Chapter 1 Black Zipped Suits
It was Nighttime in Ponyvill. Princess Twilight Sparkle was fast asleep in her bed with Spike asleep in the next room. Everything was peaceful. Until the sound of something smashing on the floor in another room followed by the angry shouts of a mare coming from down the hall broke the silence. Twilight’s eyes snapped wide-open wile her back shot strait up simultaneously. Slowly she got out of bed and waked tentatively to the door carful not to make a sound. Twilight gently opened the door and saw the green eyes of a small scared dragon on the other side.
“Please tell me that was you just now” Twilight said in a pleading whisper.
Spike the Dragon shook his head slowly gritting his teeth in fear.
“Then we have a visitor” Twilight silently waked out of the door with Spike following.
“You think…” the Dragon started “that it might just be Starlight?”
“No, she’s still at the Crystal Empire with Sunburst, and she won’t be back for another four days”
“Soooooo she’s with her child hood friend…who happens to be a boy wile you are…”
“Save the obvious jabs at my under developed love life when we don’t have a potential burglar in our house”
“Sorry just trying to calm down”
“Besides, I could just about make out some of the words the intruder said, and I don’t think Starlight would ever use that kind of language, even before she reformed”
Another loud crash came from down the hall followed by another angry yell from a mare, with a voice that seemed oddly familiar. Now however they where able to identify which room it came from, it was the library. The pair cautiously approached the now open door and peered inside. The intruders where both wearing black suits with large metal zippers at the front and hoods that covered their faces. The one that was sifting trough the shelves scattering books left and right was a unicron with a hood that clung to its head clearly defining the shape of its head and ears but somehow hid the face in darkness. Its horn was like a sharp pointed shard of black obsidian and glowed Magenta with magic. But Twilight could see it wasn’t normal unicorn magic, it was squared and flickery like a pixelated computer image. (Yes I know there aren’t computers in Equestria but just go with it) her eyes veered off to the other figure that was sitting at the table in the middle of the room like a naughty child. This one was about half the size of the first one and clearly wasn’t a pony, its suit was more like a robe that reached down covering its legs with a more baggy hood that like the other one’s covered its face in darkness. Its upper body and arms where the only thing that where tight like the other one’s. Twilight watched at it twiddled its thumbs as it sat surrounded by broken candy jars wile a non-broken one sat on the table in front of it. The figure reached out for it when a book suddenly hit the table right in-between the jar and its four-digit claw.
“STOP TRYING TO EAT THAT CRAP YOU LITTLE IDEOT!!!”
The unicorn obviously had a short temper. The smaller suited character sank into the char. “But I’m still hungry Tizix”
“Yeah call me when I care Spiz” the unicorn turned back to the now empty bookshelves and growled in frustration “I can’t find them, red lightning bolt, no purple diamond, not even a freaking pink butterfly, WHERE ARE A ELEMENTS OF BUCKING HARMONY!!!”
“Well…” the small figure known as Spiz said, “maybe there’s a clue in these books or something”
“Spiz…” the one known as Tizix said in an exhausted voice “you know very well how I feel about reading, if it’s not a film or game I don’t care about a stupid book”
The room suddenly fell silent has the sound of a hoof smashing into the ground in self-contained rage echoed though the castle. The two black suits slowly turned to see the purple pony and the baby dragon standing in the doorway. The air was heavy with the following silence.
Tizix turned her head to the table “I blame you for this”
“Yeah that’s fair enough”
Twilight straitened up and entered the room with Spike following.
“I was going to ask who you where and what you where doing here, but I think I have heard enough to satisfy me, I hope you know a good doctor because your going to NEED ONE!!!”
Twilight shot out a blast of concentrated magic right at the unicorn. Spike knew Twilight well enough to know that the final straw was when the intruder insulted her books that she loved like her own children, Spike also decided to remember that line for another slow love life joke later. The spell hit the unicorn directly in the chest, but instead of sending her flying like its was supposed to, it broke apart into several streams like a stream of water poring on a stone. Twilight stood there with her eyes and mouth wide-open aghast at what just happened. The Unicorn Tizix brushed off her chest where the magic hit and walked over to Twilight putting her face in front of hers.
“This suit Princess was maid to protect against the forces of the Abyss, compared to that your magic is just an autumn breeze”
Tizix put her face closer to Twilights. Her violet eyes where now visible in the darkness of the hood. Twilight saw that they where not the gentle eyes of a pony, they where more like hexagons under the irises making the little light reflecting into triangles instead of neat circles, and the expression they where giving off was not friendly.
“Now Sparky…” she continued “I am going to ask you to bark and I better like the sound of the woof that comes out of your mouth alright” there was definitely something familiar about Tizix’s voice but Twilight couldn’t put her hoof on it. But now wasn’t the time to be wondering things like that
“And who may I ask, is asking?”
Tizix narrowed her eyes at Twilight “I am 0-IIII (Zero Four) Tizix the Slothfull, and I suggest you stop being such a smart ass and tell me where the Elements of Harmony are”
It was Twilights turn to narrow her eyes “If you know how to get into my castle and where to look, then you must know a lot about me”
“More than you could ever imagine”
“Then you should know I would never tell anypony who would abuse their power where they are”
Tizix looked down at the side in thought for a seconded “damn, your right” she then took a few steps back from Twilight “this is just a waist of time” she sighed deeply and lowered his head in exhaustion. A few seconds past without anypony moving, then slowly Tizix raised her right hoof and placed it in her mouth letting out a loud high pitch whistle that echoed around the room. As the whistle died away, three black and blue clouds of pixels appeared around her slowly growing to the size of a pony before disappearing, revealing three strange creatures. They where light grey and vaguely pony shaped, but the similarity’s stopped there as the rest of them was defiantly not natural. Where there mouths where supposed to be where large zippers, there eyes where black diamonds and there bodies look as though they where made out of fabric and filled with jelly as they waved about like flags in the wind. They also had Z like emblems on there heads.
Tizix walked over to Spiz that had picked up the last jar and had left the table “well we have to be going now but don’t worry, these Naught’s should keep you company wile where gone” and just like air in front of the pare seemed to tear open into a pixelated oval of black with a nighttime blue. They walked trough with Tizix giving one last wave of good buy, and they where gone. Twilight had so many questions, so many emotions twisting around inside her, but something tolled her that the three hungry looking pony shaped creatures right in front of them was going to be there first priority at the moment…
The Abyss, a world that dose not truly exist, forever cast in darkness, much like themselves. Tizix was at the top of the white tower that stood high above the sea blue desert. She looked up at the eternal night sky; it was one of two only sources of color in this reality. Unlike the stars in Equestria that where all white, these where every color of the spectrum, red, yellow, green, purple, it was oddly beautiful. Tizix liked watching the sky, when she saw its rainbow like splendor, she could somehow, forget, just a little. The others where arriving now, it was time to stop dreaming and get back to the real world, at least as real as one could be here. The other five of the Minus where standing around the circle in the middle of the floor with there leader and her bodyguard standing in front of her, all wore identical Zip Suits that left only there voices and physical traits like there horns, wings or lack of the tear them apart. Tizix bowed her head to the black suited Alicorn.
“I have returned from my mission, 0-II (Zero Two) Zuni”
“And?” the Alicorn Zuni asked.
“Its as 0-I (Zero One) thought, the Elements of Harmony are not at the Crystal Castle, she has hidden them”
One of the other members slapped her face with her hoof “Grate, just Grate, now what are we supposed to do huh!”
“Calm down Pizy! I doubt that there far away, Twilight would never put them far away from her reach”
Another of the figures spoke up “why the heck didn’t you just beat the crap out of her to find out where she hid them!?”
“You don’t know her like I do Flizer! She’s would never reveal there location to her enemies willingly, even if her life depended on it!”
“OK then…” another of the members said, “what are we supposed to do now?”
“I’ve been thinking of that Zery, she would never tell us to save her own life, but her friends on the other hoof”
“So just to clarify…” yet another member said “you want us to back to Equetria, kidnap this girls friends, and hold them ransom in exchange for the Elements”
“Actually Aze I was thinking more along the lines of putting knifes inches away from there throats and telling her she has five seconds to decide, she tends to answer quicker if you force her to and any prolong ransom demand situation would give her time to come up with a plan to get them back”
The final member finally spoke up “that seems rather…drastic, couldn’t we just ask to borrow them for a bit if we promise to bring them back afterworlds?”
“First of all Raze no! And secondly after where done with them there won’t be anything left of them to give them back to”
“So our course is set…” the Alicorn Zuni finally spoke up “we capture the other Element Users to get their leader to reveal their location. 0-IIII Tizix, as the one who knows how Twilight thinks and acts you will be burdened with the responsibility of planning out this operation”
Tizix smiled within the dark of her hood “oh I already have a plan for that, if there is one thing I am confident in, its out thinking Twilight Sparkle”
A few minuets later Zuni was walking though the halls of the main base of the Minus towards the balcony that looked over the Desert of Birth. Watching over it was the only one who was above her in the organization. 0-I Zarix was a Minus Unicorn who was about the same size as her but much, much older, unlike the rest of them the boots and top half of the hood of his Zip Suit where white; he also wore a white cape with Z emblems lining the bottom and a matching chest piece with the same symbol. Zuni walked over to her leader as he watched over the edge at the Zero Naught’s being born. They would climb out of the sand like worms before staggering around like confused children. She bowed to him on her front legs and spoke.
“Grate 0-I, first of the Minus, the plan is progressing according to your predictions, soon the Elements will be in our possession, and we shall be free from the shackles of this false reality”
Zarix slightly moved his head to the side not taking his eyes away from the sight of the Desert. “Do you know why I come here”
Zuni raised her head slightly “to watch the birth of new Zero’s”
“And do you know what creates us”
“The Pain of reality?”
“In a sense, you are correct. For a seagull to fly it needs to be light, anything that is to heavy to carry is dropped into the sea where is either floats on the surface, or sinks to the bottom, into the eternal darkness of the Abyss. That is what we are Zuni, we are that which it to heavy for the ones who live in reality, and dropped into this world of eternal night, there pain, there anger, there despair, all that they do not wish to accept is sent here, without them even knowing…
Zarix turned around and walked over to the still bowing Zuni. He placed a fatherly hoof on her head. “I still remember the day you emerged from the sands, only few had emerged with such heart”
“We have no hearts, just minds and memories of a Dream we cannot achieve”
“But soon my child, that shall change…” he made his way to the hallway and the inside of the grate building “soon my child, We Will Exist”