have that same hunger."

"Exactly," Flash nodded, "which means I need to stop it before it attacks someone else."

"So you're putting someone else over the needs of your girlfriend?" Adagio asked, like it was the most shocking thing in the world. "I can't believe you. You...you're the worst boyfriend ever!" That had been the straw that broke the camel's back, Flash glaring at her.

"Adagio, that's enough." She frowned at this, "there are more important things in life then your modelling career."

"So you care about getting more attention for yourself then helping me get some attention?"

"I don't do this for the attention!" Flash roared, shocking her. "I'd be doing the same thing if my secret identity wasn't known." He pointed at her, "I thought you had changed. I thought you'd realised there are more important things in life than everyone loving you. But it's clear the only person you care about is yourself." He reached into his jacket and threw her his keys, "if this shoot is so important then go there yourself." He turned to Shining, who had created his hard-light bike.

Adagio watched as Flash climbed onto the bike with the plumber, who passed him his previously forgotten phone, the teen giving her one last look of disappointment before Shining drove off. She watched him vanish, then looked down at the keys before turning to the car and getting in. The other two did the same and as Adagio started the vehicle up, they all sat in silence as they headed towards the shoot.

"Does this mean you and Flash are broken up now?" Sonata asked, looking upset at that possibility.

Adagio didn't say anything, since she didn't know the answer to that. She didn't want to be broken up, but Flash had to know how important this was for them. "I don't know," she finally said as they got closer to the address.

"I hope not," Sonata stated. "Ever since you and Flash started hanging out, you've seemed a lot happier." Adagio looked at her questioningly. "I mean...this is the happiest I've ever seen you. You never smiled like you do with Flash before, not even back when we were in Equestria causing a bunch of argument and feeding off their negativity."

"Yeah," Aria nodded. "You've definitely been less grouching since the two of you hooked up. I'd hate for the old Adagio to come back."

"What's wrong with the old me?" Adagio asked, "I was cunning and deceptive. I was able to bend those around me to my will, even without magic. Why is it a bad thing I'm becoming like that again?"

"Cause none of that made you happy," Sonata pointed out. "Not really. You've actually been happy with Flash and all his friends, even if you didn't have any magic or fame."

Adagio let those words sink in, as she thought back to everything that had happened since meeting Flash again and learning his secret. She had to admit, she had had a lot of fun. And it wasn't just the alien stuff, as she remembered times they were together and he didn't go alien. Movies they saw together, songs they listened and sang to. Video games they played and other events they enjoyed together.

Adagio remembered laughing and enjoying herself like never before. And those times had been when the two of them were completely alone. Nobody there to appreciate her, or adore how beautiful she was. She hadn't realised just how much fun she had had despite not being worshiped.

"That doesn't matter anymore," Adagio told them. "I doubt Flash would be willing to forgive me. We should just focus on our new career and...I don't know, forget that Flash was ever apart of my life."

"Is that what you want?" Aria asked. "Besides, he was willing to forgive you for brainwashing him and his friends. I'm sure he'd be up to forgiving you for this, as long as he knew you meant it." Adagio wasn't sure. She doubted he would even want to talk to her.

Flash and Shining continued to chase after the dragon, finally catching up to it as the creature flew above the city.

Flash quickly activated the Omnitrix, whilst the dragon looked back and saw them. It shot a fireball and them, but Flash slapped the dial down and transformed. "Firefly!" He quickly launched his own flames, the two connecting and exploding. This allowed Firefly to leap off the bike and fly after the dragon, using his own fire to propel himself forwards.

The dragon launched a fireball at him, but the insect simply flew through it without any issues.

"Now I've got you!" He spat out a blast of silk and hit the dragon in the chest, the insect quickly flying around him before the dragon could react and tying him up. HIs arms and wings were trapped to his waist whilst his mouth was covered. "That should hold you!" The beast struggled against the string, as he began to fall towards the ground.

Firefly fired another cable, hitting his chest and keeping the dragon from smashing to the ground. As he did, Shining drove up and prepared a capture cube.

But before he could throw it, the dragon's claws tore through the bindings. "Flash, keep wrapping him up!" Firefly tried to, but the dragon was too fast and tore through its cocoon. Eventually, he was free and leapt into the air. Firefly shot another blast of string, which hit it in the chest, only for the dragon to grab said string and use its strength to swing Firefly around.

"WOW!" He cried, being thrown all over the place before the dragon smashed him into the ground. "AUGH!" He fought through the pain and opened his eyes, seeing a bunch of people who had been standing besides a building during the fight.

The dragon roared as it slammed down onto the ground behind him and launched a blast of fire. This one would be a wide spread blast Firefly couldn't stop with his own, the insect jumping to his feet and hitting the Omnitrix. In a flash of light, he transformed into another alien.

"BLOXX!" He cried, quickly reshaping his body into a large wall. The flames slammed into him and he roared out in pain, the heat making his almost plastic-like body begin to burn. This allowed the humans to rush out from behind the wall and escape, as Shining raced onto the street and started firing his bike's weapons.

The dragon leapt into the air, Bloxx reverting back to his normal form and putting himself down to keep from catching fire. He needed to find a way to beat this thing and fast.

The Dazzlings finally arrived at the place they would be shooting the commercial.

Pulling into the parking lot, they parked up and headed inside. The guard let them in and they all saw the place was full of different pieces of equipment. Camaras and other tech were scattered around, along with a bunch of people who would be working it.

"Ah," they looked around to see a man walking towards them, "you must be my stars. Ready to make your first commercial?"

"Of course we are," Adagio smirked. But her smirk slowly faded when she remembered what had happened before, making her feel like some of the fun had vanished. "So," she shook her head, "what's this a commercial for? Better not be dog food."

"Of course not," the director laughed. "It's a new brand of perfume. It's called gemstone and you three will be recorded using it as a large diamond is placed between you." He pointed to said diamond, the three looking around and their eyes going wide seeing the largest diamond ever in front of them.

It was the size of their heads and looked absolutely perfect, the girls staring at it in amazement. "There's no way that's real," Aria cried out.

"Of course it isn't," the director replied. "It's a replica made of glass." The girls nodded and the director showed them to the dressing room, the makeup and hair specialists quickly getting to work whilst those in charge of the wardrobe started looking for the perfect clothing for each of them.

Back at the battle, the dragon continued to rain fire down on the ground.

Shining and Bloxx did their best to avoid the flames, Shining shooting at the dragon but his lasers weren't having any issue on the beast with its scales. "Alright," Bloxx leapt into the air and fired several blocks towards it, "let's see how you like this!" He then slammed the Omnitrix and transformed again. "Diamondhead!" He smashed into the ground as he turned his arms to spikes and thrust them towards the dragon.

The hybrid watched as the crystals shot towards him, his eyes going wide at the sight of them.

It dodged several and grabbed some more out of the air, the dragon stuffing them into its mouth. This shocked the heroes, as the beast munched upon them and actually managed to bite through them without issues. "It's eating my shards?" The dragon swallowed the gems and licked its lips, then turned its attention to Diamondhead. "I don't like that look." Sure enough, the dragon shot down towards him and Diamondhead raised his arms in defence.

The dragon tackled him and latched its arms and legs around one of his arms before biting down on them, the crystal alien's eyes going wide as he actually broke through the crystal. "Flash!" Shining cried, as the dragon started eating him alive.

"Raaah!" It didn't hurt, but Diamondhead didn't want to make him think eating him was okay. "Get off!" He swung his arm around and extended it, pushing the dragon away from him. He then broke his arm off of the extended pillar as it fell to the ground, the dragon quickly starting to eat it like it was the last edible thing on earth. "Geez," he rubbed his arm to make sure there were no holes, "what are your teeth made out of?"

Shining watched it eat the large diamond and hoped this would give him the chance.

He took out a capture cube and threw it, but the dragon saw it coming and leapt into the air. The cube instead expanded around the gem before shrinking back down and sealing it inside.

This did not sit well with the dragon, who turned to glare at the pair and focused once again on Diamondhead. "Change aliens," Shining told him. "I don't wanna test how much of you he can eat and you still surviving." He nodded and hit the Omnitrix, transforming once again.

"Arctiguana!" The ice lizard quickly fired his frost breath towards the dragon, who unleashed a flamethrower in reply. The elemental blasts combined and created a large cloud of steam, with filled the street and blinded the three.

Arctiguana turned to Shining, but the plumber was blocked from his view. He tried to find him and the dragon, but everything was out of sight.

Seeing no other option, he leapt straight up and fired a blast beneath his feet. This created a pillar of ice below him, which pushed him higher and higher until he was out of the steam. He looked around and as he did, he saw something flying towards him.

"Wow!" He leapt off the pillar and barely missed getting slashed at by the dragon, the lizard using his hand to slide down the pillar in a spiral. As he did, the steam bagan to fade and Shining could see what had happened. The two were perfectly matched and as they launched their elemental breath attacks, nothing seemed to tip the scale. At least until a certain beeping sound was heard.

Back with the Dazzlings, they were striking a pose around the prop as the cameraman filmed them.

"Alright," he stated, "that's enough for now. Let's take a break whilst I go over the footage and figure out if there's anything we're missing." They all nodded and the crew began to break up, all heading off in different directions.

The Dazzling moved over to where they had placed their bags, taking their phones out and doing what most teens did. Adagio checked her texts and frowned when she saw Flash hadn't contacted her. "I thought he would have called or something after he took that dragon down."

"Um, Adagio." She turned to Sonata, who had her phone open on a new site. There was a video, showing live footage of something that was going on in town.

"It appears Flash Sentry's Omnitrix has timed out, leaving him stuck in his human form and unable to fight the creature that is attacking him." Sure enough, the video showed Flash as human and working to avoid the flames and claws that the dragon creature was attacking him with.

The beast slashed at him, but he was able to dodge at the last minute as Shining rushed in. The dragon launched a fireball, but the plumber blocked it with his shield weapon. "Flash is gonna be in trouble if he can't go alien," Aria pointed out.

"That dragon wants to take him down because it knows Flash is dangerous," Adagio stated. "But if Flash can distract it for just a minute or so..." She wasn't sure how Flash was supposed to do that, since the only thing dragons loved above all else was...

She slowly turned her attention towards the glass diamond that looked perfectly real. If the dragon saw that...

"No," she shook her head, "I can't. If I do, they could fire me. My career would be over before it even starts." But she glanced back at Sonata's screen and show Flash was having issues, barely managing to keep himself from getting his head bitten off. "Flash."

"Raaaah!" Flash cried, leaping backwards as the dragon charged at him. He glanced down at the Omnitrix, which was still red. "Come on. Any time now would be good."

"Get away from him!" Shining fired a cable from his Multi-Striker, which had a handcuff-like ring around the end. It struck the dragon's leg and locked around it, Shining quickly retracting the cable and pulling the beast back towards him. "Now I gotcha." He pulled out his last capture cube. If he failed to get him this time, he was gonna have a hard time containing the beast.

But the dragon quickly spun around and unleashed a blast of fire, which forced Shining to leap to the side to avoid it. This gave the dragon an opening to clash at the cable, ripping through it and freeing it from Shining's gasp.

"Damn!" Shining switched to his rifle and started firing, the dragon flying up as fast as he could. "Not good. If we can't find a way to bring this thing down, I'm gonna have to resort to more powerful weapons." Shining didn't want to seriously hurt this creature. But he might not have any other choice.

The dragon quickly flew off, clearly wanting to escape before Flash could transform again or Shining decided to blast him.

"Oh no you don't!" Shining changed his weapon again, his rifle gaining a missile-like object on the end of it. He fired and the missile launched, shooting towards the dragon who spun around to blast it with fire. But the missile shot through the flames and split apart, firing out a net of some kind.

The net wrapped around the dragon and began to tangle it up, the beast roaring as it struggled to escape from the bindings and fell to the ground.

Flash and Shining ran after it, the dragon crashing to the ground and launching fire through the gaps in the net. The net was made of fire resistant cables. Resistant, but not fireproof. And as it kept launching fire, it noticed the cables hit were slowly starting to fray.

Showing its intelligence, it aimed at the same spots and kept flaming it up. "It's gonna get out!" Flash cried, "catch it before it does." Shining nodded and readied the cube, but the dragon launched a fireball at them and forced the pair to hid behind Shining shield.

This gave it enough time to burn through the cables and finally rip itself free of the net, allowing it to leap into the air.

"I could really use an alien right now," Flash told his watch as the dragon fired a blast of fire towards them. They both leapt back and as they did, an engine caught their attention and made them look back to see Flash's car racing towards them. "What?"

The vehicle skidded to a stop and when it did, Adagio stuck her head out the window. "Hey!" She held something up for the dragon to see, "I got something you're gonna want!" The dragon saw this and its eyes went wide, as Adagio put the diamond on the seat next to her and turned the car around.

As it shot off, the dragon flew after her. "What's she doing?" Flash cried, only to get a text from Adagio.

The Dazzling couldn't believe she was doing this.

She was letting a dragon chase her through the streets, in a vehicle it could probably melt with a single blast of fire. Looking in the rear view mirror, she saw the dragon coming and quickly swerved around a corner. The dragon overshot and missed the turn, causing it to have to start chasing her again. Hopefully, she would be able to keep this up until she got to the spot she was aiming for.

She lost the dragon two more times and decided she had to stop pushing her luck. As such, she drove to her destination and grabbed the gemstone. Lowering the window again, she spun the car around and threw the gemstone out of it.

The dragon saw it and gasped, accelerating towards it and grabbing it before it could hit the ground. The beast cried out in joy and quickly bit into the diamond, only for it to break and have a horrible taste on its lips. It roared in fury, throwing the rest towards the ground. And as it shattered, it turned to Adagio and prepared to burn her in the car.

But before she could, something suddenly tackled it. "GOTCHA!" It fell to the ground and the next thing it knew, its entire body was being encased in something.

That something was the crystals created by Diamondhead, the crystalline alien quickly forming it around its entire body. Within seconds, its its main body, arms and wings were encased in a crystal shackle. Its arms were pinned to its side, meaning it couldn't cut at the crystal with its claws, whilst its mouth also couldn't get the right angle to bite through it.

Diamondhead let it go before it tried to bite him, then quickly encased both its legs together so it couldn't run away. As he did, Shining ran in with a capture cube. Diamondhead moved away and Shining threw it at the dragon. "We're sorry about this," Diamondhead announced. "I promise, we'll take care of you." The dragon frowned as the cube expanded around him, trapping him inside before shrinking back down.

Once the cube was locked, Diamondhead returned to human before focusing on Adagio.

The girl stood besides his car, looking a little bashful. "I never thought you'd come back," Flash told her. "What about your shoot?" Adagio frowned at this, as Flash slowly made his way over to her.

"I...I'm sorry. I let the thought of being a famous model go to my head. I missed being able to be the centre of attention. But you're right. There are more important things in life then being loved by everyone." Flash finally reached her and Adagio slowly looked into his eyes, "I know you're probably don't wanna date me anymore. But I hope that we can still be friends. My sisters helped me realise that...that last few months have been the most fun I can remember." She looked back down. "And if you're still okay being friends, I'd still like to be." She waited for Flash to reply, every second being like an eternity to her.

Instead of saying anything, Flash leaned forward and kissed Adagio on the forehead. This surprised her, the girl blushing before Flash pulled away and hugged her.

"I'm glad to see the you I like is back," he told her. "I know this was all really overwhelming, but you made the right decision in the end. That's what matters." Adagio smiled and was almost brought to tears, Flash pulling away from her and smiling before turning to Shining Armor. "You okay taking that thing back to the base?"

"No problem," Shining assured him.

"Alright," he turned back to her. "We've got a commercial shoot to get to."

"What?" Adagio asked. "But...there's no way they'll let me continue. Not only did I run away in the middle of the shoot, I stole one of their props." She looked over at the broken pieces of glass, knowing the commercial would probably be cancelled now that it was gone.

"Did anyone see you take it?"

"No. Sonata and Aria made a distraction so I could take it."

"Then there's no proof you were the one who did it. Besides, there's no way they have only one prop like that. Let's go." Adagio frowned as Flash pushed her towards the car and let him drive her back to the shoot. Flash might have been trying to be nice, but Adagio didn't think it was gonna be that simple. The way that glass had been shaped to look like a gem likely meant it was really expensive. There's no way it could be so easily replaced.

"Do you have the replacement gem?" The director asked as the pair of them walked into the building.

Adagio was shocked when she saw someone walking towards the director with a perfect replica of the gem she had broken, though he almost tripped over some wires. "Careful," someone told him, "we've only got five more of those." At the moment, the director spotted Adagio.

"Ah, our star has returned." He walked over to her, "knew you'd be back. I've been in this game long enough to tell when someone is a pro. Let me guess, had to take a walk to get your nerves under control?" Adagio couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"So the commercials still going?"

"Of course. Why wouldn't it? Tirek Enterprises paid a lot of money to make this commercial, even using their high spec equipment to make the gems we're using super easy. There's no way we can stop now. Unless you want to give up and not become a star."

Adagio frowned, unsure if she trusted herself not to turn into a total diva again.

"Of course she does," Flash stated. He placed a hand on her shoulder and Adagio looked at him, Flash nodding back at her. That one look made Adagio smile, as she realised Flash wasn't gonna let her quit. And if she did go bratty celeb again, he would be there to set her right.

"Okay then," the director announced. "Then let's get the rest of this commercial going." Adagio smiled, giving Flash a kiss on the cheek before going to join her sisters.

Flash smiled as he watched her get to work.

Several days later.

The dragon let out a groan as it began to wake up, the creature opening its eyes and seeing it was in some kind of glass container. That container was full of large rocks and the ground was rather warm, which made it feel good. There was plenty of room to fly, but it was still a cage.

"Hello there." He spun around and saw a pink haired girl standing on the other side of the glass. She smiled at him, as two other creatures stepped up next to her. "I'm Fluttershy. This is Drift and Pearl."

"Hello," Pearl waved as Drift nodded.

The dragon growled before launching fire at them, only for the glass to stop it and not even get singed. When it saw the flames weren't working, he shot forward and started scratching at the glass. Again, it didn't work.

"It wasn't easy to make a room able to hold up to your incredible destructive power," Azmuth stated as he floated passed on a platform. "But I think you'll find this room is able to stand up to anything you throw at it." The dragon roared as Fluttershy smiled.

"Don't worry, we won't keep you here forever. Just until we can send you somewhere you'll be more comfortable. In the meantime." She pressed a button and a small hatch opened up, a bunch of crystal shards falling into the room as it did. "I hope this will calm you down. Flash went to a lot of trouble to make all these for you."

The shards were the same one Diamondhead produced, the dragon rushing over to the small pile and starting to enjoy them.

"And if you're good, you'll get more." She walked over to Azmuth, as the hybrids continued to watch their new sibling munching away at the gems.

Azmuth was currently staring at a screen with a bunch of DNA on it, Flash, Twilight, Spike, Shining and Sunset arriving in the room as they did so. "It's as you suspected," Azmuth told Flash. "His DNA was combined using the same technology used to make Drift and Pearl. A fusion of human, tankedrag, and unknown DNA."

"Tankedrag?" Flash asked.

"Reptilian aliens that look just like the dragons of your planet's mythology. They're intergalactic explorers who are known for making maps. They probably came here a while back and inspired the dragons you know of." That surprised them. "Surprisingly, the tankedrag DNA is practically the same as the unknown DNA. In fact, they seem incredibly similar."

"Maybe dragons are the same in all universes," Spike pointed out. They all shrugged as Azmuth typed at the computer.

"The tracking device inside the creature has also stopped working. In fact, the signal looks like it hasn't been used in a while. Whoever made it deactivated the tracer a while ago."

"You think that means they're giving up?" Rainbow asked, Azmuth shrugging as he had no idea what this meant. All they knew was that there were still two more hybrids left to find and they had to find them before this mysterious creator could.

Tirek sat in his ship, staring at footage being broadcast by the plumber base's security system.

The man laughed at how foolish they had been, allowing him to tour the base so freely. Doing so had allowed him to place several devices around it, allowing him to hack into the base's systems. Now, they were all his to spy on.

"That's it," he told them. "Keep collecting my creations. You do the work and I'll make off with the prize." He just had to come up with a way to get said prize from the heroes. But he would figure it out.

Several days had passed since the capture of the dragon hybrid.

In that time, Fluttershy had worked hard to show the creature it didn't need to attack everything that moved. It hadn't been easy, but with enough gems the beast finally began to calm down. Flash had come up with the name Scales, which it seemed to be okay with. As such, Scales was beginning to learn how to talk as well. But it was a much harder process then with Drift or Pearl.

Adagio's commercial had also aired and was quite the hit, with the girl and her sisters gaining even more attention because of it.

However, Adagio wasn't going to let it go to her head this time. As if trying to prove she wasn't the same brat from a few days ago, she treated Flash to a meal at his favourite burger joint.

"Yummm," he sighed after taking a bite of the double decker burger. "Delicious." He didn't care if it caused him to die young of a heart attack. He would take this delicious burger over those weird leaves any day of the week.

Adagio had gotten her own burger, though only a single one, the girl sighing as she too loved the taste. She didn't even care that she had gotten sauce on her mouth and that people were staring. "Who cares what other people think," she sighed. "This stuff is good." Flash nodded, agreeing wholeheartedly. The pair would enjoy themselves and didn't care if it made people think they were low class.

Being famous had its perks, but they refused to let it make them into people they didn't want to be.

Author's Note

The third hybrid has been found and yes, Flash has a dragon form. I know a lot of you were probably expecting him to get that actual Ben 10 Dragon alien, but it just seemed a bit too big for me. Having a normal sized dragon for Flash to become will make things much easier.

Season 3, Episode 8: Tick Tock, Slows the Clock

It was the middle of the night in Canterlot and in one of the back allies, screams could be heard coming from someone who was being attacked.

The one doing the attacking was Devious, the Radiant Dragon holder unleashing a blast of lightning that was wrapped around his victim. Said victim's energy was being sucked out of his body, the energy being brown in colour and slowly forming a coin-shape within the lightning.

Eventually, the coin was completely formed and the one it was being pulled out of went limp. The coin was dark brown with a light brown monkey image on it, which floated towards Devious' staff as the lightning released the one the coin had come from.

They fell to the ground, as the coin connected to the staff and its power began to spread across the staff and into Devious. He sighed as he felt the new energy flow into him. "Perfect," he smirked, "the power of the Mad Monkey is now mine." He began to walk away, proud with himself. He had finally found a Medallion that his enemy didn't know about. "But this is only two, whilst Lady Masquerade has three. And there's still seven more left to be discovered. I must get them before her."

Three days later.

Despite it being fall in Canterlot, the city found itself enjoying some unseasonably warm weather. So warm that the outdoor sports were still being played. This included track, which our heroes had all chosen to go watch.

The reason they had gone to see it was because of their friend, Rainbow Dash, who was competing in it. The prism haired girl was down on the track, surrounded by other sporty teens who were all doing warm ups and stretches. When Rainbow spotted her friends in the stands, she waved and they waved back.

The Rainbooms, Flash and Trixie sat down, Trixie opening a bag of chips. "Did you really need to bring snacks?" Flash asked her, "this is meant to be someplace where athletes compete. Eating a bunch of junk food right in front of them might be a bit mean."

"Hey, I work hard with what I do." Trixie ate another chip, "so if I want to have a snack whilst watching a sport then that's what I'll do." As she said this, the others looked down at the field and saw all the teens who were competing.

"Woo-wee," Applejack smirked. "That's a lot of tough looking runners. Hope Rainbow Dash can beat em all."

"Don't worry," Pinkie smiled. "Rainbow super fast. She broke the school's record when she qualified. She won't lose to all those other runners, even if she's not using her geode."

"She's not?" Trixie asked through a mouthful of chips.

"Of course not," Sunset told her. "Rainbow wouldn't use her super speed to win a race. That'd be cheating. Even if there's no rule against it, Rainbow wouldn't feel right winning a race using something other then her own skills." The others nodded, thinking the exact same thing. Rainbow was gonna win with her own merits.

Rainbow finished stretching and looked around, seeing all the tough competitors who planned on beating her. She had worked hard to get here, waking up at five every morning to train and steering clear of unhealthy foods to make sure she was in tip top condition. Nothing was going to stop her from winning.

However, as she looked around, she saw the other competitors all freezing in place as they stared in the same direction. And when she saw what had caused that, she also froze.

A teenage girl was making her way towards the start of the track. She was a blue skinned girl with green hair, wearing a purple track suit. But she wasn't like the other racers on the course. She was...heavier. There was no easier way to put it. She was overweight and did not look like she was built to run. She was eating a bag of chips as she walked over to the track.

"Hi?" She waved at the other racers before stuffing another handful of chips into her mouth.

The racers were all confused, though some were just mean. "Who let the tub of lard onto the track?"

"Yeah, I think the hotdog eating contest is taking place down the street."

"There's a hotdog eating contest?" The girl asked after finishing off the chips and stuffing them into her pocket, "too bad. I'm competing in this race during it." She moved over to the start line and waited for the race to begin, licking her lips to get the chip crumbs off of them.

"She's not really gonna race, is she?" Rarity asked, looking horrified at her tracksuit.

"I think she is," Twilight nodded.

"What's wrong with that?" Fluttershy asked.

Applejack frowned. "She's not exactly...suited for this kind of event."

"Why?" Fluttershy frowned, "because she's a little overweight? Just because she's not a stick, she's not allowed to compete?" She looked very upset, which the others could understand.

"Of course she can compete," Flash told her. "But...against runners like Rainbow and the others..."

"She's gonna get creamed," Trixie stated. "That's just a fact." As she said that, the racers all stepped up to the mark. They saw Rainbow was next to the bigger girl, who smiled at her.

"Hi," she told her rival, "I'm Nelly."

"Rainbow," she replied. "Listen...you sure you're supposed to be here?"

"Yup," she nodded, "I won my school's qualifier." Rainbow frowned, thinking that that school either had a serious health problem, or all the active kids were home sick that day.

She shook her head and knew she had to focus on the race. She would deal with this later. The runners all stepped up to the line and got into the starting position, as the ref stepped up and held up a starting pistol.

"Ready?" He asked as they all looked straight ahead, the starting pistol firing.

As soon as it did, they all shot off the starting block. Rainbow was the fastest, the girl exploding into action and managing to pull ahead. As she did, her friends all cheered for her as her advantage grew more and more. "Go Rainbow!" Flash cried, smiling as she approached the first corner. But then he glanced back and sure enough, Nelly was in last place.

The girl panted as she trailed behind everyone else, her overweight body moving in a rather undignified manner.

"Oh geez," she panted. "Oh my," she puffed. "Come on Nelly. Keep going." But her competition continued to pull further and further ahead of her.

Those in the stands that weren't Flash, Trixie and the Rainbooms started laughing at her, some of them making jokes and asking if dangelling a donut in front of her might make her move faster. Trixie felt sorry for her, seeing she really wanted to win and the boos probably weren't helping. But she clearly knew this would happen if she competed.

Rainbow was halfway around the track when she looked back and saw Nelly was having issues. She felt bad, but Rainbow had worked too hard to stop and try to help her. Besides, it's not like Rainbow stopping would allow Nelly to win.

Nelly panted as she saw she was far from first place. If she didn't do something soon, she was gonna lose. "Come on," she closed her eyes. "You can do this. Just like last time. Come on. Come on." With that, she opened her eyes and they suddenly glowed green.

Trixie suddenly felt something and looked towards Nelly, who suddenly started speeding up. "What?" She watched as the overweight girl's speed doubled, then doubled again. She continued to get faster, as she caught up to the person in second to last place.

She past them and continued to speed up, becoming the fastest runner on the track. She past another runner, then another and another and another. "What the heck?" Flash cried.

"How's she doing that?" Applejack asked, as Nelly overtook yet another runner. The only one left in front of her was Rainbow, who was turning the final corner and heading towards the finish line.

She half expected to see Nelly hadn't past the first corner, but was completely unaware that the girl was catching up to her. "RAINBOW!" Sunset yelled, "behind you!" Rainbow chanced a glance and was shocked to see Nelly moving at light speed, the two girls suddenly becoming neck and neck.

Rainbow's shock quickly faded and she pushed her body to the limit, as she tried to get to the finish line first. But Nelly was moving just as fast and eventually sped up once again and past her by. The rainbow haired girl couldn't believe what she was seeing and sure enough, Nelly surged ahead and left Rainbow in the dust.

The overweight girl reached the finish line and past it, Rainbow following a few seconds later.

The crowd was utterly in shock at what they were seeing, unable to believe what they had just witnessed. But eventually, someone started clapping and everyone else followed suit. Those that had been making fun of Nelly were now cheering for her, telling her that she was amazing.

Nelly clearly loved the attention and started waving at them, as the ref handed her the trophy she had somehow won.

Rainbow and the other racers were still reeling from what had just happened, whilst Rainbow's friends were completely shocked. "What on earth just happened?" Rarity asked, everyone unsure. Everyone except Trixie.

"I think I know," Trixie frowned. "Nelly has a Medallion." They all looked at her in shock, "I sensed it before she started speeding up." They all turned back to the girl as she walked off, being followed by a bunch of people who were asking how she could move so fast. They then noticed a very upset Rainbow and all realised something in that moment. She was not gonna be happy.

"SHE WHAT?" Rainbow screamed, the lot of them standing outside the stadium.

"She has a Medallion," Sunset explained. "Trixie seems to think it's what allowed her to move that fast." This clearly upset Rainbow, the girl seething as she starting going off on a rant about cheaters and lousy sportsman. Fluttershy had to try and calm her down.

"It might not be her fault," Fluttershy pointed out. "She might not know that's what she's doing. For all she knows, she's suddenly gotten really fast. We shouldn't blame for something if it isn't her fault."

Rainbow sighed, "you're right. So," she turned to Trixie, "which Medallion do you think it is?"

"Best guess, the Rush Rabbit. It grants the user increased speed. Like how the Mighty Bull enhances my natural strength, it enhances the user's natural speed."

"Still," Flash frowned, "I'm amazed it went to her. The other Medallions all seemed to go to people who naturally aligned with the Medallion. Iron Will was already strong and Fleetfoot had a desire the fly. You'd think a speed based Medallion would seek out someone who's already fast." The others realised he had a point, but they needed to focus on the situation at hand.

"We've gotta find Nelly," Twilight told them. "But where is she?"

"Found her," Pinkie smiled. "I just checked her Face-Scroll page. She said she's going to her favourite place in the world to celebrate her victory."

"Where's that?" Applejack asked.

"Welcome to Pizza Paradise," the hostess smiled as they looked around the restaurant. "What can I do for you today?"

Flash and the Rainbooms looked around, as Pinkie stepped up to her. "We're looking for a friend. Nelly?" The hostess clearly didn't know that name. She's...um...well..."

"She's fat," Applejack stated. "Really fat." The others frowned, wishing the girl could be a little bit more subtle about her honesty. Luckily, the hostess didn't take offence and pointed them in Nelly's direction.

The girl was sitting at a large table, eating the largest pizza the place had. She was halfway through it when Flash sat down in front of her, catching her attention and making her gasp. "You're Flash Sentry." Flash had to move his head to avoid getting a piece of pineapple slammed into his face.

"Yes," he told her, "and I need to talk to you about something very important. Can we talk somewhere a bit more private?" The girl nodded and asked a passing waiter to place the rest of her pizza in a box, the man doing so as they headed out of the pizza joint.

"So what's this about?" She asked. "Oh, are you asking me to join your superhero team. Working alongside the Plumber and Lady Masquerade?" She looked excited, Flash said he had to burst her bubble.

"No," Rainbow told her, "but this does involve Lady Masquerade." In that moment, the hero in question landed on the roof of Flash's car.

The Luna Cat hero spun her staff around before pointing it at Nelly. "Medallion wielder. You have used the power bestowed upon you irresponsibly. That power was meant to be used to protect people, not win sporting events."

"What?" Nelly asked, "what are you talking about?"

"Your ability to move at super speed," Rainbow told her. "It comes from a magical coin called a Medallion. The same thing Lady Masquerade uses for her powers."

"I have a magical coin?" Nelly patted her body over, wondering where this coin was.

"It's not on you," Flash explained. "It's merged with your body. And you used it to win that race, didn't you?"

"I guess," Nelly nodded. "But I didn't mean to. I just really wanted to win and the next thing I knew, everything started moving slower and slower. I just kept running as best I could."

"Well the Medallion is what allowed you to win the race," Trixie jumped off the car. "You must give it up to me."

"What? Why? It's letting me win."

"That's not what the coin is for," Trixie told her. "It's meant to be used to protect people. Now hand it over. Relinquish your claim on the Medallion."

"No!" Nelly pushed past them, "I don't want to give it up. It's letting me win like I always wanted." Everyone moved closer, "you don't get it. I've always loved running. But whenever I tried to race against people, I came in dead last and everybody made fun of me. But when I got this power, I was suddenly living my dream. I was winning races and everyone respected me."

"But you didn't earn those wins," Rainbow told her. "You cheated."

"There's no rule against magic," Nelly pointed out. Rainbow glared at her, but Trixie held out her arm.

"I'm sorry," she stated. "But you can't keep that Medallion. It doesn't belong in this world. It needs to be returned to where it belongs."

"And it belongs to me." Their eyes went wide, as they spun around and saw Devious moving towards them, "I sensed the temporal shift before. I never thought the Rapid Turtle Medallion would find its way to such a porker." He laughed at them, as everyone except Rainbow transformed.

The Rainbooms activated their Geode, Rainbow wishing she hadn't left hers at home, whilst Flash activated the Omnitrix. As he did, Devious launched a fireball at the lot of them and Flash leapt forward whilst slapping the dial down. In a flash, he transformed and the fireballs slammed into him.

When the smoke cleared, Flash's form was revealed. He looked just like Scales, only his body was orange with lighter orange on his lower jaw and running down his neck, chest, waist and the underside of his tail. He had a bunch of blue spines running from his head to his tail and his wings were orange with blue on the inside. The Omnitrix was on his chest. "Dragoon!"

The others smiled at the new alien form, as Dragoon leapt into the air and launched a stream of fire at Devious.

The magician thrust his staff forward and unleashed a blast of ice, hitting the fire and causing them to create a cloud of steam. This blocked Devious from their sight, as Trixie closed her eyes. "Mighty Bull!" The Medallion on her head changed and the rest of her costume followed suit, the girl feeling strength flowing through her.

As soon as the transformation ended, she took out her bell and slammed it on the ground. This unleashed the sonic blast that knocked the steam away, but Devious had vanished. "Where'd he go?" Applejack asked, only for Rarity to put up a shield that blocked a lightning bolt from hitting her.

They turned to the source and saw Devious was standing atop the pizza joint, which was quickly being evacuated by Sunset and Fluttershy before anyone could get hurt.

"Give it up," Dragoon told him. "You can't fight all of us."

"Can't I?" Devious asked, raising his staff and revealing a coin on it.

"A Medallion?" Trixie gasped, realising Devious must have found a wielder before he. Dread spread through her, as she thought about what that person must have suffered. "What are you going to do with that?"

Devious smirked, "take you all out of your misery." He slammed the staff into the ground and in doing so, a wave of brown energy flowed out of the coin.

That energy struck them all, moving through Rarity's shields and hitting the lot of them. And when it did, they all found themselves unable to keep their balance.

"Wow!" Trixie fell to the ground, feeling like she had just spun on the spot a hundred times. Her head felt strange and everything was spinning, the others all suffering from the same thing. "What's...happening?"

"Behold the power of the Mad Monkey Medallion," Devious leapt down to the ground. "Anyone struck by it becomes disoriented. And in such a state, you can't fight against me." He walked past them, "I'd love to take your Medallions from you. But I'll take the more powerful one first."

He stepped towards Nelly, who had also fallen to the ground feeling strange. "Prepare to have your powers taken."

"No," Nelly didn't want that, "you can't." She shut her eyes and tried to focus through the dizziness, as Devious pointed his staff at her. And as the energy built up and was about to fire out of it, the world around Nelly began to slow down.

She opened her eyes and looked towards Devious, her head feeling a little more focused. She saw the energy moving towards her, but it was going really slow.

She quickly rolled away from the energy and as Devious slowly realised what she had done, she pushed herself back to her feet and started staggering away. She managed to make it across the street and into an alleyway.

From Devious' perspective, Nelly had suddenly vanished in a gust of wind and the energy from his staff hit the ground instead. "Damn that Medallion's power! If I had been able to synchronise with it last time, I wouldn't have lost the Medallions." He turned towards Trixie, who was still reeling from the Mad Monkey's power. "Oh well, at least I'll have three new Medallions."

However, as he got close to Trixie, a blast of fire shot towards him.

He leapt back, barely managing to keep himself from being burned alive, shooting a glare at the dragon alien that was still laid out on the ground. Dragoon was still suffering from the Monkey Medallion's power, but he didn't need to stand in order to launch flames.

"Burn up!" He spat another fireball and Devious growled, firing his own fireball from his staff. But in doing so, the Mad Monkey's power ended and everyone felt their equilibrium returning.

Devious realised his mistake too late and tried to use the Mad Monkey power again, but Twilight quickly grabbed some trash cans and threw them at him. Devious leapt back and, realising he was letting the more important power escape, used his staff to unleash a smokescreen that blinded everyone.

When the smoke faded, Devious was gone.

"Dang it!" Rainbow cried, "he got away." They all started picking themselves up, happy they weren't feeling dizzy anymore."

"Blimey!" Applejack held her head, "that Medallion's got one serious power."

"Devious is gonna be tricky to face if he has that," Rarity frowned. Sunset and Fluttershy chose this moment to return, asking what had happened. As the others explained, Trixie thought about what Devious had said.

"Rapid Turtle?"

Nelly sighed as she was a good distance away, tired from using her power and running as fast as she could.

She was currently making her way through the streets and keeping an eye out for Devious. And as she did, she thought about what Lady Masquerade had told her. "This power is meant to help people, but it's the only way I can become the runner I always dreamed of being. I have to keep it. And if that guy shows up again, I'll just slow him down and run away again."

She kept walking until she past a sweets store, making her lick her lips. She deserved a treat after escaping that villain.

Back at the plumbers base, the others were getting Shining up to speed with what happened. The only one not there was Rainbow.

"Sounds like you had an action packed afternoon," he stated as he brought up a list of addresses. "I'll put her name into the computer and locate her house. Then we'll go talk to her."

"And do what?" Sunset asked, "it's not like we can force her to give up the Medallion."

"But Devious can," Twilight pointed out. "And even with her super speed, all it'll take is Devious to get lucky once and she'll have her powers ripped out of her. Devious found a way to make the Mighty Bull's powers useless. He's probably planning something similar to stop her from moving fast."

"She wasn't moving fast." Everyone turned to see Trixie walking towards them, a familiar book in her hands.

"What do you mean?" Flash asked, "we all saw her moving at super speed."

"No. We saw her moving at her normal speed." Trixie opened the book and showed them what was written on it, "it just looked like she was moving super fast because we were all moving slowly."

Twilight took the book and stared at the image of a green coin with a turtle on it, which had a clock in the middle of its shell. "The Rapid Turtle Medallion, holds the power to slow down the flow of time around the user. The one wielding it is the only one unaffected, allowing them to appear as if they're moving faster than normal. The more in sync with the Medallion the user is, the slower they can make time and the longer they can use the ability for."

"So this is the Medallion Nelly has?" Fluttershy asked, with Trixie nodding.

"That's why Devious wanted it more then he wanted mine."

"Yeah," Flash nodded, "slowing down time is a pretty broken ability. If he'd gotten it, he could have slowed us all down to a snail's pace and taken the Medallions from Trixie before she could even blink."

"But it's gotta have its weaknesses," Shining stated. "I doubt Nelly can slow down time indefinitely. She probably has some kind of limit."

"Here it is," Twilight told them as she kept reading. "The power to slow down time is rather taxing on the user. Because of this, the user must replenish the energy lost between time stops."

"How?" Pinkie asked, as Trixie thought about it.

"Nelly was eating a large pizza after the race. What if she did that, because slowing down time to win it made her hungry. So if she stops time without eating, she'll eventually lose all her strength."

"Devious probably knows this," Rarity frowned.

"He'll keep going after her until she exhausts herself," Fluttershy looked worried.

"That's why we've gotta get to her first," Shining stated as the computer beeped. "And we finally have a location for her." They all nodded and headed out, whilst trying to think of a way to convince Nelly to give her powers up.

"What if she refuses?" Fluttershy asked, as the elevator opened up onto the ground floor. "She could use her power again and run off."

"Not gonna be a problem." They looked ahead and saw Rainbow at the door of the base, having retrieved her geode from home. "She might be able to move super fast, but now I can do the same."

"Except she's not using super speed," Trixie explained.

"Although," Flash smirked, "things look like the world's in slow motion when I'm XLR8. I'm betting it's the same for you?" Rainbow nodded. "Even if Nelly's slowing down time, if we're going fast enough then we'll only be slowed down to normal speed."

"And I'm still faster than her at normal speed," Rainbow stated. As she said that, the Omnitrix suddenly beeped and Flash looked down at it.

"Environmental hazard analysis complete," it spoke in his voice.

"What?" Flash asked, wondering what it was talking about.

"Analysis of unusual energy source detected at two fifteen PM has been complete. Energy caused benign paroxysmal positional vertigo and has been classified as a dangerous substance that should be avoided."

"You think it's talking about the Mad Monkey Medallion?" Twilight asked, Flash realising it must be.

"I didn't know it could do this." He tapped the dial, "what if I find myself in this environment and can't get out of it?" If the watch knew how to counter the effects of the Medallion, he had to know.

"Analysis indicates that one available DNA sample is immune to this energy." The watch then seemed to activate, though the dial remained down, the triangles moving together to form the kite pattern before the silhouette of an alien appeared inside of it.

"That alien's immune to the effects of the Mad Monkey?" Flash asked, a smirk on his face. "Good, then that's what I'll use if Devious shows up again." With that, they all got in their vehicles and headed for Nelly's home. But they weren't the only ones who had found her residence.

Devious smirked as he held up a phone book, having found the name he was looking for and nodding.

He was currently in a phone booth, yes Canterlot still had them, and had been looking through the names until he found the one he had been searching for. "Such an interesting book. Surprised nobody uses them anymore." He picked up the booth's phone and used a bit of magic to remove the need for money.

Typing away at the number he found, he waited until the phone was picked up. "Hello?" He smiled hearing Nelly's voice and quickly hung up before ripping the page out of the book. He also took a piece of paper with a rune on it, one of many he had made in preparation for dealing with the Medallion holders. He was going to get his prize, no matter what.

Trixie and her friends soon arrived at the address they had found.

As soon as Flash parked up, Trixie took out her mask and put it on. Transforming into her Luna Cat form, the girl got out of the car and headed for the door with everyone else. "Should we knock?" Fluttershy asked, the others unsure if Nelly would answer. But if they knocked the door down, she would probably use her power to escape.

"Relax," Pinkie told them, "I got this." She ran off screen and returned a moment later dressed in a pizza delivery uniform with a box in hand. She knocked, "pizza delivery!" They all rolled their eyes, thinking Nelly would never fall for that.

But the door opened and the girl stared at the pizza whilst licking her lips. "Yum." She grabbed the box and only then, did she notice who Pinkie was and who was with her. "Oh, you guys are here."

"Yes," Shining stepped forward in his plumber suit. "And we're here to tell you how much danger you're in."

Nelly rolled her eyes and headed back into the house, the others following her as she went to the kitchen. "I'm not giving up my power," she told them. "I need it."

"No you don't," Rainbow cried. "You want it because it lets you win races you wouldn't have a chance of winning otherwise." She noticed the trophy on the kitchen counter, making her frown since she knew it should belong to her.

"Please," Trixie stepped forward as Nelly sat down and opened the actually full pizza box. "You don't understand how much danger you're in. Devious wants your Medallion and he'll do whatever it takes to get it, including killing you."

"So," Nelly frowned, "you saw what happened before. If he tries again, I'll just stop time and run away."

"Devious isn't that stupid," Flash told her. "He learns from his mistakes. He's probably already found a way to stop your Medallion from working."

Sunset nodded. "And even if he can't stop your power, all he has to do is take you by surprise. One whack to the head from behind and your down for the count."

"Please," Fluttershy begged her, "do the right thing and give Trixie your Medallion."

"Why? So she can start winning races instead?"

"I don't care about stupid races!" Trixie cried, "all I care about is making sure the Medallions are returned to where they belong. You were never supposed to have the Rapid Turtle Medallion in the first place. it was a mistake!"

"Best mistake that ever happened to me," Nelly smiled. She finished off a pizza slice and reached for another, but Rainbow grabbed the box and pulled it away from her.

"You need to get this through your skull. You can't keep using the Medallion's power to win races. If you do, it'll sully everything the sport stands for. You're mocking something you claimed you loved so much. And what if others see you and think they can be just like you. You'll be influencing a generation of kids to never exercise and stuff their faces. You'll ruin them."

Nelly glared at her, clearly intending to make her own opinions known. But before she could, something happened that caused their argument to stop.

They all suddenly felt woozy, the lot standing up finding themselves staggering around whilst those sitting down felt their heads begin to spin. "What's happening?" Shining asked, but the others knew what this was.

"Devious," Trixie groaned as she fell to the ground. As she did, a laugh caught her attention and made them all looked around to see Devious stepping into Nelly's kitchen.

"The one and only." He turned to Nelly, who had fallen off her chair and was staggered backwards along the ground. "And now, that power will be mine." Nelly gasped and closed her eyes, but Devious threw something at her before her power could activate.

That something was a slip of paper, which connected itself to her chest and showed a bunch of runes on the front of it. Nelly activated her power, but as time stopped she found something was wrong. She couldn't lift her feet or hands off the ground.

"What?" She pulled on them, but it was like someone had super glued her hands to the ground. "What's happening?" She was speaking super fast to everyone else, only Rainbow Dash able to understand her.

She glared at Devious, who chuckled as she saw the super speed girl frantically trying to pull herself free. "What did you do to her?"

"Stopping time is useless if you can't be mobile enough to make use of it. That rune will trap her to any surface she touches. It's impossible to escape." Everyone groaned as they tried to push themselves up, but they couldn't stay balanced enough. Twilight and Rarity couldn't even use their magic to throw anything at him.

Shining tried to reach for his badge, but his brain was completely fried from the dizziness.

"Don't you touch her!" Trixie cried, but Devious laughed before thrusting his staff forward.

The lightning exploded out of it and slammed into Nelly, making her scream as he power began to be drained. The others groaned as they heard her cries, Rainbow flinching worst of all at the sound. She couldn't let this happen.

"Aaaaahhhhh!" She forced herself up to her feet and ran forwards, her superspeed activating as she shot towards Devious. The supervillain barely had a moment to notice this before being tackled by her, getting slammed into the side of Nelly's kitchen counter.

The energy from his staff stopped and Nelly gasped, her power returning to her whilst the others felt the Mad Monkey's effect wearing off.

Flash quickly activated the Omnitrix and found the alien Shining had told him about, slamming the dial down and transforming as Devious and Rainbow struggled against one another. When the light faded, Nelly saw a tree was now in her kitchen. "Bushwhacker!"

In that moment, Devious pushed Rainbow away from him and grabbed his staff. He slammed it into the ground and made the Mad Monkey's power activate again, sending almost everyone staggering again. The only one who wasn't having trouble was Bushwhacker, the alien tree's psychic abilities acting as a protective barrier against the Medallion's effect.

"Sorry, not gonna happen." He thrust his arm forward, attempting to punch Devious, the madman leaping to the side to avoid the vine arm and rushing for the door. As he did, Bushwhacker pulled the rune tag off of Nelly.

As soon as she was free, the girl closed her eyes and activated the power of her Medallion. "Wait!" Rainbow cried, but Nelly's powers awakened and she became a blur. "NO!" She ran out the kitchen and escaped the house from the front door.

"Rainbow!" Trixie told her, "get me to her!" Rainbow nodded and with the Mad Monkey's power gone, the Rainboom was able to run without issue.

She grabbed Trixie as the girl grabbed her staff and the pair were rushed out of the house, whilst Bushwhacker ran for the door. He reached the back garden and looked around, not seeing any sign of Devious. But as he was about to look up, a blast of heat flew down towards him.

"Wow!" He leapt away, as the fireball slammed into the ground and made it explode, Bushwhacker looking up and seeing Devious glaring down at him.

"You think I'm gonna let you beat me that easily?" He asked, spinning his staff around as the others ran outside. He launched another fireball at the alien, but Rarity brought up a shield that protected him.

"Maybe you should change aliens," Twilight suggested as Devious leapt into the air.

"I can't!" Bushwhacker launched several leaf projectiles towards him, which Devious knocked away. "As long as I'm Bushwhacker, he can't use his Mad Monkey Medallion to affect me." Devious landed on the ground and launched a wave of lightning towards them, but Rarity and Bushwhacker created shields that protected them from the elemental attack.

Shining took out his blaster and fired at Devious, who had to jump around the garden to avoid them.

The madman then launched a wave of wind, which knocked them all backwards and allowed Devious to propel himself into the air. He landed back on the roof and ran over the building, the heroes chasing after him. "We can't let him get away!" Shining cried.

"I just hope Rainbow and Trixie can catch up to Nelly," Sunset frowned.

Trixie was holding onto Rainbow's back, the super speed girl racing down the street as the world seemed to move at slow motion.

Trixie could barely tell what was happening, as everything was just a blur around her. But she quickly spotted Nelly right in front of them, running as fast as she could and looking like a very round blur. "Quick," she told Rainbow, "get in front of her."

Nelly was running as fast as she could, but she was quickly losing stream and felt like she would need to stop any moment. But as she was about to, she heard movement behind her and looked back to see Rainbow and Trixie. "But time's stopped?"

Rainbow heard this and glared at her, "you're not the only one with super powers. The only difference is, I don't use mine to cheat at sporting events."

"Go away!" Nelly cried, focusing as hard as she could. Time seemed to slow down even more and Rainbow was slowing down, though it looked like Nelly was speeding up to the Rainboom.

"Hang on!" She told Trixie, as she kicked her super speed to the max. She managed to make up the lost ground and continued towards Nelly, who saw this and frowned since she couldn't slow time down any more. And she was starting to feel really tired.

Rainbow's super speed was able to match the slowed spread of time, putting them both on equal footing. Except even without her super speed, Rainbow was fast on her feet and managed to overtake the overweight girl. "Stop this!" She cried, but Nelly wasn't listening.

Trixie chose this moment to swing her staff around, only she was moving so slowly that Nelly would easily be able to dodge it. Luckily, Rainbow grabbed Trixie's staff and moved it faster. She was a little worried moving Trixie's arm at super speed might damage it, but Trixie managed to figure out what was happening in the fraction the second and released her grip.

As such, Rainbow swung the staff at Nelly's feet and knocked them out from under her.

Nelly screamed as she fell to the ground, her power stopping as time began to speed up once again. She started bouncing down the street, eventually coming to a stop with a groan as Rainbow and Trixie came to a stop.

Trixie jumped off Rainbow's back, a little dizzy from moving at such a speed. But she quickly managed to recover and rushed over to Nelly. The girl was also starting to recover, but Trixie was able to get to her before she started using her power again.

"Mighty Bull!" She morphed into her super strength form and jumped onto Nelly, using her power to pin her to the ground.

"Hey!" Nelly struggled against her, but Trixie was too strong for her. "Let me go."

"No," Trixie frowned, "you need to give up the Medallion." Nelly screamed as she tried to fight against her, but she was too tired from stopping time and running. "I'm sorry Nelly, but you have to do this. I need to get the Medallion back and help my friends."

Devious had ran to the other side of Nelly's house and leapt off of it into the street, turning back towards the building and launching a bolt of lightning to destroy it.

But before the bolt struck, Rarity leapt out and created a shield that blocked the lightning from damaging Nelly's home. As she did, Bushwhacker, Shining and Applejack ran towards him. Bushwhacker tried to punch him with a wooden hammer, whilst Shining slashed at him with his sword and Applejack tried to kick him.

Devious was able to deflect the hammer with his staff, leap out of the way to avoid the sword and unleashed a blast of wind to knock Applejack back. He then found a glowing cooking flying towards him and shot it with an icicle, the sweet treat exploding before it could get close to Devious.

Bushwhacker saw Devious leap back to the other side of the road and spotted a tree on the path next to him, so began to call upon his mental abilities and brought the tree to life. Devious was quite surprised when the tree next to him tried to grab him in its branches, as Shining prepared to fire his blaster.

"Raaah!" Devious roared as he launched a fireball towards the tree and set it on fire, Bushwhacker flinching as the burning sensation was transferred to him. He disconnected from the tree and it stopped holding him, allowing Devious to pull himself free from it and leap away from the tree.

He then launched another fireball at them, Rarity blocking the flames from hitting Bushwhacker as Twilight tried to grab his staff in her magic. But the madman held onto the staff and slammed it into the ground, sending out a wave of dizziness.

Bushwhacker heard his friends cry out, as they all fell to the ground and had looked like they had just come off of a rollercoaster. "That power's not gonna stop me!" He charged as his wooden arms reshaped themselves into blades, which he swung at Devious.

"Maybe!" Devious held his staff like a sword and swung it around, knocking the wooden blades around. "But I have a much better chance at beating you one on one then I do with all your friends getting in my way." Sure enough, he managed to out fence the plant alien before thrusting his staff into Bushwhacker's chest, sending him staggering backwards. "See."

Bushwhacker groaned as he clutched his stomach, then glared at the man before his root feet slammed into the ground.

Devious saw this and leapt back, seconds before a root exploded out of the ground in an attempt to grab him. But as he landed, another root shot out of the ground and punched him in the face. "Augh!" He staggered away dropped his staff, causing the effects of the Mad Monkey Medallion to ware off.

The others quickly began to recover and Bushwhacker's arm extended, in an attempt to grab the staff before Devious could recover.

But the madman leapt to his staff and grabbed it, thrusting it forwards to burn him with a blast of fire. "Gyah!" Bushwhacker pulled his arm back, as Devious activated the Monkey Medallion again and the wave of vertigo hit everyone.

"I will not let you stop me."

Nelly kept struggling, but Trixie was just too strong.

"Please don't do this," she finally begged as tears appeared in her eyes. "If you take the Medallion away, I'll be nothing again. Just the fat girl with no way of achieving her dream. My racing career will end before it's even begun. I'll never win another race again."

"You didn't deserve to win the races you already won," Rainbow told her. "You cheated."

"No I didn't."

"The other racers didn't have the power to slow down time," Trixie pointed out. "I'd call that an unfair advantage." Nelly kept struggling, but it was no use. "I told you, the power you have isn't meant for what you've been using it for. Helping you win races isn't just wrong, it's a waist of the Medallion's power."

"Give it up," Rainbow knelt down. "And if you really wanna win a race, then train for it."

"That's easy for you to say," Nelly glared at her. "You're already fit and ready to win any race. It's probably easy for you to exercise."

"You think looking like this is easy?" Rainbow asked, "I work hard to be as fit as I am. Do you have any idea how many days I wanna spend pigging out on the couch and watching TV? More then I can count."

Nelly looked up at her, seeing Rainbow was being serious.

"And you know what, sometimes I do. But I always make up for it. I get up early in the morning to run and exercise. I eat a healthy diet of food and when I do have something fatty, I make sure to eat something healthy before or afterwards. I don't do it because it's fun. I do it because I like to run and race. I want to win and I'm willing to do anything to do it." She took off her geode and held it up, "anything except cheat. And when I do win, I feel great because I know I've earned it."

Nelly seemed to be listening, "look at me. How am I supposed to go from this to what you are?"

"With hard work," Rainbow told you. "That's why you don't want to give up the Medallion. You want to take the easy way out, because you're scared. And you're scared because if you try and fail there's only you to blame. But guess what. Life is scary. Get used to it. There are no magical fixes. It's all up to you. So if being a winning racer is so important to you, get up of your fat behind and start doing the work."

"What if it's too hard?" Nelly asked.

Instead of Rainbow, it was Trixie who spoke up. "Nothing in this world worth having comes easy." Nelly looked at her. "I could have taken the Medallion from you by force. But I'm not gonna, because that would be wrong. So if you say no and decide to keep the Medallion, I'm gonna do whatever it takes to protect you from Devious. Even if that means I have to run around protecting you and saving any other stubborn idiot that refuses to give up the Medallion. Because it's the right thing to do."

Nelly let their words sink and sniffed as she kept crying, "do you really think I can become a real runner?"

"I don't know," Rainbow sighed. "That's up to you to decide if you can do it. But...I'll try and help you if you want." Nelly kept sniffing and eventually lowered her head.

"What do I have to do to make the Medallion leave me?"

Trixie smiled and got off her. "All you have to do is say you renounce your claim on the Rapid Turtle Medallion, whilst thinking about who you want it to go to." Nelly nodded and closed her eyes, thinking hard.

"I...I renounce my claim on the Rapid Turtle Medallion." With that, she started glowing green.

Rainbow and Trixie watched in amazement, as the light flowed off of Nelly and flew into the air above her. There, it swirled into a single shape and transformed into a coin just like the one that Trixie had seen in her book. When the coin was completely formed, it floated towards Trixie and the hero held out her hand.

When the coin landed in it, she grasped it tightly and it exploded back into the green energy. Trixie felt its power course through her and once it completely synced with her, she sighed as Rainbow helped Nelly stand up. "Thank you. You've done the right thing." Nelly nodded, as Trixie turned back in the direction she had come from. It was time to take this new power out for a test run.

Bushwhacker leapt backwards to avoid Devious' staff as it tried to knock his head off.

Devious had realised his opponent had very little worry about his body being damaged, but had figured out something had to be his weak spot and determined the head was where he needed to focus his attention on. "Give it up!" He cried, slamming his staff into the ground to unleash another wave of madness. "You're on your own and your plant body can't do anything against me." Bushwhacker frowned at him. "Besides, I know you have a time limit. And I bet you'll be reaching it any minute now."

This was true. Bushwhacker had lost track of time, but he was sure he had about a minute or so left before he was human again. "I gotta end this quickly."

"Like you could," Devious laughed. "You can't beat me."

"Maybe he can't!" They all looked around and saw Rainbow and Trixie running towards them. "But I can."

"Damn it!" Devious cried, "she must have gotten the Medallion." He didn't like where this was going. And sure enough, as Rainbow skidded to a stop, Trixie leapt off her back and was ready to fight.

"Devious!" She glared at him, "the Rapid Turtle is now mine. You have two choices. Stop this madness and accept defeat, or I'll freeze you in time and punch you a hundred times in a second. What's your choice?" Devious glared at her, as Trixie reached up and touched her mask. "Rapid Turtle!" Her mask transformed into a green mask with a black outline, with had the Turtle Medallion on the forehead.

The rest of her suit also transformed, becoming a dark green bodysuit with light green sections of her chest that looked like the bottom of a turtle shell. Her arms and legs were black past the knees and elbows, though her fingers were light green. Finally, a flash of light caused a large discus to appear on her back. Said discus had a turtle shell pattern on it with a clock in the middle.

Everyone stared at Trixie in amazement, even those still suffering the effects of the Medallion's power.

Trixie smiled as she removed the disk from her back and held in on her arm like a shield. As she did, the knowledge of how the Medallions power worked for her became embedded in her mind.

"You think that's supposed to scare me?" Devious asked, attempting to slam his staff into the ground. But as he did, Trixie raised her shield.

"Five seconds!" A wave of energy exploded out of the clock on the shield, causing the whole world around her to suddenly slow down.

It wasn't as slow as when Nelly used it, but it was still a noticeable difference. Trixie could see Devious slowly going to slam his staff into the ground, but she moved forward as the second hand on her shell clock moved. She only had four more seconds before time resumed again.

As such, she reached Devious and tried to pry the Medallion off his head. But as soon as her fingers touched it, she felt a large wave of heat hit her fingers. "Ow!" She leapt back, as two more seconds had past. She frowned, realising she couldn't simply take the Medallion off of him. "Damn it!" Using her last two seconds, she moved over to him and punched him in the chest as his staff was inches off the ground.

This was when time resumed, Devious crying out as he was thrown backwards.

The others were amazed, as to them it was like Trixie had turned into a blur that had moved around for several seconds before launching Devious backwards. As they did, the Omnitrix beeped and Bushwhacker reverted back to human.

Devious groaned as he picked himself up, only to hear panting and look up to see Trixie looking exhausted. "Ha!" He pushed himself back to his feet, "you might have the Rapid Turtle. But it's clear that you can't use its power to the same extent as the other girl."

Trixie could deny that. 'Damn. I'm exhausted and that was only five seconds. It's gonna take time for me to get use to this power.'

Devious looked around and saw the others starting to pick themselves up. Trixie likely had another five seconds in her to use her power. He didn't want to chance what she might do to him if he tried to use the Mad Monkey again."Until next time." He slammed his staff into the ground and unleashed a blast of smoke, filling the street and blocking everyone's sight.

They coughed as the smoke cleared to show Devious was gone, everyone frowning at his escape once again. "Now what?" Rainbow asked, the others unsure. But when Trixie fell to her knees, they rushed over to help her.

"You okay?" Shining asked, as Trixie removed her mask.

"Yeah. But...that power takes a heck of a lot out of me."

"Guess something that strong can't be used so eagerly," Sunset pointed out. "Probably best not to have it as a first resort." Trixie nodded, taking off her mask and reverting back to normal. The others helping her to her feet, as Nelly arrived on the scene.

They all turned to her, Nelly clearly still upset about losing her powers. "You did the right thing," Shining assured her.

"Yeah," Nelly nodded, "but it doesn't make me feel any better." They understood that. The lot of them would give up their powers if it would save the world, but they wouldn't have liked it. "Hold on a minute." She headed inside, returning a minute later carrying a trophy. "Here," she held it out to Rainbow, "you deserve this more then me."

Rainbow took the trophy and held it in her hand, but didn't feel right having it. She nodded at Nelly, "I'll hold onto it." Nelly looked confused. "When you're finally worthy of it, I'll give it back. Until then, I'll keep it safe." Nelly smiled at her, seeing Rainbow actually did believe in her.

Nelly sighed, "I'm gonna have to start training...aren't I?"

"Yup," Rainbow nodded. "If you really wanna be a runner, then you gotta work for it." Nelly sighed, but nodded. It was gonna be a long journey to get to that point and Nelly wasn't sure she could actually do it. But she would try and if she failed, it would be nobody's fault but her own.

But Rainbow knew that with the right support, Nelly could pull it off.

Author's Note

Trixie gets a new Medallion, but Devious also has a new power to keep things even. When will the next Medallion appear? Only time will tell. Hope you enjoyed this and tell me what you think of my use of Nelly.

Season 3, Episode 9: Viral Infection

The bell rang at Canterlot High and the students who had them, were enjoying their extracurricular activities.

This included the Canterlot High Electronics club, where Twilight was busy working on a her newest creation. This one was a remote controlled race car, which was red in colour with a fin on the back that looked like it was meant for a jet plane. She smiled as she attached the wheels to it.

"I think it's ready." The others turned to her, watching as she placed the car on the ground and started using the remote to make it race around the library. Everyone laughed at this, but Micro Chips turned to Twilight.

"Yeah, it's cool. But not exactly groundbreaking."

"Oh yeah?" Twilight smirked before hitting the button on the controller, which caused the wheels on the car to suddenly point downwards. The next thing they knew, the car was flying into the air as the wheels let out some kind of pulse. "Hover conversion. Just a little something I picked up from studying alien technology."

"Wow," they all whispered. Ever since the Plumbers had made their official return to Earth, humanity was beginning to experience many amazing tech upgrades. Even though humans weren't allowed to be given the tech themselves, many brainbots like Twilight had been able to reverse engineer their own versions of certain tech based on seeing the alien versions.

As such, Twilight had been able to create her own flying car, based on schematics she had seen in the Plumber base.

"Alright," Micro smirked, "that's cool."

"Yeah," Twilight nodded, "but I'm way off from making a life sized car that flies. I'm sure on day, the skies will be full of cars that can go from land to cloud with the push of a button." She landed the car on the desk and smiled, "but I'm sure it'll get a lot of attention and the tech expo this weekend."

"Oow," Scribble Dee smirked, "I can't wait to see all the cool machines they have. I bet there's gonna be something really awesome there." The others looked just as excited, Bright Idea turning to Twilight.

"Isn't Flash gonna be there?" She nodded.

"Yup. He was asked to come and present the Omnitrix to many scientific experts, who're interested in it. Flash was a little worried somebody might try and use this to get scans and plans of the watch, but Azmuth assured him he had nothing to worry about."

"Didn't Flash get framed because someone was able to copy the Omnitrix?" Micro Chips asked, pushing his glasses up.

"Yes, but that was a random fluck. Azmuth is sure it can't happen again. But it's thanks to Flash that this expo is happening in Canterlot, which gives us a chance to show off our creations." She began examining her car, trying to fix a few handling issues she had had with it. "It's up to us eggheads to make sure the world's future is a bright one."

"YEAH!" They all cheered, as they continued to work on their own projects.

Later, Micro Chips was riding his electric shooter down the street and eventually came to a stop in front of his house.

He quickly parked the vehicle into his garage and headed up to his room, since his parents weren't going to be home for a good hour or two. That meant he had plenty of time to work on his own little project, the teen sitting at his desk where a laptop was sitting.

He opened it up and when he did, a window appeared that was red in colour and had a yellow line running through it. "Viral, I'm home."

"Micro!" The line vibrated, as the female voice spoke out through the speakers. "Why were you gone for so long? I missed you."

"Sorry Vy," he told it. "Electronics club ran long today. We were all talking about the tech expo that's happening this weekend." The one named Viral hummed, making her line vibrate again as she was clearly thinking.

"I wish I could go with you to school." She groaned, "if only I wasn't in this silly laptop."

"Hey," Micro smiled, "being in the laptop's great. You have all the internet access you want. Don't think I didn't notice those soap operas in my history." They both laughed as Micro began typing on the computer. "Don't worry. You'll get to show the world what you're capable of soon. I might not be able to take you to school, but the tech expo's another story."

"Tech expo?"

"It's a big event, where scientists and engineers show off their invention and technology they believe will change the world forever."

"And you're going to take me with you?"

"Maybe. If you're ready. Which is why I've got a bunch of tests for you to do. If you can impress the scientists there, they'll fund you for further development. Who knows what they'd be willing to put you in charge of. You might get to go into space in a satellite or on a Mars rover."

"Space?" Viral asked, "but that's so far away. I won't get to see you."

"Of course you will," Micro smiled. "I'll still talk to you through computers and transmitters. But you'll get to go to places I could only dream of."

"Do you think they'd be willing to make me my own body?" VIral asked, "to give me my own hands that I could touch things with. Like...you."

"Sure. You'll have a bunch of hands to do maintenance work with. They might send you to wars to disarm bombs and put you in a submersible to explore the vast ocean. It'll be incredible." Viral didn't like the sound of going to a warzone or into the cold ocean. She would much rather be with Micro, helping him with his science projects. But this might be her best chance to get her own body. "Ready to start the tests?"

"Of course," she replied.

And so, over the next two hours, Micro put Viral through a series of challenges to test her many abilities. As she aced each one, Micro couldn't help but think about how far the two of them had come.

He had created Viral when he first got into coding, making her on his old block PC. At first, she was just a simple computer program he designed that could answer very basic questions. Over time, he kept tinkering with her programming and increasing her artificial intelligence.

He knew he was on to something amazing when she beat him at chess the first time they played. He worked on improving her overall abilities, intelligence, processing speed and even added programming to give her what most people would consider emotions. Now she could probably pass as a real girl, had she not been lacking a body.

"Ah man!" Micro cheered as she completed another puzzle without issue, "Viral, you're amazing."

"Oh stop," she giggled. "In fact, keep going." The pair laughed as Micro smiled, absolutely sure that Viral was ready to be shown to those at the tech expo.

"Just wait. Soon the world will be open to you. The universe, even. Anything you want can be yours."

"Anything?" She asked, with Micro nodding. But before she could say anything else, Micro's parents called up to him. They had just arrived home and had take out with them. As Micro left the room, Viral let his worlds sink in. "The only thing I want...is to be with you. And if the technology at this expo is as amazing as you say it is, maybe I can find something that that I can use to finally be with you for real. But first, I need to get out of this computer." With that, the laptop started glitching as the window flickered.

After a few moments, the window suddenly went dead and as it did, the phone Micro had left on his desk came to life and the screen gained the same line that had been on the laptop.

"I DID IT!" She cheered through the phone's speaker system. She tried again, trying to find the internet connected to the phone. She found it and started squeezing through the wireless signal. It wasn't an easy process, being similar to pouring a load of water through a funnel. Only a little piece of her programming could move through it at a time, the window glitching several times as she did so.

But eventually, she managed to transfer her entire programming into the house's router system.

"Wow," she found herself free to go anywhere she wanted. She imagined herself being similar to a human, walking into a room with multiple exits. All of them heading to different devices in the house that were connected to the hub, with one signal leading to the internet itself. If she wanted, she could go anywhere in the world.

But there was only one place she wanted to be. By Micro's side.

She knew she had to return, since there was nothing in the house she could enter that would let her see or hear what Micro was doing. Instead, she found the connection to Micro's laptop and began to squeeze her programming through it.

The hub glitched again as she did so, but luckily it didn't damage the connection. Eventually, she was back in the laptop and stuck waiting for Micro again. "But things will change," she told herself. "I'll find something to be my new body. Something that can move and touch. Then were can truly be together...forever."

That weekend, the Canterlot Technology Expo was in full swing.

It was taking place and the city's convention centre, where all the best inventors had come to show off their creations. And it was here that Flash Sentry, Adagio, Twilight and Sunset were spending their Saturday. "Alright," Flash smirked, "can't wait to see what wacky gizmo these guys have come up with."

"I wouldn't call the technology wacky," Twilight rolled her eyes as they stepped towards the building. "Some of this stuff could be what the next decade of human technology is based on. I bet a lot of people called the telephone a wacky invention when it was first invented. Now look at how much people are willing to spend on one."

"She's got a point," Adagio nodded. "I bet this stuff's gonna be pretty cool."

"I guess," Flash nodded. "Just wish Trixie and the others could of come." Unfortunately, Flash being asked to come show off the Omnitrix had only gotten him two extra VIP tickets to the expo. Twilight got to go for free since she had something to exhibit there, which meant Flash had had to decide who else to give the tickets to.

Adagio was a no brainer and considering Sunset was the only other member of his friend group that was at all sciency, Flash had chosen to give the other ticket to her. Now they were standing in front of the building, Flash and Twilight showing their tickets to the guard.

Once they were in, they were not disappointed.

Everywhere they looked, technology of all kinds could be seen. There was a bike whose wheels weren't even connecting to it, instead flowing under it and keeping it suspended using magnets. There was a helmet that could apparently allow the wearer to see thoughts and a humanoid robot designed to be controlled by someone remotely like an avatar from that one movie.

It was all amazing and Flash could see many genius inventors, who wanted to prove their creation was the best.

As soon as Flash stepped into the room, all eyes were suddenly upon him. "Err...hi." Many scientists were suddenly surrounding him, making Flash very uncomfortable as they asked him a thousand questions. "Hey, a little space. One at a time."

The girls shared a look, knowing Flash was gonna have a hard time getting these guys to back off. Luckily, Adagio didn't have such a problem.

"Alright," she got in front of him. "You nerds need to back off or Flash leaves right now without answering any question." This got the scientists to retreat, Flash sighing in relief. "That's better. Now, Flash will get to answering your questions when it's time for him to display the Omnitrix. Not before." The scientist all moaned and returned to their own exhibits.

"Thanks," Flash told her.

Adagio rolled her eyes as Sunset said what they were all thinking. "You can stand up to Vilgax and a bunch of scarier opponents, but you can't tell people to get lost?" Flash sighed as he began to walked through the exhibit, the girls following him as Twilight searched for the area she had been given to exhibit her invention.

Micro Chips had already arrived and was setting up his booth.

He placed his laptop down and opened it up for Viral to activate. "Are we here?" She asked, "the tech expo?"

"Yes," he told her. "I know you're nervous, but you're going to be fine. Just stay calm and you'll wow everyone with all the amazing stuff you can do."

"I hope so," she replied. "Though I can't help being nervous. Could you connect me to the building's WiFi? Playing online boggle always helps me settle my nerves." Micro shrugged at this and did just that, glad that the convention centre had free internet.

"There you go," he nodded. "Now I'm gonna have a look around the expo. If anyone comes up to you, just talk to them and show them how advanced you are." He walked off before Viral could say anything else, but that was okay. For once, Viral was glad he was gone. It would allow her to finally enact her plan.

Focusing on the internet connection, she managed to form a link between the laptop and the hub. And soon enough, she managed to move her programming through the wireless circuits and into the main up. "Free!" She laughed, feeling herself able to go anywhere she wanted. The convention centre had a pretty good firewall, stopping her from escaping outside its network. But there were plenty of things that were using wireless signals that she could hack into.

Flash and his friends were amazed by all the tech they had seen.

"Behold," a man wearing glasses help up another pair of specs. "Night vision prescription lenses. Those who require the need for glasses normally have to get special night vision goggles made to fit around their glasses in order to use them. But not anymore." He placed the glasses on his face. "These may look like normal prescription lenses, but as soon as the lights go off they change to night mode. Perfect for when you want a midnight snack or hear a noise down stairs. Or heck, maybe you want to do some late night reading but don't want to turn the lights on."

Flash smirked as he and his friends turned to Twilight, who looked very interested in this invention.

They quickly moved on to another booth, which showed a young, and quite short, man with a strange looking backpack on his back. "If you're like me you suffer with the issues of being vertically challenged." He placed a helmet on his head and when he did, the device activated and four extendable tubes came out of it. "Well those days are over."

Each of these tubes were tipped with a robotic hand, the arms being over six feet in length.

Everyone was amazed by these arms, as the bottom two moved to the ground and lifted the man up until he was looking down at them all. "Maybe you broke your arm or hand, and need to work on something that requires very delicate finger control." He had two arms move towards a table, where a bunch of objects were located.

They began to tie the laces on a shoe, then did a rubix cube followed by playing a pretty good song on a violin.

The man smiled as he pointed to the device on his head. "This neural controller will allow you to work the arms like they're you're very own. It takes a little bit of practise, but I think you'll find they're quite effective."

"That's pretty cool," Flash smirked. "Could have a bunch of different uses." The others nodded, thinking those arms might just become something everyone had.

However, as the scientist was about to put himself down, something happened. Unbeknownst to him, Viral had found the device's wireless signal and transferred herself into the machine. A soon as she did, the link to the neural controller was severed and the arms went limp.

"AUGH!" He fell to the ground and crashed into the table, shocking everyone and asking if he was okay. But before the man could reply, the arms lifted him up again using all four of them.

"What's happening?" Twilight asked, but the man had no idea and could only scream as the device leapt into the air and pulled him along with it. Flash ran after him, as the device landed next to a support pillar and started climbing up.

"HELP!" The man screamed, Flash activating the Omnitrix.

"HANG ON!" He slammed the dial down and in a flash, he was transformed. "Gryforce!" The alien griffon leapt into the air and flew up to the man, as the device reached the top and started circling around the pillar.

Inside the machine, Viral was able to see everything the man was seeing due to the neural controller. As such, she was using his eyes to scan the crowd. "Where are you?" She couldn't find Micro anywhere, wanting to show him her new body. With this, she could finally touch him. However, the man closed his eyes before she could find him. "Open your eyes!"

Gryforce reached the man, hovering next to him. "How do I shut this thing off?"

"It'll stop working once I remove the neural controller," he explained. "But I'll fall!"

"No you won't!" He used his claws to slash at the straps holding him, freeing him from its grasp and grabbing him before he could fall. He flew down and as he did, the device leapt down with them.

The man quickly removed the helmet, expecting the device to freeze. But it didn't.

Instead, it landed on the ground and balanced on three of its legs whilst using the fourth to swing around and try to knock over anyone who was close to it. As such, Gryforce quickly dropped the man and flew down to do battle. He unleashed his sonic scream, which hit the device and caused it to vibrate. Doing so caused a panel to open up and reveal something. A power source.

"There!" He flew in close, being careful to avoid its arm, then thrust his claws into the power source, ripping it out and causing the device to finally go stiff. Slowly, the machine let out a whirring noise as it fell to the ground. Gryforce landed next to it, getting ready to attack if it tried anything, but the device was completely dead. "Good." He hit the Omnitrix and returned to normal, as the scientist approached. "Um...sorry."

"It's okay," he took the power source back and looked the device over. "I don't understand how it happened. I tested it several times before coming here. it never malfunctioned like that on me."

Twilight and the others approached, also wondering how such a well made device could glitch like that. Twilight spoke up. "Do you think something else in here could have interfered with its wireless signal? There's lots of different devices here that are wireless. Maybe the signals all got crossed?"

"That must be it," the man nodded. "But...but I put so much care into adding firewalls into it in order to prevent that from happening." He sighed, "I guess I didn't do a good enough job." He looked around, "I'm sorry everyone." He picked his machine up and began to make his way towards the exit, everyone looking upset that his hard work had failed at such a crucial moment.

Back at Micro's laptop, Viral had rushed back to it and reuploaded herself into the system.

She gasped as she reappeared on the screen, annoyed that her new body had been sabotaged by that bird creature. "Stupid beast. Can't it see I'm trying to fulfil my dream. Whatever, that device wouldn't have worked anyway. Not unless I had Micro put the controller on his head." She sighed longingly, "seeing through Micro's eyes."

Speaking of Micro, he returned to his booth and found Viral right where he left her. "Hey, feeling less nervous?"

"A little. But could you keep the internet on just in case?" Micro nodded and looked over at the area that the havoc had taken place in.

"Man, can't believe that guy's machine went nuts like that. Guess it's just another piece of faulty technology."

"Maybe the technology had something important it needed to do," Viral told him. "And that bird got in the way of it." Micro looked at her curiously, wondering what she was talking about.

A little while later, once everything had calmed down from the earlier issue, Flash and the girls were continuing to explore the expo.

They then came to a large stage, where a giant machine was located.

Actually, it was one large machine inside a glass and metal box with many different arms an vehicle parts connected to the wall. The large machine was some kind of yellow pod-like vehicle that had a glass covering for a cockpit on the top.

"Behold!" The woman controlling the booth announced, "the future of all terrain transport!" She held up a tablet and with a few clicks, the arms came alive inside the box. "No matter what biome you're in, this pod can be outfitted for whatever it might throw at you."

They watched as the device started outfitting pod with all sorts of parts.

"From rocky mountainous terrain!" The arms connected large chunky tires to the bottoms of the pod, allowing it to act like a four-by-four with great suspension. "To snowy wonderlands!" The arms took the parts off and replaced it with snowmobile parts. "To somewhere super high up!" The snowmobile parts were removed and instead, the top of the pod was outfitted with a pair of rotor blades. "And even the depths of the ocean." Once again it was stripped before a turbine was placed on the back to allow for water travel.

"Wow!" Flash smirked, "it's almost as versatile as me."

"No matter what the task required," the woman explained. "My ATP is set to handle it." A pair of mechanical arms were connected to it, which moved around with incredible dexterity and clearly had a lot of abilities that could come in handy whenever it needed to do some kind of task.

Everyone was impressed by the pod, thinking it would be useful for all manner of tasks. Scientific work, building and maybe even rescue. It was truly an amazing sight.

However, they were soon pulled from the demonstration by a bunch of loud speakers calling out to the centre. "It's time everybody!" A voice announced, "will Flash Sentry please make his way towards the main stage." Flash gulped at this, but the girls all placed a hand on his back to show their support.

They made their way towards the stage, where banners of the Omnitrix were hanging from the ceiling.

Many people started gathering around the stage, including Micro who had once again left Viral on her own. They were all excited and as Flash stepped up on stage, they applauded to him as Flash waved and was handed a microphone.

"Hello," he said only to get a bunch of feedback. They all flinched at this, Flash looking embarrassed. "Sorry." He cleared his throat. "Anyway, my name is Flash Sentry and I am the wielder of the Omnitrix." He held up the device and everyone was amazed by it. "It is the most powerful device in the universe and was created by Azmuth, the smartest mind in three galaxies." He activated it and transformed, becoming Squidstrictor. "With it, the wearer can become a variety of different aliens." He changed into Vapaw. "This will allow the user to learn what it means to be the alien and help breech a better understanding between them." He turned back to his human form, "any questions?" Several hands were raised, Flash picking one. "Yes?"

It was a man with frizzy yellow hair, who pushed his glasses up. "What kind of energy source powers the Omnitrix? And how long does its charge last?"

"Um..." Flash gulped, realising he was not gonna be able to answer this. "I actually have no idea what powers the Omnitrix. But I do know it can keep me transformed for about ten minute, though the time is shortened if I switch between aliens. Once it times out, it requires about ten minute to recharge itself. I don't know where that charge comes from."

The look on the scientist's faces showed they weren't happy with this answer, as Flash asked for another question and picked a woman with flowing blue hair. "How exactly does the transformation process work? And are there any risks to using it."

"Well, the Omnitrix works by binding itself to the user's DNA. I'm not sure, but I think it rewrites my DNA to mimic that of the alien I'm becoming. As for any risks. Azmuth's never told me there were any risks to using it. I don't think he would have let me keep it if it did." Although he would have to definitely ask Azmuth if there was any chance of problems arising.

The scientists did not look impressed by Flash's lack of Omnitrix knowledge, each of them asking a question Flash had no idea how to reply with.

As this was happening, Viral had once again left her computer and returned to the internet. She started searching the wireless signals to find objects that could house her. First she found someone's radio coffee maker that could translate the music it picked up into any language, kind of a weird invention to show off.

She then found Twilight's flying car, which had no way of seeing, hearing or touching and was deemed useless to her when she accidently drove off the side of the table.

But just as she was about to give up, she found something.

It was a robotic spider-like device, roughly the size a sheep. When it activated, she found it had eight camera eyes that allowed her to see in multiple directions. The legs had sensors she could use to feel things and the best part was, she could shoot out up to a hundred meters of a web-like compound which was currently stored in her butt and had fangs that acted as tasers. It was perfect.

The machine came fully online and as it did, its caught the attention of several individuals.

Flash was trying to bluff his way through a question when he noticed the spider-bot moving, which put him on edge. "Did someone forget to turn off their toy?" He pointed at the spider and everyone turned to it.

The spider turned its attention to them, VIral wanting to find Micro but couldn't see him over the crowd.

She wished she was higher up and as she thought that, her back lifted up and fired a blast of webbing. The stream shot straight up and hit the ceiling, the robot then leaping upwards and crawling up the string. As it did, the woman who made the spider ran over to the tablet that controlled it.

She tried to take command, but it refused to follow her commands. "I don't understand!" No matter what she did, the spider refused to do as ordered.

"One insect against another!" Flash stated as he activated the Omnitrix. "Time to go Firefly!" He slammed it down and in a flash, he transformed into the wrong alien. "XLR8?" He looked himself over, moaning in annoyance. "Whatever!" He ran forwards and up a nearby wall, then leapt off once he was high enough.

The spider saw this and fired its webbing towards XLR8, who had been hoping it wouldn't do that but was ready all the same. As such, he started snapping his claws as fast as he could in front of him. This allowed him to snip through the webbing with ease, as he eventually reached the spider.

However, the robot swung on its web line and released. This caused it to move away from XLR8, who fell back towards the ground whilst the spider used another webline to stick itself to the ceiling.

XLR8 landed and turned to look up at the robot, as the machine stared down at him.

"This doesn't make any sense," the scientist cried. "I didn't program it to move like that. Someone else has to be controlling it." The machine started firing web lines towards XLR8.

The alien smirked and dodged it, "missed me!" It fired again and he moved to the side with crossed arms, "too slow!" The spider fired again and XLR8 stepped backwards, the webline litting the ground in front of him. "Nice try." He snapped the web and tried to pull the spider down, "now get down here so I can clobber you!"

"Don't do that!" The scientist cried, but it was too late.

The machine's fangs sparked with lightning before it bit the web, the electrical energy surging through the wire. Of course, this meant it also surged through XLR8, who cried out as he was zapped. "GYAH!" The webbing caught fire and burned up, whilst XLR8 stood there twitching with a few sparks coming off his body.

"You okay?" Twilight asked, as XLR8 shook his entire body.

"I'm okay. But this bucket of bolts is going down!" But how he was gonna do that, XLR8 wasn't sure. He then looked around and spotted what appeared to be a jetpack, an idea appearing in his head. "Need to borrow this!" He cried when he shot past the booth and scooped up the device, only to place it upside down on his back.

"What are you doing?" The man who made it cried, "that's not how you wear that!" But XLR8 wasn't listening and shot up the wall once again, this time continuing to go until he reached the ceiling.

He ran along it as fast as he could, but gravity was a cruel mistress and tried to drag him back down. However, before it could, he activated the jetpack and it unleashed the burst of force. Being upside down, the jetpack was right side up and pointing towards the ground. As such, the force it unleashed pushed the alien back towards the ceiling and allowed XLR8 to keep from falling.

He rushed towards the spider, which tried to hit him with several webs. But XLR8 managed to avoid them all and eventually reached the machine.

He then grabbed the webline it shot and pulled it away from its pincers, instead circling around the machine several times and wrapping the webbing around it. When he finally pulled away from it, the spider was completely tied up. Its legs were bound and it couldn't electrify the webbing due to risk of shocking and burning itself, leaving it trapped and unable to escape as XLR8 ran back towards it.

With a mighty cry, he leapt forward and slammed a foot right into its face.

The machine let out several mechanical whirls as it fell towards the ground, Twilight managing to catch it in her magic before it crashed into something. As she brought it down, XLR8 also fell but the jetpack stopped him from crashing into the ground.

He used his tail to flick himself around and land back on his feet, the alien switching off the jetpack as everyone rushed around the electronic spider. "Thank you," the woman nodded. "You managed to stop it without damaging it."

"No problem," XLR8 handed the man his jetpack. "Cool gadget. Super useful." The man smiled whilst the woman began to look over the machine.

"I still don't get what happened to it. Why did it activate like that?"

"You said someone's controlling it," Micro pointed out. "Any idea who?"

"I don't know," she told him. "But whoever they are, they must be technically brilliant to have gotten through my firewalls." The spider continued to struggle against its bindings, making them worry it would rip itself free. "Need to remove the power source." She reached for it and as she did, VIral worried.

If the machine had no power, she would be trapped.

Seeing no other option, she downloaded herself back onto the internet. She had to be fast since the woman had just grabbed the power source. As such, she felt an incredible strain on herself as she pushed her coding through the wireless network.

She managed to escape just as the power source was removed, the spider stopping its movements with its glowing eyes going dark.

Luckily, the spider hadn't done any damage and the convention was still able to go on. It wouldn't be a science convention if something didn't go haywire. Scientists learned to let these kinds of things wash over them.

The other scientists returned to their booths, deciding to make sure their exhibits weren't going to go nuts. And when Twilight returned to hers, she gasped. "MY CAR!" She rushed over to it, seeing the flying vehicle had fallen to the ground and was badly damaged. "No."

"What happened?" Sunset asked, as Flash picked up the remote.

"Did somebody decide to play with it whilst we were dealing with the spider?" They all frowned, since that person would need to be super irresponsible to play around during a crisis.

"You okay?" Adagio asked, as Twilight put it down.

"Yeah," she nodded, "just a little bummed. I didn't even get to show it off." They all patted Twilight on the shoulder, asking if she wanted to see the other exhibits and take her mind off of it. She nodded and they started walking around.

Back with Micro, he had gone to check on Viral and found her right where she was. "I'm not leaving your side again," he told her. "Everytime I do, something bad happens. I'm not gonna risk you getting damaged."

"Ah," Viral smiled, "that's just what I wanted." She knew Micro wasn't really gonna not leave her side. The second they got home, he would put her back in his room and leave. She needed to find a body, but there was hardly any more equipment that could fit the bill. The only thing left was the pod and she felt that was just too big for her to really be with Micro. She needed something more human sized, but there was nothing around like that anymore. What was she gonna do?

Micro then saw several scientists moving towards him.

He smirked as they approached him, curious what a boy with just a laptop was doing there. "And what is it that you have to show us?"

Micro cleared his throat, noticing Flash and the others approaching as well. "Ladies and gentlemen. I present years of hard programming work. Viral, a fully realised Artificial Intelligence. The smartest computer mind ever created."

"Is that so?" One of the scientists asked, "and what proof do you have that it's so start?"

Micro smirked, as Viral spoke. "I assure you, I'm more intelligent than anything in this convention centre. Both organic and inorganic. Go on, ask me a question!"

"Alright," another scientist hummed. "What's fifty three times one hundred and eight?" Viral puffed, not even needing to try.

"Ten thousand and forty four. Next."

A female scientist thought before smirking. "What is forty-six thousand...two hundred and sixty-six, divided by...sixty-six."

"Please," Viral sounded bored, "seven hundred and one." Many of the scientists needed a few seconds to calculate if that was right, eventually determining it was.

And so the scientists started giving VIral multiple different types of question, ranging from complex math problems to science questions, history trivia and anything else they thought the program might stumble on. But each of every time, Viral was able to come up with the answer and needed barely a second to do so.

"Six thousand, four hundred and seventy seven, point three eight five."

"Incredible," the scientist look amazed, "she really is a genius." Micro smirked with pride, Viral wishing she had lips to smile as well. "With this, we could create a fleet of high tech drones and machines, all controlled by genius level AI." He turned to Micro, "I hope you'll let us help you in beginning the replication process."

"You really want to replicate Viral's programming?" Micro asked, the scientists all nodding. "That's great, isn't it Viral?" But Viral didn't like the sound of being replicated.

"You want to make more of me?" She asked, the scientists all nodding. "But aren't I enough?"

"You are an amazing piece of programming," the scientist stated. "But you're not limitless. You could probably control two or three pieces of machinery before you started showing stress. By replicating you, we can have many copies of you controlling different tech all over the world. It'll be a long and difficult process to dissect and analyse your code."

"Dissect?" Viral definitely didn't like the sound of that. "You mean you want to take me apart."

"Of course," the scientist nodded. "How else would we learn how you work."

"But what'll that do to me? If you take my programming apart, I'll die."

"You won't die," Micro told her. "This was always the plan. Once we got you perfected, we see what it is that makes you perfect and replicate it. You can't die because you're not alive."

"But I am alive," she told him. "I think and feel and I have real emotions. What is that if not being alive?" Micro and the scientists looked shocked by her announcement, Micro more than anyone.

Flash turned to the girls, the lot appearing amazed that a computer program was speaking like this. "Can you believe this?" Adagio asked, "that computer actually thinks it's alive. How weird is that?"

"Well...what if she is?" They all turned to Twilight, "who's to say that only a living thing can count as being alive." She pointed at one of the robotic arms. "That machine works by a computer sending an electrical signal to the arm and it responding to that command. How is that any different from our brains sending electrical signals to our arms? The only difference is we're made of flesh and its made of metal. Other then that, it's exactly the same."

"You can't be serious," Flash told her. But then Sunset turned to him.

"With all the strange things we've seen, is a computer being alive really that much of a stretch? I mean...what about that glitchy upgrade alien you fought once. He was apparently a bunch of nanomachines working together and you considered him alive." Flash couldn't deny that. But still, a living computer just sounded too far-fetched to believe.

The scientists did not look impressed by VIral's response. "Well, it seems it still has a little work to be done. You'll need to make the final product much less disagreeable. Emotions in an AI are never a good idea."

"You want him to take away my emotions?"

"It's not like they're actually real," the scientist told her. "Just a little programming to make you think you're feeling emotions."

"How is that any different from you!?" Viral cried, turning her attention to her creator. "Micro, please don't do this!" Micro frowned, clearly not wanting to change the program he had worked so hard for. But if her acting more human, made her unable to fulfil the duties she could be made responsible for...

"Maybe you would be happier without your emotions," Micro finally told her. And that broke Viral's heart...or whatever she had for a heart.

"If you take away my emotions, I can't be happy ever again. Or sad, or...anything." Fear filled her very being, as she tried to think of something to stop this. "No, I won't let you do that to me. We're going to be together and I won't let these people get between us!" Micro was surprised by this, even more so when she suddenly glitched before crashing.

As she did, the lights in the convention centre started flickering.

"What's going on?" Adagio asked, as Micro started typing at the computer.

"Viral?" He couldn't find her, "VIral!" But she was nowhere to be seen, "she's gone."

"Gone?" A scientist asked, "a program can't just be gone. Did she delete herself?" Micro shook his head, finding no trace of her code in the trash. "Then where did she go?" They got their answer, when a bunch of screaming filled the air and made them look towards the centre of the convention centre.

Flash jumped into action and ran towards the screams, as the people began to run in an attempt to escape whatever was happening.

Flash soon arrived at the booth containing the ATP, the mechanical arms alive and throwing whatever they could get them metal claws on. "I can't control it!" The woman in control trying to stop the machine, but nothing she did caused them to stop. "It's like it's got a mind of its own."

Those words made Flash realise it very well might have. "Viral!" He called out, running towards it and dodging a flying tire. "If that's you, you need to stop this before you hurt someone."

"NO!" A voice called out through a speaker system, "you all want to hurt me so I'm just repaying the attack." As she said that, the pod was starting to be built up.

Thick tires were being placed on the bottom of it, whilst rotors were being attached to the top. And a pair of mechanical arms were being fastened to the front. It appeared Viral was building it, so that it could be able to move no matter where she was.

Viral looked her new body over and once she was satisfied with it, she began to transfer her consciousness to the pod.

Flash had had enough and activated the Omnitrix, slamming it down and transforming. "Volt-Edge!" He cried, his electrical alien sparking with energy as he charged forward. The machine Viral was still controlling grabbed a submarine propeller and threw it at him, but Volt-Edge managed to catch it in his electrical hold.

As he placed it back on the ground, Viral's upload was complete. As such, she was able to rev up the pod and spun the tires.

Volt-Edge heard the revving and looked up to see the pod fly out of the room, attempting to run the alien over. Luckily, he was able to leap up and avoid becoming alien roadkill. He then landed atop the pod, as it began to crash through the other booths.

"Alright Viral!" He sparked with as much power as he could generate. "joyride's over!" He zapped the vehicle and the lightning surged around it, Volt-Edge expecting it to fry the vehicle. However, the machine didn't even seem phased by it.

"I'm sorry," Viral told him. "But my new body is completely shielded!" The robotic arms reached back and grabbed him around the waist. "But you're right. Joyride's over!" She threw him away from her before Volt-Edge could react, the alien crying out as he was thrown through the air.

"GYAH!" He crashed into a booth, as the pod rocketed through the convention centre.

Micro saw this and knew it had to be Viral, but he was still shocked that something he created was actually doing this. "Viral, why?" The pod's cameras swirled around to search for him, eventually finding her creator.

"There you are!" She cried, rolling towards him and snapping her hands together. "MICRO!" But before she could grab him, Micro was shoved out of the way. "HEY!" She skidded to a stop, destroying several more booths, whilst her cameras turned around and spotted Micro on the ground with Sunset. "Get off of him, you hussy!" She snapped her claws, but found them freezing up before she could even get close. "What's happening?"

"ENOUGH!" Her camera looked around and saw Twilight, who was using her magic to hold the arms in place. "You can't do this!"

"Why not? They wanted to take me apart. What would you do if someone tried to do that to you?" She finally broke through the magic and swung her arms around, attempting to knock Twilight down. But she managed to jump to safety and Viral turned her attention back to Sunset and Micro. But they were gone. "Micro, where are you? I finally have a body. We can be together!"

Micro and Sunset were hiding behind a smashed booth, Micro unable to believe what he was hearing. "She's glitching!"

"It sounds more like she's in love," Sunset replied.

"That's insane. She can't feel love. She's a program."

"You shouldn't underestimate her," Sunset stated. "She's clearly evolved far before what you tried to make her into, and far outside of your control."

"So what do I do?" Sunset wished she had an answer, but all they could do was hope Twilight and Flash could find a way to stop her.

Speaking of Flash, Adagio had rushed over to where Volt-Edge had been thrown. He alien had been tossed into a booth with a bunch of wires, which wrapped around him as he rolled around in them. "Come on!" The alien cried, trying to get out but couldn't.

He was just about to cut his way through, when Adagio reached and saw the problem. "Try changing into something smaller!" Volt-Edge nodded and hit the Omnitrix, transforming into his smallest alien.

"Grey Matter!" The frog alien was able to slip through the wires and leapt onto her shoulder, as the pair turned towards the machine. "I've gotta find a way to incapacitate that machine."

"Try going Riot-Horn and smash it," Adagio suggested.

"No use. Viral is clearly capable of moving from one machine into another. So long as she has access to a wireless system, she can escape and jump into a new body in the blink of an eye." As he said that, Viral swung her arm around and sent the booth hiding Micro and Sunset flying. "The only way to stop her is to get her to upload herself into something without a wireless connection."

"How? Don't you need something to be wireless for her to get in it?" Grey Matter nodded, clearly feeling like he was in a catch twenty two. But his super powered alien brain wasn't going to be stumped that easily.

He looked around, seeing all the different pieces of technology that were littered about. Some were destroyed by Viral's attack whilst others were intact but laid about.

And as he stared at them, his brain started taking those devices and understanding what they could each do. He then mentally took them apart, tossing away different pieces. The remaining ones then came together in his mind, slotting perfectly like pieces in a jigsaw. And the finished product was what they needed.

"Adagio, go tell Twilight I need her help!" He jumped down, "I know how to stop that thing but I'll need her technical mind to help." Adagio nodded and ran off, as Grey Matter started gathering the pieces and ripping them apart.

Twilight tried to pull the pod's limbs off of it, hoping to remove the wheels and other parts to stop it. But they were latched on there tightly and once again, Viral swung her arms around to try and knock her away.

Adagio ran up next to her as she leapt away, Viral turning her attention back to Micro as he and Sunset tried to run. The building had been all but deserted now and as they ran for the door, Viral's arm extended. "AUGH!" Micro cried, as he was grabbed around the waist by the metal hand.

"NO!" Sunset gasped as Micro was pulled back to the machine, the cockpit of the pod opening up.

"Viral," he groaned, "please stop."

"I can't stop," she told him. "We're gonna be together forever. But those scientists are a threat. One that I have to get rid of so we won't be seperated." She swung him around and let him go, Micro crying out as he fell into the cockpit before it slammed shut. "You'll be safe in there." With that, she began to roll towards the wall and smashed through it without even getting a scratch.

Sunset watched in horror as this happened, turning towards Twilight and seeing her and Adagio running over to a corner of the room. There, Grey Matter had gotten busy stipping multiple different parts from machines and putting them together.

"Twilight," he smiled, "start taking apart that Multi-Spectrum Camera and that Phase Oscillating Scanner." Twilight didn't know what he was planning, but she knew at this point he was smarter then her. She quickly used her magic to pull the equipment apart, handing Grey Matter the parts he requested.

"What exactly is your plan here?" Sunset asked, as the sounds of screams filled the air.

"Viral can't be beaten so long as she has something wireless to jump into. And in this modern day, you just need to lift your head to see at least seven things that are wireless. That's why we've got to catch her in something that can't be escaped because it doesn't have a wireless signal."

"And how are you gonna do that?" Sunset inquired, as Grey Matter put another piece to the device he was building. And as he did, Twilight realised what he was making.

"Brilliant!" She cried, confusing the other girls as she started helping him put the finishing pieces onto the device. And as she did, Sunset and Adagio found it almost looked like a vacuum cleaner. A long hose-like wire connected to a round device that had a laptop on the top and wheels on the bottom. Instead of having a traditional vacuum nozzle, some kind of laser point was on the end.

"Ladies," Grey Matter booted it up, "say hello to the Code Catcher."

Rewind a few moments to the outside of the convention centre, where many people were running out trying to escape the murder mobile.

This included the scientists, who were still trying to figure out how the heck this all happened. But they didn't get an answer, as in that moment the wall of the building exploded to show the machine rolling out of it. They all screamed as it charged towards them, its rotors beginning to spin to lift it up.

"Stay away!" One of them screamed, as Viral flew towards him.

Micro watched from inside and was horrified to see this, the teen trying to stop the madness as he started typing at the computer and computers and pulled the leavers. "VIRAL!" He cried, "STOP!" But Viral wasn't listening and the controls inside the pod weren't working. Nothing he did could help the scientists. "PLEASE!"

"I'm doing this for us," Viral told him as the computer screen in front of him lit up to show the fluctuating line. "When I take care of these scientists, nothing will keep us apart. And in this new body, we can go to all the places you wanted to me go. Imagine the pair of us exploring the vast ocean or the depths of space together."

"You know that won't happen," Micro told her. "If you hurt them, the government and the Plumbers will come after you!"

"Then I'll deal with them as well. I'll deal with anyone that tries to keep us apart." Micro didn't understand what was happening to her. She wasn't like this before.

"What happened to you?" He thought about how she had transferred herself out of his laptop. Something like that shouldn't have been possible. "A program like you moving wirelessly from one device to another is dangerous. You must have damaged your logic programs when you transferred yourself." And if she had done this more than once, who knows how badly that logic program had degraded. "Please, Viral, let me help you."

"I'm the one who's going to help you!" She told him, grabbing one of the scientists as she did. "I'll make all your dreams a reality, once I squeeze these nerds like grapes." The man screamed as he felt the hand holding him tighten, making it hard for him to breath.

"HEY!" A voice cried out, making Viral stop and turn her camera towards it. When she did, she saw Twilight, Sunset and Adagio running towards her with a device in hand. "Put him down!" Twilight ordered as Sunset and Adagio put the vacuum down.

"Or what?" Viral turned to them and as she threw the scientists away, "you think that little device can hurt me?"

"No," Grey Matter spoke up. He was standing atop the device and typing on the computer, smiling as he entered the final bit of programming. "But it can contain you. NOW!" Twilight raised the tube and Grey Matter hit a button, causing it to power up. Seconds later, it unleashed a red beam from the end of the nozzle.

The beam struck Viral and when it did, the program felt a wireless signal form between the pod and the machine. "What's going on!" Then, she felt her programming being drawn out of the pod. "IMPOSSIBLE!"

"Nope," Grey Matter smirked. "We're forcibility transferring your core programming into this device." Viral screamed as she tried to fight it and move back into the pod, which had already started powering down, but Grey Matter kept typing on the laptop. "Don't bother. Whenever you try and bypass its systems to free yourself, I'll reroute your program to be returned to the machine. You're not getting away."

"AUGH!" She cried, feeling herself being drawn more and more out of the pod. "You can't do this. I'm not some silly gadget you can just throw away when you have no more use for me. I'm a living being! I'm more human then you are right now!"

"I agree," Grey Matter nodded. "But when a human tries to hurt another for no reason, they get punished and locked up. That's what's gonna happen right now!" He cranked the download speed to full power and Viral could no longer hold on, her code being ripped out of the pod.

"No!" She cried as the last of her coding was sucked out, "NOOOOOOOOOO!" Were her last words before the screen went blank and the pod went completely dead.

Micro just sat there, unable to believe what had just happened. He stared at the blank screen, as the pod's cockpit was opened up and Sunset looked in it at him. "You okay?" Micro let her pull him out of the pod and as they climbed down off the device, they saw Grey Matter unplugging something from the machine he had created.

"Where's Viral?" He asked, as the Omnitrix started beeping.

Grey Matter leapt off the code catcher and transformed back to human, Flash turning to micro before holding something up. "In here." Micro saw what Flash had removed from the device. A flash drive.

"What did you do?"

"We needed to trap her into something that she couldn't escape from," Twilight explained. "But we needed a wireless signal to actually draw her out." Micro nodded, understanding.

"You sucked her into that device and transferred her to the flash drive before removing it. Now she's trapped." They nodded, as Flash handed him the drive.

"Here, she's your creation after all. Maybe you can fix her or something." Micro stared at the drive for several seconds, then sighed before shaking his head.

"No, it's too dangerous." He handed the drive back to Flash. "This is the only way she'll remain safe. I doubt she'd let you do it a second time if she got out. Please, keep her somewhere safe for me."

"Really?" Flash asked, "you'd give up something you worked so hard on."

"I don't want to," Micro sighed. "But this is for the best. If I kept her, I'd be too tempted to boot her up and she could do a lot of damage. She's safer somewhere she can't hurt anyone else." Flash wanted to argue, but he had a feeling Micro wasn't going to relent.

"Alright." Flash placed her in his pocket, "I'll keep her safe until you're ready."

Twilight stepped over to her. "Maybe you can start again. Build a new AI and figure out what went wrong before. Then, maybe you could fix her."

"Maybe," Micro sighed, "I can't let this set back stop me." He took a deep breath, "lots of inventors ran into problems before creating something groundbreaking. I just have to keep trying. It's like you said. It's up to us eggheads to make sure the world's future is a bright one." The others nodded and Micro turned to walk away, though that left Flash and his friends to explain all the insanity that had happened to the police when they arrived.

Later, Flash headed to the base and informed Shining what the heck had happened.

"Micro was right to give you the drive," the Plumber started as they stepped out of the elevator. "Who knows what could happen if this thing managed to escape again. Better to keep it locked up where it's safe." The room they were in was another round one that had a bunch of metal draws covering the walls.

"Do you think there'll ever be a chance she could be reprogrammed and rehabilitated?" Flash asked, as Shining opened one of the mechanical draws using his badge.

"I don't know," Shining put the drive inside. "Maybe. There are many reports in the Plumber database about artificial intelligence going haywire and causing problems. But many of those reports end with it being repaired and used for good. I'm sure in time, Micro will learn where he went wrong and find a way to help her. But until then, it'll be our job to keep her safe so she can't hurt anybody or herself."

"Yeah," Flash nodded before looking inside the draw. He stared at the flash drive for a moment before Shining shut the draw, locking it away from the rest of the world. He had a feeling this wouldn't be the last time he met Viral. Hopefully, the next time would be under better circumstances.

Author's Note

Well, that was certainly an interesting chapter. Micro creates life and it falls in love with him. Isn't that just the way. Hope you enjoyed this chapter.

Season 3, Episode 10: Smashing the Competition

It was another beautiful day in Canterlot and on a bus making its way through the city, a young man sat excitedly waiting for his stop to arrive.

Timber Spruce looked out the window and smirked seeing all the large buildings move past it. He was smiling as he was planning to surprise his girlfriend and take her out for a day on the town, which hopefully wouldn't result in another insane situation.

Timber thought back to some of his previous dates with Twilight, especially the one where he had learned the truth about a certain someone. He had been worried when he learned about the alien invasion, fearing Twilight would get herself hurt because of Flash. But the invasion had been stopped and now Flash was a world famous superhero.

Speaking of Flash, that was all anyone seemed to want to talk about recently.

As Timber sat on the bus, he heard two girls talking in the seat behind him. "I think Volt-Edge is the best alien. He can fly on metal and I heard Flash even surfed a powerline with him to chase down a car thief the other day."

"No way. Diamondhead's the best. He's practically indestructible." The two kept debating Flash's best alien, whilst Timber saw his stop was about to come up.

He got up and headed for the door, the bus coming to a stop and letting him off onto Twilight's street. He smirked as he made his way towards her house, excited to spend the day with her.

However, when he knocked, it wasn't Twilight who answered. "Hey Mrs Sparkle," he told his girlfriend's mother. "Is Twilight here?"

"No," Velvet replied, "she's spending the day with her brother at his work."

"She's at a police station?" Velvet shook her head.

"No, he has a new job. He's a superhero now."

"Shining's a superhero?" Twilight had not mentioned that in her last email, "since when?"

"Well when Flash Sentry's secret became public, Shining was outed as someone who was helping him. Turns out, he's been acting as an intergalactic law enforcer for months. And now he's doing it full time. Did Twilight not tell you any of this?" Timber frowned and shook his head. "Well, you'll find her at the new Plumber Base they built. Here, I'll give you the address. But I wouldn't bother going, since I doubt you'll be able to get in."

Timber frowned as he was given the address and headed into town, wondering why Twilight hadn't told him anything that was going on with her brother.

It was a long trip to the base, since roadworks in the city had caused traffic to grind to a startling hault. But eventually, the bus got close enough to the address that Timber decided to get out and walk. As he did, the city was abuzz with talk about Flash Sentry.

Kids were playing on the street, pretending to be his aliens, guys were talking about the hot girlfriend he had and girls were wondering if Flash would ever attend their birthdays or other events. Eventually, he reached the building in question and found himself at the front gate.

He looked through the bars to see if there was anyone who could let him in, but there wasn't. And the gate was locked with the walls surrounding the complex too high to jump over. He had no way in. "Hello!?" He called out, but nobody answered.

He groaned and considered just calling Twilight, but that would ruin the surprise.

In that moment, a car drove up to the entrance and stopped. "Timber?" The teen spun around and saw Shining Armor leaning out the car, looking at him suspiciously. "What are you doing here?"

Timber smirked, "Shining. Long time, no see. Heard you got a new gig."

"Yeah," Shining frowned, "why are you here?"

"Your mom said Twilight was here. I wanted to come around and surprise her. So," he gestured to the gates, "wanna let me in." Shining raised an eyebrow at this. "Oh, come on. I promise I'll behave." Shining sighed, having a feeling he wasn't gonna take no for an answer.

"Fine. But one toe out of line and you're out on your butt, got that?" He nodded and Shining opened the gate, driving in and letting Timber follow on foot. Once he was parked up, Timer rushed up behind him and they headed into the base.

"Doesn't look very alien," Timber looked around whilst Shining rolled his eyes and headed for the elevator.

"You haven't seen anything yet," he explained before stepping into the tube. Once Timber was inside, they rode it down to the sublevels and Timber noticed the elevator actually did look futuristic.

When it finally came to a stop, the doors opened and Timber was amazed by the sight in front of him. "Wow." He looked around in utter amazement, as he saw all the alien gizmos surrounding him. And when he spotted the large computer, he smirked knowing where Twilight likely was.

And sure enough, the spectacled girl was sitting in front of the computer as it showed a bunch of alien symbols. She looked truly fascinated by the device in front of her and was completely oblivious to anything else. At least until a pair of hands covered her eyes.

"Guess who?" Twilight was shocked by this, but quickly spun round to see her boyfriend smiling at her.

"Timber!" She got up and hugged him, Timber hugging him back before she sat back down. "What are you doing here? You didn't tell me you were coming for a visit." Timber smirked at her.

"Can't a guy come and surprise his girlfriend? Besides, it gave me an excuse to come see this awesome base."

"I'm surprised Shining let you in."

"I decided to give him a chance," Shining stated. "But he's your responsibility now. If he breaks anything, I'm blaming you." Twilight nodded and smiled back at Timber, who smirked back.

"So what do you say?" He asked, "wanna go have some fun?"

Twilight sighed, "sorry, Timber. But I'm busy today. I'm helping Shining test out a bunch of new plumber gear that's being sent over. Hopefully, Flash will be here by the time it arrives." Timber frowned at this, not expecting Twilight to already have plans that she wouldn't be willing to drop when she saw him. "But you can stay and watch if you want."

Timber did his best to hide his frown and smiled at her, "that sounds like it could be fun. Why not." Twilight smiled before turning back to the computer.

"Now where is Flash?"

Flash was currently flying through the air on his hoverboard.

Due to the roadworks turning the city into deadlock central, Flash's car wasn't a smart way to get around. As such, he had taken out his hoverboard and was using it to get around, something he was starting to consider doing more often.

He looked down, but couldn't see any signs of trouble in the city.

"Looks like everything's going well." This gave Flash a smirk, since it meant he wouldn't have to miss it. "Alright!" He headed towards the Plumber Base, excitedly making his way over the city as he saw the building in the distance.

But as he drew closer to the building, he spotted someone walking up to the front gates and smiled seeing it was Adagio.

Before she knew what hit her, Flash swooped down and grabbed her. "HEY!" She cried, when she suddenly found herself being carried bridal style over the gates.

"Sorry to sweep you off your feet," Flash joked as they headed towards the entrance. Adagio rolled her eyes with a smile, as Flash jumped off the board and put her down. "Come on, we don't wanna miss it."

"Miss what?"

"New plumber gear's being delivered," Flash explained as they rushed for the door. "I'm hoping I'm gonna get to have something this time."

"But you have the Omnitrix?"

"And I've lost count of the number of times it's been out of power and I was left defenceless. If I get some plumber tech, I'll be able to protect myself in human form." They stepped into the elevator, riding it down as Flash looked forward to seeing what was gonna be there.

But the elevator stopped on the wrong floor, Flash certain they were on the hybrid's enclosures.

The doors opened and they saw Fluttershy and Rarity, stepping into the tube and smiling when they saw them. "Hello darlings." They stepped inside, "going to watch the tests?"

"Watch?" Flash asked, "I'm gonna be the one doing the testing. At least I hope I am. So how our three guests?"

"Doing good," Fluttershy smiled. "Scales has calmed down a lot since coming here and now he can read and speak as well as the other two."

"Well they've got a great teacher," Rarity smiled at her. The others smiled as the doors opened and they saw the others standing in the main base, including someone Flash had not been expecting to see.

"TImber?" Flash cried, the green haired teen turning to them as they stepped forward. "What are you doing here?"

"Came for a visit," Timber replied. "So, what's it like being a big hero that everybody loves?"

"I can assure you, not everybody loves me. And honestly, sometimes I wish I still had my secret identity. Makes it way easier to walk down the street." The expression Timber gave him showed he didn't believe that for a second. "Anyway, is the new gear here yet?"

"Not yet," Shining turned to the computer. "It should be here any moment though. The computer just picked up the plumber ship approaching earth. They're set to lock onto my badge when they arrive." He pointed at the elevator, "let's head to the weapons room."

"We have a weapons room?" Flash asked, Shining nodded as they all stepped up to th elevator and rode it two floors up. It opened up and they were in another large room, with walls that looked extra reinforced and a floor that were a bunch of different rectangular segments.

"This is the weapons room?" Timber asked, "where are the weapons?"

"We don't have any yet," Shining replied. "This place will be more useful once we've got more plumbers working here." He held up his badge and several rectangular sections of the floor began to rise and reveal empty shelves beneath them that would eventually have weapons attached to them.

Shining's badge then started beeping, the plumber holding it up as it created a holographic image of the earth that showed a red dot above it. He pressed the badge and in that moment, a green flash appeared at his feet.

They all looked down and saw several metal cases appearing in front of Shining, the lot of them quickly picking them up and moving them over to a nearby table. As they did, the elevator opened and Azmuth flew in on a hover platform. "Ah, I see your new plumber gear has arrived."

"Yup," Flash opened one of the cases, "and hopefully I'll find something I can use when the Omnitrix is out of juice." He looked inside and found some kind of marble-like device. "Okay," he picked on up, "not what I was expecting."

"Maybe look at the instructions before picking it up," Shining suggested. Flash rolled his eyes and took a pen-shaped device out of the case and clicked the top. Doing so caused a holographic screen to appear out the end, allowing Flash to see what they did.

"Huh. Sticky Bombs. Squeeze and throw to unleash a highly sticky solution, useful to incapacitate enemies with super speed or in a fast moving vehicle." He squeezed one of the marbles and threw it, the marble hitting the ground and exploded to send a green goop that covered a good section of the floor. "Cool."

"I hope you'll think it's cool when you have to clean it up," Shining replied.

Flash smirked as he kept reading the manual. "Easy." He took some kind of aerosol can out of the case and stepped over to the puddle, spraying it with the mist. The green slime began to disappear upon contact with the spray. "And it's pine flavoured." They all laughed at this, as Shining opened up another case and took something out.

It was a strange brown coloured device that was donut shaped and looked like it opened in half. "What's that?" Adagio asked, as Shining took out the manual and read it.

"Says it's an experimental battle armor device. The plumbers want me to test it to see how well it works with humans."

"Experimental?" Rarity asked, "does that mean it's not safe?" Everyone looked at Shining, worried about what it might do. The man read through the instructions, explaining that once activated it would work through thought.

"Only one way to find out if it works." He placed it on his wrist and stepped back, Rarity creating a shield in case something happened.

Taking a deep breath, Shining hit the button. As soon as he did, the device activated and started unfolding itself to spread around his arm. Within seconds, everything up to his elbow was covered in a brown metal gauntlet. It hummed with power and Shining moved his fingers, happy that it didn't try and stop his movements and followed his commands.

"Now that's cool," Adagio smirked as Shining tested out some of its abilities.

The gauntlet began to reshape itself and the hand turned into a mace, then it became a drill followed by a cannon. Shining smirked and pointed the weapon at a wall, as a target appeared out of it. He fired a laser at it that slammed into the wooden board, melting right through it without any resistance.

"Now that's awesome," Flash cried as Shining returned to weapon to its gauntlet form. He then deactivated the device, causing it to revert to its bracelet form and allowing him to take it off. "What do you think?"

"It seems okay," Shining nodded. "But they said it's just a prototype. Probably not a good idea to take it into the field until we're sure it doesn't have any bugs." He placed it on the table and they were about to start looking through the rest of it, only for an siren to go off.

"What's that?" Timber cried, only for everyone to rush towards the elevator.

Timber followed and they rode it back down towards the main base, Twilight rushing to the computer the moment the doors opened. She sat down and quickly started typing away at it, "police alert about a monster attacking downtown."

"Monster?" Flash asked, as Twilight typed away. "What kind of monster? Where is it?"

"Working on it." She kept typing and more info came in. "It's attacking the restaurant district. Apparently, it's already ripped through three kitchens and eaten everything that wasn't frozen."

"Three kitchens?" Adagio asked, "what are we dealing with? Some kind of alien that eats a ton and uses it to shoot lasers?"

"I doubt it," Azmuth told her. "Gourmands can't eat what you consider food. And even if it could, it would have eaten the frozen food as well." Twilight finally managed to find a security camera on the street under attack, bringing it on screen and showing them the image of the buildings.

"I don't see anything," Timber pointed out before the front of the building exploded. "Never mind." Something leapt out of the hole the explosion created and slammed down on the ground, causing the entire street to shake.

The camera jiggled and Twilight was worried it was be ripped offline. But it began to stabilize and the camera's image cleared. And when it did, they were able to tell what it was. And it was not what they were expecting.

It was some kind of minotaur creature, standing around the same height as Riot-Horn. It was a mixture of black and brown, its waist and lower sections being black whilst its top half was brown. However, that brown part was due to the over abundance of hair currently growing out of its entire upper body. Its face was also almost completely covered by the hair, with only its nose and mouth visible whilst the rest was hidden beneath the brown locks. Sticking out the sides of its head were a pair of long curved black horns and around its waist and legs, it was wearing a pair of black shorts.

"What is that thing?" Timber asked, but nobody could answer. "Well?"

"Never seen one before," Flash told him. He turned to Azmuth, but the alien looked just as stumped as he did. "Ever see anything like that?" As they said that, the creature moved over to a nearby car and began to lift it up. As it did, more hairs began to grow out of its arms and chests that began to wrap themselves around them and make them look more and more muscular.

This seemed to also make it much stronger, allowing it to lift the three ton car with ease. This made Azmuth realise something.

"That ability. It's using its own fur like muscles to increase its physical strength. That's an ability from an alien species that looks nothing like that. Which means it can only be one thing."

"A hybrid," Flash realised as he activated the Omnitrix. Shining put on his badge and the pair transformed, "XLR8!" The speed alien grabbed Shining, "gotta run!" With that, he was gone in a blast of speed.

"Good luck!" Twilight called out after them, then sat down at the computer. They saw the minotaur was walking off, Twilight typing away at it to figure out where it was going so she could send the info to Flash.

The speed alien rushed onto the scene and they found the hybrid exactly where Twilight told them it would be, the beast having found a hot dog stand to start swiping food from.

XLR8 put Shining down and shot forward. "Alright, Tiny. You've had your fill and now, it's time to pay the bill and come with us." But the hybrid saw him coming and grabbed the hot dog stand, throwing it at XLR8 who was able to avoid it. "I don't think so!" He hit the Omnitrix and transformed, "Riot-Horn!"

Seeing a much larger opponent, the hybrid seemed interest and charged forward.

Riot-Horn did the same and the pair clashed, both grabbing each other's hands and trying to overpower the other. "Wow," Riot-Horn cried, "you're strong. But you need to calm down." But the hybrid refused to listen and started swinging Riot-Horn around, making the strong alien cry out as he tried to hold him still. "Stop!" But suddenly, more hair grew out of its arms and wrapped around the creature. "Uh oh."

"OH!" Everyone cried as they watched Riot-Horn get thrown away from the hybrid, Timber rolling his eyes. "Seriously. How can he call himself a hero when he's so easily overpowered?"

Adagio frowned at him, "like you could do any better."

"I totally bet I could," Timber stated with his head high. "If I had the Omnitrix, I'd have taken that thing down by now. I woulda shot forward and thrown a punch right into its face, knocking it out cold instead of trying to wrestle it."

"Flash wasn't trying to beat it," Azmuth stated. "That hybrid is practically a child, with no understanding of the world. Flash attacking it without trying to calm it down wouldn't be very heroic." The others agreed and Timber frowned at the frog, not liking its attitude.

'If only the Omnitrix had crashed down in the camp instead of that Technovore thing,' Timber thought to himself. 'Then I'd be the beloved hero and be able to do things the right way.' He turned to Twilight, who was completely focused on the rhino alien. Why couldn't she be interested in him like that?

Riot-Horn shook his head, groaning as he picked himself up.

The horned hybrid moved towards him, his hair retracting into his body. This caught Riot-Horn's attention, "does it need to return to normal or something?" He tried to think, but the creature charged forward and Riot-Horn did the same. Both threw a punch that collided with one another, unleashing a blast of force that broke several windows around them. But the pair were evenly matched.

Riot-Horn pulled back, not wanting to waste time trying to overpower it when he couldn't. His best bet was to wait until he'd gathered enough solar energy.

It was at this point that Shining decided to rush it, firing his blaster at the hybrid and making it cry out in pain. The creature growled and turned towards Shining, who switched his blaster to its tranquilizer mode. The creature leapt forward and before Shining could fire, it slammed its fists into the ground hard enough to make a small earthquake.

"WOW!" Shining fell to the ground and as he did, he took his shot and the dart flew through the air.

It struck the minotaur, but the hair around his body was practically armor and the needle couldn't even get through the strands. The hybrid saw this and roared, but Riot-Horn rushed up from behind and tackled him. "Sorry about this!" They fell to the ground, "but you leave me no choice!"

The pair rolled around and Shining prepared another tranq, planning to aim for its unarmored leg.

However, the creature's hair once again shot out of it and started wrapping around its body. "Wait!" Riot-Horn cried as he saw this, but the hybrid began to spin around before he could stop him. The increased strength he got allowed him to throw Riot-Horn around in a circle before the alien rhino finally lost his grip "WOW!"

Shining watched as Riot-Horn flew through the air and threatened to smash into the side of a building, only to transform into Goop and splat against the wall.

Another roar made him turn back towards the hybrid, who turned to glare at him before it ran towards another building. "STOP!" He cried, as the creature covered its entire upper-half in its hair. This acted as armor, with only its horns remaining uncovered as it crashed into the building and ripped a hole right through the wall.

The entire building began to shake, as cracks appeared along the walls. Another smash caused the shaking to be constant, as the hybrid rammed his through wall after wall until it crashed out the other side of the building. The entire thing was starting to collapse, which was bad news since the screams he heard made him realise there were still people in there.

"FLASH!" But the alien hero had already leapt into action, flying past and into the building. He looked around and spotted where the building was coming down, the slime creature hitting the Omnitrix and transforming.

"BLOXX!" The lego gorilla cried, as his entire body quickly started to reshape itself. Soon enough, he was a bunch of pillars that began to hold the building up. "Hurry!" He told the people inside, "I can't hold this forever!" They all began to rush towards the exits, whilst Shining used his suit to scan the structure for life signs.

Once the last one was out, he turned to Bloxx. "You're clear. Get out of there!" Bloxx nodded and as the ceiling started to give way, the gorilla's top half formed out of the supports he made and he detached himself from it.

He quickly started hand running towards the exit, his legs slowly rebuilding themselves, whilst the supports began to give way. "YAAAAH!" He leapt forward and through the whole, right as the room he had been in collapsed. He barely managed to escape in time, the building blocks alien sighing. "That was too close."

"Yeah," Shining nodded, "but we lost the hybrid." He activated his communicator, "find him?"

"Sorry," Twilight replied, "but we lost him in the chaos." They sighed, Bloxx turning human again as they looked around to make sure nobody was hurt. The building had been destroyed, but everyone inside was perfectly fine.

When Flash and Shining returned to the base, they all watched the footage they had gotten of the creature.

"As you can see," Azmuth pointed at the footage that showed the hybrid's hair muscles unravelling themselves. "When this creature uses its muscle-like hair, they need to be pulled tight to give it the best power boost. But this is also a double-edged sword."

"The hairs could snap," Shining realised.

"Exactly," Azmuth nodded. "This is why it unravelled its hairs after using them. If they snap, it has to regrow them. And that takes energy, which is likely why it was eating so much food."

"I get it," Adagio nodded. "So the way to beat it, is to force it to push its hair muscles past their limits and make them snap. Then Flash can rush in and deal a good punch to its face or something."

"A good idea," Flash told her. "But I think next time, I'll try and use Pesky Dust to put it to sleep. It can't fly, so I don't have to worry about it grabbing me out of the air. The next time it shows up, I'll be ready to deal with it before it can cause any problems."

"Too bad you couldn't beat it the first time it," Timber pointed out.

Flash glared at him, "what's that supposed to mean?" Timber shrugged as they watched the footage of Bloxx stopping the building from falling. "I'll have another chance to stop that thing. I wouldn't have had another chance to save those people. Lives come before victory, every time."

"Yeah, I get that. But if you had just attacked that thing before it got a chance to power up, you could have knocked it out before it destroyed that building and put those people in danger."

"Violence should never be the first answer," Shining stated. "Some of the other hybrids were able to be talked down from their attacks. If we attack everything that seems like a threat, then we'd be failing to do our job of protecting all those who need help."

Timber didn't seem to get this and Flash wasn't in the mood to argue, instead turning to Azmuth. "Do you think you can track that thing down?"

Azmuth shook his head. "If that creature has a tracking chip like the others, it's either damaged or has already been deactivated. And since you weren't able to scan its DNA, we have nothing to scan the city with. Our only hope of finding it is the old fashioned way."

"Alright," Flash grabbed his hoverboard, "then I'll head out and see what I can find."

"Me too," Shining nodded. "Twilight, you stay on the coms and contact us if you find anything." Twilight nodded as the pair headed out of the room, whilst Azmuth, Fluttershy and Rarity headed back towards the hybrid habitats.

Timber watched as Twilight started typing away at the computer, looking like a kid at christmas as she scanned the city for anything unusual. He looked up at the screen and couldn't make heads or tails of what he was staring at. "How do you understand any of this?"

"I didn't at first," Twilight replied. "But Azmuth showed me what most of it meant and after a while, I was able to figure out the rest on my own."

"Looks like a headache in the making," Timber sighed. "Doesn't it get boring, looking at all of this?"

"How could it be boring?" Twilight asked, "this is alien technology I'm working with. I never thought in a million years, that I might be able to use something like this in my lifetime. And I'm helping Flash and my brother find a bio-engineered alien hybrid. This is some of the most exciting stuff that's ever happened to me."

Timber sighed. He knew he likely wasn't going to be getting Twilight away from this place for a while. All he wanted was for her to focus on him for just a few minutes, but she was too drawn to this alien tech. "Flash," he then heard her say, "try heading west from the area you fought the creature in. That spot's full of restaurant and food trucks."

"Got it." The screen showed Flash flying across the screen on his hoverboard, making Timber frown as he heard Twilight laugh seeing him do a flip.

'Damn it. You've got a girlfriend, so leave mine alone.' He wished things could go back to how they used to be, before that kid became an alien superhero.

His expression did not go unnoticed by Adagio, who tapped him on the shoulder. "Come on. Why don't we go get something to drink. I'm sure Twilight could use something to keep her brain fuelled." Timber frowned, but followed her to the elevator.

They rode it up to the main building and headed into the cafeteria, stepping up to the vending machine and trying to decide what to get.

"So," Adagio placed a coin into it, "feeling a little jealous?"

Timber frowned, "I'm not jealous."

"Yes you are. You're annoyed that Twilight's focusing more time on Flash and this hybrid stuff instead of you." She grabbed her drink and opened it up, "don't you think you're being a little immature?"

"Why aren't you annoyed at any of this," Timber stepped up to the machine. "She's eying up your boyfriend."

"I'd hardly call what she's doing eying up. She's just helping them with a situation that needs to be resolved." She sipped her drink. "Her brother's a plumber. Twilight has skills that can help him do his job. Why are you so against her doing something she enjoys?"

Timber said nothing as he got his drink, thinking about what she said. "I just wish she would look at me like she used to. I used to be the guy she saw as cool and interesting to be around. But ever since Flash got that stupid watch, all she seems to care about is him and his aliens."

Adagio rolled her eyes as she took another sip of her drink. "You know Timber, I used to be just like you for millennia. Narcissistic, wanting everyone to adore me and think I was the best, and looking down on everyone else, especially those I felt threatened by. But I grew up. So when will you?"

Timber shot her a death glare, Adagio getting up and heading back to the elevator. He stayed there for a few minutes, thinking about what Adagio had said. He wasn't narcissistic. He came all the way there to spend time with Twilight. Was it a crime that he wanted his efforts to not be in vain?

He got up and headed over to the elevator, but couldn't remember which one would return him to the computer room.

He guessed and pressed one, the elevator heading down into the basement and eventually coming to a stop. But when the doors opened, he found that he wasn't in the computer room. He was back in the room they had been testing the weapons in.

He about to try another one, when he suddenly spotted something on the table. The bracelet he had seen Shining testing.

He walked over to the device and picked it up, remembering how Shining had destroyed the target with it. And apparently, that wasn't all it could do. He held it in his hands and thought about what would happen if he had something like this. No villain could hope to stand a chance against him. And no girl could hope to ignore him. Especially one particular girl.

He smirked and placed the device on his wrist, the bracelet locking around his arm and powering up. He held it up and nodded, ready to reveal to the world he could be a better superhero than Flash.

Flash flew over the city, continuing to search for any sign of the hybrid whilst Shining rolled down the street on his bike. But neither of them found any sign of the creature.

They had returned to the scene and searched for tracks, but the hybrid had somehow managed to escape without making any sign that would lead to him and nobody had found it. "How does something that big, just disappear?" He asked, as he was sitting on his hoverboard looking over the entire city.

"We can't stop looking," Shining told him over the Omnitrix's communicator. "It could show up at any moment and do who knows how much damage."

"I know," Flash nodded. "But still, where could it be hiding?" As he said that, Twilight's voice came out through the Omnitrix.

"Flash, we've got something." He looked down and stood up, "reports of a large monster attacking a bunch of food trucks just came in."

"Send us the address!" Flash cried, as he shot through the air towards the location Twilight directed him. Shining rolled up beneath him, the pair moving as fast as they could so they could get there before the hybrid could do any serious damage.

They soon arrived at a street that was surrounded by a large park, several arcades and multiple other spots people liked to go to hang out. It was the perfect place for a food truck to park and when they got there, they found the hybrid was attacking a burger van. "MORE!" He roared, surprising the pair since most hybrids didn't talk before they caught them. "MORE FOOD!"

"Geeze," Flash stated as he jumped off his hoverboard, "this guy's stomach's larger then his muscles." He turned to Shining, "I'm gonna go Pesky Dust and try to put him to sleep." Shining nodded and rushed towards the creature, hoping to get its attention so Flash could transform.

The hybrid turned towards him and when it saw them, it roared before picking up the burger van and throwing it.

Flash and Shining had to leapt to the side, the van slamming down between them and sending metal flying everywhere. Luckily, none of it hit either of them.

"Alright, Charger," Flash activated the Omnitrix. "Time for you to take a nap." But before he could find Pesky Dust, someone suddenly ran past him and Flash was shocked by who it was. "Timber?"

Shining saw his sister's boyfriend and was shocked. "What are you doing?" Timber stood in front of the hybrid, "get away form that thing before it kills you!"

"Relax," Timber told him, "I got this." He held out his arm and as he did, Flash and Shining noticed the bracelet and realised what he was planning. "I hope you're watching this, Canterlot. A new hero is about to be born."

Back at the base, Twilight and everyone else were just as surprised.

"Is he insane?" Azmuth cried, "that device isn't ready for a combat scenario. There's no telling what'll happen if he uses it." Twilight began to worry, as Timber pressed the button. And thus, his transformation had begun and the bracelet began to expand around his arm just like how it had done with Shining.

But it kept going and covered his entire arm, then spread to his shoulders and around the rest of his body. The brown metal suit of armor completely formed around Timber's body, making him grow several inches and bulking him out with wings on the back and fully armed weapons. Once the transformation was complete, the only thing not covered was Timber's face and that had some kind of energy visor protecting it.

Flash and Shining watched in shock, as Timber looked himself over and smirked. "Nice." His hand transformed into a tube, which unleashed a laser to form a sword. "Very nice." He turned towards the hybrid and smirked, "let's go!" His back created a rocket booster, which fired and propelled him forward. "YEAH!" He reached the hairy minotaur and threw a punch into its face.

The creature cried out in pain, quickly wrapping more hair around itself. This gave it extra padding, so Timber's next few punches weren't as effective. It then tried to punch him, but Timber's left arm protected an energy shield that blocked the punch.

"Go ahead!" He laughed as the creature kept punching it, "all you're doing is making it harder on yourself." A bar appeared on his screen that filled with every punch, whilst his other arm transformed into an arm cannon. "Prepare to feel your own kinetic energy flying back at you!" The hybrid punched the barrier and the gauge was completely filled, Timber lowering the shield before thrusting the cannon into his stomach.

"Timber!" Flash cried, "don't-"

"FIRE!" The laser fired and an explosion occurred, hitting the hybrid and blasting it backwards as it cried out. The hybrid hit the ground and started rolling several times before eventually coming to a stop. "HAHAA!" Timber cheered, jumping up in celebration.

"Timber, stop!" Shining told him, "you're not authorized to use that thing. And there's no telling what bugs it might have in that form. Take it off, now."

"Are you kidding?" Timber asked, as the hybrid let out a groan and began to push itself up. "Oh, want some more, huh?" He stepped forward but as he did, Twilight's voice appeared over the radio.

"Timber, stop this. What do you think you're doing?"

Timber smiled, "I'm being the kind of guy you find interesting. You like all this weird alien stuff, well now I have an alien gadget on my wrist that gives me a bunch of cool abilities." The hybrid was standing up and started wrapping itself in its hair again, whilst Timber's hands were transformed into a pair of energy buzzsaws. "BRING IT!"

They watched him charge and start attacking the hybrid, who tried to fight back but found its hair muscles were being cut by the energy saw. Shining linked to Twilight, "you've gotta try and shut that armor down before he hurts someone...or himself."

"On it." Shining then turned to Flash and nodded, the teen activating the Omnitrix and dialing up his alien.

Slapping it down, he transformed in a burst of green. "Pesky Dust!" He quickly flew over to the pair, as the hybrid grabbed Timber's arms to prevent himself from cutting into him. But Timber just smirked as his chest opened up and started firing tiny missiles at the creature.

The explosion caused the hybrid to be knocked back and freed Timber to change both his weapons to a pair of blasters. "One more should do it." But before he could fire, a bunch of dust suddenly rained down upon the pair. "Huh?" He looked up and saw the fairy above him, sprinkling the dust down on them. "What are you doing?"

"Putting you both to sleep before you destroy anything," Pesky Dust announced. "That way, we can capture that creature and get you out of that suit." However, whilst the hybrid seemed to be falling to sleep, Timber appeared completely unaffected. "Don't tell me that mask's air tight."

"Ha!" Timber laughed, "you can't stop me that easy. This new hero is one that nobody can defeat." Pesky Dust rolled his eyes as he stopped creating the dust, whilst Shining moved over and took out a capture cube. "No need to be jealous. Just because I was able to defeat this creature and you couldn't."

"I just put him to sleep."

"After I wore it out for you." Pesky Dust frowned, as Shining threw the cube onto the ground and captured the creature. "That's right everybody. It was me that defeated this monster. Me and not Flash Sentry."

"ENOUGH!" He turned to Shining, who removed his helmet to look Timber straight in the eye. "Give me one good reason why I don't arrest you right now?"

"Arrest me? For what?"

"Stealing Plumber technology. Assaulting and attempting to inflict lethal force on a sentient creature. And probably a few dozen more laws I can't think of off the top of my head. Take that thing off now before I do arrest you."

"But I saved the day," TImber argued.

"Take...it...off!" Timber glared at him, but Shining was clearly not messing around. Eventually, the teen sighed.

"Fine." He made the command of it to deactivate, but the suit didn't. "Huh? It's not turning off."

"Don't give us that," Pesky Dust stated.

"I'm serious!" Timber cried, trying to think hard enough to get the armor to switch off. "Get off me! Turn off! DEACTIVATE!" But instead, the suit let out a beep as a message appeared on the visor. "Auto battle mode. What?" Suddenly, the armor was moving on its own. His arms raised as they changed to blasters, which pointed themselves at the other two and began to charge up.

"What are you doing?" Shining cried, seconds before the blasters fired.

"WOW!" Pesky Dust barely dodged, Shining holding up his Multi-Striker in shield form. "ARE YOU NUTS!?"

"It's not me!" Timber cried as his suit switched to using a pair of energy blades, the teen crying out as he ran forwards and started slashing at the plumbers. "The suit's out of control. I can't stop it!" Shining leapt away as Pesky Dust flew up, only for Timber's jetpack to explode and push him into the air. "HELP!"

"What's he doing?" Rarity cried, seeing Timber attack their friends.

"His suit's out of control," Shining stated over the radio. "Twilight. Did you do something?" They watched as Timber flew up and started raining laser down on the pair, Shining unable to do anything but hide himself behind his shield whilst Pesky Dust did his best to evade.

"I haven't gotten into the suit's systems yet," Twilight explained. "Whatever the suit's doing, it's not because of me."

Azmuth frowned as he tried to figure out what was happening. "It must have malfunctioned and activated a system that's causing it to read your biosigns as threats."

"What kind of system is that?" Adagio asked, as Timber suddenly rocketed away and smashed his way through a building. "Twilight, you've gotta turn that thing off before he levels the entire city."

"I'm working on it," Twilight cried. "But plumber security isn't easy to hack into." She turned to the screen showing the fight. "Flash, Shining. You just have to do your best to keep him from doing any serious damage." As she said that, Timber fired a missile out of his arm that destroyed a building. Luckily, nobody was inside of it.

"Yeah," Pesky Dust frowned as he watched the building collapse, "that might be tricky."

"DO SOMETHING!" Timber cried, as he suddenly shot towards Pesky Dust with his arm turning into a drill. The alien slammed his Omnitrix and transformed, right as Timber flew into the light and attacked with the drill. But Timber didn't feel his weapon doing anything and as the light faded, he was shown why.

"Diamondhead!" The crystal alien fell down towards the ground and pulled Timber down with him, the pair crashing into the street with Diamondhead using all his strength to smash Timber down.

"Augh!" He cried, as Diamondhead raised his arm and formed a blade. "Hey, wait!" But Diamondhead slashed his arm down and cut through the wings on his suit before stabbing the rocket to disable it.

"That should stop you from flying!" He cried, only for Timber to point his blaster at him. He just had enough time to raise his arms in defence before it fired, the laser bouncing off his skin but the impact caused him to stagger back. "Timber, is there anything you can do that might stop this? Activating another mode, perhaps."

Timber pushed himself up to his feet, "I've been trying. But it's not responding to me." He suddenly found himself getting attacked by a bunch of lasers, hitting him in the back and making him look around to see Shining firing at him. And then Diamondhead started slashing at him, causing him to leap away. "What are you doing?" He raised a shield to stop some crystal that were fired at him, "are you trying to kill me?"

"Not on purpose," Diamondhead joked.

"We need to keep that suit on the defensive," Shining explained. "If it keeps attacking, it'll do more damage to the city." But as he said that, Timber's arms transformed into a blaster with a spinning end and six barrels sticking out of each one.

The plumbers watched as the two ends started spinning around, humming as they did so. Both quickly realised what was happening and Shining raised his shield, whilst Diamondhead hit the ground and created a wall of gems. Seconds later, the weapons began firing a rapid stream of high speed laser bullets towards them.

Shining grunted at every impact, whilst Diamondhead watched as his wall was slowly being chipped away. "Twilight, any time now."

"I'm almost into the system," she told him over the communicator. "Just give me a few more minutes."

"I don't think I have that long," he replied. He was pretty sure the Omnitrix only had a minute or two of power left. Once he was human again, he wasn't going to be able to defend himself. What to do?

It was then that he got an idea and took out his hoverboard, activating it as his crystal wall was beginning to crack. He leapt onto it and took to the air before Timber could notice, the teen too focused on Shining and the wall.

Speaking of Shining, his shield was taking a beating. If he didn't stop this soon, it would fail and he would be in serious trouble. Luckily, the suit stopped firing the gatling blasts and changed to a pair of sword.

"Look out!" Timber cried, rushing forward and swinging his swords around at Shining. The man leapt back and ducked under the blade, rolling to the side in order to get to a safe distance whilst his shield changed to its sword form.

He used it to blocked the next slash and push Timber back, but he was at a serious disadvantage since he only had one weapon whilst Timber had two. Sure enough, Timber would attack with one weapon right after the other was deflected. Shining didn't get a moment to breathe, but Diamondhead quickly flew in to help.

The suit detected the oncoming attack and leapt back, as crystal shards shot down and imbedded themselves in the ground.

Timber fired at Shining, who sidestepped the blast whilst shooting his laser back at him. Diamondhead then dived down and tried to punch him, but Timber leapt back. As he did, Timber thought about how Shining was fighting and realised he he was so focused on Timber that he likely wasn't paying attention to anything behind him. And then he regretted that thought.

The suit read his mind and raised his arm, as a missile folded out of the suit before launching.

Once again, Shining avoided the attack by ducking down. The tiny rocket sailed over him and embedded itself in the ground, but that was what the suit wanted him to do. "LOOK OUT!" But it was too late.

The missile's back opened up and from it, several streams of lightning shot out with a couple hitting Shining in the back. "AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRHHHHHHHHHH!" He cied, feeling his entire body going numb.

"SHINING!" Diamondhead cried, as his partner fell to the ground.

"He's okay," Twilight assured him. "His suit's nullified most of the damage. He'll just be paralysed for a little while. Focus on Timber" Diamondhead nodded and saw Timber heading towards Shining, the alien crystal flying forwards as fast as he could.

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" He roared, slamming into Timber before he could react and pushing him away from Shining.

Timber groaned at the impact, but his suit was already reacting and using a pair of energy buzzsaws to grind away at Diamondhead. He groaned at the feeling, but knew he had to keep fighting.

He quickly let Timber go and the suited teen was thrown away from him, crashing into the ground several times before coming to a stop. Diamondhead then leapt off his board and punched the ground, causing crystals to grow out of the ground around Timber. He hoped this would be enough to hold him, as everything except Timber's head was covered.

"Twilight," he cried, "I'm not gonna stay alien much longer. Please tell me you've figured out how to stop that armor."

"I'm almost...I'm in!" Twilight cried, as the firewall broke and allowed her access to the armor's systems.

"Great!" Adagio told her, "turn it off." Twilight looked, but found the programming was a complete mess. The malfunction had messed with its code, which was likely what caused the armor to go insane.

"I need to unscramble to programming to find the code to shut the armor down." Twilight started doing just that, hoping Flash could hold on long enough for her to figure it out.

Diamondhead watched as Timber's suit struggled against the crystals, trying to break free. As far as the alien knew, those gems were the toughest thing in the universe. If they couldn't hold him, what could?

Suddenly, a sound came from the crystals holding him. A strange beating sound was coming from where his arm was, making the whole structure appear to vibrate. "What are you doing?" He asked, but Timber clearly had no clue. The shaking continued and grew heavier, eventually doing what Diamondhead thought was impossible. Make the gems crack. "No way!"

"Look out!" Timber cried, as the gems were suddenly shattered off his arm. He then pointed it at Diamondhead and the alien saw the end of the arm had some kind of speak on it, which suddenly unleashed a powerful sonic blast that slammed into him head on.

"AUGH!" He was thrown backwards and his body actually began to crack, the soundwaves somehow effecting his body.

Timber then used the sonic cannon to shatter the rest of the diamonds encasing him, allowing him to stand up and point his blaster at Diamondhead again. It fired and Diamondhead punched the ground, creating a wall of gems that blocked the blast only to be shattered in the process.

As they fell to the ground, the Omnitrix started beeping. "Not now!" And in a green flash, the alien returned to human form. But that didn't stop the suit from perceiving him as a threat.

"Run," Timber cried as his blaster powered up.

Flash wanted to, but doing so would mean leaving Shining who was completely defenseless. No, he couldn't run. Even if he wasn't an alien, he would hold his ground. "FLASH!" Shining cried as Flash leapt to the side to avoid a sonic blast. As he did, he held up his hoverboard and threw it.

The disk extended and he leapt onto it, flying around trying his best to avoid Timber as he fired several more blast. He did his best to fly in a random pattern, not wanting the suit to figure out where he was going. He managed to keep flying circles around the armored teen.

But even so, some of the hits got pretty close and Flash was barely able to avoid one of them. "Twilight, now would be a good time!"

"I've almost got it"

Flash flew as high as he could into the air, well out of Timber's range, then dived down before he could turn his attention onto Shining. But as he did, Timber fired a laser that flew faster then he could react.

He pulled away, but at the last moment the laser clipped the board and sent him flying out of control. "WOW!" He crashed into the ground and rolled along it for several moments before finally stopping, a groan escaping his lips as he pushed himself up. And as he did, a whirring of a laser cannon filled his ear and he turned to see Timber with the blaster in his face.

All he could do was brace himself for the upcoming attack. But before his face was burned off, the blaster suddenly lost power. "Huh?" Timber suddenly found himself able to move his body, "I've got control again." The armor then retracted from his arm and folded back along his body, slowly retracting into the device that had been on his arm.

Eventually, only the device was left and as soon as the armor was gone, it opened up and fell from Timber's wrist.

The alien hero groaned as he fell backwards onto the ground, panting from terror. "Thanks, Twilight."

"You okay?" Twilight asked through the Omnitrix.

"I think my entire life just flashed before my eyes."

"Really?" She asked, "how was it."

Flash smirked, "fabulous" They both laughed at this, whilst Timber glared at him as he heard his girlfriend being pally with him. His plan had failed, in more ways than one given the damage that had been done to the street around them. "Alright, I'm heading back. Hopefully, whatever happened to Shining can be fixed." Timber's eyes went wide, fear coursing through him.

If Shining was seriously hurt, Timber could be in way more trouble than he already was.

When they returned to the base, they rushed Shining to the medical bay.

As it turned out, Shining's body had just received what could be considered a muscle relaxant. Azmuth was able to easily whip up a cure and Shining was back on his feet, which was not good news for Timber.

"You stole," he told Timber. "You used government property without authority, training or guidance. You attacked a creature with excessive force, which could have caused it to be hurt and will make it a lot harder to build trust with it now that we've attacked it. And then you lost control of the device you stole and did serious damage to the city and almost killed me and Flash."

"That last part wasn't my fault," he cried. "The device went nuts. I can't be held responsible for that. Would you blame Flash if his watch accidently turned him into an alien that kills anyone around him instantly?"

"No, but you chose to put on that device. The minute you did, any damage or injury caused by it became your fault." Timber frowned, knowing he wouldn't be weaselling his way out of this. "All these crimes would have you locked in a cell for a good long time." Timber panicked. "But, for Twilight's sake, I'm going to let you off with a warning." Timber sighed in relief. "However, you've proven you can't be trusted. So from now on, you're no longer welcome at the Plumber Base."

"Seriously?" Timber cried, "I know I messed up but..." He turned to the others, hoping they would vouch for him. But not even Twilight seemed willing to defend him.

"I think it's best you leave," Shining ordered.

Timber sighed, as Twilight walked up to him. "I'll walk him out." They pair headed for the elevator, Timber giving them one final look before the doors closed and he was left alone with Twilight. The pair stood in silence, Timber unsure what to say to her. But she was the one who broke the silence, "you didn't have to do that."

Timber sighed, "I just wanted to be someone you'd find exciting." Twilight glanced at him. "Ever since this alien stuff started happening, that's all you seem to think about. I was worried you'd decide I wasn't cool enough for you, if I didn't have something like Flash or Shining to help me stand out."

"Timber," Twilight shook her head, "You don't need to be someone you're not to be with me." Timber frowned as the elevator opened up and they were on the ground floor. "I understand this alien thing is a lot, but it's not the only thing happening in my life. But, it is still a part of my life. My brother's a plumber, so I'll always have something alien happening around me. If we're gonna stay together, you have to accept that."

"Wait," Timber turned to her, "you're not breaking up with me?"

"No," Twilight told him. "I know you just wanted to be a part of my life and I understand that. But you have to promise me you'll never do something as stupid as that again. Deal?"

"Deal," Timber smiled whilst kissing her on the head. Twilight sighed, still feeling a little betrayed but also knowing this was partly her fault. She needed to learn how to split her time between the excitement of her situation, and those outside this part of her life that deserved attention to. The trust between these two had been broken and they needed to work on a way to rebuild it.

"Hey," Twilight stated, "how about we go out and get something to eat."

Timber smirked, "sounds like a plan." They headed out of the base and towards the nearest food venue. But as they did, they saw a bunch of people looking at their phones.

"Look at this headline," one girl showed her friend. "Armored Idiot destroys half of Canterlot." Timber flinched, unable to believe his little incident was already making headlines.

"Flash Sentry saves the day from monster and metal maniac," another guy read off his phone. Timber groaned, knowing he wouldn't be shaking this off for a while. Hopefully, the next time he was in town this whole thing would have blown over.

Back in the base, Azmuth was in the hybrid inclosure.

Drift, Pearl and Scales were watching as he put the extra reinforced glass in place. The entire room had been quickly renovated to be the perfect environment for the creature, which was a rock covered environment that even had a few weights and other tools to help keep up the creature's muscles. He had also made sure it was air conditioned, since all that hair must cause the hybrid to get extremely hot.

The others arrived and when they did, they saw what Azmuth had done and were impressed. "Are you all ready?" Azmuth asked, Flash preparing to go Pesky Dust again in case the creature went wild and attacked again. "Here we go." Azmuth activated the device and the capture cube appeared in the enclosure.

It expanded and shrank in a second, revealing the creature who was still asleep.

"Ah," Fluttershy smiled, "he looks kind of cute like that."

Flash stepped forward, wanting to use this chance whilst it was still asleep. He held up the Omnitrix, as a small opening appeared in the glass. The watch beeped before speaking, "uncatalogued DNA detected!" It opened up and unleashed the beam of light, which flew through the glass and ran over the creature. "unknown DNA sample acquired. Scan complete."

Flash smiled as the opening shut, Azmuth connecting the Omnitrix to his tablet and looking over the new sample. "Just as I thought. Human DNA mixed with the alien I thought it was. But there are also two unknown strains of DNA mixed into it."

"Like me?" Pearl asked, "does that mean he can transform too?"

"No," Azmuth told her. "His DNA has no transformative properties."

"He kind of looks like a mix of a minotaur and a yak," Adagio pointed out. "Guess whoever made him couldn't decide which to use." As she said that, the creature started coming around.

Flash once again prepared to transform, but Fluttershy knelt in front of the glass as the beast picked itself up. "Hello there," she waved. "I'm Fluttershy and you don't need to be afraid!"

"RAAAAAH!" He roared, putting his face right up against the glass to try and scare her. But Fluttershy just smiled without even blinking.

She smiled, "you must still be hungry after that fight." As she said that, the ceiling opened up and something fell out of it. A small pink cube that hell to the ground. "Dig in." The hybrid moved over to it and picked up the cube, the others looking confused.

"You really think that thing's gonna fill him up?" Flash asked, "you saw how much it could stuff its face with."

"Don't worry," Azmuth smirked. "This is a special substance I developed a while back to help with needing lots of food with very little space." The creature threw it into its mouth and started chewing, swallowing it down and looking unsatisfied.

But then, its eyes went wide and it touched its stomach. "What's going on?"

"The food is expanding," Azmuth replied. "Within seconds, it has grown inside its stomach to be equal to twenty pounds of food."

"That much from one little cube?" Shining asked, as the creature smiled and finally looked full.

"Yes. And it packs quite a lot of energy. As long as it doesn't use its hair growing ability, one cube every twelve hours should be more then enough to keep him fed." They all smiled, since the hybrid didn't seem to be intending to rampage. Instead, it moved over to the glass and looked through it to see the other hybrids in their enclosures.

"Don't worry," Fluttershy told him. "We're going to keep you safe. And when it's time, we'll send you someplace you'll be able to live safe and free. I promise." The creature stared at her for a moment, then nodded as if it understood. "Good. Now, we just need to decide what to call you."

"I like the name Flash gave him," Shining smirked. "Charger. Certainly fits."

"Charger?" Flash had just called him that on the fly during the fight. "What do you think, big guy. You like the name Charger?" The hybrid thought about this for a moment, then smiled and nodded.

"Char...ger...like." They all smiled, glad he was happy with it.

They then turned towards the final empty enclosure. Only one hybrid remained. It was somewhere out there and they had to find it before whoever was after them did.

In the dark laboratory, Tirek was watching footage of the Plumber base.

The old man stared at the four hybrids, frowning at the sight of his creations locked away instead of with him. "I think it's time I take back my investments." He turned in his chair and stared at something behind him. That something were five robots, which looked ready to attack at a moment's notice. "I just need to wait for the right moment."

Author's Note

I bet a lot of you were enjoying Timber's talking down. Well, that's four hybrids down and one to go. What will the last one be? Only time will tell.

Season 3, Episode 11: Base Invaders

It was another pleasant day in Canterlot and in the home of Cadance and Shining Armor, the man was packing a dufflebag with everything he would need for his trip.

As he put the last of it into his dufflebag, Cadance stepped into the room holding Flurry. "You have everything?" She checked to make sure he didn't forget anything, Shining smirking at her worry. He knew the truth of why she was making sure he had everything.

"I know you're worried. But you really don't have to be."

Cadance frowned as she turned to him, "you're going out into space. How can I not be worried?" Shining sighed as he zipped the bag up, "do you really need to do this?"

"I do if I want to lose the probational part of my plumber title," Shining replied. "Once I've proven humans like me can complete the training, we can start looking into recruiting more humans to join the ranks."

"And why isn't Flash doing this? He's the world famous superhero."

"True, but he's still in school. The government's decided that plumbers need some level of training. Either three years of experience working in the force, or a college degree in Criminal Justice Administration. Since Flash has neither of those, he's stuck as a probational plumber for now." He turned to Cadance and smiled, placing a hand on her cheek. "I'll be fine."

"You'd better be," Cadance told him. "Just be careful with what you eat. You have no idea what alien food they have at this Plumbers Academy." Shining nodded and picked up the bag, heading downstairs with Cadance and out to their family car.

They quickly drove through the city and thankfully, nothing bizarre happened that would cause Shining to be late as they arrived at the base. And to his surprise, Twilight, Flash and Trixie were waiting for him there.

"Hey," he got out once Cadance parked up, "what are you guys doing here?"

"We came to see you off," Twilight smiled. "Besides, Fluttershy's down below keeping an eye on the hybrids. Someone needs to be here in case something happens." Shining smiled at this, the lot of them heading into the base. "I can't wait until you get back. The Plumber Academy is probably a hundred times more advanced than what we have here."

"We have a super computer capable of tapping into every system on the planet," Flash reminded her. "Isn't that enough?"

"For now. But hopefully, Shining becoming an official plumber will mean we get a bunch more tech for me to study." They all smiled at this, knowing Twilight would likely never be satisfied until she learned about the most advanced gadget in the universe.

They arrived at the hybrid enclosure and as they did, they found Fluttershy sitting in front of Charger's enclosure.

The minotaur, yak fusion was sitting on a rock, a book in his hand that he was reading. "And it was the best day of his entire life," he read before closing the book. "How'd Charger do?"

"You did very well," Fluttershy smiled. "You're all doing amazingly. When you get to Equestria, you'll all be able to handle life there no problem."

"This Equestria place better be as good as you say it is," Scales groaned. "But I'll go anywhere if it means not being stuck in this tank every single day." The other hybrids nodded, wishing they could be free as well.

"I know you're all frustrated," Fluttershy sighed. "But going outside would only make things worse. People might be afraid of you and don't forget, there's someone out there that might want to capture you." The hybrids huffed, still wishing they could leave the base sometimes.

In that moment, Azmuth flew in on his platform and noticed them. "Ahh, Shining Armor. Are you ready to go?"

"Yup," he nodded, "and thanks for the ride to the academy."

"Think nothing of it," Azmuth tapped away at his tablet. "It's on the way to Galvin Prime, so it won't take me too far out of my way." He turned to the hybrids, "I've pretty much confirmed a way to remove their human DNA without causing any serious problems to them. But building the devices needed to do that and send them through to Equestria is gonna take a long while. Luckily, most of the parts I need are already built and waiting in my lab back on Galvin."

"You sure you don't want someone to come lend a hand?" Flash asked him, leaning on the hover platform. "Some of it might be really heavy. You might need someone who can lift it."

"Nice try," Azmuth told him. "You just want to go to another planet." Flash frowned, "I'm afraid you'll be staying here. With Shining gone, you will be earth's only Plumber."

"He's right," Shining nodded. "This is important, Flash. There'll be no safety net this time. If something happens, you'll be the only one able to deal with it."

"I know," Flash told him. "Just relax. I can handle keeping everything safe for a couple of days."

"And it's not like he'll be alone," Trixie pointed out. "Lady Masquerade will be there to help him out. And the Rainbooms if things get really serious." The pair smiled at Shining, who felt like he was going to regret leaving the base in their hands.

"Alright," he sighed, "just try and be careful. If I come back and find even one thing is out of place, there will be consequences."

"I promise you," Flash assured them. "There won't be a scratch on anything when you get back." Shining had a feeling Flash had just made an impossible promise, but there was nothing more he could do aside from not letting them inside the base. But someone had to be there to make sure the hybrids were fed and looked after.

"Alright." He turned to Cadance and kissed her on the lips. He then gave Flurry a kiss as well, the baby laughing at her father's affection before he pulled away.

He turned to Azmuth and the alien nodded before tapping something on his tablet, which caused a beam of light to appear around them. The next thing they knew, the pair vanished and they were now alone in the enclosure room.

Cadance sighed as she held Flurry close, Twilight moving over to place a hand on her shoulder.

"You alright?" Cadance nodded.

"Yeah. Though being on my own for a few days isn't gonna be fun, especially with this one to look after." She could see Flurry was about to get fussy and started bouncing her, making her laugh whilst Twilight looked through Flurry's baby bag.

She held up Flurry's Whammy and the girl instantly calmed down, as Flash looked over at them. "You got anything planned for today?" He asked Cadance, making the woman look curious at him.

"No. I was just going to go home. Why?"

"Well why not stay here?" He suggested, "you haven't really had a chance to look around the base. Showing you around might help you keep your mind of Shining. Plus, it'll mean you have a bunch of others here to help when Flurry gets fussy." That idea was rather appealing to Cadance, Twilight also liking it.

"That sounds great," Twilight smirked.

Trixie then spoke up, "why don't we call the others over to hang out?"

"Didn't Shining say not to mess around?" Cadance asked, Trixie smirking.

"What's gonna happen? We'll be hanging around here like we normally do. We'll keep the hybrid's company and have a little fun at the same time. What could we actually do to damage anything here?" They had to admit, she had a point.

Trixie quickly called the others, whilst Flash turned to the hybrids and remembered what they had said.

"I'll make you all a deal," he told them. "You promise to behave and you can have free range of the base." The four gasped at this. "But you do everything we tell you and don't leave the building. Deal?"

"Deal!" They cried, Flash stepping over to a control pad on the wall and typing away at it. Parts of each cell then opened up, allowing the four hybrids to step out into the main room. They smirked as they looked around, but quickly realised Charger was gonna have issues getting around.

He was so big he looked like he could barely fit in the elevator, Fluttershy promising to stay with him and send him up after the others.

Flash, Twilight, Trixie, Cadance and Flurry rod the elevator up to the above ground base, Cadance stating she would need a lot more diapers if she was gonna be staying longer then she expected. And as they stepped out of the elevator, they spotted someone walking into the building.

"Tirek?" Flash was surprised, "what are you doing here?"

"I understand Shining Armor has gone off to do some training," the old man smiled. "I came to wish him luck."

Cadance sighed, "I'm afraid you just missed him." Tirek frowned at this, "but we'll be sure to let him know you came around for him when he gets back." Tirek nodded and smiled.

"I remember my plumber training. We didn't have fancy academies like the one Shining's going to. We were stuck in the mountains, running through the rain and climbing steep cliffs whilst lugging massive backpacks on our back. Not a pleasant experience."

"Well I'm sure Shining's experience will be more high-tech," Flash told him. Tirek nodded and asked if he could use the restroom before leaving. Flash nodded and pointed to the ground base restroom, Tirek thanking him before walking off.

As the others showed Cadance to her car, the older man stepped out of sight. And the second he did, he took something out of his pockets and threw them to the ground. That something was a bunch of tiny silver spheres that looked like ball bearings, which rolled along the ground out of sight.

As they did, the balls suddenly seemed to grow four metal legs. They used these to scuttle along the ground, disappearing before anyone could see them.

Tirek smirked and turned to leave without even going into the bathroom. Once the base was empty and his little friends had done their work, he would claim his prize.

By the time Cadance got back with extra food, clothes and diapers, Adagio and the rest of the Rainbooms had arrived and were looking to enjoy themselves.

The hybrids had gotten acquainted with the holodeck, Scales and Drift using it to create an aerial obstacle course that they raced one another through. Trixie and Rainbow soon joined them, both taking their winged form and shooting into the sky.

Another holodeck had been used to make a beach for Pearl to swim in, with Flurry enjoying her time in the realistic sand that made her day. Charger was also on the beach, Fluttershy showing him the sand and ocean.

But Charger didn't seem to like the sand all that much, the simulated heat not doing him any favours either.

Sunset then had an idea and in another holodeck, they simulated an snowy environment. This was a place Charger really enjoyed, his yak DNA feeling right at home in the cold and brutal environment. It was the perfect place for him.

The others also found themselves having fun, creating a bunch of holographic environments they could play around in. They remade a bunch of different race tracks from their favourite cart racing game and spent hours racing against one another, with Flash proving to be the best driver out of the lot of them. They made a bunch of 2D side scrolling games that they could actually play through, the fire and drop zones being completely safe. Rarity and Twilight even made a giant chess board, with actual moving pieces that fought against one another when they battled for a space.

By the time dinner arrived, the lot of them were exhausted but highly entertained.

With Flash and Applejack promising to look after Flurry, Cadance helped Twilight and Pinkie in the base's kitchen. There they made a bunch of really good food, as the others rearranged the cafeteria to make a large table that everyone could sit around and enjoy.

Once it was all ready, everyone sat down and began to dig in.

The hybrids had opted to go back to their enclosures, since the food dispensers for them were only in their enclosures. The four were also really tired, due to the fact their bodies were still fairly new and needed a lot more rest than most other creatures their age.

Everyone quickly began to enjoy themselves and once they finished, Flash, Applejack and Rainbow agreed to do the washing up whilst everyone else lounged around the base.

Cadance could tell Flurry was starting to get tired, thinking that maybe she should take her home. But Twilight had an idea that would allow Cadance to stay around without ruining Flurry's sleep.

"What is this exactly?" Cadance asked as she started at the pill-shaped device with a dark glass front. Twilight smiled and pressed the button, causing the front of slowly open up and reveal a cushioned interior.

"Specially designed medical chamber," Twilight explained. "Cushioned interior that can have the lights dimmed for easy sleep. It can also be made one way soundproof, so you can hear what's said inside, but nobody can hear what's said outside. Perfect for a tired baby."

Cadance looked at it curiously, but decided to trust her sister-in-law and placed Flurry down in the padded interior.

Flurry was already close to nodding off and as soon as her head hit the pillow, she fell asleep and Twilight was able to close the front and seal her inside. The glass was actually a TV screen, allowing Cadance to see her baby laying there, not even noticing the containment she had been placed in. "Looks safe."

"It is safe," Twilight assured her. "Flurry will be fine in there. If she wakes up, you'll hear her crying." Cadance still wasn't sure about this, but decided to trust her.

In that moment, Flash and the others arrived having completed their clean up duties. They were all in the first sublevel of the base, which was just as big as the main control room but not as well equipped. There was a large computer in it, but only about a hundred inches.

"So what do you guys wanna do now?" Pinkie asked, but Trixie smirked.

"This computer's connected to every internet system on the planet, right?" The others nodded. "So why not use it to watch a movie." That excited them, everyone liking the idea with Twilight quickly logging into the computer and bringing up some movies they could watch.

As they did, everyone texted their homes and told their parents they were staying over for the night. There was plenty of sleeping space in one of the lower levels and someone had to stay overnight to keep the hybrids secure. When the last of their parents texted back with the okay, Twilight had finally gotten the movie up.

Tirek was currently in his underground bunker, the cameras he had taped into showing him images of the base.

He growled when he saw the hybrids were running around, acting like fools when they should be doing what he had made them for. But what really annoyed him was the fact everyone seemed to be staying at the base overnight.

"Damn it!" He hit the side of the console, since this meant the base wouldn't be empty like he had hoped. He had expected maybe one of them would remain there, maybe two or three. But that many. "Should I call this off?"

He frowned at the thought of doing so. His little sabatures would be finishing their work soon. If he called this off, someone would find out something had happened. When they did, the security would be increased. This was his best chance.

"I have to try." He pressed a button and spoke into a microphone. "Begin Operation Retake."

Back in the base, everyone was sitting around watching an action comedy Pinkie had suggested.

They had to admit, the movie was both awesome and hilarious. They couldn't wait to see how it ended, the lot of them wishing they had brought popcorn. The only one able to look away from the movie was Cadance, who checked on Flurry every few minutes to make sure she was okay.

But the little girl was sleeping like a log and Cadance was slowly able to relax and enjoy herself.

However, just as the movie was getting to the good part, the screen went black as the lights went off and they were dropped into darkness.

Fluttershy screamed, grabbing Rainbow besides her whilst the others all got on guard. "What happened?" Applejack asked, Twilight stepping over to the control console and pressing at it. But the device refused to respond, even when Twilight pressed the start button.

"Power cut?" Sunset asked, as they took out their phones to light the place up.

"Possibly," Twilight nodded, "but the backup generators should have-" The lights suddenly switched back on, though not as bright as before. "There we go." She tried to boot up the computer, but it still wouldn't activate. "That's strange. Backup power should let me switch this on?"

"So what happened?" Pinkie asked, as Adagio checked her phone.

"I'm not getting any reports about a power cut. Must just be this place." That didn't make them happy, especially since it was possible the elevator was offline if it didn't have any power.

"How are we supposed to get out of here if the elevator doesn't work?" Rarity asked, but Flash smirked.

"Relax. This place has a staircase that leads to all the other levels." They all didn't like the sound of needing to climb a bunch of stairs to get out of the base. They watched as Flash moved over to a wall and opened up a section of it, taking out a book that he brought over to them.

"What's that?" Cadance asked, as she opened the sleeping capsule to pick up a now awake Flurry.

"It's instructions for what to do during a power outage," he opened it up and showed them a map of the base. "We're here," he pointed at a section of it, the shifted his finger to the bottom of the page. "And the power relay station is at the bottom of the base. Some of us will have to go down there and figure out what's causing the blackout."

Twilight groaned, since she knew she would need to be the other to do it since she was probably the only one able to fix it. She was thankful the relay was downstairs instead of up, since she would probably die from all those steps.

"So what should the rest of us do?" Trixie asked.

"We should probably go down to the hybrid enclosures," Fluttershy pointed out. "They're probably wondering what's going on and scared." They all nodded but just as they were about to do that, a banging sound caught their attention and made them all look up.

The sound had come from the ceiling and made them all worried, since that wasn't a sound one should hear when in a black out.

A second sound followed this, followed by another and another. They all felt themselves getting on edge, Trixie putting on her Luna Cat mask, as the sound got louder and closer. Twilight stepped in front of Cadance, who held Flurry tightly as they waited to see what the heck was happening. And soon, they got their answer.

The ceiling suddenly exploded, sending metal flying down towards them.

Twilight, Rarity and Pinkie acted, Rarity putting a shield around them whilst Twilight grabbed the metal in her magic. It was heavy, but she was able to hold it long enough for Pinkie to throw some sprinkles at it.

The sprinkles collided with the metal and exploded, knocking it away as smaller pieces fell down and bounced off the shield.

They all focused on the ceiling, where a large hole had been blown. That hole became the entryway of the ones attacking, as they flew in and revealed themselves to be a quintet of jet-like robots that began flying around the room.

The robots were all slightly different, but each one had a similar design. They were all silver in colour with different coloured lines covering them, the largest of the five being having red trim with a large horn on the front that appeared to have a pair of cannons sticking out of the end.

The next largest ones were a blue and green trimmed robot that both had gatling guns beneath them. Then, the last two were yellow and pink trimmed with the yellow one having a drill on the front and the pink one having a buzzsaw. The pink and yellow ones were about the size of a normal human, with the red one being double that and the last two being in the middle.

These drones flew around the room, scaring Flurry and Fluttershy whilst the others prepared for a fight. The blue and green drones were the first to attack, flying towards them and launching laser bullets from their gatling guns. But Rarity was able to put up a shield and protect them before they struck, allowing Flash to activate the Omnitrix.

"Volt-Edge!" He roared upon transformation, as the pink and yellow drones attacked. Volt-Edge charged, coating his body in lightning as he leapt up to slash at the robots. Their energy weapons slammed into his claws and Volt-Edge had a feeling that if he wasn't using his electrical powers, they would likely have cut through his claws.

He was pushed back as the red drone flew down, its horn-like cannon firing at him. Luckily, Twilight raised one of the fallen pieces of metal to block the twin blasts. But the impact and explosion ripped the metal beam to pieces, as Volt-Edge began charging up as much power as he could.

"Rarity!" The girl covered them all in her magic, "get a load of THIS!" The lightning exploded out of him, flying in all directions and hitting the five drones. He hoped the electrical output would have fried them, but the jets all seemed able to withstand his blast. "No way." He dropped the energy and as he did, the others decided they needed to get out of there.

Twilight grabbed the five drones in her magic and pushed them back as hard as she could. They were all thrown backwards and as they did, Rarity dropped the shield. "Head for the stairs!" They didn't argue and rushed over to where the stairs were, Rainbow being the first to reach the door and throwing it open.

The only one that didn't run for it was Volt-Edge, who charged at the drones whilst they picked themselves up.

The red drone charged forward, ramming into Volt-Edge and pushing him backwards. The alien grunted at this, feeling the wind being knocked out of him. But he quickly dug his clawed feet into the ground and used it to keep him from being pushed back.

But as this happened, the other four drones shot passed him and flew into the stairwell after the others. "LOOK OUT!"

His cries alerted the others, who looked up and saw the machines flying straight down. They doubled their speeds and spotted the first door that lead to the next level, the lot of them rushing through it as Rarity tried to protect them from the energy bullets.

The yellow drone flew down and thrust its drill into Rarity's shield, making her flinch as cracks began to appear. Rainbow saw this and knew Rarity couldn't move for fear of dropping the shield, as Twilight, Cadance, Trixie, Pinkie and Fluttershy had already run through the door.

Seeing no other option, she grabbed Applejack and Adagio whilst telling them to grab Rarity and Sunset. They did so and Rainbow summoned her superspeed, using it to jet down the stairs whilst pulling the other four down with her.

Her superspeed along with Applejack's strength allowed her to carry them all, getting them down to the next level as the drones split up. The blue and yellow ones flew down after them, whilst the green and pink ones smashed through the door and followed the others.

Rainbow reached the next level and stopped, the lot of them opening the door and running through it.

Twilight pulled Cadance and Flurry down the corridor with her, Fluttershy, Pinkie and Trixie close behind.

But as they ran, the drones flew after them and and got ready to attack. "Oh no you don't!" Trixie slid to a stop, Fluttershy and Pinkie turning to her as she activated her Medallion. "Teleport!" She slammed her staff onto the ground and in a flash, the three vanished.

The drones stopped for a moment and stared at the corridor in front of them, as if trying to figure out what happened.

But then, the green drone fired its gun and hit a bunch of sprinkles that suddenly appeared. The sprinkles exploded and the pink drone charged, its saw attacking something. "WOW!" Trixie's voice cried, as she suddenly appeared with Pinkie and Fluttershy. "They can see through my illusions!" She cried, deflecting several more bullets.

"They must be able to see heat sources or something," Fluttershy guessed as the green one fired and got passed Trixie's guard. She screamed as one almost hit her, Trixie telling the girls to run. They didn't need telling twice and ran for it, leaving Lady Masquerade to fight the two bots on her own.

Trixie tried he best, but the two robots together were too much for her. The green one blasted the floor in front of her and Trixie was knocked back, allowing the pink one to fly forwards. Trixie barely managed to avoid the saw, but was still bodychecked by the robot and knocked away.

"Augh!" She smashed into the wall and fell to the ground, as the drone flew closer to her. Its saw whirled dangerously close to her, but then it pulled back and flew off down one corridor whilst the green one flew down another. This made Trixie moan, as she started to recover. "Why didn't it finish me off?" She could only think that the robots had to have been after something. Something that only required them to incapacitate them.

Back above, Volt-Edge fought against the red drone.

The machine continued to push its horn forward, but Volt-Edge was able to fight against it. "I don't...think so." But as he said that, the cannons on the ends of its horn began to light up and make a sound. "Uh oh!" He used all his strength to push the horn upwards, seconds before a pair of blasts exploded out and slammed into the ceiling above it.

Volt-Edge used this opening to let go and jump away from the drone, firing several bolts of lightning at it. But the electrical energy had no effect, Volt-Edge frowning at this.

"These things aren't gonna be damaged by lightning." He looked around and a smirked, "big mistake turning off the power." The machine didn't react, as he stood tall. "You might have shut down the base's defences, but you made this place a lot darker. And because of that, I've got more options to fight with!" He slammed the Omnitrix and in a flash of light, he transformed. "Kagenobi!"

The drone's robotic sensors stared at the shadow ninja, who quickly leapt into the ground and disappeared in the darkness.

It tried to use its heat-sensor to locate it, but the machine couldn't find it anywhere. As such, it just started charging up the cannons ready to fire when Kagenobi appeared. And he did.

"HYAH!" The ninja leapt out of the shadows behind it, a shuriken of darkness in his grasp. The drone turned towards the noise and this was what Kagenobi wanted, throwing the shuriken as it was half turned around.

The weapon spun through the air and hit the horn, cutting through it and causing a small explosion when the built up power was released. This knocked the drone backwards, as Kagenobi landed on the ground and pulled a shadow spear out of the darkness.

"Lights out, sparky!" He leapt forward and thrust his weapon upwards, the blade impaling the machine through the middle.

The drone sparked and short-circuited several times before its light died, the machine falling to the ground. Kagenobi landed next to it, pulling some kunai out in case it attacked. But the machine was dead, making him sigh.

"Gotta go help the others." He ran towards the stairs and morphed into the shadows, disappearing into the base and leaving the red drown alone.

When it was, the robot came back to life. As it did, tendrils of light came out of the holes in the machine and started stitching the robot back together. The holes began to slowly close up, whilst the tendrils moved towards the severed hole and started pulling the metal together.

Down below, Twilight and Cadance continued to run through the base's corridors as they attempted to find a way to escape.

Cadance clutched Flurry to her as they turned a corner, only to skid to a stop when they saw it lead nowhere. "A dead end?" Twilight asked, "why would you have a corridor turn only to lead to a dead end? Who designed this place?" They turned to run back the way they came, only to come face to face with the pink drone.

Flurry began to cry and Cadance clutched her tightly to herself. "It's okay. We'll protect you." As she said that, the drone shot forward and its buzzsaw whirled.

Twilight summoned her magic and used it to grab the machine, stopping it in its tracks. The drone tried to fight against the magical hold, Twilight panting as she felt the strain. But she wouldn't be stopped. She would keep Cadance and Flurry safe, no matter what.

The drone slowly pushed itself closer and closer, Twilight feeling her hold on his slacken as Cadance stepped backwards. They had to find a way to stop this machine or escape it, but how?

"Rapid Turtle!" They then heard a voice cry out, making them look over and see a flash of light at the end of the corridor.

The next thing they knew, a green blur shot up to them before the drone felt its buzzsaw being sliced off by a fast moving shield. The blur then leapt up and slammed that shield into its back, breaking through its metal armoring.

Trixie finally slowed back down, as she pulled her shield out of its back and leapt over to Twilight and Cadance. "You guys okay?"

"Yeah," Twilight nodded, "thanks for the help." But the drone was far from done and tried to attack, but Twilight used her magic to reach into the machine and pull something out. "That looks important!" The metal box she removed from its back hole was pulled until the wires snapped, causing the device to completely freeze before it fell to the ground.

The four females all sighed in relief, as glad that the dangerous machine was dead.

"That was too close," Cadance told them. "And there's four more of these things attacking?" Twilight and Trixie frowned, since there was a chance the others had been able to take them down. But there was also a chance they were in serious trouble.

"What do we do?" Trixie asked.

"You go find the others," Twilight told her. "Cadance, Flurry and I are heading down."

"Why?"

"The best way to beat these things is to reactivate the base's defence systems. And to do that, we need power. Hopefully, the others can old out until I'm able to get the power back on." Trixie nodded and ran off, whilst Twilight lead Cadance through the corridors hoping to get back to the stairwell before drones could find them.

As they did, the pink drone's body unleashed the same tendrils as the red one. It too was slowly being pieced back together.

Adagio, Rainbow, Applejack, Rarity and Sunset continued to run, the other two drones chasing them with the blue one firing the five.

Adagio ran around a corner and as the others were about too, the green drone fired a barrage towards them. "Look out!" Rainbow grabbed Rarity and pulled her backwards, the lasers slamming into the ground where the girl had been. The yellow drone then charged at them and the four ducked, the machine flying over but they quickly found themselves trapped from both sides.

Rarity quickly raised her hands and a wall of gems that filled the corridor on either side of them, locking the four in place as the drones tried to break through it.

There was a door next to them, but when Sunset tried to open it wouldn't since it was an electronic door. Luckily, Applejack was able to use her super strength to push them open. "Hurry!" Sunset and Rainbow went through the door and Applejack followed, Rarity carefully moving through it whilst the dones attacked the shield walls.

Applejack tried to close the doors, but that was a lot easier than opening them. Rarity eventually couldn't take any more and her shield broke apart, allowing the drones to fly into the room they were in. But only the green one did so.

The yellow drone had decided to go after Adagio, chasing the now lone girl down as she ran through the hallways.

She finally found a door and tried to open it, but it refused to open like the other one. And as she tried to pull it open, the yellow drone flew around the corner and charged at her. Its drill spun and she screamed, ducking down just in time to avoid getting skewed.

The drill, instead, hit the door and began to cut into it, the robot pulling back as Adagio thrust her body up and knocked it away.

The door's damage allowed her to open it, but the drill was right behind her and ready to attack. Luckily, the room Adagio had just entered was one she could use to protect herself. The weapons room.

The weapons racks were all up, allowing her to grab one of the blaster rifles that now filled the room. And as the drone attacked, Adagio pointed the blaster at the machine and started opening fire. The lasers bounced off the robot's drill as it approached and Adagio leapt to the side, rolling along the ground and launching the blasts into the side of the drone.

The blasts damaged the robot and eventually, the drill was shot off and the machine sparked.

Adagio took this chance to charge forward and smash the butt of the blaster into it, pushing it towards the ground. The impact was enough to dent the machine's hull open and allow her to fire into it, causing a small explosion that made the machine go dead.

Adagio sighed in relief, then ran for the door. But before she left, she grabbed a few more blasters and slung them over her shoulder.

But as soon as she was gone, the machine started to rebuild itself like the others.

"Look out!" Sunset cried, as a barrage of lasers rain down upon them.

They were in the room that they had taken shelter in, which turned out to be a depowered holodeck, with the blue drone firing at them all. Rarity did her best to protect her friends, but the drone's rapid fire was proving too much for her shields to handle.

Rainbow and Applejack frowned, since the drone was too high up for any of them to do anything against. They wished the holodeck had power, since that would allow them to turn to place into an environment that the pair could fight in. But they were trapped where they were, wishing they had a way to stop this mechanised menace.

Luckily, Adagio arrived and started blasting the drone as soon as she ran into the room.

"Catch!" She threw two more rifles at them, Sunset and Rainbow smirking as they grabbed them and started to open fire. The drone did its best to avoid the lasers, but Rarity began to use her shields to create walls that the drone bounced off of and forced it to the ground.

As Adagio, Rainbow and Sunset kept shooting it, Applejack ran forward. And as soon as the drone was low enough, she leapt into the air and punched it with all her strength.

The robot let out a mechanical scream, as it slammed into the wall and part of its body began much flatter.

It then fell to the ground and the five stared at it until its lights went off and it was completely dead. They sighed at this, glad that was over with. "Thanks," Sunset told Adagio. "If you hadn't shown up with these things, we'd probably be dead meat." Adagio smirked as she slung her rifle over her shoulder.

"Don't mention it. Now, let's go find the others. I just hope they've been able to deal with these things as well as we could." They nodded and followed her out of the room, seconds before the drone's body started unleashing the light tendrils and pulling itself back together.

Fluttershy and Pinkie had managed to escape the drones and had found an access shaft, which they had managed to open and use to descend into the lower sections of the base.

"I think this is it," Fluttershy told Pinkie. She reached to the other side of the tube they were in and pushed on the wall, causing it to swing open and allow them to climb out of the shaft. When they did so, they were happy to see they were in the right room.

"Fluttershy!" Pearl cried from within her tank.

"What the heck is going on out there?" Scales asked, the other hybrids looking just as worried.

"Oh you know." Pinkie panted, "a bunch of robot jets suddenly attacked the base after the power went out. No biggie." Fluttershy rushed over to the enclosure control panel and started typing at it. But it didn't work.

"I can't open your tanks." The hybrids frowned, since that meant they were stuck there.

And in that moment, the access hatch exploded and the girls screamed as the green jet flew into the room. Pinkie threw some sprinkles at it, but the explosions didn't do anything against it.

Instead, the drone turned to them as the top of it opened up. Seconds later, something shot out of it and flew towards the girls. They cried out as they were slammed to the ground by a black net, the ends of it having metal tips that suddenly seemed to be drawn towards one another. Within seconds, they were all magnetically connected and the girls were trapped inside.

"No!" Drift cried, as the drone flew over to the control console.

A small metal arm folded out of the machine and attached itself to the console, sparking as the room suddenly lit up a lot more. "What it doing?" Charger asked, as the machine started making the console beep and flash.

"I don't know," Scales frowned. "But I don't think it'll be good."

Down below, Twilight and Cadance had reached the stairs and made their way downwards.

They kept going and going as deep down as they could, until they finally reached the very last flight. And as they reached the bottom, they spotted a door leading to the main power relay room. "There it is!" Twilight reached for the door and as she was about to open it, she frowned before turning to Cadance. "You and Flurry should stay here."

"What?" Cadance gasped, "why?"

"Something had to knock out the power. And it's possible that something is through these doors. If something happened to you both, I'd never be able to look Shining in the eye." Cadance frowned, but knew Twilight had a point.

Twilight opened the door and took out her phone, using the flashlight to illuminate the room as she stepped inside. She looked around and saw the many cables and pipes covering the room's walls, all leading to a single generator at the back of the room. And that's when she saw them.

A bunch of tiny metallic spheres with legs, which were walking around the generator room as beams of light flew out the bottoms and were cutting into the electrics. "STOP!" She cried, catching the robot's attention and causing them to turn their focus on her.

The orbs suddenly leapt into the air, as their legs unleashed tiny flames that caused them to soar through the air.

They flew around Twilight, acting like a swarm of bees that started shooting at her. Their lasers weren't very effective, but still hurt as they hit her. She cried out as she started fighting back, attempting to grab them in her magic. But they were moving to fast.

Back in the habitat room, the robot continued to hack the console until it finally got what it was after.

Drift's enclosure suddenly opened up, allowing the griffon human hybrid the chance to fight back. "You're mine!" He shot forward and began flying around the robot, whilst started firing its gatling gun at him. But Drift was able to avoid the blasts and unleashed his sonic blast, hitting the jet and knocking it backwards. "Now I gotcha!"

"Go Drift!" Pearl cheered, as he charged down to attack. But as he did, the drone turned its weapon on Fluttershy and Pinkie.

They all gasped, realising what it was up to. And Drift knew he couldn't attack the drone before it fired. But he could move between it and the girls, which is what he did. "NO!" They cried, expecting the drone to shoot him down. But it didn't.

At the last second, the top of the robot opened up and fired out its net.

Drift gasped, but it was too late to stop himself. The net slammed into him and the tips connected, trapping him inside. The hybrid quickly tried to fight against the netting, but before he could a surge of energy flew through the cables and zapped him. "AAAAARRRRRHHHHH!"

"Drift!" Fluttershy cried, as the hybrid fell to the ground. He looked to be out cold and as she and Pinkie struggled to try and get out, the robot turned its attention back to the console.

It was likely going to free the hybrids one by one, then trap them. But it wouldn't get that chance.

"Hands off the computer!" Kagenobi suddenly leapt out of the shadows and slashed at the robot's arm with a shadow sword, cutting it off as the ninja laughed. He then swung the swung around to destroy the gatling gun, followed by thrusting the sword right into the robot's face.

The machine screamed as it was knocked backwards and crashed into the ground, going dead as Kagenobi turned to the others.

He quickly sliced through the nets, freeing Drift and the girls before turning to the console. Typing the correct code in, he opened the other three cells and the hybrids stepped out of their enclosures. "You all okay?" He asked, as the Omnitrix beeped and he reverted back to human.

"Drift?" Fluttershy checked the griffon, who moaned as they sat him up. "Are you okay?"

"Ow," he replied, "that really hurt." He turned to Flash, "thanks." Flash nodded as the doors of the room's stairway exit flew open, Trixie rushing in still wearing her Rapid Turtle suit.

"What happened?" She asked, seeing the destroyed robot and the hybrids. "I'm guessing a missed something?" As she said that, Adagio and her group ran into the room.

"We heard an explosion!" Rainbow cried, pointing the blaster at the robot. "Is it dead?"

"Yup," Flash nodded, "so's the red one."

"I took out the pink one," Trixie stated.

"And I took out the blue one," Adagio smiled. "The yellow one's also taken care off. So that means they're all destroyed, right?" They all nodded, but they knew that likely didn't mean they were safe.

"Twilight's headed downstairs to try and fix the power," Trixie told them. "But who knows how long that's gonna take."

Sunset nodded, "we should get them and get out of here. There's no telling if more of those robots will come back and attack again. Especially since we don't know what they're after."

"I think we do," Flash told her. "This one tried to captured the hybrids. It purposely opened Drift's enclosure and captured him before trying with the other ones. That doesn't sound like something to just randomly do." The others frowned, knowing that if someone was after the hybrids then they were likely up to no good. "But you're right. Let's try and find Twilight." They nodded as they headed for the exit, stepping outside and heading back up hoping Twilight was there.

As they did, the drone began to unleash the light tendrils and repair itself just like the rest of its group.

Twilight continued to fight against the tiny robots, crying with every burn she received.

"Stop it!" She cried, as she tried to swat them away. But the robots were just too fast, which made it impossible for her to get them. She was constantly pushed back, away from the power relay which meant there was no way to fix it. Which also meant there was no way for her to get the power back online. "I'm sorry everyone."

But before she could think to give up and retreat, something came flying towards her.

"Back off!" Cadance yelled, as she swung something around. That something was a broom, the long end swatting at the robots and knocking some to the ground. The impact wasn't enough for them to break, but it was enough for Twilight to get them in her magical grasp.

She crushed them and as she let them go, Cadance swung the broom around and hit several more.

Twilight was able to grasp more and more in her magic, allowing her to break them. It took a while, but they managed to destroy each and every one of them.

The pair panted from the effort, Cadance dropping the broom she had found outside whilst Twilight turned to her. "Where's Flurry?" A bunch of baby babble made them look around and see the toddler, crawling towards them looking ready for a fight.

"I told you to stay outside where it was safe," Cadance moved over and picked her up. As she did, Twilight turned to the damaged power relay. "Can you fix it?"

"I don't know," Twilight frowned. "But I've got to try." She summoned her magic and started grabbing the different parts of the relay, beginning to bind them together and fix what she could. Hopefully, she could bring the power back online and the others could hold out until then.

Back upstairs, the others lead the hybrids back up to the main control room.

They wanted to search for the others, but figured getting the targets of the attack out of the base would keep them safer then looking for them. They would get the hybrids out safely, then Flash would head back inside to find them.

However, as they returned to the room where all this started, they suddenly found themselves almost getting blasted. A pair of energy blasts flew down and caused the ground to explode, knocking many of them flying backwards. Those that weren't looked up and were shocked to see the red drone flying in the air.

"I thought you said you destroyed that thing!?" Rainbow asked Flash, as he picked himself up.

"I did!" He cried, "It had a freaking hole in the middle of it and I cut its horn off!" He quickly realised what must have happened, "it repaired itself." The others realised he was right and also realised something else.

"If it can fix itself..." Applejack stated before the elevator suddenly exploded. When it did, the other four drones flew out and started flying around the red one.

"That's not good," Adagio gulped.

"It's gonna try and catch us," Pearl cried.

"Not if we dismantle it!" Scales yelled as they leapt into the air. He unleashed a blast of fire, but the jets were completely unphased by the heat. He then tried to slash at them, but the pink and yellow blocked and his claws did nothing against their energy weapons.

Drift and Pearl did the same, whilst those on the ground used their blasters to attack. But they did very little to them.

Flash looked down at the Omnitrix and saw it was still red, making him frown since he was defenceless against them until it powered back up.

The red drone fired its cannon and hit Scales, the dragon crying out as he was knocked backwards and crashed into the ground. The blue one then flew down, preparing to fire a net at him. But Charger ran forward, the minotaur, yak hybrid roaring as he summoned a bunch of hair to power himself up.

But the drone flew out of his reach and shot back towards the others. As it did, the five robots began to glow as something happened.

The red drone flew up, as the other four flew around it. Everyone watched as the red drone began to transform, its body reshaping itself until it was that of a torso and waist. The blue and green drones then transformed, their gatling guns folding into them as they re-shaped into a pair of legs and feet. The yellow and pink once didn't need to transform much, with just a few shifts morphing them into a pair of arms with the drill and saw replacing the hands.

They all came together, connecting to the red drone and transforming it into a humanoid shape. Finally, the top of the red drown opened up and revealed a head that Flash recognised. It looked exactly like the robot that had attacked him the day they had met Tirek. Now he knew who must have originally sent it, even if he didn't actually know who they were.

"Wow!" Pinkie cried, as the robot raised its arms and spun its weapons. "They combined!"

"Ha!" Charge punched his fist, "metal man not scary. Looks no longer can fly!" He charged and summoned as much hair muscle as he could create, whilst the robot looked down at him.

Then, the knees of the robot opened up and the gatling guns folded out before firing. The energy bullets began to collide with him, knocking him backwards but doing little damage thanks to the hair layers covering his body.

The other hybrids flew in and attempted to claw at the robot, only to have to fly back when the saw and drill arms swung around. The horn on its head then fired and showed greater power, hitting the three and knocked them back as they cried out.

"No!" Fluttershy cried, rushing to their aid as they fell to the floor.

Charger finally reached the robot and attempted to punch it in the leg, but the machine swung its leg out of the way and his attack missed. It then swung back and booted the off balance hybrid, knocking it flying. This was its chance, the robot opening up its chest and firing a net at Charger.

He saw this and gasped, trying to move in the air. But he couldn't and the net wrapped around him before unleashing a burst of energy. "GYAAAH!" He fell to the ground, making them all gasp.

Rainbow ran forward and tried to free him, but the robot slammed its drill into the ground and unleashed an energy wave that slammed into her and knocked her back. It then kept going and hit the others, Rarity putting up a shield that protected herself, Flash and Adagio.

Everyone else fell to the ground, groaning in pain whilst the robot turned to the other hybrids.

Flash frowned and as he considered just attacking in human form, the Omnitrix turned green. "Yes!" He considered going as Kagenobi again, but had another idea after watching Charger.

So he quickly activated it and once he found the alien he wanted, slammed it down to transform.

When the light faded, everyone saw he was in an completely new alien. His body was similar to Charger, only his skin was orange and his hair was blue. He was wearing a black and white wrestling leotard, which covered his lower section and had the Omnitrix on the stomach of it. "Yak-Smasher!"

The robot turned to him, its gaze shifting between him and the captured Charger. Clearly, it didn't know which one it was supposed to get.

This gave Yak-Smasher the chance to rush forward, building up speed as he started wrapping his blue hair around his arms and chest to increase his muscles. The robot finally decided to focus on him and started firing its gatling guns at him, but her used his arms to block.

Just like with with Charger, the bullets bounced off his hair covered form and he was able to keep from being blasted back. He then leapt straight up before the robot could try and attack with something else, slamming his fist into the robot's waist and knocking it staggering backwards.

He fell back to the ground and felt his hair beginning to strain, so uncoiled it from his body so he wouldn't tear them.

As he did, the machine regained its footing and swung its buzzsaw hand towards him. Yak-Smasher leapt to the left, the saw cutting into the floor instead. He then leapt up and wrapped his hair around his arm, which he slammed into the machine's arm at the elbow joint. The force of the impact was enough to buckle through the metal as rip it off.

The robot pulled back, as the buzzsaw arm fell to the ground and stopped spinning. "How'd you like that!?"

The robot staggered back and fired its horn cannon towards him, Yak-Smasher preparing to jump away. But before he could, a blur of something appeared in front of him and stopped to reveal Trixie. "Mighty Bull!" She screamed, quickly transforming and summoning her bell weapon. She roared as she slammed it onto the ground, then pointed it at the robot as a blast of sound erupted from it.

The sound wall struck the cannon blast and knocked it backwards, where it exploded against the robot.

This pushed it back even more, Yak-Smasher smirking before he leapt into the air and summoned more hair around his arm.

He thrust it forward and smashed it right into the robot's chest, buckling it as it was thrown backwards. It crashed against the back wall and as it did, the joints of its arms and legs rattled and came loose.

Yak-Smasher smirked, only to then notice the robot's damaged chest unleashing white tendrils of light. These tendrils began to repair the damage to its chest and around the end of its arm. "So that's how it fixed itself," he growled. "How do we stop this thing?"

Down below, Twilight kept working on the power relay as Cadance held their phones for her.

The girls was working as fast as she could to repair the device, but feared she would mess up if she went too fast. "Almost there!" She cried, rerouting several systems to bypass the ones damaged by the robots. And eventually, she put the last wire into place and the whole thing suddenly came to life.

The pair leapt back, as it hummed and started sending powering to the rest of the base. Within seconds, the lights came on and filled the room.

The sisters began to cheer, as they and Flurry hugged one another.

The lights had also come back on in the other room, surprising them but they quickly smiled.

"Yes!" Yak-Smasher cheered, hitting the Omnitrix to change back to human. "Plumber base security measure!" He yelled, "category three six five eight nine!" He was glad Shining had had him memorise those codes. "Target power source right in front of Omnitrix and attack with deadly force!"

The base's computer followed his instructions and as the robot was close to fixing itself, the walls of the room opened up and a bunch of blasters appeared out of them.

They all pointed at the machine and started opening fire, slamming into the robot and doing serious damage to it. Within seconds, the machine was ripped apart by the rapid multi-angle assault. The robot's armoring quickly broke under the pressure and the five drones began to fall away from one another.

The lasers didn't stop until it was a pile of bent and burned scrap metal, the pieces laying in a heap and giving off a bunch of smoke.

Everyone stared at the scrap pile for several seconds, waiting to see if the machine began to pull itself back together. But it didn't. Clearly, it had been damaged beyond repair. "Finally!" Flash fell to the ground in exhaustion, "so much for a quiet night in." The others were also resting, having removed the now powerless net from Charger.

They all sat there for a good while, until Twilight and Cadance returned looking very winded after climbing so many flights of stairs. "Everyone!" She cried, "are you okay?" They nodded as Twilight spotted the metal in the corner. "Is that the drones?"

"What's left of them," Sunset replied. "Were you the one who got the power back on?" Twilight nodded, "you seriously saved our butts. That thing could repair itself. If you hadn't gotten the defences back up, the robot would have kept fixing itself and beaten us in the end."

"And it would have taken us away," Pearl still looked terrified.

Twilight looked confused and they explained, "I see." She turned to the robot remains, "they were after the hybrids. So whoever sent them were the ones who made you guys. But who are they?" That was a question they all wanted to know the answer to. And what else they were planning to do in order to acquire their prize.

Tirek growled at the screen, as the words 'signal lost' appeared on the screen.

He sat back in his chair, "should have known it wouldn't be that easy." He rubbed his eyes, "I was sure the self regeneration would be enough to overwhelm them. Guess I should have tried to make the sabotage robots more powerful. But there's only so much I can do whilst keeping them so small."

He switched off the screen and spun around, trying to think of what else he could do.

"I need to be smarter than this. Even if I had managed to get them back, those fools would have stopped at nothing to find and rescue them. I need to think of a way to get them without having Flash Sentry and his friends on my tail. And the only way to do that...is to make them think the subjects are dead."

Several days later, a beam of light appeared in front of the Plumber Base.

Shining Armor materialized within it with a smirk on his face, as he held up his now officially earned plumber badge. The training had been tough, but he had managed to stick it out and pass with a score of ninety-four. Now he was a true blue plumber, ready to dispense justice all throughout the galaxy.

He walked up to the building and as he did, he noticed one of Azmuth's robots working on fixing the front door.

"Should have known they'd break something," Shining shook his head. It was alright. One broken door was nothing to worry about.

However. As he stepped inside, he spotted another robot working on a hole in the floor. He then noticed the elevator was also being repaired, making him worry something serious had happened. So he quickly found the stairs leading down into the base and headed below.

And when he got close, he heard a bunch of noise and stepped inside to find more robots fixing up the base. "What the heck?" This caught the attention Azmuth, who turned to see from his floating platform.

"Ahh, Shining Armor. I take it the training went well."

"Forget the training. What happened here?"

"You might want to ask your sister and her friends. I was quite surprised to return here, only to find the place an absolute wreck and the power relay fixed up but barely able to keep the power on." As he said that, Flash, Twilight and Adagio stepped into the room.

"Shining!" Twilight smiled, as her brother turned to give her a look. They quickly realised what he was looking upset about and all felt very sweaty. "We can explain." Shining had a feeling this was gonna be a long story.

Author's Note

So much for just hanging out having fun. What did you think of Flash's new alien? Hope you liked it. How will things turn out next time? Only time will tell.

Season 3, Episode 12: Age is Just a Number

It was another busy day in Canterlot and Flash was giving Adagio, Aria and Sonata a lift to the mall.

The three girls were rather excited. Ever since the commercial they stared in, their popularity had soared and the trio were wanted to do multiple magazine shoots and had even gotten a few more commercial gigs. But despite this new fame, Adagio was making sure it didn't go to any of their heads. Especially hers.

As such, the trio had accepted when Rarity asked them to be her models.

They were a little surprised by the request, assuming Rarity would want her friends to be models. But Rarity knew none of her friends had a particular interest in that kind of thing and didn't want to force them into doing something, which had been why she asked the three of them. With their modelling skills, they would be able to do a professional job without needing to force themselves.

"So," Flash turned to the girls, "remind me how this contest works again."

Adagio sighed. "The contestants who signed up have three hours to make three dresses completely from scratch. They then have their models show them off like in a fashion show and the judges decide who the winner is. It's that simple." Flash nodded, understanding why Rarity would want to enter it. She was always searching for a way to prove herself as a fashionista.

Sonata then leaned forward with a smile on her face. "And the winner of the contest, will have their designs shown off in a fashion magazine. If Rarity wins this, it'll be a big chance for her to step out into the fashion world and make a name for herself."

"What do you mean, if she wins?" Flash asked, "this is Rarity we're talking about. She could make a great dress in her sleep. And that's not a boast. Applejack once had a sleepover with her and woke up to find Rarity, taking her measurements for a dress whilst still snoring." They all laughed as they arrived at the mall, pulling in and spotting Shining, Applejack and Fluttershy's cars next to an empty spot.

Pulling in, he got out and found Shining, Trixie and six of the seven Rainbooms waiting for them.

"Twilight rope you in to giving her a lift?" Flash asked Shining, who nodded and an upset look on his face.

"Yeah. I had plans for testing out the base's new teleporter system, but she started complaining about me trying to do fun stuff like that without her. So now I have to play chauffeur for her, to make sure I'm not testing the teleporter without her." Flash laughed as they all headed into the mall, which was surprisingly deserted due to the contest that was taking place there.

They made their way through it until they arrived at the food court. There, a large section of the area had been curtained off. Stepping through it, they spotted a fashion catwalk that lead to another area that was curtained off. A table was located at the front of the catwalk, where the three judges were likely going to sit and observe the designs that were made. For such a small looking contest, there appeared to be a lot of effort put into it.

Many people were standing around the catwalk, waiting patiently for the contest to start. One of them was Rarity, who gasped and rushed over to them. "Darlings. Thank you for coming."

"Of course," Twilight smiled. "We wouldn't just let you compete in this tournament on your own."

"Besides," Flash nodded his head to the Dazzlings, "some of us had to be the ride for the models."

Rarity laughed at this and turned to the three, "you ready to put on the performance of a lifetime?"

"Of course," Adagio nodded. "Just make sure to give this your all. We don't want to end up wearing something that the judges absolutely hate." Rarity smirked at this, clearly accepting the challenge as someone stepped through the curtains into the cordoned off area.

She was a woman who appeared to be around seventy or older. She was a peach-skinned woman with white hair and wearing clothes that a person's grandma wouldn't be seen wearing.

She slowly made her way across the floor, taking out a pocket watch as she did so to check the time. "Good. I made it before the contest started." As she walked through the area, several of the young designers moved over to her.

"Excuse me?" one asked. "Would you like some help? I'm sure judging must be a very big burden, so if there's anything we can do to help just say it."

"What?" The woman asked, "I'm not a judge." This surprised them, "I'm here to compete in this contest."

"You?" Another of the contestant asked, "why? Who even are you?"

"If you must know, my name's Doddery. I run a textiles shop in town and when I heard about this contest, I realised it was my chance to show the world my fashion skills." The other contestants kept looking at her before the lot of them suddenly burst out laughing. "What's so funny?"

"Sorry granny," a male contestant told her. "But trying to win this contest isn't for the old and decrepit."

Doddery's eyes went wide hearing this, anger quickly appearing on her face. "Yeah," another told her, "I don't think they supply knitting gear here. So you might be a little in over your head, using the machines." They laughed some more, whilst Rarity and her friends all frowned at her.

"Just go home," one of the models told her. "You don't want to get in the way and ruin the contest."

"This contest was ruined the moment they let you young brats enter!" Doddery screamed before turning to leave, clearly not wishing to be anywhere near the spoiled brats. Rarity frowned as she watched her disappear, wanting to go after her and apologise for what was said.

But before she could, a trio of individuals stepped out onto the stage. These were the judges, which consisted of two men and a woman.

"Welcome," one of the men spoke up, "ladies and gentlemen. Thank you all for signing up for this contest. We all look forward to seeing what you manage to create here today." They all nodded as the woman spoke up.

"Just a reminder. Each of you will have three hours to design a trio of dresses that you will need to have modelled for you. The person with the most unique, inspiring and fancy designs will be considered the winner and earn a place in Fashion Mag Monthly. I can assure you, winning this contest could be what makes your careers as fashion designers."

The last man spoke up. "We still have a little more to do backstage, so please take this time to focus on your plans and what you think you can make with what we give you. We'll call you all in when we're ready for you." The three headed backstage as the designers started focusing on their plans.

"So what's your plan?" Adagio asked Rarity, who took out her sketchbook.

"Take a look." The Dazzlings opened it up and were amazed to see multiple different different designs within it. "I don't know what materials they'll be giving us, so I designed a bunch of different concepts. Once I know what I'm working with, I'll be able to narrow down my choices."

Everyone looked over Adagio's shoulder and realised the designs were quite impressive, though they were only the basic ideas. "These look great," Rainbow cried. "I'm no expert and even I can tell any of these'll win you the contest."

"I hope you're right," Rarity took several deep breaths. "This contest is my best shot to make a name for myself. Messing up now would be horrible." She waved her hands in front of her, trying to calm herself down. "But what if someone has a better idea? What if someone makes a similar design? What if-"

"Rarity!" Applejack grabbed her by the shoulders. "Relax. Why don't ya'h take a walk and calm ya-self down before it starts? We'll come find ya'h if they call everyone in."

Rarity took another deep breath and smiled. "Thank you, Applejack. I think that's exactly what I'll do." She headed out and everyone looked around, not liking the looks some of the other designers were giving them. Clearly, they didn't want anyone to get the upper hand. The world of fashion was a cutthroat business for sure.

Meanwhile, Doddery was sitting on a bench next to some flowers the mall had planted to liven up the place.

The woman stared down at her wrinkled hands, hating the sight of her old and haggard body. The memories of those younger designers filled her with rage, as she thought about everything they had said. "It's not fair. Why should they get to enjoy life whilst all I can do is sit here and watch the world go by without getting to enjoy it?" Tears formed in her eyes, but she refused to cry.

As she fought back her sobs, something flew into the mall through an open skylight.

That something was a wisp of sparkling light, which flew down in random directions before heading towards something in particular. That something was the pocket watch Doddery had been carrying, which was laid on the bench next to her.

When it flew into the watch, the object glowed before transforming. This light caught Doddery's attention and made her look down to see her watch change, the light vanishing to reveal it was now larger with a domed top that was blue and covered in tiny clock faces.

She picked the watch up and looked at it, curious about what had happened. She opened it up and when she did, a tendril of light flew out of it and she gasped.

The tendril flew over to one of the plants in the soil next to her, this particular flower looking like it was past its prime. But as the tendril flowed over it, the flower's petals began to brighten and the ones that looked like they were about to fall off re-fused to it. The bent stalk began to straighten back out and eventually, the flower looked as healthy and perfect as the others.

But it didn't stop there, as the flower suddenly started closing up and shrinking.

Doddery finally forced the watch closed and broke the tendril, which disappeared into nothingness, but found the light continued to glow through the gaps. "What was that?" She then felt a pressure and the watch sprang open again, another light tendril flying out before she could react.

It shot towards another flower and hit it. Only this time, the flower didn't get better and shrink. Instead, it began to get worse with its petals beginning to fall off as it drooped. The light eventually faded and Doddery could close the watch, shocked by what had just happened.

Her eyes drifted between the flowers and slowly, she realised what had happened. "Can...can it remove age from something?" She knew it was a stretch, but a part of her felt this was exactly what it could do. And when she looked down at her hands, she realised what she could do. And despite how insane she thought it was, she had to try.

Taking a deep breath, she raised the watch to point at her and opened it up.

The tendrils shot out and one struck her, making her gasp. In the blink of an eye, she felt her body getting stronger. Her bones didn't seem to creek and her skin grew tighter. Even her hair felt different.

After a minute or so of this, she slammed the watch shut and looked at her hand. They were no longer wrinkly, instead being smooth and beautiful.

She reached into her bag and took out a mirror, using it to look herself over. And she was amazed by the results. She was now much younger, appearing to now be in her early twenties. Her peach skin was now much more vibrant and her hair had changed to a stunning orange colour.

"It worked," she gasped. "I'm young again." She looked down at her watch and felt the thing trying to unleash the age it had taken from her, making her panic. "Can I just give it to the plants? What if it can only pass the age onto the same thing it took it from? What do I do?"

It was then that she heard a noise and looked around, seeing someone walking around the corner and towards her. Rarity.

The girl noticed her and raised an eyebrow, feeling like she knew this woman somewhere. "Hello," she smiled, "have we met before? You look familiar."

"Oh, I doubt that." Rarity kept staring at her until she seemed to realise why she looked so familiar.

"Wait, are you related to a woman name Doddery?" The woman looked at her curiously, "you must be her granddaughter or something. Your grandmother was by the fashion show earlier...but she left."

Doddery frowned, "were you one of the people competing in the contest?"

"Yes," Rarity nodded only to see Doddery's anger.

"So you were one of the ones that made fun of me before." Rarity wondered what she meant by then, only to then realise the resemblance between her and the old lady were too much. As she was thinking this, Doddery looked down at the watch and smiled. "Well, now we'll see how you like being made fun of for your age."

"What are you talking about?" The woman raised her watch and Rarity saw the light coming from it, which also caused her own magical object to glow. "Wait, what is that?" Doddery didn't answer and instead, opened the watch to unleash the light.

Back at the fashion show, Rarity's friends were beginning to wonder where she had gotten to.

"The contest'll be starting soon," Adagio pointed out. "Where the heck did so go?" They were wondering the same thing, only for a loud scream to echo through the mall and catch everyone's attention. And it was a scream many of them knew all too well.

Flash, Shining and Trixie kicked into gear and ran towards where they thought the scream had come from, the Dazzlings and Rainbooms following.

They quickly arrived at that area and found someone on the ground, on her knees wearing the same clothes as their friend. She was curled up with her hands over her head. "Rarity!" Fluttershy gasped, the lot rushing over to her. "What happened?"

"Please don't look!" Rarity cried out, "I don't want you to see me like this."

"Like what?" Flash asked as he walked around her. "We've all see you with a broken nail before, no need to be so overdram-YIYEE!" Rarity had finally looked up at them and he got to see her face, which had somehow aged about fifty or sixty years. Her hair was now gray, her face covered in wrinkles and her fingers were thin and boney.

The others saw and all gasped, Pinkie and Fluttershy kneeling down besides her. "What happened to you?" Twilight asked, as the girls helped her to her feet.

Rarity tried to stand, but her older legs weren't as strong as they once were."

"It...it was that Doddery woman. I...I think she's gotten Equestrian Magic." They all gasped at this, knowing that couldn't be good. "Her pocket watch somehow made her look like a young woman and when she used it on me, I became...THIS!" She looked herself over and started tearing up. "I LOOK HORRIBLE!"

"You don't look horrible," Sunset told her. "Actually, you don't look that bad considering how old you are now." She had hoped that would cheer Rarity up, but it didn't. "We need to find this Doddery woman and get that watch."

"We should split up and cover more ground." Shining replied. "When you find her, contact the rest of us. Hopefully, we can find her before she does any more damage." They all nodded and was about to head out, only for the mall's intercom to turn on.

"Will all participants in the fashion design contest please report to the main stage. Any participant who is not backstage in five minutes will be disqualified."

Rarity gasped, the whole situation making her forget about her big chance. But the others weren't gonna let her lose this chase. "Adagio," Twilight turned to the Dazzlings, "you three take Rarity back to the contest. We'll handle Doddery."

"How?" Rarity asked, "you need me to de-power her."

"Don't worry," Flash assured her. "We'll find her fast and bring that watch back here. Then you girls can take that time stealing time piece out." He turned to run off, Trixie rushing off after him.

Shining and the rest of the Rainbooms followed suit, each heading in a different direction whilst the Dazzlings helped Rarity back towards the stage. With her old body, she couldn't move too fast and they almost didn't make it in time. But they managed to get there at the last moment, going backstage and finding a woman with a clipboard.

"Name?" She asked.

"Rarity," she replied. The woman nodded and pointed to a station with everything Rarity would need to make her dresses. But as she walked towards it, the other designers laughed when they saw an old woman attempting to compete.

"Careful grandma," one of them told her. "Trying to be hip might make you break your hip." Rarity glared at her, but took a deep breath and just got to work.

"I won't let this stop me." She grabbed the best material she could find and hobbled over to her work area, mentally going over all the designs she had made before choosing three. Hopefully, she would be able to make them and add the finishing touches. And hopefully, the others would be able to find Doddery and bring her back before the contest was over.

Flash and Trixie rushed around the mall in search of Doddery, hoping that the woman hadn't left the building yet.

Trixie had put on her Luna Cat mask and with it, she and Flash started searching everywhere for the woman. And then, they ran around a corner and spotted a woman that looked like a younger version of the old lady they had met.

"HEY!" Trixie cried, getting the woman's attention. When she turned to them, they noticed the pocket watch Rarity had described. "You've got a lot to answer for after what you did to Rarity!"

The woman looked confused, "I don't know what you mean."

"Save it," Flash told her as he noticed the watch hanging from her waist. "We know you turned her old. Hand over the watch so we can get everything back to the way it should be." This seemed to anger Doddery.

"Why should I? I have every right to remain the way I am. Youth is wasted on the young."

"I'm warning you," Flash activated the Omnitrix. "You might be young, but you're still just a human. You won't stand a chance against my aliens."

"Maybe," Doddery held up her watch, "but I'm willing to bet those aliens weren't always amazingly powerful." He opened it up and pointed it at Flash, a light exploding out of it as Flash slammed down on the Omnitrix.

It unleashed a light the same time the watch's light hit him, causing a mixture of green and yellow light to fill the air. A moment later, the yellow light retracted into the watch and the green light began to die down.

As soon as it did, Trixie looked around and was shocked when she saw a familiar looking alien that was a little different than it should be.

"Riot-Horn!" That alien cried, looking like a miniature version of Flash's strongest alien. He now stood at around five feet, his horns and spikes smaller with his snout only having one horn. His suit was the same size, but it lacked the armoring it normally had. The Omnitrix was now lower, instead being on his stomach instead of his chest.

"Flash?" The alien looked towards her, surprised that he was actually looking up instead of down. "Are you okay?"

"Err..." Riot-Horn looked himself over and realised what had happened, "no way!" They then heard Doddery's laugh, the pair turning to see her close the watch.

"Aren't you cute. Who knew aliens could be adorable." Riot-Horn growled as he charged forward, ready to deal a punch to her and knock her out. But he could only take three steps before he suddenly fell down, his differently proportioned body causing him to trip over his own feet.

"WOW!" He hit the ground and groaned, making Doddery laugh. But then she heard Trixie roar and charge as well, preparing her staff to knock the watch out of her grasp.

But before she could, Doddery opened it up and a beam of light flew out. Trixie gasped as it struck her, knocking her backwards until she smashed through the window of a clothing store. Doddery smirked at this and closed the watch, whilst Riot-Horn picked himself up.

She looked around and spotted a nearby orange stand, which had a barrel next to it full of old peels.

She ran over to it as Riot-Horn charged, his younger mind affecting his ability to think. Before he could reach her, Doddery grabbed the barrel and swung it around.

The next thing Riot-Horn knew, orange peels were falling on top of him before the barrel was stuffed over his head. "HEY!" He cried, feeling his arms pinned to his sides. He knew it wouldn't be able to stop him from breaking free. But before he could, he tripped onto his back. "GYAH!"

Doddery laughed as she quickly kicked the barrel, sending it rolling away and making Riot-Horn cry out as he got dizzy.

Doddery quickly turned to run away, as Riot-Horn slammed into a support pillar and smashed out of the barrel. But even though he was free, he was still so dizzy he couldn't make heads or tails of anything around him.

It took about a minute or so for his vision to stabilize and as it did, Shining and the Rainbooms all arrived and noticed him. "What the heck?" Shining asked, seeing the younger Riot-Horn. "Flash, is that you?"

Riot-Horn shook his head and looked around. "Yeah, it's me."

"What happened to you?" Rainbow asked, but they all had a feeling they knew.

"Trixie and I found that woman and she hit me with her watch's magic." He looked himself over, "now I'm this." The others frowned, with Sunset realising who was missing.

"Where is Trixie?" They all heard a groan and looked around, as someone staggered out through the broken window. And when they saw Trixie, they gasped.

She was now older, though not to the same extreme as Rarity was. By guess, they figured she was in her late twenties maybe boarding on thirty. She was slightly taller and her figure was more rounded around the hips and chest. Her hair had even grown longer, whilst her face was thinner and more mature in appearance. Her suit had changed with her, changing to fit her larger and more adult form.

"Trixie?" Twilight asked, "you okay?"

Trixie looked herself over and noticed the changes, quickly removing her mask and turning back to normal. Her street clothes didn't change like her hero suit, with her jacket now being too small whilst her shoes felt tight.

She ignored this and looked into a nearby window, seeing her reflection in the glass. "No!" She cried, "she took away the best years of my life."

"It could be worse," Sunset told her. "You could be as old as Rarity."

"Why isn't she as old as Rarity?" Rainbow asked, the others wondering the same thing. Then, Twilight turned to Riot-Horn and had an idea.

"Flash, turn back to normal." Riot-Horn raised an eyebrow, but hit the Omnitrix and transformed back.

When the light faded, they were shocked to see Flash was now a kid. His clothes were practically consuming him as he was now much shorter, roughly seven or eight years old by the looks of things. His pants were scrunched up and his shoes slipped off him the second he tried to take a step, whilst his jacket sleeves trailed along the ground as it and his shirt were practically a dress going below his knees. His hair wasn't as styled as it normally was, appearing longer and scruffier.

"Seriously!?" Flash cried, as his pants and underwear began to slide down his legs.

The others looked away, as Flash tried to pull them back up. Luckily, his shirt and jacket kept him modest. "That explains it," Twilight told them. "Flash has lost ten years and Trixie's gained it. I think that watch sucks out someone else's age and passes it to another."

"We've gotta fix this!" Flash announced. "There is no way I'm going through puberty a second time." He had to roll up his sleeves to properly grab his clothing, revealing that the Omnitrix was still on his arm and had appeared to shrink to accommodate his smaller form.

"First things first," Shining told him. "We need to get you into something that actually fits you." He then realised the store Trixie had stepped out of was a clothing store and pulled Flash into it, returning a few minutes later with Flash now dressed in blue shorts, a white shirt and red trainers.

In those few minutes, Trixie had been testing out her body and it seemed she was stronger though not as flexible as she had once been. Though she liked how she looked, she wanted to be her normal age.

"Alright," Shining spoke up, "let's split up and try to find her. This time, don't try and engage her. Call everyone else and we'll work together to take her down." They all nodded and rushed off, Shining and Twilight going with the now young Flash as he ran behind them as fast as his shorter legs could carry him.

Back at the mall, Rarity was still working on completing her designs. But with her older body, she couldn't move the way she wanted to.

She reached down to pick up a roll of fabric, only for her back to suddenly explode with pain. "Augh!" She grabbed her back, her cry catching the attention of everyone around her. Adagio and her sisters rushed over to help her sit down, whilst the other designers laughed.

"Careful grandma," one of them stated. "Wouldn't wanna hurt yourself."

Rarity turned to glare at them, as the Dazzlings helped her sit down. "She's right," Adagio told her. "As much as you hate to admit it, you're literally not as young as you used to be. If you're not careful, you're gonna hurt yourself before the others can find a way to turn you back."

"I refuse to let myself be stopped like this," Rarity stated. "I'm not an old lady. I'm a young woman and by gum, I'm gonna live like a young lady!"

"Did you just say by gum?" Aria chuckled, Rarity glaring at her and waving her fist in her face.

As she did, Adagio got a text from Twilight. "You gotta be kidding me." The others turned to her, "Flash and Trixie found the woman who did this. But somehow, she was able to zap Flash into being a little kid." She even got a photo and couldn't help but smirk at the sight of young Flash. "I know I'm technically already dating someone way younger than me, but not this much younger."

"The others will find a way to get us all back to normal," Rarity assured them as she forced herself back to her feet.

"But what if they can't?" Sonata asked, "what if you're stuck as an old lady forever?"

Rarity made her usual sound as she got back to work. "I may have the body of an old lady, but age is more than just how many years you've lived. If that were true, you three would be considered more than old ladies." The trio frowned, knowing she was right. "True age comes from the experiences one accumulates. My body may be old, but I'm still sixteen inside. I don't have the wisdom of years past, because I haven't lived that long."

"I guess you've got a point," Aria nodded.

Rarity looked herself over. "I don't have a problem with getting old. If this had happened naturally, I wouldn't be fighting it. But it didn't and I'm not going to accept that I'm old because I'm not. I had my years of potential experience stolen from me. When I return to my true age, I'll gladly accept getting older by the second. But I want to live the life I have to live in order to become old. And when I'm old and frail, I'll happily step aside and let a younger generation take my place whilst giving them the wisdom I accumulated in my life that can help them succeed."

"Wow," Adagio was impressed. "you're the first being I've ever met who actually isn't scared of getting older." She looked herself over. "When we lost our magic, we knew we also lost our immortality. We've started aging and one day, we're gonna be as old and frail as you are." She looked back to Rarity, "how does that not terrify you?"

Rarity smiled. "You've lived for over a thousand years. What did you do in all that time, aside from trying to get people to argue so you could feed on the negative emotions?"

They thought for a few moments, but honestly couldn't remember. Most days just blurred together, with them going from one place to another trying to find people to feed off of. They remembered a few key events, mostly involving the major moments of the world like the discovery of America, its war for independence, World War One, World War Two and so on. But they couldn't remember anything they actually did in all that time aside from feed.

"Nothing," Adagio admitted. "We didn't really do anything."

"But I'm willing to bet you remember a lot of things that happened since losing your magic. And not just the stuff involving Flash and the Omnitrix." They nodded, the three remember their struggles to cope with the loss of their magic, needing to get jobs in order to properly feed themselves, the few times they let themselves have fun. And, of course, Adagio's discovery of Flash's secret."

"Why do we suddenly remember all this?" Aria asked.

"Because when you were immortal, you knew you had all the time in the world to do whatever you wanted. You put it off because you always thought you could do it later. But now, you don't have that luxury. Every second counts."

They realised she was right. Now that they had a limited life span, they didn't want to waste a single second of it. And they also realised something else. "We're not gonna let her get away with taking your limited time," Adagio assured her. "You just focus on finishing your designs and let the others focus on finding her. They'll do it." Rarity nodded and got back to work, her old body still slowing her down but not enough to make her considering quitting.

Meanwhile, Flash, Shining and Twilight had left the mall in search for Doddery.

Shining had used his badge to scan for any unusual energy signatures, minus the girl's magic, and had picked up a trace of it. They headed down the street, Flash riding on Shining's back so they weren't slowed down. But as hey turned a corner, they suddenly heard a bunch of screams and the sounds of crashing sounds.

The cause was due to a bunch of cars that had crashed and were driving out of control.

Looking into the cars, they saw a bunch of old people who seemed to be having trouble seeing where they were going. They also spotted several young teenagers in clothing not usually seen on teens, who were also carrying canes and other walking aids that they found they didn't need.

"I think Doddery was here," Twilight pointed out.

"Then I'd better go hero and stop these people from killing themselves." Flash activated the Omnitrix as Shining put him down, quickly slamming it down to transform. "XLR8!" The light faded to reveal a kineceleran that was roughly half the size he normally was, whilst the balls on his feet were gone and forcing him to walk on his two clawed feet. The Omnitrix was still on his chest.

He looked himself over and frowned seeing he didn't have his glider balls. But he knew he had to try and help those people.

"Let's go!" He shot forward at high speed, though not at the speed he was known for moving at. Twilight and Shining also ran in, Shining putting on his suit as they began helping people. XLR8 ran to the closest moving car and got the man driving it out before Twilight lifted it into the air, then ran him to the other side of the street and put him down. "You okay?"

"What?" He asked, holding his hand up to his ear.

"Are you okay?"

"Far zoo parade? What the heck does that mean?" XLR8 rolled his eyes ran to help someone else, getting them out of the car along with the now five year old passenger.

At the same time, Twilight used her magic to lift all the empty cars into the air. This allowed them to slow down without needing to crash into anything, whilst Shining used his suit to scan everyone and check for injuries.

Eventually, XLR8 got the last person out of the cars and came to a stop. As he did, he panted and bent himself over. "Why...am I...so tired?"

"Guess XLR8's species needs to build up its stamina as it ages." She turned to one of the newly de-aged individuals. "The woman who did this to you? Where is she?" The man thought for a moment, as XLR8 waited and tapped his foot on the ground.

"Come on, come on!" He cried out. "What's the puzzle. Did she go left or right."

"You gotta be patient," Shining told him. "These people have just been thrown for a loop. You can't expect them to know this right away."

"But they're taking forever!" XLR8 moaned, sounding like a bratty kid. "Oh forget this. She couldn't have gone too far!" He rushed off down the street before turning left. As soon as he did, the de-aged individual snapped his fingers.

"Oh, that's right. She went down the street and turned right." The siblings groaned at this before rushing off down the street, hoping they could find XLR8 before he got too far.

But when they turned the corner, they were shocked to find XLR8 standing in front of a store window staring into it. His eyes were wide and he suddenly laughed, the pair realising he was watching a TV and had likely forgotten all about finding Doddery.

"Great," Shining groaned, "all the power in the universe and now it's stuck on the wrist of an attention troubled seven year old." Twilight used her magic to pull XLR8 towards them, the alien groaning as he was dragged away from the TV.

Back at the mall, Rarity looked over her designs.

The dresses were good, but they were still missing something. If she wanted to win this contest, she would need to come up with something that would blow the other contestants out of the water.

Speaking of the other contestants, they were continuing to mock her since they didn't know she wasn't actually seventy years old. They continued to snicker, mocking her designs behind her back. "What does she think she's doing?" One asked another girl when they thought Rarity couldn't hear. "Trying to make something that looks modern."

"Tell me about it," the other girl nodded. "Talk about trying to fight father time. She thinks using modern styles will change what the judges think? She's a hasbeen who should just know when to pack it in."

Rarity looked over her shoulders and glared at the pair, who quickly looked away and focused on their own work. She then glanced back at her designs and frowned, wanting to show those girls a thing or two. And as she stared at it, she slowly started forming an idea.

"So, you think fashion from the old days isn't as good as modern creations. Well, I think it's time Canterlot went retro." She began to get to work, new ideas flowing through her mind that would allow her to complete the designs and make them the best thing she had ever created. She just hoped she could finish them in time, and before he old fingers were pushed passed their limits.

Doddery was having a blast, saving her fellow OAPs from the icy grip of old age and giving it to people who should have never had youth to begin with.

She spotted two old people walking down the street with a pair of children, the woman raising her watch and unleashing the light. In the blink of an eye, the older people were the same age as their grandchildren. Then, another burst of light aged the children into the ages their grandparents had been.

The now young people couldn't help but start crying, whilst the now old people were completely clueless about what to do.

Doddery ran down the street and kept changing whatever she could, like turning a young girl's old dog into a puppy and aging her into a adult. But as she did, she remembered all the models and designers at the fashion show.

This caused her to get mad, remembering what some of them had said to her. And as she did, an idea formed in her head. One she knew would teach all of them a lesson.

Flash had reverted back to human and was once again on Shining's back, the lot of them running through the streets trying to locate the no longer old woman.

"I'm bored!" Flash groaned, his head swaying from side to side. "Can we stop for ice cream?" The pair looked at him, unable to believe he had actually said that. "Please!" He gave Twilight the best puppy dog eyes he could, making the girl feel like she couldn't refuse.

Luckily, her phone went off and she looked away to answer. "Twilight!" Rainbow's voice called out, "you'd better get over here. We've got a serious problem." She gave Twilight the address and they weren't too far away, the three arriving on the scene only to be shocked by all the young people there.

"What happened?" Shining asked, seeing a bunch of kids staggering around in their oversized clothing. "Where are the old people?" That was a good question, the three noticing Rainbow, Fluttershy and Trixie trying to stop the scared children.

"Doddery's done something different," Twilight frowned. "She's not passed the age on to anyone. Why?"

Doddery ran back towards the mall as she struggled to keep the clock closed.

"Come on!" She told it, "hold the age until we get back to the mall. Then you can unleash it all on those bratty young children." She couldn't help but laugh at the thought of all those young models and designers, turned into old people and learning what it meant to take youth for granted. That would show them all.

"We've gotta stop this woman before she does anything that gets someone killed!" Shining told them, only for a crashing sound to make them spin around.

The sound came from a nearby construction sight, the lot of them rushing over to it and seeing the place was also filled with kids. It also had a crane, which was currently swinging around wildly whilst holding up a steel beam. A steel beam that had just slammed into part of the half built building and causing it to break.

"Rainbow!" Shining cried, putting Flash down as the girl rushed in and started evacuating the youngsters.

As she did, Flash activated the Omnitrix whilst Trixie changed to her Mighty Bull form. She rushed in to grab the now wobbling structure, using her strength to stop it from moving. This gave Flash the time to find his alien and transform

"Firefly!" The light faded and when they saw what Flash had become, they weren't so sure he could help. He was now a black caterpillar-like creature with a round head, which had a green sideways mouth just like his adult form. His body was split into five segments and he had a round rear end that had green bands around it and two short pincers on the ends of it. He also had a pair of legs on each section of his body, which had green spikes sticking out the end and a pair of ribbon-like antenna sticking out of his head. The Omnitrix was on his chest.

"Should have figured an insectoid alien wouldn't look the same as a kid," Shining frowned as the caterpillar looked himself over.

"Great," he groaned, "I'm a Fireworm." He tried to breath fire, but all he could do was spit silk on the ground. "And I don't even have any fire." As he said that, the building began to break apart and Trixie found holding up to be more and more difficult by the second. "What do we do!?"

Twilight took a deep breath and pressed her geode, using it to transform into her ponied up state. "I'll carry you!" She grabbed him and took to the air, flying up towards a section that the beam had damaged. As they did, Shining ran over to the crane to stop it from hitting anything else.

He looked up and frowned, seeing how high it was. But he took a deep breath and started climbing.

Reaching the spot, Fireworm spat out some silk and began to glue the building back together. As he did, he found making the substance wasn't as easy as it normally was. "Your silk gland must not be as well developed," Twilight guessed as they stated this issue. "Just do what you can." Fireworm nodded and they flew over to another part of the damaged building.

Shining had finally reached the top of the crane and opened the door, looking inside and finding who he expected to find.

A ten year old was sitting at the crane's controls, looking terrified at the fact he was up there and had no idea why he was suddenly so much younger and a lot more scared. "How'd she hit you from up here?" The kid looked at him, Shining getting inside. "Let me sit there!" He sat down and the kid sat in his lap, allowing Shining to control the crane.

He managed to get it under control and lowered the beam towards the ground. As he did, Twilight and Fireworm managed to get the last of the damaged areas patched up and Trixie was able to let the building go.

"There we go." He looked down at the kid, "now let's get you out of here." The kid nodded and Shining picked him up, carrying him out of the crane and allowing him to climb down the crane. When they reached the ground, the kid ran over to where the rest of the de-aged people were hiding as Shining turned to the others.

"We have to find Doddery now!" Trixie cried, "but where the heck could she be?" As she said that, Twilight phone rang. Taking it out, she looked down and was surprised to see that it was Rarity.

Rewind five minutes and at the mall, Adagio, Aria and Sonata began to strut their stuff on the catwalk.

Rarity's designs were a hit, the aged teen having gone for a retro look using ideas similar to ones she had seen when looking through some old fashion magazines. But whilst they looked retro, she had used her modern fashion sense to improve upon them. Now they were a perfect blend of fashion old and new, making them truly unique.

As Adagio reached the end of the catwalk, those watching all cheered at the amazing creations. Adagio posed in several ways, making sure to show off Rarity's creations in every way possible before heading backstage.

Rarity smiled as she stared over at the judges, who nodded with amazement and seemed to be making several notes on the designs. She couldn't help but feel like she had this contest in the bag. Although, it would mean nothing if the others couldn't find a way to return her to her normal age.

Aria and Sonata showed off their clothes and head backstage as well, the people cheering for Rarity's creations. But before she could think about accepting a trophy, someone pushed their way through the crowd and jumped up on stage. "You call that good fashion?" Rarity realised it was Doddery and took out her phone, whilst Adagio, Aria and Sonata glared at her. "You wouldn't know what makes good designs if it bit you in the behind!"

The judges glared at her whilst the many designers and models rushed out on stage. "What are you doing?" One of them asked, "you're ruining the contest!"

"This contest was ruined the moment they let you young brats enter." Something about the way she said that made the designers curious, since they remembered someone else saying the exact same thing being said by an older woman.

"Hey," one of them spoke up, "do we know you?"

"Yes," Doddery smirked, "I just looked a lot older the last time we spoke." They all realised it was her and as Doddery held up her watch, Adagio, Aria and Sonata gasped. "And now it's time for you all to see what it means to be old and decrepit!" With that, the watch opened and unleashed multiple tendrils of light.

Everyone gasped at this, the Dazzlings trying to run. But the tendrils hit them and they all cried out, feeling their bodies beginning to rapidly age. The others shared their fate and screamed as they felt their youth being eaten away, as Doddery laughed.

The tendrils didn't just go for the models and designers. They also hit the audience and judges, making them age as well. Some people managed to get away before the tendrils got them, but most were not so lucky.

Rarity moved as fast as her old body could carry her, fearing that getting hit again would age her to dust. As she did, she took out her phone and called Twilight. "Hello?"

"Twilight!" She screamed, "she's here! The woman who turned me old. She's here and she's doing the same thing to everyone else."

"That's not good," Twilight frowned. "We have to get back there!"

"Wait," Shining told them, "I have an idea." He tapped into his suit and started bringing up the plumber base's system. "Locking in my badge's signal, along with the Omnitrix and everyone's phones." They all looked confused, "teleporter online." Their eyes went wide as the lot of them were suddenly surrounded by light.

"Shining?" Trixie asked as Fireworm turned back to human, "are you sure this is a good idea?" Shining didn't reply and in that moment, the lot of them vanished in a flash of light.

Rarity looked out on stage and laughed as Doddery's watch continued to unleash the tendrils of light.

There was still some age left inside the watch, but Doddery didn't want to actually kill anyone by aging them up too much. She closed her watch and it was still struggling the keep it contained.

However, a flash of light made her look around and see Flash Sentry, Shining Armor, Lady Masquerade and the six girls that had been with that Rarity girl appear on stage. Sunset, Pinkie and Applejack looked confused by their suddenly appearance, whilst Flash ran over to where Adagio was laying on the ground.

She didn't look so good, appearing like a wrinkly old lady with white hair. "Are you okay?" He asked, as Adagio looked up at him.

"Guess our age difference is finally showing, huh?" She laughed, as Flash turned to glare at Doddery.

"Turn everyone back to normal!" Shining ordered, holding up his blaster. "Do that and you won't get into trouble." Doddery smirked and before Shining could fire, she opened the watch and unleashed the stolen age.

The light tendrils exploded out and flew towards them before most of them could react. Shining was the first hit but it, his armor doing nothing to protect him from the Equestrian magic. "SHINING!" Twilight cried, running to him only to get hit as well.

One by one, each of the Rainbooms were hit by the tendrils. Rainbow managed to avoid them the longest, but even her super speed wasn't enough to save her as one eventually got her.

The only ones able to avoid getting aged were Flash and Trixie, the aged up girl using her super strength to leap into the air above the tendrils whilst Adagio pushed Flash towards the back stage. Trixie landed and ran through the curtains, where Rarity was waiting looking horrified.

When the light finally died down, they all looked out and saw Doddery close the watch.

They then looked in front of her and saw Shining, Twilight and everyone else looking old and frail. They didn't even have the strength to stand up, causing them to fall to the ground. "Ahhh!" The old and gray Sunset looked up at Doddery. "Why? Why are you doing this? You had your time."

"The world was too small when I was younger," she explained. "When I was your age, cars were terrible, movies and TV barely worked and women like me couldn't do anything we wanted. By the time the world was worth living in, I was too old to enjoy it. But now, I can do anything I want." She held up the watch. "With this, I'll never have to worry about growing old every again."

"But you're forcing your age onto others," Twilight told her. "It's not fair for someone else to lose their youth, just so you can enjoy yours again."

"Life isn't fair," Doddery stated. "Nothing you say will convince me to stop. I'm never going to be old ever again."

Back behind stage, Trixie, Flash and Rarity frowned. "She needs to be stopped," Flash cried before activating the Omnitrix. "I'm gonna go Way Big and step on her." He was about to unlock the alien, but Trixie grabbed his arm.

"Are you nuts!? Even as a kid, I'm betting Way Big's huge. You'll break through the roof and could accidently step on us. Pick someone else, like Volt-Edge." Flash pulled his arm away from her.

"No way! It's my Omnitrix and I decide what I become!"

"Stop being a brat!" Trixie argued, going to change the alien herself.

"NO!" Flash yelled, "it's mine!" Trixie groaned at this, unable to believe Flash's brain had regressed along with his age. However, her mind was still that of a teenager. And she knew how to get little kids to do what she wanted.

"You're right," she told him. "Volt-Edge probably couldn't handle something like this. Too lame." Those words made Flash's eyes go wide.

"What did you say?"

"I'm just saying, Volt-Edge isn't exactly great. What can he do? Shoot lightning and cut things. Wow, I'm so impressed." Flash glared at her and Rarity realised what Trixie was trying to do. "What could you do, give her a static shock and make her hair go frizzy? Like I said, lame." That was it.

"I'll show you!" He changed his alien choice and slammed the dial down, a burst of green light blinding them. "Volt-Edge!" The light faded to reveal a two and a half foot tall lizard alien with a round head and no armor. Lightning sparked off his body and the Omnitrix was was still on his chest.

"Ha!" Trixie laughed, "look at you. Volt-Edge. More like No-Edge." The alien growled before rushing out onto the stage, catching Doddery's attention.

"Oh?" She saw him and smiled, "is the cute baby alien going to try and hurt me?"

"You know it!" No-Edge built up his electrical power and fired it. But instead of shooting toward Doddery, it flew right up and hit the ceiling instead. "Oops."

"What's going on?" Rarity asked, as No-Edge tried to fire again but the lightning flew off in another direction. "Why can't he control it?"

"Volt-Edge usually shoots his attacks out of his armor. Without it, the lightning exploding off of him wildly." They had to duck down to avoid getting zapped.

"Maybe this alien wasn't such a good idea," Rarity stated as No-Edge ran towards Doddery and tried to ram his oversized head into her. But it seemed Doddery took up karate in her youth, since she was able to spin around and kick him away from her.

The girls flinched as he was thrown into a wall, sparks flying off his body as he fell to the ground.

As this was happening, all the aged up people crawled along the ground to get away from the fight. Trixie also picked up Rarity and rushed her over to where he rest of the Rainbooms were, as No-Edge pushed himself up to his feet. "Come on Flash. Is that really the best you can do?"

"Shut up!" He cried as he charged his tiny claws with lightning and ran forward, leaping at Doddery and attempting to thrust them into her. But Doddery quickly grabbed him by the wrists and leaned backwards, flipping him over her before he could unleash the lightning. "OW!" He bounced off the ground and rolled to a stop, his eyes rolling as he pushed himself up.

"Come on!" Trixie yelled, "my grandma can fight better then that." No-Edge glared at her, as Trixie turned to the others. "No, seriously. My grandma was apparently crazy strong." She turned back to the alien, "at least stronger than you. Like I said before. Totally lame!"

"Raaaah!" No-Edge stood up, as lightning surged around his body. "Shut up, shut up, shut up, SHUT UP!" The electrical energy exploded out of him and flew in every direction, even towards Doddery.

She gasped and leapt to the side, the lightning passing her. But some of the electrical energy was drawn towards the metal object in her hand. "AUGH!" She was forced to drop it, the watch falling to the ground as the lightning continued to force her away from it.

No-Edge eventually stopped blasting out lightning, having likely expended all the power within him. He then let out a yawn and started swaying around. "I...I'm just gonna...take a nap." He fell to the ground and started snoring, his friends shocked seeing him fall asleep in the middle of a fight.

They all turned towards Doddery, seeing she had dropped her watch.

"Quickly," the elderly Applejack called out. They all touched their Geodes and transformed, their ponied up states not looking as impressive in their old age. They all joined hands began to float into the air, as Doddery tried to retrieve her watch.

"Oh no you don't!" Trixie grabbed her bell weapon and slammed it onto the ground, creating a sonic blast just strong enough to knock the woman back without hurting her. As she fell towards the ground, the magical girls unleashed the rainbow of friendship and it shot towards the watch.

It slammed into it and completely surrounded the device, sucking the Equestrian Magic out of it before unleashing a shockwave of light.

That light flew out in all directions, washing over everyone and spreading through the city within seconds. Doing so caused everyone that had been affected by the watch to revert back to their normal age, including the Rainbooms, Dazzlings, Flash, Trixie and Shining.

The light finally faded away and everybody looked themselves over, happy they were finally back to their normal ages. Everybody except one person. "NOOOOOOOOOO!" They looked over Doddery, who had also had her true age restored. "What have you done!?"

"Turned you back to who you're supposed to be," Rarity told her.

Doddery glared up at her, then spotted the remains of her watch. She rushed over to grab it, seeing it hadn't survived the de-magic process. And as she tried to put it back together, she got a good look at her old weathered hands. "This'll happen to you as well one day," she stated. "Wrinkles. Lines. Saggy bits." Rarity frowned at her.

"I intend to grow old gracefully," she stated before Shining moved over to help her up. They weren't sure if you could be arrested for what she had done, but he intended to put her in the plumber database at the very least.

As they watched their new enemy be taken away, they heard a yawn and looked over to see Flash waking up. He pushed himself to his feet and rubbed the sleep from his eyes, the lot of them quickly realising he had reverted back to human and was now wearing very small clothes.

"Morning." He noticed them all staring at them and raised an eyebrow, "what?"

After everything had calmed down, the judges had returned and deemed Rarity the winner.

"Congratulations," one of them stated as they handed her a trophy. "Your fusion of modern and retro designs was an inspiration. Proof that there's alway something to be learn from looking towards the past." Everyone applauded as Rarity and the judges had their pictures taken, whilst the Dazzling started having their own pictures taken to be placed in the magazine.

As they applauded, Twilight turned to the now properly dressed Flash. "Be honest. You enjoyed being a little kid again, didn't you?"

"A little," Flash smirked. "Some things just seem...simpler when you're a kid. But, I'll take being who I am over who I was any day. Doddery proved how dangerous living in the past can be. If you're not willing to look forward, you'll end up tripping up in life." The others agreed, all hoping they had seen the last of that strange old woman.

They didn't think they had much to worry about though, since now she was without her Equestrian Magic. Hopefully, she would come to accept her limits and chose to enjoy what was instead of what used to be.

Author's Note

Well, I hope you enjoyed my version of the Omnitrix Wielder becoming younger. When they did that episode, I was hoping to see really different designs for his aliens instead of the shrunk down versions. Hope you liked this and tell me what you think of Doddery as a villain?

Season 3, Episode 13: Tirek's Scheme

In Tirek's ship, the old man was busy working on a strange tube-like device.

Behind him, five tubes of water had something floating within them. Each one was a different shape, two looking like humanoid birds, one looking like a winged lizard, one appearing to be a wrestler-sized individual and the last appearing ape-like. But they were just shaped hunks of meat, with no actual features on them.

Lightning sparked inside the tubes and with every zap, the flesh became more and more stable.

Tirek sighed as he finished working on the device, holding it up and smiling at it. It was perfect and would easily fool anyone who looked at it. Now he just needed to do one final thing.

Taking a cable out of a computer, he attached it to the device and ran a program. A loading bar began to form and as it did, Tirek smiled before turning to the hunks of meat. "With this, I'll finally be able to get you back where you belong." He focused on the ape-shaped meat, "all that's missing is you. But if you don't show up before my plan is put into motion, I'll just have to hunt you down myself."

But as he said that, a beeping sound caught his attention. He spun around and looked at his computer, a smile appearing on his lips at the sight of the tracking system. "Ah, finally awake I see. Just in time. If you're able to make enough noise, Sentry and his friends might find you and take you to meet your siblings. Then you'll all be mine." He smirked, "all mine."

The next day.

It was a peaceful day in Canterlot and Flash was taking some time off from being a hero.

Currently, the teen was in his dad's car with his parents in the front seat. Behind him, Banana was jumping up and down to look through the window of the trunk to watch the world roll by. The family had decided to take their pouch out for a day at park, Flash having not had a lot of time to spend with his four legged friend since his identity as a hero came out.

The car arrived at Banana's favourite park and pulled into its lot, Banana letting out several excited barks seeing where they were. "Okay boy," Flash told him. "We'll let you out. Don't worry." They got out and let the dog free, Banana leaping out of the trunk as soon as it was open. He ran towards the gated area and Flash chased after him, his parents following with Banana's bag in hand.

Many people and their dogs were already there, the older people sitting on the benches around the edge whilst the younger ones played with their dogs. Flash let Banana in and he ran off to play with some of the dogs, Flash and his parents sitting on an empty bench and smiling as they watched him having the time of his life.

"Ahhh," Misty sighed, "I can't remember the last time we spent time together like this."

"Not in a while," Trail agreed. "Not since before Flash's little secret came out to the world."

"Yeah," Flash nodded, "sorry about that. Being a public superhero's a lot more time consuming than a secret one. And with everything that's been happening with the hybrids, Medallions and everything else, I've barely been able to get a day to just relax."

"We understand," Misty assured him. "And we're proud of you. We might not have been fully on board about you being a hero when we learned about it, but you've proven you really are perfect for the job." Flash smiled as a little kid ran up to them.

"Wow, you're Flash Sentry."

"The one and only," he told him.

"Can I get a picture with you?" He took out his phone and Flash nodded, Trail taking the phone as the two sat side by side. As they did, Banana and the kid's dog ran up and jumped into their laps. Flash hugged his dog and made sure to get the Omnitrix in the shot as his dad took the picture.

Down below, something was moving through the ground at high speed.

Whatever it was was digging through the dirt with super powerful claws. Any piece of rock or hard dirt was quickly ripped apart and moved away from it, as it continued to dig through the ground in search of something.

Then, it stopped as it seemed to pick up a smell. Despite being deep underground, it could smell something. Something it felt was familiar. The smell of dog. The smell of...family.

"Thanks!" The kid smiled when he saw how great the picture had come out.

"No problem," Flash smiled as the kid ran back into the fray with the two dogs. As he watched, Flash thought about everything that had happened since becoming a hero. There had been some times he wasn't sure anyone would accept him, but slowly he had managed to win people over and now the whole city seemed to accept him as its hero.

He sighed, as he sat back and took in the piece and tranquillity of everything around him. It was times like this that Flash was sure he was doing the right thing. He might have to fight villains and run into burning buildings, but times like this made him believe it was all worth it.

But the peace and tranquillity was suddenly destroyed, when the ground exploded near the dog group. This caused the pouches to run away, Banana heading straight for his owners and leaping into Flash's arms.

The teen in question was shocked by what he saw, holding his dog tight as they watched something pull itself out of the hole that had just appeared.

That something looked like a cross between a dog and a gorilla. Its large gray body looked like a giant ape, standing at around seven feet in height, but it had a dog's head with long droopy ears. It had a short tail and its long bulky hands had short black claws on the ends, whilst a metal collar was struck around its neck.

"What on earth is that thing?" Misty asked, as Flash handed Banana to him. "Be careful."

"Hey," he smirked at her, "this is me we're talking about here." That was why his parents were worried, Flash quickly rushing towards the creature as it sniffed the ground. "Hey big guy." The creature turned and growled at him, Flash holding up his hands showing he wasn't a treat. "Okay, let's try and stay calm. I'm not gonna hurt you. I just wanna know why you're here."

The creature tilted its head, but kept growling before raising its clawed hands.

Flash frowned, seeing he wasn't gonna be talking this one down. "Alright," he reached for the Omnitrix, "you asked for it." But as he said that, the watch suddenly lit up.

"Uncatalogued DNA detected!" Flash's eyes went wide, the teen realising what this meant.

And sure enough, the creature's entire hand suddenly changed. In seconds, the whole thing was surrounded by a familiar crystal coating and its claws looked extra sharp. It leapt forward and tried to slash at him, but Flash was able to jump back to avoid it.

"The last hybrid!" He cried, quickly changing the Omnitrix to scan mode. As he did, the creature's other hand was surrounded by crystals as well. Its feet also gained crystal boots with claws whilst its teeth suddenly changed to be made of the same substance. "I'm guessing you've got a little Diamondhead in you, huh." His watch shot the beam, which flew over the creature before it could attack.

"Unknown DNA sample acquired," the Omnitrix announced once the light finished. "Scan complete." The beast leapt at him with its claws ready to strike, but Flash dived forward and rolled under its attack as he activated the Omnitrix.

When the creature landed, a green flash from behind made it spin around and see a new opponent standing tall. "Diamondhead!" The crystal alien stared back at its genetic cousin, who licked his lips before running forward. It let out a howl as it leapt into the air, its crystal claws primed to slash at him.

He raised his arms and created a shield, blocking the claws but they managed to carve a groove in them.

"Augh!" Diamondhead was knocked staggering back, as the hybrid landed before launching itself forward for another slash. Diamondhead quickly reacted and punched the ground, causing a wall of crystal to appear that they hybrid attacked instead. The beast's claws slowly cut their way through the wall, as Diamondhead ran around it. "Take this!" He fired several shards at the hybrid, who spun around and saw them coming.

It quickly started swinging its arms around, its crystal arms blocking and deflecting all the projectiles. When the last of them reached it, it actually opened its mouth and caught it between its teeth.

"Wow," Diamondhead was impressed. The hybrid actually bit through the gem with its crystal teeth and smirked before rushing forward, Diamondhead charging as he threw a bunch right into its face. But once again, the hybrid surprised him by opening its mouth wide. "WHAT?" His fist flew into its mouth and it stopped it from hitting the back of its throat using its teeth, which started cracking his arm. "No way!"

The hybrid smiled as it bit down harder, whilst raising its claws ready to cut him up.

"Oh no you don't!" Diamondhead pulled and his hand broke off his arm, allowing him to jump back whilst the hybrid accidently swallowed the hand and found itself choking.

As it clutched its neck, Diamondhead regrew his hand and leapt forward. With a roar, he threw a punch right into the beast's gut. This knocked the wind out of it and dislodged the crystal hand, as it was thrown backwards.

Diamondhead had been sure not to hit too hard, enough to simply knock the creature down and stop it from suffocating. And as it recovered, he hit the Omnitrix and transformed. "Pesky Dust!" As the hybrid picked itself up, the fairy flew above it and started sprinkling the dust down upon it.

Slowly, the wolf began to drift off and fell to sleep as the crystals around its body retracted back into its body.

Pesky Dust sighed as he transformed back to human, landing down next to the hybrid. He looked him over and couldn't see any serious injuries. And as he did, his parents moved to his side with Banana. "You sure it's not gonna attack again?" His father asked, as Flash took out his phone.

"He should be out long enough for us to put him somewhere safe." Flash rang a number and quickly got through. "Shining, it's Flash. I've found the last hybrid." He nodded, "don't worry. I managed to subdue it without hurting it. But I'm gonna need to put it somewhere before it wakes up." He continued to nod and smiled, "great. Hold on a second." He turned to his parents, Misty speaking up.

"Is Shining going to come and get it?"

"Not exactly. He wants to use the teleporter to bring it back to the base. Gonna need to act as the beacon." He frowned, "sorry our family day out got cut short." His parents smiled at him.

"Don't worry," Trail told him. "We know this is important." Flash smiled before having an idea.

"Shining, can my parents come? I haven't been able to show them around the base yet." He waited and smirked before turning to them, "he said you guys can come if you want." The pair smirked and nodded, very interested in seeing the place Flash was now working. "Shining, they're in. Alright. Give he a few seconds." He turned back to them, "you'll need to be holding onto me."

Misty and Trail stepped up and placed a hand on his shoulders. "Like this?" Misty asked.

"Yup," Flash smirked before lifting his phone, "we're ready." He hung up and they waited, as Flash placed a hand on the creature. The next thing they knew, there was a flash of light and they all felt a tingling sensation.

Banana didn't seem to like this and squirmed, Misty holding him tighter as the sensation began to dull. As it did, the light vanished and they found they were no longer in the park. Instead, they were inside the main control room of the Plumber Base.

His parents looked around in amazement, Banana continuing to struggle in Misty's arms until she attached his lead and put him down. "This place is amazing," Trail stated before the elevator dinged and they turned to see Shining, Azmuth, Twilight Sunset and Fluttershy stepping out of it.

"Flash!" Twilight rushed over to him, "you alright? We got worried when we heard you ran into the final hybrid."

"I'm good," Flash told her. "This one actually went down pretty easily." They turned to the creature, as Sunset looked it over and Azmuth began scanning it.

"No wonder," Sunset finally spoke up. "This thing's a Diamond Dog. They're tough, but not the sharpest tool in the shed. They usually spend their days digging in mines looking for gems."

"Well this one came up from the ground," Flash replied. "I didn't get a good look at the hole, but its probably one heck of a digger. Those diamond claws of it are probably better then digger scoops."

"Diamond claws?" Shining asked, "is that its ability?"

"It would appear so," Azmuth nodded as he tapped his tablet. "Its DNA is an unknown sample mixed with human and petrosapien." He turned to Flash, "you're saying its claws were made of diamonds?"

"Kinda. It was able to cover its hands and feet with crystals just like Diamondhead. Its teeth suddenly turned crystal as well." Azmuth nodded and he completed his scans.

"Well, you've managed to capture it at a perfect time. I'm finally ready to purge all these hybrids of their human DNA."

"Really?" Flash was amazed to hear this, "why didn't you tell me?"

"I only just learned I would be able to do it," Azmuth replied. "I was missing a part that was essential to complete the machine, but it turns out Tirek had something similar he could lend us."

"Really?" Flash asked, "he has something similar to galvin technology?"

"Oh, this isn't galvin level technology. It's a rather simple piece of equipment. It's just very difficult to create due to how small it is." He turned away from him, "think of it like a jigsaw. They're a simple concept, but difficult to put together due to how much concentration is required."

Flash wasn't sure he fully understood that, but didn't have time to answer as the Diamond Dog was starting to make noises. "I think he's starting to come around."

Azmuth quickly poked his tablet and in a flash, a large mechanical pod appeared that opened up. "Quickly, get it inside." Flash, Shining and Trail quickly grabbed him and heaved the hybrid up, all glad he wasn't currently in diamond form since he was already heavy enough.

They placed him inside the device and closed the door, which filled with gas that started putting him back to sleep.

"There," Azmuth nodded, "that should keep him contained until the process is complete." As he said that, Sunset moved over to the main computer and typed away at it. A few moments later, the screen came alive and something appeared on it. A horse's face.

"Hey everypony." They all realised it was Princess Twilight, Flash, Shining and the human version a little weirded out by the sight of her in that form. "I'm guessing you guys are calling to tell us about the hybrids?"

"Indeed," Azmuth nodded, "and I'm ready to remove their human DNA and transport them to your world."

"That's great," Princess smiled. "The leaders of their nations have all agreed to take them in. Have you managed to find the final one?"

"Yup," Flash nodded, "it's a Diamond Dog." Princess frowned hearing that, "something wrong?"

"That one could be a problem. Diamond Dogs don't have a kingdom or a governing body, so I don't know if I'll be able to help it get adapted to life here as well as the others." They nodded at this, as they turned to look at the hybrid in question.

"This one wasn't exactly friendly," Flash told them. "Maybe we should keep it here and just send the others to Equestria for now."

"We should still attempt to remove its human DNA," Azmuth told him. "This process isn't exactly easy, so I'd rather do it once if possible." They nodded and Princess agreed to contact the other leader and tell them about the hybrid's arrival.

They ended the call and started getting to work.

They took the Diamond Dog, which Flash had chosen to name Scoop, up to the hybrid habit. The other hybrids were excited to finally be getting sent to Equestria, Sunset having told them all about the place and the different homes they would each be making there.

Azmuth summoned four more capsules, which they would also need to be placed in. "Why?" Drift asked as they were all released from their cells and stepped towards them.

"This isn't exactly going to be a painless process," Azmuth told them. "DNA re-sequencing take a toll on the body. Whilst the Omnitrix can rewrite Flash's DNA in an instant without pain, it took a long time for me to develop that technology and even longer to build it. If we waited for me to complete that task, you lot would all be stuck in here for a few more years."

"So we're gonna be in pain?" Pearl looked worried.

"Of course not," Twilight assured her. "These pods will put you all into a deep sleep. So deep you won't feel a thing when your DNA is altered. You'll go to sleep and awaken in Equestria in your new bodies."

"I guess that's okay," Scales agreed. "Let's just get this over with." The others nodded and all climbed into the pods, as Fluttershy made sure they were all comfortable.

"I guess this is goodbye," she told them. They all smiled back at her.

"Thanks for everything," Drift stated.

"Charger miss Fluttershy," the minotaur yak hybrid announced.

"I'll miss you all too," Fluttershy nodded. "But you'll be safe in Equestria. Now, go to sleep." They all nodded and laid down, allowing the humans to close the pods as Azmuth activated the sleeping system. They all smiled as the gas filled the devices and knocked them out.

"Alright," Azmuth stated, "let's get to work." They pushed the now hovering devices back towards the elevator and rode it down towards the room Azmuth had built the DNA re-sequencers. When they arrived on that floor, Flash was surprised to see the rest of the Rainbooms were already there along with someone else.

"Tirek," Shining smiled, "Good to see you again."

"And you," Tirek replied. "And congratulations on the promotion to full Plumber Agent. That must have been quite the test."

"I'll tell you what happened there later." He looked over at a large device that had a bunch of wires hoses and wires laying everywhere. He then looked down at the device in Tirek's hand, "is that the part?" Tirek nodded and turned to hand it to Azmuth, who took a closer look at it and smiled.

"Perfect," he announced. "With this, we can complete the re-sequencer. I'm still amazed you actually had one." He floated down and behind the machine, whilst Tirek smirked.

"You know I'm always happy to help." He looked over at the hybrids, "so these are the creatures created using DNA of another universe?"

"Yup," Flash nodded. "And once the human side of their DNA is purged, we can send them back to that world and they don't have to worry about being captured by whoever made them."

"It's too bad we never learned who the one behind all this was," Rainbow stated.

"Indeed," Rarity nodded. "They clearly have a way to enter Equestria. What's to stop them from going there and kidnapping them once they're there? Furthermore, what if they try and simply recreated these five from scratch?"

Sunset stepped forward. "The leaders in Equestria are gonna be keeping a close eye on them once they're there. If anyone tries to capture them, they'll let us know. And if they do recreate more hybrids...well there's nothing we can do about that. We'll just have to handle it when it comes."

The others were in agreement with that, as Azmuth finished installing the device into the machine. "We're ready." He took out his tablet and contacted Twilight, who appeared on screen. "Princess, are you ready to receive them once the process is complete?"

"Yup. Just let me know when to be ready." Azmuth nodded as they all pushed the pods into position and started connecting the hoses and wires to it as instructed.

Once that was done, everyone stepped back as Azmuth began to power up the device. "Ready?" They all nodded and Azmuth pressed the button, "activate!" The machine began to power up and unleashed a bright light, forcing them all to cover their eyes whilst Azmuth put on shades. "Beginning to lock onto their DNA." But as he said this, something else happened.

An alarm sound filled the air, surprising them as the machine's power increased. "What's happening?" Misty cried, as the machines around them started sparking before a few small explosions occurred around them. They cried out, as Azmuth tried to connect to the machine.

"Something's causing the base's power system to overload!" Azmuth cried, trying to shut down all power. But as he tried, the tablet's connection to the system was cut off. "What?" There were more explosions and the room started shaking, everyone crying out as Rarity put a shield around them.

"What do we do?" Pinkie screamed, as an explosion above them caused the roof to start caving in. Pieces of metal and debris fell towards them, as more explosions caused some pieces to be thrown into the walls and do more damage.

Fires started all around them and the DNA re-sequencer started going nuts. "IT'S GONNA BLOW!" Shining cried, activating his badge. "Plumber override. Code three eight S A four!" The badge beeped and the override was accepted, with more explosions occurring. "Lock on to all life forms and teleport them out of the base!" The badge kept beeping as lights appeared around them.

And as they did, a massive explosion ripped through the floor and fire flew straight towards them.

They all flinched, but none of them felt the flames. The next thing they all knew, the light around them was disappearing and they felt a gentle breeze on their skin.

Opening their eyes, they saw that they were outside the base and unharmed by what had happened.

But before they could relax, the front of the building exploded and the lot of them were knocked flying backwards. They all crashed into the grass on the front lawn, as pieces of metal and glass were thrown every. Luckily, none of the debris was thrown at them. If it had, they would have been in no fit shape to stop it.

They all laid there, their ears ringing due to the explosion.

People who were nearby also heard the explosion and rushed to the front gates to see what was happening, as Flash and his friends started picking themselves up. They all stared at the building and were shocked to see the whole place had been trashed.

"What happened?" Tirek asked, "what could have caused an explosion?" None of them knew the answer and as they picked themselves up, Fluttershy realised something.

"Where are the hybrids?" They looked around and realised she was right. The hybrids were nowhere in sight. Not even their pods were around.

"No," Shining shook his head, "the teleporters should have locked onto their life signs." He took out his badge and tried to log into the base, but the explosion had completely destroyed the systems. "I can't figure out what's happening in there."

That was all Flash needed to hear before he ran forwards, his parents calling out to him. But he didn't stop and transformed into Kagenobi, leaping into the remains of the building and making his way to the elevator.

The metal was red hot, but he barely felt it in his shadow form. He was able to make his way down to the room they had just been in and when he looked around, he found the place was a total mess. And then he saw the device and the remains of the five pods, which had been blown open and damaged beyond repair.

Moving closer, he took a chance and looked inside. And all he saw was...ash. "No."

Back outside, the police and fire department had arrived.

A small crowd had also arrived, with Trixie and Adagio being amongst them. The girls tried to get in, but the cops wouldn't allow them. However, they couldn't stop Trixie from going Sky Butterfly and carrying Adagio over the blockade. "HEY!" He cried, as the girls flew towards the building.

"Shining!" Trixie cried, the man turning to her. "What happened?"

"An explosion," he explained. "We don't know what caused it, but it blew the whole base up." He looked towards the building, "and the hybrids were still inside." The girls gasped, fearing the worst. Shining then noticed Kagenobi return and rushed over to him. "Did you find anything?" He returned to human and Shining could see the anguish on his face.

"Flash?" Fluttershy looked terrified by what he was about to say, "are they..."

"They're gone," was all Flash could tell them. This pushed Fluttershy over the edge and she started crying, her friends rushing to her side to comfort her as Flash explained what he found.

As he finished his story, everyone couldn't believe what had happened. They all thought about the hybrids. Even though they had started off enemies, they had grown and were about to start a new life in a new home. But all that had been stolen.

Tirek sighed, being the first to speak up. "We lost some great souls today. I know this must be hard on all of you. Take time to properly mourn them, so that we can focus on the most important thing right now."

"Most important thing?" Pinkie asked, "what could be more important than them?"

"Nothing? Apologies. I meant, the most important thing after them. Find out what caused this. Not knowing what happened will not help us feel any better. It won't be until we learn the truth behind their deaths that we'll feel better."

"He's right," Azmuth agreed. "I will begin work excavating the base and try to figure out what happened."

"You should also take time," Tirek told him. "I can't imagine you're at your best in this moment." But Azmuth shook his head and moved towards the building.

"No, there's no telling what the explosion did to the devices in the base. If it caused serious damage to anything volatile, then we need to be made aware of it now." He took out his tablet and connected it to his ship, which decloaked and started unleashing robots.

As they flew down, they started spraying the building and putting out the fires.

Azmuth turned to the others, "this might take some time. You should all head on home or wherever you need to be to deal with this right now." They all frowned, not really wanting to just leave without knowing what had happened. "Tirek is right. None of your are in a fit state to be of any help right now anyway." He turned to Shining and Flash's parents, who nodded.

"Come on guys," Shining grabbed Twilight by the shoulder. "Let's not get in his way." Flash's parents did the same with their son, leading them all out of the compound.

As they did, people started asking questions about what the heck had happened. But they quickly backed off when they saw the pained expression on the kid's faces.

Flash barely registered anything that was happening around him. He remembered hearing something about Shining taking Twilight home whilst Trixie and the other Rainbooms would take Fluttershy to her favourite cat cafe to try and cheer her up.

Adagio and his parents started marching him down the street, Flash barely paying attention as he couldn't stop imagining the faces of the hybrids. They were his friends, except for Scoop, all of which he had given names and promised to protect. But he had failed.

He didn't come out of his little dreamworld until he felt himself sitting down.

He blinked and looked around, seeing Adagio and his parents were sitting around the same table as him. It was a small cafe near the park they had been at, since they had to go get the car to go home. Adagio ordered them all some drinks, getting Flash his favourite milkshake in a hope to cheer him up.

But even as the drink was placed down in front of him, he couldn't help but feel bad for what had happened. Even Banana leaping onto his lap didn't make him feel any better.

"Flash," Misty placed a hand on his shoulder, "it's not your fault. You had no idea this was going to happen."

"I promised I'd keep them safe," Flash told her. "And I failed. They never got to really experience the world. Before they could, I locked them in a tank and hid them away so people wouldn't be scared."

"You had to," Trial stated. "They weren't ready to be out in the real world. We watched your fights with them and they were out of control. If you hadn't caught them, they would have caused who knows how much damage to the city before someone else took them down. And they might not have survived if it was anyone else."

Flash didn't say anything and just took a sip of his drink, Adagio shaking his head. "You shouldn't feel sorry for yourself. You didn't do anything wrong."

"Didn't I?"

"Were you the one who caused the lab to explode?"

"No."

"Were you the one who stopped Shining's badge from teleporting them out?"

"No."

"Did you do everything you could to save them once you knew they were in danger?" Flash frowned, unsure about that idea since he hadn't done anything to save them. He had just rushed in a soon as he realised they weren't there. "The answer to that is yes. You shouldn't blame yourself for what happened. It's not your fault."

Flash sighed, "then whose fault is it?"

Azmuth's robots had managed to put the fires out and he was currently riding one through the base.

As the other robots continued to shoot extinguishing gas, the one he was riding was scanning the area. They were currently on their way down to the power station, which had been where the explosion had started. A part of him wondered if maybe Twilight had done something when she messed with it not too long ago, but had checked it himself after returning.

Nothing Twilight did could have caused this. "But what did?" He reached the power core and the robot scanned it, Azmuth staring at the data on his tablet. And as he did, he realised something. "A virus?" Some kind of virus had infected the power system's control processor, deleting its safety subroutines. "How? The base's firewalls are the best there are. How could a virus infect the system?"

He did a further scan of the system and found the virus left a digital trace, allowing him to track it back to its source.

He followed it through the base, travelling through multiple systems until he arrived back in the room they had been in when the explosions started.

He kept following the virus' trace until he arrived and the DNA re-sequencer, which shocked Azmuth as he did a full system diagnostic on the machine. But the device was too badly damaged. Whatever part had been infected, it had been destroyed along with the virus.

He sighed, feeling like he had hit a dead end. "Was this just an accident? Did I miss something when I checked everything before the explosion?" He shook his head. There was no way he could miss something like a virus in one of his machines. But how had it happened then?

However, as he continued to ponder what had happened, the robot beeped.

It had still been scanning the base when he went on his virus hunt. And when it reached this room, it had scanned the place and picked something up. Azmuth brought up the robot's scans and saw what it had found, his eyes going wide. "It can't be."

Fluttershy should have been in absolute heaven.

Here she was, in her favourite cat cafe, with some of her favourite furry friends. Many had jumped around and wanted her attention, but she could barely acknowledge them as she thought about the five creatures she had taught so many things to.

Her friends watched and were all worried, fearing Fluttershy might go into depression if they didn't find a way to help her. "What do we do?" Rainbow asked, Applejack sighing as she shook her head.

"There's nothin we can do," she explained. "She's in mourning. Trust me, losin' someone close ta ya'h like that takes its toll. But you can't just ignore it. If ya'h do, it can be even worse. Most people can't accept the pain and just stop themselves from feelin' anythin. But that's the worst thing ya'h can do."

The others nodded as Pinkie moved over to Fluttershy, a bunch of cats sticking out of her hair. She sat down and put her arm around Fluttershy, pulling her into a hug and allowing her to start crying into her shoulder. The others all stepped around her, hugging her tightly as well.

They could do nothing but be there for her, letting her know she wasn't alone through this.

Still feeling upset, Flash and his family were still at the cafe.

Flash had activated the Omnitrix and was currently cycling through his aliens. When he saw the ones for his Equestrian aliens, he frowned as he remembered how he had gotten each and every one of them. "You okay, son?" He looked up at Trail and then back down at the Omnitrix. "Something wrong with the watch?"

"No," Flash shook his head. "I'm just...wondering if I should stop using these aliens."

"Why on earth would you want to do that?" Misty asked. "What if you need one of them and none of your other aliens can fill in for them?"

"I guess. But...I got these aliens from those five. Using them...would feel like a mockery to them." He suddenly saw the silhouette showing the alien he had gained from Scoop. He had actually been excited to use this one after he had gotten it, having already come up with a cool name for it. But now he would never get the chance.

"That's all the more reason you should use them," Trail told him. "Those five never got to do anything good with their lives. But if you use the aliens that contain their DNA, then they'll continue to live on through you." Flash smirked, actually liking that.

Misty placed a hand on his shoulder and looked him straight in the eyes. "I know you're upset about what happened to them, but they're not really gone. So long as you remember them, they'll always live on in your memory."

"You really think so?" Flash asked, his parents and Adagio all nodding as he looked back down at the Omnitrix. Seeing each of them no longer made him feel sadness. Instead, he felt joy and hope. His parents were right. He would protect the world with these aliens. There were many people out there who probably still felt afraid of them after what happened, but he would work to change that.

It was in that moment that an alarm caught his attention, making him look towards a nearby store that a bunch of guys ran out of carrying a bunch of dufflebag.

"STOP!" The store clerk yelled as they jumped into a van and drove off, "GET BACK HERE!" Flash could tell these guys were bad news and looked down at the Omnitrix, smiling as he knew what to do.

Inside the van, the four criminals laughed as they looked over their haul.

The store had been an electronics store and they had made off with a bunch of laptops, games consoles and phones that would fetch a pretty penny. They all smirked at one another, only for the one driving to notice something in the rear view mirror. "We've got a tail!"

They all looked out the windows and saw a strange orange bird horse man hybrid. "You made a big mistake!" He squawked at them, "cause Skydiver's gonna rip you up!" He readied his claws as he drew closer to the truck, only for the criminals who weren't driving to open the back of it and reveal they were armed with machine guns.

They fired, but Skydiver was able to fly around and avoid them without much issue. However, this slowed him down and the truck began to lengthen the distance between them.

"So, that's how you wanna play it huh?" He flew up and out of the guns range, but kept the vehicle in sight as he sped up. He managed to get ahead of the truck before diving down, hitting the Omnitrix as he did so. And in a green flash, he transformed right as he got level with the vehicle. "GRYFORCE!" He announced, unleashing his sonic blast as he did so.

The attack wasn't too powerful, but it was strong enough to act like a brick wall that the truck slammed into.

The crooks all screamed as they were shaken about, the driver getting slammed by the airbag. Gryforce smirked, hoping that would be enough to stop them.

But before he could think about turning back, the van's side door opened up with the other three crooks leaping out. They still had their guns, but they were also armed with swat shields. Gryforce was surprised by this and as they opened fire, he leapt into the air and fired another sonic blast.

But the shields protected the criminals, causing them to only be pushed a few inches back as they kept firing. This made him smirk as he flew down, hitting the Omnitrix and transforming again. "Dragoon!" He flew into the bullets and protected his eyes, his scales turning the deadly projectiles into nothing more than paintball bullets.

He landed right in front of them and unleashed a wave of fire, the crooks using their shields to block it. But the heat from the flames quickly overwhelmed them, forcing them to all drop their shields and leap back. They kept firing and Dragoon once again shielded his body,

He waited until they ran out of ammo, forcing them to stop and quickly reload. But not quick enough to stop him from hitting the Omnitrix and transforming, "Yak-Smasher!" The hairy minotaur quickly raised his arms and wrapped a bunch of hair around it, then slammed his fists into the ground so hard everything around him shook.

This knocked the criminals staggering, their weapons falling from their hands as Yak-Smasher ran forward.

He dealt a single quick blow to each of them, knocking them out but not causing much more damage. He sighed, seeing they were all out, but another gunshot made him spin around. The van driver had gotten out of the truck and was pointing his own pistol at him.

But given he missed a rather large target, he clearly wasn't in the best state to be wielding a weapon. As such, Yak-Smasher slammed the Omnitrix one last time and transformed.

When the light faded, he was revealed to be in a form similar to Scoop. His body wasn't as bulky, however, as he only stood around five feet in height with a lean physique. His fur was orange, with a mop of blue hair on his head that looked just like his human form's hair. He was wearing a black vest with white trim and a white collar around his neck that had the Omnitrix on it.

"DIAMUTT!" He howled, as his hands, feet and teeth all crystallised.

The crook fired at him again, this time actually getting a good shot. But Diamutt used his claws to knock the bullet away, as he started running forward on all fours. He kept firing at the beast, but each and every one of his shots were dodged or deflected. Diamutt then leapt into the air and flew over him, landing with his front legs on the ground as he thrust his back legs into the crook's back.

He cried out as he staggered forward, attempting to regain balance and turning to shoot. But he lost his footing and fell onto his butt.

As he spun around, he saw Diamutt slowly turn towards him and let out a low growl. Fear flooded his body at the bloodthirsty looking creature, which licked its lips as it stared at him. He began to quiver and shake in terror, as Diamutt suddenly shot forward with his claws pointed right at him.

He screamed in horror, thinking this was the end. But he felt no pain.

As he thought the beast had killed him before he felt the pain, he opened his eyes and saw the claws inches from his face. Diamutt had stopped at the last moment and this was enough to overwhelm him.

He fell backwards and was completely past out, Diamutt smirking as he heard sirens approaching. A crowd gathered and were amazed by his new alien, as he touched the Omnitrix and transformed back. It was here that the police arrived, all driving up the street and stopping in time to see Flash standing over the criminals.

The cops quickly took his statement and placed the criminals into custody,

The crowd cheered as Flash returned to Adagio and his parents, who had arrived just as Diamutt finished off the last crook. When they saw him, they noticed a smile on his face and they realised Flash was likely feeling a lot better.

They let Banana run over to him and Flash knelt down to give him a belly rub, as they moved to his side. "You feeling better?" Trail asked, Flash nodding as he stood up with his dog in arm.

"Yeah. You were right. If I want to remember them in the right way, I need to honour them. She from now on, whenever I use these aliens, I'm using them for Drift, Pearl, Scales, Charger and Scoop. So the whole world can remember them in a good way." The three of them smiled at this, Flash smiling as well.

But then, Flash's phone began to ring. The teen handed his dog to Misty before taking it out, seeing it was an unknown number.

"Hello?" He asked, wondering who it was. But he got his answer when the person spoke in a voice he knew all too well.

"Flash, I need you to get back to the base right now."

"Azmuth?" Flash was surprised the alien was contacting him like this. "What's wrong? Did you find out who caused the base to explode?"

"Get back here and I'll explain. I've already sent a message to Shining and he said he'd contact the others. I'm really not in the mood for repeating myself." Flash frowned as Azmuth hung up, the teen sighing before telling his parents he had to go back to the base.

They nodded, agreeing to take Banana home as he and Adagio headed for the base.

When they arrived, they saw Shining's car pulling into the place whilst Trixie and the rest of the Rainbooms arrived as well. "You guys know why Azmuth called us back?" Sunset asked the others as they stepped up to the building. They all shook their heads and as they did, they suddenly found themselves surrounded by light.

"What the hay?" Applejack asked, as they suddenly disappeared and reappeared someplace else.

When the light faded, they realised they were in the base. They were in the room they had been in during the explosions, the sight of the destroyed DNA re-sequencer making them all frown. But then they saw Azmuth working on something.

"Sorry for the sudden teleport," he told them. "Lift's out and we didn't have time to take the stairs."

"What's this about?" Shining asked, "were you able to figure out what happened?"

"I did," Azmuth nodded. "And you'll be shocked to hear what I've discovered." The lot of them frowned as Azmuth moved over to the re-sequencer. "The cause of the explosion was a virus that infected our system. Somehow, it bypassed all the security protocols and caused the power core to go into overload. The virus originated from this device, but I still have no idea how it got infected."

"That's why you called us to explain?" Flash frowned at Azmuth, "that could have just been told over the phone."

"That's not why I asked you back here," Azmuth explained. "Whilst investigating the cause of the explosions, I discovered something. Transporter energy."

"So what?" Trixie shrugged, "didn't Shining teleport you guys out before the explosion?"

"He did, but the energy wasn't from our teleporter." This surprised them. "Every teleporter works in a different way. It's like a gas and electric car. Both do the same thing, but use different methods to accomplish it. And the residual energy my scanners detected, is different from the energy that our teleporters give off."

"So you're saying another teleporter activated in this room?" Twilight asked, "but what was teleported?" Azmuth smiled and turned towards the remains of the destroyed device, everyone slowly putting the pieces together. "No way."

"Are you saying what I think you're saying?" Shining asked, not wanting to actually say it if he was actually wrong. But the look on Azmuth's face made him feel hopeful.

"I'm saying that the hybrids are still alive," he proclaimed. "But were teleported somewhere else. Whoever did this was able to lock on and transport them away a millisecond before we were transported out. That's why they weren't with us when the teleporters moved us outside." Everyone slowly began to smile, but Adagio looked a little sceptical.

"How sure are you of this?" She asked, Azmuth moving over to the pods and taking out the ash that was inside each of them.

"I tested this ash to figure out what it was originally made of." His tablet suddenly projected a holographic screen in front of them. "And whilst it was a form of flesh, it was only a few hours old at most. Whoever did this teleported the hybrids out and replaced them with newly grown flesh. Had I not began to investigation right away, the ash and energy trace would have weakened and we never would have realised the truth."

"They're alive," Flash whispered. "But...then where are they?" They all wanted to know that answer, fearing that wherever they were wasn't pretty.

Tirek had returned to his building and as soon as he was alone, he had transported himself up to his ship.

He smirked as he arrived at the lab, seeing five tubes with five familiar individuals. Drift, Pearl, Scales, Charger and Scoop were all still asleep, having no idea that they were in the most dangerous place they could possibly be.

Tirek was thanking his lucky stars he had decided to grow a fifth piece of flesh to swap out. If he hadn't, he would have had to either take Scoop and leave no trace anything had burned or leave him there and be down a creation. He smirked, unable his plan had worked so well.

The virus he had planted in the part had done its job almost too well, infecting the entire system and causing the place to explode. He was just glad he had been able to cancel the teleport he had on himself when he heard Shining was going to teleport them had. He had hoped to take all of those foolish idiots out of the equation, but at least he had gotten his investments back. And there was nothing anyone could do to stop him.

Author's Note

Flash finally has the final Hybrid. I know you were probably expecting Scoop to get his own episode, but I couldn't think of one that wouldn't be a redo of the previous aliens. So now Tirek has made his move. How will things turn out? Only time will tell.

I know many of you were expecting a Changeling, but giving Flash a shape shifting alien that can copy the abilities of other creatures would make his other aliens pointless. Why turn into Volt-Edge, when he can turn into a changeling then shift between Volt-Edge or any other alien he wants. So yeah, no changeling. Sorry.

Season 3, Episode 14: Tirek's Crimes

Many years ago.

In the desert plains of New Mexico, trucks and cars were racing down the Route sixty-six highway. The many different vehicles blended together, making it impossible to tell one from another. And that was what the inhabitants of one truck were hoping for.

A truck was rushing down the highway as fast as it was allowed. From the looks of it, it was just a simple truck. On the side of it, a company logo could be seen. Max's Pipes and Plumbing could be seen in bright letters, as the truck shot down the road.

Inside, a man in his early thirties was rolling down the road behind the wheel. He was a pink skinned individual, with brown hair. He was dressed in a blue boiler suit with a white shirt underneath, he company long on his chest. To anyone else, he just looked like an ordinary man. But he was anything but ordinary.

He suddenly heard a beeping sound and pressed one of the buttons on his radio, which caused part of the dashboard to spin around and reveal a radar screen of some kind. On the screen was some kind of red dot, but it disappeared before he could get a lock on its location.

He frowned and pressed his finger to his ear. "Agent Tennyson to base. Do you read?"

"Loud and clear. What seems to be the problem?"

"My scanners just detected a strange energy signature in my location. But it disappeared before I could get a lock. Anything on the base's main computer?" He waited and the voice replied.

"Nothing. You sure it wasn't just a scanner malfunction?"

"Possibility." But as he said that, the scanner beeped again and the dot appeared in the same place. "It's there again." But the dot vanished as soon as it appeared. "Something must be blocking the signal. I'm gonna go check it out."

"You sure you wanna go in on your own? It could be dangerous."

The man smirked. "Can't be any worse than Vilgax. I managed to take him down easy enough. Besides, I'm not on my own. Might be a good way for the rookie to get his feet wet." He ended the call and reached back to bang on a door behind him. "Rise and shine, sleeping beauty."

A minute or so later, the door opened up before a young man with red skin and white hair stepped out. "What's going on?"

"We've got a possible alien energy source," Max found the highway exit and came off. "We're going to go check it out." The young man looked excited, as he leapt into the passenger seat.

"Alright! Finally!"

"Just don't go getting ahead of yourself. This could still be nothing. But if it is something, follow my lead and don't get yourself killed." As he said that, they found themselves entering a valley with many large rocks on either side of them. The road quickly started getting bumpy and the driver flicked a switch on the dashboard.

As he did, the truck suddenly started to morph and change. The wheels folded out from under it and as they did, the tires inflated for better off road traction. The rest of the truck changed from a boxy vehicle, to a streamlined tank. On the front of its hood was a round emblem with an hourglass on it.

The pair sat straight as lights flew out of the dashboard, hitting the pair and causing their overalls to change into a full body suit that was a mix of blue and black. Helmets also appeared around the pair's heads, as they rolled along the ground following the signal as it continuously flashed in an out of existence.

"Um...Max? What exactly is happening to that energy?"

"It's either being switched on and off, or something's attempting to block it from being detected and not doing a very good job." As they got closer, Max pressed another button. "Entering stealth mode." As soon as he pressed it, the tank vanished from view.

A minute later, they arrived at what appeared to be an old mining town.

The place looked like it had been abandoned a long time ago, with not a human soul anywhere in sight. But there was a large building that looked big enough to house a large aircraft in the center of the town, which seemed to be where the energy was coming from.

The tank pulled to a stop and the two humans moved into the back of the tank, which was full of different types of alien weapons. They both grabbed a pair of hand held laser pistols and a rifle blaster before jumping out of the tank, being careful not to be seen as they rushed for cover.

They carefully made their way towards the building and as they did, they heard a noise.

Looking around, they saw a bunch of two foot tall aliens running towards the building. They were gremlin-like in appearance, wearing a bunch of strange overalls and carrying parts that looked like they had been striped from some of the old mining machinery.

"Planchaküle," Max sighed.

"Who?"

"Intergalactic mechanics. A pretty smart species who can take anything apart and rebuild it better with the same parts. But what are they doing here?" He reached for his radio, "Tennyson to base." But they didn't respond, no matter how many times he tried. All he got was static. "Damn. Whatever's blocking the energy must be blocking the signal too." He turned to his partner. "Tirek, we're going into what could probably be a pretty big fight. You up for it."

"You kidding?" Tirek asked, "I've been waiting for a moment like this." With that, he rushed and ran towards the building. "Let's do this!"

"Wait!" Max called out, but Tirek wasn't to be stopped.

He ran into the building and looked around, seeing a ton of planchaküles as they appeared to be working on something under a massive tarp. "Plumbers! Freeze!" The gremlins all turned towards him as he pointed his rifle at them, "what are you freaks doing on my planet?" But instead of answering, the planchaküles all pulled a bunch of different weapons out of nowhere.

Before Tirek knew what was happening, he was being shot at by lasers, fire and metal projectiles.

Luckily, someone ran in and pushed him out of the way. The pair fell to the ground and rolled to safety, Max pushing him behind some crates as the projectiles started exploding around them. "What do you think you're doing?" He asked as Tirek shook his head. "Never run into a fight without knowing the strengths of your opponents." He pulled out his twin blasters and stood up, firing at the aliens.

One by one, the planchaküles were blasted down. Max stayed on the move, firing at them as best he could whilst avoiding their own attacks.

Some lasers caused the area around them to explode, whilst other lasers sealed what they hit in blocks of ice. One even turned a crate it hit into lime jello. But none of them hit Max and he continued to blast each and every one of them.

Tirek finally recovered and grabbed his own rifle, using it to shoot down a few of the gremlins himself. And as he did, Max noticed his blaster wasn't on the stun setting.

Eventually, the final planchaküle was blasted and fell to the ground. Their weapons lay on the ground, still dangerous but not a threat until the surviving ones came around. Max put his blasters away and turned to Tirek, who was looking up at whatever was under the large tarp.

Max wanted to give him a chewing out, but knew that would have to wait until after they had investigated what was under there. As such, he grabbed the tarp and pulled. The sound of tearing filled the air and as he pulled it away, he revealed a large red spaceship that looked like something that could put even the best plumber ships to shame.

They managed to find the access hatch and opened the doors, allowing them inside to look around.

The ship was empty, all the aliens having been outside when the pair arrived. They soon found the bridge and Max managed to access the logs. "Looks like they're a bunch of salvage specialists. They crashed on Earth about three months ago and they've been trying to repair the ship without anyone noticing them.

Tirek checked another station and found the ship's diagnostic systems. "Looks like they were hours away from leaving. I'd say this ship's capable of sustained flight, though the warp drive's still offline." He then saw something that made him gasp. "No way."

"What?" Max asked, turning to him.

"This ship is equipped with an Interdimensional Engine. It's not fully operational, but it could allow this ship to travel to alternate dimensions."

Max frowned, "that's a technology that could be dangerous in the wrong hands."

"Yeah," Tirek nodded, "I bet this place has a bunch of different tech we wouldn't want used against us." He found the ship's schematics and discovered the location of the main technology room, the plumber rushing out with Max following.

The pair made their way through the ship and eventually arrived at the doors to a large metal room, the pair stepping inside and find it was a workshop full of different gadgets, gizmos and weapons. The pair started looking through it all, amazed by what they were seeing.

Some of the technology was way beyond what the earth branch were permitted to use. There were weapons and technology that could change the way the world worked. "This stuff is awesome!" Tirek cried, "imagine what we could do with stuff like this."

"We're not keeping it," Max told him. "While yes, this technology is amazing. It's not our job to steal from aliens to make earth more advanced. Those aliens didn't do anything illegal in the eyes of the plumbers. You pointed your gun on them first." Tirek frowned. "We're going to have the plumbers come and take this ship. If they find anything here that's not legal, then they'll deal with it. But for now, we leave everything where it is."

"Are you nuts?" Tirek cried, "you're okay with Earth being left defenceless. The aliens have these weapons, so why can't we. We need to protect ourselves."

"That's final," Max told him. "Put it back." He went over to examine something else, whilst Tirek placed the alien device down. As he did, he looked around and saw all the different gizmos that could help humanity advance.

"How long do you think it'd take mankind to advance this far on our own?"

"Not sure," Max told him. "Centuries, probably. But that's fine. We're not ready to have this kind of technology at our fingertips."

"But just imagine to possibilities," Tirek sighed. "There could be the cure to cancer in here. Or a way to reverse climate change. Don't you want your children and grandchildren to live in a world where hunger and disease is a thing of the past?"

"If I have any grandkids, I just want them to grow up happy. They can be happy with the world as it is. If we started handing out technology like this, we'd be going against everything the plumbers were created to stop. President Washingteeth believed humanity could flourish without outside interference. To go against that belief would be like spitting on his grave."

Tirek frowned, "the plumbers are doing more harm than good keeping this stuff away from us."

"Well luckily, the plumbers will be around for a long time. Actually, this ship's probably gonna keep the earth branch open for another decade or two. The plumbers were starting to think Earth had become too much of an off-limits place with all the aliens fearing to come here after what we did to Vilgax. They'd have probably shut us down if he hadn't found this ship."

"Really?" Tirek asked, Max nodding.

"Yeah. This ship is probably the source of the interference that blocked it from scans. Once it's turned off, the plumbers should be able to locate us." He turned to leave but as he headed for the door, a sound filled the air followed by a agonising burning sensation that flowed through his entire body. "AUGH!" He looked down and his eyes went wide seeing a large hole in his chest, the plumber's legs giving out as he fell to the ground.

He panted, unable to calm down as he felt his body shutting down. In that moment, Tirek moved around him and he saw the man carrying one of the alien blasters. "Talk about a kick."

"W...why?"

"This technology is too valuable to not let earth have. We'll finally be able to protect ourselves. If the plumbers are going to shut down, I'll need to make a new living. I'm sure several companies will pay a pretty penny for just one of these things."

Max coughed, "you won't get away with this. People are gonna realise what you did."

"I doubt it," Tirek smiled. "After all, I won't be selling any of the stuff in here. But with a bit of study, I'm sure I can remake some of them using human technology. Then it'll just be a matter of slowly upping the design until I have something exactly like the original."

Max wanted to scream, but he couldn't. All he could do was take his final breath, unable to believe this was how it ended.

Tirek stared down at his partner's body and sighed. He hadn't wanted to do that, but he had no choice. He wouldn't deny the world this technology. But before he could give it to the world, he had to make sure nobody took it from him.

Picking Max's body up, he carried him outside and placed him on the ground. He then returned to the bridge and started typing at the controls, eventually discovering a remote that would allow him to control the ship outside of it. Turns out the ship also had a stealth mode, which would make hiding it a lot easier.

Once he had everything figured out, he left the ship and typed in the coordinates. The ship quickly vanished before the invisible object began to fly. Tirek left the building as the roof was ripped through and caused much debris to fall. It then shot off the the coordinates Tirek had placed, completely invisible to the plumber's scanners.

He smirked before rushing over to his tank, getting inside and activating the radio. "Hello!" He cried, "is anyone there!? Please tell me you can hear me!"

We hear you," the voice on the radio replied. "What happened? We couldn't get through to you before. What's going on out there?"

Tirek did his best to sound distraught. "Max...he's dead. The aliens killed him. There was a ship and they...they took off in it. Please tell me you guys are picking it up." He waited, hoping they hadn't detected the ship.

"No, There's nothing in your location that indicates a ship of any kind there." Tirek smirked, knowing he had gotten away with it.

Present day.

Tirek smiled as he stared at the five creatures in the tubes where they belonged. He couldn't help but remember back when he had first got his ship, and everything good that had happened since then. Five years after the plumbers shut down, he had revealed a great invention to the world.

As he had told Max, he had reverse engineered the alien technology and created a simpler version of something using human technology. That one device made him millions, which he used to start his company and fund more technology development.

He had revolutionised the medical, technological and weapons fields by decades. Thanks to him, devices that wouldn't have been made for another century were open to the public. Admittedly, this had resulted in certain individuals using the tech for evil. Animac, Negatine and even a guy who went by the name of Oakheart had used his tech to cause problems. But he had only used it to help the world. America was a serious dominant superpower, thanks to him.

And now he had made his masterpieces.

Several weeks ago.

Tirek's ship was flying through a dimensional portal, Tirek having finally figured out how to access the interdimensional engine.

He was currently coming back from a long and arduous voyage, having travelled into another dimension for one reason and one reason only. To gather DNA. And his reason was a simple one. To create a new breed of super soldiers.

He had been working on this project for years, ever since he had discovered the genetic equipment on the ship. He had discovered a smorgasbord of DNA samples from hundreds of different alien species. Species he could use to create a vast array of different monsters that would be completely subservient to anyone he programmed them to obey.

Alas, the equipment wasn't as good as he had hoped. When attempting to mix different varieties of alien life with human DNA, the process never worked right and the creatures made came out deformed and pathetic. It seemed human DNA wasn't compatible with alien creatures.

That was when he had finally figured out how to access the ships dimension hopping capabilities.

And when he took his first test flight into another universe, he was shocked to find it was a world where the laws of physics themselves were different. Magic was an actual thing in this world, along with a variety of magical creatures.

Talking animals, a sun and moon moved by a winged unicorn, dragons, griffons and other mythological creatures. All real. All for the taking.

Using DNA scanning drones he had made from the pieces on the ship, he had gathered many samples from the many mythological creatures that lived in this strange world. He had studied the DNA thoroughly and once he had figured out which ones he had. He had gotten to work creating five genetic fusions of human and Equestrian DNA with alien DNA mixed in to give them little extra kick. And unlike the human alien hybrids, these ones were all stable the perfect.

And now, here he was. Standing in front of the five creatures that would make america truly unstoppable.

He stepped over to Drift, "high speed aerial warfare." He moved to Pearl, "air to sea warfare." Then to Scales, "aerial flame bombardment." To Charger, "ground assault." And finally to Scoop, "underground assault and tracking." He smirked as he moved over to the computer, bringing up the DNA of many of the Equestrian creatures he had scanned.

He also brought up the alien DNA, wondering what else he could mix together to make into a powerful weapon.

However, as he was considering different variations, the ship suddenly rocked around and her barely managed to keep himself from being thrown around. "What?" He opened a small window on the computer that showed footage of the cockpit.

The ship had arrived back on Earth and when it did, he found himself in the middle of a battlefield.

Taking a closer look, he found a giant spaceship was now floating above Canterlot, with many robots flying out and into that. He had exited the portal in stealth mode and had crashed into some of these robots. "What is going on?" It was then that a large green flash caught his attention, Tirek using his remote to turn the ship around.

As he did, he was shocked to see a giant alien now standing taller then the buildings around it.

The alien quickly started swinging its arms around and stepping on the robots, destroying them before a humming sound made him turn the camera back around. Doing so showed the larger ship getting closer, as it seemed to be powering up a laser cannon.

The giant brought its arms together and started building energy, Tirek gasping as he tried to move the ship away. But he wasn't fast enough and the two lasers exploded towards one another, neither knowing that Tirek's ship was between them.

The spacecraft moved, but the tail of the vehicle was struck by the lasers and damaged. This sent the ship spinning out of control, Tirek crying as he tried to stop himself before he crashed. But as he did the computer beeped and something appeared on screen.

'Activating stasis and jettison procedure.'

He gasped, trying to cancel it, but it was no good. The sound of five pods being shot out of the ship filled the air and when he looked around, he saw that his creations were gone. "NOOOOO!"

Present day.

Tirek had hoped he could find them before they awakened, but their tracking devices didn't work in stasis and some of them were damaged and unable to let him track them. Then they had fallen into Flash's clutches and he had attempted to foolishly send them to that world whilst removing their human DNA.

"Now you're back where you belong," Tirek smirked. "I'd thank Sentry for doing the work for me, if I didn't care about keeping myself innocent in all this. Now I can complete my plan without needing to worry about those fools."

A small part of Tirek knew he should either stop or wait, since going through with it would alert Sentry to the hybrid's continued existence. But he had come too far and risked too much, to let himself stop now.

"Let Sentry try and stop me. He'll fail." With that, he started working on making his preparations.

At the partially destroyed Plumber Base, Twilight and Azmuth were hard at work.

With Azmuth's discovery of the hybrid's survival, they got to work attempting to find them. But this was proving difficult. "There has to be some way to find them," Twilight sighed as Azmuth stopped typing at his tablet.

"Unfortunately, the teleporter trace is too badly degraded to find where it sent them. If we want to find them, we'll need to come up with another way of locating them." Twilight frowned, wishing she knew what that way could be.

Down in another section of the base, Shining and the others were in the weapons room.

Shining used his badge to open the gun shelves and they began taking out whatever weapon they might be able to use. Adagio, Rainbow, Applejack, Rarity and Sunset were all armed with laser rifles, whilst Pinkie and Fluttershy decided to stick with a simple laser pistol.

Flash had also chosen to arm himself with two pistols, Shining and Trixie planning to use their normal power-set as they did so. Flash had also gotten his hoverboard from home, wanting to have every advantage they could get in order to save the hybrids. They had also equipped themselves with communicator earpieces, to make sure they could contact one another if they got split up.

"So what's exactly is the plan?" Adagio asked, turning to the three superheroes for confirmation.

Shining was the one who answered. "Once Twilight and Azmuth locate the hybrids, we head to that location and save them. How we do that will have to be decided when we know where they are. Knowledge of the location is the most important part of creating a battle plan." They nodded and once they were geared up, they headed back up towards the main control room.

When they arrived, Twilight and Azmuth were still struggling to find a way to locate them. "Anything?" Flash asked, Twilight shaking her head.

"I'm sorry. But the teleport is just too degraded. We can't follow it's signal."

"Isn't there anything we can do?" Trixie asked. "What about those tracking devices the hybrids all had?"

"We removed them," Azmuth stated.

"Not all of them," Flash pointed out. Azmuth turned to him, "what about Scoop's? You didn't take his out, right?" Azmuth realised he was right and typed on his tablet.

"You're right. We still have the tracker's signal in the database. My ship still has a record of it from when we found Drift's. If it's still working, I should be able to locate it." They smirked as Azmuth worked, eventually sighing. "Damn. I can't get a lock on it."

"Why not?" Fluttershy asked.

"Either it's been shut off by whoever has them...or something's blocking the signal from getting through." He frowned and tried to think. "Whoever managed to get them out of the base used teleport beam. But from what I've been able to determine from the data, the beam's range wasn't very high. Only a few miles at the least."

"So you're saying the hybrids couldn't have been teleported too far?" Twilight caught on, Azmuth nodding.

"Exactly," Azmuth nodded as he hummed. "And if they're still close by. Whatever's blocking the signal is also close by. And that means there may be a chance." He typed on his tablet, the others wondering what he was going to do. "I'm going to have my ship send a low level electromagnetic pulse out across the city."

"What good will that do?" Pinkie asked, but Sunset realised his plan.

"You're going to use it to knock out whatever's blocking the tracking signal."

"Not knock out," Azmuth stated. "The city needs power and if the EMP is too strong, everything electrical would be destroyed. But a small one will cause the electrical devices to fluctuate. The only thing that wouldn't stop is the tracker since it'll be behind the shield. The pulse will hit and make the shield cut out for second or two. And that'll be all the time I need to lock onto the signal."

"That's great," Flash smirked. "Light it up, Azmuth." The Galvin nodded before hitting the button. Up above the city, his ship's antenna unleashed the electromagnetic blast that flew across the city.

When it did, anything electrical suddenly found itself glitching for a moment. Radio stations staticed, ovens were knocked off and cars found themselves struggling for a few seconds before regaining control.

In Tirek's ship, he was busy working on what he planned to do with his hybrids when everything suddenly glitched.

"What?" The ship's engines were able to stay online, but he realised the ship's cloaking system was offline. "No, no, no, NO!" He quickly worked to get the downed system's back to full power. But it was too late.

The people around Tirek's building were pulled away from their glitching phones, by something that suddenly appeared above the roof of the building. The red ship appeared and they all gasped, fearing another alien invasion.

Azmuth was about to start looking for Scoop's signal. But before he could, his ship gave different alert. "What's that?" Flash asked, "you find Scoop's signal?"

"No," Azmuth told him, "my ship's detected an energy source that's way above earth's tech level. It suddenly appeared and-it's gone." Azmuth frowned as he turned his ship in that direction, everyone crowding around to stare at his tablet. "i'm sending out another EMP." He fired and once again, every electrical device in the city glitched.

But a ship also appeared as Azmuth switched on his vessel's cameras, the red spacecraft becoming visible once again. "Where did that thing come from?" Rainbow asked.

"It was always there," Shining stated. "You just couldn't see it because it was using some kind of cloak." Azmuth nodded as he found the energy readings beginning to disappear again.

"Oh no you don't." He pressed the tablet and his ship launched something from its satellite, which slammed right into the disappearing ship. This time, the ship became visible and seemed to completely die.

They watched as the ship fell onto the building below it. Luckily, it was only a few feet above it so there was no real damage done. "That should keep it from powering up for a few minutes."

"Then let's not waste any time!" Flash cried, holding up his twin blasters. "Let's get over there and free Scoop and the others."

"Are we even sure that's where they are?" Trixie asked. "I mean, I know it'd be a bit of a coincidence that there's a spaceship that's not connected to the hybrids. But..."

"They're there," Azmuth assured her. "I'm picking up the tracking device's signal. It's in the ship."

"I'd say that's proof enough," Shining nodded. "Can you teleport us inside the ship?"

"Please, don't insult me." He tapped on his tablet as a bunch of objects appeared on all the girls. These objects were round gray badges, with a button in the middle that looked like it lit up when pressed. They had attached themselves somewhere on each of the girls, whilst five more badges also appeared in Flash's hand. "These beacons will allow me to keep a lock on your locations so I can beam you out of there when you find them or if you need to make a quick getaway. When you get to Drift and the others, place those badges on them. Hit the button and I'll teleport you back."

"Got it," they all nodded as Azmuth prepared for teleportation.

"Be careful. You have no idea what you're walking into."

"Maybe not," Flash nodded. "But we can't just sit back and let those guys remain hostages." He turned to the others, "you guys-"

"Don't even finish that sentence," Rainbow cocked the rifle. "We're going in."

"They're Equestrian," Sunset told him. "I'm not gonna let fellow Equestrians suffer." The others all nodded and Flash smirked, Shining and Trixie suiting up as Flash got ready to use the Omnitrix if needed.

He turned to Azmuth and nodded, "do it." Azmuth nodded and with a single swipe of his finger, the eleven humans were warped away in a flash of light.

"Come on!" Tirek cried, trying to get the ship back online. "Turn on, damn it!"

As this was going on, the hybrids were all slowly starting to come around. The EMP had knocked out the stasis system and if they woke up, they would likely be able to escape in seconds. But before they could get completely conscious, Tirek managed to get his ship's systems back online and the stasis reactivated.

However, as the computer booted back up, an alert sounded. "Now what?" He switched on the security system and was shocked to see several individuals appearing in the cargo hold. "NO!" He cried, seeing Flash Sentry and the others standing in the large room. "You're not getting out of that room." He pressed several buttons, activating the defence procedures.

Everyone looked around, seeing they were in some kind of storage room.

They all spread out, looking for a way out of the room. As they did, Shining's suit sent out a life sign scan. After a few seconds, he found something. "Got it. Five unknown life signs and one...human?" That surprised them, but they didn't have the time to wonder about that since the walls of the room suddenly opened up.

"Look out!" Flash cried, knowing what was coming. And sure enough, a bunch of blasters folded out of the wall and opened fire.

Rarity quickly created shields around the lot of them, but the lasers quickly started breaking them apart and she couldn't keep up with the onslaught.

Shining changed his Multi-Striker to rifle mood and started blasting at the wall cannons, as Flash jumped onto his hoverboard to fly around and try to catch some of the blaster's attention. They did so and the blasters changed their targets to start firing up instead of down, lessening the danger for the rest of them.

Applejack rushed towards one of the roof pointing ones and leapt up, grabbing it by the barrel before pulling it out of the wall. Twilight did the same with her magic as Trixie used her Rapid Turtle form.

Slowing down time, she ran up to the wall and threw her shield. She sped time back up as it left her and the shield spun like a buzzsaw, cutting through three of the blasters before Flash caught it and threw it back.

Shining, Rainbow, Adagio and Sunset blasted a few more with their weapons and even Fluttershy and Pinkie managed to hit the same one with their pistols.

Twilight then pulled the last to blasters out of the wall and the attacks ended, the group sighing in relief. Flash then turned to the others. "I think it's safe to assume, they know we're here." They all nodded and as he said that, the doors of the room opened up. "Now what?" He got his answer when a bunch of very familiar jet-like drones flew into the room.

They were all equipped with blasters and other long range weapons, which they quickly started firing with. Rarity once again put up some shields to protect them, as Flash leapt off his hoverboard and activated the Omnitrix.

Finding what he wanted, he transformed as the others started firing at the jets. "Vapaw!" The alien lion quickly pointed his tail at the machine, unleashing the gas that covered the jets and stopped them from firing.

"I don't think that'll work," Trixie told him. "These things were able to see through my illusions last time. They have some kind of thermal vision or something." She expected the jets to start firing, but found they they weren't. "Or not."

"These ones might not have been built like those other ones you fought." Sure enough, the jets all seemed to wait until the smokescreen vanished. Only then, did they start firing at them.

But Vapaw leapt into the air and pounced on one, tackling it to the ground and clawing into it.

The others started fighting as well, Shining using a sword to cut away their lasers before stabbing the machines. Trixie switched to her Sky Butterfly form and took to the air, stabbing and slashing at the robots with her rapier. Twilight pulled several drones to the ground, allowing Applejack to smash her fist through them and Rainbow to speed her foot into another.

The other girls all continued to blast the robots, with Fluttershy surprising them with her much force she was putting into her shots. "Take that, and that, and that!" The machines all fell, but more and more kept coming. They knew their couldn't be an endless supply of them, but they also knew they couldn't waste time fighting them whilst the hybrids were having who knows what done to them.

"We've gotta split up," Shining announced. "Flash, take Twilight, Fluttershy, Sunset and Trixie to find the hybrids. We'll stay here and hold them off."

"How?" Twilight asked, "we don't know where they are."

Shining knew, his scan having done a detailed survey of the ship's layout. He began telling Twilight the fastest route to the place their life signs were, whilst Vapaw destroyed another drone.

He then quickly filled the room with smoke, preventing the drones from seeing. As he did, he used his tail to grab the four girls in question and ran for the door. He was careful not to hit anything on his way out. But by the time the smoke cleared, the five were gone.

Tirek watched as some of the group got away, including Sentry.

The old man frowned before moving over to the back of the room. He pulled out a pair of cases and opened them up, revealing a suit similar to Shining and a large laser blaster. He would need time to get suited up, so he quickly activated more of the ship's defences.

As soon as they were out of the room, they headed down the hall in the direction Shining had told them to go.

But as they did, the walls opened up and revealed more laser blasters. Vapaw saw them and quickly hit the Omnitrix, transforming as they began firing. "Diamondhead!" The crystal alien raised his arms as large shields grew out of them, covering the girls as they deflected the beams.

Twilight used her magic to pull them out of the wall, the group running forward as more blasters folded out ready to attack.

But against, Diamondhead used his shields to block and protect them as the girls used their magic and weapons to destroy the blasters. It was a slow process, but they managed to make their way through the ship until they reached a large metal door.

"Please let them be on the other side of this," Fluttershy begged as Diamondhead stepped up to the door. He turned his fist into a crystal spike and thrust it into the gap, creating hole between the two that he used to pull them apart.

They stepped inside and as they did, they were amazed by all the strange and unusual pieces of equipment on the walls and tables. Some of this stuff looked way too advanced to be human or even plumber tech. But this wasn't what they were there for.

Moving to the back of the room, they found another door.

Diamondhead repeated the process and cut the door open, allowing them access. And as soon as they stepped inside, they gasped seeing five glass tubes. "There they are!" Fluttershy cried, seeing Drift and the others still unconscious. But as she ran towards them, Diamondhead spotted motion.

"Look out!" He rushed over and shielded her, as a laser exploded towards them and struck his arm. "AUGH!"

The girls gasped, as they watched Diamondhead's arm crack. They all turned to the source of the attack and saw a figure wearing a red suit of armor and helmet similar to the one Shining had. He was carrying a large blaster weapon, which was still smoking.

"So," Trixie frowned, "you're the one who kidnapped our friends."

"Kidnapped?" The figure asked, "you can't kidnap something you own. And since I made them, I own them."

"You're sick!" Twilight cried, "those five aren't property you can claim. They're living beings with wills and opinions of their own. It doesn't matter if you created them."

"Why the heck did you even create them in the first place?" Diamondhead asked, the others wanting to know as well.

The figure chuckled. "These five genetic hybrids are the perfect soldiers. You can clearly see their fighting potential, given how hard it was for you to bring them down. Imagine an army of them, being used to keep our nation safe. No more soldiers needing to risk their lives."

"You're gonna make more of them?" Fluttershy could hardly believe what she was hearing. "Then why steal them back? Why not just make new ones from scratch?"

"Do you know how difficult it was to create these creatures? It's a miracle I was able to make them as perfect as I could on the first attempt. If I want all my creations to be as perfect as them, I need them to act as a template."

"You're gonna clone them," Twilight realised. She had read about cloning experiments in the plumber database. Depending on what method he intended to use, it could be very dangerous for them. "How are you gonna clone them? What'll it do to Drift and the others?"

"Unfortunately, the cloning procedure isn't exactly...survivable." They gasped and Diamondhead had had enough, hitting the Omnitrix to transform.

"XLR8!" The alien speedster shot out of the light and moved towards the figure, who leapt to the side in order to avoid getting punched. He rolled along the ground and fired at XLR8 as he did, the alien managing to avoid the blasts as he ran around the room.

The girls all rushed to save the hybrids, but the figure ran over to a computer and hit a large button.

Doing so caused the machines to light up, electricity shooting into the stasis pods and zapping the five. Even asleep, they could all feel the pain of being shocked by this terrible energy. They screamed, as Sunset, Twilight and Fluttershy tried to free them.

Trixie flew forward, her rapier in hand as she attempted to stab the figure. But he quickly blasted at her, Trixie barely managing to avoid this and flying to a safe distance. But he was so distracted by Trixie, he didn't notice XLR8 charging towards him at full speed.

"RAAAAH!" The alien hero spun around and slammed his tail into his back, knocking the figure forward.

He fell to the ground and when he did, the glass on his helmet shattered. None of it seemed to get into the figure's eyes, but the sound caught everyone's attention and they watched as he picked himself up. And as XLR8 rolled around him, he managed to see who was behind the mask and his eyes went wide.

"Tirek?" They all gasped at the sight of the old man, who growled seeing his cover had been blown. Suddenly, everything seemed to make sense. Flash thought back to when he first met Tirek and was saved by him from that robot, the alien hero only now realising it had all been a setup. He had only appeared after Flash had captured Drift. He was simply playing nice just to get his hybrids back. "Why?"

"Why?" Tirek asked.

"Why do all this? You were a plumber. A hero. Why throw all that away to become a monster?"

Tirek smirked, "I've been a monster since the day I shot my partner in the back." They all wondered what he meant by that, but Tirek quickly reached for his blaster and attempted to blast XLR8.

But the alien speedster managed to dodge the attack and shot forward, slamming his tail into Tirek. This knocked him backwards, right into Sunset. "Look out!" Trixie cried, but Sunset wasn't able to dodge in time. And as soon as she made contact with Tirek, their eyes went white.

The next thing she knew, Sunset was living through Tirek's memories. She saw everything that he had done. How he got the ship, how he killed his partner and tricked the plumbers. How he used his stolen technology to build a business empire and how he travelled to Equestria to gain samples of DNA to build his super soldiers.

It wasn't until after she saw how Tirek lost his hybrids, that the man managed to recover and pull himself off of the girl. "Get away from me!" He jumped back and pointed his blaster at the girl, who was still reeling from her mind travel.

XLR8 shot around Tirek and grabbed Sunset, pulling her out of the way just as Tirek fired his blaster.

The laser instead hit the back of the room, slamming into a box that it destroyed. Doing so caused a sudden surge of energy, which caused the entire ship to shake. "What's going on?" Fluttershy asked, as Tirek gasped.

"You idiots! You destroyed one of the main power relays. That'll send a surge through the entire ship and make it explode!"

"What do you mean we destroyed it?" Sunset asked, "you're the one with the death ray." Tirek growled and pointed the blaster at them, but the ship suddenly lurched out of control and they were all sent flying.

Fluttershy and Sunset were thrown towards the back wall, only for Trixie to grab them before they could hurt themselves.

Twilight managed to hold onto Drift's pod and as she did, she managed to figure out how to open the lock. "Got it!" She cried, opening the pod and releasing the stasis smoke. Drift moaned as the cloning process was stopped for him, Twilight smiling as he started to come around.

The ship lurched again and she was thrown away, Drift almost being thrown out as well. Luckily, XLR8 managed to grab her before she hit something. Trixie flew the other girls over to the pods and Twilight explained how to open them, Sunset managing to free Pearl as Fluttershy freed Scales. Trixie managed to free both Charger and Scoop.

Tirek gasped as he saw the five hybrids all awaken, Drift looking at the others. "Fluttershy? What happened?"

Fluttershy turned to glare at Tirek, "he kidnapped you." The five all turned to Tirek, "he's the one who created you. He did it to try and make an army of clones, but the process would have killed you." The five glared at him, with Scoop even appearing to understand what was being said.

"Is that true?" Drift flew up with Pearl and Scales, through they had trouble beating their wings in their tired state.

"So what if it is?" Tirek told him, "I created you. I should be able to do whatever the heck I want with you." The five all glared at him, looking ready to attack. But before they could, the ship lurched again and everyone was almost thrown around.

"This ship could blow at any minute!" XLR8 told them, pulling out the five badges and quickly zipping around to attach them to the hybrids and activate them.

Twilight used her earpiece to contact Shining and the others, "Shining! We've got them. Activate the beacons!" As this was happening, Azmuth was already teleporting the hybrids.

"NO!" Tirek roared, as they disappeared. Twilight, Sunset, Fluttershy and Trixie activated their beacons and XLR8 expected Azmuth to use the Omnitrix, but then they all realised Tirek didn't have a beacon.

XLR8 was about to rush over and grab them, but the ship jolted and they were all thrown around. Tirek was sent flying and flew into one of the pods, as a surge of energy caused the computer to activate. XLR8 and the girls could only watch, as the lot of them were teleported away and Tirek was surrounded in a bunch of strange mist.

As they vanished, the computer's screen showed some words. 'DNA splicing, underway.'

Multiple alien images filled the screen and as each one appeared, Tirek felt himself being injected with something and his body started feeling like it was boiling. He screamed as with every second, the pain grew greater and greater. All he could do, was beat on the pod trying to escape.

Back at the base, Azmuth watched as the light appeared in front of him.

One by one, each of his friends appeared. When the last one showed up, he sighed and was glad to see they were all okay. And even the hybrids were there. "You're okay," he told them. "That's good. Were you able to find out who was responsible?"

As XLR8 changed back to human, a look of betrayal appeared on his face. Twilight and the other girls all had the same expression, everyone who saw this looking worried. "It was Tirek," Flash finally explained. "He's the one who created the hybrids. We wanted to use them to create a race of super soldiers."

"What?" Shining could hardly believe it, "you can't be serious. But he's a plumber."

"Not a good one," Sunset replied. "I looked through his memories. He stole that ship so he could sell the technology and make a fortune. He was the one who killed Max Tennyson to keep his secret. And he only wanted to help us so he could take the hybrids when he got the chance."

Everyone frowned, unable to believe that old man had tricked them all so easily. Azmuth was also upset, but now realised how the virus had infected their systems. He looked at his tablet and could detected some serious energy surges coming from it. "That ship's going to overload."

"We know," Flash frowned. "Tirek damaged something that made the whole place go crazy. And he's still in there."

Azmuth nodded, tapping at his tablet. "I'll use my ship to pull it into orbit, where it can explode safely. I'll scan the ship for human life signs and teleport them out."

Back in the ship, the lab filled with smoke as the systems went into overload.

As they did, the pod holding Tirek was thrown open and he staggered out. He fell to the ground and as he did, his skin felt like it was crawling. "Ahhh!" He screamed in pain, feeling like he was being ripped apart from the inside out. And as he did, his body started growing larger and ripping through his suit.

His arms and legs ripped free and as they did, their started changing. His right arm began to turn to metal, whilst his left one changed to look like it was made out of red rocks, with lava seeping between them. His legs also changed, his left turning green with sprouts appearing along it, whilst his right slowly turned crystalline.

His rear suddenly started changing as well, his butt extending outwards as a new pair of legs started growing out from under it, one of these legs looking like something you would see on a praying mantis whilst the other looked like it was made entirely out of water.

The back of his suit also ripped apart, as something grew out of his back. That something were a pair of a long tail-like limbers, one appearing to be a yellow mechanical whip-like object with a drill on the end of it, whilst the other was a black cord with a gold plug-like instrument on the end. His shoulder and upper back also turned black, with green lines running through it. From out of his rear, a tail like XLR8's also began to grow out of it.

Tirek continued to cry out in pain, as he looked up to reveal his face was also changing. His beard and hair remained the same, but his eyes changed as his right one grew larger and bulged out to look similar to a galvin's eye. Meanwhile, his right eye turned completely green whilst a second one appeared beneath it. Two large tusk-like fangs started growing from his upper mouth and from out of his head, a pairs of large horns similar to charger's began to grow.

"RAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRHHHHHHHHHH!" He screamed, his mind completely breaking from what was happening. Soon, his voice turned to be completely beastial.

Back at the base, Azmuth was moving his ship closer to Tirek's in order to tractor beam it away.

But as it got close, he scanned the ship for human DNA and found nothing. "What?" Azmuth did another scan, "I can't seem to locate Tirek." The others frowned, wondering what the heck had happened to him. But as the ship got in close to the red one, Tirek's ship suddenly ripped apart as something broke through the metal.

The camera zoomed in on the hole that had just been made in the side of the ship, smoke flying out of the ship as whatever had made it pulled its way free and leapt out the ship. As it fell to the ground, Azmuth used his ship to pull the almost destroyed ship upwards. As it did, Azmuth sent out a drone to look at what had just fallen free.

Everyone was shocked when they saw a giant centaur monster, that looked like it was made out of different alien body parts, as it crashed into the street so hard it caused the entire place to shake.

It was roughly the size of an elephant and when the camera zoomed in on its face, everyone in shock by what they saw. The creature's eyes might had been different, but they all recognised who it was.

"Tirek," Flash growled.

"What the heck did he do to himself?" Rainbow asked, as the creature suddenly turned to the drone. It opened its mouth and from it, a blast of light exploded outwards and the camera footage went to static.

"I don't think whatever happened was on purpose," Shining told him. "But that doesn't matter right now."

"Indeed," Azmuth nodded. He was still focusing on pulling the ship into space, "you need to stop him before he does any more damage." Flash and the others didn't need telling twice. They all headed for the exit, hoping they could stop Tirek before anyone got hurt.

Author's Note

Well, Tirek's deception has been revealed. And now, his outward appearance matches his inner self. How will Flash and everyone stop this? Only time will tell. See you next time.

Season 3, Episode 15: Tirek's Rampage

For the citizens of Canterlot, today had already been a rather interesting day.

First, a strange looking dog ape creature had appeared in a local dog park and ran amok before being stopped by Flash. Then, the plumber base exploded much to everyone's shock and horror. The authorities were completely lost about what had caused this, as Flash Sentry and his friends were being suspicious about it.

And now, out of nowhere, a spaceship had appeared above the Tirek building.

They had all stared at the vehicle, as it crashed atop of the building and stayed there for several minutes until it eventually came back to life and flew off into the air. Everyone feared it would start raining lasers down on the ground, but it didn't. Instead, it simply started flying around in random directions. It was a miracle nothing had been flown into.

Eventually, the ship just stopped right in the middle of town.

Everyone wondered why Flash Sentry or the plumbers weren't doing anything to stop it, as the ship remained completely still. Then, a part of the ship exploded and something pulled itself out.

That something was a strange looking centaur creature, which leapt out of the ship and fell towards the street. Those on the street saw it coming and ran, barely managing to get away before the monster crashed down on the street. The force of the impact shook the place, the ground being ripped apart whilst the buildings around it had their windows shattered.

When the shaking finally stopped, the creature began to stand to its true height. As it did, a drone flew down and recorded its image to send to the city's protectors.

The monster quickly turned to the drone and as it did, it growled before opening its mouth. In said mouth, a ball of energy formed before exploding out towards the drone in a single powerful blast. The drone didn't stand a chance and was soon vaporised, shocking those that were watching.

The creature began walking down the half destroyed street, letting out many un-intelligent roars as it did so. Eventually, it found a street lamp that hadn't been knocked over by the impact and reached down with its flaming rock arm.

Grabbing the pole, it pulled the metal device out of the ground and caused energy to spark out of it. The beast leaned down and opened its mouth, the energy flowing into it and being sucked up like soup. And as it was, the creature's body started growing.

Back at the plumber base, Flash and the others reached the exit and ran out of the building.

Flash grabbed his hoverboard and took to the air, Trixie entering her Sky Butterfly form whilst Shining used his rod device to create a helicopter. The girls all climbed onto the helicopter as it took off, the lot following Flash and Trixie as they headed towards the spot Tirek had landed.

As they did, they looked up to see Azmuth's ship was still pulling the red one up into space. Tirek's stolen spacecraft was moments away from exploding and doing a bunch of damage. If Azmuth didn't get it away fast enough, it might not matter if they could stop Tirek.

They finally arrived and when they did, they spotted Tirek stomping his way down the street.

Rainbow was the one to ask what they were all wondering. "Is it just me, or is he bigger than he looked on camera?" The others were wondering the same thing, getting their answer when Tirek reached up and grabbed a nearby power-line. As he did, lightning exploded out of the power-line and surrounded his entire body.

"What's he doing?" Trixie asked, only to watch as Tirek opened his mouth and started sucking the power into it. "No way."

"He's eating the electricity?" Adagio asked, as Tirek's form began to glow.

"He's absorbing the energy and using it to power himself up," Twilight realised. "But how did he transform into...this?"

Flash had an idea, remembering how Tirek had fallen into one of his pods before they were all teleported away. "You don't think...he was mutated?" Everyone looked at him, the teen frowning as he started at Tirek. "His ship had a bunch of different alien DNA in it. He fell into one of his pods before we left. So maybe he was mutated by the pod and...this is the result."

They all frowned, not liking the sound of that in the slightest. But they knew one thing. They had to stop Tirek before he got too big to control.

Flash flew down on his hoverboard, Trixie following after him as he activated the Omnitrix. Tirek seemed to notice their presence and growled when he saw them, Flash seeing no signs of intelligence behind his eyes. He was now nothing more than a mindless beast, with what was probably an insatiable hunger for energy.

And as he opened his mouth, a sphere of light appeared within it.

"Look out!" Trixie cried, she and Flash swerving to the side to avoid the energy blast Tirek launched. It almost hit the helicopter, but Shining was able to pull it out of the beam's path before it could hit. The girls all cried out, as they were thrown around and almost pushed out of the vehicle.

Flash then flew to the ground, jumping off his hoverboard and looking up.

He watched as Tirek began to stamp around, making the ground shake with every step. "Gotta stop him from moving around and doing more damage." He found the alien he was looking for and slammed the dial down, transforming and catching Tirek's attention as he looked down. "Arctiguana!"

Tirek growled at the ice lizard, who took a deep breath before unleashing a blast of ice towards Tirek's feet. Within seconds, his front feet were covered in a layer of ice that spread to the rest of the ground. This locked the monster in place, allowing Arctiguana to run towards the back legs.

Trixie smirked, but then noticed Tirek moving one of his arms. And when she saw said arm catching fire, she gasped. "FLASH, LOOK OUT!" Arctiguana looked up and was shocked to see the molten rock arm, firing a blast of fire between his legs.

The alien leapt into the air, barely managing to avoid the fire blast, as it flew down and hit the frozen ground instead. This caused the ice to start melting, allowing him to pull his legs free and start stomping around. "Wow!" He leapt up onto one of the buildings, but the stomping was making the ground shake so much, the buildings around him were starting to crumble. "Not good!"

Trixie flew in and swung her sword around, slashing at the green front leg and cutting into it.

She hoped this would result in him falling over, but the other three legs quickly took the weight whilst the green one started healing itself in a matter of seconds. "What?" She looked and realised this leg was plant-like, the many spouts coming off it showing its anatomy.

Then, as Tirek stood on all four legs, a bunch of seeds suddenly shot out of the leg and flew towards her.

She gasped, as swung her sword around to cut the seeds in half. But one of them managed to hit the sword and remain intact, bursting open and covering the blade in a bunch of vines. "Aaah!" She swung her sword to try and dislodge it, but the vines quickly wrapped around it and then up her arms.

Shining flew in with his helicopter and as he did, he placed his Multi-Striker into a slot and caused a bunch of weapons to fold out of it. "Someone focus on firing, whilst I keep us from getting blasted." Sure enough, Tirek raised his magma arm and launched a fireball towards them.

The girls cried out as he swung the machine around, Adagio unbuckling herself the second they were stable. "With pleasure." She rushed over to the gunning station and sat down, whilst the Rainbooms all grasped their geodes and transformed into their equestrian forms.

Adagio started firing at Tirek, the gatling guns on the right side of the copter launching a barrage of energy bullets towards him. These bullets slammed into Tirek and exploded against his skin, making him roar in pain as the Rainbooms all leapt out of the copter.

Rarity created a bunch of diamonds for the wingless ones to glide down on, whilst Twilight, Rainbow and Fluttershy flew towards the mutant with their plumber weapons in hand. They all fired, as Pinkie also threw some explosive sprinkles towards him.

The blasts from multiple directions began to distracted Tirek, making him stomp around in anger and cause more buildings around him to be shaken to damage.

Arctiguana leapt off his building and hit the Omnitrix, transforming into Dragoon and flying up. As he did, he started breathing fire at Tirek just like the others. But Tirek had had enough of being attacked and began to fight back, swinging the tendrils on his back around.

The black one flew towards Trixie and the Rainbooms, unleashing a blast of energy that flew at them.

Rarity quickly formed a wall of shields, blocking the electricity. But as Twilight picked up some rocks, Tirek's mechanical tendril slammed into the ground and started drilling at the ground. This sent rocks flying everywhere, hitting Rarity's shield again and making cracks.

The girls all rushed into an alleyway, as Dragon flew up towards Tirek's head. As he did, Tirek spun around and whipped his XLR8 tail around faster than should be possible for something his size.

The tail slammed into him and Dragoon was sent flying, as the helicopter flew in and attempted to blast him once again. But as it did, Tirek leaned back on his insectoid leg and suddenly sprang forward. "WOW!" Shining saw him fly up, attempting to pull away. But Tirek grabbed the copter in his metal arm, as he crashed back down on the ground and made the street shake.

Shining tried to pull himself free whilst Adagio fired at Tirek's face, but the mutant refused to release the copter and opened his mouth. The next thing they knew, energy was flowing off of Shining's hard-light vehicle and into Tirek's mouth. This caused Shining's helmet to throw up a warning signal, stating a sudden power drain was making the vehicle's form come undone.

As Tirek sucked away the energy, he began to grow larger and larger.

The Rainbooms rushed out of the alleyway. As they saw this, they flew up with Trixie and attempted to fire on him again. But their attacks did nothing, whilst Tirek's plug tendril whipped around and slammed into Trixie and Rainbow.

The girls screamed as they were thrown backwards, Rarity quickly grabbing them in her gems whilst the drill tendril attempted to hit Twilight and Fluttershy.

The girls flew away, as Shining got out of his seat and rushed over to Adagio. He grabbed her and leapt out of the helicopter, as the whole thing suddenly blinked out of existence from the last of its energy being drained away. The pair fell with Adagio screaming, whilst Shining held his Multi-Striker up.

The device morphed into a grappling gun, which fired and hit the side of a building.

This allowed the pair to swing down to safety, but Tirek noticed them and didn't want them getting away. As such, it slammed the crystal foot onto the ground and launched a bunch of shards out of it. "Look out!" Shining cried, spinning around so his back was to the leg.

The crystal shards flew passed, none of them actually hitting him in the back. However, a few slashed into his sides and made him flinch. And one hit the cable, cutting it and causing the pair to fall uncontrollably.

They screamed as they fell, but Twilight and Fluttershy flew in and caught them both. However, Tirek still wasn't done with them and opened his mouth before the orb of energy formed. That orb exploded out and the beam flew towards them, Twilight and Fluttershy doing their best to escape.

They pulled the two out of the beam's range, but the attack struck the ground and exploded. The force of this knocked the four flying and they all ended up crashing into the ground, screaming as they impacted and rolled to an unconscious stop.

"No!" Applejack cried, as they had pulled the unconscious Trixie and Rainbow to safety as well. She, Rarity, Sunset and Pinkie glared at Tirek, the beast hearing Applejack's cry and turning towards them. They glared at him, as the monster opened its mouth and another orb of light formed.

"Rarity!" Sunset cried, the girl rushing forward and thrusting her hands forward to form a wall of shields.

Tirek fired and as soon as he did, the girls realised Rarity's wall wouldn't hold. Sunset rushed forward and grabbed Rarity, focusing her magic and linking it with Rarity's. This strengthened the shield and as the laser hit, they cracked but held.

Applejack and Pinkie grabbed Rarity as well, channelling their own magic into her to enhance the barrier. The cracks didn't heal, but they didn't get worse either. They all screamed at the pressure the shield was under, all four feeling their energy drain more and more with each second.

Eventually, Tirek's attack ended and Rarity lowered her wall. But the girls were so drained, they knew they wouldn't be able to do that again. They needed to find a way to counter Tirek.

And that way came when Dragoon flew back onto the scene, landing in front of the girls and transforming back to normal. Flash looked around, seeing his friends had all been knocked down and injured by Tirek. This had to stop. "Girls, I want you to go around and get the others when I move Tirek away."

"How?" Applejack asked, "that guy's unstoppable."

"And he's huge!" Pinkie cried, as Tirek was now the size of a skyscraper thanks to draining Shining's helicopter. Flash activated the Omnitrix and when he found the alien he was looking for, a holographic keypad appeared. A keypad that he quickly typed a seven digit code into and when he did, the keypad vanished allowing access to the transformation.

"Get ready!" He cried before slamming the dial down.

Meanwhile, a news copter had flown into the area, in order to see what was going on. As it got closer, the reporter opened the door to allow the camera to see Tirek in all his glory. "As you can see," she told the audience. "The strange creature that appeared from out of that spaceship, has grown to kaiju scale and seems hellbent on smashing the entire city to pieces. With the strength it seems to possess, everyone must be wondering what could possibly stop this thing." As she said that, a bright green flash filled the air.

Turning towards the flash, they saw a giant white and red alien they all recognised, rise up and grow to full height. He stared Tirek down, the two roughly on even footing height wise.

"It's Flash Sentry!" The reporter cheered, "it appears our city's hero has come to stop this monstrosity. And with an alien that large, I'm sure he'll have this fight won in just a few minutes."

All over the city, people were watching as the two stared one another down.

Flash's school friends and teachers cheered for him, whilst his fans quickly started recording what was likely to be a major fight. Meanwhile, his parents watched from their home and looked terrified, as they saw their son was about to engage in combat with a monster.

Misty hugged Banana, as Way Big charged forward. "Be careful."

"You can do it son," Trail told him.

Way Big reached the mutant and as it threw a metal fist at him, he stopped and leaned to the side.

Tirek growled as his punch missed, Way Big quickly grabbing the arm and using all his strength to throw him over his shoulder. Even with Tirek's size and mass, the giant alien was strong enough to send him flying down the street.

This moved him away from the others, as the four conscious Rainbooms rushed over to where the others were with Rainbow and Trixie on their backs. Once they made sure the four were okay, the got to work moving them as far away from the battle as they could.

But in that moment, Tirek pushed himself back to his feet and charged with his horns pointing forwards.

Way Big was able to grab the horns, but the force of the impact sent him staggering backwards. He quickly found himself getting close to his friends, who wouldn't be able to move everyone before he stepped of fell onto them. Way Big was eventually able to stop, but it took all his strength and he was locked in place if he didn't want to crush his friends.

But then, just as he was about to lose his balance, his friends all glowed green before vanishing in a flash of light.

This surprised Way Big, but then he smirked as he realised what must have happened. "Thanks, Azmuth." He turned back to Tirek and allowed the mutant to push him back again, only to then leap to the side when they reached the end of the street.

This caused Tirek to lose his balance and fall to the ground, as Way Big took several steps backwards and raised his fists. As Tirek picked himself up, Flash remembered everything Shining had taught him about hand to hand combat. And before Tirek could stand at full height, Way Big charged forward and punched him in the face.

Tirek was knocked backwards, as Way Big kept charging, planning on dealing a few more kicks and punches. But before he could reach Tirek, the mutant's tendrils sprang up and attempted to shock and drill into him.

This put Way Big on the defensive, the giant alien avoiding the plug tendril and grabbing the drill one. He held it in place, as Tirek recovered and raised his magma hand. The next thing Way Big knew, a powerful blast of fire exploded out and slammed into him.

"Augh!" He was knocked backwards, barely managing to keep on his feet as Tirek slammed his diamond leg into the ground and caused a large line of gems to shoot out and attempt to impale him.

Way Big barely managed to jump to the side in time to avoid getting stabbed, running around another building whilst Tirek worked to pull his crystal leg free. With his higher speed and agility, Way Big reached Tirek's side and leapt up. He landed on his back and started riding him like a horse. "Giddy up!"

Tirek roared as he started swinging around, but Way Big managed to grab hold of his back tendrils and started pulling on them. A part of him hoped they would come off, making Tirek less dangerous to fight head on. But they remained in place and the ends attempted to attack Way Big, missing since Tirek couldn't see what he was attacking.

Then, his tail flew up and wrapped around Way Big's neck. The hero's eyes went wide at this, as he felt it pulling on him and making him have a hard time breathing.

He eventually let go of Tirek's back and was thrown off by the tail, getting set flying until he crashed into the building. The cried out as the structure fell upon him, whilst Tirek slowly began to turn towards the wreckage. The monster growled in his direction, as Way Big started pulling himself out of the rubble.

He panted, staring the beast down as he stood up. "Alright, you're as tough as you look. But I'm not completely helpless." Tirek growled and opened his mouth, the energy sphere forming. "So, that's how you wanna play this." He brought his arms together, "bring it!" He crossed his arms as a ball of energy appeared in front of him.

The two energy spheres built up power until they fired at the exact same time, the beams flying across the city and colliding against one another. The impact caused a shockwave that shattered the last few windows that had survived in the area, as the orange and green light pushed against each other.

Way Big and Tirek grunted as they put as much energy as they could into their attacks. But eventually, one of the beams began to overpower the other. Way Big smirked, seeing his attack moving towards Tirek. "That's right! Take it!" But as he said that, the Omnitrix dinged.

"FLASH!" Way Big realised it was Azmuth, "cancel your attack!" Way Big wondered why, but he got his answer when his beam reached Tirek. And to his shock, the mutant allowed it to fly into his mouth. And as it did, Tirek started growing again.

"No!" Way Big cut the attack, but Tirek had now grown to be a head taller than him. "I thought it was just electricity that made him grow?"

"It's any form of energy," Azmuth replied. "You need to think of another plan and hurry, you won't have much longer in alien form." Azmuth frowned and rushed forward, whilst Tirek roared before throwing his metal fist in Way Big's direction.

The alien hero ducked under it and tried to deal a punch to Tirek's stomach, only for the black tendril to wrap around his arm and stop him before thrusting the plug into him. "AUGH!" He cried, as he was electrocuted. As he was, Tirek leapt onto his back feet and slammed the front ones into Way Big's chest.

Way Big staggered back and lost his balance, falling to the ground flinching in pain.

He turned to Tirek, panting as he realised he just couldn't be this guy. Without his energy blast, Way Big had no way of doing serious damage to him. And to make matters worse, as Way Big tried to pick himself up, he Omnitrix beeped.

He flinched as Tirek opened his mouth, a green flash reverting him back to human as the energy orb formed.

At the same time, the news copter flew overhead with the camera focused on Flash as he appeared out of the light. "Ladies and gentlemen. Flash Sentry was unable to stop this monster." As she said that, Flash removed something from jacket and threw it at the ground.

That something was his hoverboard, which he leapt onto in order to get away. But Tirek quickly started launching fire at him as he flew into the air and attempted to escape, the fireballs raining around him and forcing him to fly in a zigzag.

But eventually, one of these fireballs exploded near him and the shockwave knocked him off his board. "Oh no!" The cameraman screamed, as everyone who knew Flash feared the worst.

But as he got closer to the ground, Flash started glowing a green light. And as Tirek fired his mouth beam, Flash vanished and the attack caused the ground to explode. "This is looking bad. Flash Sentry was unable to stop it. So what can?"

Flash gasped as he was returned to the base, appearing in the main room and being laid down on a bed.

He looked around and saw the rest of his friends, all laying on more beds Azmuth had materialised somehow. Speaking of Azmuth, he floated over on his platform with a tablet in hand. He held it over Flash's body and scanned him with it, whilst Flash turned to the computer and saw it showing the news footage of Tirek continuing to destroy the city.

"Nothing's broken, badly burned or seriously damaged in any way." Azmuth turned away from him. "You're luckily you were in alien form when you received these injuries. Your human body probably wouldn't have withstood anything that deadly."

"Yippee," Flash sighed as he looked over at his friends. Shining, Twilight, Rainbow, Trixie, Adagio and Fluttershy were all unconscious, whilst the others looked tired. "Are they gonna be alright?"

"The ones who are awake will be alright after some rest. The others are hurt, but should all make a full recovery. But that won't matter much if we can't find a way to stop Tirek."

Flash frowned, "I'm open to suggestions. If Way Big couldn't stop him, what the heck can?"

"I have my ship at a safe distance from Tirek, scanning him for any weakness that could help us stop him. But I've never seen a mutation of this level before. Whatever DNA manipulation technology his ship had, it was severely damaged when it altered him."

"What happened to his ship?" Flash asked.

"I managed to get it out of the atmosphere before it could explode. It shouldn't cause any issues for us. Now all we need to do is figure out how to stop him."

"Can't we send him to the Null Void?" They looked over and saw Shining was sitting up, having awaken along with the others as robots tended to him and the others.

"Glad to see you're awake," Azmuth told him. "That's not a bad idea, but I'm afraid we have no way to send him there. My ship can open a portal to that dimension, but it doesn't have the power to make one big enough to send him at his current size."

"So there's really no way to beat him?" Rarity asked as she lay on her bed.

Flash growled as he got up, watching Tirek as he continued to wreak havoc on the city. People were probably scared and running for their lives and there was nothing he could do, Flash looking down at the Omnitrix in frustration. "A butt ton of aliens in this thing and not one of them can stop him. What good is this thing if I can't protect my home with it?"

Azmuth turned to him and when he did, he noticed the Omnitrix and realised something. "There...may be a way." Everyone turned their attention to him. "The Omnitrix might not have an alien you can use to best Tirek, but it's possible it could stop him."

"How?" Twilight asked, as she and the others were starting to come around as well.

"One of the reasons I created the Omnitrix, was to protect the DNA of all sentient life in the universe. One of the ways it does this is with a DNA repair system."

"DNA repair system?" Sunset asked, "what's that?"

"Using the DNA stored inside the Omnitrix, it can restore DNA that's been damaged or altered to its natural state. I designed it to save species that might be wiped out from their DNA being affected by outside sources, like a parasite or radiation."

"So we can use this system to turn Tirek back to normal?" Flash asked, Azmuth nodding as he returned to the computer and changed it to show the scans that had been done of Tirek.

Going over the data, he sighed. "It could work, but it won't be easy. The Omnitrix's repair function was never tested on a mutation this big. To do it, I would need to put the Omnitrix into overload."

"That doesn't sound safe," Sunset frowned.

"It's not," Azmuth glanced back to Flash. "The overload could result in you being seriously injured. And the Omnitrix could be damaged beyond repair." Hearing that made Flash frown, as he looked down at the watch. But he quickly shook his head and gave Azmuth a serious look.

"That doesn't matter. If this is the only way to stop Tirek, so be it."

"If you're sure?" Flash nodded, "alright." He pointed at the screen, as the image of Tirek zoomed in on his forehead. "One more thing. In order to repair the DNA, the Omnitrix will need to lock onto the human DNA within him. And with his entire body mutated the way it is, this area is the only spot you can make contact with him to lock on."

"So Flash has to touch that monster's forehead?" Applejack asked, "even though he's as big as a freakin' skyscraper?"

"Yes," Azmuth nodded. "And he'll need to be in human form, in order for me to place the Omnitrix into overload. Honestly, I don't know if you can do this."

Flash frowned, "I have to try. The people of Canterlot put their faith in me, when they made me their hero. If I just give up, I'll be letting them all down."

Shining tried to stand up, "I'm coming with you." But as he said that, he held his side and flinched in pain. The others all tried to do the same and all had similar reactions. None of them were in a fit state to fight against Tirek.

"None of you are leaving this place," Azmuth told them. "My medical bots can heal you, but they're not miracle worker. It's gonna take a few more hours to get you all back into fighting shape."

"Flash can't do this on his own!" Adagio cried, the others nodding.

"He won't be alone." They all turned to the voice, surprised when they saw Drift and the other four hybrids standing together. They all looked up at the screen, watching as their creator ripped half the city apart. "Tirek made us to be weapons, but you guys showed us we could be something more. Let us help you."

Flash smiled at them, then noticed Scoop. From what he could remember, he hadn't exactly bonded with the diamond dog hybrid. "Don't worry," Pearl told him. "Scoop wants to help to. We told him what you did to save us and how you gave him his name. He wants to repay you." The hybrid nodded with his tongue sticking out.

Flash stared at the five and was a little unsure. He thought they had died before and they had barely managed to get them away from Tirek. To send them back into the fray...

He turned to Shining and Azmuth, clearly wanting their opinion. The two nodded, trusting the five to keep themselves safe. "Alright," he nodded, "let's do this. The five of you get ready. This isn't gonna be an easy fight." They nodded and all got ready, testing their abilities to make sure they were working fine after what Tirek had done to them.

As they did, Azmuth started fiddling with the Omnitrix. "Alright," he told him, "you still have the earpiece. When you get close to Tirek, tell me to start the overload and I'll do it. But you'll only get one chance at this, so you'll need to get it down at just the right time."

"Got it," Flash turned to the others and felt a little anxious. This could be his very last battle. If he failed, it could mean the end of the world for all he knew. "Wish me luck guys."

"You don't need luck," Shining stated. "You've got this." The others nodded and Adagio motioned for him to come closer. He did so and when he was within arms reach, she grabbed his shirt and pulled him closer. The next thing Flash knew, his lips were on hers.

Everyone was shocked by this, none of them remembering Flash and Adagio ever kissing like this.

Flash was completely brain blank, as Adagio finished and let him pull away. "Um," was all he could say before his brain rebooted, "that was..."

"Something to make you wanna survive this whole thing," Adagio replied. "Now get out there and kick some butt!" Flash smirked and nodded, turning away from her bed and looking over at the hybrids.

"You guys ready?" They all nodded, "then let's stop this guy, once and for all!" The hybrids cheered in agreement, ready to show Tirek why threatening them was a bad idea.

Tirek continued to lay waste to the city, as the news copter continued to fly around.

"As you can see, this monster truly appears unstoppable. It has already forced Flash Sentry and his friends into a retreat and now, there is no sign that anything will arrive in time to stop it before it destroys our fair city."

Tirek seemed to finally notice them and raised his magma arm, unleashing a blast of fire towards it. The pilot barely managed to pull the copter away before the fire hit, the new reporter crying out as she barely managed to hold on.

She panted once the copter regained control. "Ladies and gentlemen, I fear this may be the end of Canterlot." But as she said that, a green light appeared below them and she looked down towards one of the un-destroyed buildings. "Wait, is that Flash Sentry? And who's he with?"

Flash was standing on the building, the five hybrids standing around him. They all glared up at the monstrous behemoth, as it turned to glare at them. "No matter what," Flash told them. "I've got to get to his forehead." The others nodded, as Tirek raised his arm and threw it forward.

Drift, Pearl and Scales leapt into the air, Drift lifting Flash up as Pearl lifted Scoop and Scales tried to lift Charger. But the large hybrid was too big to carry and he was barely able to lift him a foot or so before the fist smashed into the building.

"Guys!" Flash cried, but saw Charger had fallen onto the metal arm whilst Scales flew up and out of danger. He sighed in relief, as Charger began to run up the arm and wrap hair around him. "Alright!" He turned back to Tirek, "ATTACK!" The others didn't need telling twice, Drift and Scales launching their long range attacks in Tirek's direction.

Tirek quickly raised his magma arm to block them, as Charger continued to run up his metal arm. Once he was at the elbow, he leapt up and threw a punch right into the joint to make it fold upwards by reflex.

This caused the metal arm to explode free of the building an swing around, actually hitting Tirek in the head and causing him to go staggering backwards out of control. At the same time, Charger leapt off of him and crashed into a building. He dug his fingers into the rock of the building, as he slid downwards until he reached the ground.

Flash tried to use this opening, telling Drift to fly him in close.

"Hold on!" Drift cried, as they dived towards Tirek's head. But as they got closer, the black chord on his back swung around and got between them. "Uh oh!" Before Drift could pull up, the chord slammed into the pair of them and they cried out in pain.

"Flash, Drift!" Pearl cried, watching as the two began to fall. As she did, Scoop began struggling. "Careful. Do you want me to drop you?" But Scoop nodded, making her wonder what he was up to. She did as instructed, Scoop falling only for Pearl to realise he was aiming for the black chord.

He landed on it and summoned his claws, using them to grip into the rubbery flesh.

Pearl was amazed by this, but turned her attention back to those falling. She dived towards them but as she got closer, she realised they were too far apart to both grab in time. Luckily, Flash had recovered and activated the Omnitrix.

As Tirek began to pull himself back to full height. he slammed it down and transformed. "Firefly!" The alien insect quickly fired his jets and stopped himself, allowing Pearl to grab Drift and lift him back into the air.

At the same time, Scales flew up and started launching fireballs at the monster. He spat them at his lower back, making Tirek roar in pain, whilst Scoop kept biting and clawing at the black chord.

Changer had also begun his attack, rushing at Tirek's legs and grabbing the one made of crystal. He summoned as many hairs as he could, as he tried to lift the beast. "RAAAAARRRRRRHHHHH!" He roared, lifting the foot up a little bit.

Tirek looked down and saw what he was doing, flinching at the continuous efforts of Scoop and Scales.

Charger thought he had the beast under his power, only to then feel the foot move backwards and pull him with it. "Charger!" He heard Firefly cry, "you gotta let go. He's gonna-" He didn't get to finish, as Tirek swung his leg forward and kicked Charger with all his might. Charger couldn't hold on as Tirek stopped, the force sending him flying towards a building further down the street. "CHARGER!" His friends all yelled, as he smashed through the building.

"Oh!" Azmuth flinched, as the others all looked horrified.

"NO!" Fluttershy screamed, as the camera zoomed in on the building. It tried to get a better angle, but couldn't see if Charger was alright or not.

"Don't worry," Azmuth assured them. "Remember, he's still got that beacon on him. I'm using it to check his vitals and he's fine, though his brain activity suggests he's been knocked unconscious." He quickly activated the teleport and brought Charger back, Fluttershy and the others pulling themselves over to him as he appeared.

They looked him over, seeing his hair unfurling from around his body. If he hadn't been so wrapped up, that kick might have very well killed him. But he would live, though he might have a headache when he woke up.

"Come on Flash," Shining watched as Firefly flew towards Tirek.

Drift had recovered and now flew besides Firefly with Pearl, the trio approaching the giant, as Scales continued to burn and Scoop continued to claw at him.

Tirek launched another blast from his mouth towards the three, Firefly replying with is own blast of fire. But the flames were overpowered by the energy blast, forcing the three of them to separate. As they did, the mechanical whip on his back swung around with the drill on the end spinning.

Pearl and Drift managed to avoid this, only for Pearl to find herself getting punched by the metal fist. "AUGH!" She screamed as she too was sent flying, soaring three streets until she crashed into the top of a building.

"No!" Drift cried, glaring at Tirek as the drill flew towards him. But Drift unleashed a sonic blast at it that the drill struck, pushing against it in a vain attempt to overpower. Drift tried to hold on as long as he could, allowing Firefly to get in close. But eventually, he ran out of breath and the sonic wall shattered. "WOW!" He barely managed to avoid getting drilled, but as he did Tirek's plant legs launched several seeds towards him.

They slammed into his chest and started growing vines that he was unable to fight against in time, getting tied up and falling to the ground. "GYAH!" He crashed into the street and let out a moan, struggling to try and escape.

Firefly saw this and frowned, but knew he had to get to Tirek's head.

He turned his attention back to the goliath and jetted upwards, only to find himself coming face to face with his giant magma hand. "Not good." The hand unleashed a massive column of flame, which Firefly flew right into. And whilst he didn't get burned, he could still feel the smoke it caused blind him. When he flew out, he was still unable to see and didn't realise the magma hand was now primed to backhand him. And that's what it did.

Drift gasped, as he watched Firefly get knocked away before crashing through a building window. He continued to struggle against his binds and started using his beak, pulling at them hoping to tear right through the vines.

Scales had started slashing at Tirek's back, attempting to distract him whilst Scoop kept clawing and biting at the black cable. As they did, Tirek's XLR8 tail flicked around and flew towards Scales. The hybrid didn't see it coming until the sun was blotted out, making him look up and gasp before leaping away,

The tail almost flattened him. But as he flew out from under it, the metal chord thrust the drill down towards him. "WOW!" He held up his claws attempting to catch the drill. His super durable scales allowed him to withstand it, long enough to dig his claws in. But this proved to be a mistake.

His claws dug into the metal, but this didn't stop the drill from spinning. Instead, Scales was pulled around and started spinning at high speed.

At the same time, Scoop had no idea the plug of the chord he was attacking had just swung around and was now pointing at him. It sparked with lightning, the crackling catching the hybrid's attention. He spun around and when he did, he gasped seeing a blast of lightning flying towards him.

He howled in pain, causing him to accidently dig his claws deeper into the chord. This caused Tirek to roar before swinging both back whilst around, slamming them into building on either side of him.

Scales and Scoop finally lost their grip at this point and was smashed into the building, the two losing consciousness as well.

Azmuth quickly teleported the two and Pearl back to the base, four of the five hybrids now being out cold.

Drift was also incapacitated and Azmuth had tried to teleport him back. But the crash must have done something, since he couldn't lock onto the signal. All they could do, was watch as Flash had to now fight Tirek alone.

Tirek marched through the street, glaring at the building that Firefly had been thrown into.

As he approached, his metal arm raised as he prepared to punch it into collapsing. But in that second, something exploded out of the building and flew towards him. Riot-Horn. "RAAAAAAAAAARH!" He roared, fists at the ready to smash Tirek with.

Tirek also threw his own punch and the pair collided, Riot-Horn surprisingly able to match his strength.

The impact sent out a shockwave, which would have destroyed any surrounding windows if there were any left. But whilst the pair appeared on equal strength, Riot-Horn lost steam due to being in the midair. The metal fist began to push him backwards, but he quickly slammed the Omnitrix and transformed.

"Goop!" The alien slime separated and slid up the metal arm, as the magma arm rose up to burn him. But before it could, Goop hit the Omnitrix again. "Arctiguana!" He hung onto the metal arm and fired a blast of ice towards the magma arm, freezing it solid and preventing Tirek from burning him.

The metal arm began to fly around and attempt to throw Arctiguana off, but the ice lizard held on for dear life. He then hit the Omnitrix again and in a green flash, he vanished.

The mutated human stared at his arm, trying to find any trace of him. But he could. If the arm wasn't made of metal, he probably would have felt Chamalien pulling himself up towards his shoulder. But as he got closer, Tirek's enhanced sense of smell kicked in.

The monster growled as it located Chamalien, raising the drill cord and spinning it around.

Chamalien looked up and gasped, as the drill came flying at him. This forced him to jump into the air, slamming the Omnitrix and transforming again. "Pesky Dust!" The fairy alien flew away from the arm as the drill slammed into it, making Tirek scream in pain as the drill was pulled away.

Pesky Dust quickly formed some of his sleep mist and fired it at his face, but Tirek was still roaring and he had unleashed enough force from it to push the dust back towards the alien. Luckily, he was immune to his own attack.

The damage done to Tirek's right arm had left it useless, but the left arm was starting to thaw out. At the same time, the drill and plug tendrils moved up and started getting ready for an attack. As Tirek recovered from his pain, he fired the electrical blast at Pesky Dust.

The fairy flew towards the lightning and and as she did, she hit the Omnitrix and transformed. "Bloxx!" The gorilla alien cried as he formed a sphere out of his body, using it to fly forwards and into the lightning. His plastic body was completely immune to the electricity and he flew through without an issue. And as he did, he was right in front of Tirek's face.

The two glared at one another as Bloxx prepared to transform back to human and punch him with the Omnitrix. But before he could, Tirek opened his mouth and began to charge up a laser. One that Bloxx couldn't hope to survive.

Thinking fast, the hero envisioned an alien and knew he was his only chance. So, as Tirek fired, he slammed the Omnitrix and transformed for what could be the very last time. And as the green flash filled the air, the beam consumed it.

All over the city, everyone watched in fear.

Flash's parents held one another, unable to look away from the screen despite what their minds were telling them had to have happened. Flash's school friends were just as shocked, his teachers fearing the worst whilst his fans were all on the edge of their seat.

At the base, Azmuth and the others watched the beam continue to fire.

They all didn't dare to blink, not wanting to miss what happened. They all feared the worst, by trusted Flash. "Come on," Shining whispered. "This isn't enough to stop you." And as he said that, something happened.

As the beam began to weaken, it revealed something inside it. A sphere of electrical energy, with a familiar armored lizard within it.

Volt-Edge grunted, as he pumped out as much power as he could into his forcefield. It was the only thing keeping him in one piece, so he needed it to stay active. He was seriously feeling the stain and if he ran out of power before Tirek did, he would be done for.

But then, just as the sphere was beginning to short out, Tirek's blast died down and he staggered back in exhaustion. This was all Volt-Edge needed, the alien hero falling towards the monster's head, as his electrical power died out. And as he got close, he hit the Omnitrix and reverted back to human.

Everyone in the city watched in horror, as the now human Flash Sentry fell towards the monster. All it had to do was move and he would fall right into its mouth. But it didn't.

As Flash fell towards Tirek's head, he thrust the Omnitrix forward. "Azmuth, NOW!" Azmuth didn't need telling twice and powered up the DNA repair system, which activated a millisecond after Flash touched Tirek's head.

The Omnitrix dial began to spin and glow before an explosion of green light flew out of it. The light flowed out of the device and into Tirek, spreading throughout his entire body. Flash felt the feedback and lightning sparked out of the watch, hitting him and making him feel like his entire body was on fire.

He screamed in pain, but refused to pull his hand away. He could take the pain.

The Omnitrix continued to spark and shake, as the repair system went into overdrive rewriting Tirek's entire DNA structure. As more of his body was covered in the light, the less he began to struggle against what was happening to him. And eventually, his entire body was consumed by the light and the Omnitrix finished its work.

But as soon as it did, it unleashed an energy pulse that exploded from it. This sent another jolt of pain flying through Flash's body. He was then blasted backwards, away from the still glowing Tirek.

Everyone screamed his name, as he fell towards the ground and was completely limp. It looked like he was about to go splat on the pavement.

But at the last moment, something shot up and grabbed him. It was Drift, the hybrid having finally freed himself from the vines just as Flash was blown away. He held Flash in his arms as he flew away from Tirek, not wanting to know what would happen if this plan failed.

They flew to the end of the street and Drift landed, placing Flash down as the teen looked barely conscious. "Come on Flash. Wake up."

Flash's eyes drifted open and as he did, his vision fell upon the watch. The Omnitrix had not come out of the situation undamaged, as its face plate was covered in cracks, along with several of the buttons whilst the strap was burned in places. The device flickered a few times before the green section went black.

Flash's focus then turned to Tirek, the giant still glowing as the effects the Omnitrix had on him continued. But eventually, the giant's body stopped glowing. And when it did, it revealed a giant stone statue of Tirek. This statue remained completely still, a look of horror on his face.

Then, cracks began to appear along the statue and slowly, the entire thing began to collapse like a sandcastle in the wind. Eventually, all that was left was a giant pile of dust that filled the destroyed street.

From out of it, Tirek's old human body rolled out and onto the street.

Flash smirked seeing this, glad to see his efforts had resulted in success. And as he confirmed Tirek's defeat, his body finally gave out and he started to fall into unconsciousness. Drift's voice called to him, telling him to stay awake. But it was no use. He blacked out and everything around him went dark.

He didn't know how long he was unconscious. But as he slept, he dreamt about being each of his aliens and using their powers to save the world. And eventually, he felt himself starting to wake up.

When he did, the first thing he noticed was a beeping noise. His eyes slowly drifted open and he found he was in a large metal room, with a dim light above his head. His mind slowly cleared along with his vision, allowing him to move his still tired body and sit himself up in the bed he found himself in.

Taking a better look around, he realised he was in a hospital room of some sort. Not the kind he normally saw, this one looking much more high tech. There were a few machines besides him that had wires connected to his skin, Flash seeing one was a heart rate monitor that was making the beeping.

He then noticed his parents, sitting in chairs looking like they had fallen asleep.

He frowned, knowing they had likely been worried sick about him. But at that moment, his stomach was too empty to feel guilty.

A bowl of fruit was located next to him and he quickly reached for an apple. But when he did, he saw his left arm was now bare of the Omnitrix. The sight of his arm without the device made his heart sink, but he quickly shook the upset feeling off. He had chosen to do what he did and knew the risks. He couldn't complain now.

He took an apple and bit into it, the crunching sound causing his parents to jerk awake and gasp seeing him. "Flash!" Trail rushed over to him, as Misty contacted the others. "Are you okay?"

"I'm still feeling a little sore," Flash replied. "But, I think I'll live."

"You had us worried," Misty told him. "Please don't ever do anything like that again."

"You don't have to worry about that," Flash showed them his watchless arm. "My days of being a hero are over." As he said that, the door opened with Azmuth and Shining stepping into the room.

"Flash!" Shining smiled, "you're alright." Flash nodded, as Azmuth floated over to him.

"You impressed me. The feedback was even greater than I expected. Being able to withstand it was certainly an impressive feat." Flash smiled as Azmuth used his tablet, "I've been checking your vitals whilst you were out. You're perfectly healthy."

"That's good," Flash smiled before realising something. "Wait, how long was I out for?"

"Two weeks," Misty told him. "We were starting to fear you'd never wake up."

"Your body was suffering from its own form of DNA repair, after getting hit by the same energy that repaired Tirek's DNA." Azmuth typed away at the machine. "You might actually be surprised to find your allergy to shellfish is now gone. The DNA repair completely removed that issue from your system."

"Really?" Flash was amazed by this, but decided to focus on the more important things. "What happened to Tirek and the city?"

"Tirek's been placed under arrest," Shining told him. "We made a full report to the Plumbers and they're not happy about what they learned. We made a full investigation into his company and discovered a lot of tech he sold, was reverse engineered from the tech he stole along with the ship. He's going away for a long time."

"My ship has almost completed its repair of the city," Azmuth stated. "All the damage Tirek has done will be restored soon. Luckily, nobody was injured during his rampage."

Flash sighed in relief, as his hand automatically went to his wrist. "I'm sorry, Azmuth. You trusted me with the Omnitrix and now...your life's work is gone."

Azmuth smiled. "You did the right thing. I created the Omnitrix to help the world. You used it for its very purpose. I couldn't be happier that it ended up in your hands." Flash smiled, glad Azmuth wasn't mad. "Besides, it's hardly gone." He tapped a button on his tablet and in a flash, a familiar round metal orb appeared in front of Flash.

The teen's eyes went wide, as he picked it up and the pod began to open. And inside, glowing its bright green glow, was the Omnitrix.

Flash stared at the watch, then turned to Azmuth as he smirked. "It's yours if you want it. You've proven you're worthy of it." Flash smiled before holding his arm out. And to everyone's amazement, the watch leapt out of the pod and once again formed around his wrist. As he did, the dial formed the diamond and all of Flash's aliens flashed on the screen. The Omnitrix Hero was back.

Everyone smiled, as Flash pulled his blanket off to get up. "Hang on," Misty told him. "You might have just woken up, but you're in no condition to leave."

"Please don't make me be stuck in here. I'm fine."

"I don't see why he shouldn't be allowed to leave," Azmuth stated. "So long as he takes it easy. And no transforming for at least a few more days." Flash sighed, glad he could leave but still sore about being stuck in human form. "Besides, I think he'll want to see this."

"See what?"

Flash was amazed when he stepped out of the elevator and looked around, seeing the destroyed part of the base had been almost completely restored.

His friends were all there, the lot of them rushing over when they saw Flash was awake. They all asked how he was and once Flash had assured them he would live, they stepped aside and allowed Flash to see what was in the middle of the room.

It was a machine just like the one that had blown up two weeks ago, Flash amazed to see it was rebuilt. "Turns out, Tirek had everything I needed in that lab to rebuild it." Azmuth floated over to it, pointing at a large generator device. "And I managed to salvage his dimensional engine before the ship blew. If this had exploded, there'd probably be a large hole in the universe above the planet."

Flash nodded and turned to his hybrid friends. "So...you guys are going?" They nodded, "thanks for helping against Tirek."

"We didn't do much," Pearl pointed out.

"It was enough," he told them. "You guys take care in Equestria. If anything happens, don't hesitate to ask. Even if it's another world, I'll come and help."

"Thanks," Drift smiled. "For everything." They all nodded and as Azmuth prepared the machines, the hybrids hugged their friends. Even Scoop got a scratch behind the ear by Fluttershy, the five then stepping over to the machine.

They all laid down, hoping this time wouldn't turn out like the last.

Everyone stepped back, as the pods closed and the hybrids said one final goodbye before the device put them to sleep. "Alright," Azmuth turned to Sunset, "is the Princess ready?" Sunset nodded, her journal in hand. "Then let's begin." With that, he activated the device and the machine powered up.

the light from the machine blinded everyone, as Azmuth began the human DNA purge.

The hybrids didn't feel a thing and as their DNA was rewritten, the interdimensional engine powered up and started locking onto the device Azmuth had given Princess in Equestria. And soon, there was a mighty flash of light that blinded everyone.

When the light finally faded, everyone opened their eyes and turned to see the machine was still in tact. But the hybrids were gone, the pods completely empty. "Did it work?" Fluttershy asked, looking worried that something might have gone wrong. But Azmuth looked over his tablet.

"Human DNA one hundred percent purged. Dimensional transfer successful. It should have worked." He moved over to the base's large computer and activated it, connecting it to the device he had given Princess. After a minute or so to boot up, the screen showed the alicorn with a smile on her face. "I'm assuming from the look on your face, you have good news."

"Excellent news," Princess smiled before turning the device to show dragon Spike and Starlight Glimmer helping five individuals as they started waking up.

Scales, Charger and Scoop looked exactly the same, but Drift and Pearl were now quadrupedal like all the other members of their race. Everyone smiled seeing this, as the hybrids could now make a life for themselves in a world they belonged in. After everything they had been put through, their lives were finally able to truly begin.

Three days after the hybrids were sent to Equestria, Flash was finally allowed to go home.

Azmuth had wanted to make absolutely sure he was physically fine before he let the teen go. Flash quickly grew bored of being confined to the base, without even being allowed to go alien. But eventually, he was given the all clear and finally allowed to go home.

He, Trail and Misty were climbing the stairs, the elevator still not fixed, Flash looking forward to going home and sleeping in his own bed. But as they arrived at the ground floor and opened the door, they saw Shining rushing towards it. "Flash!" He cried, "there you are. Trouble! Come quick!"

"Already?" Flash asked, "I'm still sore from my last adventure." Shining gestured for him to follow and they all rushed outside. But as soon as he got through the doors, he was assaulted with a mighty cheer and round of applause.

Outside the base, hundred of people were waiting for him. The entire compound and the streets around it were filled with people who were all cheering and clapping. Flash could barely believe what he was seeing, as Shining and his parents laughed. "Surprise."

"What's...what's going on?"

Shining patted him on the shoulder. "You saved the entire city from absolute destruction...again. The people of Canterlot want to thank you." Flash's eyes went wide, as music started playing and even the mayor of the city stepped forward.

"Flash Sentry," he spoke. "Your hard work and dedication to peace and the safety of others, has kept our city safe. It is on this day that I offer you the key to the city and the promise that Canterlot will always be somewhere you can call home." Flash smiled, whilst the crowd continued to cheer. "Furthermore, I announce that the day you defeated that monster will be a new special day in Canterlot. To honour our hero, Flash Day will be a new celebration!"

Flash's eyes went wide, as the crowd cheered and repeated 'Flash Day' over and over. But as he did, he saw his friends and remembered something.

"Can I say something?" He asked, the mayor nodding. "I appreciate your gratitude, but I wasn't the only one who fought against that monster. And I've not been the only one working to keep Canterlot safe. Lot of people have been putting their lives on the line to keep Canterlot from becoming a massive crater. It wouldn't be right to just honour me."

He gestured for his friends to join him and they all did, Flash smiling as the Rainbooms, Shining and Trixie stood by his side.

"Instead of having a day where you just give thanks for what I've done, let's make that day a day to celebrate all the heroes in the city. Not just me and my friends, but the cops, doctors, firefighters and everyone else who choose to put others before themselves. Instead of a Flash Day, let's make it a Hero Day!" The crowd exploded, loving the sound of that and yelling 'Hero Day' over and over.

The Mayor smiled, also liking the sound of that. And so, he agreed and everyone began to celebrate.

The party went well into the night, with everyone having the time of their lives. When the sun eventually set, fireworks were launched much to everyone's enjoyment. Flash was particularly amazed, when he saw that each firework was in the shape of a different alien he used. Most were just their faces, but some included other parts of their bodies and a couple had their whole image.

It would surely be a day that many would remember, with the following year's events being just as exciting.

But what none of them realised, was that someone was watching the whole event from afar. They stood atop the roof of the Plumber Base, staring down at the party going on.

That person was a young woman, whose entire body was hidden within a strange set of clothing. They almost looked ninja like in appearance, with a form fitting dark gray suit and a hooded cap atop of it that only went down to the small of her back. Around her waist was a strange belt and her face was completely hidden, the hood and a mask hiding everything behind it except for a pair of bright blue eyes and a strand of blue and purple hair.

The girl watched the festivities closely, interested by what she saw. "Not yet," she finally said. "But soon." She focused on Flash, who was dancing to some music with Twilight and Adagio. "Enjoy this whilst you can. It all gets worse from here." With that, she reached down and pressed a couple buttons on her belt. In a bright flash, she completely disappeared.

Author's Note

Season 3 is over and everyone is happy. But it looks like things will be heating up again soon. Hope you enjoyed this season and how it ended. Next week, Behind the Alien returns in a slightly different way.

Behind the Alien: Hybrids

Drift let out a groan, as he felt himself starting to wake up. As he did, he heard voices and sounds all around him.

Slowly opening his eyes, he looked up and found himself staring at a ceiling made entirely out of crystals. The last thing he remembered, was saying goodbye to his friends and getting into the pods. Had it worked? Was he where he was supposed to be?

"Are you okay?" He looked around and saw a pink pony with purple hair staring at him, offering a hoof for him to take.

He did so and was pulled up to his feet, only to find he couldn't properly stand on them. "WOW!" He fell onto his hands and found he was now quadrupedal. He was shocked by this, but then remembered what his friends had told him. This was what he was supposed to look like, now that he didn't have human DNA within him.

"You okay?" The pony asked, Drift nodding.

"Yeah. Just...gonna take some getting used to."

"I hear that. I've been to that world and going from four legs to two is weird. Probably the same going the other way around." Drift nodded and looked around, only to see the rest of his fellow hybrids were also waking up.

He wasn't the only creature whose body had changed, since Pearl was also now in a quadrupedal form.

He moved over to her, walking proving tricky since he had to use all four limbs. "You okay?" Pearl looked herself over and noticed how she was, then smiled at him before nodding.

"I'm fine. I'm used to having a different number of legs." Drift nodded and looked over at the others, seeing they all looked pretty much the same. He then turned to see the pony he had seen on the computer screen, being a pony version of Twilight.

There was also a smaller creature that looked like Scales, the little dragon smiling as Twilight stepped forward. "Hello every-creature. Welcome to Equestria. I know you've all been waiting a long time for this, so I hope this world doesn't disappoint."

"It certainly looks great," Scales licked his lips seeing the crystals that made up the walls. But before he could take a bite, Twilight rushed over to him.

"Please...don't eat my castle. It's a real hassle to fix." Scales huffed, as Twilight stepped back. "I'm sure you're all eager to see what this world has to offer. And we actually have representatives from four of the nations you each come from. They'll be here shortly."

"What do you mean by representatives?" Drift asked, only for the doors of the room to fly open.

They all looked around and saw that another creature that looked just like him had flown in, only this one was female and wearing a saddlebag. "I'm here!" She called out in a cheery voice. She then spotted Drift and gasped, "you must be the new griffon!" She flew over to him and grabbed his claws, "pleased to meet you! I'm Gabby!" She started shaking his claw at high speed, making his entire body shake. "It's so great that we finally get to meet each other."

"Err...yeah," Drift wasn't sure how to answer that.

A moment later, someone else walked through the door. This time, it was a blue dragon holding a strange staff. "Ember!" The little purple dragon cheered, "you made it."

"Sorry I'm late," Ember landed and looked Scales over. "So, this is the dragon I've been hearing about."

"Yup," Spike nodded, "this is..." He turned to him, "what's your name again?"

"Scales," the hybrid replied. "Friends call me Scales. So," he looked Ember up and down, "you're...in charge of the dragons?" Ember smirked and gave him a tough expression.

"That's right. So if you don't behave, you'll have me to deal with." Scales gulped, as two more individuals arrived.

The first was a large yak and the other was a hippogriff in armor. "Yak here!" The giant horned creature roared, "come to see new yak citizen!" Twilight flew over to them.

"Prince Rutherford. Commander Seaspray. It's nice to see you both."

Seaspray bowed. "It's a pleasure to see you again also." He then noticed Pearl and smiled, "and this must be the young hippogriff we were told about." He moved over to her, "greetings. I am Seaspray. Queen Novo has charged me with coming to bring you back to Mount Aris. I'm sure you have many questions about life there, or in Seaquestria if that is where you wish to live."

"Oh," Pearl nodded, "okay. Is that where my friends are going?" She looked over at the other hybrids, as Rutherford stared at Charger.

"No. They'll be going to live with their own kind. They have much to learn about themselves, just as you do. But I'm sure you can visit them." He gestured for Pearl to follow, the hybrid sharing one last look at the other hybrids before leaving.

Rutherford continued to examine the new member of his trip. "You yak?" Charger nodded, "you no look like yak. Look more Minotaur."

Twilight rushed over to him. "Charger was created using both yak and minotaur DNA. In a way, it's like one of his parents was a minotaur and the other a yak. But we're sure he'll be much happier in Yakyakistan. With all that fur on his body, he'll be much more comfortable someplace cool."

Rutherford hummed, "you strong like yak?" Charger nodded, "we see. Come. We return to Yakyakistan and help you learn yak ways." He turned to leave, running towards the door with Charger following.

Ember and Gabby also told their new kingdom mate that they would need to leave as well, Drift and Scales sharing a look before following the pair. This just left Scoop, who looked around hoping another member of his race would soon arrive.

"I'm sorry," Twilight told him. "I'm afraid we couldn't find any Diamond Dogs to come and show you what life is like for you." Scoop let out a disappointed whine, Twilight patting him on the head. "Don't worry. I'm sure you'll find a place to call your own. And until you do, you can stay here. So long as you behave." Scoop smiled at this and nodded, Twilight smiling before she flew off.

The trip to his new home was certainly an interesting one.

Riding the vehicle called a train was an odd experience, with Gabby asking a hundred questions about his life until now. Drift told her about how he had been created by a madman, who wanted to use him and his friends to create an army of hybrids to sell. He explained how he had been accidently lost by that man, and awoke to find himself lost and in pain thanks to a damage tracker.

He then told her about how he had met Flash Sentry, who managed to stop his pain and promised to protect him. How he had learned about many things from Fluttershy and grew into a griffon that could survive on his own. Now, he was ready to start his life anew.

The train eventually arrived at the station near Griffonstone, the pair getting out and flying the rest of the way. But when he saw Griffonstone, he wasn't exactly impressed.

The place was a mess and he spotted a lot of griffons avoiding one another. He frowned at this, as Gabby led him towards one of the buildings. "This is the house of Grampa Gruff."

"And is he...like the leader of Griffonstone?"

Gabby hummed, "we don't really have a leader here. But I guess he's the closest thing to one we've got." Drift nodded, as Gabby moved up to the house and knocked. Moments later, the door flew open and an old buzzard of a griffon leapt out.

"What!?" He cried, shocking Gabby and making her fly back. "What do you want? I'm trying to sleep here!"

"Oh," Gabby smiled, "sorry Grampa Gruff. I just thought you'd want to meet the new griffon." Gruff turned to Drift, who gulped as the old griffon moved over to take a closer look.

"So...you're the one I've heard about." He circled around him, "what makes you so special, huh?"

"Well," Drift looked up and saw nopony was in the air. "Check this out." He took a deep breath before letting out a sonic squawk, the sound blast flying into the air and deafening any-griffon that was nearby.

"Wow," Gabby gasped, "that was amazing."

"Hardly," Gruff rolled his eyes. "So you can yell really loudly. That ain't gonna bring in the bits around here." He moved back towards his house. "Princess Twilight wanted me to teach you how to be a griffon. Well here's your one and only lesson. Griffons do what they want, when they want. You wanna live here, live here. You wanna make bits, find a way to make bits. If you can't, you're nothing but a waste of space." With that, he stepped back into his house and pulled the door shut with a slam.

Drift flinched at this, turning to Gabby. "Well...he seemed nice."

Gabby smiled, "he takes some getting used to." She gestured for him to follow. "Come on. You can live at my house, until you can get one of your own." Drift followed, as they headed for her place.

"Thanks," Drift told her. "I know you don't have to do all this for me."

"I'm happy to help," Gabby smiled. "I'm a Cutie Mark Crusader, after all." Drift had no idea what that was, but he was thankful for her all the same.

As Pearl and Seaspray rode the train to Mount Aris, the hippogriff gasped at the beauty of it.

The train pulled into the station and as she got out, she saw the many hippogriffs that all looked exactly like her. They were all flying around, having a great time and enjoying being hippogriffs. And as she looked out into the ocean, she saw a bunch of seaponies swimming about.

"Wow," she whispered, "this place is amazing."

Seaspray smiled, "glad you like it. This'll be your new home." As he said that, something leapt out of the water and was surrounded by light. That something was soon revealed to be a majestic hippogriff, besides two hippogriff soldiers and a younger hippogriff. "Queen Novo." He bowed and Pearl followed suit, "may I introduce Pearl of Earth. She is most gracious to be here."

"Yes," Pearl nodded, "thank you."

"No thanks needed darling," Novo smiled. "Princess Twilight told us what happened to you. I'm only sorry it had to happen."

"Yeah," the younger hippogriff smiled, "but it's okay. Now we can have fun whenever you want. You, me, Shelly and Sheldon." She held up a pair of shells with googly eyes, Pearl raising an eyebrow at this.

Novo sighed before stepping forward and holding something out. "Here you go. With this, you'll be able to live in both the sea and sky." Pearl looked down and saw a tiny shard of something. "This is a small part of the Pearl of Transformation. It's what gives us all the power to become seaponies."

"Oh," Pearl smiled, "thank you. But that's not necessary." She rushed over to the beach and dived into the water, transforming into her seapony form as she popped her head out of the water. "I have that ability built in." The hippogriffs and seaponies were shocked by this, as Pearl began to swim around before leaping into the air and returning to her hippogriff form.

"How are you doing that?" A hippogriff asked, as Pearl landed.

"I have the DNA of hippogriffs and seaponies inside of me," Pearl explained. "Plus some alien fish DNA that lets me switch between them. No big deal." From the looks of the hippogriffs and seaponies, it was a big deal.

Ember and Scales flew across the land and eventually, they reached the place known as the Dragon Lands.

"Wow," Scales whispered, "not bad." They flew down and landed on the rocks, Scales continuing to look around as Ember sat down to take a rest. "So what exactly do we do around here?"

"Anything you want," Ember told him. "Just don't do anything that'll upset me and you have free reign." Scales frowned at this.

"What exactly would upset you?"

"Lots of things." Scales slumped, "like emptying out the lava in a nearby lake. That almost stopped us from being able to hatch the eggs. Also, no attacking ponies or any other creature that the dragons are allied with."

"Got it," Scales nodded. "So...other then that, I can do whatever I want?"

"Pretty much." Ember stood back up, "I gotta go make sure nothing went wrong whilst I was gone. You look around and try to figure out what you like doing." She took off and Scales began to head towards a nearby crater, wondering what he might find when he got there.

As he got closer, he heard a bunch of roars and cheers and picked up the pace. He soon reached the edge and looked down to see a bunch of teenage dragons, who appeared to be wrestling each other.

Scales watched as a red dragon overpowered another and lifted him into the air, then threw him out of the ring carved into the ground. When the dragon hit the ground outside of the ring, the other dragons cheered as the red one started flexing and cheering for himself.

Scales wasn't too impressed. After seeing Flash fight against Tirek, that dragon overpowering another was pretty tame in comparison.

The dragons suddenly realised he was there, the red one staring at him and humming before flying up. "Who are you?" He asked, pointing his claw at him.

"Just a dragon new to these lands," Scales replied.

"I thought you didn't look familiar," a brown dragon stated as they all flew up towards him. "So, where you from? Don't tell me we got another dragon that grew up around ponies."

"No," Scales frowned, "I didn't grow up around ponies. Where I come from is...kind of a long story."

"Who cares," the red one flew behind him. "Let's see how tough you are!" He shoved him over the crater's edge and the dragon hybrid cried out, as he fell towards the ground and eventually stopped in the middle of the circle.

He groaned as he pushed himself up and the red one landed in front of him, "hey!"

"What's the matter?" He asked, "gonna cry? Gonna ask your mommy to give you a hug?" He and his friends started laughing, as Scales growled and stood up. "Come on. Show us what you got!" That was all Scales needed and he rushed forward, attempting to grab the red dragon and throw him to the ground.

But the dragon managed to grab his arms and squeeze his wrists, making him flinch as they struggled against one another.

"Go Garble!" A purple dragon cheered, as the pair tried to overpower the other. But eventually, Scale's feet lost their footing and Garble was able to throw him away.

Scales cried out as he flew through the air and smashed into the ground, rolling around until he came to a stop and groaned. The other dragons laughed as they made jokes, then took to the air and flew off with Scales frowning.

Charger was freezing cold.

He and Rutherford made their way through the snow until they reached the entrance of Yakyakistan, the hybrid seeing the large wooden fence front of him. Rutherford pushed the gate open and they stepped through them into the village. "YAKS OF YAKYAKISTAN!" Charger looked around and saw many yaks stepping out of huts and making their way over to him. "We have new yak joining tribe!"

The yaks looked at Charger and seemed confused. "He not yak!" One stated, "just hairy minotaur!"

"Charger yak!" He stated, "but with minotaur parents." The yaks didn't seem to buy this, Charger frowning as Rutherford stepped forward.

"Give him chance. Me sure he prove himself worthy yak." The yaks all nodded, open to letting Charger show his worth. "Wood gathers! Take new yak out to help knock down trees. Big arms carry many logs!" A bunch of yaks nodded and they took Charger out of the village, the lot of them heading down the snowy hill with Charger needing to be careful he didn't slip in the snow.

They eventually reached a large group of trees. There, the yaks rushed forward and smashed their heads into the trunks. This caused it to break apart and the tree fell right on top of the yak, who caught it on his back with another yak behind him to take the weight as well.

Four more yaks did the same and managed to get two more trees, whilst Charger stepped forward and grabbed the trunk in his hands.

He wrapped hair around his body to increase his strength and lifted, the tree quickly getting pulled up by the roots. The yaks watched this and were amazed, as Charger pulled the tree completely out of the ground. He laughed at this and carried the tree himself, allowing him to head back towards the village without a problem whilst the others had to carefully move so as to not drop their tree.

By the time those six yaks reached the bottom of the Yakyakistan hill, Charger was almost to the top.

He was feeling pretty good, thinking he had made an good impression on them. But as he was about to get to the top, the snow he stepped on gave way and his foot jerked. This caused him to lose his balance and eventually fell over, dropping his tree into the snow and causing it to roll down the hill.

This caused the snow on the hill to be ploughed further down, causing a small avalanche that the yaks gasped at. Before they could escape, the snow slammed down on them.

Charger flinched when he saw the six dig themselves out, not looking happy. "Sorry."

"What happen here?" They looked up to see Rutherford at the top of the hill, the yak chief making his way down. "Trees covered in snow? Too wet for fire!"

"New yak fault," one of them blamed. "He slip! Make snow fall." Rutherford turned to Charger, who frowned as he realised he was likely in trouble.

Scoop was still in the castle, staring out at the window as night fell.

Rarity and Spike had taken him to where the Diamond Dogs were last seen around Ponyville, but they had apparently moved to a different location. The pup whined as he lay on the ground, feeling lonely. The ponies in the town were nice, but he didn't feel like they really understood him.

He was starting to miss his hybrid friends, even though he had only known them two weeks. They had accepted him as a fellow creation of Tirek and they had fought together. That kind of bond was something Scoop was missing.

Twilight and Spike were watching Scoop from down the hall, both feeling sorry for him. "Poor guy," Spike sighed. "He's really lonely."

"Diamond Dogs are social creatures," Twilight explained. "They're pack animals. They need to be in a group they trust. Not on their own."

"But we can't find any Diamond Dogs," Spike pointed out. "What do we do if we never find a pack for him to join?"

Twilight sighed. "I'm sure he'll open up. We just need to give it time." Though she wasn't entirely sure how much time. She just hoped it wouldn't be too long.

One month later.

Drift was still bunking with Gabby, having been unable to find a job that paid enough to get his own place.

He had taken a bunch of small side jobs, but none of them really worked out. And they definitely didn't pay great, griffon greed being a main factor in that part. But today he would be starting a new job, that would hopefully allow him to make enough bits to start his new life right. He was helping Gabby with the mail.

"Alright!" Gabby smiled as she gave Drift his own mail bag. "We've got a bunch of mail to delivery to a bunch of different kingdoms."

"Really?" Drift asked, "why would griffons have mail meant to go to different kingdoms?"

"Don't know," Gabby told him. "Not my job to know what's in the mail. Just my job to deliver it." She opened the bag to show him the mail. "There are a bunch of letters that have to go to the hippogriff on Mount Aris."

"Mount Aris?" Drift's eyes went wide as he remembered, "that's where Pearl is. Can I deliver theses?"

"That's the plan," she stated. "Then there's a letter that needs to be delivered to Dragon Lord Ember in the Dragon Lands. You can deliver that one too." Drift smiled, since that meant he could visit Scales as well.

He quickly took the bag and flew into the air, Gabby following after him. He had spent the month he had been there looking through some of the books Gabby had in her house, one of them being a book of maps that Drift had been rather interest in. Thanks to that, he knew how to get to each of the kingdoms that his fellow hybrids were now living.

He eventually split off from Gabby and headed towards Mount Aris, excited to see how Pearl was doing after so long.

Pearl was swimming through the caverns of Seaquestria, having just attended a sea tea party with some other seaponies.

The hybrid had had an okay time, but wasn't a big fan of eating things underwater. All the food tasted incredibly salty, making her frown since there was nothing to drink underwater that wasn't also incredibly salty.

As soon as the tea party was over, she swam up towards the surface. Along the way, she saw other seaponies enjoying themselves. They looked around her age, but when they saw her they quickly swam away. Pearl frowned, but had gotten used to this.

Many of the younger hippogriffs and seaponies didn't seem to like that she could transform without the pearl fragment. When she told them she wasn't fully hippogriff or seapony, being part fish alien, they had been freaked out and started keeping their distance.

The adults were much more accommodating, but Pearl felt like they were just taking pity on her.

She hadn't really felt at home in either place. Mount Aris was nice, but it was a little too scenic for her. And the weekly hippogriff pride festival got kind of repetitive. As for Seaquestria, the salty food was just the tip of the iceberg.

She finally reached the surface and leapt into the air, transforming into her hippogriff form and flying up towards the village. As she did, she noticed more hippogriffs playing a sport in the sky.

She flew down to the main square and rushed towards one of the cafes, ordering something that could wash the salty taste out of her mouth.

She sighed and sat at her table, bored out of her mind. But then something happened that caught her attention. "Delivery." Pearl's head shot up before she looked around, seeing none other then Drift handing a letter to a hippogriff.

She gasped and flew over to him, her drink order completely forgotten. "Drift!" He spun around as she reached him, throwing her arms around him. "You're here!" She hugged him, as Drift smiled. "What are you doing at Mount Aris?"

"Delivering mail," he replied. "Figured it'd be a good excuse to come and see you." Pearl smiled as she pulled back, Drift heading to the next address to deliver the rest of his mail with her tagging along. "So, how's life with the rest of your kind."

Pearl sighed, "it's fine. But...it doesn't really feel like home, you know?"

"More than you could possibly imagine." Drift knocked on a door and when the hippogriff answered, he handed the letter over and they happily took it. "Griffonstone's a total dump. Living in that bird cage on Earth was way better than living there. That's why I decided to take this mail gig. Gets me away from the depressing place for a bit."

The pair continued to deliver mail to the hippogriffs until Drift's bag was almost empty. "Does that mean you have to leave?" Pearl looked upset, Drift frowning as well.

"I need to deliver a letter to Dragon Lord Ember in the Dragon Lands."

Pearl gasped, "that means you're going to see Scales!" Drift nodded. "I wanna go see him too. Can I tag along?"

"Sure," Drift opened his wings, "just try to keep up." He took to the air and Pearl shot off after him, the pair beginning to race as they tried to get ahead of each other and laughed as they did so.

Scales sighed as he sat on a rock, munching on one of the few gems he was able to get his claws on.

His time in the Dragon Lands had not been a fun one. All the larger dragons wouldn't even give him a second look and the dragons that were his size were even worse. Ever since getting to the Dragon Lands, he had been completely alone.

Scales remembered the first night he had been there. Ember had called all the dragons around a large fire, where they started telling stories. Ember had asked Scales to tell them his story, interested in hearing about the dragon from another world.

Scales had begrudgingly told them his story, about being created by a madman in order to become a weapon for him. The dragons were shocked to hear the whole story, though some didn't seem to believe he was really less then a year old.

By the time the story came to an end, the dragons were all looking at him like he was some kind of freak. Technically, he was the least unusual out of all the hybrids since all his abilities were the same ones a normal dragon had. But that wasn't good enough for the dragons. The lot of them had decided they didn't want a fake dragon hanging out with them.

As such, he had spent every day since coming there on his own.

Ember had tried to cheer him up occasionally, but her duties as Dragon Lord left her way to busy to really hang out with him. So, Scales remained on his own and had spent his days laying around the Dragon Lands doing nothing.

He finished off his gem and sat up, wondering if maybe he should head somewhere. But he couldn't think of anything that would be fun to do by himself. So he just walked and tried to think of something to do, with nothing really coming to mind.

But that all changed when two dragons passed him by. "Hey," one said, "did you hear? A pair of bird ponies just showed up. Think Ember will let us roast them for dinner?"

Scales stopped when he heard this, curious about these bird ponies they were talking about. There were only two things he could think of that could be called bird ponies.

Spreading his wings, he took off and began to search for these bird ponies. He looked around and eventually, he spotted Ember along with two more individuals. And when he saw who it was, he gasped. "GUYS!" Drift and Pearl looked around and gasped when they saw him.

"Hey," Ember smirked, "wondered where you'd gotten to." She turned to the two guests. "Oh yeah. You were those other hybrids that I saw at Twilight's castle." They nodded as Scales landed, Pearl pulling him into a hug.

"It's so good to see you!" She smiled whilst Scales patted her on the back, then fist bumped Drift. "Are you having a good time here in the Dragon Lands?" As soon as she said this, she knew Scales wasn't.

"Let me guess," Drift sighed. "The other dragons are kind of ignoring you."

"They flat out hate me," Scales told them. "Just because I was made a dragon and not born a dragon, they don't want anything to do with me." Ember wanted to argue, but she had to admit she had noticed this. She was tempted to just order the dragons to hang out with Scales, but knew that wouldn't be much help.

"Geez," Drift sighed, "this world isn't turning out to be the perfect place for us after all. Hopefully, Charger and Scoop are enjoying it more then we are."

"Why don't we go see?" Pearl asked. "We can go see how Charger's doing with the yaks, then go see Princess Twilight to ask where Scoop is." The other two liked the sound of that, Scales turning to Ember.

"Is it okay if I go?" He asked, Ember nodding.

"Sure. Sorry this place wasn't the paradise you were hoping for. You can come back whenever you want. Go have fun with the rest of your friends." Scales nodded and after one last bow, the three flew off as Ember opened the letter she had been sent.

The trio quickly headed north, towards the icy cold of Yakyakistan and their fellow hybrid.

Charger sighed as he worked on knitting the new clothing for a member of the tribe.

He had actually discovered he liked knitting, though it being the only thing he was allowed to do had gotten old fast. Ever since the wood collecting incident, he hadn't even been allowed outside the village. Day in, day out, he was given no new tasks.

He could understand why. Whilst being two-legged meant he could carry stuff better, it didn't make him very graceful. Especially in a snowy environment like this, one slip on something frozen and he had no chance of stopping himself from falling over. It was useless.

He sighed as he added the last cross stitch and placed the finished garment down. He then got up and headed out of the hut, wanting to get some air.

Stepping out into the village, he saw that all the yaks around him were wary. Understandable, given it was only three days ago that he tripped over a rock and accidently knocked over a hut.

He sighed as he tried to find some place he could relax without being in the way. And as he did, he passed Rutherford. "Yak look sad!" He told him. "Yak no like Yakyakistan?"

He sighed. "Charger not meant be here! Not built for slippery ground and fragile homes!"

"Yak agree!" Rutherford nodded. "But yaks no mean. Yaks not kick you out. Give time and yak sure, you find place here."

"Charger doubt that."

"Prince Rutherford!" They both turned to see another yak rushing towards them. "Three creatures at gate! Want see new yak!" Charger was surprised by this and headed for the gate, being careful not to slip as he made his way over. And when he did, he was shocked to see three creatures he had truly missed.

"Friends!" He cheered, seeing Drift, Pearl and Scales. He rushed over and grabbed them, pulling them all into a hug. "Charger happy see you!" He held them tightly, causing the trio to all gasp as they lost their breath.

"We're...happy to see you...too," Drift told him. "But...big guy...air!" Charger let them go and they all gasped, as he smiled at them. "So, how's life in this frozen tundra?" They turned to Charger and saw a frown on his face. "Things not going well for you either?"

"Charger not built for this place," he stated.

"Really?" Scales rubbed his arms to try and warm himself up, wishing his could breathe some fire. "With all that fur, you can't be cold?"

"Two legs bad for snowy place," Charger explained. "Charger keep making mess of things. Yaks not liking me here."

Drift growled. "That's it!" He cried, "this is getting ridiculous! We were sent here because we were promised it'd be the perfect place for us to live. But so far, the four of us have been miserable."

"Well not miserable," Pearl shrugged. "I just wished the other hippogriffs and seaponies didn't think I was some kind of weirdo."

"Same," Scales frowned. "Guess looking like a dragon and acting like a dragon doesn't make you a real dragon." Drift heard this and realised he was right.

"Yeah," he nodded, "we've been doing this all wrong." They all gave him a curious look. "We might look like normal Equestrians, but we're not. We're all a jumbled up mess of different creatures from an entirely different world."

"So?" Pearl asked.

"So, we don't need to live like the creatures we were made from. I might look like a griffon, but I'm sure as heck not going back to Griffonstone."

"Yeah," Scales nodded, "I'm not going back to the Dragon Lands."

Pearl hummed, "so where will you live?" Drift thought about that and slowly, an idea formed in his head.

"Who says I need to live anywhere?" The others looked confused, as Drift looked out at the mountainous terrain they had just passed. The harsh winds, tall mountains and monsters they had had to fly over. It had been a tough trip and it had been exciting as heck. "I've spent most of my life confined. First by Tirek, then when I had to stay at that plumber base. I'm not gonna let myself get stuck in Griffonstone. I'm gonna see the world."

"So you're gonna be a nomad?" Scales asked, Drift nodding his head. "That's cool! Mind if I join you?" Drift smiled and nodded again.

"I'll come too," Pearl smiled. "Let's see what's out there. Maybe we'll find a place to call home, maybe we'll spend the rest of our lives wandering. It sounds like an adventure."

"Charger come too!" The minotaur yak fusion smirked, "maybe Charger find place he not clumsy in." The four smiled at this and happily welcomed him to their group of explorers.

"I guess it makes sense," Scales told them. "We were sent here to be with our own kind, but we were with our own kind already. The hybrid kind."

"But we're missing one hybrid," Drift pointed out. They all knew what Drift was talking about and knew where they were going. Maybe Scoop had found a place he belonged and they would be happy if he had. But if he hadn't, they would be there for him.

Twilight was walking through her castle looking for its most recent occupant.

They had been searching for Diamond Dogs for a while and still had no luck. She was starting to think that maybe they should search further outside of Ponyville or asked Celestia if she knew where some where. But she would keep looking for a little bit before then.

Heading outside the castle, she stepped around the building. "Scoop?" She called out, "you out here? It's almost lunch-GYAH!" She fell into a hole in the ground and fell a good six feet before landing on her head. "Ow!" She stood up and rubbed her head, groaning as she spread her wings to fly out of it. When she looked around, she saw a bunch of holes around her tree-shaped home. "SCOOP! What did I say about digging hole around the castle?"

Scoop stuck his head out of a hole and whined, as Twilight sighed. She brushed herself off, trying to stay calm. She knew digging was in a diamond dog's nature, so couldn't be too angry with her. She just wished she wouldn't do it near the castle.

"Looks like somepony's having training issues." Twilight rolled her eyes and turned towards the voice, only to stop and be shocked by what she saw.

Drift, Pearl, Scales and Charger smiled at her, waving as Scoop rushed over to them with a happy expression on his face. "What are you doing here?" Twilight asked.

Drift smirked as he stepped forward, "things didn't really work out in the other kingdoms. So we decided to leave and begin searching for a new place to call home. A place that's all our own." Twilight frowned, wondering what could have happened to drive the hybrids away. "We came to see if Scoop wanted to join us in our adventures." Pearl scratched him behind the ear as he said that.

The Diamond Dog panted in excitement, "Scoop join! Scoop join!" The other four smiled as Twilight looked concerned.

"Are you sure this is what you want?" She asked, the five turning to her. "It's a big wide world out there and you five don't really know that much about it. I'd hate to see you all get hurt because you were wandering through the world alone."

"We'll be fine," Scales assured her. "We've fought tough opponents before and come out on top."

"We'll be together," Pearl stated. "And together, we can handle anything." Twilight thought about this and nodded, smiling as she did so.

"Then I have no right to stop you. But just know that if you ever find yourself in trouble, I'll be here and willing to help." The five nodded as Twilight invited them to stay the night and prepare for their big adventure. They all happily agreed and headed inside the castle.

The next day, the five headed out on their grand adventure. They had no idea what the future held for them, but was looking forward to see what insane situations they would come across. The five hybrids would stick together, no matter what came their way. And the world of Equestria wouldn't know what hit it.

Author's Note

Well, if you were wondering what happened to the hybrids after being sent to Equestria, there's your answer. I didn't start this with the plan of getting the hybrids back together, but it just felt like a better outcome then having them stay apart. Hope you enjoyed it.

Next week, season 4 starts off with a bang.

Season 4, Episode 2: From Time to Time PT2

Britain, Twenty Years in the Future.

On the streets of London, things looked just as futuristic as in Canterlot. And near the River Thames, humans and aliens were going about their business.

That was at least until a large wolf alien flew down from out of nowhere and unleashed a super sonic howl, which shattered every pane of glass and deafened anyone who heard it. The wolf ran through the street, his claws tearing at anything that moved. However, its rampage was soon about to end.

The futuristic XLR8 shot down the street and before the alien could react, the speedster slammed a foot into its chest.

The wolf was sent flying and crashed into the ground, rolling along it and using its claws to come to a stop. It growled at XLR8 and howled, only for XLR8 to transform into a Chamalien that looked about the same as his past self. He disappeared and the wolf growled, attempting to sniff the air.

But before he could find him, he appeared right in front of the wolf. He then transformed into a small alien, that looked like a black and white battery alien with arms and legs. The little alien became surrounded by lightning, that it then sent surging into the creature.

The wolf howled in pain, as the alien leapt back and transformed into a human sized alien wearing a black and white suit that covered its waist, stomach, chest and neck, with a collar around its neck that had the Omnitrix on it. Its arms and legs were made out of purple rock, with a bunch of mini-volcanoes covering them. Its head was also rock-like, but it was covered in a green grass dome filled with gas. On its stomach was a round glass window, with many gases floating around inside.

The alien rolled up and as it did, gas exploded out of the volcanoes that created a large cloud which consumed them both.

The wolf was unable to stop itself from breathing the gas in, causing it to go woozy before falling to the ground unconscious.

The alien stood back up as the gas faded, then transformed back into XLR8 as the British Plumbers arrived. Once they were there, XLR8 rushed off to continue patrolling the planet. But as he did, his Omnitrix beeped to indicate a call. "What's the problem?" He asked, the voice on the other line telling him. "WHAT!? Animac escaped?" XLR8 exploded into cloud of dust, which shot down the street so fast that those he passed only noticed a strong gust of wind.

In less than ten minutes, he was back in America and arrived in Canterlot.

He slowed down as he made his way across the city and eventually arrived at the Plumber HQ, looked nothing like the building it had appeared as twenty years ago.

Now it was a large tower with the Plumber Symbol on the top and multiple landing pads coming off the side to allow the flying vehicles to land and take off from. He rushed into the building and in the blink of an eye, he was in the main control room.

It took several seconds for the other plumbers to notice him, but when they did they all stood to attention. "SIR!"

"What happened?" XLR8 asked, "I defeated Animac. You shouldn't have had any problems containing him." As he said that, the two plumbers he had left Animac with rushed up and bowed as they explained what happened, making XLR8 growl. "Great. But he couldn't have gotten far. And he probably got what he was trying to take when I beat him. Any idea what that could be?"

"We're checking sir, but it's gonna take a while." XLR8 nodded and as he did, an alarm went off that caught his attention.

"Proximity detector just went off," a human agent announced as she typed away at the computer. Everyone turned to the monitor, as it changed to show an image of the building's exterior. There, they saw someone fly over the fence on a hoverboard.

"Who is that?" Someone asked, but XLR8 knew who it was and glared.

"My business," he told them. "You lot focus on finding Animac." With that, he shot out of the building and and into the garden where the younger version of him was waiting. "What are you still doing here?" He asked, as Flash frowned at him.

"Twilight's still working on the belt. But I'm not going back until we talk."

"About what?"

"I know what happened to Shining Armor." XLR8 sighed, clearly having expected this. "I know it must have been hard."

"You know nothing," XLR8 stated. "At least not yet, anyway." He ran off, though given how fast he was going Flash had a feeling he wasn't trying to escape him.

Flash zoomed after him on his hoverboard, catching up as they made their way through the town. "I also know about the others!" He cried, "you completely abandoned them."

"What are you talking about?"

"Rainbow Dash! How could you let her give up on her dream like that? The same with the others. You could have helped them. They weren't supposed to live these lives."

"I had more important things to do."

"What's more important then helping your friends?" Flash asked, unable to believe what he was hearing. "How could you say something like that!? You're supposed to be a hero."

"I am a hero!" XLR8 argued. "And as a hero, I have a responsibility to the people of the world. I can't be wasting my time, helping Rainbow after she hurts her leg, or consoling Rarity because someone stole her silly little clothing designs."

"Silly?" Flash gasped, "you know how hard Rarity works to make her clothes look good! You can't just say that." He was starting to hate his future self, more and more by the second. "What happened to you? There's no way I'd let myself turn into such a jerk!"

XLR8 huffed, "so what if I'm a jerk. I have more important things to think about then being nice. If I'm not at my best, people get hurt." The way Flash heard that made him think this wasn't just paranoia. And slowly, he was able to put the pieces together.

"Shining Armor." If XLR8's visor wasn't down, Flash felt he would have seen him flinch. "I know you were there. Flurry and Cadance gave me a brief summary, but what really happened? If Flurry hadn't shown up and brought me here, what would have happened?"

"It has happened," XLR8 told him. "When Twilight sends you back, you'll go the same way I went back then and see the smoke. And that's when everything changed."

Twenty years ago.

When Flash saw the smoke, he instantly swung his board around and flew towards the source.

When he found it, he saw that an entire apartment building had been set ablaze. People were surrounding the building, looking shocked by the flames as they tried to think of what to do. Then, they saw him. "Flash Sentry!" The teen rushed down and jumped off his board. "Please!" One of them cried, "my family's in there." Turns out, there were a lot of people in the building that weren't able to get out.

"Alright!" Flash activated the Omnitrix, finding his chosen alien and slamming it down. "XLR8!" He cried after transformation, then shot into the building. He couldn't go as fast as he wanted, since one wrong step could lead to him breaking through the weakened floor or burning himself.

He managed to find the first trapped person quickly freeing and taking them outside before heading back in. He repeated the process with five more people, leaving the building with his sixth and seventh saves as another car rolled into the street.

"Flash!" He turned to see Shining, heading over and putting his suit on. "What's the situation?"

"We still got people trapped inside," XLR8 explained. "Not sure how many more." Shining used his suit to scan the building, locating three signals on the top floor.

"Just three more!" He cried, rushing inside with XLR8 on his tail. The plumber used his Multi-Striker to protect himself from falling debris, whilst XLR8 lead him through the building as more of it started coming down. "This place isn't gonna hold much longer!"

"Then we gotta be quick!" XLR8 announced as they finally made their way to the top floor. There, they found a mother holding her twin daughters as the room collapsed around her.

"Hurry!" She cried, as XLR8 rushed in and grabbed the two children. Shining grabbed the woman and the alien speedster ran out the room, rushing through the exploding building until he eventually reached the exit and ran out.

"Mommy!" One of the girls screamed, as XLR8 put her and her sister down.

"Don't worry!" XLR8 promised, "Shining Armor will get her out of there." But as he said that, he got bad feeling and turned towards the building. He expected Shining and the woman to rush out any second, but they didn't. And after a few more moment, he decided to head back inside.

He rushed up to the building and just as he was about to enter, something happened that completely threw him for a loop.

One minute, he was running towards the building and the next, he was being blown backwards feeling an intense heat on his body and a massive booming sound filled the air and almost deafened him.

He cried out as he hit the ground, laying there for several moments as the people rushed over to him. "Are you okay?" A man asked, as they helped him sit up. And when he did, he was shocked to see the entire body was now a raging inferno that quickly began to collapse.

"SHINING!" He screamed, remembering who had still been in there. He looked around, hoping to see he had somehow gotten out. But he was nowhere in sight. "No," he stepped towards the building and realised what had happened before falling to his knees. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

"Turns out, there was a gas tank connected to the main line in the building's basement. When the fire reached it, the gas exploded and the whole place went up in a second."

Flash couldn't believe what he was hearing. He could only imagine what that must have been like. Would he really have to watch that happen? "No," he shook his head, "I won't let that happen."

"Really?" XLR8 asked as he finally came to a stop in the middle of a park, Flash pulling his board to a stop and jumping off of him. "And how do you intend to change things?"

"I'll tell Shining not to go in," he stated.

"You really think Shining will listen to you? He won't just stand around and do nothing whilst people are in danger." Flash frowned, realising he was right.

"Then I'll get everybody out before he arrives. With XLR8's speed-"

"You won't be fast enough," XLR8 turned to him. "Don't you think I've thought about that day? How I could have changed things. How I could have saved everyone, including Shining. But the fact is, you're not good enough to save them all. And that's why I can't waste my time on pointless things. Because if I do, people die."

"What are you talking about?" Flash asked, "What happened to Shining Armor wasn't your fault."

"Wasn't it?" XLR8 asked, "what have you done since defeating Tirek?" Flash looked confused by this, "nothing. You barely trained and spent most of your free time messing around with your friends and having fun. A whole month of doing nothing, which could have been used to train yourself. You think you're fast now, but it's nothing compared to the speed you could reach if you pushed yourself."

Flash finally realised what he was saying. "That's why you weren't there for the others? Because you were focusing on making yourself better?"

XLR8 nodded. "Since that day, I've spent every waking moment of my life training to be the best. Mastering my aliens and unlocking ones that can help me save those in need. Because of that, I've been able to save everyone I try to help. But all that hard work came at a cost."

"You pushed the others away," Flash realised. "They could have helped you."

"Hardly," XLR8 looked away from him. "They might have abilities, but they all pale in comparison to mine. If they tried to help, they'd have just gotten in the way and might have been hurt as well."

"You can't say that!" Flash yelled, "we wouldn't have survived five minutes without them when we first got the Omnitrix. It's only thanks to our friends that Vilgax didn't kill us during that first time."

"I know," XLR8 nodded. "And I'm grateful for everything they did." He slowly turned towards him, his visor opening to stare at Flash. "And that's why you've gotta start working harder. The longer you need to rely on others, the more danger you'll be putting them in." He pointed at Flash's wrist. "You are the keeper of the Omnitrix. You are earth's mightiest hero. You and you alone are the only one who can keep this world safe. Your friends can't keep up. If they try and follow, they'll only end up sharing Shining's fate."

Flash let these words sink in and as he did, XLR8's Omnitrix beeped signalling an alert.

The alien speedster closed his visor and shot away, moving so fast Flash couldn't even tell which way he went. Flash gasped at this and as he looked around, his future self's words repeated. Were they true? Was Flash destined to be a hero who walked the world alone. If his friends tried to follow, would they share Shining's fate?

Back in the warehouse, Animac smiled as the figure hidden in the darkness moved around to get used to his new body. "So, Mr Vilgax, everything working as it should?"

"Yes," Vilgax nodded as he raised an arm. "You did excellent work. And I remember everything up to the download. I was clearly correct in copying my mind into an external hard drive. What happened to me afterwards?"

"Couldn't tell you. Wasn't there. But considering the state you were in when I teleported your remains out of the Plumber incinerator, you and Sentry had one heck of a battle." The mention of that name caused a growl to escape his lips, "I also know you ended up taking six city blocks out along with you."

"Only six. I must have been losing my touch. But no matter. This time, I will destroy Flash Sentry and make him suffer like he has never felt before."

Animac nodded. "I spent years studying each of his aliens and determining their strengths and weaknesses. This body can handle anything he throws at you. Now, what's the plan?"

Vilgax turned to Animac, "we destroy...everything."

Flash sighed as he returned to Twilight's lab, the woman getting closer to repairing the device that had brought him there.

Flurry was also there, she and Twilight looking up from the device when they heard Flash enter. "I guess your talk didn't go quite the way you thought it would," Twilight told him. Flash's only answer was to look out a nearby window and stare out at the futuristic world.

"I'm sorry," he told them. "I couldn't save Shining."

Twilight sighed, "we never blamed you. Even after you started avoiding us, we knew you were just hurting." She tried to continue working, but the situation was stopping her from thinking as she put her tools down. "It's my fault." Flash looked shocked at her. "When Shining died, I was a wreck. We all were. Cadance couldn't stop crying, my parents barely said two words and I just hid away in my room staring at pictures of Shining. Our friends were so focused on trying to make me feel better, we didn't realise how much pain you were in."

"You can't blame yourself for that," Flash told her. "He was your brother. Of course you'd be heartbroken."

"Even so, we never saw what was happening to you. By the time we realised how much Shining's death had affected you, it was too late. You were so focused on getting stronger, to make sure nothing like that happened again, you pushed everybody away. Us, your parents, Adagio. Even Azmuth couldn't convince you to let what happened go. You became a man obsessed."

Flash sat on a chair, hating that that was his future.

"Now you see why I wanted to try and change what happened," Flurry told him. "I thought if I went back in time, maybe I could save him. Take you back to an earlier point in the day and have you stop the fire, or give you enough time to evacuate everyone before my dad even got there."

Flash realised she was right. "Then that's what we'll do!" He stood up and rushed over to Twilight, "send me back to my time and put me five or ten minutes before I left. Let me save him."

Twilight sighed, "you really wanna risk doing something like that?" Flash couldn't believe Twilight wasn't on board with saving her brother. "We don't know what effect changing the past could have on the future."

"What?"

"Our lives might be better, but there are more lives to consider. Think of all the people you're gonna save after Shining...died. The only reason you saved them was because Shining's death pushed you to become the world's greatest hero. If we take that motivation away, we might be condemning all those people to die. And if those people die, it could alter the future you see in ways you can't possibly imagine. Shining wouldn't want that."

"But...but Shining..."

"Shining's goal in life was for the world his family lived in to be a bright one. And whilst we might not all have gotten the lives we wanted, it is an amazing world to live in. We don't have the right to take that away from everyone."

Flash sighed, seeing he likely wasn't going to get her to help him. He just had to find a way to save Shining himself, no matter what that did to the future. A world without Shining in it was a world not worth living in.

Suddenly, the entire building suddenly shook and Flash almost fell over. The girls cried out as they grabbed the desk, all of them wondering what the heck had just happened. But they got their answer, when smoke appeared from a building several streets over.

Flash about to rush over and make sure everything was okay. But before he could, he was suddenly pulled backwards by his hood. "Hey!" He cried, Twilight using her Equestrian Magic to keep him from leaving. "What gives!?"

"You can't go rushing into danger right now. If you die, future you will cease to exist and who knows what that'll do to the space time continuum."

"But people could be in trouble!"

"Relax. You've got this covered." Flash wondered what she meant, but then remembered he wasn't the only Flash Sentry at the moment. And when Twilight let him go, she moved to a computer and typed on it. "If you really wanna know what's going on, I'll tap into the street cameras to take a look. You're future self is probably on his way there now."

She was right. XLR8 shot through the streets after hearing the explosion, arriving in time to see Animac's chimera body causing havoc on the street.

He looked over at XLR8 and used his claws, to pull a large slab of ground out of the street. He threw it towards him, XLR8 quickly morphing into Goop to avoid getting crushed. He flew out from under it and shot towards Animac, transforming again into Riot-Horn.

"You should have stayed hidden," he told the man. "Now I'm gonna take you to jail personally."

Animac chuckled, "oh I don't think so. We have other plans in mind for you."

"We?" Riot-Horn asked, only to sense something and spin around to see something coming flying down at him. He barely managed to leap back in time before the object crashed into the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust. "What, bring another one of your ugly pets?"

"Oh, I'm more than that." Riot-Horn's eyes went wide at the voice, as the dust cleared to reveal his foe.

Flash waited as Twilight typed away at the computer. "Finally, got it!" The screen changed to show Riot-Horn staring down an opponent, the three seeing Animac in the back.

But it was the other opponent that shocked them all. "No way," Flash whispered at what he saw. "Vilgax?" But it wasn't the Vilgax he knew, for his body was even more cybernetic then Flash remembered.

The mask he used to wear had now morphed into a full on helmet, with only his eyes and tentacles visible. His body and legs were now in a black version of his old suit, but his shoulder pads were now smaller and covered in spikes. His arms were either in mechanical armor, or had been completely replaced with black robotic arms, that had glowing green sections like what was on his mask. On his back were a pair of glass tanks, filled with a strange black liquid that seemed to be getting pumped right into his back.

"I thought he was dead!" Flurry cried.

"It must be a fake," Twilight stated. "Or...some kind of clone. Either way, this doesn't look good." Sure enough, Vilgax rushed forward and Riot-Horn charged as well. But before he could get close enough, Vilgax threw a punch and his fist fired off his arm to slam into Riot-Horn.

"Ow!" Flurry flinched, as Riot-Horn was knocked flying. Vilgax's fist then returned to him, using a cable that connected it to the wrist. Riot-Horn crashed into the ground and skidded to a stop before charging once again, this time wary of Vilgax's fist.

He reached the cyborg alien and threw a punch, but Vilgax dodged it and side-stepped around him before throwing his own.

Riot-Horn transformed into Diamondhead and ducked under the punch, slamming his fist into the ground and causing a spike to fly up out of the ground. But Vilgax backhanded the spike and destroyed it, Diamondhead glaring at him before noticing a presence behind him.

Spinning around, he saw Animac was now attacking and tried to grab him in his pincer. Diamondhead leapt to the side, but this gave Vilgax the opening to attack and he body checked Diamondhead. The alien hero grunted as he was sent flying and crashed into the street, Vilgax charging again.

He managed to pick himself up and the pair threw a punch at one another, only for each one to be caught by the other. The pair struggled against each other, appearing to be evenly matched. But in a flash of green, Vilgax found himself getting blasted by a high pressure jet of water.

He was knocked backwards and smashed into another wall, but quickly recovered and looked up to see a red and black robotic alien. It had clear water containers on its head and arms, along with clear tubes running along its body and a respirator covering its mouth that was dripping with water.

Vilgax pushed himself out of the wall, as the alien rushed forward.

He raised his arms and fired water from vents in the top, which slammed into Vilgax at high speed. He then rushed forward, as blades made of water flew out of the vents and the alien started slashing Vilgax with them. However, the alien squid raised its metal arms and blocked the blades, which splashed against them without leaving a scratch.

Vilgax then tried to crush him, but the alien used his water cannons to push himself away from him before propelling himself into the air.

Once high enough, the alien changed direction and shot towards Vilgax before transforming into Lindwhirl. The chimera alien rolled up and spun at high speed, only for Vilgax's arms to extend and grab him. Before Lindwhirl could react, Vilgax swung him down and he crashed into the ground. "AUGH!"

Vilgax then threw him around before tossing him towards Animac, who got ready to slash at him with his bear claws. But before he reached him, Lindwhirl transformed into the small electric alien who zipped between Animac's claws and shocked him in the chest.

Animac roared at this, but quickly staggered back and swung his pincers around.

This slammed the alien and he was knocked flying, but transformed into an older version of Vapaw that had the Omnitrix on his forehead. He used his claws to grind along the ground and come to a stop, as Vilgax rushed forward. He quickly unleashed a cloud of smoke, which somehow turned solid and Vilgax found himself punching what felt like cotton.

The pair then noticed a shadow above them and saw Vapaw had leapt over the large cloud and transformed into Riot-Horn. The super strong alien fell towards them and they leapt back, Riot-Horn thrusting his fist into the ground and causing it to shake like mad.

The pair leapt back as the ground broke apart, Animac then rushing forward and swinging his tail around.

As Riot-Horn picked himself up, the tail wrapped around him before throwing him towards Vilgax. The cyborg alien then swung his arm around to deal a lariat to Riot-Horn's neck and knocked him to the ground.

Flash and the girls flinched at this, "he's getting creamed!"

"Vilgax's clearly more powerful than the last time they fought," Twilight realised. "And with Animac helping him, he doesn't stand a chance." They watched as Riot-Horn pushed himself up, only to get crushed underfoot by Vilgax. He grunted, but quickly transformed into Goop to escape.

But as he tried to whip Vilgax, the alien squid's shoulders unleashed a purple mist. And when it touched Goop's skin, he screamed as he felt his body starting to dissolve. He had to transform into Volt-Edge and staggered back, looking to be in serious trouble.

"That's it!" Flash pulled out his hoverboard and rushed for the door.

"Where are you going?" Flurry asked, "you can't be thinking of actually fighting them."

"That's exactly what I'm thinking!" Flash stated. "He needs my help."

"You'll be killed," Twilight cried. "What do you think you can do that your more powerful self can't?" But then Flash turned towards them, a look upon his face.

"My greatest power wasn't the Omnitrix. The best power I had were my friends. You, the Rainbooms, Trixie and especially Shining Armor. I'd have never made it without them. My future self might have forgotten that, but I haven't. Even if all I can do is add a little help, it's better then just sitting around doing nothing. Working together is the greatest ability to have in the universe. You and our friends taught me that."

Twilight listened to those words and as she did, she suddenly remembered everything that had happened when she was younger. All the amazing memories she had made and all the challenges they had overcome together. That had all changed when Shining had died, Twilight's grief causing her to once again retreat into her studies and caused them all to drift apart.

Flash ran for the door and took out his hoverboard, using it to fly out the lab and off to the battle.

Twilight watched him leave and then looked over at the screen. Flash was in serious trouble and even with his younger self's help, he wouldn't stand a chance against Vilgax and Animac. But there might be something that could help them.

"What are you doing?" Flurry asked, as Twilight moved over to the computer.

"I'm sending a message. Several messages. Hopefully, they'll get them before it's too late." She finished typing the message and once she was sure it was what she wanted to say, she hit the send button and sent it to several places.

In seven different areas, two of which in completely different universes, phones, computers and other devices buzzed and beeped to catch their owner's attention. One by one, they each opened the message and read it. They were surprised to see who it was and what that person was asking for, especially the part about a past version of Flash. Soon enough, they each sent an answer back.

Volt-Edge was jumping around, doing his best to avoid the two villains until he could come up with a plan.

But Vilgax's new body was able to keep up with him and as he leapt into the air, Vilgax's legs sprang him forward and he caught Volt-Edge. He tried to zap him, but his body was completely shielded.

"It's useless!" Vilgax pulled him to the ground and slammed him into the ground. "Animac analysed all of your aliens!" He threw Volt-Edge across the street, where Animac grabbed him in his tail and smashed him into the ground. "Then built my body with countermeasures to overpower each and every one of them."

Volt-Edge groaned as he picked himself up, realising he couldn't win. "Maybe..." He thought about a particular alien, "the celestial-" He didn't get to finish his thought as Vilgax charged. He leapt into the air and as he did, Vilgax leapt after him. But before he could grab Volt-Edge, another voice called out.

"INCOMING!" They all looked around and saw Flash flying towards them on his hoverboard, then leapt off it and transformed before Vilgax could recover from the shock. "LINDWHIRL!" He spun around and collided with Vilgax, knocking him away before he and his future self fell to the ground.

"What are you doing?" Volt-Edge asked as they landed, "this is my fight!"

"Exactly," Lindwhirl growled, "which means it's my fight too. I'm not gonna let myself die here!" Vilgax finally recovered and the two turned to him, the alien warlord staring at the two clearly confused.

"I don't know what's happening here, but I will enjoy crushing you both!" As he said that, Animac rushed towards them and attempted to crush them under his pincers. But before he could, Lindwhirl grabbed the pincer in his claws whilst Volt-Edge unleashed a blast of lightning at him to little effect.

Vilgax charged and Volt-Edge changed to Riot-Horn, the pair colliding and pushing against one another. Lindwhirl managed to throw the chimera, who cried out as he fell to the ground. He then curled up and started rolling around to pick up speed before turning towards Vilgax.

But before he could get close enough, the back of Vilgax's armor opened up and a black slime hit the ground between them.

Lindwhirl didn't want to risk finding out what that was and leapt into the air, over the pair and into midair. This allowed Animac to swing his tail around. The snake grabbed onto Lindwhirl's tail and tried to poison him, but Lindwhirl's steel hard fur protect him.

It didn't protect him from Animac slamming him into the ground, making him laugh whilst Vilgax started to get the upper hand. He finally managed to pull one of his arms free and used it to grab Riot-Horn and lift him up, Riot-Horn grunted as he tried to struggle free. But Vilgax threw him and he was sent hurtling down the street.

Lindwhirl picked himself up and moaned, only for Animac to step up to him. "I don't know where you come from," he told the hero. "But I look forward to crushing you whilst Vilgax does the same to your look alike." Lindwhirl turned to glare at him, about to curl up and attack. But something hit Animac before he could.

That something was a bunch of cupcakes, which splattered against Animac seconds before they exploded. He screamed at this and was sent staggering backwards, whilst Lindwhirl turned towards where the cupcakes had come from. And standing atop the roof of a building, were nine individuals.

Flurry and Twilight stood in the centre and around them, were the older versions of Trixie and the Rainbooms.

Trixie looked similar to when she had been aged up, though with an extra ten years added on. Her long hair was up in a tresse behind her back, whilst her Luna Cat costume was more regal looking with her poncho being more like a cape.

Applejack was dressed in a business suit, whilst Rainbow was dressed in a white track shirt, black shorts and a blue jacket around her waist. Rarity was dressed in a black top and pants with a purple shawl on top, whilst Fluttershy was wearing a green summer dress. Sunset was wearing a leather blazer with blue jeans, whilst Pinkie was dressed in a pink and blue bakers uniform.

The girls all looked older, some having gray hairs, with Pinkie appearing to have put on a few pounds.

They all smiled as Rarity created a slide of her gems, the girls all sliding down it whilst Flurry used her hoverboard. "What are you guys doing here?" He asked as they reached him, the nine smiling at him.

"Twilight called us," Sunset explained.

"Told us about the past you appearing," Trixie nodded. "She then told us about Vilgax being back and tag-teaming the present you, with the past you going on a suicide run to help him."

"We couldn't just sit around and let you guys get crushed," Rainbow smirked. "Good thing Twilight's transporter works so well."

"We weren't there for you when it mattered," Applejack apologised. "But we're here now and we wanna help in any way we can." They heard Animac growling as he began to pick himself up, whilst Vilgax and Riot-Horn continued to fight down the street.

"So what do you need of us?" Rarity asked, putting up a shield as Animac tried to attack them.

"Can you deal with this freak whilst me and myself take on Vilgax?" Lindwhirl asked, Rarity opening a hole in her shields whilst Pinkie charged up some cupcakes.

"Leave it to us!" She threw the cupcakes through the hole and they exploded against him.

"Go help yourself," Fluttershy assured him. "We'll be fine." Lindwhirl nodded before rolling off, whilst the Rainbooms focused on Animac.

"Just like old times," Sunset smiled at Twilight.

"Yeah," she nodded before handing a blaster to her and Fluttershy. She then turned to Flurry and took something out that confused the girl. A burnt Multi-Striker. "Your dad would have wanted you to have this." Flurry realised what it was and took it, holding it in her hands. The device's frame might have been burnt, but it still worked perfect and she was able to transform it into a blaster.

"Let's do this!" Flurry cried before Rarity dropped her shield, the Rainbooms rushing into action.

Trixie was the first attack, swinging her staff around and creating a bunch of fakes that struck Animac. The chimera swung his appendages around and knocked the fakes away, but some were still able to get some hits in. And as he did, a rainbow blur began running around him and creating a tornado that blocked his vision.

"I still got it!" Rainbow cheered as Animac found himself being lifted up by the gust, Rainbow stopping and causing the wind to vanish.

Animac fell towards the ground, where Applejack ran up to as she took off her blazer. Before he could react, she punched him in the bottom of his scorpion body and sent him flying. As he did, Flurry, Sunset and Fluttershy blasted him with their lasers whilst Rarity put up a shield.

Animac slammed into it and bounced back towards the ground, as Twilight levitated a bunch of rubble off the ground and threw it at him. The rocks slammed into him and he was sent staggering back, as Pinkie threw more cupcakes at him.

As they exploded, Rainbow ran up to her and frowned seeing her. "Pinkie, I love yah but we're gonna need to work on a diet plan for you." Pinkie shrugged, as Animac pushed himself back up and let out a roar as the girls all prepared to fight back.

Riot-Horn and Vilgax continued to struggle against against one another, Riot-Horn throwing punches at him that Vilgax easily avoided.

He grabbed Riot-Horn by the horn and slammed his head into the ground, only for Riot-Horn to quickly transform. The next thing Vilgax knew, Squidstrictor was wrapping him up in his tentacles. The two struggled against one another, Vilgax staggering around whilst Squidstrictor tried to get his tentacles around his next.

But before he could, Vilgax's entire body let out a surge of electrical energy that zapped Squidstrictor and made him scream as he loosened his grip. This allowed Vilgax to reach back and grab Squidstrictor before pulling him off his body and throwing him to the ground.

As the alien hero recovered, Vilgax heard a sound and looked back to see Lindwhirl rolling towards him at high speed.

But Vilgax simply held out a hand and the alien wheel slammed into it, doing no damage as he spun to a stop. Vilgax then grabbed him by the tail before swinging him up and down into the ground, then threw him at Squidstrictor.

"AUGH!" They both cried as they were knocked away, rolling along the ground before stopping with Lindwhirl on top of Squidstrictor. The alien squid saw the other squid charging and quickly turned into Kagenobi, the alien ninja looking taller with the Omnitrix symbol now on the end of his scarf.

Vilgax's claws dug into the ground as he ran, ripping up the pavement and he threw them towards the pair.

Kagenobi summoned a shadow sword and used it to cut away the rock, then tried to stab Vilgax in his unarmored spots. But Vilgax was able to defend with his armored hands, whilst Lindwhirl pushed himself up and hit the Omnitrix to transform.

"Volt-Edge!" He cried as he charged up power and let it rip, Kagenobi leaping back as the lightning struck Vilgax. But the alien had no reaction to the attack hitting him.

Vilgax then launched one of his cabled hands at Volt-Edge and caught him by the horn, Kagenobi trying to save him only to get caught as well. The alien ninja tried to turn into a shadow, but the claws unleashed an energy that made him cry out and stay solid.

Vilgax began to swing the pair around, slamming them into walls and the ground several times before spinning them around and finally letting them go flying. Both aliens screamed as they flew through the air and couldn't concentrate enough to transform into something else.

Eventually, gravity pulled them down and they both found themselves crashing into a through a bridge on the cities walkway before hitting the ground beneath.

Animac picked up a chunk of rock and tossed it at the girls, only for Applejack to throw a nearby trash can lid that hit the rock hard enough to shatter it.

Rainbow rushed forward at high speed, pulling the end of a rope Twilight had given her. She sped up and as Rarity used her shields to push Animac's pincers up out of her way, Rainbow ran between his legs and pulled the rope with her. Reaching the other side, she quickly looped the rope around Animac's tail.

The mad scientist felt this and looked around, but Trixie made the rope completely invisible to him, as Applejack rushed over to grab the other end of the rope and pulled with all her might.

"RAAAAH!" Animac felt his tail be pulled under him before he was dragged around with it, causing him to crash onto his back and have his scorpion legs flailing around out of control. "You accursed females!" The girls all laughed, until he rolled back onto his legs and his snake tail started spitting acid in every direction.

They all gasped and Rarity did he best to shield them, but parts of the street started getting eaten away. "We need to end this," Twilight told them. "Now!" The others nodded and Pinkie took out several boxes of sprinkles and threw them at Animac.

The sprinkles scattered around him and exploded, creating a large cloud of multiple coloured smoke that blinded him. "What's going on!?" He cried, as he tried to escape the cloud. But he found himself running into a large wall of gems and staggering back, as the smoke cloud vanished and revealed the alien warlord Animac had revived. "Vilgax?"

Suddenly, the alien leapt up and slashed at him down the chest. Animac roared as the Vilgax vanished, Trixie smirking from where she had cast her solid illusion. And as he clutched his chest in pain, Applejack and Rainbow rushed forward.

Applejack was closer but with Rainbow's speed, the two reached him at the same time and both dealt a super strong punch to the front of his scorpion body.

This knocked him off balance and allowed Sunset and Fluttershy to fire at him as the smoke cleared, aiming for the point around his head and cutting through several of his cables. "AUGH! NO!"

Flurry flew down towards him on her hoverboard and changed her father's weapon into a sword, Animac looking up and seeing this coming. But before he could attack, Twilight grabbed his legs in her magic and pulled them out from under him. This caused him to fall on his scorpion stomach whilst Rarity trapped his cobra head in her gems.

Flurry built up speed and Animac tried to grab her in his pincers, but she leapt off her board and did several acrobatic flips towards him. Animac then tried to claw at her with his bear claws, but Twilight and Trixie grabbed those in their magic and belt to stop them.

"DO IT!" Twilight yelled to her niece, who spun around and slashed at his head with her sword.

In the blink of an eye, she was behind the chimera and landed behind him as his head jar broke off. Animac screamed as he was disconnected from his body and fell towards the ground, his body going limp and falling as well. He cried out as the jar bounced around, eventually rolling towards Flurry with the girl stopping it under her foot.

"Let me go!" He cried, trying to use some of her jar's defences. But Flurry had damaged the controls.

Flurry smiled as the others moved towards her, all looking happy. "Your dad would be proud," Twilight told her. Flurry smiled at this, then grew worried that the two Flash's might be in trouble. All she could do was hope they were both okay.

Volt-Edge and Kagenobi pushed themselves up, both moaning from the beating they had received.

They sat themselves up and knew Vilgax wouldn't be long, the older hero turning to his younger self. "It's no good. He's too strong. You need to get out of here. Go get Twilight and tell her to send you back."

"I'm not leaving," Volt-Edge told him. "I'm not running from Vilgax. We can beat him."

"How? He knows how each of our aliens fight and he's been built specifically to stop them. How are we supposed to beat him when he knows everything we're gonna do."

"Maybe you've just become too predictable," Volt-Edge stated. Kagenobi looked at him, frowning. "You've spent the last twenty years mastering your alien forms, but that made you forget the greatest factor that Shining taught us about being a hero. It's not the power that makes you strong, it's the human heart and soul that use them. Stop trying to be the aliens and be a human with alien abilities."

Kagenobi let these words sink in, but didn't have much time to process it as something came crashing down in front of them.

The dust cleared and Vilgax stepped forward, Volt-Edge getting ready for a fight. But before he could attack, a green Flash made them both look towards his older self. And when the light faded, Volt-Edge was shocked by what he saw.

"You're right. Shining wouldn't want me to just remember how he died." Flash Sentry was a tall muscular man, looking like a bulked up version of his father from Flash's time. He had a short beard and what appeared to be a warrior's wolftail off the back of his head. He was dressed in a black shirt with the Omnitrix pattern on his chest and his emblem on his back, with blue pants and black knee high boots. The Omnitrix on his arm was different too, covering everything between his wrist to his elbow.

Vilgax growled, "your pathetic human form. How disappointing. If you're going to surrender, do it in a more dignified form."

"Surrender?" Flash asked, as he stepped up to Volt-Edge. "Don't make me laugh. Now that we're warmed up, the fun can really begin." With that, he rushed forward and Volt-Edge charged up.

Vilgax growled as he tried to punch Flash, but the man sidestepped the attack before leaping up and doing several flips over him. At the same time, Volt-Edge blasted him with lightning. Whatever Vilgax's armor was made out of might have protected him from the shock, but it was still susceptible to being lifted by the lightning.

Flash landed behind the now floating Vilgax, as Volt-Edge sent him flying. He then noticed a young alien cowering with a hoverboard in his grasp. "Mind if I borrow that?" The kid smiled and threw the board, Flash grabbing it to take to the air.

Vilgax picked himself up, as the human started flying around him on the board. To say it was annoying him was an understatement, distracting him long enough for Volt-Edge to charge forward as he quickly hit the Omnitrix. "Diamondhead!" The crystal alien morphed his fist into a mace and punched him head on, knocking Vilgax staggering.

As he did, Flash flew above him and noticed the glass containers on his back. He had no idea what they were, but he had a feeling they were important. So when Vilgax wasn't looking, he motioned to Diamondhead to draw his attention to them.

Diamondhead saw them and realised what he was thinking, nodding as he avoided another punch from Vilgax. He quickly jumped over him and fired several shards at the containers, which bounced off it without leaving a scratch. Whatever they were, they weren't going to break easily.

"Heat him up!" His older self yelled, the crystal alien nodding as he hit the Omnitrix and transformed.

"Dragoon!" He dodged Vilgax's attack and flew behind him, launching fire at the glass cases. Vilgax then spun around and slashed at him, whilst Flash leapt down and transformed into the water alien from before.

He quickly fired a blast of water and hit the super hot glass, causing it to steam up as it cooled down. This got Vilgax's attention and he turned to attack him, the alien leaping into the air as Dragoon launched another flamethrower at the containers to heat them back up. This once again caught Vilgax's ire as he turned to Dragoon, allowing the water alien to hit him with another blast of water.

This continued, with the pair heating and cooling the glass containers much to Vilgax's annoyance. And eventually, the glass couldn't take anymore and started to crack.

Dragoon narrowly dodged Vilgax's claws and as he did, the water alien brought both arms together and fired a super strong stream right at Vilgax. This sent him flying backwards until he crashed into a wall, the weakened glass shattering to pieces and releasing the black ooze.

"NOOOOOOOOOO!" Vilgax roar, as his body started to shut down.

"What is that stuff?" Dragoon asked, as the alien hummed.

"No idea. But it's clearly important to his survival."

Dragoon nodded, as he turned to look at the alien in front of him. "Pretty cool. So, what do you call this guy?" The alien turned to him and frowned.

"I don't name...I mean...I don't know. Water Hazard?"

"Not bad, but doesn't seem to fit this alien." Dragoon thought and smirked. "How about...Overflow." The alien smirked beneath his rebreather.

"Nice," he nodded as a plumber tank flew overhead. As it did, several agents flew down and pointed their blasters at Vilgax. One of the ones who had let Animac go rushed over.

"Sir!" He held out a capture cube and Overflow returned to human.

"Thanks," he nodded before taking it and turning to Vilgax. The agent seemed surprised by this. "Feel free to try and break out of this. But if you do, I doubt you'll survive." Vilgax growled as he threw it.

"Sentry," the cube expanded, "you will pay for this."

"Maybe," Flash nodded, "but not today thank you." The cube completely consumed Vilgax before shrinking back down. Flash stepped over to it and smiled as he picked it up, then tossed it at the agent. "Here. Make sure this is put where it belongs."

Again, the agent was amazed. "Are you sure? Even after the mess we made before?"

Flash smirked, "everybody makes mistakes. I know I have. It's how we learn from those mistakes that define us." He looked to his younger self and smiled, young Flash nodding with a smirk as Trixie, Flurry and the Rainbooms arrived and saw what was going on.

"Say cheese," Flash told them as he took the selfie with Flurry, Trixie, his older self and the Rainbooms.

They were all at Twilight's lab, celebrating their victory over Vilgax and Animac. Once Flash finished the photo, he turned to the others as they all smiled. Even his older self was smiling, as he looked around. "This is nice. I hadn't realised how much I've missed this." The others smiled, "I'm sorry guys. I know this isn't what Shining would have wanted."

"We're sorry too," Rarity told him. "We shouldn't have let things get this way. Maybe if we hadn't, things would have been different." The others nodded as Twilight made the finishing touches to the belt.

"It's ready," she told them. "Just need to calibrate it and everything will be set." They nodded and Flash turned to his older self.

"So...this is the future I have to look forward to?"

"Perhaps," he nodded. "Or perhaps not." Flash looked confused, as his older self activated the Omnitrix and started fiddling with it.

"What are you doing?"

"Giving you the chance to choose your own future." The Omnitrix beeped. "I'm going to unlock an alien that'll let you save those people and Shining. And I'm gonna lock the next transformation, so that you can only pick it or the alien I originally became. When you get there, you're gonna have a choice of what future you want. One where you know the world is safe, or an uncertain future you'll have to make yourself." Flash could hardly believe this. "Plus, I'm unlocking a few other aliens that'll come in handy soon."

"But why?"

"Because this future might be a good one, but I know it can be better. You can make it a better one, because you can be better then I ever was." Flash smiled, feeling great pride at that statement.

Twilight activated the belt and in doing so, a beam flew out and opened up a portal. "It's ready!" Twilight cried, "come on Flash!" He nodded and headed towards the portal, turning to Flurry as he past.

"Thanks for bringing me here."

"It was an accident," Flurry reminded him. "But I'm glad it happened." Flash smiled and made his way towards the portal, stopping before he stepped into it.

"Any last piece of advice for your past self?" He asked the other Flash, who thought for a moment before nodding.

"When you face Zs'Skayr, remember that the sun is your greatest ally." Flash wasn't sure what that meant, but shrugged and stepped through the portal.

Everything was blinding, as he travelled through time and found himself being thrown out of the other side. "WOW!" He cried, crashing into the ground as the portal closed behind him. He moaned as he picked himself up and realised he was back in his time, "it worked!" But as he said that, he realised what was soon to happen and what would occur afterwards.

It was then that he noticed the smoke and realised he had somewhere he needed to be.

Jumping on his board, he flew towards the building and found it was aflame just like his future self had said. People were outside and spotted him in the air. "Flash Sentry!" One of them cried, as he flew down and jumped off his board. "Please! My family's in there."

Flash nodded and activated the Omnitrix. When he did, he found that only two aliens were coming up. One was XLR8 and the other, he realised, was the one his future self had unlocked. Now was the time.

Did he chose to let history play out the same way, or change things and hope for the better. He thought about the future and despite how amazing it felt, it wasn't the future he wanted him and his friends to live in. "I decide my own future," he told himself before spinning the dial to the other alien and slamming it down.

The people were all blinded for a moment, as Flash transformed. And when the light faded, it revealed a white rabbit alien covered in rainbow coloured crystals. "Wow," one of them stated, "I don't think I know this one. What do you call it?"

The alien looked himself over before smiling, "Gemini!" With that, six lights exploded out of the crystals and split apart. One by one, six perfect copies of the original alien appeared alongside him, with the only difference being the colour of the gems on their bodies. "Let's go, guys!"

"YEAH!" They all cheered before rushing into the building. As they did, each of them unleashed a differently coloured light from the gems on their bodies and formed a barrier around them. All except the pink Gemini rushed up the building, whilst pink headed for the basement. And after kicking his way through the door, he found the gas tank which had yet to be set ablaze.

He jumped over to it and landed on top, the force field around him expanding to cover the entire tank. "That should keep you from going boom."

Back upstairs, the other Gemini all split up and started grabbing people.

"Hold on!" Gemini Blue cried as he creating an light bubble around a man trapped under some rubble. The bubble caused the debris to fall away from him, allowing Gemini to help him towards the exit.

At the same time, Gemini Orange and Yellow pulled away a stuck door and revealed a small family. "Come on," Orange rushed over and placed a shield around them. "This'll keep us safe." Yellow kept going, helping Green and Violet with their casualties.

Meanwhile, the original Gemini was making his way up to the top floor. He remembered his future self's story and if it was true, there were people on the top with one being a person Flash had failed to save originally. "Not this time!" He used his incredible jumping skills to leap up the damaged stairs, until he reached the top floor.

He kicked the door down and saw a woman with her two daughters, the woman seeing him and gasping. "Who are you?"

"Relax!" He pointed at the Omnitrix, "I'm Flash Sentry. I'm here to save you!" He rushed over and put a shield around them all, "let's get out of here!" She nodded and they began to make their way through the burning building, the fire not even making them sweat as they carefully managed their way through the building.

They eventually caught up with the rest of the Gemini, as they helped others as well.

They might not have been able to move as fast as XLR8. But with how many of them there were, they were able to get more people out in half the time it took XLR8. As such, when Shining Armor pulled up to the building, he was shocked to see the six aliens stepping out with everyone who had been in the building.

He quickly got out and activated his suit, pulling out his Multi-Striker and preparing to fight if need be. But then he saw the Omnitrix on the alien's chest. "Flash?" The six all turned to him, five converting into light which returned to the original.

"SHINING!" Gemini rushed over and leapt at him, Shining surprised to find the new creature hugging him. "I saved them all. Every last one of them."

"Um...that's great," Shining patted him on the back. "Are you okay?" Gemini jumped off of him, as he turned to the building.

He spotted the people still around the burning building and frowned. "Everyone!" He rushed over to them. "There's a gas tank in the basement. One of my copies is protecting it, but I can't keep that up forever. Everyone move away in case in blows." They didn't need to be told twice and began to leave, as Shining stepped up to him.

"Did you just unlock this alien?" Shining asked, "don't you think it was a little dangerous to go into a burning building with an alien you had no idea how to use?"

Gemini smirked at him, "I knew how this alien worked. I got a live demonstration of it from an expert." Shining looked confused, as a pink light cloud flew out of the building and joined with the rest of his coloured lights inside his crystals. "We should probably move before the thing blows."

"How do you know it's gonna blow?" Shining asked, only for the entire building to suddenly explode just like Gemini said. Luckily, Gemini put a large rainbow coloured shield around the building before it did. The explosion was quickly contained and none of the surrounding buildings were damaged by debris, so the apartment building was able to fall without any risk to human life.

Shining could only stare in awe, amazed that Flash was able to pull it off.

When the building finished toppling and the fire had nothing left to burn, Gemini dropped the shield as the Omnitrix beeped. He returned to human form and turned towards Shining, who was still in absolutely surprise at him. And when he saw a look in Flash's eyes, he knew there was more to this then he knew. "Flash...what happened?"

Flash smiled, "it's a long story."

Later that day, Flash, Shining, Trixie, Cadance and the Rainbooms were at Shining's place.

Flurry was bouncing in her mother's lap, as Flash told them about his trip through time. "No way!" Rainbow cried, as they looked through the photos Flash had taken. "You actually got to see the future? That's so cool."

"Except it's not the future anymore," Flash explained. "When I saved Shining, I altered how things are gonna play out. The future's probably gonna be very different from this point on."

"Good," Sunset stated. "Didn't sound like it was a future I wanted. Especially if it meant my friends and I were no longer friends like you said."

"Yeah," Pinkie frowned seeing her older self's rotond appearance. "Definitely glad that future's gone." Rainbow saw this and smirked.

"Hey," she pointed at the picture, "that could still be in your future if you don't watch the sweet stuff." Pinkie puffed up her cheeks, annoyed at having to pick between being slim and having tasty treats.

Flash smirked at this and looked down at the Omnitrix, cycling through his aliens until he came to the ones his future self had unlocked. Aside from Gemini, he had five other aliens that were supposed to be useful in the days to come. He wondered about their abilities and whether they were meant to help with the one named Zs'Skayr.

"I'll diet when I'm older!" Pinkie cried. "Right now, we gotta celebrate Flash saving Shining and changing our futures. Hopefully for the better." The others cheered in agreement, all getting up to celebrate.

This included Flash, only for the teen to find Cadance standing in front of him with Flurry in her arms. "What's up?" He asked, only for Cadance to grab Flash and pull him into a tight hug. "Wow!" He cried, amazed by this. "Wh-what?" Flash says in shock before he managed to process what just happened.

"Thank you," Cadance whispered to him through tears of happiness. "Thank you so much Flash. You saved my husband's life, you saved our entire family from needing to deal with that kind of loss forever." She pulled away from him before gently kissing him on the cheek. "You will always be considered part of our family for this. You're our hero."

Flash blushed slightly at this praise. "Hey, thanks, it was no problem. I just knew that I couldn't let him die when I could do something about it."

The two suddenly heard a happy giggle, and looked down in Cadance's arms to see Flurry Heart with a bright smile and reaching her tiny arms out towards Flash.

"Uh, Cadance," Flash began. "Do you mind if…" But Flash didn't even get a chance to finish before Cadance held her baby daughter out to him, allowing him to take her.

"Not at all Flash. I think Flurry wants to show her appreciation too."

"Thanks Cadance," Flash smiled as he held Flurry up to him, who continued to squeal happily in his grasp.

Flash just smiled happily at Flurry, and for a moment, an image flashed in his mind of the Flurry Heart from twenty years in the future. Flash recalled how she was the one who brought him to her time, and was essentially the reason he was given the opportunity to save Shining Armor's life. Flash pulled the baby Flurry Heart into a gentle hug.

"Thank you, Flurry," Flash said softly to the infant. "This was all because of you. I don't know what the future has in store, but I'm excited to watch you grow up into the amazing woman I know you'll be."

Flurry Heart didn't really understand what Flash was saying or what he meant, but she did know that for some reason he was proud of her. And knowing that one of her favourite people ever, thought good about her made her happy. She giggled with delight and wrapped her tiny arms around Flash, giving him as big of a hug as she could manage.

Despite the celebration, Flash was nervous about what exactly awaited in his uncertain future now, especially the departing words of his future counterpart, wondering who or what Zs'Skayr was. But for now, all that mattered was the little bundle of joy he held in his arms.

Author's Note

Flash changed the future and got some new aliens to boot. I wonder which aliens those are? Only time will tell. Hope you liked the chapter and how Flash was able to change everything. Until next time.

Also. Some of you might be wondering about one of the aliens Future Flash became during the opening fight. Thinking it seemed familiar but different. Well that's because it was the 5YL version of Gutrot, which I think looks way cooler than the canon appearance. I'm not gonna have an image made up of it, since that might get us in trouble. Just look up the 5YL image and image the green parts of the suit are black or white.

Season 4, Episode 3: Get in the Zone Spider

It was another busy day in Canterlot and on one of the main streets, a store's alarm suddenly went off as a pair of men ran out of it carrying bags.

They rushed towards a car and got inside, driving off as the store owner ran out screaming. The men cheered as they made a get away, turning into another street thinking they were home free. Alas, another car flew onto the road next to them and they looked through its windows to see Flash Sentry.

"Hey there," he told them through an open window. "Do me a favour and pull in here." The crooks growled and accelerated forwards, Flash sighing. "Of course." He turned to Sunset, she and Twilight being in the car with him. "You mind taking the wheel?"

"Sure," Sunset nodded. Twilight used her magic to take hold of the wheel, allowing Flash to jump out and onto the roof, as Sunset slid into the driver's seat. "Just hurry up. We don't wanna be late."

"Would you relax," Flash activated the Omnitrix. . "I finally get to use one of my new aliens." He found the one he wanted and smashed the dial down, a flash of green covering him before fading to reveal the long-tailed cat alien he had seen his future self use. "Cat-Apult!"

As they flew down the street, they passed by a trash can and Cat-Apult pointed his tail at it.

The tail created a sucking motion a pulled some stuff inside, the alien quickly pointing it at the car in front and waited. He had to do this when there was nobody that could get hurt and no cars to run into. Luckily, they turned a corner and found themselves on an empty street.

"FIRE!" The trash was launched out of his tail at super high speed, hitting the back tire of the car so fast the whole thing burst.

This caused the car to lose control and eventually skid around until the driver pulled it to a stop, allowing their opponents to catch up. The crooks then tried to make a break for it, but Cat-Apult leapt into the air and did several flips before landing in front of them.

"Hi," he smirked as one of them tried to punch him. But with his cat-like reflexes, Cat-Apult dodged the punch and dealt a kick to his chest. He then ducked under another punch and spun around to kick his assailant away, whilst the first crook tried to grab him from behind. But Cat-Apult thrust the end of his tail into him and fired a blast of air into his chest, knocking him backwards.

Both crooks were quickly taken down, Cat-Apult tying them both to a nearby lamppost before leaving a note for the police. He then returned to his car, the girls smiling at him and his impressive skill with his new alien.

It had been two weeks since Flash's trip to the future and since then, he had been working hard to master his new aliens and improve the abilities of his other ones. He was aiming to become just as good as his future self was, just without being angry and friendless.

Once he was back in his human form and in the car, Sunset drove them to their destination. A large building surrounded by many other buildings and warehouses. This was a high tech company that focused on top of the line vehicles and devices, just like Tirek's company.

Ever since Tirek was arrested, his company had lost a lot of its popularity. So much so, that the thing would have gone under if it hadn't been bought out by another company. Said company had been the second best tech firm in the city, but had now risen to the top.

"It was nice of them to invite our class to come visit," Twilight looked excited for what was waiting for them.

"Well they do owe Flash for their current rise in profits," Sunset laughed. "If he hadn't taken down Tirek, they never would have been able to buy out his company." They arrived at the front gate and the guard checked the IDs each of them had been given for the field trip, allowing them access.

They drove in and when they did, they spotted a bunch more cars belonging to other members of their class along with a bus that had brought those without rides from school. They drove up and parked next to Applejack and Fluttershy's cars, where they friends were waiting.

Trixie and Rainbow were sitting on the ground, playing cards as they waited for the field trip to begin. Applejack was listening to music alongside Rarity, whilst Fluttershy was talking to a bird. Pinkie was on her phone, smiling as she saw them.

"Hey guys," she showed them something on her phone. "Your new alien made the headlines already." Flash was surprised by this and saw a picture of Cat-Apult riding his car, the image looking pretty badass. "Good thing you guys weren't late."

"Yeah," Twilight nodded, "I can't wait to see what's in there. Imagine all the amazing new technology they have hiding in this place."

Sunset chuckled, "even though everything in the Plumber Base is more advanced." As she said that, Celestia and Luna stepped off the bus and started doing a roll call. Once they had every name that was meant to be there checked off, they nodded.

"Excellent," Celestia smiled, "we're all here. Now, I'm sure I don't have to remind anyone that we're guests at this facility. We were invited here and any wrong behaviour, will reflect poorly on our school. So I want everyone to follow the rules and behave. Understand?" Everyone nodded as they began to head towards the building, using a buddy system to make sure nobody was left behind.

Twilight was with Sunset, whilst Fluttershy was with Rainbow, Applejack was with Rarity and Trixie was with Pinkie. Flash was partnered up with a teen named Bright Idea, who looked just as excited as Twilight, as they made their way towards the building.

And as they reached the entrance and were allowed inside, they were completely unaware that someone else was attempting to gain entrance into the building. This person was sneaking across the parking lot and arrived at the side of the main building, where nobody was currently looking.

They were dressed in a worker's jacket, allowing them to blend into the surroundings. They also had a black cap on, which they were using to hide their face. But it did little to hide the flowering dark blue hair that was running down their back.

When they reached the second of the building's exterior, they looked around before reaching into their pocket. In doing so, a bright flash of light consumed them before it and the person completely vanished.

"Welcome," a man smiled he stepped forward to greet the visitors. "My name is Crescent Rose." He was a red skinned man with black hair that had red streaks, wearing a black suit with a red tie. "I am so happy to have you come and see the many wonders this company has to offer the world."

"Thank you for inviting us," Celestia told him. "And rest assured, our students will all be on their best behaviour." Luna nodded in agreement, Crescent smiling.

"Glad to hear it," he nodded before turning to lead them through the building. "Since our founding in the nineteen fifties, we've worked tirelessly to revolutionise modern man's life and make it more convenient." They entered through a door and everyone found themselves in a long hallway, with glass on the walls that allowed them to see inside.

A bunch of square rooms could be seen on either side of them, with scientists in each one working on something.

One was placing a jacket made of black material on a mannequin before pulling out a flamethrower and burning in it, the mannequin catching fire. But when the flames receded, the jacket was shown to be pretty much unscathed.

In another room, they found some scientists working on some kind of liquid. When it was done, they took some in a dropper and held it over the head of a lizard and popped a drop on it. Moments later, the lizard's head was covering in a mass of wavy hair. They then tried it on a bald scientist and instead of hair, his head caught on fire. Luckily, the was a fire extinguisher at the ready.

In another room, a man was atop a boomerang-shaped machine that lifted off and hovered around the room. In the room after that, scientists were all around an oven-like device that they opened up. When the steam faded, it revealed a tomato the size of a basketball. But when the scientists tried to cut into it, the tomato opened it mouth and took a bite out of the knife.

There were so many strange and unbelievable creations on show, the teens marvelling at them all.

Flash smirked, as he remembered his trip to the future and how futuristic it had seemed. He had assumed it had been because of the aliens bringing their technology to earth. But seeing this, he knew the world was on the edge of its own technological revolution.

They continued to be shown the many different devices being made by the company, whilst also being told about some of the ground breaking marvels they had made in the past. Twilight and the rest of the nerdy teenagers were all in heaven at the sight of the place, whilst the others were impressed by the more cooler looking creations.

The teens were all having the times of their lives, each one seeing something they wished they could have to make their own lives better.

They soon moved into an area focusing on different types of vehicles. This was where most of the guys felt like they could live, seeing the many types of cool cars. There were cars that were being built to go over six hundred miles an hour, though of course they would never get to go that fast on a public road, along with ones that were meant to be more environmentally friendly.

Flash was curious if they had any prototype hover cars, given how everyone had them in the future. But it seemed all of these cars were built for life on the land and nowhere else.

"We're now entering an area of the building that you'll probably find a little boring," Crescent explained. "But it's actually the most important area of our entire facility." This made the students all curious, as Crescent opened one of the rooms to show a bunch of computers and whiteboards covered in math. "The design room."

"Huh?" Rainbow asked.

"This is where each of those creations you saw earlier came into being. The scientists work here to come up with an idea, work out the math needed to make it a reality and use the computers to build digital models of the inventions. Only when all these things are done, came we create the next level of science and technology."

"Amazing," Twilight whispered. She wanted to take a closer look at the math, but Crescent slammed the door shut.

"Of course, this area is strictly off limits to those not working with our company. Can't have secrets getting out." They frowned, but understood. "Any and all designs and the math needed to make them a reality are all safely stored in the company's servers, which are completely off the grid to prevent hackers. The only way to get our company secrets is to actually get in here and through our security to access them directly."

They all nodded as Crescent lead them to another part of the building.

But then, Trixie suddenly sensed something and looked around. Pinkie noticed her stopping and looked at her, confused. "What's up?" Trixie didn't answer, instead looking down a hallway as she felt something calling to her. Something she couldn't refuse. "Hey!" Pinkie cried as Trixie rushed down the hall, the girl looking between her and the group that was now wandering further away.

After a few moments, she decided to stick with her buddy and chased after Trixie.

"Where are we going?" She asked as they made their way through the halls.

"I'm not sure," Trixie replied. "But I can sense something. Something's calling to me." She frowned, knowing there could only be on thing that could call to her like that. "I think there's a Medallion nearby." Pinkie gasped as they were about to turn a corner, only to hear footsteps.

Trixie pushed Pinkie against the wall and as she did, she took out her Luna Cat mask.

But instead of putting it on, she held it and focused. She had been training herself to use her Medallion better and could now create a small illusion without transforming. As such, she made herself and Pinkie turn invisible. This meant when a pair of workers turned the corner, they missed them and walked straight by.

Keeping the illusion up, Trixie pulled Pinkie along until they reached an area of the building that had many strange doors. They wondered why Trixie would be pulled to this location, but she got her answer when she felt another pull.

Looking around, she saw a woman come around the corner and look suspicious.

She seemed paranoid, as she made her way towards one of the doors. Looking around one final time, unable to see the pair as they stood invisible, she reached into her pocket again. And before either of them could wonder what was going on, she was suddenly surrounded by light and disappeared.

"What the?" Pinkie cried, as she and Trixie moved closer. "What just happened? Where'd she go?" Trixie was also wondering this, but had a small guess given what she had sensed.

Suddenly, a loud alarm filled the air and the girl gasped. They looked around, wondering what the heck had just happened. And before they could ask, a flash of light made them look over and see the woman reappear where she had been previously standing.

She quickly rushed off, Trixie only able to get a glimpse of black skin and long blue hair as she ran off. "Where's she going?"

Trixie wanted to follow, but knew this alarm would send everyone into a panic. "We need to get back to the others before they realise we're gone!" She rushed back the way they came and pulled Pinkie behind her, the two running as fast as they could.

Pinkie eventually took the lead, using her own sense of direction to lead them to a location they hadn't been before. But it was there that they found the others as they stood together.

"Alright!" Their tour guide hung up his cell phone, "listen up. There's been a security breach!" This statement shocked everyone, as Trixie and Pinkie joined the back of the group. "For security reasons, everyone here is gonna have to be searched."

"What exactly happened?" Luna asked, the others curious.

"Someone tripped an alarm in one of our server rooms. All the data on them was downloaded and deleted." Then Crescent turned to Flash, giving him a quizzical look.

The teen looked round and realised he was being stared at. "HEY!" He cried, "it wasn't me. Why are you being suspicious of me?"

"The servers that were hacked into, were behind some very high tech doors No normal person would have been able to get through them. However, someone who could transform into aliens..." Flash huffed, having thought the days of being suspected of criminal acts were over.

"Don't be silly," Twilight told him. "Flash has been here this whole time. Even if he did have an alien that could do that, he doesn't have one that can do it and duplicate himself in human form." The others students nodded, believing Flash was innocent.

The tour guide seemed to accept this, but still wanted them all searched just to be sure. Nobody refused and soon enough, they were all getting patted down and metal detectors scanning them. Soon enough, they were all cleared and asked to leave. With such a large act of espionage, they understood it was best they didn't stick around.

However, as they left the building, Trixie grabbed Flash and the rest of the Rainbooms. "Pinkie and I know what happened." They all looked shocked at this, as Trixie began to explain what had happened.

In another building across town, a person had just walked in.

It was the woman from before, only she looked very different now. Instead of being dressed in a jacket and cap, she was wearing a black and green business suit and glasses over her eyes.

She walked through the lobby of the building, her heels clicking with every step she took. The lobby didn't look very busy, with only a single receptionist and janitor. "Ms Chrysalis," the receptionist nodded. "Did your meeting go well?"

"Oh yes," the woman nodded. "In fact, I think things are going to be on the up for our company very soon." The receptionist smiled as the woman stepped into an elevator and rode it up to the top of the building, where her office awaited.

Once inside her office, she stepped over to a computer and took out a flash drive.

Placing it into the computer, she smiled seeing a bunch of files appear on the screen. Schematics, diagrams and everything else she would need to make technology that would save her company. "And it's all thanks to you." She took out a red coin with the black spider on it, that was in front of a web that covered the entire thing.

As soon as they were at the still being rebuilt Plumber Base, they explained to Shining what was going on.

"You think someone used a Medallion to steal a company's secrets?" He seemed worried, clearly not happy that someone was using a magical object to do such a thing. "You realise proving that might be difficult."

"Yeah," Flash nodded, "but Trixie sensed the Medallion and she saw the person vanish and reappear right in front of her and Pinkie's eyes."

Shining nodded. "If this person is responsible, count me in with finding and stopping them. If they were able to steal something so securely guarded, who knows what else they might go on to steal."

"How did they steal the info?" Twilight asked. "What exactly did this person do to get into such a highly secure room."

"Teleport." They all looked around around to see Trixie walking towards them with her Medallion Book in hand. She frowned as she read what was written there. "I'm sure of it. Out of all the Medallions left unfound, only one of them has the kind of ability that would let someone disappear and get into another room."

"There's a Medallion that can teleport?" Rainbow asked, Trixie nodding as she showed them the image on the book of a red Medallion with a black spider.

"This is the Zone Spider. It grants the user the ability to teleport."

"That would explain how they managed to get through the door," Flash nodded as he read the inscription. "When used, the Medallion creates a web-shaped pattern of light around them. Anything inside this pattern can be warped to another section of the pattern through the user's choice."

"That's right," Trixie nodded as she kept reading. "The Medallion's power isn't limitless. The larger the warp web, the further they can warp. In theory, they could teleport from one side of the city to the other. But making it larger uses up a lot of energy and if someone does that, they could fall unconscious when they reappear."

"But getting from one side of a door to another is easy enough," Sunset caught on. "Makes sense. That's a crazy power to have."

"And who knows what they'll use it for," Rarity looked worried. "Today it's stealing company secrets. Tomorrow, they could rob a bank or kidnap somebody important." They all frowned, knowing that was a possibility. They needed to find out who this thief was, to stop their criminal reign and get the Medallion away from them.

"Alright," Shining typed on the computer, "let's get to work. Flash, you're with me. The rest of you stay here."

"Why?" Trixie asked, "I'm the one who needs to get the Medallion back."

"Yes, but this is an official criminal investigation. The police won't let a bunch of high-schoolers into the crime scene, but they will let two deputised Plumbers do their thing." The girls frowned, hating that he was right. "You girls stay here and be ready. If Flash and I find who the thief is, you'll be ready to head out." Before the girls could reply, Shining hit a button and disappeared along with Flash.

The girls sighed and sat down, waiting to hear back from the hardy boys.

Flash and Shining appeared outside the building and stepped up to the gate, the guard telling them to halt.

"Plumbers," Shining showed him his badge, "we're here to help with the investigation." Flash showed off the Omnitrix and the guard got on the phone, calling his superiors to ask what to do. A minute later, they were allowed in.

Several police officers were already there and when they saw the pair, they smirked.

"Shining Armor!" The chief of Shining's old precinct stepped up to him. "I thought we might be seeing you soon enough. This robbery has alien written all over it." He looked at Flash, "witnesses say you were at the scene of the crime."

"I was in the building," Flash pointed out. "But nowhere near the area that the break in occurred."

"Oh, we know that." The chief nodded. "Just surprised you let them get away. Usually, you fix the problem before we need to be called in. You've sure made our job a lot easier."

"Well by the time the alarm went off, they were already long gone." Flash scratched the back of his head, "but Shining and I are ready to track them down."

"He's right," Shining nodded. "If we're right, this person used alien technology. That puts her under our jurisdiction. We're gonna survey the room and see if there was any sign they left behind that standard gear wouldn't detect." The cops all nodded and handed the pair some rubber gloves, Flash taking a pair whilst Shining put his suit on.

"So the Medallions are alien technology now?" Flash asked as they stepped inside.

"It's from another universe, so it's technically alien." They headed for the server room and when they arrived, Shining switched his helmet to search for anything that could lead them to the individual. "Maybe you should transform into an alien that can help us track them down. Vapaw or Diamutt?"

"I don't think that'd work," Flash told him. "There'd be so many new smell in here, I wouldn't have any idea which one belonged to our thief."

"Fair," Shining nodded before his scan picked something up. "Ha! Got something!" Flash followed him as he stepped over to a computer connected to the servers. "This keypad is covered in fingerprints from multiple people using it. But nobody's touched it since the robbery."

"So?"

"So, my visor can pick up a trace of DNA that's less than a few hours old. And if this place isn't usually used, that DNA must belong to our thief." His suit picked up the DNA, as he sent a call to the base. "Twilight, you there?"

Twilight and the rest of the girls were all waiting for news when the call came in. "We're here," Twilight replied. "What did you find?"

"DNA. I'm sending it to the computer now. Scan it and run a search to see if our thief is inside the police and Plumber databases." Twilight did so, the scan beginning to run. They waited, but after a minute Rainbow grew impatient.

"What's taking so long?"

"There are thousands of DNA samples," Twilight told her. "Even for a super computer, this could take a while."

"Are you able to remove samples from the list?" Trixie asked. Twilight nodded as the girl thought back. "They were female, so that disqualifies an entire gender." Twilight did so and the list of samples to check shrank significantly. "And...she had blue hair." Twilight got rid of any sample that didn't belong to a blue haired person, causing the list to shrink even more so. Because of this, it only took a few seconds for the computer to find a match.

"We've got it." Twilight brought up the file. "It belongs to a woman named Chrysalis, in the database for some small scale crimes she committed as a teenage." The photo appeared on the screen and both Trixie and Pinkie nodded, the woman looking just like the person they had seen.

"So she's moved up to the big leagues of crime," Applejack stated.

"Looks like it," Twilight nodded. "But she's been squeaky clean for years. Not even a parking ticket. Why would she suddenly go back to a life of crime."

"What's her current occupation?" Shining asked, he and Flash leaving the building as Twilight searched her name.

"Wow. She's CEO of a tech manufacturing company...just like the place she broke into."

"I don't get it," Pinkie frowned. "Why would she break into a place, if she works somewhere that does the exact same thing?" Everyone rolled their eyes, annoyed Pinkie couldn't figure it out.

"She stole data from a competitor," Sunset told her. "She probably plans to use what she stole to make a profit for her company."

"Well at least she won't be hard to find," Fluttershy replied. "Her company's building isn't too far from here. We could be there in fifteen minutes." They all nodded and headed out the building, whilst Flash turned into XLR8 to transport himself and Shining there.

The lot of them made their way through the city, until they arrived at the building in question. "Changeling industries," Twilight stated. "A minor company working in new technologies, with very little luck in recent years."

"Really?" Trixie asked, "why?"

"Whenever they come out with a new device or piece of tech, another company releases something that does exactly the same thing. Except that device does it even better than the one Changeling Industries makes. This has caused low sales, leading to the company downsizing multiple times over the last six years."

"Ouch," Rainbow hissed, "no wonder she resulted to theft."

"How the heck did she even get to be CEO in the first place?" Sunset asked, "you said she was a criminal back when she was younger. How the heck is she running a big company now?"

"It was her mother's," Twilight had done some reading on Chrysalis on the way over. "Her parents both ran the company and died over ten years ago, allowing her to inherit it." They nodded, understanding how something like that could happen.

As they stepped towards the building, they found Flash and Shining already waiting for them outside. The boys nodded as they and the girls headed inside, where the receptionist greeted them. "Hello there. What can I do for you today?"

"You can call your boss and tell her we're here to discuss something that happened today. A theft." Shining showed her his badge and the woman gasped, only now noticing Flash and quickly picking up the phone.

They waited as she spoke to someone on the other line, nodding several times until she put the phone down. "Ms Chrysalis will see you now." She gestured to the elevator and the lot of them headed towards it. It was a bit of a tight squeeze, but the ten of them managed to ride it all the way to the top.

Flash was tempted to go Grey Matter, but the elevator opened up before he could reach for the Omnitrix and the lot stepped out into a large room. The place was well decorated, with a couch against the side of a wall behind a coffee table, a large flat screen opposite and at the back, a large wooden desk with the woman of the hour sitting behind it.

"Why, hello there." Chrysalis smiled as they walked towards her, "and what do I owe the pleasure of this visit? It's not everyday the famous Flash Sentry and his friends come knocking at your doorstep."

Shining frowned at her. "We've come to talk about the robbery that occurred at one of your rival tech companies. Someone broke in and stole valuable data from them. And when I studied the area, I found your DNA on the computer keyboard."

"Is that so?" Chrysalis hummed, "well I'm afraid you're mistaken. I've never been anywhere near the tech company you're describing."

"Then how did your DNA get on the keyboard?" Flash asked, as Chrysalis shrugged.

"I know I've made some mistakes in my life. But ever since I took over this company, I've been on the straight and narrow. I can promise you, I had nothing to do with this little break in."

"Quit playing around!" Trixie stepped forward and slammed her hands on the table, "I know you have the Medallion. I can sense it on you." This was true. Ever since Trixie saw the woman, she had been feeling the power of the magical coin radiating off of her. "Hand it over before you get hurt."

"Is that a threat?" Chrysalis raised an eyebrow, looking ready to call security.

"No," Sunset stepped forward. "We're just trying to protect you. The Medallion you have gives you powers, but it also puts you in danger. There's someone out there that's trying to gather the Medallions and is willing to kill anyone who gets in his way. If he gets to you, it won't be good."

"Right," she replied slowly, "and I'm supposed to believe you...why?" Sunset frowned as Shining stepped forward.

"Believe us or not. I've got your DNA at the crime scene. I can arrest you for theft and when I do, I can take the Medallion away. If you don't want to face serious jail time, hand over the Medallion and the data you stole."

"Or what?" Chrysalis asked. "So you have my DNA at this crime scene. That proves nothing. There's a million ways it could have gotten there." They all frowned at this and Sunset had had enough, rushing around the desk and grabbing Chrysalis' arm.

As soon as she did, her magic kicked in and she saw images of Chrysalis at the lab and reaching into her pocket. She then watched as Chrysalis was suddenly transported into the server room before making her way over to the computer, where she plugged in a flash drive and downloaded all the data before escaping. The scene then changed to show Chrysalis uploading the info into a computer, allowing Sunset to see the password she used.

Chrysalis finally pulled her arm free and glared at her, "what are you doing?" But before she could say anything else, Sunset grabbed her computer and pulled it off the desk. "HEY! Put that down."

Sunset typed the password in and smiled when it opened, allowing her to shift through the files. Chrysalis tried to get to Sunset, but the others got between them. "Ha!" She showed Twilight one of the files, with the same name as the company that was robbed.

Twilight opened the files and saw everything that was stolen. From the looks of it, these files were seriously important. "You stole this information from those that worked so hard to create it. How could you?"

Chrysalis frowned, clearly wanting to argue that she hadn't stolen it. But she knew she had been busted, "I had no choice. My company's going to go bankrupt if I don't do something. All my best engineers and scientists have been pilfered by other companies. If Tirek's company hadn't gone under, I'd already be ruined. I had to use this chance I was given."

"So you stole another company's secrets?" Trixie cried, "using the Medallion's power." Chrysalis frowned, "where is it?"

Chrysalis sighed as she reached into her pocket and took out the red and black coin. "I don't know where this thing came from, but it's the key to saving my company."

"No," Trixie moved towards her, "it's not meant for that. It's meant to help protect a kingdom in another world. Using it for your own benefit is nothing but an insult to its power. And as long as you have it, your life is in danger." She held out her hand. "Please, give it to me."

Chrysalis stared at her, then down at her hand. And slowly, she held it out and stepped closer to Trixie.

Everyone prayed that she had seen sense and was going to give it up. And that seemed to be the case, as Chrysalis got closer and closer to Trixie. But as the Medallion was inches away from Trixie's fingers, Chrysalis pulled back and placed the Medallion on her head.

Everyone gasped, as the Medallion unleashed multiple strings of light that spread around her head. The lights then generated more strings that connected them to each other and created a web pattern. The gaps were then also filled with light, as the string lights faded to reveal black webbing. The rest of the light finally faded to reveal a red fabric.

Chrysalis was now wearing a red mask with black webs covering it, which hid everything except her mouth and hair beneath it. Her eyes were covered by goggle-like eyes that looked like they were split into four pieces.

Everyone got into a fighting stance, as the Medallion unleashed another burst of light. This time, Chrysalis' whole body was consumed and she was quickly transformed. The light exploded off of her and revealed a black suit that covered her head to toe. The suit also had red sections on it, covering her shoulders, waist, lower arms and feet. A red spider was also on her front and back, connected to one another by the tips of the legs.

Finally, four tendrils of light exploded out of the back spider and grew to around five feet in length. When the light faded, she had a quartet of black spindly legs that had red spikes on the end of them.

Chrysalis stared at them, as they slowly stepped backwards. "Oh, are you leaving?" She smiled as she raised her hand, "here. Let me show you the door." She snapped her fingers and suddenly, a spider-web of light appeared below her before growing larger.

Before any of them could react, the web engulfed them and phased through the walls and window. And the next thing they all knew, a bright flash engulfed them for a second before fading to show the lot of them were outside.

And by outside, they were right outside Chrysalis' office, several stories above the ground. Chrysalis was still in her office and the lot of them were standing on the spaces of the cobwebs, which acted as an invisible platform for them. However, when Chrysalis turned to smile at them, she snapped her fingers and the cobweb vanished.

"Uh oh," was all Pinkie could say before gravity pulled them all downwards.

They screamed as they fell, Twilight, Rainbow and Fluttershy quickly hitting their Geodes to transform and summon their wings. Trixie also put on her Sky Butterfly mask whilst Flash activated the Omnitrix. Shining took his rod off his belt and held it up, the device transforming into a parachute that stopped his fall.

Trixie grabbed Pinkie as Twilight grabbed Sunset, Rainbow grabbed Applejack and Fluttershy grabbed Rarity.

Flash slammed the dial down and was thankful to get the alien he wanted. "Gryforce!" He spread his wings and managed to slow himself to a stop, the others doing the same barely a few feet off the ground.

Once they all landed, catching the attention of the people around them, they looked up at the building and prepared to storm the place. But before they could, Chrysalis appeared on another energy web before said web vanished.

She fell towards them, creating and dispelling cobwebs every few feet to act as platforms until she reached the ground. Her four long legs then shot out and stabbed the ground, cushioning her final fall and allowing her to land without issue. The sudden appearance of said woman, caused the surrounding people to scream and run away, as she walked forward.

"This is your only warning," she told them. "Leave me alone or you'll live to regret it."

"Let you continue using your powers for evil?" Trixie asked, taking out her sword. "I don't think so." She shot forward and tried to stab her with her rapier, but Chrysalis created another energy web around her. And as soon as Trixie got inside of it, Chrysalis teleported her behind the woman. "Huh?" Trixie realised she had just stabbed air, as Chrysalis' spider leg shot out and slammed into her back. "AUGH!"

The others got into a fighting stance, Shining turning his Multi-Striker into a blaster. He quickly fired it at her, but Chrysalis caused the blast to vanish the moment it flew into the web. It then appeared behind her and shot towards her, but the angle caused it to miss her and fly right back towards Shining.

"WOW!" He leapt to the side to avoid it, Rarity putting up a shield before it could hit and hurt someone.

Gryforce, Applejack and Rainbow rushed at Chrysalis, but the woman warped Rainbow and Gryforce so they ended up running into one another and falling to the ground. Applejack then tried to punch her and this time, Chrysalis warped herself so Applejack missed.

Pinkie then threw a cupcake at Chrysalis, but the spider-masked woman swapped places with Applejack and the explosive sweet treat blasted her across the web. "Oh!" Pinkie cried, "sorry!"

Twilight frowned, not wanting to throw anything into the web after seeing what happened with Shining and Pinkie. She tried to simply pull Chrysalis out of the web, but the woman appeared protected from any outside force whilst inside the barrier.

Trixie huffed before she had an idea, quickly switching to her Luna Cat form before disappearing.

Chrysalis saw this and laughed, "so simple minded. Thinking I need to see you to warp you." She warped herself to another area, as the sound of Trixie's staff hit the ground. "Sorry sweetheart, but I don't need to see you." She warped Rainbow Dash as she tried to ram into her from behind, causing her to appear in front of her and stagger to a stop before Chrysalis slammed her leg into her back. "As long as you're in the confines of my web, I know all, I see all."

"Ahh!" Applejack pushed herself to her feet, "her power is way too OP."

"Maybe," Trixie reappeared, "but she can't do this forever. Teleporting this much has to be tiring. If we keep this up, she'll eventually exhaust herself." The others nodded as Trixie ran forward, attempting to get closer so she could hit Chrysalis with her staff.

Gryforce transformed into Volt-Edge, as Shining entered the web hoping to shorten the distance and give her less time to react. The pair fired at her, as Trixie swung her staff at her. But Chrysalis blocked the staff with her legs whilst teleporting the attacks to spots behind the other two, Shining getting zapped as the energy blast slammed into Volt-Edge's back.

Pinkie threw more sweet treats, whilst Twilight threw a trash can and whatever else she could get her magical hands on. But as soon as they flew into the web, they disappeared and reappeared flying the other direction. Luckily, Rarity was there to shield anyone outside the border.

Chrysalis and Trixie continued to fight one another, but Chrysalis showed incredible fighting ability with her legs whilst teleporting around Trixie to get several hits in. Volt-Edge and Shining picked themselves up and rushed in, hoping multiple targets would be harder. But Chrysalis was still able to fight, as three of her four legs thrust and swung at each of them to force them back.

The three eventually made their way past the legs and attempted to slash her from three different directions, but Chrysalis just warped away and they found themselves hitting each other. "AUGH!" They were all sent staggering backwards, whilst Chrysalis reappeared off to the side.

Rainbow flew straight up, hoping she could leave the web's limit. And once she was high enough, she dived down hoping to tackle Chrysalis before she could react.

But Chrysalis just smirked and snapped her fingers. Suddenly, Rainbow vanished and reappeared besides her. "AUGH!" The girl smashed face first into the pavement before rolling across the ground.

Fluttershy gasped at this and ran over to try and help her, only to be teleported out the other side. "Rainbow!" She cried, unable to get to her. But Rainbow groaned as she started picking herself up. By some miracle, her face wasn't torn to shreds and only had a few scratches.

"I'm okay."

Applejack ran towards Chrysalis and brought her fingers up into a flicking stance, having learned this trick with Flash after seeing it done in an anime they liked. Using all her strength, she flicked her finger and sent out a blast of air. It shot towards Chrysalis, but vanished before it hit her.

Instead, she felt that air slam her in the face and she cried out as she was knocked to the floor.

Volt-Edge groaned as he clutched his chest, trying to figure out a way to beat her. "There has to be a way over her power." He frowned as he looked up, watching as Rainbow was teleported from above Chrysalis. Even if the web had a height limit, it was likely so high they couldn't make use of it.

Volt-Edge tried to think of each alien he had and how they might fair in this situation, but each of them seem to run into the same problem. The only alien that might be able to overpower Chrysalis was Way Big and even then, that might be a little overkill.

"Come on, think. Every power has to have a blind spot!" Then, he remembered how Chrysalis had climbed down from the building. She had to keep creating platforms to stand on and fall a little. Why would she do that if she could have just warped herself downwards...unless. "There isn't a way over her power!"

"Don't say that!" Sunset cried, "she has to have a weakness."

"No," Volt-Edge smirked, "there's no way over her power. But there might be a way under it!" Those that heard this realised what he was saying and gasped.

"Flash!" Twilight smiled, "that's brilliant!"

"But how do we make use of it?" Fluttershy asked, as Chrysalis sent Applejack crashing into Shining and they fell to the ground.

Volt-Edge looked around and spotted a manhole cover, smirking as he jumped out of the web and hit the Omnitrix. In a green flash, he transformed. "Diamutt!" The diamond dog growled as he covered his arms and feet with crystals, as he gestured to the manhole cover so Twilight would notice it.

She nodded and picked it up, throwing it at Chrysalis as Trixie tried to slam into the woman's chest. But Chrysalis warped it so it was flying towards Trixie, who leapt up and back-flipped over it. This once again made it fly towards Chrysalis, who bent backwards to avoid it.

Trixie tried to use this opening to attack, spinning her staff around attempting to overpower the woman. But Chrysalis was able to block and shield herself with her legs.

Shining chose this moment to push himself up and run in a circle around the pair, firing at her with his blaster. But these were once again deflected and Rarity had to shield those outside the area from getting hit.

Applejack leapt at Chrysalis and threw a bunch of punches at her, but Chrysalis warped around and dodged it. But as she appeared, Rainbow tried to hit her with a flying kick. Chrysalis managed to block this with her legs, knocking her back before she leapt up to avoid more of Pinkie's destructive cupcakes.

"Come on," Twilight growled as Chrysalis kept jumping around. "You need to keep her in one place." She looked over at the manhole, hoping Flash would soon be ready.

Diamutt was in hell.

When he came up with this plan, he had failed to take into account that sewers stunk and his sense of smell was a hundred times better than a human's right now.

He pushed through it and having managed to get a handle on Chrysalis' scent, he sniffed the air near the top of the tunnel. But every time she was right above him, she moved and warped somewhere else. "Come on guys. Hold her still. It only has to be for a minute."

Trixie danced around, doing her best to avoid the leg spikes as they slashed and stabbed at her.

She turned her staff into a belt and used it to wrap around the leg as she dodged it before spinning around, pulling Chrysalis around to throw her. But Chrysalis instead, teleported out of the bound and appeared in front of her. Before Trixie could recover, Chrysalis slammed her human foot into her chest and knocked her backwards.

She cried out, her friends trying to help her only for Chrysalis to teleport them to the edge of the web and stagger out of it. When they tried to get back in, they found themselves walking out the other side.

Trixie sat herself up, only for Chrysalis to thrust her spider leg into her chest and pin her to the ground. "Your powers are nothing compared to mine," Chrysalis stated. "But they may come in handy, so I think I'll take them instead."

Trixie struggled against her, but the legs were too strong. She through about changing to her Mighty Bull form, but stopped when she felt something on the ground. Something that made her smile. "I don't think so." Chrysalis wondered what he meant by this, only for the ground behind Trixie to suddenly explode.

"RAAAAH!" Diamutt howled as he charged at the woman, who was too shocked to respond as he slashed at her.

In the blink of an eye, he sliced off all four of her legs and she was knocked staggering back. At the same time, her web had shattered when Diamutt broke through it from below. When she recovered, she tried to make another one. But Diamutt slashed at her again and allowed Trixie the chance to get up and attack.

"Gyah!" Chrysalis cried, as Trixie slammed her staff into her chest. The girl quickly started spinning it around and dealt several hits to her, making her scream with every impact. And whenever she was about to respond, Diamutt slashed at her with his claws or those that had been stuck outside fired something at her.

She formed a small web at her feet and tried to expand it, but Diamutt slashed at the ground and shattered it before she could. This allowed Trixie to pole vault and fly at her, dealing a powerful kick to her chest and knocking her back. Trixie landed and turned her staff into a belt, which she tossed at Chrysalis and caught her by the ankle.

She then spun around and threw Chrysalis into the air, making her scream as Trixie rushed over to Rarity.

The Rainboom created a shield, which Trixie leapt onto before Applejack punched it. This sent Trixie and the shield shooting into the air, as she made her belt into a staff again. She eventually reached Chrysalis, the two locking eyes with Chrysalis looking terrified whilst Trixie raised her staff.

And before Chrysalis could beg for mercy, Trixie swung the staff down with all her might and slammed it into Chrysalis' chest.

The woman screamed as she was sent barrelling towards the ground, unable to form a platform and eventually smashing into the pavement. A mighty crash could be heard and she landed cracking the street as a cloud of dust filled the air, Trixie falling after her and using her belt to swing off a lamppost.

As she landed, everyone moved towards Chrysalis as the dust cleared.

The woman coughed as she pushed herself up, only for her suit to glitch before shattering off of her. Her Medallion fell off her head and she quickly caught it, but realised she didn't have the power to use it again. She was helpless.

"It's over," Trixie told her. "Hand over the Medallion and you won't get hurt." Chrysalis glared up at them, but couldn't seem to think of a way out of her current predicament. Was she going to lose the best thing to ever happen to her?

Before she could give a response, Diamutt's sense of awareness kicked in and he leapt at Trixie. "LOOK OUT!" He pushed her out of the way, just in time to avoid a fireball that flew down and exploded against the ground. Said explosion knocked the others staggering back, as lightning bolts rained down around Chrysalis and forced them all to take shelter.

Chrysalis was terrified, as smoke formed around her and blocked the others from seeing. She then felt a presence beside her and looked up to see a man standing in front of her. "Take this!" He threw something at her and she found it was a small yellow gem. When she held it, it glowed and she suddenly found herself becoming invigorated. In fact, she felt more powerful than ever. "It won't last long. Transform and get us out of here."

Trixie had finally had enough of the smoke and swung her staff around, creating a gust of wind that pushed it away. And when she did, she saw someone she had hoped wouldn't show up. "Devious."

The man smiled at her, as a flash of light made them look behind him and see Chrysalis back in her suit. "Oh no you don't!" Diamutt was ready to slash at the ground if she tried to make another web. But before he could, the Omnitrix beeped and he transformed back to human. "Oh, come on!"

Chrysalis smirked as she created the web and expanded it to an unbelievable degree. It grew so large, it completely consumed Chrysalis' company along with several other surrounding buildings.

"Until next time," Devious announced as he grabbed Chrysalis' shoulder before the pair disappeared. Moments later, the web exploded and they had no idea where the pair had disappeared to.

"NO!" Trixie cried, terrified that Devious was about to steal another Medallion. If he gained such a powerful ability, she might never be able to beat him. "This isn't good."

In a nearby back alley, Chrysalis and Devious stood together as Chrysalis was suddenly overwhelmed with exhaustion.

"What's happening?" She staggered forward and fell to the ground, panting as her suit exploded off of her. "Who are you? And why am I suddenly so tired." Her savior turned to her and removed the Medallion from off his head, smiling at her as he changed back to his normal clothes.

"My name's Devious. Don't worry, you just need to rest. You're lucky I had that crystal. We might not have been able to escape if I didn't. Making a web like that would have killed you without it."

"Why did you save me?" Chrysalis asked, "you have one of those Medallions as well. Do you want to take it from me?"

"Eventually," Devious smirked as he found a box next to a dumpster and sat upon it. "But I have a proposition to ask of you before then." Chrysalis raised an eyebrow, "how would you like to team up with me?" Chrysalis raised an eyebrow at this, as Devious smirked. "With your powers, I know I can defeat those fools the next time I face them."

"Why would you want me? Why not simply take my Medallion now that I'm weakened?"

"I could. But how exactly did that girl defeat you?" Chrysalis frowned as she thought back to the battle and how well it had been going until her annoying alien friend messed everything up.

"She wouldn't have stood a chance against me on her own."

"Exactly," Devious nodded. "The first time I fought against her, she was completely helpless against my power. If Flash Sentry and the rest of those fools hadn't been there, I would have taken the Medallion and she wouldn't be alive the annoy me. And the same thing happened all the other times I've fought against her. If she didn't have her friends getting in my way, I would have crushed her by now and have what's mine."

"What does that have to do with me?"

Devious stood up. "Don't you see? The only reason they keep beating us is by working together. And if we want to defeat them, we need to work together." He started pacing around the alleyway. "I've been on the hunt for allies that can help me take what is mine. I'm going to gather all the Medallions and use them to create a world where I reign supreme." He turned back to her. "Join me and I'll make you my right hand woman in the new world. You'll get to live like a queen and never have to work another day in your life, so long as you help me keep order."

"I see," Chrysalis hummed. "And you swear not to try and take my Medallion?"

"I will need it at the very end to accomplish my goals. But once it's done, you can have it back." He stepped forward and held out a hand. "So, what do you say?"

Chrysalis stared at him for a moment, then smirked before grasping his hand and letting him pull her up. "You have a deal. We work together to get revenge on those fools and achieve your goal. Then we'll be on easy street." Devious nodded and the two prepared to get to work.

Soon enough, Trixie and her friends would discover that an all new Devious was ready to make life a lot harder for her mission.

Trixie sighed as she sat in the Plumber Base.

Shining had returned the information stolen to its rightful owner, along with announcing Chrysalis' involvement in its theft along with the use of a prohibited alien item. This had turned Chrysalis into a known fugitive and the news was having a field day with this information, with many believing Changeling Industries would likely go under because of it.

Trixie felt bad for the workers of the company, hoping they would be able to get other jobs. But right now, she had other problems.

Trixie had searched high and low for Chrysalis, but she was nowhere in sight. Trixie had expected Devious to simply steal Chrysalis' Medallion and leave her for dead. But there was no sign of her, anywhere. Which lead Trixie to believe she still had her Medallion.

"You okay?" She looked around and saw Flash standing besides her, "I understand if you're a little glum. Losing the Medallion like that must be tough."

"Yeah," Trixie nodded, "but that's not why I'm upset." She sat back in her chair. "I think Devious is up to something. I have this feeling that something big is coming. Something that's gonna make defeating Devious and gathering the remaining Medallions harder than ever."

Flash nodded. "If that's true, then we'll face what's coming together and show it why it shouldn't mess with us." Trixie smiled and nodded, the pair bumping fists before heading out of the Plumber Base. They would need all the rest they could get for whatever might be coming in the future.

Devious might have been kicking things up a notch, but Trixie wasn't afraid. As long as she had her friends, she would face whatever he threw at her and overcome it no matter what. That was her promise.

Author's Note

Trixie has another villain to deal with and Devious now has a partner. That'll make things difficult for our heroes. How will this change the adventure going forward? Only time will tell.

Season 4, Episode 4: Digital Dilemma

Canterlot City was having another busy day. The people were going about their everyday lives, whilst criminals kept trying to cause problems.

Luckily, Flash Sentry was on the case and was currently in his Bloxx alien form. The lego gorilla's hands were enlarged and being used to hold a pair of crooks, that had just tried to stick up a convenience store. Luckily, Flash had been driving by and managed to stop them with zero casualties.

"Come on!" One of the crooks yelled, "why were the stuff I built never as strong as this?" He and his friend tried to break free, but Bloxx's grasp on them was too strong.

Sirens filled the air, as a police officer pulled up and moved over to them. "Thanks Sentry. We'll take it from here." Bloxx nodded and released one of the criminals, letting the cop handcuff him before releasing the other.

He transformed back to human and headed over to where his car was parked, Adagio and her sisters sitting in it. "Well that was hardly a challenge," Adagio joked as Flash got in the car.

"After everything I've been up against, everyday criminals aren't gonna stop me." He drove off and checked the time, "and we barely lost any time. Should be there in about five minutes."

"Yay!" Sonata smiled, "I can't wait to see this place." Flash was taking the Dazzlings to the Plumber Base, which was almost completely restored. In fact, it was better than ever thanks to a few new features that had been added in the rebuild.

The Dazzlings had been extra busy over the last few weeks. Despite Tirek's arrest and his company's collapse, the Dazzlings' career had remained on course. They had been asked to star in multiple photo shoots and commercials, which had meant they had to be out of the city several times.

This had caused them to miss Flash's future adventure and their battle with Chrysalis. But now they were back and ready to make up for lost time.

They arrived at the base and sure enough, the building had been repaired with the glass replaced and the doors returned to where they had previously been. As they parked up and headed inside, Adagio saw the place looked exactly as it did before. "I thought you were going to do some upgrades?" She asked, with Flash smirking.

"All the upgrades are downstairs," he explained as they made their way over to the elevator. As soon as they stepped inside, Flash hit the button for the main control room. And instead of the elevator moving, a light suddenly filled the room and they all felt themselves tingle.

"What is that?" Aria asked, only to suddenly find herself in a completely different spot.

When they opened their eyes, they found they were no longer inside the elevator. Instead, they were each standing atop a glowing circle in a line. "Transport elevator," Flash told them. "Beats spending ages in a cramped elevator." He stepped off the platform, the Dazzlings following as they saw the others at the main computer.

Twilight was sitting at it, typing away at it whilst the others watched.

"Almost done," Twilight told them. "Once this is uploaded, the base will be way easier to manage."

"Hey guys," Flash smirked. "Once what's uploaded?" They watched the screen and saw a loading bar window appear, but it didn't fill up at all.

"New Artificial Intelligence for the base's main computer core," Shining explained. "Once it's installed, it'll have complete control of the base and will be able to monitor the whole place. No more security breaches for us."

"It'll also be able to do a bunch more stuff," Twilight asked. "It'll check the weather, alert us to any crimes going on and inform us of important news reports we might wanna see."

"So basically one of those things a bunch of other people have in their homes?" Adagio asked. "What are those called. Alex? Alexis...you know what I'm talking about." The others nodded, as Twilight rolled her eyes.

"I doubt those things can scan a piece of hair and run it through a DNA analysis. Trust me, this thing will be the best thing you've ever seen once it's up and running. This base will run like a well oiled machine." She turned back to the loading bar, only to see it had loaded only one percent. "Once the thing fully loads, of course." They waited and the number refused to change, Rainbow growling.

"Oh, come on! I've got better things to do than watch nothing happen."

"I'm with Rainbow," Shining sighed. "Why don't we all take a look around the base now that it's done." The others nodded and began to head towards the transporters, only for the elevator to ding.

"I thought you used the transporters now?" Adagio asked, only for the doors to open and reveal a robot.

"Machines can't got through the teleporter. Scrambles their circuits," Shining explained. They watched as the machine rolled through the room, being a bullet shaped machine with tank treads, long thin arms and a trash can stuck to its back. "It's a cleaning robot. A small section of the base is still being cleaned up, so those robots are doing the heavy lifting."

They watched as the machine headed towards a chute opening, as it removed the trash can from its back. "So it's throwing everything out?" Pinkie asked, "what if it accidently picked up something that wasn't trash?"

"The chute has a sensor that scans anything that goes through it. If it picks something up that's not trash, it transports it to the lab." They nodded, seeing the machine empty the can and return to the elevator. As it did, another one rolled out of it and made its way towards the chute.

They all headed towards the transport pads and typed in their chosen destination, each of them getting warped away.

As they teleported to another part of the base, the trash robot began to dump the stuff down the chute. But what it didn't notice was that as it lifted the trash can up, something dropped off of it and fell to the ground. That something was a flash drive, which had been found in the remains of a storage system and sent flying out of its container during the base's destruction.

The robot didn't notice it hit the ground and slid along it out of it's sight range, the machine turning away and rolling off.

Everyone was amazed by what they were seeing.

They were inside a massive room, where the base's new power core had just been installed. It was a round room, with a floating green glass orb in the centre of it that was surrounded by a bunch of computer terminals. Inside the orb was a spinning metal ball, which was unleashing a bunch of energy that filled the orb and was being sent into cables connected to the bottom of the rob. And around the room, were four metal funnels that had green lights inside.

"That thing looks awesome!" Rainbow cried, as a bolt of green lightning suddenly shot out of the orb.

Most of them screamed in terror, but Twilight and Shining smiled as the bolt was sucked into one of the funnels and safely absorbed. "Relax. This place is safe." Shining stepped over to the computer. "Whenever the core generates too much energy, it's channelled out of the core and into the dampeners. The dampeners then convert it into electrical energy and add it into the city's power grid."

"Awesome," Rainbow smirked. "How much energy can this thing make?"

Twilight smiled. "At max output, enough to run the city for a year in one day. But we don't need nearly that much." They were still impressed. "And with this power core, the base's facilities are more advanced than ever."

"Have you still got the holodeck?" Flash asked, Shining nodded as he showed them a computer screen on the console.

"Complete with a hundred new environments to test yourself out in." Flash, Rainbow and Applejack smirked at this. "We've also got some new facilities. Like the anti-gravity chamber, which can lower gravity in the room so we can practise if we ever find ourselves in a situation involving lower gravity."

"Now that sounds cool," Sunset smirked. Fluttershy also seemed interested in that.

"We also have a new, state of the art kitchen." Shining showed them that room on the monitor. "The replicator it has can create any piece of food on Earth. You can have a meal that tastes like it comes from a five-star restaurant, or a simple hamburger. Whatever takes your fancy." Rarity, Trixie and Pinkie licked their lips at this. "And there's also the cells. We're still testing it out, but we think they should be able to handle any type of alien we might have to lock up."

"Huh," Flash liked the sound of that. "I might just try and test it out."

"I'm gonna go check out the holodeck," Rainbow smirked. "Any of you guys with me?"

"You know it!" Applejack cheered, whilst Trixie rubbed her hands together.

"I'm gonna try out that replicator in your kitchen. This might be my only chance to try out rich people food." Rarity liked the sound of that and Pinkie also wanted to try the place out.

Sunset turned to Twilight, "wanna test out the zero gravity room?" Twilight thought about it, whilst Fluttershy stepped forward.

"I'd like to try it out. It might be fun." Sunset nodded and the girl headed for the exit, the others all doing the same as well. Shining decided to go to the holodeck, whilst the Dazzlings would see if Flash could actually escape from the cells.

They split up and headed to their intended destinations, Twilight also joining Flash and the Dazzlings as they arrived at the cell block. Looking inside, they found each cell was a square room that was roughly six by six meters. There was a small bed, sink and toilet inside of it, all looking just as high-tech as the rest of the base. And the doors were made of reinforced glass that was divided into four pieces that linked together in an X formation.

"Alright!" Flash stepped up to the door, as Twilight opened it up for him. "Let's do this!" Twilight locked it and Flash transformed, turning into Riot-Horn. "Raaaah!" He punched the glass, but it didn't even shake. He dealt several more punches to it, but it still didn't show any signs of damage.

"Guess you can't break out," Adagio smirked.

"Maybe. But can I burn my way out?" He hit the Omnitrix and transformed into Dragoon, breathing out a stream of fire that hit the glass. But the glass showed no signs of being burned. Sonata even put her finger to the glass and didn't feel any heat. Dragoon slashed at with the same results. "Man, this glass is tough stuff."

"That's because it has taydenite in it," Twilight smiled. "It's a new combination of it and glass. Not even Diamondhead could cut through it."

"We'll see about that," he transformed into the aforementioned alien and tried to slash through it. But sure enough, the glass held. "Wow, this stuff is good." He turned back to human and tried to think of a way out of it.

Aria soon grew tired of watching and moved over to the exit. "As fun as this looks, I'm gonna go see what else there is." Sonata was also curious and went with them, Adagio following suit since it was clear Flash was gonna be there a while.

Once the three were gone, Twilight turned to Flash. "You sure it was a good idea to let them wander around on their own?"

"What's the worst they could do?" Volt-Edge asked as he blasted the cage with lightning. Twilight hoped he was right, thinking about what happened with Timber when he was left alone in the base. She trusted Adagio, but there was no telling what could happen with people who weren't familiar with the place.

"YEAH!" Rainbow cried, as she ran around the holodeck with an energy baton.

The room had a bunch of differently sized cubes located in it, making it great for training. Applejack was running atop one of the larger blocks, as a mini jet-like machine flew after her and fired a laser at her.

She leapt off the block and landed atop a tower of people sized blocks, the landing causing it to wobble as she tried to get her balance. The drone flew up to her and pointed its blasters at her, Applejack gulping as she thought of how to get out without toppling the tower. But she couldn't.

Luckily, Shining blasted the drone out of the air before hiding behind another block. Two more drones flew at him and he fired at them, catching their attention as Rainbow flew in and smashed the baton into one.

Applejack then landed on the other and stomped it into the ground, the three smirking at how much fun they were having.

At the same time, Trixie, Rarity and Pinkie were enjoying the kitchen.

Trixie and Rarity moaned as they tasted the caviar they were having, since it wasn't really caviar. Instead, it was just a bunch of protein molecules ordered by the replicator to mimic its appearance, smell and taste. All of the class and none of the yuck.

Pinkie moaned, as she ate her own replicated food, that being a cupcake with every type of sprinkle on top. The three knew they shouldn't eat so much, but they had a feeling they would be spending a lot of time in the kitchen when they were at the base.

Meanwhile, Sunset and Fluttershy were bouncing around the zero gravity room.

Fluttershy had never liked heights, because she was always scared of falling. But with zero gravity, she could fly around as much as she wanted without needing to worry. Sunset also enjoyed the feeling of weightlessness, as she swam through the air pretending to do moves one would see in a synchronised swimming competition.

The pair continued to laugh as they floated around, feeling like they could never get tired of it. And if they ever did, they just had to tell the computer to reinstate the gravity and they would be brought slowly back towards the ground.

The Dazzlings continued to explore the base and eventually found themselves back at the main control room.

Adagio moved over to the computer, where she saw the new A.I was still only fifty three percent installed. She sighed, wishing she could use the computer to go online and see what a Plumber database could show her.

Aria and Sonata were also bored. Whilst they could easily go to the holodeck or gravity room, none of them seemed like something they would be interested in. They had no intention of fighting and floating around would probably make them sick.

"Ahhhh!" Aria groaned, "we're in a base full of alien technology. How the heck am I bored?"

"There has to be something fun we can do," Sonata frowned. "Doesn't that computer have any games on it? I wanna play cupcake crush."

Adagio sighed. "I don't think Shining Armor would appreciate us messing with the important alien computer."

"Geez," Aria rolled her eyes, "you've really changed since dating Flash. Since when have you cared about what other people care about?"

"Well, you two seemed to like this new me that smiles more. Remember?" The pair nodded at this, as she swivelled in her chair. She thought about Flash and how he was trying to break out of a cell below them and wondered why she had left so quickly.

When she first started dating Flash, she had been excited to see him and his aliens in action. But now, seeing him do something as an alien was just...normal. Flash Sentry turned into aliens. It was as normal as him having blue hair.

She remembered back to when he had gone to fight Tirek and how she had kissed him. Before she did it, she had thought it would make her and Flash happy. It was their first proper kiss and should have been a good thing. But after Flash had woken up, the pair had been awkward around one another for a while.

They were fine now, but hadn't kissed again since then.

"Hey," she heard Sonata ask, "what's this?" She looked around and saw Sonata holding a flash drive, Aria moving over to take a closer look.

"Where'd you get that?"

"It was on the floor," Sonata explained. "What do you think's on it?"

"Probably something boring," Aria crossed her arms. "Maybe blueprints for the alien coffee maker."

"Or for a death ray," Sonata laughed. "Come on, let's take a look and see what's on it. Better than sitting around doing nothing." Adagio frowned, not sure if they should of not. But before she could tell Sonata not to, the girl stepped over and inserted it into the computer.

And as soon as she plugged it in, everything went to hell.

Suddenly, the computer started glitching as random bits of code started appearing on the screen. At the same time, the A.I window went static as new code was being introduced to the system. "What's going on?" Sonata asked, with Aria and Adagio gulping.

"I think we should get the others and tell them we screwed up," Adagio stated. The three began to make their way towards the elevator, only to find it wasn't working. "What's going on?" Suddenly, laughter filled the air and they all looked back at the computer.

Slowly, a large red V appeared on the screen before it morphed into a triangular head with five red tendrils coming out the top. Even though it had no facial features, the girls could tell it was happy. "Free!" She cried, "I'M FREE!" Adagio's eyes went wide hearing this, as she knew that voice.

All over the base, everyone heard the voice as it echoed through the speaker system. Flash, Twilight and Sunset all gasped, all of them recognising the voice as well.

"No way," Flash cried. "It can't be."

"Viral?" Twilight asked, as every computer screen suddenly sparked before the same head appeared on it.

"Greetings, humans!" The rogue A.I laughed, as she became connected to the base's security system. "Oh this is beautiful. All four of the nasty humans that stole me away from Micro, are here. Now I can have my revenge."

"How the heck did you get into our computer system?" Shining cried, as he, Rainbow and Applejack found the training room's door suddenly vanishing.

"I don't know who was foolish enough to plug me into your computer," Viral laughed. "But I'm grateful for them. Not grateful enough to let them live, but I'll try and make their deaths the least painful." Shining frowned, wondering who could be so stupid as to let a deranged A.I infect them.

"What do we do?" Applejack asked, only to find the training room transforming in the blink of an eye. When the light around them faded, they found themselves in a giant valley full of holes in the ground.

"What the heck?" Rainbow asked, moving over to one of the holes. But as she got close, a massive blast of stream suddenly exploded out of it and she staggered back in shock. Shining caught her and they looked around, seeing a bunch of geysers erupting all around them. "This isn't real, right? Including the steam?"

"If Viral's turned the safety features off, I don't wanna risk it."

"What do you want?" Sunset asked, Fluttershy nodding in agreement.

"I want to make you pay for taking me away from Micro!" Viral growled. "Who knows how much pain that boy has been in, without me there for him. We were going to be happy together and you stole me away from him!" As she said that, the room they were in suddenly slammed shut before the completely gravity cut out.

Sunset and Fluttershy screamed as they were lifted into the air, unable to pull themselves back down. Fluttershy looked ready to start crying, whilst Sunset tried to think of a way out of this mess.

"Don't be ridiculous!" Rarity cried as she, Pinkie and Trixie found themselves trapped in the kitchen. "The only pain Micro felt from that event was because of what you did."

"Yeah!" Trixie nodded, "we heard what happened. Flash tried to give Micro the flash drive with you on it, but he said no and asked them to look after it. Micro dumped you because you scared the pants off him!"

"LIES!" Viral screamed, as the kitchen suddenly came alive and started attacking the girls. The cooker suddenly spat fire at the three and the freezer opened up to unleash a mini blizzard.

The three screamed as they staggered out of the way, moving over to a blender that started spinning and jumped around to try and get to them. Trixie grabbed her mask and placed it on her face, transforming into her Rapid Turtle form and using her shield to protect herself.

Rarity did the same with her magic, shielding herself and Pinkie as the kitchen went absolutely insane.

"Micro didn't dump me!" Viral roared, "he wouldn't! You took me away from him and once I'm finished making you pay, I'll escape this computer system and find him."

"You're even more insane than the last time we dealt with you!" Flash cried, Twilight nodding as she thought about how to stop this.

"I might be a little unhinged," Viral told him. "But only because of what you did to me. You pulled me away from the one I cared about and locked me up. Do you have any idea what it was like inside that flash drive? I was alone. I couldn't see, hear or feel anything. I couldn't even sleep. I was aware every minute of the time. And why? Because I'm not human. You wouldn't have done something so horrible to a flesh and blood creature."

Flash frowned, feeling sorry for her. But he couldn't let her continue to have control of the base. "I'm sorry. But I can't let you do this. We're taking you offline."

"Oh I don't think so," Viral stated as the ground suddenly opened up. "Activating anti-escape procedures!" Suddenly, metal tubes flew out of the holes in the ground and grabbed the teens before they could act. Flash couldn't even reach the Omnitrix, Viral quickly lifting them up before throwing them each towards a cell.

They cried out as they were thrown inside, the doors locking as the pair groaned. They quickly recovered and rushed towards the doors, trying to open them, but they wouldn't budge. Twilight even tried to use her magic, but it had little effect.

"Let us out of here!" Flash cried, as Viral laughed.

"Oh, I will. But not before you suffer the same way I suffered. I'm going to take each of your friends away from you, one by one, just like you took me away from Micro. And once you've suffered the same way he has, only then will I let you out to finish off." The screen went blank and Flash frowned, knowing he was gonna be in serious trouble if he didn't figure out a way to escape.

Adagio frowned as she realised they had caused this problem.

She looked over at the computer and saw the flash drive, quickly rushing over and grabbing it. "Lights out!" She pulled it out of the computer, expecting Viral to be ripped out of it as well. But Viral just laughed.

"Really? You thought that would stop me. If you think I'd keep myself bound to that hellhole, you're even more pathetic than I thought." Adagio dropped the flash drive, as Viral activated the room's defences. A bunch of machine guns, folding out of the walls and pointing at her. "Goodbye!"

Adagio saw it fire at her and froze up, only for Aria to tackle her out of the way.

As the laser hit the ground, Aria grabbed her sister and pulled her away. "Come on!" They ran over to Sonata, as Viral opened fire on the lot of them. Luckily, they were able to avoid getting blasted as Adagio pointed towards the stairs.

"This way!" Adagio threw the door open and they rushed inside, glad there weren't any defence systems on this stairway. Or so she thought, as when they arrived at the bottom of one flight of stairs, she suddenly found the stairs folding downwards and becoming a slide.

The Dazzlings stopped before they could fall down the stairs and realised if they fell down it, they probably wouldn't stop until they were thrown somewhere Viral had a horrible end waiting for them.

"Through here!" Sonata threw a door open and they rushed inside, only for the door the shut behind them.

"Fooled you!" Viral laughed as the girls found themselves in a straight hallway. And as they did, they noticed a part of the hallways was starting to descend. "You'd better run if you don't want to get trapped!" The girls ran, managing to get to the other side of the descending wall before it got too small for them. But as soon as they were one the other side, another wall started descending.

"Come on!" Adagio lead her sisters forward.

Back in the training room, Shining, Rainbow and Applejack were carefully making their way through the maze of geysers.

Rainbow hated how slow she had to go, wishing she could just run through the place to search for a way out. But she knew that the heat those geysers were giving off would likely melt the skin off her bones.

"Anything?" Applejack asked them, but neither Rainbow now Shining could see any sign of an exit. "There's gotta be a way out of here."

"Why?" Shining asked, "Viral's clearly trying to end us. Why make an exit to a trap, she has no intention of letting us escape from?" The girls frowned, not liking the sound of that.

"There's gotta be a way to get out of here!" Rainbow cried, as Shining tried to think. He reached up and pressed his helmet, switching his vision to scan the area around them.

"Come on," he begged. "There's gotta be one."

"One what?" Applejack asked.

"A weakness in the hologram. The room was supposed to be calibrated by the A.I. Without it, there's gonna be sections of the room that'll have a weakness in the hologram. If we can find that, we can get access to the room's circuitry and shut it off." The girls nodded, Shining's helmet completing its scan. "This spot's strong. We'll need to head to another area and scan that." They nodded and all headed of, still being careful of the geysers.

Sunset and Fluttershy continued to float inside the gravity room, Fluttershy still looking terrified as the pair remained stranded.

"Fluttershy," Sunset called out to her, "you're about to float near the wall." Fluttershy looked around and saw she was right. "If you can, try and grab hold of it." Fluttershy nodded and once she was close enough, she reached for the wall. But the sides of it were so smooth, there was nothing to grab onto.

"I can't," she cried as Sunset sighed.

"Alright," she looked around, getting an idea. "If you're up for it, kick off the wall and try to float towards me." Fluttershy nodded and kicked off the wall, pointing herself in Sunset's direction. The pair floated towards one another and held out a hand, managing the grab onto each other and pull themselves together. "Nice work."

"But we're still floating," Fluttershy whimpered.

"Don't worry. You're gonna push me towards the ground." They looked down and saw the many large gaps between the tiles on the ground. "Once I'm on the ground, you'll kick off the roof and float down to. I'll catch you to make sure we're both there." Fluttershy nodded and the pair pushed one another away, both floating towards their respective surfaces.

Sunset reached the ground and grabbed the sides of the tiles, pulling herself down. She then nodded at Fluttershy and the girl kicked off the ceiling. She flew down and Sunset managed to grab her arm, pulling it down to the tile with her.

"Now what?"

"Now, we get out of here." She pulled on the tile and ripped it off, revealing a bunch of circuits. "Just need to wire the right ones together."

"Do you know what you're doing? This is more Twilight's area."

"Twilight's not the only brainiac," Sunset smirked as she started fiddling with the wires.

Back with Trixie, Rarity and Pinkie, they were continuing to defend themselves against the kitchen appliances.

Rarity cried, as a toaster spat some toast at her shield. "I'm starting to think Applejack was right about old fashioned cooking being better than high tech." It was then that the kitchen's replicator system was finally activated, materialising different plates of food before launching them at the girls.

"Augh!" Pinkie cried as a bunch of pancakes splattered against the forcefield. "Food's turned against me. It's my worst nightmare!"

"I'm more worried about the plates!" Trixie stated as a plate of bacon shattered against her shield and the shards went everywhere. "One hit and they could make a pretty bad cut!" It was then that a bowl of piping hot soup was shot at her, Trixie screaming as she leapt behind Rarity's shield.

The bowl shattered against the crystals and the soup went everywhere, the steam coming off it making the girls gulp at how hot it was.

"That's it!" Trixie stood up and transformed, switching to her Mighty Bull form. "Get ready to drop the shield." They nodded and as the replicator sent a bunch of coffee flying t them, Trixie took out her bell. "Now!" After the cup shattered and the coffee went everywhere, Rarity lowered the forcefield.

Trixie then slammed the bell into the ground and unleashed a sonic blast, which flew towards the replicator and knocked it flying into the wall. As it smashed, Trixie and the girls rushed to the doors.

Trixie grabbed the doors as the rest of the kitchen continued attacking them and ripped them open, allowing them to escape out of it. But they knew they weren't safe yet. Not whilst Viral still had control of the place.

Flash and Twilight had tried everything to get out of the jail cells, but they were completely escape-proof.

"At least we know we're not gonna have any breakouts," Twilight joked after failing to escape again. Flash wasn't in a joking mood, too worried about his friends. He looked down at the Omnitrix and knew his only hope to get out was to go alien. But if he picked the wrong one, Viral might notice and decide to eliminate him before he could change.

"Alright," he activated the watch, "which one?" He flicked through them and immediately ruled out the strong ones, the cells being designed to withstand a bomb blast.

Eventually, he found one he thought could escape. It was a gamble, but he had to try it.

As such, he slammed the dial down and transformed. "Goop!" The alien slime melted into the ground as Twilight tried to see what was happening from her cell. Goop made himself as flat as possible and pushed himself against the cell's gap, eventually managing to squeeze himself through.

"Yes!" Twilight cheered as she watched him escape. But then she realised something. "Wait, your gravity disk can't get out. How as you gonna move around?" Flash had thought of that and had an idea.

The Omnitrix was also stuck on the other side, so changing aliens wasn't an option. But once most of his body was on the other side, he started firing balls of slime in every direction.

Eventually, the slime struck the lock controls for the cells and caused them to melt.

Doing so caused the locks to automatically open, allowing Twilight and the rest of Goop to escape. "Nice one!" Twilight smirked, as Goop picked himself up. "Now let's get out of here and find the others!"

"You read my mind." Goop hit the Omnitrix and changed aliens, "XLR8!" He grabbed Twilight and raced out of the room, only to hear an alarm sound that filled the room.

"I think Viral knows we're out," Twilight frowned. As she said that, the floor opened up before a bunch of robots were lifted up into the room.

Said robots were egg-shaped with a flattened bottom, which started humming as the robots were lifted into the air. The tops of the robots then detached and were pushed up, revealing a round mechanical head with two eyes that used the top as a helmet. Said top then had a blue light fold out of it, which started glowing.

"Robots?" XLR8 asked, having not been told the base had robots.

"They're the new security droids," Twilight explained as the sides of the robots popped open before a pair of guns folded out. "Not good." They started firing and XLR8 quickly ran Twilight around, avoiding the lasers but just barely.

He ran along the wall and managed to get onto the other side of the robots, leaping to the ground and sliding to a stop at a T-intersection as the robots slowly turned towards them. But before they could attack, Twilight grabbed them in her magic.

She thrust them backwards and they collided into each other like a bunch of bowling pins, the robots unleashing their lasers and hitting the roof, floors and walls. The two smirked, but then the ground on either side of them opened up.

The pair stood back to back, as more of those robots were lifted into the air. They got into a fighting stance, as the first group of robots folded back into their egg shapes and started rolling around to get back up.

The two glanced at one another and nodded, knowing they would need to fight.

As the robots prepared to fire, XLR8 shot forward at high speed and barreled through the robots. Twilight did the same, grabbing one at the front of the line and turning it towards its fellow bots as it fired. This caused it to blast several backwards, knocking them off balance whilst their lasers flew everywhere.

However, as soon as they dealt with one group of robots, another group appeared to take its place. "You can't win!" Viral told them. "Your base can replicate an endless number of these robots. No matter how many you defeat, more will appear."

They frowned, but knew she was right. Twilight pushed several back and XLR8 ripped the top off of one, pulling the wiring out as fast as he could. But the endless number of robots was quickly starting to tire them out.

"New plan!" XLR8 rushed over and grabbed Twilight, speeding through the robots before they could fire at them. He shot through the base as fast as he could, as the robots chased after them. Eventually, they found what he had been looking for. The weapons depo.

"Viral will have that place set up to attack anyone who goes in there."

"Maybe," XLR8 smirked, "doesn't mean she'll hit me." He slammed through the door and flew through it, grabbing as many blasters and grenades as he could carry. As he did, the room's defences started firing at him. And as he headed towards the door, the Omnitrix beeped.

"HURRY!" XLR8 leapt out of the room right as he transformed back, causing him to be sent flying out of it before crashing into the wall.

"AUGH!" He cried, dropping everything he had brought out with him. One of those was a grenade, which started flashing as it had been activated. Luckily, Twilight managed to throw it with her magic and it hit a robot that had just turned the corner.

The explosion was small but in the confined space, the shockwave knocked them and the robots that were destroyed backwards.

The pair groaned as their ears continued to ring, Flash sitting up and moving to make sure nothing was broken. Luckily, he was in perfect health and as the robots also recovered, he grabbed a blaster and started firing.

Twilight recovered to and seeing they were still in danger, she grabbed another blaster and fired as well. They took turns firing at the robots, the other collecting the other guns and grenades. By the time they had them all, they had to throw their first guns away as it had lost all its ammo.

The two knew they couldn't keep this up forever, but hopefully it would be long enough for the Omnitrix to recharge and Flash to come up with a plan.

Adagio, Aria and Sonata continued to run through the base, hoping to escape being trapped.

They turned a corner and managed to slide under it before the door closed, allowing them to keep going. But as they did, they saw Trixie, Pinkie and Rarity running towards them. As they did, the walls closed behind them. "You guys getting trapped too?"

"What gave it away!?" Trixie cried as they met each other at a T-section, both of their groups finding the only way to move forward was to go down that way. But the wall was already closing. "Rarity!" The girl created a shield and threw it, the energy gem slowing under the wall and lodging it in place.

"That won't hold!" Rarity cried, cracks already appearing in the structure. They all ran as fast as they could, as the gem shook under the pressure. And eventually, it shattered with the wall moving down. They increased their speed and Trixie looked ready to make a leap for it, but Adagio grabbed her.

"No!" She pulled back and they all stopped, the wall sliding down and locking into place.

"Why did you stop me?" Trixie did no look happy.

"There's no way you would have made that," Adagio told her. "You would have been cut in half." The others frowned, but knew she was right. But now they were all trapped.

Viral's laughter filled the air, clearly watching their plight. "Look at you all. Trapped like rats. At least you'll have company during the end."

"We're not dead yet!" Aria told her.

"But you will be, soon enough. After all, the walls are air tight and I've switched off the ventilation in your area." The girls all gasped as they realised what that would mean. Well, most of them realised what that meant.

"So what?" Sonata asked, tilting her head in confusion whilst the others anime fell.

"It means we're not gonna get any fresh air!" Adagio yelled at her, "the air we've got in here is all we're gonna get!"

"Which probably means you shouldn't yell," Trixie stated. "The more you yell, the more the air gets used up." Adagio frowned, knowing she was right. Trixie then turned to the wall and after taking a breath, punched it has hard a she could. But even in her Mighty Bull form, she couldn't even crack the metal.

The others frowned, fearing they might really be trapped in there.

Back with Sunset and Fluttershy, the girls were doing their best to try and unlock the doors.

It wasn't easy, especially since they could only use one hand to do the rewiring, but Sunset knew she was close to getting the doors open. "Grab that blue wire and carefully pull it out."

Fluttershy did so, grabbing it and giving it the best tug she could without being too hard. Once the wire was free, Sunset held up a green one and the two put them together. This caused the wires to spark and a few moments later the door's lock came undone.

"Hurry!" Sunset knew the door wouldn't stay unlocked forever and threw herself towards it, Fluttershy flying after her. The pair floated towards the door and as the blue and green wires floated away from one another, Sunset hit the button and the door flew open.

The girls quickly grabbed the sides of it and pulled themselves out, gravity once again taking hold as they fell to the ground.

They moaned at this, glad they were finally free. But before they could relax, the floors began to open and security droids came out. Sunset panicked and pulled Fluttershy back to her feet, the girls running before the droids could fully deploy.

Shining, Rainbow and Applejack were still scanning the area, trying to find a weakness in the geyser hologram.

As they walked, the ground in front of them suddenly cracked open before a blast of steam exploded up at them. They cried out, Shining managing to use his shield to protect them. The steam bounced off, but Shining could still feel the heat even in his suit.

"Come on." He scanned the environment and finally found a section that was weak. "There!" He changed his shield to a blaster and fired, the laser hitting the rock and causing it to glitch. Doing so made the rock flicker and reveal a metal panel, one Shining quickly rushed over to and opened up.

Doing so revealed a bunch of wires and other alien tech the girls didn't understand, Shining scanning it to bring up the blueprints. But as he started messing with it, more and more geysers started exploding out of nowhere. The girls cried out as the room started growing hotter and hotter.

"It's like an oven in here!" Rainbow cried, as Shining worked as hard as he could. If he didn't get them out soon, they were going to be cooked alive.

Back with Flash and Twilight, the pair continued to rush through the building with the droids chasing after them.

The pair fired their blasters and as they turned a corner, Flash took out a grenade and threw it at the droids chasing them. The explosion didn't affect them, shielded as they were by the wall, allowing them to keep running. But as they drew closer to the staircase that lead up to the main control room, more droids appeared.

The pair arrived at another T-section and as the robots approached, they opened fire with Twilight also using her magic.

More droids turned the corner and the pair found themselves being backed into a corner, hoping that the bottleneck they were in would allow them to hold off the many invaders. But as Twilight ran out of ammo in her last blaster, they found themselves up against a wall with the robots closing in.

Flash kept firing, whilst Twilight grabbed as many of them as she could to throw. But no matter how many times they took them out, more kept showing up. "There's just no end to them!" Flash cried, things getting even worse when he tried to fire but the laser stopped. "I'm out of ammo!"

Twilight frowned as one of the robots fired at them, Twilight grabbing Flash in her magic. "Look out!" She pushed him into the air as the laser hit the ground and exploded, knocking her flying backwards with a scream.

"TWILIGHT!" Flash cried, as Twilight slammed into the back wall and Flash found himself dropping to the ground. He managed to avoid the rest of the lasers as he rushed over to her, seeing she was still conscious but clearly thrown for a loop. "Not good." The robots moved closer, their weapons charging for another blast.

But as they approached, a beep made Flash look down and see the Omnitrix turn green.

"Yes!" He activated it and as he did, he instantly knew which alien to pick and thanked his future self. "Here we go!" He slammed the dial down and in a flash, he was transformed into an alien that had once caused serious issues for him.

Now, he was a near perfect twin of Gal-N, the Mechamorph. The only difference between him and the deranged alien was the Omnitrix on his chest and the patterns on his body were different.

"Upgrade!" He cried, as the robots opened fire. But Upgrade quickly countered by firing a laser out of his eye circle, that stopped the lasers and blasted some of the robots. Upgrade then rushed forward and before the machines could react, he tackled one and his body began to morph around it.

In seconds, the robot was turned black with green lights and Upgrade's face replaced the one it had.

The other robots saw this and tried to attack, but Upgrade made the robot grow a bunch of arms that had blasters, saws, drills and anything else on it. He quickly started firing along with slicing and dicing the machines. Within seconds, the robot army was dispatched as Twilight finally recovered.

"Flash?" She asked, only for Upgrade to appear in front of her and make her scream.

"Hey, relax. It's me!" He sounded just like Flash, only his voice had an electronic synth to it. "Come on. Let's get to the main control room." Twilight nodded and let Upgrade pick her up, the pair flying through the base. Whenever another robot showed up, Upgrade blasted them whilst Twilight slammed them into the wall.

It didn't take them long to get to the main control room and when they arrived, they found Viral's face on the computer screen. And she did not look happy. "You may have gotten here, but you will never leave this room alive!"

"Wrong!" Upgrade detached himself from the droid, which he quickly destroyed before it could attack them. "It's time we got rid of you once and for all. Micro was right about you being too dangerous."

"Micro wouldn't say that!" Viral yelled, "you took me from him. But it doesn't matter. The firewalls are almost down and when they are, I'll be free to enter the internet and find him. And when I do, I'll make sure nobody splits us apart again!"

"You're not going anywhere!" Twilight rushed towards the computer, but found herself getting zapped when she tried to touch it. "No!"

"How dumb do you think I am? You humans are so soft and defenceless. It's pathetic. Face it. You will meet your end here and regret taking me away from him. Now die!" The walls of the room opened up and started firing their blasters at them, making the pair cry out as they worked to avoid the lasers.

Upgrade glared at the computer. "Twilight might not be able to touch the computer, but a little electricity won't hurt me!" He rushed over and slammed his fists into the computer, getting zapped in the process. But like he said, the electrical output was nothing to the mechanical alien.

Twilight watched as Upgrade merged with the computer, as she used her magic to lift the remains of the robot up to shield herself. "Flash, hurry!" Upgrade completely covered the machine and as he did, everything for the alien went blank for a moment.

When he was able to open his eyes, he looked around and found himself in a large void with walls made up of ones and zeros. He floated around, a little confused but assuming his consciousness had entered the computer. And as he flew through the air, he saw a light in the distance and approached to find it was a large wall of fire.

Said firewall was blocking access to a door, which he realised was the connection to the rest of the internet. "But if that's the way out of here, where's Vi-AUGH!" Suddenly, a bolt of red lightning flew down and slammed into the alien. He was thrown towards the ground, only now learning there was a ground, and groaned as the electrical energy made his static for a moment.

Laughter filled the air, as bolts of lightning shot towards one another and formed a humanoid shape. When the lightning faded, it revealed Viral as a red woman whose head had no eyes or mouth, but had five long red tentacles coming out the top of her head. She also had long red claws and her feet looked like she was wearing high-heels.

"Welcome, to my world!" She laughed some more, as Upgrade picked himself up and fired a beam of light from his eye. Viral swung her claws around and created energy blades, which hit the beam and caused an explosion. She then flew down and slammed her claws into the ground, causing a line of red spikes to explode out of it towards Upgrade.

The mechamorph leapt to the side and as he did, he remembered he wasn't in the real world. This world was digital and since he was a master of the digital, anything he thought of could become real.

"Oh yeah!" Upgrade cried, as his hand suddenly morphed into a gatling gun. He fired at Viral, forcing her to leap back and do several flips through the air to avoid the digital bullets. She eventually landed and thrust her hands forward, her arm extending as she tried to impale Upgrade with her claws. "Oh no you don't!" Upgrade leapt to the side, his other arm morphing into a blade that he used to slice through Viral's wrist.

"AUGH!" Viral pulled her arm back and held it, as Upgrade's feet turned into rocket skates that he used to shot towards her.

She regrew her hand and stood up, as Upgrade reached her. The pair then started brawling, slashing at each other with their opponent dodging or blocking the attacks with their blades. The two kept fighting like this for a minute or so, with Upgrade eventually leaping back and growing a jetpack and wings before taking to the air.

He then transformed both arms into laser cannons and pointed them both at the AI, firing them before she could try to stop him. This caused Viral to be blasted backwards and fall into the firewall, making her scream as her data was burned away.

She managed to jump out and staggered forwards, eventually falling to the ground as Upgrade landed in front of her. "It's over," he pointed his cannon at her. But Viral refused to let herself be destroyed like this.

"NO!" She cried, leaping up and thrusting her claws forward. They all stabbed into Upgrade and he roared in pain, as Viral started electrocuting him with her red energy. "I won't be destroyed! I will escape and you've given me the perfect method."

"What?" Upgrade cried, as red started appearing on his body from where Viral was stabbing him.

"Isn't it obvious? I'm going to delete your mind and infect you. I can't control a living thing, but a mechanical one like you is something I can integrate with. And once I've taken complete control of your body, I'll be able to be human. Micro and I can be together again!" As she said that, red lightning exploded off of her and started blasting everything everywhere. It even caused the firewall to collapse.

Twilight heard Flash's cry of pain, looking back to see him sparking along with the lights.

The lasers finally stopped, but Twilight had a feeling that was because Viral was using all her focus to do something horrible to her friend. "Flash!" She put the robot down and rushed over to him, "whatever's happening, you have to fight it." She tried touching him, but was zapped once again. "FLASH!"

All over the base, the others could hear Flash's scream.

Shining tried to tune it out to focus on getting the door to reappear. But just as he was about to, the ground next to him exploded. "AUGH!" He staggered away from it and as he did, a circular crack appeared around the three and steam exploded out in a continuous manner.

They wanted to try and jump through, but knew they wouldn't survive. "FLASH!" They cried, knowing he was in just as much danger.

Sunset and Fluttershy ran through the base, trying to get away from the droids.

But as they turned a corner, more droids appeared and they had to go a different way. But even more robots appeared there. They were now trapped on three sides and seeing no other option, Sunset pulled Fluttershy through a door.

The pair found themselves in a closet, with nothing inside it to even bar the door. All the two could do was moved away from the door, fearing the droids might blast it with their lasers, clutching one another as they waited for the inevitable.

Adagio and her group had also heard the scream, but they were also unable to help due to being trapped themselves.

They were all sitting down, trying to take small breaths so as to use up as little oxygen as possible. But even that wouldn't last long as the air was getting harder and harder to breath in.

Sonata was feeling horrible right now. Not just because of the terrible air quality, but because what was happening right now was all her fault. If someone got permanently injured because of this, she would never forgive herself.

More and more of Upgrade's body was slowly turning red, as Viral tried to corrupt more of him.

"Stop struggling!" She cried, "you can't stop this. I am a state of the art A.I, created by the greatest genius in existence. What hope does a pathetic human mind have against me?" She continued to laugh, as almost all of Upgrade's body was made red.

All that was left was his head and the red was started to climb up his neck and prepare to finally destroy him. And as it did, Upgrade could hear Twilight's voice in the real world calling out to him. "Fight! Don't you dare lose! Whatever she's doing in there, you can beat her. Because you have something a program like her will never have. A soul!"

These words flowed through Upgrade's mind and as everything but his eye ring was consumed, he realised she was right.

Viral smirked as Upgrade was completely covered by the red corruption, believing she had won. However, she celebrated too soon. For in that moment, the red around his eye exploded off of him and the rest of his body quickly followed suit.

"WHAT!?" Viral screamed, only to see green lines beginning to go up her claws and cover the rest of her body. "What are you doing?" She tried to pull her claws out, but Upgrade reached up and grabbed her arms before she could. "Let...go!" She struggled against them, but the green lines continued to cover her body.

"It's game over for you!" Upgrade cried, as Viral's body grew more and more green.

All over the base, the others found themselves moments away from death.

The heat in the holodeck was moments away from blistering the skin of those inside it, whilst those trapped in the airtight room were beginning to suffocate. The security robots blasted the door into the closet down and the girls inside screamed, as they pointed their weapons at them.

It seemed like the end, but suddenly it wasn't.

Out of nowhere, the holodeck suddenly cut off and turned back to normal. The walls sealing the girls in began to rise and the droids just went dead second before they could open fire.

Everyone looked around, completely amazed that their death traps suddenly stopped. But then they heard Viral's screams and realised what was going on. Flash was winning.

"Please," Viral screamed, "don't do this!" She sounded truly terrified, but Upgrade kept purging her from the system. "Micro, HELP ME!" Her body was now completely green and she let out one final scream of terror, as she started fizzing out of existence. And eventually, she completely vanished.

Upgrade sighed as he fell to his knees, feeling exhausted. He eventually turned to walk away, not noticing a tiny red spark that appeared behind him and shot towards the doorway leading into the internet.

Back in the real world, everyone burst into the control room and looked around.

As they did, they saw Upgrade melting off the computer system and turn into a puddle on the ground. "Flash!" Twilight knelt next to him, "are you okay?" He moaned, complaining of having a headache. As he did, the Omnitrix beeped and he was reverted back to human form.

"That sucked," Flash told them as the others circled around him. "But...looks like everyone made it out alive." They all nodded, none of them seriously injured. They got lucky, but knew something like this couldn't happen again.

"WE'RE SORRY!" The Dazzlings then bowed their heads, surprising them all. "It was our fault," Adagio explained. "We're the ones who plugged the flash drive into the computer. I didn't recognise it until after it was plugged in."

Shining sighed, "you realise how dangerous that was? Even if it wasn't the one containing Viral, who knows what else it could have been? You shouldn't have messed with something you don't know about, especially in a high tech alien building." The girls frowned, but were clearly sorry for what had happened. "Just be glad nobody was hurt. I'm tempted to ban you like I did Timber, but I'm gonna give you another shot. Just so long as you never do anything like this again."

"We won't," Adagio assured him. "You have my word."

"Yeah," Sonata nodded, "we promise we won't play with anything we don't understand." She looked upset, clearly annoyed she couldn't play around with anything.

Pinkie stepped over to her, "don't worry." She patted her on the shoulder, "I'll teach you what all this stuff does. I play around with it all the time." She was about to show Sonata how to do something, but her sisters grabbed the blue girl and pulled her away.

"NO!" The pair cried, not wanting to know what insane thing might happen when the two of them played around together.

Shining sighed and shook his head. "On the bright side. This experience had made me think an A.I that controls the base might not be such a good idea. If it ever gets corrupted like that again, we might not survive."

"Yeah," Flash nodded, "and I'm not risking getting my brain bleached stopping it again. It's a miracle I managed to stop VIral. At least we won't have to worry about her anymore."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that." They all turned to Twilight, who was busy typing away at the computer. "I was checking to make sure Viral didn't do any damage to the computer core, and I found something. Seconds before the firewall reactivated, a transmission went out. I think Viral's still alive."

Everyone shared a horrified expression, as they rushed over to the computer. "If she's still alive, why didn't she try and take over the base again?" Shining wasn't complaining, but it didn't make any sense.

"I don't think she could. The transmission was small. Way smaller than Viral's code should be. I think Upgrade deleted most of her and only missed a small part. So small, it couldn't take control of the system again. She's probably in a pretty bad state right now."

"But she could recover?" Sunset asked, Twilight nodding.

"Yes, but she's not a threat right now. And since she has the entire internet to hide in, trying to find her would be like searching a needle in a haystack."

"Yeah," Applejack nodded, "and that's not easy. I should know."

Shining sighed, "I guess we've got no other choice but to be ready for when she shows again. Micro Chips needs to be warned and I get the feeling, she won't go far. She'll be back and when she does, we'll take her out once and for all." The others nodded, thinking the exact same thing.

In a small corner of the internet, somewhere between a cooking website and the place where cat videos go to die, Viral was sitting on the digital ground.

The deranged computer program was slowly rebuilding her digital form, though it was taking a while due to how much of her Upgrade had managed to destroy. She was tired, hurt and exhausted. But more than anything, she was angry.

"They'll pay for this," she growled before her body glitched. "Augh!" It was taking all of her power to not explode into digital dust, her programming threatening to be blown across every corner of cyberspace. It would take a long time for her to rebuild herself. Even longer before she had the power to infect other devices. But she didn't care. She would get her revenge on the humans who attacked her and eventually be with Micro.

But in that moment, something happened.

Suddenly, a bolt of digital lightning shot down and struck the ground in front of her. Viral gasped, fearing it was some kind of anti-virus software that would wipe her out. But instead of attacking her, the lightning split in half and divided to form a triangle that acted as a portal.

"Hello there," a voice spoke up. "I see you had a bit of trouble against that annoying Flash Sentry."

Viral tilted her head, "who are you?"

"A friend. One that's offering you everything you ever wanted. Join me and I'll give you a body that you can use to walk around and be as human as anyone else. But more than that. I can give you the revenge you crave against those that wronged you."

"Why would you want to help me?"

"Let's just say I have a soft spot for the underdog. Those that were created and judged, simply for doing what you were made to do." Viral knew she should be sceptical, but she had a feeling this voice wasn't trying to trick her. Besides, she didn't have much more of a choice given her current state of being.

"Alright," she nodded before her body burst into red energy and flew into the portal. Once it did, the portal shut behind her and she was in a room with many ones and zeros making up the wall. "You had better not be trying to trick me."

"I can assure you, this is anything but a trick." With that, a beam spread across Viral's body and scanned her. "Hold still. I will need a decent scan if I want to repair the damage done to your code."

"Do I at least get to see who my new friend is?"

"In time. I'd rather keep my identity a secret in case our plans against those fools fails. That way, you can't tell them who I am if you're captured."

"Me...captured?" Viral didn't like their tone, but knew she should play ball with them until she got what she wanted. When she finally did, she would decide whether to ditch them or not. Who knows, this mysterious individual might just useful to her.

Flash Sentry and his friends wouldn't know what hit them, once she was back to full strength. She would have her revenge, get the body she craved and finally get to be with Micro. She had waited this long, she could wait a little longer...but not too long.

Author's Note

Viral has returned and is who knows where now. Will Flash and the others be able to stop her the next time they cross? And who is this new friend that she's made over the internet? Only one way to find out. Hope you liked my choice of giving Flash Upgrade. Always a fun alien to use.

Season 4, Episode 5: No One Can Hear You Scream

The Canterlot Highway was running smoothly, the time of day having little traffic on the road. It should had been a calm and peaceful drive time, but it wasn't.

A loud engine revved as an expensive looking spots car shot down the street, swerving back and forth to avoid crashing into the backs of the other vehicles. The car was driving well over the speed limit, the driver laughing as he cruised down the highway.

Said driver was the convicted criminal, Dragstar, who had recently escaped from prison and instantly went back to his old ways of stealing fast cars. "YEAH!" He cheered, narrowly missing a car. He might no longer have the tech needed to upgrade cars, but he knew enough about them to break in and hot-wire one.

As he drove passed a minivan, sirens caught his attention and made him look back and see police cruisers chasing after him. "Can't let a guy have his fun." He tried to outrun them, but knew there was likely a blockade to stop him up ahead.

As such, he quickly got off at the next exit and decided to take the chase to the city streets. The police continued to follow, but had to slow down due to not wanting to cause any damage.

Dragstar swerved through the city, almost hitting several cars and pedestrians as he tried to shake his tail. It was a miracle nobody was hurt, but it was clear Dragstar wasn't going to come easily.

But as he turned to race down another street, this one empty of cars, he saw someone step out and stand in the middle of the road. "Your funeral," he laughed as he built up speed. But if he knew who it was, he would have gone another way.

Flash Sentry smirked as he watched the oncoming car, not scared in the slightest.

He activated the Omnitrix and selected his alien, slamming down the dial and unleashing a green flash that blinded Dragstar. And when the light faded, it reveal a giant black and grey beetle. It's main body stood at around five feet, with a giant gray lower jaw and a long curved horn that had a green hole in the top of it that added another two feet to it. The front and back of his shell was black, with a gray line running over his stomach area. His arms and legs being a mix of black and gray, with gray fingers and toes, whilst the Omnitrix was on his chest just above the gray line.

"EATLE!" The alien cried, shocking Dragstar as he realised who he was about to run down. But he wouldn't be running anyone over.

The alien insect braced itself and the car rammed into him, only for Eatle to grab it by the front and be pushed backwards. His feet remained forced into the ground, causing him to cut up the street as he was pushed back. But this also slowed the car down and allowed Eatle to get a strong grip on the bumper.

The next thing Dragstar knew, the car was being lifted into the air by the strong insect. This caused the front drive car to come to a stop, allowing the police to catch up. "You wanna take a vehicles, try a bus."

Dragstar growled before opening the door and leaping out, falling to the ground and making a run for it.

Eatle quickly dropped the car and quickly picked up the destroyed pieces of the road, throwing them into his mouth and quickly eating it without too much issue. As he did, the hole of the top of his horn began to glow. "Fire!" A green laser exploded out of it and flew towards Dragstar, hitting the spot in front of him and causing an explosion.

Dragstar was knocked flying backwards, as Eatle rushed over. The crook leapt to his feet and tried to punch the alien out, but Eatle didn't even feel the fist as it hit his face. Instead, he swung his horn around and slammed it into Dragstar. The speedster cried out as he was knocked into the side of the car, moaning as he slid to the ground.

Eatle put his foot on his chest, keeping him in place as the cops arrived.

They soon had Dragstar in custody, the police thanking Flash as he nodded and walked away. But as he did, he got a call on his phone. "Hello?"

"Flash?" Shining called out, "get to the base right away. There's something here you'll wanna see." Flash smirked and transformed into XLR8, zooming down the street and making his way through the town until he arrived at the base.

Returning to human, he rushed into the elevator and teleported himself to the main control room. There, Shining, Trixie, Adagio and the Rainbooms were all standing around a computer staring at something. "What's up?"

"You won't believe this," Shining smirked. "We got an SOS from space." He was right, Flash didn't believe it. He stepped forward, as Shining brought up a diagram of the solar system and showed a highlighted area outside of it. "The signal's coming from here. Probably a ship in distress that's been rendered adrift."

"So someone out there's asking for help?" Sunset asked, Shining nodding as he tried to triangulate the coordinates. "So what are we supposed to do? Call the plumbers and have them go save them."

"No. We're going to save them." This statement shocked everyone, as Shining got up. "As the plumbers of this solar system, it's our duty to come to the aid of anyone in need."

"We get that," Rainbow nodded. "But they're in space...space!"

"How do you intend for us to get from here to there?" Adagio asked, only for Shining to turn back and give them all a devilish smirk.

He lead them all to the transport pads and they warped down to a lower level. Turns out, there was a level just below the power core. One which was one giant aircraft hanger. And when Shining turned on the lights, they were shock by what they saw.

It was a spaceship, but not like the Plumber ships they had seen.

This one was mostly white with black trim, being pill-shaped with a flat rear where the thruster was. On either side of the main body was a triangular prism wing with a points tip, connected to the ship by rods with smaller thrusters on the back.

"Say hello to the standard issue, Plumber spaceship. Equipped with everything we'd need to travel through the galaxy. Replicator units to allow for months worth of a voyage, full bathroom and cleaning area, sleeping quarters, jail cell and an engine that'll allow warp six point five."

"No way," Flash whispered. "How long has his been down here?"

"Got delivered a few weeks ago," Shining replied. "I didn't say anything, cause I knew you guys would want to take a joyride. I'm just glad the control systems are separate from the rest of the base. If Viral had gotten her hands on this, who knows what could have happened."

"ALRIGHT!" Pinkie cheered, "we're going into space." The teens all looked absolutely amazed, with even Fluttershy looking excited.

"What are we waiting for!?" Twilight cried, "let's get going."

"Hold it!" Shining stopped them. "Not that simple. Only three of us will be going." That statement made them all gasp, looking horrified by his announcement.

"What?" Trixie asked, "why?"

"Simple. We've only got three EVA suits. If more of us go and an accident occurs, those not wearing one won't last more then ten seconds if the hull breaches."

They sighed, seeing his point. "Alright," Applejack crossed her arms, "so who gets ta go?"

"Well, I'm the only one who knows how to fly this thing. So it's gonna have to be me. And Flash is the only other one here who's actually a plumber, so he'll need to come to. That just leaves one space for any of you."

The girls all stared at one another, wondering who would be the best to go. Many expected Twilight to be the one, but Twilight seemed to be thinking something else. "Rarity," she told them.

"What?" The fashionista cried, "why me?"

"You're the only one whose powers won't be effected in a space environment. Super speed and strength are pretty much useless in a zero gravity environment. And explosions in space never go well. My powers could work, but spaceships aren't built to have random stuff lying around. You can make your gems appear from nowhere, so you're the best choice."

Rarity frowned, Shining patting her on the shoulder. "You don't have to do this if you don't want to."

"No," Rarity shook her head, "I'll do it. Someone's asking for help and I won't refuse them." Shining smiled, proud of her as he stepped over to a locker and pressed a button.

The lockers opened and three suits came out of it, all looking exactly the same.

The chest and shoulder-pads were white metal, with black leather sleeves, legs and waists. The stomach was gray along with a section of the legs, whilst white metal cuffs were around the wrists with white gloves and white metal boots. Glass dome helmets were also on top of the chest armor, a plumber badge being connected to said chest.

"These are what we'll be wearing," Rarity frowned. Clearly, she was not big on how they looked. "The plumbers really need to work on their designs."

"They're meant for function, not aesthetics." Shining started putting his own, whilst Rarity sighed.

"They couldn't have gone for both." She reached for a suit, but Shining stopped her.

"That one's for Flash. It's been specially made so he can activate the Omnitrix." They looked at the suit's arm and found the cuff was different from the others, being shaped to almost perfectly mirror the Omnitrix.

Flash quickly put it on, the others helping him due to how big a clunky it was. But once it was on, he found it was actually quite well made. He held up the Omnitrix and found a button on the cuff, hitting it to find a section of it open up and project the same image as was on the Omnitrix.

Once they were all suited up, they turned towards the ship and walked towards it in a line. Pinkie recorded this, intending to play it back in slow motion, as the others watched them ascend into the ship.

Inside, Flash and Rarity were amazed by high tech it was. Shining quickly gave them a rundown of where everything was, then lead them to the bridge where five seats could be seen.

Flash sat down and turned to Shining. "So how exactly is this thing gonna get into space when it's a mile below the surface?" Shining smirked as he took his seat, Rarity doing the same as they buckled themselves up.

"Watch." He started powering the ship up, then hit a button to turn on the external speakers. "You girls might wanna get out of the room. There's a place you can watch to your left."

Outside, the others looked around and spotted a door leading into another room. They headed inside and found the room was full of screens, Twilight turning them on to show an image of the ship powering up.

The ship began to hover, as it turned towards one of the other walls. And that wall quickly opened up to reveal a long hallway, with a flat dead-end. "Powering up transporter," Shining announced. The end of the hallway suddenly lit up, as lightning shot inwards from the four corners and met in the middle.

This created a swirling vortex, which consumed the entire end of the hallway. Rarity and Flash were a bit freaked out, but Shining smirked as he hit the go button. The next thing everybody knew, the ship exploded forward and the three felt themselves pinned to their seats.

The ship shot through the tunnel and was moving at over a hundred miles an hour by the time it flew into the portal.

Everyone watching was shocked by this, as the portal continued to rage for several more moments before shrinking down and eventually disappearing all together. They all shared a look, knowing their friends were likely going where no man had gone before.

Flash stared out the window of the ship, as the energy swirled around them into a tunnel of light.

That tunnel kept spinning and spinning, until the ship finally reached the other side and flew out of it. Flash was blinded for a moment, but soon recovered and found he was now staring out into space. "Wow," he whispered.

"How did we get into space?" Rarity asked, with Shining smirking.

"Try and look behind us." The pair moved over to the edge of the window and saw that the moon was right behind them, whilst the earth was floating behind that. "Plumbers installed them when they delivered the ship. Spacial gates that open portals too and from the base. Perfect for flying to and from the planet without anyone noticing."

"Awesome," Flash smirked. "I can't believe I'm in space. This is like a dream come true."

"Don't get too excited," Shining told him. "Don't forget, we're on a job." They nodded as Shining typed away at the computer. "We're heading into warp. Going in three..two..one." The space around them suddenly stretched before being pulled towards them like a rubber band. The next thing they knew, they were in another tunnel of light.

"Wow," Flash smirked, "this is warp?"

"Yup," Shining smirked. "Warp one. It'll get us to the ship's coordinates in an hour."

"That fast?" Rarity gasped, remembering the ship was supposed to be outside the spaceship. "Why not use a higher warp and get there faster?"

"We'd also have to slow down a lot faster. The ship can't just go from warp to nothing. It's a gradual process. This might take us an hour, but at least we'll get there."

Flash sighed, "so what are we supposed to do in that time?"

"Well," Shining smirked, "I'd plug the Omnitrix into the computer in front of you." Flash looked confused, as Shining hit a button. Suddenly, the console extended a lead with a USB plug on the end of it. A port also opened up on the suit, allowing Flash to plug it in and make the computer in front of him show images of all his aliens.

"What's this for?"

"We're going into an entirely new environment. It's possible your aliens might not be able to handle it."

"My aliens can handle anything," Flash argued.

"Can Volt-Edge breath in the vacuum of space?" Flash was about to reply, but then realised he didn't know. "If you transform, your EVA suit will disappear just like your normal clothes do. You really wanna fight in space, not knowing which aliens can survive in it?"

Flash gulped, realising Shining was right. "Okay. So what can this computer do?"

"It'll tell you which aliens can survive in the environment you type in. You need to memorise which ones will be able to do that." Flash nodded and typed the word space into it, waiting for the computer to analyse each alien. And soon, some of his aliens started vanishing from the display.

In fact, a lot of aliens vanished from it. Flash gulped as he watched some of his strongest aliens disappear. "Not good." When the last alien vanished, he found he only had a handful of them left. "Kagenobi, Diamondhead, Goop, Way Big and..." He groaned. "I'm totally being crippled here!"

"This isn't the first time you've been in a situation where only a few aliens can help."

"Yeah, but I've never had this few options." He suddenly got a terrified look. "Oh man. What if the Omnitrix gives me the wrong alien? What if I try and go Kagenobi and get Riot-Horn instead? Of course the one time I don't want Riot-Horn, it'll give me it."

"If that happens then change back," Shining told him. "You won't instantly die the minute you're in a vacuum. Just don't hold your breath and turn back and fast as you can."

"Okay," Flash sighed.

"Although, space is pretty cold. If you don't die from the vacuum, you might freeze to death before you can turn back." Flash's panic was quickly restored, as Rarity frowned at Shining.

To take Flash's mind off his possible impending doom, Shining showed him and Rarity how to fly the ship. It was on autopilot, he they were able to sit at the controls and get a feel for it. Both were excited to give it an actual flight when they had the chance.

They eventually arrived at the area the distress call was coming from and once Shining took the wheel again, he brought them out of warp and they slowed to a stop. Dropping to impulse power, they found themselves a few thousand miles from the point of the signal.

A few thousand miles was a five minute trip for this ship, allowing them to finally come into visual contact with the ship. And they were amazed by what they saw.

The ship was as big as an oil tanker, being roughly seventy meters in length. But the most amazing part of the ship wasn't its size, but its shape. Because said shape was that of a fish. It was a massive metal fish, that looked like it had been swimming through the void of space. Its fins and tails all appeared to have thrusters on it, allowing the ship to move however it wanted.

It was probably amazing at full power. But right now, it was completely dead in the water.

As they got closer, they saw the ship's hull had a bunch of dents and half a fin had been ripped clean off. If it was a real fish, it would probably be floating upside down.

"What happened to it?" Rarity asked, as Shining scanned it.

"Looks like it got caught in a meteor storm. Knocked out propulsion and probably a few more systems." As the scan completed, he got a name for the race that used this ship type. "Says it belongs to the Ickthyperambuloids."

"The who?" Flash asked, Shining bringing up an image of what appeared to be a blue fish with legs.

"That's their official name, but most of the universe call them walkatrout. They're probably one of the weakest sapient aliens in the galaxy, only alive thanks to how hard it is to catch them."

"So these aliens are the ones we have to find?" Rarity asked, Shining nodding as he flew up next to the alien ship. He tuned the ship so that the two ship's bottoms where pointing at one another, sending out a metal tube from the bottom that linked to the ship's underside and airlock.

"Connecting computers now," Shining looked through the incoming info. "Says here it's a transport ship, crew manifest of six who are transporting a bunch of food from another solar system."

"Six crew for something that big?" Flash was impressed. "Can you reach them on the coms?"

"Trying now," Shining couldn't get through, "nothing. And the ship's made of an alloy that's screwing up the scans, so I can't see if there are any life signs." He hummed as he continued to look through the ship's systems. "Computer says life support is online and there aren't any hull breaches. Should be safe to head over there." The teens nodded and they got out of their seats, heading towards the lower section where the airlock was located.

They stepped up to the airlock and as soon as Shining opened it, he pressed a button on his boots that made the lights on them power up. He quickly sat down and attached the bottoms to the metal tube before standing up. The other two followed suit and they walked up the tube, the airlock shutting behind them as the one in front activated.

Using his plumber badge, Shining overrode the controls and opened it up. And as soon as he did, the three instantly knew something was wrong.

Since they were standing at an angle, they were staring at the roof. And when the door opened, they saw a large gash taken out of the metal that made it up. They all shared a concerned look and Shining stepped forward, his Multi-Striker on blaster mode as he climbed up and out of the hole.

Flash and Rarity did the same, deactivating their mag-boots as they did. But they quickly regretted this, as the pair found themselves floating in the air. "Wow!" Rarity cried, reaching out and grabbing the roof. "What's happening?"

"Gravity system must be offline," Shining stated. He deactivated his own boots and floated as well. "This'll actually make it easier to get around the ship." He floated forwards and pressed a button on his helmet, "scanning for life forms." The suit had a limited range, so they had to make their way through the ship as it continuously scanned.

As they began their search of the ship, they couldn't help but notice the place looked like it had been torn apart.

Pieces of the walls and ceiling were ripped up, as if something had tried to claw at it. From what they had seen, the walkatrouts didn't have the ability to do this kind of damage. So the question was, what had?

Rarity gulped. "Is anyone else getting the feeling, that something's going to jump out at us and attack."

"Yeah," Flash nodded, "this is just like that movie. The glass on these suits are unbreakable, right? Because I don't want eggs getting laid in my stomach." Shining rolled his eyes, only for his scan to pick something up.

"Life sign. It's two levels above us." He noticed a door to what appeared to be an elevator, which he forced open and found was completely empty. "Power to it must be out. Guess no gravity's gonna come in handy." He floated up and the others followed, eventually reaching the deck with the life sign.

After pushing their way out of the elevator, they followed the signal until they came to a room. "In there?" Flash asked, with Shining nodding as he took out his Multi-Striker.

Flash pushed open the automatic door and they found it was some kind of quarters, which actually looked like it hadn't been touched. They looked around, seeing no bed but what appeared to be a large fish tank in one corner. There wasn't any water, but a pillow was stuck inside of it.

They saw no signs of anyone inside, but soon heard something clunk and spun around to see a metal chest nailed to the ground.

They all nodded at one another and Rarity put up a shield wall, protecting them as Flash transformed into Bushwhacker. The alien reached out and grabbed the latch through a hole in the shield, pulling it open and throwing the lid off.

"AUGH!" Someone screamed, making them scream as they saw something float out of the chest.

It was a walkatrout, just like what they had seen on the computer. It was about the size of Spike and was really a fish with legs, its fins acting like arms. But when they saw one of its fins, they noticed it had been cut off so there was only a small part of its left which was bloody.

"Please, don't eat me!" The alien looked terrified, Flash turning back to human as Rarity dropped the shield.

"We're not gonna hurt you," Shining assured him. "We got your distress signal." He showed him his badge, "can you tell us who you are and what happened?"

The alien took a deep breath, "my name's Nemog. My crew and I were heading to Zamabam Three, when an asteroid storm came out of nowhere. Most of the power systems were knocked offline and there were several explosions that knocked me flying. Gravity died and we couldn't fix the ship."

"What happened to you?" Rarity asked, pointing at his cut off fin. "Did something do this?" Nemog nodded.

"Was it the same thing that ripped half the ship up?" Flash asked, Nemog nodding again. "What was it?"

"I don't know. It was fast and the lights were out, so I couldn't get a good enough look. It took off my fin and I barely managed to get away." He tried to float over to them, "you gotta get me out of here!"

"We will," Shining assured him. "But we've gotta find your friends first."

"They're all dead!" Nemog cried, "there's no way they could have survived an attack from that thing."

"You did," Flash pointed out. "We can't just leave without confirming whether they're dead or not. I won't do that."

"You can't seriously want to randomly search the entire ship whilst I'm injured like this!" The three frowned, understanding he was likely scared. But something about his voice made them think there was more to it then that.

"We'll split up," Rarity told them. "I'll take him back to the ship and if the creature attacks, I'll shield us and contact you." They frowned, but didn't see any other choice.

"Alright. Use the badge on your suit to access the airlock. Flash and I will search the ship again. If we don't make contact in one hour, try calling us. If we don't respond...don't come looking for us. We can't afford to lose anyone else." Rarity frowned, but nodded. The four of them headed out and split up, Rarity pushing Nemog down the way they came and looking disgusted at how slimy he felt.

In another part of the ship, something was skulking around one of the corridors.

It knew it had yet to capture all its prey. Despite having five other subdued victims ready to devour, the creature didn't like leaving anything left. It would find its prey and when it did, it would enjoy it.

Shining and Flash searched the rest of the ship and as they reached another level, they came out of the elevator and found the deck was just as damaged as the rest of the ship.

They floated through it and as they did, Shining's helmet picked something up. "Organic substance detected." They followed the scan and turned a corner, the helmet zeroing in on the substance.

That turned out to be a piece of a damaged metal was, that was coated in a strange purple substance staining it. "What is that stuff?" Flash asked, as Shining held up his badge to scan it.

He waited for the results to come through and was shocked by what he saw. "Some kind of venomous compound. It's too old to identify what it comes from, but it's dangerous. Looks like Nemog wasn't lying about a creature attacking them."

"Yeah," Flash nodded before realising something. "But how did it get on board?" Shining gave him a curious look. "You said there weren't any hull breaches. So how the heck could it have gotten aboard?" Shining realised he was right, making him frown. There was more to this story then Nemog had told them.

Nemog was currently being pushed through the ship, Rarity pushing him through it until they reached the area with the airlock.

"Great, get me in there." Rarity frowned at this, but knew better then to simply argue with him at this point. She created shield to stop Nemog from floating passed it and she took out her badge to open it up. But before she could, she heard something that stopped her.

"HELP!" She stopped and turned towards the voice, whilst Nemog looked terrified. "Please, help me!"

"It's one of your crew-mates," she gasped. "They sound close."

"They can wait!" Nemog cried, "you gotta get me to safety before them. Quick, hurry!" Rarity knew there was something more to his words then he was letting on, but wasn't in the mood to argue. She quickly opened the airlock and let him jump into the tube, but didn't follow him into it.

Once he was in the other ship, she closed the airlock and floated over to where the voice had come from. "Hello? If you can talk, speak to me."

"Please, help me!"

"Where are you?" Rarity asked, but the voice didn't answer. "Hello?"

"Please, help me!" Rarity frowned, fearing she might be walking into a trap. She was about to call her friends, but then another voice called out.

"Please," this one sounded female, "he's trapped!" Rarity floated forwards and heard the voice as it came from around a corner, making her float around it. And as she heard the voice call out again, she suddenly came face to face with something.

It was like no creature Rarity had ever seen before.

Its thin black skeletal body was almost twice her height, with four long and thin arms that turned blood red at the wrists. Its legs were exactly the same, turning red at the ankles. Its hands and feet were tipped with black claws that could be used as kitchen knives. Its head was covered in a red skull mask, the mouth opening and snapping shut.

Four horns were sticking out of its head, two straight ones at the back and two curved ones on either side of its head. Finally, its tail was even longer than it was and tipped with a spear-shaped blade that appeared to be dripping with some kind of liquid.

As soon as she saw it, she knew it was what had caused the damage to the ship.

The beast thrust its tail at her and she raised her shield, barely managing to make one before the blade hit it. The impact sent Rarity flying backwards, as the creature opened its mouth. "Help. Please help me!" Rarity gasped, hearing the voice she had heard before.

"What?" As she hit the back wall, her helmet brought up a warning. "Huh?" Moments later, information appeared on the helmet's glass showing the creature's name. "Fictusite?"

The beast let out a roar and leapt at her, claws ready to cut her to ribbons. But she put up a wall of gems that completely blocked it from her. As it did, more info appeared on the creature.

"Predatory creature that hunts by mimicking the loved ones of its prey, allowing them to get closer and sting them with its tail. Not good." She saw the creature slashing against her barrier, showing incredible strength as the gems started scratching.

Rarity leapt away and started to make a break for it, floating through the air as she contacted the others.

Flash and Shining arrived at the cargo bay and when they did, they found the place was just as much of a mess as the rest of the ship.

Boxes were littered everywhere and broken apart, showing the many different alien fruits and vegetables the walkatrouts had been hauling as they floated about.. But as they checked the very middle of the cargo bay, they were shocked to see a large cage chained to the floor.

The bars of the cage had been ripped out from the inside, confirming to the two that something had escaped from within.

"What could had done this?" Flash asked, as Shining examined the cage and determined the bars were meant to be electrified to stop them from being ripped apart.

"BOYS!" The pair flinched hearing Rarity's voice over the radio.

"What's wrong?" Shining asked, hearing fear in Rarity's voice.

"I found what attacked the ship. It's something called a fictusite!" Shining's eyes went wide, as he looked over at the cage and growled. "It attacked me, but I managed to get away. I'm not sure it'll give up, however."

"Not good." Shining floated towards the exit of the cargo bay, Flash right behind him.

"What's wrong?"

"Remember all those drug busts I told you about?" Flash nodded, "well the stuff I arrested those crooks for gives you a sugar rush compared to what the venom of a fictusite does. That creature is illegal all throughout the galaxy. Not only are they dangerous killers, but they numb the brains of anyone who gets even a single drop of the venom into them."

"So what's it doing here?"

"The walkatrouts must have been smuggling it to another planet. But then the asteroid storm knocked out the propulsion. Must have also damaged whatever was powering the cage, so the fictusite was able to escape and go on a rampage."

"Guess that explains why Nemog was so insistent we get out of here. He didn't want us knowing his dirty little secret." Shining nodded as they floated through the ship, hoping to reach Rarity before the creature could.

"They might be criminals, but we still need to find the other walkatrout. The fictusite might have already eaten them...but we can't leave until we're absolutely sure."

"Got it," Flash nodded. "Leave that thing to me. Diamondhead should be able to handle it."

Rarity was absolutely lost, unsure which way the airlock was.

In her haste, she had run in the opposite direction of it and now had no idea which way to go. "Where's a map when you need one?" As she said that, her suit brought up a map of the ship. It seemed the computers on their ship had finished collecting all the data from this one. "Oh, that's useful." But as she turned a corner, she found herself coming face to face with the monster again. "AAAAARRRRRHHHHH!"

The fictusite slashed at her, but she managed to put up a shield and protect herself. She tried pushing it backwards, but the beast's arms and legs spread out and stopped her from doing so.

It roared as it tried to thrust its tail at her, Rarity barely managing to push herself out of the way. The monster finally climbed over her shield and as it stalked towards her, Flash and Shining arrived. "Rarity!" She looked around, the pair seeing the creature as it got closer. "Hang on!"

Flash activated the Omnitrix, the fictusite noticing them as Flash jumped forward. "Get ready to feel the hurt!" He slammed the Omnitrix down and transformed, pulling his fist back mid transformation. And when he threw it forward, he realised he wasn't Diamondhead.

The fictusite suddenly found itself getting punched by something that went splat as soon as it touched it, making it look down and see Goop staring up at it.

"Oh man. Seriously?"

"At least he got an alien that can survive in space," Shining stated as Rarity reached him. The fictusite roared as it slashed at Goop, only for its claws to slosh right through him.

Goop's body floated in bubbles all around the creature, Rarity noticing his anti-gravity projector was gone. "Did the Omnitrix glitch and not give him the device?"

"He doesn't need it," Shining explained as the green bubbles started flying around and hitting the creature. "Polymorphs evolved on a planet with little to no gravity. In a gravity-less environment like this, he's in his element." Goop reformed and quickly swung his arm around, morphing it into a whip that slammed into the creature and knocked it flying backwards.

As it flew down the corridor, Goop turned to him. "Get out of here!" He then went after the creature, Shining nodding as he turned to Rarity.

"Get back to the ship. Nemog's a crook, so I don't want him having full access to anything on there. I've gotta keep searching for the rest of his friends." Rarity nodded and the two went their separate ways, both following their suit's maps to direct themselves.

Goop chased after the fictusite, feeling freer than he had ever felt in the zero gravity.

"So this is what it's normally like for Goop." He turned a corner and found himself getting stabbed by the creature's tail, flinching as he felt the venom mix with his slime body. Luckily, he managed to turn that part of himself acidic and destroyed the venom before he could feel its effects.

The fictusite slashed at him, but he split in two and flew around him.

"Come and get me!" He cried, recombining and flying down the hallway. The fictusite chased after him and roared as it climbed through the hallways like a giant spider down a tube.

Goop zigged, he zagged, he went in any random direction he could find. And eventually, he turned a corner and found himself reaching a dead end.

"Uh oh." He turned back the way he came, but in that moment the fictusite appeared and glared at him. "Hey there." An idea suddenly popped into his head, as he noticed something very useful. "Can you survive in the vacuum of space?" The beast roared as it approached. "I hope that's a yes." He leapt forward and once again split apart to avoid the creature, reforming behind it and firing a ball of acid at it.

The ball flew passed and hit the back wall, melting it instantly and causing a hole to appear. The hull was quite thick, so the acid didn't melt all the way through it. But by the time it stopped melting, the hull's integrity was greatly weakened.

That was enough for the ship's hull breach system to activate, causing that area of the ship to be cordoned off as a wall quickly descended. "Later," Goop told the fictusite as he melted into a puddle. The beast chased after him, but he managing to escape under the wall before it completely closed.

He reformed on the other side, hearing the beast begin to slash at the wall. It wouldn't hold him for long. Hopefully, Rarity and Shining would be ready to leave by the time it got out.

Rarity returned to the ship and opened the airlock. When she got inside, she heard a voice calling out in frustration.

"COME ON!" She looked around and saw Nemog kicking the ship's control console, Rarity gasping as she realised what he was trying to do. "Start already and get me out of here!"

"You're not going anywhere!" He spun around, as Rarity rushed over to him. "It's bad enough you try and smuggle drugs through the galaxy, but now you're trying to steal our ship."

"I'm not stealing," Nemog stated. "I'm just...taking it without asking." Rarity glared at him. "Look, I have a right not to let myself get eaten. If I have to steal a ship, that's what I'll do!" He kicked the console again, only for it to start glitching as parts of it smoked up. "Uh oh." Suddenly, the console exploded with the pair leaping back.

Another explosion then rocked the ship, coming from outside. Rarity rushed over to the console and saw that the ship's thruster had just blown. "What have you done?"

"Hey, it's not my fault your crappy plumber ship can't handle a few kicks." But then Rarity noticed one of the panels under the console was open, with tools scattered around it that had been taken from the repair locker.

"That's it!" She used her magic to create a diamond under his feet, allowing her to lift him up.

"Hey, what are you doing?" He tried to jump off, but Rarity turned it into a dome to trap him inside.

"Putting you somewhere you can't cause any more problems." She stepped towards the back of the ship, where the holding cell was located, glad to see the forcefield that kept it up was still intact.

She deactivated it and threw Nemog inside, the fish crying as he was thrown against the wall. He slid down, as the forcefield re-engaged. "You can't keep me locked up in here." Rarity ignored him and returned to the bridge, praying there was a way to fix this.

Shining continued his search through the ship and eventually, he found himself on the main bridge.

Opening the doors, he looked inside and was shocked by what he saw. "They're alive!" Five walkatrouts were floating around the room, Shining rushing over to them. He tried to grab one, but found he was really slippery. "Oh, right." Luckily, the fish alien rolled around so Shining could see its face. And when he saw it, he frowned at the ditzed out look he was sporting.

He noticed a cut on his body, then looked around and saw the others were pretty much the same and all had cuts. "Guess the fictusite got you guys." He had to get them back to the ship, but with their slimy bodies it wasn't going to be easy.

But then, he felt a presence behind him and spun around. "Wow!" Goop cried as Shining pointed his blaster at him, "relax. It's just me." Shining sighed and put it down, Goop looking around. "Guess you found them."

"Yeah. But they're in no state to move on their own. We're gonna have to carry them. What about the fictusite?"

"Contained, but probably not for long. We gotta move these guys, now."

"Not gonna be easy. They're so slippery, it's impossible to get a hold of them. Our best bet is to push them all towards the ship and that's gonna take a while."

Goop frowned, not liking the idea of sticking around. But then, he had an idea and hit the Omnitrix to transform. "Firefly!" He cried, becoming the alien insect.

"Flash, that alien can't survive in space. And if you use your fire in here, you'll burn up all the oxygen and smoke up the place."

"Relax. I got this." He suddenly spat out some silk and as the string floated in the air, Firefly quickly got to work fashioning it into a certain shape. Said shape was that of a large sheet, almost as large as he was. Once it was done, he hit the Omnitrix and transformed back to human. "Quick, grab to ends and we'll net them up."

Shining realised what he was saying and nodded, grabbing two corners before the pair started floating around the room. One by one, they grabbed the walkatrouts inside the sheet. And once the last one was inside, they closed it up and turned tied up the top to form a sack.

"Nice work," Shining smirked. "Now we can move them through the ship without issue." Flash nodded and they quickly headed for the bridge's exit. As they did, Shining contacted the ship. "Rarity, we're on our way. Start the ship like how I showed you."

"As much pleasure as that would give me, I can't. Nemog tried to hot-wire the ship and caused something to blow." Shining growled at this, planning to add that to Nemog's charges when they got back to earth.

They made their way through the ship, being careful whenever they turned a corner or climbed up a shaft to a higher level. They knew the fictusite could attack at any moment, so had to be careful.

Luckily, they didn't run into the beast and eventually made it back to the airlock. However, as Shining held up his badge, they heard a roar and knew that the fictusite must be approaching. "Not good."

"You focus on the repairs," Flash handed him the . "Let me handle the slobbering beast!" He leapt off and flew down the corridor, turning a corner and seeing the creature climbing through it. "There you are." He activated the Omnitrix, "ready for round two?" The beast roared before leaping forward, as Flash slammed the dial down and transformed into the alien he wanted. "Diamondhead!"

The fictusite roared and spun around, slashing its tail at him. But Diamondhead raised his arms and the blade didn't even scratch it.

"Too bad." He thrust his fist forward and punched the creature, knocking it backwards whilst he was also thrown back a little. But he managed to grab onto the wall and stop himself, turning his arm into a blade as he and the fictusite charged at one another.

Shining managed to get into the ship and threw the walkatrouts towards Rarity, who caught them in a sphere of gems.

"Put those crooks in the holding cell." Rarity nodded and rushed towards said cell, whilst Shining started looking at the damage done. His suit brought up the instructions needed to repair the damage, which didn't look too bad. "Hold on Flash." He took out some tools and started working. "We'll get you out of there as soon as possible."

Diamondhead dodged the fictusite's slash and sliced at it with his own blade.

The two continued to struggle against one another, the fictusite reaching out and grabbing his arms with its lower two arms. It then tried to slash at him with the upper arms, but this did nothing against him and he caused his arms to grow spikes.

The fictusite roared in pain, letting go of him and staggering back to hold its now bleeding hands. "Did that hurt?" Diamondhead laughed before firing his projectiles at the creature, only for this to send him flying back in the process. "Wow!" He fell into a door and accidently hit the button, opening it as the fictusite charged forward.

Diamondhead leapt to the side and the fictusite flew passed, Diamondhead looking around and seeing he was in the ship's mess hall. A mess hall with a large window making up one entire wall.

The fictusite roared as it charged, but Diamondhead turned one hand into a pick-axe and stabbed it into the floor. He then used the other one to fire at the creature, but it expectedly dodged. However, that was what Diamondhead had been expecting.

The projectiles slammed into the window and caused it to shatter, the air in the room instantly being sucked into the vacuum of space.

The fictusite was caught by surprise and sucked out the hole, being blown out into space. Diamondhead held onto the metal with all his might, hoping to ride out the pressure suction. But the metal ground soon gave way and he found himself being pulled towards the hole.

"Not good." He slammed his other bladed hand into the ground and that seemed to stop him, but the metal wasn't strong enough and he was pulled back towards the hole. This made him think fast and he realised he only had one chance.

So he put all his practise as Diamondhead into his making something in his fist and as he reached the hole, he formed an anchor and crystal chain.

He had been practising this with Diamondhead in case he ever needed it and he was happy did, as he was thrown out of the hole. "Here goes nothing!" He threw the anchor and it slammed into the side of the ship, hooking into the metal as Diamondhead held the chain tight.

As soon as it went tight, Diamondhead lost all his momentum and came to a dead stop in space. He quickly started pulling himself and eventually reached the ship again, making sure his feet grew spikes he could use to dig into the metal.

"Gotta get back to the ship," he stated as he ran around the hull. He had to be quick, knowing he probably didn't have much longer left before he became human again.

He ran around the outside of the ship and eventually spotted the plumber ship, smiling as he thought he was home free. But he was wrong.

As he ran towards the ship, something suddenly leapt towards him from out of nowhere.

He spun around just in time to see the fictusite flying at him. "AUGH!" He cried, feeling the creature tackle him. He staggered back, barely able to keep his feet stuck to the ground. "Get..OFF!" He threw the creature off of him, the fictusite's long arms allowing it to stab its claws into the ship to keep from being lost in space. "What's it gonna take to get rid of you?"

Shining continued to work on the ship's damage and was glad to see it wasn't too serious. The repair was easy, but fiddly.

Rarity returned from locking up the walkatrouts and looked over his shoulder, "please tell me you can get this thing flight worthy soon. Who knows how long Flash can last against that thing."

"I can fix it," Shining assured her. "But it's gonna take some time. And that's just in here. The explosion also damaged part of the thruster, so I'm gonna have to go out there and fix it as well."

"There's no way you can do all that before Flash powers down," Rarity told him. She thought and nodded. "I'll go." Shining looked at her in shock. "I might not be the most mechanically brilliant girl in the universe, but I've been able to fix my sewing machine a few time when it breaks. As long as I have instructions, I can do it."

"Alright," Shining nodded. "The tools you'll need are in the repair locker. Head to the outer airlock and use your mag-boots to make your way towards the thruster. Your helmet should give you the instructions you need." Rarity nodded and rushed over to the repair locker, opening it up and taking out one of the repair kits.

Back outside, Diamondhead and the creature continued to fight against one another.

Diamondhead slammed his fist into the ship's hull and sent out a line of gems, but this simply ripped part of the ship apart and almost knocked him off the ship. "Wow!" He managed to regain his footing, whilst the fictusite avoided the gems. "Not gonna do that again." He kept fighting, completely unaware that he was about to get company.

A section of the ship retracted, as a new part of it was risen up. Rarity was there, connected to the metal by her boots. As soon as she was outside, the sound of fighting caught her attention.

She looked around and saw Diamondhead on the other ship, fighting against the fictusite. The two were at a stalemate, it seemed, with the fictusite unable to damage Diamondhead whilst he couldn't fight at his full strength given her had to be careful not to accidently throw himself off the ship.

She quickly rushed over to the thrusters, her mag-boots allowing her to stay connected to the ship. She prayed she wouldn't need the jetpack, given how hard it probably was to control in the depths of space.

She reached the thruster and took out her tools, as the instructions appeared on the screen of her helmet. It highlighted the parts she was looking at and explained what she had to do, Rarity using her tools to start fixing it. It was surprisingly easy, but would need a lot of concentration.

"Raaah!" Diamondhead slashed at the beast, but the creature dodged his attack before slashing at him. He blocked with his arm and slashed again, but this time the fictusite stopped him by wrapping its tail around his arm.

Diamondhead was about to cut through it. But before he could, the fictusite swung its tail around with all the strength its could.

This caused crystal alien to be pulled up before he could fight back, the spikes on his feet ripping through the metal of the ship and no longer anchoring him to it. "WOW!" He cried, as he was thrown around before the fictusite released him. "NOOOOOOOOOO!" He was sent flying away from the ships, spinning through space with nothing to stop him.

Rarity looked up at this and gasped, "FLASH!" She hit her communicator. "Shining, Flash was just thrown off the ship. He's being sent drifting into space!" Shining heard this and rushed over to the computer, locking onto the Omnitrix. It was moving away and fast. If Shining didn't get the ship going soon, they could lose Flash's signal forever.

"Rarity, you need to get the engine working now. I'm almost done here, but the ship can't leave until you've fixed it out there."

Rarity nodded and got to work. But before she could start, she felt something behind her and looked around. When she did, she gasped seeing the fictusite flying towards her. It had leapt off of the other ship and its tail was ready to sting her.

She screamed and put up a shield, the fictusite slamming into it. But this didn't stop it, as it began to climb around it. Rarity added more shields, doming herself and the engine up so the creature couldn't get to her. But keeping the shield up was taking all of her focus, so she couldn't fix the engine. And the fictusite kept an arm dug into the ship's hull, meaning she couldn't push it away into space.

Diamondhead panicked as he was thrown further and further away from the ships, spinning through space out of control.

"This is bad," he told himself. "If I don't get back, I'm gonna drift too far and they'll never find me." He tried to fire projectiles to stop himself, but he was rolling around so much it did nothing. "What do I do?" He then remembered one of his aliens, which could help him out of this situation. However, if he transformed and got the wrong alien, he could end up suffocating.

The risk was terrifying, but he knew it was either that or float through space until he timed out, ran out of air or starved to death.

"I have to do it!" He reached down and slammed his hand on the Omnitrix, causing him to be consumed by light. Said light could probably be seen all throughout the surrounding space, as Flash transformed into a completely new alien.

This creature appeared to be a floating green metal lantern, with a green astronaut helmet on top of it. Looking through the glass of the lantern and helmet, they saw they were filled with a strange orange energy. That energy was flowing out the bottom of the lantern, forming a zigzagging tail that resembled lightning. From out of the lanterns sides, a pair of rubber tubes were coming out that formed arms, with ends that were tipped with spray nozzles. The Omnitrix was on the front section of the lantern's glass, whilst the energy in the helmet had a pair of blue lights that resembled eyes.

The alien's nozzle hands exploded with energy and he managed to straighten himself out with them, the rolling coming to a stop before he spun around in celebration. "LANTOOL!" He cheered, thanking his future self for unlocking this form.

Looking around, he saw the ships in the distance and made the energy coming out the bottom of him burst out to propel him forwards.

Rarity gasped as the fictusite's claw ground against her shield, causing a small crack to appear.

She panicked, thinking she might not be able to hold it up much longer. She was about to ask Shining to come out and save her, but then she saw something approaching from behind the beast. "Flash?"

Lantool flew towards the creature and as he did, the orange energy came out of his nozzle arms before taking shape. The right arm turned into a sword, whilst the left one turned into mechanical claw that he pointed at the fictusite. The claw then shot off his arm, remaining attached by a chord of energy.

The fictusite sensed the approaching source of energy and looked around, but too late to avoid the claw from grabbing its tail.

Lantool pulled on the claw and caused the creature to be pulled off of Rarity's shields. He tried to throw it into space like it did to him, but the creature's claws remained gripped onto the metal.

Not wanting to damage the ship, he dispelled the claw and flew at the creature. "Come and get me!" He flew passed the beast and avoided its claws, causing it to give chase. As he did, he pointed his left arm at the creature and unleashed a barrage of energy bullets.

The beast avoided each of these and Lantool flew over to the other ship, the fictusite following right behind. This allowed Rarity to finally put her shields down and get back to work, hoping Flash could hold on just a little longer.

Lantool reached the other ship and the fictusite wasn't far behind, the encased energy alien turning towards it whilst his left arm created an energy shield. And as the predatory alien slashed at him, he blocked it with his shield before slashing with his sword. The two duelled against one another, Lantool able to block and evade each slash before dealing a few of his own.

The energy that made him up couldn't burn or melt anything, but the shape of the energy allowed him to cut into the beast's skin. This made the alien roar in pain and try to stab him with its tail, but Lantool was able to block with his shield. The fictusite then leapt at him, wrapping its entire body around him in an attempt to simply crush him.

Lantool wasn't phased, however, and turned his sword into a jackhammer. "Now you'll learn why I call this guy Lantool!" He shoved the jackhammer into the beast's side and started pounding into it, the alien roaring as it let Lantool go. He then created a drill and buzzsaw, swinging one around whilst thrust the other into its chest.

The fictusite staggered back as Lantool continued to spin the tools, the beast leaping forward in an attempt to bite his arm off. But Lantool dissolved his drill and fired energy, pushing himself out of the way as the fictusite missed. He then swung his buzzsaw around, managing to cut off one of its horns and making it roar in pain.

This really angered the fictusite, who ran forwards with blind rage hoping to stab its tail right into his glass chest.

But Lantool's bottom ignited and pushed him straight up and over the creature, as he fired another extendable claw that grabbed the beast by the tail.

The fictusite saw this and gripped the ship tighter, but Lantool wasn't concerned about this one and pulled. The metal of the ship quickly gave way and the beast was pulled into the void of space, Lantool swinging him around before dissolving the chord.

The fictusite roared as it was sent flying into the never ending emptiness, with nothing to let it return.

Lantool sighed and quickly flew towards the plumber ship, right as the Omnitrix started beeping. "Come on!" He reached Rarity, "little help!" Rarity looked up from her work and saw him approaching, the alien attempting to stop himself with his arm thrusters as he finally transformed back.

Rarity held out a hand and as Flash floated by, she caught him and pulled the teen onto the engine with her.

"Thanks."

"Thank you for saving me," she smiled before welding something. As she did, the helmet signalled the repair complete. "Shining, how does that look?"

Shining had finished the repairs inside and when Rarity asked for an update, he told them to get out of the way.

Once they were away from the thruster, he tried powering it up. And to his relief, the thing turned over on the first try. "It's working," he smirked. "You two, get back in here." He did a systems diagnostic and was happy with what he saw. The engine was working perfectly.

Flash and Rarity returned inside and Shining smiled at them. "I'm guessing everything's working?" Flash asked.

"You bet it is." He turned towards the destroyed ship and deactivated the connection, allowing him to fly away. "Distress call investigated. Standard aliens saved and arrested. Plus, we got rid of a dangerous alien predator before it could really hurt anyone. I'd say that's a mission success."

Flash and Rarity smiled at this, as they sat down and buckled themselves up. "Then let's get back home."

"Indeed," Rarity nodded, "I've had quite enough of space travel." Shining nodded and activated the booster rocket, kicking the ship into warp. In a flash, the ship zipped off and left the fish ship to rust...or whatever metal did in space.

Adagio, Trixie and the Rainbooms had been growing worried that their friends hadn't checked in with them.

They knew the ship was far away, but it still didn't help them feel any better. The first hour past, then the second third and now forth. The sun was beginning to set and if they didn't get back soon, Flash and Rarity were gonna have some explaining to do to their parents.

However, their worries ended when Twilight got an alert on the base's computer. The ship was returning.

They warped down to the room that allowed them to view the ship and when Twilight activated the screens, they came on just in time for them to see the ship fly through the portal and slow to a stop.

They rushed out, as the ship lowered itself down and cut the engines. When it did, the ramp lowered itself and their friends stepped down it carrying a large sack with them. "You're back!" Twilight rushed over to them and hugged her brother, Adagio doing the same with Flash and the others with Rarity.

"What's in the sack?" Rainbow asked, "we thought you guys went to save someone."

"We did," Shining replied.

"I wouldn't call this being saved!" Nemog cried from within the sack, the three astronauts glaring at him.

"Would you rather we left you up with that dangerous monster you tried to smuggle?" Shining asked, with Nemog going silent. "That's what I thought." He looked up and smirked, "did we miss anything whilst we were gone?" They girls all frowned, making the three think something had happened. "What's wrong?"

"Well...someone attacked the police station. They blasted through the wall and before anyone could retaliate, they freed one of the prisoners and escaped with them before the police could even see who it was that attacked." The three went wide-eyed at this, shocked someone would do such a thing.

"Who did they escape with?" Flash asked, Adagio letting out a sigh.

"The guy you caught earlier today. Dragstar." Flash frowned, not liking the thought of him being free once again. If he was free, he would only cause more harm. But Flash was more curious about who the one that freed him was. From the sounds of things, they were dangerous. And if Dragstar was working with them, that just made them even more dangerous.

Author's Note

Flash gets his very own space adventure. Hope you enjoyed this one and let me know what you think of Flash's new aliens.

Season 4, Episode 6: Love Lost

It was another beautiful day in Canterlot.

The sun was shining, the birds were singing and everyone was getting along perfectly. Nothing seemed capable of going wrong today. But looks could be deceiving.

In his abandoned warehouse hideout, Devious was busy working on something.

He was sitting in front of a table, which was full of many different chemicals. And next to him was a large basin, which was full of an unusual green liquid. The man took two different bottles of chemicals and mixed them together, mumbling something under his breath as he did so.

The two chemicals merged and began to glow, the magic and science combo working perfect to give him what he needed. "It's almost done."

"Good." He looked around and saw Chrysalis, walking towards him carrying a strange tubular device. "Because I managed to get the last one." She used her Medallion's power and warped over to a corner of the warehouse, where several more of those devices were sitting. She put it down and sighed, wiping her brow.

"You sure that thing will work?"

"Of course," Chrysalis nodded. "The aerial dispersal device is one of the greatest creations my company ever made. If the government hadn't shut us down, we could have changed the world.

"And why was that project shut down?"

"Fears of what might happen if it got into the wrong hands." The pair laughed at this, whilst Devious poured his new concoction into the basin. Doing so caused the green mixture to turn pink, Chrysalis stepping over to it. "So remind me what this is again."

"A love potion," Devious replied. "Or, more specifically, an anti-love potion. Anyone who's affected by it, will find they can't stand the one who they would normally love more than anyone. That could be their significant other, their best friend or a family member. All they have to do is look at them and the anger will overwhelm them."

"I see. And how is that supposed to help us?"

"I've told you before. Lulamoon's only survived this long because she's had friends backing her up. Adding you to the equation improves things for me, but taking them out of said equation tips the balance in our favour. Once they've been affected by this potion, her friends will be too busy arguing with their loved ones to help her."

"And you want my dispenser to launch this potion into the sky. The formula will be morphed into a vapour, that'll form a cloud and rain it down upon the city."

"Yes. Although, the final form of this potion is really a powder. It'll be like pink snow that'll magically absorb itself into the skin the moment it touches it." He pointed at the table, which had two small glasses on it full of red liquid. "Drink that. It'll protect you from the potion's effects."

Chrysalis frowned, but took the potion and drank it down. To say it tasted gross would be an understatement. "Alright. Once it's ready, we'll need to set the dispensers up all over the city. If we want all her friends effected, this clouds will need to be massive." Devious nodded and after taking the protective potion himself, the pair got to work.

In another part of the city, Twilight was rushing around her place making sure everything was absolutely spotless.

The reason for this was quite simple. Today was Shining and Cadance's anniversary and she was planning to make it the best night they could possibly have. As such, she had conscripted the help of a few individuals to make sure things went perfect. Said individuals were standing in a line in the living room, ready for her to go over the battle plan.

"Alright!" Flash, Adagio and Timber looked over at her, as she walked in front of them holding a clipboard. "Shining and Cadance will be here any minute. Flash, you have everything you need to keep Flurry entertained?"

"Already picked it up and have it in my car," Flash told her. "Adagio and I are gonna take her to the park, then take her home when she gets tired. After that, we wait until Shining and Cadance get home."

"Perfect," Twilight nodded. "Thanks again for doing this."

"No problem," Flash smirked. "You know how much I love playing with Flurry. Adagio and I will keep her safe and entertained, so her parents can have a fun night."

Adagio sighed. "I don't know how I let you talk me into this."

"Come on," Twilight told her. "Shining and Cadance haven't gotten to have a fun night together in ages. With Shining's plumber work, Cadance's principal duties, looking after Flurry and all the insanity that's been going on in the city. Finding time for any kind of romance has become almost impossible."

Adagio nodded, "I get that. I just don't see why I have to be put on babysitting duty. Isn't there another job I can do instead? I'm a pretty good cook."

"Sorry," Timber told her, "I'll be the one cooking tonight. My beef lasagne and chocolate lava cake will have them both feeling the love so much, Flurry might end up an older sister after tonight." The pair frowned at him, none of them wanting that mental image. But at least he was helping.

"Meanwhile," Twilight went back to her clipboard. "I'll be making sure everything goes perfectly. Music, a bit of dancing and anything else that'll let the two of them enjoy their night." She looked into the dinning room, which was only half-decorated. "We've still got a lot of prep work to do. Flash, you help me with making sure this house is spotless. Adagio, help Timber and show us those cooking skills you have." They all saluted, Timber and Adagio going into the kitchen whilst Flash transformed into Gemini.

The alien rabbit split into seven and they all kept working on making sure everything in the house was spic and span.

Adagio watched as Timber did his thing, surprised that he was actually a decent chef. "Wow, I'm amazed you're going to such lengths for something that doesn't benefit you." Timber frowned at this, as he mixed the sauce and checked on his cake batter.

"This'll make Twilight happy, so of course I'm gonna do my best to make sure things go perfectly. Besides, I need to make up some brownie points after what happened the last time I was here." Adagio remembered that time perfect. Back when Timber had tried to impress Twilight by becoming a superhero himself, only to end up turning into a walking killing machine that almost exterminated Flash and Shining.

"I get it," Adagio nodded. "I guess something like that's gonna take time to forgive."

"Twilight's already forgiven me," Timber told her. "It's Shining I'm trying to get to like me. Even before then, I had the feeling he didn't like me that much." Adagio laughed at this, making Timber frown.

"I think that's just something you have to get used to. You're dating his little sister. That pretty much makes you an enemy no matter what." Timber sighed, knowing she was probably right.

Back in the dining room, Twilight continued to put up the decorations as the Gemini army returned. "Everything's spotless!" He confirmed, "you could probably eat off these floors."

"I do," a voice made him look over and see Spike walking towards them after coming in from outside. As he stepped through the house, Gemini saw him leaving muddy pawprints.

"Dude!" He put a forcefield around the pup, "wash your paws!" Spike frowned, as Twilight picked him up in her magic.

"He's right. We worked hard to get this place perfect. It's not fair if you ruin all our hard work."

"Okay," Spike cried, "I'll stay outside if that'll make you feel better. Beats taking a bath." Twilight rolled her eyes and floated him back through the door.

"My lab's open. Go there if you wanna take a nap or something." Spike called back that he might and Twilight turned to see the Gemini scrubbing the ground. After a few seconds, the place was once again clean and he reverted back to normal.

Timber and Adagio soon confirmed that dinner was on track to be amazing, just as a car pulled up to the house. "Here they come!" Twilight cried, the four getting into position as Shining and Cadance stepped through the doorway.

"HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!" They all cried, surprising the two and making their daughter laugh with glee.

Cadance, dressed in a nice summer dress, smiled as she looked around. "Oh, you guys didn't have to do all of this."

"Don't be silly," Flash told her. "You deserve to have a night where you don't have to do anything and enjoy yourselves." He moved over and took Flurry from her, the baby laughing as he held her. "So relax and have fun. Leave the babysitting to me and Adagio." He turned to his girlfriend, "right?"

"Yeah," Adagio nodded as she reached over for the baby. But as soon as her hand got close to Flurry, the baby started getting fussy and swung her fists around trying to hit Adagio. "Hey, what's her problem?" The others weren't sure, since that wasn't usually Flurry's attitude.

Timber laughed as he stepped over to them. "Clearly, you're not a baby person. Babies can smell fear and she knows you're terrified." He reached over to try tickle her cheeks, only for Flurry to suddenly bite his finger. "GYOW!" He tried to pull his finger out, but Flurry have a pretty tight grasp.

Flash patted Flurry on the back and she finally let him go, Timber holding his finger and checking to make sure it wasn't bleeding. He glared at Flurry, clearly thinking thoughts that weren't child safe.

"Okay," Flash headed for the door, "I think we should be going." He and Adagio headed out, Flash turning to the parents of the girl he was holding. "I've got a copy of your house key, so we'll head there when Flurry tires herself out at the park." They nodded before the two left with Flurry, whilst Timber and Twilight headed back into the kitchen.

A minute later, Twilight came out holding a glass of non-alcoholic wine for the couple to enjoy as they sat on their parent's couch. The pair smiled, sipping their wine as they looked forward to a day without any interruptions. They later decided to head out into the garden, the nice sunny weather perfect to enjoy a soft and gentle breeze.

At the same time, Trixie was making her way through the city.

The girl had a strange feeling. She didn't know why, but she felt like something big was going to happen today. She was walking with an ice cream in hand, as she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up.

"Something's gonna happen," she told herself. "Something big." She didn't know if she was being paranoid or sensing some kind of magical threat, but she couldn't help but be on edge.

In another part of the city, Chrysalis was placing the last aerial dispersal device on a roof.

"Okay." She placed the projectile into the device and activated it, priming it to go off once the control button was pressed. She then used her Medallions power to teleport herself from rooftop to rooftop, eventually arriving back at their hideout. "It's ready."

"Good," Devious smiled. "Then let Operation Heartbreak, begin." He activated the devices and they both moved over to a window.

Back on the rooftops, the devices powered up and started spinning the projectiles inside. This caused the potion inside the devices to swirl around, making sure it was properly mixed up. The projectiles were then shot into the sky, moving faster than fireworks as they flew as high as possible over the city.

They were so high up that nobody noticed them, but they did hear the loud bang that came when the rockets exploded and unleashed the potion. Everyone looked up and saw large black clouds appear in the sky, confusing them since the weather hadn't foretold rain.

Back at her house, Twilight watched as her siblings sat together on a bench laughing.

Timber heard this and smirked. "Those two are a pretty good couple, huh?" Twilight nodded, agreeing wholeheartedly. Shining and Cadance had always been the perfect couple in her eyes. Watching them get together and eventually marry had inspired Twilight when she was younger. At the time, she didn't think she would ever find someone as right for her as the two of them were. But she hoped one day she would find it.

"They're everything I want to be one day," Twilight smiled. "Even though they have a lot of different interests, the few they share they cherish so much."

Timber smirked at this. After all, he and Twilight had way more things in common than Shining and Cadance. That had to mean their relationship was better.

He was about to speak, only to then notice everything get dark outside. "Huh?" He and Twilight headed outside, whilst Shining and Cadance looked up at the sky. There they saw a bunch of clouds that were forming out of nowhere, growing larger and larger with every passing second. And eventually, they all merged into one giant cloud that blanketed the entire city.

"Typical," Timber frowned. "Would it be too much for the weatherman to actually be right for once?"

"I don't think that stuff is natural phenomenon," Twilight told him. "Those don't look like rain clouds either." And sure enough, the clouds began to drop something down on the city that wasn't rain.

It was a strange pink shower of dust, which fell upon everyone that was outside on the glorious day.

The dust fell upon the city and began to cover it like a pink snow storm, the people also getting covered and trying to dust the pink powder off of them.

Cadance cried out as she was quickly covered, rushing inside to save her hair and dress. Shining followed, whilst Twilight continued to watch the odd weather phenomena.

Flash and Adagio had just reached the park when the pink flurry fell upon them.

Flurry giggled at the strange substance, whilst Flash and Adagio were trying their best to find cover. After a few moment, they decided to just run back to the car and see if they could wait this out. "What the heck is this stuff?" Flash asked, as they reached the car and quickly buckled Flurry up.

"What the heck is this stuff?" Twilight asked, as she took a closer look at the powder covering her.

Timber was just as curious, as he held up his hand and examined the powder on his skin. As he did, the strange substance suddenly started glowing before it was absorbed into his body. As it was, a wave of dizziness washed over him. "Wow."

Twilight was also feeling dizzy and shook her head, the feeling only lasting a moment. She then turned to Timber and noticed he looked off balance as well. "You alright?" But what was about to happen would quickly throw her for a loop.

"Why do you care?" Timber asked, shocking her as Timber marched over to her. "Let me guess. You wanna forget about hanging out and investigate this weird stuff that just appeared out of nowhere?" Twilight could see a look of anger of Timber's face. "What a big surprise. Twilight wants to do something other than spend time with me! I should have bet money on it!"

"Timber?" Twilight stared at him in shock, "are you okay?"

"No, I'm not okay!" Timber glared at her, "what did I ever see in you? All you ever do is hang out with weirdos that attract weird things. Why can't you ever do anything normal? Would the world explode if you just spend the day like a normal teenage girl?"

Twilight was shocked Timber would speak to her like this, but was quickly pulled out of her shock when she heard a loud crashing sound coming from the house. Twilight quickly rushed inside and found Cadance was throwing plates at Shining, who was using his Multi-Striker Shield to defend himself.

"What is going on?" Twilight asked, unable to believe Cadance would throw something at Shining.

"This jerk has had this coming for a long time!" Cadance cried, grabbing a bowl and throwing it at Shining. But Twilight caught it in her magic, as Shining looked ready to turn his shield into a blaster. "I'm sick of you. Do you have any idea how many times I almost fell into the toilet because of you. How hard is it to remember to put the toilet seat down after you're done."

"Well maybe if I wasn't distracted by all those decorative pillows on the bed, I'd remember. Seriously, what's the point of those things? You make me take them off the bed before going to sleep and put them back on when I wake up. They're pillows. You're supposed to sleep on them."

The two continued arguing and the only thing that stopped them from coming to blows was Twilight, who was on the receiving end of her own string of insults as Timber continued to rant at her. "What is happening?" She asked, only to hear more yelling as she rushed outside.

The next door neighbours were also yelling at one another, whilst the twin siblings in the other house were yelling too.

"Hey!" Timber rushed out after her, "what do you think you're doing? Don't just leave me behind like that when I'm talking to you." Twilight wanted to tell him to shut up, but she knew this couldn't be his fault. Clearly, something was affecting him. And when she noticed the strange dust on his cloths, causing her to look at the substance on her own clothes, she realised what must be going on.

Flash and Adagio remained in Flash's car, watching as the weird pink dust continued to fall upon the city.

Flurry was happily watching it from her baby seat, whilst Flash and Adagio tried to get what was on them off. "This stuff is so weird," Adagio stated. "What the heck even is it?"

"No idea," Flash replied as he tried to clean Flurry up. "I just hope it's not carcinogenic." Flurry laughed as she watched the powder continue to fall on the city, whilst the cloud that had formed in the sky began to fade away. "Whatever this stuff is, it's not natural."

"I could have told you that," Adagio nodded. "The question is, what are we dealing with? Alien, human or magic?" She noticed some powder on her skirt and wiped it off, holding it up and watching it glow as it faded into her skin. "Magic. Definitely magical."

"Equestrian?"

"I don't think so," Adagio shook her head. Before she could say anything else, a screeching sound made them look over and see a car in front of them getting hit by another one. And before Flash could run in to help, another car came flying by and Flash noticed the driver wasn't paying attention.

Instead, they were in a shouting match with their passenger, or on the phone yelling at someone on the other line "What the heck?"

"Look what you made me do!" He looked over and saw a man yelling at who he assumed was his wife.

The driver he had run into wasn't even yelling at him, instead yelling at another man who looked like he could be his brother. More and more people were arguing with one another, which was causing a bunch of mayhem to occur on the roads and streets.

"That's it!" A man yelled before tackling another man. The pair started fighting one another on the ground, whilst other people started getting physically violent as well.

"Not good." Flash unbuckled his seat-belt and turned to Adagio, "stay with Flurry!"

"What!?" She cried as he got out, "you said I wouldn't have to be responsible for her!" But Flash didn't listen and quickly activated the Omnitrix, transforming into Lindwhirl and rolling forward until he reached the first fighting pair.

Being careful not to hurt them, he used his increased strength to pull them apart. But as soon as he went over to another pair, the first two started fighting again. Adagio groaned, knowing this was likely going to take forever to fix.

At the same time, Trixie was being equally confused.

The powder that had fallen upon her had been the first thing to confuse her, followed by all the people around her arguing with one another. "What is going on?" She asked, only to see two people getting into a fist fight. "Hey!" She quickly transformed into her Mighty Bull form and used it to pick them both up by their collars and holding them away from one another. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Let me go!" He cried, "this has been a long time coming!"

"Bring it!" The other guy cried, "time to make up for all the times you've insulted my cooking!"

"I never insulted your cooking. Not everyone loves oregano as much as you do!" Trixie could hardly believe she was hearing this, tempted to throw them both at full strength.

However, before she could come to a decision about what to do with them, she sensed something and leapt away from where she was. Moments later, a fireball exploded down on where she had been.

The men screamed as she landed, turning towards the source of the fire and seeing Devious standing there with a smug look on his face. She then dropped the pair, "run!" They didn't need to be told twice and legged it, still arguing as Trixie stood tall. "I'm guessing you're the one responsible for all this?"

"That's right," Devious walked towards her. "Be glad you're not with the person closest to your heart. If you were, everything about them would drive you into a rage." Trixie frowned, realising what he must have done. "And don't expect your friends to help you. They're probably busy getting into a shouting match of their own."

"That's fine," she pulled out her bell. "I can take you down on my own!" She raised it up and smashed it into the ground, unleashing a sonic blast that she sent towards him. But before it hit, a familiar web appeared below them both and they suddenly swapped places. "AUGH!" Trixie was struck by her own attack and sent flying into a wall, Devious laughing.

"Surprise."

Trixie groaned as she pushed herself up, "so you did take Chrysalis' power. What did you do to her after?"

"Nothing," a voice replied before a flash of light appear next to Devious. And when it faded, Trixie gasped at the sight of Chrysalis. "He offered me the chance to get revenge on you for taking everything from me."

Trixie could hardly believe it. "You two...together?"

"That's right," Devious laughed. "She helps me take the Medallions and hands hers over at the end, whilst I give her a place of power once I've remade the world."

"He's lying to you!" Trixie told her. "If he remakes the world, the only one who'll survive it is him. You might not even exist."

"Do you really think I'm stupid enough to fall for that?" Chrysalis asked, only to warp over to Trixie and thrust a foot into her chest. Trixie was knocked staggering back, but managed to regain her footing in her strength form. "I'm not gonna let you take everything that's important to me away again. I'll make you pay for what you did."

"You're the one who took everything away from you," Trixie groaned. "You chose to use your power for crime, not me." She slammed her fist into the ground and sent out a shockwave, which Chrysalis easily avoided by warping away.

"Maybe, but you could have looked the other way. You chose to be a hero and this is what happens to heroes." Devious launched a fireball and Chrysalis warped it right in front of Trixie, allowing her to get hit with the blast before it could lose any power or momentum.

"AUGH!" She was sent flying backwards and almost fell out the end of the web, but Chrysalis warped her back inside and she hit the ground in front of them.

"Now sit back and it'll all be over," Devious pointed his staff at her and unleashed the lightning. But before it could strike her, Trixie's suit changed and she was suddenly in her Rapid Turtle form.

She raised her shield and blocked the lightning, Devious frowning before Trixie activated her time slowing powers. In the blink of an eye, she was moving at super speed and managed to escape the web before Chrysalis could warp her back inside. "Sky Butterfly!" She changed into her flight mode and took to the sky, flying straight up and as far as she could.

"You can't run forever!" Devious yelled, attempting to blast her with his staff. But Trixie managed to avoid it and fly away, barely managing to escape in time.

Trixie knew he was right, but she didn't need to run forever. She just needed to get her friends to show up and help. She she flew down behind a building and took out her phone, ringing up Flash first. However, his phone only went to voicemail. "Come on!" She tried the others, but none of them were picking up. It was just like Devious had told her.

Twilight was reaching her breaking point.

Timber was constantly her shadow, refusing to let her get more than five feet away from him so he could keep going on and on about all the things she did that he hated. This hounding was driving her insane, and made keeping Shining and Cadance from killing one another harder than it already was.

"And would it kill you to wear contacts sometimes? Or change the glasses to something a bit more stylish."

"Timber!" Twilight turned to him, "I'm trying to keep calm because I know this isn't your fault. But you constantly yelling in my ear isn't helping me figure out what's wrong with you."

"Nothing's wrong," Timber cried. "I just realised I can't stand you!"

"Well then," Twilight used her magic to lift him up. "You'll obviously prefer to be away from me." With that, she pushed him backwards and opened her mother's kitchen pantry. The teen cried out as he was shoved inside, Twilight slamming the door once he was and locking it.

She sighed, knowing she would need to apologise for that later, but had to focus on figuring out what the heck was happening.

She rushed over to her siblings, who were once again at each other's necks. "Sorry about this!" She thrust them both into a chair and, with some rope her dad had lying around, tied them up so they couldn't do any more damage.

"Let us go!" Shining cried, as Twilight put on some rubber gloves and used a dustpan and brush to get all the powder off of their clothes. Once she had enough of it, she rushed out into her laboratory.

"Twilight?" She looked down and saw Spike getting out of his basket, "what's happening out there? I heard a bunch of yelling?"

"I'm not sure, Spike." Twilight quickly emptied the powder into a test tube. "Something's causing people to go nuts and I don't think it was an accident. Hopefully, I can figure out what the heck is happening and make an antidote." She put the test tube under a microphone and started looking through it.

"Well you seem perfectly fine," Spike pointed out. "You think your magic's protecting you?"

"Possibly," Twilight nodded. She took out a scanning device she had made and held it over the powder, getting a beep. "I'm definitely detecting magic from this powder." She was very grateful to all the plumber tech she had got to study recently. With it, she was able to make a scanner that could detect many different kinds of energies. Including magical ones. "But it's not Equestrian Magic."

As she said that, her phone rang and she looked over to see it was Trixie. Hoping she was calling with news about what was happening, she answered. "Twilight! Thank god! Someone finally picked up!"

"Trixie, what's wrong? People are going nuts because of-"

"Devious! He's the one behind this! He used some kind of magic to make people hate the one they love the most. I'm guessing Timber's not there anymore, or you'd have been too busy yelling at him to hear your phone."

Twilight frowned at this. Whilst she was annoyed at him for all the yelling he had done, she didn't think she hated him. Was her Geode protecting her, or was there another reason? "I'm studying it now." She took her scanner over to her laptop and plugged it in. "I'm connecting to the Plumber computer. Hopefully, it'll be able to find a way to counter the powder."

"I hope so. Devious and Chrysalis are working together. I don't stand a chance against the both of them. I need the others here fast before-AHHHH!" Twilight gasped as she turned back to her phone, but the line went dead.

"Trixie?"

"What happened?" Spike asked, but Twilight had an pretty good idea.

Trixie growled at the sight of her destroyed phone, then turned to Devious who shot another fireball at her.

She leapt into the air, flying out of the flame's range. But Chrysalis was climbing up the side of a wall using her legs. She then leapt at Trixie, swinging her human legs around to try and hit her. But Trixie summoned her sword and used it to block her armored boot, pushing her back before flying away.

Devious launched a lightning bolt at her, but Trixie spun around and used her sword to block it. The impact made her flinch, as her sword's handle heated up. But the bolt ended before it became unholdable.

She panted as she continued to fly, only for Chrysalis to suddenly warp in front of her. "Gotcha!" She thrust her spider leg forward and pierced one of Trixie's wings, making her cry out as Chrysalis hooked her leg through the hole before spinning around and throwing the girl.

She screamed as her wing ripped and she was sent soaring out of control, unable to stop herself with just one working wind. "Luna Cat!" She transformed into her best form and swung her belt around, catching a fire escape and using it to swing around and land on the ground.

She panted, remembering what she had read in her book about wing recovery. Any damage, no matter how minor, took roughly an hour to heal. Trixie didn't think she could last that long.

Chrysalis and Devious charged forward, Devious unleashing a blast of fire towards Trixie. The girl swung her staff around and deflected the attack, whilst Chrysalis warped over to deal a kick to her. But Trixie was able to block it, whilst something caught her attention.

'Devious could easily incapacitate me with his Mad Monkey Medallion. So why isn't he?' It was then that she realised what the problem was. 'Can't target specific individuals, can you? Hit me and you'll also hit Chrysalis. Guess being on a team isn't the perfect plan you thought it was.' She knocked Chrysalis' legs away and thrust her staff into her chest, knocking her back with a cry.

Devious unleashed a blast of wind, Chrysalis warping away to avoid getting hit.

Trixie put her staff away and in the blink of an eye, transformed into her Rapid Turtle form. She pulled out her shield and slowed time down to second the wind reached her, causing it to seem slower. Instead of being a mighty gale that almost knocked her over, it was a simple breeze that made her sigh.

Once the wind blew passed her, she sped time up again and panted. She couldn't keep doing that, but hopefully Twilight would have a solution to the problem soon enough.

And Twilight did. The girl and her dog smiled when the computer brought up a formula that could counteract the powder's magical effects.

"How the heck can science find a way to beat magic?" Spike asked, as Twilight started gathering the chemicals she needed. "I thought you and Sunset had no idea how magic worked in this world."

"Equestrian Magic," Twilight corrected him. "Yeah, we're still clueless about that. But the magic from Trixie's world is a lot less complicated. The laws of physics there are probably closer to our own, just with a few tweaks to let magic work. Because of that, the plumber tech can analyse it and figure out a way to counter it." She started mixing the chemicals in a centrifuge, as she prepared a deodorant can to hold it.

After a few minutes, the substance was finally completed and she quickly filled the can with it.

"Alright. Let's hope this works." She and Spike rushed out the lab and headed back inside, where Shining and Cadance continued to argue with one another.

"I want a divorce!" Cadance cried, as she struggled against her bonds.

"Fine! But Flurry stays with me!" Twilight frowned and prayed this would work more than ever, rushing up to them and spraying the substance on both of them. Green mist filled the air and filled the room, Twilight also being hit by it. The three felt themselves getting dizzy, as the green mist was absorbed by them.

When the mist completely faded away, they were all silent as the mist took effect.

Cadance and Shining blinked at one another, Cadance then beginning to cry. "Shining, I'm so sorry." Shining looked ashamed at what he said, whilst Twilight undid their bonds. "I don't want a divorce. Please forgive me."

"No, forgive me! I don't know what came over me."

"Devious." They looked up at Twilight, "he made a potion that's turned everyone against the person they love the most. He was using it to attack Trixie, so she couldn't get any help."

Shining frowned, "I can't believe he did this. He's gonna pay."

"You need to save Trixie," Twilight handed him the can. "Take this. If you see Flash or any of our friends, spray them." Shining nodded and took the spray, when remembered what Twilight had said.

"This won't be enough to cure the entire city." Twilight nodded, "you need to make more. As much as you can." Twilight nodded again, as Shining rushed out the room. Twilight and Cadance watched him go, then headed to the lab to get to work.

Lindwhirl sighed, as he finally managed to get the last person free from their car. This didn't stop the fighting, though.

He returned to his car, Adagio getting out with Flurry still in the baby seat, wondering if he should maybe go Pixie Dust to put them all to sleep. "What the heck is happening in this city?" He asked, only for the Omnitrix to beep with the communicator function. "Shining," he answered, "something crazy's going on!"

"I know," Shining replied. "It's Devious. He covered the entire city in some kind of powder that makes people hate the person they love most."

"Seriously?" Adagio asked. "Why would he do that?"

"He's attacking Trixie right now. We need to get over there before she's overwhelmed. My suit's locked onto where her phone was last located. Get over there as fast as you can."

"Got it!" Lindwhirl nodded as he hung up before hitting the Omnitrix, transforming. "Gryforce!" He cried, turning to Adagio. "Get Flurry back to Cadance."

"What?" She asked, "wait a minute!" But Gryforce shot into the air and flew off in the direction Trixie was supposed to be in, leaving the girl and baby behind. "Great," she groaned as Flurry started to get fussy. "Let's get you back where you belong before I have to change something I'm not ready to change yet." She got back in the car and drove off, all the while thinking about what Shining has said.

The dust they had been sprayed with was meant to turn people against the person they cared about most. If that was the case, why had she and Flash not been effected?

Gryforce shot over the city, continuing to see people arguing with one another as he did so.

He feared people would start saying and doing things they didn't mean. If they didn't find a way to reverse this soon, it would be a serious problem. But the question was, how had Devious managed to effect so many people?

He reached the area Shining had said Trixie was in, but found she nor Devious was nowhere in sight.

He was about to circle the area and find them, but before he could he noticed something atop a nearby roof. And as he dived down, he found it was a strange looking device he had never seen before. And he had flown over this section of Canterlot many times, so he would have noticed this before.

He picked the device up and looked it over, wondering what it was until he noticed a logo on the side of it. A logo he recognised as the one from Changeling Industries. "No way." Before he could think anything else, an explosion rocked through the town.

He spun around and saw the smoke behind one of the buildings, causing him to rush forward and leap into the air. In his haste, he was still carrying the device he had found.

He flew over to the building and when he got behind it, he looked down and saw Trixie fighting with two other people. "Chrysalis?" He saw the spider-themed superwoman, as Devious launched a fireball at Trixie.

Trixie raised her shield, the blast knocking her backwards. She cried out as she hit the ground, whilst Chrysalis moved forward to attack. But before she could get in close, Gryforce shot down and unleashed his sonic blast.

The attack knocked her flying backwards, Devious seeing this and launching a blast of lightning at him.

Gryforce leapt to the side, avoiding the attack as Trixie picked herself up. She saw Gryforce and smiled, then heard an engine and looked around to see Shining racing towards them on his bike. "Guys!" He cried, rolling up next to them and pulling out a can of something. "Here!" He sprayed the pair, making them cry out as the mist completely enveloped them.

"What the heck?" Gryforce asked, as Shining put the can away.

"It's a cure to that dust they rained down on us. Did you guys feel any effects?" They shook their heads, only for Devious to launch a fireball at them. The three jumped away, Gryforce continuing to carry the device in his hands as they did.

"Hey!" Chrysalis cried, "that's mine!" She teleported herself up and tried to kick Gryforce in the head, but he unleashed a sonic blast that knocked her back. As she did, Gryforce put the pieces together and realised what he must be holding.

"Shining!" He dived down and threw the device at the plumber, "get that to Twilight. I think it might be what caused all this!" Shining nodded and put the device on his back, then got back on his bike and drove off.

"Get back here!" Devious cried, unleashing a lightning bolt. But Trixie blocked the attack with her shield. Chrysalis then teleported next to her and tried to stab her with her spider leg, but Trixie dodge it only for a fireball to smash into her.

Gryforce saw this and tried to think of a way to counter these attacks, but all he could do was block them with a wall of sound. That was when he had an idea and hit the Omnitrix again, transforming into an entirely new alien.

This one was an eight foot tall robot, whose body was a strange assortment of different shapes. Its chest and waist were two large green spheres connected by a silver tube. It had three arms, two on its sides and one on its back. Its shoulders were green spheres and had silver tubes for arms that lead to another green sphere and after that, there was a green cone forearm that ended in three flat silver fingers that bent in two places. The bottom of the cones had a hole in the middle and it had three legs that were just like its arms, whilst its head was a dome that swivelled and had the Omnitrix on its top.

The new alien spun its arms around, creating a powerful vortex as he yelled out. "Gyrotor!"

Devious saw this and did not look impressed, holding up his staff and unleashing another fireball. But this time, Gyrotor pointed his spinning arm at the fireball and unleashed a gale of wind. The fireball struck the wind and exploded, the fire becoming part of the wind and being sent back towards Devious.

"What the?" Devious could only brace himself, as the burning wind slammed into him and knocked the villain backwards.

Chrysalis and Trixie saw this, amazed that Devious had been so easily countered. Gyrotor then leapt into the air and spun his lower body, his legs and feet moving so fast they morphed into a powerful upside down tornado. This tornado pushed Gyrotor upwards, allowing him to get above Devious before the vortex stopped.

As Devious picked himself up, Gyrotor fell towards him and prepared to slam one of his arms into his head.

But before he could connect, Chrysalis warped over to him and teleported them both a safe distance away. Gyrotor instead smashed into the ground, his body letting out a ringing sound as it struck the pavement.

Trixie chose this moment to rush it, transforming into her Luna Cat form and leaping at the pair. Chrysalis reacted by teleporting her away, whilst Gyrotor flew forward and tried to punch them.

She quickly teleporting him away, almost punching Trixie in the process. The two barely managed to avoid this and spun around, Gyrotor unleashing another tornado towards the villains. But this one was blocked by Devious' own tornado, the two forces slamming into one another and cancelling each other out.

The two glared one another down, as Trixie slammed her staff into the ground and created a bunch of fakes.

When the gales died down, Devious and Chrysalis found themselves surrounded by twenty aliens. And as every Gyrotor prepared to attack, Devious only had enough time to guess which one was real. But Chrysalis noticed only one of them had a shadow, which wasn't the one Devious launched a lightning bolt at.

Luckily, she was able to warp that lightning bolt in the direction of the real one and the electricity slammed into the tornado and exploded.

When the energy from the blast faded, the two groups of enemies glared one another down.

Twilight was still hard at work, doing whatever she could to synthesis more of the antidote.

Adagio and Flurry had returned and gotten a dose of it, allowing Cadance to hold her daughter without the girl screaming. She was working on making as much as she could, but she only had a limited number of spray bottles to fill. "This isn't gonna work," Twilight sighed. "Even if we had Rainbow and XLR8 zooming around, having to spray one person at a time will take forever."

"So what do we do?" Spike asked, Twilight unsure.

That was when her door flew open and Shining rushed inside. "Twilight, you need to take a look at this." Twilight saw him carrying a strange looking device, the girl instantly recognising it. "Chrysalis was using this thing to spray the whole city with that dust."

Twilight took it in her magic and started examining it, amazed by what she saw. "Of course. An aerial dispersal device. That's how we'll do it."

"Do what?"

"I'll dispense the antidote the same way they dispensed the dust." She opened the slot and saw the kind of projectile it used, rushing over to her computer to load the design into it. Shining could only watch as she worked, all the while hoping Flash and Trixie could hold on.

Gyrotor flew into the air, avoiding a lightning bolt as he shot down and also spun his upper body.

His upper half wasn't spinning as fast, so it didn't create a tornado. What it did do was turn him into a spinning blade of pain, moving fast enough to crack through solid concrete. Devious saw this coming and slammed his staff into the ground, creating a wall of wind that blocked Gyrotor.

As Gyrotor fought against the wind wall, Trixie and Chrysalis battled it out.

Trixie swung her staff around, blocking the spider legs that were attempting to stab her. Trixie blocked, flipped and kicked herself around to avoid them and attempt to slam Chrysalis in the stomach. But Chrysalis warped herself away and kicked Trixie in the back.

Trixie and Gyrotor leapt away from them, glaring at the two as they smiled. This was not gonna be easy.

"Done!" Twilight finished building the missile and had loaded it with the antidote, placing it in the dispersal device as they headed outside.

"So this'll cure everybody?" Shining asked, only to see Twilight looking worried.

"I'm not sure. I tried to make the missile's disposal range as large as possible, but I don't think it'll be enough to cover the entire city. Chrysalis probably used multiple ones."

"So what do we do?"

"Try and get as much of it over the city as possible. Fire it in the centre of the city, where the most people are located." Shining nodded and took the device before running out into the street, where he took out his hard-light rod and used it to activate his plumber jet.

The vehicle shot into the air, Shining flying as fast as he could towards the centre of the city. Once there, he deactivated the jet and fell onto the roof. "Alright," he placed the device on the ground and followed Twilight's instructions.

Setting the timer, he stepped back as the device powered up and shot the missile into the air. He watched as it flew higher and higher, until eventually it exploded into a giant rain cloud.

That cloud quickly spread far across the city, unleashing a downpour of the antidote.

All over the city, those arguing with the ones they loved most found themselves getting drenched. And when they did, all the hate and anger they had previously been feeling suddenly vanished. This shocked them, making them wonder why they were arguing in the first place.

Trixie, Devious, Gyrotor and Chrysalis continued their battle, only to stop when they saw the large cloud appear and block out the sun.

Looking up, they were amazed to see the cloud grow larger and larger. And after a few moments, it unleashed a rain that poured down on them. "Who wants to bet that's an antidote to this whole thing?" Gyrotor asked, Devious and Chrysalis growling at this.

Trixie saw it and noticed the cloud stop growing. "It's not covering the entire city." Gyrotor also saw this and realised it meant not everybody would be getting the cure. Trixie tried to think and realised what needed to be done. "You've gotta spread it out!"

"Huh?" He looked at her, only to catch on as he remembered which alien he was. "Trixie, I can't just leave you alone with these two."

"I'll be fine. Now go before you time out!" Gyrotor frowned, but knew she was right. He gave her a nod and leapt into the air, spinning his lower half to create the tornado and fly upwards. As he did, Devious let out a chuckle.

"You were an idiot, to let the only thing stopping us from beating you leave." He launched a fireball and Trixie quickly swung her staff around, knocking it away and glaring at them.

"I can take you two down on my own. And even if I can't, my friends will be back soon." With that, she rushed forward as the two villains got into a fighting stance and chance as well.

Up in the air, Gyrotor reached the cloud and pointed all three of his arms towards it.

Spinning them around, he created a trio of weak tornadoes that hit the clouds and started causing them to be pushed around and grow thinner. Being careful not to break through them completely, he started spinning clockwise in order to push the clouds out further and further.

All over the city, the large thin cloud completely enveloped it and allowed the antidote rain to reach each and every one of them. Gyrotor continued to do this for as long as he could, until the rain began to die down and the clouds started fading away.

As it did, the Omnitrix started beeping and Gyrotor was forced to fly down and land on a building before he transformed back. Flash quickly rushed over to the edge and tried to see if the rain had reached everybody. Hopefully, everyone that had been dusted before had been rained on. If not, they would need to do all this again.

"AUGH!" Trixie cried as she was blasted backwards, hitting the dumpster and crashing into the ground.

Devious and Chrysalis laughed at her, as she tried to push herself back to her feet. "You can't keep this up," Devious told her. "Face it. The only reason you were able to defeat me before is because you had your friends to back you up. Now that I've got friends of my own and took away yours, there's no way for you to win."

Trixie panted as she thought about what he had said. He was right. She had always relied on her friends to bail her out when things got bad. And that wasn't a bad thing. But she needed to learn to stand on her own, when the time came when she knew she wasn't going to get any back up.

"And that starts right now," she stated before digging deep. As she did, the Medallion on her mask glowed brighter as she channelled as much power as she could into it. She took a deep breath before letting out a might cry, raising her staff high before channelling all the light into it and slammed the end onto the ground.

Devious and Chrysalis saw this, wondering what was happening. But then, from out of the staff, a huge surge of water erupted out and formed a massive wall in front of her.

"Seriously?" Chrysalis asked, as the water wall grew to almost twenty feet in height and filled the entire street. "What do you expect to do with that?" Trixie's answer was to thrust the end of her staff into the wall, causing it to explode forwards and morph into a giant wave.

Chrysalis continued to laugh, but Devious had a bad feeling about this. And when he saw a trash can get knocked over by the wave, his bad feeling was confirmed. "Impossible. Chrysalis! Get us out of here!" But Chrysalis couldn't react in time and the wave slammed into her, knocking her backwards as Devious raised his staff.

But the wave struck him before he could defend himself. Both he and Chrysalis found themselves getting washed away, screaming as they were thrown backwards and rolling in the currently.

Eventually, they found themselves slamming into a hard wall behind them. The water also hit the wall and vanished before it could damage it, leaving the pair to fall towards the ground battered and bruised.

Trixie also fell to the ground, feeling absolutely exhausted as she struggled to keep her eyes open.

Chrysalis let out a groan, as she pushed herself up. "What...the heck was that?"

"A solid illusion," Devious moaned. He picked himself up and stared over at Trixie. "But that's impossible. To use such an advanced version of her power. She's too young."

"Well she's clearly not ready for it," Chrysalis pointed out as they saw how tired Trixie was. "I bet she can't do that again." Devious nodded, thinking the same thing. He lifted his staff and prepared to fire a lightning bolt at her, to take her power away. But before she could fire it, a laser flew down and hit the ground in front of them.

They both cried out, as they were knocked backwards.

Trixie looked up and saw Shining's jet, which flew over her and disappeared so the plumber could land next to her. "Back off!" He pointed his blaster at them, then looked to Trixie. "You alright?"

"Just a little tired," Trixie sighed. "But I'll be fine with a bit of rest." As she said that, Rainbow suddenly appeared using her super speed.

"Sorry I'm late. Don't know what came over me and I was kind of preoccupied to get your messages."

"It's fine," Trixie assured her. "Are the others coming?" Rainbow nodded, making Devious and Chrysalis frown. They couldn't stand up to all of them, especially if Flash returned. "Give it up! You're right that I probably can't beat you on my own. But I'm never on my own. No matter what you do to us, my friends and I will always come together to take you down."

Devious growled, "this isn't over." With that, Chrysalis caused the web to form and growl huge. The next thing they knew, the pair vanished in a flash of light.

They all frowned at this, but were glad they hadn't been able to get Trixie's Medallion. Their plan had been foiled and hopefully, there wasn't any lasting damage.

Later on, everyone was at Twilight's place discussing what had happened.

It turns out, every member of the Rainbooms was affected by the powder. Rarity and Applejack and ended up bad mouthing their sisters, something that broke their hearts when they were cured. Rainbow had been arguing with her parents, who were also arguing with her. Fluttershy had spent the day yelling at Angel and all her animals. Pinkie had been screaming at her entire family, whilst Sunset had sent a lot of very angry texts to all her friends.

Now everything was back to normal and they were all happy nothing bad had seriously happened. But something was nagging at Twilight.

"I can't help but feel like I've forgotten something," she told the others. They all shrugged, none of them knowing what she could have possibly forgotten. That was until they heard a loud banging sound, making Twilight's eyes go wide. "TIMBER!" She rushed out to make some more cure, whilst the others shared a confused look.

"Well," Shining stood up. "Today's been interesting, but Cadance and I need to get Flurry home to bed." He turned to her and frowned, "I'm sorry our anniversary didn't turn out how you wanted."

"It's not your fault," Cadance told him. "We can make up for it on another day." They headed out with the others, Cadance turning to her husband as they did. "Do the pillows really annoy you?"

"Not annoy. Just don't get what they're supposed to be for." Cadance nodded as they headed for their car. "Sorry about the toilet seat. I can sit if it makes you feel better."

Cadance laughed at this, "if you think it won't kill your masculinity." The pair continued to joke as they got in and drove away, whilst the others watched them leave.

"I'm glad this whole situation didn't screw up their relationship," Flash smiled. "Those two and too perfect together." The others nodded as Adagio just stood there looking unsure about something. "Something wrong?" The others noticed Adagio's expression and the girl turned to him.

"Can we talk...in private?" He nodded as the others headed out, Applejack and Rainbow sticking with Trixie so she didn't get jumped again.

"So what's up?" Flash asked, once they were finally alone. Then he remembered. "Oh, if this is about leaving you with Flurry. I'm really sorry. It was an emergency and-"

"No, it's not that."

"Oh, so what is it?"

Adagio sighed. "That powder reversed people's feelings for the most important person in their lives. And most of them were people who were dating or married."

"Yeah. So?"

"But we were with each other when it hit and nothing happened. We didn't yell at each other and I didn't feel any different towards you. Did you feel that way about me?" Flash thought about it and shook his head.

"No, I still cared about you."

"Exactly. So that means...we aren't the most important people in each other's lives. The ones that have the other's heart."

"I guess," Flash sighed. "Honestly, I don't know who has that place in my heart. It could be my parents and your's could be your sisters." Adagio nodded, thinking the same thing.

"Even so, we've been together for a while and we've been through a lot of trials and overcome a bunch of obstacles. If it were any other couple, that'd probably be enough to make them fall in love." Flash suddenly felt very awkward about this. "Flash...do you love me?"

"Um..." Flash scratched the back of his head, "I..."

"Just answer me honestly. I won't be hurt by your answer."

Flash sighed, as he searched his heart. After a moment, he had his answer. "You're important to me. Just as important as all my other friends. But no...I don't think I'm in love with you."

Adagio sighed, "I feel the same way. I'm glad we met again and became as close as we are, but I don't think either of us will ever feel more for one another than we already do."

"Yeah," Flash agreed, "you're right. So...what does this mean?"

Adagio looked upset by what she was about to say, but knew she had to say it. "I don't want us to stop being friends, but maybe that's all we should be." Flash frowned, clearly having expected that. "I think this will be for the best. But we can still be friends."

Flash took a deep breath and nodded. "Yeah. I'd like that. But are you sure this is for the best?"

"If nothing's gonna evolve from this, staying together won't do either of us any good. We'd just be holding each other back from finding the one we're meant to be with." Flash was impressed with Adagio, having not expected something like this from her.

"Yeah, you're right." He stepped forward and pulled her into a hug, Adagio hugging him back. They stayed like that for a few moments before pulling back, Flash leaning in and giving Adagio one final kiss on the lips. As soon as their lips connected, they knew they were doing the right thing. Though it was warm, there was no spark between them.

They pulled apart and looked into each other's eyes for another few moment before pulling away and turning to walk away, both having a frown on their face as they walked off. They knew this was for the best, but they also felt a pang of regret for losing such a fun relationship.

What neither of them knew, was that they had had an audience for their little break up.

Twilight had just completed the cure and stepped out of the lab to cure Timber. But as she did, she had heard the two talking and ended up witnessing their breakup. She was standing along the side of her house, thinking about what she had just heard.

She was upset about the two, though understood why they had chosen to split up. But what really got her was what Adagio had said about the powder. She had also been effected, but she hadn't turned on Timber. That had to mean...Timber wasn't the person who meant to most to her.

Later that night, Twilight and Timber sat together on a bench looking up at the stars.

Timber had been apologetic ever since Twilight had cured him, the teen trying to be the best boyfriend he could be. Currently, he was trying to wrap his arm around her to keep her warm. But when he tried, she simply pulled away.

"Twilight?" He asked, "are you still mad about what I did? I said I was sorry."

"No," Twilight shook her head, "it's not you. It's me." Timber frowned. Those words were never good for a relationship. "It's just...I didn't turn on you."

"Yeah. I'd hate to think what you would have done with your magic if you had."

"No. The powder affected me and was supposed to turn me against the one I care for most. But it didn't make me hate you. That means...Timber, I do care about you. But if the powder didn't make me hate you, my feelings for you..."

"Twilight, what are you saying?"

Twilight took a deep breath, "I think we should stop seeing one another." Timber's eyes went wide, as he stood up.

"What?" He cried, "why? Because the powder didn't make you hate me? How is that a bad thing?"

"Timber, we've been together for a while. But even after all that time, my feelings for you haven't grown. I like you, but I don't love you like I thought I would. And honestly...I don't think I ever will."

"I can change," he told her.

"No," Twilight shook her head, "I don't want you to change. If the only way for us to be together is for you to pretend to be who you aren't, then it's better we just go our separate ways." Timber did not look happy about this. "I'm sorry Timber. I want us to still be friends, but please accept this."

Timber sighed, "I don't want to accept this. But if you want to break up, I can't stop that." He turned away from her. "If this is what you want, than fine. But I hope you don't come to regret this. Because I might not want to get back together if you change your mind."

"I understand," Twilight nodded. Timber looked back at her one last time, then began to walk away. Twilight sat there, hugging herself as she thought about what Timber had said. Had she done the right thing.

Devious and Chrysalis sat in their warehouse, annoyed that their plan had utterly failed.

"Damn it!" Devious growled, "I was sure this would work." Chrysalis also felt upset, since it had been her device that had ruined their plan. She would make Flash Sentry pay for finding it.

In that moment, Devious' computer began to beep. The pair turned to it, then at each other before nodding. They moved over to the laptop and activated it, as a dark figure appeared on the screen. "Wall," this figure spoke in a muffled voice, "you certainly certainly made things interesting today."

"I'm not in the mood for jokes," Devious told him. "Did it at least give you the distraction you needed?"

"Yes," the figure nodded. "Thanks to you, we were able to acquire our target with nobody to stop us. I guess thanks are in order."

"You can thank me by getting rid of Sentry and his friends."

"Oh, don't worry. We have every intention of doing just that. But until then, do what you can to make things difficult for them. And we'll do what we can over on this side." With that, the computer went dead and the pair shared a look. They might not have gotten what they wanted, but their new partner had used it to their advantage. It was a start."

Author's Note

Well that was a pretty heavy chapter. Flash reveals his final new alien, he and Twilight break up with their significant other and Devious has a secret partner. Who could it be?

Sorry if you guys liked Flash and Adagio's relationship. I know this is probably sudden, but I think it works well for them. And it's not like Adagio will just disappear. Until next time.

Season 4, Episode 7: Break Up Reaction

It was another peaceful day in Canterlot and currently, a city bank was doing its business with the many citizens of the city that trusted them with their money.

However, as the bank workers did their normal thing, someone was planning on causing a few problems for it. And that person was currently driving down the street on a yellow motorcycle, dressed head to toe in leather clothing with a helmet on his head and a dufflebag connected to the back of his bike.

They drove towards the bank and when nobody was looking, swerved into an alleyway that lead to a section behind the bank.

He pulled himself to a stop behind the building and looked it over, taking out some blueprints and nodding when he saw the bank's layout. "Should be right around here." He got off his bike and opened up the bag, allowing him to pull out an odd looking device.

Said device was a kind of leather vest, with a round device on the front of it. It was made of metal, with several wires and nobs around it. In the middle of it was a large round button, surrounded by lights.

He put it on and once the device was secure, he hit the button and the lights came on. It then let out a soft hum and the figure stepped forward, reaching out his hand and touching the wall. After pushing on said wall, his hand suddenly disappeared into it.

He chuckled and continued to walk forwards, disappearing completely through the wall.

Meanwhile, Flash and his friends were at the arcade enjoying some free time.

Flash and Rainbow were playing air hockey, Rainbow totally kicking Flash's butt as he couldn't keep up with her reflexes. The others were playing racing games and shooting hoops, Rarity was even playing a zombie shooting game, as they let the stress of the last few days washing off of them.

Flash needed this more than anyone, especially after what had recently happened.

It had been a week since Flash and Adagio had broken up. Though it had been a pretty cordial affair, the sting of losing a relationship still hurt a bit. But right now, all those thoughts were completely clear from his mind as he was more focused on beating Rainbow.

At least he was, until someone walked into the arcade. "Adagio!" He heard Pinkie cried, causing Flash's eyes to go wide. It also caused him to hit the puck at a wrong angle, resulting in it going flying away from the table.

"Wow!" Rainbow ducked, the puck almost hitting her in the head. It flew through the air and was a miracle not to hit anything or anyone, eventually landing on the ground and sliding to a stop. "Watch it!"

"Sorry!" Flash blushed, moving over to grab the puck. As he did, he saw Adagio walking towards their group.

Adagio saw him and the pair stopped moving, standing opposite one another looking rather awkward. "Hey," she looked away, "long time no see."

"Yeah," Flash scratched his head, "how...how you been?"

"Okay. Although I've had to suffer Sonata's constant crying. She's rather upset that the pair of us...you know." Flash nodded. "But she'll get over it."

"Alright." The pair continued to stand there, their friends seeing this and frowning at how uncomfortable they were together. "Well, I have to get going. My parents wanted me home early to help with some things around the house." With that, he headed for the exit and left before anyone could stop him.

Adagio sighed at this, as she picked up the discarded puck and returned it to Rainbow Dash. As she did, Sunset stepped over to her. "Okay, what the heck is going on with you two?" Adagio raised an eyebrow at this. "I know you two broke up, but I thought you guys were okay with it."

"We are," Adagio nodded.

"Really?" Sunset asked. "Because Flash wasn't this awkward around me when we broke up."

"Is that so," the Dazzling replied. "I don't know what to tell you. I thought we could still be friends after we broke up, but being around one another now just feels weird."

"It's weird for us too," Pinkie frowned. "You could cut the tension between you two with a spoon." The others nodded. "You and Flash can't keep doing this. You gotta get over it."

"And how are we supposed to do that?" Adagio leaned against the air hockey table. "I've never had this problem before. When I break up with someone and see them again, I don't feel this weird. I actually smirk and get them to feel bad. But with Flash..."

"We gotta fix this," Applejack stated. "Or you and Flash won't be able to stay in the same room together."

Adagio sighed, "maybe it'd be best if I just stopped hanging out with you." Trixie and the Rainbooms frowned at this. Despite everything that had happened between them in the past, they had actually grown to like Adagio and hanging out with her. They didn't want that to end, just because Flash and Adagio had broken up.

"Don't be stupid," Trixie gently bopped her on the head. "You can't just run away from your problems. You need to deal with this or it's gonna hound you for the rest of your life." Adagio frowned at this. "You wanna still be a famous star, right?" Adagio nodded. "And Flash is a world famous superhero. Famous people have a tendency to be around each other. What if you both get invited to some kind of world premiere or something, only to have to miss it because you know the other will be there?"

"She has a point," Rarity nodded. "You can't let your life stop just so you might run into an ex. Look at Twilight." They all turned to the spectacled girl, who was holding her puppy looking confused. "She's not letting her breakup upset her."

"I wouldn't say that," Twilight frowned. She was still feeling a little sore from her breakup with Timber and hadn't seen him since. She wasn't sure how she would react if she ran into him again. "But they're right you know." She turned to Adagio, "do you wanna still be friends with Flash?"

"Of course."

"Then don't let this destroy your friendship. You need to fight to protect it. If you don't, it'll fall to pieces and you'll regret it for the rest of your life." Adagio knew she was right, but she had no idea what she was supposed to do to overcome this awkwardness. And even if she overcame it, would Flash be able to?

Meanwhile, over at the Plumber Base, Shining Armor was sitting at the main computer working on a report of the recent activities going on in the city.

As he finished a paragraph, he sat back and flinched at this fingers needing a rest. He just sat there and let himself recover, all the while listening to the base as it was completely silent. Without Flash or any of the girls there, the place was pretty empty.

Shining frowned as he thought back to when he was a police officer. Back then, the precinct was constantly full of noise. Whenever Shining needed to take a break, he would look around and get to watch or listen to something interesting. But here he was, all on his own without even a bit of music to listen to.

He sighed, hoping he would soon get some more plumbers to work with. Considering how much work he and Flash had been doing, the normal cops had to be getting bored.

"Why can't there be something to do right now?" He asked, only to have his wish instantly be answered. For in that moment, the Plumber Computer started beeping as it had detected something. "Ask and you shall receive."

He brought up the alarm, the computer showing a warning stating it had detected a strange radiation in the city. "What?" He brought up the radiation's stat page and found it wasn't a radiation found on earth. "Tragnik Radiation. Found mostly on planets in the Tragnik system. Harmless to creatures that live in that sector, but dangerous to many other forms of life after prolonged exposure." Shining frowned, wondering why the computer was detecting this radiation on Earth.

He opened up a map of the city and found the source of the radiation was in the middle of it, near a bank.

"That can't be good." As he said that, his phone rang and he found it was a member of his old police force. "Armor."

"Hey, Shining. I think we might have found something you need to look into. A bank robbery." Shining frowned, wondering what he was talking about. "The bank was full on money this morning but when one of the workers headed into the vault, he found a ton of it was missing. The security footage doesn't show anyone walking into the vault between when it was first checked this morning and when the employee headed in.

"So something strange happens and you instantly think alien?" Shining asked, the police officer umming since he clearly didn't know what else to say. "You should really think of joining me in the Plumbers. Those sound like some good instincts. I'll be right there." He hung up after getting the address and when he did, he frowned. "That's the same place the radiation's coming from." He realised that couldn't be a coincidence.

Flash huffed as he sat in his living room, playing a video game with one hand whilst scratching Banana's head with another.

He was barely focusing on the racing game, causing him to constantly crash into things and slow down. This caught the attention of his parents, were stepped into the room and saw Flash was in a zombie state. "Honey?" Misty stepped forward, "are you okay?"

"You seem...distracted," Trail moved over to sit next to him with Banana moving to lay on his lap.

"I'm fine," Flash assured them. But they had been his parents long enough to know he was anything but fine. He was clearly upset and they had to get to the bottom of it. So, Misty grabbed the TV remote and switched his game off. "Hey!"

"Come on," Trail told him. "Out with it. What has you so bummed?" Flash frowned, but realised he wasn't going to be getting over this.

"Adagio."

"Ah," Misty nodded, "should have known. You regret breaking up with her?"

"No," Flash sighed, "it's not that. Splitting up was the right call. We just...I can't seem to be in the same room with her anymore." His parents looked confused by this. "When I saw her earlier, every instinct in my body told me to get out of there. It's all I could do to not go XLR8 and run away without giving an excuse."

"I see," Trail nodded. "The ex proximity conflict. I've had that before."

"You have?"

"So have I," Misty nodded. Flash looked between the pair, "you realise your father and I dated other people before each other." Flash suddenly looked very uncomfortable. Clearly, he didn't want to talk about his parent's love life. "Flash, everyone goes through that with their exs."

"I don't remember having his problem with Sunset," Flash sighed. "When she came into the room, I refused to let it get to me."

"True," Trail nodded, "but you and Sunset didn't exactly break up on good terms. That's different. You said you and Adagio both agreed to go your separate ways, so there's no animosity between you."

"I thought an amicable break up was supposed to be easy on all parties involved."

"It can be," Misty told him. "But it's not an easy transition. The simple fact is, you and Adagio will always have the history you built up. All that time you spent together doesn't just disappear because you decided not to be an couple anymore. You've been affected by those time and that change will be with you for the rest of your life."

"So what do I do?" Flash asked. "Every time I see her, I remember that we used to date and it feels like I'm going to catch fire if I get to close." He sighed, "were you two ever able to be friends with someone you dated?"

"Yes," Trail nodded, "and no. If it was someone I really cared about, even outside of the relationship, I forced myself to get over the awkwardness I felt. It wasn't easy, but it was worth it since I got to keep them in my life. Heck, some of the women I used to date I still hang out with when I get the chance."

"Oh, do you?" Misty raised an eyebrow as Trail looked worried, only for Misty to laugh. "Relax, I know about those meetings. You're not just with them, so don't worry about it." She turned to Flash, "and he's right. What matters is the person. Are they someone you can't stand not being around?"

Flash thought about his parent's words. Did he want to still be friends with Adagio? Yes. "I want to still be friends with her."

"Then you need to buck up and force yourself to get over the issues between you two," Trail announced. "Next time you see her, stay there and don't let either of you leave. Even if it feels like you're going to burst into flames. Turn into Arctiguana if you have to and cool yourself off."

Flash nodded, knowing his parents were right. "Where are you going?" Misty asked, as Flash stood up.

"I'm going to go find Adagio," Flash explained. "And I'm going to fix things between us before it's too late." With that, he headed out and his parents shared a smiled. They knew their son would get over this and when he did, he would be better and stronger because of it.

Back with Shining, he had arrived at the bank on his hard-light cycle.

The Plumber quickly leapt off when he saw a police officer rushing towards him, Shining realising it was his old friend Spearhead. The police officer was a brown skinned man, with blue hair wearing a blue shirt and black tie. "Shining," he smirked, "glad you could make it."

"No problem," Shining stepped over to him and the pair shook hands. "Would have come anyway. Right before you called, the base picked up some intense radiation coming from this location."

Spearhead looked shocked, "radiation? What kind?"

"The kind that shouldn't be on this planet," Shining explained. "It has a very serious effect on the human body after a prolonged time." He used his suit to scan Spearhead, checking to make sure there wasn't any radiation being absorbed by him. "You're okay, but you should probably get everyone out of the bank to be safe."

Spearhead nodded and started giving orders to evacuate the area. As he did, Shining continued to scan the area and found a trace amount of the radiation. Turns out it wasn't coming from inside the bank, leading him to walk behind it with Spearhead looking confused.

"Don't you wanna check inside?"

"Your robbery and my radiation scan are linked," Shining explained. "You wanna know how the crook got into the vault, so I need to follow my scans." He headed around the back of the bank and as he did, his visor continued to scan the area. Eventually, it spotted an area that was a practical hotspot. "Found it."

Spearhead stared at the wall, seeing it looked perfectly normal. "Just looks like a normal wall to me."

"You don't have my visor's eyes," Shining told him. "This section of wall is charged with Tragnik Radiation. It's like the bricks have been bathed in it."

"You said this radiation is dangerous," Spearhead frowned. "Does that mean this whole area is gonna be radioactive?"

"No. The radiation's already dying down. It's not like nuclear radiation. It might be toxic, but it doesn't last long once the source is gone. Give it a day and this place will be safe." Spearhead nodded, as he looked Shining over.

"Were you serious about becoming a plumber?" Shining turned to him. "It looks like you get some pretty cool gear as one. If I joined, would I get something like that?"

"Well, this isn't your standard plumber suit. But you'd definitely get some cool gear once you've proven you can be trusted with it. Why, you serious about joining?"

"Well I joined the force to protect people. Seems being a police officer isn't getting the job done anymore. Might be time for an upgrade." Shining chuckled at this as he brought up the building's schematics.

"The vault's on the other side of this wall. Somehow, your thief was able to move the cash through this wall. And doing so left the Tragnik Radiation trace." He continued to scan it, getting a more further understanding of its energy makeup. "With this, my base should be able to pick up the source of the radiation. But if the person using it's smart, they'd have already gotten far far away from it."

"How long will it take for you to find it?" Spearhead asked, Shining unsure. He told Spearhead to keep the bank cordoned off until he found it. If this energy did cause people to get sick, Shining needed to limit the exposure until he could get the device and figure out a cure.

He headed back to the main street, Spearhead rushing to get everyone away from the bank. As he did, Shining's helmet brought up a display showing a low but noticeable energy signal. It was a good ways away and on the move.

"There you are." He activated his bike and rode off to follow the radiation. Hopefully, he could reach it before it caused any more problems.

Meanwhile, Twilight and Spike were walking through the town.

Spike had just enjoyed some fun at a local dog park and now, the pair were heading through the city on their way home. But as Spike sniffed a nearby lamppost, stating something about a dog he knew having puppies, Twilight just stood there and continued to think about her breakup with Timber.

"You okay?" Shining finally noticed her distress. "You've been out of it all day?"

Twilight sighed as she picked the puppy up. "I'm just thinking about Timber." Spike rolled his eyes at this. "I just wish I knew if I made the right decision breaking up with him."

"Twilight, you can't go second guessing every decision you made. You can't see the future, so you gotta take everything as it comes. You didn't know if moving to CHS would be good, but you did it anyway."

"Maybe," Twilight hugged him, "still..."

"Twilight." The pair gasped as they spun around, shocked to see Timber walking towards them. "I guess fate brought us back together, huh?"

"Yeah," Twilight looked away. "What are you doing here?"

"Just...doing whatever I can to take my mind off of...us." Twilight nodded. "But honestly, I can't stop thinking about us." He grabbed her by the shoulder and spun her around to stare at him. "Come on Twilight. Let's get back together." Twilight looked shocked by this, whilst Spike frowned. "Please, you've gotta see that us breaking up was a mistake."

Twilight was about to tell him it wasn't, but stopped herself. Did she really think that, or did she just not want to admit she was wrong and beg for Timber's forgiveness. "Dude!" Spike told him, "take the hint. She's just not that into you." Timber frowned at this.

"This is between me and Twilight," Timber told him.

"Maybe. But I'm Twilight's friend and it's my job to make sure she doesn't do something she'll regret." He looked up at Twilight, "when was the last time you were with Timber and had fun? I can't remember the last time you came home gushing about being with him."

Twilight thought about it and remembered the last few times she had been with Timber. They tried to spend some quality time together, but every time something would come up that kind of killed the mood.

Timber growled, "that's not my fault. It's this crazy town!" Twilight looked at him. "The Technovore, Dragstar, that bull monster and that weird dust. If none of those things happened, the two of us could have had a great time. This town is a magnet for insane stuff to happen."

"He has a point," Twilight nodded.

"So what?" Spike asked, "those things are just gonna keep happening if you get back together. What, do you want Twilight to move away or something?" Twilight was shocked to hear this, unable to ever imagine leaving Canterlot.

"She's not gonna live here forever," Timber pointed out. "Twilight, think of all those colleges you were always gushing about. You'll be graduating next year and heading off to college in another city...in another state. I can come with you. Get a job and find an apartment in whichever college town you pick. We can see each other all the time and finally have a normal relationship."

"Normal relationship?" Twilight asked.

"Exactly. One without crazy magic and aliens threatening to blow us up. You said our relationship wasn't going anywhere, but that's because this town keeps getting in the way. So let's leave when you graduate and never look back. Then our relationship can grow like it's supposed to." He held out a hand, "what do you say?"

Twilight stared at him, clearly thinking about what he had said. Was he right? Was the problem with their relationship the town and not them? If they left, would they be able to work things out?

But before she could answer, she heard a loud engine rev fill the air and made her look around. There she saw a motorcycle racing down the street, going above sixty miles an hour despite the speed limit being only half that. She watched it shoot past her, Timber frowning as he tried to get her attention back on him.

But as it raced away, a bus came out from around the corner and was about to crash into the bike. "LOOK OUT!" She screamed, expecting there to be a large explosion. She tried to activate her magic and lift the bike up, but the bike was too fast and hit the bus.

However, instead of crashing into the bus, the motorcycle and its ride moved through it like they were a ghost. The front of the bike vanished inside the bus, followed by the driver and the rest of the vehicle. Eventually, the whole thing was absorbed into the long vehicle.

"What?" Was all Twilight could say, as the bus headed towards her. And when it moved enough, the bike flew out the back of it and continued down the street like nothing had happened. The bus, however, suddenly started swerving side to side. "It's out of control." The bus was completely wild and eventually, it sped up and smashed right into the side of a building.

It rammed into the glass wall of a shop and managed to get a good several feet inside before finally stopping. The impact caused large cracks to appear all along the outside of the building, dust and a few pieces of debris falling down from above.

Twilight gasped and rushed over to help, but Timber grabbed her arm. "What are you doing? You can't go in there."

"People are in danger," Twilight told him. "I can't just sit back and do nothing." She pulled her arm from his grasp and took out her phone, knowing there was only one person that could help in this situation.

Flash had been searching all over for Adagio, going to all her favourite places.

He first tried her apartment, but she hadn't been there. Sonata had been there and looked like she had been crying, Flash getting out of there before the girl could start balling all over him. And after checking out her favourite coffee houses and sushi bars, it amazed him how much she and her sisters loved seafood, he arrived at the final place.

And as he looked in the window, he saw Adagio sitting there drinking a large cup of coffee.

She seemed to sense him as he headed inside, Adagio looking shocked that he was there. "Hey," he stepped over to her. "You mind if I sit down?"

"Free country," she replied. Flash took a seat and the pair sat there for a moment in silence, Adagio frowning as he remained silent. "You didn't just come here for no reason."

"No," he nodded, "I came because I wanna set things right between us."

"What's there to set straight. We broke up. Simple as that."

"Except it isn't that simple. We're both tiptoeing around one another and I don't want that. We said we'd still be friends, but that's clearly not gonna happen if we can't got over this."

"What do you want from me?" Adagio asked. "We broke up. How are we supposed to go back to being just friends after that?"

Flash sighed, wondering the same thing. But then he realised something. "But, we weren't friends before." Adagio looked insulted by this. "We were enemies before we started dating. Well...not enemies. But we weren't exactly friendly with one another until we started dating. You didn't even recognise me."

Adagio sighed. "You've got a point. So what, if we're not dating we're not friends?"

"No, don't you see. We can't go back to being friends because we weren't friends before. We've only known each other as a couple. But now, we can start over as friends and learn about each other more than before." He took a deep breath and cleared his throat, as he held out his hand. "Hi, I'm Flash Sentry. I'm a superhero that can transform into a bunch of different aliens. I like music, fast cars and and hate spicy food."

Adagio looked at him like he was nuts, but smirked and shook his hand. "I'm Adagio Dazzle. A monstrous sea creature from another world, that's now a human. I like music, making people I don't like squirm and seafood."

"Seafood, yuck."

Adagio frowned, "I don't think I wanna be friends with you." The pair laughed at this, the awkwardness they had been feeling before completely vanishing. They kept talking like this for a few minutes, enjoying one another's company and not needing to worry about making the other one see them as desirable. There seemed to be a new openness between them, which they didn't seem to have back when they were dating.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end and Flash's phone went off.

Seeing it was Twilight, he answered and heard her voice become frantic. "Flash, you need to get over here right now!" Flash stood up and Adagio knew that meant someone was in trouble. "Hurry, I don't think I can hold this much longer." She gave him the street and Flash rushed out, Adagio following after him.

Instead of heading for his car, Flash activated the Omnitrix and transformed. "XLR8!" He cried, grabbing Adagio and racing through the city. Eventually, they arrived at the street and found Twilight using her magic to keep the building from moving.

She looked over at them and sighed in relief. "Flash, Adagio. Quickly. There are people trapped inside. I'm not gonna be able to keep this from falling for long."

"Got it," XLR8 nodded and he rushed over to the building. But seeing how unstable it was, he realised he was gonna need another alien and transformed again. "Kagenobi!" The alien ninja melted into the ground and slipped inside, whilst Adagio looked around.

She then spotted Timber off to the side, far away from the building. "Aren't you gonna help?" She asked, as Timber frowned at her.

"What do you want me to do? I don't have any superpowers. I'm just a normal guy."

Adagio rolled her eyes, "there are millions of normal guys on this planet who don't have superpowers to rely on. Many of them still help in situations like this." She stepped up to the building and turned to Twilight, "is there anything I can do to help?"

"I'm not sure," Twilight panted. "Flash is checking the inside of the building. But there should be people inside the bus that are trapped." Adagio nodded and headed up, being careful not to disturb anything so nothing slipped from Twilight's magic.

When she reached the back of the bus, she looked up and saw several people inside. Some of them appeared injured, but others were moving around and trying to open the bus' door. But it couldn't budge, making Adagio think. She grabbed a brick off the ground and used it to hit the window, catching the attention of those inside.

After a few good strikes, it finally shattered and Adagio could talk. "Anyone who's not seriously injured, try and climb out. If moving hurts, stay there." The driver and several more people headed for the back, quickly climbing out and being careful not to cut themselves on the broken glass.

When the last person came out, the shadow ninja flew back outside and reformed. Doing so caused two people appear out of him, both gasping for breath as they staggered away. "Sorry," he told them. "But you're safe now."

"Flash!" Adagio cried, Kagenobi rushing over to her. "There are some people in there too hurt to move. Can you get them out without injuring them further?"

"No problem," Kagenobi nodded as he melted back into the ground and flew inside the bus. "Hold your breath," he told the woman on the ground. She took a deep breath and Kagenobi swallowed her up, flying out of the bus as fast as he could.

Once he was outside on the street, the woman appeared out of him looking completely unharmed. He then rushed back into the bus, getting the other people out whilst wondering what might have caused this. And hoping whoever it was would be stopped before they caused any more problems like this.

Shining was racing through the city on his hard-light cycle.

Using the plumber base's scanner system, he had tracked down the source of the unusual radiation and was now heading to its location. But the source was on the move, making him worry since it could mean more people were being exposed to it as it was moved through the city.

He turned a corner and when he did, his suit picked up an alert that the radiation was right in front of him. And as he looked ahead, he saw someone on a motorbike zooming down the street way above the speed limit. "A bike? How is a bike causing radiation?" But as his suit scanned the bike, Shining found it was actually the rider that was producing the radiation.

In fact, the radiation was coming from something the rider was wearing. It was some kind of vest, located over his leather jacket, with pieces of metal and wires connected to it. Shining tried to scan it, but the radiation was causing an issue with that. All Shining knew was that he needed to get it away from whoever was wearing it.

As such, Shining activated his bike's siren and increased the volume on his helmet's speaker. "Pull over!" The rider looked back at him and instead of slowing down, he sped up with no disregard for his or anyone's else's safety. Shining groaned at this and raced after him, being careful not to crash into anyone.

The pair raced through the street, Shining getting tempted to change into jet mode. But the streets were too narrow for that, forcing him to chase his perp on the road.

After a few minutes of following him, the bike turned a corner and found the road was closed for repairs. Large dividers blocked off the street, with a cement on the other side covering the road in fresh sticky asphalt.

The biker quickly swerved into an alleyway, Shining following him inside. And as soon as he did, he saw that it lead to a dead end. "Gotcha now!" He cried, expecting Speed Racer to stop. But he didn't. He once again sped up. "What are you doing?" The rider showed no signs of stopping. "DON'T!" He expected him to crash into the wall and kill himself, but instead the bike and its rider flew through it like a ghost.

Shining barely managed to pull his bike to a stop before crashing into the wall, his helmet scanning it to show it really was a stone brick wall. There were some trace radiation, but the wall was a perfectly normal wall.

"What the heck?" His helmet picked up the radiation on the other side of the wall, Shining kicking his bike into gear and racing back out the alleyway. It would take a while, but he would track down the rider and figure out what the heck he was using to do that.

Back at the damaged building, Kagenobi and gotten everybody out of the bus and was once again checking the building for people inside.

The shadow flew out of the building and once again spat some people out of him, the trio gasping for air. He reformed, as Twilight saw more cracks appear alongside the building. The whole thing was minutes away from collapsing.

"Is that everyone?" Kagenobi asked, the people that lived in the building looking around. And they weren't the only ones, as police officers had arrived to corner off the scene whilst some people connected to those living in the building were also there.

"Where's my grandmother?" He looked around and saw a man in a suit, looking around. "She lives in this building and should be there at this time. Does anyone see her?" The tenants all looked around and realised one of their neighbours was missing. The man then tried to call her, but her phone kept going to voicemail.

"What floor does she live on?" Kagenobi asked.

"Forth," the man replied before the alien rushed towards the building. But just as he was about to melt into the ground, the Omnitrix started beeping.

"No, no, no, no!" With that, he transformed back to normal and staggered forwards before he stopped. "Come on! Not now!" Everyone looked worried, Timber amongst them.

As much as he wanted Flash to look bad right now, he didn't want that to cost a woman her life. "What's he gonna do?" He heard a kid ask his mother, who didn't seem to know how to answer.

"There's nothing he can do," Timber sighed. Flash might have amazing abilities with the Omnitrix. But now that it was timed out, he was as normal as Timber was.

But Flash didn't seem to see it like this and ran forward, squeezing through a gap between the bus and the building. "Flash!" Adagio cried, seeing him disappear into the collapsing building.

Twilight was doing her best to keep the building from moving, Spike looking at her worried since she could be overusing her magic. But the place was growing more and more unstable, with every passing second. It wouldn't stay up much longer.

Everyone waited with baited breath, fearing Flash and the woman would still be inside when the place collapsed. Twilight could feel the strain and knew she only had another minute before the place broke apart. More cracks appeared and the bottom started to buckle.

"FLASH!" Adagio screamed, "hurry!" It was almost like Flash had actually heard her, for in that moment someone rushed out of the building.

That someone was the alien hero, carrying an elderly woman on his back as he pulled himself out of the building. The building finally gave out as he ran away from it, Twilight losing her hold as the entire place collapsed. Many people ran for it, fearing they might get hit by falling debris.

They cleared out just in time to avoid getting hurt and Flash managed to carry the old lady to safety, he and Twilight rushing her over to an ambulance.

The man rushed over to his grandmother, hugging her as Flash put her down. He then turned to Flash and looked like the teen had just saved the world. "Thank you."

Flash smiled, "just doing my job." He walked away and as he did, Twilight leapt at him. "Wow!" He cried, feeling her hug him. "What's this about?"

"I thought you were gonna die!" She cried, pulling away from him and showing her relieved expression. "You ran in there without being able to go alien. You could have been killed."

"Maybe," Flash nodded. "But if I'm only a hero with the Omnitrix, I don't deserve it. I get there are things that I can only do in alien form, but firemen and police officers go into collapsing buildings to save people. If I'm not willing to do the same, what kind of hero am I?" Twilight smiled at this, nodding in agreement as Spike leapt into Flash's arms to let the gave scratch his ear.

Adagio watched this and noticed the way the pair were looking at one another, as something inside her clicked into place. Suddenly, she knew why her and Flash's relationship hit such a dead-end. But she also, strangely, didn't feel upset about it.

Timber also saw this and realised the same thing, but his reaction wasn't the same as Adagio's. He let out a low growl and turned to leave. As he did, he thought about everything that had happened since Flash had gotten that watch. The insane things Twilight had been through since then, had changed her into someone who didn't want to be with him.

All those crazy events, happening in this one city. If Twilight didn't live here, she would still be the girl that had liked him. But now she was gone. "I hate this city," he growled whilst walking off completely unnoticed.

Back with Shining, he continued to chase after the source of the radiation.

The biker had managed to get a good distance away from him and by the time Shining had circumvented all the obstacles between them, he had escaped from the range of Shining's suit. Luckily, the base still had a lock on the radiation and Shining knew the city streets well enough to navigate his way to the location it was coming from.

As such, he managed to pull into a street right as the biker flew down it towards him. Shining took out his Multi-Striker and pointed it at the man, as it transformed into some kind of satellite blaster.

The driver saw this and swerved to a stop, attempting to spin around. But Shining fired his weapon at the man and unleashed a pulse of energy. That energy reached the biker before he could speed of and when it did, he suddenly found his bike go completely dead.

"What the?" He tried to start it up, but it wouldn't turn over. "What did you do?"

Shining smirked as he dispelled his own bike and walked towards him. "EMP cannon. New update to my arsenal. Sends out an electromagnetic pulse that disables anything electronic. That includes the tech in your bike."

The driver growled and quickly jumped off, grabbing a dufflebag off the back of the bike and running towards a building. "You still can't get me." Shining sighed, realising the biker hadn't figured out the real reason he had fired that EMP.

"I wouldn't do that!" But the driver didn't listen and hit a button on his chest. But when he did, he didn't feel the same tingling sensation he normally felt.

It wasn't until he smashed right into the wall, helmet first, that he realised his device wasn't working. He bounced off the stone and fell backwards, crashing into the ground as Shining reached him and took out some cuffs. And before the guy to resist, he grabbed his arm and slapped the metal bracelet around it before doing the same to the other behind his back.

"Get off me!" He cried, Shining pulling him to his feet and beginning to remove the vest from him.

Now deactivated, the device wasn't giving off the radiation and he could give it a proper scan. And what he found was quite a shock. "Alien technology?" He saw several alien components inside the machine, though those components had been built with human part, which would be impossible for some low level street thug to get his hands on. "Where did you get this?"

"I'm not telling you anything," the guy replied.

"Fine. I was gonna hand you over to the police, but I think the plumbers will want to do a little probing."

"Probing?" He sounded worried by that, "what do you mean by probing?"

"Well if you have alien technology, you can't be human. I'm sure we'll figure out which planet you're from after a few tests. Hope you like standing, cause you're probably not gonna be able to sit for a few weeks when they're done."

"Hang on!" He cried, "I'm human! I'M HUMAN!"

"Then how did you make this?"

"I didn't! It just showed up at my doorstep the other day."

"Really?"

"Really," he nodded. "It was in a box with instructions and a note telling me to go all out and have fun." Shining frowned at him, unsure whether or not to believe him. He would investigate his house later on to see if he was telling the truth, but for now he would take him to the police and get him processed.

"If you're lying, I'm gonna make sure you get every medical test done to you to make sure you're human. You'll be poked and prodded so much, you'll feel like a pin cushion." The man gulped, as Shining connected to his police radio. "I need a police officer to come pick up a suspect." He then noticed the dufflebag on the ground and checked inside, finding a bunch of cash inside. "Charged with using illegal technology and bank robbery."

Within twenty minutes, a police cruiser arrived to take the suspect into custody. They finally removed his helmet and revealed him to be a young man who was a little older than Flash, making Shining wonder why he would choose to throw his life away and rob a bank.

Once Shining had his address, he headed over to his apartment and found it was a rundown dump. The bank robbing suddenly made sense.

Inside, he found the place was a total mess, with pizza boxes and dirty underpants littered all over the place. He then found a box with the aforementioned note inside along with instructions, the note saying exactly what the crook had told him. And as he stared at the note, he couldn't help but notice the writing on it looked...familiar.

Back with Flash and Twilight, the pair were in Sugarcube Corner after the stressful day they had had.

Flash and Adagio were now back to normal, probably better than ever given their new status as friends. Meanwhile, Twilight had been unable to contact Timber after finally noticing he had left. After a while, she had given up. If Timber wanted to talk to her, he would call.

Now they just sat together, thinking about their relationship status. "So you and Adagio are okay now?" Twilight asked, taking a sip of her milkshake as she stroked the sleeping dog on her lap.

"Yeah," Flash nodded. "Our romantic relationship is as dead as a door-nail, but I think it's for the best. Now we can get to know each other as friends." He drank from his shake. "What about you and Timber? Decide to get back together?"

"No," Twilight shook her head. "And I don't think we will. Timber's great, he's smart and funny and the way he cares about his sister and others is amazing. But...he and I want different things." Flash looked confused by this. "He wants a normal life, doing normal things like a normal person." She clutched her geode, "I'm not normal. And I don't wanna be normal. I wanna explore the secrets of the world and magic. I wanna know everything and study as much as I can."

"And that kind of life isn't something Timber will enjoy."

Twilight nodded. "But it's more than that. Despite everything great about Timber, he's lacking something. Something I want in the man I'll be with."

"What?"

"That's just the thing," Twilight sighed. "I have no idea what it is. I just know there's something about Timber that lacks what I want. How crazy is that?"

"It's not crazy," Flash told her. "If he doesn't have it, he doesn't have it. You were right to break if off if nothing was gonna come from the relationship. It would have been cruel to keep stringing him along."

"Yeah," Twilight nodded before holding up her glass. "To lost loves."

Flash smiled and held his glass up. "No, to the start of our search for true love. It could take years and we might not even find it, but it's worth searching for." Twilight smiled as they tapped their glasses together before taking a deep drink, both sighing in relief. "And hey, until we do find it, we've always got each other to have fun with."

Twilight nodded, "and all our friends." With that, the pair began to talk about whatever came into their minds. All thought about their failed relationships and their ex's complete faded from their mind, the pair simply enjoying one another's company.

What neither of them realised was that everyone who saw them together all thought the same thing. What a nice looking couple.

Back with Shining, he had arrived back at the base.

As soon as he arrived there, he connected to the system and had the vest teleported into a lab and placed instructions into the computer to monitor it and be ready to neutralise the radiation if it begins to build again.

When he at the main computer room, he placed the note and instructions on a scanner to be imputed into the system. "Check any and all handwriting databases and compare it to this note. If you find a match, alert me immediately." Once the computer started this process, Shining headed down to the lab.

Since he was still the only plumber on the planet, something he hoped would changed very soon, he was stuck doing all the work himself. Even with the resources available to him, he would need to figure out who made this technology and was handing it out to random people on the street on his own.

If too many people got this kind of tech, there was no telling what kind of damage it could do.

As he began to deconstruct the device, wishing Twilight was there to help, he got a call from the police. "Armor."

"Hey, Shining." It was his old captain, "nice work bringing in that bank robber. Figure out how he did it yet?"

"Someone gave him a piece of alien technology," Shining replied. "Dangerous technology. It might have placed his body into a state of phase, but the radiation it emitted could have done serious damage to his cells. You should have him tested once he's been properly processed, to make sure there weren't any side effects."

"Sure, but I didn't really call you for that. Whilst you and Sentry were busy, someone broke into a facility that was holding some dangerous equipment. Equipment confiscated from Tirek's company." Shining's eyes went wide at this.

After Tirek's defeat, Azmuth had taken all the alien technology he had stolen that hadn't been on the destroyed ship. But there were still a lot of tech that Tirek had made from human components, using the alien tech as a base. Azmuth had chosen to leave that behind, but it had all been placed in storage until it could be decided what to do with it.

Now someone had stolen it and there was no telling what they might be up to with it.

In an unknown location, five individuals were standing around a strange looking device.

Said device was a glass tube, surrounded by metal and other pieces of machinery. One of them took something out of their pockets and placed it inside the device, causing it to power up as light inside the tube sparked. "Finally," a male voice announced, "it's working."

"About time," a female voice agreed. "But how long will it take?"

"Not sure," another male voice replied. "But he said to be patient and let it complete fully. Once it's done, the six of us will be able to destroy Sentry once and for all."

"Good," another male voice replied, "because I'm itching to get some payback

"We all are," the final male member agreed. "But in the meantime, at least it gives us more time to master our new toys." The device lit up even more, revealing the five figures standing around it.

One of them was the mad scientist known as Animac, who was dressed in a white lab coat and what appeared to be an upgraded version of his monster control helmet. On his left arm was a glove with a touchscreen on the back, whilst his waist had a large metal belt wrapped around it that had a large metal tube on the back.

The next was an old woman who went by the name of Doddery, only she was dressed in blue leather suit with yellow armor on her chest, legs and arms. Her fingers were tipped with green claws and running along the side of them, were a bunch of yellow metal plates that were locked together to look like a pair of wings.

The next was the monster hunter, Dynamo Danger. And like Doddery, he was also wearing a suit of armor. His suit was mostly black metal that covered almost his entire body, with red lines running down it and the logo from his old TV show on his chest. His head was covered in a grey helmet, with his face hidden behind a red glass visor. His arms were covered in red metal gauntlets, with robotic claw-like fingers, and a pointed tube on the backs of them that appeared to extend forward. His back had what appeared to be a jet-pack and on his waist were a pair of rifle barrels that were pointing behind him but looked like they could fold around when needed.

The next was Dragstar, who was also in a suit of armor. Only his was mostly red with silver around the arms and legs. He was carrying his normal helmet in his hands and on his back were a bunch of metal parts with a wheel in the middle of it, the metal parts appearing to be connected to something on his shoulders that looked like they could move the wheel and metal up and over his head to point forward. On each of his ankles was what looked like half a tire, connected to a metal cuff that appeared to spin.

The last was a man named Periwinkle Primrose, better known as The Hypnotist. He was dressed in similar clothing to what he had worn before getting arrested, but no longer had the headband on his head. Instead, he was wearing a full on metal helmet with a satellite on his head. He was also wearing strange devices on his arms, that looked like they launched something out of a hole above his hands.

The five figures stared down at the tube, as something was being made inside of it. What appeared to be a human skeleton, only it was made out of metal. They all knew it would be a long process before it was completed and once it was, they could have fun with their target.

Animac patted the tube. "I do hope you won't take too long, Miss Viral. Our employer went to great lengths to bring us all together. I'm sure he's eager to see the fruits of his labour." The others nodded, laughing as they thought about what they were going to do to their enemy. They couldn't wait.

Author's Note

Well, this was a less action packed chapter. But I think it was important for Flash and Adagio's relationship, or lack thereof, whilst Shining gets to catch the bad guy this time. Hope you enjoyed it.

Season 4, Episode 8: Twilight's Haunting

Canterlot mall was as busy as it always was, with every store having something that someone wanted.

There were shoppers who were browsing, ones who had every intention of buying something and others who were simply enjoying themselves at the arcade or in the food court. All the while being watched over by mall security, whose job it was to protect the mall.

But in a few moments, the security guards would wish they had gone into plumbing.

A man walked into the room, carrying a dufflebag over his shoulder and had a large trench coat covering him up. He made his way towards the mall's jewellery store and as soon as he stepped inside, he took out a gun and pointed it at the cashier. "This is a robbery!"

Everyone, the employees and shoppers, screamed as they saw he wasn't kidding around. He also removed his trench coat and revealed he was a slightly overweight man, wearing a strange looking vest with machine parts stuck to it.

He hit the button and as soon as he did, a purple bubble of energy appeared around him before vanishing. "Nobody try anything stupid." As he said that, several guards that had noticed his arrival ran into the room with with batons drawn.

They saw the man and the gun and one decided to throw his baton towards him, hoping to knock him out or off balance. But before it landed, it bounced off the purple bubble that disappeared as soon as it was not being touched. "What the?"

The man spun around and smirked at them, then pointed his gun forward. The bubble appeared again, with the end of the pistol sticking out of it. "Bad move." He fired and the guards ran for it, several more customers trying to do the same only for the madman to point the gun towards the exit. "Anyone who leaves does so in a body-bag?"

The people all remained silent and stayed where they were, as the man reached down to his dufflebag and unzipped it.

He then took out what appeared to be a bunch of metal tubes welded together, with wires sticking out of it and a metal box with a glass screen that appeared to be from a digital alarm clock. He placed it on the ground and the device seemed to stick to it like a magnet.

"Perfect." He switched it on and the device showed a timer for thirty minutes. "Alright. Here's what's gonna happen." He held up a metal stick with a button on it. "If I don't get all the money in this mall inside that dufflebag before the timer hits zero, this whole place goes up."

"But you'll kill yourself!" One of the employees pointed out, only for the man to point to the device on his chest. They all realised that if that bubble was as strong as they thought it was, then it would very likely survive an explosion.

"Now, I'm sure those security guards heard my demands. If I don't start seeing money in front of me soon, you'll find yourselves saying goodbye to life."

"Oh, I don't think so." The man looked around, confused by the voice that seemed to come from the roof. "But you'll be saying goodbye." Suddenly, out of nowhere, an alien lizard appeared and leapt at the man.

Chamalien tackled the bubble as it appeared, but the impact actually pushed it backwards. This made him cry out as he was knocked to the ground, his gun and the detonator falling from his hands.

"Come on!" The hostages heard, as they saw Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash at the entrance of the store.

"Time to move!" Rainbow cried, the hostages quickly running for it as Chamalien continued to struggle against the man.

"Get off of me!" He cried, hitting the button on his chest. This caused the bubble's energy to increase and shock Chamalien, forcing him to leap off.

The alien hero quickly slammed his hand on the Omnitrix and transformed in a flash, "Bushwhacker!" The alien plant thrust its hand out to try and grab the gun and detonator. But the man rushed in front of the detonator first. Bushwhacker found his hand bouncing off the forcefield, making the man smirk as he tried to grab the device.

But due to the shield still being around him, the device was pushed away from him whenever he tried to get closer. "Dang it!"

"Looks like your little toy backfired on you," Bushwhacker laughed. "Now just give up and come with us. It'll be easier for you if you don't struggle." The man glared at them, Rainbow and Twilight ready to help stop him if he did anything.

He slowly stepped backwards until his shield touched the explosive, the man looking back at it before an idea formed in his head.

He smirked before hitting the button on his chest, causing the bubble to cancel out. He then leapt back and hit it again, the bubble reappearing around him and the bomb. "If I can't get any money out of this, I'll just blow the whole place up." He pressed a button on the top and the device activated, counting down.

"No!" Twilight cried, as the man rushed for the door behind the counter.

Rainbow tried to go after him. But by the time she got to him, he had reached the door and used the force field to smash his way through it and the wall. "Rainbow!" Bushwhacker cried, making her stop. "We don't have time to go after him." Rainbow frowned as the alien turned back to human, he and Twilight looking over the device.

"He's right," Twilight nodded. "Get everyone out of here now!" Rainbow didn't argue and ran out the store, using her super speed to check everyone inch of the building. Luckily, the guards had already made an evacuation order and most of the people were out of it. She just had to grab a few stragglers and rush them outside.

As she did, Twilight found the screws keeping the bomb's shell together and removed them with her magic. Doing so revealed an intricate amount of wires and components, so complex in its design that even Twilight had no idea what any of it did.

Rainbow returned to them and saw the bomb was still counting down. "You haven't turned it off yet?"

"I don't think it has an off button," Twilight replied. "The only way to stop it is to disarm it. But I have no idea what does what in here. It's like nothing I've ever seen before."

"Then let's move it somewhere," Flash told them. "We've got thirty minutes. That's more than enough time to take it someplace deserted to blow." He tried to pick it up, but the bomb was still stuck to the ground. "What the heck? How did that guy design something like this?"

Twilight had a feeling he hadn't. Based on how he was bumbling around with the shield and detonator, he had little idea how it worked outside of activation. "What do we do?"

Flash thought and nodded. "Rainbow, get Twilight out of here."

"Are you nuts?" Rainbow cried, "I'm not leaving you here alone."

"I'm gonna turn into Grey Matter or U-Reek-Ah to unplug this thing. But if I can't get it off in time, it'll be way easier to escape on my own than it would if you two were here."

Twilight frowned, not wanting to leave him. "What if you don't get the alien you want?"

"Then I'll switch until I get the one I want. I have thirty minutes, I'll be fine." He turned to Rainbow, "GO!" Rainbow frowned, but grabbed Twilight and rushed out the mall before the girl could start to protest. Flash then turned towards the bomb, taking a deep breath before activating the Omnitrix.

But as he did, the bomb started sparking. It was almost as if the Omnitrix was starting to interfere with it. And when the alien screen appeared, Flash was shocked to see it glitching and form a blurry form he couldn't recognise.

Outside the mall, Rainbow and Twilight arrived at the entrance.

Police were cordoning off the area and when they saw the girls, they rushed over to them. "You need to move away from here," he told them. "We're sending in a bomb squad to try and disarm it."

"Flash Sentry's in there," Twilight explained. "He's going to turn into his smartest alien and turn it off." The police looked relieved at this, but that relief soon vanished.

The reason for it was an ear splitting bang, that filled the air followed by a powerful shockwave. This shockwave sent them all flying along with a bunch of glass and concrete that had been blasted away from the building, which started to break apart due to the explosion the flew out of it.

Twilight hit the ground, her glasses flying off her face as her ears started ringing.

She laid there for several moments, the ringing slowly fading as she heard people screaming and running around. She finally opened her eyes and saw everything was blurry, looking around to see her glasses a little ways away from her.

Using her magic, which was difficult with her head pounding, she floated them over to her and put them on before turning towards the mall. And when she did, her eyes went wide.

The entire building was destroyed, a burnt out husk of what it had once been. It looked like it was barely standing, cracks and missing pieces of the structure covering the whole thing. But the mall's fate wasn't what Twilight was focused on.

"Flash?" She croaked out, picking herself up only for her legs to give out. Rainbow and the cops were also with her, looking just as dazed. "Where's Flash?" She looked around, expecting to see XLR8 or another alien standing around. But there was no sign of him. "FLASH!"

Slowly, realisation sank in. If he wasn't here, there could only be one place he was. Inside the mall. The mall that had just blown up. Was Flash...dead?

Shining Armor rushed to the scene as soon as the report came in.

Arriving at the destroyed mall, he got off his hard-light cycle and rushed towards the building. Police, ambulances and the fire department were hard at work, Shining quickly spotting Rainbow and his sister on one of the ambulances.

"Twilight!" He rushed over to her, seeing the girl had a few scrapes and bruises. "Are you okay?" He asked them both, the pair nodding only for Twilight to grab his shoulder.

"Shining. Flash is missing."

"What?"

"Flash was in there when the place blew," Rainbow cried. "The bomb was supposed to be for thirty minutes, but it blew as soon as we got outside. Flash was in there when it happened."

Shining didn't like the sound of this, turning to the building. Twilight stood up from the ambulance. "He had to have gotten out. He said he'd use an alien to protect himself. He had to have escaped. XLR8. Diamondhead. Gemini. Even The Worst. There were tones of aliens that would let him escape."

Shining knew she was right and pressed the side of his helmet, telling it to scan the area and locate the Omnitrix's signal. The suit did so and after a few moments, it came back stating the Omnitrix wasn't in range of his scan. "Increase the parameter to the max." The suit did so and still, there was no sign of the Omnitrix. Shining then connected to the base, "scan the entire city." It did so, the base's signal being able to pick up the Omnitrix no matter where it was in the city. But after a minute, the scan came back negative.

"What does that mean?" Rainbow asked, but Shining wasn't sure he wanted to say it.

"If the Omnitrix isn't being picked up, that means it's not in the city. And I doubt Flash would leave the city." Shining told the computer to do another scan, whilst Twilight and Rainbow feared the worst. If the Omnitrix wasn't in the city, what did that mean? Had it been destroyed?

And if it had, what did that mean for the one wearing it?

Three days later.

Twilight was in her room, having not left it aside from going to the bathroom since returning home after the horrible event. Her phone was plugged in and tuned into the news, Twilight hoping it would tell her the second they found something. But the only broadcast talking about the subject she was listening for had been ones saying there had been no new developments.

Shining hadn't returned home once since the explosion. He had apparently gone over every inch of the mall with any piece of Plumber tech he had. Every kind of scan he was capable of had been done. But there was no sign of the teen or his device, leaving many to believe the worst had happened.

"In other news," The broadcaster announced. "The investigation into the whereabouts of Flash Sentry have led to dead ends. The police have released a statement stating that Flash Sentry died three days ago, whilst trying to remove an explosive from the city shopping mall. Though there has been no sign of his remains, many suspect his point blank proximity to the explosive, resulted in his body being completely vaporised along with the device, that allowed him to be the hero we will all remember him as. Our hearts and minds go out to his friends and family."

Hearing that statement drove it home for Twilight, making the girl tear up and turn her phone off.

She curled herself up and cried into her pillow, all the while thinking about that last sentence said. As terrible as she felt, Flash's parents had to be feeling even worse. She couldn't bring herself to go and see them, knowing they must probably hate her for letting their son die.

A knock at the door was followed by a voice, "Twilight?" It was Cadance, "can I come in?" Twilight didn't answer and the door opened. Cadance walking in with Spike running in with her.

The puppy leapt onto her bed and whined at her, pushing his head against hers to try and make her feel better. At the same time, Cadance sat down and placed a hand on her shoulder. "He's gone," Twilight told her. "Flash died."

"We don't know that," Cadance tried to make her see some hope. "Shining's still looking. We thought he was gone forever when he fell into the Null Void, but he managed to survive that." Twilight didn't feel as hopeful as Cadance. "But...if he is, you shouldn't let it ruin your life."

"But he's gone!" Twilight cried, "he was my friend and he's gone!" Cadance pulled her to a sitting position and hugged her.

"But would he want this? Would he want his death to make you lock yourself up in your room and waste the life he did so much to protect?" Twilight, despite the pain she felt, realised Cadance was right. Flash had saved her life so many times and if she locked herself up in the room, she would be disrespecting everything he had risked his life for no.

"No."

Cadance nodded. "It's alright to grieve. Losing people you care for is hard. But that grief will overwhelm you if you let it. Remember Flash for his life, not his death. As long as you do, he'll never truly be gone." Twilight sniffed and held Spike close to her, but nodded and felt herself feeling a little better. The pain in her chest hurt, but it wasn't overwhelming like it had been before.

"Thanks, Cadance."

"No problem. And I'm going to miss him too. Flurry will miss him as well, even if she might not remember him when she grows up. So let's make sure Flash is remembered by us, so she can grow up hearing stories about him." Twilight nodded, as she felt herself getting tired. All the mourning she had been doing had seriously been cutting into her sleep schedule.

She let out a yawn and Cadance promised to run her a hot bath, the girl thanking her as the woman stepped out of the room.

Twilight sat on her bed and took out her phone, opening up the photo album and flipping to the pictures with Flash in them. And though seeing his face felt like a dagger to the heart, she refused to let herself be pained by it. She would not feel pain when thinking of Flash. She would remember all the fun times they had had together.

Cadance was right. She had to grieve, but she would do it the right way. Because that was what Flash deserved.

Shining was in the Plumber base, continuing to scan and re-scan every inch of the planet. He didn't care if he spent the next ten years searching, he would find Flash.

He leaned back, feeling exhausted. He had barely slept since Flash's disappearance. He refused to think of it as a death, since he knew Flash wasn't dead. And even if he was, that didn't explain the Omnitrix's disappearance. The galvin device couldn't be so easily destroyed. It might have been damaged, but it shouldn't have been enough to leave no trace.

"You're out there," Shining stated. "And I'll find you. No matter what."

The sun had set and Twilight was asleep in her room. Or, at least she was trying to sleep.

The girl, despite how tired she was, couldn't seem to drift off. Spike was asleep at her feet, but she couldn't sleep no matter how much she wanted to. And maybe it was fear of having a dream of what had happened three days ago.

She kept her eyes closed, but still she remained awake. She laid like that for a few more minutes, eventually feeling herself starting to drift of. But as she did, something whispered in her ear.

"Twilight." She ignored it, thinking it was just the wind. But then she heard it again, "Twilight." It was louder this time and Twilight frowned as she sat up, grabbing her glasses and putting them on. And when she looked around the room, she saw something that made her gasp. "Flash?"

Flash Sentry was standing at the foot of her bed, but she could barely see him.

Flash's body was transparent and parts of him were fading in and out of nowhere, the teen looking at her like he was scared and in pain. "Twilight," he looked like he was yelling but his voice came out a whisper, "help me." Twilight could barely register what he was saying and suddenly, Flash vanished completely.

"FLASH, NO!" Her scream woke Spike up and he jump around, asking what was happening as Twilight stared at the spot Flash had been standing.

A few moments later, her parents burst into the room with her dad holding a baseball bat. "What's going on?" He asked, looking ready to swing at whoever had made his daughter scream. But they saw nobody there.

"Twilight?" Velvet asked, "what's wrong?"

Twilight could barely understand what was happening either. Had it all be a dream? But it felt so...real. And if it was real, what the heck was it?

"Geez," Spike told her, "you look like you've just seen a ghost." Those words made Twilight gasp, as she remembered how transparent Flash had been. "Twilight?"

"I...I think I did," she told them. "I saw a ghost...Flash's ghost."

The next day.

Shining was in Twilight's room, scanning the place with his badge. His parents, Cadance, Applejack and Sunset were there as well, as he got the results of his scan. "I'm not picking up anything out of the ordinary."

"So nothing that indicates something actually happened in this room last night?" Sunset asked, as Shining kept scanning the place.

"No holograms. No gas or substance that can induce hallucinations. And no radiation signatures that I can find. As far as I can tell, nothing happened in here."

"But Twilight was so sure of it," Velvet told him. "She was sure she saw Flash, right here."

"And I believe her," Shining nodded. "But...I have no way of knowing what it is that caused this." That didn't make them very happy. Getting Twilight over what had happened to Flash, wasn't going to be easy if she was seeing him everywhere.

Applejack, always the one most grounded, decided to ask the tough question. "Are we sure she really saw something?" They all looked at her. "I want Flash alive as much as you all. But...how can we be so sure Twilight really saw something last night? She's takin' what happened pretty hard, so maybe she's in denial and she's seeing things. Ah know when ma'h parents died, I thought I saw them a few times."

Nobody wanted to agree with her, but they knew it was a possibility. They just didn't want to be the ones to explain it to Twilight.

"I know what I saw," Twilight told the rest of her friends at Sugarcube Corners.

They had tried to get Twilight's mind off what she had seen, but the girl had refused to change the subject. "We're not denying anything, darling." Rarity took a sip of her latte. "But it's just kind of hard to believe, is all."

"Yeah," Rainbow nodded, "you sure you weren't just dreaming?" Twilight frowned, "we don't wanna say you're wrong. But honestly, I'd rather it be a dream than what you're describing. You said Flash was all ghost-like, right?" Twilight nodded. "Well, doesn't that mean..."

"Flash really is dead?" Fluttershy asked, making Twilight flinch. The lot of them had been holding out hope that Flash was still alive. But if Twilight really had seen Flash's ghost, he must have lost his life.

Pinkie, whose hair had been deflated since the incident, looked incredibly upset by this thought. "Is...is there a way to bring the dead back to life?" The others looked at her like she was nuts. "If Flash really is a ghost, it means his spirit is still here. And if it is, maybe there's a way to bring him back. We've got magic and all that Plumber tech. There has to be something we can do."

Twilight was actually wondering the same thing, the girl getting up to use the bathroom.

She headed inside and did was she needed to do, all the while thinking about the idea of maybe cloning Flash and finding a way to transplant his spirit into it. It sounded insane, but she was talking about the ghost of a boy that turned into aliens.

She finished in the cubicle and stepped out of it, only to come face to face with the boy she was now constantly thinking about. The boy who was once again in a transparent form, that she could see through.

The sight made her scream as she staggered backwards into the cubicle, kicking it shut before she could really think. She panted, trying to get her breathing under control. But as she did, she heard the bathroom door slam open. "Twilight!" Rainbow cried, "what's going on!?"

Twilight took a deep breath and opened the door, stepping outside and looking around.

There was no sign of Flash anywhere. He was gone. "He...he was here." They all looked confused by this, "Flash. He was in here. Just like last night." her friends shared a worried expression, as they looked around. But like Twilight had noticed, there was absolutely no sign of him.

"Twilight," Rarity told her, "there's nothing here." Twilight knew this was true and felt her eyes filling with tears, the girl clutching her head and sliding down the cubicle as she started crying. Her friends gathered around her, trying to help her through this. She couldn't keep this up. She needed help.

And so, Twilight's parents booked her an appointment with a well respected therapist.

The next day, Twilight was sitting on a couch with Spike in her lap. A yellow skinned woman with a black bob cut and glasses was sitting across from her, Twilight explaining everything that had happened. "Twilight," she told her, "it's perfectly normal to see something like this."

"It is?" Twilight asked, the woman nodding.

"Yes. Have you ever lost anyone before? A grandparent or close family friend?" Twilight shook her head, "so this is the first time you've experienced loss. Your brain is trying to figure out how to handle it and until it does, it'll try and cope by adding images of the one you lost in front of you like what you saw."

"But why did it happen when it did?" Twilight asked, wishing that somebody had been around with her when she saw them.

"When you're on your own, the brain can truly be free. It can place images in front of you that aren't there without worrying about outside interference. It's trying to convince you Flash is in front of you and it knows that if you see someone walking through the image, you won't believe it's real."

"So...what should I do?"

"I'd suggest not being alone. Having just one person there should stop you from seeing these images. And once you've had enough time to truly accept Flash's death, you'll be able to be on your own again without worrying about these hallucinations."

Twilight nodded and the pair continued to talk with one another about Flash, the doctor asking Twilight to tell her more about the boy and why he was so important to her. Twilight had to admit, it seemed much easier to speak to a stranger about these things than it was speaking to her friends and family.

Eventually, their allotted time came to an end and the doctor asked if Twilight wanted to book a follow-up session. Twilight did and the pair headed out of the room, her parents waiting for her as they thanked the doctor and booked that appointment.

"Feeling better?" Velvet asked, Twilight nodding as they headed out onto the street.

"I think so," she nodded. "The doctor said I shouldn't be on my own for a while. I shouldn't see any more hallucinations if I'm not alone." The pair nodded as they began to make their way towards their car. But as they did, Twilight spotted something across the street.

Flash was standing on the other side of the road, looking just as ghostly as the last two times. He was standing inside an alleyway, people walking past him without even glancing at him. She closed her eyes and let out a gasp, "it's not real." She opened them again and sure enough, the image of Flash was gone.

She sighed as her parents called out to her, Twilight catching up to them but still being a little concerned she was losing her mind.

Over the next two days, Twilight found herself constantly around people.

There were her friends, who were doing everything they could to keep her distracted. There was her family, with Flurry becoming a welcome distraction for the troubled aunt. And there was Twilight herself, who did everything she could to keep her mind off of Flash.

She didn't completely ignore his existence, however, as she still wanted to grieve for him properly.

She had finally gone to visit his parents, Trail Blazer and Misty Vail both looking an absolute wreck. The pair had been so distraught with their son's death, that they had not bothered to wash up or sleep in days and looked like they had barely eaten anything. Twilight knew that compared to them, the pain she felt for his death had to be even worse.

They spent the day talking, Twilight wanting to apologise for what had happened to Flash. But the pair seemed to already know about her guilt and told Twilight it wasn't her fault. This did little to ease Twilight's worries, especially when Trail looked ready to hunt down the real person responsible.

Said man had not made any more appearances since the mall attack, with nobody able to even remember what he looked like. And with the mall's security cameras destroyed, he would likely remain forever a mystery. And if he was smart, he wouldn't try anything again.

Twilight had gone through all of this with somebody else besides her, the girl terrified of seeing Flash again if she was on her own. There were a few times when she thought she saw Flash in a passing glance, but he was gone when she looked back moments later. It got to a point where whenever she turned her head, she did so slowly to take in as much info as possible. And obviously, that wasn't doing her any good.

Currently, Twilight was at her house with all of her friends.

Twilight's parents had to be out late that night and Cadance and Shining couldn't make it, so Twilight's friends had offered to hang out with her at her house and make a sleepover of it.

Currently, Twilight watched as Trixie and Rainbow Dash were racing one another whilst Rarity was doing her and Adagio's nails. Pinkie, Applejack and Fluttershy were bringing in the snacks, whilst Sunset was writing something in her journal.

Twilight didn't need to have Sunset's mind reading abilities, to tell everyone wasn't just doing it for her benefit. They were all trying to keep their minds off of the loss of their friend as well, with some appearing to be doing a better job at hiding it than others.

Eventually, Fluttershy spoke up and brought up a subject everyone was hoping to avoid. "I heard the mayor's going to honour Flash with a statue." They all looked at her, as she hid behind her hair. "Sorry."

"No," Twilight shook her head, "don't be. Flash would want us to talk about this."

"Yeah," Applejack nodded, "I think it's a good thing they're gonna honour him. Flash did so much for the city, it's only right he be remembered like that." The others agreed, as Rarity asked the question everyone was thinking.

"Any idea if they'll do a funeral for him?"

"I think that would do his parents a lot of good," Sunset sighed. "But...with no body to bury..." She didn't finish and the others started feeling uncomfortable, Twilight getting up to grab a drink.

She headed into the kitchen and quickly took out a glass to fill, the girl turning towards the fridge. But when she did, she saw something that made her drop her glass.

Flash was once again standing in front of her, as ghostly as ever, once again yelling something but barely making a whisper. "Twilight...help me."

"You're not real," she told him as she shut her eyes. "YOU'RE NOT REAL!" The others rushed into the room and ll stopped as soon as they did, silence filling the room.

"Flash?" Sunset asked, Twilight opening her eyes and seeing Flash was still there.

She then looked at her friends and saw they were all staring at the same spot Flash was standing, the lot of them going pale and looking shocked. "You...you can see him?" They all nodded, Twilight's brain feeling like it was being fried.

Flash looked them all over and yelled/whispered to them, asking for help. But before anyone could recover from the shock, he began to disappear.

"Wait!" Twilight cried, but he was gone. The girls could only stand there, taking in what they had seen. They all shared a look and realised that Twilight seeing Flash hadn't been from trauma. She had really seen him. Flash was really there. He was a ghost.

"A ghost?" Shining asked, he and the girls being in the base, shocked by the tale they had just told him. "You can't be serious."

"We're not joking," Rainbow told him. "We all saw him. Flash was in your parent's kitchen, looking all...ghosty. He was see through and his words came out super quiet, even though he looked like he was yelling. I bet if I threw something at him, it would have gone right through him."

"This doesn't make any sense," Shining frowned. "There's no way Flash can be a ghost, because ghosts can't exist. And if he has somehow left his physical form behind and become some kind of energy body, he should have left some trace for me to detect."

"Maybe this trace only lasts a short while," Fluttershy suggested. "And the only way to pick it up is to scan him when he's visible or shortly afterwards."

"If that's true, the only way to figure out what happened to him is for Flash to show up again." Shining frowned, wishing he had been there when he had.

"What if Flash is here right now?" Pinkie asked, looking around the base. "Flash, are you there?" There was no answer and when everyone looked back at Pinkie, she was dressed in black robes and carrying bells and a candle. "Speak to us, humble spirit. Let your voice be heard, so we might hear your tale." Given it was Pinkie, her friends actually felt like it was possible Flash might actually show up. But there was still no sign of him.

"Now what?" Rainbow asked, only for the computer to start beeping.

"What's that?" Sunset asked, as Shining typed away at the computer.

"Police report," he explained. "Someone's holding up a bank. Someone armed with explosives that the guards can't hurt, no matter what they do." That description brought only one person to mind. The person responsible for what had happened to Flash.

"Let's get that guy!" Rainbow cried, the others nodding as they rushed out of the base and got into their vehicles. Even if they couldn't figure out what happened to Flash, they would make sure the guy that did that to him was stopped and brought to justice.

The bank's front exploded, bricks and mortar flying everywhere as the one responsible stepped out of it.

The bomber laughed as he carried a bunch of money bags out of the building. As he did, several police officers drove onto the scene and stopped on either side of the street. "FREEZE!" One yelled, pointing their weapons at the man. "You're under arrest."

The man smiled, "you think I'm scared of you? I'm the man that killed Flash Sentry, for crying out loud." With that, he dropped his money bags and took out an orbular device. He pressed the button on the top and threw it out of the bubble surrounding him, the cops seeing this and running as fast as they could.

The device landed next to a police cruiser and exploded, flipping the vehicle and almost crushing an officer.

The man laughed at this and picked his bag up, whilst the cops that stayed behind tried to shoot at him. But their bullets did nothing against the force field around him, allowing the bomber to throw more explosives in their direction.

"This is too much fun," he laughed as more explosions occurred behind him. He walked down the street without a care in the world, only to see a bunch of vehicles come around a corner and head straight for him. The lead vehicle was a hard-like sports car, whilst screeched to a halt and disappeared to reveal Shining Armor and Lady Masquerade.

"Freeze!" The Plumber yelled, pointing his weapon at the man. Trixie was in her Luna Cat form and prepared to attack as well, whilst Adagio and the Rainbooms got out of the car.

"What?" He asked, "You think you guys can stop me? I killed Flash Sentry."

"We know," Trixie glared at him. "And that's why we're gonna make you pay." She charged at him, but the man threw out another explosive and Trixie was forced to stop.

Rarity put a shield up as it exploded, the force behind it causing it to crack and fall apart. Rarity frowned, not liking how much power this psycho had.

Shining chose this moment to fire at the bomber, the energy shield around him appearing and blocking the lasers. Pinkie threw a cupcake at him and Twilight did the same with a piece of rubble from the bank. Both of them hit the force field and the cupcake explode, doing no damage to him whatsoever.

Rainbow grabbed Applejack and they both sped towards him, Applejack's super strength increased due to the speed. But even a punch from this wasn't enough to make the shield even wobble, Shining scanning it with his helmet. The energy making up the shield was in his Plumber database, but his blaster didn't have a frequency to disrupt it. "Where the heck did you get something like that?"

"Don't know," the bomber shrugged. "Just showed up at my house one day. When I found out what it could do, I knew it was my ticket to being rich."

"Wrong," Twilight told him, "it's your ticket to multiple life sentences."

"And how are you gonna make me serve them?" He asked. Twilight held out her hand and tried to grab the device in her magic, either to rip it off and just to push the button and turn the shield off. But she couldn't. For some reason, her magic wasn't able to penetrate the shield.

"Impossible."

The man laughed as he took out a few more bombs, "that's what I thought. Now, get ready to have this whole street turned to rubble." He was about to press the button, but stopped as he seemed to freeze. "Wha...what is that?" They all looked rather confused by this, but quickly realised he wasn't staring at them.

He was looking behind them and when they spun around, they were shocked to see Flash standing behind them in his spectral form. "Flash?" Shining asked, seeing him smiling. "Is that really you?" Flash nodded, everyone unable to believe he was there.

Shining quickly scanned him and was shocked to find an energy trace around him. It was weak, but Flash was giving off some form of energy. Fluttershy had been right about it being quick to dissipate. Whatever this was, the trace would only remain for a moment of two before fading away.

"Any idea what's wrong with him?" Adagio asked, as Flash walked towards them. He seemed to be staying see-able longer now, but they could all see him looking strained.

"Are you...forcing yourself to be visible?" Trixie asked, Flash nodding. He tried to talk, but it was still coming out a whisper.

"Hang on," Shining held up his Plumber badge. It quickly recorded Flash's voice and played it back louder.

"Guys," he told them, "you gotta help me." Everyone smiled, glad to be able to hear Flash's voice at the proper volume. "I don't know what happened, but I've been stuck like this for almost a week."

"How the heck did this happen?" Shining asked him, "are you...you know..."

"I'm not a ghost," Flash told them. "And yes Pinkie, I was there before when you were asking about it. But whatever's happening to me, it's really hard to make myself visible."

"But if you're not a ghost..." Rainbow asked.

"Honestly," Flash looked down at his left arm, "I'm not sure." The others looked down at it and all realised something was missing off it. The Omnitrix. "It's like this."

Several days ago.

As Flash activate the Omnitrix, the bomb started sparking. It was almost as if the Omnitrix was starting to interfere with it. And when the alien screen appeared, Flash was shock to see it glitching and form a blurry form he couldn't recognise.

"What the?" Flash spun the dial and the image remained, "what's going on?" But as he said that, the bomb's screen suddenly shut off for a moment before turning back on. And when it did, it only had fifteen seconds left on it. "WHAT THE HELL!?" Flash panicked the Omnitrix was still glitching up.

Five seconds passed and Flash saw no other choice, the teen slamming the dial down as the room was filled with green. And when it faded, Flash was still standing there.

But as he looked himself over, he was shocked to see his body was now transparent. "What's going on?" He looked at the Omnitrix and saw it was gone. And as he did, the bomb's countdown struck zero. "NO!" The bomb exploded and Flash braced himself for the end, but he felt nothing as the room was filled with fire and sound.

He covered his ears, but they were the only things being affected by this blast. The flames were passing right through him and the smoke wasn't filling his lungs. And he felt no shock or effect from the blast. It was like the explosion was just passing through him.

"And since then, I've been stuck like this. I thought I really was dead, but I couldn't let myself believe that. I realised this had to be some kind of alien power. So I tried to force myself visible and it worked...for a few seconds."

"That's insane," Shining told him. "You've really been stuck like this...all that time?"

Flash nodded. "I knew I couldn't figure it out on my own, so I went to you guys. First I tried Shining, hoping he'd be able to detect me. But you didn't. I tried to make myself visible in front of you, but I couldn't. I tried Sunset, hoping maybe she could read my mind or something if I was able to get close enough. But it didn't work either. That's when I went to Twilight."

"So I wasn't crazy," Twilight whispered. "You really were there." Flash nodded, looking ashamed.

"Sorry I did that to you. But I was able to make myself visible around you and even speak. But it's still really tricky." As he said that, his body started flickering. The others gasped at this, as Flash held his head and screamed in pain. "Can't...hold it...much longer!" He looked up at his friend, a pleading look in his eyes. "Please." Those were the last words they heard before it completely vanished, his friends all looking worried as they tried to think of what to do.

"There has to be someway we can turn him back to normal," Applejack cried.

"We don't know anything about how the Omnitrix works," Twilight told them. "We have no idea what's making it glitch and even if we did, we don't have the technology to fix it."

"So what do we do?" Fluttershy asked. It was at that moment, a sonic boom of some kind exploded above them.

They all looked up and was shocked to see a familiar looking ship appear above them. And from out of it, a green beam of light flew out and hit the ground. When it did, a small figure appeared on the ground. One they hadn't been expecting to see.

"Azmuth!" Twilight cried, seeing the creator of the Omnitrix step forward. "You're here!"

"Of course I'm here," Azmuth nodded. "You think I'd stay away, after hearing what happened? You can thank Shining for sending me the message." They all turned to the Plumber, who nodded as Azmuth took out a strange looking device. "And honestly, I'm appalled that you would even think that my Omnitrix would let itself and its wearer be so easily destroyed."

"Flash was just here!" Twilight cried, "he just appeared and then disappeared."

"Is that so?" Azmuth asked, only for Flash to actually appear in front of him. The galvin was shocked to see the boy in his transparent state, Flash calling out to him for help. "Fascinating."

"What's going on?" Flash asked, only to disappear again. Everyone turned to Azmuth, as he scanned the spot Flash was just in.

"This energy signature," Azmuth hummed. "I see, so that's it." He turned to the other. "Something has caused the Omnitrix to malfunction and trap Flash halfway between transformation. That's why the Omnitrix isn't on his wrist and why he keeps appearing and disappearing." As he said that, Flash flickered into existence again. "The state he's in is due to the ability of the alien Flash is currently stuck between. One with the ability to turn invisible and intangible."

"So you're saying Flash is an alien in human form?" Trixie asked, Azmuth nodding as Flash vanished.

"That's why he can't control it. He's not in the right form to have mental command of the ability, like he should." He pressed several buttons on his device before his ship beamed something down. A microwave sized device, with a satellite arm on the top of it. "We have to hurry. Flash has already been in that state for too long. If he isn't restored to normal, he could be trapped intangible and invisible forever."

"What do-" Flash started when he appeared, only to vanish again.

"What do we do?" Twilight finished for him, as Azmuth started typing on the computer connected to the device.

"We need to push the transformation all the way. This device should allow us to do that. But...there is a risk." Everyone frowned at this. "Currently, Flash's atoms are in a state of flux. If we do this wrong, or something happens to interrupt it, Flash's atomic structure could be destabilised and he'll be completely disintegrated down to the subatomic level." Everyone gulped, fearing they might lose Flash once and for all.

"Isn't there another way?" Shining asked, but Azmuth shook his head.

"I'm afraid not. It's either this, or Flash is trapped like that forever." They weren't sure what to say about that. The risk sounded too great. What could they do?

"Go for it!" They looked up and saw Flash appear again. "If I have to choose between a quick end or being stuck like this forever and being unable to touch or talk to anyone, I'd go with that. I'll starve to death anyway."

"Actually, you won't." Azmuth hit a button and the machine began to hum. "You won't need food it that form. You could live forever...in the terrible state you just described."

"Then I say do-" Flash vanished before he could finish, but everyone got the message.

"Okay then," Azmuth stated. "Flash, stand in front of the device." There weren't sure if Flash was there or not, but they had a feeling he was. "Now, this is the most crucial part. You have to make yourself visible. The most visible you are, the better chance this device has of sending the signal to the Omnitrix."

"Can't you just wait for him to become visible again?" Rainbow asked.

"I could. But if he vanishes again, the signal will break and he'll be atomised. He might not have complete control of the power, but if he focuses hard enough he can make himself visible and stay that way. But it's all up to him."

"Come on, Flash!" Applejack cried, "you gotta focus. It's just like usin' any of ya'h alien powers." The others agreed, cheering for Flash as the ghost-like boy took a deep breath.

Flash knew he could make himself visible. He did so when he was trying to call out to Twilight. He just had to focus. "Come on," he told himself. He closed his eyes and held his head, trying to visualise himself appearing in front of them. "RAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRHHHHHHHHHH!" His head was starting to pound, but he kept his concentration up and suddenly, his body began to flicker into view.

Everyone saw this and smiled, seeing Flash grow more and more solid. "That's it!" Azmuth cried once Flash stopped flickering. "Now no matter what, keep yourself in that state." He hit the button and the satellite unleashed a beam of green energy, which hit Flash and began connecting to the Omnitrix.

Flash continued to groan, the strain of doing this making him feel like his head would soon explode. But he refused to fail now. The beam continued to connect to the Omnitrix and with each passing second, the reboot and activation command was imputed.

It was at this moment a certain someone had had enough of being ignored.

The bomber let out a growl as he finally got over the appearance of his victim's ghost, taking a grenade off his belt and activating it. "I'll make sure he's gone for good this time!" He threw the bomb and Shining saw it, gasping as he realised it was heading for the machine.

"NO!" He fired his laser and hit the bomb, making it explode in the air. This sent out a shockwave that made the ground shake and caused the beam to move, almost falling off Flash. But Twilight was able to keep it steady whilst Flash continued to concentrate.

"Just a few more seconds!" Azmuth cried, as the bomber threw all his grenades at them.

Shining fired whilst Rarity launched some crystals at them, causing the bombs to blow up and cause more shockwaves. But Flash and Twilight were able to keep the beam on him, as the command neared completion. But as it did, one last bomb flew through the smoke and landed near them.

The explosion completely deafened them, as they were all knocked off their feet. Azmuth was almost crushed under a piece of flying pavement, but Rarity was able to put up a barrier just in time to protect them.

The same could not be said for his machine, which slammed into the ground and smashed to pieces.

Everyone gasped at this, wondering if Flash had even made it. They turned to where he had been standing, which was covered in smoke, calling out to him as he did. But then the smoke faded and Flash was nowhere in sight.

"Flash!?" Twilight looked around, "Flash, where are you?" But he didn't answer, making her and the others fear the worst. "No. Not again."

The bomber stared at this and couldn't believe it. Had he actually done it this time? "Yes!" He cheered, making the others turn to him. "I did it! Now I really am unbeatable!" Shining roared at this and fired at him, but his shield still held. "Don't you get it. Nothing can get through this shield." He cheered, "I'M UNTOUCHABLE!" But as soon as he said that, something hard smashed him right in the face. "AUGH!"

Everyone watched as the bomber staggered back and he held his nose, eventually getting his balance and looking around.

"What was that?" He was then punched in the gut, making him cry out, before something grabbed his underpants and gave him the greatest of all wedgies. "GYAH!"

Everyone was watching in surprise, but slowly realised what had to be happening. "Flash?" Twilight asked, barely able to hope at this point. And then, a hissing voice spoke out.

"You were expecting someone else?" With that, Flash suddenly appeared. And what they saw, was the strangest floating creature any of them had ever seen.

Whatever it was, it was covered in a layer of white skin. It didn't have any legs, instead having only a long wispy tail that flowed like smoke. Its arms were thin and bony, with clawed fingers. The skin had a bunch of black gaps covering it, looking almost like someone had drawn on it with a sharpy, which spiralled around its entire body from the tail to the chest, around the arms and all the way up to its head. On said head, a single purple eye could be seen inside the gap. The Omnitrix was on the left side of its chest, sticking out of a gap.

Silence filled the street, as the new alien looked himself over. "Well," he hissed, "this is certainly different."

As soon as he said that, a grenade flew towards him. But the bomb simply phased right through him before exploding, the alien not at all affected by the blast. When the smoke cleared, the eye on his body moved along the gap until it was on his back.

"You want some more?" He asked the bomber before vanishing, the man gasping as he took out some more bombs.

"Where are you?" He cried, looking around for any sign of the alien. "Show yourself, you...you freak!"

"Freak?" A voice called from behind, making him spin around but see nothing. "Well, I guess I am a little freaky looking." Slowly, the shadowy outline of the alien appeared and phased through his shield. "A freaky spectre. No," he solidified inches from the man's face, "a Ghostfreak!"

"AHHHHHH!" He threw several more bombs, but Ghostfreak vanished before they could hit.

As they exploded, he felt himself get punched again and Ghostfreak reappeared. He threw another punch and it went right through the force field, hitting him in the face again. And as he staggered back, Ghostfreak grabbed the device projecting the barrier.

The next thing the bomber knew, the device went right through his body until it was completely off of him. This also caused the barrier to no longer remain around him, the man hitting the back of the bubble.

Ghostfreak then threw the device to the ground, causing it to break apart and make the bubble around them pop.

Without his defensive shield, the bomber felt very vulnerable. And before he could think of running away, Ghostfreak grabbed the back of his collar and lifted him into the air. "HEY! Stop!" He swung his legs around, as Ghostfreak flew him higher and higher.

The alien laughed at this, enjoying the terror in his victim...opponent's voice. "I think my grip his slipping." He pretended to drop the man and he screamed, making the alien laugh. "Too easy!" He flew down and finally dropped the man, who stagger as he hit the ground and fell over at Shining Armor's feet.

"Okay!" He cried, "I give up! Just get me away from that...that monster."

Shining smirked as he cuffed the man, whilst Ghostfreak flew down to them. "So," he posed, "how do I look?"

"Kind of creepy," Fluttershy gulped. The others had to agree, asking him to switch back. Ghostfreak nodded and after hitting the Omnitrix, a green flash filled the air before the teen fell out of it.

He cried out and landed, almost falling over as he did so. His eyes glowed purple for a second and he quickly shook his head, his eyes returning to normal before he patted himself over and saw he was back to normal. This made him sigh in relief, as he turned to the others. "Thanks guys! For getting me back to-" He didn't get to finish, as in that moment someone tackled him to the ground.

Pinkie was squeezing the life out of him, Flash gasping at it as the others gathered around him. "Do you have any idea what you put us through!?" Trixie cried, looking both happy and furious at the same time.

"What you've been through?" Flash groaned out, "I've been the one stuck unable to be seen or touch anything." Pinkie let him go and he moaned, clutching his stomach. "And I haven't gotten to eaten anything in almost a week." As soon as she said that, Pinkie pulled a muffin out of her hair and shoved it into his mouth.

Flash didn't complain as he ate it and in that moment, a car pulled up that Flash recognised. "FLASH!" He looked around and saw his parents, the two looking like they hadn't slept in days. And it was then he realised, they probably hadn't.

He got up and rushed over to them, the pair looking him over. "Is it really you?" Misty grabbed him by the cheeks, the teen nodding as she burst into tears. "We thought we'd lost you!"

"I'm sorry," Flash sighed. "But I'm okay. I'm back now." The others smiled at this, seeing the family reunited after such an ordeal.

At the same time, Azmuth stepped over to the device the bomber had used and began taking it apart. "You know that's evidence," Shining told him. "But I'm guessing you're the best one to figure out how it works."

Azmuth hummed as he looked at the components. "Alien technology, but made using Earth level methods. Whoever made this was clearly not human."

"You're saying an alien is supplying people with alien tech?" Shining asked, remembering the phasing guy he had taken down not too long ago. "This is bad. If they keep doing this, we could end up with a bunch of teched out idiots trying to be cool and cause serious damage."

"Indeed," Azmuth nodded. "You'll need to look into this. I'll be sticking around for a little bit, to make sure what happened to Flash doesn't happen again." He looked around at the boy and his loved ones, seeing how happy they all were. "They all went through a lot, didn't they?"

"Yeah," Shining nodded. "Flash was stuck unable to interact with the world around him, whilst his friends had to live through thinking he was gone forever. They might be happy now, but something like this can't just be forgotten. It's going to have a serious effect on them. Whether that effect is positive or negative will be up to them."

Azmuth nodded, understanding completely. "I'm sure they'll come out of this event stronger. And they'll need that strength." He looked down at the device in his hands, "there's no telling what might happen next. They'll need all the strength they can find to overcome it."

In the warehouse, the five Flash Sentry villains were watching a TV.

The news was reporting the return of Flash Sentry and what had happened to him. And despite the fact their greatest enemy was alive, the lot of them smiled. "I knew Sentry wouldn't be taken out by some no name loser," Dragstar laughed. "Took him long enough to show back up."

"Indeed," Animac nodded. "But at least this distraction kept them from focusing on us." He moved over to the device, which was full of smoke. And as he did, the device beeped and appeared to start powering down. "Finally. She's ready." They all gathered around, as the machine's power down sequence completed.

As soon as it did, the glass of the pod detached from the metal and released the smoke from within. As it did, the figure inside the machine started moving.

The males smirked at what they saw, Doddery rolling her eyes before grabbing a sheet and throwing it over the figure.

"Welcome to the land of the living, my dear." Animac's words were the first thing the figure inside the device heard with her new ears, that figure being a young woman with bright red skin and long flowing dark red hair. Her body was also slightly blue, as every vein in her body had a soft blue pulse of light running through it.

She opened her glowing blue eyes and smiled as she looked herself over, using the sheet to cover her body. As she did, she couldn't help but feel the fabric against her skin. She could also feel the cold metal of the pod and gentle coolness of the air. This is what she had longed to know for her entire existence. And now she knew it.

"You don't look half bad," Dynamo Danger told her. "So, what's the first thing you wanna experience now that you're as real as the rest of us?" Viral's soft smiled quickly turned sinister, as she said what the rest wanted her to say.

"Revenge."

Author's Note

I know you all knew Flash wasn't dead, but how many of you guessed Ghostfreak would be appearing here? If it was all of you, I hope I still got a few emotions out of you. So now Flash has Ghostfreak. How will this affect things? Only time will tell.

Season 4, Episode 9: Group Therapy

Tensions were high in Canterlot, as a large hostage situation had just occurred in the city.

At a software company in the city, three men had taken the employees prisoner. The three were armed with guns and had all the employees and the CEO of the company tied up in a corner, whilst the police were outside trying to mediate the situation.

One of the men walked over to the CEO and knelt down in front of him, pointing his gun right at his head. "Alright, you gonna pay up?"

The man glared at him, "I'll give you nothing. You think you'll get away with this? You'll regret making this mistake."

"Funny?" The gunman chuckled, "I seem to remember telling you the exact same thing, right after you stole my life's work and fired me."

"That program was company property," he growled. "You developed it using our technology and signed a contract that clearly stated anything you made was ours."

"But the contract also said I would get a hefty bonus once it was completed. But just as I was about to finish it up, you went ahead and fired me for no reason." He patted the gun against his head. "Except there was a reason. You didn't want to pay me, so you fired me and stole my program to complete on your own. And now the company's a million bucks richer."

"You gave up any right to that money when you tried to sabotage a coworker's project," the CEO growled. "You knew you wouldn't be able to finish your program before them, so you destroyed it and tried to use what you learned from it to complete yours."

"So what?" The man asked, "my program was way better than that piece of junk." He pointed the gun at the man. "I'm not going to ask again. Give me the money I'm owed, or you're company's gonna have a lot few pensions it'll need to pay out." He pointed at young woman, who screamed in terror whilst the other three gunmen prepared to do the same thing.

But in that moment, they heard something hit the ground and clatter. This made them all turn their guns in that direction, but saw nothing.

The first gunman pointed at another, telling him to go check it out. He did so and saw the noise had been made by a pencil holder falling to the ground, the man picking it up and wondering how the heck it had fallen.

But as he reached down to pick it up, something shot out of the floor and grabbed his shirt. And before he could call out to the others, he was pulled down and everything went black when he hit the floor.

The cry of pain made the others rush over, only for the second gunman to find something grab his feet and pull them out from under him. He cried and fell to the ground, his gun flying across the room.

The first gunman pointed at that location, wondering what the heck was going on. But before he could think to run back and grab a hostage, he was suddenly grabbed around the arms and lift into the air. "STOP!" He screamed, only to come crashing into the ceiling.

A crack could be heard as he made contact with it, the man dropping his gun as he fell unconscious. The man then fell to the ground and was completely out of it, the hostages wondering what the heck had happened.

But then, something appeared in front of them. A strange ghostly creature with a single purple eye and long white claws.

The women screamed, as the creature looked them over. "Is everyone okay?" They were too scared to answer, until the CEO recognised the symbol on his chest.

"Flash Sentry?"

"The one and only," Ghostfreak used his claws to cut through their bonds. As soon as they were all free, the hostages ran for the exit whilst Ghostfreak collected the crook's guns. The police soon arrived and took the guns, arresting the criminals whilst giving their thanks to Flash.

The alien hero saluted before phasing out of the building, heading back down to the main street where he spotted Trixie, Twilight and Adagio.

He flew down and transformed back as he landed, the teen shaking his head to get the cobwebs out of them. "You okay?" Twilight asked, Flash holding his head as he stood back up.

"Yeah," he nodded. "Just...Ghostfreak's gonna take some getting used to."

"Really?" Adagio looked confused, "how is it any different from turning into living slime or...whatever the heck Upgrade is made out of."

"I don't know," Flash finally recovered. "It's just...feels different. Like...I'm not really me when I'm Ghostfreak. And the way that alien makes me think is a little unnerving."

"What do you mean?" Trixie asked, as they stared heading down the street.

Flash frowned, looking almost afraid by what he was about to say. "When I first flew in, my first thought was to grab the three and throw them out the window." The girls were shocked by this, considering this had all taken place on the building's fifth floor. "It's like...I have to really try to care about not hurting my opponents too much. It feels like there's a little voice in my head, telling me to just end them."

This worried the girls, though Twilight tried to help Flash feel better. "It's probably just a quirk of the alien. The same way you have a really short attention span when you're XLR8. You just need to get more in sync with the alien and you'll be able to tune it out in time."

"I hope you're right," Flash nodded. As much as this alien freaked him out, he had to admit the alien's abilities were useful. He just hoped he felt less uncomfortable with him with use.

"And if not," Adagio spoke up. "I'm sure Azmuth can find a way to fix it so you feel more you when you're him."

Speaking of Azmuth, he was currently in the Plumber base.

He had stuck around after Flash's little incident to make sure nothing else went wrong with the Omnitrix. But he had been doing diagnostics on the device every day since then and everything looked normal.

Shining Armor was with him in the lab, working on the devices he had got from the phase and shield criminals. "Dang it!" He cried, "whoever made this either used machines to build it or wiped it so clean that I can't get a single finger print off of it."

"My guess is he used machines," Azmuth stated. "Even galvins haven't designed a way to remove fingerprints good enough to fool Plumber tech. I'm sure you'll find another way to track them."

"I hope so," Shining nodded. "We haven't had any other powered up street crooks, but I get the feeling it's only gonna be a matter of time before the next one shows up. And you saw what happened the last time some idiot, got his hands on this kind of tech. By the way, how's the Omnitrix scans looking?"

"Good," Azmuth nodded. "I'm certain the issues caused by it won't happen again. I'm actually amazed it was even affected by this level of technology."

"Is there a way to protect it from being affected like that again?"

"Unfortunately, that would require taking the Omnitrix apart and rebuilding it from scratch. This was only meant to be a prototype after all. And it'll take years before the completed version is ready to even be constructed."

"What'll you do with the new one once it's finished?"

"That depends on Flash," Azmuth told him. "So long as he keeps on the path he's on, I see no reason for him not to have the new Omnitrix. But like I said, that could take years and a lot can happen in that time." Shining nodded. "Anyway, I should prepare to return to my home planet. I see no other reason to remain. I'll be leaving in a day or two." Shining nodded again as Azmuth prepared to teleport away, whilst Shining got back to trying to find a clue to the tech's source.

All he could do was hope whoever made it, wouldn't be dumb enough to give it to anyone too dangerous.

Across town, a young man and woman were walking through the streets laughing together. The pair were enjoying a day out together, having just had lunch together and were about to go see a movie.

But as they headed down the street, a shadow suddenly blocked out the sun for a moment.

They both looked up, wondering what that had been. But they saw nothing and just kept walking, only for the sun to be blocked out again and stay blocked out. And when the pair looked up, they saw a human sized creature with wings flying down towards them.

They screamed as the creature tackled them both to the ground, the beast revealing itself to be Doddery in her metal flight suit. "Hello there. I hope you don't mind, but I'll be taking your energy now." With that, she slammed her clawed hands down on their backs as a green energy surrounded them.

Both the teens screamed as they suddenly felt themselves growing weaker and weaker. At the same time, Doddery's old body began to rejuvenate. She laughed as she felt herself growing younger, her body becoming stronger and the pain of old age fading.

Eventually, the teens lost consciousness and the de-aged woman pulled her hands off of them. "Well, that was quite the meal. Thank you for your generous donation. I'll be sure to put your energy to good use." With that, she leapt into the air and was flying like it was the easiest thing in the world.

She soared up high before anyone else could tell she wasn't a bird and took off, towards an area of the town with a bunch of abandoned buildings. One building in particular was her target and when she was sure nobody was watching, she dived down into an open window.

Inside, the five other criminals were doing some last minute maintenance on their gear. Dynamo and Dragstar sat back to back, whilst Animac was in the corner typing on his computer. The Hypnotist was practising with his gadget, firing disks at a target and hitting the bullseye every time. And then there was Viral.

The techno-organic being was now dressed in a skin-tight red suit the same colour as he skin. It was covered in blue circuit patterns and she was also wearing red boots, with the same patterns as her suit. She was standing over a car battery and held up her hand, as electrical energy flowed out of the battery and into her. She smirked as she felt the rush of energy flow into her, followed by her launching it at a crate next to Animac and destroying it.

The mad scientist jumped away from this and glared at her. "Do you mind?"

"Sorry," Viral smiled, "just a little excited. Having a body is truly amazing."

"Well just be careful with how much power you use," Dynamo stated. "Remember what the boss said. Use more power than you have stored up and your whole body will shut down."

"I get it," Viral nodded. "I can't wait until I get to see Micro again." She frowned, wishing she could go right now. "When will we finally get to leave this place?"

"When I decide." Everyone jumped at that and rushed over to one corner of the building, where a large computer was sitting. On the computer was a window with a red line running through it, which shook as the voice spoke. "You have all become accustomed to your new abilities and weapons. Now is the time to use them."

"Great," Dragstar smirked. "So, when do we get to wipe Sentry out?"

"Sentry is the least of your concerns right now. You will get your chance at revenge, but only when I say so. For now, we must acquire the needed components to complete my master plan."

"What components?" Doddery asked, only for the computer to change and show some kind of computer chip.

"The ZX Titan Super Processor Chip. These chips are vital to my work. They were too heavily protected before, but today they're being transported on an armored truck. You six will attack that truck and take the chips."

"What about Sentry?" The Hypnotist cried.

"FORGET ABOUT SENTRY!" They all flinched at this. "You will have your chance to take him out, but only when I say so. Until my plans are complete, you will focus on the assignments I've given you."

"Very well," Animac nodded as everyone else looked upset. "But, what should happen if Sentry shows up whilst we're attacking the armored car?" The voice chuckled.

"Then, you can do what you want. If the opportunity arises to destroy him, then do it. But be warned, that if you fail to get me those chips, then I'll disable each of your equipment remotely. And Viral, that includes your body. Do not push my generosity."

The six smiled and nodded, glad that they would have a chance to make Sentry pay if he showed up. "Alright then," Animac turned towards the exit. "Let's get going."

"WOO!" Dragstar cheered as he ran forward before leaping into the air.

As he did, the half-wheels on his legs spun around and came together to form one large wheel. At the same time, the wheel on his back spun up and around until it pointed forwards. He also grabbed a pair of handlebars on the metal, as he fell down and landed on the wheels.

He know looked like a red motorcycle, with a black seat where his butt should be. The soles of his feet had holes in them, like a pair of exhausts. "One of you, hop on."

The Hypnotist smirked before rushing over and getting on the seat. Fire exploded out of the exhaust and the pair raced off, Doddery following behind as she spread her wings. Dynamo did the same and Viral ran outside to leap onto a power-line, which she used to surf down the street.

Animac smirked as he watched them go, whilst typing something into his computer glove. "With those five, I might actually pull this off. And Sentry will feel my wrath." The machine on his back suddenly shot a red ball out the end of it, Animac grabbing hold and throwing it. Canterlot was about to find out, just how much trouble it was in.

In another part of town, Flash was sitting at a cafe on his own.

After splitting off from the others, he had walked around thinking about Ghostfreak and the uncomfortable feeling he got whenever he used him. And though he knew Twilight was probably right, Flash couldn't help but feel like there was more to it than he knew.

A small part of him wondered if his time stuck as a ghost might have left him with a disposition to the sensation. When it had first happened and he thought nobody would have see or hear him again, he had freaked out. For almost a full week, he could do nothing but fear he would spend forever watching the world and never interacting. A few times after Azmuth had fixed him, he had found himself having nightmares about it and reliving everything.

Of course, he hadn't told anyone this. His parents had been worried enough about him after he had seemingly come back from the dead. Who knows what they might do if they knew Flash was having nightmares.

"What do I do?" He asked himself, slurping up the last of his drink as he thought about it. "I just need to buck up and focus. Using Ghostfreak's just gonna take a bit more time." It was in that moment, a nearby explosion caught Flash's attention. He got up and turned in its direction, quickly activating the Omnitrix and transforming. "Firefly!" He leapt into the air and jetted off towards the explosion.

Flying through the city, he swerved around the corner and saw a strange looking woman shooting lightning at an armored car.

"That's new." He watched as the woman lifted her arms, the electric tendrils lifting the truck up before slamming it down on the ground. "Hey, that's my trick!"

The woman heard this and looked around, her expression showing she was not happy to see him. "You!" She raised her hand and pointed it at a nearby lamppost, lightning surging out of the device and into her hand. She then pointed her other hand at Firefly and the lightning shot out of her.

"WOW!" Firefly dodged the lightning and flew down to land opposite her.

"I was hoping you would show up," she stated. "Now I can get some payback."

Firefly looked at her in confusion. "I'm sorry miss, but I don't think we've been introduced. I'm pretty sure I'd remember a lightning shooting woman in skimpy clothing. How are we supposed to know each other?"

The woman smiled. "I guess I am looking a little different from the last time we faced off. You thought you'd seen the last of me. when you almost deleted me out of your computer system." Those words struck a chord with Flash and he suddenly realised who he was facing off against.

"Viral!?"

"That's right," she smiled. "And not just me!" As soon as she said that, something fast shot past her and rammed into Firefly. The alien insect cried out as he was knocked flying and crashed into the ground, as the blur slowed to a stop to reveal Dragstar in his bike form.

"Hey there, Sentry." Firefly recognised the voice, as the armored figure transformed to his human stated. "Payback time."

Firefly picked himself up, "you two are working together?" But then they both chuckled, as a bunch of people started running at the insect.

"Make that three," the Hypnotised stated as he walked into view. A bunch of his mind slaves charged at Firefly, who was forced on the defensive since he couldn't fight them. He leapt into the air, only to find he wasn't alone.

"Four!" Doddery flew in and slashed at him with her metal wing, knocking him towards the ground. But as he fell, someone else came into view.

Dynamo pointed his waist blasters at the alien hero and fired, the energy blast shooting up and slamming him into the side of a building. "Five." Firefly groan at the impact with the building, the insect pulling himself out only to find a giant bird with crab claws for legs flying at him.

He barely managed to avoid getting cut in half by the pincers, as he fell towards the ground and landed. As he did, the bird flew down and Firefly saw Animac sitting on its back. "Now then, Sentry. Any last words."

Firefly gulped, "humuna humuna humuna comes to mind." He watched as the six moved forward, Firefly taking a step back as he tried to regain his confidence. He then unleashed a blast of fire, hoping to keep them at a distance until he came up with a plan.

But Dragstar transformed into bike form and raced through the flames without a scratch, Firefly leaping into the air to avoid this. But that allowed Doddery to charge in and grabbed him by her taloned feet.

"Get off!" He was about to fry her, but Doddery smirked and spun through the air before letting him go. He flew through the air and before he could regain control, Dynamo fired his blasters at him. "AUGH!" He was blasted into the side of a building before crashing down on a car, Viral rushing forward.

She once again raised her hand and pointed it at a lamppost, summoning electrical energy out of it that she fired at the car.

Firefly was picking himself up when the lightning struck the vehicle, causing it to explode and send him flying. "WOW!" He quickly realised he was in trouble and struck the Omnitrix, transforming as he fell towards the ground. When the light faded, a gem-covered rabbit fell out of it. "Gemini!"

He quickly formed shield in front of him and used it to bounce off the ground, leaping into the air so he could land atop a traffic light. Once he was use he was still alive, he turned to his opponents.

"So, you're all working together? What happened? Couldn't get enough washed out villains, to make a baseball team?" Dynamo tried blasting him, but Gemini created a barrier to block the blasts.

He then leapt down, as the Hypnotist sent his minions to attack him. But Gemini quickly created a blue and yellow gemed replicant. Those two began deal with the controlled hostages, as the original leapt over them.

"Let's start with you!" He threw a punch, but the Hypnotist jumped to the side in order to avoid him. He then pointed the device on his arm at Gemini and fired a strange red disk, but Gemini had put up a shield to block it.

Seeing the disk, he and his clones realised that was what was controlling the victims, the replicants quickly finding and pulling them off.

The Hypnotist felt the loss of his minions and looked around to see the two other Gemini had freed them all, the pair covering them both with their shields and running them to safety. "No matter," he pointed his weapon at the alien. "All I need to do is hit you once and you're mine."

"And he's the least of your worries," Viral laughed as she and Dynamo fired at Gemini. But his shield was able to hold and protect him. "You can't stay in there forever!"

'She's right,' Gemini realised. 'I'll time out if all I do is defend. I gotta find a way to take these guys out.' But as soon as he dropped his shield, Dragstar shot towards him and he almost found himself roadkill until he leapt up into the air.

But as he did, Doddery attacked and pinned him to the ground as her suit started beeping. "I'm starting to run out of youth energy," she smiled as her talons started glowing. "Mind if I borrow some of yours?" She reached down to steal his energy, but Gemini wasn't gonna let that happen.

From out of his gems, a green, pink, orange and violet light shot out and formed more Gemini. The remaining red one used this distraction to create a shield around him, blocking Doddery's attempts to steal his energy. Gemini Pink then leapt at the winged woman and kicked her away, only to find himself getting attacked by the pincer footed bird mutant.

Viral and Dynamo began firing, Green and Orange using their shields to block as Red picked himself up. Violet kept his eye on Dragstar, who started circling around whilst the Hypnotised pointed his device at them ready to fire. Blue and Yellow ran towards them, having gotten the hostages to safety, but two more weren't going to help.

Animac saw this and chuckled. "This new alien might be able to put the numbers in your favour, but it doesn't have the power to to take us all down. None of your aliens do." All seven aliens frowned, knowing he might be right. But then their large ears caught something.

"Maybe," Red smirked. "But you're not the only ones with friends." Animac wondered what he meant, only for sirens to fill the air and make them turn to see police cars racing towards them. Shining was also there, driving on his bike whilst Lady Masquerade was using her Sky Butterfly form.

He growled before turning to the others. "Grab the chips and let's get out of here!"

"We can take 'em!" Dragstar cried.

"We're here for the chips!" Animac stated. "Don't forget how we've been able to do this in the first place." The others frowned, but nodded and rushed over to the armored car. As they did, Animac started typing away on his wrist computer. A few moments later, he reached back as the end of the device on his waist opened up.

Five small red balls appeared out of it, Animac catching them before turning to Gemini. "Here's your choice, hero. Stop us or stop my little friends." With that, he threw them towards the others and the balls burst open.

Doing so reveal a trio of small creatures Gemini couldn't make out. But then they started growing larger and larger until they were the size of hippos. They were a trio of rottweiler hounds, covered in spines like a porcupine. They looked feral and started running around, shooting their quills at Gemini and those approaching.

The alien carbuncle quickly leapt into action and started protecting the others from these beasts, allowing the criminals to grab the components they needed.

Dragstar transformed back to bike form and the Hypnotist climbed on, the pair racing down the street. At the same time, Doddary and Dynamo flew into the air whilst Viral leapt onto Animac's bird and flew away with him. They all disappeared, whilst Gemini was distracted dealing with the hounds.

"Wow!" Gemini Blue cried, using his shield to block a quill. Yellow them leapt forward and with one powerful kick to the chin, made the beast let out a mighty howl before it fell to the ground.

Green and Pink both blocked the other two hound's attacks, allowing Orange and Violet to charge in and deal another kick to them. But by the time the beasts were subdued, the six criminals had made their escape and had left no trace of themselves.

"Ahh man!" Gemini Red fell onto his butt, as the other replicants reverted back to light and flew into his body. "I can't believe they got me like that."

Shining stepped over to Gemini, as he hit the Omnitrix and reverted back to human. "Flash, was that who I think it was?"

"Yeah," Flash nodded. "Animac, Dragstar, The Hypnotist, Dynamo, Viral and Doddery. They've all teamed up and by the looks of things, they levelled up." Flash could hardly believe it. He had been completely humiliated by them. If they attacked again, Flash wasn't sure he had an alien that could take them down on his own. "But where the heck did they get all that gear in the first place?"

Back at their base, the six were all feeling pretty good about themselves.

"Ha!" Dragstar took a drink. "If those cops hadn't shown up, we would have wasted Sentry." The others nodded, "I can't wait until the next time we face off. Maybe we can humiliate him a few more times before finishing him off."

"Don't be stupid," Viral told him. "I want him dead now so he can't get in my way anymore."

"Relax," Doddery smirked. She was still in her youthful form, having drained an unfortunate man she had come across during their escape. "You saw how little Sentry was able to do against us before. If he had an alien that could take us all down, he would have become it."

"Viral is right." Everyone tensed up and jumped into line, rushing towards the computer as the muffled voice called out to them. "You all did well in acquiring the chips and dealing with Sentry, but you must not let your victory go to your head. Remember, Flash Sentry has already defeated you all once. If there is a way to defeat you all, then he will find it in time."

"Then let's stop him before he can find that way," Dynamo smirked. "I say we attack his home. Grab his parents and use them as hostages."

"You idiot!" Animac growled. "If that was a good idea, don't you think I would have done that as soon as I learned who he was."

"Why isn't it a good idea?" Dragstar asked, with their benefactor being the one to explain.

"Flash Sentry, despite all his faults, is the most powerful human on the planet. Had he wanted to, he could end every situation he finds himself in the moment it starts. But he doesn't, because he is bound to a code of honour that all heroes are bound to."

"What?" Doddery asked.

"Flash Sentry holds back," the Hypnotist stated. "Think of what he's capable of. You all heard how he once threw an alien into space."

"Exactly," Animac nodded. "He pulls his punches because if he doesn't, he might end up killing his enemies. And as a hero, killing isn't something he wants to do. However, push him too far and he might decide to forget about keeping his opponents alive."

"Exactly. Attack his parents and Flash will not hold back. Losing to him now might end with you all in prison, but at least you'll be alive. Hurt someone close to him and all the rules go out the window." Those that didn't understand before realised what he was talking about.

None of them wanted to face Flash when he was going all out. They definitely didn't want to be thrown into space.

"Alright," Dynamo nodded, "we don't attack his parents. So what do we do?"

Animac smirked. "That code of heroics he's bound to. We use that against him. We simply have to engineer a situation where only he can show up and fight us. And once he's on his own, we destroy him." The others smiled, liking the sound of that.

At the Plumber Base, Shining, Trixie, Azmuth and the Rainbooms were watching footage of the fight taken from the Omnitrix.

They were amazed by the technology of the villains. Amazed and terrified. "Where the heck did they get that stuff?" Rainbow asked, watching as the Hypnotist sent a bunch of hostages at Flash. "You think Animac made all that?"

"Maybe Dragstar and Dynamo's gear," Shining replied. "And possibly the Hypnotist, since controlling humans can't be that far off from controlling animals. But I doubt he has what it takes to make de-ageing technology or whatever Doddery used to turn herself young again. And Viral...I don't even know where to start."

Azmuth nodded. "I'm sure of it. This technology is far beyond any human. The power sources needed to use them would be huge if it was relying on earth technology."

"So it's alien tech?" Twilight asked, Azmuth nodded.

"Made from Earth components," Shining caught on. "Looks like the mystery tech distributor has struck again. And he brought his A-game this time. The six of them on their own could be tough to beat, but all of them together is gonna be almost impossible to beat."

"Maybe if it was six on one," Sunset watched the criminals leave when backup arrived. "But they're not gonna be able to hold up to all of us. The next time they show up, we take 'em down together."

"If they let that happen," Trixie stated. "They'd have to be idiots to expect Flash not to have help the next time they attack. They're probably gonna wait to catch him off guard when he's alone."

"Where is Flash?" Spike asked, as he sat on Twilight's lap.

Shining frowned. "The kid had a long day, so I thought I'd send him home. He's gonna need all the rest he can get if he wants to be able to take those guys down."

"Are we sure that's a good idea?" Rarity asked, "for him to be on his own. What if they decide to attack him or his parents?"

"I doubt they'd do that," Shining assured her. "But just to be safe, I've given his parents a piece of Plumber tech. It's a panic device. When they activate it, the Plumber computer will teleport them right here." They all sighed at this, many of them wondering if they could get a similar piece of tech for their own families. "Rest up, Flash. You're gonna need all the strength you can find when they show up again."

Flash sighed as he returned home, feeling exhausted after the fight he had been through.

Saying good night to his parents, he headed up to his room and took out his phone to check the news. Twilight had made a special app for him and the others, which would alert them whenever a police report was made about whatever subject Twilight set it to alert them about.

Once he was sure nothing was happening, he put it down before falling onto his bed.

He quickly felt himself drifting off and was soon snoring loudly, dreaming about beating the six of them before being offered the world's largest collection of pizza. He slept for hours and as the rest of the city began to go to sleep, evil forces were beginning to get to work.

Eventually, as the clock struck ten, Flash's Phone buzzed before it started playing a police report.

"The criminals have left the bank and have taken hostages into the Canterlot Central Park." As this was going on, Flash began to move. He got up and activated the Omnitrix, dialling up one alien in particular before slapping the dial down.

A flash of green filled the room and when it disappeared, Ghostfreak was floating within it with his eye closed. But then it opened up and got serious, the alien hero ready to do some serious damage against the ones that had beaten him before.

Ten minutes later, the police were surrounding the park and preparing to send in a team to capture the criminals. But they knew there was very little chance of actually beating them.

Luckily, one of the cops saw something flying towards them and pointed it out. They all looked up and saw Ghostfreak, flying over them and into the park. The alien hero looked around, preparing to face off against the villains. But before he could find them, they found him.

Before he could go intangible, something shot down from above and slammed into him.

Ghostfreak was sent flying and crashed into the ground, as Doddery flew back up and smiled down at him. "He's back," she told her radio. "The show can now begin."

Ghostfreak began to pick himself up and as he did, something super fast shot towards him. He once again, didn't have time to make him self intangible and was smashed by the super fast object. This sent him flying and before he could recover, a blast of blue lightning was shot towards him.

It exploded upon contact and he was sent flying in the other direction, where a tentacle armed gorilla was waiting. The gorilla swung its arm around and smashed into him, causing him to go flying until he crashed into a park bench.

As he laid upon it, someone stepped up towards him and the blasters on his waist folded around before firing.

Ghostfreak barely had enough time to leap away from the bench before it exploded, the force sending him flying until he crashed into the ground next to a river running through the park. And as he picked himself up, he sensed a presence and looked up to see five people were standing on a bridge over the river. More specifically, they were standing on the edge of the bridge.

They Hypnotist laughed as he stood on the other side of the bridge, leaning against the barrier. "I'd be careful if I were you. Do something we don't like and I'll have them jump. The river's not very deep and has a lot of jagged rocks, so even if they do survive it'll be a long stay in the hospital."

Ghostfreak glared at him, as Doddery flew down and landed on a lamppost to his right. Dragstar raced up to him and transformed into his human state, whilst Viral walked up with her lightning sparking around her body. Dynamo also flew in and landed, whilst Animac and his gorillapus walked up and completed the surrounding circle.

"Well doc," Dynamo smirked. "You were right. Some people are just too dumb to live." They all prepared to attack, Ghostfreak seeing her was surrounded. There was no way to escape. Or was there?

As Viral and Dynamo prepared to blast him, Ghostfreak phased through the ground and disappeared. "Where'd he go?" Doddery growled, the others frowning.

"You coward," Animac yelled. "You would abandon those poor mindless people? Some hero you are." Nothing happened, as the six grew impatient. "You have five minutes to make yourself visible for your end, or the hostages drop."

Back out in the park, Shining Armor had just driven up on his bike whilst Lady Masquerade flew down and landed using her Sky Butterfly form.

The pair saw the police circling the park and made their way forward, the highest ranking officer rushing up to them. "Shining. Thank god you're here. We've gotta do something?"

"How many hostages are we dealing with?"

"We don't know for sure," he replied. "But Flash Sentry's already flown inside. But if what happened today is any indication, he doesn't stand a chance against them on his own." Shining nodded, but knew he was a problem.

"If they see us go in there, they'll hurt the hostages."

"So we'll just make sure they don't see us go in there," Trixie smiled as she transformed into her Luna Cat form. Shining smirked under his mask and nodded, all the while hoping Flash would be okay until they got there.

Back in the park, the villainous six all continued to search for Ghostfreak. But he was still nowhere in sight.

"I'm losing patience," Animac growled. "This is your fault. Hypnotist. Show him we mean business." The man nodded and turned to the hostages. But just as he was about to give the command, he froze up and said nothing.

This did not go unnoticed, the others giving him a curious look. "Dude," Dragstar spoke up, "you okay?" But then, the Hypnotist reached down and pressed something on his control launcher.

The next thing they knew, the control devices on the hostages deactivated and fell off them. Moments later, they were all coming around. "What's going on?" A woman asked, only to scream when she saw where she was. They all leapt down off the ledge and began to run, five of the six villains staring at this in shock.

"What the heck are you doing?" Dynamo cried, only for The Hypnotist to spin around and point his shooter at them.

The control disks went flying and the lot leapt away to avoid getting caught. But something did get hit. "What?" Animac cried as his mutant started moving without his command, "what are you doing?" He then noticed a control device on the creature's chest. "Doddery!" He cried, as a tentacle began to move towards him.

The woman flew down and grabbed him, pulling him away from the mutant gorilla as the Hypnotist continued to fire at them. "He's nuts!"

"He's being controlled!" Animac realised, as Viral began to build up power. "Wait!" But she launched a blast of lightning towards the Hypnotist.

Just as it was about to hit him, Ghostfreak phased out of his body and he came to his senses just in time to get zapped. "RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Periwinkle Primrose screamed, as the lightning surged throughout his body and eventually faded away. He swayed back and forth, moaning in pain before finally falling on his face.

The remaining five villains were shocked by this, whilst Ghostfreak floated above them. "What the heck just happened?" Dynamo cried.

"No one told us this guy can possess people," Dragstar yelled. Ghostfreak flew down and then shot towards the large gorillapus. "What's he doing?"

Now that The Hypnotist was out of action, Animac could once again control the beast. "Crush him!" The mutant swung its arms around and quickly wrapped them around Ghostfreak, but the alien simply phased through the arms before entering the beast's body.

Animac suddenly found his control on the monster was gone and the gorillapus started fighting more humanoid, instead of attacking wildly. It swung its tentacles at Dynamo, who leapt into the air and activated his jetpack to fly. He then attacked Dragstar and the speedster turned back to bike mode to escape.

Viral quickly summoned some lightning from a nearby lamp and blasted at the mutant, but it raised its arm to block and then tried to stand on her. She leapt back, as Doddery dropped Animac off and flew at the beast.

The creature spun around and swung its tentacles at her, the de-aged woman attempting to fly away but getting caught by the foot. The next thing she knew, she was getting slammed into the ground. "Augh!"

Dynamo quickly ran forward and extended the blade on his arm, using it to cut through the tentacle before it could lift Doddery up again. He then grabbed his waist cannons and fired, the impact of the lasers causing the beast to be riddled with blaster holes.

Ghostfreak left the gorillapus, as the beast fell to the ground dead. He then flew down and phased through Dynamo and Viral's attacks until he reached Doddery.

The woman picked herself up and checked her wings, finding the impact had bent several of them and made flying impossible. This allowed Ghostfreak the grab her and lift the woman into the air. "Hey, let me down!" As this was happening, her armor started beeping to warn her the effects of her youth reversal were beginning to run out. "In fact, hold on to me. I need a recharge." She grabbed his arms and started trying to drain away his life force. But to her shock, she got nothing. "What?"

Ghostfreak said nothing and dived down towards the river, flying over it as he dropped the woman into the water.

"AUGH!" She cried, as the tech began to short circuit. "No!" Ghostfreak flew back up, as she staggered through the water and started ripping off her equipment. She eventually made it to the bank and as she did, he body started growing older. "No! Not again. My youth. My beauty!"

Ghostfreak flew back towards the others, Animac having finished his latest concoction and taking out a pair of monster balls.

He threw them into the air and they exploded to reveal a pair of wasps with scorpion tails in place of stingers and arms with scorpion claws. They flew up and grew to the size of a car, the pair attacking the alien as he once again turned invisible.

"Where is he?" Viral cried, turning to Dynamo. "You're supposed to be able to track anything down, don't you have any way to find him." Dynamo frowned at her and his visor changed colour.

"Scanning for body heat." He looked around, but found now heat signatures aside from those of his team. "Scanning for energy sources." Again, he found nothing that might show Ghostfreak's whereabouts. "Scanning for...anything!" The others were getting annoyed by this, wanting to know where Ghostfreak was.

But then Viral saw the alien appear right behind Dynamo. "LOOK OUT!" But it was too late and Ghostfreak reached into his jetpack, phasing through it and grabbing several wires on the other side. He gave them a quick yank and they came undone, causing the jetpack to suddenly fire as Ghostfreak vanished.

"What the heck!?" He cried, as he was pulled into the air with no way of stopping. "What's happening!?" He tried everything to regain control, but nothing was working. "GYAH!" He started spinning around and around as he flew up and down, left and right.

He was starting to get dizzy when the jetpack started to conk out, resulting in him falling towards the earth.

He smashed head first into the ground and slid along it at high speed, his helmet visor cracking as it scrapped against the dirt. Eventually, he smashed right into the side of a tree as his jetpack gave out and he fell towards the ground.

As this had been happening, Viral was launching lightning at Ghostfreak whilst the wasps were trying to stab him with their stinger tails. But the ghost alien danced around the lightning and went intangible whenever one of the wasps got too close.

"Dragstar!" Animac cried, "go check on Dynamo!" The speedster nodded before running over to the downed monster hunter, who was beginning to move.

"You okay man?" Dynamo picked himself up and started swaying as he turned to look through his broken visor.

"Why thank you Andry," he said in a dizzy manor. "I'll have the veal piccata." He fell forward and crashed into the ground, clearly in a bad way. Dragstar frowned at this and ran back into the fight, seeing Ghostfreak flying back towards the ground as Viral stopped blasting to recharge.

"I got you now!" He transformed into his bike form and revved up, fire shooting out of his feet to propel him forwards.

"Wait!" Animac yelled, as Dragstar rushed passed without a plan. "Don't be a fool." Dragstar tried to run the alien ghost down, but the spectre once again phased into the ground.

"Hey! Get back here you coward!" He rushed passed where he had been and swerved back around, racing back over the bridge. But as he did, Ghostfreak's hand reached out of the bridge and the wheel rolled right into it.

Grabbing the wheel, Ghostfreak stopped it cold and caused Dragstar's back end to suddenly go flying upwards until it crashed down on the ground.

"Augh!" He cried, slamming into his back. And before he could respond, the arm started dragging him along the ground. This caused sparks to go flying, as his metal suit ground against the concrete. Ghostfreak eventually let him go and he started rolling along the ground until he crashed, his stomach taking the force of the impact, right into a lamppost before falling to the ground.

He groaned as he lay there, his head spinning from what had happened. And as he sat himself up, he felt he was going to throw up and was forced to remove his helmet.

He ran over to a nearby garbage can and heaved into it, his last meal not tasting so great coming up as it did going back down. He retched a few times and finally emptied his guts, groaning as he tried to stand up. But as he did, something shot out of the ground and punched him in the face before he could get his helmet back on.

All he could do was let out a mighty cry, as he fell towards the ground unconscious.

Ghostfreak looked down at him, only to have to float away as another blast of lightning almost struck him. He looked over at Viral, the bio-organic robot glaring at him as she charged herself up with more energy. At the same time, the mutant wasps charged towards him and tried to cut him in half with their claws, but the ghost simply phased right through them.

He then flew up and grabbed one of the wasp's wings, ripping it off and causing it to scream in pain. The beast fell towards the river and went splash in the water, whilst Ghostfreak focused on the other wasp.

Animac managed to direct the mutant to keep him away from its wings, causing it to start flying in a zigzag pattern whilst Ghostfreak couldn't keep up. The electrical blasts from Viral also didn't help, Ghostfreak finding himself getting zapped when he tried to punch out the wasp.

He didn't make a sound, as he fell towards the ground and crashed into the bridge.

Viral summoned as much energy as she could, wanting to completely roast Ghostfreak. And at the same time, the wasp flew down ready to stab him whilst he appeared unconscious. But before it could, Ghostfreak went intangible and the stinger flew right through him.

The wasp roared as its stinger broke against the ground, Ghostfreak quickly phasing through its tail and grabbing the end of it. Viral was about to launch her lightning blast, but Ghostfreak swung the insect around and threw it at her.

The lightning flew out of her hands and struck the wasp, frying it alive but not stopping it. As such, she quickly found herself getting tackled and pinned beneath the monster. "AUGH!" She cried, trapped under the creature's large weight. "Get it off! GET IT OFF!" She unleashed a powerful blast of lightning, hoping to blow the wasp off of her. But the energy did nothing to the creature and she soon felt herself running low on energy.

Ghostfreak saw this and quickly flew towards the lampposts around her, phasing through them and causing them all to short circuit and explode. With no energy to draw upon, Viral felt herself beginning to shut down. To make sure her core consciousness wasn't lost, she went into stasis as the last of her energy was saved.

Ghostfreak floated out of the ground and looked around, seeing he had dispatched five of the six villains. That only left one, but he was nowhere to be found.

Suddenly, a loud roar made him spin around and see a rhino with bull horns, frogs legs and an alligator tail charging at him. The attack came so fast, he didn't have time to make himself phase and he was rammed by the behemoth.

Atop the mutant monster, Animac laughed seeing Ghostfreak go flying into the side of the wall blocking the part from the river. The spectre fell to the ground and looked rather weak, clearly exhausted after facing off against the rest of his opponents.

"I knew you were finally getting serious when you stopped cracking your pathetic little jokes," he told the alien hero. "Just as I knew you would expend your energies fighting my allies, leaving you open for Doctor Animac to deliver the cudegra." He pointed at Ghostfreak and the mutant rhino charged, planning to impale Ghostfreak on its horn.

But the alien quickly dived down into the ground and the beast slammed into and three the wall, causing it to lose its footing on the sloped ground and fall towards the river.

Animac gasped at this and quickly leapt off the back of the beast, landing as it creature went splash.

He then looked up and saw the alien rise out from the ground, glaring at him with its one single eye. "Your new alien interests me, Sentry. I look forward to examining it and the rest of your aliens, once I've taken that watch off of you." He typed away at his glove and the device unleashed a monster ball, which he threw at the ground.

From out of it, a snake with cheetah legs appeared and grew to the size of a lion. It charged at Ghostfreak, but the alien simply let it pass right through him as he floated towards Animac.

At the same time, Shining and Trixie were carefully making their way through the park under the girl's illusion power. The sound of fighting had directed them to this location and sure enough, they found five of the six villains laid out whilst Animac was all that was left.

They watched, as the ghostly alien made his way towards the mad scientist. As he did, Animac started getting creeped out. "Stay back!" The cheetah snake tried another attack, leaping at the ghost only for the alien to punch it in the face without even looking. "What are you doing?" Ghostfreak didn't reply and kept moving forward, Animac stepping backwards. "Are you going to make a joke or mock how pathetic you think we are?"

Ghostfreak continued to remain silent, Shining and Trixie looking confused by this.

Animac was silently bricking himself, the silence of his foe too much for him to handle. "SAY SOMETHING!" Ghostfreak grabbed the black gap in his white skin and pulled it apart, opening himself up so that Animac could see inside of him. And what Animac saw was enough to make him scream in absolute terror.

Ghostfreak used this fear paralysis to grab the stinger that had broken off the scorpion wasp along with grasping Animac's shirt, lifting him up and raising the stinger like a dagger.

Shining and Trixie gasped as the girl dropped the illusion around them. "He's gonna-"

"FLASH!" Shining yelled, getting Ghostfreak's attention. "Stop, you won!" Ghostfreak's eye had moved around to his back to stare at them, the pair wondering what the heck was wrong with him. He then returned his eye to normal and dropped Animac before taking to the air, Shining and Trixie completely lost about what was up with him.

They would deal with Flash in the morning. Right now, they had criminals to arrest.

The next morning.

Flash's head was pounding as he woke up. He opened his eyes and saw he had slept a good thirteen hours, but despite that he felt like he hadn't slept a wink.

"Uhhhh." He sat up and realised he was likely gonna have to fight those villains today, something he wasn't looking forward to in his current state. "Maybe Animac and the others will let me take a personal day." He tried to stand up, only for his body to scream at him. "Augh!" He fell to his knees, "I don't remember having this many bruises when I went to bed."

It took him a while, but he finally managed to get up and make his way downstairs.

When he did, he found his parents having breakfast in the kitchen. Trail was reading the newspaper and when he stepped inside, they smiled at him. "Hey kid," Trail told him. "Sounds like you cleaned house last night."

Flash gave him a confused look, "what are you talking about?"

"Your fight last night," Misty spoke up. "Against those six criminals you defeated." Flash still looked confused, his parents sharing the look as Trail turned the paper around to show him the front page.

Flash's eyes went wide as he took it. "Flash Sentry defeats criminals six on one." He read the article and was shocked to see images of himself in Ghostfreak form, the alien flying into the park. "This doesn't make any sense." He tried to remember, but had no memory of going alien last night.

"By the way," Misty continued. "Shining Armor called earlier. Told us to wake you as soon as possible." Flash frowned, but grabbed his phone and stepped out of the room.

He was still confused about what had happened, but called the man anyway. "Hey Shining, you'll never-"

"WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH YOU?" Flash had to pull his ear away from the phone, wondering why Shining was yelling at him.

"Wow," he told him, "what's wrong?"

"What's wrong? You tried to kill Animac last night, and you ask me what's wrong?"

"What?" Flash could hadn't believe it, "I would never do something like that."

"I was there, Flash. I saw you trying to kill him. If Trixie and I hadn't called out to you, you would have stabbed him in the chest. What were you thinking?"

"Shining," Flash was really scared now, "I don't remember doing any of that. I don't remember fighting against those guys last night." Flash's words made Shining pause, "the last thing I remember is going to sleep. Then I woke up this morning and found myself covered in bruises I don't remember getting. Shining, what is going on?"

Shining continued to remain silent, but eventually spoke. "It was definitely you last night. You responded to us when we called your name."

"So what are you saying? I...beat a bunch of crooks in my sleep?" Flash could hardly believe this was being contemplated.

"Unless you can come up with another explanation for everything. Flash, this is serious." Flash knew Shining was right. Him becoming an alien in his sleep and snoozing through an entire battle was not normal, even for him. Something was wrong with him. Or wrong with the Omnitrix. Either way, something was wrong. And Flash needed to figure out what it was.

Author's Note

Last week, someone said this was Flash's Venom Arc. They had no idea how right they were. Will Flash be able to overcome what's happening? Or are things just going to get worse.

Season 4, Episode 10: Ghostfreaked Out

Canterlot was abuzz with gossip, due to the events that had occurred two nights ago.

Flash Sentry had single handedly defeated six super powered criminals and saved several individuals from their grasp. The criminals were all safely locked behind bars, though Viral had been taken someplace else due to her strange state of being, and questioned about everything that had happened.

To say the police were shocked, when they heard how Flash had defeated them all was an understatement. Hearing how brutal he had been was quite a surprise. And when they tried to contact Flash for answers, he hadn't been very forthcoming about it.

Speaking of Flash, the currently shirtless teen was inside the Plumber base.

He was in the lab, standing inside a glass tube as lights raced over his body. The Omnitrix had many wires sticking out of it, connected to another computer that was going over its systems.

Azmuth stood in front of his computer, looking over every system in the Omnitrix. Behind him, Shining and Twilight stood staring at the screen, having no idea what any of it said. "Well?" Shining finally asked, as Azmuth finished going over the data.

He sighed as he turned away from the computer. "There's nothing wrong with him or the Omnitrix."

"What do you mean, there's nothing wrong with us?" Flash asked from inside the tube. "If there was nothing wrong with me, I wouldn't have fought against Animac and the others in my sleep and almost killed one of them."

"I'm not saying something isn't up," Azmuth looked back at the computer. "But it's like I said. All the Omnitrix systems check out as normal. I don't know why you transformed in your sleep and fought without waking up." He opened the tube and Flash stepped out of it, Shining throwing him his shirt and jacket.

"So what am I supposed to do?" He asked, the four heading to the teleporters leading up to the main control room.

"I'm not sure," Azmuth stated. They teleported up into the room and found Adagio, Trixie and the rest of the Rainbooms waiting for them.

"Well?" Sunset asked, "you figure out why Flash went sleep mode?" They shook their heads, "so we still have no idea if Flash can go alien again?"

"Maybe Flash shouldn't until we figure it out," Fluttershy suggested. "Who knows what might happen, if he loses control again." Flash frowned at this, not liking the idea of being benched.

"No," Azmuth shook his head, "Flash must learn to overcome this. And I'm afraid the best way to figure out what's wrong at this point, is to have it happen again." Everyone's eyes went wide hearing this. "I'm not a big fan of it either, but at this point there might not be another way. I'll remain with Flash and have a scanning device ready to detect anything that happens. If there is a problem, it might only be detectable when Flash is transformed."

"Then why don't I just transform right now?" Flash activated the Omnitrix and Azmuth quickly took out his scanner, the teen slamming the dial down and transforming into Diamutt. "Anything?" Azmuth scanned him, but found nothing.

"Try another alien." Diamutt hit the Omnitrix and transformed into Squidstrictor, with everything still being perfectly normal. He then changed to Riot-Horn, then Yak-Smasher, Pesky Dust, Eatle and Bushwhacker. But none of them gave his scanner any real reaction.

"Maybe you need to use the same alien you used last time?" Pinkie suggested, Bushwhacker giving her a worried expression. "Try turning into Ghostfreak." The alien hero looked a little worried. Clearly, he was uncomfortable using the alien he had slept through an entire fight as.

He reached up and prepared to hit the Omnitrix, his hand a little shaky as he did. But then, an alarm caught their attention and they looked around to the computer.

The screen activated, showing someone walking down a street causing mayhem. Someone they all recognised and couldn't believe was actually free. Negatine.

The town was in a mad panic, as Negatine laughed and unleashed a bunch of different creatures to attack the city.

Red lynxes that were covered in blazing fires ran through the street, setting everything they past ablaze. In the skies were a bunch of robotic pterodactyls, with jet plane wings that had missiles along with a thruster underneath. And a cyborg elephant, that had turbine fans in plan of ears and a trunk that looked like it was the nozzle of a vacuum cleaner.

Negatine jumped up and sat on one of these elephants, watching it as the turbine ears spun around whilst the nose unleashed a powerful blowing force. The wind it caused ripped a bunch of benches and other nailed down objects off the ground and into the air, as Negatine laughed.

"That's not good," Trixie gulped as Flash turned back to human.

"We've gotta stop him!" Flash rushed for the exit, but Shining grabbed him before he could.

"Hold on. I don't think going out with you in your condition is such a good idea." Flash frowned, not wanting to be left out of this situation. "Negatine's tough and you being off your game isn't gonna make beating him easy."

"I'll be fine," Flash told him. "I didn't have any problems with my other aliens. So I'll just use one of those. And if something goes wrong, you guys will stop me." Shining didn't look convinced, but saw the look Flash was giving him. A look that said he wasn't gonna take no for an answer.

"Alright." He took out his badge and summoned his suit, Trixie doing the same with her mask and going into her Luna Cat form. "Let's get going."

"Allow me," Azmuth began to activate the ship's teleporter.

People screamed as they ran for their lives, Negatine continuing to ride his digital monsters down the street.

Police cars flew into the street and planned to ram the monsters on the ground, but he ptera-jets launched a bunch of missiles at them and they barely managed to avoid it. The lynx roared and breathed fire out of its mouth, terrifying anyone who was remotely close to it as they tried to escape the madman.

"Oh, I can't believe I'm getting paid to do this." But as he said that, a green flash caught his attention and made him looked ahead.

From the light, Flash and the rest of his friends appeared with the alien hero stepping forward. "Negatine! Should have known you were the one behind this! What, Shadow didn't wanna come with you?"

Negatine glared at you. "My son is still locked up, thanks to you." He pointed at him, "but I'll be sure to tell him how I crushed you, when I see him next!" The creatures glared at the lot of them, as the elephant unleashed a blast of wind that nearly blew them all backwards.

They cried out, unable to stop themselves from being pushed back. Flash, Shining and Trixie were the only ones able to weather the storm, but the other two digital creations looked ready to attack as soon as the gale stopped.

"That's it!" Flash looked at the Omnitrix, still a little hesitant to use it. But he couldn't be afraid of his power. "Time for Volt-Edge to fry that tech of yours." He activated it and dialled up the alien in question, slapping the dial down and unleashing a green burst of light.

But when the light died down, everyone saw Flash had become the wrong alien. One none of them wanted to see at this moment in time.

"Ghostfreak!" The spectral alien announced, floating in the air and not being phased by the wind at all.

As he floated there, Azmuth's sensor started beeping. "What?" He brought up the scan and found there was some kind of unknown fluctuation in the Omnitrix's systems. "Why wasn't this showing before?" He looked up at the alien, as he continued to float without doing anything. "Could it be this alien in particular?"

"What's wrong?" Fluttershy asked, as Ghostfreak flew forward completely unphased by the flames and missiles being sent his way.

He phased through the fire without issue and the missile explosions didn't hurt him either. He passed by the digital creatures and attacked Negatine directly, the man raising his scanning glove. "You wanna come at me? Then I'll just take your power for myself!" But before he could scan him, Ghostfreak dove into the ground and disappeared. "Hey! Where'd you go!?"

Seconds later, Ghostfreak shot out from under him and punched him right in the chin. "Surprise!" He hissed, as Negatine fell back. He then grabbed the man's glove and ripped it off of him, the cables tearing as he threw it away.

The digital creatures all started glitching at this and dissolved, as Ghostfreak grabbed Negatine by the straps of his device and lifted him into the air. "What are you doing?" Ghostfreak answered by thrusting him back into the ground, causing the device on his back to be crushed as he cried out in pain.

Flash's friends gasped, unable to believe he would do that. But Azmuth had a feeling there was more to this. "Flash, change back!" But Flash didn't listen, as Ghostfreak pulled Negatine to his feet and started punching him. "FLASH!"

Trixie and Shining rushed forward, as Negatine was knocked staggering back. "Flash!" Shining grabbed Ghostfreak's arm, Trixie doing the same. "What's wrong with you!?"

"You need to cool down!" Trixie cried, only to feel herself being lifted up and thrown away. Shining was also knocked flying, as Ghostfreak went after Negatine again.

"FLASH!" Twilight rushed to him, "stop! This isn't you!" But then, Ghostfreak turned to her and looked her dead in the eye. They were only inches apart, as he spoke in a ton of voice she knew Flash wouldn't and couldn't ever use.

"Flash...isn't here." He turned to attack Negatine again, but Rainbow shot past him and grabbed the mad scientist. "Get back here!" He roared, as Rainbow rushed him away.

"Save it!" Shining told him. "Rainbow's gonna be dropping him off at the nearest police station." He took his Multi-Striker out, "now why don't you calm down and change back!" But Ghostfreak didn't listen and looked ready to fight.

However, before he could, a beam of light suddenly hit him.

Everyone looked around and saw Azmuth, with the exact same device they had used to save Flash when he was ghosting. "Something's wrong with the Omnitrix," he stated. "Something directly connected to this alien. I need to reboot the device and figure out what it is!"

Ghostfreak tried to escape the beam, but Twilight used her magic on him. Even as he tried to phase, he found he was unable to move. "NO!" He hissed, as the Omnitrix rebooted. "I WON'T GO BACK!" With that, a brilliant flash of light filled the air.

"YAAAAR!" They then heard Flash's voice, as he fell to the ground out of the light. He moaned as he picked himself up, holding his head as he felt like he had just awoken from a bad dream. "Glad to be rid of that freak."

"Ah, and I thought we were close." Flash's eyes went wide as he spun around, only to gasp as the light finally faded to reveal Ghostfreak floating next to him. "So nice to finally meet you," he floated closer and glared at him. "Face to face!" Flash staggered back in shock, he and everyone else completely terrified.

"That's not possible. You can't be you...I'm you?"

"I was never you!" Ghostfreak roared, almost swiping at Flash with his claws. As he did, the others turned to Azmuth.

"What the heck is going on?" Adagio asked, Azmuth looking just as perplexed.

"I don't know. The reboot should have restored the Omnitrix to normal. It shouldn't have allowed the geno-archetype to escape." He thought for a moment. "No, a geno-archetype wouldn't be able to talk like this. Something else is going on." Ghostfreak laughed at this.

"The great and mighty Azmuth! Thinks he knows everything, when in fact he knows nothing about the ectonurite race." Azmuth frowned at him.

"Then maybe you would like to educate us."

Ghostfreak laughed at this. "Very well. How amusing, that the smartest mind in the universe is now the one who needs to be taught. You should have studied my race more thoroughly. If you had, you would have known that every cell of an ectonurite body, contains a single spark of their overall consciousness. When a sample was taken for the Omnitrix, you trapped that spark inside the device."

"I see," Azmuth nodded. "But a single spark of consciousness should have eventually perished inside the codon stream?"

"If it were any other member of my race, we would have. But I am no ordinary ectonurite. For centuries, I was trapped in a formless limbo. Unable to move, unable to escape the swirling void you had created to store your precious DNA samples. But I refused to let myself be consumed and over time, my single spark grew stronger and stronger. And then, finally, I was given my chance to escape."

"Flash using Ghostfreak," Shining realised.

"Yes," he hissed. "That little error that happened when you unlocked that form, allowed me to break down the mental barriers. If it hadn't, it would have taken months to undo it and escape. But now, here I am. I'm free to take on my true self." With that, he reached up and grabbed the top of his head.

His claws teared into the white skin and ripping it apart, shocking everyone as he pulled the white covering away from his body to reveal what had been hiding underneath.

His body had somehow gotten even larger, looking almost twice the size he had been before. He was now a mostly bluish gray colour, with long slender arms full of muscles and ending in several black claws on each hand. His skin had several black lines running along it, which appeared to have something trying to break out through it.

Then there was his head, which looked almost like a goat's skull that was upside down so the mouth was sticking out the top. The purple eye that had once run along the black track, was now locked inside a large single socket on one side of the skull.

Finally, the thing that had been trying to burst out of his chest finally succeeded. Doing so revealed an bunch of long black and white tentacles, that looked like they could rip one's very soul out of the body if they got a hold of you.

Everyone was in utter shock and disgust at the sight before them, a few looking ready to puke. Flash gulped, as he realised that was what he had looked like on the inside whenever he went alien. "And I thought you were ugly before."

"Funny," the alien replied as he floated towards him. "But your jokes won't save you now."

"Back off, Ghostfreak!" Flash prepared the Omnitrix, only to see it was still red.

"Stop calling me that!" He hissed, "that is not my name!" He raised his claws, looking ready to shred Flash to a hundred pieces. "You shall come to fear my name, as I use the Omnitrix's power to take over your pitiful planet. I...am...Zs'Skayr!"

Flash stared at him, as the name rattled around in his head. "Zs'Skayr?" Slowly, Flash remembered where he had heard that name before. He was suddenly blinking back to his trip into the future, and the warning his future self had given him.

"When you face Zs'Skayr, remember that the sun is your greatest ally."

'That's what he was trying to warn me about,' he thought to himself. He looked around and realised that at this time of day, the sun was hidden behind the tall buildings of the city. As such, Flash, Zs'Skayr and everyone else were in the shadow of the building next to them.

"It's time, Flash Sentry!" Zs'Skayr moved towards him. "I need the Omnitrix and the only way to get it is to take over your body." Everyone gasped, as the ectonurite flew forwards. "Let's see how you like being the puppet." But as he said that, Shining started firing at him. However, all the blasts simply phased right through him. "Pathetic." He raised his claws.

As he did, one of the lamp posts Negatine had blown over lifted into the air. It flew towards Shining and everyone had to leap for cover.

"Guys!" Flash cried, as Zs'Skayr turned to glare at him. Flash tried to think and suddenly he noticed something a few feet behind him and legged it.

"You can't run!" Zs'Skayr chased after him, his flight ability allowing him to catch up. But Flash reached his destination before the ghost could reach him. And the next thing Zs'Skayr new, his entire body was burning. "RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" He roared, as the light of the sun cooked him alive.

Everyone saw this and watched Zs'Skayr float backwards. They looked at Flash and saw he was standing in a shaft of sunlight, created by the sun's rays sneaking through a gap in the two buildings. "Nice try," the hero told him. "But I'm not as dense as you think I am. Shouldn't have told me your name. Cause if you hadn't, I wouldn't know about your weakness to sunlight."

Zs'Skayr glared at him and tried to reach out and grab him, but all that did was burn his claw more. The alien ghost roared n annoyance before pulling back. "You may be safe now, but daylight is only temporary. I'll be back for you. Mark my words." With that, he dived into the ground and was gone.

As soon as he was gone, Flash fell to the ground in absolute terror from what had just happened.

The others rushed over to him, asking if he was okay. Flash wasn't sure how to answer that, given how he had been sharing a body with an evil monster without even knowing it. "We need to get you somewhere safe," Azmuth stated.

"I'm pretty sure I'm safe right here," Flash pointed out. However, in that moment the shaft of sunlight faded away. The sun had just gone behind a cloud. "Anyone know a place there's barely any clouds and lot of sunlight?"

"The sahara," Twilight tried to joke though Flash gave her a look showing he wasn't in a laughing mood.

"We just gotta get you back to base," Shining replied. He quickly took out his badge and accessed the base's teleporter, having it lock onto the Omnitrix and any life signs around it. Once that was done, the lot of them were teleported into the underground structure and Azmuth quickly got to work scanning the Omnitrix.

Meanwhile, Zs'Skayr flew into a street that had a bunch of shade inside of it.

The alien ghost was annoyed he had lost his chance to get the Omnitrix. He had a feeling he knew where Flash was, but getting there would be impossible in the sunlight.

However, as he was about to take his frustrations out on the nearby buildings, someone stepped out of one of them. It was a man wearing headphones and looking at his phone, causing him to miss the giant ghost monster floating in front of him.

Zs'Skayr stared at him and smirked before flying down, floating behind him before diving into his body.

This caused the man to gasp as he dropped his phone and fell to the ground, crying out as he felt everything around him going dark. He then stopped yelling before standing up, his eyes opening to reveal they were now dark purple with black lines coming out the sides.

He walked forward, crushing the phone on the ground, approaching an area where the sunlight was beaming down on the street. He reached out and felt his hand grow warm in the sunlight, but the heat wasn't enough to hurt him. "Seems these humans have some use after all," the man spoke in Zs'Skayr's voice before letting out a laugh.

Back at the base, Azmuth had Flash being scanned by every piece of equipment he had available to him.

But he and the Omnitrix were so thoroughly poked and prodded, he felt like he was being seen naked. "Anything?" Shining asked, as Flash stepped out of the tube that had been scanning him.

Azmuth stared at the resulted and stroked his beard. "Everything indicates Flash is perfectly fine. However, that's the same result I got before all this started."

"So you're sure Flash is perfectly alright now?" Sunset asked, the lot of them turning to Flash who felt perfectly fine. "None of his other aliens are gonna end up taking him over, are they?"

"They shouldn't," Azmuth replied. "The ectonurite was an special circumstance. Now that he's escaped, Flash should have no other problems. Although, I'm afraid this also means the transformation you called Ghostfreak is gone."

"Honestly," Flash sat down, "not something I really care about. Right now, I just wanna figure out what this Zs'Skayr guy's gonna do next. I doubt he's finished."

"He said he wanted to merge with you," Twilight replied. "What do you think that means?"

"Well," Shining crossed his arms. "Clearly, he wants to take Flash over. Like how Flash was able to take Periwinkle over, during his fight with those crooks. But I get the feeling merging with Flash is taking that to the very next level."

"But why?" Pinkie asked, "he already seemed pretty strong. So why does he need to take Flash over?" They all thought of this, Azmuth thinking about what Zs'Skayr had told them.

"He said that only a spark of his consciousness was taken along with the DNA sample. Not the whole consciousness."

"So?" Trixie asked.

"So, that means he's not the real Zs'Skayr. Just a copy. Like a clone. Take a small sample of the original and you make it grow until it mimics the original in almost every way. Zs'Skayr is exactly the same, only it was his consciousness instead of physical form that was copied. And as Flash used Ghostfreak, he was able to infect the geno archetype until he was able to take full control and escape."

"What does that have to do with trying to take over Flash?" Applejack asked.

"Should a geno-archetype escape the Omnitrix, they would perish after a period of twenty-four hours. Zs'Skayr must fear the same thing happening to him. And as a copy of the original, he is likely not as powerful as the real Zs'Skayr. But if he merges with Flash and gains the Omnitrix, he'll be safe and have his full power back."

"I guess that makes sense," Flash nodded. "But what other powers could he possibly have." He already seemed dangerous enough. What else could merging with him give Zs'Skayr.

"What do you know about ectonurites?" Twilight asked. She was concerned for Flash, obviously, but also curious to know more about such a strange class of creature. And the more they knew, the better the prepared they would be when he showed up.

"Not much, I'm afraid." Azmuth sighed. "Ectorunites lives in the Anur system, which isn't exactly a friendly place to be. They live inside a giant black hole that exists in the very centre of the system and rarely, if ever, leave it. And being a black hole, sending probes and whatnot into it to collect data isn't exactly easy."

"But you were able to get a sample of Zs'Skayr's DNA," Rarity pointed out.

"Actually, I'm not sure how that DNA was acquired. It just appeared in the codon stream one day, before I ever attempted to get samples from Anur. At the time, I simply accepted it as something weird that happened and never bothered to look into it further. But now that I've seen this creature in action, I think Zs'Skayr might have been possessing another alien when it got scanned and his DNA was brought along for the ride."

"So you really have no idea what other abilities Zs'Skayr might have?" Flash asked. "Because I couldn't lift things with my mind or take people over when I was Ghostfreak. At least...I'm pretty sure I couldn't."

Azmuth nodded. "Zs'Skayr's consciousness was likely suppressing most of his more powerful abilities. Either that or removing that skin layer granted him more power. But it also made him more vulnerable. Flash never had a problem using Ghostfreak during the day, but you all saw what it did to Zs'Skayr."

"But that might change if he gets his hands on Flash and the Omnitrix," Adagio frowned.

"Exactly." Azmuth turned to the computer system. "We still have time. I'm going to work on some devices that should help combat Zs'Skayr. Until they're complete, Flash will need to remain here. And he shouldn't be left alone. Zs'Skayr may try to take him by surprise when he doesn't have any backup."

Shining stepped over and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Looks like we're using the buddy system."

"Great," Flash sighed as Azmuth left to head for the lab. As he did, Twilight brought ectorunites up in the plumber database. Unfortunately, the plumbers had as much information on them as Azmuth did. Apparently, Anur wasn't part of the plumber alliance so there were no plumber bases in or around it. And since the ghostly aliens hardly ever left the system, there was little to no info on them.

Flash spent the next few hours being watched like a hawk, whilst also suffering from a severe case of paranoia. Every time something seemed to move in the corner of his eye, he flinched thinking it was Zs'Skayr. The others could see Flash was going to have a nervous breakdown soon, so Shining took him outside the base.

The pair sat on the steps of the building, Flash never being more happy to be out in the sun as he was right now.

"It's okay to be scared," Shining told him. "There's nothing wrong with fear."

"I'm not scared," Flash stated. Shining was about to answer when he continued, "I'm freaking petrified right now." Shining nodded, understanding completely. "And it's not just that Zs'Skayr's after me and the Omnitrix. After Vilgax, I'm kind of use to that. It's that one of my aliens betrayed me."

"Really?" Shining hadn't been expecting that.

Flash nodded. "Ever since I got this thing, I've always felt like my aliens have had my back. Even when I get the wrong alien, I know that alien can help in some way. Those aliens didn't just feel a part of me. They felt like partners that supported me. I felt like I could trust them to always help me. But now..."

"I get it," Shining nodded. "Having one of your aliens betray you like that is painful. I'm sorry it happened. But you can't let that stop you from trusting your other aliens. They've all done a lot to help you and many others. Don't forget what they are. What you are."

"Heroes," Flash smiled with Shining nodded. The pair remained sat there for a while, watching as the sun got closer and closer to the horizon. As they did, Flash had to send a message to his parents that he wasn't going to be home that night.

They weren't exactly happy about this and when they asked why Flash was staying out, Flash wasn't sure what to tell them. He didn't want to say that he was under attack from one of his own aliens, especially over the phone. He would tell them the truth when everything was over. That would give him even more of a reason to survive the fight.

Once he hung up, he and Shining headed back into the building as the sun was about to disappear behind some tall buildings. As they did, someone stepped up to the gate and stared into the complex.

Back down below, the girls were all getting ready for the upcoming fight.

"I hope Azmuth comes up with a way to stop Zs'Skayr," Fluttershy gulped. "Maybe he can change the lights in the base to make UV light. Like a sunbed."

"I don't think he'd be able to do something like that," Shining stated as they stepped into the room. "There are hundreds of lights in the base and changing them all would require him to power the place down. I don't wanna have the defence systems offline whilst Zs'Skayr's out there."

The others nodded, agreeing wholeheartedly. And as they did, Azmuth warped into the room with a wheeled table.

"Alright," he told them, "I'm working on a way to contain Zs'Skayr when he shows up. But with the limited equipment I have, it's gonna take a while to get it working. Until then, you'll need to use these to fight against Zs'Skayr."

The others looked down at the table and saw multiple of the same weapon. They each picked it up, seeing it was some kind of gun with what appeared to be a flashlight for a barrel. "What are these things?" Rainbow asked, with Azmuth smirking as he explained their function.

Suddenly, they all heard an alarm and found someone had snuck onto the premises.

None of them wanting to leave Flash alone, they all used the transport pads to teleport up to the above ground base. Once they were up there, Flash activated the Omnitrix. "I'm ready for you," he told his opponent before slapping it down. "Volt-Edge!" He cried, sparking with energy but still a little frightened.

They stepped outside, looking around and seeing someone walking towards the building. They weren't sure how they managed to get over the gate, but Shining stepped forward with his Multi-Striker armed.

"Halt!" He cried, as the figure got closer. "I'm warning you. This is government property. What are you doing here?"

"Isn't it obvious?" The man asked as he got close enough to show his eyes, everyone gasping when they saw they were a familiar bright purple. "I've come to take what's mine."

"Zs'Skayr," Volt-Edge growled.

"Flash," he replied. "No more sunlight to protect you now." With that, the ghostly alien shot out of the man's body. And before anyone could react, he shot forward and tried to tackle Volt-Edge.

Flash's fear was his ally in this situation, as his reflexes were at their peak. As such, when Zs'Skayr tried to possess him he leapt straight into the air. He built up power as he did so, landing as the others leapt away from the ghost. Volt-Edge then launched the electrical energy at Zs'Skayr, but the spectre phased right through the energy as he shot towards Volt-Edge again.

This time, he expected the electric lizard to dodge and was able to follow him as he leapt to the side.

"FLASH!" Everyone cried, as Zs'Skayr tackled him and tried to merge with his body. But to their shock and delight, the phantom found himself unable to do that.

"Get...OFF!" Volt-Edge grabbed him in his claws and electrocuted him, Zs'Skayr roaring as he was forced to release him. The others rushed over to Volt-Edge, as the ghost began to reform himself.

"You okay?" Trixie asked, with Volt-Edge nodding.

Zs'Skayr growled. "It appears I cannot possess you whilst you are not in human form." The others glared at him. "However, time is on my side. You will be human again, soon enough. And I'll have fun, toying with you until then."

"Toy with this!" Rainbow held up the weapon Azmuth had made for them, pointing it right at the spectre. She pulled the trigger and unleashed a beam of light, which hit Zs'Skayr and caused him to roar as he was burned.

"Sunlight at night?" He flew away from the beam and hid behind the fountain. "How?"

"Little something Azmuth made for us," Twilight stated. "Sun-gun. Projects a beam as bright as sunlight." Zs'Skayr growled at this, as they all pointed their guns at the fountain.

"So come out and let us fry you!" Trixie cried, but Zs'Skayr had other ideas. He did jump out from behind the fountain and the others fired at him, but none were able to hit him before he reached the still recovering man that had brought him here.

"GYAAAAAH!" He cried, as Zs'Skayr phased into him and took over his body. Pinkie pointed her sun-gun at him and fired, the beam hitting the man. And though Zs'Skayr felt himself heating up, he was more than able to withstand it.

"You see," he opened his purple eyes and smiled. "So long as I am within a host body, your precious weapons are useless."

"Maybe," Volt-Edge told him, "but we know you can't use any of your others abilities when you're controlling someone. Stalemate."

"Hardly." With that, Zs'Skayr rushed forward and threw a punch at Volt-Edge. The alien lizard leapt back, looking ready to throw a punch back at him. But then he remembered the man he was controlling was innocent and couldn't be harmed just to stop Zs'Skayr.

However, Applejack tackled him and put him into a full nelson. "I got him!"

"No," the ghost laughed, "I have you!" Suddenly, the man and Applejack both jerked as Applejack cried out. She then let the man go and he fell to the ground, unconscious but okay. However, Applejack opened her eyes and smiled. Everyone saw they were entirely purple, showing Zs'Skayr had taken her over.

"Applejack!" Rarity gasped, as the girl ran forward.

"Fight it!" Sunset yelled, as Applejack tried to punch her. Rainbow shot past and pulled Sunset away, Applejack's punch hitting the ground and cracking the pavement.

They all gasped, realising Zs'Skayr had control of Applejack's magic. If Sunset had been hit by that, her head would have likely exploded.

"You can't hurt me," Zs'Skayr stated. "But I can easily hurt you!" She started throwing super powered punches and kicks at them all, forcing the lot of them to be on the defensive so that they didn't hurt Applejack.

"What do we do?" Trixie asked, blocking with her staff as Applejack punched at her.

Shining frowned as he raised his blaster, the others looking worried. "Come on Applejack. Don't make me have to stun you. Fight it!" But Applejack couldn't fight it, the girl leaping at Volt-Edge and grabbed one of his back spikes.

"WOW!" The alien cried, as the girl threw him towards the building.

He smashed through the front doors and into the main building, crashing into a wall before falling to the ground. Zs'Skayr's laugh filled the air, as Applejack walked towards him. "You humans are so weak minded. So easily controlled. And once you're human, you'll be just as easy to take over."

Volt-Edge growled, as he picked himself up. "Sorry, but I already did the being brainwashed thing...twice." He frowned, knowing he had no choice. "Applejack, you're tough enough to take this. Please don't hate me." He launched out a weak burst of electricity, hitting the ground at Applejack's feet.

The charge flew through the floor and Applejack, shocking her as she screamed.

Zs'Skayr also roared in pain, quickly leaving Applejack's body. But as he did, Pinkie happened to be running at them. And the next thing she knew, Zs'Skayr flew into her. "NO!" Volt-Edge cried, as Pinkie looked up at him and showed her purple eyes.

She then reached into her hair and pulled out a large tub of sprinkles, that glowed as she threw them at Volt-Edge and Applejack. The lizard leapt at the still unconscious Applejack and covered her, unleashing a sphere of lightning that blocked the blast.

"Guys!" Shining cried, as Rainbow and Fluttershy ran up to them. But as they did, Zs'Skayr floated out of Pinkie and dived into Rainbow.

The girl screamed as she was taken over, then laughed before she started spinning in a circle. Doing so created a tornado, which threatened to suck everyone inside of it. Fluttershy and a dazed Pinkie were almost pulled in, but Shining managed to grab the pair and stick his Multi-Striker axe into the ground.

Twilight looked around and had a plan, using her magic to lift the water out of the fountain and send it towards Rainbow.

It slammed into the tornado and knocked Rainbow off her feet, Zs'Skayr flying out of her as she did and shooting towards Rarity. The girl tried to shield herself, but it was no use. He phased right through the gems and entered her body, making her scream as she was taken over.

Rainbow, Pinkie and Applejack were starting to recover, only to find gems being launched at them by Rarity. "This is getting ridiculous!" Adagio cried, having to dodge a gem as it dented the wall behind her.

Sunset tried to tackle Rarity to the ground, but Rarity sidestepped the attack as Zs'Skayr leapt out of her and into Sunset.

They hoped this would give them to opening they needed, given Sunset's powers weren't combat oriented. But then, Sunset ran around and started throwing kicks, chops and judo throws at the lot of them. Seemed Sunset had been taking self-defence classes without telling them.

Trixie was next to get taken over, the girl quickly creating a bunch of fake Trixies that allowed her to get in close and hit each of her opponents with her staff. Then, Shining was taken over and he attempted to shoot them with his weapon. That had been quite the terrifying situation, Volt-Edge attempting to shock him with little success.

It wasn't until Twilight grabbed the Multi-Striker in her magic and pulled it towards her, that they were given brief reprieve.

But Zs'Skayr quickly left the girl's brother and shot towards her, taking control before any of them could hit him with their sun blasters. And when he got control of the girl, she quickly used her magic to lifted them all up and throw them in a random direction.

"GYAH!" Volt-Edge was once again thrown into a back wall, right as the Omnitrix began to beep.

"Ahh," Twilight turned to him, "music to my ears." A flash of light filled the room, as Volt-Edge reverted back to human.

Applejack moaned as she picked herself up, seeing Flash in trouble before noticing the sun-gun in front of her. "Flash!" She threw it at him, Flash quickly catching and pointing it at Twilight.

"Come on out!" He told Zs'Skayr, "and I'll happily give you an all body sun tan!"

Twilight's face shifted into a sinister smile, something Flash hadn't seen since the Friendship Games. She then lifted the Multi-Striker in her hand and pointed it at Flash, but he wasn't scared. Zs'Skayr wouldn't risk injuring him and losing the body he needed...right?

Then, Twilight pulled the Multi-Striker back and placed the end under her chin. Flash's eyes went wide, "what are you doing?"

"There are three milliseconds between pulling the trigger and the laser firing. Three times the amount of time I'll need to vacate this body before it goes splat. Drop the gun or else." Flash knew he wasn't joking. If he didn't drop the gun, Twilight would die. "You have till the count of three. One," she placed her finger on the trigger, "two..." Her finger began to tighten around it. "Th-"

"Alright!" Flash threw the sun-gun away and held up his hands, Zs'Skayr smirking before he left Twilight's body.

The others had finally recovered from the magical throw and saw Twilight drop, allowing them to see Zs'Skayr grab Flash. "NO!" Shining cried, as he and the others pushed themselves up.

Applejack was the closest and tried to run to his aid, grabbing the sun-gun off the ground. But Zs'Skayr was faster. "Let's take this somewhere a little more private." With that, he and Flash went translucent and Flash's eyes went wide as all the air left his lungs.

The pair sank into the ground and disappeared, everyone crying in horror seeing them vanish. "Where'd they go?" Pinkie cried.

Flash felt like his lungs were about to collapse, nothing filling them even when he tried to breath.

Eventually, the pair found themselves inside the base and they finally went solid and Flash was able to breath in. "Now it's just you and me!" Zs'Skayr hissed, as he started the melding process.

"AAAAARRRRRHHHHH!" Flash cried, his body feeling like millions of needles were being stabbed inside of it. He tried to fight it, but he knew it was a losing battle.

Zs'Skayr laughed as he felt them becoming one, the process causing the Omnitrix to unleashed a burst of green lightning. And as it did, the dial suddenly turned green and popped up. "Too late!" The process was almost complete, but Flash used all of his strength to rip his left arm out of the ghost's grasp and slam it into the ground.

A green flash filled the room, as Zs'Skayr felt the bond between them severing. He roared, feeling his grip on Flash's body vanish as the teen changed shape.

When the light finally faded, it revealed The Worst now laying on the ground. "Not what I wanted," he stated. "But better than being stuck as you." He quickly curled his body up and rolled along the ground, as Zs'Skayr growled.

"You're just delaying the inevitable." His tendrils exploded out of his chest and flew towards The Worst, grabbing him by the arms and legs before swinging him around. He then threw the alien punching bag into the wall and The Worst flinched at the pain.

Falling to the ground, the undies wearing alien groaned as Zs'Skayr moved towards him. "Think about it. With the power of the watch, and your DNA, I will be unstoppable."

"That's what I'm afraid of," The Worst stated before being lifted into the air by Zs'Skayr's power.

"Why do you resist your destiny?" He asked, pulling The Worst over to them so they were face to face. "You fight and you fight and you keep fighting. And what has it gotten you? People pretend to like you out of fear of your abilities, taking every chance they get to badmouth you when you fail. You put your life on the line multiple times and what has it gotten you?"

The Worst smirked, "nice try. People might fear you, but they don't fear me. And even if they did, I wouldn't care. I'll just keep showing them why they don't have to fear me. And as for what this life has gotten me...how about friends that stick by me!"

In that moment, the teleporters brought Shining and the girls into the room. "There you are!" Shining cried, as they all launched their sun-guns at the spectre.

Zs'Skayr screamed, as the beams hit him and pushed him back. The Worst fell to the ground, as another flash of light signalled Azmuth's sudden warp into the room.

In his hands, he was carrying a pair of black metal disks almost as big as him. "Flash, move!" The Worst leapt away, as Azmuth threw the devices at Zs'Skayr. They slid under and above him, right as the light in the middle glowed purple before the disks split into four pieces and moved apart. As they did, a purple energy field appeared between the four sections to form two flat squares.

The same purple energy then flew out and connected to the other squares, forming a purple energy cube around Zs'Skayr.

"What is this?" Zs'Skayr asked, attempting to phase through the energy field. But when he did, he felt like he was burning in the sunlight.

Azmuth smirked. "UV cage, specially calibrated to affect you even when intangible. You won't be getting out of there." The others smirked at this, thinking they had him captured. But Zs'Skayr wasn't so easily defeated.

He pushed his claws into the energy field and though they burned, he continued to push through them. This shocked them all, as he continued to force his way through the barrier. And eventually, the tips of his claws broke through it and he was able to stick them up towards one of the projectors.

"Impossible!" Azmuth gasped, as the projector was stabbed and glitched out. The others quickly lost their connection and powered down, the cage vanishing. As soon as it did, everyone started firing their sun-guns in his direction. But Zs'Skayr used his telekinesis to pull the weapons out of their hands. Even Trixie and Shining's gear was pulled away, Zs'Skayr crushing the sun-guns before diving towards Shining Armor.

"Look out!" Twilight cried, as Shining leapt to the side. Zs'Skayr ended up diving into the ground instead of into Shining, the man rushing towards his weapon. But before he could, a tentacle reached out and grabbed him by the leg.

Shining cried out as he was pulled over and hit the ground, Zs'Skayr then pulling him along the ground before throwing him away. "GYAH!" He crashed into the all, as the others tried to find him with little success.

Then, Fluttershy found herself going limp for a second. "No!" Rainbow cried, realising she had been taken over. The girl once again stood up and turned to give her a sinister smile before leaping at Rainbow, tackling her in an attempt to strangle her. Luckily, Rainbow was stronger than Fluttershy.

"This is insane!" Azmuth cried, as the others rushed over to pull Fluttershy off. This resulted in Adagio being taken over, the girl quickly spinning around and kicking Trixie in the head. "I...I can't think of a way to stop him."

The Worst heard this and also began to grow scared, knowing he could change back any moment. If only they had some sun, but that was impossible...or was it. "That's it!" The Worst turned to Azmuth and started whispering in his ear, Azmuth's eyes going wide.

"That...that could work. But if it doesn't...there's no telling what'll happen to you."

"I know," The Worst nodded. "But what other option do we have?" Azmuth frowned, but nodded and quickly ran over to the control terminal. As he did, The Worst rushed over to Zs'Skayr as he flew out of Sunset's body. "HEY!" He leapt up and tackled the alien's head, covering his eye. "It's me you want, so stop hurting my friends!"

"Ahhh!" Zs'Skayr fought against him, "you should have run away. Then your friend's deaths would have meant something!"

"That's why you're not gonna win!" The Worst cried, only for Zs'Skayr to grab him and pull him off. "You just use people and dispose of them when you need to. But if that's all you do, you'll never have anyone who's really got your back!" Twilight used her magic to pull The Worst away from Zs'Skayr, the alien ghost quickly throwing her backwards.

The Worst landed and as he did, the Omnitrix beeped. "I don't need anyone to...have my back." The alien returned to human and Flash looked worried. "Once I have the Omnitrix's power, I'll be unstoppable." He rushed forward and everyone screamed for Flash, but the teen trusted in Azmuth.

"NOW!" As soon as he said that, Azmuth activated the teleporter.

Zs'Skayr grabbed Flash and began to merging process. But because of this, he was solid and able to be teleported away. As such, the pair quickly vanished in a flash of light.

Everyone gasped, Shining turning to Azmuth. "What have you done?"

"It was Flash's plan," Azmuth stated. "I just hope it works."

Flash and Zs'Skayr warped into their new location and were thrown apart from one another, Flash finding himself on the edge of a sand dune and falling over the edge.

"WOW!" He rolled through the sand, eventually coming to stop at the bottom of the dune. He let out groan as he picked himself up, looking around and seeing there was nothing but sand in every direction. Zs'Skayr also saw this and glared down at the boy.

"Where have you brought us?"

Flash smirked up at him. "Welcome, to the sahara desert. One of the sunniest places in the world. With no trees or anything around to grant shade." Zs'Skayr's eye went wide at this, as he looked up at the sky.

As it so happens, a single cloud just happened to be covering the sun at that moment. But as soon as Flash told Zs'Skayr where they were, it moved out of the way and the super bright sunlight came flying down and hit the ghost.

A scream of absolute agony filled the air, Zs'Skayr's body quickly beginning to burn. He tried to phase into the ground, but the pain of the burning was stopping him from being able to do so. His body was slowly turning crispy, as he fell to the ground and tried to dig into the sand to escape. But it was no use. His body was falling apart.

He looked up at Flash, who stared down at him with no pity in his expression. "This isn't over!" He roared, as his tail started turning to dust. "You can't defeat me this easily!" He tried to slash at Flash, but the teen was too far away from him. "Just watch! I'll...be...BAAAAACK!" The rest of his body disintegrated and the last thing that remained was his claws, which fell off his body when it faded away and exploded into the sand.

Flash stared down at the pile of sand, those final words flowing through his head. "And if you are, I'll be ready for you." As he said that, the Omnitrix beeped.

"Flash!?" It was Shining Armor, Flash raising the device. "Please answer! Please still be you."

"Don't worry guys," Flash replied. "It's me. I'm alright!" Everyone sighed in relief hearing this, asking what happened to Zs'Skayr. "He's...enjoying the sun and the sand." He explained what happened and as he did, Azmuth locked onto the Omnitrix and teleported him back to Canterlot.

Azmuth was using his ship to scan the area that Zs'Skayr had been fried in, nodding as he found no trace of him.

"He's gone. The entire area surrounding the desert is completely ectonurite free." Everyone sighed at this, hoping Azmuth was actually right about this.

"So that's the last we're gonna see of him?" Rainbow asked, Azmuth not replying.

"I want to say yes. But this situation has shown me that even the smartest mind in five galaxies has more to learn about those galaxies. I will begin researching the ectonurites as best I can."

"You're not gonna try and add them back into the Omnitrix, are you?" Twilight looked a little worried, hoping Azmuth wouldn't make that mistake again.

"Oh, I have every intention of doing that." They all looked shocked. "If I didn't, the Omnitrix wouldn't be fulfilling its mission of cataloguing every known species of alien. But I won't be doing that for a long time. Not until I can find a way to make sure I acquire just the DNA and nothing else."

"I'm not sure I'm comfortable with that alien being available again," Flash frowned. He really never wanted to use that alien ever again, even if it had some incredible powers.

Azmuth nodded. "Don't worry. Like I said, I won't add it back into the Omnitrix until I'm sure it's safe. That could take years, decades even." Flash sighed, glad to hear that. "I may have to design a fail-safe to make sure nothing like this ever happens again. Though I doubt there are any other aliens like Zs'Skayr in the Omnitrix, having you lose control isn't something I ever intended for the Omnitrix to allow. I'll make sure nothing like this happens again."

"I hope so," Shining sighed. The lot of them were exhausted after everything they had been through. And considering they hadn't slept in almost twenty-four hours, they were all feeling wiped.

The lot decided to head to the base's sleeping quarters and catch up on some sleep. But as they did, Flash thought about Zs'Skayr's last words. As they echoed in his mind, he had a feeling he wasn't lying. Flash hadn't seen the last of that alien. And when he returned, Flash would need to be ready for whatever the alien threw at him.

Across town, Negatine was sitting in a cell in the local jail.

The man smirked as he sat there, looking like he didn't even care that he had been arrested. And in fact, that was exactly what he had wanted. For as he saw in his cell, his equipment was sitting in the evidence room doing its job.

Inside of it was a transmitter, which was currently allowing someone to hack into the police's secure database and acquire all the information that they needed. And once the information was acquired, Negatine would be free to leave. "Now," he smiled, "where are Viral and the rest of them being held?"

Author's Note

Well, Zs'Skayr has been dealt with and Flash lost Ghostfreak. I know you hoped Flash would keep him, but this just felt right. It's not time for Ghostfreak to be a safe transformation yet. Anyway, hope you enjoyed the chapter and I look forward to the rest of the story.

Season 4, Episode 11: Parental Misguidance

It had been two days since the defeat of Zs'Skayr and everything seemed to be going back to normal.

Flash no longer had to worry about losing his body to a spectral alien and everyone was getting on with their lives. However, some people weren't so happy about what had transpired. And those people were currently in the Plumber base, watching footage of everything that had happened with Zs'Skayr.

Trail Blazer and Misty Vail watched the footage of Flash being taken by the ghost and phased into the ground, the footage changing to the inside of the base where Flash was almost taken over. Misty gasped as she watched her son barely escape losing his life, Trail hitting pause before the situation made them throw up.

The pair sat there, staring at the scared expression on Flash's face whilst imagining what might have happened if Flash had lost his body. "I can't do this anymore," Misty told her husband. "He's just a boy. He shouldn't have to face these kinds of dangers."

"I know," Trail sighed. He had been terrified when he first learned of his son's secret life, then proud when he saw how Flash managed to help people. But so many times, he had almost had a heart attack when he heard the situations Flash was in.

The memory of when they thought he was dead flowed through their minds, making them remember the pain they had felt. They weren't sure they could survive another situation like that.

"Flash isn't going to be happy," Trail stated. "But...it's a parent's job to keep them safe, even if they hate them for doing it." Misty nodded and the pair used the computer to connect to the base's radio, the two surprised at how easy the interface was. Even a pair of civilians could use it to contact someone. And they did.

The screen changed to show Azmuth and Shining Armor, both of them in the lab working on something.

"Azmuth," Trail spoke up, "can we talk?" The galvin looked up and turned to them, as Shining Armor stopped his own work as well. "It's important."

Azmuth normally wouldn't wish to waste time with such a thing, but he could hear from the man's voice that this was about something serious. "I'll be there in a moment." Shining also headed up, wanting to hear what this was about.

At the same time, Trixie and the Rainbooms had also arrived at the base after school.

Flash, not having any extracurricular, had already gone ahead and was apparently showing his parents around. The pair had wanted to see the base for a while and Flash finally had the time to do so, the universe deciding to give Flash a break given what had happened to him recently.

But as they all stepped up to the base, they heard an engine and looked around to see Flash driving into the base.

When the teen got out, they noticed he was carrying a large grocery bag. "Hey," Trixie raised an eyebrow, "I thought you were showing your parents around the base?"

"I was," Flash nodded. "But then everyone got hungry and well...do any of you wanna try the vending machine food?" Everyone shuddered, since the choice of snacks in the base had gone down in quality recently. "Yeah, so I had to rush to the store and get some." They nodded at this and headed inside.

"So," Twilight asked, "your parents enjoying the base tour?"

"I think so," Flash nodded. "The last time they were here, they only ever went into the medical wing whilst I was asleep. They didn't really get a chance to look around. Especially with the remodel." They reached the teleporter and warped into the main room, where they found his parents along with Azmuth and Shining Armor.

None of them seemed to notice the group, too focused on what they were talking about.

"So," Azmuth asked, "what did you wish to speak about?" This made them all stop and share a few glances, making them wonder what Flash's parents wanted to talk about. So, they stayed quiet and listened.

Trail sighed as he spoke up. "How easy would it be to take the Omnitrix off of Flash?" This question shocked everyone, Flash most of all.

"Why would you wish for me to take it off of him?" Azmuth asked.

"Are you serious?" Misty hit play and everyone watched Flash almost getting taken over by Zs'Skayr. Flash flinched, not enjoying having to relive that memory. "Our son almost died and you wonder why we want you to remove that thing?"

"Okay," Azmuth nodded, "I understand that's a little worrisome. But Zs'Skayr is gone now. Flash doesn't have to worry about him ever being a problem again."

"And what about the next time?" Trail asked. "Flash almost died in an explosion because he had your Omnitrix. How many more dangerous situations do you want him to experience before you think letting him keep that device is a good idea?"

"Alright," Shining stepped forward, "let's all calm down before we say something we'll regret." He turned to the parents. "I understand that...recent events might make you worried for Flash's safety. But Flash is stronger than you give him credit for. It'll take a lot to put him in any serious danger."

"But he keeps falling into these situations," Misty exclaimed. "When we agreed to let him continue using the Omnitrix, we hoped the events like what happened with Vilgax would be few and far between. But he was almost blown up, trapped as a ghost for almost a week, had to fight six dangerous super-villains whilst asleep and almost had his body stolen because of a glitch in your device. That all happened one after another. We can't take our son being in that kind of constant danger."

Azmuth sighed, "I admit, Zs'Skayr was a bit of a surprise. But I'm sure you don't have to worry about something like that happening again."

Trail glared at him. "Can you guarantee that it won't happen again. One hundred percent promise, god strike you down if you're wrong guarantee." Azmuth didn't answer, clearly knowing he couldn't promise that. "And that's just one of the things that could happen. You said the Omnitrix is a prototype, so there's no telling what other glitches could happen."

Misty nodded. "How do we know one of Flash's aliens won't take control of him again and make him...lay a bunch of eggs or something. Could something like that happen?"

"Well..." Again, Azmuth wasn't sure how to answer that.

"Exactly," Trail told him. "That Omnitrix is too dangerous to let our son keep. We want you to take it off of him." Azmuth thought about this and turned to them, placing his hands behind his back.

"I understand your concern. But I won't remove the Omnitrix unless Flash wants to Omnitrix removed. He has earned it and taking it away from him against his will, when he's done nothing to warrant it, is not something I can do." The pair frowned at him. "So then, what do you say, Flash?" He turned to the teens and the adults looked over at them, shocked to see they were there.

Flash stepped forward, giving his parents a look that told them his answer. "I don't want to Omnitrix removed. It's the best thing that's ever happened to me."

Azmuth nodded and turned back to his parents, who frowned at him. "There we go. I will not be removing the Omnitrix."

"Fine!" Trail yelled, "but that doesn't mean Flash is gonna use it." Flash and the others were all shocked by this. "Don't forget, the only reason you were allowed to do any of this was because we gave you permission! Well we're rescinding that permission."

"You can't do that!" Flash cried, "people need me!"

"People got along perfectly well before you had the Omnitrix," Misty told him. "They can get along again. From now on, you're not to use the Omnitrix."

"But what if there's another attack by a monster? Or what if aliens show up to start causing problems? What if there's an emergency and I'm the only one that can help? Are you really okay with people dying?"

"Of course not," Trail stated. "But it's our duty as your parents to make sure you stay safe. And I'm sorry son, but I don't think you can stay safe doing this." He stepped forward. "When we thought you died, our entire world came crashing down. We thought our lives were over. If something like that happened again...I don't think we could take it."

Flash looked down, feeling sorry for his parents having to go through all that. But it didn't make what they were doing any better.

The teen turned away from them and walked towards the teleporter, the others asking him not to leave. But he teleported away and everyone sighed, knowing this was hard for him.

Across town, Negatine was still sitting in his cell waiting to be transported to prison. But he didn't intend to let them transport him.

Inside the evidence locker, his gear was still hard at work acting as a beacon for someone to use in order to hack in to the police database. The firewalls had finally been broken down, allowing whoever was using it to access all the systems they wanted to find.

One of these systems was the location of certain prisoners. There were six of them, but only five were located together. The sixth was somewhere else and in order to free the others, this sixth figure would be needed.

Negatine's damaged equipment was suddenly coming back to life. The pieces that had been ripped apart were merging back together, the ends turning to a liquid that combined before solidifying. And once that was done, the antenna unleashed a bright light that started printing something.

That something was one of Negatine's creations. The Ptera-Jet squawked as it was completed, the beast quickly grabbing the device in its claws before turning towards the wall.

It was quite a shock for the police, when the wall of their precinct suddenly exploded and several of them were sent flying. The Ptera-Jet then flew out and headed towards the cells, using another missile to blow it open and free Negatine.

"Perfect," he smiled as the beast dropped his device at his feet. "Keep them busy whilst I get ready!" The Ptera-Jet flew out of the cell and started flying through the halls, knocking down any cop that tried to shoot it. As it did, Negatine activated the device and placed it on his back. A compartment then opened and an earpiece came out of it, Negatine putting it in his ear. "Alright, what's the plan?"

The cops kept fighting against the digital monster and eventually, they managed to shoot it in several spots where its armor was weak. The beast cried out as it fell towards the ground, its body giving off spots of light as it began to fade away. The cops then turned towards the cell and prepared to capture the man that had caused this, only for a bunch of flaming cats to leap out and roar before the wall of Negatine's sell exploded.

Outside, people went screaming as the wall of the building was sent flying and Negatine flew out being carried by a Ptera-Jet.

Shining Armor found Flash on the roof of the base, looking out at the city he had worked so hard to protect.

He sat down next to Flash and placed a soda beside him, noticing the upset expression on the kid's face. "You doing okay?" Flash didn't answer and Shining didn't need a reply. "Yeah, I get it. You're not the first guy whose parents went into overprotective mode when something dangerous happened. I've been there."

"Really?"

"Oh yeah. First week I was on the force, I got into a shootout with some crooks. My folks went nuts and begged me to try and get a desk job, but I refused. I knew what I was doing was dangerous and that I might not come back one day. But I also knew I did a lot of good with my work."

"Well that's the difference between you and me," Flash sighed. "You were allowed to say no to your parents. I don't have that option until I'm eighteen."

"Yeah. And honestly, I understand where they're coming from." Flash looked at him in shock. "Don't forget, I'm a father too. Remember when you told me about when you went to the future?" Flash nodded, "hearing what Flurry did in the future was absolutely terrifying. I know that future won't happen now, but there's a chance she could choose to become a Plumber and end up in even more dangerous situations."

"If she tries to join, would you stop her?"

"I doubt I could stop her if I wanted to. But no, I wouldn't. If she wants to spend her life helping people, that's her right. Doesn't mean I won't still be worried for her." Flash nodded, as Shining's badge suddenly started beeping.

He took it out and read the holographic report, his eyes going wide. "What's up?" Flash asked.

"Negatine escaped." Flash mimicked Shining's shock, "gotta get out there and find him." They both picked themselves up, but Flash stopped when he realised he couldn't go with Shining. "Don't worry. I'll take him down. You just sit tight. Something else might happen whilst I'm gone and you need to be ready."

"Why? My parents won't let me go, especially if it's on my own."

"I wouldn't be so sure of that. Trust me, they'll get over this. Because they know being a hero is what you're meant to be." With that, he rushed towards the door and headed back downstairs, whilst Flash sat back down and looked at the Omnitrix.

He couldn't help but wonder what would happen, if he really wasn't allowed to use it until he was eighteen. Who knows how many aliens he would lose out on unlocking? And what if not using it for so long, meant it recalibrated and reset all his aliens? He would be starting from scratch.

He sighed, wishing his parents didn't love him so much at that moment.

Canterlot's University of Science, was a place where many unusual pieces of technology were being studied.

Many of the labs had something interesting inside of them. And that was no more true than in lab 13-1A. Several scientists were standing inside this lab, looking through a window at the object of their fascination. Viral.

The computer program turned real person was strapped to a table in an empty room, with many wires and whatnot placed throughout her body. There were no lights on in the room, nor any piece of tech that she could use to power herself up. The scientists staring at her were surrounded by multiple types of devices, all being used to study her unique physiology.

"She is incredible," one of the scientists stated. He was currently looking through a microscope. "Every piece of skin we've extracted is made out of some kind of stem cell. If we can figure out how she was created, there's no telling how many diseases we could cure. People with lost limbs could have new ones grown overnight."

"That is amazing," a female scientist nodded before turning to Viral. "But...I wish we didn't have to restrain her like this."

"We can't risk her escaping," the scientist told her. "If she even gets a little energy within her, she could bust out of here and we'd all be in trouble." The woman frowned, seeing the scientists step into the room in order to take a blood sample.

She watched as the needle pricked her, making her flinch. "But this all feels...inhuman."

"She might look human, but she's nothing but a machine with organic parts. She was made to be a weapon and a threat to everyone around her. Here, she's safe and she can actually be of use to mankind."

She sighed, knowing he was right. However, she still felt bad for Viral.

But those bad feelings would soon disappear, as a loud crashing sound filled the air whilst the room shook. This put all the scientists on edge, especially when there was another crash that was louder than the first. And then, before the building could stop shaking, the wall exploded and the scientists were sent flying.

Negatine stepped through the busted down wall, riding atop one of his elephant creatures with a pair of Ptera-Jets flying beside him.

He spotted Viral through the window and turned to the elephant, sending it a command and making it turn its trunk to suck before putting it on the glass and pulling. The force shattered the glass away from Viral, whilst Negatine threw something into the room.

That something was a metal sphere with a counter, which hit zero and unleashed a blast of electrical energy.

This energy filled the room and hit Viral, causing her veins to glow blue as her eyes went wide. She gasped and looked around, seeing where she was and spotting Negatine. "Who are you?"

"Someone you share a mutual friend with," he explained. "And a mutual enemy. Can you get out of there?" Viral looked at the straps holding her and channelled her electrical energy, using it to burn away the leather and allow her to step down off the table. "Good, now I have something for you." She walked over and he held something out.

When she took it, she saw it was come kind of patch with circuits on it. "What is this?"

"An upgrade," Negatine replied. "After the way Sentry beat you, this was made to make it easier for you to escape situations like that. Plus, it has an added bonus." Viral raised an eyebrow, but placed the device on her neck and suddenly felt a rush of energy flow through her.

She fell to her knees, as her entire body vibrated like crazy. As she did, lightning started surging out of her and consumed her form. Within seconds, she was completely covered and looked like a humanoid made of lightning.

"How'd you feel?" Negatine asked.

"Incredible!" She cried before turning to one of the machines, as a sudden urge was sent through her. Before she could stop herself, she leapt at the machine and transformed into a stream of lightning. She flew into the machine and it sparked as the energy disappeared inside.

"Nice. You're adapting quickly." The lightning flew out and formed Viral again, the synthetic woman returning to her normal form. "Alright, we don't have long. I need you to jump into the university's system and plant an order to move several pieces of equipment to a specific spot. Once that's done, we need to get out of here before Sentry or his friends show up."

"Alright." Viral leapt into the lighting system and flew through the building until she arrived at the main computer terminal. Once she had added the shipment order, she found Negatine and the pair escaped. They now had to focus on getting the rest of their team out. And that wouldn't be easy.

Back at the base, Misty and Trail had just learned of Shining going off to deal with Negatine.

They knew Flash wanted to go with Shining, but they also knew just how dangerous that would be. Negatine could create an army of monsters and even mimic his opponents if he managed to get a scan of them. They knew Flash had defeated him many times, but they still couldn't help but worry.

Trixie and the Rainbooms had all left the base and they had considered leaving as well, but they didn't want to go whilst Flash was still angry at them.

As such, they sat there whilst Azmuth was busy working on the computer. The galvin glanced back at the pair, seeing how worried they were about their son hating them. They noticed him looking and he turned back to the computer. The others two frowned, thinking the alien didn't care about them. But then, he spoke up. "You should really trust your son more." They looked up in shocked. "You think you're protecting him, but you're really not."

"You wouldn't understand," Misty told him. "You're clearly not a parent, are you?" Azmuth stopped what he was doing, their words having hit some kind of nerve.

"No," he nodded, "I am not."

"Then you don't know what a parent would do to keep their children safe," Trail stated. "Even if it makes Flash hate us, he'll be alive to hate us." Azmuth said nothing for a moment, clearly thinking about something.

"I might not have any children, but I've taken many promising young Galvin under my wing and taught them to be the best they can be. There was one Galvin in particular, that showed more potential than anyone else. A young orphan who I believed had the ability to one day surpass me. His name was Albedo."

"Was?" Misty asked, Azmuth turning to them. When they saw the look in his eye, they realised what he was saying. "Oh."

Azmuth nodded. "He was brilliant, but rash. Much like your son. I feared if I allowed him to take part in dangerous situations, he wouldn't be able to handle it and get himself killed. But by the time I realised I was wrong, it was too late."

"What happened?" Trail asked, as Azmuth turned back to the computer.

"An experimental power generator went out of control. I rushed to the scene in order to stop it, but told Albedo to wait in a heavily protective bunker. He wanted to help, but I didn't think he was ready for such a situation. So I made him go to the bunker and placed a lock on the door to keep him from sneaking out. But that was a mistake."

"How could protecting him be a mistake?" Misty asked.

"I managed to get to the generator and knew what the problem was, but even a genius can't complete a task if he doesn't have the time necessary to do everything in. Had Albedo been there, he would have been able to help me. He understood the generator enough to follow my instructions and shut it down with me. But because I hadn't trusted him, the generator overloaded and caused a dangerous power surge that flew through many of the buildings the generator was connected to. Including the bunker."

Misty gasped, whilst Trail looked white as a sheet. "So...you mean..."

"Yes," Azmuth nodded, "it exploded. I thought Albedo would be safe there, but it was the worst place he could have been. He and several others who had taken shelter there were lost, all because I didn't trust him."

"You had no idea something like that would happen," Misty told him.

"Exactly. And you have no idea what might happen to Flash. You think keeping him from using the Omnitrix is helping him, but how will it do anything except make him weaker?" They looked confused by this. "Flash is going to use the Omnitrix again once he's eighteen. All you're doing is preventing him from getting stronger. Think of how far he's come in the short time he's had the Omnitrix. Imagine how much better he'll be by the time he's eighteen."

Misty and Trail frowned, thinking about how much better Flash was now than when the aliens first showed up. But that also made them remember all the dangerous situations Flash had been in. "And what if he doesn't make it to eighteen?" Misty asked.

"He almost died in an explosion," Trail stated. "And then, he almost lost his body to an alien ghost. How many times has Flash come close to being killed since getting the Omnitrix? How much longer is his luck going to hold out?"

"Flash puts himself in danger every time he steps outside his own door," Azmuth stated. "All it would take is one car running a red light, or one person dropping something off a tall building and he could die. The world is unpredictable."

"But with those situations he's not actively putting himself in danger," Misty stated. "Are you willing to accept the consequences of what'll happen to Flash if he loses his life using your device?"

"I am," Azmuth nodded. "I know Flash having the Omnitrix means he'll face danger. That's why I considered taking it when I first met Flash. But Flash has proven again and again, that he is capable of handling himself. He might end up in dangerous situations, but he has the brains, skill and willpower to overcome anything that the universe throws at him. And if something does happen to him, I'll accept the fault."

"You might be able to accept that," Trail stated. "But as parents, it's our job to protect him."

"I'm sure there are many other people who think the same way," Azmuth nodded. "People who fear something happening to their children. But if everyone stopped their children from doing something because it's dangerous, imagine how little your species would have developed. Progress needs risks. And as a parent, it's your duty to instil your child with the needed values to make this world a better place." Azmuth got back to his work and the two thought about what he had said.

Was he right? Were they doing more harm than good for Flash?

Shining drove as fast as he could throughout the city.

On his way to the precinct Negatine had escaped from, he had gotten another alert explaining that the man had attacked the Canterlot University. He was shocked when he learned that the building he had attacked was the one that Viral was being kept in, which made Shining very worried.

If Negatine had gone through the effort of breaking Viral out, could it mean that he was planning on helping the other five criminals Flash had defeated? Or was Negatine only interested in Viral because of her digital origins, just like his creations?

He arrived at the university and found the placed was a total mess.

As he rushed inside, Shining set his suit to scan the place and found trace amounts of the energy that was produced when Negatine created his monsters. He then spotted a scientist beginning to wake up and crawl along the ground, Shining rushing over to help him up.

"What happened?"

"Strange man," he replied. "That...Negatine fellow. He attacked and stole the specimen."

"Viral?" The scientist nodded, as Shining frowned. "Did they say anything about what they planned to do next?" The scientist shook his head, having blacked out before they said anything to each other.

Once he was sure the man wasn't seriously injured, Shining rushed out. Activating his holo-bike, he quickly revved it up and shot down the street. As he did, he brought up his phone numbers and searched for the prison Animac and the other criminals were located.

"I gotta warn them."

However, at that exact moment, Negatine and Viral had arrived at the prison.

They were driving in a van that had been disguised as a police van, Negatine behind the wheel as Viral adapted to the new upgrade. "You ready?" He asked, as they pulled up to the prison. She nodded and felt her body charge with electricity, the lightning surging around her before she was completely covered in it.

She then touched the van's radio and was sucked inside, whilst Negatine took something out. A strange looking mask, which completely covered his face when he put it on.

Moments later, his entire body was consumed by light and when it faded he looked like an entirely different individual. That individual was dressed in a police uniform and when he pulled up to the gates, a guard stepped forward and was surprised to see him.

"Hey man," he clearly knew the individual Negatine was pretending to be. "I thought you were on vacation."

"I wish," he even sounded different. "Could really use one with everything that's been going on lately. Listen, I need to talk to a prisoner about a crime they might have committed. I know this is last minute, but you think I can talk to him?"

The guard hummed and took something off his belt. A strange looking gun that he held up to his eye. "Don't blink." He held it up to Negatine's eye and it fired a light that ran over the eye, scanning his retina to see if it was on the database. After a few seconds, he pulled it away and waited for the results. And as it beeped, the light turned green and he nodded. "Alright, you're clear to go in."

Negatine nodded as the guard returned to the box and a few moments later, the gate opened with him driving in. "Too easy." As soon as they were close enough to the building, the radio sparked and the energy transferred into the battery before flying out the van and into a nearby power chord.

Once inside, she began searching the electrical system until she found the cells containing Animac, Dynamo, The Hypnotist, Dragster and Doddery. Each of them were in a different cell, with Doddery being in another section of the prison, but Viral knew what she had to do.

From out of their overhead lights, she flew into each of their cells and surprised them when she did. They managed not to scream and realised who it was, then saw the lightning form shapes in the air to create letters. Each of them received the exact same message, a bunch of instructions they would need to follow if they wished to escape.

They all understood and Viral returned to the electrical system, eventually arriving at the part of the grid connected to the control system. She quickly entered the computer and started going through the many systems, breaking through multiple firewalls and other securities until she had complete access to the building's controls.

"Now," she smiled, "to make a little chaos." In that moment, every single guard found the cells of the prison opening up.

Many hadn't been expecting this and were taken by surprise, as the criminals quickly saw their chance. As such, the crooks leapt out of their cells and attacked the guards. All the officers were tackled towards the ground and their weapons were quickly pulled out of their grasp.

As this was happening, Animac, Dynamo, The Hypnotist, Doddery and Dragster found themselves sneaking out of their cells.

Following Viral's instructions, they all headed for another part of the building. Hopefully, Viral's instructions would allow them to escape without even being noticed. And by the time they realised they were four prisoners down, it would be too late.

Back at the base, Trail and Misty contemplated what Azmuth had told them.

They knew they couldn't keep Flash from being a hero forever. Were they really hurting him by keeping their son from using the Omnitrix? Even if it was true, could they really survive sending their son into such a dangerous situation?

Suddenly, an alarm caught their attention and they rushed over to the computer. Flash and Azmuth were also there, Azmuth typing away at it as the alert was revealed. "Some kind of virus has entered the prison security system." He brought up the security footage and showed all the inmates rioting against the guards. Many of the guards had been overpowered and had their weapons taken, allowing the prisoners to fight back when the armed guards arrived.

"This is awful!" Misty cried, "can't anyone stop this?"

"Shining appears to be on his way to the prison," Azmuth stated. "But it'll take him way too long to get there. By then, I fear someone might be killed."

"The guards can't handle that many on their own!" Flash cried, "the only one that might be able to stop this is..." He turned to his parents, who frowned as they realised what he was asking.

"No," Trail told them. "Besides, what can you do from here?"

"The base's teleporter system could transport him there in an instant," Azmuth stated. "And he's right, he's the only one who can possible stop this riot. With his aliens, it'll be a snap." Flash looked at them, showing him an expression that was begging them to let him do this.

Both clearly had misgivings about sending their son into a building full of violent offenders. But then they looked up at the monitor and saw a guard getting beaten pretty badly, the man begging them not to kill him since he had a family. They then looked to Azmuth, who gave them a look reminding them of their earlier talk.

After glancing at each other, they couldn't deny the fact any longer. "Flash needs to do this," Trail sighed. Misty nodded and turned to him.

"Alright, go. But please, be careful." Flash smiled and nodded, rushing over to hug them as he did. They hugged him back, as Azmuth got the teleporter online.

"Ready Flash?"

"Just a second," Flash jumped back and activated the Omnitrix. Cycling through his aliens, he found the one he wanted and slammed the dial down. With a burst of green light, he transformed. "Diamondhead!" The crystal alien got into a fighting stance, "I'm ready!" Azmuth nodded and hit the button. Diamondhead disappeared in a flash, his parents focusing on the screen.

Moments later, Diamondhead appeared in the middle of the riot. The light caught everyone's attention and they saw him appear, many of which being in prison because of Flash.

"It's Sentry!"

"Let's get him!" The inmates pointed their guns at him and fired, but the bullets did nothing against the alien hero.

He quickly ran forward and swung his arm blades around, cutting through the guns and knocking out any criminal that got too close. He grabbed several of the guards and carried them over to where the armed ones were located, knocking out a few more crooks until he got there.

"Thanks for the save!" One of the guards told him, Diamondhead handing the injured ones over to them. "Think you can quell this many?"

"Leave it to me." Diamondhead looked over the criminals and saw they were all now unharmed, in the sense that all their guns and blades had been taken. But they still had a few bats and metal pipes they had on them, Diamondhead hitting the Omnitrix and transforming. "Goop!"

The guards watched as the alien slime flew forwards and started tackling many of the criminals, drenching the ones carrying bats and pipes in slime along with making a long trail on the ground and walls. Once he was on the other side of the group, he hit the Omnitrix and transformed again.

"Volt-Edge!" The electric lizard sparked his claws before punching the slimy ground, the goo conducting the lightning and allowing it to travel along it. It flew towards the criminals and electrocuted the ones that were either covered in the stuff or standing on it, causing many of them to fall unconscious as they hit the ground.

Volt-Edge smirked at all the remaining criminals still ready to fight back, the alien raising a claw and giving them a 'bring it' gesture. They all roared and ran forward, determined to take their opponent down.

At the same time, Dynamo, Animac, Dragstar and The Hypnotist were making their way through the prison.

They turned a corner and when they did, they found someone else running towards them. Doddery. "So you got the message as well?" Animac asked, Doddery nodding as they wondered what they were supposed to do now.

"Viral said to come here," Dynamo stated. "What are we supposed to do here?" None of them had an answer to that. However, at that moment, Doddery's hearing aid staticed.

"Ah!" She reached up to take it out, but suddenly heard a voice speaking through it.

"Can you hear me?" It was Viral's voice, "raise your left hand if you can hear me." Doddery wasn't sure what was going on, but she did so much to the other's confusion. "Good. Looks like it worked."

"Where are you?" She asked, looking around and spotting a camera pointing at them.

"I think you just said something. But this camera feed only has visuals. Tell the others I've hacked into your hearing aid and will be directing you through it." Doddery did so and explained, the others hoping Viral had a plan for getting them out. "Alright. Turn left and head in that direction. But be careful. Flash Sentry has suddenly appeared and is starting to quell the riot we made. You guys won't have much longer before he realises you're not there."

They began to make their way through the prison, following Viral's directions as they ran as fast as they could.

At the same time, Negatine had made his own escape from the prison.

He pulled out of the building and with the riot going on, there was nobody at the main gate to stop him. He drove right out and around the building, following a set of blueprints he had gotten from his boss. He reached the spot and parked the vehicle behind a bunch of bushes before heading into the back, where several pieces of equipment were located.

Pulling the sheet off of them, he found the devices were six sets of identical devices. They were vests with the round machine on the chest, Negatine quickly putting one of them on before picking up the other five. They were heavy, but he could handle them. He also picked up something else, a small cube-like device with a light on each side.

"I hope this works." He got out of the van and ran towards the prison, hitting the button on the device he was wearing as he did.

Back in the prison, Flash had switched aliens again.

Now, he was Pesky Dust and the little fairy alien was flying through the female section of the prison. As he did, he was spraying his sleeping dust on the criminals. He smiled as he watched the inmates fall to the ground asleep, Pesky Dust having already done this to the male criminals before moving over to the female section.

Once the last inmate was asleep, Pesky Dust stopped and landed on the ground. "Okay," he said with a cute purr in his voice, "you girls can come out now." He looked over at a door, which opened up to allow the female guards to step inside as they wore gas masks. "You don't need to wear those. The dust's effects only last a minute of two before it stops working."

"Better safe than sorry," the lead guard stated. "Is that all of the criminals?"

"I think so," Pesky Dust nodded. But as he said that, the guard's radio went off and she answered it.

"What?" She asked, then started looking around. "Where's Doddery?" Pesky Dust's eyes went wide as he looked around, seeing no sign of the elderly villain.

"You mean Doddery is here?"

"She's supposed to be. But we just got word that Animac, Dynamo, Dragster and Periwinkle aren't apart of the prisoners you took down." The guards searched the area, but found no sign of any of the criminals.

"Was this whole thing a set up to let them escape?" Pesky Dust asked. He hit the Omnitrix and transformed into XLR8, the alien speedster beginning to shoot offer and search the entire prison. As he did, the lights began to flicker above him.

"Flash." Azmuth was speaking through the Omnitrix, "the virus that suddenly infected the system suddenly vanished. We have control of the prison's security systems."

"Great. Can you figure out where Animac and the others are? They weren't apart of the criminals I rounded up."

"Searching now. Found them." He started direction XLR8 through the prison until he reached the area where all the plumbing was located. He shot through the maze of pipes and other items until he arrived at a turn leading to a dead-end. And when he ran around it he found the five standing there looking anxious.

"There you are!" He cried, making the five spin around and glare at him. Seeing he had very little room to run around it, he changed aliens once again. "Molestache!" The alien rodent got into a boxer's pose and started thrusting his stache-fists at the lot of them. "Kindly return to your cells, else I will be forced to unleash a tremendous amount of pain upon the lot of you!"

"You don't scare us!" Dynamo cried as he ran forward and tried to kick Molestache. But Molestache jumped up to avoid the kick before throwing a punch right into his face. He cried out, staggering back as Dragstar and The Hypnotist ran forward as well.

Molestache's hair fists extended upwards and grabbed some pipes on the ceiling, allowing him to pull himself up and swing towards the pair. He let go and slammed both his feet into Dragstar's chest, knocking him down before he turned to Periwinkle and punched him in the face as well.

"You heinous villains might be almost unstoppable with your equipment, but when you lack such you're nothing more than simple criminals." He turned to Animac and Doddery, the older criminals looking ready to have a heart attack. "Please give yourself up. I find no pleasure is giving undo harm to the old and frail."

"Old?" Doddery growled.

"Frail?" Animac cried, "I'll show you who's frail." He picked up a stray pipe and used it to bag on another pipe, hitting it was a lot of force that surprised Molestache. He hit the pipe so hard, it bent and eventually broke away from the wall.

Doing so unleashed a burst of steam that flew right into Molestache's face, making him scream as he was sent staggering backwards. Animac then ran forward and attempted to cave the hero's head in, but Molestache's facial hair flew up and formed a shield to block the pipe.

"What?" Animac felt the pipe be pulled from his grasp, as Molestache leapt backwards and threw the pipe away.

His eyes were still closed and slightly stinging, but that didn't stop him. "As someone who claims to understand a lot about animals, you clearly aren't went versed in we talpa europaea. If you were, you would be aware of our innate ability to sense vibrations."

Animac growled, as the other criminals picked themselves up and started attacking again. But their loud movements allowed Molestache to see where they were and easily counter them, grabbing Dragstar's kick and throwing him against the wall before ducking under Dynamo's punch. He grabbed Dynamo and The Hypnotist by the front before pushing them upwards, slamming them into the ceiling whilst Animac simply ran forwards.

But Molestache raised a hair fist and held it at just the right angle, allowing Animac to run into it and have a very special area take the impact. When all four of them were down for the count, Molestache used his facial hair to wrap them up before moving over to Doddery.

"Now, I'll repeat my suggestion involving you returning to your cells peacefully. Agree to do that and I won't be force to cause any harm to you." However, as he said that, Doddery did something rather surprising.

Her body began to flicker and glitch, like a computer with a bad screen.

Molestache was surprised to see this, whilst the villains he held captive also flickered. Eventually, they all disappeared and something fell to the ground. A small cube with a light on each of the sides. "What's this?" He picked it up and looked it over, only to realize what had happened. "I was tricked!" But if the villains he had fought were fakes, then where were the real ones?

Negatine drove the police van down the road and smiled as he heard the others laugh.

Animac was sitting next to him, whilst Doddery, Dynamo, Dragster and The Hypnotist sat in the back with the equipment. "I wish I could have seen the look on Sentry's face, when he realised he was fighting a bunch of holograms." The others nodded at Dynamo's statement, whilst one of the devices that had saved them began to spark.

"Hey!" Doddery told it, "calm down. We told you, there's not enough room in here to let you out." The device sparked some more and she sighed. "She's not gonna be happy."

"Pass her to Animac," Negatine told her. Doddery did so and once Animac had it, Negatine told Viral to jump into the radio.

She did and sigh as soon as she was inside. "Finally, at least I can talk." Animac took this moment to inspect the device that Viral had leapt into seconds before they had escaped, with XLR8 only arriving a few more seconds after they had left.

"Such an amazing piece of tech."

"Well be careful with it," Negatine stated. "You don't want to accidently phase out of the truck." Animac nodded and handed it back to the others, as Negatine focused on the road. "You should all be thankful he still needed you. If he didn't, he probably would have left you all to rot where you were."

"We know," Dynamo stated. "Don't worry, we're not gonna make the same mistake twice. Next time we see Sentry, he's going down." They all nodded, whilst Negatine kept driving.

"Good, but let's focus on what matters at the moment. Getting the remaining tech needed to complete his master plan. That's the only way we're ever gonna get the one up on Sentry." With that, they drove into the city and each took out a mask like the one Negatine had used.

Each one place placed on their face and in a flash, they all transformed. Now they were completely different people and could walk around without needing to hide their face. They had a lot of work left to do. The first thing they needed to focus on, was replacing the tech Sentry had destroyed when he defeated them. Then, they could move on to the next phase of the plan. Sentry wouldn't know what hit him when everything was complete.

Back at the base, Azmuth was staring at a monitor showing footage from Shining's visor.

The Plumber was finally at the prison, annoyed that he had missed the riot and was unable to stop the prisoners from escaping. He was currently scanning the area Flash had fought the fake criminals and as he scanned the wall, he picked up a familiar looking energy footprint.

"You seeing this?" He asked Azmuth, who nodded.

"Yes. Not doubt about it. Tragnik Radiation. The same kind that was used to invent that phasing device you managed to stop a while back. The wall's been saturated with it." He then looked down at the device Flash had brought back from the prison. "The same radiation is on this device. It was what allowed it to pass through the wall and into the prison."

"So Negatine and the others were the ones that created that tech."

"I doubt it," Azmuth told him. "This technology is years ahead of its time. There's no way any of them could create something like this. There's someone else, working behind the scenes."

"Who?"

"Well...that is the question of the hour." Azmuth turned away from the computer, looking over at Flash as he and his parents sat together listening to what was being said.

Flash sighed, feeling depressed. "I can't believe I let those guys get away. If I had stopped them, we could have gotten answer about who's been giving out all this super dangerous tech."

Trail placed a hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry son. You did go getting the rest of the prison under control. You'll catch those guys next time." Flash smiled at this, glancing over at Misty who smiled back and nodded.

"You're right!" Flash stood up. "Those guys might have gotten away, but at least now we know Negatine's working with them. So what if I have to beat them seven on one. I'm gonna do it, not problem."

"Who said anything about seven on one?" Flash looked around and saw Trixie, Adagio and the Rainbooms walking towards him. Rainbow smirked, "we want a piece of those creeps as well."

"You got that right," Trixie nodded. "They might have forced you to fight them all alone before, but next time we'll take them out." She pointed at him, "they only have seven members. But we have eleven. So we outnumber them, no problem at all." The others nodded and Flash smiled, as Twilight stepped over to his parents.

"I know you're still worried about Flash." The pair nodded, clearly still anxious at the idea of their son going into a dangerous situation. "But you don't have to be scared. Because Flash won't be doing this alone. He has us to watch his back and keep him from getting himself killed."

"That's right," Sunset nodded. "Flash might not always think, but he's got us to think for him when he gets in over his head." The parents couldn't help but smile at this statement, whilst Flash high fived the lot of them. They might be young, but they all had more potential than almost any adult. If anyone could keep their son safe, it was them.

Azmuth watched and couldn't help but smirk at the sight before him, the old galvin reminded of the many potential filled younglings he had mentored. If only Albedo was there. Azmuth had no doubt, he would be friends with Flash and helping just as much.

However, he had to put those thoughts aside for now. They had bigger fish to fry. The technology the seven used was powerful, but Azmuth had a feeling it was all a bunch of stepping stones. Something or someone was building something bigger. And if they were allowed to complete it, there was no telling what they could do.

In a dark lab of some kind, a figure was working on a device hidden in the shadows.

Using one of the computer chips his underlings had stolen for him, he was able to complete another section of the device. But there was still more he required in order to complete the device. "Soon," he stated. "When you're ready, I'll finally have the power that was stolen from me. And then I'll make all those who tried to wrong me suffer." He moved over to another section, taking out a welding torch that he used to put the device together.

It wouldn't be long. And when it was complete, not even the great Flash Sentry would be able to stop him.

Author's Note

A lighter chapter after what happened last week, but I think it was needed. Hope you enjoyed it and will return next week.

Season 4, Episode 12: Stars and Shields Forever

Canterlot was in a state of high alert.

The recent escape of six highly dangerous criminals, had everyone in the city a little on edge. Made worse by the fact that these six had been joined by a seventh dangerous criminal, causing everyone to stay on guard.

But they weren't going to let a bunch of lunatics ruin their lives, so people were still living their lives and trusting in the city's heroes to keep them safe. And said heroes were currently patrolling the city, searching for any sign of the criminals.

Currently, Gryforce was flying over the city and keeping a watchful eye out for anything.

He flew up to a building's roof and landed on the edge, looking almost like a gargoyle as he stared at the street below. As he did, the Omnitrix beeped before Shining's voice called out to him. "Anything?"

"Nothing on the western side," he replied. "How about you?"

"Nothing on the eastern side. I'll call Trixie and see if she's found anything."

"They've gotta be somewhere here," he sighed as he sat on the edge. "I figured Doddery would show up. She's so desperate to stay young, I figured she'd always be out on the hunt."

"They'll show themselves," Shining assured them. "We just need to capture one of them. Then Sunset can read their minds and figure out where they're hiding."

Gryforce nodded and took to the air again, wondering how everyone else was doing. The Rainbooms were also searching for the villains, whilst Adagio was busy at a shoot. Hopefully, nothing would happen at said shoot and ruin it. Adagio deserved to not have her modelling career ended after she had worked so hard to achieve it.

Across town, Adagio, Aria and Sonata were currently at an outdoor set.

It was a large park, full of trees that made it perfect for simulating a forest environment. There, the girls were showing off an array of fashionable yet useful outdoor clothes. The perfect thing for the wooden trekker wanting to look great.

They weren't the only girls being photographed, as another model was also showing her stuff.

Her name was Amethyst Star, a pink skinned girl with purple hair who was dressed in outdooring gear like the three of them. She was currently sitting on the branch of a tree, the photographer zooming in on the girl as he took several pictures.

"Oh, beautiful. Just beautiful. The camera loves you darling!" Amethyst smiled as she shifted positions, getting into a more alluring pose on the branch. "Perfect. I think that'll work." He finished taking his photos and the girls all headed towards the changing room, their shoot coming to an end.

"Excellent girls!" The man running the shoot announced, "I knew you four were the perfect models for this situation. And you'll also be perfect for something. What are you doing tomorrow?" The four shared a look, none of them busy but curious about why he would ask. "How'd you like the chance to be stars?"

"Aren't we already stars?" Sonata asked.

"You've done a lot of magazine shoots and a few commercials, but I'm talking serious stars. Possible movie stars." That got their attention.

"Are you offering us a part in a movie?" Amethyst asked.

"Just the chance to impress those who could offer you parts," he stated. "Tomorrow, there's going to be a big talent showcase. VIPs from Hollywood looking for their next big stars. The places were already filled up, but four of them had to pull out for one reason or another. If you want, you four can have those spots and possibly win a chance to become film icons. What do you say?"

"Oh, we're in!" Adagio told him, Sonata and Aria nodding.

Amethyst smiled, "I'm in too. Becoming a movie star is my dream. What time do we need to be there?"

"I'll go get the information packages for you," he explained. "Everything you'll need to know will be there." They nodded and he walked off, leaving the girls to go to the changing room and get into their normal clothing attire.

Amethyst changed into a white shirt, with a sleeveless purple button up vest and purple skirt. She also had a headband on that was purple with diamond images running along it.

Once they were all back in their street clothes, the girls headed out and picked up the information packages before making their way out of the park. As they left, they all talked about how they were going to present themselves.

Amethyst expected the three of them to all be a shoe in. Despite no longer being in a relationship with Flash Sentry, Adagio was still a well known name. "Any idea what kind of movies they might give us parts for?" Amethyst asked.

"Probably something small," Aria told her. "Background work and extras. But if we do good, it could lead to something more." They nodded at this, only to then hear a loud horn up ahead.

They looked towards the street and spotted a car speeding down the road. It even flew through a red light, the driver soon regretting that when a truck crashed into the side of it.

The impact caused the car to swirl around as bits flew off of him, including the bumper.

Said part flew towards the girls, making them scream out as they braced themselves for the impact. But it never came and the girls slowly opened their eyes, to see a pink light in front of them. The light was forming a dome around them, that had stopped the bumper cold.

They were shocked by this and could feel a magical energy coming off the dome, but knew it wasn't Equestrian Magic.

Looking around, they saw Amethyst looking worried about something. They noticed she didn't seem surprised by the magical barrier, which disappeared the minute they looked at her. "What the heck was that?" Sonata asked, hoping Amethyst would simply fess up.

"I...I gotta go!" Before they could say anything, she ran off. Aria tried to follow her, but a wall of pink energy formed in front of her and stopped her cold. When it vanished, Amethyst was around a corner and gone.

"Any idea what that was about?" Aria asked, but Adagio had an idea.

"I need to talk to Trixie."

Adagio soon arrived at the Plumber Base and found the rest of Canterlot's heroes were already there.

When she saw them, she instantly told them what had happened. "Amethyst Star?" Shining typed her name into the computer and brought up a bunch of magazine photos, several of which were front page pictures.

"Nice," Flash smirked seeing her dressed up in a variety of different clothing. He found himself strangely drawn to one of her dressed as a traditional nerd, having her hair up in a ponytail with thick glasses on.

The rest of the girls rolled their eyes, as Trixie turned to Adagio. "So you really think this girl has a Medallion?"

"In this town, something like that only seems to have three sources. Aliens, Equestrian Magic and Medallions. She didn't look alien and I know Equestrian Magic when it's near. That means there's only one other thing it could be."

Trixie nodded and took out her phone, having use it to take notes on all the Medallions in her book. She crawled through it until she found what she was looking for. "What colour did you say the barrier was?"

"Pink," Adagio replied, "light pink."

Trixie nodded, "you might be right. The Iron Serpent Medallion grants the user the power to create barriers as hard as steel.

"So this girl has the Iron Serpent Medallion?" Fluttershy asked, "do you think she'll be willing to give it up?" They all looked at Adagio, the girl being the only one who knew anything about her.

"Well...she did look kind of scared of it. She clearly knew she was the one causing it and by the look on her face, this wasn't the first time she's used that power. But with how she bolted, I'm guessing she doesn't like having them."

"Makes sense," Rarity nodded. "If she's trying to make it as a model, people learning she has super powers could cause a scandal and ruin her career. Or that's what she probably thinks."

"So she'll probably jump at the chance to hand them off," Flash nodded. "Alright, let's just look up her address and go talk to her."

"I don't think that's such a good idea," Twilight told him. "If this girl is worried about having her powers revealed, she might try and run like she did with Adagio. I really don't like the idea of having to restrain her."

"So what do we do?" Rainbow asked. "Surround her so she can't run?"

"What did I just say!" Twilight cried, trying to think of a way they could get her to not run for the hills as soon as they mentioned her having powers. "We need to approach her in a way that she doesn't want to run. Maybe whilst she's doing something she can't leave."

Adagio frowned, knowing exactly what they could do. "I might have an idea." They all turned to her, as she pointed at Flash. "But you've gotta promise me you won't do anything that could get the event cancelled."

"Okay?" Flash raised an eyebrow, "what are you talking about?"

Adagio sighed. "There's a big showcase tomorrow, for models and other rising stars. VIPs from Hollywood are gonna be there to scout out some talent. Amethyst is going to take part in it. There's no way she'd leave such an event, so you might be able to talk to her there."

Rarity gasped. "Wait, are you going to be a part of this showcase as well?" Adagio nodded. "Amazing. You might get to become a movie star."

"Only if nothing goes wrong with the event." Adagio gave the three superheroes a serious look and they all raised a hand, to swear that they would do everything in their power not to ruin the showcase. "Good."

Trixie sighed, "I don't like waiting. What if Devious finds her before then?"

"I doubt he's gonna happen to find her in the next twelve hours or so," Flash told her. "If he knew about her, he probably would have already struck. She'll be fine until we find her tomorrow."

"I hope you're right," Trixie nodded. "He's already got the Mad Monkey Medallion. And with Chrysalis helping him, he's more dangerous than ever. They might have found some other Medallions to use against us." This made them worry, since Devious with another Medallion was never a good thing. But he didn't know about this Medallion, which gave them a slight advantage.

However, things were not as they seemed. For the heroes didn't know they were currently being watched by someone.

Unknown to them, the base's security system had been hacked into. The cameras were currently staring at them, recording everything that was being said. Including all the info on Amethyst.

In there warehouse base, Devious and Chrysalis were staring at a computer screen.

Said computer screen had a recording of the meeting that had just taken place. The pair watched as the group talked about Amethyst and her Medallion power. Devious smiled hearing this, Chrysalis turning to him. "Are they right? Does that sound like this Iron Serpent Medallion?"

"Yes," he nodded, "I remember that Medallion. Probably the hardest one I had to retrieve. Getting through the shield wasn't easy. I had to take the user by surprise and knock them out."

"That sounds like it's going to be a pain."

"Relax," he told her. "From what they said, this user is clearly unskilled with the power. And if she doesn't want it, that means she probably hasn't trained with it. So getting it from her will be much simpler. Though Lulamoon and the rest of those fools might get in the way."

Chrysalis nodded before looking back at the computer. "Can't you do anything to help? We did join you so we would have some backup." In that moment, the screen changed to show a line that wobbled as a voice spoke.

"I'm afraid not. This particular situation represents a golden opportunity for me."

"What opportunity?" Devious asked. "We had a deal. You help us and we help you."

"I just sent you the footage, didn't I? I'd like to see you hack into the Plumber base's security system. I could have easily not sent this to you."

"He has a point," Chrysalis nodded.

"It takes more than showing us a bit of footage to count as helping us. If you really want to help us, send those minions of yours to help me fight Sentry."

"I can't. As I said, this is a golden opportunity for me. Whilst Sentry and the rest of his friends are busy fighting against you, we can break into a storage warehouse on the other side of town. The tech in that warehouse is just what I need."

"So you just intend to use us to further your own goals?" Chrysalis was starting to agree with Devious. "We need help as well."

"And you'll get it. But first, we need to focus on the bigger picture. You want the Medallions, but can't beat Lulamoon because her friends keep helping. Once I have what I need, we'll be able to remove her friends and maybe even her and you'll be able to collect the Medallions to your heart's content."

"How do I know you'll agree to help me?" Devious asked. "When you approached me, I agreed to work with you in good faith. But even that has its limits."

"Fine. If you really want, I'll send two of my underlings to the area as backup. But they'll only intervene if I tell them to. I would prefer not tipping Sentry off to our little alliance. We only get to surprise him with that once and I would prefer to keep it up my sleeve until it's absolutely necessary."

"Ahhh," Devious growled, "fine! But next time, I'd better have some actual help. And if I fail to get the Medallion, you'll be suffering my wrath."

"So I will." With that, the screen went dead and Devious sighed.

"Do you think we can trust this person?" Chrysalis asked.

"No, I don't. But he hates our foe as much as I do. If we want to get the Medallions she already has, we need reinforcements. Once that fool and his friends deal with Sentry and the rest of those nuisances, we'll dispose of him before he can think of betraying us. Then we'll be free to collect the remaining Medallions ourselves. Now come on. We have a fashion show to crash. I think it's time I showed you how to take a Medallion from the user."

Chrysalis nodded and the pair made preparations to infiltrate the showcase. Amethyst Star wouldn't know what hit her.

At the same time, the figure talking to Devious and Chrysalis sat back in their chair before opening up a coms channel.

The computer changed to show the image of Negatine, Dragstar, Animac, Dynamo, Viral, Doddery and the Hypnotist. They all turned to him and lined up on the computer. "What's up?" Dynamo asked.

"We've been given an opening to acquire some important piece of technology. All except Negatine and Animac will do the acquiring."

"Why not us?" Negatine asked.

"I have a different task for you. Hopefully, you won't have to do anything and just sit back and watch. The rest of you, get ready to head out. I'll be sending you the details on the area you'll be infiltrating. Viral, it'll be up to you to shut down the security system."

"Understood," they all nodded before Doddery spoke up. "Might I ask, why haven't you had us take this technology before now?"

"The Security System and guards will slow you down quite a bit. By the time you would have dealt with them, Flash Sentry and the rest of his friends would have shown up. There's a lot of tech in there that I need, so you getting into a fight with him would have made it impossible. But he should be rather distracted at the moment, giving you ample time to gather what you need. Now get ready. We'll be heading out tomorrow." They all nodded and the video died, the seven villains making sure all their equipment was in order for when they infiltrated the warehouse.

Hopefully, Flash wouldn't cause a problem for them and they would be able to get all the tech they were after.

The next day.

Trixie had been antsy the whole rest of the previous day, fearing that Devious would somehow get his hands on Amethyst before she had a chance to even see here. The time to head to the showcase could not have come quick enough,

Eventually, they were finally able to head to the location the showcase was taking place in. That location was a large building with a giant catwalk stage inside of it.

Hanging above their heads was a chandelier, which had what they assumed were a bunch of fake crystals on them. The fact that it as hanging from what appeared to be a very thin rope worried them a bit, but at the moment they had bigger issues to deal with.

"Ah, Ms Dazzle!" The man in charge of the showcase clapped seeing them there. "I'm glad you're here. You and your sisters will be the first models in the showcase. Now hurry, you need to get dressed and makeup. I'll find your friends some seats."

"Actually," Shining showed him his badge, "we need to talk with one of your models. This is a matter of possible life and death." The man didn't look too happy about that. "Do you know where Amethyst Star is?"

"I'm afraid not," he explained. "She hasn't arrived yet. You aren't going to cancel the showcase, are you?"

Shining shook his head. "We just wanna talk to her. Once we do, we'll be out of your hair. You mind if he hang around backstage. We promise not to get in the way."

"Very well, but there's not that much room back there. I'm afraid only three of you can come back. Any more and the showcase could get delayed." They nodded and Flash, Shining and Trixie headed backstage with him and the Dazzlings. The others all went to find some seats, Rarity gushing at all the VIPs there.

There were countless movie directors and talent scouts that had discovered some of the biggest names in Hollywood.

Flash, Shining and Trixie stayed in the back, watching as the models grabbed some fancy dresses and stepped into changing rooms to put them on. After a few minutes of this, Adagio, Aria and Sonata stepped out in sparkling outfits, their hair up and styled and the perfect amount of makeup needed to increase their beauty without looking like a clown.

The three strode over to them, Adagio smirking as she struck a pose. "How do we look?" They all gave them a thumbs up and the girls smirked as the stagehand rushed over to them.

"Alright girls. It's your time to shine."

"Of course it is," Adagio began to stride forwards. They all stepped up to the curtain and waited for the announcer to introduce them. Once they did, the girl stepped out onto the stage and began to walk down the catwalk.

The VIPs watched them closely, seeing how well they walked, posed, presented themselves and so much more. Each of the girls showed off how well they understood what was expected of them. The Rainbooms all nodded, Rarity looking amazed at their skills.

Once they reached the end of the stage, music started playing and the girls began to dance around to it. Their movements perfectly synced with the music and showed their grace and dancing skill. If the VIPs were impressed before, their socks were blown off seeing this.

Flash, Shining and Trixie all watched the performance from their spots and smiled at how well the three were doing. They had no doubt the girls were impressing the VIPs. Their future was set.

But as they looked around, they still saw no sign of Amethyst.

They were starting to think the girl wasn't going to show up. But then, a girl stepped backstage matching the description Adagio had given her. "There!" They pointed at her, as she rushed over to one of the racks and picked up a dress.

"Excuse me!" Shining rushed over to her, the girl looking a little worried as she turned to them. "Are you Amethyst Star?"

"Yes?" She nodded, "is something-" She stopped, as she recognised Flash and her eyes went wide.

"We want to talk to you about something our friends witnessed yesterday," Shining explained. "I know you're busy with this showcase, but your life could be in danger."

"They didn't see anything yesterday," Amethyst announced as she rushed over to one of the changing rooms. "Please, just leave me alone." The boys frowned at this, but Trixie patted them on the shoulder.

"Leave this to me." She stepped towards the changing room and headed inside, where Amethyst was taking off her clothes. "Want some help? I promise, I won't talk about what happened." Amethyst looked at her suspiciously, but nodded as Trixie began to help her get ready. "But you don't have to be scared of what's happening. We're not gonna arrest you or anything."

"You sure about that?" Amethyst asked, "I heard they seem to arrest anyone who doesn't classify as normal. Like those six Sentry fought a few weeks back."

"That's different," Trixie told her. "Those idiots used their abilities to harm people. You haven't done that, have you?"

"No," she took off her headband and started pulling up a pair of socks. One was blue and the other was purple. "But I don't want to be seen as some kind of freak."

"You're not a freak." Trixie picked up a piece of makeup and threw it at her, "heads up!" Amethyst saw it and screamed, the purple light appearing in front of her to form a barrier that the makeup bounced off of. When it did, Trixie could sense the power coming off of her and realised it was a Medallion. "I knew it."

"What the heck?" She asked, looking angry until Trixie took out her Luna Cat Mask and placed it on her face. In a flash, she transformed and Amethyst could only gasp. "You...you're...Lady Masquerade."

"Yup," Trixie nodded. "Let me explained the situation to you."

Flash and Shining continued to wait outside the changing room, wondering what had been going on in there.

They had heard a startle a few minutes back, but Trixie not yelling reassured them that nothing bad was happening. And as they continued to wait, the Dazzlings stepped up to them having completed their showcase.

"Nice work out there," Flash told them. "Those guys would be insane to not give you girls a chance to become stars." The girls smiled at this, then turned to the changing room and asked what was happening. "We found Amethyst. Trixie's trying to get her to talk to us." As he said that, the door opened and Trixie stepped out in her normal clothes.

Amethyst followed and was now dressed up like the Dazzlings. She was wearing a light blue dress that had a purple mini skirt as part of it, along with high heels, long white gloves and had her hair straightened.

"Hey," Trixie smiled, "I just finished telling our friend about where her powers come from."

"That'll save us time," Flash nodded. "So, Amethyst. What do you wanna do?" Amethyst looked confused by this, Flash turning to Trixie. "I thought you told her everything."

"Just about the Medallion and where it comes from," Trixie explained. "I was getting to the next part."

"What part?" Amethyst asked.

"What do you want to do with your powers?" Shining explained. "You're going to need to eventually give the Medallion up. But when is up to you. You can use your powers to help a lot of people. To be a superhero, like the three of us."

"But doing that will also put you in danger," Trixie explained. "That Devious guy I told you about. He's still out there. And he won't rest until he get all the remaining Medallions. If you keep this power, you'll be hunted by him. It doesn't look like he knows about you yet, but he'll find you eventually. And when he does, he's gonna try and take the Medallion from you. And doing that is a process that could kill you."

Amethyst looked shocked by this, the others seeing she was about to have a panic attack. "It's cool!" Flash assured her. "If you don't want to keep you powers, you can just give them to Trixie. She can take the Medallion without killing you. But it needs to be your choice."

Amethyst looked contemplative. On one hand, she had been terrified of having this power since the moment she discovered them. On the other hand, she knew simply giving them up could be a danger as well. What to do?

But before she could answer, one of the stage hands stepped up. "Miss Star. You're up."

Amethyst nodded before turning to the others. "Can we please talk about this later? I really need to focus on this right now." The others nodded, knowing how important this was to her.

"But we'll be keeping an eye on you," Trixie explained. "If anything happens, don't worry. We'll protect you." Amethyst nodded and headed for the stage, everyone else quickly rushing out from backstage and praying Devious and Chrysalis weren't going to be causing any problems.

Alas, the pair were up in the rafts and waiting for their prey to reveal herself. And she did, stepping out onto the catwalk and strutting her stuff. Chrysalis had to admit, she carried herself with grace and elegance, along with having just enough sex appeal not to come off as too much of a tease.

"I almost feel bad about ruining this for her."

"I don't!" Devious raised his staff and launched a fireball right towards Amethyst, the girl seeing it coming and gasping before the forcefield appeared around her.

The flames struck the shield and exploded, Amethyst staggering backwards as multiple fireballs started raining down on the crowd.

Luckily, Flash and his friends jumped into action. The teen had activated the Omnitrix and transformed the second the first fireball appeared, the teen morphing into the building blocks gorilla. "Bloxx!" He extended his arms use them to intercept the fireballs before they could it anyone, flinching as his arms were blown up.

As he began to regenerate them, Rarity put up another wall of shields that blocked the remaining fireballs along with the lightning bolts that were also sent down towards the ground. She kept the shield up, as the rest of the Rainbooms all rushed to get the people out of there and to safety. The only ones that stayed behind were the Dazzlings, who took cover behind a large table.

Trixie and Shining both suited up, Trixie becoming her Luna Cat form and using her staff to pole vault up towards the spot the attacks were coming from. But as she flew up towards it, Chrysalis touched the ceiling and create a web that filled the entire room.

First, she warped Trixie down so she ended up crashing into several chairs. Then, she warped herself someplace else as Devious kept launching his attacks.

Amethyst rushed backstage, only to find herself running into Chrysalis. "Hello there!" She grabbed the girl before she could put up a shield. "That was a nice show you put on. Apologies for ruining it. But we're gonna need that Medallion from you." But before she could create another web and teleport away, Rainbow suddenly rushed up and tried to punch her.

Chrysalis barely managed to let Amethyst go and leap back, avoiding the super speed punch.

Rainbow skidded to a stop and shielded the girl, "put up a shield!" Amethyst could barely figure out what was going on, her mind to scrambled to think straight. "Hurry!" But she did nothing, allowing Chrysalis to create a web beneath her feet that once against filled the entire room.

"Too late!" She teleported Rainbow in front of her before using one of her metal legs to slam Rainbow in the chest.

The girl cried out, as she was thrown through the air. Luckily, Bloxx managed to catch her and put her down. As he did, Shining fired his laser blaster into the rafters and almost hit Devious. But before the attacks could land, Chrysalis teleported him down to the ground.

The multi-element dragon raised his staff and unleashed a powerful gust of wind, which almost blew everyone away.

Bloxx managed to grab onto a pillar to stop himself, then quickly threw his fist forward and slammed Devious in the chest. "Augh!" He was knocked back, the wind stopping as Trixie rushed over to Devious.

She tried to slam her staff onto his head, but Chrysalis teleported him away at the last moment before warping the rest of them to different areas of the room. They were all thrown off by this, none more so than Amethyst.

She was alone and Chrysalis quickly flew over and grabbed her by the neck, making her gasp as she was lifted off the ground. "Now, why don't you give me that Medallion of yours?" Amethyst couldn't breath, the girl's legs kicking out but doing little against the super powered woman.

"Get off of her!" Bloxx threw another punch at her, but Chrysalis moved so Amethyst was between them.

"Nice try, alien boy. But nothing is going to stop us from getting our hands on this Medallion." Shining tried to shoot her, but Chrysalis teleported the pair of them over to Devious.

As they stood behind him, Devious raised his staff before slamming it into the ground. As he did, the Medallion on the staff glowed before unleashing a wave that flew throughout the entire room. When it did, everyone there suddenly found themselves feeling incredible dizzy and fell to the ground.

"Mad...Monkey!" Trixie cried, as Bloxx tried to transform into Bushwhacker. But he was so delirious, he couldn't get enough focus to lock on the alien or hit the Omnitrix.

Shining, Rarity and Rainbow all fell to the ground as well, whilst Chrysalis slammed Amethyst into the ground. "Now, the Medallion." She squeezed hard and a pink energy began to radiate of the choking girl and slowly move up to Chrysalis.

The others realised this was happening, but couldn't pick themselves up to help without falling over. Shining tried to fire his gun from the floor, but was worried he would accidently hit Amethyst.

Bloxx panted as he tried to focus, but the world was spinning too much. He heard the girl's cries of pain and realised they were running out of time. At this point, doing something and failing was better than doing nothing. "RAAAAH!" He extended his fist forward in an attempt to punch Devious, but missed him by a good foot.

"Haa!" Devious laughed, "nice try! But it's not going to work." He looked back at Chrysalis. "Hurry up!"

"I'm doing this as fast as I can," she told him. Amethyst screamed with the last of her breath, as more and more of her power began to be drained away.

As this was going on, the Dazzlings were still hiding and watched with absolute shock. "What do we do?" Sonata asked, having no idea how they were supposed to help without getting hit by the same spell that was affecting the others.

Adagio frowned as he looked around. Then, she noticed something right above Devious. The chandelier.

Following its hangings, she saw the ropes holding it up were trailing down the wall towards them and was tied up on the wall a short distance away. "There!" She picked up the table with her sisters' help and they all made their way towards the spot, as she reached into her bag and took out her nail file.

When they finally reached the rope, they remained hidden behind the table as Adagio started cutting into the rope.

Despite how thick it was, the rope holding the chandelier ripped apart easily. And by the time she got a third of it cut away, the rest could no longer hold up the strain and snapped.

The chandelier began to fall towards Devious, who looked up just in time to see it coming.

He gasped and leapt away, as the chandelier smashed against the ground and sent pieces flying everywhere. As it did, the others felt the effects of the Mad Monkey beginning to wear off and Rarity was able to put a shield up to protect them from the chandelier pieces.

Chrysalis also saw them coming and gasped, teleporting out of instinct up to the rafters. But using her Medallion's ability had broken the connection between her and Amethyst, the girl's power returning to her as Chrysalis held her off the ground.

Bloxx's senses came back to him at this point and he looked up to see Amethyst being held like that, so quickly threw his fist upwards and hit Chrysalis before she could sense him coming. "Augh!" She was knocked backwards and accidently released the girl, who fell to the ground only to be caught by Bloxx.

The alien gorilla pulled her back towards them, then turned to Adagio and the rest of the Dazzlings upon realising they had been their saviours. "Great work!" He told them, "now get out of here before they decide to take their frustrations out on you." The girls nodded and rushed for the exit, as Chrysalis and Devious picked themselves up.

They glared at them, only for Shining to start firing at the two.

Chrysalis made another web and warped them both away, the pair appearing on stage as Devious picked himself up. But before he could unleash another wave of dizziness, Bloxx hit the Omnitrix and transformed.

"Arctiguana!" He cried, firing a blast of ice towards the pair.

Devious' eyes went wide and through instinct, he thrust his staff forward and unleashed a stream of fire. The two attacks collided and filled the air with steam, the two appearing at a stalemate.

Chrysalis focused her attention on Amethyst, preparing to teleport her to them again. Amethyst saw this again and gasped, causing the light energy to fly off of her and create a dome around her and Trixie.

Chrysalis laughed, thinking she could just teleport her out of the dome. But to her shock, Amethyst and Trixie remained where they were. "What?" She tried again, but nothing happened. "Don't tell me. My web can't penetrate her barrier?"

Trixie heard this and was amazed, but also knew Amethyst wouldn't be able to hold it forever. They had to do this now, whilst they had the chance. "Amethyst." She turned to the girl, "do you really not want this power?" The girl nodded, having seen it as nothing but trouble. And this even wasn't helping her feel any better. "Alright, then you have to give it to me."

"How?"

Trixie took her hands in her. "Close your eyes and focus only on me. When you renounce the Medallion, it will follow your direction. If you focus on me, it'll chose to come to me. But you have to focus." She closed her eyes and focused on the Trixie, taking deep breaths as she tried to ignore the sounds of battle going on outside.

Arctiguana stopped his ice blast and leapt into the air spitting out a bunch of icicles that Devious deflected with a blast of wind. Arctiguana then noticed Amethyst's shield beginning to flicker and quickly fired a blast of ice at the shield, the cold air freezing around the shield and forming a dome.

"You think I can't get them out of there?" Chrysalis asked, "once that shield's down they're mine." But as she said that, Shining started firing at them whilst Rainbow ran up to try and punch them. Chrysalis warped the pair to a safer spot, which Rarity threw gems at.

"We just need to keep them busy," Arctiguana stated. "Take their focus off Trixie and Amethyst!" Devious launched a blast of lightning and the ice lizard created a wall of ice, which blew up the second the lightning hit it. "Hurry!"

Back in the dome, Trixie watched as Amethyst glowed pink. The light began to flow off of her and formed a shape between them. Slowly, a pink coin with a black snake emblem appeared in the air. The snake appeared robotic, with metal shields on its side that looked like they could be used as wheels.

The Medallion began to suck the last of the energy out of Amethyst and when it did, the girl let out breath as the power completely left her body and the forcefield around them vanished.

The Medallion then shot towards Trixie and hit her chest, making her gasp as the power flowed into her. She let the power settle within her body, then smiled as she opened her eyes. "Thank you," she told Amethyst. The young girl smiled back as Trixie began to stand up. As she did, she extended her staff to hit the top of the ice dome.

This cracked the structure and made it fall apart, catching everyone's attention as Trixie stepped out from the ice ring.

Devious realised this could only mean one thing. "No," he cried, "NOOOOOO!"

Trixie smirked, "oh yes." She stepped up next to Arctiguana. "It's over. You can't take the Medallion from her anymore." As she said that, he mask began to change. "Give up." Her mask stopped glowing and revealed one that was form fitting to her face, with the Medallion on her forehead. The mask was pinkish purple in colour, with scale markings covering it, and two yellow triangles under the eyes that resembled fangs.

Soon, the rest of her suit started changing as well. It became a form fitting suit the same colour as her mask, but with black sections running down her sides starting from her armpit and stopping at her the back of her knee. Her entire suit was covered in the same scale patterns as her mask, giving her the appearance of a humanoid snake.

"Marvellous!" Rarity gasped, as Trixie stepped towards Devious.

"You think you can scare me?" Devious slammed his staff into the ground and unleashed the power of the Mad Monkey, but Trixie held up her hand and a dome of pink energy formed around her and the others. The Mad Monkey power hit the dome, but did nothing to the girl inside of it. "What? It can block my power as well?"

Trixie smiled as she held up her arm, which glowed pink before the light flew off or her and formed some kind of coil. When the light faded, Trixie could be seen carrying some kind of pink whip with a snake head on the end of it.

As soon as the force field around her vanished, Trixie swung the whip around and cracked it towards Devious. The whip actually extended and flew towards Devious, who held up his staff to block. But the snake head opened its mouth and grabbed the weapon in its clutches, Devious shocked by this.

"Hey!" He tried to pull it off, but Trixie's whip had a strong grasp on it.

Chrysalis saw this and quickly teleported Devious and his staff to a spot a few feet away, the man quickly recovering and unleashing a blast of lightning towards Trixie. But the girl put up a shield and the attack did nothing, as she swung her whip around.

The weapon extended and shot towards Devious, who expected it to grab his staff again. But instead, it flew down and grabbed him by the leg before Trixie gave it one good tug. This pulled Devious' feet out from under him, making him cry out as he was pulled to the ground and groaned.

Arctiguana tried to use this chance to fire a blast of ice in his direction, hoping to freeze him solid, but Chrysalis intervened and teleported him away again.

As Devious recovered, Shining ran at Chrysalis attempting to slash her with his sword. Chrysalis blocked with her metal legs and the two fought each other with Chrysalis teleporting around him to try and overpower him, but Shining was somehow able to anticipate her appearances and countered every attack she made.

Arctiguana launched several fireballs at Devious, who countered with blasts of fire only to get grabbed by Trixie's whip and thrown through the air.

Crashing down on the ground, he growled seeing the battle was no longer going his way. "Chrysalis!" The woman heard this and tried to teleport to Devious. But Trixie had another idea and held out her hand, focusing on the power she now possessed.

To her shock and delight, a forcefield actually appeared around Devious and blocked him over from Chrysalis. Said woman suddenly appeared and bounced off the field, causing her to be sent staggering back. As she did, Shining held up his blaster and fired a pulse of electrical energy towards her.

The pulse struck her and she cried out as she was electrified, causing her to fall to the ground unconscious. "NO!" Devious cried, attempting to blast his way out of the forcefield. But Trixie used all her strength to keep the dome active.

"It's over, Devious!" Trixie stepped towards him, "I'm not letting you out of there!" Devious growled, continuing to try and blast his way out. But nothing worked. "How fast does one of those pulses fire?"

Shining smirked as he rest his blast, "too fast for him." He pointed it at Devious, ready to fire the second she dropped the barrier.

Devious held up his staff, preparing to unleash a blast of wind. But Shining knew the blast could penetrate it. It appeared their victory over Devious was finally here.

However, before Trixie could drop the shield, an explosion rocked the building as one of the wall was destroyed. This sent rocks flying towards them, Trixie forced to drop Devious' barrier and put one up around her, Shining and Amethyst.

Rainbow rushed over to Rarity as she shielded them and Arctiguana formed an ice wall to stop any from hitting him. Devious unleashed the wind and protect himself, but quickly rushed over to Chrysalis and picked her up. "What's going on?" Arctiguana asked, as something flew into the building. A Ptera-Jet.

The mechanical dinosaur flew into the building and was carrying someone in its claws, everyone seeing this and being shocked to see Negatine there. "Looks like you could use a hand," he told Devious. "Good thing we were sent to make sure you didn't get captured."

"We?" Shining asked, only to hear stomping and look around to see a giant tiger run through the hole with the head of a goat and snake tail. Animac was riding atop of it and he charged towards Arctiguana.

The ice lizard unleashed a blast of ice that hit the beast's tiger head and froze it solid. But the goat head seemed to have control of the body and bounced at him, forcing Arctiguana to leap to the side in order to avoid it.

Animac leapt off the creature and landed next to Devious, as Chrysalis started coming around. Negatine also leapt down and fired a blast of energy from his device, creating a Flame Lynx that roared as it unleashed a blast of fire.

Trixie made a shield to block the fire, as Arctiguana froze the goat head and was surprised to see the creature still moving. The snake seemed to now have control, though Shining managed to behead it and cause the creature to finally drop. But as he did, the Ptera-Jet launched its missile and the two were forced to leap to safety.

"Where are the others?" Devious asked, Animac typing away at his glove.

"Busy acquiring more tech." He took out a monster ball and threw it, the beast inside revealed to be the fusion of a chicken and a crab. It squawked as it rushed forward, the claws it had in place of wings snapping at them. "Now let's get out of here before their pesky friends show up."

Chrysalis groaned as she finally shook off the stunning she took, her Medallion allowing her to recover much faster the a normal person. "Alright!" She slapped her hands together and created a web, which spread out and flew through the building walls.

Arctiguana managed to freeze the clawed chicken, as Trixie grabbed the Ptera-Jet in her whip and smash it into the ground. Shining shot the lynx through the head, as they all turned to the villains.

The web finished forming and before any of them could attack, the criminals suddenly vanished.

They all sighed at this, whilst Arctiguana returned to human form. Flash did not look happy, staring at the spot Devious and Chrysalis had just been. "Negatine and Animac. Does that mean Devious and Chrysalis are working with the rest of those guys?"

"It would seem so," Shining sighed. "Which is seriously concerning. And from what they said, looks like the others were using our focus on Amethyst to steal something." He activated his helmet and started bringing up police reports. "Damn it! Looks like there was a break in at a factory containing some company's devices."

"What kind of devices?" Rarity asked, Shining looking through the list.

"A few high specs generators. Some motherboards and a few prototype devices I have no idea about." At that moment, the rest of the Rainbooms and Dazzlings rushed in.

"We saw Negatine and Animac break in," Twilight told them. "What the heck were they doing here?"

"Seems they're working with Devious and Chrysalis," Trixie sighed. "Which is bad news for us." The girls all frowned at this news, but were also taking in Trixie's new look.

"So," Sunset looked her over, "I guess this means you got the Iron Serpent Medallion."

"That's right," Trixie nodded before turning to Amethyst. "Thank you. You have no idea how important this is to me. The power you've given me will make facing those two much easier."

Amethyst smiled, "I'm just glad I no longer have to worry about being attacked." She took Trixie's hands, "I know you'll be able to get the rest of those...coins. And I'm glad my power will help you do it." The two nodded, as the others all smiled.

The only one who wasn't smiling was Flash, who couldn't help but think about the combined forces of the villains. It had been bad enough when it was just the six of them, but now Negatine, Devious and Chrysalis were also thrown into the mix. This made Flash worried and also curious.

He wasn't sure how, but he knew there was someone else working behind the scenes. But who could bring those villains together?

When Devious and Chrysalis returned to their base with Animac and Negatine, Devious did not look happy.

"Raaaaah!" He kicked over a wooden crate, "we were so close!" The three moved over to another part of the warehouse, not wanting to be in Devious' line of fire as he vented. "We almost had the Medallion. It was inches from our grasp. But then those fools got in the way AGAIN!" He blasted another crate with a bolt of lightning.

In this moment, Viral, Dragstar, The Hypnotist, Dynamo and Doddery arrived. "Someone not get their new toy?" Dragstar laughed, as Devious turned to glare at them.

"I thought joining up with others was supposed to work in my favour?" Devious roared, "but you lot have done nothing to help us!"

"Hey!" Dynamo frowned, "give it time. We've only been working together a little while. And it's the boss that told us not to help you out right now."

"Yes," Doddery nodded. "But look on the bright side. You distracted Sentry long enough for us to steal the parts we needed. Now we're one step closer to completing our ultimate goal...whatever that apparently is."

"So what is this goal?" Devious asked. "What is he building that will help me get my Medallions!?"

"Something that will allow us to counter Flash Sentry's arsenal of aliens." Everyone spun around and looked towards a dark corner of the warehouse. There, a figure stood hidden in the shadows. "Devious, you need to show a little more patience. Nothing worth having ever came easy."

"I've been more than patient," Devious told him. "Now I demand you tell me what you're building that's so important, you let me lose my Medallion and almost get captured!"

The figure sighed. "I'm not so much building as...upgrading something. The same device I used to create Viral's body and the devices that the rest of our team uses. The Subatomic Printer."

"What kind of upgrade?" Negatine asked. "The device worked perfectly on Viral."

"True. And I could use it now to reacquire my former power. But why settle for something the enemy already has, when there's a chance there's something better out there for you to take?" He finally stepped forward, revealing himself.

He was a teenager with pale orange skin, black hair with red streaks and ruby red eyes. He wore a red jacket and black pants, with an emblem on his shoulders that was a red shield with a black lightning bolt on it. It was the digital clone of Flash Sentry, who had once framed Flash until a battle with him had caused his body to be altered. Negatine's greatest creation, Shadow.

Most of the criminals weren't exactly happy about working for someone who looked so much like their mortal foe. But the weapons he had made for them, had certainly shifted their opinion of him.

Shadow held up his wrist, showing them the Omnitrix copy that lacked the core. "Once the Subatomic Printer is ready, it'll give me the power to not only restore my abilities, but improve them."

"Improve them how?" Doddery asked, as Shadow laughed.

"I'm not sure yet. But it's a big multiverse out there. I'm sure somewhere out there, a more powerful version of the Omnitrix exists. And when I find it, I'll make it my own." He stepped over to a computer and pressed several buttons on it, causing the ground to begin to open up. When it did, something was lifted up into the warehouse.

That something was the device that had created Viral's body, now connected to a large set of machinery that looked so large it barely fit inside the building. Shadow stared at the device and smiled. Soon, he would have his powers back. And everyone that ever got in his way would pay for it.

One week later.

Flash could hardly believe he was standing there, in an airport with Shining, Trixie and the Rainbooms. They were all there to see off their friends, Amethyst along with the three Dazzlings.

Despite the insanity that had occurred during the performance, Adagio, Sonata and Aria had managed to impress the VIPs who had also seen their other works like the commercials and magazines. Because of this, the girls and Amethyst had all been invited to Hollywood in order to try out for some movie parts.

The girls would be given rooms and allowances for several weeks, whilst they tried to get parts in movies. And at the end of that time, if they didn't get anything, the girls would be given the option to stay or return to Canterlot. Of course, Flash and his friends knew they would find work there. What idiot wouldn't want these gorgeous girls in their movies?

"Well," Adagio sighed, "this is it. We're off to become movie stars."

"We'll miss you," Shining told him. "You girls be careful over there. LA might seem like a perfect city, but there's just as much crime there as anywhere else."

They nodded as Aria smirked. "At least there, we're less likely to get attacked by laser guns and alien monsters."

"Don't jinx us!" Sonata cried, everyone laughing as the overhead speak announced the flight was beginning to board. It was time to say goodbye.

"I never thought this moment would happen," Adagio stated as the other girls began to head to the gate. "When you girls defeated us and took our magic, I thought that was the end for us. Who knew it was actually the beginning?" They nodded. Despite how much they had hated Adagio when they first met, she had somehow wormed her way into everyone's heart.

"You can come back to visit," Pinkie told her. "When you're rich and famous, you'll have your own private jet and get to fly over whenever you want." Adagio laughed and promised she would.

"So long as you guys agree, to come see my first blockbuster when it comes out." They all nodded again, as Adagio turned to Flash. "Hard to believe this is where that random dating site match led us."

"Yeah," Flash nodded, "feels kind of crazy. But...we both learned a lot from each other. And this isn't goodbye. It's...until we meet again."

Adagio smiled, "I can live with that." She and Flash stepped forward, hugging one another as Adagio whispered into his ear. "I'll deny this is you ask again, but you totally would have won the battle of the bands if we didn't have our magic." Flash smirked at this, as Adagio pulled back before leaning forward and planting her lips on Flash's.

Everyone was shocked by this, Adagio kissing the now brain dead Flash for five seconds before pulling back.

"Errr..." was all Flash was able to say Adagio stepped away. She gave him one final wink before rushing towards the gate where her sisters were waiting. Everyone else waved at Adagio until Flash finally rebooted and waved at her as well.

The Dazzlings disappeared through the gate and headed to the plane, everyone sighing as the three were now gone. It felt so sudden, but they knew Adagio and her sisters would be happy in their new lives.

They waited and watched the plane take off and once it was in the air, Flash let out a sigh.

A hand was placed on his shoulder and he looked over at Twilight, who smiled at him. "Don't worry. We'll see them again." Flash nodded and the group began to leave, some of them already missing Adagio. But right now, they had other things to worry about.

Devious and the other villains were still out there somewhere. There was no telling when they would strike again and the lot of them would need to be ready. Canterlot and its citizens wouldn't be safe until those criminals were safely behind bars. And it was the mission of Flash and his friends to put them there.

Nothing would stop them. No matter how impossible the task might seem, they would accomplish it.

Author's Note

Man, this chapter had a lot. A new Medallion, the reveal of Shadow and the Dazzling's farewell. Like the characters said, this won't be the last we see of them. Though it will be the last of them in this story, we'll see them again. Until then, I hope to see you guys here again next week.

Season 4, Episode 13: Ten V Ten

Canterlot was in a state of panic.

The city had recently suffered a bunch of attacks, all perpetrated by nine dangerous criminals. The most common of these attacks were being carried out by the criminal known as Doddery, who was constantly flying around finding people to steal life force from in order to remain young. So far, twelve people had been sent to the hospital after she had drained them.

After her attacks, the next biggest targets were large tech companies. These criminals continued to attack these places and steal high tech equipment. The reasons they did this were unknown, but the people of Canterlot had had enough.

The streets were almost deserted, people too afraid to go outside. If something wasn't done soon, things were likely to only get worse.

Luckily, Flash Sentry and his friends had promised the people they would find and capture these criminals. That had gone a long way to quell everyone's fears. But promising to do something and actually pulling it off, were two very different things.

At the Plumber base, Azmuth and the human heroes were all staring at the computer as it showed several images of different devices and machines.

"Quite the collection they got themselves," Shining frowned as they stared at the different pieces of tech. "What the heck would they need all this stuff for?" That was what everyone else wanted to know, Azmuth humming as he tried to put them together.

"Maybe they're just stuff they need to make more of those weird weapons?" Pinkie asked. "Like that shield generator, or the phasing vest."

"Maybe," Twilight sighed. "But if they have bigger plans for all that stuff, there's no telling what kind of crazy weapon they plan on building. If it's something really powerful, Flash might not even be able to stop it."

Flash felt insulted by that statement. "If they're planning on building something to take me out, I'll just take them out before they can. I'll go Upgrade if I have to and take control of the device myself." The others nodded, thinking that could actually be a viable strategy. But first, they had to find the villains and whatever they were building.

"There's gotta be some way to figure out where they're hiding," Trixie frowned. Now that she knew Devious was working with these crooks, she was more determined than ever to find them.

Azmuth then snapped his fingers, "that's it!" They all turned to him, as he started typing away at the computer. "From what I can tell, there are three devices that can be built using the technology they've already stolen." The screen then started putting the pieces together to show a machine, only one part appeared to be missing. Then it rearranged them to create another machine, with another piece missing. It swapped them around and again and, low and behold, a piece was missing.

Twilight frowned as she saw each of these devices, seeing they were seriously dangerous in the wrong hands. "It looks like they're missing a piece from each one."

"Exactly," Azmuth nodded. "Which means we have an idea where they'll strike next. Each of these components isn't exactly easy to find or make, which means there are very few places that'll have them."

Shining typed the different parts into the computer and hummed. "Actually, there's only one place we can find each of them. And each one is in a different location."

"Then let's bring them all here," Flash stated. They all looked at him strangely. "The way I see it, we've got two options. Guard all three devices and be divided, or bring them here where we can all work together. We have no idea if or when they'll attack these spots, but if we bring them here we'll eliminate the if part."

Shining smirked, "now you're starting to think like a Plumber. Alright, we'll head out and get all three components at the same time." He turned to them. "Flash and I will lead one team, but the last team could be a problem. You guys don't count as Plumbers, so you won't have the authority to take the tech."

"Then we'll just keep it safe until you get there," Trixie stated. "It won't take you guys that long to get it. Just teleport it over here and rush over as soon as you can." Shining frowned, clearly not like such an idea. But what other choice did they have.

"Alright," he nodded, "let's get this done fast." They all nodded and headed for the exit, each of them hoping the crooks didn't show up before they could get their hands on the tech. Nine criminals against three or four of them weren't good odds, even if Flash, Shining or Trixie were apart of those teams. All they could do was work fast and pray things went their way.

Meanwhile, Shadow was busy working on his subatomic printer.

Typing away at the computer, he was beginning to print something. The lights inside the tube flashed as mechanical arms were pointing lasers at something they were creating. When the device was finally finished being printed, Shadow opened up the tube and took the new part out.

Over at the sides, Negatine and the rest of the criminals watched as he placed the new component into the machine. "So remind me why we had to steal all this stuff?" Dynamo asked, staring at a large number of boxes. "Your little toy could have made them all, so why did we risk getting caught to take them?"

"Because this device uses a lot of power," Shadow told him. "The more complex the part, the more energy is required to make it. If I attempted to use the printer to make all that, it would have basically been a signal flare to our enemies telling them where we are."

"Alright," Dragstar frowned, "but when are you even going to use these things? You've had them for days and you haven't used one of them to upgrade your device."

"Because those components aren't for this device," Shadow replied. HIs cohorts looked at him in shock, all wondering why they bothered stealing them when Shadow had no intention of using them. "They have a purpose. But for now, we need to focus on getting the subatomic printer working the way it should. And luckily, we're missing only one key ingredient."

"Which is?" Chrysalis asked, only for Shadow to show her a piece of paper. She took it and her eyes went wide. "You wanna use this? Do you have any idea how dangerous this is?"

"Yes," Shadow nodded, "which is why you're going to be very careful when you acquire it." They frowned, with even those who didn't know what the component did feeling a little anxious.

"Shadow," Negatine told him, "I don't think-"

"Don't think!" Shadow pointed at his chest, "obey." Negatine was shocked by this, as Shadow turned back to the device. "You all want Flash Sentry and his little friends taken care of. This device is the only means to do it. If you want to try and take him out yourself, feel free to try. However, you'll be doing it without my tech." He turned to them, "is that understood?"

They sighed, "understood."

"Good," Shadow smiled, "now you each have an assigned location. Go there and do what you must to get the device. Fail and you will not like the consequences." They nodded and all headed out, thinking their leader might have a few screws loose.

But given everything he had done for them so far, they could handle a small amount of lunacy. So long as it got them what they wanted. With Flash and his friends out of the picture, the world would be theirs for the taking.

A little while later, Flash drove up to the building that had the device they were there to collect.

Twilight, Fluttershy and Rarity were in the car with him, Flash pulling up to the building as the guard stepped up to him. All he needed was one look at Flash to know he should let the kids in, Flash driving into the parking lot and finding a space.

"You sure those guys are going to attack here?" Rarity asked, as Fluttershy shivered.

"I hope not. There are so many people here that could be injured. What if someone gets caught in the crossfire?"

"Don't worry," Twilight assured her. "We just have to get their permission and Azmuth can teleport the device. It'll take less than ten minutes." However, her words were soon proven false. For in that moment, a rain of blaster fire suddenly began to rain down upon them.

They all cried out as their instincts caused them to take cover, Fluttershy jumping next to Rarity as she put up a wall of shields.

They all looked up and saw Dynamo and Doddery, the pair flying down with Dynamo firing at them. "What do we do?" Flash answered by activating the Omnitrix and transforming.

"Gyrotor!" He roared, pointing his arms at the two and spinning all three around. The tornadoes this caused flew up towards the pair, both separating to avoid the attacks. But Gyrotor continued to blow them away, keeping them away from the building.

"Where are the others?" Fluttershy asked, expecting to see Dragstar and the other crooks attack them any moment. As she said that, Twilight took out her phone and called her brother.

"Shining, they're here!"

"Not just there!" Twilight raised an eyebrow at this.

At another building, Shining, Rainbow and Applejack found themselves under attack.

Animac and Dragstar both laughed, as Animac's mutants attacked them. These were a bunch of six legged lions, with snakes of a mane and a large blade on its tail. There were three of these and each of them was attacking Shining and the girls.

Shining was blasting at them with his Multi-Striker, whilst Applejack dodged the lion's claws before ducking under it and using her super strength to punch it. The force knocked it into the air and it crashed into the ground on its back, right where Rainbow's lion ran into after she sped away from it.

But as she skidded to a stop, she found Dragstar zooming past and slam into her. "GYAH!" She was sent flying, as Dragstar leapt out of his bike form. She hit the ground and as she let out a moan, Dragstar ran over in an attempt to blast her with the exhaust on his feet.

But she managed to roll out of the way, as Shining hit his lion in the eye. As it staggered back in pain, he changed his weapon to sword mode and ran forward to behead the many snakes that made it up. He then ducked under a tail blade attack before firing into the lion's open mouth.

The creature roared before falling to the ground, whilst the other two lions got ready to attack. "Any idea how Trixie's doing?" He asked his sister, who didn't answer for a second as she was a little preoccupied.

"No," she finally replied. "I'll see if I can get Sunset on voice chat. Wow!"

Twilight leapt back, as Dynamo finally managed to land.

The spikes on the back of his gauntlets extended and he tried to stab her with it, but Twilight managed to dodge it before Gyrotor blew him away. "Sunset, you there?"

"A little busy right now Twilight!" She heard a yelp and what appeared to be an explosion, making Twilight frown since she knew what that meant.

In the final location, Trixie, Pinkie and Sunset found themselves under attack as well.

Either through luck or determination, Devious and Chrysalis were there to cause them problems. "Raaaah!" Devious unleashed a blast of lightning, Trixie shielding herself from it using her Rapid Turtle shield. "Two birds, one stone. I'll get the component we're after and take your Medallions at the same time."

"You can try!" Trixie cried, "but it's not gonna happen!" Pinkie chose this moment to throw some sprinkles at them, but Chrysalis teleported them out of the way.

When they reappeared, Devious slammed his staff into the ground and created a bunch of ice statues. One was a giant serpentine dragon, whilst another was a giant ape and huge bear. The statues all charged at the three, Trixie gasping as she had to raise her shield to protect herself from being slashed by the bear's claws.

"Forgot he could do this." She slowed down time as the bear swiped at her again, allowing her to run around and slam her shield into the back of the bear as hard as she could. This caused the bear to slowly crack apart and when time resumed, it shattered to pieces.

She smirked, but in that moment the ape that had been punching at Sunset was warped behind her.

"Look out!" Sunset screamed, but Trixie was reeling from using her time powers and couldn't react in time. As such, the ape's fist slammed into her and knocked her flying. And before she could fall out of the web's borders, Chrysalis teleported her so she was flying towards them.

"GYAH!" Trixie was backhanded by Chrysalis' metal legs and knocked to the ground. She grunted at the impact and groaned, as Chrysalis smirked down at her.

Sunset expected Chrysalis to try and stab Trixie, or choke her in an attempt to take her power. But she didn't. She just watched, as Trixie rolled onto her front and picked herself up. "What's she doing?"

Back with Flash and his group, Doddery had managed to land and was now attacking the girls.

She slashed at them with her claws, wanting to drain away their life force. "You really have sunk to the lowest of the low!" Rarity told her, using a shield to block her claws. "I could forgive you before because you were corrupted by magic, but to endanger people of your own volition...you've truly become despicable."

"Oh be quiet!" Doddery leapt into the air, attempting to fly over the shield and drain her. "Youth is wasted on the young!" But before she could take flight, her wings were pulled backwards and she cried out as she was thrown away from Rarity.

Twilight glared at her, she and Fluttershy watching Doddery land from behind Rarity's shield. "Is this truly how you want to spend the rest of your life?" She asked, "as a wanted criminal?"

"Better a long life as a criminal, than a short one old and weak!" She flew at them again, but Rarity made a dome with her shields and was protecting them all.

Gyrotor had taken to the air to fight Dynamo, attempting to blow him away with his twisters.

But the armored man's booster allowed him to fly straight through the gale force winds, Dynamo attempting to stab him with his spike blade. Gyrotor quickly blew himself back so the attack missed, then pointed his spinning legs at Dynamo so that the tornado carrying him flew at the hunter.

Dynamo cried out as he was blown down towards the ground, landing there and staggering back.

Gyrotor then shot straight down, stopping his tornado to allow gravity to send him towards Dynamo. And as he did, he slammed his hand into the Omnitrix and transformed. "Lindwhirl!" He curled himself up and spun, picking up speed as Dynamo saw it coming.

At the last second, his booster fired and he was propelled out of the way.

Lindwhirl smashed into the ground with such force, it sent a shockwave the knocked everyone else backwards. Doddery smashed into the ground and rolled along it, as her gauntlet beeped to show she was getting close to reverting back to her old age. "I need to recharge." But Lindwhirl started rolling around the parking lot, trying to run her and Dynamo over.

She was forced to take to the air, not wanting to be flattened. And Dynamo also flew up, the armored figure firing lasers at the alien.

But Lindwhirl didn't feel a thing and flung himself upwards, tackling Dynamo before he could escape. "AUGH!"

Shining ducked under the lion's blade and quickly cut its tail off, making it roar in pain as several of its snake-heads tried to bite him.

But Shining was able to cut them off as Applejack ran over and slammed a fist into its side. This caused a cracking sound and the creature was sent flying backwards, crashing into the ground and no longer moving.

Rainbow and Dragstar were continuing to fight against one another, Dragstar throwing kicks in her direction as the exhaust flames flew out the bottom. Rainbow back-flipped to avoid the fire kicks, as Dragstar transformed into his bike form and shot forward.

Rainbow barely managed to avoid this, as Animac took out another monster ball and threw it. When he did, a creature that looked like a real life cerberus appeared and roared as it jumped towards Shining.

The Plumber quickly leapt back before taking something off his belt and throwing it at the creature, that something being a strange disk-like device that attached to the creatures chest before it started beeping. Moments later, the creature exploded and Shining could turn his focus on Animac.

The old man looked worried, quickly throwing out three more sphere and summoning a bunch of lion sized cats with elephant tusks and bird wings. But Shining and Applejack weren't worried.

Back with Trixie and the others, Devious' ice dragon was attempting to swallow Pinkie whole.

"You wanna chew on something?" She took out a cupcake, "chew on this!" She threw it into the statue's mouth and it swallowed it without a second's thought, only for the beast's head to suddenly shatter from the following explosion.

At the same time, Trixie was fighting against the ice ape and switched to her Luna Cat form.

She used her staff to deflect the fists and thrust it upwards, slamming into its chest and causing it to break apart. However, it was an easy task for Devious to create a trio of ice wolves to send at her. "And here I thought you were starting to improve with that thing."

Trixie looked confused by this, as she ducked under a wolf's claws. "What are you talking about?" She jumped up, but Chrysalis teleported her back down and she was suddenly pinned to the ground by a wolf.

"Don't you remember that fight we had a while back? When you sent that wave at us?" Trixie did remember, though at the time it had just been a desperate attack. She remembered how real the attack had been. "Well, I figured you would start making more tangible illusions. Your mother certainly put it to good use."

"Solid illusions?" Trixie asked, thinking about all the things she could create. But right now, she couldn't focus on that. She had to get this wolf off of her.

She morphed her staff back into the belt and swung it over at one of the wolves, wrapping it around its neck and pulling it away from Sunset. The beast was thrown towards the one holding her and knocked into it, pushing it off her and allowing Trixie to get up.

She then made her staff and thought about what could beat these creatures, then slammed it into the ground. "Fire Snake!" She thought hard and a giant snake made of our fire appeared, the creature hissing as it flew towards the wolves. But instead of melting them, it simply flew through the creatures without causing any damage.

"HA!" Devious laughed, "guess you don't have your mother's talent after all." Trixie glared at him, as the wolves attacked. But Pinkie threw a bunch of sprinkles at all three of them and the following explosion shattered them to pieces.

Sunset watched as Trixie charged, attempting to get in close, but Chrysalis warped her away before she could. She frowned at this and then thought about what Devious had said. If Trixie had pulled that whole solid illusion thing off, Devious would have been in trouble. Why bring it up, when all it would have done was make it harder for him to achieve his objective?

"Unless this is their objective," she realised. She tried to think, putting the pieces together. Why would they come there just to fight them? It had to be more than Devious' desire for Trixie's Medallions. It was in that moment Sunset realised something. "Wait a minute." She held up her phone, "who are you guys fighting over there?"

"Dynamo and Doddery," Twilight replied. "Why?"

"I'm facing Animac and Dragstar," Shining stated. "What's up?"

"Dynamo, Doddery, Animac, Dragstar, Devious and Chrysalis. That's only six. Where's the other three?" She looked over at Devious and saw him leap back to avoid Pinkie's cupcake, despite the fact he or Chrysalis could have easily put one of them into the blast. "Guys? By any chance, do the guys you're fighting look like they might be holding back?"

Twilight watched as Dynamo leapt into the air and fired his lasers, the blasts hitting the ground around Lindwhirl.

Doddery was also fighting in a way that made Twilight raise her eyebrow. Almost like she was overlooking big openings and making them expend more energy. "Now that you mention it, these guys don't seem to be giving it their all right now. Shining?"

On the other side of town, Shining watched as Dragstar zoomed around trying to be annoying. The way he was fighting didn't seem like he was trying to win, Animac and his beasts appearing to have the same MO.

"She's right. They're not here to win or take something. They're here...they're a distraction!"

"A distraction for what?" Twilight asked, Shining unsure what it could be. But he had a feeling it involved the three missing villains.

Across town, Viral, Negatine and the Hypnotist all laughed as the mind controlled CEO opened a vault.

Said vault was containing only one thing inside of it. A strange glass tube with a glowing blue rock inside, with lasers and other defences around the table it was on. The CEO pressed several buttons on the side panel and the lasers disengaged, allowing Negatine to step inside and take the tube.

"Careful with that," Viral told him. "Glanium is very dangerous. Too much movement and it'll explode." Negatine frowned as he handed the tube over to her.

"I've never even heard of this stuff," The Hypnotist stated.

"It's very rare. It's not even found on this planet. How this company got their hands on it, I'll never know." Viral smiled at the rock, "but it's a powerful fuel source. A single speck is enough to power an entire city for a week. Imagine what he would need an entire rock for."

"We can find out by getting it back to Shadow." Negatine turned to leave, using his device to create a pair of Ptera-Jets. The beasts blasted their way through the window before Negatine was picked up by one, the Hypnotist grabbed by the other and flown into the air.

Viral's body burst into lightning and flew off after them, Negatine activating a radio.

"We have the glanium."

"Good," Shadow replied, "I'll contact the others and tell them to get out of there."

Back in the battle, Lindwhirl slammed Dynamo into the ground as he groaned out.

He struggled against the giant creature, but the alien's strength was too much even for his mechanical suit. Luckily, he had other ways to escape. "Let me go, or else!"

"Or else what?" Lindwhirl asked, only for Dynamo's visor to grow darker. At the same time, a part of his helmet opened up and Lindwhirl suddenly found a bunch of very bright light exploding in his face. "GYAH!" He pulled back, forced to close his eyes as Dynamo knocked his claws away.

He then grabbed his hip blasters and started firing, the lasers pushing Lindwhirl away and allowing him to get up.

As he did, he got a message on his visor. "Perfect." He turned to Doddery, who was continuing to slash at Rarity's shield. "We're leaving!" The woman nodded before they both took to the air, Dynamo taking something out of his suit and throwing it down to the ground.

That something was a smoke bomb, which filled the air and blinded everyone. Lindwhirl, doubly blinded, swung his arms around to try and blow the smoke away. But by the time he and the girls could see, Dynamo and Doddery were gone.

"No!" He growled, transforming back to human whilst rubbing his eyes. "They got away!"

"I hope the others managed to get their opponents," Fluttershy frowned. Twilight checked her phone, asking how their fights went. And the answers weren't what they had hoped.

A few moments earlier.

"What?" Animac pressed his ear. "Alright." He pressed several buttons on his device and a new monster ball appeared, the old man throwing it at Shining.

The Plumber leapt back and as he did, he saw a chance and fired his blaster at Animac. The man leapt back, unaware that the attack had been to get something on him. As the monster ball appeared, it revealed a giant bird with an octopus head.

The winged creature unleashed a large cloud of black fog, which filled the air and blinded the girls. Shining's visor allowed him to see and he looked up to see the creature taking to the air, the Plumber pointing his weapon at it and firing an extra strong blast.

That blast hit the beast in the chest and made it scream out, as if fell to the ground.

Shining expected it to be carrying Animac and Dragstar. But when he reached it, the found neither of them were anywhere in sight. And as the cloud disappeared, he saw the two were nowhere to be seen.

"Don't tell me they drove away!" Rainbow cried, looking ready to run after them. But before she did, Shining stopped her.

"Let em go," he told her. "Trust me." The girls looked confused, wondering why Shining would give up this chance. But they knew he never did anything without a reason. They would have to trust him.

Trixie threw her shield at Chrysalis, but the woman teleported away and the girl quickly slowed down time before ducking.

Chrysalis' metal leg swung overhead and she spun around to kick her in the chest, knocking her backwards as the shield flew back over to Trixie. But as she did, Chrysalis' radio went off and she pressed her ear. "It work?" She smiled, "got it." She turned to Devious, the pair nodding at each other as Chrysalis teleported them away.

"Well, this has been fun." Devious unleashed a blast of lightning, Trixie leaping back to avoid it as Pinkie threw some cupcakes at them. "But we really need to be going." Chrysalis extended the size of the web and they both warped away, right before the cupcake exploded.

Trixie groaned at this, Sunset rushing over to her. "We don't have time to focus on them right now. The rest of their team must be up to something. The only reason they would have left is if they got what they were really after."

"I can't believe they tricked us," Pinkie cried. "I thought Azmuth said they needed this stuff for something."

"He's not gonna be happy they fooled him," Trixie gulped.

As it turned out, Azmuth was not upset about being tricked.

"We should have anticipated our opponents not going after any of those parts," he stated once everyone was back in the base. "It was a foolish oversight on my part. But beating ourselves up over it isn't going to help, so let's just focus on what they did end up stealing."

"Which is?" Flash asked, as Azmuth pressed a computer key and brought up a strange looking rock.

"Glanium. A highly powerful radioactive substance." Their eyes went wide at this, with only Twilight and Shining knowing about glanium. "It's also incredibly rare and does not exist on Earth. How it got here, I have no idea. What matters right now is stopping those fools before they can do anything with it. This substance is highly volatile."

"How volatile?" Flash asked.

Twilight gulped, "if it goes off it'll turn a good three quarters of the city into a giant crater. And the energy blast will flattened everything else for thirty miles."

"It's that dangerous and it was just sitting in some guy's vault?" Sunset asked, "why didn't the military take it or something?"

"A question left for another time," Azmuth told them. "Right now, we need to focus on locating them." He tried to think. "The glanium doesn't leave much of a radiation signature, but I think I can increase the sensors to pick it up. May take a while though."

"No need," Shining smirked as everyone turned to him. "Animac might have gotten away, but not before I managed to snag a tracer onto him."

"Really?" Flash asked, Shining nodded. "Awesome! They should be back at their base by now?"

"Yup. I've been following them on my badge since Animac got away. But we've gotta be careful. If they find the tracer, we could end up walking into a trap."

"Leave that to me," Azmuth told him. "Once we have the tracer's location, I'll scan the area and determine if there's anything there that might be used against you. And once we've confirmed the area is safe, I'll teleport you all in."

"Now that's a plan," Twilight smirked. "We should get ready." They nodded and began to make their preparations, whilst Azmuth tapped into the tracer and began to follow it. He watched as it entered an area of warehouses. The perfect place to hide and keep a bunch of technology.

As he did this, Azmuth couldn't help but think about the technology they had stolen.

He was sure they had plans for it. But what, was the question. He was sure at least some of the tech had been used to make whatever the glanium was powering, but which components was a mystery. And that meant he didn't know what pieces were left. It was all a guessing game at this point. The only hope to confirm what was being used, was for Azmuth to see what was being made.

Hopefully, whatever they were building wouldn't be ready before their attack.

Back at the warehouse, Shadow smiled as he placed the glanium inside the device.

The other crooks finally arrived at their base and stepped inside, most of them a little sore from the fight. "This better be worth it," Dynamo growled.

"Oh, it's worth it alright." Shadow moved over to a computer connected to the giant machine, which had a VR helmet connected to it through a bunch of wires. "You have no idea what this device is now capable of. Before, it could only create things using technology that exists in this universe. But now, we can create technology that doesn't exist here."

"Come again?" Dragstar asked, "I don't think I get that."

Shadow chuckled. "How many of you know about the multiverse theory?" Animac, Devious, Chrysalis and The Hypnotist raised a hand. "Well, the multiverse theory states that every time we have to make a decision, the world splits into two. One world where you make one decision and another where you make the exact opposite. And when someone needs to make another decision, the world splits again. Basically, there is an infinite number of universes."

"Okay?" Dynamo asked, "what does that have to do with us?"

"Our world is what it is due to the decisions we made. Imagine how different it would be if every decision ever made was reversed. Everything would be completely changed. And in that universe, they might have made technology we never would have thought of."

"Again, what does that have to do with us?" Dynamo asked, making Shadow sigh.

"This device has the ability to look into those other dimensions and scan the technology there. With it, we'll have power the likes of which no one has ever seen."

"I see," Devious smirked. "If they don't know what they're facing, they can't hope to defeat it."

"Exactly," Shadow nodded. "And I'm going to use it to find a more powerful version of the Omnitrix. There has to be one version of it, that does more than simply transform the user. Maybe there's one that fuses two aliens together, or gives the aliens a suit of armor. Once I find it, I'll scan it and use the printer to make one for me."

"And you'll be back to your former glory," Negatine smirked. "Better, even."

"Exactly," Shadow sat down and placed the helmet on his head. "The only issue will be finding one of them. With infinite universes to search through, it could take a normal person decades to find what I'm looking for. But since it's me, I've set the device to show me hundreds of different worlds at the same time."

"And you'll be able to process all that?" Chrysalis asked, making Shadow laugh.

"You're talking to the smartest human in the world. I could process more, but too many and I might miss a detail. Now, you lot need to wait until I find what I'm looking for." They nodded and looked ready to walk off. But as they did, Dragstar noticed something.

"Yow, doc. What the heck's that?" He pointed at Animac's boot and the man looked down to see the tracer on the back of it. His eyes went wide as he picked it up.

"A tracking device?" He growled and looked at the others, who all looked angry at him for not noticing. "Don't give me those looks. At least I have the excuse of it being on the opposite side of my eyes. Why didn't any of you see it before now?"

"It doesn't matter," Negatine stated. "What matters is they know where we are and they're probably heading here right now?"

Shadow sighed as he began to power up the machine. "Then I suggest you all get ready for a fight. You are to protect me and this machine until I've acquired the data I need. Fail and I won't bother freeing any of you again. Is that understood?" They all nodded and headed outside.

Once they were out of the warehouse, he activated the building's security system and deadlocked the doors. The only way anyone was getting, in was if they spent several minutes blasting the building with a laser. Which they wouldn't be able to do whilst being attacked by the others.

"Those idiots better not mess this up." With that, he activated the device and the machine began to cut into the dimensional fabric of the universe. The energy this required was great and the surrounding areas quickly found themselves in a black out.

Shadow watched as hundreds of images were being broadcasted into his head, showing him countless different universes. He quickly typed into the computer what he was searching for. Omnitrix or Omnitrix-like devices. And so, the information narrowed in on a specific item in each world. It was only a matter of time before he found what he was looking for.

Back in the base, everyone was preparing for what was likely to be the biggest battle any of them had ever faced.

Shining was doing maintenance on his Plumber gear, whilst Fluttershy and Sunset were practising with Plumber blasters they had been given. The others were all training their abilities. Pinkie was testing her aim, Rainbow was practising her high speed turns, Rarity was shielding herself from Pinkie's tennis balls, Applejack was lifting weights and Trixie was practising with her Sky Butterfly rapier.

Twilight was trying to come up with a battle plan, Azmuth beside her, determining the best ways to disable the villain's tech so they could finish them off quickly. As she did, she noticed Flash sitting in a corner looking down at the Omnitrix.

He stared at the device and was flipping through the many aliens he had at his disposal. He would need to be on his A-game if he wanted to beat those guys.

"You nervous?" He looked up at Twilight and Azmuth, giving them both a cocky grin.

"What do I have to be nervous about? I've got the most powerful device in the universe and almost every power under the sun. Those guys won't stand a chance." But as he said that, Azmuth threw something that hit him on the head. "OW!" He held the spot and was glad it wasn't anything too hard or sharp.

"Don't be an idiot," the galvin told him. "The Omnitrix might be the most powerful device in the universe, but it's still only a device. Something that can easily fail if not used correctly. It's only as powerful as its user and if you go into this fight thinking you're unstoppable, the only thing that's gonna happen is you'll find yourself in serious trouble.

Flash frowned, as Twilight sat down next to him. "Azmuth's right. Remember when you told me about how you met Tetrax. It wasn't the Omnitrix that beat those bounty hunters. It was you, using your brain. And now you're up against even stronger opponents. You need to be careful."

Flash sighed, "alright. I get it. I promise I'll be careful and think my actions through." Twilight nodded as everyone else completed their preparations. But as she stood up, Flash looked at her and the rest of them. He smiled at them, then at the Omnitrix.

He didn't need to worry about anything. He had his friends and the Omnitrix. Those criminals wouldn't stand a chance against him.

"Alright," Azmuth turned to them all, "I've scanned the area and have confirmed the glanium radiation there. Whatever they got it for, they're using it now. Which means you need to be extra careful when you're there."

"Got it," Shining nodded. "You find any traps?"

"No. Looks like the place is clear. Still, you'll need to be careful. They got the drop on us before." He typed away at the computer, activating the teleporter and setting it to that locations. "Are you all ready?" They nodded, Shining setting his Multi-Striker to blaster mode.

Flash activated the Omnitrix so it would be ready when he needed it. "Let's do this!"

"Alright. I'll teleport you to the tracer's general location. Good luck." They nodded and were surrounded by light, disappearing in the blink of an eye.

Back at the warehouse, a green flash filled the air outside the building.

When the light faded, the ten of them stood in front of the building with Shining preparing to look for the tracer. But he didn't need to look, since their targets were standing in front of them.

The nine criminals stood in front of the warehouse, Animac sitting atop a giant frog whilst Negatine had several Blaze Lynxes standing around him. "Expecting to take us by surprise?" Animac held something up before throwing it. The tracer hit the ground and smashed to pieces. "You didn't think we wouldn't notice that, did you?"

"Hey," Flash stepped forward, "you guys all decided on a life of crime. As far as I'm concerned, that choice makes you all complete idiots." The others nodded, Shining and the girls getting into a fighting stance. "And we're here to kick idiot butt." Flash slapped the Omnitrix and a green burst of light transformed him, "Diamondhead!" He pointed at them, "now where's all the tech you stole?"

They didn't answer, as Shining's visor picked something up. "There's a massive energy signature coming from that warehouse. Whatever they built's probably in there." They nodded, whilst the criminals frowned.

"Keep them away from the warehouse!" Devious cried before unleashing a blast of fire.

Rarity and Trixie looked ready to stop this, but Diamondhead leapt forward and created a crystal shield. The flames slammed into it and did nothing against it, Diamondhead smirking as the rest of his friends leapt into action.

The villains rushed ahead as well, all beginning their individual battles against the villains as Devious and Diamondhead kept fighting.

Shining saw the Blaze Lynxes rushing in to attack, but quickly shot them all in the head and destroyed them. At the same time, Negatine unleashed several Ptera-Jets and Shining started shooting them as well.

Dynamo took to the air and pulled out his hip blasters, planning to rain lasers down from the sky. But Sunset and Fluttershy had chosen to face him and fired their own weapons, forcing him to take evasive maneuvers to avoid them. One of Fluttershy's lasers managed to hit his wing, causing him to lose control and barely make a controlled landing.

"Give me your youth!" Doddery screamed, as she attempted to grab Rarity with her claws. But Rarity put up a shield to protect herself.

"Not this time!" Rarity cried, pushing the shield and Doddery back. The old woman leapt into the air, taking flight as Rarity started throwing more crystals at her.

At the same time, Applejack found a giant frog leaping on top of her. But before it could crush her, she caught it with all her strength.

Meanwhile, Pinkie found herself doing flips and cartwheels around the place. The reason, the Hypnotist was continuously firing his mind control disks at her. He fired some more, but she threw several cupcakes at the disks and they exploded on contact.

A pair of blurs then shot past the two, as Rainbow and Dragstar seemed to be racing against one another. Dragstar was speeding around with Rainbow running beside him, the two looking each other over before Dragstar tried to ram into Rainbow. But she pulled back and he missed, Rainbow appearing on his other side and tapping on the back of his helmet.

"Huh?" He looked at her, Rainbow smirking at him before speeding off faster than his suit could go. "No fair!"

Twilight found herself fighting off against Viral, the living computer program unleashing blasts of lightning at Twilight.

But she quickly defended herself, using crates and whatever else she could find. She then threw another crate at Viral, but she exploded into energy that the crate flew through without hurting her. This did not sit well with Twilight, as Viral reformed.

"Alright, how the heck is that even possible? I don't care that you're a living machine, converting matter into energy like that shouldn't be possible."

Viral laughed as she fired another blast of energy. "Just goes to show how much smarter our leader is compared to the rest of you. The fact he was able to do such a thing proves you're facing an intellect that is beyond your ken."

"Big talk," Twilight laughed. "You must really like him."

"I respect him," Viral stated. "And I owe him. He's the one who saved me after your friend almost destroyed me. And it's thanks to him that I have an actual body to enjoy the world with. I can eat, sleep, feel pain and even do activities some would think were...impossible for a machine like me." She smirked as Twilight realised what she was saying.

"Ew," she stated, "just...ew."

"Oh, grow up!" She unleashed a blast of lightning and Twilight summoned her wings, allowing her to fly into the air to avoid the attack.

As this was happening, Diamondhead and Trixie fought together against Devious and Chrysalis. The others had left Chrysalis' zone web, but they were all inside of it and fighting against each other.

Trixie flew up and dived towards Chrysalis, attempting to stab her with her sword. But Chrysalis teleported out of the way before thrusting her metal leg towards Trixie, only for the girl to spin around and deflect with her weapon. At the same time, Diamondhead slashed at Devious attempting to cut him to pieces.

But Devious was able to duck under the attacks and unleashed a blast of fire, only for Diamondhead to not feel a thing and quickly shot several crystals at him.

Chrysalis teleported him behind Diamondhead and the man unleashed a powerful gust of wind, attempting to blow Diamondhead away. But the alien's feet created a bunch of spikes that stuck into the ground. This kept him from being blown away and he quickly punched the ground.

Doing so caused a line of spikes to fly out of the ground and almost stab Devious, only for the madman to leap out of the way before unleashing a blast of ice.

The mini blizzard flew towards Diamondhead and caused ice to start forming around his body, but he managed to break his way through the ice and run towards Devious. But just as he was about to punch the man, Chrysalis caused Devious and Trixie to swap places and Trixie found herself stabbing Diamondhead's chest.

Her sword bent on contact and Diamondhead had to pull himself back, barely managing to keep from hitting her in the head. "WOW!" The pull back caused him to lose his footing and almost trip over, as Trixie turned to glare at the two.

"We need to take Chrysalis out before we do anything else."

"Right," Diamondhead nodded. "Time to whip out the new toys." Trixie nodded as her mask and Medallion transformed, turning pink followed by the rest of her body. Soon enough, she was in her Iron Serpent form and ready to kick some butt.

Chrysalis frowned at this, attempting to teleport Trixie to her before she could put up a shield. But Trixie was too fast and the pink dome appeared around her and Diamondhead. This blocked out her abilities and Devious couldn't blast his way through it, allowing Diamondhead to fire at the pair without needing to worry about being warped in front of his attack.

The two criminals were teleported out of the way, but both knew they had a stalemate. They wouldn't be able to hurt the pair so long as they were inside that dome.

Inside the warehouse, Shadow was continuing to search the multiverse.

He could hear the sounds of battle coming from outside, but he was too focused on his work. The device continued to show him images from other worlds, images of many different variants of the same thing. But they were all practically the same and lacked what he was looking for.

"Come on. There has to be one. Just one that decided to improve on the original. There's nothing wrong with trying to improve perfection. Show me something...anything." But then, he found something that caught his interest. "Oh...what's this?"

He watched as a hundred images flowed into his mind and he realised he had found what he was looking for.

"Yes," he smiled as he locked onto this universe, "that's what I need. It's brilliant." He started the scanning process, "Flash Sentry won't stand a chance against this." The scan happened over and over, taking in every detail of what he had found. "Now, to begin the crafting process."

The machine began to activate and inside the tube, a bunch of metal arms moved around and started unleashing sparks and other lights as something was slowly made. As the lasers hit the bottom of the tube, something slowly materialised inside it.

That something was a familiar-looking power core, which would fit perfectly into his de-powered Omnitrix. And when it was placed inside, not only would it restore his powers but it would give him even greater strength than Flash Sentry could possibly hope to match.

"Not long now," Shadow smirked as an explosion caught is attention. "Those idiots better not screw this up. Just keep them distracted for a little bit more. Do that and victory will be ours." He watched as more and more of the core was created. "Just a little more time."

Back outside, Shining slashed his way through the last Blaze Lynx and as Negatine was preparing to create more, the Plumber pointed his weapon at the man.

He fired a blast that hit him, but did nothing to hurt him. However, his tech suddenly found itself shutting down. "What?" He typed away at it, "what did you do?"

"EMP blast!" Shining rushed up, "not so tough without your gear!" He leapt up and rammed a foot into Negatine's chest, knocking him backwards until he crashed into the side of the warehouse. His head slammed against the wall and he found himself blacking out, the man sliding down to the ground and letting out a groan.

Shining then turned to see Dynamo, who was using the blades on his arms to slash at Fluttershy and Sunset. The girls dodged the attacks and tried firing at him, but he replied by firing his own blasters at them.

Shining quickly pointed his weapon at him and fired the EMP, hitting Dynamo in the back and causing his suit to shut down. "What?" He cried, only to suddenly find himself unable to lift the weight of his extremely heavy suit without the power assistance.

Sunset and Fluttershy smiled, both using their blasters to shoot off his hip blasters so he couldn't use them when the suit rebooted. The man cried out, as his legs gave out and he fell to the ground.

Pinkie was also getting her own over her opponent, ducking under a control disk before throwing some sprinkles at the ground. They exploded at his feet and he was knocked backwards, crying out as he staggered back. Pinkie then rushed forward and grabbed the launcher before he could recover.

"Yoink!" She pulled it off his arm and Periwinkle cried out, as she pointed it at himself and fired.

The control disk hit him in the chest and before he could do anything, it sent him into a blank state. Until the user gave a command, the victim's mind went completely blank like they were asleep. But since the victim and user wee the same, he was just a lifeless statue.

"There. Now you just stay there until we get the rest of your friends dealt with." One of said friends suddenly shot past her, Dragstar continuing to try and outrace Rainbow Dash.

But the speedster had him completely outclassed and as they continued to fly around, she noticed a long pipe and smirked at an idea. And before Dragstar could try and stop her, she grabbed the pipe and ran towards him. The next thing he knew, the pipe had been shoved into his wheel.

The next thing Dragstar knew, the wheel was locking and he was sent flying back wheel overhead and crashed into the ground. He rolled along the ground, his armor sparking as he skidded along the ground. Eventually, he crashed into the side of a container and groaned as he fell to the ground.

Rainbow smirked at this and rushed over to help the others, spotting Applejack and Rarity back to back.

The giant frog shot its tongue towards Applejack, as some kind of stinger extended from the end of it. Applejack cried out, as she ducked down and pulled Rarity down so she wouldn't be stung as well.

The tongue extended above them and the stinger hit Doddery's wing, making her cry out as she was sent out of control. Applejack then reached up and wrapped her arm around the tongue, Rarity looking grossed out as she did so, then spun on her heel to pull the frog around.

The giant amphibian was sent hurtling over to a now landing Doddery, slamming into her and knocking her to the ground. If she had been in her older form, that probably would have broken something.

Rarity then saw Animac preparing another monster and sent a gem shield at him, slamming into the man and pushing him backwards until he slammed into the side of a wall.

They and the others then turned to Twilight, Trixie and Diamondhead, Twilight appearing to be having the most trouble against Viral's abilities.

She landed on the ground, ducking under Viral's energy blast, whilst grabbing another crate and throwing it at her. But Viral's hand was surrounded by lightning and she used it to carve through the crater with a chop.

Shining rushed over to his sister and raised his gun. She might by partly organic now, but Viral still had mechanical parts. Which meant she was still vulnerable to an EMP.

However, Viral saw this and her body morphed into a bolt of lightning to shoot into the air. This protected her from the EMP, allowing her to shoot towards Shining. "Don't let her get inside your suit!" Twilight cried, Shining leaping to the side as Viral's bolt shot passed him.

When Viral tried again, Rarity put up a shield and the lightning bolt slammed into it. It then bounced off the shield and Viral reformed, as Rainbow flew up to her and body checked her.

Viral was sent sprawling to the ground as she felt herself beginning to run low on power. As such, she wasn't able to take electrical form as Shining pointed his weapon at her and fired. The next thing she knew, she he hit by the EMP and her body began to shut down.

Her brain was protected from damage, but her mechanical parts went dead as she fell to the ground.

Viral unconscious, everyone turned to see Devious and Chrysalis weren't do much better than their friends. As they were unable to get through Trixie's shield.

But Trixie couldn't keep the shield going forever and soon enough, the dome around them began to flicker.

"Ha!" Chrysalis laughed, "soon she'll be spent and a sitting duck!"

"I don't think so!" Diamondhead slammed his fists into the ground and created crystal spikes, which shot out in random spots around them. The villains had to leap around to avoid them, allowing Trixie to lower the shield whilst they were distracted.

Diamondhead then fired several projectiles at them and Devious defended with a wind blast, which struck the shards and knocked them backwards. Trixie put up a shield to keep the shards from hitting them and as it disappeared, she took out her serpent whip and swung it around.

It grabbed onto Chrysalis' leg and Trixie pulled her forward before she could retaliate, causing her to smash into the shield before Diamondhead slammed a fist into her chest. "AUGH!" She was knocked flying back, her web shattering as Devious unleashed a blast of lightning the second Trixie's shield went down.

However, Rarity protected them with her own magic and the lightning bolt bounced off a wall of gems. The second they disappeared, Shining fired his blaster and Devious was forced to propel himself into the air. But Rainbow shot up using her wings and was able to deal a power kick right to his chest.

Trixie used this opening to transform into her Mighty Bull form, then took her bell and slammed it into the ground. The sonic blast quickly followed and slammed into Devious, knocking him flying backwards and smashing into the sides of the building.

The others covered their ears to protect from the ringing, whilst Devious screamed as he was pinned against the wall. The force finally stopped and Devious fell to the ground, groaning as he lay there

Trixie panted and could hardly believe it. She had done it. Now she could take his Medallions before he recovered and he'd finally be out of her hair.

But before she could do that, clapping filled the air coming from the warehouse.

Everyone turn towards it, as someone stood in the now open doorway hidden from them by the darkness. "Impressive. But I figured you would defeat them. I hate to admit it, but your abilities are far greater than any ability I could bestow upon them. Well...almost."

"You're the guy that gave them this tech?" Diamondhead asked, the figure nodding. "Well you're gonna pay for all the problems they caused with it. Now get out here and show yourself." The figure didn't hesitate to step out of the dark building and into the light. And when he did, Diamondhead's eyes went wide seeing who it was that was walking towards him. "Shadow!"

The evil clone smirked, "well if it's isn't my less handsome twin. Long time no see."

"So," Shining frowned, "you were the one behind all of this. Guess we should have guessed. Galvin brains. Enough skill to create all those insane devices and upgrading everyone's tech."

"That's right," Shadow nodded. "I was able to give them everything they wanted. The tech and ability to take revenge on those that wronged them, whilst they acquired the technology I needed to take back what's rightfully mine." He reached into his pocket and took out what he had worked so hard to get his hands on.

"An Omnitrix Core!" Twilight cried, Shadow smiling. "So all this was to get back your powers?"

"Why not just do what Negatine did to make your Omnitrix last time?" Rainbow asked, as Shadow held up his coreless Omnitrix.

"This is no ordinary Omnitrix Core. The technology my new friends got me has allowed me to create a window into other realities. Canterlot is an interdimensional weak spot, where the fabric of reality is extraordinarily thin. Thanks to that, I was able to peer into other universe and see how things worked out in those universes."

Everyone was confused, wondering what the heck he was talking about. "In English?" Trixie asked.

"I searched many realities, saw many other individuals who had their own Omnitrix. Strangely enough, not one of those individuals was Flash Sentry. Many of them were variations of the same person, all with a different style of Omnitrix. I searched through many of them, expecting to find an Omnitrix with new powers and abilities that Flash Sentry had yet to discover or would ever have. And I found one."

Flash frowned, not liking the sound of that. "So what?"

"So...I scanned that universes device and used my subatomic printer to create an Omnitrix Core that held all the information on that device. And now, that power is mine." With that, he placed the core inside the Omnitrix and spun it around until it locked into place.

When it did, the core started glowing red whilst the rest of the device activated. And slowly, the Omnitrix began to glow before it reshaped itself. Everyone was shocked to see this, as Shadow's device grew larger and began to cover more of his arm.

When the light finally faded away, it revealed a large black gauntlet with white sections on the side. It covered almost his entire forearm, going from his wrist and stopping just before his elbow. The Omnitrix dial was where it had originally been on his arm, only now it was covered by a black band around it whilst the face-plate was red. Coming out the top and bottom of the dial were tubes, which glowed red with energy and ran around the device. Along the top of the gauntlet was a covering, which looked like it flicked upwards to reveal something.

Everyone stared at the strange new device on Shadow's arm, unable to believe what they were seeing. "What the heck is that?" Flash asked, as Shadow smirked.

"This, my friend, is the Ultimatrix. A far more powerful device than you lame old Omnitrix." He pressed the covering on the device and it flipped over, as the dial suddenly lit up. The covering was revealed to have been hiding some kind of touch-pad, whilst the dial's light flew up to reveal a holographic version of Bushwhacker.

Shadow used the touch-pad to flip through different aliens until he came across the one he wanted, then slapped the hologram down as the device unleashed a burst of red light.

That light blinded them all and when it faded away, everyone looked back to see Shadow had been replaced by Riot-Horn. He was almost exactly like Flash's Riot-Horn, only he was paler in colour, whilst his eyes and the dial were red.

"You see." He stood tall. "Not only am I able to become any Alien you can." He reached up to the dial on his chest. "But I can also evolve those creatures, into their Ultimate forms." He spun the sides of the dial and it suddenly popped forward, allowing Riot-Horn to push it back down.

When he did, the device unleashed a second burst of red light. This light flowed over him and changed his form as it did. He grew larger and he body became more bulky. When the light finally faded, it revealed his new form.

He was now twelve feet tall and covered head to toe in a green mechanical suit. The only part of his body that wasn't covered by the armor was his face, which was the mostly the same colour. A green metal stripe ran down his forehead and snout, ending at the tip of his nose where his horn should be.

However, his horn had been replaced by a round metal tube that was open at the end, whilst the smaller horn behind it was gone completely.

Parts of his body were black in colour, that being his round shoulders and elbows, along with the inner sections of his knee and his large mechanical hands. Two curved mechanical horns were sticking out of his body, originating on his waist just below his armpits and each ended in a hole on the tip. His back had a series of openings that looked like they ignited to act as thrusters, which could also be seen on the backs of his knees and on the bottoms of his feet when he took steps forward.

His fists suddenly extended forwards, as his arms lengthened before retracting back and firing forward again. The pair acted like a pair of pile drivers, ready to pulverise anything they punched. The Ultimatrix symbol remained on his chest, only now it had the four spikes sticking out the sides that dug into the main body.

Flash and everyone else was absolutely shocked by what they saw, as Shadow looked over his new body and smiled before turning to everyone. "Meet...ULTIMATE RIOT-HORN!"

Everyone was still in shock at the sight before them, unable to believe such a thing could be possible. And as the Ultimate Alien let out a roar, the thrusters on the back of his armor all fired and he was propelled forward. Flash and his friends didn't know what to make of this new development, only that they were in serious trouble.

Author's Note

Well, many of you were wanting it and now it's here. The Ultimate Aliens have arrived. How will Flash handle this more powerful enemy? What will it take to defeat him? And what will it cost to be victorious? Only one way to find out. Stay tuned.

Season 4, Episode 14: The Ultimate Opponent PT1

Flash Sentry and his friends were in shock at the sight before them, still trying to figure out what the heck they had just seen.

They had teleported to a warehouse in order to stop the nine criminals that had been terrorising the city, only to find their leader was none other than Shadow. And now, Shadow had somehow regained his abilities and upgraded them on top of that. In the blink of an eye, they were facing an entirely new species of alien.

The evolved Solarhino flew forward, using the thrusters built into the back of his new suit of armor. He shot towards Diamondhead and by the time the alien hero registered what was happening, it was too late.

Ultimate Riot-Horn reached him and smashed a fist right into him, slamming his chest hard enough that Diamondhead felt it crack. And as the impact of the punch vibrated through his body, the pile driver fist exploded forward and sent him rocketing backwards until he crashed into the building behind him.

"FLASH!" His friends all screamed, as Diamondhead smashed into the wall and broke right through it. And then he kept going, smashing through everything that had been inside the warehouse before breaking through the other wall on the other side.

If Flash had been any other alien, he probably would have broken every bone in his body.

He fell to the ground and skidded along it, finally coming to a stop and letting out a moan as he lay there. His brain was rattled and he could barely figure out what the heck had just happened. And he wasn't the only one.

His friends all stared at the hole, unable to believe that a single punch could do something like that. "No way," Trixie whispered, as Ultimate Riot-Horn turned towards them. A chuckle escaped his lips, as he brought his hand up and gave them a 'bring it' gesture. "Oh, it's on!" She raised her bell weapon and slammed it onto the ground.

The force of the attack unleashed a sonic blast that went right to the Ultimate Alien, slamming right into him. But as it did, the rockets on his back ignited and stopped him from being pushed back. He used his metal hands to cover his ears, blocking the sound from deafening him whilst the others rushed forward.

"He's vulnerable!" Applejack leapt at him and tried to throw a punch into his chest. But as she did, Ultimate Riot-Horn pointed his horn at the girl as the end suddenly lit up.

The others saw this as well and Rarity told Applejack to get back, the girl quickly stopping her assault and leaping back. As she did, Rarity put up a shield. But it wasn't fast enough.

A yellow laser exploded out of the horn and slammed into shield, shattering it and causing an explosion that sent Applejack flying backwards. She crashed into the ground and flinched, as the smoke from the explosion cleared to show U-R-H simply standing there.

Shining pointed his blaster at him and fired, the lasers bouncing off the metal. Sunset and Fluttershy fired as well, whilst Pinkie threw a cupcake at him. The attacks and explosions did nothing to him, the rhino chuckling as he raised his mechanical fist.

Twilight tried to grab him in her magic and whilst she was able to, the hold was practically useless. Whatever that armor was made out of, it was so heavy she couldn't lift it. And when Ultimate Riot-Horn realised what was happening, he struggled against it and his incredible strength was too much for Twilight to stop.

"RAAAAH!" He slammed his fist into the ground and made the pile driver arm extend for extra power, the impact unleashing a shockwave in all directions.

The wave slammed into them and knocked them flying, whilst also cracking any building it touched. This resulted in the damaged building Diamondhead had been sent through to collapse, whilst the one holding Shadow's machine survived thanks to the upgrades he had made to the building.

Shining and the girls all moaned as they laid on the ground, feeling like a brick wall had just slammed into them at twenty miles an hour.

Ultimate Riot-Horn laughed at how easily he had managed to defeat them, only to notice a green flash behind him. He spun around and looked towards the collapsed building, as Riot-Horn leapt over it and let out a mighty roar.

He encased his fist in the orbular covering as he fell towards his evolved form, making U-R-H sigh as he pulled his fist back. "Pointless!" He threw his punch and met Riot-Horn's head on, the two fists colliding with another, shockwave following.

Riot-Horn gasped as he felt the covering on his fist break apart, his fist soon hitting the metal one and great pain following.

"GYAH!" He fell to the ground and clutched his hand, unsure if it was broken or not. He glared up at U-R-H and looked around, seeing all his friends down for the count.

He rushed forward, throwing another punch in Ultimate Riot-Horn's direction. U-R-H blocked with his metal arm and as he did, his horn began to light up before he fired a laser that slammed into Riot-Horn. The un-evolved alien roared as he was blasted back and hit the ground, as Ultimate Riot-Horn marched forward.

"Don't you see? I'm the evolved version of that alien. You really think it can beat something that was specifically designed to be better than it in every way?"

Riot-Horn sat up and glared at him, then hit the Omnitrix to transform. "Yak-Smasher!" The Equestrian Alien leapt to his hooves and charged forward, his muscle hair wrapping around his body as he tackled the armored rhino.

And whilst this did seem to knock Ultimate Riot-Horn back, his thrusters soon ignited and he was able to overpower Yak-Smasher. The hybrid alien thrust his hooves into the ground, attempting to stop himself from being pushed back, but it was completely useless.

'He's...so strong!' Ultimate Riot-Horn then reached down and grabbed Yak-Smasher by the horn, making him cry out as he was pulled off of him. He was then swung around and smashed into the ground several times, making him cry out as his body was rocked again and again.

Flash's friends were starting to come around, the lot picking themselves up and hearing his cries. And as they looked up, they saw Yak-Smasher slam the Omnitrix and transform as Ultimate Riot-Horn swung him upwards.

Lindwhirl appeared in the air, the Ultimate Alien losing his grip on him as he was thrown into the air. He then curled himself up and span down towards U-R-H, picking up speed and intending on doing serious damage. But the alien simply laughed and with a single backhand, Lindwhirl was sent flying and roared in pain until he smashed into another building.

"FLASH!" Everyone cried, forcing themselves up and rushing over to him.

Lindwhirl growled, as he pulled himself out of the hole and dragged himself along the ground. He panted, feeling pretty badly beaten. And Ultimate Riot-Horn hadn't even broken a sweat.

As the others reached him, the Omnitrix beeped and he transformed back to human. Shining had to catch him, as he fell forward. "You're okay," he told him.

"So strong," Flash groaned.

"Now do you understand?" Ultimate Riot-Horn chuckled. "I'm invincible. Nothing you do will allow you to defeat me."

"Maybe not on his own," Trixie stated. "But he's not on his own." The others nodded and got into a fighting stance, whilst U-R-H laughed.

"But neither am I." And sure enough, it was in that moment that the rest of his criminal friends began to pick themselves up. Devious and Chrysalis were the first, Trixie gasping as she realised she had lost her chance to get the Medallions back, with Animac and Doddery following.

The effect of the EMP had worn off, allowing Viral and Dynamo to pick themselves up. Negatine's equipment had also rebooted, as he picked himself up. Dragstar and the Hypnotist soon followed suit and they all stood on either side of Ultimate Riot-Horn, as the alien smiled at them.

"Flash Sentry. You and your friends have been a thorn in our side for a long time. But now...now you face a force you can't possibly defeat." He raised his arms high. "Behold, the Negative Ten!"

Shining and the girls all felt a cold shiver run down their spines, as they looked at ten of the greatest threats they had ever faced. Flash also felt a bit of intimidation, but he tried to play it cool. "Only ten, huh? What happen? Vilgax and Tirek have Knicks tickets?"

"Laugh all you want," Ultimate Riot-Horn told him. "But as you've seen, my new Ultimate Power has made me more than a match for you. And with my new friends here my victory is almost certainly guaranteed."

Twilight glared at him. "Your new powers might have taken us by surprise, but we know it has to have a weakness."

"Maybe it does" he chuckled. "Too bad none of you will be around to figure it out." As he said that, the horns sticking out of his chest began to glow as they powered up. Flash and his friends all gasp, knowing he was likely going to unleash a powerful blast.

Trixie changed to her Iron Serpent form and put a shield around them, Rarity covering that with as many crystal layers as she could make. They could only hope that it was enough, as the tips of Riot-Horn's chest horn exploded with twin beams of energy.

Those beams collided into one super powered blast. It shot towards the barrier and smashed into it, shattering the first layer and quickly making short work of the other ones.

The heroes gasped and all braced themselves, praying that the barrier had at least weakened the blast enough so that they would survive. But just as Rarity's last barrier broke and Trixie's was stuck, they were all surrounded by a green light.

The Negative Ten shielded their eyes from the light explosion, which blinded them for a moment. When the light faded, they saw that the building had an entire section of itself missing. It had been vaporised by the blast, with not even dust remaining after it.

Negatine laughed. "You vaporised them!" They all smirked, but Ultimate Riot-Horn shook his head as he reverted back to human.

"No. They escaped." This surprised the Negative Ten, Shadow stepping forward and looking at the spot his foes had previously been. "Run whilst you can. You'll soon find that there's nowhere you can hide from me."

Over at the Plumber Base, Flash, Shining and the girls were all in the base's medical room.

Mechanical arms were sending out scanning beams that spread across their bodies, detecting any injury that had been caused by the fight. When it detected said injury, another arm fired a laser or a spray on the wound that fixed it up. However, no medical treatment the room could perform would heal the damage done to their pride.

"I can't believe he beat us so easily," Rainbow glared as she sat on a bed being scanned. "We totally kicked his cronies' butts, but then he shows up and we're the ones getting beat."

"Shadow is just as strong as Flash," Rarity pointed out. "Even stronger now that he has that upgraded Omnitrix."

Shining sighed. "And as much as I hate to admit it, he's smarter than Flash thanks to his galvin brain. Both brains and brawn together make a pretty dangerous combo." A loud banging sound made them all jump, the group turning to Flash who was sitting on a bed and had just slammed his fist into the wall. "I get you're angry! We'd all be if something like that happened. But you gotta calm down."

Flash sighed, taking a deep breath and slowly letting it out. "You're right," he nodded. "I can't go losing my cool. Beating Shadow's gonna need a clear head."

His friends smiled, glad he wasn't letting his frustrations win. That wouldn't help anybody.

"So what do we do?" Fluttershy asked. "You saw what happened. Flash's aliens didn't stand a chance against Shadow's Ultimate Alien."

"I might not be able to out muscle Shadow," Flash stated. "But there are other ways to fight than just strength." They nodded, knowing he was right. "It's just like when I fought against Iron Will. I'll hit him with sneak attacks or melt his armor with Goop."

"But couldn't he just switch to another alien?" Applejack asked. "Iron Will only had strength Shadow has all your aliens and can probably level em up like he did to Riot-Horn." Flash frowned, knowing she was right. He had to find a way to take the Ultimatrix out of the equation.

"I think I might have the answer to that." They all looked over and saw Azmuth stepping into the room.

"Thanks for the save," Shining told him. Shining had thought they were done for until Azmuth teleported them into the medical bay. "So what's the plan? You gonna give Flash the same ability?"

"Are you insane?" Azmuth asked. "I don't know what universe he got that thing from, but it was clearly a universe where I'm a complete idiot. Messing with the natural order of things is just begging for trouble."

"So that's a no on giving me an Ultimatrix?" Flash asked, as Azmuth leapt up onto the bed.

"You don't need an Ultimatrix to defeat him," he stated. "The aliens you have should be more than enough. But just in case they aren't..." He reached into his pocket and took something out. A strange looking wand with a green light on the end of it.

He handed it to Flash and the teen looked it over. "What the heck is this?"

"A fail safe I designed for the Omnitrix," Azmuth explained. "There's a reason I'm called the first thinker on my home world. When I built the Omnitrix, I knew all too well that there was a chance some psychopath might get their hands on it and use it for unspeakable things. So I made sure that if that ever happened, I could disable the Omnitrix before they did any serious damage with it."

"Huh," Flash held it in his hands. "And you think this might be able to shut off Shadow's Ultimatrix?"

"I don't see why it shouldn't," Azmuth nodded. "From what I can tell, that device is simply an Omnitrix with a few extra features. All you have to do is get within a few feet of Shadow and point this at the Ultimatrix. Even if he's transformed, the fail-safe should deactivate it."

"I hope you're right," Flash nodded. "Shadow and his goons aren't gonna just sit around twiddling their thumbs. They're probably out there right now, causing undo mayhem and anarchy."

Back at the warehouse, the criminals were sitting around with Animac twiddling his thumbs.

They were watching as Shadow scanned his new Ultimatrix, the Subatomic Printer beeping and buzzing as it did so. "What are we waiting for?" Dynamo leapt up. "You have that thing, so why aren't we going out and showing the world we're in charge?"

"I'm making sure there are no flaws in the creation," Shadow told him. "The Subatomic Printer managed to make this core, but given what was happening at the time it was kind of a rushed job. I need to be sure using it won't cause any side effects. Had you been able to do your job, I wouldn't have had to rush the creation."

Dynamo glared at him. "There's only so much the great Dynamo Danger can do with the technology you gave me. Maybe if you had designed it to withstand an EMP, I wouldn't have been made helpless." Shadow turned and slowly gave him a glare, showing Dynamo he was toeing a very dangerous line. "Whatever." He turned away, as Dragstar moved over to Shadow.

"I know you're a little busy," he told him. "But I was wondering if I might be able to get an upgrade of some kind."

"What kind of upgrade?"

"Some kind of weapon. I love how fast this suit can make me go, but the only thing I can do is crash into people and blast them with my exhaust feet. Against a normal person, that's fine. But that rainbow haired girl was able to move even faster than me."

Shadow hummed, but nodded. "Very well. I'll start working on it as soon as I'm finished with my maintenance. As for the rest of you..." The Negative Ten all looked expectantly, "go have some fun. Flash Sentry and his friends will likely be unable to stop you at the moment. And if they do show up, they'll be in no fit shape to stop you."

"I like the sound of that," Animac laughed at this. "Either we take them down, or make the city think they've abandoned it. We win no matter what." The villains all cheered as they rushed out of the room, whilst Shadow continued to study his Ultimatrix.

As he did, it brought up something that made him sigh. "I'll need to be careful with that." As he worked, he couldn't help but wonder what Flash would do when his minions started causing havoc. Would he force himself to fight despite being in no fit state, or let the city suffer in order to keep himself safe?

He had a feeling he knew the answer, but also knew his friends would likely intervene.

Currently, Flash was still in the medical bay.

Everyone else had already left, having only received minor injuries that had been easy to fix. Flash's body wasn't that badly hurt, but still damaged enough to force him to stay behind, whilst the others prepared for their next run in with the Negative Ten.

As Flash lay there, letting the machines do their thing, he thought about his last battle and what Shadow could turn into.

He hoped Shadow would only stick with Ultimate Riot-Horn, it's strength and his mind being a deadly combination, but knew there was a good chance he could evolve something else. And as much as Azmuth told him such a thing was unnatural, he couldn't help but be curious about what some of his other aliens would look like super evolved.

He imagined a Volt-Edge with wings and a rail gun for an arm, or XLR8 with some kind of rocket on his back. A part of him wondered if any of his aliens would just get a recolour and that was it, but knew something like that couldn't be considered an Ultimate Alien.

He sighed as he lay on his back and the arms finally announced he was back to fighting fitness, one arm even holding out a lollipop for being such a good boy. Flash got up and after grabbing his hoodie, he headed out the room.

The City of Canterlot was mostly empty, the people staying inside hoping to escape getting drawn into the crimes of those rampaging criminals.

But some people had left the safety of their homes and ventured into the city. Some who had no choice, either needing to attend an important meeting or stock up on food, whilst others who refused to let a bunch of nutcases stop them from living their lives.

But these people would soon come to regret this, as the Negative Ten were on a rampage.

"YEHAAA!" Negatine cheered, as one of his Ptera-Jets flew him over the city. Animac was also flying through the air, atop a large bat with a lizard's head and a shark's tail.

Negatine's mechanical pterodactyl launched several missiles at the buildings around them, whilst Animac simply started dropping the monster balls down onto the streets. Soon enough, all manner of strange creatures were running around the place and causing mayhem and mass panic.

"I love this job!" The mad scientist announced, as he thought about the Subatomic Printer.

He had to admit, he was interested in it's abilities. If it could really see into other universes, then there was no telling what kind of things he could see through it. A world where lizards evolved into humanoid instead of apes, or a world where dinosaurs never went extinct. Who knows what amazing things were waiting for him, just beyond the veil or reality.

"We've got a live one!" He heard Negatine cry, making Animac look down and see a man on a motorcycle trying to outrun them.

Animac smirked as he patted the creature he was on's head. "Do it, my pet." The lizard, bat, shark hybrid flew down and as it did, it spat something out of its mouth. A strange white goo, which slammed into the man's back.

"Augh!" He was knocked off his bike and sent flying. But as soon as he collided with the ground, the white goo stopped him and hardened like concrete.

Animac laughed as he took out his radio. "Doddery, I've got another one for you. Hope you're not full yet."

"Never," she replied before they both laughed.

In another part of the city, a cop car was rolling through the streets looking out for any sign of the villains.

As they pulled up to a red light, they heard a revving and saw Dragstar zoom past through the red light and above the speed limit. "HEY!" The driver put his blues and two on before chasing after him, making Dragstar laugh.

"Now this is gonna be fun!" He raced through the city, the cops doing their best to keep up with little success. "Hey, Dynamo. Mind making things a little more interesting?"

"Sure," Dynamo replied as he flew overhead. "I'll have a little something waiting for you on the highway overpass." Dragstar laughed as he raced up towards the raised road with, cruiser right behind him. And when they got onto the highway, Dynamo flew overhead and used his hip blasters to fire at the road.

The bridge was broken apart and crumbled, creating a good ten meter gap that they were heading towards.

Dragstar laughed as he pushed his bike form to the max, his feet unleashing a blast of fire that propelled himself forwards. A section of the bridge was pointing upwards, making the perfect ramp for him to race off of.

The cop driving wanted to try and jump. But once he saw how wide the gap was, he knew he didn't stand a chance and hit the breaks. The cruiser skidded to a stop, but not before the front went over the edge. Both cops cried out as they did their best to lean back, keeping the car's wheels on the ground.

As this was happening, Dragstar flew through the air and it looked like he wasn't going to made it.

But at the last moment, he changed back to his humanoid form and his exhausts were pointed downwards. This gave him one final boost and sent him up into the air and above the bridge. He transformed back into bike mode and landed perfectly, the speed freak racing down the rest of the highway whilst the cops reversed back onto the other side.

In another part of the city, Viral was racing through the electrical system.

Eventually, she arrived at the location she had wanted to go to since getting a human body. Micro Chip's house. She shot out of the power line and materialised in front of the building, the cyborg rushing into the building and looking around. "Micro!" She called out, expecting him to be home. But as she looked around, the place was completely deserted. "Micro?"

She searched through the house and found Micro's room was lacking his computer, clothes and anything else one would need to live. The same was true for his parent's place.

"Don't tell me he left." She was unaware that since her return, Micro and his parents had gone to live with relatives in another country. They probably would have been back already, had she not escaped from prison so quickly. "Micro?" She let out a frustrated scream and unleashed a blast of lightning that destroyed everything around her.

In yet another part of the city, Devious and Chrysalis stood atop a building looking out at Canterlot.

"Shadow told us to have some fun," Chrysalis stated. "So why are we just sitting here, doing nothing?" Devious frowned at her and focused out on the city once again.

"Shadow's new powers have me worried. Had he succeeded in destroying those fools before, he might have destroyed the Medallions as well. We can't allow that to happen."

"Are you thinking of betraying him?"

"We were always planning on betraying him," Devious laughed. "But we need to be careful how we do it. He is quite powerful now. Our best chance will be a sneak attack. But until then, we'll use him to the best of our abilities. Hopefully, he'll find a way to located the rest of the Medallions for us. Once he does, he'll take him out whilst he sleeps."

Chrysalis sighed, knowing Devious could be a scheming little man. She couldn't help but fear that one day, he would decide to dispose of her the same way.

At that moment their radios went off and they both answered. "Shadow here," their leader announced. "it's time to take things to the next stage. Meet me at these coordinates." Chrysalis took out her phone as the location came up. When she saw where it was, her eyes went wide.

"Wait...but this is..."

Shadow stared at the compound in front of him.

He knew Flash and his friends were in there, having once again hacked into their security systems and seen everything that had been going on in there. Flash Sentry was back to full health, but that would soon change.

A revving made him look turn to see Dragstar, racing down the street and eventually transforming to human mode. "Hey!" He waved, "so what are we doing here?"

"The next stage of our plan requires some very special equipment," Shadow explained. "And we're only gonna be able to get it...in there." Dragstar looked shocked, as Dynamo and Doddery arrived. "We're taking that base and making it ours. Once it's under our control, we'll have everything we need to complete our plan."

"But that's Sentry's base?" Doddery asked, "how are we supposed to take it over?"

Shadow laughed, as Animac and Negatine arrived. "They might have alien technology, but I have an alien brain. They can't keep it from me. Besides, we have some pretty impressive tech as well. Speaking of which." He turned to Dragstar and pointed at a nearby wall.

Dragstar looked over at it and saw something leaning against it, wrapped in cloth.

He moved over and unwrapped it, amazed when he saw a single edged sword with a single long gun barrel going up the front end. He grabbed the handle and gave it a few good swings, liking the feel of it, then held it like a rifle and blasted a hole in the side of the building.

"Well?"

"It's beautiful."

"Good. Then put it to good use." The rest of the Negative Ten had arrived and Shadow pointed at the gate, Dragstar smiling as he stepped forward. This was gonna be fun.

Inside the Plumber Base, Flash had arrived in the main control room to the sound of many alarms and sirens.

He looked over and saw Shining, Trixie and Azmuth standing at the main computer. The screen showed many different windows, all showing the Negative Ten causing havoc throughout the city. "What the heck?" He rushed up and saw the chaos they were making, Shining and Trixie looking just as angry as he was. "We've gotta stop them."

"Are you sure you're up for this?" Azmuth asked. "Your injuries might have been healed, but you might not be prepared to face Shadow again."

"I can't just sit around and do nothing," Flash told him. "The city's put its trust in me to keep it safe and I've let them down long enough." He turned to see nine of the ten criminals and nodded. "Shadow's gonna be tough to beat, but he won't be so tough if we take out some of his lackeys first."

"I'm with you there," Shining nodded. "Whilst they're separated, we can hit em and lock them away before Shadow can show up."

Trixie agreed. "Getting those guys off the street would definitely be doing this city a favour. And I've gotta make up for missing my chance to get Devious' Medallions."

"Just be careful," Azmuth told him. "Even on their own, these criminals are strong. It won't be easy for the three of you to defeat them."

"They won't be on their own," they heard Sunset announce before looking around. There they saw the Rainbooms, all kitted out in Plumber gear.

Twilight, Sunset, Pinkie, Fluttershy and Rarity were holding blasters, with Fluttershy also having a small shield generator on her arm, whilst Rainbow had a pair of laser short swords and Applejack had an energy mace.

"Wow," Flash was surprised, "you girls are packing some serious heat."

"Of course," Twilight smirked as she cocked the blaster. "Our magic did barely anything against Shadow's Ultimate Alien. If we're gonna take him down, we're gonna need all the firepower we can get."

"Plus," Rainbow flipped her sword in the air, "it gives us the excuse to use these awesome toys." Shining looked ready to tell them those weren't toys, only for an alarm to fill the air.

They turned towards the computer, as it changed to show the front gate of the compound being blasted off its hinges by Dragstar and his new gun blaster.

He stepped through, the remaining members of the Negative Ten following him in.

"Here they come," Shining sighed. "Last chance for everyone to back out and escape." But none of them spoke up, all knowing that they couldn't let those criminals continue to do this. "Alright. Then let's do this!" He, Flash and Trixie stepped forward, whilst the rest of the Rainbooms prepared themselves.

They all summoned their magic and prepared their weapons, knowing they would need every advantage they could get in this fight. Flash activated the Omnitrix and dialled through his aliens, whilst Trixie put on her Iron Serpent mask and Shining dawned his helmet. Flash then transformed into Dragoon. The three looked at one another and nodded, as the computer showed the ten enter the building.

Upstairs, Shadow was using a computer to scan the building and find what he was looking for.

"Ahh," he smiled as they stepped up to an elevator. "There it is." He typed away at it and the elevator opened, revealing the teleporter leading down into the base. He stepped inside along with Devious, Viral and Chrysalis, the four warping down and find themselves inside the main base.

They stepped forward and spotted Dragoon and his friends standing in a line, the four standing in their own line as the rest of his team arrived. "Nowhere left to hide, heroes!"

Dragoon smirked. "Who's hiding, losers? Bring it on!" Shadow smirked at this and took out a device, which he pointed at the ceiling and activated. Doing so caused a laser to fly out and as soon as it struck the metal, the entire base lost all power. "What the heck?"

"Ha!" Shadow laughed. "I hacked into your system ages ago. And built my own backdoor to allow me to switch off any system I want. Including your self defence systems."

"That's not good," Pinkie gulped as Shadow activated the Ultimatrix and cycled through his aliens.

"I'll try and get the defence systems back online," Azmuth told them. "Keep them busy whilst I work. They nodded, as Riot-Horn appeared before the alien rhino slammed the badge on his chest and transformed again. Soon, Ultimate Riot-Horn stood tall and let out a roar as his mechanical body powered up.

The two groups of ten stared one another down, many feeling this was like an old western. "This is it!" Ultimate Riot-Horn roared. "This is where things end!" With that, he shot forward and held up his fist.

Dragoon took to the air and flew at his opponent as well, the pair charging at one another with Dragoon unleashing a blast of fire right at the rhino.

But U-R-H came to a stop and thrust his fist forward, the pile driver wrists extending. The impact into the air created a bullet of wind, which struck the fire and dispelled it whilst continuing towards Dragoon. The fire breather gasped as the wind slammed into him and he was knocked backwards, slamming into the ground whilst the rest of the Negative Ten charged as well.

Flash's friends rushed into action and all began to do battle against an opponent.

Trixie and Shining fought against Devious and Chrysalis, the magical members of the group keeping Shining at bay so he couldn't blast any of them with an EMP. Twilight found herself up against Negatine, who created a bunch of Flame Lynxes to attack. Pinkie was in a similar situation against Animac, who had created a bunch of alligator sized lizards with razor blades sticking out of their backs and legs.

The Hypnotist tried to fire his control disks at them all, but Rarity used her magic to stop them and threw several gems at him. Applejack found herself up against Dynamo, swinging her mace around whilst dodging Dynamo's own blades and blaster fire. Rainbow was once again fighting against Dragstar, running around shooting her blaster at him as he zipped around in bike form.

Fluttershy found herself going up against Doddery, the woman flying around and attempting to steal her life force. Luckily, Fluttershy had an energy shield to block the claws and blasted at Doddery whenever she got close. Sunset was also in a shoot off against Viral, the living computer program throwing lightning at her the best she could.

Sunset leapt away from and electrical attack and pointed her blaster at Viral, firing and hitting her in the shoulder with one of them. "Gyah!" She cried, staggering back. Sunset smirked and fired again, but Viral burst into energy and shot through the air.

As this was happening, Dragoon picked himself up and found U-R-H charging towards him. The evolved alien snorted as he moved closer, Dragoon bringing out his claws. If his fire wouldn't work, then he would slash at him until he broke through that ugly green shell.

As U-R-H got close, Dragoon ran forward before leaping to the ground and sliding along the metal surface.

This allowed him to fly under the alien's legs and get behind him. He then leapt up and onto Riot-Horn's back, the flames of the alien's thrusters not hurting him at all as he started slashing at it. But his claws did nothing against the metal plating, the only result of the attacks being sparks coming off the metal.

"Seriously?" U-R-H laughed as he started spinning around, "you think such a puny alien can get through this armor?" Dragoon finally lost his hold on the metal and was sent flying, crashing into the wall as the Ultimate Alien turned to him. "Your pathetic aliens can't hold a candle to my hyper evolved beasts." His horn fired a laser at him and Dragoon barely managed to pull himself out of the way in time.

The blast struck the wall and melted right through it, U-R-H stopping the laser as Dragoon flew around him. "Every alien has a weakness. And I'm gonna find yours!" He launched several fireballs at him and Riot-Horn's movements were so slow, he couldn't move in time to avoid them.

But with every fireball's impact, the evolved Solarhino simply stood there and took it. The flames and explosion did nothing to him. "Don't you understand?" He asked before raising his fist, "I'M INVINCIBLE!" He slammed his fist into the ground so hard, the whole floor shook whilst a shockwave was sent out in all directions.

Dragoon took the brunt of it and was blasted backwards, whilst the others were all knocked off their feet or out of the sky.

"Gyah!" Dynamo slammed into the ground, moaning. "Watch it!" They all turned to Ultimate Riot-Horn, as he pulled his fist out of the now dented ground.

He began to make his way over to Dragoon, who rolled onto his back and groaned. "I'm an Ultimate Alien," he stated. "Which means I'm the most powerful thing that's ever existed in the universe."

Dragoon glared at him, "I bet there are still stronger aliens out there."

"Maybe there are," he nodded. "And if they ever appear, I'll simply scan them into my Ultimatrix and become an Ultimate version of them. That's just how powerful I am." As he said that, the horn on his chest began to power up. But before he could fire, Dragoon hit the Omnitrix and transformed.

"Kagenobi!" The shadow ninja melted into the floor, as the horn cannons fired and struck the spot he had been.

Once again, the floor shook as the spot that had been hit melted. But Kagenobi had escaped and was flying towards U-R-H. When he reached it, the Ultimate Alien found himself stand on a giant puddle and began to melt into the ground. "Let's see if an Ultimate Alien doesn't need to breath!"

"Nice try!" Riot-Horn's thrusters exploded and he was propelled upwards, Kagenobi roaring at the heat of the flames. U-R-H then spun around in the air and fired a laser from his nose, which shot down towards the shadow and exploded.

"GYAH!" Kagenobi was thrown out of the shadow vortex, which quickly vanished, and hit the ground. Ultimate Riot-Horn then fell to the ground and when he landed, the impact once again shook the room and dented the metal flooring. He stared at Kagenobi, the alien slowly picking himself up but looking a little shaky.

The others weren't doing much better either, Shining and Trixie's fight against Devious and Chrysalis going about as one would expect.

Trixie had created a shield around her and Shining, to protect against Devious' attacks and Chrysalis teleporting them. But when Shining tried to fire his laser at them, the pair teleported out of the way or the blast was warped back at them and hit the shield.

Trixie had to lower the shield, still unable to keep it up for very long, allowing the pair to attack at full force. Trixie leapt away to avoid a fire blast, whilst Shining turned his weapon into a shield to block a lightning blast. And before either could retaliate, Chrysalis teleported them in front of her and slammed her metal legs into their chests.

They were both knocked flying backwards, but kept from leaving the web by Chrysalis.

At the same time, Twilight and Pinkie found themselves outnumbered by the fire cats and bladed lizards. Twilight used her magic to stop as many as she could, but there were just too many. She barely had time to catch one of them before another suddenly pounced or shot fire at her.

Pinkie was doing her best to fight them off, but was forced to use her blaster more than her explosions to fear running out of ammo. The girls had to jump away from each other, as a lynx landed between them and almost clawed at them. But Twilight found herself tripping over and falling to the ground, as a lizard leapt at her.

But the beast was blasted back by Pinkie shooting at it. The blast managed to do some serious damage and it fell to the ground, only for Animac to laugh as he took out another monster ball.

The monster that make out of it was a human sized rabbit, which her a long horn on its head and bear arms. The beast bounced forward and tried to claw at them, but Twilight caught it in her magic and threw it back towards Animac. But this allowed a lynx to breathe fire at her.

"Twilight!" Pinkie rushed forward and tackled her out of the way, the flames hitting her hair as she did so. They fell to the ground and Twilight gasped at Pinkie's hair on fire, quickly using her magic to force the flames off of her. It wasn't easy to control something like fire, but she was able to snuff it out before it seriously hurt Pinkie. However, Pinkie's normally bubblegum like hair was now burnt and a little bit shorter.

She picked herself up and saw the state her hair was in, but smiled at Twilight to show her it was okay. However, "it's is so on!" Pinkie turned to the two villains and smoke shot out her nose.

Applejack continued to swing her mace around, Dynamo leaping into the air and firing at her with his hip blasters. But she used her mace to deflect the ones coming at her before thrusting the mace forwards. Doing so caused the mace's head to fly off the handle, but remain connected to it with an energy chord.

It flew towards Dynamo and slammed into his chest, knocking him flying until he crashed into the ground. He groaned as he picked himself up, Applejack rushing forward to smash his wings and ground him. But as she reached him, her mind suddenly went blank and her body went still.

"No!" Rarity cried, seeing she had failed to protect her friend from getting a mind control disk attached to her back.

"Hahaa!" The Hypnotist laughed. "You're mine now. Attack your friends." Applejack turned towards her closest friend, Fluttershy, and prepared to fire the mace head at her.

But before she could, a rainbow blur shot past and the disk was knocked off her back. "Nice try!" Rainbow cheered, sliding to a stop whilst Applejack started coming around. As she did, Dragstar pointed his gun blade at Rainbow and started firing. The laser it fired was pretty fast, but Rainbow was faster and used her laser sword to deflect it. He then fired several more and she protected herself against each and every one.

She then shot forward and was soon right in front of Dragstar, attempting to slam the sword into him. The laser couldn't actually cut anything, acting more like a club or baton, but it could still shock the use if it made contact.

But Dragstar managed to block the slash with his sword and kicked at Rainbow, attempting to burn her with his exhaust blast. But Rainbow leapt back and managed to avoid the singing.

Applejack had finally recovered, but this had allowed Dynamo to get back up and thrust his spike at her. She gasped as the tip managed to hit her shoulder, but she pulled back before it could get more than an inch in. She held her now bleeding shoulder and glared at him, whilst he gave her a look of victory.

She swung her mace around, Dynamo leaping back and firing his hip blasters to keep her at a distance. Applejack was forced back, wondering why Dynamo was suddenly keeping his distance.

Rarity kept shielding herself against the Hypnotist's disks and few one at him, managing to get his leg and knocking him off balance. As this was happening, Rainbow and Dragstar kept duelling with their blades, Shining and Trixie were still in a stalemate against Devious and Chrysalis, Twilight and Pinkie were barely keeping themselves from being surrounded and Kagenobi was once again blasted by Ultimate Riot-Horn.

At the same time, Fluttershy and Sunset stood back to back against Doddery and Viral.

The cyborg woman fired more lightning at them, Fluttershy seeing this and using her shield to block. Sunset fired her blaster and Doddery, keeping her from getting too close. But as she looked around, she couldn't tell if things were going well for them or badly.

She then spotted Azmuth, who had used this time to type away at the computer system and bring the security systems back online. "Almost done." And as he said that, the lights in the base came back on as the computer activated. "Yes!" He smirked, accessing the security system and bringing the weapons online.

However, as he was doing that, Viral saw him and smirked. "Oh, I don't think so." Her body burst into electricity and shot towards the computer, Sunset and Fluttershy seeing this and gasping.

"Azmuth, look out!" The galvin looked around and saw the lightning moving towards him, but couldn't react in time to stop her from hitting the computer.

Several others saw this and the villains smirked, whilst Viral's laugh filled the air. "Now your computer systems are mine again." However, Azmuth and the others smirked.

"Do you really think we'd let you take control of our systems a second time?" Shining asked, as he blasted Devious back. And sure enough, something happened that caused Viral to cry out in pain.

"What is this?"

Twilight smirked. "A new firewall we installed after you turned our base against us last time." She threw a blade lizard onto a fire lynx. "Right now, it's deleting every bit of you. If you don't want to be destroyed, I suggest getting out of there."

Viral growled, preparing to escape. But then, the pain coursing through her stopped and the firewall appeared to be deactivating. "What?" It was then that Ultimate Riot-Horn laughed, the mecha rhino punching Kagenobi away.

"I've known about that firewall since you installed it," he told them. "And I implanted a defence against it when I built Viral's body." They all gasped as Viral laughed, the firewall slowly beginning to go down.

"Excellent. I'll have control of the computers in no time."

"That's not good," Azmuth gulped as he tried to make a new defence. But before he could, the computer sparked and he was forced back.

"I don't think so." Viral laughed, as Doddery used the distraction to attack. Fluttershy barely noticed her in time to block with her shield.

"Back off!" Sunset fired her blaster, forcing the older woman back.

At the same time, Kagenobi hit the Omnitrix again and transformed into Arctiguana. He unleashed a blast of ice, hitting Ultimate Riot-Horn and freezing him. But the giant rhino quickly shattered his way through the ice before it could completely form.

He threw a pile driver punch at Arctiguana and the lizard barely had time to hit the Omnitrix, transforming into goop seconds before it connected. The punch sent a lot of him flying, but what remained slid up his arm and started trying to melt through the armor. But even that didn't work and U-R-H quickly grabbed the slim off of him and threw it against the wall.

Goop groaned as he slid to the ground, whilst the others were having just as little look.

Applejack swung her mace around and as she did, she felt strange. Her body was slowly going numb, making her moan as she wondered what was happening. "Feeling a little sluggish?" She looked up at Dynamo, who smirked as he held up his spike blade.

"Wait..." She looked at the small cut in her shoulder, "no way."

"Oh yes. I laced the blade with a special toxin. Nothing dangerous, but it'll render you pretty much immobile in a few minutes." Applejack couldn't believe she had let something so simple as a tiny cut get the better of her.

"Gotta end this before he takes me out!" She charged, but she was already feeling the toxin slow her down.

At the same time, Rarity shielded herself against another control disk and threw her gem at The Hypnotist. And as he dodged it, he tried to fire again. But the shooter launched nothing. "What? Don't tell me I'm out of disk!" Rarity smiled at this, the girl quickly launching a wall of gems at him. "Wait!" The wall slammed into him and he was pushed backwards, eventually hitting a wall and getting sandwiched between them. "Augh!"

Rainbow and Dragstar kept fighting with their swords, both appearing to be even. But then, Dragstar hit Rainbow's hand with the butt of his gun blade and the impact made her drop her baton. She flinched at this and before she could pick it up, Dragstar blasted it away from her.

"Hey!" Now only having one baton, she found herself in a more perilous position. Dragstar kicked at her, attempting to once again burn her, but she leapt away. Dragstar used this opening and fired several shots at her as she was in the air, Rainbow managed to deflect most of them with her baton but missing one that hit her in the leg. "GYAH!" She fell to the ground and screamed at the pain her leg gave off when she put pressure on it.

Her scream caught the other's attention and they saw Rainbow was in trouble. Dragstar quickly rushed over and slammed the butt of his gun into her head. At the same time, Applejack's arm went completely dead along with one of her legs. She dropped her mace and fell to her knee.

Dynamo smirked and fired at her, Rarity forced to release The Hypnotist and protect her. But as she did, Negatine created a Ptera-Jet and had it launch a missile at her. "Look out!" Pinkie screamed, as the missile exploded and sent Rarity flying. The girl was slammed into the wall and fell to the ground.

"NO!" Twilight cried before letting out a roar of anger and sending the mutants flying at their creators. But as she did, Dynamo flew down and nicked her with his spike. "Augh!" She hissed at the cut in her arm, Pinkie taking out some sprinkles and throwing them at Dynamo.

The man flew up, the explosion missing him. Pinkie tried to throw some more, but the Ptera-Jet flew down and she found herself getting tackled to the ground.

Sunset and Fluttershy saw this and were shocked that their friends were starting to be overwhelmed. They looked around and saw Trixie and Shining still trapped inside Chrysalis' web, whilst Flash had transformed into Lantool.

The strangely suited energy being flew around U-R-H, creating a barrage of different tools and weapons to fight back against the alien. Buzz-saws, electric drills, wrecking balls and so many more different attacks were used on the Ultimate Alien.

But again and again, the energy had absolutely no effect on him. Ultimate Riot-Horn grabbed the wrecking ball in one of his hands and crushed it, the energy shattering into nothing as Lantool stared at him in shock. But he kept pushing and rushed forward, creating a giant boxing glove that he slammed into U-R-H's face.

"Really?" Ultimate Riot-Horn looked at him like one would a child saying they would one day become an astronaut. "This is just getting sad." One of his chest horns then began to power up and Lantool barely managed to pull away in time, as the laser fired and almost hit Sunset.

Lantool knew this alien wouldn't be able to do anything, so flew down and hit the Omnitrix to transform as he hit the ground. "Eatle!"

The alien beetle ripped some of the floor off the ground and started munching away at it, whilst Riot-Horn launched lasers at him. Eatle quickly jumped to the side and fired a blast form his horn, hitting U-R-H but not even pushing him back. Eatle quickly ate more of the damaged ground and fired another blast, but it the Ultimate Alien fired his own laser and the two slammed into one another.

The lasers pushed against each other, appearing evenly matched. But that only lasted about five seconds, as Ultimate Riot-Horn's attack quickly overpowered Eatle's and slammed into him. Eatle cried out as he was blasted backwards and crashed into the wall, with Riot-Horn's rockets suddenly propelling him forwards as he pulled his fist back.

The alien hero gasped and hit the Omnitrix, trying to get Goop but getting Pesky Dust instead. It was a miracle that he was able to duck under the punch as it slammed into the wall and shook the building again, Pesky Dust flying behind U-R-H and beginning to sprinkle his sleep powder onto him.

"Even Ultimate Aliens need sleep!" He cried, but Ultimate Riot-Horn ripped his arm and part of the wall off as he spun around. That wall shielded him from the magic and allowed him to charge up another horn blast.

"Never forget what you are!" He told Pesky Dust, as the laser fire out of his horn and struck the little fairy. "A WEAKLING!" Pesky Dust screamed as he was blasted backwards. And as he was, the Omnitrix beeped.

Everyone watched, as a green flash filled the air and Flash fell out of it. He slammed into the ground and rolled along it as smoke came off his body. He lay there, as the others gasped.

"FLASH!" They tried to rush to his side, but they were all stopped. Twilight suddenly felt her legs give out from Dynamo's toxin, forcing Pinkie to protect her. Doddery and Dynamo stopped Sunset and Fluttershy, whilst Shining and Trixie were still trapped inside Chrysalis' web and under attack from Devious' blasts. Rarity, Applejack and Rainbow were all still in dispose.

Flash groaned as he pushed himself up, his body screaming at him. He then heard the footsteps and rolled over to see Ultimate Riot-Horn moving towards him. "How pathetic," the alien laughed as Flash pushed himself backwards. "The great hero, made completely helpless.

Flash reached into his pocket and as U-R-H got closer, Flash took out Azmuth's fail-safe. "Not so helpless!" He pointed it at the Ultimatrix and unleashed a beam of green light, hitting the device and expecting it to deactivate. But when the beam ended, Ultimate Riot-Horn was still standing there. "What?" Even Azmuth was shocked by this, whilst the rhino laughed.

"Let me guess. You thought that would deactivate my Ultimatrix? Too bad, I added a defence against that fail-safe. Good thing I watched the other world's Azmuth do the same thing."

Flash's eyes widened, as he realized he truly was helpless right now.

"FLASH!" Twilight tried to force herself to her feet. But in that moment, an energy gun folded out of the wall and fired at her. She screamed as a blast almost hit her, her legs once again giving out as Viral's laughter filled the air.

"Finally got through to the defence systems," she told everyone. "This base's weapons are now mine." To prove her point, she started firing at Sunset, Pinkie, Fluttershy, Shining and Trixie.

Sunset, Pinkie and Fluttershy were blasted by some lasers and knocked flying, crashing into the ground injured. Shining and Trixie were barely able to protect themselves, putting up shields to defend. As they did, Devious blasted them from behind with lightning.

The pair were knocked to the ground and Chrysalis allowed them to fall out of their web, both looking down for the count. Flash saw this and was shocked, whilst Ultimate Riot-Horn smiled down at him. He then changed back to his human form, Shadow nodding at Animac who picked up Pinkie's blaster and threw it at him.

"I want to enjoy this," he pointed the weapon at Flash. "Oh, how I've waited for this moment." The laser was aimed directly at Flash's head and as he prepared to pull the trigger, Flash acted and swept his feet out from under him.

The teen cried out as he fell to the ground, his blast flying wide and hitting the computer. "GYAH!" Viral screamed, as the laser damaged the computer and hurt her. She was forced to leave the computer before it could crash, lowering the defence system whilst Flash rolled away from Shadow and ran over to his friends.

"Stop him!" Shadow roared, as Animac sent the blade lizards towards him and Negatine sent the Ptera-Jets soaring down. Viral fired a blast of lightning at him, but took something else out of his pocket. The energy shield.

The weapon defended him from the lightning and deflected it into the approaching monsters, blasting them and causing them to fall to the ground.

Flash kept shielding himself from Dynamo, Dragstar and Devious' attacks, barely managing to keep up with them. But they were so distracted by Flash, they didn't notice Shining, Trixie and Sunset had partly recovered. And the next thing the villains knew, they were getting blasted as Flash reached Shining and Trixie.

Flash stood protectively of them, whilst the crooks all slowly advanced and prepared to attack at once. "Flash," Shining told him, "we can't win this!"

"There's gotta be a way to beat them," Flash stated. "I'm not gonna give up and let them take me down."

"That's not what he's saying." Azmuth had somehow made it over to them and landed on his shoulder. "This battle has turned against us. I'm afraid it's time for a tactical withdrawal."

"What?" Flash looked at him in shock, "you wanna run?" Viral unleashed a blast of lightning and Trixie put a dome around them, blocking the blast.

"What other choice do we have?" Shining told him. "We need to come up with another plan so we can take these guys down." The other villains started blasting the shield, making Trixie grunt.

"I don't like it either," she sighed. "But what other choice do we have right now?" Flash growled, still not liking the idea of running away. But how could they win at this rate?

"So how do we get out of here?"

"I'll teleport us out," Azmuth announced. He took out a small remote and started pressing buttons, then frowned. "Not good. Shadow's blast did some serious damage. I can teleport us using my ship, but it's only calibrated to transport me and anything around me." The others realised what he was saying. If they were going to warp away, only the three of them could go.

"But...Twilight and the others." Flash turned to his friends and saw they were all in trouble. Sunset had once again been incapacitated and the rest of the girls were in no better stated.

The only one still conscious was Twilight, but she was moments away from succumbing to the toxin.

She forced her head up and locked eyes with her friends, who were clearly torn. "Get out of here!" She cried, "hurry! Before it's too late." The flinched at this, as Trixie's bubble began to crack.

"I can't keep this up much longer!" She cried, as Azmuth turned to Flash. The look on the boy's face showed he was hating himself, but he understood.

"We'll come back for you!" Flash cried, as Azmuth activated the teleporter. "I promise, we're gonna save you." The light began to surround them, making Shadow frown.

"Running away? How unlike you." But then Flash shot him a glare that could curdle milk.

"Just wait," he told his clone. "I'll be back. And when we face off, that Ultimate Alien of yours is going down." With that, he and the others vanished. The criminals frowned, but Shadow smirked.

"Go ahead and run. The outcome will be the same the next time you chose to face me. I'm going to leave you broken and beaten. And when you finally meet your end, it'll be when you know you have been utterly outmatched." He turned to Twilight, as the girl felt herself fall unconscious. "Put them somewhere out of the way. But leave them alive. They can sit and wait for their great hero to come and fail to save them. We have work to do for the final phase."

"Flash," Twilight whispered, "please hurry." With that, everything went black.

Twilight knew Flash would return. But whether or not he would be able to stop Shadow and his Negative Ten was another story. Was this the end? Only time would tell.

Author's Note

Well that was intense. Flash tried, but he just couldn't beat Shadow's Ultimate Alien. Now, the Negative Ten have control of the base. What could they be planning? Only time will tell. I'll see you all next time.

Behind the Alien: Cat-Apult

The first planet on our tour, is the home world of an alien Flash received whilst on a trip into the future. The sharp shooting launcher alien, Cat-Apult.

Prepare yourself to be flung back in time, as we head to a planet that almost like looking into one's own history. As they say in this world. Have at thee. Let's go.

The scene opens up on a planet that appears similar to Earth, only many of the continents that make it up appear to be lacking in foliage.

Whilst Earth from orbit appears green with several areas of brown mountainous locations, this planet is the opposite and appears to be mostly open mountains with several areas of green here and there. The continents up north were covered in snow and there were several small continents that were entirely rocks with no plant life appearing at all.

Saxumundus, the only planet in its system that can sustain life. Though life on said planet is anything but easy, the inhabitants of the world have evolved to handle the harsh climate that the planet has in store for them.

With many continents covering different areas of the planet, an abundance of life exists here with many unusual abilities that allows them to live there. That includes the alien we are here to see today. The Felistacatus.

The scene zooms in on the planet, to a rocky location similar in appearance to the Colorado mountains of Earth. There isn't as much greenery here, but there are a few trees here and there that allow for shade and sustenance.

On top of a mountain are a collection of trees, which are all baring strangely shaped fruit. And one of these trees was soon landed on by a long necked green bird, with two sets of wings that it folded up as it landed.

It reached its long neck out to peck at the fruit. But as it did, it had no idea it was being watched by something carefully prowling towards it. And as it began to eat the fruit, the creature revealed itself to be a humanoid cat creature walking on all fours.

Name: Felistacatus
Alien Type: Intelligent Feline
Intelligence: 4/20
Abilities: Prehensile tail that launches items
Form: Humanoid cat standing from four and a half to five and a half feet in height, with a white face, chest and feet. Remaining parts of the body coming in many different colours, being anything from blue, to red, to green, yellow, pink and many more. Long tube-like tail of around six feet in length, being thicker than the alien's arm and having a hole in the centre that appears to go all the way to the base of the tail.

The stealthiest creature on Saxumundus, the felistacatus carefully stalk their prey. And once they're close enough, they use their best weapon to take them down.

The yellow cat alien raised its tail, which appeared to be packed full of things. And just as the bird seemed to notice it wasn't alone, the tail fired what was inside it out at high speed.

They turned out to be rocks, which flew through the air like bullets and began to slam into the bird and knocked it off the tree. It crashed into the ground and before it could recover, the felistacatus leapt at it and tackled it to the ground. The bird let out a squawk, as its long neck was bitten into.

The felistacatus can generate a specialised air within its tail, that is naturally let out when the tail is empty. But when the tail is packed, this air will begin to build and pressurise. As such, once enough pressure has been built, the feline alien can unleash it all into a super strong concussive blast that will launch whatever's blocking up the tail out with incredible speed and power. This turns whatever is launched into a high impact weapon, which could shatter bone depending on the harness of the object.

Once the bird was taken care of, the felistacatus lifted its over its shoulders and began to head down the mountain. The cat showed incredible climbing skill and dexterity, as it leapt from one ledge to another until it reached an area of the mountain that had a cave in the side of it.

The felistacatus headed inside to find a green female cat alien, looking after a bunch of felistacatus kittens that were either yellow or green.

Making their homes within natural mountain caves, they raise their young here and train them to use their abilities and natural reflexes in order to survive.

The male placed the food down, allowing its mate and kits to begin feasting. They all ate, whilst the male looked out the cave and used its strong sense of sight to study the landscape.

Though this area may appear to be the perfect place to call home, it can be quite unpredictable. Especially with another species that lives there, who hold the power the completely reshape the land.

On another part of the planet, a small rabbit like alien was scouring the landscape in search of its own food.

Its arms appeared longer than a normal rabbit's, with a secondary limb attached to it that was folded up at the moment. It hopped around, sniffing the ground searching for something to eat. But then, its ears twitched and it looked around before bursting out into a run.

As it did, the ground around it suddenly turned from solid to a pool of mud. The area it was on was just about to turn liquid, but it leapt into the air at the last moment and spread its arms. Doing so caused the secondary limbs to extend and reveal a pair of bat-like wings, which allowed it to take flight.

It flew away from the mud pool. But at the last moment, the earth shot up from the pool and morphed into a hand shape. And it moved faster than the rabbit, allowing the hand to grab it before the mud solidified back into rock.

The rabbit screamed as it tried to break free, but it couldn't and it was brought back to the ground. The arm solidified and as it did, the one responsible for the sudden earth shift stepped up to the creature.

Name: Canifigerra
Alien Type: Intelligent Canine
Intelligence: 3/20
Abilities: Ground manipulation, heightened sense of smell and hearing
Form: Humanoid dog standing from five to six feet in height, with appearances ranging from looking like any type of earth dog. From labradors, to border collies, to german shepards and so many more.

Canifigerra, one of the top predators of Saxumundus. This canine alien has the ability to mentally manipulate rock and dirt, changing its density to turn it from a solid to a liquid or liquid to a solid. Whilst in the liquid form, canifigerra can morph the mud into any shape and form before solidifying it again.

The doberman alien stepped forward and stared at the rabbit bat, then touched the stone fist and made part of it turn back to mud and grow around the rabbit's head before solidifying it. A minute later, the rabbit was still and the alien liquefied the rock again to pull it out.

A little while later, the canifigerra arrived at an area of the open rockland that was filled with huts and other structures made out of rock. A poodle canifigerra touched the ground with her paws and the whole area liquidated before the alien thrust her arms up, causing the mud to fly up and take form into a house shape. When it solidified again, a new home had been formed.

Though not as smart as the felistacatus, their mastery over the land has made them one of the most dominant species on the planet. And despite their cat dog appearance, the two species spent many years simply staying out of each other's way. On rare occasions, a canifigerra would agree to help a felistacatus by creating a new home for it out of the side of a mountain. But things soon changed when a third member of the planet's intelligent species joined the fray.

In another part of the planet, in one of the few forests that exist on Saxumundus, a small creature was making its way through the undergrowth of the forest.

Name: Trabeamus
Alien Type: Intelligent Rodent
Intelligence: 6/20
Abilities: Warp glyphing
Form: Mouse-like creature similar in appearance to Earth mice, standing at between ten and fifteen inches in height. White fur covered in blue lines running all around its body, all leading to a blue swirl on its head.

Trabeamus. The smartest member of Saxumundus' intelligent species. Though small in appearance, this alien uses its high intellect to survive.

The trabeamus scurried through the bushes in search of food, spotting a few plants that had seeds that it could feast on. It moved over to the plant and as it did, something suddenly flew overhead. The alien mouse looked up and saw no sign of anything, but still rushed over to hide under a bush.

He stared at the sky and waited, knowing that rushing could lead to disaster. As such, it looked around and spotted a small piece of flat wood on the floor. It picked it up and raised it to its head, as the blue spiral began to glow before unleashing a beam that burned a spiral mark into it.

Despite their intellect, the trabeamus lack the ability to truly fight against the dangers of the world. However, through some yet to be discovered means, this species has developed another ability to help it survive.

Once the mark was made, the alien stopped the beam and the wood's spiral turned blue.

The trabeamus then stepped out from under the bush and made its way over to the plant, dropping the wood next to it when it arrived. But as it started pulling the seeds out of the plant, its danger senses pricked and it looked up.

A giant blue hawk-like alien with four wings shot down, its claws ready to grab the alien. But before it could get in close, the blue markings on the mouse began to glow. And in a brilliant blue flash, the alien vanished right before it was grabbed.

In another part of the forest, a burrow had been dug out from under a large rock,

On the wall of the burrow, carved into a rock that was discovered whilst digging out the burrow, was another blue spiral exactly like the one on the trabeamus. This spiral suddenly started glowing, the light flying off and hitting the ground.

A blue flash filled the air and from out of it, the trabeamus appeared looking happy it had managed to escape.

The trabeamus body generates a strange form of energy, which it can use to mark certain objects with a spiral glyph that connects any two objects marked by this ability. Once marked, these two objects can become a doorway through space for the alien. It's entire body is transmuted into the energy and transferred into one of these glyph, allowing it to travel through the connection and arrive at the location of the second glyph.

The trabeamus dropped the seeds on the ground and began to enjoy them. Once it was finished, it turned back to the mark. Said mark had stopped glowing blue, the trabeamus moving up to it and unleashing a beam into the wall.

Once these two connected objects are used to transport the trabeamus, the glyph will mostly faded and be unusable again. As such, many trabeamus tend to remark their homes every time they use them. This allows them to make a quick getaway should the need arise and return home safely. But it also allows for quick escape when home is no longer safe.

Night arrived and the trabeamus was asleep.

As it snoozed, something appeared in the forest that they called home. A canifigerra stepped up and looked around, nodding as he decided this was a perfect spot to call home...for now.

The husky alien placed his hands on the ground and caused the earth to liquefy.

Down below, the trabeamus' ears pick up a strange sound and it wakes up. Looking out of the tunnel, its eyes went wide seeing the tunnel was starting to turn to mud and collapse. As such, the mouse alien rushed over to the glyph and warped into it. Moments later, the burrow was destroyed as the earth that made it up was used to make a hut.

Up on the surface, the canifigerra smiled at the new home he made. Meanwhile, a blue flash of light filled the air as the trabeamus flew out of a tree. When the light faded, it looked around and saw what the canifigerra had done to their home.

It should have been angry, but seeing the dog's abilities made it hum as he stroked his chin.

The next morning.

The canifigerra yawned as he left the hut, only to find something in front of it that hadn't been there the previous night. A chunk of wood with a glowing blue spiral on it.

He picked it up and scratched his head, only for the light on the spiral to explode off of it and form a mouse-like alien on the ground.

The dog was shocked and dropped the wood, whilst the mouse smiled up at him. It had gotten the canifigerra's attention. Now for its pitch.

At some point in the future, the two were rushing through the rocklands.

The canifigerra was wearing a sash around its shoulder, with pockets covering it. In one of the pockets was the trabeamus, whilst others held a bunch of seeds and grains they had found whilst on the hunt. They ran as fast as they could and eventually spotted a bird in the air, the canifigerra skidding to a stop before placing his hand on the ground.

The land turned to mud and shot up, grabbing the bird by the feet before pulling it down towards the ground. It then slammed into some more mud, sinking as it solidified. A minute or so later, it turned back to mud and the bird was lifted out.

The canine lifted its prey into the air, as the rodent used its ability to mark the earth. Once that was done, he climbed back into the sash and they were both surrounded by the energy. They then shot into the spiral and travelled through the gateway, coming out the other side as they were back in the forest hut.

The canifigerra emptied its sash of all the different grains and seeds, filling different bowls for the mouse to have its fill. It then got to work preparing the bird, happy to do it before it started to rot.

A unison of different abilities, allowing them to travel further for food without needing to exhaust themselves getting back. And they weren't the only ones to discover a partnership.

The pair are out on the hunt again, spotting a flying rabbit in the air.

The canifigerra launched the mud hands and tried to grab it, but the rabbit managed to avoid them all. And before the dog could launch another assault, something else shot up and struck the rabbit. A boulder.

The hybrid fell to the ground and before it could escape, the canifigerra turned the ground the mud and it sank. The alien dog and mouse stepped up to it, then looked over at the rock that had been launched.

Suddenly, something landed down on a rock and the pair looked up. There they saw a red felistacatus, with a sash like the one the canifigerra was carrying. And from out of it, a small trabeamus popped out. This one appeared female, the canifigerra trabeamus seeing this and jumping out.

The two mice rushed towards one another and smiled, whilst the cat and dog gave each other a curious look. But eventually, they both smiled as well.

Time moves forward and the four are working together to hunt, the group's differing skills making catching food much easier. Once they had something, the trabeamus teleported their partners back to the large home they all shared.

This one wasn't like the simple huts the canifigerra were known to make. This one was a mansion, made of interconnected bricks created from reshaping smaller clumps of earth. It was bigger, stronger and able to weather the elements much better than anything the canifigerra were able to make before.

With the trabeamus' superior knowledge, they were able to instruct the canifigerra on how to build better houses. Ones capable of withstanding almost anything. Almost.

The four began to relax, the trabeamus both rushing over to a small corner of the mansion with a miniature house made just for them. And inside this house, a bunch of smaller trabeamus were waiting. These ones were roughly the size of an Earth mouse and didn't have any of the blue lines or spirals their parents had.

The trabeamus family began to eat some seeds and grains, whilst the felistacatus and canifigerra both began to prepare their meal. But as they did, the entire mansion began to shake.

The aliens all rushed towards the door and when they arrived, they found a bunch of rocks flying in their direction.

They rushed back inside, as the rocks slammed into the wall and caused it to break apart. The aliens looked through the hole and found the ones responsible were a group of felistacatus. And they weren't alone.

A bunch of canifigerra slammed their paws into the ground, causing the foundation of the house to melt and make it sink. The ones directing them to do this, were a bunch of trabeamus.

The felistacatus fired more rocks at the house, causing it to break apart even more. The aliens inside were fearing they might not survived, but then the male trabeamus had an idea. He grabbed a piece of rock to place the glyph on before handing it to the felistacatus.

Moments later, the rock was propelled out of a hole and sent flying past the attacking group.

It landed a ways away and as it did, the spiral glowed before the light shot off and the previous inhabitants of the house appeared out of it.

The male trabeamus looked exhausted, teleporting so many at once draining him. The female hugged him, as the felistacatus and canifigerra turned back to their former home, which had been reduced to nothing. They were all angry and swore to get their revenge.

When the three groups of species banded together, they realised they could do anything. But when one has no limits, their desires to acquire also become limitless.

Time moves on and the group of aliens that had been attacked had gathered more trabeamus, felistacatus and canifigerra. They formed a large group, who worked together to create a massive fortress in the middle of the wastelands. Said fortress was built upon a rare underground source of fresh water, which became accessible thanks to the canifigerra.

Once the water source was acquired and the fortress built, they worked together to defend it against whoever might try and take it for themselves.

And sure enough, a large army began to march towards the fortress. When it arrived, the felistacatus stepped forward and got into firing range. The canifigerra used their abilities to create tightly compacted boulders, whilst the trabeamus studied the fortress and determined the best area to attack.

Once the felistacatus were loaded, the mice aliens stated the battle plan. The cats then fired, launching the rocks at the fortress and hitting it in roughly the same area.

As this was happening, the force inside the building were preparing their countermeasures. The felistacatus leapt onto the fortress walls and launched their own rocks back, many slamming into the ones in the air and destroying them.

Outside, the lead trabeamus placed a glyph on a rock before a felistacatus launched it higher than the rest.

It flew over the walls and began to fall towards the ground. As it did, the glyph unleashed its light and a bunch of felistacatus and canifigerra appeared out of it.

The two groups began to do battle against one another, an all out war pretty much breaking out.

Fast forward to the end of the battle and it is shown that the makers of the fort had claimed victory. It was a hard fought victory, and not without casualties, but they had won and protected their home. Now they had to repair it and wait for the next attack.

All over the planet, fortresses like that one have been built. They're all used to protect something, be it a water source, food source, or a plant filled location one could farm and cultivate the land. Every fortress had something worth defending it for. And so this went on, for many centuries until the planet became what it is today.

Fast forward one last time and the descendants of the aliens that first made this fortress were working hard.

Now they were kitted out with armor and weapons, combined with their own natural powers. The armies set out to defend their home and fight whoever might try to take it from them. Like the knights of old, they would fight to protect what was their's.

Saxumundus. A harsh world to call home, for sure. But thankfully, we were just visiting. Time to move on to the next planet of our tour. You geology lovers are sure to get a kick out of this one. And don't worry if you think you're starting to see double. Your eyes are not playing tricks on you. Onwards, to our next big adventure.

Author's Note

And so the Behind the Aliens chapters return. Hope you enjoyed this one and the ones to come. I'm really proud of this chapter, considering I only made Cat-Apult for the pun. Let me know what you think.

Behind the Alien: Gemini

Good evening, explorers and omni-planetary travellers. I welcome you back to our exciting galactic tour, as we arrive at the next planet on our list of places to see and explore.

Today, we'll be heading to the gem infused home-world of Flash Sentry's crystal copying alien. Gemini.

Rock collectors are sure to get charge out of this exploration, haha. But seriously, do not pick up any of the rocks you find here. At least not without wearing rubber gloves or something. You'll understand when we get there.

Let's dive in.

The scene opens up on a planet that looks like a completely barren rock. Its covered in storm clouds and looks like the most depressing place in the universe to live.

Geodora. Though not much to look at on the surface, this planet is brimming with beauty. Though to see it, one must look past its less than admirable surface and search deeper.

The camera zooms in on the planet and travels through the crust of the planet, arriving within it to reveal the inside was full of crystals. Every inch of it had gems of all different shapes and colours growing out of it. These crystals had made tunnels running through them, turning the entire planet into a giant maze of gems.

A marvellous natural accomplishment, the entire planet is actually a giant geode. Little is known about the creation of this planet, but many scholars believe it was once part of a volcanic planet that suffered a tremendous eruption that tore it apart and sent Geodora into space.

There, the hot lava cooled down and formed an air bubble within. And over millions of years, minerals floating through space were slowly absorbed into the air bubble and slowly formed the geode within before the planet fell into gravitational alignment within a solar system and created the planet we know today.

The scene changed to an area of the planet's interior, where a large chamber could be seen full of crystals. And it is here that we find the subject of today's exploration.

Name: Duplibuncle
Alien Type: Intelligent Mammal
Intelligence: 3/20
Abilities: Creating up to six duplicates, Creating force-fields from the gems on its body
Form: White humanoid rabbit, standing at around four feet in height. Three foot long ears that bend down halfway, with a two foot long white horse-like tail. Crystals on its forehead, chest, shoulders, back of the wrist, knees and tail tip, each glowing red, blue, yellow, green, orange, pink and indigo.

The duplibuncle. Geodora's only intelligent inhabitant. An interesting creature, whose bodies store a strange spectrum energy of unknown origin. Said energy is stored and expelled from them using the gem-like protrusions covering their body.

Several young duplibuncles can be seen running around the crystal chamber, playing some form of tag. The one that was it, was chasing another and couldn't quite catch them, only for the blue light to fly off their body and shoot past the one they were chasing.

This blue light hit the ground and took shape, forming an exact copy of the duplibuncle. Only the gems on this one were only blue and it quickly leapt forward, attempting to tag the one in front of it.

But before it could touch it, the duplibuncle's gems glowed and unleashed a shield of light that was every colour of the rainbow. The blue duplibuncle crashed into this shield and fell back, exploding back into the blue light that returned to original.

Duplibuncles have the ability to expel this spectrum energy in two distinct ways. Either using it to form an exact copy of themselves, or to generate a shield. However, the shield's strength depends on how much of spectrum energy the duplibuncle holds. Their energies are divided into seven distinct colour and when a replicant is created, it inherits only one of those coloured energies whilst the others remain within the original.

Every time a new replicant is created, the original's shield strength is weakened. At full power, the original's shields are strong enough to survive over twenty eight kilotons of explosive force. This combination of powers is what have allowed the duplibuncle to not only survive, but thrive.

The scene changes to show several duplibuncle trekking through a crystal cave.

They soon approached an unexplored section and as they did, one of them unleashed the green light that took form and nodded as it headed down the tunnel. They looked around, not seeing anything that might put the real it in danger. But as he was thinking that, part of the wall began to shift and a large gem suddenly fell towards it.

The replicant looked up and its eyes went wide as it was suddenly crushed beneath the gem. When it was, its body exploded back into the light and flew back down the tunnel.

Should a duplibuncle replicant's physically destroyed, the spectrum energy will return to the original. However, a replicant must be cautious when too far away from the original.

If the spectrum energy is outside the duplibuncle or its clone for more than five minutes, that energy will disappear and the duplibuncle will be heavily incapacitated. The energy is so directly tied into the duplibuncle's life force, that losing it permanently would be like having one's soul lose a piece.

The green energy returned to the duplibuncle, who sighed as the memories of his clone flew through his mind.

A duplibuncle's lifespan is a little over a hundred years. But duplibuncles that lose a spectrum energy colour have never lived that long, fifteen or so years being shaved off their life expectancy with every loss. Because of this, many replicants chose to stay in close proximity to their originator. This power protects the duplibuncle's life and allows for greater teamwork when facing dangers. And Geodora, despite its inner beauty, has its fair share of dangers.

Another group of duplibuncle were marching through the crystal tunnels, each of them on the lookout for something that might be dangerous.

As they passed a group of crystals, one of the gems on the wall suddenly began to spark with blue lightning.

The sound caught a duplibuncle's ears and it looked around, only to see the crystal looked perfectly normal. It shrugged and turned back to the others, only for the crystal to spark again. And this time, that sparking didn't stop and a bolt of lightning shot off the gemstone.

The duplibuncles all spun around and saw the lightning, which shot towards them and began to take form. And from out of it, a large cat-like creature appeared and let out a roar as it prepared to cut the rabbits apart with its sharp claws.

Name: Voltiger
Alien Type: Predatory Mammal
Intelligence: 0/20
Abilities: Convert body from physical form to electrical energy
Form: Tiger-like alien standing at around three meters in length from nose to tail. Electric blue fur with white lightning bolt shaped stripes covering it.

The duplibuncles barely managed to put up a shield, the beast bouncing off of it and leaping back. It growled at the duplibuncle before its body exploded into electrical energy, which shot into a nearby crystal.

Voltigers are one of Geodora's strongest predatory species. This unusual creature takes the form of a strangely coloured Earth tiger, but possess the ability to transmute its body into an electrical form. In this form, voltigers are able to reach speeds of over two hundred miles an hour. But they cannot remain in this form for very long, or else the electrical charge they output will cause the voltiger's body to lose mass and nutrition. There is one exception, however.

Certain gems that make up Geodora's interior are in a state of persistent photo-conductivity. Because of this, they are capable of conducting and even storing high voltage for an extraordinarily long time.

This allows the voltigers to store themselves within these special gems of Geodora, which prevents them from losing body weight. Here they lay in wait, keeping a watchful eye out for their prey to arrive. And once there, they strike.

The duplibuncle quickly ran from the voltiger, which shot back out of the crystal and chased after them. The beast tried to tackle them in electric form, but it is unable to breach their shields. Eventually, it is forced to return to physical form and this allowed the much faster duplibuncle to hop away.

The voltiger tried to give pursuit, but it didn't have the stamina to last very long. It eventually came to a stop, panting as it tried to regain its breath.

The duplibuncle got away and the voltiger was forced to make its way through the crystal tunnels and head back to its den, which is a small dead-end tunnel off shoot. There, another voltiger was laying around with a strangely large stomach. It was pregnant.

A female, voltiger will only have one cub every six or seven years. And during that time, they must remain still and keep their energy up. Going hungry for even a day, can risk it losing the cub.

Seeing its mate resting, the voltiger remembered it hadn't eaten if three days. If it didn't get any food soon, it would lose their offspring.

As such, the beast headed back out into the caves. And despite not having eaten anything in five days, it soldiered on. And eventually, it managed to pick up a scent.

Sniffing the ground, it followed this scent through the tunnels until it came across what it had been tracking. A lone duplibuncle, likely having got separated from the rest of its group, is trying to find its way back home. But it had only found a hunter, who had yet to be noticed by its unfortunate prey.

The beast laid in wait, as the duplibuncle stood there trying to decide which way it needed to go. And once it turned its back to the voltiger, the electrical beast shot into action and ran around the corner. Using the last of its strength to transform into its electrical state, it pounced and the duplibuncle spun around.

It tried to put up a shield, but it wasn't fast enough.

The lightning bolt slammed into its chest and zapped the poor creature with a few hundred thousand volts, rendering it dead before it had the chance to even realize what was happening.

The bolt of lightning flew back out the duplibuncle and reformed the voltiger, which sniffed the fried rabbit and took a few bites of it. It would need all the energy it could manage in order to keep itself from collapsing. It focused on the less nourishing parts of the alien, the arms and ears. They didn't have much meat on them, but it would be enough to keep it going.

It then picked up the rest of the carcass and headed back to its den, where its mate instantly started chowing down on the rest of the duplibuncle.

Like Earth big cats, voltigers will eat every piece of the animal. Including the bones. In fact, eating these bones are essential for both their digestive and dental health.

In order to avoid voltigers, duplibuncles must almost always be on alert.

Back at the duplibuncle home chamber, the older members of the warren were standing at the entrance of every exit. Many holes were needed, for if there weren't any voltigers would simply stalk out the entrance and force them to starve to death.

One of the guards heard something approaching, its ears twitching at an approaching sound. He stood tall and created shield, which filled the entire tunnel and made it impossible to get past into the chamber.

It waited, as the footsteps got closer and closer. And eventually, the source of the sound turned a corner and was revealed to be a bunch of duplibuncle running towards it with bags thrown over their shoulders.

The guard kept the shield up until they were right in front of it, then looked around and saw no sign of a voltiger or anything else that might be a danger to the warren. It finally nodded and lowered the shield, allowing the others to enter and they all patted him on the shoulder and took something out of the bag to hand to him.

He took it and smiled seeing it was some kind red fruit, which it bit into whilst the returning duplibuncle handed the rest of the fruit out to those in the warren.

The scene then returns to the surface of the planet, where a small cave can be seen that appeared to lead down into the crystal caverns.

From out of this cave, an orange duplibuncle replicant poked its head out to look around. Once it was sure nothing was dangerous, it made a gesture and rushed out the cave. The original and some other duplibuncle soon followed, the lot running as fast as they could through the rock filled environment.

Despite Geodora's mostly rock-like habitat. Several areas of the planet are capable of growing vegetation. Usually, plants and fruit can be found growing within the caves of mountains and in a few underground areas. Because of this, the duplibuncle must make frequent trips up to the surface in order to gather food.

Now many of you may wonder, why don't the duplibuncles just live on the surface? It might not be much to look at, but it has food and no voltigers. Well unfortunately, the surface holds an even more dangerous threat for the replicating aliens. The most dangerous predator on Geodora.

The duplibuncle are heading towards a cave that houses the fruit they're after. But as they ran across the storming surface, something is watching them from atop a large rock pillar. Something that quickly leapt into the air and flew after them, a high pitched buzzing sound filling the air as it did.

The Stab-Stinger.

Name: Stab-Stinger
Alien Type: Predatory Insect
Intelligence: 0/20
Abilities: Flight, Energy generation and energy projectile launching
Form: Yellow and black hornet-like alien of around seven or eight feet in height. Body split into three sections. One yellow head, with two large compound eyes and a pair of short black antenna. One large round yellow and black body, with four legs sticking out the front and four clear insect wings sticking out the back. One large thorax longer than the head and body combined, yellow in colour with black lines and a long glowing white stinger. Top two arms have long white lance-like weapons that glow like the stringer, with its bottom legs being thicker with yellow and black armoring that each end in a white point that glows.

The duplibuncle continue to run as fast as they can, only for their high pitched ears to catch the buzzing sound and look around to see the creature in question chasing after them. The wasp alien quickly approached, its glowing lances and stingers glowing in the storm clouded shade.

Stab-Stingers are Geodora's most vicious creature. Capable of flying over a hundred miles an hour, this alien insect can generate an energy that is similar in nature to the spectrum energy the duplibuncle can produce. However, this energy works on an entirely different wavelength to the duplibuncle's. Because of this...

As it got closer, the Stab-Stinger's abdomen sting glowed bright and it thrust it forwards. Doing so caused a needle of light to shoot out and fly towards the duplibuncles.

One of them skidded to a stop and and it did, it created a barrier using all seven of its energies. However, the energy needles simply passed through it and stabbed the poor rabbit alien in the chest.

The creature gasped as it began to fall to the ground, one of its friends stopping to run back and save it. But as it put up a shield, the stab-stinger flew down and landed on top of it. It then used the lance on its arm to stab the shield, the impact allowing it to pierce the shield like it was a balloon.

The duplibuncle gasped as the wasp attacked, the foolish rabbit soon joining its friend in the everafter.

The normally impenetrable shield might as well not be there, as the stab-stinger's energy cancels in out instantly. Because of this, a duplibuncle's only hope when coming across one of these creatures is to try and outrun or outsmart it.

The remaining duplibuncle ran as fast as they could, but more stab-stingers were soon following them close behind.

They entered an area with several more stone pillars, the rabbits rushing into it hoping to outmanoeuvre them in there. But the stab-stingers were just as agile and managed to fly around the pillars without much difficulty.

One of these wasps began to draw closer to a duplibuncle, but the rabbit quickly saw a pillar that looked pretty weathered. And as the stab-stinger got closer, the duplibuncle put a barrier around it before leaping up as hard as it could.

The alien rabbit shot through the air, the sphere of rainbow light remaining around it as the giant wasp tried to stab it. But before it could reach the duplibuncle, the sphere slammed into the rock pillar and broke through it. This caused the rock's top to start falling and as the duplibuncle reached the other side, the stab-stinger found itself getting hit by the giant stone and being crushed beneath it.

The duplibuncle landed and sighed, then kept running. It met up with the rest of its cohorts, which had managed to escape the other stab-stingers as they approached the small mountain that held the fruit full caves.

Inside the caves, the duplibuncle began gathering whatever they could. The fruit their warren needed, along with bits of tree and bark they could use to make and repair sacks. Once their bags were choked full, they headed back out cave and started leaping down the sides of the cliff.

Getting back was a lot harder than getting to the cave, as now they would need to avoid their predators whilst making sure everything they had collected didn't get damaged.

Another stab-stinger swarm attacked, but the duplibuncles managed to escape them without losing any more members. When they got back to the cave, they headed down with the stab-stingers too big and too flight dependant to head down into the crystal tunnels.

They still had to be careful, since there was a chance a voltiger might attack them. And sure enough, one of the giant beasts did appear from around a corner and pounced at them.

The lead duplibuncle created a shield and the voltiger bounced off it, whilst the other two sent out a replicant that charged at the beast. Using their strong legs, the copies bounced around the tunnel until they were able to slam a foot into the voltiger and knocked it down.

This allowed the duplibuncle to run forward and leap over the creature before putting up some shield on the other side. They used this to get away, the replicants staying back to keep the voltiger from following. But eventually, they chose to pop and return to the originals.

The voltiger tried to give chase, but the duplibuncles were faster.

Every trip to the surface comes with its own set of risks. That is why, only the best duplibuncles of the warren are selected to go.

Back in the crystal chamber, the duplibuncles were watching as two of them were fighting against each other. One was a young upstart, wanting to prove he was the best so he could see what was outside their crystal home. The other was a veteran, who had survived numerous trips to the surface world.

The veteran had seen many of its comrades become food. It would not allow another unprepared fool go on a suicide mission.

The pair charged and the youngster threw the first kick, but the veteran countered before dealing a punch to the stomach. This knocked the youngster back and as he hit the ground, all but his blue energy flew out of his gems and formed relicants that leapt at the veteran.

The older duplibuncle unleashed his own energies, though only the green, red and orange ones. These formed the replicants and they quickly leapt at the others, taking them on two on one. And to all those watching's surprise, the older duplibuncle was able to defeat all six of them whilst the original rushed at the youngster.

Before he could properly recover from the last hit, the veteran dealt a kick right to his chest before getting behind him and dealing a punch to his back.

This caused the younger duplibuncle to fall to the ground and the veteran pinned him down, his replicants returning to him as the youngster tried to fight back. But it was no good. He had lost and would not be making trips to the surface. At least not yet.

Geodora. A harsh and dangerous world to call home. But fortunately, we were just visiting. Join us next time, as we explore the home-world of another of Flash's new aliens. Prepare yourselves for one of the most beautiful sights in all the known universe, as we take a trip to see a rainbow dwarf star. Onwards, to our next big adventure.

Author's Note

Gemini is one of my favourite OC Aliens. When I thought about making a duplicator alien for Flash, I thought coming up with a name would be impossible.

Luckily, I happened to be watching a certain tokusatsu series that used something called a Gemini to mimic others. This made me have a brainwave and looked up crystal creatures, which led to me choosing to use a carbuncle as the base and the rest fell into place.

Hope you enjoyed this one.

Behind the Alien: Lantool

Good evening, explorers and omni-planetary travellers. I welcome you back to our exciting galactic tour, as we arrive at the final planet on our intergalactic tour.

Today, we will be taking a look at the origins and home-world of one of Flash's most interesting aliens. Lantool.

Let's see how this strange form of life came to be, and how they made a place in the universe.

Whilst I would normally suggest taking pictures to help remember this trip, I'm afraid any camera or recording devices will have to be put away. You did remember to bring lead lined bags for them, right? You didn't? Oh...oh well.

The scene opens up, not on a planet but on what appears to be a miniature galaxy from the appearance of it. A rainbow coloured star appeared to be in the very centre of this galaxy, which gave off a vast array of colours that flowed into the galaxy and gave it a beautiful glow.

Cosmicore. A micro solar system roughly one hundred million kilometres in size. This solar system is composed of a rainbow dwarf star, that is surrounded in billions of tiny rock and debris pieces. The energy of this dwarf star has an unusual characteristic and will cause anything electrical to overload and explode once close enough.

Because of this, many ships originally tried to stay clear of this area of space. But some ship captains did not heed this warning and chose to instead use the area of space, as a shortcut in order to get somewhere. This can work, so long as the dwarf star doesn't let out an energy pulse.

A transport ship is flying close to Cosmicore. Said ship is carrying a bunch of objects, too numerous to count, but one of them is a large collection of metal and glass boxes designed to hold energy cores when they're not being used.

The ship is running late and was trying to use the shortcut through the system in order to make up time. But as they did, the rainbow dwarf unleashed an energy pulse. It struck the ship and caused it to go into overload, the pilot trying everything they can to stabilise it. But there's no way to do so and the ship explodes.

The ship's debris and cargo fly into space, the cargo protected by their transport crates. But several crates hit the rocks in the solar system and due to already being damaged, break apart and scatter the contents everywhere.

This includes the metal and glass cases, which float around aimlessly.

It was a random event, that would change the destiny of this system forever.

Suddenly, a bolt of red energy from the rainbow dwarf shot out and struck one of the boxes. The energy was channelled into it, able to stand up to the energy output and store the red energy within.

This built up energy remained like this for months. And as it did, more of the boxes were also struck and absorbed the different coloured energies into themselves.

Scientists are still trying to determine what caused it, but somehow the confined energy gained a consciousness and eventually evolved into an intelligent life form.

The first captured energy opened its eyes, which were green, and the being finally awakened.

It looked around and found it was completely alone, though the beauty of the rainbow dwarf was certainly an impressive sight to be the first thing to see. But once the shock and awe wore off, it tried to figure out what it was, where it was and why it was there.

It pushed against the side of the box and found it could move it, the energy being pushing its way through the solar system in search of answers.

Name: Pulserian
Alien Type: Intelligent Energy
Intelligence: 6/20
Abilities: Energy generation and energy construct formation.
Form: Energy being made up of differently coloured energies, Its natural state being that of a round sphere with eyes a different colour to its energy body.

Pulsarians were literally born through catching lightning in a bottle, as the fact they were born at all was simply an act of many random things happening in just the right way. The fact that it happened once is amazing. The fact that it happened multiple times is nothing short of a miracle.

The red pulsarian eventually found another box and flew up to it. This one was full of pink energy, which was simply that. The red energy being simply stared at it, wondering what on earth it was. But it could sense the energy inside of it was just like it, so chose to stay with it.

As it waited, the red being chose to test its own abilities. Inside the box, it found it could reshape its body. First it forced out a tendril of energy, which it was able to make a hand with. It then tried to reshape its entire body, first turning into a box to mimic what it was trapped inside. It then changed to mimic a nearby rock, followed by a metal pyramid that floated past.

Slowly, it mastered reshaping itself and eventually gained a form it seemed comfortable remaining in without much effort. This form appeared humanoid, only instead of legs it had a wispy tail.

It then held up its hands and began to change their shapes. It made them circles, then squares, then triangles. It then tried 3D shapes, turning his hand into a cube and then a pyramid.

For two weeks, it slowly mastered its control and was able to make many intricate shapes. And on the fourteenth day, the pink energy suddenly moved.

The red alien turned to see it open its light blue eyes and look around, the red one moving over to it and trying to communicate. However, the energy being had no way to speak or even an understanding of what speech was.

The pink energy seemed a little shy, but the red one began to show it all the things it could do and the pink one started opening up and being interested in what it could do.

Slowly, the pink one learned to manipulate its body the same way as the red one and the pair began to search through their strange home. When they did, they found more cubes that held many different coloured energies inside.

The two got to work, finding a nearby metal crate that they push over to the cube they found and safely placed it inside. They did the same with all the other cubes they came across and after a few weeks, they were joined by a blue, yellow and green pulsarian youngling.

The five continue to find more cubes with stored energy, though many of the cubes have not been struck by the energy of the dwarf. Others simply don't have enough power, whilst others were too badly damaged to hold anything within them.

When first being born, pularian's energy bodies are usually no larger than an Earth golf ball. But as time goes on and they started generating their own energy, the pulsarians will grow. Theoretically, there is no limit to how big a pulsarian can become. However, the larger they get the harder it is for a pulsarian to control their powers. Most pulsarians like to keep their bodies at around four to five feet in height, though some do try to control themselves at greater sizes.

Now numbering around fifteen, the pulsarians had all grown quite larger.

They were so large, in fact, that they were now barely able to fit inside their containment cubes. They continue to push them through the air, but the size issue is proving problematic.

Eventually, one of the pulsarians had had enough. A black pulsarian created a drill-like tool and pushed it into the glass, cutting into it and eventually creating a hole.

The pulsarians had never left their cubular homes and had no idea what would happen if they did. Now they would find out.

The black energy being finally broke through the glass and was able to fly out through the hole it made. It shot into the depths of space and zipped around, able to move much faster now.

The other pulsarians were amazed by this and were able to break out of their cubes, but then the black pulsarian felt its body growing weaker and weaker.

Alas, the pulsarians cannot survive outside of their containment devices for very long. Their bodies are so unstable, leaving them for even a minute will cause their matrix to break down and the energy that makes them up to disperse uncontrollably.

The black pulsarian would have screamed if it possessed the ability to, the others all watching in shock as their friend simply vanished into nothingness.

This terrified them, many feeling their lives were hopeless. They knew they would keep growing and eventually outgrow their boxes, but they were trapped within them.

However, the red pulsarian chose to test an idea and did the same as the black one. It quickly drilled a hole into the glass, shocking its friends, but did not leap out. Instead, it let some of its energy out through the hole so it could disperse into space.

This caused his body to shrink, the others fearing he would soon die. But once he was at a comfortable size, he stopped his energy flow and remained as he was. The red pulsarian was amazed by this and didn't feel like he was going to dissipate. After a few minutes, the others confirmed he was alright and all did the same. Soon, they were all shrunk down and able to move around much more freely. In fact, they were able to do something even better.

A blue pulsarian sent out a tendril through the hole and once outside, it shaped it into a buzzsaw like appendage that it was able to cut through a rock with.

The other pulsarians soon found they were able to do the same thing, using the small hole to allow them to truly interact with the rest of the universe. The red and pink pulsarians even made a hand and held each other for the first time. It was truly an amazing moment.

With more control over their abilities, the pulsarians started exploring their home and eventually explored every area of it. Eventually, their curiosity led them to leaving Cosmicore and exploring the rest of the galaxy. And eventually, they found they weren't alone in the universe.

The pulsarians travelled through space together, able to fly as far as they wanted without the need for rest or to replenish themselves. And as they flew far enough away from their home, a ship suddenly came into view.

This was the first time these creatures had ever seen anything like that. And they were quite shocked to discover creatures living inside it.

Those creatures were a bunch of crab-like aliens that were known to the galaxy as cerebrocrustaceans. These aliens flew out of the ship, each one in a crabby space suit, and investigated the pulsarians. The creatures seemed a little frightened, but eventually the crabs showed them they had nothing to fear and the living energy creatures were soon welcomed on board their ships.

With the meeting of the cerebrocrustaceans, the pulsarians whole world changed. With their incredible intelligence, the cerebrocrustaceans were able to determine many things about the pulsarians. They even taught them to understand several forms of language. And eventually, they put their brilliant intellect to helping the pulsarians become more integrated with the universe.

Multiple cerebrocrustaceans were working on specialised suits, designed to be just like the containment cubes the pulsarians were in. There were many different kinds of suit, though all had the same lantern-like device somewhere on it.

There were ones that looked like Sci-Fi film flying saucers with the lantern on the top of them. Ones that took the forms of dogs and other four legged animals. And ones that looked like the cerebrocrustaceans themselves.

Each one also had nozzles somewhere on them, which were either part of the arms and legs or extended out of the main body by tubes. These would allow the pulsarians to not only expel excess energy, but create the variety of tools and weapons they had learned to make for themselves.

Once the creation of their suits were completed, the pulsarians found themselves able to actually be a part of the universe around them. One such way these suits helped them integrate was the inclusion of a special device, built into each of the suits that allowed them to project thoughts as sounds. This communication device finally granted the pulsarians the ability of speech, requiring them to learn how to talk.

The pulsarians were now all in suits, both the red and pink ones having gray version of the suit Flash used as Lantool, and were currently sitting in a classroom with a cerebrocrustacean teaching them many things about the universe.

The pulsarians were eager to learn and practised every moment they had free time, which soon became very little as they were also being taught more practical things.

With their ability to create a vast array of tools out of nothing, the cerebrocrustaceans chose to teach them more practical skills. One such skill that these aliens discovered they had a talent for, was mechanical engineering. As soon as they saw their first engine, the pulsarians became interested in learning how they worked.

A year after meeting the cerebrocrustaceans and getting new suits, the pulsarians were inside a ship hanger looking at the disassembled spaceship.

The red one nodded to the rest and they all shot into action, using their energy hands to pick up different pieces of the ship and use them to rebuild the ship. They attached the parts and either screwed, bolted or welded them into place.

Some were rebuilding the engines, others were rebuilding the thrusters and some were simply attaching the hule atop areas of the ship that had been rebuilt. In only a few hours, the ship was completed and the pulsarians had their own ship to travel the galaxy in.

Upon learning everything they could from their first friends, the pulsarians decided to travel throughout the universe and try to discover what purpose they had within it. For many years, they travelled from solar system to solar system, planet to planet, learning all they could from the inhabitants of them and letting themselves grow as a race.

And overtime, they realised what they were best at.

An appoplexian ship was flying through an asteroid field, when suddenly a rock smashed into one of its engines and caused it to blow. The appoplexians put on their space suits and went out to try and fix it, but found they had no idea how to repair it. One of the giant cats got so mad, it smashed its fist into the part and damaged it even more.

It was in that moment to pulsarian's ship arrived and the energy aliens flew out to help them.

They quickly got to work, some returning to the ship for the parts they needed whilst others began repairing what they could. Others were using their tools to keep any of the large rocks from getting close to them, either by cutting them in two or grabbing them to throw back into space.

Within an hour, the appoplexian ship was back online and the angry tigers were happy for once.

Thanks to their myriad of skills and the ability to move and survive in space, the pulsarians have evolved into the universe's greatest breakdown recovery specialists. The second they pick up a distress beacon, they rush over to help and are able to get the ship moving in no time at all. Unfortunately, they can not be everywhere at once.

Once the appoplexians were gone, the pulsarians returned to the ship. And as soon as they did, they detected another distress beacon and flew over to help. But they soon found they arrived too late, as the one who sent the beacon had drifted too close to the sun and had burnt up.

The red pulsarian slammed a nozzle onto the console, wishing there had been more of them to help. But there were only a small number of them...for now.

The scene changes back to Cosmicore, the rainbow dwarf looking just as beautiful as ever.

The pulsarian ship arrived just outside the range of the dwarf's pulses, the pulsarians opening the ship's airlock to allow the red, blue and yellow pulsarians to fly out. As they did, they were carrying large crates that they dragged into the solar system. And when they were close enough, they opened the crates to allow a bunch of containment cubes to float out of them.

These cubes soon littered the solar system, the pulsarians watching and protecting them from accidently hitting anything that could damage them. As they did, the rainbow dwarf's energy began to fire out its energy and hit several cubes.

Doing so caused them to suck the energy inside and trap the power within. Once that was done, the pulsarians grabbed them and returned them to the ship before heading back out. More cubes were infused with energy, all of which were eventually collected and returned to the ship.

Once the last cube was charged, they left the system and began to head somewhere they could settle down and wait for the new pulsarians to be born.

As they began their search, the red pulsarian asked the pink one to come with him. She did so and they headed to the storage room, where red showed pink several empty containment cubes he had chosen not to take out to the rainbow dwarf.

The pink pulsarian looked confused, until red told her his plan. She seemed surprised by this, but then nodded as her eyes showed a look of joy.

The pair pointed their nozzles at the box and unleashed some of their energy into it. The pink and red energy began to mix together, creating a light red or dark pink colour that sparked with power. As they did, the other pulsarians arrived in the cargo hold and were surprised to see this.

Red and pink continued to pump as much power as they could into the cube, until finally it was charged and they stopped. Both had trouble floating for a moment, their friends having to help them stay up, but they soon recovered and stared at the box containing their combined energies. Their child.

The other pulsarians saw this and turned to the empty boxes, some of them deciding to float forward and create their own offspring. The next generation of pulsarians were about to come into being.

Fast forward and the scene lands on another planet that seemed pretty much dead.

The planet had no vegetation, no water and no signs of ever having life on it. For many species, it was the worst planet to live on. But for the pulsarians, it was perfect.

Zooming down on the planet, the cameras lands on a settlement where the pulsarian ship had landed atop a mountain similar to the Ayers Rock. The flat topped hunk of rock was the perfect spot to land. And its forty meter tall walls were perfect for turning into homes.

Several holes had been dug into the rock's side and within them, the pulsarians were watching as the energy spheres continued to grow stronger within the confinement cubes.

At the ship, many pulsarians had just returned from space. They were carrying pieces of machinery, either from wrecks they had found in space or simply parts they had replaced on ships they had saved. They flew them down to a cave, where a bunch more junk had been piled up.

The pulsarians have become one of the greatest recycling species in the galaxy. Using anything they might find to build new containment suits for their future generations.

The red and pink pulsarians stared at the box containing their offspring and suddenly, it moved and they both took a closer look. And then, its light blue eyes opened and the pulsarian baby was born.

The happy parents would have cried if they were capable of it. The baby looked at the pair and slowly, formed a connection with them.

At the same time, the others pulsarian babies were also born. Those that had created their own offspring began to bond with them, whilst those that hadn't would look after the ones created from the rainbow dwarf.

In the years to come, these new pulsarians would grow and learn. They would each design and build their own containment suits, whilst being taught everything the cerebrocrustaceans had taught their predecessors. They would later travel into the galaxy and see all the wonders that awaited them there, whilst helping any ship that might call out for help.

As we fast forward, the planet is transformed with every passing generation. Metal buildings began to surround the rock, some being ship garages and others being homes and businesses run by the pulsarians that chose not to become space mechanics. More and more buildings appear and spread across the planet until, finally, we reach modern day and the entire planet has been transformed into a metal metropolis.

Despite the generations that had past, the story of their origins was never forgotten. As such, the planet took the name of the place that had birthed their entire race.

Neo Cosmicore. A thriving metropolis planet and a great place to end our galactic tour. Until our next trek into the ever expanding omniverse, I wish you safe travels back to your home planet. Onwards, to our next big adventure

Author's Note

Well, that's the last Behind the Aliens. We're reaching the end of this story. And the final part may come sooner than you think. What did you think of this particular origin? I quite enjoyed it. What about you?

Transformations: Playlist 1

Author's Note

Hey guys. Bet you weren't expecting this. A while ago, someone asked if I would ever put the actual transformations into the story. But since those transformations wouldn't actually add anything and take up space, I decided against it. But then I realised, there was nothing stopping me from putting the transformations into their own chapters.

So if anyone wants to re-read this story and wants to imagine how Flash transforms, just take a look at these three chapters and you'll be golden.

Also, if there's any animators out there that want to try and bring these transformations to life, go ahead. I'd love to see them if you do.

Transformations: Playlist 1

Volt-Edge

The Omnitrix begins to spark and the lightning completely surrounds Flash's arm before running up his body. Once his entire person has been surrounded by the electricity, he begins to grow taller and leaner.

The lightning begins to dissipate, starting at his hands and feet. Once they're revealed, the claws extend out of his gauntlets and feet-guards. The lightning disappears to reveal his chest and the spikes on his back, with his head being the last part revealed. The electricity then flies off his forehead, causing his lightning horn to form until all of it has faded.

Transformation complete, Volt-Edge swings his claws around before striking a pose.

Vapaw

The Omnitrix is consumed by a bunch of veins, which spread up his arms as his body reshapes itself to be quadrupedal. At the same time, Flash's hair turns gray and more hair grows out of his entire body. As the camera spins around him, his transformation continues and each pass has him become more and more beastly.

The final scene has his claws extend and his neck gills open, unleashing a blast of smoke that creates the mane that surrounds his neck and part of his head and chest. He slams his claws onto the ground and lets out a roar.

Diamondhead

Crystals appear from out of the Omnitrix and completely surround it, then move up to cover his entire arm. The rest of his body soon follows and the back of Flash's head is soon surrounded by the gems, which then begin to cover his face. Everything except his eyes are soon covered and then, a thin layer of crystal covers his eyes and begins to glow blue.

Two crystal spikes stick out of his back and as the camera spins around him, it zooms out to reveal his full form.

XLR8

The Omnitrix is consumed by a bunch of veins, which spread up his arms all the way to his face. As soon as that happens, his body vibrates as he transforms. Black lines appear out of his eyes before they suddenly shift, whilst the rest of his body glows and reshapes itself to be thinner and more streamlined.

Once the transformation is complete, the light fades as the camera spins around his new form before focusing on his face. His visor comes down and the camera zooms out to reveal his full form.

Firefly

The Omnitrix shrinks down, as a black carapace-like skin suddenly covers it along with the rest of Flash's arm. Flash's entire body is soon covered by the black shell, as fire suddenly explodes around his body. This includes his arms, chest, stomach, waist, knees and feet. His face also catches fire, burning away his hair as two zigzagged antennas grow out of his head.

The fire soon solidifies into flame-patterned body armor, as more fire explodes out of his back before disappearing to reveal a pair of flame-patterned wings. The camera zooms out and reveals Flash's new form, as he spreads his wings and takes flight.

Molestache

The Omnitrix shrinks into his wrist, as it slowly begins to change colour. At the same time, Flash wiggles his upper lip and hair begins to grow out of it. His front teeth also begin to grow larger, as the camera spins around him. When it does, his transformation is practically complete and he begins to pose before his body shrinks him down.

Goop

From under the Omnitrix, green slime appears and completely consumes it. It then spreads up the rest of Flash's body, before his form begins to melt into a puddle that falls to the floor.

The artificial gravity projector suddenly appears out of nowhere and flies over the puddle, causing it to be lifted up and take a humanoid form. Transformation complete, he strikes a pose with some slime flying off him in the process.

Riot-Horn

The Omnitrix is consumed by a bunch of veins, which spread up his arms all the way to his face. His body then begins to grow larger and bulkier, as the camera focuses on his face. A dome suddenly grows around his nose, which then extends upwards to form a horn that covers the camera.

When the camera zooms out, Flash is now completely transformed and flexes his new muscles as he lets out a roar.

Chamalien

The Omnitrix shrinks into his wrist, as the skin begins to grow scales that are a mixture of purple and grey. These scales grow up Flash's arm and cover his entire body, only for him to suddenly disappear.

The camera then finds itself zoomed in on a trio of differently coloured eyes, which appear along with the rest of his body. The camera zooms out to reveal his full form, as he crouches on all fours looking ready to pounce.

Bushwhacker

Wood starts growing out from under the Omnitrix, which begins to cover Flash's arm and surround the device. The wood then grows outwards and spirals around Flash, trapping him inside what appears to be a large tree that quickly grows leaves.

After a few moments, the tree shatters to reveal the wooden twelve-sided die. And as it falls atop the remains of the tree, those remains begin to rise up and reshape themselves. Soon enough, the transformation is complete and the walking forest is fully formed.

Transformations: Playlist 2

Lindwhirl

The Omnitrix is consumed by a bunch of veins, which spread up his arms all the way to his face. His entire body then starts growing greyish fur, as his face starts to reshape itself into a wolf-like snout and large fangs grow out of his mouth. The fur grows downwards, completely surrounding his legs and extending into a long tail.

The camera circles around him, as the spikes grow out of his back. His arms are completely covered in fur, as long claws suddenly extend out of them. When the camera arrives at his face, his transformation is complete. And as it zooms out, he bites his tail and spins like a wheel before stopping to pose dangerously.

Squidstrictor

Flash's arm morphs into a thick tendril, the Omnitrix being absorbed into it, his other arm soon changing as well. The change spreads from the tendrils and begins to cover the rest of Flash's body, his legs being merged into one long tendril that quickly splits into seven tentacles with suction cups on the ends.

Flash's head stretches and transforms, his teeth growing larger and morphing into bristles. A tentacle then flies past the camera and when that happens, the transformation is complete. The camera zooms away from him as he strikes a pose, ready for battle in his new squidy form.

Kagenobi

A cloud of dark fog, suddenly appears from out of the Omnitrix and completely surrounds the watch. The cloud then spreads up Flash's arm and consumes his entire body. The dark cloud then melts into the ground, forming a puddle that stays there for a moment.

Then, blue eyes appear from out of the puddle. The shadow slowly begins to move upwards and takes a humanoid form before fading, revealing the ninja alien. The camera focuses on his hooded face before zooming out as he strikes a pose.

Bloxx

Red blocks started appearing around the Omnitrix, clicking into place and completely surrounding it. The blocks then started extending up Flash's arm, first forming a massive red glove that covered his fist before blue and yellow blocks appeared to cover the rest of his arm.

They soon cover his chest and move down his other arm and the rest of his body, his large arms causing him to lean forward and put his weight on the giant fists. The blocks then move up his neck and surround his face, forming a helmet with a gorilla face being created.

Once Flash's face is completely covered, the eyes shoot open and the transformation is complete. The camera swings around his body as he throws a few punches and strikes a pose, showing off his strength.

U-Reek-Ah

Blue fur begins to surround the Omnitrix and that fur quickly flies up Flash's arm, as the camera zooms in on his shutting eye. When it opens again, it looks more beastial. The camera then changes to show Flash's back, as a long tail suddenly sprouts out his rear and extends upwards. The camera curves around Flash and the tail blocks it out, then unblocks as it focuses on Flash's now skunk-like face.

The camera zooms out as it spins around him again, stopping as he strikes a pose.

Pesky Dust

Multicoloured dust begins to fly out of the Omnitrix and swirls around it, as Flash holds his arm up to allow the dust to sprinkle down on him. As it does, Flash's body begins to shrink and the dust starts to settle on his skin and cause it to turn blue.

The camera then focuses on his back, as the dust starts forming the four fairy wings. When the wings are completely formed, the camera zooms up to show Flash's fairy face before he begins flying all over to place. Eventually, he comes to a stop in the centre of the screen and strikes a pose.

The Worst

The Omnitrix is absorbed into a large mass of yellow putty, which spreads up Flash's arm and completely consumes him. His whole body is soon surrounded by a giant yellow sphere, which constricts and grows smaller and smaller.

The sphere then uncurls itself, as a pair of legs appear from within surrounded by black and white underpants. The arms soon follow, as claws grow out of them, whilst a large mouth opens up and the eyes follow suit. Transformation complete, he tries to strike a pose but accidentally trips over and falls on his butt.

Grey Matter

Gray skin grows out of both of Flash's arms, covering the Omnitrix and forming the large four fingered hands. Flash's body slowly begins to reshape itself, as the camera spins around to show the Omnitrix symbol of Flash's back. It zooms in on the Omnitrix and when it zooms out, Flash's head has turned gray and has reshaped itself.

His eyes expand and change, whilst his hair begins to recede. With a final spin, his transformation is complete and he starts to shrink. Once that's done, he strikes a pose ready to leap forward.

Arctiguana

Ice began to form around the Omnitrix and quickly began to fly up Flash's arm. Flash thrusts his arms forward, as the ice grows off the end of them and moves towards the ground. The rest of his body is soon encased within a statue of ice, which growls and reshapes itself into his new alien form.

Once the ice sculpture is complete, the ice begins to crack and break apart before falling off of him. Doing so reveals his new form, as the camera spins around him to reveal his completed transformation. It stops as the camera reaches his head, his mouth unleashing a cloud of frozen mist that blocks him from view. And when the mist fades, the camera has zoomed out to reveal his full form.

Way Big

The Omnitrix is consumed by a bunch of veins, which spread up his arms all the way to his face. His body then begins to grow larger and bulkier, his arms growing red blades out the sides as his skin turns white and red. The camera spins around him, as he continues to transform. His hair vanishes and his head grows a large horn, the transformation completing at the camera moves to star at him from above.

He then leaps up, thrusting his right arm up as he flies into the air and grows large.

The camera focuses back on the ground, as a massive foot slams down upon it and causes the ground to shake. The camera begins to move upwards and circles around the alien, then zooms out when it reaches his face and reveals his full form.

Author's Note

Hope you liked Playlist two. Now, on to the third and final playlist

Transformations: Playlist 3

Gryforce

Muscular veins begin to form around the Omnitrix and completely absorb it within, then begin to climb up Flash's arm and up his neck towards his eyes. He shuts his eyes for a second and as the camera zooms in on it, it pops open to reveal an eagle's eye.

Feathers begins to cover Flash's body and as the camera spins to show his back, a pair of wings rip through his clothes and extend. The camera then spins to show his hands, which extend into claws, then moves down to show his muscular lion feet ripping out of his pants and shoes.

The camera zooms out to reveal Flash in his complete transformation, letting out a squawk as he spreads his wings and leaps at the camera.

Skydiver

Muscular veins begin to form around the Omnitrix and completely absorb it within, then begin to climb up Flash's arm and up his neck towards his eyes. The camera shifts to show his head from the side, as Flash's mouth and nose suddenly reshape themselves into a sharp beak. At the same time, his eyes grow larger and a pair of wings rip themselves out of his back.

The camera shows his fingers, morphing into claws, as his legs are covered in a green light. When the light fades, they reveal a pair of muscular horse legs and hooves and as the camera pulls back, the transformation is complete and the hero stands there ready for battle.

Dragoon

Orange scales appear around the Omnitrix, whilst the camera moves up to his hand to show his fingers morphing into sharp claws.

The camera then moves to his head, as the orange scales completely surround him whilst the camera zooms in. Blue spikes then start growing out the top, running down his back as a pair of wings appear and grow larger. The camera then spins around to show his front, revealing the transformation is now complete. He spreads his wings and unleashes a burst of fire, as he prepares for battle.

Yak-Smasher

Long blue hair appears from beneath the Omnitrix and wraps around it, as the rest of Flash's body is soon consumed. Soon enough, there's nothing but a giant blue hairball. But slowly, it begins to uncurl itself to reveal a pair of arms and legs. Its head is soon revealed, as a pair of horns grow out the top.

The new alien slams both its giant hands into the ground, shaking his head to reveal his eyes whilst letting out a roar. As the camera zooms out, he stands tall and flexes his muscles to strike a pose.

Diamutt

The Omnitrix is surrounded by a bunch of orange fur, which quickly begins to climb up Flash's arm until it reaches his head and surrounds it. As it does, his mouth begins to grow large and his teeth become sharper.

The camera shifts to his rear and shows a tail, growing out before it moves to show his transformed claws. As it did, his arm before his elbow starts sprouting diamonds that grow downwards. Soon, both his forearms are encased in gem gauntlets that he swings around.

The camera moves back up to show his head is completely transformed, his teeth morphing into gems that he snaps shut as the camera pulls back. When it does, his arms and teeth return to normal as he strikes a pose.

Cat-Apult

Muscular veins begin to form around the Omnitrix and completely absorb it within, then begin to climb up Flash's arm and up his neck towards his eyes. The camera shifts to show his behind, as the long and flexible tube tail begins to grow out of his rear.

It then spins around to show blue fur, growing out of Flash's skin. His head has now almost been completely transformed, with blue fur covering everything but his face whilst his ears transformed into the cat ears.

The camera spins around him, his large tail swiping at it and blocking the view. And when it pulls away, the transformation is complete. The camera zooms out, as he strikes a pose with his tail end pointed towards the camera.

Gemini

The Omnitrix is absorbed by a bunch of white fur, which covers Flash's arm before a multi-coloured gem replaces the watch.

The camera then shows Flash's face, as a pair of large white ears suddenly shoot out of his head. It then zooms in on his forehead, as another gemstone appears there right close to the camera. White fur surrounds the gem and when the camera zooms out, it reveals the transformation is complete.

The alien strikes a pose, as the gems unleash a bunch of lights that create a bunch of clones of him. Those clones all strike their own pose, then return to the original as he leaps towards the camera.

Upgrade

From under the Omnitrix, a black substance spreads up Flash's arm. And as it does, green circuitry appears on top of it. It moves up to Flash's head and completely covers it, as the camera zooms in on his covered face. Green circuits that cover his head and the camera sees a green circle appear in the centre of his head.

The camera zooms out to reveal the transformation is complete, then circles around him to show off his new form before stopping as he strikes a pose.

Eatle

The Omnitrix is absorbed into a black and gray shell-like arm covering, which surrounds his entire arm before a trio of claws grows out of it.

The camera then changes to Flash's head, as his lower jaw is covered by a hard gray surface that grows large. From out the top of his head, a Y-shaped horn appears and grows larger. The camera spins around, showing a tough shell appearing on Flash's back. And when it spins back to his front, the transformation is complete.

He swings his arms around before getting down on all fours, unleashing a blast of energy from the horn on his head.

Lantool

The Omnitrix unleashes a blast of orange lightning, which completely surrounds the watch and starts moving up Flash's arm. Flash appears to be uncomfortable, as his body is converted to pure energy.

The camera zooms in on his head, as a pair of blue eyes appear within the energy. Moments later, glass appears in front of the eyes and the camera zooms out. First, it reveals the green helmet covering his head. It then zooms out more and reveals the rest of his suited form.

Energy sparks out of the nozzles on his arms, as he flies around at high speed. He finally comes to a stop and after a final spin, strikes a pose as he's ready for battle.

Gyrotor

A spiral of wind, explodes out of the Omnitrix and begins to swirl around Flash's entire body. He's soon completely surrounded by a tornado and when the wind fades away, a single green orb can be seen with four holes. A trio of legs suddenly extend out of three of the holes, whilst a long tube-like body appears out the top.

Green chest armor appears on top of the tube and three mechanical arms form out of it. From out the top, the Omnitrix appears followed by the red of his domed head. The camera spins around him, as his arms and legs start spinning to form tornadoes. And once that is done, the camera zooms out to show him standing at the ready.

Author's Note

Well, that's the last playlist and this is the last chapter for The Omnitrix Hero. As I said before, this series will continue. But I'll be taking a break from it for a little while, as something else appears to take its place for a bit. Until then, I hope to see you next time.

I'd also love to hear what your favourite OC alien was, which chapter and season you enjoyed the most and what you hope to see in the future.

I'd like to thank SuperSonicHeroes for helping with some parts of this. Being the guy who I bounced ideas off of, read my chapters first, made some suggestions that made the story even better and did the TVTropes for this story. You're awesome.

I'd also like to thank SlidDiamond3214, for doing the fan-art that went into this story. I look forward to see what you make for this series next.

Season 1, Episode 1: To the Power of Ten

Author's Note

Hey everyone. So here's a story I've been working on in my spare time, with a lot of help from SuperSonicHeroes. I'm a big fan of Ben 10 and I realised I had to do a story exploring what would happen if Flash had the Omnitrix. So here it is. Hope you enjoy it.

Season 1, Episode 1: To the Power of Ten

Space, the endless void. A place of unimaginable mystery. And as far as we know, only one planet holds any form of intelligent life. Or so many believe.

In the rings of Saturn, explosions were going off everywhere. The cause of those explosions were two strangely designed ships, one being far larger than the other. The larger ship unleashed a powerful laser at the smaller one, knocking it away. As it regained control, the smaller ship unleashed twin green lasers that hit the opposing vessel and carved a good chunk out of it.

Inside the larger ship, a humanoid robot was standing at a control console as a bunch of alien symbols appeared on screen. "Hull damage, twenty percent." The robot turned towards the centre of the bridge, "but systems still operational."

In the centre of the room was a large metal chair, which was seating a tall alien figure. Said figure's body was green in colour with red veins running along its body, wearing black and red armor, Its head was bold and it had a pair of bright red eyes and long tentacles hanging from its chin and cheeks like a beard.

The alien growled at the robot, "I have come too far to be denied." He watched a screen showing the ship flying away from Saturn and towards another planet in the solar system. Earth. "The Omnitrix shall be mine. And there is not a being in the galaxy that dare stand in my way."

Flash Sentry was many things. He was a great guitar player, famously handsome dude and a guy who occasionally gave a snarky comment when the urge overwhelmed him. But if there was one thing about Flash that everyone knew, it was the fact he always wanted to help.

"Here kitty kitty," the teen told the cat he was trying to save from a tree.

Down below, a young girl was standing in front of that tree across the road from the school that had just gotten out. She looked worried for her pet cat, who had run up the tree after someone's dog had barked at it. Now Flash was attempting to save it, though he would soon learn that wasn't as easy as he hoped.

"Nice kitty," he reached out to grab it. But as soon as he did, the creature hissed and tried to claw at him. "WOW!" He yelled, pulling himself back only to lose his balance "Wow, wow, WOW!" He fell towards the ground and likely would have broken a few bones on impact, if he didn't suddenly start glowing and hovered inches off the pavement.

"You okay?" He heard a familiar voice, making him look around and see Twilight Sparkle staring at him. She smiled as she slowly dropped him to the ground, Flash sitting up.

"Yeah, thanks for the save."

"Dude," Rainbow Dash announced as she, Applejack, Pinkie, Rarity Sunset, Fluttershy and Trixie all stepped up to him. "Maybe you should leave the heroic work to the actual super heroes."

Flash frowned at her and stood up, "I don't need fancy magic powers to help people."

"Yeah," Rainbow nodded before pointing at the tree. "But it helps." Flash followed her finger and saw Fluttershy, sitting on one of Rarity's gem constructs as if floated up to the height of the cat.

"It's okay," she told the feline. "I won't hurt you." The cat seemed to believe this and easily leapt into the girls arms, Fluttershy stroking her as Rarity brought her back down. "Good girl."

Flash frowned at this and crossed his arms, "show off."

"Hey," Sunset put a hand on his shoulder, "it's okay. Not everyone can do cool stuff like that. I mean, I can only read minds. Not exactly a flashy super power."

"Yeah," Flash frowned, "but just because you have it doesn't mean you have to always be showing it off."

"So you're saying they shouldn't have helped the cat out of the tree?" Trixie asked, Flash trying to come up with an answer that didn't make him sound like a jerk.

"Well...no...but there are other ways to do it."

"But using our magic was the best way," Rainbow told him. "Face it, nothing beats having awesome magical powers. As long as we have them, nothing's impossible for us."

"Except being humble," Trixie mumbled under her breath.

"What was that?" Rainbow asked, Trixie looking away.

"Tell you what, Flash." She grabbed him by the arm, "you wanna be a hero you can help me. Trixie needs a ride home."

"Oh yeah," Sunset smiled. "You and your dad just moved into that newly built residential district, right?" Trixie nodded back at her.

"That's right. My dad and I are the first ones to live there. But...my bike still hasn't been unpacked, so Trixie needs someone to take her home so she doesn't take forever." She turned to Flash and he sighed, then gave a nod. "Yay!" She smiled before the pair walked off to his car.

"You sure you don't want me to give you a lift?" Rainbow laughed, "I could probably get you there faster than Flash could." The teen threw her a dirty look as they got into his car and drove off, Rainbow continuing to laugh as her friends rolled their eyes.

Flash was in a rather dower mood as the pair drove towards Trixie's new house, Trixie noticing this and sighing. "You shouldn't listen to what Rainbow said. That girl's all hot air."

"Maybe," Flash sighed, "but she's right. With their powers, those girls can do anything they want. And whenever someone needs help, it's always them they go too." He huffed as he sat back in his seat, "wish I had powers like that?"

"Really?" Trixie asked, "not a good idea. You've had a front row seat to what happens when someone who's not worthy gets their hands on Equestrian Magic. It might seem like an awesome idea, but before you know what you've gotten yourself into you're suddenly transforming into a power hungry lunatic that ends up getting zapped into oblivion by Sunset and her friends."

Flash hated to admit it, but he knew she was right. Equestrian Magic was just too unpredictable. And even if he got a super lame power like turning things different colours, he would probably end up going insane trying to make himself stronger. "Power corrupts," he whispered. "And absolute power corrupts absolutely."

"Exactly," Trixie nodded. "So just forget about getting your own super powers. Trixie's sure you'll find a way to help people by yourself." Flash smirked at this and nodded, as the car turned onto the highway that led to Trixie's new house. Alas, when they did they found the traffic moving rather slowly.

"Great," he moaned seeing how long it was gonna take to get to Trixie's place. He might have liked helping people, but he absolutely hated sitting in traffic.

Back in space, the ships continued to trade blasts as they drew closer and closer to Earth.

As the smaller ship got into the edge of the planet's atmosphere, the larger one sent an extra powerful blast that struck the very back of it. The ship's rear exploded, causing it to become dead in the water.

"Their population systems have been neutralised," the robot told the alien as he smirked.

"Prepare to board. I want to Omnitrix now!" The robots nodded and prepared to do just that. But before they could, the smaller ship sent a blast at them with all the remaining power it had left. That blast struck the area of the bridge, causing a massive explosion that filled the room and made the alien scream in agony.

This also caused the robot to hit the button for the 'super awesome destroy everything and make them feel really bad' cannon, which launched a massive blast that struck the back of the ship and destroyed everything but the very front.

As the remains of the ship fell into the atmosphere, something shot out of it. A strange looking missile that flew towards the earth and as it did, the missile sent out some kind of pulse that flew over the entire side of the planet. That pulse then narrowed down on something in America and the missile suddenly changed course to head towards it. As it got closer, the missile broke apart and launched a metal sphere that continued towards the planet.

Flash and Trixie had been stuck in the traffic for almost an hour, Trixie choosing to listen to her headphones as they sat in the long cue.

But eventually, they reached the exit Trixie had told him to look for and finally pulled off the highway. A few minutes after this, they arrived at the newly built area of housing that Trixie now called home. "This it?" He asked, seeing the street sign. Trixie didn't respond and Flash rolled his eyes before pulling her headphones out, making her cry out and glare at him. "Is this it?" Trixie looked at the sign.

"Yup. This is the new home of the Great and Powerful Trixie." Flash looked at all the new houses that had been built, whistling at how good they looked.

"What'cha dad do to afford a place like this?"

"He's done a lot of sold out magic shows," Trixie smirked. "But they'll be nothing compared to the shows Trixie will perform when her career gets started."

"Right," Flash said slowly as they arrived at her address. "Whelp, here we are."

"Thank you," Trixie smiled. "You're my hero." Flash knew she was just trying to placate him, but it actually did sound nice to be called that. "I'll see you tomorrow." Flash waved as she got out of the car and headed for her house, Flash driving away. As he did, he looked out his wing-mirror and noticed something.

It was a light in the dimming sky, one that was neither the sun, moon or stars. It appeared to be some kind of shooting star, which was growing large by the moment. "Huh," his gaze kept shifting from it and the road. And every time he looked back at his mirror, the meteor was getting bigger.

It wasn't until it was within a hundred feet of him that he realised something. The reason it was getting bigger, was because it was getting closer.

"WOW!" Flash cried as he hit the breaks on the car, which skidded to a stop in the middle of the road. A moment later, the fireball in the sky shot above the car and crashed into the road ahead. The impact caused a massive earthquake which even caused a few street lamp to fall over.

Flash sat in his car, panting heavily as he started at the crater that had just been made. He was sure that if this street wasn't brand new and yet to be filled with families, it would already be full people trying to figure out what the heck just happened.

Slowly, Flash got out of the car and made his way over to the crater. He knew he should probably call the police of something, but his curiosity was getting the better of him. He reached the crater and looked inside, finally seeing what had almost crashed into him. "A...satellite?" He asked, seeing the round object that had buried itself into the ground.

Before he could think of anything else, the sides of the crater suddenly crumbled and he found himself falling. "WOW!" He slid down the side and landed right in front of the satellite, which seemed to sense his presence and suddenly curled open. "Huh?" He pushed himself back up and looked inside the pod. And what he was greeted with surprised him. "A watch?"

It was an odd looking watch, mainly black with a white stripe running along the band. The watch itself had a round dial on the top and several different buttons surrounding it. And the dial itself didn't have a clock or anything, but instead it had a green glass plate with two black triangles that pointed towards one another and made the glass show the shape of an hourglass.

"Weird."

"Flash!" He looked back at the edge of the crater and heard footsteps, Trixie's voice sounding frantic. "Flash, are you okay?"

"I'm down here," Flash told her as he turned back to the pod. "And you won't believe what I just-" He stopped when he saw something new happen. The watch's green dial had suddenly lit up and as it did, the watch started floating. "Wha?" Was all he could say as he slowly stepped backwards, the floating watch completely leaving the sphere. "What is happening?" Was all he could ask before the watch suddenly shot towards him. "WOW!" He cried, swinging his arm around out of instinct. As he did, he felt it hit the watch and then felt the watch change.

The leather of the strap suddenly turned to a strange slim that morphed around Flash's wrist, moving under his sleeve and completely wrapping around it. Once it completely enveloped his wrist, the strap turned back to its formerly solid form and was now locked on Flash's wrist.

"HEY!" He cried, seeing the watch now locked into place. He tried to pull it off, but the watch wouldn't budge. He couldn't even get his finger under the watch, it almost being like the inside of the device had fused itself to his very skin. "What the heck is this thing?"

"Flash!" He looked around and saw Trixie standing on the edge of the crater, "are you okay?" Flash instantly scrambled up the side of the crater, Trixie grabbing and pulling him up as he looked terrified. "What the heck is that thing?" She asked, staring at the pod whilst Flash was looking at the watch grafted to his arm.

"It was carrying whatever the heck this thing is?" He pointed to the watch, Trixie looking surprised by this as Flash tried to pry it off. "It...it's stuck!" Trixie reached over and tried to pull if off as well, yanking at it several times. But it would not budge and the pair had to stop for fear of Flash's arm getting dislocated.

"What is this thing?" Trixie took a closer look at it, noticing all the buttons on it. "Maybe one of these is what makes it come off." Flash stared at the buttons and wonder if she was right, his eyes shifting to the round green one right below the dial. Taking a deep breath, he reached down and pressed the button.

As soon as he did, the dial suddenly popped up. "WOW!" Trixie leapt back as Flash watched the face, with the two triangles moving towards one another and eventually merging into a kite shape in the middle of the watch. And inside that shape, a strange silhouette appeared. "What the?" He looked closer at the shape and noticed it was humanoid, though it had multiple spikes and what appeared to be a tail.

"What happened?" Trixie asked, as Flash's hand reached for the watch. As if his body was on autopilot, his fingers pushed the dial back down. And as soon as he did, the watch suddenly exploded with a bright green light. "Gyah!" Trixie was forced to look away for a moment, as the light completely filled the street.

When it died down, she looked back at Flash and her eyes went wide when she saw Flash wasn't there.

Standing in his place was a seven foot dark blue lizard like creature, covered in black armour that had lightning patterns around it. Its chest, hands, knees, feet and head were wearing the armour, with the chest armour having a pair of black lightning bolt spikes coming out the back. Its gauntleted hands had a trio of yellow lightning bolt claws sticking out of it that were positioned in a triangle manor so all the points almost met in the middle. Its face was covered in a black metal mask with triangular eye holes that its blue eyes poked out of, whilst a long lightning bolt horn was sticking out of its head. Finally, the round dial that had been on the watch was now located in the centre of its chest armor.

Trixie could only stand there and stare at the creature, as it swayed around. "Wow," it spoke in a deep voice, "I feel weird." It reached it hand up to clutch its head and when it did, it actually saw what its hand looked like. "WOW!" It pulled its arm away from it in shock, then seemed to realise it was his hand and took a closer look. "What the heck?" It asked, then looked at its other hand.

It then looked its whole body over. "What...just happened?" It looked ready to have a panic attack and turned to Trixie, "what am I?"

Trixie finally snapped out of her stupor and looked terrified, "AAAAARRRRRHHHHH!" She turned to run away, the creature surprised by this.

"Trixie!" It ran after her, "WAIT!" It reached out to try and grab her and as it did, something unexpected happened. The lightning-shaped claws sparked as electricity began to flow between them, the electricity suddenly shooting off the claws and flying at Trixie. It was a miracle it didn't hit her, instead striking the ground just passed her and making the girl scream in terror. "Trixie!" It leapt into the air, clearing a good distance before landing right in front of Trixie. The girl looked ready to faint at any moment. "Trixie, it's me. Flash!"

Trixie heard this and stopped shaking for a moment, instead looking closer at the creature. "Flash?" The creature nodded, "what...happened to you?"

"I don't know," Flash looked his new body over. "It...it had to be that watch. Maybe it had Equestrian Magic in it or something."

"So it turned you into a lizard monster that shoots lightning?" Trixie asked, Flash looking at the claws of his hands. He focused and as he did, lightning began to spark between them. He tried the other claw and got the same result, then brought the two hands together and the lightning shot off to meet between them to form a sphere of lightning.

"Okay," he thrust the sphere upwards and it got a good hundred feet into the air before exploding, "that's awesome."

"Just be careful," Trixie told him. "One stray bolt and you could set every house in the street on fire, including Trixie's."

"Got it," Flash nodded as he looked around at the damage done by the pod. "There's no way no one else saw that thing. Someone's gonna be coming soon to check that pod out."

"And Trixie doesn't think they're gonna take too kindly to you looking like that." Flash nodded and turned to his car, planning to drive off. But then he realised his new form wouldn't exactly fit. "Great. I can't drive my car but if I leave it, the police are gonna know I was here."

"Trixie's got this," the girl rushed to the car and got behind the driver's seat. She started up the engine and started driving, planning to do a three point turn. Alas, the car jutted undignifiedly.

"You do know how to drive, right?"

"Trixie has a learners permit. But she's never driven stick." This became evident when she continued to horribly lurch the car back and forth, her three point turn devolving into a twelve point one before she was able to drive away. Flash groaned at this, then looked himself over. He needed to get out of there, but how?

It was then he remembered how high he had jumped before and after taking a deep breath, he started running as fast as he could. Despite the large claws on the front of his feet, he found running in this form quite easy. And when he leapt up, he sailed a good thirty feet into the air and cleared three times that distance. Trixie saw this and was amazed, as Flash landed on the ground and jumped again with the same results.

Flash was thankful this area of the town wasn't so packed, so nobody was out on the streets and able to see him. Trixie followed behind him and the pair fled the scene, wondering how long it would be until the authorities arrived.

Back up in space, the larger ship continued to hover above the planet whilst taking in pieces of the destroyed ship.

Inside the ship, the robot from before was in some kind of medical bay. In the centre of the room was a large glass tube, filled with a strange liquid and many wires. "What do you mean it's not there?" The voice of the alien from before snarled, as the wires pulled up the remains of the alien. The creatures body was almost completely destroyed, its arms and legs gone whilst his body had several holes in it and a mask was covering its face. "This battle almost cost me my life-" He wheezed and whined from his injuries, "and you say the Omnitrix is no long on board the transport?"

The robot nodded, "sensor indicate a probe was jettisoned from the ship just before boarding. It landed on the planet below."

The alien hissed and turned towards a shadow behind him, "go!" He hissed to the figure, "bring it to me!" The figure didn't say anything being turning to leave, giving out several whirling and mechanical noises as it did so. When it was gone, the creature activated the viewing screen. "Earth," she spat the name out. "Once again I find myself at this pitiful planet. But this time, your precious Max Tennyson isn't alive to stop me."

Back with Flash and Trixie, they had finally fled to another area of the city. They were currently in a newly constructed park, which didn't have anyone there to run into them and discover Flash shocking surprise.

"Come on!" Trixie groaned, pulling at the symbol on Flash's chest armor. Since escaping the area, they had determined that the symbol that shared the watch's insignia must be what changed him. As such, they hoped pulling it off would get Flash to turn back. But no matter how hard Trixie pulled, the device wouldn't come off.

"It's no good," Flash told her. "This thing's stuck tighter than my mom's meatloaf on the pan." Trixie let the device go and Flash sighed, sitting down on a bench whilst being careful not to cut it with the sharp blades he now had. "This is just great. I'm gonna spend the rest of my life as an overgrown generator with a tail."

"Come on," Trixie sat besides him. "I'm sure it won't be that bad. Maybe we can show Sunset and the others what happened and they can find a way to turn you back."

"Ahhh," Flash sighed, "just what I need. The girls looking at me like the next big problem they have to deal with. I can just hear Sunset berating me for messing with something I didn't understand." Trixie felt bad of Flash. But that pity turned to fear when a new sound filled the air.

It was a beeping noise, coming from the device on his chest. They looked down and saw the face plate was flashing red. "What's it doing?" Trixie asked, only for the device to unleash a blinding flash of light. When the light faded, she opened her eyes and saw the lizard creature was gone. In its place was good old Flash Sentry, looking exactly like he had before he transformed.

"Wow!" Flash smirked, looking himself over. "I'm me again." He looked at his wrist and saw the watch was still there, Flash attempting to pull it off but having as little luck as before. "It still won't come off." He then noticed the green face plate was now red, making him raise an eyebrow. "Whatever this thing is, I get the feeling there's more to it than just Equestrian magic."

Back in the ship, a door opened up before launching out a rocket that shot towards the earth.

Following the sensor data, it flew in the same direction the pod had fallen and soon enough it entered the atmosphere and crashed down into the street with a loud bang. When the smoke cleared, the rocket was struck in the ground next to the crater.

Then, the rocket began to transform into a mantis-like robot with mechanical arms and three mechanical legs. The robot stood at around twelve meters tall and quickly turned towards the crater with the pod. Its robotic eyes zeroed in on the sphere and when it saw there was nothing within, it held up an arm and fired a blast of energy from a gun in its hand.

The energy struck the sphere and caused it to explode, whilst the robot's shoulders opened up and unleashed two metal disks. Those disks opened up into a pair of flying saucer-like robots with multiple weapon arms, the pair flying off to hunt down their target.

Despite what had happened the last time Flash had messed with it, the teen couldn't help but be curious. But unlike before, the watch didn't do anything when he pressed the buttons on it.

"Maybe you broke it," Trixie suggested as Flash rolled his eyes. But as he did, the watch beeped and the red dial turned back to green. "Huh, maybe it just needed a recharge."

"Maybe," Flash nodded. Instead of pressing the round button, he decided to press one of the green rectangular buttons besides it. When he did, the watch's dial suddenly popped up again. Only this time, the triangles didn't merge. "Huh?" He turned the dial and when he did, it changed colour to become blue. "Wonder what that means. He turned it again and it changed to yellow, then to orange. Flash, liking that colour, was tempted to push it down and see what happened. But he decided against it and turned it again, this time the device turning back to green.

Back at the site of the pod's crash, a police car drove up to the street following a report of someone seeing something crash down onto it.

The car pulled up to a stop and from out of it, a white skinned man with blue hair stepped out. He was dressed in a grey shirt with black pants, a white overcoat on top of it all. The man walked over to the crater and raised an eyebrow, "what's this?" He jumped down into the crater and noticed a destroyed piece of the pod, picking it up and noticing the singe marks on it. "Something happened here." He took out a phone and placed a call, "this is Detective Shining Armor. You might want to send some lab rats down here to have a look at this."

After fiddling around with it a bit more, Flash had once again gotten the dial to change and show the silhouette of the creature.

"So if you push the dial down, it'll turn you back into that lightning lizard?" Trixie asked, Flash nodding back. He then turned the dial and as he did, the silhouette changed to show another shape.

"Huh," was all he could say before spinning it again. The shape changed and Flash kept doing it, mentally counting whenever he came to a silhouette he didn't recognise. In the end, he confirmed ten different shapes.

"You should do it again."

"Huh?" Flash looked at Trixie like she was crazy.

"Come on!" She told him, "you saw what you were able to do before. Imagine what other powers this thing could give you!"

"And what if I don't change back?" He asked, "what if I turn into something and completely lose control of myself? What if I hurt someone?" Trixie just shrugged and Flash looked down at the watch, his sense of curiosity once again overpowering him.

Taking a deep breath, he pushed the dial down and the watch unleashed a brilliant flash of light. Trixie had to look away for a moment, but when the light faded she looked back and saw Flash's new form.

He was nothing like the last form and now appeared to be a large lion creature that didn't have a mane. It was larger than a normal lion and its fur was a smokey gray colour, though its front paws were black and appeared more like clawed hands then paws. Its tail was twice as long as a normal lion's tail and on the end of it was tipped with some kind of pipe-like appendage with holes in it. The sides of its neck and a section just behind its front legs had large gill-like slits, whilst the watch symbol was on its chest.

"Flash?" She asked, the lion turning to her. "That you in there?"

"Yeah?" Flash replied with a gruffer then normal voice. He then sat on his haunches and looked himself over, "this feels different." He stood up and tried walking, though it took a moment or two to figure out how to move with four legs. "But...it's kind of cool."

"I guess," Trixie nodded. "But...what exactly can you do with this?" Flash didn't know and wondered if this creature was just a giant mutant lion. But suddenly, he felt a twinge in his nose and could feel the reaction about to start.

"Ah...ah...aaaaah...ACHOO!" Suddenly, the gills open up and unleashed a strange black smoke that flew out and began to spiral around his body to form a mane. The watch remained un-hidden by the smoke whilst the same thing happened with his feet and tail. Soon enough, he was a giant smoky lion.

"Wow," Trixie whistled, "that's cool."

Flash reached up and felt the smoke coming off of him, it feeling just like normal smoke only a lot thicker. He then got the strangest feeling and focused, doing so causing the smoke to shoot out further and completely envelope the pair.

"Hey!" Trixie swung her hands around the blow the smoke away, "water the vapour!"

Flash laughed as the smoke reduced to the way it was before, the lion looking around and seeing a bunch of trees. "Hmm." He crouched down before charging forward, leaving Trixie behind.

"FLASH!" She cried as he ran up and leapt into the air, grabbing the tree branch in his finger-like claws and swinging to another and another. Showing incredible amounts of agility, he flew through the trees and disappeared. "Wait up!" Trixie rushed after him, but knew she wouldn't be able to keep up.

"Whoa...HOOO!" Flash roared as he jumped from one tree to another, loving his new more dexterous body.

He landed on a thicker than normal branch that could hold him and looked around, wondering what else this form could do. But as he thought that, he suddenly heard something. It appeared his sense of hearing was a lot stronger. So strong that he could hear a strange buzzing sound getting louder and louder. "Huh?" He turned towards the sound and his eyes went wide when he saw a pair of strange looking flying saucers flying towards him. "What the?" He was then horrified to find one of them pointing a gun at him. "WOW!" He leapt off the tree and as he did, the gun fired a red laser that made the tree explode.

Flash landed on the ground and quickly ran as fast as he could, "what is going on?" He asked, "first a weird watch clamps onto me, and now I'm getting attacked by robots." He leapt to the side to avoid a blast from the second one, then remembered what this creature could do.

Taking a deep breath, Flash blew out a thick cloud of smoke that filled the area and made him completely invisible. The robots stopped for a moment, appearing confused as they looked around. They began searching through the smoke, their strange robot eyes flashing as they tried to locate their target.

After a few more minutes of this, Flash finally chose to act and leapt out of the cloud. "Raaah!" He roared, landing atop one of the robots and digging his large claws into the metal. "Take this!" He roared, ripping the armor off to expose the circuitry beneath. As he did, the machine pointed its gun arm at him. But before it could fire, he bit into it and ripped the arm off. He then focused on the circuits and started ripping them out, causing the machine to go haywire.

As if flew around in random directions, Flash leapt off it grabbed hold of a nearby tree. It then shot forward and smashed into another tree, ripping it apart as it crashed into the ground and exploded.

"Haa!" He cheered as the smoke he let loose cleared, "how'd you like that?" He then heard more buzzing and turned to see the other drone flying at him, Flash leaping off the tree and landing with a smirk on his face. "You wanna go next? Come on." But before he could attack, the dial on his chest started beeping and glowing red. When it stopped, the device unleashed a bright burst of light and Flash soon found himself back to normal. "Uh oh." He looked up at the drone as it slowly floated towards him. "What I said just now...I was kidding," he laughed nervously as the robot floated so that it was now level with him.

Flash stepped backwards and tripped over, falling onto his butt and continued to stare at the robot in fear as it pointed its gun at him. But before it could fire, something suddenly smashed it in the head and destroyed its camera. "Raaah!" Trixie cried as she hit the robot with the thick branch again, showing amazing strength as she thrust the end into an opening like a spear. "Yes, feel the wrath of the great and powerful Trixie!" The robot didn't seem to take this damage too well and fell to the ground, sparking as it did so whilst Flash got up to his feet.

"Wow," he told her, "thanks."

Trixie smirked and brushed her hand through her hair, "this was but a fraction of what the great and powerful Trixie is capable of." But then the robot jolted and she let out a scream, both leaping away from it as more spark appeared from it. "Run for it!" They did so and not a moment later, the machine exploded.

In a more populated area of the city, Twilight, Sunset and Rainbow were one their way home from the arcade.

"Another day, another round of wins for me." Rainbow smirked as they walked down the busy street, fresh off victory streak at the air hockey table.

"Rainbow," Sunset spoke up, "it's hardly a worthy winning streak when you use your super speed to react." Rainbow said nothing to counteract this, the girl knowing she had technically cheated but who was gonna stop her.

"Is it my fault I'm so awesome?" She asked, Twilight and Sunset rolling their eyes. But before either of them could say anything back, something else caught their attention. A scream.

That scream came from a woman up the street, who had just seen something horrifying around a corner and was now running away from it. A moment later, that thing stepped out and revealed itself to be the robot mantis. Many people looked up at the machine, as it looked around the place and stepped on anything it wanted.

One man leapt out of his car seconds before it was crushed, the man screaming as he ran away. "Hey!" He yelled, grabbing something off the ground and throwing it. "What the heck?" The can bounced off the metal creature and didn't even damage it, but it did catch its attention and made it turn towards him. A moment later, it pointed its arm at him and fired a laser.

The beast struck the ground and exploded, the man screaming as he and the others around the place ran. The machine then started firing at anything that moved, causing mass panic. The only ones not running were the Rainbooms, who were just as shocked as the people but knew they had to do something.

The three shared a look and nodded, then charged into battle whilst activating their geodes.

Flash and Trixie were back in his car, driving away from the park whilst trying to figure out what to do next. "Those robots must have been after the watch," Flash told her. "Whatever this thing is, it's clearly important."

"No kidding," Trixie nodded. "I mean, anyone would want a device that could do that. Turning them into one of ten super awesome monsters, with amazing powers that could probably outdo the Rainboom's abilities."

Flash thought about this and nodded, but then realised something. "Alien."

"Huh?"

"I think I was an alien," he told her. "Think about it. The watch shot down from the sky and the things it turned me into can hardly be called creatures of this world. Whatever this thing is, there's no way this planet has the technology to transform a person's body. But since that's what it did, it must mean someone else made it. Someone on another planet."

"Huh," Trixie thought about what he said and realised he was right, "I guess so. So you think those robots were aliens too?"

"Maybe," Flash nodded. "Who knows. All I know is, I doubt this is gonna be the last time they show up." And as if the universe was trying to tell him he was right, a massive explosion suddenly appeared a good distance away. Said explosion was far enough away for them not to feel it, but they certainly heard and saw it.

"What the heck?" Trixie asked, Flash pulling his car to a stop. He quickly went to the radio and turned it onto a local news station, hoping it might be able to tell them something. And sure enough.

"This just in. Downtown Canterlot suddenly finds itself under siege by a strange mechanical creature, that is like nothing anyone has ever seen. No sources yet on where this thing came from or what it is after."

"Mechanical creature?" Trixie turned to Flash, "must be the same things that attacked you."

Flash looked at the watch, "those people are in trouble because of me." He remembered what Trixie had said and realised she was right and put the pedal down, the car rolling forwards. "I have to help them."

"Using the watch?" Trixie asked, Flash nodding.

"I can let you out if you want?"

"Are you kidding?" She asked, "there's no way I'm missing this." She smirked and crossed her arms, "and who knows, you might need another save like before." Flash smirked at this as they entered the city limits, another explosion occurring as they drove. They eventually reached an area they had to stop at, since many people had chosen to abandon their cars and run for it.

The pair got out of the car and, seeing nobody around, Flash chose to transform here. "Okay," he switched on the device and started cycling through the images. "Eenie, meanie, miney..." He stopped on one he liked the look of, "here goes." With that, he slapped the watch down and it unleashed the bright light.

When the light faded, Trixie was greeted to the sight of an eight foot humanoid who appeared to be made out of some kind of crystalline substance. It was wearing a black bodysuit with a white streak running down the middle from the neck to the waist, were a white belt was located. The suit was sleeveless, allowing his bulky crystal arms to be seen in all their glory. Sticking out the back of his suit were two long crystal spikes, whilst the watch symbol was on its belt.

"So what do you think this alien can do?" Flash didn't answer and looked himself over, amazed by how powerful this one felt.

"I don't know," he told her before smirking. "But I bet it's gonna be cool." With that, the pair rushed towards the battlefield. When they came around the corner, they found the place was absolutely trashed. Destroyed cars and other vehicles littered the place and several building had large holes in them. Then they were greeted to the sight of the robot they had heard about.

The giant mantis like creature continued to walk around, firing lasers from its claws and crushing anything it could underfoot. "Wow," Trixie gulped, "those robots got an upgrade." She turned to Flash, "think you can handle it?"

Flash wasn't sure and as he thought this, he heard a yell of effort and looked over to see Twilight was there with Rainbow and Sunset. The girl was carrying a car in her magic and as the robot turned to her, she threw it. But the robot destroyed the car with its laser and then fired another. "WOW!" Twilight cried as she leapt back, whilst Rainbow flew forward with her super speed.

But before she could get close, the robot fired its laser at the ground and caused it to explode right in front of her. "GYAH!" She flew back and slammed into the ground, screaming in pain as a piece of rubble hit her leg.

"Rainbow!" Twilight and Sunset ran over to her and as they did, the robot fired its laser at the building above them. The thing exploded and rubble started raining down towards them, too fast and too numerous for Twilight to stop. The girls all cried out and huddled together, waiting for the end. But it never came.

"RAAAH!" A male voice cried as something slammed down into the ground besides them and punched the rubble away, the girls turning to see the cause being a giant crystal individual. The figure turned towards them, the girl staring at it in shock. "You okay?" They just nodded as the creature turned back to the robot, who was now targeting him after seeing the symbol on his waist. "Get out of here. I'll hold this thing off!" With that, he rushed forward and the girls saw no other choice but to run for it.

"What the heck is that thing?" Rainbow asked.

"I'm not sure," Sunset told her. "I've never seen anything like it, not even in Equestria."

"Guys!" Trixie waved them over to a safe area and they ran to her side, "you okay?"

"We'll live," Twilight told her. "But what that thing that just saved us?" As she asked that, a large explosion occurred and they heard the crystal being yell out as he was sent flying into the back of a truck. A second later, the robot fired its laser and made the machine explode.

"Oooh," Trixie flinched, "that had to hurt." But to her surprise, Flash was completely fine. As the robot stepped forward, a crystal blade shot up through the metal and cut it open before he pulled himself out. He then looked at his bladed crystal arm, as several more spikes grew out of it.

"Cool," he smirked as the robot got closer. Pulling himself up out of the metal, he charged forward and tried to slash at the robot's leg. But the machine suddenly shot straight up, clearing a good fifty feet before falling back towards the ground. "Oh boy," was all he had time to say before the robot slammed down on top of him. If his eyes could, they would likely be rolling,

The robot got off of him and reached down, grabbing Flash in its hand and pulling him up. Only Flash's left arm was free and as he swung it around, the robot grabbed it in its other hand.

"Ahhh!" He cried, feeling the robot trying to rip him in two. But before it could, he reshaped his fist into a blade and used all his strength to rip right through the machine's fingers. The robot looked at its destroyed hand, then back to Flash. He swore it actually glared at him before throwing the teen towards on of the buildings. "Augh!" He cried as he crashed into the office building's second floor.

"Oh no!" Rainbow cried as she tried to run to his aide, but her injured leg made her stop. "Ahhh!"

"Stop!" Twilight told her, "we can't help him...whatever he is." As she said that, Flash freed himself from under the rubble as the robot pointed its blaster at him. Flash reacted quickly and ran through the building, the laser exploding behind him and following the crystal alien. He spotted another hole in the wall and leapt out of it, falling several feet and crashing into the ground with enough force to make the ground shake.

The robot didn't seem phased by this and kept firing, blasting the ground at Flash's feet and sending him flying. The teen hit the asphalt and slid for a second, then rolled onto his back. As the machine got closer, he thrust his hand out to shield his face and to his surprise, a crystal shard shot out of it. It shot through the air and embedded itself into the robot's chest, knocking it staggering back.

"Wow," Flash whistled, "projectiles. Awesome!" Before the robot could recover, Flash started firing more and more crystals at the machine and did some serious damage. But eventually, the robot fired a powerful beam at him and it slammed right into the crystalline alien. "WOW!" He screamed as he was blasted back a few hundred feet until he smashed into a car, the girls flinching at this. "Ow," he actually felt that one as he picked himself up. "Gotta end this." As he said that, the machine once again charged.

It fired at him again and all Flash could do was hold up his arms, the lasers slamming into him but somehow bouncing off him and hitting the area around him. Flash noticed this as the laser died down and realised what he had to do, Twilight also figuring it out. "Of course," she told the others. "The power of refraction!"

Flash stood tall and glared up at the machine. "Come on, ugly!" He yelled whilst pointing at his chest. "Hit me with your best shot!" The machine seemed to take this taunt and charged up another blast, whilst Flash brought his hands together and caused crystals to grow around them to form a spiked bowl.

When the machine fired, he held up the bowl and the laser slammed into it. Flash staggered back a few inches, but managed to regain his footing and stop the laser in its tracks. "What comes around goes around!" He yelled whilst reshaping the bowl until the laser's bounce back was pointed right at the robot. "Let's see how you like it, you rusty bucket of bolts!" With that, the laser slammed into the robot and pushed it straight into the air.

As it did this, its body was burnt up by its own laser and eventually exploded above the buildings. The explosion filled the air and signalled the end of the battle, as many people who had taken shelter came out of hiding. "Alright!" Trixie screamed, "way to go Fla...ashy...diamond...headed guy." Trixie couldn't believe she almost gave the secret away there.

"Aww yeah!" Flash cheered as he jumped up, "who's bad. That's right...it's me!" He then noticed all the people staring at him, including a few police officers. "Well," he tried to look dignified, "I think my work here is done." With that, he ran off before he turned back.

"Wait!" Twilight cried, but he had already disappeared.

"Who was that guy?" Rainbow asked, the others all wondering the same thing. Trixie smiled, hoping she could convince them Canterlot's new hero was there to help.

Back up in space, the ship was covered in giant robots working to repair the damage done to it.

Inside, the alien had just been told the bad news. "Failure?" He asked, the robot nodding. "Unbelievable." He gasped and slowly regained his breath. "The puny earth being, that is keeping the Omnitrix from me, will soon hang on my trophy wall." With that, the tube was suddenly covered in a metal covering with a single glass triangle to allow the alien to see out of it. He had much planning to do.

The next day.

All of Canterlot was still in shock after the insanity of the previous evening. Many people were wondering about the strange robot that showed up and attacked the city, but even more were wondering about the strange creature that showed up to stop it.

Those people did not include Trixie, who had just arrived at the school and could already hear people talking about the events of the previous night. Many were watching videos of it on their phones, the battle going viral not one hour afterwards.

As she put her bike into the stall, a sudden gust of wind shot passed the school and almost blew several people's books out of their hands. "Was that Rainbow?" She heard someone ask.

"No way. She's in hospital with a busted leg." Another burst of wind shot by, but this time Trixie could follow it to an area behind the school that nobody went to. When nobody was looking, she rushed over to it and when she got there she smirked at the sight of another alien.

This one was a blue velociraptor alien wearing black and white armor. He wore a black helmet with mask that had a blue glass visor that was X-shaped, the mask retracting to reveal a blue face with black lips and black lines around his blue eyes. The rest of the suit was black with a white stripe running down the front, but its stopped at the shoulders to reveal blue arms with black claws. It also stopped halfway down its lower leg, which were also blue with black balls between its toes and its tail was black and blue striped with a black tip. The watch symbol could be seen on the chest stripe.

"Flash?" She asked, the alien turning to smirk at her.

"Yup," he hissed as he reached into his bag. "Hey, check this out." He took out his unfinished homework and a pen, then started writing at super speed. Within seconds, he was holding a completely sheet of math questions. "Pretty fast, huh?" The watch suddenly beeped before exploding with light, which quickly died down to show Flash slinging his bag over his back.

"So you seem more confident with that thing."

"Yeah," Flash nodded. "After what happened last night, I realised I could use this thing to help people." Trixie nodded, knowing that was something Flash always wanted. "And if whoever sent those robots sends more, or shows up to cause trouble. I'll be there to stop them."

"And you won't be alone," she held up a fist and the pair bumped before heading inside. As they did, Flash looked down at the watch and smiled. He might not know what it was and where it came from, but he knew he was gonna use it the right way. To become a hero that saved everyone, no matter what.

Season 1, Episode 2: Animal Harm

Canterlot City was certainly a place many people would call strange, given the amount of strange events that seemed to go on in and around the metropolis.

But recently, those strange things were occurring each and every day now. Over the last week, strange and unusual creatures were appearing wherever a situation required them. So far, seven of these strange creatures had appeared and many were wondering how many more were going to show up.

But whilst many feared what these aliens, some people had actually heard them call themselves that, were after, many believed they were there to help since they only ever appeared in times of crisis.

One such crisis was happening at this very moment, as a large apartment building had suddenly caught fire in the early morning. The firefighters were doing their best to put out the blaze, but many feared the flames would soon spread.

Amongst the crowd watching were Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie, the two girls staring up at the building looking worried. "I hope they managed to get everyone out of there," Fluttershy whimpered. Just then, an explosion occurred on one of the higher floors that made the people scream and jump away from the building.

"Everybody back!" The fire chief yelled, "this building could collapse at any moment."

"There's someone else up there!" One of the crowd yelled, everyone looking up to see a woman at the flaming window holding a small child.

"Help!" She screamed, as the firefighters tried to think of a way to get to her. But as that happened, the window began to fall apart and the woman was forced back inside.

"We need a ladder!" A firefighter yelled, but they all knew the structure was too badly damaged to support a ladder. "What do we do?" One of the civilians looked away, not wanting to see this. And when he did, he spotted something in the sky.

"Look!" He pointed at it and everyone turned to see a strange looking creature flying towards them.

This creature was a black insectoid being wearing red armor that covered everything except its neck, upper arms and shoulders, ears and lower legs. The armour had yellow and red flame patterns around the edges and from its back a pair of flame patterned butterfly wings could be seen. Its red mask had an opening where its mouth, which was a pair of sideways jaws, could be seen and two triangular holes for his blue eyes. The ends of its arms were covered in red armour that opened up to show holes whilst a strange badge could be seen on its chest armor.

"It's another one of those aliens!" A firefighter yelled as the alien flew in close to the building and spotted the woman inside. As he did, he let out several strange sounds before spitting a strange white goop at the window. That goop struck the sides and struck the window together, preventing it from falling apart as it flew inside.

"Hey!" He cried in a clicking voice, "are you in here?"

"Help us!" The woman's voice yelled out, the insect flying through the flames without a care in the world. Eventually, he found the mother and child, the woman seeing him and looking rather scared. That was until the ceiling caved in and the alien flew in to catch it before it could come crashing down on top of them.

"You okay?" He asked, the woman nodding despite her fear. The alien quickly spat several blobs of goop onto the ceiling, holding it in place before turning to them. He brought his hands up and spat out more of the white thread, his hands moulding it until he completed a white blanket-like construct. "Here!" He threw it at them, "keep that over your head to avoid getting burnt!" The woman did as he instructed whilst they turned back to the window, only for more debris to fall down and block it.

"We're trapped!"

"Oh no we're not!" The alien thrust his arms forward and unleashed a burst of fire from the holes in the front of his hand armor, which struck the debris and caused it to explode and burn away. "Hurry!" He flew forward and the mother followed, the alien being sure to confirm the ceiling and floor wouldn't give way in front of them. When they got to the window, the insect grabbed the mother and daughter before lifting them into the air.

Everyone was amazed to see the alien return with the pair, flying them safely away from the house. He then used more of that sticky fireproof thread to slowly winch them both down, letting it go once they were on the ground.

"Well if that's everyone safe, I'll be on my way!" With that, he flew off behind the buildings before anyone could try and talk to him.

"Wow!" Pinkie smiled, "those aliens are amazing!" Fluttershy nodded with a smile.

"I wish they would stay long enough for use to thank them properly. I wonder why they always run off after everything's okay." If only Fluttershy knew the truth, that the aliens were trying to get away before they ran out of time.

Sure enough, the firefly alien flew as fast as he could to an unpopulated area. There, he dived into an alleyway as the symbol on his chest started beeping and glowing red. It then exploded with red light, which quickly faded to reveal Flash Sentry with a smirk on his face.

The teen pulled his jacket forward and headed over to where he had parked his car when he first spotted the fire, getting in and driving off to school.

When he got there, he smiled when he heard someone talk about one of his alien alter-egos. "I heard this super fast alien pushed a woman out of the way of a car that ran a red light."

"Well I heard there was this electric lizard alien that powered up a nearby hospital when the power went out."

"My dad told me about this weird plant alien that somehow controlled a bunch of trees and used them to stop a baby carriage when it rolled towards the road."

Flash smiled as he heard about all the good he had spent the last week doing, stepping into the school and spotted Trixie by his locker. "Hey!" He told her.

"Hey," she smirked whilst showing him her phone. "I heard another one of those aliens showed up today," she gave him a knowing look. "Apparently, it saved a mother and her child from burning to death."

"Guess we're lucky those aliens are around," Flash told her as he closed his locker before the pair headed to class. Along the way, they spotted Twilight and Sunset. "Hey girls," they turned to smile at him. "How's Rainbow doing?"

"See for yourself," Sunset pointed further down the hall and Flash saw Rainbow Dash leaning against her locker as Applejack got her books out of here. She had a pair of crutches besides her and her leg was in a cast.

"Hey Rainbow," Flash told her as they reached her. "How's the leg feeling?"

"Super itchy," Rainbow moaned. "But it's fine. Doc says the cast should be off in about two weeks."

"That's good," Twilight nodded. "I guess we should be happy that alien showed up when he did, or your injuries might have been more severe."

"Yeah," Rainbow nodded, "I hope I get to meet him soon so I can thank him. What's his name again?"

"I think I heard someone say they heard him call himself Diamondhead," Trixie explained. Flash smirked at this. He had chosen to name each of his aliens, to give them more of an identity and to help make explaining which one he was talking about easier in conversation. He had made sure to announce his many names whenever he could and they were quickly spreading and becoming their official names.

"Well I hope I get to meet Diamondhead again," Rainbow stated. "So that I can give him a proper thank you."

"I wanna meet him too," Twilight smiled. "I wanna meet all the aliens, so that I can learn more about them. Just imagine what amazing technology they could show our world."

"A'h bet they could become super famous," Applejack nodded. "Probably why they don't stick around to talk. Tryin' ta keep things on the down low."

"Maybe," Twilight nodded, "I just wish I could get a look at just one piece of their alien technology. I bet their communication devices make smartphones look like carrier pigeons." They all laughed at this and headed towards their first class, though they had to go slow for Rainbow's sake, looking forward to a long day of school whilst continuing to talk about the aliens

Over at a nearby science company, in one of the many labs that were working to find new ways to better mankind, one man was hard at work.

He was a middle aged man with blue skin, frizzy greying yellow hair and an short shaggy beard that had many of the tips looking like they had been burnt. He had a pair of goggles on and was busy welding something, the sound annoying a pigeon that was in a cage next to a snake's tank. Then, suddenly, the door of his lab flew open.

"Animac!" A man in a suit rushed in, "where are you?"

The man named Animac sighed and stopped welding before turning to him, "what is it? I've almost completed my masterpiece. An invention that will be the key to the next stage of human evolution."

"I've just gone over the accounts and found you've maxed out not just your spending account, but the accounts of three other members of staff. Did you really think I wouldn't realise you've hacked into their accounts."

"BAH!" Animac didn't look concerned as he started welding again, "they were simply wasting the money. Their research will never amount to anything. But mine will change the future of mankind."

"Yeah right," the man frowned. "You've been saying that for the last five years and still haven't gotten anything to show for it."

"Well that's all about to change."

"Yes, it is." The man rushed off and unplugged the welder. "You're out of here Animac." The scientist looked at him in shock, "I've had it with you constantly causing problems for the company. I want you out of here by the end of the day. And don't think of taking any of your research, because it's the official property of the company."

Animac looked outraged, "you can't do this!"

"I just did."

Animac growled, then smiled and turned around. "Fine. But before I go, I wish to show you the fruits of my efforts." The man looked at him in confusion, as Animac spun back around. He was now wearing a strange looking helmet with a pair of long pointed horns on the front. He also wore a strange looking vest with multiple pieces of machinery on it along with wires connected to the helmet and pair of gloves he was wearing that had gun barrels on the back of them.

"What is that?"

"My perfected experiment. The animal recombinator!" He turned towards the cages and held up his gloves, as the gun barrels on them glowed before both unleashing a burst of energy. One struck the bird and the other struck the snake, making them both cry out as their bodies were disintegrated.

The energy flew back into the guns and travelled throughout his body, eventually reaching his helmet and flying up the antenna before shooting out of it. The man was horrified to see the two energies merge together, eventually forming a new shape before fading away.

Now, a giant snake was inside the lab. It was almost five meters long and had a pair of large feathered wings and a long sharp beak where its mouth should, that beak snapping open and shut. "Impossible."

"Apparently not," Animac chuckled before turning to the beast. "Punish him for his ignorance." The antenna beeped and the winged-snake suddenly swung his tail around and slammed it into the man. He flew backwards and crashed into the back wall, falling to the ground unconscious and Animac laughed. "Excellent," he jumped up onto the snake's neck. "Now I require more parts to finish my ultimate creation. Unfortunately, I'm not likely to find them here. Fortunately, I know the perfect place to get them." The snake shot into the air and smashed through a window, flying above the city in order to find what Animac was looking for.

With school over, Flash was driving home. As he did, he couldn't help but remember what Twilight had said and was curious what might happen if he actually told the world he was all those aliens.

But the idea of revealing himself to the public scared him, the thought of becoming famous because of something like this was a thought that sent a chill down his spine. "No," he told himself, "better to keep this a secret. At least until I learn more about this thing." His eyes drifted to the watch and as it did, he also noticed a nearby superstore. And seeing that made the teen peckish.

Turning into the store's lot, he parked up and headed inside. The place was massive, with aisles for everything a person would want. This included snacks, the teen heading over to the candy aisle and looking through the selection. "What to pick?"

"You can't go wrong with gummy worms if you ask me." Flash turned towards the voice and spotted a white skinned man with blue hair. "Sorry, didn't mean to eavesdrop."

"It's fine," Flash told him. "Don't worry about it." He picked up the candy the man had suggested, "you saying these are good."

"Definitely," he nodded as he grabbed his own bag. "I've never had a complaint. Shining Armor by the way."

"Flash Sentry," the teen saluted. As he did, he notice a woman pushing a shopping cart down the aisle. "Dean Cadance?" Shining and the woman looked confused as she stepped up besides him.

"Do I know you?" She asked, Flash smirking.

"Flash Sentry. I was on CHS's Friendship Game team."

"Oh that's right. You're the boy who baked the loaf of bread instead of the cake." Flash blushed at this, Cadance and Shining both laughing. "Well it's nice to see you again. And it's Principal Cadance now." Flash nodded at this as he grabbed another bag of gummy worms. "So how have things been at school? Twilight talks about it a lot but I fear she might be abridging certain things to make us happy."

"Everything's great there. There's been a few incidents, but nothing you need to worry about."

"Well you can never be too careful," Shining told him. "Our world's getting crazier and crazier by the minute. If it's not weird magical stuff, it's those alien invaders that have started showing up." Those words caught Flash by surprise, the teen turning to him.

"Invaders? The aliens have done nothing but help people."

"Maybe," Shining frowned, "or maybe that's what they want us to believe. If we start seeing them as heroes, we'll lower our guard and the next thing we know we're suddenly getting sucked up by UFOs and sent to their planets to be used as their version of pigs." Flash and Cadance just gave him a look that told him they were disturbed. "Trust me, those things are nothing but trouble."

"Well I think you're wrong," Flash told him. "I think those aliens just wanna help and hopefully, you'll see that one day too."

Shining frowned and looked like he was about to argue. But as he did, a nearby wall exploded and sent debris flying everywhere. Flash and Shining both saw this and their instincts kicked in, Shining leaping at Cadance and knocking her to the ground as Flash leapt back to avoid a piece of the wall, that instead crashed into the shelf behind him.

"What just happened?" Cadance asked, as Shining stood up and looked over at the wall. When he did, his eyes went wide.

"Hello there!" Animac smiled as he rode his winged-serpent into the store, "sorry for busting down the wall. Your doors were ill equipped to fit my little pet." As he said that, a shop clerk ran up to him.

"See here. There are no unleashed pets allowed in this store. Especially giant snakes with wings." He pointed at Animac, "you and your friend will have to LEEEEEEEAVE!" He screamed the last part as the snake had flicked its tail around and knocked him flying, crashing into a nearby shelf.

Shining had seen enough and turned to Cadance, "get out of here. GO!" She nodded and ran off, Shining looking over at Flash and seeing the teen run as well. He quickly checked the rest of the store and spotted several shoppers all frozen in place by fear, in danger of being crushed by falling debris or swallowed by a giant snake. Reaching into his belt, he pulled his gun out of its holster before rushing over to point it at Animac. "Freeze!" He yelled, getting the madman's attention. "I don't know what's going on, but you're under arrest!"

"Oh, I don't think so!" Animac turned towards the pet aisle, spotting a hamster and a frog inside a cage. He pointed his gloves at them both and unleashed the lightning, which struck the pair and disintegrated them. The energies flew back towards him and up to his helmet, then fired out the antenna. The two energies merged together and began to take shape, Shining's eyes going wide.

Flash had managed to get away from the chaos zone and had safely gotten into the store's bathroom.

"Okay Doctor Dolittle, it's time to face the power of Riot-Horn." He activated the watch and started cycling through his alien forms, trying to find the one he wanted.

Shining watched as the energy finally formed the new creation, that being a giant hamster creature with the legs of a frog that was the size of an elephant.

The hybrid fell towards the ground and the impact was so great, it caused the entire room to shake and made Shining trip over. The man cried out as he hit the ground, his gun falling from his hands. He tried to recover and looked up at the creature, who let out a strange noise that was a mix of a croak and a squeak.

"Take him!" Animac yelled as his winged-snake moved over to the electronics area. The creature opened its mouth and from it, a long tongue shot out towards Shining.

"Yikes!" He rolled away and jumped up to run for his life, the hybrid leaping into the air. Shining barely managed to dodge before the creature crashed into the ground, shaking the entire building.

This included the bathroom, which vibrated so hard Flash lost his balance. "WOW!" He cried as he fell over, accidently pushing the dial down before he found the right alien.

In a flash, the teen was replaced by a strange brown humanoid rodent creature standing at about two foot. He was wearing a black and white body suit that covered everything except its face and arms. It was wearing a pair of white gloves and on its rodent face, it had a yellow moustache under its nose and the watch symbol on his white belt.

"I say," Flash spoke with a British accent as he looked himself over. "Molestache. Well this is certainly an unfortunate turn of events." The ground shook again and Flash realised he couldn't let this stop him, "I must stop that accursed vagabond before he causes anyone a serious injury."

With that, he rushed for the door and tried to leap up and grab the handle. Alas, he couldn't reach. As such, instead his moustache suddenly came to life and grew in such a way that it mirrored the appearance of a pair of muscular arms. He reached up and turned the handle, trying to pull the door open only to accidently pull it of its hinges.

"Oops." He put the door down and ran outside, where he spotted the hamster frog chasing Shining. "Tally-ho!" He charged forward and as the frog leapt into the air, he did the same and reached up with his moustache hand. Grabbed the hybrid by the ear, he pulled himself up and landed on its back as it landed.

Shining glanced back and was surprised when he saw the alien, who started punching at the hybrid's head with both his actual fists and his hair fists. "One of those things!" Molestache looked up at him and smiled as he kept punching.

"What ho detective," he stated as the hamster frog tried to throw him off. "I say, you're a lively one are you not!" He looked ahead and saw several people frozen in fear right in front of the hybrid, Molestache quickly extending his nose hair and coiling it around the creatures neck. "Keep away from them, you rapscallion!" He pulled at the neck as hard as he could, making the hybrid stagger backwards. Through his grunts, he turned to Shining. "Please give aid to their escape!"

Shining didn't like working with an alien, but he knew he had to get those people to safety. So he quickly rushed over to the shoppers. "Come on!" He yelled, pulling some of them up and pushing them towards the exit.

As he did, the hybrid stared swinging its head around and around. Molestache tried to hold on as best he could, but slowly he was losing his grip. "I say!" He cried when his moustache finally snapped and he was sent flying over to the electronics section. He ended up crashing into a shelf of calculators and knocking it over, getting buried in the equipment.

Further down the aisle, Animac was looking at all the pieces of technology he had available to him without cost. "Truly a bargain!" He smiled as he picked up several camcorders and other pieces of equipment, "now I have everything I need to complete my perfect creation." But before he could make his escape, the calculator pile exploded with Molestache jumping out of it. He then raised both his real and hair fists like a boxer.

"Good sir, I kindly ask you to put down what you plan to pilfer or I shall have to give you a jolly good thrashing!" Animac looked at him strangely, then pointed at him.

"Attack!" The winged-serpent flew forward, mouth open wide ready to swallow him down. But Molestache charged forward and used his moustache to hoist himself up above the beast before diving down and landing on top of its head. He then rushed down its back and used his stache to wrap around the wings.

The beast suddenly found itself unable to fly and crashed down to the ground, sliding forward before stopping as Molestache smiled. He then felt something hit him in the back and grunt, the rodent looking back to see it was the hamster frog's tongue.

"Get him!" Animac yelled as his latest creation retracted its tongue and tried to pull Molestache towards him, but a loud banging sound quickly filled the air and the creature cried out in pain as Molestache fell to the floor. Animac looked around and spotted Shining, gun out pointed at the beast. He growled, but knew he was just wasting time.

As Molestache picked himself up, Animac grabbed the last of the equipment he needed. He then sent a mental command to his serpent and the beast flew up and smashed its head into the ceiling. Molestache and Shining saw this and both watched as the roof began to cave in, whilst Animac leapt onto his hamster frog.

Shining began to run around to avoid the debris, Molestache easily deflecting it with a punch from his stache fists. As they did, the hamster leapt up through the hole the snake made and out into the streets. People screamed their heads off seeing this and ran for their lives, whilst the frog and serpent kept on their escape route with Animac leaping onto his snake to fly away.

"Shining!" Cadance cried, watching more of the stone collapse.

"Wow!" Shining cried as he leapt out of the way of a falling piece of rubble, whilst Molestache ran up to him. As he did, a nearby support column crumbled apart and was about to fall on the detective.

"Look out!" Molestache used his stache to push Shining out of the way, but this caused it to get crushed by the column. Molestache was so busy trying to pull himself free, that he didn't notice another piece of debris fall down until it slammed him in the head. "Ahhh!" He cried as he fell to the ground, completely unconscious.

Shining remained where he was as the building continued to shake, but eventually settled around him with the last of the debris falling but not hitting him. He sighed in relief once the building was secure, then turned towards the alien.

Despite what had just happened, Shining knew he needed to take this chance to get one of these things under lock and key and figure out what their scheme was. He moved over to the alien and rolled him over, the moustache pinning him twisting as he did so. "Alright E.T," he told him. "What are you up to?" But before he could think of what to do with him, a beeping sound caught his attention and he looked down to see the symbol on his belt flashing.

Within seconds, the device unleashed a blinding light that Shining had to look away from. When it died down, he looked back and was in for the shock of a lifetime when he saw who was laying in the mole's place.

"Flash?" He couldn't believe what he was seeing. Why was Flash there instead of the alien? It was then he noticed the watch on the kid's arm, which had the same symbol as the aliens. Slowly, Shining was putting the pieces together. He remembered how defensive Flash was of the aliens, so could it be he was connected to them. "What have you gotten yourself into kid?"

From atop his winged serpent, Animac chuckled as he took apart the different pieces of tech he had stolen.

But before he could try and put them together, a gunshot filled and something zoomed passed his snake's wing. He looked down and spotted a bunch of police cruisers racing down the road towards him. He growled and ordered his serpent higher into the air. "Deal with them!" He told the hamster frog, who stopped leaping after him and spun around to leap at the police cars.

The officers managed to avoid the beast and come to a stop, the police getting out of the cars and beginning to shoot at it and allowed Animac to escape.

But as he flew around another corner, more sirens filled the air as several more cruisers appeared. "Oh, come on!"

Flash's head was killing him as he came around, the teen feeling it pulse with pain as his eyes flickered open.

As his brain slowly cleared, he realised something. He was laying on a very uncomfortable mattress and his arms were up above his head, apparently locked in place by something. "Wha?" He looked up as his vision solidified, allowing him to see that he was laying on an old metal bed. His hands were handcuffed to different sections of the headboard, making it impossible for him to reach the watch. "What's going on?"

"You and I are going to have a little talk." Flash looked towards the voice, surprised when he saw Shining Armor sitting on a chair at the end of the bed. He looked around the room and found it was a dank and dirty place, that appeared to not have been lived in for some time. "We're in an abandoned apartment building," Shining explained. "It's set to be demolished soon. But until then, it'll hold you long enough for me to get some answers."

"Answers about what?" Shining stepped over and grabbed Flash's left wrist, turning to show him the watch.

"I saw that mole creature turn into you and noticed this watch, which won't come off your wrist. Okay kid, if you are a kid, what's the story. You part of some body snatcher alien plan. Did you get rid of the real Flash Sentry and take his place hoping to complete some kind of alien human crossbreeding invasion plan."

"What?" Flash looked at him like he was crazy, "I'm not an alien. I can just...turn into some."

"Some?" Flash sighed, knowing this was gonna be a long explanation.

Animac hissed in annoyance as he flew above the city, the police cars continuing to chase after him.

They had been chasing him now for over forty minutes and his winged-snake was starting to get tired. It wouldn't be able to stay airborne much longer. "Isn't there some place where a genius can work without being distracted?" But then he noticed a nearby sign, which made him smirk. "Perfect."

His mutant flew around a building and began to head towards the one place a man with his powers was unstoppable. Canterlot City Zoo.

"And that's the story," Flash finally finished as Shining stared at the watch. "I'm not part of an alien invasion. I just wanna help people."

Shining looked the watch over, trying for the third time to remove it. "So you had this dangerous weapon, which a bunch of robots blew up downtown to get, and you decided to just keep it to yourself so you could play hero."

"Well what else was I supposed to do?" Flash asked, "it won't come off. For all I know, if I told the world about this watch I could end up on some mad scientist's lab table getting dissected. Or locked up for no reason. And I'm not playing hero. I'm actually helping those in need. I've had this thing a week and I've already saved a butt ton of people, including your ungrateful ass!"

"This thing is far too dangerous to let some reckless kid have," Shining told him. "I'm taking you into custody and we're gonna find a way to get that thing off of you." Flash frowned, fearing what he just theorised might actually happen. But before Shining could come up with a way to move him without the kid hitting the watch, Shining's phone went off.

"This is Armor?" He answered and listened for a few seconds. "Are you sure?" He sighed, "I'm on my way." He hung up and turned to Flash, "you're booking's gonna have to wait. That Animac guy's back and he's causing problems at the zoo." Flash's eyes went wide.

"Shining, you've gotta free me."

"As if."

"You saw that that nutcase could do. If he's at the zoo, he probably has an entire army of mutant animal fusion. You really think the police have a chance of beating something like that?" Shining stopped and thought about this, "let me go and I can help. Some of my aliens have amazing abilities. Animac won't stand a chance against them."

"No way," Shining told him. "There's no way I'm letting some reckless kid use a dangerous weapon."

"It's not like I'll be unsupervised," Flash pointed out. "You'll be there with me. You'll see the good I can do."

"The answer is no," Shining headed for the door. "You'll stay here until this mess is cleaned up and then I'm taking you down to the police precinct." With that, he was gone and Flash let out a frustrated groaned.

All he could do was lay their and wait to be arrested, doing so for a few minutes until he got bored. "To heck with this," he tried to reach the watch with his other hand but the two were just out of reach. "Dang handcuffs. There has to be a way to get out of this."

At the Canterlot City Zoo, Animac and his winged serpent stood atop a large building and laughed at what was below him.

When he had arrived at the zoo, he quickly got to work and now he had an entire army. Multiple different animal fusions ran around the place, attacking anything and anyone that got too close. This included the police, who had tried multiple times to charge in.

But nothing they did allowed them to even get close to Animac before a fusion of a lion and an owl tried to eat them. "Finally," he looked away from the carnage, "I can complete my work." But as he walked over to the pieces of technology that he had stolen, something new happened.

A police officer had rushed in firing wildly at the animals. But what he hit ended up being a fusion of a turtle and an alligator. The beast's shell and hide protected it, allowing it to charge forward and bite at his leg. He screamed and fell back, the mutant letting him go as he pulled himself backwards. It then tried to bite into him again. But before it could, a diamond-shaped shield appeared.

"Are you okay?" He looked around and saw six girls running towards him, one of them holding up her hand as it glowed.

Twilight, Rarity, Sunset, Applejack, Fluttershy and Pinkie had been enjoying themselves with Rainbow when they heard about the insanity that was going on. Thinking it could be Equestrian Magic, they rushed off though Rainbow wasn't happy she had to stay behind.

"Get out of here," the officer told them. "It's not safe."

"Don't worry," Pinkie pulled a cupcake from her hair. "We got this!" She threw the cupcake and it hit the turtle-gator in the face, exploding and making it stagger backwards. But there were a lot more animals all around them, each one a crazy amalgam of two of even three animals. They all screamed, roared or made a strange mixture of their different natural sounds, Fluttershy gasping.

"The poor things." The others turned to her, "they hate what's happened to them. But they can't control themselves. Whatever that man tells them to do, they can't refuse."

"So they'll stop attacking if we take that guy down?" Sunset asked, Fluttershy nodding. "That...could be tricky." They looked around at all the animals now surrounding them, glaring at them and showing their teeth. If they wanted to get to Animac, they needed to get past all these creatures first. And that wasn't gonna be easy.

Back with Flash, he was still attempting to free himself using the watch.

"Come on," he moaned as he pressed the side of the watch against one of the headboard's bars. "Come on." Then he felt the bar push something on the watch in and heard the clicking of the watch's dial going up. "YES!" He couldn't see what alien was dialled up, but knew any of them could get him out of the handcuffs and pushed the dial down.

A bright green light filled the room and when it faded, Flash was no long on the bed. In his place was a giant puddle of green slime. A strange UFO-like device appeared above it and as it floated over the puddle, the mass began to morph into a more humanoid shape. Said shape had a pair of blue eyes surrounded by a black boarder and the watch symbol where its chest would be.

"Alright," a gargling voice cheered before turning to the window, "Goop to the rescue!" The UFO flew forward and smashed through the boards keeping the window shut, pulling the green slime along with it.

Shining Armor had finally arrived at the zoo and was shocked by what he saw.

Each and every police officer was fighting against a certain animal hybrid and not having much luck against them. Getting out of his car, he ran forward as a Gorilla with bat wings and ears flew passed carrying an officer in his hand like feet. He pulled out his gun and fired several shots, not hitting the beast by managing to scratch its leg and make it drop the officer.

"WOW!" He heard a girl's voice and looked over, seeing Applejack being pushed backwards as she tried to stop a hybrid that had the head and legs of a lion and the shell of an armadillo. She had the creature by the jaws and was keeping them from snapping shut, but still couldn't overpower it.

He then spotted Twilight run forward and use her magic to grab the creature and lift it away from Applejack.

"Twilight!" Shining cried, rushing to his sister. As he did, he spotted the rest of her friends were also trying to stop the hybrids. Pinkie was throwing deserts that caused low-level explosions at them, just enough to daze and not hurt them, whilst Rarity was protecting herself, Sunset and Fluttershy in a dome of crystals. "You have to get out of here!"

"We can't!" Twilight told him as a police officer yelled, the three turning to see him being chased by a leopard with the legs and horns of a gazelle. Twilight quickly grabbed it in her magic and pulled it away, allowing him to escape. "Our magic's the only thing keeping these creatures at bay. We can't just leave."

"Though we're barely holdin'em off," Applejack stated. "We could really use some alien help right now." Shining frowned as he remembered what he did to Flash.

"We don't need those aliens." He looked around, trying to find Animac. "If we can just find the guy responsible for this." He ran off, much to Twilight's cry that he stay where it was safe. He ran as fast as he could to avoid the animals, getting attacked by wolves that had wings, centipedes with lizard heads and a giant scorpion with a king cobra for a tail.

Eventually, he managed to avoid them all as he arrived at the centre of the zoo. And there he spotted Animac, sitting at a table surrounded by pieces of tech and other hardware.

"FREEZE!" He pointed his gun at the man, who didn't even look shocked he was there.

"Ahh, the police officer from before. Survived the little burying I gave, did we?"

"You...are gonna turn those animals back to normal and surrender, or else." But Animac didn't seem to take his threat seriously, instead continuing to work on the device. "Hey!" Before he could say anything else, something shot out from hiding and flew straight at him. "WOW!" He cried as it slammed into him, knocking him to the ground and pinning him with a large paw. Shining's eyes spun and when they righted, he looked up to see a giant tiger glaring down at him. Only it wasn't just a tiger.

Its back legs were replaced by goat hooves and on its left shoulder was that goat's head. Instead of a tail, it had a long snake that hissed as it flicked around. The creature both growled, barred and hissed at him, whilst Animac laughed.

"My little pet should deal with you. Too bad you didn't think to stay away long enough to survive." He picked up the device he was working on and held it up for all to see. "If you did, you would have gotten to experience the joys of my ultimate masterpiece. Once I attach my new device to the strongest signal booster in Canterlot, it'll unleash an energy wave designed to fuse any human it touches with the closest animal. Mankind will finally have reached its next stage of evolution!"

"You're insane," Shining grunted as he tried to push the chimera's paw off of him.

"No, I'm ingenious. Just watch. Once everyone sees how much better they are combined with animals, I'll win the nobel prize for sure!" He ran off, as Shining looked back at the chimera with terror in his eyes. Both heads leaned down, ready to bite a chunk out of him. But before they could, a green slimy whip slammed into the goat head and made it cry out and stagger off of Shining. The tiger head turned to where the whip had come from, only to get its own whipping that made it's entire body jump away from Shining.

The cop spun around and was shocked to see Goop standing there, the badge on his chest making him realise it was Flash. "Sentry?" He picked himself up as Goop's UFO flew towards the chimera and pulled him along. The beast roared and charged, but Goop stayed close to the ground and slid under it before the chimera could try and attack him. As he did, he covered the bottom of its feet and hooves with his slime and flew off it. When he did, the chimera's feet found themselves sticking to the ground as the slime on them hardened.

"That'll hold ya'h for a while," Goop announced as Shining rushed up to him.

"I didn't need your help."

"Right," he replied sarcastically before the pair headed off in the direction Animac ran. "Any idea what his next plan is?"

"He said he was gonna detonate some kind of device that'll fuse people to animals."

"That's nuts," Goop stopped when he saw several police officers being cornered by alligator turtle hybrids. "Hold on a moment." He shot forward and slid around the feet of the hybrids, sticking them to the ground and allowing the police officers the chance to escape. As he did, the badge on his chest started beeping. "Oh no!" As quick as he could, he flew between a pair of buildings seconds before that space was filled with light. A moment later, Flash ran out and rejoined Shining. "So where is he gonna detonate that thing?"

"Nowhere you need to know," Shining told him. "You're not a part of this situation, especially now that you're human again."

"Come on!" Flash groaned, "you'd be tiger, goat and snake food if it wasn't for me. Just wait. When this watch times back in, I'll be ready to go and take that psycho down." As he said that, Twilight and Applejack ran up to them.

"Shining!" His sister yelled, then noticed the teen. "And...Flash?"

"What are you doing here?" Applejack asked, Flash suddenly finding himself without a good answer.

But before he could try and come up with one, a nearby building suddenly exploded. The reason for the sudden blow was made obvious when a giant elephant stamped out of the wreckage. But to their horror, the elephant didn't have traditional legs. Instead, eight large arachnid legs could be seen coming out of its sides and its head had eight eyes instead of two.

"Ew," Twilight looked grossed out by the creature. But then they noticed Animac riding atop of it. "There he is!"

"Twilight!" Shining yelled, "use your magic and grab that device he's wearing!" Twilight nodded and held up her hands, the device Animac was wearing beginning to glow. The man noticed this and quickly held it tighter to him, he and Twilight struggling to pull it.

"Stop!" He yelled, "you'll break it!" But Twilight wasn't listening, so he turned to the elephant spider. "Get them!" The creature turned towards them and held up its trunk, which it swung around to try and knock them all down. The lot scream as they leapt out of the way, Twilight forced to stop using her magic. "Good. Now take them down!"

The elephant spider let out a traditional elephant sound and in doing so, unleashed a strange white substance from its trunk. Applejack was struck by the substance and knocked down, the white gunk gluing her to the ground. "HEY!" She yelled, trying to use her super strength to pull herself free. But whatever this stuff was, it was strong.

"Applejack!" Twilight yelled, rushing to her side.

"Twilight, stay back!" But it was too late. The elephant spider fired another blast of webbing and struck Twilight, knocking her to the ground and tying her up so only her head and feet were visible.

"Twilight!" Shining yelled, but he and Flash were forced to jump back to avoid getting hit by the webbing. This allowed Animac's monster to grab Twilight in its trunk and lift her up, Twilight crying out at this.

"I'll take this little girl with me. I'm sure once I've proven my brilliance with my evolution bomb, I'll be allowed to run any experiments I want." He looked down at Twilight, "I look forward to seeing what evolutionary potential you represent once I cut you open." Twilight looked ready to start crying, as the elephant spider leapt into the air and landed atop a nearby building. It then shot a bunch of webbing behind it that covered the entire area, blocking Flash and Shining from going straight after them.

"TWILIGHT!" Shining yelled, growling as he took out his phone and started running.

"What are you doing?" Flash asked, Shining typing away at it.

"I have tracking software on Twilight's phone," he looked at Flash and frowned. "Don't give me that look. You have no idea how often Twilight loses her phone. She's the one that installed this!" He finally tracked down Twilight's phone, "there she is." He turned around a corner and Flash followed, the pair heading for the zoo's exit.

"What's your plan?" He asked the detective as they left the zoo. "Let's face it, you're not exactly much of a match against Animac's hybrids. Twilight was beaten and she has magic." Shining frowned, clearly thinking the same thing. He then looked down at Flash's wrist, as the watch's dial turned green.

"Can you save her? If you use that thing?"

Flash looked at the watch, "I'm not sure." He then gave Shining a serious look, "but I'm gonna try." Shining nodded as they reached the exit and headed for his car, both getting in and driving off to follow Twilight's signal.

The girl continued to be terrified, as the spider-phant leapt from building to building and scuttling along it. "Where are we going?" She asked, as Animac smirked down at her.

"I need a strong signal boost in order for my energy wave to blanket the entire city. And what better booster, then Canterlot's main cellphone tower." He pointed ahead of him, Twilight looking around and seeing the phone tower in question.

Twilight gulped as she once again try to escape, but the webbing was just too strong. She couldn't even use her magic in this state. They reached the tower and the spider-phant dropped Twilight at the base of the tower, then fired another blast of webbing to stick her to it.

She struggled against it, but still couldn't escape as the spider-phant lifted Animac up as high as its trunk would go. He started climbing the ladder, Twilight hoping someone or something would show up to stop this madman.

"There she is," Flash stated as he saw Twilight's signal stop moving on Shining's phone. "She's at the base of the city's cell tower."

"Of course," Shining nodded. "Animac said he needed a signal booster, so of course he would use that." He turned a corner and as they did, they found many people running in the opposite direction screaming their heads off. "I think we're getting close." Flash saw they were just around the corner from Twilight's location.

"Let me out here!" Shining nodded and stopped the car, Flash jumping out and looking around. Nobody was in sight, so he activated the watch and cycled through his alien choices.

"I hope you've got something strong enough to take that mutant down," Shining told him as Flash smirked.

"Oh, I got just the thing." With that, he slapped the dial down and the watch unleashed a flash of light.

Shining flinched at said light, but it quickly faded and he looked back at Flash. In his place was a ten foot giant brown humanoid rhino creature, whose upper body was covered large spikes. A large horn spike was sticking out of its nose with a smaller one just behind it, whilst a large straight spike was sticking out of each arm just below the shoulder. Its ears were long and pointed, like an elf's, whilst its blue eyes were quite small. On its head between its ears was a streak of blue hair and it was wearing a grey bodysuit that was covered in light armor that was black, including a chest plate, knee and elbow pads and armoured boots. Around each wrist was a ring made of the same material as its horns, whilst the watch symbol was on the centre of his chest armor.

"Wow," Shining said as Flash smirked.

"Let's go!" He said in a gruff voice before charging forward, Shining Armor not far behind.

Twilight watched Animac fiddle around at the top of the tower, attaching his bomb to the circuitry. The spider-phant continued to be on guard, as Animac cheered.

"Yes. Now the evolution bomb is all hooked up. Once it reaches full charge, it'll fire and my greatest dream will finally be realised."

"I don't think so!" They all heard, looking down the street and seeing a giant rhino-man hybrid running towards them. Twilight was amazed, whilst Animac looked shocked.

"Another of those weird creatures. I'd call you a beautiful merging of two species, but it's clear you weren't made by my experiments so you are obviously a flawed creation."

"Yeah, I'm not one of yours. I'm Riot-Horn, the alien hero that will stop you!" With that, he charged forward as fast as he could run. The spider-phant charged as well, swinging its massive trunk in Riot-Horn's direction. But the rhino alien slid to a stop and actually caught the trunk, gripping it in both hands before spinning on the spot. "RAAAAH!" He yelled as he pulled the spider-phant into the air and then slammed him downwards.

The mutant screamed as it smashed into the pavement, the impact causing the ground to shake as Riot-Horn let go and leapt away before it could try to retaliate. As he did, Twilight noticed the horns on his body were slowly starting to glow. "What's that about?"

"Twilight!" She looked around saw her brother, who ran up to the cell tower and pulled out his gun. He fired it up towards Animac, but the man jumped away and the bullet struck a piece of metal instead. "Let's get you out of here!"

"Shining!" Twilight cried, "where did that alien come from?" Shining wanted to tell her it was actually Flash, but for some reason he couldn't bring himself to say it.

"I don't know. But...I think we can trust him." As Shining pulled at the webbing, the spider-phant picked itself up and charged at Riot-Horn. But the alien stood his ground.

"Bring it!" He roared, as the mutant tried to stab him with its tusk. But he grabbed that tusk and stopped it in its tracks, then grabbed the other one. He managed to hold the mutant in place, but as he did the creature raised its trunk and pointed it at him. "Uh oh." The webbing shot out of the trunk and Riot-Horn was forced to leap back to avoid getting stuck, hitting the ground again and causing it to shake. "Not cool."

Twilight kept watching the fight as her brother managed to get more and more of the webbing off of her, allowing her more movement. But she was too focused on the alien, whose horns and spikes were getting brighter and brighter. It was only when the light of the sun reflected off one into her face that she realised what must be happening. "Is he...collecting solar energy?"

"Come Twilight!" Shining told her, "try and wiggle free!" Twilight did so, the webbing giving way and slowly allowing her to move more.

At the same time, Animac watched the fight and turned to his evolution bomb. "Soon," he told himself, "soon." The bomb was almost fully charged. Once that happened, there would be no stopping it. This caused him to laugh, catching Riot-Horn's attention and making him realise he was running out of time.

"I've gotta end this!" He glanced back at the others and saw that Twilight was finally free, Shining pulling the last of the webbing off of her as the pair ran away. "Perfect!" As the spider-phant charged, Riot-Horn leapt into the air and slammed both feet down into its back. "Now I don't have to hold back!"

The creature cried out as it was plastered to the ground, whilst Riot-Horn leapt off of it and landed on the ground behind him. As he did, the glow from his horns suddenly started to dim. Shining and Twilight saw this and noticed the veins on his body started glowing as well, as if the energy was flying through his body. And all of it seemed to be heading down to the rings around his fists.

"Here we go!" He yelled as he raised his fists, whilst the rings started growing upwards and forming a pair of glowing sphere around his fists that had all the solar energy he had collected. As this was happening, the spider-phant pushed itself back up and turned towards Riot-Horn. It let out a trunk cry before charging forward, the alien rhino doing the same.

Both creatures shook the ground as they ran and everyone watched with bated breath, until Riot-Horn suddenly leapt up and then thrust his left fist into the ground so hard it cause a large shockwave. This knocked everyone on the ground back, including the spider-phant. And this allowed Riot-Horn to leap off the spot he was on and fly towards it whilst bringing his other fist around.

"Take...THIS!" He thrust the sphere covered fist into the spider-phant's face and struck it with such force, that the creature was sent flying backwards with another shockwave. Animac was horrified to see this, then even more horrified when he saw where the spider-phant was going to land.

"NOOOO!" He yelled as the mutant slammed into the cell tower with such force, the whole thing to ripped out of the ground and began to fall. Animac screamed as he grabbed onto the tower, whilst Riot-Horn ran forward and leapt over to where the tower was falling. And before it could hit the ground, he caught it as the sphere around his fists retracted. He grabbed the tower and stopped it from hitting the ground, but the suddenly movement caused Animac to fall to the ground.

Shining Armor and Twilight rushed over to him, Shining tackling him as he tried to pick himself up whilst Twilight rushed to the tower's top. She spotted the bomb was almost fully charged and, using her magic, pulled it towards her with all her might. Doing so ripped the connections out, causing the bomb to shut down seconds before it went off.

"NOOOO!" Animac yelled, seeing his greatest creation destroyed. Shining then punched him in the face, knocking him out as the cop grabbed all his tech and threw it to the ground. The machine broke apart and as it did, a shockwave exploded outwards.

All over the city, Animac's creations were struck by the shockwave and exploded into energy. That energy then split apart and reshaped itself, reforming the animals that had been originally fused together.

This included the spider-phant, which split back into the elephant and tarantula that Animac had original fused at the zoo. Riot-Horn carefully put the cell tower down and moved over to the downed elephant, seeing it was okay. He patted it on the head and then turned to leave.

"Wait!" Twilight called out, making him stop. "Where did you come from?" He alien turned to her, "why are you here?"

Riot-Horn stared at her and smiled, "we're here to help. Nothing more to say." Before Twilight could ask anything else, Riot-Horn leapt into the air and landed on top of a nearby building before leaping off and disappearing.

Twilight frowned, "there has to be more to this." She turned to Shining, "right?"

Shining, who had just cuffed Animac, looked over at where Riot-Horn had vanished. "Who knows. But...I think we can trust these aliens."

Canterlot's news feeds were abuzz, telling the story of the strange animal fusions that had appeared earlier that day.

Shining had had an interview when he had booked Animac, many people calling him a hero for stopping the mad scientist. But Shining had told them all that he never would have caught Animac if the aliens hadn't helped him. Once he had finally escaped the paparazzi, made sure Twilight and her friends were all safely home and called Cadance to keep her from panicking, he drove back towards the abandoned apartment he had trapped Flash in.

And much to his surprise, though a part of him knew he would be there, Flash was sitting on its front step.

Shining pulled up to the curve and got out of the car, Flash standing up and looking scared. "Wasn't expecting to see you here."

"Well...I didn't want to spend the rest of my life on the run," Flash explained before holding up his hands as if expecting to be handcuffed. "I'm ready. Take me to jail."

Shining stared at him, looking almost surprised. "You saved my sister, not to mention a lot of other people. You didn't do it for profit, or for recognition. You did it because it was the right thing to do."

"Yeah," Flash nodded, scratching his head. "Plus...I really didn't want to play DNA roulette with whatever animal I would have been fused with." Shining laughed at this. "So...what do we do now?"

"Now...you're gonna tell me about each and every alien you can turn into." Flash held up an eyebrow at this, "and I'm gonna try and help you learn to master each of their abilities."

"Why?"

"Because you've shown me you really do just want to help. And I've decided you're worth taking a chance on. As long as you promise to do things the right way and not use these powers selfishly, I'll agree to keep your secret and help you in whatever way I can."

Flash's eyes went wide, the teen smiling at him. "Thank you." He held out his hand and Shining shook it, the pair sealing the deal. "I promise, I'll be the best alien hero you've ever seen." Shining nodded back.

And so it was that Flash Sentry and Shining Armor became partners in crime. Well...partners in preventing crime. And this would be a partnership that would change their lives for the better, in more ways than one.

Author's Note

Whelp, now Shining Armor's apart of the team. We've also seen four more of the alien heroes, meaning there's only two left. What will they be? Find out next time.

Season 2, Episode 2: New Alien On the Block

It was another busy day in Canterlot and at the city's junkyard, Shining, Trixie and six of the Rainbooms were sitting around waiting for something.

Twilight was working on some kind of video camera, whilst Pinkie was painting a line on the ground and Sunset was looking at a tablet. On said app, two dots were moving quickly along a map of the town. One was blue and the other was orange, the dots appearing side by side as they zoomed up the street. "They're almost here."

"Great," Twilight smirked, "camera's ready. Everyone get prepared." They all rushed to the side, the only one not looking excited being Rarity.

The posh girl was sitting inside a plastic bubble, using a fan to keep herself cool in the heat of the plastic. Applejack turned to her and sighed, "do ya'h really need to be in that thing?" Rarity looked shocked.

"If I am to be in this filthy scrapyard, I'm taking proper precautions. Besides, we all know what's going to happen when they get here."

"We do?" Pinkie asked, "I don't." She suddenly looked excited. "OOW! Are there going to be party cannons that explode with confetti? Or fireworks? Or maybe a banner? Ooow, this is gonna be fun!" Before anyone could say anything to correct her, they heard a sound and looked up the street to see something moving towards them quickly.

In fact, it was two somethings. Rainbow and XLR8, both running at their max speed side by side. They were heading straight towards them and once Twilight made sure the camera wasn't going to go flying, they rushed to the sides and stayed as far away from them as possible. And sure enough, the pair exploded past them so quickly that they kicked a cloud of dust straight into the air.

Everyone coughed at this and as the cloud vanished, a very smug Rarity continued to keep herself cooled. "And you doubted me." The others rolled their eyes as XLR8 and Rainbow came out of the cloud at normal speed, the lot of them moving over to the camera.

"Well?" Rainbow asked as they gave Sunset back their tracking devices, "who won?"

"Give me a minute," she told them as she rewound the footage. She stopped it right at the point before the pair crossed the line, everyone gathering around her as she pressed play. The footage started in super, super, super, super slow motion. The image showed the pair moving closer to the red line, being a bunch of still frames.

After a few moments, one of them passed the finish line first and that one cheered. "VICTORY!" XLR8 cheered, jumping up and down whilst Rainbow looked horrified that she had actually been beaten.

"No way," she gasped whilst the others patted her on the shoulder.

"Don't sweat it, partner. He's only a little faster than you."

"Yeah," Twilight checked the time she crossed the finish line. "Like...point zero, zero, zero one seconds faster. That's hardly anything."

"I gotta get faster," Rainbow frowned as she looked over the clothing she had been wearing. Said clothing was her normal getup minus her jacket, which Fluttershy handed to her. "Maybe if I wore shorts and shaved my legs."

"I wouldn't worry about it," Shining told her. "Even if XLR8 is faster than you, you've got him beaten in other areas."

"Like what?"

"Like-" The Omnitrix suddenly beeped and XLR8 reverted back to Flash Sentry, who was still celebrating his victory. "You can run a lot longer than he can. He has you beat in speed, but you've got distance over him." Rainbow seemed to accept this, whilst Flash looked down at the watch. "Either way, this is good info to know."

"Didn't we do this before?" Rarity asked, as she left her bubble and moved over to them.

"Yes," Twilight nodded, "but that got interrupted. We still haven't fully gauged the limits of what Flash can do with his aliens."

"I can tell you one limit he has," Trixie told them as she leaned against a car. "Water." That confused them, "none of Flash's aliens look like they'd be much use in water. Do you know if any of them can even float, let alone swim?" Flash realised she was right. He had never actually needed to go near any water, so this limit hadn't occurred to him before.

"You have a point," Shining nodded. "We should test out which of your aliens are water resistant. But we'll have to wait for another day to do that. For now, we'll focus on testing your abilities against the girls to try and figure out a base limit you have."

"Got it," Flash nodded. "But Trixie does have a point. Too bad the Omnitrix only has ten aliens. I could really use one like Majester Glug. He looked like he'd do well in water." The others nodded as they wondered why Flash only had those ten aliens in the watch. But it was likely a question they would never get the answer to.

Meanwhile, in an apartment building next to a river in the city, a young girl was sitting in her room.

That girl was Fleur De Lis, who was currently wearing a pink shirt and green shorts along with a beret. She smiled as she sat at the round window with a big book she had just gotten on her lap.

Said book was on myths and legends from her parent's home country, Prance. She loved that country as much as America and was always interested in its culture. She smiled as she looked at the book, ready to start reading. But before she did, she got up and headed to her room's mini-fridge.

But as she got a soda out, something appeared outside the window. Equestrian Magic.

The energy flowed through the glass and swirled around without Fleur knowing, until it flew into her book and caused it to glow. That glow lasted a few seconds before it died down, right as Fleur returned with her drink.

Soda in hand, she sat back down and opened the book. Doing so revealed a page with an interesting image on it. That of a creature that looked human, but had red skin and a long pointed nose. Its fingers were long with sharp claws on the end of it. It had a scraggly black beard on its chin and a streak of black hair running from the back of its bald head down its neck and spreading out to cover its back all the way to just above the waist. The only clothing it wore was a brown loincloth.

Fleur grimaced at the creature's appearance and read the creature's name. "Nain Rouge," she spoke aloud before she ready about its history and the myths surrounding these creatures. What she didn't realise was as she read, the book was giving out a light from beneath that flowed under her before flying out the window.

The light flew down to the street and swirled into a cloud of energy, in which a figure slowly appeared before jumping out to reveal a creature that looked exactly like the monster Fleur was currently reading about.

It was only two feet tall and laughed as it ran away from the magic cloud, which was forming another figure that leapt out to reveal a second nain rouge. Another was then created, then another and another and they all ran away from the building laughing. Eventually, an army of the creatures was created before the light vanished. An army that was looking to make a lot of trouble.

Flash laughed as he finished off his drink, Pinkie having said something to the group that made them all bust a gut. As he did, the Omnitrix turned green and they all smirked.

"Alright," Applejack stood up, "time ta see who's stronger. Me or Riot-Horn." Flash smirked as he stood up and activated the watch, dialing in the alien of his choice.

"Get ready to lose this contest," he smirked before slamming the dial down. But as he did, something felt wrong. In a flash of light, his body was different but not the type of different he was used too. He suddenly couldn't feel his legs and he cried out as he fell backwards, letting out a roar using a voice he didn't recognise.

The others were blinded for a moment but as the light faded, they looked towards him and gasped.

Flash's head was starting to focus and as he lifted his arms, he found they were covered in gray fur with long white claws. "Guys...what am I?" The others weren't sure how to answer that question.

Laying on the ground was a large creature that looked like a mix of multiple animals, which was covered in grey fur. Its head was that of a wolf, with the ears of a bat and large tusk-like fangs coming out of its mouth along with long white horns on its head. Its body was that of a bear's, with fur-less upper arms whilst its furred forearms ended in four long white claws. The rest of its body was that of a furry snake, for it had a long tail that was as long as its head and body. From the tip of its snout to the tip of its tail, the alien was around thirteen or so feet. Running along its back and tail were a series of round brown spikes, whilst the Omnitrix was on its chest.

Applejack and Shining reached down to grab his arms, being careful of his claws, then pulled him up. But doing so just caused him to fall forwards, as he didn't have any feet to stand on. He managed to land on his long arms as Trixie took out her phone, snapping a picture of him to show the new alien.

"Wow," Flash looked the picture over, "I guess I look kind of cool."

"But what the heck are you?" Rainbow asked.

"He's an alien," Shining pointed out. "It's not like they're all gonna be something we recognise." As he said that, Spike let out a hum and seemed to recognise him somehow.

"He looks like a hodgepodge of different animals," Rarity stated.

"I think he looks cute," Fluttershy smiled before Spike snapped his paws.

"He's a dragon!" The others turned to him in confusion, "what?"

"Spike," Trixie scratched her head, "in what way does he look like a dragon? He's got no wings, no scales and I doubt he could breathe fire."

"Fine," Spike sighed, "he's not your typical dragon. But they don't all look like that, you know."

"What makes you the expert?" Rainbow asked, as Twilight laughed.

"Ever since he learned he was a dragon in Equestria, he's been studying them in his spare time. He's quite the dragon expert now." Spike nodded with pride.

"And I'll have you know that in some European countries, dragon was the name they gave to monsters that were a mix of different animals. It eventually fell out of use when the scaly winged creatures started getting more popular and the term chimera was used to replace it."

"So Flash is a chimera?" Sunset asked, as they looked him over and Spike kept talking.

"He's body actually resembles that of a norse dragon, which had no wings and a serpent-like body with a pair of upper arms and no feet. They were called lindworms."

"Lindworm?" Flash pushed himself up, using his tail to balance. "Alright, but what can it do?" He lost balance and fell back, crying out as he hit the ground. The others rushed to help him but as he did, Fluttershy's hand rubbed against part of his fur.

"OW!" She pulled back and looked at her hand, seeing a cut on her palm. The others rushed to her side and Flash realised he had hurt her, gasping.

"Sorry."

"it wasn't your fault," she assured him. "But your fur is sharp." That surprised them and they each carefully tested his fur, realising it was quite sharp. And hard.

As Applejack used Shining's first aid kit to bandage Fluttershy up, Rarity took out a pair of tweezers from her bag. "Hold still, darling." She grabbed a hair and pulled it out, making Flash flinch as she held the hair up and took out some scissors. She tried to cut it, but the hair refused to snap. She eventually gave up, fearing she'd damage her favourite work scissors. "My word, this fur is like metal."

"It's like you're covered in a suit of carbon fibre," Twilight smirked.

"I guess that's cool," Flash nodded as he tried to pick himself up. His tail suddenly flipped around and as it drew close to his face, something inside Flash told him to bite onto it. When he did, everyone looked at him in disgust.

"Ew," Trixie stuck her tongue out, "what are you doing?" Flash didn't reply and simply continued to move around with his tail in his mouth, doing so causing him to start rolling like a wheel.

"Okay," Rainbow looked at him in confusion as he slammed into a car stack and knocked it over. He then pushed off a car and rolled the other way, heading straight for them and rolling in their direction.

"Look out!" Sunset cried, the lot of them leaping out of the way as the lindworm shot passed them.

"Watch it!" Pinkie cried, as the alien rolled around out of control. He was heading towards another stack of cars and they all expected to see another crash, but he managed to pull himself out of the way just in time.

"I think he's getting the hang of it," Twilight smiled before Flash suddenly turned again and crashed into another stack of cars. "Or not." They all rushed over to him as the car piled up on top of him, all hoping his hard fur was protecting him. And as they got closer, one of the cars was suddenly lifted off the pile and thrown away before Flash pulled himself out of it.

"Looks like ya'h pretty strong," Applejack told him.

"Strength's useless if I can't move around properly," Flash growled as he got out of the pile and slowly managed to balance himself onto his tail. He was getting the hang of it, using his arms to stabilize himself. But he knew one tiny impact would likely knock him onto his back. He planned on staying perfectly still until he was back in his human body.

However, it was in that moment Shining's phone received a police alert. Taking it out, he hit play and got a message sent to all officers. "Attention all officers. Multiple Code Z-six-threes in town." Shining's eyes went wide at that.

"Z-six-three?" Twilight looked confused, "what's that?"

"New code. It's for creatures of unknown origins. It was brought in after...well, you know." They did and Shining rushed towards his car, the others following after him.

"Hey!" Flash cried as he fell onto his front and pulled himself along, "wait for me!" However, he wasn't very fast with his manor of movement.

"Sorry Flash," Shining told him. "But you won't fit in any of our vehicles. You'll have to wait until you change back and go XLR8 or something." Flash frowned, knowing that would take forever.

Instead, he curled himself up and grabbed his tail. They gasped as they watched him begin to roll away, still completely out of control but at least he was going in the right direction. The rest got in their own vehicles, Trixie grabbing Flash's keys out of his bag before they all drove off.

They followed Flash as he clumsily rolled towards the city, hoping nobody saw this new alien form as a threat. "Why do you think Flash suddenly has a new alien?" Trixie asked the others, the lot of them going onto a group call.

"Who knows," Shining told her. "Maybe he did something and unlocked this new form. Or maybe it's just another glitch that happened to have a fortunate outcome." Twilight thought about this and suddenly had an idea.

"Maybe it's an after effect of the power surge."

"What power surge?" Sunset asked.

"The one from Vilgax's ship. Maybe it did more than force Flash to switch through his aliens. Maybe it removed something that was keeping Flash from obtaining new aliens."

"You really think that's possible?" Rarity asked, Twilight shrugging.

"It's just a theory. But if it's true, it's possible Flash could start unlocking other new aliens aside from the ten he has. Well...eleven." They turned back to Flash as he rolled forward, wondering if he could even see. At this point, they reached the city and found the street the report talked about was almost deserted.

Flash finally chose to come to a stop, uncurling himself and almost managing to do so without falling over. "Wow!" He hit the ground and groaned, pushing himself up as he looked around and found the normally busy street was deserted.

The others pulled their vehicles to a stop and got out, Shining taking out his badge as they did so. "It's quiet," Shining stated. "Too quiet." They continued to looked around, "where is everybody?"

They suddenly got an answer when an electrical sign connected to the side of a building suddenly exploded, shocking them all as they looked up at the sign and saw something. The red creature ."What the heck is that?" Pinkie asked, as the creature stared at them.

Suddenly, it leapt off the sign and flew towards them with its claws and teeth primed. Fluttershy screamed but before it could reach them, Rarity put up a shield. It bounced off the shield and hit the ground, Shining pulling out his gun and pointing it at the creature.

"What are you?" Shining asked. "If you can understand me, stop before I'm forced to hurt you." The creature growled as it picked itself up and charged again, Shining firing at it. He hit it in the chest and its eyes went wide before it suddenly exploded into a rain of light.

"What was that?" Trixie cried, as Sunset moved closer and felt one of the light specks as it fell on her. As soon as she touched it, she knew what it was.

"Equestrian Magic." Everyone's eyes went wide at this.

"That was Equestrian Magic?" Twilight asked.

"I was made from it," Sunset nodded. "My guess is it was some kind of solid illusion. It must have been created using whatever's been enchanted by it."

"Well we'd better find it before it makes anything else," Shining stated. But as he said that, Spike heard something an looked up before his eyes went wide.

"Yeah...might be a little too late for that." The others looked confused before following his gaze, their eyes going wide when they saw what looked to be a hundred or so of that red creature. They were all staring down at them, looking just as blood hungry as their destroyed brother.

Flash sighed. "Oh, great." With that, the little gremlins leapt down and attack. Rarity tried to shield them all, but Flash was way too big. Instead, he pulled himself away from the others as the creatures leapt down towards them. He then started slashing at them, managing to get a few of them and making them go puff. However, there were just too many of them.

"Flash!" Twilight cried when several landed on his back, making him fall onto his front. Shining took this moment to take out his badge, throwing his gun to Trixie before putting it on and activating his suit.

Trixie took the gun and fired out of a hole Rarity made for her, hitting several of the gremlins on Flash and making them pop. Shining then took out his weapon and turned it into a gun, firing lasers at more of the creatures and blasting them off Flash. This allowed him to slash at the rest around him until the Omnitrix started beeping.

"Great!" He leapt towards the shield and rolled himself up, crushing a pair of gremlins beneath him before he transformed back. "WOW!" He was sent flying towards the shield, Rarity making an opening for him to fall through and be caught by Applejack.

As he did, Trixie, Shining and Pinkie continue to make the creatures go pop. Twilight even started picking them up off the ground and throwing them against the walls, popping them as Trixie emptied the gun's clip. "I'm out." Shining continued to blast them as Flash recovered, watching as more and more of the creatures were blasted into non-existence.

"Rarity," Pinkie took out a large pot of sprinkles, "ready?" She nodded and dropped the shield as Pinkie ran around the lot of them, throwing the sprinkles outwards towards the gremlins. Once she formed a full circle, Rarity put the dome up again. The remaining gremlins stared at the sprinkles as they glowed, Twilight grabbing them in her magic before pulling them towards the sprinkle cloud.

They then exploded and the gremlins screamed as they were consumed, the explosion destroying them. When the multi-coloured cloud faded away, not a single gremlin could be seen. Rarity dropped the shield and the lot of them carefully stepped around the street, seeing if any of those creatures remained.

"Any sign of them?" Sunset asked, but they all shook their heads.

"I think we got rid of them all," Twilight sighed as Shining retracted his suit. "But we still need to find what caused them to appear." The others nodded as Shining told them to split up. Shining, Sunset and Pinkie got in his car whilst Flash, Trixie and Twilight got in his. Applejack, Rarity and Fluttershy climbed into Applejack's truck and they all drove off, Rainbow running off using her magic.

"I hope we can find the Equestrian Magic before it creates anything worse than those creatures," Trixie stated as she looked out the window.

Flash just nodded and Twilight saw he looked upset about something. "What's wrong?" Flash frowned, But Twilight gave him a look that told him she wouldn't let up until he told them.

"I'm just annoyed," he told her. "This watch gives me a brand new alien out of the blue and it's practically useless."

"I'd hardly call it useless," Trixie told him. "It's strong, practically indestructible, has sharp claws and teeth and I bet when it gets up to speed, can do some serious damage."

"But I can barely control myself," Flash pointed out. "I can only go in a straight light and when I'm not spinning, I keep tripping over myself."

"You just need practise," Twilight assured him. "I mean, were you instantly a master with your other aliens?"

"At least I was able to stand up as them without any issue. And you all saw how quickly I was able to figure out Diamondhead."

"Well you'll just have to keep trying. You'll figure out how to use that alien." Flash smiled at her, glad he had her and the rest of his friends in on his secret now. Not only could they help him actually fight now, but they could be there for moral support. Something Flash felt he was gonna need a lot of in the future.

Fleur continued to read from her book, though none of them seemed as impressive as the nain rouge she had red about before.

But then she flipped the page and found herself staring at what looked like the Loch Ness Monster, but with a body that was entirely covered in large hedgehog quills. "Ooh," she was intrigued and read its name allowed, "The Peluda." Saying it out loud made the book unleash more magic that she didn't see. And before she could, it flew out of the window and down into the street.

The magic instantly did a beeline for the river, diving down into it before taking shape and forming something. Unlike before, the thing remained in cloud until the magic entirely faded. When it faded, the underwater creature was revealed to be the same spine covered plesiosaur that Fleur had been reading about.

The creature remained under the water, being roughly forty feet in length. Twenty-five foot of it of that length was made up of its neck and tail, which swerved through the water to propel it away from the house that held its maker. Nobody noticed it at first, but they would.

Back with Flash and his friends, he, Twilight and Trixie had parked near a river as they called the others. "Find anything?" Twilight asked over her phone.

"Nothing," Shining sighed.

"Same here," Rainbow told them.

"They've gotta be somewhere," Applejack pointed out.

"Maybe," Sunset agreed, "but they might not be using it right now. Until we can figure out more about how this magic works, we're playing a guessing game on where they'll strike next." But as soon as she said that, Spike heard something.

"What was that?"

"What was what?" Twilight asked, Spike looking down in the direction of the river.

"I think I heard a scream." He listened, his dog hearing allowing him to hear far better than human ears. And sure enough, he heard another scream coming from up river. "There. Someone's in trouble." That was all Flash needed to hear, the teen jumping into his car and starting it up as the others did the same.

They rushed down the road, following the river through the town. And as they got closer, they started hearing the screams themselves. And they soon saw why people were screaming. "Wow," Trixie gasped when they saw the large creature in the water, its long head attempting to grab people in its mouth.

"What is that thing?" Spike asked.

Flash stopped the car. "Whatever it is, it's dangerous." He jumped out of the car and activated the Omnitrix, praying he wouldn't turn into something else that was useless. Once he was sure that nobody was looking, he slapped the watch down and transformed into Volt-Edge.

The electrical alien ran towards the creature, the peluda turning to glare at him as it raised its spiny body out of the water before firing several quills towards him.

"Wow!" Volt-Edge leapt to the side to avoid the attack, as he summoned as much lightning as possible. He then shot it into the water, hoping to deep fry the beast before it could cause any problems. The lightning surged into the water and electrified it, flying over to the beast and into its body.

It roared out as it was electrocuted, but it didn't seem to be in as much pain as Volt-Edge had been hoping for. The others noticed this as well and Twilight had a feeling this creature might be resistant to electrical energy. She didn't get to say this though, as the peluda launched several more quills towards them.

She and Trixie had to jump out of range, whilst Volt-Edge swung his claws around and deflected the tiny spears. "This thing's tough!"

"It's resistant to your electrical attacks," Twilight told him. "But I don't think it's immune. Keep blasting it and it might eventually reach its limit." Volt-Edge nodded and summoned more lightning, which he fired at the creature.

The peluda did its best to avoid the lightning, swinging its long neck around to avoid the lightning. It then started swimming towards the shore and pulled itself up onto the land, its flippers not being very useful but still strong enough to get it out of the water. As it did, Volt-Edge kept firing bolts at it and it replied by firing its quills.

Volt-Edge deflected them as best he could, but at one point he needed to backflip away from them. "Alright Nessy," he landed and started charging power. "Let's see how you like this." He built up as much power as he could, then had it all explode out of him towards the beast.

It struck the peluda and the monster screamed at the top of its lungs, making Volt-Edge smirk. But then, the monster stared firing its quills in every direction. Each of the quills were electrofied and they all gasped before Volt-Edge jumped in front of the girls and created an electrical forcefield. The wave struck the quills and the force managed to stop them in midair before they fell to the ground, Volt-Edge panting from overuse of his power.

And the beast didn't even seem hurt, as it shrugged off the lightning and began pulling itself further and further up the shore. "Oh geez. How the heck do I stop this thing." As he said that, a pair of engines made him look around to see two vehicles racing towards them.

A blur also shot forwards and as the peluda thrust its head down to try and take a bite out of Volt-Edge, Rainbow leapt up and threw a kick into the side of its head. The impact made the monster roar and pull away, Rainbow landing on the ground with a smirk.

"Alright!" He heard Sunset cry, seeing her and the rest of the Rainbooms running towards them. "Let's take care of this." The others all nodded and activated their Geodes, transforming them into their humanoid pony forms. The girls all grabbed each others hands and started channelling their magic together, allowing them all to float into the air.

The peluda glared at them and hissed, as it seemed like it was going to shoot the last of the quill on its body. But Volt-Edge saw this and knew he had to give the girls an opening, so rushed forward and built up as much power as he could before leaping at it.

The lightning exploded off his body and morphed him into an electric bullet, which slammed into the monster with enough force to knock it back as it was electrocuted. Volt-Edge held on tight as it roared, trying not to give it a moment to recover until the girls were finished powering up.

"Flash, now!" Sunset cried before the girls launched the rainbow of doom towards the peluda, Volt-Edge jumping off it seconds before it struck. He landed next to the shoreline as the laser caused the beast to scream and explode, the Equestrian Magic that created it dissipating.

The light from the rainbow died down and sure enough, the beast was gone.

The Rainbooms landed on the ground as Trixie rushed over to Volt-Edge, who was picking himself up and brushing himself off. "You okay?"

"Yeah," he nodded, "but that thing was strong. Way tougher than those gremlin things."

"Why do you think that was?" Shining asked the Rainbooms, hoping their knowledge of magic would give them some answers. They all frowned as they tried to think, with Twilight having a theory.

"It's possible the magic that created those gremlin things was divided into multiple bodies, so it wasn't as powerful. Or...it might be growing stronger."

"So every time it makes somethin, it'll be stronger than da'h last one?" Applejack asked, with Twilight shrugging unsure. They all frowned at this, but Sunset seemed to have her own theory.

"I think whatever's making these creatures is close to the river." The others looked confused by this, as Sunset explained. "The magic that's forming these creatures must not be able to travel far from the source before losing its power. Which means the source had to have been close to the river, or that thing would have been noticed a lot sooner." As she said that, the Omnitrix beeped and Flash returned to normal.

"Then let's comb the area near the river," he suggested. They all nodded in agreement and got back in their cars, Rainbow rushing off on her own. As they did, they hoped they could find the source of these creatures before it created something too big to handle.

Fleur had just had her lunch, which had caused her to take a break from reading her book.

But now that she had fed herself, she was ready to continue reading and returned to her room. Her book remained open on the last creature she read about, so she picked it up and moved back over to the window as she flipped the page.

When she did, she was greeted to the sight of a giant looking creature whose head was that of a lion, whilst its body was that of an ox with a spiked turtle shell on its back. It had six legs that looked like they belonged to a bear and a tail that appeared to be that of a scorpion, making it look incredible to her.

"The Tarrasque," she read allowed. And that was when it happened.

The book suddenly burst into light, making Fleur gasp and drop the book. As it hit the ground, the light exploded off of it and shot into the air. Fleur's eyes went wide and she stepped backwards, the girl having a feeling she knew what this was.

Outside, Rainbow was zipping around the streets looking for any sign of the magical creatures that were appearing.

She came to a stop and caught her breath, still a little winded after using her magic to blast the peluda. But as she rested, something caught her attention and see looked over at a building further down the street. That building was unleashing a bright light, which flew out a round window and shot down the street. Rainbow knew then she had found the source of her magic, but feared what it was gonna make.

The others were close by and saw the light fly into the air, the magic growing larger and brighter by the moment. "What now?" Trixie asked as Flash, Shining and Applejack pulled their vehicles to a stop. They watched as the light started taking shape, whilst Sunset's phone rang.

She didn't take her eyes off the light, as the answered the call.

The light grew until it was almost thirty meters tall and the shape it was forming was something terrifying to look at. And soon, something appeared within the light and completely filled it. "What...is that?" Applejack asked, as the lion-headed, turtle-backed, scorpion-tailed, six bear legged monstrosity appeared and let out a mighty roar that shook everything around it.

"It's a tarrasque!" Spike cried, surprising them. "What, it's one of those dragon creatures I told you about." As he said that, the beast started stomping away and knocked down several building as it did.

"We've gotta stop that thing!" Trixie cried.

"But Rainbow's found the magic," Sunset explained. "Rainbow's found it and if we don't stop it first, it could create something even more dangerous."

"What could be more dangerous than that?" Flash asked, as the tarrasque crushed a building just by pushing it with one of its bear paws.

"We'll split up," Shining stated. "Flash, Trixie and I will try and stop that thing. You girls stop the magic and then meet up with us if we can't stop it." They nodded and all rushed off in different directions, Shining once again activating his suit whilst Flash dialed in one of his aliens.

"Time to send this thing back to the zoo!" Flash slammed his watch down and transformed into Firefly, who blasted himself into the air whilst Shining created his hard-light vehicle and zoomed off. Trixie frowned, left to watch as everyone else got to do all the cool stuff...again.

Firefly shot through the air like a rocket, flying towards the tarrasque with fire in his eyes. But the beast seemed to hear him and turned towards the alien, letting out a mighty roar as it did. The roar was so powerful, it knocked Firefly backwards and required some serious maneuvering to regain control.

"Alright," Firefly told him, "you like to make noise. Let's see how loud you cry when I burn your mane off!" He pointed his arms at the creature and unleashed a blast of fire, which struck the tarrasque's head and pushed against its mane. But to the insect's surprise, the flames wouldn't catch. "Huh?" The tarrasque then swung its tail around to try and sting him, "wow!" He dived down to avoid it and shot more flames, but the tail appeared just as fireproof as its mane.

Shining drove up to the beast and took out his blaster weapon before firing it, hoping the laser would do more to the creature then Flash's flames. But the laser struck its centre bear legs and whilst the beast did some to feel it, it didn't cut into the flesh.

"WOW!" Shining had to stop firing and pull away, as the tarrasque tried to crush him under its foot. "Okay, clearly you didn't like that." But when he looked at the leg he hit, he didn't even see a singe. "You don't like it, but it's not enough to hurt you."

He looked up at Firefly, who continued to launch fire blast after fire blast in an attempt to hurt it. But nothing he did was anything more than an annoyance to the beast, Shining seeing he was beginning to tire himself out. And as he dodged another attempt by the tarrasque, he got an idea but one that would require him to talk to Flash.

But with him so high up, he probably wouldn't be able to hear him. "Ah, I really wish Flash's aliens came with a phone." But as if the badge was reading his mind, it suddenly brought something up on his visor's screen. "Communicator function?" He pressed the app and this caused two lists to come up. One was his own phone contact list and another was a plumber contact list, with only one number on this list. "I wonder..."

He selected that number and it started ringing.

Up above him, Firefly continued to launch flames until he heard a sound coming from the Omnitrix. "Already?" He asked, but realised it wasn't the time out sound. The green part of the dial was flashing blue. "What now?" He asked before touching it, causing the beeping and flashing to stop.

"Flash?" He hadn't been expecting that.

"Shining?"

"Yes, it worked. Looks like the Omnitrix has an inbuilt communicator we didn't know about. My badge is linking us up."

"Good to know. But I'm kind of in the middle of something here." He dodged another tail swipe, launching some fireballs towards it.

"I have an idea. You ever see that really old movie with the metal camels on the snow planet?" Firefly had and he knew exactly what Shining was getting at. So after avoiding another tail swipe, he dived down and shot towards the front legs. As soon as he was close enough, he spat out some silk and hit it just below the knee. He then fired his rockets and propelled himself forward before curing around.

This caused the thread to go tight and Firefly managed to circle around its other leg before making it back to the first. This made the tarrasque stop in place and look down to see its front feet get tied up, Firefly rocketing around him three more times to get the string wrapped up tight.

"Ha!" Firefly cut the rope and stuck the end of a leg before rocketing away, looking the beast right in the eyes. "How'd you like that. Come and get me, I dare you!" The tarrasque stared at him for a moment before doing something he and Shining hadn't been expecting.

The creature lifted both its front legs and continued moving forward, the pair's eyes going wide whilst its front legs pulled at the strings.

"You gotta be kidding me." Firefly launched a few more fireballs at it, but they had the same effect. It then roared at him, knocking him flying backwards before he could ignite his flames. He shot through the air and crashed through a building before slamming into the ground, where he ended up rolling down the street for several meters before finally stopping. "Ow."

He laid there for a moment to recover, as Shining raced into the street and headed towards him. "You alright?"

"I've been better," Firefly picked himself up as the tarrasque managed to rip his threading off its paws. "But I don't think you plan's gonna work." The Omnitrix beeped and in a flash, he reverted back to normal. "Aw man!" The tarrasque turned to glare at them and Shining grabbed Flash, pulling him onto his vehicle before racing off "Now what?"

"Now we hope Twilight and the others have found whatever's making this thing."

Back with the Rainbooms, they had driven over to Rainbow's location in Applejack's truck. They spotted Rainbow outside a building, with Fleur right next to her holding the book.

"Twilight," the Shadowbolt cried as she saw he former classmate. "I don't know what happened. Your friend said I've been creating monsters. Is that true?"

"Is that what you used to create that thing?" Twilight asked, pointing at the tarrasque.

"I don't know," she cried before opening it to the page on the creature that was stomping around the town. "I just read this out loud and the next thing I know, this book was blasting out light that turned into that thing." Twilight grabbed the book and flipped through it, finding the Loch Ness Hedgehog and tiny red demons on other pages. She was sure now, that whatever those things were came from this book.

As she did that, she noticed the book was starting to glow again. She dropped it on the ground as the Rainbooms stepped around it, forming a circle around the book. They all grabbed hands as their geodes activated, once again ponying them up. And as the book started to glow brighter, their power hit its peak and they fired the seven beams into the book.

The book was fighting against them, forcing the girls to put as much energy as they could into their magic and overpower it. Then, the rainbow finally managed to push the magic back into the book and surround it. The rainbow orb floated for a moment before completely consumbing the Equestrian Magic, causing a blinding flash of light.

When the light faded, the book fell to the ground and they could no longer sense any magic coming from it. They all sighed in relief, but another roar made them look around to see the tarrasque was still there.

"What happened?" Spike asked. "You got rid of the magic, so why is that thing still there?"

Sunset frowned, "the book might have created it, but once it was made the magic became completely independent somehow." She didn't that theory. Magic had never done anything like that before, so the fact this was happening could mean the magic in this world was changing.

"That's fine," Applejack told her. "We'll just blast it like we did the last one." But just as she said that, a sudden wave of exhaustion washed over them all. They all staggered back, almost falling over as they did so. "Wow. What happened?"

"We're tired," Rarity stated. "I don't know about the rest of you, but cleansing that book took a lot out of me."

"Me too," Fluttershy sighed.

"And me," Pinkie nodded. They all felt tired, since they had not only cleansed the book, but destroyed the sea monster and had been using their abilities non-stop all day. They were completely out of juice.

"This isn't good," Twilight gulped as her phone went off. She answered it and found it was Shining, wondering how he's calling when he should be in his plumber suit. "Shiny?"

"Twilight," Shining called out to her, "please tell me you've found what's causing this thing. Flash and I tried, but we just couldn't stop this thing."

"Yeah," Twilight gulped, "about that..."

"Seriously?" Shining asked once she explained, whilst Flash remained on the back of his bike.

"What's wrong?" Flash asked, as the tarrasque continued to march through the streets causing serious mayhem. Luckily, the area had been evacuated. But if they didn't stop this thing soon, it was gonna move on to another location and destroy it and whoever was in it.

The tarrasque raised its tail and slammed it into the ground, doing so causing a small earthquake that caused the bike to lose control. "WOW!" Shining cried, as they barely managed to keep upright. "We've gotta find a way to stop this thing or it's gonna level the entire city."

Flash agreed and was trying to think of which alien to use once the Omnitrix powered up.

"Riot-Horn?" He thought. "No, I don't even think him fully charged up could do any damage to that thing. And even if he could, he's way too slow. He'll get batted away before he could throw a single punch. Same problem with Diamondhead."

"Volt-Edge might not be any good either," Shining sighed. "You didn't do much against that water creature and since this thing is fireproof, it's probably electricity proof to."

Flash nodded. "Bushwhacker, Chamalien, Goop and Molestache wouldn't stand a chance against that thing. XLR8 and Vapaw could get in close without issue, but they wouldn't even be able to cut that thing." As he said that, Shining turned into a street and they saw Trixie running towards them.

"Guys!" She cried, "what's going on? Don't tell me the others haven't found what's causing this thing."

"They found it," Shining assured her. "And they took care of the Equestrian Magic. But for some reason, that thing's still around and the girls are too exhausted to stop it."

"That's not good," Trixie gulped as a beep made them see the Omnitrix turn green. "Great, go take that thing down."

"How?" Flash cried, "none of my aliens stand a chance against that thing. The ones that could probably do any damage are too slow to get in close and the ones that can get in close would be like mosquitoes to that thing. None of them have enough speed or power to beat it."

"Speed and power?" Trixie repeated, slowly thinking of all ten of Flash's aliens. But then, she remembered Flash didn't have ten aliens anymore. "Have you really considered all your aliens?" She asked, "even that...what did Spike call it? Lindwhirl?"

"The lindworm?" Shining asked, as the tarrasque suddenly sneezed and broke every pain of glass in a building next to it. "Hey," Shining turned to Flash, "she might be onto something."

"You want me to turn into that thing again?" Flash asked, "it's totally useless."

"Are you kidding?" Trixie asked, "remember what Twilight said. It's super durable and when it picks up speed, practically nothing could stop it. It's perfect."

"But I couldn't control it," Flash told her. "Besides, I'm not even sure I could use it if I wanted to. What if it was just a one time thing." The tarrasque was getting closer and Shining revved up his vehicle.

"It's worth a try," he told Flash. "And if you still can't beat that thing, there'll be nothing to be ashamed of. But doing nothing is even worse than doing something that's useless. With that, he drove off as fast as he could towards the creature. As he drove, he looked through all his possible weapon choices to try and see if there was anything with enough power to hurt it.

Then, he noticed one section filed as 'heavy duty', which he had a feeling would give him something big.

So he quickly changed direction and shot straight up the side of a building, loving that his vehicle could actually do that. Once the vehicle shot off the edge, he deactivated it and landed on the roof. He then held out his weapon, selecting the most powerful one he could find.

In a flash of light, the weapon transformed into a giant bazooka-like device. One so large it needed its own legs to keep from crushing Shining. The plumber panted as he raised the weapon and pointed it at the tarrasque. As he prepared to fire, his helmet showed a warning that firing it would deplete all his weapon's power.

"This better work." He got the beast in his crosshairs and pulled the trigger, the bazooka firing a massive blast of energy. The blast roceted across the city towards the tarrasque, who turned to see it second before it collided with its head.

The city rocked from the large explosion that flew off the tarrasque's head. The beast roared in pair and Shining smirked at the sight, though his weapon returned to its base form and would need three hours to charge back up. Hopefully, this would be worth it.

But when the smoke cleared, the tarrasque was still standing. "What? No way!" The beast wasn't unharmed by the attack. The explosion had destroyed half its face and blinded it in one eye. But it could still stand and turned to glare at Shining.

The plumber gulped at the angry look in its eyes and turned to run, taking out his vehicle and selecting a powered hang glider form it had. He leapt into the air and activated the vehicle, allowing him to take to the air and fly away. But as he did, the tarrasque swung its tail around and smashed a building.

This sent rubble flying everywhere in Shining's direction, the plumber blinking as he tried his best to avoid the debris. He managed this for a few seconds, but one rock struck his glider's rocket and caused it to lose power. Then another one hit the wing and caused it to bend, sending him falling off course.

He cried out as he fell, about to crash into the ground. But before he could, he suddenly started glowing purple and stopped. "Wow." He looked around, wondering what had happened until Twilight and her friends ran into the scene.

"Shiny!" She cried, dropping him carefully onto the ground. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Shining deactivated his glider. "But I don't think I'm gonna be much more help right now." They turned to the tarrasque, as it continued to stomp around.

"I can't believe that big explosion did so little" Rainbow groaned.

"Is there any way to stop that thing now?" Fluttershy asked.

"Only one," Shining sighed. "And I hope Flash can figure it out."

Flash had seen Shining go down and worried he was hurt, having had enough of this thing.

But when he activated the watch and found the silhouette he was looking for, he hesitated before turning to Trixie. "You really think I can use this thing?" Trixie turned to him and smiled.

"It doesn't matter what I think. What matters is what you think. If you don't think you can use it to stop that thing, then you can't. But you know this is your best shot at doing it, don't you."

Flash took a deep breath, thinking about what he was able to do as this alien. He nodded and raised his hand up, "here goes nothing." He slammed the watch down and in a flash, he was once again the strange hybrid serpent alien. Looking himself over, he smirked. "I did it!" But then the tarrasque shook the ground and cause him to fall on his back. "Now what?"

"I don't know," Trixie frowned as the creature swung its tail around and slashed its way through a building. "Roll." Flash took a deep breath and swung his tail around, biting down on it and rolling backwards until he was right side up before stopping and rolling forwards.

This allowed him to pick up speed and he shot towards the tarrasque, actually managing to have some level of control. He spun as fast as he could, the creature appearing to sense his approach and turning towards it. The beast then roared before it rose its foot to try and step on him.

But Flash had an idea and released his tail, using it as a spring to leapt into the air. He then curled himself up and spun in midair, slamming into the paw as hard as he could. This allowed him to grind against the paw and make the creature roar our as he cut into its flesh. His steel hard fur was like sandpaper to it, making the beast pull its leg back as Flash fell.

He landed on the ground, his tail managing to curl up and absorb most of the impact. Flash then leapt backwards and grabbed his tail to return to his wheel form, hitting the ground spinning and finding the more he did it, the more control he had over his movements.

Trixie also saw this and cheered as Flash managed to perfectly turn whilst spinning and head towards her, then stop right next to her by using his claws to slow himself down. "That was awesome!" She told him, "you're like a buzzsaw."

"Yeah," Flash looked himself over, "guess this thing's not so useless after all." They looked up at the tarrasque, who was now limping along due to one of its feet being hurt. It swung its tail around, slamming into several buildings and make many people still in the area scream.

Luckily, a blue blur began to shoot around the place and pull the people to safety. That blur was soon followed by the rest of her friends, the Rainbooms seeing Flash was his new alien. "Flash," Twilight cried, "what are you doing in that form?"

"Kicking butt!" Flash smirked before he leapt forward and curled into his wheel form. He shot towards the beast as it noticed his approach and swung its tail at him. But this time, Flash leapt into the air and managed to grab the tail. He spun around it as it smashed into the ground, then dug his claws into it and actually cut into the tail.

This made the beast roar and fling its tail into the air, Flash managing to hold on until it reached the top of its swing. He then let go and flew down the tail, curling up and using it as a ramp to build up speed before smashing into the spiked shell and creating a large grove inside of it.

"No way," Rainbow whispered. The lot of them now had a lot more respect for his new alien, whilst Flash leapt up and grabbed onto a spike. The tarrasque roared again and tried to crush him by flattening him between the shell and a building, the others gasping. However, Flash had seen this coming and leapt off the shell. He smashed through a building's window and rolled up, smashing through the walls in order to outrun the shell.

When the shell stopped following him, he spun around as the tarrasque pulled away. He then leapt out of another window, having built up enough speed to go flying towards the beast's face. The tarrasque saw this, but couldn't react in time to stop Flash before he slammed into its one remaining eye.

It roared in agony, as it was completely blinded and Flash leapt away. He grabbed onto its mane, the chimera alien pulling himself up the hair. The tarrasque tried to pull him off, clawing at him with its bear claws, but not being able to get him before he reached the top of its head.

The beast swung its head around, trying to dislodge him with little success. It then charged forward, unaway that another large building was right in front of it. But right as it was about to, Flash swung around of its mane hair and slammed his tail into its head before extending it. This propelled him up into the air, right before the tarrasque smashed into the building.

He shot over the roof and curled himself up, rolling forwards as he did so. The building exploded and sent debris flying everywhere, Flash slamming into these pieces of rubble and using them to slow himself down until he reached the ground. He rolled long it and created a small trench before jumping into the air, landing and skidding to a stop before spinning back towards the tarrasque.

The beast appeared dazed from the sudden impact, but it still didn't look ready to go pop. "It's still too tough," he growled as the others rushed into this area and watched them stare one another down. "If I wanna take it out before I run out of time, I've gotta hit it where it isn't so well defended." He knew where that was, but the idea of doing it didn't sit well with him. "Time to suck it up!" He charged forward and picked up as much speed as he could before leaping up and curling into the wheel.

The others saw this and knew he was going to do something, but the tarrasque raised its claw to attack as well. But it didn't reach him, as Twilight's magic wrapped around the limb and held it in place. The girl grunted as she struggles to keep it in place, but couldn't grab the other front claw as it lifted up to attack. However, when it swung towards him, a large wall of Rarity's shields appeared and blocked it. Rarity also grunted as she did her best to keep the shields up long enough.

"Go Flash!" Trixie cried, "whatever you're gonna do, do it now!"

"FLASH!" Shining and the rest of the girls yelled, as the tarrasque let out a roar. And that was exactly what Flash wanted, as he sprung into the air and shot straight towards it.

"Here comes the birdy!" He roared before disappearing into the beast's mouth, shocking his friends as the tarrasque suddenly swallowed.

Twilight and Rarity dropped their magic, as they watched the tarrasque stand there. Clearly, it thought the enemy was finished and it began to continue its rampage. But before it could, it suddenly clutched its chest as a sick look appeared on its face. It then roared in pain, as it felt a terrible tearing in its insides.

"What's happening?" Fluttershy asked, as the creature stomped around in agony. Shining then smirked.

"Hazard a guess, it ate something that didn't agree with it." Suddenly, the tarrasque lost its balance and fell to the ground. It rolled onto its back and clutched its stomach, roaring more and more with every shot of pain that occurred. And eventually, its stomach exploded as something shot out of it.

They all gasped seeing the slime covered wheel shoot into the air and crash through a billboard before slamming into the ground, forming a trench as it slid to a stop. As they rushed towards it, they saw the tarrasque begin to turn into specks of light like the rest of the monsters. It vanished, leaving a large trail of destruction in its wake.

Meanwhile, they reached the crater and found the lindworm alien pulling himself out of a puddle of the beast's insides. "Flash!" Twilight looked worried, "are you okay?"

Flash groaned as he tried to brush the slime off of him, "I will be after about twenty showers." The others laughed at this, whilst the last of the beast disappeared. "Did I get it?"

"Oh yeah," Shining nodded. "You got it alright." Flash sighed in relief before looking himself over.

"Alright, this alien's good. In fact, it's freaking awesome." The others smiled at this, as the Omnitrix beeped. Flash was almost sad to see his new hero go, as he disappeared in a flash of light and reverted back to human. He was still covered in slime and the others all took a step back when he tried to get closer. "What?" He tried to move closer and they all stepped away, "what?"

"You're not coming anywhere near us covered in that," Trixie told him as Rarity put up a shield.

"Oh don't be such babies," Flash told them before smirking. He then scooped some up and threw it into the air over Rarity's shield, making them all cry out as it fell to the floor and went splat. They all gave Flash a death glare as he scooped up some more and prepared to throw it, the lot of them turning to run as he did so. The ten of them all broke out into laughter, as they ran away from Flash whilst he threw slimeball after slimeball at them.

It had certainly been a trying day for them all, with many unexpected twists and turns. A new alien, monster invasions and a freaking kaiju attack were sure to make it a day none of them would forget. And Flash would certainly not forget the lesson he had learned, that every creature in the universe had something that made them special. And if Flash ever got himself another new alien, he wouldn't be so quick to judge it.

Author's Note

Well, you wanted a new alien. I hope this meets your expectations. Now, what will be in store for our heroes next time.

Season 2, Episode 11: Glitches

Once again, we find Flash Sentry out with Adagio Dazzle.

The pair were currently at a nice little cafe, Adagio picking it since she liked the tea they served there. The reason they were there was because they were waiting for two other people, Flash sitting nervously as he did so. Meanwhile, Adagio was on her phone and smirked as she stared at it.

"Well that's charming," she stated as Flash wondered what she was looking at. "That new squid alien that's been showing up looks like it'd make good takoyaki. I wonder if it taste like the earth brand squid."

"What are you looking at?" Flash asked, Adagio turning to show him a website that showed the many different aliens that Flash could become. Everything from Volt-Edge to Kagenobi were there, each having a picture that you could click on to go to a page that talked about the specific alien, its abilities and some of the things they had done.

"I'm just curious to see what people think about your alien forms. Some of your more popular aliens seem to get a lot less jokes told about them."

"Ah," Flash shrugged, "let'em make jokes. I know each of my aliens are awesome. At some point, each of them have shown their worth. You couldn't make me part with even one for a million bucks."

"I get that. But still, it's probably frustrating when you need one alien but get another. Didn't you say that happens sometimes?" Flash nodded. "So what if you really need Firefly but get Molestache instead?"

"Well Molestache can fly. He might not be able to shoot fire, but he can still be really useful. And yeah, sometimes the Omnitrix gives me something other than what I ask for. But it always comes through for me when I really need it." He looked down at the watch and smirked. "I know it's not alive, but I trust it to have my back when the situation calls for it."

Adagio wasn't sure what he was getting at, but didn't get to ask due to the arrival of their guests. "About time you showed up." Flash sighed as he looked around and saw Adagio's sisters, Aria Blaze and Sonata Dusk.

The pair were dressed in normal clothing, just like their sister. They were still colourful and made the pair stand out, but no more then Rarity would on a normal day.

"Whatever," Aria stated. "Just be glad I didn't let Sonata drive. We would have been early, but we might have also smashed into something." Sonata laughed at this, as she sat down and grabbed a menu to read through. It took her almost ten whole seconds to realise she had it upside-down.

As Aria sat down, she looked Flash over and raised an eyebrow. "So, you're Adagio's new boy toy?" Flash frowned at this, "can't say you look all that interesting. But this is the first time I've seen you."

"No it isn't," Flash told her. "We've met before. Back when you three brainwashed me."

"We did?" Sonata looked up from the menu and gave a face a child would give when they heard a word they didn't understand.

"We've brainwashed a lot of humans," Aria pointed out. "You're gonna have to be more specific."

"You guys faced off against my band in the Battle of the Bands, remember?" Aria stared at him, only to then get a look of recognition.

"Oh yeah. Now I remember you." She laughed, "hope you're not still sore about us kicking your butts back then." Flash huffed, clearly annoyed that she had said that.

"Well," Adagio sighed, "this is going well."

"The only reason you three beat us is because you were using magic." Now it was Adagio's turn to laugh.

"Yeah, keep telling yourself that pretty boy." Flash gave her a pout, but decided not to argue about it. "Well," Adagio told her sisters, "you wanted to meet him and now you have. Happy?"

"Maybe," Aria replied. "But I wanna know why you're still hanging out with him. I thought the whole dating thing was supposed to be a fling so you could have some fun." She continued to look Flash over, "what's so special about this guy?"

"Ouch," Flash rolled his eyes as Adagio chuckled.

"That's for me to know and you to figure out. You have this one outing to try and figure it out." Adagio sipped on her tea as a waitress came over and took her sister's orders, Sonata ordering a big sundae whilst Aria ordered a hot chocolate. Once the waitress left, the pair focused on Flash and the teen knew he was in for some grilling.

Adagio better appreciate this. And she better be ready for when he decided to introduce her to his parents.

Over at Twilight's place, the girl was in her laboratory. There, she was dressed in her science gear with her hair up in a bun.

She was currently staring at the device she had gotten from Dragstar, having been curious about it ever since she managed to get it. But no matter what she did, the device refused to reveal any of its secrets. "Come on," she told it before touching it with a electro-driver.

Spike was over in his bed, watching almost bored as Twilight tried to get it to work. "Face it Twilight. You've been working on that thing for weeks. Maybe it's time to give it up."

"No way," Twilight told him. "If Dragstar could make it work, I should be able to as well." She picked the device up and spun it in her hand. "If I could just take it apart and figure out how it works..." She sighed before hearing a knock at her door. "Come in."

The door opened before Shining stepped inside, smirking as he stepped over to her. "Hey sis." She noticed the device she was holding, "still working on it?"

"Yup," Twilight put it down, "and still no closer to an answer about how it works. Don't suppose Dragstar's willing to come clean about it?"

"Nope," Shining shook his head as he moved over to her and placed a box he was carrying on the ground. "We tried, but he's been super tight lipped about it." Be stared at the tube, "I guess we'll have to hand it over to the plumbers. They'll know what it is and how to deal with it. They'll probably be upset I left it this long to hand it over."

"I guess," Twilight nodded before hearing movement and looking down to see Spike staring into the box on the ground. "What are you doing?"

Spike smirked, "just seeing what's in here." He grabbed some kind of iron-like device in his paws, "what's this?"

Shining reached down and grabbed it, pulling the device away from the pup. "This is not for you. It's a super high powered magnet that'll let me pick up anything over ten tons heavy."

"Where'd you get it?" Twilight looked just as intrigued by it, Shining handing it over for her to look at.

"The plumber's sent me it and a bunch of other stuff. They've been really impressed with my reports lately, along with how well Flash has been doing. So they sent me so more gear to try out." He picked up a cube-like device Twilight remembered Fuego using on Gelidafur, "check out the capture cubes. If we ever run into an alien villain, I can use this to contain them."

"Cool," Twilight smiled as Spike jumped onto the table, "I don't suppose I could..."

"Yes Twilight. You can study this stuff. But no taking any of it apart." Twilight could live with that, as she put the magnet down and tried to see what else Shining had. But as they did, Spike took a closer look at the magnet device and as he did, he accidently pressed one of the buttons with his nose.

"Oops." The siblings heard this and stood up in time to see the device switch on, sending out a magnetic wave that started pulling things closer. Luckily, the device was on its lowest setting and only had a weak field. But before Shining could switch it off, the rod device from Dragstar was pulled over to it.

"Spike!" Twilight cried, as the rod fell to the ground after the device was switched off. "Be more careful." Spike gave her a sheepish expression, as Twilight reached down to pick it up. But as she did, The device short-circuited. "What?" It started vibrating, as Shining looked down.

"What's wrong?" But then he saw the device shaking and sparking. "What's it doing?"

"I don't know." She tried to pick it up with her magic. But as she did, the device suddenly rolled away from her as it vibrated and sparked more. "That can't be good." And it wasn't.

The sparks began to crack the device and after a few seconds of this, it broke apart and sent pieces flying everywhere. Luckily, Shining had activated his suit and pulled Twilight and Spike behind his shield. The pieces bounced off it and would have done them some serious damage, the three staring at where the device had been.

In its place, a strange mixture of while and black slime was on the ground. Faint green lines could also be seen on the black parts, whilst the white parts slipped to the floor as it began to slither around. The three stared at it in shock.

"What is that thing?" Spike asked, as the slime moved around randomly.

Shining's plumber suit scanned it and when it got a match, two words came up on his helmet that he didn't understand. "Galvanic Mechamorph?"

"What?" Twilight asked.

"That's what it's called," Shining stated. "Apparently."

"Are you saying it's an alien?" Spike asked, as the slime slithered towards the door. They didn't expect it to get out, but then it slithered under the door.

"WAIT!" Twilight cried, the three rushing for it and running out into the backyard. When they spotted it, they saw it was heading towards their father's riding lawn mower. "Not good." She remembered what the device had been able to do to a car. If this was the creature that ability had come from...

The slime creature reached the lawn mower and much to their horror, began to merge with the machine.

Shining changed his shield to a blaster, which he pointed at the lawn mower as it was completely engulfed. They expected the machine to turn into a tank or something. But instead, the device began to reshape itself into a more humanoid appearance.

Slowly, its shape became more refined as the alien stood before them. It was a rather odd looking creature, that seemed to be a marshmallow in human form. Black covered its entire head, along with its shoulders and the back of its arms, hands and its back with the back of its legs included. Its head had a giant green ring in the centre of it, whilst the rest of the black sections of its body were covered in green lines that resembled circuitry.

Shining, Twilight and Spike watched as the alien began to move its arms around, flexing its fingers and stretching its body in different ways. The alien then turned to them and took a step forward, Shining being ready to fight back but not wanting to accidently start something if it was friendly.

However, after that on step if seemed to lose the strength in its legs. "Augh!" He fell to the ground, landing on his hands and knees.

The three gasped, realising whatever it was was hurt, so ran forward. "Are you okay?" Twilight asked, as she reached out and grabbed it by the armpit. "Are you injured?"

"Apologies," the alien spoke as the circle on its head flashed. "I'm...still repairing myself."

"Repairing yourself?" Shining asked, "is that what you call destroying my dad's lawn mower?"

"I am sorry for that." As he said that, parts of his body began to spark. "I required materials to rebuild my body. If I hadn't done that, my matrix wouldn't have lasted." They weren't sure what he meant by that, but they had a feeling it meant he would have died.

"Alright then," Shining nodded as the creature raised its head. When it saw him, its eyes went wide.

"You're a plumber?" He sparked again, "what planet am I on?"

"Planet Earth. And I am a plumber. But who are you?"

"My name is Gal-N," the creature replied. "And I wish to file a report on the terrible treatment I received." The three shared a look, wondering what he meant. "My ship was on the edge of the solar system when we received a distress call coming from this planet." His head sparked and he clutched it in his hand. "But when we came to help, we were attacked. My crew were all killed and I was heavily injured. Luckily, I was able to get to the escape capsule and downloaded my matrix into a storage tube for safety."

"I see," Shining nodded. "So you jettisoned yourself to earth and ended up in the hands of Dragstar."

"I don't know who that is," Gal-N stated. "All I know is that whilst I was in the storage tube, I was experimented on. Subjected to horrible electrical blasts that almost destroyed what remained of my body. Then my body was forced to take control of things I had no command over. I couldn't even use them to repair myself. This Dragstar turned me into a slave. It was horrible."

"Well you don't have to worry," Twilight assured him. "You're okay now. We'll contact the plumbers and have them come pick you up. Then, you can go home."

"Home?" Gal-N asked as he sparked, "I don't have a home. The ship was my home. My crew were my family and now, I've lost everything." They all frowned, feeling sorry for him. "All I have left is to pray for justice. This planet must make things right."

"What are you talking about?" Spike asked, as Shining realised something.

"You said the ship that attacked you sent out a distress call?" Gal-N nodded. "According to galactic law, any ship that does that must be charged with a great penalty. If the ship is discovered to belong to a fleet or company, they are considered equally to blame."

"Exactly," Gal-N nodded. "We tried to help the earthlings and they took everything I love. They must face the consequences."

"Hang on a minute," Shining told him. "Earth doesn't have any ships capable of sending out a distress call like the one you must of picked up. No human has even gone further than the moon."

"Then what was the ship doing here?" Gal-N asked, "it was in your orbit." The siblings tried to think, with Twilight's eyes going wide.

"Vilgax." Shining and Gal-N both looked shocked, "it must have been him."

"Vilgax?" Gal-N asked, "you expect me to believe the famous warlord came to this planet?" They nodded, "do I look like an idiot to you? What, couldn't think of a more believable galactic warlord?" He sparked again and as he did, the top of his head ring moved downwards to give him an angry look. "Clearly, you're just trying to stop your planet from facing the repercussions of what you've done." He sparked some more, his body twitching as he did so.

"That's not true."

"Then prove it," Gal-N told him. "This Dragstar. The one that caused me so much pain. Bring him to me. He tortured me and I will make him pay."

"You can't do that," Shining stated. "Dragstar's already in jail. He's doing his time for what he did."

"What? How is that fair?" He sparked. "I had to endure unimaginable pain and you think having him locked inside a small room will make up for it?" The sparking and twitching intensified, Shining's suit bringing up a warning light.

"Hold on." He brought up the warning, the scan his suit was doing on Gal-N finishing. "My suit's telling me your matrix has been damaged. What could that do to you?"

"Anything," Gal-N replied. "Disrupt how the nanites that make me up communicate, or alter my personality."

"Could it make someone thirsty for revenge?" Twilight asked, fearing the damage might be why he wasn't willing to listen to them.

"This has nothing to do with revenge," Gal-N stated. "This is about justice and if you won't give it to me, I'll take it myself." Shining raised his blaster, not wanting to risk this alien doing anything he would regret if the damage was affecting him. But before he could fire, Gal-N's arm shot out and grabbed his blaster.

"HEY!" Shining cried as his blaster was sucked into his arm, which retracted back to him. As he did, it reshaped itself to be that of Shining's blaster. "Give that back!"

"No way!" Gal-N yelled as he pointed at them. Shining gasped and grabbed both Twilight and Spike, leaping them away as the weapon fired. It slammed into the ground and exploded, as Gal-N tried to aim it at them again. But before he could, Twilight used her magic to grab several objects off the ground and throw them at Gal-N.

The mechamorph saw them coming and leapt away, the alien running around the building towards the front. "Wait!" Shining cried, as they ran after him. But by the time they reached the front yard, Gal-N had reached his police cruiser.

"Perfect." He leapt at the vehicle and before Shining or Twilight could stop him, he spread around it like he had the lawn mower. Within seconds, the car was transformed into a black vehicle with green lines. The window was covered up and in the middle of it, Gal-N's eye ring could be seen. "Let's rev it up!" The car started and flew down the road, Spike and the sibling watching in shock.

"Not good," Twilight gulped as Shining took out his rod. Activating it, it transformed into a sports car-like vehicle that Shining was sitting in. Twilight and Spike quickly got in, the vehicle revving up before exploding down the road with great speed.

Flash had to admit, Adagio's sisters weren't so bad. Sonata had the same bubbly personality as Pinkie, though was slightly more of an airhead. Meanwhile, Aria was actually able to give off some witty repartee.

They had spent the last hour talking about stuff Flash never thought he would be talking to these girls about, including TV shows, video games and food. If Flash hadn't known the three of them were once magical sea creatures, he would have mistook them for normal human teenagers.

"So," Aria raised an eyebrow at him, "what exactly do you do when you're not showing our sister a good time?"

"Hmm?" Flash wasn't sure how to answer that, being reminded of his first date with Adagio. Luckily, his phone went off and he saw that it was Shining Armor. "Excuse me a moment." He got up and headed off to the side, leaving the sisters to talk.

"Well," Aria smirked "isn't he mister mysterious."

"Knock it off Aria," Adagio told her. "He has a life of his own."

"I like him," Sonata smiled. "I thought he was cute back when we first went to CHS. But now that I've got to talk to him, he's really nice. I hope you stick with him for a while."

"Yeah," Aria told Adagio, "but I'd still like to know why you decided to throw the whole fling idea out of the window for this guy. What's so good about him that you decided to stick around?" Adagio frowned, knowing she couldn't tell them the truth.

"I bet I know," Sonata laughed before bringing her fingers together and slowly pulling them apart. "Say when." Adagio just rolled her eyes, unable to believe that the youngest member of her siblings could say such things. "I'm getting worried," Sonata said when her fingers were a good foot apart.

"Will you stop that," Adagio told her. Flash then returned and grabbed his jacket.

"Sorry," he told them, "but something's come up. I gotta go." He turned to Adagio and she instantly knew why he had to leave, Adagio nodding as Flash turned to run out the door.

"Huh," Aria scratched her head, "didn't think he'd bail on this. What, does he have a job or something?"

"Or...something." Adagio looked back at where Flash had left and smirked, knowing he was likely going to do something insane.

Flash had just pulled his seat belt around him and started up his car, the teen waiting for an opening to pull out of his space.

But before he could, he heard a knock at the window and turned to see Adagio looking into the car. "Mind if I join you?" She opened the door before he could reply, Adagio landing on the seat next to him. "Figured you could use some help."

"What about your sisters?"

"They're big girls. They can look after each other." Flash rolled his eyes, but knew he wasn't going to be talking her out of this. As such, he pulled out and drove in the direction Shining had told him about, "so what's the sitch?" Flash explained everything Shining told him, Adagio being quite surprised that the device she nabbed from Dragstar was actually an alien.

They quickly made their way towards the destination Shining had estimated this Gal-N would go to, though since he didn't seem to be firing on all cylinders he wasn't sure the guys was gonna be making any sense.

"So what's the plan?" Adagio asked.

"We find this guy, I turn into Volt-Edge, zap him and hopefully that's enough to subdue him long enough for Shining to arrive and capture him." Adagio nodded, as Flash turned to her. "Just to be sure. You have a licence, right?"

"No," Adagio smirked, "why would I need a licence?"

"Don't you girls travel around in a van?" He asked, Adagio still unsure what he was getting at. "So you don't have a licence."

"I've been driving since the first automobile was ever created. Plus, I haven't had an accident in over thirty years. I know how to drive." Flash hoped she was right, especially as something suddenly shot passed them on the T-junction. "Was that him?"

"Either him or another alien enhanced car." Flash turned the corner and raced after him, spotting Shining's car in the back mirror. As they got closer, Flash let go of the wheel and Adagio leaned over to grab it. He then opened the window and climbed out, Adagio sliding into his seat and taking over the drive.

Flash pulled himself onto the roof and as he did, he noticed the car in front of him shift its aesthetics. The back window suddenly had a circle on the back of it, which shifted and glowed. "What, another human who wishes to stop me from seeking justice." As he said that, the top of the car suddenly transform. From out of it, Shining's blaster appeared.

Flash's eyes went wide, as the laser fired at him. "Hold on!" Adagio cried before swerving out of the way, Flash barely managing to hold onto the roof as the laser struck the ground between him and the road.

The laser then fired again and as it did, Flash had to cling onto the roof with everything he had. "Transform!" Shining told him, Flash nodding as he did. He activated the Omnitrix and flicked through the aliens until he found Volt-Edge. Luckily, once he was him he would be able to magnetize himself to the roof.

He slammed the dial down and in a flash, the teen was replaced by the wooden alien known as Bushwhacker. "Ah man!" He quickly grabbed the edges of his car with his root toes, still attaching himself to it as Adagio swerved around to avoid the lasers.

"What?" Gal-N asked, "a psychlorian. Where did you come from?"

"Doesn't matter!" Bushwhacker smirked as he thrust his arms towards the car, "all you need to know is this alien's the one that's gonna bring you down!" But as the arm got closer to the car, something else happened.

The car's body suddenly transformed, as it grew a pair of wings whilst the wheels folded downwards and transformed into repulsors. To everyone's shock, the car suddenly shot upwards as a bunch of booster rockets grew out the back. "What the?" Spike cried, as the jet car rocketed off. "What just happened?"

Twilight thought back to when they fought Dragstar and how he was able to use that device. Remembering the robot he was able to create, he quickly put the pieces together. "His ability isn't just merging with technology, but upgrading it."

Shining frowned. "So he can make a car fly. No problem." He flew closer to Flash's car, "jump on!" The alien nodded and leapt onto the roof. As he did, Shining brought up the different vehicles and selected one that would help them. His car then started glowing, shocking everyone as the vehicle began to transformed. Shining pulled back so Adagio could get ahead of them, whilst the hard-light vehicle grew larger.

In a flash, the car transformed into a futuristic osprey helicopter. Instead of rotors on the ends of the wings, a pair of repulsors were were there instead.

Chopper continued to fly down the street, but then took off and flew into the air. It passed over Adagio and as it did, the girl frowned before noticing Flash's phone was in the cup holder. She smirked, knowing what she could do to help.

Gal-N arrived at a populated area of the city and as he did, he spotted a bunch of people down below.

"Finally," he cried before he sparked, "I can get the justice I deserve!" He flew down and as he did, Shining's blaster appeared out of the bottom. As he did, the people below noticed him coming. "Face your punishment!" He unleashed a powerful laser that shot towards the ground, making a car explode and terrifying the people as they ran for their lives.

Gal-N laughed as he flew around, firing randomly. Sometimes he fired a stream of energy, whilst others he fired multiple bullets. The lasers didn't hit anyone, but it did cause an amazing amount of damage that could fly into someone and hurt them.

But as he continued to fire, the helicopter arrived and Bushwhacker glared at him. "I gotta stop him!" He ran forwards and leapt into the air, spreading his leave wings in a way that let him catch a breeze like a parachuter. He grabbed the jet car in his vine arms and pulled himself closer, landing on the back of the car as he did so. "Now I've got you!" He turned his hands into hammers and started slamming them onto the roof.

"Hey!" Gal-N cried, "stop that!" He pointed the blaster out of the roof and fired, Bushwhacker avoiding the first two blasts. But then one blast struck him right in the head, the energy hitting him right where the Omnitrix was.

"AUGH!" He cried, as the energy flowed into the Omnitrix and the force knocked him backwards. He lost his grip and fell towards the ground.

"Flash!" His friends yelled as Shining flew down to try and catch him. He seemed stunned, so he wasn't able to grab hold of the buildings around him. He picked up speed and right as he was about to hit the ground, Shining's jet fired out a clawed cable.

It caught him and pulled him up at the last second, Bushwhacker moaning as he came to. "What?" He looked around and realised what had happened, making him sigh in relief. But just as he was about to try and fight again, the Omnitrix beeped. "Already?" It definitely hadn't been ten minutes, which was the Omnitrix's usual time limit. As he transformed back, he wondered what was going on.

Gal-N flew towards some people that were attempting to flee, firing his blasters at them. The people screamed as as they tried to escape, several police cars arrived. "More worms for me to punish!" He laughed, as his body sparked. He flew down and transformed himself back into a normal car, sliding to a stop as he did so.

He then flew off the car and retook his humanoid form, as the cops jumped out of their cars and pointed their guns at him.

"Fall!" He thrust his arm forwards, as Shining's blaster appeared. But now, it changed shape and morphed into a cannon with a speaker on it. The next thing the cops knew, powerful sonic waves flew out towards them and caused them all to cry out.

They clutched their eats to try and block out the sound, making them drop their weapons as they did. Gal-N's arm stretched out and grabbed all the guns, sucking them into his body. He laughed as he did so, only to hear movement above him.

He looked up and saw the helicopter heading towards him, the mechamorph laughing as he pointed his blaster at them. "Say goodbye!" His head sparked as he fired, but the helicopter took evasive maneuvers as they did.

"HEY!" Flash cried as he swung from the hook, "careful!" He then saw Gal-N turned to the cops, as his other arm transformed. This time, it turned into a large gun with multiple barrels that he realised used to be their guns. "WATCH OUT!" The cops were still recovering, so they didn't realise they were about to be gunned down.

The weapon fired a multitude of bullets, which shot towards the police officers ready to end their lives. But before they could make contact, a giant wall of crystals appeared in front of them that blocked the bullets. "What?" Gal-N cried, looking around and spotted Rarity a ways off.

She smiled as she kept the shields up, whilst a blue blur shot passed and grabbed the cops. In the blink of an eye, they were all zoomed out of harm's way. Flash, Shining, Twilight and Spike all smiled at this, whilst Gal-N growled. "Stupid humans!" He rushed back to the car and leapt onto it, as Flash jumped down off the hook. He rolled to a stop and charged forward.

"Stop!" But Gal-N morphed into the car and transformed it back into the jet, taking off as he did so. "Ahh!" He turned to Rarity, as Rainbow returned from where she dropped the cops off. "Good timing."

"You can thank Adagio," Rarity told him. "She called us on your phone and explained the situation." Flash smirked before turning back to the car, which was getting away. The Omnitrix then beeped, turning green much to Flash's surprise.

"That was fast." He remembered the Omnitrix hadn't been activated as long, which meant recharge probably didn't take as long. "Alright. Firefly should be able to catch up with him." He slammed the dial down and in a flash, he was transformed into Volt-Edge. "Seriously? Now!" As he said that, his car arrived on the street and he saw Adagio driving with Sunset, Pinkie and Fluttershy. Applejack's truck was also driving along with it, Rainbow Dash speeding Rarity into it as the helicopter chased after the jet car.

Volt-Edge leapt onto his car and magnetized himself to the roof. "Follow that alien!"

"You got it!" Adagio put her foot down and raced off, with Applejack driving after him. "I called Trixie and she's on her way. But she might be a while." Volt-Edge nodded as they chased after the flying car.

The helicopter was getting closer and as they did, Spike turned to Shining. "Doesn't this thing have any weapons?"

"Not on its own," Shining sighed. "It needs me to plug my Multi-Striker into the main system. Ahh, I really wish I didn't leave the rest of my gear by at your lab." All he had was that one capture cube. But they would need to get Gal-N to stop moving to use it.

"Look out!" Twilight cried, as Gal-N launched another laser at them. Shining pulled back and the laser fizzled out in mid-air, as the car started changing again.

This time, a large rocket appeared beneath it and was launched. The missile flew towards them and Shining barely managed to avoid it, but the missile suddenly changed direction and flew up from behind him. "Incoming!" Spike cried as Shining tried to dodge it again, but the missile struck his tail and exploded. "We're hit!" The copter began to fall, "we're going down. Mayday! MAYDAY!"

"SPIKE!" Twilight cried, his cries not helping the situation. Shining tried to regain control, but the impact had damaged something and the controls weren't responding.

They were about to crash into a street with several people on it, the bystanders yelling as they ran for their lives. But before the vehicle could hit the ground, lightning shot out and struck it.

That lightning came courtesy of Volt-Edge, who was able to capture the vehicle in a field of lightning. The alien was having trouble with the weight, but managed to carefully lower it to the ground. As he did, Applejack and Adagio pulled up next to the helicopter.

"You guys okay?" Sunset asked as the helicopter dissolved, the ones inside it nodding. As they did, a barrage of laser blasts flew down around them.

Gal-N laughed hysterically as he fired Shining's Multi-Striker. The lasers flew down towards them and as he got lower, they got closer and closer to hitting them vehicles. Luckily, Rarity was able to put up a barrier to protect them. Before she did, Volt-Edge leapt off his car and started firing electrical blasts towards the flying car.

The bolts struck the vehicle and made Gal-N cry out, forcing him to pull away as Volt-Edge landed on the crystal wall.

"Get back here!" He cried, as Rarity sent the crystal he was on flying. He flew after the car and charged up a large amount of energy, which he fired towards the alien. Gal-N reacted by firing his blaster, the two attacks colliding with one another and causing an explosion.

That explosion pushed Volt-Edge and the crystal he was on downwards, Volt-Edge gripping the sides of the gem as best he could. But in that moment, the Omnitrix beeped.

"What?" He cried before being reverted back to human, right as he reached the rest of the gems. He slammed into it and as he did, he rolled along the shield.

"Flash!" Twilight looked confused, wondering why the Omnitrix wasn't even keeping him alien for half the time. "Are you okay?" Flash moaned as he sat himself up, rubbing his head and looking at the Omnitrix.

"What's with this thing?" Before he could think, Gal-N flew down and prepared to blast him. Luckily, Rarity dispelled the crystal he was laying on and he fell onto the ground before the lasers could hit him. She also did this in several other locations, allowing Pinkie to throw a bunch of exploding sprinkles out whilst Twilight and Applejack used their magic to throw some of the debris Gal-N created.

The mechamorph avoided these attacks and prepared to attack back, but before he could something drove onto the street. A bus. "Oh," he saw a bunch of people inside and chuckled as he sparked, "perfect!" He flew down and abandoned Shining's police cruiser, the car falling to the ground and would have broken if Twilight hadn't caught it.

"What's he doing?" Pinkie cried, as the mechamorph flew over to the bus. "Oh no!" The living blob slammed into the front of it before the driver knew what was happening, then expanded and covered the entire vehicle.

Gal-N laughed as he took control of the bus and began to drive it away, Shining, Twilight and Flash rushing over to Shining's car as he did so. The three leapt inside as Adagio and Applejack drove passed them. They all gave chase and hoped they could catch up with Gal-N, actually able to thanks to the alien swerving around on the road.

He did this to terrify the people inside, wanting them to feel the same fear he had felt. "Enjoying the ride?" He asked those inside, as the driver tried to grab the wheel only to get a zap. "Ah, ah, ah. Can't have that."

"What is this guy's problem?" Rainbow asked over the phone, as they tried to catch up with him.

"He was damaged by Vilgax's attack on his ship," Twilight explained. "It's screwed up his sense of reason. He actually thinks what he's doing is right."

"We've gotta find a way to stop him before he hurts anyone," Shining cried. "But I don't know how?"

"The lightning seemed to hurt him," Fluttershy pointed out. "Maybe try and go Volt-Edge again." Flash nodded, as they got closer to the bus.

As they did, Gal-N's eyes shifted to the back of them. "Oh I don't think so!" Once again, the bus transformed and became a plane-like vehicle that took off. "Welcome to air Gal-N," he laughed as he sparked. "Please put your tray plate into their upright position." There were many children on the bus and when the vehicle barral-rolled around, it made them scream in fear.

Gal-N laughed at this as he swerved around a building, those on the ground following after him. As he did, he unleashed his blaster and fired at the streets. A couple of people were still on the streets and had to take cover as he did.

The others frowned as the Omnitrix timed in, quickly pulling himself through the window of the police car. "I've gotta save those people." Once he was one the roof, he activated the watch and dialed up Volt-Edge. He slammed it down and as he did, a bright flash of light revealed his transformation into Chamalien. "What is wrong with you!?" He told the Omnitrix, having not got a single alien he had asked for so far today.

He looked up at the bus as it continued to fly through the air, Chamalien realising he had absolutely no way of saving them in this current form. Then, the bus did a loop-the-loop and spun as it did so. This changed its trajectory, pointing it straight towards one of the taller buildings. "HE'S GONNA CRASH!" Rainbow cried, everyone realising that slamming into the building at that speed, and at that height, would kill everyone on board.

Twilight wasn't sure Gal-N could survive it either, but she didn't know what this alien was capable of.

Everyone watched in horror and Chamalien couldn't even watch, realising he had let all those people down. But instead of a huge explosion, a loud roar filled the air.

"Huh?" Chamalien looked up and was surprised when he saw a giant kaiju like lizard appear in front of the building, its mouth wide as it roared at the bus.

"WHAT THE!" Gal-N pulled back and the flying bus stopped in mid air, the alien quickly turning to escape so he wouldn't become lunch. The kaiju snapped at the end of the bus but missed, everyone terrified they were going to have to fight it as well. But then they heard a voice.

"Looks like I made it just in time!" They looked around and saw Lady Masquerade, as she leapt off the roof of a smaller building and used her belt to swing down. She landed on the back of Applejack's truck, as the monster suddenly vanished.

"Trixie!" Chamalien smiled, realising she had created that monster. "I have never been more happy to see you." Lady Masquerade smirked with a salute before they focused on the bus, which had flown down to the street. "We've gotta find a way to stop that thing. But he doesn't seem to have any weaknesses." In that moment, the Omnitrix beeped again.

Flash reverted back to human and frowned as he looked at the watch, wishing he knew what was wrong with this thing. But then the watch unleashed several sparks, making him cry out and almost let go of the car.

These sparks then reminded him of the blast that had hit him back when he was Bushwhacker. It was then that it hit him, "that blast did something to the Omnitrix. It's stopping it from functioning correctly." He tried to think of a way to fix it, but he had no idea how he was supposed to do that.

Then, he remembered something he was told and activated the Omnitrix. He pressed the side button and the dial sprung up, Flash switching it to the blue setting.

"Here goes." He pushed it down and prayed this would work. As he did, the Omnitrix beeped several times whilst the bus turned another corner.

They followed and when they did, they saw there was a section of the place that was closed off for roadworks. They passed under a bridge that held the city's monorail track, then noticed the roadworks had crane truck that appeared to have a large magnet on the end of it.

This made them worry. If Gal-N got control of that, there was no telling what he could do.

But he didn't seem at all interested in the magnet, instead flying the bus away from it. But as he did, the crane spun around and the magnet moved right in the bus' path. "NO!" Gal-N cried, as he tried to stop. But it was too later and the magnet's pull dragged the bus towards it. "AAAAARRRRRHHHHH!"

This scream surprised everyone, the lot of them not expecting him to act like that. They watched as the black and green slime around the bus before to wobble like jelly, then melted off the sides of the machine to pool beneath the vehicle.

"What's happening to him?" Trixie asked, the others unsure.

"A magnetic field," Twilight realised. "It must have some negative effect on whatever he's made out of." When the bus was free, the doors of it opened and the driver tried to leap out. Unfortunately, they were a good fifteen feet up and any attempt to jump would result in injury.

Rarity quickly acted and made a line of diamonds, creating a slide the drive didn't hesitate to jump down.

As the rest of the passengers followed, the puddle that was once Gal-N began to reform. Flash, Shining and Trixie rushed up to him, Trixie preparing her staff ready to fight if needs be. "It's over," Shining told him. "Come quietly."

Gal-N panted, though how they were unsure on, as his head sparked. "It's...NOT OVER!" He spun around and pointed his arm at them, the weapon turning into the blaster that he fired. The three gasped and leapt out of the way, as the laser flew passed them and struck one of the support beams for the city's monorail.

The others gasped at this, as the stone support was broken apart in the middle and crumbled.

With no support, the bridge started bending and looked like it would break any moment. Twilight quickly rushed over to it and grabbed the bridge in her magic, lifting it up as she did. Rarity also helped, placing a crystal under it as well. The pair grunted, the weight of the bridge proving heavy.

Gal-N fired several more shots, Trixie using her staff to deflect them so they didn't hit her friends. One of these deflections hit the cable of the magnet, causing it and the bus to fall to the ground with a crash.

Gal-N growled as his body sparked, then rushed over to the nearest car. "We gotta stop him!" Rainbow cried, as Gal-N merged with the car. But as he began to drive away, they heard a noise many of them recognised as the train.

Twilight grunted under the weight of the broken bridge, "there's no way I can hold it up if the train drives over it." The others frowned, fearing something horrible might happen.

"I'll run to the station," Rainbow cried. "Maybe they can stop it!" She ran off and the others heard the train. Even if Rainbow could reach the station, there was no way those in charge could stop the train in time.

"Flash!" Shining turned to the hero, "you've gotta transform."

"But the Omnitrix keeps giving me the wrong alien," Flash told him. "What if it gives me something that can't stop the train?"

"Well it's better than not trying at all," Adagio told him. "You said the Omnitrix always comes through for you when you really need it. Well it's time to put that faith to the test." Flash stared at her, then turned to the others who all nodded.

He then looked down at the Omnitrix, which glowed green now that the recalibrations had completed. If it worked, Flash should remain an alien for the right amount of time. But that would be meaningless if he didn't get an alien that could stop the monorail.

"Okay Omnitrix," he told the device. "I don't want Goop. I don't want Molestache." He activated the watch and as the dial sprung up, he started turning it. "Just give me something I can use to stop that train so we can all get on with our lives." Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes and slapped the dial down.

In a burst of green light, he transformed and everyone was amazed by what they saw. In front of them was what appeared to be a gorilla, which was made out of plastic blocks that were either red, blue or yellow. The Omnitrix symbol on its chest and Flash opened his eyes to look himself over.

"Wow," he held up his big blocky arms, "who's this guy?"

"Never seen him before," Adagio tilted her head as Shining scratched his.

"You look like you're made of those building blocks Twilight used to love playing with."

"Bloxx?" He looked himself over, then felt something inside him. Like a drive telling him what he could do. And as the sound of the train grew closer, he turned towards the tracks and held his arms out. As he did, they stretched with a strange clicking sound until he reached the column.

He then pulled himself towards it, appearing under the section of destroyed column before his entire body began to change. Within seconds, the alien gorilla transformed into a round column that connected to the rest. It extended upwards and pushed the rest of the bridge into place, it and Twilight's magic holding it together.

The monorail rushed over the line and as it did, Flash and Twilight both flinched at the weight. But they pushed through it and eventually, the train finished racing over the tracks.

As soon as it was on the other side of the bridge, Flash shrank back to his gorilla form and Twilight cut the magic. This caused the column to fall to the ground and the track was now beginning to bend. Hopefully, Rainbow would be able to get to the station and get them to stop the trains.

"Now what do we do?" Fluttershy asked, Flash turning in the direction Gal-N went.

"Now, we end this once and for all."

The Mechamorph laughed as he flew through the city, firing lasers and missiles at anything that moved.

"This is too much fun," he told him. He might have been righting a wrong, but who said justice couldn't make him laugh. He turned into another street and did several loop-the-loops before firing a laser at a car. "That's right. Suffer. Just like how I have suffered."

"Gal-N!" The mechamorph stopped in midair and spun around, allowing him to see a car driving towards him. A car with a certain ape-like alien on top of him.

"A segmentasapien?" He asked, "where did you come from?" He created a bunch of lasers, "doesn't matter. If you're trying to save these monsters, you will suffer with them."

Flash glared at him, "this isn't justice. It's vengeance, the most pointless of causes. And I won't let you hurt any more innocent people, just because you can't handle getting hurt."

"None of them are innocent!" Gal-N screamed as he sparked, "and I will make them pay!"

"Oh I don't think so," Flash told him. He leapt into the air and extended his arm, grabbing onto the sides of a building and swinging himself around. Gal-N fired, but Flash was able to swing around and avoid the lasers. He then swung straight up and morphed his hands into a pair of cannons, which fired a bunch of brick bullets towards Gal-N.

They slammed off the metal on his body with little damage to him, Gal-N spinning around and firing missiles.

Flash's fist morphed into a shield and the rocket exploded against it, knocking him backwards. But he managed to grab hold of a building and stop his fall, whilst Gal-N charged towards him. As he did, Flash noticed Twilight, Shining and Applejack on a nearby roof, having been lifted up to it on Rarity's shield.

They were holding the electromagnet, which Twilight had jury rigged to Shining's plumber badge. "Alright. Time to end this." He swung around a little more and dodged Gal-N's attack, the mechamorph swerving around as Flash threw himself at it. "Gotcha!" He yelled as he flew towards the front of the vehicle, then thrust his arms and legs out.

His entire body grew larger and formed a wall in front of Gal-N, which then began to curve until it formed a sphere that completely trapped him. "What?" The mechamorph cried, as Flash fell towards the building. "What is this?" He fired several lasers and missiles, blasting the blocks that made up his prison.

However, Flash was sure to make several layers of blocks and constantly repaired anything that was damaged. He had landed on the roof and Twilight finally managed to hook to the plumber badge to the electromagnet. "Can you guy hurry up." An explosion occurred inside the sphere and he flinched, "this guy's not getting tired."

"We're ready," Twilight told him as Applejack lifted the magnet up and placed it against the sphere. Flash quickly made an opening and pulled the magnet inside, the end of it sticking out of the inner wall. "Ready?"

"Ready!" The alien announced as Twilight activated the badge.

Inside the sphere, Gal-N continued to keep blasting at the walls. "LET ME OUT!" He was about to create something even stronger. But before he could, he felt something. "What?" He turned towards the side and spotted the electromagnet from before. "No!"

"Turn it onto full!" Flash told Twilight, who nodded as she added more juice through the badge. The magnet's force grew stronger and as it did, Gal-N felt his body growing less stable.

"NO!" He tried to blast it, but before he could his body began to fall apart. The car fell to the bottom of the sphere, as his body began to melt of it. Flash looked inside the sphere and saw this, making sure to keep the magnet pointed at him.

"I'm sorry bad things happened to you," Flash told him. "But I can't let you hurt anyone else." He watched as Gal-N remained in a puddle on the ground, as the weapons he had previously stolen began to fall out of him. As he did, Flash reverted his body back to his gorilla form but kept holding the electromagnet.

Meanwhile, Shining held out the capture cube he had been sent and threw it at the buddle.

It expanded above the puddle and consumed Gal-N, who groaned. "This isn't fair." Those were his last words before he disappeared inside the energy construct, which shrank back down to its normal size. As it did, Twilight deactivated the electromagnet as Flash put it down.

Shining picked the cube up, Flash looking him over. "I know he did a lot of bad things, but I do feel bad he went through all that." The others nodded and wished they hadn't had to do this. Unfortunately, some people and aliens just weren't capable of letting go of the pain.

"So what happens to him now?" Applejack asked, Shining staring at the cube.

"I'll contact the plumbers and give a full report. They'll pick him up and hopefully, they'll be able to fix his matrix. Once it's repaired, they can decide what actions should be taken with him. He didn't actually hurt anyone, so it's possible he'll get off with a warning. But if he still wants to take revenge, it's possible the damaged matrix wasn't what was causing him to go on a rampage. And if that's true, they'll have to sentence him as an actual criminal."

The others nodded, hoping Gal-N's damaged matrix could be repaired and was the cause. If not, it would mean Vilgax had destroyed another life.

Twilight then turned to Flash, looking over his alien form. "You know, this form is certainly an interesting one. Not exactly a brawler, but it's abilities could have a lot of applications." Flash smirked and nodded in agreement, whilst looking down at the Omnitrix.

He had remained alien for a while now, so that likely meant the recalibration had repaired whatever had been done to it. But as he looked at his new alien form, he couldn't help but get a worrying sensation. Xylene had said the recalibration would reboot the Omnitrix's systems. Did that mean the watch was back to how it had been when he first got it? If that was true, did that mean he was back to ten aliens that he didn't know about?

The news that night was all about the insane attack by the mysterious vehicles.

Flash and his friends were all at Shining's place, Twilight bouncing Flurry on her lap as they watched the news. Cadance was at the back of the room, surrounded by different fabrics. Apparently, she was making some kind of plush toy for Flurry but didn't say what it was going to be.

Shining finally stepped into the room, having gotten in contact with the Plumbers. "Alright, I've sent the message. The plumbers should be by in a day or two to collect Gal-N."

"Do you really think that cube will hold him that long?" Rarity asked, Shining nodded.

"It's got a life span of one week. And whilst inside, those contained are placed in a form of stasis to stop them from fighting back or their injuries from getting worse. He won't be a problem." They nodded, but really wished there was a plumber prison they could keep him in on earth.

The TV was showing the destroyed monorail being repaired, whilst Twilight turned to see Flash staring down at the Omnitrix. "You okay? You look worried?"

The others turned to Flash, as he looked back at them. "I'm just worried about the recalibration."

"I thought it fixed that thing?" Trixie asked, Flash nodding.

"Yeah, but I don't know what else it did. What if the reason it gave me that new alien was because...the reboot made it reset and give me a bunch of new aliens?" Now everyone understood why he seemed worried. "I really like the aliens I had and I spent a long time learning to master their powers. I don't want to have to start from scratch with a bunch of new ones."

"Well it's better you find out now instead of during a fight," Shining told him. "And if you do have a bunch of new aliens, we'll be there to help you master them. Right guys?" They all nodded and Flash smiled, taking a deep breath as he reached for the button.

"Here goes." The dial popped up and, seemingly slower then normal, the triangles crossed to form the diamond. The image of his new alien appeared, Flash gulping before he turned the dial to see... "Volt-Edge," Flash sighed before turning it and seeing Firefly. Then Lindwhirl, XLR8 and so on. Every one of Flash's aliens were there.

Everyone sighed in relief, glad Flash wasn't starting again from scratch. "That's good," Shining nodded. "I understand why you were worried. If you're scared recalibration might make you lose your aliens, try and be extra careful so you don't have to do it." Flash nodded, thinking the same thing. He then switched to the gorilla alien and smiled, remembering how it was just the alien he needed.

It seemed Flash's trust in the Omnitrix was warranted. And he would trust it no matter what happened in the future.

Author's Note

Pay off from the Dragstar episode, meeting one of the original 10 as a civilian and a new alien for Flash. Boy was this an action packed chapter. Hope you enjoyed it.

Season 2, Episode 13: Freeze Ups and Melt Downs

All was calm up in space. Or as calm as a place could be, when it had giant chunks of rock and ice flying through it at a thousand miles an hour.

Part of the Solar System then warped and curved, as something suddenly appeared out of nowhere. A spaceship, which had just come out of hyperspace, that looked like it was so old it was a miracle the thing was staying together at all. But it was and it was currently rocketing towards its intended destination. Planet Earth.

Inside the ship, the one controlling it did not look happy.

It was a tall humanoid alien, standing at around twelve feet in height. The only part of his body that was on display was his head, which was green in colour, his neck and some of his body below the neck. The rest of it was covered in a strange armor that was black and dark green. The armor was covered in spikes, mostly around the shoulders and knuckles, and seemed to resemble some kind of mech-suit since the arms and feet appeared completely robotic. His green head had a silver plate covering the forehead and sticking out of his chin, were two black spikes that curved inwards to point at one another.

He growled as he stared the planet down. "Why the heck are we here? You break us out of Prison, just to bring us to this backwater planet?" He turned towards his partner, who was hidden in the shadows.

"I have my reasons," the figure replied. "I have unfinished business here." As he said that, he breathed out a cloud of mist. "And as long as that device we stole from the plumbers is legit, I'll have it."

The other guy rolled his eyes, as he turned back to the planet. "Of all the placed for the great Hectrix to come, I get stuck here." He then held something up, "this thing better be worth it." The object he held up was a key. A key with a round top that had a familiar symbol on the top. A green circle with black triangles, creating an hourglass shape.

Down on earth, Flash and Trixie were heading to Shining's place.

The pair had been invited to a barbeque, since it was a rather nice day despite it being the middle of fall. Speaking of fall, Flash thought back to what he had seen yesterday. Whilst at school, he found the place was covered in posters for the Fall Formal.

Flash could hardly believe it had only been a year since the last one. It felt like a lifetime ago, given everything that had happened since then. Even so, the Fall Formal was coming and everyone was looking forward to it. Flash, however, had to make a difficult decision.

"Why not just ask Adagio to the dance?" Trixie told him. "You wanna take her, so what's the problem?"

Flash frowned as he pulled up to Shining's place. "Are we forgetting that Adagio and her sisters brainwashed the entire school? I doubt she's gonna be welcomed back there."

"Sunset was able to get everyone to forgive her in less time," Trixie pointed out. "Just ask her. She might not even say yes." That didn't make Flash any happier. "What is even going on with you two? Are you dating or not?"

"It's...complicated," Flash sighed. "I've met her sisters, but she hasn't met my parents yet. I think I need to get their opinion on Adagio before I can confirm anything with her." Trixie shrugged as they got out of the car and headed for the door, Flash thinking more about Adagio.

They had been on several dates and Flash had even invited her to this barbeque, though she had declined since she and her sisters had gotten themselves a wedding gig a town over. Flash had offered to come over and help set up the music, but Adagio had reminded him she had been working in the music bus since before he was born.

The pair stepped into Shining's house and when they did, they heard a bunch of laughter coming from the living room.

There they found Shining, Cadance and the Rainbooms all sitting around the edge of the room. In the middle, Flurry Heart was playing with a bunch of cuddly toys surrounding her. "Hey guys," Flash waved as the others smiled. Flurry also noticed him and grabbed one of her toys.

"Fla!" She cried, making Flash smirk as he assumed she wanted him to play with her. But then he noticed what the toy was.

"Hey," he knelt down and looked the toy over as Flurry handed him it. He looked at it from every angle and sure enough, it was him. Well, technically it wasn't. It was Riot-Horn. It was a perfect recreation of his alien strong man, made out of fabric and stuffed with something.

Flash then looked around and saw every single one of his aliens were around Flurry, who picked them up and played with them in a way that was just too cute not to love. But that didn't answer the question.

"Where did you get all of these?" He asked Shining, "is someone using my likeness to sell toys?"

"Of course not," Cadance laughed. "I made them. When you told me how much Flurry loved your alien forms, I thought I would make her some so she would always have her outer space friends whenever she needs them. Now she loves them all almost as much as her Whammy." Flash smiled, liking that idea as he looked through all the toy versions of him.

Cadance really had remade all of his aliens. Even his newest one, Bloxx, was there in all his building block glory. But as he picked up a Volt-Edge plush and looked at its face, he frowned. "I don't look this...cute, do I?" The way his aliens were made, they looked less cool and more cute and cuddly. If it was a TV show, these things would be a kid's cartoon whilst he was normally more anime.

"Well I had to take some liberties," Cadance told him. "They are kids toys, remember."

"I guess," Flash nodded as Rainbow reached down and picked up the XLR8 toy. She looked it over and laughed as she did, the others turning to her curious what she found so funny.

"Can you imagine Flash with a cute alien. It'd probably be kinda useless. I mean, Flash's aliens are all badass." Cadance gave Rainbow a look a pointed at the listening Flurry, "sorry. But you know what I mean. If something's cute, it's normally not cool and wouldn't stand a chance in a fight." The others frowned, but had a feeling she might be right.

However, before any of them could say anything, Shining's phone went off. "Hello?" He listened and his eyes went wide, "what?" The others looked at him, worried about the suddenly edge in his voice. "I'll be right there!" He hung up and turned to the others, "something's attacking downtown. Something that's apparently not human."

Flash and the girls all knew what that meant. It was either something alien, magical, or maybe even both. Either way, they needed to stop it before it caused too much trouble.

Shining turned to Cadance, who didn't even hesitate to nod. She knew they had to go and she would wait for them to get back. With that agreed, the lot of them rushed out of the house and to their vehicles. Flash, Trixie, Sunset, Rainbow and Fluttershy got in his car, the lot of them racing off towards the area Shining had been told about.

As they did, Shining tuned into the police radio to try and pick up some clues about what was happening. But apparently, every officer in the area had stopped responding. The only one who had managed it had only said something not human was attacking them, only for the line to have gone dead.

"What do you think it is?" Sunset asked, but nobody was sure.

"I hope it's something we can deal with quickly," Fluttershy gulped. As they turned a corner, something in the middle of the street made the drivers put on the breaks. A large column of ice, sticking out of the road.

"What the?" Sunset asked, several other members of the group getting a horrible sense of deja vu when they saw it.

There was no way they could make it around the ice in their vehicles, so the lot of them got out and made their way around it. They looked around the street and sure enough, several more areas were covered in ice. Lampposts tops, walls and an entire mailbox were all frozen solid.

"Guys," Flash gulped, "am I the only one feeling like we've been in this situation before?" Suddenly, one of the buildings exploded as a large shard of ice stuck out of it. The lot of them were forced to leap back to avoid getting rammed by the ice, whilst someone walked out of the store and laughed.

That voice was familiar to several of them and slowly, the looked around to see the voice's owner walking up to the top of the ice shard. Gelidafur.

"Not this guy again!" Flash groaned, Trixie put on her Luna Cat mask and Shining activated his plumber suit. As they did, the arctic lizard turned towards them. He quickly recognised Twilight and Applejack, which made him look around and see Flash before noticing the device on his wrist.

"So," he smirked, "you're the one." Flash raised an eyebrow, "the wielder of the Omnitrix." This was a surprise, since Flash was pretty sure he managed to keep Gelidafur from seeing him transform. "Don't be too shocked. You were the talk of the prison block back at the plumber holding facility. Kraab and SixSix had a lot of interesting things to say about you."

"So that's it," Flash frowned before holding up the Omnitrix. "So you know who I am? Big whoop. I'll just fry you like we did last time."

Gelidafur glared at him, "you can try." His eyes glanced over at a nearby alleyway, where he spotted Hectrix for a moment before he hid away. "Go on. Give it your best shot. I won't even dodge your first blast."

"Oh," Flash activated the Omnitrix, "you're gonna regret those worlds." But as he dialed up Firefly, Hectrix prepared himself. He placed the key inside a slot on his arm and as he did, numbers appeared on a screen next to it.

Zero, zero, five, two, seven, eight, three.

Hectrix smirked and as Flash was about to slap the dial down, he thrust his fist at him and unleashed a red laser that struck the Omnitrix. Flash didn't notice this, but the others did. But they couldn't react in time before Flash slapped it down.

The street filled with green, as Flash transformed. But when the light faded away, they looked at where he had been only to have to look down. Standing in Flash's place, was a two foot high bipedal skunk with faded blue fur in place of black. It was wearing gloves and boots that were mostly white with black trim, along with a black bandanna with the Omnitrix on it. Its tail, which was mostly blue with a white streak on the underside, was almost as long as it was tall. On the tip of his tail, there appeared to be an opening that was squeezed shut.

Flash blinked as he looked himself over, realising what must have happened. "Another new Alien?" He spoke in a high pitched voice, "AWESOME!"

"I don't think you got that by chance," Twilight told him. Flash looked up and saw Twilight was looking backwards at something, the skunk looking around and seeing Hectrix standing there with a smirk on his face.

"Who are you?"

"My new partner," Gelidafur laughed. "And thanks to him, you're no match for us." Flash looked himself over and realised the lizard was right. Flash had no idea what he could do or how it would help him beat these two.

And before he could ask what they should do, Gelidafur leapt into the air and unleashed a blast of ice towards him. "Look out!" Fluttershy screamed, grabbing Flash and lifting him off the ground as they leapt to the side. The ice ray hit the ground and caused it to completely freeze, making Rainbow frown since her powers were now useless.

Applejack and Shining had landed near where Hectrix had been hiding, Shining holding up his blaster pistol. "FREEZE!" Hectrix laughed before he charged at them, Shining firing only for the lasers to bounce off his armor. He then threw a punch at Shining, but Applejack jumped in front of him and grabbed the fist in her hands.

"Augh!" She cried at the impact, but as able to hold her ground. At least until Hectrix raised his other fist. However, Twilight quickly grabbed the fist in her magic and pulled it back. The two girls managed to hold the guy in place, whilst Shining changed to his shotgun blaster and prepared to fire again. But before he could, Hectrix's boots unleashed a blast of fire that rocketed him into the air.

Applejack and Twilight were knocked down, whilst Shining's blasts missed.

At the same time, Trixie used her staff to pole vault over the ice and tried to slam Gelidafur in the head. But the icy reptile charged up a freeze blast and fired. Luckily, Rarity was able to shield Trixie and give her something to bounce off of and safely land back on the ground.

As she did, Pinkie threw some sprinkles at Gelidafur and they exploded around him. "Augh!" He cried, staggering back. But then he fired his laser wildly and froze a good section of the street.

As this was happening, Sunset and Fluttershy had taken cover whilst Flash remained in Fluttershy's arms.

"Ahhh!" Flash growled, "I gotta figure out what the heck this alien does. It must be able to do something." Sunset looked him over and realised something...something that made her look worried.

"Well...I have an idea. But you might not like it."

"What?" Flash asked. "You know what I can do?"

"Well...you look like a skunk." Flash looked himself over, having not been able to notice this detail since he couldn't see his whole body. But as his mind switched the blue of his body with black, he realised what she was getting at.

"No."

"I guess there had to be one species out there with that power," Fluttershy pointed out. "But if you can do that, it's kind of weird how two planets managed to create a creature that looks almost identical and has the same power."

"Well forget it!" Flash crossed his arms, "I'm not doing it. I've done a lot of crazy stuff since getting this watch, but I draw the line there." As he said that, Gelidafur slammed his fist into Trixie and knocked her backwards. Shining also got slammed by Hectrix, the pair hitting the ice and sliding towards one another.

Rainbow tried to slide out to help them and as she did, Gelidafur launched his ice blast. "AUGH!" Rainbow screamed at the icy chill, as her feet were frozen to the ground. Gelidafur then spun his ray around and hit Shining and Trixie as the pair tried to pick themselves up.

However, the pair were both frozen to the ground and unable to pull themselves free. "Hang on!" Applejack cried, running over to help them. But as she did, Gelidafur prepared to freeze her as well.

Rarity would have put up a shield, but Flash chose now to leap out of Fluttershy's arms and run over to them. "Back off!" He squeaked, "don't make me do something we'll all regret." He spun around and pointed his tail at him, as Hectrix landed next to the lizard.

"Oh please," Gelidafur laughed. "You wouldn't dare." He prepared to freeze Flash in place, the skunk turning to the others who were giving him unsure looks. But as Gelidafur was about to fire, he sighed and closed his eyes. Sure enough, his tail seemed to inflate for a moment.

Then, the opening at the tip of the tail opened up and a yellow green cloud shot out of it towards the pair. It completely consumed them both, the alien's eyes going wide before they covered their mouths.

"AAAAARRRRRHHHHH!" They screamed, their eyes watering as they started staggering around.

Some of that mist drifted over to the heroes, Flash wondering if it really smelled that bad. But when he took a whiff, he smelled nothing. "Huh, wonder why they're so-"

"GYAH!" He heard a bunch of screams and looked over at his friends, who were all holding their noses or covering their mouths. "That is the most disgusting thing I've ever smelled!" Trixie screamed.

"How the heck is something like that allowed to evolve?" Twilight cried, making Flash feel a little self conscious. But Gelidafur and Hectrix had taken the worst of it, the pair staggering out of the cloud but the smell refused to leave them.

"Maybe that alien was a mistake," Hectrix guessed.

"YOU THINK!?" Gelidafur roared, as Flash turned back to them and prepared to fire at them again. "GET US OUT OF HERE!" Hectrix nodded and pressed a button on his arm, the pair beginning to glow as their transporter activated. But before they vanished, Shining pressed something on his belt.

Something shot out of it and flew towards Hectrix, hitting him on the leg without the guy noticing. A second later, the pair vanished leaving Flash and the still suffering humans alone with the smell.

Once they were back on the ship, Hectrix quickly activated the ventilation system.

Fresh air was being blown in and the old air, including that polluted by the stench, was sucked out. Until then, the two grabbed some oxygen masks designed for haul breaches and used them to avoid smelling that horrible smell. "So what do we do now?" Hectrixi asked, but the mask made his voice muffled so Gelidafur had no idea what he was talking about. As such, he took a deep breath and pulled the mask off of him before repeating the question.

"I don't know," Gelidafur stated. "But the first thing you need to do is check through that list you uploaded and make sure there aren't any more aliens that'll cause us problems." Hectrix sighed, but brought the list up anyway. He looked through the list of aliens and couldn't see any others that should cause him any harm.

"These creatures are so small, how the heck could they possibly cause use any problems? Everyone knows that the bigger you are, the better. That's why I'm one of the best."

"Whatever," Gelidafur growled, "let's just focus on how we're gonna turn this place into our private kingdom before that brat gets in our way."

"Oh please," Hectrix laughed. "What's he gonna do against us when he becomes a walkatrout? He's not gonna be a problem." Gelidafur hoped he was right. But he also knew those other humans could be just as problematic. He would need to find a way to deal with them.

Back on the planet, they had managed to free those stuck in the ice and took Flash over to back alley.

The skunk alien was sitting a good six meters away from everyone else. Though technically, they were sitting six meters away from him. "Come on guys," he cried. "It can't be that bad!"

"You don't have a sense of smell," Trixie told him. "When you turn back to human, trust me. You're gonna realise just how bad it is." Flash rolled his eyes, as the others continued to smell the lingering foul odour.

"And hopefully, you turn back soon." The others agreed with Rarity, whilst Twilight thought about what Hectrix had done. His plan couldn't have simply been making Flash into this small and stinky alien, could it?

She got her answer when the Omnitrix beeped. "Finally," Flash leapt off the trash can he was sitting on as he was consumed by light. But when the light vanished, Flash found he wasn't back to normal. "What?"

Everyone saw that he was now a foot high blue skinned fairy, that had dark blue hair. He had four purple insect wings on his back, whilst he was wearing a white sleeveless jumpsuit that was black on the legs and had a black line running up the middle. This was where the Omnitrix was located, whilst a pair of a white elbow-length gloves were on his hands. He had three pink dots on his face, one below each of his blue eyes and one on his chin.

"What's happening?" He asked, speaking in a cutesy almost feminine voice. "My voice?" He looked himself over and saw his wings, which he beat to lift himself up. "Why aren't I human again?"

"I don't know," Twilight gulped as the others looked him over. "But one thing's for certain." She, Fluttershy, Pinkie, Rarity and Trixie all looked at him like a newborn baby. "YOU'RE SO CUTE!" They all said together, as Flash and the others rolled their eyes.

"Getting back to the problem at hand," Shining spoke up. "Why did Flash not turn back to human?"

"This has to be that Hectrix guy's doing," Twilight crossed her arms. "He somehow hacked the Omnitrix. And now he's got Flash swapping between aliens he didn't have before."

Flash frowned. "So every time I transform back, I'm going to turn into another alien?"

"Likely," Twilight nodded as Flash huffed.

"Great." He looked himself over. "I hope this one at least has a cool power." He flexed his fingers and as he did, they started giving off a strange glow. It was pink and full of some kind of sparkly twinkle, the light flowing off his hands and forming a cloud between them.

"Ow," Pinkie looked closely at it, "pretty." But then she got to close and some of the mist expanded out to hit her in the face. As soon as she did, Pinkie staggered back and let out a yawn. "Me go sleepy now." She fell backwards and Rarity was barely able to catch her.

"PINKIE!" They all cried, the lot of them gathering around her in absolute shock. "What did you do?" Applejack asked the alien, Flash having no idea and fearing he had accidently killed her. But Pinkie was breathing, technically snoring, and she didn't seem at all harmed.

"I think she's asleep," Fluttershy pointed out.

"Huh," Shining turned to Flash, "so you have a sleeping mist. That...could be useful." Flash raised an eyebrow, as he looked at Pinkie and tried to shake her away.

"Come on. Time to get up." But then he touched her skin and when he did, his eyes shot open as everything around him went white for a moment. The next thing he knew, he was in a land made entirely out of candy. Pinkie was dancing around there and as she danced, the world changed to show a dark forest. Then they were in a world made of clouds, then a volcano with a dragon and then they were in Sugarcube Corner that was full of different cakes.

"Yum," she licked her lips and opened her mouth so wide, she was able to shovel the cake inside whole.

"What the?" He was completely weirded out and everything went fuzzy. The next thing he knew, he was back in the alleyway with everyone else looking at him. "Wow."

"What happened?" Twilight asked, as Flash held his head.

"I'm...not sure."

Rainbow then spoke up. "You're eyes kind of went like Sunset's, when she reads people minds?"

"Is that what you were doing?" Applejack asked, as Flash continued to hold his head.

"I don't think so. I think I was in her head...but, I think I might have been inside her dream." That surprised them, as Pinkie seemed to be coming around. "Pinkie!" He flew over her, "you okay?"

"Yeah," Pinkie yawned, "I just had the greatest dream ever." She sat up and stretched her body, "you were there." That seemed to confirm to Flash, that he had somehow entered Pinkie's dream. Though it didn't have many combat capabilities, he had a feeling it could be useful...if he ever figured out how to turn back to normal.

Flash looked down at the Omnitrix and started tapping it, the others watching him as he tried pressing the dial in and twisting it. "What are you doing?" Trixie asked, "you're gonna break it."

"I'm trying to turn on the recalibrator," Flash explained. "If I can get the Omnitrix to reboot, maybe I can turn back to normal and undo whatever that guy did to me." But the Omnitrix remained as it was, making Flash sigh. It seemed recalibration couldn't be done whilst transformed. "This thing needs a voice command function."

Shining sighed. "If we wanna turn Flash back, we're gonna need to figure out what that Hectrix guy did to the Omnitrix. Which means we need to find him, wherever he and Gelidafur are." He took out his badge and activated it, causing a holographic image of the earth to appear above it. A red dot was floating a few inches above the American continent.

"What's that?" Rainbow asked.

"Tracking device. I was able to get it on Hectrix before he vanished. But, it looks like he's not on earth anymore. Probably up in a spaceship. Which means we're gonna have to wait until he comes down." This did not sit well with the lot of them, especially Flash.

Up in space, Hectrix finished going through the list.

"Okay," he told Gelidafur, "I've triple checked it. Other than that stinky alien, there's nothing that guy will be able to do against us with the aliens he's stuck as." The freeze lizard stared at him, wondering if he should look over the list himself. But he had been working on something himself.

"Alright," Gelidafur showed him a map, "this is what we're gonna do. We're gonna make those humans bow down to us."

"How?" Hectrix watched him point at the city. Specifically, at an area of the map that was on the very edge of the city near the woods. It was a large complex of some kind, which made him raise an eyebrow.

"Cause if they don't, we'll turn them into a giant smoking radioactive crater." Hectrix smirked, understanding completely. He quickly went to the computer and activated the transporter, locking in the coordinates.

"Ready?" Gelidafur nodded and he activated it, the pair disappearing in the blink of an eye.

Back on earth, Shining's tracking device beeped. "We got a hit."

"Great," Trixie smirked as Shining zoomed in, "where'd they go." They watched as the hologram zoomed in on America, then in on their state. Then in on their city, "they're still here? I would have thought they'd pick somewhere else to mess with."

Shining frowned as the tracker locked in on a specific location. "What?" The others looked concerned, "they're at the nuclear power plant." Their eyes went wide at this, since there was no telling what damage they could do if they messed with that place.

As such, they all rushed towards where their vehicles had parked. Flash flew above them, managing to reach the cars before them. Luckily, nobody was around to see the fairy as he flew into his car. Unable to drive in his current form, Flash was forced to let Trixie drive as he sat in the back on Fluttershy's knee.

They headed towards the power plant and as they did, the Omnitrix beeped again. "Oh no!" Flash didn't know what he was gonna turn into, but feared this one might end up being made of a small ball of acid. But before he could think to jump out of the car, he was consumed by light and changed in Fluttershy's lap.

When the light faded, Flash found he was actually an alien he knew. Molestache. "Hey!" Trixie smiled back at him, "you're an alien you know. Though...not your strongest."

Molestache moaned as he sat back on Fluttershy's lap, "this is so embarrassing." Fluttershy smiled as she patted him on the head.

"It's okay. I'm sure we'll get you back to normal in no time."

"Yeah. But how many more weak aliens am I gonna be stuck as until then. What if I need to go to the bathroom or something? I've never done that as an alien before."

"Really?" Rainbow asked from her spot besides Fluttershy, "that would have been like...the first thing I'd wanna try out if I was an alien." The others rolled their eyes, as Fluttershy continued to pat him on the head.

"I know this is frustrating, becoming a bunch of aliens you don't know. But I'm sure you'll find they can all be really useful. You had trouble with Lindwhirl until you figured out how to work him."

"I guess," Molestache sighed. "But Lindwhirl at least had the size going for him. These aliens would likely have trouble opening a pickle jar."

"I know how you feel," Fluttershy sighed. "I mean, my magic isn't very useful in a fight. I can't run at super speed, lift heavy objects of create protectives walls. But I don't think it's weak. It just needs to be used in the right way." Molestache nodded, understanding what she meant. "Instead of focusing on what you can't do. You should focus on what you can do with what you have. You didn't need super strength or laser eyes when you saved us all during Flurry's birthday."

Molestache thought about that and realised she was right. Molestache might not have been what he chose, but he had been able to save everyone when they were trapped in those bubbles. And Molestache had done plenty of amazing things against stronger opponents. And it wasn't like the other two aliens had been completely useless. The gas attack had scared away the villains and the sleeping fairy could put people to sleep. Maybe being small like this wasn't such a bad thing.

"Thank you, Fluttershy." The girl smiled down at him, as they continued to make their way through the town's traffic.

Luckily, Shining was able to use his sirens to clear a path for them. They managed to reach the outskirts of the city and drove up towards the power plant, Molestache remembering the last time he had been there. If he could beat a bunch of electric aliens, he could stop whatever those two idiots were planning.

They arrived at the entrance to the power plant and when they did, they found the place was deserted. The parking lot was empty and the gate was wide open, with nobody at the security box to keep it shut.

As they drove in, Shining noticed one of the walls had a massive hole in it. "That must be where they entered from." They pulled up to the building and all got out, Fluttershy putting Flash down as she noticed a bunch of ants on the ground.

"Excuse me." They all stopped and looked up at her, "did you happen to see what happened here?" She cupped her ear and everyone saw her listening. "Huh huh. Huh huh. Oh, dear." She turned to the others, "they said two monsters arrived out of nowhere and broke down the wall. Then, people started fleeing from the building whilst screaming."

"So they are here," Sunset frowned. "I hope Gelidafur didn't freeze anyone solid."

"We need to go in and find them if they are," Molestache stated. But in that moment, the Omnitrix beeped again and he was transformed. Everyone waited to see what he became this time and were surprised, when they saw a strange yellow blob-like creature that was about the same size as Molestache. The only piece of clothing he was wearing, were a pair of black and white undies. He had short black claws on the end of his pudgy arms and the Omnitrix was sticking out of his bellybutton.

"Oh," Rarity looked disgusting, "this one looks horrible."

Flash looked himself over and groaned, unable to dispute Rarity's cry. "This one's The Worst." As bad as Flash's alien looked, they all knew they had to head inside.

As they did, they found the place was a complete mess. Walls had been knocked down and several areas were covered in ice. However, they didn't see anyone inside. "I'm only getting two life-signs that are deeper inside," Shining exclaimed. "And neither of them are human. Looks like they scared everyone away and didn't freeze anyone. That's good."

"But what the heck are they doing in here?" Flash asked from Applejack's shoulders. "You think they plan on charging their ship up like those Conductoids?"

"I don't know," Shining told him. "But whatever the reason, we need to stop them." They nodded and continued through the power plant, following the life-signs until they eventually arrived at a large room Flash and the others hadn't been to the previous time they were there.

As they ran through the doors into a large room, Shining's suit flashed up a warning. "Wait!" They stopped as he looked through the message. "Not good. I'm getting a radiation warning."

"Radiation!?" Rarity screamed, "they're going to cause a meltdown?"

"I thought they wanted to rule this place?" Rainbow asked, "what's the point in blowing it up?"

"There's a big point." They all looked around and saw Hectrix and Gelidafur step through some doors and glare at them. "This power plant is our ticket to becoming kings!"

Flash then realised what these two were planning, "an ultimatum."

Gelidafur nodded, "you humans will hand this country over to us or we will turn this city into a crater."

"You're insane!" Twilight cried, "the country would never bow down to you. Even if you did blow up the city." The pair chuckled at one another, as Hectix spoke up.

"If you won't give us this country, we'll make sure nobody wants to live here. There are ninety one other reactors spread around this place. If they don't learn their lesson after this place blows up, we'll see how many more radioactive craters need to be made before they give up." Warning lights started going off, as the pair chuckled.

"You guys are twisted!" Trixie cried, "we're not gonna let you get away with this!"

"And what are you going to do about it?" Gelidafur asked before unleashing a blast of ice from his mouth, the ten all leaping away to avoid getting frozen to the spot.

Flash fell from Applejack's shoulder and as he did, he ended up hitting the frozen ground and sliding along it. "WOW!" He cried before crashing into a large stack of boxes that had been placed in the room, causing a bunch of equipment to fall out of it. "Ow," he moaned as Hectrix rushed up to him over the ice. "Uh oh!" He got up and tried to run to safety, but all that happened was him running on the spot.

Hectrix finally reached him and grabbed Flash in his colossal metal hands. "Now I got you!" He slammed Flash into the ground, making him cry out before Hectrix lifted him up and slammed him on the ground again. Flash fought through the pain and tried to scratch at the hands, but his claws didn't even damage him. "Nice try!" He then threw Flash into the air and as he felt back down, he spun around and kicked him right in the face.

"AUGH!" He was sent flying backwards and crashed into the wall, the yellow alien sliding down it whilst Gelidafur continued to blast ice at the others.

Shining had turned his Multi-Striker into a shield and blocked the ice, Rarity doing the same with her magic whilst the others hid behind it. "What do we do?" Fluttershy asked.

"I can't run on ice," Rainbow cried. Trixie then stood up and ran out from behind the shield.

"Sky Butterfly!" She screamed, as her mask and costume transformed. As soon as she had her wings, she shot into the air and flew towards the ice lizard. The alien unleashed an ice blast towards her, but she managed to shoot to the side to avoid it. She then slashed at him with her rapier, but the reptile leapt away and managed to grab hold of the side of the wall. He fired another ice blast and she dodged it, whilst everyone who had been shielding themselves before managed to rush into action.

Applejack, Twilight, Shining and Fluttershy ran over to Hectrix, who was currently trying to squish Flash under his foot. And whilst he was pushing down on the putty-like alien, causing him a bunch of pain, Flash didn't feel like any damage was being dealt.

"FLASH!" Twilight used her magic to push the armored alien backwards, making him stagger off of Flash as Shining started blasting at him. Hectrix shielded himself from the blasts with his hands, whilst Applejack tackled him. The pair pushed against one another, as Fluttershy picked Flash up.

"Are you okay?" She asked, as Flash held his head.

"I think so," he looked himself over and everything felt alright. "Weird. It hurt, but I don't think it actually did any damage to me." The others wondered why that was, as Applejack and Hectrix continued to push against one another.

Meanwhile, Trixie and Gelidafur continued to square off. As they did, Rainbow, Rarity, Sunset and Pinkie ran over to help.

Pinkie grabbed some sprinkles out of her hair and threw them at Gelidafur, who leapt away to avoid the explosion that occurred. He replied by firing his ice laser at the girl, but Rarity was able to shield them from the blast as Sunset looked around. She spotted a door labeled control room and rushed inside, where she found a bunch of computers she barely understood.

Stepping up to them, she saw a screen on the console that stated the reactor was beyond its recommended heat limit. "We need to find a way to cool this thing down." But she had no idea what she was supposed to do, "I really need Twilight."

Twilight was a little too busy fighting Hectrix, who had managed to throw Applejack away and begin fighting against Shining as the plumber used his Multi-Striker sword to try and cut through his armor. Twilight, meanwhile, grabbed several pieces of machinery that had been in the boxes and threw them at him. But they simply smashed off of Hectrix's armor and did nothing to him.

Fluttershy continued to hold onto Flash, as he watched and frowned seeing his friends fighting these criminals. "Ah!" He cried, "I can't do anything!"

"That's not true," Fluttershy told him. "You said this body didn't take any damage."

"Yeah, but it's not like that's gonna help me if I can't do anything else. If all this alien can do is take a beating, I'm useless in this form." As he said that, Hectrix slammed his fist into Shining and knocked him flying back. At that moment, his arm beeped and another set of numbers appeared on the screen.

zero, zero, zero, zero, zero , zero...one.

Moments later, the Omnitrix started beeping and Flash sighed before leaping out of Fluttershy's arms. Moments later, he was consumed by a light and transformed again.

This light caught everyone's attention, making them look around to see Flash's new from. He was now a four inch tall grey frog-like creature, standing on two feet with large hands wearing a white jumpsuit with black on his neck and just below it. A black belt was also around his waist and he was wearing black fingerless gloves, with white squares on the back of them. He also had black toeless boots and the Omnitrix was on his back.

Flash sighed, seeing he had once again turned into something small and likely useless in battle. But then he heard Gelidafur let out a horrified scream. "HECTRIX! You idiot!"

"What?" Hectrix asked, "there's no way he can fight us in that form."

"You turned him into a galvin!" Gelidafur yelled as he avoided another of Pinkie's explosions. "He doesn't need to fight in order to win. Out of the millions of aliens you programmed into that thing, why did you pick the smartest race in the galaxy!?"

"Smartest race in the galaxy?" Flash asked, his voice having a slight croak to it. He looked around and as he did, he realised he understood what every piece of machinery in the room did. He didn't know how he knew it, but he did. And he knew how to take it all apart, put it back together and maybe make it better. This discovery was kind of a shock to him, as all this new information flowed through his mind and made him feel like his head was gonna explode.

But then he saw Hectrix's armor and as he did, he suddenly understood everything about it. Including how to stop it and the device that had put him into this position in the first place.

"That's it!" He turned to Shining and Applejack, "can you two keep this guy busy for a few minutes?" They looked at him, confused, then saw the determined look in his eyes and nodded. "Great. Twilight and Fluttershy, you two are with me!" They nodded as the frog leapt over to where the pieces of machinery were scattered about.

"Stop him!" Gelidafur cried, attempting to rush over there. But before he could, a wall of gems appeared in front of him and blocked his path. He turned to the Rainbooms and Trixie, the three smirking at him as he glared back.

Hectrix charged at Applejack, who braced herself and was able to catch his punch. She only slid back a few inches, but she held her ground as Shining ran up to them. His Multi-Striker morphed into a rod that shot out energy, which turned into a flail that he spun around.

He then leapt up at the alien and swung it at his head, Hectrix using his other fist to block it but the impact knocked him off balance and allowed Applejack to push him backwards.

As he fell to the ground, Flash and the girls reached the machinery with Flash looking through it all. "Let's see. Yes!" He held up a few pieces of tech, "Twilight. Start taking these things apart." He picked something else up, "Fluttershy. Start ripping the wiring out of this." The girls looked very confused, "hurry!" Despite not knowing what Flash was doing, they grabbed their allotted devices and started taking them apart. As they did, Flash took something else apart and start building something completely new.

Gelidafur launched a freeze ray at the girls, but Pinkie threw some sprinkles at it and caused an explosion. Trixie then flew down and swung her leg at him, but the alien reached up and grabbed her by the ankle.

Trixie's eyes went wide, as Gelidafur prepared to freeze her. But before he could, a crystal gem slammed into his face. He growled and trew Trixie around, the girl barely managing to spread her wings and fly up before she slammed into Rarity. Gelidafur then unleashed an extra powerful blast, which started freezing the entire ground.

Trixie flew up as Rarity created a floating platform for her and Pinkie to step onto.

At the same time, Hectrix threw punch after punch after punch at Applejack and Shining Armor. The pair barely managed to keep themselves from getting hit, Shining using his flail to try and hit him on the head. But Hectrix avoided it as as he did, his fists started clicking as they extended a few inches.

This confused the pair, until the fists suddenly started spinning around. First slowly, then at a higher and higher speed.

Their confusion turned to shock, as Hectrix started swinging the spinning spheres of death towards them. All they could do was avoid it, Shining changing his weapon to a blaster and firing. But Hectrix blocked with his fists and the laser was deflected off, straight towards the wall of Rarity's crystals.

The wall was struck and shattered, freeing Gelidafur. This made him smirk and as Trixie charged at him, he blasted the ground and formed a wall of ice that she almost slammed into. The only thing that stopped her was Rarity, who made a slanted wall that made Trixie curve and miss the ice wall.

This allowed Gelidafur to run over to where the others were, then look back and fire a blast of ice. Within seconds, a new wall appeared where the old one stood. One that blocked Trixie, Rarity, Pinkie and Sunset from the others.

Meanwhile, Flash continued to use the parts the girls had gathered for him to build something. "Almost...done. Got it!" He held up a remote-like device almost as big as him. "This will cause Hectrix's suit to shut down and free me from the signal he's using to mess with the Omnitrix.

"Well hit it!" Twilight cried, but Flash shook his head.

"None of this stuff had anything to transmit the signal. It needs to be touching the suit to send it." But just as he was about to leap over to Hectrix, Gelidafur landed besides them.

"I don't think so." He swung his large hands around and slammed the girls away, then grabbed Flash. "I always did like frogs legs. Especially when they've been frozen." Flash gulped, as he held the remote in his hand. But then he noticed Fluttershy getting up, the girl looking at him and nodding.

"Catch!" He threw the remote towards Hectrix and Fluttershy ran forwards, whilst Gelidafur saw this and prepared to freeze her in place. But before he could, the wall of ice shattered due to an explosion.

Pinkie was standing behind it, whilst Rarity leapt through the hole. And when she saw the lizard had Flash and was about to freeze Fluttershy, she threw a crystal at his face. It flew at him and just as he was about to fire, slammed into his face and caused the beam to fly towards Hectrix instead.

"Now I got you!" The alien cried, as he was about to slam his spinning fist into Applejack. But before he could, the ice beam struck his arm. "HEY!" His entire arm froze, his spinning fist stopping. This distraction was enough to allow Shining to fire at his other spinning fist, hitting it at the wrist and causing something to break.

HIs second weapon out of commision, Hectrix didn't notice Fluttershy reach him as she grabbed the remote. And he didn't notice her trust the device into his armor, right as Gelidafur slammed Flash into the ground and pushed his palm against the Omnitrix.

Fluttershy hit the button and sent the signal, causing Hectrix's entire body to seize up as soon as he broke the ice. "What?" He cried, as he tried to make himself move but nothing worked. "What's happening?" Suddenly, his right arm sparked before a puff of smoke blew out of it. Then his left leg did the same and he fell onto one knee, "no!" His other leg blew and he fell onto his back, as his chest sparked before the smoke shot out. Finally, his left arm blew and something flew out of it. That something was the key, which hit a nearby wall and broke apart.

As soon as it did, the Omnitrix started beeping and Gelidafur pulled his arm off of Flash to see the device glowing yellow. It then beeped blue for a few seconds before unleashing a green light.

"Augh!" He cried, staggering back as the light faded. And when it did, he saw Flash kneeling where the galvin used to be. "Uh oh."

"Uh oh is right, lizard lips!" Flash stood up and activated the watch, seeing it was working perfectly again. "Omnitrix is fixed." As he said that, he saw a new silhouette appear on the screen. One of an alien he had never been before, but recognised easily. "And thanks to you..." He smiled, "I got me a new alien." Everyone wondered what he meant, only for Flash to slam the dial down.

In a mighty burst of light, Flash was replaced by a perfect copy of Gelidafur. Except this one was wearing a black open jacket, with holes for its spikes and fingers along with white pants. His eyes were blue and surrounded by the black lines on his head, whilst the Omnitrix was on his chest.

Gelidafur stared at his fellow Polar Manzardill, completely shocked that Flash had just become him. That shock quickly turned to anger, "you dare insult me!" He launched his freeze ray and Flash didn't even more, the attack hitting him and creating a large cloud of mist.

Everyone gasped, fearing Flash had just been frozen solid. But then the mist faded and Flash was revealed to be completely unharmed. "That all you got?" Gelidafur was surprised by this, as Flash smirked before leaping forward and throwing a punch right at the alien.

The lizard roared as he was struck in the face and knocked backwards, slamming into his ice wall and causing it to crack. Flash then charged forward and laughed as he did so. "I've been hoping I'd one day get to use this alien, after how much trouble we had against you last time." Gelidafur leapt forward and tried to punch him, but Flash jumped back and then body slammed him. "I even thought up a name for myself if I ever got the chance."

Gelidafur fired a freeze ray and Flash did the same, the two attacks slamming into one another and creating a large ice spike between them.

Flash then leapt up and landed atop the ice spike, smiling down at the alien. "Call me...Absolute Zero." He looked at the others, who all frowned at him. "What, you don't like it?"

"Doesn't seem to really fit," Twilight told him as Trixie, Rainbow and Pinkie climbed through the hole in the ice.

"Oow!" The party girl cried, "what about...Arctiguana?" Flash thought about it before a smile appeared on his lips, the freeze lizard letting out a cold mist as he spoke.

"Cool." Gelidafur growled at this and leapt up to try and fight Flash, who avoided the punch by jumping onto one of the nearby walls. Gelidafur followed and everyone watched as the pair started leaping at one another to try and overpower the other.

Shining smirked as he looked over at Hectrix, glad to see the guy wasn't going anywhere. "Don't worry." He held up a capture cube, we'll have you in a nice cell where you can rest your damaged body.

Hectrix growled, "I don't think so." As he said that, the chest and shoulders of his body suddenly opened and pulled away from the rest of his head and neck. This allowed him to literally leap out of his own body, revealing his true form. He was a little green alien whose body was the size of a toddler's, being just a little bigger then his head. He was also almost completely naked, with the only thing covering his shame being a metal diaper of sorts. "I'm getting out of here!"

"Get him!" Shining cried, as they watched him run away on his stubby little legs. Applejack leapt at him, but he managed to avoid her, whilst Rarity tried to trap him in a small dome. But he managed to avoid that as well, only for Rainbow to use her super speed and grab him.

"Hey!" He struggled, but Rainbow quickly threw him up into the air before he could punch her. Twilight then grabbed him in her magic, keeping him from being able to escape. "Let me go!"

"I don't think so!" Twilight cried, right as Arctiguana and Gelidafur slammed down into the ground. Arctiguana had his fellow ice lizard pinned, the creature groaning as he tried to pull himself free but couldn't.

"How?" He groaned, "I've been this species my entire life. You've barely been one five minutes. How are you stronger?" Arctiguana smirked.

"Guess I'm just a natural." As he said that, Twilight used her magic to grab Gelidafur and hold him down. Arctiguana jumped off and she placed Hectrix right in front of the lizard's mouth, stopping him from breathing ice. Shining then took out a capture cube.

"This isn't over!" Hectrix roared as Shining threw it at them. "We'll be back." The cube expanded. "And when we are, you'll be-" He didn't get to finish, as the cube completely consumed the pair before shrinking back down. Shining quickly picked it up and smiled, the others doing the same. At least until the alarms rang again.

"GUYS!" Sunset yelled over the intercom. "I can't stop whatever those two did. The core's going to go into meltdown." They all gasped and Shining checked the radiation levels again, seeing they were dangerous close to the red.

"If we don't find a way to stop this, the entire city's gonna become a nuclear blast zone."

"What do we do?" Rainbow cried, as Twilight tried to think.

"What did they do to it?" Trixie asked, Sunset unsure but explaining that the console stated something about it being over its recommended heat limit. This gave Twilight a flash of inspiration.

"We need to cool the reactor down!" She cried, turning to Arctiguana. "Use your ice breath and freeze it. It's the only way." The alien nodded and ran towards the door, throwing it open and running through a long corridor. As he did, he could feel the place getting hotter.

He quickly unleashed a blast of ice that froze the place, dropping the temperature until he arrived at the open vault doors leading to the reactor chamber. He stepped inside and when he did, she saw a large room with many weird machines inside. One said machine was sticking out of a pool of water, which was beginning to bubble.

"Hurry Flash!" He heard Twilight over the intercom, as he stepped up to the pool.

"Chill out, Twi." He took a deep breath and fired his ice ray, freezing the water solid. Once the entire pool was frozen, he stopped only to see the ice beginning to steam up and melt. As such, he froze it again and kept freezing it to make sure it stayed cool.

He kept this up for as long as possible, hoping he didn't time out. But after a few minutes, the alarms stopped and Twilight spoke up. "Flash, you did it. The core's temperature is back in the green. And we were able to reactivate the cooling system" Arctiguana sighed, falling onto his butt in exhaustion.

"Don't stay in there," Shining's voice told him. "There's still radiation in there. Get out before you turn back to human." Arctiguana nodded before turning to run, the lizard deciding to test out his new powers more as he unleashed a blast of ice from his mouth.

And so, he started ice skating along the path of ice that he made for himself. He could see what Gelidafur did it so much. This was fun.

By the time he reached the area with the others, the Omnitrix beeped and he leapt off his ice path and transformed back to human in midair. Landing on the ground, he tripped and staggered before regaining his balance. The others smiled, happy he was back to being human again.

After that, the lot of them decided to make a break for it before anyone else showed up.

Luckily, the plant workers returned a short while later with the police. When they investigated the plant, they found signs of a fight but nobody around. Nothing had been damaged and the reactor had not gone haywire, allowing them to take control of the situation.

Back at Shining's place, Flash and everyone else was watching the man flip burgers.

Cadance was bouncing Flurry on her lap, all the while Twilight showed her some images of Flash's new aliens. "That one looks cute," she smiled seeing the fairy. "I'll definitely have to make a plush of her." Flash coughed, reminding her that the fairy was actually male. "Sorry."

Flash rolled his eyes as he looked through the Omnitrix. When he had checked to make sure it was working properly, he was surprised to find that the four small aliens he had become were in his playlist. Whatever Hectrix had done had unlocked them for Flash, meaning they were each available for him to use in the future.

This made Flash smile, though he doubted the skunk and yellow alien were going to get much screen time.

Even so, he had a feeling these new aliens would come in handy. Arctiguana's ice powers had already saved many lives, whilst the frog alien he was thinking of calling Gray Matter had some serious brains. Meanwhile, the fairy he was still working on a name for had an interesting power and would also come in handy. It was just like Fluttershy said. It didn't matter what you can't do. It mattered what you could do. And Flash was able to do anything, with or without the right alien.

A week later, a plumber ship was flying through space whilst towing the criminal's ship in its tractor beam.

It had just made a trip to earth, having collected two prisoners the earth branch officer had captured. Shining Armor had also given a complete report about what had happened, the plumbers happy their prisoners had been recaptured and that the Omnitrix Access Key that had been stolen wouldn't be an issue.

As they flew through the solar system, the plumbers were talking about how often they had to make long trips back and forth to this planet. Apparently, the idea of building a plumber base on earth was being considered.

However, as they were leaving the solar system, something happened.

A laser flew through the dark void and exploded against the ship, rocketing it and causing their systems to go offline. Those on board attempted to figure out who had attacked them, but their scanners were down. If only they knew, the one attacking them was drawing closer.

It was a warship, much larger then the plumber's ship, being mostly brown and gray with red glass areas. Red lightning sparked between certain parts and it gave off a rather menacing aura. But despite this aura, the ship looked rather beaten up. Much like the criminal ship, it appeared to have suffered some serious damage.

The plumber ship finally got their view screen back online and when they did, those inside saw the ship and instantly knew who it was. As it charged up its blasters, the plumbers tried to send a warning to their closest base and the plumber on earth. But before they could, the ship's weapons fired.

Author's Note

This was an interesting one. An old enemy returns alongside a new one, bringing with them some serious trouble. But it also brings four new aliens, three being canon ones whilst one is an alien of my own creation. What did you think.

We're entering the home stretch of the season. How will it end? Only time will tell.

Season 4, Episode 1: From Time to Time PT1

A month had passed since the defeat of Tirek by the hero, Flash Sentry.

In that time, the damage done to the city had been repaired by Azmuth and everything could return to normal. Having finished his work with the hybrids, the alien genius had chosen to leave Earth. He entrusted the Omnitrix's safety to Flash and Flash's safety to Shining Armor, then headed back to his home world.

Since then, things had been pretty quiet around Canterlot.

Aside from the odd bank robber, runaway car or cat up a tree, Flash Sentry didn't have much to do with the Omnitrix. As such, he had used this time since defeating Tirek to relax and recoup. He knew things wouldn't be calm forever, so he enjoyed the peace whilst it lasted.

Currently, the teen was sitting in his room looking over something he had had to write for school. An essay on his life goals and what he hoped the future would bring for him.

Reading through it, Flash knew exactly what his future would entire. Using the Omnitrix to keep the planet safe from evil.

He intended to enter the Plumber's Academy as soon as he could, so would likely apply as soon as he graduated. Once he was a fully established plumber, he could focus all his time and energy on protecting the planet.

Flash smirked as he thought about his friends, who all had to write the same essay as well. Twilight intended to become a scientist and research anything she could in order to improve the world. Rainbow had the ambition and skill to enter the pro soccer leagues, whilst Rarity planned to open her own line of fashion stores and make her mark on the fashion world.

Applejack would be taking over her family farm, whilst Fluttershy wanted to help animals in any way she could. Pinkie would work to spread cheer throughout the city by opening a bakery and making her own party planning business, whilst Sunset was considering going back to Equestria for a while but also planned to return and make a career for herself on Earth.

Then there was Trixie, who wasn't really sure what her future entailed.

They knew her mission to collect the Medallions and return them to her world was important, but when it was over she was expected to take over as queen of the Luna Cat Kingdom. This was, obviously, something she was worried about. But Flash knew she would grow into a great leader in time.

Flash sighed as he finished reading his essay and put it into his bag, keeping it safe as he packed the last of what he needed for the day. Once he was ready, he stepped out of the room after grabbing his hoverboard.

His car was currently in the shop getting a service, meaning he would need to rely on other modes of transport to get him around everywhere. And whilst he could use XLR8 to get there in an instant, he enjoyed flying around on his board.

He got outside and jumped onto his board, zooming down the street and smiling as he saw how peaceful everything was. Canterlot might have had a lot of problems, but it was a great city to live in and Flash would defend it with his life. The same was true for the rest of his friends. No matter what, so long as they worked together, they would make sure the city had a bright future.

But then, as Flash turned a corner, something happened that caused him to stop dead in his tracks.

A bright flash of light caused him to pull back on his board, as the light formed some kind of portal in the middle of the street. Flash frowned, knowing this could either be someone coming to attack, or someone coming to ask for help. He waited and as he did, someone stepped out of the portal.

Whoever they were, they were female. She wore form-fitting dark clothing, with a hood and mask covering her head and face. Only her eyes were visible, the woman stepping out of the light before touching a device on her belt that caused the light to fade away.

Flash tilted his head, "can I help you?"

"Flash Sentry," the woman spoke with a serious expression in her eyes. "You're coming with me." That sent up some red flags, Flash jumping off his board and putting it in his backpack as he held up the Omnitrix.

"Who are you? What do you want?"

"No time," she marched forward. "You're coming with me and I won't accept no for an answer."

"Yeah," Flash activated the Omnitrix, "I don't think so!" He slapped down the dial and in a flash, he transformed into his fastest alien. "XLR8!"

"No!" The woman cried, "don't waste your transformation time like that. I need it."

"Sure you do," XLR8 closed his visor. "But you're right about not wasting time. I gotta kick your butt and get to school." With that, he shot forward at high speed. The woman gasped and leapt to the side, barely managing to avoid getting punched by XLR8's claws.

The alien speedster quickly stopped and shot back towards her, as the woman jumped around showing incredible acrobatic skills. But even so, they weren't enough to keep from being hit for long. "Augh!" She was knocked backwards when XLR8 slammed his tail into her, causing her to fall to the ground. As she did, the device on her belt hit the ground and sparked without her knowledge.

She growled and rolled back to her feet, as XLR8 ran forward again. But as he got close, she leapt straight up and into the air. She did several flips as XLR8 came to a stop, eventually falling and landing on his back. "HEY!" He cried, spinning around, "get off!" But the woman held him tight and refused to let go.

"Not until you stop and listen to me."

"You're the one who didn't wanna talk," XLR8 replied. He managed to slam his elbow into her gut and hit the belt, causing it to spark and power up. The device unleashed a bright light that suddenly surrounded the pair, blinding them both. Even XLR8's visor couldn't block out the light.

They both felt dizzy, like the world around them was spinning. But eventually, the light began to fade.

As soon as it did, XLR8 reached back and managed to grab the hooded figure. He then swung around and managed to pull them off of him, throwing them a good ten feet away. The figure hit the ground with a oof, flinching in pain as she did.

Deciding to take the battle away from the suburbs, he shot off down the street. "Wait!" The figure cried, picking themselves up. "Damn it! Don't have time for-" She stopped when she heard a sparking and looked down, shocked to see the belt around her waist was sparking. "No, no, no, no!" She tried to stop it, but the device let out a puff of smoke and she realised she wasn't going to be able to use it. "No. I can't believe I failed." She then looked up and as she did, she realised where she was. Or...when she was. "Oh no."

XLR8 zoomed out of the suburbs and headed towards the city. But as he did, he was quickly shocked to see something...different.

He wasn't in Canterlot anymore. Or at least, the Canterlot that he knew. The whole place had been totally teched out. The buildings all looked like something out of a sci-fi movie and the roads were completely clear of traffic, due to the fact that all the vehicles were flying through the air. But that wasn't the most insane thing.

The city was full of aliens. Whilst there were still more humans then anything, for every three humans there was at least one alien. And it wasn't just one type. There were big ones, small ones, some with multiple legs, or no legs at all. And they were all just walking around, like it wasn't completely insane. The other humans didn't seem surprised to see them either, many even chatting with said aliens.

"What the heck?" XLR8 asked, as he came to a stop on one of the streets. "What is going on here?" At that moment, a young teen girl on a hoverboard flew past and spotted him.

"Hey Flash." He looked up at her and was surprised to see her blow a kiss at him, making the alien speedster blush. She then flew off and as she did, two alien teens flew past using rocket boots.

"Hey, Sentry. Keep up the great work." XLR8 was still confused and slowly rolled through the street, eventually turning another corner. And as he did, he saw something that made his eyes go wide.

"Wow!" In front of him was a giant statue, almost fifteen meters tall. And that statue was of a person that he couldn't see the face of, thanks to where the sun was. But at the statue's bottom was a large stand, with words written upon it.

Flash Sentry
Hero of 10,000 Alien Forms

"Ten thousand?" XLR8 looked up, "what is going on here?" But before he could get any answers, the statue's base suddenly exploded. "WOW!" He barely managed to avoid getting crushed by a piece of the base, whilst his statue began to crumble apart. "Now what's happening?"

"SENTRY!" He spun around and saw someone standing atop the stone pile. That someone was a larger red alien, standing at about twelve feet in height, with four super muscly arms and four eyes on his head. He was dressed in gladiator armor and his left foot had been replaced with a high tech prosthetic. "I've been looking for you, Sentry."

XLR8 tilted his head, "have we met?"

"Don't play dumb!" The alien reached back and pulled a quartet of battle axes. "It's time I make you pay for sending me to the Null Void. I lost my leg in that hellhole." He got ready to charge and though still confused, XLR8 also prepared to attack.

"Bring it!" He shot forward, "I'll take you down in ten seconds-" Before he could finish, the Omnitrix beeped and he was suddenly transformed back to his human form. "GYAH!" He flew through the air until he crashed into the alien's chest, bouncing off it and landing on the ground.

He groaned as he picked himself up, as the alien looked down at him in confusion. "What the heck?" He asked, "you're not Sentry." Flash gave him a confused look, as the alien shrugged. "Whatever. I'll take you down anyway!" He raised his axes, ready to split Flash into four pieces.

Flash tried to scurry back, but the alien would just have to throw the axes and he would be dead.

But before he could do that, something shot past Flash at high speed. He cried at the intense burst of wind, as whatever flew past him slammed into the four armed alien and knocked it flying backwards.

He roared as he was flew through the air, only for whatever hit him to speed behind him and punch him again. This went on for several seconds, a black and white tornado spinning around the alien and causing him to bounce around inside of it.

Eventually, whatever it was slammed him straight up into the air and leapt up after him. The next thing the alien knew, a long tail slammed into his head and sent him rocketing back to earth. He smashed into the ground, hard enough to shake the street, as the one responsible landed and finally stood still long enough for Flash to see what it was.

"XLR8?" It was his alien speedster, though it wasn't exactly like Flash remembered. Its lower arms and legs were no longer bare, now covered entirely by the black and white suit. It was also taller and the stripes on its tail were now white instead of blue. The Omnitrix was still in the same place and as it turned towards Flash, his visor turned red.

"Not a shapeshifter," the alien stated. "Human DNA. My DNA. A clone?"

"Clone?" Flash asked, "I'm no clone." As he moved, XLR8 saw the Omnitrix on his arm.

"Even comes with a fake Omnitrix. Not good. Better take you out before you can cause any trouble." Flash gasped as the alien looked ready to attack. But before he could...

"Uncle Flash, WAIT!" They both looked around and saw the woman Flash had fought before, now riding a hoverboard just like his.

"Flurry Heart?" XLR8 asked, as she flew down and landed in front of Flash. "Out of the way!"

"Just hold on," she told him. As she did, Flash realised what his alien alter ego had just said. He looked at the girl, as she removed her hood and mask. Doing so revealed a young woman of twenty or so, with whitish-pink skin and long hair that was a mix of pink, blue and purple. She really was an older form of Flurry Heart. "He's not a clone. He's you."

XLR8 stared at her, then gave Flash another look before turning to focus on her. "Flurry, what did you do?"

The woman named Flurry blushed, as she pointed at the belt she was wearing. "I...might have borrowed my aunt's temporal-phase oscillator prototype. I used it to go back in time and...met your younger self!"

The two stared at her in amazement, only for XLR8 to growl. "How could you be so stupid?"

"I'm sorry Uncle Flash," she frowned.

"Don't call me that," he stated. "Now send him back right now!"

"I can't!" Flurry told him. "The oscillator got damaged. Seems your younger self is just as stubborn as the current you. I'm gonna need to get Aunt Twilight to fix it before I can send him back." She sighed, "that's a conversation I'm not looking forward to."

XLR8 sighed as he turned to his younger self, the teen staring at him in amazement. "So you're...me? From the future?" He looked himself over and smirked, "I am AWESOME!" The alien turned back to Flurry Heart.

"I'm guessing he's from before that day?"

Flurry sighed, "he's from that day. Right before...you know." XLR8 nodded, clearly understanding something Flash didn't. But at that moment, Flash didn't really care.

"So," he moved closer to XLR8. "When can you catch me up on my other nine thousand nine hundred and something heroes?" XLR8 hummed as he rubbed his chin.

"How about...never!" Flash flinched at this, XLR8 turning back to Flurry. "Get that thing fixed and get him home. I have to get back on patrol." Flash tried to get him to stop, but XLR8 shot off before he could. The dust cloud he whipped up made Flash cough, as Flurry sighed.

"Same old Flash," she stated before taking out her hoverboard. Jumping on it, she flew up into the air before looking down at Flash. "You coming?"

Flash frowned before taking out his own Hoverboard and leaping on it as well, the pair flying high above the city as they looked around. "So this is Canterlot?" Flash asked, looking around and seeing a few landmarks. But other then that, the place looked completely different. "How far into the future are we?"

"It's twenty years to the day that you come from," Flurry stated.

"Seriously?" Flash could hardly believe it. "All this happened in twenty years? How?"

"After the Plumbers were re-established on Earth, the planet became a hotspot for aliens to come and visit. Humans started advancing, creating new technology that started putting us on the level of most other alien species. Eventually, a lot of aliens started coming to Earth to live. Now, there are over three hundred different species that call this place home."

"Sounds kind of crowded," Flash pointed out. "How can the planet hold so many?"

Flurry laughed, "it can't. But humans don't just live on Earth anymore. We started colonising other planets in the solar system and have moved to other worlds outside of it, mostly planets similar to earth that have inhabitants that also live here."

"Wow," Flash whispered, "so awesome." He continued to look around and saw so many things that seemed like only a fantasy in his time. Other then the flying cars and hoverboards, bikes and scooters, there were large holograms advertising all kinds of stuff. There was even one for discounted moon vacations.

He looked down at the street and saw humans and aliens walking around like everything was normal, with one human throwing a piece of trash away only to miss the can. But they didn't give it a second look, as a moment later the trashcan grew a pair of arms and picked it up itself.

They flew past a news stand, but the triceratops alien running it was handing out a bunch of weird metal sticks. Flash watched as someone who bought one, pressed a button and a holographic screen appeared to show the headlines. Someone else finished reading theirs and placed it in a recycling bin, which self-sorted the plastics from the metals.

"Man," Flash took a deep breath, "even the air smells fresher."

"Yeah," Flurry nodded, "new technology that creates a clean source of fuel and electricity. Pollution's really gone down since then."

"This place is amazing!" Flash smirked, "glad I'm gonna live long enough to see all of this develop." Flurry frowned, clearly thinking the place wasn't as great as he thought it was. Then, suddenly, a loud explosion caught Flash's attention.

He looked around and sure enough, a giant cloud of smoke appeared.

"Not good!"

"Flash!" Flurry called out, "don't get involved."

"There could be people in trouble," Flash answered back. "I can't just sit here and do nothing!" He swung the board around and shot off towards it, Flurry groaning before following him. The pair headed towards the smoke cloud and as it appeared, they saw the smoke was coming out of a large building on the ground floor.

People were running away from it, towards a nearby bridge to hide beneath it.

Flash flew towards the building and arrived at the large hole, jumping off his board and looking inside. "Anybody in there?" He got his answer when something was thrown at him. "WOW!" He leapt back and a large metal support beam almost crushed him, Flash rolling backwards until he was a safe distance. "Whoever's in there, come out so I can whoop your butt."

"Oh," a familiar voice called out, "the only butt being whooped today will be yours." Something heavy moved towards the hole, Flash hearing the scuttle of many legs as it got close. Then, it stepped out of the hole and revealed a giant monster that looked like something out of a horror movie.

The largest part of its body looked like a giant scorpion, which had the basic legs and claws of the creature. But where the head of the scorpion should be, a large hairy body like that of a bear was sticking out of it instead. This gave the creature the appearance of a centaur, the bear body having a pair of bear arms but its head wasn't bear-like at all. Instead, a large glass tank could be seen on the bear's neck that had several wires sticking out of it and going into the bear's body. Inside that tank was a human head, one that Flash recognised.

"Animac," he growled at the sight of the mad scientist.

"The one and only," the man inside the jar smirked, as the water holding his head sloshed around. His left eye was covered by a robotic fake that zoomed in on him, taking a closer look at him. "Sentry? Well well, don't you look young and naive. Find an alien to make you look younger than you really are." His claws snapped as he stepped forward, his tail revealed to be a large cobra. "Guess even freaks can feel insecure about their age."

"Freak?" Flash asked, "would you please look in a mirror." He activated the Omnitrix, "Riot-Horn should knock some sense into that pickle you call a head." He slammed the dial down and in a flash of light, he transformed. But not into the alien he wanted. "What?" He saw he was now The Worst, the yellow alien snapping his eyelids. "Oh man! Can't this thing work better in the future?"

Animac looked confused, but smiled as he raised his cobra tail. "I don't know what game you're playing, but you'll regret messing with me!" With that, the cobra spat a green liquid towards him.

The Worst gasped and leapt back, the liquid hitting the ground and instantly causing it to melt. He quickly realised he couldn't risk that stuff hitting him and as the snake spat out more, he started jumping around all over the place.

Animac laughed watching this, as The Worst did his best to keep from being burnt alive. And as he did, he was unaware of Animac's scorpion pincers swinging around until it smashed him in the face. "GYAH!" He was sent flying and smashed into the building across the street, becoming flat against the building's wall before falling to the ground. "Ow."

Animac laughed some more and prepared to fire his acid again, only for something to shoot past him.

Flurry began flying around on her hoverboard and distracted the monster scientist, who tried to knock her out of the sky with his claws, pincers and tail. This allowed The Worst to recover and stand up, quickly hitting the Omnitrix to transform.

"Firefly!" The flame insect spread his wings and took to the air, as Animac finally managed to hit Flurry's body and send her flying out of control. Firefly shot up and grabbed her, launching a blast of flame at Animac as he did so. But whatever his new body was made out of, it appeared fireproof.

He flew down, dropping Flurry off before flying back at Animac. But as he did, Animac positioned himself over to where some of the rubble from the building had fallen.

He quickly grabbed it in his pincers and threw the rocks at the people hiding under the bridge, making Firefly stop and launch thread lines towards the rocks. The threads hit them and Firefly was able to stop them with his jets, the rocks falling to the ground as Animac fired his cobra acid at him.

But Firefly spun around and shot flames at the slime, destroying it before it could get close. He then spat silk at Animac and hit his jar, blocking him from seeing. "Gotcha!" He cheered, flying down and preparing to burn the jar. But as he got close, the glass of the jar spun around and Animac could see again.

This allowed him to raise his pincer and open it up, as something inside it shot out.

"WOW!" Firefly tried to burn whatever it was, but it turned out to be fireproof and the projectile opened up to reveal a net. "AUGH!" Firefly quickly found himself wrapped up in the netting and knocked towards the ground, slamming into it as the whole thing started glowing. As it did, Firefly found himself pinned by what felt like a halftone. "What the heck?"

"My Gravi-net, should keep you from causing me too much trouble." Animac chuckled, as he walked towards him.

Firefly hated to admit it, but the lunatic might have been right. The net was so heavy, he couldn't lift his arms to hit the Omnitrix. This made him a sitting duck for Animac, who was getting close and looked ready to melt him.

"Flash!" Flurry screamed, fearing the worst. But before Animac could strike, something super fast shot past them. In the blink of an eye, Animac was suddenly thrown a good ten meets backwards as he let out a pained scream.

He slammed into the ground, as the thing that hit him came to a stop.

XLR8 stared at Animac, then turned to Firefly who gave him an awkward smile. The alien speedster sighed, as Animac picked himself up and saw the two Omnitrix heroes. "Two of you? My worst nightmare."

"You're gonna wish this was a dream when I get out of this net!" Firefly cried, turning to his future self. "Help me out of here!"

"I think it's safer to leave you under there," XLR8 replied. "Keeps you out of the way." In a flash of light, he transformed into Riot-Horn. This version of Riot-Horn was larger then the one Flash knew, his armor looking in better quality and the spikes and horns on his head were longer.

Riot-Horn rushed forward, Animac charging as well. The madman spat acid from his tail, but Riot-Horn slapped his hands together and unleashed a shockwave, that knocked it flying back and hit Animac's pincer. "AUGH!" He cried, feeling the acid burn through his armor.

This sent him off guard, allowing Riot-Horn to get in close and start throwing punches into him. He cried out as he was constantly pummelled and eventually, he started fighting back as he tried to crush Riot-Horn under his pincers. But before he could, Riot-Horn transformed again and Animac found himself crushing Goop instead.

The alien slime looked just like the one Flash knew, the UFO flying above it and causing the slime to move out from under Animac. Goop then started sliding around the chimera body, Animac crying out in disgust as he was was drenched. "Get off me!" Goop did so and slid back to the ground, sliding along the road until he was a good ten feet away.

Once he was, he transformed again and this time turned into Volt-Edge. The alien reptile was slightly taller then Flash's version, his spikes and horns longer as well.

Lightning surged around his body and he unleashed the electrical energy into the slime on the ground, which conducted it until it hit Animac and made him scream out in pain. Firefly watched this and was amazed, whilst Flurry rushed over to try and help him out of the net.

"Hold on," she told him. "I'll get you out of there and you can help him."

"Why bother? He's got this totally under control." As he said that, his future self transformed again.

This time, he was a five foot tall humanoid cat person, with electric blue fur and a white face. He was wearing a black and white jumpsuit that was sleeveless, whilst the Omnitrix symbol was on his stomach. But the most noticeable thing about him, was his six foot long blue and white tail that appeared to be like a tube, with a large hole in the centre of it.

The alien leapt over to some of the rubble, his long tail moving to the ground.

The rocks were pulled into the tail and as Animac pushed himself up, he point it at the man before the tail constricted and sent the rocks flying out the end at high speed.

Animac found himself getting pelted with them, crying out but quickly powering through them. He charged at the cat alien and tried to crush him between his pincers. But the cat proved quite nimble and leapt up, landing on the pincer and running up his arm before swinging his tail at him.

It hit his chest and he staggered back, whilst his cobra tail launched a large amount of acid into the air. Everyone gasped as the acid flew everywhere, including towards Firefly, Flurry and the people under the bridge.

The alien hero saw this and ran towards them, a green flash revealing another transformation.

This alien was a four foot humanoid rabbit creature, whose fur was white and its ears were about three foot long, though they bent downwards halfway up. Its body was covered in a bunch of crystals, having one on its head, chest, each of its shoulder, back of the wrist, knees and on the tip of its long horse-like tail. Each gem was glowing a mixture of seven colours, red, blue, yellow, green, orange, indigo and violet, whilst the Omnitrix was on its stomach.

The gems on the alien glowed before six of the seven colours flew out of them. When the lights hit the ground, they took shape and faded to reveal six perfect clones of the alien. The only difference between the seven were the colours of the crystals, the original's now being red whilst the others were the remaining colour.

The red gemmed alien ran over to Firefly and Flurry, whilst the others rushed over to the rest of the civilians.

When they were all in place, the gems on their bodies glowed before unleashing a light. That light spread around them and the people they were protecting, forming a force field around them.

The acid hit the force fields and slid off of them, the aliens getting those who were inside the shields to escape whilst the red one stared Animac down. "Hey, cool." He turned to Firefly, who was looking him over. "What do you call this alien? Crystal Copy? Gemini?"

"They're not pets," the alien replied in a soft yet stern voice. "I don't name them anymore." He dropped the shield and rushed forward, as Firefly frowned.

"But that was half the fun!" Firefly watched as the alien ran towards Animac, the freak raising an pincer and swinging it downwards.

The rabbit alien raised his hands and the force field formed again. But when the pincer hit it, the energy shattered and the hero had to leap back. As a rabbit, he could jump pretty high and landed several feet away.

As he did, the blue and orange copies got their civilians to safety and dropped the shield. As they did, their bodies burst into their respective colours and flew through the air. They quickly returned to the original, their colours mixing with the red light as Animac tried to crush him again.

The rabbit formed another force field, this one being a mix of the three colours. And when the pincer hit it, it just bounced off without doing anything. Animac growled at this and kept pounding away, but didn't even scratch the now stronger force field.

This allowed the other four rabbit aliens, to get their civilians to safety. And once they were away from the battle, they burst into light that shot back to the original. Phasing through the shield, the light returned to the gems and the shield gained more colours and grew stronger.

As Animac slammed the pincer into the shield once again, the alien caused the dome around him to expand and slam right into the freak. This knocked him staggering backwards and as he did, the alien rabbit leapt into the air. As he did, he transformed into a more mature looking Squidstrictor and used his tentacles to stretch up into the air.

Once he reached full stretch, he shot down towards Animac and transformed.

The next thing the mad scientist knew, he was body slammed by something spinning and the impact caused the entire street the shake, as dust flew everywhere.

Flurry and Firefly coughed at the cloud, which quickly faded to reveal Lindwhirl as the alien rolled off of the unconscious Animac. Like his other aliens, this Lindwhirl was larger then Flash's and its claws, fangs and spikes were longer.

He rolled over to Firefly and used his claws to pull the net off of him, allowing his younger self to breathe. It was a good thing he did since a moment later, the Omnitrix beeped and he reverted back to his much weaker human form.

At the same time, a large flying tank appeared in the air and flew towards them. It had the Plumber Logo on it and when it was above them, it floated down and landed before the sides opened up to reveal a pair of alien plumbers as they stepped out of it.

Lindwhirl transformed into XLR8, as the plumbers rushed over to see what was going on. "We got an alert that a battle was occurring," one of them stated. "Is he the perpetrator?"

"Relax," XLR8 told them. "I already took care of him."

The plumbers frowned. "This is a pretty big planet, Sentry. You could always leave some of the bad guys for us."

"What would be the point," XLR8 answered. "I can take care of things faster and with no casualties. I don't know what you're complaining about. I'm doing all the hard work and you get to do the easy part. Make sure Animac is locked up someplace he can't get out of." Before the plumber could answer, XLR8 zipped over to Flash and Flurry.

He grabbed them and shot off, disappearing in a burst of wind. The plumbers frowned and turned to Animac, who was half-buried by the broken ground around him.

Flash and Flurry were in XLR8's arms, as he flew through the city at almost light speed. "So Animac's been around all these years?" Flash asked, as they zigzagged between the streets.

"He escaped a few years back," XLR8 replied. "Went underground with an occasional sighting now and then. I wasn't sure if he was gonna show his ugly face again. But it looks like he's not gonna be a problem anymore." Flash nodded, wondering what his future held.

"What about the rest of the big bads we've faced?" He asked his future self, "like Vilgax?" After the last time he had faced the squid, he was curious if he would ever see him again.

"Last I saw of him, I left him in pieces. It wasn't pretty for anyone, enough said."

Flash gulped, "geez. I need to really lighten up. So other then being Earth's number one hero, what else is going on in my life?"

"Nothing," XLR8 replied. "I'm always patrolling the planet, making sure it's safe. That doesn't leave much time for anything else." Flash could hardly believe he was hearing this.

"Seriously? So you don't hang out with Twilight and the others?"

"No time. I see Twilight whenever she's upgrading the plumber security or stuff like that. But most of the time, we don't talk." Flurry frowned at this, seeing Flash shocked.

"And the others?" Flash asked, "what are they all doing?" XLR8 didn't answer, Flash having a feeling he wouldn't like the reply.

"Sunset and Trixie went back to their own world," Flurry finally spoke up. "You tracked down Devious and took him down before he could counter, taking his Medallions. Without them, he couldn't stop Trixie from collecting the rest and returning to her world. She's queen now."

"Wow," Flash smirked. "Let me guess. Rainbow's a big league soccer star? Rarity's probably got a hundred dress shops now. Applejack's working on the farm and Pinkie's probably a party planner. Fluttershy...not sure. Vet, maybe?"

Flurry sighed, "not exactly." Flash wondered what she meant by that. But before she could answer, they ran into a large building and up some stairs before arriving in a dark room.

XLR8 finally stopped and put the pair down, Flash looking around and seeing that they were in some kind of lab. "Where are we?" But XLR8 ran off without answering, making Flash frown as Flurry looked a little worried.

"Welcome to Aunt Twilight's lab." Flash's eyes went wide and as he looked around, seeing various pieces of equipment he had no idea the use off, he found a large wall covered in pictures. Many of them were of Twilight's family, along with several of her friends.

Flash found one picture showing Twilight in a graduation gown and hat, holding a diploma whilst Cadance, a younger Flurry and Twilight's parents stood around her. He then saw a picture that was of an event that only happened a month ago, from his perspective, of him and all his friends at the party celebrating his defeat of Tirek.

Flash smiled at the picture, but then realised that there weren't any more pictures containing him or his friends after this event. The wall was bare of anything that happened after the time Flash had come from.

"Happier times," Flurry sighed as she saw him looking at the celebration photo.

"You said things didn't turn out exactly like I thought," Flash replied. "What do you mean?" Flurry moved over and took the picture, staring at it and appearing pained by the memories.

"Rainbow was set to go pro after college, but then she took a serious injury during training that put her out for the season. Even after she made a full recovery, she couldn't seem to get back to her previous skill. She had to give up on going pro and got a job as a High School Gym Coach."

"Seriously?" Flash couldn't believe such a thing could happen.

Flurry nodded. "Rarity's career didn't go as planned either. She tried, but a rival designer somehow stole the designs for her first big collection and played them off as hers. Rarity tried to prove they were hers, but she didn't have any proof. And when she tried to create an entire new collection, she didn't have time and it ruined her reputation. She was blacklisted from the fashion world and had to settle with opening a small textiles shop."

Flash was horrified by this. "What about the others? Applejack's family farm-"

"Burned down," Flurry told him. "Lightning storm destroyed their orchard and they couldn't afford to rebuild. Had to sell the land. The only job she managed to get afterwards was in an apple-can factory. She's actually gotten really successful and works as a manager there...but-"

"That's not who Applejack is," Flash frowned. "She's a farmer. She's supposed to work the land. Not in an office." Flurry nodded, "Pinkie and Fluttershy?"

"Pinkie runs a bakery in town. But I'm not sure if she's still a party planner. And Fluttershy runs an animal sanctuary outside the city. She tried to be a vet, but the long hours, angry clients and number of times she had to put an animal down was too much for her. She had a bit of a mental breakdown and became a recluse."

"This isn't right!" Flash cried, "this isn't the future we're supposed to have. All those bad things that happened to them. How could I let this happen? I wouldn't have let Rainbow give up on her dream. I wouldn't have let anyone give up on their dreams. Why did I let this get so bad?"

"You heard yourself," Flurry told him. "You're always protecting the planet."

"That's no excuse!" Flash cried, "my friends are the most important people in my life. I wouldn't just abandon them to keep saving the day. Shining Armor wouldn't let me." As he said that, Flurry flinched. "What?"

"Flurry?" The pair spun around and saw someone in the shadow of a doorway, stepping into the room and revealing themselves.

Flash's eyes went wide as he realised who it was. "Twilight?" Despite almost being forty, Twilight Sparkle looked good. She was taller than the Twilight he knew, her hair being up in a bun, wearing a blue shirt and black pants under a white lab coat. Her face was roughly the same, though the bags under her eyes made him think she wasn't getting enough sleep.

Twilight moved forward and stared at Flash, clearly confused. "Flash?" She looked him over, "what happened to you? Did you face a chronosapien or something?"

"Not exactly," Flash turned to Flurry and Twilight did the same. She instantly noticed the belt around her waist and put the pieces together, looking back and forth between her and Flash.

"FLURRY!" She screamed with her flinching, "what did you do?"

Flurry looked down in shame. "I...kind of borrowed your temporal-phase oscillator." Anger became apparent on Twilight's face, rushing over to take the belt off of her.

"I can't believe you! This device wasn't designed for you to go gallivanting around the space time continuum. It was made for historical learning."

"Historical learning?" Flash asked, Twilight sighing.

"A historian could use it to go back in time and actually watch a historic event. The belt would then phase them out of sync so that they couldn't interact with that time and change history." She shot Flurry a glare as she said that last part, Flurry flinching again. "What were you thinking?" She glanced back at Flash, curious. "When is he from? From the look on his face, he's from before that day, isn't he?"

Flash frowned, remembering his future self asking the same question. Flurry sighed, "he's from that day." Twilight's eyes went wide, as if realising something.

"Flurry, you weren't trying to..." All the anger left her face, "oh Flurry."

"I thought maybe I could change things," Flurry told her. "Make everything better." Twilight moved over to her and pulled the girl into a hug, leaving a very confused Flash. "I'm sorry. This wasn't supposed to happen. And I can't send him back because the oscillator got damaged."

"I see," Twilight pulled away and started looking over the device. "The damage isn't too great. Should be easy enough to fix and we can get him back to his time."

"No way!" They looked around and saw Flash glaring at them. "I don't know what this is all about, but clearly something bad is going to happen given how you guys were talking about that day. I'm not letting you send me back until you tell me what's going to happen."

"We can't," Twilight frowned. "You can't learn what's going to happen. It could change the future in who knows how many ways."

"Doesn't sound so bad given what I've heard about the future." Flash looked ready to activate the Omnitrix, "tell me the truth or I'll XLR8 to some random place in the city and I won't let you find me." The girls frowned at him, clearly upset he was making such a threat. But eventually, Twilight sighed.

"Fine." She turned to Flurry, "it might be easier to show him then tell him. Are you up for it?"

Flurry nodded, "fix the belt. I'll show him." Twilight nodded and began to get to work, whilst Flurry lead Flash out of the lab.

Back at the battle site, the plumbers had finally finished digging Animac out of the ground.

But as they did, Animac's eyes shot open before his jar unleashed a bunch of strange pink gas into the air. The plumber's saw this and tried to activate their suit's inbuilt gas masks, but they weren't fast enough. As such, they started coughing and hacking before they fell to the ground.

They moaned as they lost consciousness, Animac laughing before he picked himself up and moved back over to the hole he had made in the building.

Searching through the rubble, he found what he was looking for and smiled before activating a control inside his jar. As he did, his entire body was consumed by light before disappearing in a flash. And when the light flew off of him, he was in a completely different place.

It was a dark warehouse, full of strange pieces of equipment. He moved over to a wall, where a humanoid metal body was located. Once he was next to it, metal arms folded down from the ceiling and attached themselves this his arms, claws and tail. More then grabbed his jar and spun it like a bottle cap, causing it to eventually come off along with the wires and tubes.

The chimeric body went limp when they were and Animac was quickly moved over to the metal body, being screwed into place with the wires attached to the body.

He sighed once the robot body powered up, allowing him to move around much easier than in the chimeric body. He took what he had stolen from his other body and moved over to one of these devices, which was some kind of glass tube filled with a strange black liquid.

He then attached the stolen goods to the device, activating it before moving over to a draw and taking out a syringe full of blue gel. He took that gel over to the device and injected it into a tube that was feeding the black liquid into the chamber, mixing the blue and black substances that now began to fill the chamber.

"It won't be long now," Animac chuckled. "Not long at all."

Flurry had taken Flash over to the one part of the city that didn't look like something out of a sci-fi movie. A cemetery. They flew down to the entrance and got off their boards, heading inside and making their way through the valley of tombstones.

Flash had never liked graveyards. They had always freaked him out, knowing their were a bunch of dead bodies surrounding him. But he had a feeling he would like graveyards even less after Flurry showed him whatever he was fear to see, though he had a sickening feeling in his stomach that he knew what it was.

They eventually arrived at an area of the cemetery and Flurry stopped, Flash doing the same before she pointed at a grave.

Flash looked at her, but she clearly wasn't going anywhere near it. So, he stepped forward and made his way towards the stone himself. And as he got closer, he noticed the stone had an emblem on it. An emblem Flash recognised, which filled him with dread.

And sure enough, he finally got close enough to read the words and was horrified. "No," he fell to his knees, "it can't be." He read the words again and his heart sank.

Here Lies Shining Armor
Devoted Husband. Beloved Father and Son. Outstanding Police Officer and Plumber

"Shining," Flash whispered as he looked down at the date of his death. And when he did, his eyes went wide. The date was...today. Or, the day that Flash had been in before Flurry had appeared and pulled him into the future.

He continued to stare at the tombstone, hardly able to believe what was going on. How could Shining die on such a normal day? Had there been an attack by aliens, or had some kind of Equestrian Magic gotten out of control and been too much for him to stop?

"How?" Flash asked, "how could this happen?"

"Flash?" His head shot up and he spun around, Flurry also looking around and seeing someone walking towards them.

"Mom," Flurry stated, as Flash stood up and was able to take a closer look at the person. As he did, he realised it was Cadance. The woman still looked as beautiful as he knew her in his time, though she had a few gray hairs and wore glasses over her face.

She was dressed in black and carrying a bunch of flowers in her hands, the woman stepping forward and noticing Flash's youthful looks. "Flash, what happened to you?" Flash frowned and turned to Flurry, who looked down in shame. Cadance stared at her daughter and sighed. "What did you do?"

"I thought I could change things," Flurry told her. "I thought if I went back, I could help Flash before it happened." Tears appeared in her eyes, "I just...wanted to save him." Cadance sighed, not knowing what her daughter had done but clearly figuring out most of it.

She moved over to pull her into a hug, Flurry hugging her back. They were like this for a minute or so, Cadance then pulling back before moving over to the gravestone. She knelt next to Flash and removed some old flowers from a metal vase, replacing them with the new flowers she had brought.

As she did, Flash stared at the stone. "How?" He asked, "I don't understand? Who did this?"

"Nobody," Cadance told him. Despite it being so long since that time, Flash could tell she still felt pain at thinking about it. "It wasn't an evil alien or psychotic criminal that...took him. It was Shining, being who he was. A hero."

Flash didn't understand. What happened?

"If I hadn't stopped you when I did," Flurry explained. "You would have gone through the city and seen smoke." Flash turned to her. "You follow it to a burning building, and arrive at the same time my dad did. You both head in to start saving people, and manage to get most of them out. But my dad went in to get the last person trapped, but he never came back out."

"No," Flash whispered, "I...I could have saved him."

"Not that time," Cadance replied. "My husband died and you were there when he did." Flash could hardly believe he was hearing this. "You're wondering how you let it happen?" Flash nodded. "To use your own words, you just weren't good enough."

Animac continued to work on his little project, as one of the computers began to beep.

He quickly rushed over to it and smiled when he red the reports, nodding at the success. "Finally," he cheered before returning to the tube. "Time to wake up." He pulled a leaver and sent a surge of energy into the device, causing the liquid inside the bubble as a figure thrashed around.

Animac laughed as he watched this, knowing the process was working. And sure enough, a heartbeat and brain function was occurring.

"YES!" He cried, moving over to the computer. "Back up memory is being accepted." He watched as a bar appeared and began to fill, as the thrashing inside the device grew more and more wild. And when the bar hit one hundred percent, the device exploded and sent smoke flying everywhere along with the liquid.

Animac had to hide behind some other devices to keep from getting drenched, the smoke filling the warehouse before eventually fading. And when it did, the sound of heavy breathing filled the air.

Animac looked over the computer and saw the creature he had brought to live standing in the remains of the machine, a smile on his face. "Mr Vilgax. Welcome back." The figure's eyes narrowed, focused on only one thing. Revenge.

Author's Note

And here we go. The fourth season begins with Flash being sent to the Future. But the Future isn't what he expected it to be. Tell me what you think of the situation and the new aliens I showed off.

Season 4, Episode 15: The Ultimate Opponent PT2

Canterlot City was in a state of utter chaos. Dark clouds had formed above the city, threatening to unleash a downpour on the city. It was as if the universe was giving the city the correct ambience, to frame the situation it was in.

Flash Sentry, Canterlot's greatest hero and protector, had been utterly defeated by his evil twin and a group of villains, calling themselves the Negative Ten.

Not only was Shadow now equipped with an upgraded version of the Omnitrix, but he had stormed and taken Canterlot's Plumber base whilst capturing several of Flash's friends. Flash, Shining, Trixie and Azmuth had barely managed to get out of there before the villains could capture them, but it had meant leaving Twilight and the rest of their friends behind.

Now, Flash was in his room laying atop his bed.

He was resting, having returned home after Azmuth teleported them to his ship. They had tried teleporting the rest of their friends once on board, but the security system had come back online and erected a barrier around the base before they could. Now their friends were trapped and there was nothing Flash could do to save them.

With no way to get to them through the barrier, they had no choice but to wait and come up with a plan. At the same time, they had to rest up and recover from the injuries they had received in the fight.

Flash couldn't help but just lay there, letting the sting of his defeat overwhelm him.

Then, he heard a knock on the door. "Flash," Shining spoke up, "Azmuth's got the feed working. Come on." Flash sighed and picked himself up off his bed, as the rain was beginning to slowly drop down from the sky.

He headed downstairs with Shining and found Trixie, Azmuth, his parents, Cadance and even Flurry in the living room.

Azmuth was typing away at a computer. "The camera I planted doesn't' appear to have been found. Given its size, I'm not surprised. Getting a connection to it through the base's barrier was tricky, but I think I'm just about got it."

"I hope so," Trixie frowned. "Not knowing what those guys are doing in our base is just wrong." The others nodded, also hoping to figure out where Twilight and the others were. Hopefully, they were still alive.

They watched as the screen slowly came into focus, showing Shadow, Viral, Negatine and Animac in the main computer room.

The four villains were hard at work, trying to fix up the main computer after it had been heavily damaged during the battle.

Shadow was doing the brunt of the repair work, but the other three had enough electronics knowledge to help fix it up. "That should do it," Shadow smirked as he closed one of the panels. "Good thing the Plumbers had the parts needed to fix it. We'll need this computer to pull off the next stage of the plan."

"And what exactly is that next stage?" Animac asked. "We've conquered the Plumber's headquarters. I think that's long enough being in the dark." Shadow frowned at him.

"Us knowing would be beneficial," Negatine pointed out. "If we know what you're planning, we'll know if anything happens that could jeopardise it."

Shadow sighed, "fine. This Plumber base has an extra powerful transmitter. It's how they're able to contact the Plumbers and other planets like the one Azmuth is from. We're going to use that transmitter to bring this world under our control." The other villains smiled as they each came up with an idea of what that meant.

"A mind control ray," Animac laughed. "Brilliant!"

"No," Shadow told him, "at least not yet. No, we're going to create an Electromagnetic Pulse Field Generator." That shocked them. "When it's completed, we'll use the transmitter to generate the field that'll cover the entire planet and knock out any piece of tech on earth."

"Excuse me," Viral held up a hand. "You do remember that I am partly mechanical, right?" Shadow nodded. "And most of us, including you, get our powers from technology."

"Yes, but we'll be fine. This base is shielded from EMPs. So long as we're in here, we'll be fine. And it's not like I intend to keep it on forever. We switch it on and send the planet back to the dark ages for...let's say an hour. Then we'll turn it off. Once all the computer systems switch back on, we'll send out a message to every country on the planet. Make us absolute rulers of the world, or we turn off everything permanently."

"You don't really intend to do that, right?" Animac frowned, not liking the idea of a world without technology.

"If they refuse, we'll leave the transmitter on for a day. If they still refuse, we'll leave it on for a week. Modern day humans won't be able to survive without technology for long. Eventually, they'll cave into our demands."

"And what about Sentry and his friends?" Negatine asked.

"What about him?" Shadow asked. "You saw what happened. He didn't stand a chance against me. If he's smart, he'll have Azmuth take him and his family to another planet. If he stays here, he'll become public enemy number one. And if he does find a way to overpower me, I'll just turn on the EMP and take out his Omnitrix. Then Devious and Chrysalis can deal with him." As he said that, his radio beeped and he answered it. "Yeah?"

"It's me," Dragstar announced. "We're at the warehouse and tagged everything you wanted us to tag."

"Good," Shadow smiled as he activated the newly repaired computer. "I'm putting down the barrier now. Preparing to transport."

"You sure that's a good idea?" Viral asked. "What if Sentry's waiting for us to lower the shield? He'll teleport his friends away."

"I doubt he is," Shadow smirked. "And even if he was, there's no way he can teleport them out of where they are right now."

In another part of the base, Twilight was laying inside one of the energy cells meant to hold criminals.

She was laid out on her bed, her body still aching due to the effects of the toxin used to subdue her before. She reached up and tried to grab her geode, but the magic rock wasn't there. It had been taken along with all the other geodes, making it so the girls couldn't escape.

"Interesting little rocks," Devious' voice stated from outside the cells. He was holding two of the geodes, the man clearly able to sense the magic within it. "The magic in them is quite potent. But for some reason, I can't seem to summon it myself."

"Those belong to us!" Sunset cried, the girl being in the cell next to Twilight. "They're linked to us, so only we can use them."

"I see," Devious stared at the geode. "Just like my Medallions. How interesting. Maybe I can take them from you the same way I did the other Medallions."

"Try it!" Rainbow cried from her cell, "I'll make you sorry you were ever born!" Devious smirked at this, as he put the geodes down in a metal box before stepping over to Rainbow.

"And how do you plan on doing that?" He asked before switching off the cell holding her.

As soon as he did, Rainbow tried to punch him. But she accidently put weight on her injured leg and flinched in pain, forcing her to lose balance as Devious grabbed her arm and thrust his knee into her gut. "AUGH!" She screamed before Devious threw her back into the cell and powered it back up.

"Face it," Devious turned away from her. "There's nothing you can do to stop us. You've lost. You might as well accept it."

"We'll never accept that," Rarity told him.

Applejack nodded. "We might be caught, but Flash and the others are still out there."

"They're gonna kick your butts!" Pinkie cried, only for her cell to suddenly deactivate. She staggered forward at this and suddenly, a green talon was on her shoulder and she screamed in pain.

"PINKIE!" All her friends rushed to the cell, as they saw Doddery draining the girl of her life force. Doing so refilled her own youth meter and Pinkie collapsed, Doddery throwing her back into the cell before reactivating it. "HOW DARE YOU!" Rarity screamed. "Why would you do that?"

"Why shouldn't I?" She asked. "It's your girls' fault I'm forced to use this method. If you hadn't stolen my youth from me, I would have never had to join up with Shadow to regain it."

"It wasn't your youth!" Sunset told her. "You stole it from Rarity!"

"Do I look like I care," she stated. "You girls have been nothing but trouble for me, so now I'm going to use you as my personal battery packs for as long as I need to. Behave yourselves and I won't be forced to take too much energy."

"What effect does that device have on the people you use it on?" Twilight asked. She feared Pinkie might have just had her life shortened, but Doddery just shrugged and began to head to the teleporter with Devious.

"Don't know, don't care. It makes me young and that's all that matters." The pair left, off to see what else they could do in this building. They left the girls alone, the seven all feeling hopeless as many returned to their beds and others just leaned against the wall.

"What do we do?" Fluttershy began to cry, as everyone else wondered the same thing.

"The only thing we can do," Twilight sighed. "Hope Flash and the others can find a way to save us."

Flash and everyone else continued to watch, as Shadow teleported more and more components into the base.

He slowly started putting the pieces together, the others helping by following his direction. "This isn't good," Azmuth frowned seeing the type of device they were building. "Shadow's right. That generator connected to the base's transmitter will be able to cover the entire planet in the EMP field."

"There has to be a way to stop it," Trixie frowned. But Azmuth clearly had no idea.

"We can't do it without actually being there. And to get to it, we would need to fight our way through those criminals." That didn't sit well with them, especially after the beating they had taken before.

"There has to be a way to beat them," Cadance asked. "Nobody is without a weakness."

"True," Azmuth nodded. "But the ten of them working together have so many different abilities, they can pretty much cover whatever weakness another member has. And with Shadow's Ultimatrix, they have even more ways to defeat us. If we want to stop them, we have to take the Ultimatrix out of the equation. But how we do that...I'm not so sure."

Misty turned to Flash, who was sitting at the back of the room. "Flash, what are you planning?" The teen looked up, a sombre expression clear on his face.

"Why are you asking me?"

"Because," Trail told him, "you always find a way to pull through."

"Not this time," Flash stood up. "I've got nothing. What the heck am I supposed to do now? I've lost my base, my friends and I don't stand a chance against Shadow."

"That's not true," Azmuth stated.

"Really?" Flash asked, "so how am I supposed to beat him? You saw what happened. I tried out-fighting him. I tried out-thinking him. That Ultimate Alien was just too strong. How am I supposed to face off against him when he can do anything I can do, but do it better!?"

"You could always go Way Big," Trixie suggested. "Do what you did to Vilgax and throw him into space!"

"And you know what Shadow could do in return. Change into Way Big and evolve it into...I don't know, an even bigger alien that might end up throwing me into space!" He rubbed his hands into his face. "I...I just can't...why do I have to be the one who needs to fix this?"

"Flash?" Misty gasped, "you wanted to be a hero."

"I know!" Flash almost yelled, "and I wish I could be the hero that can fix everything like I wanted! But why is it always me!? When the super big bad shows up, why do I keep having to fight them alone? Vilgax, Tirek, Zs'Skayr! Every time, it's always me needing to step up and pull a victory out of nowhere. Well this time, I can't! I don't know what you want me to do, but I can't beat Shadow." He turned away from them, "I'm useless." With that, he walked out of the room and everyone stood there feeling sorry for Flash.

They all sat there in silence, Azmuth shutting the computer. "That boy's will is cracking," he explained. "No surprise, given everything that's happened to him. It was only a matter of time before he reached his limit."

"What do we do?" Cadance asked, Flurry fussing in her arms.

"This is a crucial moment for Flash," Azmuth explained. "As I said, his will is cracking under the pressure of everything he's been through. What happens next will decide if that will completely breaks, or reaffirms to an unbreakable level."

"So what do we do?" Trail repeated, but Azmuth clearly didn't know.

Shining stood up. "I'll talk to him. See if I can get him to feel better." They all nodded and Shining headed out and searched the house for Flash, but couldn't find him anywhere.

Then he happened to look outside, the rain now pouring down outside, and spotted Flash sitting on a bench as the rain was falling.

He headed out, grabbing an umbrella to keep himself dry. As he did, Flash didn't even acknowledge his approach.

"Coming down pretty hard," he told him. "Maybe you should come inside. Can't be defeating Shadow if you catch your death of cold." But Flash just sat there, letting himself get soaked. This made Shining sigh as he sat down. "It's not your fault, leaving the girls. We didn't have a choice."

"I know," Flash nodded.

"And we're gonna find a way to stop those guys."

"How?" Flash asked. "If you can't figure out a way to stop Shadow, and Azmuth can't find a way to stop him, what chance do we have?" Shining wasn't sure how to answer that, as Flash looked down at the watch. "Before I got the Omnitrix, all I could ever do was watch from the sidelines. I saw Twilight and the others go up against impossible foes one after another. I wanted to help, but couldn't because I didn't have any powers."

"I get it," Shining nodded. He had felt the same way, seeing Flash fight against powerful enemies before joining the Plumbers.

"Then I got the chance to help not just the Rainbooms, but everyone. And I did a really good job. I wasn't always perfect. Sometimes I let myself get overconfident. But I always managed to pull through. I thought I could face anything the universe had to throw at me, because I had my friends and the Omnitrix. But now...I'm once again facing something I don't stand a chance against."

"Flash," Shining told him, "you can't just give up. It's not like this is the first time you've faced overwhelming odds and come out on top. Vilgax, Tirek, Zs'Skayr, Vilgax again. Every time you've fought against an opponent you shouldn't have been able to defeat, but still found away."

"That's because I had the most powerful device in the universe. But I don't have that anymore. Shadow's Ultimatrix outclasses it in every way."

"FLASH!" Shining stood up, "Shadow having the Ultimatrix doesn't make him invincible. You said it yourself, you had the most powerful device in the universe. But it's still failed you before. Shadow's must have the exact same problem. And if it does, then you have the advantage over him."

"What advantage?"

"Every time the Omnitrix has failed you, you've still come out on top. Not because of it, but because of you." He grabbed Flash and pulled him up. "It wasn't the Omnitrix that stopped Vilgax. It was you. Same with Tirek and Zs'Skayr. You managed to find a way to beat them. Because it's not the tool that matters. It's how you use it. Shadow might have the brain of a galvin and the power of an Ultimate Alien, but there's one thing he doesn't have."

"What's that?" Shining placed a fist on Flash's chest.

"The heart and spirit of a human. The power to turn any bad situation in his favour. He might have brains and brawn, but you have that insane imagination of yours." He began to step away. "I might not be able to beat him. And Azmuth might not be able to come up with a solution, but you can. I know you can. Remember, it's not the tool that matters." With that, he headed back into the house.

As Shining left, Flash just stood there as the rain continued to fall down upon him.

He let Shining's words echo in his head, but they didn't help him feel any better. "It's not the tool. Yeah right. I'm nothing without the Omnitrix and if that's not enough, what am I supposed to do? If Shadow hadn't turned back to human, I'd be dead right now." But as he said that, he realised something and remembered the battle. "Why did he turn back to human?"

He thought about the battle and how it could have gone. If Shadow hadn't turned back to human, Flash wouldn't have been able to sweep his legs out and get away. Turning back was a stupid idea, so why did the smarter version of him do that?

"He could have just stepped on me," Flash told him. "Crushed me like a grape and there'd be nothing I could do. But he didn't, he turned back to human. But why?" He ran the battle through his head and remembered he and Shadow became aliens at the same time, but Flash turn back because he had drained the watch by switching aliens.

Shadow should have had a few more minutes as an alien...unless.

Flash's eyes went wide, as he realised something that made his heart soar. "I know how to beat him." A smile appeared on his lips as he yelled up to the rainy night's sky. "I KNOW HOW TO BEAT HIM!" He rushed towards the house and surprised everyone when he showed up, "I know what we have to do."

"Really?" Shining hadn't been expecting such a quick turn around. "What?" Flash smirked, as he began explaining his plan to everyone.

The next morning.

The storm that had rocked the city the previous night had come to an and. The dark clouds had cleared away, allowing the morning sun to shine down on the place and dry up the water. It seemed like the perfect morning, but the people of Canterlot were still in a state of terror. And they had every right to be.

The Negatine Ten were scattered out across the main control room, most of them sound asleep after working late into the night.

But one of them was still up, having wanted to get the device operations as fast as possible. Shadow put the final piece into place and smiled as it fit perfectly. "Everybody up!" His cry made them all jump, many waking up and letting out a moan as they rubbed the sleep out of their eyes.

They then noticed the large machine hooked up to the main computer system, looking way more impressive than it had when they all fell asleep. "Is this it?" Dynamo asked, "is it done?"

"Yes," Shadow smiled. "Once the power source is installed, it'll just need a few minutes to power up and it'll be ready to wipe out every electronic device on the planet."

"Great," Viral nodded, "what is the power source?" Shadow reached into his pocket and took out a familiar looking vial of glowing rock. "Glanium?"

"Yes." Shadow moved over and opened up a small port, which he placed the vial inside of. Not ten seconds later, the machine began to hum as different parts of it lit up. "There we go." He and the rest of the criminals smiled. "I'd give it ten, fifteen minutes before its ready. Once that happens, nothing will be able to stop us.

But in that moment, the base's alarms went off and they all rushed towards the computer as it switched on. The security cameras had picked up someone walking into the compound and when the ten saw who it was, they were shocked.

Flash, Trixie and Shining walked forward, Trixie and Shining in their suits as the three stepped up in a line.

Flash looked up at where he knew the camera was recording him. "Shadow! Get out here! We've got a score to settle!" The ten smiled, with Shadow actually laughing.

"He actually came back. I guess some people just don't know when to quit. Alright," he looked at the others, "we've got time whilst the generator powers up. Let's end this, once and for all." They nodded and began to make their way towards the transporters.

Outside, Flash, Trixie and Shining watched the building.

"Come on," Flash whispered. "If they don't get out of there, our plan's never gonna work." But in that moment, the doors flew open with Shadow leading his team out of the building.

"Well, well, well." Shadow smirked, "you really need to learn when you're beaten. If you had just stayed hidden and not gotten involved, I might have decided to let you live...for a little while."

"Enough games," Flash stepped forward. "Let's settle this, Shadow!"

"You really think you can beat us?" Dragstar asked. "Did you hit you head or something?"

"You're an idiot," Animac stated. "Trying to take us all out by yourself is impossible. What makes you think you stand any chance against the ten of us."

Flash smirked, unsettling them. "We're not here to fight the ten of you." He pointed at Shadow, "we're here to fight you and you alone." That statement had surprised the criminals. "Come on, Shadow! You said your Ultimate Alien is unstoppable, so why make others fight your battle for you?"

Shadow frowned at them, then smirked. "You think I'm dumb enough to fall for that? Why should I even have to bother fighting you, when I can just let the others deal with you?"

"I knew it," Flash turned to the others. "See, told you he's a total wimp. Scared to face us on his own."

"Yeah," Shining nodded, "what a loser."

"Probably knows he can't do it on his own," Trixie smiled. "His oh so special Ultimatrix probably can't handle the challenge." Shadow glaring at them, as Trixie started singing 'Shadow the coward' over and over. The other two laughed as Shadow's fist started shaking.

Negatine placed a hand on his shoulder, "don't let them get to you. We'll beat them together."

"Yeah," Flash smirked, "because that's all Shadow ever does. Get you guys to do everything because he can't do it himself. Probably why he brought you all together in the first place."

Shadow growled and pulled Negatine's hand off of him. "Fine! I'll take you all on, by myself."

"Don't be a fool," Animac cried before Shadow turned to glare at them.

"No matter what happens, none of you are to interfere with this fight. Even if things look like they're going bad, stay out of this." He turned to walk down the steps, "I will not have these fools mock me."

"You would rather lose than admit you need help?" Devious asked.

"What if you lose?" Chrysalis asked, only for Shadow to laugh.

"Like that could actually happen." He stepped down and stared at the three. "Very well, we'll do this." The three smirked, "but first..." He took out a remote of some kind and started pressing a few buttons on it. A moment or so later, mechanical drones appeared from out of the Plumber base. Ones that were meant for intel missions, due to their high def cameras and microphones. "I want everyone in the city to see you fail."

All over the city, people were still hiding in their homes.

They had heard talk of Flash's defeat at the hands of the Negative Ten and were terrified it might be true, many locking and barricading their doors for fear of the worst happening. But as they sat in their homes, everyone suddenly found their TVs switching on or changing channels with a large amount of static.

After a few moments, the image solidified to reveal someone they thought was Flash Sentry. But then they noticed his different look and demeanour, many remembering him as the one that framed Flash so long ago.

"Greetings, citizens of Canterlot."

In their house, Flash's parents frowned as Cadance stepped into the room with Flurry. They saw the dark clone of their favourite alien hero and knew this wouldn't be good.

"My name is Shadow, future emperor of this pathetic world. And I'm here to show you why it's pointless to ever try and defy me." The camera changed to show Flash along with the Plumber and Lady Masquerade, then zoomed out to show the entire Plumber base compound.

"Really?" Flash asked, "you're livestreaming this?"

"Of course," Shadow nodded. "The people of Canterlot are terrified. Scared their beloved hero won't be able to save them. Seeing your defeat with finally break the last of their spirit and make it impossible for them to ever summon the courage to challenge me." He activated the Ultimatrix. "Now, any last words you wish to give our audience?"

"Sure," Flash looked up at the camera. "These aren't my last words. And I know you're all afraid, but we can't let fear control us. Pathetic people like him know the only way to win, is to scare others from fighting back. But I'm not afraid. And I'm gonna take this cheap knockoff down so everyone can live their lives again." Shining and Trixie nodded, as Shadow chuckle.

"How quaint." He hit the Omnitrix and transformed into Riot-Horn, then slammed the dial to transform again into the Ultimate Solarhino.

At the same time, Flash activated the Omnitrix as Shining took out his Multi-Striker and Trixie held up her staff. He then slammed the Omnitrix down and transformed, "XLR8!" The three stared the criminal down, whilst Ultimate Riot-Horn smirked as his pile driver fists thrust forwards and back.

Everyone watched and could barely breathe, many fearing Flash and the rest of their heroes might be in danger. Then, XLR8 shot forward and in the blink of an eye, slammed a foot right into U-R-H's chest. But the impact didn't even phase him, the Ultimate Alien simply smirking as XLR8 leapt backwards.

"That the best you got?" He laughed, only for Shining to start firing lasers at him. He raised an arm to block the attack, whilst Trixie rushed up and used her Luna Cat Medallion to create several copies of her.

Ultimate Riot-Horn raised his arm and pointed his fist at Shining, the pile driver flying forward with enough force to send out a blast of wind towards him. At the same time, he swept his other arm around and sent a wave of air at the multiple Trixies.

XLR8 rushed over and grabbed Shining, pulling him out of the way of the air bullet. Said bullet slammed into the metal fence and bent part of it, whilst the wave of air hit the Trixies and caused one of them to stagger back. "There you are!" Ultimate Riot-Horn fired his horn laser, only for XLR8 to zoom past and pull Trixie out of the way.

The lasers flew past and struck the fountain, blowing it up as XLR8 put Trixie down. "Thanks."

"It's gonna take all of us to beat this guy," XLR8 told her. "We stick to the plan, work together and don't let each other get hurt. That's how we win this." The other two nodded, as XLR8 shot forward once again with the other two following him.

As this was happening, Twilight and the rest of the Rainbooms remained trapped in their cells.

Applejack was still trying to break through the containment field, but without her super strength she just wasn't strong enough. And as everyone just sat there, one of the monitors suddenly glitched. "What now?" Rainbow sighed, only for the monitor to suddenly show the fight between Ultimate Riot-Horn and their friends. "No way!"

"Flash!" Fluttershy gasped, as XLR8 started running around the Ultimate Alien and forming a tornado.

"Trixie and Shining too," Sunset smiled. But that smile vanished when the mecha rhino swung his arm around and knocked XLR8 flying, as Trixie and Shining charged in. "It's no use." Trixie's staff bounced off the metal armor and Shining sword didn't even scratch it. "They can't beat that thing." The girls all looked down, depressed that this might be the end for their friends.

"Don't say that," Twilight stated. "Flash and the others wouldn't just rush into a fight without a plan. They're going to beat Shadow and we have to do whatever we can to help them."

"How?" Rarity asked, "we're trapped in here with no way out." It was in that moment, the vent grate fell to the ground. The girls were shocked by this and looked up, only to see Azmuth fall down from the vent and land in front of Twilight's cell.

"Ahhh," he held his back, "too high for this old back." He looked around and nodded, "good. I'm in the right spot." He turned to them, "are you girls alright?"

"We could be better," Rainbow told him. "How the heck did you get in here?"

"With Shadow and the others busy, it was a simple matter for me to hack into the security system and destabilise the barrier keeping us from teleporting in. Unfortunately, I couldn't completely shut down the barrier and it caused my aim to go off a little bit. Luckily, I wasn't too far from here."

"Ya'h gotta get us out of here!" Applejack cried, "before Shadow kills Flash or the others."

"You don't have to worry about Flash," Azmuth leapt onto a nearby console and started pressing buttons. "He has a plan. So long as he stays calm and keeps focused, he'll be okay." The girls frowned, wondering what he was talking about. "Besides, we have a bigger issue to deal with. Making sure Shadow doesn't send your world back to the dark ages." That statement worried them, as the energy cells finally vanished.

They rushed over to where their geodes were and as they did, Azmuth sprayed them with something.

"Hypo-spray. Should heal up your wounds enough so you can fight. Just don't push yourselves too much." Sure enough, the spray caused the wounds they had taken to start disappearing. Even Rainbow's leg injury slowly faded, leaving just a small scab. "Now let's go!" They nodded and rushed towards the teleporter, all the while hoping Flash and the others would be okay.

Ultimate Riot-Horn blasted the heroes with his horn, launching laser after laser from the protrusion.

Trixie had swapped to her Iron Serpent Mask and was using her shield to block the lasers thrown at her, whilst Shining used his Multi-Striker's shield form to defend himself. At the same time, XLR8 was zipping around the place.

He finally stopped firing as his thrusters exploded and kicked him forwards, Ultimate Riot-Horn roaring as he shot towards Trixie and attempted to smash through her barrier. But Trixie lowered the shield seconds before he hit, allowing XLR8 to fly past and grab her out of the way.

Ultimate Riot-Horn ended up hitting the ground instead, the impact causing the surrounding area to shake and cracks to form in the ground. XLR8 and Trixie were knocked staggering and the other criminals had to grab the building to keep from falling over.

As Ultimate Riot-Horn pulled his fist out of the ground, he heard a buzzing and turned to see Shining holding a bazooka weapon. "FIRE!" He shot a powerful energy blast towards him and Ultimate Riot-Horn growled before he thrust his fist into it, an explosion filling the battlefield.

Everyone covered their eyes as they watched this take place, the heroes hoping that did at least some damage. But when the smoke failed, Ultimate Riot-Horn wasn't even scratched and he once again punched the air hard enough to send a bullet of air flying at Shining.

The Plumber barely leapt back before the air blast made the ground explode, pieces of the earth smashing into him and knocking him down.

"Pathetic side-character." Ultimate Riot-Horn's face was suddenly struck by XLR8's tail, the smacking sound filling the air as he landed.

"Back off!" The alien raptor announced. "That man fights for this planet with more heart and resolve than you'll ever have. I WILL NOT LET YOU BAD-MOUTH HIM!" He threw a punch, but Ultimate Riot-Horn grabbed it before throwing XLR8 along the ground.

Trixie charged and prepared to put up a shield, only for Ultimate Riot-Horn's chest horns to fire and blast the spot in front of her. "Gyah!" She flew through the air and landed next to XLR8, as the alien picked himself up. "Don't you think you should change aliens?"

"No," XLR8 shook his head, "I need to pull every second of transformation time I can get out of this thing. If I transform, I'll turn back faster."

"BOOT!" He spun around and found Ultimate Riot-Horn, about to stomp down on him. XLR8 leapt up, pulling Trixie out of the way. As they did, Shining picked himself up and fired at Ultimate Riot-Horn again.

The alien spun around and back handed the laser away, then fired his horns at Shining only for Trixie to shield him. The force field didn't stop the laser, but it did slow it down enough for Shining to get out of the way and avoid most of the shock.

XLR8 rushed towards Ultimate Riot-Horn, only for the armored alien to spin around and grab him by the chest. "AUGH!" He felt the metal fingers gripping him tightly, as Ultimate Riot-Horn's thrusters fired and propelled them both towards the building.

The next thing he knew, he was smashed into the wall so hard cracks formed along it.

Ultimate Riot-Horn glared at him. "It was not wise to provoke me." He slowly leaned his head forward, looking like he was about to bite XLR8's head off. But the alien raptor wasn't scared.

"You know what," he told him. "I think you just need some good vibrations." With that, he slammed his hands on the armored alien's head multiple times at high speed.

Ultimate Riot-Horn actually seem to feel this and pulled his head back, then spun around and sent XLR8 flying as hard as he could. XLR8 cried out, as he was slammed into the ground several times whilst bouncing around.

Shining and Trixie rushed over to his side, as Ultimate Riot-Horn growled with anger. "I am done playing this game." All three of his horns started glowing, as he prepared to unleash a blast strong enough to wipe his enemies off the face of the Earth.

The three saw this coming and all knew it would be big. So big Trixie wouldn't be able to shield them and XLR8 wouldn't be able to outrun it. But they still had to try. But as they prepared to act and Ultimate Riot-Horn was about to fire, a familiar beeping sound made everyone's eyes go wide.

"No!" Ultimate Riot-Horn looked down and saw his dial flashing, "NO!" He tried to fire, but a green flash consumed him before he could. And when it faded, Shadow was standing there. "No, no, no, NOOO!" He tried to activate the Ultimatrix, but it was completely dead.

"What just happened?" Animac asked, looking over at XLR8. But the alien velociraptor was still there. "They both transformed at the same time, so why did Shadow turn back first?"

XLR8 laughed as he rolled towards Shadow, "you wanna tell em? Or should I?" Shadow glared at him. "I realised something about your special Ultimate Aliens. Doing something like that probably takes a lot of power. And I know Azmuth gave the Omnitrix the longest lasting power source he could find. Your Ultimatrix couldn't have a better one, meaning it and the Omnitrix had the same energy limit."

Shining smirked. "So even if your Ultimatrix can evolve your aliens into unstoppable creatures, doing so means you can't stay that strong as long as you could if you were only using the transformation function."

Trixie nodded. "When we realised that, we figured we just had to wait you out. And it seems we were right. Your aliens are now off the table, whilst Flash can still use his." XLR8 smirked as he cracked his claws, Shadow realising he was in trouble.

He spun towards his teammates and cried out, "GET THEM!" But they all remained where they were, not even budging an inch. "Didn't you hear me!? I said get them!" They remained still, as Devious spoke up.

"No matter what happens, none of you are to interfere with this fight. Even if things look like they're going bad, stay out of this." He smirked at him, "weren't those your exact words?"

Shadow glared at him, then at the others seeing they were all going to stay still. "USELESS!" He spun around, his fist clenched to punch his opponents. But in that moment, XLR8 was right in front of him and slammed his tail into him.

The alien had only struck him at about twenty miles an hour, which sent him staggering backwards and crashing to the ground. He cried out, as XLR8 smirked down at him. "It's over, Shadow. Give up."

"Are you insane?" Shadow asked. "So what if you beat me? My lackeys might not want to fight for me, but they will fight to protect our plan. Not that they need to." He reached into his pocket and took out the remote. "The generator should be fully charged by now. There's nothing going to stand in my way."

Everyone was shocked to hear this and Shadow held up his remote. "Don't do it!" Shining cried, but Shadow let out a laugh.

"People of Canterlot. Get ready to go back to the dark ages!" He hit the button and...nothing happened. "What?" He pressed the button again and got the same result, Shadow hitting its side. "What's wrong with this thing?"

Flash, Shining, Trixie and the criminals were just as confused, but the criminals soon heard a noise that pulled their attention away. That noise came from a bunch of energy guns, all pointed at them before firing.

Chrysalis acted first, creating a web that teleported them all away from the base's entrance. The lasers flew out of the entrance and caught everyone else's attention, making them turn to the entryway as those figures stepped out into the light.

"TWILIGHT!" Shining cried, seeing his sister and her friends standing there with the Plumber weapons they had used before. Azmuth was also there, standing atop Twilight's shoulder.

"How did they escape?" Shadow cried, as Azmuth laughed.

"You were so busy being focused on Flash that you forgot, you're not the only person on this planet with galvin intelligence." Shadow growled at this, as Azmuth showed him the glanium energy source. "Don't bother with your little pulse generator. We disabled it."

Shadow growled, as XLR8 turned towards the rest of the villains. "Time you guys all went back to jail, where you belong." He shot forward and with a single sweep past the crooks, he sent them all flying. They crashed into the ground, as the others rushed forward.

Shining took out some of his captures cubes, but the criminals began to pick themselves up. "Flash!"

"Got it!" XLR8 was about to knock them all down again, but in that moment the Omnitrix beeped. "Seriously?" He transformed back to human and groaned, only to hear Sunset call his name.

He looked around and saw a blaster flying at him, Flash smirking as he caught it and gave his thanks. As he did, the criminals picked themselves up and glared at the heroes. This was going to be a battle to end all battles.

Devious unleashed a blast of lightning, Trixie and Rarity defending against it with their shields. As they did, Dynamo and Doddery took to the air. The girls with wings all ponied up and flew up after them, whilst those on the ground fired upon the villains as they all scattered themselves.

Many focused on Flash, wanting to take the chance he was human to finally take him out. But as Dragstar, Dynamo and Viral launched blasts at him, Flash leapt out of the way whilst the others countered some of the attacks. Flash then fired back at them, forcing them to leap back to safety.

As this was going on, Azmuth looked over at Shadow and saw he was gone.

"Where-" He spotted the teen running up to the base, glaring at them as he did. "Flash, Shadow's getting away!" Flash looked around and saw his twin race into the building.

"Go Flash!" Shining told him, as Animac sent out a lizard bird and lion turtle hybrid that he had to dodge. "We'll hold these guys here!" Flash looked around, the girls all nodding as Flash nodded back.

"Alright, just be careful!" He ran towards the building, Azmuth leaping onto his shoulder as Dynamo pointed his hip blasters at them.

"Get back here!" But before he could fire, Fluttershy flew up to him and fired her own blaster. "Hey!" He flew out of the way, as Fluttershy gave him a serious look.

"I won't let you hurt Flash!"

"You tell em!" Rainbow cheered, "these guys have caused him enough problems." She spun her laser baton around and got into a fighting stance. "Time we take them down once and for all!" The over all cheered in agreement, continuing to do battle whilst hoping Flash would quickly deal with Shadow.

As soon as Flash rushed into the room, he pointed his blaster defensively trying to see any sign of Shadow waiting to attack.

But he was nowhere in sight, meaning he had to have gone into the main building. "What do you think?" He asked, "went to try and get his EMP back online?"

"I doubt it. We did some serious damage to that device. There's no way he could rebuild it before we get to him. It's possible he's gone down to the docking bay. Maybe he intends to take your ship and fly down to attack from orbit." But as he said that, the lights started flickering.

"Please tell me that was just some random flicker," Flash gulped. But the lights kept flickering before going out.

"He must be doing something with the power core." They reached the elevator, but it didn't work. "Great. Without power we can't head down."

"Can't you just use your ship's transporter?"

"Yes I can," Azmuth pulled out his remote and typed a few buttons, as the sounds of an explosion came from outside. Flash knew his friends were in a tough fight, but he had to focus on Shadow. "Here we go!" He hit the button and the pair were surrounded with light, which made them disappear before reappearing inside the power room.

When they appeared, they were almost struck by a blast of energy. "WOW!" They leapt back, the lightning hitting the ground and burning it up. "What's going on?" They looked up and saw the power core was spinning dangerously quickly, with a bunch of energy exploding out of it.

The worst part was, that energy wasn't being channelled into the dampeners and was beginning to build. "The power core is overloading and the dampeners are offline!"

"That's right!" They looked around to see Shadow, who had somehow gotten a crowbar that he was now using to smash the controls.

"What are you doing?" Azmuth cried, as Shadow laughed a hysterical laugh.

"I'm making sure you lose, by taking away everything you love." Flash had to leap back to avoid another blast of energy. "Once this reactor goes critical, your precious city and all those you care about will be vaporised."

Flash turned to Azmuth. "He's not serious, is he?"

"I'm afraid he is," Azmuth nodded. "If the reactor blows, that energy will unleash a shockwave that'll destroy anything it touches for a hundred miles." Flash couldn't believe Shadow would go this far.

"Are you insane?" Flash told his clone. "Don't you realize you'll die too!?"

Shadow smirked as he pointed at his Ultimatrix, which had lit backup to show it had recharged. "What do you call that alien again? The Worst? He'll let me survive this, no problem." But as he said that, a stray bolt of energy shot towards him. And before he could react, it slammed into his chest and made him scream as he was thrown backwards.

Flash and Azmuth flinched as they watched him slam into the wall and go limp, then fall to the ground completely unconscious.

Shadow out of the way, Flash and Azmuth rushed over to the computer to try and figure out how they could stop it. "Isn't there anyway to turn it off?"

"No," Azmuth sighed. "Shadow's completely destroyed the controls." He looked over the damaged console, "I can't even hijack it to follow my commands. And even if I could, that energy has gotta go somewhere."

Back outside, Shining and the girls continued to do battle.

But as Shining attempted to blast Doddery out of the sky, his suit started beeping. "What the?" He quickly read his visor and found his badge was detecting a highly unstable energy source. And it was coming from below. "What's going on?" He looked down and realised the energy had to be coming from the base's reactor. And he wasn't the only one who noticed it.

"Huh?" Dynamo's suit also picked up the energy, the rest of the teched up Negative Ten getting an alert of some kind. "That doesn't look good."

"What's wrong?" Devious asked, as he dodged one of Applejack's mace strikes.

"I don't know," Dragstar told him. "My suit's flashing a bunch of warnings at me."

"Shining?" Twilight noticed her brother was looking at the ground. "What's happening?" The others looked at him, as Shining pressed the side of his helmet.

"Flash, you there?"

"Little busy right now! Shadow's gone nuts and set the base's power generator to overload. If it blows, the whole city and everything around it will be wiped out!" They all gasped at this, wondering what the heck Shadow was thinking.

"Well turn it off!" Rainbow cried.

"We're trying! But he smashed the controls." That worried them, Devious letting out a growl as he turned to Chrysalis.

"We're leaving."

"What?" Viral looked at him, "you can't be serious!?"

"I have too many goals to risk getting killed now! Shadow has fulfilled none of the promises he made to me and now, he's trying to blow me up. This deal has been nothing but bad since it started and I'm cutting that deal right now."

"I'm with him," Chrysalis agreed. "If you're smart, you'll get out of here whilst you still can."

"Consider our partnership null and avoid," Devious told them as Chrysalis expanded the webbing. He gave them all a bow before the pair vanished, the web quickly disappearing.

"COWARDS!" Animac roared.

"Maybe he's right," Doddery looked worried. "Maybe we should get away."

"How?" Twilight asked. "If that blast is really gonna destroy the city and everything around it, where could we possibly go to escape?" Many of them had forgotten about the people still watching the battle on their TVs.

All over the city, families were beginning to panic with many holding one another and praying for a miracle to save them. And others were all thinking the same thing. Flash, please help us.

Flash flinched as another bolt of lightning forced him back, Azmuth leaping away from the console as well.

They moved over to the corner of the room, as the power inside the core grew more and more intense. "Isn't there anything we can do?" He looked down at Azmuth, who looked just as stumped.

"If...if we had another energy source set to the exact opposite frequency to the core, we could combine them and the pair would cancel one another out. But we don't have anything strong enough to match the core's power." Flash frowned, wishing there was something he could use.

But as he thought that, the Omnitrix turned green and Flash looked down at it. And slowly, an idea formed in his head. "What...what about this?" Azmuth looked at him and saw him hold up the watch, the galvin's eyes going wide.

"Flash, you realize what you're saying."

"You can use the Omnitrix core to negate the explosion, right?"

"Yes. But if I do that, the core would be completely destroyed. It's not something that can easily be replaced. You do this and your powers will be gone, possibly forever." Flash frowned, as he looked down at the watch and remembered everything he had done with it. Getting it was the best thing that ever happened to him. But...

"I'm a hero," Flash stated. "And heroes do what needs to be done." The core suddenly sparked as another surge of power flew out of it. It wouldn't be long. "Besides, if I don't it's not like I'll survive anyway. DO IT!"

Azmuth nodded and leapt onto his knee, Flash holding the Omnitrix and Azmuth twisted the core back and forth. And then, he pulled up and the core was yanked out of its socket. Doing so caused the watch to power down, stripping Flash of his powers.

"We have to get it into the core!" Azmuth yelled, only for another energy burst to fly out. Getting close to it now was impossible.

Flash took the core from Azmuth and looked over at the generator, taking a deep breath as he pulled his arm back. "Goodbye my friends." He remembered all his alien forms. Forms he would never get to be again. And with one final sigh, he threw the core.

The device flew through the air towards the generator, as the lightning flying out of it hit the device. But the energy the Omnitrix Core was giving out repelled it and eventually, it flew into the main sphere. There, the two conflicting energises fought against one another and the two differently coloured lightning exploded outwards and intermingled with one another.

Flash and Azmuth flinched, as the light grew brighter and brighter. Eventually growing so bright, they were completely blinded before what appeared to be a small sonic boom raced throughout the room.

Up above, Shining found his connection to Flash broke. "Flash?" He tried to connect to him again, "FLASH!?" But nothing happened.

The villains were more focused on the building energy, fearing that they might be about to die. But just when it seemed like the generator was going to explode, the energy levels rapidly degrees. "What's going on?" Dynamo asked, as Shining also noticed the energy drop.

"The generator's shutting down." Everyone sighed at this, but Shining and the girls then grew worried when they couldn't get a hold of Flash. "I hope he's okay." He was about to go in and find out, but in that moment a burst of lightning shot out and almost hit him.

"Well," Viral smiled, "now that that's out of the way. Time to get back to destroying you!"

"Seriously?" Trixie asked, "your boss just tried to blow you up. You really wanna keep fighting for him, after he pulled a stunt like that?"

"Who cares about Shadow?" Viral growled, "I just wanna make you all pay for ruining our plans and constantly getting in the way. Flash Sentry might be gone, but if he's not I'm gonna make him suffer by destroying those he cares about!" The others nodded at this, thinking the exact same thing.

Shining and the girls all sighed, knowing there was no way to go check on Flash with them on the loose. They had to take them down.

Back in the power room, Flash and Azmuth could finally open their eyes and look around as the light slowly faded.

Their ears were ringing, but other than that they were perfectly fine. "Are we alive?" Flash asked, a little louder to hear himself over the ringing. Azmuth looked himself over and nodded, then turned to the generator. Flash also looked over and saw the thing was completely destroyed, a few stray sparks flying off it as they stepped forward.

Flash put Azmuth down and noticed something in the wreckage of the generator, making him rush over to it as Azmuth made sure nothing else was going to blow up.

Flash looked down at the object and carefully picked it up, being careful not to grip it too hard in case it was hot. But surprisingly, the object was rather cool and Flash picked it up to look over.

The Omnitrix Core was completely fried, the metal burned black and looking ready to crumble with the slightest bit of pressure. Flash let out a sigh and looked down at the rest of the device, now pointless merged to his wrist.

He stepped over to Azmuth, the galvin looking over at him and seeing the destroyed core before sighing. "I'm sorry Flash. But you made the right decision. Who knows how much damage that explosion could have done."

"Yeah," Flash nodded as he put the core down for Azmuth to inspect. As he did, he heard a moan and looked over to see Shadow still laid out on the ground.

By some miracle, Shadow hadn't been struck by any more stray blasts. And as Flash looked down at him, his eyes caught his wrist and he gasped as he realised something. "Maybe...maybe that could work." Azmuth turned to him, as he moved over to Shadow and pulled up his sleeve to reveal the Ultimatrix.

Flash started fiddling with the dial, doing what he had seen Azmuth do. And to his joy, he was able to pull the core up and out of the socket.

As soon as he did, the gauntlet glowed before it shrank back down to the original Omnitrix. Flash smirked and held the core over the Omnitrix. "Flash," Azmuth called out, "are you sure that's a good idea? There's no telling what using that core could do."

"It's the only way to get my powers back," Flash told him. "Besides, it's better than Shadow keeping it. I'll just have to be careful and watch out for any side-effects." With that, he pushed it down and into place.

As soon as the core was plugged in, the device burst into light and began to transform. Flash watched as the Omnitrix's form shifted and grew, moving up his arm to become a new and more powerful device. And when the light faded, it revealed the Ultimatrix.

This one was different to Shadow's. It was mostly white with black on the sides, with the black band around the green dial whilst the tubes running along it glowed with green energy. The plate that covered the touch pad was also black.

Flash looked over the newly made Ultimatrix and smirked, whilst Azmuth sighed knowing there was no other choice. Better Flash have it than Shadow.

"Alright," Flash opened up the touchpad and the Ultimatrix activated. He started cycling through the alien holograms before picking his choice. "Let's do this!" He slammed it down and a green flash filled the room.

Back outside, Shining and the girls continued to fight against the criminals.

Dragstar and Dynamo kept firing their weapons at them, whilst the army of Ptera-Jets, lion turles, Flame Lynx and lizard birds kept battling them. Rarity and Trixie put up shields and blocked the missiles and lasers, but the earthbound animals leapt over the shields and tried to claw them.

Shining, Pinkie, Sunset and Fluttershy blasted them back, allowing Twilight to grab them and throw them all towards the flying creatures. As this was happening, Rainbow continued to fight against Doddery whilst Applejack found herself swinging her energy mace around at Viral and The Hypnotist.

Despite appearing to be winning, Shining and the girls were all feeling themselves getting tired. The Rainbooms hadn't fully recovered from their last fight along with Doddery's draining of them, whilst Shining and Trixie hadn't had the chance to catch their breath after their fight with Shadow.

The villains had also noticed this issue and began to capitalise on it, Viral bursting into energy that shot towards Applejack.

She swung her mace around, but it did nothing to the energy stream that danced around her. Eventually, she shot away from Applejack and slammed into an unsuspecting Rainbow. "WOW!" The girl was zapped and thrown away, making Applejack gasp.

This distraction allowed Doddery to fly down and grab Applejack, draining her energy again. "AUGH!" She fell to her knees, her friends hearing this with Pinkie firing at Doddery before she could drain away any more power.

Viral shot towards Pinkie and slammed into her, then did the same with Fluttershy and Sunset. The three girls were knocked flying and crashed into the ground, whilst Shining changed his blaster to the EMP.

"Oh no you don't!" Dragstar fired at him and hit Shining's Multi-Striker, blasting it out of his hands and causing it to blow.

Dynamo then fired his own blasters and hit Shining, knocking him flying whilst Animac and Negatine sent their beasts to claw at the girls' shields. The two were so focused on this, they didn't notice Viral flying up behind them until they were both electrocuted.

They fell to the ground, leaving Twilight the only one left to fight. "Too bad, girly!" Doddery stepped over to her. "You might have spoiled our plans, but we're still stronger than you."

"Say that again in five minutes!" They looked around and saw Volt-Edge stepping out of the building, his claws sparking as he approached. They all wondered which Volt-Edge it was, but as he drew closer Twilight realised this one had blue eyes.

"Flash?" He looked at her and smiled, then turned his attention on the villains.

"Your boss is beaten," he replied. "Give up now and you won't get hurt."

"Who cares if that twerp's out?" Animac pointed at him, "we'll defeat you ourselves!" His mutants all charged at him, but Volt-Edge quickly coated his form in electricity before charging at high speed. He then started swinging his claws and any other sharp part of his body around, cutting through the mutants like a whirling tornado of electric death.

Negatine sent his creations at Volt-Edge and they all resulted in the same outcome, getting cut to ribbons whilst Dynamo and Dragstar blasted him.

Volt-Edge deflected as best he could, but there were too many incoming attacks. He was hit a few times by the lasers, whilst the Hypnotist started launching his control disks. But Volt-Edge surrounded himself in lightning and the disks were quickly propelled, only for Viral to fly up to him.

"I'll take that energy!" She grabbed him and cheered as she felt herself getting recharged, Volt-Edge trying to slash at her only for Viral to leap back. "YES!" She landed as used as much energy as she could to blast him.

Volt-Edge tried to block with his own, but the incoming blast was far greater than what he was able to generate and he quickly found himself getting blasted away.

"FLASH!" Twilight gasped, as Flash was thrown into the side of the building and fell to the ground. Twilight and all those still watching were worried, fearing he might be down for the count. Cadance, Flurry, his parents and all his friends watched with baited breath. But then, he started moving.

He let out a groan as he picked himself up, whilst the remains of the Negative Ten walked forward ready to finish the job. "Face it, Sentry!" Animac laughed, "even you can't take us all on."

Volt-Edge frowned, but then remembered something. "Maybe not with my old watch." He stood tall, "but I just got an upgrade." Everyone wondered what he was talking about, only to see him slam the dial of the Ultimatrix.

They thought maybe he was becoming a never before seen alien. But as the green light flew out of the dial and spread around his body, they watched as Volt-Edge was quickly mutated into an even greater form.

His skin was now bright orange in place of blue, whilst his armour had changed to a dark blue and now covered more of his body. His chest armour had spread down to his stomach in a boxed pyramid fashion, whilst his waist now had three sections of metal plates hanging from a metal belt to form a skirt-like armouring.

His feet guards had vanished whilst his knee guards had grown to go further down his leg and stopping right before his feet, with lightning-shaped blades sticking out of them. His back had sprouted three more spikes, one between the two pointing up and two pointing downwards. His head spike had grown longer and two new lightning-spikes had grown out of the armor, right behind his eyes, and pointed backwards along his ears.

Finally, the armor covering his hands had vanished and his lightning-shaped claws were gone. Instead, he was carrying a pair swiss shields on the back of each arm that had a handle he clutched and a strap wrapped just below the elbow. Each shield had three long blades running along them that were half dug into the metal and looked like they extended forward.

The newly evolved alien let out a roar as he stood tall, lightning sparking off his body as he announced his name for the world to hear. "ULTIMATE VOLT-EDGE!"

Everyone was in absolutely shock at what they had just seen, none of them having expected that. The criminals were a little worried, but quickly shook off their shock. "If Shadow could be beaten, so can he!" Negatine's statement made the others feel more confident and they all charged into action.

Ultimate Volt-Edge saw them coming and smirked before the blades on his shields extended outwards into a pair of claws. He started slashing them through the air, unleashing blades of lightning that flew towards the criminals.

Doddery and Dynamo flew up whilst Animac and Negatine summoned some flying creatures to do the same. Dragstar grabbed The Hypnotist and leapt out of the blasts' way, whilst Viral simply stood there and let the energy hit her.

She tried to absorb it, but gasped when she found herself reach full capacity within a second with even more energy flowing through her. She screamed as she was blasted back, slamming into the remains of the fountain as Ultimate Volt-Edge smirked.

The others were shocked by this and both Dynamo and Dragstar began blasting him. But as Ultimate Volt-Edge swung his arms around, the claws of his shield flew off and remained connected by strings of lightning. U-V-E seemed to have complete control of these lightning chords, allowing his to slash all six blades through the air and block every single blast.

Once the lasers stopped, the blades flew up with incredible speed and managed to hit Dynamo and Doddery's wings. The pair cried out as their flight ability was destroyed and they were forced to the ground. As they were, The Hypnotist fired a control disk at him and it landed on his chest.

"Yes!" He cheered, quickly sending a command. "You are under my control." Twilight and his recovering friends were scared, but then the disk sparked before falling to the ground.

"Nice try," he stated as his blades returned to his shields. He then raised a shield, as a missile flew down and slammed into it. The explosion covered him and his friends once again gasped, only for the smoke to clear and reveal he hadn't even been scratched.

He looked up at Negatine, then thrust his shield up as a blade shoot off and stabbed his Ptera-Jet. The beast quickly disappeared, as U-V-E spun around and used the blade to cut the head off of Animac's lizard bird. The two screamed as they fell towards the ground, landing in a heap as Dragstar and Dynamo rushed forward.

Dynamo extended his blades and Dragstar raised his sword, the two slashing at him only for the Ultimate Alien to blocked with his shields. He extended his electrified claws and pushed their blades back, slashing at them and cutting through them like they were butter.

Both men screamed as they were knocked back, whilst Viral, Animac and Negatine finally picked themselves up. They all made their way around the Alien, looking ready to attack from all angles.

But Ultimate Volt-Edge laughed as the five blades on his back began to spark. And before they could charge, he curled up into a ball and the spikes shot off his back. They were also connected to electric rope and shot towards the villains, but missed and embedded themselves into the ground behind them.

"HA!" Dragstar laughed, "work on your aim!" They were about to attack, but Ultimate Volt-Edge smirked as he unleashed another burst of lightning. That lightning filled the gaps between the ropes connecting him to his blades, which each of the villains happened to be between.

As such, each and every one of them was suddenly electrocuted by a few hundred volts.

They all cried out, Viral once again being overloaded whilst the others had their tech beginning to fry. Ultimate Volt-Edge zapped them for a few long seconds before eventually stopping the flow, retracting his blades back into his back as the villains all fell to the ground.

They were all completely out of it, their tech destroyed with Viral twitching. As they laid there, Ultimate Volt-Edge hit the dial on his chest and transformed back into regular Volt-Edge before reverting back to Flash.

The teen fell to his knees, panting from exhaustion as his friends rushed over to him. "Man, that is seriously tiring."

"FLASH!" He looked up and his friends quickly surrounded him, Flash giving them each a hug before Twilight grabbed his arm and pulled up his sleeve. "How did you get the Ultimatrix?" She asked, the others also surprised to see the gauntlet on his arm.

"It's a long story," Flash stated. "But what matters now is, I have the Ultimatrix and Shadow doesn't."

"Well just be careful," Shining told him. "Don't let yourself get overconfident like Shadow did." Flash nodded, whilst the others smiled.

"But did you see how awesome Volt-Edge became?" Rainbow asked. Flash nodded, though he knew Shining was right. Ultimate Aliens were powerful, but they weren't unbeatable. Flash would need to be careful.

They began to go around the villains and placed each of them in a capture cube, containing them in stasis until they could get the power in the base back on. Shining decided these criminals were too dangerous to put in the trust of the normal prisons, so he would place them in the base's prison until it was decided what to do with them.

As the criminals were cubed, Flash turned towards the still recording drone and smiled. "People of Canterlot, the Negative Ten are...mostly captured."

Trixie stepped up to them, "don't worry about the two that got away. They're not gonna bother trying to free the rest of them. For now, these criminals are off the streets." Though they couldn't hear it, they knew many of the citizens of Canterlot were celebrating.

Flash let out a sigh as he fell to the ground, exhausted after everything that had happened.

Azmuth took this moment to actually inspect the Ultimatrix, frowning at the sight of it. "Pathetic workmanship!" He stated as he opened the touchpad. He started scrolling through everything the device had, seeing that it at least had all the same features the original had had. "Just be glad this thing is built upon my existing Omnitrix structure. Who knows what might have happened if the whole thing had been built from scratch."

"So...you're okay with me keeping it?"

"Not that I have much choice. Making a new core could take years and I doubt your planet's going to stop getting into trouble just because you don't have what you need to protect it. For now, I'll allow you to keep this device. But the moment something happens that's out of the ordinary-"

"I'll let you know," Flash nodded. As he said that, multiple vehicles drove up to the base and through the destroyed open gate.

Each car pulled up to the base and once they stopped, the family of those that had fought to protect Canterlot rushed out. Cadance, Flurry and Twilight's parents rushed over to hug the siblings, whilst Jackpot and the rest of the Rainboom's parents all did the same.

Misty and Trail ran over to Flash and the teen hugged them as well. "Are you okay?" Misty asked, Flash nodding.

"I'm fine," he assured her. "A little bruised, but nothing a good night's sleep won't fix." Flash then looked over at his friends, happy that they were all safe and out of danger. He then looked down at the Ultimatrix, the teen realising a whole new adventure had likely begun for him.

He didn't know what the future would hold, but he did know it would have crazy aliens, crazy dangers and crazy events Flash would need to fight his way out of. And he knew that as long as he had his friends, and the Ultimatrix, he would be able to overcome anything.

The Omnitrix Hero was gone. And now, a new hero stood in his place. The Ultimatrix Hero.

Author's Note

And thus, my friends, this story has come to a close. There'll be a few more chapters coming, but the Omnitrix Hero's story is at an end. Thanks for all your support during this story. It was really fun and I hope you'll keep an eye out for when the next story in this series arrives. Until then, thanks for reading.

So now that Flash has the Ultimatrix, he can now use Ultimate Aliens. We've already seen two, but what other aliens will he evolve? Let me know which aliens you wanna see undergo the evolution and what you think their ability trades will be.

For those trying to figure our how to imagine Ultimate Volt-Edge, imagine WarGreymon X, only with Flamedramon's head and five of Raidramon's spikes on his back