: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!