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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.