Baa-Ram-Ewe!

-???, Oleander-

“So Democratus… you’re an entire planet of people who vote on everything?” I calmly asked.

“Yes, we wish to hug the unicorn, but are sad because we have planetary arms with which to do so.” One of the speakers for Democratus stated as the small planet hovered next to me with two rings of metal that kept the planet safe through advanced technology as it moved itself around. The technology was more advanced than the HALO thing hovering off the tip of my horn.

“Well can we blow up stuff to save the multiple universes?” Wrex asked while cocking his shotgun next to Buttina who simultaneous did so with two floating shotguns. “If so, then give the word and we’ll go nuts.”

“Democratus has voted… yes, to the blowing up of stuff in the course of saving multiple universes!” The planet announced. “We have lasers and nuclear arms to be helping with that.”

“Well this can’t possibly get any weirder, BECAUSE IT ALREADY IS PRETTY WEIRD ALREADY!” Stated Fred, as we continued on our way through a place called Anachronox. “I mean even for us... usually there’s more screaming than that one guy over there that’s on fire.”

“Why is no one helping me, AGGHGHH?!” The burning guy stated as he ran around, still quite on fire.

-Moon Cell Realms, Midgar, three days later, Castle Alexander, R&D and manufacturing, Dolly-

My tail was wagging as I looked up at the figure before me with excitement, then my right eye twitched and something drew my attention and my tail wagging tripled in speed.

“This Welch to Cid, Cait Sith, Torneko and Patch… Pom is waking up, alert Ocellus and make sure everyone is not going to bother her for a the next half hour she’s awake. We want her to relax before talking about moving forward… also tell Mash to sit on Fou and keep him from causing problems.” My flat stare at Welch was met with a weak grin from the carrot eater. “Sorry, but Pom is the leader of Team Harmony and the Pokémon Companions… so we are going to eventually bother her for her opinions on our next course of action. We’re waiting until we can get some food in her and given her time to relax. Also we know you want to bother her Artoria, but please don’t. Most of us have been through a lot… Pom specifically, since we’re all aware that Moon Cell hates her guts like nothing else.”

I barked in agreement at that last part, this Lunar Blood thing really wants Pom to bite it and we’re fighting a computer from the inside… why am I reminded of that one technology movie with the throwing discs?

Ah, well… I mentally nudged Dormarch about it and he was immediately on his way. Pom wasn’t my mother, but Dormarch was my little brother and she was his mother… yeah, not going to touch on the odd dynamic of relationships we have, we’re family and we’re cool.

…

I have to try this thing out right this instant before anyone stops me!

-Castle Alexander Infirmary, Pom-

“Oh good, you are being awake, I was starting to be worried.” Shanty stated as I blinked my eyes a bit, she had her front legs still wrapped up as she sat up on a bed next to mine. “It be three days since that would be one of the things you would be asking.”

“Three?” I tried to wrap my mind around having slept for three days. Sure they were digital days, but I hadn’t realized I was that tired!

“You be exhausting yourself and being both wet and bleeding didn’t be helping that one bit, Dolly and Dormarch both be helping us with your injuries.” What Shanty said made something click. “Sami is the one that be picking you all up and bringing you back to the castle personally.”

“What about your injuries, why are your front legs still bandaged after three days?” I sat up and groaned, then promptly flopped back.

My body wasn’t feeling in the mood to be moving around, especially not at high speeds or handling the stress of entering my beast state. Okay yeah… I can actually see why I was out for three days after dodging so many projectiles that I couldn’t even count. Definitely like Gilgamesh had been, but it wasn’t nearly as hard to win the fight.

Checking my left hind leg, after having just kicked off the covers, I found that my situation hadn’t worsened at all and I have stopped the encroachment to death admirably. It’s only when I overdraw or sacrifice a lot then, thank goodness for Ethers existing. I was going to be carrying a number of those and Hi-potions moving forward.

“Potions can be healing flesh, Sitrus Berries can fix the body short of amputation as they can’t regenerate limbs, but as for magical injuries…” We didn’t exactly have a way to fix those and Shanty’s front legs were indicative signs of a magical injury, a self-inflicted one at that. “You can be guessing already… did not be knowing what would be happening when I be cutting my own cutting arcs… now I am being more careful about doing it in the future. Magical backlash injuries be sucking.”

I would say that she wouldn’t have to, but I bit my tongue on that and by the look on her face she knew exactly what I was about to say and couldn’t keep as a promise. We understood each other well enough by now.

“I’d imagine so given what happened with my Dancing Flame skill causing me arrhythmia problems. So… do you feel alright even with your legs being messed up?” I asked quietly.

“Do you feel alright with being able to eat meat without throwing up?” Shanty retorted swiftly and I winced, she looked a bit guilty about comparing our different problems a second after. “I’m not being in very much pain… sorry…”

“Forgiven, you’ve been stuck in the infirmary for a while. I might be able to actually taste the fish dishes I know how to make now… not sure I want to give into that idea. Anyway, at least I have an idea that you are a Capricornus.” That made me receive a curious look from Shanty. “What, I remember plenty of stories from when I was a wee little lambkin.”

“What is a Capricornus being?” Shanty perked up and seemed interested in hearing what I had to say, since it was about her.

“A horned goat is the general answer. A more comprehensive answer would be a ‘goat of the water’.” I would say they tended to be related to sacrificial things, like me for instance, but I wasn’t about to speak that thought out loud. My meeting and befriending Shanty might have some more circumstances to it as we might be ancestral cousins. “Anyway, control of water and being able to survive without air, it’s nothing you can’t already do apparently. Maybe you even become more fish like when needed while stuck in the water long enough. Probably might even be a very distant cousin of mine, given the marmalade incident … the cutting arcs you generate could even be related to the meaning of ‘horned goat’ that translates directly from Capricornus or another possible meaning is ‘never without a point’.”

“Marmalade incident?” Shanty tilted her head while giving me an odd glance.

I gave her a wait gesture, got up and carefully readjusted myself to being able to walk and went to the nearby bathroom. When I came back, I checked the room to make sure nobody else will be listening in on this.

“It’s how the lambkin race came to be and may also involve the existence of ‘sea goats’ like you. You would be the first I’ve met if it’s true that you are a Capricornus.” So I told her about it, Shanty was very curious about the incident overall and had several questions after I told her everything that lambkin kind knew about it.

She had even more after the explanations that I didn’t have answers to, as the subject of the incident itself actually added more questions than it ever had answered. I was quite the confirmation that the ‘marmalade incident’ actually happened.

“Yikes…” Shanty finally stated once a proper enough understanding of the incident was fully laid out to her and some of the lesser known facts of how lambkin kind even suspected it was even a real thing, also a slight mention as to how it relates back to me being a Lambkin Chrysomallus.

I didn’t want to go into detail about why Chrysomallus die when they grow wings, so I didn’t, but I was already living the experience and it would only be so long before Ocellus learns the why of it if she was aware of unicorn history or at least knows a few things about them. If we live long enough to meet unicorns… then they’d definitely detect it if it happens.

“Exactly, just don’t go spreading it around…” There was a bit of a statement in there that was in relation to what marmalade is normally used for, I had some shivers just thinking about it.

Marmalade in general wasn’t bad, but it had some very unique connotations for every lambkin and we’re made quite well aware of it.

“Excuse me, for interrupting your conversation. Did either of you need some water, juice or some food?” I jumped and blinked and looked down as Clef came in with a jug of water. I took the offered cup and sipped it a bit.

“Yes, please… I need something to eat, preferably a salad without any berries in it.” Since I miss eating actual food and while the junk food from the vending machines was somewhat tasty, it was not exactly the most nutritious thing I could have eaten in recent history. Also I was quite tired of a mostly berry diet, apparently Pokémon can survive on that for a while, but even they would be driven mad by it and Patch Cabbage was our extraneous source of food. At least we had plenty of vegetables. “Potato soup too if you could swing it.”

“Yeah, that’s been a common ask among us who don’t like Digimon digital food. I’ll get worked on the soup and sald… maybe a sandwich. We can make marmalade, we got some limited fruit other than berries to work with.” Clef noticed the expressions on our faces. “So that’s a no on the sandwiches?”

“Respectfully no, we don’t want marmalade at the moment.” Nodding along with me, Shanty had a slightly pale look on her face. “Though some juice would be nice.”

We’d be sharing some of this food between us when it arrived and with that our Clefairy friend went off to procure it for us and get some help.

I hadn’t thought about it, but what had happened after Merak was defeated? I’ve been passed out for three days, so what’s our current status? We’re likely fine given there was no panicking going on and no Eaters slowly chewing through the walls.

So we’re alive and we took Midgar… yay… half an exploded city.

“Can I talk with you about where you got that lance?” After a few minutes of peace and quiet to relax, in came the blue canine named Artoria.

“Yes, I got it from a Fairy named Oberon, he offered me a weapon and I found that one among the many others that he cleaned up from when their kingdom of Titania was bombarded.” That didn’t seem to make Artoria very happy as she sighed audibly. “I’ve been calling it the paranormal lance or paralance.”

“It’s always those freaking fairies… also that’s a somewhat fair name for it.” Artoria grumbled. “Did Oberon say anything to you knowing that you would eventually meet me?”

“No, but apparently the Lady of the Lake says hello and I believe you and Mash were the one I was supposed to say it to.” The reactions was immediate as I watched two slap down on the blue canines head and she groaned out in audible pain about something.

“It’s always the fairies!” Artoria bemoaned quite loudly. “They are so annoying…”

Something tells me I shouldn’t talk about Sir Mik around Artoria, she probably wouldn’t like that I was friends with a few of the Fairy Types like Curdle.

“So you know something about the lance?” Not only was I curious, but so was Shanty as we looked to the lance with the puppy symbols on it.

“That’s just it, it’s not a lance.” Artoria stated flatly, making me blink.

“Hello my name is Pom Lambchop I believe we got off of the wrong hoof the first time we met and that’s Shanty… no last name unless she wants to be a Lambchop too.” Something about what I said made Artoria snort, Shanty gave me an appreciative grin but didn’t agree or disagree with that idea. “It certainly looks like a lance to me… though its ability to shift its shape is probably the most unusual thing about it.”

“Artoria Pendragon and again, it’s not a lance… it’s the Rhongomyniad.” Okay that was an odd name Artoria.

“Rhongomyniad, never heard of such an odd name.” That Artoria knew of it meant she had some idea of where it came from.

“You probably wouldn’t, this is not the first time I’ve been incarnated… but it certainly is interesting to be a blue canine being of legend who apparently specializes in blades.” Artoria grumbled about being a canine, I personally saw nothing wrong with… wait… stop… step back a bit and remember that thought that is leading me to wanting to eat meat. “Anyway, I know of it because it’s been tied to me in legend before. I even once wielded it personally… that lance, what you see, is just a shadow of the Rhongomyniad’s power, the spear of the end.”

“The end? The end of what?” My question was met with a haunted look.

“The end of an age. Said true form is that of a tower or pillar of brilliant light, one that can see you to the end of things… also it can bind worlds, such as reality to illusion. That you have wielded it for as long as you have without side effects make me feel a little better about it being in your… hooves. It isn’t causing you troubles so I should relent more on it being dangerous… to you at least.” Artoria seemed to have a history with the paralance or Rhongomyniad as it was called, doesn’t that translate to cutting spear? “The conceptual power of that lance alone is quite incredible. Be glad you’ve never had use of its full power or even had access to it, but just by knowing its name now… you can, ‘probably’, invoke it.”

“That might have helped out with Merak if I knew what exactly it does, the fight with Merak went far better than the one with Gilgamesh did at least.” It did, but it was probably going to take a little longer if we had to fight his chair with the arms after going through the Tartarus storm of projectiles from the Air Buster. At least Elise sped that up immensely.

“… I’m glad I didn’t have to face Gilgamesh.” Okay, something tells me Artoria knows him personally so I might as well ask the question.

“How do you know Gilgamesh?” I’m fairly certain that if Artoria was there then she might have been helpful.

“Let’s just say I’ve met the weapon spewing bastard multiple times, across time, space and beyond death itself. I hope you never end up in the Throne of Heroes, it tends to mess with one’s mind quite a bit.” Don’t know what that is Artoria, but I’ll take your word for it that it’s something horrible sounding judging by the look in your eyes. I’m already surmising that the definition of ‘hero’ therein might be a little bit loose when it comes to said throne. “I’m sorry we couldn’t help out in Illusio, by the time we knew he had appeared we were already defending ourselves from his bombardment of the continent. Then we heard tale of an undying metal dragon… which you apparently took care of. Also you’ve met Fou, he’s a constant problem for us too. No matter the fact that his form looks different, he will always be the ‘beast of comparison’.”

“So he gets power based on what he compares himself to?” Just to confirm what I already knew.

“Yes, one of his most well-known abilities among many others… such as resurrecting someone under specific circumstances and having the ‘Force of Providence’ so that he’ll never be easy to kill and will be stupendously lucky to survive almost any situation he gets into. Whatever he compares himself to, it has to be alive for it to work at the very least.” Artoria at least knew more about Fou than I currently did… also was this ‘Force of Providence’ thing how he kept finding me?! I consigned myself to having to fight him for the rest of my life if that was the case. “There are limits, but Fou is a very powerful when comparing himself to those who are aggressive towards him. It’s like facing a reflection of yourself but much stronger, that particular power is based in envy.”

“Well that explains how mom can hold him off, she’s reluctant to fight him even if he wants to fight her.” Dormarch teleported into my open hooves and I hugged my three tailed son to my chest, I snuggled him while sitting at the edge of the bed.

“Wait a minute… where’s Fou right now? He’s been hunting me down ever since I met him!” I was a little afraid he would attack me here and now or at least drag me to somewhere we can fight. Can he just get the hint that I didn’t want to fight him? He’s sounds more terrifying now than ever.

“Mash is taking care of him, she’ll keep him from bothering you. As apparently she’s good friends with Fou.” Hearing that makes one wonder how that happened Artoria, given what Fou was like. “Talk to Mash about it, she has a something of an ‘outside of history and twisted dimensions’ story with him.”

“I don’t think I want to know.” Don’t want to travel down more rabbit holes, I’m already stuck in one and don’t want to make it far worse than it already is.

“That is quite fair, now back to the Rhongomyniad… you’ve been wielding it for a while. Has it ever exerted… an influence over you?” Artoria seemed certain of it being capable of doing so.

“No, but I’ve exerted my influence over it. I’m almost certain the lance I see is either intelligent or it responds to my will as if to seem intelligent. In either case, it’s never talked to me out loud and it’s more of an implied feeling.” My questioning eyes met with that of the blue canines. “What happened with you?”

“A different timeline, a different time and place… a… friend didn’t do something that was supposed to lead to my timely death and it was supposed to happen. So instead of dying, I kept living and became the being known as ‘Goddess Rhongomyniad’ and survived the end of that particular world and managed to cross into several others. That version of me was quite twisted by the divine powers of the lance.” If Artoria was here now and didn’t have the lance, then I’m guessing that Goddess Rhongomyniad was defeated at some point. “The Rhongomyniad was not supposed to be in that Artoria’s possession for so long, since after a point she was supposed to die her body was preserved and regenerated by the lance and was slowly taken over by its unbound power to become a spirit distinctly different from what I am in soul. I have the memories of said spirit… and what she was like as a goddess. She didn’t exactly hold true to my ideals.”

“So because Goddess Rhongomyniad eventually got defeated, you’re entirely wary of even touching the lance knowing what happened to a version of you before?” Having the memories of seeing the end of ‘a world’ definitely can’t be pretty from what I saw in Artoria’s eyes. I wonder if Moon Cell caused it or if it was something else… makes one wonder how close we are to death at all times.

“She wandered as a corrupted version of me for fifteen thousand years in that particular dimension… before that reality was destroyed and she survived its destruction. I’m not her, but I do have her memories. She was quite… cold, as far as her emotions went. So one version of me was a wandering goddess, but vastly different than who I am and was more for the forest where I would be for the trees.” Artoria glanced at the lance. “When the time comes, I hope it doesn’t do the same to you and you can eventually let it go.”

“It’s unlikely that I’ll be effected, I’m ‘kind of’ cursed to die. I seriously doubt the Rhongomyniad can really stop a Chrysomallus from dying too. If I grow wings, then I’m absolutely guaranteed to die for reasons I’d rather not say out loud, especially not in front of my charge shanty.” I glanced at Shanty and looked her in the eyes. “I can keep it under control indefinitely after a certain point Shanty… even if it’s taken up most of my legs, it can take up my body and head and I’ll be perfectly fine. I’m not in danger as long as I don’t cross a particular line when I come to it and for the most part I’m fine right now, as it’s not exactly constantly painful.”

“It is still something to be being worried about Pom.” Shanty stated while looking at me with understandable worry that everyone has about me.

“So the lance is a tower that can connect things together… but now that I know its name I can invoke its power, what exactly would that be besides that?” My query was met with a stern look from Artoria. “It being quite indestructible has been its most useful feature to me and I prefer to keep using it as a shield.”

“At most you should be able to fire beams of holy light, also there has to be a good reason it is in your hooves. I hope it doesn’t do to you what it did to the one ‘Goddess Rhongomyniad’ version of me.” One version, so does that mean that Artoria…

“So did you manage to use it many times before without anything going wrong?” My question brought Artoria’s eyes to my own and she tried to say something and then looked thoughtful for a moment before finally responding.

“Yes, some versions of me have used it without issue… but it is still a dangerous thing, do not doubt my words on that.” Artoria and I stared at each other and I nodded.

“I understand, but until I don’t need it anymore… I’ll use it. I will definitely be wary of invoking whatever power the tower has if I can help it.” Though I was curious to see what the tower looked like, I’m sure it wasn’t the time for it and I didn’t want to incidentally destroy Castle Alexander as our current mobile base of operations. “Anything else, other than a vague warning about it?”

“No, you seem to actually still have your natural faculties… golden wool aside, are you sure that’s not a side effect of wielding the spear of the end?” Artoria asked looked over the golden wool covering three of my legs entirely.

“No my wool started turning golden before I got my hoof on the Rhongomyniad.” My answer didn’t comfort Artoria very much.

“Did Oberon comment on it?” It seemed like Artoria feared the lance more than I was paranoid about it, which was fairly amazing that someone could match my paranoia.

“Not much really, he just said pick a weapon to take with me after Gilgamesh rained a lot of them on the Fairy Dust islands and I did… it was that lance. I think it drew my eyes to it by being fairly unusual and the puppy motif was probably what attracted my eyes… which is why I have been constantly wary of it the second I saw it.” At the time it was as if I needed it for something, but I couldn’t think of what aside from a shield for all the horribly dangerous stuff I’ve survive thus far by using it. “I don’t think it has ill intentions with me, if it can actually think that is… wouldn’t put it past the lance at this point to have its own mind on things. It’s been too useful a tool to protect me and my friends with since I picked it up to stop using it as it hasn’t done anything to me yet.”

“Let’s pray that continues to stay true and that it doesn’t have a corrupting influence on you… perhaps you’re anti-magic nature is protecting you from it?” Artoria narrowed her eyes at the lifeless lance that was apparently a tower or pillar of light, it just happened to look like a lance at the moment. “Also try to stay away from using the power to conceptually bind realms, worlds and realities together, it is not a power you should touch under any circumstance without knowing what you are doing in the first place and with an absolutely large amount of focus. Never abuse that power unless you believe it to be absolutely necessary.”

“Oh trust me, I’m far more wary of it now more than ever before.” So the Rhongomyniad could bind worlds together… what are the chances that it can do the exact opposite just as easily tear them entirely apart?

Spine chilling thoughts that, probably why it has the title ‘Spear of The End’ and Artoria is clearly paranoid to a level of absurdity that I might reach about it in time.

“Hey, do you want to help them eat a meal Ms. Pendragon?” Clef came back all smiles and with Canard, Jeanne and several others in tow. “Oh and the others want to set up so they can all have a meal here.”

“Yeah, I’m fairly hungry, it still feels so good to be alive.” Elise stated as she slithered in with that scowling white scaled red eyed dragon following after her, she seemed fairly cheerful for all the awfulness that came before. She had Crazy on her right shoulder, didn’t know if Cruel was out and about, but it was nice to know Elise was making herself at home and all smiles. “Right Copen?”

“I shouldn’t have missed.” Copen stated coldly, but he still sat down as a table was being set up for us to eat at. “I can still shoot you even now, you know.”

“Please don’t, we’re actually making good friends who told us what is happening around here Copen…” The round mechanical sphere floating next stated quietly.

Copen snorted audibly, but didn’t make any aggressive movements towards anyone or Elise.

“What’s the status of things Canard?” I asked a little curious about that interaction as they finished setting up and some of the leaders of all the factions including Mirage Mew gathered here in the infirmary. I guess they really didn’t want me walking or going anywhere too far. “I’m fairly certain you got Pepercat’s… um… would it be called her soul? Did you get that medal off of me?

“Yes, Peppercat is being held by her partner Krosserdog. Unfortunately with the destruction of her tin pet inner body, we can’t do anything to revive her at this time. We’d need Yggdrasil Systems to make her a new body to bring her back. Speaking of Krosserdog, he’s been fairly damaged by the fall so he needs time to recover before going back into battle.” Of course, we all needed rest Canard. As hard as that is for me to get and I have many issues with relaxing. “Sami needs some rest, but she seems fairly excited to try flying again and apparently she’s happy she didn’t turn into a tank, though apparently the data is still there for that to happen. ‘Tankdramon’ I believe she called it. Everyone else is still experiencing exhaustion, except the Harmony Programs and the Mirage Collective which are currently acting as our defense line against invading EPs after taking Midgar. Also we blew up half a city and the other half is rendered inoperable after we freed up all the souls from the other MAKO reactors after taking the realm. Would feel kind of wrong to leave them being used as a power source.”

“Damages to Castle Alexander?” My question shouldn’t be too bad.

“Plenty, but nothing that couldn’t be repaired in quick order given time and resources, we’ve also strengthened our deployment ability for number of APs we can put out thanks to Cait Sith. He’s working on more upgrades and pushing for more efficiency in the castles systems. We can indefinitely use hover mode and shoot at the same time… however I don’t think we can ever safely use Divine Judgment without it being a major strain on the power structure of the castle.” Yeah, it was an energy hog Canard, but it’s proven to be useful ace in the hole for us in raw firepower. “Flight mode is… kind of working, but we have a limited of thirty minutes before we need to settle into hover mode for an hour after the use of that full time. Whatever Moon Cell has in store for us, we’re going to need to be ready for anything and everything, at least Copen took out our whale problem and Moby Dick was one heck of a fight for him.”

“Never have I fought something that was nearly that horrible… and I’ve fought giant robots, adepts with ridiculously dangerous powers like what Elise can do and entire swarms of heavily armed troops with machines trying to usher in the end of the world apparently.” Copen glanced at the sphere floating next to him. “I doubt even we’d have survived fighting the Mother Eater after it consumed our territories, what little we had to begin with.”

“Considering that Moon Cell actually has direct control of the inner realm where its brain resides, I wouldn’t be surprised if the landscape could change on a moment’s notice. It’ll be actively fighting us rather than sitting around and letting its servants do the work in stopping us.” Dormarch shivered at the thought of a changing battlefield where the terrain was actively malicious. I gently patted his back with my right hoof and helped Shanty over to the table to sit down before sitting down myself. “I think it’s a quirk of Moon Cells programming that it can’t actively combat us up until we do go into the realm the core resides in. Who knows what it’ll try to do when we eventually show up, because it knows we’re coming.”

“Situation health wise?” Now for the curious question.

“No permanent injuries as far as physical health is concerned… everyone that has been on the battlefield is reporting heavy exhaustion though. Peppercat’s body aside, we’ve been lucky so far to not have lost anyone to the various stuff Moon Cell has been throwing at us. We’ve done sea, land and some air battles, but we’re betting Moon Cell is going to do all three and possibly far worse when we enter its inner sanctum. Nothing will be off the table for it in its personal domain and it will throw absolutely everything it has at us that it can spare while continuing to invade the local digital world and Ransei.” Well that wasn’t daunting at all Canard, especially when Dormarch said about it possibly controlling the battlefield to its absolute advantage at the same time no less. “Mentally… I don’t think I should tell you that it is kind of bad considering how pressured we all are, because you are one of the ones that some think is close to snapping completely. Good to see you can somewhat prove them wrong. Spiritually we’re doing mostly okay, Lucha Mundo has been making rounds to work on our slight morale problem in that area and he wants to work with you about your psychological issues. We currently don’t have any momentum at all and it will take some time before we can launch an attack. When we enter Moon Cell’s inner realm we’re not going to leave until we finish it off, so until then we need to prepare as much as we can.”

“Let’s start doing that by getting in… um… what time of day do we think it is currently?” Yeah, hard to keep track of time when it’s so sporadic. At least the food was being brought in by the Gazimon, which was quite nice of them.

“Daytime in central Ransei time apparently, we’re slowly sliding into one to one speed with reality and Moon Cell is slowing down drastically trying to deal with us, Ransei and the digital world all fighting back at once… and we’re on the front lines of it all.” Dormarch pauses and nuzzled me affectionately while wagging his tails. “So… lunch time?”

“Lunch sounds good… where’s Dolly?” Doing something dangerous probably was my first guess.

“She’s in R&D checking out what we think is going to be the Metal Hound 003, otherwise known as the Magitek Jet Armor.” Considering what the 002 was like Dormarch, I’m horrified to ask what the newest one was going to be like. “It is using the Einhander jet wings we found from the destruction of one of the two manufactured Einhanders and replicated machine cannons from the Thousand Gunner we stole. Plus some single fire shoulder missiles with increased arm firepower… well it will certainly be something if Dolly can manage to control the speed it’s supposedly capable of moving at. You’re going to need oxygen masks if she tries to pilot it at full speed. Also Welch made controls for Dolly to pilot it solo without needing to puppet your body, but it’ll still carry you as transport.”

“Well that’s a headache for me to deal with later.” I grumbled, wondering how long it would take for this next one to be destroyed and if we’re going to be the cause of said destruction.

-After lunch, away from everyone in a seclude space-

Having told everyone I need some time alone to myself and my thoughts, what I was really doing was testing something.

I sat calmly by myself and meditated, breathe in… breathe out… find the balance… stoke the inner flame but don’t let it roar out of control…

Dancing Flame, not too big as to itself burn out immediately, not too small to be blown out by a gentle wind. A cycle of strength, a swirling fire that can last an eternity if it plays its cards right.

A candle light that was strong, focused and capable. I was a candle lighting up the air around me with the haze of my soul

I opened my eyes calmly, inhaled through my nose and then breathed out a small stream of flames calmly.

It’s as I thought… I’m calling my next bark based attack Bark Blaze.

Dolly is probably going to think it’s so cool that I can now actively spit fireballs. Not much difference from bark blast where I spit an explosive force of magic.

I wonder if it’s my performing the longma style of breathing exercises long enough, because I’m pretty sure my insides are not fire proof like theirs are.

I’m exhaling air, but it’s turning into flames away from my face… I don’t know if the Dancing Flame technique will make me spontaneously combust or not, but lightning myself on fire has never been easier at least. Well it is easier on my hooves.

Yes, I am one thoroughly messed up lambkin.

“Hello Pom, I’ve been meaning to…” Lucha Mundo watches as I exhaled a blast of flames out of frightened reflex and burnt a fairly sizable hole into the nearby patch of plants. “Now if someone says you got a fire in you, I can see that they mean it quite literally.”

I coughed up several bits of white smoke and glared at the wrestler bird. Nope, my insides are definitely not fire proof, so I have to be a lot more careful about this new wrinkle of the Dancing Flame technique.

“Really?” I stated slightly upset to being caught practicing something that might help me fly in privacy. If I could create my own thermals, then I won’t be just gliding anymore! I could barely flap upwards without putting all four of my hooves into the downwards motion, also I wouldn’t need to grow wings of an imminent unstoppable demise. I wanted to have some ability to fly under my own power before that happens if it becomes necessary to 'give in'. I wasn't lying to Shanty when I said I can stop it before the threshold, it would depend on my mental strength as to whether or not I stepped over that boundary I was mentally keeping track of willingly. “Look can you not tell anyone about this, I’m still figuring this out for myself.”

“Can’t blame a Hawlucha for trying 'Mi Amiga' and your odd secret is safe with me. I have a confidentiality clause when it comes to helping others with more private matters and you are a patient of mine. This was a private matter and I’m quite sorry I interrupted you when you were so 'muy' peaceful!” He said jovially with his claws on his hips. “So about that talk we need to have... how can you help me, help you? You are currently worried about your inner beast and the slight hunger for flesh yes?”