A Matter of Darknessby UberdeathninjaChaptersFrom the dark void of death... AgainReady or not, Here comes Zero!First BloodThe journey beginsZero's Super-Fun Creeper Castle of Horror!!!From the dark void of death... AgainDarkness. That was all Zero could see or feel; cold, endless darkness, oppressive and all-consuming, without beginning or end, and the only source of of light that could be perceived came from his halo that floated statically over his head. And he was here, wherever "here" was, because of that fetid pink puffball, Kirby. Thinking of his defeat on Dark Star Infuriated Zero, especially the part where Kirby shot glass shards into his open eye. Seriously, who the hell does that? At any rate, Zero was dead again, his angst and sorrow and anguish now amplified even greater from being blown up, not once, but twice. Twice. Now he drifted in a dark void, completely cut off from all positive emotion. All he could ever feel was hate, anger, and unbearable sadness, and all he ever wanted was to have everyone know his pain, for everyone to suffer with him, so he wouldn't have to be alone. He came close once, during a campaign in Dreamland. Then Kirby happened. When he restored himself into a more intimidating form, he led his dark matter minions to the sickly-sweet world of... Huh, he couldn't quite remember. Odd. He did, however, remember being in his hive, Dark Star, all nice and comfy, and near the completion of his plan, then Kirby happened... Again. He just wanted to not be alone, to let everyone know the pain he was going through. If everyone suffered with him, it wouldn't be suffering. It would be normal. He would be normal. The thought of this made him feel something other than pain, the only positive thing he ever felt when he thought of his plan: Hope. Hope was all he had, and that cursed Star warrior took it away from him! All he had, all he wanted, gone! All because of that pink, poofy, star-riding, fairy-befriending, freak-of-nature Star warrior! Now, he had nothing. Soon, Zero's emotions began to spiral out of control, and he closed his singular eye tightly, trying to thrash, but to no avail. So he floated there, his clenched eye bleeding with fury and hate. Just as he was gaining control of his emotions, though, he saw a bright light in the distance, a small spot of white that made him feel... peaceful? Content? Happy? Whatever it was, he HATED it, and wanted to just extinguish it, or at least get away from it. Just as he was doing just that, however, he noticed the light getting brighter. No, it was getting closer! He was getting closer! Panicking and visibly sweating, Zero thrashed and struggled to rid himself of the lights grip, but to no avail. finally, as the light touched him, Zero sighed in defeat, and let the light consume him, closing his eye as his vision became white, then blackness once more. Much Later Zero drifted aimlessly around space for a bit, fully conscious, but too tired to bother opening his eye. He finally tried once, failing as it fluttered open and closed immediately, then tried again, forcing his lids to open, and succeeding finally. Once he got is blood- red eye open, however, he wished he'd left it closed, for what now lay in his sight was the most dull, boring, happy planet he ever laid eye on. The planet he now bore before himself, the mighty Zero, was covered in pleasant, perfectly round, green hills, perfectly conical white-topped mountains, and perfectly poofy clouds, and an ocean so pure and blue, it hurt him to look at it. On top of all THAT nonsense, the sun and moon orbited the planet itself in a perfectly circular orbit, as though the stars themselves revolved around this one sickening world. In short, he despised it. The new world reminded him of Popstar, which brought back painful memories... VERY painful memories. Ones involving glass shards, a love-love stick, and a certain pink aberration of nature. Zero gazed upon the world with immense hatred, but soon perked up, as he got a brilliant idea that almost lightened his mood. This world was so pristine and pure, he could easily take the inhabitants, make them see his suffering. Plus, there were no pink Star Warriors in sight, none at all. No Kirby, no MetaKnight, no giant blue penguins, and no fairies. This world would be an easy victory, easier than even the fairies! Suddenly, as these thoughts flowed through Zero's mind, a feeling began to rise in him, a good feeling... hope, his only light in his endless dark cavern of despair. Now it was back, and nothing was going to take it from him ever again. Not Kirby. Not the fairies. Not any god in heaven, nor being on this planet. Holding on to this positive emotion like his most prized, valuable possession, Zero hummed silently to himself as he hurtled toward the planet, eager to meet the inhabitants. They didn't know it yet, but they were about to become his new best friends forever... He would see to that himself. Oh, the fun they were going to have, or lack thereof, anyway. It didn't matter to Zero. Now, it was his time to shine! Zero's back, baby! Meanwhile, in Canterlot Celestia awoke with a start, shaking and sweating. She had a horrible dream, she didn't know what of, though. Only that something incredibly evil, unimaginably chaotic, and immeasurably powerful was heading for their world; something they weren't ready for yet. Shaking her head, Celestia walked to the balcony, and saw her sister's night sky. Nothing was apparent in it yet, but her gut feelings were never wrong, and this one had "disaster" written all over it. With a sigh, she turned back off to bed, deciding to tell Luna in the of this morning. Just as she looked back, however, she saw a small pinprick of black in the night sky, seeming to be observing her. She squinted it the dot, and it suddenly shot back into the heavens, right into space, as if detecting her scrutiny. Celestia had no idea what that thing was, or how it got there, in their sky, or even if it was FROM this world. Whatever it was though, it was clearly worth defending against, Celestia was sure of that. But as Celestia headed back to bed, not moments after, another sphere of black rose from the balcony, seeming to have melded with the shadows prior, and rise from them as it appeared, its one, orange eye fixed on Celestia as she left. Soon, Celestia returned to bed, troubled thoughts floating about in her head, and the strange, black shadow retreated back into the floor, its mission completed... for now. Ready or not, Here comes Zero!Later, that morning Celestia watched the skies fervently for any sign of the dark sphere she saw last night, scanning vigilantly for anything like it. When she told Luna, her sister agreed to help find this evil, as she had felt it as well last night. As she and Luna watched the sky, Twilight and her friends agreed to watch over Ponyville for anything suspicious, in case it should try to deceive them somehow. However, they need not have worried about that so much, for Celestia soon saw what they were facing: Up in the sky, descended from the heavens above themselves, a great, black sphere had appeared, and was now rocketing toward the ground at incredible speed, almost too fast to track, though no disturbance in the air appeared around it, as if the sphere itself was non-material. Celestia and Luna watched the object closely for a minute, but as it neared the surface of the planet, the giant, black object suddenly stopped close to the ground, but still so far away, and then opened a great, big, blood-red eye. The eye, which looked like it was literally made of blood and disturbed the sisters slightly, then began to twitch and move, seeming to search for something with great intensity. As the thing moved its pupil from side to side quickly, overlooking the land below itself, it finally locked its vigilant gaze right onto Celestia and Luna with deathly precision, despite the fact that it was thousands of miles away, and couldn't possibly have seen the two from where it was. Even so, it merely stared at the sisters unblinkingly, unnerving them to no end. Then, finally, it closed the bloody eye, and exploded. Literally, the thing exploded into trillions upon trillions of little black specks, leaving only a white... something, at the epicenter, simply left to hover there in mid-air. Before Celestia or Luna could get a better look at the white remains of the invader, however, a black object originally from the original colossal sphere crashed into the balcony they stood on, and as the sisters regained their composure, the odd figure slowly rose from the dust and rubble it threw upwards, revealing a cape and pauldrons, set on an oblong body with a spiky head and single, orange eye, which was covered with an armored visor. Before Celestia or Luna could question the strange being, however, the creature, without any means of doing so, pulled a sword from its back and flourished it with the skill and speed of a well-trained swordsman, despite a lack of appendages with which to do this. The sisters were stunned briefly by the sudden, skillful display, but they quickly disposed of their curiosity and took an offensive stance, just as the creature leaped at them with astonishing speed, striking with a flurry of blows the sisters had to strain to dodge, even barely. Neither sister could comprehend how the thing they faced was doing this, and they never managed to get a hit on it either, as it either dodged, parried, or deflected every attack they threw at it. At last, though, Celestia finally got a hit on it as she cast a magic bolt at the oblong creature's blindside, causing it to stagger, and her sister then bucked the thing in its abdomen, sending it flying into a wall. The odd, knight-like creature appeared stunned for a moment, giving the two royal sisters time to breathe, but their victory was short-lived as the creature got up without even wincing and continued it's assault on the two, this time with doubled fury and determination, its eyes blazing with internal fire and an obvious desire to kill. Whatever this thing was, they had just pissed it off, big time. Suddenly, as Celestia was busy dodging sword blows, a letter appeared in front of her face. And just as well, for the creature had just then turned its murderous attention to her poor sister, who was now straining to not get impaled by the strange, dark warrior. Seeing little time left to waste on the reading of the intrusive parchment, Celestia then quickly opened and read the short-but-important letter from her student-turned princess, Twilight Sparkle, with great haste: "Dear Princess Celestia: HELP!!!!! Sincerely, your endangered but faithful former student, Twilight Sparkle." Seeing that the letter was quite short, Celestia took this fact as a matter of great import. Using the time her sister was buying her, she quickly wrote up a letter to Twilight in turn, sent it, and then blasted the creature that was assaulting her sister with a beam of solar energy as it tried to decapitate Luna. At first, though, the attack seemed to only faze the creature, as it returned to its original stance not a moment later, but as Celestia watched the creature get up, she then realized that the beam attack must have really hurt it, because it really made it mad. The thing, upon recovering, shook with frustration, its already hateful glare becoming deeper and more sinister, and it then charged the Princess of the Sun, striking impossibly fast, and with impossible rage, leaving her with only moments to speak to her sister as the angry, oval-shaped creature tried to mince her. "Go, Luna! Go help Twilight! I'll hold this thing off!" Shouted Celestia as she dodged blow after vicious blow from the armored creature. Luna was about to protest, but a stressed look from her sister quickly convinced her otherwise, and the princess of the night then spread her wings and took off to head off for Ponyville. The dark, armored creature, obviously fed up with Celestia, tried to intercept Luna, but Celestia cut it off, inciting a shocked expression from the formerly-angry warrior. Now, it was her turn to play powerhouse, and with a twisted smile on her face and a crackof her neck, the princess of the sun hapilly began, much to the knight's dismay. Meanwhile, Zero looked on as the battle between his single Dark Matter Knight and the supposed rulers of this world dragged on seemingly forever, boring him to bloody tears. But soon, excitement finally occurred in the midst of the inconsistent invasion when, suddenly, the dark blue princess sped off from the fight, leaving the tall, white one to beat up his poor knight, who was clearly losing, having lost the element of surprise. That simply wouldn't do for Zero, so he decided to follow the blue princess, and see where she was off to in such a hurry, if only to stop whatever plan was in motion. And after a moment of thought, Zero decided it would be better than doing nothing, so he shot off after the princess, in hopes of shooting her down before she reached her destination. Unfortunately, the princess saw the massive ball of anger tilt her way and give chase, and obviously terrified by his appearance, she had sped up in an effort to lose him, to what little avail that would accomplish. This mildly annoyed Zero, however, so he put his full effort into getting ahead of her, which wasn't very hard, as she wasn't very fast, and just as he was right in front of her, he stopped, causing the alicorn to solidly smack right into his impervious body, and fall to the ground, unconscious. The sight of one princess going down filled him a little more with hope, and he turned about, and continued toward a small hamlet that his Dark Matter were currently laying siege to in only partial force. Maybe here, perhaps, he would find a better challenge to his obvious superiority... or maybe not. Nonetheless, Zero would no doubt find out soon enough. Meanwhile, in Ponyville: "Keep moving! We've got them on the run!" Twilight shouted to her friends as she loosed another bolt of magic at the creatures that were attacking her town, destroying everything in sight. Twilight and her friends were currently fending off wave after wave of black, gold-petaled, spherical creatures that were actively destroying everything they saw, and causing panic wherever they went, and she was positive that they were likely the evil Celestia spoke of. In her mind, these monstrosities, whatever they were, had to be infinitely worse than both the changelings and the parasprites combined; at least those two started out harmless. These things, however, came from the sky en masse early that morning, and immediately began wrecking everything in they could get their nonexistent hands on as soon as they landed, and then started searching for more stuff to break after they'd destroyed everything in the immediate area. Worse yet, they were almost impossible to get rid of, and the swordsmen were the worst, as they could just parry or deflect everything the girls threw at them. Still, they were beating the creatures back somehow, and Celestia had thankfully wrote that help was on the way. Maybe this wouldn't be a catastrophe after all? Oh, how wrong she was. Just as Twilight finished her thought, the creatures stopped, stared at the sky, and began to back away slowly, though the gesture seemed to be more out of respect than fear. Still, thinking that their reinforcements had arrived, the six looked at where the Dark Matter were looking, only to be greeted by the weirdest thing they had ever laid their eyes on since Discord himself... ...In the sky, hovering over them, was a giant, white sphere, with a little stubby tail, a large, golden halo, and two tiny, white wings floating by its sides, and the dark matter all proceeded to back away from it, almost in reverence, despite how harmless it first appeared. "What in the..?" Twilight could only say as she stared at the object, which bore an open smile and two black, beady eyes. Little did they know however, that this would be their greatest enemy yet; the destroyer of happiness, and eliminator of dreams... Zero Two had come at last... and this world was certainly not prepared. First BloodAs the Mane six looked to the sky, what exactly they saw could only have been described as the weirdest, oddest, most out-of-place creature that the six had ever seen in their lives: It looked like a ball, with a stubby tail and a halo, making it seem like a ghost or angel of some kind, but in contrast, the creature had an adorable smile plastered on its face, as well as two cute, beady eyes that seemed to stare in no direction in particular, rather cutely. Pinky and Fluttershy immediately d'awwed as they saw the creature, infatuated by its inherent and supposed cuteness and innocence, but soon stopped and changed their minds when the massive, deceptive creature opened its "mouth" only slightly, causing what appeared to be blood to trickle out of the 'opening', and run down its soft-looking body. Then, as if finally tiring of its previous form, the thing began to metamorphose, fully spreading its odd wings, revealing first three more appendages, like feathers of some kind, and then it revealed two odd, crystal-like feathers at the end of each previous 'feather'. Then, finally, the beast before the now-confused mares opened its bloody pseudo-mouth fully, to reveal a giant, blood-red eye, with a black pupil in the center; no iris to speak of. As it gazed upon the six heroes, each had a different reaction, none of which were particularly joyous: Pinkie stood completely still, a look of sheer horror fixed upon her face, Rarity fainted, Rainbow Dash almost vomited, Fluttershy pissed herself, Applejack looked ready to bolt at any second, and Twilight looked in a mix of fear for her life, and curiosity for her inner scientist. Never had she seen a lifeform so... odd... in her life. However, it appeared that her friends did not share her curiosity, so she decided to think further on the matter after they stopped it from destroying the town, and she finally got into an aggressive stance, enticing her friends to do the same despite their initial shock at the creature's sudden change from cute, floating angel, into... that. Meanwhile, Zero looked at the pitiful creatures below with naught but contempt and amusement, and saw only six of them. Six, and they STILL held off an army of his Dark Matter with as much impunity as a full-blown army! It was Pop Star all over again! Furious, Zero glared at the mortified creatures below him, still shocked by his sudden and macabre transformation, and shot a beam of raw energy from his eye at the six pests, causing them to scatter like the insects they were. However, The cyan one became quickly irate at Zero, and despite her previously-felt shock and fear, she'd charged Zero head-on, despite having no knowledge of his capabilities! But alas, the attempt was all for naught, for as soon as the mare made contact with Zero's impervious body, she merely bounced harmlessly off him, and fell to the ground unconscious, with Zero no worse off than he had started, much to his amusement. Twilight watched in mild terror as she witnessed her friend Rainbow Dash get knocked out by hitting the thing head on, but this led to a discovery, good or bad being irrelevant: this meant that the massive, white alien's main body was invulnerable to most forms of attack, if not all, despite it's soft, plushy appearance. However, that naturally meant that it had to have a weak spot somewhere. But try as she might, Twilight looked at the alien all over, but found nothing. Nothing but... A bandage on it's head? Why would that be there, she pondered? Perhaps it had suffered a previous wound, right there on its head, and used the colossal adhesive bandage to close it up. And if that theory was right, then that one place had to be it's weak spot! Quickly spreading her great, purple wings, Twilight quickly took off over the creature, aimed her horn at the colossal bandage, and opened fire at the giant band-aid placed upon its head. However, as if by reflex on the alien's part, the bolt was quickly intercepted by an eye-laser, overpowering and annihilating her own attack instantly, and with absolute impunity. Whatever this thing was, Twilight thought, it certainly had mad reflexes, and extreme prejudice and power to boot. However, it also didn't want anyone touching that particular spot, and she quickly developed a brilliant idea from the information she had acquired: If this monster couldn't see, it couldn't block. However, she knew her friends would be unable to assist her here, seeing as the being would easily wipe the floor with them all if they got in the way, so the princess made her decision, and took this course of action into her own hooves, naturally. And so, carefully aiming her horn, Twilight shot a powerful bolt of magic at the thing's eye, and the alien instantly felt the blast, roaring in pain as massive amounts of blood began to gush forth from the wound, and causing the massive alien to close its eye in a look of sheer agony as her and the remaining other four almost vomited at the horrendous display. Clearly, they were not prepared for that, and payed the ultimate price for their lack of forethought: a one-way ticket to a therapist. As Zero bled out from his pained eye, his ever-present anger grew to massive, unbearable levels, and as the bleeding finally stopped, he glared with great hatred and intensity at the pony before him, who dared shoot at his eye and cause him so much familiar pain. How dare this little nothing shoot his eye, especially after he had just lost the same way to someone else, Zero thought. So, in response to the horrible attack on his person, while the leading one was busy trying to keep from emptying her guts, he blindly shot forward with as full speed as he could muster, ramming into the lavender one and sending her into her friends, who then were knocked away from the princess-to-be in a most comical fashion. Then, as he watched the spectacle, Zero silently laughed as the six pests were knocked aside like bowling pins, bobbing up and down in a silent imitation of laughter as the display went on, and the memory remained fresh in his head. Suddenly, though, Zero stopped, confused and surprised at his reaction to the admittedly comical event, and a confused thought then entered the alien's head, scaring him to no end. Was he... Was he LAUGHING? Indeed, he felt a strange sensation in himself just then, and despite the pleasantness of it, the massive ball of unhappiness didn't like it. And yet, despite that, he also didn't want to stop feeling this strange new emotion that caused him to laugh. So, he silently laughed again when his adversaries began stumbling dizzily about, after picking themselves up. However, to Zero's dismay, the yellow one then managed to quickly recover, and shot up inches from his eye, her face filled to bursting with anger, surprising Zero. Fluttershy had enough of this thing. Whoever, or WHATever, it was, it wasn't about to hurt her friends and laugh about it in front of them. Inhaling to her lungs' maximum capacity, she let loose the angriest speech she'd ever given to the abomination, garnering its full attention in but a moment, and loosing her fury in her words at the giant alien: "How DARE you! You think you can just come to OUR planet, and hurt OUR friends, and then think you can just laugh about it?! Well, sir, I have no Idea who or WHAT you are, but you don't get to do that here, not on OUR peaceful world! you got that, punk?" Fluttershy screamed at the white ball, inciting a surprised look from it for a good while after she had finished, leaving her panting for breath, but satisfied. Maybe she'd succeeded where others had likely failed, and gotten to it, she thought to herself. However, the thought was quickly abolished from her head when the creature's expression turned from one of surprise to boredom, and it proceeded to stare disinterestedly at her, frustrating the small, yellow pegasus further. Zero stared blankly as the angry little yellow thing proceeded to yell at him, a bored expression on his face. He was surprised by the noise at first, but he soon found that he couldn't understand a word the little yellow creature was saying, and whatever she was, she really annoyed him. So in response, Zero turned away from the yelling creature before him, almost smacking her with one of his wings in the process, and proceeded to ignore her, much to the little thing's dismay and anger. "Hey! don't turn away when I'm talking to you!" Fluttershy yelled, having failed several times in trying to make the moody alien pay attention to her, kicking and ramming several spots on it, until at last, she managed to dive-bombed his band-aid, causing immediate reaction from Zero: Holding its head with his odd wings in what she could only guess was excruciating pain, It began to excrete more blood from its eye, making everyone even more squeamish, and Fluttershy hesitated wondering if the creature she just hurt was alright, as nothing she knew of just up and cried blood unless there was something really, really wrong with it. But as she pondered her admittedly questionable actions Zero suddenly turned about, an expression of anger on his face, and Fluttershy got shot by an exploding ball of light from the creature's eye as it almost instantly turned on her for her hesitation, sending her spiraling to the ground in a trail of smoke. Meanwhile, Zero, not quite finished with the yellow nuisance, then flew into the ground at full speed, crushing poor Fluttershy into a crater made by the force of his own body. Then, he arose, keeping his eye on her as he did, and proceeded to charge a gargantuan eye-beam to finish the pest once and for all, finally sick of being merciful to these ungrateful creatures, whatever they where. "Hey, Twi, what's that thing doin'?!" demanded Applejack, pointing at the alien, who was charging up some kind of finishing blow with which to finally rid itself of Fluttershy, a look of indescribable rage apparent on its face, or what little of a face it had, anyway. "I don't know, but I'm stopping it!" Twilight shouted finally, determination filling her being, and she shot a magic bolt from her horn into the alien's eye, causing a massive explosion due to the interruption of its attack, and the remaining five averted there heads, in an attempt to keep the ensuing dust from getting in their eyes. When the obscuring dust wave had finally settled, the alien was revealed, simply hovering there, its eye spinning around in a cartoonish fashion, and bleeding profuse amounts of blood. Clearly, it was dazed, and now was the time to attack! Twilight then took a commanding stance, her resolve firm, then gave the order. "Alright, girls, get the elements ready!" She shouted. Luckily, everyone was ready, and had their elements with them, just for this occasion. However, as luck would have it, the Dark Matter Zero controlled were watching the fight the whole entire time, and had been waiting for just this opportunity, and once it presented itself, the monsters struck, putting their devilish plans into action post-haste. Just when the Mane Six got the elements ready and got themselves into formation, a Dark Matter Knight suddenly rammed into Twilight, knocking the element away from her as she prepared to finish Zero. And then, as she tried to reach for it, the assailing Dark Matter snatched Twilight's element off the ground with unseen hands, interrupting the process, and causing the other five mares to hit the ground hard, and glance about in confusion. Then as the six realized just what had happened, the Dark Matter Knight holding the Element of Magic flew off toward the boss alien, who by now had recovered, and cast an amused glare down at them. And then, before they could react, five more Knights knocked the remaining heroines down, and then absconded with the remaining five elements, much to their dismay. "NO!" Cried Twilight as the Dark Matter Knights took off with the elements, leaving the Mane six, and Equestria, ultimately defenseless, left to the mercy of Zero and his army of darkness. And so, with one last, bellowing chortle, Zero spread his wings, and prepared to blast the Mane Six with a powerful eye-beam, and finish the only opposition to his power once and for all, no loose ends left untied. Finally, Zero mused in his head, after years and years of sadness, pain, and ultimately defeat, he had won! This simple race would crumble before his might, and they could no longer stop him, not without their precious elements. Finally, this world was his, without a soul to stop him, And he thus loosed a beam of pure hatred at the Mane Six, felling the pests that had briefly plagued him so much for good... Or so he had hoped. Twilight fell to her knees as the alien's attack finally ended, and the others fell suit. With no means to defend themselves, the Mane Six simply laid there, too weak to move, but still conscious enough to realize what had just happened. Ultimately beaten, and with the elements in the enemy's possession, Twilight simply collapsed with the rest of her friends, and the last thing she saw was Zero and his Dark Matter minions flying off into the distance, before she slipped into unconsciousness. The journey beginsHours passed after the incident with Zero, and all in the now-saved town worried for the health of the six who dared stand up to him... though their situations looked bleak; the beam of energy that Zero had fired upon the six did not kill them, but it had ultimately sapped their energy, leaving them vulnerable, and without any help. Thankfully, thanks to the efforts of the township, they were soon recovered, as near to death as one could be without fully succumbing to his grasp, but quickly fading, and were thusly taken to Canterlot, to have their wounds treated at last, and to finally give the bad news to Celestia herself. Zero had beaten them, stole their elements, and retreated, leaving the six to their fates... But fate would decide differently for these mares this day. The Mane six awoke in hospital beds, nurses all watching over them with worried expressions, soon turned to relief. When they awoke, the nurses had quickly become excited, and before the six mares, who'd only hours before been crushed by Zero, could even raise their heads, they and many other visitors swarmed them like the Dark Matter they'd fought with before Zero, all asking various questions about their encounter with the massive, disturbing alien: "What did it look like?" Asked one. "Did it have sharp teeth?" Asked another. "Did it talk?" asked a third. The questions flooded without seeming end, and Twilight, in desperation, almost raised her voice to silence the ponies who sought so many answers from her, when suddenly, a voice shouted out, quieting all the the voices in the room, and leaving the Mane Six, at last, in peace: "Make way, make way, Princess coming through!" Celestia had called, as she pushed through the crowd, parting it to give the bewildered heroes some breathing room, and then she found and turned to Twilight, who was beyond relieved to see her former teacher, and to have the media away from her, if only for a moment. However, the questions that came next from the Princess of the Sun once more upset Twilight, as they unnerved her more than every visitor in the room: " Twilight... Thank goodness you're alright. I saw the fight, Twilight. Is that... thing... defeated? Where are the Elements of Harmony?" Celestia asked, bewildered. Twilight grimaced almost refusing to give the answer to her former teacher for fear of her reaction, but then ultimately answered, swallowing her fears in the process. "We... We failed, Princess. That thing's minions knocked us down, then they... It took them, your highness. That alien took the elements, and left us to die." Twilight answered reluctantly. Celestia stared in a mixture of shock and horror, then burst out laughing, confusing everyone, especially the Mane Six, at the suddenness of her change in reaction. And finally, wiping a tear of mirth from her eye, Celestia spoke again, hoping for a better answer this time. "Twilight, you shouldn't scare me like that! Come now, tell me where they really are." She said, sighing. Twilight then gulped, hating to repeat such catastrophic news to her former teacher, but she still replied, her answer the same as before. "Celestia, we're... we're telling the truth. The Elements were taken by the invader. We failed. I-I'm sorry..." Twilight explained. Celestia's face fell as the words hit her like a freight train. Twilight had lost the Elements to a villain who hadn't even been here before, and not only that, hadn't been here for more than ten minutes! The notion itself was unthinkable! "You... You lost?" asked Celestia, dumbfounded. She couldn't respond properly. First, her sister is knocked out by this thing, and now it beats the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony and absconds with the Elements themselves. Yes, this has happened before, but not in one day, and not by one villain, especially one who only appeared yesterday. It was Preposterous! Unthinkable! Celestia, unable to cope with the notion, then stumbled as if to faint, only to be caught by her guardspony immediately. "Celestia! Are you alright?" Asked Twilight, highly concerned. And Celestia looked back dizzily, and replied. "I-I'll be fine... I just... I..." Celestia finally passed out, simply unable to process or cope with the thought of this creature having the elements. Later, at a cave in the mountains... Zero looked at his prize: the shiniest gems he'd ever seen, now somewhere they could never harm him: in a chest, on an altar, in a cave on the top of a mountain. But even so, Zero despised the gems, despite their beauty, for they gave off a feeling of great happiness. Zero hated these cursed gems, and wanted to destroy them and spit on their remains, cursing their creators for the sheer audacity of making these horrid, disgusting, happy little trinkets. But in spite of his feelings, Zero knew that he needed these gems. He wanted the power stored within them first before he crushed them, and if he wanted that power stored withing these elemental pieces, he needed to learn how to operate them. Zero thought on this predicament, and thought even more. But no matter how hard he lamented on the workings of the powerful little jewels, or how hard he glared at them, attempting to intimidate into working with the force of his anger alone, no answer ever came to him, and the gems, set in their jewelry sets, merely sat there, twinkling in the faint light, as if mocking Zero for his incompetence. But all was not lost, for soon, another thought entered Zero's mind, striking him like lightning, and filling him with inspiration: The six he had defeated, they had used the elements before him without difficulty. And surely, when he fired upon them in hopes to kill them, he in fact may not have ended them right there! So, Zero pondered, an eventually, a decision became clear to him: If he himself could not use these trinkets, then one of the six that had originally wielded them would provide him with the answers he sought, willing or not... that is, if only he could find them. Canterlot castle, later Celestia awoke in her room, after awakening from a crazy dream where the Mane Six lost to a freaky alien and lost the Elements of Harmony to it. Oh well, it was just a dream, after all. Then, a maid stepped in. "Princess, you're awake! How are you feeling?" The maid asked, and Celestia rubbed her head, then replied: "Oh, I'm quite alright, just had the craziest dream though... The Bearers of the Elements were in it... and an alien..." The maid shuddered, then spoke up: "P-princess, that wasn't a dream... It actually happened." The maid said shyly, and after a moment of pause, Celestia sighed, lowering her head, and finally replied. "I figured it wouldn't be that easy. Alright, bring Twilight and her friends here. I need to talk to her. NOW." Later... Twilight, after hearing that the princess requested her presence, began to sweat. She had just failed the kingdom, and was now liable for treason. Her sentence could be death, or worse! And now, the Princess wanted to talk to her, alone, and under such grim circumstances! Twilight began to shake more and more as she reached the throne room, and as soon as she opened the door to Celestia's medical wing, she quickly found Celestia waiting, a stern look on her face. "Your Highness, I'm so very sorry for..." Twilight tried to apologize, but she was almost immediately cut off by a wave of Celestia's hoof leaving her in silence as a moment passed, and finally, Celestia spoke, her voice grim, but understanding. "No, Twilight, you've no reason to apologize. In reality, it's my fault the elements rest now with Zero; you have no reason to be ashamed" Said Celestia, and Twilight cast a confused look at the princess of the sun as she finished her explanation. "Zero? Is that the alien's name? How do you know that?" asked the confused Princess-to-be, and Celestia sighed, beginning yet another explanation to Twilight about the dire situation that the world was now in: "...I have asked the greatest court wizards on the identity of our newest assailant, Twilight, and none of them could identify it, nor any book in the archive, and I've certainly never seen anything like it before in my own long life, so it is clear it was not from this world, or this universe." Replied the Princess solemnly, looking as though a great burden rested on her head. "That is why I searched the mind of the minion we captured during the alien's last assault on us, and found out our new enemy's name, and it's rather... unpleasant history. I will not go into detail, but I have found out that the creature we now face is in great pain, and it has tried to spread that pain to others many times before." Celestia explained, and after a brief pause, she continued on. "It's name is Zero, Twilight, and it indeed came from another universe, one very similar to ours, but has been defeated twice by the same single hero. This failure, I've gathered, has devastated Zero, and if we are to ever have any chance of defeating it, then we need to sooth it, before it brings the whole world into nothing but chaos and unhappiness. And that, Twilight, is where you and your friends come in." Celestia Twilight was caught by complete surprise by this. "W-What? After we lost to it once? Why not send all the guards in the land?" She asked. However, Celestia did not react, and in fact seemed to grow more upset at the suggestion Twilight presented. Finally, after a quick sigh, Celestia responded: "Because, Twilight, we want to try and ease its pain, not increase it. It cannot feel positive emotions without feeling pain, but you and your friends can fix that." Said Celestia coolly. However, Twilight was confused by this. "Us, fix it? How? Without the Elements of Harmony, we're hopeless to stop that thi-... I mean, Zero." She said sadly. But nonetheless, Celestia gave a sad smile, then replied: "We can, Twilight. Zero cannot feel most positive emotions, but he still has one, and you and your friends can bring it out, and open the way for Zero to be happy again... You just need the greatest element of all: Hope. Without hope, our kingdom would not exist, and Zero would have simply stayed dead, never to feel joy or pride. Now, you must find it, then use it to face him." Twilight lit up at the thought of a secret element they could use to defeat Zero and make him stop his rampage. "Where is it hidden, Princess? I must know if we are to defeat Zero!" Twilight said, excitement in her voice. Celestia laughed softly, then replied. "Patience, my little princess. You first must find Zero. By the time you have found his lair, you will already have found Hope along the way. Then, you can defeat him." Twilight Straightened upright, then snapped a salute. "I won't let you down, princess! I promise you now, Zero will be defeated!" Celestia smiled. "I'm sure of it, Twilight. After all, I have hope that you will." She said with a smile, musing at her little joke. And thus, their meeting Concluded, Twilight exited the castle to round up her friends for an epic quest. Little did anyone realize, though, a dark, spherical interloper was watching from the window, and was now flying off to report to its master... Meanwhile, at the Citadel of Anguish, Zero's lair Zero hovered in a cocoon of dark energy he'd created to protect himself, rapidly gaining his own power back as he waited, but he still remained separated from the power within the Elements of Harmony, the boundless, unknown taps of power sealed within those tiny, fragile gems... and no way to reach them by himself. This alone infuriated Zero to no end, and he was tempted to just smash the impudent trinkets and be done with it. But, despite all his rage at the small elements, he restrained himself, for he knew that he eventually would be rewarded greatly for his patience, and this thought helped spark that one little emotion in him, the one he'd known all his life, and that he clung to like a raft in a crashing, raging sea of misery and despair: Hope. However As he floated in his little vortex of misery, a lone dark matter minion of his timidly approached Zero and his shroud of despair, and then began making otherworldly noises only Zero and other dark matter could understand: It told him that the six mares Zero had encountered before were now heading out, on yet another quest to stop him, but with a new, unheard-of Element this time: Hope. As soon as he heard this news Zero quickly became furious, his rage quickly overpowering his other emotions, and causing him to almost lash out at the dark matter minion, the elements, and the whole world itself. Hope, the only positive thing he could experience without it killing him. Now, they were going to use it against him?! ... Well, not if he found it first. Gathering his swarm, Zero then unleashed them upon the land to find this "Element of Hope" and bring it to him, and to grab one of those technicolor pests if possible. And on this order, the Dark Matter legions all swarmed out of the massive cavern that hid Zero from the world, blotting out the sun and sky with their sheer numbers as they spread out across all of Equestria, their search for the Mane six and the Element of Hope officially on. That done, Zero then quietly resumed his meditation, still trying to unlock the power within the Elements he had himself. Soon, he would show them all. He was going to bring them misery and pain whether they liked it or not, and he wasn't going to lose. Not this time. And now, after all those years in dreamland, after all those years of agony and defeat, Zero could finally see victory, gleaming like a star... And finally, after so long... he could almost touch it, and no one, no ponies, no puffballs, nothing in this world was ever going to get in his way ever again. Zero's Super-Fun Creeper Castle of Horror!!!The Dark Matter searching in the Everfree forest finally had grown tired, after three long days of non-stop searching for the supposed Element of Hope. The large team, consisting of over five hundred minions, searched high and low for days, demolishing all in their path, be they plant, animal, or decrepit building, but could not find anything that might remotely look like a container for the element. However, just as they were about to give up all hope, The five hundred-strong army found what appeared to be an ancient, ruined castle, sitting there in the woods, for anyone to inhabit. Plus, as they approached the old ruin, they felt a soft, calm feeling emanating from it. So at last, the small army thought that they had found their element, or at least another base of operations. Eagerly seizing the opportunity presented to them, the Dark Matter all started to swarm about and within the ruins, and the old castle began to undergo a terrifying change; large, colorful spikes soon erupted from the ground, becoming tents, metal spikes and wires quickly grew from the ground becoming fences that soon surrounded the premises, and the castle itself, once a chilling, decrepit ruin, soon began to undergo repairs, and then became something even more horrifying, as one messenger flew off toward the horizon, eager to tell the master of their latest accomplishment... The Mane Six began their trek to the Everfree forest, because where else would a secret, unheard-of element be hidden? First, the six stopped by Fluttershy's house to pick up supplies for the journey ahead, and then they headed out, feeling prepared for anything that Zero threw at them. As they traversed the forest, though, they headed en route to their first stop, Old Canterlot, but as they approached the area where it was, the six felt an ominous air in the area, which was unusual: Usually, the castle had such a calm, pleasant aura about it. But now, as the six approached the old ruins, they could only cringe at the feeling of dread and oppression they felt. And as they walked, Rainbow Dash shuddered at the cold aura about the place, and commented on the feeling. "Brr... H-hey, do the rest of you feel that? It feels so cold around here..." Rainbow called, and the other five nodded in agreement, shivering from the feeling of the castle, which they had yet to even see. "Yeah, it feels like winter's up and come months before it should've!" Applejack replied, and Fluttershy shuddered a bit, and voiced a question of her own right afterward: "You... you all don't think that... that Zero got there first, do you?" Fluttershy asked, and Twilight turned about to respond to her friend, but before she even could, the six mares suddenly perked up, and listened to the air, to what appeared to be the sound of... music. Suddenly, before any of them could react, Pinky Pie began to smile widely, and began bouncing up and down, faster and faster, until she seemed to be little more than a sporadic pink blur. And as if to complicate matters further, Twilight finally got a good listen to the creepy, shrill sound in the air, and finally recognized it right there. "Carnival music..? What in Equestria..?" Twilight muttered, but she was quickly interrupted by Pinky Pie, who was still bouncing around like a flea on cocaine. "Omigoshomigoshomigoshomigoshomigosh!!!!!! Carnival!!!!! Weeeee!!!!" She screamed as she took off towards the source of the music, without so much as another word. "Pinkie, wait!" Cried Twilight as the remaining five tried to catch up to her. However, she was too fast for them, and when they finally caught up to her, she was staring in unbelievable glee at what appeared to be a giant, twisted castle, like the ones put up on Nightmare night. All around it were little attractions, like "Test your strength", or those stupid games where you have to knock over the bottles that nopony ever wins. However, It wasn't anywhere near Nightmare night, and the place was empty. And on top of that, everyone but Pinky Pie cringed at the horrid aura emanating off of the tall, dark castle in horrible, dreadful waves. "Who in Equestria would go out of their way to build such a large carnival in the middle of the Everfree forest, in the wrong month?" Asked Twilight to herself, though none of her friends answered, all but one being to terrified of the place to even talk. As they searched through the carnival, Pinkie then kept on running off to different tents, never staying at one for long due to a lack of attendants, and the little pink spaz finally ran into the main castle, leaving the other five to groan in annoyance, and force themselves to follow her. The other five mares groaned and facehooved as they went in after her, and as they entered the interior of what once was the old Canterlot castle, they were all quickly terrified by the inside. Clearly, someone put a lot of effort into this haunted castle attraction, because it was downright scary, with bones littered across the floor, cobwebs hanging from the seemingly miles-high ceiling, and the oppressive, heavy air of death that hung in the castle, causing the Mane Six, Pinky included, to shudder in fear. However, despite the horrors already at work, the real show only had yet to start. As the six wandered the haunted castle, large masses icky black slime began to ooze from the cracks and crevasses in the walls and ceiling, and before the six ponies could react, the masses of ooze formed into basic, but incredibly strong tendrils, and proceeded to grab the six, who all screamed and struggled as it enveloped them, but to no avail. Twilight could only watch as her friends were dragged to the floorboards below, before the black ooze fully engulfed her, too. Twilight struggled against the gunk that now was trying to kill her, and fired multiple magic bolts at random to ward it off, but the ooze seemed to ignore these shots, and quickly enveloped Twilight's face, suffocating her. Twilight struggled furiously at this, but before long, the lack of oxygen got to the little princess, and she quickly blacked out, forced under the floorboards like her friends at last. When Twilight Sparkle finally regained consciousness after what seemed like an eternity, she looked around quizzically, abserving her surroundings, and soon discovered just where she'd been left: a most peculiar room of the castle, the bedroom. "Ugh, what the heck was... Girls?" She called, and though she looked around, Twilight couldn't find her friends anywhere. And soon after realizing that she was now all alone in this dark, insane perversion of the Old Canterlot castle, she began to get really, really scared. "Uh, h-hello? Applejack? Pinkie Pie? Rarity? Anypony?" Twilight called weakly. But when nopony answered, she looked on the bed she was placed on, and found a very badly written note, covered in droplets of the same gunk that grabbed her and her friends in the first place. Thinking it to be a clue, Twilight made a sour expression at the ill-written note, and powered through the task of reading it, hoping to at least get a sense of where she was, and how to get out. "Dear Twilight, I have Your friends and the Element of Hope. If you Desire these things, you must get through this maze and others I have constructed. However, know that I have tasted your fears and regrets, and seek to employ all of them against you and your friends, as demonstrated perfectly in this note alone. Find the exit, and the Element, at your own risk, bookworm. With love, your soon-to-be best friend, Zero." Twilight looked at the note with distaste at first, then pure confusion at the last part. "Soon-to-be Best friend? What does that even mean?" She asked with much confusion and frustration, not understanding Zero's reasons or consistencies. He tried to kill them first, and now he wants to be friends? It made no sense to Twilight. Deciding to ignore that part, she instead focused on the more important objective: Her friends, and the Element. That goal in mind, Twilight finally got off of the bed, and tried to open the door. As she turned the knob with her magic, however, the door flew open, revealing a giant mouth full of shark-like teeth, and it tried to eat her! before the "door" could devour her, though, she jumped back with a yelp, and stood there, panting as the door closed, then opened again, revealing a hallway outside. Testing to see if it was a trick, she took a book from the bookshelf and threw it through the doorway. Surprisingly, and to Twilight's relief, the door didn't even twitch, and she quickly jumped through, still not fully trusting anything that this new, twisted castle presented to her. After Twilight jumped through the doorway, however, the door shuddered a bit, and slammed closed, causing the area to shake with the force it exerted on itself. And as it did, a tiny spider dropped from the ceiling onto Twilight's nose, having been shaken from its web. After looking at the tiny, confused arachnid for a while, Twilight laughed, underwhelmed at such a low, cheap scare. However, another spider almost immediately dropped on her head afterward, and another fell next to her after that, and then, a drop of strange, green liquid dripped from the ceiling, causing Twilight to freeze in place in utter fear as she looked down at the sizzling, noxious puddle it left. Finally, looking up in horror, Twilight gasped as she saw a giant, pitch-black spider, even bigger than she was, it's dripping mandibles clacking hungrily, and its single orange eye focused on her with intense precision. Twilight stood still for a moment, her own heart refusing to beat for a while. Then, almost instantly, the gargantuan monster dropped from the ceiling and slowly crawled toward her in a predatory fashion, its jaws dripping and clicking, causing Twilight to back away slowly, and then start running. As soon as Twilight broke into a run, however, the giant, horrific spider pounced to her location, missing the little alicorn by mere inches, and it then proceeded to chase her down the hall, skittering down the narrow, long hallway with the speed and focus of a freight train, and likely with all the lethality, too. Searching frantically for a door, Twilight quickly turned and went in the first one she found, regardless of whether it was a trap or not, which caused the spider to barrel down the hall, its claws skidding as it tried to stop itself, and the monster then hopelessly slid into a trap that involved a giant square plate on the ceiling slamming into the ground, squashing the colossal arachnid. A single leg twitched once or twice on the remains of the monstrous creature, and it was finally dead. Twilight gulped, wondering what would have happened if she hadn't went in that door, and needless to say, she quickly suppressed the thought. Finally, she turned around, relieved of having survived her first real deathtrap, and headed down the new hallway presented to her, praying that she wouldn't run into any more giant spiders. Meanwhile, Rarity woke up in some kind of basement, dazed and confused as to just where she had been taken Last she remembered, the horrible slime that knocked her out came from the floor, and took her right back down with it. However, everything after that was blank, and next thing she knew, she was here, in this dark, decrepit cellar. So, dusting herself off, Rarity looked around for any clue as to what was going on, but ultimately finding nothing but dirt, stone, and a few torches here and there, their eerie, dim glow seeming to only add to the dreadful feel of this place, not made any better by the constant noises Rarity heard, likely to be rats. Despite her nervousness due to the filthy nature of this place, though, Rarity continued onward into the depths of the dungeon she was now in, determined to get out of the dank cellar. Thankfully, the exit to the darkest, dirtiest part of the catacomb she awoke in was not far, and after exiting the cellar, she soon found a pony skull, hopefully fake, with a note pinned to it by some kind of bony spike. Pulling it out, Rarity read the note in earnest, hoping to finally glean some manner of information from the dirty, ragged sheet of paper. "Dear Rarity: I understand you like clean, beautiful things, so I, Zero, took it upon myself to make this gauntlet the filthiest, muddiest, most horrifying and disgusting string of rooms you've ever seen, or ever will see in your miserable life. But if you want to see your friends again, and maybe retrieve the Element of Hope, you'll just have to grin and bear it. However, if you think this is because I hate you, it is, in fact, quite the opposite; you should actually consider this to be the ultimate gesture of our budding friendship, as I have taken time out of my rather busy day to make a nice, challenging gauntlet just for you, so that you can finally get past your own shortcomings! So, consider it a labor of love, from me to you. After all, what are future friends for? Sincerely yours, Zero. P.S, this letter was dropped in mud several times." After reading the letter, Rarity was left with no clues, to her chagrin, but instead a mixture of confusion and disgust overwhelmed her, Mostly disgust. Deciding to go for her friends and forget this awful place, Rarity then set out to prove this Zero character wrong. After all, how bad could a little dirt be? She got out of that room, and walked onward, unaware of the low, wailing sound that now approached her, and how the torches, though thankfully numerous, where slowly turning from orange to green as she passed through the hall, into a different room. As Rarity walked through the large, stone archway into the odd, dreadful-feeling room, the unicorn of generosity looked around it, studying its placement, and quickly judged that the place was probably some kind of altar, judging by the intricate designs in the stone, and the stone construct in the center. She felt compelled to walk up to the altar in the center of the room, feeling some unseen force guide her to it, but Rarity stopped herself halfway to it, using all her willpower to free herself from the presence's grasp, and immediately figuring out just what this room really was. "Wait! This has to be trap of some sorts! Well, I'm not falling for it." Said Rarity matter-of-factly, nodding her head for emphasis. As soon as those words left her mouth, however, a dark, foreboding voice came from the altar, its presence filling the room, and it seemed to dim the torches as it spoke, causing Rarity to back up, not wanting to see what exactly was talking. "Well, then... If you will not come to me, then I will go to you!" The dark voice shouted, and from the altar came a mass of black ooze, which flew toward rarity with startling speed. Shrieking in terror, Rarity picked up a discarded board with her magic and hit the orb, causing it to fly into a wall, quickly creating a big mess as the orb of Dark Matter impacted the wall, and was smeared all over it. However, as if in defiance of the Element of Generosity, the orb soon pulled itself together, and dove into a pile of bones, causing them to form into some kind of mess of black, necrotic ooze as the orb grew and shifted, with spines and ribs and skulls placed haphazardly on it. Then, a single, orange eye opened on the ooze-like monstrosity, and it began to tower over Rarity, causing her to freeze up in fear, and the mass of vile slime then started to throw black, vile-looking gunk at her, glaring at Rarity with annoyance and dislike as it launched volley after volley of black ooze at her. Dodging the first volley with relative ease Rarity then paused a moment to catch her breath, as the monster just didn't stop firing at her, no matter what. But as soon as the unicorn stopped moving, the creature of filth locked onto her position, and launched the next volley of filthy projectiles at her, getting Rarity all over with its foul, slimy attacks, and the ooze then, to Rarity's horror began to melt into her, leaving black, sickly marks on her flash as they vanished. Yelping in shock and horror, Rarity quickly used her magic to pull the remaining blobs off, but their infection was already apparent, mucking up her brilliant white coat, turning it and the skin beneath it pitch-black. She also felt terribly ill as the infection took it's hold, and soon became a chore just to stand, as the Dark Matter began to take hold of her body, and slow it down. Sensing her unease, the monster then seemed to almost smile, and quickly launched another volley of black sludge at her. However, Rarity dodged it as quickly as she could, straining herself to her limits to avoid the black spheres. Then, just then, Rarity felt her saddlebag open, and something then fell out, getting the vile beast's attention as it bounced and slid toward it: Soap. The massive, dark slime stared at the bar, and feeling that she'd need it later, Rarity lunged for the bar desperately, only to have it snatched away by the slime, and consumed by it, to the unicorn's dismay. However, soon after absorbing the bar of soap, the massive, slimy Dark Matter quickly paused, a look of surprise and horror apparent, and it shuddered violently, and spat the bar out, seeming to have been weakened by the object of cleanliness. And at that moment, Rarity picked the bar back up, and grinned as the massive slime shuddered, and idea forming in her head, and it wasn't long before the idea was put into action; "Oh, you don't like soap, huh? Let's see how dirty you play when the tables are turned, you pile of barf!" Rarity shouted, throwing the bar at the slimy, black, germ-covered abomination. The soap did it's job, and the creature recoiled as it was hit by the cleansing bar, and Rarity then pulled out several more bars, some shampoo, a bottle of toothpaste, and several bottles of perfume, and smiled as the slime looked in horror at these things, sensing its imminent demise at their hands. Before Rarity could act, though, the massive beast of black filth reared up, bellowing its anger at the little unicorn, and launched yet another volley of dark matter at her, forcing Rarity into defensive measures until the volley ended, whereupon it was HER turn to play offense. "Eat fragrance, you sack of bile! HYAH!!!" Rarity screamed, and the monster tried and failed to dodge as a stream of pink and white bars where flung into its face, and the beast again recoiled, roaring in dismay and agony, and once the bars were depleted, Rarity brought out the perfume bottles, undid the tops, and proceeded to fling them like grenades, each time causing more and more damage to the Dark Matter slime, withering the thing away until it was but a ball with an eye on it. The creature, then sensing its imminent defeat, looked side to side in fear, and fled quickly out of the room, leaving a small dust cloud in its wake. "That's right, run, you filthy little goblin!" Shouted Rarity at the retreating black sphere. And so, feeling quite proud of herself, she used her last bar of soap to scrub off the black gunk the beast left on her, which seemed to do wonders, seeing as the gunk within her and on the outside both fled from the hygienic product, and where quickly destroyed by it. After restoring her coat to its pristine white, Rarity then pocketed the bar and trotted out of the room her mood lifted, but as she trotted, something small tripped her, and she landed face-first in a puddle of mud, much to Rarity's shack and horror. And then, her assailant, the black sphere-like creature from earlier, laughed at Rarity, doubling over in mirth as tears of laughter filled its eye. Rarity, however simply laid there, stunned, then looked at the mess she was, then at her assailant. Filled with fathomless rage, the now-filth-covered mare chased the creature down the hall, which then flew into a wall at the far side, escaping Rarity's unbridled wrath. Still fuming, Rarity trudged through a doorway, not bothering to look where it led to. In fact, all she could see was the color red, as her anger was reaching critical levels. Finally, though, all her anger vanished seemingly at once when a miraculous sight filled her eyes: A clear, pristine pool of water filled the center of the room, and the light reflected off of it from the ceiling danced all over the room, resulting in a breathtaking sight after such a long time down in a giant, rat-filled sluice way. "Perfect! Now I can get rid of this bothersome grime." Rarity exclaimed, and she immediately jumped into the pool, washing off the mud that she'd gathered after the vengeful Dark Matter tripped her. When she finally got out, Rarity muttered angrily to herself, making a grim promise as she spoke: "If I ever see that little black chew toy again, I'm going to drown it in this pool." Rarity threatened, and at that, she finally wandered off, feeling quite sure she could take whatever this "Zero" could throw at her. Except a giant spider, of course. But, as luck would have it, that particular Dark Matter she faced in the altar room just so happened to have friends. And as Rarity wandered down the hall towards the exit, she soon bumped into one of these friends, who just so happened to take the form of a giant, one-eyed spider. And so, with that, Rarity's quest was thus quickened, mostly on account of being chased down by a giant, vengeful spider. Next, awoke Fluttershy, Who soon became quite terrified after finding that she was alone in what appeared to be a kitchen. Indeed, chunks of rotting meat hung from hooks that hung from chains to the ceiling were scattered about the room, blood covered the floor, and a bloody mascot costume, which looked to have been some kind of bunny or something, lay in a seated position in a corner, like there was a dead body inside it. Fluttershy trembled in fear as she slowly walked around the room, looking for an exit. She found a large metal door and opened it, but a rush of freezing air rushed out to greet her. As she looked inside, She saw a single body in the center of the freezer, hanging by a hanging meat hook through it's abdomen. There was nothing else in the room, so fluttershy quickly closed the door and looked behind her. When she did, she noticed that the mascot costume was no longer in the corner, but was now laying face-down four feet from her! Terrified out of her wits and beginning to panic, she backed away from the costume, and into another door. Fluttershy pushed it open, and she heard a crash behind her. She quickly turned around, and the Mascot costume had vanished! Practically gasping for air, Fluttershy took off out the door, and down the hall, which was like that of a school. As Fluttershy ran, she heard footsteps pounding behind her. She looked back, but saw nothing. She turned back around, and found herself in front of a door with a window on it, despite the fact she didn't even move since she turned behind her. Peering through the grime-covered window, she could make out somepony behind it. Thinking it to be one of her friends, she opened it, And screamed. There, before here, was the skinned, headless body of a pony, suspended from the ceiling by hooks. It didn't move, but something else did. A black shadow crept along the ground, just outside her field of vision. When she looked for it, she turned toward where she entered this sick room, and found the bunny mascot sitting in the corner,a steak knife stabbed into its forehead, and a note attached to it by that steak knife. She then looked at the note, tears of terror in her eyes: "Dear Fluttershy, They can't hurt you if you don't believe in them. Don't you know that? Nothing can, if you don't believe. Your friends are safe, but are you? Something is in this place, hunting you. Hurting you. And I'm watching, trying to make you safe, but only you can protect yourself. Run Don't look back It's right behind you -Zero." Fluttershy stopped reading, then slowly turned around, and the skinned, headless body started to squirm and writhe, as if in pain, and the bunny mascot stepped from behind it, a bloody steak knife in it's hands, and a stab wound in its forehead. Fluttershy was too terrified to scream, so she skipped straight to running, fleeing as fast as her four legs could carry her. But the costume was just as fast as her, and was catching up. She flipped furniture and paintings onto the floor in order to slow it, but it simply climbed over them, and proceeded to catch up to her. Suddenly, in a fit of blind fear, she bucked it in the face, and a sickening snap resounded from the costume, like actual bones breaking and sinew tearing, and the "costume" fell limp as it bled, the floor quickly pooling with viscous, red liquid. Fluttershy stared in horror at what she had just done. She stared, and the thing suddenly started jerking wildly, like it was having a seizure, and it tore its own head off, its neck spraying chunky, red gunk everywhere, like old, coagulated blood pudding. Then the blood stopped flowing, and a black orb squeezed out of the hole in the costume's neck, and opened an orange eye, staring at the horrified yellow pegasus. Fluttershy wanted to scream, to cry, to do anything, but all she could do was stand there and whimper softly. She tried to run, but her legs were glued to the floor. Suddenly, she screamed, so loudly, and for so long, the dark matter gave a strained look, and fled, as fast as it could, and several glass objects exploded. When she finished, she saw that nothing was there; she just stood in a barren, dusty hallway. So, now traumatized, Fluttershy then walked through a door on the far side, and found a room just like the throne room of the ruins of old Canterlot, and found Pinkie pie and Applejack laying in the center, unconscious. After a while, they woke, and began to exchange stories on how they got there. Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash awoke in a dungeon-like setting. Looking around, she noticed a single door in the middle of the room. She tried to move toward it, but stopped when she noticed that it was a lot farther than it looked. She tried to move toward it, but as it got closer, it got a lot bigger. She panicked at first, thinking at first that she was shrinking, butas she looked at the bricks that made up the wall, she quickly realized it was just a fun house trick. "Ha, what a dumb trick. Nothing can trick this brain!" She taunted as she pushed the giant, heavy door open. As soon as she did, a soft, chittering noise came from the room behind the now-open door. Thinking it was just rats or something, she proved her bravery by going in, and was rewarded by an instant punch to the face by something to fast too see. Stumbling back, she saw two strange creatures, both pitch black, lizard-like, and with one eye on their faces, and long scythes at the ends of their arms and legs. However, the difference in the creatures was apparent in that one's eye was deep, sapphire blue, and the other was the harshest, angriest red she'd ever seen. "I'm supposed to fight you two jokes? Ha! Tell you what, just 'cuz I'm a sporting mare, I'll go easy on yo-" Her taunt was interrupted by another sock to the face by the red-eyed one of the small, frail-looking creatures, which was quickly followed up by a swift drop kick from above by the blue eyed one. Rainbow Dash, after recovering, spit out a tooth and grimaced. "Ugh, Alright, you freaks asked for this. Time to get crazy!" She screamed, charging the two dark matter. The two quickly retaliated by dodging first, then hitting her with barrage after barrage of coordinated attacks, the blue one favoring kicks while the red one favored punches. This did not deter Rainbow Dash, however, and she charged them again. Then, they kicked her butt as per usual. within a few minutes of this pattern, Rainbow Dash could barely stand. If this kept up, those two things were going to kill her. Yet, she rose into the air, and charged them again. Like usual, the twin dark matter launched their graceful counter assault on her with bored expressions. However, Rainbow sped past them, actually surprising them. As the two hit the ground, Rainbow Dash turned so that she hit the ceiling with her hooves, the leaped off it at them. Caught by surprise, the twin dark matter dove to different sides, then, while she was recovering, leaped and kicked her in the sides at the same time, causing her ribs to break. As Rainbow screamed in pain, the two dark dark matter leaped again, but Rainbow Dash ducked, and the twins ended up kicking each other in the face. Dazed, they fell to the ground, and were knocked out by a swift kick by Rainbow Dash to their skulls. Rainbow Dash then finally limped out of that place, critically wounded by the dark matter twins. As she did, she entered a hallway. Suddenly, the ceiling began to shake and rumble, and a boulder dropped in front of the doorway she entered through, and began to roll toward her. Rainbow Dash then panicked at the suddenness of the trap, and started to run, though her broken ribs caused her excruciating pain. Still, she ran, and narrowly managed to avoid the boulder. As it slammed into the doorway she entered to escape it, she turned around and found a note on a pedestal in the center of the new room she was in, and she read it: "Dear Rainbow Dash, now you know how I feel, the pain I must endure. However, unlike you, who need only suffer temporarily, my pain is eternal. But worry not, for you will soon feel my pain forever too, and I can finally be relieved of the pain of loneliness, one less burden for me to carry. Your future BFF, Zero." Rainbow Dash glared at the note. "Like heck I am! If he thinks he's suffering now, just wait 'till I'M through with him!" She limped past the note, then through a door. On the the other Side, there was a throne room, and her friends. All six there, they began to discuss why they were here and what they should do... Until a familiar white shape appeared before them... The Mane Six got into position as zero revealed himself to the mares, fear gripping them as he opened his eye, just like last time, but they were ready for him this time. "Alright, Zero, where's the Element of hope?" Demanded Twilight. Zero did not answer, only laughed, a deep chortle that resounded through the twisted, mirrored room. Then, as if to taunt the six heroines, he began to change. Zero first folded back his wings, closed his eye, and began to morph into a decahedron, opening 20 new eyes when he had finally finished, one for each of his sides. Then, without another word, the fight began. Zero started the fight off by spinning rapidly, and he charged the meddling mares. When they dodged, however, he simply began to bounce around erratically, hitting Applejack and Fluttershy, but the rest dodged this attack with relative ease. Finally, Zero stopped spinning and bouncing, and simply hovered there, unfazed by what he just pulled. Twilight and her friends tried to attack him, but nothing they did could hurt him in this state. Finally, he began to change again, his body becoming fiery and round, and pillars of flame began to erupt from him, scorching all in their wake. The Mane six dodged these attacks, but could deal no damage to him before he changed back, and he hovered some more. "This is stupid! How do we beat this guy when we can't even land a hit on him!?" Cried Rainbow Dash. Twilight was about to come up with an answer, but Zero began to change again, this time into a yellow, round ball. Suddenly, spikes erupted from this new form, and tried to impale the six heroes. they dodged, and the spikes started to retreat back into Zero's body, but some broke off at their tips, leaving them behind for anyone to use. Suddenly, Twilight got an idea. Using her magic, she picked up a spike tip, then hurled it at Zero. As soon as she did, Zero immediately changed back into a decahedron, and started gyrating faster, as if pained. Upon further inspection, Twilight noticed that one of his "eyes" was missing, leaving a black, empty hole. "Girls, use whatever it uses, that's the only way to hurt him!" She cried, and her friends all acknowledged her, scattering as another fireball was hurled at them, leaving a smoldering orb where it hit. Zero continued to launch fire at the six, but Applejack kicked his fireball right back at him, sending him back into his previous form, which turned into a boulder, with smaller boulders surrounding it. Zero launched these boulders at Twilight and her friends, and they dodged them, too. "That's it? you're throwing rocks now? That's stupid!" Shouted Rainbow Dash. As if in response, Zero then hurled himself at her, catching the pegasus off-guard and smashing her into the ground. Then, he started rolling after the others, causing them to panic and scramble. After crushing the six beneath him, he changed back into his main form, as if to taunt them. The battle lasted for a good hour, with Zero changing forms, and the Mane Six learning how to combat them. Zero threw bombs, shot lightning, and even turned into a giant saw and chased them around, but they eventually learned to combat these forms, taking an eye each time they hurt him. But Zero was far from finished: With a loud roar, he flung his decahedronal form at the Mane six once more, taking them by surprise and tossing the six all over the room as he ricocheted, until four of them could fight no more, and just laid there. The two that did fight, Twilight and Pinkie Pie, were at the edge of their strength reserves as Zero finished bouncing and returned to the center of the room. Finally, he changed into his last form: His lightning form. The two desperately dodged as Zero cast laser after laser at them, and the beams split as they bounced off of the mirrors, making the fight ever harder, until the beams stopped. Pinkie was hit by one, however, and fell to the ground, screaming and convulsing as electricity coursed through her body. Twilight, however, saw her chance; Zero had only one eye left, and the beams had now slowed into balls of electric energy, presenting the last blow to her. With a final toss, the ball hit Zero, and he stopped moving completely. Then he twitched once, and light exploded from him, reverting him to his original, ghost-like form. However, he was extremely damaged; his body was cut and bleeding, his eye was bruised, his wings were ripped, and he was on the ground, sobbing and crying blood. The Mane Six got up to face him, and he raised his eye to them, giving them the most hateful stare they had ever seen. "You lose, Zero. Give us the Element." Demanded Twilight. Zero only stared for a moment, seething with pure anger, then swatted her to the side, and blasted the other five with eye-beams. As the six mares hit the ground, groaning in pain, Zero raised himself up, gathered all his dark matter into himself, and flew off, no longer wanting to make friends with these six interlopers. In fact, he wished that they were dead. As he left the ruins, they began to change back into their original, ruined state, and the Mane Six finally passed out. Zero was defeated... At least, for now. Meanwhile, at the Citadel of Anguish Zero laid on the ground as dark matter took turns putting band-aids on him in an attempt to cover his wounds, but the only real damage Zero couldn't stand was in his heart. He didn't understand, he just wanted to win for once. He did everything right: He separated the heroes, put them through grueling, psychologically damaging mazes, he even orchestrated a fight that even Kirby had trouble fighting against, and yet they still beat him up with absolute impunity. Why could he never win? Why did some hero have to always be there to defeat him at every turn? It simply wasn't fair. The more he thought about this, the more his anger grew. Then, at last, he snapped. Zero, unable to handle any more abuse, cringed in pain at his crushed hopes and dreams, and glared at the castle in the distance, Canterlot, it was called. He stared at the castle, his hatred for the pony race growing with each second, and the Dark Matter, all of them, began to back away in fear as Zero growled, his negative emotions overtaking him, until all hope was gone from him, finally extinguished like a dying candle. And so, with one last baleful glare, Zero slipped back into his cocoon of misery and anguish, and as he did, he quickly began to change, right before his minions' eyes. Zero two was dead. Now, there was nothing... No, minus nothing... Minus Zero.
From the dark void of death... AgainDarkness. That was all Zero could see or feel; cold, endless darkness, oppressive and all-consuming, without beginning or end, and the only source of of light that could be perceived came from his halo that floated statically over his head. And he was here, wherever "here" was, because of that fetid pink puffball, Kirby. Thinking of his defeat on Dark Star Infuriated Zero, especially the part where Kirby shot glass shards into his open eye. Seriously, who the hell does that? At any rate, Zero was dead again, his angst and sorrow and anguish now amplified even greater from being blown up, not once, but twice. Twice. Now he drifted in a dark void, completely cut off from all positive emotion. All he could ever feel was hate, anger, and unbearable sadness, and all he ever wanted was to have everyone know his pain, for everyone to suffer with him, so he wouldn't have to be alone. He came close once, during a campaign in Dreamland. Then Kirby happened. When he restored himself into a more intimidating form, he led his dark matter minions to the sickly-sweet world of... Huh, he couldn't quite remember. Odd. He did, however, remember being in his hive, Dark Star, all nice and comfy, and near the completion of his plan, then Kirby happened... Again. He just wanted to not be alone, to let everyone know the pain he was going through. If everyone suffered with him, it wouldn't be suffering. It would be normal. He would be normal. The thought of this made him feel something other than pain, the only positive thing he ever felt when he thought of his plan: Hope. Hope was all he had, and that cursed Star warrior took it away from him! All he had, all he wanted, gone! All because of that pink, poofy, star-riding, fairy-befriending, freak-of-nature Star warrior! Now, he had nothing. Soon, Zero's emotions began to spiral out of control, and he closed his singular eye tightly, trying to thrash, but to no avail. So he floated there, his clenched eye bleeding with fury and hate. Just as he was gaining control of his emotions, though, he saw a bright light in the distance, a small spot of white that made him feel... peaceful? Content? Happy? Whatever it was, he HATED it, and wanted to just extinguish it, or at least get away from it. Just as he was doing just that, however, he noticed the light getting brighter. No, it was getting closer! He was getting closer! Panicking and visibly sweating, Zero thrashed and struggled to rid himself of the lights grip, but to no avail. finally, as the light touched him, Zero sighed in defeat, and let the light consume him, closing his eye as his vision became white, then blackness once more. Much Later Zero drifted aimlessly around space for a bit, fully conscious, but too tired to bother opening his eye. He finally tried once, failing as it fluttered open and closed immediately, then tried again, forcing his lids to open, and succeeding finally. Once he got is blood- red eye open, however, he wished he'd left it closed, for what now lay in his sight was the most dull, boring, happy planet he ever laid eye on. The planet he now bore before himself, the mighty Zero, was covered in pleasant, perfectly round, green hills, perfectly conical white-topped mountains, and perfectly poofy clouds, and an ocean so pure and blue, it hurt him to look at it. On top of all THAT nonsense, the sun and moon orbited the planet itself in a perfectly circular orbit, as though the stars themselves revolved around this one sickening world. In short, he despised it. The new world reminded him of Popstar, which brought back painful memories... VERY painful memories. Ones involving glass shards, a love-love stick, and a certain pink aberration of nature. Zero gazed upon the world with immense hatred, but soon perked up, as he got a brilliant idea that almost lightened his mood. This world was so pristine and pure, he could easily take the inhabitants, make them see his suffering. Plus, there were no pink Star Warriors in sight, none at all. No Kirby, no MetaKnight, no giant blue penguins, and no fairies. This world would be an easy victory, easier than even the fairies! Suddenly, as these thoughts flowed through Zero's mind, a feeling began to rise in him, a good feeling... hope, his only light in his endless dark cavern of despair. Now it was back, and nothing was going to take it from him ever again. Not Kirby. Not the fairies. Not any god in heaven, nor being on this planet. Holding on to this positive emotion like his most prized, valuable possession, Zero hummed silently to himself as he hurtled toward the planet, eager to meet the inhabitants. They didn't know it yet, but they were about to become his new best friends forever... He would see to that himself. Oh, the fun they were going to have, or lack thereof, anyway. It didn't matter to Zero. Now, it was his time to shine! Zero's back, baby! Meanwhile, in Canterlot Celestia awoke with a start, shaking and sweating. She had a horrible dream, she didn't know what of, though. Only that something incredibly evil, unimaginably chaotic, and immeasurably powerful was heading for their world; something they weren't ready for yet. Shaking her head, Celestia walked to the balcony, and saw her sister's night sky. Nothing was apparent in it yet, but her gut feelings were never wrong, and this one had "disaster" written all over it. With a sigh, she turned back off to bed, deciding to tell Luna in the of this morning. Just as she looked back, however, she saw a small pinprick of black in the night sky, seeming to be observing her. She squinted it the dot, and it suddenly shot back into the heavens, right into space, as if detecting her scrutiny. Celestia had no idea what that thing was, or how it got there, in their sky, or even if it was FROM this world. Whatever it was though, it was clearly worth defending against, Celestia was sure of that. But as Celestia headed back to bed, not moments after, another sphere of black rose from the balcony, seeming to have melded with the shadows prior, and rise from them as it appeared, its one, orange eye fixed on Celestia as she left. Soon, Celestia returned to bed, troubled thoughts floating about in her head, and the strange, black shadow retreated back into the floor, its mission completed... for now.
Ready or not, Here comes Zero!Later, that morning Celestia watched the skies fervently for any sign of the dark sphere she saw last night, scanning vigilantly for anything like it. When she told Luna, her sister agreed to help find this evil, as she had felt it as well last night. As she and Luna watched the sky, Twilight and her friends agreed to watch over Ponyville for anything suspicious, in case it should try to deceive them somehow. However, they need not have worried about that so much, for Celestia soon saw what they were facing: Up in the sky, descended from the heavens above themselves, a great, black sphere had appeared, and was now rocketing toward the ground at incredible speed, almost too fast to track, though no disturbance in the air appeared around it, as if the sphere itself was non-material. Celestia and Luna watched the object closely for a minute, but as it neared the surface of the planet, the giant, black object suddenly stopped close to the ground, but still so far away, and then opened a great, big, blood-red eye. The eye, which looked like it was literally made of blood and disturbed the sisters slightly, then began to twitch and move, seeming to search for something with great intensity. As the thing moved its pupil from side to side quickly, overlooking the land below itself, it finally locked its vigilant gaze right onto Celestia and Luna with deathly precision, despite the fact that it was thousands of miles away, and couldn't possibly have seen the two from where it was. Even so, it merely stared at the sisters unblinkingly, unnerving them to no end. Then, finally, it closed the bloody eye, and exploded. Literally, the thing exploded into trillions upon trillions of little black specks, leaving only a white... something, at the epicenter, simply left to hover there in mid-air. Before Celestia or Luna could get a better look at the white remains of the invader, however, a black object originally from the original colossal sphere crashed into the balcony they stood on, and as the sisters regained their composure, the odd figure slowly rose from the dust and rubble it threw upwards, revealing a cape and pauldrons, set on an oblong body with a spiky head and single, orange eye, which was covered with an armored visor. Before Celestia or Luna could question the strange being, however, the creature, without any means of doing so, pulled a sword from its back and flourished it with the skill and speed of a well-trained swordsman, despite a lack of appendages with which to do this. The sisters were stunned briefly by the sudden, skillful display, but they quickly disposed of their curiosity and took an offensive stance, just as the creature leaped at them with astonishing speed, striking with a flurry of blows the sisters had to strain to dodge, even barely. Neither sister could comprehend how the thing they faced was doing this, and they never managed to get a hit on it either, as it either dodged, parried, or deflected every attack they threw at it. At last, though, Celestia finally got a hit on it as she cast a magic bolt at the oblong creature's blindside, causing it to stagger, and her sister then bucked the thing in its abdomen, sending it flying into a wall. The odd, knight-like creature appeared stunned for a moment, giving the two royal sisters time to breathe, but their victory was short-lived as the creature got up without even wincing and continued it's assault on the two, this time with doubled fury and determination, its eyes blazing with internal fire and an obvious desire to kill. Whatever this thing was, they had just pissed it off, big time. Suddenly, as Celestia was busy dodging sword blows, a letter appeared in front of her face. And just as well, for the creature had just then turned its murderous attention to her poor sister, who was now straining to not get impaled by the strange, dark warrior. Seeing little time left to waste on the reading of the intrusive parchment, Celestia then quickly opened and read the short-but-important letter from her student-turned princess, Twilight Sparkle, with great haste: "Dear Princess Celestia: HELP!!!!! Sincerely, your endangered but faithful former student, Twilight Sparkle." Seeing that the letter was quite short, Celestia took this fact as a matter of great import. Using the time her sister was buying her, she quickly wrote up a letter to Twilight in turn, sent it, and then blasted the creature that was assaulting her sister with a beam of solar energy as it tried to decapitate Luna. At first, though, the attack seemed to only faze the creature, as it returned to its original stance not a moment later, but as Celestia watched the creature get up, she then realized that the beam attack must have really hurt it, because it really made it mad. The thing, upon recovering, shook with frustration, its already hateful glare becoming deeper and more sinister, and it then charged the Princess of the Sun, striking impossibly fast, and with impossible rage, leaving her with only moments to speak to her sister as the angry, oval-shaped creature tried to mince her. "Go, Luna! Go help Twilight! I'll hold this thing off!" Shouted Celestia as she dodged blow after vicious blow from the armored creature. Luna was about to protest, but a stressed look from her sister quickly convinced her otherwise, and the princess of the night then spread her wings and took off to head off for Ponyville. The dark, armored creature, obviously fed up with Celestia, tried to intercept Luna, but Celestia cut it off, inciting a shocked expression from the formerly-angry warrior. Now, it was her turn to play powerhouse, and with a twisted smile on her face and a crackof her neck, the princess of the sun hapilly began, much to the knight's dismay. Meanwhile, Zero looked on as the battle between his single Dark Matter Knight and the supposed rulers of this world dragged on seemingly forever, boring him to bloody tears. But soon, excitement finally occurred in the midst of the inconsistent invasion when, suddenly, the dark blue princess sped off from the fight, leaving the tall, white one to beat up his poor knight, who was clearly losing, having lost the element of surprise. That simply wouldn't do for Zero, so he decided to follow the blue princess, and see where she was off to in such a hurry, if only to stop whatever plan was in motion. And after a moment of thought, Zero decided it would be better than doing nothing, so he shot off after the princess, in hopes of shooting her down before she reached her destination. Unfortunately, the princess saw the massive ball of anger tilt her way and give chase, and obviously terrified by his appearance, she had sped up in an effort to lose him, to what little avail that would accomplish. This mildly annoyed Zero, however, so he put his full effort into getting ahead of her, which wasn't very hard, as she wasn't very fast, and just as he was right in front of her, he stopped, causing the alicorn to solidly smack right into his impervious body, and fall to the ground, unconscious. The sight of one princess going down filled him a little more with hope, and he turned about, and continued toward a small hamlet that his Dark Matter were currently laying siege to in only partial force. Maybe here, perhaps, he would find a better challenge to his obvious superiority... or maybe not. Nonetheless, Zero would no doubt find out soon enough. Meanwhile, in Ponyville: "Keep moving! We've got them on the run!" Twilight shouted to her friends as she loosed another bolt of magic at the creatures that were attacking her town, destroying everything in sight. Twilight and her friends were currently fending off wave after wave of black, gold-petaled, spherical creatures that were actively destroying everything they saw, and causing panic wherever they went, and she was positive that they were likely the evil Celestia spoke of. In her mind, these monstrosities, whatever they were, had to be infinitely worse than both the changelings and the parasprites combined; at least those two started out harmless. These things, however, came from the sky en masse early that morning, and immediately began wrecking everything in they could get their nonexistent hands on as soon as they landed, and then started searching for more stuff to break after they'd destroyed everything in the immediate area. Worse yet, they were almost impossible to get rid of, and the swordsmen were the worst, as they could just parry or deflect everything the girls threw at them. Still, they were beating the creatures back somehow, and Celestia had thankfully wrote that help was on the way. Maybe this wouldn't be a catastrophe after all? Oh, how wrong she was. Just as Twilight finished her thought, the creatures stopped, stared at the sky, and began to back away slowly, though the gesture seemed to be more out of respect than fear. Still, thinking that their reinforcements had arrived, the six looked at where the Dark Matter were looking, only to be greeted by the weirdest thing they had ever laid their eyes on since Discord himself... ...In the sky, hovering over them, was a giant, white sphere, with a little stubby tail, a large, golden halo, and two tiny, white wings floating by its sides, and the dark matter all proceeded to back away from it, almost in reverence, despite how harmless it first appeared. "What in the..?" Twilight could only say as she stared at the object, which bore an open smile and two black, beady eyes. Little did they know however, that this would be their greatest enemy yet; the destroyer of happiness, and eliminator of dreams... Zero Two had come at last... and this world was certainly not prepared.
First BloodAs the Mane six looked to the sky, what exactly they saw could only have been described as the weirdest, oddest, most out-of-place creature that the six had ever seen in their lives: It looked like a ball, with a stubby tail and a halo, making it seem like a ghost or angel of some kind, but in contrast, the creature had an adorable smile plastered on its face, as well as two cute, beady eyes that seemed to stare in no direction in particular, rather cutely. Pinky and Fluttershy immediately d'awwed as they saw the creature, infatuated by its inherent and supposed cuteness and innocence, but soon stopped and changed their minds when the massive, deceptive creature opened its "mouth" only slightly, causing what appeared to be blood to trickle out of the 'opening', and run down its soft-looking body. Then, as if finally tiring of its previous form, the thing began to metamorphose, fully spreading its odd wings, revealing first three more appendages, like feathers of some kind, and then it revealed two odd, crystal-like feathers at the end of each previous 'feather'. Then, finally, the beast before the now-confused mares opened its bloody pseudo-mouth fully, to reveal a giant, blood-red eye, with a black pupil in the center; no iris to speak of. As it gazed upon the six heroes, each had a different reaction, none of which were particularly joyous: Pinkie stood completely still, a look of sheer horror fixed upon her face, Rarity fainted, Rainbow Dash almost vomited, Fluttershy pissed herself, Applejack looked ready to bolt at any second, and Twilight looked in a mix of fear for her life, and curiosity for her inner scientist. Never had she seen a lifeform so... odd... in her life. However, it appeared that her friends did not share her curiosity, so she decided to think further on the matter after they stopped it from destroying the town, and she finally got into an aggressive stance, enticing her friends to do the same despite their initial shock at the creature's sudden change from cute, floating angel, into... that. Meanwhile, Zero looked at the pitiful creatures below with naught but contempt and amusement, and saw only six of them. Six, and they STILL held off an army of his Dark Matter with as much impunity as a full-blown army! It was Pop Star all over again! Furious, Zero glared at the mortified creatures below him, still shocked by his sudden and macabre transformation, and shot a beam of raw energy from his eye at the six pests, causing them to scatter like the insects they were. However, The cyan one became quickly irate at Zero, and despite her previously-felt shock and fear, she'd charged Zero head-on, despite having no knowledge of his capabilities! But alas, the attempt was all for naught, for as soon as the mare made contact with Zero's impervious body, she merely bounced harmlessly off him, and fell to the ground unconscious, with Zero no worse off than he had started, much to his amusement. Twilight watched in mild terror as she witnessed her friend Rainbow Dash get knocked out by hitting the thing head on, but this led to a discovery, good or bad being irrelevant: this meant that the massive, white alien's main body was invulnerable to most forms of attack, if not all, despite it's soft, plushy appearance. However, that naturally meant that it had to have a weak spot somewhere. But try as she might, Twilight looked at the alien all over, but found nothing. Nothing but... A bandage on it's head? Why would that be there, she pondered? Perhaps it had suffered a previous wound, right there on its head, and used the colossal adhesive bandage to close it up. And if that theory was right, then that one place had to be it's weak spot! Quickly spreading her great, purple wings, Twilight quickly took off over the creature, aimed her horn at the colossal bandage, and opened fire at the giant band-aid placed upon its head. However, as if by reflex on the alien's part, the bolt was quickly intercepted by an eye-laser, overpowering and annihilating her own attack instantly, and with absolute impunity. Whatever this thing was, Twilight thought, it certainly had mad reflexes, and extreme prejudice and power to boot. However, it also didn't want anyone touching that particular spot, and she quickly developed a brilliant idea from the information she had acquired: If this monster couldn't see, it couldn't block. However, she knew her friends would be unable to assist her here, seeing as the being would easily wipe the floor with them all if they got in the way, so the princess made her decision, and took this course of action into her own hooves, naturally. And so, carefully aiming her horn, Twilight shot a powerful bolt of magic at the thing's eye, and the alien instantly felt the blast, roaring in pain as massive amounts of blood began to gush forth from the wound, and causing the massive alien to close its eye in a look of sheer agony as her and the remaining other four almost vomited at the horrendous display. Clearly, they were not prepared for that, and payed the ultimate price for their lack of forethought: a one-way ticket to a therapist. As Zero bled out from his pained eye, his ever-present anger grew to massive, unbearable levels, and as the bleeding finally stopped, he glared with great hatred and intensity at the pony before him, who dared shoot at his eye and cause him so much familiar pain. How dare this little nothing shoot his eye, especially after he had just lost the same way to someone else, Zero thought. So, in response to the horrible attack on his person, while the leading one was busy trying to keep from emptying her guts, he blindly shot forward with as full speed as he could muster, ramming into the lavender one and sending her into her friends, who then were knocked away from the princess-to-be in a most comical fashion. Then, as he watched the spectacle, Zero silently laughed as the six pests were knocked aside like bowling pins, bobbing up and down in a silent imitation of laughter as the display went on, and the memory remained fresh in his head. Suddenly, though, Zero stopped, confused and surprised at his reaction to the admittedly comical event, and a confused thought then entered the alien's head, scaring him to no end. Was he... Was he LAUGHING? Indeed, he felt a strange sensation in himself just then, and despite the pleasantness of it, the massive ball of unhappiness didn't like it. And yet, despite that, he also didn't want to stop feeling this strange new emotion that caused him to laugh. So, he silently laughed again when his adversaries began stumbling dizzily about, after picking themselves up. However, to Zero's dismay, the yellow one then managed to quickly recover, and shot up inches from his eye, her face filled to bursting with anger, surprising Zero. Fluttershy had enough of this thing. Whoever, or WHATever, it was, it wasn't about to hurt her friends and laugh about it in front of them. Inhaling to her lungs' maximum capacity, she let loose the angriest speech she'd ever given to the abomination, garnering its full attention in but a moment, and loosing her fury in her words at the giant alien: "How DARE you! You think you can just come to OUR planet, and hurt OUR friends, and then think you can just laugh about it?! Well, sir, I have no Idea who or WHAT you are, but you don't get to do that here, not on OUR peaceful world! you got that, punk?" Fluttershy screamed at the white ball, inciting a surprised look from it for a good while after she had finished, leaving her panting for breath, but satisfied. Maybe she'd succeeded where others had likely failed, and gotten to it, she thought to herself. However, the thought was quickly abolished from her head when the creature's expression turned from one of surprise to boredom, and it proceeded to stare disinterestedly at her, frustrating the small, yellow pegasus further. Zero stared blankly as the angry little yellow thing proceeded to yell at him, a bored expression on his face. He was surprised by the noise at first, but he soon found that he couldn't understand a word the little yellow creature was saying, and whatever she was, she really annoyed him. So in response, Zero turned away from the yelling creature before him, almost smacking her with one of his wings in the process, and proceeded to ignore her, much to the little thing's dismay and anger. "Hey! don't turn away when I'm talking to you!" Fluttershy yelled, having failed several times in trying to make the moody alien pay attention to her, kicking and ramming several spots on it, until at last, she managed to dive-bombed his band-aid, causing immediate reaction from Zero: Holding its head with his odd wings in what she could only guess was excruciating pain, It began to excrete more blood from its eye, making everyone even more squeamish, and Fluttershy hesitated wondering if the creature she just hurt was alright, as nothing she knew of just up and cried blood unless there was something really, really wrong with it. But as she pondered her admittedly questionable actions Zero suddenly turned about, an expression of anger on his face, and Fluttershy got shot by an exploding ball of light from the creature's eye as it almost instantly turned on her for her hesitation, sending her spiraling to the ground in a trail of smoke. Meanwhile, Zero, not quite finished with the yellow nuisance, then flew into the ground at full speed, crushing poor Fluttershy into a crater made by the force of his own body. Then, he arose, keeping his eye on her as he did, and proceeded to charge a gargantuan eye-beam to finish the pest once and for all, finally sick of being merciful to these ungrateful creatures, whatever they where. "Hey, Twi, what's that thing doin'?!" demanded Applejack, pointing at the alien, who was charging up some kind of finishing blow with which to finally rid itself of Fluttershy, a look of indescribable rage apparent on its face, or what little of a face it had, anyway. "I don't know, but I'm stopping it!" Twilight shouted finally, determination filling her being, and she shot a magic bolt from her horn into the alien's eye, causing a massive explosion due to the interruption of its attack, and the remaining five averted there heads, in an attempt to keep the ensuing dust from getting in their eyes. When the obscuring dust wave had finally settled, the alien was revealed, simply hovering there, its eye spinning around in a cartoonish fashion, and bleeding profuse amounts of blood. Clearly, it was dazed, and now was the time to attack! Twilight then took a commanding stance, her resolve firm, then gave the order. "Alright, girls, get the elements ready!" She shouted. Luckily, everyone was ready, and had their elements with them, just for this occasion. However, as luck would have it, the Dark Matter Zero controlled were watching the fight the whole entire time, and had been waiting for just this opportunity, and once it presented itself, the monsters struck, putting their devilish plans into action post-haste. Just when the Mane Six got the elements ready and got themselves into formation, a Dark Matter Knight suddenly rammed into Twilight, knocking the element away from her as she prepared to finish Zero. And then, as she tried to reach for it, the assailing Dark Matter snatched Twilight's element off the ground with unseen hands, interrupting the process, and causing the other five mares to hit the ground hard, and glance about in confusion. Then as the six realized just what had happened, the Dark Matter Knight holding the Element of Magic flew off toward the boss alien, who by now had recovered, and cast an amused glare down at them. And then, before they could react, five more Knights knocked the remaining heroines down, and then absconded with the remaining five elements, much to their dismay. "NO!" Cried Twilight as the Dark Matter Knights took off with the elements, leaving the Mane six, and Equestria, ultimately defenseless, left to the mercy of Zero and his army of darkness. And so, with one last, bellowing chortle, Zero spread his wings, and prepared to blast the Mane Six with a powerful eye-beam, and finish the only opposition to his power once and for all, no loose ends left untied. Finally, Zero mused in his head, after years and years of sadness, pain, and ultimately defeat, he had won! This simple race would crumble before his might, and they could no longer stop him, not without their precious elements. Finally, this world was his, without a soul to stop him, And he thus loosed a beam of pure hatred at the Mane Six, felling the pests that had briefly plagued him so much for good... Or so he had hoped. Twilight fell to her knees as the alien's attack finally ended, and the others fell suit. With no means to defend themselves, the Mane Six simply laid there, too weak to move, but still conscious enough to realize what had just happened. Ultimately beaten, and with the elements in the enemy's possession, Twilight simply collapsed with the rest of her friends, and the last thing she saw was Zero and his Dark Matter minions flying off into the distance, before she slipped into unconsciousness.
The journey beginsHours passed after the incident with Zero, and all in the now-saved town worried for the health of the six who dared stand up to him... though their situations looked bleak; the beam of energy that Zero had fired upon the six did not kill them, but it had ultimately sapped their energy, leaving them vulnerable, and without any help. Thankfully, thanks to the efforts of the township, they were soon recovered, as near to death as one could be without fully succumbing to his grasp, but quickly fading, and were thusly taken to Canterlot, to have their wounds treated at last, and to finally give the bad news to Celestia herself. Zero had beaten them, stole their elements, and retreated, leaving the six to their fates... But fate would decide differently for these mares this day. The Mane six awoke in hospital beds, nurses all watching over them with worried expressions, soon turned to relief. When they awoke, the nurses had quickly become excited, and before the six mares, who'd only hours before been crushed by Zero, could even raise their heads, they and many other visitors swarmed them like the Dark Matter they'd fought with before Zero, all asking various questions about their encounter with the massive, disturbing alien: "What did it look like?" Asked one. "Did it have sharp teeth?" Asked another. "Did it talk?" asked a third. The questions flooded without seeming end, and Twilight, in desperation, almost raised her voice to silence the ponies who sought so many answers from her, when suddenly, a voice shouted out, quieting all the the voices in the room, and leaving the Mane Six, at last, in peace: "Make way, make way, Princess coming through!" Celestia had called, as she pushed through the crowd, parting it to give the bewildered heroes some breathing room, and then she found and turned to Twilight, who was beyond relieved to see her former teacher, and to have the media away from her, if only for a moment. However, the questions that came next from the Princess of the Sun once more upset Twilight, as they unnerved her more than every visitor in the room: " Twilight... Thank goodness you're alright. I saw the fight, Twilight. Is that... thing... defeated? Where are the Elements of Harmony?" Celestia asked, bewildered. Twilight grimaced almost refusing to give the answer to her former teacher for fear of her reaction, but then ultimately answered, swallowing her fears in the process. "We... We failed, Princess. That thing's minions knocked us down, then they... It took them, your highness. That alien took the elements, and left us to die." Twilight answered reluctantly. Celestia stared in a mixture of shock and horror, then burst out laughing, confusing everyone, especially the Mane Six, at the suddenness of her change in reaction. And finally, wiping a tear of mirth from her eye, Celestia spoke again, hoping for a better answer this time. "Twilight, you shouldn't scare me like that! Come now, tell me where they really are." She said, sighing. Twilight then gulped, hating to repeat such catastrophic news to her former teacher, but she still replied, her answer the same as before. "Celestia, we're... we're telling the truth. The Elements were taken by the invader. We failed. I-I'm sorry..." Twilight explained. Celestia's face fell as the words hit her like a freight train. Twilight had lost the Elements to a villain who hadn't even been here before, and not only that, hadn't been here for more than ten minutes! The notion itself was unthinkable! "You... You lost?" asked Celestia, dumbfounded. She couldn't respond properly. First, her sister is knocked out by this thing, and now it beats the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony and absconds with the Elements themselves. Yes, this has happened before, but not in one day, and not by one villain, especially one who only appeared yesterday. It was Preposterous! Unthinkable! Celestia, unable to cope with the notion, then stumbled as if to faint, only to be caught by her guardspony immediately. "Celestia! Are you alright?" Asked Twilight, highly concerned. And Celestia looked back dizzily, and replied. "I-I'll be fine... I just... I..." Celestia finally passed out, simply unable to process or cope with the thought of this creature having the elements. Later, at a cave in the mountains... Zero looked at his prize: the shiniest gems he'd ever seen, now somewhere they could never harm him: in a chest, on an altar, in a cave on the top of a mountain. But even so, Zero despised the gems, despite their beauty, for they gave off a feeling of great happiness. Zero hated these cursed gems, and wanted to destroy them and spit on their remains, cursing their creators for the sheer audacity of making these horrid, disgusting, happy little trinkets. But in spite of his feelings, Zero knew that he needed these gems. He wanted the power stored within them first before he crushed them, and if he wanted that power stored withing these elemental pieces, he needed to learn how to operate them. Zero thought on this predicament, and thought even more. But no matter how hard he lamented on the workings of the powerful little jewels, or how hard he glared at them, attempting to intimidate into working with the force of his anger alone, no answer ever came to him, and the gems, set in their jewelry sets, merely sat there, twinkling in the faint light, as if mocking Zero for his incompetence. But all was not lost, for soon, another thought entered Zero's mind, striking him like lightning, and filling him with inspiration: The six he had defeated, they had used the elements before him without difficulty. And surely, when he fired upon them in hopes to kill them, he in fact may not have ended them right there! So, Zero pondered, an eventually, a decision became clear to him: If he himself could not use these trinkets, then one of the six that had originally wielded them would provide him with the answers he sought, willing or not... that is, if only he could find them. Canterlot castle, later Celestia awoke in her room, after awakening from a crazy dream where the Mane Six lost to a freaky alien and lost the Elements of Harmony to it. Oh well, it was just a dream, after all. Then, a maid stepped in. "Princess, you're awake! How are you feeling?" The maid asked, and Celestia rubbed her head, then replied: "Oh, I'm quite alright, just had the craziest dream though... The Bearers of the Elements were in it... and an alien..." The maid shuddered, then spoke up: "P-princess, that wasn't a dream... It actually happened." The maid said shyly, and after a moment of pause, Celestia sighed, lowering her head, and finally replied. "I figured it wouldn't be that easy. Alright, bring Twilight and her friends here. I need to talk to her. NOW." Later... Twilight, after hearing that the princess requested her presence, began to sweat. She had just failed the kingdom, and was now liable for treason. Her sentence could be death, or worse! And now, the Princess wanted to talk to her, alone, and under such grim circumstances! Twilight began to shake more and more as she reached the throne room, and as soon as she opened the door to Celestia's medical wing, she quickly found Celestia waiting, a stern look on her face. "Your Highness, I'm so very sorry for..." Twilight tried to apologize, but she was almost immediately cut off by a wave of Celestia's hoof leaving her in silence as a moment passed, and finally, Celestia spoke, her voice grim, but understanding. "No, Twilight, you've no reason to apologize. In reality, it's my fault the elements rest now with Zero; you have no reason to be ashamed" Said Celestia, and Twilight cast a confused look at the princess of the sun as she finished her explanation. "Zero? Is that the alien's name? How do you know that?" asked the confused Princess-to-be, and Celestia sighed, beginning yet another explanation to Twilight about the dire situation that the world was now in: "...I have asked the greatest court wizards on the identity of our newest assailant, Twilight, and none of them could identify it, nor any book in the archive, and I've certainly never seen anything like it before in my own long life, so it is clear it was not from this world, or this universe." Replied the Princess solemnly, looking as though a great burden rested on her head. "That is why I searched the mind of the minion we captured during the alien's last assault on us, and found out our new enemy's name, and it's rather... unpleasant history. I will not go into detail, but I have found out that the creature we now face is in great pain, and it has tried to spread that pain to others many times before." Celestia explained, and after a brief pause, she continued on. "It's name is Zero, Twilight, and it indeed came from another universe, one very similar to ours, but has been defeated twice by the same single hero. This failure, I've gathered, has devastated Zero, and if we are to ever have any chance of defeating it, then we need to sooth it, before it brings the whole world into nothing but chaos and unhappiness. And that, Twilight, is where you and your friends come in." Celestia Twilight was caught by complete surprise by this. "W-What? After we lost to it once? Why not send all the guards in the land?" She asked. However, Celestia did not react, and in fact seemed to grow more upset at the suggestion Twilight presented. Finally, after a quick sigh, Celestia responded: "Because, Twilight, we want to try and ease its pain, not increase it. It cannot feel positive emotions without feeling pain, but you and your friends can fix that." Said Celestia coolly. However, Twilight was confused by this. "Us, fix it? How? Without the Elements of Harmony, we're hopeless to stop that thi-... I mean, Zero." She said sadly. But nonetheless, Celestia gave a sad smile, then replied: "We can, Twilight. Zero cannot feel most positive emotions, but he still has one, and you and your friends can bring it out, and open the way for Zero to be happy again... You just need the greatest element of all: Hope. Without hope, our kingdom would not exist, and Zero would have simply stayed dead, never to feel joy or pride. Now, you must find it, then use it to face him." Twilight lit up at the thought of a secret element they could use to defeat Zero and make him stop his rampage. "Where is it hidden, Princess? I must know if we are to defeat Zero!" Twilight said, excitement in her voice. Celestia laughed softly, then replied. "Patience, my little princess. You first must find Zero. By the time you have found his lair, you will already have found Hope along the way. Then, you can defeat him." Twilight Straightened upright, then snapped a salute. "I won't let you down, princess! I promise you now, Zero will be defeated!" Celestia smiled. "I'm sure of it, Twilight. After all, I have hope that you will." She said with a smile, musing at her little joke. And thus, their meeting Concluded, Twilight exited the castle to round up her friends for an epic quest. Little did anyone realize, though, a dark, spherical interloper was watching from the window, and was now flying off to report to its master... Meanwhile, at the Citadel of Anguish, Zero's lair Zero hovered in a cocoon of dark energy he'd created to protect himself, rapidly gaining his own power back as he waited, but he still remained separated from the power within the Elements of Harmony, the boundless, unknown taps of power sealed within those tiny, fragile gems... and no way to reach them by himself. This alone infuriated Zero to no end, and he was tempted to just smash the impudent trinkets and be done with it. But, despite all his rage at the small elements, he restrained himself, for he knew that he eventually would be rewarded greatly for his patience, and this thought helped spark that one little emotion in him, the one he'd known all his life, and that he clung to like a raft in a crashing, raging sea of misery and despair: Hope. However As he floated in his little vortex of misery, a lone dark matter minion of his timidly approached Zero and his shroud of despair, and then began making otherworldly noises only Zero and other dark matter could understand: It told him that the six mares Zero had encountered before were now heading out, on yet another quest to stop him, but with a new, unheard-of Element this time: Hope. As soon as he heard this news Zero quickly became furious, his rage quickly overpowering his other emotions, and causing him to almost lash out at the dark matter minion, the elements, and the whole world itself. Hope, the only positive thing he could experience without it killing him. Now, they were going to use it against him?! ... Well, not if he found it first. Gathering his swarm, Zero then unleashed them upon the land to find this "Element of Hope" and bring it to him, and to grab one of those technicolor pests if possible. And on this order, the Dark Matter legions all swarmed out of the massive cavern that hid Zero from the world, blotting out the sun and sky with their sheer numbers as they spread out across all of Equestria, their search for the Mane six and the Element of Hope officially on. That done, Zero then quietly resumed his meditation, still trying to unlock the power within the Elements he had himself. Soon, he would show them all. He was going to bring them misery and pain whether they liked it or not, and he wasn't going to lose. Not this time. And now, after all those years in dreamland, after all those years of agony and defeat, Zero could finally see victory, gleaming like a star... And finally, after so long... he could almost touch it, and no one, no ponies, no puffballs, nothing in this world was ever going to get in his way ever again.
Zero's Super-Fun Creeper Castle of Horror!!!The Dark Matter searching in the Everfree forest finally had grown tired, after three long days of non-stop searching for the supposed Element of Hope. The large team, consisting of over five hundred minions, searched high and low for days, demolishing all in their path, be they plant, animal, or decrepit building, but could not find anything that might remotely look like a container for the element. However, just as they were about to give up all hope, The five hundred-strong army found what appeared to be an ancient, ruined castle, sitting there in the woods, for anyone to inhabit. Plus, as they approached the old ruin, they felt a soft, calm feeling emanating from it. So at last, the small army thought that they had found their element, or at least another base of operations. Eagerly seizing the opportunity presented to them, the Dark Matter all started to swarm about and within the ruins, and the old castle began to undergo a terrifying change; large, colorful spikes soon erupted from the ground, becoming tents, metal spikes and wires quickly grew from the ground becoming fences that soon surrounded the premises, and the castle itself, once a chilling, decrepit ruin, soon began to undergo repairs, and then became something even more horrifying, as one messenger flew off toward the horizon, eager to tell the master of their latest accomplishment... The Mane Six began their trek to the Everfree forest, because where else would a secret, unheard-of element be hidden? First, the six stopped by Fluttershy's house to pick up supplies for the journey ahead, and then they headed out, feeling prepared for anything that Zero threw at them. As they traversed the forest, though, they headed en route to their first stop, Old Canterlot, but as they approached the area where it was, the six felt an ominous air in the area, which was unusual: Usually, the castle had such a calm, pleasant aura about it. But now, as the six approached the old ruins, they could only cringe at the feeling of dread and oppression they felt. And as they walked, Rainbow Dash shuddered at the cold aura about the place, and commented on the feeling. "Brr... H-hey, do the rest of you feel that? It feels so cold around here..." Rainbow called, and the other five nodded in agreement, shivering from the feeling of the castle, which they had yet to even see. "Yeah, it feels like winter's up and come months before it should've!" Applejack replied, and Fluttershy shuddered a bit, and voiced a question of her own right afterward: "You... you all don't think that... that Zero got there first, do you?" Fluttershy asked, and Twilight turned about to respond to her friend, but before she even could, the six mares suddenly perked up, and listened to the air, to what appeared to be the sound of... music. Suddenly, before any of them could react, Pinky Pie began to smile widely, and began bouncing up and down, faster and faster, until she seemed to be little more than a sporadic pink blur. And as if to complicate matters further, Twilight finally got a good listen to the creepy, shrill sound in the air, and finally recognized it right there. "Carnival music..? What in Equestria..?" Twilight muttered, but she was quickly interrupted by Pinky Pie, who was still bouncing around like a flea on cocaine. "Omigoshomigoshomigoshomigoshomigosh!!!!!! Carnival!!!!! Weeeee!!!!" She screamed as she took off towards the source of the music, without so much as another word. "Pinkie, wait!" Cried Twilight as the remaining five tried to catch up to her. However, she was too fast for them, and when they finally caught up to her, she was staring in unbelievable glee at what appeared to be a giant, twisted castle, like the ones put up on Nightmare night. All around it were little attractions, like "Test your strength", or those stupid games where you have to knock over the bottles that nopony ever wins. However, It wasn't anywhere near Nightmare night, and the place was empty. And on top of that, everyone but Pinky Pie cringed at the horrid aura emanating off of the tall, dark castle in horrible, dreadful waves. "Who in Equestria would go out of their way to build such a large carnival in the middle of the Everfree forest, in the wrong month?" Asked Twilight to herself, though none of her friends answered, all but one being to terrified of the place to even talk. As they searched through the carnival, Pinkie then kept on running off to different tents, never staying at one for long due to a lack of attendants, and the little pink spaz finally ran into the main castle, leaving the other five to groan in annoyance, and force themselves to follow her. The other five mares groaned and facehooved as they went in after her, and as they entered the interior of what once was the old Canterlot castle, they were all quickly terrified by the inside. Clearly, someone put a lot of effort into this haunted castle attraction, because it was downright scary, with bones littered across the floor, cobwebs hanging from the seemingly miles-high ceiling, and the oppressive, heavy air of death that hung in the castle, causing the Mane Six, Pinky included, to shudder in fear. However, despite the horrors already at work, the real show only had yet to start. As the six wandered the haunted castle, large masses icky black slime began to ooze from the cracks and crevasses in the walls and ceiling, and before the six ponies could react, the masses of ooze formed into basic, but incredibly strong tendrils, and proceeded to grab the six, who all screamed and struggled as it enveloped them, but to no avail. Twilight could only watch as her friends were dragged to the floorboards below, before the black ooze fully engulfed her, too. Twilight struggled against the gunk that now was trying to kill her, and fired multiple magic bolts at random to ward it off, but the ooze seemed to ignore these shots, and quickly enveloped Twilight's face, suffocating her. Twilight struggled furiously at this, but before long, the lack of oxygen got to the little princess, and she quickly blacked out, forced under the floorboards like her friends at last. When Twilight Sparkle finally regained consciousness after what seemed like an eternity, she looked around quizzically, abserving her surroundings, and soon discovered just where she'd been left: a most peculiar room of the castle, the bedroom. "Ugh, what the heck was... Girls?" She called, and though she looked around, Twilight couldn't find her friends anywhere. And soon after realizing that she was now all alone in this dark, insane perversion of the Old Canterlot castle, she began to get really, really scared. "Uh, h-hello? Applejack? Pinkie Pie? Rarity? Anypony?" Twilight called weakly. But when nopony answered, she looked on the bed she was placed on, and found a very badly written note, covered in droplets of the same gunk that grabbed her and her friends in the first place. Thinking it to be a clue, Twilight made a sour expression at the ill-written note, and powered through the task of reading it, hoping to at least get a sense of where she was, and how to get out. "Dear Twilight, I have Your friends and the Element of Hope. If you Desire these things, you must get through this maze and others I have constructed. However, know that I have tasted your fears and regrets, and seek to employ all of them against you and your friends, as demonstrated perfectly in this note alone. Find the exit, and the Element, at your own risk, bookworm. With love, your soon-to-be best friend, Zero." Twilight looked at the note with distaste at first, then pure confusion at the last part. "Soon-to-be Best friend? What does that even mean?" She asked with much confusion and frustration, not understanding Zero's reasons or consistencies. He tried to kill them first, and now he wants to be friends? It made no sense to Twilight. Deciding to ignore that part, she instead focused on the more important objective: Her friends, and the Element. That goal in mind, Twilight finally got off of the bed, and tried to open the door. As she turned the knob with her magic, however, the door flew open, revealing a giant mouth full of shark-like teeth, and it tried to eat her! before the "door" could devour her, though, she jumped back with a yelp, and stood there, panting as the door closed, then opened again, revealing a hallway outside. Testing to see if it was a trick, she took a book from the bookshelf and threw it through the doorway. Surprisingly, and to Twilight's relief, the door didn't even twitch, and she quickly jumped through, still not fully trusting anything that this new, twisted castle presented to her. After Twilight jumped through the doorway, however, the door shuddered a bit, and slammed closed, causing the area to shake with the force it exerted on itself. And as it did, a tiny spider dropped from the ceiling onto Twilight's nose, having been shaken from its web. After looking at the tiny, confused arachnid for a while, Twilight laughed, underwhelmed at such a low, cheap scare. However, another spider almost immediately dropped on her head afterward, and another fell next to her after that, and then, a drop of strange, green liquid dripped from the ceiling, causing Twilight to freeze in place in utter fear as she looked down at the sizzling, noxious puddle it left. Finally, looking up in horror, Twilight gasped as she saw a giant, pitch-black spider, even bigger than she was, it's dripping mandibles clacking hungrily, and its single orange eye focused on her with intense precision. Twilight stood still for a moment, her own heart refusing to beat for a while. Then, almost instantly, the gargantuan monster dropped from the ceiling and slowly crawled toward her in a predatory fashion, its jaws dripping and clicking, causing Twilight to back away slowly, and then start running. As soon as Twilight broke into a run, however, the giant, horrific spider pounced to her location, missing the little alicorn by mere inches, and it then proceeded to chase her down the hall, skittering down the narrow, long hallway with the speed and focus of a freight train, and likely with all the lethality, too. Searching frantically for a door, Twilight quickly turned and went in the first one she found, regardless of whether it was a trap or not, which caused the spider to barrel down the hall, its claws skidding as it tried to stop itself, and the monster then hopelessly slid into a trap that involved a giant square plate on the ceiling slamming into the ground, squashing the colossal arachnid. A single leg twitched once or twice on the remains of the monstrous creature, and it was finally dead. Twilight gulped, wondering what would have happened if she hadn't went in that door, and needless to say, she quickly suppressed the thought. Finally, she turned around, relieved of having survived her first real deathtrap, and headed down the new hallway presented to her, praying that she wouldn't run into any more giant spiders. Meanwhile, Rarity woke up in some kind of basement, dazed and confused as to just where she had been taken Last she remembered, the horrible slime that knocked her out came from the floor, and took her right back down with it. However, everything after that was blank, and next thing she knew, she was here, in this dark, decrepit cellar. So, dusting herself off, Rarity looked around for any clue as to what was going on, but ultimately finding nothing but dirt, stone, and a few torches here and there, their eerie, dim glow seeming to only add to the dreadful feel of this place, not made any better by the constant noises Rarity heard, likely to be rats. Despite her nervousness due to the filthy nature of this place, though, Rarity continued onward into the depths of the dungeon she was now in, determined to get out of the dank cellar. Thankfully, the exit to the darkest, dirtiest part of the catacomb she awoke in was not far, and after exiting the cellar, she soon found a pony skull, hopefully fake, with a note pinned to it by some kind of bony spike. Pulling it out, Rarity read the note in earnest, hoping to finally glean some manner of information from the dirty, ragged sheet of paper. "Dear Rarity: I understand you like clean, beautiful things, so I, Zero, took it upon myself to make this gauntlet the filthiest, muddiest, most horrifying and disgusting string of rooms you've ever seen, or ever will see in your miserable life. But if you want to see your friends again, and maybe retrieve the Element of Hope, you'll just have to grin and bear it. However, if you think this is because I hate you, it is, in fact, quite the opposite; you should actually consider this to be the ultimate gesture of our budding friendship, as I have taken time out of my rather busy day to make a nice, challenging gauntlet just for you, so that you can finally get past your own shortcomings! So, consider it a labor of love, from me to you. After all, what are future friends for? Sincerely yours, Zero. P.S, this letter was dropped in mud several times." After reading the letter, Rarity was left with no clues, to her chagrin, but instead a mixture of confusion and disgust overwhelmed her, Mostly disgust. Deciding to go for her friends and forget this awful place, Rarity then set out to prove this Zero character wrong. After all, how bad could a little dirt be? She got out of that room, and walked onward, unaware of the low, wailing sound that now approached her, and how the torches, though thankfully numerous, where slowly turning from orange to green as she passed through the hall, into a different room. As Rarity walked through the large, stone archway into the odd, dreadful-feeling room, the unicorn of generosity looked around it, studying its placement, and quickly judged that the place was probably some kind of altar, judging by the intricate designs in the stone, and the stone construct in the center. She felt compelled to walk up to the altar in the center of the room, feeling some unseen force guide her to it, but Rarity stopped herself halfway to it, using all her willpower to free herself from the presence's grasp, and immediately figuring out just what this room really was. "Wait! This has to be trap of some sorts! Well, I'm not falling for it." Said Rarity matter-of-factly, nodding her head for emphasis. As soon as those words left her mouth, however, a dark, foreboding voice came from the altar, its presence filling the room, and it seemed to dim the torches as it spoke, causing Rarity to back up, not wanting to see what exactly was talking. "Well, then... If you will not come to me, then I will go to you!" The dark voice shouted, and from the altar came a mass of black ooze, which flew toward rarity with startling speed. Shrieking in terror, Rarity picked up a discarded board with her magic and hit the orb, causing it to fly into a wall, quickly creating a big mess as the orb of Dark Matter impacted the wall, and was smeared all over it. However, as if in defiance of the Element of Generosity, the orb soon pulled itself together, and dove into a pile of bones, causing them to form into some kind of mess of black, necrotic ooze as the orb grew and shifted, with spines and ribs and skulls placed haphazardly on it. Then, a single, orange eye opened on the ooze-like monstrosity, and it began to tower over Rarity, causing her to freeze up in fear, and the mass of vile slime then started to throw black, vile-looking gunk at her, glaring at Rarity with annoyance and dislike as it launched volley after volley of black ooze at her. Dodging the first volley with relative ease Rarity then paused a moment to catch her breath, as the monster just didn't stop firing at her, no matter what. But as soon as the unicorn stopped moving, the creature of filth locked onto her position, and launched the next volley of filthy projectiles at her, getting Rarity all over with its foul, slimy attacks, and the ooze then, to Rarity's horror began to melt into her, leaving black, sickly marks on her flash as they vanished. Yelping in shock and horror, Rarity quickly used her magic to pull the remaining blobs off, but their infection was already apparent, mucking up her brilliant white coat, turning it and the skin beneath it pitch-black. She also felt terribly ill as the infection took it's hold, and soon became a chore just to stand, as the Dark Matter began to take hold of her body, and slow it down. Sensing her unease, the monster then seemed to almost smile, and quickly launched another volley of black sludge at her. However, Rarity dodged it as quickly as she could, straining herself to her limits to avoid the black spheres. Then, just then, Rarity felt her saddlebag open, and something then fell out, getting the vile beast's attention as it bounced and slid toward it: Soap. The massive, dark slime stared at the bar, and feeling that she'd need it later, Rarity lunged for the bar desperately, only to have it snatched away by the slime, and consumed by it, to the unicorn's dismay. However, soon after absorbing the bar of soap, the massive, slimy Dark Matter quickly paused, a look of surprise and horror apparent, and it shuddered violently, and spat the bar out, seeming to have been weakened by the object of cleanliness. And at that moment, Rarity picked the bar back up, and grinned as the massive slime shuddered, and idea forming in her head, and it wasn't long before the idea was put into action; "Oh, you don't like soap, huh? Let's see how dirty you play when the tables are turned, you pile of barf!" Rarity shouted, throwing the bar at the slimy, black, germ-covered abomination. The soap did it's job, and the creature recoiled as it was hit by the cleansing bar, and Rarity then pulled out several more bars, some shampoo, a bottle of toothpaste, and several bottles of perfume, and smiled as the slime looked in horror at these things, sensing its imminent demise at their hands. Before Rarity could act, though, the massive beast of black filth reared up, bellowing its anger at the little unicorn, and launched yet another volley of dark matter at her, forcing Rarity into defensive measures until the volley ended, whereupon it was HER turn to play offense. "Eat fragrance, you sack of bile! HYAH!!!" Rarity screamed, and the monster tried and failed to dodge as a stream of pink and white bars where flung into its face, and the beast again recoiled, roaring in dismay and agony, and once the bars were depleted, Rarity brought out the perfume bottles, undid the tops, and proceeded to fling them like grenades, each time causing more and more damage to the Dark Matter slime, withering the thing away until it was but a ball with an eye on it. The creature, then sensing its imminent defeat, looked side to side in fear, and fled quickly out of the room, leaving a small dust cloud in its wake. "That's right, run, you filthy little goblin!" Shouted Rarity at the retreating black sphere. And so, feeling quite proud of herself, she used her last bar of soap to scrub off the black gunk the beast left on her, which seemed to do wonders, seeing as the gunk within her and on the outside both fled from the hygienic product, and where quickly destroyed by it. After restoring her coat to its pristine white, Rarity then pocketed the bar and trotted out of the room her mood lifted, but as she trotted, something small tripped her, and she landed face-first in a puddle of mud, much to Rarity's shack and horror. And then, her assailant, the black sphere-like creature from earlier, laughed at Rarity, doubling over in mirth as tears of laughter filled its eye. Rarity, however simply laid there, stunned, then looked at the mess she was, then at her assailant. Filled with fathomless rage, the now-filth-covered mare chased the creature down the hall, which then flew into a wall at the far side, escaping Rarity's unbridled wrath. Still fuming, Rarity trudged through a doorway, not bothering to look where it led to. In fact, all she could see was the color red, as her anger was reaching critical levels. Finally, though, all her anger vanished seemingly at once when a miraculous sight filled her eyes: A clear, pristine pool of water filled the center of the room, and the light reflected off of it from the ceiling danced all over the room, resulting in a breathtaking sight after such a long time down in a giant, rat-filled sluice way. "Perfect! Now I can get rid of this bothersome grime." Rarity exclaimed, and she immediately jumped into the pool, washing off the mud that she'd gathered after the vengeful Dark Matter tripped her. When she finally got out, Rarity muttered angrily to herself, making a grim promise as she spoke: "If I ever see that little black chew toy again, I'm going to drown it in this pool." Rarity threatened, and at that, she finally wandered off, feeling quite sure she could take whatever this "Zero" could throw at her. Except a giant spider, of course. But, as luck would have it, that particular Dark Matter she faced in the altar room just so happened to have friends. And as Rarity wandered down the hall towards the exit, she soon bumped into one of these friends, who just so happened to take the form of a giant, one-eyed spider. And so, with that, Rarity's quest was thus quickened, mostly on account of being chased down by a giant, vengeful spider. Next, awoke Fluttershy, Who soon became quite terrified after finding that she was alone in what appeared to be a kitchen. Indeed, chunks of rotting meat hung from hooks that hung from chains to the ceiling were scattered about the room, blood covered the floor, and a bloody mascot costume, which looked to have been some kind of bunny or something, lay in a seated position in a corner, like there was a dead body inside it. Fluttershy trembled in fear as she slowly walked around the room, looking for an exit. She found a large metal door and opened it, but a rush of freezing air rushed out to greet her. As she looked inside, She saw a single body in the center of the freezer, hanging by a hanging meat hook through it's abdomen. There was nothing else in the room, so fluttershy quickly closed the door and looked behind her. When she did, she noticed that the mascot costume was no longer in the corner, but was now laying face-down four feet from her! Terrified out of her wits and beginning to panic, she backed away from the costume, and into another door. Fluttershy pushed it open, and she heard a crash behind her. She quickly turned around, and the Mascot costume had vanished! Practically gasping for air, Fluttershy took off out the door, and down the hall, which was like that of a school. As Fluttershy ran, she heard footsteps pounding behind her. She looked back, but saw nothing. She turned back around, and found herself in front of a door with a window on it, despite the fact she didn't even move since she turned behind her. Peering through the grime-covered window, she could make out somepony behind it. Thinking it to be one of her friends, she opened it, And screamed. There, before here, was the skinned, headless body of a pony, suspended from the ceiling by hooks. It didn't move, but something else did. A black shadow crept along the ground, just outside her field of vision. When she looked for it, she turned toward where she entered this sick room, and found the bunny mascot sitting in the corner,a steak knife stabbed into its forehead, and a note attached to it by that steak knife. She then looked at the note, tears of terror in her eyes: "Dear Fluttershy, They can't hurt you if you don't believe in them. Don't you know that? Nothing can, if you don't believe. Your friends are safe, but are you? Something is in this place, hunting you. Hurting you. And I'm watching, trying to make you safe, but only you can protect yourself. Run Don't look back It's right behind you -Zero." Fluttershy stopped reading, then slowly turned around, and the skinned, headless body started to squirm and writhe, as if in pain, and the bunny mascot stepped from behind it, a bloody steak knife in it's hands, and a stab wound in its forehead. Fluttershy was too terrified to scream, so she skipped straight to running, fleeing as fast as her four legs could carry her. But the costume was just as fast as her, and was catching up. She flipped furniture and paintings onto the floor in order to slow it, but it simply climbed over them, and proceeded to catch up to her. Suddenly, in a fit of blind fear, she bucked it in the face, and a sickening snap resounded from the costume, like actual bones breaking and sinew tearing, and the "costume" fell limp as it bled, the floor quickly pooling with viscous, red liquid. Fluttershy stared in horror at what she had just done. She stared, and the thing suddenly started jerking wildly, like it was having a seizure, and it tore its own head off, its neck spraying chunky, red gunk everywhere, like old, coagulated blood pudding. Then the blood stopped flowing, and a black orb squeezed out of the hole in the costume's neck, and opened an orange eye, staring at the horrified yellow pegasus. Fluttershy wanted to scream, to cry, to do anything, but all she could do was stand there and whimper softly. She tried to run, but her legs were glued to the floor. Suddenly, she screamed, so loudly, and for so long, the dark matter gave a strained look, and fled, as fast as it could, and several glass objects exploded. When she finished, she saw that nothing was there; she just stood in a barren, dusty hallway. So, now traumatized, Fluttershy then walked through a door on the far side, and found a room just like the throne room of the ruins of old Canterlot, and found Pinkie pie and Applejack laying in the center, unconscious. After a while, they woke, and began to exchange stories on how they got there. Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash awoke in a dungeon-like setting. Looking around, she noticed a single door in the middle of the room. She tried to move toward it, but stopped when she noticed that it was a lot farther than it looked. She tried to move toward it, but as it got closer, it got a lot bigger. She panicked at first, thinking at first that she was shrinking, butas she looked at the bricks that made up the wall, she quickly realized it was just a fun house trick. "Ha, what a dumb trick. Nothing can trick this brain!" She taunted as she pushed the giant, heavy door open. As soon as she did, a soft, chittering noise came from the room behind the now-open door. Thinking it was just rats or something, she proved her bravery by going in, and was rewarded by an instant punch to the face by something to fast too see. Stumbling back, she saw two strange creatures, both pitch black, lizard-like, and with one eye on their faces, and long scythes at the ends of their arms and legs. However, the difference in the creatures was apparent in that one's eye was deep, sapphire blue, and the other was the harshest, angriest red she'd ever seen. "I'm supposed to fight you two jokes? Ha! Tell you what, just 'cuz I'm a sporting mare, I'll go easy on yo-" Her taunt was interrupted by another sock to the face by the red-eyed one of the small, frail-looking creatures, which was quickly followed up by a swift drop kick from above by the blue eyed one. Rainbow Dash, after recovering, spit out a tooth and grimaced. "Ugh, Alright, you freaks asked for this. Time to get crazy!" She screamed, charging the two dark matter. The two quickly retaliated by dodging first, then hitting her with barrage after barrage of coordinated attacks, the blue one favoring kicks while the red one favored punches. This did not deter Rainbow Dash, however, and she charged them again. Then, they kicked her butt as per usual. within a few minutes of this pattern, Rainbow Dash could barely stand. If this kept up, those two things were going to kill her. Yet, she rose into the air, and charged them again. Like usual, the twin dark matter launched their graceful counter assault on her with bored expressions. However, Rainbow sped past them, actually surprising them. As the two hit the ground, Rainbow Dash turned so that she hit the ceiling with her hooves, the leaped off it at them. Caught by surprise, the twin dark matter dove to different sides, then, while she was recovering, leaped and kicked her in the sides at the same time, causing her ribs to break. As Rainbow screamed in pain, the two dark dark matter leaped again, but Rainbow Dash ducked, and the twins ended up kicking each other in the face. Dazed, they fell to the ground, and were knocked out by a swift kick by Rainbow Dash to their skulls. Rainbow Dash then finally limped out of that place, critically wounded by the dark matter twins. As she did, she entered a hallway. Suddenly, the ceiling began to shake and rumble, and a boulder dropped in front of the doorway she entered through, and began to roll toward her. Rainbow Dash then panicked at the suddenness of the trap, and started to run, though her broken ribs caused her excruciating pain. Still, she ran, and narrowly managed to avoid the boulder. As it slammed into the doorway she entered to escape it, she turned around and found a note on a pedestal in the center of the new room she was in, and she read it: "Dear Rainbow Dash, now you know how I feel, the pain I must endure. However, unlike you, who need only suffer temporarily, my pain is eternal. But worry not, for you will soon feel my pain forever too, and I can finally be relieved of the pain of loneliness, one less burden for me to carry. Your future BFF, Zero." Rainbow Dash glared at the note. "Like heck I am! If he thinks he's suffering now, just wait 'till I'M through with him!" She limped past the note, then through a door. On the the other Side, there was a throne room, and her friends. All six there, they began to discuss why they were here and what they should do... Until a familiar white shape appeared before them... The Mane Six got into position as zero revealed himself to the mares, fear gripping them as he opened his eye, just like last time, but they were ready for him this time. "Alright, Zero, where's the Element of hope?" Demanded Twilight. Zero did not answer, only laughed, a deep chortle that resounded through the twisted, mirrored room. Then, as if to taunt the six heroines, he began to change. Zero first folded back his wings, closed his eye, and began to morph into a decahedron, opening 20 new eyes when he had finally finished, one for each of his sides. Then, without another word, the fight began. Zero started the fight off by spinning rapidly, and he charged the meddling mares. When they dodged, however, he simply began to bounce around erratically, hitting Applejack and Fluttershy, but the rest dodged this attack with relative ease. Finally, Zero stopped spinning and bouncing, and simply hovered there, unfazed by what he just pulled. Twilight and her friends tried to attack him, but nothing they did could hurt him in this state. Finally, he began to change again, his body becoming fiery and round, and pillars of flame began to erupt from him, scorching all in their wake. The Mane six dodged these attacks, but could deal no damage to him before he changed back, and he hovered some more. "This is stupid! How do we beat this guy when we can't even land a hit on him!?" Cried Rainbow Dash. Twilight was about to come up with an answer, but Zero began to change again, this time into a yellow, round ball. Suddenly, spikes erupted from this new form, and tried to impale the six heroes. they dodged, and the spikes started to retreat back into Zero's body, but some broke off at their tips, leaving them behind for anyone to use. Suddenly, Twilight got an idea. Using her magic, she picked up a spike tip, then hurled it at Zero. As soon as she did, Zero immediately changed back into a decahedron, and started gyrating faster, as if pained. Upon further inspection, Twilight noticed that one of his "eyes" was missing, leaving a black, empty hole. "Girls, use whatever it uses, that's the only way to hurt him!" She cried, and her friends all acknowledged her, scattering as another fireball was hurled at them, leaving a smoldering orb where it hit. Zero continued to launch fire at the six, but Applejack kicked his fireball right back at him, sending him back into his previous form, which turned into a boulder, with smaller boulders surrounding it. Zero launched these boulders at Twilight and her friends, and they dodged them, too. "That's it? you're throwing rocks now? That's stupid!" Shouted Rainbow Dash. As if in response, Zero then hurled himself at her, catching the pegasus off-guard and smashing her into the ground. Then, he started rolling after the others, causing them to panic and scramble. After crushing the six beneath him, he changed back into his main form, as if to taunt them. The battle lasted for a good hour, with Zero changing forms, and the Mane Six learning how to combat them. Zero threw bombs, shot lightning, and even turned into a giant saw and chased them around, but they eventually learned to combat these forms, taking an eye each time they hurt him. But Zero was far from finished: With a loud roar, he flung his decahedronal form at the Mane six once more, taking them by surprise and tossing the six all over the room as he ricocheted, until four of them could fight no more, and just laid there. The two that did fight, Twilight and Pinkie Pie, were at the edge of their strength reserves as Zero finished bouncing and returned to the center of the room. Finally, he changed into his last form: His lightning form. The two desperately dodged as Zero cast laser after laser at them, and the beams split as they bounced off of the mirrors, making the fight ever harder, until the beams stopped. Pinkie was hit by one, however, and fell to the ground, screaming and convulsing as electricity coursed through her body. Twilight, however, saw her chance; Zero had only one eye left, and the beams had now slowed into balls of electric energy, presenting the last blow to her. With a final toss, the ball hit Zero, and he stopped moving completely. Then he twitched once, and light exploded from him, reverting him to his original, ghost-like form. However, he was extremely damaged; his body was cut and bleeding, his eye was bruised, his wings were ripped, and he was on the ground, sobbing and crying blood. The Mane Six got up to face him, and he raised his eye to them, giving them the most hateful stare they had ever seen. "You lose, Zero. Give us the Element." Demanded Twilight. Zero only stared for a moment, seething with pure anger, then swatted her to the side, and blasted the other five with eye-beams. As the six mares hit the ground, groaning in pain, Zero raised himself up, gathered all his dark matter into himself, and flew off, no longer wanting to make friends with these six interlopers. In fact, he wished that they were dead. As he left the ruins, they began to change back into their original, ruined state, and the Mane Six finally passed out. Zero was defeated... At least, for now. Meanwhile, at the Citadel of Anguish Zero laid on the ground as dark matter took turns putting band-aids on him in an attempt to cover his wounds, but the only real damage Zero couldn't stand was in his heart. He didn't understand, he just wanted to win for once. He did everything right: He separated the heroes, put them through grueling, psychologically damaging mazes, he even orchestrated a fight that even Kirby had trouble fighting against, and yet they still beat him up with absolute impunity. Why could he never win? Why did some hero have to always be there to defeat him at every turn? It simply wasn't fair. The more he thought about this, the more his anger grew. Then, at last, he snapped. Zero, unable to handle any more abuse, cringed in pain at his crushed hopes and dreams, and glared at the castle in the distance, Canterlot, it was called. He stared at the castle, his hatred for the pony race growing with each second, and the Dark Matter, all of them, began to back away in fear as Zero growled, his negative emotions overtaking him, until all hope was gone from him, finally extinguished like a dying candle. And so, with one last baleful glare, Zero slipped back into his cocoon of misery and anguish, and as he did, he quickly began to change, right before his minions' eyes. Zero two was dead. Now, there was nothing... No, minus nothing... Minus Zero.
