The Valhalla Cascade: The Arrival

by ScottTrek

Chapters

11. Aftermath Requiem part 1
12. Whispers in the Dark I
13. Aftermath Requiem part 2
14. Whispers in the dark II
15. The Arrival
Epilogue
"1" .Aftermath
"2". Ominous Happenings
"3". Dogfish Rising
"4" Decent Into Everfree. Part 1
"5" Decent Into Everfree. Part 2
"6" Decent Into Everfree. Part 3
"7" Calm Before the Storm
"8" Siege of Canterlot
"9" The Last Stand of Commando Group Omega
10. Fear Itself

11. Aftermath Requiem part 1

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12. Whispers in the Dark I

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13. Aftermath Requiem part 2

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14. Whispers in the dark II

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15. The Arrival

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Epilogue

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"1" .Aftermath

[size=18]

Chapter 1 I

A fuzzy ball slowly crept towards the sleeping palace guard. Ironhide snorted in his sleep as fronds began to brush against his nose. He began to twitch as the fuzzy ball began to furiously jab at his face. His hoof shot up to brush the assailant away and he promptly punched himself in the face with his greaves. Yelping his fell to the ground as maniacal laughter filled the room.

“Oh dear oh dear, sleeping on the job?”

“That was only funny the first 5 times Feather Duster,” Iron-hide grumbled blinking at the yellow Pegasus “Don’t you have rooms to clean? I’m too tired to put up with your shenanigans right now.”

“The palace is deserted so there’s nothing to clean up” Feather Duster giggled pulling the orange earth pony to his feet “I figured you might be lonely down here guarding the super secret thing”

“Thanks,” he sighed, it was hard to argue with his friend “Almost everypony else is out working on that debris field where Ponyville used to be.”

”Can I see it?”

“No.”

“Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease?!”

“No!”

“So you’re guarding it alone?”

“Shining Armour, Claymore and Myself. The other palace guards won’t come near this thing. Apart from us only two science/magic guys come down here.”

“Claymore’s your Captain right?”

“Eye, I am lassie.” A voice sounded behind Feather Duster. She turned to see a gray and black earth pony standing right behind her with the largest sword she had ever seen strapped to his back. She yelped and shot into the air smashing her head on the ceiling.

“Sorry, for disturbing....um...yeah I’ll go now.” Feather Duster spluttered whilst fluttering towards the door.

“Ah quit yeh blethering, I don’t care if you’re down here. Whatever’s in the secure chamber hasn’t moved since before they even brought it down here last week.” Claymore smiled before opening a saddle bag. Iron-hide removed a doughnut and began munching away whilst regarding the big iron door he was ‘guarding’. He had only seen the secure chamber being used once before.

After Discord had been turned into a statue for a second time the Dracquonicus had been held down here to be monitored, just in case. The Chamber was bound in countless magical spells layered atop one another for millennia. Whatever the thing was it was really worrying the Princesses.

“Ask a stupid question,” Feather Duster said fluttering down next to Claymore, sniffing a doughnut, “But if it hasn’t moved in a week why is everyone terrified of it?

At that moment a low hissing echoed round the room growing louder and quieter at random. The edges of the pony’s visions began to blur and warp then suddenly covered in a burst of static as the world fell away into a howling void.

Applejack woke with a slight wince, blinking at the bright sunlight. She tried to screw her eyes shut and roll over. Not moving she struggled to move a few more times before opening her eye to see what was going on. Stifling a yelp she looked down to discover her legs were covered in plaster and her chest heavily bandaged. After a few seconds of unrestrained panic, straining against her immobile limbs, memories began to tumble back into place;

“Ah horse feathers.” She grumbled slumping back into her hospital bed.

“You ok AJ?” Rainbow Dash called from an adjacent bed “Need a nurse or something?”

“I’m Fine RD,” she sighed “Forgot where I was for a minute.” Applejack closed her eyes again and tried to relax. Being stuck indoors this long was making her fidgety. After listing to the sounds of Pinke, Twilight and Fluttershy’s voices for a few seconds from the other side of the room she turned her head to look at her friend “See your colour schemes lookin’ better.”

Though at first glance Rainbow Dash’s colours were nothing out of the ordinary, but on inspection it became apparent that the shades of her coat and mane were just a few shades different from normal. Apart from their serious physical injuries from the previous week’s ‘incident’ all of the Mane Six had been affected by a “Chromo-Scalar De-resonance” as Twilight had dubbed the mystery effect of “whatever the hell that thing was over Ponyville”.

“Yeah, thanks!” Rainbow nodded “I think I could live with it like this, could be a lot worse.”

At an unspoken signal all eyes in the room quickly flicked round to Rarity, who despite the doctor’s best efforts was still fluorescent green.

“I feel like a giant glow stick.” Rarity grumbled glaring straight up at the ceiling.

As the group tried to suppress giggles (causing serious strain from Pinkie) there came a knock at the door. “Who is it?” Twilight called. The door to the ward opened a crack and a familiar blue mane poked through

“Can I come in Twiley?”

“Of Course Shining, we won’t bite!”

Shining Armour trotted across the room to Twilight’s bed. He was one of the few ponies brave enough to go near the ‘Creature’ locked up in the Canterlot vault. “Good morning Princess,” He grinned, rocking slightly back and forth excitedly “I have an interesting new development on the creature!”

“Really? Sorry, well progress has been slow so far.”

“Yeah well this is a solid proof discovery, Ok, ready? It has HANDS!”

“Wait................what? You mean like a ‘human’ hand?”

“Well,” Shining Armour muttered pulling a sheet of paper out of his saddle bag “There was another dimensional flux today, after the world stopped spinning we ran in there and between the four of us (oh yeah there was a maid visiting one of the guards,) we managed to get this sketch down.”

Shining passed Twilight the paper. On it was a rough charcoal sketch which did indeed show a human like hand, though not proportioned like those she had known in the ‘Mirror world’.

“I didn’t actually know that this was a ‘hand’ but on the way here I was looking at the drawing and some-pony called Lyra saw it and got very excited. It was pretty hard to drag myself away; she had a lot of interesting ideas about the Ponyville thing. She thought aliens had something to do with it.

“Who’s All-I-en?” Pinkie Pie piped up “Is it a chipmunk? Cause’ I don’t think Chipmunks would have access to that much pyrotechnics. Unless they tried to drug Celestia, which I tried once but that’s really hard and not as fun as you might think and..........”

“Um...No.” Shining interrupted gesturing to the sky. “Aliens are like, Creatures from other planets, out there.” He paused to let the group digest that nugget. “Well I should be off now. I have to go yell at the guards for being cowardly again....bunch of pansies......erm, no offence Fluttershy.”

After Shining left the room Rarity looked at the others questioningly “Correct me if I’m wrong but how can he have been studying that creature for a week and the only major development is that it has.... hands?”

“Yeah you missed that conversation.” Applejack replied “The easiest way to explain it is with another question; could you describe for us the rubble that is currently takin' up most of our homes?”

“Well erm......it’s sort of .......err, well its just rubble isn’t it? Um, roundish?”

“What colour?” Applejack pressed as Rarity continued to fluster.

“Blu-re-gree-purple?”

“Starstream, the scientist in charge of studying what’s going on said that all the stuff from that ‘splosion is jumping between our world and wherever it came from. It keeps erasing itself from ponies heads, the flux-thingies Shining mentioned are like...REALY big jumps and it sticks in our world for ah bit longer.”

Twilight was still staring intently at the piece of parchment Shining had handed her. Her wings gave a little shiver as she rolled it up and placed on a bedside table. “Hey Twilight,” Fluttershy said noticing her friends discomfort, “Do you think it’s humans that did this, from the world you visited?”

“No Fluttershy, this feels different, magically and .....Just in my heart, you know.” Twilight replied shaking her head. “I tried to scan the creature the other day, I know it’s in some kind of coma but even then, it just feels wrong somehow, dead but not dead. It frightens me Flutters, it truly does.

III

Doctor Whooves had no idea what had just happened. He had just woken up sprawled outside next to the TARDIS.

When the rift opened above Ponyville he had used the TARDIS to evacuate a good chunk of the inhabitants from the town, most of them were still camped out in the TARDIS while the cleanup operation took place, and now about 50% of them were now strewn around the forest clearing.

The clearing was a warzone, trees were uprooted and split, Big Macintosh was visible inside a small crater, Dinke Hooves lay unconscious with her coat and mane badly singed. The rest seemed to be uninjured but it was hard to tell.

“Doctor?”` A familiar voice whimpered. “Where are you?” Derpy Hooves lay near him, eyes clenched shut. The Doctor tried to pull himself up but fell down hissing in pain. His foreleg was broken and there was thin claw mark running down his chest.

Derpy’s eyes blinked open; tears welling as she stared at the Doctor. “I can’t move, Doctor.” She squeaked, voice breaking “I can’t feel my legs.”

In an instant the Doctor was by her side, carefully rolling her over he discovered five, deep, bloody puncture wounds running along her spine. Cradling Derpy the Doctor saw that some of the other had also woken up. He yelled at them to help and Derpy was carefully pulled inside the TARDIS. Something monstrous had struck at the ponies he loved most. And he had absolutely no idea what had happened.

Celestia, Luna, and Cadence stared at the Mirror Portal. The science-pony called Starstream had requested to inspect the portal to the “Human Mirror World” to inspect its inter-dimensional capabilities and see if they could give any information on the rift. What he found was far more disturbing.

The mirror had been shattered, still held in its frame but cracked beyond any use the mirror had a message scrawled across in blood;

No Escape.

Do Not Interfere.

This Is Your Only Warning.

Signed: Jack

High in the rafters Jack looked down undetected at the three Princesses. He could have laughed. They thought themselves so powerful, so god like. He briefly considered leaping down to kill them. He’d watched gods die before and relished the challenge of trying it himself.

No.... that wasn't how things worked. He had to stick to the plan, to proper procedure. Out off all his brothers he had alone survived to serve his master not by being the most vicious, but knowing when to apply it properly. Anyway they would be far more useful to his master alive. A live specimen was always more informative than a dead one.

Jack suppressed a giggle. His master was in this castle somewhere, it was only a matter of time before he found which of the many fascinating artifacts they were using to contain him.

They were going to have so much fun here.

"2". Ominous Happenings

Chapter 2

One week later

Rainbow Dash shuffled along on her crutches, the fact that she now moved at roughly the same pace as Tank but she was finally out of that hospital room. It was still going to be another long week before the speed heal spells finished regenerating her wing bones, still, being able to go for a walk was ok for now.

Dash smiled, it was a good day to be out and about. The sun was finally shining brightly now Celestia wasn't spending all her time patching up the rift, Most of the rubble had been cleared from Ponyville and nothing was threatening to bleed her dry.

Wait.

What?

Where had that last thought come from? She stopped and furrowed her brow in concentration. But the thought had gone. Maybe amnesia should be expected from traumatic events such as these but why did everyone have to get it at the same time?

“Not everyone” Dash muttered to herself. “Celestia knows something then again she always knows more than she lets on. Maybe there’s some clause about that in the godhood contract.” It had been Applejack, being the Element of Honesty that had first noticed the odd mannerisms of the Princess, she wasn't lying as such but it was there. Reminded Dash of a parent not wanting to explain exactly where the old family dog had gone to a young colt or filly.

Speaking of young children Dash noticed two things simultaneously. Firstly a mother sporting one of those ridiculous mane-styles that you only found in Canterlot was hurrying her children away down the street whilst throwing Rainbow an incredibly dirty look. Secondly there was an incredibly exited Scootaloo inbound.

Dash managed to pop some painkillers into her mouth just in time before the orange missile leapt off its scooter into a flying hug;

“RAINBOW DASH!”

As expected Scootaloo’s enthusiasm trumped her common sense and Dash batted tears from her eyes as she landed painfully on her back.

“Scoots” Dash grunted “Broken bones remember.”

Scootaloo backed off sheepishly “Sorry Rainbow I was just happy to see you, been kind of lonely.”

Dash slowly pulled herself back up, wiggling her still bandaged wings. Nothing broken. “Lonely?” Dash asked “What about Applebloom and Sweetie Bell?”

“Big Mac took Applebloom to Manehatten to stay with Babs and her family. Sweetie bell was attacked by vampire bats and in bed.”

“Vampire bats? I didn't think they went after ponies. Anyway there are plenty of young ponies in Canterlot to talk to, or are they avoiding you like the plague as well?”

“How did you know?”

“Same problem, These Canterlot wimps aren't tough like we are; the rift business has got them all freaked and they blame us.”

The two wandered randomly around. It was nice to just see the city all quiet and empty. Back in Ponyville the two had often enjoyed early morning activities. Scootaloo liked to practice her flying when there was no one around to see. It was surprisingly fun trying to teach Scootaloo, though frustrating at times, all the enthusiasm in the world couldn't make up the fact that the Filly’s wings were borderline under-formed.

It was whilst RD was pondering this fact of life that she came to a sudden realization. “Scootaloo where are we?”

“Canterlot?” she replied looking puzzled

“Then why are we standing on a cloud?”

Suddenly like a fog being lifted from her mind Scootaloo realised that they were in fact standing on a cloud about 800m above the surface of the city. Scootaloo started hyperventilating. It occurred to Dash that she’d probably never been up this high before. “But, but, but, but….HOW!?” Scootaloo squeaked.

“I don’t know,” Dash said patting Scootaloo reassuringly on the back “But since we’re up here it looks like it’s up to you to get us down.”

“WHAT!” the filly voice reaching a painful pitch

“Think of it was impromptu practice” Rainbow smiled “Just push the cloud down to ground level. Not like I can do anything” she continued indicating her wings. “This is probably just some left over magic stuff from all the spells flying around recently.”

Though only slightly reassured Scootaloo quickly became engrossed in her task; random magic burst were not unheard of after major spells so RD’s story fitted just fine. Anyway, Rainbow wasn’t fussed so why should she be?

As they descended Dash caught a flicker of movement at the edge of her vision. She didn't consciously register the shape she glimpsed but immediately put one of her damaged wings over Scootaloo protectively.

Elsewhere there was hard-core science in progress. A monolith slab of rock levitated above a chunk of the mystery rubble. The slab was obsidian black and carved with hundreds of arcane symbol’s and runes. The floor beneath it was also the same black material. The room was packed with glass tank of water lead and liquid mercury. Twilight looked up from a Geiger counter to see the eternally unkempt mane of Starstream appear over the top of a tank, closely followed by the familiar sweep of Doctor Whooves mane.

Though Twilight had only known the blue unicorn for less than a week she felt that they were quite good friends now but then again he was pretty much instantly likeable to everybody. Nice to the point of shyness he had been personally recommended to Twilight by Luna. He was actually extremely talkative on subjects he enjoyed. Combined with his love of books Twilight wondered if he was in fact some long lost cousin of hers.

“Ready to go?” she asked the two colts as they came into view.

“Yep. I've always wanted an excuse to break out the neutronium smasher!” Starstream grinned manically “This is going to be awesome!” She may of liked the Starstream but Twilight couldn't help but wonder just how mentally stable he was. Then again the Doctor seemed equally exited and he was sane, right?

Turning to the matter in hand the ponies trotted behind a protective screen and pulled on goggles and massive, oversized ear defenders. The Doctor repeated for the tenth time that day that they should keep their mouths open when the slab hit. Blown out eardrums were pretty painful in equines, what with the large ears in comparison to the head.

WHUMP!

Twilight swore she could feel every cell in her body vibrate as the compression wave blasted through her. The sound the ultra-dense material made as the two blocks smashed together was utterly indescribable. Around them the formerly still tanks where furiously bubbling as they were subjected to a barrage of sub-atomic particles.

Once the world has stopped spinning the Doctor turned to Starstream and the two beamed like idiots. “Tell me,” Doctor Whooves asked “How did you ponies even get a hold of pure neutronium?”

“Luna helped; I spent three weeks on the moon fiddling with modified telekinesis fields and collator dishes. Anyway, it’s Sci-fi, I’m good with Sci-fi.”

Twilight collapsed into a chair to start looking through the readings from the sensory equipment, it was a pain not being able to use magic on the rubble. This was going to be a long day.

III

Atop the castle’s high tower two of the other Princesses tried to relax. Celestia had her nose in a massive book whilst Cadence tucked into a bowl of fruit. This tower was off limits to non-alicorns, somewhere for the Princesses to escape to when they were tired of being princess-y all the time. The only disturbance all day had been the single low boom of Twilight and Starstream’s neutronium crusher. Thankfully that lab was been extensively soundproofed.

“What are you reading auntie?” Cadence asked between bites from an apple.

“It’s a tome on ancient pre-equestrian mythology. There has to be something in here related to what happened two weeks ago.” Celestia replied flicking over a page.

“Tia’!” Cadence exclaimed “Please try to relax. You've been working nonstop for over two weeks now. We’re supposed to come up here to get away from princess stuff.”

“I am relaxing Cadence” Celestia sighed, “it’s a very interesting book regardless. Did you know that Dragons originally didn’t have wings? The first alicorn Prometheus granted her best friend the wyrme Kaz’dakan the power of flight to save his life when the two battled an invasion of something called Xenomorphs.”

“Is that why dragons don’t develop wings until their teenagers?”

A short while later there was a flutter as Luna landed on the on the tower balcony. “Greetings.” She said sitting down on her dark blue couch. “I have been looking in on the experiments of Princess Twilight. Things seem to be going well.”

Cadence raised an eyebrow at Luna. “Um what happened to your face?”

“My face?”

“You have a huge black eye.”

“Oh….um… I tripped.”

“Oh a likely story” Cadence joked in a teasing voice, “I bet you have some secret colt-friend who smacked you!”

“STARSTREAM WOULD NEVER DO THAT!” Luna suddenly yelled. A dead quite fell over the room as Luna realised what she had just said. Celesta slowly lowered her book and stared at her sister, barely able to keep a straight face.

“Cadence was joking sister.”

“OHH...erm……”

“So you and Starstream……..”

“Wait….that’s not what I……..”

“Yes it is. So how long has this been going on?”

“I dost’ not want to talk about it.”

“Cadence is the Alicorn of Love. Don’t make her drag this out of you.”

“You know Tia,” Cadence added “I could just go ask Starstream himself.” Face bright red Luna teleported from the room. Cadence and Celestia burst into laughter. “Starstream can barely talk to women unless science is involved, and she’s even worse at social things. How in all of Equestria did either of them manage that?”

Celestia went to reply but at that moment a massive explosion ripped the quite day asunder.

Twilight raced back into the lab as smoke poured from the doorway. Starstream and the Doctor blundered into her. “What happened!” she yelled over the crackle of flames. The equipment inside the lab had caught fire and the flames were spreading quickly. Coughing violently Star stream ignored Twilight and cast a spell back into the room. With a sharp crack a tiny white light shot out of his horn freezing the room over.

A few hours later Cadence sat by a rather distraught Luna. Nobody had been hurt in the explosion but Starstream had been forced to freeze the room to prevent the equipment inside causing another far more serious explosion. Unfortunately the flash freeze had destroyed any of the results from the experiment hat hadn’t been burnt in the fire. Luna had been pretty shaken up; having your sort-of colt friend nearly blown up was traumatic even for a goddess.

Luna suddenly let out a squeak and pointed across the room. Cadence swore and leapt across the tower room to the fruit she had been eating earlier. One of the Apples had the word “JACK” carved into it in block capitals.

“I don’t know who or what you are Jack but nobody hurts Twilight or Luna whilst I’m around. This just got personal.”

"3". Dogfish Rising

Chapter 3I

"Sorry who are we meeting again?" Sighed Ironhide exasperatedly

"We told you. A blind Griffon called Dogfish Rising." Claymore replied.

"That...That's what I thought you said..."

The group; consisting of Claymore, Feather Duster, Starstream and very reluctant Ironhide, were wending their way along a country path outside Ponyville. The township was quickly being rebuilt now that most of the rift rubble had...evaporated. The group began to hear the most bizarre sound from down the path, trotting over small hillock they saw Dogfish Rising standing about 100 meters along the path leaning against a tree.

"So we walked all the way down here to see a blind......rocker chick... fisherman?" Ironhide whispered. The bizarre sound had resolved itself into heavy metal music being being played from a portable record player at Dogfish Risings feet, and she indeed had what appeared to be a fishing rod holstered on her side.

Despite being a good distance from the group the Griffon suddenly switched off the music and turned to face the group. "That's blind-rocker-tracker-hunter to you punk!" she yelled running over to the group, stopping in front of Statstream with pin-point accuracy. The others where shocked by her incredibly precise movements. "Starstream! What's this about Luna I've been hearing about?" the griffon continued gripping Starstream in a ferocious hug.

"I thought she was blind." Ironhide mumbled to himself, confused at the lack of ....non-blind activity shown by Dogfish Rising.

"I am blind," Dogfish grinned hearing Ironhide's barely whispered thought, "Don't mean I can't see!" the griffon approached the other Ponies, spreading her wings out as she did so.

Dogfishes eyes were almost pure white, the irises a light cream and the pupils non-existent. They would have been spooky if it weren't for the unearthly contraption attached to her body. Woven through out her jet-black feathers were bands of metal. Impossibly thin filaments were woven into her feathers running down her spine from the back of her head to the base of her wings, at which point they followed the wing bones branching and splitting to follow every single feather. Every time a feather twitched the filament resting on it moved in perfect sync, but they were definitively not attached to the feathers themselves. There were also filaments woven into her dreadlocks that glowed and flickered ever so slightly

"What the hell is going on with your wings!" Feather Duster gasped, totally ignoring any tact by flying up to the griffon to start poking at her wings and back.

"Echolocation." Dogfish explained." I was always able to feels shifts in the air using my wings, to tell where other people where, nothing like bat or dolphins but fundamentally the same. Starstream built this device to amp up that sensitivity in my body and turned me into one big sonar dish."

After a few minutes of awed inspection the group remembered why they had come down here.

"Right guys," Dogfish started, "I've been drifting around Equestria for a few weeks now, just the normal stuff looking for work. now I know things have been pretty shook up lately what with Ponyville blowin' up and everything, but things have been just.... off all over."

"Meaning?" Ironhide questioned, still annoyed at being dragged out to this field in the middle of nowhere. "define 'off'?"

"Well, its like you ponies are being messed with. Things you just can't remember. I notice things others don't, I can sit back and listen to the world. Superficially they're nothing, just normal little accidents, but there just a few to many to be a coincidence. The other day I heard about a pair of Pegasi who found themselves up on a cloud without any memory of how they got there. How would someone even do that?"

"I head about that." Feather Duster said "One of them was Rainbow Dash, one of Princess Twilight's friends. It was In Canterlot just the other day, I saw them landing."

"Really?" Dogfish said raising an eyebrow "Cause' I heard the exact same thing happened to a pair of snobby types in Manehatten, and a few days before that in Las Pegasus. coincidence?"

The skeptical Ironhide suddenly shook his head, eyes wide. "You know...some of the equipment in the Canterlot armory have been moved around. I thought it was the rookies being lazy, but a set of armor went missing the other day, you don't just lose a heavy Calvary get-up like that."

Claymore suddenly perked up "Some of the unicorns elemental staffs went missing the other day as well. How did I forget about that? Those could do some serious damage..............hey Starstream, what exactly caused the explosion in you lab?"

Dogfish cocked her head slightly, like she was straining to hear something. "I would of come into the City to tell you this but I felt something waiting on the road there. It was weird, I couldn't get a fix on it. Like it was a hole in space...like...like THAT! DOWN!"

The group flattened to the ground, saving them by a gnats whisker. The unknown projectiles only glanced off their heads instead of shearing them off. The ponies were knocked out immediately but Dogfish managed to hurl herself a fraction of a centimeter further and pulled it into a commando roll.

Without pausing she upholstered her Battle-Line and leaped into battle.

Dogfish couldn't actually see the attacking creature but she could see the imprint on the ground where it standing. She could understand how camouflage worked even if it didn't apply to her methods at tracking animals, but how in Celestia's name was it masking any sort of sound vibration from the air currents and wind?

The imprint vanished and Dogfish swore as the pole lanced the empty ground. Maniacal laughter erupted somewhere above her head. Dogfish pushed the gain on her echo-wings as far as they could go, trying to get a fix as the creature started talking.

"Well miss Dogfish, (oh man that name), I have to say I'm impressed. "

"Aren't you going to to introduce yourself to a lady?" Dogfish grimaced whilst sticking the harpoon end of her Battle-Rod into a log on the ground. "Since you seem to know who I am."

"Well of course!" Dogfish yelped as something punctured her flank. for a second there was an image of syringes in her side before it was gone again. "My name is Jack. Now this is gonna hurt more the more you struggle, so feel free to go crazy!"

Top of the tree.

Dogfish swung her rod whilst firing the pneumatic harpoon launcher, firing the log attached outwards. The improvised mace sped round and smashed against the top of the tree. Dogfish was gratified to hear yelp from the hidden Jack. There was a series of crashes as the startled assailant tumbled from his perch and smashed into several branches on the way down.

"Got you." Dogfish grimaced. aiming at the moving branches she fired the two remaining harpoons from her Battle-Line. The two spikes impacted on the trunk around the Jack trailing a the mono filament fiber. With the third line now wrapped around the top of the tree the web was set. Expertly swinging the rod around her head Dogfish sent loop after loop of the wire at Jack. Jack was trying to leap away but was hopeless tangled on the micro-barbs in the wires. Ironhide and Claymore had woken up, Dogfish couldn't imagine what they were seeing but they they were reacting brilliantly. the two soldiers didn't have their weapons but where hurling rocks into the writhing mass of wires. "You may be hidden but you can't fight worth a damn!" Dogfish cackled as she went into a death roll, twisting the wires taunt around Jack digging into his body (whatever that looked like).

"ENOUGH!" Jack yelled, for an instant his true form resolved itself to Dogfish. she gasped as every cell in his body violently vibrated and he suddenly burst through the wires. Within seconds savage blows had swept aside the two soldiers, Dogfish tried to run but a hammer like strike swept down before she could react. The world went dark as the strike crushed her wing joints, severing the connection to her echolocation rig. Crippled and blind Dogfish was helpless as Jack lifted her up by her throat, tears streaming as his hot breath pushed against her face. "I said i was impressed," he laughed, "Didn't mean you stood a chance against me."

Before she blacked out Dogfish heard a massive "GET YOU GODDAMN PAWS OFF HER YOU BASTARD!" from Starstream and the world erupting around her.

III

The mane six stood in front off small crater in the ground. The area was warped and twisted like someone smudged up a painting.

"Jeez, Starstream did this?" Rainbow Dash gasped at the warped landscape, "I knew he specialized in spacial magic, but I seriously didn't think he had it in him!"

Twilight walked into the middle of the crater to face her friends. She looked at them long and hard, remembering every dangerous or frighting situation they had been in together. They'd been through a lot together; from Nightmare Moon to Discord, the Changling invasion to Sombra, and all the other incidents in-between. This Jack monster was like nothing they had ever faced before, but then again, who else could be trusted to sort this out before more ponies got hurt?

"OK girls our mission is simple," Twilight started" This Jack has proved himself to be an extremely dangerous entity but the testimony's and evidence provided by Starstream and Dogfish Rising show that he is responsible for a the host of injuries to the inhabitants of Equestria, includeing the near fatal attack on Derpy Hooves. Our job is hunt him down and stop him from hurting anypony else. We will have the Elements of Harmony but the Princesses have told me that if lethal force is required then we should not hesitant. He certainly won't"

"Erm Twilight?" Applejack asked, voice struggling to remain calm, "Ah know were normally the ones who sort out this kinda thing but...surely the Princesses should handle this? Or the Army? Or Discord? This is more their league. "

"L...L..........Lethal force?" Fluttershy quaked.

"How are we supposed to fight somthin' we can't even see." Rainbow Dash angrily demended

Twilight let out an utterly forlorn sigh."I know...I know. Thing is, the...the rift above Ponyville is nowhere near sorted, Its taking everything the Princeses and Discord have to try and fix it. We didn't even realize it was getting worse till Luna started using the moon as an amplified scanner, and, that is how we're going to get him..." Twilight Indicated to the sky, where despite it being the middle of the day the moon was palely present. "Both Starstream and Dogfish Rising got impression of Jack's true form from their fight with him. Luna using the moon to broadcast a field that'll shut down his cloaking powers and give us a rough idea of his location."

Twilight bit her lip turning away from the group, tears welling in her eyes. "I'm so sorry, we shouldn't have to do this..... I should take him on alone....I"

Twilight felt a hoof on her shoulder. Rarity stood there with a wicked grin.

"Go alone my dear? Please, I think I speak for all of us when I say that we don't care if this Jack fellow is the most evil creature in all the universe, he has the same chance against us as a whelk in a supernova. Lets go kick some tail!"

"4" Decent Into Everfree. Part 1

Chapter 4Part 1I

Jack slid gracefully to a halt as he felt is cloaking power switch off, the darkness slid back into whatever his equivalent of soul was with an audible 'whoopf'. They'd figured this out far more quickly than he'd expected. Oh well, he'd been about to discard that little trick anyhow.

Jack casualty walked along through the tree's. He could hear wildlife running before his presence, not an unusual occurrence on any world. Even civilized entities ran at one glance at his true form. It didn't offended him, it pleased him but not so much to inflate his ego. Yes he was strong but getting cocky had led to his predecessors downfall.....

...straight onto a pike.

heh...

He'd heard many variations on the phase "Every creature in the galaxy has an irrational fear of the dark. But it's not irrational its the....." Then insert the shadowy creature of your choice. He liked that concept. As a creature of the night he liked invoking fear in the hearts of others, and he liked the sensation himself. Fear showed him he was still the best due to skills he'd earned, not natural ability and luck. Then again, there's was nothing wrong with natural ability. His first call of business in the Everfree Forrest was built on nothing but the one of the greatest natural abilities for killing he'd ever seen. These thing definitely scared Jack, and boy, did he love it.

Even in death Jack was awed by the savage beauty of the creatures. Throughout his long life Jack had heard tales of these specific monsters and the carnage they had spread across the multiverse. Several of the newly recruited Diamond Dogs nervously shuffled forward to start gathering up the corpses. The Dogs tiptoed across the cave mouth, they looked like they were going to wet themselves.

When he'd said that these magnificent killing machines had been his first call of business he'd been thinking of importance, not chronological order of business. There was no way he was going to gather up every corpse by himself though. That type of manual labor was what his new minions were for, so he reluctantly dragged himself to the meeting with them.

"Don't damage the specimens" Jack barked harshly "Don't spill any blood, its highly acidic. Don't cut your self on their exoskeletons and make sure you scrape off that ....STUPID FUNGUS!"

The cave stank of death, not decay but a heavy, grey, almost sterile smell. The floor was littered with black insectoid corpses. The Aliens were covered in a white spidery fungus that had leeched their life and twisted their bodies in frozen spasms of pain.

As the Dogs rushed to obey his commands Jack silently fumed at the Fungus that had taken their life. As a specimen was carefully scrubbed down by the Dogs jack lent forward to pick up some of the spores, the Dogs flinching from his presence. Dear Lord! He hated these Diamond Dogs, If it weren't for the blasted fungus wiping out the Aliens then he wouldn't of bothered with dealing with this sub-standard species.

"Soooo, Mr Jack." the head Diamond Dog said, sidling up to the black figure. "These,ah..... Xenomorphs bugs, There gonna help you beef up my lads with your genetic wizardry?"

"No. Incompatible. I was going to brainwash them."

"Sooooo why do you need their bodies then?"

"I'm going to see if i can clone them, I don't put all my henchmen-eggs in one basket."

"You don't think we're up to the task?" The Dog huffed.

"We'll see."

The rather indignant Head Diamond Dog looked like he was going to explode. How ever Jack was spared having to bitch-smack the hound into submission when a cry was raised from the other side of the nest.

"Yo! Boss! We got a live one!"

The two raced across the cave where a Xenomorph and a diamond dog named Ruck were grappling. The Head Diamond Dog gasped, Jack Grinned savagely. Under normal circumstances the dog would have been cut to ribbons in a an instant, and indeed the Xenomorph's razor sharp tail was rammed into the Dogs chest, but it was stuck there. Layer of blood and muscle tissue had spread itself over Ruck's chest and formed an ultra-dense armour layer. The Xenomorphs tali was jammed in by a centimeter and couldn't penetrate to reach the organs beneath. As the group watched a second Diamond Dog let out a yelp, his eyes were glowing. The Dog, named Wrex, suddenly bellowed at the Xenomorph which was blown off Ruck by a massive telekinetic force.

The Xenomorph landed on its feet and went to charge the group. Suddenly it caught Jacks stare. Xenomorphs are blind and hunt via telepathy. Jack could sense the Xeno's scan his brain waves. Examining a mind that was alien and different as its own. After what seemed like an eternity the Xenomorph made its decision, turned tail and bolted.

III

Fluttershy's house had avoided the destruction of Ponyville, being on the far outskirts, so she had let the others use it for a staging area for their upcoming expedition. Jack was definitively in Everfree Forrest, so the proximity was also useful.

Fluttershy was preparing some provisions for the journey when a sharp rap came from the door. Fluttershy slowly put the down jam jar she had been holding and peered toward her front door. The others were not expected for a few hours yet and there was no-one else even remotely near her house now that the construction crews had gone home for the night.

It suddenly occurred to Fluttershy how very alone she was right now if whatever was behind the door was not friendly.

Gathering her nerve she carefully walked up to the door. Clearly she was being silly. She was just being a little paranoid. Yeah sure she was alone out here but there was absolutely no way that Jack or any monster would dare.......

The door way shuddered as something scratched its way down the door frame. Fluttershy shrieked and flew back, crashing into the wall behind her. from outside came a bizarre collection of grating shrieks. a sharp sound unlike anything Fluttershy had heard before. She stood paralyzed with fear as the whole door began to shake, creaking in its frame as something heavy slammed against it.

Fluttershy struggled to make her limbs work but it was like someone had placed an ice sculpture on top of her, a heavy, sub-zero mass pinning her to the floor. With a final creak the door fell off its hinges. Suddenly able to move Fluttershy raced into the kitchen without a glance at the door way. She grabbed a rolling pin off the counter and flew back to the door. She had no idea what she was going to do but............

ohhh

The Doctor and Derpy were lying tangled on top of what could only be Dogfish Rising, who was convulsing wildly. The Doctor twisted round and jammed his sonic screwdriver into the base of the griffons skull. There was a few buzzes from the device and Dogfish went limp. Fluttershy stood awkwardly, rolling pin still in hoof, as the Doctor fiddled with Dogfishes rig and Derpy leaned the door back on its frame.

"Sorry Fluttershy," Derpy smiled apologetically "Dogfish had a fit, we didn't mean to scare you."

On the floor Dogfish began to grumble aggressively "That bloody Jack, If i'm stuck getting fits for the rest of my life after he fucked up my spine i'll string him up and...."

"Fixed!" the Doctor cut in, letting up Dogfish before she said something that made Fluttershy faint. "Well, Sorry about that door. Anyway I'm sure you can guess why we are here."

Fluttershy began look even more scared "W-w-well, I-I Guess your Here to help us g-g-g-get Jack, but I thought you didn't like hurting hurting a-a-a-anything Doctor?"

For half a second The Doctor's eyes flicked to Derpy as she offered the exhausted Dogfish a muffin. Derpy was still sporting a bandage across her head and the puncture marks on her back had left a massive discoloration. The Doctor leaned in close to Fluttershy, his voice suddenly hard and cold.

"I've talked this over with Twilight and Celestia. Your gonna need all the help you can get."

"Look I now that Derpy got hurt and Dinkies still in hospital, your not taking this personally are you?"

"Jacks already made this personal for a lot of people..."

Fluttershy went back to the Kitchen and stared out the window. "That's what I was afraid of Doctor."

They were ready. After a day of furious work they had assembled an impressive specialized outfits worked on by Rarity and the Canterlot armory.

Applejack looked like a cavalry mare. As the physically strongest of the group she had been out fitted with thick plate armour. Now weighing a ton she had been able to barge an entire squadron of soldiers out her way in practice. In addition Rarity had replaced Applejack's old lasso with one made of a silk weave that Rarity assured was tough to restrain something with the strength of an elephant in necessary.

Rarity herself had managed to dress less.....flamboyantly than usual. Her battle gear was a short, layered silk dress, it had taken muck persuading that it was sensible attire. Eventually she had demonstrated using an arrow that the material was indeed tough enough withstand punctures and the layers had been sewn to twist offensive objects away from her body. Though slightly miffed by her friends lack of faith in her efforts at protective clothing she had eventually conceded to add a chain-mail layer as well, not that she planned on getting that close to any danger anyway, it had come as little surprise that Rarity had become a skilled archer. after all it required precision and finesse to do it effectively.

Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie had both opted for lightweight scout armour. Since both were highly agile individuals they had sacrificed the protection of thicker arm our to retain their natural speed. In some respects it almost didn't matter; Dash had been seen crashing through tree's and had even smashed into solid rock at high speed and walk away. And Pinkie was...................just Pinkie, her idea of armament for this job had been to stock up an party materials and no-one really doubted she find SOME way to make them effective. Rainbow had decided to arm herself a few short swords and knives, nothing too large to effect her aerodynamics.

Fluttershy had managed to come up with an ingenuous solution to deal with her crippling anxiety. She had had a whip around at a chameleon colony and gathered enough shed skin to form a body suit. It has taken a fairly simple set of spells from Rarity and Twilight to regenerate their colour changing ability. It wasn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination but it was excellent for their needs.

Derpy Hooves had insisted on wearing homemade armour made out of kitchen pots and pans, and was wielding a huge frying pan. Dogfish Rising had also brought her own leather armour, it had thoroughly creeped everyone out when it was revealed that it was made from the skins of monsters she had defeated.

Finally Twilight was wearing the ceremonial armour she had received shortly after her coronation. It was meant only to me worn at military parades but after all the flashy extras had been pulled off and the inside re-padded it worked more than adequately as protective garment. More importantly it was fitted with magical accelerators and elemental staff heads. It was difficult to create stable devices that increased the output of magic, but the accelerators would speed up the time it took for her magic to take effect, and the staff heads were loaded with a charge of magic to quickly fire elemental attacks.

"Ladies, Doctor.......Dogfish," Twilight started. "We're ready as were going to get. I can't thank you all enough. I..."

"Enough yapping!" Dogfish yelled "Let's Rock and Roll!"

"5" Decent Into Everfree. Part 2

Chapter 4Part 2I

Jack strode back into the Xenomorph nest, despite his best efforts the live specimen had gotten away. He was curious as to how it was alive, all the other Aliens had died from the virulent fungal infection but this one had shown no signs of infection. Capturing t would aid his efforts to no end but with minimal thermal signature they were bloody hard to keep a track off. Re-entering the cave he found the Diamond Dogs crowed around the two of their kind that were exhibiting special abilities.

The two were showing off. Wrex was levitating chucks off wood and rock off the ground and smashing them against Rucks toughed armored hide.. Jack, though not impressed as such, was less distasteful of the Diamond Dogs. The speed at which they had worked to grasp the abilities he had injected into them was above his prediction. Wrex had clearly been practicing the entire time he had been gone. More impressive was Ruck, though barely visible there were scars visible on his armored hide, evidence of massive self mutilation to speed up the genetic conversion. Such drive was to be respected.

"Right Jack!" The Dog's Leader fumed "You said that you wouldn't star messing with my lads without consulting me first and...."

Jack breezed straight past the Leader for a closer inspection of Ruck's armored chest. The irate Leader started yelling at Jack.

"Don't ignore me! I've give'en you good strong workers and my knowledge of Equestria so....."

"Your point is?" Jack deadpanned.

Jack strutted away, he was inspecting a pile of dead Xenomorphs in once of the carts, as the Leader stormed up to him, Jack careful picked up a tail end that had fallen off a decaying specimen. The other Dogs watched impassively at the scene. Seemingly in slow motion the Leader reached out a paw to grab Jack, then in a heartbeat the paw was staked to the ground with the tail bone. The Leader bucked as Jack inserted a needle into the base of his neck, there was a final spasm then the Diamond Dog slumped paralyzed as his flesh began to warp and bubble.

The Equestrian Taskforce had been making slow but steady progress into Everfree forest. Despite Twilight's best efforts the tracking signal being broadcast was very indistinct, there was a very real danger that they would stumble across their quarry at any second.

Dogfish and The Doctor were at the front, scanning ahead using the sonic screwdriver to boost Dogfish's sonar range. "So I understand you and Starstream have been getting along quite well." Dogfish whispered.

"Oh um yes." Doctor Whooves replied, startled by the break in the silence. "It's nice to find someone who appreciated actual science and its application. Magic is good and all but it would be nice to have an explanation for it beyond the whimsical ones given my most unicorns." The Doctor winced as Derpy tapped him on the head with her frying pan. "OH! No offence Princess."

"Non-taken."

The group had been walking for a while and had come across part of the huge ravine that ran through the center of the Forrest. There was no bridge in sight so the winged members got ready to carry the others across.

"Good grief AJ!" Rainbow Dash grumbled as she tried to lift the earth pony. "That armour weighs a ton! How can you even move"

"um girls?" Fluttershy squeaked. There was something bothering her but she couldn't quite place it.

"Well yah see Dashie," Applejack laughed at the straining, "Since i spend all day kicking tree's instead of clouds, Ah have muscles every where, not just the ones you use to stop you falling out the sky."

The group laughed, letting out some much needed tension, except for Fluttershy who was now peering over the edge at the gorge bellow. "Hey Flutters your gonna have to help me get AJ's fat ass in the air!"

"Don't think cause we're on a mission, I wont kick your cerulean......"

"This ravine shouldn't be here." Fluttershy cut in suddenly, looking up from the ravine. In a heartbeat the others were peering over the edge at the rock face. Fluttershy hated interrupting other ponies, so when she did the others took it very seriously.

"I think we've been here before..." Fluttershy continued, her cameo suit triggered with nerves "This was new, I've been around here before looking after birds and this.......... wasn't here then."

"Does anyone else remember...... fire here?" Rarity slowly said, chewing her lip in concentration "On the night the rift opened?"

The Doctor grew very exited. "You know looking at the gradient and regularity of the ridge lines on this 'ravine' combined with trajectory and....." The doctor began licking the ground much to the puzzlement of the others,

"Just let him get on with it." Derpy said, attempting to roll her eyes.

The Doctor smacked his lips before continuing, his eyes showing the gleam they got when The Doctor was on to something very important. "There's traces of Isodesic Carbonates all round here here!" he exclaimed.

"Isodesic?" Twilight gasped "But for something to produce those kinds of compounds it would be reacting at an energy level ........"

Rarity coughed slightly to interrupt the two. "Sorry, English please?"

"This isn't a ravine," The Doctor explained, "It's a trench caused by a spaceship crash!"

III

THUMP

Ironhide jumped as the sound echoed down the corridor. He rushed back to the containment chamber door as another load thump rumbled from within. Claymore was standing where Ironhide had left him, sword drawn and ready. Within a few more seconds Starstream had teleported in, alerted by one of his sensor doohickeys.

"Its awake isn't it?"

"Oh yeah"

"Horseapples!"

"6" Decent Into Everfree. Part 3

Chapter 4Part 3I

It was early morning before finally found the spaceship. The angular craft had buried itself in a rocky outcrop most of which had been reduced to gravel by the immense impact. The group could only stand in awe as The Doctor inspected the ship, inside and out, for danger.

“You know?” Pinkie wondered out loud, “For a flying machine it’s not very….. flying looking, it’s all wedge shaped and un-aerodynamic and doesn’t even have big flappy wings! I mean there are those big tail fins at the back but…”

“Well…I dunno,” Rainbow Dash said slowly “Not being aerodynamic is probably what saved it.”

“Huh? Explain!”

“Well that trench its wake dug goes on for ages. Would’ have needed all the air resistance it could get to stop. You know…..if it is Jack’s spaceship, then he would have come a very long way to make such a sloppy landing. Crash landing…”

Dash’s profound thought brought on another bout of headaches from the Mane 6. They knew they had been here before, but they just couldn’t remember any details.

Whilst the others where puzzling over their fragmented memories, Dogfish and Derpy had approached the Doctor, who was sitting on the ground staring at the ship.

“Wassup Doc!” Dogfish said.

“Is it safe Doctor?” Derpy asked nervously tapping the ship with her frying pan.

“Well, there is no immediate threat to us. But, it is like nothing I have ever seen before. Some of the stuff in there is fairly generic but a lot of it is like……stuff from a science fiction novel, it exists real life (well in my world), but would need slightly different physics to actually work.”

Dogfish suddenly stiffened with a sharp intake of breath. “Something’s coming! Fast!”

In a second the group had assumed battle formation, weapons drawn and ready.

“Wait…no.. what! Gah! Can’t see it, Where did it go! ”

“Is it Jack?” Pinkie growled with surprising ferocity, assembling miniature party cannon.

“Don’t think so. Feels different. Whatever it is, it’s close”

The words were barely out of Dogfishes beak when the Last Xenomorph burst from the undergrowth and threw itself at the group.

“Good Morning Celestia.”

“Discord, what are you doing in my bedroom?”

“There’s good news and bad news. Nice dressing-gown by the way”

“Ok (yawn) get the bad news over with first.”

“That alien you’ve got locked up in the containment room woke up for a few minutes last night.”

“Oh my! What did it do?”

“Bellowed for a bit. Then the guards activated the 2nd level containment spells. It’s now wrapped in chains and lapsed back into a coma. Still can’t work out what it looks like though. Distortion field is remaining pretty coherent.”

“What’s the good news?”

“With considerable effort from yours truly that big space-time rift is effectively closed and sealed. Let me tell you, that was a truly exhausting experience. I am knackered! I barely had enough energy this morning to materialise all that custard!!”

“What Custard?”

SPLAT

“DAMMIT DISCORD!!!!!!!!”

III

With momments to spare Derpy's pan whacked the spear-like tail away before it could impale her. Before the Xenomorph could recover The Doctor had pulled it into an improvised judo flip and thrown it bodily away from the startled group. With the element of suprise gone the Xenomorph reared up to it's full height and hissed menacingly, snapping it's inner jaw back and forth.

Fluttershy squeaked and vanished from sight. Rairty stepped forward and shot three arrows in quick sucsession at the xenomorph, but the armoured carapce far far to tough to be penertrated. The first shot took it by suprise and jammed in a seam of the armour, but the other two glanced off harmlessly. The Xenomorph jumped at Rarity, she having shown the greatest threat.

However midair it was caught in a barrage. Pinke's mini party cannon had fired a large blob of what had appeard to me molten fuge, sugur and cake mix. Simltanously Twilight had unleashed a magical firestorm that had engulfed the Xenomorph. What ever was in the Pinkie's mixture was highly flammable and was now stuck to the screeching Xenomorph like burning tar.

The Xenomorph flailed around on the ground trying to put itself out. Twilight stopped the fire stream, Part of her felt slightly bad at killing the creature. But desperate times call for desperate messures.

The Xenomorph had finnaly managed to put it'self out. It tottered around weakly then began to feebly swipe at Applejack. Applejack too looked sadly at the Ailen. When she had was a filly a group of Xenomorph's had come out of Everfree forrest and onto the Apple Farm. She had found them all dead in an orchard, bodies twisted and wracked with pain by a white fungus called "Prometheus's Shroud". These things may have threated the world Millenia ago but now they were pathetic remanants, condemmmed by a microscopic death sentance. Applejack reared up and knocked the Ailen onto it's back before brining her front hooves down in a crushing blow to finish the Xenomorph off.

That's when things went wrong.

Applejack suddenly rolled away yelling at the top of her lungs and the Xenomorph sprang to its feet and loomed over the strickened pony. When Applejack had landed her blow the force had driven Rarity's arrowhead, lodged the the Ailen's chest, though the armoured carapace and released a jet o blood onto Applejacks breastplate. The acidic blood was burind steadly though the thick metal, and Applejack was know stuggling to free herself before the acid reached her flesh. Seeing the distress the other ponies scrammbled forward.

What none of them had realised was that the Xenomorph had been only faking weakness. It may not have been a sentient life-form but it was a cunning creature nonetheless. Though turned away from the onrushing group he could sense there positions perfectly. Moving with sudden explosive speed the Alien whipped its tail out perpendicular to his aggressors. Being winged Rainbow, Derpy and Twilight where at the front of the charge and the tail whip caught them all simultaneously. They were swatted straight out the air as they were viciously clothes-lined by the sweeping attack. Twilight desperately tried to move off the ground in the heap she had landed in, but her legs wouldn’t respond and she could barely breathe.

Dogfish Rising tackled the alien and the two were barely distinguishable as they brawled in a tight battle ball, a frantic blur of claws and beaks and feathers and chitin as they convulsed like a cat chasing its own tail. Meanwhile Rarity had used her magic to rip Applejacks breast pate off in the nick off time. The earth Pony’s chest was covered in a giant blotchy burn, a fraction of a second longer and the acid would have been completely through the metal plate and burnt her in two.

Twilight, seeing danger, tried to cry out to Rarity but her windpipe was still crushed and could only rasp a small squawk. Rarity turned just in time to see Dogfish being bodily thrown at her. The two collided with a sickening thud and were sent sprawling. The Xenomorph was about to gore the downed ponies when Pinkie Pie rocketed in out of nowhere yelling incoherently. The Xenomorph staggered back by the force of the infuriated pink pony that was battering its head with a huge variety of objects. The Xenomorphs snarled as it legs reached the edge of the deep trench and it started whipping at Pinkie with its tail.

Twilight managed to struggle to her feet. She tried to grab the Alien telekinetic-ally before it could hurt Pinkie but her head was still spinning from the massive impact and she couldn’t feel her magic. Sure enough within moments Pinkie had been sent sprawling away with lacerations covering her body.

Only Doctor Whooves was left standing. The two extraterrestrials stared each other down as the Xenomorph began to advance on its last threat, stepping along the edge of the deep trench, hissing all the while. The Doctor raised his sonic screwdriver in one hoof and let loose and ear-splitting whine. The Xenomorph immediately halted and clutched its head in pain. On the ground Dogfish yelped and pulled a wire out her sonar rig, then curled into a foetal position as the sonic assault intensified in pitch and intensity. The Xenomorph was locked in place, the sound waves bombarding its large head, paralyzed by pain.

“Elements!” The Doctor yelled over the cacophony. “ELEMENTS OF HARMONY NOW!”

Finally able to concentrate Twilight reached out with her mind to the Element concealed beneath her now dented helmet. Around the clearing her friends struggled to their feet, one by one the familiar coloured projections began to fly through the trees, even Fluttershy’s was swirling in from somewhere. It was different from previous times; the coloured band sparked and crackled like lightning, creating flair like burst whenever they touched.

“HIT IT HIT IT HIT IT!” The Doctor yelled, doubling his voice to be heard over the howling maelstrom. But something was wrong. Despite all the ponies efforts they couldn't direct the Elements to strike the Xenomorph, which had realized the terrible pain in its head wasn't going to get any worse and was now creeping towards the Doctor. Again and Again the Ponies tried to strike the Xenomorph but each time the Elements would simply whip them selves into a more even powerful frenzy. The increase in power in the atmosphere had become so great that the air pressure was now pinning everyone down, expert the Xenomorph who like some terrible force of nature had dragged it’s self to the source of the paralyzing pain and stood poised to strike a killing blow, inner mouth poised and ready.

“We’re all going to die.” Twilight thought numbly “We didn't even find Jack. And now were going to die at the wrong monster.”

Twilight closed her eyes as with a final snarl the Xenomorph lent in for the kill.

“Fluttershy!”

Twilight opened her eyes at the Doctors cry. Fluttershy, who had been hiding camouflaged, was now clinging to the Xenomorphs back, her mouth fastened round its inner jaw and wrenching it up and away from the Doctor. The Xenomorph bucked wildly but was unable to dislocate Fluttershy.

What’s more, the energy bands from the Elements where now rapidly closing in, whirling closer and closer to the interlocked pair. The relived Doctor turned to look back at the other Ponies just as Twilight suddenly barged past him.

“Fluttershy! Get off it! Jump! JUMP!” She yelled trying to grab the yellow Pegasus telekinetically, but couldn't penetrate the now dense weave of magical energy. Suddenly sensing through the Elements the source of Twilight's distress the other four Bearers limped forward and tried to push through the intense energy field, but in their hearts they knew it was hopeless.

The reason the Elements hadn’t been able to strike the Xenomorph was because the creature was not a natural part of their universe. The Elements were such an integral part of the fabric of their reality that it meant they simply couldn't perceive the Xenomorph, even if they could sense the immense threat and started exponentially increasing their power output. Fluttershy, the only one not now suffering from any form of head trauma and deeply connected to nature herself, had realized this and done the only thing she could do.

For one terrible, endless moment Fluttershy’s eyes slid serenely across her friends as the Xenomorph struggled to dislodge her. Then, the awesome power of the Elements of Harmony surged through Fluttershy like a lightning rod and blasted them both.

The image would haunt the nightmares of the ponies for many months afterwards. A stark black-and-white image of the two. Their skins translucent and skeletons visible. As quickly as it struck the energy had dissipated. Half blinded by the glare they could only hear the soft scuffle as the bodies tumbled from the edge and into the ravine bellow. Still half blinded Rainbow Dash raced forward, about to dive off the ledge after her friend when a clap echoed through the air.

Vision clearing, the ponies looked up one by one. What they saw nearly broke their traumatised minds.

Straddling the trench was a titanic, warped Diamond Dog, if you could call it that anymore. It was larger than a hydra and with a similar triangular wedge of a body. The arms and legs were now twisted columns of muscle, paws swallowed up but sill able to grab via the dozen ropey tendrils sprouting from its shoulders.

The tendrils silently stretched down and grabbed each of the group. They meekly let it happen, the fight drained from them all lifting them up; past its swollen head and up to its back where Jack stood clapping.

In all honesty most of the group had been expecting some kind of pony. They had trouble accepting the idea of a truly alien creature that had traveled all the way to their world to inflict some random acts of violence and other bizarre activities. Maybe some kind of cross between Discord and Sombra. But the insane appearance of the creature before them fitted the bill perfectly.

It was humanoid, around eight or nine feet tall, its limbs incredibly long and thin. It had jet black skin than somehow managed to look like cut glass. The body was round and stumpy, at odds with its beam like limbs, but covered in a network as scars and wires running just below the skin. Its hand was similar to a human’s, but the fingers were longer and tapered down to needle like points. Even more bizarrely the legs also ended in tapered points instead of feet, Jack impossibly balanced on the tiny ends. The left hand had a mechanical mount attached to the wrist; attached parallel to each finger was a huge syringe. A twist of piping ran from where the plungers wound have been, under the skin of his arm before emerging as his shoulder and into the canisters.

The tendril holding Twilight swung her in closer till she was face to face with Jack.

His head was easily the most disturbing part about him. Over half of his head was encased in in smooth metal, ragged scar tissue round the edges showing that it was not a natural feature. The edge of the metallic portion ran diagonally across the right of his face and looked almost surgically sterile. The front of the plate was covered in camera like lenses of varying sizes that constantly shifted inwards and outwards as Jack hungrily focused on Twilight. The rest of his face was horrifically mismatched to the clean, robotic look of the right half. The skin looked like it had been held in a bonfire before being dunked in acid. His left eye was orange and severely bloodshot, the pupil reptilian. To complete the demonic picture it seemed that at some point Jack’s cheek and jaw had been sliced open and nobody had bothered to stich it up. Ragged and torn mouth extended up the side of his head in a permanent half grin, the dozens grey, translucent, needle like teeth as impossible sharp as his ‘feet’.

“So we finally meet Princes Twilight.” Jack hissed sibilantly leaning forward, mouth stretching out in an even bigger grin. Twilight stared at his insane, sadistic expression and recoiled her head. Jacks grin grew even wider, sticking his head centimeters from Twilight’s. “Oh come on where’s the defiance? The threats? I thought you guys would at least…”

Twilight suddenly rammed her head forward in a violent head-butt. The blow took Jack by surprise, but not as much as Twilight as she passed though Jacks image with a slight waver and crackle.

“Hologram.” Dogfish said weakly.

“I have to say I’m impressed. That fight with the Xenomorph was a fascinating display. One-to-one Kill/Death ratio is nearly unheard of when dealing with specimens like that, especially in a variant so highly adapted to deal with magical threats. I would have liked to have seen more action but...”

“SHUT THE HELL UP YOU GODDAMED FREAK!”

In an instant the rage and horror had returned as the entrapped ponies explosively struggled against the tendrils whilst letting loose an avalanche of verbal abuse at Jack who had begun to laugh insanely.

“Oh that is the Fight I like to see.” Jack hissed, swiping an arm. More tendrils swept forward to gag the suspended Ponies as Jack continued. “You represent some of the most dangerous individuals on this planet, weird and ridiculous as that may seem. Now you’re going to spend the foreseeable future inside this Collector’s holding pods whilst I go free my Master from Canterlot vaults.”

“Take a good look ponies.” Jack leered “I know it’s clichéd to reveal your plan to your captures enemies, but I’m really going to enjoy taking your precious Princesses to pieces.”

The hologram winked out as pods along the mutants back popped open.

VII

Moments before they reached the openings the tendrils suddenly ground to a half. The group looked around as the entire monster began to tremble. The tendrils suddenly released them but the pod lids had snapped shut. They tumbled down the sides and dropped, thankfully the ground was muddy and the landing relatively soft.

Rarity rolled over in a daze then suddenly let out a small high pitched shriek. The others turned to see that her hooves were now stained bright right red with blood. Now on the ground the Ponies could see that the Collectors throat had been ripped open and cascade of blood was gushing forth.

A figure emerged from the fountain of blood. Totally drenched in gore and hair practically melted off Fluttershy stood looking overjoyed as the convulsing Collector’s insides continued to spill onto the ground.

“Oh my word! You all ok!” She exclaimed “I was so worried when the monster picked you up!”

“Uhhh… Sugar-cube?” Applejack said aghast at the spectacle before her, “Did…Did…how did you do ….that?”

“OH!” Fluttershy exclaimed turning back to the mess behind her. “That was Erwin.”

“Who the hay is Erwin?”

The collector finally flopped to the ground dead. A section of its skin sliced open and the Xenomorph stepped out, before calmly walking up behind Fluttershy.

There was a very long silence as everyone stared agape. Eventually Fluttershy piped up, “Err sorry but I thought …..Isn’t it obvious?”

“Well yeah.” Derpy suddenly exclaimed “The Elements of harmony turned nasty Nightmare Moon back into Luna, who’s good. And Fluttershy turned Discord from a big crazy mischievous meanie into a big crazy mischievous...err...kind of' good guy? Anyway, so put them together and they rewrote Erwin’s Genetic code making him a sentient creature that Fluttershy could then communicate with and convinced to help us! Err… Right guys?”

Much to the bemusement of Derpy, Fluttershy and Erwin, the others formed a quick huddle and after a not inconsiderable amount of discussion ended in Twilight striding (albeit with a major limp) up to Erwin, looking the Alien up and down before sighing “I guess that seems reasonable.”

"7" Calm Before the Storm

Princess Luna was sat curled in her chambers looking out at the mornings activities bellow. Her subjects bellow scurried about like ants as they went about their jobs. She was somewhat envious of their energy as she was exhausted from the ongoing events resulting from the rift.

There was a soft tap of hooves behind her and sudden warmth at her side. Starstream jumped onto the sofa next to her and snuggled up under her wing, and for a few minutes they remained silent and still; just enjoying the cuddle in the silent morning air.

Luna looked down at the blue unicorn, and was surprised he was looking up at her with slight concern.

“Is something wrong?” she asked wiggling round to better face Starstream.

“You look exhausted. When’s the last time you slept?”

“Funny, I was about to ask you the same question.”

“I was up all night investigating our not-so-welcome guest after his shouting match. It’s not night anymore so you don’t have an excuse.”

“I’m fine. Stop worrying. I’ve dealt with worse situations in the past fine. I should be worrying about you!”

“Don’t patronise me Luna,” Starstream said, getting annoyed, “The last time you were under this much stress you went insane and tried to cover the planet in eternal night.”

For one moment Luna leapt back, face a mask of shock. Starstream suddenly wondered if in a moment of irritability he’d said something so catastrophic that his foreseeable future was on the dark side of the moon. But before he could properly panic, Luna had suddenly enveloped him in a massive hug; both forelegs and wings wrapped around him as he was thrown back onto the sofa. “You’re the only pony in Equestria crazy enough to say something like that.”

“I love you too.” Starstream gasped, trying to wiggle some breathing room, under Luna’s considerably larger frame.

Releasing Starstream Luna sat back. “There’s something bothering you, I can sense it in your mind.”

“It’s nothing important.” Starstream sighed.

“Tell me. Please!”

“But....”

“TELL ME STARSTREAM!”

“Ok! Just turn off the Royal Canterlot voice.” Starstream got up to stretch his legs. Despite his protestations Luna knew that this was really bothering him. “Ever since we put that creature in the vaults, I’ve been having these nightmares. Well it more like the same nightmare but with different versions. When your mare-friend is in charge of helping ponies confront their nightmares, they it kinda start getting to you.

“So you’ll admit I’m your Mare-friend now?” Luna giggled blushing slightly.

Starstream blushed as well and kissed Luna on the nose before continuing. “Each one starts off more or less the same; I’m in a strange place, an alien planet, not the same one each time though. There’s a yellowish one with floating islands, one like the moon and one that’s covered in jungles.”

“Do they look like how you imagined alien worlds would look like?” Luna asked “What’s happening?”

“I’m surrounded by people I care about. Not anyone I actually know, but in the dream they’re family and friends.” Starstream was staring at the floor, voice becoming more urgent. “...and then... and then storm clouds start rolling in...And...And...”

“What happened next!?” Luna was really concerned now. Starstream was a little odd sometimes but this was starting to scare her.

“A monster drops out of the sky and kills everything.” He whispered. “And I mean everything. The sea’s boils and the skies burn. Those are dead worlds now.” Starstream collapsed back onto the sofa, breathing heavily.

Luna sat beside him and once again stared out the window. “I don’t know exactly what all that means Starstream. But I can tell you’re under more stress than even I am. I know everyone’s worried about Jack and the Rift and the creature in the vaults but just remember this; Dogfish Rising nearly beat Jack by herself, armed only with a harpoon gun and some barbed wire, and you blasted him with your magic so hard that he fled despite having beaten everyone else and you had lapsed into a coma from the effort. Now if he couldn’t beat a blind gryphon, one unicorn and two palace guards; how do you think he stands a chance against the Elements of Harmony, Princess Twilight, her friends, the same Gryphon, the Doctor and an irate mother Pegasus?”

Starstream kissed Luna again, stretching up to reach her head. “You know what!” he exclaimed sitting back down, “You’re absolutely right! I knew that I just needed to talk to you. I’ve just been getting myself worked up over the past few days. I’ve really missed you. I haven’t seen you at least two weeks.”

“Well as soon as things settle down properly,” Luna grinned playfully, “I will clear a whole week on my schedule and reserve it just for you. I’ll even wear those socks you walking in one me prancing around in when we first met.”

Starstream squeaked at the sudden forwardness and blushed so hard that he almost turned purple.

I just beyond the Canterlot perimeter Jack stood, silently going over his plan of attack. Around him the horde mutant Diamond dogs panted with excitement at the prospect of attacking the capital city of the Pony race. A long animosity had existed between the two races and not entirely unjustified. Now hyped up on Jacks genetic augmentations the distrust of the ponies had been amplified a thousand fold.

His new lieutenants Wrex and Ruck eagerly ran up and informed Jack that all assault teams and Collectors were in position.

“Jack to all points,” he broadcast on implanted radio’s, His twisted face stretched into a malicious grin, “Attack.”

"8" Siege of Canterlot

With a cascade of light and a twinkly sound the Mane 6, Derpy, Doctor, Dogfish and Erwin materialised a few meters from Canterlot City’s main entrance. It had taken the Doctor an hour to hotwire the alien ship’s teleport system, an impressive feat since he’d been simultaneously directing the use of futuristic medical kit also present on the ship.

They were battered, bruised and missing equipment but back in fighting shape. Canterlot looked like it could use the reinforcements; plumes of black smoke were rising through the air all across the city.

Just inside the City entrance a squad of Royal Guards had been hedged in by a pack of Diamond Dogs. Ironhide, Claymore and another earth pony were standing in front of a trio of unicorns as a dozen armour clad Dogs snapped and lashed at them. The longer range of the ponies weapons keeping the claws and teeth at bay. The three Unicorns present were standing statue still staring at a dog whose eyes were glowing red, also standing perfectly still, their minds locked in a telepathic “wizards” duel. A number of pegasi were flitting around above but could not get close enough to help. One of the Diamond Dog and been mutated so that its arms were now masses of barbed whiplash tentacles. Every time the pegasi tired to swoop in the spiked tendrils would lash out and drive them back. Its jaw, warped into a serrated beak, cackled as a tendril drew blood.

Suddenly Ironhide’s spear was snatched out of his hand by an enterprising Dog as Ironhide jabbed at the aggressors. With their opponents defence compromised the Pack leapt in to strike, but suddenly found that they were floating in mid air. There was a slight whimper of confusion as Twilight levitated them on-mass and with a flick of her head sent them rocketing upwards. The anti-air Dog squawked in confusion and turned just in time to see a flash of teeth as Erwin swiftly beheaded it. Finally the Doctor walked up to the last Dog and placed both hooves on its back. A few seconds passed then the telepathic Dog abruptly lost control of its bowels and collapsed. The unicorns staggered as the psi-pressure dropped.

“Princess Twilight!” Claymore exclaimed, “Fraid’ you’re a bit late for the party. Who’s the ...err...big gorilla wolf motherfucker?”

“Apparently he’s called Erwin,” Twilight said, watching as Erwin clambered up the side of a building, “Kind of a long story. We need to get to the Castle. Jack is trying to reach his master. That’s what you’ve got locked up in the vaults.”

“Well we’re going to have to hoof it.” One of the Unicorns sighed, rubbing his head “Those telepathic Dog mutants are throwing out magical dampening fields, so teleports are impossible. Also means that one-shot disabling spells like Transfiguration aren’t available, I’m amazed that that Levitation spell just worked. I’m Corporal Rho by the way....err... Your Majesty.”

“We better get moving,” Ironhide interjected indicating the street, “These guys are tough buggers to kill.”

Rainbow Dash was looking straight up in the air, “Yeah, We should probably move now, those guys Twilight levitated are coming back.”

“Starstream there’s another Collectors coming. No pressure you but do you think you’ve got another one in you?” Commander Hurricane said using a wing to prop up the unicorn whilst hastily looking round the parapet.

“Gimme a second!” Starstream gasped; sweat pouring down his face, “Just yell when it gets close.”

Commander Hurricane jumped back up and grabbed his rapid fire dual-crossbow. A heat beam scorched the battlement as got back into position. Cool and calm he leapt up and put two successive steel bolts into the beam firing Dog. The bolts staggered the Dog but it got up again and, eyes dripping with liquid fire and blasted at him again. Hurricane ducked back giving the bow’s winch a solid snap back, pulling the two compound winch systems taunt again as new bolts locked in place from the mounted hoppers. There was a sudden detonation as the Scorpio adjacent to his position, a two-pony operated javelin turret, shot an explosive round into the Heat Beamer.

“I had that one!” Hurricane called across, instead dropping two less mutated Dogs whose cover had just been blown up.

“Sure you did sir!” The operator called back, “Is Starstream going to be able to stop that....what did that captured Diamond Dog called them?”

“A ‘Collector’ and I bloody hope he can.”

The on-going siege of Canterlot wasn’t going brilliantly for the Ponies. The Dogs had carefully staggered their attack waves so most of the Guard Divisions were split up throughout the city.

The Collector had made its way ponderously closer, the first wave of the gigantic monsters had been fairly easy to deal with, but these new ones had been mutated with near impenetrable armour and outfitted like siege engines. Hurricane swore as a flaming projectile fired from the beast swatted a Pegasus out the air like gnat. A rock clanged off his helmet and sent the world spinning.

Starstream leapt from cover and dived behind the Scorpio; nearby ponies wielding crossbows scrabbled over and took up position. The Collector was hit by a volley of ballista shots, but the heavy rocks clunked harmlessly away, so far only the Princesses had been able to crack the Collector’s armour plating singlehandedly, but they couldn’t be everywhere at once, so Starstream improvised method was the only thing keeping the east wall in one piece.

“You sure you can do this again?” the operator said, leaning down to mop some sweat from Starstream’s face.

“Unless the Princesses are nearby I don’t have a choice.” Starstream said, shutting his eyes and concentrating. The temperature around the formation of ponies started to climb as Starstream’s magic struggled to overcome the damping field.

“No wonder Luna likes him...” Hurricane thought absentmindedly taking aim, “That spell would be a bugger to pull off under normal circumstances.”

Then with a loud ‘pop’ and bubble of distortion came crackling out of Starstream’s horn and form a field in front of the assembled bowmen, who almost instantly unleashed a barrage of projectiles at the Collector.

The second the arrows hit the Warp Field it dropped their relative masses, accelerating them out of the field faster than the eye could see. A perfect warp field would have put their masses at zero whilst they were inside and following the laws of physics accelerated them to light speed; the only state a zero-mass object can exist in. While Starstream couldn’t quite push his magic anywhere near that far; the flurry of crossbow bolts and javelins left the warp field with considerably more kinetic energy than when they had entered. There was a deafening crack as the collector was folded in half by the impact.

“I hope someone somewhere has a good idea how to finish this soon.” Hurricane thought bleakly, “We can’t keep this up forever.”

III

Dogfish Rising hated to admit it but this was really a lot of fun. She was clinging onto Rainbow Dash as the two dive-bombed a pack of Diamond Dogs that were lying in wait of unsuspecting ponies.

Rainbow Dash dropped Dogfish and barrelled into a particularly beefy looking Diamond Dog, smashing them both through a building window. Dogfish whirled her harpoon and swept the legs out of several Dogs. Before the startled Dogs had even hit the ground Dogfish had whirled round and jabbed the harpoon tip through the throat of the nearest Dog. Initial shock gone, the Dogs closed in surrounding Dogfish and prepared to tear her apart.

Dogfish grinned, “Oh come on boys, oldest trick in the book.”

To late one of the Dogs looked round in time to see the rest of Twilight forces hit them like a battering ram. Like a mini tornado Dogfish danced through the mob of fighters. She loved the thrill of combat, each combatant’s body, friend or foe, like a cog in a great clockwork machine and one by one each part fell into its place. Griffons were natural predators, but even among their kind Dogfishes skill as a hunter was legendary.

She launched a harpoon head into a spiny Dog and yanked back, slamming both elbows into a different enemy. The spiny Dog staggered back, but did not fall. It howled maliciously and bore down on Dogfish but as Dogfish predicted it totally forgotten about Claymore, whom it had been fighting. The spiny dog barely made it seven steps before Claymore leapt up behind it and with a massive overhead swing cleaved it in two with his sword.

Jack ran rapidly between buildings like a howling wind. Around him the city was being torn apart as Dogs and Ponies clashed.

The Alicorns had met his expectation perfectly and were proving delightfully hard to out-manoeuvre. He had also been intrigued at the relentlessness that the Alicorn of Love and been perusing him, he must of really pissed her off! Most interestingly at their last skirmish “Mi Amore Cadenza” had started venting black and red vapour, Jack had no idea what this meant but was sure it was going to be a hell of a lot of fun to find out.

"9" The Last Stand of Commando Group Omega

Twilight’s squad was stuck in Sunset Plaza facing off with a pack of Dogs. The opposing sides were hunkered down on opposite sides of the shopping area and for the past quarter of an hour they had been in deadlock, groups of three’s and fours vying for superior positioning over their opponents. The one piece of good news was that they had found Shining Armour and his personally trained commando’s, who had were about to overrun when Twilight had arrived. It was not helping matters that the magic damping from the dogs had increased to the point that even Twilight could barely eke a spell out.

“Hey Twiley.” Shining Armour grunted, sliding through pile of rubble and behind the wall in which Twilight and Fluttershy was sheltering as energy bolts burst overhead. The cat and mouse like confrontation had been so intense that the sibling hadn’t been able to reach each other.

“I like your new friends.” Shining Armour said as there came a clatter and a shriek as Erwin pulled a Dog through an air vent before its comrades could react. The ‘converted’ Xenomorph had racked up an impressive kill count throughout siege. The dense urban surrounding made it easy for him to creep up on and dispatch unwary Dogs even if some of his natural kamikaze-like aggression had been removed by Fluttershy’s influence.

“He’s such a good boy.” Fluttershy said as the ripped-up remains of the unlucky Dog dropped from the Ceiling in front of them, eliciting an odd look from Twilight. “Even if he did want to kill us before.” Fluttershy added sheepishly.

Before Shining Armour could question this Twilight cut in. “Look, Shining, Do you know how close the enemy forces are to the Castle? We think Jack is going to try and breach the inner Citadel and free the thing locked in the vaults.”

“Last time I checked over the radio Commanders Hurricane, Phalanx, and Thalia were holding off a good chunk of their total forces at the castle battlements with eveypony else spread throughout the city. But even if he does get through I’m way ahead of you sister, I left an elite commando squadron to keep the Vaults secure.”

There was a sudden commotion. Three Commandos’ had hidden themselves in the debris at their position and hidden in wait. Sure enough three Dogs had taken the opportunity to move up having seen the apparently empty shop. The second the Dogs had turned their backs the Commandos had burst from the rubble like spectres, knives clenched in-between teeth. Two knives found their target and plunged into jugular blood vessels but the third Dog was a fraction faster. The

Commando’s knife was deflected down and lodged in the Dogs chest. Fatally wounded the Dog clamped both hand onto the Commando’s back and with a flash of heat fused on, the Dogs features began to bubble and warp with heat. Realising what was about to happen, the Commando roared and burst from the shop dragging the dead Dog with him, who now glowing as fire was shot from its mouth and ears.

A flurry of projectiles peppered the Commando as he charged across no-man’s land, but he shrugged them off like they were gnat bites. He let out a final cry of “For Equestriaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!” and threw himself into the enemy positions. The Dog fused to his back erupted, the kamikaze mechanism turning him into a ball of plasma. The firestorm rushed outwards incinerating everything about it. The commando’s flesh was stripped from his bones instantly and Twilight was slammed against the wall as air was sucked from the atmosphere to fuel the fireball. When the blistering heat stopped the ponies looked round at the devastation. The Dogs had all been incinerated and by some miracle the plasma burst had burnt out just short of the ponies. They stood in numb shock for a moment, silent at the Commando’s final act of heroism.

Face tear stained, Twilight turned to her brother, “I’m so sorry Shining, those elite commandos you left to guard the Vaults? They don’t stand a chance.”

The twenty members of Commando Group Omega winced as something detonated outside. They were deep inside the castle, so the proximity of the explosion was deeply worrying.

“We should be out there.” Phoebus muttered flapping her bat-wings nervously. “They need us out there.”

“Relax.” Prince Blueblood said, patting her back. “The Dogs may have taken us by surprise but if it were anything like the Changeling invasion we’d know about it by know.” It was still vaguely odd for Phoebus to have royalty as a squad mate, especially the infamous Blueblood. But, to give him his due, he was a good fighter but was brilliant at recon and predicting enemy movements. Despite having been an absolute arse for the majority of his life; a few years back he’d sat down after the famous Grand Galloping Gala incident and said to himself “Blueblood, what are you doing?” Since then he’d thrown himself through military training with a gusto that had boarded on demented. Despite the initial hostility shown my...well...everyone, most had eventually admitted that he was a changed Stallion.

Phoebus was drawn out of her recollections by a sound echoing down the corridor. As a bat-pony her hearing was far more acute than the others. Blueblood noticed her cock her head. “Something coming?” Blueblood asked suddenly alert.

“Tapping.” Phoebus said, “No...Footsteps?! It’s definitely not a pony!”

In an instant the 20 commando’s were ready. Weapons poised as the tapping footsteps grew louder and into the audible range of the other ponies.

Then he was there.

Jack paced towards the commando’s each step slow but confident. He sized up each pony in turn. Finger drumming in anticipation he let out a wheezing chuckle before saying “Twenty. Walk away now and I won’t have to kill you. You have no idea what you’re dealing with.”

“We know that a blind gryphon nearly beat you by herself, Yah big bugly weirdo.” a Vanguard Commando said levelling his spear at Jack.

Time seemed to slow to a crawl as Jack, almost lazily, reached out, grabbed the spear by the shaft, reversed it and stabbed it through the Vanguards’ throat. Blood flowed like a river down the Vanguards armoured weave as he dropped. Jack looked back up and said softly “Nineteen.”

All hell broke loose. Jack moved like a snake striking, his fist snapped out and hit a soldier in the face, blood spraying as the soldier was smashed into the ground. Two pegasi swept in with gladius short swords slashing, Jack brought up his forearms as a metallic ripple passed along it. The swords clashed against Jack’s long forearms like they were made of steel.

Phoebus cursed and few up into the air, trying to move round the Pegasi to get a clear pass with her rapier. Jack twisted his body and the left pegasus’s sword was sent it plunging into his comrade’s side. Jack’s arm swiped back and back handed the other pegasus so hard that his head was twisted 180°.

“Sixteen.”

The three unicorns armed with bows finally had a clear shot and set out a volley of flaming arrows at Jack, firing as fast as was physically possible. Jack grinned with savage pleasure he weaved between them. He pointed the arm with syringes at archers. There was spring and three of the syringes were launched through the air, but before they could reach their intended targets they ground to a halt in mid-air. Blueblood growled and crushed the syringes telekinetically, his horn sparking as it forced the magic through the damping fields.

“Ohh,” Jack laughed, “Now how did I know you were going to do that? Watch out, that choking gas is pretty flammable.” The liquid in the broken syringes billowed out as a choking gas that quickly flooded the entire corridor. Jack laughed again a fireball gathered in his right hand.

Phoebus suddenly slammed into Jack. Her sword snapped like a twig against the sheen of his forearms, but the force staggered him back and the fireball went out. Phoebus was grabbed by the scruff of her neck as Jack held her in front of him.

“Bat-pony? How curious.” He mused, “Tell me do you sleep upside-YAH!” Jack yelped with surprise as Phoebus whipped out a hidden dagger and slammed it into his face. The dagger missed the intended target of the organic side of his face but was still scored a hit as buried itself up to its hilt in the largest of the robotic lenses. “Now that was stupid! I’m going to….”

Blueblood suddenly rammed out of the chemical fog and threw himself at Jack with the two bulkiest Earth Ponies in the group in tow. Jack’s spindly legs buckled as the ponies slammed into him like a freight train. Blueblood was suddenly next to the dazed Phoebus and began firing punches into Jacks face. “DON’T! YOU! DARE! TOUCH HER!” More ponies leapt out of the fog and piled onto Jack.

For one glorious moment Phoebus thought they had Jack beaten as she drew another dagger and swept it at his organic eye. Then Jack let out the haunting, insane laugh and he ‘blinked’. His body turned to smoke and he re-materialised upright, disorientated ponies clinging to his arms, still trying to stab him. Jack took two steps forward, the two Earth Ponies who had knocked him over let out curdling screams as Jack’s point–like feet punctured their spines. Jack ‘blinked again and his smoky arms passed through the wall. When they withdrew they did not bring the commando’s back with them.

Phoebus gasped with dark, cold horror. Only she and Blueblood remained alive. Phoebus had been thrown clear when Jack had teleported. Rolling on the ground she picked up a sword and hurled it at Jack as Blueblood tried to stab his exposed abdomen. Effortlessly Jack slapped the sword out the air and pushed a single needle into Blueblood’s side. Blueblood dropped to the ground, yelling and pawing at the wound. As Blueblood began to writhe in agony Jack turned to Phoebus and began speaking.

“Listen up. I’ve injected him with a solution that causes his blood to start clotting. At its present concentration it’s not lethal but let me assure you it is exquisitely painful. There is a magical barrier surrounding the vaults coded to block non-pony DNA, it will be terribly difficult to dismantle and it take a while for me to break it down. But I can assure you I will succeed and I WILL kill anyone who disturbs me while I take down the barrier. There is however a shut off rune just inside that you could activate saving me a lot of time and saving you, this pony here (who judging from you facial expression is VERY dear to you) and all the other soldiers who try to stop me their lives.” Jack let out a small giggle “Just so you know I have enough of that blood clotting solution left to make this unicorns body tear itself into a fine paste.”

“You’re a monster.” Phoebus said grabbing a sword off the ground. “And I would die ten times over before I betray this land to the likes of you.”

“Last chance!” Jack mocked, striding towards the trembling bat-pony. On the ground Blueblood rolled over and through his convulsing agony shot a fireball at Jack. It burst on his back, staggering him slightly. With a fierce battle roar Phoebus leapt through the air towards a monster she knew in her her she could not hope to defeat.

10. Fear Itself

“Princess Twilight!” A voice called, “Commander Shining!” A bat-pony detached himself from the shadows of an alley way and rushed over to the two ponies.

Twilight was relieved to have found another friendly face. The Mane Six and her brother had been separated from the rest of their squad when a Collector had attacked. They had been working their way slowly towards the castle; Twilight, still desperate to reach the vaults had managed to weave through the hulking creatures legs whilst the others drew it off.

“I’ve was told you were somewhere in the area.” The bat-pony panted, sweat running off him like a river. “There’s good news and bad news.”

“Get the bad news over with first.” Shining Armour grunted, taking the relative safety to inspect a claw wound on his legs.

Twilight looked round to see Erwin skittering his way towards them. Despite having little facial expressions to speak off the Alien was giving off a distinct aura of unease and agitation. It kept turning its head to the east and hissing uneasily at some distant target.

“Bad news,” The Bat-pony continued, “A big, black stick-like creature penetrated the eastern defences. We’re assuming it’s...”

“Jack!” Twilight snarled, stomping a hoof in exasperation. The colour was draining from the Bat-pony’s face; Shining Armour recognized the battle-shock. He didn’t want to ask but...

“Casualties?”

“Commander Phalanx is dead.” The Bat-pony said numbly, the mental trauma catching up with him. “Jack tore through his armour like it was tissue paper. He carved through our lines before we knew what had hit us. Princes Celestia wants you and Luna to rendezvous with her in the Central Hall, no-one else is allowed in the castle.”

The group raced on through the now strangely deserted streets." set off. The streets seemed to be clearer know, and with an audible hum Twilight could feel her magic returning to her body. “What’s the good news?” She asked, levitating a pile of rubble from their path.

“Well the mutants are no-longer posing an issue.” The Bat-pony explained, “I didn’t really want to be the one to tell you this but Princess Cadence...” Shining Armour ground to a halt. “Well...ahhh....she’s wiped out a good chunk of the enemy forces but........ She’s not exactly herself......”

Nemesis raked over the roof tops like a blood- stained, avenging angel. She landed in front a platoon of Diamond Dogs, the impact shaking the ground. They gaped in shock at the Alicorn before them; the coat was blood red, streaked through with black lines, the mane astral like Celestia’s but was of fire blazing like the pits of hell.

Cadence was sick of it. Monster just kept coming and coming and coming, intent on threatening the ponies she cared for, sowing fear and disaster among the innocents. Nightmare Moon tried to plunge the world into darkness, Discord unleashed chaos that nearly tore the Elements of Harmony apart, and whilst they had been insane and eventually reformed there were others who had no excuse.

Queen Chrysalis had tried to take the Stallion she loved away from her, nearly destroyed his mind and invaded Canterlot on her wedding day. Sombra had kept an entire nation enslaved, and nearly killed her through exhaustion as more ponies risked their lives to stop him.

And as bad as that had been nobody had been killed.

But now...

Now...

Cadence was the Alicorn of love. But Jack and his army of mutants had gone too far.

As the Diamond Dogs dropped to the ground, brains fried from the psychically inflicted fear pulsed into their minds.

Nemesis smiled.

Revenge was sweet.

III

Jack was getting extremely frustrated with the barrier. He turned to grin sardonically at the three creatures facing him; Twilight, Celestia and Luna.

He’d encountered magic before and understood the underlying structure well. Spells like the barrier before him were weaved straight into the fabric of reality. Jack was an incredible resilient creature, both physically and mentally but if he tried to cross the barrier he would have been torn to shreds on the molecular level.

It was slightly irritating to be interrupted midway through dismantling such an impressive spell, after all it was akin to solving over a dozen 10th degree polynomial equations whilst trying not to trigger the mental equivalent of a hydrogen bomb.

However Jack had really been looking forward to this confrontation.

Twilight was unsettled by how confident Jack looked. He was facing down three opponents with God-level power. She wouldn’t have wanted to have to fight anyone of them. Especially when they were this angry.

They wasted no time with threats or demands for surrender. Two massive fists, one of light and one of shadows, erupted from the floor and clamped onto Jack, holding him still. Twilights eyes turned to white as she channelled the power of the Elements of Harmony.

Outside in the courtyard the rest of the Mane six could only fidget nervously as the bolts of coloured light streamed out of their Elements.

“This sucks!” Rainbow Dash complained. “We should be in there helping them! Facing Jack face to face!”

“I dunno Dashie,” Pinkie Pie said, unusually subdued. “He personally tore apart over a dozen soldiers to get in there. I’m perfectly happy with Celestia’s plan! But let us not forget, the power of our friendship can overcome ANYTHING! We beat Nightmare Moon, Discord, Chrysalis, Sombre! Jack’s just another 2nd rate villain like the rest”

Pinkie’s exclamation perked the Mane Six up considerably. Seeing them smile as power continued to stream from them Pinkie Pie leapt atop a ruined fountain. “Right now Jack’s being petrified or disintegrated or.....” Suddenly Pinkie shuddered as her Pinkie-sense kicked in. “No, that’s impossible....”

Inside the castle Jack squirmed in the grasp of the two celestial fists. The Elements of Harmony were building up their familiar whirlwind around Jack. Twilight winced as she forced the awesome power of the Elements through her body into a beam so it could lock onto the otherworldly monster.

Suddenly Jack jerked and shrugged off the magical energy. Twilight baulked in horror as the Elements rebounded off his slick black skin and collapsed the two fists holding him in place. Jack strode towards them with his apparently normal sadistic grin pulled painfully wide.

“Nice try.” Jack smirked, “Conditional magic doesn’t work on me. My body is quantum locked against being altered like that. Of course I’m not immune to directed magic, so looks like we’ll have to settle this the old fashioned way.” Jack dropped into a combat stance and extended one hand in an inviting gesture.

Luna glanced at her sister, “Was there a plan B?”

“The old fashioned way.”

“Old fashioned way it is then.”

Luna stamped her hooves into the ground. Dozens of gravitational ripples shot out through the ground, tearing the marble as they thundered down the corridor. Celestia and Twilight staggered back Jack jumped and clung to the side of the wall like on oversized spider. A bolt of energy sparked in his hand and was thorn at Luna. The bolt hit Luna square in the chest and knocked her back. As the corridor stopped shaking Twilight and Celestia stepped into the fray. Dust and rock shards from the splintered floor started flying through the air, glowing white hot as they hurtled at Jack.

Jack squawked as whirlwind of debris enveloped the section of corridor. He tried to leap from the wall to get within striking distance but was thrown to the ground by the maelstrom. For another half second Twilight wondered if they’d found a weakness, but then Jack teleported a few feet towards them.

When he reappeared he was still within the red hot debris fields but away from the centre and now both forearms had blue, glowing, kinetic barriers extending from them. The segmented shields deflecting the majority of the projectiles away from his head and body. Jack moved like lightning. He raced toward them through the barrage even as the two Alicorns reformed the storm particles into a condensed blast, trying to push him back out of the range of his lethal arms.

Jack broke though the barrage and swung at the Alicorns, luckily he was still half blinded by the grit and only landed a glancing blow on Celestia with the flat of his shield, an not a concentrated point on his fist. Even so Celesta grimaced as ribs cracked her magic flickering out as her concentration broke.

Luna, recovered from the energy bolt, body slammed Jack before he could swing his arms again. Jack looked vaguely amused, the impact barely making him flinch .He brought up both hands again hands in a double strike.

Twilight realising that even Luna might not survive that lashed out with her magic and grabbed Jack’s arms telekinetically, holding them back as Luna squirmed free and threw Jack back down the corridor with a giant shadow fist.

Despite everything that had happened in the last few days, the sensation of directly holding Jack was deeply disturbing.

Ponies sometimes forgot that holding things telekinetically wasn’t like grabbing it with a pair of really long tongs. Jack felt deeply unnatural and somehow dead, like she was holding some ancient skeleton. Some part of her mind wondered briefly what insane world he could have been birthed on, even taking into considering the massive amount of augmentation present in his body.

Celestia was back on her feet and shot a laser like beam from her horn catching Jack in the chest. Luna and Twilight followed suite, pinning Jack down before he could spring away. The Kinetic shield on Jack’s arms began to turn red as they struggled to repel the awesome power of the Alicorns. The three Princesses began to walk forward, driving the immobile Jack backwards and closer to the lethal barrier surrounding the Vaults.

20 meters. Jack began to grunt, digging the tips of his feet onto the ground.

12 meters. Sweat was pouring off Twilights face as every gram of her being was thrown into the spell. Jack began swearing

in some alien language.

9 meters. A blood vessel burst in Luna’s nose, she winced but held.

5 meters. Twilight blinked through the sweat just in time to see Jack look up, staring straight at her through the blinding glare. She watched in puzzlement as he grinned again and started yelling something. “To easy.” Jack suddenly snapped his positioning, the energy beams slid off his body and into the barrier, which shattered like glass. Before the Princesses could react, Jack stepped back into the beam which split apart in a crazy refraction and ricocheted back down the corridor.

Twilight was trying desperately trying to stay conscious. She was in pain unlike anything she had felt before; it was blurring the edges of her mind, pulling her into darkness. Dragging her eyes open she could just about make out that her wing was crushed under a chunk of masonry. She had to focus on that. Gritting her teeth, Twilight forced her mind onto her wing. pain stabbed through her as she felt the crushed bones, but it was pain she could comprehend, pain she could handle. It was like having a knife pulled across her brain but she was conscious again.

Able to see what was going on around her, twilight realised that the three Princesses had been driven into the wall by the explosion, she was pinned under rubble and worse the other two princesses were only just visible from under the pile.

Forcing her swollen neck round Twilight looked down at the Vaults. Jack was still visible, she didn’t know how long she’d been out but in that time Jack had cut nearly cut through the heavy reinforced doors. One of him hand glowing like an oxyacetylene torch. Somehow sensing she was awake Jack turned back to look at her.

“For the record,” He called back, “That was a pretty decent fight you put up. But I’m the best at what I do little Miss Twilight. Thanks for taking down the barrier for me.” Jack shook his head and gave Twilight another look before whispering, just loud enough for her to hear, “Don’t worry, I’m not going to kill you, there a few more things I want to do to you first.”

“No you won’t.” a new voice growled with such pure, unbridled aggression that even Jack was taken aback. He looked up to see Nemesis standing in the middle of the wrecked corridor. Spear of ruby red light shot out of Nemesis’s horn, Jack barely managing to bring up his forearm shield to deflect it. Even so the impact picked Jack off his feet like a ragdoll and slammed him into the vault door. He jumped back to his feet and shot fire out of his hands like a flamethrower. Nemesis jumped though the blaze and smacked a hoof into Jacks head hard enough to dent the metal plate.

Nemesis let loose an onslaught a blows. The two combatants danced around in a deadly dance of punches and kicks, locks and counter-locks. Despite all her rage Nemesis was still outmatched and eventually found herself being bodily thrown the length of the corridor.

“Come now Cadence.” Jack snarled, brushing himself down. “Even in this freaked-out, PMS, rage state your no match for me.” Nemesis fired another red spear but Jack caught and snapped it. “Look at you! The Alicorn of Love trying to go all dark-side? Please, I beat the three other Princesses no problem, what makes you think you could beat me alone?”

“She’s not alone.” Discord dropped from the ceiling and clamped a hand round Jacks head; The Doctor was clinging to his back and also placed a hoof on Jacks head. Immediately Jack collapsed onto his knees, mind locked down by the awesome physic ability the two assailants. Psychic waves began to pulse out from Nemesis. Twilight shuddered as one brushed past her, they were pure fear.

“Your right, I couldn’t beat you in a fight.” Nemesis growled walking closer to Jack, the waves intensifying as they poured into Jacks head. “And your right, I’m no dark-side version of Cadence, I’M WORSE.” Jack was writhing in pain and began to howl. “I am Nemesis; vengeance and retribution and I exist only to end you, and when I do I’m going straight back into Cadences subconscious. Our magic may have little effect on you, but you can’t fight yourself Jack, what you feel now is your greatest fears all at once, being exponentially magnified. How do you like it Jack! FEAR ISN’T SO FUN WHEN YOU’RE ON THE RECEIVING END!”.

“You think you know fear?” Jack croaked, his body now ramrod straight. Nemesis sneered and walked closer and closer. A hum filled the air, steadily getting louder “Fear is being forced to fight from the moment your born. Fear is knowing you were born for others to sharpen their claws on.” Jack continued, his body twisting as his nervous system flooded. “Fear knows you mean nothing to your creator. Fear is looking into his eyes and showing that you won’t roll over and die for him.”

Jack laughed manically. Nemesis pressed forward, eager to finish Jack and stop his disturbing babble that had devolved into a mindless stream of as his neural patterns began to dissolve.

“You think you know fear?” Jack suddenly said clearly, head snapping to look at Nemesis despite Discords iron like grip. His arm shot out and clamped round Nemesis horn. “I. Am. Fear.” Nemesis juddered and convulsed like she was being electrocuted, the physic fear being folded back into her. Behind Jack Discord roared like a dragon and tried to break Jacks neck, But Jack moved impossibly fast and swung Nemesis onto him. The room flashed with red light and the deafening sound of breaking mirrors.

Jack got unsteadily to his feet as the dust settled around him. The Doctor was unconscious, Discord vanished and an incinerated looking Cadence hanging limply from his hand, body returned to normal. Jack checked the burnt out princess for life-signs then dropped her. “Woah,” he muttered to himself, “Kinetic barriers down, integrity field on red. That was an impressive fight. Another good hit and I’d be…” Jack spun on the spot and caught Twilights last ditch magic blast in his hand.

Twilight sagged, her body going cold as blood leaked from the crushed wing she’s ripped open pulling it from the rubble. That had been her last shot. There was nothing left in the tank. Behind her she could hear the voices of her friends in the distance; they’re loyalty having finally overridden their common sense as they raced towards the vaults. She wanted to scream at them to run, but nothing in her body would work.

The rest of the Mane six burst through the doors at the end of the corridor just in time to see Jack tear down the Vault door, severing the last of the containment spells. Jack turned back to face them as behind him reality bent and warped as something moved in the darkness.