The Hero Within

The group was ready. It's members were determined: Twilight, the two Princesses and Chrysalis, Dash and some of the X-ponies :

Scoot, Sweetie, Applebloom, Zecora, Wanda and her brother Pietro. Wolverine was also somehow a part of the crew, altough Scoot had protested against it several times.

The original Avengers, together with the Elemental Lords and the rest of the Mane 6 were watching as the train left.

" I hope they'll be OK. " Rarity was worried. The wind blowed through her floating mane.

" They can't be more prepared. " Coulson replied.

" Did ya convince Fury ta include Logan? " Applejack grinned, as she saw the agent smile.

" He's the best warrior amongst them. " Phill answered " However, sometimes he is a bit too fierce. "

" I don't know... I still think we should be there with them. " Rarity told him " Two of my best friends and my sister are on this train. "

" Most of you are exhausted. Don't forget you also fought in Pre- Equestria. You  deserve a rest. And we should also give your powers a time to manifest. " the agent responded.

" He's absolutely right, my queen. You need a rest. " Light Warrior supported the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent " Once your true power is revealed, you can enter the battle again. Untill than, we'll make the Voidians fear the moon for you. "

" That's very kind, but I don't fancy being lazy while the others fight. " the unicorn worried

" We won't fight eitha' . We also need a rest. " Applejack spoke " Yah won't be tah only mare not fighting for a while. "

Twilight observed the train station, as the train left. This mission was more risky than anything she's done before.

But was she able to fight Hase? Memories of her friend ran wild through her head, distant echoes of him. The purple alicorn just wasn't able to believe there is no way to bring that stallion back.

As she thought about the last fight, the headache, that first appeared when  the black coated pegasus broke in her mind violently, returned. It wasn't intense as before, but it was enough to not let Twilight forget about it.

Celestia and Luna were in the same wagon as her. They were currently looking through the window, to Canterlot.

" Do you know, once Hase dreamed of building a town right beneath Canterlot. " Celestia told the lavender mare " A simple town like Ponyville, where earth ponies and pegasi wouldn't be considered ponies of the lower class. He dreamt of connecting it to Canterlot with pipes. " that memory obviously cheered Celestia. " Air pipes, that would of been able to transport ponies. "

" Princess, is this really the only way? " Twilight wasn't so ecxited about the non- existing town.

" You know, I think I'll show you something, that only Luna and I know. " Celestia smiled " But I would suggest to stay back. "

Both Twilight and Luna got three feet away.

" Watch this. " Luna whispered.

Suddenly flames engulfed Celestia and a totally different pony was revealed in front of them. It's coat was brownish- red, a flame mane and tail waved behind of it and it's armour was the same like the one of Nightmare Moon, except that it's colour was orange. The pony was an alicorn mare. She grinned and Twilight noticed, that her eyes had the colour of a flame. Big flames covered the pony and once again Princess Celestia stood in front of them.

" Now Twilight you're the third pony in the history of Equestria to witness my sisiter's darker form, Solar Flare! " Luna proclaimed.

Twilight had no words to express her confusion.

" I thought you must know Twilight. Each alicorn... has his or her dark side. Whenever fear, anger, envy or another dark thought overwhelms us, we become different. Multiple times have the villagers of Pre- Equestria, where we grew up with our father , suffered from Nighmare Moon and Solar Flare. Well, at least untill dad taught us how to control ourselves. " Celestia blushed.

" We taught it to Cadance. And now we teach it to you. A Princess should always be in control of herself. "

" Wait... does that mean, that Nighmare Moon has nothing to do with the Nightmare Spirits? " Twilight asked

" Yes... and no. " Luna replied " My first attack as Nightmare Moon in Equestria was caused by my envy, so it didn't have anything to do with the Spirits, yes. But while I was exiled, my presence awakened them. 1000 years later, with some help of their Queen I struck again... only to be stopped by you. However, once the Nightmare Queen liked to say, that I owe my magnificence to her, while I was Nightmare Moon, I mean. Of course, those are only old mare's tales. "

" So... what's Cadance... evil self? " Twilight asked

" Bleedheart. " Celestia replied " Once Cadance was very angry and this resulted in her turning to Bleedheart, a alicorn, that takes love for a play and enjoys breaking hearts more than anything else. The broken hearts give her energy, and she threatened to destroy the love on the world. Luckily, we were able to stop her on time. "

" And what do you guess... " Twilight gulped " Would my evil form be like? "

" It would be an alicorn with immense magical powers. " Luna replied " But we would be happy if you don't try to found out more about your dark side on yourself. "

" That's why we always have to take the hard decisions without wondering. Because if we wonder about something, dark feelings may overcome us... and result in a disaster."

The train was slowly climbing the mountain and the ponies inside of it were unaware, that they were being watched.

A lonely raven flew off a dead tree and headed back towards Ponyville. Suddenly, he turned to a dark cloud and continued with  great speed.

" Voidians! " Hase yelled " You underpowered creatures! "

" My lord... " a very pony- like Voidian was next to Hase. It resembled a stallion and only it's yellow eyes and some holes in his hooves suggested, that he's actually a Voidian. " It isn't good to yell at your hive like this. it discourages them. "

" Very well... " the pegasus grinned " But you should know, that my hive isn't like my mother's . Here I will rule with an iron hoof. This is... more like a wolf pack. If you stay with me, you'll earn lives in my new world, but if you're weak... you won't survive. "

The Voidians got even more nervous. Usually nopony could of gotten them to be so worried. But by so far the Chaotics had followed their will, now it was the other way around.

The raven landed on Hase's throne. It spoke something, that only Hase heard. The evil pony smiled and exclaimed:

" At last! My subjects, as we have expected, the ponies hope to get to Canterlot. I am not aware of their intentions, but I do know one thing: they won't reach their destination! "

" However, that doesn't answer my question, Princess. Is this the only way? " Twilight repeated her question.

" It isn't . " Celestia sighed " But the other way is... much more dangerous. "

" More dangerous than a spell which is able to destroy the world? " Twilight was confused.

" Yes. Much more dangerous. " the princess of the day replied " Theoretically, it is possible to combine the power of the two. "

" Which two? " the purple alicorn asked.

" Oh. Sorry. " the solar princess apologised "  The Elements of Harmony, The Entity of Love, those two .... "

" The Entity of Chaos, for the Elements of Chaos? " Twilight suggested

" No. " Celestia smiled " Although Vortex only summoned the Elements of Harmony from the Void and gave them new forms, the Elements of Chaos are his own invention. However, the most confusing about them, is that they aren't connected to the Chaos in any way. Their power comes from nature. So their power is limited, which is the reason they didn't turn against us as soon as they were summonned, instead of bothering with Hase. The Element of Fire actually is more related to forest fires than to the fire itself. You get it? "

" But Blaze also controls the volcanoes. " Twilight replied

" Not fully. Though his tail is made out of lava, volcanoes are a different teritory. There isn't nature inside of them. That's why he is only able to partially control them and cause a single small erruption with his ultimate and most difficult skill. It is quite a spectacle, but if you compare it to natural erruptions, it's pretty small. " Celestia answered " When Vortex created them, he didn't focus over volcanoes, but over nature. This caused them to be powerful, but not invincible, as you proved. "

" Wait... I'm confused. How are Hellios and  Dusk able to control Light and Darkness, than? " the purple alicorn asked

" Natural light and natural darkness. Since nature doesn't have much to do with either light or darkness, their powers are very little and probably harmless. However, with some training they have probably adapted their strength: they use more disorientation and confusion in their battles, instead of pure force. Actually, only their army and their reputation kept them safe from Thor, while he was in New Equestria. That's also why they teamed- up against us. " the princess of the sun responded.

" Now, if you want to see true darkness, you should probably look at Hase. " the three Princeses were surprised to see Chrysalis on the door " His power comes from the darkness itself.  The true darkness is able to do much more. It can destroy, build, make somepony mad... It is very dangerous. "

" When were you planning to say that? " Luna was surprised

" I... I thought they have told you already. That he wields the darkness. "

" Well, yes. " Luna remembered, that either Fury or Cadance had mentioned it " But we didn't suppose it is the true Darkness. "

" Could you give me some more information, please? " Twilight wondered if her friends felt that way when she was speaking about books and magic.

' I hope that they don't . ' it was really annoying to not know half of the things the others are talking about, the purple mare thought.

" The true darkness... is darkness itself. It is a little hard to explain, but imagine it this way, " Celestia explained " Before my father and Vortex created the sun, the moon and the stars, there was only darkness. Darkness is dangerous. Not as much as the Void, of course, but it is still pretty dangerous. Combined with Chaotic skills and the powers of the Master of the Dark Side of the Moon, it is pretty much all a pony needs to take over the world.

Darkness gives strange abilities, that are hard to explain. No, wait a second... you know dark spells, right? "

" Yes, but I thought they are forbidden to use. "

" Yes, they are, and there is a reason for that. " Celestia looked sad " Using too much dark power will eventually cause the process " dissolving " . Since everything was created by darkness, the user might die and turn to darkness.

As I said, it isn't as dangerous as the Void, since this would only cause the death of one pony, and won't open a hole in the dimension. But it's still pretty dangerous. Darkness isn't corrosive as the Void, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't be careful. "

" It was Sombra's idea, actually. " Chrysalis noted " With a little power from the darkness he became the king of the Crystal Empire. With the full power of darkness at his command, Hase would of been able to control the world. And boy he did. "

" Doesn't that mean he can destroy the world? " Twilight was interested.

" Yes. He can. " Celestia replied.

" But anyway, did you say, that our powers combined are able to do this too? " the purple mare asked

" Yes. Indeed it is possible. But if you fail, the result will be the same as the backfire of the solar extermination. And there isn't a great chance for success. In fact, it's lower than the one of the Solar Extermination. Great powers of such attitude don't like to be combined. " the princess of the sun answered.

" But.... love and friendship are so easilly combined! " Twilight was confused.

" Really? How do you think Rarity felt when Hawk broke her heart and said he wants them to remain friends? " Chrysalis' words were true. After Twilight thought about it, there couldn't of been love along with friendship. It's either the first or the second.

Suddenly, the train stopped.

" Oh, what know? " Chrysalis got her head out of the window. However, the reson couldn't be seen, since the train has jut been turning right and Chrysalis was looking through the left window.

They walked through the other wagons. When they reached the exit, they saw, that everypony else is outside. So the queen and the three Princesses got off the train too.

" Engine failure? " Twilight suggested.

" I wish it was. " Scotaloo replied. The lavender alicorn followed the gaze of the mutant.

A single Voidian was standing on the way. That wasn't such a great obstacle, but behind him the rails were... broken. The other end of the rails was 20 feet away.

" We'r not gettin' da train over tha' . " Applebloom noted.

" So now we're just sittin' here and waiting for that bub in front of us to move. " Logan spoke through his teeth. Apparently he was angry.

" So... why don't we just attack him? " Chrysalis asked.

" It might turn out to be a well - hidden trap. " Sweetie replied.

And in that moment they heard a yawn.

" Don't get sleepy. " Dash spoke.

The ponies looked at each other. Nopony looked sleepy at all. So where did the yawn come from? The Voidian? Voidians didn't sleep.

A pony with a ridiculous red and black spandex jumped from the top of the train.

" Are we there yet? " Deadpool asked with a sleepy voice. Than he saw the Voidian. Before anypony could warn him, he got out a machine gun and fired at the Voidian, yelling:

" Yippie- kay - yeah, orange bucker, now get off the road! "

A second before the bullets reached their destination, darkness shrouded them and they dissapeared. Pure darkness.

" So there's more than it meets the eye in this fella. " the merc with a mouth complained " We have to go in ninja mode! "

He pulled his katanas, but Dash flew in front of him:

" You saw what happenned to those bullets. It would be pity to loose your katanas, don't you think? " the Iron Patriot spoke to him.

" Nah, you're right. " Deadpool put the twin swords back in place unwillingly.

The Voidian threw the circular shield he was carrying on the ground. A tower of black smoke of pure darkness raised from it and Hase's gigantic holographic image appeared in it.

" You're late. I expected Cadence and the big Shiny Armour to pull off that trick a lot earlier. " the pegasus smirked " Honestly, I have no idea what you want to do in Canterlot and I don't care. You won't get past the thousands Voidians anyway. And only 5 ponies from your team aren't mutants! Tartarus, those Sentinels will find you for T minus one minute. "

" Don't be so sure! " Scoot shouted.

" Ts, ts. " Hase disapproved " Three talanted mares. I once foal sitted you and now you turn against me. Don't you understand I'm fighting for a better future? Scotaloo, Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, " for a second bright blue sparkles appeared in Hase' eye rings. For a moment his dark violet mane faded to dark blue. But than he shook his head and the dark violet colour returned.

" , why would you fight me? Join me and I promise I'll destroy all of the Sentinels. Except Vinyl, if you demand. "

" We know your tricks. " Scotaloo spoke, but she was a bit unconfident. Probably she thought what Twilight was thinking - did this blue colour mean, that the real Hase was still inside?

" Fine than. This poor Voidian out here was weak. " the pegasus spoke " Now, he'll be strong. "

The hollogram vanished, but the body of the Voidian started sucking darkness. It became unusually sunny, as the pony grew and grew in size, untill it was had thrice the height of the train. Darkness was flowing through his eyes and even his ears.

The ponies gulped.