Diamond Journals Issue 1: A Quest for Memory

With an Element of Harmony in tow, the heroes arrived on the second floor of Skull Castle. Wily, however, wasn't backing down until it was over.

"Yellow Devil failed me. But let's see how they do against my next robot." Wily said to himself. "Dark Man! Destroy those intruders! No matter what, do NOT let them reach the peak!"

"As you command, Doctor. I can't promise anything, but I'll do my best." Dark Man said. He assumed his Proto Man disguise and warped out.

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"Not looking good, girls." Twilight said. "We better proceed with caution. Chances are the Busters missed a few robots."

"Even if they did, we can take 'em down easily!" Rainbow Dash said. "A Sonic Rainboom would clear the room in seconds...if I had enough room to pull it off."

"Can we get this over with quickly, darlings? I have a most important job waiting back home!" Rarity complained.

"Hey, there's Changeling corpses down here!" Pinkie yelled out. "Looks like all wounds were caused by fire or Buster shots. The Buster I understand, but fire? Diamond doesn't have a flame weapon in his arsenal yet!"

"Did you say Changeling corpses? That doctor has gone TOO far." Twilight said in anger. The bandage around her neck started to leak blood as she said this and she collapsed in pain. Rarity was able to fix it quickly and the team pressed forward.

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Approaching the door, Proto Man had gone back to clear up any robots they missed. Mega Man lifted a whistle he kept on him and used it to call Eddie in to help them.

"You called, Mega Man?" Eddie asked as he finished warping in.

"Yep. You got any E-Cans? We kinda need them." Mega Man replied.

"Sure do! Have three!" Eddie prepared himself and spat three E-Cans out of his head before warping out. The heroes split one of the cans between them, then went through the door. Surprisingly, Proto Man was at the other end of this room. He didn't respond when Mega Man tried to communicate with him, but he turned around and started shooting his Buster.

"WOAH!!" the heroes said this in unison before jumping out of the way.

"Dark Man!" Mega Man said. At this, Dark Man dropped the disguise and opened his chestpiece, taking out a single crystal.

"Is that an Element of Harmony?!" Mega Man asked. "But only organic beings can touch those! Unless Wily's robots are specially made, they should be like us!"

"Doc's robots can touch these Elements at will. It's how I utilize it's power." Dark Man said. "Alright, Element. Let's do this." he said as he put the Element of Harmony into his Buster. Then, he went one step further and turned on his Power Gear.

"An Element AND the Power Gear?! Well, I can do that too!" Diamond said confidently. He took the Element he aquired earlier and placed it into his own Buster. When he fired his next pellet, it was pink and rather big for the amount of power put into it. However, it did a lot more damage to Dark Man, who responded with red pellets with a lot of extra power put into them. A few more pellets of Kindness were able to defeat Dark Man and he exploded, leaving behind his Element of Harmony: Loyalty. Diamond removed the Element of Kindness from his Buster and put it back into the containment system in his chestpiece. He then grabbed the Element of Loyalty and added it to the containment system along with the other one.

-Element of Harmony aquired!
-This is the Element of Loyalty, the second of six. Collecting all of them will give a huge power boost.
-Applying this Element to your Harmony Buster will fire pellets that have a harder impact than others and can do even more damage if you're within 30m of an ally's X or Z position.

"Good to know," Diamond said, dismissing the notifications. "But where IS Proto Man anyway?" As he said this, the door on the starting side of the room opened again and Proto Man walked through.

"Sorry I'm late, guys. Turns out we missed more robots than I thou-oh..." he said as he walked in. "You fought Dark Man, didn't you? He have an Element?" he asked.

"Yep. Element of Loyalty. We can't waste any more time. Let's just keep moving." Diamond said.

"Oh yeah, I caught a glimpse of a lavender unicorn horn before I walked in here. Sound familiar?" Proto Man said.

"That's Twilight! They must have found another way through the shield. We might as well let them catch up!" Mega Man said.

"That'll be WASTING TIME!! But...they are my friends. And I'd never leave them struggling if I knew they were around. You know? Let's wait. Besides, we have all the time we need. I just wanted to get this done quickly." Diamond said.

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The ponies galloped through the next area. They climbed in silence and only really stopped when they reached the next boss door.

"This is it. Whatever's in this next room, we'll be fighting." Twilight said. "Everypony ready?"

"Ready!" the other six ponies said. They all entered the door at the same time, only to see their allies waiting for them.

"Oh, there you guys are!" Diamond said. "But...how'd you get in?"

"A bit of incrediby powerful magic." Starlight answered. "So, are we gonna keep going or what?"

"I was getting impatient. Let's go already!" Proto Man said. The ten heroes entered the next teleporter one at a time. The storm on Skull Castle was only just beginning.