The Nephalem sat patiently behind the massive portcullis, preparing their weapons as they heard a crowd quickly build outside. This was it: the time when they would showcase their powers to the world of Equestria. They knew that every single eye in the nation would be watching them closely. The purpose of this exhibition was to prove to everyone here that they would be more than able to help combat the Diabolic menace, and that was exactly what they planned to do.

Maximilian was outfitted with the Magnum Opus, lightly floating as he examined a focus that was given to him by the Angels some time ago. This was the Triumvirate, three floating orbs representing the three primal elements of creation. After he was satisfied with it's stability, he quickly turned to his comrade. "Are we ready, good doctor?", he asked with a smirk.

Clad in the Helltooth Harness, Bozz had just finished sharpening his sacrificial dagger to a honed edge, testing it with his tumb before responding with, "As ready as I will be." He then lifted up one of his Mojo, a conduit for the spirits to enter him, and uttered a silent prayer. He asked the spirits for guidance and assistance in the fight, and for an honorable victory. After the prayer was said, he looked at Max and nodded his head, mentally prepared for the test.

As this was happening, far above in the Royal Suite, the Elements and Princesses conversed, largely about the upcoming event. Celestia herself had apparently planned the content of the demonstration out herself, though she proved to be very tight lipped about the details whenever the Elements asked her about it. Every single time the question was brought up, she brushed it off with a chuckle and said, "Oh, worry not, my little ponies...you'll see." All of the Elements noted that this was rather ominous for her, making them wonder even more what was in store.

However, of all the ponies in that box, in that section, even in that entire arena, no one held more worry and anxiety that Twilight Sparkle. Typically, her mentor would share almost every detail of her plan, to ensure that Twilight could note her ideas and perhaps incorporate them into her own duties. Now that she wasn't informed, however, she found herself running every possible scenario in her head, each more concerning than the last.

She was taken out of her panicked mental marathon when Celestia placed a hand on her shoulder. "You are troubled by my approach, dear student.", she said with a reassuring smile. She remembered how often the young mare worried over the unknown. She could still recall the debacle where, in a rather perplexing case of short distance time travel, Twilight went back in time to deliver a message to herself, but was pulled back before she could give anything more than a vague warning.

Twilight sighed and said, "I apologize, Princess Celestia. It's just...I fear for the Nephalem. We've only seen glimpses of their power so far, and as impressive as it may have been, I haven't been able to witness their combat efficiency." She then turned her head to the center of the arena and said, "I just don't want them to get hurt on our account."

Celestia, understanding her pupil's trepidation, gave her a short pat on the shoulder and looked into her eyes. She lightly gripped her shoulder and said, "Don't worry, Twilight. If their power is anything even remotely similar to what the Angels have described, I will be giving them exactly what they can handle." After a moment of silence, and Twilight giving a nod of understanding, Celestia gave a deep breath and walked up to the podium at the front of the box.

After channeling her magic into her throat, she cleared it and began to address the crowd, which by this point had completely filled the 100,000 seat arena, to the point where Pegasi had to move clouds to provide seating for other Pegasi. "Ponies of Equestria, hear me! For I have news that I must deliver to you all, and not all of it good.", she boomed out over every voice in the stadium, causing everyone to pause and look her way. She waited for a moment before continuing with, "I regret to inform you all that an even greater evil than any we have faced looms over the horizon. It does not seek merely to enslave us, or to drain us of our magic. No, this evil, this...Diabolic force will have nothing less than all of us dead or serving as their playthings." When this earned some surprised murmuring from the audience, she held her hand up to silence them. When it died down, she said, "But despair not, citizens...for we have obtained assistance from the High Heavens themselves! In the form of two of their bravest and fiercest warriors, who will demonstrate their skills for all of us!"

At that moment, a guard called from near the Nephalem, "OPEN THE PORTCULLIS!!!" With that, the iron and stone door was lifted up. The Nephalem looked at each other and nodded before stepping out into the field of battle, raising a chorus of shocked gasps and frantic whispers from the crowd. "I thought the Heavens didn't contact us for years?", one would say. "Why now?", another would ask. These questions would soon be washed away by the river of tension that swept through the entire battleground as Celestia's voice boomed down to them. "Nephalem! Are you prepared for battle?", she called out.

Both Nephalem raised their fists in unified agreement. After that, with a nod from Celestia, the castle sorcerers surrounded the field, channeling their magic to create a small army of projections made to appear as Royal Guards. There must have been a good forty opponents surrounding them on all sides. They were split evenly with regards to weaponry, half of them brandishing pikes while the other half were unicorn marksmen, charging up their horns in preparation.

Max scoffed at this and said, "I do hope this is some ploy to kill us via boredom." He then allowed lightning to envelop the hand in which he held his wand as he said in a more serious tone, "I'll take the half I am facing, you can take the rest.'

Bozz chuckled as he prepared his dagger and said, "Well...let's be sure to give the ponies a good show, eh old friend?" He lowered himself into his combat stance and murmured lightly to himself as his body began to shake.

Celestia nodded her head. "Combatants ready..."

"And..."

"FIGHT!!!"

With that, Max began to slowly walk toward his side, a smug smile on his face. As a group of five pike guards came rushing at him, he sent out the lightning coursing through his right hand and watched as it chained between all of them. They were sent into a whirlwind of pain before they quickly dissipated in a puff of light blue smoke. This caused the crowd to let out a collective gasp, as they had rarely seen the guards so easily dispatched, projections or otherwise.

The witch doctor, in turn, was surrounded by six pike men as he kept shaking, his eyes closed. Right when two of the false soldiers attempted to run toward him in order to run him through, his eyes sprang open and he dropped to the ground. This caused his opponents to stab themselves in the chest, a viscous blue fluid leaking from the wounds for a moment before they both fell back and vanished from view. Bozz then took advantage of the confusion this caused, rolling around on his back and belly as he used his blowgun to plant deadly poison darts in each of the remaining soldiers' necks. This immediately took effect, causing their bodies to bloat and their airways to close as the fell to the ground and clawed at their own necks as they desperately gasped for air. After a few moments of convulsions, they too went the same way as their compatriots.

This brought forth a wide array of different reactions from the Elements of Harmony. With Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie, they were had begun to cheer their new friends on as they stood near the front of the box. Rainbow Dash let out a variety of cheers such as "C'mon, Wizkid, you got this" and "Beat 'em down, Doc". She was clearly getting into the excitement of combat, having never been able to witness it without being directly involved.

Pinkie, in tandem with this, cheered along with Rainbow as she jumped up and down, holding a large handmade sign that she...didn't have as she walked in. It was a bit crudely made, with greatly simplified renditions of the Nephalem drawn on it with their names written above them in bold pink marker. Despite that, she held it above her head proudly with a grin of pure joy plastered on her face.

The others were a bit more passive, with Applejack leaned forward with her chin on her fist as she stared in deep focus. Rarity talked to Twilight as she took extensive notes on their fighting styled, with the alabaster fashionista having noted the way Max carried himself and how gracefully Bozz moved in combat. Fluttershy watched nervously, lightly biting on the knuckle of her index finger as the frightening scene played out before her. All of the ponies continued to react in their own ways...until they began to notice something worrying for the Nephalem.

The wizard and witch doctor had already eliminated nineteen more enemies by that point. Max had switched to his magic missiles, which he sent soaring from his wand as he decimated nine of them. Meanwhile, Bozz had sent out an entire brood of poisonous spiders, this having brought the remaining ten of the recently fallen to their knees. They had believed that they were almost victorious for a small moment before they noticed what the Elements had caught onto.

The amount of opponents on the field...it had not dwindled. There still stood that small army of Royal Guard apparitions as they stared at the Nephalem with blank, empty expressions. In fact, upon closer inspection, the number of soldiers seemed to increase from what it was at the beginning of the match. A quick head count on the part of the Nephalem revealed that their numbers ad increased by thirty soldiers, a number that gave them pause for thought: the exact same number of foes they had only just previously felled.

Bozz quickly met his comrade in the middle of the arena and said in a slightly concerned tone of voice, "My friend...it would appear we are not fighting any normal apparitions." He kept his blowgun close to his mouth, in case he and Max needed to rapidly fire into the crowd.

Max growled as he wiped the sweat from his forehead. He then grumbled out, "Yes. Multipliers. Memories of the Caldeum waterways are flooding back to me." With that, he began focusing his magic above a large gathering of the soldiers and said, "Bozz...I do believe it is time to call upon your friends. We'll need to eliminate our foes quickly."

With a nod of confirmation, Bozz felt an energy surge through his body as he focused his mind, trying to listen for those familiar voices in the Unformed Land. When he found them, he raised his Mojo over his head and gave a loud murmur, causing three spots on the ground around him to begin to shake, almost as if something was trying to dig its way out. After a second, three hulking, four legged figures emerged from the dirt. Each of them was about the size of an alpha timer wolf, with muscular bodies and horrifying, skeletal heads, the latter completely filled with teeth sharp enough to bite through tempered steel. Their visage inspired both cheers and shocked gasps from the crowd.

With a wave of his hand, Bozz's zombie dogs quickly went to work on the soldiers. At blinding speeds, the small pack ran into the crowd of soldiers, tearing through swaths of them. Two of them focused on the legs of their victims, swiping at them with their honed claws, while the third went for the necks of it's victims as it pounced on them and gripped their throats with its vice-like jaws. Both methods sent the blue fluid flying through the air and splattering on the ground before it faded from existence. By the end of their rampage, twenty fell by the claws and teeth of the dogs, while another five were killed on account of friendly fire.

On the other side of the field, Max had completed preparing his spell, which caused a whirling cloud to form over a majority of the squadron that he was facing down. With a quick downward motion of his hand, massive ice spears began raining down from the cloud and impaling the opponents below, causing them to slump to the ground for a brief moment before dissipating. In total, he felled a grand total of thirty-five opponents. This caused the crowd to cheer a bit more, which the wizard gave a brief bow in response to.

The Nephalem then turned to the remaining ten and charged them, Bozz with his dogs in tow, in the hopes of killing them before the multiplication took place. Just before they were about to finish them off, Bozz and Max noticed something out of their peripheral vision. The sorcerers that were projecting their opponents had their horns and hands glow brighter for a split second before the perimeter of the arena took on a blue aura, and a second later, the new soldiers were created, fiercer than ever.

"Dammit!", Max exclaimed as he shuffled back to assess the situation. All right, so the soldiers seem to have a very short multiplication time. How to go about eliminating them before that time is up?

Bozz quickly went to him, dodging the stray unicorn bolt by rolling out of the way. As his dogs fell back in order to defend him, Bozz then said to Max, "You have a plan for succeeding, I hope? It would seem that the unicorn soldiers are becoming impatient with their comrades."

Max looked around for a moment, trying to think of how to solve the issue. It was clear that the spell would be broken if all of the soldiers were killed quickly. That is how it has always worked with the opponents they've faced in the past with that ability. The trick of the matter was getting them all in one group so they could be quickly eliminated. It took a second of thought (and dodging potshots), but he eventually came upon an idea.

"Bozz!", he called out to his friend, going back to back with him again. Max then said in a quiet tone, "I do believe I have found the solution to our problem. It will require both of us to use our more...grand abilities, mind you, but I'm sure it will work."

Bozz nodded his head and said, "I understand, friend." He then looked around at the now sizable army, now prepared to rush them. "I will use mine to gather them all together, and you will use yours to decimate the horde."

Max nodded his head and said in a determined voice, "In summation yes." He gave a deep, meditative breath before saying, "Ready when you are, my old friend."

With a nod. Bozz squatted down low to the ground and began to chant. Quickly after, he raised both of his hands up, causing something to shoot up from the ground in front of him. It took a second for the dust to clear from around the Nephalem, but when it did, the crowd was treated to a truly intimidating sight. In front of the witch doctor now stood a gargantuan beast. It stood tall above the Nephalem, being twice their height. Its limbs and chest were wrapped up in deep black cloth, barely containing the muscles on his arms, which were as long as most ponies. Upon its back were placed three stakes with rings hammered into them, a skull hung from each ring. To complete the fearful display, along with the rest of his teeth, it sported two massive fangs in it's mouth, easily large enough to run most ponies through.

The gargantuan creature looked around for a moment before letting out a primal roar. It shook the very foundations of the stadium, and could be heard all throughout Canterlot. Not a moment after releasing that nightmarish noise, the zombie ran full force through a group of pike men, shrugging off their spears as if they were nothing, even grabbing one of the false guards by the leg and dragging him behind. The rest of them, he simply knocked over like bowling pins, sending the entire platoon into a panic.

Deciding that the new threat would prove to be the biggest and most immediate one, the army began to slowly turn its attention to the rampaging beast, chasing after him. Every time they would approach from the front, however, he would simply knock them over. Given this, they adopted the strategy of chasing after the beast and attempting to immobilize it.

This was much to the relief of Max, as they were playing right into his and Bozz's hands. He looked at Bozz and nodded his head, signalling Bozz to call out to the gargantuan zombie with a short phrase in is tribe's native tongue. When that signal was given, the zombie turned around and tossed the guard he was carrying at the mass of soldiers that followed him, causing them all to stumble back.

This allowed Max to quickly run in between the army and the zombie, where he stood strong and allowed the magic within him to flow unrestricted all throughout his body. His eyes went stark white for a moment before a blast of magical energy enveloped him, colored every possible color that existed. As it died down, the crowd, Elements, and even the princesses were shocked to see what was there. Max had shed his physical form, becoming a vague silhouette of himself that was comprised completely of magical energy, appearing to the crowd as a shimmering indigo nebula.

Max looked over the crowd of soldiers in front of him as they stood and looked at each other in uncertainty of how to proceed against this new threat. With a chuckle, he raised his hands as a deep red energy began to swirl in front of them, growing immediately in intensity. Just before their foes could scramble away, Max let out a massive red beam, engulfing each and every projection in the mass in a fiery blaze as every fiber of their being was disintegrated. It was not long before Maximilian allowed the beam to dissipate, leaving nothing of any of the projections, save for a faint hint of light blue dust.

The arena was still for the briefest of moments as the audience stared in shock. One moment, there was an army facing these newcomers down. The next...not a trace was left of them. After that moment, the whole stadium erupted in a cascade of cheers and hollers, satisfied that their newest allies would be able to defend them from any menace that threatened them.

Max floated toward Bozz, the gargantuan zombie in tow, before releasing his form and returning to his physical body and removing the helm of his ensemble.

Bozz removed his mask in kind, looking at his friend with a smile before looking around at all of the individuals cheering for them.

In the midst of the cheering, the princesses flew down toward the victors, the Elements following closely behind them. As they approached, the crowd fell silent to see what they would say. Celestia them gave a kind smile and said in her amplified voice, "Nephalem, you have more than prove yourselves in our eyes, and in the eyes of everyone in attendance here. We welcome you to Equestria, and look forward to helping you defend our land from the Diabolic menace." With that, she extended her hand out to them in a gesture of friendship.

Max and Bozz looked at each other and nodded their heads before shaking her hand vigorously. Strange of a land as this was, they were glad to see it so full of allies...

A draconequis sat at his armchair, his long tail swinging as he read his ever-updating newspaper to learn about these newcomers. His two ears, the only matching parts of his body, perked up when he read the description of them. A witch doctor and a wizard, eh? Oh these two should be quite fun! A misfired spell here, a fouled-up potion there. Quite the wide range of possibilities with these new guests. He clapped his talon and paw together in glee just thinking about it.

He was shaken from his glee, however, when he heard a knock at the door of his cottage. Odd. Only he and those close to him knew how to get to his extra-dimensional plain. He quickly slithered over to the door and cleared his throat, expecting Fluttershy to have paid him a surprise visit. With a smile, he flung open the door and said, "Hello Flutter...shy..."

His voice died down...for one of the beings that he never believed he'd see again stood, or rather floated, in front of him, with another old friend in tow.

"Greetings, Qandar...may we come in?"

Author's Note

Me again! I just want to say thank you to everyone who is following the story. I'm overjoyed that people are responding to it. If you have any suggestions, criticisms, or praise, by all means leave a comment! I'd love to hear from you guys.