The Legend of Fauna

        The next morning arrived, and once again, Twilight awoke to herself wrapped around the Angel. “Oh my gods...” She whispered to herself. She was angry and confused, but most of all, she didn't want to leave the bed again. She took a deep breath to try and calm down, but all that did was giver her a big drink of his scent. She felt an overwhelming desire to wrap herself around him tighter, but managed to fight it off. She quickly untangled herself and jumped out of the bed, using her magic to keep him from feeling her exit.

Why am I doing this?

Because you don't want him to get mad.

No, I don't give a damn about what he feels!

Liar. More than anything, you want him to-

Shut up! Go away!

She ran to the bathroom to grab her clothes and change whilst fighting off this other voice of hers in her head. It was then that she realized what Eclipse was talking about yesterday. She was sore. She was so very sore. Her arms hurt, her sides hurt, her abs hurt, even her legs hurt. Everything was in pain. The thought of climbing back in bed with Zephraim was ever so tempting, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. She escaped downstairs, grabbed her duel disk and decided to go be somewhere else.

        Last night, Eclipse announced that he lied and Zephraim was going to feed everyone, and quickly turned a quiet night into a lively evening at the Golden Oak Library. Over all, it wasn't bad. As it turns out, Rarity isn't as vain as she appears, and knows a good bit about magic herself. Applejack is easy to talk to about computer stuff. Pinkie is... just as weird in a normal setting as she is outside of one. Fluttershy can tell you a thing or two about living with the 'royal family' as she likes to call it, with stories of all the crazy crap that goes on in that castle. However, not on a normal conversational level. She closes up almost instantly after a group turns from three to four people. It took goading, but eventually, she got to talking. Rainbow was... oddly quiet.

        Based on information from Zephraim, she lives with her dad around here, but she's been through a few rough patches recently, including failing a few critical exams. Honestly, Twilight could see herself getting along with most of them pretty well, save for Pinkie and Rainbow.

        One was just weird and unreadable, and the other... well, she couldn't tell. At no point during the dinner would Rainbow even look at her. However, she did this with most everybody, save for Fluttershy. She basically hawk eyed her the whole time. Fluttershy wouldn't say what she did during those eight hours of training, but man, it did something to Rainbow. Before she knew it, Twilight had made it all the way to the opposite end of town.

        “Geez, I don't even know what time it is.” The rain from the other day had cleared the streets up pretty well, and only so much sand had flown in since then, so the stone cobble roads were actually visible. If it weren't always buried in sand, this town might not actually look all that bad. The streets were laid with relatively high precision for the time they were built, and the sand that scrapes the stones all the time had actually polished the white bricks on the ground.

        She pulled her duel disk out of her pocket and flicked on the screen. Andromeda was doing something or other, and the time in the top right corner read 7:37.

        “Is is really? I never used to sleep that well for so little time. I wonder why...” She knew why.

        “Damn it! What is wrong with me!?” She flipped around when she heard the sound of a window opening from a building to her rear.

        “Twilight? What are you doing up so early? I thought training wasn't for another hour? Ooh, wait! It isn't! I'll be right down, we can hang out!” Pinkie was the source of the disturbance. How Twilight managed to miss the literal candy shop, she would never know. The building was rather tall for Pony Ville's brick boxes, that also looked not too bad when they were clean, and looked like it was made of sweets. A sign on it read 'Sugar Cube Corner' and it looked more like a diner inside. The interior reminded her of those movies that were set in the 'golden age' of Fauna after a major war was won that heavily ended up crippling Tenshen and it's subordinate countries, while freeing the Teropeans from their grip. Everything was done in bright shimmery metallic colors and the seats and chairs looked like they were all made of vinyl. The counter had engraved metal all along it, as did all the table edges and the bar.

        The bar itself was interesting because it did have liquor, but it also had an ice cream machine and various toppings for that, so she imagined they did a little bit of everything. There was a display case with cakes in it, and another sign that had a menu up on it. Typical Faunan entries like hot dogs, fries and burgers. Cheap and quick to make, not too surprising.

        The Pink headed Terran came running from behind a corner in the only outfit Twilight had seen her wear, and she made a mad dash over tables and chairs to reach the exit, and shortly after, Twilight.

        “Whoa, cool your jets, it's just me.” The shorter girl was about ready to bust from her skin, she looked so excited.

        “You're not just you, you're my rival! My bestie, my bro, my pal, my girl!” She reached an arm around Twilight's shoulder and started to walk.

        “Come on, I know you haven't been here long, let me show ya around!” Twilight was compliant. Anything to get her head away from him. As it turned out, there were more shops in Pony Ville than one would realize. Just about anything that was more than two stories was actually a shop of some kind that the owner lived above. Save for the Cakes, who lived next door to Sugar Cube Corner, in which Pinkie rented the room above. A parts shop here, an arms and ammunition shop there. A simple antiques shop, a dentist's office.

        Pinkie explained that this town was built so long ago that most of the buildings actually had one or two basements because the real building had sunk in the sand after thousands of years sitting on the loose terrain. It wasn't until a new kind of grass was synthesized did the gradual sinking stop. A strange product from overseas, it grows on any kind of soil, and retains it's form in practically any weather. Since it had rained, one could see the 'lawns' that most of the building had were actually pretty green when they weren't covered in sand.

        Pinkie would point out every time there was a building whose foundation was slightly higher than others because it had less time to sink. It was odd to think that all these little buildings had more to them than what could be seen. Some of them were actually just as big, if not bigger than the library, just half underground. There was a school towards the middle of the southern most road which she originally believed was just a small apartment complex.

        The most stable part of town was actually the town hall that sat in the dead center of the rounded place. For however long that wooden structure had been standing, it hadn't sank or changed much over time, just simply getting a new coat of paint every now and again. The time had come close to 9 by the time they finished.

        “We should probably get to the library soon. Everybody else should start showing up soon.” The pyro yawned.

        “I guess. I'm still not sure I want to do that again though.” What? Pinkie, not completely ecstatic about something? That's a red flag. And not the kind that she wears.

        “Huh? Why?” The Terran put her hands behind her head.

        “He's not exactly the nicest trainer around. And once again, my poor physical abilities are put to work. I don't know if you've noticed this, but I'm kinda small.” The Mage shrugged.

        “I mean, if you compare yourself to Applejack or her brother, everybody's small. It's even worse around the queens. My face comes up to Celestia's boobs. I'm like, adult sized now.” The pyro let out a puff of air as they walked.

        “Well, yeah, but that's the Day Queen. She's literally like, the tallest person in the country. But my point is, I should at least be some what close to as strong as Applejack is, and to be honest with you, I'm not anywhere near that. My sisters can break boulders with their fingers. It takes my all to even lift something like that.” She looked to the sky, as if she were seeing something other than the endless pale morning blue that held it's place now. Twilight wasn't quite expecting this from Pinkie. Who knew that someone so... energetic, could be normal sometimes?

        “Well... I couldn't lift fifteen pounds without a lot of effort until yesterday. You can lift a boulder. That's gotta be something right?” The pyro shrugged.

        “You're a Mage. And a girl. That's normal, especially if you didn't work out at any point before. But me? I'm a Terran. I'm supposed to be this big, brawny, burly person who can break rocks with her fists and carve holes in mountains in a day. I bet that Applejack could do all of that...” Whatever was weighing on her heart sounded heavier than what she was saying. It might have been intuition, it might have been the new powers, but Twilight felt like she knew what to say.

        “But that's the whole point of all this. You didn't see me get a gun, or Applejack get a hammer did you?” The pyro shook her head.

        “No... I kinda still haven't figured out why he gave you three what he did in the first place.” The Mage crossed her arms in triumph. This she could explain with all certainty.

        That's because she's already got what she needs there. Applejack said she'd never shot a gun before. This means, she's never had to deal with a ranged opponent, or attacking at a distance herself. So what Eclipse is doing for her is teaching her how to deal with both of those things at the same time.

        For me it was strength. I didn't have any. So to correct this, I needed weight training, so that's what I got. I'm not entirely sure what Rarity did, but good chances are, it was training to strengthen her weakness. If what you mostly needed was form and basic strategy, then you'll likely move on to fighting your weakness next.” Twilight felt like what she had just said was exactly what Pinkie needed to hear.

        “Eh, I don't know. We didn't exactly do a whole lot of that. He uh... made a clone of himself, and just kinda beat us with a key. I think Eris started to get it after a while, but nothing ever came to me. If I remember correctly, his last words to me were

'You and I are working alone tomorrow. You need more help than only one part of my consciousness can give alone, and I intend to fix that. I'll be calling in... special help for the others.'

        And he didn't talk to me about it again. I don't know that I want all of his attention.” Apparently, it wasn't.

        “Oh, that's... interesting.” Twilight said, slightly disappointed that her advice wasn't quite what Pinkie needed to hear. The pyro patted the Mage's shoulder.

        “Don't worry about it sport, you'll get em' next time.” Pinkie's intuition proved better than hers. They had made it to the library, and were also the last ones to arrive.

        “Oh, hey, nice of you to show up. For a second there, I thought you were going to bail on me.” The yellow eyed Mage said to the pyro.

        “Good to see you too Twilight. I've got a special surprise for you today.” Twilight was slightly concerned with the way he said that.

        “Okay... what is it?” The vamp turned and led them inside. The rest of the gang was already in chairs littered around the ground floor of the library. Three chairs were empty, and Zephraim was no where to be found. The two took chairs at each end of the other five girls and awaited their sentence for the day.

        “So, my surprise isn't just limited to you. It's actually for everyone who isn't Pinkie, but I think this means more to you than really anyone else in the room. My uncle will be coming to instruct you today, while I work with her alone. He's about six foot tall with black hair, and in all the Faunan history books. Without further ado...” In an instant, there was confusion amongst most of the girls, and just like that, a blood red magic circle began to carve itself into the table. It was a teleportation spell, and one that was a standard level nine. The circle became more intricate as it wound it's interior markings and wove letters symbols lines and shapes together. A flash of light, and the circle was gone. It was replaced with a relatively tall man, wearing a black coat, with long curly black hair. Immediately, Twilight recognized the shape.

        “Black? Is... is that you?” The man she remembered from all those years ago turned around and smiled at her.

        “Ah, if it isn't that little twerp from the street. Come here!” The girl ran up the table and hugged the man. It had been years since she'd seen him. She didn't even know he was alive.

        “Geez, you got tall.” He put the girl down and made his way off the table. She followed him and began to question him.

        “You're alive! How? I thought you got carted off to prison! What happened? Oh my gods, I can't believe you're here!” She threw herself at him again. He patted her on the back.

        “Well, that was actually my wife coming to pick me up. She'd disguised herself as one of the police officers to come get that 'thief' who'd been stealing from the shops around the area, little miss sticky hands.” He said as he stared her down. But then he took his harsh gaze away and rolled his neck around.

        “But, it was about time to get you back home anyways. So we decided it was best for that to happen.” He tussled her hair and she stepped back, blushing.

        “Yeah...” He had told her countless times not to steal if she didn't need to. That didn't stop her from doing it while he was away though.

        “So? Introduce me to your friends here.” He said, motioning to the rest of the girls. As if all the problems in the world had melted away simply with his presence, Twilight felt excited like a child again for the first time in a long time. She started from left to right.

        “This is Rainbow Fume, the current holder of Loyalty.” She said, as if she were presenting a show and tell object.

        “Uh, hi?” The rainbow headed angel said. The man stood and sized her up for a moment, then said,

        “Confidence issues.” He made a sound as if something had pulled on his neck.

        “Not the easy ones either. Insecure too. But, I've been there, done that, got the t-shirt. Right Shy?” He said as he shot a quick grin at the pale Angel.

        “Whose next?” The blue Angel felt like he'd seen her naked. She took a step back and hid behind her wings.

        “Rarity Belle, with Generosity. She's a Mage.” On to the next person, but Rarity was looking at the man more than he was her.

        “Goodness, what a mess of color you are...” The man nodded.

        “That I am, young one, that I am. However, you see more of yourself than the world around you. We'll have to work on that.” His green eyes were piercing. The tailor felt like she'd been stuck with a sharp object.

        “Jaquline Apple, or Applejack as she likes to be called. She has Honesty.” The orange clad stepped forward to shake the man's hand. He took it.

        “So you're what turned out to be that little blonde tyke. Your father was a good man. But you... I think you have a brighter future than you know.” He patted her on the shoulder and moved on. The blonde felt like a gale had just passed by. It's like he was in her head...

        “And finally, Pinkie Pie. She's got-” He finished her sentence.

        “Optimism’s hair. Eyes. Nose. You're almost a carbon copy. Physically and emotionally. You need extra work.” The pink haired Terran narrowed her eyes. She was unusually less energetic today.

        “And what about you? Aren't you the black demon king? The guy who killed thousands in a day? The blood soaked ruler of the frozen north from the history books? King Sombra?” Oddly defiant too. Her hair looked to lose it's curl. The man smiled and patted her head.

        “Yep. That was me. But the thing is kid, history is exactly that. Today and yesterday are two different things. Maybe if you pulled your head out from under the covers, you could tell that the sun's come up.” The pyro looked like she was about to fall into tears. His intuition was better than Twilight's and Pinkie's.

        “Ah, don't do that. Pull yourself together. I've had enough teenagers cry on me over the years. Speaking of which...” The pyro sniffed and rubbed at her eyes. The man patted her head one last time and moved on to Fluttershy. She avoided eye contact.

        “Good morning... sir...” The man gave her a hug.

        “Don't be like that. Call me father like you used to. We both understand what happened. And neither of us are angry with the choice you made. All we want is for you to come and see us every now and again. You might try and call her later. She's dying to hear from you again.” He set the girl down and looked her in the eyes. She lost her composure. She fell into tears and his embrace.

        “I'm so sorry! I'll never do it again!” He simply smiled and let it happen.

        “And that takes care of that.” After a few moments of the pale Angel letting out all of her crying, she started to come back around. She released him and stood at attention. He noticed he'd missed one and approached the black haired girl behind Eclipse.

        “You didn't tell me there were seven. Who is this?” for whatever reason, the girl was hiding from Sombra.

        “Oh. Yeah, we don't exactly know. I saved her from Umbra's control, but even then, there's a lot more weird around her than just that. We call her Eris for the time being.” The girl nodded behind him.

        “Oh. I see... that is strange...” The man paused and stared the girl down for a moment, then turned his attention to Eclipse when it looked like she couldn't handle any more.

        “So. Any of you seen my boy around?” Twilight was about to answer, but then she remembered where she last saw him. She turned bright red and looked at the ground. The man turned and looked at her.

        “Got something to hide there, kid?” He stared her down for a second until Eclipse answered.

        “Oh, come on, can't you tell? He's asleep. Why else wouldn't he be here?” The man took his attention away from Twilight and turned toward the vamp.

        “Eh, that sounds right. Time to wake his ass up. I'll be back in a few minutes. Tell them what's going on.” The black clad Mage made his way up the staircase and the dark red clad Mage gathered his trainees.

        “Well, now that you've been introduced, that's the man I grew up with. He's a good guy, and he's been around for a while. Today is your soul art day. He'll teach you how to use it, and use it right. I will be working with Pinkie alone though. Based on What Zephraim has told me, she knows how to use hers just fine.

        For the two Mages, Soul art is relatively easy to start. Much like Magic takes focus of the mind and the will, Soul art takes focus of the will and, if you couldn't tell, the soul. But for the non-Mages, you probably don't know what your soul feels like.” He held out his hand and a dark violet glow began to shine off it. In his other hand, a dark, shiny, violet mist started to form a ball. Like fire, it flickered and shook in the air.

        “In my left hand up here, you see normal magic. Traditional, simple, almost doesn't require effort after years of practice. However, in my right hand, is soul art. Let's see... has Rarity done the colors thing with you all yet?” The tailor nodded.

        “Um, yes I do believe so. Yours are... about the same as Zephraim's were, but that dingy black is nowhere to be found, and you have two brands of divinity. One of them even shares a color with the one Zephraim has. Why is that?” The vamp nodded.

        “You see, I'm not your average resident of Fauna. As a matter of fact, half of my DNA comes from another world entirely. My father is Divinity's chosen of another dimension, and almost a male counterpart to Celestia. Much like the place we live in, there is a dimension parallel to this one that was brought into it's own tragedy. At some point in your history class, you probably learned about a time when Celestia was the only Queen right?” Save for Twilight and Fluttershy, this was new information to everyone.

        “Not that I can remember. And history was one of the classes that I paid attention in.” said the blue Angel.

        “Huh. To be honest with you, I wouldn't know what they teach because I was home schooled. My dad hates the school system because of how backwards it is compared to the way he was taught. In any case, about 140 years ago, half of Upper Canterlot burned in a bunch of fires that my mother mixed with Umbra caused. My aunt then proceeded to use the elements to try and free her, but to no avail. Being alone and having just one to resonate with, they just couldn't get the power to do it. So, what happens? Weakened, Umbra rips a hole in the fabric of space-time and runs away. Thus enters my dad's world.

        The way their world operates is fairly different from our own there because of how humanity started on that side. It's not quite the same story, and the people there are mostly Terran, save for the rare Mage or Angel that appears. Because of their minority, Mages and Angels are persecuted fairly hard, and because of their inability to match Terran strength, there aren't many who still walk that earth. But what happens when an Ascended, the combination of the three with far more power than any of the three alone shows up? Nothing good.

        For thirty years, Umbra killed millions on that side. My dad was born and raised in that time, and he was a pretty devout priest there. As a matter of fact, he grew up to be their paladin. Their church is a little different than ours in the fact that Divinity is considered the only God, and the other six are just his subordinates. Sent out an incarnation of himself to save humanity from a plague, died and rose again, and that is the religion they follow. Being who he was, he prayed to Divinity to end the massacre that was happening, and so that's what happened. My father was chosen to host a piece of Divinity's spirit, and then he had the power to fix it.

         In the end with my mother's help, Dad was able to beat her. Umbra defeated, mom back in control, and dad was left with a few rough decisions. Try and kill the demon that had just finished killing for years, imprison her, or hide her. Funny enough, he ended up doing all three. Of course, that didn't work, so he just decided to try and help her come back. Somewhere along the lines they hooked up and so they came back together. I think you know how the rest of that story goes.” He said, gesturing with his fingers. Applejack, Pinkie, and Rainbow laughed. Twilight and Rarity made a sound of disgust and Fluttershy rolled her eyes.

        “Ugh. Eclipse, those are your parents. That's gross.” He laughed.

        “Hey, It isn't just mine. Think about it. For you to be here, all of your parents had sex at one point.” As if on cue, most everyone in the room cringed.

        “Eww, can we not? What does this have to do with soul art? Can we get back to that, please?” The vamp finished his teasing, and brought his misty silver-violet hand back.

        “In any case, some times traditional magic and soul art share their colors, and other times they don't. The soul and your traditional magic will always show up the same on a spectrometer though. The soul art will typically combine all the colors that one houses into itself, resulting in something unique like this. Come touch it. This will show you how a soul feels.”

        The group all reached out to touch the ball of burning mist in Eclipses right hand. At first, one could simply feel the mist weaving it self around a finger, but then it became more. It started to feel like a pulse, and then it became audible, like a heart beat. Then a fragrance started to waft through the air, a sweet smell of some kind. He closed his hand and the mist evaporated.

        “That's almost like what happens every time somebody summons a Harmonian.” Twilight noted. He snapped his fingers.

        “That would be because it is. No matter what you do in Duel monsters, you couldn't play if you couldn't use soul art. And to summon a Harmonian, you basically have to feed them enough of your energy so that they can revive. But that's not the only thing they do. They also amplify your powers once they come out. Think of it like an electric guitar and an amp. Alone, you can only do so much. But once you've got a Harmonian out, then you have the ability to raise your sound to ridiculous levels. Unlike an amp though, A Harmonian also causes others around you to resonate their souls. The more people around, the easier to resonate it is, and the more power you generate. At any point while you guys were out yesterday, did you hear a song that seemingly came out of nowhere?” The six girls nodded.

        “Yeah, it happened after Rare nearly broke her assistant. It was when she and Twi got together to try and heal him that the song started ta play. Ya know, now that Ah think about it, the cards that the three of us had didn't resonate then. But they did after. Another song played when Fluttershy and Zeph dueled, and it happened again when Pinkie and Twi dueled. It was lesser when Twi and Ah dueled though. Just one note from each. The same way when she and Rainbow did too. But based on what you said, that's probably because it was just the three of us in the area. Zeph and Spike don't have elements.” The blonde said as she squinted at the ceiling.

        “Really? That's... weird. What happened in between the duel with Rainbow and the duel Rarity had?” The three involved looked at each other, then looked at the ground.

        “Well...” Said the Terran.

        “Ya see...” Said the Angel.

        “It wasn't pretty. Andromeda and his sister got in a fight and... I think he was putting out more energy than I was to be honest. The duel didn't end well. I think it's safe to say that we all felt kinda dead inside until the end of Rarity's duel.” Said the Mage girl.

        “Ah. That explains it. You couldn't resonate because your mind wouldn't allow it. A negative mood without rage will mute the soul. An enraged mood will create dissonance. Unlike regular magic, souls are finicky. Very much dependent on your state of mind rather than your physical ability.” He stopped and a voice from upstairs continued.

        “And even then, this isn't always the case for soul art. Sometimes it can over power your body in a way that can harm you. Trying to use the six of them by her self, my wife almost ripped her own soul into pieces, and that is not easy to recover from.” The man had come down the stairs, followed by his son, who looked relatively sleepy still.

        “Morning guys.” Said the monochrome Angel as he yawned. The man slapped him on the shoulder.

        “Will you wake up already? You told me that you were gonna be ready when I got here.” The Angel rolled his eyes.

        “I told you what happened. Anyways, I'm gonna need to borrow all your Harmonian cards today. I got new disks ordered for the four of you who have older models, and they should arrive later today. I need to program the new ones with Navis, and I need to talk with all of them.” No one questioned a free new disk, so the six girls handed their elements over to Zephraim.

        “Don't worry about it. They'll be here when you get back. Have fun with dad.” The Angel loaded up his duel disk and headed down stairs with the cards.

        “I think it's time we left. Take us to that spot you found Eclipse.” The vamp nodded, and so his hands started to glow with a dark violet light. It spread from person to person until finally, it reached Sombra. The world flashed away, and now everyone was on the sandstone plateau from yesterday. The man in black looked all around and then crossed his arms.

        “Not terrible, but we need more room. Blondie, front and center.” The rest of the group turned to Applejack.

        “Oh, right, me. Yeah?” The blonde said as she walked up to face the black haired man.

        “Eclipse showed you what a soul feels like, right?” The Terran nodded.

        “Good. Now here's what I want. Put your hand on the ground and think about the sand touching this rock. Focus on it hard, and keep that feeling in you mind, as if you reached out, you would touch it again.”

        The blonde shrugged and did as she was told. The ground was sandy and course, hot and dry. She waited in silence for a while, and then she began to hear her own pulse over the wind. She closed her eyes, and the sound started to grow. The beating of her blood could be felt in the rock as her fingers touched each grain of sand. The smell of sweet jack apples started to fly around her nose.

        “Now imagine this rock as if it were bigger. If this plateau was more like a giant flat pillar of stone.” The Image he was describing started to come to mind. The yellows, oranges, and reds that streaked it, like they continued endlessly, the same way that place looked yesterday. Nothing but blue and stone. Blue, and stone...

        “Alright that's enough!” She was startled by his yelling. When she opened her eyes again, she realized that everyone was staring at the ground. As she stood up, the stone had definitely looked more like what she imagined.

        “Sweet Divinity... Did Ah do that?” The rock had not only become double as large as it was, but it extended even further than what she remembered. Just like what she thought, there was nothing but rock and blue. That is until she found the edge. It was big, but not that big. She looked at her hand, and it was giving off a bright orange vapor.

        “That was what soul art combined with a god's inheritance looks like. The six of you all have the ability to manipulate some natural element because of what you've inherited. This one just so happens to have Honesty, or the Earth god, Chiaz.” He gave her a good slap to the shoulder.

        “Ow! Oh, gods, why does that hurt so bad? It takes more force than that ta make me feel this much pain...” She said, nursing her shoulder.

        “That is because you don't know your limits. At all. I wanted a 30 by 30 foot square. You probably doubled that. And because of that, you've weakened your own body. Because you don't have your Harmonian on you, the resonance of you yourself is all you're getting, and that will eat away at your stamina faster than anything you can think of. Now then, Eclipse, you take those two and go do what you need to, and the rest of you will be doing team work drills with soul art.” The vamp nodded.

        “Yes sir. Pinkie, Eris, we're just gonna take this corner over here.” The two simply looked at each other and followed Eclipse to the edge of the giant sandstone platform that Applejack made. Both men stood straight and held out their hands to their side. They started to glow, Sombra with a blood red and Eclipse with a dark violet. Circles started to from on the ground, and Sombra's circle looked far more intricate that Eclipse's did. The red circle finished forming, and Sombra clapped his hands, then the rest of the world was gone.

        “So for now, we'll focus on something simple.” He took his left hand and snapped a finger. In an instant, a black and red burning mist ball was floating above it.

        “For the first round, all I want is for you to summon an image of your soul. Don't make it any bigger than this, and don't over exert yourself in the process. If you do, you'll end up just like Blondie over here.” Without much question, the five started to focus on their hands.

        The first to conjure their soul was Fluttershy. It took about a minute, but she had it done quicker than anyone else. It was bright blue and radiant.

        “Not bad Shy. Not bad at all. Did you learn how to do that here?” The pale Angel was clearly proud of her work.

        “Yes sir. Pinkie was actually the one who showed me how to do it. I've been going out to the forest every now and again to practice moving the water. Eventually I got to the point where I could raise the stream that's in front of my house with it.” He smiled at her.

        “Good job kid. It doesn't look like any of your friends are quite that fast, so while they work on this, I want you to try and 'make' water. Turn what you see in your hand into the element that resonates with you.” The pale angel was left with a confused look, and then the group went silent for a while. Soon enough, Twilight had hers out. It was a little bit stranger than she remembered. While it was the same violet smoke she remembered from her times using it, but it wasn't just that anymore. There were little sparks of gold here and there.

        “Shiny. You have the element of Magic don't you?” He said to the girl as she tried desperately to sustain the ball.

        “Yes.” She squeezed out her teeth.

        “Eh, I guess that makes sense for you to struggle with his then. Your soul is tuned to make things disappear and condense. Forcing a light out of your body is really kind of the opposite of what it would like to do. But now that you've done that, you know what it feels like. My next task for you is to try and remove a column of light from anywhere you can. If that wording is weird, make it dark in one spot. That isn't technically what you'll be doing when it comes down to the physics of things, but it's basically the same.” The girl released her misty flame and took in several quick sharp breaths.

        “Why... is this so... hard now? This is... the fifth time... but it feels so different...” She said in between panting.

        “Well, tell me. What did you do the last four times?” He said as he leaned to look the Mage in the eye. She took a deep breath to speak.

        “Well, save for the first time, when I was just trying to copy what Celestia did and happened to have Andromeda in my hand, the other three were me healing somebody. Ruby Apple, Cobalt, Zephraim. I never felt this drained or exhausted after that.” The man nodded.

        “Okay... I'm just going to assume Zeph did something dumb again, but here's what I know. Yamirix, as much as this might be weird to hear, is not a 'battle' god. He is more about learning and obtaining new knowledge, sometimes past the point of insanity, i.e. Dark. His abilities are to absorb and repair things, where as the opposite end of his spectrum is Hikaritz. In a basic sense, they both do similar things, but in reality, they are internal and external. Deconstruct, construct. Opposite sides of the same coin if you will.

        Once she gets it going, violet over there should be able to sustain it with ease. You on the other hand just have a hard time with this. You are meant to take things in and then use them, or return them to their original state. With that in mind, try and absorb the light in front of you.” At the moment he finished, Rarity had done it.

        “Ah ha, it's back!” A bright white ball of burning mist was shimmering in the sunlight at the palm of her hand.

        “Hmm... I see what's different here...” The tailor was confused. “Different? Is there something odd about me?” She asked.

        “Oh, no. never mind what I said. You've got a very pure white there. Even for most, that's rare. Normally, color either cascades or combines into something darker, but in your case it went the opposite direction and got brighter. I imagine after a few tries, this will be just as natural for you as the pink one. So, miss other side of the coin, do the exact opposite of what I told Twilight. Form a column of light somewhere. Make it so bright that we can't see the ground where it is.” The tailor nodded. As he predicted, she had absolutely no trouble sustaining the misty flame, and kept it going as she began to focus.

        “Uh... Ah don't quite have the same thing goin' on as them, but uh... it's somethin'.” The Terran said. Above her hand was not a misty burning ball, but an orb of sand that was growing and pulling more into it from off the stone.

        “Well, I guess you skipped the first step. I had you use your power earlier, and you certainly have a nack for this. I don't know why, but I think you're about as strong as Fluttershy is. How long have you had your powers?” The Terran frowned.

        “Since a couple of days ago, but uh... Ah think Ah know why I can do this at all. Ah kinda took more than Ah should have when Ah got em from Ephraim.” He walked over to her.

        “Did you now? Care to elaborate?” The girl nodded as the sand ball stopped growing and began to change shape.

        “Ah'm not really sure how ta explain it, but... When Ah was getting' the power, Ah started ta get this headache, and it hurt real bad. It was like the whole world was beatin' on my head, but Ah had this drive to keep goin'. Ah felt like Ah needed this. Like if Ah let go, then it wouldn't be enough. It kept hurtin', but Ah just wouldn't let go. It wasn't until Ephraim threw me off did Ah stop.

        Ah got real sick that night too. Tossin' whatever Ah ate, and my whole body just bein' cramped ta death. Ah felt better the next mornin', but Ah was real tired. He tried ta explain it ta me, but Ah just didn't get what he was talkin' about.” The man laughed and slapped her shoulder again. She grabbed at it in pain, and the sand cube fell in a neat spot on the ground.

        “Damn it! Why?” She yelled.

        “Greedy little punk. Your little 'drive to keep going' was you being power hungry. It's not that you had a drive to do anything, you just wanted more. And now your body is feeling the effects of that. What did Eclipse have you do yesterday?” The Terran frowned again.

        “Uh... movin' target practice...” He raised an eyebrow.

        “Let me guess... never shot a gun before?” Her head sank.

        “That's what I thought. You will be doing that again, but I'm going to add a little more fun to it. Your new task is to make the shells you'll be firing off. I'll give you one to reference, but I will only give you one. So don't fire it.” Out of his back pocket, he took a very real gun that looked very large and heavy. The barrel on the hand gun was almost as long as his forearm, and it was stark black. Whatever magic it had on it took the shine away from it. Like it was eating the light it was exposed to. It cast a darker shadow on the ground than any of the people here. He removed an equally pitch black clip from its base and took a single bullet out and handed it to her. She looked almost afraid of it.

        “Show me you can make one, and then I'll send you and a shade in to your own little pocket.” The girl shook the fear from her face and then focused on the bullet in her left hand. The sand all around her started to form in her hand. The bullet itself started to burn with the bright orange smoke, and soon the sand started to concentrate and shape itself into a replica of the bullet. When it finally stopped, she had a solid object in both hands shat shared shape and size.

        “So... Ah have this thing now... but uh... how am I supposed ta fire? Doesn't it need other things for that ta work?” The man nodded slowly.

        “That's a good question. To be honest with you, it won't be easy to figure that part out. In the same way that traditional magic allows one to fire off a projectile or concentrated light, you're going to figure out how to send the earth you make flying. Attack spells are one of the hardest things to learn, and on top of that, you're a Terran, so this is already foreign territory for you.

        To put this as simply as I can, you're going to have to feel your way though this. Will the bullet to fly when you pull the trigger. Will it to hit your target and aim to help it there. Knowing how a gun feels to fire is probably your best asset here. Recreate that feeling in the same way you did to expand our platform. With that said, good luck.” He snapped his fingers and suddenly, there was a magic circle around her feet and the blood red outline of Sombra in front of her. Then they were gone.

        “Whoa...” The blue Angel was holding her hands together, and in the center was a bright green blue that danced with the color spectrum at each burning tip, flowing from one color to the next, occasionally stopping on magenta and then moving again.

        “Oh, so you've finally managed it. I was beginning to wonder... Wow. Now that is unique.” The man had noticed what she was holding and was surprised to see it. He reached out to touch it, then quickly jerked his hand away.

        “Uh... Put that away... Please.” He was hiding his face from her. She was confused as to why, but did so anyways. She crushed the misty flame in her hands and approached the man.

        “Are you okay dude?” She asked, concerned.

        “You all know who I used to be right?”

        The rest of the girls stopped focusing on what they were doing and answered, “Yeah.” He sighed.

        “My mother wasn't the greatest person in the world. I know I had siblings, but I honestly never knew them. And my grandmother... well, she's trying to destroy the world and kill my wife and her sister. To say the least, I didn't have the greatest influences in my life. I was the youngest out of my family, and by the time I came around, my mother was on her fourth husband. She wasn't all that right in the head by then, and she killed the guy shortly afterward. Never knew who he was.

        My mother, her name was Nethera, and for my early life, she lead a group of bandits in the north. But... these were not ordinary people either. The corruption that had happened during Umbra's reign wasn't gone from the north, and even today, you can still find traces of it there. These people were tainted and morphed by it, literally turning them into demons. Malformed beasts that had an acquired taste for blood.

        Because the blood of the 'source' of the corruption ran through me and my mom, we weren't affected by it, but she took pity on them and cared for them. They typically didn't last too long, and would eventually either lose it and try and kill each other, or die from blood starvation. If so, we helped them out. But dear old mom started to get sick after a while, and she didn't last long after that.

        Then I stepped in. Without remorse, I took my demonic band into Crystal and took the city. We used people like livestock, and it was then that I was cursed. An old traveling shaman, which Celestia believes to actually have been a brother of mine, wandered in. Of course, he was captured by my men and brought to me and there.

        He began to talk to me about what I was doing. It's what I grew up knowing, so I didn't think anything was wrong. My friends needed blood to live, so I helped them out. He started to argue with me, telling me that I would never suffer enough pain in this life for all the atrocities I'd committed. He started yelling a language I couldn't understand and his entire body was giving off the mist that you've all learned how to make. He warped away from my guards and gave me a nice little reminder of him on my cheek.” He pointed to a scar on his cheek that looked like it cut from just by the edge of his nose almost to his ear, and then down his eye lid to his mustache.

        “I of course, tried to hit him back for it, but he was already far away from every one of my guards and at the end of the chamber. His last words to me were these.

        'From today forward, you will never age! You will never grow, and you will die over and over again, and you will never be able to experience the sweet relief of death, you scum!'

        And the next thing he did? Shot me through the heart with a blast of energy. I watched him warp away and myself bleed out. It was one of the most painful experiences I'd ever had. I passed out, and woke up later in the same spot. There was a hole in what I was wearing at the time, but I was fine. The people around me, however... they descended further into their demonic transformation. Anyone I touched would start to turn into a demon. Depending on what they were doing and what race they were, it would be faster or slower. I watched as the people I grew up with turn into unrecognizable monsters and horrific creatures. But even through all that, some of them managed to retain their humanity.

        And then Celestia and Luna came knocking at my door, if that encounter with Starswirl wasn't enough. There weren't many humans left in Crystal city, but they came to free the ones that they could. But I wasn't about to let my friends die either. That's where the history you know starts.

        After a while, we figured out why the people around me turned to demons, and that is because of my curse being exposed to their soul. It became most apparent when the Mages guarding my cell would start to feel sick, and the ones that used magic would feel the effects of the curse quicker than others. I decided to test my theory after a while and grabbed one as he was doing it. Just like my friends, his body became disfigured and beastly.

        Another effect of the curse that I hadn't realized though, was the fact that I was attracted to magic. At any point I saw someone using magic, or worse, soul art, I would feel this overwhelming desire to touch it. I turned exactly forty five people into demons over my years of imprisonment before Celestia threw me at the bottom of her castle. It took years after we got together for me to be able to fight off that desire, but every now and then, I'll get struck by it and reach out for the soul.

        Luckily, my kids weren't affected by that part of the curse, but at the same time, when they use soul art too much, they can start to become demons themselves. It's still difficult to ignore when an exceptional soul like yours shows up, blue.” He said looking away from the group.

        “Oh, father!” The pale Angel said as she embraced the man. He patted her on the back and pushed her off.

        “Thanks kid, but really, that's not a good idea. As much as I try to be a good influence, there's a part of me that never can be.” The way he said that reminded Twilight of her year with him.

        At every turn, he always would say

        'Do what you have to to survive. Don't ever take any more than you need.' Nights under the stars and sleeping in that old abandoned building at the edge of the middle wall. Days rooting through garbage, occasionally gambling to get money for food that night. Every time she tried to steal, he'd pop her in the back of the head for it, and any time she got mad, he'd calm her down and make her think about why there was no reason to be. Of course, that didn't last too long. Finally memory lane took her to the end of that year, the day she was sent home, and he was taken away... When she looked up, the entirety of the group was staring at her.

        “What?” He had his head tilted a little at her.

        “Have you... been thinking of fond memories Twilight? Maybe something fun from your past?” He said, a little skew in his voice.

        “Well, I guess you could say that. I was just thinking about the year we met.” The indigo Mage said still unaware of what everyone else was looking at.

        “How is it that you can see in there? Is that part of her power or something?” The tailor asked. The man shrugged.

        “That's more than likely why, but honestly, I don't know. Can you feel what you're doing in there?” The Mage blinked and then looked at her body. Her hands were both letting off violet smoke. She didn't even realize that she'd been doing anything. She looked around her feet, and while she could see the stone, it was like it had lost all it's color. Then It hit her. She'd accomplished what she was told to do, but around her self. She closed her hands, and the mist stopped pouring out from them. The stone underneath her feet regained it's color and all the other heads stopped tilting.

        “So uh... I guess you did what I asked? You really didn't realize what you were doing at all did you?” He said, a hand now stroking his beard.

        “Well, yeah. I mean, I can see so well in the dark now, sometimes I can't tell when it's day or night anymore. The only thing that tipped me off was the fact that the stone had lost it's color, and that only happens when there is no light in an area, or light has stopped moving like in a pocket dimension.” She said, almost confused as to how she did anything. The man turned to the rest of the girls.

        “Well, if you needed any more proof that your mood affects your soul art, there you go. Think of happy memories, but try to stay in this world enough to control what you're doing.” The rest of the girls looked to each other and then shrugged and went with it. Sure enough, each one managed to do something similar to Twilight. Rainbow covered herself in a tornado, making a column of sand fly all around her. Fluttershy had orbs of water from in her hands from the vapor in the air after the rain yesterday. Rarity covered herself in light, nearly blinding everyone in the vicinity.

        “Holy crap! I can't believe this is actually working! This is so cool!” The Blue Angel crossed her arms, and the wind stopped immediately, dropping the sand in it's place.

        “Ha! I'm so awesome.” She said with a big grin on her face. Fluttershy threw a ball of water at her.

        “He he... maybe you should cool off.” The grin turned to a frown.

        “Yeah. Thanks. I needed that. So what now? I could do this all day.” She said from behind her soaked hair that was covering her face. Her hand started to let of her cyan mist with rainbow tips and wind swirled up and dried her off. She then fixed her hair so that it only covered part of her face in it's usual messy bed head style. The man took a disk out of his pocket and checked the time.

        “I wasn't sure how far you'd make it, but it looks like we have time for one more little exercise...” He said, smiling. It was not a normal smile though. It had something sinister to it.

        “Oh, no... I know what that face means!” The Mage said in a concerned tone. He snapped his fingers and then Applejack appeared and shot at him. He caught the bullet with magic and let it dissipate back into sand.

        “What the? Aw, come on! Ah finally got the hang of this!” He shook his hand at her. “No this isn't a punishment, you've all done better than I expected. You've made quick progress, and that's what we need. I'm just... going to gauge your strength now...” He placed his disk on his arm and snapped again. Suddenly, Eclipse, Eris, and Pinkie were all here.

        “Is it that time already? I didn't actually think they'd make it this far until Friday.” The vamp said, completely unphased by the change in scenery.

        “What gives old man? I was like, finally getting somewhere!” The man nodded.

        “I know. You've done well today. All of you. But, as I've said, I'm going to test you. We'll save the team work exercise for tomorrow.” The stark black disk on his black coat almost blended into it. A bright blood red matterwave shot out in the shape of a scythe blade. Fluttershy was already ready for the duel to start with her own disk and matterwave on. Twilight wasn't ready for this.

        “B-but, we don't even have our Harmonians on us!” She pleaded. The man shook his head. “You sure don't. And without them, you aren't as strong as you could be. So let's see just how strong you are on your own two feet. Get your disk on.” He raised his hand, and five outlines of various shades of red showed up in front of each girl, with Sombra himself in front of Fluttershy.

        “The goal here is for you to beat me if you can. I won't be going all out, otherwise, I might end up killing you, but I will at least match your skill level. Save for you. I wanna see if you've gotten any better in these past few months...” He said to the pale Angel.

        “Yes sir!” She said as she saluted. Everyone else had their disks on and were one by one ejecting matterwaves. Twilight groaned and did the same.

        “Six opponents at once... this outta be fun. Ready?” Beams of light all shot to the real Sombra's disk and in unison, the group yelled,

        “DUEL!”