Episode 213: The Three Nereids

Before Wallflower could even gasp out or consider screaming, she was grabbed by clammy, cold hands and thrown like a tumbling sack of reeds out of the water and sent rolling over harsh, solid rock until her back smacked painfully into a stalagmite. Agony exploded over her spine and she lay in a whimpering heap as the strange girl, her body clad in pale robes, danced towards her with a jester’s mad grin. The wavy kris knife in her hand was abruptly joined by a fan of six or seven more, as if conjured from thin air.

“Got to keep most of your blood in your body, Lady Hel, but I don’t think Jorm will mind too much if you’re a little roughed up first.”

The girl’s voice was conversationally pleasant, like she was talking about going out for a shopping trip. Wallflower, coughing and sputtering, began to scramble away in a haphazard manner. She had none of Hel’s power, no knowledge of how to utilize the strength of the goddess she supposedly was. Right at that moment, she was just a terrified girl in pain.

“What the-!? Back off of her!” There was a flash of lightning and a crack of thunder as Rainbow Dash sizzled into view in a streak of cobalt electric light. She hadn’t summoned her Fullbring just yet, but the cat claws around her fingers looked as if they emanated a synergy of electric energy that was similar as she smashed a high-speed punch at the face of Wallflower’s assailant.

The unknown girl bent backwards like a limbo player, turning sideways into an evasive spin while whipping her knife-holding hand in an instant snap. The fan of daggers flew at Dash, but the girl then generated her Fullbring in a wide expulsion of electrified spirit energy. Armor, wings, and luminous dual-spear of lightning formed and Rainbow Dash spun the weapon in a streak of light, deflecting the daggers. Each dagger struck the ground at different places, and where they struck, crawling frost emerged like carpets.

Landing in a crouched pose, flicking her wrists and forming fresh sets of blades in both of her hands, the girl smiled, licking her lips as she looked at Dash, then back behind her as Applejack leaped atop the set of boulders that had been used to partition off the bathing pool. Applejack was fully clad in her form-fitting, gold and brass plated armor, the sizable form of her drill-lance appearing from a circle of gold to fall easily into her waiting hands.

“Now just who n’ tarnation are... huh? Sonata!?”

Rainbow Dash, cocking her head to the side and actually looking at the girl who’d attacked Wallflower, now gained a shadowed frown of confusion, “Holy crap, it is Sonata? The frick are you doing in the Beast Realm and attacking us for? And what’s with the weird get-up? And freaky blue eyes?”

Wallflower wasn’t sure who either Applejack or Rainbow Dash was talking about. Sonata? Who was that supposed to be? The girl looked as if she didn’t understand, either, her crazed smile twitching at the corner of her mouth as she remained in a ready crouch of pouncing violence, her voice a titter of confused mirth, “Heheh, now that’s fishy, fishy, fishy. How do you Midgardians know me? We’ve never met. I’d remember cutting your throats.”

With a hefty clunk of metal Applejack leveled her lance at this ‘Sonata’, and called out to Rainbow Dash and Wallflower, “Wallflower, run back ta camp, now. Me n’ Dash will keep this... whoever this is, busy.”

Wallflower tried to get up, but pain still worked its way through her spine and into her left leg, where her knee gave out. She let out a cry and tried again, only to flop back to the ground, “I’m... I’m sorry, I don’t think I can move.”

“Aww, don’t cry, Lady Hel, you’ll be back home soon. Hehehe, just sit back and watch me and my sisters perform for you,” Sonata’s words were punctuated by her unnaturally glowing blue eyes gleaming an even brighter shade, and her mouth opened and began to emit a hauntingly pervasive tone. To call it song did not encapsulate the noise, for it felt to Wallflower that it was penetrating more than her ears, but her very bones.

Applejack and Rainbow Dash clearly felt it, for both tensed, and Dash didn’t bother to wait to see what Sonata was doing, blazing forward in a lightning streak that howled thunder as her spear slashed a line of devastating electricity towards the strange girl. The streak of lightning cut as thoroughly as any blade, carrying a destructive concussion of thunder-force in its wake. What appeared to be Sonata broke apart into pieces, only to be revealed instantly as a little more than a splash of water that had taken on the girl’s appearance.

The song, the rising and falling melody that carried the booming notes of a frozen storm at sea, filled the air and Wallflower felt the air growing horrifically chill as wind began to rise up. The daggers in the ground, the frost around them having grown to near ten meters wide apiece, now generated a series of ice-cold waterspouts. Each small tornado of water then struck with ferocious speed, icicle blades forming within the water like broken ice flows in an arctic sea. All glowed with blue auras of power, Anima surging through these deadly water spouts that went after Rainbow Dash and Applejack.

Growling, her eyes gaining cat-slits, Dash zipped away as several of the water diced the ground she’d just been standing on. The raw power of each cyclone of water left gouges several feet deep in solid stone, while even as Rainbow Dash evaded the attacks, the waterspouts fired off icicle blades whipped forth at insane velocity. Flickering in multiple places, leaving speed clones of herself, Rainbow danced through the storm of icicles, while the projectiles crunched through solid stalagmites in an explosion of rock.

Applejack, less speedy, stood her ground and lashed out with a punishing kick from one of her armored boots. Jets of gold energy spun her heels around as she smashed a kick through one waterspout, then spun further into a roundhouse with her other leg. The raw force of each kick hammered blasts of pure force through the water and ice, although several others still slammed at Applejack like giant, ice-ridden blenders. Through pure toughness, Applejack took the hits, her armor guarding her well against the crushing force of the water cyclones and the slicing edges of the icicles within. Then, boots jetting even more golden power, she rocketed upwards while spinning around, giving her lance a momentous swing that lashed the waterspouts into puddles.

Joined in the air by Rainbow Dash, Applejack scanned the ground as she hovered on jets of gold energy from her armor, “Ya see her anywhere?”

“If she can make copies of herself out of water, she could be wherever she wants to be,” Dash groused, raising a hand upward. Wind blew and clouds, dark and heady with power, began to form over Rainbow Dash’s head, “So I’m just gonna zap everything with lightning and flush her out!”

“Wallflower is still down there,” Applejack reminded her, “We gotta be careful ‘bout throwing any big attacks with her nearby.”

“Dammit, didn’t think of that. I’ll, uh, just be really careful with the lightning. Hey! Wallflower! Just don’t move! There’s only, like, a five percent chance, tops, that I’ll kinda-sorta electrocute you. But you’re probably fine!”

“Wait, what does that mean-” Wallflower started to ask, when Rainbow Dash gestured sharply down with her hand, and the thunderclouds that had formed unleashed a thick sheet of dozens upon dozens of lightning bolts towards the ground. Wallflower shrieked and ducked, covering her head with her hands as the world thundered and flashed with these lightning strikes that fell down all around her, electrifying the area and filling it with the stink of ozone. Fortunately for Wallflower, Rainbow’s control over the lightning strikes was extremely precise. For all the girl’s joking, she was taking the matter of Wallflower’s safety seriously and was ensuring she was avoiding any of the bolts landing too close.

After a few seconds of scouring the area with arcs of sizzling power, Rainbow Dash cut off the storm of lightning bolts and peered about, stretching her spiritual senses. “See her anywhere?”

Applejack shook her head, “Not a’ hair. Don’t mean she ain’t still lurkin’ about. Got any notion what her Anima is?”

“AJ, I barely remember what all of the Anima affinities are from Asena and Simurgh’s lesson, let alone got any clue what this weirdo version of Sonata is using! I mean, she was singing, so maybe it’s Howl? What’s Howl’s deal again?”

“Oooh, I know this one! Howl Anima covers a long distance and generates powers that are equally good for ripping up enemies or defending oneself from attack!”

“Cool, thanks A...J...?” Dash blinked, as did Applejack as they both looked behind them at Sonata, who’d appeared from what looked like a trail of watery mist that rose up around them. The mists grew thicker around Sonata and the two Fullbringers, growing so dense in just a split second that before Applejack and Rainbow Dash knew it, they could barely see anything around them.

Sonata’s singing voice echoed through the mist, just as Rainbow and Applejack both launched themselves into simultaneous attacks on where she’d just been floating. Dash cut a brilliant line of lightning across the fog, while Applejack let multiple nozzles open up across her armor and thrust her left arm out, firing a rapid trail of several dozen gold energy beams that bored holes through the dense mists. They covered each other’s blind spots, both now flying back to back as they spun in a counter-clockwise motion, firing across the entire area while still keeping aware of Wallflower’s location to avoid hitting her. Stalagmites and stalactites, some thicker than houses, were blown clean through by the barrages of lightning bolts and beams, showering rock down to the ground.

“Think we hit her?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“Don’t feel like it,” Applejack said past grit teeth, “She’s bein’ a squirrely one. Probably knows she can’t take us head on, so she’s buyin’ time.”

“For what?”

“Well if this is some Beast Realm version o’ Sonata, then where do ya think her sisters are at?” Applejack replied, to which Sonata’s voice rang out with a giggle from the deep mists, her location impossible to pin-point from its ethereal echo.

“Hahahah! You girls are an interesting bunch, knowing so much about me! So you know Dagi and Aria, too!? But how, I wonder? I’m soooo sure we’ve never killed anyone who looks like you before. I’m not good at solving mysteries, but I guess it doesn’t matter too much. Just gotta cut on you until information spills out along with your bloody bits!”

A tingling sound like nails on glass sounded on, and both Rainbow Dash and Applejack sensed a change in the mists as the fog swirled around at numerous points. Abruptly a barrage of needle thin, ice coated daggers flew out from multiple angles and directions, all moving at ludicrous speed. Rainbow Dash all but turned into a blaze of electrical light as she dodged the deadly weave of projectiles, while Applejack projected more swift blasts of gold energy from her armor, shooting down many of the ones flying at her. Even so, a few daggers impacted her armor, and much like before ice began to spread from the point of impact, causing a painful chill to fill Applejack’s senses. Meanwhile other daggers that had missed Rainbow Dash still left a trail of ice behind them, forming jagged formations that soon covered the area with a lattice-work of icicles that looked like a spider-web made from ice.

Growling in a deep throated snarl as fresh, animal instincts kicked in, Applejack’s eyes glowed green as she swung her lance around her. Anima burned alongside her spirit energy as the sharp talons of a bear’s claw formed around her lance and upon impacting the nearest series of icicle structures, a shockwave of force added to the collision, shattering almost all of them around her. Even the ground trembled a little as Applejack flew down and landed, still growling a little and eyes flicking left and right for her target.

Instinct as much as sharpened senses clued her in to the danger behind her in time for Applejack to spin around and bring her lance up crosswise in a block, just in time to keep a pair of larger curved daggers coated in ice from sinking into her neck as Sonata appeared to form out of the fog itself. The slight slip of a blue girl was much stronger than she looked, and the scales of her aquatic features appeared to shimmer with power as Sonata giggled past sharp teeth, “I see you’re going native! Can’t use your Anima very well, though. Claw affinity, so you’ll give Aria a hard time, but I can handle you just fine!”

“Don’t bet the farm on it, hun! I’ve dealt with meaner n’ stronger than you!” Applejack spat back, launching a straight kick up with her left leg that was further boosted by a jet of gold power from her armored boot. The punishing blow shattered the sound barrier and created a shockwave blast, but Sonata was shockingly adept at evasion, her body churning into water and fading away just at the moment of impact.

“I’ll bet!” echoed Sonata’s voice as she reformed a second later, “You’re super strong. One solid hit from you and I might go down like a itty bitty broken twig. So I’d better not let you hit me.”

“What about me?” Rainbow Dash said, now the one to surprise Sonata with a sudden strike from behind as she appeared in a blinding flash of speed. Her energy wings hummed as this time Dash gathered power in the prismatic array of light that formed between the wings’ metal components, and she fired a twin ray of rainbow colored beams at nearly point-blank range at Sonata.

Sonata gestured, mist forming into a block of ice to shield herself, but Dash’s beams blasted through the Anima enhanced ice barrier with little trouble, and Sonata took a solid hit from the twin beams that looked to actually connect. The girl was sent tumbling, giving out a feral hiss that sounded like the spine tingling cry of something dwelling in the deepest part of the ocean. The icicle lattice above them shuddered and transformed into water at Sonata’s cry, turning into several whip-like streams of water that surrounded her like the coils of a dozen pissed off serpents.

“Hehehe... pain. How I missed it. Now I know we’re in for a fight,” Sonata crouched like a coiled spring, eyes glittering behind the high-pressure streams of water around her that were ready to strike, “And when my sister’s get here, it’ll be a real party.”

Adagio gave off a grumbling grunt of frustration as she casually cut a thirty meter stalagmite in half with her scythe, ignoring the way it crumbled to dust beside her as she glared out at the forest expanding in front of her, “That idiot! I gave her specific instructions to come back and report to us if she found anything! Not start a brawl!”

Not far away, idly examining her cutlass as she sat on the edge of a sharp ridge, Aria let out a dry laugh, “It’s Sonata, what did you expect? She has the self control of a starving piranha. Of course she’d attack the moment she found prey worth sinking her teeth into.”

Adagio’s throat rumbled with a deep chested snarl, water cascading in a tight spiral around her legs and the edge of her scythe, “If those Midgardians don’t kill her, I’m liable to finish the job myself! Ofridir said there was a large group of these fools wandering about, and if that beam of light we saw was any indication, they’re individually powerful!”

She gestured roughly back behind them, where some score or so miles away a thin beam of sunlight could still be seen glittering down from the surface, where a smooth hole had been literally burned from the surface realm of Jotunheim all the way to the subterranean realm of Svartalfheim. The three Nereid sisters had merely by chance been traveling across a nearby mountain range in their search for the Midgardian group that Jormungandr desired when the beam of power had cut its way to the surface and drawn their attention. Ofridir himself was not nearby, having gone in a different direction to search a different region of Vanaheim, and the Nereid sisters had not the time to alert him.

Chances were if he hadn’t seen the beam of light, rumor from various villages that had seen it would draw Ofridir in due time, but for now Adagio had led her sisters down into Svartalfheim to confirm what the beam of light had been. They’d found its origin point, a heavily melded mountain ridge, thick with a lingering aura of spiritual energy, Anima, and a purer form of magic none of the three could clearly identify. Traces of that aura, however, pointed in the direction of the dense stalagmite forest that was heading towards the Dwarven fortress of the Allhammer Clan.

Adagio had sent Sonata ahead to scout only, since Sonata’s Anima was not only useful for fast traveling, but it was a potent defensive and evasive tool, so if trouble occurred she could... well, retreat easily. Which currently she wasn’t doing, much to Adagio’s extreme irritation.

Of course Aria knew exactly what Adagio was thinking and her own, calm, idle demeanor was precisely calculated to push her sister’s buttons, “So are we just going to laze about and watch from the sidelines until they all gang up on our poor little sister?”

“It’d serve her right for disobeying my orders! Grrr! Why is she always like this!?” Adagio tugged at her hair, looking for a fresh stalagmite to destroy, but paused, instead turning her fiery glare at Aria, “And don’t act like you’re not pissed off, too!”

“Oh, I’m just so nettled, can’t you tell from my furious expression,” Aria said, face utterly deadpan as she yawned and ran a finger over the edge of her cutlass, “How about you don’t act like we’re not about to go pull her fins from the riptide, hmm? We’ll learn a lot more about our enemies from a decent skirmish than we would through days of tailing them, and you know it.”

“I despise it when you’re right,” Adagio said under her breath, “Which you only half are. We could have maintained the element of surprise for a lot longer and chosen a better moment to strike. Now, even if we yank Sonata away from her idiotic ‘playtime’, the Midgardians will be far more alert from now on.”

“As if you’re not spoiling for a little exercise yourself, after sitting in ice for centuries,” Aria replied with an energetic smirk, hopping off of the ridge and whistling in a manner that beautifully echoed off of the surrounding rocks. The air swam with ripples and the sound of lapping waves, and a glowing shark of vibrant, sea-green water that was easily twenty meters long took shape. Aria landed atop her summoned mount and it swam through the air like a high-speed missile, flying towards the distant field of mist where they knew Sonata had made contact with their quarry.

Adagio, still grumbling under her breath, jumped into the air as well, the water cascading in a tight spin around her legs shooting outward like pressurized water jets, and propelled her even faster than Aria’s flying shark towards the site of battle.

“Hey, does something feel off?” asked Spike, looking between Clover and one of the screens inside the cockpit of the Gunwolf, his paw tapping the screen a few times as it flickered, “My sensors just went all wonky a minute ago.”

Clover had been carefully checking over Sunset Shimmer, applying a light healing Kido to try and help her friend’s spirit energy recover, while ensuring Sunset stayed warm under a makeshift blanket of moss while she slept. At Spike’s question, Clover frowned and focused for a moment, spreading out her spiritual senses.

“I... can’t sense Applejack and Rainbow Dash’s reiatsu! It's as if something is masking them!” Clover said, standing up swiftly, but hesitating as she looked down at the unconscious, defenseless Sunset Shimmer.

Spike, immediately grasping Clover’s hesitation, settled into the Gunwolf’s cockpit and closed the hatch, fully powering up the mech, “Stay here and guard Sunset. The girls went to the stream, so I’ll go check on them. If any of the others get back before I return, send them after me.”

Given that Asena and Simurgh were out hunting and gathering food, while Cadence and Shining Armor had been scouting further afield, there was no telling if any of them had noticed the strange blank spot of spirit energy where Rainbow Dash and Applejack should have been bathing with Wallflower. Clover hadn’t even sensed it until Spike had pointed out something was wrong, and only then did the odd blanket of absent reiatsu, like a fuzzy haze in her senses, become apparent. Clover could only assume this was the result of an Anima power, unless someone with advanced stealth Kido or similar ability was present. Whatever the case was, it seemed likely her friends were in danger. She wanted to go to them, but Spike was right, someone had to stay and protect Sunset while she was in this state.

“Go,” she said, nodding to Spike, and the mechanical wolf nodded back at her before breaking into a swift run from the cave, heading into the stalagmite forest.

Magnitudes faster than any bullet, the whips of water jetted forward at Sonata’s gesture, swirling in confusing patterns as they stabbed towards both Applejack and Rainbow Dash. They also struck with surprising solidarity, the energies of Anima making the water stab and cut more thoroughly than any blade could. Both girls used their weapons, swinging at breakneck speeds to block the onrush of blows. Lightning spear and drill lance both smashed water whips in splattering blows, but the second this occurred the water changed, each splash hardening into sharp sickles of frost that spun around behind them even as new water whips formed ahead to continue spearing at their fronts!

“The heck!? Pick a freakin’ elemental power, you weirdo!” Dash shouted, tilting her head left and right at lightning speeds to keep sharp chunks of ice from cutting her face, all the while flipping to the side and lancing a bolt of electricity through half a dozen water whips. To her chagrin she saw the electricity wasn’t conducting all the way back to Sonata, because the whips would turn to mist halfway down for an instant to break the electrical current before reforming!

Applejack grunted as one whip got past her drill lance and struck her left leg, almost buckling her knee, but the farm girl planted herself firmly and crunched the stone ground beneath her with her heel, smashing rocks up into a shower of chunks that broke apart water and ice alike. She then began to punch the rock chunks towards Sonata, the bear claws of her Anima forming in green auras around each chunk that vibrated with shockwaves as they flew forth.

Sonata drew her water whips back towards herself and caused them to flail in a blurring defensive pattern in front of her, smashing into the rock chunks that Applejack knocked her way. Each broken chunk of rock still seemed to create a faint green shockwave of force even as they were destroyed, hammering Sonata and making her stumble back.

“Owie. Your Claw sure does smart for a tiny bear that just awoke to it. What’s wrong with your cat pal, does hers not work?”

Rainbow Dash’s lips pulled back, showing feline fangs as she made a very irate cat noise in the back of her throat, “Like I need it to kick your sorry butt!” She started making a mimicry of Sonta’s voice, “Oh look at me, I’m crazy and violently quirky! My powers are just a bunch of water and ice crap other people have done before, but cooler!”

“Wow, I may be crazy, violent, and quirky, but at least I’m not immature. Making fun of people just makes you look like a child, you know?” Sonata said back in a rather serious moment of staring at Dash, who only bristled more as her hair raised up.

“That right!? Well this ‘child’ is about to shove several million volts of electric badassery down your throat, fish breath!”

“...Kinda just provin’ her point, Dash,” Applejack sighed while Rainbow charged forward, flying right at Sonata.

Sonata grinned and lashed out with a fresh set of water whips, conjuring more with her voice singing its haunting tune until over a hundred of the whips danced to her song and rushed Rainbow Dash in a blinding flurry. Yet Dash, getting more serious herself, all but vanished with a clap of shattered sound and the strobing flash of hundreds of lightning streaks. Sonata, eyes swirling, was unable to even grasp where Dash was as the air filled with the bright blue, cobalt lines of Rainbow Dash appearing over and over again in scores of places at once. Sonata’s hundred water whips speared out in every direction, but Rainbow Dash’s speed, now turned up to a higher degree, wove around the whips.

Her electrical spear now an azure smear of dozens of simultaneous motions and strikes, Sonata was assaulted and juggled upwards by what looked like a small army of lightning bound Rainbow Dash’s. Each stroke of her dual spark of lightning rang out with peals of thunder that shook and cracked every stalagmite and stalactite that was nearby.

“Thor Blitz! And to finish things off, here’s a new one I came up with!”

Rainbow’s speed was such that the flying copies of her, all trailing tails of lightning, landed on different stalagmites surrounding Sonata’s tumbling form, still airborne from being juggled. At least thirty of Dash’s speed copies all flared with light, the lightning blades of their dual spears extending outward as the afterimages all appeared to move as one, converging inward on their target in a single moment of overwhelmingly swift destruction. It was as if an infinitely tight net of speed, force, and lightning tightened like a cage around Sonata all at once.

“Calamity Cascade!”

Applejack watched, eyes carefully observing. She was only barely able to follow Rainbow Dash’s motions, and wondered if Sonata had seen them at all. Applejack’s assessment of this Beast Realm Sonata’s strength had been that she was roughly on par with any one of her friends, albeit with a power set that seemed geared for evasion and sneak attack rather than a face-to-face brawl. Why then was this Sonata so willing to confront her and Dash at the same time? She’d said her sisters were coming, but even so, tackling two clear front line brawlers like her and Rainbow Dash was pretty foolhardy for someone without the power-set to do so... unless she was missing something?

Applejack got a bad feeling in her gut as she watched Sonata’s body spin to the ground, smoking and sparking with residual arcs of electricity as she smashed into the stone and skidded several dozen yards until she stopped in a heap.

Up above in the air, her whole body still crackling with pure, cobalt blue electrical ight, and her energy wings burning bright, Rainbow Dash shouldered her lightning spear and smirked, “Guess you’re not so tough once I stop holding back. Maybe this Anima stuff isn’t all its cracked up to be?”

“Dash, don’t drop yer guard, this ain’t over yet,” Applejack warned, just as Sonata twitched and let out a weak but distinct laugh. The charred fish girl rolled over onto her stomach and then sprang up, still smoking, clearly badly wounded by Rainbow Dash’s attacks, but it was as if the pain barely affected her. With bloodshot eyes, Sonata looked up at Dash with a wide smile.

“I guess Ofridir wasn’t exaggerating about you guys, heheh! You’d give any Einherjar a good scrap! But you’re not very smart, are you, kiddo?”

Rainbow Dash’s smirk turned dark, her lightning flaring as she readied her spear, “Sounds like you want another dose of electro-shock therapy delivered by yours truly.”

Applejack didn’t like this. Sonata was getting under Dash’s skin, and Rainbow Dash was already feeling sore due to her mistake when dealing with the troglodytes. Applejack knew her friend well enough to tell when Rainbow was losing focus due to emotions keeping her head out of the game, and she suspected Sonata wasn’t just spouting off at the mouth for the fun of it. She hadn’t said so much as half a taunt towards Applejack, and was pointedly taunting Rainbow Dash.

“Dash, don’t let her bait you! She’s screwin’ with yer head, girl!”

“Huh?” Rainbow looked at her, but just then Applejack noticed something that she kicked herself for not really considering sooner. They’d been so focused on the water and ice attacks Sonata had been throwing out, neither of them had paid much mind to just how much additional fog had been generated in the area. They could still see Sonata, but had lost total track of Wallflower, almost as if the incredible thickness of the mist was being manipulated so that they could always see their opponent, but not much else. The fog wasn’t moving naturally, but rather with precise deliberation.

Sonata was still smiling, raising her left hand up and caressing the fog around her, “My Anima isn’t the ice and water, it’s this mist. Sure, I can make it liquid or solid at a whim, turning into water or ice, but the mist is what matters, kids. Mist you’re surrounded by... and have been breathing in this whole time.”

Applejack understood just in time to exhale all the air, and consequently the mist, in her lungs. However, Rainbow Dash was slower on the uptake. The girl convulsed and then choked up a spray of blood as ice crystals formed around her mouth, and likely inside her lungs. As Dash flailed in the air, more ice forming around her as the mist began to solidify onto her wings, Applejack rocketed forward at titanic speed. Ice was frosting over her own armor, the mist having sunk into the joints while she’d been more focused on deflecting water and ice attacks, but Applejack let the raw heat and power of her jets power through that as she launched her drill towards Sonata.

The drill bits spun up, tip and mid-section blurring in opposite directions as Applejack stopped holding back as well and boosted a full power strike that ripped apart the ground ina shockwave as she rushed Sonata.

Just before impact there was a flicker of motion, and suddenly Applejack felt her strike impact upon something of equal strength! Water burned and shredded like a high speed saw against the tip of her spinning drill, all coated around the edge of a huge scythe of dark obsidian!

At the end of that scythe, holding the shark-skin handle with bulging muscles and glaring with a face etched with rage, was Adagio! Or rather, no doubt, the version of Adagio that lived in this Beast Realm. Applejack saw fine plates of steel armor covering a body that still had the mature curves of the siren she knew, but a broader, athletic physique of a woman far more used to hard labor and battle. The hair was woven thick braids, orange and yellow, held together by strands of gold silk. Aside from surrounding her scythe like a powerful sheath, water coated Adagio’s feet like swirling jets of force, not unlike the jets of power that Applejack used with the gauntlets and boots of her armor to augment attacks or fly.

Adagio had stopped Applejack’s attack a few paces short of Sonata, feet planted in the ground as her weapon grinded against the form girl’s in a rain of sparks and concurrent shockwaves of force that were shaking the ground.

Applejack growled, pressing harder with her drill, nozzles opening up on the back of her armor to expel forth more golden power to push herself forward. Adagio’s eyes widened a little as she was driven back a step, but then her own mouth clenched in determination, a deep throated growl reverberating from her as the water spinning around her scythe blade grew larger and more intense. Applejack was halted, the pair locked in an even standoff.

Rainbow Dash, still spitting blood, almost fell from the air, but at the last moment her body shuddered with a raw blast of thunder and lightning, and suddenly a massive windstorm kicked up. The lightning rolling over her wings shattered the ice that had formed there, while the wind, howling beyond hurricane force, billowed away Sonata’s mist, while Rainbow Dash’s eyes once more grew pupils slit like a cat’s. Her body vibrated with electricity, and Applejack saw her cough up blood an instant before dashing forward and to the side, circling around to get at Sonata.

At a guess, Applejack gauged that Dash was using electricity inside her own body to break up the ice crystals Sonata had struck her body with. That, or Dash was just so hopped up on adrenaline and her Anima growing more feral that the pain of her internal injuries were all but forgotten. Either way, Rainbow rushed Sonata from the side while Adagio was still pressing against Applejack weapon to weapon.

However, before Rainbow Dash was able to get close, she was forced to zip backwards as a rain of fast moving, green glowing fish shapes darted into the ground and ate through the rock; a small swarm of piranha! The swarm of glowing green fish pursued Dash, causing her to rapidly spin her lightning spear and blast forth a wide streak of multiple lightning bolts to break the swarm apart. But just then a shadow moved overhead, and a giant shark of similar green, watering energy dove down and tried to take a chunk out of Rainbow! She flipped out of the way, only to be met with a figure leaping off the shark’s back. Applejack recognized the woman’s colors and general looks, despite the major difference of the warrior’s mohawk, dark leather armor and manta-ray cloak, and the far more aquatic features of fine scales and fins on the arms and legs. Aria, bearing a briny, large, and jagged cutlass, brought her blade down hard on Dash, the other girl barely getting the shaft of her spear in the way in time to take the blow.

The impact alone was enough to drive Rainbow Dash into the ground, cracking the stone and bouncing several times before she righted herself. Applejack, worried about Wallflower and Dash both, broke off her struggle with Adagio and leaped back.

For a moment, things were silent save for the wind that Rainbow had summoned whistling between the stalagmite forest. Applejack and Rainbow Dash stood side by side, facing Sonata, Adagio, and Aria, the first of whom was still badly injured as she grinned and hugged Adagio.

“Dagi! Thanks for the save! Knew you two would-”

Adagio raised an elbow and brought it down hard on Sonata’s head with a loud bonking sound. As Sonata dropped to her knees, rubbing her head, Adagio rounded on her and, hand on hip, bellowed, “What part of STEALTH did you not comprehend you moronic minnow!”

“Ow! I’m sorry Dagi, but I couldn’t help myself!” Sonata said while hiccupping a childish cry, “They were all bathing and vulnerable looking, so it looked like the perfect moment to have some fun!”

“Huh,” Aria said, looking Applejack and Rainbow Dash over, “You caught them bathing? But they’re wearing clothes right now.”

Applejack’s face burned hot as she shouted, smacking her armor with one hand, “My Fullbring armor covers me up, an’ yer lucky ‘cause I’d be smackin’ ya’ll even harder if ya were ogling me! Uh... not sure what Dash’s excuse is. How are ya clothed up? Don’t yer armor just cover yer chest?”

Rainbow Dash looked proud of herself as she jabbed a thumb at her chest, her face twinging slightly as she did so, “I move at light speed! Of course I put my clothes on before I got to butt kicking! Didn’t even take a second.”

“Well good for all of you, but if someone could throw me a towel or something I’d appreciate it!” shouted Wallflower, poking her head out from behind a stalagmite.

“Oh, good, yer okay,” Applejack said with a hefty sigh, “Was worried ya got lost in the fog?”

“I can barely walk right now! But seriously, towel, anyone?”

Rainbow Dash flickered with a bolt of blinding movement, and Wallflower was suddenly holding her clothes in her arms, while Dash was standing right back where she’d been a moment ago, shoulder to shoulder with Applejack as they faced off with these strange new opponents. Applejack did notice Rainbow Dash was sweating a lot, her breathing a tad shallow, and hoped Dash was holding up alright after what Sonata had hit her with. Meanwhile Wallflower blushed and started awkwardly getting dressed, wincing at her injuries but preferring dignity over pain in that moment.

While staring each other down, Rainbow Dash kept the strong winds billowing around herself, Applejack, and Wallflower. She still had blood dripping from her nose and mouth, her lungs lanced with pain from the ice crystals Sonata had formed there before Dash had managed to destroy them, but she was managing to keep up a strong front. Similarly, Sonata’s body was shaking and darkened from the amount of force and lightning that Rainbow had hit her with. Tactically, neither was in great shape, despite forcing themselves to appear otherwise, which meant Applejack knew she’d need to take on the greater burden of dealing with the relatively fresh Adagio and Aria, at least until reinforcements arrived.

To stall for time, the young farm girl decided to see just how talkative these “sirens” were, “So just ta be clear on this, ya’ll aint the same sirens we know who’re from Equestria?” She didn’t think at all that they were, but anything to get the trio confused and talking would be helpful.

Sonata tittered and opened her mouth to speak, until Adagio bonked her on the head again, “Zip it. They’re after information. Let’s not give them any more than they’ve probably already gotten from you.”

“But I didn’t tell them anything, Dagi, honest!”

“Well, she did kinda blurt out that you’re working for Jormungandr and that you’re after Wallflower because of the whole ‘Hel’ thing,” Rainbow Dash said, to which Adagio’s unnaturally blue eyes twitched a menacing look at Sonata, who smiled with a sheepish wince.

“Okay, so I didn’t tell them much, honest!”

“Ugh, nevermind, this is my fault for expecting you to take this seriously,” Adagio said, pinching the bridge of her nose and sucking in a deep breath to be let out slowly before looking back at Applejack and Rainbow Dash, “Yes, we’re stuck serving Jormungandr. Not by choice, I assure you.”

“What’s that scaly jerkwad got on you girls, then?” Rainbow Dash said, “The sirens we know weren’t the types to let themselves get bossed around.”

“Sirens?” Aria looked almost insulted, flipping her hair, “Do we look like common-ass sirens to you? We’re the Nereid. The divine blood of Nereus flows in our veins. Well, it did, until we died and became draugr, but shit happens, you know?”

“Yes, let’s just keep telling them everything about ourselves!” Adagio groused, throwing up her arms, her scythe making an off hand slice that Sonata had to hop away from, “While we’re at it we can sit down for a cup of mead and share tales and songs! For the love of Yggdrasil’s rotting roots, will you girls focus for five minutes!?”

“They, uh... do kinda act like the sirens used to back in the day, don’t they?” said Dash to Applejack, who just nodded silently, watching the show.

“Guess not every multiversal counterpart is all that different, when ya boil it down,” Applejack said in a low tone, then in a louder voice, “Ya’ll can sort out yer troubles if ya want. Me, Dash, n’ Wallflower here will just skedaddle on outta here if yer got a family ta get to.”

Aria’s shoulders shook as she gave off a rich, if sharply dark laugh, “The cute Midgardian isn’t wrong, Adagio. We got Sonata, and if my senses aren’t lying, the rest of their group is on its way. We going to try and take them, or fall back for now?”

Applejack flushed, instinctively hiding her face a bit with the brim of her stetson, while still not taking her eyes off of the trio. Cute, was she? Wouldn’t be so cute when smacking the cocky fish upside the head with a giant drill. With a bit more of a defensive air than she liked, Applejack said, “Yeah, ya’ll can try n’ come at us, an’ find out just how much me n’ Dash have been treatin’ yer sister with kid gloves. Now that we know fer sure yer with Jormungandr, willin’ or not, we won’t be holdn’ nothin’ back!”

“Oh, I’m sure we’ll find out in full just what you’re capable of,” Adagio said, brandishing her scythe, but not in an attack stance, but rather in a declarative flourish, “But all in due time. I don’t make a habit of fighting battles when the advantage has been lost. Keep Lady Hel for today. We’ll see you all again, soon.”

“As if we’d just let you walk!”

This shout came from above as the glinting metal form of the Gunwolf came smashing down onto the ground between the three Nereid sisters, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack. Hatches opened on the mecha wolf’s legs and sides, while its tail flipped forward with the barrel of its gun glowing bright blue. A swift storm of mini-missiles and reishi energy beams fired forth. In response Aria jumped in front of her sisters, cutting with her cutlass as a piercing musical note escaped her lips. The air rippled like cut water across the edge of her blade and the titanic claw of a green tinted crab emerged, slamming down like a shield to absorb the barrage of Spike’s Gunwolf.

Explosions rocked the area from the impacted mini-missiles and reishi beams, and amid the smoke of those detonations, fog gathered thick and swift. Rainbow Dash billowed forth wind to disperse both the unnatural Anima mist and the dust of Spikes explosions, but when the air cleared the three Nereid were already gone.

“Dammit, they ran!” Spike said, the Gunwolf poised to go prowling off after them, but Applejack reached out and grabbed the mech by one of its back legs.

“Hold up, Spike. Don’t go runnin’ after ‘em.”

“Why not? I still have their signatures on my sensors. I could track them down.”

“Ain’t worth it,” Applejack replied, “Sunset’s still outta commission, an’ if we get bogged down tryin’ ta chase them all over this place, it’d leave both her n’ Wallflower vulnerable.”

“She’s right, dude,” Rainbow Dash said, coming up on the Gunwolf’s other side and giving its flank an affectionate pat, “Don’t worry, I know you’d kick butt if we went after them, but we gotta... you know... save our stren..th...”

Rainbow Dash coughed again, more blood coming out, and she slumped against the side of the mech. The hatch popped as Spike poked out, eyes wide with worry, “Rainbow Dash, are you okay!?”

“Y-yeah...just...fine...”

“Dash!” Applejack was there in an instant, and while she was limping, Wallflower hurried over, eyes wet with worried tears. Applejack held Rainbow Dash while the girl took gasping breaths, her blue skin growing a paler shade.

“Dang ice... hurts more than... I thought,” Rainbow said, “I’m good. Just need... a breather.”

She slumped further into Applejack’s arms, losing consciousness.

“How is she?”

Clover didn’t know at first how to respond, feeling even more the weighty burden of her own inability. Rainbow Dash now lay next to Sunset, being tended over by the Soul Reaper and Simurgh both. The great avian Beast Realmer was augmenting Clover’s healing Kido with a soft wash of her Anima’s soothing rain. Even so, Rainbow Dash was not in the best condition, although her breathing had stabilized.

Looking up at Applejack, who’d asked the question, and Wallflower, who was sitting nearby with her own injuries also being healed by Simurgh’s soft rain, Clover said, “She’ll live. Her lungs took a lot of damage. She should have dropped instantly from an attack like you described. It’s miraculous she forced herself to keep moving after that. I can’t imagine the pain she was in.”

“She’s gonna get better, right?” Applejack said, hands clenching as she knelt beside Rainbow Dash, looking down at her with a complex expression.

“Yes, but like Sunset, she’s going to be down for a bit. I’ll need to keep treating her like this for at least another day or two, otherwise she might suffer long term lung damage,” Clover said, keeping her hands over Rainbow Dash’s chest, the sphere of gentle glowing blue light continuously pulsating in her hands as she kept focused on stimulating Rainbow Dash’s body to recover.

“That’s good,” Applejack said, a bit of the tension leaving her shoulders, “Thanks, Clover, Simurgh. Were so gosh dang luck ta have healer folk like ya’ll with us. Dash...”

“You heard Clover. She’s going to be fine,” Cadence said with a comforting, almost motherly voice, laying a hand on Applejack’s shoulder. She and Shining Armor had returned not long after Simurgh and Asena did. For now Shining Armor, Spike, and Asena were outside the cavern, guarding the camp perimeter in case the Nereid came back. So far the trio had apparently vanished, but Applejack didn’t doubt they were going to be a serious problem from now on.

“You are all lucky to have come out of an encounter with the Nereid without any deaths,” Simurgh said with stone seriousness, “Those three are not to be taken lightly, and it is a serious problem for us that not only do they now serve Jormungandr, but have already found us before we’ve even managed to leave Svartalfheim.”

An uncomfortable grunt escaped Applejack as she looked at her hands, then at Rainbow Dash, her mind going over the particulars of the fight with Sonata, and the confrontation with her two sisters that followed, “Yer... not wrong. Sonata got the drop on me n’ Dash, ‘cause we didn’t really git how her Anima worked. No, it was more n’ that. We’ve kinda gotten used ta the fact that our bodies can hold up ta a lot o’ punishment, n’ our spiritual whatsit, reiatsu, helps guard us against attacks. But I felt it n’ that fight, it was like the Anima from Sonata’s attacks were hittin’ harder than they should’ve.”

“That’s because of affinity. Neither your Claw nor young Rainbow Dash’s Fang are strong against Howl, which is what Sonata was using. You’re fortunate Howl isn’t a direct counter to Claw or Fang, otherwise the damage would have been higher. The way Anima manifests is manifold, but always affinity remains a core foundation of the effectiveness of one power against another. Even if you were relying heavily on your Fullbrings, that affinity plays a factor.”

Simurgh’s words made Applejack think of her clash with Adagio, the way they were nearly evenly matched, scythe to lance, “An’ so if Adagio’s got Claw Anima like mine...?”

“Like two stones grinding against one another. At that point technique and personal strength are what decide victory.”

Applejack frowned, “Well them fishy gals had plenty o’ both. Just what’s their deal, anyhows? Called themselves Nereid, but I ain’t never heard o’ them.”

Cadence was the one to speak up then, her eyes lighting up with equal curiosity and interest, “In mythology they were the daughters of a deity of the sea, Nereus, and an ocean nymph named Doris. I believe there are supposed to be fifty of them?”

Applejack gulped, “Fifty?”

With a polite cough, Simurgh folded her wings and took on the air of a professor about to leap into a lecture, “In this instance the ‘myths’ of Midgard are not too far off of the mark. There was a god named Nereus, during the time of the ancient war between Hollows and what eventually became Soul Reapers. Nereus was wounded badly in one of the many battles of that age, and fled into the Beast Realm to escape his enemies. There he did meet one of Niflheim’s ocean nymphs, who cared for his wounds, and in time took him as a husband. While Nereus eventually departed the Beast Realm to return to the war, and died in a later battle, it was not before Doris bore him a number of children. Not fifty, as the myth says, but near a dozen daughters of extraordinary beauty and ability; the Nereid.”

“That why them three were so strong? Aria was boastin’ o’ divine blood r’ whatever,” Applejack said, to which Simurgh paused a moment with a thoughtful look before responding.

“In part. I would venture it is not merely the blood of Nereus, but rather the potent combination of that and the power of their nymph mother that makes their Anima especially potent. They enhance it with song, you see. The ocean nymphs of Niflheim possess immense ability to manipulate Anima via their voice, and when this is mixed with a huge amount of inherited spiritual power from their father, the Nereid were powerful indeed. But even then, those three especially became strong for they became the Einherjar of High Chieftain Leviathan, among his strongest warriors during the time of Jorumgandrs’ rebellion.”

“You described them as all three of them having glowing blue eyes, confirming they were draugr?” Cadence asked Applejack, who gave a curt nod.

“Clear as I’m sittin’. Sonata mentioned someone named Ofridir-” at Simurgh’s sharp intake of breath, Applejack blinked, “Name ya know?”

“It explains much, including why we’re facing the three Nereid Einherjar of Leviathan, even through they should long be vanquished,” Simurgh said, looking shaken, “While Jormungandr’s war ultimately failed back then, he and his followers killed many fine warriors. It was never known who slew the three Nereid, but if it was Ofridir the Dirge Singer, then their presence here as draugr is well explained. He is a vile fossegrim, who’s power to create and control draugr surpasses almost any other in the Beast Realm.”

After a moment of heavy silence, Applejack asked, “Any way that control he’s got over them three could be broken?”

Simurgh blinked, “I... do not know. Perhaps only with his death.”

A hard, resolved light entered Applejack’s eyes as she looked at Rainbow Dash’s shallowly breathing, unconscious form. Her fists clenched, her voice quiet but heavy as a mountain, “Well, guess I know who I gotta take out.”

As great as the power of one such as Bowtie was, he could only be in one location at a time. As loyal and thorough as his small army of Zanpaktou Attendants were, Seireitei was a big place, and their eyes could not see into every shadowed corner or every unused street. Even if those who occupied Soul Society were being vigilant and cautious in their duties, it would not prove foolproof against those who called this place home for centuries and knew it with intimate familiarity.

Messages could be passed with relative ease by those of the Second Division, and through this manner, coordination of efforts. For now, this was in the area of small things. Marking the patrol and sentry routines of the Attendants. Recording of Bowtie’s daily and nightly routines. Securing meeting zones for each Division’s officers. The set up of regular observers of the Academy and its students to ensure their continued safety. All the while plans slowly formed.

The risk of any Captain leaving Seireitei against Bowtie’s orders remained a key concern. It wasn’t as if he could keep watch on each Captain for every minute of every day, but if a risk was to be taken it needed to be at the right time and for the right reasons. In this instance, it had been quietly debated, and agreed upon, that it was worth the risk to allow Celestia or Luna a one hour window that could be covered for them to sneak out of Seireitei. Luna, being Captain of the Second Division and Stealth Corps was the more natural choice, especially since it seemed Bowtie had a keener interest in keeping tabs on Celestia as opposed to the “weaker” of the two sisters.

Luna tried not to take it as too much of an insult and simply promised herself that when the time came she’d give Bowtie plenty of reason to regret not paying her any mind.

For now she simply enjoyed the ease at which she could still come and go from Seireitei without much difficulty. She tended to measure herself against her predecessor, Ditzy Doo, who truly did seem able to slip in or out of anywhere like a genuine ghost... the spiritual nature of Soul Reapers notwithstanding, of course.

The first order of business had been to pass along messages via contacts that she knew could get the information to the living world and Discord’s shop. The Coalition needed to be informed of what was happening in Soul Society, and a line of communication kept open so coordination could be handled for when it was the right time to strike back against Bowtie. This took little time, although Luna was surprised to find that her first contact, Time Turner, had already left, leaving her to use other channels instead. Where Time Turner had gone was anyone’s guess, but Luna wouldn’t have been surprised if he hadn’t already gone to Canterlot City.

With messages sent, Luna moved as an even swifter sliver of shadow through the night streets of the unimaginably vast Rukongai. Her goal lay well beyond the giant districts of cultural melting pots, but she did take the time to listen to conversations taking place on the streets or in taverns, gauging the atmosphere of the greater populace of normal souls. By the sound of things a few people had taken notice of how few Soul Reapers were patrolling the streets or coming in out of Seireitei, but given the general gossip of state of the war with the Hollows and Quincy, nobody sounded surprised that the Soul Reapers were battening down the hatches.

After all, rumor of Captain Commander Scorpan’s death had leaked out, and while few sounded as if they believed, or at least wanted to believe the rumor, there wasn’t a person in all Soul Society that hadn’t felt the battle that had taken place between him and Glory.

People were frightened, and doing their best to try and hide it or forget it, hoping that the Soul Reapers would be on top of things.

It made Luna feel all the more determined to try and live up to their expectations. The Zero Division had to be stopped, or there wouldn’t be a future for any of these souls, no matter how many times they reincarnated. Luna soon made her way from the lantern lit streets of the Rukongai and quieter than death she vanished into the forested regions beyond. Here, city streets gave way to fields and trees, dotted by more rural villages of every cultural make and description.

Strictly speaking, far more souls dwelled out here in such a manner than did those in the city districts, but were so spread out that it was easy to get lost in the forests without seeing another soul for miles.

Luna’a destination was to the east, generally speaking, of Seireitei. It was several hundred miles past the limits of the Rukgongai, a distance of little concern for a master of Flash Step like Luna, who covered the journey in minutes.

She wasn’t wearing her uniform or Captain haori, but rather a very plain dark gray cloak over simple, dark blue peasant garb, all the easier to blend into her environment. Not a bit of it got caught on any branches as she flitted from tree to tree, eventually arriving at a wide field of tall grass, surrounded by towering cedars. In the middle of the field was a most... unusual house.

Luna sighed, “I guess their tastes haven’t changed much.”

The home was akin to an ancient lodge, with thick wood logs built to create a longhouse with a highly slanted roof bearing overlapping, mossy tiles. However the wood was painted a garish collection of bright colors showing off fanciful depictions of mythological creatures that were carved out of the logs themselves. Posted up on either side of the house, shooting upward, were stone carvings of huge fists. These fists strung up colorful banners between them, coated in Nordic runes. The rest of the field was no less decorated in stone or wood carvings, many showing rather... cartoonishly over the top designs for random animals of myth and legend. Luna was especially drawn to a unicorn with googly eyes that she just couldn’t stop staring at for a few moments before shuddering and hopping down from the tree she’d been watching from.

She quietly approached the home’s front door, which consisted of two large, cherry red painted doors upon which another pair of fists were carved, these around the door handles themselves. Scratching the back of her head like a young teenager trying to sneak back into their home at night, Luna raised a hand and knocked, calling out, “Aunt Megan...? Dad...? Either of you home?”

Silence.

But Luna felt a cold trickle of sweat down her spine, sensing a shadow behind her.

She turned, but too late, as muscly arms big as barrels got around her and hauled her off the ground like plucking a toddler up. She was instantly being crushed, air flying from her lungs as a thick red beard was nuzzling her up and down while a bellowing voice cried like a bawling baby.

“Luuuuuunnnaaaaa! My baaaaby giiiiiiirl! It’s so good to see yoooou!”

“Gkgh!? Dughg! D-daad...breathing... blech...”

The arms, harder than any steel, were attached to a man that would have given even world class bodybuilders a sense of immense inadequacy. Near eight feet tall, broad as a bull, the man had a square jawed face covered in a bristly ginger beard, which stood out against skin near as dark blue as Luna’s. His eyes had Celestia’s pink hue, however, glittering bright with tears of joy as he hugged and swung Luna about as easily as if she were a child, despite her full grown height. His hair was short and bushy, and he wore a rugged gray vest and pants over a plain white shirt and sandals. One would probably think the man an unusually large and muscular farmer at a casual glance, not one of the Gotei 13’s former Captains.

Luna, legs kicking, eventually managed to free herself enough to pull the man’s beard and gasp, “Dad, put me down this instant! You know I hate it when you do this!”

He breathed out a hearty laugh and set her down, gentle as a flower, and winced a little as he rolled his shoulders. He grinned in a way that lit up the night like the sun, eyes twinkling as readily as Celestia’s did, “Hahah, sorry, sorry. Got a tad carried away, there. But I haven’t seen you in so long, Lulu. Is Tia with you?”

At her look, her father’s expression shifted, his eyes glancing back towards the forest, “Something’s happened, I know. Your sister is okay, isn’t she?”

“Celestia is alive and well, but Seireitei is in peril,” Luna said, wishing she could have indulged her father’s fancies a bit longer, but the situation was not one that would allow for much of a happy reunion, “You felt the effects of Scorpan battling an opponent not long ago?”

Her father closed his eyes, and sat his huge bulk down, resting his hands on his knees, “I did. Hard to believe he’s fallen. Scorpan was a good man. Your aunt Megan is in town right now, gathering information. I’m sorry, I wish I could have done something...” he trailed off, glancing to the side. Luna didn’t comment. She knew that, as powerfully built and strong as he seemed, he was much reduced from what he once was.

“You’re retired, dad. It's no longer your duty to protect Soul Society, and I didn’t come here tonight to ask you to take up arms again. I’m her because Celestia and I will need to make our way... home, soon. To the Beast Realm.”

His eyes flickered with understanding, gleaming under a silver glint of moonlight showing past the clouds, “They’ve called for you, haven’t they? Your mothers.”

“Yes.”

With a pained grunt he stood up, reaching out to take her by the shoulders, a great warmth of parental love in those strong, worn fingers of his, “Knew you girls would need to go there, eventually. Things must really be dicey in the Beast Realm, too, for Fenris and Quetzalcoatl to decide it's time for this. You and Tia have always struggled with that part of your souls. You’ve got potent Inner Beasts, with Anima to match. Even entering the Beast Realm is going to magnify that beyond anything you’ve experienced before. Lulu... just how well can you control the wolf, right now?”

Luna forced herself not to look away, her memory darting back to the shameful moment of her loss to Adagio Dazzle, losing control of her feral wolf form that led to her defeat. “I... not as well as I should. That’s part of why I’m here. If Celestia and I are to travel to the Beast Realm, we need to know everything we can. Anything you may have held back for our sakes over the years. I know you wanted us to live as Soul Reapers...”

“I wanted you both to live as you felt you should. Both of you wanted to become Soul Reapers, so that was what I focused on teaching you girls until you went to the Academy,” he said, rubbing his big, bristly beard, “Tried to teach you enough to keep the Inner Beast in check, but looking back, I should’ve done more.”

“Neither of us put any blame on you, dad. You and Aunt Megan raised us as properly as anyone could have, and Celestia and I are both grateful,” Luna said, “But now we need all you can teach us. You, and Ditzy Doo. Both of you are the only Soul Reapers to really garner the respect of the Beast Realm Tribes, and understand the powers of Anima. And right now, Celestia and I both need that expertise if we’re to have a hope of defeating the same people who took the Captain Commander away from us and even now occupy Soul Society.”

“Well...” he said, slowly flexing one of his massive arms, which bulged even larger as thick, bright blue fur began to grow over it. At the same time the proud horns of a bull began to grow from his head as Luna’s father smiled at her, “What kind of father would I be if I denied a request from my little girl?”

Author's Note

So, yes, "Aunt Megan" is a pretty big hint as to who Celestia and Luna's father is inspired by, although I'll say there's a bit more too it than that for now. Meanwhile our Beast Realm group has run into a spot of trouble facing off with our siren counterparts for the first time. Yes, in mythology there were fifty of the Nereid. Considering Adagio, Aria, and Sonata's family dynamic, just imagine that, times fifty.

As always, thanks for reading, folks, and by all means leave me any comment, question, or critique you wish, as I appreciate all of them. 'Till next time.