The air was turning colder and frost began to cover the grass. I could see it up ahead: the city of crystals. Dark clouds loomed overhead, no doubt pouring it's contents onto the inhabitants. I hope they're all alright... I thought. If Lumo touches them... how should I kill him? Decapitation? No, too plain...

"It's too bad nobody's there, then," my servant telepathically spoke. "This place is full of projections... but I think some of them aren't the lizard's." I hummed in thought. If that's true... then who else is there? Another enemy? I thought. "Perhaps you should report this to your Master, Master."

"No, let us continue. Whoever it may be, Zero can see them through me."

(Age: 357)

I sat on my bed staring down at the small, brown book laying on my lap. It had all of the information on what happened that day.

Subject: Zero Two

Confirmation of Soul Synchronization: Positive

Current Soul Synchronization tiers: 2

Known abilities: Improved physical and magical strength, toughness of hide, and loss of pain receptors

Current control of Soul Synchronization: Unstable

Other notices: Physical changes seem to be made to render opponent incapable to fight. Current changes: loss of skin colour, white of eye turns blood red, pupil turns black.

The door to my room closed, but I didn't look up to see who it was. I was too busy rereading certain words over and over again. Soul Synchronization. Toughness of hide. Unstable.

Eye.

My hand went to the eye patch covering my left eye socket. It was white with a symbol of a red eye embroidered on it. Behind it though... was nothing. Just a hole where my hopes of ever being accepted could be mourned.

There was a knock at the door, and someone walked in. I couldn't pry myself from the book to look and see who, but I felt no danger as they walked in. I could only sense fear. "Hey..." Scarlet's voice ventured quietly, "feeling better yet?" I didn't respond. How could I? Soul Synchronization is the reflection of the godly part of their soul. My Soul Synchronization gave almost everyone in the arena horrifying nightmares for a month. And that form is supposed to be an image of my soul.

"Guess not..." she sighed. "Well, that's alright. It takes time for all wounds to heal. In the meantime..." Scarlet dug around for something in her bag and threw it onto my lap, right on top of the brown book. They were files regarding a mission that required an extermination of one "Sombra" in the Crystal Empire. I looked up at Scarlet with disbelief. "The gods said that the one who took this mission would have to be incredibly strong, and have unwavering loyalty to the gods. Every single one of them said that you'd be perfect."

I was in utter shock. "H... how? And why?"

Scarlet giggled a bit. "Fos did say there weren't any rules. So, you did technically win." Looking back down at the file, I looked over all of the documents. I was confused, however. They kept saying that Sombra had an accomplice, but it never said who it was. "There's something else I should mention..." Scarlet said cautiously.

Looking up from the papers, I found that Scarlet had adopted a dark look. "Who's assisting the target?"

Scarlet looked down and began rubbing her leg. "...About four months ago, Lumo disappeared. It's suspected that he's working with Sombra to obtain an alicorn horn. You know what that means... right?" I did. An alicorns horn is one of the most powerful magical catalysts in existence. If someone were looking for one, they were up to no good. However, that fact did not scare me. It was the fact that Celestia and Luna were the only targets.

Putting two and two together didn't take a long time. "I accept. When do I leave?"

"Now, actually," Scarlet said with a smirk.

(Age: ???)

It had been a long time since I had first visited this place: the Crystal Empire. It was looking good, aside from all of the projections running around. No black, corrupted crystals everywhere, no Sombra, no nothing. Well, that obviously wasn't true or else I wouldn't be here, now would I?

I strolled down the rain-soaked street looking at the aftermath of the mayhem that happened not to long ago. There were several bodies of soldiers lining the walkways. A sad sight, yes, but with life comes death. One day, I too will fade away into nothingness, I thought. Continuing towards the castle, I found that up ahead there was a battle in progress.

Approaching from behind a line of guards, I stopped within several feet of them. Past them were creatures native to this land: several small chimeras and a large basilisk. I raised an eyebrow. I can see what he means... these aren't Lumo's normal projections, I pondered. What could this mean...?

"H-hold the line!" one of the guards yelled in front of me. It was of no use however, their line was retreating and breaking at several places. One of the guards eventually backed up into my leg, to which he found utterly terrifying. His neck slowly craned over to look at me, and when he did his face paled.

"I'm not the one you should be looking at, now am I?" I asked the guard.

He whipped around just in time for a chimera to pounce him and knock him to the ground. It tried to bite his throat out, but I bent over and picked it up by it's head before it could. It struggled in my grasp for a moment before I got bored of it's shenanigans and crushed it's head in my hand. It's blood when everywhere: on me, on the guard, and on the ground.

Secretly scolding myself for getting cloak covered in blood, I looked back to the guard. "Would you like assistance?" His mouth opened and closed stupidly as he tried to formulate a response. Eventually, he just ended up nodding very quickly, leading me to chuckle. "As you wish..."

Stepping over the guard, I walked to his place in the line, and suddenly the monsters stopped their advance. "Curious," I said out loud, gaining the attention of everyone nearby. "You bleed, unlike most projections and you aren't like Lumo's normal projections... so who is your master, I wonder?"

The first chimera leaped at me. Retaliating, I used my blood-wire spell to grab it and use it's momentum to send it smashing into the ground on the other side of me. I then sent it hurling towards another large group of chimeras, crashing into them and toppling or killing all of them.

On my other side, another chimera leapt at me. Using the hand I hand't used for the spell, I drew one of my guns: Fusion, the white, sun-crested annihilator. All it took was a pull of the trigger to shoot the beast with a blast of pure, magical energy, disintegrating it into nothing. A couple more pulls, and a few more of those creatures were dead. I pulled out Fusion's twin sister, Dark Wraith: an ebony assassin with a waxing crescent moon on the hilt. A few more pulls from both did the trick and made quick work of my enemies.

Lowering my guns, but not sheathing them, I turned back to the guards, who's expressions didn't change from the last I saw of them. "Now then," I started, "where are the princesses?"

"Uh, hello?!" my servant interrupted telepathically. "I told you, nobody's home! Let's just kill them and get on with skinning that lizard!"

After that moment of apparent silence, one of the guards spoke up. "P-princess Mi Amore Cadenza is in the palace! She's fighting a creature with powers unlike we've ever seen!" he spoke.

"...who?" I asked, honestly confused about what he was talking about.

"You dolt! Remember the briefing?! There are two more alicorns now!" my servant chimed in.

"Ah, of course. How silly of me to have forgotten. Well, I can't blame myself! Tia and Lulu are the only ones that matter anyway."

"Your Master would kill you if he heard that."

"No, he would praise me for knowing the truth."

"I-is he talking to himself?" one of the guards had asked another.

Ignoring the guards, I turned and walked towards the palace. I sighed. "Why is there always someone else trying to kill my target? It's annoying when I have to knock them out and fight at the same time..." The palace gate was blocked by large debris from the battle. It seemed like the gate had partially collapsed in on itself. Sheathing Fusion and using my blood wire spell, the debris flew over my head and into a nearby building with a flick of my wrist.

"Say," my servant spoke up as I walked into the castle, "I'm almost done the resealing. After the mission, could we get some of that absolutely delicious substance that Scarlet gave me after one of her missions? What was it called again?"

I shuddered at the thought. "...Ugh...Peanut butter..."

"Ah, yes! How could you possibly hate it!? It's absolutely phenomenal!" he exclaimed. "How does one fit all that flav—"

His thought was cut short as something whizzed past my head into the wall behind me, destroying it completely. Looking behind slowly, I found that the previously damaged entrance way was now severely lacking in existence. Turning back forwards, I found the shooter quite intriguing. They were a hooded figure — much like myself — with a black cloak, and raising a similar black gun to my own.

Shrugging, I shook my head. "I'm a little disappointed. The head of this grand invasion missing they're first shot? Imagine that," I taunted.

"I didn't miss," she spoke in a deep and serious tone. "The entrance was my target."

"Not one who to enjoy a little chaos brought by more uninvited guests?"

"The last guest I was expecting has just arrived."

"Fancy that," I said, a little intrigued. "What about the princess? Wasn't she the whole reason for this?" I stalled as I slowly raised Dark Wraith to my new enemy.

"You mean her?" she said as she raised one of her arms to show a pink alicorn hidden under her cloak. I could now see that she was a dragon, dark purple in colour. "Partly, but now I'm done with her." The dragoness threw the princess on the ground in between us. I noticed that her horn was missing, and that she had sustained some severe injuries.

"Never really cared for the other two: I don't want her, but I do want the horn you have."

"Finder's keeper's."

"Something's telling me that you're not all talk, but I'm considering ignoring them."

"Only one way to find out."

Oh, she was asking for it. I was about to pull the trigger, but then a commanding voice sprung from my pocket. "Enough!" my master called out. "Retreat with the princess, my servant! Nothing else matters!"

My company suddenly burst out laughing. "What's the matter, Zero!? You think your prized lapdog can't handle the heat!? Do you concede?!"

"Yes," he responded suddenly. To say I was shocked would be an understatement.

It seemed that my opponent was also surprised by this turn of events as well. After a huff of frustration, she lowered her weapon, and I followed her example. I trusted my master enough to know he had a good reason for this. Soon after, she turned and walked further into the castle, leaving me alone with the princess.

I crouched down next to her as I sheathed my second weapon. Taking out my knife, I cut my finger and drew a healing circle on her belly. Then I carefully pumped a bit of mana into the circle to heal her wounds. Heaving her over my shoulder, I began to figure out where I was going. I pulled out a small, red gemstone from my pocket and held it up to my face.

"Mission successful, but the target left,' I explained.

"You are upset," my master stated rather than ask.

I was silent. It was true that I was angry at my master for not allowing me to terminate such a cocky target, but there was something else that was heavy on my heart. "I request a permanent station in Equestria until my target is destroyed — and before you ask, you know why."

"I must agree with the young master," my servant called out through our telepathy. Although a three-way telepathic link was enough for the three of us, talking through a communication gem was necessary for surveillance. "The newest alicorn will be next target if she is still looking for horns. No doubt Solana's daughters will pull the purple one close to them for her protection. Not only that, but —"

"Darkmatter," I warned sternly, "my personal affairs with them have no matter with the mission at hand."

Silence reigned for an eternity before a new voice emerged. "White," Solana's voice echoed out of the gem. I was surprised that she had used the nickname given to me by Scarlet after my first visit to the Crystal Empire. "If you are going to do this, I must ask that you keep everything you did after you left a secret. That includes Sombra and... me."

"It will be done, M'lady."

"Then go."

I pocketed the stone and snapped my fingers. A tear appeared in thin air and opening into an empty, black void.

"I can't wait to finally meet them," came Darkmatter's voice from behind me. I turned and found a black and white, monochromatic version of myself holding the pink princess. Although he looked like me, the whites of his eyes were yellow, the skin on his body was several shades of black and grey, and colour scheme of his clothing was the opposite of my own. Instead of focusing on white and red, he was more oriented around black and yellow. Maybe it wasn't the complete opposite, but it was close enough. After all, our clothes were meant to represent our being.

I had an objective view of the world and of our missions, whereas he liked to be laid back and carefree. However as with him being a mirror image of myself, we shared some things in common, such as our fighting style. "I mean, awake this time," he quipped. "Although, I'm a little sad I won't be getting peanut butter."

"Is the breach to Tartarus sealed?" I questioned.

"Yea, yea," he said waving off the issue.

"It would be wise to not use that tone with me, Darkmatter," I warned.

"Oh c'mon, boss!" he said, looking away and scratching his head. "We're off the hour now, right? I mean c'mon! There's no way we are!"

"Our mission is to protect the Princesses now," I began as I walked over to the rift, "so cut it out before I cut you from the payroll."

Darkmatter groaned as we walked through the rift. "I don't even get paid..."

Darkmatter was absolutely dumbfounded by my frustration at the situation. I had blood all over the front of my cloak, and there was absolutely no time to clean them! I was livid that I had to see my two friends in this condition! Not only that, but the powerful aura caused by my anger was causing the locals to faint! This was absurd!

"You're causing a scene, you know," Darkmatter said, trying to hide his face behind his hood. That irritated me even more, since the hoods were enchanted to cast an impregnable shadow over our visage.

"Damn my foresight! Failing me at the most crucial moment!" I seethed as we passed through the new castle gates in Canterlot. Suddenly, the gates closed behind us, but I payed it no mind. No doubt Tia and Lulu saw us as a threat. They were setting a trap.

"Are we really going to just... you know, walk in?" Darkmatter said with concern.

"Yes," I answered bluntly and angrily. "Even if they do attack, we have the upper hand." I motioned to the unconscious pony under my servant's arm as we walked into the castle.

"Ah, right," he said with distaste, "because that's going to convince them we're on their side. Threatening their friend and family."

"I will kill you, you know," I growled as we strolled into the obviously empty throne room.

"And I'll just keep comin' back to annoy you further," he said with what sounded like a grin.

I rolled my eyes as we were suddenly surrounded by several heavily armed guards. We, of course, stopped and waited for the real threats to come out. The princess duo themselves ported in front of us, right in front of the throne itself. They were sporting their personalized armour and weapon: Tia had golden armour wielding a halberd in her magical grip, whilst Lulu had purple and black armour with a warhammer at her side.

Some other ponies I didn't care about entered, but I payed them no mind as they shouted something I didn't hear. My attention was solely on the sisters in front of me. Their haunting eyes bore down upon me with the weight of the planet. I could hear their voices in my head, shouting that I wasn't there for them, shouting how it was my fault that Luna turned into Nightmare Moon, how I wasn't their friend anymore, but their sworn enemy.

My hands began to tremble: I was overcome by guilt and fear at the mere sight of them. I thought I could handle it, but it turned out I couldn't. Luckily, my faithful servant intervened.

"CONGRATULATIONS!!!" Darkmatter boomed with convincing joy.

I jumped at the sudden vigor of my servant. "What are you doing?!" I seethed over our telepathic connection.

"You are our one millionth opponents!" he shouted, ignoring my question completely. "As such, you've won a fabulous PRIZE!" One of the new ponies — the pink one — said something about how they were so lucky. "That's right, my dear! This prize is one in a million, too! It's your very own ALICORN!" he shouted, holding up the pink princess.

"Cadence!" the purple new pony yelled with horror. I turned to the voice to find the newest princess: Twilight Sparkle. The other ponies were her friends: the elements of harmony.

"INDEED!" Darkmatter shouted mirthfully. I looked over to the sisters to find that Luna was absolutely appalled by what was happening, but Celestia was staring directly at me with a strange look upon her face. "And with the low, low price of dropping your weapons, we'll even throw in our protection against the assailant of the Crystal Empire ABSOLUTELY FREE!!!"

As the pink one cheered at my servant's contradictory statement, I reached into my pocket. Celestia tensed at this and prepared to strike.

I flashed my pocket watch.

The clang of metal hitting the ground caught everyone's attention. Celestia had dropped her halberd on the marble floor. "Lay down your weapons," she ordered in a quiet, but stern voice. Luna looked like she was about to protest, but quickly followed her sister's gaze to me. Celestia whispered something I couldn't hear, and Luna's confused look turned into a frown as her warhammer dissipated into thin air.

"But princess —!" Twilight Sparkled protested.

"If this being wished to kill Mi Amora Cadenza, he would have already," Luna explained. "Thy presence sets all of us on edge, good sir. Perhaps a name to lighten our worries?"

"Z— White," I corrected my self. I was still uncomposed it seemed. "Call me White, and this is Black. We are representatives of a higher cause."

"Black" handed over the pink princess to Twilight Sparkle, who glared at him with the power of a librarian. Darkmatter shrugged it off like a mosquito bite as he rejoined my side. "Perhaps we should discuss what has happened without the presence of commoners?" he suggested.

Celestia walked to Twilight and whispered something in her ear, to which she nodded curly and ran off with her friends and the pink princess. "If you'll follow us, we'll take you somewhere we can talk." With that, Celestia moved towards a door to the side of the room with her sister in tow. We followed at a distance, through the halls of the castle and into a small negotiation room with a large table and several cushions to sit on.

"Guards," Celestia began, "please leave us to talk to these beings alone. It's for your own safety," she added as one of the guards began to protest. It took a moment for the guards to reluctantly shuffle out of the room, but as soon as the door closed behind them, the atmosphere in the room became thick with tension.

A full minute passed without any of us saying a word. I began to feel oppressed by the tension and my own guilt for being gone for so long. It was too much for me to bare and thinking of something to say wasn't yielding any fruit either.

I soon became aware of a noise in the room: Darkmatter began to hum a particular tune, and in the silence it roared like a horn, ruining the mood.

In anger, I found myself smacking my servant on the back of the head. "Ow!" he cried as he rubbed the impact point. "What the hell was that for?!"

"For being an idiot and ruining my train of thought!" I lied.

"Like hell I did!" he said angrily. "We're telepathic, remember?! I can see what's goin' on in your head!" He suddenly turned to my two friends with a vigor I was afraid of. "You see, my young master here feels so~ bad that he abandoned you and left—"

I jumped at him and knocked both of us to the ground as I tried desperately to cover his mouth and stem the stream of words. In the process, I knocked both of our hoods off, revealing our faces. "Oh?! So you do have a death wish!"

A tendril suddenly shot out of his chest and threw me to the other side of the room. "And he thinks you're super hot, too. I mean, your way out his league!"

"Help! I'm being slandered by someone who's afraid of large bodies of water!" I fibbed.

"Am not!" he shouted, sitting up as he did so.

"Are too!" I retorted, sitting up as well.

A sudden howl of laughter caught both of our attentions. We looked to find Luna lying on the ground, rolling in her mirth as Tia looked at us with disbelief. "I don't believe it," she lamented over Lulu's laughter, "they're us."

Author's Note

So, I'm writing a book. That's my excuse for not updating anything and I'm sticking by it.

Let me know what you think of the story, or if there are any mistakes I may have missed.