ULTRA LIVE! Of Demons and Aliens

Chapters

Portent of Disaster: Part 1
Portent of Disaster Part 2
To Be Moral Or Loyal
To Be Moral
Interlude: Slow Day
Sunset's Resolve vs the Hostile Interloper
Interlude: Aftermaths

Portent of Disaster: Part 1

In a quaint little two-floor apartment in Canterlot City, a red-haired teenage girl was wrapped up cozily in her covers, gleefully enjoying the chance to sleep in. Even better, unlike December two months ago, the frequent mega monster battles had slowed down to just an occasional skirmish rather than a daily occurrence.

She knew she could not afford to be complacent as Dark Lugiel, the dark giant and Ginga’s nemesis, was still out there, scheming in the shadows; but the girl was confident that she could handle it with the aid of her friends.

Just to recap: Before Christmas, Sunset Shimmer had lost her friends due to the actions of ‘Anon-A-Miss’ who posted humiliating secrets on MyStable, framing Sunset as the culprit. However, at the same time, Sunset Shimmer met Wallflower Blush and the Spark Doll Ultraman Taro who granted her the Ginga Spark. Since then, Sunset Shimmer had been fighting giant monsters who were the result of people using Spark Dolls and Dark Dummy Sparks to cause chaos.

During her time fighting monsters, she gradually regained her friends who came to realize that she could not be Anon-A-Miss and Ultraman Ginga, especially since she saved them. Rainbow Dash was the most stubborn - they had even clashed as Ultramen - but the prismatic-haired girl finally saw the light and Sunset now had all of her friends back, plus a few more, like Lightning Dust, Wallflower Blush and Trixie Lulamoon.

It was just before Winter Break when the identity of Anon-A-Miss was revealed to be the CMC composing of Applebloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. However, it was not their fault. The truth was that they had been manipulated by Sunset’s dark side which took the form of the demon she had become during the Fall Formal. Dubbing herself ‘Fall’, the demon was now free of Sunset Shimmer and on the loose.

When Fall scrubbed all memory of Anon-A-Miss from the CMC’s minds, it was feared that the chance to clear Sunset’s name was lost forever. However, to their great surprise, the CMC chose to take the blame, along with some assistance from some fortunate oversight on Fall’s part by leaving them signed in to the Anon-A-Miss page.

It was during the Christmas Party, however, that their biggest victory against Dark Lugiel was won as the two biggest troublemakers - the Alien pair Icarus and Metron - were put down for good.

‘I love the weekends.’

She wished she could stay in bed all day, without a single care in the world. Sadly, such leisures had a history of being interrupted by things outside one Sunset Shimmer’s control, as was soon to be the case today.

By Sunset’s bed was a leather-bound book with a yin-yang red and gold sun emblem on the front cover. While this would look to outsiders like a highly personalised journal, it was actually her method of communication with her homeworld, Equestria. Suddenly, the book began vibrating with a faint glow, a sign that her best friend in Equestria, Princess Twilight Sparkle, was attempting to reach her.

“Ugh, what does she want now?” Sunset groaned, upset that her beauty sleep had been disturbed. Snatching her journal from her bedside table, Sunset glared at the pages only for her eyes to widen at the message on the paper.

“Emergency! Come to the portal!”

Leaping from her bed, Sunset hurriedly got herself ready to leave, shot a group text to her friends and bolted out the door. After a few seconds, she went back into her apartment to pick up the Ginga Spark.

“Can’t forget this.”

*////*

In another location in the city, three girls lazed around a filthy heavily run-down van. These were the Dazzlings, consisting of: the poofy orange-haired leader Adagio Dazzle, the punkish violet-haired Aria Blaze, and the ditzy blue-haired Sonata Dusk.

Ever since their defeat at the hands of the Rainbooms, the sirens were forced to live without their magic. As a result, a large chunk of their time was spent retraining their voices so they could sing again, until a stranger wearing a familiar face reached out to them. She had promised them a chance for revenge against the Rainbooms, provided that they did something for her in return.

Adagio, naturally, jumped at the opportunity and dragged both her sisters along with her. What their benefactor hadn’t mentioned, however, was that they would have to wait for her to complete some kind of ‘project’ she was working on and that they would have to babysit a collection of Equestrians that had barely learned how to walk.

To be fair, at least teaching those Equestrians had kept them busy. Now that their co-conspirators had a general grasp of how the Human World worked, they were spread throughout the city. Now, the Dazzlings were left bored out of their minds until they got their next set of instructions.

Finally, their salvation came in the form of a girl similar to Sunset slamming open the van’s doors open, surprising the trio. This was Fall, or the Fall Formal Demon. Fall seemed to have worked herself to death, but her smile told a different story. She held up her hand then shifted her fingers, revealing a darkly pulsing gem attached to a black choker.

“Ready for your return performance?” Fall asked with a manic gleam in her eyes as she held up three Dark Dummy Sparks.

Adagio held her surprised look for a moment before her lips spread into a malicious grin. Finally, it was time for them to exact their revenge.

*////*

At Canterlot High School, nine girls and one ‘toy’ were gathered in the band practice room. This had become the group's unofficial meeting spot since the Rainbooms had started their band. The walls were soundproofed so that their loud practices did not disturb anyone outside. It also made sure anyone who walked by did not hear their conversation.

"Okay Sunset," Rainbow Dash, CHS' top athlete, said with a yawn, "We're all here. Now what is so important that we had to get here so damn early and on a weekend?" Rainbow Dash had planned to just stay at home, sleep-in until noon, then spend the rest of the day playing video games. She may be an athlete, but she still enjoyed chillaxing on the weekend after a hard week in school.

"I don't know yet," Sunset replied, "Twilight wasn't exactly forthcoming. She just said that it was an emergency and to meet her at the portal, nothing else."

"Forgive Trixie for, perhaps, stating the obvious but this sounds bad," the blue-skinned aspiring magician remarked.

"Ya think?" the yellow-haired Lighting Dust asked sarcastically. "Sounds like trouble.”

“Hey, don’t feel down,” Pinkie Pie said encouragingly. “If these past few months have taught us anything is that there’s nothing we can’t handle if we work together!”

Random people had Dark Lived into monsters but Ultraman Ginga had been able to take them all down. It seemed that Dark Lugiel had new agents to distribute the devices to cause havoc and chaos after losing his alien minions. Defeating these monsters also allowed Sunset to gather new Spark Dolls to add to her collection. Some of the new Spark Dolls they had recently collected included: Ultraman and Ultraseven, Zaragas, and Zoa Miruchi.

“I don’t know Pinkie,” the green-haired Wallflower Blush, president and sole member of CHS’ Gardening Club said, “Whenever Twilight Sparkle shows up, it usually means magic is involved, and we’re not exactly prepared for that right now.”

“Nonsense!” the chipper masculine voice of the Spark Doll Ultraman Taro chimed in, “We Ultras have faced magical beings in the past, so we can handle this.”

“You're letting your ego show, Taro."

"That rhymes!" Pinkie chirped.

“Those were more likely just entities that science couldn’t explain yet,” Sunset explained, “Equestrian magic is real, physical, with its own science dedicated to studying it. I mean, we still don’t understand how magic works here in the human world yet. Who knows how it will react with an Ultra fight?”

“Excuse me, but shouldn’t we be meeting Twilight at the portal?” Rarity asked.

“Yeah, we should g-” Rainbow began, but was cut off.

Suddenly, the doors burst open, revealing Princess Twilight Sparkleof Equestria and she seemed to be very close to having a nervous breakdown.

“THIS IS A COMPLETE DISASTER!” Twilight screamed then launched into an incomprehensible combination of noises that barely even qualified as ‘language’. This continued until the well-muscled Applejack stepped up and slapped Twilight. “OW! What was that for!?”

“Breathe, Twilight! We’ve been tryin’ to get a word in fer a while now!” Applejack replied.

“Oh, sorry,” Twilight apologized.

“Now, you were talking about things being a ‘complete disaster’.”

Twilight took a couple of breaths, then blurted out, “Tirek is loose again!”

The room went quiet, but not for the reasons Twilight was expecting.

“Who!?” the entire room, save Sunset, asked.

“Long story short, Equestrian bad guy,” Sunset explained quickly, “But I am wondering why you’re here, Twilight. Don’t you need to be in Equestria for when he shows up?”

“Oh! No No No! He’s here Sunset!” Twilight corrected, causing Sunset’s eyes to widen.

“Oh. OH. OH SHIT!” Sunset said with dawning horror.

“One moment, dears,” the white-skinned fashionista Rarity said, “Perhaps, before we continue, you two can bring us non-ponies up to speed?”

“Sorry, Rarity,” Twilight said apologetically, “Tirek is a wicked centaur who once absorbed all the magic out of the ponies of Equestria.”

“So he’s some kind of magic vampire?”

“Pretty much. Princesses Celestia and Luna defeated him and then put him in a special magical prison called Tartarus about a thousand years ago,” Twilight explained.

“The prison of the Titans,” the pink-haired Fluttershy said. She knew her Greek mythology.

Twilight stared at Fluttershy a moment. “Well I wouldn’t know about your world’s mythology, but in Equestria, Tartarus is where we lock up our worst villains.”

“Kinda makes me wonder why Discord was never locked up in there and was instead turned to stone,” Sunset remarked.

“Do you expect Tartarus to hold Discord?” Twilight questioned rhetorically. “Anyway, we need to find him and get him back to Tartarus.”

“He’s a centaur, right?” Sunset recalled. “Would he turn human if he came to this side?”

“Most likely.”

“Then we’ll need to know what he looks like. Fortunately, we can try to look his name up online,” Sunset said as she typed ‘TIREK’ on her phone and searched the web.

“Will that work?”

“Trust me, Twilight. You can find anything on Google.” Sunset then looked up all the results on screen. “OK, so all results of ‘Tirek’ refers to a game called ‘Rise of Tirek’ and its sequel, ‘Tirek’s Revenge’ that’s coming out in the summer.”

“Wait, something’s missing,” Taro declared, “Princess Twilight, would you please explain how you came by this information?”

“Oh, uh, Princess Celestia had a vision,” Twilight began.

Sunset rolled her eyes, “Of course she did.”

“She sent some guards to Tartarus to look into it but when they got there he was already gone and Discord was in his cage instead.”

“Wait, how did that happen?” Sunset asked, surprised.

“His magic had been drained. Not only that, but Cerberus was severely hurt as well.”

“Not the doggy!” Fluttershy wailed inconsolably.

“Cerberus got hurt!? What did Discord have to say?” Sunset pressed on.

“Well, once he was fed, he mentioned a bipedal cicada-,” Twilight started before she got cut off by the sound of several facepalms. “What?”

“For someone so smart, you’re such a dumbass,” Lightning said, “Seriously, why couldn’t you lead with that!?”

“What?”

“Baltan, Twilight! Discord was talking about Alien Baltan! And wherever he is, Fall is bound to be involved,” Sunset impatiently explained.

“That also makes Sunset’s internet idea useless,” Wallflower added.

“Why? Also, who are you?” Twilight asked.

Wallflower wasn’t amused. Surely some makeup and a new wardrobe wouldn’t make her that unrecognizable, right?

“It’s me! Wallflower! I know that we haven’t seen each other since December, but seriously!”

Twilight’s eyes widened, “Oh my gosh! I’m so sorry Wallflower!”

“TWILIGHT! FOCUS!” Sunset demanded. “Have there been any other vanishings besides Tirek?”

“No. Well, I mean, the Changeling and Storm Kingdoms are in total anarchy due to some kind of power vacuum.”

“Let Trixie guess, because their leadership just up and vanished overnight.”

Twilight blinked, “How did you-?”

“Basic pattern recognition,” Rarity interrupted, “If Fall is involved then she must be recruiting allies among your villains. What were these rulers like?”

“I can’t speak for the Storm King, but Queen Chrysalis is a wicked, evil creature. The last time I saw her, she attempted to take over Equestria during my brother’s wedding to Princess Cadance by mind controlling him,” Twilight explained.

“So it’s safe to assume that the Storm King is another tyrant, correct?”

“I suppose, but why would Sunset’s internet idea not work now?”

“Because they didn’t use the CHS portal,” Sunset answered, “Fall must have a way to make her own portals to Equestria. Plus, they have a guide so they don’t stand out.”

“Seriously, I thought you knew all this,” Rainbow said.

“HEY! IT’S EASY FOR YOU TO SIT THERE AND CAST STONES AT ME! YOU DON’T HAVE A WORLD THAT’S COMING APART AT THE SEAMS TO WORRY ABOUT!” Twilight snapped, tears starting to form as all the stress she was under finally raced to the surface, “FIRST, I HAD TO SAVE A TOWN FROM ITS CRAZY CUTIE MARK HATING MAYOR THAT GOT AWAY! THEN A CHANGELING SHOWED UP BEGGING FOR HELP BECAUSE HIS PEOPLE WERE ABOUT READY TO START A CIVIL WAR! THEN A REPRESENTATIVE FROM THE STORM KINGDOM APPEARED BECAUSE THEY WERE IN THE MIDDLE OF THEIR OWN LEADERSHIP CRISIS! AND NOW TIREK! I’M SO STRESSED OUT THAT I CAN’T EVEN SLEEP!” Having completed her rant, Twilight finally broke down sobbing. “And even worse? Nopony has any solutions as to how to even begin solving it.”

“H-hey, Twilight, we’re sorry. We had no idea you were so stressed,” Fluttershy apologized. She then went and gave Twilight a gentle hug, rubbing her back as she went, “There, there.”

“Thanks, Fluttershy,” Twilight sniffled. Twilight really needed a kind and friendly hug.

“How about we all go someplace nice? Like the Sweet Shoppe? You look like you could use some calming tea.”

“That would be nice.”

“And then we can take a trip to the library and you can build a book fort and read all the books you like.”

“Um, Fluttershy?” Sunset tapped her friend’s shoulder.

“Shh, she needs this. Give us a moment.”

Twilight sniffled, “I’d like that.”

While Fluttershy was calming Twilight down and helping her recover from her nervous breakdown, Sunset Shimmer pulled the others aside to talk about this.

“OK, so my evil twin has just recruited some of Equestria’s worst villains,” Sunset said. “I knew the last couple of months have been too easy.”

“Hey, we can handle anything that she-demon throws at us,” Rainbow said confidently.

“It’s not her I’m worried about. It’s who she’s working for, Dark Lugiel.”

Dark Lugiel, the elusive Dark Giant who was responsible for turning all the participants of the Dark Spark War into Spark Dolls. He had yet to show himself but his presence was still felt by those who wielded his Dark Dummy Spark. It was a darkness that could corrupt the very soul and that was frightening. They had no idea what his true plan was. He just seemed to be causing monster attacks for the sake of causing fear, panic and terror.

What was his endgame?

As far as Ginga had told her, he and Dark Lugiel had been equal in power. Though, if Ginga had been reduced to a Spark Doll, did that mean Lugiel had been a bit stronger?

During the holidays, Sunset had managed to learn a bit about Ginga and Lugiel’s origins. Turned out they had been two halves of the same entity. Apparently, they had a philosophical disagreement that forced a quite literal split personality.

“You do make a compelling point, Sunset,” Taro said. “However, you mustn’t lose sight of the active threat here.”

“But-.” Sunset began but Lightning cut her off.

“Taro’s right, Sunset. Lugiel didn’t bring these bad guys here, Fall did.”

“But Baltan-” Sunset was cut off again, this time by Pinkie Pie.

“What are ya gonna do? Question everyone in Canterlot City?” Pinkie asked.

“Yeah!” Rainbow agreed. “Do you suddenly have a suspect that you’re not telling us about?”

“Well, no, but-” this time it was Trixie that interrupted Sunset.

“Then don’t sweat about the guy you can’t do anything about,” Trixie told her.

“I agree with the others, darling,” Rarity said, “Lugiel strikes me as the type of man to force an encounter on his own terms. While admittedly, ‘his own terms’ would inevitably be disadvantageous to us, that’s the hand we’re dealt.”

“Right, so let’s focus on the enemy we can take action against and leave Lugiel for when he decides to show himself,” Wallflower concluded.

Sunset calmed down. After considering their words, she realized that they had a point. No reason to waste her time and energy looking for her enemies when she had no leads to go by. She’d just have to be ready for whatever they threw at her.

“HEY! WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU’RE GOING!?” the scratchy voice of Rainbow Dash screeched, ruining the moment.

“Oh! Uhm, I was going to take Twilight to Sugarcube Corner,” Fluttershy said from the door.

That got the attention of the entire room.

“Not without us you’re not!” Lightning growled, starting a mad dash out of the music room.

*////*

Since there were too many people to fit in one vehicle, the Gang had to split up. Sunset Shimmer, Twilight Sparkle and Wallflower Blush were currently sitting in Fluttershy’s quaint little van. Lightning Dust was taking her scooter since she was still working towards earning her motorcycle licence. Finally, Pinkie Pie had chosen to ride shotgun in Applejack’s pickup truck while the rest piled into Rarity’s limousine.

“So you never did tell us why Princess Celestia sent you here,” Sunset said to Twilight. “If Equestria is inasmuch anarchy as you say it is, wouldn’t she want all Princesses on deck?”

“That was the original idea. But when it was discovered that Tirek had escaped to this world, she thought that you could use someone with experience fighting him,” Twilight explained.

“She is aware that any fight that breaks out will inevitably be done by Sunset as an Ultra, correct?” Taro asked, unclear as to how Twilight would be able to assist.

“Taro has a point,” Wallflower agreed, “Outside of some new upgrade for Ginga or a Light Spark appearing, I don’t know how much you could help in a fight.”

“Light Spark?”

“You know, the thing that allowed Rainbow to turn into Ultraman Mebius and help Sunset beat EX Red King.”

“And allowed you to become Ultraman Gaia to take down Icarus and Metron with me,” Sunset reminded.

“Yeah, and that,” Wallflower said with a bit of pink in her cheeks.

“So I’ll get a Light Spark,” Twilight huffed, “How do I get one?”

The van went silent for a moment until Fluttershy, who had opted to stay out of the conversation until now, said, “We don’t know.”

"What do you mean?" Twilight questioned.

"She means that we're not sure of the exact conditions that will summon a Ginga Light Spark," Sunset answered. "But if I have to guess, based on experience, it is called by strong resolve and courage. However, it’s hard to observe, given only two have ever appeared, presumably because none of the fights after Icarus and Metron got hairy enough to allow for one to show up."

That greatly disheartened Twilight. Princess Celestia had entrusted Twilight with the task of aiding Sunset against Tirek, but now it seemed that she couldn’t even do that.

Watching in the rearview mirror, Fluttershy’s sympathy went out to the girl. She had left her home expecting to be of some use, only to discover that she wasn’t needed. Surely they could find some way that Twilight can help.

“FLUTTERSHY, LOOK OUT!” Wallflower shrieked, breaking the driver out of her thoughts.

There, up the road, was a humanoid cicada with massive pincers in place of hands.

“IT’S BALTAN!” Sunset yelled.

Alien Baltan laughed evilly as it aimed its pincers at the van and fired its energy blasts. Sunset reached inside of her jacket to pull out the Ginga Spark, but a sharp swerve from Fluttershy dodging the alien’s attack caused her to drop it.

Unfortunately, while Baltan missed Fluttershy’s van, Lightning Dust was caught by the attack instead. The explosion caused by the energy blast threw her from her scooter and sent her skipping across the pavement.

Applejack, meanwhile, startled by the explosions, hit the brakes hard, causing Rarity’s limousine to crash into the back of her truck. The farmgirl hopped out in a daze, unsure of what had even happened.

“What has gotten into you, Applejack!?” Rarity demanded accusingly.

“Ah… Ah think we’re under attack,” Applejack replied.

“By what? … Oh,” Rarity drifted off, wide-eyed.

Applejack noticing the change in Rarity’s demeanor, turned around, idly taking note of the rest of her friends also staring down the road. When she finally saw it, her blood ran cold. They knew of Baltan’s reputation through Taro’s stories, of course; but to actually see it, to watch its slow, uncaring walk to Fluttershy’s crashed van, it was overpowering.

The cold, unfeeling glare of its compound eyes contained a gorgon-esque effect that rooted everyone to the pavement. What could they do against something so vile? With a single shot it had effectively crippled their little convoy, speaking to its machine-like efficiency.

“Shit, LIGHTNING!”

Rainbow’s voice finally pulled Applejack from her fear-induced blackout, reminding her that the hostile alien was in fact, closing in on Fluttershy’s van. Going back to her truck, she pulled out a .357 revolver from underneath the driver’s seat, ran back into the street and then took aim.

Inside of Fluttershy’s van, just a few seconds ago, the passengers were recovering from the impact against a lampost.

Sunset slightly dazed, turned around and asked, “Is everyone okay?”

“I-I think so,” Fluttershy answered.

Sunset’s eyes narrowed angrily.

“That bastard isn’t getting away with this. Can anyone see the Ginga Spark? I dropped it when we swerved.”

At that news, the van’s occupants started a frenzied search for the device. Twilight, however, merely stared out of her window, petrified. She had faced plenty of villains in the past but they at least behaved like thinking beings.

Chrysalis displayed vile glee when it seemed like she had won at the Canterlot wedding. Tirek became angry when his plot faced a setback. Even Discord became fearful when he realized that he had been outsmarted.

Baltan though, it looked like it would treat success or failure with equal levels of complete apathy, as if their people completely stamped out all individuality in their pursuit of science without ethics or morality weighing them down. It disgusted Twilight that any advanced civilization could do something so despicable. Science was for the betterment of lives, but for that to happen, you needed a strong moral compass to keep yourself on the right path. Without it, you were no better than the myriad of mad scientists that plagued the writings of those ignorant/paranoid so-called “science fiction writers”.

Suddenly, Baltan put its left pincer up to cover its face as a gunshot rang out, the bullet ricocheting off the alien’s shell and breaking the van’s window. The humanoid insect turned to face Applejack and retaliated, rather excessively, with a concussive blast that shunted both the truck and the limo back several meters.

“Sunset, I found it!” Taro called, appearing with the Ginga Spark. “It must have gotten kicked under your seat.”

“Phew, thanks, Taro,” Sunset sighed in relief. She then pulled out a Spark Doll and touched its left foot to the tip.

ULTRA LIVE! ULTRASEVEN!

A flash of light burst out of Fluttershy’s van before forming into a red humanoid, with highlights of silver, and metallic armor covering his shoulders, all topped with a bladed fin on his head.

The human-sized Ultraseven dashed at Baltan, intending to sucker punch the alien; But Baltan merely teleported behind the Ultra, blocked the backhand, and punched Seven to the ground. The Ultra rolled onto his back to see Baltan charging intending to grapple, but Seven planted his foot into its chest and flipped it over his head.

Baltan nimbly landed back onto its feet and turned to charge with a right hammerswing; but Ultraseven sidestepped the attack, ducked under the backswing, and blocked the left swing. The alien attempted an uppercut, but Seven blocked it and countered with a headbutt. Baltan stumbled back slightly, inviting Seven to attack, but instead he found his arm caught in the alien’s left pincer. The bug swung its free pincer into Seven’s gut, struck him with an overhand blow, forcing him to his knees, and then kicked him away.

Ultraseven rolled back to his feet, and threw up a shield to deflect the pair of White Destruction Rays that Baltan had fired. Upon dropping the barrier, he blocked the alien’s followup pincer attack, nailed it with a right hook, then wrapped his arm behind its head, kneed it twice, and then sent Baltan stumbling back with an uppercut. Finally, as Baltan stumbled, Ultraseven sent the bug flying with a spinning roundhouse kick.

Baltan landed on its back, but immediately stood back up in a manner akin to a tree falling in reverse before it resumed a fighting stance with a laugh, forcing Ultraseven to do the same stance. Rather than launch into another engagement, however, the pair merely waited for each other to attack first.

*////*

Watching the fight from the relative safety of one of the buildings, the Gang waited for the inevitable conclusion of this epic clash.

“How is she?” Rainbow asked from where they had placed Lightning Dust. She had taken quite the tumble when Baltan hit her.

“Thank goodness she had her protective gear on, but we can’t know what internal injuries she has until we get her to a hospital,” Fluttershy explained.

Rainbow growled in anger, “Damn it! Why doesn’t Sunset just end it now, and get it over with!?”

“Because she’s realized that it’s better to wait for Baltan to move first,” Trixie answered.

“Eh?”

“Baltan are geniuses,” Taro answered, “Even now, it has run through every possible move Sunset can make, and the best possibilities to counter them. However, if she lets Baltan attack first, she can gain some control over the flow of the fight.”

“But why hasn’t she used her strongest shit yet?” Rainbow pressed.

“Because she wants to make absolutely sure she hits the slippery motherbucker,” Twilight growled in hatred.

Rainbow briefly chortled at the phrasing, but understood the intent which disturbed her. She was not the only one.

“Uhm, Twilight? Are you feeling okay?” Wallflower asked.

Turning around, Twilight noticed the concerned looks of her friends and realized just what she had said.

“Uh, girls. Please understand, I am not one to hate easily. But if there’s one thing that gets under my skin, it’s misapplied intelligence. Something like the Baltan can offer so many positive changes to both worlds, but instead they blindly wage war because friendship is just too hard.”

“Completely understandable but please control yourself! I believe I speak for us all when I say that we would rather not add you to our list of victories,” Taro pleaded.

Those words struck Twilight as hard as any punch thrown by the fighters outside. She was sounding exactly like the type of brat that attracted Dark Dummy Sparks, rather than the Princess of Friendship she was supposed to be.

“I… I’m sorry.”

“Besides, Galactic Law forbids races from voluntarily interfering with the technological advancement of other civilizations.”

“WHAT!?”

Unfortunately, instead of a proper answer, an echoey evil laugh filled the room.

*////*

Unlike most Ultras, Seven lacked a Color Timer so he was not bound to the same time constriction. However, despite this freedom, he was still capable of running out of energy during a fight. At least in a human-sized fight, he could still conserve most of his energy.

And right now, Sunset was learning how to fight as this unique Ultra.

Baltan charged, prompting Seven to take hold of his crest with his hands and detach it to hurl it at the alien. His crest, aka the Eye Slugger - flew like a boomerang, but Baltan had predicted the probability of this attack and teleported above the Ultra for a drop kick. Seven was sent sprawling to the ground allowing his opponent to stomp on his chest and pin him down.

“Ugh, EMERIUM BEAM!” Sunset cried, while crossing two fingers of each hand over the gem on Ultraseven’s forehead, causing a green ray to fire out of it.

Baltan flipped out of the way, allowing Seven to roll back to his feet and call back the Eye Slugger. Quickly advancing on the alien, Ultraseven performed a downward cleave with his weapon, but Baltan created a sacrificial shell to take the attack in its place and countered with a right jab. Seven slapped the pincer away with his left hand, delivered a backhand chop, but the alien hopped out of the way of the upward swipe with the Eye Slugger and sent the Ultra flying into a building with a concussive blast, followed by another to bring the structure down.

Baltan watched the building collapse with the same level of apathy as always until the last brick fell. When Ultraseven showed no signs of rising again, the alien tilted its head in a faint imitation of a shrug and turned away. Suddenly an explosion drew its attention back to the rubble only for its vision to go black. Kneeling some distance behind Baltan was Ultraseven holding the Eye Slugger in a reverse grip, having just cut the alien’s eyes in half. Baltan’s pained laugh sounded like a malfunctioning speaker.

Seven turned back to face his blinded enemy while stowing the Eye Slugger, then began drawing in solar energy to his shoulder armor.

“Let's finish this! WIDE SHOT!” Sunset threw Seven’s arms into a ‘L’ shape, firing a shimmering gold ray at Baltan, completely destroying the alien.

“And stay down!” she continued as she changed back, “Hey, what do you know, I beat it. I guess this will be easier than I thought.”

“AS IF!” A far crueler version of Sunset’s own voice mocked. Sunset snapped around to find an insanely grinning version of herself glaring back at her. “Though clearly a lack of action has done nothing to impair your abilities.”

Sunset glared at her double, “And it looks like you finally decided to stop hiding, Fall.”

“Oh, I wasn’t hiding. I was observing.”

“More like spying.”

“Call it what you will, but I’ve been studying the way you fight. You’ve gotten stronger, more skilled, and more experienced. Good to know that my host isn’t a weakling. Too bad you just had to be a hero.”

“Still on about getting back into my head, huh? Well that’s too damn bad, you’re not getting in,” Sunset threatened while brandishing the Ginga Spark.

“You know, you should really go check up on those friends of yours. You never know what kind of trouble they might get into.”

“What did you do?”

“Nothing. But I’ve made some new friends too.”

“Hahahahahaw!” An unmistakable laugh echoed across Sunset’s ears.

“What-!” She said snapping around to find Baltan perfectly fine, holding her friends at pincer point. “What the fu-!? Then what the hell have I been fighting this whole time!?”

“Oh, you were fighting Baltan. My bug eyed assistant there is able to duplicate itself. But it’s also not one of the friends I mentioned,” Fall sneeringly explained, then looked off to her right and put two fingers to her mouth and whistled, “Come on out, girls!”

“We’re not your damn dogs, BITCH!” It was a voice that the entire Gang hadn’t heard since the Battle of the Bands.

“No way,” Sunset said with disbelief.

Emerging from an until now unnoticed trashy van was the unmistakable orange curls of Adagio Dazzle.

“Wait, why am I surprised? Of course she would bring you on board,” Sunset said with a sarcastic eye roll.

“And not just her,” Fall added.

Sure enough, the rest of the would-be world conquering pop group known as the Dazzlings stepped out and stood with their leader.

*////*

“Oh great, she has the full set,” Rainbow quietly snarked to the remaining Gang.

Before the Anon-A-Miss fiasco, Pinkie may have laughed at that, but she had promised her friends that she would be more mindful of others; and as such, giving the raging she-demon an excuse to order her pet robot to kill them was a pretty bad idea. Fortunately, Taro’s stories painted Baltan aliens as beings of pure logic, and if she was exceptional at one thing, it was being illogical.

‘My Pinkie sense isn’t acting up, so we should be clear, I gotta work quick,’ Pinkie thought while subtly reaching into her hair.

“What do we do?” Twilight asked.

“Don’t worry, dear,” Rarity replied, “When Fall spoke to us through our sisters, she said that she wanted to get back into Sunset’s body, and she can't do that if Sunset’s dead. She also needs to defeat Ginga, so she needs the Dazzlings to fight him. With any luck, she’s arrogant enough to make us watch, giving us time to figure a way out of this.”

“That’s not very comforting,” Twilight countered.

“You’re right, it's not, but we don’t have any other option,” Wallflower whispered while watching Sunset’s unpleasant reunion.

*////*

“I take it that you all still hold what happened at the Battle of the Bands against us?” Sunset asked, already knowing the answer.

Aria’s snarl could melt steel with the sheer rage it conveyed, “What do you think, you goodie two shoes bitch!”

“Sheesh, touchy. Listen to me, whatever you think you’re going to get out of this, stop thinking about it, because you’re not getting it,” Sunset attempted to explain.

“Oh, why? Cause you’re gonna stop us?” Sonata sarcastically asked.

“No, because even if you win, you won’t be able to enjoy it.”

“Save the cryptic bullshit! You stole our very identities as sirens from us, and you’re not getting away with that,” Adagio retorted.

“You don’t get it, do you? Lugiel isn’t interested in granting your wishes. He wants the complete destruction of existence itself,” Sunset pleaded but she was ignored.

Sonata opened her mouth to speak, but whatever denial she had died when Adagio cut her off by saying, “Oh I know, but at least I will go out with the satisfaction of taking you out first.”

“Wait, WHAT!? SHE’S TELLING THE TRUTH!?” Sonata shrieked with shock.

“Oh come on! You had to suspect that there was some kind of catch!” Aria snapped, “And besides, you were just as on board as we were back during the pitch meeting!”

“THAT WAS BEFORE I SAW THE PRINT THAT SAID ‘BY THE WAY, SIGNING THIS MEANS YOU AGREE TO DIE!”

“Argh, why does it matter!? Why would you want to live in this songless existence anyway!?”

“BECAUSE I HAVE A SENSE OF SELF PRESERVATION YOU SELF-DESTRUCTIVE BIMBO!”

Watching this dangerous situation devolve into some kind of lame comedy act, Sunset felt fairly certain that if she were in an anime, she would have a sweat drop right now. Fall wasn’t faring much better what with her twitching eye showing barely contained rage at her underlings undermining her attempts at being dramatic. To be fair, though, Sunset sympathized with Sonata. Going by what she had heard, Sonata had only just discovered that her… Sunset blinked. Did she seriously get distracted by the semantics of what exactly the Dazzlings’ relation to each other was? Anyway, Sonata had joined her… companions, in a revenge plot only to discover that they had dragged her into a suicide pact that she wanted no part of but was now stuck in.

“HEY!” Fall suddenly barked, looking past Sunset at Baltan. “GET HER HAND OUT OF HER HAIR!”

The alien flinched like it was confusedly blinking, slightly looked down at Pinkie, then back at Fall with a head tilt that said, “Why?”

BANG!

Pinkie’s hair exploded, sending a massive white gooey mess of what may have been icing or whipped cream - Sunset wasn’t sure - directly into Baltan’s face. Going by the way the alien was currently flailing, its pincers weren’t very useful for wiping its face.

Floating out from the Gang’s former hiding place was Lightning Dust, followed by Taro.

“Excellent work Miss Pie,” he complimented earning a bashful smile from the girl in question, “Now gather up everyone!”

The Gang clustered close to the floating toy as a cry echoed through the street:

“ULTRA TELEPORTATION!”

In a flash of light, the Gang minus Sunset disappeared before Baltan could clear its vision.

Fall, for her part, could only stare at where the group was while emitting a strangled high-pitched squealing sound from the back of her throat.

“Whoops,” Sunset said smugly, “Looks like you fell off your high ground. Meaning there’s nothing you can threaten me with. Now are we going to stand around, or are we gonna fight?”

Fall’s face slowly morphed from shock to sheer frothing rage. She then took a deep breath, a very, very deep breath, to centre herself. No, she couldn’t let herself give Sunset the satisfaction of rising to her taunts.

“So, you decided to take your friends off the board. Was that a good idea, though? Now you’re all alone, Fall pointed out.

“Here’s the thing, Fall. I’m never alone,” Sunset said while gripping the Ginga Spark.

“Of course not. But then that’s why I brought the Dazzlings,” Fall turned to the Sirens. “Deal with her. Baltan, get me out of here.”

The still sticky alien blindly fumbled its way over to its commander and touched its pincer to her as they teleported away. Adagio, meanwhile, with a manic grin pulled out her Dark Dummy Spark, prompting her… cohorts to do the same. Sunset did note that Sonata seemed more hesitant than the others.

“Well, you heard her Sunset. It’s time for the Sirens to rise again!” Adagio declared drawing a Spark Doll.

“Aw shut up you over-dramatic self-destructive bimbo,” Sunset dismissed while pulling out another Spark Doll.

All at once, the girls activated their Spark Dolls.

DARK LIVE!

CAMEARRA!

HUDRA!

DARRAMB!

ULTRA LIVE! ULTRAMAN TIGA!

Author's Note

And so, it begins again.

Portent of Disaster Part 2

(PART 2)

Over in another district of Canterlot, a bright flash and rush of displaced air preceded the arrival of nine girls and one red, steaming Spark Doll as they appeared out of thin air.

“No wait, Sunset!” Twilight cried. “We have to go back for her!”

“I don’t think Taro’s going anywhere,” Wallflower said, pointing at the poor smoking Ultra.

“Oh, don’t worry about me, I just- I just need…” Taro dropped to the pavement, apparently asleep. Teleporting all of them at the same time must’ve exhausted him.

Twilight gazed with a horrified look at the only chance she had to return to Sunset’s side so she could aid her dozing on the ground.

“...Sunset.”

Her friend was fighting, all alone, and there was nothing she could do to help her.

A smack to the back of her head drew Twilight’s attention to the glaring Trixie.

“Trixie!? Why did you-!?”

“Listen here, Sparkle. Sunset is fine. Like Rarity said, Fall still needs Sunset, so she can’t kill her.”

“Yeah, and Sunset still has the Ginga Spark, so we should be seeing a fight pretty soon-” a trio of explosions cut Rainbow off. “Speak of the devil.”

Three cyclones of darkened energy towered over the surrounding buildings, kicking up dust and smoke into the air as though it were a veil concealing some great horror within. The shadow tornados finally dissipated with a final rush of air revealing the Dark Ultras.

In the back was a Dark Ultrawoman of darkened silver and stained gold that could only be Adagio, going by the femme fatale posture she carried.

On her right was an equally dark silver Ultraman with marks of deep indigo running down his sides.

Though who was driving him was initially unclear, it was narrowed down to Sonata going by the last of the trio. Predominantly black with red markings, and seemingly coated in samurai armor, Aria’s Ultraman was a goliath of a brute, standing with arms crossed to seemingly demonstrate his contempt for the very planet he stood on.

“Three against one strikes me as hardly a fair fight,” Rarity commented.

“Oh, Sunny will be fine. She’s got us to bring in after all,” Pinkie dismissed as a column of light rose to meet the Dark Ultra Sirens.

*////*

Opposite the three Dark Lived sirens, Sunset Shimmer had assumed the form of Ultraman Tiga who had a silver, red and deep indigo color scheme.

“Who are these clowns, Ginga?” Sunset asked, looking at the three Dark Giants.

Appearing next to her like a ghost was Ultraman Ginga, “Ultraman Tiga’s ex-lover and allies Camearra, Hudra, and Darramb.”

Before Sunset could get any further information from Ginga, Aria interrupted, “Hey! Quit talking to your imaginary friend and fight!”

Darramb cocked his fist back and charged while Aria screamed at the top of her lungs, Tiga, however, merely stepped to the right and stuck his leg out, sending the evil giant tumbling through the streets.

“... What was that?” Sunset flatly asked.

Aria growled and had Darramb spring back to his feet and charged again, this time getting a side kick in the stomach.

“Dude, are you even trying?” Sunset asked with disbelief.

Aria’s growl became a roar as she compelled Darramb to throw another punch that was easily blocked by Tiga. The gem on Tiga's forehead glowed as he changed into his red strength form, known as Power Type, before he kicked Darramb in the stomach, sending him staggering back.

“You know out of the three of you, you worried me the most; but now I see you plain suck at this,” Sunset said with realization before she delivered an empowered punch straight into Darramb’s face.

Over with Adagio and Sonata, the leading lady was fuming at her thuggish sister’s fumbling of the fight. It truly was a pathetic display. As tough as Aria was, against a skilled opponent, she was at a disadvantage. Plus, Sunset Shimmer had way more experience at using an Ultra.

Snapping her head over to Sonata, Adagio barked, “What are you doing!? Get in there!”

Sonata flinched from her sister’s tone then looked at Darramb, who just had his kick caught by Tiga and was now taking several punches to his head and stomach.

“Meh, she’s doing fine,” Sonata dismissed.

Adagio furiously spluttered then commanded Camearra to grab hold of Hudra, “Quit bitching, and get IN THERE!”

With a mighty heave, Camearra tossed Hudra into the fight. Sonata, seeing that she had no choice now, pulled her Ultra into a pathetic looking dive kick but Tiga noticed this and hopped backward, putting Darramb into Hudra’s path, sending the two of them tumbling. Adagio watched the resulting collision with a visible eye twitch and then sank Camearra down onto a nearby building with her head in her hands.

*////*

Watching from ground level, the Gang could not believe their eyes. At first, they were worried that Sunset would be in over her head since it was three against one, which did not seem like good odds. The Dark Giants also looked pretty intimidating, especially the red one who looked like he could tear Tiga in half. That was until they saw his performance and compared to Sunset, he was just muscle and no brains.

“Holy crap!” Rainbow gasped. She tried to hold in her laughter at the terrible display of fighting skills. “I gotta record this!” She took out her phone and started recording.

“These girls are terrible,” Rarity added.

“The worst,” Pinkie agreed.

“At this rate, Sunset won’t even need Ginga,” Applejack said.

“Yay!” Fluttershy softly cheered. She really did not want to be pulled into another fight if she could help it.

“Trixie wouldn’t count them out just yet,” the magician said, drawing the gang’s attention to her.

“Why do you say that?” Twilight asked.

“Because Adagio herself hasn’t entered the fight yet,” Wallflower replied, pointing at Camearra who was just watching.

“Exactly, thank you,” Trixie said. Tiga rammed Hudra’s head into Darramb’s stomach, then smashed the red Dark Giant’s face into the back of his comrade’s head, and then tripped him so he could body slam his now prone ally, all while Cammeara did nothing but watch

“Well it’s not like she’s in much of a hurry to jump in,” Rainbow pointed out.

“True, but Adagio is more of a ‘let everyone else do the actual legwork’ sort of girl. Manipulators are lazy like that,” Trixie said, “But she will have to get involved at some point, and the Great and Strategic Trixie doubt it would be after her allies are taken out.”

A slight groan made itself known to the group, emanating from the girl currently laying down on a nearby bench.

“Woah, hey champ, take it easy,” Rainbow said while rushing over to Lightning Dust’s side.

“Where the hell is the ambulance? It should’ve been here by now,” Applejack said.

“All the lines are busy with the fight going on,” Fluttershy replied.

“So we can’t get anyone until Sunset wins?” Rainbow asked from Lightning’s side. Fluttershy nodded. “Screw that, I’m getting someone! Hold on Light, I’ll be right back.”

Without another word, Rainbow started running somewhere while the Gang watched this happen silently.

Then Pinkie asked, “Does she even know the address of this spot?”

*////*

“Sonata, do something!” Aria snapped angrily. “We’re getting our butts kicked here!”

“Well, what do you want me to do!?” Sonata shot back.

“Blast her! You have that thing on your arm!”

“Oh, yeah!”

Sonata aimed Hudra’s arm-mounted weapon, the Drafork, which opened like a pair of scissors to fire like an energy crossbow. Sonata made it fire rapidly on Tiga, bombarding him with energy bolts.

“Yeah! Take that and that and that!”

“What are you doing!?” Aria screamed furiously.

“What does it look like I’m doing!? I’m shooting her!” Sonara shot back

“You’re literally hitting everything else!”

Sonata stopped firing to actually look at Tiga... who was completely untouched by the barrage and Adagio was glaring at her, having thrown Camearra behind the building she was sitting on.

“Uh, oops?” Sonata said with a cringing shrug. Hudra copying her gesture.

“Screw it! Let me show you how it’s done!” Aria said. Aria then charged Darramb’s Fire Magnum into his right hand, and punched the ground, sending a red wave through the ground but failed to land a hit once more as Tiga jumped over it and flying clotheslined both Hudra and Darramb.

This was the final straw for Adagio, as Camearra rigidly shot up to her feet, then bent down and ripped the building she was ducking behind from its foundation. She chucked it at Tiga who was standing back up.

“Sunset, behind us!” Ginga barked.

Tiga turned and caught the flying structure but it then exploded as an energy whip cut through it and struck him in the chest. Darramb, seeing Tiga stagger, jumped on the chance for a cheap shot, tackled him to the ground and began repeatedly punching him in the face.

“Yeah! Who sucks at this now bitch!?” Aria proudly screeched as Darramb rained down punches.

Suddenly, Tiga moved his head out of the way of another punch, kneed Darramb in the groin, smashed his face into the ground and then kicked him off. As Tiga attempted to stand back up, though, Camearra cracked her energy whip down on him again, allowing Hudra to take Darramb’s place, only with kicking as opposed to punching.

“Of course Adagio got the dominatrix,” Sonata rather bizarrely observed.

Tiga finally managed to catch one of Hudra’s kicks and rolled, pulling the Dark Giant into a rather painful version of the splits. Camearra again attempted to knock Tiga down with her whip, but he was wise now and he somersaulted out of the way and to throw a Hand Slash at the Ultrawoman to knock her down.

The light around Sunset turned red and she could hear the familiar tell-tale beeping. Tiga's color timer had turned red and it was blinking, warning her that she was running out of time.

“We need to finish this, Sunset!” Ginga urged.

“Alright!” Sunset decided as her eyes flashed.

Tiga cupped his hands in front of his chest, gathering energy between them to form a sphere of energy. Holding the energy ball in his right hand, he drew his arm back then hurled it at Darramb.

“DELACIUM LIGHT STREAM!”

The Dark Ultra was hit by Tiga’s Delacium Light Stream and Aria screamed as her Ultra was engulfed in an explosion.

“And you’re next!” Tiga turned to face Hudra.

“Eep!” Sonata squeaked.

Tiga turned back into his Multi-Type form and spread his arms to gather energy into them before putting them into an L-pose.

“ZEPELLION BEAM!”

Sunset fired Tiga’s signature Zepellion Beam, destroying Hudra with a single blast.

“And then there was one,” Sunset said, turning to Adagio. “Don’t worry, though, you’re not gonna be facing this guy. I’ve got a special guest lined up for you. Let’s go, Ginga!”

Clicking the trigger on the Ginga Spark, she opened it up and summoned forth Ultraman Ginga’s Spark Doll.

ULTRA LIVE! ULTRAMAN GINGA!

In a galaxy-like swirl of light, Tiga vanished was replaced by the Defender of the Galaxy, Ultraman Ginga.

“It’s about time you brought him out,” Adagio said, “I’ve been waiting to try out my new toy.”

“Huh?” Sunset and Ginga said simultaneously.

“Oh, just this,” Adagio raised her left arm, revealing an wristband housing an orange gem with a purple G clef encased inside.

“What the hell!?” Sunset cried.

“No doubt, Sunset, that’s magic!” Ginga realized.

“Adagio, listen to me! You have no idea how that will react to your Dummy Spark!” Sunset warned.

“Neither do you, Sunset! So how about we find out together?” With that, Adagio stabbed her Dark Dummy Spark into the gem.

In an instant, the device shattered, the pieces swirling into a vortex of inky darkness around Adagio while she cackled maniacally. However, as the tornado increased in intensity, her laughter began to fade.

Something was wrong.

“Wha-? What the-?” Adagio questioned, confused and with growing fear. Her eyes suddenly widened as she began clawing at the band. “No, NO! GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF!”

“ADAGIO!” Sunset called trying to walk Ginga through the storm outside.

“HELP ME!”

Camearra’s body began to change as a dark aura surrounded her. Fin-like wings emerged from her back as her legs broke and twisted into pony legs with her feet becoming cloven hooves. A set of tentacles grew out from under her arms, waving erratically while a fishtail sprouted from the base of her spine. Finally, the palms of her hands opened up into vicious jaws.

She hovered off the ground, smiling menacingly, as her face lengthened into a more equine shape. Orange scales sprouted up from her forearms, lower legs, collarbone, and sides. Lastly, Camearra’s color timer changed into the very familiar shape of the siren’s gem.

The darkness finally dissipated with a whoosh leaving her to drop into a limp kneel.

“What happened to her!?” Sunset cried.

“She’s been corrupted by darkness. Tread very lightly,” Ginga cautioned her.

Ultraman Ginga gingerly shuffled forward, keeping his arms just low enough to appear non-threatening, but high enough to get into fighting stance in a hurry.

“Adagio?”

Suddenly, his enemy snapped her head up, opened her mouth, and emitted a feral scream.

Adarra

Fused Aquatic Abomination

Ginga threw his arms up as Adarra launched at him claws first, tackling him onto a building. Now on his back, Ginga attempted to defend himself from Adarra’s wild, frenzied swipes while the beast’s tentacles began to wrap around his neck to choke him. Ginga summoned the Ginga Saber and cut a few tentacles while also forcing Adarra to jump back.

Once Ginga stood up Adarra lept back in, clawing him across the face, but Ginga blocked the follow up and countered with a gut punch, uppercut, left hook, and backhand. Adarra, however, delivered an upward swipe, her claws ripping sparks from Ginga’s armor. Adarra turned around with a tail slap that spun him around and then sent him flying with a mule kick.

Ginga landed face down but upon rolling onto his back, Adarra was standing above him on her tentacles, and had her hooves raised to stomp on his face. He crossed his arms over his face as she came down hard enough to create a crater underneath him, but rather than try something else, Adarra kept stomping, deepening the crater with every blow.

“We need to move!” Ginga yelled.

“I’m open to suggestions,” Sunset hissed, her arms feeling sore from the clobbering.

*////*

Down at ground level, the Gang were in complete shock. The seductive, manipulative leading lady of the Dazzlings seemed to have gained greater power. However, there was something even more pressing than that.

“What’s happened to her?” Wallflower asked.

“It’s like she’s become some wild beast,” Rarity observed.

Fluttershy was tearing up. Adagio’s behavior made her think of the rabid animals that would occasionally pass through the shelter to be euthanized.

“I don’t know how, but she’s somehow fused her Equestrian self into the Spark Doll she used,” Twilight pondered, “I’d love to study it if it weren't so horrific.”

“I think you guys are missing the bigger picture here,” Pinkie said, causing everyone to look at her, “SUNSET IS GETTING HER ASS KICKED! SOMEONE HAS TO BAIL HER OUT!”

Her outburst startled her friends, but Trixie recovered with, “Well look at that, Pinkie Pie is more on the ball than the rest of you.”

“Hey, I’m not dumb! It just takes me awhile to get to my point sometimes.”

“Regardless, Pinkie’s right,” Wallflower said, “But who’s gonna go in there?”

The remaining four Rainbooms looked at each other and then held their fists out, though they needed a nudge from Pinkie to get Fluttershy to join in.

“What are they doing?” Twilight asked.

“Rock-paper-scissors,” Wallflower replied, “We’ll explain later.”

“Three-Two-One shoot!” All four girls shouted then revealed their choices: Applejack had a fist, Fluttershy and Pinkie had their hands open, and Rarity had two fingers outstretched.

“Oh come on!” Pinkie screamed.

Rarity giggled while she sprouted pony ears and her hair extended into an absurdly long ponytail, “Sorry darling but it’s the rules rules.”

A ball of light engulfed the fashionista and shot off into Ginga’s Color Timer.

"What just happened?" Twilight wondered.

*////*

Rarity appeared inside Ginga’s void as though through a portal, drawing Sunset’s attention to her.

“Rarity?” She asked.

“Really, darling, you need to stop being surprised by this,” Rarity said while taking the Ginga Spark from Sunset and touched the tip to her Augment bracelet.

ACTIVATE! HARMONY AUGMENT! GINGA GENEROSITY!

Ginga flashed as his Zenshin Crystals turned violet. At the same time, Adarra was lifting up for another stomp, giving both Ginga and Rarity an opening.

“GINGA SLASH!” Rarity cried, firing a purple shotgun like beam from Ginga’s head, severing every tentacle. As Adarra fell, Ginga caught the monster with his feet before throwing her to the ground. Rolling onto his feet, Ginga grabbed hold of Adarra’s tail, and lifted her while spinning in a circle, then, after several rotations, threw her several blocks down the street.

“I can’t see her inside that monster. What happened?” Rarity asked.

“I don’t know. Best guess, that magic wristband is blurring the line between her and the Spark Doll,” Sunset theorized.

“Magic wristband?”

“Yeah, it had a gem that looked like that pin that she wears on her shorts.”

“Must be connected to those rocks from Camp Everfree then. Hold on, here she comes again,” Rarity said, readying Ginga as Adarra galloped at him.

Timing his attack just right, Ginga kicked Adarra in the chin. The female monster staggered from the blow but quickly recovered, and swiped. Ginga blocked it, elbowed her in the armpit, delivered a neck chop, kneed her in the liver, before spinning her into a choke hold. Adarra wheezed with fury, and then unleashed a horrifying shriek. It was so loud that it shattered all the windows within range. Even Ginga was affected as he released her to cover his ears as he writhed in agony.

With a new opening, Adarra’s claws began glowing as five energy whips sprouted from her fingers and she swiped Ginga across the chest. Closing the distance, she spun Ginga around with a claw swipe, blocked his attempted backhand, went into a grapple, kicked the inside of Ginga’s knee, forcing him down and then placed one of her hand jaws over his Color Timer.

Inside the Ultra, his void of light began pulsing, but not like he was running out of time.

“What’s happening, Ginga?” Sunset asked.

“She’s… draining our light,” Ginga answered. “We won’t be able to hold this form if she keeps this up.”

“Rarity, we- Rarity?”

Rarity was flickering like a dodgy cable signal.

“She’s trying to rip me out.”

“But how!? That shouldn’t be-,” Sunset was cut off by the Ginga Spark landing in her hands.

“You’ll need it more than me,” Rarity said as she vanished from Ginga’s void.

*////*

Back on the ground, Rainbow had surprisingly managed to find an ambulance to take Lightning Dust to the hospital when a massive crack sounded across the city. In a flash of light, Rarity appeared in front of her friends as if she was thrown out of a moving vehicle.

“Not even an augment works!?” Wallflower said in disbelief as the others ran to Rarity’s side.

“Damn it! How do we beat her then!?” Rainbow frustratedly asked.

“We’re missing something,” Twilight said, running her hands through her hair in an obvious sign of an approaching breakdown. “Girls, I need you to explain exactly what these ‘augments’ are.”

“They’re basically our magic, crystalized into these bracelets,” Applejack started as she showed her own Honesty Augment. “With them, we can enter Ginga and help him and Sunset in battle by giving him our magic to use. The first time it happened, we all joined her inside Ginga.”

Twilight took Applejack’s wrist and studied the Harmony Augment she wore. It reminded her of the Elements of Harmony in Equestria as it held Applejack’s cutie mark in the form of a gem.

“What do we do!? Do we all go in to help Sunset!?” Rainbow Dash demanded.

“We can’t do that. Adagio is draining Ginga’s power right now. He won’t be able to hold his augmented form,” Rarity said.

“But if Sunset and Ginga time out, he’ll just turn back into a Spark Doll. Sunset’s gonna be OK, right?” Rainbow Dash questioned.

“I...I don’t know...” Rarity shook her head, worried. She hated feeling powerless and being unable to help her friend.

*////*

“Sunset! You need to retreat!” Ginga shouted to his partner as he was gradually losing power. “She’ll drain both of us at this rate!”

“What? And leave you!?” Sunset shouted back. “I won’t abandon you, Ginga!” One of the many friendship lessons she had learned was to never abandon her friends.

“Then forgive me, Sunset. I’m doing this for your own good.” Ginga had also learned much about friendship, which included sacrificing oneself for their friends.

All of a sudden, Sunset Shimmer was expelled from Ginga’s body. At the same time, his Color Timer turned completely dark and the shine in his eyes faded before the Ultra’s body fell. The ground shook as the Ultra collapsed, his body lying upon rubble.

Sunset lay on the street, eyes wide in horror as Ginga lay lifelessly before her.

“GINGA!!!” Sunset screamed.

A distance away, Twilight’s brain was now in overdrive, having officially run out of time. “Okay, the augments are based on their magic, but they don’t have magic usually unless they’re on their instruments or have- EUREKA!” The loud cry drew the attention of everyone, even Sunset. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but the augments draw on the Elements of Harmony, right?”

“Uh, yeah, they’re called Harmony Augments after all,” Rainbow replied.

Twilight clapped her hands together. “That’s why Ginga can’t fight at his best! Not only is he trying to act through someone he isn’t bonded to, he doesn’t have the one thing he needs to bring out the full power of the Elements!”

It suddenly dawned on them what Twilight meant. They had all the Elements of Harmony except for the one that tied them together: the Element of Magic.

“Okay, great!” Pinkie cheered, “So what does that mean?”

“It means that we need to complete the Elements. Gather up, girls,” Twilight instructed.
"Sunset Shimmer, we need you!" Twilight called.

Sunset Shimmer looked at Twilight then at the Ginga Spark and nodded. She ran up to her friends, joining them as the Elements formed a circle around her as she gripped the Ginga Spark.

"Hold hands and focus, concentrate on your element and what they represent. Think of your friendship and think of Sunset. Think of Ginga."

They concentrated as they held hands. A magical aura surrounded them, causing them to pony up. One by one, the girls’ Augment Bracelets turned into balls of light and drifted away from their owners wrists in a lazy circle while light in the shape of a shining galaxy appeared above Sunset Shimmer.

“By the power vested in me as the Princess of Friendship, and wielder of the Element of Magic!” Twilight began. A purple ball of light gathering in front of her chest and rising to join the others. “I grant Sunset Shimmer the power to use the Elements of Harmony! So she may drive out the beasts that hide in the dark and bring them to the light!”

With Twilight’s speech finished, the galaxy above Sunset became a tornado funneling into the Ginga Spark, causing it to begin shining once more. When the galaxy disappeared, the device continued shining and steadily dimmed while the magic of her friends converged on her left wrist. She watched as the magic created a new power in the form of a bracelet with her cutie mark on it with a small window in the centre. She also saw a ring around her cutie mark which could be used as a dial.

“What’s this?” Sunset wondered.

“The power of our friendship combined,” Twilight informed her as their friends parted. “The power of all the Elements of Harmony.”

“Then let’s call this the Harmony Brace,” Sunset smiled as she spun the Ginga Spark around. With this, she might be able to save Ginga and the city. “And let’s see what this thing can do!”

“Then get going, Sunset!” Rainbow encouraged. “Go beat that bitch!”

Running towards the fallen Ultra, Sunset called, “Hey! Wake your lazy ass up, Ginga! We’re not done yet!” She shot off in a ball of light into his Color Timer. Once Sunset was inside Ginga’s void, she could feel her connection with the Ultra reestablish itself. The Ultra was also regaining consciousness.

"Sun...Sunset...?" Ginga murmured.

"Come on, Ginga. It's time we finished this fight, together." Sunset smiled confidently, determination written all over her face. “Let’s go, Ginga!”

She touched the Ginga Spark to the Harmony Brace.

ELEMENTS OF HARMONY! POWER TO GINGA!

GINGA HARMONY!

Adarra, until this point, had been slowly circling the downed alien like a curious predator. She jumped back like a cat startled by a thrown cucumber as Ginga suddenly twitched. The light in his eyes and Color Timer was restored as he rose to his feet. His Zenshin Crystal also began to glow like an aurora.

Ginga’s body changed as the energy spread from his color timer and throughout his body. The silver patterns on his body turned gold and flame-like as the Zenshin Crystals on his body adopted a rainbow-colored hue. The Harmony Brace also appeared around his left wrist.

"Ginga, it feels like we've merged into one person," Sunset said as she stood inside Ginga. The connection they had was stronger now.

“Indeed, I feel whole. Not like when your friends would take control,” Ginga confirmed.

“Then let’s finish this fight, partner!”

“Alright, Sunset! Let’s go!”

Ginga put his fists up, facing Adarra.

It was time for Round 2.

Adarra shrieked and charged straight for Ginga, whipping its tentacles like crazy. The Ultra used his enhanced speed to deftly catch the tentacles in his hands before he lifted both himself and Adarra into the air. The Fused Aquatic Abomination tried to free herself from Ginga’s grip and screamed in his face but Ginga tossed the monster high into the air.

*////*

“Let’s see what this does!”

Inside Ginga’s void, Sunset used the Ginga Brace’s dial to scroll through the Elements of Harmony and picked the one that would be useful. She then pressed the button on the side of the Harmony Brace.

ELEMENT OF LAUGHTER! POWER TO GINGA!

“GINGA FIREWORKS SHOWER!”

*////*

In the real world, Ginga slapped his palms together and pointed them at Adarra before he fired sparkling energy beams at the monster. They blew up in her face, blinding her. Ginga took advantage of this to clothesline the monster, wrapping an arm around its throat. He then went higher and higher and higher until both he and Adarra left the atmosphere.

The Gang watched as Ginga and Adarra flew into outer space. Pinkie Pie decided to use this chance to strike a pose. She raised both her arms, fists clenched, and yelled out loudly.

“UCHU KITTTTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”

Since Adarra was part Ultra, the vacuum of space did not affect her as she managed to break free from Ginga’s grip. She tried her sonic scream but no sound came out. Sunset smiled. She knew her science and knew that sound could not travel in a vacuum.

ELEMENT OF LOYALTY! POWER TO GINGA!

“GINGA RAINBOW RAY!”

Ginga put his arms together in a +-shape and fired a rainbow-colored beam at Adarra, causing an explosion as it hit. The beast was weakened but she was not yet defeated. Eyes shining widely, Adarra energized her tentacles and sent them lashing at Ginga but he produced his Ginga Saber and slashed the tentacles to ribbons.

*////*

“Alright, Twilight. Let’s see what your power can do,” Sunset said as she scrolled to Twilight’s symbol and pressed the button.

ELEMENT OF MAGIC! POWER TO GINGA!

*////*

Instead of a new attack, something happened to the Zenshin Crystal on Ginga’s head. He reached up to it and pulled out an ornate sword. It was a saber with a violet blade, a basket hilt and Twilight’s cutie mark on the hilt.

At the same time, the same weapon appeared in Sunset’s hand.

This was the Twilight Slugger.

“Thanks, Twi,” Sunset smiled as she held the Ginga Slugger and then she touched the Twilight Slugger’s pommel with the Ginga Spark. She looked straight at Adarra, eyes narrowed.

In the real world, the Twilight Slugger’s blade glowed as the symbols of the Elements of Harmony appeared in a circle behind Ginga before they turned into energy that merged with the blade. With the sword now charged, Ginga swung it with all his might.

“GINGA HARMONY FINISH!”

The Twilight Slugger unleashed a beam of pure magic that enveloped Adarra who shrieked as she was hit by the attack. Her body began to crack as her monster parts vanished before she was completely engulfed and destroyed by the attack.

XXX

Ginga fell down to Earth and shrank, leaving behind Sunset Shimmer. She was not alone, however, as she supported an injured Adagio by her side.

From a rooftop, Fall looked down at her other self and scowled. The Dazzlings had failed, even with the power boost she had given Adagio.

“Well, did not expect those overgrown seahorses to ever beat you. If they did, I’d be disappointed,” she remarked while holding the Dark Giants’ Spark Dolls, not wanting the Gang to add them to their arsenal. It would not be good for them to fall into Sunset’s hands. “And you’ve gotten stronger too, Sunset. A new power. This will be interesting.”

“Hurhurhurhur,” Baltan warbled, still wiping at its eyes, unsuccessfully. His claws were good for combat but were ill-suited for wiping the icing off his eyes.

“Oh, quit complaining, I’ll wash you off later,” Fall dismissed, before pulling out notepad and a pen to jot down some notes.

Everfree Geodes: First Field Test Results

Subject fused Equestrian form with Spark Doll

Subject became immensely more powerful, but lost the majority of their mental facilities, reducing them to a mere animal, driven by instinct alone

Thoughts:

While the power increase is desirable, the lack of intelligence negates this by removing the capacity for complex strategy to make the most of that power

Conclusion:

Needs more work

*////*

“She is?” Rainbow sighed, “Okay, that’s great. Thanks.” Rainbow hung up her phone and turned to her friends sitting at a massive booth at Sugarcube Corner, “So, good news, Lightning’s gonna live.” Sighs and laughs of relief sounded around the booth. “The bad news is, they have no idea how her injuries will impact her athletic future.” And like that, all relief vanished from the group.

“I’m sorry, it was my fault that happened to her,” Fluttershy sobbed out.

“Hey, none of that!” Sunset said. “It was Baltan that hurt her, not you.”

“Sunset’s right. It wasn’t your fault. It was because of that Baltan that Lightning got hurt.”

“But if I hadn’t panicked, Lightning wouldn’t be in her situation.”

“That would be even worse,” Taro said, finally having woken up, “Not only would that have resulted in actual fatalities, Sunset’s death would leave nothing to stop Dark Lugiel from destroying everything.”

“But, but…”

“Fluttershy, what happened was essentially the ‘trolley problem’ made real. You could not possibly save everyone. Someone was going to be hurt no matter what you did.”

“The trolley problem?” Twilight asked.

“Wait, you’ve never heard of that?” Pinkie asked. Twilight made a face while shrugging prompting Pinkie to pull out a diagram from her hair. “Okay. So, you have a trolley, two tracks, and a lever to switch between them. On one track is say me, and on the other is everyone else. You only have enough time to use the lever, who do you save?”

“Well that’s morbid,” Twilight said, “In Equestria I would teleport you onto the other track, then throw the lever.”

“Speaking of...” Sunset interrupted, “I never did ask you how your chat with Celestia went.” Twilight cringed and sank into her seat. “Yikes, that bad huh?”

“No, no! It wasn’t bad, it’s just- Look just imagine what it’s like to have everything you thought you knew about the world suddenly rewritten. Then add in the fact that most of the problems I’ve faced are Princess Celestia’s fault in some way, and I just don’t know what to do about her.”

“Oh? How?” Trixie asked.

“Well when you take into account that most of the threats I’ve faced date back to around the time that she moved Equestria, you notice a pattern. I suspect that the Ultras’ presence kept a lot of bad actors’ heads down. Not to mention the micromanaging she did throughout my life. I mean, I always felt that she was up to something since Nightmare Moon, but for her to come out and admit she was basically controlling my life was downright heartbreaking. I just thought she cared about how I feel, you know?”

At Twilight’s souring mood, Pinkie lept to the rescue. “Don’t talk like that, she cares about you. It’s just that… Um…” Pinkie Pie was not sure what to say. This was too serious. So, she decided to change the subject. Hey, Sunset! Why don’t you show us that weird wristband you got from Adagio?”

Adagio had been left passing in and out of consciousness after the battle. Apparently being fused with a Spark Doll meant that she had to take more damage than she usually would. Aria and Sonata were unwilling to abandon their leader, so they had accompanied her to the hospital. Only time would tell if they would be willing to share anything with the Gang. Hopefully, Dark Lugiel would not come after them for their failure.

“Oh, yeah! I got this off her before Aria and Sonata took her to the… What the-?” Sunset said as she reached into her pocket only to become confused as she instead pulled out a necklace with her Cutie Mark on it. “I swear that I put it in that pocket.”

“I know, I watched you do it,” Fluttershy agreed.

“How odd,” Twilight said as she inspected the item. “A transforming magical artifact.”

“Yeah… What does it do?” Rainbow asked.

“No clue,” Sunset said, “I mean, I know that it fused Adagio into that thing, but as to its original purpose, your guess is as good as mine.”

“Well why not just put it on?” Trixie asked matter-of-factly.

“Yeah, thanks but no thanks,” Sunset replied. “I’m not messing around with something that turned Adagio into that thing.”

“Well Trixie just figured that it does have your symbol on it, so it was obviously meant for you.”

“I’m not putting on a magical item that I’ve already seen do horrible things. Not without testing it at least.”

“Understandable. We should send it through the portal so Spike can get Princess Celestia’s arcanists to look at it,” Twilight suggested.

“Wait, you’re not going back?” Fluttershy asked.

“Fluttershy, I can’t leave yet. Tirek and the other villains are still at large here, and who knows who else Fall has under her thumb.”

“Well, we ain’t doin it today, that’s fer’ sure,” Applejack said, “Baltan wrecked our cars and it’s the weekend.”

That reminder caused the room to become uncomfortably quiet as the mood dropped. The sole bright spot in an admittedly bad situation, was a rather swiftly put together bit of legislation that said insurance companies could not hold the customer accountable for property damaged in a monster attack. The mere fact of losing their vehicles, however, was enough for the Gang to quietly decide to return to their homes.

*////*

“Is there anything I can do to help them, Sunset?” Twilight asked. After leaving Sugarcube corner, it was decided that Twilight would stay with Sunset for however long she would need to remain in the human world.

Flash Sentry would likely be happy to know that Twilight Sparkle was back. He still had a bit of a crush on her.

“No, you don’t need to do anything, Twilight. their insurance guys are legally required to replace their property if it’s been damaged in a monster fight,” Sunset replied. “It’ll just take some time to get the replacements for them.”

“That reminds me,” Twilight said in a voice dripping with tranquil rage as she glared at Taro. “Do you remember when we were hiding in that building?”

“Yes?” Taro asked, wondering where the royal was going with this.

“You said that advanced alien races aren’t allowed to willingly share technology with less advanced races.”

“I did say that, yes.”

Twilight gave a sarcastic smile, inhaled and then shrieked, “AND WHY IN TARTARUS IS THAT THE CASE!? DON’T YOU WANT TO HELP PEOPLE!?”

Taro didn’t react to Twilight’s outburst, only replying, “I thought the reasoning would be self-evident.”

“Eh?”

“Do something for me Twilight, Pinkie Promise me that you will answer my questions honestly, and to the best of your ability.”

Twilight nodded then went through the motions, “Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.”

Taro rocked back and forth in a vague imitation of a nod, “Thank you. Now, if all the technology of this world were to drop into Equestria overnight, would it be a completely positive thing with no drawbacks whatsoever?” Twilight opened her mouth to answer but Taro continued, cutting her off, “Or is it far more likely that the planet would be torn apart between those willing to accept it, and old guard traditionalists unwilling to change?”

Twilight gaped at Taro’s pessimism, “What!? How could you have such a low opinion of us!?”

“Because as a twelve thousand year old alien, I’ve seen it happen enough times to have the pattern recognition skills to confidently make such a bold claim.”

Twilight’s brain faltered a bit at the concept of an entity so much older than the Princesses.

“Taro’s right, Twilight,” Sunset agreed.

“You agree with him?” Twilight asked Sunset, appalled at her fellow Equestrian.

“What, you’ve never read about why the train was almost not a thing in Equestria?”

Twilight looked away with a blush, “N-no, it was still in my backlog.”

“Holy crap! I know something you don’t! Ha ha!” Sunset cheered but a cough from Taro unsubtly told her to make her point, “Right, ahem, the ponies of that time legitimately believed that the sound of the whistle would cause them to spontaneously keel over dead in fright.”

Twilight snapped around, “They did not!”

“Yes they did,” Sunset laughed, “In all seriousness, though, every book on a major technological advancement in Equestria has needed to dedicate entire chapters to the noble or group of ponies that tried to stop it.”

Twilight had to consider that. While she hadn’t yet read about the train’s development, it was true that books about other developments did need such chapters but, for the life of her she couldn’t understand why.

Taro meanwhile became curious that lead him to ask, “Interesting, why do you think that is?”

“Probably their origins. While humans developed from opportunistic omnivorous primates, ponies’ ancestors were naturally nervous prey animals, whose simple magic was a defensive tool. I suppose that is still something that they haven’t grown out of yet.”

Author's Note

Why, yes. Both parts were originally going to be one chapter. Why do you ask?

For the record, the scream I pictured for Adarra is like the one Fatalis makes in Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate.

To Be Moral Or Loyal

It was slightly cloudy today in Canterlot, with forecasts promising light showers in the afternoon. However, in one party girl’s opinion, pastries stop for nothing, not even gloomy weather.

Pinkie Pie was on register duty at Sweet Snacks Cafe instead of working the floor like she usually would. She enjoyed the atmosphere of the 50’s style diner and that she could glide on roller skates because roller skates were fun! Today, though, the girl who usually worked at the register had come down with the flu so Pinkie Pie offered to cover for her.

Pinkie Pie still greeted each customer that came up to her with a smile. When the door opened and the bell above it chimed, she saw a new customer come in. She just seemed to radiate a ‘cool’ vibe with an all-black wardrobe consisting of a black tank top, a leather biker jacket, black jeans, and combat boots; she seemed like the type of woman to hang with a biker gang. She wore shades and also had a mohawk. Pinkie Pie always wondered what she would look like with a mohawk but she could never give up her fluffy hair for anything. Where else would she keep her things while on the go?

Instead of going to a table, the woman-in-black approached the register.

“Welcome to Sweet Snacks Cafe!” Pinkie Pie greeted jubilantly with a grin. “How may I help you?”

The woman lowered her shades, gave Pinkie Pie a once over then said her order.

“Coffee, to go,” the woman said, simply, with a bit of an edge in her voice. She saw the cookies on display and added, “And a cookie.”

Pinkie Pie beamed and went over to the coffee pot and poured the beverage into a tall cup and put the cover on. She then grabbed a cookie and stuffed it into a paper bag with the coffee which she handed over to the woman.

“Here you go! Have a nice day!”

The woman paid for her order and stepped out of the cafe without another word.

Even by Pinkie’s standards, the encounter felt slightly off, like the other woman was an alien getting out of the building before she said something to give herself away. Usually, she could strike up more of a conversation than that. Come to think of it, she had never actually seen that woman pass through before.

“Hmmm. I’m intrigued,” Pinkie said, pulling out a Sherlock hat from… somewhere, before a pointed glare from her manager said: “not on company hours”.

*////*

The woman - Tempest Shadow - sat down on a bench in the park, shaded by a tree. She took a sip of her coffee before taking a bite out of her cookie.

Honestly, when Tempest Shadow first arrived in this world, she did not know what to make of it. These humans could live without magic and she no longer felt crippled as she lacked her broken horn. She did not have access to her magic but that did not seem like much of a handicap in this world. If anything, having magic would only make her the odd one here.

Sighing, Tempest pulled out her phone to check her schedule for the day. As much as she despised that alien, she had to give Baltan one thing: no Equestrian or Man could match its forging abilities.

She didn’t think anything could be that skilled at the art. A single glance at what appropriate documentation or currency looked like, plus some short calculations, and bingo! Paperwork so flawless that no one asked questions and an infinite source of income.

Indeed, Tempest could easily live out her time in this world in idle luxury. But years of training had left her with a need to move. To keep busy. She managed to find herself a job as a martial arts instructor in this city’s gym. After an interview, which included a brief display of her skill, she was hired. Commanding the Storm King’s forces as his second-in-command gave her the experience to give orders.

More than just keeping herself active, though, it also allowed her to feel like she was back home, drilling her troops alongside…

“Grubber,” Tempest sighed while lowering her phone.

While that little pug-faced hedgehog could really piss her off sometimes, he was still the closest thing she had to a friend in the Storm Army. How was he getting by without her? Was he safe? Was he out looking for her? Did he have plenty of sweets? Tempest wished she knew.

An alert from her phone startled her from her thoughts. Another thing about this world was how humans adapted without magic by developing technology that would seem magical back in Equestria. But she hated that because it forced her to question her own motives for joining the Storm King. The yeti had promised to restore her broken horn in exchange for her service, but what was the point when everything here didn’t need magic? Come to think of it, she hadn’t needed her horn to rise to Captain of the Storm Army, had she?

Immediately, Tempest attempted to distract herself from her thoughts by looking at the alert, as following that line of thinking was dangerous. As expected, it was another evangelism post from Tirek.

At some point, Tempest was unsure when exactly, Tirek had decided to read a book called the ‘Bible’, and while he thought it was interesting, he found it somewhat archaic. However, when he discovered how many people had been killed over the words printed on those pages, he knew that he needed to get in on the action. Using a false name, he forced his way into a local church and swiftly gained a following. When Sombra confronted Tirek about buying into the human’s religion, he had shut him down by saying, “It’s not about whether I believe in it. It’s about making those gullible creatures think I do.” Still, at least Tirek had a hobby, which was more than Tempest could say for Sombra.

The deposed King of the Crystal Empire, Sombra, was an insufferable, lazy, condescending ass, who had declared that any kind of manual labor was beneath him. Even the Changeling Queen Chrysalis managed to pick up a job as a relationship counselor, though in that case, it was a survival situation as, despite being in a different form, she still needed to feed on love. Sombra was completely content to freeload off of Baltan’s bottomless funds and relentlessly mocked his supposed comrades for their dissatisfaction with idleness. Damn cretin was about as bad as the Storm…

‘Grr! Why does this world make me think like this!?’ Tempest thought with a punch to her own face.

“Oh, don’t go doing that,” a familiar voice taunted, “I need you in top condition for what’s about to happen.”

Tempest looked at Fall and Baltan with a sneer, while the demon merely waved a bejeweled armband with her true, embarrassing Cutie Mark on it with a mocking grin.

Tempest sighed. It was time to get to work.

*////*

The sky over Sunset’s apartment had turned a dreary grey at about noon. Despite this, one former pony and her tiny alien friend conversed as though it were any other day.

“So, continuing from our previous discussion, what are the policies regarding technology acquired from alien invasions?” Twilight asked.

“That is considered rightly earned, and therefore allowed,” Taro replied.

“But why? Surely it would be better to have the technology destroyed if it's so dangerous.”

“Technology on its own is not dangerous, Twilight. It's the application of it that the danger comes from. Take the airplane, for example. It was invented to prove humans could fly but then decades later it became a tool for war. Even way back, humans made spears for hunting before using them on each other. However, we Ultras have been around long enough to notice an interesting phenomenon.”

“Which is?”

“The divide between the generations tends to lessen in the face of a common threat.”

That got Twilight’s attention, “Interesting. Why do you think that is?”

Taro thought about how he would explain his theory before an idea struck him, “Have you ever played archery tag, Twilight?”

“No, that sounds horrible.”

“Oh, no no, it’s perfectly safe. It’s just using bows with a ball on the ends of the arrows.”

“Oh, that actually sounds fun.”

“Indeed. Well, picture this scenario: there are two players. One has a bottomless quiver of ammunition and the other has only a few arrows. In order to tag his opponent, the one with limited ammo needs to find an angle to make the most of his resources. Tell me, what motivation does the player with infinite arrows have, when they can stay in one place firing at his opponent and eventually achieve the same result?”

“I see. Without an opponent to make advancement seem necessary, the older generation is content to tread water and stagnate, while casting stones at any advancements that are made.”

“Exactly. If both of those players had the same bottomless quiver, then they both would be fishing for any advantage they can get. It’s the same with human advancement. Whenever humans see an obstacle, they create something to overcome that obstacle. It started with their discovery of fire then the invention of the wheel and it went from there.”

Twilight put her hand to her chin in thought, “Hmm… Perhaps the presence of magic has a similarly stagnating effect on our world’s advancement.”

Before Taro could ask her what she meant, an explosion went off outside.

“What the- Wait! Twilight!” Taro called, following behind as she ran out the door.

Standing tall above the city, was a red-eyed colossus of blackened plate armor, with a double-sided trident in its right hand and a broadsword at its hip.

“Armored Darkness!” Taro cried, identifying the giant before them.

Twilight gulped. With a name like Armored Darkness, she doubted this giant was friendly. Despite the threatening name, however, the titan remained standing in place and slowly looked around. Finally, Armored Darkness walked over to one of the nearby buildings, drove its trident into the pavement, and just sat down.

“Why isn’t he attacking?” Twilight asked.

“I...I don’t know,” Taro answered. If this was one of Lugiel’s agents, they would start attacking to draw Sunset Shimmer out. No doubt, many people would notice a giant standing in the middle of the city like this. It wouldn’t be long until this got online.

“Maybe, maybe this is a good thing. If we can talk to him, maybe we can reason with him,” Twilight said hopefully. She learned how to be diplomatic and since becoming the Princess of Friendship, it was her job to encourage friendship.

“Are you going to try and befriend him?” Taro questioned.

“It’s in my title, after all,” Twilight Sparkle said confidently. Maybe they could end this without Sunset needing to fight.

*////*

Meanwhile, Sunset Shimmer was at her job. She worked part-time in the mall at a Japanese sushi restaurant as a waitress. The place paid well, for minimum wage, and she earned good tips from the patrons that came.

It was a quiet day and a good one. Nothing would happen to ruin her good mood.

“Breaking news. A black giant has appeared in the middle of the city.”

Sunset Shimmer nearly dropped her serving tray. She turned her attention to the TV that was set up on the wall of the restaurant.

“So far, all it has done is sit down and cause some road damage. We have no word yet on the government's plan to deal with this new crisis, but fortunately, it seems to be docile for the time being.”

“Yo, Sunset!” Rainbow called from the entrance.

Sunset wasn’t the only one who had been working this day. Rainbow had been at her job at the sporting goods shop elsewhere in the mall.

“Rainbow, have you seen the news?"

“I know, crazy right? So what’re ya gonna do about it?”

“I… I’m not sure. By now more things would be broken usually, but this one is just sitting there,” Sunset suddenly noticed Rainbow intensely staring at the screen. “What? What is it?”

Rainbows eyes widened, “Shit! Sunset, that’s only a few blocks away from Rarity’s shop!”

“WHAT!? Then what’re we standing around for, let’s go!”

“How?”

“What do you mean ‘how’?”

“My motorcycle was totaled even before Baltan."

“What!? But h… Zephyr?”

Rainbow nodded, “Damn jackass stole it to show off and nearly killed himself with it.”

Sunset exasperatedly rolled her eyes with a stressed groan. Just in time to see a particular shade of purple hair disappear around a corner.

“Hey,” Rainbow said, clapping Sunset on the back, “Rarity’s a smart girl, she’ll figure out a way to reach us.”

*////*

Rarity worked part-time at s boutique called Canterlot Carousel. It was her dream part-time job since she could provide fashion consultation for customers and make a good sale, which was good for her job experience and future resume. At this time, however, those seemed like very distant fantasies.

Rarity had been close to the various Spark Doll borne titans, true, but she had never wanted to see one mere meters from her place of work, and especially not one so ugly. The armored colossus was a top-heavy monstrosity of unnecessary back and shoulder plates, and uneven horns.

“I’m not against the Dark Lord Sombra look, but is it too much to ask for some symmetry?” Rarity pondered aloud before noticing a nearby taxi driver standing outside his vehicle. “Hello, Darling. I need to get to the Crystal Emporium Mall.”

“Lady, I don’t think this is the time for a shopping spree,” he replied.

‘Why, this absolute cretin,’ Rarity privately seethed with indignation as the man started to get back into his cab. “Oh, I’m sorry,” she said, stepping in to block the driver from closing the car door. “I meant to say: I will pay you double to take me there.”

“Sorry, no can do.”

“Triple! And that’s my final offer!”

Now, dollar signs flashed in the man’s eyes. He quickly got out and opened the door for her, acting like a gentleman.

“Hop right in,” the cab driver said before he slammed the door shut then ran into the driver’s seat to start the vehicle. “Buckle up, lady! It’s gonna be a bumpy ride!”

He stomped down on the accelerator as he pulled out and sped towards the mall.

*////*

Rarity arrived at the mall to the sight of the Apple family’s bus parked outside with the rest of the Gang standing around it.

“Look! There she is!” Trixie cried.

“See? I told you she would figure something out,” Rainbow said, pulling Sunset into a side hug.

“Yeah yeah,” Sunset waved off with an eye roll.

The cab came to a stop next to the bus, allowing a frazzled Rarity to throw herself out the door and onto the pavement, “Oh sweet, merciful Mother Earth! Never again shall I besmirch your soil in all its forms again!”

“Bumpy ride, Rares?” Applejack laughed.

Rarity fell deathly silent and slowly raised her head to glare at the farmer, in no mood for such jokes.

“Silence, you dirty hick,” she venomously hissed, silencing Applejack but allowing Rainbow to keep laughing, “You too, meathead.”

Rainbow clamped her mouth shut with an audible pop as she was pretty sure that Rarity was ready to stab someone. Sensing the atmosphere, Twilight decided to get things back on topic.

“Girls, would it be too much to ask that we deal with the giant suit of armor before turning on each other?” She asked.

Rarity held her glare a few moments more until she picked herself off the pavement and dusted herself off. Then a thought occurred to her, “Hang on, when did you get here, Twilight? Did Applejack pick you up?”

“Oh, no, Taro teleported me here. Turns out that having an alien on hoo -er- hand with that ability is pretty useful if you have no idea where you’re going,” Twilight explained while embarrassedly scratching the back of her head.

“I see, and where is our diminutive gentleman now?” Rarity asked

“He’s hiding out in the bus,” Wallflower replied, “Figured that a floating toy would look weird and really didn’t want to have to be held onto for the entire conversation.”

“Ah. Well then let’s not keep the dear waiting,” Rarity said as she straightened out her hair and (shakily) marched towards the bus.

*////*

‘Where is she? She should have shown up by now. I don’t want to start engaging in random destruction like some child throwing a tantrum with their build blocks. Wait, child? Oh no, I’ve gone native.”

Sitting inside of Armored Darkness, Tempest was suffering an abnormal amount of pre-battle nerves, wishing that Ultraman would just appear already.

‘Ugh. Why am I so jumpy? Not even my first battle got me this nervous.’

She raised her arm to look at the gem that now sat upon her wrist with a scowl.

‘I don’t know how, but this is somehow your fault.’

Tempest lowered her arm and blew out a breath.

‘Seriously, though, that kind of wanton destruction is beneath me. I am the proud captain of the Storm Guards damn it! Not some animal running through a glass shop! I led the campaign against the Hippogriffs, Celestia damn it! If I can handle that, I can handle this! I mean, my cause is just. Right?’

*////*

From inside the Apple Family’s bus, Sunset was staring at the report on her phone with intense scrutiny, as if the video would somehow answer all of her questions.

“I don’t get it,” Rainbow said, “Taro says that this Armored Darkness guy is, like, one of the baddest of the bad guys, but all he’s done is just sit there and scare everyone.”

“But we’re not fighting Armored Darkness. We’re fighting the person controlling it,” Twilight pointed out.

“The Great and Understanding Trixie gets that, but Dark Dummy Spark users have historically already broken something by now,” the performer countered.

“Hey, I was one and I never broke anything,” Pinkie pouted.

“Trixie’s sorry, allow her to correct herself... Broken something, or kidnapped someone,” the stage magician amended, earning a pout from the pink party girl.

“Regardless of the semantics, this is good,” Twilight said, drawing a confused look from Rainbow, “It means this user is different from the others! They can be reasoned with!”

“I’m not so sure about that,” Sunset countered.

“Why?”

“The previous users were like angry drunks at a bar throwing a tantrum and picking fights. This is more akin to an invitation to a duel,” Sunset explained.

“Oh, well then what’re ya waitin’ for? Get on out there and throttle him,” Applejack dismissively said only to be drop kicked by Taro, “Ow! What was that for?”

“That is a stupid idea and you should feel stupid for saying it. Let us never forget the many failures of Ultraman Leo from L77, many of which were brought down on him through improper training or lack of preparedness. We need to understand our foe before we can take action against Armored Darkness,” Taro explained.

“Great, so you know who’s driving him?” Rainbow sarcastically asked.

“Eh?”

“Well you seem to know something that we don’t, so I figured that you knew who was inside it,” Rainbow continued.

“But I don’t. What-?”

“While Rainbow could’ve been less mean about it,” Wallflower said with a glare, “She is right that we can’t even begin to make a plan if we don’t even know who’s inside Armored Darkness. While you’re knowledgeable about the real Armored Darkness’ powers and behaviors, but with someone else driving it, that information loses usefulness.”

“Which is why I’m watching my phone,” Sunset spoke up, “I’m trying to read his body language to see if I can get any sort of reading on the person inside.”

“And?” Twilight asked.

“I’m not an expert at this Twilight,” Sunset chided, “All he’s telling me is that he has a very specific target (me) and is unwilling to drag the entire city into it.”

“A professional, then. I can appreciate that,” Rarity said, while still fussing with her hair.

“Why do we keep calling it a ‘he’? He could be a she for all we know,” Pinkie said.

“‘It is dehumanizing,” Fluttershy hissed, not appreciating Pinkie’s phrasing.

“Hey, do you see a pair of tits on that thing!? That is a guy if I ever saw one!” Rainbow countered.

“That’s not a fair measure!” Trixie declared, “If that were true you would have a package between your legs as we speak.”

“Watch it!”

“Technically, being just a walking suit of armor would make Armored Darkness genderless, making ‘they’ the appropriate pronoun,” Twilight pondered.

Thankfully before the argument could continue, an alarm blared throughout the city.

“Time’s up,” Sunset gasped.

“What is that!?” Twilight cried, cringing from the noise.

“An air raid siren intended to alert citizens to an incoming bomb threat,” Taro explained.

“But it’s equally useful for announcing that the army is going to attack Armored Darkness and that all the people taking selfies around his feet need to leave,” Sunset finished.

“What!? Why!? They haven’t done anything!” Twilight shrieked.

“Actively done anything, Twilight. Just because no buildings have been knocked down doesn’t mean that his presence isn’t causing damage,” Rarity explained. “Traffic is a nightmare because all the vehicles have to be rerouted around Armored Darkness. Businesses grind to a halt because no one wants to work while he’s out there, and the bosses don’t want to face the lawsuits of any harm brought by keeping their employees at work. I can go on, but my point, Twilight, is that Armored Darkness doesn’t need to actively destroy things to do harm.”

“That’s gonna change mighty quick once the military shows up,” Applejack said.

“Right! What’s the hold up!? Get out there before they get here!” Rainbow ordered.

“Yes ma’am!” Sunset jokingly replied with a salute, then jumped out of the bus and disappeared in a flash of light.

*////*

ULTRA LIVE! ULTRAMAN GINGA!

Ginga rose above the buildings in a relaxed posture, hoping to be as non-confrontational as possible. Tempest raised her head to look at the Ultra, causing Armored Darkness to do the same.

“Well, finally decided to come out, huh? Sunset Shimmer, right?” Tempest asked.

“You know me?” Sunset replied.

“How could I not? Fall won’t shut up about you.”

“Yeah that’s fair,” Sunset laughed, “Who are you?”

“The name’s Tempest Shadow. I’m the captain of the Storm King’s army, well, when I was back in Equestria anyway. Don’t know how true that is now.”

“Oh, so you’re one of the Equestrians that Fall recruited. How have you managed to fly under the radar for so long?”

“Her alien lapdog is a damn good counterfeiter. It can produce all the documentation and money you could ever need.”

Sunset nodded her head in understanding, “You’re not like the other Dummy Spark users, they’d usually be rampaging by now. So, what’s your story?”

Tempest scoffed then stood Armored Darkness upright, “All you need to know is, I was promised the return of something I lost in exchange for my service. And I intend to reclaim it.”

Armored Darkness reached over and pulled its trident from the asphalt, then went into a combat stance with a twirl of its weapon. Ginga responded by slowly entering his own fighting stance, prompting a quirked eyebrow from Tempest.

“You’re going to fight me without a weapon?” She asked.

“Ginga’s not much of a weapon user normally,” Sunset replied.

“Fine by me!” Tempest cried, charging Armored Darkness forward, trident upraised.

The walking armor opened the first engagement with an overhead swing then smoothly transitioned into a thrust, but Ginga dodged both and backflipped over a leg sweep. Upon landing, the two giants began circling each other

“So, what did you lose? What could possibly drive a girl like you to serve someone that by all accounts is a tyrant?” Sunset asked.

Tempest scoffed, “An over-privileged noble like you would never understand.”

Armored Darkness dashed in with a thrust and horizontal swipe, but Ginga nimbly dodged both and threw a kick that the walking armor blocked with its weapon, causing it to stumble back.

“Overprivileged noble? What are you talking about? You have control of an entire army. I was just a street rat that got too much power, too quickly,” Sunset resumed.

“I didn’t ask for your life story,” Tempest countered.

Armored Darkness closed in once more with a diagonal cut into a low waist swing, but Ginga dodged the first attack and parried the second with a kick. Using the momentum from the Ultra’s parry, the black armor pirouetted around for a back-handed leg sweep, but the Giant of Light jumped onto its weapon to pin it; then used a left knee to loosen its grip, then a right straight kick to make the metal giant let go of its trident, and sending it rolling down the street. Ginga picked up the trident and broke it over his knee as he looked at the now kneeling Armored Darkness.

“I see now,” Tempest cryptically said.

“Huh?”

“Ginga isn’t normally a weapon user because he’s nimble enough to make them unnecessary. Meanwhile, my Armored Darkness is held back by its greater weight, likely owing to the unneeded additions to its armor,” Tempest explained as the armor in question stood back up, flexing as if in demonstration.

“Does that mean you’re going to give up now?” Sunset asked despite already knowing the answer.

“No. I still have to work off my debt, and I have the means to do just that,” Tempest replied, raising her left wrist to reveal a new wristband.

“Another one!?” Sunset gasped, “Tempest, you know what one of those things did to Adagio!”

“I told you, Sunset, I lost something important to me, and by every god of here and Equestria, I am going to get it back!” Tempest brought the tip of her Dark Dummy Spark to her wristband.

Just as with Adagio before her, the Dark Dummy Spark shattered to dust in a swirling vortex of shadow, yet unlike the elder siren, Tempest didn’t make a sound. She refused to show how much this fusion actually hurt to Sunset, even as the darkness took her entirely.

Eventually, the cyclone dispersed followed by a series of crashes as Armored Darkness’ back and shoulder armor dropped off alongside its helm. Standing in its place, was a slimmer, more feminine armor that was black in color with a purple tint. The most striking feature, however, was the armor’s new helm which now depicted a unicorn with...

“A broken horn. So that’s what you were so desperate to replace,” Sunset mused.

“I suppose it’s useless to hide it at this point,” Tempest unexpectedly said.

“Wait, what? YOU’RE LUCID!?”

“Looks that way,” Tempest said while inspecting her new form.

Armored Tempest

Fused Dark Storm Knight

“But how!? The last one drove Adagio into a feral rage!”

“I know. I understand that these things are still a work in progress.”

“These things? How many of them are there!?”

“Dunno, but I think that you should worry more about the present,” Tempest said, then drew the broadsword that hung on her hip and pointed it at Ginga. “Draw your sword, Sunset Shimmer!”

“I would rather not,” Sunset said but activated the Harmony Brace anyway.

ELEMENTS OF HARMONY! POWER TO GINGA!

GINGA HARMONY!

“But I see that you don’t want to let this go,” Sunset continued while spinning the dial to the image of Twilight’s Cutie Mark.

ELEMENT OF MAGIC! POWER TO GINGA!

Ginga Harmony reached for the Zenshin Crystal on his head to draw the Twilight Slugger and then assumed a fencing stance. Tempest raised her own sword into a fighting stance, but Sunset noticed that she was putting a disproportionate amount of weight on her back foot. A rookie mistake for someone apparently so talented. Unless…

“Hey, could I ask a question?” Sunset asked.

“Stop talking and fight me!” Tempest demanded, then advanced with a swing that was easily blocked by Ginga.

Rather than break the engagement, Ginga used the blade lock as leverage to pivot into a thrust, but Tempest deflected and, without breaking the lock; pivoted into her own thrust, which Ginga deflected and made a cut at Tempest’s head, that was twisted around into a counter chop. This finally forced Ginga to break off the engagement with a twirl of his blade, nearly throwing Tempest’s broadsword from her hands, and resetting their positions.

“I can do both,” Sunset calmly said as Ginga and Tempest began another engagement, “Why the Storm Guard? What was stopping you from enrolling in, say, the Royal Guard?”

“How many broken horns do you see in the Royal Guard?” Tempest asked while pressing her attack.

“Fair point, but did you even try?” Sunset asked, while Ginga hopped back out of the way of another swipe and lightly tapped Tempest on the head with the Twilight Slugger.

“I would’ve been laughed out of recruitment the moment they saw me.”

“How could you know that if you didn’t even make the attempt?”

“I’m sorry, did Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns get renamed while I was away?” Ginga actually stumbled from the particularly nasty attack that came with that comment.

Sunset sucked in through her teeth, ‘I can’t exactly argue that Celestia didn’t pick a name that communicates favoritism. I need to press a different angle.’

“You know, Tempest, the Storm King has no intention of fixing your horn.”

“Horseapples! He has to!” Tempest raged, “That old yeti promised me!”

“Yeti!? Tempest there is no ‘miracle cure’ for a broken horn, like yours, and even if there was, a not magically gifted race like the yetis are not going to be the ones to provide it!”

“STOP TRYING TO CONFUSE ME!”

“Trust me when I say that you require no help from me to come off as confused and uncertain.”

“MY MIND IS PERFECTLY CLEAR!”

“No, it isn’t, and do you know how I can tell?” Sunset asked as Ginga blocked another attack from Tempest, then closed in and swept her legs out from under her, sending Tempest onto her back. “For starters, you put too much weight on your back foot, which is the mark of either a noob or a lack of confidence. Second, your attacks lack speed and power, meaning that I have plenty of warning about what you’re about to do. Third, you’ve already been beaten multiple times over the course of this fight, despite being a professional soldier fighting an amateur fencer. I could keep going, Tempest, but I think I’ll save us both the time and tell you what I think is really going on here.”

“No,” Tempest weakly pleaded as she attempted to stand back up only to be stopped by the Twilight Slugger being pointed at her throat.

“So, you’re born. You spend a decent bit of your childhood as a normal unicorn filly until disaster strikes, some event breaks your horn. Now, the other kids taunt you and bully you.”

“Stop!” Tempest cried, slapping the Twilight Slugger away and scrambling to her feet.

“But oh, you don’t like that, you turn mean, you start picking fights with everyone around you. Eventually, all that fighting makes you so physically strong that your broken horn stops being an issue, yet despite this, you continue to hide behind it like a shield to justify your actions.”

“Shut your mouth!” Tempest snapped as she launched into a blind flurry of attacks, desperate to silence her opponent.

“You travel far and wide trying to find a remedy that just doesn’t exist until, one day, you come across the Storm King. Your abilities impress him, so he gives you an offer. Serve him, and he will fix up your horn. Now any reasonable pony would ask, ‘what’s the catch?’ But after all the ridicule you’d faced up to this point, you’ve internalized it, made your disability your entire identity, so you jump on the offer and quickly climbed through the ranks, hoping that, someday, you could take your revenge on all those naysayers.”

“Stop talking!” Tempest cried one final time as she launched her last desperate attack, but Ginga swung his own sword and shattered her blade.

Tempest could only stare at her broken weapon with absolute despair. She had failed. Her legs began to shake as the horror strangled her heart, sending her to her hands and knees. All Tempest could do now was wait for Sunset and Ginga to finish her off.

“But then, something weird happened,” Sunset suddenly continued in a voice of motherly patience, drawing Tempest’s eyes back to Ginga who was, shockingly, dismissing the Twilight Slugger. “One day, a hairless ape and her alien walk out of a portal, and whisk you and your boss off to another world. She tells you that you and Storm King need to carry out a job for her. However, over time, this world starts doing something to you. There is no magic or horns for one, and the natives don’t care that you have neither, they treat you like just one of them. They don’t mock you, they’re mostly kind to you, maybe you even start unconsciously forming attachments with some of them. Thing is, after everything you went through in Equestria, you no longer knew how to handle such basic kindness, and without acceptable targets to lash out at, you started to question yourself, which drives you crazy.”

“Shut up! What could you know about being hated!?” Tempest accused, but her voice betrayed that she was trying not to cry.

“Quite a bit, actually,” Sunset replied while kneeling Ginga down to look Tempest in the eyes. “I first came here looking to get revenge on Princess Celestia. Now, I won’t say that I was completely unjustified in my anger, especially after her behavior during our reunion last Christmas, but I shouldn’t have dragged two worlds into it. My first year in this world was a wondrous time as I got the hang of the way it worked, but as time went on, I became cruel, I lied to and stole from people. You can actually see the transition in pictures on the walls of Canterlot High School and they’re not even hidden either.

“After Twilight and her friends hit me with their friendship laser the people that I used to torment very quickly made their displeasure known. For months I was insulted, pushed around, and ignored, even by the people who were supposed to be my friends. By the time the Dazzlings showed up I was an insecure wreck marching her way towards an eventual mental breakdown. It took beating the sirens to finally get everyone to understand that I truly wanted to change. Well, I mean, there was Anon-A-Miss last winter, but I don’t really count that since I was distracted by the Ultraman stuff to get hung up about it.”

“Get to your point!” Tempest snapped.

“My point is, Tempest, you will never be liked, if you never show anything to like,” Sunset said. “If you rise to every insult with violence you’ll only succeed in making people avoid and fear you, thereby further isolating yourself. If you want friends, you have to show that you’re worth being a friend.”

“SHUT UP!!!” Tempest roared as she willed her monstrous body to attack Ginga but the Ultraman instead grabbed Armored Tempest in a hug.

“Open your heart, Tempest,” Sunset advised as she spun the dial on her Harmony Bracer to show Fluttershy’s symbol.

ELEMENT OF KINDNESS! POWER TO GINGA!

“Ginga Warmth,” Sunset calmly said as a warm, comforting light spread from Ginga into Armored Tempest, causing Tempest to feel a sensation akin to a mother’s loving embrace as she began to stop struggling.

“It’s not fair,” Tempest sobbed out.

“Life rarely is, Tempest. But here, at least, you can try to even the odds,” Sunset replied as Armored Tempest began dissolving to nothing.

When the last of Armored Tempest blew away, Ginga stood up while cradling a small light in his hand that he then floated it over to Sunset’s friends. When the light was close enough to the Gang it dissipated to reveal Tempest Shadow sleeping on the street, prompting the group to gather around her.

Nodding at another job well done, Ginga looked up and took off into the sky.

*////*

On a rooftop, Fall was unleashing quite a colorful collection of swears over the results of her latest plot’s failure. Standing a distance away from this epic tantrum was Baltan passively watching it happen, thankful for its lack of emotion.

After she finally ran out of energy to keep her anger going, Fall opened up her research notes and began scribbling.

Everfree Geodes: Second Field Test Results

Results corrupted

While the subject retained their intelligence, psychological barriers restrained the amount of power the subject was willing to bring to bear. This made accurate readings impossible to acquire, thus invalidating the experiment

Fall suddenly felt something hit her hand, followed by dampness. Another droplet landed on her head followed by a distant roll of thunder, drawing her eyes to the darkening clouds in the sky.

“It’s a sign,” Fall whispered, “It’s a sign! HAHAHA! Someone up there is looking out for me today!”

Baltan tilted its head and looked up to the sky.

“Not literally, you dumbass!” Fall growled to her cohort, “Come on, I know exactly who to bring in next.”

Baltan watched as Fall began walking away, took a last look at the sky, shrugged, then teleported the pair.

*////*

After Sunset changed back, the Gang retreated to the redhead’s apartment, where they were filled in on Tempest Shadow.

“That’s terrible,” Twilight sighed as Sunset finished her story. “Facing so much ridicule for something outside her control, that she turned to a tyrant in an effort to fix it.”

“Right. So, this is gonna sound really insensitive, but could you two explain it in a way that us non-unicorns can understand?” Rainbow asked.

Twilight opened her mouth to answer, but Sunset, feeling an incoming lecture, cut her off. “It’s sort of like this. If you were to lose both your legs or if Applejack were to lose both her hands, you’d be able to get prosthetics to fill in that gap. Sure it’ll never be like before, but you still have them. Are you with me so far?” A series of nods answered her, though she did notice that Applejack was now hiding her hands. “Well in Equestria it’s the same way. You can get a prosthetic for just about everything, even wings so pegasi can still fly. The only thing that you can’t get a prosthetic for is a unicorn horn.”

“Oh no! Why?” Fluttershy asked.

“Why not?” Sunset scoffed, “What you have to understand is that not every unicorn is created equal in Equestria. Every single unicorn has a different magical signature from each other, as well as different strength levels, even different whorl severity. There are just too many factors to consider to make prosthetic horns even close to feasible.”

“I could’ve told them that,” Twilight pouted.

“Not without an extensive lecture and several charts and graphs,” Trixie jeered.

“But those are important!” Twilight whined.

“No, Twilight, they really aren't,” Taro answered, earning another pout from the princess.

“So, what happens when a unicorn breaks their horn?” Wallflower asked.

“Tough to say, given how reports so wildly vary,” Sunset answered. “Effects could range from as minor as occasional lightheadedness to outright self-destruction, but the most common symptom is random, uncontrollable, violent outbursts of magic.”

“Yeah, we know a thing or two about those,” Applejack said with a cheeky wink at Sunset.

“Point, but it’s a bit worse than anything me, the Dazzlings, or even Fall could do. It’s like having a gun for an arm, but you have absolutely no control of when it fires or who it hurts. Picture us just sitting in class only my arm suddenly goes ‘bang!’ and caps the person in front of me. That’s the sort of danger I’m talking about.”

“Oh,” Applejack replied, suddenly finding her joke in poor taste.

Pinkie coughed awkwardly, “So, like, what now?”

“What do you mean, Pinkie?” Rarity asked.

“Well, we got her here, but what are we supposed to do with her?” Pinkie asked, indicating the sleeping Tempest Shadow on Sunset’s couch.

The smile that Sunset answered with was one that the entire room hoped that they would never see on their friend’s face again.

“Oh, Pinkie,” she said. “Oh, Pinkie, Pinkie, Pinkie. Ye of little faith. What we have here, is a girl who has been bullied for most of her life, likely has few friends, and most importantly, never had a slumber party.”

Pinkie’s hair began making an admirable attempt to turn into a black hole with how hard it started curling. “You mean!?”

“Yep! It’s party time!”

To Be Moral

At Fall’s lair, two men lounged around a low-quality television, long since having stopped watching in favor of sleeping. One was white-skinned with matching white hair and wore a black tank top and black sweatpants. This man was the infamous Equestrian tyrant: the Storm King.

However, if one were to look upon him now, they would see very little that could be called “kingly”. Ever since arriving in the human world, all ambition seemed to have drained out of him and his body showed it. The formerly fit torso and arms that he once possessed had begun sagging from disuse. Copious amounts of cheap beer had wreaked havoc on his waistline and his beard had grown long and unkempt, and various stains marked his clothes. Indeed, he had completely let himself go in this world, a far cry from the feared monster of Equestria.

Someone was about to reawaken the monster.

The Staff of Sacanas suddenly landed on Storm King’s chest awakening him with a start.

“Hey, what the fu-!” He was cut off by a Spark Doll and Dark Dummy Spark also landing in his lap.

“Get up, you’re on. I’ve attached your geode to the Staff of Sacanas to give you enough power to affect the weather,” Fall explained. “Baltan will take you to the highest point in Canterlot.
Once you’re there, you’re going to charge up the shower out there into the single biggest storm in this city’s history. And you better not let me down lard-ass or you may find your life getting very short. Dismissed.”

“Now just wait a mo-!” Storm King never got a chance to finish what he was saying as Baltan grabbed him and teleported away.

A groan from the couch announced the other man in the room joining the conversation, “Do you think he can do it?”

This man had short jet black hair gelled into a slicked-back business style. It used to be a mullet style but Fall had forced him to get rid of it due to “making him stand out and old”, though she had, begrudgingly, allowed him to keep the sideburns. His skin was grey and, unlike Storm King, he actually made an attempt to maintain a degree of fitness as shown by his shirtless chest, though he still insisted on wearing his kingly red and white cape. This was the, until recently, late tyrant of the Crystal Empire: King Sombra.

"No clue. He had motivation and a new world to conquer, yet when he discovered all the distractions the humans had, he allowed himself to slip off the wagon,” Fall replied.

“Perhaps then it would have been more prudent to collect us only after you were fully prepared?”

Heat began radiating from Fall’s hair, “Careful Sombra. My kind has been around long before you were born, and I intend to be around long after. And if I have to remove you from the picture to make that happen, I will.”

“Temper, temper, Fall. I wouldn’t dare act against you while you have that amulet and alien hanging off of you,” Sombra placated.

“Good,” Fall hissed then stormed out of the room.

Sombra, however, had been studying her throughout their brief exchange, ‘So, you’re in a hurry. Interesting. What could be so dire that you couldn’t wait to collect us?’

*////*

Tempest remembered the day when her whole life took a turn. The day she lost her horn. It had started like any other, just her and a few little fillies playing with a ball. So then why? Why was it on that day did that damn ball end up in an Ursa Minor’s cave? Why was she dumb enough to volunteer herself to go fetch it? And why, of all possible outcomes, did it leave her with her wretched existence without her horn?

The sound of voices finally forced Tempest Shadow out of her unconscious state. Opening her eyes, she found herself not in the city but on a bed in an apartment of some kind. As she pushed herself upright, Tempest began taking note of her surroundings. It was a really nice apartment. Going by the railings that were wrapped with what appeared to be Hearthswarming lights, she appeared to be on a balcony-like second floor.

Picking herself up from the bed, Tempest made her way over to the railing to find that she could see the entire living room. She also saw that there was an awful lot of pink, though that might be due to the pink girl currently in her face. Wait...

“There’s the party girl!” The girl shrieked directly into Tempest’s face.

Now Tempest would never scream in fear, but she did sharply inhale and stumble back onto the bed.

“Damn it Pinkie, she can’t have a good time if she’s dead!” A voice coming up the stairs yelled, revealing itself to be Sunset Shimmer.

"Where have you taken me?" Tempest kept her guard up. These girls were enemies, after all. At least according to Fall.

“Welcome to my humble little abode,” Sunset answered.

"Am I your prisoner now?"

"No, silly! You're our special guest!" Pinkie dismissed.

“Your… Guest?” Tempest asked completely bewildered.

“Yeah! Now come on, everyone’s waiting for you!”

Tempest could only stammer as the girl, apparently named Pinkie, pulled her towards the stairs. Upon reaching the first step, she noticed that the living area below was absolutely packed with people that, upon seeing her began applauding her. Tempest burst into a furious blush from the attention these strangers were giving her and went ramrod stiff as she was guided down to the waiting girls.

Tempest expected some kind of interrogation,

“Darling, it is such a pleasure to make your acquaintance,” a beautiful indigo haired, white-skinned teen girl greeted as Tempest reached the group. The girl then reached her hand out to Tempest who retreated away from it, “Come now, don’t be a stranger. This party is for you after all.”

“Me? Party?” Tempest asked.

“Damn right!” The blue-skinned, rainbow-haired girl cheered.

“Um girls, perhaps we should introduce ourselves first so we don’t overwhelm her?” A yellow-skinned girl softly asked.

“Oh, yes! Where are my manners? Ahem, my name is Rarity Belle. I’m one of the designers at the Canterlot Carousel,” the white girl now identified as Rarity said.

“You say that as if it’s supposed to mean something to me,” Tempest awkwardly said, feeling very uncomfortable in her current situation.

Rarity sighed, “No, I suppose it wouldn’t. Anyhow, you’ve already met Sunset and Pinkie Pie.”

“That’s me!” Pinkie chirped with a giggle.

“As for the others… Actually, why don’t I let them introduce themselves?” Rarity said as she led Tempest further into the group.

Seemingly taking this as her cue a muscular orange-skinned girl with blonde hair grabbed Tempest’s hand and viciously shook it, “Well howdy! Name’s Applejack. Ah hope we become real good friends.”

A cyan-skinned girl with rainbow hair quickly threw in with a shit-eating grin, “Rainbow Dash, and I hope we become even better friends!”

As Applejack and Rainbow began getting into a bizarre argument, the adorable yellow-skinned girl softly said, “I’m Fluttershy. I hope you have fun.”

Now an entirely green girl approached her, “Hello, my name’s Wallflower Blush, though I guess I’m not much of a wallflower now am I?”

“Indeed you’re not, and we love you for it. As forrr,” a white-haired girl began before noticing Sunset’s glare, “I am the Great and Totally Not A Pyromaniac Trixie.”

A Spark Doll suddenly flew into Tempest’s vision, “And I am Taro! Ultraman Taro!”

“You can talk?’ Tempest asked.

The bravado that the little Ultra had shown instantly deflated as he floated off to sulk.

“Hey, where’s Twilight?” Sunset asked.

“She just went to the bathroom “ Pinkie answered, “She’ll be out in a moment.”

As if her very name was able to summon her, the faint sound of a toilet flushing and a door opening announced the appearance of the last member of Sunset’s group. Once Tempest could actually see her, her eyes widened and she froze with a slight tremor. While Sunset did pick up on this, she opted to not press her on the subject in the interest of maintaining the friendly atmosphere.

“Twilight, your hands,” Sunset warned.

“What? Oh!” The purple girl turned back into the bathroom followed by the sound of the sink running before reemerging. “Sorry. Oh, you’re awake. I’m Princess Twilight Sparkle, I’m from Equestria like you.”

Tempest let out a relieved sigh for some reason but didn’t allow the tension to leave her shoulders. After all, she was in the spider’s web at this very moment.

"Is this some kind of strange interrogation technique? You have me drop my guard and I just say whatever you want?” Tempest asked, still unsure what to make of this situation.

“Nope!” Pinkie chirped, “Well, I mean, we wouldn’t be opposed to some oversharing, but that’s not what we’re here for.”

“Yeah!” Rainbow cheered, “We’re here to show ya a fun time.”

“All you have to do is let us,” Twilight finished.

Tempest continued to fidget. These people were trying so damn hard to make her feel welcome and here she was making it harder on them to do so. It may have just been the Equestrian in her currently human body, but the thought of all that effort going to waste put a horrible, gnawing sensation in the pit of her stomach that ground away at her resolve.

“I suppose, I can try,” Tempest finally relented to the uproarious cheering of the room.

*////*

“Make a big storm she says. Make it the biggest the city has ever had she says. But does she ask if I know how? No. Now I’m on this big ass tower, in the freezing fricken’ rain, trying to make a glorified magic twig do a thing.”

Storm King was not pleased. Months of lethargy had eroded his skill with the Staff of Sacanas to the point that he struggled to even create so much as a spark from it.

“Come on, do something!” He fumed, “I did not take all those lands in Equestria just to lose to a stick!”

With growing frustration Storm King began violently shaking his staff which began sparking intermittently.

“Grrraaaahhhh! Start damn you!” He said with a mighty cry and swung the Staff of Sacanas into the antenna that crowned the skyscraper.

The moment the staff came into contact with the metal, magical electricity lept from it into the antenna and arced throughout the structure. With a sound akin to a tesla coil firing off, the energy coalesced into a ball at the top of the antenna.

“Wha-?” Storm King began before the ball of lightning shot off into the clouds with a sharp crack.

For a moment it seemed that this unintentional spell had done nothing but then the clouds began to flash with lightning and the wind started picking up speed.

“Well look at that. Who says getting angry never solved anything,” Storm said with a shit-eating grin before several cracks of thunder forced him to seek shelter.

*////*

Since Tempest had agreed to the slumber party, the Gang had wasted no time bringing up the party to full speed. However, despite this, Tempest had spent most of her time hiding away in a corner, and only occasionally joining in on whatever conversation was happening at any given time.

From her position watching Applejack and Rainbow compete in the fighting game Super Backstreet Fighter IV, Sunset finally had enough and approached Tempest.

“Hey, you okay?” Sunset asked.

Tempest flinched as if she had been suddenly woken up from a nap, “What? Y-yeah. Why-why would you think I wasn’t?”

“Because you’re sitting here in the corner avoiding everyone?” Sunset said plainly.

Tempest’s face fell, “I’m that obvious huh?”

Sunset sucked in a breath, “Yeah.”

“Ugh, I’m sorry. I know you all tried so hard to make me feel welcome, and here I am, ruining the mood,” Tempest said with a sigh.

“Well I wouldn’t say that you’re bringing the mood down, but it doesn’t really feel like you’re putting forth much of an effort to involve yourself in it.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. Everyone has their own pace after all. I just wish you would insert yourself more freely.”

“Okay, I’ll try.”

While Tempest said that, Sunset wasn’t convinced that she would actually take the suggestion to heart, so she changed up her approach.

"So, what is my evil twin planning?" Sunset asked.

"I'll answer your questions if you answer mine," Tempest replied.

"Sounds fair," Sunset shrugged.

"How did you become chosen?"

"To be Ginga?"

"Fall described you as someone who did terrible things for the sake of ambition."

Sunset became uncomfortable at that particular statement. It wasn’t that Fall was wrong strictly speaking, but… “I… I don’t know.”

By this point, the rest of the apartment had taken an interest in Sunset and Tempest’s conversation.

“What!?” Rainbow exclaimed, “How could you not know if you were a bad guy?”

“I wasn’t saying I wasn’t Rainbow,” Sunset said placatingly, “Everything up to Princess Celestia catching me in the restricted section of the Royal Archives? I know for a fact that was all me. I thought that everything leading up to the Fall Formal was also me, but now? That I know Fall was there?”

“You’re wondering how much of it was you and how much of it was just Fall pulling your strings,” Twilight concluded.

“Hm, yes. That would give a girl a bit of a complex,” Rarity conceded.

“Yeah, didn’t think of it like that, sorry,” Rainbow winced.

“It’s okay, you didn’t know,” Sunset said.

Tempest cleared her throat, “While that’s all interesting stuff, it doesn’t answer my actual question. Why did Ginga choose you to wield him, even though he had so many better options native to this world?”

Sunset scratched her head, “I still don’t know, I think he wants me to figure that out naturally rather than just telling me. Maybe it’s because he saw something in me.”

“What though? What was so special about you that he couldn’t find among the native humans?”

“If I knew that, don’t you think I would’ve told you. Now your turn, tell us what Fall’s up to.”

“Very well. Fall’s plan is… that I can’t tell you.”

“WHAT!? COME ON!” Rainbow shrieked in frustration.

“Yeah! That meanie pants can’t touch you here,” Pinkie said.

“It’s not her that I’m keeping quiet over, it’s…” Tempest’s eyes quickly darted around the apartment.

“Ah. Well even then you should still be safe here,” Sunset attempted.

“Seeing as how he was capable of telekinetically grabbing my heart and preventing it from beating for the longest minute of my life. And knows what we’re doing at all times, like when he nearly killed Storm King for attempting to escape, I would rather not risk saying anything that would draw his wrath,” Tempest replied.

The Gang was in shock. To think that Dark Lugiel was that paranoid about his secrets that he would kill for them? It suddenly put the whole incident with the Aliens Icarus and Metron in perspective. Lugiel didn’t care if they were exposed, to him they were expendable. He only cared if it was his plans on the line and if Tempest started oversharing while talking about Fall...

Well, they would rather not be responsible for someone dying today.

“Well, what about you then?” Pinkie asked.

“Huh?”

“Well if telling us about Fall is too big an order, just tell us about yourself,” Pinkie said to Tempest.

As Tempest began stammering the rest of the Gang began joining in.

“An excellent idea Pinkie Pie,” Taro praised.

“I’m not sure I’m comfortable with this,” Tempest attempted, but the storm had begun and could not be stopped.

“What is there to be uncomfortable about, Darling? We’re just some girls and Taro, trying to learn about a new friend,” Rarity tittered.

“So what, I’m not entitled to have my secrets?”

“Shucks, girl, we’re all family here. You don’t got to hide anythin’ from us,” Applejack said, pointedly ignoring a cough from Sunset.

“I’m not your family,” Tempest’s hissed, her patience starting to strain.

“That’s just Applejack, don’t take her so seriously,” Rainbow handwaved.

“Yeah, what she said!” Trixie said. "But AJ has a point. Friends are like family."

"'Friends are like family'? Are you serious?" Tempest snapped. "Let me tell you about my friends! Glitter Drops and Spring Rain were my best friends! We did everything together! Then one day they just turned their backs on me! And why? Because my horn broke! They did not want to be associated with a cripple since it would look bad for them! If friends are like family, then they were a terrible one!"

Sunset’s eyes widened, “Wait, wait, wait! I know of those ponies! They were at Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns! I had classes with them!”

“Tisch, I knew it. They forgot all about me,” Tempest scoffed.

“Tempest, they dropped out!”

Tempest’s eyes widened, “What?”

“They dropped out partway through the school year.”

“LIAR!”

“It’s true! It was like, one day everything was normal, then our teacher just comes out and says that we’re losing two classmates. My bratty ass of course didn’t understand how they could do that at the time, but I think they didn’t want to make you feel worse than you already did.”

“That’s not true! If it was, they would have spoken to me before they left.”

“What could they say!? Tell me, Tempest, what they could possibly say to make your situation better!?” Sunset was beginning to lose patience with Tempest’s self-loathing.

Tempest stammered for a moment before settling on the worst answer she could have given, “Well maybe Glitter should’ve gotten her own ball out of that ursa minor’s cave!”

“So you would rather have let one of your friends go into that cave and lose their horn instead, or worse?” Sunset asked.

CRACK!!!

Tempest’s mind shattered. Every excuse she made, every horrid deed she committed, left utterly pointless.

CRACK!!!

Her foalhood friends left heartbroken and wondering where she had gone.

CRACK!!!

And none of it would ever have happened if she hadn’t got hung up on her damn horn.

“Glitter, I’m so sorry,” Tempest whimpered then covered her face as she began sobbing.

“I… I think we broke her,” Pinkie said sadly.

CRACK!!!

“Okay, what the hell is up with the lightning!?” Rainbow snarled.

“It’s not just the lightning. The storm itself is gaining strength too quickly,” Sunset said.

“You mean-?” Twilight started.

“It has to be magically charged,” Sunset concluded.

Just as Sunset said that every phone in the apartment began blaring a hurricane alert.

“Why now?” Fluttershy moaned, “Can’t we just have a moment to comfort the crying girl?”

“Afraid not,” Sunset said then kneeled in front of Tempest, “Tempest?” Tempest didn’t respond so Sunset placed her hands on the sides of her face, “Tempest listen to me. I know that you’re going through a crisis right now, but I need your help now. Do you know of anyone who can magically charge a storm?” Tempest stammered and gasped through her tears, still feeling terrible, “Tempest, breathe! If I don’t figure out how to stop this storm a lot of people are going to get hurt or worse.”

That seemed to finally break through to Tempest as she closed her eyes and focused on her breathing. When she opened her eyes she calmly said, “Storm King. That lying yeti bastard was obsessed with storms, even claimed, ‘I’m a storm that is a king.’ If anyone was going to make a superstorm, it would be him.”

Sunset gave a thankful smile, “Thank you. Do you know where I can find him?”

Tempest shook her head, “I’m sorry, I don’t. In our time here the only thing he’s done is vegetate in front of the TV. If he’s not doing that, it means he was forced out.”

“Then perhaps I can help,” Taro said.

“How?” Sunset asked.

“Ultraman Jack was powerful enough to turn back a tsunami and destroyed a tornado generated by a mated pair of monsters by spinning against the wind. If you turn into Ginga, then go straight to Ginga Harmony, Storm King might think you’re going to use a counterspell, forcing him to stop you.”

‘How is it that I still manage to be surprised by these guys?’ Sunset thought, filing away that particular bit of information for later, “Well, it’s not like I have any other ideas. Keep the party going, I’ll be right back.”

Without another word, Sunset ran out of her apartment into the rain before being consumed by light.

*////*

At Storm King’s perch, the former yeti had worked up the nerve to step back out onto the roof and was now performing an old yeti jig. Suddenly, a flash of light and distant crash drew his attention to Ultraman Ginga, who now stood above the city.

“Haha! You think you do anything about this storm Ultraman!? Go ahead and try! All the power you can muster cannot budge this storm,” Storm proudly boasted.

He couldn’t tell whether or not Ginga heard him, but all the same, the Ultra flashed a second time enhancing himself to Ginga Harmony. Storm King didn’t know how much more powerful this form was, but he was unwilling to give Ginga a chance to find out.

“No,” Storm King hissed, “This is my storm Ultraman. And I will not let you take it from me!”

In a single smooth motion Storm King brandished his Spark Doll and touched its foot to the Dark Dummy Spark.

DARK LIVE! ELEKING!

The monster launched itself out of the dark cloud it was spawned from and tackled the surprised Ginga Harmony partway into a building. Eleking stood back up and slapped Ginga across the face with its right hand but Ginga blocked the following left slap, punched the monster in the collar bone, kneed it in the side, then braced his foot against its chest and pushed it off.

Eleking stumbled back but in an instant, it charged again but the Ultra hopped to the side while delivering a chop to its head, sending it completely through the partially destroyed building. With the monster now down, Ginga bent over, grabbed its absurdly long tail, and lifted while spinning for a few revolutions before throwing Eleking across several blocks.

Now having some distance, Sunset was finally able to take stock of her opponent, “This thing feels like trying to punch out a rubber chicken crossed with a basset hound.”

“Explain?” Ginga asked.

“Saggy and rubbery.”

“Ah, I see. The monster is called Eleking, the weapon of choice of the Alien Pitt. Do not allow Storm King to get its tail around us, it carries a powerful electric charge.”

“Explains the rubber then. Hold on here he comes again,” Sunset said as Eleking stood back up.

Eleking shook its fists while screeching in rage then fired out a trio of Light Blades at Ginga, but the Ultra easily destroyed them with precise strikes then charged. The alien monster matched Ginga’s charge but was stopped by the Ultra’s hand bracing against its head, then the Warrior of Light followed up with a couple of chops and an elbow to the back of its head before finishing with a vertical suplex.

Both fighters sprung back onto their feet and went at each other for another engagement. Eleking swung wildly with its right arm but Ginga blocked the swing while punching it away at the same time, ducked under the left swipe while punching it in the gut, then launched into a blindingly fast series of punches to the monster’s chest. Eleking managed to catch Ginga’s wrists but the Giant just kicked the alien titan in the side twice then used a push kick to escape the grapple.

Eleking staggered back then spun around to bring its tail to bear but Ginga gracefully jumped backwards over it, flipped around, and delivered a flying dropkick to the bioweapon’s head, knocking it over. The Ultra then performed a couple of cartwheels before ending with a backflip, mockingly dusted off his shoulder, and resumed his fighting stance.

Storm pulled Eleking’s head out of the ground and rubbed the back of his own with a wince. “Damn, that hurts a lot more than I thought it would.”

“Does that mean you’re ready to give up Storm King?” Sunset asked, already knowing the answer.

“Figures that a pony would run her mouth off, but no. I still have something to even the odds,” Storm King said while brandishing his enhanced Staff of Sacanas.

Sunset could only utter, “Crap,” as the former yeti stabbed his Dummy Spark into the geode.

Unlike the previous geode wielders, the dark clouds exploded out of Eleking and turned into a tornado tall enough to reach the clouds above and powerful enough to rip chunks out of the surrounding buildings. When the black twister finally burst a very different beast stood before Ginga.

In place of the 53-meter tall Eleking stood an 80-meter tall colossus. Eleking’s body had turned completely snow-white covered in black markings resembling lightning bolts. The monster had also grown hair on its head which trailed down its spine and also covered its tail. Its body also became covered in the Storm King’s armor with its antennae changed to resemble the horns of the Storm King’s crown/helmet. The gem from the Staff of Sacanas had also appeared in the middle of Eleking’s face, like a weird cyclops’ eye. As lightning arced across the abomination’s horns, Elestorm roared into the sky with a sound akin to nails on a chalkboard mixed with a drum roll.

Elestorm

Fused Thunder Titan

Sunset was frozen in shock. Not even the largest dragons in Equestria could match the beast’s size. Just before Sunset could shake off the fear, the situation became even worse.

“Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrggggghhhhh! Yeow, that was weird. Huh, wh- Hey, I got muscles again,” Elestorm said while performing various flexes.

“Oh no,” Sunset said, realizing that she was up against another lucid fusion monster, and this one had his heart set on killing her.

“Oh yeah, you’re still here. I'm gonna kill you now." Electricity crackled between Elestorm's horns and a sphere of energy expanded between them. With a roar, Elestorm fired a lethal bolt of lightning at Ginga who quickly leaped backwards to avoid the blast which left a deep trench in the ground.

“Sunset, snap out of it,” Ginga pleaded, “I know that this foe seems daunting, but we’re the only ones standing between him and the city. Remember who we’re fighting for.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Sunset nodded.

ELEMENT OF MAGIC! POWER TO GINGA!

“Twilight Slugger!”

Reaching up to his forehead, Ginga summoned his Twilight Slugger just as Elestorm fired another lightning blast. Swinging quickly, Ginga countered the blast with his Harmony Slugger before he cut the distance between them. Lunging at Elestorm, Ginga slashed at the monster’s chest repeatedly but it seemed immune to the strikes. Elestorm smacked Ginga to the ground. He rolled out of the way from a stomp and held up the Twilight Slugger.

“Alright, let’s heat things up!” Sunset declared as she willed Ginga’s Zenshin Crystals to glow red, as they did when setting up the Ginga Fireball attack. “Ginga Firestorm!”

Ginga pointed the Twilight Slugger at Elestorm and unleashed a spiraling pillar of fire at the monster. For a moment it seemed to be effective, but then Elestorm’s tail shot out of the flames like an arrow and coiled around the blade, then shot an electric current through it. Ginga was launched backward as his muscles tensed from the shock, landing multiple blocks away. As Sunset willed Ginga into a kneeling position, her breathing was suddenly cut off as Elestorm grabbed hold of the Ultra’s throat.

“No swords this time Ultraman,” Storm said dangling the Twilight Slugger in Ginga’s face from his tail.

Elestorm flung the Twilight Slugger away, then lifted Ginga up, spun around, smashed him into the street, and adjusted his grip before dragging Ginga across the pavement. In desperation, Sunset began scrolling through the Harmony Bracer for options before settling on:

ELEMENT OF LAUGHTER! POWER TO GINGA!

“GINGA FIREWORKS SHOWER!”

Elestorm was not impressed by dazzling detonations in his face, “This form doesn’t have eyes retard.”

Elestorm lifted Ginga up again and smashed him down onto a building. Now the fused monster began pounding the Ultra in a manner akin to a rampaging gorilla, then stomped on him twice before kicking Ginga away.

Ginga staggered back onto his feet as his color timer turned red and began to blink. Sunset was running out of time.

Like some horrid faceless snake, Elestorm slithered his tail forward and coiled around Ginga Harmony and pumped him full of electricity for just a moment.

“You’re out of time Ultraman. You were doomed the moment you decided that a little girl was your best choice to fight for you,” Storm said, now dangling Ginga upside down in front of his face as he ran an even stronger current through his tail. “But don’t worry about it, you won’t regret it for much longer.”

Sunset could feel a tingle run through Ginga, Elestorm was gearing up for a lethal charge of electricity.

From inside the Ultra, Sunset could only despair, “Ginga, girls, I’m sorry. I tried my best.” Sunset closed her eyes and waited for the pain to come.

Instead of pain, however, the sound of bombs detonating against Elestorm’s hide and the feeling of the monster’s tail slacking greeted her. Upon opening her eyes, Sunset could see that several military jets had entered the fray.

“Gweh, bug out you flying scrap. This ain’t your fight,” Storm said while firing on them with a lightning beam from his gem.

The planes nimbly shifted out of the way and fired their guns, but Sunset knew it was only a matter of time before Elestorm caught one of them. “No. I won’t let you harm them!”

With a mighty push, Ginga escaped from Elestorm’s coils, landed on his feet, then sprung back up to catch the monster with a spinning butterfly kick as it turned to face him. The blow spun Elestorm around allowing Ginga to jump up onto the monster’s head. The Ultra wrapped his legs around the beast’s neck, punched it twice in the head, then twisted his body, throwing Elestorm off balance and toppling it.

Ginga jumped off shortly before Elestorm hit the ground, but quickly lept upon it again with a grip akin to a rancher wrestling a bull as the fused monster attempted to rise. The Ultra kneed the monster in the face and smashed it into the pavement twice before Elestorm bucked its head to throw him off. Ginga landed on his feet, turned around, dodged a straight punch from Elestorm, countered with a right hook and left uppercut, ducked under a wild swing, struck back with a backflip kick to the chin, then jumped back from the monster’s double hammer fist. With a technique resembling a wire-fu hero, Ginga kicked off a building behind him and slogged Elestorm with a flying haymaker, but as the monster fell, he flipped over its head, took hold of its horns while tucking its head into his shoulder, and threw the titanic terror with a mighty heave. Elestorm landed on his stomach a distance away.

“Grrr, now you’re pissing me off!” Storm hissed as he lifted its massive form into a kneeling posture.

Elestorm shot its tail forward, attempting to coil around Ginga again, but Sunset was ready this time and compelled the Ultra to jump, then went to the Harmony Bracer.

ELEMENT OF GENEROSITY! POWER TO GINGA!

“GINGA DIAMOND SLASH!”

Ginga threw his hands up to the Zenshin Crystal on his head, summoning a cloud of diamond dust around him, then threw them forward as the dust coalesced into a pair of disks that cut Elestorm’s tail to ribbons. The sudden loss of weight behind the titan unbalanced it, sending it back to all fours.

“OW! Okay, enough is enough! Die now!” Storm roared as his horns began arcing with electricity.

Elestorm blasted lightning in all directions in an attempt to overwhelm Ginga with sheer volume of fire, destroying multiple jets in the effort. The Ultra bobbed and weaved to the best of his ability but he was growing ever closer to timing out.

“How is this possible? He shouldn’t be able to generate this level of a charge,” Sunset said.

“We need a weak point. Some vulnerability we can exploit to cripple if not destroy him outright,” Ginga continued.

“Sunset!” A new voice cried.

“Taro? What are you-?” Sunset began.

“There’s no time! Tempest sent me to tell you, to break the crystal embedded in Eleking’s head,” the tiny Ultra urged.

“Whuh? R-right,” Sunset stammered, then went to the Harmony Bracer.

ELEMENT OF LOYALTY! POWER TO GINGA!

"GINGA! RAINBOOM KICK!"

Ginga rocketed down from the sky with one leg outstretched as a rainbow-colored trail and shockwave burst out from behind him. Elestorm answered with a directed lightning beam but the Ultra’s attack broke through and ground down the length of the ray. Finally, Ginga struck the gem to the sound of a cry from Storm, and a tremendous crack and shower of sparks heralding a massive shockwave that completely dispelled the building storm.

Ginga skidded to a stop several blocks away and twisted his body so he could face his opponent. Elestorm was wailing while clutching its burned face, its horns shattered, and purple blood ran down from the wound that once housed its gem.

“Huh, not so tough now, are you?” Sunset taunted.

“We don’t have enough time for gloating, Sunset,” Ginga reminded sternly.

“S-sorry,” Sunset said, then turned the dial to the symbol of the Book of Harmony.

ELEMENTS OF HARMONY! POWER TO GINGA!

Ginga brought his hands together as if in prayer as a matching symbol appeared behind him. He then moved his hands up and in a circular motion. As his hands passed a gem it dissolved into light and gathered into his arms until they finally met around his color timer.

“HARMONY MIRACLE RAY!”

Ginga threw his hands into a cross formation firing a beam of pulsating rainbow light straight into Elestorm’s chest. The attack seemed to have no effect for the briefest of moments after the ray cut off, but then the titan slumped to its knees, petrified, and then detonated in a brilliant display of fire and light. From within the flames, a pair of lights emerged and entered Ginga’s color timer. Before Sunset could get a chance to see what she collected, however, Ginga forced her to transform back.

*////*

A dirty hand reached out of a nondescript trash bin pulling the thoroughly thrashed Storm King into the trash-filled backlot.

“Oh,” he hissed out with a long groan.

He turned his head to his right and couldn’t help but smile slightly. For just out of his reach, was the intact though geodeless Staff of Sacanas. Storm rolled himself over to reach his left hand out for his staff only to have the unmistakable pincer tipped foot of the Alien Baltan.

“Oh, for-. What do you want?” Storm growled.

“Oh, it doesn’t want anything,” a feminine voice said, drawing Storm’s attention over to Fall. “The same can’t be said for me. Baltan, if you would?”

The alien insect moved its foot off of Storm’s hand, allowing him to reclaim the Staff of Sacanas.

“What the hell? I fought Ultraman and lost. As far as I’m concerned, my obligations are fulfilled here and I’m going home whether you like it or not,” Storm declared and attempted to walk away.

“You’re not going anywhere. In this world or Equestria,” Fall said.

Storm King paused, ‘I do not like that phrasing.’

“You see, I never liked you Storm,” Fall continued, “Always complaining but never contributing to the plans. I’m not alone in my opinions, none of the others can stand you either, and wish you were dead. Now that is something I can arrange in an instant, but I’m nothing if not sporting, so I’m going to give you a chance.”

Now Fall produced a Dark Dummy Spark and accompanying Spark Doll.

"Let's play," Fall grinned as she activated the Spark Doll.

DARK LIVE! DARK ZAGI!

Standing before the defeated Storm King in Fall’s place, was now a figure akin to an Ultraman with armor black as the night around them and red eyes.

Storm King could see this for what it was, “I see. You intend to kill me. WELL, TOUGH SHIT! I’M NOT PLANNING ON DYING TONIGHT!”

With a mighty cry, he grabbed hold of the Staff of Sacanas and fired a lightning bolt at Dark Zagi drawing a grunt from Fall. Closing the distance, Storm ducked under a right hook and jabbed Zagi in the gut with the gem of the Staff, causing a concussive blast that sent Zagi kneeling. Sensing that he had the advantage, Storm lept upon Zagi and began repeatedly striking him with his staff.

“I’MNOTDYINGI’MNOTDYINGI’MNOTDYINGI’MNOTDYINGI’MNOTDYINGI’MNOT-!” The Staff of Sacanas suddenly stopped and couldn’t move any longer. Standing up with the Staff in his hand, was Dark Zagi, no worse for the wear.

“My turn,” Fall said and drove Zagi’s fist into Storm King’s stomach with a meaty crack.

Now Storm wasn’t a doctor, but with the growing sensation in his guts, he was pretty sure he didn’t need to be. Nor did he need an x-ray or ultrasound to know that he had massive internal bleeding and trauma. Spitting up blood Storm’s grip on the Staff of Sacanas weakened and he stumbled back to the ground clutching his stomach.

“Shit. Shitshitshitshit!” Storm King choked out as he crawled backward.

Zagi tossed away the staff and stalked towards Storm.

“What do you think this is going to achieve, huh? Even if you manage to beat Sunset and her merry band of sluts, you’re still going to be under Lugiel’s heel. Hahaha! YOU ARE, AND WILL ALWAYS BE LUGIEL’S BI-!” Storm was cut off by Fall’s Zagi Lightning completely atomizing him.

“Thank whoever exists that he’s shut up,” Fall said, changing out of Dark Zagi. “Of course, now I need to come up with a new plan, but I can roll with that.” She then walked over and picked up the discarded Staff of Sacanas, “No geode. Figures. No matter, the staff itself still has enough magic to keep me going.”

Fall opened her amulet and drained the legendary artifact dry, turning it into little more than the stick it resembled. With the Staff now useless to all, Fall cast it aside only for it to land before a very familiar pair of shoes.

“Oh, joy,” Fall quietly hissed, then went into a sarcastic bow. “What does my esteemed taskmaster want with me tonight?”

“Mind your tone, lest I strike you down where you stand,” Dark Lugiel threatened then began pacing. “One of my Spark Dolls has gone missing. An immensely powerful monster called Doragory. You wouldn’t happen to know where it is, would you?”

“As much as I would love to piss you off and say yes, no.”

“I thought not.”

“Gk! Then why did you even ask!?” Fall raged but was ignored by Lugiel.

“I suspect that the thief is otherworldly in origin.”

“There are no other Equestrians in this world that know about you if that’s what you’re getting at.”

“Oh the suspect is extradimensional, but they are no Equestrian. Keep a very close watch on those geodes of yours, they are very likely to come after them,” Lugiel said then disappeared without another word.

Fall’s mouth hung open, having been cut off from pressing Lugiel. When she finally did speak, it was with a mighty cry of:

“MOTHERFUCKING OMINOUS SAY NOTHING BULLSHIT!”

*////*

The door of Sunset’s apartment swung open allowing its owner to stumble in from the still slick Canterlot streets.

“Rough night?” Rainbow joked, earning glares from the entire apartment, “Sorry, just trying to lighten the mood.”

Pinkie Pie of all people clapped Rainbow over the back of her head hard and hissed, “Not. Funny.”

“Sunset!” Twilight gasped, fretting over her friend, “Are you okay? Any injuries?”

“I’m fine,” Sunset replied but the disbelieving glare of the princess forced her to amend her claim. “Well, I’m not great, but I am in one piece.”

“And thank goodness for that! I thought that brute was going to kill you for sure this time,” Rarity fussed.

“Aw, I knew she had it covered,” Pinkie said with a dismissive handwave.

“Liar!” Trixie barked, “You were freaking out more than anyone here!”

(Flashback)

*Unintelligible sounds of Pinkie completely losing her damn mind.*

(Flashback end)

“Yeah, but she didn’t need to know that,” Pinkie said.

“Don’t give Sunset all the credit,” Taro chimed in, “It was Tempest that discovered Eleking’s weakness after all.”

Tempest withdrew a bit at the sudden attention.

“Speaking of,” Wallflower said,” How did you know to go after that gem?”

Tempest went quiet as if in thought, then said, “His horns. The entire fight he had been pulling lightning towards them. Why would he do that if they weren’t important?”

The room met her statement with a collection of nods, then she added, “Also it was a really obvious target that I’m shocked you didn’t go after immediately.”

“Hey, you try remaining calm when the guy you’re in a punchup with suddenly gains a few meters on you,” Sunset with a pout.

“How did he do that anyway? Adagio became weird, Tempest… did a thing. But they never grew in size,” Rainbow asked.

“While true, that is a gross oversimplification of the facts,” Twilight corrected, “Adagio’s geode was still a work in progress, while Tempest didn’t have her heart in the fight. Storm King, however, had his heart dead set on killing Sunset, on top of having an improved geode. Those factors fed into each other, allowing him to tap into even greater power. Speaking of which, where is he? He needs to be returned so he can stand trial in Equestria.”

“I don’t know. Ginga didn’t have enough time to allow me to look for him,” Sunset said.

“If the lyin’ murderin’ snake is even still alive,” Applejack hissed.

Sunset’s stomach dropped, “What do mean?”

“Storm King destroyed a lot of jets with that light show at the end there, and Ah didn’t see no parachutes.”

“You think the Elements of Harmony have a limit to what they’re willing to put up with?” Twilight asked.

“Ah’m just sayin’, tryin’ to kill someone and failing is one thing, but tryin’ and succeeding is another,” Applejack said.

Sunset, to say the least, did not take the news well.

People had died!

People had died and she had been unable to save them!

Those pilots had friends, families, and now they would not be going home.

And it was all her fault.

“I should’ve been more careful!” Sunset cried out.

“Sunset...?” Twilight reached out to her but the girl backed away.

“I was too careless! I was too focused on trying to beat the Storm King, I didn’t even notice there were jets! I let those pilots down! I let them die!” Sunset took out the Ginga Spark, looking at it. She began to question herself. “If I can’t save anyone...do I even deserve this power?”

As a young filly, and as Celestia’s students, Sunset used to believe she was entitled to power. Things like guilt never registered. Now, though, she had grown up and discovered the Magic of Friendship. As Ginga’s host, she now had a responsibility.

But how could she carry out the responsibility if she couldn’t save those pilots?

“Then quit,” Tempest said, plainly.

“Huh?” Sunset choked out.

“If you can’t handle this one setback, how can you carry the fate of two worlds on your shoulders.”

“Tempest,” Twilight warned, but the former Storm Guard continued unperturbed.

“No, she needs to hear this. Those pilots made their choice. They knew the odds. They knew they likely weren’t going to make it, but they still did it, and do you know why? Because they believed in Ultraman. They believed, that even if they died, at least you would have a chance to pull through a win. Yet here you are, freaking out and squandering their sacrifice. How DARE you! Does it suck that they died? Of course, it does. It’s perfectly reasonable to feel what you’re feeling. But a hell of a lot more people are going to die if you don’t nut up. You’re not up against a bunch of teenagers anymore, Sunset, you’re in the big leagues now, and it’s only going to get harder from here.”

Tempest concluded her speech with an angry huff and stern glare to the silence of the apartment.

“Holy shit,” Rainbow whispered.

“I mean… I get that. But-,” Sunset started but Tempest spoke again.

“You can’t do anything for them now Sunset. The only thing you can do is make sure that the people they left behind have a future to remember them in,” Tempest advised.

"She's right," Taro agreed. "We cannot save everyone. But we cannot let such failures stop us."

Sunset looked silently at everyone. Her failure still weighed on her shoulders but she was the only one standing between Lugiel and Multiversal destruction. She could not let one failure stop her but she still needed to clear her head.

“Okay,” Sunset sniffed, “Just, could I have some time to process this?”

“I don’t think that’s our choice to make. That’s on Fall and Lugiel, and they aren’t going to wait for you to get over your guilt complex,” Tempest said.

Sunset looked away from Tempest with a downcast expression on her face.

“I do know one way you can start though,” Tempest said.

“What’s that?” Sunset asked.

Tempest bashfully looked down, then held out a controller and said, “Could you show me how to play these games?”

The entire apartment went into a shocked silence save a growing squeal from Pinkie Pie. For, at last, the party truly began.

Interlude: Slow Day

Twilight Sparkle was the top-scoring student of Crystal Prep. Unfortunately, this had not won her many friends in the overly competitive environment of Crystal Prep Academy. Despite her genius, she did not have the ability to make friends and she was either ignored or despised by her peers. She was pretty much ostracised but she endured the best she could even if she was all alone.

At least she had Spike, her BBBFF Shining Armor, and Dean Cadance to look out for her.

However, recently, she felt odd. She had been having frequent blackouts on numerous occasions. She also lost time whenever she had those blackouts. However, she kept such things to herself, not wanting to worry the people who cared about her.

As Twilight Sparkle walked through the droves of students, heading to her next class, she bumped into Fleur de Lis who just looked at her in disdain.

Normally, Twilight would mumble an apology and move on, but not today.

“Excuse me, but watch where you’re going.”

The instant she said that, Fleur de Lis stopped and turned.

“What was that, Sparkle?” Fleur de Lis demanded.

“Watch where you’re going,” Twilight Sparkle repeated. “Or do I need to speak slower?”

Fleur walked up to Twilight Sparkle and stared her down. A loser that suddenly developed a backbone needed to be put back in her place but Twilight Sparkle was not going to allow herself to be put down and returned Fleur’s stare with her own. Fleur started to sweat as Twilight’s eyes bore into her own. She felt a frightening chill run up her spine.

The loser couldn’t be intimidating her, could she?

Fleur noticed that they had drawn a crowd as the rest of the students watched her, waiting for her to do something. Wanting to save face, Fleur turned away.

“I don’t have time for this.”

“Learn some manners then.”

*////*

In gym class, Twilight Sparkle was picked last. Today’s game was dodgeball. She hated it since she was always targeted first and always got bruises. On the other side of the court was Indigo Zap who grinned maliciously at Twilight Sparkle.

The gym teacher blew the whistle to start the game. Immediately, Indigo Zap threw her ball right at Twilight Sparkle.

Normally, Twilight Sparkle would freeze up and get hit but not this time. As the ball zoomed towards her, Twilight Sparkle put her hand up in front of her and caught it without flinching.

“Huh!?” Indigo Zap was gobsmacked and that allowed Twilight Sparkle to throw the ball right at her, hitting the athlete in the stomach.

“Zap! You’re out!”

“OK, coach,” groaned Indigo as she rubbed her stomach and walked out of the court. The game continued and Twilight Sparkle demonstrated athleticism that she had never displayed before during her time in Crystal Prep. She was able to dodge and catch balls before throwing them back at the other team.

By the end of the game, Twilight Sparkle’s team won. Her team then crowded around her, congratulating her. Indigo just glared at her, suspicious.

*////*

In the locker room, Twilight was getting changed for her next class when Indigo Zap confronted her.

“Where did you learn to play like that, Sparkle?” Indigo Zap asked.

“Online tutorials and books,” Twilight answered in a clipped tone.

“Don’t bullshit me, Sparkle!” Indigo Zap. “Nobody gets that good from watching videos and books!”

“I’ve had plenty of practice,” Twilight smirked. “Now, if you mind, I have to head to my next class.”

“No, you’re not going anywhere, Sparkle.”

“Look, I’m asking you politely. Please, step aside.”

“Or what, Sparkle?”

“Or Principal Cinch might get an anonymous tip that you’ve been cheating to get your grades.”

Indigo’s eyes widened at the implication.

“You wouldn’t dare...” Indigo threatened.

“Who will Cinch believe? Her top student or a jock that she can replace with any of the meatheads that pollute this place?” Twilight Sparkle returned her glare with a sneer. “Keep pushing, Indigo Zap, and we’ll see who stays in this school.”

Indigo gaped at Twilight at a loss. While it was true that her threat was a lie, a simple thorough glance between Twilight and Indigo’s old assignments would give her accusation weight via the blatant theft.

“Shit!” Indigo thought, “I would be screwed by the teachers being too lazy to check if we’re copying from each other!”

Indigo put her hands over her mouth in contemplation of whether or not to call Twilight’s bluff, but ultimately decided it wasn’t worth it.

“I don’t know what happened to you, Sparkle, but you are one crazy cat,” she said, and walked away.

It didn’t register immediately to Twilight just what she had achieved, but her eyes widened once it had time to sink in, “Wow! I just stood up to Indigo Zap! Maybe things are starting to look up for me.”

With a newfound spring in her step and smile on her face, Twilight began walking to her next class.

Sunset's Resolve vs the Hostile Interloper

“So, you’re really not going to stay?” Sunset asked.

The following morning after the slumber party with Tempest, the Gang made their way to CHS with their new friend and now stood before the portal back to Equestria.

“I have to go. There are people, I mean ponies, waiting for me back in Equestria, and not just the ponies. The Storm Kingdom needs to be informed about the Storm King’s apparent death,” Tempest replied.

“You know, I’ve been thinking about that,” Twilight said, “Storm King had no biological heirs so leadership would fall to whoever his second was.”

Pinkie gasped, “You mean-?”

Twilight nodded, “Tempest is the next in line for the Storm Kingdom throne.”

“Wow! Hey, that’s great, way to go!” Rainbow cheered.

“Oh my! I’m feeling quite a bit underdressed now,” Rarity said.

“I don’t want it,” Tempest whispered.

“Are you kidding me? You gave me that big speech last night and now you’re wussing out on this responsibility? Tempest this is your chance to make the Storm Kingdom into something new, something better. Put that Magic of Friendship-”

“Registered trademark!” Pinkie interrupted.

“- to work,” Sunset finished.

“That… isn’t my name,” Tempest countered.

“... Really?” Sunset asked, earning a nod, “Okay, so what’s your real one?”

Tempest blushed, then waved Sunset in closer and whispered, “Fizzlepop Berrytwist.”

Sunset's eyes widened. The edgy, black-clad, badass, and former righthand woman of the Storm King was named...Fizzlepop Berrytwist!?

“Uh…” Sunset droned out, then whispered back, “Yeah, pro tip. Only let your close friends call you that. I don’t think ‘Storm Queen Fizzlepop Berrytwist’ is going to inspire much loyalty.”

“What’s wrong with that name!?” Pinkie Piped in, startling Sunset and Fizzlepop. “That’s an awesome name! I wish my name were Fizziepop! Heck, I’d name my kids Fizziepop.”

“What, both of them?” Trixie asked.

“In a heartbeat,” Pinkie replied.

“Please don’t call me Fizziepop,” Fizzlepop cringed.

“Aw, yer name ain’t nothin’ to be ashamed of sug’,” Applejack said.

“Pinkie’s… exuberance about your real name aside, she’s right. You should never be ashamed of the name you were born with,” Twilight said encouragingly.

“Twilight’s right, though if it would make you feel any better, I could tell you my father’s real name,” Taro said.

“You mean the Father of Ultra?” Wallflower said with a degree of wonder.

“Yes.”

“Whatever his name is, it can’t be worse than mine,” Fizzlepop said.

“His name is Ken,” Taro said.

An awkward silence now filled the space.

"Ken? That's it?" Fizzlepop asked.

“Yes. What of it?”

“No offense meant but I was expecting something more… Well, more,” Fizzlepop said in disbelief.

“Expectations are a beautiful thing, but they should always be tempered. But yes, his name is just Ken. If he has more to it than that, I have yet to hear it,” Taro explained.

“So, is your mom’s name Barbie?” Pinkie asked.

"No, Marie."

"Close enough."

"Ultraman Ken and Ultrawoman Marie," Rarity remarked. "Quite ordinary names for such grand beings."

"Well, wait until you meet Beth, Scott, and Chuck."

“Do all of you guys have such lame names?” Rainbow asked.

“Not all of us. My best friend was named Tregear,” Taro countered, though Sunset picked up an odd inflection in his tone at the name.

‘I guess they had a falling out,” Sunset thought.

“Regardless, you see? Your given name is not some horrid thing to hide away from,” Twilight said. “You should wear it proudly, without shame, and if anypony does give you a hard time over it, buck ‘em.”

“Pardon? How would kicking them very hard help?” Rarity asked, only for Sunset to pull her and the rest of her friends into a huddle.

“She doesn’t mean that,” Sunset whispered, “When ‘buck’ is said in that context in Equestria it’s basically like dropping an f-bomb.”

“Really? Well that’s plum confusin’. Why not just have a dedicated swear for that?” Applejack asked while scratching her head.

“Have you ever noticed that I’m the only Equestrian you know that swears?” Sunset asked, “Swearing in Equestria is more about how specific words are used in context rather than having actual words for it.”

“Oh, so Equestria has no specific swear words, just contextual phrases,” Fluttershy said, “I like that.”

“Goddamn that sounds like a little girl’s show,” Rainbow said, unimpressed.

“Well, that’s Equestria for you,” Sunset replied, dismissing the huddle. "We basically have a natural filter for these things."

Sunset then walked over to Fizzlepop and Twilight who were still deep in conversation, “Look not that I want to rush, but today’s a school day, and unknown people of your age are typically unwelcome on these grounds.”

Twilight sighed, “As much as I hate to say it Sunset’s right. We should really finish up before the school staff arrives.”

“Some things are universal it seems,” Fizzlepop sighed, recalling a few strange ponies being removed from the grounds of her old school.

“You know, it’s only been an evening, yet Trixie is somehow sad to see you go,” the magician said.

“Eh, don’t sweat it Trix, she can always just come visit,” Rainbow replied.

“Yeah, we’re friends, after all. She’ll be back,” Pinkie said.

Fizzlepop chuckled, “Yeah, definitely.”

She turned and took a couple of steps towards the portal but then seemed to realize something and looked back, “By the way, Sunset?”

Sunset shot to attention at her name.

“Don’t let him win,” Fizzlepop said, then jumped through the portal.

“I really should have warned her not to physically jump through the portal,” Twilight cringed.

“Why’s that?” Applejack asked.

“It preserves your momentum,” Twilight replied.

*////*

“WHY DIDN’T ANYONE TELL ME THAT PORTAL DOES THAT!?” The presently buried broken horned unicorn screeched from beneath a pile of books.

Nearby, a certain beleaguered purple-scaled dragon assistant named Spike sighed, knowing he was going to have to clean that mess up.

*////*

Sunset sucked in through her teeth, “Ooooff. Yeah, we should’ve mentioned that.”

Wallflower reflexively rubbed her back while remembering her own tumble through the portal, “Maybe we should leave before she comes back to yell at us.”

A chorus of agreement sounded from the group that now tried to sneak away from the portal. The sound of Sunset’s phone ringing suddenly caused the Gang to jump in fright.

“Sorry,” Sunset sheepishly said before answering. “Hello? … Oh, hi! … Yes. … She is!? Really!? That’s fantastic! … Huh? … Yeah? … Are you serious!?”

This continued for a bit longer until Sunset hung up and turned to her friends, “Okay, I’ve got some good news and some bad news. The good news is: Lightning has been cleared for visitors.”

The Gang cheered at this upturn of events, but that swiftly changed when Sunset added, “The bad news is: so’s Adagio. And she’s asking for me.”

Never let it be said that Rainbow Dash didn’t have a talent for summarizing the opinions of an entire group of people in one word:

“Crap.”

*////*

Watching this exchange from her lair, Fall dispelled her magical spy window and reclined back in her seat.

“Sunset Shimmer is in a vulnerable place right now. If there was ever a time to strike, it would be now. But how? How do I leverage this moment to completely break her spirit? Who can I send that can finish the job Storm King started?” She pondered.

“Then perhaps I can be of assistance,” a cruel voice offered.

“Oh?” Fall said, turning to face the fanged, black-skinned woman before her. “And what does oh so esteemed Chrysalis have in mind?”

“I’ll ignore that tone and the fact that you failed to address me by my title,” the displaced Changeling Queen said. “I am Queen Chrysalis, ruler of the Changeling hive. I have impersonated kings, queens, and princesses, all to get the love I so richly-"

“SNERK!”

Chrysalis glared at the source of the rude snort that had interrupted her.

“I’m sorry,” Fall said in a manner that clearly said she wasn’t. “It’s just, you actually believe your own hype. Like, holy shit! How conceited are you? AH! HAHAHAHAH!”

Chrysalis couldn’t believe it. The absolute nerve of this cretin. Here she was, espousing her merit, and this little hellion was laughing at her! With a massive snarl on her face, Chrysalis shot her fist out in an effort to teach Fall a quick lesson, only to find her former hoof encased in a cyan aura.

Fall was not laughing anymore, “Wow. You are either really really brave, or very stupid to come at me without magic. Let me put this in a way your tiny insect brain can understand!”

Chrysalis now found herself launched across the room in magical shackles and pinned to the opposite wall.

“Rule one of spy work: don’t get caught. What was that thing you did early in Equestria’s history? Oh yeah! Get yourself and your people trapped in a volcano. Rule two: don’t do anything to draw attention to yourself. You managed to make Twilight suspicious of you within seconds of meeting her. Spy work is a series of roleplaying game campaigns and whether you like it or not, you have to play the role you’ve taken. And before you say anything, fooling Celestia isn’t an achievement, it’s the lowest bar you had to clear. She’s an idiot incapable of blowing her own nose, and the others had never met Cadenza. You literally had one pony you had to convince and you failed. Let’s be perfectly honest here, you’re not here for any intelligence on your part, you’re here as dumb muscle, nothing more. Understood?”

Chrysalis could only growl out, “Yes.”

“Good. Now get the hell out of here.”

Fall threw Chrysalis to the floor then began returning to her seat but then a thought occurred to her.

“Before you leave, you wouldn’t happen to know where one of my geodes went would you?”

Chrysalis stoped in the doorway and turned to Fall with the nastiest snarl she could muster, “No.”

Fall matched Chrysalis’ snarl with an even glare, “Fine, I guess I’ll just have to look harder then. Dismissed.”

With a final furious scoff, Chrysalis stormed out of Fall’s office.

*////*

*CRASH!*

“THE ABSOLUTE BUCKING NERVE OF THAT BITCH!”

As one could see, Chrysalis was handling rejection with all the grace and maturity expected of a being of her old age.

“I’m clearly the best shot she has right now, where does she get off telling me that I’m dumb muscle? I’ve been alive longer than she’s even existed, yet I’m the dumb one? GAH! I HATE HER!”

Chrysalis threw yet another fake potted plant into a wall in her tantrum. Despite all of the Alien Baltan’s forgery skills, Chrysalis and her temporary allies were instructed to spend light and were limited in what electronics they could use. While Baltan was certainly skilled with technology, it was lacking in true Baltan resources, meaning that corners had to be cut. For example, while the alien was able to rig up a perception filter that disguised the refurbished building they resided in as the dilapidated eyesore it once was, but it used so much electricity that they mostly had to charge their phones in the nearby grocery store. As for “spending light”, Fall had explained that a sudden influx of money in the economy would draw too many eyes to their operations.

Fall, and all of these other problems, were about to become the least of Chrysalis’ problems.

As she picked up something else to throw, a wicked voice stopped her.

“He hehe. Yes, you are doing excellent work proving her wrong.”

“Who said that?” Chrysalis asked.

“After all, screaming and throwing things like a child that has been denied candy is a perfect way to prove your intelligence,” the voice continued undaunted.

“How dare you! Come out here and face me so I can kick your flank!”

The voice suddenly lost all humor, “Oh we dare, Chrysalis. Have you forgotten our arrangement?”

“Arrangement?”

“Hm… Either you have truly forgotten, or you have completely lost the narrative. Very well. If you insist on playing dumb, then we will just have to remind you.”

Suddenly the space in front of Chrysalis cracked then shattered like glass, revealing a swirling void of various shades of red, within which dwelled a being with piercing glowing eyes.

Chrysalis could only utter a terrified, “Oh,” before she was sucked in through the rift kicking and screaming.

*////*

“I don’t think I can do this,” Sunset said while fidgeting before the door that currently housed the first villain she ever faced.

“Sunset, it’ll be fine,” Rainbow said, “She doesn’t have a gem or a Dummy Spark, she’s completely harmless now.”

“It’s not how she can harm me physically that worries me, Rainbow. I’m worried about how she can get in my head. She nearly made me doubt our friendship and during Anon-A-Miss, what the Sirens said came back to me.”

“Oh,” Rainbow said dejectedly, “Well even then, you’ve beat her before. What makes this any different?”

“What makes this different, Rainbow, is that I saved her. Before we were mutually at each other’s throats and that was nice and simple. Now though, she owes her life to me, and that changes everything. There is no telling how she’s going to take this.”

“Then what’s there to worry about? Just go in there and throw shit at the wall and see what sticks. You can always just walk away if it starts going south.”

“And what if she doesn’t let me walk away?”

Rainbow seemed to consider her response to that question for a moment before saying, “Well, you’re not going to get anything done here. Now you get in there so I can go see Lightning.”

Rainbow suddenly opened the door and shoved Sunset into the room.

“Hey! You jerk!” Sunset fumed but the door had already closed behind her, stranding her.

With no other options, Sunset turned to face her former enemy.

Surprisingly, the other members of the Dazzlings were not in the room with Adagio, which Sunset didn’t mind as it meant fewer problems. Adagio herself, however, seemed utterly devastated, laying on the hospital bed facing away from the door.

“She looks like she could break at any moment. I better play this carefully,” Sunset thought.

“Uuuhhhh… Hi.”

Needless to say, Sunset was off to a great start.

*////*

After leaving Sunset to her uncertain fate in the hands of Adagio Dazzle, Rainbow had gone in search of Lightning Dust.

“HOW HARD CAN IT BE TO FIND A SINGLE ROOM!?” she shrieked to the disapproval of the hospital staff.

Sadly, without Sunset to navigate and being too stubborn to just read the signs, Rainbow had gotten herself hopelessly lost. She had already been up and down several elevators, and several flights of stairs after she somehow decided the elevators were the problem. Even worse? She happened upon a certain… procedure, that was fairly sure was going to scar her for life.

Fortunately, Lady Luck had decided to smile upon Rainbow as a storm of highly colorful swears drove coach Iron Will scrambling out of a nearby room like a tiger was in it. After uttering some choice words himself, he noticed Rainbow and quickly attempted to make himself presentable.

“Dash,” he said.

“Coach,” Rainbow replied, “She’s still holding the drug test against you, huh?”

Iron Will scoffed, “I don’t know why, that was months ago now.”

“Dude. Your excuse was based on something she had no connection to, why are you still shocked that she hates your guts?”

“Whatever. Perhaps you should come back later, she’s in a bit of a mood right now,” Iron Will suggested.

“And whose fault is that?” Rainbow retorted.

Iron Will puffed up indignantly but said nothing as he stormed off, allowing Rainbow to enter Lightning’s room.

“Goddamn it coach I told you to-! Oh, hey Rainbow. Sorry, I thought you were coach coming back for the final word,” Lightning said.

“Yeah, sounds like something he would do,” Rainbow replied while pulling up a chair. “He actually had the nerve to say he didn’t know why you’re still holding the drug test against him.”

“Jesus Christ, you know he only showed up because he lost the respect of the team since then right?”

“Well obviously. A stunt like that doesn’t exactly win you any friends. So, how’re you feeling Dust?”

From her seat Rainbow could see that Lightning looked a right mess. On her left arm was an ugly, crude-looking cast that seemed like little more than several pieces of mismatched plastic, cotton, and cloth. Her left leg wasn’t much better, being elevated by a complex-looking collection of various pulleys and chords, and was wrapped in the unmistakable pattern of external pins. Then there was her face. Apparently, her helmet had come off at some point, allowing the right side of her face to be scraped badly enough to require an entire bandage covering it.

“Eh, like absolute shit. They’ve got me hopped up on so much crap that I’m barely awake as is,” Lightning explained. “In fact, you’re probably the last person I’m going to see today.”

“Yelling at the coach took the life outta you huh?” Rainbow joked weakly. “What about-? You know.”

“Oh. Well, I’m not going to be in any condition in time for the Friendship Games if that’s what you’re asking.”

“Screw the Friendship Games, I wanna know if you’re ever going to be able to play again. I know how important sports are to you Dust, and I hate the idea of that being taken away from you.”

Lightning’s face fell, “They say that I’m gonna be able to play but I’m not convinced. My leg is gonna be fine, if hole-filled, but my arm needs a plate, Rainbow, and I’ve seen how much it sucks to fall on one of those.”

Rainbow cringed, “I… I’m sorry.”

“For what? There wasn’t anything you could’ve done Rainbow. If the man upstairs has decided that I can’t play anymore then… we’ll all just have to suck it up and move on. Heh, maybe I’ll become an egghead to make up for it.”

“I will not be caught dead watching you turn into an egghead!” Rainbow cried, drawing laughter from Lightning followed by some gut-wrenching coughs.

“But really, this sucks,” Lightning continued, “Did you know that I’m allergic to Hydrocodone? I didn’t, and strictly speaking, I’m not, but that’s about as simple a way to describe it. That shit drove me absolutely friggin nuts and made my legs restless as hell, and when you’ve got a bum leg like mine, restlessness is the exact opposite of what you want, and that’s not even getting into the sleep deprivation. That’s why it took so long to get them to let visitors in. A crazy patient looks bad for the hospital.”

Rainbow tried to suppress a shiver. While taking hits was to be expected in sports she had never taken one as severe as what Lightning was currently suffering through.

“So,” she began, “is your arm…?”

“Not yet,” Lightning replied, “They couldn’t keep me under long enough to do both operations, so they had to pick one to start with. Seeing as how walking is pretty damn important, they decided to start there.” Lightning yawned, “I’m sorry, but I’m feeling really sleepy now.”

“Hey, don’t force yourself to stay awake on my account. Sleep all you like, we can always come back later,” Rainbow said.

“But-”

“Ah ah ah, stop that. Heal first, talk later. Take all the time you need,” Rainbow said while standing up and walking out the door.

Upon leaving the room, Rainbow was greeted by the sight of a horde of doctors, nurses, staff, and more rushing through the hallway.

“Hey! What’s going on!?” Rainbow called to the nearest person.

“Ultraman Ginga’s outside!”

“HE’S WHAT!?”

*////*

“... and then Pinkie said, ‘Read it? I already ruined it,’” Sunset awkwardly laughed, to the complete non-reaction of her siren companion.

Sunset had been at this for a while now, attempting all manner of different conversations to get a reaction out of Adagio. So far, despite all her efforts, the siren had remained frustratingly silent.

Sunset rolled her eyes with a sigh, “Adagio, I can’t even begin this conversation if you don’t speak to me.”

Silence.

“Am I being pranked? Are Aria and Sonata going to jump out with cameras like one of those Haytube channels?”

Adagio took in a breath to- keep quiet. Sunset’s patience was beginning to fray.

“Is this funny to you? Is getting me to take time out of my day to come here to talk to you and then wasting my time, funny?”

Once more, Adagio’s mouth remained shut. It was at this moment Sunset realized that the time to go gentle had long passed.

“You know what!? Fuck you, Adagio, I don’t have to take this silent treatment bullshit! I didn’t have to come here, but I did because you specifically asked me to. But now I see you only wanted me here to waste my time. Well, guess what bitch, I value my time too much to let it get flushed down the drain by some stuck up bimbo too proud to do the one thing she asked of me. So how about this? You either start talking, or I walk out that door and just keep walking. And don’t bother sending for me again because I won’t answer.”

Silence.

“Fine,” Sunset huffed then stood up and made to leave, “See you again never.”

As Sunset reached the door a tiny whimper reached her ear, “Why?”

Sunset stopped, “Why…?”

“WHY DOES EVERYONE INSIST ON RUINING MY LIFE!?” Adagio wailed in an unexpectedly high voice.

In the admittedly short time she had known Adagio, Sunset had known the siren to have a deceptively deep voice, so to hear such a shrill sound from the singer threw the redhead for a loop.

“I mean, I kinda figured she was pulling a Rarity with her voice, but I didn’t expect to be proven right,” Sunset thought but quickly bit her tongue to avoid addressing it.

“What?” She asked.

“It never matters what I do, everyone seems predetermined to hate me. What have I done to deserve this rotten existence? What is so wrong with wanting more?” Adagio sobbed.

Having gotten over her initial shock, Sunset took a moment to digest just what the siren said, “Are you kidding me?”

“Hm?”

“You think that my friends stopped you just, what? Because? Are you seriously telling me that the cruel, intelligent leader of the Dazzlings is little more than a brat with a victim complex? Were I a crueler girl I would laugh but mostly I’m just shocked by this twist. I always thought you were the most put together of the three of you.”

“Oh like you’re much better Miss She-Demon,” Adagio hissed.

“Hey, I own that I was an immature snot, can you say the same Miss Fish-Lips?” Sunset countered.

“I am not immature.”

“Haven’t met a lot of kids then huh?”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“Because you would’ve noticed the similarities if you had." Sunset took a deep breath to calm down. "Adagio, have you ever heard of the golden rule: 'treat others the way you want to be treated’?"

“Oh don’t give me that PSA bull,” Adagio scoffed.

“It’s not bull, it’s an honest fact of life! I realize that there are some real asshats that seem to make it their mission to make others miserable; but when people like us get persecuted, it’s usually for a really good reason. Look at me. I had to put up with being the school’s pariah twice, but did I whine about how I didn’t deserve it? NO! I stole, lied, blackmailed, and mind-controlled an entire school. I earned their scorn.”

“Even with Anon-A-Miss?” Adagio asked with a raised eyebrow.

Sunset briefly deflated at that reminder, “Okay, not so much that, but I at least had a history to give a shred of credibility to their accusations.”

“That so? Then what ‘oh so terrible thing’ have I done to earn my lot in life.”

Sunset’s jaw dropped, “I thought you knew exactly what you were doing, you seemed to be reveling in pressing my sore spots when I tried to confront you in the hall back during the Battle of the Bands. I know that this might seem wild to you, Adagio, but people, be they ponies or humans, generally don’t like others going around starting fights. So no, your crime wasn’t wanting more, it’s that you tried to force the universe to revolve around you. Then when you suffered consequences for it, rather than change anything about yourself, you just kept doing it and lost even more than you already had. You got punished for stealing from the cookie jar and still tried stealing from it anyway.”

“Well if you girls didn’t get in our way we could’ve gotten back to Equestria and taken our revenge on that old bearded bastard.”

“Wait, you mean Star Swirl?”

“I refuse to indulge him with a name.”

“Oh no.”

Adagio paused, “I do not like the way you said that.”

“Oh, Adagio you poor unaware girl,” Sunset said pityingly.

“Stop being vague and tell me!” Adagio barked.

“Getting revenge on Star Swirl will be very difficult since you’re about a thousand years too late,” Sunset said.

Something slightly cracked in Adagio at that particular sentence, “Wh-what?”

Adagio didn’t manage to get clarification as at that moment, Rainbow Dash burst into the room.

“Sunset! We’re in trouble!”

*////*

Chrysalis from her cylindrical prison could only screw her eyes shut from the nauseating assault of swirling lights and colors of her captor’s realm.

“Please, I’m sorry,” she pathetically begged, “I know I haven’t exactly done my job. But if you just give me another chance, I promise that I can get you into Equestria.”

“We do not care about your promises, Chrysalis,” the echoing voice put down. “Those who pledge their allegiance to us are expected to perform their duty the first time. You were to grant us access to Equestria’s dimension in exchange for escaping the volcano. However, you used our inability to enter it directly as a way to escape your obligations to us. We will not forgive this transgression.”

Chrysalis attempted to crack open an eye to look upon her tormentors, but only managed to catch a glimpse of several dark pointy-headed figures moving among various complex devices before the sensory assault forced her to close it again.

“However,” the voice continued, “You still have some use to us. With the corrupted geode and the Doragory Spark Doll, you shall serve us again as our new Choju!”

Gas began flooding Chrysalis’ prison as her captors cackled at her horrified screams.

*////*

Sunset and Rainbow reached the hospital’s entrance to find their friends already outside gazing at the giant outside.

“Ah!” Rarity gasped as the pair reached the group, “There you are. How is Miss Dust?”

“Sleeping now, but that’s not important, what do we got here?” Rainbow replied.

“Somethin’ that looks an awful like Ultraman Ginga but ain’t,” Applejack replied.

“We can see that thanks!” Trixie smarmed.

“Any ideas Taro?” Wallflower asked.

“Several, but none that line up with our current information,” Taro replied. “A number of aliens have the capability to assume our form, and at least one race is infamous for building robotic duplicates of us. However, all of them fall short in some regard, like the Zarab who consistently fail to get the eyes correct, or the Babalou that physically imitate us perfectly but fall short in behavior.”

“And the robots?” Sunset asked.

“All of our powers and fighting prowess, but blatantly fake for the visible metal and rivets. Something that this imposter lacks,” Taro explained earning a gag from Rarity. “Since we know that Baltan is presently the only known active alien and it lacks those flaws, I believe that we can rule out those options.”

“And if we were in Equestria I’d say changeling, which would fit since we know Chrysalis is here, but I’ve never seen her assume such a large form, and it’s unlikely that she has magic. So that’s out,” Twilight added.

“Well let’s stop talking about what he isn’t and just beat him!” Rainbow said. “Ready to go Sunset?”

Sunset smiled and pulled out the Ginga Spark, but stopped as her face darkened.

“Sunset? What’s wrong?” Fluttershy asked.

“N-Nothing, it’s just… I don’t want to end up killing whoever’s inside again,” Sunset replied.

“Oh,” Fluttershy sadly said.

“Yeah, but for all we know that was a fluke,” Rainbow said.

“Even if it was, it was a fluke too much for me,” the redhead countered. “I don’t want to kill anyone.”

“Sunset, I know this is difficult to hear, but there are times that you do what you must to protect those under your watch,” Taro advised. “Even an innocent monster who is oblivious to the destruction they cause must be dealt with to prevent the loss of countless lives. We try to avoid killing them unless we have no other choice.”

“But this isn’t just some animal operating on little more than instinct. This is a thinking, feeling being, though admittedly probably a pretty nasty one, but still. I don’t want to be judge, jury, and executioner.”

However, unbeknownst to the gang, one Pinkie Pie had developed a growing tremor.

“I don’t think you’re gonna have much of a choice,” the bubbly girl said.

“Why’s that Pinkie?” Wallflower asked.

“BECAUSE I’M PRETTY SURE HE’S ABOUT TO TAKE A SHOT AT US!” Pinkie screeched pointing at the false Ultra that had just reached out a fist in preparation for a Ginga Cross Shoot.

Sunset gasped and reflexively activated the Ginga Spark, allowing Ginga to barely catch the imposter’s incoming ray with a Hyper Barrier. However, the power of the attack threatened to push him into the hospital regardless, forcing Sunset to go to the Harmony Bracer.

“ELEMENTS OF HARMONY! POWER TO GINGA! GINGA HARMONY!”

With a flash, Ginga Harmony now stood against the fake Ginga. Now supercharged by magic, Ginga reflected the imposter’s attack back into him, earning a shower of sparks.

"Consider yourself lucky all I did was reflect that, now who are you?" Sunset questioned as she attempted to peer into the fake Ginga's body to see who was controlling him.

However, despite Sunset’s scrutiny, no answer came, and the imposter himself remained silent.

“That’s- that’s not possible. I can’t see you!” Sunset gasped.

The fake Ginga assumed a combat stance, then rushed at real one into a grapple. Ginga, still standing near the hospital, spun his imposter around, then threw him back to his original position.

“I don’t wanna fight you!” Sunset pleaded.

The false Ultra made to charge again, but this time, Ginga was faster as he dashed in to attempt to restrain his opponent.

“Stop, this isn’t you!” Sunset begged.

Ginga’s enemy remained silent as the fake got his right arm free from the grapple, punched the Ultra in the stomach, then performed a hip throw. Ginga rolled into a kneel and barely managed to block the imposter’s flying elbow, before deflecting another punch and attempting a rear choke.

“Fine then, I’ll just put you to sleep,” Sunset said, now losing her patience.

The Zenshin crystals on the fake Ginga's body glowed yellow as he summoned up electrical energy to repel Ginga with the Ginga Thunderbolt attack. Stunned, Ginga lost his grip and recoiled. The imposter used this chance to drive his foot into Ginga's midsection with a back kick, throwing him to the ground.

The imposter leapt upon Ginga and began trying to punch the Ultra’s face in. Ginga avoided several punches before reflexively firing a Ginga Slash at his enemy, launching the fake back.

“NO!” Sunset cried and rushed Ginga over to the prone form of his imposter. “Please be okay, please be okay..."

The imposter threw his body at Ginga, nailing him with a scissor kick.

"What's Sunset doing? She's never been this sloppy." Rainbow said.

"She's so worried about hurting the person inside the other Ginga that she's holding back." Twilight replied.

Fall stood atop a nearby building, scowling. She wanted to see Sunset humiliated, but watching her other self flounder in this battle made her ashamed that she was ever born from her.

"C'mon, Sunset! What the hell are you doing!?" she growled, biting her knuckles in agitation.

It was in that moment the Alien Baltan teleported in next to Fall.

“Ah, Baltan. Do you have the identity of our mysterious body snatcher?”

Baltan slowly nodded then pointed its pincers at the floor to summon several holographic projections. Fall stared at the information thoughtfully.

“And you’re certain that this data is accurate?” she asked. The cicada nodded again. “Damn it. As much as I need Ginga defeated, these guys jeopardize the operations of everyone, Lugiel included. Perhaps she requires some motivation. Baltan, would you be a dear and skin that cosplaying bitch for me?”

The alien slowly nodded once more then hopped up on the railing and fell from the roof.

Ginga at this time was forced to kneel as his opponent wrapped his hands around the Ultra’s neck to strangle him. Several flashes of light suddenly announced the arrival of a giant Baltan.

Laughing eerily, Baltan aimed his claws at the back of the fake Ginga and fired, scoring a direct hit. He released Ginga, yelling in pain. The imposter grunted and turned to face Baltan.

Suddenly, like a ninja, Baltan speedily moved in a circle and created after-images which turned into flesh and blood duplicates. The Baltans fired at the fake Ginga simultaneously, shooting concentrated beams of energy.

“Woah, woah, what!?” Rainbow gaped.

“Baltan just shot the fake Ginga!” Rarity said with matching shock.

“But why!? Aren’t they supposed to be on the same team!?” Trixie asked.

“I don’t like this,” Twilight said.

“What is it, your highness?” Taro asked.

“Baltan wouldn’t have attacked the imposter if he was with Fall,” Twilight explained.

“But that would mean he’s not with Lugiel neither,” Applejack pointed out.

"Or maybe Fall doesn't want anyone else to beat Sunset but her," Trixie suggested.

“No, Lugiel wouldn’t stand for Fall interfering in his work. The fact that Baltan actually carried out that attack means that it has Lugiel’s implicit endorsement!” Twilight countered.

“But if that fake isn’t with either of them, who is he with?” Fluttershy asked.

While the Gang carried on their debate, Pinkie had become aware of the signs of an encroaching threat.

“Hey!” she called, drawing attention, “What’s that!?”

The Gang now looked up to the sky emitting a multitude of phantom flashes of light.

"No!" Taro cried out.

The fake Ginga fell from Baltan's onslaught as the alien reabsorbed his duplicates.

"SUNSET SHIMMER!" Sunset gasped and looked through Ginga's eyes as she saw Fall standing atop a rooftop. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!? FIGHT! FIGHT, IF YOU WANT TO SURVIVE! YOU'RE AN ULTRAMAN, AREN'T YOU!?"

Sunset glared at the comparatively small demon and made to berate her, but the tremendous sound of the sky cracking like glass cut her off.

“YAPOOL!!!!” Taro cried.

The sky shattered apart into a swirling void of colors as the extradimensional entity of hatred dropped out of the gap. Immediately after landing, Yapool fired a crescent-shaped energy attack at Fall but Baltan swiftly teleported her away.

Yapool

Alternate Dimension Superbeing

“Wretched creature! We will get to you eventually!” the extra-dimensional being threatened. Yapool then turned to Ginga, “We suppose that the cat, as you humans are so fond of saying, is out of the bag.”

Sunset struggled to keep from vomiting at the sheer hatred being aimed directly at her, “How could so much hate be contained in a single entity?”

“What… are you? And who have I been fighting?” Sunset weakly demanded.

Yapool laughed, “Who? You think you were battling some mere Dummy Spark user? No. The being before you is something far greater.”

The imposter burst into green fire and began standing up like he was possessed.

“Meet our new choju,” Yapool continued, “Borne of our science, bolstered by magic, and fueled by our eternal hatred. We give you: Gorealis.”

Gorealis

Fused Shapeshifting Terrible Monster

The flames dissipated with a puff to reveal the choju inside. It was a slender, feminine thing though this did nothing to obscure the power behind its form. It was covered in a black, chitinous shell with greenish-blue plates on its stomach and a pair of green-tipped moth wings hung from its back like a cape. Its legs were equine-shaped and filled with holes while its arms were tipped with four-fingered talons covered in a leaf-like sleeve. A gnarled twisted horn sat upon a horse-like head with deep green compound eyes, a mane made of green fire resting between a pair of crests, and an orange fang-filled mouth. Lastly, the now-familiar shape of another geode sat on its chest in a cruel mockery of an Ultra color timer.

There was only one Equestrian Sunset could think of that matched the features she could see.

“Celestia. What have you done to her?” Sunset hissed in disgust.

“Like our work?” Yapool asked dismissively, “Using a geode taken from your demon, we have fused the Changeling Queen and the choju Doragory, we have created the ultimate form of both. And best of all, it is completely subservient to us.”

“So, I can save her by ending you,” Sunset said.

Yapool laughed loud and hard, “HAHAHA! You think that we ascribe to your film cliches? No. Even if you strike down this vessel, our hatred is eternal, and our hatred is all that Gorealis feels now.”

Sunset’s eyes widened then narrowed into a glare as she shot Ginga past Goralis, “YOU BASTARD!”

Before Ginga could reach Yapool, however, a whiplike tentacle wrapped around his neck and pulled him back to Gorealis’ arms, revealing that the choju had changed its arm.

"Isn't it magnificent? Its shapeshifting makes it the ultimate living weapon!"

“Her life wasn’t yours to play with!” Sunset snarled.

“On the contrary, her life was forfeit to us the moment she decided that she could get away with evading her end of our arrangement,” Yapool countered.

“This is absolutely unforgivable! You’re an absolute, unforgivable monster!”

“Your forgiveness means nothing to us. However, we are not entirely without mercy, and we would prefer you to struggle before you fall, allow us to reveal a little secret.”

Yapool stepped closer to Ginga, “Your demon killed the Storm King.”

Sunset’s eyes widened as the fire that had dimmed in her heart blazed once more. Ginga suddenly shot a front kick into Yapool’s stomach to push them back, then gave Gorealis a right elbow. The Ultra then grabbed her fangs and threw the choju over his shoulder and ran at Yapool.

Ginga threw a left jab that Yapool batted away and countered with a swipe of their bladed arm, but Ultraman was prepared for it and blocked it while delivering a couple of chops with his right hand. The interloper answered this transgression with a kick to Ginga’s side and a punch to his face, but Ginga spun with the strike into a roundhouse kick then ducked low to grab Yapool’s legs and flipped them over his shoulder.

At this time Gorealis had gotten back to her feet and had shifted her right arm into a massive cannon to fire upon Ginga. The first volley successfully struck the Ultra who collapsed backwards. The choju, emboldened by this, let loose another round of cannon fire, but this time Ginga rolled back out of the way and to his feet then leapt over the third volley into a flying kick to Gorealis’ chest.

The terrible monster stumbled back but it regained its balance, bringing its cannon up again but Ginga kicked the barrel away and countered with a spinning backhand into a straight punch to the gut. Ginga prepared for another attack but Sunset soon heard the telltale beeping as Ginga's color timer began to blink, alerting her that she was running out of time.

Gorealis shifted the cannon back into its clawed hand and swiped Ginga across the face, then bashed the back of his head sending him into a kneel, and finally kicked him to the ground, allowing Yapool to pin him under their foot.

“HAHAHA! Did you think we would have told you that information if we were unsure of our victory? No. we knew you were out of time, now that we have had our fun, it is time to end you,” Yapool said.

Fall watched with Baltan, eyes narrowed. She could not let things end like this, not until she had proven her superiority over Sunset Shimmer.

Sunset’s friends also watched with worry.

“Damn it!” Rainbow swore, “If only she didn’t waste so much time at the start.”

“What is that thing anyway?” Trixie asked.

“Yapool. The extradimensional entity of hatred and progenitor of all choju. That monster you became back in December Trixie, Lunaticks? They created it,” Taro explained.

“They?” Applejack asked.

“Yapool is a collective of beings that all operate under a singular consciousness. The form you see out there is merely their avatar in this world.”

“Riveting, but unhelpful,” Rarity replied, “Sunset needs physical aid right now.”

As if proving her point, Ginga punched Gorealis in the chest twice only to become frozen by Yapool’s telekinesis and clobbered by the choju again.

Twilight, meanwhile, was absolutely sickened by Yapool.

“If there were any being that could be pointed at in an argument against a benevolent all-powerful deity it would be this one. How could something that only knows how to hate ever be allowed to exist in any plane of existence?” she thought.

“Rarity’s right! We need to help her!” Rainbow declared.

“But how? We can’t go inside Ginga since our wristbands were fused together,” Fluttershy said.

“And it’s not like we can just will a Light Spark into existence to hop into the fight,” Wallflower added.

“I DON’T CARE!” Twilight suddenly screamed.

“T-Twilight?” Applejack asked, wide-eyed.

“I don’t care what we have or don’t have, I’m going to find something to help Sunset! I’ll even use those rocks Sunset picked up if I have to, it doesn’t matter! My friend is in danger and I will not let anything get in my way!” The young princess decreed.

There was a moment of silence until Fluttershy gasped, “Twilight, your hand!”

Twilight blinked before looking at her right hand to find that it had begun glowing.

“No,” Twilight amended staring into the light, “perhaps shining is the better word for it.”

Gradually, the light within the princess’ palm coalesced into the shape of a blue, crystalline dagger, a Light Spark.

Twilight’s eyes widened as she realized exactly what she had, “Quick, the bag!”

Wallflower flinched but handed Twilight the item regardless.

“No. No. No,” Twilight muttered as she rummaged through the various Spark Dolls until one, in particular, jumped out at her. “What about this one?”

Taro made an odd sound and replied, “An excellent choice, but among Ultras Yapool holds particularly strong hatred for him. To use him might make Yapool even more dangerous.”

“Or it could give them tunnel vision and leave them vulnerable,” Twilight countered and raised the Light Spark and Doll.

“Wait,” Taro said, earning a pause from Twilight, “I may not be able to talk you out of using him but know this: on Planet Ultra he is known as the Master of Beam Attacks. So do not go gentle with them.”

Twilight nodded, then activated the Light Spark.

Gorealis jumped into Ginga’s chest and kicked off him like a grasshopper, sending him to the ground once again.

“Fight Sunset! We cannot let them win,” Ginga pleaded.

“How? I spent all my energy trying to restrain Gorealis. I have nothing left,” Sunset countered, as the choju and Yapool gathered energy for their finishing blow.

“Not yet!” A familiar voice cried to Sunset.

“Twilight?” Sunset asked.

Suddenly a giant glowing red ball flew into Gorealis, then bounced into Yapool before landing in front of Ginga kicking up a massive dust cloud. As the dust settled, a humanoid shape took shape, a single fin sprouting from his head a hole through it, near perfectly oval eyes, and a blue color timer upon his chest. Yapool stood back up and scanned furiously for who would dare strike them but when they saw the new challenger, something seemed to utterly break within them.

“ACE!”

Ultraman Ace

Master of Beam Attacks

Indeed, another Ultra had come to Sunset’s aid.

“Twilight!” Sunset cried happily standing Ginga back up.

“Sunset, what’s going on?” the lavender former unicorn asked.

Sunset’s joy immediately reverted back to anger, “It’s Queen Chrysalis. Yapool’s somehow stamped out her original personality. She’s little more than a slave to their hate now.”

Twilight’s jaw dropped as she turned back to Yapool, “In my time battling villains in Equestria, I thought I knew evil. But beings like you keep finding new levels of depravity to sink to.”

Twilight charged Ace forward, prompting Yapool to order Gorealis to match him, but Ace dropped down into a slide, sweeping out the choju’s left leg from under him, allowing Ginga to tackle her to the ground. Ace immediately rose to his feet again and into melee range of Yapool, blocking a punch and countering with a shoulder ram, grabbed their arm blade, and transferred into an over-the-shoulder throw. Yapool swiftly got back to their feet and slashed Ace twice across the chest earning a shower of sparks, but when they attempted a chop Ace caught the bladed limb, kicked the entity twice in the side with his right leg, pushed away the limb to deal a series of punches to Yapool’s chest, then used a dropkick to gain distance from his archenemy.

During Ace’s duel with Yapool, Ginga had been pummeling Gorealis as the choju was on the ground before standing up, taking a leg under each arm and swinging her around in a hammer throw. The Ultra made to attack again, but Gorealis revealed another ability by turning her head 180 degrees to fire lightning at Ginga from her eyes.

“Yeow!” Sunset cried as she dodged Ginga out of the way of the attack, “That was freaky.”

Gorealis turned her body around to match her head and attempted to gore Ginga with her horn, but the Ultra was ready and caught the tip between his palms. From there, he shifted to a better grip to deliver a right chop and elbow to the back of Gorealis’ head, then a couple of kicks with his left leg, finally Ginga lifted the choju’s head to plant his hand against her chest to throw her down the street.

“It must drive you nuts, to have all this hate and not have it be your own. I get it, I spent an awful lot of time in this world with a demon in my head. So please understand that this isn’t personal, I just can’t allow you and Yapool to run rampant in this world,” Sunset explained, as she used the Harmony Brace to summon the Twilight Slugger.

Gorealis rose to her feet and changed her arms into a black-colored pair with glowing yellow blades in place of hands. Undaunted, Ginga lunged towards Gorealis as the choju built a massive fireball between the blades turning the Ultra’s charge into a race to who could finish the other first.

“Ginga Harmony Finish.”

A race in which Ginga was faster.

Gorealis released her fireball a second too late as Ginga swiped the Twilight Slugger through the choju’s neck, leaving a glowing scar in its wake.

“Sleep, Chrysalis. Hate no longer,” Sunset softly said in remorse as Gorealis’ head began falling off backwards before exploding.

While Ginga held off Gorealis, Ace had engaged Yapool in the Ultra equivalent to a magic duel.

“VERTICAL GUILLOTINE!” Twilight cried while bringing Ace’s hands across his chest, then spreading them vertically to cast a crescent-shaped blade of energy at Yapool.

Yapool shattered the attack with their own blade and responded by firing multiple energy bullets.

“SLASH BEAM!” Ace destroyed a number of Yapool’s bullets with his own before cartwheeling out of the way of the last few before retaliating with, “TIMER SHOT!”

Ace fired a rainbow-colored ray from his chest, but Yapool intercepted it by opening a portal to their dimension and casting lightning from it.

“ULTRA NEO BARRIER!” Ace traced a rectangle in front of him to form a light wall to block the assault before casting it aside and crossing his fingers over his Ultra Star, “PUNCH LASER!”

Yapool matched the beam with a laser of their own causing both attacks to meet in a titanic explosion. Yapool never got a chance to ready themselves before Ace came leaping out of the fire and smoke brandishing the metallic katana called the Ace Blade. The legendary weapon struck true, earning a shower of sparks and sending Yapool tumbling away.

“Twilight!” Sunset called as she approached with Ginga.

“Sunset, are you okay?” Twilight asked.

“I’m fine, Gorealis is toast.”

“I see. Then all that’s left is Yapool,” Twilight replied, dismissing the Ace Blade, “Shall we?”

“Damn straight! Let’s bury this bastard!” Sunset cheered while using the Harmony Brace.

Ginga brought his hands together then in a circle while Ace swung his arms back and to the left before they assumed a cross and “L” position respectively.

“HARMONY MIRACLE RAY!”

“METALIUM KOSEN!”

The beams struck the now standing Yapool, yet despite the attacks slowly breaking them down they remained defiant, “Do you think you’ve won? This is but a setback! As long as our hate endures, we will come again and again to destroy you all!”

“Save the villain talk Yapool! You’re done!” Sunset declared.

“You can’t harm anyone anymore!” Twilight added.

“Heh heh heh, you do not believe us. Ask your precious Taro and despair at the futility of your resistance. We have all of eternity to achieve victory, can you say the same?” Yapool taunted before detonating with a final scream.

*////*

After Yapool’s destruction, Sunset returned to Adagio’s side and filled her in on everything that had happened.

“And that’s pretty much it,” Sunset finished.

Adagio, for her part, seemed attentive but uninterested by the story, “I’m sorry. But how is it, that when the Storm King vanished your first thought was: ‘the Elements killed him’?”

“Hey, look here! The Elements of Harmony are still a massive grey area in Equestria’s knowledge! They can cleanse and redeem you, banish you, seal you in stone, there’s no telling what they’re going to do anytime they’re used!” Sunset argued.

“Whatever, I don’t care about your heroics,” Adagio said dismissively, “What did you mean I’m a thousand years too late to get revenge?”

“Oh yeah, I suppose you would want to know about that,” Sunset said before pausing in thought. “Okay, look, there’s no real way to lay this on you gently, so I hope you don’t mind if I just rip this band-aid off.”

“Get to the point!” Adagio barked.

“Star Swirl the Bearded disappeared, died I assume, about a thousand years ago,” Sunset said, earning a despondent look from the siren.

“No. No, that’s not possible. We’ve only been here for a few weeks, maybe a couple of months at most!” Adagio desperately denied.

“Facts don’t exactly care for feelings, Adagio. Whether or not he intended it to happen, Star Swirl threw you and the others through time as well as space. Whatever it was in Equestria that you three were trying to get back to, it’s gone now, I’m sorry” Sunset explained.

Adagio’s eyes grew wide and her breathing became quick and ragged, signs that Sunset knew all too well from her time after the Fall Formal. Adagio was about to have a breakdown.

Acting quickly, Sunset lunged forward and wrapped Adagio in a massive hug that, to her relief, she accepted.

“First my home, then my magic, my pride, what more is this world going to take from me!? My life!?” The siren wailed.

“Hey! HEY! None of that!” Sunset sternly said, taking Adagio’s face between her hands. “This world does not want you dead. If anything it wants you to stop making enemies before you get yourself and the others killed.”

“Is that supposed to make me feel better?” Adagio sobbed.

“No. It’s a wake-up call. Let’s run some numbers here. There are only three sirens, you, Aria, and Sonata. In this world, there are over seven billion humans across the globe. Seven billion, Adagio. That’s more humans than there are ponies in Equestria. Do you really think you could have enslaved all of them before some sniper gunned you down from a mile off, or some guy wearing earplugs jumped the stage with a knife? Were you able to control people through disks or other media players? I doubt it since the only times I’ve seen you cast that spell it was in a concert setting, which seems to indicate that you need to be in the same area as your targets to inflict your will on them.”

That put things in perspective for Adagio, who could offer a drawn-out, “Uuuuuuuuhhhhhhh.”

Sunset continued, “Don’t you see? This world has been trying to keep you girls safe. But your disregard for the dangers of this world, despite already getting in trouble once in Equestria, forced it to take more drastic measures to protect you. Now, to be fair, I’m not much better. After all, I’m the dumb broad who thought I could take Equestria with an army of teenagers. But then I’m not an immortal who should’ve known better.”

Suddenly, Adagio’s eyes widened and she began laughing with what sounded like… relief?

“Uh? Did I say something?” Sunset wondered, utterly baffled by Adagio’s sudden shift.

Adagio’s laughter subsided with a sniffle and she said, “Well, at least everyone else got out okay. That’s a relief”

“Eh?”

“Sorry. I guess I don’t have much of an excuse to hide this now,” Adagio said to Sunset’s surprise. “I’m a teenager.”

“I know you are in this world how is that a big-.”

“No. I mean, we were teenagers when we got kicked out of Equestria.”

That didn’t sound right to Sunset. After all, she was a grown mare when she jumped across the portal, so there were clearly some time differences between worlds.

Fortunately, Adagio noticed Sunset’s confusion and clarified, “You have to understand here, Sirens are not immortal. What we are, is incredibly long-lived, and because of this, we don’t reproduce very often. Sadly this also means that we stay in the dumbass teenager phase significantly longer than every other race, which is why Siren parents would seem abusively strict to other races. There just aren’t enough of us to allow members of our people to die or… get banished.”

“That… explains a lot,” Sunset thought, “So where are the other Sirens?”

“I’m not telling you!” Adagio barked. “I might have been bad at following them, but the Sirens have rules. Stay out of sight, don’t squeal, don’t rock the boat too much, and if you get into trouble, don’t expect anyone to come save you.”

“I see,” Sunset said, rather disturbed by the Sirens’ willingness to sacrifice members of their race despite their apparent low population. “So, where do Aria and Sonata fit in?”

Adagio’s bluster drained again at the mention of her cohorts, “Remember how I said I was a teenager?” Sunset nodded. “Well, my dumb ass thought that our powers and long lives meant that the Sirens deserved to rule Equestria. When I brought it up to the elders I was ridiculed and called an idiot, so I gathered up my friends to go prove them wrong. I suppose the only thing I proved that day was that the Sirens were right to hide.”

Sunset looked on sadly at her former enemy, but before she could say anything further, a nurse entered the room.

“Excuse me. Visitation time is over, I’m sorry, but I am going to have to ask you to leave.”

Sunset sighed and stood up to leave but Adagio grabbed her hand, “Wait, you’ll be back, right?”

Sunset’s eyes widened in surprise but then softened as she leaned in so the nurse couldn’t hear, “Provided Fall and Lugiel behave themselves for long enough, definitely.”

With that, Sunset left the room.

*////*

Upon leaving the hospital, the Gang retreated to Sunset’s apartment for pizza.

“Friggen’ unbelievable. The greatest threat before Lugiel and they were just a few teenagers,” Rainbow said.

“I think it’s tragic,” Rarity said, “Ah, the impulsiveness of youth.”

“Rarity, most ‘youthful impulsiveness’ don’t involve getting kicked out of a universe,” Wallflower countered.

“Or mass enslavement,” Twilight added.

“Or coercing attempted murder,” Trixie supplied.

“What!? When did that happen!?” Rarity asked, alarmed.

“What? Did you think anyone would’ve come looking for you if Twilight’s dog got locked up in that room with you?” Trixie pointed out.

“Oh,” Rarity replied, then whispered, “Way to take the wind out of my sails.”

“I’m inclined to agree with everyone else on this one, Rarity,” Sunset said. “Breaking your arm because of an idiotic dare is a ‘tragedy of youth’. What the Dazzlings suffered was more like karma that skipped the reincarnation step.”

“What perplexes me is how the Sirens gain enough negative energy to feed even their small population,” Taro wondered. “Going off what Miss Dazzle said, there should be no possible way for the Sirens to feed themselves and stay unnoticed.”

“I actually have a theory about that,” Twilight said. “Before Equestria existed, there existed ice spirits called Windigos that fed on the same kind of emotions the Sirens do. Back then, the three pony tribes (Pegasi, Unicorns, and Earth Ponies) absolutely hated each other, which supercharged the Windigos so much that they caused a near-apocalyptic ice age. It wasn’t until the first Hearth’s Warming, which was the day that the Pony tribes finally dropped their hostilities, that they were driven out.”

“Twilight, darling, not that we don’t appreciate the context, but what does this have to do with the Sirens?” Rarity asked.

“The point is that Windigos are nothing but hate and strife, so to catch one would be akin to a full three-course meal for a Siren. Plus, the stories about them don’t seem to imply any great intelligence on their part, like the ice age they caused was just a byproduct of overeating. I think that the Sirens just cause small, localized pockets of disharmony, collect the Windigos that show up, and then leave before they get noticed,” Twilight concluded.

“Wow. Those sound way less scary than the ones we have,” Pinkie said, earning a flinch from Sunset.

“Oh crap!” Sunset thought, “Uh, Pinkie? I don’t think that particular story is very appropriate for Twilight.”

“TELL ME!” Twilight cried having gotten a notebook and pencil from… somewhere.

“Nonononono! Really Twilight! If you think Pony myths can be a bit messed up, humans can come up with so much worse!” Sunset pleaded.

“Be that as it may, Sunset, I must press on. If I don’t, how could I bear to call myself a scientist. Now, please continue, Pinkie.”

“Oh, they’re just forest-dwelling, man-eating monsters that can do stuff like imitate your friends’ voices, mess with time, and reorganize the woods to keep you lost,” Pinkie explained.

“... Well that’s not too bad-”

“Oh! And they’re created when someone lost in the woods resorts to cannibalism,” she finished.

Twilight dry heaved and cried, “WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE!? WHY WOULD YOU EVER COME UP WITH SOMETHING LIKE THAT!?”

“I warned you,” Sunset hissed as everyone laughed at their bookish friend’s disgust.

“Getting off the… morbid topic of human mythology, whatever happened to Chrysalis?” Taro asked.

That simple question

“Twilight and I tried to find her, believe me, Taro, but I think Yapool had no intentions to allow her to survive regardless of if she won or lost,” Sunset answered.

Taro made the closest approximation to a nod that he could with a sigh, “I wish I could say that I was terribly surprised, but I would be lying. Yapool is not one to forgive failure.”

“Why’d he grab her anyway? Isn’t Equestria supposed to be, like, isolated from your universe or something?” Rainbow asked Taro.

“Yapool was pretty tight-lipped about the specifics, but I assume that they had some kind of arrangement with each other,” Sunset answered in his place.

Following Sunset’s train of logic, Twilight continued, “And because they couldn’t enter Equestria, Chrysalis figured that she could skip out on keeping her end of the deal.”

“Hm… So whatever they wanted out of her would allow them to enter Equestria,” Taro mused, then twitched in realization, “Could they have been after the Mirror Portal?”

Applejack’s eyes widened, “HOOOOEEEEE! You guys dodged one HELL of a bullet there Twi!”

“But how!? How could Yapool know about it if they can’t enter Equestria unassisted!?” Twilight asked fearfully.

“There is an important rule when Yapool acts: always assume they know. What do they know? Doesn’t matter, for they seem omniscient. In Ultraman Ace’s time with TAC, they seemed to always be aware of whatever secret project the force was developing. Like when TAC got the idea to study a boy’s trained pigeon to develop an unmanned aircraft. I’m sorry Fluttershy, but Yapool kidnapped the bird, and… transplanted its brain into the Choju Black Pigeon,” Taro explained.

To Sunset’s great surprise, Fluttershy didn’t become a frothing rage monster. However, for those who had known her longer, the subtle shiver, emotionless face, and growing growl in the back of her throat told them that she was well on her way to that point.

“Woah, Woah! Chill ‘Shy, it’s not like he can hurt anyone now,” Rainbow said placatingly.

“I’m afraid not,” Taro interrupted.

“What? You can’t honestly be telling me Yapool survived that?” Rainbow scoffed.

“Oh, they didn’t, but I can say with absolute certainty that they will not stay that way,” Taro clarified.

“That’s a load of bull and you know it,” Applejack accused.

“As crass as that is, I’m inclined to agree. No one is able to just come back from the dead, dear,” Rarity agreed.

Taro shook his body, “You don’t kill Yapool, you merely delay them. By my count, this is Yapool’s fourth death, and make no mistake, they will be back. They always come back.”

The little Ultra’s ominous warning cast a dark shadow over Sunset’s apartment. What could they do against an enemy too evil for redemption, too powerful to be sealed, and had all the time in the world to keep trying?

Realizing the mood he had created, Taro asked, “Do you want to hear about the Choju Yapool hid in a child’s bedwetting stain?”

“What the f-!?” Came the unified cry.

Author's Note

So, some interesting tidbits about this chapter:

The description of Lightning Dust's injuries here are based on my life experiences. The leg comes from my brother, while her arm and face are based on me.
Having listened to some voice clips of Adagio, I couldn't shake just how odd she sounded. Like she's just putting on a voice rather than speaking naturally. So I decided to run with it. What if Adagio really is putting on a voice, which hides just how immature she truly is?
Speculating on the growth process and parenting of born immortals is always a fun little exercise isn't it?
Rainbow doesn't care enough to use Yapool's proper pronoun, so if you pick that up, it wasn't a typo.

This chapter was edited by Kendallonian

Interlude: Aftermaths

In the upper-class district of Canterlot, a blue-haired white-skinned man pulled into a house’s driveway. Turning off his car, one Officer Shining Armor rested his head against the steering wheel with a sigh.

“This marks the fourth attack, and it hasn’t even been half a week yet,” the beleaguered cop said to himself. “It’s like last winter all over again.”

Shining stepped out of his vehicle with a grunt and made his way to the front door, stepping through it while calling, “Babe, I’m home!”

“Welcome back!” Came the distant, oddly accented feminine reply from elsewhere.

The now-on-duty househusband didn’t reply, instead opting to begin placing his work gear on a table near the door.

“How was work!?” The voice asked.

“Chrys, a monster attack happened, you know how it was!” Shining called back as he finally placed his badge down and made his way to the master bedroom.

“I know,” the voice groaned from the connected bathroom, “I don’t know why I keep hoping that pig-headed bastard is going to admit that Ultraman is not the bad guy here.”

“You don’t need to tell me, babe,” Shining replied as rummaged through a dresser for his relaxation attire. “He still acts like it’s somehow Ultraman’s fault that those people at the Equestrialand attack got blinded. Did you know that those people are still recovering from the lights that monster made? Friggen scary.”

Finally digging his eveningwear out of the drawer Shining was distracted by a trail of small black dots across the top of the dresser. “Aw. Chrys, your ants got out again!”

The bathroom door swung open, revealing a ravishingly beautiful black-skinned woman with green-teal hair that was dyed deep maroon at the tips, and wearing a fetching deep midnight blue robe. This is the wife of Shining Armor, Chrysanthemum Chitin. The human Queen Chrysalis.

“Goddamn it, I thought for sure they were secured this time!” She hissed.

“I keep telling you that you should let me get you a shed to keep them in,” Shining replied.

“And I keep reminding you that you knew what you were getting into marrying an entomologist but you did it anyway.”

“And you love me for it,” Shining said with a goofy grin.

Chitin paused for a moment, then returned his smile, “Yeah. Well, anyway, we’re in luck, these aren’t my ants. They’re the wrong species. I’ll get some bait traps when I’m out.”

Rather than continue the conversation, Shining embraced his wife and gently began kissing her neck.

“Woah, slow down there kid. You need dinner before you get that kind of fun,” Chitin chided.

“Fine,” Shining sighed exaggeratedly earning a giggle from his wife as he began changing out of his uniform.

“So, I had a chat with Cadance today,” the woman said.

Shining paused with a wince. Sure, he understood his ex-girlfriend’s reasoning for the breakup, but that didn’t make it hurt any less.

“Oh, really? What did she say?” He asked.

“Apparently, Twilight’s athletics scores have seen a major improvement. Heck, she apparently wiped the floor with the other team at dodgeball,” Chitin continued.

“Really?” Shining asked, wide-eyed. Twilight was a girl of many talents, but sports were definitely not in her wheelhouse, “I can’t imagine Indigo Zap was very happy about that.”

“Oh, she wasn’t, but apparently Twilight did something to scare her off. I’m so proud of her,” Chitin replied. “Of course, she wouldn’t be needing to do that if you just got her out of that school.”

“Chrys, I am not getting into another argument with you about what I should or should not be doing in regards to my sister,” Shining said, sternly.

“And I’ll keep picking the fight until you suck it up and tell your dad to shove it. He doesn’t have Twilight’s best interests in mind.”

“A Crystal Prep education is Sparkle tradition-.”

“Oh, there you go bringing “tradition” into it again like some everything-proof shield. Shining, it was once “tradition” to marry off and expect children from eleven-year-old girls, but that didn’t make it good. You went through the exact same shit Twilight is, just as much as I did. Crystal Prep has always been rotten. It was rotten before Cinch, and it will continue to be long after her.”

“Come on hon, you know what happened to her family.”

“What happened to Cinch’s family was a tragedy, but that isn’t an excuse to drag everyone else down with her. Did you know that she’s been involved in multiple coverup scandals regarding how she runs that school? The only reason she got away with them was because she threw money at her problems until they went away. That place is a school shooting waiting to happen.”

Shining recoiled in shock, but then dropped to a dangerous tone of voice, “I know that didn’t just imply that.”

“If you mean that Twilight would be the one to do it, no,” Chitin placated. “But she does have access to a gun. Seriously, why do you not put that thing in a safe?”

“I’d rather not have to remember a combination to get to a critical part of my job.”

“Laziness. Got it. But let’s assume for a moment that Twilight does snap and steal your gun to shoot up Crystal Prep. What would you do? Would you have the nerve to stop her?”

Shining seemed to think on those words for a moment but just as quickly shook it off, “I won’t have to, because it’s not going to happen. Twilight just needs some friends is all”

“God, you sound like your father,” Chitin scoffed.

“I do not!” Shining hissed.

“Yes, you do! News flash, you don’t go to Crystal Prep to make “friends”, you go there to make “connections”, there’s a difference. One is based on mutual respect, acceptance, and love, and the other is based on selfish self-advancement. I’m sure I don’t need to remind you that dating Dean Cadance was originally your father’s idea.”

Shining recoiled as if he had been struck, “That’s a low blow Chrys.”

“But no less true,” Chitin continued. “I’m not saying you two weren’t absolutely adorable together, but I would like to remind you who Night Light blamed for the breakup. It wasn’t Cadance, it wasn’t Cinch, it wasn’t even Twilight (as messed up as that would be). No, for some reason, he decided that you did something wrong. That’s just the kind of guy he is. He’s not someone you want as a role model.”

Shining finally finished changing into a white t-shirt and blue boxers and sat down on the bed with a sigh, “What happened to us Chrys? We’ve had this fight before, but lately, It seems like we have it, like, every week it seems.”

“YOU WANNA KNOW WHY!?” Chitin snapped, “BECAUSE EVERY TIME THOSE LITTLE FUCKING MONSTERS AT CRYSTAL PREP RUIN TWILIGHT’S DAY I’M THE ONE SHE CRIES TO! CADANCE’S HANDS ARE TIED, HER DAD DOESN’T CARE, AND HER BELOVED BIG BROTHER BEST FRIEND FOREVER BLOWS HER OFF DESPITE HAVING ALL THE AUTHORITY HE NEEDS TO ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! Shiny, you are a cop, if anyone should care about what’s happening to Twilight, it’s you.”

Shining’s jaw dropped at his wife’s outburst, “Twilight… Doesn’t trust me? But why? Am I truly such a bad… No. I know why. No more hiding, Chrys deserves the truth.”

“Hey, Chrys, come here, sit next to me,” Shining gently said, patting the empty space on his right.

Chitin raised an eyebrow but complied while thinking, “This doesn’t look good. What kind of horror is barring you from protecting your own sister, Shiny?”

There was a moment of silence as Shining collected his thoughts, then began, “You’re wrong about me. I know that from where you’re sitting it looks like I don’t care about Twily, but I do. What kind of big brother would I be if I didn’t? However, there is so much more to the picture that you don’t know about.”

Chitin crossed her arms over her chest and gestured Shining to continue.

“I know that you think I got my job legitimately, but I didn’t. My dad has an in at the CCPD, and he used it to make them fast track me to my current position.”

Chitin’s jaw dropped, “Shiny-”

Shining cut her off with his hand, “It gets worse. When I caught wind of what he had done, I confronted him to try and make him back off. Instead he… threatened Twilight to force me to accept his help.”

Chitin’s eyes widened and her hands shot up over her mouth, “Oh, my god!”

“Let me finish,” Shining continued. “While it sounds easy to just throw my authority as a police officer around to get Twilight into our custody, the reality is that it takes time to get that kind of movement going. Enough time that he can do some real damage to Twilight”

“Jesus,” Chitin whispered.

“Yeah. Now you have the full picture. Dad has effectively got me between a rock and a hard place. I want to get Twilight away from the abuse of her peers, but doing so risks a retaliation that would make their actions look friendly by comparison.”

“But why? What does he possibly stand to gain from this?”

Shining shrugged, “Can’t say. But going by some of the insane crap that he’s said when I was growing up, probably nepotism. We Sparkles seem to have a habit of getting into positions of authority, either through talent or marriage. I assume that was his original intent when he talked me into dating Cadance. Even if I failed to become a cop, he’d still have a son that was married to the Dean of Crystal Prep.”

“But then Cadance found out that Twilight was going to Crystal Prep and thought it would be unprofessional to keep the relationship up. Night Light needed to salvage his plan somehow,” Chitin concluded.

“And he broke the legal system to do it,” Shining finished.

“What the hell Shiny!?” Chitin demanded, “Why did you keep this from me for so long!?”

“Are you kidding?” Shining challenged. “My dad already doesn’t like you, I don’t want you running off and giving him more reasons, or worse an excuse to separate us!”

Chitin reeled back as if struck by Shining’s outburst, prompting the off-duty officer to softly add, “I love you too much to let that happen.”

Chitin’s features softened at that little admission. As much as she loathed to admit, Night Light absolutely hated her, at one point even attempting to bribe her into breaking up with Shining. He was absolutely the type of utter creep to have her arrested to strongarm Shining into separating.

“Hey,” she said, turning Shining to face her, “Have some faith in yourself, Shiny. You are not some spineless, submissive coward. I know you would never let him get away with it. The shit fit you’d throw would be so legendary that Night Light would be tripping over himself to bail me out to try and buy your silence. Try picturing that and not smiling.”

Shining very swiftly failed his wife’s challenge with a laugh before moving to kiss her. Sadly, in this age of monsters and giants, such candid moments were all too swiftly squashed.

*KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK*

A trio of very firm, very insistent knocks echoed throughout the home, announcing that whoever was at the door had no intention of leaving. The sound left Shing and Chitin awkwardly paused with their lips pursed.

“Did you invite someone over?” Shining asked his wife.

“Look at what I’m wearing, of course I didn’t. Did you?” She replied.

“If I did I would’ve called you.”

“Then who the hell is that!?” Chitin asked, making to stand up.

“No,” Shining said, “I’m more decent, I’ll get it.”

Chitin pouted but sat back down as Shining stood up and made his way back though the house to the front door.

“Look asshole, do you realize what time it i-,” Shining irately began as he opened the door, only for a manilla folder that read ‘CLASSIFIED’ being shoved into his chest to cut him off.

“Congratulations Shining Armor. You’ve been drafted.”

Shining looked up from the folder to look at the source of the voice to find two casually dressed, but clearly professional people standing in his doorway.

On his right standing closest to him was an orange-skinned woman with long purple-streaked magenta hair tied in a braid that trailed off her right shoulder. She wore a hooded apricot sweater with snug-fitting jeans, and over her shoulder was a vibrant blue bag marked by a large pink star with two smaller ones above it.

Behind her, on Shining’s left was a light amber-skinned man with aqua hair that Shining could not think of any other way to describe than what a lonely, frustrated, middle-aged woman would think a police officer looked like. He wore a white undershirt with a brown button-up vest and matching pants and boots. Over the vest was a deep blue buttonless jacket with a teal horseshoe inside a golden shield with two teal hearts below it on its rolled-up sleeves. The man’s face, however, was truly what sealed the look for Shining, as he could not think of a more fitting appearance for the internet saying “himbo”.

One small detail that jumped out at Shining from the pair, was the pin on their chests that appeared to show a snaggle-toothed smile that seemed to drip blood from its right side.

Regardless of these observations, Shining was pissed, “DRAFTED!? WHA-!? WHO THE HELL ARE YOU PEOPLE!?”

“Sunny Starscout,” the woman said then motioned with her head, “He’s Hitch Trailblazer.”

“You say that like I’m supposed to care,” Shining hissed, “Look I only just got home, and I’m looking forward to an evening with my wife, so if you wouldn’t mind, please get off my doorstep.”

“A car will be here at six A.M. Don’t be late,” the woman, Sunny, said authoritatively.

“The fu-!? Who do you people think you are!?” Shining demanded.

“As we’ve said, you’ve been drafted,” the man, Hitch, finally contributed.

“Drafted into what!? We’re not at war!” Shining yelled, completely fed up with these strangers.

“Are we not?” Sunny asked, and a sinking sensation settled into Shining’s gut.

He had a feeling he knew what this was about.

“Everything you need will be in that folder. Six A.M.” Sunny said, finally walking away, followed by Hitch.

Shining closed the door, then had to brace himself against it as the weight of their demands settled on his mind. Was this real? Were they seriously dragging him into war against the monsters that plagued Canterlot?

“Shiny?” His wife softly asked behind him, “I heard you yelling, are you okay?”

Shining could only laugh mirthlessly, “I’ve been drafted.”

He pushed the folder into Chitin’s chest as he skulked into the living room, leaving his confused wife to open the folder to a large acronym spread over an image of a crooked, fanged grin.

S.M.I.L.E.

*////*

Princess Twilight Sparkle was not having a good night.

After their friends returned home, she and Sunset decided to turn in for the night. However, in the silence of Sunset’s apartment, Twilight’s thoughts went back to the battle that happened mere hours ago. “Is this alright? Did we really do everything we could about Chrysalis? There must have been some way to save her. We just… couldn’t think of one in time.”

“You’re troubled,” the masculine voice of Taro cut in.

Before Twilight could cry out, the tiny alien froze her with his psychokinesis, “Sssshhh. I have set up a telepathic link so we can speak without disturbing Sunset. Just think what you wish to say and I will hear it.”

“Really?” Twilight thought.

“Really,” Taro replied, then released her.

“Wow, this is going to be strange.” Twilight mused.

“You’ll grow into it. Now, what has you thinking so much about Chrysalis?” Taro asked.

Twilight flinched then looked away from the little Ultra. “Nothing, it’s stupid.”

“Nothing that keeps you awake at night could ever be ‘stupid’, Twilight.”

“It’s… an Equestrian thing. You wouldn’t get it.”

“Then help me understand. We are friends aren’t we?” Taro asked.

Twilight winced, “That was a low blow, Taro. Alright.” She sucked in a breath to prepare. “So, you know how we thought that Sunset killed the Storm King, only for Yapool to reveal that it was actually Fall that finished him off?”

“Yes?”

“Well Chrysalis doesn’t have that buffer, yet everyone seems to be taking her death significantly better than his; even me! We killed someone, and we’re just acting like everything is just fine! IS THERE SOMETHING WRONG WITH ME!?”

“Twilight, breathe!” Taro commanded with such authority that the girl couldn’t help but calm down. “Now, you must understand that I come from a position of bias. Any sapient being that willingly sells itself to Yapool has earned my ire, but outside of the creature that she was turned into, I have never once met Chrysalis in person. So my ability to advise you is limited.” Twilight deflated a bit. “However, if one were to teach me about who Chrysalis was in life, then I may be better equipped to help.”

Twilight audibly choked, “Gah! Why are you so good at pushing my buttons!?”

“Just one of the talents that one develops over twelve thousand years of experience,” the cheeky doll replied.

“... Fair enough,” Twilight conceded, then began. “Now, before I get too far in, I have to say that I’ve only ever met Crysalis once before today. Or is it yesterday now?” Twilight shook her head. “The point is I’m not very familiar with her either, but dang it, I’ll tell you everything I know.

“Our first encounter, though I didn’t know it at the time, was during my brother’s wedding to Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, though you know her as Cadance. I still have no idea why they used her full name on the invitations, Celestia knows she hates it. Anyway, she was my old foalsitter, or babysitter to humans, and get this the pony she was marrying, is my brother, Shining Armor. I didn’t even know they were dating!”

“How does that happen?”

“Don’t know. He still hasn’t told me why he stopped writing to me before I got the invitation. When my friends and I got to Canterlot, though, Cadence was behaving wildly out of character. She was cruelly criticizing every facet of the wedding, and didn’t even recognize our greeting.”

“Ah. A classic red flag. I remember the first time Ultraman Ace fought an Alien Metron. Its disguise was blown because engagement rings don’t exist on their planet.”

“Ha! I wish it were so easy for me. When I confronted the imposter in front of my friends and family, she burst into crocodile tears and ran from the room, and everypony else went with her.”

“You cannot be serious.”

“Oh if you think that’s bad, Celestia had forewarning that an attack was coming, and she still kept the wedding on.”

“OH FOR KING’S SAKE!”

“RIGHT!? Anyway, when I caught up with ‘Cadance’ to apologize, she suddenly dropped me through a portal into a cavern filled with magic sealing crystals. It was there that I found the real Cadance and finally found out what was actually going on. I should probably say this now so I don’t lose you from here on, but Chrysalis wasn’t a pony. She was the queen of a species of pony-shaped insectoid love-eating shapeshifters called changelings, and they had infiltrated Canterlot. Together with Cadance, we found our way out of the caves which, as it turned out, were just under the city.”

“Because King forbid she have to travel a few thousand kilometers away to the middle of nowhere to throw off your navigation.”

“You know, it never occurred to me how stupid that was until you said that. Anyway, we crashed the wedding in progress and exposed Queen Chrysalis, but she managed to capture everypony except Cadance. Together with Shiny, they created a massive love powered shockwave that expelled all the changelings from, and, until today, was the last I saw of Chrysalis.”

With Twilight’s story completed, she waited as Taro processed what he just learned. Though his arms were stiff she could picture him with his little hand on his chin like some ancient philosopher.

“I feel as though I am still missing some details,” Taro began. “But by this story alone, I can say with absolute certainty, that Chrysalis was an incompetent, impatient, lazy, idiot.”

Twilight’s jaw dropped, “That’s not true! She tricked everypony!”

“Tricking the exceedingly gullible is not hard, Twilight, it’s the lowest bar to clear. The bare minimum. Chrysalis should never have gotten as far as she did if she was as bad an actress as you say she was. The reason she succeeded in fooling anyone was because everyone else lacked the critical thinking skills and nerve to call out her behavior,” Taro countered. “Successful infiltration, espionage, and impersonation takes months, if not years to pull off properly. When the Alien Knackle briefly took over Earth during Ultraman Jack’s time, they took their time building up to it, learning everything they would need to deal with and how to attack them. This extended planning phase worked so well that we teach it in our schools.”

“What did they do?” Twilight asked, dreading the answer.

“They murdered his host Goh Hibiki’s girlfriend and her brother to distress him, crippling his and Jack’s synchronicity, used mind control devices to undermine the Monster Attack Team, and after defeating Ultraman Jack, paraded his crucified form across the skies of Earth to demoralize humanity. Their reign only ended because Ultraman and Ultraseven saved Jack, and MAT’s sole female member, Yuriko Oka, evaded her captured teammates long enough to stop them from executing his host,” Taro explained.

“THAT’S AWFUL!”

“And far more effective than what Chrysalis came up with,” Taro countered, but then something occurred to him. “Wait, you said that changelings eat love?”

“W-Yeah?” Twilight said, startled by the sudden topic shift.

“How does that work?” Taro asked.

“They foalnap ponies, then shove them into pods where their love is drained, why?” Twilight answered.

“That… Strikes me as incredibly inefficient.”

“How do you mean?”

“Well, you said it yourself. Changelings are shapeshifters, and since they can outright eat love, it must be a tangible, observable force in Equestria that can be interacted with. Now, I am no ‘love expert’, but I do know that love, true, genuine, love, cannot be stolen, forced, or negotiated for. It must be given freely, and unconditionally. I don’t know what love they were getting from those pods, but it couldn’t be much or of very high quality. It would be far more efficient to just take a form, find someone to settle down with, and feed passively. They would get far more love than shoving ponies into pods, and it would be a significant upgrade in quality,” Taro explained.

“Er, that’s… They can’t, okay?” Twilight deflected.

“Why not? They are clearly capable of independent thought if they willingly went to Equestria for help recovering their queen. Surely you can’t deny that Chrysalis would disapprove of that. Though, I have to ask, why did you immediately jump to an accusation of nonintelligence when the evidence shows otherwise?” Taro asked.

Twilight tried to keep her thoughts under control, yet the images that crossed her mind betrayed her.

“Ah, you still haven’t gotten over your brother’s wedding, and more than that, Equestria has an ignorance fuelled racism problem. Not to worry, I will not judge you, King knows we Ultras have had our run-ins with such prejudice before, but let me ask this question. How many lives has Chrysalis ruined by revealing the changelings to your world?” Taro pressed.

“What do you mean? I already know she ruined her race’s lives, where are you going with this?” Twilight irritably asked.

“I’m not referring to the changelings, Twilight. I’m referring to the poor ponies that were unknowingly dating or married to a changeling, only for Chrysalis to reveal her people to the world, and drive those friendly changelings into hiding. Terrified of an incoming Equestrian witch hunt, and their hateful queen punishing them for fraternizing with the enemy, leaving their friends and loved ones heartbroken,” Taro corrected.

Twilight’s first instinct was to argue, but then something clicked in her head, “Pardon my human, but shit.”

“Hm?”

“Just after the wedding, there was a sudden spike in missing ponies cases across Equestria. We thought they were just foalnapped, and some probably were, but if most of them were changelings… Sweet Celestia, what have we done?” Twilight gasped.

“As I suspected. Now, let’s summarize what we know about Queen Chrysalis. Despite her species feeding on love, she was shockingly hateful, even to the detriment of her own people. She starved her race by using low yield and inefficient harvesting techniques then hoarding it for herself to ensure that no changeling could overthrow her. She possessed great pride in her acting abilities despite her lack of acting talent coupled with delusions of strategic genius. She was also extremely lazy and impatient, skipping over the highly important observation phase of spy work and assuming that no one would notice when Cadance started acting out of character. Lastly, and this is most relevant to me, she agreed to some arrangement with a powerful extradimensional being, then stupidly thought she could get away with ignoring her end of the deal. Now, you tell me Twilight, does that sound like someone who is receptive to talks of friendship and tolerance?” Taro asked.

“I… I,” Twilight started.

“Twilight. Whether it was here, or in Equestria, eventually, a permanent solution would have to be reached about Chrysalis. You cannot hold yourself accountable for her choices,” Taro said.

Twilight hated how Taro was so okay with Chrysalis’ death, but, really, was the fate that awaited her in Equestria much better? If the picture Taro painted was accurate, eventually she and her friends would be forced to wield the Elements of Harmony against her, meaning that she would either be petrified, imprisoned in Tartarus, or banished. She really should ask Discord about that.

“You’re right,” Twilight finally conceded. “I mean, I don’t have to like it, but you’re right.”

"So, with Chrysalis gone, what shall you do about the changelings? Will you extend a hoof in friendship, to bury all grudges, or mark them all as enemies regardless?"

"I'm the Princess of Friendship and that does not mean for ponies, either. We need to share friendship with all creatures, no matter how different we are. A long time ago, earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns were at each other's throats for just the smallest of differences, even though we were all ponies. We need to make peace and help them. We can't let another species starve and die just because of prejudice."

“Glad to hear it,” Taro said good-naturedly, while privately cursing the stiffness of his face. "This won't be easy, however, Twilight. You will face resistance from both sides, ponies and changelings alike. Both sides of every conflict have propaganda that attempts to smear and degrade the other, and when lies are told often enough, they become the truth. For the longest time, it was taken as truth that the sun revolved around the Earth, and anyone who attempted to defy that belief was severely punished for heresy. That is the power of ignorance, Twilight. That is your mountain to climb."

Twilight’s face faltered at Taro’s speech, “That sounds… Daunting.”

“It is, but don’t let my words dissuade you Twilight,” Taro placated. “While it’s not exactly my or any other Ultra’s place to tell you how to run your country, I will say that exchange programs go a long way to easing the divide.”

“What, like student exchange programs?” Twilight asked with thinly veiled enthusiasm.

“Exactly. In the academy, young Ultras are sent to alien worlds to live among them and understand the culture. By walking in each other's...hooves, you and the changelings may come to an understanding. It also takes power away from the prejudiced by making the targets mundane, removing the sense of otherness they are afraid of. Remember, Twilight. These prejudices will only continue to persist if the changelings are only perceived as monsters. If they are seen as living, breathing, thinking, feeling beings, that may change."

Twilight beamed at the possibilities racing through her head. However, with a yawn, it seemed that the excitement of the day, coupled with the weight of guilt being lifted from her shoulders, finally caught up with her and she slipped quietly to sleep.

“Sweet dreams, your highness,” Taro softly said before drifting off himself.

*////*

Fall hadn’t known what to expect when Lugiel summoned her after Yapool’s defeat, but it certainly wasn’t a beating before getting kicked through a portal into her hideout.

“I thought he was calmer than that,” Fall said to herself through a wince.

Among the abuse Lugiel had hurled at her, were reprimands of her failure to safeguard her geodes, and accusations of being more focused on her personal goal as opposed to his. Fall could concede his point on the second one, but she couldn’t possibly have stopped Yapool from grabbing Chrysalis and the geode because he never told her about them, on to of the power difference between them.

Wait, was her body feeling lighter?

Looking at her body, she was horrified to find pieces of herself breaking off and floating away before disintegrating. Acting quickly, Fall grabbed the spectrometer from her neck, cracked it open slightly, and sucked deeply of the magic within, already feeling her form rebuild.

“It appears your master is displeased,” came the sardonic, masculine tone of King Sombra who was doing pull-ups on a nearby doorframe.

Fall finally pulled her lips free of the amulet and hissed, “Shut up.”

“Now, now. Don’t kill the messenger, especially when he has a plan that benefits everyone here,” Sombra grinned.

Fall scoffed, “Please. I don’t wanna hear anything from a guy who can’t get anything done without hiding behind a shadow.”

Sombra dropped down from the doorframe with a glare but pressed on regardless. “If you had any grasp of what I had to say, you would not be so dismissive.”

Fall ignored Sombra’s offense and slumped down into a recliner to massage her aching head, while her unwelcome annoyance leaned against the armrest of the sofa next to her.

Then Sombra asked, “What if I told you about Shepherdon?”

Fall perked up.

*////*

“We should have just stayed on the moon,” Princess Luna thought to herself as she waited for the Changeling representative in her tower.

It had been late when Twilight’s draconic assistant, Spike, had informed them of the bad news, so her sister Celestia had left the younger dark blue alicorn to pass it on. Though, if one were to ask Luna, her sister just wanted to dodge speaking to the changelings after the fiasco that was their return to Canterlot.

Indeed, the first time an undisguised changeling appeared in Canterlot since the infamous wedding, and the entire city somehow broke into hysterics. How did that even happen!? He revealed himself inside the castle! Several ponies jumped out of windows to escape nonexistent changelings in their homes and businesses. That wouldn’t be so bad, HAD THEY NOT BEEN EARTH PONIES! Needless to say, Luna was not looking forward to this.

At last, the doors opened, allowing one of her Luna Guards to enter.

“Your Highness. Pharynx of the Changelings,” he said.

That caught Luna off guard, especially when the changeling in question entered her vision. While the changeling that first came to them had a lighter blue-green shell on his back, he was still otherwise a completely normal changeling drone. This one, though, had a red neck fin and tail, a backshell striped with shades of purple, and a gradient of purple hues in his eyes.

“You’re not Thorax,” Luna said, ponderously.

“And you’re not Celestia,” the changeling apparently named Pharynx replied harshly.

Luna flinched, but then frowned, “You are not a diplomatic one, are you?”

“You’re right, I’m not. Where is she?” Pharynx demanded.

“Patience, Luna,” the Night Princess mentally told herself, “If you refer to our-my sister, she has elected to have me hoofdle this meeting. What happened to Thorax?”

“After his disastrous showing, we decided that I should take over for him,” Pharynx replied.

“Oh, shame.”

“Huh.”

“Thorax may have bungled second impressions, but at least he had the humility required to ask for help. Getting aggressive is not going to help your case. On the other hoof, perhaps that bluntness of yours will help this news go over smoother. But first, I must ask has Chrysalis ever mentioned anything unusual? Maybe, some god?” Luna asked, earning a scoff from Pharynx.

“Mention it? How could I forget it? Bringing up how we were “saved” by some “god” from being “trapped under a mountain” was her favorite tactic when she felt we were mouthing off. Which was all the time. Wait, I’m sorry, how is this remotely relevant to our queen?”

“Mmh. We were worried about this,” Luna morosely said. “Young Pharynx. What I am about to share with you is an Equestrian state secret that we will guard jealously. So if you want to know what news we bring of Chrysalis, must be willing to swear yourself to absolute secrecy. If you refuse, we will forbid you from returning to Canterlot until such a time as you agree, or can produce a changeling that will comply. The choice is yours.”

Pharynx wanted so badly to call the younger sister on her threat. Yet, the finality of which she said it told him that she was not bluffing and that Celestia would have given him the same answer.

“Okay,” he confirmed with a roll of his compound eyes.

“A wise choice, just one last matter to finalize it,” Luna replied, lighting up her horn.

A chest opened on her left, and from within, wrapped in a midnight blue aura, rose a large but otherwise unremarkable purple gem.

“We very rarely bring this out,” Luna began, “This is the Stone of Oaths. Within this crystal lie the countless sworn oaths of beings great and small, from breezies to dragons. This Pharynx, is what will confirm your determination to keep this secret. Place your hoof upon its surface, and utter the words: I swear, on pain of death, that the secrets I hear, shall never leave this room.”

Pharynx looked at Luna, then to the Stone, then back to Luna, back to the Stone once more, before turning to Luna and asking, “Are you serious?”

“DO IT!” Luna commanded in a low-grade Royal Canterlot Voice.

Pharynx started and hurriedly placed a hoof on the crystal and said, “I swear on pain of death, the secrets I hear shall never leave this room!”

The Stone of Oaths pulsed once with light while emitting a phantom wind before it returned to its original state.

“Thank you,” Luna said as she returned the Stone to the chest. “Now, this is going to sound mad, but we know exactly who foalnapped your queen.”

“You do! Who and what is she, and where can I find her so I can pummel her!? ” Pharynx demanded.

“Calm down!” Luna urged, “While we- er I, admire your, what’s the word for it? Gusto, getting blindly angry is not going to help in this situation. She has no true name, but we do refer to her as “Fall”. She currently resides in another world from ours, but where exactly she hides there is something we don’t know. Now, the being that was with her is where things get complicated.”

“More complicated than an alien apparently showing up and stealing your leader?”

“Actually, yes. Fall was originally from Equestria before she took up residence in that world.”

“Wha- How!?”

“A portal in a mirror that Starswirl the Bearded developed a thousand years ago that was originally held here in Canterlot before being turned over to the Crystal Empire but is now housed in Twilight Sparkle’s castle in Ponyville. However, that distracts from my tale. The insectoid entity that Thorax described is called an Alien Baltan. Nasty creatures they are, completely killed all their emotions in the pursuit of science.”

“Well, that explains why noling in the hive could get a read on it. Wait, is that the “god” Her Highness kept banging on about?” Pharynx asked.

“No, unfortunately,” Luna answered, “That was an entity far worse. Chrysalis wasn’t lying about your species being aided in their escape from under the mountain, but it came with a price. Their name was Yapool, an extradimensional collective driven entirely by hate, and in exchange for their help, Chrysalis would allow them access to our world.”

“Okay?” Pharynx drawled while scanning the room, “So where are they?”

“Nowhere, actually. See, fate is funny like that, while Chrysalis was keen to remind all of you of Yapool’s assistance, she never had any intention to fulfill her end of the deal. Yapool could only speak with her, but as long as she ignored their objective, they couldn’t touch her. In a way, Chrysalis saved Equestria by doing so,” Luna chuckled, but then her expression darkened. “It also brought about her downfall.”

“No,” Pharynx said, “Nonono don’t you dare.”

“Yapool is not an entity that forgives defiance,” Luna continued, undaunted. “The world she found herself in was closer to Yapool’s, allowing them to break through and capture her. They broke her down and twisted her body into a new, far more monstrous form then lobotomized her into complete subservience. I’m sorry Pharynx. Your queen is dead.”

Poor Pharynx sat in shock before making several stammering attempts to reply, but what could he say? What could he possibly say to this news? He was supposed to be one of the Hive’s best defenders, but without their queen, what did he have to show for it?

“Please believe u-me,” Luna pleaded, “None of us wanted this outcome, but Yapool’s interference was unprecedented. There was no possible way for us to even begin preparing for them. If there was any way to save her we would have-”

“Then why didn’t you!?” Pharynx barked, “For all you talk about ‘friendship’ and ‘harmony’ you seem really keen to ignore all us non-ponies. Face it, you never liked Queen Chrysalis, and you can’t be more thrilled that she’s gone, but why should we have to suffer for your xenophobia?”

“There wasn’t a choice,” Luna defended, “Yapool’s monsters are immune to Equestria’s magic. Only a being of equal or greater strength can even stand a chance against them.”

“Being of-!? Wha-!? Who-!? Where in Tartarus are you getting all this crap from!?” Pharynx demanded.

Luna sighed, “That would be my- muh- m-…” She suddenly trailed off.

It was strange the sensation that took hold of the Night Princess just then. Like an itch directly irritating her brain, utterly untouchable through the layers of bone that comprised her skull. Then it started to grow, now resembling a stuffed nose that blocked her thoughts rather than her breath. Suddenly, it rapidly spiked into a full-on Ursa Major attack, ripping apart her mind with a mighty roar and sending her tumbling to the floor in something akin to an epileptic fit. Then, as abruptly as it came, it passed.

As Luna’s vision slowly returned, she saw that whatever had afflicted her, had also struck Pharynx, who was now lying nearby worryingly twitching.

The Lunar Princess crawled over to the prone changeling, weakly shook him, and moaned, “Pharynx? Pharynx, are you okay?”

Fortunately, the light touch seemed to snap the red-finned changeling out of whatever trance had taken hold of him as he slowly looked at her.

“What… The buck… Was that?” Pharynx wheezed.

“I have no idea, but in light of this event, I must call our meeting short. I will have my guards escort you ” Luna replied while shakily standing up.

“Where are you going?” Pharynx asked the retreating princess.

“To consult my sister,” Luna replied as she wobbled towards the doors, but stopped short. “If it is any consolation, Yapool did not get away with their crimes. They were destroyed as soon as they made their presence known.”

With that final reassurance, the Midnight Mistress left her chamber.

*////*

Princess Celestia, regal white-coated diarch of the sun had very few expectations when she went to bed that evening, so it came as a great, though not unwelcome, surprise when she woke up to her sister frantically shaking her.

“Tia, thank the moon you’re okay,” Luna sighed while throwing her arms around her sister.

“Lulu? Weren’t you meeting with Thorax?” Celestia asked.

“What? After what just happened I had to come check on you,” her sister replied.

“What happened? Do you mean that dream I was having?” Asked the confused solar regent.

“Dream? Tia, I was meeting with Pharynx of the Changelings. I can’t watch dreams and meet him at the same time, you know that. Some pox has swept through the castle, possibly even across the whole of Equestria itself, that has incapacitated everycreature here!” Luna said urgently.

“WHAT!” Celestia cried, now fully alert, and rushed out into the hallway outside her chambers.

Indeed, as her sister had said, guards, maids, and servants of every color and shape laid haphazardly in Celestia’s path as she wandered through her tower.

“What magic could do something like this!?” Celestia gasped.

“I thought that you might know. However I’m not entirely convinced that this is magic,” Luna replied.

“What do you mean, Luna?”

“I fear a great yet terrible shift has happened in our world, and this time I’m not sure that the Elements of Harmony can solve this.”

Celestia’s eyes widened, “Luna we can’t possibly ask her for help, she still has her own war to fight.”

“I know Tia, I know. But this has been a long time coming. And whether you want it to happen or not, it is time for Ultras to return to Equestria.”

Author's Note

While there is a lot of overlap with Equestria, ultimately, the EQG world is not Equestria. So some ponies have no double, while others have a double with a different name. While Shining did date Cadance in this world, she ultimately realized that it's in bad form to date a student's brother and broke it off.
No self-respecting Big Brother Best Friend Forever would ever willingly leave their little sister in a school like Crystal Prep unless they're either:
A) Too poor to afford anything else (doubtful since CPA is explicitly for the wealthy).
B) Had a sudden, dramatic change that left him woefully unprepared for the responsibility (see Vanishing Act).
Or C) You're afraid of someone else.
Reference image by RacoonKun.
Reference image by Orib331
The scene where Twilight explains her history with Chrysalis took influence from the clip shows of the modern Ultraman series. So picture clips from A Canterlot Wedding running over it.