Balancing Forces

WARNING: Some gore and cannibalism in this chapter.

Unknown world in an unknown dimension

Sunset Shimmer sighed as she walked, it felt like an eternity since she came into this world through the mirror, even if it was three years ago, in this world at least since she didn't know how long it had been in Equus. She came here hoping to get the power she deserved to fulfill her destiny, what a joke. Why did she thought it was a good idea to go through the mirror in the first place?

Because of her reckless attitude Sunset ended in a world without magic and without friends or help, all because Celestia failed to stop her childish decision. But holding a grudge wouldn't help so she came to terms with what happened, she supposed that it was the consequences of her actions and at this point she just missed seeing familiar faces, even her own.

Sunset changed to match the dominant species of this world, at least that was what she thought. She became a human, her hooves turned into soft feet and her fur coat became exposed tan skin, currently she was wearing a coat with metal plates over a shirt and torn jeans that had knee protectors along with boots with steel covering the front, lastly she also had a pistol in a holster on her right hip as well as a knife on her left and a scarf around her neck.

At the moment Sunset was carrying food back to her home that she shared with her companions. The food in question was a giant insect of some kind, her old self would have scoffed at the notion of eating insects, but she learned the hard way what was like to starve and she would not waste what was given to her by nature ever again. Well, whatever was left of nature in this forsaken wasteland filled with ruins that she now lived in and she had to admit that this experience humbled her to no end.

As Sunset made her way through the ruined settlement she approached the somewhat isolated building that she would meet her companions in. However as she approached her instincts honed through years of surviving in this place and through many near death experiences told that something was wrong.

The former unicorn made sure that the bag was firmly strapped on her back, it wouldn't do any good to lose her dinner, especially if her friends didn't managed to get anything. She took out a gun from the holster on her belt and made sure it was loaded, then she entered the house with its ceiling caved in. She moved as silently as she could and when she reached a room on the center of the building she saw the light of a fire, it was much easier to see it because it was cloudy today.

Sunset pulled back the hammer of her gun and carefully looked inside the room, her eyes widen in surprise. Inside she saw many bandits and raiders dead, but that wasn't what surprised her, what surprised her was the pale white human with a fine kimono seating on a rock near the fire. However his pure white color only made the red from the blood stand out even more, especially considering that he was holding the heart of one of the bandits and if the red on his lips were any indication he was eating it.

“I was expecting you,” said the being.

With the element of surprise ruined she got up and pointed her pistol at him, the being seemed unfazed by Sunset's presence and he just took another bite on the heart he was holding.

“Who are you?” asked Sunset trying not to pay attention to the ripping sounds she heard when she saw the being bite on the raw human heart.

“There is no need for such hostility Sunset Shimmer,” said the being after chewing and swallowing the piece of meat.

“How do you know my name?” asked Sunset in a dangerous tone.

“To answer your questions at the same time, My name is Ōtsutsuki Kazuki and I came here to take you back to Equus,” said Kazuki and that made Sunset freeze, could she truly go back? She dared not to hope, especially after all that she went through only to have that hope crushed, how was this even possible in the first place?

Equus, Everfree Castle, Kazuki's room, few hours ago

“Sunset Shimmer? Wasn't her your(Celestia's) former student?” asked Kazuki to the still unnamed alicorn and she nodded, so he asked since he wasn't familiar with the Equestria Girls Movies, “What happened to her?”

“She's no longer in this world,” said the unnamed alicorn.

“Ok, I'm going to need a living sacrifice, preferably one from the same species, and some of her DNA, unless you have her body, then the process is going to be a lot easier,” said Kazuki ignoring the baffling look they had as he finished the list of requirements for bringing Sunset back.

“What?!” shouted Moon and the nameless alicorn.

“‘Living sacrifice’, wha– ho–” started the nameless alicorn not knowing what to say before taking a deep breath and said, “She isn't dead, she is just in another world!”

“How was I supposed to know it wasn't a figure of speech?" asked Kazuki as he raised a eyebrow. Then he added, "It's not like you ponies leave Equus regularly.”

“You can revive the dead?” asked Moon coming out of her shock.

“Yes, and?” asked Kazuki.

“That's too much! Even for me,” said Moon getting a little agitated.

“Why? It's not that different from moving in-between the layers of reality like we did before,” said Kazuki.

“You know what? Nevermind," said Moon as she got up. Then she said before leaving the room, "I'm going for a walk, just don't mention your use of necromancy near me."

“If she is anything like Luna, then she is not very fond of the notion of disturbing the dead,” said Nameless.

“And you?” asked Kazuki.

“I'm not either, but after what I(Celestia) saw in your lab back then it doesn't surprise me anymore, still disturbing though,” said Nameless.

“I see,” said Kazuki before getting closer to Nameless by sitting on the edge of the bed, then he said, “Anyway, back to the matter at hand. You said Sunset is not on Equus anymore, how?”

“She used the Crystal Mirror, an artifact created by Starswirl to observe and explore other worlds,” said Nameless.

“Starswirl, you idiot,” thought Kazuki before saying, “Then it's probably an artifact powered by a specific event because it would be very difficult to gather the necessary energy to establish a connection to a new dimension, however it would be easier and less energy consuming to just keep the connection stable than creating a new one every time.”

“I don't know the specifics and I don't care. Can you bring her back or not?” asked Nameless.

“It depends, I need to see this mirror first. Do you know where it is?” asked Kazuki.

“Canterlot,” answered Nameless.

“Of course,” said Kazuki sarcastically before sighing, then he looked at the wall in front of Nameless and activated his Byakugan to look beyond the walls, beyond the forest until his vision reached the castle on the side of the mountain, so he asked, “Do you know where exactly it is? If not, then described it to me and I can search for it myself.”

“It's in her study room,” said Nameless and Kazuki's vision zoomed on Celestia's study room and thankfully no one was there, there he found not one but two mirrors and he would have made a comment about Celestia's vanity –which he met personally– until he noticed small distortions on the space-time around the mirrors.

“Yomotsu Hirasaka,” said Kazuki as a window like opening appeared in front of the two, and it happened just as his third eye opened revealing a familiar red rippled eye with nine comma like marks. One mirror appeared as an ordinary standing mirror with a horseshoe-shaped rim lined with pink gems while the standing base was also lined with horseshoes, and attached to the top was a smaller window with a depiction of a pony’s silhouette, the second mirror was simpler in design, with a tan-colored rim instead of purple and it was overall less elaborate in design, then he said, “I can see faint trails leading outside of this dimension.”

“You can open a portal to Canterlot Palace at any time?” asked Nameless in disbelief, that meant he could have either stolen the Elements or even killed Celestia.

“Yes,” answered Kazuki as he carefully analyzed the creations of Starswirl, probably based on Kazuki's own dōjutsu and it was impressive, even in his opinion, since that stubborn unicorn used only equestrian magic in their construction, he might have being narrow-minded and full of himself but his achievements were nothing to short of amazing, especially if you considered his limitations —from Kazuki's perspective. Anyway, the alien sent more chakra into his eyes, which allowed him to see more details of the mirrors in multiple layers and now he could see the faint trails in more details.

“Then?” asked Nameless with hope in her voice.

“A moment,” said Kazuki as he traced the trails from the mirror to their destinations and to make sure he had enough information he did something he might regret later, he sent even more chakra into his eyes until they were throbbing almost painfully with each heartbeat of his hearts. Eventually his eyes assume a lighter almost silvery shade near its pupil with the glowing outline of an eight petaled flower, then he said, “Tenseigan (転生眼, Reincarnation Eye).”

“I have good and bad news. Good news: I managed to map the dimensions connected to the mirror. Bad news: I mapped at least sixty different dimensions. Good news: most of them are alternative timelines and I managed to narrow down to eight dimensions. Bad news: I don't know which one has your Sunset Shimmer. Good news: from those eight four had at least one version of Sunset Shimmer that came from a similar Equus to this one. Bad news: there is no guarantee that one of those four is the one you're looking for unless I managed to trace a direct connection,” explained Kazuki as he closed the Yomotsu Hirasaka but kept his dōjutsu active as he observed the four dimensions he found.

This caused Nameless' hope to waver, but then she remembered a magical journal she hopefully kept, so she said, “There is a magical journal in Celestia's book shelf connected to another journal that Sunset probably still has.”

“Yomotsu Hirasaka,” said Kazuki as he opened another window, this time to Celestia's room facing her bookshelf and then he asked as he felt sweat starting to run down his face, “Which one?”

“The brown one with golden rings on the third shelf from the top,” said Nameless as she noticed that Kazuki was starting to show signs of fatigue.

“Found it,” said Kazuki after his eyes zoomed on the book Nameless pointed and he found another trail, following that trail eventually led to one of the dimensions he narrowed down. With the destination found he undid the Yomotsu Hirasaka and deactivated his Rinne Sharingan and Tenseigan, in the end, he was breathing heavily and had sweat running down his face.

“Are you alright?” asked Nameless.

“Just strained my brains calculating the dimensional routes and sustaining two high-level dōjutsu at the same time,” said Kazuki as his breathing slowly returned to normal.

“‘Brains’, as in more than one?” asked Nameless and Kazuki held up three fingers, so Nameless asked, “Three, but ho— You know what, nevermind. Can you bring back Sunset or not?”

“Yes I can, but the world she ended up in is not a kind one. Would you like me to bring her back even if it's as a corpse?” asked Kazuki, that possibility made Nameless lower her head and her hands to tighten her grip on the covers. Then Kazuki placed his hand on her left shoulder and said as she looked into his eyes, “It's just a possibility, if she is anything like you told me then she certainly survived on that place.”

Nameless nodded before placing her right hand over his, however the moment was interrupted by a growl coming from Nameless and this caused her to blush. Then Kazuki created a kage bunshin before saying, “Just enjoy your first meal while I go there.”

Kazuki then activated his Rinne Sharingan and opened a Yomotsu Hirasaka before jumping through it while the clone went on a little hunt on his Gourmet Dimension to make Nameless’ first meal.

Unknown world in an unknown dimension, present time

“How did you get here in the first place? It obviously wasn't through the mirror,” asked Sunset without lowering her gun.

“Starswirl's mirror is horribly wasteful and specific, no I came here under my own power,” said Kazuki before taking another bite of his meal, which caused Sunset to cringe, before swallowing it and say, “Especially because of that species changing spell used for disguise.”

“Impossible, not even Princess Celestia can jump dimensions like that and Starswirl only accomplished that feat using a artifact on a specific event in a specific time to gather the necessary magical energy,” said Sunset in disbelief.

“Your belief isn't required, although jumping this ‘far’ from Equus cost me a lot of energy,” said Kazuki before eating the last piece of the heart, then he unceremoniously used his telekinesis to lift the body of the bandit near him before thrusting his hand on the hole on the corpse chest and pull out a lung, which he proceeded to bite before frowning and say, “Terrible, but beggars can't be choosers.”

“Stop doing that!” shouted Sunset.

“Why? I need to replenish my energy, besides they had less than stellar intentions when they discovered that you and your little group would be meeting here. I don't need to describe what they would most likely do to a young woman like you, besides meat is meat,” said Kazuki as he ate the lung of the dead bandit.

“Isn't that cannibalism?” asked Sunset still on edge.

“It's cannibalism only if I'm eating a member of my species,” said Kazuki before finishing the lung and grab the right arm and shoulder of the corpse, then with a sickly ripping sounds he torn the arm of the torso, then he said, “And I'm not even human to begin with.”

Seeing that Kazuki wasn't hostile toward her so far Sunset decided to lower her gun, but still kept ready to aim and fire if he did anything suspicious… more suspicious.

“You were lucky, you know?” said Kazuki as he bit onto the arm.

“How s–” started Sunset sarcastically but stopped and cringed when she heard Kazuki’s teeth grind the bones of the bandit, so she asked anyway but without the sarcastic tone, “How so?”

“You just ended on a post-apocalyptic world affected by nuclear fallout, there are infinitely worsts worlds to end up in,” said Kazuki before taking a few more bites of the arm.

“Tell me about it,” said Sunset as she leaned against the wall.

“Well,” said Kazuki before swallowing the last bit of flesh and bone from the hand, then he continued, “You could have ended up in a world similar to this one but in the middle of the war that ended the civilization(s) that caused the war in the first place, you could have ended up in a dying world without any way to keep yourself alive or you could have ended in a world without death and spend the rest of eternity in agony and madness while at the mercy of unknowable horrors. Want me to continue?”

“No, you can stop,” said Sunset after realizing that despite what she went through it could have been infinitely worse. Then she asked, “Why did you came to take me back anyway?”

“I was aske–” started Kazuki but he was interrupted by a familiar noise.

*click* *BANG*

Faster than eyes could see Kazuki raised his left arm until his forearm was between his head and the upcoming bullet, acting on instinct born from the myriad of near death experiences and through millennia of perfecting his mind and body through study and practice. Then his forearm slowly —in this compressed perception of time— darkened as he compressed pure physical energy into the area between his wrist and elbow, that caused the piece of metal to bounced off and hit the rubble behind him.

Before anyone could even react to that situation Kazuki extended his left arm toward the place where the bullet came from and his eyes became a familiar grayish metallic purple with ripples. Without turning his head he said the name of the technique, “Banshō Ten'in(万象天引, Heavenly Attraction of All Creation).”

From the shadows of the door came a figure and the moment that person was close enough Kazuki gripped the neck of the figure obscured by a travelling cloak, but that didn't hide the identity of the figure from Kazuki.

“Yo, it's been a while Adagio Dazzle,” said Kazuki as his arm returned to its natural white color and he looked at the human with peach colored skin, raspberry colored eyes as well as orange and yellow curly hair. Quite interesting really, despite this world being a variation of the Fallout World it operated on the anime logic when it came to eye and hair color, thus the vibrant colors on Sunset and Adagio.

Sunset eyes widen when she saw Adagio struggling as Kazuki held her by the neck and in response she raised her gun.

“Let go of her,” said Sunset.

*click* *click*

From the door came two more figures in traveling cloaks, however their hoods were pulled back showing their faces, both were human with the same skin color as Adagio. One had cerulean eyes as well as straight arctic blue hair with two persian blue streaks done in a high ponytail while the other had mulberry colored eyes as well as purple straight hair with aquamarine streaks done in high pigtails.

“You too, Aria Blaze and Sonata Dusk,” said Kazuki continuing as if nothing was wrong.

“Let go of Adagio, Kaz,” said Aria, which caused Kazuki to raise a eyebrow.

“Interesting, in the past you wouldn't even bat an eye if I threaten to crush her neck, but now you point a gun at me to save her,” commented Kazuki with hints of interest.

“Let’s just say we came to an agreement,” said Aria and Sunset took note of the fact that her three companions seemed to know Kazuki.

“I supposed relying on each other to survive can do that to you. Still, what's stopping me from ripping your heads and take back the bloodstones you stole from me?” asked Kazuki and the trio flinched knowing that he could do just that.

“Here,” said Sonata before lowering her gun and opening her cloak, then she grabbed her shirt’s collar with her free hand before pulling it down showing her necklace and a bit of cleavage. At first Sunset thought Sonata was willing to trade something else but that suspicious was crushed when Sonata begged, “You can have these stones back, but please don't kill Adagio.”

“Sonata…no…” said Adagio struggling, then Kazuki sighed before letting go of Adagio. She fell backward on her bottom while coughing and Aria without pause grabbed Adagio and pulled her away from Kazuki.

“Always the emotional one, Sonata. I told you your empathy would never allow you to fully immerse yourself in Strife Magic,” said Kazuki before ripping the other arm of the corpse, which cause all four of them to flinch and was especially bad for Sonata but the other three kept their guns aimed at him. Then he said, “I told you three you had potential for so much more, it's actually fitting you four ended up together.”

“What do you mean?” asked Sunset.

“I'm referring to the reason Starswirl banished those three in the first place,” said Kazuki before biting the arm he was holding. The he noticed the look of confusion on her face, so he said, “Oh, they didn't tell you, did they?”

“They only told me they were from Equestria and that they lived during Starswirl's time,” said Sunset cringing every time she heard Kazuki crush bones between his teeth.

“Do you even know what they were in Equestria? Or did you just assumed they were ponies?” asked Kazuki and by Sunset's look she didn't even bothered to think about that. Then Kazuki chuckled before answering, “That's racist of you, or was it specieist? Anyhow, they were sirens that Starswirl banished for causing strife and feed on that strife.”

This caused Sunset to look at her companions warily and soon after slowly backing away from them.

“Sunset we–” started Sonata but she stopped when Sunset reach for another holster on her back and pulled a second pistol before pointing at the trio.

“Did you feed off of us?” asked Sunset.

“What?” asked Sonata feeling hurt by Sunset's question as did Aria and Adagio but the latter two managed to hide it, the trio knew deep down that this moment was inevitable.

“Did you feed off of me and the others back at the hideout?! Is that all we are to you, food?!” asked Sunset with tears in her eyes and both hands trembling, as she finally recalled were she heard that story before, the story of how the Pillars of Equestria, more specifically Starswirl the Bearded, banished the sirens from the land even if the specifics of the banishment weren't known.

The three sirens foolishly hoped this day would never come, because of the sparse population on this wasteland the three soon learned that causing strife only left the people a much easier target, which in turn caused the three to be targeted as well and considering how casually humans killed each other it left them with barely enough to survive. So they stopped relying on strife and slowly transitioned back to food, it was a rough time for them, but they still fed on strife whenever they could, however strife for some reason here wasn't as “filling” or “potent” as in Equestria so it didn't help much either way.

“It wouldn't do them any good anyway,” said Kazuki as he finished eating the left arm. Then he clarified, “Strife in a world without or with little magic carries little energy compared to a world were magic is abundant and nothing sort of a full scale war would satisfied them. Especially in advanced civilization like this one where killing is exceedingly easy, quick and efficient, not enough time to gather much strife.”

“So you never considered us just food?” asked Sunset.

“No Sunset, despite everything we do care about you,” said Aria.

“It was the first time we had friends outside of our little group,” said Adagio.

“Yeah, we are family no matter what,” said Sonata before approaching Sunset, who lowered her guns and hugged Sonata.

*Clap* *clap*

The four turned and saw Kazuki slowly clapping his hands, then he said, “Very touching, but I came here only for Sunset Shimmer.”

As Kazuki extended his left arm toward Sunset she looked into those cold rippled eyes and knew what he planned, however before he could do it the three sirens put themselves between Kazuki and Sunset before pointing their guns at him. At this point they knew it wouldn't do anything against Kazuki but if they were going to die, then they would die protecting their sister in all but blood.

“We won't let you hurt her,” said Aria and Sonata nodded.

“Especially considering that we know what you can do in your experiments,” added Adagio as shivers run down her spine.

“Oh, you three really have come a long way from the uncaring sirens that learned Strife Magic from me,” said Kazuki with amusement in his voice. Then he added, “Especially considering you three fail to change in most timelines.”

“You taught them Strife Magic?” asked Sunset choosing to focus on the first statement.

“Indeed, but they much like you refused to finish their studies, refused to learn what I had to offer thinking that Strife Magic would be the end-all and be-all of magic. After all, if you could make your enemies fight amongst themselves and grow stronger from it why learn anything else?” said Kazuki and the sirens flinched at their own foolishness. However that didn't stop Kazuki’s retelling, “They even broke into my lab and stole three bloodstones to act as foci for their magic before going out and cause strife. The rest as they say, is history.”

“You never told us it could have ended like this, you jerk,” said Aria.

“Would you have listened?” asked Kazuki and the way they looked away from him only confirmed his answer. So he said, “Anyway, I better get who I came here for.”

Kazuki got up before slowly and gracefully yet menacingly walk toward them with a extended left arm and they could see a horizontal slit forming on the palm of his extended hand.

“Wait! Can't we make a deal?” asked Sunset before Kazuki revealed what was behind the slit, this caused the slit to disappear as he stopped.

“Sure, why not?” said Kazuki casually before lowering his hand after a moment, it made little difference in the end but if it helped her cooperate then he was willing to put some effort in a compromise.

Four girls sighed in relief glad that he was agreeable, for now.