Target Lockedby Omega WingChaptersThe RiftLocation UnknownEngagingStandbyProcessingContactCommunicationEncounterCounterattackThe HeraldAllianceLockdownSupportThe Rift:The Rift: 'It's been two months, two months since I spared that woman and still I have yet to find out any answers as to what my true nature really is. I am a machine created solely for destruction, yet these memories, human memories, continue to plague my mind. What are they? Why are they there? Am I really a machine or am I somehow human? It's not logical...it just can't be...' Fulgore looked down at his clenched metallic fist and continued to ponder on the memories that echoed within. He would see a man, holding a baby boy in his arms, with a woman sitting next to him on his left, and a much larger man on his right. The woman seemed familiar but he never knew her, the larger man however, he knew all too well, for he had encountered him only recently. Chief Thunder. He had battled the large man to a draw at first, but eventually he gained the upper hand, and was on the verge of delivering the killing blow...but he couldn't do it. Something stopped him. The memories flashed through his mind again and halted him in his advances from finishing off Thunder. He had run away. Every time he would come across another familiar foe, every time he would have them beaten, the memories would come back, the memories would stop him from killing them. He could never ignore his imperative to destroy, but those human memories would come back over and over again, interfering with his machine logic and stopping him from doing what he was created to do. Only recently, Ultratech had tracked him down and attempted to take him back, but he knew their motives, he knew what their goals were, and despite his struggle within, he was able to find the free will to defy them. Any troops that were thrown at him were immediately taken down, unable to match his superior weaponry and power. Previous Fulgore models were used, but thanks to his own advanced technology and equipment, they posed little challenge to him. Though, despite his victories over them, Fulgore was by no means invincible, and it was only a matter of time before Ultratech and Aria would find the advantage they'd need to take him down. So he fled while he still could, to get as far away as possible and continue to find out his true purpose. 'They desire to use me for their own purposes, but I will not let them use me, no, I will not. I need to know, am I really just a killing machine? Or, am I capable of something other than just destruction?' Fulgore was dragged out of his thoughts as he heard someone screaming. He looked down at the old abandoned temple below. With curiosity getting the better of him, he leaped down from where he stood and crashed through the roof with ease. He slowly stood up and looked around for the source of the scream, scanning the temple, which was suddenly dark, for signs of life. He found someone, standing not far ahead on the opposite side, their back facing him. It was a human male, in fact, he looked rather familiar, just like the past few humans he came across. The man let out a deep and evil chuckle, slowly raising his hand in front of him as it was engulfed in dark, shadowy energy. Fulgore let out a metallic growl, trying to get the man's attention. He got his wish, as the man slowly looked over his shoulder at the slightly taller cyborg, staring at him with evil pupil-less eyes. The common human would normally recoil and be intimidated, but Fulgore, from what he knew so far, wasn't human, nor was he fazed even in the slightest. "Ha...so Ultratech's pathetic weapons continue to walk free." The man said in a very deep voice. Fulgore started a scan, hoping to find information on the man in his database, he knew he had seen the man before but he seemed much different, he had to be sure it was the same one. Subject Name: Jago Age: 30 Occupation: Warrior Monk of Tibet Jago. Yes, he knew the name. Fulgore started recalling several memories of a battle between him and the warrior Monk, but something was odd. He looked different, far different from the images his scanners brought up, he looked, menacing. Jago turned to face him fully and grinned behind his mask. "Fulgore, I remember you. I'm sure you have already processed your familiarity with the once proud warrior monk that stands before you but rest assured, the Jago you remember is no more. I am Gargos, now and forever more!" He laughed. Gargos. Fulgore started accessing his database to find information on the name, little information could be found. From the information he had found however, it stated that Gargos was the name of a Gargoyle who was captured by Ultratech. The previous president of the corporation, Robert Sheridan, had offered to share some of his power with Gargos in exchange for help with the tournament that would later be named 'Killer Instinct'. Nothing more could be found on the name, Gargos was at most, an enigma. Gargos chuckled as he knew Fulgore was most likely attempting to find information on him. "You're wasting your time, you will find nothing on me." Fulgore looked up at the dark man. It was obvious at this point that Jago was being controlled by Gargos. Fulgore had a free will of his own now, and he knew what it felt like to be ordered around and commanded like some servant. It was for this reason, he felt the desire to free Jago from Gargos, but knowing the stance the dark man was in, Fulgore knew it wasn't going to be easy. Letting out his metallic growl again, Fulgore readied into a fighting stance as he glared at his opponent. Gargos chuckled. "Fool, you think you can defeat me? By all means, feel free to try, but expect NO MERCY!" Raising his hand engulfed in shadow energy, Gargos threw it forward as the energy shot out of it like a dark fireball. "ENDOKUKEN!" Seeing the dark blast coming towards him, Fulgore threw his arms forward and fired an Energy Bolt in retaliation. Both blasts collided and exploded against one another. As Fulgore prepared to make his next move, Gargos shot through the cloud of smoke and delivered a swift Wind Kick to the cyborg's chest before unleashing a flurry of kicks and punches. Fulgore felt little pain but the strikes were enough to affect him to the point of bringing him to the stone floor. Gargos jumped back and crossed his arms over his chest, shaking his head as he chuckled. "Over so soon?" Jumping back to his feet, Fulgore growled at the dark man before raising his arms into the air. Gargos's eyes widened as he watched the cyborg vanish into a black fog, only to end up roaring in pain as he felt a hard metal fist slam into his back. Falling forward, he pushed his hands against the stone floor and quickly flipped himself over and back to his feet. "I forgot you could do that." Fulgore fired his laser eyes at the dark man, intent on ending the fight as quickly as possible, but it was easier said than done. Gargos pulled his fist back, letting it be engulfed in shadow energy, before firing it forward into a shadow fireball, this time it was much larger than before and it broke through Fulgore's lasers with ease. With no time to counter, Fulgore used his arms to shield himself and felt the large shadow blast explode against his form. Gargos shot forward once more and lowered himself to one knee as he reached the cyborg. As he moved his arms aside, Fulgore noticed too late that the dark man had already reached him and was unable to block in time. Gargos shot upwards, delivering a powerful uppercut that sent Fulgore flying into the air, only to slam back down onto the stone floor. The cyborg concluded that winning the fight may end up proving more difficult than he previously thought. Recovering from the pain in his body, Glacius finally managed to stand tall as he looked down at his defeated opponent. Sadira let out weak painful gasps as she attempted to stand, but she had little strength left, standing was too difficult for her weakened body. Glacius narrowed his eyes at her as she took in heavy breaths, feeling only pity for the human. 'It's over, I will not kill you, but I will not allow you to abuse my technology any further to accomplish your evil goals. Return it at once, and I will let you leave in peace.' He said to Sadira via telepathy to her mind. Hearing his thoughts loud and clear in her head, Sadira glared at the tall ice alien before looking at the device in her hand. Unwilling to fail in her mission, Sadira slammed her other hand onto the switch of the device, sending a signal to activate the aliens lost power core. Paired with the Ultratech device in her hand, the searing energy of the core slowly opened up a large dimensional rift right next to them. Smirking, Sadira eventually collapsed to the icy ground and murmured through ragged breaths, "My mission is complete. The path is open." The dimensional rift slowly started to get bigger, ascending higher and higher into the sky as Glacius watched on shock, his horror only enhanced as he saw the device Sadira used to open it get sucked in as well. Eventually, the pull of the rift became more powerful than Glacius had anticipated, as he felt himself being dragged towards it. Acting fast, the alien merged his feet with the ground to keep himself in place. At the corner of his eye, he could see Sadira's motionless body sliding across the icy ground, getting pulled towards the rift. Using his abilities, Glacius melted himself into the ground and quickly shot up in front of Sadira, grabbing her motionless body and holding her tight as he merged his feet with the ground again to keep them both from getting pulled into the rift. Again, The Rift only grew larger and larger and continued to ascend into the sky until it was eventually higher than the peak of the mountains. Glacius could feel Sadira slipping from his arms and tightened his grip more as he looked up at the large rift. 'Unless something gets pulled into that rift, it will remain open, and it will only continue to grow larger and larger. If this keeps up, it will grow large enough to swallow entire planets, but what can I do?!' Fulgore followed Gargos outside the temple, launching himself through the ceiling as Gargos leaped from one area to another until they both ended up outside on mountainous ground. Gargos smirked as Fulgore growled at him. "While your fighting capabilities are impressive, they are by no means superior than my own. You are merely delaying the inevitable." Pulling his metal fist back as his plasma blade spun around his wrist, Fulgore dashed forward, thrusting his plasma blade in front of him and towards his opponent. Gargos bent down and slid forward at amazing speed, striking Fulgore's legs and forcing the cyborg off his feet. The dark man quickly continued his attack and spun around, pulling his fist back and hammering it upwards into Fulgore's metal gut, launching him into the sky. Fulgore growled as he flew into the air, quickly retaliating with a barrage of lasers from his eyes. Gargos scowled at the stubbornness of his opponent and leaped backwards out of the blast zone, smirking as the barrage of lasers pulverized part of the mountainous ground he'd stood on into chunks and pieces. Feeling a heavy wind pick up, Gargos decided to put an end to the fight and started channelling his power. The tattoos on his body began to glow and a dark, shadowy aura engulfed his entire body. Grinning deviously, Gargos clenched his fist and pulled it back as it was engulfed by shadow energy. However, as he looked up at his opponent, his eyes widened slightly as he saw a red glow emitting from Fulgore's chest. With his Reactor fully charged, Fulgore growled as his entire body charged up, and with a mighty roar, the cyborg fired a massive red beam from his chest that shot right towards its designated target. "WHAT?!" Gargos quickly fired three miniature shadow fireballs to stop the beam but they were destroyed with ease, no match for the beams superior power. "FOOL!" Acting fast, Gargos jumped aside and rushed to a higher point of the mountain in order to get away. Fulgore growled in frustration as he watched Gargos escape the blast zone of his beam, the area the dark man previously stood on was now decimated into a small crater. With ground level coming closer to his sights, Fulgore quickly repositioned himself and crashed feet first into the mountainous ground. Gargos pointed a finger at him and said, "That was an impressive display, but I think we've let this run on long enough. It's time to end this!" Channelling his power once more, Gargos readied himself into a stance, as did Fulgore, neither fighter willing to stop until they had defeated the other. However, before the two could strike each other again, the heavy wind began to pick up, growing stronger and stronger, so much so that even Fulgore found himself starting to feel it. "What is this?" Gargos stood straight and looked around, wondering what could be causing such a heavy gale. Fulgore's scanners detected something, the cyborg turned to his left and saw a large purple glow in the distance, just hovering over another part of the mountainous region. Gargos noticed this and turned to the glow as well. "What is that?" Neither could question the glow further, as it continued to grow, and the winds continued to pick up. Gargos yelled in surprise as he was suddenly getting dragged towards it, whereas Fulgore continued to stare at the glow in curiosity, almost unaware that his body was slowly scraping across the rocky ground. A boom like thunder echoed through the air, and Gargos felt his strength waning, unable to keep himself from being dragged much longer. Unwilling to go out alone though, he quickly summoned up the last of his strength and launched himself towards Fulgore. Fulgore saw him but wasn't fast enough to stop the dark man from slamming into him. With both of their feet no longer on the ground, they now found themselves flying through the air towards the glow. Glacius cursed in his mind as the pull of The Rift continued to grow more powerful with every passing second. He was losing all strength in his arms, unable to hold onto Sadira much longer, and the strength in his legs was fading just as fast; he knew it was only a matter of time now before he and the near-dead assassin were pulled into The Rift. The only things that continued to get pulled inside were rocks and small chunks of ice, but that wouldn't be enough to satisfy the hunger of the large Rift. Suddenly, just as he was about accept his fate, Glacius heard a faint roar, as well as catching something at the corner of his eye. Looking up ahead, Glacius' eyes widened when he saw two figures flying towards The Rift at breakneck speed. Although they were high up in the sky, his enhanced sight was enough to identify both of them; Jago and Fulgore. He remembered fighting those two not too long ago, and now it looked like they were unfortunate victims of his and Ultratech's technology. He desired to save them from their fate, but he knew that if he attempted to do so, he would fail, and he and Sadira would only share their fate. Not that it mattered, as it seemed he and the assassin would get dragged in any moment now. Cursing in his head once more, Glacius bowed his head in apology as he listened to the faint roar of Jago grow quieter. Looking up, Glacius watched in pity as Jago and Fulgore were swallowed up by The Rift. To his surprise however, the moment the two of them disappeared, The Rift began to shrink, growing smaller and smaller, the pull growing weaker, until, in a flash of light, The Rift vanished, gone in the blink of an eye. No longer needing to keep himself against the ground, Glacius unmerged his feet from the ice and stood up, still holding Sadira in his arms. 'What happened?' He had vast knowledge of the capabilities of his own technology, as well as Earth's, but never had he seen something like this before. And yet, despite all the confusion over The Rift, two questions burned in Glacius' mind. 'What happened to them? Where did they go?' Twilight Sparkle awoke with a sharp gasp. The horrible feeling that plagued her mind immediately went away as quick as it had come, allowing the young Princess to take in several relieved breaths as she looked out the window of her new castle. Wiping the sweat from her forehead, Twilight smiled as she saw the moon descend, the starry night grow brighter, as the sun began its ascent into the morning sky. With a loud yawn, Twilight got out of her bed and walked outside onto her balcony. She smiled as she looked at the beautiful land in the distance and turned to the small town below. The town of Ponyville was quiet but in a few moments it would soon be very active, as it usually was. "The beginning of another day..." She muttered happily as she looked up at Canterlot Castle in the distance. As she pondered on what activities she should do today, she wondered if her friends were awake yet. They probably were, with the exception of Rainbow Dash of course; the prismatic Pegasus would probably be too lazy to get up this early. It didn't matter much, she was merely looking forward to another peaceful day in Equestria. With one more loud yawn, Twilight gently brushed a forehoof along her mane and turned around. "Well, I should probably go and see if Spike is up; I'll bet he's already started cooking something for breakfast." As the young Princess re-entered her room to begin her day, she failed to notice the faint dark glow that hovered over the Everfree Forest. Author's Note Ok so after some persuasion from some people, I decided to reboot this story into an actual Killer Instinct/MLP crossover, I actually have to admit I like the ideas and suggestions they shared with me so I went along with it. If you favorited this story before I made this change then I apologise and hope that it will still meet up to your expectations, and to the people who were demanding this change, well, here you go, just don't ask me to add in Eyedol because in this KI Canon, he is long gone. Also a quick thanks to Epic Brony 4 Life for helping me correct some mistakes resulted from my shitty writing skills. As usual, feel free to leave some suggestions or let me know if you think there's any improvements you think could be made to better the story. Location Unknown:Location Unknown: "PLEASE! DON'T HURT HER!" Rarity's plea fell on deaf ears as Gargos thrust his foot into Sweetie Belle's small form, earning a cry of pain from the Unicorn filly as the force of his kick threw her across the air and into one of the nearby trees. Rarity and the rest of her friends could only watch in horror as Sweetie Belle landed on the ground and remained motionless, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo looked away and cried, unable to see their friend hurt like this. "Y-You...you said you would let her go..." Fluttershy muttered as she struggled to hold in her tears. Gargos chuckled evilly. "And I did, just not the way you expected me to." Twilight Sparkle glared daggers at Gargos and charged up her horn. "You MONSTER!" She yelled as she fired a beam of magic at the dark man. Gargos chuckled again and thrust his hand forward. "ENDOKUKEN!" A dark fireball shot forth and easily blasted its way through Twilight's magic attack, much to her shock. Acting fast, Rarity used her magic to put up a barrier around them, but the force of the dark fireball was much more powerful than she anticipated, as it shattered through the barrier like glass and exploded into the ground between them. As the six mares struggled to get back to their hoofs, Gargos pointed a finger at them and said, "I'm afraid your path ends here." "Oh yeah?! We'll see about that you jerk!" Rainbow Dash responded before shooting forward. Gargos grinned deviously behind his mask and remained still as the cyan Pegasus was closing in. Just as Rainbow Dash was about to collide with his still form, Gargos shot his hand out and grabbed her by the neck, halting her advance and her attack. "Foolish creatures, your overconfidence has only guaranteed your downfall." He growled. "Let her go right now you big meanie!" Pinkie Pie shouted, clearly not happy at seeing her friend being choked by the dark man. Rainbow Dash struggled to break free and gasped for air as Gargos tightened his grip around her neck. Before she could make any further escape attempts, Gargos hammered her into the ground. "DASH!" Applejack tried getting back to her hoofs but the blast from the dark fireball had taken quite a toll on her body. "D-Darn it! Jus' who do ya think ya are comin' in here and attackin' everypony?!" Gargos smirked. "I am a god, I do as I please." He looked down at the battered Rainbow Dash and slowly pressed his foot onto her head. "Now, I think it's about time to get rid of you annoying creatures, I have much more important matters to attend to." Seeing Gargos raise his foot slightly above Rainbow Dash's head, Fluttershy cried out, "NO DON'T! PLEASE! STOP!" Thirty Minutes Earlier Fulgore's awareness returned to him as he slowly sat up and began surveying his surroundings. He was in front of some dark forest, the trees looked old and there were thorny vines everywhere. Getting to his metal feet, Fulgore turned around and looked upon the next thing that had piqued his curiosity. A large old castle, and old was an understatement. It could've been a thousand years old for all he knew, maybe older, he probably wasn't far off. The walls had holes in them and most of the structures had collapsed, it looked like there used to be statues but there was little left of them too. However, he didn't recall seeing any castles earlier. The last thing he could remember was fighting Gargos in the mountains, then getting dragged into The Rift that just appeared out of nowhere. Now here he was, next to an old castle and a messy and, rather dangerous looking forest. Fulgore let out a low metallic growl as he continued to scan the area. His readings caught him by surprise. Energy readings themselves were off the charts! They were everywhere! His scanners normally wouldn't have picked up so many signatures like this, but there was no denying the readings he was receiving. In one direction, there were a lot of energy signatures. In another direction, it was the exact same thing. Deciding to try something else, Fulgore looked up at the sky. Again, he was receiving energy signatures there too, albeit they were a little further away, and they were moving quite fast. Nothing made sense. How could there possibly be so many readings? The only readings his scanners picked up back at the mountains were Gargos and The Rift, other than that, the mountain area was devoid of anything else. Suddenly, his scanners beeped again and Fulgore noticed one certain energy signature slowly approaching his position. Clenching his metal fists, Fulgore readied into a stance as he prepared to defend himself. Rather than someone appearing before him however, a large dark fireball shot forward from the forest and right towards him. Fulgore sidestepped it and turned back to the forest where he saw the source of the fireball slowly approaching him from the shadows. Gargos. "This is most certainly a strange place, I must admit." Gargos said as he stopped a good few feet away from the cyborg, folding his arms over his chest as he continued. "Only a few minutes ago I encountered a large beast with a scorpion like tail, and it was quite the aggressive creature. Fortunately, it ran away once it felt the wrath of my fist." Fulgore continued to stare at him, remaining silent as the dark man paced around the area. "I can't help but wonder though, where exactly are we? What is this place? And, where does all of the energy come from?" He cast a quick glance at the cyborg and said, "You can feel it too can you not? This place, it is consumed with energy, it is in the very air." Gargos stopped pacing and looked up at the old castle. "Earth had nothing like this, otherwise I would have known right away. This is the first time I have felt so much energy before, it's amazing. Just imagine, the kind of power one would possess if they had it all to themselves." It didn't take a genius to figure out what the dark man was implying and Fulgore knew all too well. "I feel more than just energy though, there's something else, something, powerful." Gargos added as he looked around. "I can feel auras emanating from many beings, some weak, others a little more neutral, a few more that are stronger, and two...two that are really powerful." Finally, Gargos turned and faced Fulgore again. "The unknown light was clearly a Dimensional Rift, how it was caused however, that I am still unsure of. The Rift itself has clearly taken us to a whole new realm, that much I do know. What this realm is however, where it is, I still have yet to figure out. I think it's time for me to tour this land and see what mysteries it holds, I admit, it has piqued my interest greatly." Fulgore clenched his metal fists and thrust them forward, firing several Energy Bolts at the dark spirit. As the energy bolts shot towards him, the ground beneath Gargos shifted and the dark man was engulfed in shadow. Just as the energy bolts were about to hit their mark, Gargos faded into the shadows and melted into the ground, forcing Fulgore's energy attack to miss its target. With the help of his scanners, Fulgore saw that Gargos had moved on up ahead through the dark forest. The cyborg growled and rushed through the forest to catch his enemy, his large metal form crushing everything that stood in his way as he pursued the dark spirit. Twilight Sparkle sat in silence as she wondered when the rest of her friends would show up, while Spike had left the castle to go and speak with Mayor Mare about dealing with the reconstruction of the Golden Oak Library. It had only been around a month after Tirek's defeat and the situation with the library had yet to be taken care of. Mayor Mare had arranged for some help to be provided in the library's reconstruction, Spike offered to go and help lead the reconstruction in Twilight's place so she could remain in the castle and tend to more important duties. The young Alicorn was more than willing to let him go, as she was eager to get started in her duties with her friends, if they ever showed up that is. When she thought about it though, she didn't really plan on blaming them if they didn't show up. After all, when it came down to it, they had their own personal things to tend to, their own jobs and duties that had to be taken care of, and those came before anything else. Before any of them got involved with her, they were just normal Ponies living the usual ordinary life just like everypony else, but now, in this very castle that she sat in, there was a small throne reserved for each of them. Maybe their lack of interest was due to being too nervous, maybe it was all too much for them to take in and they were still deciding if such duties were right for them. Twilight felt a little hurt and worried that her friends would probably show no interest in these responsibilities and decline them, but she would be fine with their decision either way, after all, everypony has a right to decide how to live their own lives. Yes. Free will, to decide how to live your life the way you want to live it. That choice belonged to every living being in the world. To be denied that choice, would be sinful and completely unforgivable, Twilight understood that all too well. Rather than just sitting in silence while waiting for her friends, Twilight Sparkle decided to get some fresh air and trotted her way to the castle entrance and stepped outside. Taking a deep breath, the lavender mare smiled as she looked up at the bright morning sky. Today was going to be another interesting day, she could tell. "Princess Twilight! Princess Twilight!" Rolling her eyes, Twilight turned around and smiled at the three small Ponies that were running towards her. The Cutie Mark Crusaders. "Hey Princess we wanna-" Scootaloo was cut off as she tripped up and fell into her friends. Twilight rolled her eyes again and watched as the three fillies rolled towards her and stopped at her forehoofs. "First off, you might want to watch where you're going." She said with an amused chuckle. "Second, I keep telling you, for the last time, just call me Twilight, you should know by now I don't like being addressed like that, I'm just not really comfortable with it to be honest." "Sorry Princess...I mean...umm...Twilight." Scootaloo said as she rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment. Twilight smiled and said, "So what can I help the three of you with? I'm assuming it has something to do with earning your Cutie Marks?" Apple Bloom nodded. "That's right! We wanna ask ya if we can help around in the castle!" "Help around?" Twilight raised a brow in confusion. Sweetie Belle smiled cheerfully as she spoke next. "Yeah! We figured that since you have a castle here now, we were talking and figured, maybe there'd be something we can do to help out that would end up getting us our Cutie Marks!" Twilight chuckled slightly at the fillies cheerful attitudes. "Sorry girls but I'm not looking for any help right now. The castle is still new and I've already got Spike helping out, thanks for offering though." A collective 'aw' was her response as the fillies looked at the ground. "But..." Their ears perked up and they looked up with hopeful smiles as she continued. "Spike is currently helping Mayor Mare out with the library so I guess the three of you could help me...get everything organised for when the others show up?" "You got it Twilight!" They all shouted in unison. Twilight rolled her eyes again as the three fillies ran off towards the castle and used her magic to levitate them back in front of her. "Hold on now. Do you know where the others are? They normally would have shown up by now." Sweetie Belle shrugged. "Rarity did say she would be here soon, I bet she's just doing what she always does every morning. 'Oh I must make sure I look my best for when I see my friends later! I better make sure my mane looks perfect, and I cannot afford to miss a single spot on my face, oh the horror if I don't make myself look flawless!'. I wouldn't be surprised." The filly said after doing a rather humorous impression of her older sister. Twilight giggled before turning to Apple Bloom. "What about Applejack, where is she?" "She got up early ta help put in a little bit of work on the farm before headin' over here. Ah bet she'll be showin' up in a few minutes now." Apple Bloom replied. Nodding, Twilight turned to Scootaloo. "Have you seen Rainbow Dash or Fluttershy anywhere?" Scootaloo shrugged. "Sorry Twilight, haven't seen either of them." "Hey Twilight!" Twilight smiled after hearing the familiar voice and turned around to see Pinkie Pie trotting towards her, followed by Rarity, Applejack and Fluttershy. "I was nervous you wouldn't show up." Applejack chuckled. "Come on Twi, you know us better than that. We were jus' busy that's all, ah know we got these new duties and responsibilities ta take care of, but our personal lives come first ya know. Helpin' mah big brother out on the farm is somethin' ah've been doin' for a long time now, that's always gonna come first." Twilight nodded. "It's fine Applejack, I completely understand." Rarity let out a sigh of relief. "Well, we're here now darling so just let us know what we can do to help and we will do what we can to the best of our abilities." "Well-" Twilight was interrupted by Pinkie Pie was bounced in front of her. "Oh! Do you need us to help set up a part?! A celebration?! We still haven't had one yet after we beat that big meanie Tirek! We should have one! I can get to it right now if you want Twilight! I'll head on back and get my Party Cannon! I can't get everything started without my Party Cannon after all! How about it?! Huh?! Huh?! Huh?! I can bring some extra confetti and some extra balloons and-" Pinkie was cut off by Rarity who put a forehoof on her mouth. "Please Pinkie, it's still morning and I honestly think it's too early for such things." Rarity said as she took her hoof away. "Okie dokie lockie!" Pinkie said cheerfully as she started bouncing around. Fluttershy spoke up. "Umm, Twilight, have you, seen Rainbow Dash anywhere?" Twilight shook her head. "No I haven't Fluttershy. I bet she's just being lazy again and decided not to show up." "Heh, yeah right Twilight." All Ponies turned and set their sights on one of the nearby trees. "Rainbow? When did you get here?" Twilight asked as the cyan Pegasus leaned over the branch she was lying on to show herself. "I've been here the entire time, what did ya think?" Rainbow said as she flew down to ground level. Twilight raised a brow at her friend. "I was thinking you were going to forget about today and not bother showing up." "Me? Forget? Nah, I'll always be here on time. I was here so early that neither of you were here yet so I just decided to take a nap in the tree." Rainbow said in her usual overconfident tone as she stretched her legs. Scootaloo smiled. "That's Rainbow for ya." "Whatever." Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom muttered as they rolled their eyes. Rainbow shrugged. "Well we're all here now so let's just get on with it already, I have a few things I wanna do today so can we make this quick?" Twilight sighed. "This is serious business Rainbow, you can't just rush through it and expect it to be done perfectly. The duties we have require hard accurate work and full concentration so that we..." She stopped after noticing Rainbow was in lala land, not paying attention to anything she was saying. "Ugh, whatever. Come on girls, let's head inside." The six mares turned and started heading towards the castle followed by the Cutie Mark Crusaders. "So darling, you are the Princess here, why don't you tell us what our duties will consist of today." Rarity said. Twilight smiled. "Well Rarity, I'm honestly not sure myself, that's why I was waiting for all of you to show up, so we could all discuss it together. I'd never make any decisions without the judgement of my friends." Fluttershy returned her smile. "Well, we'll...we'll be sure to do our very best. I'm sure that with each others support, nothing will be too difficult." "That's the spirit Fluttershy." Twilight said. "Now let's hurry up and-" She stopped in her tracks, forcing the rest of the Ponies to stop right behind her. "Whoa, what's the hold up Twi?" Applejack asked as she gave her friend a confused look. Twilight said nothing. The other mares and fillies all just continued to stare at her for a moment before moving to her side to see what had her full attention. What they saw made their eyes widen in shock. Something slowly rose out of the ground from some sort of black puddle. It was a strange biped creature, one that they'd never seen before. It was pale and dark and half of its lower parts were covered in clothing, while its upper parts were bare, save for strange symbols on it along with the chains around its torso and the large sword that hung from its back. It had a small patch of fur on top of its head and small straps around the back of its head, along with some sort of bandana that was tied around its forehead just under the fur. What was frightening however was the horrible dark aura emanating from it, and they all felt it. "So, this is one of the many local areas in this land." The creature said in a very deep and gruff toned voice. Applejack turned to Fluttershy. "Umm...F-Fluttershy...you're...you're good with animals...any idea what that creature is?" Fluttershy lowered herself and hid behind Rarity. "I-I....I...I don't know...I've never seen anything like that in my life." "Hmm?" The creature slowly looked over its shoulder at them. The Ponies all gasped when they saw the creatures face. Its face was completely hideous, almost skeletal like but looked like it was made from some metal material. The creatures teeth were fully bared at them and it had pupil-less eyes. "W-What is that thing?" Scootaloo asked as she and her friends hid behind the older mares. Pinkie Pie opened her mouth to speak but was quickly stopped by Rarity. "Hush darling! We don't know if this...this...thing...is dangerous." As the creature fully turned to face them, Twilight quietly cleared her throat and slowly took a step forward. "I...I don't believe we've seen any creature like you before..." She said, being very cautious as she could still feel the dark aura coming from the creature. "My name is Twilight Sparkle...may I ask who you are and...what you are?" The creature continued to stare at her, its pupil-less eyes showing no emotion whatsoever. "...Talking horses? Ridiculous." The creature spat as it turned its back to them and began walking away. The Ponies all just watched in shock as it walked away, completely taken aback and, somewhat offended by its words. "Hey!" Rainbow Dash shouted and flew towards the creature. "Rainbow wait!" Twilight called out to her friend but couldn't stop her. The Pegasus flew in front of the creature and stopped it in its tracks as she hovered in front of it face to face. "Just who do you think you are?!" The creature narrowed its eyes at her. "Out of my way horse, I have better things to do than waste time with pitiful creatures like yourselves." As the creature attempted to walk on, Rainbow Dash flew in front of it again. "I don't think so! One minute you just show up and the next you insult us?! What's the big deal?! And for the record, we're Ponies! Not horses! And if you think I'm just gonna let you insult us like you did and just get away with it then-" Rainbow was cut off as the creature swiftly raised its arm and grabbed her by the throat. "You annoy me." With a loud roar, he spun around and threw Rainbow at her friends. "RAINBOW!" Twilight quickly caught her friend with her magic and set her down next to the others. "Are you okay?!" Rainbow Dash rubbed her neck as she glared back at the creature. "Y-Yeah..." She coughed. "Yeah I'm fine..." Twilight turned and glared at the creature again as it continued to stare at them. "Why did you do that?! Who do you think you are coming here and hurting my friends?!" The creature growled, forcing Twilight and the others to recoil in fear. "Watch your tone little horse, or you won't be as lucky." Quickly building up her confidence again, Twilight stepped forward and said, "I suggest you watch what you say, whoever you are. We are the subjects of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, if you even so much as harm any of us...you will regret it." "Ha!" The Ponies all stared in confusion as the creature laughed. "Hahaha! Fools! You obviously have no idea who I am! I am Gargos, The Supreme Warlord! The Tiger Spirit! And a God! You think pitiful creatures like you can intimidate me with such empty threats?! Don't be ridiculous!" Twilight narrowed her eyes at him, atleast she had gotten a name. But he called himself a God. It was clear this Gargos was quite egotistical, probably more so than previous foes that she and her friends had faced. Their past enemies had always boasted and believed themselves superior, but never once had they called themselves Gods. "Well then Gargos! If you think you'll be getting a 'Welcome to Ponyville' party then you can forget about it! You'll have to apologise to my friend first before I consider throwing a party for you and I never not throw parties for new Ponies who come into Ponyville! So apologise!" Pinkie Pie said in slightly serious tone. Gargos raised a brow and waved his hand. "Please, such things are beneath me." He turned back to Twilight. "However, I can sense various auras emanating from you and all of your...friends. Tell me where I am, tell me who is in charge and maybe, I might just let you live." "...You're in Equestria, a land inhabited by us Ponies, Pegasi and Unicorns alike, ruled by Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. Does that satisfy you?" Twilight spat, hoping Gargos would be satisfied with her answer and leave. Gargos chuckled. "Ponies huh? Again, ridiculous. But I suppose there's no denying what I am seeing before me." "Enough!" Twilight shouted. "I told what you wanted to know, now leave us alone!" Sighing, Gargos said, "Unfortunately, the information you gave me just isn't enough. And...because of your disrespect..." Dark energy surrounded one of his hands as he pulled it back. "I will have to make you pay." He thrust his hand forward and shot a dark fireball at them. "ENDOKUKEN!" Eyes widening at the unexpected attack, Twilight and Rarity both used their magic and put up a barrier in front of them. The fireball slammed into the barrier, cracking it like glass but it remained standing, successfully protecting them from Gargos. "AH! RARITY!" Or so they thought... The six mares turned around in shock as Gargos, who was now behind them, had Sweetie Belle in his grasp, while Scootaloo and Apple Bloom had backed away and kept their distance from the dark man. "Let her go right now you evil brute!" Rarity yelled as she charged up her horn again. Gargos wiggled a finger. "Ah ah ah...if you really care about this little one, then you will cease all hostility immediately, lest you want to see her insides scattered across the ground." Knowing he would back up his threat, Rarity and Twilight both stopped using their magic and glared daggers at Gargos. "Good little horses. Now, tell me, who is the most powerful in this land?" Gargos said as he tightened his grip around Sweetie Belle. Fluttershy spoke up. "Umm...if...if we tell you, will you let her go?" "Of course." Gargos replied, his serious tone sounding slightly convincing. Rainbow Dash shook her head. "You're lying!" Gargos chuckled. "I swear, I will let her go. Give me the answer I desire and I will release her, and you may all walk free." Twilight gave in and spoke up. "The most powerful beings in this land are Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, the ones who rule this land...now let...her...go." Narrowing his eyes at her, Gargos smirked behind his face mask and slowly lowered Sweetie Belle to the ground. Relief almost washed over the Ponies, until Gargos stopped lowering the filly and instead swiftly raised her above his head. "Very well, I will let her go." The Ponies all watched in horror as Gargos threw Sweetie Belle into the ground. Rarity almost fainted as she heard her sister cry in pain at the impact of hitting the ground but quickly kept herself standing and could only watch on helplessly as Gargos pressed his foot on top of Sweetie Belle's small body. "PLEASE! DON'T HURT HER!" Rarity's plea fell on deaf ears as Gargos thrust his foot into Sweetie Belle's small form, earning a cry of pain from the Unicorn filly as the force of his kick threw her across the air and into one of the nearby trees. Rarity and the rest of her friends could only watch in horror as Sweetie Belle landed on the ground and remained motionless, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo looked away and cried, unable to see their friend hurt like this. "Y-You...you said you would let her go..." Fluttershy muttered as she struggled to hold in her tears. Gargos chuckled evilly. "And I did, just not the way you expected me to." Twilight Sparkle glared daggers at Gargos and charged up her horn. "You MONSTER!" She yelled as she fired a beam of magic at the dark man. Gargos chuckled again and thrust his hand forward. "ENDOKUKEN!" A dark fireball shot forth and easily blasted its way through Twilight's magic attack, much to her shock. Acting fast, Rarity used her magic to put up a barrier around them, but the force of the dark fireball was much more powerful than she anticipated, as it shattered through the barrier like glass and exploded into the ground between them. As the six mares struggled to get back to their hoofs, Gargos pointed a finger at them and said, "I'm afraid your path ends here." "Oh yeah?! We'll see about that you jerk!" Rainbow Dash responded before shooting forward. Gargos grinned deviously behind his mask and remained still as the cyan Pegasus was closing in. Just as Rainbow Dash was about to collide with his still form, Gargos shot his hand out and grabbed her by the neck, halting her advance and her attack. "Foolish creatures, you overconfidence has only guaranteed your downfall." He growled. "Let her go right now you big meanie!" Pinkie Pie shouted, clearly not happy at seeing her friend being choked by the dark man. Rainbow Dash struggled to break free and gasped for air as Gargos tightened his grip around her neck. Before she could make any further escape attempts, Gargos hammered her into the ground. "DASH!" Applejack tried getting back to her hoofs but the blast from the dark fireball had taken quite a toll on her body. "D-Darn it! Jus' who do ya think ya are comin' in here and attackin' everypony?!" Gargos smirked. "I am a god, I do as I please." He looked down at the battered Rainbow Dash and slowly pressed his foot onto her head. "Now, I think it's about time to get rid of you annoying creatures, I have much more important matters to attend to." Seeing Gargos raise his foot slightly above Rainbow Dash's head, Fluttershy cried out, "NO DON'T! PLEASE! STOP!" As Gargos laughed maniacally, Twilight caught something flashing at the corner of her eye shooting in their direction. As she turned to see what it was, she had no time to examine it as the flying bolts of light shot over her and friends and right towards Gargos. Hearing the static sounds resonating from the bolts, Gargos turned and his eyes widened when he saw them heading right for him. Still having to lower his foot back on the ground, Gargos literally had no time to dodge or block, and roared in pain as the bolts exploded against his body, sending him flying back, while Rainbow Dash cringed and winced slightly as she whimpered in pain from the sparks that hit her body. "W-What...what jus' happened?" Applejack asked as she looked at Rarity. Rarity shrugged. "It-It wasn't me darling..." "Sweetie Belle!" Apple Bloom and Scootaloo rushed over to their friend to see if she was okay, quickly followed by Rarity, who picked up her sister and held her tight. "Oh Sweetie Belle! Please wake up! Wake up dear! It's me, your sister! Sweetie Belle!" Rarity continuously called out to her little sister, hoping she wasn't as hurt as she thought she was. "...R-Rarity...?" Sweetie Belle slowly opened her eyes and weakly looked up at her sister. "Rar...ity...?" Smiling with tears of joy, Rarity hugged her sister again. "Oh Sweetie Belle! Just hold on darling, I'm going to get you somewhere safe!" Gargos got back to his feet and shot a fireball at them. "FOOLS!" "GIRLS WATCH OUT!" Applejack shouted as she rushed towards Rarity and the fillies, but the fireball was already far ahead of her. Rarity, seeing the fireball heading straight for her, and still exhausted from Gargos' last attack, quickly grabbed the other fillies and turned her back to the fireball in an attempt to shield the three little Ponies. And with that, the fireball exploded into the ground next to them, creating a large cloud of smoke and forcing the other Ponies to cry out in horror. Gargos narrowed his eyes and looked around. "Now...where are you...I know you're here somewhere...only you could have possibly made such an attack..." As Twilight sank to her knees and cried, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy attempted to comfort her, Applejack just remained where she stood and looked at the ground in hopelessness, while Rainbow Dash glared at Gargos but refrained from charging at him, knowing she would only repeat her last attempt. Holding in her tears and letting out a quiet sniff, Rainbow Dash slowly looked away and turned to the cloud of smoke where her friend and the Cutie Mark Crusaders had been. It was then, something caught her eye. Two small faint red lights were glowing from behind the smoke, and as the smoke slowly started to disperse, she could make out a tall dark shadow that stood just as tall as Gargos himself, and four smaller Pony sized shadows next to it. "T-Twilight...girls...look..." Rainbow Dash muttered out loud enough for them to hear. Twilight and the others slowly looked up, their sorrow slowly vanishing as they were able to make out the forms of their friend and the Cutie Mark Crusaders, alive and well. What had their attention was the tall dark shadow that stood protectively in front of them, and Gargos himself had noticed it as he too was now staring at it. The dark shadow let out a fierce growl as its red eyes began to glow, the faint sharp lights at its arms making a sizzling sound as it stared back at Gargos. "What...is that?" Fluttershy asked as she and her friends stood back up. The shadow looked at each of them for a slight moment before setting its gaze back on Gargos. -Target Locked- Twilight and her friends stepped back and stayed out of the way as the shadow spoke in a gruff metallic voice. -Engaging- Author's Note Holy hell this took longer than I expected it to. Yeah, sorry if it seems rushed and whatnot, just had to get it done before people started wondering where the hell it was. Again, if you're among the people who favourited this story before I made changes, then I hope the story will still pique your interest and you'll stick around to see what happens next and whatnot etc, if not, well, feel free to unfavourite like a few other people already have, I won't hold it against you. Anyway, now that this monster's done, I'm gonna get some sleep, I literally spent my entire day playing the damn game and trying to get this done, I'm spent for the day, hope you like it. Engaging:Engaging: Moments Ago Fulgore hid in the trees as he watched Gargos exchange attacks with the talking horses, thanks to his cloaking device, he was able to remain undetected. As soon as he arrived, he had already found the dark spirit conversing with the equine creatures and refrained from attacking, hoping that Gargos would eventually lower his guard enough for him to throw in a successful surprise attack. His options were limited but as he assessed the situation, he was able to conclude up to several outcomes if he were to attack right now. The majority of those outcomes unfortunately would end rather badly for the horse creatures. Why did he care though? Why was he hesitating to attack now? Why was he worried about what would happen to them? They were just horses, just the usual common animals like every other back on Earth. Right? No. They weren't. Fulgore knew that. These horses were capable of speech, and he knew that just wasn't completely possible. It was a well known fact that animals...could...not...talk. Yes that's exactly what these horses were doing right now. He didn't believe it at first. He had noticed earlier that the local town area was inhabited by these same horse creatures, some with horns, some with wings, some with neither, but the lavender coloured one had both. Fulgore activated his scanners and kept his gaze on the white horse with the horn. Species: Unicorn His database provided him with the information he needed. Unicorns. Ancient animals from Greek Mythology. He processed the rest of the information as he scrolled through before setting his gaze on the winged horse with the colourful mane and tail. Species: Pegasus Winged Horses were one of the results, but the information he received referred to the Stallion who went by the name and was sired by the Greek God of the Sea. Perhaps there were more than one? Finished with the information, Fulgore turned to the one who possessed both a horn and wings. Species: Winged Unicorn? The information he received on this one wasn't much. Apparently such creatures were merely known through fiction, as a result, it isn't really known if they ever existed or not. Clearly they do, otherwise he wouldn't be seeing one right now. During the exchange between Gargos and the mythical animals, Fulgore did overhear that they referred to themselves as Ponies. A common animal and one he already knew of, but that still didn't explain why they were talking. Was it possible this...realm...was solely inhabited by these Ponies? It was quite possible. After all, the Ponies were the only living creatures he saw everywhere during his pursuit of Gargos, minus the Zebra he caught a glimpse of back in the dark forest. Gargos kicked the small white Pony into the tree he was hiding in, which allowed him to get a better look at one of them without the use of his enhanced vision. Gargos was now standing over the cyan coloured Pegasus after it recklessly attacked him. Another pleaded for him to stop but he didn't even listen to it. Fulgore looked down and noticed the small white Pony just below him was whimpering in pain. To him, it was a pathetic sight. But... 'This...this...this isn't right.' Acting out of unknown reasons he himself was trying to figure out, Fulgore made sure his targeting systems were fully accurate, he thrust his arms forward while keeping his cloaking device activated, and fired two Energy Bolts towards Gargos. As he expected, they hit their designated target and threw Gargos off of the cyan Pegasus. It was obvious to him now that his attack had also sparked a bit of confusion among the Ponies, as they were clearly looking for the source. Fortunately, his cloaking device kept him well hidden and prevented every living creature from seeing him. 'W-What...what just happened? Why did I defend that creature? What prompted me to act out like that? Why do these emotions course through my being? WHAT'S GOING ON?!' "Sweetie Belle!" As Fulgore continued to question his actions, his sight was dragged towards the other two smaller Ponies and the taller white coloured Unicorn who were running towards the smaller white Pony just below him. "Oh Sweetie Belle! Please wake up! Wake up dear! It's me, your sister! Sweetie Belle!" The taller white Pony continuously called out to the smaller one. "...R-Rarity...?" The one called 'Sweetie Belle' slowly opened her eyes and weakly looked up at the white Unicorn. "Rar...ity...?" The white Unicorn, Rarity, hugged Sweetie Belle as she shed tears of joy. "Oh Sweetie Belle! Just hold on darling, I'm going to get you somewhere safe!" "FOOLS!" Fulgore looked up and saw Gargos back on his feet. The dark spirit had already shot a dark fireball from his hand and it was heading...in his direction. More precisely, it was targeted at Rarity and the three small Ponies next to her. "GIRLS WATCH OUT!" The Pony with the stetson hat shouted as she rushed towards Rarity and the three smaller Ponies, but she was definitely unable to keep up with the large fireball. Rarity, seeing the fireball heading straight for her, and still exhausted from one of Gargos' last attacks, quickly grabbed the smaller Ponies and turned her back to the fireball in an attempt to use herself as a shield to protect the three little Ponies. 'No more...I've seen enough. This...I cannot allow this to continue on any further. I won't.' And with that, Fulgore dropped down from above the Ponies and landed between them and the fireball. The fireball collided against his cloaked form and erupted into a cloud of smoke that engulfed them all as his cloaking slowly deactivated. Present -Engaging- Twilight Sparkle was at a loss for words. She thought for sure her friend and the fillies were done for. Instead, there they were, alive and well, Rarity had a few small burn marks on her body but other than that, she was fine. But what really had her attention was the tall, dark and metal biped creature that stood in front of them. It was completely metal from head to foot, some parts looked a bit organic, but other than that, the entire creature was wholly metal. It's eyes were a pure blood red colour, it had no mouth, sharp, glowing blade like weapons rested at its forearms and it had an orange ponytail on its head. Whatever it was, it sure didn't give off the impression it was friendly. But it also didn't give off the same type of dark aura that she and her friends felt from Gargos. But...there it was, standing in front of Rarity and the fillies. Did it save them? Was the metal creature the reason her friend and the little Ponies were still alive? Gargos scowled behind his mask and said, "Fulgore, rest assured, you will pay for that cowardly attack earlier, I will personally see to that." Fulgore? Was that its name? Twilight turned back to the metal creature but just as she set her sights on it, it raised its arms into the air and disappeared into a cloud of black fog. The next thing she and her friends heard was a roar of pain coming from Gargos. Turning around, they saw Fulgore now behind Gargos, smashing his large metal elbow into the dark mans back. Gargos quickly recovered from the attack and flipped away from the cyborg. Readying back into a stance, Gargos thrust his hand forward. "ENDOKUKEN!" Two dark fireballs shot from his hand and were heading straight for the cyborg. Fulgore retaliated and fired three Energy Bolts, the first two successfully exploding against the fireballs, while the third continued towards Gargos. The dark spirit smirked and crouched to the ground, ducking under the Energy Bolt as it flew overhead and quickly shot himself forward at incredible speed. Fulgore growled as he saw Gargos speeding towards him, he raised his arms and hammered them down towards Gargos. But once again, the dark spirit outwitted him and launched himself into the air. Clasping his hands together, Gargos thrust them both forward and launched a large dark fireball at the cyborg. "ENDOKUKEN!" Thanks to his abilities however, Fulgore was able to dodge with ease and raised his arms into the air, disappearing into a cloud of black fog once more, teleporting himself into the air just behind Gargos. Growling in frustration, Gargos spun around and threw a kick at his opponent. Fulgore grabbed his foot however and, with a mighty roar, threw Gargos towards the castle. While Fluttershy and the others tended to Rarity and the fillies, Twilight and Rainbow Dash just watched in shock as the dark spirit crashed through the roof of the castle, the entire right structure eventually collapsing afterwards. Fulgore opened up his chest and started charging up his Reactor, his entire body being engulfed by a blood red glow as he hoped to be able to use his ultimate attack before Gargos could recover. Unfortunately, he had no time as Gargos came roaring out of the rubble, his hands clasped and aimed at the cyborg. "ENDOKUKEN!" Fulgore let out a menacing growl and teleported out of the fireballs way, reappearing near ground level and eventually landing back on his metal feet. Opening up his chest, he started charging up his Reactor again while Gargos was still in the air. Gargos saw him and, knowing what the cyborg was trying to do, quickly shot himself towards his opponent. -Reactor: 100%- Fulgore would smirk if he could. With his chest still open, he prepared to fire his ultimate attack, but Gargos had already landed in front of him before he could do so. Gargos shot his fist upwards, delivering a powerful uppercut to Fulgore's jaw area and sent the cyborg into the air once again. The dark spirit then leaped into the air and grabbed Fulgore's foot, spun around and threw him into the ground. Upon landing, Gargos drew his sword and lunged at the cyborg as he got back up. Seeing him approaching, Fulgore quickly charged up his Plasma Blades and successfully blocked the sword. Gargos growled at the stubbornness of his opponent and swung like mad with his sword, but Fulgore matched him blow for blow with his Plasma Blades. As Fulgore attempted to impale his opponent, his scanners signalled up a warning as Gargos parried. -WARNING: COUNTERBREAKER!- Fulgore found his defence being broken as Gargos now shot forward and started hacking his sword across his metal body, only leaving small scratch marks, but the damage was noticeable and affecting him. Gargos unleashed a powerful wind kick and, though it wasn't doing as much damage as his sword, he was still damaging his opponent nonetheless. As the number of hits he was receiving continued to rise on his scanners, Fulgore tried to find an opening in Gargos' attack pattern. That's when he found it. As Gargos placed his foot back down on the ground and reached for the hilt of his sword, Fulgore made his move and lowered himself slightly, pulling his large metal fist back. Eyes widening in shock, Gargos could only curse himself for making such a simple mistake as Fulgore launched himself forward and fired his metal fist upwards into Gargos, the Plasma Blades slashing his torso as the dark spirit roared in agony. -Combo Breaker- Fulgore landed back on his feet and watched as Gargos crashed into the ground just a small distance away, coughing loudly as he held his hand against his bleeding chest. -Enemy Combo: 51=Godlike- As Gargos got back to his feet, Fulgore decided it was time to put an end to the battle and opened his chest up. Prepared to unleash his ultimate attack. Until... "CEASE THIS CONFLICT IMMEDIATELY THOU VILE CREATURES!" Picking up a massive energy signature, Fulgore closed his chest and turned to the source of the, to be honest, rather loud voice, as did Gargos. Two tall Winged Unicorns landed in front of Twilight and her friends, followed by a rather large number of Pegasi, some in dark armour, others in gold armour, and all them wielding spears. The tallest of the two was a white coloured Winged Unicorn. It had a multi-coloured mane and tail that flowed in air as if a gentle wind blew against it. It had bright magenta coloured eyes and a golden crown sat above its horn with a purple gem encrusted into it. It also sported a breastplate with the same colour and gem just like the crown and wore golden shoes over its hoofs. The other Winged Unicorn, which was just slightly shorter than the first, was a dark blue colour. It basically wore the same crown and breastplate as the taller one albeit they were black along with glass shoes over its hoofs. Its mane and tail were no different, dark and gently flowed through the air, they were however twinkled with white dots, almost as if they looked like the night sky itself. And judging by the furious look in its piercing blue eyes, it wasn't happy one bit. "Thou dare to come into our Kingdom and cause destruction where thou pleases?!" The dark one said. From its voice, it was definitely female, just like pretty much all of the others. The Pegasi with the spears though were most definitely male, their bulky appearances and their stances helped confirm that. Gargos frowned behind his mask. "You dare to speak to a god like that you ignorant little creature?!" A few of the dark armoured Pegasi raised their spears at him. The dark Winged Unicorn raised a forehoof. "Hold!" "Ha, fools, you think such weaponry can harm me?" Gargos said with a smirk. The tall white Pony stepped forward and examined the dark man. As she charged up her horn, her eyes narrowed and she recoiled only slightly as she felt the powerful dark aura emanating from his entire being. She then turned and locked eyes with Fulgore. Her horn was still glowing, most likely she was scanning him just like she did Gargos. Then, Fulgore noticed something. As she finished scanning him, her expression softened, her eyes showing only sympathy and pity, unlike the stern glare she previously gave Gargos. '...Why...Why is that creature looking at me like that?' "Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, those creatures...they..." Twilight was cut off as the tall white Pony raised a forehoof. "I know Twilight. Rest easy, we shall take it from here." Celestia said as she set her eyes back on Gargos. "I am Princess Celestia, this is my sister, Princess Luna, together we rule this Kingdom. Tell us, why have you come here and why have you attacked our subjects?" "Hmph." Celestia recoiled at Gargos' insulting manner. "If you must know, my being here was not of my own accord. But I am quite fascinated with the energy that this realm holds." He narrowed his eyes at Celestia and said, "And you...I can feel a great power emanating from you and your...sister." Celestia furrowed her brow slightly. "What exactly do you want? What is your purpose here?" Gargos moved a hand behind his back and smirked. "What I want..." Dark energy surrounded his hidden hand, Fulgore's scanners picked up the energy signature and set his gaze on the dark spirit. "I want..." With a loud roar, he swung his arm around and shot a fireball at the Princesses. "YOUR POWER!" Celestia and Luna's eyes widened in horror at the unexpected attack. "PRINCESSES!" Twilight was about to rush to their aid but someone had already beaten her to it. Fulgore teleported in front of the Princesses, much to their shock. Letting out a fierce growl, Fulgore opened up his chest and unleashed his ultimate attack. As his entire body was engulfed in a blood red glow, his chest shot forth a massive red beam that easily blasted through Gargos' fireball. Growling, Gargos rolled to the side and dodged Fulgore's Devastation Beam. Instead, the poor castle behind him suffered in his place, as the Beam tore right through its large crystalized tree trunk, breaking it apart and causing the entire castle to tumble over and crash into the ground. Twilight could only watch in horror at what just happened to the castle. Everything seemed like a dream, but the fact was, that no matter how many times she tried convincing herself of it, it was real, it wasn't a dream. As the smoke from the rubble continued to spread, Gargos smirked as he slowly backed away. "Well then, Princess Celestia...Princess Luna...know this...I, Gargos, will succeed in accomplishing my goals, and you will not stop me. When all is said and done, I will rule over all, for it is only I who deserves to rule, for I am a God! FAREWELL FOR NOW!" With that, Gargos leaped into the smoke and disappeared from their sight. Fulgore growled and rushed towards the smoke. He started looking around, scanning the area for any life signatures, but no luck, Gargos was gone, he got away. The cyborg clenched his metal fist and once again growled. 'This isn't over yet...' Picking up a large energy reading from his scanners, Fulgore slowly looked over his shoulder and noticed Luna aiming her glowing horn at him. Also noticing this, Celestia put a forehoof in front of her sister. "Luna stop!" She was too late however, as Luna had already fired a beam of magic at the Cyborg. Letting out a firm growl, Fulgore raised his arms and disappeared into a black fog, teleporting out of sight. "WAIT!" Celestia called out. But he was already gone. All that was left was the Princesses, their guards, a still shocked Twilight Sparkle and her friends and the Cutie Mark Crusaders. As things finally calmed down for now, Applejack wiped her brow and said, "That was quite intense, ah don't think ah've ever seen anythin' that brutal happen before." Fluttershy merely nodded, while Pinkie Pie was, being Pinkie Pie. While Applejack and Fluttershy were helping Rarity and the fillies, Rainbow Dash sighed and turned to Twilight. "Well, I guess we'll have to...reschedule for another day....huh Twilight...?" No response. "Twilight?" Rainbow spoke again, but still received no response as Twilight Sparkle merely continued to stare at the remains of the castle. "Uh...Twilight?" Author's Note Only reason I got this done was because I literally had nothing to do all day and since I spent half the day playing the damn game, again, I just decided to try and get this done as quickly as possible. The next one might take a while, I dunno, depends on what happens this week with stuff. Please like if you're interested in the story so far and favourite to keep up to date with new chapters and, hopefully more people will write their own KI/MLP fics in the process, I actually have another planned out and may get around to it soon, just a one-shot though. Hope you liked it. Standby:Standby: Gargos sprinted through the forest, chopping down any vines that dared to stand in his way as he rushed back towards the place where he and Fulgore first appeared in this land. It wasn't long after his brief encounter with the 'rulers' and despite it being a short exchange, he already disliked the natives of this realm. 'Pathetic creatures, I swear they will pay dearly for this. They will die slow and painful deaths for their actions towards me, a god. Fulgore too, he will pay for challenging my might, when he should've known his place like the puppet he is. First thing's first, I need to return to the site of where we first appeared and see if there's anything left of The Rifts energy. If I can find just a fragment of energy, I may be able to use my own to create another Rift and return to Earth.' As the dark spirit continued to sprint through the crowd of trees, several wolf-like beasts made from what looked like timber lunged out from the shadows and started pursuing him. "HAHAHAAAA!!! FOOLISH CREATURES!!!" Gargos drew his sword and held it out to his side as he continued to run, waiting until one of the wolves made their move. The first granted his wish and lunged at him, but Gargos jumped into the air and twirled around, his sword still held out managed to easily cut its way through the wolf and sliced it in half. Landing back on his feet, the dark spirit continued running through the dark forest, waiting for the next Timberwolf to make a move. He didn't have to wait long as two more managed to sprint ahead of him and got some distance before they stood in his path and growled at him. Smirking, Gargos put his sword away and thrust his hand forward. "ENDOKUKEN!" Two dark fireballs shot forth and struck the wolves where they stood, lighting them ablaze as they howled in pain. The other wolves saw what he did to their pack members and some slowed down to a halt, letting the dark spirit get away, but a few more continued to pursue him, eager for a meal or intent on revenge for his attacks. "Persistent creatures." Gargos chuckled as he looked over his shoulder. Looking back, he saw light cutting through the shadows just up ahead and increased his pace, eager to escape the dark forest and its feral inhabitants. However, even after leaping out of the shadows and landing out into the opening in front of the ancient castle, the wolves still followed, and quickly circled around the dark spirit as they growled fiercely. Gargos, still smirking, quickly rose up to stand at full height before opening his hands up, shadow energy surrounding them as he looked at his opponents. "Who's first?" One of the wolves lunged at him from behind, but Gargos, having the heightened senses that he has, quickly spun around and delivered a swift uppercut to the wolf, sending it flying far into the sky. "Let's play a game. I'll finish you all before your friend comes back down here." Growling at his challenge, the remaining wolves all lunged forward. Gargos spun around and swiftly drew his sword, slicing two of the wolves in half, while the rest were smart enough to pull back at the last second. Dashing forward, Gargos delivered a series of slashes to one of the wolves, cutting it apart piece by piece before spinning around and swinging his leg into the pieces that were left, kicking them all aside and into the other wolves. -9 Hits=Blaster Combo!- The remaining wolves growled and rushed forward in an attempt to put the dark spirit down permanently but he was once again too fast for them, as he jumped backwards and flew over them. Just as the wolves turned to face him, his sword had already separated their heads from their bodies. As they all dropped to the ground, the first wolf from earlier came into sight and landed hard next to its dead pack members. Smirking, Gargos put his sword away and turned to leave. "A nice warm up for what is about to take place soon." Just as he was about to leave, the rustling of leaves and movement at the corner of his eye caught his attention. As he turned to see what was going on, the dark spirit's eyes widened slightly as he watched all of the pieces of timber slowly levitate in the air. All pieces floated towards one another and started merging together, leaves taking their place at the front as the new giant Timberwolf took form before the dark spirit. Gargos narrowed his eyes at his new challenge. "Impressive, so these Timber creatures merely join together to create an even larger one once they have been reduced to bits. I admit, I am quite intrigued now at what other types of creatures inhabit this land, but I am in quite a hurry so I'm afraid I will have to make this quick." As the giant wolf howled and prepared to lunge towards him, Gargos leaped into the air and flew over the creatures head. The wolf looked up at him with its glowing green eyes, but before it could make a single move, Gargos channelled his energy and shot forth a massive dark fireball from his hands. "ENDOKUKEN!" Landing back on his feet, the dark spirit watched as the giant wolf was engulfed in a blue fiery inferno, howling and roaring as it ran off into the forest, its blazing form slowly vanishing into the shadows. "Hm, only now have I realised that my full power is being held back by this mortal form. For now, I will have to make due with what I've got." Now that he was able to relax easier, Gargos slowly wandered about the open area he was in as he looked around, putting all of his concentration into finding any remaining fragments of energy from the Rift. Unfortunately, despite his best efforts to locate any, he found none. "Troubling...unless I find something, I will be stuck here, and I can't open a Rift myself due to my powers being held back by this mortal form I'm using right now. There has to be..." He stopped as something shiny caught his eye. Approaching the object that lay next to a tree, Gargos' eyes widened as he got a better look at it. Yanking it up quickly, the dark spirit let out an amused chuckle as he examined the Ultratech Device he found. "Strange, what is Ultratech equipment doing here?" As he tried to find an answer to his question, his attention was grabbed by the sound of flapping wings. Gargos looked over his shoulder and narrowed his eyes as a large group of Royal Guards, Celestial and Lunar, landed next to the bridge that led to the old castle. "Gargos! You are under arrest for assault and attempted assault on the Princesses! Turn yourself in immediately or else we will use deadly force!" A golden armoured Pegasus said as the rest of the guards pointed their spears at him. Gargos merely continued to look at them, unfazed by their numbers or their warnings. "So the rulers of this land believe simple peons have what it takes to defeat me? That's quite an insult in my eyes...I'll have to make sure they suffer tenfold for this disrespectful display." A few Pegasi flew over him and landed on the opposite side so they had him cornered. "This is your last warning!" Gargos closed his eyes and slowly lowered the Ultratech device next to the tree. After standing back up to his full height again, he opened his eyes and smirked evilly behind his face mask. "And this...is your last day." With that, the guard who issued the warning watched in horror as the dark spirit moved at monstrous speed, already at his face. As he stared into those empty pupil-less eyes, he felt a cold feeling in his chest, it didn't take long for his eyes to find the beating heart in Gargos' hand, before darkness took him. After they arrived in Canterlot, the Princesses had rooms prepared for each of the Ponies that were present during the conflict between the two unknown creatures. It took a little while to calm Twilight down after she had quite the mental breakdown, but the gravity of the situation and the realisation that she had to help settle it was enough to bring her back from the brink of insanity. Sweetie Belle was taken to the castles medical ward, along with Rarity, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, who all insisted they be by the Unicorn filly's side. Rainbow Dash had a few minor injuries so she didn't require too much medical attention and was one of the Ponies present in the throne room at the moment alongside Twilight, Fluttershy, Applejack, Pinkie Pie and the Princesses. "I already sent out a team of guards to find and apprehend Gargos, with luck, their numbers will be enough to give them the advantage they need. I can only pray they succeed..." Celestia said as she sat down next to the outside balcony. As Twilight opened her mouth to ask a question, Luna spoke over her. "They are on their way to the old castle near the Everfree Forest, that is the most likely place he would have retreated to." Rainbow Dash hovered in the air as she looked at the saddened expressions on her friends faces. "I say we go out there and find him ourselves! Then we-" "And then what? Put yourselves in danger yet again?" Luna said, interrupting the cyan Pegasus who slowly lowered herself to the floor. "The last few foes that you have all faced were dangerous yes, but this one is far more lethal than all of them. We saw for ourselves just how powerful he is, and we know that the power he displayed was only a fraction of what he is capable of. For now, you will remain here and wait until we have planned our course of action." Rainbow Dash looked at the floor and remained silent, not willing to question the lunar Princess. Luna turned to her sister. "There's also the matter of the other creature, the metal one that Gargos clashed with." "Fulgore." Twilight said. "Hm?" Luna cast a glance down at the young Alicorn. Twilight looked up at the dark blue Alicorn and repeated herself. "Fulgore. I heard Gargos call him Fulgore." Luna narrowed her eyes at Twilight. Before she could respond, Rarity walked into the throne room. "How is the little one doing?" Luna asked. Rarity wiped a few tears away before giving her friends a relieved smile. "She will be okay, she just needs some rest." "That's good to know." Luna said with a slight smile. Applejack then spoke up. "So what are we supposed to do against those things? We all saw for ourselves jus' how strong they are, they're really strong!" Rainbow Dash nodded. "Yeah I know! That metal dude just brought down an entire castle! It was awesome!" Noticing Twilight's blank look, Rainbow chuckled and added, "I mean...it was...really awesome, but also showed just how...dangerous it is." Pinkie Pie bounced around her friend with a wide smile on her face. "Oh it's no big deal! We can just put it back together again and once we put it back together again we can prepare a 'Welcome to Ponyville' party for them because there always has to be a party thrown for new Ponies! But they're not Ponies so we can throw a 'Welcome to Ponyville Strange Creatures' party for them instead but first the big mean one Gargos has to apologise because he hasn't apologised yet for hurting my friends and if he doesn't apologise then he won't get a party thrown for him and I never not throw parties for-" Applejack put a hoof over her friends mouth. "Ah think we get the idea Pinkie." Twilight looked up the Princess of the Night and asked, "Princess, where do you think they came from? I've never seen creatures like them in my life, they're not even listed or referred to in any books." Luna shook her head. "We...I myself am still trying to figure that out Twilight Sparkle, until we obtain more information, all we can do for now is wait. Like my sister stated, with luck, hopefully our guards will be able to apprehend Gargos, and hopefully we will be able to figure out where he and Fulgore came from." Rainbow Dash hovered in the air again as she gave the Princess a curious look. "They are gonna get punished though right? I mean come on! Look at what they've done already! They hurt Sweetie Belle, they hurt Rarity, they tried to kill us and they even tried to attack you and Princess Celestia! In fact, all of us should be out there right now so we can kick Gargos' butt and take down that metal monster Full Bore or whatever its name is!" "Well I never...!" Rainbow and the other Ponies turned to Rarity, who was giving Rainbow a stern look. "I believe it is only fair that I remind you that that brute Gargos is the one who harmed my sister and the rest of us! He was the one who threatened us and he was the one nearly killed us! And his name is FULGORE! He was the one who stopped Gargos from inflicting any further harm on the rest of us, and indeed he is responsible for the destruction of the castle, but that was during an attempt to protect the Princesses from Gargos himself, you saw it with your own eyes! In fact, I know, I know it in my heart now that those energy attacks back there were his doing, he was the one who stopped Gargos from harming you Rainbow Dash! You would be dead right now if it wasn't for him! We would ALL BE DEAD if it wasn't for HIM!" With a wave of her hoof to emphasize her point, Rarity turned and ran out of the throne room. As the rest of the Ponies watched the throne room doors slowly close, Rainbow Dash hovered down to the floor, processing everything Rarity said as she started to think back to everything that happened earlier. Twilight exchanged worried looks with Applejack, who couldn't help but nod. "She does have a point sugarcube, it DID seem that big metal guy was doin' nothin' but tryin' ta stop Gargos from causin' any damage. And we DID see him put himself in front of the Princesses to protect 'em from Gargos' attack." "I...I agree Applejack, Gargos did give off an aura of nothing but put pure evil, but I didn't feel anything of the sort from Fulgore, even if his appearance says otherwise." Twilight Sparkle replied. Fluttershy finally spoke up. "So...he's...not evil...?" "I don't know Fluttershy..." Twilight said as she looked down at the floor. "But if he was...then he wouldn't protected us like he did not too long ago..." Luna turned Celestia, who remained silent throughout the whole conversation. "Sister? What does thou think of this?" Continuing to look at the vast land before her, Celestia let out a sad sigh as she turned to face her sister. "Didn't you sense it Luna?" "I'm sorry, but I was too focused on watching their movements to use a scanning spell." Luna said. Celestia nodded and looked away. "I saw nothing but evil in Gargos." She said as she recalled her brief encounter with the dark spirit. Remembering the metal being who defended them and her little Ponies, Celestia opened her eyes and looked up at the bright sky. "Fulgore however, I saw nothing, nothing but a lost soul, a lost soul in pain, suffering, confused, seeking answers, and a purpose." Captain Star Shield watched in horror as the last of her Guards was torn apart by Gargos. There was no hesitation whatsoever, the way he moved, how he ripped them to pieces, it didn't take a genius to tell the Pegasus guard that this creature enjoyed the bloodshed, and it was only the beginning of more to come unless he was stopped. Too injured to stand however, Star Shield just cursed under her breath and accepted defeat, knowing that even if she were to stand, there was no way in Tartarus she'd be able to fight the dark spirit. Gargos chuckled evilly as the Pegasus guard in his hand gasped for air, air that he wasn't willing to allow it and instead tightened his grip around the guards neck. A loud sickening crack followed and the guards body went limp. Done with the Pegasus, Gargos threw the body aside like a ragdoll and looked around the bloody mess he made. Various bodies littered the entire area, some guards lay dead with just broken bodies, others were literally ripped apart, some dead bodies had missing limbs, allowing the blood to pour out and stain the bright green grass. "If this is the best this worlds military force can offer then I can already foresee an easy victory in the future." Gargos said with a disappointed scowl as he looked at all of the corpses. "Y-You...you...monster..." Star Shield muttered out. Hearing her words, Gargos turned around and eyed the wounded mare before slowly walking towards her. "Oh so one of you is still alive. I have to say, even though your species is weak, you sure are persistent. I suppose, maybe you're not all as weak as I believe, after all, if you managed to survive up to this point, you may all have atleast some sort of strength within you." He said as he stopped at the head of the golden armoured Pegasus. "The sad thing is however, that that strength just won't be enough to help you against me, a god. You're all nothing compared to me, you'll see soon enough." "T-The Princesses will stop you...just like they have stopped their foes in the past...!" Star Shield spat. Gargos chuckled and raised his hand into the air, shadow energy engulfing it as he spoke. "Unfortunately my dear, I'm not like any of your Princesses foes. Now, disappear." As he pulled his hand further back to deliver the finishing blow, Gargos saw a barrage of Energy Bolts shooting towards him. Growling in frustration, Gargos leaped backwards and dodged the Energy Bolts with ease, landing next to the tree where the Ultratech Device was as he glared at his attacker with pure rage. "How many times must you get in my way?!" Fulgore teleported in front of the injured Pegasus and stared down the dark spirit as he readied his Plasma Blades. Gargos quickly moved to pick up the Ultratech device and showed it to Fulgore. "You see this Fulgore?" Looking at the Ultratech device in Gargos' hand, Fulgore lowered his arms and began to wonder how the device was there in the first place. Knowing he was also wondering the same thing he did when he stumbled upon it, Gargos let his dark energy surge through his hand and into the device as he raised his other hand to press the button on it. "During my sad excuse of a battle with these weaklings, I came to the conclusion that this Ultratech device played a part in our being here, as there was no other possibility for its presence. Which means, with just the right amount of energy..." He pressed the button, and in a bright flash, a purple dimensional rift, just like the last one, appeared behind the dark spirit. "I can reopen the Dimensional Rift at will." Growling, Fulgore clenched his metallic fists and pulled his arms back as his chest opened, charging his reactor as quickly as possible so he could unleash his ultimate attack. Smirking, Gargos pointed a finger at the cyborg and said, "Fulgore! Know this, I will return! The energy within this realm is beyond any I have ever felt before, and it will all be mine! Rest assured, I will not be gone for long! I will return, and this time, I will have help to assist me with that goal! FAREWELL FOR NOW!" -Reactor 100%- With his entire body engulfed by a blood red glow, Fulgore unleashed his Devastation Beam at Gargos. But he was already too late. Gargos had disappeared through The Rift, with the Ultratech device in hand, and with a flash of light, the Rift itself disappeared, forcing Fulgore's beam to rip apart several trees in Gargos' place. Growling in frustration, Fulgore closed his chest and looked around at the carnage caused by Gargos, the sight would have made even the bravest human vomit, but he, again, was no human, as far as he knew anyway, and remained unfazed. Hearing the Pegasus behind him whimper in pain, Fulgore turned and looked down at her. Star Shield could only stare back up at him in fear, knowing full well that he was just as dangerous as the dark spirit that tore her fellow guards apart. Fulgore stood motionlessly as he assessed his options. The better option would be to give the Pegasus a quick death, but he didn't care for whether it suffered or not. Even so, Fulgore was willing to grant mercy and decided a quick death would be fair. Charging up one of his Plasma Blades, Fulgore raised his arm into the air as he let out a metallic growl. Star Shield could only cover her head with her forelegs and trembled in fear as she waited for the cyborg to finish what Gargos started. No strike came. Star Shield slowly and nervously moved a foreleg away to see what was going on. Fulgore was still standing there, looking down at her with his blood red eyes, his arm still raised and yet to strike. Why hadn't he finished her off? Fulgore continued to look down at the Pegasus, wondering why he was unable to deliver the killing blow. Suddenly, much to Star Shield's shock, the cyborg lowered his arm and deactivated his Plasma Blade. With one last metallic growl coming from him, Fulgore turned his back to her and started walking towards the old castle. "W-Why..." She muttered weakly as Fulgore walked away. Getting to her hoofs, she took a moment to breath deeply before asking again, "Why didn't you kill me?" That stopped Fulgore in his tracks, causing the cyborg to look over his shoulder at her slightly. No answer came however, instead, the cyborg turned and continued his way towards the castle. Star Shield merely continued to watch him leave, wondering why the 'metal monster' of the two creatures would spare her life. He could have easily done what Gargos had done, probably ten times worse in fact, yet he just let her live. It took her a moment to realise she was still staring and quickly snapped out of her thoughts before looking back at all of the corpses of her fellow guards. Knowing the Princesses will want to know what happened, Star Shield gave one last glance at the cyborg in the distance and took a moment to regain her strength before taking flight to return to Canterlot. Author's Note It only took me until today to realise just how much of a hell it is to try and get to the Shadow Jago secret boss let alone beat him, and beat him I haven't, for trying to beat this game is like trying to beat Skynet. I refuse to put myself through that hell again until I've found a much more appropriate approach on how to reach said goal again. Anyway, had some time, so I decided to get this done and posted, though I'm thinking about putting it on hiatus for a bit because I have way more important stuff to do. Also, I've seen everyones comments and I appreciate the support and whatnot, to answer a most recent comment about other characters appearing, well, that may happen, my question now is, if more do appear, which characters exactly would you all like to see appear? Processing:Processing: 'So majestic and peaceful this world...' Fulgore stood motionlessly on the roof of the ancient castles tallest tower as he observed the vast land before him. 'Hmph, it sickens me.' Clenching his metallic fist, Fulgore turned towards the direction of the town he had previously fought Gargos in. He could see the remains of what was once the castle he had 'accidentally' brought down with his Devastation Beam. In honesty though, he didn't exactly care for bringing the castle down, besides, there was the other castle that sat at the side of the tallest mountain not too far in the distance, plus the castle he was currently using as a base of operations, so it wasn't as if the land lost anything, right now, castles seemed quite common. He had only been in this land for a short time and already he was able to reach a conclusion about it. It was peaceful, completely devoid of war and death, unlike Earth. The only death he'd seen ever since he got here was the death of the Pegasi Guards caused by Gargos, other than that, everything was quiet, peaceful and happy. Too happy. The inhabitants of the land were clearly all horses, or Ponies as he heard them call themselves, talking Ponies to be more precise. And they had their own military power from what he had seen recently, however, if Gargos was able to do away with a large number of their military units the way he did so easily then Fulgore concluded that the land would easily fall prey to any outside force. They were lucky Ultratech hadn't discovered them. The bright rays of the suns light shone down on the cyborg as he looked up at the clear blue sky, the light itself only enhancing the beauty of the land before him. A little robin landed on the cyborgs shoulder as he watched the land in silence, pondering on his course of action. Then again, there was really no need for one, Gargos was gone and he probably wasn't coming back, atleast, Fulgore believed the dark spirit wouldn't come back, considering he had already suffered defeat. Casting a quick glance at the robin on his large metal shoulder, Fulgore looked back at the land and saw a few Pegasi far in the distance moving the clouds. 'Is it really so much to ask for an answer as to what my purpose is?' Fulgore let out a metallic growl and raised his clenched fist in front of him. The little robin hovered down onto his metal forearm and looked up at him curiously. Curious to the little creatures movements, Fulgore unclenched his metal fist and opened it up, letting the robin settle in the palm of his hand as it sat down. Looking up again, the cyborg started pondering his true nature once more. 'I escaped those who sought to use me for the sole purpose of conquering the world. Now I remain here in this peaceful realm, pondering what to do? What can I do? This vast land is inhabited by a species who succeed at living in peace and harmony. What can I possibly bring to it, when all I have is the ability to destroy and kill and bring about the ruination of all living things?' 'What is my true nature?' As he continued to dwell in his thoughts, a bright flash dragged his full attention. Fulgore looked up and found himself standing in a small tribes camp. Many of the tribes people were walking around carrying baskets, others were feeding children and some of the women were showing the children how to make the little men made of straw. Looking around, his attention was grabbed by a familiar large man who was approaching him. Fulgore clenched his fists and prepared for battle, but the large man walked right by him, as if he hadn't even noticed him. The man stopped a few feet in front of him and said, "It's amazing, isn't it?" Fulgore tilted his head slightly in confusion, wondering what the man was referring to. "Indeed, Hinmatoom." Another voice said. Fulgore turned and saw another man approaching. This one was slightly shorter than the other, Hinmatoom, who he also knew as Chief Thunder, and he happened to look very similar to larger man. The shorter man stopped right in front of Fulgore and smiled at Thunder. "It's because of you Eagle. Because of you, and because of your victory at the tournament, life here has never been easier for our people, you have saved us all." "Without your support, I wouldn't have been able to succeed Hinmatoom." Eagle replied as he folded his arms over his chest. Thunder chuckled. "Tell me though, do you still intend to keep fighting?" Eagle frowned slightly. "Ultratech has committed many crimes, and though their tournament provided me a chance to better the lives of our people, their secrets must be revealed. The world must know of their horrible crimes and I will not stop until I see them brought down and brought to justice." "Your wife and son will want you to stay." Thunder replied. Nodding, Eagle turned around and walked by Fulgore, who remained motionless as he listened to the mans words. "I know, just, promise me, that no matter what happens, promise me you will take care of them for me." Chief Thunder slowly made his way forward and stopped right in front of Fulgore, looking him in the eyes as he gave a small smile. "I will look after them, and no matter what happens, know that you will always have my support, brother." Fulgore just stared back at the large man, taking a quick glance behind him to see that Eagle was no longer there. In another bright flash, the cyborg found himself back to the present, standing on the roof of the old castles tallest tower. Was Thunder talking to him suddenly? No, he couldn't have been. Was this another one of those memories? It most certainly was. Time and time again, these memories continued to plague his mind everywhere he went. But why? Why was he having these memories? Were they supposed to mean something? Was there some sort of message behind them? What's more, it was only another thing that anchored him down, just like his attempts to process his true nature. Fulgore let out a metallic growl and clenched his fist shut. The little robin stood up and chirped, giving him a curious look as he looked back at the vast land in front of him. Hearing the birds curious chirps again, Fulgore looked down at the robin for a good long moment before swiftly raising his arm into the air, forcing the robin to jump and take flight. With the little creature gone, Fulgore growled once more before going back into the castle. "So Gargos is gone then?" Captain Star Shield nodded as she finished giving her report to the Princesses of the events that transpired and what became of their guards, suffice to say, they were rather shocked, and Twilight Sparkle and the rest of her friends were horrified, so much so that Pinkie Pie's mane had deflated just like it had on the day she thought her friends were trying to avoid her. "He killed all of them your highness. He killed them all without hesitation, almost like he enjoyed it. He's a monster." Star Shield said before wincing at the aching pain that was still coursing through her body. Luna sighed. "Indeed, only a monster would do such a thing." Celestia looked at a few of the other guards and noticed some of them had mixed expressions, some angry, some afraid. Turning back to Star Shield, she said, "And after that was when...Fulgore arrived?" "Yes your highness." Star Shield replied. She looked at the dry blood on her foreleg and recalled what happened not too long ago. "Gargos said he would return, before he disappeared into that Dimensional Rift he created with the, Ultra...tech device or whatever he called it. And Fulgore..." She slowly kneeled down and sighed as she looked back up at the Princesses. "He could have killed me...but he...he let me live." While Luna recoiled slightly at the Pegasus' words, Celestia found herself smiling a little. "He did, did he?" Star Shield nodded. "Yes, he did. He then left and disappeared into the old castle, that's probably where he's laying low for the moment." Celestia smiled. "You've done well Captain..." She turned to a few nearby guards and said, "Guards, help the Captain to the medical ward and see to it she receives everything she needs." "Yes your highness." Three Pegasi guards assisted the Captain to her hoofs and helped her out of the throne room. When they were gone, Luna waved a forehoof. "Guards, ready thyselves and prepare to move out. If the metal monster is still in the old castle then we will have to strike hard and fast before he can cause anymore damage!" Just as a number of guards were to about move, Celestia halted them in their place with a raised forehoof. "Remain where you are, we will not be putting anymore lives at risk." "Sister, that destructive monster is still out there, it is only a matter of time before he decides to leave the old castle and start rampaging through the land. He must be stopped." Luna said. Celestia shook her head. "I understand your desire to protect our subjects, but why attack one who has no reason to harm them?" Luna stared at her sister in confusion, while Twilight Sparkle and her friends watched on silence. "What are you implying sister?" Luna replied as she glared slightly at the white Alicorn. Celestia looked at the five mares who were watching them and said, "Remember what Rarity said. Gargos would have inflicted further harm upon you all had Fulgore not intervened. She was correct when she said that you would all have been killed if he hadn't arrived. We all witnessed him clash with Gargos, that and his acts alone are all the evidence I need to conclude that Fulgore is not our enemy." Luna's eyes widened. "Surely thou cannot be serious! Sister, hath thou already forgotten what that metal beast did? It destroyed Twilight Sparkle's castle! We all saw it with our own eyes!" "I know sister. But have you also forgotten that he was retaliating against Gargos? Was it not he who protected us from suffering the wrath of Gargos' attack?" Celestia replied. Luna tried to think of the right words to respond but found none and accepted defeat. "Thou...you...I suppose you do bring up a valid point sister." She hardened her look again at the white Alicorn. "But it still caused a massive amount of damage, there will be repercussions eventually." Celestia sighed. "Somehow, I don't think so." She turned to the five Ponies that stood at the bottom of the throne and said, "Twilight Sparkle, I have sent a letter to the Crystal Empire informing your brother and Princess Cadence of the events that have transpired, they should be here soon. For now, I have a task for you and your friends, though it will be very dangerous and whether or not any of you want to accept it is your own decision." Twilight Sparkle looked at each of her friends who all gave confident nods, minus Fluttershy who was a little more hesitant. "What is it Princess?" Celestia's expression hardened slightly as she replied. "If Gargos really does plan on returning to Equestria, if he really does plan on stealing the lands magic for himself, then he must be stopped. To drain the land of all of its magic would be to drain it of life itself, Gargos must be stopped. From what we do know, his power is probably equal to if not greater than even mines and Luna's. However..." The white Alicorn cast a quick glance at Luna, who rolled her eyes and motioned for her to continue. "However...from what we have witnessed, Fulgore seemed to be able to match Gargos, and, from what you yourself told me Twilight, he almost defeated him before Luna and I showed up." Rainbow Dash raised a brow. "Uh, Princess, what exactly are you getting at?" Celestia looked at the Pegasus and said, "Fulgore doesn't appear to have any motive for bringing harm to anypony, and he did protect you all from Gargos' wrath. If Gargos' main goal is drain the land of its magic, who better to stop him than Fulgore?" "Uh, Princess, yer not suggestin' what ah think yer suggestin' are ya?" Applejack replied. Celestia nodded. "I am Applejack." Turning back to the lavender Alicorn, she said, "Twilight Sparkle, will you and your friends travel to the old castle, and persuade Fulgore to join us as our ally?" Glacius stood atop the frozen cliff as he pondered where Jago and Fulgore could have disappeared to. The assassin used an Ultratech Device linked with his own technology to create the Rift that took the two of them away, but there was no telling where they ended up. The possibility that they could have just been killed instantly upon being consumed by the Rift was slightly high but the Rift itself was a gateway, a path, atleast that's what he heard from the assassin before she succumbed to her wounds so it didn't seem likely that they were dead. Either way, Glacius was intent on finding out. Their disappearance was caused by not only Ultratechs technology, but his own. It was his responsibility now to figure out where they disappeared to, bring them back and recover the Ultratech Device before it fell into sinister hands. Ultratech was up to something, and though he was tempted to storm their headquarters and find answers, Glacius couldn't allow his emotions to cloud his judgement. He had to remain calm and vigilant, his first mission to recover his own technology was complete. He had to think very carefully and plan his course of action before carrying it out, rushing recklessly into Ultratech's headquarters would only result in a disaster. They'd capture him and then they would find his ship, he couldn't afford to let his tech be stolen again. As the ice alien continued to dwell on the situation, his attention was dragged by a familiar sight. The Dimensional Rift had opened once again, and this time something came flying out of it. Turning to face the dark figure who was on his knees, Glacius narrowed his eyes slightly as he took notice of the Ultratech Device in the figures hand. It was the same one that got sucked into the Rift earlier. As the Rift closed up, the figure rose up to his full height and chuckled. "Ah, looks like it works after all. Perfect, now to begin my counterattack." Glacius' eyes widened slightly when he able to fully identify the dark man. 'Jago?' Almost as if the dark man heard his thoughts, 'Jago' turned around and locked eyes with the ice alien. "Ah, you, Glacius, I should've known you would be involved with this." 'No...not Jago. That is not my friend. He is giving off an aura of pure evil and chaos, my friend would never let such a thing consume him.' Glacius thought. "If you haven't figured it out yet, Jago is no more. I am Gargos, surely you remember me alien?" Gargos said. Glacius hardened his gaze at the dark spirit and jumped into the air, slowly floating down to ground level and landing softly on the icy surface. "What have you done with my friend?" Glacius asked. Gargos chuckled. "He stands before you, don't you see? He is merely, no more, if that's the only way I can put it. This body is mine now and with it, I plan to set out and bring all under my rule once more." Glacius cast a quick glance at the crash site where his ship was before locking eyes with Gargos again. "Where is Fulgore? What about him?" "Merely trapped in another realm. Another realm that I plan to return to in fact. With so much energy there, I could finally regain my true form and reign supreme once more. But as always, there are a few stubborn obstacles that need to be dealt with. Fulgore being one of them, aswell as the realms inhabitants." Gargos said as he clenched his fist. Knowing what the dark spirit was implying, Glacius replied, "You seek to bring another realm under your rule? Was it not enough to sate your ego to have one already?" Gargos smirked behind his face mask and thrust his hand forward. "ENDOKUKEN!" Seeing the dark fireball shooting towards him, Glacius reared his arm back and threw a spiky ball of ice hurling towards the fireball. Both attacks exploded upon contact, forcing both Glacius and Gargos to shield their eyes slightly from the blinding light that followed. As soon as the smoke from the fireball vanished into thin air, Glacius pointed a finger at the dark spirit and said, "I may not know what your entire motive is, but if you seek to bring chaos and destruction down on any realm be it this one or another, abusing the power of that device in your hand to do so, then I'm afraid I cannot let you go any further than here, dark one." Chuckling, Gargos placed the Ultratech device onto the icy ground and entered into a fighting stance. "Then come, stop me, if you think you can alien." Glacius hovered slightly into the air and clenched his hands shut before opening them up, spiky orbs of icy energy floating above them as he glared at his opponent. "This Crash Site will be your resting place." Author's Note I can say with full confidence that Glacius is my favourite KI character, then why have I done a story about Fulgore and not him? Who says I won't do a story about Glacius in Equestria after I'm done? We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Anyway, I decided to go for a little sad toned chapter but I don't think it turned out too well, that and it's short because I just wanted to get it out as soon as possible. So, yeah, hope you liked it, and before any of you comment about it yes more characters will appear soon enough. Contact:Contact: Glacius and Gargos exchanged hit after hit, from punch to kick to blasting each other with projectiles of fire and ice. Despite Gargos' fierce fighting skills, Glacius was able to keep up with him in every way, so much so that even Gargos himself was beginning to struggle. Even with his techniques, the dark spirit was unable to get close to deliver some of his better punches or kicks due to Glacius' long ranged attacks. The alien kept him at a good distance and launched volley after volley of ice projectile attacks, and though Gargos was able to dodge and block them all, there was still the matter of getting close and finishing his opponent. As soon as Glacius ceased his attacks and began approaching, Gargos quickly took advantage and drew his sword, lunging forward as he prepared to cut the alien down. Glacius was still one, or many steps ahead of him however, as he thrust his arm forward and formed a lance of ice that shot further and forced Gargos to jump back to avoid being struck by the sharp end of the icy weapon. With his new weapon, Glacius pulled his arm back and thrust it forward once more in an attempt to impale his opponent. Gargos growled and jumped to the side, barely dodging the surprisingly swift attack from the tall alien. Glacius repeated his pattern and continuously thrust forward, trying to land a successful strike on Gargos, but the dark spirit was just as fast and was able to keep up with the alien just easily as he was able to keep up with him. Eventually growing frustrated at continuously dodging the aliens attacks, Gargos decided to break the pattern at his next jump, watching as the lance shot in front of him before raising his sword and swinging it down fiercely. Glacius' eyes widened slightly as he watched the sword shatter his ice lance like, ice, and pulled his arm back to quickly prepare for a counterattack as Gargos sprinted towards him. As soon as Gargos was in range, he swung his sword forward at the aliens head, but Glacius sunk down and melted into the icy ground before the weapon could touch him. Having already seen the aliens trick before, Gargos narrowed his eyes at the icy ground he stood on and watched as a part of it moved away from him. Smirking, he turned around and sprinted forward with his sword raised. As he expected, Glacius shot up from the ground in front of him, just as he hoped. Eyes widening in shock that the dark spirit was already within striking range, Glacius braced himself as Gargos' swung his sword forward and struck the alien right in the chest. Gargos grinned evilly behind his mask as he took in a deep breath. "You've lost. You should have known better than to challenge me..." Looking up, Gargos' expression changed from confident to horror in the blink of an eye as he saw his sword hadn't even so much as drew blood from the alien. Leaping back, Gargos got a bit of distance away before glaring furiously at his opponent. "WHAT?! HOW?!" "You forget, my race is capable of many things, dark one." Glacius said, his tone indicating that he was smirking. Large pieces of solid ice now covered parts of Glacius' body, acting as a sort of armour. Gargos growled at him. "How dare you...you will pay dearly for this." Putting his sword away, Gargos clenched his fists and entered back into a fighting stance, the tattoos on his body beginning to give off a dark glow as he began to channel his energy. "You will not leave this place alive alien! Mark my words!" He shouted. Glacius let his armour fade into pieces as he pulled his arm back and entered into a fighting stance, ready to put an end to the dark spirit. "There it is!" A voice shouted. The two combatants ceased their actions and looked around for the source of the voice, catching movement just up ahead near the crashed ship. Glacius narrowed his eyes as two people came into view and he was surprised slightly as soon as he was able to identify them. "What are they doing here?" He muttered to himself. Black Orchid and Chief Thunder caught sight of the two and rushed towards them. "Glacius! Jago?" Orchid gave her brother a confused stare as she looked him up and down. As the agent began walking towards her brother, her movement was halted by Glacius who put his arm in her way. "Don't get any closer! He has been corrupted by Gargos and now the dark spirit has full control over his body!" While Thunder continued to stare in confusion, Orchid just looked at Glacius in shock before turning to Gargos. "Jago?" Gargos chuckled. "Jago is no more." Orchid and Thunder were taken aback by his deep gruff tone. "G-Gargos...it can't be...you're supposed to be dead!" "Fortunately for myself, a part of me still resided in your brother. Thanks to his weakness, I was able to fully gain control of his mind and body and now I finally have another chance at taking back what is rightfully mine. Rest assured, when the time comes and I am able to find a more suitable host, or recreate my own body again, I'll consider letting him return to you. Until then however..." Gargos thrust his hand forward. "ENDOKUKEN!" A large dark fireball shot towards the three, forcing Orchid to leap back while Thunder rolled out of the way. Glacius stood his ground and summoned up his ice armour to shield him against the attack. The two humans watched as the attack exploded against the aliens form. Though his ice armour was shattered by the attack, the alien remained unscathed. As soon as they turned their sights back to Gargos, they already saw him standing by the icy cliff with the Ultratech device in his hand. "I'm sure we will meet again when the time comes, but for now, I have more important business to take care of. Until then!" The dark spirit cackled and leaped off the cliff. By the time the two humans and the alien reached the edge of the cliff, he was already gone. Gargos stood at the top of the mountains as he looked down at the vast land before him, pondering on his next course of action. Only a small amount of time went by after his little encounter with the ice alien and he had yet to set his plan in motion. Equestria, a land of pure magical energy, more than enough for him to not only regain his form, but take over the realm aswell, perhaps even Earth. Yes, with his previous rival gone, Earth was his for the taking, it was only a matter of when and how. Of course, Equestria was first on his list. He needed to take the magic from the realm first and regain his full power before moving on to the next phase of his plan. He needed time though, and despite his current power, he needed assistance. Closing his eyes, Gargos began to concentrate as he tried to feel out any powerful auras. If he was going to defeat his enemies in Equestria, he would need some help. Fulgore alone was admittedly a difficult opponent, and the Princesses together would prove a challenge. As he put all of his focus into finding potential allies, his concentration was nearly broken by two powerful auras that were near the old Shipwrecked Shore where he had hidden one of his old artefacts, the Mask of the Ancients. Curious, the dark spirit put all of his concentration into linking his mind with his mask. Successful in finding it, he completed the link and witnessed a duel coming to an end between the two powers he felt earlier. They would both come in handy. With an evil smirk, he clenched his fist and let his power flow through the Mask of the Ancients, bringing the victorious warrior to his knees as the dark spirits power took a hold of him. Gloating, Gargos spoke, knowing his victim could hear his voice echoing through the mask. "An immortal warrior? I do believe I'll have a good use for you..." Fear. That was all Twilight Sparkle and her friends felt as they looked up at the abandoned castle. Normally they had no problems heading inside to fix the place up and read some of the books from the library from time to time, it was a common routine they had going on. Except now it was inhabited by a dangerous killing machine that could no doubt break them in two or rip them to shreds or even blast them into a million pieces like they'd never seen before. That was why they were now afraid as they approached this castle. It was already scary enough knowing what was waiting for them but the dead bodies of the guards outside the castle only horrified them to the point of insanity. Thankfully they remembered it was Gargos who had done this and not the one they were looking for. Rarity was surprisingly the least afraid out of the six, most likely because she seemed to already have a level of trust for the metal monster. Pinkie Pie's mane and tail were back to normal and, unsurprisingly, she was talking about throwing a 'Welcome to our side Metal Psycho Monster' party, in the event that he did of course join their side. Rainbow Dash was cocky and overconfident as usual, talking about how she would beat the metal monster to within an inch of its life if it chose to refuse their offer. Of course, they all knew what happened the last time she tried challenging Gargos so it didn't take a genius to know that she was shaking inside. Applejack and Fluttershy were unsure if it was a good idea to have the dangerous metal monster on their side, but Fluttershy, having experience with various predators in the past, was able to agree and go along with Celestia's plan and give the metal monster the benefit of the doubt. Applejack was more hesitant but remembering the points she herself made, she couldn't exactly say no and she sure didn't want her friends going without her. Twilight Sparkle was ready for a fight if necessary though she doubted she would be able to do much if the metal monster was as powerful as she expected it to be. Inside, she was just repeating to herself over and over, 'Please accept our offer'. The six mares crossed the bridge and finally arrived near the entrance to the castle, stopping just a good distance away from the steps as they took a moment to brace themselves for the worst. As they waited in silence, Rainbow Dash cast a quick glance at Rarity, who hadn't even looked or spoken to the Pegasus at all since her outburst back at the castle. It kind of hurt seeing her friend that mad at her as she recalled everything she said back at the castle. "I believe it is only fair that I remind you that that brute Gargos is the one who harmed my sister and the rest of us! He was the one who threatened us and he was the one nearly killed us! And his name is FULGORE! He was the one who stopped Gargos from inflicting any further harm on the rest of us, and indeed he is responsible for the destruction of the castle, but that was during an attempt to protect the Princesses from Gargos himself, you saw it with your own eyes! In fact, I know, I know it in my heart now that those energy attacks back there were his doing, he was the one who stopped Gargos from harming you Rainbow Dash! You would be dead right now if it wasn't for him! We would ALL BE DEAD if it wasn't for HIM!" Rainbow Dash nervously rubbed the back of her head before speaking. "Hey umm, Rarity, I'm, sorry about earlier. You, aren't still mad at me are you?" Rarity let out a soft sigh and faced her friend. "No darling, I'm not mad anymore. I guess I was still just under a lot of stress from what happened earlier today. And, please don't apologise, if anything, I'm the one who should be saying sorry, not you." "It's fine, you did kinda bring up a couple of good points anyway, otherwise we wouldn't be here." Rainbow Dash replied with a slight grin. Rarity smiled. "I did didn't I? That being said, I'm fully confident that everything will be ok, I'm sure our tall, dark and metal friend inside will be more than willing to hear us out once we explain everything." Twilight Sparkle rolled her eyes. "I'm glad somepony seems rather excited about all of this..." She looked back up at the large doors ahead. "I just wish they weren't capable of causing so much harm and maybe I'd have a reason to be excited too." "Oh! Oh don't forget that we'll to bring him to Ponyville so we can throw a-" Pinkie Pie was cut off by Applejack who placed a forehoof on the pink mares mouth. "We know sugarcube, ya said it ta us like a million times already on our way here. First we need ta talk to the thing first." Applejack said as she took her hoof away. "So jus' try an' be as quiet as possible for now, atleast until we talk it into coming to Canterlot with us." Pinkie Pie nodded. "Okie Dokie Lockie." Taking her eyes off of the castle, Fluttershy turned to Twilight and asked, "What if he doesn't come with us?" Twilight sighed. "If we can't convince him to come with us back to Canterlot, then, we can't force him, unless we want to put ourselves in danger again. If he doesn't come with us then we'll just have to return to Canterlot and tell the Princesses. Even if he doesn't come with us, the Princesses can always go to him. I just hope he doesn't attack us before we have the chance to try and talk." "Well what are we waiting for? Let's-" Rainbow Dash was cut off as she flew into something hard, causing a loud clang to echo a little as she landed on the ground. "Ow!" "Rainbow! Are you alright?" Fluttershy asked as she rushed to help her friend up. The cyan Pegasus rubbed her head and nodded. "Yeah, what was that?" Twilight looked ahead and noticed there was a small blurry invisible field in front of them. She approached it and raised her forehoof, expecting it to go through or something, instead she felt something metal. "W-What is this?" The rest of the mares all stood next to her as she examined the invisible field more. "Is it some kind of invisible barrier?" Rarity asked. "I...I don't know. It's possible, but what could have put it up? Surely Gargos isn't responsible for it and I don't think Fulgore has the capability to do so judging from what we saw what he can do." Twilight said. Fluttershy let out a quiet 'EEP!' and backed away from the rest of her friends. "Uh girls..." Applejack placed her hoof on the invisible metal next and said, "Well, it can't exactly be a barrier. It's only coverin' like, this part of the ground, we can just go around it." "Girls...?" Twilight looked back at Applejack. "But it could be some type of new magic. Isn't that enough to make you curious?" "Not really sugarcube." Applejack replied. Rainbow Dash gave a quick jab at the invisible barrier and said, "Well it doesn't matter, I doubt it's anything important anyway. Let's just head inside and..." She was halted by a loud sizzling sound. The six mares, plus Fluttershy who had backed away from them, all watched as sparks danced around the invisible barrier, the metal form slowly becoming visible as its dark metal body melted into view for all to see. Slowly looking up, all eyes locked on to two glowing red orbs that stared back down at them, a metal growl filling the air as silence followed. They then did the first thing that came to mind. They screamed. Author's Note Sorry this took a while, but I've been busy. Plus I've been rather too depressed lately due to the recent passing of my dog. Anyway, it's not much right now but things will get better as it goes along. Communication:Communication: "So...that's what became of them..." A troubled Thunder said as he closed eyes and went deep in thought after listening to Glacius explain what happened earlier with the Dimensional Rift. Glacius leaned back against the wall of the ships bridge and folded his arms as he turned to Orchid, who was currently trying to access the ships database to find information on Ultratech. "I would appreciate it if you asked me to use my ships tech first instead of using it without my permission." Orchid glared at him over her shoulder. "I think we have more important things to worry about..." Glacius nodded. "Gargos possessing Jago..." He then turned to Thunder. "And...Fulgore." Thunder clenched his fist and refrained from punching the metal wall in front of him. "How dare Ultratech do something like this. He never deserved any of this..." "Are you positive your information is accurate?" Glacius asked Orchid. "How do you know Fulgore is-" Orchid glared at the ice alien. "Because I've been fighting them the majority of my whole life! Trust me, I know." Glacius sighed. "Well then...I suppose we better do something about Gargos first. He is a great threat and must be dealt with immediately or he will bring an entire realm to ruin." Orchid raised a brow at the alien. "You actually believe him about that different realm?" "I sensed no dishonesty in his words." Glacius replied. "But if he is able to regain energy in this realm, we must stop him immediately. Not only is there no guarantee that he'll stop there, but there's also the fact that he is currently possessing my friend and your brother." Thunder spoke up. "Do not forget about Fulgore my friend. He is just as important." "Ultratech is still in a weakened state. They're a threat to the world, if I don't take care of them now, they'll return to power. I can't possibly choose between millions of innocent people and my brother." Orchid replied. Glacius shook his head. "Fulgore. Gargos. Ultratech. They are all linked. But think for a moment, which is more important? A Cyborg that we can track down at any time? A dark spirit possessing a friend and brother and planning to drain an entire realm to restore his full power and possibly bring ruin to not only that realm but ours aswell? Or the currently weakened corporation responsible for it all?" Orchid and Thunder exchanged looks before going deep in thought, clearly struggling to decide what to do. Glacius sighed and said, "We cannot stop Gargos if he is in the other realm while we remain here. To follow him, we need a device similar to the one he's using to open up Rifts. My ship possesses great technology but it alone will not be enough. However..." He looked at Orchid. "If we were to...track down Ultratech and steal a device from their headquarters, we would not only have a chance to put an end to them, but we could then use the device and my ships energy to create a Rift and follow Gargos to the other realm." He then glanced over at Thunder. "From there, we could track down Fulgore and deal with Gargos once and for all." Orchid smirked. "Alright then, I'm all for it." "A wise strategy, let's do it." Thunder agreed. Glacius nodded. "Very well. I shall use my ships tech to find Ultratechs headquarters. From there we shall infiltrate it and recover some of their equipment. Afterwards, we will meet back up here at my ship." "Wait, meet back up? We're splitting up?" Orchid questioned with a confused glare. "Yes..." Glacius replied. Orchid got off the large metal seat and approached him. "Why?" "Because despite our combined abilities, defeating Gargos will be no easy task. I'm going to seek out someone who can help us." Glacius said as he made his way to the ships controls. "Once I've located Ultratechs headquarters, I'll upload the coordinates to that primitive device of yours, I'll then be on my way to seek assistance." Orchid scoffed and decided to ignore his apparent insult of human technology. Spinal watched the ship in the distance, pondering on why he no longer desired to join its ghostly crew and move on. One moment he was victorious over his opponent, the next, he barely recalled a dark voice whispering something in his mind, then found himself with a sudden change of desire. A bright flash from behind caught his attention. It was only after the light of the flash was gone and the sound of footsteps filled the air that he looked over his shoulder to acknowledge the dark spirit before him. Gargos slowly approached the immortal warrior and frowned slightly behind his metal face mask. "I have a plan to finally regain my full power but a few...pests intend to get in my way." Spinal eyed the dark clad man up and down. He couldn't place a bony finger on it, but something about him seemed familiar. Different, but still familiar. Clutching the Ultratech device in his hand, Gargos turned to the large blue werewolf that was currently glaring at him with a mixed expression of rage and confusion. "This will not be enough to take the realm of Equestria, but the two of you will be enough to keep our enemies busy until I have found more allies. So...I expect the both of you to cooperate, failure will not be tolerated." Spinal and Sabrewulf exchanged glares before responding with a nod. "Good." Gargos activated the device and, like before, a large circular Rift of purple opened up beside them. "Move out! Kill anything that gets in your way! Divide and Conquer!" Sabrewulf let out a loud howl before getting on all fours and began rushing towards the Rift, followed by Spinal, who chuckled evilly, eager to spill the blood of his 'masters' foes. With a victorious smirk, Gargos watched as the two disappeared along with the Rift. Fulgore's scanners detected a massive surge of energy nearby, much similar to that of the Rift earlier. While he intended to focus on the precise location of the massive energy signature, he was already preoccupied with the six Ponies before him. The yellow Pegasus had immediately fainted after their screams had died down. The hyperactive pink one stared at him, wide-eyed and with a big, massive, overly happy grin. The orange one with the hat and the lavender one with wings and a horn were both keeping their distance with a clear look of fear on their faces. The white Unicorn was closer but still keeping her distance, giving him a curious look as if she was examining every part of his body. Then there was the cyan one with the rainbow mane and tail. The continuous sound of clanging brought Fulgore's attention slowly down to the cyan Pegasus, who was repeatedly throwing punch after punch at his large chest. It was a clear futile attempt, as the only damage she'd done so far was bruise and cut her forehoofs against his unmarked metal chest. Finally, the Pegasus had apparently expired all of her stamina and slowly fluttered to the ground. "Alright...you...win...just...hurry up...and get it...over with..." She panted heavily. Fulgore just let out a metallic growl, causing the cyan Pony to back away slightly. Twilight Sparkle finally decided to step in and teleported in front of her friend. "Wait! Please, don't hurt us. We...we aren't here to fight. We only came here to talk." 'Talk? What could these creatures possibly want to talk to me about?' Fulgore thought. As Fluttershy regained consciousness, she was helped up by Applejack. "You okay sugarcube?" "Y-Yes...I'm fine..." Fluttershy replied quietly before looking back at the cyborg. She followed Applejack over to Twilight but kept her distance and stayed behind her friends, still very much frightened. Fulgore looked back and forth at each of them as they stood next to each other, waiting for the lavender one to continue. "N-Now...first off...we're sorry about our...reaction. We just...didn't expect to run into you the way we did. We didn't know you could...turn invisible." Twilight said, shuddering at the thought of this dangerous metal monster being able to hide himself at will. Twilight then placed a forehoof to her chest. "Let me introduce myself. My name is Twilight Sparkle..." She then pointed at each of her friends. "That's Pinkie Pie. Applejack. Rainbow Dash. Fluttershy and Rarity. As I'm sure you are most likely aware, we're Ponies. I'm an Alicorn, Rarity here is a Unicorn. Rainbow and Fluttershy are both Pegasi, and Applejack and Pinkie Pie are Earth Ponies." Fulgore looked at each of them and processed the information willingly given to him. With his scanners beeping in his vision, he looked at each of the six mares and started gathering the data into a record so he wouldn't forget their names. He didn't know why he was bothering though. Subject Name: Twilight Sparkle Species: Alicorn Method of Execution: Break energy source and impalement to the brain Threat Level: Low He hadn't heard of an Alicorn before but he didn't exactly care and turned to the next one. Subject Name: Pinkie Pie Species: Earth Pony Method of Execution: Decapitation Threat Level: Low He set his glowing gaze on Applejack. Subject Name: Applejack Species: Earth Pony Method of Execution: Sever Cervical Threat Level: Low Then Rainbow Dash. Subject Name: Rainbow Dash Species: Pegasus Method of Execution: Remove Wings and Bludgeon to death Threat Level: Low Then Fluttershy. Subject Name: Fluttershy Species: Pegasus Method of Execution: Heart Removal Threat Level: Very High Then Rarity. Subject Name: Rarity Spec- 'Wait. What?' Fulgore set his gaze back on Fluttershy, who backed away slightly. Subject Name: Fluttershy Species: Pegasus Method of Execution: Heart Removal Threat Level: Very High 'Ridiculous. Until proven otherwise, I refuse to believe this information is accurate.' Pressing a few buttons on the device on his wrist, the data blurred up for a moment before a part of it was deleted and replaced. Subject Name: Fluttershy Species: Pegasus Method of Execution: Heart Removal Threat Level: Low Fulgore turned to the last of the six. Subject Name: Rarity Species: Unicorn Method of Execution: Break energy source and impalement to the brain Threat Level: Low Done with the processing, he let out a metallic growl, motioning for one of them to speak up. Twilight exchanged fearful looks with her friends before slowly stepping forward. "Umm...the...the reason we're here is because...the Princesses asked us to find you." Fulgore tilted his head slightly. "They...they asked us to find you and ask that you come with us to Canterlot." Twilight said as she raised her forehoof and pointed at something. Fulgore followed her hoof and set his glowing gaze on the white castle that was sitting on the side of the tall mountain in the distance. Applejack decided to speak up. "They asked us to find ya because they wanna ask ya to join us." Surprised slightly, Fulgore looked back down at the six Ponies, his gaze moving to Rarity who stepped forward to speak next. "While we know you are...dangerous...we know that you aren't a mindless killing brute like Gargos. It's thanks to you that my sister and her friends, and I...are still alive." Rarity said as she looked away, attempting to hide the blush that appeared slightly on her face. Twilight nodded. "She's right. While you...did...bring down my castle..." Twilight took a moment to regain her composure. "Unlike Gargos, who displayed nothing but complete hostility towards us, your actions clearly proved to us that your only intent was to stop him. As such, the Princesses would like you to come to Canterlot and accept their offer to join us, so we can work together to defeat Gargos and protect our home." "And so I can throw you a 'Welcome to our side Metal Psycho Monster' Party!" Pinkie Pie as she lunged forward and threw her forelegs around one of Fulgore's metal legs, looking up at him with a wide happy grin. Fulgore just looked down at her. It was quite possible this Pony may very well be insane, the fact that her smile hadn't left her face once so far was proof of that. Rainbow Dash decided to speak up. "Hey Pinkie, don't touch him! He might try to-" "Oh relax Rainbow! Me and Fulgore are already friends! See? Look at his smile, he's already happy to have somepony as a friend!" Pinkie Pie said. The other five mares looked up at the cyborg, starting to get nervous that Pinkie's antics were most likely going to end up driving him mad. "Umm...Pinkie...maybe you should...give him some space...he probably doesn't appreciate you touching him." Fluttershy muttered out. Pinkie Pie grinned cheerfully before bouncing back over to her friends. "Okie Dokie Lockie!" With her friend back to their side, Twilight spoke up again. "Anyway...Fulgore...will you please return to Canterlot with us? The Princesses will be able to fill you in much better once we get there. Please? Whatever Gargos is planning, it can't be good for Equestria and there's no telling what he'll do to accomplish his goals. The Princesses said that you're the only one in Equestria who may be able to stop him. Will you help us?" Fulgore looked down at them in silence. While Rainbow continued to glare hatefully at him, the rest of them looked at him with hopeful expressions, whereas Pinkie Pie continued to smile cheerfully at him. The cyborg let out a metallic growl, forcing the six to back away slightly. 'I suppose I shouldn't exactly be surprised. The supposed rulers of this land only seek to use me for the sake of their Kingdom. While it isn't exactly a selfish motive like Ultratech, I still detest being used as a mere weapon for anothers goals. Then again...a weapon is all I am.' Clenching his metal hand shut, Fulgore looked up at Canterlot in the distance. 'Still...Gargos is my target. Perhaps I should comply with their request...for now.' Facing the six mares again, Fulgore nodded. Twilight's expression lit up. "Y-You'll come with us?" Again, Fulgore nodded. All of their expressions then lit up, if only slightly, with the exception of Rainbow Dash who continued to glare at Fulgore, albeit with slightly less hostility. In all honesty, she was just grateful he was actually agreeing to go with them instead of ripping them to pieces. Rarity then approached the cyborg and held a forehoof out. "Well then...um, Fulgore...let us be on our way shall we? We will head back to Ponyville and take the-" A faint explosion echoed in the air. Acting on instinct, Fulgore activated his plasma blades and glanced around for the source. "L-Look! Up there!" Fluttershy pointed with a forehoof. The six mares and cyborg followed her hoof up to Canterlot. Their eyes all widened in horror when they saw a part of the castle roof collapsing. "Oh no...the castle is under attack. The Princesses!" Twilight yelled out. Just as she unfurled her wings to take flight, a loud howl froze her in her place. "W-What in tarnation was that?" Applejack asked as she fearfully looked around for the source of the howl. "Timberwolf?" Rainbow Dash asked as she glanced around. The six mares slowly huddled together, recalling their past experiences with packs of Timberwolves. 'No...not a Timberwolf.' Fulgore thought as his scanners directed him to the roof of the castle next to them. Noticing his movement, the six mares followed his gaze all the way up to the roof of the castle. A large blue furred creature was standing on top of the roof, glaring down at them with a hungry look, baring its sharp teeth at them as drool dripped from its mouth. "What...what is that...?" Twilight whispered fearfully as she and her friends backed away. Fulgore reactivated his Plasma Blades and entered into a fighting stance as he prepared for battle. 'Sabrewulf.' Author's Note Well, that's that one done. Sorry for the long wait but recovering from recent events hasn't exactly been easy. Anyway, I ain't gonna waste too much time with notes. Sabrewulf is here, which means Spinal is...I'll let you all piece together the rest. Also, if there's any other characters you all want to appear, just let me know and I'll see what I can do to fit them in. Encounter:Encounter: Sabrewulf leaped from the roof and landed feet first onto the ground, snarling at the six mares and cyborg that stood across from him. The werewolf narrowed his eyes at his seven opponents, choosing which to attack first. While the desire to rip flesh from bone was strong, he also knew that attacking Fulgore first would be the wisest choice. Attacking one of the Ponies and leaving himself open would be a fatal mistake, as the werewolf was already familiar with the destructive tools Fulgore had at his disposal. "A...A werewolf?" Twilight Sparkle slowly backed away along with her friends. "I've only ever read about them in books, I've never actually seen one..." She stuttered. Applejack chuckled nervously. "Hehe...uh, there's a first time for everything sugarcube." Sabrewulf let out a mighty howl and slowly approached his prey. Fulgore challenged him with a metallic growl, and stomped his way forward, Plasma Blades at the ready. Not wasting any time, Sabrewulf rushed forward and jumped at the cyborg. Fulgore pulled his arm back and prepared to throw a straight punch, but Sabrewulf's speed was much quicker than he anticipated, as he swiftly circled around behind the cyborg and hammered his elbow into the back of his head. Fulgore stumbled forward before quickly regaining his footing, turning around to face his opponent only to find Sabrewulf already in the air flying towards him. The werewolf snarled viciously as he hacked away at Fulgore's torso with his claws, leaving slight scratch marks on the metal. Fulgore growled and thrust his foot forward into Sabrewulf's gut, forcing the fierce werewolf back a good distance. Before Fulgore could even put his foot back down to regain his full balance, Sabrewulf was already back to his feet and rushing towards him on all fours. Acting fast, Fulgore fired his eye lasers at the ground in front of Sabrewulf, attempting to force him to run right into them. Again however, Sabrewulf's instincts were much sharper than he gave credit for, as he ceased his running and barely avoided the lasers before jumping into the towards the cyborg. Fortunately, Fulgore had him this time. As soon as the werewolf was about to strike, Fulgore pulled his metal fist back and hammered it upwards, delivering a powerful spinning uppercut that sent the werewolf into the air. -Combo Breaker- Realising his slow movement was affecting his capabilities, Fulgore raised his arms and opened up his chest, a bright red light started flashing inside as he began charging up his Reactor. Knowing what his opponent was doing, Sabrewulf landed on all fours, not far in front of the six mares, who all shrieked in fear, and started rushing back towards the cyborg again. Seeing him approaching, Fulgore ceased his charge and thrust his arms forward, firing several Energy Bolts at the werewolf. -Reactor: 50%- Sabrewulf manoeuvred around each of the blasts and, after dodging the last one, jumped forward. With his claws ready, Sabrewulf slammed his entire body into Fulgore, growling at the impact before standing over the cyborg. Without hesitation, the werewolf began hacking away once more with his claws, scratching Fulgore's metal body slightly, while leaving several open cuts on the few organic parts he had. Knowing the werewolf was going to leave serious damage eventually, Fulgore quickly retaliated and fired his eye lasers into his opponents chest. Roaring in pain at the burn mark on his chest, Sabrewulf jumped back and rubbed his chest before glaring daggers at the now rising cyborg. Upon getting back to his feet, Fulgore raised his arms and disappeared into a cloud of black fog. Sabrewulf's eyes widened, learning too late what his opponent was doing and howled in pain as he felt a large metal fist collide with his back. After teleporting behind the werewolf to throw in his attack, Fulgore quickly opened his chest up to begin charging his Reactor again, leaving himself open as his body was surrounded by a blood red glow. Twilight watched carefully on what Fulgore was doing while Sabrewulf was recovering from the attack, trying to figure out the purpose of the red flashing thing inside his chest. 'What purpose does that serve exactly? From what we've already seen, the werewolf is much quicker, its speed is letting it outmanoeuvre Fulgore due to his bulk and slow movement, but even with that speed, Fulgore is able to counterattack because he has more options for defence, close and long range combat. We've already seen the power he's capable of, so why isn't he ending this right now?' -Reactor: 95%- Almost there. Fulgore's Reactor was nearly charged at maximum, but before he could finish charging, Sabrewulf was already rushing towards him. The cyborg growled and closed his chest, but his still slightly slow movement gave Sabrewulf the time he needed to jump forward slash his claws against the cyborgs head. Little damage received. Though Fulgore knew it was only a matter of time before his opponent hit an important part of his body that would leave him crippled. He had to end this now. Pulling his metal fists back, his Plasma Blades activated again. Fulgore lunged forward and started hacking away with his Plasma Blades, but despite the increase of energy from the Reactor, it wasn't enough to help him keep up with Sabrewulf's speed. The werewolf continued to dodge his opponent with ease, waiting to find an opening to the cyborgs attack pattern. As soon as Fulgore threw his slowest punch, Sabrewulf snarled viciously and grabbed his large metal arm before he could pull it back. Acting fast, Sabrewulf pulled backwards and dropped himself to the ground, bringing Fulgore over and ontop of him. With his large feet pressed against Fulgore's metal torso, Sabrewulf mustered up all the strength he had and fired Fulgore overhead, sending the cyborg flying and crashing head first into the castle wall. The six Ponies nearby all watched in shock as the cyborg landed on the ground, his large metal body remained motionless as the cloud of dust from the crash slowly faded. Before they could run to his side to check on him, they all jumped back with a fearful shriek as Sabrewulf jumped in front of them. "You girls get out of here! I'll hold it off!" Rainbow Dash shouted as she shot towards the werewolf. Sabrewulf just snarled and smacked her aside with the back of his large claws before setting his sights directly on Twilight Sparkle. Narrowing his eyes at the lavender Alicorn, words from his 'master' burned in his mind. "The ones that possess both a horn and wings seem to be in charge. Kill them on sight, and if any others get in your way, kill them too." Growling, Sabrewulf stomped forward, his eyes still fixed on a frightened Twilight. Acting fast, Applejack jumped in front of her friend and thrust her hindlegs into the werewolfs gut. "Back off ya no good varmint!" Sabrewulf glared at her and grabbed her by the neck, growling viciously at the farm mare as he picked her up and threw her into Rainbow Dash. Pinkie Pie frowned at the blue werewolf. "Well, if you think you'll be getting any parties thrown for you then you can think again! I don't throw parties for anypony who is mean to me and my friends and hurts other Ponies for absolutely no reason! I think you should apologise right now otherwise I'll have to-" Pinkie Pie was cut off as Sabrewulf clamped her muzzle shut with one of his clawed hands before tossing her aside into her friends. "Back you savage!" Rarity, assisted by Twilight, both charged up their horns and fired beams of magic at the werewolf. It burned, only slightly however, almost as if it was a laughably weaker version of the lasers Fulgore used. Seeing the werewolf still closing in, Fluttershy slowly backed away as it closed in on Rarity and Twilight. "Our magic is barely affecting him!" Twilight shouted as she tried to push the werewolf back with more powerful blasts of magic. By the time he was within close enough distance, Sabrewulf lunged forward and grabbed both Twilight and Rarity by the horns, immediately putting a stop to their magic before lifting them into the air. The two mares cried out in pain as the werewolf tightened his grip around their horns, with the intention of breaking them completely, then he would kill them. Fulgore finally recovered from the previous attack and slowly rose to his feet. Upon seeing that Sabrewulf was currently distracted with the two mares in his claws, he decided to take the opportunity to finish charging his Reactor. As he did so however, his scanners started picking up a massive energy signature. Fluttershy looked back and forth between the three mares who were currently piled ontop of each other, and the two who were currently suffering in Sabrewulf's grasp. "How dare you..." Sabrewulf's ears twitched slightly upon hearing her words. "How DARE you...!" Fluttershy unfurled her wings and hovered above the ground as she flew in front of Sabrewulf, who was currently glaring at her curiously. "You think you can just hurt other Ponies and get away with it? Do you?!" Sabrewulf's glare was slowly wavering and his grip around Twilight and Rarity weakened until he finally let them go, the two mares then quickly backed away while rubbing their horns to soothe the pain that was still present. Sabrewulf's full attention was now on the yellow Pegasus that was currently hovering in front of him, giving him a rather, scolding, glare, like the one a mother would give to her child when they did something stupid. "You think that just because you're bigger than us, and scarier than us that you can just go around and hurt other Ponies whenever you want?!" Fluttershy added as she closed in slightly, her stare intimidating Sabrewulf into backing away slightly. -Reactor: 100%- Fulgore just watched on silence, still unable to believe that the energy signature his scanners picked up was directing him towards Fluttershy. No matter how many times he tried to get accurate information, his scanners repeated the same thing over and over. Subject Name: Fluttershy Species: Pegasus Method of Execution: Use Devastation Beam Threat Level: LowMediumHighVery High Extreme Fluttershy poked Sabrewulf's head with a forehoof, forcing him to take another step back. "Just because you're big and strong and scary doesn't mean you have the right to go around hurting other Ponies! Especially my friends! How would you like it if somepony bigger and scarier came along and started picking on you! Would you like it?! Huh?!" Sabrewulf timidly shook his head, his ears drooped down and his eyes were now furrowed into a look of fear. "That's right! You wouldn't would you?!" Fluttershy continued to scold. "Now I suggest that you go away right now and leave my friends alone or else I'll give you a whole new reason to be scared!" Backing away, Sabrewulf nodded rapidly and turned to run away. Seven steps was all he took before he realised what just happened. But before he could respond in any way, his earlier opponent teleported in front of him. Eyes widening in shock, Sabrewulf tried to jump back but Fulgore had already grabbed his arm. With his Reactor now fully charged, Fulgore tightened his grip around Sabrewulf's arm. Mustering up all of his power, Fulgore effortlessly removed the werewolf from the ground and threw him into the air. Opening up chest, Fulgore wasted no time and fired his Devastation Beam into the werewolf in the distance. Fluttershy and her friends all just watched in stunned silence as the large red blast of destruction collided with Sabrewulf's form and sent him flying off into the distance. With the beam dying down to a complete halt, Sabrewulf was now but a dot disappearing into the cloudy sky and completely out of sight. Victorious, Fulgore let his energy cool off before turning to Fluttershy. As the rest of the mares trotted over to their friends side, Fluttershy just continued to keep her eyes locked with Fulgore's, looking up at him in fear before she decided to slowly back away. "Um...I..." Fulgore would have narrowed his eyes if he could, as he watched in confusion as Fluttershy hid behind her friends. 'I may have to rethink my opinion on that one. It's possible she may very well be the most powerful creature in this Kingdom.' Princess Cadence and Shining Armor galloped through the streets of Canterlot towards the castle in great haste after they witnessed the large beam breaking through the roof. After they received a letter earlier today from Princess Celestia asking for their presence, they were more than happy to oblige and travelled by train. It was only a few minutes after they arrived at the city that all Tartarus broke loose and everypony was running around screaming and barricading themselves in their homes. When the two finally arrived at the castle, they were shocked to find all of the guards half dead. Some of the less injured were moving the more critical wounded to the medical ward, while the guards still fight worthy were rallying in the courtyard. "What happened here?!" Princess Cadence asked as she and her husband reached the small group of guards that were gathered. One of the Lunar Guards faced them and replied, "An intruder suddenly appeared in the castle and started attacking everypony in sight. We believe he has made his way to the throne room but any remaining passages there are blocked by rubble and we have no Unicorn or Pegasi guards to spare." "Let's go!" Shining Armor nodded to his wife and teleported to the upper wall of the castle, followed closely by Cadence who used her wings to keep up with him. It was like the guard said, most of the hallways were blocked off by rubble. Something must not have wanted them to get to the throne room. Fortunately, Cadence and Shining Armor were able to teleport their way to the other side of the rubble, so they were able to keep moving on. They couldn't help but stop to spare horrified looks at several dead guards they passed along the way, whoever was responsible for this, Shining Armor and Cadence had every intention of making them pay for such brutality. Celestia didn't mention in her letter why she asked for them, only that it was really important and it concerned the wellbeing of Equestria. Cadence knew from the last few times that letters with such words meant that something, or somepony dangerous had risen to bring ruin to Equestria and enslave its population. Much like Tirek not too long ago, and barely any different from King Sombra back at the Crystal Empire. It was certainly not the Changelings, as none were in sight, and Queen Chrysalis wasn't foolish enough to execute a surprise attack twice after the last one failed. The only other conclusion could be that it was a whole new force, and since they were currently unaware of any other past foe of the Princesses, they had no idea what to expect and merely prepared themselves for the coming storm. As soon as they arrived at the throne room doors, Shining Armor used his magic to force them open and rushed in, followed by Cadence how hovered down to the floor. Their eyes were immediately on the motionless form of Celestia, and the injured form of Luna, who was currently standing in front of her unconscious sister, struggling to stay on her hoofs. Cadence and Shining Armor then turned to the only other occupant in the throne room. A bipedal skeletal creature with torn and ripped clothing on its...skeletal body, along with what looked like rope and half of a ships wheel attached to it. An evil chuckle came from the creature as it slowly turned to the two new occupants in the throne room. In place of eyes, there were small glowing lights in the sockets that helped show little to no expression on its skeletal face. The skeletal creature let out a loud cackle and, with its cutlass raised, charged the Prince and Princess. Author's Note I was in the mood so I decided to get this done. I know, I just happen to get this out a day after the last chapter was uploaded which took like a month if I remember correctly. Well, like I said in the last Author's Notes, I was dealing with things and I was just in the mood to get this chapter done. And of course, some of you predicted what I was going to do next, good job. I plan on having more characters show up but the next one might not be until after a chapter or two. We'll just wait and see. On that note, I'm planning on writing another Killer Instinct Fic, I won't say what, but I will say that I won't be starting it until this one's done first. Counterattack:Counterattack: Chief Thunder stood at the doorway of the computer room while keeping an eye out for any approaching security while Orchid went to work in accessing Ultratech's database. With one of their devices now in hand, it was just a matter of successfully escaping the outpost and returning to Glacius' ship. Given the agents personal grudge against the corporation, it didn't come as a surprise when she refused to leave without getting valuable information on them. Files, other outpost locations, more illegal projects, anything she could find that would help bring them down. As soon as she was finished, she took out the disc and placed it into her waist pack. "Ok, I've gotten everything I need, let's get out of here." Thunder looked over his shoulder at her. "I do pray that this personal grudge of yours doesn't end up getting you killed my friend." Orchid led the way with Thunder right behind her, passing by several sealed rooms with letters and numbers labelled above the doors, most likely the corporations secret projects they've been working on recently. Thunder couldn't help but cast a quick glance at one of the numbered doors, feeling a powerful heat emanating from it as he ran by it but quickly returned his attention back to getting out. As soon as the two were gone, a shadowy figured slowly rose up from the floor, glaring after the two. "So...they're here too." Spinal and Fulgore duelled across the rooftops of Canterlot castle, exchanging blow after blow to firing at each other with projectile attacks such as lasers and searing skulls. Their battle wasn't going unnoticed either, as it had attracted pretty much the full attention of everypony in Canterlot, who were all watching in awe as the two fighters clashed. Fulgore blocked every one of his opponents strikes with his plasma blades and attempted to counterattack, but Spinal was much faster than him. He knew what he had to do in order to increase his speed, but Spinal's unrelenting assault prevented him from doing so. Knowing that time was the thing he needed, Fulgore decided to try and keep Spinal away with his energy bolts. The cyborg however forgot that the immortal warriors shield was capable of absorbing energy based attacks. If Spinal was able to keep him on the defensive and absorb any energy based attacks he threw at him, Fulgore was merely fighting a losing battle. The only thing that could change the tide of their duel was if Fulgore could charge his reactor to its maximum, and in doing so would increase his body's functions and abilities, strength, speed and energy power. If he was going to do that though, he needed to keep Spinal away just long enough to do so. As soon as Spinal lunged forward once more, Fulgore sidestepped him and grabbed his bony wrist before throwing him aside. Raising his arms, Fulgore began charging his reactor while Spinal was busy trying to recover. The skeleton warrior found himself flying towards one of the towers roofs and positioned himself so he landed on his feet. He looked back across the short distance where he was thrown and saw Fulgore charging up his reactor. "Oh no ya don't!" Acting fast, he created a small portal on the roof below him and jumped into it. -Reactor: 75%- 'Just a little more.' Fulgore's charging attempt was halted when he saw the small green portal appear on the ground in front of him. Thankfully he was already familiar with the technique enough to expect the attack and quickly ceased his charge to block Spinals attack as soon as he came flying out with his cutlass aimed at his head. Spinal thrust his boot into the cyborgs torso and pushed him back a step before aiming his shield at him. The warrior fired several large flaming yellow skulls at his opponent but Fulgore quickly teleported away to the roof of another tower to get some distance and began charging his reactor again. Refusing to grant his opponent the chance to reach his full power, Spinal teleported after him, jumping up in front of the cyborg before swinging his cutlass down at him. Fulgore ceased his charge and swiftly raised his large metal hands to trap the blade between them. Spinal glared at him as he attempted to free his weapon, but Fulgore now had him right where he wanted him. Taking the opportunity, Fulgore yanked the cutlass out of Spinal's bony hand and then grabbed the immortal warrior by his head. Spinal roared at he hammered his shield into Fulgore but it did little to force him into releasing his opponent. Tightening his grip around the warriors head, Fulgore spun around and launched him high into the air and quickly returned to charging up his reactor. With Spinal high up in the sky at the moment, he was completely immobilized for the moment, giving Fulgore all the time he needed to finish charging up his reactor. The immortal warrior had already been stripped of his cutlass, leaving him with one less method of fighting his opponent. -Reactor: 100%- With the reactor at its maximum, Fulgore could feel all of the energy in his body coursing through him, his speed and strength increased along with it. As Spinal fell back down again, Fulgore waited until he was close enough before jumping up into the air and delivering a powerful uppercut which cracked the immortal warriors ribcage. Spinal roared and aimed his shield at the cyborg before firing large blue searing skulls at him. Fulgore thrust his arms forward and blasted them aside with his energy bolts before rushing forward to catch the skeleton as he was about to land. While still in the air, Spinal positioned himself once more and shot down towards Fulgore, striking him back with a swift divekick before leaping over his form and back on his feet. Fulgore jumped back up and glared at Spinal, who was cackling and flipping him off. Releasing a fierce metal growl, Fulgore sprinted forward, his increased speed allowing him to close the distance much quicker before hacking away at his opponent with his plasma blades. Spinal blocked all of the attacks with the use of his shield, but the impact of each strike send him stumbling back a step, slowing forcing him towards the edge of the roof. By the time he realized he'd reached the edge though, it was too late. Spinal tried to regain his balance while wobbling his arms back and forth, leaving himself wide open to Fulgore's full wrath. The cyborg began with grabbing the shield before tossing it aside, and then grabbed the immortal warrior by the neck before pulling him in until their faces were inches apart. Spinal and Fulgore glared at each other for a few long seconds, remembering their past duels with one another, and at one point, a time when both of them were allies. After they both processed these thoughts, Fulgore launched Spinal into the air once more before unleashing his Devastation Beam at him. The large red blast followed Spinal into the sky and, as soon it collided, all that could be made out was a small, faint explosion of green flames. With his chest closing up, Fulgore kept his gaze up at the bright sky where Spinal had been, pondering on why the immortal warrior was there in the first place and, how he got there exactly. And... 'He was my ally once...wasn't he? So how did we come to be enemies?' Looking at his clenched metal fist, Fulgore had more questions running through his mind, but knowing he wouldn't receive the answers he wanted, he decided to put his mind at ease for now and returned to where the others were. While all of the guards were attempting to repair all of the damage that was done to the castle, the Princesses were taken to the castles medical ward. Despite the damage done by Spinal, their injuries weren't too serious and would heal in time thanks to some healing magic. Shining Armor was currently standing by the door, not willing to let anypony, or anything for that matter enter while the Princesses, his wife included, were recovering. Knowing full well how dangerous the metal monster and skeletal warrior were. Despite Twilights protests that Fulgore was their ally, Shining Armor was having a hard time believing it or accepting it, just as much Luna was. "That thing destroyed your castle Twilight Sparkle, and yet you stand there and call it an ally?" Luna said. Twilight looked back at the lunar Princess and winced at the stern look she was giving her. "I know he's dangerous! But...he defended us back at the old castle! We were attacked by some...werewolf, and he fought it off! He's really trying to help Princess!" Luna hardened her glare, prompting Twilight to recoil in fear. "I would be more willing to believe that were it not for its destructive nature. And that's all it has done so far, destroy." Celestia sighed as she attempted to sit up in her bed. "Sister, I understand your concerns but-" The Princess was cut off by the hulking metal figure that teleported into the middle of the room. All eyes were on Fulgore as he slowly looked back and forth between each Pony, taking note of Luna and Shining Armor's hateful glares before setting his gaze on Celestia. Celestia herself stared back in surprise, shock and, slight fear. But remembering what she had asked of Twilight Sparkle and her friends, she assumed they had indeed succeeded in persuading them to help them. Though she was still cautious, and she still had to ask him personally before she could be a little less wary of him. Knowing the awkward silence wasn't helping any, Twilight Sparkle decided to speak up. "Umm...Fulgore, this is Princess Celestia. Co-Ruler of Equestria." Twilight turned back to Celestia and added, "Princess...meet Fulgore." The two continued to stare at each other, while Fulgore was just waiting to hear what she was going to say, Celestia was just too speechless to say anything. Shining Armor stomped forward and glare up at the cyborg before saying, "You heard my sister, you're in presence of the rulers of Equestria. Show some respect and bow." Fulgore used his large metal foot and nudged the Unicorn aside with no effort, the little nudge actually sending the stallion stumbling back and onto his flank. Rarity and Pinkie Pie couldn't help but giggle at the sight as the Prince got back to his hoofs. "Why you..." "Enough of that Shining." Cadence said as she used her magic to levitate him over to her side. "It's not from Equestria and it's certainly not going to bow when it isn't even our ally. You saw what it's capable of and you even heard what it had done so provoking it is not the wisest idea." Shining grumbled and shot one more hateful glare at the cyborg before looking away. 'I sure do hope that one decides to continue being a nuisance, I'd very much find enjoyment in breaking every bone in his body.' Fulgore thought. Celestia, knowing she had to say something before the cyborg got provoked, decided to finally speak up. "Apologies for Prince Shining Armor, he's just rather protective and believes that everypony should be formal when addressing royalty and such. I'm sure you have already met Princess Twilight Sparkle and her friends. And as she just said, I am Princess Celestia, co-ruler of Equestria alongside my sister, Princess Luna." Again, Fulgore looked back at Luna, who was still glaring hatefully at him. 'I have a feeling this one is going to be trouble later.' He thought before turning back to the older Princess. Celestia tried to think of what else to say, perhaps asking him if he could talk, but then she remembered he hadn't displayed much speech before, otherwise he would have spoken much earlier. Still, "Um, if you don't mind me asking, are you able to talk?" Fulgore just continued to stare at her, wondering how he could respond to such a question. 'Unless she's able to communicate telepathically, I can't really give her a proper answer.' He thought as he shook his head slightly. Seeing the small gesture he made with his head, Celestia immediately assumed she got her answer. Applejack couldn't help but raise a brow at the cyborg. "So...he can't talk?" Celestia shook her head. "As far as we know." Again, Fulgore continued to stare at the Princess, pondering on how he could respond to any of her questions. 'Perhaps I should scroll through my system and see if my body was fitted with a vocal unit.' Sighing, Celestia said, "Well, I can only assume that him being here right now must mean that he has dealt with that skeletal creature. You have my thanks for defending the city." She turned to Twilight Sparkle and her friends and added, "Twilight, why don't you and your friends take Fulgore to a guest room while we...discuss what we're going to do next." Twilight nodded and walked over to the door followed by her friends. "Of course Princess. Come on Fulgore, follow us." Refusing would only cause him more trouble so the cyborg decided to go along with them for now. As he exited the room however, he heard Luna talking to her sister back inside. "A guest room sister? It'd be a better idea if we threw it in the dungeon." As the door closed and the Ponies trotted on, Fulgore followed as he thought, 'Ha, you're a fool if you think bars can stop me.' Author's Note Not my best chapter and I know it's kinda rushed and I also know the pacing seems a bit too quick but I'm trying to keep fights a little shorter this time. That said, I couldn't think of a better time to post another chapter than just a couple of days before the official release of KI Season 2. Though to be honest, I'm kinda losing interest in this fic and that's one of the reasons why the chapters have gotten shorter over time as well, just can't really keep myself interested especially with the other ideas I have. So yeah, this fic may just get cancelled and deleted or I may just wait until I'm interested enough to actually be able to write it again. I'll just have to wait and see. The Herald:The Herald: A short while before The Rift... Jago stumbled through the Tiger Temple, doing his best to fight back against the darkness taking hold within. But even he, at his best, started to crack, and break at the overwhelming power that was coming down upon him. It started to become, painful. Even after all of this time, after all of the battles he fought, he still could not purge this darkness. And now he was paying the consequences for his failure to do so. Still, the monk continue to fight back. And the more he fought back, the stronger the dark force became. The power of this dark aura only growing, more and more and more, until Jago finally broke. Shadowy energy rising from his body as the monk fell to the ground. The temple began to darken, smoke began to fill the air. And as Jago slowly recovered, a dark voice spoke, "Weak vessel." Jago's eyes shot open. "You were to herald my master's return." The monk groaned, working his way to his knees as the voice echoed around him, "But you proved too, incorruptible. But your conflict gave me strength." Jago grit his teeth, hands balled up into fists. "And your resistance has given me, freedom." Jago powered through the massive ache in his body and managed to his feet, glaring for the source of the evil as he exhaustingly muttered through breaths, "Who...what...are you...?" "Woe to those who stand against me, for I am his herald, and the sign of things to come!" A dark figure hovered through the smoke, large black wings flapping as it descended into the darkened Tiger Temple below, slowly landing in front of Jago, "I, am, Omen." Jago took a step back, quickly entering a fighting stance as this enemy appeared before him. The being, whose form seemed mostly of dark energy, raised its hands, energy crackling from them as it looked towards Jago, killing intent clear. "And now, vessel, in your weakened state, will prove an effective shell for my master to use, until the time, has come." Omen said quietly, darkly. Jago's brow furrowed, raising his fists in defiance, "Never." Omen tilted his head, only slightly, before whispering, "That, is no longer your decision." Jago, with his arm pulled back, thrust it forward, "ENDOKUKEN!" He shouted, a fireball shooting from his hand towards the dark enemy. Omen unleashed his wings, hovering back as he swung his fists forward, "RASHAKUKEN!" Several balls of dark energy fired forth from his hands, hovering in the air as if they had a mind of their own. One, firing forth and exploding upon impact with Jago's Endokuken fireball. The second, fired forth towards Jago himself, who quickly moved to leap over it, however, it circled upwards, colliding and exploding against his back. Jago's cry of pain was cut short by the third Rashakuken shadow ball, which hammered and exploded against front, sending him flying into one of the pillars. The monk refused to stay down though, despite the unbearable pain coursing through his body, he couldn't give up. He wouldn't. He'd die first. And would sooner die than let this, monster use him for its own schemes. Omen lunged forward with a ferocious roar, landing and skidding across the ground before reaching the monk, who drew his sword attempted to force him back. The dark foe was too fast however, his monstrous speed allowing him to pummel Jago with a barrage of kicks. Jago, despite the pain, again powered through, pulling back before swinging his sword down at Omen. The sword would have collided, were it not for the fact that Jago was in barely any condition to be fighting, and his foe being super fast. By the time his sword had gone half way down, Omen had circled behind him, hammering an elbow into Jago's spine. A strike that would have killed any normal man, and possibly even him. But the fact that he was still alive clearly proved this foe really was intending to use him. He couldn't let that happen. Jago quickly spun around, jumping into the air and thrusting his foot forward, in an attempt to deliver his swift wind kick. But again, the two disadvantages he was at made it impossible. "RASHAKUKEN!" Omen's swift speed allowed the dark shadow balls to strike first, throwing Jago off his feet. The dark foe quickly flew forward, grabbing hold of Jago before laughing maniacally as the dark energy around him began to cover them both, exploding. And through this intense attack, Jago could feel what strength he had left leave him, the last thing he could see was the eyes of Omen's dark mask, before he fell into darkness. Omen dropped the monk, letting him fall to the ground with a loud thud. "Foolish vessel, you could never hope to challenge me." Thunder, and dark clouds, and Omen quickly brought himself down on one knee. "Master." Much like Omen's body, dark energy began to form around over Jago's unconscious form, a chilling dark voice speaking, "My Herald, you have done well." Omen kept his head bowed, remaining silent. The dark voice then added, "But there are still those, who would seek to deny my return. Our enemy must be vanquished, if I am to fully return to this world." Omen remained as he was, quietly replying, "I will seek them out. And destroy them." "Go." And with the one word, Omen unfurled his large black wings, and took to the air, flying off. The dark aura around Jago chuckled evilly, quietly whispering, "You will be the bridge that will finally allow me to return. Now then..." And in seconds, the dark fog covered Jago's form, twisting and turning as began to possess the monk as it intended. No strength within to fight back, the dark foe easily started gain feeling in his new temporary form. Jago could only scream. And Gargos relished finally standing in the world again. Not long after though, his first enemy appeared in the form of one of Ultratech's metal fighters. Fulgore, for the past few days now, had stood motionlessly on the balcony of the room that was provided to him. Though he had no use for the bed and, pretty much everything else, it did allow him the privacy he wanted so he could think in peace without having to listen to the ponies constantly bicker back and forth about whether they could trust him or not, whether he should be executed or not. 'Not that they would have a chance.' Fulgore thought to himself, shrugging off the absolute absurdness that such creatures could do so, especially given how kind hearted they seem to be. Kind heartedness that he was careful to be wary of, of course. In the last few days, only small pieces of information relating to Gargos reached him and the ponies, a creature matching his appearance being seen here and there, this village, that town, various places that they would go and investigate, with no success however. Fulgore had already gone about keeping his reactor charged up the entire time, so that in the chance event he did end up coming across Gargos, he would be more than ready to destroy absolutely. Or, if the Ponies decided to turn on him, destroy absolutely. 'The latter being least likely if the Princesses are as honest, kind and trusting as the one Rarity says they are. I could care less if they are trustworthy or not, Gargos is my target here. I will not allow these creatures to interfere with my objective.' A knock on the door and the one called Twilight Sparkle peeked into the room, "Um, Fulgore, the Princesses would like to see you." One turn and the Ultratech cyborg was walking towards the door, preparing to leave to discuss whatever it was the Princesses wanted to discuss. Meet with the Princesses and talk. And, just in case they were likely plotting to turn on him... 'Destroy absolutely.' Author's Note Btw, not dead. A lot of life stuff happened, let's just leave it at that. Alliance:Alliance: Fulgore stood before the Princesses in Canterlot's throne room, watching them silently as they stared at him with mixed looks. Looks he could easily identify as fear and unease, though the small Ponies next to him were clearly oblivious. "We have agreed that in order to combat the threat of Gargos, we, must trust you and hope that you will agree in return to ally with us. Will you?" The named Luna asked. 'I don't have time for this.' Fulgore thought and simply settled for a nod of the head. Celestia managed a bright smile and got to her hoofs, "Thank you. We promise we will do everything we can to assist you in defeating in this enemy." When Fulgore shook his head, Celestia's smile dropped, causing her to ask, "You...don't want our help?" Another shake of his head and she added, "But...why?" If he could glare, Fulgore would have, instead settled for tapping his metal chest with a metal fist before turning and leaving, earning a crowd of mixed looks from everypony present. In his mind, Fulgore repeated to himself that does not need help from them, as he was quite more than capable of defeating Gargos alone. He stopped walking, hearing something following him, and turned to look down at, the white Unicorn who called herself Rarity, who was smiling up at him. "Do let me show you around darling if you plan to take a walk. It's...the least I can do, for helping me and my friends." Fulgore just stared, and stared, aaand stared, until finally relenting, gesturing for her to lead the way. And she did, quite happily if her wider smile was any indication. Orchid and Thunder rose from their seats when Glacius entered, finally returning from, wherever he went to. "You took your time." Orchid said, showing Ultratech's device to him. "Apologies. But travelling to other worlds on transportation vessels is not exactly the quickest of methods." Glacius explained. Thunder recoiled, "You...travelled to another world? Where? Why?" Glacius raised an icy hand, replying, "All will be explained in due time. For now, we must hurry, I have a bad feeling we will have company soon." He said before reaching out to the device, levitating it over into his hold. "It won't take me long before we can warp to this other realm, until then, I must ask you to prepare yourselves." Orchid nodded, getting to her feet, "So then...we're really allies?" Glacius stared back at her, silent for a moment before responding, "I was under the impression our alliance was sealed some time ago." "Just making sure." The agent smirked. Thunder looked between the two for a moment, before looking outside, something catching his eye, "Glacius, how soon were you expecting company?" "Very soon." The ice alien replied. "Why?" Thunder tightened his grip around his weapons, adding, "Because it's already here. Lot's of it." Glacius approached, looking outside. Indeed, it would seem Ultratech forces were approaching his ship, many Fulgore prototypes led by, Sadira? A step back, and Glacius spoke, "You must hold them until the device is ready. Can you do it?" Orchid gave him a cocky smirk before standing next to Thunder, "You kidding? This'll be a piece of cake." She said before leaping out of the ship. Thunder simply stared, before turning to the ice alien, pleading, "Please hurry." Before following after the agent. Glacius stared after them a few seconds longer before turning away, hooking the device up to his ship and getting to work. "And finally, last but certainly not least, Rarity's Canterlot Carousel! It was always my dream to own a boutique in Canterlot and-" And Fulgore simply continued to listen and silently tolerate the absurdly annoying tour that Rarity took him on around Canterlot as she showed and explained the many things he had no care whatsoever for. A few Guards were keeping an eye on them, at a distance, clearly too afraid to be near the 'metal beast' that destroyed an entire castle with one attack. It didn't help any that he was getting stares from everypony else they were passing by. The pony certainly had a knack for talking as she just did not stop talking at all as soon as they left the castle. So much talking in fact that he could probably have written a book with the amount of words that came out of her mouth, several books in fact. "There were some difficult times during the first days of the boutique since its opening but-" And she just continued to talk away, and Fulgore simply processed all of the useless information only to delete it a few seconds after. After all, what good was it going to do him? Maybe she could talk Gargos to death, it certainly was not an impossibility given how much she seems to love the sound of her own voice. He tried to picture Gargos now, curled up and clutching his ears as Rarity continued to torture him with her power of talk. Suddenly, his scanners picked up a large energy signature and, something else, approaching very close by. Rarity was brought out of her talking as soon as she noticed the cyborg turning his back to her. "Um, is there something wrong?" Fulgore remained motionless, waiting in silence as the 'something' danced across from rooftop to rooftop while the energy signature continued to grow. Until... A dimensional rift opened up before them. No time to think, and certainly no time to decide, he made the first move before anything and anyone else and jumped through as Rarity screamed out his name, a mad cackle and a skeletal figure following right behind. Fulgore came flying through the rift and onto an icy field. One he recognised all too well as his optics looked towards Glacius' ship ahead. He was back, and finally out of that place. He turned towards the skeletal figure of Spinal, who quickly reformed and stared at him, seemingly wanting some payback for their last encounter. "Um Fulgore?" His thoughts stopped, and his eyes would have widened if they could as he looked down at his leg that Rarity was clutching onto. 'She followed me!' He thought and cursed, rather infuriated slightly that he wasn't fully rid of the ponies. "Well now, what do we have here?" The voice dragged Fulgore's attention behind him, and found himself face to face with his familiar 'ally' Sadira, accompanied by, many Fulgore prototypes, the first models. 'So, those models are still operational.' Sadira chuckled and took a few steps forward, passing by an exhausted Orchid who Fulgore just noticed, and...an unconscious Chief Thunder. Memories once again flashed in Fulgore's head, and he nearly stumbled had he not quickly regained his balance. Looking at the device in her hand, Sadira smirked and added, "When I heard that you and Jago had disappeared around here, I was unsure of how it was possible." She chuckled, "But then I remembered the rift Ultratech's device created and ARIA did tell me it's pull was...quite strong. It only made sense." She turned to Spinal, who looked ready to attack at any minute, "Ah, the immortal warrior, you were the last one I was expecting to appear, I was under the impression it was only Fulgore and Jago whom had disappeared. No matter, ARIA will find a use for you too." Spinal cackled, "Ye can find a use fer mah bony ass bitch!" Was the immortal warriors response before he launched an attack, or atleast he would have had several Fulgore prototypes not attacked him. Fulgore turned back towards Sadira, whose eyes drifted down to his leg that Rarity was hiding behind. "Oh...what's this now?" "O-Oh no..." Rarity gulped as she tightened her grip around Fulgore's leg. Inside the ship, everything was finally ready, and Glacius wasted no time unhooking the device from his ship before preparing to join the battle. Outside however, a lone figure hovered down and waited nearby, watching the ship from a short distance, waiting for the ice alien to reveal himself. "It is time, to take back what is mine." Author's Note Rushed chapter I know, but I've decided to, change a few things, so this fic is probably going to end at the next chapter, so I can start a new story and get a fresh start. Lockdown:Lockdown: The battle that took place on the icy field became too much for Glacius and his allies. An attempt to ally with the lone Fulgore against Aria and her Ultratech forces only ended in an extreme defeat for both of them. Glacius fought to the best of his abilities, but Aria displayed much superior combat capabilities that allowed her to take advantage of any opening he left. Where the ice alien excelled at strength, Aria put his cunning mind to shame by outwitting him at every turn, clearly an effort to show the alien that she was superior. There was no way the ice alien could win, especially at the major disadvantages he had, which were only multiplied when several Fulgore prototypes interfered to assist their leader. Glacius was forced to make a desperate decision. He managed to get a hold of the Ultratech device and used it to open up the rift once more. Taking advantage of the surprise move, he grabbed hold of Orchid and Thunder and let themselves be swallowed up by the rift. While alone, Fulgore succeeded in repelling the assault of his prototype predecessors, but the joint attack between them and Sadira was too much for the cyborg. To make matters worse, Fulgore was forced to hold his counterattack many times to jump to Rarity's aid when several of the prototypes attempted to capture. Not that it mattered in the end. Here he was now, locked down in Ultratech headquarters, alone, awaiting repairs and, reprogramming, as Aria said. 'I fought to the best of my abilities and still I was defeated. I'm not surprised. My chances of victory were already rated at less than ten percent. Still, I admit, I am slightly surprised the alien showed a willingness to ally with me. Perhaps I still have much to learn.' The cyborg though to himself. The sound of machinery filled the air constantly, and Fulgore couldn't help but wonder now what Aria was doing to Rarity. Rarity stood, still and terrified as she looked up at the metal walls all around her. After Fulgore was defeated and the alien disappeared with its human allies into the rift, Rarity was restrained and locked up in a cage. She couldn't help but curse out the Ultratech forces as they effortlessly threw her in a cell, but her 'defiance' wasn't really all that much help. Now she sat, alone, in the cell. Wishing, and hoping, that Fulgore would come smashing through the wall to break her out any minute now. Actually, she wasn't alone. There was someone standing there keeping watch over her. Rarity slowly looked up from her hoofs and stared at the individual currently standing just across from her cell. He was human too, but his entire body was completely engulfed in flame, as if he was a living fireball, covered with pieces of high tech gear, with a mask covering his face. The man on fire leaned against the wall, arms folded over his chest as he kept his burning eyes on the Unicorn the entire time, much to her dismay. In fact, his stare eventually annoyed her to the point that she had to speak up, "It's not nice to stare at a lady you know." The man on fire chuckled, "Lady? You're a little horsey." Rarity gasped, "How dare you! Have you no manners whatsoever?!" "Oh god you're one of those aren't you..." The man on fire shrugged, "What's your name little horsey?" Rarity pouted, then turned her back to him, earning another chuckle, "Heh, oh so it's the silent treatment is it? That's fine, I guess I'll just keep calling you little horsey, you know, since I don't have anything else to call ya." "RARITY!" She shouted, then took a deep breath, letting herself calm down before growling, "Rarity..." The man on fire clapped his hands, "Rarity! Nice name, I think." The Unicorn just glared at him, "And what, pray tell, is YOUR name you intolerable ruffian?" "Ben, Ben Ferris. Atleast that's the name I used to use before I got a smokin' hot body." He chuckled, causing Rarity to roll her eyes at his 'joke'. "Ok maybe that was a little rude, whatever. The name's Cinder, and I'm a fuckin' badass." Rarity looked away, pouting, "Hm! Well you certainly got the 'bad' part right!" Cinder shrugged, "Meh, what can I say. I'm a bad boy, and all the ladies love the bad boys." "Well I most certainly do not! How DARE you throw such accusations!" Rarity glared at him again. Cinder shrugged once again, "Ain't accusations if it's true." Before the Unicorn could respond, their attention was dragged by the doors opening and someone entering. "Oh, it's the hot robot boss lady." Cinder grinned, stepping back as Aria approached. "Has the creature said anything?" Aria asked. Cinder nodded, "She's got one heck of a mouth on her I'll give her that." Rarity's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates at just the implication of his words. "How...how dare..." Aria turned and stared at the Unicorn, approaching the cell bars, "Where did you come from?" "Hm! I will never reveal that to the likes of you!" Rarity said, defiant. Aria brought herself down on one knee and inched closer to the Unicorn, "You are not in any position to show much defiance creature. We already know that you hail from a different world, that you control magic, and perhaps many other things. If you wish to keep your life, it is within your best interest to cooperate." Rarity kept up her defiant glare. "...Never." Aria nodded, "I see......very well. You will remain here, and we shall experiment on you to see just what we can discover." She stood to her full height and turned to Cinder, "Keep watching it, do not let it out of your sight." Cinder gave a mock salute as his leader left the room, doors closing behind her. Rarity meanwhile began to tear up at her treatment, being called 'it' didn't exactly sit well with the 'lady'. "Don't even think about bawling your eyes I'm seriously not in the mood to listen to that or any whining for that matter." Cinder said, brow raised at her. Rarity slowly looked over her shoulder at him, eyes still teary. "Oh god this is my torture isn't it." Cinder sighed. Glacius had successfully escaped from Ultratech's forces, at the cost of abandoning Fulgore and leaving him at their mercy. 'Not that they had any mercy to begin with.' Glacius said to himself in his head. Thanks to the Ultratech device, he was able to escape along with Orchid and Thunder. Though that led him into another dilemma. He had no idea where he was. While Orchid and Thunder were taking the moment to rest and recover from their fight, Glacius surveyed their surroundings. Land, lots of it, as far as the eye could see. Mountains in the distance. A village too from the looks of it. What caught Glacius' eye most of all was one particular mountain that stood out. The mountain closest to them apparently had a castle looking structure sat on its side. 'Hmm, it would appear the rift did indeed send us to another dimension just as I predicted it would. If dimensional travel is this simple then it goes against the Eighty Eight Decrees of the Alliance of Worlds to let it fall into the wrong hands.' He turned and eyed the two humans who helped each other to their feet. 'Are you all well enough to travel?' Orchid nodded, "Yeah I'm fine, though a bit of a heads up next time would help. Where are we anyway?" 'Another dimension, another world. The name of this world, I am unsure. Under certain circumstances it would be a bad choice to make contact with the locals but as Galactic Marshal I must take measures accordingly if I am to go about putting a stop to this madness.' Glacius explained. Thunder rubbed his head, still rather confused, "And...Eagle?" Glacius sighed, '...My apologies, but Ultratech has him.' A look of grief came over Thunder's face, but before he could respond, Orchid beat him to it, "Don't worry, we'll get him back, I promise." Thunder looked at the agent for a moment, then nodded, "Very well...I trust you." He looked over at the ice alien, asking, "What is our next plan of action then?" Glacius looked over to the village in the distance, "We make contact with the locals, speak with their leaders, and...hope they are reasonable." Celestia and Luna watched from the balcony of the castle as the wormhole disappeared. It didn't take long for ponies in the streets to report the presence of one appearing, or that Fulgore had jumped through it with Rarity right behind him. Ever since the two went missing, Twilight didn't take a single second to rest until she was able to find a spell that could mimic the rifts. The two Princesses couldn't blame her for her worry of course, the Unicorn was her friend, and they were just as worried as any of them. However, they found themselves on the balcony for a reason. They had just caught sight of the faint wormhole in the distance and didn't waste time in sending a platoon of Guards to investigate. Twilight obviously wanted to go too, maybe hoping she'd find something left behind. As did her friends, and her brother, he didn't want her going anywhere without him. "I'm worried sister..." Luna said, "We don't what else may come forth from those rifts. We already have enough trouble to deal with, Gargos being a prime example." Celestia nodded, "I know, we'll simply have to do what we can, and prepare for the worst." The Princess looked on in the distance, hopeful that just as enemies appeared before them, so too would allies. Author's Note Not cancelled. In fact, complete. The whole, cancelled thing, which I just recently discovered after logging back in after being away for a while, apparently seemed to be a prank that one of my siblings thought would be funny to pull. And no I'm not angry, I mean, other than them sabotaging and deleting two of my other stories, I'm just glad they didn't take it any further, otherwise I WOULD have cancelled this. And yeah I skipped the fighting, because, to be honest, that would have dragged it out and I really just wanted to finish it. And yeah, it's a rushed ending. What can I say, I'm a lazy fuck. Like, if you're cool, or dislike, if you're just lame, doesn't matter really. That said, I've decided to finish this story right here at this chapter, so I can start a new Killer Instinct story, which will undoubtedly retcon some of the events that took place in this one, for, various reasons. And, well, that's it in a nutshell. Keep an eye out! Wow, how did this make it onto the featured box after being idle for so long? I call hacks! Support:Support: "Well would you look at that? It looks like Glacius' tech was able to find Ultratech after all..." Black Orchid and Chief Thunder hid themselves on a rocky ledge at the side of the mountains they were climbing and observed the large facility hidden deep within. Outside it would seem unnoticeable at first, but when you're a secret agent hell-bent on taking down a Megacorporation responsible for making the lives of millions everywhere miserable, it'd be hard to miss. Seeing the agent tense up with anger, Thunder placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Remain calm, they are not going anywhere. You can put an end to them any time, but not now. We must focus on the first task at hand." Nodding, Orchid turned back to the large facility. "You're right..." Moving her sight towards several of the facilities entrances that they could take, she noticed the security was pretty weak. "Weird...there's only two guards posted at three of entrances, one on the roof and another on the bridge leading over to the facilities structure." Thunder nodded. "Indeed, it would seem rather too easy. However, perhaps they were sure no one would find them here, to the point that high security would not be required. And due to the fact that they have suffered massive damage in the past, it shouldn't exactly come as a surprise that their security is weak. Perhaps they just don't have as much to spare?" "That's a possibility. Well then. let's get moving. The sooner we deal with this, the sooner we can track Gargos and save my brother." Orchid replied as she got up to move on. "And my own." Thunder muttered before following the agent. As the two made their way down to infiltrate the facility, they were unaware of the dark presence nearby, also intending to sneak in. After telling her friends to catch up with her, Twilight had taken off for Canterlot and flew there as fast as she could like her life depended on it, though her rather poor flight capabilities only delayed her slightly. It didn't take long for her to reach the castle courtyard and hoped her friends would catch up soon, not entirely confident in facing whatever was inside by herself. When a few guards informed her of an intruder attacking the castle, she immediately made her way to the throne room, though most of the hallways were blocked off by rubble, her magic let her get through with little trouble. It was only after she had finally reached the throne room that she finally came to a complete halt. "Twilight!" Though she was relieved to see Cadence was fine, it was the injured and slightly bloodied forms of Celestia and Luna that froze her where she stood. "Princess Celestia! Princess Luna!" Ignoring the sound of blades echoing, Twilight rushed over to the injured Princesses. "A-Are you okay?!" "We are fine Twilight Sparkle, our sister will be fine too, she is just unconscious." Luna replied as Cadence finished healing her. Slightly relieved that the Princesses were fine, Twilight now focused her attention on her brother who was currently on the other side of the throne room clashing with a bipedal skeletal creature. "What is that thing?" Twilight asked as she got back to her hoofs. Luna glared daggers at the skeleton and replied, "The one responsible for all of the damage. My sister and I threw some of our most powerful spells at it but they didn't even so much as faze it." Celestia stirred and groaned as she tried to sit up. "Princess Celestia!" Twilight rushed to the white Alicorn's side. "Are you okay?" "I...I think so...what about the creature...is it..." Celestia's question was answered when she saw the creature clashing against Shining Armor. "We must...we must stop that thing at once..." The Princess attempted to stand but found no strength in her legs. Luna placed a hoof on her shoulder and said, "Rest sister, we shall deal with that monster." Twilight and Cadence turned just in time to see the skeletal creature fire a large green glowing skull from his shield. The large skull blast collided against Shining Armor and sent him flying towards the Alicorns. "SHINY!" Twilight rushed to her brothers side and helped him back up. "Are you okay?!" Shining Armor nodded. "I'm fine Twily, just stay back." Before she could protest, Twilight noticed a small blue glowing skull floating above Shining Armor's head. "Shining, what is that?" "I don't know..." He replied as he glanced up at it for a moment before glaring back at the skeletal creature. "But I'm not waiting to find out." He charged his horn and prepared to use his magic to fire back. The only problem now was, he couldn't. "W-What?" Shining felt his legs give out and dropped to the floor. "M-My magic...it's completely drained!" The skeletal creature cackled loudly. Twilight and Cadence jumped in front of the Unicorn and charged up their horns. Just as they were about to fire their magic, the skeletal creature did something they didn't expect it to do. It spoke. "Hehe...that skull above yer head is absorbing all of yer energy and givin' it to me." The skeletal creature spat, its bony jaw moving up and down with each word said. Luna growled at the skeletal creature. "How dare you!" "Who are you anyway?! And why did you attack the Princesses?!" Cadence asked, keeping her magic charged and ready. The skeletal creature chuckled. "The name's Spinal. Remember it little Ponies because it's the last name all of ya are ever gonna hear." Spinal turned his neck slightly, causing a sickening crack that earned repulsed looks from the Ponies. "As fer why I attacked yer precious Princesses, I was under orders from my boss." Spinal started making his way towards the Ponies, cutlass clutched tightly as the sound of his boots stomping on the floor echoed throughout the entire throne room. "Now let's pick up were we left off." "BE GONE FOUL CREATURE!" Luna shouted as she fired a beam of magic from her horn, Cadence and Twilight mimicked her actions and also fired at Spinal Cackling, Spinal raised his shield. A bright green glow began to surround the shield as the beams of magic shot straight towards it. As soon as the blasts collided with the shield, the Princesses could only watch in horror as their magic attacks died down and were fully swallowed up by the shield. Spinal lowered the shield and cackled again. "AHAHAHAA!!! Ya actually thought that would work?!" Luna growled and fired another blast of magic at him. Once again, Spinal raised his shield and, with its power, absorbed the magic attack with ease. "By all means, keep going, I could do this all day!" He laughed. Cadence turned to the lunar Princess and said, "Princess, it's clear that shield of his is able to absorb magic. I tried using my magic to hold him down, but it didn't work, any attempts to use magic on him will only fail since the shield can drain nearby magic sources at will. As long as he holds that shield, we can't beat him." Twilight Sparkle looked at the throne room doors, slightly worried that she didn't see her friends entering right now. 'Come on, where are they? If we can't beat him then maybe Fulgore can. We could really use the support right now.' "There must be some way to get that shield away from him..." Celestia muttered as she tried and failed once again to stand. Spinal cackled once more and aimed his shield at the group of Ponies. "I don't have time to waste here so I'm gonna have to make this quick." With the shield glowing, Spinal fired a barrage of glowing green skull blasts at the Ponies. Together, Luna, Twilight and Cadence created a barrier and shielded themselves, Shining Armor and Celestia from the green blasts. Each blast created a crack in their barrier, but thankfully it held up enough to shield them against all blasts. "Try this!" Spinal shouted before jumping into the air. A large green circular portal appeared on the floor beneath him and, as soon as he dived into it, it disappeared... ...and reappeared right beneath them. Shrieking out in terror, Twilight and Cadence jumped back as Spinal came flying out of the portal, and swung his cutlass down at Twilight. "NO!!!" Shining Armor jumped forward and shielded Twilight from the attack, screaming in pain as he felt the cutlass slash his side. "SHINY!" Twilight screamed. Luna jumped forward and attempted to deliver a kick but Spinal easily blocked it with his shield. Jumping back, Luna stood in front of her weakened sister and, together with Cadence, charged up her horn once more. "You Ponies just don't learn do ya? Stupid creatures." Spinal spat with an amused chuckle. Luna narrowed her eyes at him. "You will rue the day you challenged us monster. No matter what it takes, we will defeat-" Luna wasn't able to finish however, as the entire wall next to them exploded. Something large came flying through and immediately slammed into Spinal, sending the skeleton crashing against the wall on the other side of the throne room. "Well, that's one way of gettin' in." A familiar voice said. Recovering from her coughing caused by the cloud of dust, Twilight was greeted with the sight of her friends, who were all jumping through the large hole in the wall one by one. "You made it!" "Darn right we did sugarcube! We told ya we'd catch up!" Applejack said. Rarity coughed and waved away some of the dust. "Oh dear, I'm going to have to get a bath and get all of this dust out of my coat! And let's not even mention my mane and tail!" Celestia smiled as she the Ponies gathering around Twilight. "I'm glad to see you are all okay my little Ponies." Pinkie Pie smiled cheerfully. "Of course we're okay Princess! What's more is we made a new friend!" "...Yeah, right." Rainbow Dash muttered with a roll of her eyes. "New friend?" Luna gave them a questionable look before she, Celestia and Cadence turned towards the large hulking metal figure that crashed through the wall. The dust around the figure cleared quickly, revealing the menacing figure of Fulgore himself. Luna narrowed her eyes at the metal monster and backed away slightly, not comfortable being too close to him. Twilight turned to her friends and asked, "How did you all get him here so fast?" Pinkie Pie was at her face before any of the others could answer. "Well it's a really awesome story. First we went to Ponyville and Fulgore had to be invisible so nopony would see him but everypony else could hear his big loud feet and thought it was us but we told them that it wasn't us so we kept moving until we were at the train which was still there thankfully and then Rarity had to scare the driver into skipping all of the other stops and head straight to Canterlot so he did and as soon as we got here we headed straight for the castle but we couldn't get to the throne room because all of the hallways were blocked by rubble so Rainbow Dash suggested flying in another way but then Fulgore jumped through the wall for some reason so we decided to follow him and we found all of you and then you asked me how we got here so fast and I told you that we first went to Ponyville and Fulgore had to-" Applejack put a forehoof against the pink mares mouth. "Ah think she gets the idea Pinkie." Twilight turned back to Fulgore, who started stomping his way towards the rising Spinal. "Ugh, great, just what I need! Yer gonna regret blindsiding me like that Fulgore!" Spinal yelled before raising his cutlass. "LET'S GO!" Letting out a loud battle cry, Spinal charged Fulgore. Author's Note Since there was already a fight in the last chapter, I didn't want there to be another so quick so I just decided to let this be a short chapter to lead up to next fight between Fulgore and Spinal. Anyway, I don't know when I'll get the next chapter up, but guaranteed Fulgore will have Spinal's head.
The Rift:The Rift: 'It's been two months, two months since I spared that woman and still I have yet to find out any answers as to what my true nature really is. I am a machine created solely for destruction, yet these memories, human memories, continue to plague my mind. What are they? Why are they there? Am I really a machine or am I somehow human? It's not logical...it just can't be...' Fulgore looked down at his clenched metallic fist and continued to ponder on the memories that echoed within. He would see a man, holding a baby boy in his arms, with a woman sitting next to him on his left, and a much larger man on his right. The woman seemed familiar but he never knew her, the larger man however, he knew all too well, for he had encountered him only recently. Chief Thunder. He had battled the large man to a draw at first, but eventually he gained the upper hand, and was on the verge of delivering the killing blow...but he couldn't do it. Something stopped him. The memories flashed through his mind again and halted him in his advances from finishing off Thunder. He had run away. Every time he would come across another familiar foe, every time he would have them beaten, the memories would come back, the memories would stop him from killing them. He could never ignore his imperative to destroy, but those human memories would come back over and over again, interfering with his machine logic and stopping him from doing what he was created to do. Only recently, Ultratech had tracked him down and attempted to take him back, but he knew their motives, he knew what their goals were, and despite his struggle within, he was able to find the free will to defy them. Any troops that were thrown at him were immediately taken down, unable to match his superior weaponry and power. Previous Fulgore models were used, but thanks to his own advanced technology and equipment, they posed little challenge to him. Though, despite his victories over them, Fulgore was by no means invincible, and it was only a matter of time before Ultratech and Aria would find the advantage they'd need to take him down. So he fled while he still could, to get as far away as possible and continue to find out his true purpose. 'They desire to use me for their own purposes, but I will not let them use me, no, I will not. I need to know, am I really just a killing machine? Or, am I capable of something other than just destruction?' Fulgore was dragged out of his thoughts as he heard someone screaming. He looked down at the old abandoned temple below. With curiosity getting the better of him, he leaped down from where he stood and crashed through the roof with ease. He slowly stood up and looked around for the source of the scream, scanning the temple, which was suddenly dark, for signs of life. He found someone, standing not far ahead on the opposite side, their back facing him. It was a human male, in fact, he looked rather familiar, just like the past few humans he came across. The man let out a deep and evil chuckle, slowly raising his hand in front of him as it was engulfed in dark, shadowy energy. Fulgore let out a metallic growl, trying to get the man's attention. He got his wish, as the man slowly looked over his shoulder at the slightly taller cyborg, staring at him with evil pupil-less eyes. The common human would normally recoil and be intimidated, but Fulgore, from what he knew so far, wasn't human, nor was he fazed even in the slightest. "Ha...so Ultratech's pathetic weapons continue to walk free." The man said in a very deep voice. Fulgore started a scan, hoping to find information on the man in his database, he knew he had seen the man before but he seemed much different, he had to be sure it was the same one. Subject Name: Jago Age: 30 Occupation: Warrior Monk of Tibet Jago. Yes, he knew the name. Fulgore started recalling several memories of a battle between him and the warrior Monk, but something was odd. He looked different, far different from the images his scanners brought up, he looked, menacing. Jago turned to face him fully and grinned behind his mask. "Fulgore, I remember you. I'm sure you have already processed your familiarity with the once proud warrior monk that stands before you but rest assured, the Jago you remember is no more. I am Gargos, now and forever more!" He laughed. Gargos. Fulgore started accessing his database to find information on the name, little information could be found. From the information he had found however, it stated that Gargos was the name of a Gargoyle who was captured by Ultratech. The previous president of the corporation, Robert Sheridan, had offered to share some of his power with Gargos in exchange for help with the tournament that would later be named 'Killer Instinct'. Nothing more could be found on the name, Gargos was at most, an enigma. Gargos chuckled as he knew Fulgore was most likely attempting to find information on him. "You're wasting your time, you will find nothing on me." Fulgore looked up at the dark man. It was obvious at this point that Jago was being controlled by Gargos. Fulgore had a free will of his own now, and he knew what it felt like to be ordered around and commanded like some servant. It was for this reason, he felt the desire to free Jago from Gargos, but knowing the stance the dark man was in, Fulgore knew it wasn't going to be easy. Letting out his metallic growl again, Fulgore readied into a fighting stance as he glared at his opponent. Gargos chuckled. "Fool, you think you can defeat me? By all means, feel free to try, but expect NO MERCY!" Raising his hand engulfed in shadow energy, Gargos threw it forward as the energy shot out of it like a dark fireball. "ENDOKUKEN!" Seeing the dark blast coming towards him, Fulgore threw his arms forward and fired an Energy Bolt in retaliation. Both blasts collided and exploded against one another. As Fulgore prepared to make his next move, Gargos shot through the cloud of smoke and delivered a swift Wind Kick to the cyborg's chest before unleashing a flurry of kicks and punches. Fulgore felt little pain but the strikes were enough to affect him to the point of bringing him to the stone floor. Gargos jumped back and crossed his arms over his chest, shaking his head as he chuckled. "Over so soon?" Jumping back to his feet, Fulgore growled at the dark man before raising his arms into the air. Gargos's eyes widened as he watched the cyborg vanish into a black fog, only to end up roaring in pain as he felt a hard metal fist slam into his back. Falling forward, he pushed his hands against the stone floor and quickly flipped himself over and back to his feet. "I forgot you could do that." Fulgore fired his laser eyes at the dark man, intent on ending the fight as quickly as possible, but it was easier said than done. Gargos pulled his fist back, letting it be engulfed in shadow energy, before firing it forward into a shadow fireball, this time it was much larger than before and it broke through Fulgore's lasers with ease. With no time to counter, Fulgore used his arms to shield himself and felt the large shadow blast explode against his form. Gargos shot forward once more and lowered himself to one knee as he reached the cyborg. As he moved his arms aside, Fulgore noticed too late that the dark man had already reached him and was unable to block in time. Gargos shot upwards, delivering a powerful uppercut that sent Fulgore flying into the air, only to slam back down onto the stone floor. The cyborg concluded that winning the fight may end up proving more difficult than he previously thought. Recovering from the pain in his body, Glacius finally managed to stand tall as he looked down at his defeated opponent. Sadira let out weak painful gasps as she attempted to stand, but she had little strength left, standing was too difficult for her weakened body. Glacius narrowed his eyes at her as she took in heavy breaths, feeling only pity for the human. 'It's over, I will not kill you, but I will not allow you to abuse my technology any further to accomplish your evil goals. Return it at once, and I will let you leave in peace.' He said to Sadira via telepathy to her mind. Hearing his thoughts loud and clear in her head, Sadira glared at the tall ice alien before looking at the device in her hand. Unwilling to fail in her mission, Sadira slammed her other hand onto the switch of the device, sending a signal to activate the aliens lost power core. Paired with the Ultratech device in her hand, the searing energy of the core slowly opened up a large dimensional rift right next to them. Smirking, Sadira eventually collapsed to the icy ground and murmured through ragged breaths, "My mission is complete. The path is open." The dimensional rift slowly started to get bigger, ascending higher and higher into the sky as Glacius watched on shock, his horror only enhanced as he saw the device Sadira used to open it get sucked in as well. Eventually, the pull of the rift became more powerful than Glacius had anticipated, as he felt himself being dragged towards it. Acting fast, the alien merged his feet with the ground to keep himself in place. At the corner of his eye, he could see Sadira's motionless body sliding across the icy ground, getting pulled towards the rift. Using his abilities, Glacius melted himself into the ground and quickly shot up in front of Sadira, grabbing her motionless body and holding her tight as he merged his feet with the ground again to keep them both from getting pulled into the rift. Again, The Rift only grew larger and larger and continued to ascend into the sky until it was eventually higher than the peak of the mountains. Glacius could feel Sadira slipping from his arms and tightened his grip more as he looked up at the large rift. 'Unless something gets pulled into that rift, it will remain open, and it will only continue to grow larger and larger. If this keeps up, it will grow large enough to swallow entire planets, but what can I do?!' Fulgore followed Gargos outside the temple, launching himself through the ceiling as Gargos leaped from one area to another until they both ended up outside on mountainous ground. Gargos smirked as Fulgore growled at him. "While your fighting capabilities are impressive, they are by no means superior than my own. You are merely delaying the inevitable." Pulling his metal fist back as his plasma blade spun around his wrist, Fulgore dashed forward, thrusting his plasma blade in front of him and towards his opponent. Gargos bent down and slid forward at amazing speed, striking Fulgore's legs and forcing the cyborg off his feet. The dark man quickly continued his attack and spun around, pulling his fist back and hammering it upwards into Fulgore's metal gut, launching him into the sky. Fulgore growled as he flew into the air, quickly retaliating with a barrage of lasers from his eyes. Gargos scowled at the stubbornness of his opponent and leaped backwards out of the blast zone, smirking as the barrage of lasers pulverized part of the mountainous ground he'd stood on into chunks and pieces. Feeling a heavy wind pick up, Gargos decided to put an end to the fight and started channelling his power. The tattoos on his body began to glow and a dark, shadowy aura engulfed his entire body. Grinning deviously, Gargos clenched his fist and pulled it back as it was engulfed by shadow energy. However, as he looked up at his opponent, his eyes widened slightly as he saw a red glow emitting from Fulgore's chest. With his Reactor fully charged, Fulgore growled as his entire body charged up, and with a mighty roar, the cyborg fired a massive red beam from his chest that shot right towards its designated target. "WHAT?!" Gargos quickly fired three miniature shadow fireballs to stop the beam but they were destroyed with ease, no match for the beams superior power. "FOOL!" Acting fast, Gargos jumped aside and rushed to a higher point of the mountain in order to get away. Fulgore growled in frustration as he watched Gargos escape the blast zone of his beam, the area the dark man previously stood on was now decimated into a small crater. With ground level coming closer to his sights, Fulgore quickly repositioned himself and crashed feet first into the mountainous ground. Gargos pointed a finger at him and said, "That was an impressive display, but I think we've let this run on long enough. It's time to end this!" Channelling his power once more, Gargos readied himself into a stance, as did Fulgore, neither fighter willing to stop until they had defeated the other. However, before the two could strike each other again, the heavy wind began to pick up, growing stronger and stronger, so much so that even Fulgore found himself starting to feel it. "What is this?" Gargos stood straight and looked around, wondering what could be causing such a heavy gale. Fulgore's scanners detected something, the cyborg turned to his left and saw a large purple glow in the distance, just hovering over another part of the mountainous region. Gargos noticed this and turned to the glow as well. "What is that?" Neither could question the glow further, as it continued to grow, and the winds continued to pick up. Gargos yelled in surprise as he was suddenly getting dragged towards it, whereas Fulgore continued to stare at the glow in curiosity, almost unaware that his body was slowly scraping across the rocky ground. A boom like thunder echoed through the air, and Gargos felt his strength waning, unable to keep himself from being dragged much longer. Unwilling to go out alone though, he quickly summoned up the last of his strength and launched himself towards Fulgore. Fulgore saw him but wasn't fast enough to stop the dark man from slamming into him. With both of their feet no longer on the ground, they now found themselves flying through the air towards the glow. Glacius cursed in his mind as the pull of The Rift continued to grow more powerful with every passing second. He was losing all strength in his arms, unable to hold onto Sadira much longer, and the strength in his legs was fading just as fast; he knew it was only a matter of time now before he and the near-dead assassin were pulled into The Rift. The only things that continued to get pulled inside were rocks and small chunks of ice, but that wouldn't be enough to satisfy the hunger of the large Rift. Suddenly, just as he was about accept his fate, Glacius heard a faint roar, as well as catching something at the corner of his eye. Looking up ahead, Glacius' eyes widened when he saw two figures flying towards The Rift at breakneck speed. Although they were high up in the sky, his enhanced sight was enough to identify both of them; Jago and Fulgore. He remembered fighting those two not too long ago, and now it looked like they were unfortunate victims of his and Ultratech's technology. He desired to save them from their fate, but he knew that if he attempted to do so, he would fail, and he and Sadira would only share their fate. Not that it mattered, as it seemed he and the assassin would get dragged in any moment now. Cursing in his head once more, Glacius bowed his head in apology as he listened to the faint roar of Jago grow quieter. Looking up, Glacius watched in pity as Jago and Fulgore were swallowed up by The Rift. To his surprise however, the moment the two of them disappeared, The Rift began to shrink, growing smaller and smaller, the pull growing weaker, until, in a flash of light, The Rift vanished, gone in the blink of an eye. No longer needing to keep himself against the ground, Glacius unmerged his feet from the ice and stood up, still holding Sadira in his arms. 'What happened?' He had vast knowledge of the capabilities of his own technology, as well as Earth's, but never had he seen something like this before. And yet, despite all the confusion over The Rift, two questions burned in Glacius' mind. 'What happened to them? Where did they go?' Twilight Sparkle awoke with a sharp gasp. The horrible feeling that plagued her mind immediately went away as quick as it had come, allowing the young Princess to take in several relieved breaths as she looked out the window of her new castle. Wiping the sweat from her forehead, Twilight smiled as she saw the moon descend, the starry night grow brighter, as the sun began its ascent into the morning sky. With a loud yawn, Twilight got out of her bed and walked outside onto her balcony. She smiled as she looked at the beautiful land in the distance and turned to the small town below. The town of Ponyville was quiet but in a few moments it would soon be very active, as it usually was. "The beginning of another day..." She muttered happily as she looked up at Canterlot Castle in the distance. As she pondered on what activities she should do today, she wondered if her friends were awake yet. They probably were, with the exception of Rainbow Dash of course; the prismatic Pegasus would probably be too lazy to get up this early. It didn't matter much, she was merely looking forward to another peaceful day in Equestria. With one more loud yawn, Twilight gently brushed a forehoof along her mane and turned around. "Well, I should probably go and see if Spike is up; I'll bet he's already started cooking something for breakfast." As the young Princess re-entered her room to begin her day, she failed to notice the faint dark glow that hovered over the Everfree Forest. Author's Note Ok so after some persuasion from some people, I decided to reboot this story into an actual Killer Instinct/MLP crossover, I actually have to admit I like the ideas and suggestions they shared with me so I went along with it. If you favorited this story before I made this change then I apologise and hope that it will still meet up to your expectations, and to the people who were demanding this change, well, here you go, just don't ask me to add in Eyedol because in this KI Canon, he is long gone. Also a quick thanks to Epic Brony 4 Life for helping me correct some mistakes resulted from my shitty writing skills. As usual, feel free to leave some suggestions or let me know if you think there's any improvements you think could be made to better the story.
Location Unknown:Location Unknown: "PLEASE! DON'T HURT HER!" Rarity's plea fell on deaf ears as Gargos thrust his foot into Sweetie Belle's small form, earning a cry of pain from the Unicorn filly as the force of his kick threw her across the air and into one of the nearby trees. Rarity and the rest of her friends could only watch in horror as Sweetie Belle landed on the ground and remained motionless, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo looked away and cried, unable to see their friend hurt like this. "Y-You...you said you would let her go..." Fluttershy muttered as she struggled to hold in her tears. Gargos chuckled evilly. "And I did, just not the way you expected me to." Twilight Sparkle glared daggers at Gargos and charged up her horn. "You MONSTER!" She yelled as she fired a beam of magic at the dark man. Gargos chuckled again and thrust his hand forward. "ENDOKUKEN!" A dark fireball shot forth and easily blasted its way through Twilight's magic attack, much to her shock. Acting fast, Rarity used her magic to put up a barrier around them, but the force of the dark fireball was much more powerful than she anticipated, as it shattered through the barrier like glass and exploded into the ground between them. As the six mares struggled to get back to their hoofs, Gargos pointed a finger at them and said, "I'm afraid your path ends here." "Oh yeah?! We'll see about that you jerk!" Rainbow Dash responded before shooting forward. Gargos grinned deviously behind his mask and remained still as the cyan Pegasus was closing in. Just as Rainbow Dash was about to collide with his still form, Gargos shot his hand out and grabbed her by the neck, halting her advance and her attack. "Foolish creatures, your overconfidence has only guaranteed your downfall." He growled. "Let her go right now you big meanie!" Pinkie Pie shouted, clearly not happy at seeing her friend being choked by the dark man. Rainbow Dash struggled to break free and gasped for air as Gargos tightened his grip around her neck. Before she could make any further escape attempts, Gargos hammered her into the ground. "DASH!" Applejack tried getting back to her hoofs but the blast from the dark fireball had taken quite a toll on her body. "D-Darn it! Jus' who do ya think ya are comin' in here and attackin' everypony?!" Gargos smirked. "I am a god, I do as I please." He looked down at the battered Rainbow Dash and slowly pressed his foot onto her head. "Now, I think it's about time to get rid of you annoying creatures, I have much more important matters to attend to." Seeing Gargos raise his foot slightly above Rainbow Dash's head, Fluttershy cried out, "NO DON'T! PLEASE! STOP!" Thirty Minutes Earlier Fulgore's awareness returned to him as he slowly sat up and began surveying his surroundings. He was in front of some dark forest, the trees looked old and there were thorny vines everywhere. Getting to his metal feet, Fulgore turned around and looked upon the next thing that had piqued his curiosity. A large old castle, and old was an understatement. It could've been a thousand years old for all he knew, maybe older, he probably wasn't far off. The walls had holes in them and most of the structures had collapsed, it looked like there used to be statues but there was little left of them too. However, he didn't recall seeing any castles earlier. The last thing he could remember was fighting Gargos in the mountains, then getting dragged into The Rift that just appeared out of nowhere. Now here he was, next to an old castle and a messy and, rather dangerous looking forest. Fulgore let out a low metallic growl as he continued to scan the area. His readings caught him by surprise. Energy readings themselves were off the charts! They were everywhere! His scanners normally wouldn't have picked up so many signatures like this, but there was no denying the readings he was receiving. In one direction, there were a lot of energy signatures. In another direction, it was the exact same thing. Deciding to try something else, Fulgore looked up at the sky. Again, he was receiving energy signatures there too, albeit they were a little further away, and they were moving quite fast. Nothing made sense. How could there possibly be so many readings? The only readings his scanners picked up back at the mountains were Gargos and The Rift, other than that, the mountain area was devoid of anything else. Suddenly, his scanners beeped again and Fulgore noticed one certain energy signature slowly approaching his position. Clenching his metal fists, Fulgore readied into a stance as he prepared to defend himself. Rather than someone appearing before him however, a large dark fireball shot forward from the forest and right towards him. Fulgore sidestepped it and turned back to the forest where he saw the source of the fireball slowly approaching him from the shadows. Gargos. "This is most certainly a strange place, I must admit." Gargos said as he stopped a good few feet away from the cyborg, folding his arms over his chest as he continued. "Only a few minutes ago I encountered a large beast with a scorpion like tail, and it was quite the aggressive creature. Fortunately, it ran away once it felt the wrath of my fist." Fulgore continued to stare at him, remaining silent as the dark man paced around the area. "I can't help but wonder though, where exactly are we? What is this place? And, where does all of the energy come from?" He cast a quick glance at the cyborg and said, "You can feel it too can you not? This place, it is consumed with energy, it is in the very air." Gargos stopped pacing and looked up at the old castle. "Earth had nothing like this, otherwise I would have known right away. This is the first time I have felt so much energy before, it's amazing. Just imagine, the kind of power one would possess if they had it all to themselves." It didn't take a genius to figure out what the dark man was implying and Fulgore knew all too well. "I feel more than just energy though, there's something else, something, powerful." Gargos added as he looked around. "I can feel auras emanating from many beings, some weak, others a little more neutral, a few more that are stronger, and two...two that are really powerful." Finally, Gargos turned and faced Fulgore again. "The unknown light was clearly a Dimensional Rift, how it was caused however, that I am still unsure of. The Rift itself has clearly taken us to a whole new realm, that much I do know. What this realm is however, where it is, I still have yet to figure out. I think it's time for me to tour this land and see what mysteries it holds, I admit, it has piqued my interest greatly." Fulgore clenched his metal fists and thrust them forward, firing several Energy Bolts at the dark spirit. As the energy bolts shot towards him, the ground beneath Gargos shifted and the dark man was engulfed in shadow. Just as the energy bolts were about to hit their mark, Gargos faded into the shadows and melted into the ground, forcing Fulgore's energy attack to miss its target. With the help of his scanners, Fulgore saw that Gargos had moved on up ahead through the dark forest. The cyborg growled and rushed through the forest to catch his enemy, his large metal form crushing everything that stood in his way as he pursued the dark spirit. Twilight Sparkle sat in silence as she wondered when the rest of her friends would show up, while Spike had left the castle to go and speak with Mayor Mare about dealing with the reconstruction of the Golden Oak Library. It had only been around a month after Tirek's defeat and the situation with the library had yet to be taken care of. Mayor Mare had arranged for some help to be provided in the library's reconstruction, Spike offered to go and help lead the reconstruction in Twilight's place so she could remain in the castle and tend to more important duties. The young Alicorn was more than willing to let him go, as she was eager to get started in her duties with her friends, if they ever showed up that is. When she thought about it though, she didn't really plan on blaming them if they didn't show up. After all, when it came down to it, they had their own personal things to tend to, their own jobs and duties that had to be taken care of, and those came before anything else. Before any of them got involved with her, they were just normal Ponies living the usual ordinary life just like everypony else, but now, in this very castle that she sat in, there was a small throne reserved for each of them. Maybe their lack of interest was due to being too nervous, maybe it was all too much for them to take in and they were still deciding if such duties were right for them. Twilight felt a little hurt and worried that her friends would probably show no interest in these responsibilities and decline them, but she would be fine with their decision either way, after all, everypony has a right to decide how to live their own lives. Yes. Free will, to decide how to live your life the way you want to live it. That choice belonged to every living being in the world. To be denied that choice, would be sinful and completely unforgivable, Twilight understood that all too well. Rather than just sitting in silence while waiting for her friends, Twilight Sparkle decided to get some fresh air and trotted her way to the castle entrance and stepped outside. Taking a deep breath, the lavender mare smiled as she looked up at the bright morning sky. Today was going to be another interesting day, she could tell. "Princess Twilight! Princess Twilight!" Rolling her eyes, Twilight turned around and smiled at the three small Ponies that were running towards her. The Cutie Mark Crusaders. "Hey Princess we wanna-" Scootaloo was cut off as she tripped up and fell into her friends. Twilight rolled her eyes again and watched as the three fillies rolled towards her and stopped at her forehoofs. "First off, you might want to watch where you're going." She said with an amused chuckle. "Second, I keep telling you, for the last time, just call me Twilight, you should know by now I don't like being addressed like that, I'm just not really comfortable with it to be honest." "Sorry Princess...I mean...umm...Twilight." Scootaloo said as she rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment. Twilight smiled and said, "So what can I help the three of you with? I'm assuming it has something to do with earning your Cutie Marks?" Apple Bloom nodded. "That's right! We wanna ask ya if we can help around in the castle!" "Help around?" Twilight raised a brow in confusion. Sweetie Belle smiled cheerfully as she spoke next. "Yeah! We figured that since you have a castle here now, we were talking and figured, maybe there'd be something we can do to help out that would end up getting us our Cutie Marks!" Twilight chuckled slightly at the fillies cheerful attitudes. "Sorry girls but I'm not looking for any help right now. The castle is still new and I've already got Spike helping out, thanks for offering though." A collective 'aw' was her response as the fillies looked at the ground. "But..." Their ears perked up and they looked up with hopeful smiles as she continued. "Spike is currently helping Mayor Mare out with the library so I guess the three of you could help me...get everything organised for when the others show up?" "You got it Twilight!" They all shouted in unison. Twilight rolled her eyes again as the three fillies ran off towards the castle and used her magic to levitate them back in front of her. "Hold on now. Do you know where the others are? They normally would have shown up by now." Sweetie Belle shrugged. "Rarity did say she would be here soon, I bet she's just doing what she always does every morning. 'Oh I must make sure I look my best for when I see my friends later! I better make sure my mane looks perfect, and I cannot afford to miss a single spot on my face, oh the horror if I don't make myself look flawless!'. I wouldn't be surprised." The filly said after doing a rather humorous impression of her older sister. Twilight giggled before turning to Apple Bloom. "What about Applejack, where is she?" "She got up early ta help put in a little bit of work on the farm before headin' over here. Ah bet she'll be showin' up in a few minutes now." Apple Bloom replied. Nodding, Twilight turned to Scootaloo. "Have you seen Rainbow Dash or Fluttershy anywhere?" Scootaloo shrugged. "Sorry Twilight, haven't seen either of them." "Hey Twilight!" Twilight smiled after hearing the familiar voice and turned around to see Pinkie Pie trotting towards her, followed by Rarity, Applejack and Fluttershy. "I was nervous you wouldn't show up." Applejack chuckled. "Come on Twi, you know us better than that. We were jus' busy that's all, ah know we got these new duties and responsibilities ta take care of, but our personal lives come first ya know. Helpin' mah big brother out on the farm is somethin' ah've been doin' for a long time now, that's always gonna come first." Twilight nodded. "It's fine Applejack, I completely understand." Rarity let out a sigh of relief. "Well, we're here now darling so just let us know what we can do to help and we will do what we can to the best of our abilities." "Well-" Twilight was interrupted by Pinkie Pie was bounced in front of her. "Oh! Do you need us to help set up a part?! A celebration?! We still haven't had one yet after we beat that big meanie Tirek! We should have one! I can get to it right now if you want Twilight! I'll head on back and get my Party Cannon! I can't get everything started without my Party Cannon after all! How about it?! Huh?! Huh?! Huh?! I can bring some extra confetti and some extra balloons and-" Pinkie was cut off by Rarity who put a forehoof on her mouth. "Please Pinkie, it's still morning and I honestly think it's too early for such things." Rarity said as she took her hoof away. "Okie dokie lockie!" Pinkie said cheerfully as she started bouncing around. Fluttershy spoke up. "Umm, Twilight, have you, seen Rainbow Dash anywhere?" Twilight shook her head. "No I haven't Fluttershy. I bet she's just being lazy again and decided not to show up." "Heh, yeah right Twilight." All Ponies turned and set their sights on one of the nearby trees. "Rainbow? When did you get here?" Twilight asked as the cyan Pegasus leaned over the branch she was lying on to show herself. "I've been here the entire time, what did ya think?" Rainbow said as she flew down to ground level. Twilight raised a brow at her friend. "I was thinking you were going to forget about today and not bother showing up." "Me? Forget? Nah, I'll always be here on time. I was here so early that neither of you were here yet so I just decided to take a nap in the tree." Rainbow said in her usual overconfident tone as she stretched her legs. Scootaloo smiled. "That's Rainbow for ya." "Whatever." Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom muttered as they rolled their eyes. Rainbow shrugged. "Well we're all here now so let's just get on with it already, I have a few things I wanna do today so can we make this quick?" Twilight sighed. "This is serious business Rainbow, you can't just rush through it and expect it to be done perfectly. The duties we have require hard accurate work and full concentration so that we..." She stopped after noticing Rainbow was in lala land, not paying attention to anything she was saying. "Ugh, whatever. Come on girls, let's head inside." The six mares turned and started heading towards the castle followed by the Cutie Mark Crusaders. "So darling, you are the Princess here, why don't you tell us what our duties will consist of today." Rarity said. Twilight smiled. "Well Rarity, I'm honestly not sure myself, that's why I was waiting for all of you to show up, so we could all discuss it together. I'd never make any decisions without the judgement of my friends." Fluttershy returned her smile. "Well, we'll...we'll be sure to do our very best. I'm sure that with each others support, nothing will be too difficult." "That's the spirit Fluttershy." Twilight said. "Now let's hurry up and-" She stopped in her tracks, forcing the rest of the Ponies to stop right behind her. "Whoa, what's the hold up Twi?" Applejack asked as she gave her friend a confused look. Twilight said nothing. The other mares and fillies all just continued to stare at her for a moment before moving to her side to see what had her full attention. What they saw made their eyes widen in shock. Something slowly rose out of the ground from some sort of black puddle. It was a strange biped creature, one that they'd never seen before. It was pale and dark and half of its lower parts were covered in clothing, while its upper parts were bare, save for strange symbols on it along with the chains around its torso and the large sword that hung from its back. It had a small patch of fur on top of its head and small straps around the back of its head, along with some sort of bandana that was tied around its forehead just under the fur. What was frightening however was the horrible dark aura emanating from it, and they all felt it. "So, this is one of the many local areas in this land." The creature said in a very deep and gruff toned voice. Applejack turned to Fluttershy. "Umm...F-Fluttershy...you're...you're good with animals...any idea what that creature is?" Fluttershy lowered herself and hid behind Rarity. "I-I....I...I don't know...I've never seen anything like that in my life." "Hmm?" The creature slowly looked over its shoulder at them. The Ponies all gasped when they saw the creatures face. Its face was completely hideous, almost skeletal like but looked like it was made from some metal material. The creatures teeth were fully bared at them and it had pupil-less eyes. "W-What is that thing?" Scootaloo asked as she and her friends hid behind the older mares. Pinkie Pie opened her mouth to speak but was quickly stopped by Rarity. "Hush darling! We don't know if this...this...thing...is dangerous." As the creature fully turned to face them, Twilight quietly cleared her throat and slowly took a step forward. "I...I don't believe we've seen any creature like you before..." She said, being very cautious as she could still feel the dark aura coming from the creature. "My name is Twilight Sparkle...may I ask who you are and...what you are?" The creature continued to stare at her, its pupil-less eyes showing no emotion whatsoever. "...Talking horses? Ridiculous." The creature spat as it turned its back to them and began walking away. The Ponies all just watched in shock as it walked away, completely taken aback and, somewhat offended by its words. "Hey!" Rainbow Dash shouted and flew towards the creature. "Rainbow wait!" Twilight called out to her friend but couldn't stop her. The Pegasus flew in front of the creature and stopped it in its tracks as she hovered in front of it face to face. "Just who do you think you are?!" The creature narrowed its eyes at her. "Out of my way horse, I have better things to do than waste time with pitiful creatures like yourselves." As the creature attempted to walk on, Rainbow Dash flew in front of it again. "I don't think so! One minute you just show up and the next you insult us?! What's the big deal?! And for the record, we're Ponies! Not horses! And if you think I'm just gonna let you insult us like you did and just get away with it then-" Rainbow was cut off as the creature swiftly raised its arm and grabbed her by the throat. "You annoy me." With a loud roar, he spun around and threw Rainbow at her friends. "RAINBOW!" Twilight quickly caught her friend with her magic and set her down next to the others. "Are you okay?!" Rainbow Dash rubbed her neck as she glared back at the creature. "Y-Yeah..." She coughed. "Yeah I'm fine..." Twilight turned and glared at the creature again as it continued to stare at them. "Why did you do that?! Who do you think you are coming here and hurting my friends?!" The creature growled, forcing Twilight and the others to recoil in fear. "Watch your tone little horse, or you won't be as lucky." Quickly building up her confidence again, Twilight stepped forward and said, "I suggest you watch what you say, whoever you are. We are the subjects of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, if you even so much as harm any of us...you will regret it." "Ha!" The Ponies all stared in confusion as the creature laughed. "Hahaha! Fools! You obviously have no idea who I am! I am Gargos, The Supreme Warlord! The Tiger Spirit! And a God! You think pitiful creatures like you can intimidate me with such empty threats?! Don't be ridiculous!" Twilight narrowed her eyes at him, atleast she had gotten a name. But he called himself a God. It was clear this Gargos was quite egotistical, probably more so than previous foes that she and her friends had faced. Their past enemies had always boasted and believed themselves superior, but never once had they called themselves Gods. "Well then Gargos! If you think you'll be getting a 'Welcome to Ponyville' party then you can forget about it! You'll have to apologise to my friend first before I consider throwing a party for you and I never not throw parties for new Ponies who come into Ponyville! So apologise!" Pinkie Pie said in slightly serious tone. Gargos raised a brow and waved his hand. "Please, such things are beneath me." He turned back to Twilight. "However, I can sense various auras emanating from you and all of your...friends. Tell me where I am, tell me who is in charge and maybe, I might just let you live." "...You're in Equestria, a land inhabited by us Ponies, Pegasi and Unicorns alike, ruled by Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. Does that satisfy you?" Twilight spat, hoping Gargos would be satisfied with her answer and leave. Gargos chuckled. "Ponies huh? Again, ridiculous. But I suppose there's no denying what I am seeing before me." "Enough!" Twilight shouted. "I told what you wanted to know, now leave us alone!" Sighing, Gargos said, "Unfortunately, the information you gave me just isn't enough. And...because of your disrespect..." Dark energy surrounded one of his hands as he pulled it back. "I will have to make you pay." He thrust his hand forward and shot a dark fireball at them. "ENDOKUKEN!" Eyes widening at the unexpected attack, Twilight and Rarity both used their magic and put up a barrier in front of them. The fireball slammed into the barrier, cracking it like glass but it remained standing, successfully protecting them from Gargos. "AH! RARITY!" Or so they thought... The six mares turned around in shock as Gargos, who was now behind them, had Sweetie Belle in his grasp, while Scootaloo and Apple Bloom had backed away and kept their distance from the dark man. "Let her go right now you evil brute!" Rarity yelled as she charged up her horn again. Gargos wiggled a finger. "Ah ah ah...if you really care about this little one, then you will cease all hostility immediately, lest you want to see her insides scattered across the ground." Knowing he would back up his threat, Rarity and Twilight both stopped using their magic and glared daggers at Gargos. "Good little horses. Now, tell me, who is the most powerful in this land?" Gargos said as he tightened his grip around Sweetie Belle. Fluttershy spoke up. "Umm...if...if we tell you, will you let her go?" "Of course." Gargos replied, his serious tone sounding slightly convincing. Rainbow Dash shook her head. "You're lying!" Gargos chuckled. "I swear, I will let her go. Give me the answer I desire and I will release her, and you may all walk free." Twilight gave in and spoke up. "The most powerful beings in this land are Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, the ones who rule this land...now let...her...go." Narrowing his eyes at her, Gargos smirked behind his face mask and slowly lowered Sweetie Belle to the ground. Relief almost washed over the Ponies, until Gargos stopped lowering the filly and instead swiftly raised her above his head. "Very well, I will let her go." The Ponies all watched in horror as Gargos threw Sweetie Belle into the ground. Rarity almost fainted as she heard her sister cry in pain at the impact of hitting the ground but quickly kept herself standing and could only watch on helplessly as Gargos pressed his foot on top of Sweetie Belle's small body. "PLEASE! DON'T HURT HER!" Rarity's plea fell on deaf ears as Gargos thrust his foot into Sweetie Belle's small form, earning a cry of pain from the Unicorn filly as the force of his kick threw her across the air and into one of the nearby trees. Rarity and the rest of her friends could only watch in horror as Sweetie Belle landed on the ground and remained motionless, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo looked away and cried, unable to see their friend hurt like this. "Y-You...you said you would let her go..." Fluttershy muttered as she struggled to hold in her tears. Gargos chuckled evilly. "And I did, just not the way you expected me to." Twilight Sparkle glared daggers at Gargos and charged up her horn. "You MONSTER!" She yelled as she fired a beam of magic at the dark man. Gargos chuckled again and thrust his hand forward. "ENDOKUKEN!" A dark fireball shot forth and easily blasted its way through Twilight's magic attack, much to her shock. Acting fast, Rarity used her magic to put up a barrier around them, but the force of the dark fireball was much more powerful than she anticipated, as it shattered through the barrier like glass and exploded into the ground between them. As the six mares struggled to get back to their hoofs, Gargos pointed a finger at them and said, "I'm afraid your path ends here." "Oh yeah?! We'll see about that you jerk!" Rainbow Dash responded before shooting forward. Gargos grinned deviously behind his mask and remained still as the cyan Pegasus was closing in. Just as Rainbow Dash was about to collide with his still form, Gargos shot his hand out and grabbed her by the neck, halting her advance and her attack. "Foolish creatures, you overconfidence has only guaranteed your downfall." He growled. "Let her go right now you big meanie!" Pinkie Pie shouted, clearly not happy at seeing her friend being choked by the dark man. Rainbow Dash struggled to break free and gasped for air as Gargos tightened his grip around her neck. Before she could make any further escape attempts, Gargos hammered her into the ground. "DASH!" Applejack tried getting back to her hoofs but the blast from the dark fireball had taken quite a toll on her body. "D-Darn it! Jus' who do ya think ya are comin' in here and attackin' everypony?!" Gargos smirked. "I am a god, I do as I please." He looked down at the battered Rainbow Dash and slowly pressed his foot onto her head. "Now, I think it's about time to get rid of you annoying creatures, I have much more important matters to attend to." Seeing Gargos raise his foot slightly above Rainbow Dash's head, Fluttershy cried out, "NO DON'T! PLEASE! STOP!" As Gargos laughed maniacally, Twilight caught something flashing at the corner of her eye shooting in their direction. As she turned to see what it was, she had no time to examine it as the flying bolts of light shot over her and friends and right towards Gargos. Hearing the static sounds resonating from the bolts, Gargos turned and his eyes widened when he saw them heading right for him. Still having to lower his foot back on the ground, Gargos literally had no time to dodge or block, and roared in pain as the bolts exploded against his body, sending him flying back, while Rainbow Dash cringed and winced slightly as she whimpered in pain from the sparks that hit her body. "W-What...what jus' happened?" Applejack asked as she looked at Rarity. Rarity shrugged. "It-It wasn't me darling..." "Sweetie Belle!" Apple Bloom and Scootaloo rushed over to their friend to see if she was okay, quickly followed by Rarity, who picked up her sister and held her tight. "Oh Sweetie Belle! Please wake up! Wake up dear! It's me, your sister! Sweetie Belle!" Rarity continuously called out to her little sister, hoping she wasn't as hurt as she thought she was. "...R-Rarity...?" Sweetie Belle slowly opened her eyes and weakly looked up at her sister. "Rar...ity...?" Smiling with tears of joy, Rarity hugged her sister again. "Oh Sweetie Belle! Just hold on darling, I'm going to get you somewhere safe!" Gargos got back to his feet and shot a fireball at them. "FOOLS!" "GIRLS WATCH OUT!" Applejack shouted as she rushed towards Rarity and the fillies, but the fireball was already far ahead of her. Rarity, seeing the fireball heading straight for her, and still exhausted from Gargos' last attack, quickly grabbed the other fillies and turned her back to the fireball in an attempt to shield the three little Ponies. And with that, the fireball exploded into the ground next to them, creating a large cloud of smoke and forcing the other Ponies to cry out in horror. Gargos narrowed his eyes and looked around. "Now...where are you...I know you're here somewhere...only you could have possibly made such an attack..." As Twilight sank to her knees and cried, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy attempted to comfort her, Applejack just remained where she stood and looked at the ground in hopelessness, while Rainbow Dash glared at Gargos but refrained from charging at him, knowing she would only repeat her last attempt. Holding in her tears and letting out a quiet sniff, Rainbow Dash slowly looked away and turned to the cloud of smoke where her friend and the Cutie Mark Crusaders had been. It was then, something caught her eye. Two small faint red lights were glowing from behind the smoke, and as the smoke slowly started to disperse, she could make out a tall dark shadow that stood just as tall as Gargos himself, and four smaller Pony sized shadows next to it. "T-Twilight...girls...look..." Rainbow Dash muttered out loud enough for them to hear. Twilight and the others slowly looked up, their sorrow slowly vanishing as they were able to make out the forms of their friend and the Cutie Mark Crusaders, alive and well. What had their attention was the tall dark shadow that stood protectively in front of them, and Gargos himself had noticed it as he too was now staring at it. The dark shadow let out a fierce growl as its red eyes began to glow, the faint sharp lights at its arms making a sizzling sound as it stared back at Gargos. "What...is that?" Fluttershy asked as she and her friends stood back up. The shadow looked at each of them for a slight moment before setting its gaze back on Gargos. -Target Locked- Twilight and her friends stepped back and stayed out of the way as the shadow spoke in a gruff metallic voice. -Engaging- Author's Note Holy hell this took longer than I expected it to. Yeah, sorry if it seems rushed and whatnot, just had to get it done before people started wondering where the hell it was. Again, if you're among the people who favourited this story before I made changes, then I hope the story will still pique your interest and you'll stick around to see what happens next and whatnot etc, if not, well, feel free to unfavourite like a few other people already have, I won't hold it against you. Anyway, now that this monster's done, I'm gonna get some sleep, I literally spent my entire day playing the damn game and trying to get this done, I'm spent for the day, hope you like it.
Engaging:Engaging: Moments Ago Fulgore hid in the trees as he watched Gargos exchange attacks with the talking horses, thanks to his cloaking device, he was able to remain undetected. As soon as he arrived, he had already found the dark spirit conversing with the equine creatures and refrained from attacking, hoping that Gargos would eventually lower his guard enough for him to throw in a successful surprise attack. His options were limited but as he assessed the situation, he was able to conclude up to several outcomes if he were to attack right now. The majority of those outcomes unfortunately would end rather badly for the horse creatures. Why did he care though? Why was he hesitating to attack now? Why was he worried about what would happen to them? They were just horses, just the usual common animals like every other back on Earth. Right? No. They weren't. Fulgore knew that. These horses were capable of speech, and he knew that just wasn't completely possible. It was a well known fact that animals...could...not...talk. Yes that's exactly what these horses were doing right now. He didn't believe it at first. He had noticed earlier that the local town area was inhabited by these same horse creatures, some with horns, some with wings, some with neither, but the lavender coloured one had both. Fulgore activated his scanners and kept his gaze on the white horse with the horn. Species: Unicorn His database provided him with the information he needed. Unicorns. Ancient animals from Greek Mythology. He processed the rest of the information as he scrolled through before setting his gaze on the winged horse with the colourful mane and tail. Species: Pegasus Winged Horses were one of the results, but the information he received referred to the Stallion who went by the name and was sired by the Greek God of the Sea. Perhaps there were more than one? Finished with the information, Fulgore turned to the one who possessed both a horn and wings. Species: Winged Unicorn? The information he received on this one wasn't much. Apparently such creatures were merely known through fiction, as a result, it isn't really known if they ever existed or not. Clearly they do, otherwise he wouldn't be seeing one right now. During the exchange between Gargos and the mythical animals, Fulgore did overhear that they referred to themselves as Ponies. A common animal and one he already knew of, but that still didn't explain why they were talking. Was it possible this...realm...was solely inhabited by these Ponies? It was quite possible. After all, the Ponies were the only living creatures he saw everywhere during his pursuit of Gargos, minus the Zebra he caught a glimpse of back in the dark forest. Gargos kicked the small white Pony into the tree he was hiding in, which allowed him to get a better look at one of them without the use of his enhanced vision. Gargos was now standing over the cyan coloured Pegasus after it recklessly attacked him. Another pleaded for him to stop but he didn't even listen to it. Fulgore looked down and noticed the small white Pony just below him was whimpering in pain. To him, it was a pathetic sight. But... 'This...this...this isn't right.' Acting out of unknown reasons he himself was trying to figure out, Fulgore made sure his targeting systems were fully accurate, he thrust his arms forward while keeping his cloaking device activated, and fired two Energy Bolts towards Gargos. As he expected, they hit their designated target and threw Gargos off of the cyan Pegasus. It was obvious to him now that his attack had also sparked a bit of confusion among the Ponies, as they were clearly looking for the source. Fortunately, his cloaking device kept him well hidden and prevented every living creature from seeing him. 'W-What...what just happened? Why did I defend that creature? What prompted me to act out like that? Why do these emotions course through my being? WHAT'S GOING ON?!' "Sweetie Belle!" As Fulgore continued to question his actions, his sight was dragged towards the other two smaller Ponies and the taller white coloured Unicorn who were running towards the smaller white Pony just below him. "Oh Sweetie Belle! Please wake up! Wake up dear! It's me, your sister! Sweetie Belle!" The taller white Pony continuously called out to the smaller one. "...R-Rarity...?" The one called 'Sweetie Belle' slowly opened her eyes and weakly looked up at the white Unicorn. "Rar...ity...?" The white Unicorn, Rarity, hugged Sweetie Belle as she shed tears of joy. "Oh Sweetie Belle! Just hold on darling, I'm going to get you somewhere safe!" "FOOLS!" Fulgore looked up and saw Gargos back on his feet. The dark spirit had already shot a dark fireball from his hand and it was heading...in his direction. More precisely, it was targeted at Rarity and the three small Ponies next to her. "GIRLS WATCH OUT!" The Pony with the stetson hat shouted as she rushed towards Rarity and the three smaller Ponies, but she was definitely unable to keep up with the large fireball. Rarity, seeing the fireball heading straight for her, and still exhausted from one of Gargos' last attacks, quickly grabbed the smaller Ponies and turned her back to the fireball in an attempt to use herself as a shield to protect the three little Ponies. 'No more...I've seen enough. This...I cannot allow this to continue on any further. I won't.' And with that, Fulgore dropped down from above the Ponies and landed between them and the fireball. The fireball collided against his cloaked form and erupted into a cloud of smoke that engulfed them all as his cloaking slowly deactivated. Present -Engaging- Twilight Sparkle was at a loss for words. She thought for sure her friend and the fillies were done for. Instead, there they were, alive and well, Rarity had a few small burn marks on her body but other than that, she was fine. But what really had her attention was the tall, dark and metal biped creature that stood in front of them. It was completely metal from head to foot, some parts looked a bit organic, but other than that, the entire creature was wholly metal. It's eyes were a pure blood red colour, it had no mouth, sharp, glowing blade like weapons rested at its forearms and it had an orange ponytail on its head. Whatever it was, it sure didn't give off the impression it was friendly. But it also didn't give off the same type of dark aura that she and her friends felt from Gargos. But...there it was, standing in front of Rarity and the fillies. Did it save them? Was the metal creature the reason her friend and the little Ponies were still alive? Gargos scowled behind his mask and said, "Fulgore, rest assured, you will pay for that cowardly attack earlier, I will personally see to that." Fulgore? Was that its name? Twilight turned back to the metal creature but just as she set her sights on it, it raised its arms into the air and disappeared into a cloud of black fog. The next thing she and her friends heard was a roar of pain coming from Gargos. Turning around, they saw Fulgore now behind Gargos, smashing his large metal elbow into the dark mans back. Gargos quickly recovered from the attack and flipped away from the cyborg. Readying back into a stance, Gargos thrust his hand forward. "ENDOKUKEN!" Two dark fireballs shot from his hand and were heading straight for the cyborg. Fulgore retaliated and fired three Energy Bolts, the first two successfully exploding against the fireballs, while the third continued towards Gargos. The dark spirit smirked and crouched to the ground, ducking under the Energy Bolt as it flew overhead and quickly shot himself forward at incredible speed. Fulgore growled as he saw Gargos speeding towards him, he raised his arms and hammered them down towards Gargos. But once again, the dark spirit outwitted him and launched himself into the air. Clasping his hands together, Gargos thrust them both forward and launched a large dark fireball at the cyborg. "ENDOKUKEN!" Thanks to his abilities however, Fulgore was able to dodge with ease and raised his arms into the air, disappearing into a cloud of black fog once more, teleporting himself into the air just behind Gargos. Growling in frustration, Gargos spun around and threw a kick at his opponent. Fulgore grabbed his foot however and, with a mighty roar, threw Gargos towards the castle. While Fluttershy and the others tended to Rarity and the fillies, Twilight and Rainbow Dash just watched in shock as the dark spirit crashed through the roof of the castle, the entire right structure eventually collapsing afterwards. Fulgore opened up his chest and started charging up his Reactor, his entire body being engulfed by a blood red glow as he hoped to be able to use his ultimate attack before Gargos could recover. Unfortunately, he had no time as Gargos came roaring out of the rubble, his hands clasped and aimed at the cyborg. "ENDOKUKEN!" Fulgore let out a menacing growl and teleported out of the fireballs way, reappearing near ground level and eventually landing back on his metal feet. Opening up his chest, he started charging up his Reactor again while Gargos was still in the air. Gargos saw him and, knowing what the cyborg was trying to do, quickly shot himself towards his opponent. -Reactor: 100%- Fulgore would smirk if he could. With his chest still open, he prepared to fire his ultimate attack, but Gargos had already landed in front of him before he could do so. Gargos shot his fist upwards, delivering a powerful uppercut to Fulgore's jaw area and sent the cyborg into the air once again. The dark spirit then leaped into the air and grabbed Fulgore's foot, spun around and threw him into the ground. Upon landing, Gargos drew his sword and lunged at the cyborg as he got back up. Seeing him approaching, Fulgore quickly charged up his Plasma Blades and successfully blocked the sword. Gargos growled at the stubbornness of his opponent and swung like mad with his sword, but Fulgore matched him blow for blow with his Plasma Blades. As Fulgore attempted to impale his opponent, his scanners signalled up a warning as Gargos parried. -WARNING: COUNTERBREAKER!- Fulgore found his defence being broken as Gargos now shot forward and started hacking his sword across his metal body, only leaving small scratch marks, but the damage was noticeable and affecting him. Gargos unleashed a powerful wind kick and, though it wasn't doing as much damage as his sword, he was still damaging his opponent nonetheless. As the number of hits he was receiving continued to rise on his scanners, Fulgore tried to find an opening in Gargos' attack pattern. That's when he found it. As Gargos placed his foot back down on the ground and reached for the hilt of his sword, Fulgore made his move and lowered himself slightly, pulling his large metal fist back. Eyes widening in shock, Gargos could only curse himself for making such a simple mistake as Fulgore launched himself forward and fired his metal fist upwards into Gargos, the Plasma Blades slashing his torso as the dark spirit roared in agony. -Combo Breaker- Fulgore landed back on his feet and watched as Gargos crashed into the ground just a small distance away, coughing loudly as he held his hand against his bleeding chest. -Enemy Combo: 51=Godlike- As Gargos got back to his feet, Fulgore decided it was time to put an end to the battle and opened his chest up. Prepared to unleash his ultimate attack. Until... "CEASE THIS CONFLICT IMMEDIATELY THOU VILE CREATURES!" Picking up a massive energy signature, Fulgore closed his chest and turned to the source of the, to be honest, rather loud voice, as did Gargos. Two tall Winged Unicorns landed in front of Twilight and her friends, followed by a rather large number of Pegasi, some in dark armour, others in gold armour, and all them wielding spears. The tallest of the two was a white coloured Winged Unicorn. It had a multi-coloured mane and tail that flowed in air as if a gentle wind blew against it. It had bright magenta coloured eyes and a golden crown sat above its horn with a purple gem encrusted into it. It also sported a breastplate with the same colour and gem just like the crown and wore golden shoes over its hoofs. The other Winged Unicorn, which was just slightly shorter than the first, was a dark blue colour. It basically wore the same crown and breastplate as the taller one albeit they were black along with glass shoes over its hoofs. Its mane and tail were no different, dark and gently flowed through the air, they were however twinkled with white dots, almost as if they looked like the night sky itself. And judging by the furious look in its piercing blue eyes, it wasn't happy one bit. "Thou dare to come into our Kingdom and cause destruction where thou pleases?!" The dark one said. From its voice, it was definitely female, just like pretty much all of the others. The Pegasi with the spears though were most definitely male, their bulky appearances and their stances helped confirm that. Gargos frowned behind his mask. "You dare to speak to a god like that you ignorant little creature?!" A few of the dark armoured Pegasi raised their spears at him. The dark Winged Unicorn raised a forehoof. "Hold!" "Ha, fools, you think such weaponry can harm me?" Gargos said with a smirk. The tall white Pony stepped forward and examined the dark man. As she charged up her horn, her eyes narrowed and she recoiled only slightly as she felt the powerful dark aura emanating from his entire being. She then turned and locked eyes with Fulgore. Her horn was still glowing, most likely she was scanning him just like she did Gargos. Then, Fulgore noticed something. As she finished scanning him, her expression softened, her eyes showing only sympathy and pity, unlike the stern glare she previously gave Gargos. '...Why...Why is that creature looking at me like that?' "Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, those creatures...they..." Twilight was cut off as the tall white Pony raised a forehoof. "I know Twilight. Rest easy, we shall take it from here." Celestia said as she set her eyes back on Gargos. "I am Princess Celestia, this is my sister, Princess Luna, together we rule this Kingdom. Tell us, why have you come here and why have you attacked our subjects?" "Hmph." Celestia recoiled at Gargos' insulting manner. "If you must know, my being here was not of my own accord. But I am quite fascinated with the energy that this realm holds." He narrowed his eyes at Celestia and said, "And you...I can feel a great power emanating from you and your...sister." Celestia furrowed her brow slightly. "What exactly do you want? What is your purpose here?" Gargos moved a hand behind his back and smirked. "What I want..." Dark energy surrounded his hidden hand, Fulgore's scanners picked up the energy signature and set his gaze on the dark spirit. "I want..." With a loud roar, he swung his arm around and shot a fireball at the Princesses. "YOUR POWER!" Celestia and Luna's eyes widened in horror at the unexpected attack. "PRINCESSES!" Twilight was about to rush to their aid but someone had already beaten her to it. Fulgore teleported in front of the Princesses, much to their shock. Letting out a fierce growl, Fulgore opened up his chest and unleashed his ultimate attack. As his entire body was engulfed in a blood red glow, his chest shot forth a massive red beam that easily blasted through Gargos' fireball. Growling, Gargos rolled to the side and dodged Fulgore's Devastation Beam. Instead, the poor castle behind him suffered in his place, as the Beam tore right through its large crystalized tree trunk, breaking it apart and causing the entire castle to tumble over and crash into the ground. Twilight could only watch in horror at what just happened to the castle. Everything seemed like a dream, but the fact was, that no matter how many times she tried convincing herself of it, it was real, it wasn't a dream. As the smoke from the rubble continued to spread, Gargos smirked as he slowly backed away. "Well then, Princess Celestia...Princess Luna...know this...I, Gargos, will succeed in accomplishing my goals, and you will not stop me. When all is said and done, I will rule over all, for it is only I who deserves to rule, for I am a God! FAREWELL FOR NOW!" With that, Gargos leaped into the smoke and disappeared from their sight. Fulgore growled and rushed towards the smoke. He started looking around, scanning the area for any life signatures, but no luck, Gargos was gone, he got away. The cyborg clenched his metal fist and once again growled. 'This isn't over yet...' Picking up a large energy reading from his scanners, Fulgore slowly looked over his shoulder and noticed Luna aiming her glowing horn at him. Also noticing this, Celestia put a forehoof in front of her sister. "Luna stop!" She was too late however, as Luna had already fired a beam of magic at the Cyborg. Letting out a firm growl, Fulgore raised his arms and disappeared into a black fog, teleporting out of sight. "WAIT!" Celestia called out. But he was already gone. All that was left was the Princesses, their guards, a still shocked Twilight Sparkle and her friends and the Cutie Mark Crusaders. As things finally calmed down for now, Applejack wiped her brow and said, "That was quite intense, ah don't think ah've ever seen anythin' that brutal happen before." Fluttershy merely nodded, while Pinkie Pie was, being Pinkie Pie. While Applejack and Fluttershy were helping Rarity and the fillies, Rainbow Dash sighed and turned to Twilight. "Well, I guess we'll have to...reschedule for another day....huh Twilight...?" No response. "Twilight?" Rainbow spoke again, but still received no response as Twilight Sparkle merely continued to stare at the remains of the castle. "Uh...Twilight?" Author's Note Only reason I got this done was because I literally had nothing to do all day and since I spent half the day playing the damn game, again, I just decided to try and get this done as quickly as possible. The next one might take a while, I dunno, depends on what happens this week with stuff. Please like if you're interested in the story so far and favourite to keep up to date with new chapters and, hopefully more people will write their own KI/MLP fics in the process, I actually have another planned out and may get around to it soon, just a one-shot though. Hope you liked it.
Standby:Standby: Gargos sprinted through the forest, chopping down any vines that dared to stand in his way as he rushed back towards the place where he and Fulgore first appeared in this land. It wasn't long after his brief encounter with the 'rulers' and despite it being a short exchange, he already disliked the natives of this realm. 'Pathetic creatures, I swear they will pay dearly for this. They will die slow and painful deaths for their actions towards me, a god. Fulgore too, he will pay for challenging my might, when he should've known his place like the puppet he is. First thing's first, I need to return to the site of where we first appeared and see if there's anything left of The Rifts energy. If I can find just a fragment of energy, I may be able to use my own to create another Rift and return to Earth.' As the dark spirit continued to sprint through the crowd of trees, several wolf-like beasts made from what looked like timber lunged out from the shadows and started pursuing him. "HAHAHAAAA!!! FOOLISH CREATURES!!!" Gargos drew his sword and held it out to his side as he continued to run, waiting until one of the wolves made their move. The first granted his wish and lunged at him, but Gargos jumped into the air and twirled around, his sword still held out managed to easily cut its way through the wolf and sliced it in half. Landing back on his feet, the dark spirit continued running through the dark forest, waiting for the next Timberwolf to make a move. He didn't have to wait long as two more managed to sprint ahead of him and got some distance before they stood in his path and growled at him. Smirking, Gargos put his sword away and thrust his hand forward. "ENDOKUKEN!" Two dark fireballs shot forth and struck the wolves where they stood, lighting them ablaze as they howled in pain. The other wolves saw what he did to their pack members and some slowed down to a halt, letting the dark spirit get away, but a few more continued to pursue him, eager for a meal or intent on revenge for his attacks. "Persistent creatures." Gargos chuckled as he looked over his shoulder. Looking back, he saw light cutting through the shadows just up ahead and increased his pace, eager to escape the dark forest and its feral inhabitants. However, even after leaping out of the shadows and landing out into the opening in front of the ancient castle, the wolves still followed, and quickly circled around the dark spirit as they growled fiercely. Gargos, still smirking, quickly rose up to stand at full height before opening his hands up, shadow energy surrounding them as he looked at his opponents. "Who's first?" One of the wolves lunged at him from behind, but Gargos, having the heightened senses that he has, quickly spun around and delivered a swift uppercut to the wolf, sending it flying far into the sky. "Let's play a game. I'll finish you all before your friend comes back down here." Growling at his challenge, the remaining wolves all lunged forward. Gargos spun around and swiftly drew his sword, slicing two of the wolves in half, while the rest were smart enough to pull back at the last second. Dashing forward, Gargos delivered a series of slashes to one of the wolves, cutting it apart piece by piece before spinning around and swinging his leg into the pieces that were left, kicking them all aside and into the other wolves. -9 Hits=Blaster Combo!- The remaining wolves growled and rushed forward in an attempt to put the dark spirit down permanently but he was once again too fast for them, as he jumped backwards and flew over them. Just as the wolves turned to face him, his sword had already separated their heads from their bodies. As they all dropped to the ground, the first wolf from earlier came into sight and landed hard next to its dead pack members. Smirking, Gargos put his sword away and turned to leave. "A nice warm up for what is about to take place soon." Just as he was about to leave, the rustling of leaves and movement at the corner of his eye caught his attention. As he turned to see what was going on, the dark spirit's eyes widened slightly as he watched all of the pieces of timber slowly levitate in the air. All pieces floated towards one another and started merging together, leaves taking their place at the front as the new giant Timberwolf took form before the dark spirit. Gargos narrowed his eyes at his new challenge. "Impressive, so these Timber creatures merely join together to create an even larger one once they have been reduced to bits. I admit, I am quite intrigued now at what other types of creatures inhabit this land, but I am in quite a hurry so I'm afraid I will have to make this quick." As the giant wolf howled and prepared to lunge towards him, Gargos leaped into the air and flew over the creatures head. The wolf looked up at him with its glowing green eyes, but before it could make a single move, Gargos channelled his energy and shot forth a massive dark fireball from his hands. "ENDOKUKEN!" Landing back on his feet, the dark spirit watched as the giant wolf was engulfed in a blue fiery inferno, howling and roaring as it ran off into the forest, its blazing form slowly vanishing into the shadows. "Hm, only now have I realised that my full power is being held back by this mortal form. For now, I will have to make due with what I've got." Now that he was able to relax easier, Gargos slowly wandered about the open area he was in as he looked around, putting all of his concentration into finding any remaining fragments of energy from the Rift. Unfortunately, despite his best efforts to locate any, he found none. "Troubling...unless I find something, I will be stuck here, and I can't open a Rift myself due to my powers being held back by this mortal form I'm using right now. There has to be..." He stopped as something shiny caught his eye. Approaching the object that lay next to a tree, Gargos' eyes widened as he got a better look at it. Yanking it up quickly, the dark spirit let out an amused chuckle as he examined the Ultratech Device he found. "Strange, what is Ultratech equipment doing here?" As he tried to find an answer to his question, his attention was grabbed by the sound of flapping wings. Gargos looked over his shoulder and narrowed his eyes as a large group of Royal Guards, Celestial and Lunar, landed next to the bridge that led to the old castle. "Gargos! You are under arrest for assault and attempted assault on the Princesses! Turn yourself in immediately or else we will use deadly force!" A golden armoured Pegasus said as the rest of the guards pointed their spears at him. Gargos merely continued to look at them, unfazed by their numbers or their warnings. "So the rulers of this land believe simple peons have what it takes to defeat me? That's quite an insult in my eyes...I'll have to make sure they suffer tenfold for this disrespectful display." A few Pegasi flew over him and landed on the opposite side so they had him cornered. "This is your last warning!" Gargos closed his eyes and slowly lowered the Ultratech device next to the tree. After standing back up to his full height again, he opened his eyes and smirked evilly behind his face mask. "And this...is your last day." With that, the guard who issued the warning watched in horror as the dark spirit moved at monstrous speed, already at his face. As he stared into those empty pupil-less eyes, he felt a cold feeling in his chest, it didn't take long for his eyes to find the beating heart in Gargos' hand, before darkness took him. After they arrived in Canterlot, the Princesses had rooms prepared for each of the Ponies that were present during the conflict between the two unknown creatures. It took a little while to calm Twilight down after she had quite the mental breakdown, but the gravity of the situation and the realisation that she had to help settle it was enough to bring her back from the brink of insanity. Sweetie Belle was taken to the castles medical ward, along with Rarity, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, who all insisted they be by the Unicorn filly's side. Rainbow Dash had a few minor injuries so she didn't require too much medical attention and was one of the Ponies present in the throne room at the moment alongside Twilight, Fluttershy, Applejack, Pinkie Pie and the Princesses. "I already sent out a team of guards to find and apprehend Gargos, with luck, their numbers will be enough to give them the advantage they need. I can only pray they succeed..." Celestia said as she sat down next to the outside balcony. As Twilight opened her mouth to ask a question, Luna spoke over her. "They are on their way to the old castle near the Everfree Forest, that is the most likely place he would have retreated to." Rainbow Dash hovered in the air as she looked at the saddened expressions on her friends faces. "I say we go out there and find him ourselves! Then we-" "And then what? Put yourselves in danger yet again?" Luna said, interrupting the cyan Pegasus who slowly lowered herself to the floor. "The last few foes that you have all faced were dangerous yes, but this one is far more lethal than all of them. We saw for ourselves just how powerful he is, and we know that the power he displayed was only a fraction of what he is capable of. For now, you will remain here and wait until we have planned our course of action." Rainbow Dash looked at the floor and remained silent, not willing to question the lunar Princess. Luna turned to her sister. "There's also the matter of the other creature, the metal one that Gargos clashed with." "Fulgore." Twilight said. "Hm?" Luna cast a glance down at the young Alicorn. Twilight looked up at the dark blue Alicorn and repeated herself. "Fulgore. I heard Gargos call him Fulgore." Luna narrowed her eyes at Twilight. Before she could respond, Rarity walked into the throne room. "How is the little one doing?" Luna asked. Rarity wiped a few tears away before giving her friends a relieved smile. "She will be okay, she just needs some rest." "That's good to know." Luna said with a slight smile. Applejack then spoke up. "So what are we supposed to do against those things? We all saw for ourselves jus' how strong they are, they're really strong!" Rainbow Dash nodded. "Yeah I know! That metal dude just brought down an entire castle! It was awesome!" Noticing Twilight's blank look, Rainbow chuckled and added, "I mean...it was...really awesome, but also showed just how...dangerous it is." Pinkie Pie bounced around her friend with a wide smile on her face. "Oh it's no big deal! We can just put it back together again and once we put it back together again we can prepare a 'Welcome to Ponyville' party for them because there always has to be a party thrown for new Ponies! But they're not Ponies so we can throw a 'Welcome to Ponyville Strange Creatures' party for them instead but first the big mean one Gargos has to apologise because he hasn't apologised yet for hurting my friends and if he doesn't apologise then he won't get a party thrown for him and I never not throw parties for-" Applejack put a hoof over her friends mouth. "Ah think we get the idea Pinkie." Twilight looked up the Princess of the Night and asked, "Princess, where do you think they came from? I've never seen creatures like them in my life, they're not even listed or referred to in any books." Luna shook her head. "We...I myself am still trying to figure that out Twilight Sparkle, until we obtain more information, all we can do for now is wait. Like my sister stated, with luck, hopefully our guards will be able to apprehend Gargos, and hopefully we will be able to figure out where he and Fulgore came from." Rainbow Dash hovered in the air again as she gave the Princess a curious look. "They are gonna get punished though right? I mean come on! Look at what they've done already! They hurt Sweetie Belle, they hurt Rarity, they tried to kill us and they even tried to attack you and Princess Celestia! In fact, all of us should be out there right now so we can kick Gargos' butt and take down that metal monster Full Bore or whatever its name is!" "Well I never...!" Rainbow and the other Ponies turned to Rarity, who was giving Rainbow a stern look. "I believe it is only fair that I remind you that that brute Gargos is the one who harmed my sister and the rest of us! He was the one who threatened us and he was the one nearly killed us! And his name is FULGORE! He was the one who stopped Gargos from inflicting any further harm on the rest of us, and indeed he is responsible for the destruction of the castle, but that was during an attempt to protect the Princesses from Gargos himself, you saw it with your own eyes! In fact, I know, I know it in my heart now that those energy attacks back there were his doing, he was the one who stopped Gargos from harming you Rainbow Dash! You would be dead right now if it wasn't for him! We would ALL BE DEAD if it wasn't for HIM!" With a wave of her hoof to emphasize her point, Rarity turned and ran out of the throne room. As the rest of the Ponies watched the throne room doors slowly close, Rainbow Dash hovered down to the floor, processing everything Rarity said as she started to think back to everything that happened earlier. Twilight exchanged worried looks with Applejack, who couldn't help but nod. "She does have a point sugarcube, it DID seem that big metal guy was doin' nothin' but tryin' ta stop Gargos from causin' any damage. And we DID see him put himself in front of the Princesses to protect 'em from Gargos' attack." "I...I agree Applejack, Gargos did give off an aura of nothing but put pure evil, but I didn't feel anything of the sort from Fulgore, even if his appearance says otherwise." Twilight Sparkle replied. Fluttershy finally spoke up. "So...he's...not evil...?" "I don't know Fluttershy..." Twilight said as she looked down at the floor. "But if he was...then he wouldn't protected us like he did not too long ago..." Luna turned Celestia, who remained silent throughout the whole conversation. "Sister? What does thou think of this?" Continuing to look at the vast land before her, Celestia let out a sad sigh as she turned to face her sister. "Didn't you sense it Luna?" "I'm sorry, but I was too focused on watching their movements to use a scanning spell." Luna said. Celestia nodded and looked away. "I saw nothing but evil in Gargos." She said as she recalled her brief encounter with the dark spirit. Remembering the metal being who defended them and her little Ponies, Celestia opened her eyes and looked up at the bright sky. "Fulgore however, I saw nothing, nothing but a lost soul, a lost soul in pain, suffering, confused, seeking answers, and a purpose." Captain Star Shield watched in horror as the last of her Guards was torn apart by Gargos. There was no hesitation whatsoever, the way he moved, how he ripped them to pieces, it didn't take a genius to tell the Pegasus guard that this creature enjoyed the bloodshed, and it was only the beginning of more to come unless he was stopped. Too injured to stand however, Star Shield just cursed under her breath and accepted defeat, knowing that even if she were to stand, there was no way in Tartarus she'd be able to fight the dark spirit. Gargos chuckled evilly as the Pegasus guard in his hand gasped for air, air that he wasn't willing to allow it and instead tightened his grip around the guards neck. A loud sickening crack followed and the guards body went limp. Done with the Pegasus, Gargos threw the body aside like a ragdoll and looked around the bloody mess he made. Various bodies littered the entire area, some guards lay dead with just broken bodies, others were literally ripped apart, some dead bodies had missing limbs, allowing the blood to pour out and stain the bright green grass. "If this is the best this worlds military force can offer then I can already foresee an easy victory in the future." Gargos said with a disappointed scowl as he looked at all of the corpses. "Y-You...you...monster..." Star Shield muttered out. Hearing her words, Gargos turned around and eyed the wounded mare before slowly walking towards her. "Oh so one of you is still alive. I have to say, even though your species is weak, you sure are persistent. I suppose, maybe you're not all as weak as I believe, after all, if you managed to survive up to this point, you may all have atleast some sort of strength within you." He said as he stopped at the head of the golden armoured Pegasus. "The sad thing is however, that that strength just won't be enough to help you against me, a god. You're all nothing compared to me, you'll see soon enough." "T-The Princesses will stop you...just like they have stopped their foes in the past...!" Star Shield spat. Gargos chuckled and raised his hand into the air, shadow energy engulfing it as he spoke. "Unfortunately my dear, I'm not like any of your Princesses foes. Now, disappear." As he pulled his hand further back to deliver the finishing blow, Gargos saw a barrage of Energy Bolts shooting towards him. Growling in frustration, Gargos leaped backwards and dodged the Energy Bolts with ease, landing next to the tree where the Ultratech Device was as he glared at his attacker with pure rage. "How many times must you get in my way?!" Fulgore teleported in front of the injured Pegasus and stared down the dark spirit as he readied his Plasma Blades. Gargos quickly moved to pick up the Ultratech device and showed it to Fulgore. "You see this Fulgore?" Looking at the Ultratech device in Gargos' hand, Fulgore lowered his arms and began to wonder how the device was there in the first place. Knowing he was also wondering the same thing he did when he stumbled upon it, Gargos let his dark energy surge through his hand and into the device as he raised his other hand to press the button on it. "During my sad excuse of a battle with these weaklings, I came to the conclusion that this Ultratech device played a part in our being here, as there was no other possibility for its presence. Which means, with just the right amount of energy..." He pressed the button, and in a bright flash, a purple dimensional rift, just like the last one, appeared behind the dark spirit. "I can reopen the Dimensional Rift at will." Growling, Fulgore clenched his metallic fists and pulled his arms back as his chest opened, charging his reactor as quickly as possible so he could unleash his ultimate attack. Smirking, Gargos pointed a finger at the cyborg and said, "Fulgore! Know this, I will return! The energy within this realm is beyond any I have ever felt before, and it will all be mine! Rest assured, I will not be gone for long! I will return, and this time, I will have help to assist me with that goal! FAREWELL FOR NOW!" -Reactor 100%- With his entire body engulfed by a blood red glow, Fulgore unleashed his Devastation Beam at Gargos. But he was already too late. Gargos had disappeared through The Rift, with the Ultratech device in hand, and with a flash of light, the Rift itself disappeared, forcing Fulgore's beam to rip apart several trees in Gargos' place. Growling in frustration, Fulgore closed his chest and looked around at the carnage caused by Gargos, the sight would have made even the bravest human vomit, but he, again, was no human, as far as he knew anyway, and remained unfazed. Hearing the Pegasus behind him whimper in pain, Fulgore turned and looked down at her. Star Shield could only stare back up at him in fear, knowing full well that he was just as dangerous as the dark spirit that tore her fellow guards apart. Fulgore stood motionlessly as he assessed his options. The better option would be to give the Pegasus a quick death, but he didn't care for whether it suffered or not. Even so, Fulgore was willing to grant mercy and decided a quick death would be fair. Charging up one of his Plasma Blades, Fulgore raised his arm into the air as he let out a metallic growl. Star Shield could only cover her head with her forelegs and trembled in fear as she waited for the cyborg to finish what Gargos started. No strike came. Star Shield slowly and nervously moved a foreleg away to see what was going on. Fulgore was still standing there, looking down at her with his blood red eyes, his arm still raised and yet to strike. Why hadn't he finished her off? Fulgore continued to look down at the Pegasus, wondering why he was unable to deliver the killing blow. Suddenly, much to Star Shield's shock, the cyborg lowered his arm and deactivated his Plasma Blade. With one last metallic growl coming from him, Fulgore turned his back to her and started walking towards the old castle. "W-Why..." She muttered weakly as Fulgore walked away. Getting to her hoofs, she took a moment to breath deeply before asking again, "Why didn't you kill me?" That stopped Fulgore in his tracks, causing the cyborg to look over his shoulder at her slightly. No answer came however, instead, the cyborg turned and continued his way towards the castle. Star Shield merely continued to watch him leave, wondering why the 'metal monster' of the two creatures would spare her life. He could have easily done what Gargos had done, probably ten times worse in fact, yet he just let her live. It took her a moment to realise she was still staring and quickly snapped out of her thoughts before looking back at all of the corpses of her fellow guards. Knowing the Princesses will want to know what happened, Star Shield gave one last glance at the cyborg in the distance and took a moment to regain her strength before taking flight to return to Canterlot. Author's Note It only took me until today to realise just how much of a hell it is to try and get to the Shadow Jago secret boss let alone beat him, and beat him I haven't, for trying to beat this game is like trying to beat Skynet. I refuse to put myself through that hell again until I've found a much more appropriate approach on how to reach said goal again. Anyway, had some time, so I decided to get this done and posted, though I'm thinking about putting it on hiatus for a bit because I have way more important stuff to do. Also, I've seen everyones comments and I appreciate the support and whatnot, to answer a most recent comment about other characters appearing, well, that may happen, my question now is, if more do appear, which characters exactly would you all like to see appear?
Processing:Processing: 'So majestic and peaceful this world...' Fulgore stood motionlessly on the roof of the ancient castles tallest tower as he observed the vast land before him. 'Hmph, it sickens me.' Clenching his metallic fist, Fulgore turned towards the direction of the town he had previously fought Gargos in. He could see the remains of what was once the castle he had 'accidentally' brought down with his Devastation Beam. In honesty though, he didn't exactly care for bringing the castle down, besides, there was the other castle that sat at the side of the tallest mountain not too far in the distance, plus the castle he was currently using as a base of operations, so it wasn't as if the land lost anything, right now, castles seemed quite common. He had only been in this land for a short time and already he was able to reach a conclusion about it. It was peaceful, completely devoid of war and death, unlike Earth. The only death he'd seen ever since he got here was the death of the Pegasi Guards caused by Gargos, other than that, everything was quiet, peaceful and happy. Too happy. The inhabitants of the land were clearly all horses, or Ponies as he heard them call themselves, talking Ponies to be more precise. And they had their own military power from what he had seen recently, however, if Gargos was able to do away with a large number of their military units the way he did so easily then Fulgore concluded that the land would easily fall prey to any outside force. They were lucky Ultratech hadn't discovered them. The bright rays of the suns light shone down on the cyborg as he looked up at the clear blue sky, the light itself only enhancing the beauty of the land before him. A little robin landed on the cyborgs shoulder as he watched the land in silence, pondering on his course of action. Then again, there was really no need for one, Gargos was gone and he probably wasn't coming back, atleast, Fulgore believed the dark spirit wouldn't come back, considering he had already suffered defeat. Casting a quick glance at the robin on his large metal shoulder, Fulgore looked back at the land and saw a few Pegasi far in the distance moving the clouds. 'Is it really so much to ask for an answer as to what my purpose is?' Fulgore let out a metallic growl and raised his clenched fist in front of him. The little robin hovered down onto his metal forearm and looked up at him curiously. Curious to the little creatures movements, Fulgore unclenched his metal fist and opened it up, letting the robin settle in the palm of his hand as it sat down. Looking up again, the cyborg started pondering his true nature once more. 'I escaped those who sought to use me for the sole purpose of conquering the world. Now I remain here in this peaceful realm, pondering what to do? What can I do? This vast land is inhabited by a species who succeed at living in peace and harmony. What can I possibly bring to it, when all I have is the ability to destroy and kill and bring about the ruination of all living things?' 'What is my true nature?' As he continued to dwell in his thoughts, a bright flash dragged his full attention. Fulgore looked up and found himself standing in a small tribes camp. Many of the tribes people were walking around carrying baskets, others were feeding children and some of the women were showing the children how to make the little men made of straw. Looking around, his attention was grabbed by a familiar large man who was approaching him. Fulgore clenched his fists and prepared for battle, but the large man walked right by him, as if he hadn't even noticed him. The man stopped a few feet in front of him and said, "It's amazing, isn't it?" Fulgore tilted his head slightly in confusion, wondering what the man was referring to. "Indeed, Hinmatoom." Another voice said. Fulgore turned and saw another man approaching. This one was slightly shorter than the other, Hinmatoom, who he also knew as Chief Thunder, and he happened to look very similar to larger man. The shorter man stopped right in front of Fulgore and smiled at Thunder. "It's because of you Eagle. Because of you, and because of your victory at the tournament, life here has never been easier for our people, you have saved us all." "Without your support, I wouldn't have been able to succeed Hinmatoom." Eagle replied as he folded his arms over his chest. Thunder chuckled. "Tell me though, do you still intend to keep fighting?" Eagle frowned slightly. "Ultratech has committed many crimes, and though their tournament provided me a chance to better the lives of our people, their secrets must be revealed. The world must know of their horrible crimes and I will not stop until I see them brought down and brought to justice." "Your wife and son will want you to stay." Thunder replied. Nodding, Eagle turned around and walked by Fulgore, who remained motionless as he listened to the mans words. "I know, just, promise me, that no matter what happens, promise me you will take care of them for me." Chief Thunder slowly made his way forward and stopped right in front of Fulgore, looking him in the eyes as he gave a small smile. "I will look after them, and no matter what happens, know that you will always have my support, brother." Fulgore just stared back at the large man, taking a quick glance behind him to see that Eagle was no longer there. In another bright flash, the cyborg found himself back to the present, standing on the roof of the old castles tallest tower. Was Thunder talking to him suddenly? No, he couldn't have been. Was this another one of those memories? It most certainly was. Time and time again, these memories continued to plague his mind everywhere he went. But why? Why was he having these memories? Were they supposed to mean something? Was there some sort of message behind them? What's more, it was only another thing that anchored him down, just like his attempts to process his true nature. Fulgore let out a metallic growl and clenched his fist shut. The little robin stood up and chirped, giving him a curious look as he looked back at the vast land in front of him. Hearing the birds curious chirps again, Fulgore looked down at the robin for a good long moment before swiftly raising his arm into the air, forcing the robin to jump and take flight. With the little creature gone, Fulgore growled once more before going back into the castle. "So Gargos is gone then?" Captain Star Shield nodded as she finished giving her report to the Princesses of the events that transpired and what became of their guards, suffice to say, they were rather shocked, and Twilight Sparkle and the rest of her friends were horrified, so much so that Pinkie Pie's mane had deflated just like it had on the day she thought her friends were trying to avoid her. "He killed all of them your highness. He killed them all without hesitation, almost like he enjoyed it. He's a monster." Star Shield said before wincing at the aching pain that was still coursing through her body. Luna sighed. "Indeed, only a monster would do such a thing." Celestia looked at a few of the other guards and noticed some of them had mixed expressions, some angry, some afraid. Turning back to Star Shield, she said, "And after that was when...Fulgore arrived?" "Yes your highness." Star Shield replied. She looked at the dry blood on her foreleg and recalled what happened not too long ago. "Gargos said he would return, before he disappeared into that Dimensional Rift he created with the, Ultra...tech device or whatever he called it. And Fulgore..." She slowly kneeled down and sighed as she looked back up at the Princesses. "He could have killed me...but he...he let me live." While Luna recoiled slightly at the Pegasus' words, Celestia found herself smiling a little. "He did, did he?" Star Shield nodded. "Yes, he did. He then left and disappeared into the old castle, that's probably where he's laying low for the moment." Celestia smiled. "You've done well Captain..." She turned to a few nearby guards and said, "Guards, help the Captain to the medical ward and see to it she receives everything she needs." "Yes your highness." Three Pegasi guards assisted the Captain to her hoofs and helped her out of the throne room. When they were gone, Luna waved a forehoof. "Guards, ready thyselves and prepare to move out. If the metal monster is still in the old castle then we will have to strike hard and fast before he can cause anymore damage!" Just as a number of guards were to about move, Celestia halted them in their place with a raised forehoof. "Remain where you are, we will not be putting anymore lives at risk." "Sister, that destructive monster is still out there, it is only a matter of time before he decides to leave the old castle and start rampaging through the land. He must be stopped." Luna said. Celestia shook her head. "I understand your desire to protect our subjects, but why attack one who has no reason to harm them?" Luna stared at her sister in confusion, while Twilight Sparkle and her friends watched on silence. "What are you implying sister?" Luna replied as she glared slightly at the white Alicorn. Celestia looked at the five mares who were watching them and said, "Remember what Rarity said. Gargos would have inflicted further harm upon you all had Fulgore not intervened. She was correct when she said that you would all have been killed if he hadn't arrived. We all witnessed him clash with Gargos, that and his acts alone are all the evidence I need to conclude that Fulgore is not our enemy." Luna's eyes widened. "Surely thou cannot be serious! Sister, hath thou already forgotten what that metal beast did? It destroyed Twilight Sparkle's castle! We all saw it with our own eyes!" "I know sister. But have you also forgotten that he was retaliating against Gargos? Was it not he who protected us from suffering the wrath of Gargos' attack?" Celestia replied. Luna tried to think of the right words to respond but found none and accepted defeat. "Thou...you...I suppose you do bring up a valid point sister." She hardened her look again at the white Alicorn. "But it still caused a massive amount of damage, there will be repercussions eventually." Celestia sighed. "Somehow, I don't think so." She turned to the five Ponies that stood at the bottom of the throne and said, "Twilight Sparkle, I have sent a letter to the Crystal Empire informing your brother and Princess Cadence of the events that have transpired, they should be here soon. For now, I have a task for you and your friends, though it will be very dangerous and whether or not any of you want to accept it is your own decision." Twilight Sparkle looked at each of her friends who all gave confident nods, minus Fluttershy who was a little more hesitant. "What is it Princess?" Celestia's expression hardened slightly as she replied. "If Gargos really does plan on returning to Equestria, if he really does plan on stealing the lands magic for himself, then he must be stopped. To drain the land of all of its magic would be to drain it of life itself, Gargos must be stopped. From what we do know, his power is probably equal to if not greater than even mines and Luna's. However..." The white Alicorn cast a quick glance at Luna, who rolled her eyes and motioned for her to continue. "However...from what we have witnessed, Fulgore seemed to be able to match Gargos, and, from what you yourself told me Twilight, he almost defeated him before Luna and I showed up." Rainbow Dash raised a brow. "Uh, Princess, what exactly are you getting at?" Celestia looked at the Pegasus and said, "Fulgore doesn't appear to have any motive for bringing harm to anypony, and he did protect you all from Gargos' wrath. If Gargos' main goal is drain the land of its magic, who better to stop him than Fulgore?" "Uh, Princess, yer not suggestin' what ah think yer suggestin' are ya?" Applejack replied. Celestia nodded. "I am Applejack." Turning back to the lavender Alicorn, she said, "Twilight Sparkle, will you and your friends travel to the old castle, and persuade Fulgore to join us as our ally?" Glacius stood atop the frozen cliff as he pondered where Jago and Fulgore could have disappeared to. The assassin used an Ultratech Device linked with his own technology to create the Rift that took the two of them away, but there was no telling where they ended up. The possibility that they could have just been killed instantly upon being consumed by the Rift was slightly high but the Rift itself was a gateway, a path, atleast that's what he heard from the assassin before she succumbed to her wounds so it didn't seem likely that they were dead. Either way, Glacius was intent on finding out. Their disappearance was caused by not only Ultratechs technology, but his own. It was his responsibility now to figure out where they disappeared to, bring them back and recover the Ultratech Device before it fell into sinister hands. Ultratech was up to something, and though he was tempted to storm their headquarters and find answers, Glacius couldn't allow his emotions to cloud his judgement. He had to remain calm and vigilant, his first mission to recover his own technology was complete. He had to think very carefully and plan his course of action before carrying it out, rushing recklessly into Ultratech's headquarters would only result in a disaster. They'd capture him and then they would find his ship, he couldn't afford to let his tech be stolen again. As the ice alien continued to dwell on the situation, his attention was dragged by a familiar sight. The Dimensional Rift had opened once again, and this time something came flying out of it. Turning to face the dark figure who was on his knees, Glacius narrowed his eyes slightly as he took notice of the Ultratech Device in the figures hand. It was the same one that got sucked into the Rift earlier. As the Rift closed up, the figure rose up to his full height and chuckled. "Ah, looks like it works after all. Perfect, now to begin my counterattack." Glacius' eyes widened slightly when he able to fully identify the dark man. 'Jago?' Almost as if the dark man heard his thoughts, 'Jago' turned around and locked eyes with the ice alien. "Ah, you, Glacius, I should've known you would be involved with this." 'No...not Jago. That is not my friend. He is giving off an aura of pure evil and chaos, my friend would never let such a thing consume him.' Glacius thought. "If you haven't figured it out yet, Jago is no more. I am Gargos, surely you remember me alien?" Gargos said. Glacius hardened his gaze at the dark spirit and jumped into the air, slowly floating down to ground level and landing softly on the icy surface. "What have you done with my friend?" Glacius asked. Gargos chuckled. "He stands before you, don't you see? He is merely, no more, if that's the only way I can put it. This body is mine now and with it, I plan to set out and bring all under my rule once more." Glacius cast a quick glance at the crash site where his ship was before locking eyes with Gargos again. "Where is Fulgore? What about him?" "Merely trapped in another realm. Another realm that I plan to return to in fact. With so much energy there, I could finally regain my true form and reign supreme once more. But as always, there are a few stubborn obstacles that need to be dealt with. Fulgore being one of them, aswell as the realms inhabitants." Gargos said as he clenched his fist. Knowing what the dark spirit was implying, Glacius replied, "You seek to bring another realm under your rule? Was it not enough to sate your ego to have one already?" Gargos smirked behind his face mask and thrust his hand forward. "ENDOKUKEN!" Seeing the dark fireball shooting towards him, Glacius reared his arm back and threw a spiky ball of ice hurling towards the fireball. Both attacks exploded upon contact, forcing both Glacius and Gargos to shield their eyes slightly from the blinding light that followed. As soon as the smoke from the fireball vanished into thin air, Glacius pointed a finger at the dark spirit and said, "I may not know what your entire motive is, but if you seek to bring chaos and destruction down on any realm be it this one or another, abusing the power of that device in your hand to do so, then I'm afraid I cannot let you go any further than here, dark one." Chuckling, Gargos placed the Ultratech device onto the icy ground and entered into a fighting stance. "Then come, stop me, if you think you can alien." Glacius hovered slightly into the air and clenched his hands shut before opening them up, spiky orbs of icy energy floating above them as he glared at his opponent. "This Crash Site will be your resting place." Author's Note I can say with full confidence that Glacius is my favourite KI character, then why have I done a story about Fulgore and not him? Who says I won't do a story about Glacius in Equestria after I'm done? We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Anyway, I decided to go for a little sad toned chapter but I don't think it turned out too well, that and it's short because I just wanted to get it out as soon as possible. So, yeah, hope you liked it, and before any of you comment about it yes more characters will appear soon enough.
Contact:Contact: Glacius and Gargos exchanged hit after hit, from punch to kick to blasting each other with projectiles of fire and ice. Despite Gargos' fierce fighting skills, Glacius was able to keep up with him in every way, so much so that even Gargos himself was beginning to struggle. Even with his techniques, the dark spirit was unable to get close to deliver some of his better punches or kicks due to Glacius' long ranged attacks. The alien kept him at a good distance and launched volley after volley of ice projectile attacks, and though Gargos was able to dodge and block them all, there was still the matter of getting close and finishing his opponent. As soon as Glacius ceased his attacks and began approaching, Gargos quickly took advantage and drew his sword, lunging forward as he prepared to cut the alien down. Glacius was still one, or many steps ahead of him however, as he thrust his arm forward and formed a lance of ice that shot further and forced Gargos to jump back to avoid being struck by the sharp end of the icy weapon. With his new weapon, Glacius pulled his arm back and thrust it forward once more in an attempt to impale his opponent. Gargos growled and jumped to the side, barely dodging the surprisingly swift attack from the tall alien. Glacius repeated his pattern and continuously thrust forward, trying to land a successful strike on Gargos, but the dark spirit was just as fast and was able to keep up with the alien just easily as he was able to keep up with him. Eventually growing frustrated at continuously dodging the aliens attacks, Gargos decided to break the pattern at his next jump, watching as the lance shot in front of him before raising his sword and swinging it down fiercely. Glacius' eyes widened slightly as he watched the sword shatter his ice lance like, ice, and pulled his arm back to quickly prepare for a counterattack as Gargos sprinted towards him. As soon as Gargos was in range, he swung his sword forward at the aliens head, but Glacius sunk down and melted into the icy ground before the weapon could touch him. Having already seen the aliens trick before, Gargos narrowed his eyes at the icy ground he stood on and watched as a part of it moved away from him. Smirking, he turned around and sprinted forward with his sword raised. As he expected, Glacius shot up from the ground in front of him, just as he hoped. Eyes widening in shock that the dark spirit was already within striking range, Glacius braced himself as Gargos' swung his sword forward and struck the alien right in the chest. Gargos grinned evilly behind his mask as he took in a deep breath. "You've lost. You should have known better than to challenge me..." Looking up, Gargos' expression changed from confident to horror in the blink of an eye as he saw his sword hadn't even so much as drew blood from the alien. Leaping back, Gargos got a bit of distance away before glaring furiously at his opponent. "WHAT?! HOW?!" "You forget, my race is capable of many things, dark one." Glacius said, his tone indicating that he was smirking. Large pieces of solid ice now covered parts of Glacius' body, acting as a sort of armour. Gargos growled at him. "How dare you...you will pay dearly for this." Putting his sword away, Gargos clenched his fists and entered back into a fighting stance, the tattoos on his body beginning to give off a dark glow as he began to channel his energy. "You will not leave this place alive alien! Mark my words!" He shouted. Glacius let his armour fade into pieces as he pulled his arm back and entered into a fighting stance, ready to put an end to the dark spirit. "There it is!" A voice shouted. The two combatants ceased their actions and looked around for the source of the voice, catching movement just up ahead near the crashed ship. Glacius narrowed his eyes as two people came into view and he was surprised slightly as soon as he was able to identify them. "What are they doing here?" He muttered to himself. Black Orchid and Chief Thunder caught sight of the two and rushed towards them. "Glacius! Jago?" Orchid gave her brother a confused stare as she looked him up and down. As the agent began walking towards her brother, her movement was halted by Glacius who put his arm in her way. "Don't get any closer! He has been corrupted by Gargos and now the dark spirit has full control over his body!" While Thunder continued to stare in confusion, Orchid just looked at Glacius in shock before turning to Gargos. "Jago?" Gargos chuckled. "Jago is no more." Orchid and Thunder were taken aback by his deep gruff tone. "G-Gargos...it can't be...you're supposed to be dead!" "Fortunately for myself, a part of me still resided in your brother. Thanks to his weakness, I was able to fully gain control of his mind and body and now I finally have another chance at taking back what is rightfully mine. Rest assured, when the time comes and I am able to find a more suitable host, or recreate my own body again, I'll consider letting him return to you. Until then however..." Gargos thrust his hand forward. "ENDOKUKEN!" A large dark fireball shot towards the three, forcing Orchid to leap back while Thunder rolled out of the way. Glacius stood his ground and summoned up his ice armour to shield him against the attack. The two humans watched as the attack exploded against the aliens form. Though his ice armour was shattered by the attack, the alien remained unscathed. As soon as they turned their sights back to Gargos, they already saw him standing by the icy cliff with the Ultratech device in his hand. "I'm sure we will meet again when the time comes, but for now, I have more important business to take care of. Until then!" The dark spirit cackled and leaped off the cliff. By the time the two humans and the alien reached the edge of the cliff, he was already gone. Gargos stood at the top of the mountains as he looked down at the vast land before him, pondering on his next course of action. Only a small amount of time went by after his little encounter with the ice alien and he had yet to set his plan in motion. Equestria, a land of pure magical energy, more than enough for him to not only regain his form, but take over the realm aswell, perhaps even Earth. Yes, with his previous rival gone, Earth was his for the taking, it was only a matter of when and how. Of course, Equestria was first on his list. He needed to take the magic from the realm first and regain his full power before moving on to the next phase of his plan. He needed time though, and despite his current power, he needed assistance. Closing his eyes, Gargos began to concentrate as he tried to feel out any powerful auras. If he was going to defeat his enemies in Equestria, he would need some help. Fulgore alone was admittedly a difficult opponent, and the Princesses together would prove a challenge. As he put all of his focus into finding potential allies, his concentration was nearly broken by two powerful auras that were near the old Shipwrecked Shore where he had hidden one of his old artefacts, the Mask of the Ancients. Curious, the dark spirit put all of his concentration into linking his mind with his mask. Successful in finding it, he completed the link and witnessed a duel coming to an end between the two powers he felt earlier. They would both come in handy. With an evil smirk, he clenched his fist and let his power flow through the Mask of the Ancients, bringing the victorious warrior to his knees as the dark spirits power took a hold of him. Gloating, Gargos spoke, knowing his victim could hear his voice echoing through the mask. "An immortal warrior? I do believe I'll have a good use for you..." Fear. That was all Twilight Sparkle and her friends felt as they looked up at the abandoned castle. Normally they had no problems heading inside to fix the place up and read some of the books from the library from time to time, it was a common routine they had going on. Except now it was inhabited by a dangerous killing machine that could no doubt break them in two or rip them to shreds or even blast them into a million pieces like they'd never seen before. That was why they were now afraid as they approached this castle. It was already scary enough knowing what was waiting for them but the dead bodies of the guards outside the castle only horrified them to the point of insanity. Thankfully they remembered it was Gargos who had done this and not the one they were looking for. Rarity was surprisingly the least afraid out of the six, most likely because she seemed to already have a level of trust for the metal monster. Pinkie Pie's mane and tail were back to normal and, unsurprisingly, she was talking about throwing a 'Welcome to our side Metal Psycho Monster' party, in the event that he did of course join their side. Rainbow Dash was cocky and overconfident as usual, talking about how she would beat the metal monster to within an inch of its life if it chose to refuse their offer. Of course, they all knew what happened the last time she tried challenging Gargos so it didn't take a genius to know that she was shaking inside. Applejack and Fluttershy were unsure if it was a good idea to have the dangerous metal monster on their side, but Fluttershy, having experience with various predators in the past, was able to agree and go along with Celestia's plan and give the metal monster the benefit of the doubt. Applejack was more hesitant but remembering the points she herself made, she couldn't exactly say no and she sure didn't want her friends going without her. Twilight Sparkle was ready for a fight if necessary though she doubted she would be able to do much if the metal monster was as powerful as she expected it to be. Inside, she was just repeating to herself over and over, 'Please accept our offer'. The six mares crossed the bridge and finally arrived near the entrance to the castle, stopping just a good distance away from the steps as they took a moment to brace themselves for the worst. As they waited in silence, Rainbow Dash cast a quick glance at Rarity, who hadn't even looked or spoken to the Pegasus at all since her outburst back at the castle. It kind of hurt seeing her friend that mad at her as she recalled everything she said back at the castle. "I believe it is only fair that I remind you that that brute Gargos is the one who harmed my sister and the rest of us! He was the one who threatened us and he was the one nearly killed us! And his name is FULGORE! He was the one who stopped Gargos from inflicting any further harm on the rest of us, and indeed he is responsible for the destruction of the castle, but that was during an attempt to protect the Princesses from Gargos himself, you saw it with your own eyes! In fact, I know, I know it in my heart now that those energy attacks back there were his doing, he was the one who stopped Gargos from harming you Rainbow Dash! You would be dead right now if it wasn't for him! We would ALL BE DEAD if it wasn't for HIM!" Rainbow Dash nervously rubbed the back of her head before speaking. "Hey umm, Rarity, I'm, sorry about earlier. You, aren't still mad at me are you?" Rarity let out a soft sigh and faced her friend. "No darling, I'm not mad anymore. I guess I was still just under a lot of stress from what happened earlier today. And, please don't apologise, if anything, I'm the one who should be saying sorry, not you." "It's fine, you did kinda bring up a couple of good points anyway, otherwise we wouldn't be here." Rainbow Dash replied with a slight grin. Rarity smiled. "I did didn't I? That being said, I'm fully confident that everything will be ok, I'm sure our tall, dark and metal friend inside will be more than willing to hear us out once we explain everything." Twilight Sparkle rolled her eyes. "I'm glad somepony seems rather excited about all of this..." She looked back up at the large doors ahead. "I just wish they weren't capable of causing so much harm and maybe I'd have a reason to be excited too." "Oh! Oh don't forget that we'll to bring him to Ponyville so we can throw a-" Pinkie Pie was cut off by Applejack who placed a forehoof on the pink mares mouth. "We know sugarcube, ya said it ta us like a million times already on our way here. First we need ta talk to the thing first." Applejack said as she took her hoof away. "So jus' try an' be as quiet as possible for now, atleast until we talk it into coming to Canterlot with us." Pinkie Pie nodded. "Okie Dokie Lockie." Taking her eyes off of the castle, Fluttershy turned to Twilight and asked, "What if he doesn't come with us?" Twilight sighed. "If we can't convince him to come with us back to Canterlot, then, we can't force him, unless we want to put ourselves in danger again. If he doesn't come with us then we'll just have to return to Canterlot and tell the Princesses. Even if he doesn't come with us, the Princesses can always go to him. I just hope he doesn't attack us before we have the chance to try and talk." "Well what are we waiting for? Let's-" Rainbow Dash was cut off as she flew into something hard, causing a loud clang to echo a little as she landed on the ground. "Ow!" "Rainbow! Are you alright?" Fluttershy asked as she rushed to help her friend up. The cyan Pegasus rubbed her head and nodded. "Yeah, what was that?" Twilight looked ahead and noticed there was a small blurry invisible field in front of them. She approached it and raised her forehoof, expecting it to go through or something, instead she felt something metal. "W-What is this?" The rest of the mares all stood next to her as she examined the invisible field more. "Is it some kind of invisible barrier?" Rarity asked. "I...I don't know. It's possible, but what could have put it up? Surely Gargos isn't responsible for it and I don't think Fulgore has the capability to do so judging from what we saw what he can do." Twilight said. Fluttershy let out a quiet 'EEP!' and backed away from the rest of her friends. "Uh girls..." Applejack placed her hoof on the invisible metal next and said, "Well, it can't exactly be a barrier. It's only coverin' like, this part of the ground, we can just go around it." "Girls...?" Twilight looked back at Applejack. "But it could be some type of new magic. Isn't that enough to make you curious?" "Not really sugarcube." Applejack replied. Rainbow Dash gave a quick jab at the invisible barrier and said, "Well it doesn't matter, I doubt it's anything important anyway. Let's just head inside and..." She was halted by a loud sizzling sound. The six mares, plus Fluttershy who had backed away from them, all watched as sparks danced around the invisible barrier, the metal form slowly becoming visible as its dark metal body melted into view for all to see. Slowly looking up, all eyes locked on to two glowing red orbs that stared back down at them, a metal growl filling the air as silence followed. They then did the first thing that came to mind. They screamed. Author's Note Sorry this took a while, but I've been busy. Plus I've been rather too depressed lately due to the recent passing of my dog. Anyway, it's not much right now but things will get better as it goes along.
Communication:Communication: "So...that's what became of them..." A troubled Thunder said as he closed eyes and went deep in thought after listening to Glacius explain what happened earlier with the Dimensional Rift. Glacius leaned back against the wall of the ships bridge and folded his arms as he turned to Orchid, who was currently trying to access the ships database to find information on Ultratech. "I would appreciate it if you asked me to use my ships tech first instead of using it without my permission." Orchid glared at him over her shoulder. "I think we have more important things to worry about..." Glacius nodded. "Gargos possessing Jago..." He then turned to Thunder. "And...Fulgore." Thunder clenched his fist and refrained from punching the metal wall in front of him. "How dare Ultratech do something like this. He never deserved any of this..." "Are you positive your information is accurate?" Glacius asked Orchid. "How do you know Fulgore is-" Orchid glared at the ice alien. "Because I've been fighting them the majority of my whole life! Trust me, I know." Glacius sighed. "Well then...I suppose we better do something about Gargos first. He is a great threat and must be dealt with immediately or he will bring an entire realm to ruin." Orchid raised a brow at the alien. "You actually believe him about that different realm?" "I sensed no dishonesty in his words." Glacius replied. "But if he is able to regain energy in this realm, we must stop him immediately. Not only is there no guarantee that he'll stop there, but there's also the fact that he is currently possessing my friend and your brother." Thunder spoke up. "Do not forget about Fulgore my friend. He is just as important." "Ultratech is still in a weakened state. They're a threat to the world, if I don't take care of them now, they'll return to power. I can't possibly choose between millions of innocent people and my brother." Orchid replied. Glacius shook his head. "Fulgore. Gargos. Ultratech. They are all linked. But think for a moment, which is more important? A Cyborg that we can track down at any time? A dark spirit possessing a friend and brother and planning to drain an entire realm to restore his full power and possibly bring ruin to not only that realm but ours aswell? Or the currently weakened corporation responsible for it all?" Orchid and Thunder exchanged looks before going deep in thought, clearly struggling to decide what to do. Glacius sighed and said, "We cannot stop Gargos if he is in the other realm while we remain here. To follow him, we need a device similar to the one he's using to open up Rifts. My ship possesses great technology but it alone will not be enough. However..." He looked at Orchid. "If we were to...track down Ultratech and steal a device from their headquarters, we would not only have a chance to put an end to them, but we could then use the device and my ships energy to create a Rift and follow Gargos to the other realm." He then glanced over at Thunder. "From there, we could track down Fulgore and deal with Gargos once and for all." Orchid smirked. "Alright then, I'm all for it." "A wise strategy, let's do it." Thunder agreed. Glacius nodded. "Very well. I shall use my ships tech to find Ultratechs headquarters. From there we shall infiltrate it and recover some of their equipment. Afterwards, we will meet back up here at my ship." "Wait, meet back up? We're splitting up?" Orchid questioned with a confused glare. "Yes..." Glacius replied. Orchid got off the large metal seat and approached him. "Why?" "Because despite our combined abilities, defeating Gargos will be no easy task. I'm going to seek out someone who can help us." Glacius said as he made his way to the ships controls. "Once I've located Ultratechs headquarters, I'll upload the coordinates to that primitive device of yours, I'll then be on my way to seek assistance." Orchid scoffed and decided to ignore his apparent insult of human technology. Spinal watched the ship in the distance, pondering on why he no longer desired to join its ghostly crew and move on. One moment he was victorious over his opponent, the next, he barely recalled a dark voice whispering something in his mind, then found himself with a sudden change of desire. A bright flash from behind caught his attention. It was only after the light of the flash was gone and the sound of footsteps filled the air that he looked over his shoulder to acknowledge the dark spirit before him. Gargos slowly approached the immortal warrior and frowned slightly behind his metal face mask. "I have a plan to finally regain my full power but a few...pests intend to get in my way." Spinal eyed the dark clad man up and down. He couldn't place a bony finger on it, but something about him seemed familiar. Different, but still familiar. Clutching the Ultratech device in his hand, Gargos turned to the large blue werewolf that was currently glaring at him with a mixed expression of rage and confusion. "This will not be enough to take the realm of Equestria, but the two of you will be enough to keep our enemies busy until I have found more allies. So...I expect the both of you to cooperate, failure will not be tolerated." Spinal and Sabrewulf exchanged glares before responding with a nod. "Good." Gargos activated the device and, like before, a large circular Rift of purple opened up beside them. "Move out! Kill anything that gets in your way! Divide and Conquer!" Sabrewulf let out a loud howl before getting on all fours and began rushing towards the Rift, followed by Spinal, who chuckled evilly, eager to spill the blood of his 'masters' foes. With a victorious smirk, Gargos watched as the two disappeared along with the Rift. Fulgore's scanners detected a massive surge of energy nearby, much similar to that of the Rift earlier. While he intended to focus on the precise location of the massive energy signature, he was already preoccupied with the six Ponies before him. The yellow Pegasus had immediately fainted after their screams had died down. The hyperactive pink one stared at him, wide-eyed and with a big, massive, overly happy grin. The orange one with the hat and the lavender one with wings and a horn were both keeping their distance with a clear look of fear on their faces. The white Unicorn was closer but still keeping her distance, giving him a curious look as if she was examining every part of his body. Then there was the cyan one with the rainbow mane and tail. The continuous sound of clanging brought Fulgore's attention slowly down to the cyan Pegasus, who was repeatedly throwing punch after punch at his large chest. It was a clear futile attempt, as the only damage she'd done so far was bruise and cut her forehoofs against his unmarked metal chest. Finally, the Pegasus had apparently expired all of her stamina and slowly fluttered to the ground. "Alright...you...win...just...hurry up...and get it...over with..." She panted heavily. Fulgore just let out a metallic growl, causing the cyan Pony to back away slightly. Twilight Sparkle finally decided to step in and teleported in front of her friend. "Wait! Please, don't hurt us. We...we aren't here to fight. We only came here to talk." 'Talk? What could these creatures possibly want to talk to me about?' Fulgore thought. As Fluttershy regained consciousness, she was helped up by Applejack. "You okay sugarcube?" "Y-Yes...I'm fine..." Fluttershy replied quietly before looking back at the cyborg. She followed Applejack over to Twilight but kept her distance and stayed behind her friends, still very much frightened. Fulgore looked back and forth at each of them as they stood next to each other, waiting for the lavender one to continue. "N-Now...first off...we're sorry about our...reaction. We just...didn't expect to run into you the way we did. We didn't know you could...turn invisible." Twilight said, shuddering at the thought of this dangerous metal monster being able to hide himself at will. Twilight then placed a forehoof to her chest. "Let me introduce myself. My name is Twilight Sparkle..." She then pointed at each of her friends. "That's Pinkie Pie. Applejack. Rainbow Dash. Fluttershy and Rarity. As I'm sure you are most likely aware, we're Ponies. I'm an Alicorn, Rarity here is a Unicorn. Rainbow and Fluttershy are both Pegasi, and Applejack and Pinkie Pie are Earth Ponies." Fulgore looked at each of them and processed the information willingly given to him. With his scanners beeping in his vision, he looked at each of the six mares and started gathering the data into a record so he wouldn't forget their names. He didn't know why he was bothering though. Subject Name: Twilight Sparkle Species: Alicorn Method of Execution: Break energy source and impalement to the brain Threat Level: Low He hadn't heard of an Alicorn before but he didn't exactly care and turned to the next one. Subject Name: Pinkie Pie Species: Earth Pony Method of Execution: Decapitation Threat Level: Low He set his glowing gaze on Applejack. Subject Name: Applejack Species: Earth Pony Method of Execution: Sever Cervical Threat Level: Low Then Rainbow Dash. Subject Name: Rainbow Dash Species: Pegasus Method of Execution: Remove Wings and Bludgeon to death Threat Level: Low Then Fluttershy. Subject Name: Fluttershy Species: Pegasus Method of Execution: Heart Removal Threat Level: Very High Then Rarity. Subject Name: Rarity Spec- 'Wait. What?' Fulgore set his gaze back on Fluttershy, who backed away slightly. Subject Name: Fluttershy Species: Pegasus Method of Execution: Heart Removal Threat Level: Very High 'Ridiculous. Until proven otherwise, I refuse to believe this information is accurate.' Pressing a few buttons on the device on his wrist, the data blurred up for a moment before a part of it was deleted and replaced. Subject Name: Fluttershy Species: Pegasus Method of Execution: Heart Removal Threat Level: Low Fulgore turned to the last of the six. Subject Name: Rarity Species: Unicorn Method of Execution: Break energy source and impalement to the brain Threat Level: Low Done with the processing, he let out a metallic growl, motioning for one of them to speak up. Twilight exchanged fearful looks with her friends before slowly stepping forward. "Umm...the...the reason we're here is because...the Princesses asked us to find you." Fulgore tilted his head slightly. "They...they asked us to find you and ask that you come with us to Canterlot." Twilight said as she raised her forehoof and pointed at something. Fulgore followed her hoof and set his glowing gaze on the white castle that was sitting on the side of the tall mountain in the distance. Applejack decided to speak up. "They asked us to find ya because they wanna ask ya to join us." Surprised slightly, Fulgore looked back down at the six Ponies, his gaze moving to Rarity who stepped forward to speak next. "While we know you are...dangerous...we know that you aren't a mindless killing brute like Gargos. It's thanks to you that my sister and her friends, and I...are still alive." Rarity said as she looked away, attempting to hide the blush that appeared slightly on her face. Twilight nodded. "She's right. While you...did...bring down my castle..." Twilight took a moment to regain her composure. "Unlike Gargos, who displayed nothing but complete hostility towards us, your actions clearly proved to us that your only intent was to stop him. As such, the Princesses would like you to come to Canterlot and accept their offer to join us, so we can work together to defeat Gargos and protect our home." "And so I can throw you a 'Welcome to our side Metal Psycho Monster' Party!" Pinkie Pie as she lunged forward and threw her forelegs around one of Fulgore's metal legs, looking up at him with a wide happy grin. Fulgore just looked down at her. It was quite possible this Pony may very well be insane, the fact that her smile hadn't left her face once so far was proof of that. Rainbow Dash decided to speak up. "Hey Pinkie, don't touch him! He might try to-" "Oh relax Rainbow! Me and Fulgore are already friends! See? Look at his smile, he's already happy to have somepony as a friend!" Pinkie Pie said. The other five mares looked up at the cyborg, starting to get nervous that Pinkie's antics were most likely going to end up driving him mad. "Umm...Pinkie...maybe you should...give him some space...he probably doesn't appreciate you touching him." Fluttershy muttered out. Pinkie Pie grinned cheerfully before bouncing back over to her friends. "Okie Dokie Lockie!" With her friend back to their side, Twilight spoke up again. "Anyway...Fulgore...will you please return to Canterlot with us? The Princesses will be able to fill you in much better once we get there. Please? Whatever Gargos is planning, it can't be good for Equestria and there's no telling what he'll do to accomplish his goals. The Princesses said that you're the only one in Equestria who may be able to stop him. Will you help us?" Fulgore looked down at them in silence. While Rainbow continued to glare hatefully at him, the rest of them looked at him with hopeful expressions, whereas Pinkie Pie continued to smile cheerfully at him. The cyborg let out a metallic growl, forcing the six to back away slightly. 'I suppose I shouldn't exactly be surprised. The supposed rulers of this land only seek to use me for the sake of their Kingdom. While it isn't exactly a selfish motive like Ultratech, I still detest being used as a mere weapon for anothers goals. Then again...a weapon is all I am.' Clenching his metal hand shut, Fulgore looked up at Canterlot in the distance. 'Still...Gargos is my target. Perhaps I should comply with their request...for now.' Facing the six mares again, Fulgore nodded. Twilight's expression lit up. "Y-You'll come with us?" Again, Fulgore nodded. All of their expressions then lit up, if only slightly, with the exception of Rainbow Dash who continued to glare at Fulgore, albeit with slightly less hostility. In all honesty, she was just grateful he was actually agreeing to go with them instead of ripping them to pieces. Rarity then approached the cyborg and held a forehoof out. "Well then...um, Fulgore...let us be on our way shall we? We will head back to Ponyville and take the-" A faint explosion echoed in the air. Acting on instinct, Fulgore activated his plasma blades and glanced around for the source. "L-Look! Up there!" Fluttershy pointed with a forehoof. The six mares and cyborg followed her hoof up to Canterlot. Their eyes all widened in horror when they saw a part of the castle roof collapsing. "Oh no...the castle is under attack. The Princesses!" Twilight yelled out. Just as she unfurled her wings to take flight, a loud howl froze her in her place. "W-What in tarnation was that?" Applejack asked as she fearfully looked around for the source of the howl. "Timberwolf?" Rainbow Dash asked as she glanced around. The six mares slowly huddled together, recalling their past experiences with packs of Timberwolves. 'No...not a Timberwolf.' Fulgore thought as his scanners directed him to the roof of the castle next to them. Noticing his movement, the six mares followed his gaze all the way up to the roof of the castle. A large blue furred creature was standing on top of the roof, glaring down at them with a hungry look, baring its sharp teeth at them as drool dripped from its mouth. "What...what is that...?" Twilight whispered fearfully as she and her friends backed away. Fulgore reactivated his Plasma Blades and entered into a fighting stance as he prepared for battle. 'Sabrewulf.' Author's Note Well, that's that one done. Sorry for the long wait but recovering from recent events hasn't exactly been easy. Anyway, I ain't gonna waste too much time with notes. Sabrewulf is here, which means Spinal is...I'll let you all piece together the rest. Also, if there's any other characters you all want to appear, just let me know and I'll see what I can do to fit them in.
Encounter:Encounter: Sabrewulf leaped from the roof and landed feet first onto the ground, snarling at the six mares and cyborg that stood across from him. The werewolf narrowed his eyes at his seven opponents, choosing which to attack first. While the desire to rip flesh from bone was strong, he also knew that attacking Fulgore first would be the wisest choice. Attacking one of the Ponies and leaving himself open would be a fatal mistake, as the werewolf was already familiar with the destructive tools Fulgore had at his disposal. "A...A werewolf?" Twilight Sparkle slowly backed away along with her friends. "I've only ever read about them in books, I've never actually seen one..." She stuttered. Applejack chuckled nervously. "Hehe...uh, there's a first time for everything sugarcube." Sabrewulf let out a mighty howl and slowly approached his prey. Fulgore challenged him with a metallic growl, and stomped his way forward, Plasma Blades at the ready. Not wasting any time, Sabrewulf rushed forward and jumped at the cyborg. Fulgore pulled his arm back and prepared to throw a straight punch, but Sabrewulf's speed was much quicker than he anticipated, as he swiftly circled around behind the cyborg and hammered his elbow into the back of his head. Fulgore stumbled forward before quickly regaining his footing, turning around to face his opponent only to find Sabrewulf already in the air flying towards him. The werewolf snarled viciously as he hacked away at Fulgore's torso with his claws, leaving slight scratch marks on the metal. Fulgore growled and thrust his foot forward into Sabrewulf's gut, forcing the fierce werewolf back a good distance. Before Fulgore could even put his foot back down to regain his full balance, Sabrewulf was already back to his feet and rushing towards him on all fours. Acting fast, Fulgore fired his eye lasers at the ground in front of Sabrewulf, attempting to force him to run right into them. Again however, Sabrewulf's instincts were much sharper than he gave credit for, as he ceased his running and barely avoided the lasers before jumping into the towards the cyborg. Fortunately, Fulgore had him this time. As soon as the werewolf was about to strike, Fulgore pulled his metal fist back and hammered it upwards, delivering a powerful spinning uppercut that sent the werewolf into the air. -Combo Breaker- Realising his slow movement was affecting his capabilities, Fulgore raised his arms and opened up his chest, a bright red light started flashing inside as he began charging up his Reactor. Knowing what his opponent was doing, Sabrewulf landed on all fours, not far in front of the six mares, who all shrieked in fear, and started rushing back towards the cyborg again. Seeing him approaching, Fulgore ceased his charge and thrust his arms forward, firing several Energy Bolts at the werewolf. -Reactor: 50%- Sabrewulf manoeuvred around each of the blasts and, after dodging the last one, jumped forward. With his claws ready, Sabrewulf slammed his entire body into Fulgore, growling at the impact before standing over the cyborg. Without hesitation, the werewolf began hacking away once more with his claws, scratching Fulgore's metal body slightly, while leaving several open cuts on the few organic parts he had. Knowing the werewolf was going to leave serious damage eventually, Fulgore quickly retaliated and fired his eye lasers into his opponents chest. Roaring in pain at the burn mark on his chest, Sabrewulf jumped back and rubbed his chest before glaring daggers at the now rising cyborg. Upon getting back to his feet, Fulgore raised his arms and disappeared into a cloud of black fog. Sabrewulf's eyes widened, learning too late what his opponent was doing and howled in pain as he felt a large metal fist collide with his back. After teleporting behind the werewolf to throw in his attack, Fulgore quickly opened his chest up to begin charging his Reactor again, leaving himself open as his body was surrounded by a blood red glow. Twilight watched carefully on what Fulgore was doing while Sabrewulf was recovering from the attack, trying to figure out the purpose of the red flashing thing inside his chest. 'What purpose does that serve exactly? From what we've already seen, the werewolf is much quicker, its speed is letting it outmanoeuvre Fulgore due to his bulk and slow movement, but even with that speed, Fulgore is able to counterattack because he has more options for defence, close and long range combat. We've already seen the power he's capable of, so why isn't he ending this right now?' -Reactor: 95%- Almost there. Fulgore's Reactor was nearly charged at maximum, but before he could finish charging, Sabrewulf was already rushing towards him. The cyborg growled and closed his chest, but his still slightly slow movement gave Sabrewulf the time he needed to jump forward slash his claws against the cyborgs head. Little damage received. Though Fulgore knew it was only a matter of time before his opponent hit an important part of his body that would leave him crippled. He had to end this now. Pulling his metal fists back, his Plasma Blades activated again. Fulgore lunged forward and started hacking away with his Plasma Blades, but despite the increase of energy from the Reactor, it wasn't enough to help him keep up with Sabrewulf's speed. The werewolf continued to dodge his opponent with ease, waiting to find an opening to the cyborgs attack pattern. As soon as Fulgore threw his slowest punch, Sabrewulf snarled viciously and grabbed his large metal arm before he could pull it back. Acting fast, Sabrewulf pulled backwards and dropped himself to the ground, bringing Fulgore over and ontop of him. With his large feet pressed against Fulgore's metal torso, Sabrewulf mustered up all the strength he had and fired Fulgore overhead, sending the cyborg flying and crashing head first into the castle wall. The six Ponies nearby all watched in shock as the cyborg landed on the ground, his large metal body remained motionless as the cloud of dust from the crash slowly faded. Before they could run to his side to check on him, they all jumped back with a fearful shriek as Sabrewulf jumped in front of them. "You girls get out of here! I'll hold it off!" Rainbow Dash shouted as she shot towards the werewolf. Sabrewulf just snarled and smacked her aside with the back of his large claws before setting his sights directly on Twilight Sparkle. Narrowing his eyes at the lavender Alicorn, words from his 'master' burned in his mind. "The ones that possess both a horn and wings seem to be in charge. Kill them on sight, and if any others get in your way, kill them too." Growling, Sabrewulf stomped forward, his eyes still fixed on a frightened Twilight. Acting fast, Applejack jumped in front of her friend and thrust her hindlegs into the werewolfs gut. "Back off ya no good varmint!" Sabrewulf glared at her and grabbed her by the neck, growling viciously at the farm mare as he picked her up and threw her into Rainbow Dash. Pinkie Pie frowned at the blue werewolf. "Well, if you think you'll be getting any parties thrown for you then you can think again! I don't throw parties for anypony who is mean to me and my friends and hurts other Ponies for absolutely no reason! I think you should apologise right now otherwise I'll have to-" Pinkie Pie was cut off as Sabrewulf clamped her muzzle shut with one of his clawed hands before tossing her aside into her friends. "Back you savage!" Rarity, assisted by Twilight, both charged up their horns and fired beams of magic at the werewolf. It burned, only slightly however, almost as if it was a laughably weaker version of the lasers Fulgore used. Seeing the werewolf still closing in, Fluttershy slowly backed away as it closed in on Rarity and Twilight. "Our magic is barely affecting him!" Twilight shouted as she tried to push the werewolf back with more powerful blasts of magic. By the time he was within close enough distance, Sabrewulf lunged forward and grabbed both Twilight and Rarity by the horns, immediately putting a stop to their magic before lifting them into the air. The two mares cried out in pain as the werewolf tightened his grip around their horns, with the intention of breaking them completely, then he would kill them. Fulgore finally recovered from the previous attack and slowly rose to his feet. Upon seeing that Sabrewulf was currently distracted with the two mares in his claws, he decided to take the opportunity to finish charging his Reactor. As he did so however, his scanners started picking up a massive energy signature. Fluttershy looked back and forth between the three mares who were currently piled ontop of each other, and the two who were currently suffering in Sabrewulf's grasp. "How dare you..." Sabrewulf's ears twitched slightly upon hearing her words. "How DARE you...!" Fluttershy unfurled her wings and hovered above the ground as she flew in front of Sabrewulf, who was currently glaring at her curiously. "You think you can just hurt other Ponies and get away with it? Do you?!" Sabrewulf's glare was slowly wavering and his grip around Twilight and Rarity weakened until he finally let them go, the two mares then quickly backed away while rubbing their horns to soothe the pain that was still present. Sabrewulf's full attention was now on the yellow Pegasus that was currently hovering in front of him, giving him a rather, scolding, glare, like the one a mother would give to her child when they did something stupid. "You think that just because you're bigger than us, and scarier than us that you can just go around and hurt other Ponies whenever you want?!" Fluttershy added as she closed in slightly, her stare intimidating Sabrewulf into backing away slightly. -Reactor: 100%- Fulgore just watched on silence, still unable to believe that the energy signature his scanners picked up was directing him towards Fluttershy. No matter how many times he tried to get accurate information, his scanners repeated the same thing over and over. Subject Name: Fluttershy Species: Pegasus Method of Execution: Use Devastation Beam Threat Level: LowMediumHighVery High Extreme Fluttershy poked Sabrewulf's head with a forehoof, forcing him to take another step back. "Just because you're big and strong and scary doesn't mean you have the right to go around hurting other Ponies! Especially my friends! How would you like it if somepony bigger and scarier came along and started picking on you! Would you like it?! Huh?!" Sabrewulf timidly shook his head, his ears drooped down and his eyes were now furrowed into a look of fear. "That's right! You wouldn't would you?!" Fluttershy continued to scold. "Now I suggest that you go away right now and leave my friends alone or else I'll give you a whole new reason to be scared!" Backing away, Sabrewulf nodded rapidly and turned to run away. Seven steps was all he took before he realised what just happened. But before he could respond in any way, his earlier opponent teleported in front of him. Eyes widening in shock, Sabrewulf tried to jump back but Fulgore had already grabbed his arm. With his Reactor now fully charged, Fulgore tightened his grip around Sabrewulf's arm. Mustering up all of his power, Fulgore effortlessly removed the werewolf from the ground and threw him into the air. Opening up chest, Fulgore wasted no time and fired his Devastation Beam into the werewolf in the distance. Fluttershy and her friends all just watched in stunned silence as the large red blast of destruction collided with Sabrewulf's form and sent him flying off into the distance. With the beam dying down to a complete halt, Sabrewulf was now but a dot disappearing into the cloudy sky and completely out of sight. Victorious, Fulgore let his energy cool off before turning to Fluttershy. As the rest of the mares trotted over to their friends side, Fluttershy just continued to keep her eyes locked with Fulgore's, looking up at him in fear before she decided to slowly back away. "Um...I..." Fulgore would have narrowed his eyes if he could, as he watched in confusion as Fluttershy hid behind her friends. 'I may have to rethink my opinion on that one. It's possible she may very well be the most powerful creature in this Kingdom.' Princess Cadence and Shining Armor galloped through the streets of Canterlot towards the castle in great haste after they witnessed the large beam breaking through the roof. After they received a letter earlier today from Princess Celestia asking for their presence, they were more than happy to oblige and travelled by train. It was only a few minutes after they arrived at the city that all Tartarus broke loose and everypony was running around screaming and barricading themselves in their homes. When the two finally arrived at the castle, they were shocked to find all of the guards half dead. Some of the less injured were moving the more critical wounded to the medical ward, while the guards still fight worthy were rallying in the courtyard. "What happened here?!" Princess Cadence asked as she and her husband reached the small group of guards that were gathered. One of the Lunar Guards faced them and replied, "An intruder suddenly appeared in the castle and started attacking everypony in sight. We believe he has made his way to the throne room but any remaining passages there are blocked by rubble and we have no Unicorn or Pegasi guards to spare." "Let's go!" Shining Armor nodded to his wife and teleported to the upper wall of the castle, followed closely by Cadence who used her wings to keep up with him. It was like the guard said, most of the hallways were blocked off by rubble. Something must not have wanted them to get to the throne room. Fortunately, Cadence and Shining Armor were able to teleport their way to the other side of the rubble, so they were able to keep moving on. They couldn't help but stop to spare horrified looks at several dead guards they passed along the way, whoever was responsible for this, Shining Armor and Cadence had every intention of making them pay for such brutality. Celestia didn't mention in her letter why she asked for them, only that it was really important and it concerned the wellbeing of Equestria. Cadence knew from the last few times that letters with such words meant that something, or somepony dangerous had risen to bring ruin to Equestria and enslave its population. Much like Tirek not too long ago, and barely any different from King Sombra back at the Crystal Empire. It was certainly not the Changelings, as none were in sight, and Queen Chrysalis wasn't foolish enough to execute a surprise attack twice after the last one failed. The only other conclusion could be that it was a whole new force, and since they were currently unaware of any other past foe of the Princesses, they had no idea what to expect and merely prepared themselves for the coming storm. As soon as they arrived at the throne room doors, Shining Armor used his magic to force them open and rushed in, followed by Cadence how hovered down to the floor. Their eyes were immediately on the motionless form of Celestia, and the injured form of Luna, who was currently standing in front of her unconscious sister, struggling to stay on her hoofs. Cadence and Shining Armor then turned to the only other occupant in the throne room. A bipedal skeletal creature with torn and ripped clothing on its...skeletal body, along with what looked like rope and half of a ships wheel attached to it. An evil chuckle came from the creature as it slowly turned to the two new occupants in the throne room. In place of eyes, there were small glowing lights in the sockets that helped show little to no expression on its skeletal face. The skeletal creature let out a loud cackle and, with its cutlass raised, charged the Prince and Princess. Author's Note I was in the mood so I decided to get this done. I know, I just happen to get this out a day after the last chapter was uploaded which took like a month if I remember correctly. Well, like I said in the last Author's Notes, I was dealing with things and I was just in the mood to get this chapter done. And of course, some of you predicted what I was going to do next, good job. I plan on having more characters show up but the next one might not be until after a chapter or two. We'll just wait and see. On that note, I'm planning on writing another Killer Instinct Fic, I won't say what, but I will say that I won't be starting it until this one's done first.
Counterattack:Counterattack: Chief Thunder stood at the doorway of the computer room while keeping an eye out for any approaching security while Orchid went to work in accessing Ultratech's database. With one of their devices now in hand, it was just a matter of successfully escaping the outpost and returning to Glacius' ship. Given the agents personal grudge against the corporation, it didn't come as a surprise when she refused to leave without getting valuable information on them. Files, other outpost locations, more illegal projects, anything she could find that would help bring them down. As soon as she was finished, she took out the disc and placed it into her waist pack. "Ok, I've gotten everything I need, let's get out of here." Thunder looked over his shoulder at her. "I do pray that this personal grudge of yours doesn't end up getting you killed my friend." Orchid led the way with Thunder right behind her, passing by several sealed rooms with letters and numbers labelled above the doors, most likely the corporations secret projects they've been working on recently. Thunder couldn't help but cast a quick glance at one of the numbered doors, feeling a powerful heat emanating from it as he ran by it but quickly returned his attention back to getting out. As soon as the two were gone, a shadowy figured slowly rose up from the floor, glaring after the two. "So...they're here too." Spinal and Fulgore duelled across the rooftops of Canterlot castle, exchanging blow after blow to firing at each other with projectile attacks such as lasers and searing skulls. Their battle wasn't going unnoticed either, as it had attracted pretty much the full attention of everypony in Canterlot, who were all watching in awe as the two fighters clashed. Fulgore blocked every one of his opponents strikes with his plasma blades and attempted to counterattack, but Spinal was much faster than him. He knew what he had to do in order to increase his speed, but Spinal's unrelenting assault prevented him from doing so. Knowing that time was the thing he needed, Fulgore decided to try and keep Spinal away with his energy bolts. The cyborg however forgot that the immortal warriors shield was capable of absorbing energy based attacks. If Spinal was able to keep him on the defensive and absorb any energy based attacks he threw at him, Fulgore was merely fighting a losing battle. The only thing that could change the tide of their duel was if Fulgore could charge his reactor to its maximum, and in doing so would increase his body's functions and abilities, strength, speed and energy power. If he was going to do that though, he needed to keep Spinal away just long enough to do so. As soon as Spinal lunged forward once more, Fulgore sidestepped him and grabbed his bony wrist before throwing him aside. Raising his arms, Fulgore began charging his reactor while Spinal was busy trying to recover. The skeleton warrior found himself flying towards one of the towers roofs and positioned himself so he landed on his feet. He looked back across the short distance where he was thrown and saw Fulgore charging up his reactor. "Oh no ya don't!" Acting fast, he created a small portal on the roof below him and jumped into it. -Reactor: 75%- 'Just a little more.' Fulgore's charging attempt was halted when he saw the small green portal appear on the ground in front of him. Thankfully he was already familiar with the technique enough to expect the attack and quickly ceased his charge to block Spinals attack as soon as he came flying out with his cutlass aimed at his head. Spinal thrust his boot into the cyborgs torso and pushed him back a step before aiming his shield at him. The warrior fired several large flaming yellow skulls at his opponent but Fulgore quickly teleported away to the roof of another tower to get some distance and began charging his reactor again. Refusing to grant his opponent the chance to reach his full power, Spinal teleported after him, jumping up in front of the cyborg before swinging his cutlass down at him. Fulgore ceased his charge and swiftly raised his large metal hands to trap the blade between them. Spinal glared at him as he attempted to free his weapon, but Fulgore now had him right where he wanted him. Taking the opportunity, Fulgore yanked the cutlass out of Spinal's bony hand and then grabbed the immortal warrior by his head. Spinal roared at he hammered his shield into Fulgore but it did little to force him into releasing his opponent. Tightening his grip around the warriors head, Fulgore spun around and launched him high into the air and quickly returned to charging up his reactor. With Spinal high up in the sky at the moment, he was completely immobilized for the moment, giving Fulgore all the time he needed to finish charging up his reactor. The immortal warrior had already been stripped of his cutlass, leaving him with one less method of fighting his opponent. -Reactor: 100%- With the reactor at its maximum, Fulgore could feel all of the energy in his body coursing through him, his speed and strength increased along with it. As Spinal fell back down again, Fulgore waited until he was close enough before jumping up into the air and delivering a powerful uppercut which cracked the immortal warriors ribcage. Spinal roared and aimed his shield at the cyborg before firing large blue searing skulls at him. Fulgore thrust his arms forward and blasted them aside with his energy bolts before rushing forward to catch the skeleton as he was about to land. While still in the air, Spinal positioned himself once more and shot down towards Fulgore, striking him back with a swift divekick before leaping over his form and back on his feet. Fulgore jumped back up and glared at Spinal, who was cackling and flipping him off. Releasing a fierce metal growl, Fulgore sprinted forward, his increased speed allowing him to close the distance much quicker before hacking away at his opponent with his plasma blades. Spinal blocked all of the attacks with the use of his shield, but the impact of each strike send him stumbling back a step, slowing forcing him towards the edge of the roof. By the time he realized he'd reached the edge though, it was too late. Spinal tried to regain his balance while wobbling his arms back and forth, leaving himself wide open to Fulgore's full wrath. The cyborg began with grabbing the shield before tossing it aside, and then grabbed the immortal warrior by the neck before pulling him in until their faces were inches apart. Spinal and Fulgore glared at each other for a few long seconds, remembering their past duels with one another, and at one point, a time when both of them were allies. After they both processed these thoughts, Fulgore launched Spinal into the air once more before unleashing his Devastation Beam at him. The large red blast followed Spinal into the sky and, as soon it collided, all that could be made out was a small, faint explosion of green flames. With his chest closing up, Fulgore kept his gaze up at the bright sky where Spinal had been, pondering on why the immortal warrior was there in the first place and, how he got there exactly. And... 'He was my ally once...wasn't he? So how did we come to be enemies?' Looking at his clenched metal fist, Fulgore had more questions running through his mind, but knowing he wouldn't receive the answers he wanted, he decided to put his mind at ease for now and returned to where the others were. While all of the guards were attempting to repair all of the damage that was done to the castle, the Princesses were taken to the castles medical ward. Despite the damage done by Spinal, their injuries weren't too serious and would heal in time thanks to some healing magic. Shining Armor was currently standing by the door, not willing to let anypony, or anything for that matter enter while the Princesses, his wife included, were recovering. Knowing full well how dangerous the metal monster and skeletal warrior were. Despite Twilights protests that Fulgore was their ally, Shining Armor was having a hard time believing it or accepting it, just as much Luna was. "That thing destroyed your castle Twilight Sparkle, and yet you stand there and call it an ally?" Luna said. Twilight looked back at the lunar Princess and winced at the stern look she was giving her. "I know he's dangerous! But...he defended us back at the old castle! We were attacked by some...werewolf, and he fought it off! He's really trying to help Princess!" Luna hardened her glare, prompting Twilight to recoil in fear. "I would be more willing to believe that were it not for its destructive nature. And that's all it has done so far, destroy." Celestia sighed as she attempted to sit up in her bed. "Sister, I understand your concerns but-" The Princess was cut off by the hulking metal figure that teleported into the middle of the room. All eyes were on Fulgore as he slowly looked back and forth between each Pony, taking note of Luna and Shining Armor's hateful glares before setting his gaze on Celestia. Celestia herself stared back in surprise, shock and, slight fear. But remembering what she had asked of Twilight Sparkle and her friends, she assumed they had indeed succeeded in persuading them to help them. Though she was still cautious, and she still had to ask him personally before she could be a little less wary of him. Knowing the awkward silence wasn't helping any, Twilight Sparkle decided to speak up. "Umm...Fulgore, this is Princess Celestia. Co-Ruler of Equestria." Twilight turned back to Celestia and added, "Princess...meet Fulgore." The two continued to stare at each other, while Fulgore was just waiting to hear what she was going to say, Celestia was just too speechless to say anything. Shining Armor stomped forward and glare up at the cyborg before saying, "You heard my sister, you're in presence of the rulers of Equestria. Show some respect and bow." Fulgore used his large metal foot and nudged the Unicorn aside with no effort, the little nudge actually sending the stallion stumbling back and onto his flank. Rarity and Pinkie Pie couldn't help but giggle at the sight as the Prince got back to his hoofs. "Why you..." "Enough of that Shining." Cadence said as she used her magic to levitate him over to her side. "It's not from Equestria and it's certainly not going to bow when it isn't even our ally. You saw what it's capable of and you even heard what it had done so provoking it is not the wisest idea." Shining grumbled and shot one more hateful glare at the cyborg before looking away. 'I sure do hope that one decides to continue being a nuisance, I'd very much find enjoyment in breaking every bone in his body.' Fulgore thought. Celestia, knowing she had to say something before the cyborg got provoked, decided to finally speak up. "Apologies for Prince Shining Armor, he's just rather protective and believes that everypony should be formal when addressing royalty and such. I'm sure you have already met Princess Twilight Sparkle and her friends. And as she just said, I am Princess Celestia, co-ruler of Equestria alongside my sister, Princess Luna." Again, Fulgore looked back at Luna, who was still glaring hatefully at him. 'I have a feeling this one is going to be trouble later.' He thought before turning back to the older Princess. Celestia tried to think of what else to say, perhaps asking him if he could talk, but then she remembered he hadn't displayed much speech before, otherwise he would have spoken much earlier. Still, "Um, if you don't mind me asking, are you able to talk?" Fulgore just continued to stare at her, wondering how he could respond to such a question. 'Unless she's able to communicate telepathically, I can't really give her a proper answer.' He thought as he shook his head slightly. Seeing the small gesture he made with his head, Celestia immediately assumed she got her answer. Applejack couldn't help but raise a brow at the cyborg. "So...he can't talk?" Celestia shook her head. "As far as we know." Again, Fulgore continued to stare at the Princess, pondering on how he could respond to any of her questions. 'Perhaps I should scroll through my system and see if my body was fitted with a vocal unit.' Sighing, Celestia said, "Well, I can only assume that him being here right now must mean that he has dealt with that skeletal creature. You have my thanks for defending the city." She turned to Twilight Sparkle and her friends and added, "Twilight, why don't you and your friends take Fulgore to a guest room while we...discuss what we're going to do next." Twilight nodded and walked over to the door followed by her friends. "Of course Princess. Come on Fulgore, follow us." Refusing would only cause him more trouble so the cyborg decided to go along with them for now. As he exited the room however, he heard Luna talking to her sister back inside. "A guest room sister? It'd be a better idea if we threw it in the dungeon." As the door closed and the Ponies trotted on, Fulgore followed as he thought, 'Ha, you're a fool if you think bars can stop me.' Author's Note Not my best chapter and I know it's kinda rushed and I also know the pacing seems a bit too quick but I'm trying to keep fights a little shorter this time. That said, I couldn't think of a better time to post another chapter than just a couple of days before the official release of KI Season 2. Though to be honest, I'm kinda losing interest in this fic and that's one of the reasons why the chapters have gotten shorter over time as well, just can't really keep myself interested especially with the other ideas I have. So yeah, this fic may just get cancelled and deleted or I may just wait until I'm interested enough to actually be able to write it again. I'll just have to wait and see.
The Herald:The Herald: A short while before The Rift... Jago stumbled through the Tiger Temple, doing his best to fight back against the darkness taking hold within. But even he, at his best, started to crack, and break at the overwhelming power that was coming down upon him. It started to become, painful. Even after all of this time, after all of the battles he fought, he still could not purge this darkness. And now he was paying the consequences for his failure to do so. Still, the monk continue to fight back. And the more he fought back, the stronger the dark force became. The power of this dark aura only growing, more and more and more, until Jago finally broke. Shadowy energy rising from his body as the monk fell to the ground. The temple began to darken, smoke began to fill the air. And as Jago slowly recovered, a dark voice spoke, "Weak vessel." Jago's eyes shot open. "You were to herald my master's return." The monk groaned, working his way to his knees as the voice echoed around him, "But you proved too, incorruptible. But your conflict gave me strength." Jago grit his teeth, hands balled up into fists. "And your resistance has given me, freedom." Jago powered through the massive ache in his body and managed to his feet, glaring for the source of the evil as he exhaustingly muttered through breaths, "Who...what...are you...?" "Woe to those who stand against me, for I am his herald, and the sign of things to come!" A dark figure hovered through the smoke, large black wings flapping as it descended into the darkened Tiger Temple below, slowly landing in front of Jago, "I, am, Omen." Jago took a step back, quickly entering a fighting stance as this enemy appeared before him. The being, whose form seemed mostly of dark energy, raised its hands, energy crackling from them as it looked towards Jago, killing intent clear. "And now, vessel, in your weakened state, will prove an effective shell for my master to use, until the time, has come." Omen said quietly, darkly. Jago's brow furrowed, raising his fists in defiance, "Never." Omen tilted his head, only slightly, before whispering, "That, is no longer your decision." Jago, with his arm pulled back, thrust it forward, "ENDOKUKEN!" He shouted, a fireball shooting from his hand towards the dark enemy. Omen unleashed his wings, hovering back as he swung his fists forward, "RASHAKUKEN!" Several balls of dark energy fired forth from his hands, hovering in the air as if they had a mind of their own. One, firing forth and exploding upon impact with Jago's Endokuken fireball. The second, fired forth towards Jago himself, who quickly moved to leap over it, however, it circled upwards, colliding and exploding against his back. Jago's cry of pain was cut short by the third Rashakuken shadow ball, which hammered and exploded against front, sending him flying into one of the pillars. The monk refused to stay down though, despite the unbearable pain coursing through his body, he couldn't give up. He wouldn't. He'd die first. And would sooner die than let this, monster use him for its own schemes. Omen lunged forward with a ferocious roar, landing and skidding across the ground before reaching the monk, who drew his sword attempted to force him back. The dark foe was too fast however, his monstrous speed allowing him to pummel Jago with a barrage of kicks. Jago, despite the pain, again powered through, pulling back before swinging his sword down at Omen. The sword would have collided, were it not for the fact that Jago was in barely any condition to be fighting, and his foe being super fast. By the time his sword had gone half way down, Omen had circled behind him, hammering an elbow into Jago's spine. A strike that would have killed any normal man, and possibly even him. But the fact that he was still alive clearly proved this foe really was intending to use him. He couldn't let that happen. Jago quickly spun around, jumping into the air and thrusting his foot forward, in an attempt to deliver his swift wind kick. But again, the two disadvantages he was at made it impossible. "RASHAKUKEN!" Omen's swift speed allowed the dark shadow balls to strike first, throwing Jago off his feet. The dark foe quickly flew forward, grabbing hold of Jago before laughing maniacally as the dark energy around him began to cover them both, exploding. And through this intense attack, Jago could feel what strength he had left leave him, the last thing he could see was the eyes of Omen's dark mask, before he fell into darkness. Omen dropped the monk, letting him fall to the ground with a loud thud. "Foolish vessel, you could never hope to challenge me." Thunder, and dark clouds, and Omen quickly brought himself down on one knee. "Master." Much like Omen's body, dark energy began to form around over Jago's unconscious form, a chilling dark voice speaking, "My Herald, you have done well." Omen kept his head bowed, remaining silent. The dark voice then added, "But there are still those, who would seek to deny my return. Our enemy must be vanquished, if I am to fully return to this world." Omen remained as he was, quietly replying, "I will seek them out. And destroy them." "Go." And with the one word, Omen unfurled his large black wings, and took to the air, flying off. The dark aura around Jago chuckled evilly, quietly whispering, "You will be the bridge that will finally allow me to return. Now then..." And in seconds, the dark fog covered Jago's form, twisting and turning as began to possess the monk as it intended. No strength within to fight back, the dark foe easily started gain feeling in his new temporary form. Jago could only scream. And Gargos relished finally standing in the world again. Not long after though, his first enemy appeared in the form of one of Ultratech's metal fighters. Fulgore, for the past few days now, had stood motionlessly on the balcony of the room that was provided to him. Though he had no use for the bed and, pretty much everything else, it did allow him the privacy he wanted so he could think in peace without having to listen to the ponies constantly bicker back and forth about whether they could trust him or not, whether he should be executed or not. 'Not that they would have a chance.' Fulgore thought to himself, shrugging off the absolute absurdness that such creatures could do so, especially given how kind hearted they seem to be. Kind heartedness that he was careful to be wary of, of course. In the last few days, only small pieces of information relating to Gargos reached him and the ponies, a creature matching his appearance being seen here and there, this village, that town, various places that they would go and investigate, with no success however. Fulgore had already gone about keeping his reactor charged up the entire time, so that in the chance event he did end up coming across Gargos, he would be more than ready to destroy absolutely. Or, if the Ponies decided to turn on him, destroy absolutely. 'The latter being least likely if the Princesses are as honest, kind and trusting as the one Rarity says they are. I could care less if they are trustworthy or not, Gargos is my target here. I will not allow these creatures to interfere with my objective.' A knock on the door and the one called Twilight Sparkle peeked into the room, "Um, Fulgore, the Princesses would like to see you." One turn and the Ultratech cyborg was walking towards the door, preparing to leave to discuss whatever it was the Princesses wanted to discuss. Meet with the Princesses and talk. And, just in case they were likely plotting to turn on him... 'Destroy absolutely.' Author's Note Btw, not dead. A lot of life stuff happened, let's just leave it at that.
Alliance:Alliance: Fulgore stood before the Princesses in Canterlot's throne room, watching them silently as they stared at him with mixed looks. Looks he could easily identify as fear and unease, though the small Ponies next to him were clearly oblivious. "We have agreed that in order to combat the threat of Gargos, we, must trust you and hope that you will agree in return to ally with us. Will you?" The named Luna asked. 'I don't have time for this.' Fulgore thought and simply settled for a nod of the head. Celestia managed a bright smile and got to her hoofs, "Thank you. We promise we will do everything we can to assist you in defeating in this enemy." When Fulgore shook his head, Celestia's smile dropped, causing her to ask, "You...don't want our help?" Another shake of his head and she added, "But...why?" If he could glare, Fulgore would have, instead settled for tapping his metal chest with a metal fist before turning and leaving, earning a crowd of mixed looks from everypony present. In his mind, Fulgore repeated to himself that does not need help from them, as he was quite more than capable of defeating Gargos alone. He stopped walking, hearing something following him, and turned to look down at, the white Unicorn who called herself Rarity, who was smiling up at him. "Do let me show you around darling if you plan to take a walk. It's...the least I can do, for helping me and my friends." Fulgore just stared, and stared, aaand stared, until finally relenting, gesturing for her to lead the way. And she did, quite happily if her wider smile was any indication. Orchid and Thunder rose from their seats when Glacius entered, finally returning from, wherever he went to. "You took your time." Orchid said, showing Ultratech's device to him. "Apologies. But travelling to other worlds on transportation vessels is not exactly the quickest of methods." Glacius explained. Thunder recoiled, "You...travelled to another world? Where? Why?" Glacius raised an icy hand, replying, "All will be explained in due time. For now, we must hurry, I have a bad feeling we will have company soon." He said before reaching out to the device, levitating it over into his hold. "It won't take me long before we can warp to this other realm, until then, I must ask you to prepare yourselves." Orchid nodded, getting to her feet, "So then...we're really allies?" Glacius stared back at her, silent for a moment before responding, "I was under the impression our alliance was sealed some time ago." "Just making sure." The agent smirked. Thunder looked between the two for a moment, before looking outside, something catching his eye, "Glacius, how soon were you expecting company?" "Very soon." The ice alien replied. "Why?" Thunder tightened his grip around his weapons, adding, "Because it's already here. Lot's of it." Glacius approached, looking outside. Indeed, it would seem Ultratech forces were approaching his ship, many Fulgore prototypes led by, Sadira? A step back, and Glacius spoke, "You must hold them until the device is ready. Can you do it?" Orchid gave him a cocky smirk before standing next to Thunder, "You kidding? This'll be a piece of cake." She said before leaping out of the ship. Thunder simply stared, before turning to the ice alien, pleading, "Please hurry." Before following after the agent. Glacius stared after them a few seconds longer before turning away, hooking the device up to his ship and getting to work. "And finally, last but certainly not least, Rarity's Canterlot Carousel! It was always my dream to own a boutique in Canterlot and-" And Fulgore simply continued to listen and silently tolerate the absurdly annoying tour that Rarity took him on around Canterlot as she showed and explained the many things he had no care whatsoever for. A few Guards were keeping an eye on them, at a distance, clearly too afraid to be near the 'metal beast' that destroyed an entire castle with one attack. It didn't help any that he was getting stares from everypony else they were passing by. The pony certainly had a knack for talking as she just did not stop talking at all as soon as they left the castle. So much talking in fact that he could probably have written a book with the amount of words that came out of her mouth, several books in fact. "There were some difficult times during the first days of the boutique since its opening but-" And she just continued to talk away, and Fulgore simply processed all of the useless information only to delete it a few seconds after. After all, what good was it going to do him? Maybe she could talk Gargos to death, it certainly was not an impossibility given how much she seems to love the sound of her own voice. He tried to picture Gargos now, curled up and clutching his ears as Rarity continued to torture him with her power of talk. Suddenly, his scanners picked up a large energy signature and, something else, approaching very close by. Rarity was brought out of her talking as soon as she noticed the cyborg turning his back to her. "Um, is there something wrong?" Fulgore remained motionless, waiting in silence as the 'something' danced across from rooftop to rooftop while the energy signature continued to grow. Until... A dimensional rift opened up before them. No time to think, and certainly no time to decide, he made the first move before anything and anyone else and jumped through as Rarity screamed out his name, a mad cackle and a skeletal figure following right behind. Fulgore came flying through the rift and onto an icy field. One he recognised all too well as his optics looked towards Glacius' ship ahead. He was back, and finally out of that place. He turned towards the skeletal figure of Spinal, who quickly reformed and stared at him, seemingly wanting some payback for their last encounter. "Um Fulgore?" His thoughts stopped, and his eyes would have widened if they could as he looked down at his leg that Rarity was clutching onto. 'She followed me!' He thought and cursed, rather infuriated slightly that he wasn't fully rid of the ponies. "Well now, what do we have here?" The voice dragged Fulgore's attention behind him, and found himself face to face with his familiar 'ally' Sadira, accompanied by, many Fulgore prototypes, the first models. 'So, those models are still operational.' Sadira chuckled and took a few steps forward, passing by an exhausted Orchid who Fulgore just noticed, and...an unconscious Chief Thunder. Memories once again flashed in Fulgore's head, and he nearly stumbled had he not quickly regained his balance. Looking at the device in her hand, Sadira smirked and added, "When I heard that you and Jago had disappeared around here, I was unsure of how it was possible." She chuckled, "But then I remembered the rift Ultratech's device created and ARIA did tell me it's pull was...quite strong. It only made sense." She turned to Spinal, who looked ready to attack at any minute, "Ah, the immortal warrior, you were the last one I was expecting to appear, I was under the impression it was only Fulgore and Jago whom had disappeared. No matter, ARIA will find a use for you too." Spinal cackled, "Ye can find a use fer mah bony ass bitch!" Was the immortal warriors response before he launched an attack, or atleast he would have had several Fulgore prototypes not attacked him. Fulgore turned back towards Sadira, whose eyes drifted down to his leg that Rarity was hiding behind. "Oh...what's this now?" "O-Oh no..." Rarity gulped as she tightened her grip around Fulgore's leg. Inside the ship, everything was finally ready, and Glacius wasted no time unhooking the device from his ship before preparing to join the battle. Outside however, a lone figure hovered down and waited nearby, watching the ship from a short distance, waiting for the ice alien to reveal himself. "It is time, to take back what is mine." Author's Note Rushed chapter I know, but I've decided to, change a few things, so this fic is probably going to end at the next chapter, so I can start a new story and get a fresh start.
Lockdown:Lockdown: The battle that took place on the icy field became too much for Glacius and his allies. An attempt to ally with the lone Fulgore against Aria and her Ultratech forces only ended in an extreme defeat for both of them. Glacius fought to the best of his abilities, but Aria displayed much superior combat capabilities that allowed her to take advantage of any opening he left. Where the ice alien excelled at strength, Aria put his cunning mind to shame by outwitting him at every turn, clearly an effort to show the alien that she was superior. There was no way the ice alien could win, especially at the major disadvantages he had, which were only multiplied when several Fulgore prototypes interfered to assist their leader. Glacius was forced to make a desperate decision. He managed to get a hold of the Ultratech device and used it to open up the rift once more. Taking advantage of the surprise move, he grabbed hold of Orchid and Thunder and let themselves be swallowed up by the rift. While alone, Fulgore succeeded in repelling the assault of his prototype predecessors, but the joint attack between them and Sadira was too much for the cyborg. To make matters worse, Fulgore was forced to hold his counterattack many times to jump to Rarity's aid when several of the prototypes attempted to capture. Not that it mattered in the end. Here he was now, locked down in Ultratech headquarters, alone, awaiting repairs and, reprogramming, as Aria said. 'I fought to the best of my abilities and still I was defeated. I'm not surprised. My chances of victory were already rated at less than ten percent. Still, I admit, I am slightly surprised the alien showed a willingness to ally with me. Perhaps I still have much to learn.' The cyborg though to himself. The sound of machinery filled the air constantly, and Fulgore couldn't help but wonder now what Aria was doing to Rarity. Rarity stood, still and terrified as she looked up at the metal walls all around her. After Fulgore was defeated and the alien disappeared with its human allies into the rift, Rarity was restrained and locked up in a cage. She couldn't help but curse out the Ultratech forces as they effortlessly threw her in a cell, but her 'defiance' wasn't really all that much help. Now she sat, alone, in the cell. Wishing, and hoping, that Fulgore would come smashing through the wall to break her out any minute now. Actually, she wasn't alone. There was someone standing there keeping watch over her. Rarity slowly looked up from her hoofs and stared at the individual currently standing just across from her cell. He was human too, but his entire body was completely engulfed in flame, as if he was a living fireball, covered with pieces of high tech gear, with a mask covering his face. The man on fire leaned against the wall, arms folded over his chest as he kept his burning eyes on the Unicorn the entire time, much to her dismay. In fact, his stare eventually annoyed her to the point that she had to speak up, "It's not nice to stare at a lady you know." The man on fire chuckled, "Lady? You're a little horsey." Rarity gasped, "How dare you! Have you no manners whatsoever?!" "Oh god you're one of those aren't you..." The man on fire shrugged, "What's your name little horsey?" Rarity pouted, then turned her back to him, earning another chuckle, "Heh, oh so it's the silent treatment is it? That's fine, I guess I'll just keep calling you little horsey, you know, since I don't have anything else to call ya." "RARITY!" She shouted, then took a deep breath, letting herself calm down before growling, "Rarity..." The man on fire clapped his hands, "Rarity! Nice name, I think." The Unicorn just glared at him, "And what, pray tell, is YOUR name you intolerable ruffian?" "Ben, Ben Ferris. Atleast that's the name I used to use before I got a smokin' hot body." He chuckled, causing Rarity to roll her eyes at his 'joke'. "Ok maybe that was a little rude, whatever. The name's Cinder, and I'm a fuckin' badass." Rarity looked away, pouting, "Hm! Well you certainly got the 'bad' part right!" Cinder shrugged, "Meh, what can I say. I'm a bad boy, and all the ladies love the bad boys." "Well I most certainly do not! How DARE you throw such accusations!" Rarity glared at him again. Cinder shrugged once again, "Ain't accusations if it's true." Before the Unicorn could respond, their attention was dragged by the doors opening and someone entering. "Oh, it's the hot robot boss lady." Cinder grinned, stepping back as Aria approached. "Has the creature said anything?" Aria asked. Cinder nodded, "She's got one heck of a mouth on her I'll give her that." Rarity's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates at just the implication of his words. "How...how dare..." Aria turned and stared at the Unicorn, approaching the cell bars, "Where did you come from?" "Hm! I will never reveal that to the likes of you!" Rarity said, defiant. Aria brought herself down on one knee and inched closer to the Unicorn, "You are not in any position to show much defiance creature. We already know that you hail from a different world, that you control magic, and perhaps many other things. If you wish to keep your life, it is within your best interest to cooperate." Rarity kept up her defiant glare. "...Never." Aria nodded, "I see......very well. You will remain here, and we shall experiment on you to see just what we can discover." She stood to her full height and turned to Cinder, "Keep watching it, do not let it out of your sight." Cinder gave a mock salute as his leader left the room, doors closing behind her. Rarity meanwhile began to tear up at her treatment, being called 'it' didn't exactly sit well with the 'lady'. "Don't even think about bawling your eyes I'm seriously not in the mood to listen to that or any whining for that matter." Cinder said, brow raised at her. Rarity slowly looked over her shoulder at him, eyes still teary. "Oh god this is my torture isn't it." Cinder sighed. Glacius had successfully escaped from Ultratech's forces, at the cost of abandoning Fulgore and leaving him at their mercy. 'Not that they had any mercy to begin with.' Glacius said to himself in his head. Thanks to the Ultratech device, he was able to escape along with Orchid and Thunder. Though that led him into another dilemma. He had no idea where he was. While Orchid and Thunder were taking the moment to rest and recover from their fight, Glacius surveyed their surroundings. Land, lots of it, as far as the eye could see. Mountains in the distance. A village too from the looks of it. What caught Glacius' eye most of all was one particular mountain that stood out. The mountain closest to them apparently had a castle looking structure sat on its side. 'Hmm, it would appear the rift did indeed send us to another dimension just as I predicted it would. If dimensional travel is this simple then it goes against the Eighty Eight Decrees of the Alliance of Worlds to let it fall into the wrong hands.' He turned and eyed the two humans who helped each other to their feet. 'Are you all well enough to travel?' Orchid nodded, "Yeah I'm fine, though a bit of a heads up next time would help. Where are we anyway?" 'Another dimension, another world. The name of this world, I am unsure. Under certain circumstances it would be a bad choice to make contact with the locals but as Galactic Marshal I must take measures accordingly if I am to go about putting a stop to this madness.' Glacius explained. Thunder rubbed his head, still rather confused, "And...Eagle?" Glacius sighed, '...My apologies, but Ultratech has him.' A look of grief came over Thunder's face, but before he could respond, Orchid beat him to it, "Don't worry, we'll get him back, I promise." Thunder looked at the agent for a moment, then nodded, "Very well...I trust you." He looked over at the ice alien, asking, "What is our next plan of action then?" Glacius looked over to the village in the distance, "We make contact with the locals, speak with their leaders, and...hope they are reasonable." Celestia and Luna watched from the balcony of the castle as the wormhole disappeared. It didn't take long for ponies in the streets to report the presence of one appearing, or that Fulgore had jumped through it with Rarity right behind him. Ever since the two went missing, Twilight didn't take a single second to rest until she was able to find a spell that could mimic the rifts. The two Princesses couldn't blame her for her worry of course, the Unicorn was her friend, and they were just as worried as any of them. However, they found themselves on the balcony for a reason. They had just caught sight of the faint wormhole in the distance and didn't waste time in sending a platoon of Guards to investigate. Twilight obviously wanted to go too, maybe hoping she'd find something left behind. As did her friends, and her brother, he didn't want her going anywhere without him. "I'm worried sister..." Luna said, "We don't what else may come forth from those rifts. We already have enough trouble to deal with, Gargos being a prime example." Celestia nodded, "I know, we'll simply have to do what we can, and prepare for the worst." The Princess looked on in the distance, hopeful that just as enemies appeared before them, so too would allies. Author's Note Not cancelled. In fact, complete. The whole, cancelled thing, which I just recently discovered after logging back in after being away for a while, apparently seemed to be a prank that one of my siblings thought would be funny to pull. And no I'm not angry, I mean, other than them sabotaging and deleting two of my other stories, I'm just glad they didn't take it any further, otherwise I WOULD have cancelled this. And yeah I skipped the fighting, because, to be honest, that would have dragged it out and I really just wanted to finish it. And yeah, it's a rushed ending. What can I say, I'm a lazy fuck. Like, if you're cool, or dislike, if you're just lame, doesn't matter really. That said, I've decided to finish this story right here at this chapter, so I can start a new Killer Instinct story, which will undoubtedly retcon some of the events that took place in this one, for, various reasons. And, well, that's it in a nutshell. Keep an eye out! Wow, how did this make it onto the featured box after being idle for so long? I call hacks!
Support:Support: "Well would you look at that? It looks like Glacius' tech was able to find Ultratech after all..." Black Orchid and Chief Thunder hid themselves on a rocky ledge at the side of the mountains they were climbing and observed the large facility hidden deep within. Outside it would seem unnoticeable at first, but when you're a secret agent hell-bent on taking down a Megacorporation responsible for making the lives of millions everywhere miserable, it'd be hard to miss. Seeing the agent tense up with anger, Thunder placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Remain calm, they are not going anywhere. You can put an end to them any time, but not now. We must focus on the first task at hand." Nodding, Orchid turned back to the large facility. "You're right..." Moving her sight towards several of the facilities entrances that they could take, she noticed the security was pretty weak. "Weird...there's only two guards posted at three of entrances, one on the roof and another on the bridge leading over to the facilities structure." Thunder nodded. "Indeed, it would seem rather too easy. However, perhaps they were sure no one would find them here, to the point that high security would not be required. And due to the fact that they have suffered massive damage in the past, it shouldn't exactly come as a surprise that their security is weak. Perhaps they just don't have as much to spare?" "That's a possibility. Well then. let's get moving. The sooner we deal with this, the sooner we can track Gargos and save my brother." Orchid replied as she got up to move on. "And my own." Thunder muttered before following the agent. As the two made their way down to infiltrate the facility, they were unaware of the dark presence nearby, also intending to sneak in. After telling her friends to catch up with her, Twilight had taken off for Canterlot and flew there as fast as she could like her life depended on it, though her rather poor flight capabilities only delayed her slightly. It didn't take long for her to reach the castle courtyard and hoped her friends would catch up soon, not entirely confident in facing whatever was inside by herself. When a few guards informed her of an intruder attacking the castle, she immediately made her way to the throne room, though most of the hallways were blocked off by rubble, her magic let her get through with little trouble. It was only after she had finally reached the throne room that she finally came to a complete halt. "Twilight!" Though she was relieved to see Cadence was fine, it was the injured and slightly bloodied forms of Celestia and Luna that froze her where she stood. "Princess Celestia! Princess Luna!" Ignoring the sound of blades echoing, Twilight rushed over to the injured Princesses. "A-Are you okay?!" "We are fine Twilight Sparkle, our sister will be fine too, she is just unconscious." Luna replied as Cadence finished healing her. Slightly relieved that the Princesses were fine, Twilight now focused her attention on her brother who was currently on the other side of the throne room clashing with a bipedal skeletal creature. "What is that thing?" Twilight asked as she got back to her hoofs. Luna glared daggers at the skeleton and replied, "The one responsible for all of the damage. My sister and I threw some of our most powerful spells at it but they didn't even so much as faze it." Celestia stirred and groaned as she tried to sit up. "Princess Celestia!" Twilight rushed to the white Alicorn's side. "Are you okay?" "I...I think so...what about the creature...is it..." Celestia's question was answered when she saw the creature clashing against Shining Armor. "We must...we must stop that thing at once..." The Princess attempted to stand but found no strength in her legs. Luna placed a hoof on her shoulder and said, "Rest sister, we shall deal with that monster." Twilight and Cadence turned just in time to see the skeletal creature fire a large green glowing skull from his shield. The large skull blast collided against Shining Armor and sent him flying towards the Alicorns. "SHINY!" Twilight rushed to her brothers side and helped him back up. "Are you okay?!" Shining Armor nodded. "I'm fine Twily, just stay back." Before she could protest, Twilight noticed a small blue glowing skull floating above Shining Armor's head. "Shining, what is that?" "I don't know..." He replied as he glanced up at it for a moment before glaring back at the skeletal creature. "But I'm not waiting to find out." He charged his horn and prepared to use his magic to fire back. The only problem now was, he couldn't. "W-What?" Shining felt his legs give out and dropped to the floor. "M-My magic...it's completely drained!" The skeletal creature cackled loudly. Twilight and Cadence jumped in front of the Unicorn and charged up their horns. Just as they were about to fire their magic, the skeletal creature did something they didn't expect it to do. It spoke. "Hehe...that skull above yer head is absorbing all of yer energy and givin' it to me." The skeletal creature spat, its bony jaw moving up and down with each word said. Luna growled at the skeletal creature. "How dare you!" "Who are you anyway?! And why did you attack the Princesses?!" Cadence asked, keeping her magic charged and ready. The skeletal creature chuckled. "The name's Spinal. Remember it little Ponies because it's the last name all of ya are ever gonna hear." Spinal turned his neck slightly, causing a sickening crack that earned repulsed looks from the Ponies. "As fer why I attacked yer precious Princesses, I was under orders from my boss." Spinal started making his way towards the Ponies, cutlass clutched tightly as the sound of his boots stomping on the floor echoed throughout the entire throne room. "Now let's pick up were we left off." "BE GONE FOUL CREATURE!" Luna shouted as she fired a beam of magic from her horn, Cadence and Twilight mimicked her actions and also fired at Spinal Cackling, Spinal raised his shield. A bright green glow began to surround the shield as the beams of magic shot straight towards it. As soon as the blasts collided with the shield, the Princesses could only watch in horror as their magic attacks died down and were fully swallowed up by the shield. Spinal lowered the shield and cackled again. "AHAHAHAA!!! Ya actually thought that would work?!" Luna growled and fired another blast of magic at him. Once again, Spinal raised his shield and, with its power, absorbed the magic attack with ease. "By all means, keep going, I could do this all day!" He laughed. Cadence turned to the lunar Princess and said, "Princess, it's clear that shield of his is able to absorb magic. I tried using my magic to hold him down, but it didn't work, any attempts to use magic on him will only fail since the shield can drain nearby magic sources at will. As long as he holds that shield, we can't beat him." Twilight Sparkle looked at the throne room doors, slightly worried that she didn't see her friends entering right now. 'Come on, where are they? If we can't beat him then maybe Fulgore can. We could really use the support right now.' "There must be some way to get that shield away from him..." Celestia muttered as she tried and failed once again to stand. Spinal cackled once more and aimed his shield at the group of Ponies. "I don't have time to waste here so I'm gonna have to make this quick." With the shield glowing, Spinal fired a barrage of glowing green skull blasts at the Ponies. Together, Luna, Twilight and Cadence created a barrier and shielded themselves, Shining Armor and Celestia from the green blasts. Each blast created a crack in their barrier, but thankfully it held up enough to shield them against all blasts. "Try this!" Spinal shouted before jumping into the air. A large green circular portal appeared on the floor beneath him and, as soon as he dived into it, it disappeared... ...and reappeared right beneath them. Shrieking out in terror, Twilight and Cadence jumped back as Spinal came flying out of the portal, and swung his cutlass down at Twilight. "NO!!!" Shining Armor jumped forward and shielded Twilight from the attack, screaming in pain as he felt the cutlass slash his side. "SHINY!" Twilight screamed. Luna jumped forward and attempted to deliver a kick but Spinal easily blocked it with his shield. Jumping back, Luna stood in front of her weakened sister and, together with Cadence, charged up her horn once more. "You Ponies just don't learn do ya? Stupid creatures." Spinal spat with an amused chuckle. Luna narrowed her eyes at him. "You will rue the day you challenged us monster. No matter what it takes, we will defeat-" Luna wasn't able to finish however, as the entire wall next to them exploded. Something large came flying through and immediately slammed into Spinal, sending the skeleton crashing against the wall on the other side of the throne room. "Well, that's one way of gettin' in." A familiar voice said. Recovering from her coughing caused by the cloud of dust, Twilight was greeted with the sight of her friends, who were all jumping through the large hole in the wall one by one. "You made it!" "Darn right we did sugarcube! We told ya we'd catch up!" Applejack said. Rarity coughed and waved away some of the dust. "Oh dear, I'm going to have to get a bath and get all of this dust out of my coat! And let's not even mention my mane and tail!" Celestia smiled as she the Ponies gathering around Twilight. "I'm glad to see you are all okay my little Ponies." Pinkie Pie smiled cheerfully. "Of course we're okay Princess! What's more is we made a new friend!" "...Yeah, right." Rainbow Dash muttered with a roll of her eyes. "New friend?" Luna gave them a questionable look before she, Celestia and Cadence turned towards the large hulking metal figure that crashed through the wall. The dust around the figure cleared quickly, revealing the menacing figure of Fulgore himself. Luna narrowed her eyes at the metal monster and backed away slightly, not comfortable being too close to him. Twilight turned to her friends and asked, "How did you all get him here so fast?" Pinkie Pie was at her face before any of the others could answer. "Well it's a really awesome story. First we went to Ponyville and Fulgore had to be invisible so nopony would see him but everypony else could hear his big loud feet and thought it was us but we told them that it wasn't us so we kept moving until we were at the train which was still there thankfully and then Rarity had to scare the driver into skipping all of the other stops and head straight to Canterlot so he did and as soon as we got here we headed straight for the castle but we couldn't get to the throne room because all of the hallways were blocked by rubble so Rainbow Dash suggested flying in another way but then Fulgore jumped through the wall for some reason so we decided to follow him and we found all of you and then you asked me how we got here so fast and I told you that we first went to Ponyville and Fulgore had to-" Applejack put a forehoof against the pink mares mouth. "Ah think she gets the idea Pinkie." Twilight turned back to Fulgore, who started stomping his way towards the rising Spinal. "Ugh, great, just what I need! Yer gonna regret blindsiding me like that Fulgore!" Spinal yelled before raising his cutlass. "LET'S GO!" Letting out a loud battle cry, Spinal charged Fulgore. Author's Note Since there was already a fight in the last chapter, I didn't want there to be another so quick so I just decided to let this be a short chapter to lead up to next fight between Fulgore and Spinal. Anyway, I don't know when I'll get the next chapter up, but guaranteed Fulgore will have Spinal's head.
