The Rift Saga - Book One: New Arrivals.by AeshaettrVGLP1ChaptersPrologue: Arachnids.Chapter I: First Impressions.Chapter II: Show and TellPrologue: Arachnids.*Prologue: Arachnids* “Chi! Arachnids incoming!” The large, fairly muscled man shouted, scanning the monitors in front of him with an anguished fervour. He scratched lightly at the sparse hair on his head, before reaching into the back pocket of his crisp, neat suit. Pulling his brass goggles down over his eyes, the large male pulled out a small, flat disk, akin in size to a micro-CD. Holding it one hand, he relaxed his posture, rolling his broad shoulders, as a number of Carbon-plated steel panels started folding out of the disc, covering the back of his hands, and piercing just under his skin with a multitude of microfilaments, injecting him with a cocktail of drugs, allowing him to move the thick steel plates with ease. As the plates encompassed the entirety of his right arm, he grinned, just a little sadistically, and slammed his metal fist into the flesh of his left palm. “Let’s rip them a new one, huh, Steele?” The scientist who was just mentioned, Steele, looked up with his eyebrow raised, before shrugging, turning a large gear on the nine-meter long device he carried. It was...thin, almost a tube, apart from one end which had an obvious handle, a trigger, and a lot of gears, springs, and metal bolted on. His right arm grabbing the handle, he lifted the metal monstrosity with ease, small bumps on all four sides of the tube sparking as he did so. He leveled it, still with one hand, out of the nearest window, sighting along the long-abandoned street. His bloody, torn lab-coat swayed behind him, his silver hair over his face as he got ready to take a shot at the oncoming horde of mutated...things. His giant gun balanced neatly on his right arm, he flipped open a sight, and glanced along. “Yeah. Even more to kill, how fun..” he murmured sarcastically, before glancing at the third, and final person in the group. This one was tall, but not as tall, or as muscled as the first one. He was wearing a long, flowing cloak, a pure black in colour, which covered him entirely apart from his face. His hands were covered by long sleeves, that travelled down almost to his knees when his arms were by his side. The trail of the cloak was sealed up completely, his feet covered by strange darkness exuding out of the cloak. On his face was a white, hard mask. With slightly angular eye pieces, made of a black glass, and a mouth, also painted in black, with two vertical lines at the corners. With the hood of the cloak up, he looked like some kind of masked spectre. A soft sigh escaped from under the mask, before a quick bob of his head as he turned to look at his friends. “Yeah. It’s something we have to do, though.” He gave a humorless chuckle, watching as his cloak gave off little wisps of darkness, before he peered out of the glass double doors that made up the entrance of the ruined building they were in. “Guys. Here they come~” He sang, his hand pulsing outwards inside his sleeve to push the door open from a few metres away with a blast of air. And come they did. At first, just a soft screech in the air, then another. Then a whole host of them, piercing the air like so many arrows of sound. The large, metal-armed male winced slightly at the sound, before slowly striding through the doors, followed by the cloaked man. Steele sighted along his gun, wary for signs of movement through the ever-present dust cloud. And there they were. Basically human in shape, with four triple-jointed spiderlegs sprouting out of their backs. Walking on them, and bouncing forwards using extremely strong back legs, they moved incredibly quickly, able to walk up walls by digging the four spider-esque legs into stone. From this distance, their tortured faces couldn’t be seen, distended mouths and plain white eyes, with no pupils. Chi looked at the pair, Steele nodding through the window, before speaking. “There is always a big one, remember that. Steele, if you would?” Steele raised his eyebrow, and then smiled slightly. “Sure. Keep that big one alive though, Chichi. I would like to know how they move.” And with that, he pulled the trigger. Apart from a series of violent shakes, there was nothing. No noise, at all, for the metal armed man, at least. And then his hearing slowly returned, along with the floor no longer vibrating. Steele smirked in his direction, before turning a cursory eye to the horde of Arachnids. It was strange, there seemed to be nothing had happened. And then the eye was drawn to the floor. Scattered body parts strewn about everywhere, mere ends of extremities and parts of heads. And then the giant gouge in the floor, ripping up rock as something moved at extreme speeds away from the trio. Chi nodded softly, before advancing towards the rest of the horde, his large friend just beside him. “Ready, B.Jha?” The large man, metal plated arm swinging lazily by his side, simply grinned, before the mutated creatures were upon them, their horrible screeches sounding as they clawed at the pair. His first punch caught one of the monsters as he was about to bite, his hand between it’s jaws. And then his fist powered out the back of it’s head, the lower jaw falling neatly to the floor, as he tossed the Arachnid aside. The second blow, he used his metal arm to block a blow from the side, the thin point of the spider leg scraping across the reinforced steel. With a simple movement from his index finger, two of the metal plates closing inwards to trap the leg, and then saw it off. As soon as the tip of the leg was removed, he span around, metal shifting rapidly to create a hollow tube. And then the pointed spike of bone was fired out of the arm-cannon, through the brain of the Arachnid who had lost it. As he was swinging for the next, it was obliterated by seemingly nothing, before he span in a three-hundred-sixty degree circle, and saw Steele slamming another cylinder of metal into his Railgun. As he turned back round, and extended a sharp metal plate out of his knuckles to stab a darker Arachnid in the eye, he saw Chi almost flowing between them. “Having fun there!?” He yelled, performing a straight axe kick underneath one of the mutated monster’s chin, and sending it into a backflip. The masked crusader flicked a hand into the air to show he had heard, whilst forming a small ball of dark energy in his hand, and another of the tip of each of his covered fingers. Darting through a small crowd of Arachnids, he stuck one to six of the monsters, a little space between each of them. As he got to the end of the crowd, he raised his hand, and then formed a fist. In sequence, the small energy balls detonated with a lot more force than something that size could muster. He turned and glanced at B.Jha, tilting his head to the side as an Arachnid pounced at him. His fist was brought up, and he backhanded the monster away, before pointing slowly at it and firing a stream of small energy pellets, each one making a miniature explosion. With the body fully annihilated, Chi started walking back towards the building the scientist was in, dodging a razor thin wire that stretched from a metal spike embedded in the chest of a still-alive Arachnid, and the elbow of a large, metal armed businessman. As he walked past his friend, he grabbed him, and pulled him along, the spike retracting and whipping around until it entered the port in the armored arm. A quick nod to Steele, and then a third and final earthshaking round was fired at close to ten times the speed of sound, eviscerating the remaining section of monsters. Walking away from the explosion as the round hit a nearby gas station, Chi gave a light chuckle as he pushed open the glass doors, giving Steele a pat on the back as he walked past into their temporary base. The entrance to a hospital was what it once was, or so Steele thought. The rest of the building was more on the ground than not, and with rubble blocking the pathway into the next room, there was little room to work. What they HAD done, however, was to clear out most of the room, to make a wide open space, and set up two futons. An odd, spherical generator was hooked up to both a series of monitors, and a vending machine, the coin slot tampered with so it didn't need money to run. When Steele asked the logic of B.Jha when he first played with the machine, he had replied with the simple fact that it was more satisfying to watch the food drop down. With the three of them back in the same room, B.Jha gave a tired nod, before sitting down on one of the futons. “Good fight. I got 17. Chi?” The cloaked man, tapping away on one of the five screens raised a sleeved arm to show he heard, before tapping the side of his mask in a slow rhythm. “Good job, B. I think 25 or so. Steele?” Chi turned his masked face towards his thin friend, the ever present grin directed at the railgun wielding scientist. “You know I don’t care for such games, Madness.” Seeing the frown that the black markings on his mask now made up, he waved a dismissive hand. “Hey, It is what I used to know you as. And what you technically still are.” The masked man gave a short sigh, before chuckling, and shrugging at the same time. “Eeeexactly. Now, if you will excuse me..” And he set about polishing his shaft. Railgun shaft, that is. There was silence for a few minutes, before Chi visibly stiffened. “Guys. Outside NOW. WE HAVE A BIG MOTHERFUCKER.” Steele and B.Jha looked at eachother, before shrugging. Steele opened his mouth, a questioning look on his face, but Chi interrupted him. “NO TIME TO EXPLAIN, ONWARDS.” XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX In the exact same place, at the exact same time. The Princess’ of the Sun, Moon and Magic were sat in the Canterlot Castle dining hall. With them, were six other ponies, the other Elements of Harmony. Oh, and one Draconequus, but he was more floating around above their heads eating cotton candy. Ah well. As the eight ponies discussed...something, the blue Pegasus looking extremely bored, and the pink Earth-Pony watching the Spirit of Chaos with a pout on her face. After a short while, the purple Alicorn started yammering excitedly to the yellow princess of the Sun, and stood up, trotting quickly over to the side of the room. A soft purple light focused around her horn, as she charged up a spell. And then, a small, mirror-like sphere popped into of existence, before a book came out of it, the surface rippling around the book. She grinned happily, before bouncing over to the white Alicorn, and nuzzling her happily. The aura around her horn vanished, but the sphere stayed, slowly turning darker and darker. XXXXXXXX The terrible trio strolled out the door once more, before B.Jha looked up with a odd look in his eye. “Hey, that’s an odd cloud…” And indeed it was. It looked like an incredibly mutated person, horizontal in the sky. Hands hanging down just above them, and feet a long way down the central avenue. Scattered around with the bodies of the Arachnids. And up above, the clouds seem to connect to four massive skyscrapers. B.Jha blinked, then his eyes went wide. “Oh...my...sweet god..” That wasn't a cloud. That was a titanic Arachnid, framed against the sky. It’s feet slowly swung downwards, kicking up earth, rock, and smaller arachnids. Chi sighed, before grabbing his friends, and started breathing incredibly slowly. “We are out of here..” And with that, the entirety of the three started distorting wildly, before a vortex claimed their extremities. The last thing Chi saw before he vanished into nothingness was a severed Arachnid leg flying straight towards him, before a tug pulled him through the portal...And to somewhere he didn’t know. As he rushed through the void, he thought one simple word. “MotherfuckerIdontlikethis” Chapter I: First Impressions.Chapter 2 Chapter I: First Impressions. In the inky Blackness of the Madvoid, his own dimension he used as storage, energy source, weapon, and travel, Chi’s atomic stream was being pulled rapidly towards an extreme source of energy. In the void, he only had one thing to think before being violently shot out of the Madvoid. ‘I hate my body sometimes.’ His head formed first, the mask covering his face catching up a split second after. Then his torso, his cloak forming out of the Madvoid to cover his body. Then his legs and arms. But he wasn’t anywhere yet. Still in the limbo state between the world of the living, and his pocket world, he sighed a little, wondering what the hell had caused him to gain so much momentum. And then he popped out of the Limbo state, and promptly span head over heels across a stone floor. Bouncing rapidly, it was pretty much useless to flail, so he took the blows, at one point bouncing at an odd angle to cartwheel over a wooden table. A few splats and crunches told him food was being crushed underneath him, and a few screams told him he had startled some girls in the progress. Weirdly, the screamers seemed to VERY brightly coloured. Purple, yellow, white, pinkpurpleorangeyellowrainbow. And then he hit the wall. Hard. As the wall cracked, and he lay upright, suspended above the floor, he got a look around the room. Immobile for the moment, it was all he really could do. A soft sigh escaped his lips, before a frown. Looking at him were a group of multi-coloured equines. How very odd. Oh, and one dragon...eagle, bear...thing. He gave up with that one. He blinked under the mask, as the white unicorn...with wings? Eh, screw it, that one regained her composure fairly quickly, and was looking at him with an equal amount of concern and caution. And then something made her turn. A sharp limb flying towards him, as a bright pink equine popped up in front of him, and started yammering something. His eyes widened where no-one could see them, and shouted at the pony. “DOWN!” The pony blinked, and tilted her head at him. Panicking a little, he breathed in, gathering a little of his power in his mouth, and shouted a wordless shout at her, forcing her to the floor. And then it hit him. Literally, the Arachnid limb that had followed him through his Void slammed straight into his chest, and out the other side, pinning him to the wall behind him. A wordless gasp escaped his lips as his head was thrown forwards from the shock. As his head bowed, he caught a glimpse of two figures stepping out of a dark silver sphere. How strange.. XXXXXXX After Princess Twilight Sparkle of Magic had shown them her latest spell, the surrounding crowd gave a happy round of applause. Well, apart from Pinkie, who tackled her friend, and jumped up and down on her chest, talking constantly all the time. “Welldonewelldoneyoudidit!ThiscallsforaPARTY!” She yelled, giggling all the while. She seemingly weighed absolutely nothing, by the lack of discomfort that was shown on the Princess’ face. The Spirit of Chaos, Discord was watching the sphere intently, whilst Fluttershy and Luna started discussing animals and their feeding habits. “I say, darling, that was quite amazing!” This came from Rarity, the Element of Generosity, who had gently nudged Pinkie off of the Princess, and nuzzled her affectionately. The Princess flushed, before nuzzling back, as Celestia spoke up as well. “I agree. My faithful student, you have indeed grown. I would never have dream you could have casted a spell like that a year ago.” She was about to embrace her student...and foster daughter, before Discord interrupted her. “Sorry to spoil this so very cute celebration… But is your ball-thingy supposed to be doing that?” The Spirit of Chaos asked, swallowing his cotton candy...stick and all. The Draconequus pointed behind Princess Twilight, who turned slowly around. The sphere had grown in size, being at least 4 foot across now. It was a dark grey, dulled so it was no longer shiny...and pulsating. It was beating like a heart, faster and faster and faster. The princesses, all three of them, stood up, charging energy into their horns. There was a quiet sound, like someone spoke incredibly quietly, before something was fired out of the ball at a ludicrous speed. It bounced twice, before sailing over the head of the smallest Princess, who screeched with fear and ducked, her eyes wide. The flailing black...thing kept bouncing, smashing bowls of salad and fruit of the way with increasing speed, one of the appendages hitting into Discord’s tail. Said Spirit raised an eyebrow, whisking his tail out of reach from the figure...who bounced over Rainbow Dash. Said mare squealed slightly, pushing herself back, along with Fluttershy who had frozen from the shock. And then, the thing smacked into the wall. It was...odd. Tall, with obvious front appendages, but all but covered beneath its cloak. Its back legs were also covered, but completely, no way of knowing if they were there or not, if not for the fact that its cloak was bunched up behind it against the wall, and framing its legs. A white mask covered whatever it had for a face, with a black material making up the eyehole, along with black paint formed into a sinister, thin smile, two vertical lines at each corner. The thing behind the mask looked slowly around before its eyes, or where its eyes should be from the mask, landed on Celestia. The Princess of the Sun shivered slightly, sending out a telepathic, as she felt two presences look at her from beneath that mask. One, wild and young. Broken beyond repair, and insane past measure. And yet, peaceful, unwilling to take a life unless forced, and wanting to make everyone it met happier. Even now, stuck against the wall after smashing into it, she saw no fear or pain. Only a curiosity that rivalled those of infants or cats, and mild humor leaking into its mind, along with the possibility of a new people to talk to. Oh..and guilt. A flood of it. One thing that crossed her mind was what were people? And then she turned her immortal, wise gaze to second presence. This one… Older than she. Older than anything she had ever laid eyes on, in fact. It was wise, yes, that came with its age, but it was also filled to the brim with a malevolence more concentrated than even Naikorit, the ancient Black Dragon-Sorcerer now bound in Tartarus. It was filled with hatred, rage and a need for destruction, and was already trying to break her mind by reversing the telepathic link she had set to observe the odd creature. But almost immediately, it was reeled back in, the hate and rage turning to lethargic sleep, as the first presence wrapped around the second. Celestia blinked, a little confused, before cutting the telepathic energy, and shaking her head. It had happened in less than a second, but she had seen so much...yet so little. It only showed surface thoughts, and emotions. It meant the first presence, the one that seemed to be in control from the way it had stopped the second, was happy...but mad. Broken into pieces. And then Rarity screamed, as a second object flew out of the sphere. This one was thin, and ripped up the floor as it passed. It flew directly past Celestia’s head, making a soft shink as it did. It dug a little into the table, before flipping wildly upwards...and at the back of Pinkie Pie’s head. The party mare had popped up in front of the odd creature.. Time seemed to slow a little. No one had time to react. The Element of Laughter was going to die… But the creature shouted once at her. It was too loud to make out words, but Pinkie tilted her head in wonder. The thing behind the mask seemed to breathe in...and Celestia sensed a gathering of power, before another shout slammed Pinkie to the floor. And then the second object slammed into its chest, its head shooting forward from sheer whiplash. There was silence for a few, precious seconds, before Celestia felt two more presences...behind her. She sent out another telepathic link to observe these, even as her sister, Luna spoke. “ ‘Tia, behind you!” The first she observed was… Crude. Willing to commit acts of violence if needed, and always seeking a laugh. However, it was loyal to its friends...namely, the one next to it, and the mad thing she was still looking at. It was...intrigued by its surroundings, but not as curious as the masked one. She could also sense four...things inside it. Alive, but not. Awake, but with no brain at all. Were all these creatures housing others? As for the one next to it, she couldn’t sense it at all. Nothing, it was like it was dead.. And then it spoke. “I would much appreciate it if you DIDN’T try to look into my head, thanks..” So what she did instead, was to expand the field, and change it, so it washed over their bodies and grant her sight of their bodies. Cause magic, right? The first was tall, taller than the first at any rate. He, from the body shape at least, was also muscled, but bound by the fine suit he wore. Well, all apart from his right arm. But first, she looked at his features. Light tan skin, with sparse hair. It was only really at the top of its skull, and was fairly short even then. His eyes were small, and a dark brown. As for his right arm...well..it was covered in sheets of metal, pointed at the top of each plate. They travelled up to the top of its appendage, and the top three spikes were greatly exaggerated, the very top coming up past one of its flat, shell-like ears. Its...claws, formed from more metallic plates were a great deal longer than the ones on his left hand. The metallic plates seemed to connect to his appendage by a series of incredibly thin pieces of string. How very strange. The second, the one she couldn’t sense, was similar in size to the one imbedded in her wall. However, this one had a long, flowing silver mane..hair. He, assumedly a He anyway, had piercing gold eyes, that burned with a fierce intellect, constantly wanting to learn more and more. He looked pretty normal, apart from two distinct features. One, the bloodied, torn laboratory coat hanging from his shoulders, and the other...was his right arm. Dull grey, and incredibly smooth, with a crisscross pattern of a darker grey inlaid. Another metallic arm? These creatures WERE odd. XXXXXXX Steele was a little confused. They were meant to teleport back to the base in Hikarimura..why were they in some kind of childrens fairy tale. And why was Chi pinned to the wall by an arachnid leg. And why was the white Wingdecorn trying to read his mind. He raised his eyebrow just a little, and glared at her. “I would much appreciate it if you DIDN’T try to look into my head, thanks..” By the look on the collected Equine’s and...chimera thing, they weren’t expecting intelligence. “What, never seen someone talk before?” He muttered, before striding forwards. What he didn’t expect, however, was to be hit with a hurricane of sound. In the face. It hurt. And it came from a dark blue Wingdecorn (As he had dubebd them, until he knew the correct term), with...stars in her hair? “STOP RIGHT THERE, MONSTER!” Yeah. It actually knocked him back a few steps, before he casually strolled on again, jumping over White Wingdecorn and onto the table, all the while talking matter-of-factly. “No, I will not stop, because my..friend is injured. He happens to be impaled by the most potent mutagen I know of, and I know a lot of them. Hell, I invented half of them. So, Miss Butterpegasus, I suggest you do NOT touch that spike sticking out of him.” Fluttershy, who had been examining Chi urgently, squeaked, and stepped away from the Arachnid arm that was piercing through the masked crusader’s chest. “ALSO. You have a very loud voice, and I would like to see how that works. Now then!” And with that, he jumped off the opposite end of the table, gently nudged Pinkie Pie, who was shivering in fear, away with his foot, and started inspecting Chi. XXXXXXX Meanwhile, 20 metres away at the other end of the table- B.Jha was also a little confused. And overwhelmed by the amount of colors. And by god, they were cute as hell. And then he was pressed against the wall by noise, for the SECOND time in a minute, this time directed at him. “WHAT MANNER OF CREATURE ARE YOU!?” The blue winged unicorn had yelled at him, blasting him back, as an orange equine walked up as well. B.Jha blinked, prying himself from the stone, and chuckled idly, his metal hand going up to scratch the top of his head. The equines flinched slightly at the movement, causing B.Jha to gently place his hands behind his head, and sighing lightly. “Well, I am called a Human..” At that, the orange, stetson wearing equine nodded. He spared a glance at her, before shrugging. “And my name is… Bob Jeffery Anderson. B.Jha for short. Umm...What are yours? This is so weird…” The dark blue equine blinked at his...attempt at eloquence, before shaking her head ever so slightly, and then meeting his eye with a slight scowl. “I am Princess Luna of the Night. I am a Pony, of the Alicorn Race. You...aren’t used to speaking like that, are you?” As B.Jha shook his head rapidly, the orange pony smirked lightly, before speaking in a southern drawl. “I’m with ya there, sugarcube. Call me Applejack! Why...are you here, anywho? Ya here to cause trouble?” B.Jha, talkative as always, simply shrugged, at the first question, before speaking to the second. “Nah. I think one of Chi’s Vortex-Portals went wrong. Nothing to worry about, I’m sure. We will probably be out of under your feet. Hooves. Things, pretty soon!” He gave a slight grin, his metal arm rapidly stretching out to his side, as he looked at the pair of them, then around the table. Geez, it was a mess. A long slash halfway down the table, along with crushed food. A blue pegasus, with the best gay-pride mane he had ever seen was curled up and shaking next to a unicorn, this one white, with a coifed purple mane, obviously in fear. The white.. Alicorn? was silently observing everything, as the purple, smaller Alicorn was stood in slight shock. The weird amalgamation was sat upside in mid air, watching the chaos with a soft grin, and the remaining two..Ponies, one a yellow and pink pegasus, and the last a pony so pink it almost blinded him, were watching Steele operate on Chi, using his Liqui-metal arm to create needles and syringes, which he filled from the pockets in his cloak. Another regular day with his friends. He sighed, before laughing slightly, and nodding to the Princess, and Applejack with a slight grin. "This...could be fun." Chapter II: Show and TellChapter II: Show and Tell Princess Twilight Sparkle was confused. And a little scared. She had shown Princess Celestia her remote summoning spell, used to bring personal belongings from far away places...when SOMETHING had flown out of it. A black cloaked, white masked thing, followed by some kind of limb. Whatever it was, it had saved Pinkie Pie, at the cost of possibly its own life. But what was it? One of its friends, who had followed it through, was operating on it at the moment, whilst Applejack and Princess Luna spoke to the other. The one operating on the masked creature...terrified her. Apart from his shape shifting right arm, which he was using to stitch close the hole in the cloaked ones chest, as well as inject him with a viscous black substance, there was just something...off about him. She couldn’t quite put her hoof on it. Fluttershy and Pinkie were observing the silver haired man go to work on the cloaked being, Pinkie being thankfully quiet for once. Rainbow Dash was just getting over her initial shock, and was looking around sheepishly, before trotting over to Twilight. “I..uh, I wasn’t scared! Just a little surprised..” Twilight raised an eye at her, before giggling nervously. “Ok...maybe a little.” The Princess of Magic nodded, a slight shiver running through her body, as she answered. “Me too, Rainbow. What even are these things…?” In all her time reading through her library, she had never come across something like this. Rainbow simply shrugged, before looking just behind Twilight. Applejack and Luna were talking to one of the creatures, whilst Celestia and Discord seemed deep in thought. “Yo, Twili. How long has it been since they arrived.?” “Huh...oh, can’t be more than two minutes..” “Hrm. Luna and AJ are talking to the spiky armed one…Rarity fainted. Flutters and Pinkie are watching Egghead Monster..”Twilight chuckled at this, before asking the polychromatic mare how she knew he was an Egghead. “How is he NOT an Egghead. The feeling of Eggheadedness pours off of him!” Steele, at the other end of the table, sighed, and shouted. “I CAN hear you, you know?” Rainbow blanched a little, before continuing. “Yeah, Pinkie and Flutters are watching him operate on the scary one...and Discord and Celestia are discussing something.” She was about to continue, when a deep chuckle came from the ‘spiky armed one’. Both Twilight and Rainbow looked at the large creature before trotting up behind Luna and the farmpony. B.Jha blinked, before spoke up, a light grin plastered on his face. “Oh, hey. Uh…Princess Purple and LGBT.” He muttered, before chuckling to himself. “No, really, what are your names?” Rainbow blinked once, before cautiously opening her mouth. “Umm...LBGT? Anypony...My name is Rainbow Dash. And I am the FASTEST pegasus in Equestria.” Twilight and AJ simply sighed at their friend’s exuberance , before Twilight straightened up, and spoke in a refined voice. “I am Princess Twilight Sparkle, personal student to Princess Celestia.” B.Jha blinked ever so slightly, and then opened his mouth for two eloquent words. “Who now?” Luna, AJ and Twilight opened their mouths to speak, at the same time, but were interrupted by a noise at the end of the table. A soft crunch, then a patter of falling material. Everyones, and everyponies head turned to the noise. Chi, the masked man, was moving, His hand had grabbed onto the wall beside him, and had crushed the marble beneath his fingers, as he wrenched the Arachnid limb out of his chest with his other hand. Then, with a slow grace that belied his size, he placed his hands on the wall either side of the wall, and pushed himself away. He gave a light, dark chuckle, before straightening up, nodding his thanks to Steele, and then taking a few paces forward. He stretched slowly, before looking around the room. “So….multicoloured equines, huh?”He murmured, before chuckling idly. “So be it. B.Jha, Steele, I trust you are being nice~” B.Jha gave a thumbs up from the other side of the room, whilst Steele just scowled slightly. “So be it? Why?” Celestia, trotting up beside Pinkie Pie, gave a soft murmur of agreement, as she stared at Chi. “Jumping through dimensions took a HELL of a lot out of me. Specially since I don’t know how I got here.” Chi had started pacing back and forth, his hand brushing over the pitted wall. As he did so, the wall swelled back to its original state slowly. B.Jha, Luna, and Applejack had started to wander over, Twilight had teleported over, with Rainbow flapping lazily over the table. An exasperated sigh escaped Steele’s lips, as he muttered. “So, we are stuck here. Great.” Twilight’s face lit up in an unsettling grin. Maybe she could study these creatures after all.. Chi chuckled idly, before speaking, rather fast. “Number 1. Yes. Number 2. Miss Purple Pony, that is creepy. Number 3...maybe we should get to know each other~” Everyone, and everypony blinked, as the Masked man sat down against the wall, motioning for them all to do the same. Rainbow, however, eyed Chi, before suspiciously asking. “And how do we know you aren’t gonna attack us at the nearest opportunity, huh?” Fluttershy gave a loud “eep”, and started shaking at this, Pinkie hopping over to hug her better whilst squinting at the three humans. Luna and Celestia frowned, almost in sync, and charged a small amount of power into their horns. Discord, however, was chuckling away, reclining in an armchair and eating popcorn...somehow. Chi, after sparing the Draconequus a glance, gave a dark chuckle. “You can’t know. You can trust, or think, but you can never know for certain. Now, lets have circle time.” He motioned for them all to sit down again, most of them complying apart from two. Steele instead sat back on the table, just giving a glare in Chi’s direction, before muttering. “This is stupid.” Rainbow, meanwhile, simply stared at Chi with a suspicious expression, slowly hovering in place, before hovering in place beside Fluttershy’s head. Chi placed his hands behind his head, and yawned once, before speaking, his mask covering his emotions well. “Well...I am Chi. Howdy-do? My favourite colour is blood red, and my favourite food was pizza. I like making people smile, and I dislike...cruelty. A random fact about me… I can change my mask expression!” With that, he motioned towards the pony to his right, Princess Luna, as his mask changed from a sadistic grin, to a sad frown. “Me? Oh...this is rather foalish, but..I am Princess Luna d’Nocte. My favourite colour is...Dark blue, like my coat. My favourite food… Anything sweet, although I am partial to a good doughnut from Pony Joe’s.” At the incredulous look from the other Ponies, the Lunar Princess huffed, a dark blush on her face. “Is one...Am I not allowed a treat now and again? Oh, Shh, Tia.” Celestia was barely holding in a giggle with her hoof, something that made Luna pout even more before continuing. “A-and I like politics! N-next!” Discord, in his recliner, gave a light laugh, idly throwing bits of popcorn at the three Princesses. “Discord is my name, Chaos is my game.” He clicked his eagle talons, a teddy bear appearing above Steele’s head to bounce off of him. There was a pause, where Steele sighed, and motioned with his hand for the Draconequus to carry on. Discord, however, did the same back. Steele blinked, before listing off a few points, his eyes closed. “I am a cyborg, and a scientist. I prefer to learn than to play, and your biology seems interesting. I would like to dissect one of you at some point. I also do not prefer to kill as much as my two companions.” As he opened his eyes, he saw three magical bolts fly in different directions, along with a shout from a megaphone, or something of that effect. “BEASTS!” He sighed, a palm hitting his face, before the spell smashed him in the gut. And then he went to sleep. XXXXXXX The male opened his left eye, just a crack, before shutting it again. His mask was off, which was not good. Now he was a danger to everybody...and equine, as a matter of fact. Ah well. He opened his eye again, as little as he could whilst still being able to see. He seemed to be in a globular room, with flowing streams of white magic binding his arms and legs to four complex crystalline structures. Chi smirked a little, as he looked at them. He opened his left eye completely, staring at the crystal structure above his right arm. Within seconds, the power coming from it was stopped, reversed, and blasted back into it, detonating the structure. With his right arm free, it was only a matter of time before the other three crystals were twisted, smoking structures. He landed on the floor quietly, his left eye shutting before it could do any more damage. A light grin split his features again, as he stretched his scarred body, before concentrating. A soft pulse that didn’t exist pulsed outwards, locking onto his mask and cloak. It was only a few metres away, beyond a section of the smooth, white walls. There was three life forms in there...and they were stressing, from the way they were pacing back and forth. Eh. Time for a wake up call. With a burst of power, he collided with the wall, before phasing through it, his face passing through the other side, as he yelled obnoxiously loud.. “HEEEERE’S JOHNNY!!”
Prologue: Arachnids.*Prologue: Arachnids* “Chi! Arachnids incoming!” The large, fairly muscled man shouted, scanning the monitors in front of him with an anguished fervour. He scratched lightly at the sparse hair on his head, before reaching into the back pocket of his crisp, neat suit. Pulling his brass goggles down over his eyes, the large male pulled out a small, flat disk, akin in size to a micro-CD. Holding it one hand, he relaxed his posture, rolling his broad shoulders, as a number of Carbon-plated steel panels started folding out of the disc, covering the back of his hands, and piercing just under his skin with a multitude of microfilaments, injecting him with a cocktail of drugs, allowing him to move the thick steel plates with ease. As the plates encompassed the entirety of his right arm, he grinned, just a little sadistically, and slammed his metal fist into the flesh of his left palm. “Let’s rip them a new one, huh, Steele?” The scientist who was just mentioned, Steele, looked up with his eyebrow raised, before shrugging, turning a large gear on the nine-meter long device he carried. It was...thin, almost a tube, apart from one end which had an obvious handle, a trigger, and a lot of gears, springs, and metal bolted on. His right arm grabbing the handle, he lifted the metal monstrosity with ease, small bumps on all four sides of the tube sparking as he did so. He leveled it, still with one hand, out of the nearest window, sighting along the long-abandoned street. His bloody, torn lab-coat swayed behind him, his silver hair over his face as he got ready to take a shot at the oncoming horde of mutated...things. His giant gun balanced neatly on his right arm, he flipped open a sight, and glanced along. “Yeah. Even more to kill, how fun..” he murmured sarcastically, before glancing at the third, and final person in the group. This one was tall, but not as tall, or as muscled as the first one. He was wearing a long, flowing cloak, a pure black in colour, which covered him entirely apart from his face. His hands were covered by long sleeves, that travelled down almost to his knees when his arms were by his side. The trail of the cloak was sealed up completely, his feet covered by strange darkness exuding out of the cloak. On his face was a white, hard mask. With slightly angular eye pieces, made of a black glass, and a mouth, also painted in black, with two vertical lines at the corners. With the hood of the cloak up, he looked like some kind of masked spectre. A soft sigh escaped from under the mask, before a quick bob of his head as he turned to look at his friends. “Yeah. It’s something we have to do, though.” He gave a humorless chuckle, watching as his cloak gave off little wisps of darkness, before he peered out of the glass double doors that made up the entrance of the ruined building they were in. “Guys. Here they come~” He sang, his hand pulsing outwards inside his sleeve to push the door open from a few metres away with a blast of air. And come they did. At first, just a soft screech in the air, then another. Then a whole host of them, piercing the air like so many arrows of sound. The large, metal-armed male winced slightly at the sound, before slowly striding through the doors, followed by the cloaked man. Steele sighted along his gun, wary for signs of movement through the ever-present dust cloud. And there they were. Basically human in shape, with four triple-jointed spiderlegs sprouting out of their backs. Walking on them, and bouncing forwards using extremely strong back legs, they moved incredibly quickly, able to walk up walls by digging the four spider-esque legs into stone. From this distance, their tortured faces couldn’t be seen, distended mouths and plain white eyes, with no pupils. Chi looked at the pair, Steele nodding through the window, before speaking. “There is always a big one, remember that. Steele, if you would?” Steele raised his eyebrow, and then smiled slightly. “Sure. Keep that big one alive though, Chichi. I would like to know how they move.” And with that, he pulled the trigger. Apart from a series of violent shakes, there was nothing. No noise, at all, for the metal armed man, at least. And then his hearing slowly returned, along with the floor no longer vibrating. Steele smirked in his direction, before turning a cursory eye to the horde of Arachnids. It was strange, there seemed to be nothing had happened. And then the eye was drawn to the floor. Scattered body parts strewn about everywhere, mere ends of extremities and parts of heads. And then the giant gouge in the floor, ripping up rock as something moved at extreme speeds away from the trio. Chi nodded softly, before advancing towards the rest of the horde, his large friend just beside him. “Ready, B.Jha?” The large man, metal plated arm swinging lazily by his side, simply grinned, before the mutated creatures were upon them, their horrible screeches sounding as they clawed at the pair. His first punch caught one of the monsters as he was about to bite, his hand between it’s jaws. And then his fist powered out the back of it’s head, the lower jaw falling neatly to the floor, as he tossed the Arachnid aside. The second blow, he used his metal arm to block a blow from the side, the thin point of the spider leg scraping across the reinforced steel. With a simple movement from his index finger, two of the metal plates closing inwards to trap the leg, and then saw it off. As soon as the tip of the leg was removed, he span around, metal shifting rapidly to create a hollow tube. And then the pointed spike of bone was fired out of the arm-cannon, through the brain of the Arachnid who had lost it. As he was swinging for the next, it was obliterated by seemingly nothing, before he span in a three-hundred-sixty degree circle, and saw Steele slamming another cylinder of metal into his Railgun. As he turned back round, and extended a sharp metal plate out of his knuckles to stab a darker Arachnid in the eye, he saw Chi almost flowing between them. “Having fun there!?” He yelled, performing a straight axe kick underneath one of the mutated monster’s chin, and sending it into a backflip. The masked crusader flicked a hand into the air to show he had heard, whilst forming a small ball of dark energy in his hand, and another of the tip of each of his covered fingers. Darting through a small crowd of Arachnids, he stuck one to six of the monsters, a little space between each of them. As he got to the end of the crowd, he raised his hand, and then formed a fist. In sequence, the small energy balls detonated with a lot more force than something that size could muster. He turned and glanced at B.Jha, tilting his head to the side as an Arachnid pounced at him. His fist was brought up, and he backhanded the monster away, before pointing slowly at it and firing a stream of small energy pellets, each one making a miniature explosion. With the body fully annihilated, Chi started walking back towards the building the scientist was in, dodging a razor thin wire that stretched from a metal spike embedded in the chest of a still-alive Arachnid, and the elbow of a large, metal armed businessman. As he walked past his friend, he grabbed him, and pulled him along, the spike retracting and whipping around until it entered the port in the armored arm. A quick nod to Steele, and then a third and final earthshaking round was fired at close to ten times the speed of sound, eviscerating the remaining section of monsters. Walking away from the explosion as the round hit a nearby gas station, Chi gave a light chuckle as he pushed open the glass doors, giving Steele a pat on the back as he walked past into their temporary base. The entrance to a hospital was what it once was, or so Steele thought. The rest of the building was more on the ground than not, and with rubble blocking the pathway into the next room, there was little room to work. What they HAD done, however, was to clear out most of the room, to make a wide open space, and set up two futons. An odd, spherical generator was hooked up to both a series of monitors, and a vending machine, the coin slot tampered with so it didn't need money to run. When Steele asked the logic of B.Jha when he first played with the machine, he had replied with the simple fact that it was more satisfying to watch the food drop down. With the three of them back in the same room, B.Jha gave a tired nod, before sitting down on one of the futons. “Good fight. I got 17. Chi?” The cloaked man, tapping away on one of the five screens raised a sleeved arm to show he heard, before tapping the side of his mask in a slow rhythm. “Good job, B. I think 25 or so. Steele?” Chi turned his masked face towards his thin friend, the ever present grin directed at the railgun wielding scientist. “You know I don’t care for such games, Madness.” Seeing the frown that the black markings on his mask now made up, he waved a dismissive hand. “Hey, It is what I used to know you as. And what you technically still are.” The masked man gave a short sigh, before chuckling, and shrugging at the same time. “Eeeexactly. Now, if you will excuse me..” And he set about polishing his shaft. Railgun shaft, that is. There was silence for a few minutes, before Chi visibly stiffened. “Guys. Outside NOW. WE HAVE A BIG MOTHERFUCKER.” Steele and B.Jha looked at eachother, before shrugging. Steele opened his mouth, a questioning look on his face, but Chi interrupted him. “NO TIME TO EXPLAIN, ONWARDS.” XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX In the exact same place, at the exact same time. The Princess’ of the Sun, Moon and Magic were sat in the Canterlot Castle dining hall. With them, were six other ponies, the other Elements of Harmony. Oh, and one Draconequus, but he was more floating around above their heads eating cotton candy. Ah well. As the eight ponies discussed...something, the blue Pegasus looking extremely bored, and the pink Earth-Pony watching the Spirit of Chaos with a pout on her face. After a short while, the purple Alicorn started yammering excitedly to the yellow princess of the Sun, and stood up, trotting quickly over to the side of the room. A soft purple light focused around her horn, as she charged up a spell. And then, a small, mirror-like sphere popped into of existence, before a book came out of it, the surface rippling around the book. She grinned happily, before bouncing over to the white Alicorn, and nuzzling her happily. The aura around her horn vanished, but the sphere stayed, slowly turning darker and darker. XXXXXXXX The terrible trio strolled out the door once more, before B.Jha looked up with a odd look in his eye. “Hey, that’s an odd cloud…” And indeed it was. It looked like an incredibly mutated person, horizontal in the sky. Hands hanging down just above them, and feet a long way down the central avenue. Scattered around with the bodies of the Arachnids. And up above, the clouds seem to connect to four massive skyscrapers. B.Jha blinked, then his eyes went wide. “Oh...my...sweet god..” That wasn't a cloud. That was a titanic Arachnid, framed against the sky. It’s feet slowly swung downwards, kicking up earth, rock, and smaller arachnids. Chi sighed, before grabbing his friends, and started breathing incredibly slowly. “We are out of here..” And with that, the entirety of the three started distorting wildly, before a vortex claimed their extremities. The last thing Chi saw before he vanished into nothingness was a severed Arachnid leg flying straight towards him, before a tug pulled him through the portal...And to somewhere he didn’t know. As he rushed through the void, he thought one simple word. “MotherfuckerIdontlikethis”
Chapter I: First Impressions.Chapter 2 Chapter I: First Impressions. In the inky Blackness of the Madvoid, his own dimension he used as storage, energy source, weapon, and travel, Chi’s atomic stream was being pulled rapidly towards an extreme source of energy. In the void, he only had one thing to think before being violently shot out of the Madvoid. ‘I hate my body sometimes.’ His head formed first, the mask covering his face catching up a split second after. Then his torso, his cloak forming out of the Madvoid to cover his body. Then his legs and arms. But he wasn’t anywhere yet. Still in the limbo state between the world of the living, and his pocket world, he sighed a little, wondering what the hell had caused him to gain so much momentum. And then he popped out of the Limbo state, and promptly span head over heels across a stone floor. Bouncing rapidly, it was pretty much useless to flail, so he took the blows, at one point bouncing at an odd angle to cartwheel over a wooden table. A few splats and crunches told him food was being crushed underneath him, and a few screams told him he had startled some girls in the progress. Weirdly, the screamers seemed to VERY brightly coloured. Purple, yellow, white, pinkpurpleorangeyellowrainbow. And then he hit the wall. Hard. As the wall cracked, and he lay upright, suspended above the floor, he got a look around the room. Immobile for the moment, it was all he really could do. A soft sigh escaped his lips, before a frown. Looking at him were a group of multi-coloured equines. How very odd. Oh, and one dragon...eagle, bear...thing. He gave up with that one. He blinked under the mask, as the white unicorn...with wings? Eh, screw it, that one regained her composure fairly quickly, and was looking at him with an equal amount of concern and caution. And then something made her turn. A sharp limb flying towards him, as a bright pink equine popped up in front of him, and started yammering something. His eyes widened where no-one could see them, and shouted at the pony. “DOWN!” The pony blinked, and tilted her head at him. Panicking a little, he breathed in, gathering a little of his power in his mouth, and shouted a wordless shout at her, forcing her to the floor. And then it hit him. Literally, the Arachnid limb that had followed him through his Void slammed straight into his chest, and out the other side, pinning him to the wall behind him. A wordless gasp escaped his lips as his head was thrown forwards from the shock. As his head bowed, he caught a glimpse of two figures stepping out of a dark silver sphere. How strange.. XXXXXXX After Princess Twilight Sparkle of Magic had shown them her latest spell, the surrounding crowd gave a happy round of applause. Well, apart from Pinkie, who tackled her friend, and jumped up and down on her chest, talking constantly all the time. “Welldonewelldoneyoudidit!ThiscallsforaPARTY!” She yelled, giggling all the while. She seemingly weighed absolutely nothing, by the lack of discomfort that was shown on the Princess’ face. The Spirit of Chaos, Discord was watching the sphere intently, whilst Fluttershy and Luna started discussing animals and their feeding habits. “I say, darling, that was quite amazing!” This came from Rarity, the Element of Generosity, who had gently nudged Pinkie off of the Princess, and nuzzled her affectionately. The Princess flushed, before nuzzling back, as Celestia spoke up as well. “I agree. My faithful student, you have indeed grown. I would never have dream you could have casted a spell like that a year ago.” She was about to embrace her student...and foster daughter, before Discord interrupted her. “Sorry to spoil this so very cute celebration… But is your ball-thingy supposed to be doing that?” The Spirit of Chaos asked, swallowing his cotton candy...stick and all. The Draconequus pointed behind Princess Twilight, who turned slowly around. The sphere had grown in size, being at least 4 foot across now. It was a dark grey, dulled so it was no longer shiny...and pulsating. It was beating like a heart, faster and faster and faster. The princesses, all three of them, stood up, charging energy into their horns. There was a quiet sound, like someone spoke incredibly quietly, before something was fired out of the ball at a ludicrous speed. It bounced twice, before sailing over the head of the smallest Princess, who screeched with fear and ducked, her eyes wide. The flailing black...thing kept bouncing, smashing bowls of salad and fruit of the way with increasing speed, one of the appendages hitting into Discord’s tail. Said Spirit raised an eyebrow, whisking his tail out of reach from the figure...who bounced over Rainbow Dash. Said mare squealed slightly, pushing herself back, along with Fluttershy who had frozen from the shock. And then, the thing smacked into the wall. It was...odd. Tall, with obvious front appendages, but all but covered beneath its cloak. Its back legs were also covered, but completely, no way of knowing if they were there or not, if not for the fact that its cloak was bunched up behind it against the wall, and framing its legs. A white mask covered whatever it had for a face, with a black material making up the eyehole, along with black paint formed into a sinister, thin smile, two vertical lines at each corner. The thing behind the mask looked slowly around before its eyes, or where its eyes should be from the mask, landed on Celestia. The Princess of the Sun shivered slightly, sending out a telepathic, as she felt two presences look at her from beneath that mask. One, wild and young. Broken beyond repair, and insane past measure. And yet, peaceful, unwilling to take a life unless forced, and wanting to make everyone it met happier. Even now, stuck against the wall after smashing into it, she saw no fear or pain. Only a curiosity that rivalled those of infants or cats, and mild humor leaking into its mind, along with the possibility of a new people to talk to. Oh..and guilt. A flood of it. One thing that crossed her mind was what were people? And then she turned her immortal, wise gaze to second presence. This one… Older than she. Older than anything she had ever laid eyes on, in fact. It was wise, yes, that came with its age, but it was also filled to the brim with a malevolence more concentrated than even Naikorit, the ancient Black Dragon-Sorcerer now bound in Tartarus. It was filled with hatred, rage and a need for destruction, and was already trying to break her mind by reversing the telepathic link she had set to observe the odd creature. But almost immediately, it was reeled back in, the hate and rage turning to lethargic sleep, as the first presence wrapped around the second. Celestia blinked, a little confused, before cutting the telepathic energy, and shaking her head. It had happened in less than a second, but she had seen so much...yet so little. It only showed surface thoughts, and emotions. It meant the first presence, the one that seemed to be in control from the way it had stopped the second, was happy...but mad. Broken into pieces. And then Rarity screamed, as a second object flew out of the sphere. This one was thin, and ripped up the floor as it passed. It flew directly past Celestia’s head, making a soft shink as it did. It dug a little into the table, before flipping wildly upwards...and at the back of Pinkie Pie’s head. The party mare had popped up in front of the odd creature.. Time seemed to slow a little. No one had time to react. The Element of Laughter was going to die… But the creature shouted once at her. It was too loud to make out words, but Pinkie tilted her head in wonder. The thing behind the mask seemed to breathe in...and Celestia sensed a gathering of power, before another shout slammed Pinkie to the floor. And then the second object slammed into its chest, its head shooting forward from sheer whiplash. There was silence for a few, precious seconds, before Celestia felt two more presences...behind her. She sent out another telepathic link to observe these, even as her sister, Luna spoke. “ ‘Tia, behind you!” The first she observed was… Crude. Willing to commit acts of violence if needed, and always seeking a laugh. However, it was loyal to its friends...namely, the one next to it, and the mad thing she was still looking at. It was...intrigued by its surroundings, but not as curious as the masked one. She could also sense four...things inside it. Alive, but not. Awake, but with no brain at all. Were all these creatures housing others? As for the one next to it, she couldn’t sense it at all. Nothing, it was like it was dead.. And then it spoke. “I would much appreciate it if you DIDN’T try to look into my head, thanks..” So what she did instead, was to expand the field, and change it, so it washed over their bodies and grant her sight of their bodies. Cause magic, right? The first was tall, taller than the first at any rate. He, from the body shape at least, was also muscled, but bound by the fine suit he wore. Well, all apart from his right arm. But first, she looked at his features. Light tan skin, with sparse hair. It was only really at the top of its skull, and was fairly short even then. His eyes were small, and a dark brown. As for his right arm...well..it was covered in sheets of metal, pointed at the top of each plate. They travelled up to the top of its appendage, and the top three spikes were greatly exaggerated, the very top coming up past one of its flat, shell-like ears. Its...claws, formed from more metallic plates were a great deal longer than the ones on his left hand. The metallic plates seemed to connect to his appendage by a series of incredibly thin pieces of string. How very strange. The second, the one she couldn’t sense, was similar in size to the one imbedded in her wall. However, this one had a long, flowing silver mane..hair. He, assumedly a He anyway, had piercing gold eyes, that burned with a fierce intellect, constantly wanting to learn more and more. He looked pretty normal, apart from two distinct features. One, the bloodied, torn laboratory coat hanging from his shoulders, and the other...was his right arm. Dull grey, and incredibly smooth, with a crisscross pattern of a darker grey inlaid. Another metallic arm? These creatures WERE odd. XXXXXXX Steele was a little confused. They were meant to teleport back to the base in Hikarimura..why were they in some kind of childrens fairy tale. And why was Chi pinned to the wall by an arachnid leg. And why was the white Wingdecorn trying to read his mind. He raised his eyebrow just a little, and glared at her. “I would much appreciate it if you DIDN’T try to look into my head, thanks..” By the look on the collected Equine’s and...chimera thing, they weren’t expecting intelligence. “What, never seen someone talk before?” He muttered, before striding forwards. What he didn’t expect, however, was to be hit with a hurricane of sound. In the face. It hurt. And it came from a dark blue Wingdecorn (As he had dubebd them, until he knew the correct term), with...stars in her hair? “STOP RIGHT THERE, MONSTER!” Yeah. It actually knocked him back a few steps, before he casually strolled on again, jumping over White Wingdecorn and onto the table, all the while talking matter-of-factly. “No, I will not stop, because my..friend is injured. He happens to be impaled by the most potent mutagen I know of, and I know a lot of them. Hell, I invented half of them. So, Miss Butterpegasus, I suggest you do NOT touch that spike sticking out of him.” Fluttershy, who had been examining Chi urgently, squeaked, and stepped away from the Arachnid arm that was piercing through the masked crusader’s chest. “ALSO. You have a very loud voice, and I would like to see how that works. Now then!” And with that, he jumped off the opposite end of the table, gently nudged Pinkie Pie, who was shivering in fear, away with his foot, and started inspecting Chi. XXXXXXX Meanwhile, 20 metres away at the other end of the table- B.Jha was also a little confused. And overwhelmed by the amount of colors. And by god, they were cute as hell. And then he was pressed against the wall by noise, for the SECOND time in a minute, this time directed at him. “WHAT MANNER OF CREATURE ARE YOU!?” The blue winged unicorn had yelled at him, blasting him back, as an orange equine walked up as well. B.Jha blinked, prying himself from the stone, and chuckled idly, his metal hand going up to scratch the top of his head. The equines flinched slightly at the movement, causing B.Jha to gently place his hands behind his head, and sighing lightly. “Well, I am called a Human..” At that, the orange, stetson wearing equine nodded. He spared a glance at her, before shrugging. “And my name is… Bob Jeffery Anderson. B.Jha for short. Umm...What are yours? This is so weird…” The dark blue equine blinked at his...attempt at eloquence, before shaking her head ever so slightly, and then meeting his eye with a slight scowl. “I am Princess Luna of the Night. I am a Pony, of the Alicorn Race. You...aren’t used to speaking like that, are you?” As B.Jha shook his head rapidly, the orange pony smirked lightly, before speaking in a southern drawl. “I’m with ya there, sugarcube. Call me Applejack! Why...are you here, anywho? Ya here to cause trouble?” B.Jha, talkative as always, simply shrugged, at the first question, before speaking to the second. “Nah. I think one of Chi’s Vortex-Portals went wrong. Nothing to worry about, I’m sure. We will probably be out of under your feet. Hooves. Things, pretty soon!” He gave a slight grin, his metal arm rapidly stretching out to his side, as he looked at the pair of them, then around the table. Geez, it was a mess. A long slash halfway down the table, along with crushed food. A blue pegasus, with the best gay-pride mane he had ever seen was curled up and shaking next to a unicorn, this one white, with a coifed purple mane, obviously in fear. The white.. Alicorn? was silently observing everything, as the purple, smaller Alicorn was stood in slight shock. The weird amalgamation was sat upside in mid air, watching the chaos with a soft grin, and the remaining two..Ponies, one a yellow and pink pegasus, and the last a pony so pink it almost blinded him, were watching Steele operate on Chi, using his Liqui-metal arm to create needles and syringes, which he filled from the pockets in his cloak. Another regular day with his friends. He sighed, before laughing slightly, and nodding to the Princess, and Applejack with a slight grin. "This...could be fun."
Chapter II: Show and TellChapter II: Show and Tell Princess Twilight Sparkle was confused. And a little scared. She had shown Princess Celestia her remote summoning spell, used to bring personal belongings from far away places...when SOMETHING had flown out of it. A black cloaked, white masked thing, followed by some kind of limb. Whatever it was, it had saved Pinkie Pie, at the cost of possibly its own life. But what was it? One of its friends, who had followed it through, was operating on it at the moment, whilst Applejack and Princess Luna spoke to the other. The one operating on the masked creature...terrified her. Apart from his shape shifting right arm, which he was using to stitch close the hole in the cloaked ones chest, as well as inject him with a viscous black substance, there was just something...off about him. She couldn’t quite put her hoof on it. Fluttershy and Pinkie were observing the silver haired man go to work on the cloaked being, Pinkie being thankfully quiet for once. Rainbow Dash was just getting over her initial shock, and was looking around sheepishly, before trotting over to Twilight. “I..uh, I wasn’t scared! Just a little surprised..” Twilight raised an eye at her, before giggling nervously. “Ok...maybe a little.” The Princess of Magic nodded, a slight shiver running through her body, as she answered. “Me too, Rainbow. What even are these things…?” In all her time reading through her library, she had never come across something like this. Rainbow simply shrugged, before looking just behind Twilight. Applejack and Luna were talking to one of the creatures, whilst Celestia and Discord seemed deep in thought. “Yo, Twili. How long has it been since they arrived.?” “Huh...oh, can’t be more than two minutes..” “Hrm. Luna and AJ are talking to the spiky armed one…Rarity fainted. Flutters and Pinkie are watching Egghead Monster..”Twilight chuckled at this, before asking the polychromatic mare how she knew he was an Egghead. “How is he NOT an Egghead. The feeling of Eggheadedness pours off of him!” Steele, at the other end of the table, sighed, and shouted. “I CAN hear you, you know?” Rainbow blanched a little, before continuing. “Yeah, Pinkie and Flutters are watching him operate on the scary one...and Discord and Celestia are discussing something.” She was about to continue, when a deep chuckle came from the ‘spiky armed one’. Both Twilight and Rainbow looked at the large creature before trotting up behind Luna and the farmpony. B.Jha blinked, before spoke up, a light grin plastered on his face. “Oh, hey. Uh…Princess Purple and LGBT.” He muttered, before chuckling to himself. “No, really, what are your names?” Rainbow blinked once, before cautiously opening her mouth. “Umm...LBGT? Anypony...My name is Rainbow Dash. And I am the FASTEST pegasus in Equestria.” Twilight and AJ simply sighed at their friend’s exuberance , before Twilight straightened up, and spoke in a refined voice. “I am Princess Twilight Sparkle, personal student to Princess Celestia.” B.Jha blinked ever so slightly, and then opened his mouth for two eloquent words. “Who now?” Luna, AJ and Twilight opened their mouths to speak, at the same time, but were interrupted by a noise at the end of the table. A soft crunch, then a patter of falling material. Everyones, and everyponies head turned to the noise. Chi, the masked man, was moving, His hand had grabbed onto the wall beside him, and had crushed the marble beneath his fingers, as he wrenched the Arachnid limb out of his chest with his other hand. Then, with a slow grace that belied his size, he placed his hands on the wall either side of the wall, and pushed himself away. He gave a light, dark chuckle, before straightening up, nodding his thanks to Steele, and then taking a few paces forward. He stretched slowly, before looking around the room. “So….multicoloured equines, huh?”He murmured, before chuckling idly. “So be it. B.Jha, Steele, I trust you are being nice~” B.Jha gave a thumbs up from the other side of the room, whilst Steele just scowled slightly. “So be it? Why?” Celestia, trotting up beside Pinkie Pie, gave a soft murmur of agreement, as she stared at Chi. “Jumping through dimensions took a HELL of a lot out of me. Specially since I don’t know how I got here.” Chi had started pacing back and forth, his hand brushing over the pitted wall. As he did so, the wall swelled back to its original state slowly. B.Jha, Luna, and Applejack had started to wander over, Twilight had teleported over, with Rainbow flapping lazily over the table. An exasperated sigh escaped Steele’s lips, as he muttered. “So, we are stuck here. Great.” Twilight’s face lit up in an unsettling grin. Maybe she could study these creatures after all.. Chi chuckled idly, before speaking, rather fast. “Number 1. Yes. Number 2. Miss Purple Pony, that is creepy. Number 3...maybe we should get to know each other~” Everyone, and everypony blinked, as the Masked man sat down against the wall, motioning for them all to do the same. Rainbow, however, eyed Chi, before suspiciously asking. “And how do we know you aren’t gonna attack us at the nearest opportunity, huh?” Fluttershy gave a loud “eep”, and started shaking at this, Pinkie hopping over to hug her better whilst squinting at the three humans. Luna and Celestia frowned, almost in sync, and charged a small amount of power into their horns. Discord, however, was chuckling away, reclining in an armchair and eating popcorn...somehow. Chi, after sparing the Draconequus a glance, gave a dark chuckle. “You can’t know. You can trust, or think, but you can never know for certain. Now, lets have circle time.” He motioned for them all to sit down again, most of them complying apart from two. Steele instead sat back on the table, just giving a glare in Chi’s direction, before muttering. “This is stupid.” Rainbow, meanwhile, simply stared at Chi with a suspicious expression, slowly hovering in place, before hovering in place beside Fluttershy’s head. Chi placed his hands behind his head, and yawned once, before speaking, his mask covering his emotions well. “Well...I am Chi. Howdy-do? My favourite colour is blood red, and my favourite food was pizza. I like making people smile, and I dislike...cruelty. A random fact about me… I can change my mask expression!” With that, he motioned towards the pony to his right, Princess Luna, as his mask changed from a sadistic grin, to a sad frown. “Me? Oh...this is rather foalish, but..I am Princess Luna d’Nocte. My favourite colour is...Dark blue, like my coat. My favourite food… Anything sweet, although I am partial to a good doughnut from Pony Joe’s.” At the incredulous look from the other Ponies, the Lunar Princess huffed, a dark blush on her face. “Is one...Am I not allowed a treat now and again? Oh, Shh, Tia.” Celestia was barely holding in a giggle with her hoof, something that made Luna pout even more before continuing. “A-and I like politics! N-next!” Discord, in his recliner, gave a light laugh, idly throwing bits of popcorn at the three Princesses. “Discord is my name, Chaos is my game.” He clicked his eagle talons, a teddy bear appearing above Steele’s head to bounce off of him. There was a pause, where Steele sighed, and motioned with his hand for the Draconequus to carry on. Discord, however, did the same back. Steele blinked, before listing off a few points, his eyes closed. “I am a cyborg, and a scientist. I prefer to learn than to play, and your biology seems interesting. I would like to dissect one of you at some point. I also do not prefer to kill as much as my two companions.” As he opened his eyes, he saw three magical bolts fly in different directions, along with a shout from a megaphone, or something of that effect. “BEASTS!” He sighed, a palm hitting his face, before the spell smashed him in the gut. And then he went to sleep. XXXXXXX The male opened his left eye, just a crack, before shutting it again. His mask was off, which was not good. Now he was a danger to everybody...and equine, as a matter of fact. Ah well. He opened his eye again, as little as he could whilst still being able to see. He seemed to be in a globular room, with flowing streams of white magic binding his arms and legs to four complex crystalline structures. Chi smirked a little, as he looked at them. He opened his left eye completely, staring at the crystal structure above his right arm. Within seconds, the power coming from it was stopped, reversed, and blasted back into it, detonating the structure. With his right arm free, it was only a matter of time before the other three crystals were twisted, smoking structures. He landed on the floor quietly, his left eye shutting before it could do any more damage. A light grin split his features again, as he stretched his scarred body, before concentrating. A soft pulse that didn’t exist pulsed outwards, locking onto his mask and cloak. It was only a few metres away, beyond a section of the smooth, white walls. There was three life forms in there...and they were stressing, from the way they were pacing back and forth. Eh. Time for a wake up call. With a burst of power, he collided with the wall, before phasing through it, his face passing through the other side, as he yelled obnoxiously loud.. “HEEEERE’S JOHNNY!!”
