The Rift Saga - Book One: New Arrivals.

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..

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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.

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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."