Chapters The impostor smiled as the meddlesome pony disappeared. There, that should take care of the elements of harmony and the only one who doubted her disguise in one fell swoop. She left the chapel, missing the return of said meddlesome pony less than a minute later.
Twilight looked around. "Alright, it looks like I'm back, hopefully right after I left." she closed her eyes, and tried to sense out Cadance. However, she couldn't find her old foalsitter's magic anywhere. She made the scythe that was Arcana's Shikai form appear in a burst of purple magic.
'So, shall we torture the impostor until she tells us what we want to know?' her inner Hollow asked in her mind. She was quite used to it and it's comments by now.
"No, we'll try asking, and when that doesn't work we'll threaten her with bodily harm." she answered aloud, a habit she had.
'Huh, I knew I got my 'maim-people-who-hurt-my-friends' thing from you.' Inner responded.
"Just for that, I'm going to send you to get the Elements because I know it'll be really annoying due to the overwhelming number of seals in the room specifically meant to keep entities like you from getting to them." Twilight said, forming the mask, and then letting her Holow fully manifest. She marveled at how she and her Hollow had gone from fighting for control over her body to semi-friends to this day.
Enemies becoming friends was one thing, two entities with almost incompatible moralities who had fought tooth and nail for control over their shared body and soul was another. Sure, it took years, but it had happened and now they were able to communicate at any time, unlike their zanpakutou, who they could only talk to inside their inner world, or if Twilight manifested them.
Her white counterpart glared at her, before smirking. "Evil. Looks like I've been a bad influence on you."
"I'll try to find the real Cadance, and if that doesn't work, I'm going after the fake." Twilight said, not dignifying that statement with a direct response.
Her Hollow teleported away. She closed her eyes and tried to sense out her old foalsitter's location. She'd only said the maiming thing because her Hollow wouldn't have shut up about it if she hadn't at least mentioned it. She would, however, go after the impostor to find out where Cadance was if Twilight couldn't sense out her location. She made no promises if she found out that the impostor had killed Cadance and that was why she couldn't sense her.
*** The Element's Vault: Inner Hollow's Perspective ***
Right, now that they were back, they could totally kill the impostor, and get the real Cadance back. Then they would get back at those traitors for siding with someone who offered them a better deal. There were few points of common ground between her and the Queen, but disliking traitors was one of them. The Espada who'd joined their side, Grimmjow, Harribel, Starrk, and Lillinette, had been betrayed by Aizen first. He'd used them like pawns on a chess board, so they didn't count.
She started forwards, casually forming her white version of the dark blue scythe that was both her and Queen's zanpakutou and destroying the seals and spells that were trying to impede her forward movement through sheer overload from her spiritual pressure, and the occasional delicate dismantling of an explody-looking one, unlike 'normal' Hollows she could put a delicate touch to work taking care of tripwire-like spells, like Queen. She had gotten used to being a quadruped fairly quickly, drawing on Queen's experience.
Honestly though, these seals were pathetic. They were equivalent to 50's Kido. Albeit what those Kido cast by the Captain-commander would be like. Celestia was powerful, the Hollow would give her that. She was annoyed at the sheer number of seals though. There were at least a hundred, luckily they were still far to weak to stop her even though she was only at her first release.
At this point, they had the control to revert their zanpakutou, Arcana, to her sealed state, but with their sheer amount of spiritual power, doing so almost physically hurt. Ichigo was the same, it wasn't that they couldn't, it just gave them a headache like a hangover, if they knew what a hangover felt like. Queen wouldn't drink until she reached the biological age where it was allowed. Though she was technically 27 already, having reverted to a six-year-old when she was sent to the parallel world then reached the physical age of fifteen before the war against Aizen started, then spent a couple more years there as Kisuke and Queen worked out how to get her home. The age regression was either due to the randomness of the spell used to send her, or some law of physics as of yet not understood.
Only a few more seals to go... There was a gold flash, followed a nanosecond later by a midnight blue one. "Huh, took you long enough." the Hollow remarked, she'd been wondering when these two, or at least one of them, would show up.
"Twilight?" Celestia asked, horrified. She could probably feel the malevolence and evil the Hollow emanated like body heat. Not the worst by Hollow standards, but terrifying by Equestria's standards. Humans as a whole were far more aggressive and violent than ponies.
"Nah, you're talking about the Queen. I'm the other half of her soul, but I'm not telling you any more than that." the Hollow said, surreptitiously breaking through two of the three remaining seals.
"An entity similar to the Nightmare?" Luna asked, if anything, more disturbed than her sister, probably since her previous affliction was probably pretty close to what would have happened to any of the Visored who were taken over by their Hollows.
"Well if you consider something formed out of a soul that had been torn apart by negative energy and lost it's heart, becoming an entity empty of anything and that can only act on instincts and a barely passable imitation of a heart under most circumstances, then yes." she said, before shattering the last seal while they were distracted.
"Ah, there they are." she said, slicing the vault doors open, Arcana's Shikai cutting through the thick magically-reinforced stone like tissue paper, and reaching for the box containing the elements, only to reflexively jerk her hoof back from a pair of beams, one gold and one blue, that flew past as warning shots.
"Gee, thanks for the warning shots." the Hollow sarcastically remarked. They wouldn't have gotten past her spiritual pressure, but being shot at was definitely annoying.
"Twilight, let us help you." Celestia pleaded, clearly convinced that her student was going through something similar to what Luna went through.
"Look, Twilight and I are quite literally separate entities right now. Besides, we've come to an agreement. She gives me some control, I don't try to take the rest away from her. She makes a concerted effort to keep us from dying, I beat the crap out of anyone who messes with her." the Hollow said, grabbing the box, and Sonidoing past them.
"Besides, we're a little different than Luna and Nightmare Moon, separating us could destroy us. Even if it didn't, it would be excruciating. Besides, Queen isn't any more keen on the idea than I am. If you don't believe me, come ask her yourself." the Hollow said, smirking. She teleported away. This was for putting her through this annoyance.
*** The Chapel: With Twilight ***
It took her a fair amount of time to figure out how to sense Cadance's presence in the crystal mines with all the interference, but she did it. She teleported down, grabbed Cadance, and teleported back up to the chapel. She then performed some healing Kido she'd learned from Isane and Unohana when they'd had some spare time.
The Soul Society's spells were well above most of Equestria's, and the Human World had technology far beyond theirs. This was, loathe as she was to admit it, due to humanity's aggressiveness in part, as well as their higher population. It was also due to the fact that they'd essentially been in a permanent war that flared up in intensity now and then, but was usually confined to skirmishes. War pretty much forced your side to be inventive, it helped you live longer. For some reason, Equestria had more versatility in terms of spells, but the Soul Society's more specialized spells were much better at their jobs.
She had just finished when her Hollow reappeared with the Elements in their box, well, that was one plan ready to go, and she had her backups in the works. Celestia and Luna appeared about 1.3 seconds later. She wondered if it meant there was something wrong with her if she could tell exactly how long it took for trouble to appear in her Hollow's wake. ...Probably not.
There was a moment of shocked silence. Then her Hollow turned to her. saying, "They're all yours Queen." before she began to disintegrate into dark purple energy as she rejoined her other half.
'Bastard!' she yelled in her head. This was not how she wanted to do this!
"Twilight, could you explain what's going on?" Celestia asked.
Well, how did she do this? She wasn't good at winging it. Ah, well, she'd have to explain as best she could.
"Alright, you see..."
Author's Note
What do you think of the first chapter?
...Or she could run off to take care of the impostor and leave Cadance here in the capable hooves of Celestia and Luna. Yep, pull an Ichigo and run off to deal with the bad guy by herself. What others thought of her be damned.
She was about to teleport away to do just that, when a powerful anti-teleportation ward slammed into place. She could break through it easily, or simply Flash-step past the sisters and out of range of the ward, but they were clearly desperate to keep her from leaving, as the ward was somewhat hastily constructed. Besides, tearing apart a powerful ward would only cause them to get more paranoid.
*** Celestia's POV ***
"Twilight-" Celestia began. She and Luna were both confused and worried about Twilight. That white doppleganger of her with red eyes had radiated a level of malevolence she'd experienced only rarely. Most of the things that had similar presences were in Tartarus, the rest were either destroyed at some point, or sealed elsewhere.
The power it had wielded was also considerable, it broken the powerful wards and enchantments around the vault holding the elements of harmony with ease, either with a delicate dis-assembly, or through sheer overwhelming force.
One of the wards had had a built-in sub-directive to warn them if it was ever broken down. It had taken them only the better part of a minute to get there, but already nearly every single spell had been broken.
The doppleganger had responded to what they'd said in ways that raised more questions than they answered.
"Oh, no you don't, get back out here dammit!" Twilight said, cutting her mentor off as she made a strange white mask with orange accents that looked like cuts that radiated that same malevolence as Twilight's doppleganger out of the dark energy it had just disintegrated into, she hesitated to call something so foul magic. The curse alone was shocking. Twilight never cursed like that. Ever. She would only curse if thoroughly upset by something, and even then, only lightly. To use a stronger curse was simply unthinkable. It was completely out of character for her.
"I asked you to bring me the Elements, not bring these two along. Don't pretend you couldn't have outrun them if you wanted to!" Twilight accused her double.
The doppleganger smirked. "Well, you never said I couldn't bring them along. Besides, this is payback for sending me to get these things" The doppleganger pointed to the box containing the Elements of Harmony. "when you knew that I'd find it annoying." She was clearly enjoying getting a rise from her technicolor counterpart.
"As... entertaining as this is, we need to-" Luna was cut off by both versions of Twilight yelling.
"Not now!" though the monochrome version yelled it quite a bit louder than her more colorful twin.
Twilight immediately looked sheepish, while the doppleganger was utterly unapologetic.
"Anyway, long story short, I was sent to a parallel world by an impostor of Cadance. The one on the floor, unconscious, is the real one." Twilight said, deciding to try the direct route. It worked more often than not.
"So, that's where... she came from?" Celestia asked, nodding her head towards the doppleganger.
"I'm what's called an Inner Hollow. When someone undergoes Hollowfication, but manages to fight it off, they end up with one of us. A manifestation of their darkest, basest instincts, lacking a heart to balance them out." The white doppleganger explained, not at all concerned with the effect her words would have.
"How is it you aren't struggling with each other for dominance?" Luna asked, handling the news that Twilight essentially had the manifestation of all her negativity in the room rather well.
"Oh, we did at first, she kept trying to take over. Eventually, I got some help from a few people with experience dealing with their Inner Hollows. I managed to defeat her and establish dominance. After that, I could call on her power for short periods of time. Her power appears as the mask you saw, and Hollowfication immediately doubles every aspect of fighting ability. Speed, strength, endurance, energy reserves, maximum amount of energy you can use at once, etc." Twilight answered.
"Short? You got it to 15 seconds before fighting Grimmjow that second time. Better than Ichigo's 13 seconds though." the Hollow said.
"Who are you talking about?" Celestia asked.
"I'll be happy to introduce you once this mess is cleared up. For now, we should take care of the impostor-" Twilight found herself bound by a sealing spell. The impostor had entered the room, and seen Twilight, and so cast a spell to restrain Twilight out of some reflex.
"Well, that's confirmation of Twilight's story if there ever was such a thing." Celestia said, while turning to the impostor.
"This isn't going to be enough to stop me for any significant period of time." Twilight said, before shattering the spell with little more than a prodding by her magic.
That surprised everyone in the room besides Twilight and her Hollow. For her to be able to do so implied that she totally outmatched the impostor in terms of magical power to a degree that bordered on hilarious.
"How are you even here?" the impostor asked, having noticed the real Cadance on the floor and knowing the jig was up.
"I got some help from a crazy scientist." Twilight said.
"You want me to take this one Queen?" her Hollow asked, a note of eagerness clear in it's voice.
Twilight thought it over. "Just don't kill her." she said.
"Kill me? I thought you ponies were a peaceful lot, who are you anyway?" the changeling asked as she revealed her true form.
The Hollow smirked. "So you want to know who I am?" it asked, the malevolence it released at all times spiking. "I have... no name!" it cackled madly before launching itself with terrifying speed at the changeling, who was the size of and looked like a twisted version of Celestia.
The changeling raised a shield, but the shield succeeded only in keeping her from dieing from the first strike, which was accompanied by a wave of black energy that destroyed the shield and dented the cement behind the changeling.
"Well, then let me introduce myself at least. I am Chrysalis, and I must admit I'm impressed at your power. Considering how long I've had to feed, it says quite a lot that you were able to destroy my shield with a single attack. Still, an overpowered beam attack isn't very unique." the changeling said. This prompted laughter from the Hollow, and chuckling from Twilight. "I fail to see what's so funny." Chrysalis said, somewhat annoyed.
"That was just the force behind this blade of mine, let me show you a real attack." the Hollow said, before dark energy flared in a pillar around her. "Getsuga... Tenshou!" the Hollow cried, sending a wave of black at the changeling. It missed and hit the wall, removing everything above that and leaving the cement faintly glowing dark purple. The crescent of black energy continued on, and smashed into the shield around the city, causing cracks, before finally destroying it and continuing into a mountain, which it sliced right through. It kept going, slicing or smashing through everything in it's path, before disappearing on the horizon.
The changeling stared at the white thing in front of her. That... that was impossible. Nothing could have that kind of power. It was insane. "If you think that's impressive, you should see my full power, this is only a tenth, and Queen there has the same amount as I do. Now imagine having to fight against that." the Hollow said, having somehow gotten next to Chrysalis in an instant.
"Oh, and moving that fast was a technique, but that's how fast I can go fully released. Also, I missed you on purpose just now, it wouldn't do to kill you without a fight, that wouldn't be any fun at all." the Hollow's grin was nearing demonic.
Celestia and Luna stared open-mouthed as the full implications of this hit them. Twilight had the kind of power that made the elements of harmony look like trinkets with her power at one-tenth strength. Ten times that much was on a level that reduced them to insects she could step on at any time if she so chose. With the apparent loyalty of an entity of equal power... the very concept was terrifying. She could make the world her playground, and there wasn't a force in existence that could stop her. She might be a good pony, but absolute power corrupts absolutely.
"I've got about ten percent on Ichigo in terms of power. His Hollow's gap compared to mine is the same. We spar regularly." Twilight said.
There was somebody on her level?! While shocking, it was also a relief. That meant that there was someone who stood a chance against her, so she wasn't likely to go mad with power.
"So, care to surrender?" Twilight asked cheerfully.
"Please say no, nobody wants to fight us except Ichigo, Ichigo's Hollow, Grimmjow, and Kenpachi. Three of them are definitely crazy, the other one is debatably so." she cocked her head to one side. "Then again, I guess I'm not one talk." she chuckled, her scythe blade suddenly at the changeling's neck.
"Alright! Alright! I clearly have no chance of victory here!" Chrysalis said.
"Aw, and here I was hoping for a fight." the Hollow sighed in disappointment before lowering her scythe.
"Well, shall we get the real Cadance some medical attention, or what?" Twilight asked, turning to the princesses.
Celestia and Luna started, then Celestia nodded. "Yes, of course, we'll have to inform your brother and your friends of these events of course." she said.
"Whatever, but don't even think about trying to use the elements to get rid of me. Queen'll never go along with it and..." she reached in the box, took out the Element of Magic, and pulled on it, a bleached white version of it coming away. "I don't think it would work on me anyway." the Hollow was wearing a huge smirk. She put the tiara on. "Do you think this looks silly on me?" she asked slightly mockingly, posing.
To their credit, neither Celestia nor Luna lost their composure this time. Though the white version of the Element of Magic was practically oozing dark magic, which was probably a whole new level of disturbing for them.
"Ahem, yes, but first we must deal with this one." Luna said.
"Well, we could throw a few power limiters on her and then chuck her into the dungeons until we can get Cadance and Shining Armor fixed up enough to let them decide." Twilight suggested.
*** A Surprisingly Short Time Later ***
After a couple hours, everything was set. The girls were all assembled, along with Spike and her parents, and the princesses. Shining Armor and Cadance were present as well. Shining Armor was actually surprisingly easy to fix since Chrysalis was currently under the (correct) impression that she'd be in very real danger of dying if he was permanently damaged in some way and was giving them her full cooperation. Cadance woke up shortly before him, thanks to a little more healing magic. The reason they were assembled was so Twilight could explain about her new abilities and... friend.
Twilight was also promising to introduce them to some friends she made along the way. They were all eager, for various reasons, ranging from concern to curiosity. They entered the room Twilight had commandeered for the occasion, and discovered a hole in the fabric of reality. They were left in varying degrees of shock as Twilight greeted them cheerfully.
"Well, this is how I got back to Equestria, and it's how we'll go visit Karakura Town." Twilight said. After some coaxing, she got everyone to go through.
They came out, and were surprised to discover that they'd changed. First off, they weren't ponies anymore, second, they were wearing clothes now. Thirdly, the moment they got there, a strange creature with a white mask and a sort of heaviness to it's presence rushed them, only to be skewered by Twilight. It dissolved into nothingness, and the heavy presence just disappeared.
"Huh, a Hollow already? How strange." she said, as if nothing odd had just happened.
Rainbow Dash summarized their thoughts. "What the heck!?" she cried.
Author's Note
Her zanpakutou's ability is copying the abilities of any zanpakutou she comes into contact with at least five times. This is reduced to three in Bankai. This only applies to any abilities it has access to in it's current form. She can in theory copy every Shikai and Bankai, but she can only use one zanpakutou's power at a time.
They all stared at Twilight. She'd just casually killed some sort of creature, and was barely even reacting to it! An explanation was most definitely in order.
"Twilight, what was that, and why did you react like that? Also, why are we like this?" Celestia asked.
She was wearing a voluminous white dress, and her usual tiara and necklace. She had golden high heels, though they were deceptively sturdy, and she had a very good sense of balance. Still, a sudden shift from quadrupedal to bipedal, as well as a sudden shift in form and height would throw anyone's sense of balance off.
Luna was wearing a slightly tighter black dress, and had retained her necklace and tiara as well. Her heels were silver, like her jewelry. She and her sister looked rather like girls headed to a ball.
Twilight was dressed in a light blue shirt, a dark blue skirt, and a pair of knee-high white boots. She seemed used to moving on only two limbs.
Applejack was wearing a cowgirl outfit. Her hat was untouched.
Rarity had a white shirt and a pair of black pants. Her boots were also white, but didn't come as high as Twilight's, only reaching about halfway up to her knees.
Pinkie was wearing what looked like a pink schoolgirl outfit and blue boots.
Fluttershy was wearing a yellow dress with a light green skirt. Her boots were also green, though a slightly darker shade than her skirt.
Rainbow Dash was in shorts and a jacket over a t-shirt. Her boots were red with a white stripe at almost the top edge.
Shining Armor was in a blue suit with shoulder guards, and combat boots.
Cadance was in a lovely dress that was a light pink with blue highlights. She wore pink heels, but had no jewelry, unlike the two sisters.
Spike was a boy of ten or so, and had a purple shirt and green pants.
Twilight's parents were dressed in conservative clothes.
"Well, apparently when one travels to another dimension, their species switches to the dominant race. In this case, humans. Human beings wear clothes, for modesty, and because they lack body hair in comparison to most mammals.
If you aren't careful to anchor your destination, you could end up anywhere, anywhen, and any age. I learned that last one by experience, going through the beginning of puberty again was not fun.
Anyway, that was a Hollow, a soul that lost it's heart, becoming a creature of instinct. Hollows vary widely in shape and size, but have two distinguishing characteristics. A hole that goes straight through some part of their torso, representing the lost heart, and the white mask, which shields the exposed instinct from the world.
Hollows are usually mindless at first, and seek out souls in order to either consume them, or convert them into Hollows as well." Twilight explained. That elicited a strangled gasp from several of those present. Another Hollow showed up, and Twilight dealt with it in a similar manner as the first.
"We should really start moving before they decide to attack in force. I don't know why they're attacking since we ponies don't have spiritual pressure unless we end up with a zanpakutou, as our magic is mostly internalized unless we're actually casting a spell, but I'd rather we not risk one of them getting lucky and getting past me." she advised. They followed her as she led them towards a slightly shabby part of town. It wasn't seedy, but it certainly wasn't polished either. It had a 'people actually live here' feel to it.
"What's spiritual pressure?" Spike asked as they walked.
"You know magic is made of particles of energy known as spiritons, right?" Twilight asked. They all nodded in response. "Well, spiritual pressure is the amount of spiritons you are releasing unconsciously, like body heat. It's also quite dangerous, since it can overwhelm another person's own power, and directly affect the soul, which is the producer of spiritons.
The effects can vary from a feeling of a heavy weight pressing down on you, difficulty breathing, difficulty standing, the feeling of having an ocean or mountain directly above you, or having your soul crushed out of existence outright. That heaviness you all felt earlier was the Hollow's. You were probably all affected a slightly different amount due to differing strengths." Twilight explained, they turned a corner.
"Then how come we aren't feeling anything from you?" Rainbow asked.
"Well," Twilight looked distinctly sheepish, she even rubbed the back of her head. "that's because you can't comprehend even my first release's power. Though if I dropped down to my sealed state then you'd feel something." she explained, chuckling sheepishly.
"That sounds awesome!" Rainbow exclaimed.
Twilight sighed. "I don't know why people seem so fixated on gaining more power. It's not all it's cracked up to be." she sounded slightly bitter.
"What's so bad about it?" Rainbow asked. In answer, Twilight picked up a stick from the ground, it turned to ash and disintegrated in her hand.
"I can only interact normally with Ichigo, who's got roughly the same amount of power I do, unless I'm in my sealed state. Otherwise that happens to any organic matter I come into contact with. I have to be careful not to break anyone or anything. Honestly, if I'm not in my sealed state the world feels like it's made of tissue paper.
What's worse, being in my sealed state is immensely unpleasant because it requires forcing my power into a container too small for it. So I have to choose between never touching anyone, or being in constant borderline pain. I'd still choose the latter if being affected by my spiritual pressure wouldn't leave most people unable to stand." she ranted, before mastering herself.
"Sorry, it's not your fault, it's Aizen's for backing Ichigo and myself into a corner where we needed this kind of power, and ours for getting it." she said, before turning to a shop to one side. Everyone besides Twilight was unable to read the signs, so they could only tell it was a shop because it had some wares displayed in the window.
"Ah, here's Urahara's shop. The others are waiting inside." Twilight said, heading in before the others could respond to the speech that Twilight had given a few moments before. They followed her into the shop, and found several people seated at a table.
A man with a green and white striped hat, a shirt of the former color that was open, revealing his chest, black pants, and sandals, a boy with black hair, glasses, a white outfit, and a pair of black shoes, a girl with orange hair that reached her waist, brown eyes, a kind face, a shorter girl with black hair and a black robe as well as a sheathed sword, a boy who was quite tall and had brown hair, a sleeveless shirt, and jeans. Finally, there was a boy with orange hair and a t-shirt and jeans. There was a heaviness to his presence as well, if anything it was stronger than the Hollow's.
Introductions occurred all around. They learned that the man with the hat was Urahara, the crazy scientist Twilight had mentioned. The boy with glasses was called Uryuu, the girl with orange hair was called Orihime, the shorter girl was called Rukia, the tall boy was called Chad, despite his real name being Sado, and the boy with orange hair was Ichigo.
"So, where's Renji?" Twilight asked.
"He had paperwork he couldn't get out of, but he'll be here soon." Rukia answered.
"So, I take it you're all Twilight's friends from this dimension?" Luna half asked.
"Yep! Though I didn't meet some of them right away." Twilight answered.
"Should we take this to the training area?" Ichigo asked.
"Hm, not just yet." Twilight said. "Could you all wait a minute so I can get back in my body?" Twilight asked. She preempted the question the Equestrian natives were about to ask. "This is actually my soul, my physical body was here because I'm a lot stronger in soul form, and it brings me down to the level where normal people can feel my spiritual pressure if I'm inside it. I'll be sure to switch my Zanpakutoou to it's sealed state when I do." She headed further into the shop.
"I find it disturbing that she has to worry about that in the first place." Twilight's mother, Twilight Velvet said.
"You get used to it." Ichigo responded.
"You shouldn't have had to get used to it. Neither of you." Rukia said solemnly.
"Look, we've been over this. Twilight and I were the only ones strong enough to even fight Aizen with the Captains, Captain-Commander, Visored, and Espada on our side out of commission, and we still barely beat him because of that damn Hogyoku pushing him into some new, stronger form every five minutes. Neither of us regrets gaining the kind of power it took to take him down. As for the consequences, we can live with them." Ichigo said.
"Maybe, but we regret not being able to help, and forcing you two into that situation." Kisuke said.
"What's done is done. We can't sit around going over what we wish we could've done forever," Twilight said, having returned to hear the tail end of the conversation. The heaviness to her presence was a bit stronger than Ichigo's. She was wearing a schoolgirl uniform.
"So, now that we've successfully made things awkward, shall we change the subject to telling them what happened while I was here?" Twilight asked.
"This discussion's not over, but for now, we might as well." Uryuu said, adjusting his glasses.
"Well, it was right after the rehearsal went badly that Chrysalis sent me to this dimension. I awoke in an alley..."
Author's Note
The next chapter sees the beginning of Twilight's story in the Bleachverse. She won't get her zanpakutou right away. Instead she'll rely on her usual magic. A beam shot roughly equivalent to Hado 31, teleportation, levitation, and conjuration of objects to use against an enemy. Plus having befriended Ichigo leading to getting caught up in his fights granting her combat experience.
Twilight awoke to find herself in an alleyway. She was some sort of bipedal primate from what she could tell, and she was wearing a light blue shirt with short sleeves, a dark blue skirt that reached to about her knees and had her cutie mark emblazoned on the right side, a lavender backpack that seemed empty, and a pair of white boots.
Once she managed to stand up without having to grab a wall, she made a mental list of her problems in order of how immediate they were. First, a way of getting food and water regularly. Second, a regular supply of food and water. Third, materials for researching a way home, and the power to do so. From what she could tell, this was a different dimension.
She'd been sent here by Cadance, but that was an impostor. She'd been too upset to realize it at the time, but that was not how Cadance would have responded to being accused like that. She was never able to stand seeing others fighting, especially if they had a close relationship. Seeing her fighting with her brother would have been unbearable, plus she would have tried to talk things out before things got to that point.
She soon realized that unless whatever she currently was aged differenly from ponies, she was significanly younger. She was also having trouble deciphering the unfamiliar language other members of the species were using, though she was able to puzzle out a few words due to their use and frequency, she was not even close to forming a coherent sentence.
This could make getting a job of some kind difficult, and while being placed in an orphanage or foster home was not an appealing idea, she was not keen on the idea of living on the street either.
It would also cause her difficulties in discovering a way back home. She knew from experience that nobody took someone whose age was in single digits seriously when they asked for esoteric study materials. She didn't actually know her current biological age, but the point stood.
It was during several unfruitful hours after these musings that she encountered a child, or what she assumed to be a child, crying. He wore a pair of sneakers and a t-shirt, he was also semi-transparent and had a chain attached to a metal plate on his chest that reached almost to the ground.
Despite the utter strangeness of the situation, she attempted to ask him what was wrong. The answer was very disturbing.
"After mommy and me died in the fire, we stuck together, b-but she got eaten by a monster with a mask!" he explained before he broke down sobbing.
Twilight was quite unnerved. She had no reason to believe the person in front of her was lying what with the obvious trauma. That meant not only was she talking to a ghost, but there was something around here that ate ghosts.
His being a ghost explained why no-one else was reacting to his presence and were actually throwing her strange looks. What else would any normal person do seeing someone else talking to nothing and not acting as though it were an imaginary friend?
Twilight was about to try and talk to him some more since she didn't think she could acually touch him to comfort him, when a crash behind her spooked hem both. A large creature with a white mask, a hole through where the heart ought to be, and a body that was like a praying mantis and sickly green had smashed through a nearby alleyway, and was looking at them rather like a starving man would look at a hot meal of his favorite foods.
She tried, and was surprisingly successful, to grab the boy's hand and pull him along as she ran from the thing behind her that was radiating hunger and malice. She yelled "Run!" as the creature started after them, largely ignoring anything in it's path and steamrolling through.
Twilight realize almost immediately that she couldn't outrun the mantis-creaure and she seriously doubed she could fight effectively since she did not have a horn and probably couldn't use magic. Her only option was to out-manuever it using her smaller size. Luckily, her new friend was about her size and, if anything, seemed to be tiring less quickly than she was.
She cursed her sedentary lifesyle, and promised to be more active if she survived. If this wasn't the monster she'd heard about, then it was probably the same kind. She was ducking through alleys with her companion in tow, until she found herself facing a dead end. The mantis wasn't far behind.
She looked frantically for anything she could use as a weapon in her current state, but all she found was a wooden board with jagged edges. She lifted it and tried to get a good grip. She was trying and failing to get her magic to work, but without her horn she had nothing to focus it so she was just managing a dull glow that would only serve to make her more noticeable.
She could always keep running, but she didn't think she could get past the mantis with her companion in tow, and she wasn't going to sacrifice him, someone she'd just met or not. Her only choice was to fight. Considering the fact that she had no experience beyond a few self-defense courses she'd learned as part of her tutelage under the princess and even that wouldn't be useful since she had a completely different form now, she was not liking her chances.
"W-What do we do?" the kid asked, terrified at being trapped.
"You are going to get behind me, while I try and fight it. If you can, run and don't look back." she said as bravely as she could. Letting him know she was scared would only make him more scared and likely to do something stupid.
He was about to respond when the mantis rounded the corner. Now that it was this close, she noticed a strange heaviness to the air aroujnd it. She didn't think letting it get the first move would be a good idea, so she charged it. It batted her away more or less effortlessly.
'Well, that was discouraging.' she thought through her pain. She got back up and was about to try again since she at least needed to buy time for her companion to get away. 'Wait,' her eyes widened 'where'd he go?'
The mantis started trying to reach it's back as if there were an itch it couldn't scratch there.
"He didn't." she whispered.
He had climbed onto the giant mantis and started beating on it with his fists. This was doing nothing but causing the mantis to get annoyed, but at least it was failing to get to him. However, it would eventually succeed, and that would be that.
She was desperate to do something to keep that from happening, but the mantis had a claw ready to fling her away while it grabbed at the boy on it's back and her magic still wasn't functioning properly. She forced it to gaher into a Beam spell at her hand through sheer willpower, but it was ten times harder than usual and much weaker and less stable. She had no real alternatives though.
She sent the weakened Beam at her opponent and scored a hit. Unfortunately, the wound it had been dealt healed at a visible rate. She continued to fire while avoiding the wild swings from one of the mantis' scythe-arms. It was a little easier with each use, but it was far more draining in her current state. She only had a few shots left, but she had discovered that when the mask was hit it healed at a relative snail's pace.
She was about to fire for what was hopefully the last time when it threw off the kid. She was distracted for a moment by the necessity of levitating him down so he wouldn't ge hurt, and got skewered for her trouble.
She was pretty sure that the amount of blood she was losing would leave her dead in a matter of minutes, but she was more concerned with the fact that the mask had opened to reveal a set of teeth and the mouth inside it. Her rapidly fading conciousness dimly noted that she was going to be eaten before she died of blood loss and she was consumed by fear.
The mantis suddenly had it's head cut off by a sword. A green-and-white hat was the last thing she saw before passing out from a mixture of relief and blood loss.
*** An Unknown Amount of Time Later ***
Twilight awoke in an unfamiliar bed, and blearily tried to remember what happened through a haze of drowsiness. When she did, she attempted to bolt upright, only to fall back as her body collapsed on her due to poor circulation.
She then met her rescuer, who said something she took to mean something along the lines of "Stop moving or you'll reopen your wounds." He had messy light-blond hair, a hat with green and white stripes, a dark coat with green hems and a diamond pattern on it's lower half. His pants were a dark gray and he wore clog-sandals on his feet.
When it became apparent that she was unable to speak or understand more than five words at a time as a general rule, she began conjuring illusions. These were somewhat unaffected by the change beyond being more draining, so she could ask what each picture was.
After about ten minutes, she manage to learn enough new words in what was apparently Japanese that she could tell him her story about running into the mantis, which led to an explanation of her magic, which led to an explanation of her origins.
Twilight had decided she might as well be open with him if she was going to stay any length of time, though the fact that he'd saved her life might have had something to do with her decision.
"Hm, that's quite the story, but when you deal with all the weird things I have to, you tend to suspend your disbelief quite a bit and gain a knack for figuring out when someone's lying." Kisuke Urahara, as he'd introduced himself, said. Once they'd established her native language was Equish, or rather it's counterpart in this dimension, English, they'd made a lot of progress fairly quickly.
"Alright, so how bad was I when you rescued me?" Twilight decided to get straight to the point.
"It was kinda touch and go for a while, but you'll be fine. You'll need some more bed rest, but you were only out for a couple days and Tessai's got plenty of healing Kido training." Kisuke said.
"Yeah, I was pretty sure it didn't get anything really vital, but I was equally sure that it hit a major artery." Twilight said. She was fairly certain she was still in shock. Otherwise she'd be curled up in a fetal position in terror at how close she'd come to almost dying.
"You should be safe here. There are enough wards against Hollows to fend off any of the low-level ones." Kisuke explained. In response to the question she was about to ask, Kisuke said, "Are you sure you want to know?" She nodded and he continued. "When someone dies violently or with regrets, they don't pass on to the afterlife. Your average person will become a ghost that acts much the same as in life, known as a Plus.
If they were sinners, however, they become creatures of mindless hunger who have lost their hearts, represented by the hole in their chests. The mask they wear is meant to shield the exposed instinct, and is a weak point.
Pluses can be turned into Hollows by other Hollows, or if they're consumed by negative emotions." Kisuke's slight smile had faded as he talked, and he'd become completey serious by this point.
"Hollows seek out Pluses in order to devour them and try to fill the void where their hearts used to be. The hungrier ones will even go after living humans or commit cannibalism." Twilight resisted the urge to vomit. They ate people or even each other?! The one was bad enough, but these things were common? She'd been less impacted by the little boy's speech because she was still reeling from being sent to another dimension, but now it had sunk in somewhat after all that.
"Wait, what happened to the little boy? He would have been nearby when you found me." Twilight asked with some concern and a hint of guilt after having forgotten him.
"I performed a Konso to send him to Soul Society, basically Heaven. He'll be better off now." Urahara answered.
"Oh. I'm happy for him then, but... well we never even told each other our names." Twilight said, then blinked. "Where are we anyway?" she asked.
"This is my candy shop. We get the occassional... unusual visitor, but things are pretty quiet right now." Kisuke answered.
"So, how did you find me anyway?" she asked.
"Well, I was going to the store for groceries, leaving Tessai to keep an eye on the shop and I suddenly sensed a Hollow and a strange reiatsu, that's spiritual energy, I didn't recognize. It certainly wasn't a Hollow, and it wasn't a Shinigami or Plus, so I decided to investigate.
I dealt with the Hollow and hurried you over to the shop after performing quite possibly the fastest Konso in history. Long story short, here you are." Kisuke explained, his slight smile back.
Twilight nodded, suddenly feeling very drowsy. "I'll leave you to rest then. See you tommorow!" he waved cheerily.
*** In The Present ***
"Wait a minute, I thought you said ponies don't usually have spiritual pressure." Rainbow said.
"My ridiculous amount of power for a non-alicorn meant that I did have some, luckily this allowed me to cast spells, albeit more difficultly. A normal pony would attract no more attention than the average human." Twilight explained.
"So what happened next?" Pinkie asked.
"When I woke up again..." Twilight said, continuing her story.
Author's Note
Twilight is somewhat in shock right now, but it will all come crashing down on her eventually. She was able to understand the boy because she'd had a couple hours to figure out more of the language, and had problems with Urahara because she was still groggy at first.
The next time Twilight awoke, she was well enough to get up. After talking it over with Kisuke and the newly-introduced Tessai, it was decided that she would do chores and help watch the shop, and in return, she would be given a place to stay and have her daily needs (food, etc.) met.
Tessai had slightly dark skin, very short black hair in a pattern resemblling a row of corn, glasses, a handlebar moustache, a white muscle shirt underneath a blue apron, and regular pants.
Twilight had been told to avoid killing Hollows if possible, since her magic was not the same as a Shinigami's power and there was no guarantee that the Hollow would have it's soul sent to it's proper place if she ended it. Not only would this be against basic morality as it would be total erasure of the Hollow's existence and ran the risk of doing the same to any souls it had absorbed, but it could attract unwanted atention from the Soul Society who were understandably against that sort of thing and apparently filled with people who could kill her before she realized they were there.
That being said, they were going to give her some training to keep her from getting killed. She'd effectively had her power cut by 90%, nevermind casting speed, so she'd gone from the level of a high-tier unicorn to a beginner. She could barely teleport more than five feet now.
This left her vulnerable since Hollows were attracted to the power she let out like body heat, reiatsu, or spiritual pressure, as they got stronger based on what souls they ate, but she was not strong enough that she could adequately defend herself.
She was going to go to school as well. She was stuck here for now, so she might as well make the best of it. She knew from experience that she couldn't spend all of her free time trying to work out how to get back or she'd burn herself out.
Besides, she might very well not have the power to get back right now, what with the new limitations on herself. Holing herself up in the shop would also be spitting on everything she claimed to have learned about friendship and social interaction.
It took Kisuke a while to get the documents in order, and unfortunately she'd have to go through all of school again because it would be rather hard to explain a six-year-old having a college-level intellect.
On the one hand, she was bored out of her mind until she'd managed to skip a couple grades and get to history class since she knew all the other material already. On the other hand, she met some new friends.
Ichigo Kurosaki and Tatsuki Arisawa. Ichigo was something of a crybaby, but he was also cheerful. Tatsuki was a tomboy who reminded her somewhat of Rainbow Dash and was easily Ichigo's superior in hand-to-hand combat and regularly beat him in their spars. She had dark blue hair which was slightly spiky. Twilight liked to think she rounded out the group.
*** In The Present ***
"Woah, woah, woah!" Rainbow interjected. "This guy was a crybaby?" she pointed at Ichigo.
"He was 6. Name five people who didn't cry easily at that age." Twilight deadpanned.
"Oh." Rainbow quieted down.
"Now as I was saying..."
*** To Continue ***
She started training in some basic martial arts so she would be less helpless without magic, and was soundly beaten by Tatsuki no less than 37 times, before something terrible happened. Afterwards, Ichigo didn't cry anymore, and his smiles were rare.
They met a girl called Orihime when Twilight was biologically 7 and the others were 9. She was a kindly girl who reminded her a lot of Fluttershy. Beyond the occasional close call with a Hollow, little of interest happened for a few years.
Ichigo had always been picked on because of his hair color. It only got worse as he got older, but he started putting up a fight. Tatsuki and herself would lend a hand if they happened to be nearby, earning themselves reputations as delinquents in the process.
Ichigo would only start it if someone had been careless of a shrine or if they were being jerks for no good reason. It turned out Ichigo could see ghosts from an early age.
Urahara had warned her that spending a lot of time in the company of those who were not spiritually aware could cause them to develop awareness, effectively painting a target on their back.
Since Ichigo was already spiritually aware, she didn't see any point in not spending time around him. Though her free time was somewhat in short supply anyway between school, her hobby of martial arts, light training in her magic to hopefully build up her reserves to the point where she'd be able to make the trip back to Equestria, researching the spell to return, and her discovery of the internet.
Her habit of scheduling her whole month in advance became rather necessary to actually meet all her objectives. Her friends thought she had OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder), which she didn't. She just... liked to make checklists and keep things organized. That was all. Really.
Sado Yasutora, nicknamed 'Chad', joined their little group in middle school, as did Keigo Asano and Mizuiro Kojima. Sado had moved here from Mexico and was quiet and very tall for his age. He wasn't broody or anything, he just didn't talk all that much. Keigo had neck-length brown hair and was rather hyper and easily excited, but meant well and often tried to cheer Ichigo up, though he tended to get a bonk on the head for his trouble. He also tried to get the attention of girls, but usually failed miserably. Mizuiro had dark blue hair and was calmer and more logical than Keigo, and had seemingly effortless success with girls.
It was seemingly a normal day when everything changed. School was normal. Well, normal for this school. Keigo had launched into one of his outbursts and gotten punched in the face by Ichigo once he showed up around lunch, Orihime had encountered Chizuru Honsho who'd been fended off by Tatsuki, and their teacher, Misato Ochi, had taught in her usual exuberant manner.
Chizuru was a girl with red hair and red-rimmed glasses who was a proud lesbian. She frequently made advances on Orihime due to Orihime's, er, figure, only to get a beat-down from Tatsuki when she tried it. Most likely due to jealousy, she became enraged if she believed someone else was making a move on Orihime. Misato Ochi was a middle-aged woman with brown hair and glasses who tended to wear a red gym suit. She was strict at times, but fair.
She'd heard that Ichigo's house had been hit by a truck last night, but something didn't feel right about that. Something seemed off about Ichigo too. He was obviously thinking about something and while she was a poor sensor, even she was able to tell that his spiritual pressure had skyrocketed since yesterday and that didn't just happen for no reason.
"Hey Ichigo, I heard your house got hit by a truck last night!" Keigo said.
"Pretty much." Ichigo sighed.
"Did you got everything cleaned up yet?" Mizuiro asked
"Of course not. It's gonna take forever!" Ichigo said, annoyance lacing his tone.
"Need any help?" Chad asked, prompting Ichigo to look up at him since Chad was standing and Ichigo was sitting at his desk.
"Uh, that's okay." He awkwardly.
"Yeah Chad, you could end up bringing the whole house down you know." Keigo commented.
"Alright, what've we got next?" Ichigo asked.
"Language Lab." Keigo answered automatically.
"Hello," a girl with black hair and the usual school uniform said as she approached Ichigo's desk. "you're Ichigo right?" she asked in a fake polite voice. Ichigo gasped quietly and stared at her in bemusement.
"I'll be sitting next to you from now on. My name is Rukia." she continued in the same odd tone.
Ichigo freaked out a bit, getting out of his desk and backing off a step from the girl. "It's- It's you!" he said, pointing a finger directly at her.
"Geez, what's up with you Ichigo?" Keigo asked.
"Do you know her from somewhere?" Twilight asked, while coming over.
"Of course not. We've never met before. Isn't that right Ichigo?" Rukia asked, tilting her head slightly.
"Rukia's a new transfer student." Mizuiro said.
"Nice to meet ya!" Keigo said cheerfully.
"It's a pleasure." Rukia said, holding her hand out for Ichigo to shake. Only he and Twilight could see what was written on said hand in both English and Japanese. 'Make a scene and you're so dead!' Well that wasn't suspicious at all. She grinned slightly evilly. Ichigo reluctantly shook hands with her.
She was just about to ask him what exactly was going on with the new girl when the bell rang for the beginning of the lunch period. Ichigo more or less dragged Rukia to an empty space on the school campus and Twilight followed.
"Alright, ya freaky little nutjob. What the hell do you think you're doing!?" he asked.
"I kind of want to know what's going on too." Twilight added.
"How scary you big brute! Jeepers, you you're not going to hurt me are you?" she said in her fake-polite voice.
"Okay, first of all, you can drop the goody two-shoes act!" Ichigo said pointing at her accusingly.
"Well I think it's pretty good considering I learned it overnight." Rukia said in a more real voice.
"Alright, forget it. Just tell me what you're doing here anyway. Weren't you supposed to be heading back to your Soul Society or whatever it was?" Ichigo asked. Rukia looked at Twilight wide-eyed.
"If it involves ghosts, relax. I've been able to see them for ages and I've been Ichigo's friend for more than half his life." Twilight said.
"Well, in that case I suppose I can talk about this freely. I can't return to the Soul Society because only a Shinigami can open the gate back and I don't have the power to return of my own volition anymore." Rukia said regretfully.
"Wait, what do you mean?" Ichigo asked, aggravation eclipsed by curiosity.
"I intended to give you some of my power in order to let you fend off that Hollow, but you absorbed almost all of it." Rukia said.
"I wouldn't know anything about that. You say that like I did it on purpose." Ichigo said.
"Thanks to you I barely qualify for spiritual awareness right now, and I'm stuck in this ridiculous Gigai form." Rukia said.
"What's a Gigai?" Twilight asked.
"A Gigai is an artificial temporary body used by Soul Reapers while in this world in case of emergency, such as a crippling wound or if they're otherwise weakened. A Shinigami resides in a Gigai while waiting for their powers to recover." Rukia explained.
"Oh, now I get it, so that's why the others could see earlier right?" Ichigo asked.
"Precisely. Unfortunately, I can't possibly do my duties as a Shinigami in my condition. So, until I get my powers back you are going to fulfill my duties, Ichigo." she proclaimed. Ichigo was staring at her in obvious confusion, so she continued. "It's only natural. Since you now possess the powers of a Soul Reaper, you have no right to refuse your calling-"
"No way!" Ichigo denied with his arms crossed in an 'X' shape.
"What?!" Rukia asked.
"My monster-fighting days are over. That was a one-time deal!" he said.
"Don't be ridiculous Ichigo, you did just fine yesterday." Rukia argued.
"That was just because my family was in danger, but I'm not ready to go fight to the death for complete strangers. Sorry to disappoint you." he said, before starting off.
"So what are you going to do now?" Twilight asked Rukia. She could see Ichigo's logic and wasn't going to pressure him into doing something he didn't want to, even if she didn't completely agree.
"I have no other choice." Rukia pulled on a red glove with a skull surrounded by blue flames on it.
"Hey!" she called to get Ichigo's attention, then launched herself at him. Ichigo turned just in time to look surprised before getting an open palm to the face, and suddenly there were two Ichigo's. One in his school uniform, and the other in a black robe with a claymore on his back.
The original slumped forwards while the other was pushed backwards. Twilight was immediately concerned when she noticed that the original wasn't breathing.
"Aw crap! What happened to my body?!" Ichigo yelled, his voice slightly shriller than usual as he pointed at said body. "What in the world did you to me?" he asked, looking himself over.
"Rukia! You killed him!" Twilight cried, unable to find a pulse.
"No I- Well technically yes." she admitted, not making either of them feel better. "Don't worry, it's completely reversible. Now follow me." she commanded.
"Hold on, we should probably make sure nobody notices a corpse on the ground in broad daylight." Twilight said, then pulled Ichigo's body to a nearby wall so that a cursory inspection would make it look like he was just asleep.
"Alright, let's go." Rukia said as soon as Twilight had gotten Ichigo's body in a less corpse-like position. "Hold on." she said, raising a hand when Twilight began to follow. "This is a Shinigami affair, you shouldn't get involved."
"Not happening. I'm at least coming along to make sure Ichigo doesn't get himself killed." Twilight said adamantly. Rukia stared her in the eyes for a second, before allowing her to join them.
They followed Rukia for some time, and growing impatient, Ichigo asked. "Are you going to tell us where we're going?"
"We're getting close." Rukia said, pulling what appeared to be a cell phone out of her uniform.
"Close to what exactly?" Ichigo asked.
"The spot where we're supposed to go for our latest orders from the Soul Society." Rukia answered. "The spirit of a boy who dwells in this park is likely to come under attack by a Hollow soon."
It was at that point that a terrified scream rang out as one of the pieces of equipment was destroyed by a spider-like Hollow of a dark grey color. "H-Help me!" the boy cried out.
Ichigo immediately moved to help and Twilight prepared a Beam. She still couldn't spam them like she used to, but she had much improved.
"Wait! Hold on!" Rukia called, causing them to pause.
"What is it?" Ichigo asked.
"We need to hurry!" Twilight said worriedly as the Hollow gained on the little boy.
"Where do you think you're going? He's a total stranger isn't he?" Rukia somehow managed to be both stern and slightly mocking as she addressed Ichigo. "And you aren't a Shinigami, so this isn't any of your business in the first place." Rukia said harshly.
"So what?! I can't just stand by and let this happen! You expect me to just sit by and watch him die?" Ichigo asked.
"I've avoided fighting Hollows because I didn't want to draw attention to myself, but I've never just left someone to get eaten!" Twilight added.
"Don't be such fools! You can't just use your powers when it's convenient. All spirits of this world are equal in the eyes of a Shinigami! You can't just get involved because they happen to be nearby or they need help. That's not how it works!" she lectured them as the Hollow continued to gain on the little boy who continued to cry out for help. Prompting them to start towards him again.
"If you intend to stay out of Shinigami affairs then leave him be! You can't just help one and be done with it! If you help him then you're committing yourselves to saving every last spirit! You must be willing to go to any length to do so, even if it costs you your life." Rukia said solemnly. The Hollow had at this point almost caught up to the little boy.
He fell, and the Hollow raised a leg to end him, but the leg was blown off and the other front leg sliced off. Twilight's handiwork on the first, Ichigo's on the second. Ichigo cut off a third leg to force it away, and the Hollow fell on it's back and faded away.
"So have you two made your decision then?" Rukia asked. From what she'd seen, the energy Twilight possessed was similar enough to a Shinigami's that it wouldn't raise any alarms if it was used to fight Hollows, as long as it wasn't a massive attack that could destroy a skyscraper.
"I'm waiting for Ichigo's decision. I'm not going to pressure him into this." Twilight said. Truthfully, she still didn't know for sure if she could send a soul to Soul Society by herself, or if it would simply be gone, so she was rather depending on Ichigo's answer.
"... Like hell I have. I haven't decided to do squat. I saved this kid because I wanted to, you hear me?" Ichigo said quietly but seriously. "What about you?" he asked Rukia.
"Me?" Rukia asked, not understanding what he meant.
"I seem to remember you putting your life on the line to save me last night." Ichigo said. "Tell me, were you really thinking about you duty when you risked your life to save mine?" his voice rose. "Of course not, that's the last thing on your mind when you save someone!" Rukia's eyes widened and her pupils contracted as the Hollow reappeared behind them. Twilight had faith in Ichigo and wasn't worried.
"At the very least, I choose to be different!" he growled as he stabbed the approaching Hollow right in the middle of it's face and up into it's brain. The Hollow collapsed seconds after he pulled his sword out, fading away from the edges inward instead of all at once this time.
"Hey, are you alright?" Twilight asked the little boy as he stopped trembling. He had no obvious injuries.
"Hey kid." Ichigo began. "If you don't wanna go through that again you better hurry up and pass on already." he said, before lightly tapping the hilt of his sword on the boy's head. The boy's expression became peaceful as a circle of blue light appeared underneath him and he sank into it.
It was the first time Twilight had actually seen a Konso, and based on Rukia's expression, they weren't usually this impressive.
"You did that quite beautifully." Rukia complimented.
"I'm gone." Ichigo said.
"I guess we'll see you later." Twilight said as she followed him. There was no way they'd get back to school before the end of lunch and she was left wondering what to tell the teachers since they obviously weren't going to believe the truth and she was a terrible liar.
Author's Note
Urahara told Twilight not to get involved with fighting the Hollows because he knew her morals wouldn't let her just stop at the one, and Rukia is quite talented in manipulating spirit energy, so she strikes me as able to tell how spiritual energy used right in front of her relates to Hollow energy and Shinigami energy.