Chapter 13
Nightmare Moon's New Beginning

It was now currently December 4th which was on a Monday. So four days had completely passed since the birth of the new soul warrior Jack Hunt. Sadly Jack Hunt still had not figured out how to activated any of the transformations. He stubbornly refused to ask Shattered Souls for help so he continued to work on trying to get the transformations to work by himself. He just couldn't seem to figure out what to do beyond putting the occupied soul chips into his Archiver. On the plus side for him one new soul chip had made its appearance in his back. It was a soul chip belonging to the hero of Devil May Cry, Dante. The sad thing though was that he was unable to use Dante due to him being a demon swordsman and not a robotic warrior.

Shattered Souls had been taking it easy at the castle for the past four days trying to fully let his wounds recover. He had been able to finally take the cast off of his leg due to Twilight vouching for his condition to the hospital. He was forced to reschedule his lunch appointment with Octavia due to having been stuck in the castle on the 30th of November. He had sent her a letter through spike telling her that he unfortunately had to reschedule the lunch appointment due to unforeseen circumstances. She had been very understanding and told him she could meet with him on the 15th of December. She really did want to talk with him and get to know him.

On another note the soul chip of Cinder Blaze was now fully repaired and fully functioning again. He seemed to be a lot happier than he was before and whenever he decided to talk with Souls his image was not as see through as it had been before. It was like he had somehow gained more power than he had before by talking about his past. Still he stayed inside of his chip most of the time just sleeping the day away to stay out of sight of Twilight and because he didn't want to use up all his energy.

Now as for our bionic pegasus friend Swift Shot, he is still recovering from the nasty wound on his chest. It hurt to breathe quite a lot at different times and Rainbow Dash was always around when she wasn't required for Wonderbolt practice. She was very concerned about him but was glad that he was still alive despite that mechanical mosntrosity having appeared. Swift himself was feeling kind of helpless with the fact that most of his attacks minus the ice beam and his last resort weapon were useless against the beast he'd fought. So for now he was resting while trying to think of ways to upgrade his weapons.

It was currently in the middle of the morning and Shattered Souls was out for a walk with Twilight. Twilight had told him she wanted to go visit Zecora in the Everfree Forest to pick up a new batch of tea for herself. And then she wanted to head to the ruins of the Castle of the Two Sisters in order to look at the old library there. She wanted to eventually move all of the old books from that library to her own so she could preserve them and the knowledge they contained. Souls saw nothing wrong with that and came along at Twilight's request. While Twilight was more than capable of handling herself, she had wanted him to come along in case inter-dimensional threats happened to make themselves known.

So here he was walking alongside her towards the Everfree Forest just having reached the outskirts of Ponyville. He turned his head to Twilight as he asked her,"Hey Twilight. You mind if we stop for a little bit. I have a friend around here that I would like to check up on. He's been trying to get something to work for the last couple of days and I want to see if he's succeeded. If he hasn't then I think I can give him a few tips on how to actually get it to work."

Twilight looked at him curiously,"Oh? Who is this friend of yours? And just what is he working on?"

Souls smiled nervously at her,"Um. Its the unicorn who came to the castle a little while ago. The one that came to see me. He's sort of working on a device similar to mine and thought I could help him. I wanted to see if he had it working yet. And I don't think that he wants anyone other than me to see his work right now. Sorry Twilight."

Twilight sighed in response,"Ugh fine. I can understand the need for privacy. Just don't take too long. This will put us off schedule as it is." She grumbled as she pulled out a color coded schedule and started to scribble on it with a quill.

Soul's ears flattened to the back of his head after he saw it and he shook his head. He quickly headed away from the area towards the house that Jack Hunt had told him belonged to himself. Souls felt that he would have known if Jack had finally been able to pull off a transformation be didn't have any feeling. He got up to the door and knocked on it with a few solid thunks.

There was grumbling from the other side as hoof steps approached the door he was standing in front of. He backed up a bit as the door opened outwards to reveal a disgruntled Jack Hunt standing there. Jack's eyes took a moment to focus on Souls and when they did he sighed,"Oh hey. Souls right? What brings you by my place?"

Souls rubbed the back of his head,"Well I kinda figured that maybe you were having a bit of trouble trying to get your transformations going. I thought I could help you out a bit."

Jack Hunt turned his gaze to the Archiver on his own foreleg and let out a sigh of frustration,"Yeah I haven't had any luck trying to get this to work. But I already told you that I don't want your help. I need to learn how to do this myself."

Souls frowned,"Come on man. You've been trying this for four days all by yourself. You still haven't been able to figure out the way to start the transformations yourself yet. The least you could do is at least watch me and see how I start a transformation myself."

Jack growled,"I told you I don't need your help. And watching you do one of your own would be counting as you helping me. I don't want your help so kindly keep your help to yourself."

Souls held up a hoof in surrender,"Ok ok. I get it already. I'll just be going. But one thing to keep in mind is to use the buttons for the transformation. It helps start the process with a soul chip." He quickly ducked where he was standing as Jack threw a blank chip at him from his satchel.

"I told you to keep your help to yourself. That tip is help and now I've already heard it so I can't forget it. Thanks a lot. Just go and leave me alone. Once I've figured this out myself I'll be able to help you with those threats. Till then please leave me alone while I figure this out."

Souls let out a sigh of defeat,"Ok. I'll go and leave you alone. I just hope you get the whole thing figured out soon." With that he waved goodbye to a grumpy Jack who only gave a small wave back before closing the door to his home again.

Souls sighed as he retraced his path back to where he had been with Twilight. Once he got close enough he could see her a little ways away from him and he quickly walked to catch up to her. After catching up with her he turned to her,"Sorry for the wait Twilight. My friend's a little grumpy right now. I don't think he's gotten a lot of sleep the past couple of days."

Twilight gave him a small smile,"Its okay Souls. Just please let me know when you want to visit your friend in the future so I can add it to my schedule if you accompany me in the future."

Soul's nodded his head,"Can do Twilight. Let's get going. We should get to the castle as soon as possible after you finish talking with Zecora. I don't like being near that forest if I can help it."

Twilight nodded in agreement,"I agree. Its not a good idea to be anywhere the castle after dark." With that the two of them moved off at a quick walk towards Zecora's hut in the Everfree Forest.

Jack Hunt was back in his home still trying to figure out how to activate the transformations after he had closed the door on Souls. He glared at the Archiver in frustration wishing he could somehow make it work through force of will. It of course didn't respond to his willpower and remained inert on his foreleg. He sighed as he picked up one of the Megaman chips and slotted it into one of the six slots on his Archiver. He took a deep breath to calm down as he stared at the slotted chip and the screen of his device which remained off.

His gaze drifted to the buttons of the device thanks to the small tip given to him by Souls. He grumbled to himself at the fact that he'd even had to hear that small tip from the smaller unicorn. He looked at the six different buttons before him wondering which he should press. The buttons were each a different color which probably signified something important for each. One button was red, one was green, another yellow, still another was blue, the next to last was black, and the last was orange. He tilted his head in thought as he contemplated the colors of the buttons and which could start the machine up. He vaguely remembered that green meant start for other machines that had been built in the past by other ponies.

So he gingerly pressed the green button on his Archiver and grinned in triumph when the screen lit up with a clear blue. Text and data scrolled across the screen rapidly as it went through its boot up phase. Finally it finished its start up process and beeped as a message lit up on its screen.

Looking down at the screen, Jack read the message that had appeared. "Soul Archiver Model 2 startup complete. Welcome user Jack Hunt! This unit is designed to help you further your goals at becoming stronger. This unit will allow you to combat threats you wouldn't normally be able too. You are a specialized Soul Warrior user. This means you can only use one type of soul chip. The type of soul chips you are allowed to use are Robotic Warriors. "

Jack Hunt sighed as he finished reading the message and dismissed it only to have another pop up in its place. It read,"Only a certain special soul chip will be able to defy your specialization class restrictions. This Soul chip is currently in your possession. The soul chip known as Dante, Demon Warrior of Souls is the chip that can defy your class restrictions. Said Soul Chip can only be used once you have created a Soul Bond with said chip."

Jack frowned as he looked at the message,"Soul Bond what the heck is that? All I want to do right now is use one of those transformations. This Soul Bond or whatever it is can wait till later."

He dismissed the message and growled in irritation as yet another message appeared. He quickly read it,"If you wish to proceed with making a soul bond with said soul chip please press yes. If not and you want to proceed with other operations please click no." A small menu appeared with the buttons yes and no. He clicked no immediately as he didn't really care about this Soul Bond thing at the moment. All he wanted to do was get on with his transformations.

The message closed at the click of the No button and he sighed as one last message popped up,"This unit has registered and archived the MegaMan X soul chip. Current synchronization rate with soul chip is 90 percent. Synchronization rate may be improved in the future. Soul Unison program is on standby. Soul Unison with Megaman X soul chip is possible at this time. If you wish to activate the soul unison program please press the green button. At the time please say an initiation phrase out loud that the Archiver can record for the soul chip in order to start the Soul Unison."

Jack blinked but gave a small smile,"Hmm. This Soul Unison thing must be what allows the transformation to happen in the first place. And the Soul Unison must be this thing's name for the transformations." He quickly tapped the green button on his Archiver.

The machine hummed with energy after he pressed the button and yet another message appeared on it,"Soul Unison program on standby. All systems functioning within normal parameters. Please say initiation phrase to start the program." He dismissed the message and then held his foreleg out in front of him after feeling a prompting to do so.

"Alright then. Let's see." He closed his eyes trying to think of a phrase to say to start the transformation. A feeling of calm overcame him again and nudged his thoughts towards a good phrase to use. Finally he opened his eyes as his mouth seemed to move on its own,"Hero of the Reploids Arise! Soul Unison, MegaMan X!"

A ball of bright blue light came down and surrounded him completely as he closed his eyes instinctively. He felt changes begin to happen all around his body. The helmet appeared around his head as his horn shrunk back into his head and disappeared with a pop. The helmet settled onto his head with two slots open on the top of the helmet to let his ears out. Most of the flat surface of the helmet was a nice blue color with a large silver stripe running right down the middle of it. The silver stripe was raised like a large flat rectangle that ran to a red gem at the forehead of the helmet. The gem was imprinted with Jack's cutie mark. Silver trim ran along the bottom of the helmet to a large, circular, gray thing on either side of the helmet. The inside of each gray circle had a circular red gem that was again imprinted with Jack's cutie mark.

Next the chest armor appeared on his body with a nice upper blue color for the upper chest that spread along to two buffed up looking pauldrons. The pauldrons were sleek yet buff as well as the chest armor. The bottom part of the chest armor was a nice silver in color with yet another gem set into it but this one had the imprint of an icicle falling from the air. A gray suit material extended from the chest armor to connect a little ways back to the armor that appeared on his back and sides. The armor there was again that real nice blue color with silvery tones to it. His fore hooves were covered in white glove like things that connected to two large cylindrical shaped armor pieces on his forelegs. These pieces were colored blue as well and there were two more of them on his back legs. But the ones on his back legs connected to two heavily armored hoof guards that were perfect for bucking. His mane had turned a stark white color as it peaked out from underneath the helmet as his eyes became a brilliant gold color. His tail also became a stark white as well. Finally feeling the transformation was complete he lased out with a hoof and shattered the blue orb into pieces.

The orb shattered into blue triangular pieces that fell down him in twinkling light. He blinked at himself and moved over to a nearby mirror to see the results of the transformation. He frowned when he realized he no longer had his sword on his back which he was used to. It felt wrong to him yet there was nothing he could do about it. He blinked as he felt some kind of presence in the back of his mind that had not been there before. He turned his own mind to it to find that it was another mind. It was the soul of the being he'd used for Soul Unison and it was watching him silently. He looked back at himself in the mirror.

Slowly a grin started to appear on his muzzle,"I feel so powerful. I won't be helpless against those enemies anymore. I can use this power to help fight against evil. And that's what I'll do." He held his right fore hoof in the air as if in victory only to yelp in surprise as his hoof somehow retracted into the blue cylindrical armor piece and it transformed into a gun of some sort. The other mind supplied a word for him to call this gun. It was a MegaBuster and designed for long range as well as short range. But what surprised him even more was that when it appeared it also fired off a small charge shot that made a nice sizable hole in his roof that he'd have to fix now.

He rolled out of the way as wooden debris fell down into his house from the hole. He looked at the melted wooden pieces that hit the ground as he looked at his hoof that had returned to normal once he rolled out of the way. He slowly brought his hoof to his face and then face hoofed at the stupidity of it all,"Great. Add another thing that I have to fix around here."

With a great sigh, he dispelled the transformation through sheer will power and the armor disappeared. He groaned as he went further into his house to find the supplies that he would need to temporarily patch the whole in his roof.. He would have to go out to find the wooden boards needed to fix the hole completely. So after he finished patching the whole up using a tarp and some tape he went off to go get some wooden boards to fix his house with.

Unknown to both Jack and Souls there was another young stallion that had the potential to become a soul warrior. He liked to also stay on the outskirts of ponyville where no one else could bother him. Unlike Jack who needed his solitude to keep his disguise this pony just liked being alone in general. This young stallion had become an adult only a couple of months earlier but he was enjoying it to the fullest. He had used his new freedom to buy himself a house on the outskirts of ponyville to live by himself.

Appearance wise his coat color was a nice black with just a hint of purple. His mane and tail were both black as well and his mane grew out over one eye. A small horn peaked out of his mane to show that he was a unicorn. He was a little shorter then the average stallion coming out at an even 5 feet in height. His cutie mark was that of a red and silver scythe swinging through the air. What's more is that his cutie mark was a copy of a scythe that he actually possessed. The scythe was always either on his back or leaning against a wall nearby when he had stopped in a place. A dismal black aura always seemed to be exuding from him warning other people to stay away from him.

The thing was he was normally a happy individual who was just really shy. He wasn't really good at social things so he preferred to stay out of the spotlight. He normally had a small smile on his face all the time and his appearance was cool looking in his opinion. He'd had a good life growing up so there were no complaints there. He just happened to really like the color black along with heavy metal bands that also wore the color black.

He was currently just hanging out around in his house with an acoustic guitar strumming it gently. His talent may be in using his scythe but he still had a passion for music. Currently he was trying to compose a song about the battle he had witnessed the previous week between that mechanical dragon and the two ponies that had opposed him. As he worked on composing the song his thoughts drifted to the appearance of that robotic warrior that had taken out the cannons of the mechanical dragon.

He sighed as he set his acoustic guitar down on the couch next to him as he got up to get something to eat. He wasn't having any luck with his composing at the moment anyway. He made himself a sandwich before he went to the window and looked outside of it as he let his thoughts drift. He really didn't like to fight at all but he would if he was forced too. He practiced with his scythe every day to stay in practice but other than that he just preferred to work on composing music.

He moved to the door as he picked up his scythe in his magic. He might as well go outside and practice for now. He twirled the scythe around in his magical grip a bit as he exited his house and headed towards the practice field he had made for himself. He would need to get in a good long training session today.

Souls was walking alongside Twilight quietly after having stopped at Zecora's hut with her. Zecora was a very nice zebra who he had always liked in the show because of her personality and kindness. The rhyming thing did get annoying after a bit if he was going to be honest but that was just part of Zecora. He had shaken hooves with her only to have the same zapping feeling happen. Zecora had wondered what had caused it but shrugged and let them get on their way. They had taken the tea packets with them as they headed for the castle of the two sisters.

They had been traveling for about half an hour now and one of the soul chips had finally lit up with Zecora's image. It described her as a martial artist of some sort with roots in herbology. He had shrugged at this and just continued along without saying anything as he kept his eyes on the path and forest around them. He had requested that they stay quiet as they travel the path so as not to attract any unwanted attention to themselves from the predators of the forest.

His ears twitched as they picked up the sound of a branch cracking and he snapped his head to the source of the sound. He was just able to catch a glimpse of a timberwolf slinking out of view. He narrowed his eyes for a moment before he caught up with Twilight.

"Twilight we need to get to the castle soon. We're being stalked by a couple of timberwolves." He hurriedly talked to her.

Twilight's eyes widened a bit,"But can't you just drive them off with one of your transformation? We'd be fine then wouldn't we?"

Flicking his ears in annoyance Souls replied,"Twilight you know as well as I that in and of itself is a bad idea. If I use one of my transformations to fight them off then we'll just end up attracting the attention of more of these monsters. Possibly even attract the attention of monsters worse then timberwolves. We need to pick up the pace."

Flattening her ears back a bit, Twilight nodded her head apprehensively,"Right. We'll go at a trot now. But have your magic ready just in case."

He nodded his head,"Right. Thanks again for teaching me how to access my magic and teaching me the telekinesis spell."

Twilight replied,"Your welcome. But let's go back to no talking for now and just hurry." She then picked up the pace as she traveled on ahead faster.

Souls broke into a trot himself in order to keep up with her. He was glad that he had spend several of the past days in the castle getting help from Twilight in accessing his magic. The first time he had tried to use the telekinesis spell he had ended up embedding a feather into the crystal ceiling. He kept up his pace as he heard the sounds of the timberwolves easily keeping pace with them.

They traveled along at this pace for some 20 minutes before the ruins of the castle finally came into view. Souls spoke up,"Hurry across the bridge Twilight. I'll be right behind you."

"Ok. Be careful and don't let those timberwolves follow us Souls,"Twilight panted back.

"I know Twilight now go,"Souls replied as he turned around to face the forest entrance as Twilight hurried across the rope bridge leading to the Castle.

He growled at the timberwolves that started to creep out of the treeline. The fur on his back raised as he slowly backed across the rope bridge. The timberwolves coming ever closer to the bridge itself. Finally he reached the other side and undid the tyings for the bridge and let one end of it swing down to the other side where the timberwolves were. One had just been about to put a paw on the bridge when it collapsed and it backed up with a yelp.

He stuck his tongue out at them and yelled,"Take that you stupid mutts." He turned away as he hurried to where a nervous Twilight waited by the old castle doors.

"Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to come here right now,"Twilight spoke up nervously.

"Your probably right on that score Twilight. I told you we should wait for another time when more of your friends could come with us."Souls replied softly.

Twilight nodded softly,"Right. Well we're here already and we can't go back right now. So we might as well go inside and collect the books I wanted."

Souls sighed,"Ok. But we have to be careful inside of the castle as well. There might be more dangers there as well."

Twilight rolled her eyes,"The castle is completely safe now. There are no more threats inside of it. I told you the spiders in their can't hurt you. I don't know why your so scared of them."

Souls glared at her a bit,"Spiders are freaking little things. With all those long spindly legs and the pincers. I don't like them okay and hearing about big spiders with star shapes on their backs doesn't help. Now let's go."

Twilight sighed,"Ok. We'll have to go into the throne room first in order to reach the library."

Souls nodded as he opened the door to the castle using his telekinses. "After you Twilight," he said waving her forwards with a hoof.

Twilight nodded her head and took the lead as she stepped through the door. She quickly led him to the throne room before turning back to him,"I'll go to the library by mself. You just stay here for the moment and I'll bring back the books I want you to carry with my magic."

"Ok Twilight. But please don't take to long. I still don't like the feel of this place."Souls replied now seeming nervous.

Twilight sighed,"Ok. I'll try to hurry up but I can't make any promises. " With that she trotted off towards the library leaving him in the old broken throne room.

He looked around the area and sighed in sadness at the destruction. As he looked up towards the ceiling he could see the great hole that had been made there by Nightmare Moon having crashed through it centuries ago. He saw the damaged thrones up on the dais and the whole broken state of the room. Banners that were tattered and ragged hung on the walls of the room. Rubble was clustered all around the room in piles and the sconces for torches were completely gone so there could be no internal source of light.

He moved around the room towards the stairs that led up to the dais and old stone thrones. As he moved towards the stairs he felt a tingling starting to build up in his horn. Souls frowned deeply as it seemed the room became darker the closer to the stairs he got. Moving at a walking pace, Souls moved up the steps towards the thrones as the feeling in his horn grew and things around him actually became darker. The shadows of the room grew longer the closer he got to the old thrones.

A feeling of intense pressure was centered on his horn as he finally got to the thrones after climbing up the stairs. He winced in pain as he put a hoof to his horn,"What the heck is going on? And why is everything so dark?"

He looked around the room to see that everything was indeed much darker than it had been before. The shadows of the room danced about as if flames had been lit somewhere. His eyes widened at this and he turned his gaze back to the thrones only to back up a step towards the stairs in surprise and fear. There above the broken remains of Luna's old throne was a small glowing orb of darkness. It hovered in the air above the throne drawing all the shadows and darkness into itself. The more he looked at it the more the pressure in his horn built up. He groaned in pain as he quickly moved way from it towards the remains of Celestia's old throne. As he did the pressure lessened and instead he felt a sense of calm enter the area.

The orb of darkness had become smaller then it was a mere moment ago as he stayed near Celestia's throne. He frowned as he looked away from the orb to see behind the thrones and his eyes widened upon realizing that the pieces of Nightmare Moon's armor were on a big pedestal right behind the throne. He couldn't help but think to himself about why Nightmare Moon's armor was right here behind the thrones. He carefully walked towards it only to have the intense pressure build up in his horn ago. The more he walked away from Celestia's throne the greater the pressure became again until the orb of darkness was back to the same size previously which was the size of a baseball for now.

Once he had moved over to the pedestal he collapsed to his knees as the pressure in his horn became unbearable. "Argh. What is with this pressure?" He had to screw his eyes up in pain for a moment.

When he reopened them, he could see that the orb of darkness was now the size of a basketball and it was moving towards the pieces of armor. His horn started to let out blue sparks causing him to cry out in pain. The flap of his satchel opened up on its own and a blank soul chip flew up into the air. It came to a stop on top of Nightmare Moon's old helmet at the orb got closer. The chip glowed with a brightly shining light that overpowered the darkness of the orb. The pieces of armor also glowed before losing their shape entirely and forming an orb of light around the chip. The ball of light then collided with the orb of darkness in a great thump.

Souls cried out in pain as more sparks came from his horn and the pressure became to intense for him,"Aaaaaaagh!" He fired a beam of blue magic from his horn on instinct at the orb. It relieved the pressure in his horn as pure magic flowed into the collision area of the two orbs. They each ended up gaining an aura around them the color of the magical beam. Then surprisingly the orbs started to merge together as he continued firing off his magical beam. He kept his eyes as open as he could even though he was squinting. Finally the two orbs were merged into one big blue basketball sized orb. Then the orb became smaller as it contracted around the chip. Finally the light and magic sunk down into the chip completely.

Souls grabbed the chip gingerly in his telekinetic grip as it started to fall to the ground. The light blue aura of his magic brought the chip over to him so he could see what was going on with it. Slowly an image appeared on the chip that shouldn't be there period. Once the image had fully appeared he closed his eyes in disbelief. There was no way this could be happening and yet it was. On the chip was an image of a genuinely smiling Nightmare Moon. As if all the pain and sadness she felt when she had still been alive were now gone.

He concentrated his magical aura around the chip and closed his eyes completely as he felt the chip with his magical senses. Bright pulses of happiness spread through him as he opened his eyes and looked at the chip. It now contained the purified soul of Nightmare Moon. She was now free of all the pain she had been in before and was at peace now. He blinked in surprise but held the chip in his hoof. A small smile appeared on his face as he felt happy that he could bring her peace at last in some small measure.

Souls stumbled as the ground underneath him shook and the very air seemed to ripple. "What the heck? What is happening now?"

Looking around wildly, he saw a distortion appear in the air near the broken ceiling of the throne room. Sparks darted across the air and then flashes of lightning as the distortion grew bigger. Twilight came running into the throne room still somehow carrying a large amount of books in her telekinetic grip.

She cried out,"Souls what is going on? What did you do!"

Souls yelled back,"I didn't do anything to make this happen. It just appeared on its own. Come on. We need to get out of here." He started down the steps despite the ground shaking rapidly.

Twilight met him at the base of the stairs as the distortion grew ever bigger till finally with a great flash it opened into a swirling green portal. Souls tugged Twilight along by her hoof with his own as he pulled her across the throne room floor. "Come on. I'm getting a really bad feeling."

"I know. I'm trying to hurry up." She replied irritably as they continued across the room.

An object dropped from the portal and impacted the ground with a heavy thud. It made a small crater in the floor from the force of the impact. The object that impacted the ground made itself known through the large cloud of dust that had appeared around the impact site. It was none other than a large centaur with curved horn. Souls eyes widened as he realized that though this centaur bore a resemblance to the lord Tirek of this world it wasn't the same one. This was the lord Tirek of a different incarnation of My Little Pony. It was the generation one Lord Tirek who stood before him now laughing.

Souls turned and shoved the horrified, stiff Twilight Sparkle through the throne room door before slamming it shut with telekinetic force. He turned back to the threat in front of him,"I just can't have an easy day can I? You just had to show up didn't you Tirek?"

Tirek stopped for a moment as he looked down at the unicorn before him,"Well if it isn't a little pony. Come to witness my triumphal return. Hmm something seems different about you than a normal pony. Maybe you have some interesting magic I can take." He reached a hand up to the black bag that was around his throat to draw it open which would activate its magic to steal his own.

Shattered Souls backed up for a moment before holding his own foreleg out in front of him,"I don't think so Tirek. I don't know how you got through a dimensional portal to here but I'll defeat you before you can hurt anyone"

He reached into his satchel and grabbed hold of the top chips which was Nightmare Moon's. He had placed it there as he ran down the stairs earlier. He used his magic to slot it into his Archiver as he glared at the Centaur.

The Centaur glared down at him,"How dare you defy me pony. For that you shall be destroyed after I steal your magic." He tugged on the edge of the bag starting to pull it open.

"We'll see about that Tirek."Souls shouted back at him. His magic pressed the green button on his Archiver which started to hum with energy. It quickly scanned and then archived Nightmare Moon's soul chips before beeping with a quick message that he could only quickly skim," Nightmare Moon soul chip scanned and archived. Nightmare Moon soul chip is fully functioning. Synchronization rate with soul chip is over 100 percent at this time. Synchronization rate is over the normal power scales. Time to hold form......40 minutes. User's magical energy levels are at one half at this moment. Soul Unison program on standby. Please say initiation phrase."

"Queen of the Eternal Night take form! Soul Unison, Nightmare Moon soul! Execute!" Souls shouted as Tirek finished pulling open the bag. With a flash of light the ball of light surrounded Souls and he closed his eyes as the transformation started. A barrier of green hexagonal magic appeared around him and the orb as the transformation happened.

Tirek roared,"What is this sorcery?" His black bag was sucking at the ambient magic of the area pulling it all into itself. But It wasn't touching the green shield at all. In fact it moved around it. He roared in fear and closed the bag up as he started across the room to the shield.

Inside of the the orb of light new changes began to happen to Souls. But he did not notice them as he focused on the new humming power that he felt inside of himself. His body grew considerably all the way to the height of Princess Celestia. His horn lenthened a full foot and it became lethally sharp and pointed. His coat colored changed to a very dark shade of blue but still not Nightmare Moon's coat color. His mane changed into an etheral version of itself. The pale whiteness of it floating through the air with what looked like stars made of ice flowing through it. His tail was the same way as his cutie mark changed to include a shattered moon in place of a shattered pony image. Great black wings grew from his back and settled against his sides as the armor started to appear. A new helmet very much like Nightmare Moon's helmet appeared but the biggest difference was that the entire color was red and a black fin ran down the middle of the helmet all the way to the muzzle tip. The chest regalia appeared around his body with the new cutie mark emblazoned on the front of it. Star metal hoof guards appeared on his hooves. Then another new change happened as his body grew leaner and more feminine. His eyelashes grew longer and his muzzle shorter and cuter. His mane took on a more girly flow instead of a more manly type wavering. Fangs grew from his upper mouth and his eyes turned into amber tealed slits. A very large sword appeared in an ornate sheath on his back. The sheath was styilized with all sorts of pictures of the moon falling down through the sky to impact into the ground. Finally feeling the changes were all complete he lashed out with a hoof and destroyed the orb of light around him.

The shattered pieces of light fell down around him to reveal his new form. The green hexagonal shield disappeared completely as the new being stood before Tirek. Souls spoke up,"Thy Evil shall be halted here villain. Whatever mischief thou has planned wilt be stopped. For I am a ruler of the night. Our name is Shattered Eclipse!"

Tirek roared at the challenge,"How dare you challenge me pony. I will crush you with my bare hands. I don't know why my bag does not take your magic so I will have to use other means to destroy you." He pulled a massive war hammer off his back and held it before him.

Eclipse growled at Tirek,"Come miscreant and pay for thy evil deeds." She drew the sword out of the sheath on her back to reveal a blood red blade with etchings of comets all along it.

Tirek roared in anger and brought his giant war hammer down towards the pony who dared to defy him. Eclipse rolled out of the way with more than enough time before pushing off the ground hard enough to leave cracks. She shot through the air as she swung her sword through the air diagonally in front of her. Burning flames coated the blade as it slashed downwards into Tirek's right shoulder. Tirek yelled in agony as his flesh was seared and cauterized immediately.

"How dare you hit me with that small toy of yours. You'll pay for the pain you've inflicted on me." He swung the war hammer with his good arm as Eclipse did an aileron roll. The hammer managed to clip her hind leg sending her flying straight into a nearby wall with an explosion.

"Ugh. That hurt,"Eclipse moaned in pain from her position in the wall. She groaned as she moved her body bit by bit. Her sword was stuck deep into the wall beside her as she slowly pulled herself out of the wall. Tirek moved close and brought the war hammer above his head,"Now you die pony."

He swung it downwards feeling confident that this swing would be the end of the nuisance before him. Eclipse focused through the pain and fired up the green hexagonal shield which caused the hammer to impact against it with great sparks. It greated cracks across the hastily erected shield and caused Eclipse to put a hoof to her head in pain. "Ouch. Take it easy with the hammer villian." The hammer moved from the top of the shield to the side and then impacted with the ground.

Tirek roared,"Stop using your annoying shields pony. They are aggravating." He moved his war hammer up into the air again.

Eclipse's eyes snapped open despite her pain and she lowered the shield as she picked her sword up again. "Tis good to see that we art an annoyance for thee. Now we shalt endeavor to destroy thee."

She pushed herself up and pushed off with great force again into the air moving as fast as a speeding bullet with sword spinning in her magical grip. The sword blazed with the fire of a comet moving through the night sky at great speed. She impacted into his chest as her sword lashed out. Her body knocked the wind out of Tirek completely and pushed him back a couple of steps. Her sword cut a fiery swath across his chest not even giving time for blood to spurt into the air before the wound was cauterized. Her sword had cut the strings for the bag on his neck and caught them on fire. The fire quickly raced to the bag and consumed it in purifying fire.

Tirek roared even angrier then before,"How dare you pony! You will pay most dearly for that. He swung his war hammer again faster then Eclipse could react. It slammed into her side and sent her flying down into the ground.

She made an impact crater and groaned out in pain. She slowly came back around as Tirek came over to her. She was able to get to her knees but no further than that as pain wracked her body. She could feel entire broken ribs beneath her body and a huge impact mark was in her side due to the warhammer. She started to cough violently and she spat out a great amount of blood. It trickled from the side of her mouth as she wearily looked up at the great centaur.

Tirek reached down with a massive hand which grabbed her around her chest and lifted her into the air. He started to squeeze her as he laughed in triumph,"There is now way for you to escape now pony."

A massive squeeze caused her to cough up an massive amount of blood which ran down her fur and his hand. She coughed out,"Thou art right. We can't escape. But thou has made a grave mistake."

Tirek brought her closer to his face as he squeezed again,"What do you mean pony?" She coughed up even more blood from his squeeze and cracking sounds could be heard as more of her ribs snapped.

She wheezed out through the massive amount of pain,"Thou has forgotten our sword fool!" Her horn glowed with massive power as she powered through the pain through sheer will. Her sword flew up quickly in her magical grip and the flame encompassed it again as she fed her magical power into it.

She grinned at him weakly with blood staining her teeth,"Tis the end fool! Secret Technique, Blazing Comet Slash!" The flames encompassed the blade of the sword completely and grew to great length making the blade even longer and larger.

The sword flew through the air as the surprised Tirek let go of her with his good hand. He picked up his war hammer again as the blade flew through the air and made a cutting motion. There was a mighty clang as the sword of fire met the metal war hammer. Tirek pushed against the sword with all his might only to yell in surprise as the sword pushed back harder thanks to Eclipse's magical force. It completely melted the head of the war hammer and passed through it into Tirek. It cut right through him and the magical might of it died down till the blood red blade moved back over to eclipse shining brightly with its red color.

Tirek stood there surprised for a moment before looking down at Eclipse and laughing,"Ha your puny sword did nothing. It may have destroyed my weapon but it did nothing to me."

Eclipse smirked through the pain,"That is what thou thinkest. But thou art already dead." With that she sheathed the sword with a gentle click and Tirek's body seized up.

Then his body slumped to the side and hit the ground with a thump as the head bounced away from the body. Eclipse looked away from the sight as she wheezed in pain. She glowed with light as she forced her magic through her body to heal herself with a high level healing spell using the last of her magical power to do so. Her ribs moved themselves back to the correct places and started to mend as her internal organs started to heal. Her whole body glowed with power until her mane lost its etherealness and hung limply along her back in a white tangled mess. She grew smaller and smaller until with a flash of light the transformation ended. But the funny thing was that Eclipse was still right where she had been only she was a small filly of about 4 years.

She groaned in pain and brought a hoof to her head,"We still hurt so much." That's when her eyes shot open in surprise and horror. Souls had finally regained his sense of self. He heard himself speak in some old dialect that was a bit hard to understand but what was the most shocking was that his voice was much higher than it should be. His mind immediately moved to thoughts of so many fanfics he'd read where a male character had somehow ended up as a female. He moved his hoof across his face and felt longer eyelashes. He felt that his muzzle was daintier than it should be and he had fangs growing from the top of his mouth.

He looked up at the bright sun shining merrily down into the broken room as he let out the girliest and loudest scream using the the royal canterlot voice,"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

He set his hooves down on the ground after he finished feeling his face,"This is the Worst Possible Thing Ever!" He banged his head against the ground making a small crater but not hurting himself. He then realized he was small then he should be and let out another ear piercing shriek before calming down again and closing his eyes,"Not only am I a girl. I'm a freaking foal. What the heck!"

That's when the door to the throne room burst open to admit a panicked Twilight Sparkle. Twilight looked around the room and saw the body of the great villain lying in a pool of blood. She gagged and wretched at the sight before hurling. After she had finished hurling she could hear a tiny voice sobbing away. She shook her head and quickly moved around the disgusting body only to find a small filly before her sobbing its eyes out with her hooves over her face. Twilight blinked in surprise and her jaw dropped at the sight. The fillly had not only a pair of wings but a horn on her head making her an alicorn. How did a filly end up here in this devastating place and where the heck was souls.

She shook hre head determining she'd look for Souls later as she moved over to the filly,"Come here little one. I won't hurt you. I'm Twilight Sparkle. Your safe now." She drew the sobbing filly into her arms and hooves. The filly turned to her and buried her muzzle in Twilight's chest as she continued to sob.

Twilight ran a hoof down her back softly as she made soft soothing noises,"Its okay there little one. Your okay now. Can you tell me your name?"

Souls was completely in control and conscious but the shock of being a girl and a filly was to much for him and he had let his much stronger emotions gain control of him. He was weeping in terror from both the fight and being a girl. He just wished this nightmare would end. But when Twilight asked her question he sobbed even harder as he figured he might be stuck like this for a while. But he still managed to stutter the name of his fused form,"Our name be Shattered Eclipse."

Twilight held her close,"Its alright Eclipse. Your safe now. I"ll get you to a nice warm place where you can rest. I don't know where my friend went but I"m sure he'll catch up in time." She gathered the fill closer to her chest as she looked around the room. She had just remembered she could teleport and decided that was the best way to get out of here. So she fired up a spell from her horn and disappeared with the filly with a loud pop.

Thus we see that Nightmare Moon returned in the form of a purified soul. And she has a new beginning as a hero helping to keep the world safe.

Author's Note

Hey Everyone. I really enjoyed writing this chapter. Its the longest I've written yet and I think it was worth the time. I used the last chapter to take a break from fighting for a bit. I realize that battle after battle can be montonous and boring but its one of the things i'm good at. I tried to space this chapter out with more content then just a battle. So hopefully you enjoy it. Also I will no longer be accepting anymore ocs that are male. Send me a female OC and i'll see about using it. Also as always feel free to leave a comment about what you liked in this chapter. Have a Cool winter everyone.