The Songs of True Madnessby MidnightChaosChaptersThe Age and Times...Blinks in TimeDoctor, Time, and PoniesThe Baron and Some SpidersDivine InterventionsThis, The End (And no. Not the story)The Demise BeginsVoidlingsAway We GoGamer Luna: Mission One- GuardianEssence Enters the War of Understanding: Part OneWhat Could Have BeenEssence Reaches the Next Level of OPEssence Fucks With ArmiesThe War of Understanding (aka the Biggest Possibility Ever]The Fourth Displaced WarEssence's Discovery [Revised]On The Study Of AuthoriansThe Age and Times...Waking up in the desert was not my plan of course but here I was who knows where in the middle of Equestria. Of course at least I wasn’t imprisoned by Sunbutt and her student Sparklebutt. Ya ya ya, I know I sounded not as angry earlier. After being imprisoned just because they couldn’t read your mind. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m happy she couldn’t, you get a bit mad too. Anyway so I turned in a circle and tried to spot the nearest civilization. Nothing for miles. Nothing but desert. I finally gave up and started towards what I thought was North. After walking for a bit, I heard a low rumbling sound. Looking around I saw a dune that was rolling towards me like something was under it. I did what anyone would do. I ran like hell. After a couple of seconds, I felt it roll under me and then I was thrown into the air. I landed with an omphf and stood up. Looking at the sand, which was still in the air and took a moment to settle, I saw a large scorpion like creature jump out and dive for me. I tried to dodge it, but I looked up to see it falling right on top of me. This is gonna hurt, I thought, but after nothing happened for a second, I opened my eyes and all around me were bubbles. What the hell is with all the bubbles? I thought. I lifted my hand up to pop one and, WHERE THE HELL IS MY HAND? The moment after I thought this, a bunch of bubbles gathered into the shape of my hand. I’m made of bubbles now? Seriously? Bubbles. Whatever, I just want to get away from this thing! I floated up and over it and dropped to the ground and moved my hand. Thank god, I’m back to normal, I thought. I turned around. “BUCKING BUG!” I threw a punch into its side. I looked around and saw one of its claws had fallen off. I picked it up to stab the thing, and as I did, I felt it connect way before it should have. I opened my eyes. “WHERE THE HELL DID I GET A TRIDENT?!” I screamed. “You know what? Screw it!” I stabbed the thing until the life faded from its eyes. Then I turned around and one by one, ponies stepped out from behind rocks and cacti. Every single one of them was an earth pony. I looked around. “Where am I?” I asked the nearest one. “Y-you are i-in the S-sahoof desert m’am,” the earth pony answered. He was rather skinny. His coat was a dusty gray and his hair was a darker brown. His cutie mark was a half-pipe with water coming out of it. “Thank you. Which way is it to Equestria?” I asked. “Equestria?” he asked. ‘You know the princesses of the sun and moon?” “Who?” “Ugh. Who leads you ponies?” “Chancellor Puddinghead did but we left cause conditions got bad. That was a couple years ago.” The look on my face must have been priceless because one of the mares towards the back giggled. “Ok. Why are you in the desert?” --------B.N.M ????----Day 1--- So yeah this needed to be changed. “We were headed south to hopefully find better conditions.” “Ah. Ok,” I said, and as I did, the trident tapped the ground and suddenly we were standing in a large pond. “How did you do that?” “The trident… It is strongly imbued with water and as a divine weapon, it has insane magical properties…” “That’s amazing! Can you do that again?” “I guess…” That was how I came to help those ponies and after several years they crowned me their queen. I continued to help my ponies. This was long after known as Saddle Arabia. I ruled Saddle Arabia for a long time. At least until the revolution. -----B.N.M 1500----Day 126--- I wandered the lands for years after I lost Saddle Arabia. Of course I wandered the lands and stopped tyrants but every time, the ponies revolted, and I lost the kingdom. I finally got back to Equestria and I had finally learned to use at least Illusion magic. I disguised myself as a unicorn and wandered in to try and take over Equestria. “Princess Celestia! A pony is here to see you,” shouted a guard. She entered the room and I bowed. “Good day Princess,” I said. “Indeed. Might I ask who you are?” “Oh. Yes. I am Twinkling Star.” “Why are you here?” “I’ve noticed some issues with your government princess,” I said as I summoned the power of my Divine Weaponry and and Bubble Mimicry. (Please Note that this took a LOT of concentration) “What are you-” she started just as I whacked her with the trident. She aimed her magic at me and blasted away. I turned into bubbles. She fired again. I dodged. I switched weapons bringing out Excalibur and swung it at Sunbutt. As I swung she vanished. Then she reappeared with Luna and the elements. I smiled. “You know. I knew this would happen,” I said. The next thing I knew a rainbow blasted down against me. -------A.N.M 1000----Day 2---- I still have a day before I can actually return. I watched the ponies crossing through the statue garden. In fact today a group of foals with their teacher were visiting. I listened in as they stopped in front of me. “This was Twinkling Star. She was a rebel who fought and nearly defeated our princesses. Though due to the strength of the two pony sisters she was defeated and imprisoned. It has been 1500 years since she was imprisoned and it is likely she is dead or very old. She is the only rebel who has foolishly attacked the sisters directly.” Ha. Still getting most of the info wrong. I had a day left before I could correct all the information. They called me a evil pony who had been corrupted. Just wait… --------A.N.M 1000----Day 3---- I watched the sunrise. It really is marvelous even though its forced. I pushed out my hands or should I say hooves I still used the illusion magic to make my identity not known. I pushed and stretched and finally the rock came off. “Whew! What a day, huh?” I said looking at a small pony nearby. The pony squeaked and then ran off. “Man… I wanted to have some fun… Oh well!” I removed the appearance spell and ran out of the garden. After I found the train station and I waited to jump onto the top of a train. Once the train I had hitched a ride from got into Ponyville, I jumped off and ran straight into the Everfree. “Ah! Free at last!” I stretched as I walked towards the castle ruins. “Tsk. Tsk. Sunbutt really let the place go.” I walked into the library which was in rather good condition considering its age. I wiped dust off a book. “AH-AH-AH-CHOO!” After I sneezed bubbles filled the room. “Ah that’s new.” After the bubbles had cleared I looked at the book I had dusted off. Rebellions of Equestria. Well, let’s just see if there is a mention of me. I opened the Table of Contents and found the name Twinkling Star. It read~ Twinkling Star was a unicorn from a faraway land who came to conquer Equestria. She had a golden coat and sky-blue hair. She first came to Equestria 300 years ago. She challenged the princesses and was close to succeeding but was stopped by the Elements of Harmony. After she was imprisoned in stone she was moved to the gardens to be watched over along with a few other strong enemies. It is thought that if the stone were removed this brave but foolish pony’s skeleton would fall out. Many have requested that she be removed and given a proper burial due to the legends that reached Equestria decades after her imprisonment. Such rumors included that she freed 100 nations from evil Tyrants but was thrown out due to her actions such as terrorizing the children off Canterlot, and breaking down lamp posts. To others, she was just trying to improve the Equestrian nation. After these rumors surfaced many ponies came to lay flowers in front of this pony’s memorial. Wow. I was depicted in a heroic way by some ponies. Can’t say it doesn’t touch me. After that I felt a tugging sensation. So I grabbed a ring on the ground and used magic to warp a light blue trident to it. “Whoever shall hold this ring will have the right to call upon me. Those of good intentions need not fear me. Those of dark mindset are my worst enemies. True harmony is not achieved through Elements, but through the strength of will and mind. I am Essence, freer of nations, founder of worlds, rebel of hope, and destroyer of tyranny.” I tossed the ring into the air where it glowed a bright blue and vanished. “That was certainly interesting. Not exactly a good speech but interesting nonetheless.” I turned back around and headed up to the top of the tallest tower. I dusted off the bed and laid down. This week was going to be interesting. Author's Note Thanks to the PR! This chapter is a little weird but here it is at last! Blinks in TimeI opened my eyes to see a little ball of light floating above. “Oh. Hello.” Suddenly it rushed at me and I was tackled in a hug. “The hell?” “Mother!” came a childish voice. I looked down to see a small alicorn filly. Now realize that there are more than three alicorns. It just so happens this one had adopted me as its mother a thousand years ago and also happened to be the alicorn for time. I had named her Kronia. Ha ha, Greek pun. Shut up. “Kronia?” I gasped due to the fact of how hard she was hugging me. Please note, when getting hugged by an alicorn make sure that you have something that will allow room to breathe. Alicorns are absurdly strong. As I said I am Kronia’s adoptive mother. Her real parents she never really knew and I haven’t met yet. All I know is the story of how I found her. ----B.N.M----Day 365,364---- I walked the paths between the countries of Norhay and Sweeten. I know awful puns right? Anyway. I was about to the border when I noticed a star falling. Not strange right? Not until the bucking thing landed RIGHT ON TOP OF ME. I’d experienced some weird stuff but this was on a whole new level of “WEIRD AND CRAZY THINGS IN EQUIS”. I pulled myself out of the tiny crater. Cartoon physics allowed whatever this was to make a rather small crater for its size. I looked at what had landed. A tiny pony lay in the center she was about the size of one the CMC. Maybe a bit smaller. She had a TARDIS-blue coat. Her mane was similar to Luna’s but it was a polished silver color. It, like the princesses’ mane, was ethereal. She had a black cloak on and was still unconscious. At this point you know she is an alicorn, don’t you? Anyhow. I picked up the tiny, and extremely light, filly and sat down with her curled up in my lap. I have a soft spot for children. I let the small pony rest before I tried to wake her. I shook the tiny filly lightly. “Hello?” I asked her. She opened her eyes which a startling purple before she suddenly hugged me. “I don’t wanna. No. No. Please. No don’t make me go,” she sobbed. I looked down at her. “Why would I make you leave?” “Because I was bad. I didn’t come here like I was supposed to. I hurt somepony. I hurt you,” she sniffled. “I’m fine, see?” I put my face in front of hers. “But I almost smooshed you,” she said tearfully. “This filly is freaking adorable,” I thought. “I’m fine. Here look.” I held up my hand and turned it into to bubbles and back. She stared at my hand before she started sobbing and hugged me. “Momma. It really is you momma. You told me you’d look different. It really is you.” I looked at this tiny alicorn who assumed that I, a catgirl, previously a human male, was her mother. I’ll restate. I have a REALLY soft spot for children. “Of course it’s me,” I said. ----Return to Present---- The rest of this story can come later. I hugged the tiny filly back. “How was it? The last thousand years?” “I skipped it to come here Momma I can go back later.” She may be adorable but this tiny filly was pretty powerful. The last time I had let her jump through time uncontrolled she had caused a whole country to vanish. I got it sorted right in the end though. “Did anything mess up this time?” I asked. “No Momma.” I looked out the hole in the roof. The sky was turning a brilliant purple. In fact the sun had already peeked through the clouds. I looked towards Ponyville. The clouds had already moved and the bright morning sun hit the town waking all the ponies there. I turned back to Kronia. “It’s time for me to return.” I turned into bubbles. I warn against doing this as much as I was. It is very mentally taxing. I floated towards Canterlot with the morning winds. ----A Short Time Later---- I floated into the throne room and debubblized behind the thrones. I waited until the two sisters were deep in conversation before I got ready to step out. “What are we going to do about that bipedal called Essence who’s wandering around? She shouldn’t be allowed to walk free if it’s possible that she’ll hurt some of our ponies.” Celestia said. “You mean me?” I stepped out. Celestia jumped while Luna looked at me with curiosity. I suppose she hadn’t seen what I properly looked like last time we met, just yesterday or was it 2000 something years ago? Time travel can be so distracting. I looked at Celestia with amusement. “I-I thought you had vanished.” “Yes and no. In a way I was vanished but not vanished either,” I said. “Where did you go though?” she asked. “Here and there. Nowhere yet everywhere. Forward but backward.” I love confusing people. “Stop it. You sound like Discord,” she said. “Hey. Disc was slightly more annoying than me alright?” “How do you know Discord?” She squinted at me suspiciously. “I’m not allowed to do research?” “Well yes. But I-ugh.” “Am I free to go?” “You can roam but only in Canterlot.” “That works out fine.” I left the throne room. Boy, Celestia sure was easy to tick off. ----Meanwhile---- Spike looked at Twilight who seemed overly worried about something. “Twilight?” Spike asked. “Huh?” Twilight responded, not really listening. “You’ve left another trench in the floor,” Spike said. “What?” She looked down. “Oh.” She climbed out. “Twilight what has you so worried?” Spike questioned. “It’s that bipedal thing. It returned just hours ago but Celestia said this time it knew Discord.” “Discord? Who’s that?” “A creature who made Chaos in Equestria.” “Oh.” Twilight used her magic to pull out history books and began searching for any mention of the bipedal. Little did she know the answer lay on her bed. Mythological Creatures and Legends by Limestones. Author's Note Sorry about the grammar. I lost my PR. Anyways here is the 3rd chapter finally!!!! Doctor, Time, and Ponies----A Couple Days Later---- I had been summoned by the Sister Princesses. Whee. Anyway they had finally decided what to do with me. Actually more like they had been forced to do something, but how was I supposed to know the robber would run into the senior center? I only knocked them out. For a couple days. Either way I was on my way to the Throne room. I entered and Luna spoke first. "We've decided to send you to stay with Celestia's student, Twilight Sparkle, to be studied." "Alright," I replied whilst thinking. "I'm not a lab rat." "We've sent letter ahead. Twilight is already waiting." I sighed. Great. More Essence get poked and prodded. Knowing the lavender unicorn I'd be strapped to a table attached to some magical device getting asked stuff like "How do you reproduce?" To "Was your world magical?" To "What's a computer?" and so on. "I guess I'm ready then." I turned and was starting to leave when Luna called out. "Essence?" "Yes?" "Be careful. I may not know it perfectly but I know something's coming. Something that will change you and any of your friends." "Don't worry Lulu. I've got it covered." I left and met the lavender unicorn. It was time for another little adventure. ----Three Weeks Later---- Twilight and I were arguing about the idea that I had been sent back in time. I was beginning to get a bit miffed. Twilight kept saying time was straight and never folded back. She said history doesn't repeat and that its just coincidence. "I told you. People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to affect, but actually, from a non-linear, non subjective point of view it is more like a big ball of wibbily wobbly timey wimey...stuff. Got it?" "I believe I said that," came a voice. "Yes I know Doctor." "Who are you talking to Essence?" "Him," I gestured behind me at the Doctor. "Lookie! Lookie! Its the Doctor!" cried Pinkie Pie. That one needs to do a 4th wall check. "Look at that! Prismatic quadrupeds!" "Doctor! leave the ponies alone!" came a voice. "Fine," harrumphed the Doctor. "OH MY GOSH! IT"S THE AUTHOR!" screamed Pinkie Pie. The human female leaned down to whisper something to Pinkie. "Author?" I asked. "It's just Pinkie being pinkie," said Rainbow Dash. The human turned. "Hello. I'm Midnight." "Oh, I'm Essence, this is Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie," the second one waved crazily, while grinning, "Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Applejack." "This is the Doctor," gestured Midnight. "Ello, Ello" said the Doctor. I gaped at those two. So here in this Equestria the Doctor is real? Does that mean so is the TARDIS and there's another Earth? I looked suspiciously at Midnight. She seemed familiar. I couldn't put my tongue on it. Either way she was suspicious. I turned to the Doctor. "Doctor. Does Earth exist?" "Earth? Yes, lovely planet, but it's in another universe watched by another me." "What about him?" "Midnight? She's what they call an Authorian. They come from a planet that is entirely a Library. It's called Biblio. Very nice place. Full of every book in any universe. It's massive." "Authorian?" *A/N~ Refer to Chapter Entitled On The Study of Authorians* "I'll explain the differences later." I turned and looked at the Authorian. She looked pretty bucking human. Then again so does the Doctor. I looked at Pinkie who seemed to be having a argument about something with Midnight. I turned around. Twilight and the others had gone into the library and were talking about how Winter Wrap Up was coming. I murmered about how unfair life was, and blah blah blah. "So Doctor, about Time-travel..." "Yes?" "Are the Time-lords the only ones capable of it?" "No. In fact this world has it too, though very hard to control in raw form." "So if someone was sent back in time..." "They would become part of that timestream forever or at least until it changes." "Meaning?" "Say if I went back in time, and stopped this person, I'll call him Jack, if I stopped Jack then it would change but if Jack stopped himself then he would cease to exist unless it was an older him he was stopping, then it would change, but if the older him tried to stop himself then he, in said form, would cease to exist thus making Jack never change his mind. Get it?" "Ya I do," I replied. So I couldn't keep myself here no matter what. I would always go back in time, man that's depressing. The Doctor looked at the ponies and Midnight who was telling them a story. "It's interesting," said the Doctor, "Did you know that Authorians are working their whole lives?" "Really?" I asked. "Yes, but Midnight ran out of work." "What do you mean?" "Well she was living in the year 100 trillion. Basically at the End of The Universe, right? Well she ran the human section, or the section for human stuff. It was said that her work would take another several millennia but she finished it in just a couple decades, even by their standards that's fast. So I asked her superior if she could come with me and he accepted. Midnight was already helping the pony section when I told her and you know what she said? "I've seen every story by human, but I what I truly wish is to make my own." That was yesterday." "Impressive..." "Yes, but not number 1 on my list." I looked at the Doctor and entered the library. Twilight was immersed in a nearby book when she looked up. "Essence, Winter Wrap Up is tomorrow. What are you going to help with?" Twilight asked me. "I'm going to try-" She cut me off. "No magic of ANY kind," she said seriously. "Fine," I grumbled. Author's Note So yeah. Yay! I got to meet you. (Originally this was my friend who made this chapter. Now that he's made his own fic I fixed it.) Be calm. But why? Because I said so Pinkie. Welcome the Doctor. Thank you. Also. THE REAL STORY BEGINS. Please enjoy dear readers. On the Study of Authorians To come soon. The Baron and Some SpidersAuthor's Note This chapter is a crossover with The life and times of Xante, Baron of the Frozen Wastelands, First among Liches, Lord of the Dead, and Fabulous Rainbow Magic User. Oh good gods, that's a mouthful. Anyway, enjoy! The Baron and Some Spiders I climbed out of my bed and walked in on Twilight making breakfast. "Waffles?" "Duh." She slid some onto my plate. Grinning I munched down the waffles. Hands are great. Either way. Finishing my breakfast I made for the front door and sprinted into the woods for my usual meetings with Krona. As soon as I reached the castle I heard buzzing and poniod-bugs landed near me. Confused I found myself looking at none other than Chrysalis herself. She looked up into my face. "What? Do I have like, I dunno, cabbage in my teeth?" "What are you?" I flicked her muzzle, "A person, thank you very much." Her wings buzzed behind her as she rubbed her nose. "No matter, I can still take out the little purple one." I frowned. "You're going after Twilight?" "Pfft. No. I'm going after the dragon. Of course I'm going for Twilight. I can use her to lure in Cadence." It was at that moment that Fluttershy, helping a little bird back to its nest, appeared. Turning faster than I expected, Chrysalis spoke up, "Quickly, take out this thing and grab the yellow one. We can use her!" I coughed. "I'm not that easy you know." "Oh really? You have no magic, weapons, or armor." "Weapons? Pfft. I can take care of that. Armor, I don't need it, and magic is boring." I chose to summon the Trident as I spoke. She laughed, "That old thing? Why the fool who held it last got himself killed!" Oh? She wants a challenge? I switched to random and a Lyre appeared in my hand. Great. I'll use music to take her out. That'll totally work. Sighing, I strum a cord and directly behind Chrysalis a tree explodes. I squint. It can't be... Twilight gave me a book on all the Divine weapons and all the Lyre can do is move leaves. I take up a tune and Chryssi is immobilized. Nearby a changeling begins to twist and turn his body morphing into a cedar tree, another into a bush, and the third into an oak tree. I finished the song and looked at the Queen. "That's interesting," I mumbled. "Really? You turned my best soldiers into plants and you call that interesting?" She fumed. "Pretty much, though the tune made that anticlimactic." Chrysalis squinted at me. "What are you?" I grinned, and struck a few cords, "I am Essence!" A top hat appeared on my head, "A friend of the Elements," I now had a trenchcoat, "and a human!" I now had my outfit completed with a cane. Suddenly I heard a voice, "Hello there. Need some help in here, because I really don’t want to cut myself out." I turned to Chrysalis, "Be back in a moment," and I felt I tickle in my nose, sneezed, and found myself next to what looked like a pair of bipedal changelings, tied up. “Oh, hello!” I said. “Hello there miss. Now, this is important. I need you to look up. That would be good.” I looked up. “Oh, that’s interesting.” The vaguely corpse-like being sighed. “I know that I’m interesting, but right now some help would be appreciated. Also, if you see any giant spiders around here, leave them alone. I want to punch them. Repeatedly. But getting me down is top priority.” “Hey, what about us?” One of the changelings yelled, struggling with his bonds. The taller corpse shrugged. “Don’t worry, you’ll get free soon. As your employer, it is my right to get freed first.” “He’s right ya know?” I shrugged and pulled Excalibur out of no where in particular and tossed it up to the corpse-like dude.”There, unless you can’t use your hands? If so would you try a tune? That’ll give me something to work with.” The corpse just smirked, rainbow-coloured eyes glowing intensely. “Well, I’m rather tied up at the moment, so I don’t think that’ll work. A tune eh? Well, I got one that I think will work…” With a twitch, the unmistakable sound of Sad Violin started playing. The guy grinned wider. “I think that should be a good tune to start with.” I grinned, “Great,” closing my eyes the Lyre appeared in my hands and I strummed as reality bent around and the spiderwebs turned into leaves. The corpse fell down, gracefully landing, incidentally revealing that it only wore a pair of black boxer shorts and the pointy black hat. He stretched out, skinny body making various popping and cracking sounds. Then, he walked up to me and stuck out a hand. “Thanks for the help. Name’s Xante, Baron of the Frozen Wastelands, First among Liches, Lord of the Dead, Fabulous Rainbow Magician, the Walking Ice Age, Lord of the Dance, Three Times Winner of Best Smile in the Land, Former Mayor of Sycamore Town, Current Mayor of Lavender Town, Former Professor of Defense against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts, the Richest man in Metropolis, Grand Master of Ecky Thump, the Epic Level Lich, Sorceror/Monk Multiclass, Most Fabulous Undead in all the realm, The D, Leader of Gamergate, Elf-Murderer, Master of Face Punch, Big Sexy, Troper, Friend to Children, Current Mayor of the Necropolis, The Bifrost, and Maker of the Best Ever Cheese Sandwich!” “Um… Mine’s no where near that long with titles, I’m Essence, divine weapon wielder, the, ugh, bubble lady, the madness incarnate, destroyer of tyranny, and The Musician. Though the tyranny thing stopped after Celestia imprisoned me in stone for like 1,500 hundred years.” Xante nodded. “I’ve been seeing a lot of people get that same length of time. BUT ANYWAYS!” With a flick of his hand, rainbow-coloured energy blasted out, neatly removing the spidersilk from his two Changeling companions. They stood up, grumbling as he continued. “I can see that meeting you was fortuitous. The narrative continues to flow correctly for me. And probably for you as well, who knows.” “Ya, the whole imprisonment thing sucks aside from the whole it happening twice and all. Did you know that Celestia and Twilight can turn a simple scan spell into a time travel one? They sent me back over ten thousand years!” Xante winced. “Eesh. Tough break.” The sound of scittering, clattering steps from far off caused him to turn arund with a wide grin on his face. “It seems that we are about to encounter giant spiders! This is pretty good. Fortune is with me once again! Come, my ally, we shall need to beat on these spiders mercilessly. I may need to break out my Ecky Thump skills.” “So, spiders like Aragog and Shelob? Sounds fun! Know any divine weapons that you wanna try out?” Xante shook his head. “I’m pretty powerful in my own right. I wanna beat them up so that I can get a constant supply of spidersilk, not kill them.” As he spoke, rainbow-coloured magic started seeping off of him, and the ground beneath him got a thin layer of frost. He grinned at me, more power leaking off of him. “Besides, I much prefer using stupid weapons rather than practical ones.” It was then that the first of the spiders came around the corner. “No weapons? Alright!” I held up my hands, and snapped my fingers as a spider fell from above. In less than a second the spider was trapped in a bubble. “How’s that work?” Xante shrugged, though the raised eyebrow showed a keen interest. “Most impressive little bubble.” Another spider came, and Xante just walked up to it, pulling something long, blacn and oblong from his pocket. “ECKY THUMP!” And with a downwards motion, he brought the giant arachnid down. He smirked, pocketing the object. I snickered, “That’s funny.” I slammed the bubble down on another spider knocking it unconscious. Xante nodded. “I wasn’t lying about being an Ecky Thump grand Master, you know. I’m a Planeswalker; reality is literally my plaything.” Another spider came, and Xante distractedly levitated it into the ceiling. “I picked up a rather eclectic blend of martial arts- mainly judo and pressure point stuff. Good to not just rely on magic, you know?” “I get it, I know something while it isn’t too hard to do, it is very funny.” Turning to face a spider behind me I leaned down, looked it in the eyes and sneezed. The spider went flying into a tree. “See?” Xante nodded appreciatively. “Super sneezing. Never would have picked that one. Knew a kid who could sneeze like that. Man, those were the days, sneaking around with Sock guy and his friends, conning people and eating those fireflake things. Really good, you can’t get them anywhere else.” A spider trying to get close was belted with another black pudding in an offhand way. “I get what you mean there, I once knew a Zebra who could burp so hard and fast she flew all the way to the Crystal Empire,” I said. Xante stopped for a moment. “...that beats a lot of my stories.” He looked around, then went over to the nearest spider. He slapped it, then glared at its eyes. “I need you to spin me as much spidersilk as you can, or you’re probably going to regret it. Got that?” The spider seemed to be considering, then nodded. Xante beamed. “Splendid!” He turned to all the unconscious or otherwise incapacitated spiders lying around us. “That goes for all of you.” Another flare of power briefly illuminated the cave. The temperature dropped, the wind howled and Xante’s eyes briefly glowed an intense white. Frost formed on the opposite walls, and rainbows coloured light flared around Xante. Then, it was all back to normal. The spiders, now clearly terrified, started quickly spinning spidersilk. “Nice job,” I said looking around, “Mind if I hang around for a bit, it’s gotten boring in my universe.” Xante nodded. “I was about to get a drink.” He waved a hand, and a minibar popped into existence. The two changelings briefly looked between themselves, before shrugging. “Honestly, Xante, do you carry EVERYTHING except clothes in that thing of yours?” The taller changeling asked. Xante nodded. “Of course I do, Xyleon. Why else would I have a Subspace pocket if not to keep all my random stuff in here?” He went behind, and started mixing. “For todays efforts, I reward myself with a Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster. What about you, miss Essence?” “I’ll try what you’re making, also, no need for the miss, it feels weird considering I was male before coming to Equestria.” The shorter, stockier Changeling briefly stared at me before shaking his head. “Xante, I think I need that Pan-Galactic whatever.” Xante nodded. “Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters all round!” He pulled out four glasses, tapped them and coughed. “You heard me, glasses.” They immediately filled with a strange green liquid, with an olive on a stick coming into existence a few seconds afterwards. “This is the best drink in the multiverse, I feel. It’s like having your brain being smashed out by a slice of lemon, wrapped around a large gold brick.” He passed the glasses around, and took a hearty swig. “It’s about 130% proof, just a fair warning.” I shrugged and sipped it. Within seconds my tongue felt like it had been blessed with divine powers. “Wow. This is great. Also I have an interesting question. If this multiverse has certain laws doesn’t that mean that there is more than one multiverse?” Xante shrugged. “If there is more than one multiverse, then I’m okay with that. The multiverse is a pretty big place and it’s not one I would just give up.” Beside him, the two changelings passed out, the glasses teleporting back to the bar before they fell. “True enough. Man, can’t hold anything can they?” I said looking at the changelings. Xante shrugged. “It takes a lot of alcohol to affect me because I’m a lich.” “Makes sense.” Xante continued, grinning as he took another sip. “I know that you’re an immortal, as you’ve been drinking that stuff like a champ. First time mortals drinking a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster usually end up like those two.” With an idly flip, they were levitated onto their sides as they snored. I winked, “Got that right. Found it out the hard way though.” Xante shrugged. “Immortality isn’t what it’s cracked up to be. I became a lich because I wanted to know what death felt like. Here’s a hint: it depends on the death.” “I would have figured. Mine would have felt like being crushed by a mountain.” I sipped the drink, “Warning. Discord has issues with you beating him in a prank war.” Xante paused. “Question. Who is Discord? I’m afraid that I haven’t met the gentleman.” “Really? Lord of Chaos? Wait… What’s the most recent event?” Xante looked at me strangely. “Just got back from the Crystal Empire. I was there for over a thousand years.” “So… You met Cadence and Twilight and the lot?” Xante nodded. “Yeah. I was briefly… enslaved by Sombra. Little shit. I was going to fight him, had no idea of his capabilities. Beat me in my lowest power form, this which you just saw.” “So, The Crystal Empire. Alright. When you go back try to get Twilight to convince Celestia that Discord can be reformed with kindness. Which by the way is not my idea. On my earth it was a TV series. Also, Twilight becomes an alicorn, and fights a half monkey and goat dude called Tirek. I think you’d have fun with Discord but Tirek will end up being a nuisance.” Xante nodded. “Got it. Thanks for the tip.” He smiled widely. The spiders had made quite a lot of spidersilk, and he looked at it appreciatively. “Well, thanks for the help, but I’m going to have to get going with this spidersilk.” “I’ve got an idea. Mind if I tag along?” Xante shrugged. “Eh, why not. Also, you may have guessed it, but this Equestria is what you’d call ‘anthropomorphic. Just a heads-up.” With an idle wave, the silk levitated upwards. Xante then made a complicated motion with his hands, and it vanished. He then stretched a hand out, while the Changelings levitated towards him. “Ready to go?” “Sure. Wanna fly back or?” Xante grinned. “Why fly…” And with a flash, we were at the outskirts of Ponyville. Xante grinned. “...when you can teleport?” I laughed, “Show off. Though I admit teleporting is fun.” Xante nodded, picking up the T-shirt and overalls that were lying on the rock nearby and putting them on. “Right, let us move to fair Rarity’s boutique for my new, fabulous robes.” “Of course. Fabulousness first,” I said, my tail flicking backwards. Xante strode forwards, confidently. The ponies of Ponyville briefly looked at me, then at Xante, then shrugged. Xante just kept grinning and occasionally waving at people as we walked to the boutique. “So, you said this one is anthropomorphic?” Xante looked at me oddly. “I assume that your eyes are functional, but yes, it is.” “What? I like ridiculous questions. Anyway. Mine’s sort of a mix.” “I’ll ask later, but I don’t think you’ll be very interested in the fitting of my robes anyway.” “I’ll wait in the front of the boutique.” Xante waltzed in, and grinned. “Rarity, I have the spidersilk, now let the robe-making commence!” I leaned back into one of the chairs and next thing I knew I was nearly crushed by three small fillies. I yelped and fell backwards. Groaning I looked up and found myself face-to-face with the CMC. My first thought was to run and the second was “Aw.. Adorable.” “Sorry miss, we didn’t see you there.” Resisting the urge to flee I spoke up, “Um, no problem.” The three fillies ran out the door. I shuddered. A few moments later Xante stepped out. Music started playing as he swished around. rather than the overalls and T-shirt he wore before, instead he wore long, flowing robes, coloured with all the colours of the rainbow in eye-searingly bright shades. The shoes that poked out from beneath were pointy and golden in colour, with gold lining the cuffs and edges of the robe. A long, golden cape draped down his shoulders, billowing dramatically in the wind. Behind him, Rarity was covering her eyes, unable to look directly at him. “What do you think, Essence? Is this not the hippest of hip outfits?” I grinned. “Indeed it is my colorful friend.” Looking down I realized my clothes were torn up. “Oh huh. Should probably get new clothes every so often…” Rarity jumped up, “Oooh I’ve got the perfect-” I cut her off. “Naw. I got this.” Focusing on the image in my head I let my madness out. I suddenly found myself wearing some armor from my favorite game and I grinned. “Being able to use my insanity to warp reality comes in handy.” Xante backed up a bit, still smiling. “That is a pretty useful little power. Well, I think it is time you got going. Reality warpers and me don’t really mix that well. But we can meet up later, if you want to.” “Sure thing. Here,” I tossed the ring with the trident on it to Xante, “If you ever need help just call me up. I’m available any time. And by the way I don’t fit the norm for reality warpers.” Xante nodded, pocketing the ring. “Good to know. I just have a fair few bad experiences with them.” “Ok. Here,” I tossed him a bracelet of rainbow colors. “This’ll make you both immune to all of them, except my own, and give you some of the powers.” Xante examined the bracelet for a few moments, before shaking his head and returning it. “I prefer doing things the hard way. It’s a lot more fun.” “Keep it just in case. It may help out with major disasters and such. Anyways,” I grinned, “I’ll get going.” My eyes twinkled and I flicked my tail in his face before jumping into the air, shouting, “To Infinity and beyond!” and finding myself in front of Chrysalis again. “Oh yeah. That.” Divine Interventions“Oh yeah. That.” Chrysalis looked up at me. “What?” “Forgot about you there for a second.” “You said, ‘be right back, sneezed, disappeared for a second, and reappeared. How in Tartarus could you forget I was here?” “Only a second huh?” I looked at her. She was telling the truth. That’s interesting. I’d swear I was gone longer but oh well. Picking up Fluttershy I started to leave, but a bolt of green fire flew past. Rolling my eyes I turned around. “Yes?” “Put my changeling down.” The Fluttershy in my arms gave me an angry glare, and I chucked it casually towards a tree which snapped and the bugs disguise vanished. Sighing I spoke up, “Where’s the real Flutters?” “As if I’d tell you, Essence,” she snarled. A little ticked I made myself look like a changeling, a very specific one at that. “Chrysalis. Tell me or you get punted.” I waited for her to comply but instead of responding she just gaped at me in pure fear. “Its-Its, but you can’t be! She’s dead! She died over a thousand years ago!” She said. “Oh. I’m very much alive.” I grinned evilly. “No. No. No…” She kept repeating it. I raised my eyebrow and waited but she kept repeating. I stepped forward and found myself in a soccer uniform. Running forward I swung my foot back and kicked, no help, no magic. Speaking into a mic, now dressed as an announcer, I yelled, “GOAL!” as she sailed far over the trees. A faux crowd cheered and I walked into the trees. My main goal was to rescue Flutters. The second, destroy the changelings. “HALT!” A buzzing voice called out, “Who approaches?” Even changelings have guards? Wow. “I am the Goddess Carpace. Come to see my children!” I heard a thud as, I assume, the guard fainted and another voice called out, “Oh goddess, you may enter!” Grinning at my foresight I walked into the hive. I am sure you know what a beehive looks like? Imagine that but about, eh, 300 times the size, and underground. Oh, and black with green ooz. I wrinkled my nose, it stunk, like, really stunk. Heading towards the back where the queen usually resides I found a changeling who looked to be a queen but smaller. Her neck snapped up and she gaped when she saw me. “Go-go-goddess?” Smirking inwardly I replied, “Yes?” She jumped, startled by my response, and spoke, “We appreciate your presence but why are you here?” “A mare, yellow and pink, was brought in. She is important to me and I require her release.” “O-of course.” Way, way too easy when you’re disguised as their goddess. Then again it’s not really a disguise since I invented her to begin with. Following I entered a room full of cocoons with mainly skeletons in them but one had yellow pony with her hair in her face. I opened the cocoon and she dropped into my arms as I had let the disguise go as I caught her. Looking I found something that angered me beyond belief. “YOU! YOU HURT FLUTTERSHY! That is a sin only punishable by DEATH.” I had found the small pony to be covered in cuts, a broken leg, a twisted wing, in short? She was very very hurt. I was seething with anger. Steeping forward the ground began to glow as dark, haunting music came from my form. The queenling stepped back but she suddenly began to warp into a sword. “You idiots,” what is up with my voice? It’s like the Royal Canterlot Voice but… more angry and pissed off, “Your final day has come!” I swung at a changeling and another attempted to latch onto Fluttershy and the world went dark… Another… The group of beings watched the orb closely. It contained a moving image of a catgirl swinging a sword of flesh and bone destroying bug-like creatures in anger before it went dark and when the image came back a literal hole in the universe was found where the changeling hive had been. As they watched the hole closed and a perfectly cut section of that universe was gone. “Damn…” came one voice, “She’s really that strong? I know we sent her there in such expectations but literally ripping a hole in the universe leading to a whole other Multiverse? That is just… shit…” “We know… But she’s the embodiment of madness and literally controls music. How could we not expect something like this? “We know, we can only hope she returns. Otherwise the Displaced may have issues.” The other figures nodded in agreement. Somewhere Outside It All I opened my eyes to find myself in a forest with Fluttershy right next to me and a figure next to a nearby tree leaning on it. “Welcome to the Outside, or, Nowhere in particular.” I groaned, my head felt like it was on fire, but I spoke none-the-less, “Who are you?” “Auric Fulcrum is my name.” “Where are we again?” “Outside the Multiverse. So, nowhere.” “What? How can that-“ I was cut off as memories flashed through my head and I sat there, fire in my skull gone, and just gasped in shock. “No… That’s…I can’t be…” “You? Who are you?” “Oh I’m Essence.” “Nice name. What’s your story?” I relayed my time in Equestria to him and he sat there taking it all in quietly before saying something, “So… You’re a Displaced?” “In a sense…” “What do you mean?” “I kinda just broke through an unknown memory block.” “Meaning?” “I’m a void dweller as well.” Auric raised his eyebrows but sighed, “Unsurprising to be honest. You don’t look like a typical Displaced.” “Ya…” Memories Abound The other void dwellers and I sat at a table wondering how to best stop the Merchant. I’m the one called, The Musician or, more commonly, Madness. The Scientist, The Trainer, The Cook, don’t ask why he’s here, The Magician, The Writer, The Historian, and several others sat around the table with an orb at the center, which glowed blue. “So,” Scientist spoke up, “We know why we’re here… It seems our ‘friend’ the Merchant has decided to screw with, well, everything. His actions are starting to break certain important barriers between particular worlds. From what we’ve gathered these are the main supporters of his cause, The Torturer, The Reaper, The Silent, The Ripper, and The Illusionist. The Illusionist happens to be a friend of Madness here, and has deigned to give us this information out of respect. She also agreed to play as a double agent. Any questions?” “What’s our agenda?” asked The Trainer. “Send someone to infiltrate the worlds.” “But, the Fausticorn. She’ll stop them. She only let The Merchant through because he tricked her.” “I spoke with her recently. It was a very distressing matter as she distrusts us at large. Letting her know our allegiance allows us to put a champion in.” “Then who?” “There is one obvious choice,” They all looked at me. “Me?” “You also have the titles, The Strategist and The Warrior, correct?” “Yes, but that doesn’t mean I’m a good choice.” They shook their heads. “You’re the only choice, seeing as though you are closer tied to Equestria.” I groaned. Brilliant, using one of my own abilities against me. “Fine, but don’t cry to me when I fail.” “Meeting adjourned.” Back To Outside It All I looked up at Auric again. “So how do I get back?” “I don’t know. I’d assume using a relic or something to pull you back.” I dug through my pockets before remembering an ability all void dwellers possess. “I am Essence, The Musician, wielder of divinity, madness incarnate of the Void, reaper of tyrants, Bubble mistress, and a Displaced being. If you can hear my plea, please call out to me for I find myself beyond it all.” Auric looked at me, “That’ll work too.” I sat back down and waited. The whole scenario playing through my head. In the mean time I struck a conversation with Auric. “So, you had the ability to Understand all things?” “Yes.” “And how’d that work out?” “War, in effect.” “Oh?” “Yup. From what I remember some called it The War of Understanding.” “Really? That’s interesting.” “Mhm.” He explained a bit further into the subject before I felt a strong tug. “It seems I’ve found my way back. Thanks for the company Auric.” “Not at all.” “Farewell.” I gently lifted Fluttershy as the world faded away and I found myself in a bedroom which was trashed. Confused I laid her down on the bed and stepped out into something that made me distressingly angry and sad all at once. Everywhere I looked bodies lay strewn about the room. Only three beings, and they were very battered, still remained alive. I immediately recognized them. “Writer? Historian? Trainer?” Their heads turned and they gasped. “Madness! You made it!” I looked at the bodies, all of them familiar, and shuddered. “What happened?” “The Merchant. He and his lackies burst in during a meeting and slaughtered them. Only we survived by hiding outside of this room. Scientist escaped but we don’t know where,” this time Trainer answered. “So, he killed them!?” I gaped. My anger merely pushed aside by my astonishment. “Yes, and he said Illusionist told him.” My anger roared. “He what?” I said. “Yes. He still majorly wounded us in fact, I’d put us at just having a few sparse moments,” said Trainer, “We must tell you. Merchant is plotting to destroy several worlds. Starting with yours.” “Oh no…” I said, and suddenly the figures began to wobble. “Madness,” they cried out, “Take our powers and vanquish Merchant.” “I accept your plea and shall do so before my final breath,” I said. The figures fell, lifeless to the ground. I clenched my fists. No time to mourn yet. Got to save my world. I went back to the bedroom as the meeting room crumbled, and dove into the void and reached out and landed in my world. What I saw scared me to death. Scientist was holding a deep black beast back who was jumping out of a crack. “You’re here?” “Yup. Surprised?” “Yes.” “No worries, I’ll be gone soon. I’m dying as we speak,” he said jovially “but this world is another matter. It’s falling apart into the void and another, darker, world seems to be breaking in.” “What?” “Just call on one of the Displaced or whatever.” “But what about you?” “I’m borrowing time as we speak. Call them.” I nodded and called out with all my power, “Hear me as you heard me before! My world is dying, breaking into the void and monsters crawl forth, I call for the aide of a fellow Displaced. I cannot offer much, but I do offer this, those who help me get my help no matter the cause. Please, Displaced, hurry now or my world will be gone and millions of lives with it!” Scientist smiled and dissolved before I grabbed and pushed the dark black beast into the crack. The one thought that filled my mind as I fought the demon back? That bastard is going to hell. Author's Note So, ya. Essence is a Void Dweller. Deal with it. This, The End (And no. Not the story)Author's Note Lets try to add context shall we? This chapter will be explaining why Essence's world is collapsing. Bare with me here. Sorry that its so short but It works. I'll add another on the Murder of the council. This, The End (And no. Not the story) Equestria, land of quadrupeds and magic, was dying. At least one of them. Twilight, newly appointed princess and alicorns, couldn't seem to figure out why. For one, Nightmare Moon was no longer existent. Discord was trapped. Tirek was still in Tartarus, and so far there were no other threats. It was during a moment like this that she was busy raiding the Library in the old castle. When she had arrived two things surprised her. One, the castle looked to be in perfect shape, and two, there were two creatures attacking each other. The first was carrying a bag of some sort and was grinning maliciously, and the second was wearing a lab coat. She hid behind a bush and watched in piqued interest as the first creature pulled a weapon out of his bag and the second pulled one from his waist. "Merchant," spoke the second, "How dare you come here." "I would think Scientist," said Merchant, "That you would not care for this kind of world, what with magic and all." "Even magic has science," said Scientist raising his weapon, "though it comes in small forms." "Really?" Merchant asked as his weapon arced down towards Scientist. "Yes." Scientists blade deflected the void-black hammer. "Oh well that's a shame. I'll have to take care of that then," he brought the hammer towards Scientist's side. The man made to block but failed, the hammer slamming down onto his side, and he slid back. "As if. You know that She lives here," he swung at the Merchant's head. Blocking the Merchant responded, "Really? Which she are you referencing?" "Madness," Scientist responded as he aimed for the Merchant's legs. "HER?" the Merchant said in shock, failing to block the swing which left a large gash in his leg, "She is DEAD. I felt her presence leave the Void myself. Her powers drifted through the Void before Fausticorn took them." "We did that on purpose. We removed her shadow abilities and gave them to Fausticorn to hold for her," he brought his sword towards the Merchant's arm, but was blocked fairly quickly. "You mean to tell me that my rival still lives? Here?" He demanded. His hammer swung down towards Scientist's head. "Yes, I do," the man swung his sword towards the Merchant's side but the hammer in its travel downwards blocked the strike and connected with his head. His head snapped back and he flew backwards into a tree. The tree snapped and dropped backwards into the nearby gorge. Dazed, Scientist stood up and glared at the Merchant. Snickering the Merchant spoke. "Now to complete this World's destruction," he stabbed his weapon into the ground and a crack opened and a black beast tried to break through. Scientist grabbed it and pushed back, when he turned The Merchant was gone. The Demise BeginsAuthor's Note Another Crossover! - Applegate by Flutters Is Shy - Angels of The Empress by ZephyrStife - I Am Titanfall by SolemnBlade Carry this over to the next chapter. It'll be a two or three chapter crossover. (Warning- This might be taken down if the other authors aren't okay with me posting as is.) The Demise Begins The world was still collapsing. Pieces of it were fading out of existence and I now sat in Twilight’s Castle, apparently I was gone far longer than I thought, because bits and pieces of the Everfree had already disappeared. Inside the castle, which was fading as well, I sat with the Bearers, Luna, Celestia, and Cadence. The Crystal Empire was already gone and the Princesses seemed slightly angry with me. “Essence. Where were you?” Twilight asked. “Fluttershy and I were ejected OUTSIDE of the Multiverse, cut me some slack.” “Fluttershy returned moments after the Changeling Hive was destroyed, yet you returned over a year later.” “The Void. Time is irrelevant.” “Both you must be quiet, we must figure out how to stop this,” said Cadence. “I agree,” Celestia said. “Unless we get help from outside our world, we can’t do anything,” I said. “Your call has been heard, Essence, and Bladesong will respond. A Titan is ready.” “Speak of the devil!” I exclaimed. “What?” Twilight said. “Step back. Displaced like to put on a show.” “Bladesong! I accept your help!” I called. “Stand by for Titanfall!” Outside came a loud thundering and shortly followed by a sudden boom and tremor. I walked out the front door and found a crater with a giant, crouched, metallic white being without a head, rather bulky body with an ocular orb of sorts on the top left of its center mass as well as a smaller one on top of its torso, something resembling a missile pod over its left shoulder and a large rifle looking cannon with a box magazine underneath within its grip. "Alright then, that was something," it stood up, revealing its twenty feet in height and the ocular orb focused on me, "I was sent here by Bladesong. Well technically Bladesong and I are one and the same, along with the other two." The giant shouldered his weapon, "Name's Ogre C. Titan. Now, I knew that your world was in trouble, but I didn't think it would be this bad." he said as he looked around. A strange whistling sound began to fill the air just before a large, midnight-blue object collided with the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust. I raised my eyebrow and waited for something to appear. Ogre looked in the same direction and asked, “Did you request an orbital drop? Because you got one.” As the smoke cleared, an armored giant seemed to be stepping out of the crater. Standing fully at more than twice the size of a pony and with a helmet in the shape of a silver-laced pony skull the being began to look around at the ensuing chaos. His grip seemed to shift a little on the massive longsword in his right hand and there was a box-like gun attached to his left hip. He cleared his throat a little, a hoarse sound that seemed more like a deep cough than a light one, before he began to speak with quite a refined tone. “Where am I?” “Welcome to Turmoil, as I feel it apt to title this world, my name, as you very well might know, is Essence, The Musician, wielder of divinity, madness incarnate of the Void, reaper of tyrants, Bubble mistress, and The Last of the Influences. This is my world.” Cadence and Celestia glared at me. “Cut me some slack, I got help,” I mumbled. The armored, bipedal pony looked around for a few more seconds before a sound similar to a sniff could be heard through the filter on the front of his mask. “... This place reeks of Chaos…” He growls as his grip on his sword tightens. His gaze rested on Luna for a few seconds, giving him the look of someone who had just seen a ghost… Or about as much as someone with a skull-helmet could look surprised anyway. He quickly made his way over to kneel before her. “My Empress… What news do you have of the weapon?” Luna looks at the armored bipedal pony in confusion, “What doest thou mean?” Ogre looks at the armored stallion, “Knock knock, tin man. You are in a different universe.” The armored stallion quickly gets into a more aggressive stance. “Do not seek to blind me with such heresy… It is obvious that this is the castle of the Empresses, where the weapon of Harmony is kept.” “In a way, tin man you are right and wrong. This is not the castle of the Empresses. This is the castle of the newly crowned princess and bearer of the Element of Magic, Princess Twilight Sparkle. The ‘weapon of Harmony’ is known as the Elements of Harmony in many other universes like this one. There are six elements in all. And each of the bearers are here. You were called from the Multiverse to help rid this world of the chaos of one who doesn’t belong.” The stallion’s posture seems to ease up a little while the green lights of his visor flicker as if he had blinked a couple of times. “Oh… Yes… I, I do apologize, I have spent the last five hours practically drenched in the blood of heretics who fell to Discord’s magic.” He takes a deep breath before taking a look at Luna, “What are your orders, My Empress…” He asks with a slight bow. Luna looks at him with slight confusion. Luna, unlike her sister, seemed to show a less confusion, what with being princess of the moon and all. “Who are you and what do you mean calling me your Empress?” Ogre chimes in, "Most likely his world's Princesses are known or referred to as Empresses, if I am correct. As much as I love to say 'tin man', it is an oxymoron for me to do so. What's your name bub?" The stallion looks at him, the shape of his visor making him constantly look like he has an angry glare. “Reclusiarch Alhardir, of the Lunar Templars Wraith Company.” He replies professionally. Ogre ‘looks’ at him appraisingly, “A soldier, professional at that. I respect you, Reclusiarch Alhardir. The name is Ogre C. Titan, demon slayer, judge against the wicked.” Alhardir gives a small nod in return. “As the reclusiarch I am the one to lead my brethren in prayer as we fight and purge the chaos from my world.” The smile on his face actually becomes quite evident as he continues. “No feeling in the world like sending prayers to the empresses as the holy roar of a bolter tears apart a changeling…” Celestia, Cadence and the Bearers seemed to be a bit miffed, Twilight, on the other hand, tried to be a bit more vocal but her reply caught in her mouth. To everyone’s surprise, except for the Lunar Templar of course, Luna was the only one that didn’t seem as shocked about what he had said. “What?” She asks with a shrug, “Where dids’t thou think that thy peace came from? There were wars aplenty before Canterlot was crowned the capitol.” “How many Displaced were you looking for Essence?” Alhardir looked around in confusion as he brought his sword up and his free hand reached for the rather large gun at his waist. “Who was that?” He hisses. Ogre looks at him as if he was amused. “Easy Alhardir, that is my AI, Bladesong. He aids me and my two siblings from outer orbit.” While his stance doesn’t change much, the warrior replies with a simple. “Oh…” “Once again, there’s quite a lack of technology where I am from, the militia has only started building siege crossbows.” He admits. “Really? Here has something of a mix. I will say they don’t have global communications, but they have telegrams but not cars.” Ogre looked at me and said, “Well, Bladesong does have a point. How many Displaced were you expecting to get.” Now for the wait. “We need one more-” I was cut off as a human male fell through a sort of hole in the universe. On his face. Well it certainly looked painful...He looked around for a few seconds before saying something. "How did you call me without a Token?" "You know the Merchant right?" I said. He took a few seconds before responding, "Ya..." "Well I'm his number one enemy. I'm also a previous Void Dweller. Calling you without a token was easy. It was the request throughout the Multiverse, meaning, anyone who answered would be brought here," I said. "Who are you?" "Oh yes. That. I'm Essence, The Musician, wielder of divinity, madness incarnate of the Void, reaper of tyrants, Bubble mistress, and The Last of the Influences. You are?" "Oh... I'm Wade. Wade Jallecks.” “Alright then!” I clasped my hands together. “Now, in order to save this world I need all of you to focus on-” I was cut off by a massive creatures breaking through the floor. “Oh for the love of! UGH! Really?” Ogre takes aim at one of the massive creatures and Fires his rifle three times, *KLANG! KLANG! KLANG!*... successfully turning the creature's head into giblets. Another creature got up close to Ogre trying to eliminate the power of his 40mm cannon. Ogre seemed to chuckle as he dropped his cannon and punched the creature, making it fall over backwards. Ogre crushed its head with his foot and picked his cannon back up. Alhardir brought the gun at his side to bear on another of the creatures, the roar of the gun was almost deafening as it went off in a quick two-shot burst, making the creature explode, getting quite a bit of blood on the wall behind it. “Chaos filth…” He scoffed as he sheathed his blade and gripped his gun with both hands. I grinned, “Great!” Letting go of my cloak I summoned Poseidon’s Trident. One of the creatures, clearly aiming for the Princesses, tried to get past me. I spun, sound waves of the music I had started, and slammed into the creature blasting it back some thirty feet into many of its brethren. A group of smaller creatures (smaller by mere inches) was gathering to the west of the group. Ogre turned towards their direction and launched a salvo of rockets at the group completely decimating them. “You can join in any time now Wade.” Ogre said as he turned to face the other side and fire off a few more rounds of his 40mm cannon before reloading. “Shut up,” Wade said, who appeared to be doing nothing but standing still with his arms down by his sides. “Concentrate on your own fighting,” His voice descended into a female tone, before his form shrunk within his large and baggy clothing. With a few more loud bursts the Templar began to ease his way into battle as if it were second nature, switching back to a one-handed grip on his gun after a few kills while he drew his sword again and began to cut a swath through the creatures in their way as if he were cutting paper with a razor blade. “Burn in the pits of the warp from whence you came foul creatures of sin!” He proclaimed over the roar of his weapon. I raised my eyebrow. I knew many Universes, but there were some I didn’t know. Chalking Wade’s change down as Void Logic I stabbed another beast and tossed the body to the side. “Follow me!” I yelled at the other Displaced, “I know one place where they can not set foot.” "You guys go ahead. I'm gonna stall them." Ogre said as he charged towards the massing horde. "Dodge THIS!" A low pitch noise emanated from Ogre and started to raise in pitch. Then Ogre became the epicenter of a giant explosion, eradicating the horde, and himself. "Get moving, I am still around., although Ogre will need at most five hours to reconstruct though. That explosion won't stop them from re emerging. Alhardir nodded, “Out of the castle! Now!” He bellows as he switches the magazine in his gun for a fresh one, unleashing more explosive rounds into the enemy stragglers while simultaneously protecting their flanks. I quickly led the Displaced out of the castle along with the bearers and Princesses. “So what exactly was I drafted into?” The male turned female asked, his clothes drooping around his shoulders as the light glinted off an emerald where his eye should have been. “This world, Turmoil, is collapsing due the Merchant and the death of one of my friends,” I said. “So....what exactly can WE do?” Wade asked. I sighed, “Displaced, unlike normal people, can summon all the mass quantities of Void fragments to themselves and use them for something. There is far too much for me to do this myself. I needed help.” “Well… That’s oddly convenient…” Alhardir states as he closes the massive door behind them. “Alright, void fragments. You basically need extra hands to hold your stuff...What exactly ARE void fragments, and how the hell do we hold them or whatever?” “Void fragments are mass quantities of, for lack of a better term, antimatter. And secondly, you just imagine your power building up or whatever you want to happen,” I said, “Is that a good enough explanation?” “...so basically green lantern will over matter bs?” Alhardir simply kept switching his gaze between the two, as if suspicious, he remained quiet though. “The algorithm seems to match what Essence has mentioned. I am curious though. Where is said waypoint: Safe House?” “The old castle. I fixed it up and I think that’s where we’ll be safest. With my influence as a void dweller it will be the last place to go.” I said. “Waypoint established. Monitoring location.” “Wait, ‘old castle’? You don’t mean the castle of the two sisters?” Wade asked. I grinned, knowing they’d be surprised by my improvements, “Indeed I do.” “Great. Right smack dab in the middle of the kill-you-dead forest. Wonderful” The exaggerated roll of Alhardir’s head was enough to convey his annoyance. “There is nothing in there that could dare stand against a Lunar Templar… Only…” He paused as he tried tracking the forest. “I do wonder where the Chapter Master went… He took the fall with me too, so he shouldn’t have landed too far off.” “Checking for any recent recorded orbital drops… Drop point located in Everfree Forest. Synchronizing drop point coordinates into H.U.D. Do you accept upload, Reclusiarch Alhardir?” “... Yes…” He replies hesitantly as he focuses on the forest. “Uploading now… Setting waypoint. I would suggest that Alhardir head in solo as to allow him to ease the Chapter Master on the situation.” Alhardir separated from the group followed by an awkward silence. “You wanna take the shortcut then?” “Yes please.” “Hold on to your hats, gentlemen,” I swept a top hat off my head, jumped into the air, and whistled a quick tune. The ground below us dropped away and revealed a massive slide. “Here we go!” Bladesong chuckles. “Ogre’s gonna hate to miss out on this.” I raised an eyebrow. “Who said he had to miss out?” “Due to the fact that he delivered a Massive Payload to give you guys an escape window and is still reconstructing in the Void-Tech Hanger. I did.” I smirked, “One. Time is meaningless in the Void. Two, you do realize you’re talking to the only person who could kill the Merchant. If need be I’ll give you a copy of this thing.” “As amusing as that sounds, I will have to decline your offer. And as for the Void-Tech Hanger, a form of temporal rule still applies as it is artificial Void.” I shrugged, “Fair enough, if need be I can help make it actual Void, after all,” I snapped my fingers and my Trident vanished, “I am a previous Void-Dweller.” “I shall take that into consideration.” “Brilliant, by the way,” I said, gesturing around, “we’re here.” “What the...did I miss something? How...screw it, don’t care. We’re here, whoopee. Now what.” I grinned. “Now, if you’ll just give me a moment,” I reached over and tapped on a rock, and the very, very modified castle,appeared,“Here we go!” The modified castle, if it can still be called that, was now some twenty stories tall, and made of steel. The thing was absolutely massive. The walls themselves were some ten feet thick. All-in-all, it was the most impressive structure in this Equestria. “Did you take us somewhere else? Cause this doesn’t look anything like in the books.” Wade stated dryly, shading his eyes with a hand flung over his brow. “The geological location is accurate with other Equestrias’ Everfree Castle.” I mimed a shocked look, “Why I’ll be! There’s books I have to follow? I’m doomed!” I swear the sarcasm was visibly dripping. “No need to be snarky…” “I find that sarcasm releases tension,” I said, “Don’t you think?” “...Honestly I had to close coms for that one...” “So!” I rubbed my hands together, “ Are you lot ready?” “Gonna have to take a raincheck on that,” Wade started, looking down at the stump where his leg used to be. “Seems I’ve attracted the local wildlife...funny, doesn’t hurt as bad as last time…” “Will you need any medical aid, Wade?... Status update: Alhardir and the Chapter Master are enroute. Estimated time of arrival, thirty minutes.” “I get the feeling he’s fine,” I said looking at Wade again. VoidlingsOutside the castle the group wait for Alhardir and the Chapter Master to arrive. "I have an inquiry. Are there any locations we need to get to to gather void fragments, or do we just gather it? “Just gather it,” I said monoton-ish-ly. “Understood. Gathering void fragments. By the way, is it possible to use void fragments to create a tangible bioform to use? As it is, none of the three Titans; Atlas, Ogre, or Stryder can go into small spaces.” “I’d assume so,” I pondered laying my finger on my chin, “But I’d specify what you want.” “Noted.” I stepped in the castle and made my way towards the center hall, the others followed close behind. I opened the door and two men fell out of a De gap in the world which closed seconds later. “Will?” asked the heavily armored one. “Hm?” responded the one in a brown and green mottled cloak. “Where are we this time?” the armored one asked. “I believe we’re in the universe of another Displaced, Horace,” said Will as he gestured at me. “Well. This is a surprise, albeit a welcome one,” I said, my tone a bit humored. “I might as well fill you two in on the situation. My name is Bladesong, an AI or inner conscience of another Displaced. This universe is being torn apart by the doings of [bold]The Merchant[/bold]. Portions of the world have been ‘eaten’ by void particles and fissures are opening up, releasing “Tartarus’ minions” into the world. Us Displaced have been called to aid Essence here. Apparently there is a way for Displaced to gather void fragments, each and every Displaced has this capacity. Our ability to gather void fragments is crucial to the salvation of this world. We are also waiting for the arrival of two Space Marines, if I have my ‘realms’ right, which should be in fifteen minutes.” “Short and sweet,” I snapped my fingers, “nice job Bladesong.” Will groaned, “As usual we get the troubled worlds.” “Thank you Essence. By the way, a Titan is ready. Stand by for Titanfall!” Outside came a dull thundering, followed by a dull boom. I tried to look outside but couldn’t see anything. The Princesses and elements looked extremely confused. “Never gets old.” came a muffled voice from outside. After a few seconds of silence there is a knock on the gate. I opened it and looked out. “Well, hello! Come on in!” A slightly taller, slimmer built, alabaster titan walks on in, having a different rifle with a drum mag attached to the bottom of it and a different missile pod on his left shoulder with a large ocular in the center of his upper torso with a smaller ocular on his upper left torso. He looks around and spots me. “Don’t mind if I do. Name’s Atlas C. Titan by the way. You met by ‘brother’ Ogre Titan beforehand. I assume you are Essence.” “Brother?” Luna commented. Atlas sighs, “Yeah. About that, he isn’t my brother at all. He is me.” “Um, huh?” asked Twilight, “That’s ridiculous… You can’t be two physical beings...:” “When your soul is bound to one form, yes. My soul is bound to four. I have something similar to multiple personality disorder, thanks to my appearance on Gol, my Equestria’s planet. In all reality, it helps keep me sane as all three titans can be on the ‘field’ at once. To keep me from losing my mind because I’m seeing four different things at once, my conscious split into four parts: Bladesong, Ogre, Stryder, and myself." “Makes sense,” I commented waving my hand, “but then I speak gibberish, understand madmen, and have been called Madness, so who am I to speak.” Atlas nodded, looked at the group, then back to me. “So, got a place for me to set up shop?” “Anywhere, I guess, not really planned for Displaced… Only encountered 1 before you guys. Xante the Lich,” I said. Suddenly a voice said, “Xante, Baron of the Frozen Wastelands, First among Liches, Lord of the Dead, Fabulous Rainbow Magician, the Walking Ice Age, Lord of the Dance, Three Times Winner of Best Smile in the Land, Former Mayor of Sycamore Town, Current Mayor of Lavender Town, Former Professor of Defense against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts, the Richest man in Metropolis, Grand Master of Ecky Thump, the Epic Level Lich, Sorceror/Monk Multiclass, Most Fabulous Undead in all the realm, The D, Leader of Gamergate, Elf-Murderer, Master of Face Punch, Big Sexy, Troper, Friend to Children, Current Mayor of the Necropolis, The Bifrost, and Maker of the Best Ever Cheese Sandwich!” “How, the, hell did he do that?” I murmured. Atlas chuckled, “Sometimes it’s best to leave some anomalies to their antics, right Pinkie?” “Yup! Oh no! I forgot balloons!” The pink mare vanished. Altas looks at where Pinkie once was. “Aaaand there goes the promiscuously pink, prancing, partying paradox pony. Don’t worry, Bladesong’s got tabs on her.” “Good. Why is everyone else so quiet though?” “Looks like there’s some idle chit chat between the ponies, Will and Horace are taking stock of their gear and whatnot, and Wade is… wait...where’s Wade?” Atlas started looking around. I peered around the corner, “That’s a very good question.” “It seems Wade decided to do a little bit of exploring.” “Alright, now we wait for… Alhardir , I guess.” I shrugged. Atlas ‘nodded’ in agreement, “The Chapter Master as well. Since we have time on our hands, I have been wondering. Where is Shining Armor?” “He, um…” Cadence started before she and Twilight broke down into sobs. I whispered to Atlas, “He disappeared in the Empire. The void was breaking through and he tried to protect the Empire and before it was consumed by Voidlings.” Atlas gave a solemn 'nod' and turned towards the mourning mares. "I am sorry I brought up something that tragic. But I implore you to have hope. There may yet be a way to bring him back, as well as the Crystal Empire." “That’s true,” I said, nodding. “...ello?... nypony there? Cade... Twily?... cess Celes... una?... arus,... en be… ateful if I… get Dis…” A dissonant, disembodied voice rang out. Twilight and Cadence gasped. “Shiny? Where are you?” “Finally… through...Thank… couldn’t… pire safe… aved as many… I co… on’t be… hold THEM… nger.” "I'm getting some strong interference with the source of the signal." I looked at Atlas. “Throw me. Directly at the Void. Hard as you can.” Atlas looks at me before kneeling down and picking me up with one hand. He waits for a few seconds, then turns around and chucks me straight into the air towards the top of the front gate just as they open. “Signal isolated. Patching through to the other side.” “Heads up Shining!” Atlas shouted. I take the chance to let out a loud “wheee!” before passing through the Void and landing on a small piece of land. I whistled. “Damn, Shiny, you’re one lucky SOB. Grab on,” I gestured to my back. The stallion leaped aboard and the void bent around both from me forcing it to change with my mind and my music. Soon we were once again standing next to the others. I reached behind me and set the stallion down. “Ta da!” I said as confetti streamed down through the air. “Thirty minutes on the dot.” Rainbow Dash grumbled and hoofed over ten bits to a grinning Applejack while a teary Twilight and Cadence ran up and hugged Shining Armor. “Thirty? Ha! Took less time than I thought.” "That is what I thought as well..." Rainbow Dash grumbled. "I may have attached a Void Sync to you when I chucked you." Atlas shrugged while looking out a window. I looked at him. “Void Sync? Alright then. Is it that thing right there?” I gestured to a small object on the ground. Atlas turned around and looks at me. “No. That is the Void Anchor I paired the Void Sync to.” Atlas reaches down and picks the small object up. “And now I have a valid hammerspace. The Void Sync detached from you and attuned itself to that small void pocket.” “Cool. If what we do is successful I may be able to turn it into like a pocket or something for you guys. Infinite storage.” “That would be helpful, but me, myself, thine, and I can manage with one. I can, however, get others set up with personal Void Syncs and Anchors. Although I will accept the infinite storage setting.” “Alright,” I said. Atlas produced several pairs of Void Syncs and Anchors, handing each Displaced one set of each. “The red one is the Sync, the blue one is the Anchor. “You want me to get the infinite storage setup?” I asked “If possible right now, yes, please.” “Alright,” I opened the piece of Void I had just been in and expanded it from the center then covered it in a Universal separation. “Done.” “Thanks.” Atlas nodded towards me. “Whenever we come across another Void, feel free to claim it and we will sync it and separate it. Sound good?” Atlas spoke to the other Displaced. “To be honest, I don’t really need it. I can use it for a backup though…” “Fair enough.” Atlas said as he passed me my own Void Sync/Anchor set. Repeating the previous process I looked to Atlas. “Now what?” “I am not sure I understood everything you said when you were in the void Shining, but you said something about saving as many...ponies? as you could. Am I correct?” “They are in an isolated limbo, safe from Voidlings,” he said, moving his hoof exaggeratedly. “Alright. I’ll have Bladesong ping check for that Limbo space so that we’ll be able to pull them out once it’s safe to do so.” “Would you be able to find the Crystal Heart?” Shining asked. “Note, I modified it as well,” I commented. Cadence gave me a disapproving glare. “If you give me the altercation specifications, I can search for the Hearts algorithm through the void.” “Let’s see… Lasers, missiles… grenade launcher…. Naw, just kidding. It’s now able to store love instead of just amp it up.” “So you changed it from just a step up transformative capability to a capacitive capability as well. Algorithm modified. Searching now.” “Who was that?” Shining asked as he looked around. “That, would be Bladesong, my AI and conscience. Name’s Atlas by the way.” Atlas stated. “...Huh, okay...Wait. What?” Shining asked, becoming rather confused. “... Long story short, multiple personality disorder.” Atlas said as he slowly ‘facepalmed’. “Ah. Makes a little sense. Anyways, thanks Bladesong.” I snickered. Shining could be a little dull. “... Understood… The Reclusiarch and the Chapter Master are en-route. Be advised, the Chapter Master is not himself. Recommended action: Subdue, detain and purify. CAUTION: Voidlings approaching from the South West perimeter.” I groaned. “Anyone wanna try to take ‘em out first?” “Got a tower or opening I can shoot from?” Atlas asked as he picked up his rifle. “Sure.” I pointed four feet away. “Right there.” “Thanks, if any of you want in on the action, feel free to join in.” Atlas said as he walked up to the opening and pointed his rifle at the oncoming horde. “EAT CHARGED LEAD, YA’ BASTARDS!” The main corridor resonated with the thrumming of the rifle firing at a high speed. I clapped. “Geddit! Get dat bastards.” After emptying several drums of munitions at the Voidlings Atlas stopped and let the barrel of his rifle drop forty five degrees. “... Tell me, in any of your encounters with the Voidlings, did they ever pull back?” “No…” I said, cautiously. “Then we have a bigger problem on our hands.” Away We Go“Like wha-” I stopped mid sentence due to the thing approaching the castle. “Bladesong, how long till Ogre is ready?” Atlas asked, looking up. “Ten minutes.” “Stryder, you’re needed at the battle front.” “You got it! Give me a sec!” came a disembodied, feminine voice. Out of the sky came a projectile from outer orbit. Once it got close enough, four pieces broke away revealing a rather slimline, light armored titan dropping down. It had interesting looking optics on the top left and top right of its torso and a missile pod different from Atlas’.Once it made impact, the titan got up and pulled out a rather boxy weapon from its back. It then ‘glided’ backwards to the castle opening Atlas was standing in front of at a rapid pace. “What’s the plan Atlas?” “The plan is ‘Keep Away’. That bastard over there cannot reach the castle. I’ll see what I can do about the Chapter Master.” Atlas said as he turned to the gate. He looked at the Mane Six. “I would suggest that you six prep the Elements.” They nodded and Twilight’s horn flashed. The elements were now sitting next to them. The large skull-helmeted Reclusiarch burst out of the underbrush as if he had stumbled across a root or something. Another marine seemed to burst out of the brush with him, his adamantine sword lit up with a blue fire as he brought the tip down to try and pierce the Reclusiarch’s armor. “Get ready. On my mark.” Atlas dashed towards the door and ran out to meet with the two space marines. Atlas aimed a well placed shot hitting the blade of the adamantine sword away from Alhardir. The massively bloodstained visage of the Chapter Master’s helmet turned slightly to view Atlas with a low growl. “That’s right, I’m your target bub.” Atlas dashed forward and fired at the Chapter Master’s shoulder armor giving the Reclusiarch a little bit more leeway. The bloodstained marine let out a roar as he began to charge at the Mech, “In the name of Empress Luna! I shall purge the Heretic in fire!” “Alright girls, get over here quick!” Atlas goes to throw a punch at the Chapter Master. All the while Stryder is going about holding the other Voidling abomination at bay with ‘her’ Quad Rocket Launcher and Cluster Rockets. A strange blue flame coursed its way across Astelan’s fist as he met Atlas’ punch, Delivering a fiery punch of his own. Both fists met in an explosion, kicking up dust. When the dust settled, there wasn’t much damage on Atlas’ arm save for some scorch marks, a missing finger, and a bare arm where the armor once was. All of a sudden a heavily charged mist emanated from Atlas, creating a visual inhibitor. ”Do it! Here! Now!” Atlas yelled back to the Mane Six. “You got it!” Rainbow yelled. The elements hummed as the magic charged and fired. As the forefront of the Harmonic blast comes close to contact, Atlas dashes out of the way, leaving Astelan in the wake of the blast. With the sound of rending metal Alhardir drives Astelan’s sword through the Chapter Master’s leg, pinning him in place so that he couldn’t dodge the rainbow harmony death beam. Slowly the charged mist dissipated, revealing the forms of Reclusiarch and Chapter master. A loud clank sounded out as the Chapter master fell forward and landed face-first onto the ground. Alhardir began to shakily stand. “Thank you all…” He rasps out. “Of course, it is what friends and comrades do, after all.” “Glad you guys are happy but I am still dealing with ugly over here!” Stryder bellowed. Alhardir nods a little. “You guys go, I’ll keep those beasts from entering this section of the castle as well as make sure that rainbow didn’t kill the Chapter Master.” “Alright,” Atlas grips his rifle once more, “we’re on our way Stryder. Let’s move!” I muttered under my breath, “That was.. boring to me.” “When you have a plan, some things tend to be.” “I know. Now um, what are we doing this time.?” I asked, So I know how bored I’ll be. “How about dealing with this guy!” Stryder retorted as ‘she’ dodged another strike. “Okay, you guys got this or?” I asked, looking at Atlas and the elements. “This guy is thick skinned! My rockets aren’t doing-SHIT!” A blur resembling Stryder flys over my head, tumbling across the ground. “Guess it’s my turn,” I said. “Will, Horace. Back me up.” The two nodded and I ran up the wall, jumping over it, and dropped towards the monstrosity. I landed and spun bringing out Excalibur as I did and the sword connected with it’s side. The monster slid back several feet. Will and Horace fought the other creatures nearby. Will, using his bow, shot them in key places. Horace bashed them with his sword. “Ogre Titan is ready! Stand by for Titanfall!” “Heads up Essence!” An iridescent white glow emanated from Atlas as he emptied his mag on the Void Abomination. From above the Abomination came a thundering and a similar drop pod, the four parts of the pod breaking away and revealing Ogre going down straight on top of the Abomination. “SURPRISE MOTHA’ FUCKA’!” Ogre bellowed as he unleashed round after round on the beasts head. “That’s gotta hurt,” I muttered. Stryder got back up and fired more rockets at the abomination, dashing back into the fray, emitting a similar glow as Atlas and crushing any Voidlings underneath ‘her’. Eventually, the beast went down and the Voidlings retreated once more. Stryder walks up to the space marines. “How’s he doing, Reclusiarch?” Alhardir looks over to Stryder. “Well… He is alive, the beam only stopped his heart.” The elements gasped, rather dramatically, I might add. “That still disturbs me.” “Why does it disturb you? Ponies gasp all the time.” Luna said, sarcastically. (XD) Atlas facepalms. “I meant their retreat.” Luna snickered, “I know. Why does the retreat disturb you?” “He still has his second heart working though, so when we get back to our Apothecary he’ll be back in fighting condition.” Alhardir finished I looked at Alhardir, “What the hell is he? A freaking Time Lord?” I asked, rather jokingly. “Not quite. Would you like to explain this for the others, Alhardir?” The Reclusiarch gives a small nod. “All Space Marines have a lot of genetic modifications to them to increase survivability on a harsh battlefield, Two hearts being one of the main ones since one can simply pick up where the other left off if one is unable to function, it also helps adjust to high or low gravity situations a lot easier.” Twilight and the others make an ‘O’ and look back to the Chapter Master. “And that sums it up nicely.” I looked at Ogre. “You remember my comment to Wade right?” “For the most part.” “Good. Then you know why I mentioned it?” “Of course.” Atlas redirects his attention to Luna. “Any ways, when it comes down to it, Enemies that know they are outmatched after a wave like that, so they pull back and send in one of their big guys. That shows this isn’t a mindless horde we are dealing with.” Atlas said as he looks off in the horizon. “It means that there is a ‘puppeteer’ behind their strings.” Their comments sparked a memory. One of a time long gone, when all the good Influences still lived. I knew someone with expertise in this. “Ripper. The Ripper. That’s your puppeteer.” “The Ripper? Huh...I’m sorry, but I have never heard of him.” “The Merchant lives for mischief. Ripper lives to kill.” “You think that The Ripper is in cahoots with The Merchant?” “Definitely, he was the second best strategist.” “Who would be the best strategist, if I might ask. “They went by the name ‘The Musician’.” I smirked darkly. Stryder giggles softly as ‘she’ asks, “Do you know them?” “You do.” I grinned. Twilight groaned, “It’s you, isn’t it?” “Indeed it is.” My voice sounded different. All three Titans chuckled at Twilight’s antics. “Atlas, You are needed stateside effective immediately.” “Sounds like that’s my que. You got it from here Ogre. Let’s go Stryder.” “Right behind ya’ brother.” Just like that, Atlas and Stryder walk through a Void Rift, the rift sealing up once the two Titans have gone through it, leaving the last Titan back. “Lets go ahead and get the Chapter Master inside, see what we can do about his condition.” Ogre said as he made his way back to the castle. “Did I miss something?” Wade asked, walking out of the forest in his original form. “Yes. Quite a lot actually.” I said, looking at him. With quite a bit of ease, Alhardir hauled the Chapter Master back into the castle. The elements, Wade, princesses, Titan, and I followed quickly behind him. Turning around I spoke. “We have a moment. I can take Ripper. Alright, I’ll explain how to get the fragments. First, focus then imagine them turning into what you want. Then they will no longer cause harm, got it?” “... So, we take the void fragments and change them to have different properties, thus ‘filling’ the void?” “In a sense. All Void is matter, just very… transparent. It’s what everything was made from so anything can come from it.” “Is it possible to take a fragment and change it into a void storage?” “Yes.” I elaborated. “... Simple enough. Now Reclusiarch, could you strip the Chapter Master of his armor so I can treat him.” Ogre said as he propped up his cannon in a corner. I watched carefully, not wanting to disturb either of them. Alhardir shakes his head, “He’s fine for now, what we need to do is get him back to the Apothecary, since the armor itself can only be removed by specialized servitors. The only part able to be removed without the servitors is his helmet… We even have a healing factor that will make sure he could be ready to fight within the hour as long as whatever you guys hit him with stopped the chaotic influence.” Ogre gives out a grunt. “Congrats, the Chapter Master took the full brunt of a blast of Harmonic Energy, courtesy of the Elements of Harmony. He should be absolved of the chaotic influence.” “So you guys-” I was interrupted by a loud crashing noise. Looking outside I saw him, Ripper, ripping, literally, pieces of wall out of my castle. “Stay back. Take out the Voidlings. Keep the castle safe,” I said, stepping out towards Ripper. “What are you doing?” asked Wade. I looked back. “The one thing only I can do.” I stepped out of the room sealing everyone away from this half of the castle. Other Side of the Castle Ogre curses under his ‘breath’ and goes to pick up his cannon once more, only to be cut off from a small group of larger Voidlings. “Clever.” One of the Voidlings charge at Ogre, only to be turned into giblets by his fist. A roar from the Bolt-pistol that Alhardir had sent another of the voidlings nearby back into the void from whence it came. “Stick together and pair up!” Ogre barked as he launched a salvo of rockets at some of the Voidlings in an effort to get to his cannon. Wade began another transformation as they fought. Quickly he turned into some sort of black dragon, and started slashing at random Voidlings. Ogre finally made it to his cannon and grabbed it firing rounds into the Voidlings. All the while there is a Voidling that is circling around to get behind Ogre. Ogre caught sight of a couple Voidlings trying to swarm Shining and Cadence, whom were slowly separated from the rest of the group. A Voidling went to pounce on Cadence from behind, only to be turned into giblets by a round from Ogre’s cannon. Shining looked to give Ogre a nod when he noticed the Voidling behind him. “Ogre, behind you!” Shining fired off a spell at the Voidling, only to impact Ogre’s overshields. The Voidling landed on Ogre’s back and went to tear into his circuitry. “Get off me you prick!” Ogre tried reaching over his back and grabbing the Voidling only to grab at air. Not a second later, Rainbow Dash bucked the Voidling off of Ogre. Unfortunately, the Voidling was in mid swing and ended up clipping Rainbow on her right wing. Rainbow went toppling with the Voidling onto the ground. “RAINBOW!” yelled Applejack. Rainbow Dash groaned and went to get up, only to be grabbed by Ogre and brought to his center torso. “Not on my watch!” Ogre said as his pilot hatch opened up revealing the pilot seat. Ogre placed Rainbow into the pilot seat and closed the hatch, getting back into the battle. “Ms. Dash is still alive, but she needs medical attention. ” “Bladesong? The hell happened back there! Why didn’t you warn us about this attack?” Ogre asked as he turned more Voidlings into giblets, allowing Shining and Cadence to regroup with the others. “The comms were being jammed. I just bypassed it a few seconds ago.” *inside the cockpit* Rainbow moaned loudly, “Owwww.” “Hang in there Rainbow, you’re gonna be fine.” “I hate you,” came another groan from the pegasus. “At least you are still alive to hate me for that little stunt I pulled.” *outside the cockpit* “It might be beneficial to Rainbow if one of you get over here and treat her.” “Ah think ah can help,” Applejack said. Ogre finishes reloading and fired several more rounds into the Voidlings. Applejack gets close enough to Ogre that he kneels down and picks her up and puts her into the pilot seat the same way as he did with Rainbow, if a little more gracefully, closing the pilot hatch once more. “You are a marine, we can slay with just our swords if need be…” The Chapter Master growls as he begins to unsheathe his blade. “WE MARCH FOR THE EMPRESSES!” The Reclusiarch lets out his own shout in response, “AND WE SHALL KNOW NO FEAR!” as he then drew his blade charging with the chapter master into the wave of voidlings. *inside the cockpit* “Alright, what do ya’ need me tah do?” Asked Applejack. “There should be a cylindrical tube with a lever and a nozzle inside that medkit on your left. Take that out and apply that to the wound, it will stop the bleeding. There is some morphine in that kit as well, it will numb the pain.” *outside the cockpit* “How many of these things are there!?” Shining called out as he cut down yet another Voidling. “Just keep fighting! We have to fend them off!” Ogre said as he crushed another group of Voidlings with his foot. REJOICE! FOR YOU GET TO LET LOOSE YOUR ANGER!” the Reclusiarch shouts above the rapport of battle. “IN THE NAME OF THE NIGHT!” Astelan replies as his blade vertically bisects another voidling. Will and Horace took them out nearly as fast as Ogre as they worked together. “WITH YOUR HATE AS YOUR SWORD, AND YOUR DISGUST AS YOUR SHIELD, MAY NO WARPSPAWN BREAK YOUR WILL!” Alhardir praises as his bolter roars in one hand while his blade stabs into the eye of a voidling. “GLORY TO THE NIGHT!” with a sickening tear Astelan rips the arms completely off the body of the voidling he was facing. *inside the cockpit* “Hang in there Rainbow.” Applejack said as she held onto the slowly separating mare. “Come on, AJ. Both of us know that I won’t make it.” “You have to pull through, make your dream to be a Wonderbolt come true.” AJ said trying to hold back the tears. Rainbow gave a dull laugh. “Lets face it AJ, this world is done for. Equestria is done for. We’re done for.” “You can’t leave us! We need you! *sniff* I need you…” AJ choked out. “Hey, Best Friends Forever. Right?” Rainbow asked as she put a forehoof to AJ’s cheek as she slowly dissipated into nothing. “Right…” AJ said as she watched Rainbow disappear completely into the void. Applejack put her forehooves down and kept silent. The only thing disturbing the silence inside the cockpit is the dull roar of the core generator of Ogre and the chaos of the battle going on and the occasional dash that jostled the cockpit a little. She slowly turns around and rights herself in the pilot seat, keeping her head down. Applejack puts her forehooves on the armrests of the pilot seat, not even flinching when the arm straps go around her forelegs. “... AJ?” *outside of the cockpit There came an audible feminine wail that came from inside of Ogre as he fired as many rounds into the Voidlings as he could. After Ogre’s cannon went dry he launched a salvo of rockets at another group and dropped his weapon and started getting physical with the Voidlings. I stepped past the Voidlings who continued to attack the impenetrable wall. Ripper was laughing gleefully at the expense of those on the other side of the wall as I stepped in front of him. “Oh, Ripper!” I called in a singsong voice. “What? Some idiot need my help killing off these damn Displaced?” He asked, not even looking up. I tsked, “Oh come now, you should recognize my wonderful voice, shouldn’t you, brother?” “Musician. How wonderful to see you, big sister,” he answered sarcastically from his seat. “I agree, though, the circumstances could be better, couldn’t they?” “That’s true, but maybe you’ll remember not to leave me in a world like that ever again,” he said, talking of the world he stayed in. “I didn’t. You stayed by choice,” I scolded. “Oh shut up. Let’s get rid of your puny little world, I have to go take care of some idiotic little whores on Earth after this,” he rolled his eyes. A second later he flew forward pulling out his weapon, a dual edged sword. I deflected with the Trident and stumbled back. Again he ran me and I deflected. Again, and again, and again. “I grow tired of your games, sister,” he spat. He brought his sword towards an edge of Void and ripped it further into the world. “Have fun with this!” Just before he disappeared I successfully nailed him with the Trident in the chest. He threw it to the side, clutched his chest, and disappeared. I looked at the tear. “What have you done brother… Why? Why?” I felt the tears stream down my face and turned around to the other Displaced. “Go,” I practically whispered, “If you stay, you’ll be doomed. Please, go, I have to save someone, please…” “what about the ponies?” “I’ll save some… I can’t save them all. Whoever I see next, I will save.” “I shall always be on the look out for others in distress in your world.” “I’m afraid this world will not exist anymore soon.” As the battle begins to die down the two space marines cautiously make their way over to the rest of the group, Alhardir is the first to speak as he removes a necklace from his belt pouch. He holds it out for Essence, “You all fought well, but I have only one item that I can give… A pendant of the Lunar Templars…” The silver necklace was in the shape of the iconic nightmare moon symbol. “If we ever meet again, the Lunar Templars will be ready to fight and die by your side.” I waved my hand over the pendant and all and copied it while allowing them to contact him. Astelan nods, “I do believe that my Reclusiarch is right about your power, all of you… Should you ever need the help of the Lunar Templars, raise the pendant and call out for Empress Luna’s chosen sons.” Luna and Fluttershy walked up next to me. “The others… They’re gone. The Void… It took them all…” Luna’s distressed tone spoke. Fluttershy was in tears. I rested my hand on her head, petting lightly. A small, hexagonal coin brought itself into existence in front of me and fell. Next to it, a small cube, a Lunar Templar Pendant, and a bow and sword. “I know this may not help much, but we give you our ‘calling cards’. We will always be there if you need help. “I know… I always know, how could I not? If you need me, which you may, just call out for the Musician. Or any of my names. I will hear it.” Will and Horace nodded. Will spoke, “We’ll help if needed.” With that, the two men vanished. The marines cross their arms over their chests, bowing slightly as they mimic the Aquila on their chestplates, “We hope to purge more chaos with you soon…” the Reclusiarch says as they start to fade. “I wish you luck in saving that person. And if there is no way of salvation…” Ogre’s fist clenched, “there will be hell to pay for the Merchant.” “No. It was Ripper. The man I once called my brother, who did this. And I’ll take him out personally,” I said as Ogre began to fade from the world along with Wade. “Wade. I hope you have a better time in your world,” tears blurred my vision, “cause I may never see anyone like you guys again.” “Well, Essence, see you on the flip-side,” said Wade before he disappeared altogether. Ogre turned away from me but still kept his ocular on me. “This world may be gone, along with its inhabitants, but it will never be forgotten. If you ever need a shoulder, I’ll be there.” Ogre said as he finally dissipated through the rift. “Well. I can’t call it Turmoil anymore, can I?” I sniffled. “This world. I suppose I could call it Memoriam. What do you think, Luna?” The blue alicorn looked up to me. “I-I-” She broke into sobs. The Void drifted over me and I placed my hands on them and focused. They glowed and we began to drift... Full Dialogue: "Hello? Is anypony there? Cadence? Twily? Princess Celestia? Princess Luna? Tartarus, I would even be grateful if I could get Discord." Full Dialogue: "Finally, I got through. Thank Celestia! I couldn't keep the Empire safe. I saved as many as I could. I won't be able to hold THEM off any longer." This is for bits pertaining to Armor. The little cut up part. Author's Note Whoo. So yeah. That happened. Enjoy, I guess. Gamer Luna: Mission One- GuardianWhere, Where am I? Luna, Princess of the Moon, opened her eyes to find a small metallic thing with light in a black area on the front in front of her, It had strange, rounded spikes on its body and floated in the air. “Who are you? What are you? You’re not human, awoken, or exo. My sensors say that you aren’t Fallen, Hive, or otherwise,” came a shockingly normal voice. Just as shocking was that she could understand it. Luna gaped for a moment before remembering her manners. “I am Princess Luna, Diarch of Equestria, and Mage of the Moon.” “Equestria? No such location exists in this system,” it spoke again. “Sensors indicate you are similar to the ancient species known as Equus Caballus or ponies.” Luna nodded, “That’s my species.” ‘Impossible. Ponies have been extinct for too long,” it protested. “I don’t come from this solar system or even universe, at least, I don’t think so,” she muttered. “I must take you to the Speaker. He will get answers from the Traveler. Follow me please. I must find us a Jumpship.” It floated forward and vanished. “Where did you go?” She called out. “To the storage in the back of your new helmet. When I brought you back to life, or, I guess in your case, here, you came in with a full set of armor.” “Oh,” the lunar princess spoke. She didn’t find it all that surprising. Each world must have its own magic, like hers. She started walking forward as the ghost questioned her about her world. Some questions were meaningless to her while a few concerned her greatly. “So, in your world, you don’t have the Darkness?” Ghost’s voice asked. “We have something similar. We called it, Dark Magic or negative magic. I was capable of using it but at one point it overwhelmed me when I least expected. It can be used for good though,” she answered, still trotting forward in hopes to get to her destination faster. “We have Solar Light and Void Magic. Each guardian can use a small amount of both. Warlocks have better control and specialize in each.” “Warlocks?” She inquired. “We have three classes. Titans are our ‘Tanks’. They take a ton of damage without falling but only excel at short range combat with brute force. Warlocks, the ones I mentioned, specialize in magic so they work well at distances but can defend themselves close range. I’ve never really paid attention to Warlocks, myself. Finally we have the Hunters. They are insanely good at distance and sneak attacks,” Ghost spoke. “Ah. Which one am I?” Luna asked. “I’m not really sure… How did you fight in your world?” “Distance and close range if I needed to. Celestia was always the main force.” “Then you’d probably be a Hunter,” Ghost said after processing the information. “Oh,” she said. Their conversation went quiet for some time. The area around, normally flooded with Fallen, was silent. Not a Fallen in sight well, aside from their bodies, that is. “Luna, grab that auto rifle to your left,” Ghost said. The blue alicorn grabbed it and stepped to where Ghost had mentioned a ship would be. When she did, a strange sight greeted her. A bipedal creature, much like Essence, ears and tail aside, was fighting off Fallen. Headshot after headshot they went down. “HAHA! Die you little buggers! DIE!” it yelled. It’s voice was masculine so Luna figured it was male. Ghost on the other hand let out a noise she could describe as a gasp of sorts. He transmatted outside the helmet as soon as the Exo had finished taking out the Fallen. “Cayde-66?” He asked. “In the flesh!” The still battle ready man answered swinging his gun to his hip. “But, you’re the Hunter Vanguard! Why are you here?” Ghost asked. “Ghost, you know I sneak off once in awhile,” he said, “In fact, you came with me once.” “But, this is different. We’ve had an influx of new Guardians lately. You need to be there for the new Hunters!” Ghost protested. “Ghost. You and I both know that there have been less and less Hunters lately. It takes a certain attitude to be a Hunter. Now, tell me who your friend is or I’ll shoot it,” he threatened. Luna flinched. “This is Luna. She’s my Guardian,” he said. “...Well alright then. What’s her class?” Cayde asked. “Well I wonder… She’s wearing a cloak,” Ghost said, voice dripping with sarcasm. Cayde smirked and held out a hand. “I’m Cayde-66. Hunter Vanguard,” he said. “I’m Luna. Diarch of Equestria and Mage of the Moon,” she let him grab her hoof and shook. His face showed a puzzled expression. “Mage of the Moon?” he asked. “In Equestria the celestial bodies stopped moving on their own after a magical accident during my father’s, King Solarium, time. He and my mother, Queen Gravitation, rose them until we could,” she explained. Cayde stepped back, “I see. Makes sense. Now, as Ghost told my Ghost, you need a ride to the Tower?” Luna nodded, “Yes. I need to see if any other Equestrians are here.” Cayde popped his knuckles, “Alright. Once we get there I’ll have someone take a look.” Luna nodded, “Thank you.” Suddenly she was overcome by an urge to toss her auto rifle in the air and speak. “I am Luna, princess diarch of Equestria, Mage of the Moon, and mother of all that stalks the night. If you should need my help, just fire this gun once and I shall come to your aid be you pure of heart.” The rifle wavered and multiple copies flew from it and disappeared. Cayde looked at her. “What was that about?” he asked. “No idea,” she shook her head, “but it happened.” Moments later Cayde’s ship passed over their heads and Luna was transmatted on board. The ship sped off into hyperspace and moments later she was in a strange plaza. “Come. Lord Shax should know of new arrivals. He keeps track of them for the Crucible,” Cayde motioned for her follow and she walked to catch up. Ghost was relaxing in her helmet, and waiting for her to summon him. They caught up with Shax a second or two later. “Hey Shax. We got any new arrivals that look like this lady here?” Cayde gestured to Luna. The large man bent down to look at her, nearly impaling Cayde on his horn. “Nope. Humans, Exos, and Awoken. Nobody with a horn and wings.” Luna immediately felt distraught. “Oh,” she said, “Thank you.” She turned around and Cayde followed her to the other Vanguards. “It’s fine Luna. We’ll find them.” “I know its just-” she was cut off by Ikora Ray, the Warlock Vanguard. “Cayde! Enough sneaking off. We have enough to deal with without you running off and bringing back strange things. “Ikora, this is Luna. She’s a new Hunter. I found while down at Old Russia,” he told the woman. “Very well,” Ikora said, “Has she got a ship?” “Not yet. I was going to take her over to Holliday,” he said, “I’ll be back in a moment.” Author's Note So, this is now subject to change, as I may switch where Luna is Displaced to, like another Equestria. As for Fluttershy, I'm not sure yet, so I'll be working on that, and hopefully, eventually, posting it here, right between this chapter and the next. Essence Enters the War of Understanding: Part One In between the teams Essence; The Musician, The Merchant’s Demise, Madness of the Void True Neutral (Even she could probs kill Zero. Even if no one knows who she is) Essence dropped into the world out of nowhere, portal or otherwise. Dragging herself up she glared around the area. Summoning her favorite weapon, otherwise known as Poseidon’s Trident, she walked forward, looking around to try to spot someone nearby. While she did this one of the bugs, a giant wasp, flew up to her and aimed its stinger at her. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” she warned. Seemingly debating it for a mere second the bug lunged forward. Out of instinct Essence dodged to the right and impaled the wasp on her weapon. She stood and stuck the weapon on her back. Walking forward she made her way away from both camps, her gait reflected her anger. Not only had she lost her friends, she had lost her home, and the only person she had saved was a small yellow pegasus and a blue alicorn. Her sorrow leaked out into her aura releasing her madness, her insanity, forth as trees bent forming a ladder up into a small fortress with a small pond in the center. Leaning forward she spoke, “Umbra, I wish to speak with you.” Skreeeeeeeeeeeeeeee- whoooosh- thud “Alright. You’re not someone I’m exactly familiar with, but……. I do still know of you. Welcome to Battle World 1, Essence. How do you like my incredibly accurate, pre-written, dropped-from-orbit notes?” “They’re fine. I suppose you know me from one of the SysAdmins? If it’s the Merchant I have a message.” Skreeeeee “I know of you from sources that are best left unmentioned. The Merchant, eh? If it’s a death threat or anything similar, get in line. Wily bastard’s been evading his rightful kick in the balls for over seventeen eons. -Umbra” “I already knew that. My message, if you can get it to him is this: The demise of the Council of Influence was not appropriate, as the final member, even though I no longer hold shadow abilities, I relay that his rival still lives. He may have destroyed my world, my friends, my home but in the End, the battle between Desire and Madness will leave Madness above Desire. You think there may be a way to get that to him?” she asked. Her tail, fluffy and huggable, wiggled slightly out of excitement. Her ears flicked. She seemed to be anxious but extremely pissed at the same time. Who wouldn’t; being trapped in your world, your cry for help missed by others, as it broke apart into nothing? Skreeeee “Yeah. He’ll get that message real soon” “Alright.” Skreeeeee “If you want to fight someone, then I suggest heading South in a few days’ time. There’s an Arena there” “I’m not here to join the battle, in fact, I got here by accident. Watching may be fun though…” Skreeeeee- paff “Then here’s a ticket for Seat A-32. One of the better seats in the house, if I do say so myself. Concessions are free, just make sure to throw away all of your trash when you’re done. Oh, and don’t take the cups. Bottles are fine, but not the cups. Those are refillable.” “Alright, if anyone issues a challenge towards me- there’s always one- I’m open to it, but I will not be placed on one side. I already know who wins after all.” Looking into the pool she could see her lost friends, the two she had saved, and sighed. Looking up and realizing that her new camp had no name, she focused and a giant neon sign appeared above it with the words, “Music and Madness Station, grab an instrument!” She groaned and added another one, “Neutral Territory.” Author's Note I forgot this was the first official interaction between Essence and Aaron/Umbra... What Could Have Been"NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! DON'T! HE'S LYING HE'LL KILL YOU ALL!" I screamed as the portal closed. I was stuck, they had trapped me in a vacuum, they had sealed my Madness. I truly was stuck. The Betas or Alternates of all the Displaced had sealed me away, tricked by The Merchant, as soon as I had finished the war between Auric and Teridax. Rather, their evil Betas/Alternates. He had helped them set the trap, corrupting their minds, and I was stuck as he attacked the Multiverse. It was time to wait... Who knows how longs its been, at least a couple trillion years... I'm so bored I've started counting. I'm certain no human computer has reached this number yet... "HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I heard. Whatever it was, was a cry to my mind. "HELP!!!! ESSENCE!" I knew that voice... Discord... My friend... "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I screamed. I looked down at my hands. "Its time to use THAT." I closed my eyes and focused on my very being, my code. "CODE MANIFEST!" The nothing around me turned purple and began to swirl. My cat ears and tail disappeared and before me, in my hands, appeared a guitar. "COSMIC~ THUNDER!" I struck the strings with a guitar riff and began playing as loud and fast as I could, the nothing around me swirling more. Outside the Prison A loud guitar riff played through the area, the guards, two Alt Titans frowned before the entire prison exploded. Where the prison had been, Essence stood, hair flowing out as she played the guitar. The guards vanished. She stopped and the guitar disappeared and her ears and tail returned. "I'm coming for you Merchant. Run as fast as you can, but I WILL catch you." Sounds of battle echoed throughout the Void. Friend versus Foe. Light versus Dark. Good versus Evil. Madness versus Desire. At the center of the fight, a lone woman stood her ground against 4 other Void-Dwellers. The Merchant, The Tyrant, The Ripper, The Reaper. The Merchant bore a battleaxe of gold. Tyrant, a ruby encrusted sword, Ripper had claws attached to his hands, and Reaper a large scythe. These four powers rushed at the woman in the center who switched between a trident and two swords. "Musician," sang Merchant, "Its hopeless, just give up. Your little friends are losing." Musician looked up and saw hundreds of Displaced on the ground, many from her side. She looked downwards and a tear fell from her cheek. "Awe, sad are we? Ready to give up?" taunted the Merchant. The three others grinned at each other before a laugh echoed through the area, stopping all combat. The laugh echoed. A laugh that only a mad person could laugh. One that makes you shudder in fear. It echoed again. And again. And again. "Give up? Me? As if. I've got another plan. This may be my last day alive, but I'll be damned if it isn't yours as well," she looked up and grinned. The Merchant's blood ran cold. Without warning she lunged forward and her trident went straight through the Merchant. He looked down. "Impossible," he said. "Impossible? Impossible? Ha. Let me tell you something. You can tell me to be honest, strong, smart, or quick but one thing that should never be said to me, is 'That's impossible,' because I'll be damned if I don't prove you wrong," she said, glaring upwards. The Merchant began to fall and a strange clearness overcame him. His vision, clouded by his Desires, now saw what he had done. In that moment, he spoke. "I have seen my errors, my darkness, my evils, and I know that I have done wrong. I now bequeath my powers to the only person who could control them properly. The Musician," Merchant disappeared and an arc of light raced upwards. Musician fell down. Smiling she coughed up blood. "Now THAT was fun," and she fell. Her form disappeared and a ball of light appeared. The arc connected with it and music filled it all. Music raced through the soul of all beings, touching their souls bringing the very thing they had always needed. Hope. To be continued... Author's Note I highly doubt this will remain canon to her storyline. Essence Reaches the Next Level of OPAlternate Chapter Title- Essence Fights Connor And They Fuck Up The Lore Beyond Belief Thus Pissing Off Jsyrin and Leaving Me in The Doghouse EDITED EDIT: Completely canon to Displaced “SPAAAAAACE!” I yelled, as I let the zero G fly me around the recently destroyed solar system. Floating around me was the debris from the blown up planets. I’m glad I showed up soon, or otherwise the Infection would have spread to other solar systems. The current one I’m in, was the birth place of a virus called the Infection, a small parasitic species that came from a meteor, and can make the most mightiest planets fall within a month. It latches onto a host body, who quickly produces more, and even gives them various powers and limited adaptibility. I sensed it from Equestria, and quickly came to save any survivors, and blow up the Infection. Unfortunately, the fight took a bit of my energy away from me, and I’ll need a while to recharge, so I’m doing it by referencing. I stopped in place, as a shiver wracked my body. I felt a high power level nearby. At first I thought it was myself again, but then I realized it was coming from a different source. I turned around, and came face to face with the high power level. “Hello!” I was greeted by the cheerful voice of a cat-eared woman, her tail flicking about. My mind went blank for a moment, as I processed what I was seeing. “Umm.. if your looking for the catpeople universe, it’s over in that direction.” I pointed to a different universe. I shook my head. “Sorry, who are you?” Seeing this creature suddenly made me self-conscious about my own Saiyan tail, wrapped around my waist, and hidden under my clothes. “Right, you have no idea who I am, do you?” She smiled, “Those catpeople are a project of mine, but I am, well now what name should I use…. I’ll just use all of them. I am Essence, The Musician, Madness, and so on. You?” ‘Oh man, a colored name. You don’t see many of those around nowadays.’ “I’m Connor, the Cosmic King.” I responded. “I’ve been called many things as well, the god of lightning, the child of a million plans, god of crafting, hero of Equestria, the one who died, and a lot of other references.” The cat woman shrugged, “Meh. Heard worse names,” the woman’s face suddenly switched to a frown. “Cthulhu, get out of mommy’s head. I told you this last time.” She said this and the said being materialized next to her before disappearing. “Kids…” “Last time I had one, she was murdered.” I clenched my fist, trying to hold back some anger, not for being reminded of Nebula, but hearing the name Cthulhu. ‘Gotta look that up for why that name angers me.’ “Cthulhu? He’s an Elder God, so yeah. I however am an Influence and several other things. I’m something like… I’ve actually lost count of how many cycles old I am,” she said, going off on a tangent and apparently hearing my thoughts. ‘Guess I’ll have to fix my head again. I hate people accessing my mind.’ “I’m at least around a million years old by now. I age really slowly though. Took several thousand years just to grow out of puberty.” “About the head thing, nothing works against me on that, sorry. It just happens, what with being Madnessand music embodiment and all. Last check, I know I’m over several quintillion years old,” she said, looking rather casual about it. “Pfft, quintillion? That’s not that old.” A familiar voice spoke up, as my older self showed up, floating right next to me. “What the hell are you doing here! Go back to waiting for you to show up once I disappear!” I yelled. “Well, at best guess, I’m at least as old as the Omniverse, and older than all but one Multiverse,” she said, “Ever met DEATH?” “Yes.” We both spoke at the exact same time. “All kinds of different versions. I prefer the Simpsons one, but younger me kinda likes the Marvel one.” “No, no. D-E-A-T-H. All caps, see?” She gestured to the letters she had just listed. I looked to my older self, as he went into thought. “Well, I remember waiting around for a while before the big bang. I’ve seen a lot of different versions of death, and was death once. Can you describe DEATH? Might ring a bell.” “...The literal creator of everything? Um… Aura of incredible power, kind of like the one I give off, that’s the best I’ve got,” she shrugged. “Does the older you know his exact age?” “Hmm… hang on a sec… HEY FUTURE ME! COME HERE!” Future me yelled, and an even older version of me showed up. “How many of you are there?!” I yelled, not knowing about this one. “What’s up?” Future future me asked. “Ever heard of DEATH? All caps? Created everything?” Future me asked. “Well, I remember bringing a fight into the fourth wall, and having to use the creator of our story to find a way back. Technically, he is the creator of any place we go to, and is part of a multiverse that is even bigger than our multiverses that fanfics are apart of.” He said, remembering back to a moment in my future. “Why the hell am I even here?! I don’t want to spoil my future!” I asked. “I don’t ever remember doing this.” Future me responded. Future future me nodded. “Probably some kind of memory wipe will occur at some point in the future.” “DEATH created even our authors, for instance, my author happens to have multiple stories and several characters. I just happen to one of her thirty or so Void Dwellers/Displacers,” Essence said. “But how would you know that?” I asked. “Technically, you would have no way of knowing if that’s the truth for our author’s universe, or universes. DEATH is just a creation of several different, or perhaps one author, only for fanfics. For all we know, any one of humanity’s many religions could be true, Christianity, Judism, Islamic, Greek mythology, Roman mythology, Norse mythology, or even my personal favorite, Acreusism.” “Well, a few things. I’m talking about the Omniverse, which is ALL Multiverses combined. Another, if I’m here, your author has agreed to this to some degree. And lastly, all of those exist somewhere in the Omniverse,” Essence said, in a matter-of-factly voice. Future future me sighed. “Well, people originally thought that there was only one universe. Later, they discovered the multiverse. After that, they discovered the omniverse. And even later, they discover something larger than that. It’s like atoms. They just keep getting smaller.” “We could discuss philosophy all day.” Future me pointed out. “But, we’re all curious of why are you here?” Essence shrugged, “Dunno. Just kind of, pop into places. Although, if this is another Omniverse.... Then I’ve seriously broken current power levels in my Omniverse by… who knows. Oh wait…” Essence waved a hand, revealing a play-by-play of something she had done back when her Omniverse was much younger. They watched as she started messing around with a ball of her power, accidentally dropping it and creating a small tear. “Okay… Fast-forward…” The video sped up and revealing a small trail of Twilight’s magic expanding the tear, this caused by her magic affecting Essence’s powers. “And there is our answer. Well. Looks like I’m the first in both Omniverses to connect them and you, my new friend, are the first inter-Omniversal traveler.” “Wait, what?!” I yelled, before tapping my ear, and activating a comms. “Sam! You there?! Can you hear me?!” “Yes. I can hear you Connor. What is it?” Sam’s voice spoke into my ear. “I just found out that we’re from different omniverses, instead of universes.” I spoke, turning it down to avoid Sam’s yelling. “How did you not know that?! You’re supposed to be god!” “Hello! I’m Essence! Anyway, this is slightly my fault. Sadly, when you’ve got several, uncounted total, copies of one mind, working in sync, things like this happen. Thankfully, I have enough information to do this,” she lifted up her hands and the tear suddenly appeared next to them. “Okay,” she grabbed the tear and stuffed it into a bottle. “That said, your friend here is a god, not the god. I made a tear in the boundry of the two Omniverses, thus unwittingly allowing travel between them when Twilight used her magic on Connor here. Don’t sweat the details, I’ve-” Essence’s face suddenly flinched, “taken care of it. Now, excuse me as I attempt to deal with the arrival of another uncounted total number of my minds into my head and the massive MASSIVE increase of power.” She turned to Connor, “I now have reason to believe I am everything I was for my Omniverse I am now THAT for this one. Thus doubling my power and allowing the trolling of one of my author’s friends.” “You know what? I’m going back to killing Metroids. I do not have enough phds in quantum physics to understand this.” Sam’s voice spoke back, before cutting off. “So, now that we just broke another barrier. What do we do now? Break another barrier across omniverses?” I asked. “One sec,” Essence snapped her fingers and looked at Connor, “Yeah, at your current power level, you are a Godly. So, your chances of doing it alone, or at all, are nil. But, if you like, I may be able to do it again.” “Hang on. If he’s a godly. Would I be a meta? He’s got .0001% of my power, and I can kick people into the fourth wall, which might count as another omniverse.” Future future me pointed out. “Yeah. You’re a Meta, however, I want you to see something,” Essence snapped her fingers again, and revealed her power to future future me. “That’s a lot of power.” Future Future me muttered. “Kinda reminds me of my successor.” “Keep watching,” she said. “So you can increase your power. Do you want me to go… ‘OH DEAR MERCIFUL… WHATEVER! YOUR POWER!’ because I kinda don’t care about power anymore.” I was hiding behind my future selves, afraid of the super high power. “Please. I’ve battled Broly. His power is maximum. This is nothing compared to it.” Future future me assured. “Dude. I can literally dissolve entire Multiverses in under 0.0000000000000000000001 seconds. Broly is nothing. I was put in a bet in my Omniverse and LITERALLY whopped Broly’s ass so bad, he started crying AND he shit himself. It only took a billionth of a second. In case you are wondering, I’ve taken to disguising my power level. Want to see the real numbers?” Essence grinned and in that moment, neither Omniverse, nor any at all, had seen that crazy of a grin. “Hey, didn’t Distan use to smile similar to that?” I pointed out. “Not as evil, but still very similar.” “You haven’t seen the Broly I fought. My powers actually turned him into what I imagine him. His power would not stop increasing. I freaked out when it went into the gogles, and then made gogle look inferior. My powers involve references, so he would not stop increasing his power. I died a lot.” Future Future me mentioned. “Wait, have either of you fought Doomsday yet? He just revives whenever someone kills him, and becomes stronger from that.” Future me asked. “...Bring it on then. You want proof, I’ll fight both of them. AT THE SAME TIME.” “Umm… I’m not summoning Broly. Unless you want to sacrifice your own powers to summon him, he’s not coming here. Last time we fought, I had to put a lock on him. Unless someone got rid of their powers for the entire fight, they couldn’t summon him. Plus, the powers had to be around god-like.” “Really? You do realize you’re probably talking to the strongest entity in either one of our Omniverses? Well, maybe aside from DEATH, but he won’t tell me his power level,” Essence said, nonchalantly. “Fine, if you are going to even try to do that. I guess I’ll just have to change the locks.” Future Future me snapped his fingers, as his body glowed cosmic purple. “Now, only the weakest person in the current omniverse can open it. No one with any power can open it, and the second someone with powers tries to fight Broly, he’s locked back in.” The look on Essence face said she knew exactly what would happen here, “Alright if you insist, anyone else I can fight? Because,” she snapped her fingers, clearing an image of Broly, “I can just do this,” she snapped her fingers and the lock disappeared, “and this,” Broly’s cheering was ceased as the lock reappeared. “However, as this is your Omniverse, I’ll refrain. You can choose my opponent.” “I choose GARY STU!” Future Future me yelled. “Nah, no one can beat Gary. That would be unfair, as his powers can trump any logic breaking powers.” Future me suggested. “What if the strongest version of us fights her?” “Ugh, you know how weird that guy is.” Future future me groaned. “But, he might be our best bet.” He snapped his fingers, and another version of us shows up, but this time with a different appearance. “Gary? Another one? How many times do I have to kick his ass. Hello, new Connor, or, [Insert Strongest Version of Connor Here]!” Essence smiled and said cheerfully. “The name isn’t Connor. It’s only one of my names. I’m actually fused with my two brothers, and am at 100%. So, while you can defy logic, so can I.” “Logic?” Essence asked innocently, “Who said I only defy logic?” Other guy smiled. “Mind if I change perspectives here? I’d prefer not to give out my name, so I don’t spoil anything?” “Be my guest, it won’t affect me,” Essence waved her hand dismissively. “TIME TO YELL! PERSPECTIVE CHANGE!” “There. Much better.” I said, cracking my neck. “Hey, current me. I’m going to alter the universe, add some of my own time’s stuff. You okay with that?” “Yeah, I’ll just change it back.” He shrugged. “Good. Now, ready to fight?” I smiled, with one of my upper canines sticking out of my teeth.. She grabbed her head and spun it around on her neck before stopping it and nodding, “Let’s go, but first, MUSIC!” The nearby area burst with energy, before either of them moved an inch. I snapped my fingers, creating a cube of lava around Essence. It took a second but I heard whistling, only to see her wearing a bath towel and… washing her hair in the lava. “PERV!” She laughed and the lava disappeared. “My turn,” she gave an entirely too psychotic grin before it began raining literally everything in existence. You name it, it came from the sky. “Idiot.” I yelled, as I grabbed a falling pie, and stuffed in down my throat, before feeling my power greatly increase. I charged forward, only to use afterimage at the last second, and the afterimage punched Essence in the face. Or, rather, it should have. “Nice, but trivial,” her voice came from above me and I looked up to see her literally turn bright enough to light up the entire Omniverse, both of them. “Well, screw you too.” I said, wishing I had to capacity to flip her off, but I don’t like doing stuff like that. I pulled a small piece of metal, turning off the light. “It’s not nice to create massive light pollution. You know how many people you just blinded? How many doctors?” She snapped her fingers and the light thing never happened, “No one, actually. In fact, by switching that event, I created two new Omniverses. Fun! Anyway, enjoy this!” She started spinning and I suddenly found myself as a mouse, in Equestria at Fluttershy’s cottage. I squeaked, as I turned myself into Jerry, and created a giant hammer, smacking Essence in the face as she smacked against a wall, turning flat, before peeling off, and floating down like a piece of paper, landing in a book, that fell down. I took this moment to turn back to normal, apologize to Fluttershy, and teleported above the planet, seeing Essence already there. “So, interesting view, isn’t it. I like fighting above the planet. It’s so serene. Plus it’s ominous.” I muttered, looking at the planet below. “Times like this make me appreciate my powers. I’m glad I was shot. I’m glad I died. I’m glad I was chosen for these powers. By the way, how did you get your powers?” “Well, I was born/made with them. DEATH created me from the Void, of course, he had no idea what he was getting into,” she said, looking down. “After this, wanna be friends? You seem to get the whole, Madnessthing. Oooo~ It’s colorful now. And italicized!” I smiled. “Sure. You seem like the fun kind of sort. But I’m not usually like this. I’ve been fighting Discord style. And it’s getting rather boring. There’s only so much you can do with randomness. Tell me, how good are you at fighting physically?” Essence shrugged, “I’ve picked up some. Weapons or fists-type of thing?” “Both. I’m part god of destruction, so I have an affinity with weapons, but I usually use fists. Shall we bring this down to the planet?” “Well, I’ve been called The Warrior and The Strategist so… And yeah, sure,” she shrugged. I smiled, as a bullet from a sniper rifle coming from the planet hit Essence. “Good luck. And bet you can’t catch me.” I deactivated my flight, and fell to the planet, before suddenly falling faster than any speed imaginable. Essence shrugged and flipped upside down gliding towards the ground at a leisurely pace. She started whistling the tune to a unnamed song. It didn’t take long for me to slam against the ground, my body almost pulverized. I pushed myself up, as my body inflated, ignoring the blood loss, as it quickly regenerated. “I LOVE THAT! NOTHING IS AS FUN AS SLAMMING INTO THE GROUND AT FAST SPEEDS!” “Not sure about that,” Essence said, gliding down to me, “Ask Amnesia.” “Who’s Amnesia?” I asked, stretching my arms. “One of the people I displaced. Poor kid looks like a girl,” Essence shook her head. “We still fighting?” “Yeah. I just really like falling.” I smiled, before charging forward, pulling my left fist back, before driving it forward into her face. Her head barely flinched and her muffled voice came from behind my fist, “Can we still use our powers?” “Yeah, just nothing chaotic. Stuff for more like fighting. So maybe flight, super strength, etc.” I still had my fist in her face, for some peculiar reason. She pulled my fist away and looked at me innocently, “Does this count?” She suddenly connected roundhouse kick with my head and… there was a loud ringing sound as I lost sight for a few seconds, leaving me disoriented and feeling like all my atoms had been torn apart and reassembling at super sonic speed, and like I would throw up. “That was strange. But the funny thing about that, is that you just did the same to your leg. I added reflective properties to my skull a long time ago. So, it follows the principle of ‘I’m rubber and your glue.’” I smiled. She looked down and I followed her sight as I saw the strangest thing I had ever seen, and that’s saying something. Her leg had turned into… dubstep waves? “Hmm... “ she poked her leg which returned to normal, “That was an interesting feeling.” I chuckled. “How do I know what dubstep looks like?” I questioned, before quickly flying backwards, and pulling my arms back behind my body, and charged up a familiar attack. “KAMEHAMEHA!” I yelled. “REFERENCE UPGRADE!” The beam glowed purple, as it was infused with the power of DBZ. “Oh… This thing again?” She raised an eyebrow as it struck her directly in the face. She disappeared behind a cloud of smoke, and I raised an eyebrow, and pulled my hands out from behind my back. I watched as the cloud turned into bubbles and floated away leaving… her holding the thing as it began flashing billions of colors per second and emitted musical notes and an odd reality warping aura. “Kamehameha reference upgrade? Try ETERNAL DUB-DISCORDANT REALITY HYPER NOVA!” “IT’S OVER 9000!” I screamed, causing the sheer power of references to shatter the ball of energy. Only for her to reform it and look at me with a bored and annoyed look as she held it up, hand on her waist. “What! 9000! That’s impossible!” Nappa yelled from somewhere. “IT’S OVER 9000!” The ball shattered again. It reformed and she waved her hand over it, “Ha. Reference-proof,” she let it loose and the beam started flying at me, and I quickly threw a kitten at it. “YOU MONSTER!” I screamed, watching as the beam came closer to the kitten. “YOU WOULD KILL A KITTEN?!” In that second, I had made a VERY bad choice. The beam arched around the kitten and she turned BEYOND red with rage, “Nobody. NOBODY. Makes me harm a kitten,” she said. I quickly shapeshifted into a kitten. Of course I still had my robotic body parts, like my eye, my arm, and my leg. The beam arched towards me and she appeared, grabbed my tail, and I turned back into my previous form in time for her to throw a second ball of the energy into the first as it connected with my face. I had under a second to think the words, What have I done, as I was sent through a rip and then another, flying through two new Omniverses before crashing into a building. I cleared my head after about half a minute and noticed a large sign laying on top of me. Disabled Puppy Orphanage “She just threw me into a puppy orphanage?!” I felt my body filling with anger. “NO ONE EVER HARMS A DOG! NOBODY!” I quickly fixed the building, as I climbed out of it, before running forward, running around the planet I was on, getting faster and faster. “HYPERLIGHT ACTIVATE!” As my body reached speeds only I could surpass, I teleported back into my universe, as I charged at Essence. To my surprise, she grinned at me and I raised a fist only for another copy of her to appear just in time for her foot to connects with my head, sending my head flying off into space, as my body quickly slows down, and is ripped apart by myself stopping so quickly. I looked to Essence, my skull regenerating back on my head, metal and everything, before looking at Essence with pure anger in my eyes. “I will murder you. You had me kill a puppy. YOU HAD ME KILL A PUPPY YOU HEARTLESS MONSTER!” I charged forward, dodging her attack, before delievering a punch that sent her flying back this time. I caught up to her, and slammed my fists down on her head, slamming her to the ground, before pointing my arm at her, and firing a massive energy blast forcing her miles deep. I felt a tap on my shoulder, “Hi! So, you ripped through two Omniverses right? Say hello to me, and me, and me!” I turned around to see three of her. “Hello! Nice to meet ya!” The other two said before all three kicked me back through the tears, the original version I was fighting placing them in the jar with the first tear, before I went slamming into Canterlot castle, disintegrating several floors and landing in Luna’s bedroom in front of her and a massive bowl of ice cream, a spoon hovering in front of her astonished face. “I knew it!” I yelled. “You were holding back on me!” I snatched the ice cream from her, and tried to take a spoonfull of it, but I broke my hand. “Why is ice cream the strongest substance in the world!” The three Essences reappeared and the original looked to the other two, “I got this, ladies.” They saluted and stepped into her, increasing her power by several thousand exponents. “Connor? Who is this?” Luna asked, still on her bed. “Some person who kills puppies without a second thought.” I responded, before jumping out a window, and flipping down before jumping through a different room. I looked around, noticing I was in a kitchen. “These places have fun scenes.” I quickly got to work, making a plan, while Luna distracted Essence. Hopefully. “That’s a lie. Its his fault for picking up the puppy. Besides, he played dirty first, throwing a KITTEN,” I heard her yell, somehow knowing she had leaned out the window to do so, “in front of my attack and changing himself into one as well.” “You do realize the kitten was immortal right? And invulnerable?” Luna pointed out. “It wouldn’t have taken any damage. Besides, even if it wasn’t, how could you be sure it was a real kitten? Could have been a ball of energy that looked like a kitten. Connor’s playing you like a fiddle.” Luna smiled. Essence laughed, causing me to shudder for some reason, “That doesn’t change the fact he almost made me kill one of my precious creations, no matter what it really was. Besides, nothing is invulnerable to me. I am, in fact not being played like a fiddle because,” she raised her voice before stopping dramatically, “HE’S NOT IN THE KITCHEN!” “Then, the egg will fall onto my face, poisoning me, and removing my powers. Then…” I muttered under my breath, but stopped once Essence showed up. I grabbed a frying pan from the stove, one that was cooking an egg on it, before slamming the pan into Essence’s face, sending the egg flying onto the ceiling, where it stuck, as the lava I created at the beginning of the fight finally arrived, landed above the kitchen on the lavaproof floor I created a few years back, and started cooking the egg. “Lava-proof! I saw that coming from a mile away!” She grinned, “Or did you forget? I’m inside your head~” She sang. “Thanks for reminding me. Also, you should remember this, ‘I’m rubber and you’re glue.’ So, whenever your in my mind, I’m in your mind.” I gave a dark smile. Essence’s face went flat, “Then go ahead, take a look.” I mentally smirked, as my body quickly destroyed itself from reading her thoughts. I felt huge amounts of pain that further increased my powers, before I faded from existence. [POV SWITCH] I watched as he disintegrated from existence and looked over at Luna, “You want him back?” She looked at me and jumped, “WHO ARE YOU AND HOW ARE YOU HERE!?” I shrugged and smiled, “That’s a yes.” I began reforming his body and mind and upon finishing, placed him under the egg from earlier. [POV SWITCH] “I’m back! AND I’M STRONGER THAN EVER!” I started laughing, after my body was reformed, but the egg that landed on the ceiling fell onto my face, and some of it got into my mouth. My brain stopped for a moment, as I just processed this information. “GAH!” I screamed, trying to spit out the egg, but all that came out was black gunk. “Oh crap.” I fell to my knees, as my powers faded. “And hence, avoid looking into the mind of the Madgoddess,” Essence smirked. I chuckled. “You think I’m down? I’m just getting warmed up. This isn’t the first time I lost my powers against an opponent stronger than me.” I stood up, and flicked my arm, as a small staff popped out, and I grabbed it, before forming it into a bigger staff. “Um, hello?” SHe tapped her head, “I know. Besides, it wouldn’t be any fun if you were. As a crutch, I won’t break the staff. If I do, I’ll replace it, deal?” She held out a hand. “Actually, the staff is supposed to be unbreakable, but I haven’t added the ‘non-logic’ attack shielding yet. But I would advise against breaking it, unless you want to be teleported to a dimension where our powers don’t work.” I shook her hand. “Meh, I’m Anti-logic, I work everywhere, but I’ll still avoid breaking it,” she said, “Where shall we continue this?” “Right here is good. But I’m sure the chefs are annoyed at us.” I dodged a thrown knife. “HEY! Watch where you’re throwing that thing! You should know about my fear of sharp knifes!” I sighed. “How about the courtyard?” “Sure,” she snapped her fingers, taking us to the courtyard, “I’ll have the terrain and such rest from any damage after a few minutes.” “So,” I twirl my staff around, as a purple skintight suit with yellow streaks appeared on my body. “Ready to fight?” “Yeah, let’s go for it,” she said. My staff glowed purple, and I charged forward, before quickly sliding against the ground, and try to knock Essence off her feet. When I got behind her I quickly got to my feet, and blocked the incoming blow with my staff. “Not bad, not bad,” she said, smiling, before swinging a sword, from nowhere, at me. I barely blocked it in time, and quickly broke my staff into two parts, before activating the electricity, and Nightwinged Essence in the face with a million volts of godly electricity. She blew a puff of air out of her mouth at the electricity and it suddenly wore a top hat and started dancing. I quickly slid back, and frowned. “That’s just rude. That’s like changing the genetic code of someone’s child.” I deactivated the electric function, and pointed both sticks at Essence, before two lines fired out, and attached to the walls behind her. I smiled, not sure what the hell I was doing, but trying to make it look cool, as the grappel function activated, and I was flung forward really fast, before impacting the wall, face first. “I’ve been doing that for cycles, except, most of the time it’s to stop some defect, or stop them from going Hitler on their world,” she said, slightly muffled considering my face was in rock, and I pushed myself out of the stone wall, and shook the rocks out of my ears, before turning around, and attaching the two pieces of my staff together. Essence just shrugged and clapped, sending out a huge sonic boom, moving literally as fast as Mach 881742, causing me to be thrown into the air, before I fell down, crashing into the Canterlot statue garden. I got to my feet, and noticed myself right next to where Discord’s statue used to be. “Grrr… won’t get me next time with that trick.” My staff glowed with light, and I fired a powerful beam at Essence, before being flung back from the recoil. I hit the back of my head on some rocks. I blinked, before closing my eyes, trying to ignore the pain, as I got to my feet, and fell back down. “Forgot about that.” I muttered, as I waited for the blood to finish messing up my head so I can see. “Stupid orthostatic hypertension.” She floated down from above, upside-down, having dodged the beam. “You know, once you can your powers back you can assure that never happens again when you loose them.” ` “Sorry. That condition is ingrained in my body. It doesn’t happen when I have my powers, but I have to worry about it whenever I don’t have my powers.” My vision returned, and I got to my feet, holding my staff in a defensive position. My staff glowed, and I felt my body be temporaily empowered. I rushed forward, and drove my staff into Essence, and quickly fell backwards, screaming at the innuendo. “GAH! I need a better name for my staff!” “Like what, the rape-stick?” Essence joked before kicking me directly in my crotch. “Oh shit… my bad,” she paled. “You jerk.” I coughed up some blood. “Low blow.” I tried to get up, but fell back down. “Didn’t your parents teach you any manners?” “It was an accident,” she humphed, before continuing, “And what parents, DEATH created me, but I grew up on my own.” “I kinda wish you only did that when I had my powers. At least then, I could regenerate, and prevent that from happening again. I actually don’t care about what gender I am.” I finally was able to stand up again, and wiped the blood from my mouth. “Here,” she waved her hand, regenerating my crotch and apparently creating a cup around them. “I don’t need that.” I took it off, and cracked my neck, glad the pain was gone. “At least now, I have an idea I can do.” My staff glowed black, and suddenly my suit changed into my own personal batsuit. “I’m Batman.” I spoke in a gravelly tone. Essence face went flat, "Your parents are dead." “I am the one who flaps in the night.” I referenced back. “More like faps…” She answered, before making me spit a bit in surprise. “Hey, at least I don’t see Samus as … what other people see her as. I only care about the suit. Screw everyone else.” As soon as I finished speaking she snapped her fingers and turned me pink, with purple polka dots. “Seriously! PINK! I understand that I like purple, as my powers are colored the same, but seriously! Why pink?!” I yelled, not really enjoying the color. “Okay, is this better?” She asked before I felt a warm fuzzy feeling. I looked down and the floor seemed a bit closer, I was about to ask what she had done when I found myself embraced in a hug, “Aren’t you just the cutest thing!” I pushed myself away, stumbling a bit. I looked at my right arm, and noticed that it changed slightly in shape and was a lot shinier than the metallic grey I prefer. “Well, haven’t been like this in a while.” I looked down at my body. “This is still weird.” Essence looked depressed, “You didn’t have to stop the hug…” My brain freezed as I just realized something. “Did you just take away my height?” I spoke, my voice trying to go dark, but it couldn’t with this body. Essence eyes widened, “Oh...my… THAT’S JUST TOO ADORABLE! You tried to be maddened and instead you just look flustered,” she grabbed me in another hug and I struggled to get out. “Grr… the last time I was this young, things got a little destructive. You’re lucky I still have my memories, or you would be dealing with a very mentally messed up child.” I try to push way again, but Essence wouldn’t let me. “GET OFF!” I yelled, and pressed a button on my arm, causing it to push Essence back, and I got a bit of space in between us. “SELF DESTRUCTION TECHNIQUE!” My arm vibrated rapidly, before glowing white, and it blew up, as I closed me eyes, hoping to be taken with it. After a minute or two of nothing, I opened my eyes to find myself smothered in another hug. “Stop it,” I demanded. “Let go!” She kept holding on and I noticed some smoke coming off her back, before she spoke. “You’re too cute to die,” she said, touching my bleeding side, regenerating it all. I looked to my destroyed right side, smirking that my arm still couldn’t go back, and glad that I lost it completely a while back. ‘I need to get to my lab, replace my arm.’ I thought to myself, and tried to push myself away from the infuriating cat woman. She let go and snapped her fingers, filling me with the warm fuzzy feeling again. I pushed away from her, and looked back down, noticing my normal body back. I smirked, before running to the edge of the statue garden, and jumping off, falling down to the city below. I landed on my left leg, which dampened the shock. ‘Gotta get my powers back. Gotta get to the lab.’ I ran across the rooftops of Canterlot, quickly making my way to Ponyville. I skidded to a stop, as Essence showed up in front of me. “Ah, ah, ah~” She sang, dropping a barrel on top of me. I pushed the barrel off, and got back up. “I’m kinda surprised that you changed me back.” I said, trying to figure out a way to escape. “Well, I couldn’t fight you while you looked like this,” she said, holding up a picture of a small girl, it looked like this. I cringed at the sight. “I don’t know how to respond to that, so I’m just going to do this!” I jumped into the air, and my left foot burst to life, as it started giving me some minor flight abilities. “See ya.” I quickly flew to Ponyville, before deactivating my foot above my house. I landed softly, and quickly ran in, before entering the secret passageway to my lab. It didn’t take long for the elevator to stop, but I quickly ran in. “GLADoS, activate security protocols!” I yelled as I ran to a certain device. It started up, but then I heard an explosion, knowing full well it had likely taken the upper part of the lab with it, “LUCY~ I’M HOME~” Essence’s voice rang out. “Activate project 10245! Password Pie is God.” I felt my machines whirring, as one of my last hopes powered up. Essence crashed into my lab, activating all the security systems, from lightning fast turrets in those games that you need to do something else to deactivate them, because you can’t get past them, to plasma cannons. She started strolling forward, spinning a cane next to her and singing the song from Mary Poppins that the chimney sweeps sing. The, well, everything bounced off the cane and back at the cannons and other weapons. As she approached, I smirked, as metal came up out of the ground, and surrounded my body, before attaching itself, making a full body suit. Once the entire thing was fully attached, I yelled out one final thing. “SUIT! ACTIVATE!” The machines whirred, as they crunched into my body, causing blood to spurt out of the machine, fusing my very being into the suit. I took a step forward. “Like my new suit? It’s designed to fight creatures like you. It requires the ultimate sacrifice to use, I give up my body, and now I’m in a suit that can never break, no matter how little or none logic you use.” “Well la dee, frickin da!” she said, holding up her hands and throwing an anvil that looked like it had a gravitational pull, at me. I throw my fist back, and break it like it’s nothing. I smile, as I charge forward, and slam Essence through multiple walls of my base, before ending up in the educational television room, after running through the giant clams, and cheese grater rooms. I scream, before running out of the room. “Why did I make that room?” “Because you were bored?” Essence, now floating beside me, asked. “Maybe. I really like references.” I stood up straight, before punching Essence in the face, sending her flying back into a wall. I pulled both of my fists back, before firing two powerful beams at her, sending her flying back even farther. She crashed down, landing on her feet and sliding backwards leaving two deep indentations in the ground. “I figured.” I smirked. “Time for my final attack! I’ll end you with this blast!” I poured my energy into my chest, as a huge light started shining from it. As it got more and more powerful, I started laughing maniacally. “PREPARE TO DIE!” Right before I fired it, a loud yell came from overhead. “INCOMING!” It sounded like my voice, but before I could figure out why, I felt something impact my head, and turn my entire suit to pieces. I fell to the ground, my entire body bleeding, as I looked to the attacker. “Oops… sorry.” It was my skull that got kicked off my head near the beginning of the fight. I coughed up some blood. “Well, that was anticlimatic.” I felt my body getting better, as my wounds healed themselves. “Hey, my powers are back!” “Nice,” Essence said, only to for her fist to come hurtling towards me and she began punching me in the head rapidly, around some one-hundred twenty strikes a minute. Once she stopped, I felt incredibly dizzy. “I choose bacon.” I blurted out. I fell backwards, too dizzy to get up. “Ouch, that looks painful.” My other head pointed out. Essence just looked at him, “And that’s how you know this was planned from the beginning.” “What?” Both heads asked. “That’s not how it usually works. We send messages to our past self on what happens. We have the ability to see the future, but we don’t like to use it, so we trust our future self’s judgement on what we should know.” The other head responded. Essence grinned, “I’m called The Strategist, remember? When I first read your mind, I saw that your skull could destroy that suit, hence why it was sent speeding off. I knew we’d end up here, just in time for it to crash into you. Besides, every time I fight you, it’s different. You send a message back, I change my technique.” “Technically, our plan isn’t over yet. But I’m done fighting. This was nothing but a spar between friends. I don’t want to destroy everything again.” I responded, feeling less dizzy. “I have about a thousand satellites pointing straight at us, preparing to fire blasts similar to the suit that was destroyed. But I don’t like dying. So, if it means the battle’s over, then I give up.” “Is it over?” Essence asked. “Yes. That’s what give up means. You know as well as I do that our fight would eventually lead to me using a last resort invention, that gets messed up, and everything in both of our omniverses is destroyed.” I got to my feet, balancing against the wall. “I’m going to sleep for a week after this, then I’m going to have a huge migraine.” “Yeah, I knew. Really don’t feel like recreating four Omniverses, so yeah. It’s over. As for your need for sleep and future migraine,” she snapped her fingers, appeared next to me, and kissed my forehead. “Ta da! All gone!” She smiled. I ignored the action, not in a mood to be angry, as I snapped my own fingers, repairing my lab and house. “I got a bar somewhere around here, wanna get a drink before you go? Got all the good stuff.” I chuckled. “I think so. It took a while, but I managed to replicate the same material the notebook from Scribblenauts is made out of, so we have an endless amount of any drink you want.” I tapped a few buttons on the wall, causing a full blown bar to pop out of the wall. “Brewster, a cup of Phazon please.” The pigeon nodded, and handed me a cup of the virulent mutagen. “Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster please,” Essence asked. Brewster passed her a cup of the green drink. SHe took a sip, “Ah, that’s nice. You should try it,” she held out the cup to me. I gently grabbed it, and took a sip, before shrugging. “Alcohols don’t do it for me. I only get something by drinking poisons.” She shrugged and took a deep gulp, peering into the glass, “I know what you mean. I have to drink the Void itself for anything to happen. Even then, it has to have some empty universe in it. I just happen to enjoy the flavour.” “Well, I’m seriously addicted to Phazon. Probably because I was drenched in the stuff when I was on Sam’s world. Luckily for me, I don’t have any of the negative effects, other than the occasional extra limb, and the increased strength.” I took another sip of the Phazon, ignoring the blue lines spreading across my body. “Yeah, easily fixable though, huh?” She said, tapping her cup filling it with her previously mentioned drink, “I call it the Voidic,” she took a sip, “care to try?” She offered me the cup. “I’ll try.” I look over to see the floating head, trying to get up to the bar. “Oh, forgot about you.” I chuckled, before helping him out. “So, what, you now HeadConnor or something? You really remind me of Headpool.” “Well, hold this for a second,” she handed me her drink and reached into a tear she created and pulled out a phone, “Let’s see… Any messages from any of the Omniverse creators… One from DEATH… One from LIFE… One from COSMIC... and one from...AETHER. Good thing I can pretend to be their versions of me, as I’m not that different. I’ll start with COSMIC,” she tapped a button on the phone and a voice came out, chilling me. “Essence, I just got word you were fighting Connor as well as that your power level jumped up to damn near mine,” Mother COSMIC said. She rolled her eyes and mouthed the words, she’s lying, she’s the only one who told me her power. “You and I both know that it’s pretty far above yours by now,” Essence looked at me, Is it okay to talk about other Omniverses with her? she mouthed. I shrugged. Our race is very… what’s the word… protective, or likes to assert its dominance only in it’s omniverse. Hard to describe, but your lucky I was the one who was sent to investigate your appearance. One of my successors might not be as friendly. I mouthed back. Essence sighed and spoke into the phone, “Just a fun spar, nothing to worry about. As for my power, I found a very old version of myself and we merged,” she lied casually. I may have to wipe the thing about the tear from your mind, unless you can keep it a secret. Also, I’m not risking her, or anyone else, attacking any of the other Omniverses. Looks like I’ve got another job description. So do I. I’ll work on my end to stop any wars. I also erased the memory from the other Connor’s minds. To them, this never happened. I mouthed. Mother Cosmic spoke again, “Very well, just make sure you’ve cleaned up.” The phone hung up and Essence sighed, “On to the others. I’ll tell DEATH about you but LIFE and AETHER are very… adamant about there not being any new Void Dwellers/Barrier Walkers/Cosmic Beings/Ether Runners in their Omniverses. So, try to keep quiet real quick.” She tapped AETHER and the phone was answered by a voice similar to Mother COSMIC’s, “Essence, what in the bloody fucking hell have you been doing?” British, Essence mouthed, “Just got into a spar with a friend, everything okay?” “That had better not be someone new,” AETHER said, sounding very stubborn, “You know what’ll happen.” “Yeah yeah. It was Augustine,” Essence tapped a few buttons, sending, I assume, a message to the Augustine character. This one was the one with the puppies. “Very well, make sure you’ve cleaned up,” AETHER disconnected. “This is very annoying,” Essence said. “I don’t even know what’s happening anymore.” I muttered. “So, should I just stick to my own omniverse, and make sure no one breaks through? I don’t really want to deal with another war across universes.” “Well, avoid AETHER and LIFE. I’ve got all the portals here anyway,” she held up a jar. “Let me just talk to LIFE and then I’ll speak with DEATH about it. Honestly, he seems the most reasonable of the lot,” she said. I sighed, chugging down the rest of my drink. “Being a god is a lot of hard work.” “I’ll say,” Essence said, tapping at the phone. “Hey LIFE.” “WHAT IN HELL WERE YOU DOING YOU LITTLE MOTHER FUCKING SHIT! WHAT THE FUCKING HELL YOU DESTROYED THREE DAMN MULTIVERSES!” The voice shouted, causing me to flinch and Essence to sigh. “Are they fixed now?” Essence asked. “Well of course, they repaired as soon as you disappeared,” LIFE answered. “So what’s the problem,” she asked. “Just… Don’t do it again,” LIFE said before hanging up. “So, is that it?” I asked. “Those are a lot of people.” “DEATH is next, he should be okay though, as we didn’t fight there,” Essence said, tapping the phone. “Yes Essence?” a bored sounding voice came through the phone. “Hey DEATH. I’ve got a new Void Dweller here,” she said. “So that’s where you’ve been,” he said, sounding disinterested. “Hello.” I spoke up, hoping that was a cue for me. “The name’s Connor, The Cosmic King.” “Mhm. Essence, I hope that’s not all you called me about,” the voice said. “No, I need to talk to you later,” Essence said, “We’ll be going now.” “MHm,” DEATH said as she hung up the phone. “That was certainly an interesting call.” I spoke up. “DEATH is quite a lively fellow.” “That’s definitely true,” Essence said, “Back to our drinks then?” “I already finished mine.” I gestured to the several empty bottles in front of me. “Anyways, a lot of people are going to be questioning what the fight was about. Luna’s probably worried, and I need to go out and buy some more cheese. I trust you know the way out?” I stood up, picked up HeadConnor, and walked over to the door. “Is there anything else you need?” “Nope, I’ll leave. You have fun protecting your side of the rips. I’ll take care of my side and the others,” she said, floating up and starting to unravel before disappearing completely. I sighed. “Weird day.” “Tell me about it.” The head I was carrying mentioned. “You don’t know the half of it.” I walked out of the door, preparing to fix some of the other damages caused by the battle. Author's Note Crossover with The Cosmic King by Theyellowninja13 I hate the like-dislike ratio on this story, but I doubt many of you read the sequel, so, here it as, combined into this one as a new arc. Also, this may draw out my Dislike Fairies so, keep an eye out. Essence Fucks With ArmiesEssence sat in the Void watching a particular universe, holding some pancakes and nibbling on them. She had her focus on this particular universe because it was J.R.R.Tolkien’s Lord of The Rings universe. This one was on the bit before the five armies began fighting. With a slight whoosh of Displaced air, a shadowy figure strolled into existence behind her, casually eating a sandwich. “Y’know, you could totally fuck shit up down there.” Aaron finished off his sandwich, now lightly twirling a pencil which he proceeded to tuck behind his… uh…. ear thing. Essence raised an eyebrow. “Why should I interrupt?” “Because this story is going to be really funny, really stupid, or really badass. Why not make it the first and third and get your kicks out of the visceral thrill of having everyone around you know that they can’t do jack shit against you no matter how hard they try?” Aaron spoke airily, not even paying attention to Essence even though he knew that he was currently far weaker than her. Essence shrugged, “Then how should I join in? Slow, or just drop in?” Aaron shrugged as well, “I tend towards a massive flair for the dramatic, myself. Y’know, appear in the middle, make a giant flashy pillar of shadow, and then kill everyone except for whoever’s necessary.” “Fine. I’ll drop in then,” and with that, Essence hurled herself into the universe, dropping into orbit of the planet and then plummeting downwards and several thousand miles per hour. As the armies turned to face each other, a flaming asteroid, no, cat deity lady with massive ass wings, who knows why, crashed into the ground creating a very decent sized crater. Everyone stopped and stared as she stood up and popped her back, neck, and hands. “Time for a little fun~[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RRCM228C0c]” she said, suddenly holding a trident in front of her. pointed at the orcs and goblins with it and made a ‘come here’ motion. Hesitant at first, the orcs and goblins charged as a horn sounded, only to meet their demise in literal nanoseconds. She only paused to switch to her swords which halved her time, leading to complete and total devastation of both orc and goblin armies, the worms, and the bats in 0.03 seconds. She then pulled Sauron from nowhere and took him out in 0.01 seconds. She then turned around and flipped Elrond the bird. Aaron rolled his eyes, stepped forward, and promptly appeared behind Essence. He placed a hand on her shoulder and spoke with a damnable smirk on his face. “Essence, dearie, that’s not how you slaughter an army…” With a twist and a yank, Essence found herself sitting on a nearby hill, six seconds before she had started her rampage. Aaron continued from his position, “THIS is how you slaughter an army.” And he disappeared. Far below, Aaron slammed home in the middle of Sauron’s army, sending up a massive twister of shadowy blades and flinging orcs and goblins everywhere. As the army of monsters turned upon itself and began its defense, Aaron stood straight, blasting out his aura and tinting the landscape with shadows for miles upon miles. An oppressive feeling of pure terror swam through the minds of every living being there, even as Aaron took the slow route and glided through the assembled orcs and goblins like a specter of death. Even if Alucard did it first, Aaron found that taking enthusiastic walks was a rather calming pastime, even if he had to keep finding new ways of killing things just so he wouldn’t have to repeat a single method. Frankly, it was a tougher job than one might think. “Hepatitus C, lung cancer, decapitation, brain melting, eyeball explosion, disemboweling, implosion, explosion, singularity, Understanding, inside out, heard attack, malaria, pneumonia, ebola, black plague, thousand papercuts, cherry tapped, sodomized by ents, crushed by ents, sodomized by dragons, eaten by dragons, “eaten” by dragons, Slenderman, Freddy Krueger, Grim Reaper- hey, thanks pal, Sapphire Dragon, Shenron, falcon punch, FALCON PAWNCH!, four hour erection, erectile dysfunction, yeast infection, gender swapping, mutilation, self mutilation, exploding testicles, ruptured spleen…” Aaron’s announcements were clearly heard by everyone on both sides, even as the orcs and goblins attempted to run or hide, Aaron never wavered in his pace, ignoring any attackers and killing only the people in front of his outward spiralling path. By the fourth hour, every last problem on Middle Earth was dead. Sauron had been eaten alive by hellhounds. After proceeding to smack the balls back into Elrond, Aaron disappeared from the sight of Middle Earth, dropping back into existence behind Essence with a smug, “Yeah, that is how it’s done.” “I have another idea, if you want to see?” Essence asked. Aaron raised a glowing white eyebrow, “Hoh? And what, pray tell, is that?” “I’ll show you,” Essence reset the armies and walked out in front of the armies. “Damn it. Don’t you know? We’re all mad here.” Upon the word mad, the entire orc and goblin army went insane, murdering each other, and when they were done, she raised them from the dead, forced them to eat each other, and restored them, somewhat, only to send out a second wave of madness, causing them to all turn into BL. After some furious make out sessions, and an odd other Void Dweller dropping in to take pictures, she sent out a THIRD wave. This one causing them to begin to dance the chicken dance. Gandalf and the others stood there as their minds tried to comprehend what in hell was going on. Essence turned off the third wave and finally sent out a wave of energy causing all the orcs’ and goblins’ genitalia to grow rapidly before exploding into confetti. Very PAINFULLY. Finally, Essence walked over to Azog, leaned in, and whispered, “Boo.” Azog proceeded to scream like a little bitch and stabbed himself to death, the whole army following suit, as well as every other orc or goblin in Middle Earth, as they had all experienced the events. Essence disappeared and reappeared above Aaron. Meanwhile, Sauron shit himself to death. “That work?” Essence asked, innocently. “Eh. More or less.” “Shall we leave this world to its business then?” “Sure. I need a hotdog.” Aaron disappeared, Essence quickly following suit. This chapter was brought to you by the words, “Fuck” and “You”. Fuck you, for when you have no intelligible comeback. The War of Understanding (aka the Biggest Possibility Ever]THIS IS NOT APPLICABLE TO ANY STORIES INVOLVED UNLESS STATED OTHERWISE Rules: 1)Wait patiently for each writer to finish before adding in your section 2)Use the chatbox thing to discuss who writes when 3)Don’t type inane comments on the actual docx 5)Edit the story for posting on your account via copy-paste into a document of your own. Don’t do it here. 4)Inane or useful, comments should be written with the ‘comments’ button not on the actual docx 6)Have some mother [EXPLETIVE] fun with this. Because this [EXPLETIVE] is gonna be sweet. Note 3: Due to the clogging of the chat, Palringo is the new method of interpersonal communication. Once signed into Palringo, just join the group ‘the war of understanding’ Note 4: Battle music goes in the table below.Beyond The Bounds https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Niruwh4UwS8 Last One Standing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uurkmfkKodg Beauty Of Annihilation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAUOpUsR7ME Confrontation with the Enemy http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gQnY7L8ucCk D-Evil https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZSni89NM5Y Whispers In The Dark http://youtu.be/omuYo49_SOQ Nashandra Theme https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efHjdSM3nHo Time to Say Goodbye https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdWCLT7kccY A Force is Coming https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTRImQ9LT7Y Sons Of Odin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEt-aRGV5nA Fume Knight Theme https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ig0G32Ng2lM Makuta theme https://soundcloud.com/serialsymphony/the-makuta Specter Knight Theme https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe_XgkJ44_E Worlds Collide (fitting, I think) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrqhZm3uZx0 Critical Mass https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDsWPo4ONpo Titan Battle https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lO2b7Kgz9ao Kirby Theme https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CS93CdMv_E Seek n’ Destroy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bG5wSvi7euI Rising https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RERXiliJfdI Note 5: Every character gets an intro scene where they build their own section of their team’s base in the same general area as the rest of the bases. Note 6: Apparently, Palringo keeps screwing some people over, so Skype is a better deal at this point Scene 1: Shadows Ignite Battle World 1; Umbra Shadow-Walker’s Private Universe “Chii~in pon pon pon~~ This thing on?” Umbra Shadow-Walker; Systems Administrator. The DJ (Would brutally murder Zero in less than half a second) Tapping the microphone in front of him and wincing at the generated feedback, Umbra continued, “I’ll… take that as a yes. In any case, welcome all to the one and only, War of Understanding!” Umbra smirked, “I’m your master of ceremonies, Umbra Shadow-Walker, and today looks like a lovely day to decide the fate of several Universes’ Displaced inhabitants. Weather today looks like it’ll hold at a nice seventy degrees Fahrenheit with an eighty percent chance of rain later on, but it should stay nice and sunny for most of the day anyways.” Taking a moment to make sure all of the cameras and interdimensional screens were in working order, Umbra sat back, continuing his narration, “Well, here we are on the main continent of my lovely little planet, on one of the biggest, emptiest, most desolate stretches of unbroken Badlands in this galaxy. All the contestants of this lovely little show should be appearing pretty soon, so I suppose we’ll just go to our sponsors until they arrive, ne?” Advertisment Somewhere due West of the Arena A portal into a darkened universe opened, and the sound of metal clanking on stone resonated through the universe. Red eyes burned as a metallic giant stepped through into the universe, servos whirring and clanking as he finally entered. Makuta Teridax; King of the Shadows, Massive (Literally) SOB The Villain (Would consume Zero with a shadow arm before he could do anything) Teridax surveyed the desert before him with a seemingly bored attitude. Appropriate, he mused, that the final battle would be here. Rahkshi; Makuta’s Sons, Evil Army The Badass Cannon Fodder (Zero’s screwed against these motherfuckers) Behind him, more and more portals opened. The clanking of thousands of metallic feet heralded the rest of his group. Rahkshi in their hundreds came through, the sun gleaming off their armoured carapaces. Teridax didn’t even move, but the clouds overhead gathered together, blocking out the sun’s rays. The area surrounding the Rahkshi darkened, shadows obscuring everything about them. Inside the patch of darkness he had created, Teridax got to work. Cracking the knuckles on hands big enough to palm watermelons, he replaced the bizarrely wide mask with a narrower one that resembled an insect. Holding cages were ferried through next, holding snarling, mutated creatures that barely resembled their original species. Teridax examined the proceedings with a sombre appearance. The ground tore itself apart, rocks levitating themselves into a crude bunker. Teridax paused, and looked amongst his children. On an unspoken command, they lined up, into orderly formations. And thus Teridax stood there for a long time, staring seemingly into nothing. What he was thinking, what he was planning, only he really knew. Finally, a last portal deposited a small, heart-shaped device with a clear quartz screen on the front. A small, barely visible green LED light was glowing, right on the bottom of the device. With a wave of his hand, it attached itself to his chest, right where his heart would be. He tapped it, and his eyes briefly glowed blue. Then, he turned, and sat down. Trees and plants grew around him, creating a small grove. This quickly grew into a forest, small and only a couple of seconds old but still impressive. Teridax continued to sit, before waving a hand. At this, all the screens briefly flashed red, before returning to normal. “Thank you for paying attention to this important broadcast,” Teridax began, the sarcasm dripping from his every word, “but I’m afraid that you’ll have to wait a while longer for everybody to show up. My allies are coming, I assure you. All we have to do is wait for Auric to come to this place.” And with that, Teridax went silent, not even bothering to say anything further. He went as still as a statue, only the occasional flash of blue in his eyes even indicating he was alive. Meanwhile, far away in the actual arena Umbra Shadow-Walker bolted upright. “Holy shit. He’s here.” He blinked twice before shooting out of the announcer’s booth and into the air. “HOLY SHIT! HE’S HERE! LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, PLEASE WELCOME THE INTRODUCTION OF OUR KING OF SHADOWS! OUR RULER OF THE BIONICLE! PRISONER 0 OF TARTARUS! THE ONE! THE ONLY! MAKUTA TERIDAX!!” As he settled back onto the ground below, Umbra walked towards Teridax’s position, a score of cameras and microphones trailing behind him. “This is great, everyone. This is really really great; Makuta Teridax being the first to get here means that I get to see the Villain Camp!” Flying through the Badlands, Umbra soon made landfall outside a strange, shadowy forest directly beneath a bank of ominous clouds. “I suppose I should filter the Villain arrivals over to this area, yeah? Yeah.” Snapping, Umbra concentrated for but a moment as data-filled screens appeared around his position. With a light grunt of annoyance, Umbra created a large, shimmering portal directly above the newly designated Villain’s Camp – now complete with a spooky, wrought iron fence and gate with a placard bearing “Villain Camp” on top. “Yeah, that looks good. Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s Go!” Scene 2: Aliens and a Lich Somewhere due East of the Arena, about as far away from it as the Villain Camp is A random portal opened up in the oppressively sunny badlands, spewing out one human before closing. Said human went by the name of Jason. He had an Omnitrix. Far away over the Villain’s Camp, the human’s two traveling companions were spewed out of the active portal over said camp. Jason Hughes; Omnitrix-Wielding Champion of the Norse Gods One Badass MotherF***er (Would probably stomp Zero with Way Big) “Umbra, you really need to work on your portal skills,” Jason grumbled as he got up, brushing his clothes off. With a screaming of wind and a massive shockwave, an object hurled its way through the atmosphere of the aptly named Battle World, and buried itself at Jason’s feet. Said object was a large, conical chunk of unidentifiable metal with a note etched in. Said note read: “Shit, sorry about that. Forgot to shield for Void turbulence. -Umbra” “Ok where are Zed and Xemnas?” he asked grabbing the object, dropping it in his hypercube. “‘Cause they were with me coming here,” he looked up at the sky, scowling alright fine don’t answer me,” he flipped off Umbra before moving off toward a clearing. “There you are,” Xemnas said, stepping out of a corridor of darkness, Zed at his heels. “We hit a little turbulence on the way here,” he explained, adjusting his coat. Xemnas; Lord of Nothingness Jason’s Buddy (Zero couldn’t do shit against this motherfucker) Zed; Hates Being Called Dog Jason’s Pet/ Companion (Hell, even the dog can kill Zero) “Umbra already told me,” Jason said, looking around. “Ok, looks like we’re the first ones here, so... I’ll set up camp,” he said before Xemnas stopped him. “Allow me,” the Nobody said before throwing his arms out, focusing his powers. Reality seemed to bend before snapping back into place in the form of a strange white castle. “Behold! The Castle That Never Was!” “Show off,” Jason mumbled, looking up at the castle, petting Zed’s head. Somewhere North of Teridax’s base; within walking distance Lich King; Commander of the Undead The Master of the Undead (Can kill Zero, even if he wouldn’t) Out from a portal steps a hulking figure of a man, a massive suit of armor covering him as frost radiates off his armor. His weapon, Frostmourne, is held tightly in his grip as more armored figures arrive behind him, flanked by unicorns in robes and wave after wave of undead. Among one of the figures to leave the portal is another human, clad in an peculiar purple suit with a mask and cape, he stands next to the Lich King. Zero; Lich King’s Brother The Master Strategist (Can’t kill anyone at all. Not even a minion.) Zero looks over to his brother, smirking under his mask. “Our forces amass to destroy the enemies of Teridax. The ghouls and Necromancers are already setting up our camp as we speak, corrupting the ground and harvesting resources. I suspect we will have our camp built within the hour.” The Lich King simply nods his head once. “Begin bringing through the dragons and minotaurs as soon as our base is complete. I want no interruptions as I call upon more undead.” As he walks away back towards the portal, directing the zombies and necromancers around, a few of the lesser armored figures approach Zero, bowing towards him. “We are yours to command my lord. We shall begin scouting operations immediately.” With a dull thump, a small chunk of metal lands before the two. On it is etched a message reading: “Dear Lich King and Zero, there is a massive plot of land filled with corpses exactly six meters left of your position. Use it as you will. -Umbra Shadow-Walker” Zero smirks as he reads the message, a mental message already going out to the Death Knights around him as a few of them go off, commanding their necromancers to begin gathering the corpses for the revival rituals. Scene 3: Nightmare DNA Somewhere South of Jason’s Base; within walking distance Jumping out of a white-bordered portal, a sixteen year-old human lands on the ground. Ben 10X; Omnitrix-Wielding Champion of the Greek Gods The Protector (Wouldn’t kill Zero, but Zero can’t do shit against him) “Woo! Holy crap, that worked!” He looks around, green jacket billowing slightly in the wind, scratching at his messy brown hair. “That was trippy, all the colors and lights, hoo.” He shakes his head slightly. “Alright,” he said, clapping his hands together, “Now where the hell am I...woah!” Ben looks up to see a massive castle not too far from him. “Whelp, when in doubt, head for the castle!” He races off for the castle, reaching it within seconds. Ben looks up, trying to see the very top of the castle. “Hmm...should I knock or just go in? Decisions, decisions. Ah to hell with it.” Ben takes in a big breath and calls upon a special gift from his younger sisters: The Royal Canterlot Voice. “HEY!!! ANYONE HOME?!” “That you, Ben?” Jason called out, peering out of one of the windows. “Jason? Hey! Haven’t seen you in a long time! Not since that whole thing with Tennyson! Whatcha been up to?!” “You know, cleaning up the Forever Knights, rebuilding the Bifrost, that whole chestnut. Now get up here already.” “Alright! I’m on my way up!” He looks down to the omnitrix and punches in his favored flyer. “Emerald Streak!” Ben shouts, now a green furred pegasus. He flies up and into the window Jason poked his head out of. “Yo! What’s happenin?!” he proclaims, transforming back into a human. “We were just setting up. You remember Xemnas and Zed?” Jason asked, his eyes flashing for a second before the empty room filled with furniture. “It’s good to see you again Ben,” Xemnas said, nodding his head in greeting. “Xem,” Ben nods. “So, nice digs. Didn’t know Auric had a castle, it’s nice.” “I just made it,” Xemnas explained, leaning against a wall. “Oh, well I like it.” Ben frowns for a second. “Well, apparently it’s too white for Superiority. Sorry, ever since I merged with Nexus, I have to listen to their constant prattling. It gets annoying very easily.” “That must suck,” Jason said, shaking his head a bit. “I’m still getting used to the Odin force.” “Odin force? Must be something special. Well, why don’t we catch up while the others show up, eh?” “Sounds good to me. How about we go hang out in the throne room?” Jason asked, walking out of the room, gesturing for them to follow. “Sure, let’s go!” Somewhere South of the Villain’s Base; within walking distance The ground seems to bubble as the atmosphere within a short distance seems to shift entirely. Sand kicks up and pops as red-tinted glass begins to form, slowly pushing out of the ground. As it reaches about three metres tall, it stops, features becoming clear and two handles forming in the middle. The large gate then sits there quietly for a few moments as the sand settles until it is kicked outward loudly, the glass doors catapulting off and shattering once they hit the ground. “I fucking hate doors.” Freddy; The Nightmare Bringer F***s S*** Up With No F***s Given Does Not Own a Pizza Joint. (The pizza joint could probably beat Zero, if it existed..) “Seriously, they are just stupid fucking hindrances.” Freddy stepped out onto the stand, one hand flexing his hand and clinking artificial claws while the other creaks and stretches, wood splintering slightly. His gaze lazily turns behind him, back into the gate. ”Hurry up then, we haven’t got all day… probably.” Out from the door comes a man, his face cloaked in darkness underneath the hood of his armor. His eyes glowed with power, showing little emotion. Dominus; Overlord of Equestria, The Dark One Cannon-Fodder Spawn Station (Zero is the only one who could die from this asshole. Seriously. Zero is almost entirely human) “Well, what do you think, Nightmare?” He muttered to himself. ’Rather bleak. Makes sense a war would happens here.’ The entity within his head echoed. ”Well if you two are done mentally fucking how about we get to the rest of the idiots?” Don jumped back a bit at Freddy’s intrusion but quickly recovered. “What about my minions?” Freddy groaned and splayed out his wooden hand toward the gate. It creaked slightly and the archway rushed backwards about five-hundred metres, forcing a large collection of minions into the desert before it fell over and broke. ”Better, Princess Fuck-In-Your-Head?” Don just shook his head in aggravation. “Can we just get moving? I’ve got a lot to set up and I’d rather get to messing with the heroes.” ”We can get going as soon as the Nightmare mentally cleans her muzzle.” A low grumble came from Don as he rose his fist covered in flames, aimed at Freddy’s face. Scene 4: Bugged by Ghosts Somewhere West of Jason’s Castle A nydus worm erupted out of the ground. Dahaka: Leader of the Swarm Cannon Fodder for the Heroes (Could probably take down Dominus and Zero. (Definitely Zero)) I was barfed out of the nydus worm, along with enough drones to cause a problem right off the bat. ‘Where is everyone?’ I wondered. ‘First priority, find and build a base. Second priority, find allies.’ I began dropping structures right and left, in case I had been detected. This was a war, after all. I called a wave of Zerg out of the worm, just to prevent a zerg rush. ‘We could probably still join Teridax.’ Said Prime Directive. ‘Shut up.’ I replied. I sent a few zerglings scouting, hoping to find something. Just then, a big, metallic thing came whizzing out of the sky. It landed before any counter measures could be initiated. It did not damaging anything, but a hologram sprang out of it, saying, “Hey, Dahaka. There’s plenty of stuff for a base right where you are. Dig away the topsoil if you want to reach it. -Umbra” Dahaka looked up, and said, “Thank you, Umbra!” Somewhere West of the Villain’s Base; within walking distance The wind began kick up as a purple vortex appeared. “Ya know, why couldn’t we have just been dropped in the camps?” Shade; The Ectonurite Mage, Hates Being Dropped in the Middle of Nowhere The Ghost (Could probably get Zero to kill himself, honestly) Shade shook his head as the purple vortex closed behind him. ’Why are these types of battles always held in badlands or forest clearings?’ “Welp, might as well take a look around.” Shade mused before floating upwards. As he got above the tree tops, Shade noticed the dark ominous clouds in the distance. “Seriously? That is really stereotypical. But I can live with it.” Shade chuckled maliciously before flying toward the camp. ’The forces of light will know true fear.’ Scene 5: Doomed Hearts Somewhere East of the Hero’s Base In the emptiness of the Badlands, the eruption of a massive portal was instantly noticeable. What was more noticeable was the figure flying out of said portal in a textbook-perfect flying-spin kick. While wreathed in flames. And bellowing a massive kiai at the same time. Domon Kasshu; The King of Hearts The Pilot (Would ERUPTING BURNING FINGER Zero out of existence) Domon cracked his neck, looking around the barren area. “This is the place? Really??” he asked, shaking his head. “Hey Umbra, or anyone else, hear me?” he called out looking around. Skreeeeeeeee A roll of metal slats bound together with rope slammed into the ground just in front of Domon, kicking up a massive cloud of dust and obscuring Domon’s view of the surrounding area. As the dust cleared, the roll unfurled with a sound of bells, projecting a hologram of Umbra into the air above it. “‘Sup Domon? How ya doing?” “Well enough I suppose,” he said looking at the hologram, “you do realize that I’m out of a Gundam right?” “Hmm. Well, that’s a problem. Easily remedied though. Watch.” And with a sound of roaring thunder, a blazing object burst into view, descending from the sky above as unto an angel from heaven. In other words, it came down like the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs. SLAM CRASH When the dust cleared, Domon found an amazing sight: the Burning Gundam standing proudly, it’s armor gleaming in the blazing noon-day sun. One could almost hear the brilliant ping! of sunlight reflecting off of its visor. “Ha!” Domon said with a grin, “We’re back in business baby!” he shouted, moving over to the Gundam, getting inside the control area. The hologram followed, “You like it?” “Hell yes!” he said as he started to move it, “Lets get it on!” he shouted, running off into the woods. Back in the Arena – Interlude 1 Umbra stood in front of a solitary camera in his incredibly bishonen human form. With nothing but a towel around his waist. Clearing his throat, he began. “Hello viewers. Look at your LOHAV/H fic. Now back to mine. Now back to your fic. Now back to mine.” Smirking slightly, he continued. “Sadly, it isn’t mine. But if you stopped using poorly written prose and started crossing over with other writers, it could look like mine.” “Look down; what’s in your hand? Back to me; I have it! -VWORPLE- It’s the best gaming computer you nerds could ever buy!” “Look down. Back up. The Computer is now -VWORPLE- best pony! Anything is possible if you stop using terrible prose and start writing with other authors.” VWORPLE “I’m on a horse.” “Get off of me, Umbra!” “Hush, purple smart. I’m in charge now.” “WHY YOU LITTLE–” WE ARE EXPERIENCING TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES Back in Teridax’s Forest o’ Doom Teridax just stared at one of the screens dangling in front of him. He could count the number of competent allies he had on one hand. The Lich king, Dominus and Freddy were competent enough allies, but why, WHY was there a Lelouch? “Alright, alright. The situation is still salvageable.” The heart on his chest pulsed a bit, a bit more green light trickling into the device. He tapped it distractedly. “Need more time… need more time… need HIM to be here…” As it had with so many others, a whistling noise cut through Teridax’s own thoughts. Looking up in surprise, he noted a small object hurtling towards him at sub-orbital velocities. Catching it, he saw it was a Makuta Stone of all things. With a message engraved onto it, no less. Undoubtedly from Umbra. Teridax snorted at the stone’s appearance, reading the message to himself. “The irony of this message appearing in this way is not lost on me, Umbra.” “Good Day, sir. Welcome to Battle World 1. There is a network of tunnels underneath this absolutely lovely forest of yours. No one else knows of them. They lead nigh everywhere in this Badland, so use them as you will. Massive deposits of energized protodermis six feet behind you and six hundred feet straight down. Use that how you will. -Umbra” Teridax looked at the probe for a while, before nodding. Without even moving, he phased downwards, entering the tunnels. He appraised them, before grudgingly nodding his approval. “At least you are neutral in this conflict, Umbra. But I still need more time before this will work.” The heart-shaped device grew a little brighter, and he tapped it with a massive finger. “As soon as he appears, it won’t matter who wins or loses… I will always win.” With a smirk spelled out in his body language, he pulled out a crystal orb, and started tapping it, watching it zoom in on various places on the universe. “Well, now. This looks interesting…” Scene 6: First Contact First Contact: of Zerg and Undead (Zero wouldn’t survive ten seconds.) A zergling rushed along. It was confused by the fact that nine other zerglings were running besides it, but it welcomed the safety brought in numbers. They spotted a strange procession in the distance, where a small group of what appeared to be a mixture of all three pony races, along with a diamond dog. The diamond dog and most of the ponies were in horrible states of decay, wounds covering their bodies from head to hoof, except for two of the unicorns, who looked perfectly fine, except for the glossed over look in their eyes and the black robes adorning their backs. The zerglings wanted to kill them, but the master commanded them to watch them from a distance while he sent a nydus worm. One of the dead things seemed to see them, and began charging. The others looked around stupidly before charging with the first. The cultist looking pony’s galloped to keep up with them, certainly cursing. The master seemed distraught, but ordered them to defend themselves. – Umbra looked into one of his many view screens. “.... That was unexpected. Let’s begin the War!” Clicking a few buttons, he sat back and chuckled. “Let’s see how they like this…” – BWEEP! “BATTLE ONE! START!” Apparently so focused on the task of killing things, the zerglings rushed to the zombies. The zerglings jumped on the zombies, and began slicing and biting them. Two of the zombies, too stupid to notice the noise, suddenly started moving and attacking faster, as if in a frenzy. “FIRST BLOOD: ZERG! SCORE: 1:0! LET THERE BE BLOOD!” The zerglings, in true Zerg fashion, continued attacking wildly. But one of the zombies, the Diamond Dog, tore a zergling apart with its new found strength. “BRUTAL KILL! SCORE TIED! IT’S REALLY HEATING UP!” Two of the zerglings noticed that the cultist looking ponies weren’t being attacked viciously, and switched targets. The cultists, spotting the two zergling running at them, cast a curse on them; atrophying the two’s muscle. One of the undead unicorns impaled a zergling with it’s horn, spraying alien blood all over it’s undead corpse. “OOH THAT’S GOTTA STING! SCORE: 1:2; THE ZOMBIES ARE WINNING! TWO ZERG CRIPPLED! LET’S SEE HOW THIS PLAYS OUT!” The zerglings redoubled their efforts to kill the zombies and at about the same time, one of the earth pony undead bucked a zergling, sending the poor thing flying. “50 POINTS DAMAGE! THAT ZERG AIN’T GONNA SURVIVE MUCH LONGER! ACTIVATE BERSERKER’S LAST STAND – LOW HEALTH = MASSIVE ATTACK DAMAGE!” The berserk zergling charged back into the fray, leaping at the head of one of the zombies and tearing it off with a single stroke of its claw. But to offset this, one of the necromancers animated the skeleton of one of the zombies, allowing it to attack the berserking Zergling and deal those last few points of damage. “BERSERKER ZERGLING LOST! SCORE: 1: 3 THIS IS LOOKING REAL BAD FOR THE ZERG, FOLKS! BUT WHAT’S THIS!? HERE COMES THE CAVALRY! NYDUS WORM INBOUND! ETA: THREE SECONDS!” As one zergling goes down to a zombie and another gets stabbed by a cultist, the remaining zerglings get clear orders from the master. “ATTACK THE CULTIST LOOKING PONIES, YOU IDIOTS!” So, they rushed the indicated cultists. “BODY SLAM!” “NICE STAB!” “NUT SHOT!” “DECAPITATIOOOOOOOOOON!” “DOUBLE KILL!” “TRIPLE KILL!” “PENTA-KILL!” “M-M-M-MONSTER KILL!” “VICTORY: DAHAKA +50 EXP ITEM DROP: ZOMBIE FLESH (SHREDDED)16 BITSCULTIST CLOAKS (SHREDDED)RITUAL DAGGERS (2)SPOOKY SCARY SKELETON (SHATTERED) FIRST CONTACT BATTLE (UNOFFICIAL) COMPLETE. HAVE A NICE DAY.” As the Zerg overran the resistance, that message flashed by Dahaka’s eyes. He was surprised, but not as surprised as when the aforementioned objects seemed to be shoved into his unofficial pocket. He quickly opened his pocket, and the objects came spilling out. “What the... I don’t get it. How did that not puncture one of the inner membranes?” He got a headache from contemplating that delivery. But at least he knew how to deal with one of his enemy’s now. It was quite simple, really. Prime Directive had suggested it. Spam banelings. As It had said, “The enemy seems able to resurrect dead troops, so any dead on our side would result in the enemy growing. This would be countered by banelings, who don’t leave anything other than acid.” And thus, spam was made. Scene 7: OmniFear The Hero’s Castle Ben was sitting comfortable on one of the windowsills, looking out at the wasteland below. He could feel the light wind blowing on his face, causing him to smile despite the circumstances. Down below, he noticed something moving. “Huh, hey Jason! I think we got another one!” “Holy crap!” Jason shouted, peering out of the window. “It looks like Domon is here, and he got himself a new Gundam.” “Gundam? What the hell is a Gundam?” “A giant robot,” Jason explained. Vwwwwwm “Right you are, Jason m’boy. So, in the interest of being a good host, why not open the gates so your new guest may enter?” “I’m good up here, thanks,” said Ben. Jason turned to say something to Ben, only to find a cloud of dust settling where he once was sitting. He looked around a bit and noticed a small trail going up the ceiling. Looking up, Jason found Ben...clutching the chandelier? “Nah, I’m already here,” Domon said, jumping into the room from his Gundam’s hand. “Why is that guy holding a chandelier?” “I don’t like robots!” Ben shouted, not moving in the slightest. “Whatcha got against robots?” he asked, crossing his arms. “I’m Domon by the way.” “Name’s Ben and I don’t wanna talk about it! They’re evil! Let’s leave it at that!” “Ok...” Jason said, cutting in. “Hows about we head to the bar? Xemnas probably has it set up by now.” “I could go for a beer,” Ben said leaping off the chandelier, yet staying far away from the Gundam. “Been a while since I’ve had some of the good stuff. Just keep that...thing, away from me. Gives me the creeps just lookin’ at it.” “Yeah, yeah,” Domon said with a roll of his eyes, following Jason out of the room. “Oi! Wait for me!” Ben said as he ran after the two, catching up in a couple fast-steps. “Woo! Still love doin’ that. So, Domon, what the hell are you doing with...whatever the hell that thing is?” “I’m the King of Hearts, I use it to wreck fools in the Gundam Fight,” Domon started, filling their walk to the bar with a brief overview of his world’s history. Somewhere North of the Hero Castle. The Badlands were more active than they had been in the last seven billion years. Case in point: The rather ominous portal opening three feet above the ground, spewing out a creature from many peoples’ (and ponies’) worst nightmares. Pyramid Head; God of Fear, King of the Silent Hill Oh Goddamn Run For Your Damn Life! (Zero can just kill himself. I think it’s better that way) (Seriously Zero, do it.) “Hehehehe, look at these weaklings… Normally, I would kill you all on sight, but today is different due to… certain circumstances…” He took a deep whiff of the air and sighed loudly… before summoning his spear and stabbing a small lizard crawling on the ground. “And where are you going? I don’t recall the Badlands having life… Well, except for the changelings…” Whistling merrily to himself, he started walking. Where? He didn’t know, except maybe that big castle thing over there had an answer or two. “Wait… Why did… nah. Why do I get the sneaking suspicion that someone… WANTS TO SELL ME SOMETHING!” Quickly turning he saw… Nothing but a duck. “...What’s a duck doing in the middle of the Badlands of all places?” Then the duck did something odd: Point straight up with one wing and cock its head as if to say, “Well? What are you waiting for?” “...I’m suddenly scared for my life again… A feeling I haven’t felt in millennia.” Following the ducks wing up he found….. Was that a shine of metal? And then the whistling started. SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE SLAM! As the dust cleared away, Pyramid Head saw an odd sight: a shining, metallic, coffin-shaped object with a note attached. “Dear Pyramid Head: Welcome to Battle World 1. Encased in this lovely little package is a map to the Hero’s Castle (Directly South, if you want to do it the hard way) and one massively over-sized butcher’s knife, sharpened and ready to take souls. Additional features may be added later. Have fun! -Umbra Shadow-Walker (The guy who wants to sell you things.) (The guy who you absolutely, positively should NOT piss off. Ever)” “...I don’t know why, but I want to piss him off. Just to see what happens. Now what’s this Butcher’s Knife he’s… Ooooh that’s pretty…” A nice metallic knife, roughly the size of the original, was right there ready for the taking. He placed his hands around the hilt but… it didn’t feel right… No, it was like touching pond scum, all gooey… “What...WHAT IS THIS?!” He threw the knife with all of his power and made sure he could never see it again. Skreeeee Thud “Sorry, wrong knife. I have a whole lot of them, so it’s easy to lose track. This one should be better, though I should warn you….. it’s a bit temperamental. -Umbra” “You must understand, Umbra...I do not want your equipment, I do not need your help. I am fear incarnate, and terror given form! I am the eternal guardian of Silent Hill and Alessa, and I will be damned a thousand times over if I give in to the temptations of your… ‘Charity’.” He took the map, but left the second coffin, which slowly retreated. “And besides, I have my own. And it’s irreplaceable.” With that, he set out on the tedious task of getting to the Hero’s Castle… Directly South. “Hehehe, I love a good challenge…” Whoosh-thud “Well… if you insist. But realize this: These are all pre-written notes, so you’re really talking to no one. -Umbra” “I’m aware of that Umbra, but I know for a fact you can hear me.” He said, smug grin hidden behind his helmet. Whoosh “Shit! He’s onto me!” Scene 8: Musician’s Scourge Somewhere East of the Hero Castle More portals had opened in the Badlands within the last three days than in the last seven billion years. Once more, another portal opened, this one reeking of chemicals and death; and strangely enough, it also carried with it the faint scent of courage and heroism. From it stepped a hulking figure, barely recognizable as having once been human. As it stepped forth into the barren wastelands of Battle World 1, it bellowed: “STAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRSSSS” Nemesis; The Unkillable Monster; The Slayer of Ellura The Hunter (Could probably kill Zero just by looking at him) “I was wondering when this damn thing was going to start. It took long enough.” Nemesis growled as he adjusted some of the weapons strapped to his back. “Now where the hell is everyone…?” He looked out over the seemingly barren wasteland for any sign of life, but some stray dirt blowing across the ground was his only company. “...this isn’t much of a war.” Skreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee- thud Yet another package from the resident SysAdmin. Another note as well. “Nemesis. Welcome to Battle World 1. Inside this package you will find all of your weapons. And I do mean all of them. And a map leading to the Hero’s Base in the West. Due East is the Arena, but as of right now, we’re still in setup. Be careful about making your way to the Hero Base though, that portal of yours dropped you directly in the middle of Laser-Wasp territory. So…… if you see giant, car-sized bugs popping out of random holes in either the giant rock columns or the ground….. either hit them before they fire or run. Don’t Die~ -Umbra” And as soon as Nemesis looked up, he heard the most ominous buzzing noise that anyone had ever heard. It was like the revving of a chainsaw mixed with the hum of a diesel engine at sixty miles per hour. VVVVVVVVVWWWWWWAWAAAAWWAAWAWAWAWWAWWARRRRRRRR Nemesis barely had time to retrieve his weapons before he was met with the sight of thousands of bloodthirsty insects streaking towards him. As he began to fire at them, explosions and gunfire streaking across the battlefield, he only had one thought on his mind. “Goddamnit Umbra!” In between the teams Essence; The Musician, The Merchant’s Demise, Madness of the Void True Neutral (Even she could probs kill Zero. Even if no one knows who she is) Essence dropped into the world out of nowhere, portal or otherwise. Dragging herself up she glared around the area. Summoning her favorite weapon, otherwise known as Poseidon’s Trident, she walked forward, looking around to try to spot someone nearby. While she did this one of the bugs, a giant wasp, flew up to her and aimed its stinger at her. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” she warned. Seemingly debating it for a mere second the bug lunged forward. Out of instinct Essence dodged to the right and impaled the wasp on her weapon. She stood and stuck the weapon on her back. Walking forward she made her way away from both camps, her gait reflected her anger. Not only had she lost her friends, she had lost her home, and the only person she had saved was a small yellow pegasus and a blue alicorn. Her sorrow leaked out into her aura releasing her madness, her insanity, forth as trees bent forming a ladder up into a small fortress with a small pond in the center. Leaning forward she spoke, “Umbra, I wish to speak with you.” Skreeeeeeeeeeeeeeee- whoooosh- thud “Alright. You’re not someone I’m exactly familiar with, but……. I do still know of you. Welcome to Battle World 1, Essence. How do you like my incredibly accurate, pre-written, dropped-from-orbit notes?” “They’re fine. I suppose you know me from one of the SysAdmins? If it’s the Merchant I have a message.” Skreeeeee “I know of you from sources that are best left unmentioned. The Merchant, eh? If it’s a death threat or anything similar, get in line. Wily bastard’s been evading his rightful kick in the balls for over seventeen eons. -Umbra” “I already knew that. My message, if you can get it to him is this: The demise of the Council of Influence was not appropriate, as the final member, even though I no longer hold shadow abilities, I relay that his rival still lives. He may have destroyed my world, my friends, my home but in the End, the battle between Desire and Madness will leave Madness above Desire. You think there may be a way to get that to him?” she asked. Her tail, fluffy and huggable, wiggled slightly out of excitement. Her ears flicked. She seemed to be anxious but extremely pissed at the same time. Who wouldn’t; being trapped in your world, your cry for help missed by others, as it broke apart into nothing? Skreeeee “Yeah. He’ll get that message real soon” “Alright.” Skreeeeee “If you want to fight someone, then I suggest heading South in a few days’ time. There’s an Arena there” “I’m not here to join the battle, in fact, I got here by accident. Watching may be fun though…” Skreeeeee- paff “Then here’s a ticket for Seat A-32. One of the better seats in the house, if I do say so myself. Concessions are free, just make sure to throw away all of your trash when you’re done. Oh, and don’t take the cups. Bottles are fine, but not the cups. Those are refillable.” “Alright, if anyone issues a challenge towards me- there’s always one- I’m open to it, but I will not be placed on one side. I already know who wins after all.” Looking into the pool she could see her lost friends, the two she had saved, and sighed. Looking up and realizing that her new camp had no name, she focused and a giant neon sign appeared above it with the words, “Music and Madness Station, grab an instrument!” She groaned and added another one, “Neutral Territory.” Scene 9: 9000 Degrees Above Zero In the air, in the dead center of the arena A single, small, red-and-white sphere floats in the air. The button on the front clicks, and the entire thing hinges open, and spits forth a white energy. The alabaster mass swirls and writhes before becoming a single entity. Wings, a tail, and a long neck forms, and then, it becomes a figure. Geo the Charizard; The Reaper of Flame, The Gaelic Serpent, The Italian Inferno The Dragon (Would burn Zero alive. Then say mean things in Italian at him.) “Where’s the fight? Where’s my ene- merda. WAAAAAAAAAGGGHHHH!” As Geo begins falling, he opens up his wings, and narrowly pulls up, before swooping around and landing on the ground. “Damnit, who put me up there? When I get my claws on the stronzo who did…” Skreeeeeeeeeeeeeee- SLAM Oddly enough, this message came not with a package, but with a large figurine of a Dragonite with a pouch looped around its neck. Said figurine promptly animated and held out a strange looking metallic card which immediately projected a small hologram. Vwwm “Greetings Geo! You’re a bit off. Your Base is directly to the West from here, and the fighting won’t start for a while. I suggest you get settled in. And if you didn’t get it, this statue of a Dragonite is a reference to one of the best Pokemon movies of all time. -Umbra Shadow-Walker (Piss me off and you’ll find out what solar plasma tastes like)” “... Dude, I’ve spent my entire childhood on Pokémon. Do you think I won’t get that reference? And whaddya mean, ‘piss you off’? What’d I do to you? Did I punch one of your friends? Sorry, I tend to lose track.” Vwwm “Nothing of the sort. It’s just a precautionary measure against those whose personalities I don’t know. And against those who tend to have more testosterone than reason.” “... What? I just like punching things. And assholes. But mostly assholes. Are there any really big assholes that are gonna be here?” Vwwm “Would you like that list in alphabetical order or by which one’s closer to you?” “I… wait, seriously? You’re not gonna tell me to piss off?” Vwwm “Nope. I wanna see quite a few people here get smacked around a bit. It would be good for them to learn a little humility. Actually, to help enforce it, I have an idea. Here…” Skreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee A capsule falls from the sky next to the original, and within it, is… “A baguette?” “I always wanted to see someone get beaten with a loaf of bread.” “... You are my new best friend.” Geo grabs the baguette, and as he begins to fly off, he stops, “Uhm… got a compass?” Skreeeeee-clack Geo grabs the small machine, and after gaining orientation, “Fly!” After flying for a while, he notices a rather spooky looking forest, along with the sign ‘Villain Camp’ on it. “Why’re WE being called the villains…?” The Villain’s Base; the entirety now surrounded by a large, spooky, wrought-iron fence. With a crappy wooden sign outside the front gate. Don stood before the spawning pools his minions had built within the past hour. Magic flowed from his hands into a set of crystals, lacing the entire area in a dark glow. Minions of all kinds pulled themselves from the muck, quickly running off to serve their master’s will. SKREEEEEEEEEE–KER SLAM! Crunch-splatter This time, it wasn’t a package. No, this was a massive Shipping Crate (Size XXL) of an obviously futuristic shape. Inside it, yet another note. And an armory. And a peculiar device full of buttons and dials with a rather prominent antenna. “Greetings Don. Sorry about the minion. This armory is yours to do with as you wish. It never runs out and each weapon is more than capable of dealing some serious damage. Be careful, each weapon has its own set of effects and features, all listed in the roster by the door. Oh, and use the device to summon in aid should you need it. Ah; not right now though. It’ll only start working once the War starts nice and proper. -Umbra” “I knew Umbra would kill something sooner or later with one of those things." Said a voice from behind Don. He turned his head just enough to see whoever had arrived. Standing there, flanked by a few heavily armored figures, was a man clad in a purple suit and cape, a mask adorning his face as he spoke again. "I assume you are one of my allies? My name is Zero, pleasure to meet you." Zero puts out his hand towards Don for a handshake. Don dropped his hands and turned to face Zero, staring at him for a second before grasping his outstretched hand. “Dominus, though I think that’s a mouthful so I go by Don.” Skreeeeee-Crunch-EEK “My bad. Sorry. Zero: Press the object in here to your mask if you desire a laser eye for Geass Sniping. As in Geass people from afar. Comes with telescopic vision and an actual laser beam for attack purposes. It’s the purple marble thing. The rest is for your zombies. Armor and such. –Umbra (Don’t you just love how I do these things?)” Don shook his head before chuckling a bit. “I must admit I enjoy the presents. Now if only his aim was better.” Skreeee-paff “I can’t really direct these things too well after they enter the Atmosphere. Sorry.” Zero chuckles and reaches into the box, pulling out the purple ball and pressing it to his mask. "It must be Christmas, gifts are just raining from the sky." Laser Eye Mark IV installed. Would you like a tutorial? Zero chuckled lightly before nodding his head. Tutorial begin. You may feel some pain. "I'm already dead. Pain doesn't matter." Zero said as if to himself. He would come to regret those words deeply. Scene 10: Gravity Warps Time South of the Villain Camp, approx eighteen miles out A rippling, shuddering portal tore it’s way into existence with a howl of multicolored Void turbulence. Out launched a seemingly young woman who could’ve sworn that she was traveling with another person half a second ago. In an upward parabolic arc. At mach three. Directly North. Umbra calculated that she’d smash face first into Zero’s crotch within the next three minutes, if everything went smoothly. If not, then Zero learning what Marshmallow Hell feels like is also a suitable result. Kat Shifter; The Gravity Queen, General of Equestria, Goddess of Battle The Fighter (Well, it was nice knowing Zero while he was alive. Not.) As she involuntarily flew through the atmosphere of Battle World 1, Kat noticed a dark, spooky forest directly below her. Unfortunately, her current trajectory carried her far beyond said forest and directly into the meeting of two beings who were decidedly not her allies. In the case of one, the into applies more literally. Back with Zero and Don Don had begun looking over the list of equipment sent with the armory when he heard the sound of a large, organic object flying through the air. It sounded a lot like any other object flying really, except there was a bit more screaming factoring into the dopplering sound. “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH SHIT!” At the sound of screaming, Zero took a step to the side and back as the Death Knights with him formed a wall of metal armor and swords between him and the flying object. Not that it helped much. Kat instinctively used her gravity abilities to increase her mass enough to plow through whatever objects in her way. Which she did. Straight into Zero. Who thankfully survived the initial blow. “Ow, what the hell did I just hit and where is Umbra so I can hit him?” she groaned, sitting up on top of Zero. Skreeeee-slam-crunch “Dammit! Not another one! Don! Put your minions away! Kat, sorry about the turbulence. I’m in the Hero’s Castle some……. fifty-ish miles East of here. Sorry. -Umbra” Zero simply looked up at her, groaning slightly as he responds "Not that I mind you on top of me, but if you don't move, I'll file sexual harassment charges." Kat looked down, her face blank. She got off and stared down at the… thing below her. She lifted her hand and forced about thirty orgasms (G’s) onto him, pressing him further into the ground Taking a glance at the knights now strewn about the place, Don walked over to the once human projectile. “Would you calm down woman? The war hasn’t even started and you already have rekt (wounded) one of the participants.” Kat looked over at him, not very amused. “Sorry, but I don’t take to kindly to comments like those. Now, if you will excuse me, I have places to be, people to see and plans to crush the both of you,” she said pointing a finger at the two of them, “to make. Off I’ll be.” Kat began to take to the air, but stopped for a quick second. “You know, you chose the wrong side. You’ll all be destroyed in the end for joining him.” Don laughed before looking up at the girl. “Are you saying you wouldn’t try to fuck (destroy) us anyway? I’m sure a hero like you could find some way of justifying ending our lives.” Kat flew right up to his face, a snarl ever present. “Now you listen here, I don’t give a damn what you do on your Equestria. I rightly couldn’t care less, but when you help a ‘man’ who threatens not just his own, but every world in existence, that’s when I get mad.” She then gravity kicked Don right toward a nearby rock only for him to be caught by shadows springing up from the ground. “That’s your one and only warning, leave this war and go back to destroying your own worlds. Or you will be destroyed here.” Zero simply chuckled and responds with "Wow, quite the temper on you. Though you might find us much harder to kill then you think." Kat returned her attention to Zero, laying in the crater. “Yes, I am angry. You threaten my Flutters and I rip off your head. Simple as that. Now, see you on the battlefield, boys, or so you fear.” Kat flew high up from them and shot off in the direction of the Hero Castle. "I can already think of a few ways to knock her down a few notches....(Mostly with a few rounds of angry sex)" Zero mumbles to himself as he sits up. “So can I,” Don spoke as he walked back from where he had been sent flying “Though just from that alone I can tell this is going to be quite an interesting war.” Somewhere West of the Arena, closer to the Arena than any of the Bases. Right outside the entrance known as 2-B, a portal materialized as it had with so many others. This one was, unlike some, stable; ejaculating(ejected) only one being: A man with a pocket watch. Michael Faraday; Lord of Time Mr. Shitpunk Mc’Asshole (Would go into bullet time, and kick Zero’s kidneys into his mouth.) “Um… hello?” Michael took a look around, noticing the beef taco (barren room). “Is there someone out there?” Skreeeeeee Okay, seriously, what’s with all the packages? This is like the eleventh one! And, of course. Another note. “Hello Michael. Welcome to Battle World 1. Teridax’s base is to the West from here. There’s a compass in the box. The Hero’s Castle is to the East, though I don’t recommend going there. Some of the heroes can ignore your abilities. Also, I can too. And I’m there. The bowtie with the crystal? Well, more info on that when you actually put it on. It’ll be good for you. Good luck~ –Umbra (Don’t mess with me. Seriously. Don’t)” “So, rule one: the Doctor lies.” ‘Shut the fuck up, you jackass,’ Michael said from inside my mind, ‘before I come out and smack you in the face.’ “Rule two: Don’t screw with this… Umbra chap.” ‘I think we got that from the note, why are you saying it out loud?’ “Rule three: Bowties are cool.” ‘Quit it with the Doctor Who crap! You know that-’ It was at this point that Michael pulled the bowtie out of the box-removing the tie he currently had on-and slung the new neck wear around his collar, tying it quickly with skilled hands. A moment passed, both halves slightly confused at how the bowtie was supposed to help either of them. And then the most curious feeling happened. VWORPLE The Michael felt himself being torn out of Nicholas’ psyche and stuffed into the red half of the jewel on the bowtie, his form compressing into a ball of malevolently red energy that flung itself into the distance towards the Villain Camp. Nicholas Faraday; The Other Lord of Time NOT Mr. Shitpunk Mc’Asshole (Could also kick Zero’s kidneys into his mouth.) Nicholas, who was now the sole owner of his body, suddenly noted the presence of slightly more green in his attire, along with the gear shaped jewel on his bowtie suddenly becoming a whole emerald, instead of sharing its space with a ruby. Skreeeeee-paff “I apologize for the inconvenience, but now you’ve got complete control of your own body. Of course, to prevent the deaths of everyone on this planet, Michael has incredibly reduced abilities until the war properly begins. The Hero base is directly East from here, just follow the map in the envelope. Also, once the war starts, both of you can only use your full abilities in the Arena. So I don’t have to mop up more blood than I already have. Good luck~ –Umbra” ‘What is it with Umbra and luck?’ Nicholas thought to Mic- oh wait… he then remembered exactly what had just happened and the implications hit him like a freight train. “We’re all gonna die.” At Neutral Territory Essence looked into the pond and groaned. Why? Nothing much. Just that her friends she saved from the demise of her home aren’t in this universe. Otherwise, she’s fine. Opening the door to the wooden fortress and walking down the steps, she stretched. All the crouching had made her body stressed. Pop “Sorry to give you such short notice, but…. INCOMING! -Umbra (Also, could you charge admission at the Arena when the War starts?) “Sure, I guess and wait what-” she was smooshed by someone. “OOMPH!” Ansem; Seeker of Darkness One Heartless Motherfucker (Night, night Zero.) Essence, now partially smooshed into the ground, could hear Ansem above her conversing. “I half expected to be alone,” Ansem said, raising his hand. Several pools of darkness formed around him, spawning a few Neo Shadows. “Go, find Teridax,” he ordered, sending the Heartless scurrying off. He looked down at his feet, noticing he had landed on something. “Hmm...whats this?” “More like someone, buddy,” came a muffled voice. All that could be seen was an adorably fluffy tail. “I’m amazed you are alive,” Ansem said, looking at the tail with some amusement. “I survived the end of my world, and well, come from a council of... immortals? either way. I think I’m good. Now, could you, or whoever is sitting on me, please move? It’s uncomfortable,” her muffled voice responded. “Nothing is over you,” Ansem said, tilting his head to the side. “Then can you pull me out of the ground? I think your weird force or whatever smooshed me into it.” “Why would I do that?” “Cookies?” “I don’t eat,” Ansem replied boredly. “I hate you. UMBRA! Get me out of the dirt please.” VWORPLE “Better?” “Thank you. Now,” she brushed the dirt out of her tail and off her ears. “Tea?” VWORPLE “Gah! Shit!” Umbra fell to the ground, reeking of alcohol and poor decisions. And horrendously butchered English. “Bah. wehre teh fcku am I?” Drunkenly looking around, Umbra spotted Ansem and Essence standing a few feet away, all staring at him. “Teh fcuk uyo tanw!?” Suddenly a woman in her late fifties comes out of nowhere, grabs Umbra by the ear, and drags him away from the three. “Mom! I was playing with my friends!! Why do you have to ruin everything?!” Groaning, Essence shook her head, “Umbra, sheesh. Anyway. Somewhere in that direction is the Villain Camp. The opposite direction is the Hero’s Castle. Neutral Territory is manned by yours truly,” as she spoke her tail flicked in the directions she mentioned. VWORPLE “I’d like you all to ignore what just happened. That was not my mother. That was me creating constructs while pretending to be drunk and being drugged up for real. I apologize for the disturbance.” VWORPLE “Why do I doubt that?” she turned back to Ansem, “Feel free to roam. I recommend you stay away from the opposite side.” She turned around, making her way towards her base as Ansem looked at her. Ansem sighed and headed Villain camps. In the Void, Near Umbra’s Private Universe… The dark figure, cloaked in reds so dark they were near black, watched his workings ensue. Not only had he created mass chaos but he had done it so deliciously! The Merchant; Major Dick, The Scumsucking Bitchsack That’s Been Fucking With Other Universes Like a Pile of Shit, Umbra’s Number One Mark on His Shit List, Desire, Essence’s Rival, Destined to Get Kicked In The Balls Hard Enough To Make A Big Bang Three Times Over, Has Horrible Interest Rates, Five Hundred And Sixth on the List of ‘Best Merchants in the Void’ out of Five Hundred And Seven (Umbra is Number Seven), Real Name is Lucy, Freaking Long Ass Title List The Meddling Asshole (Zero wants to kick him in the nuts like the pussy ass bitch he is, but would still probably die) Snickering, he watched the events slowly unfold until something made him destroy his popcorn. Shame, really; the popcorn didn’t do anything. In fact, it was delicious. The said event, the arrival of The Musician, made him realize that for one, his rival wasn’t dead; and two, his plan to destroy that world either failed or messed up as usual. Fuming, he stood up and called for The Reaper, a personal friend and ally of his who has major issues when dealing with living people, angry that he never told him of her continued existence. The sub-deity popped in directly behind him. Screaming like a girl, then regaining his composure, The Merchant spoke up, “You never told me SHE still lived.” The Reaper; The Gate Holder, The Merchant’s Reluctant Only Friend, Not Really an Asshole, Grim, Wants to be a Farmer, Terrible With Plants The Bored One (Could kill Zero but would turn him into a plant instead) The Reaper shook his head, “Damn stereotypes. I am not Death related.” The Merchant glared at him, “Incompetent fool.” Reaper rolled his eyes. ‘Look at yourself.’ His demeanor spoke for itself. The man’s shoulders slumped slightly and he looked exhausted. Speaking up again, “I suppose you want something to be done?” “Yes!” The Merchant said quickly. Sighing, The Reaper dropped something out of a bag and into Umbra’s Private Universe. The objects hurtled downwards towards the Neutral Territory where The Musician sat drinking some tea. Aside from a thud, The Musician heard nothing. The Merchant looked positively ecstatic. This would show her not to mess with him. Although, he still remembered the time she had forced him to eat his own underpants in a bet –he may have been tasting literal shit for a week– and could guess she might get out of it. “OI! NARRATOR! WHAT THE HELL IS THIS DOUCHEBAG DOING OUTSIDE ME PRIVATE UNIVERSE? Oh hi, Reaper, what are you doing here?” Reaper spoke up, “Nothing much. Just helping Lucy with his plots,” Reaper smirked at his pun. The Merchant just so happens to have some… clop in his pocket, I might add. “WAIT WHAT. NARRATOR, TMI. T. M. I.” Umbra’s left pocket bulged and images of anime girls, and disturbingly, Essence, shot out of his pocket. “... JSYRIN HELP ME KICK THIS OTHER NARRATOR’S ASS.” ^WISH GRANTED, MOTHERFUCKERS^ (Furious combat erupts between the two Narrators) (..... Hi. I’m The Backup Narrator) “‘SUP?” (As the fourth wall breaking and Narrator combat reached its deadly crescendo, I, the Backup Narrator, stealthily took over their position and brought the story from “Holy Shit What” to “Normal Chaos”. You’re welcome, dear reader.) The Reaper turned about and left The Merchant at his viewing deck. Umbra’s Pimped Out Announcer/ DJ Booth (It’s got a fucking mini-fridge! Holy shit!) Umbra stepped away from the microphone he had been using to yell at the Narrators. Sighing, he collapsed into his swivelling, ultra-comfortable, reclining futon/chair. “God DAMN! I don’t even…. fuck if I…… fuck fuckity fuck fuck fucking fucker fuck fuckshit fuckhole FUCKING FUCKSLUT MOTHER FUCKING WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT FUCKING FUCKSHIT BULLSHIT WHAT THE FUCKING FUCKITY FUCK FUCK FUCK FUUUUUUUUUUUCK!” And promptly flipped the fuck out. “[Entire sentence deleted due to extreme expletive levels. Suffice to say, it lasted half an hour and went through every swear word in every language in the Multiverse. Without a single repeat.]” Finally spent, Umbra collapsed even further into his chair and contemplated his next move for the next few seconds. “I wonder what Reaper dropped….” <*pokes in* Might wanna investigate, hm?> “Quiet, you. I want the other Narrator.” (Me?) “Yes” Leaping from his chair in an impressive display of aerial acrobatics, Umbra performed a few more moves and promptly disappeared in his trademarked flash of color and VWORPLE Miles away in Neutral Territory, Umbra appeared, not in his normal manner, but in a slight shifting of the shadows, stepping out of an unnoticed bit of darkness below a tree root. “Blegh, what’s in those roots? Magic like that, makes me wanna be human again so I don’t have to taste it with my fucking brain.” Nearby Essence was looking at a weird looking box. The box wobbled and opened, a small plant creature crawling out. On it’s back there was note saying, Sorry. Essence raised an eyebrow. Why would they- She was cut off as the little plant creature turned into a five-story tall killer plant beast. Umbra noticed this as well, mostly from the strange feel of the magic in the area. “Aww, it’s adorable how they thought that could kill anyone in the War. Hell, even Zero could take it out with his new laser eye.” As if on cue, a laser hit the beast which grunted and turned around. “Wait, that isn’t Zero’s magic signature. What. Who else has a magic signature matching laser eyes!?” Essence shrugged. “Dunno. Want me to take it out?” “Um… Sure?” Essence jumped sky high as the beast’s arm arced towards her. Spinning, she kicked it in the face and dropped down only to land on the creature's out-stretched leg. The beast tried to kick her into the air but she sneezed directly into the monster’s face, stunning it. Then she did something unexpected. She spat on it, and off it went. Soaring into the sky faster than the speed of sound before it exploded. She landed gracefully on the ground. “......Well then. That’s that. Laters!” VWORPLE “Um…” VWORPLE “Almost forgot, here’s your uniform for later. Well, actually, you just need the hat and nametag. So, yeah. Nice digs ya got here. Very nature-y. Welp, laters!” Tossing said hat and nametag at Essence, Umbra left again in another VWORPLE In the skies over the Villain’s Camp ‘Twas not all that uncommon to see random objects flying around in Battle World 1’s atmosphere, but an orb of malignant, red energy was usually unseen. Unless the laser wasps were firing plasma bolts again. Then they were distressingly common. This orb, however, encased the body of one Michael Faraday, currently with reduced powers, much more red in his outfit, and greatly reduced powers, on top of the previous power reduction. Oh, and a snazzy, gold bowtie with a gear-shaped ruby imbedded into the center. ‘The hell happened? One second he puts on that tie, the next I feel like I’m being ripped out of my own head! Well, technically it was Nick’s head, but that’s against the point!’ As Michael flew over the camp for Villains, he noticed something strange. He decided, on a whim, to investigate this anomaly. ‘Nick, you there?’ he called into the recesses of his mind. ‘What is this? Am I finally free of him? But, wait. If he’s gone, does that mean he’s gone forever? I know I always told him I wanted him gone, but now that he really is....’ In his contemplation, Michael was oblivious to the quickly approaching missile. When he did finally notice it, it was far too late. “Shit!” he had time to shout out before they collided. – “......Ouch. That’s gotta sting.” “Hey wait a minute, why is the camera over here!? Focus on Kat and Mikey, asshat!” – “Ow,” Kat groaned as she sat up on the bumpy ‘ground.’ “Damn it. Umbra and his messed up teleportation. Still too groggy to fly. Well, at least the ground is somewhat soft.” “Yeah, I wonder why,” she heard from under her. Kat glanced down to see that the ‘ground’ she was sitting on, was in fact a young man. “Oh!” She levitated off of him, floating just above. “Oh, sorry about that. Here, let me help.” She put out a hand, indicating for him to take it. He looked up at her, not being able to do so before with her sitting on him, and seemed to freeze for a moment. After said moment passed, he happily took her hand and allowed her to hoist him up, which was deftly easy for the Gravity Shifter. “Thanks,” he commented once he was standing again and had dusted off his coat and vest. “No problem,” Kat said with a smile. However, then she got a good look at him and a small blush started to appear on her face. Oh my god!, she thought to herself as she looked him over again. He is hot! Okay, Kat, don’t mess this up. Introductions are everything. She straightened her hair a little as she settled back down on the ground. “So...um, sorry about ramming into you.” Stupid, stupid, stupid! “Uh, my name is Kat. It’s nice to meet you.” He seemed taken aback by her sudden apology. “No, it was I who hit you. They say distracted driving is the biggest killer of teens, but distracted flying seems just as dangerous,” he joked, laughing a little as he scratched the back of his head with one gloved hand. “Anyway, the name’s Michael Faraday.” Michael reached his other hand out for a handshake. Kat grasped his hand in a firm shake...perhaps too firm as he winced in pain a moment later. “Oh, sorry! Sorry, I’m still getting used to my new strength.” “It’s not a problem,” he said as he moved her hand to his face, kissing the innermost knuckles. Kat blushed even more, letting out a tiny giggle. “Oh, a gentleman. Not many of those around here.” “We’re an endangered species in any dimension, it seems.” He stood up straight again, looking her in the eye with a face that just screamed ‘I’m a Sexy Englishman’. Kat shied away slightly, but stood tall nonetheless. “Oh quite,” she replied, putting on her faux English accent. “‘Tis quite a treat to meet one of your caliber, Mr. Faraday. Pray tell, what brings you to this field of battle?” “Why, the prospect of earning honor for the Faraday name, of course!” He looked up and off to the side, striking a dramatic pose, before eyeing her from the corner of his eye and smirking. “And the beautiful scenery, might I say.” Kat looked around them, looking confused. All around them was a wasteland, practically devoid of anything but rocks. “What scenery? Just a bunch of rocks and dust.” “Why, the scenery that stands before me.” He made it slightly more obvious that he was staring at her. It took her a few moments before it finally clicked as to what he meant. This realization sparked Kat’s blush to an even deeper red than before. “Um...I...um...oh…” Don’t faint, don’t faint, don’t faint. Whatever you do: don’t faint! Kat shyly looked back at him, noticing his pearly white smile. Oh, why does he have to be so hot? Kat tried to straighten herself, failing miserably. “I...um...I’m Kat Shifter, the Gravity Queen. A pleasure to make your acquaintance Mr. Faraday.” “Royalty?” he asked, seemingly genuine surprise painted his face. “I apologize, your highness; if I had known, I would have brought gifts!” He looked around for a moment, patting himself where his pockets were sewn in. “Wait, I may have just the thing.” He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a thin, red rose. Upon closer inspection, the rose seemed to be made of some type of metal and painted over with acrylic paint. “For you,” he held the flower out delicately. Kat took the flower and sniffed it gently. “It’s lovely. Thank you. So tell me, Michael, why are you here? This war isn’t for the faint of heart, after all,” she asked as she started to stroll around him. Partially for intimidation, while the other part was just to get a three-sixty view. “While you are truly handsome, you do not seem like one for battle. It would be unwise to stay here.” “Well, if you must know, I am a contestant for this war. And, if I do say so myself, I believe I am the most powerful.” His smirk only grew in mirth as he said this, merely turning his head to watch her circle him. “And why are you here, Mrs. Shifter? One with such beauty as you should never have to face battle in the most general of terms!” She smiled slightly, but for some reason her shyness had disappeared. “The strongest hmm? Well, now that I doubt, but you’re free to think as such. And that’s Ms. Shifter to you. I’m not married. Why am I here, you ask? Well, I’m here to help lead.” At this, Michael seemed genuinely curious. “Lead what, exactly?” One of his eyebrows raised, showing his interest. “To lead Auric to victory. I am many things, Mr. Faraday, but one of the greatest aspects of myself is that I am a general. General Shifter: ruthless, cunning, even divine, some said. Conqueror of the Dragon Empire, victor over the griffin armies, and massacrer of the changeling race. That is who I am.” During Kat’s monologue, Michael had become eerily silent. When she glanced over to the man, she saw a dark look on his face. “You say you’re here to lead Auric’s forces?” he asked, not moving in the slightest. Kat stopped her walking right in front of him, her own face matching his expression. “Let me guess, you’re working for Teridax, aren’t you?” “I apologize dearly, Ms. Shifter, but I must be going. Murder before the war even begins would be highly unsportsmanlike of me, now wouldn’t it?” The man turned away from her, waiting for her response as he prepared his watch. Kat simply watched as he waited silently. “You control time,” she said suddenly, making Michael freeze. “Don’t you?” “What makes you say that, my dear?” There was something in his voice that indicated… something akin to an emotion much like fear. “You feel like him.” Kat turned slightly, looking off into the distance. “Your aura, your presence. It’s almost as if the Doctor were standing right in front of me again.” “You must have a keen eye to detect something such as that.” Monotone would be the best way to describe his voice, as if he were distancing himself from her, preparing himself for her imminent demise. “I feel I should warn you. You can’t stop me.” She never even turned to look at him, content with just staring at the “scenery”. “Gravity. It’s a difficult force to master, but when one has, it opens up so many possibilities. A blessing...and a curse. It has been theorized that gravity affects many things in the universe, even time itself. Well, I can assure you, Mr. Faraday,” she slowly turned her head, her blood-red eyes glaring slightly at him, “those theories are true.” “Well, we’ll just have to see, now won’t we?” He began walking straight ahead as he spoke. “Until next time, Kat Shifter, I wish you well.” And he was gone. Kat took a cautionary glance around, using her gravity sense to feel for any additional disturbances. After a moment, she confirmed he was gone and sighed. “Why is it always the good-looking ones who are the bad guys? And he was such a gentleman. Oh well, I’d best find where the recruits have set up camp.” Kat took flight from there, heading in the direction of a large white castle that loomed over the far landscape. Halfway Between the Arena and the Hero’s Base “Achoo!” Nicholas sneezed. “Wonder-” he sniffled “-what that’s all about.” He then continued his way to the Hero’s base. Neutral Territory… Essence sipped her tea cheerily. So far, aside from being squished by a giant robot, all was well. That and her tea came out wonderfully.Then, something came bounding along in the distance. She squinted, unable to see that far even with her superb sight. The window, about the size of the wall itself, helped none at all. The shape came closer, and she saw what appeared to be a zergling. Shrugging it off, she went back to drinking her tea. Sensing it watching, she looked out the window. “YOU’RE LATE FOR TEA, IDIOT!” she chucked a teacup at the zergling. Now, we won’t let it be said that in Umbra’s Universe there was never a finer throw. It arced through the air and landed perfectly on the zerglings head without a sound. It seemed to growl for a second, before retreating to a ‘safe’ distance. It seemed to be waiting for something. She ignored the zergling and went back to sipping her.. tea? Well now it’s coffee. “I need to get control of that,” she mumbled. About a minute passed before a huge goddess-damned worm erupted out of the ground a little way from the zergling. “Well then,” she said. What looked like a male Broodmother came out of the worm, with a small honor guard. It started walking toward her. Rolling her eyes, Essence walked out of the small wooden fortress. “Hello, how are you? Care for some tea? Oh wait it…” she looked into the cup again, “Goddess dang it. It’s coffee again.” The male Broodmother seemed startled, before continuing to walk, and said, “Hello! I’m doing just fine. I was just coming to see my neighbor. Well, and to see which side you’re on. My name’s Dahaka, by the way.” “Ah. You must not have seen the sign,” Essence gestured to the massive neon sign proudly displaying the words ‘Neutral Territory’. Dahaka then stopped and facepalmed. “Well, that answers that question. Any way, yes, some tea would be nice.” He seemed to dismiss his guard, as they streamed back to the worm. Essence led him into the fortress. She grabbed a teacup and spun her finger over it. The cup filled with tea and she handed it to him. “Here,” she said. He took a sip and looked at her confused, “This is coffee.” “Sorry, it likes to switch around. I blame the teacup,” she shrugged. Suddenly a small voice spoke up, “Hey!” “Quiet down Chip, your mother owes me still.” Dahaka seemed startled, but conformed quickly. “So, you do sl-” He seemed to think a moment, “Payment of debt b-” He seemed to shake his head before trying again. “Work debt?” She giggled at the stutters. “Naw. His mother wants him to build character. Besides. They didn’t like their old job.” He seemed satisfied. “What was their old job? If I may ask?” “Old castle. Prince turned into beast. Prince died. You know. Alternate world stuff.” He waved his han- cl- appendage in a knowing manner. “Yes, I do. The mere fact of our being here suggests that there is everything everywhere. But, does that mean that they are stuck as cups, tea pots, and utensils?” “Yes and no. I let them switch. Although Chip here seems to be happy as a cup.” The small voice spoke up again, “NO I’M NOT!” “Do we want a repeat of Trelawny?” Essence asked. The little cup meeped and was quiet. “Anyway. They’re paid well.” He replied, “The Greeks, or was it the Romans?”, He seemed to think a moment before shaking off his revery, “One of those two kept paid slaves, and if the slaves could save up enough money, they could buy their freedom. Not that I’m saying that their situation is similar to that, but It’s just a little fact about history. “Indentured servitude? I believe that was Greeks. Romans were overly violent,” she answered, “that and Romans feared the ocean.” He seemed to get a little steamed at a thought that brought up. “I don’t like the fact that they ‘improved’ the greek gods. I mean, look at poor Athena, she was reduced to a goddess of just weaving, essentially. Before, she was a goddess of wisdom, victory, AND weaving. And they glorified war by use of Mars Ultor.” “Nike and Victoria are the victory goddesses. That aside, Jupiter’s a jerk. Have you met him? Goddess, he was rude. The Greek ones are so much nicer. Except Ares. He can be a little forceful,” she said, making multiple hand gestures. He seemed to wince. But with his face, it was anyone’s guess. “I haven't, but I’ll keep that in mind. I suspect Ares would want to start with a eternal war between us. But one question, who’s this Goddess you keep referring to?” She grinned, and her eyes twinkled. “Why do you ask?” “Because I’m as nosy as a witch when it comes to things like that.” Her smile seemed to shine, “Fair enough answer. You’ve already met her. I am Madness of the Void and the Musician.” He raised a metaphorical eyebrow. “So, you're going on an ego trip by invoking your own name all the time? Well, each to their own. Also, you’ll have to tell me the story behind that sometime.” She giggled. “Oh. I’m not invoking my name. I’m invoking my past self. I’m a fallen goddess by technicality.” “Hmm, I’ll try not to make any Satan jokes about that. Also, now I’m particularly intrigued about your past. Could you tell me?” “Even better. I can show you.” She hummed lightly before a shimmering image appeared. The other void dwellers and Essence sat at a table wondering how to best stop the Merchant. Essence is the one called The Musician or, more commonly, Madness. The Scientist, The Trainer, The Cook, don’t ask why he’s here, The Magician, The Writer, The Historian, and several others sat around the table with an orb at the center, which glowed blue. “So,” Scientist spoke up, “We know why we’re here… It seems our ‘friend’ the Merchant has decided to screw with, well, everything. His actions are starting to break certain important barriers between particular Worlds. From what we’ve gathered these are the main supporters of his cause, The Torturer, The Reaper, The Silent, The Ripper, and The Illusionist. The Illusionist happens to be a friend of Madness here, and has deigned to give us this information out of respect. She also agreed to play as a double agent. Any questions?” “What’s our agenda?” asked The Trainer. “Send someone to infiltrate the worlds.” “But, the Fausticorn. She’ll stop them. She only let The Merchant through because he tricked her.” “I spoke with her recently. It was a very distressing matter as she distrusts us at large. Letting her know our allegiance allows us to put a champion in.” “Then who?” “There is one obvious choice,” They all looked at me. “Me?” “You also have the titles, The Strategist and The Warrior, correct?” “Yes, but that doesn’t mean I’m a good choice.” They shook their heads. “You’re the only choice, seeing as though you are closer tied to Equestria.” Essence groaned. “Fine, but don’t cry to me when I fail.” “Meeting adjourned.” Dahaka waited a moment before asking, “So you came to a world, what happened after you came? If I may ask?” “Lost all of my memories and shadow abilities. My memories came back when I accidently left the multiverse.” “What about your powers? Don't you have them?” “You mean these?” She waved a hand and the floor changed to diamond. Then she sang and the diamond returned to normal. The wail of a guitar suddenly burst through the area with a VWORPLE. “ROCK ME, AMADEUS!” “Oh, hey Umbra. Come on in!”, Dahaka’s eye’s widened as this happened. Sliding into view with a truly impressive guitar riff, Umbra spun to a stop in front of Essence. Crickets sounded as a tumbleweed floated past. – Somewhere Gilgamesh frowned. “Why do I feel like someone just stole my schtick?” – Essence claps. “Now. Umbra. Dahaka asked for a hamburger. Shall we?” Dahaka looked around warily, feeling something off for a second at the word hamburger. Then he relaxed and said, “That would be nice. I actually haven't had a meal in... oh, about since I became a Zerg? Yes, that seems right.” Umbra stared blankly at the both of them as reality began to twist and bend in ways unimaginable to the human mind. A song played in the background. “You want….. a hamburger?” The world shifts and Dahaka found himself to be a small boy. A woman hands him a hamburger. The hamburger screams and the woman turns into a hamburger. Dahaka asked for a hamburger. The world shifts upwards and the woman turns into a talking toilet which shoots out toilets which shoot out hamburgers. Dahaka asked for a hamburger. Once again reality shifts. A small boy takes a bite out of Dahaka the hamburger. Mayo tears slide down Dahaka’s face. The boy bites and his mother drops and turns into a chicken. Dahaka asked for a hamburger. The chicken says the word dinosaur over and over. Reality shatters. Dahaka asked for a hamburger. Reality tries to reassert itself. The small boy melts as though he were a clock in a Dali painting. He screams. The Hamburger asks for a Dahaka. Upon receiving it, the hamburger takes a bite as reality begins to blur between real and fictional. “Okay, that’s enough trolling. We’re starting to corrupt the coding in this area. Oh gods I need to fix that now.” Reality reasserts itself, the last few eternities dissipating like dust in the wind. Dahaka, Essence and Umbra are seated at a picnic table with trays of In n’ Out burgers. The bench immediately breaks because of how Dahaka’s shaped, but the thought’s still there. “But it was just getting fun Umbra!” Essence whined. Dahaka looks like his mind has shattered. A glazed look is on his face. His eye’s begin to change color for a moment, before the previous lacquer leaves his eyes. He shakes his head, and tries to forget the past eternity. It partially works. “Alhmarka, isherto, hrart kootie giblet.” He says. “Yes. And?” Essence asks. Dahaka pauses for a second, before adding, “Add a partridge in a blender sings nicely.” “So does a tree wrapped toilet paper with dig bick.” He shakes his head, and says, “Ring around the rosy, jack went pop and the muffin man’s coming. And,” The same glow from before came over his eyes, and then receded. “And, sanity has reasserted itself. Thank you Prime.” “Damn.” Essence curses. “And here I thought I’d have to manually reset everyone’s sanity after introducing the Cuil system. Oh well.” “You should have known there would be no need to mess with mine. If I went sane who knows what kind of mediocre and baise things I’d do,” Essence shuddered. Dahaka ignored this, and reached for a hamburger. “What, like start making sense?” Dahaka lifted the hamburger to his face. His mouth was barely large enough to get any in, but he still stuffed it in. The hamburger screamed before its tortured yowls were cut off as Dahaka consumed it. The Dahaka gets munched by a hamburger. “Yes, I would start making sense. Not fun. I tried it once. Accidentally blew up a small planet, fixed it, the residents see me as their goddess now. Also happened to up their evolution too. But that aside, I think you missed a section Umbra…” Essence said, thinking about that mistake.The hamburger slowly sizzles in the ambient sanity. “Whoops.” VWORPLE Dahaka just sat there, happily munching. Between the Hero base and the arena… Two gates of equal standing, one made of obsidian while the other was made of wood, a rarity in the desert, begun to rise out of the sands. Wisps of an unnatural flame could be seen coming off both, but where one was calming and almost brought a certain joy the other brought a slight feeling of fear and despair. At once both gates opened, a few hundred yards away from each other. From one stepped out a woman with golden hair bright enough to almost be a light in the dark, a calm air about her as she kept her gaze directly towards the opposing gate, upon her mask was a consistent smile. From the other stepped out a man with hair so black it seemed indistinguishable in shape as it sucked in the light around it, his own mask looking as if to snarl while black tongues of fire licked at the hem of his clothes. A And Z: The Other Letters are On Vacation Freddy’s Protectors (Chaotic Neutral) (Zero should avoid these two, for his own physical and mental safety) As if compelled by some unheard command they both teleported directly in front of each other, one in a burst of black and the other a golden explosion. “Now be sure to behave alright?”Stated the woman, cheerfulness present in her voice as the man simply moved in a way that represented how one would roll their eyes, as he did not have any to roll. “Just make sure to stay out of my way, your pathetic peacekeepers won’t be anything but a distraction.” His voice held an ever existent malice hidden behind a curtain of neutrality. She seemed to laugh as she briefly turned towards her own gate, a thousand almost identical soldiers walking out as she returned her gaze, all clad in light golden armour as a large hammer was strapped across their backs. Each step seeming to tread the ground into place as grass could be seen seeping through the sand. “I didn’t realise we were competing, Z, we have the same goal for once after all.” “Of course it’s a competition, though it’ll be hard to justify our killstreaks if no one remembers who they’ve killed.” A grim chuckle escaped his lips as he tilted his head slightly, not bothering with meaningless gestures as he simply shouted “REAPERS!” A thousand more poured from the opposite gate, their heavy armour almost in tatters as they emanated malice and discontent. Scythes had been strapped to their backs and if one listened they could hear the sound of chains grinding against each other as fine teeth could be seen on the edge of their blades. Their presence seemed to drain the life out of the already lifeless landscape. “Honestly, you couldn’t tone down a little on the…. evilness of your units?” A waved her hands about in the general direction of the Reapers, to which Z simply shrugged. “The scythes are effective, the armours are protective, now if you’ll please get out of my way I can follow my directive.” He held up his fist, the back facing the reapers as they nodded as one and flowed into the ground as a puddle of black flames, each moving towards Z as they joined to his cape, lengthening it considerably as it spread out behind him. “Do try and keep up.” A’s mask turned to a slight pout as she simply waved towards one of her commanding officers who nodded in turn as she turned to bark orders at her soldiers. In an almost imitation they replicated the actions of the Reapers, every single Peacekeeper falling into a golden flame as they moved to join with A’s dress that flowed along the sand. “I doubt he’ll be happy to see us.” She stated simply, sighing as she looked across the landscape. “Of course he won’t be happy to see you, me on the other hand,” His masked turned into a wide smirk as he looked towards the same direction, “Oh he’ll be simply furious.” They both stood there, garments shifting in a non-existent wind as their opposing flames visibly moved in opposing directions, their gazes locked onto the distant horizon, in the direction of the villain camp beyond the arena. Z however was brought out of his silence as he spotted a figure headed to the castle behind them, briefly looking over his features as the holes in his masks eyes seemed to ignite for an instant. “I do believe we’ve found an opponent.” “So soon?” A moved her gaze as well, her eyes shining over for a split-second, “We can’t harm him since the war has not started, those’re the rules e-Z-mac.” Z groaned as his eyeless gaze returned to A’s visage, “Another nickname? Why do you find them necessary?” “Not necessary Led Zeppelin, just fun.” She gave a light laugh as the figure came closer, her expression cheery with a hint of cheekiness as per status quo. “Now, just quick hello’s then we get going alright?” “What’s this? Travelers? Greetings!” came a voice from a little ways away. “He seems… friendly?” “Of course he’s friendly, he’s the kind to buy souvenirs for girls even when they have money. Anynoodle, hello!” A cheerfully waved towards the voice. “Anynoodle? Who’s that? And how do you apparently know so much about me? I know nothing of you.” He approached; and, as he did so, the two got a better look at him. He was wearing a long, brown trench coat with green highlights, along with black dress slacks and a black vest. His white shirt showed out from under the other garments and the goggles on his head shone with a brilliance only tempered glass can give. “Well, I suppose we can trust anyone willing enough to sock it to a Princess, even if it wasn’t a very good hit. You may refer to me as Z.” He looked almost reluctant to talk to the person before him as his cape flared slightly, easily dodging the mans questions. “Don’t mind him, he just realised he shouldn’t have worn a cape to the desert. I’m A by the way, pleasure to meetcha.” She held her hand out towards the man, the ever present smile on her mask backed up by her calm eyes as the flames on her own clothes calmed somewhat. “Oh, I don’t mind at all. Not the first person to dislike me upon our meeting.” He reaches out, clasping her hand in his own before bringing it to his face and kissing the back of said hand. “I’m Nicholas. Call me Nick for short.” He the released her hand, letting his own fall to his side. A flashed a smug grin in Z’s direction briefly before turning back to Nicholas. “Don’t mind if I do, if you like you can call me A for short as well.” For his part Z just facepalmed while A smiled towards Nicholas calmly. “Alright, A, also known as A, I’ll simply call you A, for simplicity’s sake. We don’t need to cause issues in the future with a name as long as yours,” he smirked knowingly. She simply chuckled and tilted her head behind her in a slight gesture. “Headed that way I presume?” The castle in the distance behind them simply glimmered in the sunlight. “What was your first clue?” he asked with a raised eyebrow. “The footsteps leading in that direction or the fact that you’re walking away from the place and we happened to run into each other like this?” Z briefly tempered his gaze as he looked at Nicholas, moving it beyond him and towards the Villain camp in the distance. “You can handle this one, never liked manipulators.” His mask became a deepened frown as he simply walked past, avoiding eye contact as he headed to the camp. On the other hand A only seemed to cheer up more. “Ooh, ooh, I pick C. No wait, this wasn’t multiple choice sorry. In which case….. what is ‘logical train of thought’?” – Announcer’s Booth Umbra winced. “Ooh! Sorry, but that answer is not correct!” BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT – “Darn!” A snapped her fingers as she silently cursed her bad luck. “Well to be honest it was because you seem to really want to help people, and considering the… grandeur of the castle back there I’d think that’s where the good chaps go.” “‘Good chaps’? You say it like you’re not one.” Nicholas chuckles slightly. “I mean, you are on your way to the arena to fight, or, at least, to the enemy base... Right?” “Guy in the sky? Do the buzzer thing again.” – Announcer’s Booth “Heh heh, you got it, luv” BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT – “Cheers” She briefly gave the clouds a thumbs up before turning back to Nick. “So sorry there, but I’m on a strict ‘protect and serve if you really feel like it I guess’, kind of mission, and the guy I’m protecting is on that side.” “D-does that mean I have to k-kill you?” He reels back a little. “Aw, well you don’t have to if you don’t want to. But if you really feel like it…” The bottom half of her mask seemed to tear as rows of sharp teeth formed across the mouth, her eyes burning brilliantly as her hair seemed to disobey gravity while it caught fire. She spoke with what sounded to be hundreds of voices, all calm and almost warm-hearted. “You’re certainly welcome to take a shot.” “I-I don’t really w-want to. Sorry?” He’s more confused than anything at this point. She almost seems like she wanted him to try. In an instant she returned to normal, a calm smile once more etched into her mask. “That’s perfectly fine boyo! Hopefully I won’t have to kill anyone once the fighting begins, leave the murdering to the murderers and the burgers to the fry cooks I say!” A faint ‘That has no relevance!’ could be heard in the direction of the camp. “Oh, alright, then. Thank you. I didn’t want to kill just yet.” He takes a deep breath, returning to his calm self. “Anyway, it was a pleasure to meet you, A. I hope we never see each other on the field of battle.” He smiled as he stuck a hand out for her to shake. She chuckled as she stepped towards him and gave him a high-five, “That’s assuming you can kill me, have fun following the yellow brick road!” A laughed as she stepped past him, her dress flashing briefly as a yellow brick path formed out beneath a flash of fire, headed straight towards the castle. “O-okay, then…. Off to see the wizard, I guess.” Nicholas then follows the aforementioned Yellow Brick Road. – Announcer’s Booth “You’re off to see the Wizard~ The wonderful Wizard of Oz~” Umbra bolted upright. “FUCK! I hate that song!” – A calmly strides towards the Villain camp, squinting slightly as she all but whispered to herself. “Now that I know someone is watching, what will it take to stop you from telling any undesirables about me and my companions… apparel?” VWORPLE Skreeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-SLAM THUD “What apparel? -Umbra” A quick roll of her eyes and a few steps later she began to talk again. “You know exactly what I mean. I’m referring to the… armies up our sleevies if you will.” Vworple “Oh…. eh. I don’t really do a lot of telling here. So…. just don’t ask me for stuff and I won’t tell anything to anyone. -Umbra” A small pout was present on her mask. “Aww, can’t I ask for just one itty-bitty thing?” Bloop “Okay. Just because you seem fun. And because everyone gets one.” She scanned the sky, her eyes briefly shimmering as they came across the announcers booth far out of sight range, a smirk appearing on her mask once more. “We both know that’s not true now don’t we?” She chuckled slightly before going on her way again. “Could you increase the molecular attraction between sand particles ever so slightly in my general vicinity?” Plop “I’m almost afraid to ask why. But sure.” Shsshshshshshshssshhh She cheered as she jumped up, pushing down as she landed only to be pushed back in the air once more, laughing as she kept bouncing along until she sailed past Z, doing a flip and sticking her tongue out at him as she sailed right past his face; to which he only groaned slightly and trudged along, “Why would anyone encourage her?” Vwwwwm “Oh yeah. I forgot about what happens when I do that.” Teridax stood up, stretched. The wait was helping him out, enough that Auric would actually have to pressure him when he finally arrived. Ah, he could wait a long, long time. The heart on his chest glowed a little brighter, and he tapped it. “Hush now. Everything is as it should be.” He casually scried out the location of the hero base and snorted. “I would say that it’s fairly melodramatic, but that would be rather hypocritical. Shame that miss Kat’s there; would have liked to talk to her. Try and convince her that this war is nothing important.” Another flicker of attention, on a being surrounded by the Laser Wasps of Umbra’s planet. “Ah, Nemesis. How very interesting. Yes… this is the perfect time for goodwill.” With that, he stood up, and with nought but a thought teleported out, near Nemesis, where he was unsuccessfully holding his own. A simple thought, and the Laser Wasps backed off, and Teridax strode forwards, holding his arms at his sides to show that he brought no weapon. “Hello, Mr. Nemesis. How are you today?” Nemesis brought his fist around to intercept an oncoming wasp, but only hit air as they quickly backed away from their target. Nemesis spun on the spot, coming face to face with what he could only describe as a robotic shadow. “And just who the hell are you?” Nemesis, his head still pounding from the rush of battle, growled as his eye flared red. Teridax smiled, already picking up on the psychic pressure of the T-virus. “I am Teridax. You may have heard of me. And don’t think about attacking me. Because if you do, I’ll push that rage of yours to the point that rage is all you’ll ever be… and I’ll throw you back into your own world.” Skreeeeeeeeee-Slam! Both jumped back as yet another capsule fell from orbit. This time, the capsule opened to reveal a human, this one thin and short, about five feet ten inches tall. As the unknown human stood, he opened his eyes and immediately his identity became known. After all, who else would have eyes that exuded such raw power from their pitch black depths? Umbra spoke, “Dammit Teridax! Meddling is my schtick over here! Do your stupid meddling some other time!” “Umbra, I am willing to uphold the rules of this war. I swear, on my honour that I will not fight, harm or kill any of the other side until it has started. I am here to… talk. But my threat, Nemesis, is real. I am perfectly capable of that. I merely won’t do that until this war has started.” “Teridax?” Nemesis’ words were twisted, a combination of his own voice and something else. He began to advance towards him. “Youuu...you were the one who…” Nemesis stopped when he remembered the threat, his grip tightening on his weapon as his footsteps halted. He shook for only a moment before he took a step back. “Fine. What are you here for, then?” Teridax shapeshifted, into the form of Auric. And smiled. “Nemesis, I can feel in the back of your mind an incredible rage. It comes from the T-virus that permeates your veins.” He then shifted into the form of Celestia, who continued. “There is no normal way to defeat this virus, of course.” Another shift, and he was Twilight Sparkle. “Except for a genius like myself.” He then returned to his normal form. “Tell me, Nemesis, what would you give for the chance to be free of that rage forever?” Nemesis suddenly burst out into laughter. ”So what, you’re saying you’re here to resolve my anger management issues?” Nemesis snorted. ”If what you’ve done so far is how you go about it, you’re a pretty shitty therapist.” Umbra spoke up, “I don’t normally do thi– okay who am I kidding, I do this a lot, but I can get rid of that virus for free…. or if you’re willing to pay about fifteen bits I can give it a toggle and remove the rage. I think, Teriyaki, that I make better sales pitches. Y’know, being an interdimensional salesman and all.” Teridax shrugged. “My product will not remove the virus in its entirety, but will grant you everything you want- no rage, no infection spread, all the benefits. And, I will ask you this- my price is simply to not get in my way when I fight Auric. Fight anyone else you want, but don’t get in my way or Auric’s. And one more thing.” He looked at Umbra pointedly. “I can’t read your mind, but I can make an educated guess. You’re associated with the merchant fellow who sent people like Nemesis here, aren’t you.” Nemesis broke his glare at Teridax and shifted it to Umbra with a growl, as if expecting a reply. He got one. “The Merchant. Fucking asshole still needs a kick in the nuts. Keeps slipping away though. Never really have the time to go after him. Besides, who among us would honestly want to go back to living their powerless lives back on Earth after all of this? I wouldn’t. Anynoodle, yeah, I work with the same guild that The Merchant is in. ‘Cept he’s way down on the ‘Do Not Sell’ list and I’m near the top somehow.” Teridax nodded. “In which case, I apologise for thinking you were associated with him. But my offer still stands, Nemesis. Either of our offers are good. And, as a show of good faith, I will have Mr. Umbra here verify that what I promise is true.” He pulled out a vial of silvery powder, and with a slight flourish handed it over to Umbra. The humanised shadow shrugged and sniffed the vial, his eyes blinking twice in confusion. “Well I’ll be…. usually you master manipulator types make stuff that’s actually just sugar water or something. But this stuff….. it’s actually damn good! It does exactly what he says it’d do!” Teridax snorted. “Mr Umbra, you know that the Makuta are masters of Viruses that can create life. Compared to that, this was a cakewalk. And don’t hand it to me; I won’t have you accusing me of switching the vials or anything. Besides, I know that you were the kind of person who would check anyway, so making a fake solution is worthless.” “This is true. Well Nemesis, it’s your choice now….. Hey….. what’s that sound?” Nemesis pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and index finger. ”Umbra, I swear to God if you brought more of those things here…” Umbra shifted back to normal, “No no, not that sound, a different sound…… sounds like……. a person…..” From down below them, the noise continued to grow louder and louder. Then a large geiser of sand burst forth, shooting out a human boy in his late teens, falling to the ground in front of them. “Aw ha ha ha, that sucked!” he groaned, try to at least get up on his knees. “What the hell did I just do?” “Given your appearance, Mr. Ben Tennyson, I would say that you’ve just tunnelled out of the ground.” Teridax remarked, dry as the wasteland surrounding them. The insects around him buzzed loudly, unsure of this person but he silenced them with a look. “Wrong dude, I’m not Tennyson. He’s in his own universe,” Ben said as he finally got on his two feet and cracked his neck. “Aww~, it’s always the neck.” “Oh. Hey Ben,” Umbra deadpanned, forming a small barrier around himself, Teridax, and Ben to shield their conversation. “Wait…. eh. Nemesis can probs survive out there a while. So, what brings you out here to the middle of nowhere?” “I don’t know,” he replied rubbing his sore neck. “I was just screwin’ around with my new powers and then ‘poof’, I’m flying through sand.” Ben looks at the other being with Umbra, raising an eyebrow at him. “And it seems I’ve come face-to-face with a nightmare come true. Makuta Teridax, I presume?” Teridax bowed. “Yes, Mr. Ben, representative of the Greek gods. I am Teridax.” “So you’re the jackass that’s the reason we’re all here.” Ben eyed him up and down before shrugging. “Eh, I’ve seen weirder.” “I know.” “I think at this point we’ve all seen weirder…….. like that one time I….. nope. Not telling that one. Bad enough to just experience it…” “I meant more that he really isn’t that scary. Hell, the Daleks were scarier than you are.” “Daleks aren’t scary at all. Weeping Angels though…. Terrifying bitches they are, though only when they’re starving. The rest of the time they’re pleasant girls…. a little morbid but pleasant all the same.” Ben looked at Umbra very strangely, before pinching the bridge of his nose and sighing. “I really need to stop being around you people. You’re going to drive away what’s left of my sanity.” Ben frowned for a moment. “I don’t care what you think, Power, we’re not starting the war prematurely. And you shut up, Honor, this doesn’t involve you.” Teridax nodded. “Until Auric appears, I’m not making any moves whatsoever, and neither will those who follow me.” “Huh, a villain who honors the rules. Haven’t met one of those in a while. Sorry about talking to myself, the other guys are pretty vocal nowadays. And more than a few want to tear you to shreds just for shits and giggles.” Teridax studied him for a few moments. “I obey the laws that Umbra has created because I know the consequences for breaking them would be terrible. Even then, I really don’t care about what you do, just as long as Auric’s here.” “Well I’m only here because I promised I would be. Don’t really even have a stake in war, well save for the chance to finally meet my long lost sister.” Teridax nodded. “I wish you luck in your endeavour. But a word of warning…” He shifted into the form of Umbra “get in between me and Auric and I’ll cut you down. He. Is. Mine.” “Like I care,” Ben sneered back. “If it happens, it happens, get over yourself. You’re. Nothing. Special.” Teridax shrugged. “Really. If you say so, Mr. Ben. You may find me more dangerous than you think. Until the war officially starts, though… I won’t do anything.” “I eagerly await,” he replied sarcastically. “Go back to your little hide-away, you obsessed weirdo.” Ben made a sign of “shooing” with his hand. “Go on, get.” Umbra suddenly jolted, “Whoo, okay….. that was a weird three centuries…… what did I miss while I was out of this body? … And why does Teridax look like me now?” Teridax shifted back. “Me and Ben were having an enlightening conversation as to the current ceasefire. Now, hopefully we will leave with civility and respect.” “Not likely,” Ben replied looking highly uninterested. Teridax shrugged. “If you want incivility, then I am perfectly capable of that.” The insects buzzed angrily, responding to their masters’ will. “Dammit. This is what happens when I get called away for three centuries and try to come back to the exact moment I left….” Ben looked at Umbra, quiet for a moment, then asked, “Umbra? Do you still have that badge I gave you? The one that acts as my token?” “Huh? Oh yeah, here it is,” Handing it over, Umbra cocked his head, “Why do you need it?” “Because,” he said as he typed in a few commands. “I made a decision a while back, and I’m sticking it to it.” Ben tossed the badge back to Umbra, but the green had now become a dull grey. “Eh?” “I deactivated it.” “No more calling on you then? Shame. Oh well, c’est la vie. Here, take this,” Tossing over an emerald green smart phone, Umbra continued, “It’s a personalized Token. Mine, to be exact. Just call me up whenever you feel like it. There’s a lot of stuff to do on it and it’s got infinite battery life, reception no matter where you are in the Multiverse, it’s almost indestructible, it’s got Wi-Fi everywhere, Flash Player, and it can project a screen and keyboard in case you want a laptop instead of a smart phone.” He turned to Teridax, “No, you don’t get one. Not unless you prove yourself worthy of it.” Teridax gave the impression of smiling. “I don’t plan on living long enough to really benefit from it anyway.” Ben looked at the phone in his hand then to Umbra. “Thanks,” then he crushed it, “but no. I don’t want your token. Or anyone else’s.” “Dammit, that was a custom! You coulda at least used it for the entertainment value! And the efficiency value. It’s great for getting work done.” “I don’t care, I’ve already made my decision.” “An’ I respect that…… Want a laptop?” “No Umbra. Once this war is over, there is only one thing I want from you.” “And that would be?” “To leave me alone. When this is all done, I don’t want anything to do with the Displaced anymore. Certain people I will let keep my totem, but the rest will be permanently deactivated.” “Okay, whew, I thought you were gonna say something a lot more upsetting. But yeah, that’s fine…… wait….. does that mean I can’t just hang out anymore? I mean, I’ve only seen your Universe once and that was just your room. I kinda wanted to explore a little. Not like you could stop me but I like to ask permission.” “It’s partially for your own good. You are a wanted criminal in my Universe, after all.” “Wait what. Why am I a criminal?” “The Celestialsapiens, my bosses, hate your guts.” “They are aware that I was the one that evolved their silly, star-patterned asses from space whales all those eons ago, right? Okay, some of that was my subordinates practicing, but I started the evolution. I mean….. they can’t stop me either as long as I have a good reason. And this District being what it is….. I’m allowed to see you guys as long as I don’t meddle too much.” “They don’t like anyone who’s on par or more powerful than they are. So….thems the breaks. The other part is….I don’t really see you as a friend.” “...Great time to change that viewpoint then….. I just noticed that we’ve been ignoring Teridax for a while….. Sorry about that.” Teridax waved a hand. “Not really a problem. It’s good to see that there are some who are willing to disrespect a Sysadmin. They do know what you could do if you really felt like it?” “Of course they know, but they are willing to use anything they can to get rid of the guy. SysAdmins are not welcome in a Universe that has Celestialsapiens. Never have been, never will be.” “Bet I could do something about that…. Ah well, as always, c’est la vie. Not much point trying to keep me out when – Oh would you look at that, I’m already there. And always was. And will be. And won’t be. And every other permutation of the concept of presence. Because I exist in every point on my personal ball of infinite timelines simultaneously. So I’m everywhere. And nowhere. Fitting for a shadow, eh? There but not there. Interacting without interacting. Death likes his symbolism.” Ben simply shook his head. “Look it’s nothing personal, but just stay out. I’m giving that message to all Displaced. They’re not welcome in my world anymore. Never really wanted them to be in first place.” Umbra crossed his arms and narrowed his eyespots, “Quick tangent; there’s a stray thread on your collar and it’s been bugging me for the past few minutes. Kindly remove it, please.” He rolled his eyes and snapped his fingers, destroying the small strand...and a mile of wasteland behind him. “Ehehehe…..oops.” “It’s just wasteland. Nothing much there. Except….. yup. There goes my favorite tumbleweed bush. Damn. Now I need to replant it. Anyways, I’m still going to hang out every now and then, seeing as I’m not really a Displaced anymore. And because I think we’d be great friends. And to piss off those over-grown space-whale descendants. Feckin’ cunts, the majority of them. The adolescents are usually okay though. Some of them actually like me.” “Not in mine. You are on the top of the Most Unwanted list. Sorry. And I’m sorry, but to me you are a Displaced and you are not welcome in my world. Not now, not ever.” “‘Kay…. Then I’ll hang out with one of your Alternates. Some of them actually like me.” “Fine by me. But I need a better commitment than that. Pinkie Promise to never come back to my universe again.” “I, uh, I’m not allowed to make those because of how I mangle causality…. I preemptively break them before they’re made…..” “Make it or I leave.” “Well, it’s my head Pinkie’s going to be hunting…….. Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my – OH GOD THAT STINGS,” Umbra grasped his frosting covered face, screaming in pain, “OH GOD WHY DID I ACTUALLY SHOVE A CUPCAKE IN MY EYE.” “Because you’re not all there, Shadow. Unlike some of us.” Ben frowned again. “Not asking for your opinion, Hum. Or yours Superiority….oh shut up, the lot of you! Gah, why did Nexus have to leave me with these damn jerks?!” “...Hypocrite,” Umbra suddenly froze, shivering violently, “And there it goes. I have now broken a Pinkie Promise for the five hundredth time. Seriously, why would you tell someone with near Omnipresence not to go somewhere!?” “Because they’re not welcome. And good luck with that broken Pinkie Promise. Fair warning, my Pinkie is a big fan of bear traps.” “Lord almighty. Good thing those don’t work on me.” Teridax shook his head. “Enough. I would like to finish talking with Nemesis.” The B.O.W. in question was standing just outside of the barrier Umbra had formed around the three of them. His back was to them and his arms were crossed as if he was in thought. Teridax simply teleported outside and looked at Nemesis. “Well, Nemesis? Who do you choose?” Nemesis shifted his gaze towards Teridax. He snorted. “Can I see that vial?” Teridax teleported back in, grabbed the vial and teleported back, handing it over. “If you want, you can check with Umbra again, to ensure that I didn’t switch it.” Nemesis held the vial between two fingers and raised it into the sky as he stared at it. “I don’t think that’ll be necessary.” He lowered his hand, and allowed the vial to rest in his palm. “Teridax…” He began, staring down at the vial. Then he closed his fist, the vial cracking slightly. “You collaborated with my enemy in a world that was not yours. You prolonged the suffering of those who didn’t even deserve it for the sake of your own gain.” The vial cracked further. “You created a being designed to chase me down and kill me no matter where I went, and if that’s not enough it’s that on top of the other crimes you’ve committed against other Displaced around the multiverse.” The vial shattered completely, and the liquid ran down Nemesis’ knuckle. “I may be fucked up in the head, but I’m of sound mind enough to know right from wrong. And what you did? What you’ve done? It’s wrong.” Nemesis’ eye burned red. “You have your little lovers’ spat with Auric, I frankly don’t give a damn. Both he and you have made it clear that the fight is between you two, and if Auric wins,” Nemesis growled. “No, when he wins, because he will win, if he doesn’t kill you, you can bet your ass I’ll be there to finish the job. I’ll find a way to defeat this virus, Teridax, but it won’t be from you.” Teridax looked at him. “It’s so rare to meet a man of your principles. I’m almost touched.” He looked at the liquid pooling on the ground. “It doesn’t matter in the long run. Whether or not you accept my gift, the outcome is still the same.” Teridax looked him in the eye. “If I win, I win. I’m the better man between me and Auric. If I lose, and Auric kills me, I’ve done something sensational. I’ve broken a man who is my equal. And if he can’t muster up the energy to kill me… I have ways of defying imprisonment.” He shook his head. “Do you really think Auric would allow you to kill me? You know him. He’s a man of principles, just like you and me.” Nemesis snorted again. “Principles? Principles went out the window the moment you decided to work with someone who uses a virus that mutates innocents into weapons. As far as I’m concerned you’re a canniving bastard who doesn’t look out for anyone but themselves. If I have to wait to make sure you meet the ending you deserve, I can do that.” Teridax nodded. “I would be lying if I said that I knew you wouldn’t take the deal, but I’m not that surprised either. These things happen, and I decided to take a risk. By the way, how did you find out about my involvement? I really shouldn’t have trusted anybody with my name at all, but then again, that’s business for you.” “Princess Luna can be quite persuasive, especially when she’s interrogating high ranking members of Ellura who had an inkling of what went down between you and Inkwell.” Nemesis chuckled. “I suppose it helps when you can basically walk right into their minds as they sleep, too. They spoke about someone named Teridax who provided them with an improved virus formula, and provided them with what you named ‘Majora’. Kat Shifter filled me in on the rest.” Teridax blinked. “Ah, Kat Shifter… the one obsessed with revenge. Yes, I met her. How was Majora, by the way? I rather liked Majora. One of my finest creations… it’s good to hear some feedback.” He sat down and looked at Nemesis intently, waiting for the blow-by-blow report. (spoilers) Nemesis crossed his arms, scowling a bit. “ Well, during an attack on one of Ellura’s facilities in Canterlot, I summoned Jack of Blades for some assistance. His… madness god was rather displeased about this and summoned something from the resident evil verse, William Birkin, to kill me. We managed to defeat it and after we parted ways I made my way back to Ponyville through the Everfree. That’s when I first met your little...creation. I don’t know how, but he had absorbed some of the G-virus from William Birkin’s body and was adapting to my attacks before they even hit him.” Teridax actually seemed surprised. “Interesting. It really was supposed to adapt to your attacks when they hit it. Hm. Something to look into.” He waved a hand. “Continue.” “The g-virus itself has some adaptive abilities, I suppose it simply compounded on his own.” Nemesis growled a bit. “I wasn’t sure what he was, and he proved… quite the challenge. I only managed to incapacitate him and had to run, if I had stayed and fought him I probably would have been killed.” Teridax nodded. “Well, it was designed to be your perfect counter, after all. Only one weapon, and it would be difficult to defeat without outside assistance. I presume you managed to finally destroy Majora, but how on Earth did you do it?” “Well, he followed me to another Displaced’s universe. Jason’s, not sure if you know who he is. Anyways, Jason turned into someone he called Ghostfreak and possessed Majora, disabling its adaptive capabilities. After that I shot and beat him until he stopped moving.” Nemesis’ eye burned red. “But he showed up again. He attacked me in the depths of the Ellura facility in Fillydelphia, but he was severely weakened. He absorbed biomatter from some of the other B.O.W.s and turned into...something else. I can only really describe it as a shadow, not unlike yourself. It was a difficult fight, but in the end I tore him in half and threw his remains into superheated chemical waste.” Nemesis finished with a nod. “Some of the ponies helped me, I think without their help he probably would have killed me, though at that point I don’t think he was very intelligent anymore. He seemed...primal. Savage, even.” Nemesis shuddered at the memory. “Not unlike myself when I…” Nemesis shut his eye and shook his head. “Nevermind.” “When you gave in to that rage in the back of your mind?” Teridax stood up. “If I survive, I might have to work on ensuring the mental feedback doesn’t transmit that rage. Until then, Mr Nemesis, it was interesting to meet you.” Nemesis flinched as Teridax finished his sentence for him, then turned to watch him as he stood. “I wish I could say likewise, but I’ll be much more interested when this war is over and you’re locked far, far away or rotting in the ground.” His eye burned red as he growled. Teridax nodded. “Well, I think I’ll take my leave, Mr. Nemesis.” With that, he teleported out of existence. The laserwasps briefly wavered, then flew away from Nemesis, towards the villain base. Nemesis remained for a minute longer, staring at the spot Teridax had been before he took a deep breath, feeling his rage die down again. He rubbed his head as he turned towards the barrier with Umbra and Ben in it and knocked on it. “You two gonna be in there all day?” Ben nodded to Umbra to let down the shield, which fell a moment later. “Sorry ‘bout that. Personal chat. And...woah, you freaky boy.” “That’s what I get for dressing up as a biological weapon of mass destruction at a con. And you’re the second guy I’ve seen with that thing on your wrist.” “Oh, you must mean Jason. Yeah, he’s an okay guy, but I’m the true wielder of this thing. Name’s Ben, Ben 10X. And you are?” Nemesis nodded. “Nemesis. Just Nemesis. I was just looking to take Umbra up on his offer, seeing as Teridax probably won’t be doing me favors anytime soon after our little chat.” “So you’re taking up the offer, then? Good to hear,” Umbra rubbed his eyespots, “Man, I don’t know why, but I feel like I’ve been hopping timelines back and forth for years now…. Gods I’m so sleepy…” He slapped his head a few times before continuing, “Okay. I’m good. Let’s do this. You may feel a pinch…. or twelve thousand.” “Can’t be any more painful than the time Jason zapped me with his alien watch. Just get it over with.” “A’righty then…” Umbra snapped his fingers, and for a moment, Nemesis felt reality reworking itself as his vision swam and he experienced colors and sounds that were beyond even the wildest imagination. Including the taste of purple. “Grape? That’s rather expected…” Ben looked at Umbra with a cocked eyebrow. “Am I missing something here? Dufaq are you doing to the guy?” “I’m fucking with his coding and his DNA. It’s hard work. If he’s seeing weird things, well, it’s not my fault. It’s his brain’s.” “Umbra you are one weird ass shadow. But a cool one, I’ll admit.” “The chief of tribe Tunhamanhake extends gratitude for the beans you gave him last night!” Nemesis shouted inexplicably. He was okay though. Probably. “Was that babbling or was he serious?” Ben asked Umbra. “Hard to tell with all the shiz you do.” “I’m pretty sure it was babbling, though I did give a guy named Tunhamanhake a can of beans a few millennia ago when he was starving in the Mojave Desert,” Umbra answered, rubbing his chin thoughtfully, “I checked in on him in secret a few years after…. he made a tribe.” “Huh,” Ben commented. “Interesting. So, how long does this usually take?” “Should be done soon. T-Virus really hates outside mutations that it didn’t purposefully start. Hard to work around without killing the host.” When the deal with Nemesis was done, Teridax stood still for a moment, contemplating. He tapped the heart absent-mindedly. “He really should be here soon… I might actually have to delay my schedule a bit. Want a good way for him to be interested.” “Who you talkin’ about buddy?” came a woman’s voice. “The only intelligent person around here. Myself.” Teridax turned to the woman who was talking to him, already curious about the fact he couldn’t read her mind. “Oh ho ho! Look out guys! We got a badass over here!” she said as a crowd seemed to say, “Oooo.” Teridax watched her impassively. “I don’t think I have had the pleasure. You likely know who I am.” “Teridax, King of Shadows, Rival of Auric Fulcrum, met him once by the way, and a Displaced,” she closed the book she had pulled from nowhere, “You might know of me, not quite sure, depends on who you know.” Teridax simply nodded. “No, I don’t know who you are, but I can make a couple of guesses. You clearly have access to a pocket dimension of some sort, putting your average power at the level of Umbra. So it’s likely that you’re a Sysadmin, or at least a similar level of entity. But your name, I do not know.” Essence nodded. “Similar to Umbra, yes. I don’t have need of a pocket dimension. I’m an entity similar to The Merchant. I’ve had multiple names but the one I use now is The Musician.” “Interesting.” Teridax absently looked around. The scenery around him was much the same. “When is Auric going to come here? The rest of the war is of no consequence if he doesn’t show up.” Essence shrugs. “I’ll do my best but no promises.” Teridax nodded. “I’ll hold you to that.” With that, he teleported back to his base, thinking about that chance encounter. Essence, in the meantime, disappeared. A loud whoop of joy escaped her as she landed in Umbra’s tricked out Announcer/DJ booth. A sound echoed from her landing. It was the same achievement sound that you get from a video game. DUN DA DA DUN DUN DA DA! Essence scoffed. She’d have to fix that later. “Essence? Why the hell are you in my booth? I swear I locked that door.” Umbra stood from where he was reclining and floated over to his cot, settling into another reclined position. Essence put her hands together. “The answer to both is, I haven’t practiced teleporting, I wanted to land outside the door, and I met Teridax. He seems pissed at the delay. I said I’d do what I could.” “I see. Well, there’s snacks in the fridge, and drinks. There’s a game center over in that corner, and don’t touch the mix table. That one is a custom build.” As he spoke, Umbra pointed to the aforementioned corner– more of a large alcove, really– and to his custom built, super powerful, ultra-high performance mix table Mark XXXXII. He liked to call it “The Bass Dropper 9000”. Essence sniggered, “I don’t need a mix table, remember?” “Yes, but still. Don’t touch it. One wrong move would destroy the planet from sonic backlash. I should probably tone down the speakers a little, now that I think about it.” ‘Oh, please, you and I both know how easily you could fix it. Either way, I wasn’t gonna touch it.” Essence held up her hands. She looked around before turning back to Umbra. “I’ll be back later.” She disappeared. “Crazy-ass woman. Cute ears, though,” Umbra shook his head before turning back to what he had been doing. Some would’ve been put off with seeing a woman jumping around in the desert with flames licking at her clothes, luckily for A, no one tends to wander around the desert. With a fair bit of surprise she somehow managed to fall on someone who was wandering around a desert wasteland. “Fade damn it all,” came a voice from underneath her, “ Why do I always get landed on? I need to talk to Umbra about this BS.” “Maybe it’s because you’re so doggang comfy!” She rolled backwards off from the voice that had come beneath her, stretching out onto the sand. Essence sat up and started messing with her tail. After clearing it of sand, she looked over to A. “Hello, I guess.” “BZZZT, wrong answer, care to take another try or would you like to use a lifeline?” “Lifeline. Help. I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.” “You’ve fallen!? Oh no, I’d love to help but I’m a bit busy making sand angels while I wait for the other guy.” A was actually making sand angels, her dress somehow remaining remarkably clean and her hair almost untouched. “Cool. I’d love to make some but-” she started before being interrupted by a musical tune. “Oh. Guess I can.” Essence laid down in sand next to A. “Whee…” Fifteen minutes later the both of them had gotten bored. Well, one of them did. “Okay I’m bored now.” A said rather abruptly, standing up and shaking her head slightly. Essence, on the other hand, had already been sitting up for a good seven minutes. “Ooh fluffy!” OH DEAR GODDESS. She saw my tail… Essence thought, aloud. “Yes she did!” A laughed and pounced onto the fluffy anomaly, arms outstretched as she practically willed herself to pet it. Essence dodged and ran off only for A to quickly pounce after her again, whiskers appearing on her mask as she curled up slightly “Lemme pet your tail kitty!” “No! It’s sensitive!” “You shan’t escape my grasp thou fluffy beast! Huzzah!” A twisted herself slightly as she landed, smirking as her deft turn enabled her to tackle Essence barely, pinning her onto her front as she tried to pet the tail with one hand, nuzzling against Essence’s cat ears as well “Victory is mine, now submit!” At this moment another figure had come into view, immediately facepalming as he realised what was happening. “Oh dear Origin, A, you’re a moron.” Decidedly, it was at this moment Z had pledged never to work with the golden guardian of good again. “And why in Equus would you go along with her… whoever you are?” Pushing A off of herself Essence looked up to him, A immediately returning to playing with her tail. “I'm Essence, The Musician, wielder of divinity, madness incarnate of the Void, reaper of tyrants, Bubble mistress, and The Last of the Influences. You are?" “Currently I go by Z, eraser of the wicked and punisher of souls. And...” He groaned loudly as his attention turned to A who was trying to wrap herself in Essences tail. “I see you’ve met A. On behalf of my universe I apologise.” “It’s not as bad as it looks, I guess.” “Riiight. Sorry for intruding.” He calmly reached down and grabbed the back of A’s dress, the golden flames along it avoiding his touch as he started pulling her away. “I’ll be taking this one somewhere she won’t get in the way.” “Um… It’s kinda my fault to be honest…” “Really?” He dropped A, who was trying desperately to grab at the tail again, to the ground and pointed at her. “You’re saying this one-” “That’s me by the way!” “Didn’t try and grab at your tail?” His mask showed a look of casual disbelief and minor displeasure. “I mucked up a teleport, she landed on me, we made sand angels, and she saw my tail. I usually hide it.” “I… see… With a cautious lack of judgement I’ll be leaving then, oh and A? I will be reporting this.” For her part A had been mucking around with a sock puppet of Z, imitating him as he talked. Essence sneezed and an image floated away from her. “That’s new…” “None of my business. A, no eating her because she’s fluffy. I’m instigating rule list three-thousand, nine-hundred and sixty eight.” With that he walked towards the villain camp, he had more important things to deal with than an idiot and an unaccomplished cat. “Hey! I heard that.” Z halted slightly, looking towards Essence out of the corner of his eye before sighing and continuing forward. “I’ll have to inform the Origin the firewall requires an update.” “Um… That wouldn’t work… I have near same abilities as Umbra.” “I know, and my weapons are made with those like you in mind so I’m sure a firewall capable of blocking Sysadmins and those ranking higher isn’t too out of the question.” “Not a SysAdmin, nor higher.” “It doesn’t matter what you are, go peeking around my thoughts again and you will be erased” “Erase me, you erase over seventy trillion worlds. Probably more.” “And? You make it sound as if I hold any care for those worlds. No, as far as I’m concerned you can do whatever you like, just keep it away from me.” “Sometimes I peek by accident. And those worlds? They include yours.” “Then you clearly don’t understand what I meant by erased. Let me indulge you. It involves every single line of code, every strand of your soul burning away while anything you had an effect on will have no memories of you, nothing to show you ever existed, and every single existence you’ve ever created will simply think of some other reason for their origin.” “My code intertwines with so many worlds that it would cause around… 3 fourths of the multiverse to end. Do you really wish to create such havoc?” “There’s a difference between wanting to create havoc and wanting to erase someone. But yes, I would still go through with it and I would also not be held accountable for the destruction of those worlds, as I have already stated, no one would know I killed you if no one remembers you.” “... Need I say it? I’m connected to the entire Multiverse. Even a small amount would effect your world. And small can be big. Imagine. Music never existing. Science never existing, can you?” Z simply chuckled as he faced away. “As I’ve said, you simply aren’t connected to our universe. Tell me, when did you make such connections? A billion years ago? A trillion? An infinitesimal amount of eons ago?” “I said I was the Last Influence? I’m the first created. I was there when coding was made. Every code had me attached to it. I am part of the code. Each microscopic piece of code? I’m in it. Even custom coding.” “Then I’ll give you a hint, look into my code and tell me what you see.” Essence peered at him, meeting some resistance, bursting into flames for a mere second, before she looked down past the basic components. There it was. The smallest of connections but she didn’t mention it and due to it, the code ignored most of her actions. If she edited it, it would attack but otherwise… As this was happening, A was trying to swat at Essence’s tail. “Myaa!” The other two decided to ignore her. “Look at mine.” “I cannot, I was made only to serve my purpose and the ability to view the code is unnecessary.” “I’ll show you.” Z shook his head. “I have no need to see. You sound like you have knowledge that gives you a higher standing thus I’ll submit for now, but I’m still asking you to keep out of my head.” “I never said I would go inside your head again. I won’t go inside your head.” He nodded, setting out towards the villain camp once more. “Very well, break your promise and you’ll never be trusted by another of my kind.” His steps were light even though his gait was huge, his back being the only thing visible as he kept walking away. Essence looked after him, “If only he knew…” “Knew what?” A’s head was suddenly next to Essence’s. “Knew that you have a hatred for the Bookseller… or was that the Merchant? The Monopoly man? Mer-people in general?.” “Not quite. I do but this is a different secret.” “Hmmm, then is it because your cody wodey is all wibbly wobbly, timey wimey?” “Disturbingly accurate. Do you know what it means?” “I do, but do YOU know what it means?” “Yes, I do.” “Good, because I barely have half of an idea as to what it means.” The Hero Castle With a flash of light a man landed in the entrance hall of the Hero Castle. He stood from his slightly crouched position. He raised his blade up and spoke. “Here I am,” was all he said. Auric Fulcrum: The Golden Sun, Leader of the Golden Dawn, Wielder of Eureka, The Golden Flames of Alchemy The Good Guy (Zero wouldn't be able to get in sight of this guy) (He’d end up Blinded by the Light ) Auric stepped out of the entrance hall to look at the Hero Castle. He whistled. “Wow. You’ve outdone yourself Umbra…” VWORPLE Thank you -Umbra VWORPLE Teridax glanced up, before his eyes glowed an extremely bright yellow. “He’s here…” Auric, having been exploring the impressive castle, got cold chills. Someone had mentioned him, someone close enough to make him feel their power, and he had a fairly good idea who."Hello Teri." Teridax leant back. “Good to see you, Auric. I was slightly worried you weren’t going to make it.” "So did I," he muttered. Auric still had no idea why his trip took quite so 'long'. A cat-eared girl poked in her head, "My bad. Probably from my universe breaking apart." Her ears lay flat on her head, betraying her emotions. Auric looked at the girl, to Teridax, and back to the girl. “What?” Teridax gave the impression of raising an eyebrow. “Well now. This is interesting.” He chuckled a bit. “Well, Auric, I’ll be the better Makuta, and give you one day to get settled in. It’s the least I can do. Then… then you’ll be mine. Good day, Auric Fulcrum.” With that, he lapsed into silence. “I appreciate that,” Auric nodded and entered the castle to call his forces and prepare. Umbra checked another tally adding to an already massive amount counting up the number of nods from Auric. Essence, who had appeared out of nowhere, handed Umbra a cup of coffee or tea. Cups are still on the fritz for her. “Here. I’ll be back later.” Auric had just entered the main hall to find the catgirl from before lounging on a throne and a crown sloppily placed on her head. “How the?” She lept from the throne. “Never did introduce myself properly, did I?” She curtsied. “I am The Musician. Number One rival of the Merchant himself.” “I really wouldn’t say that in front of this lot,” Auric said, leaning slightly away from her. Essence quirked, “They’ve lost family, yes? But they weren’t killed by The Merchant. My entire family, so many of my friends, and my entire universe were destroyed by him.” Auric sighed, “I suppose most of them can’t say that.” “Need help calling your forces?” she asked. “Erm…” Auric realized he would either have to get her help or Umbra’s in order to not waste his power. Umbra leaned towards his side but the girl before him was a mystery. He might as well accept. After all, it was best to know potential allies or foes. “I’m neither,” she stated simply looking him in the eyes. “I am the True Neutral of this War. Every war needs one.” She can read my thoughts? Didn’t I put a block on those at one point? he pondered. “Alright call them.” “Any preferred method?” “Not really,” he said. “Got it,” she said. Snapping her fingers, nothing changed. At least in the room. “Should do it,” she said. “Go ahead and look outside. I’ll be taking my leave.” With the sound of ting, she vanished. A floating, 3D music note floated where she was. When Auric looked outside he saw something shocking. A Golden Sun. Written on it were the words, “Auric’s here. Forces report to the castle.” “How in?” he muttered. Neutral Territory Essence looked into the pool again. Peering out into the Multiverse, something caught her eye. A few people that could help and wouldn’t be resentful. With that she jumped into the pool. The water rippled and she flew towards the first. A boy named Alexis. He was about to die by gunfire from a robber in a store. She landed, blasted him back with music, and pulled Alexis out of the world. What Essence didn’t know about that world was that it was her old vacation spot. A group of people saw her on the news and for weeks praised the old deity they thought she was. The Musician. After she had pulled him out, she landed in a Pocket Universe. She turned to Alexis. “Sorry about that. I decided to save you. Largely because I felt I could use your help,” she said. “My help?” asked the boy. “Yes. I will tell you later. For now, pick five powers from this hat,” she held out a top hat. “Alright,” he reached in and pulled out five pieces of paper. Ambient Resource Constructs- If he's got the material he can make It. Nobody Physiology- power to be entirely or partially nonexistent Supernatural Voice- Speaking causes strange things to happen Wing Blades- Wings made of extremely sharp metal Mythical Realm Lordship- Presiding ruler of a 'mythical' realm “Oh. Well, looks like I have to make you a mythical realm. The rest aren’t too hard,” with that she began humming and swirls of power surrounded Alexis. Wing blades sprouted from his back, his abilities and body changed, and she stopped. “There. Now go.” With that she pushed him out of the pocket universe and off he went. Moments later she found the second and helped her. Repeating the process a few more times, she returned through the pool. Villain’s Camp Teridax didn’t smile, but he gave the impression of smiling. “Brotherhood of Shadows, come to me. The Fourth Displaced WarThe war, the fourth war. Devastation and darkness cover the worlds involved. Their heroes had fallen, the villains had won, and no one would be safe again. The truth behind a war of ages, a war of worlds, a war spanning the Multiverse, is that no one is safe. No even the greatest of threats, the godliest of heroes. The only true survivors are the ones who watch and monitor. The Displaced never learned, you must never bring forth a fight. A war should be a battle between the two, not the many. Paradigm, the current ruler of his Equestria, glared down at the man in front of him. It was a mirage, a hologram, created of the man who had felled him once before. This man had forced his plans to extend and fall short by years. And, as it was, this man was a hero. One of many. This man had invaded Equestrias that were not his own before, and done so simply because he wanted to. It was a violation, an illness. The man was a light that must be extinguished. Normally, Paradigm would care less about the interference in other worlds, yet, as it was. His lesser alternates had contacted him, speaking of the man who had stopped them all. In fact, the man had destroyed many of them. Paradigm’s goal was complete control of HIS equestria, for the time being, and his alternates were his means of discovering the perfect path to the world’s end. However, few of his studies had been successful. It was due to such, that Paradigm contacted a Void Dweller. Brel Stire, an elder Displaced who had achieved Void Dwelling capabilities through his manipulation of the inner magic of his home world. “Hello Paradigm,” Brel greeted as he stepped onto the ground through his portal. Brel’s casual attire was simply that of a dark mage. He was fairly average looking, aside from the pure black eyes. They had become that way due to his manipulation of dark magic. “Yes, hello. Would you mind delivering a message for me?” Paradigm asked, holding a scroll in his hands, it looked incredibly official. “To whom?” Brel asked, blinking. “Quintox, the idiot hero who interferes in worlds not his own,” Paradigm said, holding out the scroll, “This is a declaration of war against him, for infractions against the Autarchy of Equestria.” “I was headed in that direction, I’ll drop it off,” Brel answered, placing it under his coat. He turned around and made his way back into his portal. As he glided through the Void, he passed Quintox’s home Equestria and dropped the document into the world through a portal. It vanished from the Void and fell directly into the lap of Quintox, a golden haired hero of Equestria. Quintox set his spoonful of cereal down into the bowl and lifted the document, eyeing it. “Twilight?” He called out, after opening and reading the scroll. “What’s the Autarchy of Equestria?” The lavender pony blinked, having returned from the other room, “What? Equestria isn’t an autarchy, we’re a diarchy.” “It fell from empty air,” he said, having trouble understanding the information within. Twilight rolled her eyes and took the document from him, scanning it. “I need to call Celestia!” Twilight whispered, wide-eyed. The document she held in her magic stated that the Autarchy of Equestria was declaring war on the Diarchy of Equestria, specifically, her Equestria. “Why?” Quintox asked, mouth full of cereal. “War has been declared against us!” She yelled, hoping it got through into his thick skull. Obviously, by the glazed look in his eyes, it really hadn’t. “Don’t worry, I’ll win. I’m a hero!” He said, flexing his biceps and accidentally spitting his cereal onto his shirt. Least to say, Twilight did not have high hopes as she wrote down the letter and sent it. The document said they had a few hours before the Autarchy began its attack, and Twilight hoped Celestia would quickly deploy forces or have them at the ready. The Autarchy declared they would enter from the Breach, far to the east, and invade. Twilight finished the letter, sending it quickly with her magic due to Spike’s current absence. After a minute or two, Twilight could hear the loudest scream of ‘WHAT!?’ Equestria had experienced in her world. And, so it was, Celestia deployed the troops to the eastern borders of Equestria. She fully expected to win, but, little did she realize the residents and allies of the Autarchy were more powerful than a few hundred thousand troops. And, so it was, Celestia demanded that Quintox summon all of his allies, all the heroes he had helped. Many of them were only as smart as Quintox, but some were smarter. It was the more intelligent ones that rejected helping, because they weren’t stupid. As such, both sides contacted many mercenaries across the void. Of course, each side paid handsomely, so no one really had an advantage. It was finally as such, that upon initial contact, every natural resident of Equestria was wiped out. It quickly arose to the first battle between the Displaced of each side. One villain, the shadowman who could summon the dead, and one hero, who could cause the world’s brightest burning light. The shadowman summoned his minions creating a huge wall of writhing spirits as the hero blasted forth the light. It took a stagnation as the spirits burned away quickly being replaced. They went on like this for a minute or two before the villain ran into a building, grabbing the full-body mirror inside, and ran back out, shielding himself with it. The hero blasted it and quickly got hit with his own light frying harder than Anakin Skywalker. The villain blinked. He had fought other heroes before, but none of them had died that quickly. Paradigm was right, Quintox’s allies were idiots. The villain turned around and made his way back towards the main force, calling out to everyone else how stupid the heroes had to be. Most people would say he was bragging, if a new hero hadn’t landed in the middle of the main force and started yelling. “SURRENDER OR FACE THE WRATH OF SIR DERPLINESS!” This was quickly followed by a mass amount of laughter, enraging the hero. “FINE.” He yelled, pulling out his sword, “YOU WILL FACE MY-” He was cut off by a villain cutting his hair with his blade. Sir Derpliness gaped and fell to his knees. “O’ forgive me, father. They hath discovered my weakness,” Sir Derpliness said, “And now, I die.” The hero fell face first into the ground, dying the moment he hit the ground, only followed by more laughter. This only further confirmed the idiocy of the heroes for the villains, but, despite that, there was still a more sizable force on the side of the heroes. The villains came together for a discussion. “They’re definitely idiots,” one of them said, “But they’re got more power on their side.” “It is true,” one of the others responded, “But if they band together properly they’ll win.” After several minutes later of arguing, one of the leaders, Shax, Paradigm’s second-in-command, spoke up, “Why don’t we just steal the sun?” The villains started nodding in agreement, “Let’s take the moon as well,” one of them suggested, followed by more murmurs of agreement. After a quick discussion, many of the villains set out. The group going for the sun successfully grabbed Celestia, who actually proved more of a challenge than the actual heroes. Sadly, she had been distracted so the fight did not last very long. The other half of the group successfully deployed a system of satellites around the sun, gaining control of its movements. Luna, unlike Celestia, actually fought like a madmare and took out several villains. However, because of an idiot hero, she fell too. It was absolute crap how stupid the hero forces were. One of the villains could shout their plans and the heroes wouldn’t do anything. And so, that led to the current situation, Paradigm’s forces surrounding Canterlot and the heroes holed up in the city. “DEAR HEROES,” Paradigm shouted, his voice echoing throughout the city, “We have captured the sun and moon. We have your Elements, and we are winning.” The heroes booed and Quintox stepped forward, “RELEASE MS. CELESTIA AND MS. LUNA! RELEASE ALL OF THEM?” Paradigm frowned, “WHAT’S A CELESTIA AND A LUNA? AND WHY ARE YOU MAKING THAT LAST BIT A QUESTION?” “Celestia is the big white horse with the sun on her butt, Luna is the blue one with a moon on her butt!” Quintox answered. Paradigm frowned and leaned towards Shax, “Do we have those?” Shax nodded and whispered something to Paradigm. “Yes, you can keep her,” he said to Stax, “Just don’t plow the plot too much, she could be valuable. WE WILL NOT. WE ALSO HAVE THE REAL SUN AND MOON. SURRENDER, AND WE WILL END YOU WITH MERCY!” Quintox and the heroes shouted back, “NEVER!” “SURRENDER OR I SEND A SOLAR FLARE SO FAR UP YOUR ASSES THAT YOU’LL GLOW FOR EONS,” Paradigm yelled, stopping a moment, “THERE’S THIRD OPTION. I COULD JUST SHOVE THE ENTIRE SUN UP YOUR ASS AND LET IT SUPERNOVA.” The heroes yelled never again, and Paradigm just sighed and called over another villain. “Open the portal,” he said. The man nodded and a portal opened up, Paradigm and his forces marching through. Paradigm was the last one through, calling the sun towards the current Equestria before the portal closed. And so, the fourth Displaced war ended, rather anti-climatically, and wasn’t all that amazing. In fact, it was rather boring to watch, if you ask me. Author's Note So, here it is. A parody of Displaced Wars. Enjoy. Essence's Discovery [Revised]My day was following a very strange pattern of events, as compared to usual. The first was probably the pattern of green, speckled with beams of light, that was in my field of vision when I awoke. I frowned. “My ceiling most definitely does NOT look like that,” I said aloud. My voice sounded off too, but it was still my morning voice, and I shrugged it off. I sat up, groaning as something poked me in the arse, rather painfully I might add. Looking down, I almost let out a scream. My new location explained the leaves and branches above me, but did not give a sense of safety like a bed. How in the seventh hell I had fallen asleep or remained asleep in a tree, I did not have any clue. Still, I looked at the branch below me and cautiously tried putting a foot on it. Nothing happened as I started putting more weight into my step before finally shifting my other foot onto the branch as well. It creaked, but otherwise remained fine. I grabbed my original branch before shifting my grip to the trunk of the tree itself and moving downwards. I felt something twitch, a muscle in my back most likely, and ignored it as I started making my next step; a smaller branch, but it was still thick enough I decided that putting my weight on it was most definitely worth the risk. Repeating what I had done with the previous branch, I shifted my body down and heard the creak. Closing my eyes, I finally let my full weight fall on the branch. Cre-ACK! The branch I believed to be sturdy enough snapped like one of its twig cousins and I plummeted past it siblings towards the ground. On instinct, I twisted my body and hit the ground with a thud. By some miracle, I had managed to land on my feet and I celebrated a momentary victory, only for that muscle to twitch again. When I looked back, a tail of amazingly fluffy proportions was extended from what I guessed to be the base of my spine. “...That wasn’t there last night.” Did I get drunk? I wondered, bringing up the memory of last night. A few more seconds of concentration later and I deemed that it was most definitely not a drunken prank or idea. I reached back and attempted to tug it off, hoping it was just taped on there or something. As soon as I pulled I gave an almighty yelp and hissed violently. “Ow… Definitely real, not doing that again,” I said to myself. I bit my lip and rubbed the now-sore spot at the base of my tag. A little further down than socially acceptable, but at this point I was in the wilderness and did not care. “My arse is most definitely more attractive though,” I mused. The forest around me seemed typical of what I would expect of the woods near my hometown. Deep greens mingled with brown on the forest floor while lighter greens lit up by morning light seemed to glisten and add to the melancholic feel of the forest. It felt quite a bit like home. I took a deep breath and looked around for evidence that someone had put me in the tree or even that I had managed to fall there. How I would fall into the tree was beyond me, but writing a possibility off wasn’t something I was ready to do quite yet. The forest floor and tree itself yielded no evidence as to how I had ended up there which made it seem like I had randomly appeared in the tree with no disturbances. Deciding that waking up in a tree was most definitely the least of my worries at the moment, I gave a sigh and turned around. The forest itself was also clearer and I could smell something odd. It seemed that I had not only gained a tail, but also other cat-like senses. I brought my hands up to my head to inspect my next suspicion, noting my clearly longer hair,. “...Yup, ears too. I must be fucking adorable.” I subdued a grin and was immediately aware of some sounds coming from a different part of the forest, my new ears flicking in reaction to the noises assaulting them. Sure, I might not be fully human anymore but these better senses were a major improvement by comparison. I listened for a moment longer before finally getting a feel on the direction the ruckus seemed to be coming from. Without a second thought, I immediately made towards it, hoping it would be something familiar. In hindsight, they do say curiosity killed the cat, and I ended up definitely regretting my decision to go towards it, instead of going the opposite direction. The ruckus was a very fantasy-esque scene. A very large alabaster horse, or perhaps pegacorn in this case, was standing next to some rocks shaped like disturbingly perfect spheres. She also seemed to be standing in a very run-down castle and was yelling at something in the sky. When I focused on the source of her ire, I spotted a comparatively blue pegacorn. The white one’s rather large flank had a ornate sun on it and her mane was a flowing river of pastel colors. She yelled something towards the other one, something I barely heard as the room was hit by a burst of what was probably magic. A few rocks fell and the white horse’s head dipped down, followed by a bright glow and the rocks lifting off the ground. Something told me I should leave, but I was rooted to the spot by the gripping sight of the ongoing spectacle. Before I had a chance to react, a godsdamned. Motherfucking. RAINBOW blasted from white horse and slammed into the other one. I was in pure and utter awe of the situation until the same bloody rainbow suddenly veered around and hit me. When it finally cleared, I was in a small room and down below me, I could see an entire motherfucking continent through the cool glass floor. “What in the motherfuck?” The next few centuries (which is absolutely ridiculous since I’m pretty sure I wasn’t this old aged before) were filled with me sitting in boredom. Here and there I found new abilities, the weirdest being that I could conjure bubbles of varying types. “This whole scenario feels stupid,” I muttered aloud, looking down at the continent that had been in my sight for this entire period of time. The more useful of my powers, so far, was the ability to summon divine fucking weapons. Actually a pretty badass, and hopefully useful, power. I flicked a new-found sword of mine around. I wasn’t sure of the name and origins but it was mostly definitely useful. Mjolnir was the weapon that had given the ability away. I looked around the familiar room again, all of the dust and varying things in their places. There were some books which were also outdated and the pages were so old and yellow they were falling to pieces with the slightest touch. I tossed the sword off to the side, humming as it disappeared. I hummed for a few more seconds before the floor literally vanished. “Fucking-” I yelped as I suddenly began plummeting towards the ground at incredibly high speeds. I screamed out a list expletives that are not suitable for underage people and distasteful even to adults. After a few moments of falling, I slammed into the ground hard enough to leave a crater. The dust and dirt billowed upwards and I could hear coughing as my vision spun. After a few minutes I peeled myself up off the ground. “That hurt like hell.” My vision swam momentarily before blacking out, though not before I could catch a glimpse of a lavender unicorn. When I finally opened my eyes, a hospital room greeted my vision. The lights on the ceiling were almost blinding and far closer than they should have been. I finally sat up with a shock. A slight amount of glee filled me, as I was no longer imprisoned in the room. The glee vanished quickly as I blinked. In front of me were a bunch of small horses in every color of the rainbow and in one case, quite literally. I stared for a couple of seconds. There was clear intelligence in their eyes, and I waited for one of them to do something. “Um… hello?” the lavender one said. I blinked and stared, “...And you talk too,” I finally muttered, rubbing my head with a sigh. What a crazy experience. “You do as well,” it answered in its effeminate voice. Not surprising from a pastel pony, I thought. “Yeah, but I’m used to ponies NOT talking,” I retorted. “Why wouldn’t ponies talk?” she asked, tilting her head slightly. The rest watched just as enthralled. Are these things mental. “...Because you’re animals who lack the necessary biological abilities to speak English. Sure,” I paused, looking at them, “maybe you could have your own language, but it wouldn’t sound like this. Meh, I’ll muck it to fuck it to magic.” “...” the lavender horse remained quiet and the pink one looked ready to burst. I reached out and poked her, inciting a massive explosion of confetti. When the small pastel-paper mushroom cloud finally cleared, leaving a pretty decent sized mess on the floor, the pink pony was grinning madly. “WELCOME TO PONYVILLE PARTY~!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” she screamed, almost blowing out my eardrums in the process. When I finally managed to wipe the spittle from my face, the pony was blinking. Blinking with light I mean, she was actually fucking glowing. “TEN.” “Wait, hold up. What the fuck is this,” I asked, looking at the other horses. Fear was plastered across their faces- literally. Confetti stuck to their faces, spelling out the word ‘Fear.’ This was, in fact, quite frightening. “...” At least, it was supposed to be. “NINE.” The room remained silent. “EIGTHSEVENSIXFIVEFOURTHREETWOONE!” I closed my eyes and looked away. A few seconds of waiting later, I looked back and an explosion of glitter blasted out from the… Rainbow horse? “What the- BLECK.” I coughed as the rush of glitter invaded my mouth and nose. My eyes watered as I coughed and sneezed it out. When I finally cleared most of it, I wiped my eyes. “What the actual fuck?” I was no longer in the hospital room and instead was sitting down in a restaurant of some sort. In fact, the restaurant's air itself tasted of sugar. Heavily. “...How in-?” I was interrupted by the pink pony from before almost bolting out the kitchen with a giant cake. “This is getting too ridiculous,” I said out loud, looking around at the pastel horses. “Especially since I’m in the land of rainbow horses after being trapped who knows where for a millenia,” I muttered. The lavender horse almost choked on the piece of cake she had grabbed, “You’re from 1,000 years ago? Were you there for Princess Luna and Princess Celestia’s fight? Did you see any of it?” She blasted off on a thousand other questions before I sent a bubble straight into her mouth, stopping her with the taste of soap. “Calm the bloody fuck down, I saw like five seconds tops,” I answered. “If you’re 1,000 years old we need to get Princess Celestia!” She practically sprinted out of the building and I had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. A few seconds later she reappeared with a small flash of light and tossed something at the dragon. “Send that Spike!” It disappeared with green fire and a few seconds later there was another flash, with the same effect as Twilight’s, whose name I had learned from Spike, but with a much brighter light accompanying it. When my eyes finally recovered, I was greeted by the sight of the large alabaster pegacorn from before. She eyed me for a few seconds. “You were there during my fight with my sister,” I paled in response, the bad feeling churning again. “Guards! Seize her!” Twilight’s jaw dropped, “Wait why?” “We have evidence of her crimes many years past, both against Equestria, and against the countries we neighbor,” Celestia answered. I froze, looking between the two and saw Twilight’s face switch to one of anger. “Hold the fucking phone...” “If you deny your involvement, I will be forced to expose you!” her horn glowed extremely bright and I cursed loudly as a stream of light slammed into the pit of my stomach. Hunching over, everything went black. “Is she retarded?” I muttered before properly passing out. Author's Note Thanks to SnapDrakeGames for making the edits to make this more presentable. I hope you guys like this better than the original garbage On The Study Of AuthoriansContents Origins History Life War Organization Technology Culture Librarian Origins ________________________________________ Far out in every universe, but we'll deal with the Equis one, lies a galactic core in galaxy where the stars are quite literally, made of words. Around the stars orbit planets made of paper. The galactic core of this galaxy leads to The Archives of the Σύμπαν, or Universe. These Archives are in one of the very first Universes. This Universe or Orixe was one of the first Universes. Orixe is the biggest Library in the Multiverse. This Library contains every story from every Universe that has ever existed, exists, or will exist. Most Universes while not quite Infinite are massive. Orixe is not only infinite but it has every creature that exists, has existed or will exist. There is usually a small amount of these creatures managing their sections. Each race consists of a Archivist, Monitors, Overseers, and Sorters. Each creature in the Archives has a cosmological copy, but not every creature in the Multiverse has a copy in the Archives. Human Orixeans are by far the quickest but their section takes up some 1,539 sections. Sections are designated by letters, numbers, words, or symbols. Sections are, at the smallest, 0.47645676545656546765x10^46393 square feet and around 99 trillion to the fifth power times that. The First Section, Alpha Patrixon, has the indexes of each creature. The Archives are ever expanding and due to such the indexes continuously expand as well. History ________________________________________ The History of the Archives is very long, meticulously detailed, and some 376 volumes long. Though the volumes are quite detailed most of the information I need not mention and as such the information will be brief as possible. The Librarian, the creator of it, started with one book. This book gave her information on everything and as such she took it and made the Archives. In the very beginning it was small, just a mere 480 sections. 480 sections of the first creatures, humans, ponies, and so on so forth. The Librarian named each of them a position. After monitoring everything for some time, a mere three billion years, the Librarian went off to create more and has not been seen since. Life ________________________________________ Life in the Archives is unique. Near Alpha Patrixon are the homes of every creature in the Archive. The area itself is the size of a middle aged supergiant star. Any luxury in the Multiverse is available to them. From Xortean Masil Baths to Alianar Chess. Life after working in the Archives, right after shift, is calm and relaxed. War ________________________________________ Yes I know, “Such a place has wars?” in fact it had one war. The war was between the Overseers and Sorters. This war, also called First War, lasted nearly two centuries. Archivists sided with Sorters, Monitors with Overseers. Although it is titled a “War” it was more of a skirmish. Overseers would randomly ambush Sorters, stopping their work. This gave them excuses to refuse the Sorters certain things. Of course Archivists would pardon the Sorters. Monitors would then refuse to work and so Archivists had to do their work. In the end Archivists threatened to “Erase” the acting out Monitors and Overseers who in turn stopped their mischief. Organization ________________________________________ The organization of the Archives is as follows. Archivists make the index for their race, keep population records, and take account of the work done by the lowers. Monitors record work reported by Overseers onto paper, and make sure it is organized properly. Overseers take and note all the work done by the Sorters. Sorters, as the name suggests, sort all the literature of the known Multiverse. Below the Sorters are an unofficial class. They are not good for the Archives. This class are called Worms. These creatures, as the name suggests, are large worm like creatures with razor sharp teeth. Their main “goal” is to consume all the books in the Archives. If any entire section for a species is consumed, then in any world where those creatures are sentient, intelligent, and a main evolutionary focus will collapse into the Ashes. A world full of the ruins of different species. Few worlds have fallen. Among the some 20 worlds are Raizine, Aortin, and Gastion. Those worlds had already declined so much that their destruction was not threatening to the other Universes. To fight the Worms are the Weapons. These seven foot tall knights are humanoid in form but have feline features. They are quick, light on their feet, and extremely strong. Technology ________________________________________ Technology of the Archives is far beyond most worlds. They have teleport pads which take them instantly to the wanted location, a room that lets them study the other Universes, and can instantly make any food. No ingredients needed. Culture ________________________________________ Sub Topics Language Clothing Literature Traditions Language Language in the Archives varies greatly. The main spoken language resembles something like English but some words have been replaced. Any species with basic knowledge of English could quickly figure the language out. Clothing Clothing in the Archives is quite... unusual. Each person dresses as the favorite era of their species. For instance some humans dress like Ancient Greeks. Some dress as space farers. The Archivists during work wear white robes with golden trim. Monitors wear silver. Overseers wear crimson and Sorters wear blue. Though robes are highly recommended, other clothing choices are available so long as you wear colors befitting your station. Weapons wear altogether different clothing. They wear armor made by the Librarian herself. It is indestructible and very light. Underneath this they wear white shirt and cotton pants. Literature Literature in the Archives is easy enough to describe. If it exists, they can read it. From the scrolls of Archimedes to the data files of the U.E.A Salvation. The most common form of literature devices is scrolls and books. While data files are available they are usually hard-copied and placed in a section. The data file is then stored on one of the computers for this species. Traditions In so far as traditions in the Archives the main concept is “It exists therefore we must celebrate it.” Other traditions include drinking tea, supper, Dinthorian R & R, and music being played during work. Culinary Culinary in the Archives is different. They have quite literally everything. This means if someone has eaten it and called it food or drink then they will have it. In the Archives proper eating techniques vary from species to species. Humans, who are conscious of their eating habits, tend to be more refined when eating. Other creatures look… dangerous to be around when they’re eating. The Librarian The Librarian is the creator. No one knows where she came from, be it the future, or some lost primordial universe. All anyone knows is that if it is good, she had it. She was kind, generous, filled with mirth, loyal, strong, intelligent, honest, and full of heart. When she left she did not leave her creations with nothing, she left them everything. The Librarian was six foot tall, shining silver hair, her eyes were a deep blue, and she had pure golden wings on her back. If anyone stood in her presence they felt awe, not fear, of her. She was not worshiped, she was loved. She never asked her beings to do anything for her. Author's Note Sorry for the wait, I needed a break I've been really stressed lately. Anyways here it is!
The Age and Times...Waking up in the desert was not my plan of course but here I was who knows where in the middle of Equestria. Of course at least I wasn’t imprisoned by Sunbutt and her student Sparklebutt. Ya ya ya, I know I sounded not as angry earlier. After being imprisoned just because they couldn’t read your mind. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m happy she couldn’t, you get a bit mad too. Anyway so I turned in a circle and tried to spot the nearest civilization. Nothing for miles. Nothing but desert. I finally gave up and started towards what I thought was North. After walking for a bit, I heard a low rumbling sound. Looking around I saw a dune that was rolling towards me like something was under it. I did what anyone would do. I ran like hell. After a couple of seconds, I felt it roll under me and then I was thrown into the air. I landed with an omphf and stood up. Looking at the sand, which was still in the air and took a moment to settle, I saw a large scorpion like creature jump out and dive for me. I tried to dodge it, but I looked up to see it falling right on top of me. This is gonna hurt, I thought, but after nothing happened for a second, I opened my eyes and all around me were bubbles. What the hell is with all the bubbles? I thought. I lifted my hand up to pop one and, WHERE THE HELL IS MY HAND? The moment after I thought this, a bunch of bubbles gathered into the shape of my hand. I’m made of bubbles now? Seriously? Bubbles. Whatever, I just want to get away from this thing! I floated up and over it and dropped to the ground and moved my hand. Thank god, I’m back to normal, I thought. I turned around. “BUCKING BUG!” I threw a punch into its side. I looked around and saw one of its claws had fallen off. I picked it up to stab the thing, and as I did, I felt it connect way before it should have. I opened my eyes. “WHERE THE HELL DID I GET A TRIDENT?!” I screamed. “You know what? Screw it!” I stabbed the thing until the life faded from its eyes. Then I turned around and one by one, ponies stepped out from behind rocks and cacti. Every single one of them was an earth pony. I looked around. “Where am I?” I asked the nearest one. “Y-you are i-in the S-sahoof desert m’am,” the earth pony answered. He was rather skinny. His coat was a dusty gray and his hair was a darker brown. His cutie mark was a half-pipe with water coming out of it. “Thank you. Which way is it to Equestria?” I asked. “Equestria?” he asked. ‘You know the princesses of the sun and moon?” “Who?” “Ugh. Who leads you ponies?” “Chancellor Puddinghead did but we left cause conditions got bad. That was a couple years ago.” The look on my face must have been priceless because one of the mares towards the back giggled. “Ok. Why are you in the desert?” --------B.N.M ????----Day 1--- So yeah this needed to be changed. “We were headed south to hopefully find better conditions.” “Ah. Ok,” I said, and as I did, the trident tapped the ground and suddenly we were standing in a large pond. “How did you do that?” “The trident… It is strongly imbued with water and as a divine weapon, it has insane magical properties…” “That’s amazing! Can you do that again?” “I guess…” That was how I came to help those ponies and after several years they crowned me their queen. I continued to help my ponies. This was long after known as Saddle Arabia. I ruled Saddle Arabia for a long time. At least until the revolution. -----B.N.M 1500----Day 126--- I wandered the lands for years after I lost Saddle Arabia. Of course I wandered the lands and stopped tyrants but every time, the ponies revolted, and I lost the kingdom. I finally got back to Equestria and I had finally learned to use at least Illusion magic. I disguised myself as a unicorn and wandered in to try and take over Equestria. “Princess Celestia! A pony is here to see you,” shouted a guard. She entered the room and I bowed. “Good day Princess,” I said. “Indeed. Might I ask who you are?” “Oh. Yes. I am Twinkling Star.” “Why are you here?” “I’ve noticed some issues with your government princess,” I said as I summoned the power of my Divine Weaponry and and Bubble Mimicry. (Please Note that this took a LOT of concentration) “What are you-” she started just as I whacked her with the trident. She aimed her magic at me and blasted away. I turned into bubbles. She fired again. I dodged. I switched weapons bringing out Excalibur and swung it at Sunbutt. As I swung she vanished. Then she reappeared with Luna and the elements. I smiled. “You know. I knew this would happen,” I said. The next thing I knew a rainbow blasted down against me. -------A.N.M 1000----Day 2---- I still have a day before I can actually return. I watched the ponies crossing through the statue garden. In fact today a group of foals with their teacher were visiting. I listened in as they stopped in front of me. “This was Twinkling Star. She was a rebel who fought and nearly defeated our princesses. Though due to the strength of the two pony sisters she was defeated and imprisoned. It has been 1500 years since she was imprisoned and it is likely she is dead or very old. She is the only rebel who has foolishly attacked the sisters directly.” Ha. Still getting most of the info wrong. I had a day left before I could correct all the information. They called me a evil pony who had been corrupted. Just wait… --------A.N.M 1000----Day 3---- I watched the sunrise. It really is marvelous even though its forced. I pushed out my hands or should I say hooves I still used the illusion magic to make my identity not known. I pushed and stretched and finally the rock came off. “Whew! What a day, huh?” I said looking at a small pony nearby. The pony squeaked and then ran off. “Man… I wanted to have some fun… Oh well!” I removed the appearance spell and ran out of the garden. After I found the train station and I waited to jump onto the top of a train. Once the train I had hitched a ride from got into Ponyville, I jumped off and ran straight into the Everfree. “Ah! Free at last!” I stretched as I walked towards the castle ruins. “Tsk. Tsk. Sunbutt really let the place go.” I walked into the library which was in rather good condition considering its age. I wiped dust off a book. “AH-AH-AH-CHOO!” After I sneezed bubbles filled the room. “Ah that’s new.” After the bubbles had cleared I looked at the book I had dusted off. Rebellions of Equestria. Well, let’s just see if there is a mention of me. I opened the Table of Contents and found the name Twinkling Star. It read~ Twinkling Star was a unicorn from a faraway land who came to conquer Equestria. She had a golden coat and sky-blue hair. She first came to Equestria 300 years ago. She challenged the princesses and was close to succeeding but was stopped by the Elements of Harmony. After she was imprisoned in stone she was moved to the gardens to be watched over along with a few other strong enemies. It is thought that if the stone were removed this brave but foolish pony’s skeleton would fall out. Many have requested that she be removed and given a proper burial due to the legends that reached Equestria decades after her imprisonment. Such rumors included that she freed 100 nations from evil Tyrants but was thrown out due to her actions such as terrorizing the children off Canterlot, and breaking down lamp posts. To others, she was just trying to improve the Equestrian nation. After these rumors surfaced many ponies came to lay flowers in front of this pony’s memorial. Wow. I was depicted in a heroic way by some ponies. Can’t say it doesn’t touch me. After that I felt a tugging sensation. So I grabbed a ring on the ground and used magic to warp a light blue trident to it. “Whoever shall hold this ring will have the right to call upon me. Those of good intentions need not fear me. Those of dark mindset are my worst enemies. True harmony is not achieved through Elements, but through the strength of will and mind. I am Essence, freer of nations, founder of worlds, rebel of hope, and destroyer of tyranny.” I tossed the ring into the air where it glowed a bright blue and vanished. “That was certainly interesting. Not exactly a good speech but interesting nonetheless.” I turned back around and headed up to the top of the tallest tower. I dusted off the bed and laid down. This week was going to be interesting. Author's Note Thanks to the PR! This chapter is a little weird but here it is at last!
Blinks in TimeI opened my eyes to see a little ball of light floating above. “Oh. Hello.” Suddenly it rushed at me and I was tackled in a hug. “The hell?” “Mother!” came a childish voice. I looked down to see a small alicorn filly. Now realize that there are more than three alicorns. It just so happens this one had adopted me as its mother a thousand years ago and also happened to be the alicorn for time. I had named her Kronia. Ha ha, Greek pun. Shut up. “Kronia?” I gasped due to the fact of how hard she was hugging me. Please note, when getting hugged by an alicorn make sure that you have something that will allow room to breathe. Alicorns are absurdly strong. As I said I am Kronia’s adoptive mother. Her real parents she never really knew and I haven’t met yet. All I know is the story of how I found her. ----B.N.M----Day 365,364---- I walked the paths between the countries of Norhay and Sweeten. I know awful puns right? Anyway. I was about to the border when I noticed a star falling. Not strange right? Not until the bucking thing landed RIGHT ON TOP OF ME. I’d experienced some weird stuff but this was on a whole new level of “WEIRD AND CRAZY THINGS IN EQUIS”. I pulled myself out of the tiny crater. Cartoon physics allowed whatever this was to make a rather small crater for its size. I looked at what had landed. A tiny pony lay in the center she was about the size of one the CMC. Maybe a bit smaller. She had a TARDIS-blue coat. Her mane was similar to Luna’s but it was a polished silver color. It, like the princesses’ mane, was ethereal. She had a black cloak on and was still unconscious. At this point you know she is an alicorn, don’t you? Anyhow. I picked up the tiny, and extremely light, filly and sat down with her curled up in my lap. I have a soft spot for children. I let the small pony rest before I tried to wake her. I shook the tiny filly lightly. “Hello?” I asked her. She opened her eyes which a startling purple before she suddenly hugged me. “I don’t wanna. No. No. Please. No don’t make me go,” she sobbed. I looked down at her. “Why would I make you leave?” “Because I was bad. I didn’t come here like I was supposed to. I hurt somepony. I hurt you,” she sniffled. “I’m fine, see?” I put my face in front of hers. “But I almost smooshed you,” she said tearfully. “This filly is freaking adorable,” I thought. “I’m fine. Here look.” I held up my hand and turned it into to bubbles and back. She stared at my hand before she started sobbing and hugged me. “Momma. It really is you momma. You told me you’d look different. It really is you.” I looked at this tiny alicorn who assumed that I, a catgirl, previously a human male, was her mother. I’ll restate. I have a REALLY soft spot for children. “Of course it’s me,” I said. ----Return to Present---- The rest of this story can come later. I hugged the tiny filly back. “How was it? The last thousand years?” “I skipped it to come here Momma I can go back later.” She may be adorable but this tiny filly was pretty powerful. The last time I had let her jump through time uncontrolled she had caused a whole country to vanish. I got it sorted right in the end though. “Did anything mess up this time?” I asked. “No Momma.” I looked out the hole in the roof. The sky was turning a brilliant purple. In fact the sun had already peeked through the clouds. I looked towards Ponyville. The clouds had already moved and the bright morning sun hit the town waking all the ponies there. I turned back to Kronia. “It’s time for me to return.” I turned into bubbles. I warn against doing this as much as I was. It is very mentally taxing. I floated towards Canterlot with the morning winds. ----A Short Time Later---- I floated into the throne room and debubblized behind the thrones. I waited until the two sisters were deep in conversation before I got ready to step out. “What are we going to do about that bipedal called Essence who’s wandering around? She shouldn’t be allowed to walk free if it’s possible that she’ll hurt some of our ponies.” Celestia said. “You mean me?” I stepped out. Celestia jumped while Luna looked at me with curiosity. I suppose she hadn’t seen what I properly looked like last time we met, just yesterday or was it 2000 something years ago? Time travel can be so distracting. I looked at Celestia with amusement. “I-I thought you had vanished.” “Yes and no. In a way I was vanished but not vanished either,” I said. “Where did you go though?” she asked. “Here and there. Nowhere yet everywhere. Forward but backward.” I love confusing people. “Stop it. You sound like Discord,” she said. “Hey. Disc was slightly more annoying than me alright?” “How do you know Discord?” She squinted at me suspiciously. “I’m not allowed to do research?” “Well yes. But I-ugh.” “Am I free to go?” “You can roam but only in Canterlot.” “That works out fine.” I left the throne room. Boy, Celestia sure was easy to tick off. ----Meanwhile---- Spike looked at Twilight who seemed overly worried about something. “Twilight?” Spike asked. “Huh?” Twilight responded, not really listening. “You’ve left another trench in the floor,” Spike said. “What?” She looked down. “Oh.” She climbed out. “Twilight what has you so worried?” Spike questioned. “It’s that bipedal thing. It returned just hours ago but Celestia said this time it knew Discord.” “Discord? Who’s that?” “A creature who made Chaos in Equestria.” “Oh.” Twilight used her magic to pull out history books and began searching for any mention of the bipedal. Little did she know the answer lay on her bed. Mythological Creatures and Legends by Limestones. Author's Note Sorry about the grammar. I lost my PR. Anyways here is the 3rd chapter finally!!!!
Doctor, Time, and Ponies----A Couple Days Later---- I had been summoned by the Sister Princesses. Whee. Anyway they had finally decided what to do with me. Actually more like they had been forced to do something, but how was I supposed to know the robber would run into the senior center? I only knocked them out. For a couple days. Either way I was on my way to the Throne room. I entered and Luna spoke first. "We've decided to send you to stay with Celestia's student, Twilight Sparkle, to be studied." "Alright," I replied whilst thinking. "I'm not a lab rat." "We've sent letter ahead. Twilight is already waiting." I sighed. Great. More Essence get poked and prodded. Knowing the lavender unicorn I'd be strapped to a table attached to some magical device getting asked stuff like "How do you reproduce?" To "Was your world magical?" To "What's a computer?" and so on. "I guess I'm ready then." I turned and was starting to leave when Luna called out. "Essence?" "Yes?" "Be careful. I may not know it perfectly but I know something's coming. Something that will change you and any of your friends." "Don't worry Lulu. I've got it covered." I left and met the lavender unicorn. It was time for another little adventure. ----Three Weeks Later---- Twilight and I were arguing about the idea that I had been sent back in time. I was beginning to get a bit miffed. Twilight kept saying time was straight and never folded back. She said history doesn't repeat and that its just coincidence. "I told you. People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to affect, but actually, from a non-linear, non subjective point of view it is more like a big ball of wibbily wobbly timey wimey...stuff. Got it?" "I believe I said that," came a voice. "Yes I know Doctor." "Who are you talking to Essence?" "Him," I gestured behind me at the Doctor. "Lookie! Lookie! Its the Doctor!" cried Pinkie Pie. That one needs to do a 4th wall check. "Look at that! Prismatic quadrupeds!" "Doctor! leave the ponies alone!" came a voice. "Fine," harrumphed the Doctor. "OH MY GOSH! IT"S THE AUTHOR!" screamed Pinkie Pie. The human female leaned down to whisper something to Pinkie. "Author?" I asked. "It's just Pinkie being pinkie," said Rainbow Dash. The human turned. "Hello. I'm Midnight." "Oh, I'm Essence, this is Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie," the second one waved crazily, while grinning, "Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Applejack." "This is the Doctor," gestured Midnight. "Ello, Ello" said the Doctor. I gaped at those two. So here in this Equestria the Doctor is real? Does that mean so is the TARDIS and there's another Earth? I looked suspiciously at Midnight. She seemed familiar. I couldn't put my tongue on it. Either way she was suspicious. I turned to the Doctor. "Doctor. Does Earth exist?" "Earth? Yes, lovely planet, but it's in another universe watched by another me." "What about him?" "Midnight? She's what they call an Authorian. They come from a planet that is entirely a Library. It's called Biblio. Very nice place. Full of every book in any universe. It's massive." "Authorian?" *A/N~ Refer to Chapter Entitled On The Study of Authorians* "I'll explain the differences later." I turned and looked at the Authorian. She looked pretty bucking human. Then again so does the Doctor. I looked at Pinkie who seemed to be having a argument about something with Midnight. I turned around. Twilight and the others had gone into the library and were talking about how Winter Wrap Up was coming. I murmered about how unfair life was, and blah blah blah. "So Doctor, about Time-travel..." "Yes?" "Are the Time-lords the only ones capable of it?" "No. In fact this world has it too, though very hard to control in raw form." "So if someone was sent back in time..." "They would become part of that timestream forever or at least until it changes." "Meaning?" "Say if I went back in time, and stopped this person, I'll call him Jack, if I stopped Jack then it would change but if Jack stopped himself then he would cease to exist unless it was an older him he was stopping, then it would change, but if the older him tried to stop himself then he, in said form, would cease to exist thus making Jack never change his mind. Get it?" "Ya I do," I replied. So I couldn't keep myself here no matter what. I would always go back in time, man that's depressing. The Doctor looked at the ponies and Midnight who was telling them a story. "It's interesting," said the Doctor, "Did you know that Authorians are working their whole lives?" "Really?" I asked. "Yes, but Midnight ran out of work." "What do you mean?" "Well she was living in the year 100 trillion. Basically at the End of The Universe, right? Well she ran the human section, or the section for human stuff. It was said that her work would take another several millennia but she finished it in just a couple decades, even by their standards that's fast. So I asked her superior if she could come with me and he accepted. Midnight was already helping the pony section when I told her and you know what she said? "I've seen every story by human, but I what I truly wish is to make my own." That was yesterday." "Impressive..." "Yes, but not number 1 on my list." I looked at the Doctor and entered the library. Twilight was immersed in a nearby book when she looked up. "Essence, Winter Wrap Up is tomorrow. What are you going to help with?" Twilight asked me. "I'm going to try-" She cut me off. "No magic of ANY kind," she said seriously. "Fine," I grumbled. Author's Note So yeah. Yay! I got to meet you. (Originally this was my friend who made this chapter. Now that he's made his own fic I fixed it.) Be calm. But why? Because I said so Pinkie. Welcome the Doctor. Thank you. Also. THE REAL STORY BEGINS. Please enjoy dear readers. On the Study of Authorians To come soon.
The Baron and Some SpidersAuthor's Note This chapter is a crossover with The life and times of Xante, Baron of the Frozen Wastelands, First among Liches, Lord of the Dead, and Fabulous Rainbow Magic User. Oh good gods, that's a mouthful. Anyway, enjoy! The Baron and Some Spiders I climbed out of my bed and walked in on Twilight making breakfast. "Waffles?" "Duh." She slid some onto my plate. Grinning I munched down the waffles. Hands are great. Either way. Finishing my breakfast I made for the front door and sprinted into the woods for my usual meetings with Krona. As soon as I reached the castle I heard buzzing and poniod-bugs landed near me. Confused I found myself looking at none other than Chrysalis herself. She looked up into my face. "What? Do I have like, I dunno, cabbage in my teeth?" "What are you?" I flicked her muzzle, "A person, thank you very much." Her wings buzzed behind her as she rubbed her nose. "No matter, I can still take out the little purple one." I frowned. "You're going after Twilight?" "Pfft. No. I'm going after the dragon. Of course I'm going for Twilight. I can use her to lure in Cadence." It was at that moment that Fluttershy, helping a little bird back to its nest, appeared. Turning faster than I expected, Chrysalis spoke up, "Quickly, take out this thing and grab the yellow one. We can use her!" I coughed. "I'm not that easy you know." "Oh really? You have no magic, weapons, or armor." "Weapons? Pfft. I can take care of that. Armor, I don't need it, and magic is boring." I chose to summon the Trident as I spoke. She laughed, "That old thing? Why the fool who held it last got himself killed!" Oh? She wants a challenge? I switched to random and a Lyre appeared in my hand. Great. I'll use music to take her out. That'll totally work. Sighing, I strum a cord and directly behind Chrysalis a tree explodes. I squint. It can't be... Twilight gave me a book on all the Divine weapons and all the Lyre can do is move leaves. I take up a tune and Chryssi is immobilized. Nearby a changeling begins to twist and turn his body morphing into a cedar tree, another into a bush, and the third into an oak tree. I finished the song and looked at the Queen. "That's interesting," I mumbled. "Really? You turned my best soldiers into plants and you call that interesting?" She fumed. "Pretty much, though the tune made that anticlimactic." Chrysalis squinted at me. "What are you?" I grinned, and struck a few cords, "I am Essence!" A top hat appeared on my head, "A friend of the Elements," I now had a trenchcoat, "and a human!" I now had my outfit completed with a cane. Suddenly I heard a voice, "Hello there. Need some help in here, because I really don’t want to cut myself out." I turned to Chrysalis, "Be back in a moment," and I felt I tickle in my nose, sneezed, and found myself next to what looked like a pair of bipedal changelings, tied up. “Oh, hello!” I said. “Hello there miss. Now, this is important. I need you to look up. That would be good.” I looked up. “Oh, that’s interesting.” The vaguely corpse-like being sighed. “I know that I’m interesting, but right now some help would be appreciated. Also, if you see any giant spiders around here, leave them alone. I want to punch them. Repeatedly. But getting me down is top priority.” “Hey, what about us?” One of the changelings yelled, struggling with his bonds. The taller corpse shrugged. “Don’t worry, you’ll get free soon. As your employer, it is my right to get freed first.” “He’s right ya know?” I shrugged and pulled Excalibur out of no where in particular and tossed it up to the corpse-like dude.”There, unless you can’t use your hands? If so would you try a tune? That’ll give me something to work with.” The corpse just smirked, rainbow-coloured eyes glowing intensely. “Well, I’m rather tied up at the moment, so I don’t think that’ll work. A tune eh? Well, I got one that I think will work…” With a twitch, the unmistakable sound of Sad Violin started playing. The guy grinned wider. “I think that should be a good tune to start with.” I grinned, “Great,” closing my eyes the Lyre appeared in my hands and I strummed as reality bent around and the spiderwebs turned into leaves. The corpse fell down, gracefully landing, incidentally revealing that it only wore a pair of black boxer shorts and the pointy black hat. He stretched out, skinny body making various popping and cracking sounds. Then, he walked up to me and stuck out a hand. “Thanks for the help. Name’s Xante, Baron of the Frozen Wastelands, First among Liches, Lord of the Dead, Fabulous Rainbow Magician, the Walking Ice Age, Lord of the Dance, Three Times Winner of Best Smile in the Land, Former Mayor of Sycamore Town, Current Mayor of Lavender Town, Former Professor of Defense against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts, the Richest man in Metropolis, Grand Master of Ecky Thump, the Epic Level Lich, Sorceror/Monk Multiclass, Most Fabulous Undead in all the realm, The D, Leader of Gamergate, Elf-Murderer, Master of Face Punch, Big Sexy, Troper, Friend to Children, Current Mayor of the Necropolis, The Bifrost, and Maker of the Best Ever Cheese Sandwich!” “Um… Mine’s no where near that long with titles, I’m Essence, divine weapon wielder, the, ugh, bubble lady, the madness incarnate, destroyer of tyranny, and The Musician. Though the tyranny thing stopped after Celestia imprisoned me in stone for like 1,500 hundred years.” Xante nodded. “I’ve been seeing a lot of people get that same length of time. BUT ANYWAYS!” With a flick of his hand, rainbow-coloured energy blasted out, neatly removing the spidersilk from his two Changeling companions. They stood up, grumbling as he continued. “I can see that meeting you was fortuitous. The narrative continues to flow correctly for me. And probably for you as well, who knows.” “Ya, the whole imprisonment thing sucks aside from the whole it happening twice and all. Did you know that Celestia and Twilight can turn a simple scan spell into a time travel one? They sent me back over ten thousand years!” Xante winced. “Eesh. Tough break.” The sound of scittering, clattering steps from far off caused him to turn arund with a wide grin on his face. “It seems that we are about to encounter giant spiders! This is pretty good. Fortune is with me once again! Come, my ally, we shall need to beat on these spiders mercilessly. I may need to break out my Ecky Thump skills.” “So, spiders like Aragog and Shelob? Sounds fun! Know any divine weapons that you wanna try out?” Xante shook his head. “I’m pretty powerful in my own right. I wanna beat them up so that I can get a constant supply of spidersilk, not kill them.” As he spoke, rainbow-coloured magic started seeping off of him, and the ground beneath him got a thin layer of frost. He grinned at me, more power leaking off of him. “Besides, I much prefer using stupid weapons rather than practical ones.” It was then that the first of the spiders came around the corner. “No weapons? Alright!” I held up my hands, and snapped my fingers as a spider fell from above. In less than a second the spider was trapped in a bubble. “How’s that work?” Xante shrugged, though the raised eyebrow showed a keen interest. “Most impressive little bubble.” Another spider came, and Xante just walked up to it, pulling something long, blacn and oblong from his pocket. “ECKY THUMP!” And with a downwards motion, he brought the giant arachnid down. He smirked, pocketing the object. I snickered, “That’s funny.” I slammed the bubble down on another spider knocking it unconscious. Xante nodded. “I wasn’t lying about being an Ecky Thump grand Master, you know. I’m a Planeswalker; reality is literally my plaything.” Another spider came, and Xante distractedly levitated it into the ceiling. “I picked up a rather eclectic blend of martial arts- mainly judo and pressure point stuff. Good to not just rely on magic, you know?” “I get it, I know something while it isn’t too hard to do, it is very funny.” Turning to face a spider behind me I leaned down, looked it in the eyes and sneezed. The spider went flying into a tree. “See?” Xante nodded appreciatively. “Super sneezing. Never would have picked that one. Knew a kid who could sneeze like that. Man, those were the days, sneaking around with Sock guy and his friends, conning people and eating those fireflake things. Really good, you can’t get them anywhere else.” A spider trying to get close was belted with another black pudding in an offhand way. “I get what you mean there, I once knew a Zebra who could burp so hard and fast she flew all the way to the Crystal Empire,” I said. Xante stopped for a moment. “...that beats a lot of my stories.” He looked around, then went over to the nearest spider. He slapped it, then glared at its eyes. “I need you to spin me as much spidersilk as you can, or you’re probably going to regret it. Got that?” The spider seemed to be considering, then nodded. Xante beamed. “Splendid!” He turned to all the unconscious or otherwise incapacitated spiders lying around us. “That goes for all of you.” Another flare of power briefly illuminated the cave. The temperature dropped, the wind howled and Xante’s eyes briefly glowed an intense white. Frost formed on the opposite walls, and rainbows coloured light flared around Xante. Then, it was all back to normal. The spiders, now clearly terrified, started quickly spinning spidersilk. “Nice job,” I said looking around, “Mind if I hang around for a bit, it’s gotten boring in my universe.” Xante nodded. “I was about to get a drink.” He waved a hand, and a minibar popped into existence. The two changelings briefly looked between themselves, before shrugging. “Honestly, Xante, do you carry EVERYTHING except clothes in that thing of yours?” The taller changeling asked. Xante nodded. “Of course I do, Xyleon. Why else would I have a Subspace pocket if not to keep all my random stuff in here?” He went behind, and started mixing. “For todays efforts, I reward myself with a Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster. What about you, miss Essence?” “I’ll try what you’re making, also, no need for the miss, it feels weird considering I was male before coming to Equestria.” The shorter, stockier Changeling briefly stared at me before shaking his head. “Xante, I think I need that Pan-Galactic whatever.” Xante nodded. “Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters all round!” He pulled out four glasses, tapped them and coughed. “You heard me, glasses.” They immediately filled with a strange green liquid, with an olive on a stick coming into existence a few seconds afterwards. “This is the best drink in the multiverse, I feel. It’s like having your brain being smashed out by a slice of lemon, wrapped around a large gold brick.” He passed the glasses around, and took a hearty swig. “It’s about 130% proof, just a fair warning.” I shrugged and sipped it. Within seconds my tongue felt like it had been blessed with divine powers. “Wow. This is great. Also I have an interesting question. If this multiverse has certain laws doesn’t that mean that there is more than one multiverse?” Xante shrugged. “If there is more than one multiverse, then I’m okay with that. The multiverse is a pretty big place and it’s not one I would just give up.” Beside him, the two changelings passed out, the glasses teleporting back to the bar before they fell. “True enough. Man, can’t hold anything can they?” I said looking at the changelings. Xante shrugged. “It takes a lot of alcohol to affect me because I’m a lich.” “Makes sense.” Xante continued, grinning as he took another sip. “I know that you’re an immortal, as you’ve been drinking that stuff like a champ. First time mortals drinking a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster usually end up like those two.” With an idly flip, they were levitated onto their sides as they snored. I winked, “Got that right. Found it out the hard way though.” Xante shrugged. “Immortality isn’t what it’s cracked up to be. I became a lich because I wanted to know what death felt like. Here’s a hint: it depends on the death.” “I would have figured. Mine would have felt like being crushed by a mountain.” I sipped the drink, “Warning. Discord has issues with you beating him in a prank war.” Xante paused. “Question. Who is Discord? I’m afraid that I haven’t met the gentleman.” “Really? Lord of Chaos? Wait… What’s the most recent event?” Xante looked at me strangely. “Just got back from the Crystal Empire. I was there for over a thousand years.” “So… You met Cadence and Twilight and the lot?” Xante nodded. “Yeah. I was briefly… enslaved by Sombra. Little shit. I was going to fight him, had no idea of his capabilities. Beat me in my lowest power form, this which you just saw.” “So, The Crystal Empire. Alright. When you go back try to get Twilight to convince Celestia that Discord can be reformed with kindness. Which by the way is not my idea. On my earth it was a TV series. Also, Twilight becomes an alicorn, and fights a half monkey and goat dude called Tirek. I think you’d have fun with Discord but Tirek will end up being a nuisance.” Xante nodded. “Got it. Thanks for the tip.” He smiled widely. The spiders had made quite a lot of spidersilk, and he looked at it appreciatively. “Well, thanks for the help, but I’m going to have to get going with this spidersilk.” “I’ve got an idea. Mind if I tag along?” Xante shrugged. “Eh, why not. Also, you may have guessed it, but this Equestria is what you’d call ‘anthropomorphic. Just a heads-up.” With an idle wave, the silk levitated upwards. Xante then made a complicated motion with his hands, and it vanished. He then stretched a hand out, while the Changelings levitated towards him. “Ready to go?” “Sure. Wanna fly back or?” Xante grinned. “Why fly…” And with a flash, we were at the outskirts of Ponyville. Xante grinned. “...when you can teleport?” I laughed, “Show off. Though I admit teleporting is fun.” Xante nodded, picking up the T-shirt and overalls that were lying on the rock nearby and putting them on. “Right, let us move to fair Rarity’s boutique for my new, fabulous robes.” “Of course. Fabulousness first,” I said, my tail flicking backwards. Xante strode forwards, confidently. The ponies of Ponyville briefly looked at me, then at Xante, then shrugged. Xante just kept grinning and occasionally waving at people as we walked to the boutique. “So, you said this one is anthropomorphic?” Xante looked at me oddly. “I assume that your eyes are functional, but yes, it is.” “What? I like ridiculous questions. Anyway. Mine’s sort of a mix.” “I’ll ask later, but I don’t think you’ll be very interested in the fitting of my robes anyway.” “I’ll wait in the front of the boutique.” Xante waltzed in, and grinned. “Rarity, I have the spidersilk, now let the robe-making commence!” I leaned back into one of the chairs and next thing I knew I was nearly crushed by three small fillies. I yelped and fell backwards. Groaning I looked up and found myself face-to-face with the CMC. My first thought was to run and the second was “Aw.. Adorable.” “Sorry miss, we didn’t see you there.” Resisting the urge to flee I spoke up, “Um, no problem.” The three fillies ran out the door. I shuddered. A few moments later Xante stepped out. Music started playing as he swished around. rather than the overalls and T-shirt he wore before, instead he wore long, flowing robes, coloured with all the colours of the rainbow in eye-searingly bright shades. The shoes that poked out from beneath were pointy and golden in colour, with gold lining the cuffs and edges of the robe. A long, golden cape draped down his shoulders, billowing dramatically in the wind. Behind him, Rarity was covering her eyes, unable to look directly at him. “What do you think, Essence? Is this not the hippest of hip outfits?” I grinned. “Indeed it is my colorful friend.” Looking down I realized my clothes were torn up. “Oh huh. Should probably get new clothes every so often…” Rarity jumped up, “Oooh I’ve got the perfect-” I cut her off. “Naw. I got this.” Focusing on the image in my head I let my madness out. I suddenly found myself wearing some armor from my favorite game and I grinned. “Being able to use my insanity to warp reality comes in handy.” Xante backed up a bit, still smiling. “That is a pretty useful little power. Well, I think it is time you got going. Reality warpers and me don’t really mix that well. But we can meet up later, if you want to.” “Sure thing. Here,” I tossed the ring with the trident on it to Xante, “If you ever need help just call me up. I’m available any time. And by the way I don’t fit the norm for reality warpers.” Xante nodded, pocketing the ring. “Good to know. I just have a fair few bad experiences with them.” “Ok. Here,” I tossed him a bracelet of rainbow colors. “This’ll make you both immune to all of them, except my own, and give you some of the powers.” Xante examined the bracelet for a few moments, before shaking his head and returning it. “I prefer doing things the hard way. It’s a lot more fun.” “Keep it just in case. It may help out with major disasters and such. Anyways,” I grinned, “I’ll get going.” My eyes twinkled and I flicked my tail in his face before jumping into the air, shouting, “To Infinity and beyond!” and finding myself in front of Chrysalis again. “Oh yeah. That.”
Divine Interventions“Oh yeah. That.” Chrysalis looked up at me. “What?” “Forgot about you there for a second.” “You said, ‘be right back, sneezed, disappeared for a second, and reappeared. How in Tartarus could you forget I was here?” “Only a second huh?” I looked at her. She was telling the truth. That’s interesting. I’d swear I was gone longer but oh well. Picking up Fluttershy I started to leave, but a bolt of green fire flew past. Rolling my eyes I turned around. “Yes?” “Put my changeling down.” The Fluttershy in my arms gave me an angry glare, and I chucked it casually towards a tree which snapped and the bugs disguise vanished. Sighing I spoke up, “Where’s the real Flutters?” “As if I’d tell you, Essence,” she snarled. A little ticked I made myself look like a changeling, a very specific one at that. “Chrysalis. Tell me or you get punted.” I waited for her to comply but instead of responding she just gaped at me in pure fear. “Its-Its, but you can’t be! She’s dead! She died over a thousand years ago!” She said. “Oh. I’m very much alive.” I grinned evilly. “No. No. No…” She kept repeating it. I raised my eyebrow and waited but she kept repeating. I stepped forward and found myself in a soccer uniform. Running forward I swung my foot back and kicked, no help, no magic. Speaking into a mic, now dressed as an announcer, I yelled, “GOAL!” as she sailed far over the trees. A faux crowd cheered and I walked into the trees. My main goal was to rescue Flutters. The second, destroy the changelings. “HALT!” A buzzing voice called out, “Who approaches?” Even changelings have guards? Wow. “I am the Goddess Carpace. Come to see my children!” I heard a thud as, I assume, the guard fainted and another voice called out, “Oh goddess, you may enter!” Grinning at my foresight I walked into the hive. I am sure you know what a beehive looks like? Imagine that but about, eh, 300 times the size, and underground. Oh, and black with green ooz. I wrinkled my nose, it stunk, like, really stunk. Heading towards the back where the queen usually resides I found a changeling who looked to be a queen but smaller. Her neck snapped up and she gaped when she saw me. “Go-go-goddess?” Smirking inwardly I replied, “Yes?” She jumped, startled by my response, and spoke, “We appreciate your presence but why are you here?” “A mare, yellow and pink, was brought in. She is important to me and I require her release.” “O-of course.” Way, way too easy when you’re disguised as their goddess. Then again it’s not really a disguise since I invented her to begin with. Following I entered a room full of cocoons with mainly skeletons in them but one had yellow pony with her hair in her face. I opened the cocoon and she dropped into my arms as I had let the disguise go as I caught her. Looking I found something that angered me beyond belief. “YOU! YOU HURT FLUTTERSHY! That is a sin only punishable by DEATH.” I had found the small pony to be covered in cuts, a broken leg, a twisted wing, in short? She was very very hurt. I was seething with anger. Steeping forward the ground began to glow as dark, haunting music came from my form. The queenling stepped back but she suddenly began to warp into a sword. “You idiots,” what is up with my voice? It’s like the Royal Canterlot Voice but… more angry and pissed off, “Your final day has come!” I swung at a changeling and another attempted to latch onto Fluttershy and the world went dark… Another… The group of beings watched the orb closely. It contained a moving image of a catgirl swinging a sword of flesh and bone destroying bug-like creatures in anger before it went dark and when the image came back a literal hole in the universe was found where the changeling hive had been. As they watched the hole closed and a perfectly cut section of that universe was gone. “Damn…” came one voice, “She’s really that strong? I know we sent her there in such expectations but literally ripping a hole in the universe leading to a whole other Multiverse? That is just… shit…” “We know… But she’s the embodiment of madness and literally controls music. How could we not expect something like this? “We know, we can only hope she returns. Otherwise the Displaced may have issues.” The other figures nodded in agreement. Somewhere Outside It All I opened my eyes to find myself in a forest with Fluttershy right next to me and a figure next to a nearby tree leaning on it. “Welcome to the Outside, or, Nowhere in particular.” I groaned, my head felt like it was on fire, but I spoke none-the-less, “Who are you?” “Auric Fulcrum is my name.” “Where are we again?” “Outside the Multiverse. So, nowhere.” “What? How can that-“ I was cut off as memories flashed through my head and I sat there, fire in my skull gone, and just gasped in shock. “No… That’s…I can’t be…” “You? Who are you?” “Oh I’m Essence.” “Nice name. What’s your story?” I relayed my time in Equestria to him and he sat there taking it all in quietly before saying something, “So… You’re a Displaced?” “In a sense…” “What do you mean?” “I kinda just broke through an unknown memory block.” “Meaning?” “I’m a void dweller as well.” Auric raised his eyebrows but sighed, “Unsurprising to be honest. You don’t look like a typical Displaced.” “Ya…” Memories Abound The other void dwellers and I sat at a table wondering how to best stop the Merchant. I’m the one called, The Musician or, more commonly, Madness. The Scientist, The Trainer, The Cook, don’t ask why he’s here, The Magician, The Writer, The Historian, and several others sat around the table with an orb at the center, which glowed blue. “So,” Scientist spoke up, “We know why we’re here… It seems our ‘friend’ the Merchant has decided to screw with, well, everything. His actions are starting to break certain important barriers between particular worlds. From what we’ve gathered these are the main supporters of his cause, The Torturer, The Reaper, The Silent, The Ripper, and The Illusionist. The Illusionist happens to be a friend of Madness here, and has deigned to give us this information out of respect. She also agreed to play as a double agent. Any questions?” “What’s our agenda?” asked The Trainer. “Send someone to infiltrate the worlds.” “But, the Fausticorn. She’ll stop them. She only let The Merchant through because he tricked her.” “I spoke with her recently. It was a very distressing matter as she distrusts us at large. Letting her know our allegiance allows us to put a champion in.” “Then who?” “There is one obvious choice,” They all looked at me. “Me?” “You also have the titles, The Strategist and The Warrior, correct?” “Yes, but that doesn’t mean I’m a good choice.” They shook their heads. “You’re the only choice, seeing as though you are closer tied to Equestria.” I groaned. Brilliant, using one of my own abilities against me. “Fine, but don’t cry to me when I fail.” “Meeting adjourned.” Back To Outside It All I looked up at Auric again. “So how do I get back?” “I don’t know. I’d assume using a relic or something to pull you back.” I dug through my pockets before remembering an ability all void dwellers possess. “I am Essence, The Musician, wielder of divinity, madness incarnate of the Void, reaper of tyrants, Bubble mistress, and a Displaced being. If you can hear my plea, please call out to me for I find myself beyond it all.” Auric looked at me, “That’ll work too.” I sat back down and waited. The whole scenario playing through my head. In the mean time I struck a conversation with Auric. “So, you had the ability to Understand all things?” “Yes.” “And how’d that work out?” “War, in effect.” “Oh?” “Yup. From what I remember some called it The War of Understanding.” “Really? That’s interesting.” “Mhm.” He explained a bit further into the subject before I felt a strong tug. “It seems I’ve found my way back. Thanks for the company Auric.” “Not at all.” “Farewell.” I gently lifted Fluttershy as the world faded away and I found myself in a bedroom which was trashed. Confused I laid her down on the bed and stepped out into something that made me distressingly angry and sad all at once. Everywhere I looked bodies lay strewn about the room. Only three beings, and they were very battered, still remained alive. I immediately recognized them. “Writer? Historian? Trainer?” Their heads turned and they gasped. “Madness! You made it!” I looked at the bodies, all of them familiar, and shuddered. “What happened?” “The Merchant. He and his lackies burst in during a meeting and slaughtered them. Only we survived by hiding outside of this room. Scientist escaped but we don’t know where,” this time Trainer answered. “So, he killed them!?” I gaped. My anger merely pushed aside by my astonishment. “Yes, and he said Illusionist told him.” My anger roared. “He what?” I said. “Yes. He still majorly wounded us in fact, I’d put us at just having a few sparse moments,” said Trainer, “We must tell you. Merchant is plotting to destroy several worlds. Starting with yours.” “Oh no…” I said, and suddenly the figures began to wobble. “Madness,” they cried out, “Take our powers and vanquish Merchant.” “I accept your plea and shall do so before my final breath,” I said. The figures fell, lifeless to the ground. I clenched my fists. No time to mourn yet. Got to save my world. I went back to the bedroom as the meeting room crumbled, and dove into the void and reached out and landed in my world. What I saw scared me to death. Scientist was holding a deep black beast back who was jumping out of a crack. “You’re here?” “Yup. Surprised?” “Yes.” “No worries, I’ll be gone soon. I’m dying as we speak,” he said jovially “but this world is another matter. It’s falling apart into the void and another, darker, world seems to be breaking in.” “What?” “Just call on one of the Displaced or whatever.” “But what about you?” “I’m borrowing time as we speak. Call them.” I nodded and called out with all my power, “Hear me as you heard me before! My world is dying, breaking into the void and monsters crawl forth, I call for the aide of a fellow Displaced. I cannot offer much, but I do offer this, those who help me get my help no matter the cause. Please, Displaced, hurry now or my world will be gone and millions of lives with it!” Scientist smiled and dissolved before I grabbed and pushed the dark black beast into the crack. The one thought that filled my mind as I fought the demon back? That bastard is going to hell. Author's Note So, ya. Essence is a Void Dweller. Deal with it.
This, The End (And no. Not the story)Author's Note Lets try to add context shall we? This chapter will be explaining why Essence's world is collapsing. Bare with me here. Sorry that its so short but It works. I'll add another on the Murder of the council. This, The End (And no. Not the story) Equestria, land of quadrupeds and magic, was dying. At least one of them. Twilight, newly appointed princess and alicorns, couldn't seem to figure out why. For one, Nightmare Moon was no longer existent. Discord was trapped. Tirek was still in Tartarus, and so far there were no other threats. It was during a moment like this that she was busy raiding the Library in the old castle. When she had arrived two things surprised her. One, the castle looked to be in perfect shape, and two, there were two creatures attacking each other. The first was carrying a bag of some sort and was grinning maliciously, and the second was wearing a lab coat. She hid behind a bush and watched in piqued interest as the first creature pulled a weapon out of his bag and the second pulled one from his waist. "Merchant," spoke the second, "How dare you come here." "I would think Scientist," said Merchant, "That you would not care for this kind of world, what with magic and all." "Even magic has science," said Scientist raising his weapon, "though it comes in small forms." "Really?" Merchant asked as his weapon arced down towards Scientist. "Yes." Scientists blade deflected the void-black hammer. "Oh well that's a shame. I'll have to take care of that then," he brought the hammer towards Scientist's side. The man made to block but failed, the hammer slamming down onto his side, and he slid back. "As if. You know that She lives here," he swung at the Merchant's head. Blocking the Merchant responded, "Really? Which she are you referencing?" "Madness," Scientist responded as he aimed for the Merchant's legs. "HER?" the Merchant said in shock, failing to block the swing which left a large gash in his leg, "She is DEAD. I felt her presence leave the Void myself. Her powers drifted through the Void before Fausticorn took them." "We did that on purpose. We removed her shadow abilities and gave them to Fausticorn to hold for her," he brought his sword towards the Merchant's arm, but was blocked fairly quickly. "You mean to tell me that my rival still lives? Here?" He demanded. His hammer swung down towards Scientist's head. "Yes, I do," the man swung his sword towards the Merchant's side but the hammer in its travel downwards blocked the strike and connected with his head. His head snapped back and he flew backwards into a tree. The tree snapped and dropped backwards into the nearby gorge. Dazed, Scientist stood up and glared at the Merchant. Snickering the Merchant spoke. "Now to complete this World's destruction," he stabbed his weapon into the ground and a crack opened and a black beast tried to break through. Scientist grabbed it and pushed back, when he turned The Merchant was gone.
The Demise BeginsAuthor's Note Another Crossover! - Applegate by Flutters Is Shy - Angels of The Empress by ZephyrStife - I Am Titanfall by SolemnBlade Carry this over to the next chapter. It'll be a two or three chapter crossover. (Warning- This might be taken down if the other authors aren't okay with me posting as is.) The Demise Begins The world was still collapsing. Pieces of it were fading out of existence and I now sat in Twilight’s Castle, apparently I was gone far longer than I thought, because bits and pieces of the Everfree had already disappeared. Inside the castle, which was fading as well, I sat with the Bearers, Luna, Celestia, and Cadence. The Crystal Empire was already gone and the Princesses seemed slightly angry with me. “Essence. Where were you?” Twilight asked. “Fluttershy and I were ejected OUTSIDE of the Multiverse, cut me some slack.” “Fluttershy returned moments after the Changeling Hive was destroyed, yet you returned over a year later.” “The Void. Time is irrelevant.” “Both you must be quiet, we must figure out how to stop this,” said Cadence. “I agree,” Celestia said. “Unless we get help from outside our world, we can’t do anything,” I said. “Your call has been heard, Essence, and Bladesong will respond. A Titan is ready.” “Speak of the devil!” I exclaimed. “What?” Twilight said. “Step back. Displaced like to put on a show.” “Bladesong! I accept your help!” I called. “Stand by for Titanfall!” Outside came a loud thundering and shortly followed by a sudden boom and tremor. I walked out the front door and found a crater with a giant, crouched, metallic white being without a head, rather bulky body with an ocular orb of sorts on the top left of its center mass as well as a smaller one on top of its torso, something resembling a missile pod over its left shoulder and a large rifle looking cannon with a box magazine underneath within its grip. "Alright then, that was something," it stood up, revealing its twenty feet in height and the ocular orb focused on me, "I was sent here by Bladesong. Well technically Bladesong and I are one and the same, along with the other two." The giant shouldered his weapon, "Name's Ogre C. Titan. Now, I knew that your world was in trouble, but I didn't think it would be this bad." he said as he looked around. A strange whistling sound began to fill the air just before a large, midnight-blue object collided with the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust. I raised my eyebrow and waited for something to appear. Ogre looked in the same direction and asked, “Did you request an orbital drop? Because you got one.” As the smoke cleared, an armored giant seemed to be stepping out of the crater. Standing fully at more than twice the size of a pony and with a helmet in the shape of a silver-laced pony skull the being began to look around at the ensuing chaos. His grip seemed to shift a little on the massive longsword in his right hand and there was a box-like gun attached to his left hip. He cleared his throat a little, a hoarse sound that seemed more like a deep cough than a light one, before he began to speak with quite a refined tone. “Where am I?” “Welcome to Turmoil, as I feel it apt to title this world, my name, as you very well might know, is Essence, The Musician, wielder of divinity, madness incarnate of the Void, reaper of tyrants, Bubble mistress, and The Last of the Influences. This is my world.” Cadence and Celestia glared at me. “Cut me some slack, I got help,” I mumbled. The armored, bipedal pony looked around for a few more seconds before a sound similar to a sniff could be heard through the filter on the front of his mask. “... This place reeks of Chaos…” He growls as his grip on his sword tightens. His gaze rested on Luna for a few seconds, giving him the look of someone who had just seen a ghost… Or about as much as someone with a skull-helmet could look surprised anyway. He quickly made his way over to kneel before her. “My Empress… What news do you have of the weapon?” Luna looks at the armored bipedal pony in confusion, “What doest thou mean?” Ogre looks at the armored stallion, “Knock knock, tin man. You are in a different universe.” The armored stallion quickly gets into a more aggressive stance. “Do not seek to blind me with such heresy… It is obvious that this is the castle of the Empresses, where the weapon of Harmony is kept.” “In a way, tin man you are right and wrong. This is not the castle of the Empresses. This is the castle of the newly crowned princess and bearer of the Element of Magic, Princess Twilight Sparkle. The ‘weapon of Harmony’ is known as the Elements of Harmony in many other universes like this one. There are six elements in all. And each of the bearers are here. You were called from the Multiverse to help rid this world of the chaos of one who doesn’t belong.” The stallion’s posture seems to ease up a little while the green lights of his visor flicker as if he had blinked a couple of times. “Oh… Yes… I, I do apologize, I have spent the last five hours practically drenched in the blood of heretics who fell to Discord’s magic.” He takes a deep breath before taking a look at Luna, “What are your orders, My Empress…” He asks with a slight bow. Luna looks at him with slight confusion. Luna, unlike her sister, seemed to show a less confusion, what with being princess of the moon and all. “Who are you and what do you mean calling me your Empress?” Ogre chimes in, "Most likely his world's Princesses are known or referred to as Empresses, if I am correct. As much as I love to say 'tin man', it is an oxymoron for me to do so. What's your name bub?" The stallion looks at him, the shape of his visor making him constantly look like he has an angry glare. “Reclusiarch Alhardir, of the Lunar Templars Wraith Company.” He replies professionally. Ogre ‘looks’ at him appraisingly, “A soldier, professional at that. I respect you, Reclusiarch Alhardir. The name is Ogre C. Titan, demon slayer, judge against the wicked.” Alhardir gives a small nod in return. “As the reclusiarch I am the one to lead my brethren in prayer as we fight and purge the chaos from my world.” The smile on his face actually becomes quite evident as he continues. “No feeling in the world like sending prayers to the empresses as the holy roar of a bolter tears apart a changeling…” Celestia, Cadence and the Bearers seemed to be a bit miffed, Twilight, on the other hand, tried to be a bit more vocal but her reply caught in her mouth. To everyone’s surprise, except for the Lunar Templar of course, Luna was the only one that didn’t seem as shocked about what he had said. “What?” She asks with a shrug, “Where dids’t thou think that thy peace came from? There were wars aplenty before Canterlot was crowned the capitol.” “How many Displaced were you looking for Essence?” Alhardir looked around in confusion as he brought his sword up and his free hand reached for the rather large gun at his waist. “Who was that?” He hisses. Ogre looks at him as if he was amused. “Easy Alhardir, that is my AI, Bladesong. He aids me and my two siblings from outer orbit.” While his stance doesn’t change much, the warrior replies with a simple. “Oh…” “Once again, there’s quite a lack of technology where I am from, the militia has only started building siege crossbows.” He admits. “Really? Here has something of a mix. I will say they don’t have global communications, but they have telegrams but not cars.” Ogre looked at me and said, “Well, Bladesong does have a point. How many Displaced were you expecting to get.” Now for the wait. “We need one more-” I was cut off as a human male fell through a sort of hole in the universe. On his face. Well it certainly looked painful...He looked around for a few seconds before saying something. "How did you call me without a Token?" "You know the Merchant right?" I said. He took a few seconds before responding, "Ya..." "Well I'm his number one enemy. I'm also a previous Void Dweller. Calling you without a token was easy. It was the request throughout the Multiverse, meaning, anyone who answered would be brought here," I said. "Who are you?" "Oh yes. That. I'm Essence, The Musician, wielder of divinity, madness incarnate of the Void, reaper of tyrants, Bubble mistress, and The Last of the Influences. You are?" "Oh... I'm Wade. Wade Jallecks.” “Alright then!” I clasped my hands together. “Now, in order to save this world I need all of you to focus on-” I was cut off by a massive creatures breaking through the floor. “Oh for the love of! UGH! Really?” Ogre takes aim at one of the massive creatures and Fires his rifle three times, *KLANG! KLANG! KLANG!*... successfully turning the creature's head into giblets. Another creature got up close to Ogre trying to eliminate the power of his 40mm cannon. Ogre seemed to chuckle as he dropped his cannon and punched the creature, making it fall over backwards. Ogre crushed its head with his foot and picked his cannon back up. Alhardir brought the gun at his side to bear on another of the creatures, the roar of the gun was almost deafening as it went off in a quick two-shot burst, making the creature explode, getting quite a bit of blood on the wall behind it. “Chaos filth…” He scoffed as he sheathed his blade and gripped his gun with both hands. I grinned, “Great!” Letting go of my cloak I summoned Poseidon’s Trident. One of the creatures, clearly aiming for the Princesses, tried to get past me. I spun, sound waves of the music I had started, and slammed into the creature blasting it back some thirty feet into many of its brethren. A group of smaller creatures (smaller by mere inches) was gathering to the west of the group. Ogre turned towards their direction and launched a salvo of rockets at the group completely decimating them. “You can join in any time now Wade.” Ogre said as he turned to face the other side and fire off a few more rounds of his 40mm cannon before reloading. “Shut up,” Wade said, who appeared to be doing nothing but standing still with his arms down by his sides. “Concentrate on your own fighting,” His voice descended into a female tone, before his form shrunk within his large and baggy clothing. With a few more loud bursts the Templar began to ease his way into battle as if it were second nature, switching back to a one-handed grip on his gun after a few kills while he drew his sword again and began to cut a swath through the creatures in their way as if he were cutting paper with a razor blade. “Burn in the pits of the warp from whence you came foul creatures of sin!” He proclaimed over the roar of his weapon. I raised my eyebrow. I knew many Universes, but there were some I didn’t know. Chalking Wade’s change down as Void Logic I stabbed another beast and tossed the body to the side. “Follow me!” I yelled at the other Displaced, “I know one place where they can not set foot.” "You guys go ahead. I'm gonna stall them." Ogre said as he charged towards the massing horde. "Dodge THIS!" A low pitch noise emanated from Ogre and started to raise in pitch. Then Ogre became the epicenter of a giant explosion, eradicating the horde, and himself. "Get moving, I am still around., although Ogre will need at most five hours to reconstruct though. That explosion won't stop them from re emerging. Alhardir nodded, “Out of the castle! Now!” He bellows as he switches the magazine in his gun for a fresh one, unleashing more explosive rounds into the enemy stragglers while simultaneously protecting their flanks. I quickly led the Displaced out of the castle along with the bearers and Princesses. “So what exactly was I drafted into?” The male turned female asked, his clothes drooping around his shoulders as the light glinted off an emerald where his eye should have been. “This world, Turmoil, is collapsing due the Merchant and the death of one of my friends,” I said. “So....what exactly can WE do?” Wade asked. I sighed, “Displaced, unlike normal people, can summon all the mass quantities of Void fragments to themselves and use them for something. There is far too much for me to do this myself. I needed help.” “Well… That’s oddly convenient…” Alhardir states as he closes the massive door behind them. “Alright, void fragments. You basically need extra hands to hold your stuff...What exactly ARE void fragments, and how the hell do we hold them or whatever?” “Void fragments are mass quantities of, for lack of a better term, antimatter. And secondly, you just imagine your power building up or whatever you want to happen,” I said, “Is that a good enough explanation?” “...so basically green lantern will over matter bs?” Alhardir simply kept switching his gaze between the two, as if suspicious, he remained quiet though. “The algorithm seems to match what Essence has mentioned. I am curious though. Where is said waypoint: Safe House?” “The old castle. I fixed it up and I think that’s where we’ll be safest. With my influence as a void dweller it will be the last place to go.” I said. “Waypoint established. Monitoring location.” “Wait, ‘old castle’? You don’t mean the castle of the two sisters?” Wade asked. I grinned, knowing they’d be surprised by my improvements, “Indeed I do.” “Great. Right smack dab in the middle of the kill-you-dead forest. Wonderful” The exaggerated roll of Alhardir’s head was enough to convey his annoyance. “There is nothing in there that could dare stand against a Lunar Templar… Only…” He paused as he tried tracking the forest. “I do wonder where the Chapter Master went… He took the fall with me too, so he shouldn’t have landed too far off.” “Checking for any recent recorded orbital drops… Drop point located in Everfree Forest. Synchronizing drop point coordinates into H.U.D. Do you accept upload, Reclusiarch Alhardir?” “... Yes…” He replies hesitantly as he focuses on the forest. “Uploading now… Setting waypoint. I would suggest that Alhardir head in solo as to allow him to ease the Chapter Master on the situation.” Alhardir separated from the group followed by an awkward silence. “You wanna take the shortcut then?” “Yes please.” “Hold on to your hats, gentlemen,” I swept a top hat off my head, jumped into the air, and whistled a quick tune. The ground below us dropped away and revealed a massive slide. “Here we go!” Bladesong chuckles. “Ogre’s gonna hate to miss out on this.” I raised an eyebrow. “Who said he had to miss out?” “Due to the fact that he delivered a Massive Payload to give you guys an escape window and is still reconstructing in the Void-Tech Hanger. I did.” I smirked, “One. Time is meaningless in the Void. Two, you do realize you’re talking to the only person who could kill the Merchant. If need be I’ll give you a copy of this thing.” “As amusing as that sounds, I will have to decline your offer. And as for the Void-Tech Hanger, a form of temporal rule still applies as it is artificial Void.” I shrugged, “Fair enough, if need be I can help make it actual Void, after all,” I snapped my fingers and my Trident vanished, “I am a previous Void-Dweller.” “I shall take that into consideration.” “Brilliant, by the way,” I said, gesturing around, “we’re here.” “What the...did I miss something? How...screw it, don’t care. We’re here, whoopee. Now what.” I grinned. “Now, if you’ll just give me a moment,” I reached over and tapped on a rock, and the very, very modified castle,appeared,“Here we go!” The modified castle, if it can still be called that, was now some twenty stories tall, and made of steel. The thing was absolutely massive. The walls themselves were some ten feet thick. All-in-all, it was the most impressive structure in this Equestria. “Did you take us somewhere else? Cause this doesn’t look anything like in the books.” Wade stated dryly, shading his eyes with a hand flung over his brow. “The geological location is accurate with other Equestrias’ Everfree Castle.” I mimed a shocked look, “Why I’ll be! There’s books I have to follow? I’m doomed!” I swear the sarcasm was visibly dripping. “No need to be snarky…” “I find that sarcasm releases tension,” I said, “Don’t you think?” “...Honestly I had to close coms for that one...” “So!” I rubbed my hands together, “ Are you lot ready?” “Gonna have to take a raincheck on that,” Wade started, looking down at the stump where his leg used to be. “Seems I’ve attracted the local wildlife...funny, doesn’t hurt as bad as last time…” “Will you need any medical aid, Wade?... Status update: Alhardir and the Chapter Master are enroute. Estimated time of arrival, thirty minutes.” “I get the feeling he’s fine,” I said looking at Wade again.
VoidlingsOutside the castle the group wait for Alhardir and the Chapter Master to arrive. "I have an inquiry. Are there any locations we need to get to to gather void fragments, or do we just gather it? “Just gather it,” I said monoton-ish-ly. “Understood. Gathering void fragments. By the way, is it possible to use void fragments to create a tangible bioform to use? As it is, none of the three Titans; Atlas, Ogre, or Stryder can go into small spaces.” “I’d assume so,” I pondered laying my finger on my chin, “But I’d specify what you want.” “Noted.” I stepped in the castle and made my way towards the center hall, the others followed close behind. I opened the door and two men fell out of a De gap in the world which closed seconds later. “Will?” asked the heavily armored one. “Hm?” responded the one in a brown and green mottled cloak. “Where are we this time?” the armored one asked. “I believe we’re in the universe of another Displaced, Horace,” said Will as he gestured at me. “Well. This is a surprise, albeit a welcome one,” I said, my tone a bit humored. “I might as well fill you two in on the situation. My name is Bladesong, an AI or inner conscience of another Displaced. This universe is being torn apart by the doings of [bold]The Merchant[/bold]. Portions of the world have been ‘eaten’ by void particles and fissures are opening up, releasing “Tartarus’ minions” into the world. Us Displaced have been called to aid Essence here. Apparently there is a way for Displaced to gather void fragments, each and every Displaced has this capacity. Our ability to gather void fragments is crucial to the salvation of this world. We are also waiting for the arrival of two Space Marines, if I have my ‘realms’ right, which should be in fifteen minutes.” “Short and sweet,” I snapped my fingers, “nice job Bladesong.” Will groaned, “As usual we get the troubled worlds.” “Thank you Essence. By the way, a Titan is ready. Stand by for Titanfall!” Outside came a dull thundering, followed by a dull boom. I tried to look outside but couldn’t see anything. The Princesses and elements looked extremely confused. “Never gets old.” came a muffled voice from outside. After a few seconds of silence there is a knock on the gate. I opened it and looked out. “Well, hello! Come on in!” A slightly taller, slimmer built, alabaster titan walks on in, having a different rifle with a drum mag attached to the bottom of it and a different missile pod on his left shoulder with a large ocular in the center of his upper torso with a smaller ocular on his upper left torso. He looks around and spots me. “Don’t mind if I do. Name’s Atlas C. Titan by the way. You met by ‘brother’ Ogre Titan beforehand. I assume you are Essence.” “Brother?” Luna commented. Atlas sighs, “Yeah. About that, he isn’t my brother at all. He is me.” “Um, huh?” asked Twilight, “That’s ridiculous… You can’t be two physical beings...:” “When your soul is bound to one form, yes. My soul is bound to four. I have something similar to multiple personality disorder, thanks to my appearance on Gol, my Equestria’s planet. In all reality, it helps keep me sane as all three titans can be on the ‘field’ at once. To keep me from losing my mind because I’m seeing four different things at once, my conscious split into four parts: Bladesong, Ogre, Stryder, and myself." “Makes sense,” I commented waving my hand, “but then I speak gibberish, understand madmen, and have been called Madness, so who am I to speak.” Atlas nodded, looked at the group, then back to me. “So, got a place for me to set up shop?” “Anywhere, I guess, not really planned for Displaced… Only encountered 1 before you guys. Xante the Lich,” I said. Suddenly a voice said, “Xante, Baron of the Frozen Wastelands, First among Liches, Lord of the Dead, Fabulous Rainbow Magician, the Walking Ice Age, Lord of the Dance, Three Times Winner of Best Smile in the Land, Former Mayor of Sycamore Town, Current Mayor of Lavender Town, Former Professor of Defense against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts, the Richest man in Metropolis, Grand Master of Ecky Thump, the Epic Level Lich, Sorceror/Monk Multiclass, Most Fabulous Undead in all the realm, The D, Leader of Gamergate, Elf-Murderer, Master of Face Punch, Big Sexy, Troper, Friend to Children, Current Mayor of the Necropolis, The Bifrost, and Maker of the Best Ever Cheese Sandwich!” “How, the, hell did he do that?” I murmured. Atlas chuckled, “Sometimes it’s best to leave some anomalies to their antics, right Pinkie?” “Yup! Oh no! I forgot balloons!” The pink mare vanished. Altas looks at where Pinkie once was. “Aaaand there goes the promiscuously pink, prancing, partying paradox pony. Don’t worry, Bladesong’s got tabs on her.” “Good. Why is everyone else so quiet though?” “Looks like there’s some idle chit chat between the ponies, Will and Horace are taking stock of their gear and whatnot, and Wade is… wait...where’s Wade?” Atlas started looking around. I peered around the corner, “That’s a very good question.” “It seems Wade decided to do a little bit of exploring.” “Alright, now we wait for… Alhardir , I guess.” I shrugged. Atlas ‘nodded’ in agreement, “The Chapter Master as well. Since we have time on our hands, I have been wondering. Where is Shining Armor?” “He, um…” Cadence started before she and Twilight broke down into sobs. I whispered to Atlas, “He disappeared in the Empire. The void was breaking through and he tried to protect the Empire and before it was consumed by Voidlings.” Atlas gave a solemn 'nod' and turned towards the mourning mares. "I am sorry I brought up something that tragic. But I implore you to have hope. There may yet be a way to bring him back, as well as the Crystal Empire." “That’s true,” I said, nodding. “...ello?... nypony there? Cade... Twily?... cess Celes... una?... arus,... en be… ateful if I… get Dis…” A dissonant, disembodied voice rang out. Twilight and Cadence gasped. “Shiny? Where are you?” “Finally… through...Thank… couldn’t… pire safe… aved as many… I co… on’t be… hold THEM… nger.” "I'm getting some strong interference with the source of the signal." I looked at Atlas. “Throw me. Directly at the Void. Hard as you can.” Atlas looks at me before kneeling down and picking me up with one hand. He waits for a few seconds, then turns around and chucks me straight into the air towards the top of the front gate just as they open. “Signal isolated. Patching through to the other side.” “Heads up Shining!” Atlas shouted. I take the chance to let out a loud “wheee!” before passing through the Void and landing on a small piece of land. I whistled. “Damn, Shiny, you’re one lucky SOB. Grab on,” I gestured to my back. The stallion leaped aboard and the void bent around both from me forcing it to change with my mind and my music. Soon we were once again standing next to the others. I reached behind me and set the stallion down. “Ta da!” I said as confetti streamed down through the air. “Thirty minutes on the dot.” Rainbow Dash grumbled and hoofed over ten bits to a grinning Applejack while a teary Twilight and Cadence ran up and hugged Shining Armor. “Thirty? Ha! Took less time than I thought.” "That is what I thought as well..." Rainbow Dash grumbled. "I may have attached a Void Sync to you when I chucked you." Atlas shrugged while looking out a window. I looked at him. “Void Sync? Alright then. Is it that thing right there?” I gestured to a small object on the ground. Atlas turned around and looks at me. “No. That is the Void Anchor I paired the Void Sync to.” Atlas reaches down and picks the small object up. “And now I have a valid hammerspace. The Void Sync detached from you and attuned itself to that small void pocket.” “Cool. If what we do is successful I may be able to turn it into like a pocket or something for you guys. Infinite storage.” “That would be helpful, but me, myself, thine, and I can manage with one. I can, however, get others set up with personal Void Syncs and Anchors. Although I will accept the infinite storage setting.” “Alright,” I said. Atlas produced several pairs of Void Syncs and Anchors, handing each Displaced one set of each. “The red one is the Sync, the blue one is the Anchor. “You want me to get the infinite storage setup?” I asked “If possible right now, yes, please.” “Alright,” I opened the piece of Void I had just been in and expanded it from the center then covered it in a Universal separation. “Done.” “Thanks.” Atlas nodded towards me. “Whenever we come across another Void, feel free to claim it and we will sync it and separate it. Sound good?” Atlas spoke to the other Displaced. “To be honest, I don’t really need it. I can use it for a backup though…” “Fair enough.” Atlas said as he passed me my own Void Sync/Anchor set. Repeating the previous process I looked to Atlas. “Now what?” “I am not sure I understood everything you said when you were in the void Shining, but you said something about saving as many...ponies? as you could. Am I correct?” “They are in an isolated limbo, safe from Voidlings,” he said, moving his hoof exaggeratedly. “Alright. I’ll have Bladesong ping check for that Limbo space so that we’ll be able to pull them out once it’s safe to do so.” “Would you be able to find the Crystal Heart?” Shining asked. “Note, I modified it as well,” I commented. Cadence gave me a disapproving glare. “If you give me the altercation specifications, I can search for the Hearts algorithm through the void.” “Let’s see… Lasers, missiles… grenade launcher…. Naw, just kidding. It’s now able to store love instead of just amp it up.” “So you changed it from just a step up transformative capability to a capacitive capability as well. Algorithm modified. Searching now.” “Who was that?” Shining asked as he looked around. “That, would be Bladesong, my AI and conscience. Name’s Atlas by the way.” Atlas stated. “...Huh, okay...Wait. What?” Shining asked, becoming rather confused. “... Long story short, multiple personality disorder.” Atlas said as he slowly ‘facepalmed’. “Ah. Makes a little sense. Anyways, thanks Bladesong.” I snickered. Shining could be a little dull. “... Understood… The Reclusiarch and the Chapter Master are en-route. Be advised, the Chapter Master is not himself. Recommended action: Subdue, detain and purify. CAUTION: Voidlings approaching from the South West perimeter.” I groaned. “Anyone wanna try to take ‘em out first?” “Got a tower or opening I can shoot from?” Atlas asked as he picked up his rifle. “Sure.” I pointed four feet away. “Right there.” “Thanks, if any of you want in on the action, feel free to join in.” Atlas said as he walked up to the opening and pointed his rifle at the oncoming horde. “EAT CHARGED LEAD, YA’ BASTARDS!” The main corridor resonated with the thrumming of the rifle firing at a high speed. I clapped. “Geddit! Get dat bastards.” After emptying several drums of munitions at the Voidlings Atlas stopped and let the barrel of his rifle drop forty five degrees. “... Tell me, in any of your encounters with the Voidlings, did they ever pull back?” “No…” I said, cautiously. “Then we have a bigger problem on our hands.”
Away We Go“Like wha-” I stopped mid sentence due to the thing approaching the castle. “Bladesong, how long till Ogre is ready?” Atlas asked, looking up. “Ten minutes.” “Stryder, you’re needed at the battle front.” “You got it! Give me a sec!” came a disembodied, feminine voice. Out of the sky came a projectile from outer orbit. Once it got close enough, four pieces broke away revealing a rather slimline, light armored titan dropping down. It had interesting looking optics on the top left and top right of its torso and a missile pod different from Atlas’.Once it made impact, the titan got up and pulled out a rather boxy weapon from its back. It then ‘glided’ backwards to the castle opening Atlas was standing in front of at a rapid pace. “What’s the plan Atlas?” “The plan is ‘Keep Away’. That bastard over there cannot reach the castle. I’ll see what I can do about the Chapter Master.” Atlas said as he turned to the gate. He looked at the Mane Six. “I would suggest that you six prep the Elements.” They nodded and Twilight’s horn flashed. The elements were now sitting next to them. The large skull-helmeted Reclusiarch burst out of the underbrush as if he had stumbled across a root or something. Another marine seemed to burst out of the brush with him, his adamantine sword lit up with a blue fire as he brought the tip down to try and pierce the Reclusiarch’s armor. “Get ready. On my mark.” Atlas dashed towards the door and ran out to meet with the two space marines. Atlas aimed a well placed shot hitting the blade of the adamantine sword away from Alhardir. The massively bloodstained visage of the Chapter Master’s helmet turned slightly to view Atlas with a low growl. “That’s right, I’m your target bub.” Atlas dashed forward and fired at the Chapter Master’s shoulder armor giving the Reclusiarch a little bit more leeway. The bloodstained marine let out a roar as he began to charge at the Mech, “In the name of Empress Luna! I shall purge the Heretic in fire!” “Alright girls, get over here quick!” Atlas goes to throw a punch at the Chapter Master. All the while Stryder is going about holding the other Voidling abomination at bay with ‘her’ Quad Rocket Launcher and Cluster Rockets. A strange blue flame coursed its way across Astelan’s fist as he met Atlas’ punch, Delivering a fiery punch of his own. Both fists met in an explosion, kicking up dust. When the dust settled, there wasn’t much damage on Atlas’ arm save for some scorch marks, a missing finger, and a bare arm where the armor once was. All of a sudden a heavily charged mist emanated from Atlas, creating a visual inhibitor. ”Do it! Here! Now!” Atlas yelled back to the Mane Six. “You got it!” Rainbow yelled. The elements hummed as the magic charged and fired. As the forefront of the Harmonic blast comes close to contact, Atlas dashes out of the way, leaving Astelan in the wake of the blast. With the sound of rending metal Alhardir drives Astelan’s sword through the Chapter Master’s leg, pinning him in place so that he couldn’t dodge the rainbow harmony death beam. Slowly the charged mist dissipated, revealing the forms of Reclusiarch and Chapter master. A loud clank sounded out as the Chapter master fell forward and landed face-first onto the ground. Alhardir began to shakily stand. “Thank you all…” He rasps out. “Of course, it is what friends and comrades do, after all.” “Glad you guys are happy but I am still dealing with ugly over here!” Stryder bellowed. Alhardir nods a little. “You guys go, I’ll keep those beasts from entering this section of the castle as well as make sure that rainbow didn’t kill the Chapter Master.” “Alright,” Atlas grips his rifle once more, “we’re on our way Stryder. Let’s move!” I muttered under my breath, “That was.. boring to me.” “When you have a plan, some things tend to be.” “I know. Now um, what are we doing this time.?” I asked, So I know how bored I’ll be. “How about dealing with this guy!” Stryder retorted as ‘she’ dodged another strike. “Okay, you guys got this or?” I asked, looking at Atlas and the elements. “This guy is thick skinned! My rockets aren’t doing-SHIT!” A blur resembling Stryder flys over my head, tumbling across the ground. “Guess it’s my turn,” I said. “Will, Horace. Back me up.” The two nodded and I ran up the wall, jumping over it, and dropped towards the monstrosity. I landed and spun bringing out Excalibur as I did and the sword connected with it’s side. The monster slid back several feet. Will and Horace fought the other creatures nearby. Will, using his bow, shot them in key places. Horace bashed them with his sword. “Ogre Titan is ready! Stand by for Titanfall!” “Heads up Essence!” An iridescent white glow emanated from Atlas as he emptied his mag on the Void Abomination. From above the Abomination came a thundering and a similar drop pod, the four parts of the pod breaking away and revealing Ogre going down straight on top of the Abomination. “SURPRISE MOTHA’ FUCKA’!” Ogre bellowed as he unleashed round after round on the beasts head. “That’s gotta hurt,” I muttered. Stryder got back up and fired more rockets at the abomination, dashing back into the fray, emitting a similar glow as Atlas and crushing any Voidlings underneath ‘her’. Eventually, the beast went down and the Voidlings retreated once more. Stryder walks up to the space marines. “How’s he doing, Reclusiarch?” Alhardir looks over to Stryder. “Well… He is alive, the beam only stopped his heart.” The elements gasped, rather dramatically, I might add. “That still disturbs me.” “Why does it disturb you? Ponies gasp all the time.” Luna said, sarcastically. (XD) Atlas facepalms. “I meant their retreat.” Luna snickered, “I know. Why does the retreat disturb you?” “He still has his second heart working though, so when we get back to our Apothecary he’ll be back in fighting condition.” Alhardir finished I looked at Alhardir, “What the hell is he? A freaking Time Lord?” I asked, rather jokingly. “Not quite. Would you like to explain this for the others, Alhardir?” The Reclusiarch gives a small nod. “All Space Marines have a lot of genetic modifications to them to increase survivability on a harsh battlefield, Two hearts being one of the main ones since one can simply pick up where the other left off if one is unable to function, it also helps adjust to high or low gravity situations a lot easier.” Twilight and the others make an ‘O’ and look back to the Chapter Master. “And that sums it up nicely.” I looked at Ogre. “You remember my comment to Wade right?” “For the most part.” “Good. Then you know why I mentioned it?” “Of course.” Atlas redirects his attention to Luna. “Any ways, when it comes down to it, Enemies that know they are outmatched after a wave like that, so they pull back and send in one of their big guys. That shows this isn’t a mindless horde we are dealing with.” Atlas said as he looks off in the horizon. “It means that there is a ‘puppeteer’ behind their strings.” Their comments sparked a memory. One of a time long gone, when all the good Influences still lived. I knew someone with expertise in this. “Ripper. The Ripper. That’s your puppeteer.” “The Ripper? Huh...I’m sorry, but I have never heard of him.” “The Merchant lives for mischief. Ripper lives to kill.” “You think that The Ripper is in cahoots with The Merchant?” “Definitely, he was the second best strategist.” “Who would be the best strategist, if I might ask. “They went by the name ‘The Musician’.” I smirked darkly. Stryder giggles softly as ‘she’ asks, “Do you know them?” “You do.” I grinned. Twilight groaned, “It’s you, isn’t it?” “Indeed it is.” My voice sounded different. All three Titans chuckled at Twilight’s antics. “Atlas, You are needed stateside effective immediately.” “Sounds like that’s my que. You got it from here Ogre. Let’s go Stryder.” “Right behind ya’ brother.” Just like that, Atlas and Stryder walk through a Void Rift, the rift sealing up once the two Titans have gone through it, leaving the last Titan back. “Lets go ahead and get the Chapter Master inside, see what we can do about his condition.” Ogre said as he made his way back to the castle. “Did I miss something?” Wade asked, walking out of the forest in his original form. “Yes. Quite a lot actually.” I said, looking at him. With quite a bit of ease, Alhardir hauled the Chapter Master back into the castle. The elements, Wade, princesses, Titan, and I followed quickly behind him. Turning around I spoke. “We have a moment. I can take Ripper. Alright, I’ll explain how to get the fragments. First, focus then imagine them turning into what you want. Then they will no longer cause harm, got it?” “... So, we take the void fragments and change them to have different properties, thus ‘filling’ the void?” “In a sense. All Void is matter, just very… transparent. It’s what everything was made from so anything can come from it.” “Is it possible to take a fragment and change it into a void storage?” “Yes.” I elaborated. “... Simple enough. Now Reclusiarch, could you strip the Chapter Master of his armor so I can treat him.” Ogre said as he propped up his cannon in a corner. I watched carefully, not wanting to disturb either of them. Alhardir shakes his head, “He’s fine for now, what we need to do is get him back to the Apothecary, since the armor itself can only be removed by specialized servitors. The only part able to be removed without the servitors is his helmet… We even have a healing factor that will make sure he could be ready to fight within the hour as long as whatever you guys hit him with stopped the chaotic influence.” Ogre gives out a grunt. “Congrats, the Chapter Master took the full brunt of a blast of Harmonic Energy, courtesy of the Elements of Harmony. He should be absolved of the chaotic influence.” “So you guys-” I was interrupted by a loud crashing noise. Looking outside I saw him, Ripper, ripping, literally, pieces of wall out of my castle. “Stay back. Take out the Voidlings. Keep the castle safe,” I said, stepping out towards Ripper. “What are you doing?” asked Wade. I looked back. “The one thing only I can do.” I stepped out of the room sealing everyone away from this half of the castle. Other Side of the Castle Ogre curses under his ‘breath’ and goes to pick up his cannon once more, only to be cut off from a small group of larger Voidlings. “Clever.” One of the Voidlings charge at Ogre, only to be turned into giblets by his fist. A roar from the Bolt-pistol that Alhardir had sent another of the voidlings nearby back into the void from whence it came. “Stick together and pair up!” Ogre barked as he launched a salvo of rockets at some of the Voidlings in an effort to get to his cannon. Wade began another transformation as they fought. Quickly he turned into some sort of black dragon, and started slashing at random Voidlings. Ogre finally made it to his cannon and grabbed it firing rounds into the Voidlings. All the while there is a Voidling that is circling around to get behind Ogre. Ogre caught sight of a couple Voidlings trying to swarm Shining and Cadence, whom were slowly separated from the rest of the group. A Voidling went to pounce on Cadence from behind, only to be turned into giblets by a round from Ogre’s cannon. Shining looked to give Ogre a nod when he noticed the Voidling behind him. “Ogre, behind you!” Shining fired off a spell at the Voidling, only to impact Ogre’s overshields. The Voidling landed on Ogre’s back and went to tear into his circuitry. “Get off me you prick!” Ogre tried reaching over his back and grabbing the Voidling only to grab at air. Not a second later, Rainbow Dash bucked the Voidling off of Ogre. Unfortunately, the Voidling was in mid swing and ended up clipping Rainbow on her right wing. Rainbow went toppling with the Voidling onto the ground. “RAINBOW!” yelled Applejack. Rainbow Dash groaned and went to get up, only to be grabbed by Ogre and brought to his center torso. “Not on my watch!” Ogre said as his pilot hatch opened up revealing the pilot seat. Ogre placed Rainbow into the pilot seat and closed the hatch, getting back into the battle. “Ms. Dash is still alive, but she needs medical attention. ” “Bladesong? The hell happened back there! Why didn’t you warn us about this attack?” Ogre asked as he turned more Voidlings into giblets, allowing Shining and Cadence to regroup with the others. “The comms were being jammed. I just bypassed it a few seconds ago.” *inside the cockpit* Rainbow moaned loudly, “Owwww.” “Hang in there Rainbow, you’re gonna be fine.” “I hate you,” came another groan from the pegasus. “At least you are still alive to hate me for that little stunt I pulled.” *outside the cockpit* “It might be beneficial to Rainbow if one of you get over here and treat her.” “Ah think ah can help,” Applejack said. Ogre finishes reloading and fired several more rounds into the Voidlings. Applejack gets close enough to Ogre that he kneels down and picks her up and puts her into the pilot seat the same way as he did with Rainbow, if a little more gracefully, closing the pilot hatch once more. “You are a marine, we can slay with just our swords if need be…” The Chapter Master growls as he begins to unsheathe his blade. “WE MARCH FOR THE EMPRESSES!” The Reclusiarch lets out his own shout in response, “AND WE SHALL KNOW NO FEAR!” as he then drew his blade charging with the chapter master into the wave of voidlings. *inside the cockpit* “Alright, what do ya’ need me tah do?” Asked Applejack. “There should be a cylindrical tube with a lever and a nozzle inside that medkit on your left. Take that out and apply that to the wound, it will stop the bleeding. There is some morphine in that kit as well, it will numb the pain.” *outside the cockpit* “How many of these things are there!?” Shining called out as he cut down yet another Voidling. “Just keep fighting! We have to fend them off!” Ogre said as he crushed another group of Voidlings with his foot. REJOICE! FOR YOU GET TO LET LOOSE YOUR ANGER!” the Reclusiarch shouts above the rapport of battle. “IN THE NAME OF THE NIGHT!” Astelan replies as his blade vertically bisects another voidling. Will and Horace took them out nearly as fast as Ogre as they worked together. “WITH YOUR HATE AS YOUR SWORD, AND YOUR DISGUST AS YOUR SHIELD, MAY NO WARPSPAWN BREAK YOUR WILL!” Alhardir praises as his bolter roars in one hand while his blade stabs into the eye of a voidling. “GLORY TO THE NIGHT!” with a sickening tear Astelan rips the arms completely off the body of the voidling he was facing. *inside the cockpit* “Hang in there Rainbow.” Applejack said as she held onto the slowly separating mare. “Come on, AJ. Both of us know that I won’t make it.” “You have to pull through, make your dream to be a Wonderbolt come true.” AJ said trying to hold back the tears. Rainbow gave a dull laugh. “Lets face it AJ, this world is done for. Equestria is done for. We’re done for.” “You can’t leave us! We need you! *sniff* I need you…” AJ choked out. “Hey, Best Friends Forever. Right?” Rainbow asked as she put a forehoof to AJ’s cheek as she slowly dissipated into nothing. “Right…” AJ said as she watched Rainbow disappear completely into the void. Applejack put her forehooves down and kept silent. The only thing disturbing the silence inside the cockpit is the dull roar of the core generator of Ogre and the chaos of the battle going on and the occasional dash that jostled the cockpit a little. She slowly turns around and rights herself in the pilot seat, keeping her head down. Applejack puts her forehooves on the armrests of the pilot seat, not even flinching when the arm straps go around her forelegs. “... AJ?” *outside of the cockpit There came an audible feminine wail that came from inside of Ogre as he fired as many rounds into the Voidlings as he could. After Ogre’s cannon went dry he launched a salvo of rockets at another group and dropped his weapon and started getting physical with the Voidlings. I stepped past the Voidlings who continued to attack the impenetrable wall. Ripper was laughing gleefully at the expense of those on the other side of the wall as I stepped in front of him. “Oh, Ripper!” I called in a singsong voice. “What? Some idiot need my help killing off these damn Displaced?” He asked, not even looking up. I tsked, “Oh come now, you should recognize my wonderful voice, shouldn’t you, brother?” “Musician. How wonderful to see you, big sister,” he answered sarcastically from his seat. “I agree, though, the circumstances could be better, couldn’t they?” “That’s true, but maybe you’ll remember not to leave me in a world like that ever again,” he said, talking of the world he stayed in. “I didn’t. You stayed by choice,” I scolded. “Oh shut up. Let’s get rid of your puny little world, I have to go take care of some idiotic little whores on Earth after this,” he rolled his eyes. A second later he flew forward pulling out his weapon, a dual edged sword. I deflected with the Trident and stumbled back. Again he ran me and I deflected. Again, and again, and again. “I grow tired of your games, sister,” he spat. He brought his sword towards an edge of Void and ripped it further into the world. “Have fun with this!” Just before he disappeared I successfully nailed him with the Trident in the chest. He threw it to the side, clutched his chest, and disappeared. I looked at the tear. “What have you done brother… Why? Why?” I felt the tears stream down my face and turned around to the other Displaced. “Go,” I practically whispered, “If you stay, you’ll be doomed. Please, go, I have to save someone, please…” “what about the ponies?” “I’ll save some… I can’t save them all. Whoever I see next, I will save.” “I shall always be on the look out for others in distress in your world.” “I’m afraid this world will not exist anymore soon.” As the battle begins to die down the two space marines cautiously make their way over to the rest of the group, Alhardir is the first to speak as he removes a necklace from his belt pouch. He holds it out for Essence, “You all fought well, but I have only one item that I can give… A pendant of the Lunar Templars…” The silver necklace was in the shape of the iconic nightmare moon symbol. “If we ever meet again, the Lunar Templars will be ready to fight and die by your side.” I waved my hand over the pendant and all and copied it while allowing them to contact him. Astelan nods, “I do believe that my Reclusiarch is right about your power, all of you… Should you ever need the help of the Lunar Templars, raise the pendant and call out for Empress Luna’s chosen sons.” Luna and Fluttershy walked up next to me. “The others… They’re gone. The Void… It took them all…” Luna’s distressed tone spoke. Fluttershy was in tears. I rested my hand on her head, petting lightly. A small, hexagonal coin brought itself into existence in front of me and fell. Next to it, a small cube, a Lunar Templar Pendant, and a bow and sword. “I know this may not help much, but we give you our ‘calling cards’. We will always be there if you need help. “I know… I always know, how could I not? If you need me, which you may, just call out for the Musician. Or any of my names. I will hear it.” Will and Horace nodded. Will spoke, “We’ll help if needed.” With that, the two men vanished. The marines cross their arms over their chests, bowing slightly as they mimic the Aquila on their chestplates, “We hope to purge more chaos with you soon…” the Reclusiarch says as they start to fade. “I wish you luck in saving that person. And if there is no way of salvation…” Ogre’s fist clenched, “there will be hell to pay for the Merchant.” “No. It was Ripper. The man I once called my brother, who did this. And I’ll take him out personally,” I said as Ogre began to fade from the world along with Wade. “Wade. I hope you have a better time in your world,” tears blurred my vision, “cause I may never see anyone like you guys again.” “Well, Essence, see you on the flip-side,” said Wade before he disappeared altogether. Ogre turned away from me but still kept his ocular on me. “This world may be gone, along with its inhabitants, but it will never be forgotten. If you ever need a shoulder, I’ll be there.” Ogre said as he finally dissipated through the rift. “Well. I can’t call it Turmoil anymore, can I?” I sniffled. “This world. I suppose I could call it Memoriam. What do you think, Luna?” The blue alicorn looked up to me. “I-I-” She broke into sobs. The Void drifted over me and I placed my hands on them and focused. They glowed and we began to drift... Full Dialogue: "Hello? Is anypony there? Cadence? Twily? Princess Celestia? Princess Luna? Tartarus, I would even be grateful if I could get Discord." Full Dialogue: "Finally, I got through. Thank Celestia! I couldn't keep the Empire safe. I saved as many as I could. I won't be able to hold THEM off any longer." This is for bits pertaining to Armor. The little cut up part. Author's Note Whoo. So yeah. That happened. Enjoy, I guess.
Gamer Luna: Mission One- GuardianWhere, Where am I? Luna, Princess of the Moon, opened her eyes to find a small metallic thing with light in a black area on the front in front of her, It had strange, rounded spikes on its body and floated in the air. “Who are you? What are you? You’re not human, awoken, or exo. My sensors say that you aren’t Fallen, Hive, or otherwise,” came a shockingly normal voice. Just as shocking was that she could understand it. Luna gaped for a moment before remembering her manners. “I am Princess Luna, Diarch of Equestria, and Mage of the Moon.” “Equestria? No such location exists in this system,” it spoke again. “Sensors indicate you are similar to the ancient species known as Equus Caballus or ponies.” Luna nodded, “That’s my species.” ‘Impossible. Ponies have been extinct for too long,” it protested. “I don’t come from this solar system or even universe, at least, I don’t think so,” she muttered. “I must take you to the Speaker. He will get answers from the Traveler. Follow me please. I must find us a Jumpship.” It floated forward and vanished. “Where did you go?” She called out. “To the storage in the back of your new helmet. When I brought you back to life, or, I guess in your case, here, you came in with a full set of armor.” “Oh,” the lunar princess spoke. She didn’t find it all that surprising. Each world must have its own magic, like hers. She started walking forward as the ghost questioned her about her world. Some questions were meaningless to her while a few concerned her greatly. “So, in your world, you don’t have the Darkness?” Ghost’s voice asked. “We have something similar. We called it, Dark Magic or negative magic. I was capable of using it but at one point it overwhelmed me when I least expected. It can be used for good though,” she answered, still trotting forward in hopes to get to her destination faster. “We have Solar Light and Void Magic. Each guardian can use a small amount of both. Warlocks have better control and specialize in each.” “Warlocks?” She inquired. “We have three classes. Titans are our ‘Tanks’. They take a ton of damage without falling but only excel at short range combat with brute force. Warlocks, the ones I mentioned, specialize in magic so they work well at distances but can defend themselves close range. I’ve never really paid attention to Warlocks, myself. Finally we have the Hunters. They are insanely good at distance and sneak attacks,” Ghost spoke. “Ah. Which one am I?” Luna asked. “I’m not really sure… How did you fight in your world?” “Distance and close range if I needed to. Celestia was always the main force.” “Then you’d probably be a Hunter,” Ghost said after processing the information. “Oh,” she said. Their conversation went quiet for some time. The area around, normally flooded with Fallen, was silent. Not a Fallen in sight well, aside from their bodies, that is. “Luna, grab that auto rifle to your left,” Ghost said. The blue alicorn grabbed it and stepped to where Ghost had mentioned a ship would be. When she did, a strange sight greeted her. A bipedal creature, much like Essence, ears and tail aside, was fighting off Fallen. Headshot after headshot they went down. “HAHA! Die you little buggers! DIE!” it yelled. It’s voice was masculine so Luna figured it was male. Ghost on the other hand let out a noise she could describe as a gasp of sorts. He transmatted outside the helmet as soon as the Exo had finished taking out the Fallen. “Cayde-66?” He asked. “In the flesh!” The still battle ready man answered swinging his gun to his hip. “But, you’re the Hunter Vanguard! Why are you here?” Ghost asked. “Ghost, you know I sneak off once in awhile,” he said, “In fact, you came with me once.” “But, this is different. We’ve had an influx of new Guardians lately. You need to be there for the new Hunters!” Ghost protested. “Ghost. You and I both know that there have been less and less Hunters lately. It takes a certain attitude to be a Hunter. Now, tell me who your friend is or I’ll shoot it,” he threatened. Luna flinched. “This is Luna. She’s my Guardian,” he said. “...Well alright then. What’s her class?” Cayde asked. “Well I wonder… She’s wearing a cloak,” Ghost said, voice dripping with sarcasm. Cayde smirked and held out a hand. “I’m Cayde-66. Hunter Vanguard,” he said. “I’m Luna. Diarch of Equestria and Mage of the Moon,” she let him grab her hoof and shook. His face showed a puzzled expression. “Mage of the Moon?” he asked. “In Equestria the celestial bodies stopped moving on their own after a magical accident during my father’s, King Solarium, time. He and my mother, Queen Gravitation, rose them until we could,” she explained. Cayde stepped back, “I see. Makes sense. Now, as Ghost told my Ghost, you need a ride to the Tower?” Luna nodded, “Yes. I need to see if any other Equestrians are here.” Cayde popped his knuckles, “Alright. Once we get there I’ll have someone take a look.” Luna nodded, “Thank you.” Suddenly she was overcome by an urge to toss her auto rifle in the air and speak. “I am Luna, princess diarch of Equestria, Mage of the Moon, and mother of all that stalks the night. If you should need my help, just fire this gun once and I shall come to your aid be you pure of heart.” The rifle wavered and multiple copies flew from it and disappeared. Cayde looked at her. “What was that about?” he asked. “No idea,” she shook her head, “but it happened.” Moments later Cayde’s ship passed over their heads and Luna was transmatted on board. The ship sped off into hyperspace and moments later she was in a strange plaza. “Come. Lord Shax should know of new arrivals. He keeps track of them for the Crucible,” Cayde motioned for her follow and she walked to catch up. Ghost was relaxing in her helmet, and waiting for her to summon him. They caught up with Shax a second or two later. “Hey Shax. We got any new arrivals that look like this lady here?” Cayde gestured to Luna. The large man bent down to look at her, nearly impaling Cayde on his horn. “Nope. Humans, Exos, and Awoken. Nobody with a horn and wings.” Luna immediately felt distraught. “Oh,” she said, “Thank you.” She turned around and Cayde followed her to the other Vanguards. “It’s fine Luna. We’ll find them.” “I know its just-” she was cut off by Ikora Ray, the Warlock Vanguard. “Cayde! Enough sneaking off. We have enough to deal with without you running off and bringing back strange things. “Ikora, this is Luna. She’s a new Hunter. I found while down at Old Russia,” he told the woman. “Very well,” Ikora said, “Has she got a ship?” “Not yet. I was going to take her over to Holliday,” he said, “I’ll be back in a moment.” Author's Note So, this is now subject to change, as I may switch where Luna is Displaced to, like another Equestria. As for Fluttershy, I'm not sure yet, so I'll be working on that, and hopefully, eventually, posting it here, right between this chapter and the next.
Essence Enters the War of Understanding: Part One In between the teams Essence; The Musician, The Merchant’s Demise, Madness of the Void True Neutral (Even she could probs kill Zero. Even if no one knows who she is) Essence dropped into the world out of nowhere, portal or otherwise. Dragging herself up she glared around the area. Summoning her favorite weapon, otherwise known as Poseidon’s Trident, she walked forward, looking around to try to spot someone nearby. While she did this one of the bugs, a giant wasp, flew up to her and aimed its stinger at her. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” she warned. Seemingly debating it for a mere second the bug lunged forward. Out of instinct Essence dodged to the right and impaled the wasp on her weapon. She stood and stuck the weapon on her back. Walking forward she made her way away from both camps, her gait reflected her anger. Not only had she lost her friends, she had lost her home, and the only person she had saved was a small yellow pegasus and a blue alicorn. Her sorrow leaked out into her aura releasing her madness, her insanity, forth as trees bent forming a ladder up into a small fortress with a small pond in the center. Leaning forward she spoke, “Umbra, I wish to speak with you.” Skreeeeeeeeeeeeeeee- whoooosh- thud “Alright. You’re not someone I’m exactly familiar with, but……. I do still know of you. Welcome to Battle World 1, Essence. How do you like my incredibly accurate, pre-written, dropped-from-orbit notes?” “They’re fine. I suppose you know me from one of the SysAdmins? If it’s the Merchant I have a message.” Skreeeeee “I know of you from sources that are best left unmentioned. The Merchant, eh? If it’s a death threat or anything similar, get in line. Wily bastard’s been evading his rightful kick in the balls for over seventeen eons. -Umbra” “I already knew that. My message, if you can get it to him is this: The demise of the Council of Influence was not appropriate, as the final member, even though I no longer hold shadow abilities, I relay that his rival still lives. He may have destroyed my world, my friends, my home but in the End, the battle between Desire and Madness will leave Madness above Desire. You think there may be a way to get that to him?” she asked. Her tail, fluffy and huggable, wiggled slightly out of excitement. Her ears flicked. She seemed to be anxious but extremely pissed at the same time. Who wouldn’t; being trapped in your world, your cry for help missed by others, as it broke apart into nothing? Skreeeee “Yeah. He’ll get that message real soon” “Alright.” Skreeeeee “If you want to fight someone, then I suggest heading South in a few days’ time. There’s an Arena there” “I’m not here to join the battle, in fact, I got here by accident. Watching may be fun though…” Skreeeeee- paff “Then here’s a ticket for Seat A-32. One of the better seats in the house, if I do say so myself. Concessions are free, just make sure to throw away all of your trash when you’re done. Oh, and don’t take the cups. Bottles are fine, but not the cups. Those are refillable.” “Alright, if anyone issues a challenge towards me- there’s always one- I’m open to it, but I will not be placed on one side. I already know who wins after all.” Looking into the pool she could see her lost friends, the two she had saved, and sighed. Looking up and realizing that her new camp had no name, she focused and a giant neon sign appeared above it with the words, “Music and Madness Station, grab an instrument!” She groaned and added another one, “Neutral Territory.” Author's Note I forgot this was the first official interaction between Essence and Aaron/Umbra...
What Could Have Been"NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! DON'T! HE'S LYING HE'LL KILL YOU ALL!" I screamed as the portal closed. I was stuck, they had trapped me in a vacuum, they had sealed my Madness. I truly was stuck. The Betas or Alternates of all the Displaced had sealed me away, tricked by The Merchant, as soon as I had finished the war between Auric and Teridax. Rather, their evil Betas/Alternates. He had helped them set the trap, corrupting their minds, and I was stuck as he attacked the Multiverse. It was time to wait... Who knows how longs its been, at least a couple trillion years... I'm so bored I've started counting. I'm certain no human computer has reached this number yet... "HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I heard. Whatever it was, was a cry to my mind. "HELP!!!! ESSENCE!" I knew that voice... Discord... My friend... "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I screamed. I looked down at my hands. "Its time to use THAT." I closed my eyes and focused on my very being, my code. "CODE MANIFEST!" The nothing around me turned purple and began to swirl. My cat ears and tail disappeared and before me, in my hands, appeared a guitar. "COSMIC~ THUNDER!" I struck the strings with a guitar riff and began playing as loud and fast as I could, the nothing around me swirling more. Outside the Prison A loud guitar riff played through the area, the guards, two Alt Titans frowned before the entire prison exploded. Where the prison had been, Essence stood, hair flowing out as she played the guitar. The guards vanished. She stopped and the guitar disappeared and her ears and tail returned. "I'm coming for you Merchant. Run as fast as you can, but I WILL catch you." Sounds of battle echoed throughout the Void. Friend versus Foe. Light versus Dark. Good versus Evil. Madness versus Desire. At the center of the fight, a lone woman stood her ground against 4 other Void-Dwellers. The Merchant, The Tyrant, The Ripper, The Reaper. The Merchant bore a battleaxe of gold. Tyrant, a ruby encrusted sword, Ripper had claws attached to his hands, and Reaper a large scythe. These four powers rushed at the woman in the center who switched between a trident and two swords. "Musician," sang Merchant, "Its hopeless, just give up. Your little friends are losing." Musician looked up and saw hundreds of Displaced on the ground, many from her side. She looked downwards and a tear fell from her cheek. "Awe, sad are we? Ready to give up?" taunted the Merchant. The three others grinned at each other before a laugh echoed through the area, stopping all combat. The laugh echoed. A laugh that only a mad person could laugh. One that makes you shudder in fear. It echoed again. And again. And again. "Give up? Me? As if. I've got another plan. This may be my last day alive, but I'll be damned if it isn't yours as well," she looked up and grinned. The Merchant's blood ran cold. Without warning she lunged forward and her trident went straight through the Merchant. He looked down. "Impossible," he said. "Impossible? Impossible? Ha. Let me tell you something. You can tell me to be honest, strong, smart, or quick but one thing that should never be said to me, is 'That's impossible,' because I'll be damned if I don't prove you wrong," she said, glaring upwards. The Merchant began to fall and a strange clearness overcame him. His vision, clouded by his Desires, now saw what he had done. In that moment, he spoke. "I have seen my errors, my darkness, my evils, and I know that I have done wrong. I now bequeath my powers to the only person who could control them properly. The Musician," Merchant disappeared and an arc of light raced upwards. Musician fell down. Smiling she coughed up blood. "Now THAT was fun," and she fell. Her form disappeared and a ball of light appeared. The arc connected with it and music filled it all. Music raced through the soul of all beings, touching their souls bringing the very thing they had always needed. Hope. To be continued... Author's Note I highly doubt this will remain canon to her storyline.
Essence Reaches the Next Level of OPAlternate Chapter Title- Essence Fights Connor And They Fuck Up The Lore Beyond Belief Thus Pissing Off Jsyrin and Leaving Me in The Doghouse EDITED EDIT: Completely canon to Displaced “SPAAAAAACE!” I yelled, as I let the zero G fly me around the recently destroyed solar system. Floating around me was the debris from the blown up planets. I’m glad I showed up soon, or otherwise the Infection would have spread to other solar systems. The current one I’m in, was the birth place of a virus called the Infection, a small parasitic species that came from a meteor, and can make the most mightiest planets fall within a month. It latches onto a host body, who quickly produces more, and even gives them various powers and limited adaptibility. I sensed it from Equestria, and quickly came to save any survivors, and blow up the Infection. Unfortunately, the fight took a bit of my energy away from me, and I’ll need a while to recharge, so I’m doing it by referencing. I stopped in place, as a shiver wracked my body. I felt a high power level nearby. At first I thought it was myself again, but then I realized it was coming from a different source. I turned around, and came face to face with the high power level. “Hello!” I was greeted by the cheerful voice of a cat-eared woman, her tail flicking about. My mind went blank for a moment, as I processed what I was seeing. “Umm.. if your looking for the catpeople universe, it’s over in that direction.” I pointed to a different universe. I shook my head. “Sorry, who are you?” Seeing this creature suddenly made me self-conscious about my own Saiyan tail, wrapped around my waist, and hidden under my clothes. “Right, you have no idea who I am, do you?” She smiled, “Those catpeople are a project of mine, but I am, well now what name should I use…. I’ll just use all of them. I am Essence, The Musician, Madness, and so on. You?” ‘Oh man, a colored name. You don’t see many of those around nowadays.’ “I’m Connor, the Cosmic King.” I responded. “I’ve been called many things as well, the god of lightning, the child of a million plans, god of crafting, hero of Equestria, the one who died, and a lot of other references.” The cat woman shrugged, “Meh. Heard worse names,” the woman’s face suddenly switched to a frown. “Cthulhu, get out of mommy’s head. I told you this last time.” She said this and the said being materialized next to her before disappearing. “Kids…” “Last time I had one, she was murdered.” I clenched my fist, trying to hold back some anger, not for being reminded of Nebula, but hearing the name Cthulhu. ‘Gotta look that up for why that name angers me.’ “Cthulhu? He’s an Elder God, so yeah. I however am an Influence and several other things. I’m something like… I’ve actually lost count of how many cycles old I am,” she said, going off on a tangent and apparently hearing my thoughts. ‘Guess I’ll have to fix my head again. I hate people accessing my mind.’ “I’m at least around a million years old by now. I age really slowly though. Took several thousand years just to grow out of puberty.” “About the head thing, nothing works against me on that, sorry. It just happens, what with being Madnessand music embodiment and all. Last check, I know I’m over several quintillion years old,” she said, looking rather casual about it. “Pfft, quintillion? That’s not that old.” A familiar voice spoke up, as my older self showed up, floating right next to me. “What the hell are you doing here! Go back to waiting for you to show up once I disappear!” I yelled. “Well, at best guess, I’m at least as old as the Omniverse, and older than all but one Multiverse,” she said, “Ever met DEATH?” “Yes.” We both spoke at the exact same time. “All kinds of different versions. I prefer the Simpsons one, but younger me kinda likes the Marvel one.” “No, no. D-E-A-T-H. All caps, see?” She gestured to the letters she had just listed. I looked to my older self, as he went into thought. “Well, I remember waiting around for a while before the big bang. I’ve seen a lot of different versions of death, and was death once. Can you describe DEATH? Might ring a bell.” “...The literal creator of everything? Um… Aura of incredible power, kind of like the one I give off, that’s the best I’ve got,” she shrugged. “Does the older you know his exact age?” “Hmm… hang on a sec… HEY FUTURE ME! COME HERE!” Future me yelled, and an even older version of me showed up. “How many of you are there?!” I yelled, not knowing about this one. “What’s up?” Future future me asked. “Ever heard of DEATH? All caps? Created everything?” Future me asked. “Well, I remember bringing a fight into the fourth wall, and having to use the creator of our story to find a way back. Technically, he is the creator of any place we go to, and is part of a multiverse that is even bigger than our multiverses that fanfics are apart of.” He said, remembering back to a moment in my future. “Why the hell am I even here?! I don’t want to spoil my future!” I asked. “I don’t ever remember doing this.” Future me responded. Future future me nodded. “Probably some kind of memory wipe will occur at some point in the future.” “DEATH created even our authors, for instance, my author happens to have multiple stories and several characters. I just happen to one of her thirty or so Void Dwellers/Displacers,” Essence said. “But how would you know that?” I asked. “Technically, you would have no way of knowing if that’s the truth for our author’s universe, or universes. DEATH is just a creation of several different, or perhaps one author, only for fanfics. For all we know, any one of humanity’s many religions could be true, Christianity, Judism, Islamic, Greek mythology, Roman mythology, Norse mythology, or even my personal favorite, Acreusism.” “Well, a few things. I’m talking about the Omniverse, which is ALL Multiverses combined. Another, if I’m here, your author has agreed to this to some degree. And lastly, all of those exist somewhere in the Omniverse,” Essence said, in a matter-of-factly voice. Future future me sighed. “Well, people originally thought that there was only one universe. Later, they discovered the multiverse. After that, they discovered the omniverse. And even later, they discover something larger than that. It’s like atoms. They just keep getting smaller.” “We could discuss philosophy all day.” Future me pointed out. “But, we’re all curious of why are you here?” Essence shrugged, “Dunno. Just kind of, pop into places. Although, if this is another Omniverse.... Then I’ve seriously broken current power levels in my Omniverse by… who knows. Oh wait…” Essence waved a hand, revealing a play-by-play of something she had done back when her Omniverse was much younger. They watched as she started messing around with a ball of her power, accidentally dropping it and creating a small tear. “Okay… Fast-forward…” The video sped up and revealing a small trail of Twilight’s magic expanding the tear, this caused by her magic affecting Essence’s powers. “And there is our answer. Well. Looks like I’m the first in both Omniverses to connect them and you, my new friend, are the first inter-Omniversal traveler.” “Wait, what?!” I yelled, before tapping my ear, and activating a comms. “Sam! You there?! Can you hear me?!” “Yes. I can hear you Connor. What is it?” Sam’s voice spoke into my ear. “I just found out that we’re from different omniverses, instead of universes.” I spoke, turning it down to avoid Sam’s yelling. “How did you not know that?! You’re supposed to be god!” “Hello! I’m Essence! Anyway, this is slightly my fault. Sadly, when you’ve got several, uncounted total, copies of one mind, working in sync, things like this happen. Thankfully, I have enough information to do this,” she lifted up her hands and the tear suddenly appeared next to them. “Okay,” she grabbed the tear and stuffed it into a bottle. “That said, your friend here is a god, not the god. I made a tear in the boundry of the two Omniverses, thus unwittingly allowing travel between them when Twilight used her magic on Connor here. Don’t sweat the details, I’ve-” Essence’s face suddenly flinched, “taken care of it. Now, excuse me as I attempt to deal with the arrival of another uncounted total number of my minds into my head and the massive MASSIVE increase of power.” She turned to Connor, “I now have reason to believe I am everything I was for my Omniverse I am now THAT for this one. Thus doubling my power and allowing the trolling of one of my author’s friends.” “You know what? I’m going back to killing Metroids. I do not have enough phds in quantum physics to understand this.” Sam’s voice spoke back, before cutting off. “So, now that we just broke another barrier. What do we do now? Break another barrier across omniverses?” I asked. “One sec,” Essence snapped her fingers and looked at Connor, “Yeah, at your current power level, you are a Godly. So, your chances of doing it alone, or at all, are nil. But, if you like, I may be able to do it again.” “Hang on. If he’s a godly. Would I be a meta? He’s got .0001% of my power, and I can kick people into the fourth wall, which might count as another omniverse.” Future future me pointed out. “Yeah. You’re a Meta, however, I want you to see something,” Essence snapped her fingers again, and revealed her power to future future me. “That’s a lot of power.” Future Future me muttered. “Kinda reminds me of my successor.” “Keep watching,” she said. “So you can increase your power. Do you want me to go… ‘OH DEAR MERCIFUL… WHATEVER! YOUR POWER!’ because I kinda don’t care about power anymore.” I was hiding behind my future selves, afraid of the super high power. “Please. I’ve battled Broly. His power is maximum. This is nothing compared to it.” Future future me assured. “Dude. I can literally dissolve entire Multiverses in under 0.0000000000000000000001 seconds. Broly is nothing. I was put in a bet in my Omniverse and LITERALLY whopped Broly’s ass so bad, he started crying AND he shit himself. It only took a billionth of a second. In case you are wondering, I’ve taken to disguising my power level. Want to see the real numbers?” Essence grinned and in that moment, neither Omniverse, nor any at all, had seen that crazy of a grin. “Hey, didn’t Distan use to smile similar to that?” I pointed out. “Not as evil, but still very similar.” “You haven’t seen the Broly I fought. My powers actually turned him into what I imagine him. His power would not stop increasing. I freaked out when it went into the gogles, and then made gogle look inferior. My powers involve references, so he would not stop increasing his power. I died a lot.” Future Future me mentioned. “Wait, have either of you fought Doomsday yet? He just revives whenever someone kills him, and becomes stronger from that.” Future me asked. “...Bring it on then. You want proof, I’ll fight both of them. AT THE SAME TIME.” “Umm… I’m not summoning Broly. Unless you want to sacrifice your own powers to summon him, he’s not coming here. Last time we fought, I had to put a lock on him. Unless someone got rid of their powers for the entire fight, they couldn’t summon him. Plus, the powers had to be around god-like.” “Really? You do realize you’re probably talking to the strongest entity in either one of our Omniverses? Well, maybe aside from DEATH, but he won’t tell me his power level,” Essence said, nonchalantly. “Fine, if you are going to even try to do that. I guess I’ll just have to change the locks.” Future Future me snapped his fingers, as his body glowed cosmic purple. “Now, only the weakest person in the current omniverse can open it. No one with any power can open it, and the second someone with powers tries to fight Broly, he’s locked back in.” The look on Essence face said she knew exactly what would happen here, “Alright if you insist, anyone else I can fight? Because,” she snapped her fingers, clearing an image of Broly, “I can just do this,” she snapped her fingers and the lock disappeared, “and this,” Broly’s cheering was ceased as the lock reappeared. “However, as this is your Omniverse, I’ll refrain. You can choose my opponent.” “I choose GARY STU!” Future Future me yelled. “Nah, no one can beat Gary. That would be unfair, as his powers can trump any logic breaking powers.” Future me suggested. “What if the strongest version of us fights her?” “Ugh, you know how weird that guy is.” Future future me groaned. “But, he might be our best bet.” He snapped his fingers, and another version of us shows up, but this time with a different appearance. “Gary? Another one? How many times do I have to kick his ass. Hello, new Connor, or, [Insert Strongest Version of Connor Here]!” Essence smiled and said cheerfully. “The name isn’t Connor. It’s only one of my names. I’m actually fused with my two brothers, and am at 100%. So, while you can defy logic, so can I.” “Logic?” Essence asked innocently, “Who said I only defy logic?” Other guy smiled. “Mind if I change perspectives here? I’d prefer not to give out my name, so I don’t spoil anything?” “Be my guest, it won’t affect me,” Essence waved her hand dismissively. “TIME TO YELL! PERSPECTIVE CHANGE!” “There. Much better.” I said, cracking my neck. “Hey, current me. I’m going to alter the universe, add some of my own time’s stuff. You okay with that?” “Yeah, I’ll just change it back.” He shrugged. “Good. Now, ready to fight?” I smiled, with one of my upper canines sticking out of my teeth.. She grabbed her head and spun it around on her neck before stopping it and nodding, “Let’s go, but first, MUSIC!” The nearby area burst with energy, before either of them moved an inch. I snapped my fingers, creating a cube of lava around Essence. It took a second but I heard whistling, only to see her wearing a bath towel and… washing her hair in the lava. “PERV!” She laughed and the lava disappeared. “My turn,” she gave an entirely too psychotic grin before it began raining literally everything in existence. You name it, it came from the sky. “Idiot.” I yelled, as I grabbed a falling pie, and stuffed in down my throat, before feeling my power greatly increase. I charged forward, only to use afterimage at the last second, and the afterimage punched Essence in the face. Or, rather, it should have. “Nice, but trivial,” her voice came from above me and I looked up to see her literally turn bright enough to light up the entire Omniverse, both of them. “Well, screw you too.” I said, wishing I had to capacity to flip her off, but I don’t like doing stuff like that. I pulled a small piece of metal, turning off the light. “It’s not nice to create massive light pollution. You know how many people you just blinded? How many doctors?” She snapped her fingers and the light thing never happened, “No one, actually. In fact, by switching that event, I created two new Omniverses. Fun! Anyway, enjoy this!” She started spinning and I suddenly found myself as a mouse, in Equestria at Fluttershy’s cottage. I squeaked, as I turned myself into Jerry, and created a giant hammer, smacking Essence in the face as she smacked against a wall, turning flat, before peeling off, and floating down like a piece of paper, landing in a book, that fell down. I took this moment to turn back to normal, apologize to Fluttershy, and teleported above the planet, seeing Essence already there. “So, interesting view, isn’t it. I like fighting above the planet. It’s so serene. Plus it’s ominous.” I muttered, looking at the planet below. “Times like this make me appreciate my powers. I’m glad I was shot. I’m glad I died. I’m glad I was chosen for these powers. By the way, how did you get your powers?” “Well, I was born/made with them. DEATH created me from the Void, of course, he had no idea what he was getting into,” she said, looking down. “After this, wanna be friends? You seem to get the whole, Madnessthing. Oooo~ It’s colorful now. And italicized!” I smiled. “Sure. You seem like the fun kind of sort. But I’m not usually like this. I’ve been fighting Discord style. And it’s getting rather boring. There’s only so much you can do with randomness. Tell me, how good are you at fighting physically?” Essence shrugged, “I’ve picked up some. Weapons or fists-type of thing?” “Both. I’m part god of destruction, so I have an affinity with weapons, but I usually use fists. Shall we bring this down to the planet?” “Well, I’ve been called The Warrior and The Strategist so… And yeah, sure,” she shrugged. I smiled, as a bullet from a sniper rifle coming from the planet hit Essence. “Good luck. And bet you can’t catch me.” I deactivated my flight, and fell to the planet, before suddenly falling faster than any speed imaginable. Essence shrugged and flipped upside down gliding towards the ground at a leisurely pace. She started whistling the tune to a unnamed song. It didn’t take long for me to slam against the ground, my body almost pulverized. I pushed myself up, as my body inflated, ignoring the blood loss, as it quickly regenerated. “I LOVE THAT! NOTHING IS AS FUN AS SLAMMING INTO THE GROUND AT FAST SPEEDS!” “Not sure about that,” Essence said, gliding down to me, “Ask Amnesia.” “Who’s Amnesia?” I asked, stretching my arms. “One of the people I displaced. Poor kid looks like a girl,” Essence shook her head. “We still fighting?” “Yeah. I just really like falling.” I smiled, before charging forward, pulling my left fist back, before driving it forward into her face. Her head barely flinched and her muffled voice came from behind my fist, “Can we still use our powers?” “Yeah, just nothing chaotic. Stuff for more like fighting. So maybe flight, super strength, etc.” I still had my fist in her face, for some peculiar reason. She pulled my fist away and looked at me innocently, “Does this count?” She suddenly connected roundhouse kick with my head and… there was a loud ringing sound as I lost sight for a few seconds, leaving me disoriented and feeling like all my atoms had been torn apart and reassembling at super sonic speed, and like I would throw up. “That was strange. But the funny thing about that, is that you just did the same to your leg. I added reflective properties to my skull a long time ago. So, it follows the principle of ‘I’m rubber and your glue.’” I smiled. She looked down and I followed her sight as I saw the strangest thing I had ever seen, and that’s saying something. Her leg had turned into… dubstep waves? “Hmm... “ she poked her leg which returned to normal, “That was an interesting feeling.” I chuckled. “How do I know what dubstep looks like?” I questioned, before quickly flying backwards, and pulling my arms back behind my body, and charged up a familiar attack. “KAMEHAMEHA!” I yelled. “REFERENCE UPGRADE!” The beam glowed purple, as it was infused with the power of DBZ. “Oh… This thing again?” She raised an eyebrow as it struck her directly in the face. She disappeared behind a cloud of smoke, and I raised an eyebrow, and pulled my hands out from behind my back. I watched as the cloud turned into bubbles and floated away leaving… her holding the thing as it began flashing billions of colors per second and emitted musical notes and an odd reality warping aura. “Kamehameha reference upgrade? Try ETERNAL DUB-DISCORDANT REALITY HYPER NOVA!” “IT’S OVER 9000!” I screamed, causing the sheer power of references to shatter the ball of energy. Only for her to reform it and look at me with a bored and annoyed look as she held it up, hand on her waist. “What! 9000! That’s impossible!” Nappa yelled from somewhere. “IT’S OVER 9000!” The ball shattered again. It reformed and she waved her hand over it, “Ha. Reference-proof,” she let it loose and the beam started flying at me, and I quickly threw a kitten at it. “YOU MONSTER!” I screamed, watching as the beam came closer to the kitten. “YOU WOULD KILL A KITTEN?!” In that second, I had made a VERY bad choice. The beam arched around the kitten and she turned BEYOND red with rage, “Nobody. NOBODY. Makes me harm a kitten,” she said. I quickly shapeshifted into a kitten. Of course I still had my robotic body parts, like my eye, my arm, and my leg. The beam arched towards me and she appeared, grabbed my tail, and I turned back into my previous form in time for her to throw a second ball of the energy into the first as it connected with my face. I had under a second to think the words, What have I done, as I was sent through a rip and then another, flying through two new Omniverses before crashing into a building. I cleared my head after about half a minute and noticed a large sign laying on top of me. Disabled Puppy Orphanage “She just threw me into a puppy orphanage?!” I felt my body filling with anger. “NO ONE EVER HARMS A DOG! NOBODY!” I quickly fixed the building, as I climbed out of it, before running forward, running around the planet I was on, getting faster and faster. “HYPERLIGHT ACTIVATE!” As my body reached speeds only I could surpass, I teleported back into my universe, as I charged at Essence. To my surprise, she grinned at me and I raised a fist only for another copy of her to appear just in time for her foot to connects with my head, sending my head flying off into space, as my body quickly slows down, and is ripped apart by myself stopping so quickly. I looked to Essence, my skull regenerating back on my head, metal and everything, before looking at Essence with pure anger in my eyes. “I will murder you. You had me kill a puppy. YOU HAD ME KILL A PUPPY YOU HEARTLESS MONSTER!” I charged forward, dodging her attack, before delievering a punch that sent her flying back this time. I caught up to her, and slammed my fists down on her head, slamming her to the ground, before pointing my arm at her, and firing a massive energy blast forcing her miles deep. I felt a tap on my shoulder, “Hi! So, you ripped through two Omniverses right? Say hello to me, and me, and me!” I turned around to see three of her. “Hello! Nice to meet ya!” The other two said before all three kicked me back through the tears, the original version I was fighting placing them in the jar with the first tear, before I went slamming into Canterlot castle, disintegrating several floors and landing in Luna’s bedroom in front of her and a massive bowl of ice cream, a spoon hovering in front of her astonished face. “I knew it!” I yelled. “You were holding back on me!” I snatched the ice cream from her, and tried to take a spoonfull of it, but I broke my hand. “Why is ice cream the strongest substance in the world!” The three Essences reappeared and the original looked to the other two, “I got this, ladies.” They saluted and stepped into her, increasing her power by several thousand exponents. “Connor? Who is this?” Luna asked, still on her bed. “Some person who kills puppies without a second thought.” I responded, before jumping out a window, and flipping down before jumping through a different room. I looked around, noticing I was in a kitchen. “These places have fun scenes.” I quickly got to work, making a plan, while Luna distracted Essence. Hopefully. “That’s a lie. Its his fault for picking up the puppy. Besides, he played dirty first, throwing a KITTEN,” I heard her yell, somehow knowing she had leaned out the window to do so, “in front of my attack and changing himself into one as well.” “You do realize the kitten was immortal right? And invulnerable?” Luna pointed out. “It wouldn’t have taken any damage. Besides, even if it wasn’t, how could you be sure it was a real kitten? Could have been a ball of energy that looked like a kitten. Connor’s playing you like a fiddle.” Luna smiled. Essence laughed, causing me to shudder for some reason, “That doesn’t change the fact he almost made me kill one of my precious creations, no matter what it really was. Besides, nothing is invulnerable to me. I am, in fact not being played like a fiddle because,” she raised her voice before stopping dramatically, “HE’S NOT IN THE KITCHEN!” “Then, the egg will fall onto my face, poisoning me, and removing my powers. Then…” I muttered under my breath, but stopped once Essence showed up. I grabbed a frying pan from the stove, one that was cooking an egg on it, before slamming the pan into Essence’s face, sending the egg flying onto the ceiling, where it stuck, as the lava I created at the beginning of the fight finally arrived, landed above the kitchen on the lavaproof floor I created a few years back, and started cooking the egg. “Lava-proof! I saw that coming from a mile away!” She grinned, “Or did you forget? I’m inside your head~” She sang. “Thanks for reminding me. Also, you should remember this, ‘I’m rubber and you’re glue.’ So, whenever your in my mind, I’m in your mind.” I gave a dark smile. Essence’s face went flat, “Then go ahead, take a look.” I mentally smirked, as my body quickly destroyed itself from reading her thoughts. I felt huge amounts of pain that further increased my powers, before I faded from existence. [POV SWITCH] I watched as he disintegrated from existence and looked over at Luna, “You want him back?” She looked at me and jumped, “WHO ARE YOU AND HOW ARE YOU HERE!?” I shrugged and smiled, “That’s a yes.” I began reforming his body and mind and upon finishing, placed him under the egg from earlier. [POV SWITCH] “I’m back! AND I’M STRONGER THAN EVER!” I started laughing, after my body was reformed, but the egg that landed on the ceiling fell onto my face, and some of it got into my mouth. My brain stopped for a moment, as I just processed this information. “GAH!” I screamed, trying to spit out the egg, but all that came out was black gunk. “Oh crap.” I fell to my knees, as my powers faded. “And hence, avoid looking into the mind of the Madgoddess,” Essence smirked. I chuckled. “You think I’m down? I’m just getting warmed up. This isn’t the first time I lost my powers against an opponent stronger than me.” I stood up, and flicked my arm, as a small staff popped out, and I grabbed it, before forming it into a bigger staff. “Um, hello?” SHe tapped her head, “I know. Besides, it wouldn’t be any fun if you were. As a crutch, I won’t break the staff. If I do, I’ll replace it, deal?” She held out a hand. “Actually, the staff is supposed to be unbreakable, but I haven’t added the ‘non-logic’ attack shielding yet. But I would advise against breaking it, unless you want to be teleported to a dimension where our powers don’t work.” I shook her hand. “Meh, I’m Anti-logic, I work everywhere, but I’ll still avoid breaking it,” she said, “Where shall we continue this?” “Right here is good. But I’m sure the chefs are annoyed at us.” I dodged a thrown knife. “HEY! Watch where you’re throwing that thing! You should know about my fear of sharp knifes!” I sighed. “How about the courtyard?” “Sure,” she snapped her fingers, taking us to the courtyard, “I’ll have the terrain and such rest from any damage after a few minutes.” “So,” I twirl my staff around, as a purple skintight suit with yellow streaks appeared on my body. “Ready to fight?” “Yeah, let’s go for it,” she said. My staff glowed purple, and I charged forward, before quickly sliding against the ground, and try to knock Essence off her feet. When I got behind her I quickly got to my feet, and blocked the incoming blow with my staff. “Not bad, not bad,” she said, smiling, before swinging a sword, from nowhere, at me. I barely blocked it in time, and quickly broke my staff into two parts, before activating the electricity, and Nightwinged Essence in the face with a million volts of godly electricity. She blew a puff of air out of her mouth at the electricity and it suddenly wore a top hat and started dancing. I quickly slid back, and frowned. “That’s just rude. That’s like changing the genetic code of someone’s child.” I deactivated the electric function, and pointed both sticks at Essence, before two lines fired out, and attached to the walls behind her. I smiled, not sure what the hell I was doing, but trying to make it look cool, as the grappel function activated, and I was flung forward really fast, before impacting the wall, face first. “I’ve been doing that for cycles, except, most of the time it’s to stop some defect, or stop them from going Hitler on their world,” she said, slightly muffled considering my face was in rock, and I pushed myself out of the stone wall, and shook the rocks out of my ears, before turning around, and attaching the two pieces of my staff together. Essence just shrugged and clapped, sending out a huge sonic boom, moving literally as fast as Mach 881742, causing me to be thrown into the air, before I fell down, crashing into the Canterlot statue garden. I got to my feet, and noticed myself right next to where Discord’s statue used to be. “Grrr… won’t get me next time with that trick.” My staff glowed with light, and I fired a powerful beam at Essence, before being flung back from the recoil. I hit the back of my head on some rocks. I blinked, before closing my eyes, trying to ignore the pain, as I got to my feet, and fell back down. “Forgot about that.” I muttered, as I waited for the blood to finish messing up my head so I can see. “Stupid orthostatic hypertension.” She floated down from above, upside-down, having dodged the beam. “You know, once you can your powers back you can assure that never happens again when you loose them.” ` “Sorry. That condition is ingrained in my body. It doesn’t happen when I have my powers, but I have to worry about it whenever I don’t have my powers.” My vision returned, and I got to my feet, holding my staff in a defensive position. My staff glowed, and I felt my body be temporaily empowered. I rushed forward, and drove my staff into Essence, and quickly fell backwards, screaming at the innuendo. “GAH! I need a better name for my staff!” “Like what, the rape-stick?” Essence joked before kicking me directly in my crotch. “Oh shit… my bad,” she paled. “You jerk.” I coughed up some blood. “Low blow.” I tried to get up, but fell back down. “Didn’t your parents teach you any manners?” “It was an accident,” she humphed, before continuing, “And what parents, DEATH created me, but I grew up on my own.” “I kinda wish you only did that when I had my powers. At least then, I could regenerate, and prevent that from happening again. I actually don’t care about what gender I am.” I finally was able to stand up again, and wiped the blood from my mouth. “Here,” she waved her hand, regenerating my crotch and apparently creating a cup around them. “I don’t need that.” I took it off, and cracked my neck, glad the pain was gone. “At least now, I have an idea I can do.” My staff glowed black, and suddenly my suit changed into my own personal batsuit. “I’m Batman.” I spoke in a gravelly tone. Essence face went flat, "Your parents are dead." “I am the one who flaps in the night.” I referenced back. “More like faps…” She answered, before making me spit a bit in surprise. “Hey, at least I don’t see Samus as … what other people see her as. I only care about the suit. Screw everyone else.” As soon as I finished speaking she snapped her fingers and turned me pink, with purple polka dots. “Seriously! PINK! I understand that I like purple, as my powers are colored the same, but seriously! Why pink?!” I yelled, not really enjoying the color. “Okay, is this better?” She asked before I felt a warm fuzzy feeling. I looked down and the floor seemed a bit closer, I was about to ask what she had done when I found myself embraced in a hug, “Aren’t you just the cutest thing!” I pushed myself away, stumbling a bit. I looked at my right arm, and noticed that it changed slightly in shape and was a lot shinier than the metallic grey I prefer. “Well, haven’t been like this in a while.” I looked down at my body. “This is still weird.” Essence looked depressed, “You didn’t have to stop the hug…” My brain freezed as I just realized something. “Did you just take away my height?” I spoke, my voice trying to go dark, but it couldn’t with this body. Essence eyes widened, “Oh...my… THAT’S JUST TOO ADORABLE! You tried to be maddened and instead you just look flustered,” she grabbed me in another hug and I struggled to get out. “Grr… the last time I was this young, things got a little destructive. You’re lucky I still have my memories, or you would be dealing with a very mentally messed up child.” I try to push way again, but Essence wouldn’t let me. “GET OFF!” I yelled, and pressed a button on my arm, causing it to push Essence back, and I got a bit of space in between us. “SELF DESTRUCTION TECHNIQUE!” My arm vibrated rapidly, before glowing white, and it blew up, as I closed me eyes, hoping to be taken with it. After a minute or two of nothing, I opened my eyes to find myself smothered in another hug. “Stop it,” I demanded. “Let go!” She kept holding on and I noticed some smoke coming off her back, before she spoke. “You’re too cute to die,” she said, touching my bleeding side, regenerating it all. I looked to my destroyed right side, smirking that my arm still couldn’t go back, and glad that I lost it completely a while back. ‘I need to get to my lab, replace my arm.’ I thought to myself, and tried to push myself away from the infuriating cat woman. She let go and snapped her fingers, filling me with the warm fuzzy feeling again. I pushed away from her, and looked back down, noticing my normal body back. I smirked, before running to the edge of the statue garden, and jumping off, falling down to the city below. I landed on my left leg, which dampened the shock. ‘Gotta get my powers back. Gotta get to the lab.’ I ran across the rooftops of Canterlot, quickly making my way to Ponyville. I skidded to a stop, as Essence showed up in front of me. “Ah, ah, ah~” She sang, dropping a barrel on top of me. I pushed the barrel off, and got back up. “I’m kinda surprised that you changed me back.” I said, trying to figure out a way to escape. “Well, I couldn’t fight you while you looked like this,” she said, holding up a picture of a small girl, it looked like this. I cringed at the sight. “I don’t know how to respond to that, so I’m just going to do this!” I jumped into the air, and my left foot burst to life, as it started giving me some minor flight abilities. “See ya.” I quickly flew to Ponyville, before deactivating my foot above my house. I landed softly, and quickly ran in, before entering the secret passageway to my lab. It didn’t take long for the elevator to stop, but I quickly ran in. “GLADoS, activate security protocols!” I yelled as I ran to a certain device. It started up, but then I heard an explosion, knowing full well it had likely taken the upper part of the lab with it, “LUCY~ I’M HOME~” Essence’s voice rang out. “Activate project 10245! Password Pie is God.” I felt my machines whirring, as one of my last hopes powered up. Essence crashed into my lab, activating all the security systems, from lightning fast turrets in those games that you need to do something else to deactivate them, because you can’t get past them, to plasma cannons. She started strolling forward, spinning a cane next to her and singing the song from Mary Poppins that the chimney sweeps sing. The, well, everything bounced off the cane and back at the cannons and other weapons. As she approached, I smirked, as metal came up out of the ground, and surrounded my body, before attaching itself, making a full body suit. Once the entire thing was fully attached, I yelled out one final thing. “SUIT! ACTIVATE!” The machines whirred, as they crunched into my body, causing blood to spurt out of the machine, fusing my very being into the suit. I took a step forward. “Like my new suit? It’s designed to fight creatures like you. It requires the ultimate sacrifice to use, I give up my body, and now I’m in a suit that can never break, no matter how little or none logic you use.” “Well la dee, frickin da!” she said, holding up her hands and throwing an anvil that looked like it had a gravitational pull, at me. I throw my fist back, and break it like it’s nothing. I smile, as I charge forward, and slam Essence through multiple walls of my base, before ending up in the educational television room, after running through the giant clams, and cheese grater rooms. I scream, before running out of the room. “Why did I make that room?” “Because you were bored?” Essence, now floating beside me, asked. “Maybe. I really like references.” I stood up straight, before punching Essence in the face, sending her flying back into a wall. I pulled both of my fists back, before firing two powerful beams at her, sending her flying back even farther. She crashed down, landing on her feet and sliding backwards leaving two deep indentations in the ground. “I figured.” I smirked. “Time for my final attack! I’ll end you with this blast!” I poured my energy into my chest, as a huge light started shining from it. As it got more and more powerful, I started laughing maniacally. “PREPARE TO DIE!” Right before I fired it, a loud yell came from overhead. “INCOMING!” It sounded like my voice, but before I could figure out why, I felt something impact my head, and turn my entire suit to pieces. I fell to the ground, my entire body bleeding, as I looked to the attacker. “Oops… sorry.” It was my skull that got kicked off my head near the beginning of the fight. I coughed up some blood. “Well, that was anticlimatic.” I felt my body getting better, as my wounds healed themselves. “Hey, my powers are back!” “Nice,” Essence said, only to for her fist to come hurtling towards me and she began punching me in the head rapidly, around some one-hundred twenty strikes a minute. Once she stopped, I felt incredibly dizzy. “I choose bacon.” I blurted out. I fell backwards, too dizzy to get up. “Ouch, that looks painful.” My other head pointed out. Essence just looked at him, “And that’s how you know this was planned from the beginning.” “What?” Both heads asked. “That’s not how it usually works. We send messages to our past self on what happens. We have the ability to see the future, but we don’t like to use it, so we trust our future self’s judgement on what we should know.” The other head responded. Essence grinned, “I’m called The Strategist, remember? When I first read your mind, I saw that your skull could destroy that suit, hence why it was sent speeding off. I knew we’d end up here, just in time for it to crash into you. Besides, every time I fight you, it’s different. You send a message back, I change my technique.” “Technically, our plan isn’t over yet. But I’m done fighting. This was nothing but a spar between friends. I don’t want to destroy everything again.” I responded, feeling less dizzy. “I have about a thousand satellites pointing straight at us, preparing to fire blasts similar to the suit that was destroyed. But I don’t like dying. So, if it means the battle’s over, then I give up.” “Is it over?” Essence asked. “Yes. That’s what give up means. You know as well as I do that our fight would eventually lead to me using a last resort invention, that gets messed up, and everything in both of our omniverses is destroyed.” I got to my feet, balancing against the wall. “I’m going to sleep for a week after this, then I’m going to have a huge migraine.” “Yeah, I knew. Really don’t feel like recreating four Omniverses, so yeah. It’s over. As for your need for sleep and future migraine,” she snapped her fingers, appeared next to me, and kissed my forehead. “Ta da! All gone!” She smiled. I ignored the action, not in a mood to be angry, as I snapped my own fingers, repairing my lab and house. “I got a bar somewhere around here, wanna get a drink before you go? Got all the good stuff.” I chuckled. “I think so. It took a while, but I managed to replicate the same material the notebook from Scribblenauts is made out of, so we have an endless amount of any drink you want.” I tapped a few buttons on the wall, causing a full blown bar to pop out of the wall. “Brewster, a cup of Phazon please.” The pigeon nodded, and handed me a cup of the virulent mutagen. “Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster please,” Essence asked. Brewster passed her a cup of the green drink. SHe took a sip, “Ah, that’s nice. You should try it,” she held out the cup to me. I gently grabbed it, and took a sip, before shrugging. “Alcohols don’t do it for me. I only get something by drinking poisons.” She shrugged and took a deep gulp, peering into the glass, “I know what you mean. I have to drink the Void itself for anything to happen. Even then, it has to have some empty universe in it. I just happen to enjoy the flavour.” “Well, I’m seriously addicted to Phazon. Probably because I was drenched in the stuff when I was on Sam’s world. Luckily for me, I don’t have any of the negative effects, other than the occasional extra limb, and the increased strength.” I took another sip of the Phazon, ignoring the blue lines spreading across my body. “Yeah, easily fixable though, huh?” She said, tapping her cup filling it with her previously mentioned drink, “I call it the Voidic,” she took a sip, “care to try?” She offered me the cup. “I’ll try.” I look over to see the floating head, trying to get up to the bar. “Oh, forgot about you.” I chuckled, before helping him out. “So, what, you now HeadConnor or something? You really remind me of Headpool.” “Well, hold this for a second,” she handed me her drink and reached into a tear she created and pulled out a phone, “Let’s see… Any messages from any of the Omniverse creators… One from DEATH… One from LIFE… One from COSMIC... and one from...AETHER. Good thing I can pretend to be their versions of me, as I’m not that different. I’ll start with COSMIC,” she tapped a button on the phone and a voice came out, chilling me. “Essence, I just got word you were fighting Connor as well as that your power level jumped up to damn near mine,” Mother COSMIC said. She rolled her eyes and mouthed the words, she’s lying, she’s the only one who told me her power. “You and I both know that it’s pretty far above yours by now,” Essence looked at me, Is it okay to talk about other Omniverses with her? she mouthed. I shrugged. Our race is very… what’s the word… protective, or likes to assert its dominance only in it’s omniverse. Hard to describe, but your lucky I was the one who was sent to investigate your appearance. One of my successors might not be as friendly. I mouthed back. Essence sighed and spoke into the phone, “Just a fun spar, nothing to worry about. As for my power, I found a very old version of myself and we merged,” she lied casually. I may have to wipe the thing about the tear from your mind, unless you can keep it a secret. Also, I’m not risking her, or anyone else, attacking any of the other Omniverses. Looks like I’ve got another job description. So do I. I’ll work on my end to stop any wars. I also erased the memory from the other Connor’s minds. To them, this never happened. I mouthed. Mother Cosmic spoke again, “Very well, just make sure you’ve cleaned up.” The phone hung up and Essence sighed, “On to the others. I’ll tell DEATH about you but LIFE and AETHER are very… adamant about there not being any new Void Dwellers/Barrier Walkers/Cosmic Beings/Ether Runners in their Omniverses. So, try to keep quiet real quick.” She tapped AETHER and the phone was answered by a voice similar to Mother COSMIC’s, “Essence, what in the bloody fucking hell have you been doing?” British, Essence mouthed, “Just got into a spar with a friend, everything okay?” “That had better not be someone new,” AETHER said, sounding very stubborn, “You know what’ll happen.” “Yeah yeah. It was Augustine,” Essence tapped a few buttons, sending, I assume, a message to the Augustine character. This one was the one with the puppies. “Very well, make sure you’ve cleaned up,” AETHER disconnected. “This is very annoying,” Essence said. “I don’t even know what’s happening anymore.” I muttered. “So, should I just stick to my own omniverse, and make sure no one breaks through? I don’t really want to deal with another war across universes.” “Well, avoid AETHER and LIFE. I’ve got all the portals here anyway,” she held up a jar. “Let me just talk to LIFE and then I’ll speak with DEATH about it. Honestly, he seems the most reasonable of the lot,” she said. I sighed, chugging down the rest of my drink. “Being a god is a lot of hard work.” “I’ll say,” Essence said, tapping at the phone. “Hey LIFE.” “WHAT IN HELL WERE YOU DOING YOU LITTLE MOTHER FUCKING SHIT! WHAT THE FUCKING HELL YOU DESTROYED THREE DAMN MULTIVERSES!” The voice shouted, causing me to flinch and Essence to sigh. “Are they fixed now?” Essence asked. “Well of course, they repaired as soon as you disappeared,” LIFE answered. “So what’s the problem,” she asked. “Just… Don’t do it again,” LIFE said before hanging up. “So, is that it?” I asked. “Those are a lot of people.” “DEATH is next, he should be okay though, as we didn’t fight there,” Essence said, tapping the phone. “Yes Essence?” a bored sounding voice came through the phone. “Hey DEATH. I’ve got a new Void Dweller here,” she said. “So that’s where you’ve been,” he said, sounding disinterested. “Hello.” I spoke up, hoping that was a cue for me. “The name’s Connor, The Cosmic King.” “Mhm. Essence, I hope that’s not all you called me about,” the voice said. “No, I need to talk to you later,” Essence said, “We’ll be going now.” “MHm,” DEATH said as she hung up the phone. “That was certainly an interesting call.” I spoke up. “DEATH is quite a lively fellow.” “That’s definitely true,” Essence said, “Back to our drinks then?” “I already finished mine.” I gestured to the several empty bottles in front of me. “Anyways, a lot of people are going to be questioning what the fight was about. Luna’s probably worried, and I need to go out and buy some more cheese. I trust you know the way out?” I stood up, picked up HeadConnor, and walked over to the door. “Is there anything else you need?” “Nope, I’ll leave. You have fun protecting your side of the rips. I’ll take care of my side and the others,” she said, floating up and starting to unravel before disappearing completely. I sighed. “Weird day.” “Tell me about it.” The head I was carrying mentioned. “You don’t know the half of it.” I walked out of the door, preparing to fix some of the other damages caused by the battle. Author's Note Crossover with The Cosmic King by Theyellowninja13 I hate the like-dislike ratio on this story, but I doubt many of you read the sequel, so, here it as, combined into this one as a new arc. Also, this may draw out my Dislike Fairies so, keep an eye out.
Essence Fucks With ArmiesEssence sat in the Void watching a particular universe, holding some pancakes and nibbling on them. She had her focus on this particular universe because it was J.R.R.Tolkien’s Lord of The Rings universe. This one was on the bit before the five armies began fighting. With a slight whoosh of Displaced air, a shadowy figure strolled into existence behind her, casually eating a sandwich. “Y’know, you could totally fuck shit up down there.” Aaron finished off his sandwich, now lightly twirling a pencil which he proceeded to tuck behind his… uh…. ear thing. Essence raised an eyebrow. “Why should I interrupt?” “Because this story is going to be really funny, really stupid, or really badass. Why not make it the first and third and get your kicks out of the visceral thrill of having everyone around you know that they can’t do jack shit against you no matter how hard they try?” Aaron spoke airily, not even paying attention to Essence even though he knew that he was currently far weaker than her. Essence shrugged, “Then how should I join in? Slow, or just drop in?” Aaron shrugged as well, “I tend towards a massive flair for the dramatic, myself. Y’know, appear in the middle, make a giant flashy pillar of shadow, and then kill everyone except for whoever’s necessary.” “Fine. I’ll drop in then,” and with that, Essence hurled herself into the universe, dropping into orbit of the planet and then plummeting downwards and several thousand miles per hour. As the armies turned to face each other, a flaming asteroid, no, cat deity lady with massive ass wings, who knows why, crashed into the ground creating a very decent sized crater. Everyone stopped and stared as she stood up and popped her back, neck, and hands. “Time for a little fun~[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RRCM228C0c]” she said, suddenly holding a trident in front of her. pointed at the orcs and goblins with it and made a ‘come here’ motion. Hesitant at first, the orcs and goblins charged as a horn sounded, only to meet their demise in literal nanoseconds. She only paused to switch to her swords which halved her time, leading to complete and total devastation of both orc and goblin armies, the worms, and the bats in 0.03 seconds. She then pulled Sauron from nowhere and took him out in 0.01 seconds. She then turned around and flipped Elrond the bird. Aaron rolled his eyes, stepped forward, and promptly appeared behind Essence. He placed a hand on her shoulder and spoke with a damnable smirk on his face. “Essence, dearie, that’s not how you slaughter an army…” With a twist and a yank, Essence found herself sitting on a nearby hill, six seconds before she had started her rampage. Aaron continued from his position, “THIS is how you slaughter an army.” And he disappeared. Far below, Aaron slammed home in the middle of Sauron’s army, sending up a massive twister of shadowy blades and flinging orcs and goblins everywhere. As the army of monsters turned upon itself and began its defense, Aaron stood straight, blasting out his aura and tinting the landscape with shadows for miles upon miles. An oppressive feeling of pure terror swam through the minds of every living being there, even as Aaron took the slow route and glided through the assembled orcs and goblins like a specter of death. Even if Alucard did it first, Aaron found that taking enthusiastic walks was a rather calming pastime, even if he had to keep finding new ways of killing things just so he wouldn’t have to repeat a single method. Frankly, it was a tougher job than one might think. “Hepatitus C, lung cancer, decapitation, brain melting, eyeball explosion, disemboweling, implosion, explosion, singularity, Understanding, inside out, heard attack, malaria, pneumonia, ebola, black plague, thousand papercuts, cherry tapped, sodomized by ents, crushed by ents, sodomized by dragons, eaten by dragons, “eaten” by dragons, Slenderman, Freddy Krueger, Grim Reaper- hey, thanks pal, Sapphire Dragon, Shenron, falcon punch, FALCON PAWNCH!, four hour erection, erectile dysfunction, yeast infection, gender swapping, mutilation, self mutilation, exploding testicles, ruptured spleen…” Aaron’s announcements were clearly heard by everyone on both sides, even as the orcs and goblins attempted to run or hide, Aaron never wavered in his pace, ignoring any attackers and killing only the people in front of his outward spiralling path. By the fourth hour, every last problem on Middle Earth was dead. Sauron had been eaten alive by hellhounds. After proceeding to smack the balls back into Elrond, Aaron disappeared from the sight of Middle Earth, dropping back into existence behind Essence with a smug, “Yeah, that is how it’s done.” “I have another idea, if you want to see?” Essence asked. Aaron raised a glowing white eyebrow, “Hoh? And what, pray tell, is that?” “I’ll show you,” Essence reset the armies and walked out in front of the armies. “Damn it. Don’t you know? We’re all mad here.” Upon the word mad, the entire orc and goblin army went insane, murdering each other, and when they were done, she raised them from the dead, forced them to eat each other, and restored them, somewhat, only to send out a second wave of madness, causing them to all turn into BL. After some furious make out sessions, and an odd other Void Dweller dropping in to take pictures, she sent out a THIRD wave. This one causing them to begin to dance the chicken dance. Gandalf and the others stood there as their minds tried to comprehend what in hell was going on. Essence turned off the third wave and finally sent out a wave of energy causing all the orcs’ and goblins’ genitalia to grow rapidly before exploding into confetti. Very PAINFULLY. Finally, Essence walked over to Azog, leaned in, and whispered, “Boo.” Azog proceeded to scream like a little bitch and stabbed himself to death, the whole army following suit, as well as every other orc or goblin in Middle Earth, as they had all experienced the events. Essence disappeared and reappeared above Aaron. Meanwhile, Sauron shit himself to death. “That work?” Essence asked, innocently. “Eh. More or less.” “Shall we leave this world to its business then?” “Sure. I need a hotdog.” Aaron disappeared, Essence quickly following suit. This chapter was brought to you by the words, “Fuck” and “You”. Fuck you, for when you have no intelligible comeback.
The War of Understanding (aka the Biggest Possibility Ever]THIS IS NOT APPLICABLE TO ANY STORIES INVOLVED UNLESS STATED OTHERWISE Rules: 1)Wait patiently for each writer to finish before adding in your section 2)Use the chatbox thing to discuss who writes when 3)Don’t type inane comments on the actual docx 5)Edit the story for posting on your account via copy-paste into a document of your own. Don’t do it here. 4)Inane or useful, comments should be written with the ‘comments’ button not on the actual docx 6)Have some mother [EXPLETIVE] fun with this. Because this [EXPLETIVE] is gonna be sweet. Note 3: Due to the clogging of the chat, Palringo is the new method of interpersonal communication. Once signed into Palringo, just join the group ‘the war of understanding’ Note 4: Battle music goes in the table below.Beyond The Bounds https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Niruwh4UwS8 Last One Standing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uurkmfkKodg Beauty Of Annihilation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAUOpUsR7ME Confrontation with the Enemy http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gQnY7L8ucCk D-Evil https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZSni89NM5Y Whispers In The Dark http://youtu.be/omuYo49_SOQ Nashandra Theme https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efHjdSM3nHo Time to Say Goodbye https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdWCLT7kccY A Force is Coming https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTRImQ9LT7Y Sons Of Odin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEt-aRGV5nA Fume Knight Theme https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ig0G32Ng2lM Makuta theme https://soundcloud.com/serialsymphony/the-makuta Specter Knight Theme https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe_XgkJ44_E Worlds Collide (fitting, I think) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrqhZm3uZx0 Critical Mass https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDsWPo4ONpo Titan Battle https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lO2b7Kgz9ao Kirby Theme https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CS93CdMv_E Seek n’ Destroy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bG5wSvi7euI Rising https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RERXiliJfdI Note 5: Every character gets an intro scene where they build their own section of their team’s base in the same general area as the rest of the bases. Note 6: Apparently, Palringo keeps screwing some people over, so Skype is a better deal at this point Scene 1: Shadows Ignite Battle World 1; Umbra Shadow-Walker’s Private Universe “Chii~in pon pon pon~~ This thing on?” Umbra Shadow-Walker; Systems Administrator. The DJ (Would brutally murder Zero in less than half a second) Tapping the microphone in front of him and wincing at the generated feedback, Umbra continued, “I’ll… take that as a yes. In any case, welcome all to the one and only, War of Understanding!” Umbra smirked, “I’m your master of ceremonies, Umbra Shadow-Walker, and today looks like a lovely day to decide the fate of several Universes’ Displaced inhabitants. Weather today looks like it’ll hold at a nice seventy degrees Fahrenheit with an eighty percent chance of rain later on, but it should stay nice and sunny for most of the day anyways.” Taking a moment to make sure all of the cameras and interdimensional screens were in working order, Umbra sat back, continuing his narration, “Well, here we are on the main continent of my lovely little planet, on one of the biggest, emptiest, most desolate stretches of unbroken Badlands in this galaxy. All the contestants of this lovely little show should be appearing pretty soon, so I suppose we’ll just go to our sponsors until they arrive, ne?” Advertisment Somewhere due West of the Arena A portal into a darkened universe opened, and the sound of metal clanking on stone resonated through the universe. Red eyes burned as a metallic giant stepped through into the universe, servos whirring and clanking as he finally entered. Makuta Teridax; King of the Shadows, Massive (Literally) SOB The Villain (Would consume Zero with a shadow arm before he could do anything) Teridax surveyed the desert before him with a seemingly bored attitude. Appropriate, he mused, that the final battle would be here. Rahkshi; Makuta’s Sons, Evil Army The Badass Cannon Fodder (Zero’s screwed against these motherfuckers) Behind him, more and more portals opened. The clanking of thousands of metallic feet heralded the rest of his group. Rahkshi in their hundreds came through, the sun gleaming off their armoured carapaces. Teridax didn’t even move, but the clouds overhead gathered together, blocking out the sun’s rays. The area surrounding the Rahkshi darkened, shadows obscuring everything about them. Inside the patch of darkness he had created, Teridax got to work. Cracking the knuckles on hands big enough to palm watermelons, he replaced the bizarrely wide mask with a narrower one that resembled an insect. Holding cages were ferried through next, holding snarling, mutated creatures that barely resembled their original species. Teridax examined the proceedings with a sombre appearance. The ground tore itself apart, rocks levitating themselves into a crude bunker. Teridax paused, and looked amongst his children. On an unspoken command, they lined up, into orderly formations. And thus Teridax stood there for a long time, staring seemingly into nothing. What he was thinking, what he was planning, only he really knew. Finally, a last portal deposited a small, heart-shaped device with a clear quartz screen on the front. A small, barely visible green LED light was glowing, right on the bottom of the device. With a wave of his hand, it attached itself to his chest, right where his heart would be. He tapped it, and his eyes briefly glowed blue. Then, he turned, and sat down. Trees and plants grew around him, creating a small grove. This quickly grew into a forest, small and only a couple of seconds old but still impressive. Teridax continued to sit, before waving a hand. At this, all the screens briefly flashed red, before returning to normal. “Thank you for paying attention to this important broadcast,” Teridax began, the sarcasm dripping from his every word, “but I’m afraid that you’ll have to wait a while longer for everybody to show up. My allies are coming, I assure you. All we have to do is wait for Auric to come to this place.” And with that, Teridax went silent, not even bothering to say anything further. He went as still as a statue, only the occasional flash of blue in his eyes even indicating he was alive. Meanwhile, far away in the actual arena Umbra Shadow-Walker bolted upright. “Holy shit. He’s here.” He blinked twice before shooting out of the announcer’s booth and into the air. “HOLY SHIT! HE’S HERE! LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, PLEASE WELCOME THE INTRODUCTION OF OUR KING OF SHADOWS! OUR RULER OF THE BIONICLE! PRISONER 0 OF TARTARUS! THE ONE! THE ONLY! MAKUTA TERIDAX!!” As he settled back onto the ground below, Umbra walked towards Teridax’s position, a score of cameras and microphones trailing behind him. “This is great, everyone. This is really really great; Makuta Teridax being the first to get here means that I get to see the Villain Camp!” Flying through the Badlands, Umbra soon made landfall outside a strange, shadowy forest directly beneath a bank of ominous clouds. “I suppose I should filter the Villain arrivals over to this area, yeah? Yeah.” Snapping, Umbra concentrated for but a moment as data-filled screens appeared around his position. With a light grunt of annoyance, Umbra created a large, shimmering portal directly above the newly designated Villain’s Camp – now complete with a spooky, wrought iron fence and gate with a placard bearing “Villain Camp” on top. “Yeah, that looks good. Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s Go!” Scene 2: Aliens and a Lich Somewhere due East of the Arena, about as far away from it as the Villain Camp is A random portal opened up in the oppressively sunny badlands, spewing out one human before closing. Said human went by the name of Jason. He had an Omnitrix. Far away over the Villain’s Camp, the human’s two traveling companions were spewed out of the active portal over said camp. Jason Hughes; Omnitrix-Wielding Champion of the Norse Gods One Badass MotherF***er (Would probably stomp Zero with Way Big) “Umbra, you really need to work on your portal skills,” Jason grumbled as he got up, brushing his clothes off. With a screaming of wind and a massive shockwave, an object hurled its way through the atmosphere of the aptly named Battle World, and buried itself at Jason’s feet. Said object was a large, conical chunk of unidentifiable metal with a note etched in. Said note read: “Shit, sorry about that. Forgot to shield for Void turbulence. -Umbra” “Ok where are Zed and Xemnas?” he asked grabbing the object, dropping it in his hypercube. “‘Cause they were with me coming here,” he looked up at the sky, scowling alright fine don’t answer me,” he flipped off Umbra before moving off toward a clearing. “There you are,” Xemnas said, stepping out of a corridor of darkness, Zed at his heels. “We hit a little turbulence on the way here,” he explained, adjusting his coat. Xemnas; Lord of Nothingness Jason’s Buddy (Zero couldn’t do shit against this motherfucker) Zed; Hates Being Called Dog Jason’s Pet/ Companion (Hell, even the dog can kill Zero) “Umbra already told me,” Jason said, looking around. “Ok, looks like we’re the first ones here, so... I’ll set up camp,” he said before Xemnas stopped him. “Allow me,” the Nobody said before throwing his arms out, focusing his powers. Reality seemed to bend before snapping back into place in the form of a strange white castle. “Behold! The Castle That Never Was!” “Show off,” Jason mumbled, looking up at the castle, petting Zed’s head. Somewhere North of Teridax’s base; within walking distance Lich King; Commander of the Undead The Master of the Undead (Can kill Zero, even if he wouldn’t) Out from a portal steps a hulking figure of a man, a massive suit of armor covering him as frost radiates off his armor. His weapon, Frostmourne, is held tightly in his grip as more armored figures arrive behind him, flanked by unicorns in robes and wave after wave of undead. Among one of the figures to leave the portal is another human, clad in an peculiar purple suit with a mask and cape, he stands next to the Lich King. Zero; Lich King’s Brother The Master Strategist (Can’t kill anyone at all. Not even a minion.) Zero looks over to his brother, smirking under his mask. “Our forces amass to destroy the enemies of Teridax. The ghouls and Necromancers are already setting up our camp as we speak, corrupting the ground and harvesting resources. I suspect we will have our camp built within the hour.” The Lich King simply nods his head once. “Begin bringing through the dragons and minotaurs as soon as our base is complete. I want no interruptions as I call upon more undead.” As he walks away back towards the portal, directing the zombies and necromancers around, a few of the lesser armored figures approach Zero, bowing towards him. “We are yours to command my lord. We shall begin scouting operations immediately.” With a dull thump, a small chunk of metal lands before the two. On it is etched a message reading: “Dear Lich King and Zero, there is a massive plot of land filled with corpses exactly six meters left of your position. Use it as you will. -Umbra Shadow-Walker” Zero smirks as he reads the message, a mental message already going out to the Death Knights around him as a few of them go off, commanding their necromancers to begin gathering the corpses for the revival rituals. Scene 3: Nightmare DNA Somewhere South of Jason’s Base; within walking distance Jumping out of a white-bordered portal, a sixteen year-old human lands on the ground. Ben 10X; Omnitrix-Wielding Champion of the Greek Gods The Protector (Wouldn’t kill Zero, but Zero can’t do shit against him) “Woo! Holy crap, that worked!” He looks around, green jacket billowing slightly in the wind, scratching at his messy brown hair. “That was trippy, all the colors and lights, hoo.” He shakes his head slightly. “Alright,” he said, clapping his hands together, “Now where the hell am I...woah!” Ben looks up to see a massive castle not too far from him. “Whelp, when in doubt, head for the castle!” He races off for the castle, reaching it within seconds. Ben looks up, trying to see the very top of the castle. “Hmm...should I knock or just go in? Decisions, decisions. Ah to hell with it.” Ben takes in a big breath and calls upon a special gift from his younger sisters: The Royal Canterlot Voice. “HEY!!! ANYONE HOME?!” “That you, Ben?” Jason called out, peering out of one of the windows. “Jason? Hey! Haven’t seen you in a long time! Not since that whole thing with Tennyson! Whatcha been up to?!” “You know, cleaning up the Forever Knights, rebuilding the Bifrost, that whole chestnut. Now get up here already.” “Alright! I’m on my way up!” He looks down to the omnitrix and punches in his favored flyer. “Emerald Streak!” Ben shouts, now a green furred pegasus. He flies up and into the window Jason poked his head out of. “Yo! What’s happenin?!” he proclaims, transforming back into a human. “We were just setting up. You remember Xemnas and Zed?” Jason asked, his eyes flashing for a second before the empty room filled with furniture. “It’s good to see you again Ben,” Xemnas said, nodding his head in greeting. “Xem,” Ben nods. “So, nice digs. Didn’t know Auric had a castle, it’s nice.” “I just made it,” Xemnas explained, leaning against a wall. “Oh, well I like it.” Ben frowns for a second. “Well, apparently it’s too white for Superiority. Sorry, ever since I merged with Nexus, I have to listen to their constant prattling. It gets annoying very easily.” “That must suck,” Jason said, shaking his head a bit. “I’m still getting used to the Odin force.” “Odin force? Must be something special. Well, why don’t we catch up while the others show up, eh?” “Sounds good to me. How about we go hang out in the throne room?” Jason asked, walking out of the room, gesturing for them to follow. “Sure, let’s go!” Somewhere South of the Villain’s Base; within walking distance The ground seems to bubble as the atmosphere within a short distance seems to shift entirely. Sand kicks up and pops as red-tinted glass begins to form, slowly pushing out of the ground. As it reaches about three metres tall, it stops, features becoming clear and two handles forming in the middle. The large gate then sits there quietly for a few moments as the sand settles until it is kicked outward loudly, the glass doors catapulting off and shattering once they hit the ground. “I fucking hate doors.” Freddy; The Nightmare Bringer F***s S*** Up With No F***s Given Does Not Own a Pizza Joint. (The pizza joint could probably beat Zero, if it existed..) “Seriously, they are just stupid fucking hindrances.” Freddy stepped out onto the stand, one hand flexing his hand and clinking artificial claws while the other creaks and stretches, wood splintering slightly. His gaze lazily turns behind him, back into the gate. ”Hurry up then, we haven’t got all day… probably.” Out from the door comes a man, his face cloaked in darkness underneath the hood of his armor. His eyes glowed with power, showing little emotion. Dominus; Overlord of Equestria, The Dark One Cannon-Fodder Spawn Station (Zero is the only one who could die from this asshole. Seriously. Zero is almost entirely human) “Well, what do you think, Nightmare?” He muttered to himself. ’Rather bleak. Makes sense a war would happens here.’ The entity within his head echoed. ”Well if you two are done mentally fucking how about we get to the rest of the idiots?” Don jumped back a bit at Freddy’s intrusion but quickly recovered. “What about my minions?” Freddy groaned and splayed out his wooden hand toward the gate. It creaked slightly and the archway rushed backwards about five-hundred metres, forcing a large collection of minions into the desert before it fell over and broke. ”Better, Princess Fuck-In-Your-Head?” Don just shook his head in aggravation. “Can we just get moving? I’ve got a lot to set up and I’d rather get to messing with the heroes.” ”We can get going as soon as the Nightmare mentally cleans her muzzle.” A low grumble came from Don as he rose his fist covered in flames, aimed at Freddy’s face. Scene 4: Bugged by Ghosts Somewhere West of Jason’s Castle A nydus worm erupted out of the ground. Dahaka: Leader of the Swarm Cannon Fodder for the Heroes (Could probably take down Dominus and Zero. (Definitely Zero)) I was barfed out of the nydus worm, along with enough drones to cause a problem right off the bat. ‘Where is everyone?’ I wondered. ‘First priority, find and build a base. Second priority, find allies.’ I began dropping structures right and left, in case I had been detected. This was a war, after all. I called a wave of Zerg out of the worm, just to prevent a zerg rush. ‘We could probably still join Teridax.’ Said Prime Directive. ‘Shut up.’ I replied. I sent a few zerglings scouting, hoping to find something. Just then, a big, metallic thing came whizzing out of the sky. It landed before any counter measures could be initiated. It did not damaging anything, but a hologram sprang out of it, saying, “Hey, Dahaka. There’s plenty of stuff for a base right where you are. Dig away the topsoil if you want to reach it. -Umbra” Dahaka looked up, and said, “Thank you, Umbra!” Somewhere West of the Villain’s Base; within walking distance The wind began kick up as a purple vortex appeared. “Ya know, why couldn’t we have just been dropped in the camps?” Shade; The Ectonurite Mage, Hates Being Dropped in the Middle of Nowhere The Ghost (Could probably get Zero to kill himself, honestly) Shade shook his head as the purple vortex closed behind him. ’Why are these types of battles always held in badlands or forest clearings?’ “Welp, might as well take a look around.” Shade mused before floating upwards. As he got above the tree tops, Shade noticed the dark ominous clouds in the distance. “Seriously? That is really stereotypical. But I can live with it.” Shade chuckled maliciously before flying toward the camp. ’The forces of light will know true fear.’ Scene 5: Doomed Hearts Somewhere East of the Hero’s Base In the emptiness of the Badlands, the eruption of a massive portal was instantly noticeable. What was more noticeable was the figure flying out of said portal in a textbook-perfect flying-spin kick. While wreathed in flames. And bellowing a massive kiai at the same time. Domon Kasshu; The King of Hearts The Pilot (Would ERUPTING BURNING FINGER Zero out of existence) Domon cracked his neck, looking around the barren area. “This is the place? Really??” he asked, shaking his head. “Hey Umbra, or anyone else, hear me?” he called out looking around. Skreeeeeeeee A roll of metal slats bound together with rope slammed into the ground just in front of Domon, kicking up a massive cloud of dust and obscuring Domon’s view of the surrounding area. As the dust cleared, the roll unfurled with a sound of bells, projecting a hologram of Umbra into the air above it. “‘Sup Domon? How ya doing?” “Well enough I suppose,” he said looking at the hologram, “you do realize that I’m out of a Gundam right?” “Hmm. Well, that’s a problem. Easily remedied though. Watch.” And with a sound of roaring thunder, a blazing object burst into view, descending from the sky above as unto an angel from heaven. In other words, it came down like the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs. SLAM CRASH When the dust cleared, Domon found an amazing sight: the Burning Gundam standing proudly, it’s armor gleaming in the blazing noon-day sun. One could almost hear the brilliant ping! of sunlight reflecting off of its visor. “Ha!” Domon said with a grin, “We’re back in business baby!” he shouted, moving over to the Gundam, getting inside the control area. The hologram followed, “You like it?” “Hell yes!” he said as he started to move it, “Lets get it on!” he shouted, running off into the woods. Back in the Arena – Interlude 1 Umbra stood in front of a solitary camera in his incredibly bishonen human form. With nothing but a towel around his waist. Clearing his throat, he began. “Hello viewers. Look at your LOHAV/H fic. Now back to mine. Now back to your fic. Now back to mine.” Smirking slightly, he continued. “Sadly, it isn’t mine. But if you stopped using poorly written prose and started crossing over with other writers, it could look like mine.” “Look down; what’s in your hand? Back to me; I have it! -VWORPLE- It’s the best gaming computer you nerds could ever buy!” “Look down. Back up. The Computer is now -VWORPLE- best pony! Anything is possible if you stop using terrible prose and start writing with other authors.” VWORPLE “I’m on a horse.” “Get off of me, Umbra!” “Hush, purple smart. I’m in charge now.” “WHY YOU LITTLE–” WE ARE EXPERIENCING TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES Back in Teridax’s Forest o’ Doom Teridax just stared at one of the screens dangling in front of him. He could count the number of competent allies he had on one hand. The Lich king, Dominus and Freddy were competent enough allies, but why, WHY was there a Lelouch? “Alright, alright. The situation is still salvageable.” The heart on his chest pulsed a bit, a bit more green light trickling into the device. He tapped it distractedly. “Need more time… need more time… need HIM to be here…” As it had with so many others, a whistling noise cut through Teridax’s own thoughts. Looking up in surprise, he noted a small object hurtling towards him at sub-orbital velocities. Catching it, he saw it was a Makuta Stone of all things. With a message engraved onto it, no less. Undoubtedly from Umbra. Teridax snorted at the stone’s appearance, reading the message to himself. “The irony of this message appearing in this way is not lost on me, Umbra.” “Good Day, sir. Welcome to Battle World 1. There is a network of tunnels underneath this absolutely lovely forest of yours. No one else knows of them. They lead nigh everywhere in this Badland, so use them as you will. Massive deposits of energized protodermis six feet behind you and six hundred feet straight down. Use that how you will. -Umbra” Teridax looked at the probe for a while, before nodding. Without even moving, he phased downwards, entering the tunnels. He appraised them, before grudgingly nodding his approval. “At least you are neutral in this conflict, Umbra. But I still need more time before this will work.” The heart-shaped device grew a little brighter, and he tapped it with a massive finger. “As soon as he appears, it won’t matter who wins or loses… I will always win.” With a smirk spelled out in his body language, he pulled out a crystal orb, and started tapping it, watching it zoom in on various places on the universe. “Well, now. This looks interesting…” Scene 6: First Contact First Contact: of Zerg and Undead (Zero wouldn’t survive ten seconds.) A zergling rushed along. It was confused by the fact that nine other zerglings were running besides it, but it welcomed the safety brought in numbers. They spotted a strange procession in the distance, where a small group of what appeared to be a mixture of all three pony races, along with a diamond dog. The diamond dog and most of the ponies were in horrible states of decay, wounds covering their bodies from head to hoof, except for two of the unicorns, who looked perfectly fine, except for the glossed over look in their eyes and the black robes adorning their backs. The zerglings wanted to kill them, but the master commanded them to watch them from a distance while he sent a nydus worm. One of the dead things seemed to see them, and began charging. The others looked around stupidly before charging with the first. The cultist looking pony’s galloped to keep up with them, certainly cursing. The master seemed distraught, but ordered them to defend themselves. – Umbra looked into one of his many view screens. “.... That was unexpected. Let’s begin the War!” Clicking a few buttons, he sat back and chuckled. “Let’s see how they like this…” – BWEEP! “BATTLE ONE! START!” Apparently so focused on the task of killing things, the zerglings rushed to the zombies. The zerglings jumped on the zombies, and began slicing and biting them. Two of the zombies, too stupid to notice the noise, suddenly started moving and attacking faster, as if in a frenzy. “FIRST BLOOD: ZERG! SCORE: 1:0! LET THERE BE BLOOD!” The zerglings, in true Zerg fashion, continued attacking wildly. But one of the zombies, the Diamond Dog, tore a zergling apart with its new found strength. “BRUTAL KILL! SCORE TIED! IT’S REALLY HEATING UP!” Two of the zerglings noticed that the cultist looking ponies weren’t being attacked viciously, and switched targets. The cultists, spotting the two zergling running at them, cast a curse on them; atrophying the two’s muscle. One of the undead unicorns impaled a zergling with it’s horn, spraying alien blood all over it’s undead corpse. “OOH THAT’S GOTTA STING! SCORE: 1:2; THE ZOMBIES ARE WINNING! TWO ZERG CRIPPLED! LET’S SEE HOW THIS PLAYS OUT!” The zerglings redoubled their efforts to kill the zombies and at about the same time, one of the earth pony undead bucked a zergling, sending the poor thing flying. “50 POINTS DAMAGE! THAT ZERG AIN’T GONNA SURVIVE MUCH LONGER! ACTIVATE BERSERKER’S LAST STAND – LOW HEALTH = MASSIVE ATTACK DAMAGE!” The berserk zergling charged back into the fray, leaping at the head of one of the zombies and tearing it off with a single stroke of its claw. But to offset this, one of the necromancers animated the skeleton of one of the zombies, allowing it to attack the berserking Zergling and deal those last few points of damage. “BERSERKER ZERGLING LOST! SCORE: 1: 3 THIS IS LOOKING REAL BAD FOR THE ZERG, FOLKS! BUT WHAT’S THIS!? HERE COMES THE CAVALRY! NYDUS WORM INBOUND! ETA: THREE SECONDS!” As one zergling goes down to a zombie and another gets stabbed by a cultist, the remaining zerglings get clear orders from the master. “ATTACK THE CULTIST LOOKING PONIES, YOU IDIOTS!” So, they rushed the indicated cultists. “BODY SLAM!” “NICE STAB!” “NUT SHOT!” “DECAPITATIOOOOOOOOOON!” “DOUBLE KILL!” “TRIPLE KILL!” “PENTA-KILL!” “M-M-M-MONSTER KILL!” “VICTORY: DAHAKA +50 EXP ITEM DROP: ZOMBIE FLESH (SHREDDED)16 BITSCULTIST CLOAKS (SHREDDED)RITUAL DAGGERS (2)SPOOKY SCARY SKELETON (SHATTERED) FIRST CONTACT BATTLE (UNOFFICIAL) COMPLETE. HAVE A NICE DAY.” As the Zerg overran the resistance, that message flashed by Dahaka’s eyes. He was surprised, but not as surprised as when the aforementioned objects seemed to be shoved into his unofficial pocket. He quickly opened his pocket, and the objects came spilling out. “What the... I don’t get it. How did that not puncture one of the inner membranes?” He got a headache from contemplating that delivery. But at least he knew how to deal with one of his enemy’s now. It was quite simple, really. Prime Directive had suggested it. Spam banelings. As It had said, “The enemy seems able to resurrect dead troops, so any dead on our side would result in the enemy growing. This would be countered by banelings, who don’t leave anything other than acid.” And thus, spam was made. Scene 7: OmniFear The Hero’s Castle Ben was sitting comfortable on one of the windowsills, looking out at the wasteland below. He could feel the light wind blowing on his face, causing him to smile despite the circumstances. Down below, he noticed something moving. “Huh, hey Jason! I think we got another one!” “Holy crap!” Jason shouted, peering out of the window. “It looks like Domon is here, and he got himself a new Gundam.” “Gundam? What the hell is a Gundam?” “A giant robot,” Jason explained. Vwwwwwm “Right you are, Jason m’boy. So, in the interest of being a good host, why not open the gates so your new guest may enter?” “I’m good up here, thanks,” said Ben. Jason turned to say something to Ben, only to find a cloud of dust settling where he once was sitting. He looked around a bit and noticed a small trail going up the ceiling. Looking up, Jason found Ben...clutching the chandelier? “Nah, I’m already here,” Domon said, jumping into the room from his Gundam’s hand. “Why is that guy holding a chandelier?” “I don’t like robots!” Ben shouted, not moving in the slightest. “Whatcha got against robots?” he asked, crossing his arms. “I’m Domon by the way.” “Name’s Ben and I don’t wanna talk about it! They’re evil! Let’s leave it at that!” “Ok...” Jason said, cutting in. “Hows about we head to the bar? Xemnas probably has it set up by now.” “I could go for a beer,” Ben said leaping off the chandelier, yet staying far away from the Gundam. “Been a while since I’ve had some of the good stuff. Just keep that...thing, away from me. Gives me the creeps just lookin’ at it.” “Yeah, yeah,” Domon said with a roll of his eyes, following Jason out of the room. “Oi! Wait for me!” Ben said as he ran after the two, catching up in a couple fast-steps. “Woo! Still love doin’ that. So, Domon, what the hell are you doing with...whatever the hell that thing is?” “I’m the King of Hearts, I use it to wreck fools in the Gundam Fight,” Domon started, filling their walk to the bar with a brief overview of his world’s history. Somewhere North of the Hero Castle. The Badlands were more active than they had been in the last seven billion years. Case in point: The rather ominous portal opening three feet above the ground, spewing out a creature from many peoples’ (and ponies’) worst nightmares. Pyramid Head; God of Fear, King of the Silent Hill Oh Goddamn Run For Your Damn Life! (Zero can just kill himself. I think it’s better that way) (Seriously Zero, do it.) “Hehehehe, look at these weaklings… Normally, I would kill you all on sight, but today is different due to… certain circumstances…” He took a deep whiff of the air and sighed loudly… before summoning his spear and stabbing a small lizard crawling on the ground. “And where are you going? I don’t recall the Badlands having life… Well, except for the changelings…” Whistling merrily to himself, he started walking. Where? He didn’t know, except maybe that big castle thing over there had an answer or two. “Wait… Why did… nah. Why do I get the sneaking suspicion that someone… WANTS TO SELL ME SOMETHING!” Quickly turning he saw… Nothing but a duck. “...What’s a duck doing in the middle of the Badlands of all places?” Then the duck did something odd: Point straight up with one wing and cock its head as if to say, “Well? What are you waiting for?” “...I’m suddenly scared for my life again… A feeling I haven’t felt in millennia.” Following the ducks wing up he found….. Was that a shine of metal? And then the whistling started. SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE SLAM! As the dust cleared away, Pyramid Head saw an odd sight: a shining, metallic, coffin-shaped object with a note attached. “Dear Pyramid Head: Welcome to Battle World 1. Encased in this lovely little package is a map to the Hero’s Castle (Directly South, if you want to do it the hard way) and one massively over-sized butcher’s knife, sharpened and ready to take souls. Additional features may be added later. Have fun! -Umbra Shadow-Walker (The guy who wants to sell you things.) (The guy who you absolutely, positively should NOT piss off. Ever)” “...I don’t know why, but I want to piss him off. Just to see what happens. Now what’s this Butcher’s Knife he’s… Ooooh that’s pretty…” A nice metallic knife, roughly the size of the original, was right there ready for the taking. He placed his hands around the hilt but… it didn’t feel right… No, it was like touching pond scum, all gooey… “What...WHAT IS THIS?!” He threw the knife with all of his power and made sure he could never see it again. Skreeeee Thud “Sorry, wrong knife. I have a whole lot of them, so it’s easy to lose track. This one should be better, though I should warn you….. it’s a bit temperamental. -Umbra” “You must understand, Umbra...I do not want your equipment, I do not need your help. I am fear incarnate, and terror given form! I am the eternal guardian of Silent Hill and Alessa, and I will be damned a thousand times over if I give in to the temptations of your… ‘Charity’.” He took the map, but left the second coffin, which slowly retreated. “And besides, I have my own. And it’s irreplaceable.” With that, he set out on the tedious task of getting to the Hero’s Castle… Directly South. “Hehehe, I love a good challenge…” Whoosh-thud “Well… if you insist. But realize this: These are all pre-written notes, so you’re really talking to no one. -Umbra” “I’m aware of that Umbra, but I know for a fact you can hear me.” He said, smug grin hidden behind his helmet. Whoosh “Shit! He’s onto me!” Scene 8: Musician’s Scourge Somewhere East of the Hero Castle More portals had opened in the Badlands within the last three days than in the last seven billion years. Once more, another portal opened, this one reeking of chemicals and death; and strangely enough, it also carried with it the faint scent of courage and heroism. From it stepped a hulking figure, barely recognizable as having once been human. As it stepped forth into the barren wastelands of Battle World 1, it bellowed: “STAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRSSSS” Nemesis; The Unkillable Monster; The Slayer of Ellura The Hunter (Could probably kill Zero just by looking at him) “I was wondering when this damn thing was going to start. It took long enough.” Nemesis growled as he adjusted some of the weapons strapped to his back. “Now where the hell is everyone…?” He looked out over the seemingly barren wasteland for any sign of life, but some stray dirt blowing across the ground was his only company. “...this isn’t much of a war.” Skreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee- thud Yet another package from the resident SysAdmin. Another note as well. “Nemesis. Welcome to Battle World 1. Inside this package you will find all of your weapons. And I do mean all of them. And a map leading to the Hero’s Base in the West. Due East is the Arena, but as of right now, we’re still in setup. Be careful about making your way to the Hero Base though, that portal of yours dropped you directly in the middle of Laser-Wasp territory. So…… if you see giant, car-sized bugs popping out of random holes in either the giant rock columns or the ground….. either hit them before they fire or run. Don’t Die~ -Umbra” And as soon as Nemesis looked up, he heard the most ominous buzzing noise that anyone had ever heard. It was like the revving of a chainsaw mixed with the hum of a diesel engine at sixty miles per hour. VVVVVVVVVWWWWWWAWAAAAWWAAWAWAWAWWAWWARRRRRRRR Nemesis barely had time to retrieve his weapons before he was met with the sight of thousands of bloodthirsty insects streaking towards him. As he began to fire at them, explosions and gunfire streaking across the battlefield, he only had one thought on his mind. “Goddamnit Umbra!” In between the teams Essence; The Musician, The Merchant’s Demise, Madness of the Void True Neutral (Even she could probs kill Zero. Even if no one knows who she is) Essence dropped into the world out of nowhere, portal or otherwise. Dragging herself up she glared around the area. Summoning her favorite weapon, otherwise known as Poseidon’s Trident, she walked forward, looking around to try to spot someone nearby. While she did this one of the bugs, a giant wasp, flew up to her and aimed its stinger at her. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” she warned. Seemingly debating it for a mere second the bug lunged forward. Out of instinct Essence dodged to the right and impaled the wasp on her weapon. She stood and stuck the weapon on her back. Walking forward she made her way away from both camps, her gait reflected her anger. Not only had she lost her friends, she had lost her home, and the only person she had saved was a small yellow pegasus and a blue alicorn. Her sorrow leaked out into her aura releasing her madness, her insanity, forth as trees bent forming a ladder up into a small fortress with a small pond in the center. Leaning forward she spoke, “Umbra, I wish to speak with you.” Skreeeeeeeeeeeeeeee- whoooosh- thud “Alright. You’re not someone I’m exactly familiar with, but……. I do still know of you. Welcome to Battle World 1, Essence. How do you like my incredibly accurate, pre-written, dropped-from-orbit notes?” “They’re fine. I suppose you know me from one of the SysAdmins? If it’s the Merchant I have a message.” Skreeeeee “I know of you from sources that are best left unmentioned. The Merchant, eh? If it’s a death threat or anything similar, get in line. Wily bastard’s been evading his rightful kick in the balls for over seventeen eons. -Umbra” “I already knew that. My message, if you can get it to him is this: The demise of the Council of Influence was not appropriate, as the final member, even though I no longer hold shadow abilities, I relay that his rival still lives. He may have destroyed my world, my friends, my home but in the End, the battle between Desire and Madness will leave Madness above Desire. You think there may be a way to get that to him?” she asked. Her tail, fluffy and huggable, wiggled slightly out of excitement. Her ears flicked. She seemed to be anxious but extremely pissed at the same time. Who wouldn’t; being trapped in your world, your cry for help missed by others, as it broke apart into nothing? Skreeeee “Yeah. He’ll get that message real soon” “Alright.” Skreeeeee “If you want to fight someone, then I suggest heading South in a few days’ time. There’s an Arena there” “I’m not here to join the battle, in fact, I got here by accident. Watching may be fun though…” Skreeeeee- paff “Then here’s a ticket for Seat A-32. One of the better seats in the house, if I do say so myself. Concessions are free, just make sure to throw away all of your trash when you’re done. Oh, and don’t take the cups. Bottles are fine, but not the cups. Those are refillable.” “Alright, if anyone issues a challenge towards me- there’s always one- I’m open to it, but I will not be placed on one side. I already know who wins after all.” Looking into the pool she could see her lost friends, the two she had saved, and sighed. Looking up and realizing that her new camp had no name, she focused and a giant neon sign appeared above it with the words, “Music and Madness Station, grab an instrument!” She groaned and added another one, “Neutral Territory.” Scene 9: 9000 Degrees Above Zero In the air, in the dead center of the arena A single, small, red-and-white sphere floats in the air. The button on the front clicks, and the entire thing hinges open, and spits forth a white energy. The alabaster mass swirls and writhes before becoming a single entity. Wings, a tail, and a long neck forms, and then, it becomes a figure. Geo the Charizard; The Reaper of Flame, The Gaelic Serpent, The Italian Inferno The Dragon (Would burn Zero alive. Then say mean things in Italian at him.) “Where’s the fight? Where’s my ene- merda. WAAAAAAAAAGGGHHHH!” As Geo begins falling, he opens up his wings, and narrowly pulls up, before swooping around and landing on the ground. “Damnit, who put me up there? When I get my claws on the stronzo who did…” Skreeeeeeeeeeeeeee- SLAM Oddly enough, this message came not with a package, but with a large figurine of a Dragonite with a pouch looped around its neck. Said figurine promptly animated and held out a strange looking metallic card which immediately projected a small hologram. Vwwm “Greetings Geo! You’re a bit off. Your Base is directly to the West from here, and the fighting won’t start for a while. I suggest you get settled in. And if you didn’t get it, this statue of a Dragonite is a reference to one of the best Pokemon movies of all time. -Umbra Shadow-Walker (Piss me off and you’ll find out what solar plasma tastes like)” “... Dude, I’ve spent my entire childhood on Pokémon. Do you think I won’t get that reference? And whaddya mean, ‘piss you off’? What’d I do to you? Did I punch one of your friends? Sorry, I tend to lose track.” Vwwm “Nothing of the sort. It’s just a precautionary measure against those whose personalities I don’t know. And against those who tend to have more testosterone than reason.” “... What? I just like punching things. And assholes. But mostly assholes. Are there any really big assholes that are gonna be here?” Vwwm “Would you like that list in alphabetical order or by which one’s closer to you?” “I… wait, seriously? You’re not gonna tell me to piss off?” Vwwm “Nope. I wanna see quite a few people here get smacked around a bit. It would be good for them to learn a little humility. Actually, to help enforce it, I have an idea. Here…” Skreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee A capsule falls from the sky next to the original, and within it, is… “A baguette?” “I always wanted to see someone get beaten with a loaf of bread.” “... You are my new best friend.” Geo grabs the baguette, and as he begins to fly off, he stops, “Uhm… got a compass?” Skreeeeee-clack Geo grabs the small machine, and after gaining orientation, “Fly!” After flying for a while, he notices a rather spooky looking forest, along with the sign ‘Villain Camp’ on it. “Why’re WE being called the villains…?” The Villain’s Base; the entirety now surrounded by a large, spooky, wrought-iron fence. With a crappy wooden sign outside the front gate. Don stood before the spawning pools his minions had built within the past hour. Magic flowed from his hands into a set of crystals, lacing the entire area in a dark glow. Minions of all kinds pulled themselves from the muck, quickly running off to serve their master’s will. SKREEEEEEEEEE–KER SLAM! Crunch-splatter This time, it wasn’t a package. No, this was a massive Shipping Crate (Size XXL) of an obviously futuristic shape. Inside it, yet another note. And an armory. And a peculiar device full of buttons and dials with a rather prominent antenna. “Greetings Don. Sorry about the minion. This armory is yours to do with as you wish. It never runs out and each weapon is more than capable of dealing some serious damage. Be careful, each weapon has its own set of effects and features, all listed in the roster by the door. Oh, and use the device to summon in aid should you need it. Ah; not right now though. It’ll only start working once the War starts nice and proper. -Umbra” “I knew Umbra would kill something sooner or later with one of those things." Said a voice from behind Don. He turned his head just enough to see whoever had arrived. Standing there, flanked by a few heavily armored figures, was a man clad in a purple suit and cape, a mask adorning his face as he spoke again. "I assume you are one of my allies? My name is Zero, pleasure to meet you." Zero puts out his hand towards Don for a handshake. Don dropped his hands and turned to face Zero, staring at him for a second before grasping his outstretched hand. “Dominus, though I think that’s a mouthful so I go by Don.” Skreeeeee-Crunch-EEK “My bad. Sorry. Zero: Press the object in here to your mask if you desire a laser eye for Geass Sniping. As in Geass people from afar. Comes with telescopic vision and an actual laser beam for attack purposes. It’s the purple marble thing. The rest is for your zombies. Armor and such. –Umbra (Don’t you just love how I do these things?)” Don shook his head before chuckling a bit. “I must admit I enjoy the presents. Now if only his aim was better.” Skreeee-paff “I can’t really direct these things too well after they enter the Atmosphere. Sorry.” Zero chuckles and reaches into the box, pulling out the purple ball and pressing it to his mask. "It must be Christmas, gifts are just raining from the sky." Laser Eye Mark IV installed. Would you like a tutorial? Zero chuckled lightly before nodding his head. Tutorial begin. You may feel some pain. "I'm already dead. Pain doesn't matter." Zero said as if to himself. He would come to regret those words deeply. Scene 10: Gravity Warps Time South of the Villain Camp, approx eighteen miles out A rippling, shuddering portal tore it’s way into existence with a howl of multicolored Void turbulence. Out launched a seemingly young woman who could’ve sworn that she was traveling with another person half a second ago. In an upward parabolic arc. At mach three. Directly North. Umbra calculated that she’d smash face first into Zero’s crotch within the next three minutes, if everything went smoothly. If not, then Zero learning what Marshmallow Hell feels like is also a suitable result. Kat Shifter; The Gravity Queen, General of Equestria, Goddess of Battle The Fighter (Well, it was nice knowing Zero while he was alive. Not.) As she involuntarily flew through the atmosphere of Battle World 1, Kat noticed a dark, spooky forest directly below her. Unfortunately, her current trajectory carried her far beyond said forest and directly into the meeting of two beings who were decidedly not her allies. In the case of one, the into applies more literally. Back with Zero and Don Don had begun looking over the list of equipment sent with the armory when he heard the sound of a large, organic object flying through the air. It sounded a lot like any other object flying really, except there was a bit more screaming factoring into the dopplering sound. “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH SHIT!” At the sound of screaming, Zero took a step to the side and back as the Death Knights with him formed a wall of metal armor and swords between him and the flying object. Not that it helped much. Kat instinctively used her gravity abilities to increase her mass enough to plow through whatever objects in her way. Which she did. Straight into Zero. Who thankfully survived the initial blow. “Ow, what the hell did I just hit and where is Umbra so I can hit him?” she groaned, sitting up on top of Zero. Skreeeee-slam-crunch “Dammit! Not another one! Don! Put your minions away! Kat, sorry about the turbulence. I’m in the Hero’s Castle some……. fifty-ish miles East of here. Sorry. -Umbra” Zero simply looked up at her, groaning slightly as he responds "Not that I mind you on top of me, but if you don't move, I'll file sexual harassment charges." Kat looked down, her face blank. She got off and stared down at the… thing below her. She lifted her hand and forced about thirty orgasms (G’s) onto him, pressing him further into the ground Taking a glance at the knights now strewn about the place, Don walked over to the once human projectile. “Would you calm down woman? The war hasn’t even started and you already have rekt (wounded) one of the participants.” Kat looked over at him, not very amused. “Sorry, but I don’t take to kindly to comments like those. Now, if you will excuse me, I have places to be, people to see and plans to crush the both of you,” she said pointing a finger at the two of them, “to make. Off I’ll be.” Kat began to take to the air, but stopped for a quick second. “You know, you chose the wrong side. You’ll all be destroyed in the end for joining him.” Don laughed before looking up at the girl. “Are you saying you wouldn’t try to fuck (destroy) us anyway? I’m sure a hero like you could find some way of justifying ending our lives.” Kat flew right up to his face, a snarl ever present. “Now you listen here, I don’t give a damn what you do on your Equestria. I rightly couldn’t care less, but when you help a ‘man’ who threatens not just his own, but every world in existence, that’s when I get mad.” She then gravity kicked Don right toward a nearby rock only for him to be caught by shadows springing up from the ground. “That’s your one and only warning, leave this war and go back to destroying your own worlds. Or you will be destroyed here.” Zero simply chuckled and responds with "Wow, quite the temper on you. Though you might find us much harder to kill then you think." Kat returned her attention to Zero, laying in the crater. “Yes, I am angry. You threaten my Flutters and I rip off your head. Simple as that. Now, see you on the battlefield, boys, or so you fear.” Kat flew high up from them and shot off in the direction of the Hero Castle. "I can already think of a few ways to knock her down a few notches....(Mostly with a few rounds of angry sex)" Zero mumbles to himself as he sits up. “So can I,” Don spoke as he walked back from where he had been sent flying “Though just from that alone I can tell this is going to be quite an interesting war.” Somewhere West of the Arena, closer to the Arena than any of the Bases. Right outside the entrance known as 2-B, a portal materialized as it had with so many others. This one was, unlike some, stable; ejaculating(ejected) only one being: A man with a pocket watch. Michael Faraday; Lord of Time Mr. Shitpunk Mc’Asshole (Would go into bullet time, and kick Zero’s kidneys into his mouth.) “Um… hello?” Michael took a look around, noticing the beef taco (barren room). “Is there someone out there?” Skreeeeeee Okay, seriously, what’s with all the packages? This is like the eleventh one! And, of course. Another note. “Hello Michael. Welcome to Battle World 1. Teridax’s base is to the West from here. There’s a compass in the box. The Hero’s Castle is to the East, though I don’t recommend going there. Some of the heroes can ignore your abilities. Also, I can too. And I’m there. The bowtie with the crystal? Well, more info on that when you actually put it on. It’ll be good for you. Good luck~ –Umbra (Don’t mess with me. Seriously. Don’t)” “So, rule one: the Doctor lies.” ‘Shut the fuck up, you jackass,’ Michael said from inside my mind, ‘before I come out and smack you in the face.’ “Rule two: Don’t screw with this… Umbra chap.” ‘I think we got that from the note, why are you saying it out loud?’ “Rule three: Bowties are cool.” ‘Quit it with the Doctor Who crap! You know that-’ It was at this point that Michael pulled the bowtie out of the box-removing the tie he currently had on-and slung the new neck wear around his collar, tying it quickly with skilled hands. A moment passed, both halves slightly confused at how the bowtie was supposed to help either of them. And then the most curious feeling happened. VWORPLE The Michael felt himself being torn out of Nicholas’ psyche and stuffed into the red half of the jewel on the bowtie, his form compressing into a ball of malevolently red energy that flung itself into the distance towards the Villain Camp. Nicholas Faraday; The Other Lord of Time NOT Mr. Shitpunk Mc’Asshole (Could also kick Zero’s kidneys into his mouth.) Nicholas, who was now the sole owner of his body, suddenly noted the presence of slightly more green in his attire, along with the gear shaped jewel on his bowtie suddenly becoming a whole emerald, instead of sharing its space with a ruby. Skreeeeee-paff “I apologize for the inconvenience, but now you’ve got complete control of your own body. Of course, to prevent the deaths of everyone on this planet, Michael has incredibly reduced abilities until the war properly begins. The Hero base is directly East from here, just follow the map in the envelope. Also, once the war starts, both of you can only use your full abilities in the Arena. So I don’t have to mop up more blood than I already have. Good luck~ –Umbra” ‘What is it with Umbra and luck?’ Nicholas thought to Mic- oh wait… he then remembered exactly what had just happened and the implications hit him like a freight train. “We’re all gonna die.” At Neutral Territory Essence looked into the pond and groaned. Why? Nothing much. Just that her friends she saved from the demise of her home aren’t in this universe. Otherwise, she’s fine. Opening the door to the wooden fortress and walking down the steps, she stretched. All the crouching had made her body stressed. Pop “Sorry to give you such short notice, but…. INCOMING! -Umbra (Also, could you charge admission at the Arena when the War starts?) “Sure, I guess and wait what-” she was smooshed by someone. “OOMPH!” Ansem; Seeker of Darkness One Heartless Motherfucker (Night, night Zero.) Essence, now partially smooshed into the ground, could hear Ansem above her conversing. “I half expected to be alone,” Ansem said, raising his hand. Several pools of darkness formed around him, spawning a few Neo Shadows. “Go, find Teridax,” he ordered, sending the Heartless scurrying off. He looked down at his feet, noticing he had landed on something. “Hmm...whats this?” “More like someone, buddy,” came a muffled voice. All that could be seen was an adorably fluffy tail. “I’m amazed you are alive,” Ansem said, looking at the tail with some amusement. “I survived the end of my world, and well, come from a council of... immortals? either way. I think I’m good. Now, could you, or whoever is sitting on me, please move? It’s uncomfortable,” her muffled voice responded. “Nothing is over you,” Ansem said, tilting his head to the side. “Then can you pull me out of the ground? I think your weird force or whatever smooshed me into it.” “Why would I do that?” “Cookies?” “I don’t eat,” Ansem replied boredly. “I hate you. UMBRA! Get me out of the dirt please.” VWORPLE “Better?” “Thank you. Now,” she brushed the dirt out of her tail and off her ears. “Tea?” VWORPLE “Gah! Shit!” Umbra fell to the ground, reeking of alcohol and poor decisions. And horrendously butchered English. “Bah. wehre teh fcku am I?” Drunkenly looking around, Umbra spotted Ansem and Essence standing a few feet away, all staring at him. “Teh fcuk uyo tanw!?” Suddenly a woman in her late fifties comes out of nowhere, grabs Umbra by the ear, and drags him away from the three. “Mom! I was playing with my friends!! Why do you have to ruin everything?!” Groaning, Essence shook her head, “Umbra, sheesh. Anyway. Somewhere in that direction is the Villain Camp. The opposite direction is the Hero’s Castle. Neutral Territory is manned by yours truly,” as she spoke her tail flicked in the directions she mentioned. VWORPLE “I’d like you all to ignore what just happened. That was not my mother. That was me creating constructs while pretending to be drunk and being drugged up for real. I apologize for the disturbance.” VWORPLE “Why do I doubt that?” she turned back to Ansem, “Feel free to roam. I recommend you stay away from the opposite side.” She turned around, making her way towards her base as Ansem looked at her. Ansem sighed and headed Villain camps. In the Void, Near Umbra’s Private Universe… The dark figure, cloaked in reds so dark they were near black, watched his workings ensue. Not only had he created mass chaos but he had done it so deliciously! The Merchant; Major Dick, The Scumsucking Bitchsack That’s Been Fucking With Other Universes Like a Pile of Shit, Umbra’s Number One Mark on His Shit List, Desire, Essence’s Rival, Destined to Get Kicked In The Balls Hard Enough To Make A Big Bang Three Times Over, Has Horrible Interest Rates, Five Hundred And Sixth on the List of ‘Best Merchants in the Void’ out of Five Hundred And Seven (Umbra is Number Seven), Real Name is Lucy, Freaking Long Ass Title List The Meddling Asshole (Zero wants to kick him in the nuts like the pussy ass bitch he is, but would still probably die) Snickering, he watched the events slowly unfold until something made him destroy his popcorn. Shame, really; the popcorn didn’t do anything. In fact, it was delicious. The said event, the arrival of The Musician, made him realize that for one, his rival wasn’t dead; and two, his plan to destroy that world either failed or messed up as usual. Fuming, he stood up and called for The Reaper, a personal friend and ally of his who has major issues when dealing with living people, angry that he never told him of her continued existence. The sub-deity popped in directly behind him. Screaming like a girl, then regaining his composure, The Merchant spoke up, “You never told me SHE still lived.” The Reaper; The Gate Holder, The Merchant’s Reluctant Only Friend, Not Really an Asshole, Grim, Wants to be a Farmer, Terrible With Plants The Bored One (Could kill Zero but would turn him into a plant instead) The Reaper shook his head, “Damn stereotypes. I am not Death related.” The Merchant glared at him, “Incompetent fool.” Reaper rolled his eyes. ‘Look at yourself.’ His demeanor spoke for itself. The man’s shoulders slumped slightly and he looked exhausted. Speaking up again, “I suppose you want something to be done?” “Yes!” The Merchant said quickly. Sighing, The Reaper dropped something out of a bag and into Umbra’s Private Universe. The objects hurtled downwards towards the Neutral Territory where The Musician sat drinking some tea. Aside from a thud, The Musician heard nothing. The Merchant looked positively ecstatic. This would show her not to mess with him. Although, he still remembered the time she had forced him to eat his own underpants in a bet –he may have been tasting literal shit for a week– and could guess she might get out of it. “OI! NARRATOR! WHAT THE HELL IS THIS DOUCHEBAG DOING OUTSIDE ME PRIVATE UNIVERSE? Oh hi, Reaper, what are you doing here?” Reaper spoke up, “Nothing much. Just helping Lucy with his plots,” Reaper smirked at his pun. The Merchant just so happens to have some… clop in his pocket, I might add. “WAIT WHAT. NARRATOR, TMI. T. M. I.” Umbra’s left pocket bulged and images of anime girls, and disturbingly, Essence, shot out of his pocket. “... JSYRIN HELP ME KICK THIS OTHER NARRATOR’S ASS.” ^WISH GRANTED, MOTHERFUCKERS^ (Furious combat erupts between the two Narrators) (..... Hi. I’m The Backup Narrator) “‘SUP?” (As the fourth wall breaking and Narrator combat reached its deadly crescendo, I, the Backup Narrator, stealthily took over their position and brought the story from “Holy Shit What” to “Normal Chaos”. You’re welcome, dear reader.) The Reaper turned about and left The Merchant at his viewing deck. Umbra’s Pimped Out Announcer/ DJ Booth (It’s got a fucking mini-fridge! Holy shit!) Umbra stepped away from the microphone he had been using to yell at the Narrators. Sighing, he collapsed into his swivelling, ultra-comfortable, reclining futon/chair. “God DAMN! I don’t even…. fuck if I…… fuck fuckity fuck fuck fucking fucker fuck fuckshit fuckhole FUCKING FUCKSLUT MOTHER FUCKING WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT FUCKING FUCKSHIT BULLSHIT WHAT THE FUCKING FUCKITY FUCK FUCK FUCK FUUUUUUUUUUUCK!” And promptly flipped the fuck out. “[Entire sentence deleted due to extreme expletive levels. Suffice to say, it lasted half an hour and went through every swear word in every language in the Multiverse. Without a single repeat.]” Finally spent, Umbra collapsed even further into his chair and contemplated his next move for the next few seconds. “I wonder what Reaper dropped….” <*pokes in* Might wanna investigate, hm?> “Quiet, you. I want the other Narrator.” (Me?) “Yes” Leaping from his chair in an impressive display of aerial acrobatics, Umbra performed a few more moves and promptly disappeared in his trademarked flash of color and VWORPLE Miles away in Neutral Territory, Umbra appeared, not in his normal manner, but in a slight shifting of the shadows, stepping out of an unnoticed bit of darkness below a tree root. “Blegh, what’s in those roots? Magic like that, makes me wanna be human again so I don’t have to taste it with my fucking brain.” Nearby Essence was looking at a weird looking box. The box wobbled and opened, a small plant creature crawling out. On it’s back there was note saying, Sorry. Essence raised an eyebrow. Why would they- She was cut off as the little plant creature turned into a five-story tall killer plant beast. Umbra noticed this as well, mostly from the strange feel of the magic in the area. “Aww, it’s adorable how they thought that could kill anyone in the War. Hell, even Zero could take it out with his new laser eye.” As if on cue, a laser hit the beast which grunted and turned around. “Wait, that isn’t Zero’s magic signature. What. Who else has a magic signature matching laser eyes!?” Essence shrugged. “Dunno. Want me to take it out?” “Um… Sure?” Essence jumped sky high as the beast’s arm arced towards her. Spinning, she kicked it in the face and dropped down only to land on the creature's out-stretched leg. The beast tried to kick her into the air but she sneezed directly into the monster’s face, stunning it. Then she did something unexpected. She spat on it, and off it went. Soaring into the sky faster than the speed of sound before it exploded. She landed gracefully on the ground. “......Well then. That’s that. Laters!” VWORPLE “Um…” VWORPLE “Almost forgot, here’s your uniform for later. Well, actually, you just need the hat and nametag. So, yeah. Nice digs ya got here. Very nature-y. Welp, laters!” Tossing said hat and nametag at Essence, Umbra left again in another VWORPLE In the skies over the Villain’s Camp ‘Twas not all that uncommon to see random objects flying around in Battle World 1’s atmosphere, but an orb of malignant, red energy was usually unseen. Unless the laser wasps were firing plasma bolts again. Then they were distressingly common. This orb, however, encased the body of one Michael Faraday, currently with reduced powers, much more red in his outfit, and greatly reduced powers, on top of the previous power reduction. Oh, and a snazzy, gold bowtie with a gear-shaped ruby imbedded into the center. ‘The hell happened? One second he puts on that tie, the next I feel like I’m being ripped out of my own head! Well, technically it was Nick’s head, but that’s against the point!’ As Michael flew over the camp for Villains, he noticed something strange. He decided, on a whim, to investigate this anomaly. ‘Nick, you there?’ he called into the recesses of his mind. ‘What is this? Am I finally free of him? But, wait. If he’s gone, does that mean he’s gone forever? I know I always told him I wanted him gone, but now that he really is....’ In his contemplation, Michael was oblivious to the quickly approaching missile. When he did finally notice it, it was far too late. “Shit!” he had time to shout out before they collided. – “......Ouch. That’s gotta sting.” “Hey wait a minute, why is the camera over here!? Focus on Kat and Mikey, asshat!” – “Ow,” Kat groaned as she sat up on the bumpy ‘ground.’ “Damn it. Umbra and his messed up teleportation. Still too groggy to fly. Well, at least the ground is somewhat soft.” “Yeah, I wonder why,” she heard from under her. Kat glanced down to see that the ‘ground’ she was sitting on, was in fact a young man. “Oh!” She levitated off of him, floating just above. “Oh, sorry about that. Here, let me help.” She put out a hand, indicating for him to take it. He looked up at her, not being able to do so before with her sitting on him, and seemed to freeze for a moment. After said moment passed, he happily took her hand and allowed her to hoist him up, which was deftly easy for the Gravity Shifter. “Thanks,” he commented once he was standing again and had dusted off his coat and vest. “No problem,” Kat said with a smile. However, then she got a good look at him and a small blush started to appear on her face. Oh my god!, she thought to herself as she looked him over again. He is hot! Okay, Kat, don’t mess this up. Introductions are everything. She straightened her hair a little as she settled back down on the ground. “So...um, sorry about ramming into you.” Stupid, stupid, stupid! “Uh, my name is Kat. It’s nice to meet you.” He seemed taken aback by her sudden apology. “No, it was I who hit you. They say distracted driving is the biggest killer of teens, but distracted flying seems just as dangerous,” he joked, laughing a little as he scratched the back of his head with one gloved hand. “Anyway, the name’s Michael Faraday.” Michael reached his other hand out for a handshake. Kat grasped his hand in a firm shake...perhaps too firm as he winced in pain a moment later. “Oh, sorry! Sorry, I’m still getting used to my new strength.” “It’s not a problem,” he said as he moved her hand to his face, kissing the innermost knuckles. Kat blushed even more, letting out a tiny giggle. “Oh, a gentleman. Not many of those around here.” “We’re an endangered species in any dimension, it seems.” He stood up straight again, looking her in the eye with a face that just screamed ‘I’m a Sexy Englishman’. Kat shied away slightly, but stood tall nonetheless. “Oh quite,” she replied, putting on her faux English accent. “‘Tis quite a treat to meet one of your caliber, Mr. Faraday. Pray tell, what brings you to this field of battle?” “Why, the prospect of earning honor for the Faraday name, of course!” He looked up and off to the side, striking a dramatic pose, before eyeing her from the corner of his eye and smirking. “And the beautiful scenery, might I say.” Kat looked around them, looking confused. All around them was a wasteland, practically devoid of anything but rocks. “What scenery? Just a bunch of rocks and dust.” “Why, the scenery that stands before me.” He made it slightly more obvious that he was staring at her. It took her a few moments before it finally clicked as to what he meant. This realization sparked Kat’s blush to an even deeper red than before. “Um...I...um...oh…” Don’t faint, don’t faint, don’t faint. Whatever you do: don’t faint! Kat shyly looked back at him, noticing his pearly white smile. Oh, why does he have to be so hot? Kat tried to straighten herself, failing miserably. “I...um...I’m Kat Shifter, the Gravity Queen. A pleasure to make your acquaintance Mr. Faraday.” “Royalty?” he asked, seemingly genuine surprise painted his face. “I apologize, your highness; if I had known, I would have brought gifts!” He looked around for a moment, patting himself where his pockets were sewn in. “Wait, I may have just the thing.” He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a thin, red rose. Upon closer inspection, the rose seemed to be made of some type of metal and painted over with acrylic paint. “For you,” he held the flower out delicately. Kat took the flower and sniffed it gently. “It’s lovely. Thank you. So tell me, Michael, why are you here? This war isn’t for the faint of heart, after all,” she asked as she started to stroll around him. Partially for intimidation, while the other part was just to get a three-sixty view. “While you are truly handsome, you do not seem like one for battle. It would be unwise to stay here.” “Well, if you must know, I am a contestant for this war. And, if I do say so myself, I believe I am the most powerful.” His smirk only grew in mirth as he said this, merely turning his head to watch her circle him. “And why are you here, Mrs. Shifter? One with such beauty as you should never have to face battle in the most general of terms!” She smiled slightly, but for some reason her shyness had disappeared. “The strongest hmm? Well, now that I doubt, but you’re free to think as such. And that’s Ms. Shifter to you. I’m not married. Why am I here, you ask? Well, I’m here to help lead.” At this, Michael seemed genuinely curious. “Lead what, exactly?” One of his eyebrows raised, showing his interest. “To lead Auric to victory. I am many things, Mr. Faraday, but one of the greatest aspects of myself is that I am a general. General Shifter: ruthless, cunning, even divine, some said. Conqueror of the Dragon Empire, victor over the griffin armies, and massacrer of the changeling race. That is who I am.” During Kat’s monologue, Michael had become eerily silent. When she glanced over to the man, she saw a dark look on his face. “You say you’re here to lead Auric’s forces?” he asked, not moving in the slightest. Kat stopped her walking right in front of him, her own face matching his expression. “Let me guess, you’re working for Teridax, aren’t you?” “I apologize dearly, Ms. Shifter, but I must be going. Murder before the war even begins would be highly unsportsmanlike of me, now wouldn’t it?” The man turned away from her, waiting for her response as he prepared his watch. Kat simply watched as he waited silently. “You control time,” she said suddenly, making Michael freeze. “Don’t you?” “What makes you say that, my dear?” There was something in his voice that indicated… something akin to an emotion much like fear. “You feel like him.” Kat turned slightly, looking off into the distance. “Your aura, your presence. It’s almost as if the Doctor were standing right in front of me again.” “You must have a keen eye to detect something such as that.” Monotone would be the best way to describe his voice, as if he were distancing himself from her, preparing himself for her imminent demise. “I feel I should warn you. You can’t stop me.” She never even turned to look at him, content with just staring at the “scenery”. “Gravity. It’s a difficult force to master, but when one has, it opens up so many possibilities. A blessing...and a curse. It has been theorized that gravity affects many things in the universe, even time itself. Well, I can assure you, Mr. Faraday,” she slowly turned her head, her blood-red eyes glaring slightly at him, “those theories are true.” “Well, we’ll just have to see, now won’t we?” He began walking straight ahead as he spoke. “Until next time, Kat Shifter, I wish you well.” And he was gone. Kat took a cautionary glance around, using her gravity sense to feel for any additional disturbances. After a moment, she confirmed he was gone and sighed. “Why is it always the good-looking ones who are the bad guys? And he was such a gentleman. Oh well, I’d best find where the recruits have set up camp.” Kat took flight from there, heading in the direction of a large white castle that loomed over the far landscape. Halfway Between the Arena and the Hero’s Base “Achoo!” Nicholas sneezed. “Wonder-” he sniffled “-what that’s all about.” He then continued his way to the Hero’s base. Neutral Territory… Essence sipped her tea cheerily. So far, aside from being squished by a giant robot, all was well. That and her tea came out wonderfully.Then, something came bounding along in the distance. She squinted, unable to see that far even with her superb sight. The window, about the size of the wall itself, helped none at all. The shape came closer, and she saw what appeared to be a zergling. Shrugging it off, she went back to drinking her tea. Sensing it watching, she looked out the window. “YOU’RE LATE FOR TEA, IDIOT!” she chucked a teacup at the zergling. Now, we won’t let it be said that in Umbra’s Universe there was never a finer throw. It arced through the air and landed perfectly on the zerglings head without a sound. It seemed to growl for a second, before retreating to a ‘safe’ distance. It seemed to be waiting for something. She ignored the zergling and went back to sipping her.. tea? Well now it’s coffee. “I need to get control of that,” she mumbled. About a minute passed before a huge goddess-damned worm erupted out of the ground a little way from the zergling. “Well then,” she said. What looked like a male Broodmother came out of the worm, with a small honor guard. It started walking toward her. Rolling her eyes, Essence walked out of the small wooden fortress. “Hello, how are you? Care for some tea? Oh wait it…” she looked into the cup again, “Goddess dang it. It’s coffee again.” The male Broodmother seemed startled, before continuing to walk, and said, “Hello! I’m doing just fine. I was just coming to see my neighbor. Well, and to see which side you’re on. My name’s Dahaka, by the way.” “Ah. You must not have seen the sign,” Essence gestured to the massive neon sign proudly displaying the words ‘Neutral Territory’. Dahaka then stopped and facepalmed. “Well, that answers that question. Any way, yes, some tea would be nice.” He seemed to dismiss his guard, as they streamed back to the worm. Essence led him into the fortress. She grabbed a teacup and spun her finger over it. The cup filled with tea and she handed it to him. “Here,” she said. He took a sip and looked at her confused, “This is coffee.” “Sorry, it likes to switch around. I blame the teacup,” she shrugged. Suddenly a small voice spoke up, “Hey!” “Quiet down Chip, your mother owes me still.” Dahaka seemed startled, but conformed quickly. “So, you do sl-” He seemed to think a moment, “Payment of debt b-” He seemed to shake his head before trying again. “Work debt?” She giggled at the stutters. “Naw. His mother wants him to build character. Besides. They didn’t like their old job.” He seemed satisfied. “What was their old job? If I may ask?” “Old castle. Prince turned into beast. Prince died. You know. Alternate world stuff.” He waved his han- cl- appendage in a knowing manner. “Yes, I do. The mere fact of our being here suggests that there is everything everywhere. But, does that mean that they are stuck as cups, tea pots, and utensils?” “Yes and no. I let them switch. Although Chip here seems to be happy as a cup.” The small voice spoke up again, “NO I’M NOT!” “Do we want a repeat of Trelawny?” Essence asked. The little cup meeped and was quiet. “Anyway. They’re paid well.” He replied, “The Greeks, or was it the Romans?”, He seemed to think a moment before shaking off his revery, “One of those two kept paid slaves, and if the slaves could save up enough money, they could buy their freedom. Not that I’m saying that their situation is similar to that, but It’s just a little fact about history. “Indentured servitude? I believe that was Greeks. Romans were overly violent,” she answered, “that and Romans feared the ocean.” He seemed to get a little steamed at a thought that brought up. “I don’t like the fact that they ‘improved’ the greek gods. I mean, look at poor Athena, she was reduced to a goddess of just weaving, essentially. Before, she was a goddess of wisdom, victory, AND weaving. And they glorified war by use of Mars Ultor.” “Nike and Victoria are the victory goddesses. That aside, Jupiter’s a jerk. Have you met him? Goddess, he was rude. The Greek ones are so much nicer. Except Ares. He can be a little forceful,” she said, making multiple hand gestures. He seemed to wince. But with his face, it was anyone’s guess. “I haven't, but I’ll keep that in mind. I suspect Ares would want to start with a eternal war between us. But one question, who’s this Goddess you keep referring to?” She grinned, and her eyes twinkled. “Why do you ask?” “Because I’m as nosy as a witch when it comes to things like that.” Her smile seemed to shine, “Fair enough answer. You’ve already met her. I am Madness of the Void and the Musician.” He raised a metaphorical eyebrow. “So, you're going on an ego trip by invoking your own name all the time? Well, each to their own. Also, you’ll have to tell me the story behind that sometime.” She giggled. “Oh. I’m not invoking my name. I’m invoking my past self. I’m a fallen goddess by technicality.” “Hmm, I’ll try not to make any Satan jokes about that. Also, now I’m particularly intrigued about your past. Could you tell me?” “Even better. I can show you.” She hummed lightly before a shimmering image appeared. The other void dwellers and Essence sat at a table wondering how to best stop the Merchant. Essence is the one called The Musician or, more commonly, Madness. The Scientist, The Trainer, The Cook, don’t ask why he’s here, The Magician, The Writer, The Historian, and several others sat around the table with an orb at the center, which glowed blue. “So,” Scientist spoke up, “We know why we’re here… It seems our ‘friend’ the Merchant has decided to screw with, well, everything. His actions are starting to break certain important barriers between particular Worlds. From what we’ve gathered these are the main supporters of his cause, The Torturer, The Reaper, The Silent, The Ripper, and The Illusionist. The Illusionist happens to be a friend of Madness here, and has deigned to give us this information out of respect. She also agreed to play as a double agent. Any questions?” “What’s our agenda?” asked The Trainer. “Send someone to infiltrate the worlds.” “But, the Fausticorn. She’ll stop them. She only let The Merchant through because he tricked her.” “I spoke with her recently. It was a very distressing matter as she distrusts us at large. Letting her know our allegiance allows us to put a champion in.” “Then who?” “There is one obvious choice,” They all looked at me. “Me?” “You also have the titles, The Strategist and The Warrior, correct?” “Yes, but that doesn’t mean I’m a good choice.” They shook their heads. “You’re the only choice, seeing as though you are closer tied to Equestria.” Essence groaned. “Fine, but don’t cry to me when I fail.” “Meeting adjourned.” Dahaka waited a moment before asking, “So you came to a world, what happened after you came? If I may ask?” “Lost all of my memories and shadow abilities. My memories came back when I accidently left the multiverse.” “What about your powers? Don't you have them?” “You mean these?” She waved a hand and the floor changed to diamond. Then she sang and the diamond returned to normal. The wail of a guitar suddenly burst through the area with a VWORPLE. “ROCK ME, AMADEUS!” “Oh, hey Umbra. Come on in!”, Dahaka’s eye’s widened as this happened. Sliding into view with a truly impressive guitar riff, Umbra spun to a stop in front of Essence. Crickets sounded as a tumbleweed floated past. – Somewhere Gilgamesh frowned. “Why do I feel like someone just stole my schtick?” – Essence claps. “Now. Umbra. Dahaka asked for a hamburger. Shall we?” Dahaka looked around warily, feeling something off for a second at the word hamburger. Then he relaxed and said, “That would be nice. I actually haven't had a meal in... oh, about since I became a Zerg? Yes, that seems right.” Umbra stared blankly at the both of them as reality began to twist and bend in ways unimaginable to the human mind. A song played in the background. “You want….. a hamburger?” The world shifts and Dahaka found himself to be a small boy. A woman hands him a hamburger. The hamburger screams and the woman turns into a hamburger. Dahaka asked for a hamburger. The world shifts upwards and the woman turns into a talking toilet which shoots out toilets which shoot out hamburgers. Dahaka asked for a hamburger. Once again reality shifts. A small boy takes a bite out of Dahaka the hamburger. Mayo tears slide down Dahaka’s face. The boy bites and his mother drops and turns into a chicken. Dahaka asked for a hamburger. The chicken says the word dinosaur over and over. Reality shatters. Dahaka asked for a hamburger. Reality tries to reassert itself. The small boy melts as though he were a clock in a Dali painting. He screams. The Hamburger asks for a Dahaka. Upon receiving it, the hamburger takes a bite as reality begins to blur between real and fictional. “Okay, that’s enough trolling. We’re starting to corrupt the coding in this area. Oh gods I need to fix that now.” Reality reasserts itself, the last few eternities dissipating like dust in the wind. Dahaka, Essence and Umbra are seated at a picnic table with trays of In n’ Out burgers. The bench immediately breaks because of how Dahaka’s shaped, but the thought’s still there. “But it was just getting fun Umbra!” Essence whined. Dahaka looks like his mind has shattered. A glazed look is on his face. His eye’s begin to change color for a moment, before the previous lacquer leaves his eyes. He shakes his head, and tries to forget the past eternity. It partially works. “Alhmarka, isherto, hrart kootie giblet.” He says. “Yes. And?” Essence asks. Dahaka pauses for a second, before adding, “Add a partridge in a blender sings nicely.” “So does a tree wrapped toilet paper with dig bick.” He shakes his head, and says, “Ring around the rosy, jack went pop and the muffin man’s coming. And,” The same glow from before came over his eyes, and then receded. “And, sanity has reasserted itself. Thank you Prime.” “Damn.” Essence curses. “And here I thought I’d have to manually reset everyone’s sanity after introducing the Cuil system. Oh well.” “You should have known there would be no need to mess with mine. If I went sane who knows what kind of mediocre and baise things I’d do,” Essence shuddered. Dahaka ignored this, and reached for a hamburger. “What, like start making sense?” Dahaka lifted the hamburger to his face. His mouth was barely large enough to get any in, but he still stuffed it in. The hamburger screamed before its tortured yowls were cut off as Dahaka consumed it. The Dahaka gets munched by a hamburger. “Yes, I would start making sense. Not fun. I tried it once. Accidentally blew up a small planet, fixed it, the residents see me as their goddess now. Also happened to up their evolution too. But that aside, I think you missed a section Umbra…” Essence said, thinking about that mistake.The hamburger slowly sizzles in the ambient sanity. “Whoops.” VWORPLE Dahaka just sat there, happily munching. Between the Hero base and the arena… Two gates of equal standing, one made of obsidian while the other was made of wood, a rarity in the desert, begun to rise out of the sands. Wisps of an unnatural flame could be seen coming off both, but where one was calming and almost brought a certain joy the other brought a slight feeling of fear and despair. At once both gates opened, a few hundred yards away from each other. From one stepped out a woman with golden hair bright enough to almost be a light in the dark, a calm air about her as she kept her gaze directly towards the opposing gate, upon her mask was a consistent smile. From the other stepped out a man with hair so black it seemed indistinguishable in shape as it sucked in the light around it, his own mask looking as if to snarl while black tongues of fire licked at the hem of his clothes. A And Z: The Other Letters are On Vacation Freddy’s Protectors (Chaotic Neutral) (Zero should avoid these two, for his own physical and mental safety) As if compelled by some unheard command they both teleported directly in front of each other, one in a burst of black and the other a golden explosion. “Now be sure to behave alright?”Stated the woman, cheerfulness present in her voice as the man simply moved in a way that represented how one would roll their eyes, as he did not have any to roll. “Just make sure to stay out of my way, your pathetic peacekeepers won’t be anything but a distraction.” His voice held an ever existent malice hidden behind a curtain of neutrality. She seemed to laugh as she briefly turned towards her own gate, a thousand almost identical soldiers walking out as she returned her gaze, all clad in light golden armour as a large hammer was strapped across their backs. Each step seeming to tread the ground into place as grass could be seen seeping through the sand. “I didn’t realise we were competing, Z, we have the same goal for once after all.” “Of course it’s a competition, though it’ll be hard to justify our killstreaks if no one remembers who they’ve killed.” A grim chuckle escaped his lips as he tilted his head slightly, not bothering with meaningless gestures as he simply shouted “REAPERS!” A thousand more poured from the opposite gate, their heavy armour almost in tatters as they emanated malice and discontent. Scythes had been strapped to their backs and if one listened they could hear the sound of chains grinding against each other as fine teeth could be seen on the edge of their blades. Their presence seemed to drain the life out of the already lifeless landscape. “Honestly, you couldn’t tone down a little on the…. evilness of your units?” A waved her hands about in the general direction of the Reapers, to which Z simply shrugged. “The scythes are effective, the armours are protective, now if you’ll please get out of my way I can follow my directive.” He held up his fist, the back facing the reapers as they nodded as one and flowed into the ground as a puddle of black flames, each moving towards Z as they joined to his cape, lengthening it considerably as it spread out behind him. “Do try and keep up.” A’s mask turned to a slight pout as she simply waved towards one of her commanding officers who nodded in turn as she turned to bark orders at her soldiers. In an almost imitation they replicated the actions of the Reapers, every single Peacekeeper falling into a golden flame as they moved to join with A’s dress that flowed along the sand. “I doubt he’ll be happy to see us.” She stated simply, sighing as she looked across the landscape. “Of course he won’t be happy to see you, me on the other hand,” His masked turned into a wide smirk as he looked towards the same direction, “Oh he’ll be simply furious.” They both stood there, garments shifting in a non-existent wind as their opposing flames visibly moved in opposing directions, their gazes locked onto the distant horizon, in the direction of the villain camp beyond the arena. Z however was brought out of his silence as he spotted a figure headed to the castle behind them, briefly looking over his features as the holes in his masks eyes seemed to ignite for an instant. “I do believe we’ve found an opponent.” “So soon?” A moved her gaze as well, her eyes shining over for a split-second, “We can’t harm him since the war has not started, those’re the rules e-Z-mac.” Z groaned as his eyeless gaze returned to A’s visage, “Another nickname? Why do you find them necessary?” “Not necessary Led Zeppelin, just fun.” She gave a light laugh as the figure came closer, her expression cheery with a hint of cheekiness as per status quo. “Now, just quick hello’s then we get going alright?” “What’s this? Travelers? Greetings!” came a voice from a little ways away. “He seems… friendly?” “Of course he’s friendly, he’s the kind to buy souvenirs for girls even when they have money. Anynoodle, hello!” A cheerfully waved towards the voice. “Anynoodle? Who’s that? And how do you apparently know so much about me? I know nothing of you.” He approached; and, as he did so, the two got a better look at him. He was wearing a long, brown trench coat with green highlights, along with black dress slacks and a black vest. His white shirt showed out from under the other garments and the goggles on his head shone with a brilliance only tempered glass can give. “Well, I suppose we can trust anyone willing enough to sock it to a Princess, even if it wasn’t a very good hit. You may refer to me as Z.” He looked almost reluctant to talk to the person before him as his cape flared slightly, easily dodging the mans questions. “Don’t mind him, he just realised he shouldn’t have worn a cape to the desert. I’m A by the way, pleasure to meetcha.” She held her hand out towards the man, the ever present smile on her mask backed up by her calm eyes as the flames on her own clothes calmed somewhat. “Oh, I don’t mind at all. Not the first person to dislike me upon our meeting.” He reaches out, clasping her hand in his own before bringing it to his face and kissing the back of said hand. “I’m Nicholas. Call me Nick for short.” He the released her hand, letting his own fall to his side. A flashed a smug grin in Z’s direction briefly before turning back to Nicholas. “Don’t mind if I do, if you like you can call me A for short as well.” For his part Z just facepalmed while A smiled towards Nicholas calmly. “Alright, A, also known as A, I’ll simply call you A, for simplicity’s sake. We don’t need to cause issues in the future with a name as long as yours,” he smirked knowingly. She simply chuckled and tilted her head behind her in a slight gesture. “Headed that way I presume?” The castle in the distance behind them simply glimmered in the sunlight. “What was your first clue?” he asked with a raised eyebrow. “The footsteps leading in that direction or the fact that you’re walking away from the place and we happened to run into each other like this?” Z briefly tempered his gaze as he looked at Nicholas, moving it beyond him and towards the Villain camp in the distance. “You can handle this one, never liked manipulators.” His mask became a deepened frown as he simply walked past, avoiding eye contact as he headed to the camp. On the other hand A only seemed to cheer up more. “Ooh, ooh, I pick C. No wait, this wasn’t multiple choice sorry. In which case….. what is ‘logical train of thought’?” – Announcer’s Booth Umbra winced. “Ooh! Sorry, but that answer is not correct!” BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT – “Darn!” A snapped her fingers as she silently cursed her bad luck. “Well to be honest it was because you seem to really want to help people, and considering the… grandeur of the castle back there I’d think that’s where the good chaps go.” “‘Good chaps’? You say it like you’re not one.” Nicholas chuckles slightly. “I mean, you are on your way to the arena to fight, or, at least, to the enemy base... Right?” “Guy in the sky? Do the buzzer thing again.” – Announcer’s Booth “Heh heh, you got it, luv” BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT – “Cheers” She briefly gave the clouds a thumbs up before turning back to Nick. “So sorry there, but I’m on a strict ‘protect and serve if you really feel like it I guess’, kind of mission, and the guy I’m protecting is on that side.” “D-does that mean I have to k-kill you?” He reels back a little. “Aw, well you don’t have to if you don’t want to. But if you really feel like it…” The bottom half of her mask seemed to tear as rows of sharp teeth formed across the mouth, her eyes burning brilliantly as her hair seemed to disobey gravity while it caught fire. She spoke with what sounded to be hundreds of voices, all calm and almost warm-hearted. “You’re certainly welcome to take a shot.” “I-I don’t really w-want to. Sorry?” He’s more confused than anything at this point. She almost seems like she wanted him to try. In an instant she returned to normal, a calm smile once more etched into her mask. “That’s perfectly fine boyo! Hopefully I won’t have to kill anyone once the fighting begins, leave the murdering to the murderers and the burgers to the fry cooks I say!” A faint ‘That has no relevance!’ could be heard in the direction of the camp. “Oh, alright, then. Thank you. I didn’t want to kill just yet.” He takes a deep breath, returning to his calm self. “Anyway, it was a pleasure to meet you, A. I hope we never see each other on the field of battle.” He smiled as he stuck a hand out for her to shake. She chuckled as she stepped towards him and gave him a high-five, “That’s assuming you can kill me, have fun following the yellow brick road!” A laughed as she stepped past him, her dress flashing briefly as a yellow brick path formed out beneath a flash of fire, headed straight towards the castle. “O-okay, then…. Off to see the wizard, I guess.” Nicholas then follows the aforementioned Yellow Brick Road. – Announcer’s Booth “You’re off to see the Wizard~ The wonderful Wizard of Oz~” Umbra bolted upright. “FUCK! I hate that song!” – A calmly strides towards the Villain camp, squinting slightly as she all but whispered to herself. “Now that I know someone is watching, what will it take to stop you from telling any undesirables about me and my companions… apparel?” VWORPLE Skreeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-SLAM THUD “What apparel? -Umbra” A quick roll of her eyes and a few steps later she began to talk again. “You know exactly what I mean. I’m referring to the… armies up our sleevies if you will.” Vworple “Oh…. eh. I don’t really do a lot of telling here. So…. just don’t ask me for stuff and I won’t tell anything to anyone. -Umbra” A small pout was present on her mask. “Aww, can’t I ask for just one itty-bitty thing?” Bloop “Okay. Just because you seem fun. And because everyone gets one.” She scanned the sky, her eyes briefly shimmering as they came across the announcers booth far out of sight range, a smirk appearing on her mask once more. “We both know that’s not true now don’t we?” She chuckled slightly before going on her way again. “Could you increase the molecular attraction between sand particles ever so slightly in my general vicinity?” Plop “I’m almost afraid to ask why. But sure.” Shsshshshshshshssshhh She cheered as she jumped up, pushing down as she landed only to be pushed back in the air once more, laughing as she kept bouncing along until she sailed past Z, doing a flip and sticking her tongue out at him as she sailed right past his face; to which he only groaned slightly and trudged along, “Why would anyone encourage her?” Vwwwwm “Oh yeah. I forgot about what happens when I do that.” Teridax stood up, stretched. The wait was helping him out, enough that Auric would actually have to pressure him when he finally arrived. Ah, he could wait a long, long time. The heart on his chest glowed a little brighter, and he tapped it. “Hush now. Everything is as it should be.” He casually scried out the location of the hero base and snorted. “I would say that it’s fairly melodramatic, but that would be rather hypocritical. Shame that miss Kat’s there; would have liked to talk to her. Try and convince her that this war is nothing important.” Another flicker of attention, on a being surrounded by the Laser Wasps of Umbra’s planet. “Ah, Nemesis. How very interesting. Yes… this is the perfect time for goodwill.” With that, he stood up, and with nought but a thought teleported out, near Nemesis, where he was unsuccessfully holding his own. A simple thought, and the Laser Wasps backed off, and Teridax strode forwards, holding his arms at his sides to show that he brought no weapon. “Hello, Mr. Nemesis. How are you today?” Nemesis brought his fist around to intercept an oncoming wasp, but only hit air as they quickly backed away from their target. Nemesis spun on the spot, coming face to face with what he could only describe as a robotic shadow. “And just who the hell are you?” Nemesis, his head still pounding from the rush of battle, growled as his eye flared red. Teridax smiled, already picking up on the psychic pressure of the T-virus. “I am Teridax. You may have heard of me. And don’t think about attacking me. Because if you do, I’ll push that rage of yours to the point that rage is all you’ll ever be… and I’ll throw you back into your own world.” Skreeeeeeeeee-Slam! Both jumped back as yet another capsule fell from orbit. This time, the capsule opened to reveal a human, this one thin and short, about five feet ten inches tall. As the unknown human stood, he opened his eyes and immediately his identity became known. After all, who else would have eyes that exuded such raw power from their pitch black depths? Umbra spoke, “Dammit Teridax! Meddling is my schtick over here! Do your stupid meddling some other time!” “Umbra, I am willing to uphold the rules of this war. I swear, on my honour that I will not fight, harm or kill any of the other side until it has started. I am here to… talk. But my threat, Nemesis, is real. I am perfectly capable of that. I merely won’t do that until this war has started.” “Teridax?” Nemesis’ words were twisted, a combination of his own voice and something else. He began to advance towards him. “Youuu...you were the one who…” Nemesis stopped when he remembered the threat, his grip tightening on his weapon as his footsteps halted. He shook for only a moment before he took a step back. “Fine. What are you here for, then?” Teridax shapeshifted, into the form of Auric. And smiled. “Nemesis, I can feel in the back of your mind an incredible rage. It comes from the T-virus that permeates your veins.” He then shifted into the form of Celestia, who continued. “There is no normal way to defeat this virus, of course.” Another shift, and he was Twilight Sparkle. “Except for a genius like myself.” He then returned to his normal form. “Tell me, Nemesis, what would you give for the chance to be free of that rage forever?” Nemesis suddenly burst out into laughter. ”So what, you’re saying you’re here to resolve my anger management issues?” Nemesis snorted. ”If what you’ve done so far is how you go about it, you’re a pretty shitty therapist.” Umbra spoke up, “I don’t normally do thi– okay who am I kidding, I do this a lot, but I can get rid of that virus for free…. or if you’re willing to pay about fifteen bits I can give it a toggle and remove the rage. I think, Teriyaki, that I make better sales pitches. Y’know, being an interdimensional salesman and all.” Teridax shrugged. “My product will not remove the virus in its entirety, but will grant you everything you want- no rage, no infection spread, all the benefits. And, I will ask you this- my price is simply to not get in my way when I fight Auric. Fight anyone else you want, but don’t get in my way or Auric’s. And one more thing.” He looked at Umbra pointedly. “I can’t read your mind, but I can make an educated guess. You’re associated with the merchant fellow who sent people like Nemesis here, aren’t you.” Nemesis broke his glare at Teridax and shifted it to Umbra with a growl, as if expecting a reply. He got one. “The Merchant. Fucking asshole still needs a kick in the nuts. Keeps slipping away though. Never really have the time to go after him. Besides, who among us would honestly want to go back to living their powerless lives back on Earth after all of this? I wouldn’t. Anynoodle, yeah, I work with the same guild that The Merchant is in. ‘Cept he’s way down on the ‘Do Not Sell’ list and I’m near the top somehow.” Teridax nodded. “In which case, I apologise for thinking you were associated with him. But my offer still stands, Nemesis. Either of our offers are good. And, as a show of good faith, I will have Mr. Umbra here verify that what I promise is true.” He pulled out a vial of silvery powder, and with a slight flourish handed it over to Umbra. The humanised shadow shrugged and sniffed the vial, his eyes blinking twice in confusion. “Well I’ll be…. usually you master manipulator types make stuff that’s actually just sugar water or something. But this stuff….. it’s actually damn good! It does exactly what he says it’d do!” Teridax snorted. “Mr Umbra, you know that the Makuta are masters of Viruses that can create life. Compared to that, this was a cakewalk. And don’t hand it to me; I won’t have you accusing me of switching the vials or anything. Besides, I know that you were the kind of person who would check anyway, so making a fake solution is worthless.” “This is true. Well Nemesis, it’s your choice now….. Hey….. what’s that sound?” Nemesis pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and index finger. ”Umbra, I swear to God if you brought more of those things here…” Umbra shifted back to normal, “No no, not that sound, a different sound…… sounds like……. a person…..” From down below them, the noise continued to grow louder and louder. Then a large geiser of sand burst forth, shooting out a human boy in his late teens, falling to the ground in front of them. “Aw ha ha ha, that sucked!” he groaned, try to at least get up on his knees. “What the hell did I just do?” “Given your appearance, Mr. Ben Tennyson, I would say that you’ve just tunnelled out of the ground.” Teridax remarked, dry as the wasteland surrounding them. The insects around him buzzed loudly, unsure of this person but he silenced them with a look. “Wrong dude, I’m not Tennyson. He’s in his own universe,” Ben said as he finally got on his two feet and cracked his neck. “Aww~, it’s always the neck.” “Oh. Hey Ben,” Umbra deadpanned, forming a small barrier around himself, Teridax, and Ben to shield their conversation. “Wait…. eh. Nemesis can probs survive out there a while. So, what brings you out here to the middle of nowhere?” “I don’t know,” he replied rubbing his sore neck. “I was just screwin’ around with my new powers and then ‘poof’, I’m flying through sand.” Ben looks at the other being with Umbra, raising an eyebrow at him. “And it seems I’ve come face-to-face with a nightmare come true. Makuta Teridax, I presume?” Teridax bowed. “Yes, Mr. Ben, representative of the Greek gods. I am Teridax.” “So you’re the jackass that’s the reason we’re all here.” Ben eyed him up and down before shrugging. “Eh, I’ve seen weirder.” “I know.” “I think at this point we’ve all seen weirder…….. like that one time I….. nope. Not telling that one. Bad enough to just experience it…” “I meant more that he really isn’t that scary. Hell, the Daleks were scarier than you are.” “Daleks aren’t scary at all. Weeping Angels though…. Terrifying bitches they are, though only when they’re starving. The rest of the time they’re pleasant girls…. a little morbid but pleasant all the same.” Ben looked at Umbra very strangely, before pinching the bridge of his nose and sighing. “I really need to stop being around you people. You’re going to drive away what’s left of my sanity.” Ben frowned for a moment. “I don’t care what you think, Power, we’re not starting the war prematurely. And you shut up, Honor, this doesn’t involve you.” Teridax nodded. “Until Auric appears, I’m not making any moves whatsoever, and neither will those who follow me.” “Huh, a villain who honors the rules. Haven’t met one of those in a while. Sorry about talking to myself, the other guys are pretty vocal nowadays. And more than a few want to tear you to shreds just for shits and giggles.” Teridax studied him for a few moments. “I obey the laws that Umbra has created because I know the consequences for breaking them would be terrible. Even then, I really don’t care about what you do, just as long as Auric’s here.” “Well I’m only here because I promised I would be. Don’t really even have a stake in war, well save for the chance to finally meet my long lost sister.” Teridax nodded. “I wish you luck in your endeavour. But a word of warning…” He shifted into the form of Umbra “get in between me and Auric and I’ll cut you down. He. Is. Mine.” “Like I care,” Ben sneered back. “If it happens, it happens, get over yourself. You’re. Nothing. Special.” Teridax shrugged. “Really. If you say so, Mr. Ben. You may find me more dangerous than you think. Until the war officially starts, though… I won’t do anything.” “I eagerly await,” he replied sarcastically. “Go back to your little hide-away, you obsessed weirdo.” Ben made a sign of “shooing” with his hand. “Go on, get.” Umbra suddenly jolted, “Whoo, okay….. that was a weird three centuries…… what did I miss while I was out of this body? … And why does Teridax look like me now?” Teridax shifted back. “Me and Ben were having an enlightening conversation as to the current ceasefire. Now, hopefully we will leave with civility and respect.” “Not likely,” Ben replied looking highly uninterested. Teridax shrugged. “If you want incivility, then I am perfectly capable of that.” The insects buzzed angrily, responding to their masters’ will. “Dammit. This is what happens when I get called away for three centuries and try to come back to the exact moment I left….” Ben looked at Umbra, quiet for a moment, then asked, “Umbra? Do you still have that badge I gave you? The one that acts as my token?” “Huh? Oh yeah, here it is,” Handing it over, Umbra cocked his head, “Why do you need it?” “Because,” he said as he typed in a few commands. “I made a decision a while back, and I’m sticking it to it.” Ben tossed the badge back to Umbra, but the green had now become a dull grey. “Eh?” “I deactivated it.” “No more calling on you then? Shame. Oh well, c’est la vie. Here, take this,” Tossing over an emerald green smart phone, Umbra continued, “It’s a personalized Token. Mine, to be exact. Just call me up whenever you feel like it. There’s a lot of stuff to do on it and it’s got infinite battery life, reception no matter where you are in the Multiverse, it’s almost indestructible, it’s got Wi-Fi everywhere, Flash Player, and it can project a screen and keyboard in case you want a laptop instead of a smart phone.” He turned to Teridax, “No, you don’t get one. Not unless you prove yourself worthy of it.” Teridax gave the impression of smiling. “I don’t plan on living long enough to really benefit from it anyway.” Ben looked at the phone in his hand then to Umbra. “Thanks,” then he crushed it, “but no. I don’t want your token. Or anyone else’s.” “Dammit, that was a custom! You coulda at least used it for the entertainment value! And the efficiency value. It’s great for getting work done.” “I don’t care, I’ve already made my decision.” “An’ I respect that…… Want a laptop?” “No Umbra. Once this war is over, there is only one thing I want from you.” “And that would be?” “To leave me alone. When this is all done, I don’t want anything to do with the Displaced anymore. Certain people I will let keep my totem, but the rest will be permanently deactivated.” “Okay, whew, I thought you were gonna say something a lot more upsetting. But yeah, that’s fine…… wait….. does that mean I can’t just hang out anymore? I mean, I’ve only seen your Universe once and that was just your room. I kinda wanted to explore a little. Not like you could stop me but I like to ask permission.” “It’s partially for your own good. You are a wanted criminal in my Universe, after all.” “Wait what. Why am I a criminal?” “The Celestialsapiens, my bosses, hate your guts.” “They are aware that I was the one that evolved their silly, star-patterned asses from space whales all those eons ago, right? Okay, some of that was my subordinates practicing, but I started the evolution. I mean….. they can’t stop me either as long as I have a good reason. And this District being what it is….. I’m allowed to see you guys as long as I don’t meddle too much.” “They don’t like anyone who’s on par or more powerful than they are. So….thems the breaks. The other part is….I don’t really see you as a friend.” “...Great time to change that viewpoint then….. I just noticed that we’ve been ignoring Teridax for a while….. Sorry about that.” Teridax waved a hand. “Not really a problem. It’s good to see that there are some who are willing to disrespect a Sysadmin. They do know what you could do if you really felt like it?” “Of course they know, but they are willing to use anything they can to get rid of the guy. SysAdmins are not welcome in a Universe that has Celestialsapiens. Never have been, never will be.” “Bet I could do something about that…. Ah well, as always, c’est la vie. Not much point trying to keep me out when – Oh would you look at that, I’m already there. And always was. And will be. And won’t be. And every other permutation of the concept of presence. Because I exist in every point on my personal ball of infinite timelines simultaneously. So I’m everywhere. And nowhere. Fitting for a shadow, eh? There but not there. Interacting without interacting. Death likes his symbolism.” Ben simply shook his head. “Look it’s nothing personal, but just stay out. I’m giving that message to all Displaced. They’re not welcome in my world anymore. Never really wanted them to be in first place.” Umbra crossed his arms and narrowed his eyespots, “Quick tangent; there’s a stray thread on your collar and it’s been bugging me for the past few minutes. Kindly remove it, please.” He rolled his eyes and snapped his fingers, destroying the small strand...and a mile of wasteland behind him. “Ehehehe…..oops.” “It’s just wasteland. Nothing much there. Except….. yup. There goes my favorite tumbleweed bush. Damn. Now I need to replant it. Anyways, I’m still going to hang out every now and then, seeing as I’m not really a Displaced anymore. And because I think we’d be great friends. And to piss off those over-grown space-whale descendants. Feckin’ cunts, the majority of them. The adolescents are usually okay though. Some of them actually like me.” “Not in mine. You are on the top of the Most Unwanted list. Sorry. And I’m sorry, but to me you are a Displaced and you are not welcome in my world. Not now, not ever.” “‘Kay…. Then I’ll hang out with one of your Alternates. Some of them actually like me.” “Fine by me. But I need a better commitment than that. Pinkie Promise to never come back to my universe again.” “I, uh, I’m not allowed to make those because of how I mangle causality…. I preemptively break them before they’re made…..” “Make it or I leave.” “Well, it’s my head Pinkie’s going to be hunting…….. Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my – OH GOD THAT STINGS,” Umbra grasped his frosting covered face, screaming in pain, “OH GOD WHY DID I ACTUALLY SHOVE A CUPCAKE IN MY EYE.” “Because you’re not all there, Shadow. Unlike some of us.” Ben frowned again. “Not asking for your opinion, Hum. Or yours Superiority….oh shut up, the lot of you! Gah, why did Nexus have to leave me with these damn jerks?!” “...Hypocrite,” Umbra suddenly froze, shivering violently, “And there it goes. I have now broken a Pinkie Promise for the five hundredth time. Seriously, why would you tell someone with near Omnipresence not to go somewhere!?” “Because they’re not welcome. And good luck with that broken Pinkie Promise. Fair warning, my Pinkie is a big fan of bear traps.” “Lord almighty. Good thing those don’t work on me.” Teridax shook his head. “Enough. I would like to finish talking with Nemesis.” The B.O.W. in question was standing just outside of the barrier Umbra had formed around the three of them. His back was to them and his arms were crossed as if he was in thought. Teridax simply teleported outside and looked at Nemesis. “Well, Nemesis? Who do you choose?” Nemesis shifted his gaze towards Teridax. He snorted. “Can I see that vial?” Teridax teleported back in, grabbed the vial and teleported back, handing it over. “If you want, you can check with Umbra again, to ensure that I didn’t switch it.” Nemesis held the vial between two fingers and raised it into the sky as he stared at it. “I don’t think that’ll be necessary.” He lowered his hand, and allowed the vial to rest in his palm. “Teridax…” He began, staring down at the vial. Then he closed his fist, the vial cracking slightly. “You collaborated with my enemy in a world that was not yours. You prolonged the suffering of those who didn’t even deserve it for the sake of your own gain.” The vial cracked further. “You created a being designed to chase me down and kill me no matter where I went, and if that’s not enough it’s that on top of the other crimes you’ve committed against other Displaced around the multiverse.” The vial shattered completely, and the liquid ran down Nemesis’ knuckle. “I may be fucked up in the head, but I’m of sound mind enough to know right from wrong. And what you did? What you’ve done? It’s wrong.” Nemesis’ eye burned red. “You have your little lovers’ spat with Auric, I frankly don’t give a damn. Both he and you have made it clear that the fight is between you two, and if Auric wins,” Nemesis growled. “No, when he wins, because he will win, if he doesn’t kill you, you can bet your ass I’ll be there to finish the job. I’ll find a way to defeat this virus, Teridax, but it won’t be from you.” Teridax looked at him. “It’s so rare to meet a man of your principles. I’m almost touched.” He looked at the liquid pooling on the ground. “It doesn’t matter in the long run. Whether or not you accept my gift, the outcome is still the same.” Teridax looked him in the eye. “If I win, I win. I’m the better man between me and Auric. If I lose, and Auric kills me, I’ve done something sensational. I’ve broken a man who is my equal. And if he can’t muster up the energy to kill me… I have ways of defying imprisonment.” He shook his head. “Do you really think Auric would allow you to kill me? You know him. He’s a man of principles, just like you and me.” Nemesis snorted again. “Principles? Principles went out the window the moment you decided to work with someone who uses a virus that mutates innocents into weapons. As far as I’m concerned you’re a canniving bastard who doesn’t look out for anyone but themselves. If I have to wait to make sure you meet the ending you deserve, I can do that.” Teridax nodded. “I would be lying if I said that I knew you wouldn’t take the deal, but I’m not that surprised either. These things happen, and I decided to take a risk. By the way, how did you find out about my involvement? I really shouldn’t have trusted anybody with my name at all, but then again, that’s business for you.” “Princess Luna can be quite persuasive, especially when she’s interrogating high ranking members of Ellura who had an inkling of what went down between you and Inkwell.” Nemesis chuckled. “I suppose it helps when you can basically walk right into their minds as they sleep, too. They spoke about someone named Teridax who provided them with an improved virus formula, and provided them with what you named ‘Majora’. Kat Shifter filled me in on the rest.” Teridax blinked. “Ah, Kat Shifter… the one obsessed with revenge. Yes, I met her. How was Majora, by the way? I rather liked Majora. One of my finest creations… it’s good to hear some feedback.” He sat down and looked at Nemesis intently, waiting for the blow-by-blow report. (spoilers) Nemesis crossed his arms, scowling a bit. “ Well, during an attack on one of Ellura’s facilities in Canterlot, I summoned Jack of Blades for some assistance. His… madness god was rather displeased about this and summoned something from the resident evil verse, William Birkin, to kill me. We managed to defeat it and after we parted ways I made my way back to Ponyville through the Everfree. That’s when I first met your little...creation. I don’t know how, but he had absorbed some of the G-virus from William Birkin’s body and was adapting to my attacks before they even hit him.” Teridax actually seemed surprised. “Interesting. It really was supposed to adapt to your attacks when they hit it. Hm. Something to look into.” He waved a hand. “Continue.” “The g-virus itself has some adaptive abilities, I suppose it simply compounded on his own.” Nemesis growled a bit. “I wasn’t sure what he was, and he proved… quite the challenge. I only managed to incapacitate him and had to run, if I had stayed and fought him I probably would have been killed.” Teridax nodded. “Well, it was designed to be your perfect counter, after all. Only one weapon, and it would be difficult to defeat without outside assistance. I presume you managed to finally destroy Majora, but how on Earth did you do it?” “Well, he followed me to another Displaced’s universe. Jason’s, not sure if you know who he is. Anyways, Jason turned into someone he called Ghostfreak and possessed Majora, disabling its adaptive capabilities. After that I shot and beat him until he stopped moving.” Nemesis’ eye burned red. “But he showed up again. He attacked me in the depths of the Ellura facility in Fillydelphia, but he was severely weakened. He absorbed biomatter from some of the other B.O.W.s and turned into...something else. I can only really describe it as a shadow, not unlike yourself. It was a difficult fight, but in the end I tore him in half and threw his remains into superheated chemical waste.” Nemesis finished with a nod. “Some of the ponies helped me, I think without their help he probably would have killed me, though at that point I don’t think he was very intelligent anymore. He seemed...primal. Savage, even.” Nemesis shuddered at the memory. “Not unlike myself when I…” Nemesis shut his eye and shook his head. “Nevermind.” “When you gave in to that rage in the back of your mind?” Teridax stood up. “If I survive, I might have to work on ensuring the mental feedback doesn’t transmit that rage. Until then, Mr Nemesis, it was interesting to meet you.” Nemesis flinched as Teridax finished his sentence for him, then turned to watch him as he stood. “I wish I could say likewise, but I’ll be much more interested when this war is over and you’re locked far, far away or rotting in the ground.” His eye burned red as he growled. Teridax nodded. “Well, I think I’ll take my leave, Mr. Nemesis.” With that, he teleported out of existence. The laserwasps briefly wavered, then flew away from Nemesis, towards the villain base. Nemesis remained for a minute longer, staring at the spot Teridax had been before he took a deep breath, feeling his rage die down again. He rubbed his head as he turned towards the barrier with Umbra and Ben in it and knocked on it. “You two gonna be in there all day?” Ben nodded to Umbra to let down the shield, which fell a moment later. “Sorry ‘bout that. Personal chat. And...woah, you freaky boy.” “That’s what I get for dressing up as a biological weapon of mass destruction at a con. And you’re the second guy I’ve seen with that thing on your wrist.” “Oh, you must mean Jason. Yeah, he’s an okay guy, but I’m the true wielder of this thing. Name’s Ben, Ben 10X. And you are?” Nemesis nodded. “Nemesis. Just Nemesis. I was just looking to take Umbra up on his offer, seeing as Teridax probably won’t be doing me favors anytime soon after our little chat.” “So you’re taking up the offer, then? Good to hear,” Umbra rubbed his eyespots, “Man, I don’t know why, but I feel like I’ve been hopping timelines back and forth for years now…. Gods I’m so sleepy…” He slapped his head a few times before continuing, “Okay. I’m good. Let’s do this. You may feel a pinch…. or twelve thousand.” “Can’t be any more painful than the time Jason zapped me with his alien watch. Just get it over with.” “A’righty then…” Umbra snapped his fingers, and for a moment, Nemesis felt reality reworking itself as his vision swam and he experienced colors and sounds that were beyond even the wildest imagination. Including the taste of purple. “Grape? That’s rather expected…” Ben looked at Umbra with a cocked eyebrow. “Am I missing something here? Dufaq are you doing to the guy?” “I’m fucking with his coding and his DNA. It’s hard work. If he’s seeing weird things, well, it’s not my fault. It’s his brain’s.” “Umbra you are one weird ass shadow. But a cool one, I’ll admit.” “The chief of tribe Tunhamanhake extends gratitude for the beans you gave him last night!” Nemesis shouted inexplicably. He was okay though. Probably. “Was that babbling or was he serious?” Ben asked Umbra. “Hard to tell with all the shiz you do.” “I’m pretty sure it was babbling, though I did give a guy named Tunhamanhake a can of beans a few millennia ago when he was starving in the Mojave Desert,” Umbra answered, rubbing his chin thoughtfully, “I checked in on him in secret a few years after…. he made a tribe.” “Huh,” Ben commented. “Interesting. So, how long does this usually take?” “Should be done soon. T-Virus really hates outside mutations that it didn’t purposefully start. Hard to work around without killing the host.” When the deal with Nemesis was done, Teridax stood still for a moment, contemplating. He tapped the heart absent-mindedly. “He really should be here soon… I might actually have to delay my schedule a bit. Want a good way for him to be interested.” “Who you talkin’ about buddy?” came a woman’s voice. “The only intelligent person around here. Myself.” Teridax turned to the woman who was talking to him, already curious about the fact he couldn’t read her mind. “Oh ho ho! Look out guys! We got a badass over here!” she said as a crowd seemed to say, “Oooo.” Teridax watched her impassively. “I don’t think I have had the pleasure. You likely know who I am.” “Teridax, King of Shadows, Rival of Auric Fulcrum, met him once by the way, and a Displaced,” she closed the book she had pulled from nowhere, “You might know of me, not quite sure, depends on who you know.” Teridax simply nodded. “No, I don’t know who you are, but I can make a couple of guesses. You clearly have access to a pocket dimension of some sort, putting your average power at the level of Umbra. So it’s likely that you’re a Sysadmin, or at least a similar level of entity. But your name, I do not know.” Essence nodded. “Similar to Umbra, yes. I don’t have need of a pocket dimension. I’m an entity similar to The Merchant. I’ve had multiple names but the one I use now is The Musician.” “Interesting.” Teridax absently looked around. The scenery around him was much the same. “When is Auric going to come here? The rest of the war is of no consequence if he doesn’t show up.” Essence shrugs. “I’ll do my best but no promises.” Teridax nodded. “I’ll hold you to that.” With that, he teleported back to his base, thinking about that chance encounter. Essence, in the meantime, disappeared. A loud whoop of joy escaped her as she landed in Umbra’s tricked out Announcer/DJ booth. A sound echoed from her landing. It was the same achievement sound that you get from a video game. DUN DA DA DUN DUN DA DA! Essence scoffed. She’d have to fix that later. “Essence? Why the hell are you in my booth? I swear I locked that door.” Umbra stood from where he was reclining and floated over to his cot, settling into another reclined position. Essence put her hands together. “The answer to both is, I haven’t practiced teleporting, I wanted to land outside the door, and I met Teridax. He seems pissed at the delay. I said I’d do what I could.” “I see. Well, there’s snacks in the fridge, and drinks. There’s a game center over in that corner, and don’t touch the mix table. That one is a custom build.” As he spoke, Umbra pointed to the aforementioned corner– more of a large alcove, really– and to his custom built, super powerful, ultra-high performance mix table Mark XXXXII. He liked to call it “The Bass Dropper 9000”. Essence sniggered, “I don’t need a mix table, remember?” “Yes, but still. Don’t touch it. One wrong move would destroy the planet from sonic backlash. I should probably tone down the speakers a little, now that I think about it.” ‘Oh, please, you and I both know how easily you could fix it. Either way, I wasn’t gonna touch it.” Essence held up her hands. She looked around before turning back to Umbra. “I’ll be back later.” She disappeared. “Crazy-ass woman. Cute ears, though,” Umbra shook his head before turning back to what he had been doing. Some would’ve been put off with seeing a woman jumping around in the desert with flames licking at her clothes, luckily for A, no one tends to wander around the desert. With a fair bit of surprise she somehow managed to fall on someone who was wandering around a desert wasteland. “Fade damn it all,” came a voice from underneath her, “ Why do I always get landed on? I need to talk to Umbra about this BS.” “Maybe it’s because you’re so doggang comfy!” She rolled backwards off from the voice that had come beneath her, stretching out onto the sand. Essence sat up and started messing with her tail. After clearing it of sand, she looked over to A. “Hello, I guess.” “BZZZT, wrong answer, care to take another try or would you like to use a lifeline?” “Lifeline. Help. I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.” “You’ve fallen!? Oh no, I’d love to help but I’m a bit busy making sand angels while I wait for the other guy.” A was actually making sand angels, her dress somehow remaining remarkably clean and her hair almost untouched. “Cool. I’d love to make some but-” she started before being interrupted by a musical tune. “Oh. Guess I can.” Essence laid down in sand next to A. “Whee…” Fifteen minutes later the both of them had gotten bored. Well, one of them did. “Okay I’m bored now.” A said rather abruptly, standing up and shaking her head slightly. Essence, on the other hand, had already been sitting up for a good seven minutes. “Ooh fluffy!” OH DEAR GODDESS. She saw my tail… Essence thought, aloud. “Yes she did!” A laughed and pounced onto the fluffy anomaly, arms outstretched as she practically willed herself to pet it. Essence dodged and ran off only for A to quickly pounce after her again, whiskers appearing on her mask as she curled up slightly “Lemme pet your tail kitty!” “No! It’s sensitive!” “You shan’t escape my grasp thou fluffy beast! Huzzah!” A twisted herself slightly as she landed, smirking as her deft turn enabled her to tackle Essence barely, pinning her onto her front as she tried to pet the tail with one hand, nuzzling against Essence’s cat ears as well “Victory is mine, now submit!” At this moment another figure had come into view, immediately facepalming as he realised what was happening. “Oh dear Origin, A, you’re a moron.” Decidedly, it was at this moment Z had pledged never to work with the golden guardian of good again. “And why in Equus would you go along with her… whoever you are?” Pushing A off of herself Essence looked up to him, A immediately returning to playing with her tail. “I'm Essence, The Musician, wielder of divinity, madness incarnate of the Void, reaper of tyrants, Bubble mistress, and The Last of the Influences. You are?" “Currently I go by Z, eraser of the wicked and punisher of souls. And...” He groaned loudly as his attention turned to A who was trying to wrap herself in Essences tail. “I see you’ve met A. On behalf of my universe I apologise.” “It’s not as bad as it looks, I guess.” “Riiight. Sorry for intruding.” He calmly reached down and grabbed the back of A’s dress, the golden flames along it avoiding his touch as he started pulling her away. “I’ll be taking this one somewhere she won’t get in the way.” “Um… It’s kinda my fault to be honest…” “Really?” He dropped A, who was trying desperately to grab at the tail again, to the ground and pointed at her. “You’re saying this one-” “That’s me by the way!” “Didn’t try and grab at your tail?” His mask showed a look of casual disbelief and minor displeasure. “I mucked up a teleport, she landed on me, we made sand angels, and she saw my tail. I usually hide it.” “I… see… With a cautious lack of judgement I’ll be leaving then, oh and A? I will be reporting this.” For her part A had been mucking around with a sock puppet of Z, imitating him as he talked. Essence sneezed and an image floated away from her. “That’s new…” “None of my business. A, no eating her because she’s fluffy. I’m instigating rule list three-thousand, nine-hundred and sixty eight.” With that he walked towards the villain camp, he had more important things to deal with than an idiot and an unaccomplished cat. “Hey! I heard that.” Z halted slightly, looking towards Essence out of the corner of his eye before sighing and continuing forward. “I’ll have to inform the Origin the firewall requires an update.” “Um… That wouldn’t work… I have near same abilities as Umbra.” “I know, and my weapons are made with those like you in mind so I’m sure a firewall capable of blocking Sysadmins and those ranking higher isn’t too out of the question.” “Not a SysAdmin, nor higher.” “It doesn’t matter what you are, go peeking around my thoughts again and you will be erased” “Erase me, you erase over seventy trillion worlds. Probably more.” “And? You make it sound as if I hold any care for those worlds. No, as far as I’m concerned you can do whatever you like, just keep it away from me.” “Sometimes I peek by accident. And those worlds? They include yours.” “Then you clearly don’t understand what I meant by erased. Let me indulge you. It involves every single line of code, every strand of your soul burning away while anything you had an effect on will have no memories of you, nothing to show you ever existed, and every single existence you’ve ever created will simply think of some other reason for their origin.” “My code intertwines with so many worlds that it would cause around… 3 fourths of the multiverse to end. Do you really wish to create such havoc?” “There’s a difference between wanting to create havoc and wanting to erase someone. But yes, I would still go through with it and I would also not be held accountable for the destruction of those worlds, as I have already stated, no one would know I killed you if no one remembers you.” “... Need I say it? I’m connected to the entire Multiverse. Even a small amount would effect your world. And small can be big. Imagine. Music never existing. Science never existing, can you?” Z simply chuckled as he faced away. “As I’ve said, you simply aren’t connected to our universe. Tell me, when did you make such connections? A billion years ago? A trillion? An infinitesimal amount of eons ago?” “I said I was the Last Influence? I’m the first created. I was there when coding was made. Every code had me attached to it. I am part of the code. Each microscopic piece of code? I’m in it. Even custom coding.” “Then I’ll give you a hint, look into my code and tell me what you see.” Essence peered at him, meeting some resistance, bursting into flames for a mere second, before she looked down past the basic components. There it was. The smallest of connections but she didn’t mention it and due to it, the code ignored most of her actions. If she edited it, it would attack but otherwise… As this was happening, A was trying to swat at Essence’s tail. “Myaa!” The other two decided to ignore her. “Look at mine.” “I cannot, I was made only to serve my purpose and the ability to view the code is unnecessary.” “I’ll show you.” Z shook his head. “I have no need to see. You sound like you have knowledge that gives you a higher standing thus I’ll submit for now, but I’m still asking you to keep out of my head.” “I never said I would go inside your head again. I won’t go inside your head.” He nodded, setting out towards the villain camp once more. “Very well, break your promise and you’ll never be trusted by another of my kind.” His steps were light even though his gait was huge, his back being the only thing visible as he kept walking away. Essence looked after him, “If only he knew…” “Knew what?” A’s head was suddenly next to Essence’s. “Knew that you have a hatred for the Bookseller… or was that the Merchant? The Monopoly man? Mer-people in general?.” “Not quite. I do but this is a different secret.” “Hmmm, then is it because your cody wodey is all wibbly wobbly, timey wimey?” “Disturbingly accurate. Do you know what it means?” “I do, but do YOU know what it means?” “Yes, I do.” “Good, because I barely have half of an idea as to what it means.” The Hero Castle With a flash of light a man landed in the entrance hall of the Hero Castle. He stood from his slightly crouched position. He raised his blade up and spoke. “Here I am,” was all he said. Auric Fulcrum: The Golden Sun, Leader of the Golden Dawn, Wielder of Eureka, The Golden Flames of Alchemy The Good Guy (Zero wouldn't be able to get in sight of this guy) (He’d end up Blinded by the Light ) Auric stepped out of the entrance hall to look at the Hero Castle. He whistled. “Wow. You’ve outdone yourself Umbra…” VWORPLE Thank you -Umbra VWORPLE Teridax glanced up, before his eyes glowed an extremely bright yellow. “He’s here…” Auric, having been exploring the impressive castle, got cold chills. Someone had mentioned him, someone close enough to make him feel their power, and he had a fairly good idea who."Hello Teri." Teridax leant back. “Good to see you, Auric. I was slightly worried you weren’t going to make it.” "So did I," he muttered. Auric still had no idea why his trip took quite so 'long'. A cat-eared girl poked in her head, "My bad. Probably from my universe breaking apart." Her ears lay flat on her head, betraying her emotions. Auric looked at the girl, to Teridax, and back to the girl. “What?” Teridax gave the impression of raising an eyebrow. “Well now. This is interesting.” He chuckled a bit. “Well, Auric, I’ll be the better Makuta, and give you one day to get settled in. It’s the least I can do. Then… then you’ll be mine. Good day, Auric Fulcrum.” With that, he lapsed into silence. “I appreciate that,” Auric nodded and entered the castle to call his forces and prepare. Umbra checked another tally adding to an already massive amount counting up the number of nods from Auric. Essence, who had appeared out of nowhere, handed Umbra a cup of coffee or tea. Cups are still on the fritz for her. “Here. I’ll be back later.” Auric had just entered the main hall to find the catgirl from before lounging on a throne and a crown sloppily placed on her head. “How the?” She lept from the throne. “Never did introduce myself properly, did I?” She curtsied. “I am The Musician. Number One rival of the Merchant himself.” “I really wouldn’t say that in front of this lot,” Auric said, leaning slightly away from her. Essence quirked, “They’ve lost family, yes? But they weren’t killed by The Merchant. My entire family, so many of my friends, and my entire universe were destroyed by him.” Auric sighed, “I suppose most of them can’t say that.” “Need help calling your forces?” she asked. “Erm…” Auric realized he would either have to get her help or Umbra’s in order to not waste his power. Umbra leaned towards his side but the girl before him was a mystery. He might as well accept. After all, it was best to know potential allies or foes. “I’m neither,” she stated simply looking him in the eyes. “I am the True Neutral of this War. Every war needs one.” She can read my thoughts? Didn’t I put a block on those at one point? he pondered. “Alright call them.” “Any preferred method?” “Not really,” he said. “Got it,” she said. Snapping her fingers, nothing changed. At least in the room. “Should do it,” she said. “Go ahead and look outside. I’ll be taking my leave.” With the sound of ting, she vanished. A floating, 3D music note floated where she was. When Auric looked outside he saw something shocking. A Golden Sun. Written on it were the words, “Auric’s here. Forces report to the castle.” “How in?” he muttered. Neutral Territory Essence looked into the pool again. Peering out into the Multiverse, something caught her eye. A few people that could help and wouldn’t be resentful. With that she jumped into the pool. The water rippled and she flew towards the first. A boy named Alexis. He was about to die by gunfire from a robber in a store. She landed, blasted him back with music, and pulled Alexis out of the world. What Essence didn’t know about that world was that it was her old vacation spot. A group of people saw her on the news and for weeks praised the old deity they thought she was. The Musician. After she had pulled him out, she landed in a Pocket Universe. She turned to Alexis. “Sorry about that. I decided to save you. Largely because I felt I could use your help,” she said. “My help?” asked the boy. “Yes. I will tell you later. For now, pick five powers from this hat,” she held out a top hat. “Alright,” he reached in and pulled out five pieces of paper. Ambient Resource Constructs- If he's got the material he can make It. Nobody Physiology- power to be entirely or partially nonexistent Supernatural Voice- Speaking causes strange things to happen Wing Blades- Wings made of extremely sharp metal Mythical Realm Lordship- Presiding ruler of a 'mythical' realm “Oh. Well, looks like I have to make you a mythical realm. The rest aren’t too hard,” with that she began humming and swirls of power surrounded Alexis. Wing blades sprouted from his back, his abilities and body changed, and she stopped. “There. Now go.” With that she pushed him out of the pocket universe and off he went. Moments later she found the second and helped her. Repeating the process a few more times, she returned through the pool. Villain’s Camp Teridax didn’t smile, but he gave the impression of smiling. “Brotherhood of Shadows, come to me.
The Fourth Displaced WarThe war, the fourth war. Devastation and darkness cover the worlds involved. Their heroes had fallen, the villains had won, and no one would be safe again. The truth behind a war of ages, a war of worlds, a war spanning the Multiverse, is that no one is safe. No even the greatest of threats, the godliest of heroes. The only true survivors are the ones who watch and monitor. The Displaced never learned, you must never bring forth a fight. A war should be a battle between the two, not the many. Paradigm, the current ruler of his Equestria, glared down at the man in front of him. It was a mirage, a hologram, created of the man who had felled him once before. This man had forced his plans to extend and fall short by years. And, as it was, this man was a hero. One of many. This man had invaded Equestrias that were not his own before, and done so simply because he wanted to. It was a violation, an illness. The man was a light that must be extinguished. Normally, Paradigm would care less about the interference in other worlds, yet, as it was. His lesser alternates had contacted him, speaking of the man who had stopped them all. In fact, the man had destroyed many of them. Paradigm’s goal was complete control of HIS equestria, for the time being, and his alternates were his means of discovering the perfect path to the world’s end. However, few of his studies had been successful. It was due to such, that Paradigm contacted a Void Dweller. Brel Stire, an elder Displaced who had achieved Void Dwelling capabilities through his manipulation of the inner magic of his home world. “Hello Paradigm,” Brel greeted as he stepped onto the ground through his portal. Brel’s casual attire was simply that of a dark mage. He was fairly average looking, aside from the pure black eyes. They had become that way due to his manipulation of dark magic. “Yes, hello. Would you mind delivering a message for me?” Paradigm asked, holding a scroll in his hands, it looked incredibly official. “To whom?” Brel asked, blinking. “Quintox, the idiot hero who interferes in worlds not his own,” Paradigm said, holding out the scroll, “This is a declaration of war against him, for infractions against the Autarchy of Equestria.” “I was headed in that direction, I’ll drop it off,” Brel answered, placing it under his coat. He turned around and made his way back into his portal. As he glided through the Void, he passed Quintox’s home Equestria and dropped the document into the world through a portal. It vanished from the Void and fell directly into the lap of Quintox, a golden haired hero of Equestria. Quintox set his spoonful of cereal down into the bowl and lifted the document, eyeing it. “Twilight?” He called out, after opening and reading the scroll. “What’s the Autarchy of Equestria?” The lavender pony blinked, having returned from the other room, “What? Equestria isn’t an autarchy, we’re a diarchy.” “It fell from empty air,” he said, having trouble understanding the information within. Twilight rolled her eyes and took the document from him, scanning it. “I need to call Celestia!” Twilight whispered, wide-eyed. The document she held in her magic stated that the Autarchy of Equestria was declaring war on the Diarchy of Equestria, specifically, her Equestria. “Why?” Quintox asked, mouth full of cereal. “War has been declared against us!” She yelled, hoping it got through into his thick skull. Obviously, by the glazed look in his eyes, it really hadn’t. “Don’t worry, I’ll win. I’m a hero!” He said, flexing his biceps and accidentally spitting his cereal onto his shirt. Least to say, Twilight did not have high hopes as she wrote down the letter and sent it. The document said they had a few hours before the Autarchy began its attack, and Twilight hoped Celestia would quickly deploy forces or have them at the ready. The Autarchy declared they would enter from the Breach, far to the east, and invade. Twilight finished the letter, sending it quickly with her magic due to Spike’s current absence. After a minute or two, Twilight could hear the loudest scream of ‘WHAT!?’ Equestria had experienced in her world. And, so it was, Celestia deployed the troops to the eastern borders of Equestria. She fully expected to win, but, little did she realize the residents and allies of the Autarchy were more powerful than a few hundred thousand troops. And, so it was, Celestia demanded that Quintox summon all of his allies, all the heroes he had helped. Many of them were only as smart as Quintox, but some were smarter. It was the more intelligent ones that rejected helping, because they weren’t stupid. As such, both sides contacted many mercenaries across the void. Of course, each side paid handsomely, so no one really had an advantage. It was finally as such, that upon initial contact, every natural resident of Equestria was wiped out. It quickly arose to the first battle between the Displaced of each side. One villain, the shadowman who could summon the dead, and one hero, who could cause the world’s brightest burning light. The shadowman summoned his minions creating a huge wall of writhing spirits as the hero blasted forth the light. It took a stagnation as the spirits burned away quickly being replaced. They went on like this for a minute or two before the villain ran into a building, grabbing the full-body mirror inside, and ran back out, shielding himself with it. The hero blasted it and quickly got hit with his own light frying harder than Anakin Skywalker. The villain blinked. He had fought other heroes before, but none of them had died that quickly. Paradigm was right, Quintox’s allies were idiots. The villain turned around and made his way back towards the main force, calling out to everyone else how stupid the heroes had to be. Most people would say he was bragging, if a new hero hadn’t landed in the middle of the main force and started yelling. “SURRENDER OR FACE THE WRATH OF SIR DERPLINESS!” This was quickly followed by a mass amount of laughter, enraging the hero. “FINE.” He yelled, pulling out his sword, “YOU WILL FACE MY-” He was cut off by a villain cutting his hair with his blade. Sir Derpliness gaped and fell to his knees. “O’ forgive me, father. They hath discovered my weakness,” Sir Derpliness said, “And now, I die.” The hero fell face first into the ground, dying the moment he hit the ground, only followed by more laughter. This only further confirmed the idiocy of the heroes for the villains, but, despite that, there was still a more sizable force on the side of the heroes. The villains came together for a discussion. “They’re definitely idiots,” one of them said, “But they’re got more power on their side.” “It is true,” one of the others responded, “But if they band together properly they’ll win.” After several minutes later of arguing, one of the leaders, Shax, Paradigm’s second-in-command, spoke up, “Why don’t we just steal the sun?” The villains started nodding in agreement, “Let’s take the moon as well,” one of them suggested, followed by more murmurs of agreement. After a quick discussion, many of the villains set out. The group going for the sun successfully grabbed Celestia, who actually proved more of a challenge than the actual heroes. Sadly, she had been distracted so the fight did not last very long. The other half of the group successfully deployed a system of satellites around the sun, gaining control of its movements. Luna, unlike Celestia, actually fought like a madmare and took out several villains. However, because of an idiot hero, she fell too. It was absolute crap how stupid the hero forces were. One of the villains could shout their plans and the heroes wouldn’t do anything. And so, that led to the current situation, Paradigm’s forces surrounding Canterlot and the heroes holed up in the city. “DEAR HEROES,” Paradigm shouted, his voice echoing throughout the city, “We have captured the sun and moon. We have your Elements, and we are winning.” The heroes booed and Quintox stepped forward, “RELEASE MS. CELESTIA AND MS. LUNA! RELEASE ALL OF THEM?” Paradigm frowned, “WHAT’S A CELESTIA AND A LUNA? AND WHY ARE YOU MAKING THAT LAST BIT A QUESTION?” “Celestia is the big white horse with the sun on her butt, Luna is the blue one with a moon on her butt!” Quintox answered. Paradigm frowned and leaned towards Shax, “Do we have those?” Shax nodded and whispered something to Paradigm. “Yes, you can keep her,” he said to Stax, “Just don’t plow the plot too much, she could be valuable. WE WILL NOT. WE ALSO HAVE THE REAL SUN AND MOON. SURRENDER, AND WE WILL END YOU WITH MERCY!” Quintox and the heroes shouted back, “NEVER!” “SURRENDER OR I SEND A SOLAR FLARE SO FAR UP YOUR ASSES THAT YOU’LL GLOW FOR EONS,” Paradigm yelled, stopping a moment, “THERE’S THIRD OPTION. I COULD JUST SHOVE THE ENTIRE SUN UP YOUR ASS AND LET IT SUPERNOVA.” The heroes yelled never again, and Paradigm just sighed and called over another villain. “Open the portal,” he said. The man nodded and a portal opened up, Paradigm and his forces marching through. Paradigm was the last one through, calling the sun towards the current Equestria before the portal closed. And so, the fourth Displaced war ended, rather anti-climatically, and wasn’t all that amazing. In fact, it was rather boring to watch, if you ask me. Author's Note So, here it is. A parody of Displaced Wars. Enjoy.
Essence's Discovery [Revised]My day was following a very strange pattern of events, as compared to usual. The first was probably the pattern of green, speckled with beams of light, that was in my field of vision when I awoke. I frowned. “My ceiling most definitely does NOT look like that,” I said aloud. My voice sounded off too, but it was still my morning voice, and I shrugged it off. I sat up, groaning as something poked me in the arse, rather painfully I might add. Looking down, I almost let out a scream. My new location explained the leaves and branches above me, but did not give a sense of safety like a bed. How in the seventh hell I had fallen asleep or remained asleep in a tree, I did not have any clue. Still, I looked at the branch below me and cautiously tried putting a foot on it. Nothing happened as I started putting more weight into my step before finally shifting my other foot onto the branch as well. It creaked, but otherwise remained fine. I grabbed my original branch before shifting my grip to the trunk of the tree itself and moving downwards. I felt something twitch, a muscle in my back most likely, and ignored it as I started making my next step; a smaller branch, but it was still thick enough I decided that putting my weight on it was most definitely worth the risk. Repeating what I had done with the previous branch, I shifted my body down and heard the creak. Closing my eyes, I finally let my full weight fall on the branch. Cre-ACK! The branch I believed to be sturdy enough snapped like one of its twig cousins and I plummeted past it siblings towards the ground. On instinct, I twisted my body and hit the ground with a thud. By some miracle, I had managed to land on my feet and I celebrated a momentary victory, only for that muscle to twitch again. When I looked back, a tail of amazingly fluffy proportions was extended from what I guessed to be the base of my spine. “...That wasn’t there last night.” Did I get drunk? I wondered, bringing up the memory of last night. A few more seconds of concentration later and I deemed that it was most definitely not a drunken prank or idea. I reached back and attempted to tug it off, hoping it was just taped on there or something. As soon as I pulled I gave an almighty yelp and hissed violently. “Ow… Definitely real, not doing that again,” I said to myself. I bit my lip and rubbed the now-sore spot at the base of my tag. A little further down than socially acceptable, but at this point I was in the wilderness and did not care. “My arse is most definitely more attractive though,” I mused. The forest around me seemed typical of what I would expect of the woods near my hometown. Deep greens mingled with brown on the forest floor while lighter greens lit up by morning light seemed to glisten and add to the melancholic feel of the forest. It felt quite a bit like home. I took a deep breath and looked around for evidence that someone had put me in the tree or even that I had managed to fall there. How I would fall into the tree was beyond me, but writing a possibility off wasn’t something I was ready to do quite yet. The forest floor and tree itself yielded no evidence as to how I had ended up there which made it seem like I had randomly appeared in the tree with no disturbances. Deciding that waking up in a tree was most definitely the least of my worries at the moment, I gave a sigh and turned around. The forest itself was also clearer and I could smell something odd. It seemed that I had not only gained a tail, but also other cat-like senses. I brought my hands up to my head to inspect my next suspicion, noting my clearly longer hair,. “...Yup, ears too. I must be fucking adorable.” I subdued a grin and was immediately aware of some sounds coming from a different part of the forest, my new ears flicking in reaction to the noises assaulting them. Sure, I might not be fully human anymore but these better senses were a major improvement by comparison. I listened for a moment longer before finally getting a feel on the direction the ruckus seemed to be coming from. Without a second thought, I immediately made towards it, hoping it would be something familiar. In hindsight, they do say curiosity killed the cat, and I ended up definitely regretting my decision to go towards it, instead of going the opposite direction. The ruckus was a very fantasy-esque scene. A very large alabaster horse, or perhaps pegacorn in this case, was standing next to some rocks shaped like disturbingly perfect spheres. She also seemed to be standing in a very run-down castle and was yelling at something in the sky. When I focused on the source of her ire, I spotted a comparatively blue pegacorn. The white one’s rather large flank had a ornate sun on it and her mane was a flowing river of pastel colors. She yelled something towards the other one, something I barely heard as the room was hit by a burst of what was probably magic. A few rocks fell and the white horse’s head dipped down, followed by a bright glow and the rocks lifting off the ground. Something told me I should leave, but I was rooted to the spot by the gripping sight of the ongoing spectacle. Before I had a chance to react, a godsdamned. Motherfucking. RAINBOW blasted from white horse and slammed into the other one. I was in pure and utter awe of the situation until the same bloody rainbow suddenly veered around and hit me. When it finally cleared, I was in a small room and down below me, I could see an entire motherfucking continent through the cool glass floor. “What in the motherfuck?” The next few centuries (which is absolutely ridiculous since I’m pretty sure I wasn’t this old aged before) were filled with me sitting in boredom. Here and there I found new abilities, the weirdest being that I could conjure bubbles of varying types. “This whole scenario feels stupid,” I muttered aloud, looking down at the continent that had been in my sight for this entire period of time. The more useful of my powers, so far, was the ability to summon divine fucking weapons. Actually a pretty badass, and hopefully useful, power. I flicked a new-found sword of mine around. I wasn’t sure of the name and origins but it was mostly definitely useful. Mjolnir was the weapon that had given the ability away. I looked around the familiar room again, all of the dust and varying things in their places. There were some books which were also outdated and the pages were so old and yellow they were falling to pieces with the slightest touch. I tossed the sword off to the side, humming as it disappeared. I hummed for a few more seconds before the floor literally vanished. “Fucking-” I yelped as I suddenly began plummeting towards the ground at incredibly high speeds. I screamed out a list expletives that are not suitable for underage people and distasteful even to adults. After a few moments of falling, I slammed into the ground hard enough to leave a crater. The dust and dirt billowed upwards and I could hear coughing as my vision spun. After a few minutes I peeled myself up off the ground. “That hurt like hell.” My vision swam momentarily before blacking out, though not before I could catch a glimpse of a lavender unicorn. When I finally opened my eyes, a hospital room greeted my vision. The lights on the ceiling were almost blinding and far closer than they should have been. I finally sat up with a shock. A slight amount of glee filled me, as I was no longer imprisoned in the room. The glee vanished quickly as I blinked. In front of me were a bunch of small horses in every color of the rainbow and in one case, quite literally. I stared for a couple of seconds. There was clear intelligence in their eyes, and I waited for one of them to do something. “Um… hello?” the lavender one said. I blinked and stared, “...And you talk too,” I finally muttered, rubbing my head with a sigh. What a crazy experience. “You do as well,” it answered in its effeminate voice. Not surprising from a pastel pony, I thought. “Yeah, but I’m used to ponies NOT talking,” I retorted. “Why wouldn’t ponies talk?” she asked, tilting her head slightly. The rest watched just as enthralled. Are these things mental. “...Because you’re animals who lack the necessary biological abilities to speak English. Sure,” I paused, looking at them, “maybe you could have your own language, but it wouldn’t sound like this. Meh, I’ll muck it to fuck it to magic.” “...” the lavender horse remained quiet and the pink one looked ready to burst. I reached out and poked her, inciting a massive explosion of confetti. When the small pastel-paper mushroom cloud finally cleared, leaving a pretty decent sized mess on the floor, the pink pony was grinning madly. “WELCOME TO PONYVILLE PARTY~!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” she screamed, almost blowing out my eardrums in the process. When I finally managed to wipe the spittle from my face, the pony was blinking. Blinking with light I mean, she was actually fucking glowing. “TEN.” “Wait, hold up. What the fuck is this,” I asked, looking at the other horses. Fear was plastered across their faces- literally. Confetti stuck to their faces, spelling out the word ‘Fear.’ This was, in fact, quite frightening. “...” At least, it was supposed to be. “NINE.” The room remained silent. “EIGTHSEVENSIXFIVEFOURTHREETWOONE!” I closed my eyes and looked away. A few seconds of waiting later, I looked back and an explosion of glitter blasted out from the… Rainbow horse? “What the- BLECK.” I coughed as the rush of glitter invaded my mouth and nose. My eyes watered as I coughed and sneezed it out. When I finally cleared most of it, I wiped my eyes. “What the actual fuck?” I was no longer in the hospital room and instead was sitting down in a restaurant of some sort. In fact, the restaurant's air itself tasted of sugar. Heavily. “...How in-?” I was interrupted by the pink pony from before almost bolting out the kitchen with a giant cake. “This is getting too ridiculous,” I said out loud, looking around at the pastel horses. “Especially since I’m in the land of rainbow horses after being trapped who knows where for a millenia,” I muttered. The lavender horse almost choked on the piece of cake she had grabbed, “You’re from 1,000 years ago? Were you there for Princess Luna and Princess Celestia’s fight? Did you see any of it?” She blasted off on a thousand other questions before I sent a bubble straight into her mouth, stopping her with the taste of soap. “Calm the bloody fuck down, I saw like five seconds tops,” I answered. “If you’re 1,000 years old we need to get Princess Celestia!” She practically sprinted out of the building and I had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. A few seconds later she reappeared with a small flash of light and tossed something at the dragon. “Send that Spike!” It disappeared with green fire and a few seconds later there was another flash, with the same effect as Twilight’s, whose name I had learned from Spike, but with a much brighter light accompanying it. When my eyes finally recovered, I was greeted by the sight of the large alabaster pegacorn from before. She eyed me for a few seconds. “You were there during my fight with my sister,” I paled in response, the bad feeling churning again. “Guards! Seize her!” Twilight’s jaw dropped, “Wait why?” “We have evidence of her crimes many years past, both against Equestria, and against the countries we neighbor,” Celestia answered. I froze, looking between the two and saw Twilight’s face switch to one of anger. “Hold the fucking phone...” “If you deny your involvement, I will be forced to expose you!” her horn glowed extremely bright and I cursed loudly as a stream of light slammed into the pit of my stomach. Hunching over, everything went black. “Is she retarded?” I muttered before properly passing out. Author's Note Thanks to SnapDrakeGames for making the edits to make this more presentable. I hope you guys like this better than the original garbage
On The Study Of AuthoriansContents Origins History Life War Organization Technology Culture Librarian Origins ________________________________________ Far out in every universe, but we'll deal with the Equis one, lies a galactic core in galaxy where the stars are quite literally, made of words. Around the stars orbit planets made of paper. The galactic core of this galaxy leads to The Archives of the Σύμπαν, or Universe. These Archives are in one of the very first Universes. This Universe or Orixe was one of the first Universes. Orixe is the biggest Library in the Multiverse. This Library contains every story from every Universe that has ever existed, exists, or will exist. Most Universes while not quite Infinite are massive. Orixe is not only infinite but it has every creature that exists, has existed or will exist. There is usually a small amount of these creatures managing their sections. Each race consists of a Archivist, Monitors, Overseers, and Sorters. Each creature in the Archives has a cosmological copy, but not every creature in the Multiverse has a copy in the Archives. Human Orixeans are by far the quickest but their section takes up some 1,539 sections. Sections are designated by letters, numbers, words, or symbols. Sections are, at the smallest, 0.47645676545656546765x10^46393 square feet and around 99 trillion to the fifth power times that. The First Section, Alpha Patrixon, has the indexes of each creature. The Archives are ever expanding and due to such the indexes continuously expand as well. History ________________________________________ The History of the Archives is very long, meticulously detailed, and some 376 volumes long. Though the volumes are quite detailed most of the information I need not mention and as such the information will be brief as possible. The Librarian, the creator of it, started with one book. This book gave her information on everything and as such she took it and made the Archives. In the very beginning it was small, just a mere 480 sections. 480 sections of the first creatures, humans, ponies, and so on so forth. The Librarian named each of them a position. After monitoring everything for some time, a mere three billion years, the Librarian went off to create more and has not been seen since. Life ________________________________________ Life in the Archives is unique. Near Alpha Patrixon are the homes of every creature in the Archive. The area itself is the size of a middle aged supergiant star. Any luxury in the Multiverse is available to them. From Xortean Masil Baths to Alianar Chess. Life after working in the Archives, right after shift, is calm and relaxed. War ________________________________________ Yes I know, “Such a place has wars?” in fact it had one war. The war was between the Overseers and Sorters. This war, also called First War, lasted nearly two centuries. Archivists sided with Sorters, Monitors with Overseers. Although it is titled a “War” it was more of a skirmish. Overseers would randomly ambush Sorters, stopping their work. This gave them excuses to refuse the Sorters certain things. Of course Archivists would pardon the Sorters. Monitors would then refuse to work and so Archivists had to do their work. In the end Archivists threatened to “Erase” the acting out Monitors and Overseers who in turn stopped their mischief. Organization ________________________________________ The organization of the Archives is as follows. Archivists make the index for their race, keep population records, and take account of the work done by the lowers. Monitors record work reported by Overseers onto paper, and make sure it is organized properly. Overseers take and note all the work done by the Sorters. Sorters, as the name suggests, sort all the literature of the known Multiverse. Below the Sorters are an unofficial class. They are not good for the Archives. This class are called Worms. These creatures, as the name suggests, are large worm like creatures with razor sharp teeth. Their main “goal” is to consume all the books in the Archives. If any entire section for a species is consumed, then in any world where those creatures are sentient, intelligent, and a main evolutionary focus will collapse into the Ashes. A world full of the ruins of different species. Few worlds have fallen. Among the some 20 worlds are Raizine, Aortin, and Gastion. Those worlds had already declined so much that their destruction was not threatening to the other Universes. To fight the Worms are the Weapons. These seven foot tall knights are humanoid in form but have feline features. They are quick, light on their feet, and extremely strong. Technology ________________________________________ Technology of the Archives is far beyond most worlds. They have teleport pads which take them instantly to the wanted location, a room that lets them study the other Universes, and can instantly make any food. No ingredients needed. Culture ________________________________________ Sub Topics Language Clothing Literature Traditions Language Language in the Archives varies greatly. The main spoken language resembles something like English but some words have been replaced. Any species with basic knowledge of English could quickly figure the language out. Clothing Clothing in the Archives is quite... unusual. Each person dresses as the favorite era of their species. For instance some humans dress like Ancient Greeks. Some dress as space farers. The Archivists during work wear white robes with golden trim. Monitors wear silver. Overseers wear crimson and Sorters wear blue. Though robes are highly recommended, other clothing choices are available so long as you wear colors befitting your station. Weapons wear altogether different clothing. They wear armor made by the Librarian herself. It is indestructible and very light. Underneath this they wear white shirt and cotton pants. Literature Literature in the Archives is easy enough to describe. If it exists, they can read it. From the scrolls of Archimedes to the data files of the U.E.A Salvation. The most common form of literature devices is scrolls and books. While data files are available they are usually hard-copied and placed in a section. The data file is then stored on one of the computers for this species. Traditions In so far as traditions in the Archives the main concept is “It exists therefore we must celebrate it.” Other traditions include drinking tea, supper, Dinthorian R & R, and music being played during work. Culinary Culinary in the Archives is different. They have quite literally everything. This means if someone has eaten it and called it food or drink then they will have it. In the Archives proper eating techniques vary from species to species. Humans, who are conscious of their eating habits, tend to be more refined when eating. Other creatures look… dangerous to be around when they’re eating. The Librarian The Librarian is the creator. No one knows where she came from, be it the future, or some lost primordial universe. All anyone knows is that if it is good, she had it. She was kind, generous, filled with mirth, loyal, strong, intelligent, honest, and full of heart. When she left she did not leave her creations with nothing, she left them everything. The Librarian was six foot tall, shining silver hair, her eyes were a deep blue, and she had pure golden wings on her back. If anyone stood in her presence they felt awe, not fear, of her. She was not worshiped, she was loved. She never asked her beings to do anything for her. Author's Note Sorry for the wait, I needed a break I've been really stressed lately. Anyways here it is!
