The Valhalla Cascade: The Arrival

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.

II

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."

IV

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!"