Bionicle: Equestrian Saga Book 3 'Through the Nether'

Chapters

Chapter 2
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42 (Christmas/Hearths Warming special)
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 1
Chapter 3
Chapter 14

Chapter 2

“Are you sure you don’t want our help?” Tahu asked, the Toa had caught wind of what was happening and had come over as soon as they could.

“I need you to stay and protect this world” I said, Tahu nodded before placing a hand on my shoulder.

“Very well” he said “farewell, brother, try not to make too many bad calls”

“You know me” I said, walking backwards towards the ship “when have I ever made a bad call?” I them span around and began walking at a brisk pace towards the ship, since the end of the war the roster of crew had been played around with, meaning we had pretty much equal numbers of every type of sentient species working on the ship. Garnet flew over, he was in his elemental armour and had a large bag slung over his back.

“Hey dad” he said, walking alongside me

“Hey kid, how’s Thel?” I asked “she on the ship?” what? You didn’t actually think I would let the kids miss out on an opportunity like this, did you?

“Yeah, although she’s been a little moody lately” he said, looking a little glum “I hope we don’t break up whilst we’re on the ship”

“Don’t worry” I said “from what I’ve seen and experienced, relationships on this world are a hell of a lot more long lasting than ones on my world, some people just need a bit of space every now and again”

“Was that intentional?” he asked “because we’re going into space, and you said people need space every now and again” I bust out laughing.

“Ha, no, it wasn’t intentional” I said “but well spotted” we soon spotted Ruby, also in full elemental armour, riding on Skohka’s shoulder, honestly, those two have been practically inseparable since they first met, not in relationship sense, he’s more like an uncle to her and Garnet. I called over to her and waived, Ruby said something to Skohka before jumping off of her Steltian friend and walking over.

“Hey, dad” she said, as I gave her a loose hug.

“Hey, dear” I said “you ready to explore other worlds?”

“Hell yes!” she said, doing a fist bump “um, when do I get my gun back?”

“Patience, young padawan” I said, waiving one of my hands like a Jedi “let’s get our stuff on the ship first”

*7 hours later*

I was stood on the bridge, overlooking the proceedings.

“Ship is ready to depart” a pony said.

“Captain Blazewing” I said “if you would be so kind” that was another thing, I was no longer captain of the ship, That wasn’t to say I didn’t call the shots around here, but Blazewing was much better suited for the role of captain. Blazewing nodded before tapping something on the controls, a few seconds later I got the feeling of weightlessness and the view outside the windows went dark.

“Activate artificial gravity” Blazewing said, I landed on the floor and stumbles slightly. I looked outside the window and I could see countless stars.

“We’re in space!?” I blurted.

“Yes sir” Blazewing said, I quickly rushed outside and my jaw dropped.

“Magnificent, isn’t it?” Luna asked.

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

“Twilight is taking my place temporarily” she said “I’m representing my nation when we visit other worlds”

“Makes sense” I said, I then opened up the com-link “Frostfang, how are you coping?”

“Trying to comprehend the sheer beauty of what I’m seeing” he said “but other than that, I’m doing just fine, these booster rockets are a huge help”

“Good to hear” I said, I then heard Minion over the com-link.

“Luke, get your arse over here, we have a fucking huge problem” he said, he never said my real name unless there was a huge problem, I teleported to his location on the other side of the ship and was confronted by the sight of several Covenant cruisers.

“Oh shit!” I said, Luna teleported over.

“I don’t see what the problem is” she said “it was to be expected that we would encounter extra-terrestrial life forms”

“Luna” I said “I want you to send a letter to Celestia and have her relay the following message to the other world leaders, if ships matching that description enter their world and try to form an alliance, they need to politely decline and ask to remain neutral”

“What’s got you so spooked?” Luna asked.

“They are Covenant cruisers” I said.

“And?” she asked.

“The Covenant make Nazi’s seem like fucking care-bares!” I exclaimed, drawing the attention of several crew members “if you piss them off, they will reduce the surface of your world to glass and kill everything until your world is just a cinder floating through space!” Luna went pale.

“I-I’ll relay the message for you then” she said, I teleported into the Bridge.

“Captain” a pony said “someone is…trying to contact us”

“Put them through” Blazewing said, a hologram of an elite in full covenant armour popped up and my stomach dropped.

“Unidentified vessel” the Elite said “please state you identity and intentions” I stepped forward.

“This is Vuur Koning of the planet Terra” I said “this vessel is designated Jörmungandr and our intentions are strictly neutral, our world does not wish to form an alliance with the covenant but we do not wish to be your enemy either. If you are in need of food, our planet can provide only that, nothing more, am I understood?” the Elite did a double take.

“You’re…human” he said.

“Yes, but not from the earth you know” I said “look, several universes have merged into one, the humans you’ll meet on unfamiliar worlds, probably won’t know who, or even what you are. So please, just leave them be, they are completely innocent of any crimes” the Elite narrowed his eyes.

“Whilst I won’t trust the likes of you” he spat “I will heed your words, we will not attack unless provoked”

“Thank you” I said “I will transmit the coordinates so you know which planet is neutral. But know this, that world is protected, not just by soldiers, but by beings with the power to move suns, do not piss of the leader of Equestria” I then cut off the com-link and noticed that the entire of the Bridge was silent.

“H-How do you know of them?” Blazewing asked.

“Just know that they aren’t to be messed with and leave it at that” I said, before walking onto the deck and watching the Covenant ships leave for Terra, Luna soon walked over.

“I notice they’ve headed for Terra” she said.

“Let’s hope they don’t do anything stupid” I said.

A few weeks later

We reached our first planet, from what I could tell, it was earth. Thankfully, the covenant hadn’t pulled anything whilst on terra, they’re still there, Celestia explained the situation with Teridax and they even agreed to help us.

“Ah, it’ll be good to be home” I said “Can’t wait to try my mom’s cider chicken” Natrix groaned.

“You have been talking about cooking a chicken with a can of cider stuck up its ass for weeks” he said “I’m never going to your mom’s house”

“But you have no idea how good it is” I said “it’s to die for”

“As you have told everyone ever since we left Terra” Vapaa said, we soon entered the planet and landed in the ocean somewhere between the U.K and northern Europe. I was on the deck with Autumn, Garnet and Ruby when Minion spoke up over the coms.

“Guys, you are not going to believe what is currently on the bow of the ship” he said, I put on my mask before teleporting over to the bow. Standing there, plain as day, was Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the third, with his Night Fury, Toothless.

“Alright” he said “who’s in charge here”

“That would be me” I said, pushing through the crowd.

“Who are you?” he asked.

“Depends if you’re a friend of not” I said “for now, you can call me Vuur Koning” I gave a slight bow as I said this, Toothless growled at me and I glared back.

“Are you in allegiance to Drago Bloodvist?” he asked, I burst out laughing.

“You think I would side with a bastard like him?” I asked, Hiccup got out his sword and ignited it, I scoffed before getting out my sword and letting flames dance along mine “You should learn to pick you fights, kid” he hesitated slightly, Toothless growled before charging up a fire ball and shooting it at me, I absorbed the flames and dispelled the smoke before walking forward, Toothless began growling.

“H-how did?” Hiccup asked.

“You think you have power?” I asked “just because your dragon spits fancy fireballs, I control fire. And I don’t wish t become you enemy, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the third, in fact, you’re just the person I was looking for” I put my sword away.

“What!?” he asked looking confused.

“You noticed the planets in the sky?” I asked, he glanced up before nodding “I’m from one of those, guide us to you island, and I’ll explain everything there, until then, I’m in the mood to go flying”

“Where in Thor’s name did you get that dragon?” Hiccup asked, eyeing Lhikan warily, we were currently leading the Jörmungandr towards Berk.

“I’m a Wyvern” Lhikan said, startling both Hiccup and Toothless.

“There’s a difference” I said “for one thing, Wyverns can’t breathe fire, their speciality is venom”

“You can talk!?” Hiccup asked.

“So what?” Lhikan asked.

“Where we come from, most dragons, like Frostfang over there can talk” I said “Wyverns can’t usually talk, but thanks to this little number, her thoughts are converted into speech” I leant over and tapped the crystal on her throat”

“So if I stuck one on Toothless…” he trailed off.

“Sorry, but no” I said “I don’t think it would work on life forms from this world” at that point Garnet and Ruby flew over and began flying around Toothless.

“What are those?” Hiccup asked.

“Kirins” I said “a hybrid between a dragon and a pony” Toothless heard this and snorted in disgust.

“Well excuse me!” Garnet said, crossing his arms “we can’t help who our parents were” Toothless snorted.

“They’re also my adoptive children” I said, both Hiccup and Toothless stared at me, wide eyed, mouths open, I shrugged “What? Their mother died and myself and Autumn Skies promised to look after them, isn’t that right, kids?” Garnet and Ruby both rolled their eyes.

“Yes, Dad” they droned.

“I have no idea how the others will react to that” Hiccup said, I shrugged.

“So what” I said “I personally don’t care what other people think, but if they have a problem, they come to me about it” Ruby sighed.

“Dad, can you stop threatening people, please” she complained.

“What?” I asked “I care about you” at the point the Island of Berk came into view and Garnet and Ruby gasped.

“Whoa” Garnet said.

“It isn’t much” Hiccup said “but it’s home” we soon landed in the town, whilst the ship anchored just out to sea, Garnett and Ruby were promptly swarmed by several smaller dragons.

“Um, Dad?” Ruby hissed “a little help…hey!” at that point a Nadder tried to lift up her tail, only to receive a tail blade to the face, the dragons soon got the message after that.

“Feisty one’s, aren’t they?” an older female voice said, I looked to the source to see Hiccups mother, Valka, walking over “might I ask who you are?”

“I am Vuur Koning, from the planet Terra” I said

“Planet!?” she exclaimed, before chuckling “and I thought I was crazy” I looked to Garnet and Ruby and jerked my head towards Valka, they soon got the message.

“Our dad isn’t crazy” Garnet said, all of the gathered people gasped.

“H-how is that possible?” Valka asked.

“Where we come from” I said “dragons can talk, you’d love it”

“Talking dragons?” Snotlout scoffed “yeah right, my foot can probably talk better that a dragon can”

“You better believe it, boy” Frostfang said, poking his head up from the docks and causing everyone to fall deadly silent.

“Is that proof enough?” I asked, deadpanning “right now that you are all silent. We have come here, to ask for your assistance, a being, called Makuta Teridax, has pulled our Universes together, and I’m asking for the help of your dragon riders to stop him…”

“But, you have such a large and well-armed ship” Hiccup said “what good will we do?”

“If you help us” I said “then that means we have that much more chance to defeat Teridax”

“Who is this…’Terrordacks’ that you keep mentioning?” he asked.

“Teridax, is a being of pure shadow” I said “and I’m being serious when I say that, he has powers beyond imagination, and he is unbelievably ancient”

“Exactly how ancient are we talking?” Astrid asked “a couple thousand years old?”

“Try 400 million years old and you’re on the right track” I said, the crowd began muttering

“What exactly has he done that is so bad” Hiccup asked “he just seems like a really old guy with shadow powers”

“He practically wiped out his own species to ensure he didn’t have competition” I said, causing the villagers to gasp “he is fiercely intelligent, his backup plans have backup plans, he will stop at nothing to ensure he controls everything in existence, he’s the reason why you can see planets in the sky. You think Drago Bloodvist was bad? He is nothing compared to Teridax”

“Suppose we agree to help” Hiccup said “what would happen then?”

“Well for one thing” I said “I would need you to come with us, however, we will provide some soldiers from my crew to compensate”

“But they won’t be able to fly” Astrid said

“Actually” Autumn said, landing next to me “we have Pegasi, Griffins, Thestrals and Dragons, all of whom can fly”

“What are you?” Valka asked.

“I’m a Pegasus” she said “in a manner of speaking” Hiccup turned to Valka and the looked like they were discussing something, after a few moments Hiccup turned to me.

“We will help you” he said “but only if you can promise the safety of my village”

“I will lend you the best fighters that I can spare” I said, Hiccup smiled

"Then we will gladly help you in your quest" he said, we shook hands and the crowd cheered.

Chapter 4

I was stood on the large open deck at the front of the Jörmungandr, the Dragon riders were there as well along with their dragons, and they would not want to miss this. I activated the com-link on my wrist and spoke into it.

“Shields up” I said, the clear domes materialised.

“What are those for?” Hiccup asked nervously.

“There’s no air in space” Scar said “if we went into space without activating the shields we would suffocate, freeze and explode from the lack of pressure”

“Like Fishlegs could get any bigger” Snotlout quipped.

“Alright, Captain” I said “take us up”

“How exactly are we getting up there?” Hiccup asked.

“Let’s just say you’ll want to hold on to the railing” I said, at that moment I felt the familiar feeling of the teleportation spell and our ship reappeared in orbit. I calmly stood as still as possible, the others didn’t quite get the message.

“Great Odin’s ghost!” Astrid exclaimed, holding onto the railing as she floated upside down, the dragons were panicking as well. After a few moments the artificial gravity engaged and they all fell to the deck.

“Couldn’t you do that before we…?” Fishlegs trailed off when he saw what was outside.

“Thor almighty!” Gobber exclaimed.

“Ladies and gentlemen” I said “welcome to outer space”

“How on earth…?” Valka said.

“You aren’t on earth” I said, before pointing to the closest planet, it looked like modern day earth with all of the cities lit up “that right there is our next destination. I’ll warn you, it may be another Earth, but it’s from the future, and dragons don’t exist there, so I would advise taking your dragons for a joyride” I looked specifically at Snotlout, Ruffnut and Tuffnut as I said this.

“Aww, you’re no fun” Ruffnut said, I then noticed the covenant cruisers, in orbit around a desolate planet

“What are they up to?” I muttered.

“Who are they?” Hiccup asked.

“Bad news” I said “they are part of a religious sect, called the Covenant, made up of several different alien species, they are a bigger threat than Teridax”

“What do we do?” Astrid asked.

“We don’t provoke them” I said “if you piss them off, they will reduce your planet to a cinder, I’ve already talked to them once, so they know not to attack us, but I still don’t like the fact that they’re here” Toothless growled uneasily.

“Easy boy” Hiccup said, petting the Night Fury.

“Well, not that this isn’t a cheery conversation” Gobber said “but would you mind explaining what that thing is?” he pointed to a small yellow and blue spaceship that was flying alongside us as he said this and I teleported into the bridge.

“Captain” I said “have you tried to contact that ship yet?”

“Doing it now” he said “unidentified vessel, you are encroaching on our space”

“Sorry about that” a voice said “Think we could come aboard? We’re getting a little low on supplies” Blazewing looked at me and I nodded.

“Permission granted” Blazewing said, proceed to the open part of the hold. I teleported down to the hold and opened up the com-link.

“Guy’s, you better get down to the hold if you don’t want to miss out on the chance to meet some aliens” I said, soon all of the Neu-Toa were also in the hold. A part of the wall slid away and the spaceship flew in before landing, a walkway slid down and five individuals walked out. A human male, a green skinned woman, a really muscly grey and red skinned man, a walking tree and a large racoon that walked on its hind legs.

“Well isn’t this the welcome party” the human said “what are you, knights or something?”

“Toa, actually” I said “I’m Vuur Koning, the leader of this team”

“I think we’ve finally found a group that looks like a bigger bunch of idiots than us” the racoon said “I mean look at you, you look ridiculous, and did you let a child choose the colour scheme or something? You look like you came out of a paint factory”

“A lot of talk for a racoon” Minion said.

“Each of us controls a different element of nature, such as fire, or water, or sound” I said “that’s why we are different colours” the racoon snorted.

“Great” he said “we’re on a loony ship” I conjured a ball of fire into my hands and began playing around with it

“Are you sure about that?” I asked “Now, we can stand around here all day, or we can go somewhere better suited for introducing ourselves

We soon found ourselves in the dining hall, where I introduced the Toa to them.

“Okay” I said “now that you know who we are, why don’t you tell us who you are”

“The name’s Rocket” the racoon said.

“I am Groot” the tree said.

“Yeah, you’ve said that already” I said.

“It’s all he ever says” Rocket said

“You can call me Star-Lord” the human said

“Gamora” the green skinned woman said.

“Drax” the grey and red man said.

“And together” Star-Lord said, pausing briefly “we’re the Guardians of the Galaxy”

“Really?” I said, smirking “because you just look like a bunch of arseholes”

“Says the leader of the Rainbow Patrol” Rocket said.

“At least we can back up our claims” I said “all I see of you lot are a human…whatever the hell you two are, a racoon and a tree”

“Well” Rocket said “I guess we’ll just have to prove ourselves then”

“Funny you should say that” I said “because we’re actually looking for a little help”

“What do you mean?” Star-Lord asked.

“A being called Makuta Teridax is the reason behind the planets all appearing out of nowhere” I said “he plans to find like-minded individuals to help him conquer the whole of reality, think you’re up for helping us?” they all looked at each other before nodding.

“Screw it, I don’t have that long a lifespan anyway” Rocket said “yeah, we’ll help you”

We soon reached the planet and entered the atmosphere over North America and landed in a forest near New York

“Yes!” I said, standing in a clearing “we’re finally home”

“What is he talking about?” Rocket asked Minion.

“We were ripped from our home world some time ago” Minion said “it’s been 4 years for him”

“Well I haven’t been back to earth for twenty years” Star-Lord said.

“I don’t really care” I said “all I care about is that we’ve found our earth. Tomorrow, I taking this ship straight to the U.K. as for now, I’m gonna go flying” I then adapted my armour for flight mode and shot up into the sky. I’ve always wanted to visit New York.

“Jörmungandr?” I said, a picture displaying the ship’s magical construct popped up.

“Yes sir?” the construct asked.

“Which way is New York City from here?” I asked.

“Uh, sir, I don’t think it would be advisable to…”

“There are planets in the sky” I said “I won’t be the strangest thing they’ve seen”

“Plotting you a course now” he said, a map soon popped up on the screen with directions “estimated flight time, 20 minutes” I opened up the com-link

“Hey guys” I said “fancy going to New York for the day?” I was soon joined by my five Toa as well as Ruby, Garnet and Aurora and we set off for the city. We were near the city when Jörmungandr spoke up.

“Sir, there seems to be someone trying to contact you” he said “they are also approaching at quite a high velocity” I could see an object in the distance flying towards us.

“Guys, hold up” I said, we all landed in a clearing. The object soon turned out to be a man in red and gold armour “Okay, I don’t think this is our Earth”

“Alright” the man said “who exactly are you?”

“Who wants to know?” I asked.

“Tony Stark” he said “Perhaps you’ve heard of me”

“Definitely not our Earth” I muttered, before speaking up “we’re just travellers, and we don’t mean you any harm so just let us be on our way”

“Yeah” he said “not gonna happen, I’m gonna need you all to come with me” I burst out laughing.

“Hah, make us” I said, before turning to the others “scatter!” they didn’t need to be told twice and took off in different directions.

“That’s just cheating” Stark said.

“Tactical advantage” I shot back “sorry, but you have no idea what you’re dealing with” he looked around at the trees.

“Shakespeare in the park?” he asked “Doth your mother know you weareth her drapes?” he pointed to my cloak as he said this and I responded by getting out my sword, blasting him into a tree and taking off.

“That’s for dissing the cloak!” I shouted, before flying off towards New York City, I could see on the map that the others were headed that way as well “Okay, guys the objective is to not get caught”

“Got it” they all said, I heard the roar of rockets and looked behind me to see Stark approaching.

“Okay” I said “let’s see how you handle this” I activated my mask of speed and shot away, leave him in the dust, once I was with in the city I deactivated the mask and stood on the roof of an apartment block before activating a beacon for the other Toa to home in on, they soon arrived, as did Garnet, Ruby and Aurora.

“Right” Minion said “What’s the plan?”

“Just hold on a second” I said, watching Stark fly over and land in front of us, his faceplate lifted up.

“How the hell did you get away?” Stark asked “the speed you accelerated at should have killed you”

“That’s for me to know and for you to find out” I said “Why exactly do you want to take us in?”

“I’m willing to bet you have something to do with the planets in the sky” he said

“Yeah, but we didn’t cause this if that’s what you think” I said “we’re after they guy that did”

“Sorry, not buying it” he said, before putting his arms up in preparation to fire the boosters on his hands “once again I’ll ask you to come with me, peacefully”

“If you imprison us” I said “you put the whole of reality at risk. I’m not your enemy, Stark, but if you want to do the hard way, then we’ll do this the hard way” I then got out my weapons and the Toa followed my lead, the kids went behind us.

“Okay” Stark muttered “guys, I’m gonna need some help here” a few moments later a rather large man wielding a hammer impacted with the ground.

“Minion” I said “you’re the Norse-Pagan, you can deal with Thor”

“Gladly” he said, Thor threw his hammer at Minion, who brought up his sword, stopping Mjonir dead in its tracks “that worked…better than I’d…hoped” his voice was strained.

“How are you doing that?” Thor said “Only the worthy can lift Mjonir”

“Except…I’m not…lifting it, I’m trying…to stop it” he said, the hammer dropped “mighty Thor, we mean this earth no harm, we are guardians of our own world, just like you avengers are guardians of this world. We have come here in search of the being who caused this madness”

“What do you know of him?” Thor asked.

“He’s our sworn enemy” Minion said “He intends to find like-minded beings, people like your brother Loki, and unite them to conquer reality itself” Thor summoned Mjolnir before saying.

“Very well, we will listen to what you have to say”

Chapter 5

We soon found ourselves at Stark’s tower. In a large, open room with its own bar.

“Drink?” Tony asked, walking to the bar and pouring himself a drink of what seemed to be whiskey.

“I’ll have whiskey if you’ve got it” Minion said.

“Finally” Stark said, smirking whilst getting out a second glass “someone with taste”

“Do you have Irish cream?” I asked.

“I think so” he said “now why don’t you tell us about this ‘sworn enemy’ of yours”

“I guess you could say there is some parallels with the story of you and your brother, Thor” I said, looking at the Norse God “it all started about 400 million years ago, often called the time before time. There was a being called Mata Nui, who’s sort of like some Robot god or something, his name actually means ‘Great Spirit’, anyway, he created a race of beings called Makuta and charged them with creating new types of animals”

“That just seems a little lazy if you ask me” Stark said, passing me a glass filled with Irish cream “I mean, creating beings to do the creating for him?”

“Anyway” I said, taking a sip of the beverage “the Makuta considered themselves the brothers of Mata Nui, but no one ever thanked them for their work, it was always Mata Nui that received the praise. Until eventually one of them, named Teridax, grew dark with jealousy and hatred. Teridax is who we are up against, he is a being of shadows, with many powers. He is extremely powerful, and fiercely cunning, he can give your brother a run for his money. Even if we beat him, he chances are he has some kind of backup plan already thought up and perfected” at that point several people walked in.

“uh…” one of them, dressed in a blue suit said “did we miss something?”

“Quite a lot” Stark said “turns out, they’re from one of the worlds in the sky, and they’re after the…what was he called again?” he turned to me as he said this.

“Makuta” I supplied.

“Makuta that caused all of the planets and stuff” he said.

“And why does it concern us?” he asked.

“Because if we don’t stop him” I said “all of our worlds are at risk”

“I’m sure we can protect this world” he said

“We have 15 Toa, and we weren’t able to stop him” I said “what are 7 avengers going to do? That’s why we need your help, we already have one group of protectors on our side”

“Two” Boris corrected.

“Yeah, the Guardians don’t count yet” I said “they’re just a bunch of outer-space arseholes”

“I knew it!” Stark said.

“What?” I asked.

“Your accent” he said “British, right?”

“Correct” I said “your point?”

“No reason” he said “I just needed to be sure”

“Okay…” I said “moving on, we need your help, all of you”

“But if this ‘Makuta’ is such a big threat” a scrawny, slightly nervous man said “then wouldn’t it be better for us to stay here and protect this world”

“No” I said, the com-link on my wrist buzzed “we need to physically go after him. Speaking of which, if you head outside, you will see our method of transportation has arrived” I walked outside, followed by the medium sized group of Toa, Avengers, Dragon and Kirins to find the Jörmungandr hovering above the city.

“You have a dragon to pull that?” Thor asked.

“Where were come from” Vinyl said “there are a lot more than just dragons”

“but it’s really small compared to the ship” the scrawny man said “I mean the ship’s got to be at least a couple thousand meters long”

“3670 meters long” I said “720 meters high, with a gross tonnage of 2’250’820 tons and a maximum crew of about 70’000 personnel, give or take a couple hundred”

“So, don’t think ship” The scrawny man said “think floating town with guns”

“Pretty much” I said “but this isn’t the largest ship back on Terra, there are some cargo ships that are in the range of 4000 meters long and weigh 2 ½ million tons” Stark gave a low whistle.

“How does it stay in the air?” he asked.

“You see the rotors?” I asked, they all nodded “they work in tandem with anti-gravity generators, so it reduces the weight and keeps it aloft” I downed my drink before using my magic to send it to the bar inside the building.

“What did you just do?” Stark asked, all of my team looked at each-other before responding as one.

“Magic *shrug*”

“Very funny” stark said “but seriously, what the hell happened to the glass”

“No seriously, magic” I said “it’s what the Equestrians, that’s Autumn and Vinyl, actually call it, it’s like some sort of electromagnetic field or something, but it’s scientifically called ‘arcane energy’. Hell, they’ve even weaponised it, as for what I did with the glass, I sent it back to your bar”

“You can teleport objects?” the scrawny man asked, I teleported over.

“And ourselves” I said “if you help us, I’ll show you everything I know” ‘I have you now’ I thought.

“Well” Stark said “it’s not like we have anything better to do” eventually all of the others agreed as well and suited up before joining us on the ship, where I showed them to the hall where our other ‘recruits’ were gathered.

“Avengers” I said, showing them where the Guardians of the Galaxy were stood next to the Defenders of Berk, who were with their dragons “allow me to introduce the Guardians of the Galaxy, and the Defenders of Berk”

“You guy’s ride dragons?” Stark asked.

“They’re also Vikings” I said “so they should get along with Thor really well” the Defenders perked up at that.

“You mean Thor, as in the god of Thunder!?” Tuffnut asked, I gestured to the aforementioned thunder-god and their jaws dropped.

“That’s it” Gobber said “I’m done” he then promptly walked off

“Looks like the list of idiots just keeps getting bigger and bigger” Rocket said “first off there’s the rainbow patrol, secondly, a bunch of kids and thirdly…I don’t know, I’ve got nothing”

“At least we don’t have a talking rat” Tuffnut said.

“I am not a rat!” Rocket exclaimed

“You people are so petty” Thor said “the whole of the universe is a stake and you stand around quarrelling like Bilgesnipe” everyone looked at him in confusion.

“Uh, what?” Scar asked

“Green? Scaly? Big antlers?” Thor said “you’ve never heard of them?”

“I’ve been half way across the galaxy and back and I have seen many things” Star-Lord said “but I have never seen, or heard of anything matching that description”

“Anyone?” Thor asked, looking around.

“Right” I said “moving on, we’ll be leaving soon so if you want to come up top and watch feel free, and Thor?” the Asgardian looked at me.

“Yes?” he asked.

“Don’t get into fights with anyone” I said “unless you see a Skakdi trying to corner a female, then by all means, feel free to whack them for me”

“Skakdi?” he asked.

“Troll-like, 8 foot tall, spines running down their back and they walk around with stupid grins” I said “you understand what I mean when you see them, same goes for the rest of you” I teleported onto the top deck and leant against the railing, about 10 minutes later we left the planet and entered outer space.

*POV 3rd person: Location one of the multiple Alternate Earths*

Teridax’s ship entered Earth using a portal, Teridax and the Shadowed One were standing on the bow, surveying the surroundings.

“Is this the Human world?” The Shadowed one asked.

“Looks like it” Teridax said.

“Then why are we even sticking around?” Shadowed One asked “I seriously doubt there will be anyone to help us” at that moment a red portal opened up and a giant silver and black mechanical person flew through, followed by a purple and red mechanical person. Teridax flew out to meet them.

“Who are you and what are you doing in my way?” the silver and black robot asked.

“I am Makuta Teridax” he said “the soon-to-be ruler of the universe” the silver and black robot scoffed.

“Oh really?” he asked “because last time I checked I, Lord Galvetron, was going to be the ruler, now get out of the way before I destroy you”

“I would like to see you try” Teridax said, getting out his staff of shadows.

“What would you do to stop me?” Galvetron asked “I could destroy you just by stepping on you”

“There are 1000 ways I could destroy you right now, and 941 of them hurt” Teridax said, before unleashing a mental attack on Galvetron, stunning him, he also used this moments to pull the required information out of Galvetron’s mind, seems they were seeking the same goal. He stopped his mental attack before saying “Seems we both desire the same thing, tell you what, help me to conquer the universe and you can keep half of it” Galvetron thought for a moment.

“Very well” he said “but try and betray me, and I’ll destroy you”

“The same goes for you” Teridax said.

“Why are we listening to this worm?” Starscream asked “why not just kill him?” Teridax narrowed his eyes before sending forth a bolt of plasma, causing Starscream to cry out in pain.

“I will not be referred to like some spineless lowlife” Teridax said “you are to address me as The Makuta or Lord Teridax, understand?”

“Yes, Wo-I mean Lord Teridax” Starscream said, Teridax growled, but didn’t push the matter. He then followed the Decepticons back to their lair, followed closely by his ship.

Chapter 6

*POV 1st person Vuur Koning*

We soon reached another earth, I was stood on the bow of the ship as it flew over the Rocky Mountains when I saw a grey and blue fighter jet flying towards us.

“I know for a fact that that isn’t a standard U.S.A.F. paint scheme” I said, Vapaa nodded.

“It also isn’t stopping” Minion said, I opened up the com-link.

“Frostfang, take evasive action!” I shouted, Frostfang pulled the ship to the side and I held onto the railings as the ship lurched violently. The fighter jet stopped and I heard a voice call out.

“Thundercracker, Transform!” the plane then shape shifted into a large mechanical humanoid before saying “time to have myself some fun” he then began taking shots at us, luckily his aim was terrible.

“What a lousy shot” Vapaa said, I nodded before adapting to my flight mode and flying up there, Vapaa and Minion followed after me.

“Hey, big guy!” I shouted “Why don’t you back off”

“Aww” he said “aint you just the cutest little thing”

“Well, I guess you won’t mind if I turn up the heat” I said, before getting out my sword and unleashing a literal firestorm upon him, blasting him back several feet “we may be small but we are full of surprises”

“I have my own surprises too, CYBER KEY POWER!” a blue aura surrounded him and the gun on his left arm extended “take this” he then began blasting at us, I activated my Kenohi Hau, shielding us from his attacks.

“Minion, see if you can knock his aim off” Minion nodded before getting out his sword and flicking it, causing Thundercracker to miss.

“Hey” that’s cheatin’” he said.

“That’s rich, coming from you” a voice said in an Australian accent as a large green robot slammed into Thundercracker “why don’t you buzz off!?” the impact sent Thundercracker flying off.

“Ah’ll be back, Autobot” he said, before transforming and flying off, the large green robot turned around.

“You okay, mate’s?” he asked.

“We would have been able to cope” I said “but thanks all the same”

“I take you lot aren’t from around here” he said “seeing as the humans here can’t fly”

“I can’t usually fly” I said “it’s the armour, but yes, we’re from one of the other planets, so…what now?”

“I think it would be best if I took you to see Optimus” he said.

He soon took us to their base, where there were several giant robots, including 3 absolutely colossal robots. One of whom wielded the arm from one of them huge bucket-wheel excavators as a staff, another had the drum from a cement truck as a right arm, and the third had a drill for one arm and a claw for the other. Myself and Vapaa went to their main room.

“Jetfire” a red one said “You know the rules, we can’t allow humans to know of our existence”

“That’s the thing” Jetfire said “even if I didn’t bring them here, they would have known about us” I spoke up at this point.

“He’s right” I said “some crazy blue robot calling himself Thundercracker attacked our ship” the red one sighed.

“Very well” he said “who are you”

“Travellers from another wold” I said “we came here with one purpose, to find groups and organisations that could help us”

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“Vapaa, if you would be so kind” I said, he nodded before conjuring up a life-size hologram of Teridax “this, is the reason why there are planets in the sky, he’s a being called Makuta Teridax, and he is, in a nutshell, the most evil being out there”

“Yeah right” a smaller red one said with a female voice “Galvatron tops that list”

“Teridax wiped out his own kind so he didn’t have completion when he succeeded” I said, causing them all to fall silent “he plans to find likeminded individuals, like your Galvatron, and take over the whole of reality, I am asking for your help” at that moment an alarm sounded.

“Help will just have to wait” a blue robot with rocket launchers on each arm said in a southern accent as he tapped a few keys on a control panel “’cause we got Decepticons inbound”

“Autobots, roll out” the red one said, they all began filing out of the room

“Hey” I said “we can help too”

“Very well” he said “but hurry up, time is short” I smirked before activating my com-link.

“Toa, armour up” I said “we’ve got a fight coming up” I nodded to Vapaa and we both teleported to the Jörmungandr, which was at the side of the mountain the base was located in. the mountain began to change, parts of it split apart. I was distracted from this by the Toa running over.

“So what’s the plan?” Vapaa asked.

“Alright, my team will help one half of the Autobots, Vapaa’s team will help the other half and Orca’s team will make sure none of the Decepticons get to the base or this ship” I said.

“Yes sir!” they all said, at that moment the green one from before flew over.

“You guys ready?” he asked.

“Just finished telling them the plan” I said.

“Well, come on then” he said, I adapted my armour for flight mode and the other Toa followed my lead, I took off and my team followed after me. Vapaa’s team flew off in a different direction “I didn’t think humans could transform”

“We don’t” I said “we have adaptive armour that alters according to the conditions we need to fight in, also not all of us are human” he soon led us to a canyon where there was a group with the supposed leader of these robots.

“About time you showed up” a bulky, pale-blue robot said.

“Whatever, robot” Scar said.

“The name’s Hot-Shot!” he replied.

“Stop it, both of you” the leader said, at that moment a portal of some sort opened up and multiple robots flew through, along with…

“Teridax!” I said, pointing at the Makuta “they’ve already joined forces”

“Exactly how bad is that?” one with a missile on his shoulder asked in a British accent.

“Auschwitz-bad” I said, nervously.

“What?” he asked.

“I’ll explain once we’ve done here” I said, getting out my sword. Half of the Decepticons landed in the canyon opposite us.

“Optimus Prime” one of them said “and it seems you’ve got some new friends”

“I could say the same for you, Galvatron” Optimus Prime said “we already know who you are Teridax, and we won’t let you take over the universe”

“You think you can stop me?” Teridax asked, walking forward “all I see is a bunch of fools who don’t know when to back down from a fight”

“Teridax!” I shouted, gaining his attention.

“We meet again” Teridax said.

“You know them?” Galvatron asked.

“Unfortunately” Teridax said “I would have thought you would know better than to come after me, Vuur Koning, you had your precious Equestria and I was willing to leave it be”

“As long as you heart stone is lit I will never stop going after you” I said.

“Enough talk” Galvatron said “Decepticons, attack!” the Canyon descended into madness as plasma fire started to fill the air.

“Boris” I said “see if you can push the fight in our favour” Boris smirked before taking off and sending a tornado at the Decepticons, I sent a stream of fire at the tornado, turning it into a fire twister.

“How did…?” Galvatron trailed off as the twister slammed into him.

“Vinyl, disorientate them” Vinyl smirked before stepping forward and driving her swords into the ground and unleashing a blast of pure sound at the Decepticons and Teridax.

“How’s that for bass?” she said.

“Scar, pin them down!” I said, Scar dug his claws into the ground, vines started to sprout up around the Decepticons and held their legs in place.

“Enough of this!” Galvatron shouted, but didn’t move “What!…why can’t I…move?”

“Oh, I’m sorry” Minion said “the power of magnetism can do that to an all metal being, now get lost or I’ll transform you all into metal cubes”

“How is this possible!?” Galvetron exclaimed.

“That’s the thing” I said “we Toa have complete control over the elements, now we won’t warn you again, get out of here or we’ll destroy you”

“You will pay for your insolence” he said, as a portal swallowed them up.

“Well” the gigantic Autobot with the staff said in a Scottish accent “that’s something I’ve never seen before, and from such wee creatures”

“We may be small” I said “but we can hold our own in a fight just as well as you can”

*POV 3rd person*

Vapaa’s team went to a group of Autobots that were in a clearing.

You guys got any trouble yet?” Vapaa asked.

“No” a voice said “but you’re going to get it” they looked up to see a black and orange Decepticon, the Autobots began firing at the Decepticon, only for him to teleport out of the way each time.

“Missed me…missed me” the Decepticon said between teleports.

“That’s it!” Echo said, before teleporting up to the Decepticon “You are really starting to get on my nerves”

“Oh, please, you’re just a tiny little bug” the Decepticon said “and just like a bug, I’m going to squash you!”

“Careful, Decepticon” Echo said, charging up his tesla staffs “this bug’s got a sting!” he then unleashed several bolts of lightning at the Decepticon, causing him to cry out in pain.

“You little pest” he said “you’ve knocked out my warp drive…hey, is it just me or has it gotten colder” ice crystals began to form over the Decepticons armour.

“It’s just you!” Winter Chill said, before blasting him with a beam of ice “I hope you have central heating” the beam hit the Decepticon, sending him flying through the air.

“Oh boys!” a female voice said, they turned to see a female Decepticon with a rocket launcher on one arm “how do you like this?” she then sent forth a barrage of missiles at the two Toa, hey both activated their Kanohi Haus.

“You’re going to have to do better than that, sunshine” Echo said.

“Sunshine!?” she asked indignantly “Why you little…”

“Hey!” Midsummer Night said, flying up alongside Sumerki “why don’t you pick on someone else?”

“Look, honey” the Decepticon said “I don’t have a problem with either of you two, so why don’t you get out of here so I can teach these two jerks a lesson” Midsummer Night fumed.

“One of those ‘jerks’ is my brother!” she said, before drawing her Sais and charging up a blast of fire “Kiss this, bitch!” she then released to energy in one, concentrated beam directed at the female Decepticon, sending her crashing into the other Decepticon and pushing them both through a portal.

“Good riddance” a black Autobot with the front of a Bugatti as a chest plate said in a light German accent “alright, let’s wrap this up”

The Crusaders were at the Autobots base along with John, Aurora, Ruby, Garnet and Thel.

“So, Vector Prime” Sweetie Bell said “can you really control time?”

“That is correct, young one” The ancient Transformer said “but it is best if I do not manipulate it too much”

“What do you mean?” Garnet asked.

“If I alter the time stream too much it could destabilise the entire space-time continuum with catastrophic results” he said, at that moment they heard several gasps.

“What on earth are you?” a young female voice asked, the young Terrans all turned around to find three humans in their early teens, two males and one female.

“We aren’t exactly from earth” Garnet said.

“Where are you from?” the younger of the males asked.

“A planet called Terra” Ruby said “you might have noticed the planets in the sky, and the ship outside the base”

“So that was you guys!?” the female asked “you could seriously blow our cover with your big ugly ship and that dragon of yours!” Garnet changed his arm into a plasma cannon.

“Wanna say that again?” he asked, the teenagers all chuckled nervously whilst shaking their heads “we came here to request the help of the Autobots, not to get mouthed off and insulted by the locals. Speaking of which, if you do that again, you might find yourself needing to treat some minor burns” he let a few tongues of fire lick between his bared teeth as he said this.

“Garnet” Ruby said in a sing-song voice “would you mind not scarring the locals, I don’t think the Autobots will take too kindly to that, or do I need to remind you of a certain incident with a Night Fury?” Garnet sighed, before changing his arm back to normal.

“Where did you get a robotic arm like that!?” the younger male asked in amazement, Garnet’s expression darkened.

“Wrong place at the wrong time” Garnet said bitterly, removing his prosthetic limb and putting it back on, causing the kids to go pale “a Changeling cut off my arm whilst trying to kill me, I was only 15 at the time”

“I think I’m going to be sick” the older male said, looking ill.

“Moving on from the dark, and rather sensitive subject” Aurora said “how about we introduce our selves: I’m Aurora, a Dragoness”

“John Henry, a Griffin”

“Garnet, a Kirin”

“Thel, an Atquean”

“Ruby, a Kiriness”

“Applebloom, an earth pony”

“Scootaloo, a Pegasus, but you can call me Scoots if you want”

“Sweetie Bell, a Unicorn, and before you go saying that you’re all human, we know”

“I’m Coby” the older, male teen said

“I’m Bud” the younger, male teen said.

“I’m Lori” the female teen said.

“Hang on a second” Coby said “you’re all aliens, right?”

“Yeah?” Garnet said.

“Then how comes you all have Earth accents?” he asked “shouldn’t you speak with a unique accent or something?”

“Terra is kind of like a parallel earth, but with different continents, countries and species” John said “for instance, Griffin’s speak a language that is identical to Earth-Swedish, example; Hej, mitt namn är John Henry”

“How comes you Dragons and Kirins speak with British accents?” Lori asked, Garnet rubbed the back of his neck.

“Our adoptive parents are British humans” he said “and before you ask, we don’t want to talk about why they adopted us, it’s a little too personal to tell to people we’ve just met” there was a hint of sadness in his voice as he finished and the humans exchanged glances. At that moment the Autobots walked in, followed by the Toa.

“Who are they?” Bud asked as the Toa walked past

“The Toa Jörmungandr” Garnet said “also called the Wolfpack, don’t ask me why they chose that name, I still don’t know”

“Well” Optimus Prime said, looking down at Vuur Koning “it seems that whether we like it or not, we’re going to have to work together, the question is do we stay or go”

“Why not both?” Vuur Koning asked “I mean, your friends from Gigantian won’t fit on the ship, that’s for sure”

“Well who do you suggest goes?” Optimus asked.

“I’m thinking you, Vector Prime, Jetfire, the Cybertron defence team, Scourge, Leobreaker, Snarl, Override, Crosswise and the Minicons come with us, the rest should be enough to keep an eye on things and let us know if the Decepticons try anything” Optimus prime hummed in agreement. At that moment the three human kids ran over.

“Hey!” Coby said “we wanna come with you too”

“Optimus” Vuur Koning said “the final decision is yours, but should you decide to let them come with us, the ship is well enough defended and we have some kids with us already, so they won’t be alone”

“Are you absolutely sure they will be safe?” Optimus Prime asked.

“I wouldn’t have allowed my own adoptive children to come if I thought it wasn’t safe” Vuur Koning said.

“Very well” Optimus said, turning to the kids “you can come with us”

"Alright" Bud said "we're going into space!"

Chapter 7

*POV 3rd person*

The Terran teens soon led the kids and the Minicons to the ship.

“This place is huge!” Coby exclaimed, walking into the path of a brown Skakdi that was carrying a crate.

“Watch it, kid!” the Skakdi snapped as Coby jumped out of the way of the 7 foot tall, troll-like Spherus Magnan. Garnet folded his arms whilst leaning against a container and chuckled at the humans reactions.

“You kids aren’t the only ones on this ship, you know” he said “this is a working ship, so the crew have right of way over you, most of the crew are also a lot bigger then you, so watch where you’re going”

“What was that thing?” Lori asked.

“A Skakdi” Ruby said “a word of advice, Lori, don’t let a group of males corner you. I’d take a horde of Visorahk over a gang of Skakdi any day”

“What’s a Visorahk?” Jolt, a Minicon, asked.

“10 foot wide, four legged robotic spiders” John said “they also have mutagenic venom that eventually turns their victims into savage half-beasts” Lori went pale.

“That is so gross” Lori said.

“They aren’t even the worst creatures out there” Thel said “don’t even get me started on Vorahks”

Teridax was in the Decepticton’s lair.

“Why did you not inform me of your opponents!?” Galvatron demanded, Teridax could tell he was less than pleased.

“I did not think they would be a problem” Teridax said calmly “I have overthrown beings who can move the sun in the past” Galvatron scoffed.

“Don’t be ridiculous” he said, Teridax narrowed his eyes.

“I find your lack of faith disturbing” he said “but no matter, I must travel to the next world in search of potential allies, do try not to kill my allies whilst I’m gone”

“I won’t make any promises” Thunderblast sang, Teridax sneered. When he succeeded in his plan, she would be the first to die. He stepped through the portal and arrived on another planet in a cave of some sort.

*POV 1st person Vuur Koning*

The Autobots were all stood in the colossal hold of the Jörmungandr, it was the only place they could fit.

“I’m sorry you won’t be able to move about the rest of the ship” I said “but you wouldn’t fit through the hallways”

“It’s okay” Optimus said, I nodded to him before teleporting out of the hold and onto the top deck. Stark was leaning against the railing in some new Iron Man armour sans helmet. This one was made out of Protosteel, so it was practically indestructible unless you used a blade of Protosteel or diamond, I walked over and stood next to him.

“So” Stark said “autonomous, shape shifting robotic organisms, what’s next, talking animals that can do Kung Fu?”

“You never know” I said, giving a shrug. The hard shield materialised and the scenery of the Rocky Mountains gave way to outer space with a flash “no matter how many times I do this, I’ll never get used to the view” Stark hummed in agreement and nodded as Frostfang banked and pulled the ship towards another earth-like planet.

*POV 3rd person*

Pitch Black ran, as he had done for however long it had been since the Guardians had defeated him, causing his Nightmares to turn on him, he’d lost track of time after the first week. If he wasn’t so occupied with trying to get away he could almost laugh at the irony of the situation; his own creations were going after his fear. He reached a large cave of some sort and his Nightmares stopped dead in their tracks, he could sense a being that possessed similar powers to himself but on a colossal magnitude.

“Who’s there?” Pitch demanded “I am Pitch Black, the bringer of Fear and Darkness, and…”

“I beg to differ, ‘Pitch Black’” a deep voice said, a 20 foot tall, winged dark being of some kind walked forward wearing crystalline armour and wielding a staff. The being regarded Pitch’s Nightmares with interest before slamming the butt of his staff on the ground, causing the Nightmares to obediently walk towards him and stand beside him “you think you know what it means to control fear? I’m the reason people know what fear is, I am Makuta Teridax, the one true master of shadows, you are nothing compared to me. However, you do have potential, if you can create more avatars of fear like these ‘Nightmares’ for me then I’ll help you defeat these so-called ‘guardians’. But, in return you must help me.” Pitch Black raised an eyebrow quizzically before saying.

“I’m listening”

North was overseeing the preparations for Christmas, sure the planets appearing in the sky were a bit odd…okay, very odd. But, he wasn’t about to let something like that get in the way of spreading cheer, he walked past a yeti that was painting toy robots blue.

“I don’t like it” he said, not stopping “make it red” the yeti exclaimed indignantly and looked at the tower of about 50 or so blue robots before sighing. North walked up to the platform that provided a view of his globe of believers, he looked at it absent mindedly before doing a double take. A cloud of black smoke formed at the top, causing the workers to start panicking.

“Hello, North” Pitch said, materialising out of the smoke.

“Pitch!?” North exclaimed, his Slavic accent more apparent than usual.

“Surprised to see me?” Pitch asked.

“How are you…?” North trailed off as a deep, booming laughter filled the building “who’s there? Show yourself” the dark cloud coalesced into one mass.

“Allow me to introduce my new friend” Pitch Black said “Teridax” at that moment Teridax revealed himself.

“Why are you here?” North asked.

“To warn you” Pitch said, North raised an eyebrow “this time, I’m not going for those that believe in you. Oh no, this time I’m going straight for you and your fellow guardians” Teridax chuckled.

“Gather your guardians” Teridax said, smirking “it will make no difference, because soon darkness and shadow will rule, and you will be nothing but an old man making worthless toys” they both dissipated into black smoke.

*POV 1st person Vuur Koning*

“The Jörmungandr teleported into the skies of yet another earth, I was walking on the top deck when I slipped and fell.

“Whoa!” I exclaimed, before hitting the deck and whacking my head. I groaned before muttering through clenched teeth “that really, really hurt”

“Yeah, sorry about that” I heard a voice say, I looked around in surprise before my eyes settled on a human male in his late teens or early 20s wearing a hoody and carrying a wooden staff as he casually walked along the railing.

“You!?” I asked, surprising him.

“You can see me!?” he exclaimed as I stood up.

“Why is that so surprising?” I asked “Jack Frost”

“Okay” he said “one, how do you know about me. Two, how can you even see me?”

“It’s long and complicated” I said “as for how I can see you, I’ve seen that much crazy shit that someone like you isn’t that surprising”

“Example?” he asked, at that moment Groot walked past with Rocket on his shoulder.

“Hey, Vuur” Rocket said, Jack Frost just stared at the Raccoon “What’s the matter, jackass, never seen a walking tree before?”

“Okay” Jack Frost said, turning to me and jumping off of the railing “point taken, say would you mind taking this ship to the north pole? I kind of need to get there sooner rather than later”

“Did North summon you?” I asked.

“How did you know that?” he asked.

“That’s for me to know and for you to find out” I said “So, the North Pole?”

*A few minutes later*

The ship appeared near the North Pole with a flash and a bang.

“Whoa!” Jack said, stumbling slightly.

“Sorry about that” I said “arcane teleportation can make first timers dizzy. Anyway, would you mind letting me in with you? Because I need to talk to your fellow guardians”

“How do you know about us?” he asked.

“Not important right now” I said.

“Also, how exactly are you going to get there?” he asked, looking at the North Pole “Because I’m not carrying you through the air” I adapted my armour to its air-mode before saluting him and diving off the top deck.

“You aren’t the only one who can fly” I said, before accelerating towards to North Pole with a flap of my mechanical wings, I soon felt them grow heavy with ice and looked back to see Jack Frost smirking whilst flying with his arms crossed. I rolled my eyes before enveloping my wings in flames.

“What the heck!?” he exclaimed.

“Element of fire, jackass” I said, flying upside down with my arms behind my head, I then sent a ball of fire at Jack Frost “and if you do that again, I’ll turn you into a puddle” he smirked before waiving his staff towards me, causing a sudden gust of wind to blow me off course.

“I can control the winds” he said, sending another gust of wind to blow me back on course “so you’re completely at my mercy for now”

“You’re a guardian, so you won’t do anything too bad” I said, before adding “although, there was the British great freeze of ‘63” Jack Frost burst out laughing.

“Oh man!” he said “that was a good one, I’ve gotta hand it to your country, they do know how to cope with bad weather, or rather they did” he had a knowing smirk on his face and I gave an exasperated sigh.

“Don’t even start with the 2010 winter snowstorm!” I said, before facepalming “I’ve never been so embarrassed by my own country, 30 inches of snow and the whole bloody country grinds to a halt”

“Can’t you give a guardian credit for trying?” he asked, landing on a balcony of Santa’s workshop. I landed next to him and my wings became a part of my armour once more, looking for all the world like a simple textured design underneath my hooded cape “that’s a pretty neat trick”

“The wonders of Artahka’s adaptive Toa armour” I said, getting out my sword and turning it into a staff before pointing it towards the door “after you, Jack” he smiled before walking through the door, I followed after him to find him greeting the other guardians.

“G’day, mate” Bunnymund, The Easter Bunny, said to Jack Frost, he then noticed me “who are you?”

“The name’s Vuur Koning” I said “I’m the leader of my worlds equivalent of…well, you lot, in a manner of speaking”

“What do you mean ‘your world’?” North, or Santa Claus, asked, making quotation marks with his hands, I clicked my fingers and pointed at the skylight, where a couple of earth-like planets could be seen in the arctic daytime sky “okay, point taken”

“And what do you mean ‘in a manner of speaking’?” Bunnymund asked.

“Where I come from, we do things slightly differently” I said “for instance, we each represent elements of nature, rather than aspects of childhood, and we’re just every day, normal people, it’s our armour, tools and masks that give us our power”

“Elements of nature?” Tooth Fairy asked, my staff became enveloped in flames.

“I’m the spirit of fire” I said, allowing the flames to completely cover my armour. I then heard laughter and clapping, and my flames dissipated with a puff of thin, black smoke that dissipated quickly.

“Well, you certainly have presentation, I’ll give you that” Pitch said, appearing as a shadow on the wall “although, I imagined you as being slightly older”

“There are many things that Teridax won’t tell you about his foes” I said “for instance, including me, my world has 15 guardians”

“You know Teridax?” North asked.

“Later” I said, before turning to Pitch Black and pointing my staff at him “count the days, Pitch Black. Because when my Toa and I are through with you, you’ll be begging for death”

“My, you are the violent one” Pitch said, a tendril of black send seeped out of the wall and shot towards me, only to turn to obsidian when it touched the tip of my staff’s blade, which glowed briefly “what is this!?”

“Physics 101” I said “what happens when you burn sand? It becomes glass. Your powers are nothing against me, now, BE GONE!” I sent flames towards the wall his shadow was on before drawing them back, I turned around to see all of the guardians staring at me with their mouths open wide.

“Bloody hell!” Bunnymund said, before pointing a shaky paw at the small scorch mark “do…do you have any idea who that was!?”

“Actually yes” I said “I’ve dealt with worse in my spare time” I said.

“Like Teridax?” North asked.

“He was more of a full time, planet-wide, 2 year job” I admitted.

“Who is this Teridax that you both keep talking about?” Jack asked, I conjured up a depiction of him with flames in my left hand.

“Teridax is similar to Pitch Black in many ways” I said “but so much worse. In addition to the fear and darkness that Pitch controls, Teridax has access to 40 other powers such as lightning, plant control, plasma, the list goes on. Plus he is 400 million years old, give or take a few million”

“So an ancient, super powered version of Pitch” Jack said.

“Add genocidal and deceptive” I said, Bunnymund looked ready to panic.

“Oh, this is just great” he said “we’re doomed”

“I thought you were supposed to be the guardian of hope, Bunnymund” I said “we have 15 Toa, including one with the power of light, one of Teridax’s only weaknesses”

“He’s right” North said “we should not lose hope”

The only problem is, you need the children to believe in you for your powers to work, and if you are all gone then I don’t know how you can keep the children believing” I said.

“What do you mean?” Jack asked.

“Teridax is going to several worlds, getting likeminded individuals” I said “and I’ve been doing the same, but if you were to help me, then Sandman would be out of the picture as he works every night, Tooth has an army to do the job for her so it’s not so much of a problem for her”

“But” North said “everyone but Sandy can help, he can stay here to keep the children believing in us. Right, Sandy?” Sandman nodded.

“Bunnymund” I said “Easter isn’t too close, is it?”

“Been and gone for another year, mate” he said “so I can lend a paw”

“North?” I asked.

“My yetis will cope” he said, giving a shrug.

“Alright then” I said, before walking to the door “Make your way to the sleigh

“What about you?” Tooth asked as I walked onto the balcony, I licked my finger and checked the wind direction before nodding.

“I have my own way of getting to my ship” I said.

“What do you mean?” Bunnymund asked, I responded by allowing my wings to spout out “right, the sleigh it is then, great” his shoulders slumped and he mumbled the last bit, I gave them a salute before jumping off the balcony and taking flight towards the ship, I was soon joined by four of the guardians on North’s sleigh.

“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me” Bunnymund said, looking at the Jörmungandr “you mean we’re going to be flying!?”

“What’s wrong, bunny?” I asked “you aren’t afraid of heights, are you?”

“Shut it, you bloody show pony” he snapped.

“I’ll have you know, I’m not a pony” I said, at that moment Autumn flew over “some of my friends on the other hand, are. Hey, Autumn”

“Who are they?” Autumn asked.

“They’re the guardians of this world” I said “they’re also the legends childhood, allow me to introduce Jack Frost, Santa Claus, The Easter Bunny and The Tooth Fairy. Guys, this is Autumn Skies, the Spirit of Iron”

“Iron, how can Iron be a useful element?” Bunnymund asked.

“Why don’t you ask the guy that tried to kill mine and Autumn’s adoptive son?” I asked, making him promptly shut up.

“You mean you two are…” Jack Frost trailed off.

“You got a problem with that?” Autumn asked.

“No” he said hastily “just find it a bit odd”

“When you’re one of only 4 humans on the entire planet, all of whom are male” I said “it gets hard to find female humans, that’s not to say I wouldn’t chose Autumn again if I had the choice between her and a human” we soon reached the deck of the Jörmungandr and North landed his sleigh in the open deck at the front of the ship.

“This place is huge” Bunnymund said, ignoring the countless stares we were getting.

“How comes everyone can see us?” Tooth asked, I shrugged.

“N.F.I.” I said.

“What?” she asked.

“Means no idea” I said “Anyway, guardians, allow me to welcome you aboard the Jörmungandr: The Midgaard Serpent”

Chapter 8

The rest of the Toa, followed by the protectors of some the other worlds, walked forward and stopped when they saw the guardians.

“Why is there a giant rabbit on the ship?” Vapaa asked.

“These are the guardians of this world” I said “they’re like us in some respects, except they are Legends of childhood. Bunnymund is the Guardian of Hope, North is the Guardian of Wonder, Toothiana is the Guardian of Memories and Jack Frost is the Guardian of Fun” Rocket scoffed.

“What good can they do?” he asked “you said it yourself, they’re from childhood, I mean just look at the kangaroo”

“What did you call just me!?” Bunnymund asked “I’m not a bloody kangaroo, mate”

“Then what are you?” Rocket asked.

“I’m a Pooka” he said “and I’m the Easter bunny” Rocket burst out laughing, Bunnymund rolled his eyes before getting out one of his boomerangs and throwing it off the side of the ship.

“What was that in aid o…?” Rocket never got to finish his sentence as the boomerang banked around, whacked Rocket on the head and knocked him out before flying back to Bunnymund.

“Anyone else?” Bunnymund asked, catching the Boomerang.

We were flying towards the next planet when Jack Frost walked over

“Hey, Vuur” he said, touching the railing with his staff and causing it to freeze.

“I wish you would stop that” I said “I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve slipped because of you”

“Can you blame me?” he asked “I mean you can only stare at the stars for so long before it gets boring” at that moment an absolutely colossal spaceship drew alongside us, on its side was the name ‘UNSC Infinity’, I smirked and looked at Jack.

“You were saying?” I asked before teleporting over to the bridge, I turned to a communications officer “have they tried to make contact yet?”

“They're doing it now, Sir” the Unicorn mare said.

*Half an hour later, Location: UNSC Infinity*

A scientist and Captain Thomas Lasky walked through the hallways of the Infinity.

“When we came into contact with the vessel 6 individuals came forward, designating themselves as Toa. From what they’ve told us, they seem to play the similar role to our Spartans, it’s also worth noting that the word ‘Toa’ comes from the old Maori language and was also used by the LEGO company for one of their toy lines during the early 21st century, these warriors also share similarities with the Toa on our ship” the Scientist said as they walked through a door with six rooms on the other side, they stopped next to one with a 7 foot tall human wearing red armour, stood in the center of the room “the first individual; real name Luke Washington, is referred to by his teammates as Vuur Koning, which is Dutch for Fire King. He has powers over fire and seems to be the leader of this group”

“Roses are red, my mind is twisted” Vuur Koning said in a British accent, smirking “bend over *BEEP* you’re about to get f*beep*d”

“He also seems to have a rather unique sense of humour” the Scientist said, Vuur Koning scoffed.

“Get f*BEEP*d, four eyes” Vuur Koning shot back “it’s a British sense of humour” the scientist quickly ushered Lasky towards the next room, this one had an 8 ft. tall human, sat on the middle of the room with his eyes closed and his legs crossed in a meditative fashion as he levitated several inches off the floor.

“This individual is the brother of ‘Vuur Koning’. His real name is Ben Washington, but his teammates refer to him as ‘Minion’” the scientist said “he seems to be able to affect magnetic fields, as you are currently witnessing” they then moved onto the next room, this one had a 7.5 ft. tall wolf-like creature, that stood on its hind legs with its arms crossed and seemed to be made out of pieces of wood, with green and blue armour bolted on top.

“What the hell…?” Lasky trailed off. The creature snorted and spat some kind of sap on the floor before growling quietly at them.

“This one has really interested my fellow colleagues” the Scientist said “Known as Scar, our scans have picked up a totally new energy signature, that seems to act as a life force for this creature, ‘his’ teammates say that he is a type of animal native to their world called a Timberwolf, scientific name; Canis Quercus, but he seems to have gained sentience at some point and acts as their personal muscle on missions, also of note, he is theoretically immortal, as he seems to be Botakenetic”

“In English?” Lasky asked.

“He can affect plant life both directly and remotely” the Scientist said, they moved onto the next room, this one had a creature that stood upright with birdlike head, wings and talons, with its body and limbs covered in brown fur. It was also wearing green armour “this one is known to his teammates as Boris and bears a resemblance to the Griffin of myth and legend, although his blood is identical to that of a Peregrine Falcon, he also seems to be able to control air” Boris just waived at them with a talon, Lasky waived back whilst raising an eyebrow before moving on to the next room with the scientist. This one had a 6.5 ft. tall female humanoid with orange fur and maroon hair & tail, and wore burnt-orange and metallic-grey armour, she also had a vaguely equine face and a pair of large, feathered wings that were the same colour as her body.

“This is a species known on their home planet as an Equestrian pony of the pegasus subspecies” The Scientist said “it is worth noting that they don’t naturally have such a strong resemblance to humans, her current appearance is as a result of her ‘quote-unquote’ ascension to a Toa” the scientist handed Lasky a tablet computer with a picture of another Equestrian, this one looked more like a horse than a human, it was also garishly vibrant in colour, Lasky scoffed.

“Looks like something a child would draw” Lasky said, before handing the tablet back to the scientist.

“Hey!” the ‘Pegasus’ said in, surprisingly, a British accent “that’s my mother you’re talking about!” Lasky took a cautious step back and looked at the scientist.

“Equestrians have a level of intelligence rivalling that of humans or sangheili” the scientist said “so try not to upset them, this one is known by the name of Autumn Skies and is Ferrokenetic”

“Again, in English” Lasky said.

“She can control Iron and alloys that use iron in their composition” the scientist said, he then led Lasky to the last room, which contained an Equestrian, similar to Autumn, but she had white fur, two-tone blue mane and tail, grey armour and a horn instead of wings “moving on to our final individual. Vinyl Scratch, she’s an Equestrian of the Unicorn subspecies, in addition to being audiokenetic, that’s control of sound, she also seems to be able to manipulate the same energy signature that Scar emits…” the scientist was interrupted by Vuur Koning speaking up.

“Now that you’ve introduced us” he said “I kind of need to talk to Lasky for a few minutes”

*POV 3rd person*

The High commander Charahk walked through one of the corridors of the Infinity, after the first six Toa had gone aboard members of both ships started to mingle. As he walked he couldn’t help noticing that personnel of the Infinity kept muttering about an ‘Elite’ as he walked past, he walked into a room of some kind and found himself face to face with a 7 ft. tall reptilian creature wearing some kind of bronze armour. He noticed that there were some similarities between himself and this creature. The creature notice Charahk.

“Are you of Sangheilios?” the creature asked.

“Never heard of it” Charahk said “I’m a Rahkshi, specifically a Charahk commander, although I would be a fool to deny there are similarities between us” the creature nodded.

“True” he said “I’m a Sangheili, although the humans call us Elites, what do they call you, Rahkshi?”

“We are referred to by our subspecies” Charahk said “in my case, Charahk. What of you, Sangheili?”

“Thel ‘Vadam, although most refer to me as Arbiter” the Sangheili said, Charahk chuckled, causing the Arbiter to scowl and step forward “you find my name amusing?”

“No” Charahk said “it’s just that on our ship, one of the female younglings bears the name Thel” the Arbiter backed down slightly.

“Odd” the Arbiter said “Thel is exclusively a male Name on Sangheilios”

“Different universe, different world” Charahk said, giving a shrug, at that moment a door opened and Vuur Koning stepped forward along with Captain Lasky.

*POV 1st Person Vuur Koning*

I walked into one of the rooms to see Charahk talking with the Arbiter.

“I see you’re both getting along rather well” I said, they both nodded “Good, because you’ll be working together” their eyes widened.

“What!?” they both exclaimed.

“You both fight with honour, you’re both chivalrous, hell you’re practically mirrors of each other”

“Except we’re from different ships” the Arbiter said.

“Oh, that one’s easy” I said “you’re coming with us, along with two Spartans, one of whom has the call sign Sierra-117”

“Who are you?” the Arbiter asked “are you a Spartan?” I burst out laughing.

“Oh please” I said “I can give the Spartans a run for their money any day. I’m a Toa, an elemental warrior, I can control fire” the Arbiter scoffed.

“Were it so easy” he said, narrowing his eyes at me.

“We can discuss this later” I said “right now, I’m off to go meet our Spartans. Later, Charahk” he gave me a half-hearted, two fingered salute and I departed with Captain Lasky.

“What was that?” Lasky asked, glancing back towards Charahk.

“That is a Rahkshi, specifically the Charahk subspecies” I said “they don’t have individual names, but that one is the commander of all Rahkshi that fight for us, rather than for Teridax. So I guess you could say he’s like a Rahkshi Arbiter”

“How can you tell the difference between Rahkshi?” he asked.

“The colour of the armour or I.D. tag on their left shoulder” I said “he’s No.4859, but most just call him High-Commander or Charahk, all other Rahkshi are referred to as just ‘Rahkshi’ or by their rank” we soon reached a hangar, sat on a small container was a red and yellow Spartan-IV with Warrior variant armour and wielding, of all things, a suppresser. We walked over and the Spartan stood up.

“Vuur Koning, this is Crimson” Lasky said “he’ll be working alongside your team with Master Chief” Crimson looked at my armour

“That doesn’t look like standard issue Spartan armour” Crimson said, it was hard to place the accent he spoke in, and the helmet’s microphone seemed to give a slightly mechanical quality to his voice, all I could tell was that he was a male.

“It’s not” I said, before looking around “where’s the Chief?” at that moment an all too familiar looking Spartan in green armour walked over and saluted the captain.

“Spartan 117 reporting for duty, Captain Lasky” he said, before turning to me “awaiting your orders, sir” at that moment, one thought crossed my mind.

'…Oh shit…'

Chapter 9

any speech that is bordered by [ and ] indicates a line which is spoken in a language with no known way of spelling (like Sangheili/ the Elite language)

“…Uh…” I said, Lasky chuckled and patted me on the back.

“Vuur Koning here has heard a lot of things about you” he said.

“Are you a Spartan?” Master Chief asked.

“No” I said “I’m a Toa, or rather, Neue-Toa”

“And what exactly is a ‘Neue-Toa’” Crimson asked, making quotation marks.

“The Neue-Toa are a group of biomechanical super-warriors hailing from the planet Terra” I explained “there are currently 15 of us divided into three teams. Two teams of six and one team of three, and each of us can control an element of nature, for instance I can control fire” I got out my sword and engulfed it in flames to demonstrate.

“You’re still using blades?” Crimson asked.

“They act as conduits for our power” I said, putting my sword away “but we aren’t limited to melee weapons, one of my teammates has dual-Miniguns bolted to his shoulders, although on the whole Terra isn’t as advanced in projectile based weaponry, energy weapons are a totally different matter altogether” I got out my Flintlock style arcane pistol.

“Great” Crimson muttered “were looking after people straight out of the dark ages”

“I heard that” I said “and for your information, I’m actually from early 21st century Earth”

“If you’re from over 550 years ago then how comes your taking all of this” Lasky gestured to the hangar “in your stride”

“If I gave you the honest answer you would probably suffer an existential crisis for the rest of your life” I said “let’s just say we’re from separate universes and leave it at that. Plus, if I must be honest, it’s not all that different from a 21st century military location, give all of the crew period uniforms and you may as well be on a submarine or an aircraft carrier. That and the fact that I was pulled through a portal and dumped on an alien world roughly 4 years ago, I’ve learnt to take the unexpected in my stride”

“Bloody hell” Crimson said.

“Anyway” Lasky said “Crimson, before you leave, your new armour is ready”

“Finally” he said.

Crimson stepped out of the armoury, he now wore red and yellow Spartan IV War Master Armour with a silvery-white visor.

“What do you think?” he asked me.

“Sméagol likes” I said.

“I thought that seeing as I’m being reassigned to your ship, I might as well start with a new set of armour” he said.

“I could have had a set made out of Protosteel for you” I said “not even a disintegration cannon would get through a set made of that stuff”

“I’ll believe it when I see it” he said, walking towards me “I’ve seen a lot of good men reduced to less than ash with one of those guns, shall we?” he gestured towards the door, where Master Chief was waiting.

“Very well” I said, I then went to lead them out of the armoury but stopped when I noticed multiple gun racks with forerunner weapons, I walked over and picked up a Suppresser “I wonder”

“What is it?” Crimson asked.

“The Rahkshi and Pitches Nightmares are made of shadow, correct?” I asked, referring to what I’d explained on the way over, they both nodded “and these fire hardlight, yes?” both Spartans nodded again.

“What are you…oh” realisation dawned on Crimson and he lifted up his suppresser, I could practically heard the smirk in his voice “and the other Spartans poked fun at me for going with Forerunner tech” I took all of the Forerunner weapons and stuck them in my hammer space.

“What are you doing?” Chief asked.

“I’m borrowing them long term” I said as I put a disintegration cannon into the hammer space, once I had all of the forerunner tech I left the armoury, grabbing a railgun and about 30 ammo-clips on the way out “This one’s for my brother, he’s always had a thing for railguns” Crimson snorted.

“I guessing he was the one that asked for the one on the front of your ship to be fitted” Crimson said.

“Well, someone certainly knows their gun types” I said “and yes, he even designed it. 30 feet of slug launching terror”

We soon reached the hangar, where my team of Toa were waiting along with Charahk and the Arbiter.

“Chief, Crimson, this is my team” I said “Minion, Scar, Boris, Autumn and Vinyl”

“Bloody hell” Minion said “two Spartans!?”

“I don’t see how two human soldiers can make much of a difference” Scar said.

“We aren’t just soldiers” Crimson said, walking forward “you obviously don’t know who you are fucking dealing with, we’re Spartans, kind of a big deal. The grass grows, the sun shines, and bitch, I kill covvies” Scar got in Crimson’s face and growled.

“You better watch your mouth, boy” Scar said “I was taking down Manticores before you were even born, I could take you down no problem” I walked over and pushed them away from each other.

“Both of you, stand down!” I ordered “I will not have in-fighting. Crimson, Spartan or not, you keep your mouth shut unless I ask for your input. And Scar, keep that temper under control. Am I clear?”

“I may be working with you” Crimson said “but I don’t take orders from you” I responded by teleporting behind him, getting out my hunting knife and grabbing him in a headlock with the knife to his throat.

“I am a High-lord General 1st class” I hissed “I outrank Master Chief himself, if I tell you to do something, you fucking do it!”

“Yes, sir” he said begrudgingly, I released him from the headlock and shoved him toward Master Chief.

“I won’t have anyone else undermining my authority” I said.

*POV 3rd Person*

The Terran kids were in the hangar of the Infinity.

“This place is amazing!” Ruby exclaimed as they walked past a Pelican drop ship. She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw a Mantis and a massive grin spread across her face.

“Ruby” Garnet said “no, you can’t have…whatever that thing is”

“Hrunting Mark IX Armour Defence System” Sweetie Bell said, the other Terrans looked at her and gave her odd looks “what? I read into the Halo expanded universe a lot, you probably know it as a Mantis”

“Which game is it from?” Garnet asked “I’ve only played up to Halo Reach”

“Halo 4” Sweetie Bell said, Scootaloo facehooved.

“I’m surrounded by nerds” she muttered, at that moment Ruby saw the Neue-Toa, she grinned before flying over and enveloping Vuur Koning in a hug.

*POV 1st Person*

“Hey, Ruby” I said, a little surprised by the hug.

“Daddy” she said, I could tell what was coming next by the fact that she said ‘Daddy’ rather than Dad or Father “You know how you’re the coolest dad in the Universe who would do anything for me?” Crimson burst out laughing and I sighed.

“What do you want this time?” I asked.

“Can I have a Mantis?” she asked, Crimson promptly stopped laughing and looked at her in what seemed to be shock “Pretty please?” I sighed.

“I’ll talk to Captain Lasky” I said.

“Yes!” she exclaimed, doing a fist pump.

“But I won’t guarantee” I said “if he says no then don’t complain”

“Thank you!” she said, before flying off.

“Well…damn” Crimson said “what was that about ‘daddy’?”

“Stow it!” I snapped, before taking a deep breath “she’s adopted, along with her brother” he went to say something but stopped.

“You let her have her way far too often” Autumn said.

“After the life they used to have” I said “I think it can be forgiven if I spoil them a little”

“If I may be so bold” The Arbiter said “what kind of life did they have?”

“We busted a slavers camp” I explained “they were in a cage along with their dying mother, her dying wish was for myself and Autumn to look after them” the Arbiter tittered and shook his head.

“Even to this day” he said “the cruelty of some people astounds me, at least the covenant are swift in slaying their foes” Charahk nodded.

“We Rahkshi have a saying” he said “faatura i ou hoariri, patua ratou kakama tonu”

“Gesundheit” Crimson said, Charahk frowned.

“It means respect your foes, slay them swiftly” the Rahkshi said.

*POV 3rd person*

A Storm Sangheili walked onto the bridge, where another Sangheili in sparse blue armour with a hologram on the helmet was stood next to an older human female.

“[Fleet master ‘Mdama]” the Sangheili said in his native language “[The] Jörmungandr [has made active contact with the] Infinity” Jul ‘Mdama; The Didact’s hand, chuckled.

“[Excellent]” ‘Mdama said “[we can finally strike at the Humans]”

“You know” Halsey said “some might say that you would be feeding your own pride, going after a ship that large” ‘Mdama growled.

“[Watch your tongue, woman]” he said “[or you may find it missing]”

“I was merely voicing my opinion” Halsey said “Unknown or not, that vessel could stand up to your own”

“[I am no fool]” ‘Mdama said, walking over to a hologram of the Jörmungandr to scale with his own CAS-class assault carrier; the Song of Retribution. The Assault carrier was longer by about 2’000 meters, but the Jörmungandr made up for it with more armaments. ‘Mdama turned to a Sangheili shipmaster “[wait for the human ships to separate, then take two armoured cruisers and attack the] Jörmungandr”

Teridax withdrew his gaze from the Covenant ship.

“Interesting” he said.

“What is?” Galvetron asked.

“A third party has entered the picture” Teridax said.

“Who are they?” Vezon asked excitedly, Teridax had found him skulking around on some desert planet, he may be insane beyond reasoning, but he knew more about the different universes than any other being as a result of being fused with a mask of dimensional gates “The Daleks? The Cybermen? It's Hades isn't it…no wait, don’t tell me, it’s Cobra”

“The Covenant” Teridax said.

“Ah” Vezon said “That could be a problem”

“Why?” Teridax asked.

“Too genocidal” Vezon said “and they don’t play second fiddle to anyone. Speaking of fiddles, I’ve been learning to play the fiddle” he then pulled a fiddle and bow out of his hammer space and started tuning it. Trixie sighed before casting a sound proofing bubble around Vezon

“What should we do?” Drago asked.

“Let the Covenant be for now” Teridax said “if they prove to be too much of a threat to our plan, then we will eliminate them”

“We could work with the crew of the Jörmungandr to…” Pitch went to say.

“Finish that sentence and I’ll destroy you” Teridax said.

Chapter 10

*POV 3rd person*

The UNSC loaned multiple vehicles to the Equestrian Navy in exchange for some Equestrian vehicles on a trial basis. Crew members were already repainting the UNSC vehicles into Equestrian Royal Navy colours of white, gold and blue. But one vehicle was positioned off to one side, a Mantis, which had been extensively modified. The top half was practically rebuilt, with a larger cockpit that was designed to be stood up in, it also had a glass canopy and opened from the front rather than the back, to eliminate the downside of the original Mantises which were vulnerable to being boarded from the back. The original weapons were gone, instead it had a pair of large, mechanical arms with hands, with arcane equivalents of the original weapons bolted to the shoulder of each arm. The original legs had Protosteel armour plating to make it just as indestructible as the rest of the mech, which now stood 20ft high as opposed to 18.6ft of the original Mantises (and to make the legs seem less flimsy). The whole mech was painted orange and the ‘nose’ of the cockpit had an intricate piece of nose-art, akin to the shark teeth painted on WW2 fighter planes. On each side of the cockpit the words ‘Kaita Sayer’ were painted in stylised black letters.

“Of all the paint schemes” Garnet said “you had to choose this one?”

“You’re just jealous of my baby” Ruby said, sitting on the top of the cockpit and polishing the glass.

“I think you’re just trying to compensate for something” Garnet said “or lack there-of” he then received a cloth to the face.

“Go fuck yourself!” Ruby shouted, before looking around “uh, can I have the cloth back?” Garnet rolled his eyes before chucking the cloth back.

“You love me really” Garnet said.

“Bite me” Ruby said, deadpanning before taking off and giving the Kaita Slayer the once over from the air “…and that should do it, let’s test this puppy out” she then flew into the cockpit and put on a special suit that had sleeves to track the movement of her arms and legs. The floor of the cockpit was made up of many small rolling spheres, to allow her to move her legs properly. Ruby put on gloves before flipping some switches, lights flickered into life and the engine started up with a whine, she flicked her wrists and the mech’s arms moved to copy her movements. She took a practice punch with the right hand before practicing an upper-cut with the left, walking forward a few steps and turning towards Garnet.

“Still think I made a bad decision having this rebuilt?” Ruby asked, Garnet went to respond, only for a loud explosion to fill the hangar and an alarm start to wail. They soon both heard a sound that made them go pale, Covenant plasma fire!

*POV 1st person Vuur Koning*

I was walking along one of the larger corridors when an explosion rocked the ship, causing it to list to one side and send me, along with everyone else, stumbling to the floor.

“What the hell was that!?” Minion exclaimed, he got his answer in the form of Forerunner watchers, followed by crawlers.

“BREACH!” I shouted, getting out my sword and cutting the head of a crawler off before retrieving the Suppresser, holding it in my left hand and laying down suppressing fire on the covenant and Forerunner forces as Minion fired at them with his cannon.

“Why the fuck are they here!?” Minion asked, taking out an Elite Zealot with one shot, at that point I could hear my come unite crackle into life.

“DAD!” I heard Garnet say “We’ve got-boom-Covenant in the-zap-hold, Ruby and myself are all that’s left alive. Everyone else was unprepared, we could really use some back…”

“HUNTER!” I heard Ruby yell “GARNET, GET DOWN!” their com-link cut off and I changed channel as I killed several grunts with a burst of Suppresser fire.

“Stark, are you there?” I asked as an Elite with an energy sword engaged me, I parried his strike before knocking the sword out of his hand and running him through

“I’m a little busy” he said, I could hear his repulsers firing as well as plasma fire “what do you want?”

“My kids are pinned down in the hold” I said “think you could help?”

“You mean they get a bunch of covvies all to themselves?” I heard Vapaa ask “I’ll be able to send my team down”

“Stark, assist them” I said,

“Fine” he said.

*POV 3rd person*

Luna sent a beam of concentrated magic at a wave of Covenant soldiers.

“Die, heretic” a Sangheili storm said, Luna pushed all other troops away before grabbing the Sangheili in her magic and bring in him close.

“YOU ACCUSE ME OF HERASY!?” She thundered “I AM PRINCESS LUNA ETERNAL, IMMORTAL ALICORN OF THE NIGHT, YOU ARE A MERE LIZARD IN MY EYES. BE GONE” he eyes glowed and she sent her magic into the Sangheili and ripped him apart from the inside out, in full view of the covenant forces, who promptly fled. She tossed the bloody remains into a wall before activating a spell that transmitted onto Jul ‘Mdama’s ship in the form of a hologram

“YOU ATTACK MY SHIP!” She boomed “YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS, JUL ‘MDAMA” the Sangheili laughed.

“[Who are you to threaten me, beast]?” ‘Mdama said.

“WHO AM I!?” she thundered, causing ‘Mdama to take a step back in fear “I AM PRINCESS LUNA, CO RULER OF EQUESTRIA, I CAN MOVE THE VERY STARS LIKE THEY ARE MERE PLAYTHINGS, I AM MORE OF A GOD THAN ANY FORERUNNER. I CAN SEE EVERY EDGE OF THE UNIVERSE IN ITS ENTIRETY. NO WHERE WILL BE SAFE FROM MY WRATH, COUNT THE DAYS, TERRA IS NO LONGER A NEUTRAL PARTY IN THIS WAR. WE WILL SEND EVERTHING AT YOU UNTIL YOU BEG FOR DEATH. NOT EVEN YOUR FORERUNNERS CAN SAVE YOU NOW” she cancelled the spell as her honour guard appeared.

“Your majesty” one said, running an Elite through “might I suggest you get to safety”

“I can take care of myself” she said, her coat was turning darker and her mane was becoming like dark smoke. A hunter burst through the wall, she ran it through with her staff. The Hunter began to laugh, it was a deep, booming laugh that could be felt more than heard and seemed to be coming from all over the Hunter. Luna raised an eyebrow before being knocked away by the Hunter and sent into a wall.

“Your majesty” one of the guards cried, running towards her

“No” she said “stay back” she stood up, pulled her staff out of the Hunter and noted the thick, orange blood ‘if it bleeds, we can kill it’ she thought.

“Guards” she said “hit it with your strongest spells” the guards began to shoot dozens of spells at the Hunter, causing a cloud of smoke to spring up, obscuring the view of the hunter. A griffin wielding a rocket launcher went onto one knee and fired the rocked, hitting the Hunter and causing a large explosion that silenced the monster.

“I think we’ve killed it” the commander of Luna's honour guard said.

“One can never be too sure, commander” Luna said, readying her staff. A mass of muscle shot out of the cloud and spattered a guard against a wall before swiping to one side, clearing the smoke and revealing the Hunter, now devoid of armour. As mass of eel-like worms would be the best way to describe the abomination that remained.

The Hunter stretched out one of its arms towards Luna, who sliced off the end with her staff. The Hunter used the remaining part of its arm to knock her into a wall, guards and soldiers began firing cables at the Hunter to hold it down, but it managed to pull free with ease, it then charged towards Luna and swallowed her up in the mass of worms. The commander of the honour guard fired a lightning spell at the monster, causing it to convulse and twitch. The Spell backfired on the commander, sending her flying into a wall. The Hunter stomped towards the commander, knocking the other guards out of the way and went to crush her, only to stop and begin expanding. The Hunter gave a final whimper before exploding in a shower of orange blood and dead worms which coated the walls and guards. A similarly covered Luna hovered in the air for a fraction of a second with her fore hooves spread out wide before dropping to the floor and standing there, panting. The commander stood up.

“Your majesty, are you alright?” she asked.

“I’m fine” Luna said, looking around and smirking ever so slightly before summoning her staff towards her “seems I’ve created quite the mess, haven’t I?”

“Yes, your majesty” the commander said, before looking at her own coat and snorting in disgust “*sigh* my marefriend is gonna kill me” Luna raised an eyebrow and gave the commander a knowing smirk before her expression hardened.

“If we don’t stop the Covenant” Luna said “they will do the job for her” the commander blushed slightly before shaking her head to clear her thoughts.

“Alright troops” she said “form ranks, we’ve got a battle to win”

“HUH!” the guards responded, before sorting themselves into two lines.

“And next time” Luna said “don’t do that again, Mgalekgolo are immune to lightning, Alicorns less so” the commander nodded before leading her troops away, Luna levitated the helmet of the Hunter towards her and hummed in thought as the sound of the troops marching faded down the corridors.

Chapter 11

*POV 1st Person Vuur Koning*

I was making my way to the engine room along with Minion, Baldric and Vapaa. The corridor was mostly empty, as most of the Covenant and Forerunner forces in this area were headed towards the engine room to try and immobilise the ship.

“Die, demon” a Fuel Rod cannon wielding grunt shouted, before sending a round towards us, I deflected it with my blade before sending a beam of fire towards the grunt.

“That’s fire demon to you!” I shouted as the beam sent the grunt spattering against the wall.

“Really?” Vapaa asked “Fire demon?” I shrugged.

“Gotta find some way of correcting them” I said “Anyway, how’s your family?”

“Of all the time to catch up on our personal lives” Vapaa said “you have to do this now, in the middle of a damn invasion?”

“No time like the present” I said, absentmindedly shooting a crawler off of the wall with my Suppresser.

“There’s a time and a place, brother. Time and a fucking place” Minion said, shooting down an Elite with his plasma cannon as it rounded the corner “do you know what Turaga Vakama would say?”

“Irresponsible?” I suggested, we soon reached the engine room, thankfully the corridor outside the engine room was empty. Baldric walked over to the door and opened it, an Elite was stood on the other side.

“vad nu då!” he said cheerfully, before shooting the Elite in the face with a Buckshot (you know, the shotgun that Kina tried to use but ended up hurting her wrist with), the other Covenant forces looked at the headless Elite as it slid towards them, before looking at Baldric “alright you bunch of mamman din jävel. Ve do dis easy vay, or hard vay” the rest of us stood next to him as he said this

“Die, heretic!” an Elite shouted, before shooting at him with a plasma pistol. Baldric flew out of the way.

“Hard vay it is” he said, landing before shooting the Elite and reducing its face to a bloody mess. The engine room descended into chaos as the four of us charged in, Vapaa waited for the right moment before allowing balls of light to collect in his hands. He clapped his hands together, sending out a shockwave of light, and every Forerunner it hit paused, before their orange hardlight changed to gold and they began to attack the Covenant.

“Where did you learn that?” I asked, shooting down a suicide grunt, whose grenades rolled towards some unsuspecting Covenant and exploded at their feet.

“Just now” he said, deflecting a volley of storm rifle fire with his double-ended sword before getting out his Tomahawk and chucking it at the Elite wielding the automatic plasma rifle. The small axe embedded in the face of the Elite, causing to it fall to the ground, dead as Vapaa recalled the Tomahawk with his magic. With all the Covenant in the room dead, and all of the Forerunner guardians in the room converted to our side, I walked over to the arcane computer terminal to check the status of all the ships systems.

“Thank god, they haven’t damaged the engines” I said “Shields are now at 80% and falling, all but one of the guns are still operational, we can win this yet” at that moment I heard the sound of an energy sword activating and I was shoved out of the way, followed by the sound of Baldric grunting. I turned around to see Baldric being held aloft, with an energy sword through his chest and an Elite holding said energy sword. Time seemed to slow as the Elite gave a deep chuckle and kicked Baldric away. I gave out a cry of rage as I drew my sword and swung it so hard, the energy sword shattered, handle and all, when the Elite tried to block my attack. The Elite looked at the shattered remains of the handle in shock as I plunged all five foot of my blade into the Elite’s chest.

“H-how…”the Elite choked out.

“Protosteel” I spat “nothing can break it, nothing can stop it” the Elite exhaled one last time before slumping to the floor, dead. I pulled my sword out before running over to Baldric, he looked pale. Minion shook his head sadly.

“Baldric” I said “come on, stay with me” he chuckled and shook his head weakly.

“No” he said “I von’t be valking avay from this one, my friend” he then stopped breathing, his eyes still open.

“Baldric?” I asked, no response…my vision started to go red and I began to pant.

*POV 3rd person*

Ruby propelled her mech over a warthog towards a Hunter, when she got close enough she drew her arm back and punched the Hunter’s ‘head’ as hard as she could, sending it stumbling and firing its fuel-rod cannon randomly. Ruby dodged a shot from the other Hunter before grabbing the first by its shield arm and swinging it at its brother like an oversized tennis racket, she then let go, sending both Hunters into wall before unleashing a barrage of missiles at the two Hunters.

Meanwhile outside the ship, Jetfire, Optimus Prime and Vector Prime were chasing down several Space Banshees, who, until the three Autobots had shown up, were trying to take out the guns on the Jörmungandr

“Crikey!” Jetfire said, trying to shoot down one, only for it to dodge out of the way each time “these Covenant just don’t quit…GET LOST, YOU BLOODY MANIACS!” Jetfire let loose a volley of missiles at a small group of Banshees, who exploded spectacularly.

“We need to get them away from the…ah!” Optimus went to say, but got hit by fuel-rod round, knocking out his engines.

“Optimus!” Jetfire shouted, banking around. He went to fire on the Phantom, only for it to explode and a small space ship shoot past.

“WOOOHOOOO!” Rocket Racoon called out through the coms as he shot down a couple of Banshees “Get the big bot back online, then focus on knocking out the ships. I’ll keep the small fry busy for you”

“Thanks, mate” Jetfire said “we owe you one”

“Just keep the Phantoms off my ass if you see one” Rocket said, Barrel rolling to avoid the oncoming plasma fire of two Banshees and returning fire, destroying them both “I fucking love this ship BLAM!” he sent forth a volley of missiles at another Banshee, destroying it.

Back inside the Jörmungandr, the Defenders of Berk were working with the Guardians to defend some of the crew.

“Why are they doing this!?” Fishlegs asked, panicking as he hid behind his dragon, Meatlug, he whimpered as a fuel rod round flew over them “Chances of survival are dwindling into single digits now!”

“Would you shut it!?” Bunnymund yelled, chucking a couple of egg grenades at the Covenant “HAPPY EASTER, YOU BASTARDS!” North got out one of his portal baubles and brought it towards his mouth before whispering.

“Outside” he chuckled and chucked the bauble at an Elite, the bauble turned into a portal to outer space, drawing all of the Covenant and Promethean forces into the portal before closing.

“Did you just send them into space!?” Astrid asked, the grin on North’s face told her all she needed to know.

*POV 1st person Vuur Koning*

“Brother” Minion said “you need to calm down”

“Give me one good reason why?” I asked, I took this cue to teleport out of there and into one of the Covenant ships.

“Who are you” an Elite said.

“YOUR WORST NIGHTMARE!” I yelled, before unleashing every ounce of Elemental energy I had into one concentrated Nova blast. Destroying the ship around me with the force of a nuclear bomb, the last thing I felt before blacking out was my armour adapting to the conditions of space.

*POV 3rd person*

both Covenant, Forerunner and ‘Jörmunganduns’ that were of the deck of the ship stopped fighting and looked on in shock as one of the Covenant ships exploded and its fireball consumed the other ship, its explosionadding to the fireball.

“What in my sister’s name!?” Luna exclaimed.

“What did this?” an Elite, the Shipmaster to be precise, asked, Luna thought for a moment before her eyes reduced to pinpricks

“Oh gods no”

“What?” Autumn asked.

“Take a wild guess” Luna said, before taking a deep breath, teleporting off the ship and teleporting to different parts of the wreckage. After searching frantically she found Vuur Koning floating in a relatively empty area, she grabbed hold of him with a foreleg before teleporting back onto the ship and gasping for breath.

“Oh gods, what happened?” Autumn asked.

“A Nova blast” Luna said.

“He did this!?” the Shipmaster roared, before going for Vuur Koning with an energy sword, Luna rolled her eyes before slamming the Elite against a wall.

“HOLD YOU TUNGUE, SHIPMASTER!” Luna thundered “YOUR ON AN ENEMY SHIP WITH NO REINFORCEMENTS TO SPEAK OFF, SO DO THE SMART BUCKING THING AND ORDER YOUR REMAINING TROOPS TO SURRENDER” Luna released her hold on the shipmaster before teleporting away, leaving a trembling, and considerably paler, shipmaster to lean against the wall, he sighed before activating his com-link.

“All forces…surrender” he said “the battle…is lost”

*meanwhile*

Luna arrived at Canterlot palace with an almighty bang! Celestia was sat at a small table on a balcony next to their mother, drinking tea.

“Sister” Celestia said, calmly sipping her cup of tea “would it kill you to send me a message beforehoof, we may have unlimited…”

“Sister!” Luna said, looking panicky “now isn’t the time, we need to prepare for war…” the cup of tea shot up into the ceiling, Celestia’s eye twitched and smoke started to drift off of her mane.

“Pray-tell, dear, beloved sister of mine” Celestia said, her voice a sea of barely contained rage “what exactly did you do this time?”

“Not what I did” Luna said “but what a certain genocidal race that paid this planet a visit did”

“And what exactly did they do?” Celestia asked, still in the same state of near rage.

“They attacked our ship” Luna said “they slaughter crew members with no provocation” Celestia turned to Fantasia.

“Mother” she said “if you would excuse me for just one moment” Fantasia nodded and Celestia teleported away, a few seconds later they saw a bright flash in the sky, followed by a slightly singed Celestia teleporting back onto the balcony. Celestia cleared her throat before gesturing for Luna to continue.

“Better?” Luna asked, Celestia deadpanned “Right, well, as I was saying we need to prepare for war, we can’t stand idle whilst the Covenant rages across the universe unchecked”

“What allies do we have?” Celestia asked “beyond this planet”

“An organisation belonging to one of the human worlds” Luna said “an Earth that is more advance that the one Vuur Koning and his ilk hail from”

“Exactly how advanced?” Fantasia asked.

“Over five hundred years senior” Luna said, causing the other two Alicorns eyes to widen “they already have faster that night space travel done to a fine art, and they are already at war with the Covenant, so they will be sympathetic to our cause…”

“Can I just stop you there, sister?” Celestia said “you mean to tell me you made contact with a race that were enemies with the Covenant”

“Yes” Luna said “why is that…oh”

“Did you not think that perhaps that is why the Covenant attacked our ship?” Celestia asked.

“They would have attacked us sooner or later” Luna said “they were just looking for an excuse, their leader, called…Jul ‘Mdama, is a terrorist who only wishes the destruction of the Human race, Vuur Koning knows enough about them…”

“Exactly how can he know about them if they are from one of the other universes?” Fantasia asked.

“Something about some kind of ‘video-game’, whatever that means” Luna said, rolling her eyes “you remember when Vuur Koning told us about the second Earth war?”

“Yes” Celestia said “what does that have to do with current events?”

“He likened the Covenant to ‘making the Nazi’s seem like care-bears in comparison’” Luna said “sister, we must retaliate, we cannot let them roam unchecked” Celestia looked towards Fantasia.

“Mother” Celestia said “what do you think the best course of action would be?” The elder Alicorn thought for a few moments before sighing.

“Your sister is right, Celestia” Fantasia said “We cannot allow the Covenant to roam unchecked, we must retaliate”

Chapter 12

*POV 1st Person Vuur Koning*

I awoke feeling…odd, empty, but at the same time, not. I sat up with a groan and opened my eyes to find myself in one of the rooms of the medical ward.

“Oh, you’re up” I heard Autumn said, although her voice lacked its emotion, I looked over to see her sitting in a chair with her arms crossed, looking at me with a mixture of fear and disappointment.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“I was going to ask the same thing about you” Autumn said.

“Uh…wha…” I was cut off.

“What the bloody hell were you thinking!?” Autumn shouted “you went and Nova blasted two Covenant ships into oblivion”

“Wait…WHAT!?” I asked in surprise, Autumn’s expression softened and she sighed

“Baldric got killed” she said “and you retaliated by teleporting aboard one of the ships, you released a Nova blast which destroyed both Covenant ships and as a result the remaining Covenant are now working for us” at that moment it all came rushing back.

“Oh dear god” I muttered, putting my head in my hands “what have I done?”

“Thrust us into a full blown war with the Covenant” I heard Celestia say, I looked over to see her walking in.

“If you’re here to guilt trip me, you’re too late” I said.

“Well” Autumn said, chuckling bitterly “you always talked about using a Nova blast as a tactic, now you can say you have”

“Honey” I said “not now, please, I feel bad enough knowing that Baldric is dead, I don’t even want to know how many I killed”

“I’m not here to guilt trip you” Celestia said “in fact, you did us a favour”

“How, exactly?” I asked.

“Jul ‘Mdama is now scared to make a move” she said.

“Great, because the Universe wasn’t fucked up enough as it was” I said “we now have that genocidal maniac to deal with”

“He’s scared to make a move right now” Autumn said “We practically have walking, reusable nukes to use as a scare tactic”

“Make up you bloody mind” I said “are you pissed off or impressed?”

“A little bit of both” she said “I’m pissed off because you could have killed yourself, those Covenant had it coming”

“Where are we?” I asked.

“We’ve stopped at another Earth to carry out repairs” Autumn said.

“Another Earth!?” I asked “Exactly how long have I been out?”

“A day” Autumn said, shrugging “oh, and you don’t have any elemental powers for a couple of days”

“How do you…?”

“The Toa Mahri and Lesovikk are with us” Celestia said “and the Jörmungandr isn’t the only Terra ship out there now, we’re currently converting all of our airships for space-worthiness. Also we’ve formed an alliance with the UNSC, who have begun making more battle suits like the one your daughter has, apparently it was quite successful”

“Ruby has quite the knack for battle suit combat” Autumn said, I chuckled as I got out of bed.

“That’s my girl” I said. I soon got my armour back and I went outside, it was getting towards night time and my team of Toa were sat around a campfire with the Toa Mahri whilst some guards patrolled a perimeter. I could see a pair of orange eyes watching us, but I didn’t say anything.

“I’ve gotta hand it to you” Hewki said, looking around at the blossom trees “you planet really does have a certain charm to it”

“I think this is Asia” I said “and with the number of different Earths we’ve been to, I doubt this is ours” At that moment I heard one of the guards cry out, before falling silent.

“What was…?” Jaller went to say, but I cut him off.

“Shh” I said, I stood up and focussed on one guard as he walked towards the point where the other one disappeared, after he got to a certain point I heard what sounded like a cricket chirping as the guard seemed to levitate and was bashed against the tree several times before being dropped unceremoniously on the ground in a heap. I switched to the mask of accuracy before changing to thermal vision I could see six heat signatures, all unique, I whispered to the others “Six individuals, all different sizes” Minion stepped forward.

“Alright!” he called “we can see you, all six of you, come out quietly and I won’t have to use my little friend to make you come out” he gestured to his plasma cannon as he said this. Six animals; a tiger, a monkey, a snake, a mantis, a crane and a panda stepped out and both me and Minion burst out laughing.

“You have got to be fucking kidding me” I said between laughs “of all the planets we had to land on, it had to be this one”

“What do you mean?” Scar asked “I don’t see what’s so funny”

“We’re in the land of bloody Kung-Fu fighting animals” Minion said.

“You find us amusing?” Tigress asked.

“Yes” I said, she growled “easy tiger” Tigress growled before charging, I rolled by eyes before getting out my sword and bringing it in front of me, causing Tigress to stop just before the blade touched her throat.

“I may find you lot amusing” I said, my expression and tone now serious “but that does not mean I can’t kill you if you so push me, I’ve just lost a very dear friend of mine, I’m sorry if I’ve offended you, but considering all the shit we’ve been through and seen, you look fucking hilarious” I then drew my sword away quickly, cutting off a few hairs on Tigress’s neck but otherwise leave her unscathed. Po, the Dragon warrior, who was also a panda, gasped.

“Is that the blade of Tai Tzu?” he asked.

“No” I said.

“The sword of Bow Ding?”

“Nope” I said, “it’s a Protosteel Power sword, totally indestructible, it also channels my elemental energy, although a currently can’t use those powers”

“Why not?” Viper asked, I chuckled bitterly.

“Remember I said I’d lost a dear friend?” I asked, sitting back down at the camp fire and stabbing my sword into the ground “I unleashed all of my fire powers in one blast and eradicated those responsible for his death from existence, I’ve paid the price for it, I can’t use my powers for a few days. So tell me, Furious Five and Dragon Warrior, can you handle sharing a campfire with an alien mass murderer whilst I tell you why we are here?” I gestured to an empty log positioned by the fire as I said this.

*POV 3rd Person*

Teridax stepped through a portal to find himself in an alternate Equestria.

“Who are you!?” Celestia demanded, Teridax quickly scanned her mind and found one little piece of information that made him grin.

“I am merely a humble traveller” he said, walking over and bowing “someone who is using this current situation with the planets in the sky to his advantage, my name is Teridax, and I have a proposal for you” Celestia raised an eyebrow.

“I’m listening” She said.

“I’ve met other versions of you, none of them are like you” he said, beginning to pace “you’re willing to get your hooves dirty, metaphorically speaking. So answer me this, Princess, what can you tell me about the Pegasus Device?” at that point Celestia smirked and lightning flashed outside.

Chapter 13

“…so that about wraps up why we’re here” I said.

“Wow!” Po said “you guys are awesome”

“Thanks” I said, swirling the glass of Irish cream I was holding “but it kind of loses its charm after you fire off a Nova blast, I’m not usually the type of person to commit mass murder”

“And what type of person are you?” Tigress asked.

“One who will do what is necessary” I said “if anyone threatens my friends or family, then they better get ready to run, because I will stop at nothing to see them brought to justice”

“That’s what separates normal Toa from your kind, Vuur Koning” Jaller said, frowning

“Oh, I’m sorry” I said, chuckling “who was it who not only fried Mantax alive, but was also ready to perform a nova blast until you got transported to Metru Nui, and correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t Rahkshi technically intelligent life, we’ve all killed enough or those, am I right?” All the Toa and Neue-Toa conceded that point.

“What are Rahkshi?” Crane asked.

“Imagine slug-like things” I said “now imagine them controlling a mechanical suit, that’s a Rahkshi” Viper stuck the end of her tail in the air, in the manner one would stick their hand in the air.

“What’s mechanical?” she asked, all of the Toa and Neue-Toa responded by groaning and facepalming. I muttered several profanities and gestured to my elbow, where skin, flesh and bone gave way to metal, pistons and wires, much like it did on all the other joints on my body.

“You see all of this?” I asked.

“Kind of gross” Mantis said “but yes”

“This is what makes me what is known as biomechanical” I said “both living and mechanical, now imagine something without all of the living parts, that makes it fully mechanical, a robot, not alive”

“But you said that Rahkshi were intelligent beings” Viper said.

“The slug that controls them is still alive” I said “and bloody intelligent, plus three of them can physically merge into one entity. Anyway, who’s hungry?”

*POV 3rd Person*

Teridax stepped through another portal and found himself standing on an Earth-like planet, he snorted in disgust at the blossom trees before walking down the pathway, after walking for a few moments he came across a hooded and cloaked figure, one with gold, predatory eyes. The figure stopped and looked up at Teridax, who discretely began reading the figures mind.

“Who are you” the figure asked.

“Lord Teridax” the Makuta replied “Soon to be the ruler of this universe, and I have a proposition for you, Tia Lung” at that moment a gust of wind blew the hood down to reveal the face of a humanoid snow leopard. Tai Lung smirked before saying.

“I’m listening”

“…and I was like, ‘I don’t care if your Prince Blueblood’” I said, serving up the mushroom soup “‘hell you could be the only member of royalty in existence, I would never follow you, I’m related to the very first president of the United States of America, you’re just a snobby arsehole playing royalty’ and then I punched him in the face and broke his nose”

“How did you get out of there alive!?” Mantis asked, both Vinyl and Autumn looked at each other before saying in unison.

“Everypony hates him”

“Eeyup” I said, before passing a bowl of mushroom soup to everyone except the Toa “grubs up, hope you enjoy”

“Wow!” Monkey said “where did you learn to cook this”

“When I was living in Equestria for the first year I met this Zebra who really knew how to make a good mushroom soup” I said “I experimented with the original recipe by adding a few spices like ground garlic and onion granules, the result is what you see here today”

“You mean that Zebra that always speaks in rhyme?” Minion asked, I nodded “I never understood why she does that”

“Apparently it’s a sign of wisdom here she’s from” I said, shrugging

“What’s a Zebra?” Tigress asked, I pointed to one of the Equestrian guards as he walked past.

“Imagine one of them, but with black and white stripes” I said “now that we’re done playing twenty questions, we have a proposition for all six of you”

“Go on” Po said.

“As you all know, we’ve come here searching for those that could aid us in our quest” I said “What would you say to joining us, the decision is totally up to you and if you decline, I won’t hold it against you”

“It would probably be best if we spoke to Master Shifu about it before hand” Viper said

“Take as long as you want” I said “after what happened, I doubt we’ll be leaving for a few weeks, in fact, would you mind if we tag along, it would make it seem a lot more believable than just walking up to him and saying ‘some aliens want to take us away in their super-big space ship, would you have a problem with that?’”

“Yeah” Crane said “that would probably be for the best” at that moment a Sangheili walked past and all of the Furious Five and Po stared at him, The Sangheili snorted.

“What are you looking at?” he asked in a gruff voice, before walking off

“What was that?” Po asked, once it was gone

“A Sangheili” I said “also known as an Elite because of their fighting prowess, if you see one coming towards you with an energy sword, don’t even bother fighting it, just run”

“We never back down” Po said.

“I take it you don’t use weapons” I said, they all nodded “so you’re better off running, otherwise you’ll end up with an energy sword through your chest, those guys don’t muck about, they won’t hesitate to kill you if they get the chance”

“Then why do you have them on your side?” Tigress asked, eyeing one warily.

“We destroyed their ships” I said “they don’t have anything better to do, plus they’re bloody good in battle, Grunts? Not so much” I watched some grunts as they stood one on top of the other in a tower about ten grunts high to try and place a panel back onto the hull of the Jörmungandr, except they were currently nowhere near the ship and were stood in the middle of a clearing, with the top grunt holding the panel whilst trying to direct the other grunts on which way to go. Scar face palmed and shook his head.

“Hey, free dinner and a show” Mantis said.

“Yep” I said, watching them try to get back to the ship “not the brightest bunch around”

I was stood in complete darkness, I looked around in confusion, but all I could see was darkness, save for my arms when I held them out.

“Hello?” I called out, my voice echoed before fading.

“Vuur Koning” I heard Princess Celestia say, I saw a point of light which expanded until it took the shape of the regal white Alicorn, I went to walk towards her only to hit some kind of barrier.

“What…?” I said, putting my hand against the barrier, two more points of light appeared until they formed Teridax and Jul ‘Mdama “Celestia, behind you!”

“After what you did” Celestia said, walking towards me, a scowl on her face “I realised that the true threat wasn’t Teridax, or ‘Mdama, it was you”

“What are you talking about?” I asked, the black void began to give way to a cell of some kind, with myself inside, and Celestia, Teridax and ‘Mdama of the outside.

“I cannot let you live with the knowledge that you could willingly destroy everything” she said.

“But I would never…” I said, only to be cut off.

“Henceforth” she said, stretching out her wings and causing me to back away until I was stood with my back against the wall “I banish you to the sun” her horn began to glow and her eyes turned white, I felt myself being lifted up and I desperately grappled at the wall, but to no avail.

“Celestia, please!” I begged, I was now five foot in the air, I felt myself accelerate before stopping

“ENOUGH!” a voice shouted, the entire scene dissolved into white and Celestia, Teridax and ‘Mdama all shrieked before disappearing, I dropped back down to the ground and landed with an inaudible thud. As I stood up to my full height the white void dissolved into an endless field, Princess Luna appeared in the sky and flew down “Vuur Koning, do you know what’s happening?”

“No” I said “where are we?”

“Your subconscious” Luna said “you were having a nightmare, a powerful one at that”

“So does this make it Lucid dreaming now?” I asked, she nodded and I thought for a moment before the scenery changed to a road lined with red brick buildings and trees in the distance. Luna looked around, confused.

“What is this place?” she asked.

“Auschwitz” I said “or rather, what I remember of it”

“Why would you change the scenery to a place like that?” she asked, looking just a little horrified, I shrugged.

“This place is significant in my mind” I said, walking along the road “plus it was the easiest memory to conjure up, if we find my earth, I might just go back there, you’re free to join me”

“Why would you go back?” she asked, following me.

“To show Autumn and the kids” I said “and so I don’t forget, we must learn from our past mistakes if we are to make progress” Luna raised an eyebrow.

“1.6 million People were murdered here” I explained “we can’t let that be forgotten”

“I get the feeling you’re trying to steer the topic away from why I’m here” Luna said.

“I’ll admit that was part of the reason” I said “also, I’ve always wanted to try lucid dreaming”

“Nightmares are always tied to the subconscious” Luna said “I want to know why you would have a nightmare about being banished to the sun”

“I think it has to do with me unleashing a Nova blast” I said “but I’m never the type to have normal dreams, let alone nightmares”

“Everyone has dreams” Luna said “you just don’t remember yours”

“Right” I said “why would I have such a specific dream though? I mean, Jul ‘Mdama and Teridax beside Celestia”

“I fear that something was affecting your subconscious” Luna said.

“But I have mental shielding, just like you do” I said “the only reason you were able to enter my subconscious was because it’s you duty and you’re will is strong enough to work around my mind shielding”

“Which makes the fact that someone else was able to enter your mind even more disturbing” Luna said, her body began to fade “my time here is over, you mind is now yours to explore” and with that, Luna disappeared. With nothing better to do I started walking through the not-Auschwitz.

Within a dark cave a mechanical figure laughed manically as he withdrew from Vuur Koning’s mind

“Ha ha, soon, Artahka my brother, soon” he said in a quiet voice “whilst those mortals wage their petty conflicts, I will be gaining power, heh heh, they might have killed me once, but it won’t happen a second time…” whatever he was going to say dissolved into insane laughter.

Chapter 15

We were approaching the village at the foot of the mountain the Jade Palace was located on when Glück Bolzen called out.

“Uh, Vuur Koning?” she said “Ve might have a problem” I got out of my seat and walked into the cockpit, I looked out the window and saw an equestrian ironclad warship of some kind hovering over the city, it also had Teridax’s emblem painted on the side.

“Shit” I muttered “Glück, open the rear hatch”

“Are you crazy?” she asked “at this altitude?”

“Just wait for my signal” I said, before walking back into the passenger area “alright guys, Teridax has decided to show his ugly face in the town, we’re gonna drop on him”

“What!?” the Furious Five and Po exclaimed.

“You can’t be serious” Luna said, I deadpanned “point taken” all of the Neue-Toa stood up and walked towards the rear door before getting their weapons out.

“Now! Glück” I shouted, the door opened just as Teridax’s ship started to fire on us.

“You are crazy!” Po said, clinging onto the wall.

“Probably” I replied, getting out my sword before jumping out and adapting my armour into its flight mode, I could see Ruby jump out of the Manticore in her Kaita Slayer armour, followed by Garnet. I pulled up from my dive and banked towards the town, I could see that there was also bandits as well as Rahkshi and I aimed for a group of about ten wolves that were cornering some of the villagers, I impacted into the pavement, causing a small crater and kicking up a cloud of dust. I stood up and walked towards the bandits, who were looking at me in confusion “Guten Tag”

“Are you friend or foe?” one of the wolves asked, walking forward

“I’m Vuur Koning” I said, before punching the wolf in the chest and sending him flying into a building “and you’ve made a very bad mistake by attacking this town” the remaining wolves growled before charging. One came at me from the left and went to cut me in half, only for me to block him, shattering his sword in the process and then kicking him away. Another came from the right and I uppercut his chin with my left hand, whacked the side of his head with the flat of my sword and kicked him into two of his comrades, sending all three of them crashing into a building. The rest of my team landed beside me.

“This is the part where you run away” Vinyl said, twirling her swords and causing them to buzz.

“Oh, I don’t think so” one of the wolves said. Minion lifted his sword up and flicked it to one side, causing all of the wolves to go crashing through a wall

“We gave you to option to run” he said, before turning to the villagers “are you all alright?”

“Yes, we’re fine” a goat said “Thank you”

“You can thank us later, you should find some place safe” he said, before aiming his plasma canon at an approaching Rahkshi and firing, vaporising the creature of darkness, the towns people all nodded before running off. I heard a deep, booming laughter and groaned.

“Even without you elemental powers” Teridax said, walking forward out of the smoke “you still surpr…”

“For once in your life just shut the fuck up!” Minion shouted, firing his plasma canon at Teridax and sending the Makuta flying down the street before crashing into a wall.

“Well” I heard a voice say “aren’t you all the interesting bunch” I looked up to see Tai Lung leaning against a chimney.

“Give me one reason why I shouldn’t shoot you right now” Minion said.

“Maybe I don’t have a good reason” Tai Lung said “but he does” he pointed behind us. We turned around to see Kraata-Kal, a Dark Hunter, walking over holding an unconscious Garnet and Ruby, the latter’s motion suit was torn and scorched and I could see what remained of her Kaita Slayer, it had smoke pouring out of the back where Kraata-Kal's sword was embedded.

“Sorry” Kraata-Kal said, chuckling “I kind of broke her armour, I’ll send you a check with the repair money, shall I?”

“If you fucking hurt them!” I shouted.

“Oh, please” Tai Lung said, jumping off the building and landing beside Kraata-Kal “that would mean I wouldn’t have a bargaining chip”

“What do you want?” Autumn asked.

“Your surrender” Tai Lung said.

“And if we refuse?” Scar asked.

“I get to keep these two as my pets” Kraata-Kal said, his gaze lingering on Ruby as he spoke.

“Surely you can be reasonable” Tai Lung said.

“Not today” Minion said, before releasing an electro-magnetic blast that physically knocked Tai Lung back and temporarily disabled Kraata-Kal’s suit. Boris activated his mask of speed before flying towards Kraata-Kal and snatching Garnet and Ruby away. Boris and Scar carried Ruby and Garnet away whilst myself, Minion, Autumn and Vinyl stood our ground “and now you going to find out how fucking stupid it is to threaten our family” Kraata-Kal chuckled.

“I’ll admit, I wasn’t expecting that” he said, getting up “which is why I’m going to enjoy killing you all”

“And I’m going to enjoy what happens next” I said, before turning to Vinyl “NOW, VINYL!” Vinyl slammed the flat edges of her blades together, sending forth a high frequency hum that only Tai Lung and Kraata-Kal could hear, disorientating them both.

“Yaaah!” Tai Lung yelled, covering his ears. I ran towards him before kicking Tai Lung high into the air as Minion did the same with Kraata-Kal, sending them both sailing through the air and out of the village. Vinyl ceased the sonic hum.

“That Dark Hunter is probably going to be going after us from now on” Autumn said.

“Yeah” I said, sighing and nodding “probably…anyway, we should probably get back to fighting, I think I hear some bandits on the other side of the street” Minion smirked before saying.

“Leave that to me” the Toa of Magnetism then levitated into the sky with an audible hum until he was looking over the entire village. He raised up his sword, causing all of the Rahkshi, Bandits and Dark Hunters to levitate into the sky “BEHOLD, THE TRUE MIGHT OF A TOA!” and with that, he thrust his blade forward, sending all of the enemy forces flying away from the village and out of the valley. He then turned towards Teridax’s ship and ‘shoved’ it out of the valley. I heard a commotion behind us and turned to see Teridax flying after the ship, I got out my pistol and took a few shots at him, only to miss as he flew away covered in thick, smoke-like shadows.

“I’ll stop him!” Minion said over the com-link, taking aim with his cannon.

“No!” I said “let him go, we have other things to worry about” Minion sighed before lowering his canon and levitating towards the ground.

“Well” Minion said “I suppose we better go find the others” we all turned around only for a portal of some kind to open and a man in a red a black suit to fly through said portal riding a shark with explosives and a jet engine strapped to it.

“WHAT THE BUCK!?” Autumn exclaimed as we all jumped out of the way. The man stood up on the shark and back flipped off of it, landed on the ground, pulled a taco out of his back pocket, lifted up part of his mask and began eating the taco as the shark exploded on a scale that would make Michael Bay proud.

“*sigh*” he said, taking a bite of the Taco as he watched the fire raging “I love the smell of C4 in the morning”

“Oh dear god” Minion muttered, letting his head drop to the ground “why Deadpool? Of all the characters to inexplicably appear, why Dead-fucking-pool!?” he repeatedly bashed his head against the ground as he said this. Deadpool turned around.

“Someone say my name?” he asked “and furthermore, who the hell are you, you look like a bunch of Iron Man rip-offs” I stood up and walked over.

“We’re Toa” I said “and I’m looking to hire someone of your skill set”

“Not interested” he said, I responded by pulling a bag of roughly 1’000’000 bits-worth in solid gold coins out of my hammer space and letting it drop on the ground with a thud, I actually saw dollar signs appear on his eyes “What do you need me to do?”

“We need you to follow us around and help us to defeat a being of darkness and pure evil” I said, putting on a sinister tone “also, if he succeeds in taking over the universe he will enforce a total ban on tacos” he looked at me as if I’d just shot a puppy.

“That evil bastard!” he said, getting out his katanas “where is he?”

“Actually” I said “you just missed him, but follow us around and you’re sure to bump into him at some point, did I mention I know royalty who can provide suitable compensation and I have a ship with an armoury containing any weapon you desire?” he thought for a moment before saying.

"I'll do it"

*later that day*

We were all stood in a line in the square at the jade palace, whilst Shifu thanked us for our help, meanwhile a certain mercenary was leant against one of the walls eating another bloody taco, he goes through those things like a chain-smoker goes through cigarettes.

"I must personally thank you for saving our village" Shifu said "not only from the rage of Tai Lung, but also from this Teridax that you are at war with"

"It is merely our duty as Toa" I said "to save those that cannot save themselves, much like your Kung Fu masters" Shifu nodded

"They tell me you have a request" Shifu said.

"Yes" I said "they have displayed exceptional skill, even by our standards. I was thinking maybe they could join us on our quest, help us to defeat Teridax, especially if he has managed to sway Tai Lung to his side, you know the saying; fight fire with fire" Shifu hummed in thought before nodding.

"Very well" he said.

*POV 3rd person*

Garnet awoke with a groan and sat up before opening his eyes to find himself in the medical ward of the Jörmungandr.

"Garnet!" he heard Thel exclaim, before tackling him in a hug "thank gods, your okay" Garnet put his arms around the Atquean and noticed she was shaking.

"Thel, are you okay?" he asked, looking her in the eyes "Your trembling, what's wrong"

"Nothing's wrong" she said "Garnet...I'm pregnant"

Chapter 16

*POV 1st Person Vuur Koning*

I was climbing one of the mountains near the village of the jade palace. Why? You might ask, because there was a group of bandits that had set up camp near the top, and Shifu had asked me specifically to go up there…alone…don’t ask me why I had to do it alone, the freezing cold wind wasn’t helping matters either.

“Bloody hell!” I exclaimed as another gust of wind not only threatened to rip me off the mountain, but also freeze me to death. One of my grappling claws came loose from its crevice and I swung around on one arm for a few moments before driving the grappling into the rock face and resuming my slow climb up the mountain “It’s colder than Wroclaw up here!*”

“I know, right?” I heard a voice say to the left of me, I stopped and looked over to see a wolf bandit poking his head out of a hatch made out of the rock face. I responded by kicking him in the jaw and knocking him out before clambering over and crawling through the hatch before pulling it shut behind me. I dumped the unconscious wolf in a barrel before activating my mask of stealth and walking in a crouched position. I might be invisible and muted, but one can’t be too careful. I soon reached what I presumed to be the main room and I quickly ducked behind a barrel when I saw all of the bandits gathered in front not only The Shadowed One, but three female Snow Leopards; The Wu Sisters: Su, Wing and Wan. I mentally groaned, why those three? Of all the criminal Kung Fu fighters in the whole of Furry-China, why did it have to be the three that attack by tying themselves together at the tail and then spinning fast enough to sustain flight?...ah screw it, I don’t have time to hide behind barrels all day.

“Hey!” I shouted, standing up and deactivating my mask of stealth, I got out my sword and pointed it at the Wu sisters “bring it, bitches!” the Bandits and the Shadowed One quickly made an escape as the Wu sisters growled before jumping in the air, tying their tails together and spinning at a high speed as they shot towards me. I brought my sword to bare and only just managed to block their attack as they spun against the blade, sparks shot off the contact point and the edge of my sword as well as the claws of the Wu sisters began to glow. I thought for a moment before beginning to slowly change the angle of my blade until I heard a metallic crack and one of the Wu sisters cried out in pain as they broke formation and landed on the ground.

“You broke my claws!” Su Wu, the leader of the triplets, exclaimed, looking at her broken claws in shock.

“The beauty of Protosteel, my dear” I said, running my finger up the blade, I stopped and frowned when I felt a small chip about halfway up the blade “you bitches chipped my sword! Do you have any idea how hard it is to re-sharpen a Protosteel blade?” Su Wu smirked.

“Look, kid” she said “I can tell you’re still young. So I’ll cut you a deal, you let us escape, and we won’t kill you”

“I’ll have you know…” I went to say, but was interrupted by my phone going off, I brought it out to see Autumn calling, I gave the Wu sisters an apologetic smile “sorry, fiancé’s calling” Su Wu scoffed and rolled her eyes before leaning against a wooden pillar and gesturing for me to carry on.

“Vuur Koning” Autumn said “you better get your arse hear right now”

“I’m a little busy” I said, pacing around “What is it?”

“Thel’s pregnant” Autumn said, I stopped dead in my tracks.

“My daughter-in-law is pregnant?” I clarified.

“Yes” Autumn said.

“…Shiiiit…” I said slowly, Su Wu got the hint, raised an eyebrow and looked me up and down

“You must be older than you look” Su said.

“Two things” I said “one, I’m 22 and two, my son is adopted”

“Who’re you talking to?” Autumn asked.

“A criminal Kung Fu master” I said, nonchalantly “I’ll call you back” I then hung up the phone and noticed the Wu sisters making their way towards a window, Su Wu was the last one through and stopped just as she was about to jump.

“Hey, kid!” she called “Don’t go throwing your life away chasing after us, you’re too young to be going after bad girls like us”

“I’ve done more in 4 years than most people do in their whole life” I said, putting my sword away. Su’s expression then changed from a confident smirk to a kind smile.

“Give your son my congratulations” and with that, she jumped out of the window and disappeared into the mountain mists. I raised an eyebrow before walking to each support column, placing timed explosives as I went. When I was satisfied with my work I walked to the opposite end of the room to the window, I waited until the timer on my H.U.D. read 3 seconds before pulling out my skyboard and running for the window. I jumped out and activated the skyboard just as the explosives detonated, the board magnetically attached to my boots and I kept pace with the rubble as it tumbled down the mountain. I could see the Wu sisters standing on an outcropping and turned towards them.

“Sianara, motherfuckers!” I shouted, before stretching my arm out and striking the pressure point for Su Wu’s facial nerve, causing her whole face to contort in to an absolutely ridiculous expression.

“DOOWEEEE!?” she exclaimed, as her whole body locked up and she fell over like a statue. I burst out laughing before continuing down the mountain.

*POV 3rd person*

Tai Lung came to with a groan, when he looked around he could see most of the bandits, Rahkshi and Dark Hunter littered around. He tried to get up, only to find an unconscious Kraata-Kal on top of him.

“Get...urgh…off!” he said with a growl, before shoving the heavy, mutated Rahkshi off of him and causing the Dark Hunter to stir “you need to go on a diet”

“It’s a mechanical suit” Kraata-Kal said, getting up and stretching his metal wings “I’m literally just the brain” to prove the point he let his true self stick out of his mouth like a tongue and waggled around whilst crossing the eyes of his suit and making a funny sound. Tai Lung rolled his eyes.

“I swear The Shadowed One stuck me with you just so you could annoy me” the snow leopard said.

“He has a habit of doing that” Kraata-Kal said, letting his Kraata retract back inside.

*POV 1st person Vuur Koning*

I soon made it to the outskirts of the village where I saw Autumn waiting outside a Dragon Dropship with her arms crossed.

“You took your time” Autumn said.

“Kung Fu fighting criminals can do that” I said “they even chipped my bloody sword” I got out my sword and Autumn gave a low whistle.

“That must of taken some doing” she said, I nodded and put my sword away “alright, I’ll accept you excuse, but I’m still gonna ‘punish’ you later on for being late” she winked before kissing me on the cheek and walking inside the Dragon, I stood there in stunned shock before shaking my head to clear my thoughts and following her inside. The hatch shut behind me and the ship took off before making its way back towards out ship, we weren’t leaving the planet yet, me and Autumn just needed to address a matter.

We soon arrived at the Jörmungandr and I stepped out to find Garnet waiting with Thel, the former looked really nervous.

“H-hey, Dad” he said.

“Hi” I said “how long till the baby’s due?”

“it’s still early days” Thel said “so about 8 or so months”

“Well” I said “that makes thing easier”

“What do you mean?” Garnet asked.

“When we find my planet” I said “you’ll be staying with my parents, my Mum used to be a nurse, so she’ll know what to do when the time comes. Does Ruby know?” Garnet shook his head.

“I was going to go tell her” he said “I think she’s in her room, but I wouldn’t…” whatever he was about to say was cut off as I teleported into our quarters I walked towards Ruby’s room and froze when I opened the door. She was lying on her bed, with her head between the legs of a Ceffyl Dŵr female. They both went white as a sheet when they saw me and I quickly shut the door before walking away, I heard her door open behind me.

“D-Dad?” Ruby asked “Are you okay?”

“I just walked in on my adoptive daughter having sex” I said “I don’t have a problem with who you’re with or anything like that, it’s just I would rather not have ‘that’ image in my head” Ruby looked surprised.

“You’re not angry or upset that I’m into mares!?” she asked.

“Why the fuck would I be!?” I asked “I’m not some homophobic arsehole, and if I was, I would deal with it because I want you to be happy” Ruby gave a huge sigh of relief.

“Thank the gods!” she exclaimed.

“Go get her” I said “there’s something that I need to tell you, and if she’s gonna be with you, then she’ll want to know as well” Ruby walked towards her room before stopping.

“This could take a while” she said “Sea Breeze is quite sensitive, especially with ‘this’ sort of thing”

“Take your time” I said “I’ll be in the living room” I then walked off and I heard the door shut behind me.

*POV 3rd Person*

Thel walked back into her room, where she found Sea Breeze sitting on the bed, looking shamefaced.

“Sea Breeze?” Thel asked, walking over and muzzling the sea blue-maned Kelpie.

“It’s probably best if I just go” Sea Breeze said, sounding close to tears

“Hey, don’t worry” Ruby said “I’ve spoken to my dad and he doesn’t have a problem” Sea Breeze looked into Ruby’s eyes, a hopeful expression on her face.

“Really!?” the Ceffyl Dŵr asked, her eyes shimmering.

“Yes” Ruby said, nuzzling her “I promise, once my family get to know you, they’ll treat you like a part of the family. Come on, my Dad wants to tell us something”

*POV 1st Person Vuur Koning*

Ruby walked into the living sooner than I expected, along with the Ceffyl Dŵr female, who was looking really nervous.

“What did you want to speak to us about?” Ruby asked.

“Thel’s pregnant” I said.

“What!?” Ruby exclaimed.

“Who’s Thel?” Sea Breeze asked.

“My sister-in-law” Ruby said, starting to beam from ear to ear “which means I’m gonna be an aunt” she then made a ‘squee’ sound whilst gushing.

“So” I said, turning to Sea Breeze “do you preferred to be called Sea Breeze, or something else?”

“Breezy is fine, sir” She said nervously.

“Call me Vuur Koning” I said “I don’t like being called sir, it makes me feel old”

“Yes, sir…I mean, Vuur Koning” Breezy said, nervously correcting herself.

“And relax” I said, smiling kindly “I’m not going to bite your head off"

Chapter 17

A few weeks later, we were ready to set off, we were currently in the village beneath the temple of the Jade Palace whilst Po said goodbye to Mister Ping.

“Why do you have to go?” Mister Ping asked “You’ll be on strange worlds, filled with strange noodles”

“I’m sorry Dad” Po said “We’ve got to go save the universe, that’s kind of an even bigger deal than saving Kung Fu” Mister Ping sighed before nodding, the Furious Five and Po walked onto the Dragon.

“Don’t worry” I said “we’ll be back before you can say ‘HLan-vairay-poohl-guin-gihl-gogery-u-queern-droboohl-hlatisilio-go-go-goch*’” a confused look came over every ones faces apart from Autumn and Breezy, who sighed and face palmed/hooved.

“What did you say?” Ruby asked as we walked inside the Dragon, both Breezy and Autumn rolled their eyes before saying as one.

“Saint Mary’s church in the hollow of the white hazel near to the rapid whirlpool of LLantysilio of the red cave**”

“I love using that word to mess with people” I said, sitting down.

“Well” Mantis said, as the Dragon took off “at least we’ll actually be back before he can say it”

*a few minutes later*

We were now all on the Jörmungandr, waiting for it to take off.

“How can something so large fly so easily?” Tigress asked.

“Magic!!!” Deadpool shouted, appearing out of nowhere and startling everyone before disappearing.

“Bloody hell” I muttered “I swear the day he meets Pinkie will be the day the universe ends” at that moment the shields activated and the ship began taking off.

“I’d hold onto something if I were you” I said, standing stock-still with my arms behind my back, the ship teleported with a blinding flash and I felt the sudden lack of gravity as I began slowly floating upwards.

“Whoa!” Po exclaimed, floating around. The ships artificial gravity engaged and I drooped back down whilst the Furious Five and Po dropped to the floor with a thud.

“I warned you” I said.

“What’s that!?” Viper asked, I looked to see her pointing at a strange, sphere like creature with four arms and two golden spheres for eyes.

“A Vacuumorph” I said “it’s kind of like a space monkey” Monkey raised an eyebrow.

“What’s it doing?” Po asked, watching the Vacuumorph floating inside the shields of the ship.

“Taking on oxygen” I said “they usually go to the upper atmosphere of planets, but if they can find easy source of oxygen they’ll take advantage. We still don’t know how they evolved to live in space, or what they even eat, they’re one of the big mysteries of the universe” at this point the Vacuumorph floated away. The ship began sailing(?)…flying(?)...spacing(?) towards the next planet.

It was a few days after we had left the planet, I was in the workshops, the next planet was a desert planet and I wanted to test out how fast my Hover bike could really go. I heard a commotion from one of the nearby work areas and walked over to see the Crusaders along with Tony Stark and Rocket Racoon working on a bike of some kind…gods help us all.

“What are you building?” I asked, Stark looked over.

“A quadrocycle that automatically adapts to the terrain it runs on” he said “I never thought I’d end up working with a talking racoon and three talking pony children”

“We’re 15!” they said indignantly

“Your still kids” Rocket said from underneath the bike.

“You’re still a racoon” Scootaloo shot back.

“Screw you” Rocket said, I left them to their banter and decided to have a look around at the other work areas. Gobber was making Protosteel armour for the dragons, Hiccup was tinkering with some sort of device. I found Ruby working on her Kaita slayer, along with Breezy and Skohka, hadn’t seen him in a while. The Kaita slayer was taller, now about 30 ft. tall, with a double decked cockpit and an extra set of arms. On the top level of the cockpit it said ‘Kaita LLeiddiad***’

“Hey, guys” I said “what are you doing?”

“Adapting it for two individuals” Ruby said “when Kraata-Kal trashed it he attacked from behind”

“Your solution?” I asked.

“Have two cockpits and two pairs of arms” Breezy said, soldering some wires in one of the arms “although the top cockpit will rotate so that both pilots can attack from both the front and the back”

“How are you getting the tech for this?” I asked.

“Howdy” I heard Scattershot say from behind me, I turned around to see the 30 ft. tall Cybertronian carrying a bunch of mechanical parts “yawl are lucky that I can fit in here”

“Well, that explains that” I muttered, they seemed fine so I left them to it and walked off to see if I could find anyone else I knew. I soon found Garnet sat at a bench of some kind, his robotic arm was detached and on the table, but he wasn’t actually doing anything, I walked over and I could see the vacant expression on his face “Garnet, are you alright?” he jumped.

“Oh, it’s just you” he said “yeah, I’m fine it’s just…”

“Having doubts about being a father?” I suggested, I saw the surprised look on his face and chuckled as I sat down next to him “I’ve been there, if you’re having doubts then that’s usually a good sign. It means you care about how you’ll do, which means you’ll be great” he smiled.

“Thanks, Dad” he said.

“Now then” I said “what are you working on?” he picked up his robotic arm.

“The wrist’s been a little loose recently” he said.

“Pass it here” I said, picking up a screwdriver. Garnet passed it to me and I began tightening the screws until they were all fully adjusted. I was passing it back to him when my watch pinged.

“Sir” Jörmungandr said “there is a vessel approaching, they have a message for the crew”

“Put it through” I said, big fucking mistake.

“EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!” at that moment I felt like taking Garnet and hiding somewhere.

“Oh fuck no” I said, starting to panic as the message looped, I turned to Garnet “Garnet, take Thel and protect her, if this ship falls, I need you to take a dropship and get out of here”

“What about you?” he asked.

“I’ll be buying everyone time” I then pulled him into a hug and kissed him on the forehead “I love you, son” I bolted for the armoury, in my powerless state my sword wasn’t going to cut it this time.

*POV 3rd Person*

Minion was in the dining hall with Vinyl and Aurora.

“EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!”

Minion dropped his glass of cider, which shattered when it hit the floor.

“Oh, no” Minion said “oh god no”

“What’s wrong?” Vinyl asked “Minion, do you know them?” Minion pulled Vinyl and Aurora in to a hug and kissed their foreheads.

“I’m so sorry” Minion said “there’s nothing we can do, we’re dead”

“EVERY FUCKING TOA ON THIS FUCKING SHIP GET YOUR ARSE INTO FUCKING GEAR!!!” Vuur Koning shouted over the tannoy system “WE HAVE DALEKS INBOUND. THIS IS AN EXTINCTION LEVEL THREAT! ALL NON ESENTIAL PERSONELL MUST PREPARE TO EXACUATE IMEDIATELY!!!”

“Aurora” Minion said “I want you to go find Princess Luna and go with her”

“But…Dad, what about you and Mum?” the green dragoness asked, a tear ran down Minion’s cheek as he pulled her into a hug.

“We’ll be making sure you have a chance to escape” he said “we’re so proud of you, now go!” Minion pushed her away, she sighed before flying off.

*POV 1st person Vuur Koning*

I ran along the corridors as fast as my legs could take me

“Jörmungandr!” I said through my watch “I’m initiating the sunset protocol, open fire on the Dalek vessel, if you see a Dalek on board…destroy it”

“Understood, sir” I heard the AI say, shudders began to rock the ship as the guns began firing.

“Vuur Koning” Scar said, running alongside me “what are your orders?”

“Stop the Daleks from entering this ship” I said “our personal safety is lowest priority, as of now, Teridax is no longer the most prominent threat”

*POV 3rd person. Location: Dalek Saucer; bridge*

As Daleks began to prepare to board the ship a controller turned to the Supreme Dalek; an elite Dalek with red and gold armour, three speech indicators and stood a couple of inches taller than the rest.

“DALEK SUPREME” a Dalek barked in the usual grating, high mechanical voice of a Dalek “INFERIOR VESSEL HAS OPENED FIRE”

“RETURN FIRE” the Supreme Dalek said in a voice several deca-octaves lower that a dalek’s normal voice “PREPAIR TO BOARD THE VESSEL AND EXTERMINATE THEM!”

“I OBEY” the Dalek said, somewhere on the bridge a Dalek called out.

“EMPEROR ON THE BRIDGE” at the moment a Dalek appeared on an elevator. It wasn’t like usual Daleks, instead of gold armour it was white, and it had no weapons whatsoever. In place of a cranial dome with an eyestalk and speech indicators it had a giant dome. The dome slid away to reveal Davros; creator of the Daleks.

“We will destroy them” he said “AND DEMONSTRAIGHT THE POWER OF THE DALEKS!”

“EMPEROR” the Supreme Dalek said, turning it’s eyestalk towards Davros “WE ARE READY TO BOARD THE VESSEL”

“Excellent” Davros said “send a small boarding party, I want to see what we’re up against before we totally destroy them”

“AND THE ABOMINATIONS?” the Supreme Dalek asked.

“The heavy weapons Daleks might be insane” Davros said “but they still have their uses, send some in the next wave”

“I OBEY” the Supreme Dalek said.

*POV 1s person Vuur Koning*

Myself, all of the Toa, Deadpool, the Avengers, the Guardians of the Galaxy, the Spartans and the Arbiter were all stood in the corridor where the Daleks were going to be boarding.

“Alright” I said “tonight, we make our last stand. It’s been an honour serving with you all”

“I am Groot” Groot said, nodding.

“Couldn’t’ve said it better myself, old friend” Rocket said.

“Mahri?” I asked, turning to the Toa “don’t hold back, they won’t hesitate to kill you. We’re probably all going to die anyway so you may as well leave your moral code behind.

“With pleasure” Congu said, cocking his air blasters. I noticed Master Chief reloading his pistol.

“Don’t bother, Chief” I said “their shielding will melt the bullets before they’ve even touched the Dalekanium armour”

“You know” Crimson said “for once I’d like to meet an alien menace that wasn’t bullet proof. No offence, Arby”

“None taken” the Arbiter said, the door at the end of the corridor began to glow, before blowing completely off its hinges.

“SEEK. LOCATE. ANNIHILATE!” a Dalek barked, its indicators flashing through the smoke and dust.

“SEEK. LOCATE. DESTROY!” another said.

“HUMAN AND NON-HUMAN LIFE FORMS DETECTED” a third called out “EXTERMINATE THEM! EXTERMINATE THEM!!!” they appeared out of the smoke. They didn’t look like normal Daleks, they were squatter and hovered a few feet of the ground. They had Dalekanium panels that were separate from the body of the Dalek and they had a single, central gun instead of the whisk and sink-plunger combo found on normal Daleks. These were recon-scout Daleks, snipers of the Dalek battle fleet.

*POV 3rd Person*

On an uninhabited desert planet somewhere in the multiverse, a light bulb appeared above Discords head as he wrought random chaos upon the planet.

“Oh?” he said, picking the light bulb off of his head and holding it as it projected an image of the Jörmungandr with a Dalek saucer next to it “someone needs me. For freindship” he ate the light bulb and snapped his fingers, a cliché super hero costume appeared on him with a flash and he promptly disappeared in a nuclear explosion of chaos that left a 1000ft high, bright pink, candy floss mushroom cloud that began raining chocolate milk and a shockwave that rolled over the ground with the sound of 1000 cows mooing and left a checkerboard pattern in its wake.

Chapter 18

“EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINAAAAAAAAGH!!!” a Dalek cried out as Minion destroyed it with a single shot from his cannon.

“You know” Minion said, as the other two recon Daleks turned to him “if you spent less time shouting exterminate, and more time actually exterminating, you’d get a hell of a lot further” we then opened fire on them.

“ALERT! ALERT!” one of them cried out as the shots bounced off. Deadpool teleported over and began teleporting around them and taking whacks at them with his katanas as they began trying to fire at him. Only to miss each time, their rifle-like ray guns not designed for close combat “ERROR! ERROR! WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?” he then teleported directly between them.

“HEY!” he shouted, they both turned and fired just as he teleported away. The shots hit the other Dalek and they both exploded.

“Uh...” Vinyl said “was that it?”

“Nope” I said “who wants to go on a Dalek ship?”

“Excuse me, brother” Minion said “but have you lost your fucking mind!?”

“I’m gonna play the old Nova blast ploy” I said.

“Except you still don’t have any elemental powers” Scar said, I gave him a pointed look “I see what you mean” I turned to Minion.

“Their armour is made out of metal” I said “You can…”

“WHA…” I heard a Dalek call out, I turned to see one of them mostly intact, although its antigrav globes were gone and its gun was destroyed “WHAT…ARE…YOU?” I walked over.

“So now you can’t destroy us you want to know what we are” I said, walking over and forcing its eye stork to look at me.

“THE…EMPEROR…IS…WATCHING” it said “HE…WANTS TO KNOW…HOW…JUST ONE CAN…DESTROY US…SO EASILY”

“Well” I said, charging up a teleportation spell “how about I tell him myself?”

“Vuur Koning, NO…” Autumn was cut off as I teleported onto the bridge of the Dalek ship.

“ALERT! ALERT!” a Dalek called out “INTRUDER! INTRUDER!”

“Oh will you shut it!!” I shouted, causing all of the Daleks to stop and look at me.

“EXTERMINATE!” they all shouted, before firing their ray guns. Thinking quickly I activated my mask of shielding, once they stopped firing I stepped forward.

“You guys are seriously shit at surprise attacks” I said, causing them to quickly roll back “I am Vuur Koning, and I wish to speak with the Emperor”

“Strange” I heard a familiar voice say “even in the face of death you show no fear”

“Oh no” I said, pacing around as Davros rolled forward “I am, quite frankly shitting myself” he scoffed.

“You hide it behind coarse words?” he guessed, I shook my head.

“No” I said “I hide it behind rage, and anger, and fury”

“You would make a good Dalek” he said.

“Oh don’t give me that” I said, before speaking to all of the Daleks “a quick question, once you’ve completed your goal of universal domination, what then?”

“EXPLANE” the Supreme Dalek asked.

“Once every other life form is gone, what else is there for you to do other than sit in your stupid little saucers gathering dust?”

“WE WILL BE THE SUPREME BEINGS!” Dalek Supreme exclaimed.

“But you’ll have nothing to show for it!!!” I shouted “you won’t be the supreme beings, you’ll just be a bunch of pathetic tin soldiers in an ancient space ship with nothing to do and no one to be better than!!!” the bridge was silent apart from the staccato hum of the Dalek computers.

“What are you?” Davros asked “you’re human but the way you carry yourself, the way you talk. Are you a companion of the Doctor?” I burst out laughing.

“Hah! No, I’m a Neue-Toa” I said, before getting my sword out, now sharpened enough to cut through atoms, curtesy of Celestia “I’m one of only 15 in existence, we are elite warriors that wield the very elements of…” I stopped, I could feel my powers returning and I smirked.

“Of what?” Davros asked.

“We wield the elements of nature” I said, before letting flames engulf me “and guess who just got his fire powers back?” the Daleks moved back in surprise.

“WHAT IS THIS?” Dalek Supreme barked “EXPLANE! EXPLANE!”

“Oh shut it!” I shouted, before sending a stream of fire at the red Dalek and cooking it alive “shame, you were always my favourite Dalek” I then made a clearing with my flames.

“RIGHT!” I shouted, before pointing at the melted armour of the Supreme Dalek “I’ve got another question for all of you, if I was able to cook Dalek Supreme like a rotisserie chicken without even scratching the surface of my full power, then what do you think will happen if I unleash it in one blast?”

“You would end your life just to destroy us?” Davros asked.

“How do you think I lost my powers last time?” I asked, causing him to widen his eyeless sockets “that’s right, if the Doctor’s the oncoming storm, then I’m the oncoming inferno. Oh sure, he can end wars, and destroy races without firing a single weapon, but I’ve still got my bargaining chip, and I don’t just mean my fire powers” at that moment the rest of my team teleported in and Minion unleashed an electromagnetic pulse, disabling all of the Daleks

“What is the meaning of this!?” Davros barked, his voice no longer synthesised.

“Allow me to introduce my fellow teammates” I said “specifically my brother, who controls magnetism” all of the Daleks reactivated at that moment.

“EXTERMINATE!” they all barked.

“Time to go!” I said, and we teleported back to our ship, where I could see the damaged Dalek was still alive “Remove its weapons systems, but keep it alive and send it down to the science lab”

“Are you mad!?” Minion asked.

“Would you care for some tea?” I shot back, Minion and Natrix understood the reference and smirked.

“I always wanted a Dalek servant” Natrix said. I walked over to the Dalek and knelt down, it rotated its turret-like head to look at me.

“Dalek” I said.

“YES?” it asked.

“We will take you in” I said “repurpose you, show you that you don’t have to destroy”

“I WOULD RATHER DIE A PURE DALEK!” it exclaimed.

“You don’t get a choice” I said, before standing up and turning to a guard “have some scientists collect this and take it to the lab”

“What about the order for evacuation?” he asked.

“Just go!” I said, the guard teleported back with a couple of scientists and they took the screaming Dalek away. Soon we heard more Daleks approaching and we prepared for the coming battle. “Alright, let’s do this” soon a standard Dalek rolled around the corner, followed by.

“HEAVY WEAPONS DALEK!!!” Minion shouted, as we all dived out of the way of one of its shots, which totally obliterated the wall behind us.

“Aim for its minder!” I shouted, we all focused our fire on the normal Dalek. Eventually a lucky shot knocked out its drive system.

“MOTIVE UNITS DAMAGED!” the Dalek said “I CAN NOT MOVE!”

“I WILL GIVE COVERING FIRE” the heavy weapons Dalek said, before firing another shot which blasted another hole in the wall “LOOK, BANG, HA HA!!!” we than began to retreat from the corridor to a much more well defended location.

“Holy shit” Vinyl exclaimed as we ran through the corridors “That thing was insane!”

“That’s it!” I said “Vinyl, you’re a bloody genius, I could kiss you if we didn’t already have significant others”

“What do you mean?” Chief asked.

“The Heavy weapons, or Special weapons Dalek, uses a weapon that leaks radiation” I said “the radiation drives them insane, which makes them more open to suggestion, we just need to eliminate its minder and then we might be able to sway them to our side”

“It’s a crazy idea” Autumn said “but if we have to try, then we can’t say we didn’t explore that possibility” we soon reached one of the sub hangars, thankfully it was empty as everyone was waiting in the main hangar. We all hid behind crates or other large items and about twenty Heavy weapons Daleks rolled in along with their minders.

“Oh shit” I muttered, before speaking into my com-link “on my command, Minion sends out an electromagnetic blast, the rest of us destroy the standard Daleks and then Saphyrus can sway the Heavy weapons Daleks to our side”

“CRUDE COMUNICATIONS DETECTED” a Dalek with a black dome said “SEEK. LOCATE. EXTERMINATE”

“NOW!” I shouted, a wave of black and grey energy rolled across the hangar and all of the Daleks deactivated. We then began focusing on one Dalek at a time, meaning we made quick work until the twenty Heavy weapons Daleks were all that were left. I saw Saphyrus glowing with a blue and gold aurora, which enveloped the Heavy weapons Daleks. After a few minutes the glow stopped and the Heavy weapons Daleks reactivated.

“WHAT!?…I FEEL…DIFFERENT” one of them said, it’s voice having a slight Russian accent to it.

“Daleks” I said, they all turned to me, but didn’t attack.

“JAWOHL!?” one of them asked in German.

“Your masters kept you prisoners” I said, walking forward “called you abominations for daring to think outside the accepted norms, side with us, and we’ll give you better battle machines, one’s that are superior in design, and you’ll be accepted amongst us. What say you?”

“I OBEY” one said.

“I WILL DO IT” another said.

“ICH GEHORCHE” the German one said, one by one they all agreed to help and we made our way back to the corridor where we first encountered the Daleks, the Heavy weapons Daleks stood side by side in front of us as we waited for the next wave. Eventually a small troop of Daleks rolled around the corner.

“’ELLO, WHO IS IT?” one of the Heavy weapons Daleks said in a French accent.

“WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS!?” a Dalek exclaimed.

“AM FRENCH!” the Dalek said “WHY DO YOU THINK I HAVE THIS OUTRAGIOUS ACCENT, YOU SILLY TIN CAN!?”

“WHAT IS THIS? EXPLAIN!” the Dalek said.

“MIND YER OWN BUISINESS!!! AH DON’T WANNA TALK TO YOU NO MORE, YOU EMPTY HEADED ANIMAL FOOD TROUGH WATER. AH FART IN YOUR GENERAL DIRECTION, YOUR MOTHER WAS A HAMPSTER AND YOUR FATHER SMELLS OF ELDER BERRY!” the French Dalek then sent a shot that deliberately missed “NOW GO AWAY OR AH SHALL TAUNT YOU A SECOND TIME!”

“THE ABOMINATIONS ARE INSANE!!!” the normal Dalek said “EXTERMINATE THEM!!!”

“AH UNPLUG MY NOSE AT YOU! *SNORT*” the French Dalek said, before shooting the enemy daleks, destroying some of them.

“WAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!” the Russian sounding one said, before destroying one “CRY SOME MORE, IT MAKES ME HAPPY!!!”

“WE ARE DRIVNG THEM BACK!” one said, before missing “BOLLOCKS!!!” eventually they had destroyed all but one.

“WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THIS?” the Dalek asked “WHY SIDE WITH INFIRIOR LIFE FORMS!?”

“TOURISM” one of the SW Daleks said, before destroying it, a hologram of Davros appeared.

“What is the meaning of this!?” he exclaimed.

“You, quite frankly, don’t scare me anymore” I said, walking forward “I’ll give you a choice, either you leave us now, and go back to your pointless destruction of the universe, or we’ll destroy you”

“Very well” Davros said “we will spare your life for now” the hologram disappeared and Jörmungandr reported the Dalek ship was leaving.

“Call off the evacuation” I said “tonight, we rejoice” at that moment Discord appeared wearing a ridiculous costume, he looked around and sighed.

“I suppose the party’s over” he said.

“You can always stay for the celebration” I said.

“Eh, what the heck” he said, shrugging “sure”

Chapter 19

I was showing Princess Luna and a scientist the HW Daleks.

“And finally” I said “we have Excitable, German, Frenchie, Heavy, Hulk, Batman and Glados”

“Oh” Glados Dalek said, in a quieter and more feminine voice than the other Daleks “it’s you”

“Why is her voice different?” Luna asked.

“DALEKS DO NOT HAVE GENDERS” Rusty, the former recon Dalek, said, hovering beside us carrying a tray. We’d been able to sway him to our side after we left him in a room with Saphyrus “SPECIAL WEAPONS DALEK DESIGNATION; GLADOS, HAS A FAULTY VOICE EMULATOR AND A FALSE GENDER COMPLEX, THUS GIVING THE ILLUSION OF BEING A FEMALE”

“Okay” Glados Dalek said, narrowing the light of ‘her’ eye “‘Why do I hate you so much?’ did you ever wonder that? I’m brilliant, I’m not bragging, it’s an objective fact; a Dalek is a genius, its knowledge is one of the most massive collections of wisdom that’s ever existed…and I hate you, it can’t be for no reason, you must deserve it, you loud, genocidal lunatic”

“Anyway” I said, turning to the scientist “we need to create new armour for them” the scientist conjured a notepad out and began scribbling notes.

“Go on” the Unicorn mare said.

“It needs to be bipedal and heavily armoured, make it about 8ft tall. A unique design, but reminiscent of the HWD design and Dalek styling in general, I want the cranial dome to be similar, but with more of a ‘face’. And make it elegant”

“DALEKS HAVE NO CONCEPT OF ELEGANCE” Rusty said, bobbing up and down slowly as he hovered on the spot.

“Oh hush you” I said, tapping Rusty on the eyestalk and causing him to move away a few inches “anyway, the voice modulator needs changing for one that sounds less aggressive but still retains the mechanical voice ever so slightly, and remove the emotional inhibitors and memory suppressors”

“WHAT IS TO BECOME OF ME?” Rusty asked “AM I TO BE CONVERTED?”

“Depends on how useful your are as is” I said “and how long before the H.W.D.s tire of your grating personality and try to destroy you”

“DALEKS HAVE NO CONCEPT OF PERSONALITY” Rusty said.

“Tell that to the twenty odd SWDs with unique mind-sets” I said, jerking a thumb towards the line of H.W.D.s

“THEY ARE INSANE” Rusty said.

“You know what?” Dalek Glados asked, looking at Rusty “I feel terrible for what I said earlier. I’ll tell you what, let’s give your parents a call” we all heard the sound of telephone dial buttons being pressed, followed by a phone ringing.

“*CLICK* THE DALEKS PARENTS YOU ARE TRYING TO REACH DO NOT LOVE YOU, PLEASE HANG UP *BEEEEEP-CLICK*” a Dalek said.

“Oh, that’s sad” Dalek Glados said, feigning pity “but impressive, maybe they worked at the phone company” Luna gave a snort of amusement.

“At least they break up the monotony” She said.

I was walking through the workshops when I saw two of the crusaders standing next to a cross between a rolling road and a simulator, with a prototype Timberwolf attached to it. Scootaloo was the one riding it as a screen in front of her displayed a busy, one way city road like those found in British cities like London, Bristol or Nottingham. Scootaloo tilted the Timberwolf to follow the turns and the whole of the main chassis moved to the inside of each turn as she weaved between traffic.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Just testing out the software for the Timberwolves and making any adjustments” Sweetie Bell said, standing by a computer “and getting used to riding them, it feels like you’re floating”

“It feels like I’m flying!” Scootaloo exclaimed. I chuckled slightly, a couple of years ago she found out that she had a rare genetic disorder that causes her wings to be under-developed, meaning she would be unable to fly under her own power, and since then she’d been in a mood about it. It’s about time she found herself a good alternative.

“Just wait till we get to the next planet to test these bad boys out” Sweetie Bell said, looking over to the other two Timberwolves, they were painted a dark-red, with Sweetie Bell’s off-white coat as the secondary colour on one, and Apple Bloom’s pale-yellow coat for the other, likewise the secondary colour on Scootaloo’s Timberwolf corresponded with her orange coat. At that moment Rusty floated over, his armour was now red and gold.

“WOULD YOU CARE FOR SOME TEA?” he asked.

“Yes please” I said “milk, two sugars” he then floated away, I noticed the Crusaders staring at Rusty wide eyed.

“What in Tartarus is that thing doing here!?” Scootaloo asked.

“Give him time” I said “besides, he’s harmless”

“But yawl fought those…things” Applebloom said.

“Yes” I said “and we now have twenty Heavy Weapons Daleks on our side” as I said this one of them rolled past.

“I still don’t trust them” Scootaloo said, jumping off the Timberwolf

“Dalek” I called, the H.W.D. stopped and turned.

“’ELLO?” French one it is, I mentally sighed.

“How are you?” I asked.

“MIND YER OWN BUISINESS YEW DIRTY INGLESH PIG-DOG!” the Dalek replied, before rolling away, I heard laughter and saw the Crusaders rolling on the floor laughing.

“Okay” Scootaloo said “I take what I said back, they’re brilliant”

“What are the others like?” Sweetie Bell asked.

“Insane, but harmless” I said “just take what they say with a pinch of salt” the three teenage fillies beamed before running off after the Dalek, at that moment Rust returned with a mug of tea.

“YOUR TEA, SIR” he said.

“Cheers, mate” I said, before taking a sip “ahh, now that’s a cuppa”

*POV 3rd person*

The Crusaders ran after the French Dalek.

“Hey!” Scootaloo called out “wait up!”

“BUZZ OFF!” the French Dalek said.

“We want to meet the other Daleks” Sweetie Bell said.

“GO AWAY, YOU EMPTY HEADED ANIMAL FOOD TROUGH WATER” the French Dalek replied, only for Scootaloo to jump in front of the Heavy Weapons Dalek.

“HEY, you don’t talk to ponies like that!”

“GO AWAY OR I SHALL TUANT YOU A SECOND TIME” the French Dalek said, before rolling around Scootaloo and carrying on back towards the Dalek hangar.

“What the buck is wrong with yawl!?” Applebloom asked.

“AH’M FRENCH!” the Dalek said, before promptly ignoring them until they got to the hangar. Where about 18 other Heavy Weapons Daleks were milling about doing sod all other than being bat-shit-fucking-insane. At that moment a Heavy Weapons Dalek with a white turban on top of its dome burst through the doors in an explosion.

“HELLO” it said, rolling around knocking random things over “SORRY I’M LATE”

“THAT’S NOT GONE WELL” another Dalek remarked in an approximation of a British accent, standing next to two others. The turban headed Dalek looked around at the growing carnage and said.

“PUT IT ALL IN THE CURRY”

“YOU BLITHERING IDIOT!” one of the group of three Daleks said, as the other two burst out laughing at the antics of the other Dalek

“I think their insane” Scootaloo said, rolling her eyes in opposite directions whilst twirling a hoof at the side of her head in a ‘cuckoo’ gesture.

“OH YES, IT’S VERY NICE” the French Dalek said, looking at them.

“Oh hi” a Dalek said in a synthesised, female voice, rolling other “ignore the others, they talk nonsense half the time anyway, we’re lucky his room is practically indestructible, else they would have wreaked havoc on this entire facility already”

“Why are you here?” Sweetie Bell asked.

“I keep the others from getting out of hand” it said, sounding board and actually sighing “I hate them, it’s like a swarm of voices constantly nagging in the back of my mind”

*POV 1st Person Vuur Koning*

I was stood at the back of the ship with Autumn, sharing a couple of drinks. Thankfully not many people come back here so it’s good for a quiet moment.

“I can’t believe it” Autumn said “soon I’ll be a grandmother”

“We still need to have a talk about…” I said, before looking down to her stomach “well, you can probably figure out”

“But we already have Ruby and Garnet” Autumn said “plus I want to get married before we even think about considering having our own kids, and now isn’t the best time for us to tie the knot, we both agreed on that”

“Yeah” I said “if we get married, I want my Mum and Step-dad to be there”

“I never understood why you don’t just call him Dad” Autumn said

“He’s a decent bloke” I said “and I mean him no offence when I say this, but there will only be one person I will ever call dad, Minion shares that opinion. Anyway, back to the subject, I want to have my own kid-slash-kids, not just adopt, I want to watch them grow up from a baby…or foal, I want to be there for them their entire life, not suddenly appear when their already teens” I absent mindedly swirled my drink whilst looking over the edge at the stars below. Autumn leant her head on my shoulder and hummed in agreement.

“I do too” she said, kissing me on the cheek “but we need to wait for the right time” I suddenly chuckled.

“What’s so funny?” Autumn asked.

“Just remembering something a comedian said about granddads” I said “Granddads are like this mystical person that comes into your life when your two, and they’re like; ‘hello, I’m your granddad, I’m gonna be the funniest thing in your life for the next 15 years, but then I will go mental’ that’s their role in your life; funny, funny, funny, washing themselves in a puddle, Granddads!” Autumn snorted with laughter.

“Just as long as you don’t go washing yourself in a puddle” she said, nuzzling my cheek, I hummed in agreement.

“If I do, you may as well kill me, as I’m already dead” I then took a sip of my drink before pulling a face “Does this cider taste off to you?” she took a sip of hers, I started feeling lightheaded.

“I think there’s something…” Autumn said “…in the…” whatever she was going to say was cut off as I fell to the floor and Autumn fell on top of me before I blacked out.

Chapter 20

WARNING:This chapter contains very dark themes, and one scene of beheading and multiple ponies dying in quick succession in very bloody ways

As I came to I noticed several things. Thing number one; I was really, really uncomfortable. Thing number two; I was suspended upright via what felt like cold, metal chains. Thing number three; it was dark. Thing number four; I had no armour, and finally; I could heard a constant *BOOM-HISSSSSS…BOOM-HISSSSS* in the background. The part of me that loved industry was curious as to what sort of facility I was in, but I pushed that thought to the back of my mind, now wasn’t the time.

“Ungh…Vuur Koning?” I heard Autumn say.

“Autumn?” I asked.

“Hello?” I heard Boris say.

“Boris?” I asked, my vision was starting adjust to the dark, we were in some kind of open topped cell and we were all in a line “Where the hell are we?” at that moment I heard Minion groan.

“Jesus fucking Christ, my head” he mumbled “wait, where am I…Vinyl!?”

“Bucking hell!” Vinyl exclaimed “not so loud”

“What the hell?” I heard Scar mutter.

“Great” I muttered “we’re all chained up and…oh yeah, we have no fucking armour”

“Sorry about that” I heard a familiar voice say, before chuckling “can’t have you pulling any surprises, now can we?” at that moment Rainbow Dash trotted into view.

“Rainbow Dash!?” I asked in surprise.

“Uh, do I know you?” she asked.

“Parallel world it is” I said “to answer your question, no, you don’t know me, but I know a version of you from an alternate world”

“Uh…what?” she asked with a blank look on her face.

“Notice the planets in the sky?” I asked “we’re from one of those worlds”

“Oh” she said.

“Say, R.D.” Vinyl said “would you mind letting us down…” Rainbow burst out laughing.

“Ha! Why would I do that?” she asked, smirking.

“Uh, where are we?” I asked.

“You really don’t get it do you?” she said “I would have thought you’d be a heck of a lot smarter, you’re currently in Cloudsdale weather facility, hence why you’re chained to the wall, and you’re gonna be part of something beautiful”

“Oh shit” Autumn said.

“And the bit drops” Rainbow said “so I got this letter, from Queen Celestia herself…”

“Queen!?” I exclaimed, through the dark I could see her giving me a deadpan look “sorry, continue”

“…from Queen Celestia herself” she said “saying we were gonna get some rather…interesting individuals, who needed taking care of for a friend of hers”

“Teridax” I said, Rainbow just shrugged.

“The buck should I know?” she asked “anyway, a few weeks later we get a knock on the door with some guys straight out of a freak show holding you six and saying ‘enjoy’ next thing we know, you’re all chained to the wall waiting to have your spectra extracted”

“Oh shit-shit-shit-shit-shit-shit-shit” Autumn muttered under her breath, trying to pull free of the chains.

“Autumn?” I asked “what’s wrong?”

“Autumn?” Rainbow asked “as in Autumn Skies, famous Equestrian elite guard? Damn, small bucking universe”

“Maybe on this world” I said “What has gotten her so spooked?” Rainbow Dash chuckled darkly

“How is a rainbow made?” she asked.

“Oh shit” Autumn muttered, sounding panicky “that’s impossible, they shut that facility down hundreds of centuries ago”

“Would you stop being so mysterious-vague?” Boris asked “because I’m getting really confused”

“You don’t want to know” Autumn said, panicking “listen, if you kill us, you’ll be making a really bad mistake, trust me”

“Why should I care?” Rainbow Dash asked nonchalantly “I just help make rainbows, nothing personal, just business”

“WHAT THE FUCK!?” I shouted “the Rainbow Dash I know wouldn’t be so nonchalant about killing, hell, she was in a dump for months because she accidentally killed her friend…”

“Don’t you bucking dare accuse me of not caring, I feel guilty about every bucking foal we kill!” she shouted, before turning away and walking towards a barred window, she sat down and her shoulders slumped, she sighed and when she next spoke she sounded tired “we do this because we have to, even if the one you have to kill…is practically a sister to you”

“Scootaloo?” I guess, she hummed in agreement “help us escape, and you can come with us”

“Why would I do that?” she asked, not looking at me “and furthermore, why would you even offer to let me come with you, I was about to order you to be killed”

“Did I mention Scootaloo is still alive on our world?” I asked, her ears perked up “in fact, she’s travelling on the same ship as us” she turned to look at me.

“You better not be saying this just so you can get out of here” she said, before bolting over and prodding my chest with a hoof “because if you’re lying, I’ll kill you myself”

“I wouldn’t lie about that sort of thing” I said “I’m guessing this world doesn’t have the elements of harmony”

“The what?” she asked.

“That’ll be a no then” I said “that makes thing so much easier” Rainbow Dash landed on the cloud floor and looked out of the window before saying.

“Fine, I’ll help you escape, it’s not like I have anything left in this shithole of a country” she went to release us but I stopped her.

“We’re gonna need our armour back” I said “they adapt to the environment allowing us to walk on clouds” she looked at me warily before walking out the room.

“Vuur” Autumn said “as much as I love you very dearly, sometimes it’s better to just kill them and get the buck out of Dodge”

“And after we were to kill her, how would we escape?” I asked “we don’t know our way around this place” she didn’t answer. At that moment Rainbow Dash walked in with a small bag.

“It’s all in here” she said, she then began sorting through each piece until we all had our armour “What sort of ponies are you? You sure as buck aren’t any kind of Royal guard”

“Neue-Toa” I said, adjusting the strap on my shoulder pad before getting out my power sword and powering it up “outside the government and beyond the royal guard, it’s our job to take down the things that go bump in the night, and I don’t take kindly to people threatening my family, so do exactly as I say and I won’t feel the urge to kill you before you get to see scoots” Rainbow Dash gulped.

“S-sure” she said “the exit is this way” I stopped her.

“Why find the exit when I can just make my own?” flames began to swirl around me and my sword began to glow “it’s going to get very hot in here”

*POV 3rd Person*

As the scientists watch the failures having their spectra extracted the power cut out, causing the facility to cut to emergency power and the machinery to turn off. They look around in confusion

THUD…THUD…BOOM

The door to one of the containment cells exploded in a fireball and a bipedal being in red metal armour walked along the walkway with a large sword in one hand and a pistol in the other, he walked over to one of the scientists, who had a part of the metal door sticking through this chest.

*POV 1st Person Vuur Koning

“The prisoners” I said, quietly “where are they kept, tell the truth and I’ll make it quick” the scientist spat out some blood.

“They’re kept on the detention block” he said “5th floor, you’re on the 7th at the moment” I responded by shooting the scientist and doing likewise with the other, Rainbow Dash walked over and stopped when she saw the scientists.

“Y-you killed them” she said.

“They were dead anyway” I said “I was putting them out of their misery, detention block; 5th floor, now!” Rainbow Dash nodded by leading me down a set of stairs.

*POV 3rd Person*

Minion stepped onto the walkway, followed by the other Toa.

“Damn” Vinyl said “Vuur’s pissed”

“To him, and me if I’m totally honest, this place just screams ‘Auschwitz’” Minion said, taking aim at one of the giant pistons and firing, causing it to crash through the floor and keep going, he began shooting at random equipment, at this moment two things happened, one, the factory started back up. Two, several ponies wielding arc-sticks landed on the metal walkway.

“Why don’t you just run back to your cell like good freaks?” one of them said through the handle of the ark-stick being held in his mouth, smirking. Autumn responded by activating her mask of stealth “where did she go!?” he heard a *shink* and turned towards the source of the sound to see one of his fellow ponies standing there with a vacant look in his eyes.

“Uh…dude, are you okay?” the pegasus responded in the form of his head falling off and rolling over the edge as his headless body collapsed “What the buck!? Aaah!” an invisible, albeit blood coated sword went through his chest and began to lift him up before throwing him over the edge, causing him to land on the conveyer belt below and get crushed by one of the cylinders.

“What the buck is going on!?” one of the pegasi asked as they began to back up, only to receive a sword through the head for his trouble and launched off the edge. Another pegasi was picked up, chucked onto the conveyor belt and crushed alive. Autumn deactivated her mask and stepped toward the remaining pegasi.

“This is your last chance, surrender, or run” she said, they wasted no time in getting the fuck out of there. Autumn turned to her fellow Toa “feel free to step in at any time” she then walked off.

“I’d hate to be Vuur Koning whilst she’s in heat” Vinyl said.

“Time and a fucking place” Minion muttered, before unloading his clip at the surrounding equipment and running out of the room, followed closely by his team mates as the factory began destroying itself.

*POV 1st Person Vuur Koning*

Now that we were in a much better lit area, I began to notice several differences between ‘my’ Terra’s Rainbow Dash, and this one. The most noticeable of which was she bore a huge scar over her left eye.

“How did you get the scar?” I asked.

“Scootaloo tried to escape” she replied tersely “this was just a result of the struggle, now if it’s okay with you, I’d rather not talk about it” I began tapping at my smart watch, trying to see if I could communicate with the Jörmungandr, only to receive a ‘no signal’ notification.

“Bugger” I muttered.

“’Sup?” Rainbow asked.

“I have quite a large ship, it’s out of range” I said, she had a confused expression on her face “put simply, we’re stuck on this planet for the time being, something I would rather avoid”

“Why?” Rainbow asked, as we began to descend a flight of stairs.

“Your world’s Celestia seems like the type that isn’t afraid to show her authority” I said, Rainbow snorted “considering

“Understatement of the millennium” she said “they say she once had a sister who tried to bring eternal night, apparently Celestia sent her to the sun” I stopped dead in my tracks.

“Shit” I said.

“Your Celestia different?” she asked.

“Let’s just say she that if anything she’s too lenient some of the time” I said “not that that’s a bad thing, she can be bloody terrifying when provoked”

“So” Rainbow said “what’s she like?”

“I just told you…” Rainbow shook her head.

“Not Celestia” she said “I meant me, what am I like”

“Like you I guess” I said “but she doesn’t kill kids as a day job”

“One more comment like that and I’ll split your skull” she said

“Fine” I said, I supressed a shiver “I really don’t like this place, it reminds me of Auschwitz”

“Mousevitch?” she asked.

“No” I said “Auschwitz, it’s from my home world, and I don’t mean the other Terra”

“What kind of place was it?” she asked.

“A concentration camp” I said.

“You guys have changeling where you’re from!?” she asked.

“WHAT!?” I asked.

“Why else would you need a concentration camp?” I stopped dead in my tracks “Uh, are you okay?”

“When I’m done with Queen Celestia” I said, my voice barely a whisper, I suddenly punched a wall “she will be begging for death!”

“H-hey” she said “now isn’t the time to be getting too angry”

“Do you have any fucking idea what they do at concentration camp!?” I asked “they are places of misery, where they reduce you to shadows of your former self, and then, when you are no longer of use, they send you to the showers and pump them full of cyanide!” by this point I was looming over her, and she was backed against the wall. I took a breath before drawing back and carrying on walking. After a few meters I stopped and turned to see Rainbow Dash still in the same spot, I sighed.

“Sorry about that” I said “my grandfather was imprisoned in a concentration camp during a war, thankfully he wasn’t killed in the showers. But it’s still a touchy subject with me”

“Dude” she said, walking over to catch up “don’t worry about it, we both have touchy subjects, let’s just bust the kids out and get the heck out of here” I nodded and we continued walking.

“You know” I said “if you’re so willing to help us liberate this place, then why work here, all these years?”

“I didn’t get a choice” she said “I just wanted to be a simple weather mare who practiced stunts in her spare time” I wanted to say something but we came across a door with a guard in front of it.

“What are you doing?” the guard asked “return to your post”

“You know” Rainbow Dash said, her eyes beginning to glow blue “I’ve never liked this place, I never even wanted to work here. And furthermore…” lightning began to crawl across her fur and an aura of fire enveloped her.

“I QUIT!” she unleashed a blast that knocked me back and blew the door off its hinges. I shook my head and looked up to see that Rainbow had undergone a transformation. She was now a honest to gods, full blown, mother fucking Neue-Toa of Plasma.

“Well…shit”

Chapter 21

Rainbow Dash turned to me, still surrounded by an aura of Plasma.

“What the buck is this?” she asked.

“You’ve just become a Neue-Toa” I said, standing up “Toa of plasma most likely”

“Plasma?” she asked.

“Think lightning mixed with fire” I said, before nodding my head towards the door “come on, we have a factory to liberate” I walked through the melted doorway and stopped when I noticed Rainbow Dash wasn’t following.

“Uh, how do I walk?” she asked, I face palmed.

“Watch closely and use your wings to balance” I said, before slowly walking towards her “one foot in front of the other, like so”

“Okay” she said, before walking forward unsteadily, only to fall over.

“Oh for fucks sake” I said, walking over, picking her up and putting her arm over my shoulders “just hold on until you feel like you can walk well enough on your own” we then continued on our way through the corridors, progress was slow, but we eventually found the detention block. Rainbow Dash could now walk reasonably well on her own, seems she was a fast learner. I walked to one of the cell doors and looked through the window, there were a few pegasi kids in there. I knocked on the window and they looked at me in surprise.

“Hey, kids” I said “you might want to stand clear of the door” they nodded before squeezing themselves against each corner.

“HYAA!!” I kicked the door down with barely any effort and the colts and fillies walked forward, they eyes full of wonder when they saw me “can you all fly?” all except for one nodded.

“I-I think my wing is broken” a green filly with a white mane said through gritted teeth. I turned to Rainbow Dash.

“You’ll know what you’re looking at” I said “you check” she nodded before walking forward, the filly began backing away in fear.

“Hey, kid” Rainbow Dash said softly “I’m not going to hurt you, I need to check your wing” after a few moments the filly hesitantly tried to open her left wing, only to cry out in pain when it reached about half of its full span. Rainbow carefully held the half open wing and began lightly pressing on the bones to check

“How bad?” I asked, she shook her head.

“Not good” she said, before scooping the filly up in her arms “looks like I’m gonna have to carry you, kid”

“Alright kids” I said “let’s get out of here, and quietly” then then began quietly waking their way out of the cell and we began looking for more occupied cells, thankfully there weren’t any more occupied cells and we soon met back up with the rest of the toa, by which time explosions were shaking the entire factory.

“What the h…” I stopped when I remembered we had kids with us “what did you do?”

“I felt trigger happy” Minion said “also, if you see a hole in the floor and ceiling, that was me” I sighed and face palmed.

“We’re stuck on this world for the time being” I said “the last thing we need is to be wanted for destruction of property”

“We would have had the guards on our tails anyway” Rainbow said “now let’s get out of here, our best bet is to head straight for the old castle in the Everfree” I nodded to Minion who began unloading his gun in the wall until we could see outside.

“Alright” I said “Rainbow, you lead the kids out first” Rainbow nodded and took off, followed closely by the fillies and colts. Once they were clear we flew after them as the factory exploded around us as soon as we were clear of the factory we could see it falling towards the ground in flames.

“Good riddance” Scar muttered as it impacted with the forest in a rainbow coloured fireball, we soon made our way to the old castle and set up a temporary camp. Most of the kids began to wander around the castle, but didn’t actually go outside. I was sat against the wall in the throne room, keeping an eye on the kids when a yellow filly with orange hair, about 7 by my guess, walked over and sat down next to me.

“What are you?” she asked.

“I’m a human” I said, absentmindedly playing with a ball of fire “think of a really smart monkey, I’m also a Neue-Toa”

“And what’s a ‘Nu-toe-ah’?” she asked.

“An elite warrior that can control the elements” I said “for instance, I can control fire”

“Can you get burnt?” she asked.

“Yes” I said “but it’s very hard to do so, and it never works when it’s my own fire. What’s your name, kid?”

“Uh…Sunny Skies” she said “Mister…”

“Vuur Koning” I said “my real name is Luke, but I prefer Vuur Koning”

“That’s an odd name” she said.

“Where I come from we don’t name people after things” I said.

“Where do you come from?” she asked.

“Space” I said, I noticed her eyes widened and chuckled “you got a home?” she suddenly looked down cast and sniffed.

“Not anymore” she said, tears starting to form in her eyes.

“Come here” I said, holding my arm out for her. She shuffled over and leaned against me as I comforted her. We sat like that for some time and eventually I noticed she’d fallen asleep, Autumn walked in and stopped when she noticed me with the filly, she gave me a look.

“Honestly, Vuur” she said quietly, sitting down next to me “another kid?”

“I guess I’m a softy like that” I said, gently stroking the filly’s mane “*sigh* what are we gonna do with all of these kids?”

“I guess they could go to members of the crew” Autumn said “no way in tartarus we’re leaving them on this planet”

“Honestly” I said, rolling my eyes “a Dictatorquestria, what’s next, an alternate Earth where the Third Reich won World War 2?”

“Vuur!” Autumn exclaimed quietly “don’t think like that”

“Considering our luck I wouldn’t be surprised” I said, before trying to contact the Jörmungandr “still no signal, how long will we be stuck on this hell hole”

“We will need help at some point” Autumn said “let’s just hope we can find someone friendly”

“Uh…Vuur Koning, you might want to come see this” I heard Vinyl say over the com-link. I gently nudged Sunny Skies awake.

“Sunny” I said “come on, you need to wake up”

“Ungh…Vuur Koning?” she asked “what’s wrong?”

“I need to get up, you can sit with Autumn” Sunny Skies nodded before groggily walking over to Autumn, who pulled the young filly into an embrace, Sunny Skies fell asleep almost instantly. I chuckled before standing up and walking out of the room. Vinyl and Minion were stood outside at the bridge “What’s up?”

“Just look across the bridge” Minion said, I looked along the bridge and did a double take, standing at the other end, looking just as shocked as me, was…me…or rather, a female version of me, her armour was exactly like mine but…sleeker.

“Shit” I said “this just got a lot more complicated”

Chapter 22

“…and that about raps up our story” I said, all of the kids and the alternate me were gathered around a campfire as I told the story I had told countless times before, omitting certain parts of course “so, Vuur Koningin, what about you?” my female equivalent thought for a moment

“I arrived on this world about…hmm…4 years ago” she said “I never agreed with how Celestia runs this country, so I went into hiding, trying to take her down the shadows” she then giggled.

“What?” I asked.

“I find it funny, on this world, Autumn is my arch rival”

“Really!?” I asked.

“Yeah, no offence, Autumn” She said “but on this world, you’re a bit of a jerk”

“None taken” Autumn said, holding Summer Skies as the filly slept. Vuur smiled when she saw Summer Skies.

“I always wanted a kid” she said “but that’s not an option at the moment”

“Well” I said “you could always come with us, get away from this hell hole”

“What about Celestia?” she asked.

“We have our own Alicorn on the ship” I said “and considering we were taken to the rainbow factory, a place that existed about 1000 years ago back on our Terra, I think it’s safe to say that they won’t be best pleased with Queen Celestia” she thought for a moment before saying.

“I’ll sleep on the matter” she said “you’ll get your answer in the morning”

*the next morning*

I woke up feeling cold, right, I was in the throne room of an old castle, so of course it would be bloody cold. I looked around to see all of the kids huddled around us, they’d gotten all the blankets. I carefully took my arms from around Sunny Skies, at which point she snuggled against Autumn. I stood up and carefully walked across the throne room, making sure not to step on any of the kids. I found the other me standing outside, looking into the forest.

“Morning” I said, walking over “bloody hell, it’s cold”

“Morning” she replied “after all these years of living in the forest, I don’t feel the cold anymore”

“Did you find any allies?” I asked.

“Yes” she said “as a matter of fact, I did, come on, I’ll show you” she then took my hand and began pulling me across the bridge .

“Bloody hell!” I exclaimed “c-could you slow down?”

“No time” she said, dragging me through the forest “one of them doesn’t do well in sunlight”

“Who doesn’t?” I asked, as branches whipped at my mask.

“You’ll find out soon enough” she said.

‘okaaaay, definitely isn’t that used to contact from another person’ I thought ‘this could be interesting’ she soon led me to a clearing.

“Well?” I asked “care to explain why you’ve just dragged me halfway through the Everfree?”

“Shh” she said, crouching down and slowly walking towards the edge of the clearing, she suddenly got out her staff and chucked it away “come on out, I want you to meet a friend of mine”

“Who, me?” I asked, only for her to shush me. After a few moments a small Scorpius, the scorpion equivalent of an Ursa Minor scuttled out, it was about 6ft high at the stinger. She slowly gestured for me to approach.

“No sudden movements” she said “else she’ll get scared” once I was close enough she grabbed my hand and gently placed it on the head area of the Scorpius, which began to chirp and curl up its stinger.

“That’s so cool” I said.

“She likes you” Vuur Koningin said, giggling, at that moment more forest creatures started to appear. A pride of Manticores, a pack of timberwolves, you name it, it was there, she started to fuss a manticore “you watch over the ponies of your world, I watch over the forest folk. I can speak all of their languages”

“They have languages?” I asked, to which she nodded.

“Vuur” a deep, female voice said “why have you brought this…outsider here?” I saw a pair of red eyes and went to get my sword out, only for my mirror self to stop me by holding my arms.

“I know who you think it is, but just give her a chance” she said, looking straight into my eyes before turning and bowing “Teridax, this is a version of myself, from another universe” the eyes shifted towards me

“Why is…he…here?” she asked.

“Not through any fault of my own, Makuta” I spat. I heard thudding footsteps and a female version of Teridax stepped out of the trees, she was about 20ft tall, and a lot more slender then the male Teridax, her armour was also made of wood and practically rotting away “damn, you did not age well” she lunged forward and pinned me down by my throat

“HOLD YOUR TONGUE, MORTAL!” she boomed, causing the animals to scatter “I might not be trying to rule the universe, but I can still destroy you”

“I find that hard to believe” I said through gritted teeth “how do I know you aren’t using some kind of mind control to keep the copy in check?”

“Hey!” The other me said “I am not some pawn”

“Really?” I asked “because I’ve been chasing another Teridax across half the fucking solar system, he’s why I’m stuck on this parody of Equestria” Teridax pulled her arm away from me and stepped back.

“That sounds like something a male version of me would do, why directly face your problems when you can simply make them disappear?” she said “you have ten minutes to explain properly why you’re here” I stood up and began to explain everything, the different universes merging, the male Teridax, my team’s quest, the Rainbow Factory, absolutely everything.

“If you are truly good” I said to Teridax “you’ll help us” she thought for a moment.

“On multiple conditions” she said.

“Go on” I said.

“New armour” Teridax said, I nodded “and once when we find Teridax, he’s mine. He should realise that there are more important things than taking over the universe”

“What about the forest folk?” Vuur Koningin asked “we can’t just leave them here”

“Would you rather I absorbed them all?” Teridax asked, raising an eyebrow, Vuur Koningin hastily shook her head “well then, let’s get a move on”

We were now back at the castle.

“So” Minion said “to sum up, we now have a mirrorverse Teridax on our side”

“That’s paraphrasing” I said “but in essence, yes”

“I still don’t trust her” Autumn said.

“Hello!” I said “Melding-Teridax ring any bells”

“You met the Melding version of Teridax?” Vuur Koningin asked.

“Yes” I said “and it’s a he”

“Well” an all too familiar voice said “that depends on the point of view”

“Took you long enough, Discord” I said, crossing my arms. Discord poked his head out from behind Teridax.

“Sorry” he said, walking into view “you have no idea how hard it was to trace the spell your drinks were laced with”

“Go on” I said.

“Quite clever actually” he said “it transported you to this world via several other worlds, making you really hard to trace, which Terra is this?”

“Celestia is a tyrant” I said “let just leave it at that and get the heck out of here, can you do that?”

“All of that teleporting I’ve just done has taken quite a large chunk of my reserves” he said “not all of the world are as rich in magic as Terra” I sighed.

“Will you be able to get us all to the Jörmungandr or not?” I asked.

“No” he said “but I’ll be able to get us all to the closest planet, bear in mind I’ll be out of magic for some time afterwards”

“*sigh* it’s better than nothing” I said “do it” Discord looked at the kids and hummed in thought before clicking his fingers, next thing I knew we were all on a rollercoaster and a winding rollercoaster track had suddenly materialised in front of us. I was at the front sat next to Discord, I looked back to see Teridax sitting at the back next to my double, being forced to squat under the safety bar and quite frankly, looking ridiculous.

“What in the name of Karzahni is this?” Teridax asked.

“Please remain seated, keep your arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times” a voice said, as Discord put on a pair of WW2 pilots goggles. My eyes reduced to pinpricks as I looked ahead.

“Uh oh” I said, as the carriages shot forward. It did loops and barrel rolls as the kids squealed with joy. After a few seconds it screeched to a halt next to a booth.

“Welcome to Chaotic burger, how can I help you?” a voice said from the booth.

“Chaotic burger?” Discord offered.

“Nah, I’m good” I said, and with that, the ride resumed its course of madness. After a few more moments it shot through a portal and stopped in a dark and dirty alley on the other side. We all climbed out, except for Teridax, who was shaking like a leaf and gripping the safety bar so hard it was now bent.

“That…was worse than anything Karzahni herself could conjure up” Teridax said, before shakily climbing out. Discord shrugged before snapping his fingers and causing the rollercoaster to vanish with a flash, I motioned for the others to keep quiet and stay put before slowly walking towards the end of the alley. I could hear voices in the streets

“Rechts, zwei, drei, vier. Rechts, zwei, drei, vier” I could see what looked like soldiers in some kind of angular armour patrolling, what stood out most was the blaring Swastika on their shoulders.

“Fucking great” I muttered, before quickly retreating. Minion noticed the look on my face.

“How bad?” he asked.

“Very” I squeaked out, leaning against the wall and sliding down it, ignoring the soot that got smeared onto my armour. Minion slowly walked to the end before retreating and sitting next to me.

“Oh all the places” he said, looking as hopeless as I did “we had to end up in an alternate world where the Nazi’s rule the world” Discord looked sheepish.

“Heh, my bad” he said.

“Don’t” I said, hanging my head “just…don’t”

“I’m confused” Sunny Skies said “why are you so sad?” I gestured for the kids to gather around and for Sunny to sit with me.

“A long time ago, on my world” I said “there was a large war, so large that they called it the First World War. One country lost and one person from that country wasn’t happy with that, long story short. He rose to power and ended up starting a group that eventually hurt a lot of innocent people and caused another World War. We are currently…*sigh* we’re stuck on a world where they won that war” the kids gasped.

“You’re kidding, right?” Vuur Koningin asked, I shoot my head “what are we going to do?”

“How long until you have your magic back?” I asked Discord.

“A few days” he said, I turned to Teridax.

“How good are you at concealing groups?” I asked, looking at the group of five or so kids.

“I’ll take care of the kids and Vuur” she said “you’ll have to take care of yourselves” I nodded.

“We can do that” I said, before turning to Discord “Think you can tick off the 3rd Reich for us?”

“I’ll do my best” he said, saluting me.

“Then let’s do this” I said.

*POV 3rd person*

Discord walked into the streets dressed in a dress and stepped in front of a patrol, causing them to stop and look at him in shock. Their leader pointed a pistol at the Draconequiis.

“[So]” Discord said in German “[I was at a gay, Jewish, Gypsy Bar-Mitzvah for disabled, black, cross-dressers when I thought ‘*hmm* the Third Reich’s a bit rubbish, I think I’ll kill the Führer’]"

Chapter 23

Whilst Discord provided a distraction we snuck past the soldiers, who were gathered around Discord as he did everything he could to piss them off. Whilst we were concealed, it didn’t hurt to be that little extra careful.

“Alright Kids” I whispered “you need to be really, really quiet” we walked around a corner as more soldiers ran towards Discord, I stopped when I saw a soldier run after a civilian and start beating them. Don’t get involved, don’t get involved, don’t get involved, ah screw this shit.

Teridax” I said, stopping “take, Vuur, Rainbow and the kids and get out of here” Teridax nodded before leading the kids, Rainbow Dash and the other me away

“What about the rest of us?” Autumn asked.

“We’re gonna buy them more time” I said, before deactivating my mask of stealth and running towards the soldier “HEY! Rosen sind rot, mein Verstand ist verrückt, bück dich Miststück, du wirst gleich gefisted!” as I shouted the last part I punched the soldier in the face, sending him sprawling to the floor. I nodded my head towards the woman as a sign to get moving.

“Danke” the woman said, before running off, the soldier stood up and pointed a sub-machine gun at me. At this moment the rest of my team deactivated their masks of stealth and stepped forward.

“I’d think very carefully about your next move” Scar said aiming his Gatling guns at the guard, who proceeded to unload his clip into me, only for the crude bullets to bounce off my armour. I walked towards the guard and grabbed him by the throat before getting my sword out, running him through and chucking him down the street towards a small patrol of guards.

“Guten tag, Mutter Fickerei!” I shouted, getting out my arcane pistol, it felt good to use my old combination once in a while. The soldiers charged towards us, only for Scar to open fire on them, Boris flew up into the air and began taking shots at them with his hip mounted rifles, together they managed to quickly kill the soldiers. Boris landed back in the street “let’s get moving” we began running in the direction the Teridax fled, I could hear tannoy systems barking out orders to remain on alert and that reinforcements were needed in a part of the city, the part which we were in most likely.

We rounded a corner and found ourselves face to face with a 6ft tall robotic canine, which promptly lunged for me, the other Boris, Scar and Minion opened fire, only for the shots to bounce off some kind of force field that surrounded the large mechanical beast. As I ran down the streets I jumped up and back-flipped onto the back of the robot, which began trying to shake me off. I pulled out my dagger and drove it into the neck of the creature, I tore a massive gash in the armour before jamming a grenade inside and jumping off. The robot stopped and went to charge towards me, only for its neck to explode, terminating the robot for good. I regrouped with the rest of my team and we were about to continue on our way when a fuck-ton of heavily armoured soldiers surrounded us.

“I don’t think we’ll be getting out of this one, brother” Minion said, a man in a trench coat stepped forward.

“Surrender und ve vill spare your lives” he said.

“Your choice, brother” Scar said, I sighed before putting my sword and pistol back into hammer space.

“Stand down” I said, the other Toa reluctantly put their weapons away and I turned to the man in the trench coat “if you promise not to hurt any of my team, then we will come peacefully”

“Wunderbar” he said, clapping his hands together, a soldier went to grab my shoulder.

“Berühre mich, und es wird die letzte Sache deine Hand berührt sein [touch me and it will be the last thing your hand touches]” I growled. The soldier hesitated, I looked at the man in the trench coat “we come with you of our own accord, we will not be herded like cattle” the man sighed.

“Very vell” he said, before gesturing for us to follow “come vith me” we began to walk down the street, flanked by heavily armed guard.

“I think we made an impression” Boris said.

“I hope this plan works better than the time you tried to make tea by swallowing a teabag and drinking boiling hot water mixed with milk and sugar” Autumn hissed.

“This is different” I whispered “this time it will work”

“What is your plan?” Minion asked,

“I’m still working on it” I admitted.

I was sat in an interview room, with a table and a one way mirror. A man walked in and sat down, I recognised him as the one with the trench coat from before. He gestured to a kettle in the middle of the table.

“Tea?” he asked “I do believe zat used to be a thing amongst British types, ja?”

“You know” I said “this is a lot more luxurious than I would have expected from a country run by the third Reich”

“Und vat ver you expecting?” he asked.

“For starter” I said “I thought you would have already killed us and begun dissecting us”

“I like to believe dat you can get so many of your questions answered if you keep your subjects alive” he said “I’d like to ask you a few questions, und depending on how you answer, I might let you live for a while longer”

“Go on” I said.

“Who are you Vorking for?” he asked “your armour doesn’t match any known resistance group dat ve have encountered so far”

“Would you believe me if I told you we are from another planet?” I asked.

“A couple of months ago I vould have said no” he said “but now, I’m not so sure, I might believe you, I might not. Just answer the question, who are you vorking for?”

“I’m part of a group, known as Neue-Toa” I said “we wield the elements to our whim, I control fire”

“How vould one go about obtaining these powers?” he asked, I burst out laughing.

“Ha! You think you can just obtain elemental powers?” I asked “one does not simply become a Neue-Toa, you have to be chosen by a higher power”

“So, there is no vay I could, let’s say, bestow these powers on my soldiers?” he asked.

“even if you could” I said “there is no way in hell I would let you” he sighed.

“Den you are of no further use to me” he said.

“Stop! Right there” I said “do you have any fucking clue what would happen, if I were to be killed?”

“Go on” he said.

“I come from a planet called Terra” I said “and one of the countries is ruled by not one, but two immortal beings with the power to move planetary objects like mere toys, I also happen to be friends with said rulers. If you so much as scratch me or one of my team mates, they will not hesitate to unleash their full wrath upon you”

“I’d like to see them try” he said. My smart watch beeped and I smirked.

“We have a saying” I said, bracing myself “arrogance can topple giants, a key example of this will happen in three…two…one” one of the wall promptly exploded to reveal a renegade Heavy Weapons Dalek in it’s new, humanoid armour.

“Vuur Koning located” it said, I stood up and turned towards the man, who was sprawled on the floor.

“I’ll send you the money for the repair bill, shall I?” I said before walking out next to the H.W.D. “How many of you have been converted”

“I am currently the only one” it said, I soon regrouped with the other Neue-Toa.

“Everyone alright?” I asked, they all nodded and we soon left the building, it was a large building in a vast open plain.

“Why didn’t you tell us you were taking on Nazis?” Vapaa asked, shooting down a soldier

“A bit difficult when you’re in the middle of an interrogation” I said “are the kids okay?”

“Yep” he said “picked them up on the outskirts of the city and your double explained the situation, are you sure we can trust Teridax?” I went to respond, only for someone to shout out a warning.

“TANK! GET DOWN!” we hit the dirt just as two high velocity rounds shot over us and destroyed a wall, I looked up and my mouth dropped.

“Oh, hell no!” I exclaimed, it one end of the field was a tank the size of a building, with two guns on the main turret and two smaller turrets at the back “holy shit, they actually built a Ratte!” our forces were now scrambling for cover.

“Just get behind some fucking cover” Vapaa said, dragging me behind a brick wall “what is that thing?”

“A 1000 ton tank” I said, as two more rounds flew over us “how far away are the drop ships?” Vapaa quickly peeked around the edge of the wall, only to quickly pull his head back just as I heard a massive explosion

“Damn” he muttered.

“What was that?” I asked.

“The drop ships we arrived on” he said sheepishly, I could hear explosions going off “thank god we dropped the kids off on the Jörmungandr beforehand”

“Once again we’re stuck on planet” I said.

“Guys!” I heard Ruby say “we need some help here”

“Join the club” I said “don’t even think about trying to attack that thing, the armour is way too thick”

“Then what the bloody hell do we do!?” Minion exclaimed.

“Hunker down” I said “wait for help to arrive”

“DALEKS DO NOT HIDE” I heard Rusty say.

“If you fucking dare go out there I will turn you to scrap myself!” I shouted.

“UNDERSTOOD” he said, I opened up the com-link to the Jörmungandr.

“T.U.A.S Jörmungandr” I said “we have the mother of all tanks about to level our location, I want you to lock on to 0.002 degrees west of my location and fire project sunbeam” after a few moments I heard a familiar voice.

“Vuur Koning!” I heard Luna say over the coms “that’s highly classified information”

“Don’t talk to me about classified!” I yelled “we don’t have time for this, just fire the damn thing!” after a few seconds I heard a sigh.

“Very well”

A couple of panels on the bottom of the Jörmungandr slid away to reveal a large cannon. Light began to gravitate towards the barrel until it discharged in one large, rainbow coloured beam that created a spectrum shockwave as it hit the atmosphere.

A massive boom resonated across the sky and a spectrum coloured beam hit the Ratte, which promptly exploded in a spectacular fireball.

What the fuck was that!?” Minion exclaimed.

“Our secret weapon” I said, before switching on the com-link “target destroyed, requesting pick-up via Dropship”

“Copy that” a communications officer said “Dropships inbound” I leant back against the brick wall and heaved a sigh.

“It’s over” I said.

“Thank god” Vapaa said, taking off his mask and running his fingers through his hair

“When we get back” I said, getting a bottle of cider out from my hammer space and popping the cap off with my teeth “we’re gonna find a planet that isn’t inhabited by Nazis, or Daleks, or bloody ‘tyrantlestias’ and have a vacation. Screw Teridax, screw the war, just screw it all, I need to take a break from it all with Autumn and our kids, especially Sunny Skies” I took a large gulp of cider.

“Who!?” Vapaa asked.

“she was amongst the kids” I said “young filly, about seven year’s old, yellow with orange hair, cute kid, saved her from the pegasus device and she sort of clung to me and Autumn since then”

“Count me, John and Orca in on that as well” he said.

*a few minutes later*

We stepped off the Dragon and I was immediately tackled into a hug by Sunny Skies, who had tears streaming down her cheeks.

“I was so scared” she said, resting her head on my shoulder as I held her up “I was told you were caught and…” she trailed off.

“Shh” I said, comforting her “don’t worry, we’re here now, we won’t be going anywhere…except on vacation for a few weeks”

“What!?” Garnet, Thel, Ruby and Breezy exclaimed. Sunny Skies eyes widened.

“I’m tired of all this fighting” I said “I’m not out of the fight completely, but a short break won’t hurt. And I’m sure all of the Neue-Toa share my opinion on the matter”

“I’m not complaining” Autumn said, I put Sunny down and turned to Autumn.

“Keep an eye on Sunny for a few minutes” I said, she nodded and I walked off, I needed to find Luna. I soon found said princess talking with Celestia through a hologram, standing next to Luna was Teridax in her new mechanical armour (damn the techies work fast), she was now about 15 foot tall with red and black armour, if I could find any way to describe her, I’d say she look just a little bit like a Vortixx, but with a Kenohi Kraahkan and just a little bit bulkier. Celestia noticed me and said.

“Ah, Vuur, do you have something to ask?”

“as a matter of fact, yes” I said, before walking forward and placing my hands on the table, I sighed.

“Vuur Koning, are you alright?” Luna asked.

“I need a break from all the fighting, so do the rest of the Neue-Toa” I said “I don’t know how much longer until I suffer a mental breakdown from the stress. A few weeks, that’s all I’m asking for” Celestia giggled.

“Why would I not let you take a small break?” she asked “you of all people, who even during piece-time was on patrol searching for Teridax”

“Evil never rests” I said, looking away.

“But you need yours” Celestia said “I’ll give you all a month” my eyes widened.

“A whole month!?” I asked, she nodded “thank you, friend”

*a few days later*

The three dragon Dropships of the Neue-Toa flew away from the Jörmungandr as Frostfang pulled it away from the planet they were orbiting over. The Jörmungandr would return in 1 month, until then, you know the old saying, whilst the cat’s away the mice will play.

“I don’t see why I had to come with you” Teridax said to me as we descended and headed towards the coastal area of one of the continents.

“Because you need to learn to interact and let loose” I said “we’ve got a full month of sun and the sea ahead of us and I won’t have you being a grump”

“Whatever” she said, crossing her arms and looking out the window. I noticed Sunny looking out of the window wide eyed and chuckled.

“Impressive, isn’t it?” I asked, she nodded, not taking her eyes away from the window. We soon reached the coast and we headed for a less populated area, we didn’t want to cause too much of a panic. The Dragons touched down, kicking up small clouds of sand. I stepped outside and looked around, typically tropical, perfect for an extended break. The Neue-Toa began setting up tents and hammocks for everyone, with nothing better to do I began to stroll along the beach, after a while I began to notice a presence watching me, I looked up at a cliff just in time to see a small, black and red figure disappear.

“The hell…?” I muttered, before shaking my head dismissively and carrying on my way.

Chapter 24

It was Night time on the beach, I was trying to sleep, but I was having trouble. I turned over for what must have been the 50th time before sighing quietly and getting up, I summoned my armour on and stepped out of the tent. The clock on my H.U.D. read about 3 in the morning, there goes my planes for a good night’s sleep. With nothing better to do I began walking on the beach, I eventually found Vuur Koningin and Mirror-verse Teridax, stood at the edge of a forest looking out to sea.

“Couldn’t sleep?” I asked, Vuur shook her head whilst Teridax scoffed.

“Makuta are beings of shadow” Teridax said “we do not need sleep”

“whatever” I said, after a while I began to notice a presence behind me, I could see a mass out of the corner of my eye, it was hard to make out, but it was large.

“Guys” I said in a whisper “don’t turn around”

“You felt it too?” Vuur asked, both myself and Teridax nodded slowly “What is it?”

“Large” Teridax said “powerful with emotional magic and shadows, powerful enough for me to sense it”

“Don’t…move” I whispered, I could feel something trying to probe my mind “and whatever you do don’t turn around”

“W-what is it?” Vuur asked.

“Mental conditions are caused by irregularities in genes, correct?” I asked.

“Obviously” Teridax said.

“What if I told you they weren’t just caused by genes?” I asked “ever see something in the corner of your eye, shadows without any apparent cause. The feelings of being watched, hair standing up. Ever get the feeling there was something under your bed?”

“Ghosts?” Vuur asked.

“Worse” I said “psionic demons, and one of the worst is right behind us, tell me, have you gotten the sudden urge to carry out repetitive tasks?”

“No” Vuur said.

“Then why are you tapping your feet?” I asked, looking at her feet, which were tapping rapidly “don’t say anything, don’t turn around”

“What are you going to do?” Vuur asked.

“I’m going to do exactly what I just told you not to” I said, before whirling round to find myself face to face with a large, winged being with five heads and wielding a staff, this was a demon that could induce O.C.D. “Why are you here?”

“Why is anyone in this plane of existence?” it asked, its voice was rasping, and sounded like multiple voices speaking in a whisper “no one knows for sure, not even higher beings”

“Don’t give me the philosophical crap” I said, walking over and staring it off “you know what I mean, why are you on this planet? This is way out of your usual territory” the demon let out a chuckle.

“I’m merely exploring this new universe” it said “just like you and your friends” at this moment Teridax turned and scoffed.

“I am no friend to him, demon” she said, the demon responded by knocking me back with a swipe of its staff and spreading its wings out as its eyes began to glow red. Shadow energy began to flow around the demon before shooting towards Teridax, who merely drew her staff and dispelled the attack

“You will bow before me, shadow caster!” the demon said, Teridax began to chuckle.

“Your shadow plays are impressive, demon” she said, running a talon-like finger up the length of her staff before sending forth a bolt of condensed dark energy at the demon, sending it sliding backwards “but never forget who the one true master of shadows is, compared to me your power is like a child throwing a tantrum in front of a dragon”

“What are you?” the demon asked, Teridax began walking towards the demon as it began backing away.

“Who am I?” she asked, as black and red energy swirled around her “I am the shadow that consumes all light, the fear that conquers entire armies, the anger that drives the most complacent person to murder, the hatred that burns in the hearts of men, the power that all beings crave, the darkness in the night. I AM TERIDAX!” and with that, she unleased a massive blast of dark energy at the demon, sending it fleeing into the woods with a banshee-like screech, Teridax snorted before walking off.

“Shit…” both myself and Vuur Koningin said at once.

*the next day*

I was laid on the beach with Autumn whilst the kids were all playing, Ruby and Garnet had really settled into the role of adoptive older brother and sister. I thought back to my first year on Terra, when I was training to be a reserve guard. It was about half a year after I’d first arrived, and Prince Blueblood had announced plans to imprison all changelings responsible for the invasion without trial.

Before I start recalling what happened, an explanation of the Equestria political system is required. There are two major political parties in Equestria, The Royalists; who are led by Prince Blueblood and believe that governmental affairs should be handled entirely by royalty, and the Parlamentalists; who are led by Fancy Pants (who, during my time in Canterlot, I became good friends with) and believe that Equestria should be ruled by royals, but with a parliamental body controlling economic affairs, laws, and the like. On the whole, their House of Commons is similar to the British House of Commons; it often leads to rather lively debates and jokes at the expense of opposing party. Due to me being friends with Fancy Pants, I managed to convince him to let me into the Houses of Parliament to try and convince the ponies not to go through with the plan to imprison changelings.

*3½ years ago*

Fancy Pants stood up to the speaking area, amongst jeers and laughs resulting from a joke that one of the opposing party members had made.

“And now” he said “a friend of mine, who whilst he is not a member of this parliament, has some rather good points to make on the aforementioned matter” he then sat back down and nodded to me, I stood up and walked towards the standing area.

“Thank you” I said “now, let me give you two good reasons why we should not allow the imprisonment of Changelings without trial. First of all, this sounds like in time it will become very similar to a certain event that happened on my world roughly 70 or so years ago, do you know what happened? One country began imprisoning believers of a certain religion without trial into concentration camps, where they faced appalling conditions, forced labour, guard brutality, and we can’t forget, mass extermination via a slow and painful death” the opposing side began exclaiming indignantly.

“ORDA! ORDA!” the honourable speaker called out, eventually the room quietened down “If you would please proceed”

“Thank you” I said “they called this event ‘The final solution to the Jewish question’ which eventually resulted in the deaths of close to 6 million people, now, I can’t help but take note of the fact that Prince Bluebloods proposal is titled ‘the final solution for Changelings responsible for the invasion of 1002 that are still residing in Canterlot’, now if that doesn’t seem suspicious, then I’m a chimpanzee” the Parlamentalists chuckled at my quip, I sat down for questions from the opposing side, a pale blue unicorn mare stepped forth.

“Hang on a minute” she said “I do believe you once said in a scientific interview that your species shares 99% of its DNA with chimpanzees, so whilst you might not be 100% chimpanzee, you’re still mostly chimpanzee” the Royalists burst out laughing as the mare sat down. I’ll admit I also chuckled slightly at her quip.

“If you would please retract your statement insinuating that the guest is a Chimpanzee” the honourable speaker said, the mare stood back up.

“Because I respect you, honourable speaker” she said “I retract my previous statement” she sat back down and I stood up.

“Another reason why we should not allow this plan to be accepted is because there is too much room for corrupt misuse” I said “the imprisonment of changelings without trial is not only against one of the basic rights of a sentient creature, it would also mean that Blueblood need merely point at someone he doesn’t like, let’s say for instance Fancy Pants, and say that they are a changeling, that person would them be imprisoned without trial, a perfect way for Blueblood to remove political competition, bear in mind that this is someone who when faced with the mere risk of getting cake spattered on him, will prefer to hide behind the mare he is trying to woo rather than take it, as we humans say; ‘like a man’” the Parlamentalists burst out laughing, whilst the Royalists jeered. Blueblood’s expression was a mix between anger and embarrassment.

The next week they vetoed the proposal, and after that the Houses of Parliament requested I attend further meetings to provide a neutral viewpoint on these kinds of matters from the perspective of someone from outside the nation.

I was shaken from my musings by Minion walking over.

“Vuur” he said “I’ve just had a brilliant idea” both Autumn and myself raised our eyebrows.

“Go on” I said cautiously.

“Skydiving” he said, Autumn promptly spat out the drink she was halfway through swallowing and went into a coughing fit.

“You can’t be bloody serious” she said once she had cleared her throat.

“Come on” he said “it’ll be fun, we jump in one of the dragons, fly up to 15’000 feet and jump out, we can just adapt some wings to stop ourselves from becoming Toa pancakes. And we can do it multiple times” I thought for a moment before sighing.

“Ah, what the hell” I said, giving a shrug “I’m not immortal, might as well enjoy life”

Chapter 25

*Urgh* it's finally done, collapses and falls asleep

The rear door to the Dragon opened up to reveal clear blue skies and sparkling tropical seas, I carefully stepped forward with Sunny Skies strapped to my chest, don’t even bother asking how a 7 year old filly managed to convince me to let her tandem-jump with me. Credit where it’s due, she was dealing with it like a fucking trooper, she wasn’t the least bit scared.

“Are you absolutely sure you want to do this?” I shouted over the wind, she nodded vigorously.

“Yes, Daddy” she shouted, causing my heart to skip a beat. ‘holy shit, she just called me dad for the first time!’ I thought to myself. I looked to the others, as well as myself and Sunny there was Minion, Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo in tandem and finally Ruby and Breezy in tandem (Ceffyl Dŵr have appalling flight muscle strength, so Ruby was providing the stopping power). I took a deep breath before looking at the others.

“Are you guys ready?” I asked, they all nodded “THREE…TWO…ONE...GO!” and with that I ran forward, not even giving myself time to have second thoughts before front flipping out the back of the Dragon. My stomach lurched as the ground dropped away, after tumbling for a few moments I levelled out. Minion shot past me, falling head first before levelling out a few meters below me.

“HOW ABOUT THIS, HUH?” Minion shouted over the roar of the wind “THIS IS LIVING!”

“I HATE YOUR ROTTEN GUTS!” I shouted to Minion as we fell whilst spinning around each other.

“SURRENDER TO THE VOID!” he shouted back.

“HOW DID YOU EVEN CONVINCE ME TO DO THIS!?” I shouted.

“I’VE GOT A FEELING I’M FALLING” he sang.

“YOU HUMANS ARE CRAZY!” Rainbow Dash shouted, laughing.

“I’VE GOT A FEELING I’M FALLING IN LOOOOOOOOOVE!” Minion sang, before cackling manically and adapting his armour to flight mode.

“WINGS OPEN!” I shouted to Rainbow and Ruby, they nodded before flaring their wings and rapidly decelerating from view, I adapted my armour to flight mode and felt a sudden jerk as we quickly decelerated. Sunny grunted.

“That was awesome!” she shouted.

“Hold on” I said, banking and gliding towards the beach “it’s not over yet”

“Hey, Vuur?” she asked.

“Yeah?” I asked

“Can I call you Daddy from now on?” she asked, I chuckled.

“Of course you can” I said, kneeling down and tousling her mane “why would I say no to that? Besides, do you know what this means?”

“What?” she asked.

“You now officially have a brother and sister” I said, her eyes lit up in response “And you’ll soon be an aunty” she squealed with joy. We soon landed on the beach and I quickly undid the straps holding myself and Sunny together. The yellow pegasus filly began jumping around whilst giggling, probably from the pent up excitement, she ended up face-planting the sand, I was worried for a brief moment before she stood up and giggled, I chuckled at her antics before walking back towards camp, with Sunny in tow.

I was sat in the sand next to Autumn, Minion and Vinyl were sat nearby when I got an idea.

“What would you guys say to getting the band back together?” I asked, before taking a sip of my cider and relishing the tangy taste of the cider followed by the aftertaste of the alcohol “for this holiday that is”

“Bloody hell” Minion said, chuckling “how long ago was it when we last played together, 2 years?”

“Back before Teridax at least” Vinyl said “Tartarus, I wouldn’t object, it would be fun to do another show for old times’ sake” I suddenly remembered that Garnet had been taking guitar lessons from Minion recently.

“Say, Minion, how’s Garnet been doing with your lessons?” I asked.

“He’s a quick learner” Minion said “good enough to play with us” Vinyl and Autumn looked confused.

“We already have a lead and a bass” Vinyl said “why would we need a third?”

“Rhythm guitar” Minion said.

“List a few groups that use three guitars” Vinyl said, deadpanning.

“Sabaton, Amon Amarth, Dragon force and let’s not forget the Beatles” I said “those are just three that I can think of off the top of my head, come on, admit it, it would be fun to do a Dragon force song”

“Fuck that shit!” Minion exclaimed “it’s alright for you, you just have to speak. Do you have any idea how fast Dragonforce play? I’d get blisters on my fingers”

“Well, at least we can now do a Sabaton song properly” I said, I then started to smirk.

“What are you thinking?” Autumn asked uncertainly.

“I think the weather’s been forecast for Sandstorms” I said, Vinyl looked shocked.

“You’re bucking kidding me!” she said “of all songs to turn into a metal song, you choose that one”

“Come on!” I said “it’s practically the club dance song of the 90s, that was the decade of my childhood” Minion deadpanned.

“You were born in 1996” he said.

“Specifics” I said, waving a hand dismissively “So, what do you guys say, restart the band, yes or no?” one by one they all agreed, eventually we managed to convince Cloddiwr and Saphyrus to re-join as well, Garnet was easy to convince. And so, we started making plans for a new show, learning new songs, learning to play a new instrument in Minion and Garnets case and in my case learning to sing in another language, within a few weeks we were ready.

We were stood on an impromptu stage, with the rest of the toa stood in front of it, Teridax was watching us with a raised eyebrow, Minion stepped forward and began playing a slow, almost sad sounding solo. This didn’t last long before the rest of the band joined in with a heavy, high tempo riff, I began ‘singing’ in a deep, growling voice, and eventually we came to the chorus.

“Asgaard’s always been my home, but I’m of different blood” I sang “I will overthrow the throne, deceiver…deceiver of the gods” eventually we finished the first song and the Toa cheered.

“It’s good to be back!” I shouted and everyone cheered in response “I’m just gonna skip the chit chat and were gonna get down to business, now you guys might have noticed that Garnet has joined us, Garnet prefers rock over metal, but Minion prefers metal. Now, I like rock, and I like metal, but which is better? There’s only one way to find out, FIGHT!” the rest of the Toa shouted the last bit as well. Saphyrus and Cloddiwr began playing a backing track and Garnet and Minion began taking turns showing what they could do in their preferred style, starting with Minion.

“Well” I said “I’m gonna leave to you guys to decide which is better. Now, let’s get this show started” Minion and Garnet strummed out a few chords and Vinyl began tapping out a tune. Soon the main riff started for a minute or so before changing to a fast paced solo

Eventually the song finished and I stepped forward.

“Okay, I’ve been a little apprehensive about this next song considering what happened on the last planet we went to” I said “This next song is called ‘hearts of Iron’. I want you to picture the scene; it’s 1945, Berlin lies in flames and the 9th German army has by ordered to reinforce the already beaten troops in the city. Instead of following orders they decide to open up a route to the River Elbe so they can evacuate what civilians they can and surrender to the western allied forces” we paused for a few seconds before starting the song

As soon as that song was finished I stepped forward.

“Alright, who here can understand Swedish or Griffonian?” I asked, Vapaa and Boris called out, but other than that no one said anything, I deadpanned “great…alright, this next song is called ‘En Hjältes Väg’” Vinyl began playing a tune that sounded like it was being played on a horn, soon a heavy riff followed.

The song finished and Minion put down his guitar and picked up another guitar, this one was tuned like a banjo.

“This next song is called 'drink'” I said, Minion, Garnet and Saphyrus began strumming out a tune and I pointed to the crowd “Oi you! Gi’s a beer!”

The song finished and Minion but the banjo back down and pick the guitar back up, Vinyl changed the settings on her Keytar to make it sound like an accordion.

“This next song” I said “is for anyone who has been to, is from, or has an appreciation for the west country of England, this is ‘West Country Man’”

For the rest of the day we played our entire inventory of songs, and soon it was getting towards the end of the show, but we still had one last surprise. Minion and Garnet put their guitars on stands, walked towards then back of the stage and came back with a couple of cellos. They sat on a couple of chairs and nodded to each other before beginning to play, it started out as an flighty, upbeat melody, but after a while they began to play faster and faster until it started to sound like a very familiar riff from a certain AC/DC song.

Chapter 26

It was the day after the concert and I was sat on the beach, relaxing when I heard Autumn shifting slightly, I looked over to see her staring in the distance behind me.

“What is that?” she asked, I followed her gaze and saw a dark dot in the far distance. It must have been moving at some speed because it was kicking up a large cloud of dust. I stood up and switched to the mask of accuracy and zoomed in before sighing in exasperation.

“You have got to be kidding me” I muttered, rubbing my non telescopic eye in frustration “of all the damn planets to land on, it has to be the one with the emo, amnesiac hedgehog” run…err, skating towards us was Shadow the hedgehog, at some speed. I opened the come link.

“Vapaa, I’m gonna need you here for a minute” I said.

“What is it?” he asked.

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you, just get here, fast” Vapaa appeared with a flash of light “mastered F.T.L. travel?” he nodded.

“Perfected it a few days ago” he said “I always had trouble maintaining a constant velocity up until now”

“What’s your secret?” I asked.

“The best way I can describe it is you have to physically become your element” he said “requires a lot of concentration”

“As much as this is all very interesting, which it’s not” Autumn said “why don’t we actually get to why we actually summoned the walking glow stick” I rolled my eyes before pointing at Shadow the hedgehog.

“See that?” I asked, Vapaa nodded “think you can put your abilities to the test against a theoretically hypersonic hedgehog?” he smirked.

“Against him?” he asked “no problem” he then disappeared in a flash.

*POV 3rd person

Shadow ran towards the aliens, the last time he encountered aliens it resulted in the threat of an extinction level event, he wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice. He was a quarter of a mile away when he saw a flash next to him and looked over to see a human in gold and white armour flying along on his back with his arms behind his head, he had a feint gold aura surrounding him.

“Hey” the human said, giving a two fingered salute. Shadow didn’t answer, only raise an eyebrow. The human rolled his eyes “I expect your probably wondering how I’m able to keep pace”

“I actually don’t care” Shadow said, before accelerating. The human kept perfect pace with him.

“Now what would one such as you be doing around these parts?” the human asked.

“None of your damn business” Shadow said, before teleporting away. Vapaa could see an infrared trail left by his teleportation and teleported in front of the dark hedgehog as he reappeared, surprising him “what!?” Vapaa chuckled and leant against one of the palm trees.

“I seriously doubt even the so-called ‘ultimate life form’ could outpace light itself” Vapaa said “sorry, but I can’t allow you to go any further and spoil our little holiday” Shadow snorted and tried to go around, or teleport behind, only for Vapaa to ‘light-jump’ to block his path each time.

“Get out of my way, human” Shadow said.

“No can do” Vapaa said “we don’t mean this planet any harm”

“Likely story” Shadow said “if you won’t get out of my way, then I’ll have to make you” Vapaa snorted before getting out his double ended sword, splitting it into two and holding one blade in each hand.

“Are you really sure you want to do this?” Vapaa asked, Shadow harrumphed before changing to a fighting stance.

“Let me show you the meaning of true power” Shadow said, as a red aura surrounded him “Chaos...blast!” the aura expanded rapidly in a shockwave, thinking quickly Vapaa changed to the Hau to shield himself, but the blast still pushed him back a few feet. The moment Vapaa saw his chance he lunged towards Shadow at light speed and delivered the uppercut to end all uppercuts, sending Shadow streaking through the sky at several thousand miles per hour. Vapaa put a hand above his eyes to block out the sun as he watched Shadow streak into the distance.

“True power my ass” Vapaa muttered, before turning and heading back towards the camp at a normal walking pace. He was just reaching the camp when he heard a dull bang from behind him, he turned just in time to see a monumentally pissed off and glowing-red Shadow slam into him and begin unleashing a volley of punches as they both shot forward. Thinking quickly Vapaa kicked away from Shadow and back flipped before landing on his feet, sliding several tens of feet before coming to a stop. He quickly activated his mask of shielding, causing shadow to slam into it and begin sliding down in true cartoon style. Vapaa deactivated the shield and walked towards Shadow before picking the dark hedgehog up by his neck, he then turned around and began carrying the unconscious hedgehog back towards the camp.

*POV 1st person Vuur Koning*

After some time I spotted Vapaa walking towards me holding an unconscious Shadow by his neck, Vapaa dropped the dark hedgehog at my feet.

“He’s all yours” Vapaa said, not stopping or turning around, I got a pair of power-supressing cuffs out of my hammer space and clipped them around Shadow’s wrists.

“Get a containment cell set up” I said to Autumn “preferably before he wakes up” Autumn nodded before running towards the Dragon.

*POV 3rd person*

Galvetron flew through interplanetary space towards a small moon, he transformed from his jet mode and landed on the surface of the moon, kicking up a cloud of dust as he did so. After checking to make sure no one was around he brought out a relatively small hologram-device and chucked it on the ground, the device activated to reveal Jul ‘Mdama, scaled up to be standing the same height as Galvetron.

“[Were you followed]?” ‘Mdama asked, Galvetron shook his head.

“Teridax doesn’t know of our arraignments” the Decepticon said, ‘Mdama does the closest approximation to a smirk.

“[Good, try and lead him to the Human abomination’s home world, make sure that Vuur Koning and his ilk follows you]” the Sangheili war lord said “[our plan must go flawlessly if we are to succeed]” Galvetron nodded and the hologram deactivated.

Shadow awoke with a groan and sat up, he tried to put a hand to his aching head and noticed with some surprise that he had a pair of metal cuffs on his wrists, causing the other hand to get pulled up as well. He looked around to see a force field of some kind surrounding him. He heard the hiss of a door and the sound of footsteps on metal plate approaching, he turned towards the source of the sound to see a 7ft tall human in red and silver armour and wearing a gold mask walk over

“Oh” the human said in a British accent “good, your awake” Shadow jumped up.

“Who are you!?” Shadow demanded “where am I!?” the Human held up a hand.

“Just…relax” he said “you’re in the cell for our protection and yours. We are currently in a Dragon class Dropship 10’000 feet up in the air, try and escape and you might end up killing yourself” Shadow snorted.

“I’m fallen from greater heights” he said, turning around and crossing his arms.

“But not whilst wearing suppressing cuffs” the human said “the reason we are currently on this planet is because the last planet we visited…wasn’t exactly friendly, we came here to catch a small break from it all” the human tapped a device on his wrist and several holograms activated, showing footage of…Shadow wasn’t sure what they were. He focussed on a hologram showing a being in black, crystalline armour.

“This” the human said “is Makuta Teridax, he’s wanted for causing all the planets to appear in the sky. He plans to assemble an army to conquer the entire galaxy”

“Why are you showing me this?” Shadow asked “and furthermore, why aren’t you out there going after him right now?”

“I’d like to see you go against Nazis and come back not wanting a break” the Human said, leaving Shadow confused.

“What’s a Nahtsy?” Shadow asked.

“Never mind” the Human said “I want to know if you would be willing to join us”

“You must be joking” Shadow said.

“Do I look like I’m fucking joking” the Human said, deadpanning “we are up against not one, but multiple armies, what do you suppose will happen if the Black arms somehow got into an alliance with one of them”

“The Black arms are destroyed” Shadow said.

“Teridax was supposedly destroyed 400 million years ago, yet he’s still very much alive” the Human said “nothing is totally certain now, for all you know it could be a black arms from an alternate universe where you sided with them”

“Alternate universe?” Shadow asked, deadpanning.

“Where do you think the planets came from?” the Human said “they had to come from somewhere” Shadow went to say something but was interupted

“Hoher Herr allgemeinen!” a female voice said in a language Shadow didn’t recognise “Ve might have ein problem” the Human quickly left the room.

*POV 1st person Vuur Koning*

I walked into the cockpit and stopped dead in my tracks.

“Oh…fuck…” I muttered, hovering in front of us was an armada of Black arms, I ran back into the hold “Shadow! Black arms!” I remotely deactivated his cuffs and holding cell.

“You’re letting me go!?” he asked, rubbing his whists “just like that!?”

“No” I said, getting out my sword and extending it into a staff “I’m trusting you not to ditch me” I then activated my com-link.

“Glück?” I said.

“Jawohl?” she asked.

“I need you to keep doing passes through the armada, Shadow needs a stable platform to teleport from” I said, I felt the Dropship accelerate, I then picked up a suppresser multiple clips and chucked them to Shadow, he caught them and raised an eyebrow “Z-130 Directed Energy Automatic Weapon, each clip holds 48 hardlight rounds, perfect for close quarters combat. Enjoy” he smirked, the back of the Dropship opened up and I ran towards it before grapping a handrail on the top door and using my momentum to swing me onto the roof, I flipped 180 degrees in the air so I was fading forward as I landed on one knee.

“Damn I’m good” I said as Shadow teleported next to me. I turned to him “you ready?”

“Just stay out of my way” he said.

“Alright then” I said as the dropship flew closer and closer to the armada “Let’s do this!”

Chapter 27

Stepping forward I chucked the staff up in air and caught it like a rifle before sending bolts of fire at the Black arms; who were flying around on those weird bat-like things whilst taking pot shots at me. One made the mistake of flying to low and I rewarded its mistake by decapitating it and running it through before flinging it off the side of the drop ship, I noticed Shadow had paused and was staring at me wide eyed.

“I've been through far too many kill-or-be-killed situations to care about clean kills” I said, decapitating another black arms and kicking it off the roof without looking “now get the fuck back to work!” he shook his head before unloading a hard-light clip into a small group of Black arms. I opened my com-link.

“Guys, you better get your arses up here” I said, shooting another Bat-like creature out of the sky “we're facing an armada of black arms all alone, we could really use your help”

“Uh, yeah” Minion said “where are you?”

“I’ll send out a homing beacon” I said, before tapping the watch on my wrist "try and actually get here before we kill them all this time" I then swung my staff in an ark just as a Black arms landed on the roof, resulting in the Black arms getting sliced in half and falling to the ground below. After a few minutes of holding the Black arms back I heard the whine of jet engine over the sound of Black Arm guns and suppressor fire, hundreds of Black Arm's warriors began to drop out of the sky under heavy fire I looked up to see a Manticore Dropship straithing the battle-line in front of us.

"GET SOME, YOU SKURWYSYNY!!!" the heavily accented voice of a male thestral called out over the com links, the cannon on the top of the fuselage aimed at a Black-bull and fired, the large monster let out a final defiant roar before plummeting to the sea below.

"Cheers, mate" i said, raising up my sword. The rest of my team flew out of the back of the Manticore and landed on the roof of the dragon.

"Honestly brother" Minion said fake-disapprovingly "you can't go half an hour without getting into some sort of trouble?"

"When you're in a fucking multiverse?" i asked, shooting down a Black arms riding one of those bat things "where the worst of evils want you dead? I like to see you not get into trouble all the time"

"Right, what's the objective?" Autumn asked.

"Get out of here as soon as possible and alert any nearby governments" i said "Get us out of here, Gluck!"

"Jawohl!" i heard her call over the com links and i felt the dropship shift, the Manticore provided suppressing fire as we turned tail and flew back to our camp, i opened up a hach on the roof and jumped inside, Shadow teleported after me, followed soon after by the other Neu-Toa.

*POV 3rd person*

The Jormungandr was moored up in a futuristic looking dock on an alternate version of Spherus Magna, on this one, the Spherus Magnans had worked side by side with The Terrans for eons, they also had the ability to shapeshift into vehicles, much like Cybertronians. Luna was walking along the walkways of the docks with this world's version of Mata Nui, he was about 20 foot tall, and could turn into a jet of some kind.

"This is most troubling" Mata Nui said "if your worlds Teridax is as large a threat as you say he is, then we both need all the help we can get" Luna nodded.

"Which is why it would be the logical choice to ally" the night alicorn said, at that moment a large, robotic red dragon landed in front of them and transformed into...Toa Tahu.

"Mata Nui, Makuta have been spotted in the shipping district" he said, Mata Nui nodded and went to summon reinforcements

"Dost thou needeth a hoof?" Luna asked, Tahu looked at her quizzically for a moment before understanding flashed across his features.

"Uh...sure, i guess" Tahu said, before transforming back into a dragon "try to keep up" Luna scoffed before taking off and hovering. Tahu followed suit.

"I'm surprisingly spy for a millennia old demigod" she said, flying after him as he shot off towards the shipping district. After flying for a few minutes they began to fly over an area filled with shipping containers. 'This must be the shipping district' Luna thought, suddenly she spotted a shadow moving amongst the containers 'Hmm, i wonder' she then banked towards the area where she spotted the shadow.

"Luna?" Tahu called.

"Go on ahead" she called back "i just need to check on something, i shalt not tarry long and shalt return hither i due course" Tauh looked at her quizzically but didn't question her any further. With that, Luna sped towards the containers and landed on the ground with an audible thud!.

"Better to be safe than sorry" she muttered, before lighting up her horn. Silver armour and a lance materialised, she took a step and frowned "i'm sure this armour is tighter around the waist" she quickly looked back at herself before snorting and carrying on at a cautious pace, her armour bore no sound, due to being enchanted with stealth and perception filtering charms. As she walked she got the feeing of the shadows watching her.

"Keep it together" she muttered, looking around nervously "there's only the risk of being discovered by 20 hoof tall, transforming tartarus spawn that would do my sister knows what to me, nothing...to...worry about" she rounded a corner she was promptly grasped by the neck by a large mechanical set of talons, that brought her face to face with a green and black mask sporting a set of nasty fangs.

"Well, what do we have here" the Makuta said "seems a pretty little princess is out of her castle" Luna quickly teleported away.

"I take it thou art the puhd Makuta that hast been skulking around hither?" Luna asked, readying her lance.

"Indeed, you may call me Mutran, 'milady'" as he said the last part, he gave a bow, his words dripping with sarcasm. His right arm changed into a cannon that glowed green and he quickly opened fire, Luna took off "Looks like some'pony' needs their wings clipped!" and with that, Mutran turned into a green and black jet fighter and took off after the alicorn.

"Ha ha ha! You can fly, but you can't hide" Mutran said, before unleashing a hailstorm of missiles at Luna. The Alicorn brought up a shield, protecting her from the blast.

"BEGONE FOUL DEMON!!!" Luna boomed, before leveling her staff and sending forth a beam of pure magic, causing Mutran to shoot through the sky like a rocket. Luna sighed and landed on the ground, just as she was getting ready to go and find Tahu she heard chuckling.

"Most impressive, Princess" a deep voice boomed from seemingly everywhere at once, one that Luna easily recognised.

"Teridax!?" she exclaimed, her head snapping around "Show thyself" she heard footsteps coming from behind her and she slowly turned to face the elder Makuta. He was about 30 foot tall, with armour that seemed to be held together by superheated stone, his chest peice resembled a giant horned skull and he carried a flaming whip and sword. on his back were a pair of giant, flaming wings and he was surrounded by an aura of dark flames.

"I have no reason to hide" he said "you might be from another world, but you reek of anger, and pride, and jealousy just like this worlds Luna"

"Silence!" Luna boomed, her eyes briefly flashing white.

"I didn't come here to fight you, merely to make an offer" he said, Luna didn't move to attack, but she didn't lower her weapon either "consider this, you face a problem at the hands of another version of me, I face a dilemma as i don't share to imposters, what's the old saying; 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend'? your choice" he held out his hand, Luna looked at it before raising an eyebrow.

"Doth thou think i'm a fool?" she asked, her fur turning darker as her horn and eyes began to glow red "Thou thinks I would side with the likes of thou? Thou think thyself to be the master of shadows, thou fool! thou can barely even begin to comprehend the powers thou was gifted with, let alone competently use them. I was born into shadow, I am shadow! Shadow merely honours thou with allowing thyself to sample a fraction of its true power, thou are like a child beneath a god!"

"Stay back!" Teridax demanded, sending forth a bolt of shadow, Luna merely deflected it.

"You are nothing compared to ME!" Luna boomed, before launching at Teridax and pinning him against a container "You claim to control fear, I will show you true terror!" Teridax struggled against Luna's lance, and for the first time in eons, he felt the smallest hint of fear

"What in the name of Karzahni are you?" Teridax asked.

"The one true master of shadows!" Luna boomed, before grabbing the colossal Makuta in her magic and flinging him far away. she sighed and diminished her dark aura before flying off to find the Tahu.

Chapter 28

I was sat on the beach, relaxing with Autumn whilst the Pegasi kids were playing about in the sea. Don't tell anyone I told you this, but Shadow had quite the knack for watching out for the kids, I could see him watching them out of the corner of my eye. Sunny came trotting over to us, panting.

"Hey, Daddy. Hey, Mummy " she said, dropping at our feet.

"Have fun?" I asked, smirking. she nodded and tiredly crawled between us before snuggling into my side. at that moment a scroll and box appeared in front of me "the heck?" I picked up the scroll and opened it, taking note of Twilight's Cutie Mark adorning the seal

Dear Vuur koning and Company.

I have recently developed a spell that can revert you to your original appearance, as such i have enchanted some necklaces (these can be found inside the box) with the aforementioned spell, there should be enough for the entire of your team plus extra.

whilst we are on the subject of your team, i have received word that you have encountered individuals from parallel worlds, some of whom have joined your team, can you please confirm this, and if so which individuals have you met.

Your friend.

Twilight Sparkle.

P.S. as a tip, you might want to put the necklace on in private, and then put some clothes on. Additionally, i hope you like the design of the pendant on each necklace. Once you put it on you can deactivate it by pressing the center circle.

I put the letter down and picked up the box before opening it, inside was a large number of necklaces with pendants that looked like a cross between the Equestrian Flag and the Three Virtues, I passed one to Autumn and she put it on. She became enveloped in an aura of maroon light before reverting to a normal pegasus, she stared at herself in shock.

"I-I don't believe it" she muttered, looking at her hooves "when I next see Twilight, I'm gonna bloody kiss her"

"No homo?" I asked quietly with a smirk, taking not of a now dozing Sunny. Autumn looked conflicted for a moment.

"Ah, screw it, all the homo" she said "besides, I already told you, I'm bi" at that moment, Minion walked over and did a double take.

"A-Autumn!?" he asked "is that you?" Autumn nodded and I chucked a pendent over to Minion, he caught it with his hand and examined it before raising an eyebrow.

"as long as you wear it, you will physically and biologically be your original species" I said, he went to put it on, but I stopped him "it...doesn't do clothes, wait 'till later"

"Well, cheers anyway" he said, I chucked another one over to him.

"Give that one to Vinyl" I said "and tell the others" he gave a two fingered salute before walking off, Sunny stirred and noticed Autumns altered appearance.

"Mommy?" Sunny asked, Autumn responded by pulling Sunny into a hug and nuzzling her.

"Yes, dear" she said, I noticed Autumn tearing up slightly "You've got a proper pegasus for a Mummy now"

A few hours later, all of the other Nue-Toa had received their pendants, I stepped out of my tent wearing faux-denim shorts and an Alestorm T-shirt, the back of it had the words 'We are here, To drink your beer' printed on it, whilst the front had the band's mascot; 'Jimmy McFucknuggets the undead pirate', printed on it wielding a cutlas. One of the things I discovered about the pendants was I didn't have to worry about removing clothes or armour when I changed between forms. Everyone was packing up, as we would be leaving soon and meeting up with the Jormungandr in orbit.

"'We are here to drink your beer'?" I heard Shadow ask from behind me, i turned around to see him looking at me with his arms crossed and his eyebrow raised. i merely shrugged.

"If you were here a few days ago, you'd understand" I said, walking over to a tent and starting to pack it away "so, what would you say to getting armour?" Shadow scoffed.

"I'm the ultimate lifeform" he said "I don't need armour"

"Arrogance can topple giants" I said "like it or not, soon we're most likely gonna end up in all out war with enemies that are far more advanced than Black Arms, and a mere claim will do fuck all against the likes of Daleks and the Covenant" he grunted before walking away. I shook my head before carrying on dismantling the tent

We had finished packing away and the dropships were getting ready to take off. i was sat in the fuselage with the rest of my team.

"Vuur Koning" Gluck called from the cockpit "Ve are ready vor take off"

"Take her up" I said, a few moments later I felt the dropship lurch as we took off into the sky. After flying for some time I began to feel strange, i looked at my hands to see they were glowing a strange golden glow, similar to gallifreyan regeneration energy.

"Uh, guys?" Vinyl said "please tell me i'm not the only one that can feel this" I looked over to see her, along with the rest of the team, Sunny, Ruby, Garnet, Aurora, Thel and Breezy all glowing the same, golden glow as I was.

"Uh, Daddy?" Sunny asked "what's happening?" right around that moment, my vision was filled with bright, golden light and I felt myself leave the current plane of reality.

Chapter 29

first thing I felt when I regained consciousness was cold...and wet. I opened my eyes and found myself lying on a muddy path of some sort, one that looked like it was used fairly frequently. Surrounding the path were trees that looked like they belonged in a highland area such as Scotland, said trees blocked out any chance of accurately identifying where we were.

"The hell?" I muttered.

"Ungh, what happened?" I heard Autumn say, I looked over to see her getting up and shaking her head, as if to clear her thoughts. In addition I could see Sunny, Garnet, Ruby, Thel and Breezy just beginning to stir. But the others were nowhere to be found.

"Is everyone alright?" I asked, I received responses of affirmation mixed with approval. I switched my pendant so i was a Toa once more "we need to see where this path leads" we began walking down the path and after few minutes we came to a small lake, we were walking past it when a massive pony, big enough to look down on Big Mac, barreled out of the trees and lept into the lake, disappearing into the water with a loud splash. I walked over to the waters edge and peered into the murky lake. I jumped back when the pony was launched into the air, held aloft by a giant orange tentacle, which was wrapped around the pony's left hind leg.

"Is that the best ye can do, ye nae-guid doaty balloon!?" the pony shouted in a thick, Scottish accent before turning his head and biting down on the tentacle with a very sharp set of teeth. He then pulled his head back, ripping out a large chunk of flesh and causing a giant squid to surface before promptly flinging the pony onto land, the pony spat out the chunk of flesh "*ptue* That could o' gone be'er" he said.

"Are you sure it's a good idea to go attacking a giant squid?" I asked, helping him up.

"Och, someone's gotta keep their numbers down, don't I?" he said "Blasted things are a bloody nuisance" he then charged back towards the water and spun around mid-jump before bucking the squid right between the eyes, the squid let out a shriek before all its tentacles went limp and it sank beneath the surface.

"What do you think o' that?" the pony asked as he climbed out of the water "Mr. Armour Wearing, Metal-Faced, Boot-Wielding, Clype-Dreep-Bachle, Gether-Upping-Blate-Maw, Blethering, Gomeril, Jessie, Oaf-Looking, Schooner, Nyaff, Plookie, Shan, Cider-Drinking, Gold-Faced Shilpit, Mim-Mouthed, Sniveling, Worm-Eyed, Hotten-Blaugh, Vile-Stooshie, Cally-Break-Tattie!?"

*POV 3rd person*

Aurora awoke with a start to find herself in a clearing in a lush jungle of some kind, she stood up and looked around, Minion and Vinyl were still unconscious, so she wouldn't stray too far. As she looked around she began to notice something, apart from the odd bird or oversized rat, there wasn't much in the way of wildlife. With nothing better to do she walked over to a log and sat down...

...

"Well this sucks" she said after about five minutes of sitting on the log with her wings folded in front of her chest, suddenly she heard a chirping and looked down to see a small green spider-like creature with four legs and a set of fangs perched on the log next to her, looking up at her with curious eyes "What on terra are you?" she reached out a claw to pick it up, only for it to clamp its fangs down on her wrist before scuttling away, screeching as it went.

"You little shit" she said, rubbing the wound.

"Aurora?" she heard Vinyl ask, she looked over to see the white coated unicorn (that would take some getting used to) sitting up and looking around.

"I'm over here, Mum" Aurora said.

"Are you ok?" Vinyl asked, noticing Aurora's wrist.

"I'm fine" Aurora lied, Vinyl deadpanned.

"Aurora-Dawn Melody Scratch" she said, raising an eyebrow "you're 15, you should know better than to lie. come 'ere, let me have a look" Aurora sheepishly walked over and held out the injured wing, causing Vinyl to hiss with sympathy.

"Youch" she said "just a sec, I'll fix you up in no time" Vinyl pressed the center of her pendant and was surrounded by a white glow as she turned into her Toa form, with a mere thought she switched to the mask of healing and it began to glow, a similar glow surrounded the wound, only to flicker before fizzling out.

"Stupid mask, it's never worked properly" Vinyl said with a huff.

"Or the wound contains something it can't heal" Minion piped up from behind them, they turned to find him sat cross-legged with is eyes closed.

"Like what?" Aurora asked. at that moment they heard a loud screeching and were promptly surrounded by large, four legged spiders with really large sets of jaws. Aurora spotted a familiar little spider-like creature amongst them.

"Oh shit" she said as the horde of Visorak began to close in.

Boris woke up feeling strange, he quickly deduced this as being due to the fact he was hanging upside down from a tree with a vine tied to his left leg.

"What the...?" he said.

"Well, the alternative was you get eaten by a hunting party of Silverclaws" He heard Scar say from somewhere to his left, he looked over to see Scar, in his Timberwolf form, sat on a platform of vines

"Where are we?" Boris asked.

"Storm Valley" Scar said "just, not the one we know, the trees speak differently"

"trees think-talk!?" Boris asked, pressing the center of his pendant and turning into a falcon before flying over to a branch and perching upon it.

"I'm a timberwolf, and a Toa of plant life" Scar said, deadpanning "anyway, they say that there is a pony settlement nearby"

"Are you sure it's a good thought-idea to go to a pony settlement-village?" Boris asked "if this isn't our home-Terra, then they might react-act adverse-badly to a timberwolf"

"Either that or let those guys eat you for lunch" Scar said, before pointing over the edge of the platform. Boris looked down to see a group of Silverclaws skulking around. "they don't know we're up here, they think we're still down there"

"Well then" Boris said, ruffling his feathers "discrete-quiet, or full blown Toa-hero?"

"Let's try and be as inconspicuous about this as possible" Scar said, standing up and calling forth some vines and walking along them as the made a makeshift bridge.

"A timberwolf and a falcon walk into a pony settlement-village" Boris said, shaking his head, before taking off "sounds like the beginning of a terrible-bad pun-joke"

*POV 1st person Vuur Koning*

I narrowed my eyes at the pony,

"care to run that by me one more time?" I asked, getting out my sword. the pony's eyes widened.

"Now now, laddie" he said, smiling nervously "let's not be too hasty, I was jus' pulling yer leg" i went to respond but Autumn shushed us both.

"Do you hear that?" she asked, I listened carefully and i began to hear voices approaching from the direction we were intending to head towards.

"I think it landed around here..." The voice was male, without a distinct accent, and as the sound of hooves got closer, another voice chimed in, this one female.

"I don't see why we need to go walking around here looking for some falling star, Stag."

"Come on, Double! It'll make a good souvenir! Besides, this might be the last interesting thing we do before seeing the Queen. You know how diplomatic meetings go."

There was a pause before the voice spoke up again.

"You're a moron sometimes, you know that, right?"

"That's just one of the reasons you married me."

The figures finally revealed themselves- a pair of royal changelings. As soon as they saw us they stopped dead in their tracks and stared at us.

*POV 1st person 'Stag'*

It took me a second to make sense of what I was seeing. The Kelpie, Ceffyl Dŵ and the two Pegasi was normal enough, but the rest were... frankly, I didn't have a clue, as the closest I could compare them to was a reptilian pony, a couple of mishmashes between dragon and ponies, and an anorexic Sasquatch or Yeti in armor, with a mask covering its face. I turned to my wife.

"Double, do you know what those are?"

She shook her head. Going on a hunch, I began howling in what little Primate I actually knew.

*POV 1st person Vuur Koning*

The two changelings spoke to one another in Japanese before the male turned to us and began howling like a monkey, i didn't quite know how to respond to that. I looked at the carnivorous pony but he just shrugged.

*POV 1st person 'Stag'*

The fact they were looking at me like I had gone crazy told me that my methods were... ineffective. I tried other languages before Double spoke again.

"Why not just try Common?"

"Double, I don't think that would work."

*POV 1st Person Vuur Koning*

after he'd finished babbling in a bunch of different languages I'd had enough.

"You know, I can speak Equish perfectly fine" I said "ich spreche Keimaehne, wenn Sie das bevorzugen. Eller jag kan tala Gryphonen" judging by the fact their jaws were on the floor, I'd say they could understand what I was saying.

Chapter 30

Minion and Vinyl ran through the jungle as fast as the could, the former carrying a now paralysed Aurora.

"Of all the places we had to end up in" Minion said, jumping over a log "it had to be Visorak-fucking-Island!?"

"I swear the gods are out to get us" Vinyl said, arching her body to the side to avoid another of their paralysis blasts. They were so focused on trying to get away that they didn't notice the hole in the ground until they were already falling down it.

*POV 1st person Vuur Koning*

We were all sat in a clearing whilst I told Stag, son of Queen Chrysalis, Double, his wife, and Bhradain, the carnivorous pony (or rather Kelpie) the story of what we were doing on this world

"So let me get this straight, you and Autumn are elemental, 'biomechanical' warriors from another version of this world?" Stag asked, making quotation marks with his hooves on the word 'biomechanical'. Myself and Autumn nodded.

"And through an outside force, you've been flung to this world along with your kids and their 'significant others', and the rest of your team has been flung to parts unknown" he clarified, again, we nodded.

"Och, ye gotta be jesting" Bhradain said.

"After what you said earlier, I think we've established that your personal opinion is temporarily invalid" I said, sparing a moment to glance at him out of the corner of my eye. he huffed before crossing his forelegs.

"Would you stop being so petty, dear?" Autumn asked, gently slapping me with a forehoof. at this moment Stag spoke up.

"You mentioned you were from a separate world to, as you put it, 'the two terras'" he said "care to elaborate?"

"not much to tell" i said, shrugging "other than my earth is at the level of very primitive space travel..."

"Exactly how primitive?" Double asked.

"Manned missions to the moon and back" I said "anyway, Humans are the only sapient species on my planet" i then chuckled.

"What?" Stag asked.

"It's been four years since I was taken from Earth, I wonder how much it's changed since then" I said.

"What was it like?" Double asked "Getting displaced like that?" I paused before admitting.

"About four weeks after I was displaced, I...had quite a large mental breakdown" I said.

"You mean you went slightly crazy" Autumn said, going 'derp eyed' to accentuate the point "and then went on a weekend pub crawl, culminating in you locked in your room for the next week whilst you drowned your sorrows in Stalliongrad vodka" Stag winced.

"It wasn't a pretty sight" I said.

"You're lucky you were able to keep training with the royal guard" Autumn said, before turning to the two royal changelings and the Kelpie "they overlooked the matter on account of 'temporary psychological trauma, emotional distress and severe homesickness'"

"Moving on" I said, before turning to the two royal Changelings "you said you were going to a diplomatic meeting with this countries ruler, mind if we tag along? We were intending to find some form of civilisation so we could ask the rulers to ask other nations to keep an eye open for the rest of my team" the two royal Changelings looked at each other before Stag turned to us.

"I don't see why not" he said.

*POV 3rd Person. Location: Storm Valley, Concordia*

Boris and Scar moved through the trees swiftly drawing closer to the pony settlement, as they approached the settlement they could hear something. Scar stopped and looked at Boris.

"Do you hear that, brother?" he asked.

"Sounds like a battle-fight" Boris said, they both began to approach edge of the treeline and peered through the branches into the settlement below. Pones ran for their live as a warband of Ironclaws rode through the town attop 30 foot, multi horned Ceratopsians, wreaking havoc as they went. Boris turned to Scar.

"What do you say we show them what happens when they attack the innocent" he said. Scar smirked before inhaling and letting loose a primal howl.

In the settlement the Ironclaw's leader brought the attack to a halt with a hand signal and a call.

"Naga duul [hold it]!" he called, ponies peeked out from their hiding places as the leader knocked off of his steed by a bolt of green and blue energy. Two tall figures leapt out of the forest and landed on the ground in front of the warband.

"Nischkah nact di geeda tru duuna, ragdo! [get out of this settlement, now!]" Scar said, his protosteel claws glowing with the same green and blue energy.

"Rachtah dreegog! [Insolent scum!]" the leader said, getting up and charging at him, only to be knocked off his feet by a strung gust of wind.

"We won't ask-tell you again!" Boris said, pointing his katanas at the warband and then flicking them towards the jungle "Leave! Now!"

"you forget your place" the leader said in Equestrian with some difficulty as he stood up "allow us to educate you" he then jumped back on his steed and turned to the rest of his warband.

"Rani dga! [Attack!]"

*POV 1st person Stag*

Double and I led the trans-dimensional beings along the winding road, entering the rolling green fields of Glascolt.

As always, the countryside was beautiful, though I found the terrain of Coltland on the opposite side of the island to be more beautiful by far. A small green creature skittered past, covered in green chitin, with gold eyes and two short antennae. It used two of its four arms to wave as we went past. I humorously noticed the confused look on the two Neu-Toa's faces.

"Leprechaun," I said by way of an explanation. "They're more common in Coltland, on the other side of the Queen's home"

We eventually made it to the giant, mist-shrouded loch on the border of the two countries. Vuur crossed his arms.

"So what happens now?"

I smirked, then threw a pebble into the water. A moment of silence passed. Then the water began rippling, and the giant form of the queen's long, swan-like neck emerged from the depths. While we equines bowed before the queen of Glascolt/Coltland, the two biomechanical beings and their fellow travelers looked up, and Vuur spoke.

"You've got to be kidding me."

*POV 3rd person*

Two of the Ironclaws charged upon their steeds at the Toa, who quickly sidestepped to let the ceratopsians charge between them. Boris sliced at the ankles of one with his katanas whilst Scar did likewise with his claws, causing the two steeds to collapse to the floor and go sliding along the ground for several feet.

"Is that the best you can do?" Scar asked, smirking "do you really think you can stand up to this babies?" he then stuck up his middle claw at the leader of the warband, who growled. Scar scowled before jamming his claws into the dirt, sending forth a shockwave of green and blue energy. A low rumbling shook the ground and vines began to spring up out of the ground around the warband before entangling them, launching them out of the settlement and far into the forest. some of the ponies cautiously approached.

"W-Who are you?" an earth pony mare asked, Boris struck a heroic pose before saying

"We are here...to drink your beer" the ponies looked at him in confusion and Scar groaned before facepalming

Chapter 31

*POV 3rd person*

Minion awoke with a groan, he went to rub his forehead but found his arms bound to either side of him, he also noticed that he was on a table of some kind, he turned his head to see Vinyl strapped to a table in a similar fashion. He tried to struggle free of his bonds but heard a tittering.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you" said a quiet, rasping voice with an ever so slight german accent. Minion looked over to see two red eyes glowing in the darkness.

"Who are you?" he asked. The eyes shifted, moving closer until a dark, Alicorn stallion came into view.

"I could say to you" the Alicorn said "I am simply known by the local fauna as 'Terror'"

"I'm guessing that isn't because you're all sunshine and rainbows" Minion said, causing 'Terror' to chuckle quietly.

"You're a funny one, you are" he said "it certainly makes a change from the begging and the pleading, much like the young dragoness" Minion's eyes widened before he tried to lunge for 'Terror', only for his chains to hold him back

"What the fuck did you do to her!?" he thundered "I swear, if you fucking touch her, I'll..."

"Oh please" 'Terror' said, rolling his eyes "I'm above such...primal desires, merely a bit of harmless biomagic, that's all" his horn became enveloped in blood red magic and the darkness dissipated to reveal an unconscious Aurora, now she looked a lot more vicious and primal, with large spines growing out of her back.

"I'd say i've improved her somewhat, no?" he asked, looking at Minion, who strained against his bonds.

"You fucking bastard!" Minion roared "I will fucking end you, do you hear me!?" he began to reach out with his powers of Fa-magic and started to slowly pick the locks holding Vinyl in place.

"Yes yes, i'm sure it will be very bloody and gruesome" Terror said, waving a hoof dismissively, Minion 'felt' the locks click open and looked up at Terror "So, my strange friend, any last requests before I, how do they say, 'put you under'" Minion remembered something, an old trick from WW2 that the British used to catch out German spies.

"As a matter of fact" he said "I have one request, I want you to say the word S-Q-U-I-R-R-E-L" Terror's face contorted with confusion.

"But...but that's not fair" Terror said.

"You gave me a last request" Minion said, doing his best to shrug "you have to follow through with it" Terror huffed.

"Fine" he said, stomping a hoof before pointing it at Minion "but i will make you suffer a horrible transformation"

"I'm sure of it" Minion said.

"Okay" Terror said "Here goes, Skwi...skwah...skwuh...?" Whilst the dark alicorn tried to sound out the word, Minion set about picking his own locks, he glanced over to Aurora to check if she was tied down in any way, he felt a pang of sadness as he gazed upon her mutated form, which quickly turned to rage as he felt his locks click open. he jumped off the table and used his powers to launch himself at Terror, who was still trying to say the word correctly.

"Skwehaaah!?" he exclaimed as he suddenly found himself pinned under Minion.

"For the record" Minion said "it's pronounced 'skwirrel'" he then threw his arms out to each side and used his powers to rip the metal chains from the wall and summoned them towards him, he then wrapped them tightly around Terror and fused the two ends together before standing up, walking toward Aurora and bending down. he then grabbed the chains holding her in place and physically ripped them apart with his bare hands before picking her up and holding her his left shoulder, he then stood back up and walked over to the table Vinyl was lying on and hefted her onto his other shoulder. As he was turning to leave he heard Terror struggling.

"*urgh* GET BACK HERE YOU YELLOW BASTARD!" the dark alicorn boomed in a voice that made Minion stop dead in his tracks, before turning and walking towards Terror "YOU CANNOT DEFEAT ME, I...AM...SHADOW!"

"You're also a dense motherfucker" Minion said "I seriously can't believe I outsmarted an Alicorn, Terror, or should I say, Teridax?" Terror's face lit up with confusion. His eyes widened when he felt his tall being grabbed by magic and he started to be drabbed along the floor.

"WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS!?" he boomed as minion began to drag him through the tunnels.

"I'm gonna drag you all the way up to the top of the mountain" Minion said "and then i'm gonna sit on you and wait for my fellow Toa to turn up so i don't have to be the only one to beat the ever loving shit out of you for harming my daughter, YOU FUCKING FREAK!!!" Terror remained silent and soon the only sounds that could be heard were Minions heavy footsteps and his voice, which was still reverberating through the long and winding tunnels.

Two tall figures entered the city of Bardingburgh, capital of Concordia. Their forms were hidden behind tan coloured cloaks and goggles, which protected them from the sandstorm that had been raging for the past day or so. Once they were in the city proper, the tall buildings with their dizzyingly high spires provided a respite from the biting wind. The two travelers looked at each other before pulling down their hoods and pulling off their goggles until they hung around their necks, revealing two, masked faces.

One mask was two-tone blue and green, with two blade-like structures on either side. The front opened up to reveal a set of wooden, wolf-like jaws, whilst a spike stuck out the top of the mask.

His fellow traveller had a totally different mask, it was green, and much more minimalistic, merely having two intakes on either side. The rest of the mask was open, revealing the face of a griffin.

The two travellers had one location in mind, the royal palace of Bardingburgh, from which the Alicorn rulers of Concordia, Princess Rosetta and her daughter, Princess Stella, ruled over the country with a kind and gentle watch on its citizens.

The two travellers eventually made their to the gates of the royal palace, its spires taller than most and found their paths blocked by a pair of lances wielded by Sphinx guards.

"Strangers" one of them said "please state your names and intentions"

"I am Toa Scar, spirit of plantlife" the timberwolf said "and this is my brother, Toa Boris, spirit of air. we have come seeking an audience with your rulers"

"You must have a prior arrangement with Princess..."

"Look kid" Scar said, getting in the young guards face "I know you just doing your job, but we've had a long and tiring journey through the desert, and we'd rather get this over and done with so we can get back to our own planet" the Sphinx rolled his eyes and called to a group of guards.

"We're gonna need back up" he said "we've got a coupe of luneys claiming they're from another planet trying to get to the princesses" the guards started to walk over, but stopped dead in their tracks when Boris and Scar threw off their cloaks to reveal their fully armoured forms.

"Are you really sure you want to do this?" Boris asked, making a miniature tornado of sand appear on his finger "Because we're used to putting down dragons in our spare time" the guards began to look around nervously

"We don't want to harm your princesses, we just want to talk to them" Scar said, before activating his mask of shape shifting and turning into a bird "else we wouldn't have even tried to enter through the front gates" he then turned back into his Toa form.

"We really don't want to have to fight you" he said "so either you can let us through or you can turn us away and later explain to your superiors why you didn't let a couple of extraterrestrial visitors talk to your rulers"

"For all you know, we could be shapeshifting diplomats from the planet zarb, and our culture could see you turning us away as a declaration of all out war" Boris said, Scar gave him a look and mouthed 'What the fuck!?', whilst the Sphinxes began backing up.

"Uh...g-go right ahead, s-sirs" the guard said, before the two of them lifted up their lances and let the two Toa pass. The Toa walked into an elevator and just as the doors closed they heard the guard call out.

"Did you guys just see that!?"

Once the elevator had began moving up Scar took one look at Boris before smacking him on the back of the head.

"Are you fucking crazy!?" he asked, half laughing "'shapeshifting diplomats from the planet Zarb'?"

"I didn't have much to work with, okay?" Boris said, rubbing the back of his head.

"One day, brother, you're gonna be the death of me" Scar said "now we just have to talk to two alicorns who we are totally unfamiliar with without getting ourselves killed. I swear if you pull a stunt like that with them I with shove a thornax down your throat" Boris pulled his talons across his beak in a zipping motion and they both straightened themselves up just before the lift dinged and the doors opened to reveal a waiting room. A unicorn mare was sat at a desk signing papers, Scar walked up to the desk before clearing his throat.

"We are here to speak with the princesses..."

"Go right in, hun" she said without looking up. Scar and Boris looked at each other before shrugging and walking to the grand doors that guarded the throne room. Scar went to knock but the doors were encompassed in a maroon aura, before opening to reveal a throne room with two ponies seated at a table to one side, drinkin what appeared to be tea. One was a familiar looking white and maroon Alicorn mare, whilst the other was what appeared to be a pink Pegasus mare with a light purple mane and tail. The Alicorn took a sip of her tea before lowering the cup to the table and turning to the Toa

"We've been expecting you, Toa" she said. Boris and Scar were surprised.

"H-how do you know of us, your majesty?" Scar asked. the alicorn lifted up a black and white newspaper.

"Amazing how quickly news travels these days, isn't it?" she asked, the tiniest hint of a smile perceptible on her features.

"Right" Scar said, feeling slightly stupid.

"Come join us" she said "I imagine traveling through the deserts for three days can be rather tiring, yes?" the two toa apprehensively waked over and sat down, cross legged.

"You...look familiar" Boris said "Are you Fantasia?"

"Who?" the Alicorn asked.

"Mother of Princesses Celestia and Luna, and a Great Being" Scar said "you're a dead match" the two ponies stared at them.

"Your world is very different from ours then" the Alicorn said "i'm Princess Rosetta, and this is my daughter, Princess Stella. I don't have any relation to Celestia and Luna" Princess Stella spoke up.

"What's a 'Great Being'?"

"Sort of like a god" Boris said "but at the same time, not a god"

"If we could perhaps move on to why we are here in the first place" Scar said.

"Yes" Princess Rosetta said "what exactly is your reason for visiting us?"

"We were wondering if you could maybe ask some of the other nations if they've seen any of our kin" he said, his took a hologram out of his hammer space and put it on the table. the Hologram activated to reveal the other two groups that had been displaced on the planet (though Scar and Boris didn't know this) and Scar began to go over the individual Toa, their children and their companions.

"If you would be kind enough to keep an eye open and and ear to the ground" Scar said "that would be a blessing"

"Of course" Rosetta said "By the way, will you be partaking in tonights activities? it's nightmare night tonight" Scar and Boris suddenly got an Idea and they looked to each other before smirking.

"You know what? That sounds like a wonderful idea" Scar said.

*POV 1st Person Vuur Koning*

I was sat on a train headed to West Trottingham, the Queen of Glascolt/Coltland had advised that if wwe were to have any chance of contacting our fellow Toa, then our best chance was to go to a ruler with more powerful magic, namely Queen Elizabeth, currant ruler of Trottingham. which is why I was currently on a train with not only Autumn, the kids and their significant others, but also Stag, Double and Bhradain (he wanted in on our travels to other worlds, so he was tagging along).

"So what's Queen Elizabeth like?" I asked Stag.

"Watch what you say around her, and for the sake of your little ones ears, I'd keep her outside the throne room" he said, nodding towards Sunny, who was currently laid asleep next to Autumn.

"Also, keep Garnet away from her, Queen Elizabeth has a thing for young stallions" all eyes turned to the aforementioned hybrid, and he chuckled nervously. I gave a low, long whistle.

"Garnet, you'll be babysitting Sunny when we get to West Trottingham" I said "take the time to connect with your sister" he gave a quick salute and nodded.

*POV 3rd person*

Boris and Scar snuck through the hallways of the palace of Bardingburgh, they soon caught sight of their target and hid around a corner, they were about to pounce when a voice stopped them.

"What in the name of the goddesses are you doing?" Princess Stella asked quietly from behind them.

"Some of your guards gave us a bit of trouble on the way in" Boris said "we're merely repaying them"

"It's all in the spirit of Nightmare Night" Scar said.

"You could at least explain what you plan to do" she shot back. Scar leaned in and whispered the plan into her ear, causing her to giggle before quickly covering her mouth, the swift motion revealing the stump of a horn. The two Toa raised an eyebrow and she frowned before quickly readjusting her mane and nodding forward "shall we?" the two Toa nodded and Boris caused a small draft to blow through, causing a door near them to slam shut, the guards looked to one another before walking over to check what was happening. Scar nudged to Stella to hide and she quickly ran into a room and peeked out as the two Toa transformed into demonic dogs with glowing red eyes and horns. Just as the guards rounded the corner the Toa reared up and as one shouted three words that would haunt the two Sphinxes to their grave.

"ZUUL MOTHAFUCKA...ZUUUUUL!!!"

Chapter 32

Scar and Boris were walking through the ground level area of the city with Stella (Or Firefly, as she was known in Equestria, and personally preferred to be called), Nightmare Night was in full swing, and all around them ponies were in costume, though they all looked up in wonder at the two Toa as they walked past. The three of them each had small bag with a modest selection of assorted sweets, whilst the two Toa’s intentions wasn’t originally to collect any sweets, the festive spirit had rubbed off on them.

"You guys couldn't have picked a better time to drop in" Firefly said, before getting a hard boiled sweet out of her collection bag and popping it in her mouth, she had archaic runes covering body, and the occasional bolt of lightning would dance between the lines of the runes "you fit right in and you look awesome, but not as awesome as me" the two Toa shared knowing looks.

"Say, I've been think-wondering" Boris said "what happened to your horn?" Firefly frowned and absent-mindedly touched her horn stump with a fore-hoof.

"1000 years ago I helped the Equestrian Princesses to defeat Tirek" she said "I made a mistake and paid the price for it" her whole demeanour suddenly did a complete 180 and she brightened up.

"Eh, I'm still as awesome as ever" she said, giving a shrug "and I've still got magic, so there's that, right?" the two Toa shrugged.

"I guess" Scar said "we don't have to rely on magic, we use the elemental energies of the universe" he threw his arms out as he said this, Firefly rolled her eyes.

“Sure” she said sarcastically, at that moment a young Sphinx appeared from an alley way and attempted to snatch Firefly’s bag out of her magical grasp, only to end up face planting in the dusty street. Firefly approached the kid in a huff “hey! What do you think you’re doing, kid?” Boris suddenly stood in front of her and she glared at him “Hey! What’s the deal?”

“If I was in her physical condition, I would be sorry-desperate too” he said, before flicking his eyes towards the cub. Firefly followed his gaze and gasped, the cub was practically starved. The Alicorn went to approach her, but she began backing away in fear.

“Hey, kid, I won’t hurt you” she said softly “where are your parents?” the cub hung her head and sniffed, thinking quickly Boris stepped forward and picked her up.

“You don’t have anyone, do you?” he said sadly, she shook her head in response and buried her head into his chest plate. He looked at Scar and Firefly and sighed “Let’s get you something to bite-eat” he looked at Scar and Fire fly and nodded to them, they then started to make their way to the nearest restaurant. What neither the Toa nor Firefly noticed was a large, spire shaped craft of some type appearing in the sky.

Minion was sat on top of Terror on the top of Visorak Island Mountain, Vinyl and Aurora were sat on a log positioned opposite him. A small campfire burned in the middle. Suddenly Terror spoke up

"Was ist das!?" he exclaimed. Minion scowled and looked down.

"I thought I told you to shut the..." he was interrupted as two large, spire shaped objects flew overhead "what the hell are those?"

"They're descent path is too perfect for them to be mere space debris, they looked like they were in formation" Terror said, this time Minion didn't chastise the dark Alicorn "looks like they are headed towards Stirrup"

"Meaning?" Minion asked, Terror smirked

"Not good for the citizens of Stirrup" he said.

*POV 1st person Vuur Koning*

I walked into the throne room with Autumn, Stag and Double. Queen Elizabeth watched me and Autumn with interest, I leant towards Autumn and whispered.

"I bet you 10 bits I can get her to say 'we are not amused' before the day is over"

"20" she replied.

"15" I shot back.

"Done" she said, I straightened up and we all bowed as we stopped in front of the throne

"You may rise" the queen boomed with enough force to blow Autumns mane back, we slowly stood to our full heights and her attention remained solely on myself and Autumn “why did you come here?” I stepped forward a couple of paces.

“Your majesty, I am Toa Vuur Koning; High-lord General of the Terra union army” I said “both myself and Toa Autumn Skies; my second in command, stand humbly before you to ask a favour” I paused in case she wanted to ask anything.

“Continue” she said.

“We have been displaced from our star-bound transport” I said “for reasons I know not, we merely ask of you two things. One is that you contact other nations to see if they have encountered the rest of my team”

“And what of the other favour?” she asked.

“That if at all possible, you could request the presence of the princesses of Equestria. We are from a world that is a parallel of this one, and I personally know that world’s equivalents to Celestia and Luna, I feel it would be easier to contact them if it was a parallel individual sending out a beacon” she thought for a moment before answering.

“Your requests are fair, and your reasoning just” she said “very well, we will carry out your requests, for now you are free to traverse the city as you wish. We will send a guard to escort you back to the palace when we have made headway” we all bowed before turning and leaving.

“You didn’t get her to say it” Autumn whispered.

“Give it time” I hissed.

*POV 3rd person. Location: Bardingburgh*

The two Neu-Toa and Firefly were in a restaurant, sat at their table was the orphaned Sphinx cub, who was currently consuming a soup with much gusto.

“How can a kid just be left on the streets to fend for themselves?” Firefly whispered indignantly to the Two Neu-Toa.

“I don’t know” Boris said, frowning “What I do know is I’m not gonna let her get bad-hurt anymore” the other two looked at him in surprise.

“You’re not thinking of adopting her, are you?” Scar asked, Boris nodded “look, I’m just as angry about it as you are, but I’m sure the orphanages here can take care of her, right Firefly” the Alicorn nodded.

“Yeah” she said “you don’t need to worry about it, if needs be I can order an orphanage to take her in”

“Please, don’t!” the cub pleaded, they all looked at her and she lowered her head in shame “I don’t want to go back, that’s how I ended up on the streets in the first place”

“Did you escape?” Boris asked softly, she nodded, looking shamefaced.

“No one would choose me” she admitted “everyone wanted a pony, and I eat meat, and those that didn’t want a pony thought I looked too much like a pony, and Sphinxes never come to the orphanage”

“You were saying?” Boris said to Scar and Firefly, raising an eyebrow as he spoke “you didn’t even consider what the cub wanted” Scar sighed and leaned back in his chair.

“Alright” he said “fine, but the kid’s your responsibility”

“Sandstorm” the cub said, looking at Scar.

“What?” he asked, confused.

“My name’s Sandstorm” she said.

“Okay then” he said, before turning to Boris “‘Sandstorm’ is your responsibility”

“That’s sure-fine by me” Boris said, Firefly went to say something but was interrupted by the sound of rocket engines firing, they looked into the street to see a spherical flying craft of some type lowering towards the ground. It was a dark, gunmetal colour, with lines similar to a circuit board covering it. It touched down with a dull thud and everyone gathered around in curiosity, the side of the sphere lifted up with a hiss and a 4ft tall humanoid in a blue space suit stepped out wielding a rifle of some kind. Its head was hidden beneath a large, blue helmet with two angular eye holes. Firefly, followed closely by the Neu-Toa and Sandstorm, ran up.

“Alien!” Firefly said, her tone lacked her usual cockiness, and was now much more formal “I am Princess Stella of the nation of Concordia, what is your name and intention”

“Ah yes, know your enemy” the Alien said, before taking his helmet off to reveal a bulbous, brown head “I am Private Strill of the 11th Sontaran battle fleet. I herald your extermination, puny, inferior life form. Sontar Ha!” For a moment no one said anything, Firefly’s stoic façade began to falter until she fell on the ground laughing.

“Bwaa-ha-ha-ha you can’t be serious” she said, before getting up and wiping away a tear “I mean look at you, you look like a baked potato, you aren’t exactly blessed in the height department either”

“You insult me, madam!” The Sontaran exclaimed, before levelling his rifle at Firefly

“Firefly” Scar said “we should run…now”

“Are you kidding me?” she asked, before pointing at the Sontaran “how can you not find that funny, what’s he gonna do, bite my hooves?” Scar dived into her just as the Sontaran fired his rifle, the bolt sailed past them until it hit a unicorn stallion in the chest, killing him instantly. The street dissolved in to panic as everyone began running for their lives to avoid the barrage of rifle fire, curtesy of the Sontaran.

“If I tell you to run, you fucking run!” Scar hissed to Firefly, he stood up and turned to Boris “Take these two to safety”

“What about you?” Boris asked, helping Firefly up.

“I’m gonna give the Sontarans a little welcome party” he said, cracking his knuckles “curtesy of the Terra Union Army” Boris nodded before picking Sandstorm and Firefly up by their waists.

“Ever-sorry, princess” he said, before running and taking off “the wolf-guy wants us out of the way to protect-safe us”

“From them?” she asked, he shook his head and smirked.

“From him” he said, as if to punctuate his point, at that moment an explosion of green and blue energy rocked the street below them and the Sontaran could be hear in the distance screaming before something silenced him.

*POV 3rd person. Location: West Trottingham*

Garnet wasn’t sure when exactly it had all gone to shit, one moment he was walking through the relatively empty streets with the others, next thing he knew he was on the floor and a building nearby had been reduced to rubble by an explosion. He tried to get up, only to find that his robotic arm was reduced to scrap metal, the end of it sparked and smoked as he tried to move it. His other arm was dislocated, so he couldn’t move that one either

“Damm” he muttered through the pain “well this sucks”

“Oh my gods!” he heard Thel exclaim, he looked up to see her running up to him “Garnet, your arm”

“I’m fine” he said “my left shoulder is dislocated is dislocated. I need you to find Ruby and have her push it back into place” she nodded before running off to find his twin sister. She soon returned with ruby, whose robotic eye was also trashed”

“Snap” he said, nodding his head towards her eye.

“Not funny” she said, helping him up before grabbing hold of his dislocated arm “on three. One…two…three!” it pushed back into place with an audible ‘POP’ and Garnet growled before gingerly moving his arm.

“I need to get this checked out soon” he said, before grabbing what was left of his robotic arm and removing it, he examined it before sighing and chucking it behind him “it needed replacing anyway” he then looked around “where are the others”

“Och eye, what the devil was that!?” they heard Bhradain exclaim, they looked over to see the aforementioned Kelpie, along with Sunny and Breezy. All of them were shakily standing up.

“Bhradain, you’re bleeding!” Breezy exclaimed, pointing at a large gash on his shoulder, he merely shrugged it off.

“Och, I ain’t got time tah bleed!” he replied gruffly, before walking towards the ruined building “Ye’re the aliens, do ye know what could cause his?” he asked, touching a hoof to a piece of rubble.

“Look at the bricks” Ruby said “they’re all melted, this was plasma artillery”

“Meaning?” Breezy asked.

“We have an alien incursion on our hooves” she said, before looking up at the sky, there was two alien ships towards the east and below them the ground had a dull orange glow to it “why does trouble always seem to follow us around”

“It comes with being the adopted children of a couple of Neu-Toa” Garnet said.

“What about Mum and Dad?” Sunny asked, standing close to Breezy and putting a foreleg around one of Breezy’s. Ruby sighed.

“I don’t know, we need to find them and the two changelings” she said.

“I’m willin’ tah bet there near the ships” Bhradain said, nodding towards the alien craft in the distance “how you wanna go about doing this? All together or split up.

“We’ll split up” Garnet said “those that are able to defend themselves can come with, the rest need to find a place to hide” he then walked over to Thel and nuzzled her “I can’t risk you or the baby getting hurt, which is why I need you to take Sunny and go find a safe location”

“I won’t leave you” Thel said.

“Please” Garnet said “don’t make this any harder than it has to be” he could feel his eyes tearing up “If we don’t make it…”

“Don’t say that!” Thel exclaimed.

“If we don’t make it, I want you to take care of Sonny and protect her” he said “You’re the reason I fight, so that you and our kid can grow up in a world free from fear. I promise, I’m gonna do whatever it takes to protect you, and damn anyone who gets in my way” at that moment he felt something in his mind ‘click’ and a flash lit up the corner of his vision. Thel stepped back and gasped.

“Garnet…I don’t believe it!” she exclaimed “you have a cutie mark!” Garnet looked to his flank to see a white shield containing three red stars above two horizontal red stripes, surrounding the shield was an intricate flame pattern.

“But…I thought Kirins didn’t cutie marks” Breezy said.

“We’re the first known Kirins in about 1000 years” Ruby said “not much is known about our kind”

“Well” Bhradain said “This is all very touchin’, but ifin’ ye wanna find yer parents, then we have to leave soon” Garnet leaned close to Thel and nuzzled her one last time.

“I love you” he said, before kissing her on the cheek “I’ll come back to you, this I swear”

“Please be safe” she said, he nodded before running to catch up with Ruby, Breezy and Bhradain.

“Ye done makin’ out with yer wife?” Bhradain asked.

“Shut it, Scotty!” the Kirin shot back, Bhradain bristled at the comment but didn’t say anything as they ran through the streets towards the epicentre of the invasion.

*POV 1st Person Vuur Koning*

I dived behind a piece of rubble just as a barrage of plasma fire sailed overhead, the moment the Sontarans had attacked we spent most of the time running from cover to cover, so I hadn’t had time to explain what was happening. Autumn and Double had gotten separated from us, so we were looking for them

“By the gods!” Stag exclaimed as he followed me behind the rubble “Friends of yours?”

“No” I said “Sontarans are a race of clones, bred for one thing”

“And that is?” he asked.

“War” I replied “Why does everywhere I visit end up as a fucking disaster zone!?”

“Because you’re a trouble magnet?” Stag supplied.

“Not helping!” I shouted as I drew two arcane pistols and a com-link, I passed them to Stag and he took them in his magic before putting the headset on “How’s your aim with ranged weapons”

“Reasonable, how many are there?” he asked, I changed to the mask of X-ray vision and peered through the rubble that was acting as our barricade.

“15 in the streets” I said, changing my mask back to the Hau “Think you can handle them? I’ll take the ones on the rooftops” he nodded before his horn glowed, the aura briefly covered his eyes. I nodded to him before drawing my dagger and teleporting onto one of the roofs. It took me a few second to get my bearings but eventually I located a Sontaran sniper, one of four. I held the dagger blade up. Sontaran snipers were much more lightly armoured, and their neck was exposed, they were trained for hit and run tactics and were fitted with a jet pack. I slowly crept behind the sniper before slitting his throat, he slumped to the floor with a gurgle before going still. I ripped the jet pack off and switched to the mask of biomechanics, a mask that allowed basic control of machinery. I then programmed a rough flight path into the jetpack before activating it, it took off with a roar before heading straight for the next sniper and knocking him out. It then banked and headed straight for the sniper next to him, knocking him off the building before flying for the final sniper and knocking him over. The Jetpack then swooped down into the streets, taking out several Sontarans as it exploded.

“Now, Stag!” I shouted through the com-link. I looked down into the street to see Stag stand up and unleash a volley of pistol fire, quickly knocking down the last of the Sontarans. I teleported down just in time to see Stag lift the barrels to his mouth and blow the smoke away.

“I think I'll hold onto these” I went to say something but I was interrupted by my watch beeping, I looked down and immediately focused on one thing

‘Jörmungandr back in range’

Chapter 33

Boris did a barrel roll to avoid another shot from a Sontaran transport sphere. Firefly and Rosetta were protecting Sandstorm in the throne room. Thankfully, the Sontarans were encountering resistance in the form of the royal guard and the librarian knights, a group of ceratopsians known as Bix gifted in psionic magic. Boris heard his bracelet beep and he activated his mask of speed before shooting towards the throne room. He landed on the balcony with a thud before turning around and firing his rifles at the pod, causing it to explode in a fireball, all before he had stopped sliding along the floor.

“Boris, is everything alright?” Firefly asked.

“Sure-fine” he replied still catching his breath. He glanced down at his bracelet before getting out a hologram and chucking it on the floor “This is Neu-Toa Boris, I am hailing the T.U.A.N. space ship Jörmungandr, can you read me?” after a few seconds the hologram crackled into life, showing an image of Vapaa, though he had totally different armour on. It was more bulky, and he looked taller.

“Boris?” Vapaa exclaimed, “Where the hell have you been?”

“Long story-tale, we don’t have time” he said “Both myself and Scar are in a City locally known as Bardingburgh, the city is under attack by Sontarans, we have a full scale invasion on our hands and require assistance” at that moment Boris heard two voices.

“This is Neu-Toa Vuur Koning hailing the Jörmungandr, myself, and Autumn are in a city under attack by Sontarans and we are requesting your assistance”

“This is Neu-Toa Minion hailing the Jörmungandr, myself and Vinyl and stranded on an Island and are requesting a pick-up”

“Just give me a moment, guys,” Vapaa said, after a few seconds the Hologram changed to show both Minion and Vuur Koning “Minion, how urgently do you need picking up? Because we’ve got two requests to help deal with Sontarans”

“We can wait” he said, “I’ll send a homing beacon” his hologram then disappeared.

“Okay guys” Vapaa said, “Where are you two currently” Boris turned to Princess Rosetta.

“Do you have a map-picture of the world?” he asked “quickly!” the elder Alicorn floated over a Map and Boris quickly studied it before turning it to face the hologram projector. He saw Vuur Koning do the same.

“Okay” Vapaa said, “I’m splitting up the forces equally, and we’ve also got a little surprise”

“What are you planning?” Vuur Koning sang.

“Let’s just say, we took a trip to the red star, and we brought some friends back,” Vapaa said, smirking.

“Vapaa, you are a magnificent bastard!” Vuur exclaimed.

“Do you mind watching the foul-mouth?” Boris asked, “I’ve got a kid here”

“Sorry” Vuur said quickly.

“Reinforcements should be arriving in a few minutes either way,” Vapaa said.

“Okay” Vuur said, “If you come across a Sontaran ship, do not engage, I want to talk to them personally” His hologram then fizzled out.

“He’s pissed” Vapaa said “So, Boris, think you can handle yourself for a few minutes?”

“Don’t worry,” he said, “I’ve got it covered” He then deactivated the Hologram and put it away.

“What’s the red star?” Firefly asked. Boris smirked.

“That would ruin-spoil the surprise now, wouldn’t it?” He said, before running towards the balcony and jumping out. He heard a crack behind him and a flash of light lit up the corners of his vision, he looked back to see Firefly flying behind him.

“You think you can grab all the glory?” She asked.

*Location: Jörmungandr*

The hold was alive with activity; all around Dropships of various types were getting ready. Vapaa was watching over the proceedings from a balcony when a Toa in red and gold armour walked up and stood beside him with his hands behind his back.

“Think you can handle it?” Vapaa asked, “Commanding all these Toa?”

“I was able to lead 300 in Metru Nui” he said, “3000 shouldn't be too much of a struggle”

“I’ll warn you” Vapaa said, “much has changed in 400 million years”

“Evil hasn’t, though” the Toa replied “there will always be individuals who grab for more than they can reach”

“True” Vapaa said, “Shall we” the Toa nodded and stepped forward before placing his hands on the railing.

“Let’s make this a speech to remember” the Toa said, before inhaling “Toa, Spherus Magnans, Terrans!” everyone that was working stopped and looked up at the Toa.

“When we last walked the ground, the universe was a very different place. We thought all we could see, was all that there ever was, those days are over. Dark times are ahead, for we face a threat, not just from Teridax, but also from beings that roam the stars as easily as we command our elements. These…aliens have sent us a message that they think they can take whatever worlds they please, that they expect us to run, and hide in fear! However, we will send them a message across the stars that we watch over these worlds, that they cannot take whatever they want. That this is our realm; we will defend this realm, until we draw our last breath, until the last warrior falls!” He paused for a moment before continuing.

My name is Toa Lhikan; I led 300 Toa to victory against the Dark Hunters in Metru Nui. I ask of you all to join me in battle, not as warriors, but as brothers and sisters, regardless of creed, of species, of tongue and of past conflicts. Today, you leave all of those behind and you fight beside me, as equals. WHAT SAY YOU?” in response the gathered warriors let out a cry that rattled the ship.

“They were ready and willing,” Vapaa said to Lhikan, smiling “all they needed was the right push, let’s get this over with”

“How are you getting down to the planet?” Lhikan asked. Vapaa smirked.

“Just a little something we borrowed from the ODSTs” he replied

*P.O.V. first person: Vuur Koning. Location, Trottingham*

Autumn ran her sword through yet another Sontaran warrior. Stag and I had managed to regroup with the others and we were forming a last line of defence with the Royal guard in protecting the city hall, where most of the civilians were seeking refuge.

“They must outnumber us 1000 to 1,” Autumn said, kicking away a dead Sontaran that she had just run through with her blades.

“Yeah” Garnet said, incinerating about ten of the stocky soldiers in his dragon fire “but who’s counting?”

“I could really do with the Kaita slayer right now!” Ruby said, at that moment a loud, deep horn filled the air and spell fire began to shoot down the Sontarans. I looked up to see multiple Dropships descending upon the city. A red and gold Toa of the Metru build flew down on a hover board before landing, splitting his board into two, slicing the gun of a Sontaran in half and running him through before kicking him away and turning to us whilst putting his swords away.

“Heard you needed a hand,” He said.

“Toa Lhikan?” I exclaimed in surprise. A drop ship landed nearby and Lhikan quickly ran to it before pulling out a heavy arcane machine gun.

“She-Kirin, catch!” He shouted, before launching the machine gun at Ruby. She caught it and flicked the safety off before cocking it.

“Oh…yeah!” she said, before unleashing a volley of spell fire upon the Sontarans, giving us a few moments of safety.

“Now come on” Lhikan said “we have a city to save!” he then got his swords back out and connected them together before jumping on the board and flying off. I just stood there in surprise.

“Suddenly I feel really inferior,” I muttered, before glancing at my sword.

“Come on” Autumn said, placing a hand on my shoulder “We still have to locate some more civilians and get them to safety”

“Right” I said, nodding.

“And don’t ever, ever think you’re inferior,” she said, pulling me into a hug “I would follow you into Tartarus and back, as would all the other Neu-Toa. Lhikan maybe the Toa’s leader, but you’re our leader”

“What would I do without you?” I asked, hugging her back. I then stepped back and looked at the others “now come on, let’s go save a city” they all nodded and we began to sprint down the street.

*P.O.V.: third person. Location Bardingburgh*

Boris ducked around a corner, followed closely by Scar and Firefly. Boris had a wound on his left shoulder, which was bleeding profusely, and his left arm hung limply.

“That was a stupid-bad decision!” Boris exclaimed, clutching his shoulder, all around the wound the armour was charred and melted.

“You were the one who suggested it!” Firefly shot back, butting up a shield bubble to protect them for the time being “show me you shoulder” Boris moved his hand away and Firefly hissed in sympathy.

“That looks like it hurts” she said, Boris shot her a glare “right, not helping” suddenly her ears pricked up “do you heard that?”

“You mean besides the sound of countless deaths?” Scar asked.

“Shut it!” she hissed back, before dispelling the bubble shield. As well as the sounds of Sontaran plasma guns, they could hear battle cries of multiple languages. They cautiously walked towards the corner and quickly moved out of the way, as multiple Sontarans ran past before rounding a corner at the end of the street.

“Tha’s right, ye better run!” a voice shouted from behind them, they turned around and did a double take. Standing there, clear as day, where two of the most odd-looking beings either of them had ever laid eyes upon.

One was what appeared to be a Ta-Matoran wearing a Kenohi Huna, that much about his was ordinary enough, what was less ordinary was that he was wielding two one handed axes and the fact that his arms were engulfed in flames and the upper parts were armoured with what appeared to be solid rock.

The other was about 8ft tall, with extremely mismatched armour; his legs were comprised of red, gold and yellow armour, whilst his arms were made of black armour. His left hand was a set of metal claws, whilst in his right hand he held a scythe-like blade. On his head was a large, disk like shield.

“The buck are you?” Firefly blurted out.

“And a g’day to you too” the taller one replied indignantly in a Hoorstralian/Australian accent.

“What are your names?” Scar asked.

“Call me Gelphana” the tall one said, he then gestured to the Ta-Matoran “and this here is Talguda”

“Pleasure to be makin’ your acquaintances” Talguda said in a light Scoltish accent.

“What are two Spherus Magnans such as you doing here?” Boris asked, clutching his shoulder.

“You okay, mate?” Gelphana asked.

“Bastard Sontaran shot me” He replied.

“Anyway” Talguda said “To answer your question, we were on the red star when your friends picked us up”

“What’s the Red Star?” Firefly asked.

“Essentially the Spherus Magnan afterlife” Scar said, “now first of all, we’re gonna need to get to Dropship and get Boris up to the Jörmungandr” he then looked to the two new comers “Do you know where we can get to one?”

“There’s one nearby” Gelphana said, “We can show you the way”

“Firefly” Boris said, “I need you to get Sandstorm for me, I want her with me and away from danger” the Alicorn nodded, turned around and ran a short distance down the street before disappearing in a bolt of lightning.

“Right” Gelphana said. “Let’s get going”

*POV 1st person Vuur Koning*

We followed the cries for help until we came across a large, burning building, a hotel most likely, that appeared to be close to collapsing.

“Autumn, Garnet” I ordered. “Help me to clear the debris and tackle the fire. The rest of you need to search the building for civilians” I chucked a bunch of masks to the ones that were headed inside.

“These will help you to breath and see in the smoke”

“But, Dad…” Garnet protested.

“Not in your current condition” I cut in “Ruby might have lost her eye, but she still has all her limbs” he huffed, but did not object any further. Ruby, Breezy, Stag and Bhradain ran towards the entrance of the building and Bhradain charged ahead of the others before barrelling through the door. I got out my sword and began to summon the flames towards me before absorbing them bit by bit.

*POV 3rd person*

Bhradain burst into the building and slid to a halt, the interior of the building was filled with smoke

“Stag, Ruby, take the stairs” he ordered. “Ye’re the strongest flyers, so ye have the best chance of gettin’ anyone back down the stairs.” Ruby and Stag nodded before barrelling up the stairs. Bhradain looked down at Breezy.

“Stay close, lassie” he said, before cautiously trotting through the hallway and calling out “Hello? Anyone here?” they both heard a set of voices shouting down the hallway and they picked up the pace until they came to a locked door.

“Can you unlock the door?” Breezy called.

“It’s jammed shut!” a male voice responded.

“Stand back!” Bhradain called, before turning 180’ on his fore hooves and bucking the door down in one solid hit. Inside the room was a family of three Unicorns. “Come on, we’ll get ye out”

“Thank you,” an older mare said, before the three ponies cautiously walked out into the hallway. Bhradain took his breathing mask off and put it on the youngest, a colt in his preteens.

“Ye’ll have to lead the way, Breezy,” he said, “I can-nay see a thing through the smoke” the Ceffyl Dŵr nodded before walking in front and leading them back towards the exit. As they were getting near the exit Bhradain heard the unmistakable sound of wood creaking, he managed to push Breezy out of the way just as a section of the floor above them collapsed on top of him. Reacting on instinct, he threw his forehooves up to try and stop the ceiling from crushing the pony family. Next thing he knew light filled his vision and he felt his body grow a couple feet higher. He looked up in confusion to see that his forelegs had changed; they were now sporting the same appendages that Vuur Koning had and covered entirely in silver and gunmetal-grey armour.

“Bhradain. Is that you?” Breezy asked in surprise. At that moment, the ceiling began to creak once more and Bhradain could feel it shifting.

“Don nay worry about that” He said “jus’ git the ponies out, before this place come down on top of ‘em. I can take care of meself.” Breezy nodded before leading the ponies out of the building. The heavy ceiling started to bear down on Bhradain and he grunted from the effort ‘Vuur and Autumn have those fancy masks’ he thought ‘let’s see if I’ve got something that sort this out’. He focussed his mind onto getting the mask to work and it began to glow a bright gold colour, he then felt the section of ceiling lift away from him and repair itself before fusing with the rest of the ceiling.

“Reconstruction?” he pondered, looking up at the repaired ceiling. A frantic banging from behind one of the nearby doors interrupted his train of thought and he quickly walked towards it before grabbing the door handle and ripping the door off its hinges in one fluid motion. He stared in amazement at his hand before turning his attention to the occupants of the room, inside were ponies of various sizes and colours, all of them looked up at him in amazement “Can ye all walk?”

“I-I can’t” he heard a female voice call out, the group parted to reveal a middle aged pegasus mare with a grey mane & tail and a dark blue body and a dark cloud for a cutie mark. one of her hind legs was twisted at an unnatural angle, she chuckled nervously “A piece of ceiling fell on me” Bhradain turned to the others.

“Can the rest of ye walk?” he asked, he got nods from all of those gathered in response. He turned back to the mare and picked her up “Sorry, lass, but this is the quickest way” he then turned and led everyone out of the building, where he spotted the others attending to a large group of ponies.

“Can anyone here set a broken leg back into place?” he called, a unicorn stallion with glasses looked over.

“I can, I’m a doctor” he said as he walked over “Set her down gently so I can take a look” Bhradain did as directed and gently placed the mare on the ground. The doctor adjusted his glasses before examining the injury.

“What’s your name, ma’am?” he asked.

“Stormy Skies” she replied.

“Well then, Miss Skies” he said, “I’m going to have to re-set the injury, I’m not going to lie, this is going to hurt a lot” he then looked at Bhradain. “If you could hold her down for me, that would be very appreciated” Bhradain nodded before gently but firmly holding the un injured part of her leg still.

“On three” the doctor said, Bhradain tightened his grip slightly “one, two three” the doctors horn glowed before he grabbed the leg and reset the bone with an audible crack that made Bhradain cringe…and he almost went deaf as Stormy Skies let out a scream of pain.

“That should do it” he said “I would apply a caste but unfortunately I don’t have any medical supplies” at that moment Vuur walked over.

“Need any help?” he asked.

“Vuur, ye have a magical mask” Bhradain said “Try fixin’ a broken leg” Vuur crouched down and his mask shifted to a different appearance before glowing, the same glow then encompassed the mares leg nd a dull crack could be heard. The glow diminished and Vuur stood up.

“Feel any better?” he asked, Stormy Skies moved her leg gingery and a surprised expression came over her face.

“Yeah, how did you do that?” she asked, Vuur tapped his mask.

“Kenohi Sanare” he said, at both Stormy’s and the doctor’s blank expressions he sighed “its mask of healing, now will that be all”

“I think we'll be fine,” Bhradain said.

Chapter 34

*POV 3rd person, Location: Bardingburgh*

Boris, Scar, Talguda and Gelphana got to the city square just as Firefly teleported in with Sandstorm on her back. Dotted around the square were multiple Dropships of different types

“You ready to go?” Firefly asked as Sandstorm jumped off her back.

“Just about” Scar said as they walked over to the nearest drop ship, he then turned to the pilot, a Pegasus “How soon can we be in the air”

“Immediately” he said, before jumping into the cockpit and starting it up. Boris and Sandstorm got in the passenger section, Scar turned to Firefly.

“Do you want to come with us?” he asked, she shook her head.

“This is my home” she said, “I’m not leaving here until I know it’s safe”

“Very well then” Scar said, climbing into the passenger section “Let’s hope we meet again someday” at that moment a platoon of Sontarans burst into the square and began opening fire, Talguda and Gelphana turned and began launching elemental attacks in retaliation.

“Get out of here before this entire place turns to Karzahni, we’ll meet you back on the ship” Gelphana said, throwing his blade like a boomerang and taking out several Sontaran foot soldiers.

“Take us up” Scar said to the pilot, the doors closed and the whole craft lurched before ascending rapidly towards the Jörmungandr, located high above in the edges of space.

*POV 1st person Vuur Koning*

With the combined efforts of the Toa and local law enforcements, we had begun to push the Sontarans into a retreat.

“Let’s finish this!” I shouted, before myself and multiple other Toa of fire began hurling balls of lava at the Sontarans ‘We can fucking well win this’ I thought as I paused to get a grenade out of my hammer space before pulling the pin and hurling it at the retreating forces. One by one, what was left of the Sontaran forces began to teleport out until there were none left in the city. The two Sontaran ships flew off into the sky and all around me the Toa began cheering in victory. I got out my sword before sending up a column of fire, signalling victory. One by one, similar beacons began shooting into the sky across the city. Eventually the civilians began to venture out into the city and we were soon reunited with Thel and Sunny.

“Finally” Lhikan said, walking over and butting his swords away, “Victory is ours”

“Not quite” I responded, “We still have to deal with the mother ship”

“Then don’t waste any time” he said “my Toa can handle things from here on out” I nodded my thanks before turning to Autumn and Bhradain.

“Well?” Bhradain queried “What do we do know”

“We are going back to the ship to negotiate with the Sontarans” I said.

“You mean blow them to kingdom come,” he said.

“Depends,” I responded before calling a drop ship over, I then turned to Stag and Double, “How would you guys like to go to outer space? We can drop you back off at home once this whole thing has been sorted out”

“Well, it’s not like we had anything better to do right now” Stag said. A drop ship appeared and landed in a parting in the group of Toa, just as we were climbing on Stormy Skies ran over.

“Take me with you,” she said. I looked at her in surprise.

“Are you absolutely sure?” I asked, “There is no way I can guarantee your safety”

“I’m sure” she said, I sighed before nodding.

“Alright, come on up” she smiled before climbing in and sitting down next to Bhradain, no prizes for guessing as to why, this could be interesting. The doors closed and the ship lurched before ascending at a rapid pace. I turned to the two changelings, Stormy Skies and Bhradain as we reached the outer atmosphere “Take a good long look at your home”

*POV 3RD Person. Location: Visorak Island*

Minion, Vinyl and Aurora were sat waiting for a drop ship to arrive. Minion was getting particularly restless, as Terror would not stop fidgeting.

“For the last fucking time” Minion said “Would you settle the fuck down?” Terror harrumphed but stopped fidgeting all the same. Suddenly Aurora perked up.

“Do you hear that?” she asked, peering into the distance. Both Minion and Vinyl shook their heads.

“Ah, that’s something I forgot to mention” Terror said, “her hearing has been improved considerably, whatever she’s hearing is probably miles away”

“I’m still gonna deck you when we get back,” Minion said in a calm voice, taking a puff of his Tabaco pipe before continuing “No one touches my daughter and gets away with it, simple as”

“You must be a real joy to be around when she introduces you to a new mate of hers,” Terror said sarcastically.

“Gotta give them some incentive for staying faithful, now don’t I?” he shot back. Aurora looked like she as ready to die from embarrassment.

“Dad” she whined, “Could you please not?” Minion chuckled lightly.

“Just looking out for you,” he said. Sometime later, a drop ship flew into view; Minion got out his plasma cannon and fired it straight up to get its attention.

*POV 1st Person Vuur Koning*

We reached the Jörmungandr at the same time as two other drop ships, which I soon found out to be transporting Minion, Vinyl, a very different looking Aurora and a dark, male Alicorn. The other contained Boris, Scar and a young female sphinx.

“What happened to Aurora?” I asked Minion as we were walking through the corridors of the ship to meet up with our Terra’s Celestia and Luna, his expression darkened.

“That bastard mutated her” he spat, jerking his head back towards the dark Alicorn, who was currently in chains, and being literally dragged along the floor by Minion.

“When we get away from the younger ones, I’m actually going to kill him,” I growled, keeping my voice low enough so no one but my blood-brother heard me.

“Get in line” he said in response, for the duration of the walk, neither of us said anything. We eventually walked into a room where Celestia and Luna were stood at a holo-table next to a 7ft tall robot in white armour, I mentally groaned when I spotted the ‘H’ symbol on its chest. ‘great, now ‘cheepo factory’ have gotten involved I thought with no small amount of disdain. Standing guard were a few Toa

“Celestia, Luna” I said, nodding to the two Alicorns.

“Vuur Koning” Luna said “it has been too long since you last walked the halls of this ship, things have been…difficult without you and your team…”

“We can catch up later” Minion said, inturupting Luna by walking forward and chucking the dark Alicorn on the holo-table with a thud “We’ve found and captured the Alicorn equivalent of Teridax, but not before he could perform mutating experiments on Aurora.” The effect was instantaneous; all of the Toa and Neu-Toa in the room drew their weapons and pointed them at the Alicorn. Celestia stepped forward and stared at the Alicorn in shock and anger.

“Terror” she said “Give me one reason why I shouldn’t hurl you into the NEAREST BLACK HOLE? YOU CRETIN FROM TARTARUS!” I notice Stormer had gone paler, if that was possible.

“You must be mistaking me for someone else” the dark Alicorn, apparently called ‘Terror’, said in a light German accent. “I have never met you in my life” Celestia reacted before any of us could stop her. She seized him in her magic and slammed him against the nearest wall. I motioned for the kids to get out and they did so without question. I made to walk over to Celestia but Luna stopped me and shook her head.

“You do not want to interrupt her when she is angry,” She said quietly

“Don’t give me that” Celestia said to Terror “alternate world or not, all Alicorns can sense every other Alicorn in existence, even parallel versions of themselves, you know what happened on my world”

“So what if I do?” Terror asked, smirking “It is of no consequence to me, they deserved what happened, it’s just a shame that I wasn’t the one to perform the deed” I heard a click and a mechanical whine and we all turned to find Minion with his plasma cannon aimed straight at Terror.

“What deed?” he asked, his voice faltering. Terror chuckled, yep, definitely Teridax.

“Your world’s me did your world a favour and removed the Kirins from existence, hybrid scum” he said, he went to say something else but never got to finish it as I leapt towards him and grabbed him by the throat before slamming his head into the floor, denting it.

“Give me one fucking good reason not to launch you into a fucking quasar? You shit stain from hell!” I shouted.

“Ah, so you’re the father of those abominations currently skulking in the hallway” he said.

“Shut it you sack of genocidal shit!” I shouted, at that moment dark flames engulfed my entire body and I barely detected my armour turning a dark red “I don’t care who you are or how powerful you are, by the time I’m done with you you’ll be begging for me to let Celestia have a go at you just so you can get a respite”. He chuckled, before lifting his head up and whispering something into my ear that made my blood run cold.

“You’ll either die a hero, or you’ll live long enough to see your loved ones burn in agony at your own hands as you fall to shadow, god spawn. When you fall, your dearest wife will suffer the most” and with that he teleported away. I stayed on my knees, not moving. I heard hoof steps approaching and I felt a hoof rest on my shoulder.

“Vuur, what did he tell you?” She asked. I placed my hand on top of her hoof before turning my head to look at her and smiling.

“Just the ravings of a lunatic” I said “nothing you need to worry about”

*30 minutes later*

“This is most troubling,” Luna said, we were both sat on the balcony of Luna’s quarters on the ship, overlooking the planet below and drinking tea “Terror may be many things, but he is no liar, at least, not when it comes to predictions such as yours, I should know, he predicted my downfall.” She looked away at that, her expression changing from troubled to sad.

“I didn’t intend to bring any bad memories up” I said.

“It’s not that” she said “I’m worried about you, what could possibly cause you to go that far into rage, from what I’ve seen of you you’re generally very mild mannered, though as we saw earlier, you can be prone to…outbursts, I also noticed you underwent a transformation”

“Go on” I said, taking a sip of my tea.

“You looked like one would imagine a, for lack of a better term, ‘dark mirror’ version of you, to look” she said.

“Do you have a way of showing me this?” I asked, she nodded.

“Yes, but it will have to wait for the dreamscape” she said, at that moment we heard a knock on the door. Luna turned her head to look in that direction “you may enter” the door opened and a guard popped his head around.

“Captain Blazewing is requesting both your presences” he said “he says we have made located the enemy ship”

“Thank you, we shall be along shortly,” Luna said, the guard nodded and closed the door. Luna turned back to me “It seems we will have to draw our little chat to an end”

“Shame” I said, before downing my tea, “I always did like our little get together, we shall have to do this again sometime” Luna nodded as she stood up and stretched in a similar fashion to a cat or dog. I heard the pop of joints and she sighed in relief.

“I agree” she said, standing up straight as I stood up “it was something that greatly I missed whilst you were away on Mobius”

We both walked onto the bridge and I immediately spotted the Sontaran ship in front of us.

“Have you tried to contact them?” I asked a communications officer.

“Yes, but they haven’t responded” he said.

“Well, they will to this” I said, before walking to the central control panel and activating the communications array.

“With respect” Stormer said “I don’t think you have clearance, if anything negotiations with a warring species is our job”

“Oh I earned the clearance long ago” I said “And if I remember correctly, I outrank you by a considerable degree, so kindly keep your opinions to yourself.” I then turned on the microphone.

“I am hailing the Sontaran vessel under article two of the intergalactic laws of engagement” I said “This is High-Lord General Neu-Toa Vuur Koning, commander of the armies of Terra, I demand that you respond” at that moment a hologram activate to show a room full of Sontarans, one was without his helmet.

“This is general Stel of the 11th Sontaran Battle Fleet, reading you loud and clear”

“Tell me, Stel” I said, “When did Sontarans lose all of their honour?” Stel bristled at the comment.

“How dare you!” he said “who are you to call us honourless”

“Oh, so you make him mad, that’s your idea of negotiations?” Stormer asked, I ignored his comment.

“Someone who has partaken in Sangheili sword duels” I said “They are true warriors, whereas you, look at you, slaughtering a planet that has no way of defending itself, that’s the tactic of a coward and you know it”

“It is the tactic of a conqueror” he shot back.

“A great warrior from my planet called Sun Tzu once said ‘to be undefeated in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence comes from braking the enemies resistance without fighting’”

“Words are the weapon of women-folk” he quipped. “We will exterminate this planet for the glory of Sontar!” the Sontarans all began to chant ‘Sontar, Ha!’ over and over.

“Boring” I said, before pressing a button and changing the screen to show an episode of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. After a few seconds, I switched it back. “Are you quite finished? Because let me make this clear, what you have just done is declared war of the Terran Union Army and all its Allies. Let’s see how you can handle fighting two wars at once.” I then closed the communications and walked over to the panel that controlled the weapons systems, I then aimed all of the weapons at the Sontaran ship and set them to fire continuously before walking out of the bridge, ignoring the objections of Celestia, Luna and Stormer as dull thuds shook the ship.

“Vuur Koning!” Celestia called “You cannot be serious, we can’t go to war!”

“I must agree with my sister on this one, Vuur” Luna said, “We are already occupied in the hunt for Teridax” I stopped walking and turned to look at them.

“Teridax can go die in a hole, I’m past caring about him at this point,” I said, before turning and walking away “If you touch that panel before that shi is destroyed, I’ll have you all court marshalled, We’re now at a war so I have every right to do so.” The three of them just stood there in shock as I walked down the corridor.

*1 day later*

Eventually the rebuilding of West Trottingham and Bardingburgh was complete and all of the T.U.A. forces returned to the Ship. Princess Stella of Concordia decided to come aboard with the intention of forming an alliance with our Equestria. We were heading towards Equestria, specifically Ponyville, where this worlds Chrysalis hive was located. In the meantime my team was going to undergo upgrades that were applied to the other Neu-Toa, It was developed in partnership with the Heroes of Makuhero City (I’m against the concept of the heroes, it’s just that…well, you can probably figure out why I was terse towards Stormer at first), and designed with future updates in mind.

I was in the sparring room with Stormer and a Hero Factory scientist, watching Minion spar with Vapaa. I had never seen anyone so efficient in combat, if Vapaa was good before, he was impossibly good now, and was managing to beat Minion. Bear in mind that Minion is not the type to give up or be beaten easily, he would happily go against an army of ten thousand by himself with nothing but a dagger in hand and still emerge victorious.

“As well as total reconstruction of the skeleton and cybernetic parts, the upgrades include a processer implanted into the cortex of the individuals Neu-Toa form, which displays a H.U.D. and drastically increases reaction time” the Scientist said “complex strategies can be thought up in mere nanoseconds and it will automatically scan an opponent’s weaknesses and take advantage of them.” At that moment Vapaa deflected a shot from Minions plasma cannon and kicked it out of his hand before knocking his sword out and sending him to the floor with a kick to the chest, all in about half a second. I gave a low whistle.

“When can we begin the upgrading process?” I asked.

“Whenever your team is ready”

I was walking along the corridors of the ship, heading towards the upgrading room when Celestia trotted over.

“Vuur Koning” she said, she seemed almost sad “Please don’t go through with this”

“And why not?” I asked, not stopping.

“If you undergo the upgrade, you’ll become immortal,” she said, I merely raised an eyebrow “I know it sounds like a good thing, but it’s not. You will never age, and when the time comes, you will have to bury your own children. No parent should have to go through that, I couldn’t convince the others, but surely you’ll heed my warning”

“Talking from experience?” I asked.

“Yes!” she shot back “Immortality is more of curse than a blessing” I waited for her to stop before responding

“I’ve already discussed this with my team and our families” I said “We have all thoroughly thought this through and we are ready to accept the consequences” She sighed before looking down and nodding sadly.

“Very well” she said.

“Think of it like this” I said, placing a hand on her shoulder “You, Luna and Discord won’t be the only immortals around.” She smiled sadly.

*POV 3rd person, 3 hours later*

Robotic scientists worked swiftly around an operating table, laid on the table was a 7 ft. tall, mechanical being. They were still applying Protosteel armour to the metal skeleton; the legs, torso and lower arms were covered in red armour, with gold pistons on top of some of the armour, whilst the chest and shoulders were in the process of being covered in gold armour. A scientist lowered a gold mask, resembling a kanohi hau, but different to the usual style, on to the metallic grey, mechanical face and as it clicked into place, the eyes lit up a light blue colour and apertures snapped open and shut repeatedly before focussing.

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My vision came to me as a blurred mess and I could hear muffled voices, eventually they started to clear, revealing the operating room and the scientists

“Vuur, can you hear me?” one of them asked, I nodded.

“Yeah” I noticed my voice had a slight mechanical quality to it. I slowly began to sit up.

“Take it easy,” A scientist said, placing a guiding hand on my shoulder. “Your mind will still be adjusting to your new form” I swung my legs over the edge and looked at my hands, they were bigger, and fully mechanical, yet I could still feel with them.

“I feel weird,” I said.

“That’s perfectly normal, it should pass in a few minutes,” the scientist said.

I was eventually allowed out of the operating room and led into a hall of some sort where the rest of my team was waiting (I’d waited till all the others had started the process before allowing the scientists to upgrade me). They were all different now, they still looked somewhat like there their original species, but there were some notable changes.

Minion was even bigger, about eight and a half feet, and he now had a mask of x-ray vision instead of accuracy. His armour was gun metal and black with gold shoulder armour, chest armour and mask, one noticeable difference was his shield was gone. Autumn’s colour was pretty much the same, except she had a silver mask and armour on her chest and shoulders. Vinyl’s armour was grey; with electric blue highlights, the same shade as her mane, and her mask, shoulder and chest armour was silver. Boris was armoured in green, with silver mask, shoulder and chest armour, his rifles were now gone. Scar was much larger, almost reaching Minion in terms of height. He also had gold chest armour, shoulder armour and mask. Instead of hands he had a set of nasty looking claws. The rest of his armour was green and blue; green abdomen, upper arms and lower legs, his lower arms and upper legs were blue. His Gatling guns were also gone. All of their armour was to the standard Hero Factory designs, although pistons jutted out of their leg and arm armour. My armour was slightly different; the shoulder armour was much more ornate compared to the standard designs available, this was to signify my position as High-Lord General.

“You okay?” I asked. They nodded.

“Talk about an upgrade” Vinyl said “I feel like I can take on Teridax single headedly, and do you know what the best part is?” She suddenly began to change, her armour splitting into hundreds of different sections and rearranging in a similar manner to Transformers from the live action film. The process finished and instead of a 7ft tall toa, Vinyl was now in her original Unicorn form “No pendants necessary, completely organic, and I mean, completely organic. Trust me, I checked” The other Neu-Toa took a few steps away from her. Minion shot her a look and she shrugged in response.

“Okaay,” I said. “Moving on, have you all got your weapons yet?”

“Waiting for you, brother,” Minion said, I nodded.

“I’ll just be a minute,” I said. “I need to take care of something first” He gestured for me to carry on and I motioned for Autumn to follow.

“What are you doing?” She asked once we were out of the hall.

“Starting a tradition” I said “You kept your old weapons and armour to one side, right?” She nodded.

“So has everyone else on our team” she said.

“Excellent”

*POV 3rd Person*

Garnet was in his quarters, testing out his new arm, it was an improvement on the original in every way. He was going through the different weapons it could replicate when he heard a knock at the door.

“Come in” he said, the door opened to reveal his dad, fully upgraded and holding a large bundle of cloth “I take it the upgrade went well” his dad nodded and walked over before placing the bundle on the floor.

“I thought I would start a little tradition amongst our family, the other two teams are doing it as well,” he said, before opening the bundle and pulling out his old sword “I’m passing my old set of armour down to you, as Autumn is doing with Ruby. I hope it serves you as well as it has served me for all these years” He then passed the sword to Garnet and the Kirin took it in his mechanical hand, the sword lit up a dull red for a few seconds and shrunk down to a size more manageable for the Kirin before returning to its steel colour.

“What just happened?” Garnet asked.

“It’s accepted you as its new owner, you’re now an honorary Neu-Toa” Vuur said, before getting out the old Hau and placing it on the desk “You won’t be as strong as an Neu-Toa, and you’ll age just like any other Kirin, but you will be able to use the element of Fire and the mask of shielding. It’ll basically be like wearing an enchanted suit of armour.” Garnet was stunned.

“I…I don’t know what to say” He said.

“You don’t have to say anything,” Vuur said “Just promise me you’ll pass it down to your child when they’re…”

“She” Garnet cut in “It’s gonna be a girl, in 5 months I’m gonna have a daughter to call my own”

“Then pass it down to her when the time is right” Vuur said, before standing up “I’ll leave you to get on with whatever it is you were doing” he then walked out of the room before shutting the door.

*POV 1st Person Vuur Koning*

I walked back to the Hall with Autumn and we met up with the rest of our team before heading to the armoury to select our new weapons. On the way there, I discovered that Boris and Scar’s voices had changed, Boris now spoke with a Swedish accent and he could turn into a Griffin, rather than a falcon, Scar now spoke in a German accent, weirdly enough. The armoury was filled with weapon racks that stretched from floor to ceiling, and contained weapons of many different styles; Equestrian, Griffonian, Minotaurian, Spherus Magnan, even Covenant tech, you name the culture; there was a weapon from it. However, our focus was directed to a new rack, filled with an assortment of blades and ranged weapons.

“The latest from Makuhero City” Stormer said from behind us “The blades were forged from Protosteel and designed to be in-keeping with the Spherus Magnan aesthetic” I walked towards the rack and picked up two large swords, the top edges had a teeth-pattern on them. I hummed in thought before touching them together; a line of light ran down the middle, fusing them together into a board. 1 firm pull was all it took to separate them again.

“I think I’ll keep these,” I said. A clear, orange and red flame materialised in the middle of each blade. “Definitely a keeper” I then put them away in my hammer space and looked over to see what the others had chosen. Minion had chosen two silver blades that looked like the type Tuma used to use. Scar had two large bracelets around each wrist, he flicked his clawed wrists and the bracelets changed into two multi-barrel guns that rotated around his wrists. Autumn had chosen two thin scimitars. Boris had chosen two boomerang-like swords and Vinyl now wielded a massive cannon over her right shoulder.

“A concussion canon, again?” I asked, she just grinned manically.

“What can I say?” she asked, as a hinged purple visor slid down over the eyes on her mask “I like things that make a loud noise”

*A few days later*

We were travelling through the skies of Equestria, by tomorrow morning, we would be in Ponyville, and myself and all the Neu-Toa, as well as the Equestrian Princesses, a few Toa and some of the guardians from the other worlds were in the communal room. Stag, Double, Firefly and Stormy Skies were also there. We were all sat on sofas when Thor walked in holding his hammer.

“Who of you think yourselves worthy to lift Mjolnir?” He asked, before placing the hammer on top of a set of books and sitting down.

“What do we get if we manage to lift the hammer?” Firefly asked.

“To rule Asgaard,” Thor said jokingly, Rocket Racoon was the first to stand up.

“I think it’s a load of crap,” he said, gesturing to the hammer “I mean come on ‘only the worthy can lift the magic hammer’ who ever came up with that was either an idiot or someone who had been smoking something funny” I noticed the Defenders of Berk smirking, they knew how this would end. Rocket then grasped the hammer in his paws before pulling as hard as he could, as expected it did not budge

“Need any help?” I asked.

“Shut it!” he snapped, “I just need to pull it from the right angle. Groot, help me out here!” The sapient plant walked over and grasped the hammer before pulling as hard as he could, the only thing that happened was Groot’s arm snapped of and felt to the floor. I face palmed and muttered in Matoran as Rocket sulked back to his seat and Groot picked his severed arm before sheepishly walking back to where he had been standing before hand. I sighed before standing up.

“Screw it” I said “we all know how this is gonna turn out, but what the heck” I then walked over before firmly grasping the hammer and heaving as hard as I could, as I expected, it didn’t move. I them walked back to my seat “Next idiot” Firefly stood up and trotted over to the table.

“If anyone’s gonna do it, it’s gotta be an Alicorn like me” She said, her horn glowed and the same glow enveloped the handle. A once she began to pull, just as before, she could not make it budge. She began applying more and more power, but in the end, all she achieved was denting the floor before giving up and trotting back to her seat to catch her breath. Celestia calmly trotted over.

“It is not about raw power,” she said to Firefly, smiling “I’m sure you have to hold it a certain way” Her magical aura enveloped the hammer and she pulled, her smile immediately fell as the hammer remained unmoved “That can’t be right.” She applied more and more power, sweat ran down her brow and the floor began to sag under the power she was exerting. There was a metallic crunch and Celestia disappeared through the floor. The hammer was still unmoved.

“I HATE THAT BUCKING HAMMER!” came the shout of Celestia, causing most of us to burst out laughing. When she returned, Bhradain repaired the floor.

“I think” Snotlout said, standing up and walking over “it only works if you’re a Viking like me” I notice Thor smirking at that. Snotlout grasped the hammer and pulled, just like before, it remained unmoved.

“You were saying?” I asked, he didn’t respond, as he was too busy muttering to himself as he tried multiple times to lift the hammer. Eventually he conceded and walked back to his seat, I notice Lhikan watching with Interest.

“Hey, Lhikan” I called “why don’t you give it a try, if anyone other than Thor is capable of lifting the hammer it has to be you” multiple others nodded and voiced their agreement and Lhikan eventually stood up and walked over before grasping the hammer with his hands. He gave a great heave and the resonating ‘clunk’ echoed through the room. The room fell silent and everyone just stared in shock at the hammer, which Lhikan had managed to nudge off the books and onto the table proper. I gave a low whistle.

“Well…fuck me with a shovel” I muttered “Looks like you’re now a Norse god, Lhikan” the aforementioned Toa simply stood there, stunned.

“Mata Nui” He muttered.

*POV 3rd person*

Boris, in his griffin form, carried Sandstorm into her new room and placed her on the bed before tucking her in.

“Now you just go to sleep,” he said, brushing some of her mane out of her face, Sandstorm huffed.

“But I don’t want to” she protested, “I want to stay up, and see Equestria” Boris chuckled

“Vill Ecvestria disappear during the night?” he asked.

“No” she said, sighing.

“Then you have nothing to vorry about” he said. “Besides, tomorrow ve vill be stopping in Ponyville, meaning you can explore, I think there’s even three fillies around your age who you might get along vith, but only if you promise me you’ll go to sleep” he then began to sing in a soft voice, in a language that Sandstorm didn’t understand.

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Never the less, it comforted Sandstorm and began to lull her into a peaceful sleep. By the time Boris had finished she was sleeping peacefully, he smiled softly before standing up and walking out of the room, he stopped in the doorway before looking back at the sphinx, his daughter, the concept would take some getting used to.

*POV 1st Person Vuur Koning*

I was in my quarters on the bed; Autumn was currently in the shower whilst I was on a Laptop. We had managed to contact my earth’s authorities, at first they did not really take me seriously, right up until Celestia managed to teleport a pencil holder from an office in MI5 during a video conference with them. I was finalising details of what to expect when we eventually found my home planet, we did not know where it was in relation to the other Earths and Terras, we just knew it was close. The world’s governments were planning for what was essentially going to be a massive P.R. stunt to get the public to trust us, with interviews arraigned for multiple T.V. channels and shows. Hell, the American government were planning an episode of Mythbusters where we were going to explain the science behind how Neu-Toa were able to control the Elements, a whole episode demonstrating what we could do, they were even planning to demonstrate a Neu-Toa of fire’s nova blast as the grand finale. The British government even had an episode of Top Gear planned (I still wasn’t sure what to think about that). I was in my Human form, but there were some differences, one of which was my eyes now glowed a light blue colour. The most noticeable difference was I now had a set of large, feathered red and orange wings sprouting out of my bank (you can thank Celestia for that one).

I heard the shower turn off and a few minutes later Autumn trotted out with a towel held between her teeth, her mane still slightly damp.

“Need a hand?” I asked, closing the laptop and putting it to one side. She walked over and dropped the towel in my lap before turning around and allowing me to dry her mane.

“How’s the P.R. stunt going?” she asked.

“It’s making progress, we just need to finalise a few details and get a couple more T.V. broadcasters on board.” I said “I just hope it doesn’t end up like the whole Spartan 3 incident where the moment the galaxy is safe everyone starts condemning us for our origins and methods” I had finished drying her mane and had now moved onto her wings, taking care not to apply too much pressure.

“You worry too much.” she said, the tiniest hint of a blush beginning to form on her cheeks “as long as we don’t buck up too badly, we should be fine. People don’t like change, just give them time and they’ll accept us.” I had finished drying her wings and chucked the towel into a nearby laundry basket before Autumn turned and nuzzled me.

“Lay down on you front” she said, I gave her a look and she rolled her eyes “just trust me on this” I humoured her before laying down on my chest and I soon felt her forehooves kneading into my back and shoulders, working all the knots out of the muscles.

“This has to be one of the things I missed the most when we were stuck in our Neu-Toa forms” I said, starting to relax.

“What did you miss the most?” She asked. I turned my head and gave her a look.

“I think you and I both know,” I said, before resting my head on my arms.

“The fact that I’m so cuddly and fluffy?” she asked playfully, I rolled my eyes, after being with her for so many years I could tell when she was ‘in the mood’ a mile away, all of this travelling to worlds in deferent seasons must have been playing havoc with her hormones. She’ll be in a ‘mini-heat’ for a day or two, a week at most. Not that that was a bad thing, she had a very strong will and was good at controlling certain urges, also medication tended to help.

“You’re in heat,” I noted. I felt her lean towards me and nibble my ear. “You know that doesn't work with humans”

“I don’t see you complaining,” she whispered, before kissing my cheek and continuing to massage my back.

“How could I when I’m with someone as beautiful as you” I replied “I still don’t know what I did to deserve someone like you”

“I think it’s because you’re so worried about losing me that you’re willing to change just to keep me happy” she said, before rolling me over and lying on my chest with her forehooves crossed. I got the feeling neither of us would be getting much sleep that night.

“Only because you’re so perfect,” I said, before wrapping my arms around her and pulling her into a kiss.

Chapter 36