The Rift Saga - Book One: New Arrivals.

Chapter 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!!”