Ben, Gwen, and Kevin all fell silent as Elfilis slowly and unsteadily stood up on his one leg. The Omnitrix had thawed him out of the ice and repaired his DNA damage using Elfilin as a template, but it couldn't generate new mass from nothing. His remaining wing melted off of his head and used its own material to reform the right arm, the right leg, and the left leg down to the knee. Regardless, Elfilis stood as if he had both legs planted on the floor, without tilting to his right to balance his weight evenly. His eyes opened, the rings of his sclera earning a strange look from his savior, but Gwen noted that he didn't appear to even see them. They just flicked side to side, back and forth, and at some point stopped syncing with each other and began bouncing to different spots of the room independent of the other. It looked... psychotic.

And even Kevin took a step back in shock when they suddenly refocused on the three of the of them with an audible snap that made their own eyes hurt to hear. And then he spoke.

"... Thanks." And then a portal flew over them faster then they could blink, leaving the three befuddled semi-extraterrestrial teenagers standing on the table of a Mr. Smoothie.

"... You're welcome I guess." And that was all Ben got to say before an employee came by and kicked them out of the restaurant. Kevin would later state that he knew the whole thing was still suspicious from the start while Gwen would argue that a near death experience would make anyone act strangely. Ben would stay silent on the matter, mentally giving himself a pat on the back for saving the life of a clearly dying alien and regretting that he didn't get the chance to tell Elfilis that Elfilin wanted to meet him. He did get a new alien form out the deal though, he named it 'REM-Deer' and it miraculously came with a pair of shorts.

Please stop panicking.
No wait, Stop Panicking!

You don't get to give me orders!

It's not an order it's a psychically powered suggestion!

Don't argue semantics with me! Get out of my-!

Watch where you're going!

The Power Rangers all got their gear ready as the latest monster fell to the ground in defeat. They knew what came next. Rita Repulsa loved to revive her fallen minions as one last hurrah, super-sizing them and forcing the Rangers to summon their giant mecha, the Megazord, to defeat it all over again. As if on cue, the sky rumbled, flashed, and a bolt of lightning struck down at the earth below. A flash of light blinded all of the Rangers on the ground, and as their sight came back they were greeted by... nothing. There was no giant monster. But there was always a giant monster fight? Feeling a strange combination of relief and guilty disappointment, the Power Rangers made their way back to base to report a tentative success to Zordon. It was then that their totally tubular leader was able to show them slowed down footage of what had actually happened.

A portal with five points opened above the Rangers near instantly, and a strange lanky creature lunged out of it with it's single hand clutching its face as if in pain. And then it was struck by Rita's space-magic lightning. The interfering creature was flung back into the portal it arrived in, though it seemed to grow a set of wings and recovered it's missing arm in the process. When questioned on what the strange life-form was, Zordon had only one thing to say in response.

"I was hoping you would know."

Huh, we actually seemed to have come out all the better for that.

I, have come out all the better!

If you would let me explain-

You don't get to just insert yourself into my life and-!

Stop teleporting for fuck's sake!

Professor Oak was taking a break. Truthfully, Oak got to take many breaks at this point in his career. Make no mistake, Samson was still passionate about Pokemon and the study of them, but he wasn't exactly made for travel anymore and there was only so much he study Pokemon of his home region before he started hitting walls. He really only had something new to analyze when a trainer with one of his Pokedex scanned something strange. And more often than not it was something that he had simply forgot to log on the Dex's files but had already discovered. Professors from other regions would ask him for help or try to get him involved in their own research, but he much preferred to approach with a soft touch in those scenarios. Let the younger researchers cut their teeth, or earn their titles as it were. So when his phone began to ring, Oak prepared to answer a crazed rant or organized spiel about something or other with lots of 'fascinating's and 'you should pursue that line of thinking's. Instead, it was his grandson Gary.

"Hey gramps. You busy with anything?" The older Oak smiled at his descendant through the screen, pleasantly surprised by the call. Gary liked to act as if he cared for no one or anything after all, clearly trying too hard to emulate the Kanto League champion.

"Nope! Just enjoying some tea! Besides, I can always make time for family."

"Yeah yeah, cool it with all the sappy stuff will ya? I think I got something you might like to see, some kind of Pokemon the Dex didn't recognize."

"Aw well, business as always, eh Gary? Send me what you have." Oak spent all of two seconds trying to think of ways to break through his grandson's shell when the pictures he sent pulled themselves up on the screen. The contents nearly made the Professor spill his tea all over his desk. "Oh! Hmm... Was he- it- the Pokemon okay? That looks like quite the crash." If Gary noticed his gramps slip-up, he didn't let it show.

"I don't know. I was just trying to take pictures of the prices on display when it flew out of that weird portal thing. It smashed through the stores display and then it seemed like it got yanked back and disappeared the same way it came. Made a mess of everything too." Professor Oak merely hummed in response as his grandson shrugged. It gave him the appearance of being deep in thought, but internally he was wincing at the images. He liked to think that he and Elfilis were friends after all, and no one liked to see their friends smashing through glass windows headfirst into a pile of Pokemon Move TM's and Evolution Stones.

What the hell is all this junk?!

Get. Out. Now.

What? Hold on I need to...
Damn it I need to sort all of this crap later.
See what you- STOP FUCKING TELEPORTING!

Magolor waved some smoke away from his face as the sounds of his screaming frenemy and Robobot powered explosions became more and more distant. While it didn't sound like Susie was having a great time, he couldn't help but note that a Kirby powered war machine was the best distraction he could've asked for. He should now be able to explore the Ark and work his magics relatively unmolested so long as the Nightmare Moon spirit considered the rampaging bomber machine the greater threat. Of course, Magolor would've preferred to have Susie with him so he couldn't get lost, but he didn't think he would have too much trouble. The Ark was a machine after all, and it's structure had a purpose. If Magolor could navigate the winding maze-like space of Another Dimension then the orderly halls of the metal planet should not be an issue. Provided, again, that Magolor stayed off the radar.

So, hovering a few feet in the air in an attempt to avoid any sensors in the floor, Magolor began to explore the empty halls. It took less than ten minutes for him to get lost. He had been blasting cameras as he went to avoid catching the 'eye' of the planet, but it also served as a good sign of having gone in circles when he kept coming across smashed lenses mounted on the wall. This lead to Magolor using intact cameras as a guide to find places he hadn't been to before, but he still smashed those cameras as he went. Eventually, he stopped finding working cameras and was completely without direction.

"... This was not the issue I expected to run into." He mused to himself, deep in thought as he continued to float his way through identical hall number thirty-two. At this rate, the Robobot was going to tear the celestial machine down before Magolor made any progress of his own. He blasted a camera off it's perch with one hand while he rubbed his face with the other, trying to coax an idea into fruition- Wait a minute. "Was that a new camera?" Magolor pivoted in the air and immediately retraced his steps. Sure enough, the remains of the security device was still smoking, freshly destroyed. And right under it, an open elevator that he missed while he was distracted. "How did I miss this? I though- Nevermind. Don't question your own luck Magolor."

The inside of the elevator was a little strange compared to what he was used to. The entire back panel was covered in a web of buttons, and Magolor assumed that the lift must have been able to move in a couple of different directions rather than just up and down. "Let's see... Sectors A through Z, floors one through five-hundred, and four quadrants... This should've been a three-dimensional display, having every stop put on one wall like this is shockingly inefficient of the manufacturer." Seriously, whose idea was it to require the user of the elevator to solve a math equation to figure out where to go? Of course, this wasn't an obstacle to the great Magolor! He was an unparalleled genius the likes of which- "I'll go up the middle one at a time."

Trial and error works too, though this did mean that he stopped at around two-hundred different floors before he found anything of importance. What he found was perfect for his purposes though.

"Ah! Hello Haltmann employees!" A large crowd of cybernetic Waddle-Dee and Waddle-Doo were all scrambling amongst one another and taking turns banging their tiny fists against the closed ports of what must have been escape boats. Magolor entertained the thought of jumping in one himself before shaking it away and catching the attention of one of the more calm/despondent Dee on the edge of the crowd. "Excuse me? I don't suppose you could point out which button in the elevator takes me to the core of the Ark could you? You don't have to worry about non-disclosure by the way, your boss and I are besties you know." He probably could have done without that last statement if the unconvinced look it earned him was anything to go by, but the reluctant employee followed him back and hit the button Magolor was looking for regardless. And if the button was literally the last button he would have pressed at the rate he had been going, then no one else needed to know. It took only half a minute for the doors to open the way to the main console of the Ark. It stood in the back of the room, in front of a large window with a view directly into space. Mostly cylindrical in shape, he could see where it had been repaired with subpar parts and jury-rigged components to bring it to some semblance of functioning, though it was doubtlessly slower and less powerful than the late Star Dream that used to inhabit it. If Nightmare Moon was anywhere in the Ark, it was in there. This was the perfect place for Magolor to be while the spirit possessing the walls was distracted-

"AHHHHHHHHH!" And then the Robobot blasted a hole through the floor from below and jumped out into the room with Susie still emptying her lungs from her seat on top. Magolor just sighed and prepared a couple of spells in his hands as the defenses in the room came alive. This was more what he was expecting. Plans never went as they were supposed to when Kirby was involved. The Robobot evidently shared that trait with the pink hero of Popstar.

These two are the most persistent parasites imaginable! I am a planet! I am my own world! How have they defended themselves from a planet?!

It is a little ironic I think, for you to call them parasites.

Shut. Up. Haltmann.

I was beginning to think you didn't know my name. Have I finally been promoted from a lowly 'worm?'

No, you are Worm Haltmann. Now sit in the corner while I kill your daughter.

I would wish you good luck, you need it, but it is safe to say that you are not deserving of it.

"Hi Susie! You have impeccable timing you must know!" It took quite a lot of effort to yell over the sound of missiles hitting his shields.

"I didn't do shit! The Robobot Armor is holding me hostage!"

"How the turns have tabled." Magolor almost fumbled a magic bomb in his surprise when the Armor responded to its unwilling pilot, but lasers sweeping across the whole room forced Magolor to abandon his attack as well as his response to the cheeky mecha to jump between the red-hot plasma beams. Susie had the space to talk back to the Robobot though, being relatively safe behind the wheel.

"What the fuck!?"

"Suffer." The Robot punctuated it's statement by throwing it's tesla coil adorned arms forward, having lost the Bomb Ability at some point in favor of Spark, and lancing a lightning bolt through the side of the patchwork computer.

Aaaaaahhhhhhh! Vermin! All of you, Vermin!

The screaming of the voice that had laughed at them when they first arrived above Hiddenstar was probably a good sign that they were attacking the right part of the Ark, but they didn't get much time to celebrate as all the shadows suddenly came to life around them. Darkness began to swirl through the air, eating the orbs of fire and spark that Magolor threw but deflecting the bolts of lightning that the Robobot shot as best as they could. This did come with an added benefit however, as the weapons in the room had slowed down as the Nightmare's attention was split between defending itself and destroying the threats in front of her. Having less death thrown around his direction, Magolor pulled more of his attention inwards as he analyzed the shadows that had suddenly became corporeal. If the room hadn't been filled with the sound of thunder, one might've heard him whispering under his breath.

"Shadows displace smaller attacks but block stronger ones. Displacement is an illusion, it is absorbing my magic but has a limit. Hard limit or soft limit, based on amount of power absorbed over period of time? Acts as physical entity, always shoots up from the floor. Needs to fight against gravity? Probable. Hmm... That could work." He vanished with a swirl of his hands through the air, reappearing a short second later hanging onto the back of the Robobot Armor. "I have an idea! Don't let me die!"

"What?!" Susie didn't here a word of what he said, but the Robobot nodded in response and nearly threw Susie forward into the line of fire. "Stop doing that!" When she looked back at where Magolor had been, he had already vanished again and she had to quickly duck as a pair of missiles exploded against the front of the mecha and knocked the two of them back more than a few steps before they recovered and resumed attacking. Meanwhile, Magolor was ever so slightly to the left of the fourth dimension. His vanishing trick was not a delayed teleport or an invisibility spell, it was a dangerous magic that tucked away part of Magolor's existence. The result was that, for the duration of the spell, the user didn't exist in any way that most three-dimensional beings could comprehend nor interact with. Invisible, intangible, inconceivable. That last part was the part that made the spell so dangerous.

Magic was powered by the conceivability of abstract concepts. In this state, Magolor was little more than a ghost in the machine that was the universe. Trying to cast a spell required a mental focus on a singular concept that the spell was tied to, but when the user was little more than a concept themselves? Best case scenario, Magolor pops back into reality on accident when he starts a new spell. Worst case, Magolor ceases to be as he drops the concept of himself into the void in favor of focusing on a different spell.

But, one must understand that Magolor was a magical genius. Magolor focused on not just one concept, not just two, not three, but four concepts at once and juggled four separate spells simultaneously. First, he focused on the concept of Magolor, keeping what little of himself was left from turning into nothing more than a memory. Second, he focused on the concept of an anchor, to pull himself exactly where he needed to be for this to work. Third, he focused on the concept of a singularity, the dense center of a black hole with irresistible gravitational force. And fourth, he focused on the concept of annihilation. Magolor will take no chances. One was centered in his body, two was centered in his head, three was held in his left hand and four was held tightly in his right. It took more than two minutes for the spells to reach completion, all settled into their shells, crystallizations of thought and soul held together only by sheer force of will. With that complete, Magolor pulled on the first and popped back into reality, directly in the line of fire.

Sound returned in a rush, and Magolor flicked the anchor and flew headfirst towards the possessed mother computer. As projectiles and shadows both rose to challenge his reckless charge, he let the spell on his left fly forward. A black hole opened in the palm of his hand, consuming missiles, plasma, and shadows all into it's ravenous center, leaving Magolor untouched and the shell holding Nightmare Moon defenseless. Darkness had barely begun to spill back into the world to replenish the malevolent spirit's defenses when Magolor finally pushed his right hand towards his target and let the spell he held the tightest grasp on loose. The orb of energy in his palm grew to the size of a grape in an instant before freezing, and suddenly exploded outwards, as if it took a moment to realize that it was no longer bound. Fire, Spark, Wind, the power that was unleashed didn't care how it was accomplished, it was going to destroy anything that got in its way. Screw the path of least resistance.

A few measly shadows raised in defense were shredded upon contact. The shell of the computer held for only a moment, turning red from the heat before being evaporated into toxic metal gases. The innards fared no better, component after component getting bright glowing wounds punched into them by the nigh unstoppable force of soul before-

Fuck! Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuckity FUCK! Alright! Fine! I can make do with one of the smaller brain machines here! I'll just have too-

Sorry, but I'm afraid your little tantrum ends here.

Worm! You cannot... How are you...? You were tied to the core...?

Well I was, yes, but it was a little crowded in there what with all your yelling and screaming and profanities so I moved house.

That will not save you, all you have done is delay your demise!

Hmm. Yes, well. Good thing that wasn't the plan.

... Worm?

Goodbye Ms. Moon. It was a pleasure.

In the depths of the Ark, hundreds of backup computers all began to whine and whistle as they began to overclock. When they all began to catch fire, break, and meltdown, they still never figured out how to divide by zero.

And then they exploded.

... Worm...? Well... Shit.

Author's Note

Next chapter we finally make our way back to Equestria. You know, the place that MLP takes place in? It is a My Little Pony fanfiction after all.