Dimensional Chronicles

Chapters

the Journey/Confontation [edited]
the Battle [edited]
the Reluctant Shadow
Shadow of the swamp
Plague of shadow
Trial and Error
Rejecting Death
Help in the Storm
Pathetic
The End of the Beginning
Open Book
What is a Smile?
And You Thought Boot Camp Was Bad
Vision. Part One: The Victor
Vision. Part Two: Great Destroyer.
New World, New Conquest.
Demonstration.
the Brute [Fine, I've edited the damn things.]
Waking the Blades
Ho-ly S**t Guys

the Journey/Confontation [edited]

Dimensional Chronicles Part two The Journey/Confrontation
Day Two:

Twilight was woken up by spike jumping on her bed with a scroll in his hand. The scroll had the royal seal on the ribbon.
“Well that was fast.” She opened the letter.

My faithful student Twilight Sparkle;
Your new friend does sound a tad unsettling. I believe you are right in your caution, but we always did say that hubris would be the death of us both. I would like you to bring him in for an audience, but on the way here I would like you to get as much information out of him as possible, to understand what makes him so violent; report this information to me upon your arrival. Your friend and teacher Celestia.
P.S. Be careful with him, try not to be near all your friends around him.
P.S.S. I did a little digging and found out who this lyre pony is; she is an agent of my sister named Lyra, recorded as the most powerful of her disciples. She seems to have fallen a bit out of favor by getting married and allowing less of her time to be dedicated to her work. This means nothing more than she is apparently no longer the go to mare

Twilight rolled the letter back up and placed it on her bedside dresser.
“Well spike,” she said, “we’re going to Canterlot.” She got up, fixed her hair and ran to Pinkies’ house as that was the closest of her friends’ houses. Later, Twilight would admit what she did next was a terrible idea.
“Hey Twilight,” Pinkie said enthusiastically. “How’s Yachi’?”
“Yachiru is fine, but I’m going to need your help.” Twilight responded, “we’ve been summoned to Canterlot, but Kenpachi is too big for a chariot so we have to go on foot. I want our friends to help run security.”

“Okie dokie loki,” Pinkie said quickly. “I’ll get Rarity and Fluttershy, you can get Applejack and Rainbow Dash.”
“We’ll meet back here, and there’s one more pony I would like to have help, Lyra.”
“You mean Bon-Bon’s wife?” Pinkie narrowed her eyes.
“I guess. I didn’t know who she was married to.” Twilight shrugged.
“Good luck with that," Pinkie waved her off, "Bon-Bon is very protective. You don’t even wanna know what she did to that Parasprite that ate her and Lyra’s pie.” She shuddered slightly. "Scary stuff girl..."

Twilight stared at her for a second.
“Okay... I’ll manage, remember to ask Fluttershy to wait outside a window.”
“Got it. But why ask Fluttershy to wait outside.”
“Safety reasons.” Twilight half lied, she didn't want someone telling Kenpachi she was taking precautions.

“Okay,” they ran to get the others.

Twilight ran to get Rainbow Dash first.
“Rainbow Dash!” She yelled.
“What, what!” Dash yelled, rousing herself from a nap.
“I need your help, I’ll explain at Sugarcube Corners, just wait outside a window.”

“Fine, but this had better be good.” Rainbow Dash flew towards the building, Twilight turned and started towards Sweet Apple Acers.

It was easy to tell where Kenpachi had been, as there was a line of trees that were significantly taller than the others around them and there was a patch that seemed to still be growing. Twilight made a beeline for them. Sure enough Applejack and Kenpachi were on opposite sides of the rows of trees, knocking apples down into baskets. Applejack reared up on her front legs and kicked the trees while Kenpachi slammed them with his sheathed sword. He had somehow managed to get his robes back and his hair up in spikes.

“Applejack, Kenpachi.” Twilight called.
“Yes Twi’?” Applejack said.
“Hey bookworm.” Kenpachi stuck the gauze wrapped sword back onto his belt.
“We’re having a meeting at Sugarcube Corners, and how did you get your stuff back? I would have thought Rarity would have had those under lock and key.”
“She did, so I broke the safe.” Kenpachi snarled.
“You what?” Twilight gaped.

“Yesiry he was up even earlier n’ me gettin’ ‘is hair back up, spent ‘bout an hour tryin’ ta get the bell on the top spike; finally had ta ask Yachiru fer help.” Applejack chuckled.
“I took my sword to that suit Rarity made me afterwards.” Kenpachi grinned fiercely.
“An’ anypony who can stand up to Rarity like that has my full support.” She pounded Kenpachi in the back with a hoof and Kenpachi ruffled her mane with his hand. “An’ he’s more fun n’ Big Mac.”

“Okay, you two should get going.” Twilight changed the subject.

“Okay sugar” Applejack said running towards Sugarcube Corners. Well those two have certainly gotten chummy. Twilight thought to herself.

It took some asking around but Twilight found out where Lyra lived. She knocked on the door; Bon-Bon opened it smiling.
“Hello librarian, what brings you here?” She asked cheerfully.
“Hello Mrs. I’m here to ask Lyra for assistance.” Twilight bowed slightly in greeting, Bon-Bons’ smile dropped like a ton of bricks.
“Luna sent you didn’t she?” She spoke venomously.

“No ma’am I was referenced to her for a bodyguard.” Twilight gave a nervous smile, hoping not to provoke Bon-Bon further. She took in a deep breath, looking like she was about to give Twilight a rather nasty telling off when someone else spoke first.
“Bon-Bon,” a voice rang out from inside, “who’s at the door?”
“Just the Librarian.” She said back, contempt clear in her voice.
“Why hasn’t she been let in? She’s not on the list.”
“But she’s on the list of possible contacts.” Bon-Bon said desperately.

“Exactly,” Bon-Bon slumped and stepped aside, defeated. She glared daggers at Twilight as she stepped inside. “I wasn’t aware that Luna gave out the names of her agents.” Lyra said; she was sitting in an arm chair, her back legs draped over the front. It was a position Twilight found slightly unsettling. She was also holding a lyre, strumming it with a hoof, as soon as the music reached them Bon-Bon visibly relaxed. “There, there,” Lyra said to Bon-Bon. “I’ll be fine.”
“She doesn’t give them out.” Twilight said.
“Then who recommended me?”
“Celestia, well inadvertently, she said you were the strongest of Luna’s agents on record. I have a job for you; I’m escorting a new person to Canterlot-”
“Zaraki Kenpachi," Lyra interrupted, "and you want me to act as a deterrent.”
“Exactly; but how do you know Kenpachi?”
“I have my sources,” Lyra said mischievously. She stopped playing, “I’ll get packed.” Bon-Bon had gone ridged again.

“I swear” she said through gritted teeth. “If Lyra doesn’t come back I will hunt you down and gut you with a spoon, a rusty one.” Bon-Bon turned up her nose at Twilight and walked to another room. Lyra walked down the stairs wearing one saddlebag; her Lyre could be seen poking out of it a little.
“Sorry about her, she’s had to save me more times than I care to think about. She really means well, she just worries about me.”

“Understandable,” Twilight said, “anyway let’s get going.” They walked out to Sugarcube Corners.

“Welcome back Twilight, hey Lyra.” Pinkie jumped out to meet them. “All ready to go.”
“Okay Pinkie, we’ll be going in a minute.” They walked inside. Kenpachi took up a good quarter of the lobby, Applejack was standing between him and Rarity, who was glaring at him like she wanted to kill him and make an outfit out of his skin. Kenpachi met her gaze with a look that said ‘try it’, his hand was creeping towards his sword.
“Kenpachi!” Twilight yelled at him, “rule two.” Kenpachi’s smile fell and he took his hand away from his sword.
“What’s this about bookworm?” He asked.

“You, Kenpachi, have been summoned to the palace for an audience with Celestia.” Twilight responded. “We are your security and guides.”
“Security? I don’t need security.” He cocked an eyebrow.
“True, but you do need guides and we need security. That is why I’ve enlisted the help of Lyra here. Is everypony besides Rarity ready?”

“Why am I not included?” Rarity complained.
“Because we all know your not ready.” Applejack snickered.
“But this time I am, every time Twilight calls one of these meetings we go somewhere. So this time I packed in advance.” She patted a pair of saddlebags on the ground next to her.
“Okay, is everypony else ready?” Twilight asked.
“Yes.” The unanimous cry rang out.

“Kenny,” Yachiru said, climbing over his shoulder. “Can I ride a pony like spike does?”
“Ask them, not me.” Yachiru jumped down from Kenpachis’ back.
“Pinkie,” she said endearingly, “can I ride you?”
“Okie doki Yachi’.” Pinkie responded happily.
“Yay.” Yachiru hopped onto Pinkies’ back.

“Lets get going," Twilight called everyone into line. "This trip should take until sundown. When we step outside of town everypony take your positions. I’m at point, Applejack and Rainbow Dash, you’re the forward scouts, you are to report back to me if you encounter any large hindrance. Rarity, you take up rear guard. Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy, you two are side guards. Lyra, Kenpachi, you’re with me, lets go.” Twilight had designed this formation to provide maximum warning time, therefore reaction time, to threats but it also had the added effect of keeping at least the rear guard out of power range at all times. This should work. Twilight thought to herself.

They walked to the outskirts of town together then fell into formation and Twilight decided to initiate part two of her orders.
“Say, Kenpachi?” She asked.
“What?” He yawned.
“Where did you come from?”
“Soul Society.” He grunted.
“What’s that place like?” Twilight asked, Kenpachi grinned.

“It’s dangerous, filled with strong guys these monsters called Hollows, traitors and battles; oh the battles just thinking about them makes me want to beat the hell out a' something.” He almost sounded like he was purring towards the end.
“That bad?” Twilight shuddered.
“That much fun, more like it." Kenpachi snapped at her. "Of course there are those who try to spoil my fun, like Soi Fon, she’s even more of a killjoy than you are. Then there are the bastards I don’t respect enough to have fun fighting. But I won’t go into them.”

“Why do you like fighting so much?” Suprisingly enough, Fluttershy had asked. Prompting a thoughtful stare from Kenpachi, who just kept staring for a moment.
“What’s not to like?" He threw up his hands. "It’s fun, life and death, the thrill of it, pushing yourself farther than you’ve ever gone before and that chance that you really might die." He laughed. "I’m the captain of the Eleventh squad, the strongest squad, my third seat Ikkaku and I spar all the time. Sometimes I spar with Yachiru, but the last time I did that we were on probation for a month. Can you imagine, me unable to fight for an entire month; it sucked.”

“What kind of power does she have?” Twilight asked, Kenpachi looked over at her mischievously.
“That would be, a secret.” He laughed, “anyway, there is really only one active captain that I really dislike. Korutsuchi, he’s a scientist, but he always takes some of the best opponents to be his test subjects, always getting in the way. Then, if they survive the tests, they’re always too traumatized to fight; real asshole.”
“Oh my.” Fluttershy squeaked.
“And you know the worst part? He doesn’t even have to do it himself, he uses poisons to paralyze his opponents and just drags them off to experiment on them, the bastard.”

“This 'Soul Society' sounds horrible.” Twilight gagged.
“It’s not that bad aside from Korutsuchi, it’s actually lots of fun.” Kenpachi scratched his chin.
“But what about the monsters, the Hollows?” Fluttershy muttered.
“They’re usually just nuisances that go around eating weak people, but every now and then a strong one like Nnoitora shows up and things get fun.” He grinned fiercely.
“And lots of people die.” Yachiru piped up happily.

“How horrible.” Twilight gasped.
“You keep using that word, I don’t think it means what you think it does.” Kenpachi said, smiling. “To die in battle against a powerful Hollow is the greatest honor for one of the Eleventh squad.”
“The blood always gets everywhere.” Yachiru said ecstatically.
“How old are you anyway Yachiru?” Twilight cocked an eyebrow.
“Five, I think." Twilight almost tripped, then Yachiru finished her thought, and she did. "Wait, I’m nine, yep that’s it.”
“What!?” Twilight yelled, shocked by this development. “You’re no older than Applebloom, what in Celestia’s name happened to you?”

“I lived in the 79th northern Rukon district," Yachiru chirped. "There were people killing each other everywhere, but then Kenpachi came and taught me to fight and I didn’t have to worry anymore.” Twilight was effectively horrified, Kenpachi and Yachiru came from a place where it was necessary to teach small children to fight and kill. That was enough information for now.

“Hey Lyra.” Twilight shifted the focus of the conversation.
“Yes?”
“You've been quiet," Twilight said, a bit more quickly than intended. "What’s your story? You said Bon-Bon had to save you, from what?”
“Myself.” Lyra shrugged.
“Huh?” Pinkie cocked her head.

“I spent some time in the Soul Society while dimension hopping for Luna," Lyra started. "She was testing a new type of magic and needed someone she knew would survive. As the most powerful of her followers, I was naturally the first choice. I ended up there and was almost immediately recruited by the Thirteen Court Guard Squads and placed in squad Twelve. I was given a Zanpakto, which I attached to my lyre, I actually learned her name when I did, Ochestura.”
“Wait, her?” Twilight interrupted “It’s a sword not a pony.”

“Every Zanpakto has a soul of its own," Lyra explained. "It is like your child, a new being branched off from your own soul, the sword is just the container, it changes shape and power when you call its name. Anyway, after three weeks I continued my dimension hopping, but it seemed that I was not compatible with the next dimension. I was ‘evicted’ after two days, I was happy to be going home, but something happened to Ochestura. Being torn so..." Lyra hesitated, "violently, through the between-space seemed to have an effect on her.

"She refused to speak to me or lend me her power for a while after that." She continued, "I figured it was her issue with authority and she, with Luna being a princess and my employer, was angry at me. So I decided to leave Luna’s employment and protection for a while, this included my house in Canterlot. Until I had a nasty encounter with a hydra during my travels. I admittedly hadn't eaten properly or slept through the night for a bit. My supplies had run out earlier than expected and I was in the Everfree Forest. I ran instead of fought until we reached the outskirts of the forest. Bon-Bon was there and I knew there was no way an ordinary pony could outrun the hydra. I was just barely keeping ahead of it myself. Something ‘else’ took over at this point and I don’t remember anything else from that night. I know I killed the Hydra or else I wouldn’t be standing here right now, but not much else.

"I woke up in her house, my lyre was on a dresser next to the bed. I didn’t think I could stay, so I got up, grabbed my lyre and tried to leave. Bon-Bon wouldn't let me, she seemed to instinctively know that I was alone and wandering. She took me in, became my best friend. She stayed by me, even though over the next few months I had extensive inner battles with the Other.” The words flowed like she had been wanting to tell this story for a long time. “She would always be there to make sure the Other didn’t destroy anything. If it looked like the Other was going to win she would talk to me, reassuring me. No matter what the Other did to her, no matter how badly she was hurt she stood by me. Always making sure I resurfaced.

"The second to last time it happened," she choked up a little. "The Other had broken her, she was close to death. I rushed her to the hospital, they actually had to call in several dozen unicorns to help with the healing spell. I never left her side that day.” Kenpachi rolled his eyes, Yachiru stuck out her tongue and made gagging noises until a glare from Twilight silenced her. “Once she woke up, I told that I would be leaving before the Other took over again. She once again refused to let me go, but this time I asked why. She told me that she once had a friend with a similar problem and she hadn’t been able to help. She told me that she took me in to make up for that. Of course the Other saw this moment as an opportunity to take over I crushed it and have not heard from it since.” Lyra ended her story, it was almost sundown.
“Wow” Twilight said “no wonder she’s so protective of you.”

“Twilight!” Applejack and Rainbow Dash yelled, charging back from scouting.
“We’ve got trouble.” Applejack said, panting.
“Big trouble.” Rainbow Dash added.
“What’s wrong?” Twilight asked, just then there was a massive roar, strong enough to make the ground shake.
“That!” Rainbow Dash yelled.
“What could be that big?” Twilight thought aloud.
“An Ursa Major” Applejack said, panicky.

“Then why can’t I see it?” Twilight looked up at the sky, trying to remember her research. “The Ursa Majors’ favorite hunting time is,” she wracked her brain. “Dusk, its coat is the same color as the sky. Everypony look for its eyes, they’re the only thing that will show against the sky. How did you find it anyway?”
“Rainbow ran inta’ its haunches” Applejack chuckled anxiously.
“Ahh!” Pinkie Pie screamed, everyone whipped around to Pinkie. There were two massive eyes each about as big as a tree and fangs as long as the Ursa Minor had been tall, seemingly hanging in the sky above her. A massive paw came into view as it descended below the tree line.

“Pinkie, Yachiru!” Twilight yelled, there was a flash of black and white and the sound of steel grinding on steel. But Twilight hardly noticed, she was in shock. She kept running one thing through her mind. This formation would have been foolproof against anything but an Ursa Major, why did it have to be an Ursa Major? This creature was beyond anything she had even dared take into consideration. Pinkie Pie and Yachiru were going to die and she doubted even Lyra could do anything about it.

“Arwoo!” A howl of pain pierced her stupor. Kenpachi had cut off its fingers, the severed digits fell around Pinkie and Yachiru in a shower of blood. Lyra reached them a few seconds afterwards, shaking them from their fear induced paralysis. Kenpachi was angrily staring down the wounded beast.
“How dare you?” he yelled at it “How dare you? Only cowards go for children first.” It was like Twilight was seeing Kenpachi for the first time. He wasn’t just some brute, he was like a father for Yachiru and just as protective, willing to kill even those he didn’t deem as worth his time if they so much as tried to touch her. The Ursa turned to run, but Kenpachi grabbed its tail, pulling it back to him and onto its back with one hand. “Die bastard!”

He brought his sword down on its neck, somehow cutting its entire head off with a sword about the as long as one of its fingers was wide. Blood splattered everywhere as a virtual river of the stuff spewed from the stump where its head had been. Fluttershy and Rarity fainted strait away, Applejack and Rainbow Dash just stood there, jaws slack. Twilight couldn't get a handle on what she had just seen, so she decided to take her usual semi-calm demeanor, Lyra was standing completely unfazed and Pinkie Pie and Yachiru were beaming up at the thing that just saved their lives.

“A-an Ursa.” Rainbow Dash stuttered. “Not even a giant star bear can touch him, what is he?”
“The Kenpachi,” Yachiru said, “the strongest Soul Reaper.” Kenpachi climbed over the Ursas’ body.
“Hey, is that where we’re going?” He pointed at something past the body.
“We can’t see Kenny.” Applejack responded.
“Oh yeah, stand back.” Everypony who was conscious took a step back, those who weren’t were dragged. “This patch comes in handy at times like this.” He took the patch off and the power surged, vaporizing the creatures’ body, Rarity and Fluttershy’s unconscious bodies were sent flying, along with Rainbow dash, whose’ wings caught the wind generated by the surge. Applejack had to grab a nearby tree to avoid joining the three who had been flung a considerable distance, strangely Pinkie Pie was not effected as severely and only seemed to brace herself. Twilight felt like she had been bucked in the ribs and Spike was hanging onto her mane for dear life. Twilight glanced at Lyra, she showed no sign that anything was even happening aside from her mane whipping in the wind. Twilight looked back towards the direction Kenpachi had been pointing at, there was Canterlot, sparkling with lights. Kenpachi put the patch back on.

“That’s it.” Twilight tried to say this with enthusiasm, but she was still winded from the surge. It took an hour for everybody to recover.

“So now that we’re here.” Kenpachi said, once everypony was alright. Twilight at that moment realized that all her friends were within power range. “We can get down to business.” He lifted his sword and Twilight took a defensive stance, putting a magical barrier up. Kenpachi brought his sword down on it and a massive shock wave blasted outwards from the impact, the barrier held but only just as Kenpachi kept pressing down trying to push her to the limit. Twilight was about to cave when the pressure lifted she looked up, all her friends and Lyra were attacking Kenpachi.

“How dare you?” Fluttershy said through a mouthful of Kenpachi’s’ hair.
“You barbarian.” Rarity yelled, telekinetically throwing branches and twigs at him.
“After ah’ let ya sleep in mah’ barn.” Applejack kicked at his legs.
“Ya big meanie.” Pinkie Pie jumped up and kicked him in the chest.
“That is so not cool.” Rainbow Dash flew around his head at high speeds. But the only one he seemed to be paying attention to was Lyra, who was attacking him in complete silence with a sword attached to her lyre. Kenpachi was deflecting her quite easily. Twilight decided to step in.

“Everypony stand back!” She yelled, her horn glowing. Kenpachi started to float up into the air, continually ascending until he was even higher than Cloudsdale, she then used another spell to allow them to talk with him while he was up there. “Now, what do you have to say for yourself?” Twilight barked at him. Just them the sun set and the moon rose, Twilight felt the magic holding Kenpachi buckle and Kenpachi started laughing.
“Hey Twilight,” he said, “you’re no longer the strongest thing here.”

There was a massive power surge and Twilight's magic gave out altogether. Kenpachi hit the ground with the force of a sonic rainboom, successfully incapacitating everything in a one hundred yard radius except Yachiru, who jumped up onto his back. “We’re going up to the palace.”

Canterlot: top palace balcony. Same time
Luna looked up at her moon, then down at the amplification armor she had re-forged from what remained of the Nightmare Moon armor. It allowed her to use the power of Nightmare moon, without risking her sanity, Luna felt very proud of herself. Completely unaware of the terrible power racing towards Canterlot.

the Battle [edited]

Dimensional Chronicles Part 3 The Battle
Night Two:

Celestia had just finished her daily duties and was about to turn things over to Luna, but she had been informed that she had a visitor, the Zaraki Kenpachi she had heard about from her student Twilight Sparkle.
“Show him-” Celestia started.
“Auah!” Screams of pain could be heard from the hall. Celestia froze as Kenpachi walked into the throne room. There was blood dripping from the ragged edged sword slung over his shoulder.
“Hey, you the ruler of this castle?” He asked, boredom clear in his voice.
“D-during the day.” Celestia responded.

“Kenny she won’t be any fun.” Yachiru piped up, popping over his other shoulder.
“How could she not be fun? She’s not the strongest thing in here but there are pictures and statues of her everywhere. She must just be suppressing herself, as soon as she stops doing that, this should be fun.”
“Your Highness.” a Pegasus guard with black fur and a gash down the side of his face limped into view. All of the flight feathers on its left side had been cut off, he limped between Zaraki and Celestia. “You, will not pass.” The guard coughed up blood.

“Step aside, I don’t like killing the weak.” Kenpachi growled.
“You, will not pass.” The guard repeated.
“You’re going to be boring.” Kenpachi snarled. Celestia just stared, impressed be her guard's determination, but terrified by Kenpachi's drive.
“You will not, pass.” the guard was shaking now. It was obvious that he was just barely standing. “You will, not pass.” He repeated, as if the phrase gave him strength. The hastily redone strap on his armor gave way and the metal plates fell to the ground, revealing a gash along his ribs. Celestia restrained the urge to vomit, she could actually see the guards’ lungs filling and deflating shakily as he breathed. It was a survivable wound, but gruesome. “You will not pass!” He suddenly yelled, drawing on some reserve of strength and charged.

“Fine,” Kenpachi grunted, raising his sword.
“No!” Celestia yelled, putting a barrier above the guard. Kenpachi brought his sword down, shattering the magic like thin glass. The sword cleaved the guards left limbs clear off his body.
“I’m sorry, princess.” The guard said as he fell and died. Celestia screamed in frustration and sorrow at seeing one of her subjects cut down before her eyes and being helpless to save him.
“You monster!” she yelled charging Kenpachi.

Which brings us to where we started. Luna had jumped down from a balcony to save her sister, she had caught Kenpachis’ blade between her hooves, but it cut into them. She pushed the sword away and struck with her dark lightning pushing Kenpachi away.
“Are you alright sister?” Luna asked.
“I guess.” Celestia replied, trembling.
“Finally,” Kenpachi said. “You have no idea how boring this place is for me. So few strong people, but now that you’re here I can really cut loose.” He tore the eye-patch from his face and his power leaped. He jumped at Luna, swinging his sword, she just barely managed to dodge. Returning the bow, she clubbed him in the face with an armored wing and brought her bladed horn down across his chest, opening a gash, blood splattered on her armor and his robes.

He swung at her again, this time she blocked with her wings, the armor held but she was pinned down. She couldn’t get at him without taking out her own wings and he just kept pushing. Suddenly an insectoid wail filled the air. A green mare, wearing a mask with a long bladed horn in the forehead, two curled rams’ horns on the sides, blue lightning bolt designs along the lower jawline, blue bars on either sides of the nose and massive diamond shaped teeth. She was wielding a bladed lyre. Which she brought down on Kenpachi, hard, on his left shoulder, re-opening a wound Fluttershy had patched up. She then used the leverage to vault herself next to Luna.

“Hello Lyra,” Luna said, grinning. “You’re a little late, I was starting to worry you weren't going to show up.”
“What? And let my employer die, not a chance.” Lyra replied. She stood on her back legs and raised her Lyre. “Kyoshin, Ochestura!” [Resonate, Orchestra] Lyra yelled. The lyre seemed to melt over her foreleg, turning black with green line patterns, four silver claws burst from the hoof, three finger claws and one thumb claw, and a golden disk set itself at the elbow joint.

“Oh, a Zanpakto, this should be fun." Kenpachi said, Yachiru giggled at the rhyme. Lyra drew her claws through the air, four metal strings appeared where the claws had raked through it. She threw the strings like pointed, bungee bullets and Luna sent a beam of destructive magic at Kenpachi, who was able to block. The strings started to writhe and the magic encircled him they both lashed and blasted him until he looked the way he did when he first arrived in Equestria.

Lyra pulled back the strings and the magic faded. “A kido based one, well I’ll-” Kenpachi was cut off as he seemed to be sucked down a drain in his chest disappearing in a warp of light. Lyra had a good idea of what was going on and decided to fill in Luna who was obviously confused.
“Guardian.”

“What?”

“If the Guardian deems you incompatible with a dimension, than you warp back to your own after forty-eight hours. I figured this out while dimension hopping for you. And I know this is the case, because Yachiru is gone as well. The Guardian doesn't do precision.” Luna looked over, sure enough, the ledge Yachiru had been standing on was empty.

Epilogue:

The next morning:
“What was his name?” Celestia asked, standing over the body of the dead guard. All the other guards had been wounded but not killed, it seemed Kenpachi really was only interested in the extremely powerful. Celestia had personally helped get all the guards to the palace infirmary. But She had insisted that the dead guard be left where he lie.
“Excuse me your highness?” the royal cataloger, a stallion named Quick Check, asked, puzzled.
“This guard, what was his name?” She asked again.
“Do you want his Birthname or what he changed it to after he got his Cutie Mark.”
“After.”

“Grimmaldo,” he replied after looking though his report. Celestia used a hoof to piece his Cutie Mark back together, which had been slashed in half, it was a winged shield.

“Grimmaldo,” she paused, “protector. I will be going to the infirmary, inform Grimmaldos’ next of kin that he died a hero. We will erect a tribute to him and give him a burial worthy of a king.” She left the room before any of her advisers could object.

“Your Highness.” The nurse bowed as Celestia entered the room.
“There’s no need for that.” Celestia said to the nurse, “I come today not as a princess or ruler but as an old mare.” She surveyed the damage Kenpachi had done, they were all badly wounded, though none quite as badly as Grimmaldo had been. “I have come to realize something,” she started, “I trust all of you with my life, but I do not trust myself with yours. Grimmaldo was possibly the bravest pegasus I have ever had the honor to have serve me. He still tried to protect me, even when he was half dead, now I could say a lot with that. I could say that you should take a page from his book. But I pray you don’t, he died because, even as he tried to protect me, I failed to protect him from that despicable thing. If any of you find yourselves up against a being that far beyond all of us, do not attempt to stand your ground, do not attack it. Pull an evacuation hatch and run. This does not mean that anypony is being forced to stay, or leave, but if any of you want to quit they can.” Only one hoof was raised. “Thank you for your service and your time.” She turned to leave, a single tear fell from her eye.

End?

There ya go, now go to the next chapter and read the actually good stuff.

the Reluctant Shadow

Dimensional Chronicles: chapter 4, The Reluctant Shadow

Luna was going down her to-do list in an attempt to take her mind off of the recent Kenpachi incident. Even after five years there were still a lot of unfinished magics she had been working on before Nightmare Moon. She noticed one that she had finished but never checked off.

“Dimensional gateways, but I finished that?” She thought out loud as she wondered why it hadn’t been checked off. She ran the experiment through her mind and remembered, “I haven’t tested it myself yet.” She had tested it on Lyra but not herself. “Might as well get started.” She flew to Celestia’s tower and knocked on the door.

“Come in.” The familiar, casual voice said from beyond the door. “Ah sister how have you been?”
“I’ve been fine, but I found an unfinished project. It requires me to travel, so I may be gone a couple days.”
“Okay ‘hic’ have a nice time.” Luna noticed the bottle of wine on Celestia’s desk.
“You've talked the guards into giving you wine again haven’t you.”
“Nooo.” Celestia nonchalantly moved between the desk and the door.
“You know it’s too strong for you.” Luna scolded, Celestia had never grown a tolerance for alcohol, but that didn't stop her from trying.

“Oh bother, I’ll be sober by the time I need to raise the sun.” She wobbled a bit.
“Fine, but since you probably won’t remember that we even had this conversation I’ll have to write a note.” She levitated a pad and pencil off the desk and quickly scribbled down a note detailing what she was doing, when to start worrying and where to find her research.
“Oooh flaming magic paper.” Celestia said before she collapsed. How much did she have to drink? Luna thought, walking over to the desk, the bottle was empty.
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Later that night, when Luna had finished painting the runes needed onto her hooves she opened a gate. Probing the fabric of space for weak spots, she found a massive one, less of a weak spot more of a paper thin sheet. Perfect, she thought to herself. Something was nagging at her, she was forgetting something. Normally this would have made her stop the experiment but the paper thin spot popped, sucking her through.

“I won’t die, I won’t die, I refuse to die; Teridax you traitorous bastard.” A voice screamed in Luna’s ears. “Who are you?” It yelled. “Tell me before I drop you.” Luna opened her eyes; she was riding some sort of massive blue, silver and black bat through a maelstrom that threatened to tear them apart. Maybe opening the barrier tonight was a bad idea. “What barrier, who are you?” The voice yelled. “Tell me now or I’ll throw you to the storm.” She realized the voice was coming from the bat.

“I am Princess Luna.”
“Where is Gavla? I need my eyes.”
“Who’s Gavla?” It spoke of this Gavla like a tool but as it grew more panicked thoughts started to leak through into Luna’s mind.
“I don’t want her to die; oh my little girl, please be safe.”

Luna looked behind them and remembered what had been nagging at her; dimensional walls were only that thin during a calamity stronger than a supernova. It was a huge barely contained mass of energy, expanding at a rate just slightly faster than they were moving. It nicked the bat creature’s hindquarters and he panicked, driving itself even faster as its entire history poured from its mind; a silent history of evil along with its name, Vamprah.
“Listen, Vamprah.” Luna yelled. “I can get us out of here but I need you to calm down.” At that moment something started hurling fireballs at them, demanding evasive action. “On second thought, you just make sure we don’t die!” Luna’s self preservation instinct blocked out any distrust she had of this Vamprah. Well, this tops my list of clusterbucks.
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Almost a mile above them Gavla, a small blue and black matoran, saw Vamprah almost get swallowed by the storm that had been Karda Nui. He escaped and Gavla let out a sigh of relief. Then the loathsome fire toa started shooting fireballs at him.
“No!” She shouted, straining against Toa Takanuva’s grip. “Let me go! He needs me.” She begged.
“I’m sorry, but going after him would be suicide.” He responded stoically.
“Than I’ll take suicide.” She grabbed a gun from the water toa and blasted Takanuva in the mask, forcing him to drop her. She tried to flap her wings so she could get at Vamprah, but she remembered at that moment she no longer had wings; thanks to that despicable toa. “Vamprah, help me!” She screamed and fell.
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“What are you doing!?” Luna yelled as Vamprah turned on a dime.
“Gavla no!” He yelled. Despite his blindness he managed to angle himself perfectly to catch the falling figure in the distance and rapidly closed space. Unfortunately, this meant they were now flying along instead of away from the dome.

“Get back toa.” Gavla yelled, Vamprah shot a bolt of darkness at the second figure diving for Gavla, squaring a hit directly in the chest, how he managed this while blind was beyond Luna. “Vamprah!” Gavla yelled joyously; Vamprah wrapped her in his wings as the energy hit and Luna finished the spell to take them back to Equestria at the same moment.
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There was a power surge as a fragment of the explosion entered Equestrian space. Luna opened her eyes, which she had closed tight in anticipation of oblivion. Vamprah had changed shape, from a cybernetic bat to an average sized stallion. Although, he had two tails and horns, each wickedly pointed. His eyes were white, obviously blind. The mask Luna had believed to be his face was nowhere to be seen and in place of forelegs he had two massive wings, each with a serrated thumb claw. His coat was a dark, almost black, blue and the wing membranes were silver like his tails. Despite his fearsome appearance, Vamprah was feeling around frantically, no doubt searching for Gavla.

Luna caught sight of his cutie mark, it was a fang surrounded by a black blotch. Luna cast a quick spell.
“Vamprah.” Luna spoke firmly. “You are blind and I have rendered you mute. Evil like yours has no place in this world. This is the Everfree Forest, you will most likely be eaten here, normally I would not allow this. But as I said, you have no place here.” She lifted her wings and flew away.

Vamprah tried to scream in anger and frustration, but no sound escaped his throat so he sat down and silently wept until he felt the warmth of the rising sun. Warmth, his old mechanical body had not felt it in thousands of years, it inspired him. He took inventory of his body. Nothing had been lost, in fact he had gained tails. As he investigated these his thumb claw clacked, emitting a sound wave that bounced back, giving him an exact image of his surroundings. His new ears twitched. Oh yes, he thought, I can work with this. She wants evil, I’ll give her evil. He smiled bitterly and tested his tridax launcher, it still worked.
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One night later.
Gavla woke up with her head spinning, once she got control over her senses she noticed she was wrapped in something cold.
“Vamprah?” She asked. She put the side of her face up to one of the sides of whatever it was that surrounded her and listened. Normally, Vamprah’s ethereal inside was like thunder, strong and destructive but there was always a sorrowful rain behind the roll of thunder. Whatever she had her ear against sounded like wind, she punched it in frustration and noticed.

I have hooves, sweet Mata Nui. The shell she had punched fell back, Gavla was so shocked by her new form that for a moment she didn’t notice what it was. It was Vamprah’s bat body, with the back popped out from the inside. Judging from this Gavla concluded that he had changed shape. His mask was still on this body, she reached to take it but her hoof slid right off. “Oh, right.” She took it in her mouth and flipped it around to wear it over her own mask. “Take me to him.”
A map appeared in her mind, it didn’t show exactly where he was, but it did show where he had been using his power. Most of it was clustered around a town to the east.

“Okay let’s play hide and seek.” She said, determined. She looked to her back. Of course. She thought. Still no wings. Although, there did seem to be something projecting out of her skull. No matter, she would deal with that once she found Vamprah.
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Two days later.
Lyra returned home after a second day in a row of searching the Everfree for this monster Luna had reportedly abandoned in there.
“Bonbon I’m home.” She called, lighting a candle in the dark room. “Why are all the candles out?”
“Oh no reason, I just needed to think.” Bonbon said, walking down the stairs. In the light of the candle Lyra could tell something was wrong. Bonbon’s mane was darker, she was holding herself in a menacing posture and her smile was the kind Pinkie Pie got when somebody refused a party invitation. A ’they will never find your body’ sort of grin.

“Bonbon are you okay?”
“Just fine,” she paused. “Lyra.” She said Lyra’s name as if it was a feat to remember it.
“Glad to hear it.” Lyra said, nuzzling up to her. Bonbon went ridged and she knew. “But you’re not Bonbon. Ochestura.” The black and green gauntlet wrapped its claws around the not-Bonbon’s face, it smiled.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” It said in a clicking male voice, then in a creaking parody of Bonbon’s. “Lyra why do you still work for Luna? I love you, but the worry is unbearable. Sweet holy Celestia, what is that? ‘Hree!’” The not-Bonbon let out a bloodcurdling cry, like a bat attacking and Lyra was smashed out of the way from behind. She quickly righted herself, looking up to see the massive, fanged bat stallion Vamprah had become. He was at least as tall as Big Macintosh. “Your ‘Bonbon’ had a lot of light in her, and I grow when I absorb light in this universe.” Both Vamprah and Bonbon’s mouths were moving, but sound was only came out of Bonbon’s mouth.

“I,” he looked at Bonbon, “well we, are Makuta Vamprah. Tell your leaders that abandoning me to die was bad move. If they want me to be evil that’s what they’ll get.” The horns on his head started to swirl with shadows and the candle was snuffed out by darkness. “Oh look, my shadows still work, this will be ‘fun’.” He sounded bitter as if he was forced to this.

“You monster!” Lyra yelled and charged Vamprah, disregarding any resentment in his voice.
“Shut up!” Vamprah barked, batting her away. “I need my eyes and mouth. I am unfamiliar with this world, what am I supposed to do? And would anyone else be any more forgiving; I think not!” Vamprah’s stomach growled. “Now that’s a feeling I’ve missed, hunger. If you’ll excuse me I need to go eat something.” He spoke as if the word eat was in itself a delicacy.

He came as close to strolling as someone could with wings for forelegs as he stepped outside. Lyra got to a window in time to see Vamprah outlined against the moon. He had an impressive wingspan, each wing was at least as long as he was. Then Bonbon tackled her.
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Wind. How he loved it. It was liberating to be flying in a place with wind that didn’t threaten to kill you. Through Bonbon’s eyes he had seen the beautiful nights of this world; it had brought a tear to his. Not only to witness such beauty but to know that its crafter hated him.

I know why they didn’t appreciate your night Princess. He thought to himself. All creatures not born of the dark fear it in some part of their being. It was the same in Mata Nui, but we gave them reason to fear, after years of unearned exile we gave them something to fear. Oh yes we did. There was a high pitched noise and he was cut off from Bonbon’s mind. He silently cursed that ‘Lyra”.

Supersonics, the same thing that got them back in Karda Nui. No matter, that one had been more for exposure, to tick off Luna, to spite her by attacking one of her agents. He had others. And he opened the eyes of the resident mail mare.
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“He can what!?” Luna asked, shocked by the unsettling report she was getting.
“Meld his mind with his victims by sucking out their ‘light’. I believe this to be code for free will, this also causes a physical change but can be cured by a direct blast from a specific frequency sound. The curing phase causes extreme sickness, it is … unclear if the subject will survive.”
“Why are you talking about your wife like an experiment?” Lyra was taken aback; she hadn’t even noticed she was doing that.

“It helps me stay calm.” Normally this would be true, analyzing things down to their basest elements usually made everything seem manageable. But it wasn’t working this time, Bonbon was possibly dying and there was nothing she could do about it. Lyra decided to continue her report. “The being known as Makuta Vamprah seems to be able to see and speak through any being he has done this to, and seems to be able to grow when it extracts the ‘light’ from its victims. It can also manipulate shadows. Two possible weak spots I spotted are a bright orange spot in the middle of its chest and its wings, each of which is as least as long as his body. That is all the new information I have gathered; Lyra Elendi Heartstrings, signing off.”

The mirror turned back from a portal to a reflection. Lyra slumped against her chair and looked over at Bonbon, who was shuddering on the couch as the bright colors worked their way back into her coat. Maybe. Lyra thought to herself. He really does suck the light out of his victims.
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Present time after Lyra encounter
Twilight was startled awake by the sound of someone yelling.
“Yes!” She had fallen asleep looking for a spell that would have weakened the dimensional walls enough for Kenpachi to have fallen through the way he had. She had found nothing and was being forced to the conclusion that he had just bulldozed through those the way he did everything else, when she had fallen asleep. The cry of joy was followed by grunts of frustration. “Why can’t I get this open?” Twilight didn't recognize the voice.
“Hello.” Twilight said, opening the door. She was greeted with quite the sight, a light blue mare in a mask, another mask was on the front steps, and the mare was wrestling with what appeared to be a large pumpkin. Both masks looked like a cross between a bat and a wolf and emitted a strange power.

“Open!” The mare shouted. “Damn you!” She kicked the pumpkin apparently giving up. “Damn you!” She knocked the mask off her face, revealing pointed ears, a horn and a silver and blue mane. “And damn you all to Karzahni!” She turned around to kick the mask on the steps but stopped once she saw twilight, her eyes were an orange red. “Lucky,” she said enviously, pointing at Twilight’s horn. “You got a projection for the blasted thing in your mask, mine was just rattling around in there.”
“I’m not wearing a mask.” Twilight was slightly offended for some reason she couldn't put her hoof on. “This is just my face.”

“Oh.” The blue mare looked back at the mask she had thrown on the ground and sniffed.
“Are you okay?” Twilight asked.
“Fine, just remembering the skakdi hole who gave me the mask. That sphere is his calling card you know.” A look of realization crept its way onto her face. “It’s timed, of course it’s timed. He wouldn’t leave one just sitting around that didn’t open, he’s much too skilled a hunter for that. But why would he time it?” She looked back at Twilight, who she had obviously forgotten was there and, started grinning. “It’s been three days, that’s all he needs. Oh he’s a genius, he’s managed to map out your movement patterns in seventy-two hours. What time do you step out this door in the mornings?”
“Eight o clock usually, why?” The mare grabbed Twilight by the shoulders, shaking her and laughing as she elaborated
“I wouldn’t suggest that tomorrow or you’ll end up worse than a muaka’s dinner. People; well ponies, like you would not want to be hit by the shrapnel this thing throws out.”
“Who the hell are you, and what’s a muaka?” The mare let go of Twilight.

“If I can stay for the night, I’ll tell you everything about where I come from; deal?”
“Deal.” Twilight said. “We should put these masks away for stu- safekeeping.”
“Oh, so you’re like him.” The mare chuckled.
“Him?” Twilight picked up the masks with magic.
“Mutran, I liked him; always had something interesting he was working on or studying.”
“Sounds like a nice guy.” Twilight smiled.

“Not at all," Twilight's smile dropped as the mare elaborated. "But, he was at least pleasant to be around once he started talking about his research.”
“Is he the one who gave you the mask?”
“No, that was Vamprah.” The mare waved her off.
“Vamprah?” The name sent a chill down Twilight’s spine.
“He’s the one who came to this world with me." She stopped. “I’m forgetting something.” She muttered. “Oh right, my name is Gavla.” She bowed a bit.
“My name is Twilight sparkle” She returned the bow.

“I wonder how Vamprah’s doing without me; I was his eyes you know.”
“How does that work?” Twilight cocked her head.
“It’s a psychic link, but it only works like that when I’m near him, now I cant even find the viper.” She sniffed again.
“I’m sure he’ll show up; this is his calling card right?”
“Yeah,” Gavla muttered, “you should really avoid it though”
“How does this thing explode anyway?”
“Well it hatches, on a technicality, but the shadow leeches flying out make it more of an explosion.”
“Where are you from anyway?” Twilight asked.

Gavla took a deep breath.
“I’m from Karda nui, a massive cave in the heart of a giant comatose robot named Mata Nui. It was a productive place before he fell asleep and the bottom half turned into a toxic swamp. Then the Makuta showed up and started making shadow matoran, of which I was the first." There was more than a tinge of pride to this statement. "For most it was a brainwashing process, easily cured by the screech of a klakk. But for me it was like a homecoming. I had always been cast out by my ‘fellow',” she sneered, “Av-matoran. But the Makuta accepted me as I was, nurtured me, made me a leader, gave me wings and a best friend, Vamprah. He, like all the Makuta dreamed of ruling, but for him it was just so people would accept him. Normal toa and matoran, not just the crazies of the brotherhood.

"He was strong, quiet and, at least to me, kind. Everything was great again until the toa showed up and the battles in the sky got really intense. Then everything was perfect, Vamprah and I loved every minute of it. Until those self-righteous ‘heroes’ found the klakk and used them against us. Vamprah hid me away to keep me safe, but one named Takanuva found me and ‘purified’ me. Then the maelstrom started, I escaped from the toa almost fell to my death. Vamprah caught me and next thing I know I have no hands, a horn, my wings are still not back and I’m alone in this place. Oh and a muaka is a type of giant cat.”

“Well your world sounds better than Kenpachi’s at least.” Twilight sighed, wondering how often she was going to run into crazy people like this.
“Kenpachi?”
“It’s a long story, I’ll tell you inside.” She ushered Gavla in and shut the door with magic.
“Instead of that, how about you tell me how you move things without touching them. Is it a personal power or can other peop--ponies do it?” Gavla looked around the room. "Cause a lot of this stuff looks pretty hard to use without hands."
“You mean to tell me that you haven’t even tried the thing on your head out?” Twilight walked up next to her.
“It has to do with this blasted thing?” Gavla sat down on the floor and tapped her horn. “I thought it was just another stroke of bad luck for me. Adding insult to injury, you know.”

“No, that horn is an extension of your will, in order for you to do something like I did with the door and masks all you have to do is concentrate on it.”
“So like this?” She stared at the couch and it slowly lifted off the ground.
“Well yes, but I’m not so sure a beginner should be lifting something that heavy.” Twilight chuckled nervously, waiting for the inevitable backlash.
“Oh come on, its not that hard- Achoo!” The sofa flew across the room and shattered on a wall as Gavla grabbed her nose. “Except it makes your skull vibrate something awful; sorry.” Twilight sighed and mended the shattered piece of furniture carefully weaving the fibers of wood back together as easily as picking up a teacup,
“That’s why beginners should start with smaller things.”

“Your turn.” Gavla said, shaking her head to clear it.
“My turn to what?” Twilight asked.
“I asked a question about the details of this world, now it’s your turn to ask about the details of mine.”
“Okay.” Twilight thought for a second. “Were there any other sane Makuta?” Twilight tensed.
“Ooh, that’s a tough one. Well there was Krika, but he scared everyone around him. Which I think was partly because of the fact that he looked like a giant krakk shrimp -at least he did when I met him- and that he wears the mask of repulsion.” She paused, looking thoughtful. Twilight had visibly relaxed. “I don’t think he died.”
“He didn‘t.” Twilight said in a matter of fact manner.
“The storm before we came here, it killed everything, well almost everything.” Gavla was obviously talking to herself again.
“Pardon?”
“Vamprah and I survived, and if we found a way, I know Krika did. He was a genius, even among the Makuta, the only other one I can think of that was more brilliant than Krika was the leader, Makuta Teridax.” If ever there was an evil name it was this, for no sooner had the word escaped Gavla’s mouth then the entire room literally went cold and lightning flashed to the south followed by a boom of screaming thunder. It was as if the universe itself rebelled at the mere mention of this vile being. “Maybe I shouldn’t bring him up around here.” Gavla’s breath was laced with steam in the cold, she chuckled nervously. “Open a window, it’s freezing in here.”

Shadow of the swamp

Dimensional Chronicles chapter 5: Shadow of the Swamp
Three days ago.
Makuta Krika woke up in a swamp and groaned. Had it all been a dream? Had Gorast really not killed him? No Krika thought, it had happened. He had just survived somehow, maybe Teridax just liked him. His stomach growled and he jumped. He hadn’t heard that noise in over five thousand years. He decided to go hunting, which he did by sinking into the murk and waiting. He waited for hour after hour; the sun was at its apex before something of value came along. It was a small, horned equine, probably a distant relative of the mawi ponies of Metru nui. He gathered himself and pounced, the equine screamed. He almost had the small thing in his fore claws when something hard hit him in the side of the mask, knocking him off course and into the muck.

Rarity smirked at the direct hit on the thing that had sprung out at Sweetie Belle, who was now running back towards her sister. The thing had landed on its back, dazed. It was not much taller than an average pony, but it was a good deal longer.
“Take that you ruffian!”
“Yeah.” Sweetie Belle yelled, breaking the things trance. It turned its head over, looking Rarity strait in the eye with a sickening sound like cracking bones.
“You can speak?” It said, with a voice that sounded like his throat was made of sandpaper. It turned its upper body right-side up with the same sickening sound, followed by its lower body. “I apologize.” It said sincerely. “I was not aware you were intelligent.” It bowed courteously, then cocked its head curiously. “My name is Makuta Krika, may I know yours?” Rarity’s eyes narrowed. Its stomach growled and she decided to take a page from Fluttershy’s book.

“I am miss Rarity and this is Sweetie Belle, come on out and say hello to Krika. He didn‘t mean to attack, he was just hungry.” Krika nodded, Sweetie Belle shook her head and hugged Rarity’s back leg. “How about we get you cleaned up and see your face.” Rarity said, more as a command than as a question.
“Alright.” The mud and gunk of the swamp fell from his body, as if it had never been stuck to him.

Underneath, was something from a nightmare. He looked horribly malnourished, his ribs, pelvis and vertebrae clearly visible against his sagging flesh. His coat was bone white, black and red, he was wearing a mask that appeared to be a giant shrimp head with more vertebrae sticking out the back ending in a blade. The muscles and bones of his spindly limbs were also visible, he was standing using massive blades that appeared to be the spinal columns from other creatures. His eyes were massive, requiring bulges in the mask and were red with no whites to them.

Sweetie Belle screamed, burying her face in Rarity’s flank. Rarity just stood there, horrified. Krika, upon seeing this, hid his face behind the blades. “I’m sorry, you can run now if you want to.” Bitterness making his voice crack. Rarity forced her emotions back into her control.
“W-well, you’re just a little-” She took a step forward only to be blasted back, along with a good portion of the ground. A perfect sphere of space was pushed away with Krika floating in the middle, curled up into a ball. Rarity got up and walked up to the edge. “Now see here, you’re acting like a baby.” Krika stirred. “You’re just a little malnourished, I bet you’ll look better the second we get some food and clean water in you.” He looked up.
“You’re not scared?” He asked, looking up at her with his massive eyes.
“I believe terrified would be a better word," Rarity admitted sheepishly, "but I simply cannot stand the sight of a full grown anything acting so juvenile.” He uncurled and dropped to the ground.

“Sorry.” He said, holding himself close to the ground. “No one has seen me and stuck around me longer than a minute, without trying to kill me, for almost a thousand years.” Rarity could see why but now was no time to be judging on appearances.
“Come with us; we’ll find you something more appetizing to eat.” She waved him over.
“O-okay.” He crawled out from the hole he had made, head held low, and bowed again to Sweetie Belle. “I’m really sorry about scaring you.”
“It’s alright, I guess.” She hugged closer to Rarity, obviously and understandably confused. Krika followed them, trailing slightly behind.

“If you don’t mind me asking.” Krika said timidly. “May I have a hair or something along those lines?”
“Why?” Rarity stopped, eyeing Krika incredulously.
“It’ll be quicker than just asking you about where I am.” He assured.
“Alright.” She plucked a hair out and lifted it to Krika’s face. He lifted a fore claw and grabbed it out of the air with a pincer. Rotating it, he seemed to scan every detail into his brain until he dropped it.
“Well, this world is interesting; am I truly supposed to believe that the sun orbits this planet guided by the horn of a winged unicorn?” He sounded rather incredulous. “I will have to do some studies into it.” Sweetie Belle and Rarity rolled their eyes.
“Listen to him.” Sweetie said, “he hasn’t even met her yet and he already talks like Twilight.”
“Just wait until he does meet her, they’ll talk up a storm.” Rarity responded, giggling.
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“Now comes the tough part.” Rarity said, standing on the edge of the town limits. “How do we get Krika back to the boutique without causing a riot?” Rarity looked over to where he had been standing, there was nothing there. “Where did he go?”
“Good it works.” He re-appeared, “working invisibility. Well, it’s not technically invisibility, I’m using my mask to make ponies minds reject my image, making me practically invisible.” Rarity raised an eyebrow and shook her head.
“Whatever, lets just hope it works as well as you say it does.” They walked over the border and through the town, almost without incident, until they were about ten feet from the boutique.

“AAHH!” Ditsy Doo screamed, she had run into Krika and could now see him. She scrabbled back on her butt. “M-monster, I thought I was done with these things! Please don’t hurt me, I only knew the guy for seven years and he hasn’t even visited for twelve since then.” Krika looked at Rarity, who shrugged.
“I’m terribly sorry about the fright miss…” He helped her up with a forelimb.
“Ow! Watch the spines.” She said. “I’m Ditsy Doo.” Krika brought a claw up to his face.
“Please don’t tell anyone I’m here.” He smirked with his eyes. “They wouldn’t believe you anyway.” He turned invisible again. “He’ll be back soon by the way. I would very much like to meet him.” Ditsy’s wobbly eyes went wide and she flew off as fast as her wings could carry her.

“Who’ll be back exactly?” Rarity asked.
“Worked on matoran too.” Krika said becoming visible again. “Even before I was…” He lifted a fore claw. “This. And it‘s a secret.” Rarity nodded and they walked inside.
“Lets find you something to eat.”
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Half an hour later
“Blagart!” Krika regurgitated the twenty second try at finding something that would stay down. “I’m terribly- blag- sorry I just haven’t eaten-hurk-anything solid in a few-munk-thousand years.”
“You should have thought of that while waiting in the mud.” Rarity was starting to get on Krika’s nerves, but that was probably just the nausea speaking. He finally stopped retching and a thought popped into his head as Sweetie Belle cautiously brought in the next dish for testing.

“Wait.” He said, rejecting bile from his mask for the twenty second time that day. “Back home my species lived off ambient light, well, before the swamp got to me. I’m going to see if that still works with an entirely organic body.” He walked over to the window, opening it wide and drank deeply of the light. Krika's shadow expanded until it filled the spot of light the window made and started creeping towards Sweetie Belle and Rarity.

“Krika.” Rarity said testily and he cut the feeding line. Light refilled the room instantaneously, as if none had just been eaten.
“Sorry I got a bit greedy.” He said timidly.
“What would have happened if that had touched us?” Rarity questioned.
“I-Lets just say you would have a lot more black to your coat.” He grimaced. “I don’t like to talk about it.”

“M-mister Krika?” Krika perked back up, Sweetie Belle hadn’t said a word to him since he had apologized for scaring her.
“Just Krika, please.” He asked, letting himself enjoy the warm feeling a full belly of light gave him.
“O-okay, Krika, why do you wear that mask?” He opened his mouth to answer but shut it. He stopped for a second in thought.

“Perhaps it’s better if I just show you.” He brought up his forelimbs and removed the mask. Sweetie Belle cocked her head.
“You don’t look that bad.” Krika blinked, Rarity brought a mirror up to his face. He looked almost like the stallions they had passed on the way to the boutique, only more gaunt and his horn lay flat on his forehead, arching up between his ears. He looked back at the rest of his body, the light had filled him out nicely. He no longer looked like a barely held together collection of bones, just slightly malnourished. Oh well, all things in stages. Sweetie Belle smiled. “You should leave it off, you’re a lot less scary this way.” The simple smile made him feel even warmer inside, no one had ever smiled at him before.
“Alright.” He said. “As long as you don’t stop smiling at me.” And he smiled back.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Two days later
Krika was a quiet houseguest, most of the time. When not going out of his way to entertain Sweetie Belle, he spent his time analyzing anything he could get his pincers on. When asked why he was willing to drop literally anything he was doing to entertain Sweetie Bell, he would simply reply, ‘she smiles at me.’ He mostly stayed out of the way and avoided being a burden at all times, nothing really changed with him around. Except Sweetie Belle all but had a second shadow when not at school. He had filled out quite nicely, even his voice was no longer as raspy and he now looked properly fed, even if when he stretched it sounded like his bones were breaking.

Sweetie Belle came charging through the door home from school at the usual time.
“Rarity, Krika.” She yelled, Krika slithered down from his hiding place above the door and Rarity poked her head out from her workroom. “I told my friends about Krika.” She babbled excitedly.
“And?” Rarity pressed
“They wanna meet him.” Krika blinked.
“How exactly did the subject come up?” He asked.
“Well, Apple Bloom was talking about this huge bat that landed in the orchard last night, she said that it drank moonlight and its shadow grew. So I said I knew someone like that, then they asked if they could meet you; they’re waiting outside.” Krika thought for a second, there were five Makuta he could think of that looked like giant bats, only one of which he was on good terms with. He decided to take the opportunity to question Apple Bloom in order to determine the identity of the Makuta.

“Okay I’ll go.” Krika nodded, Sweetie Belle cheered loudly and ran back out the door. “But, I’ll have a little fun with them first.” He mused to himself, activating his mask, he opened the door.
“Here he is.” Sweetie Belle said enthusiastically. “Where’d he go?”
“What’s up Sweetie, is he comin’ or not?” Scootaloo asked testily.
“Boo.” Krika whispered, materializing between Scootaloo and Apple Bloom’s heads. They both nearly jumped out of their skins, fleeing over to Sweetie Belle who was doubled over in laughter. Krika smiled, removing his mask. “Now that’s an ambush.” He said proudly, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo cocked their heads.
“He looks almost normal without the mask.” Apple Bloom spoke up, smiling at him.
“Why thank you.” Krika bowed low to them. “I am Makuta Krika. Miss. Apple Bloom, is it?” She nodded. “What color was the bat from last night?” He asked politely.
“It was blue and silver.” She responded, just as nicely.
“Than you’ve seen Makuta Vamprah. If you ever do meet him properly be gentle, he’s a sensitive soul.”

“Mare, Twilight would have a field day with this guy.” Scootaloo said, marveling at the creature that had appeared out of thin air.
“Twilight?” Krika cocked his head.
“Twilight Sparkle is the town librarian and resident scientist.” Sweetie Belle verified.
“A fellow being of science. I would very much like to meet her, could you three be my guides?” The three fillies huddled together whispering while Krika curled up, propping his head on the end of his tail and waiting patiently.
“CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS SHAPARONES!” they yelled at the top of their lungs, making Krika cringe. They could give Gorast a run for her widgets, he thought to himself. “We’ll do it but yal’ll have to be invisible for the walk there; the library is on the other side of town and we don’t wanna scare anypony.”
“Alright.” Krika said, rubbing his ears. He donned his mask and faded from view. “Take me there.”

The walk there was rather uneventful, other than Krika having to stifle his laughter as the three fillies circled his invisible form, guiding him with determination only a child at play could possess. Once they arrived, Krika walked up to the door and knocked, still invisible. The small purple dragon, Spike, opened the door.
“Who is-aahh!” Krika tapped the small being on the head, allowing it to see him. Krika then had to stop Spike from slamming the door on his face.
“May I come in? I would very much like to take this off.” He tapped his mask.
“No way; the last time a creature got in here it nearly took my job. And he was a lot less scary then you are.” Spike shouted back.

“Spike who’s at the door?” Another voice called out from inside.
“Just some freak of nature, I’m telling it to leave.”
“What freak of nature?” Spike stopped pushing the door on Krika’s limb, which he was very grateful for.
“Can’t you see him?” Spike opened the door wide. On the other side, all Twilight could see were the Cutie Mark Crusaders searching their flanks again. “He’s right there Twilight.” Spike gestured out the door.
“Now Spike that’s no way to talk about those three, let them in.”

“Thank you.” Krika said, removing his mask inside the doorway. “Miss Twilight Sparkle, I presume?” He bowed low, half ignoring the look of shock on her face, which was quickly being replaced by confusion. “I am Makuta Krika; it’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“H-how did you do that? It’s incredible!” Twilight asked, growing visibly excited. “Spike I’m going to need a ruler, protractor and test tubes.”
“O-okay…” Spike glared at him skeptically before running to get what Twilight asked for.
“I use this mask to repel my image from ponies minds, their subconscious usually fills in the blanks.” Krika explained.
“Incredible. May I see the mask?”

“Sure.” He handed it over. “If I may be so bold, may I have a hair or something along those lines?”
“Alright,” she responded, absentmindedly pulling a hair from her mane and levitating it up to Krika as she examined the mask with magic. Krika took the hair in his pincer, scanning it.
“Well you are brilliant," Krika started. "But during that Pinkie Pie case, I believe that simply miniaturizing the brain scan tech so she could wear it outside would have been much more effective then sticking her in a lab where not much was going to happen.”
“I guess that would hav- how did you know about that?”

“It’s simple," He explained. "I take something that I know has been on the subject for a while scan it and absorb whatever information it may have been exposed to through the subject’s ambient psychic field, things such as hair and skin do nicely and I think it’s rude to just scan the being itself, even if that usually gives a longer string of information.”
“Incredible; we are going to have so much fun together.” Spike came back with the tools she had asked for and they got right down to work.

Krika sent the Cutie Mark Crusaders home with a thank you when the sun started going down. Their research session extended into the early morning when Krika decided he should go back to see Sweetie Belle off to school.
“Thank you for such an intriguing night; you keep working on that Kenpachi problem and I’ll get back to you when I’m done with my calculations.” He said as he walked towards the door, donning his mask. He looked at spike, who was sitting asleep next to the door with a pot on his head and a ladle in his hand. Twilight had said to make sure they weren’t disturbed and he had fallen asleep at his post. Krika smiled, being as quiet as possible closing the door.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Later that afternoon
Sweetie Belle had already left for school by the time Krika got home. She didn’t know why this made her sad but she knew he’d be right above the doorway when she got home. She was running to the door when she spotted a pumpkin, just sitting on the doorstep. She opened the door.
“Rarity, Krika.” She yelled, closing the door behind her. As usual, Rarity poked her head out from her workroom but Krika peeked over the couch, levitating a pad and paper near his face and scribbling something on it.
“Yes Sweetie Belle?” He said distractedly.
“Did either of you know that there's a pumpkin on the doorstep?” Krika looked up from whatever he was doing.
“What kind of pumpkin?” He asked expectantly.
“I don’t know but it’s a weird one, it’s a perfect sphere.”

Krika went even paler than normal and bolted for the door, opening it wide and he froze still as a statue. Sweetie Belle walked up next to him. He tried to get rid of it again and again but every time the pumpkin moved it came back. “What’s wrong with the pumpkin Krika?”
“It would take too long to explain, just go inside and tell Rarity to keep this door locked; do not open it for any reason until this thing is gone.” He stared angrily at the sky as he spoke.
“Why?” Sweetie Belle asked.
“Go inside.”
“Bu-”
“Go inside!” He growled at her, the air seemed to go dark and his eyes, usually soft and timid, had gone hard, full of fear and anger.

She was lifted off her feet and thrown back through the door, which slammed itself shut. She curled up and shivered in fear; the only other time his eyes had been that hard was when he had tried to eat her.
“Sweetie Belle I’m going out for my nightly walk- what’s wrong dear?” Rarity asked, concerned.
“K-Krika scared me.” She stammered.
“Well I’ll find him and give him a stern talking to, see you.” Rarity opened the door stepping outside.
“Rarity wait!” Sweetie Belle yelled as her sister shut the door. There was a rattling noise and snarling from outside and Rarity screamed. Sweetie Belle ran to the door and locked it. She then ran to the window and looked out; Rarity was covered in slimy, Blue and green, leech-like creatures, her coat and mane turning black, as the screams were silenced the leeches fell off, slinking away in search of new victims.

The Black Rarity got up, opening its eyes, which were a sickly green and filled with malice. She started laughing, a cruel insane laugh that made Sweetie Belle’s blood run cold. Unable to watch anymore, Sweetie Belle ducked back behind the curtains.
“Sweetie Belle, let me iiin.~” The Black Rarity called in a tilting parody of Rarity’s voice. Sweetie Belle just sat shivering under the curtains. “Darling, I won’t stand for this!” The Black Rarity yelled at her through the door, slamming on it with something.
“Krika help.” Sweetie Belle whispered, closing her eyes.

Plague of shadow

Twilight woke up the next morning to the sound of somebody knocking on her door. Spike was still asleep, so she got up to answer it herself, almost knocking one of the masks off her desk in the process. She opened the door, there was nobody there and she was about to close it when the pumpkin, that Gavla had insisted she leave where it was, started to rattle and bounce. This was apparently what Gavla had been waiting for on the couch because her eyes snapped open and before Twilight even knew what was happening, Gavla had slammed her away from the door.

“Come on, come on, mama needs a new set of wings.” Gavla said excitedly; a cracking sound pealed trough the air. Twilight looked up from the pile of books she had landed in and gasped in horror. Gavla had three blue and green, leech-like, creatures attached to her. They fell off and Twilight flung them out the door, slamming it.

Gavla started laughing, her coat turning a darker shade of blue, her mane turned black, keeping the silver streak, she grew fangs and her cutie mark, which had been an indistinct blob, focused into a swirl of darkness. But the most surprising changes were the huge, bat-like wings that sprouted from her back and the blades that slid out from her outstretched hooves. They retracted with a sickening ‘shlic’ noise and she got back down on all fours.

“Finally, how I’ve missed you.” She brought a wing around to her face, nuzzling it affectionately; she looked down at Twilight, whose jaw was hanging slack. She raised a hoof and one of the blades slid out. “So, what do you think?” Twilight tried to compose herself for a reply. “Oh, I forgot.” Gavla's horn swirled with darkness and her mask floated from the desk onto her face, the front closed and it became animated as if it had replaced the real face underneath. Gavla ran it through a series of silly faces, seeming to test it. “Okay, now how do I look? Be honest.” She smiled, an expression made sinister by the fangs of the mask. Twilight looked her over. There was a terrible beauty about her, akin to Nightmare Moon, a dark elegance.

“Terrifying and beautiful.” Twilight said honestly, still a little shell shocked by the transformation.
“Great.” Gavla took a deep breath and let out a bat-like shriek. The room immediately went dark, roiling shadows coated the floor, they were cool like morning mist. A massive stallion rose from the shadows, he was easily as tall as, if not taller than, Celestia and a good deal more muscular. When he rose to his full height the darkness lifted and Twilight got her first good look at Makuta Vamprah, she froze in fear. Gavla flew to him, wrapping her forelimbs around him in a hug; he returned the hug with a massive wing. “I missed you big guy.” Vamprah’s mask floated off the table “And so did your mask.”

“Gavla, I’m so happy you’re safe.” A voice said in their minds, waking Spike, who screamed, bolting up the stairs as fast as his legs could carry him.
“Vamprah, what’s wrong?" Gavla asked with concern. "You only talk with your mind when something’s wrong, come to think of it you only ever talk when something's wrong.”
“I can’t speak anymore.”
“Why not? Did someone do this to you?” The shadows swarmed back, rising with Vamprah’s bristling anger.
“Princess Luna, she took my voice and left me to die in some Mata-nui forsaken forest!” The shadows slumped back down as he hung his head. “She said I have no place here. She crafts the nights and she told me, a creature born of it, that I have no place.” Sorrow hung from these words like stones. “And they’re such beautiful nights, so much more than the nights of Karda Nui, when all was blackness and only the klakk still moved. These nights have such color to them, such life, such majesty, as if she created them to be gazed upon for all eternity.” He said longingly. “But their crafter has rejected me like all the others, based on what I took the fall for. She expects great evil from me, which is exactly what I’m giving her.” He donned the mask, glaring through its already snarling face.

“Then let us show her together.” Gavla swung around onto his spine, sitting upright, blades at the ready, just in front of his wing joints. Vamprah reared and the shadows swallowed them up, disappearing with them. Leaving Twilight wondering what had just happened. She found herself staring out the window. Ponyville was in flames, things were exploding, ponies were attacking each other in the streets, it was chaos.
“Spiiike!” She yelled, scrambling to her feet and up the stairs.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Lyra had not left her house, or even opened a window ,since Vamprah’s attack. She simply lay on the floor in front of the couch Bonbon laid on, watching her shuddering form for signs of improvement.

Bonbon started flailing, foaming at the mouth she fell off the couch, hitting the floor with a thud.
“Bonbon!” Lyra shouted, wrapping Bonbon tight in her forelegs. Bonbon continued twitching until her head flew back; her eyes snapped open, flashing a sickly yellow then the color slowly turned back to a sapphire blue. She went limp, eyes still open and glassy.

“Bonbon…” No reply, not even a twitch. “Bonbon please!” She buried her head in Bonbons fur and started sobbing. “Please be okay, please wake up, please.” She cradled Bonbons head next to her own; she stirred, unnoticed by the sobbing Lyra. She blinked, her eyes regaining a living glint; Bonbon looked down Lyra’s shaking back and heard the sobs.

“The last time,” Lyra froze, eyes wide, not daring to believe it, “you held me like this, Aryl had left me at deaths door.” She brought Lyra’s head in front of hers. “What travesty has been committed now?” Lyra kissed her full on the lips, Bonbon went ridged for a second before easing into it. Something crashed through the window, Lyra looked up; it was a Molotov cocktail.
“Bonbon, get down!” Lyra put up a magical barrier as the bottle shattered, showering the room in fire. Lyra stood up, casting a spell to extinguish the flames. “What do you remember from before I got home?” Lyra asked coldly; she was back to business.

“Well,” Bonbon started hesitantly, “I was sitting on the couch when something broke a window upstairs, I went up and all the candles were out, there was this weird clicking sound that would happen every few seconds, sort of sounded like metal on wood, I looked through all the rooms and couldn’t find anything, I turned to go back downstairs and- and.” She shook her head in frustration then her eyes went wide. “I saw him. I screamed and he pounced, he bit into my neck and everything went dark. I woke up in your arms. It was just a nightmare wasn’t it?” Lyra shook her head.

“Whatever you do Bonbon, stay behind the couch and watch.” She ducked down. “Kyōshin, Ōkesutora!” The Lyre flew from the saddlebag near the table and melted over her foreleg. She walked over to the window and yelled at the top of her lungs. “Come get me, you shadow freaks!” Something sped through the window, landing behind Lyra with a crash.
“You called?” A cruel, twisted parody of a familiar voice said mockingly, Lyra turned around and despite the insectoid wings there was no doubt.
“Rarity?”
“The one and only.” She lifted the dragonfly-like wings high in an aggressive display. “Beautiful aren’t they? Not as good as Gavla’s but still pretty damn good.”

“I’m sorry.”
“Sorry for what? I feel better, more free, than I have in years. Even if Sweetie Belle refuses to join us.”
“This is going to hurt.” Lyra raised her clawed leg, a high pitched shriek filled the air for a second and Rarity was thrown back, she screamed, loud and long, curling up into a ball and shaking uncontrollably. “You can come out now.” Bonbon stepped out from behind the couch. “He made you into one of them.” She pointed at Rarity’s shuddering form. “Don’t worry; she’ll be fine, it just takes a while to cure them properly. Help me move her to the couch.” Lyra lifted Rarity with magic and Bonbon guided her to the furniture. “We’ll hold up here until they move on.”

“But Lyra you could help the-”
“I’m not leaving you two alone; who knows when more might show up.” She changed Ochestura back into a bladed lyre “You hide in the kitchen, I’ll guard the entrances.” Bonbon hesitated, something pounded on the door. “Now!”
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
In the middle of town a blue box appeared with a sound like grinding metal. The door opened and a brown furred pony in a vest with an hourglass cutie mark jumped out.
“Oh my, it’s good to be-” He opened his eyes and saw the destruction around him. “Back?” One of the shadow ponies noticed him and screeched; a terrible sound that grated his ears like nails on a chalkboard.
“It’s the doctor.” Another yelled. “Kill him and we’ll be famous.”
“What?” He cocked an eyebrow, the shadow ponies charged him. “What!?” He started scrambling back to the Tardis, only to have his path blocked by several shadow unicorns that unraveled their insect-like wings to intimidate. “Well.” He said sheepishly. “This is new.”

“Stop!” A twisted, booming and frighteningly familiar, voice yelled from atop a nearby building. He froze and the voice was next to him in under a second. “He’s mine.” He was growing more confused by the moment, not even Rainbow Dash could have covered the distance that fast. He turned to look at his claimer.
“Ditsy!?” Her mane had turned a dark shade of purple, her coat had darkened and she had a horn now but there was no mistaking that wonky yet now malevolent eye.
“Hello Doctor.” She started circling him. “He did say you’d be back soon.” She flicked her tail under his chin, normally a loving gesture, this felt almost like a threat. The others couldn’t seem to back off fast enough, tripping over themselves, seemingly terrified of evoking Ditsy’s wrath.

She caught the Doctor staring at her blade-like horn. “You like it?” She flicked her mane to better show off the bone. “A little gift from Makuta Vamprah; for being his eyes the past four days. I wonder what kind of reward he’ll give me for bringing you to the shadow leeches!” She flared her wings, throwing two of the slimy things that she had apparently been concealing, but the Doctor was just as quick on the draw, reaching into the vest, pulling out his sonic screwdriver and blasting the two things with brief sound bursts, rendering them unconscious. Ditsy was covering her ears, screaming.

“Oh, you guys don’t like supersonics do you?” The Doctor growled around his screwdriver, pocketing it. Ditsy snarled, little puffs of darkness seeping out from between her clenched teeth. “Well.” He turned to the crowd. “Tell this 'Makuta Vamprah' that he has made a grave mistake in changing someone I like; because in doing so he’s made me angry and if he values his continued existence he’ll-” the air around him went cold and something massive landed behind him. He whipped around. Vamprah glared down at him with his sightless eyes and Gavla looked at the Doctor from over Vamprah’s shoulder.

“I’ll what.” She said defiantly.
“I’ll have you know, Vamprah, no matter how big your steed is that you do not intimidate me.” He stood proudly. Gavla laughed cruelly.
“My dear doctor, I am not Makuta Vamprah.”
“I am”
“He is.” Gavla patted the massive bat-stallion she was riding. “I am Gavla and you have no idea what you’re dealing with.”
“I never do.” He said casually. “And how does that work? He thinks something and you say it at the same time; that kind of mental link takes decades to build up, unless you’re completely subduing the other’s mind, and requires quite a lot of trust. Which I do not think a creature evil enough to absorb an entire town like this would have much.”
“He can hear me?”
“Of course I can hear you, which brings me to a more important question. Any being who lets another that completely into his mind is not evil enough to do this to a town. So my question is this; who forced you to?”
“Should I?”
“Go for it big guy.” Vamprah’s entire history poured into the Doctors mind, but with sound it was a tragic history of persecution, betrayal and a violent refusal to let it continue. The stream stopped and the Doctor staggered, the memories of a being even older than himself weighing heavily on his mind.
“You poor thing.” He said, just loudly enough for Vamprah to hear. “You don’t have to do this.”
“Shut up!” Vamprah mentally barked at him. “If Luna wants evil that’s what she’ll get.” He calmed down rather quickly. “That sound frequency you used to neutralize the shadow leeches will release Ditsy Doo from my control. Take her and go.”

“Ditsy you stay here. The rest of you leave.” Gavla commanded, the shadow ponies gladly obliged.
“You know those mood swings can’t be good for your heart”
“We Know.” Vamprah and Gavla looked at each other calmly. “Just do it.”
“Do what my lord?” Ditsy asked nervously.
“This.” The Doctor spoke around his screwdriver, which emitted a burst of sound that hit Ditsy right between the eyes. She wailed briefly and crumpled, shuddering, to the ground. “Ditsy!” The Doctor shouted.
“Don’t worry, it’s normal.”
“So help me, if you’ve made me hurt her-”
“Perish the thought; but your Tardis.” Bars of shadow sprung up around the box. “Is staying with us. Wouldn’t be a very good villain if we didn’t trap the hero. I’d say you have about ten minutes before some of the craftier ones start sending shadow leeches and chasing you; I would leave.” Vamprah flapped his wings and they were out of sight before the Doctor looked up.

“Well, what a little jerk.” He hefted the shuddering Pegasus onto his back and ran as fast as he could eastward, towards the edge of town. But something blocked their way, as it was invisible he ran headfirst into it, knocking the spiny thing flat on its back.

“Ow.” It moaned, rubbing its side with a blade. “The legendary Doctor!” It almost jumped when it realized what had just plowed into it. “I would have loved to meet you on better terms but,” It looked at the shuddering figure on his back, “it seems you’re going to have to trust me at face value when I say that I know where you’ll be safe.” He looked into its ancient, sorrowful eyes and he did trust it.

He nodded. “Good.” The thing flipped first its upper then lower body upright with a sickening crunching noise that made the Doctor wince. “Follow me.” It waved with one of the spine-like blades. He did, looking over his shoulder every few seconds to both check on Ditsy and make sure the shadow ponies were nowhere to be seen. They ran out of town to a little dirt road on the north side, here they slowed down to a walk.
“May I ask your name?” The Doctor asked. “You seem to know mine.”
“If you must.” The thing bowed its head. “I am Makuta Krika.” The Doctor froze in place.
“Makuta, Like Makuta Vamprah.”
“Vamprah is a good being. He just doesn’t take rejection well anymore. You really shouldn’t stop moving before we get back to the boutique.”

“Give me a reason to trust you.” The Doctor planted himself firmly in place.
“She’s not dying you know.” Krika stated, matter of factly. “The near death state is just the point at which the mental walls are at their weakest, letting the light of the air, which is quite heavily saturated in this dimension, be re-absorbed by the subjects mind. Now that I have put your fears concerning Miss Doo to rest.” The Doctor visibly relaxed a bit. “You should trust me because there is a child that I have to get back to and not trusting me is going to make that take longer, which puts her in more and more danger; you and I both can’t stand that thought.” Each word of this sentence was increasingly filled with restrained frustration.

The Doctor nodded. “Thank you; it’s right over this hill. I think you’ll like miss Rarity’s sense of taste, her home is quite-” They reached the top of the hill. Directly on the other side was a building, blackened by the explosion of a forced entrance. “-Oh no.” Krika breathed. “Sweetie Belle!” He ran to the hole where the front door should have been. “Sweetie Belle?” He stepped inside, only to have his mask knocked off by a frying pan.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Krika saw stars, whoever his assailant was; they were very good at ambushes.
“Krika! Oh Celestia I’m sorry.” Krika’s vision cleared; Sweetie Belle was kneeling next to his head. “I thought you were Rarity coming back again and I-” He cut her off by hugging her tight.
“It’s okay, I’m just happy you’re safe.” He held her at arms length. “Now what’s this about your sister?”
“It was the pumpkin, I tried to warn her, it got her and her coat turned black and- and.” She collapsed, sobbing into Krika’s shoulder. He patted the back of her head.
“It’s okay. Shh, it’s okay. We’ll get her back.” He was finding himself getting more and more angry with Vamprah the longer this day went on.

“Krika are you alright? I heard a ba- oh.” Sweetie Belle looked up, saw the shadow pony on the Doctor’s back and picked the frying pan back up with her magic, pointing it threateningly at the two of them. “Krika, I think she’s going to clock me with that.” The Doctor shifted back nervously, not daring to move too quickly, lest he aggravate the weapon toting child.

“Sweetie Belle wait,” Krika hastily explained, “Ditsy is being cured the same way we’re going to cure Rarity, just wait, she won’t wake up until it’s done.” She lowered the weapon. “This is the Doctor, but you can call him Doctor Whooves.”
“I never agreed to that.”
“Oh stuff it; she’ll get confused after a while if we just call you the Doctor.” He lifted his mask off the ground and sent it to Whoof.

“I assume you’re disciplined enough to use a kanohi mask. But I’m also going to assume that you don’t know how; this is the mask of repulsion, you can use it to reject anything from an area around you, just concentrate, I want you to use it to keep Sweetie Belle safe; I’m going to look for more untainted ponies. I can count on you right?”
“Right.”

“Good.” He said grimly “I’m coming back Sweetie Belle and I may even have your sister this time, I’ll put everything that my brother wronged right. Just don’t stop smiling.” He turned to leave. “You know Whoof, you remind me of a younger me, so eager to help; don’t lose yourself like I did.” He ran from the house down to the chaos of the town, he ran towards his brother with anger in his eyes.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Once he had reached Ponyville, calmed down a considerable amount and given up on the foolish thought of a death match with Vamprah, which his voice of reason told him would end badly because Vamprah had Gavla, giving him control over the senses of other beings. He started his systematic sweep of the town from where he had left off when the Doctor had run into him, right at the corner of Cherry and Clover.

He walked up to the door of a house and knocked, putting a bit more of his weight into it then he meant to. He heard startled shuffling from inside, either he had frightened a colony of rats or there was somebody in there. “Hello?” He tried the door, which surprisingly wasn't locked, and peeked around it, something slashed at his face, opening a gash that ran from behind his eye to his top lip. He screamed, flinging the door open, his vision went red as he pinned his assailant to the ground with a pincer and was about to crush her skull when a mare screamed from a room to his right.

His vision cleared and he eased off of the mint green unicorn that had attacked him, she sprang back up to strike him again and he easily batted her away with his tail. He walked over to the window, consuming light to heal himself.
“I’m sorry about that.” He said once his mouth healed, he turned around. “I am Makuta Krika, I’ve come to help you.”
“Likely story, coming from a thing with the same title as the one who’s sent this town to hell in a hoof basket and just tried to break my skull.” The mint one said stubbornly.

“To be fair, you tried to cut mine in half first and my brother is actually rather pleasant, he just doesn’t take rejection very well.” Krika noticed Rarity shuddering on the couch with half her coat back to normal. “Miss Rarity. Well I do congratulate you on curing exactly the shadow pony I was looking for.” He lifted her onto his back. “But I would enjoy having ponies of your skill to help me protect anybody I come back with; so may I cordially invite you back to the Carousel Boutique.” He spoke politely but honestly had no patience for these two right now; he had to get Rarity back to her sister.

“One second you’re trying to kill my wife, the next you’re inviting us somewhere, now why should we trust you?” The cream colored one stepped forward defiantly.
“Again she tried to kill me first. And because there is a child that is waiting anxiously for me to bring her sister back and your resistance is making this take much longer than it should have after I found her, now can we move before Vamprah becomes aware that I am here and things get ugly?” His pleading impatience showed in his voice.
“Fine.” The mint one relented, giving her wife a nod.

“Thank you.” They turned to leave only to see that the swarm of shadow Pegasus was passing over the house. “When I say run, you run like hell, got it?”
“Got it.” The shadow passed.
“Run!” They bolted out the door, running as fast as they could before the swarm raised the alarm, collectively screeching at the top of their lungs, they ran even faster afterwards, making time that even Rainbow Dash would have been impressed with. Krika looked over his shoulder; they weren’t being followed, and as if this wasn’t odd enough, the mass of shadow ponies was moving to the west, heading for the border facing Canterlot. He decided to write it off as a bit of good luck and they continued running for the northern border and the boutique. “May I have your names?” Krika asked.

“I’m Lyra and this is Bonbon.” Lyra said stiffly. “I really think that we should dispense with the pleasantries, what exactly do you want?”
“I want you safe and I want to get Sweetie Belle back her sister.” Krika nodded at them, giving a shallow bow.
“Why?” Lyra pressed.
“She smiles at me.” Lyra shook her head in disbelief.
“If you’re making fun of us, we can take Rarity back and go home.”
“I’m not making fun of you; before her no one had ever smiled at me before. I just want her to keep smiling at me.” Lyra again shook her head.
“You are one of the most childish things I have ever met.”
“That’s weird, I’m over seven thousand years old.” He laughed as they crested the hill.

“Krika!” Sweetie Belle yelled, racing towards them.
“We found Rarity.” Krika yelled back, slowing down a bit they walked through the door-hole, setting Rarity down next to Ditsy Doo, who was farther along in her relapse.
“When will they wake up?” The Doctor asked.
“In a few more hours, just be patient.” Krika assured the little pony; the Doctor glanced at him skeptically. “Have I lied yet?”
“Not yet.” He said calmly. “Someone told her that I would be back soon.” He gestured towards Ditsy. “Do you know who?”

“I did.” Krika replied.
“Why?”
“Because you appear at the crossroads, when things can either change for the better or worse and my appearance fell right into that category.” Krika’s eyes clouded for a moment.
“You did your homework.” The Doctor gave Krika a sort of half glare.
“No, I just scanned a hair from Miss Doo here or Derpy as some like to call her.” He nudged the smiling Sweetie Belle playfully.

“Then you know-” The Doctor started, looking for all the world like he was about to have a panic attack
“Yes I know about that and rest assured Doctor, your secret is safe with me. Now if I may have the mask back, I can see that it’s already wearing on you.” The Doctor removed the mask, passing it to Krika who put it onto the ground. “Something strange happened as we ran here, the shadow ponies raised an alarm and moved to the west, towards the border facing Canterlot. Can you think of any reason other than that they are getting ready to launch an attack for that? It’s too early for an attack of that scale, it doesn’t fit Vamprah’s style; he enjoys making his prey feed itself to him.”

“Well there’s always the possibility that Celestia has already launched a counterstrike to retake the town,” The Doctor theorized, “but that would mean that she knew the town was taken early this morning at the least, even then they shouldn’t be there until… an hour from now."
“Twilight lives out that way.” Sweetie Belle spoke up.
“Yes.” Krika said thoughtfully. “She would be giving them some trouble. But not enough to warrant sending the entire swarm.”

“Celestia may not know but Luna has known since last night.” Lyra nonchalantly added.
“What?” Krika said slowly. “How would she know?” To say that he had a bad feeling about this was like saying that Pinkie Pie was a sugar addict.
“I gave her my report last night, she had made him mute and left Vamprah in the forest; she thought he’d be eaten but had me search the forest to be sure.” Krika seemed to cloak himself in darkness, the edges of which spread to surround Lyra as his anger grew, The Doctor stood next to him, looking equally appalled.

“You mean to tell me that the ruler of the night stole my brother’s voice and left him, a being born of the night, to die in a forest. Lesser offenses of that nature, committed by lesser beings are exactly what sparked the thousand year war. Do you have any idea. What! She’s! Done!?” His voice started at an enraged mutter and grew louder with each word until the shadow itself seemed to scream in his voice.
“Krika!” Sweetie Belle shouted, backing away from it. Krika then noticed the shadow that threatened to swallow the room; he pulled it in quickly and turned back to Lyra.
“You had better hope that Vamprah is satisfied with her and doesn’t go looking for her agents.” At that moment there was a booming crash from outside.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Earlier that morning.
“Spike Hurry up; I can’t hold these things back for much longer!” Twilight strained with the barrier magic, holding back five shadow unicorns. “What do those leech things do to ponies?”
“Look, I can’t make Celestia answer the Letter any faster!” Spike shouted back, setting up another booby trap by a window.
“We wrote to her half an hour ago. What could be taking her so long?” Twilight patched another break in the seal. Spike belched loudly, signaling the arrival of a reply Spike started reading immediately.
“Twilight Sparkle, I’ve known about this particular problem since about three O’clock this morning and have been on route since five. I should be arriving shortly but I do not suggest that you stay at home, I hate to break this to you but trees are highly flammable.

"Good advice but how do we get out?”
“Like this.” Twilight lifted Spike onto her back and charged through the front door blasting magical energy left and right.
“Are you insane!?” Spike hugged tight to her back. “We’re going to be caught.”
“Not if we barricade ourselves in with Pinkie Pie, I’m pretty sure she let that dragon beat her on purpose.” The shadow ponies seemingly decided she wasn’t worth the trouble and abandoned their attack as she entered the main area of the town. Most of the buildings had holes in them or burn marks, the ground was blackened by battle magic and screams echoed through the air as other ponies either fought or ran for their lives.

Twilight tried to help the normal ponies best she could but in Ponyville proper the shadow ponies swarmed in numbers that could blot out the sun and only Twilight’s barrier magic, which kept out normal ponies as well as shadows, kept her and Spike safe, what she wouldn’t give for Krika’s mask of repulsion right about now.

“This is insanity!” The shadow ponies suddenly lifted, seeming to flee from a figure walking through the smoke. The normal ponies looked over to their savoir with cautious optimism, there were a few of the shadow ponies that could cause the same reaction. It was Pinkie Pie, except her coat was darkened and her hair was flat. Twilight panicked for a second, worried that Pinkie had been converted, but once Pinkie locked eyes on Twilight her mane puffed back up and she somehow shot through the barrier.

“Oh, Twilight, I was so worried; they got Applejack and Fluttershy and even Dashie, I don’t know what happened to Rarity, but it can’t have been good, I was beginning to lose my laugh, I mean, they even got Mr. and Mrs. Cake, but not me, I fought them off and now their all scared to death of me. So how‘s your day been?” Twilight couldn’t believe it; it had taken five seconds for Pinkie to relate her entire morning.

“Well my tree was sieged, other than that there’s not much. But the Princess is coming to take back the town.”
“Really, oh how can I make a thank you party when I already had to use all my supplies to fend off shadows? And every time I laugh at them they just laugh back and keep coming.”

“We don’t have time to plan a party right now; I think they’re coming back.” Twilight eyed the skies and sure enough there was an armada of shadow pegasi coming fast from the south, Twilight strengthened the barrier magic, anticipating a dive bomb attack, she spread it out as far as she could make it, hoping to cover at least most of the other normals.

Instead of dive bombing like Twilight anticipated, it practically started raining shadow leeches, covering the barrier of light and quickly eating through; Twilight tried to blast all that came through but it was a flood, she could only keep Spike and Pinkie safe as she heard the others scream in pain and fear. The cries soon turned to cruel laughter as they were converted, a grey alicorn landed directly in front of Twilight, who started her teleportation spell, finishing it just before Pinkie would have been vaporized by dark magic.

They all came out slightly singed from the teleportation but otherwise unharmed.
“I thought I told you to warn me next time.” Spike groaned. “Thanks though.”
“There was no time, if I had waited to warn you Pinkie would have died.”
“That was Ditsy.” Pinkie spoke softly, which worried Twilight. “They even got Ditsy Doo…” She sat down on her rump, slumping for a moment before seeming to force herself to perk back up. “Where are we anyway?”
“I took us to the western border; we need to meet up with Celestia and Luna before they get here.” They ran west only to be blocked by a frighteningly familiar face.
“Applejack?” Twilight yelled, cringing away from her friend’s newly malicious gaze.
“I see ya’ll ‘er tryin ta get away.” She smiled wickedly “Can’t have that, now can we?”

She seemed to move faster than they could see, knocking Spike off Twilight’s back and pinning her down.
“Applejack; think about what you’re doing.”
“Ah’m repayin a favor. Vamprah made me strong, ah’m just payin ‘im back.” Pinkie Pie kicked Applejack in the ribs, knocking her off of Twilight and into the dirt.
“What use is being strong if you forget who your real friends are?” Pinkie screamed at her.

“Well… Shut up; I can have anythin' I want now.” Applejack got back up and charged Pinkie, but was stopped dead in her tracks by a wall of magic, which unfolded into a box, trapping her. “What in tarnation? Twilight you sneaky witch! This won’t hold me.” She turned and kicked it but instead of breaking the box reverberated, loosing a sound that made Applejack scream and everyone else in the area cringe.

“Oops, I didn’t mean to make it that loud.” Twilight winced.
“Well.” Applejack spoke shakily. “Nice try but wrong sound. Ah will admit that hurt.”
“Hey Jacks!” Another familiar voice sounded from above. “You owe me fifty bits.”
“Ah never agreed ta that bet.” Applejack scowled at the sky.
“Not for that, for this.” The wind rushed and the box shattered. “Where‘s my money?” The voice seemed to emanate from everywhere at once.

“Rainbow Dash, where are you?” Twilight asked, searching the skies.
“Oh, I’m here,” the voice came from behind Pinkie, “and there.” The voice came from behind Twilight, who whirled around just in time to be beamed in the face with an unconscious Spike. Twilight fell to the ground and someone put a hoof onto her neck, she looked up and there was Rainbow Dash, the colors of her mane had been inverted and a pair of bat wings had sprouted behind her normal feathered ones but it was easy enough to see that it was her. Twilight reached for her magic only for Dash to press down on her windpipe, forcing her to lose hold of it. Twilight tried again and Dash laughed, pushing on her again. “Keep trying, I could do this all day. Hey Jacks, you almost done with Pinkie?”

“She’s trussed up like a turkey, sugarcube.” Dash slid something over Twilight’s horn.
“Good get this one next.” Dash backed off and Twilight was tied up before she could even say anything. She tried to reach for her magic but instead got a painful shock from whatever was on her horn, Applejack laughed cruelly.
“What ‘er we gonna do ‘bout the dragon?”
“His name is Sp-” Rainbow dash shoved a length of rope into Twilight’s mouth.
“Stow it! He wasn’t part of the orders; I say we leave him.” Dash shrugged.

“No wait ah got a better idea.” Applejack was developing a very uncharacteristic sly glint in her eyes. “We wouldn’t want ‘im running off and warnin’ the princess about us would we?”
“No I guess we wouldn’t. What’s your point?”
“Drop ‘im.”
“Ooh you’re despicable; I love it.” Dash grabbed Spike’s tail in her mouth and flew straight up.
“Yer gonna want ta watch this.” Applejack forced Twilights head to the side, forcing her to watch Dash take Spike higher and higher until she finally dropped him.
“NNMMM SPNNN SPNN!” Twilight screamed around the gag, straining to get free. She watched Spike’s tumbling figure until he landed in a heap on a nearby hill. “NNMM SPNN NNMM!” Twilight sobbed, tears streaming from her eyes as Rainbow Dash and Applejack laughed.

They dragged Pinkie and Twilight, who was still sobbing, through town, surrounded by screams and evil laughter. Twilight didn’t dare open her eyes, even though when they were closed all she could see was Spike’s broken body on the hill.
“Hey Flutts; we got ‘em, let us in.” Twilight’s curiosity got the better of her, in a morbid sort of way she actually had been wondering what effect the leeches would have on Fluttershy. They were directly outside the building in the middle of town. A small slab of wood placed at about eye level on the door slid away.

“Nice, you really got them. Not bad for a pair of imbeciles.” It sounded like the shadow leeches had taken everything that made Futtershy herself and turned it on its head. Where her voice had been soft and gentle this shadow’s voice was hard and callous, where Fluttershy’s voice had been kind this voice was cruel. “Where’s the dragon?” The horrible voice asked flatly, as if it was expecting Spike to just hop out from behind their captors.

“I dropped him.” Rainbow proclaimed proudly.
“Do you realize how stupid that was?” Rainbow Dash went stiff as a board. “I was looking forward to enhancing that little thing.”
“It was Applejack’s idea.” Dash pointed accusingly at her orange companion.
“Ey, ya’ll er’ the one who did it.” Applejack shoved the accusing hoof down.
“But you talked me into it.”
“If ya’ll er’ goin’ ta accuse me a’ somthin’ at least make it somethin’ ya didn’t do happily.”
“Hey morons, shut it.”

The two bickering shadows stood stiffly at attention, terror in their eyes. “Since you dunderheads couldn’t even bring me the purple dragon alive you can just slip them in here and go get its corpse, I could still have some fun removing his skeleton for reconstruction I guess.” The door opened, Pinkie Pie and Twilight were tossed unceremoniously through.

Twilight looked up from the floor; Fluttershy was turned so that her hair hid her face from the two bound ponies. Twilight tried to bite through the rope in her mouth and was lifted into the air by magic, she looked around frantically but the only pony besides Pinkie and herself in this room was Fluttershy, and last time Twilight checked pegasi couldn’t use magic. “Now, now Twilight, you’ll get plenty of time to speak, or moan, once I get you strapped in.”

Fluttershy turned around and Twilight managed to gasp around the rope-gag. Fluttershy had gained a horn, other than that she looked exactly the same. She looked at Twilight with a calm smile, the kind that under normal circumstances was reserved for when she was working with her animals, yet the normally comforting smile had eyes lit with madness directly above it. “You know.” Fluttershy spoke as she magically fastened Twilight and Pinkie, who had been silent for the longest period since she had lived on the rock farm; to a pair of hospital beds. “I really had hoped to get Spike alive, especially after the success I had with Angel. Here boy.”

A hulking brute that seemed to be a cross between a gorilla and a rabbit fell from the ceiling, sniffing at the two helpless mares before it, mouth dripping saliva; it gathered itself to pounce, fangs showing behind its curled lips. “Down!” Fluttershy commanded it, magically grabbing a slice of flesh from who knows what off a hook on the other side of the room, luring the beast away from her new test subjects. “If I can do that with a rabbit, think what I could’ve done with a baby dragon, much less a full grown one. So Miss Sparkle” Fluttershy removed the gag with a small ripple of energy. “What do you think?”

“I think it’s barbaric and heinous and evil, that’s what I think of your little experiments and this entire stinking situation!” Fluttershy chuckled evilly, lifting a small, rattling, case out from underneath the table.
“As much as I loved hearing that little rant and seeing the inexhaustible Pinkie Pie in such a tuckered out, defeated position as this, I really do.” She cast Twilight and Pinkie both sultry glances. “As much as I would love to just have my way with you.” She paused, seemingly wallowing in whatever horrific thoughts had entered her warped mind. “Those weren’t the orders and I have a debt to pay, so I’m just going to skip straight to the finale. If I had my way you both wouldn’t even be able to feel anything but pleasure by the time this happened.” She opened the case and four of the sluggish shadow leeches oozed out and started their path towards their victim’s faces as Fluttershy looked on with an insane glee lighting her eyes.

“Fluttershy, you don’t have to do this. You can still help us.”
“Oh,” Fluttershy started, sarcasm already dripping from her voice, “you would rather I had My way with you first.” She leaned in, panting over the side of Twilight’s face, which was otherwise occupied in trying to stay away from both the insane alicorn and the leech inching its way towards her. Somepony knocked on the door, rousing Fluttershadow from her attempted molestation, Twilight thanked all that was good in the universe for that. Fluttershadow growled in anger at being distracted from her prize but nonetheless walked over to the door, sliding the wooden bar away. “What! What is it? I’m busy! Oh it’s you two, come to drop off the dragon corpse, have you.” This was obviously more command than question.

“W-Well.” Rainbow started. “You tell her.”
“Ey, I was on the ground, ya’ll were directly above it, if anyone’s takin’ the fall fer this it’s you.”
“He wasn’t dead yet was he?” Fluttershadow spoke with a voice drenched with rage, which was somehow much less frightening than the tones she had been using with Twilight and Pinkie.
“We can’t really tell.”
“You don’t have him, do you?”
“Well no but the weird part is that there’s no trail leading from where I dropped him to anywhere else, it’s like he just disappeared or something.” This statement brightened Twilight’s day considerably and she would have shouted for joy, if the shadow leech had not taken that exact moment to bite down into her neck.

“Nooooo!” She yelled, expecting her mind to warp, being drained of all goodness and light, but instead it was just a small pinprick, there and gone in less than a second. She looked down; the leech had turned into a shriveled black husk, devoid of all life, as if she had drained it. She heard Pinkie chuckle in the bed next to hers; looking over she saw three bloated yellow shadow leeches and a very not changed, and giggling, Pinkie Pie.
“That tickled.”

“What the hell?” Fluttershadow was obviously flustered by this development. “I expected this exact reaction from Pinkie but come on; immunity, that makes three now. Jackie, Dash; fetch Ditsy for me, your punishment can wait.”
“Yes ma’am; thank you ma’am.” They both quickly babbled before taking off as fast as their limbs could carry them.
“Immunity.” She spat. “Angel!” The grotesque thing looked up from the bone it was gnawing on and shot up next to its master. “Take Miss Sparkle to the room with the other immunes. I’m going to let out some nerves by playing with our soon to be Inky Pinkie.”

The monster rabbit grabbed the bed and hoisted it over his shoulder, jumping up through a hole in the ceiling into another room in which there were two other beds, each with a small filly, one of whom she recognized.
“Hey Twilight, you too huh?” Scootaloo nodded at Twilight from her bed
“Welcome to the club.” The other said welcomingly “my name is Dinky”
“Very nice to meet you, but I don’t think now is the best time for pleasantries.” Twilight strained against her bonds.
“Than what is it a good time for? We’ve been here since this morning and you can’t really do anything else.” Scootaloo tugged at the straps, cementing the fact in Twilight’s mind that they were all trapped and at the mercy of a psychotic horny alicorn. (No pun intended.) Angel put her down and went back downstairs to gnaw on his bone; might as well get comfortable.

“So… Anypony heard any good jokes lately?”
“Ooh, ooh me.” Scootaloo said enthusiastically. “So there are these two school colts-” The joke was silenced by a series of shrill cries from the room below them that reached a crescendo after a disturbingly long time, Twilight tried desperately not to think about what the twisted version of her friend was doing. A couple moments after; the door to the room they were in opened, letting in Fluttershadow, whose mane was significantly mussed.
“Woo; never knew Pinkie was a screamer.” She licked her lips, locking eyes on Twilight. “Your turn.” Twilight tried to scoot backwards only to be restrained by the straps that she guessed since she wouldn’t be turning into one of them anytime soon, weren't going to be undone. “You’re going to be so...” She licked her lips again. “Yummy.”

“Now Fluttershy,” Twilight pleadingly tried to reason with Fluttershadow as she got much too close for comfort to the point where the alicorn’s breath was stirring Twilight’s fur, “not in front of the children.”
“Oh let them watch; I haven’t tried unicorn, yet, and call me by my chosen name. Fluttershadow.” Fluttershadow licked up Twilight’s horn; just then the alarm sounded, screeches filling the air. Fluttershadow looked up, looking more pissed than anything had a right to be, Twilight heaved a sigh of relief at the fact that the insane creature had been turned away again. “All right, what the buck is it now? I mean really, what good is having an attractive prisoner if I can’t even rape her properly?” Fluttershadow turned back around to Twilight. “Don’t get your hopes up, I will have you, children in the room or none. Although I do enjoy an audience.” The wall behind Twilight blew open in a blaze of green fire.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Spike woke up slowly; the first thing he was aware of was a dull ache all over his body, the next thing he was aware of was that he was in a tent with the Celestial Sisterhood banner sown into the side and the third thing he noticed before he started having a panic attack was that Twilight wasn’t there and he knew why.
“Oh Buck No!” He screamed at the top of his lungs, almost getting out of bed before he noticed that Celestia herself was sitting right next to the bed, he blushed, utterly embarrassed. "Please don't tell Twilight I swore."

“Don't worry; I was just waiting for you to wake up.” She stood, waving a wing towards the entrance. “Coming?”
“You’d better believe it.” He jumped out of the bed, running to get out of the tent and to the front lines as soon as possible. He was gonna save Twilight if it killed him. “You’re going to need this.” Celestia cast a spell that made Spike feel like something had been shoved halfway down his throat. “These shadows can only be cured by a specific frequency sound, all you have to do is scream at them.”

Celestia uncloaked the army, charging the shadow infested town. An alarm immediately sounded, a massive shadow cloaking the area as the shadow pegusi blotted out the sun. Spike charged ahead, following Celestia and trusting her to know where Twilight was. Celestia charged the town hall, jumping to an upper level with spike hanging from her tail. Spike let go of her tail, using the upward movement to launch himself against a wall, using a tactic that all wingless dragons instinctively knew. He curled up into a ball, somersaulting and breathing fire, effectively turning himself into a flying ball of flame, he impacted the wall, bursting through in a blaze of green and landing with precision that he didn’t know he had. He looked up into the familiar yet hostile eyes of Fluttershadow.

“Get away from her you thing!” He yelled hard, blasting the alicorn away, screaming. Twilight craned her head back. “Oh yeah; I’m awesome!”
“Spike, Celestia; thank goodness you’re here.”
“What’s ‘rape’?” Scootaloo asked absentmindedly. “I mean I’m real happy for the rescue and everything but seriously, what was Fluttershadow about to do to Twilight?” Celestia winced. “It wasn’t anything like she did to Angel was it?” At that moment the monstrous creature leaped through the floorboards, landing directly in front of Spike, who growled at it, readying his claws. Celestia lifted the poor creature into the air, transmuting it back into a harmless rabbit.
“Is this Angel?” She asked.
“Yes.” Scootaloo answered.
“Then no, rape is nothing like what happened to angel. You should ask your parents when they’re cured.” Celestia spoke hurriedly, obviously trying to avoid the question. “Spike, release these three and make your way out of town until the fighting is over.”

“Yes ma’am.” Celestia flew out
“Spike, you have no idea how glad I am to see you.”
“I know.” Spike said as he took the ring off Twilight’s horn and moved on to Dinky while Twilight undid herself.
“What did you do to her?” Twilight poked the shuddering Fluttershy, whose horn fell off, leaving a bloody hole and clattering on the floor, Fluttershy moaned. Twilight yelped jumping back.
“Some “frequency sound”, it apparently cures them. Makes my ears ring.” Spike shook his head for a second before undoing the last strap. Dinky hopped out of her bounds, jumping around and stretching her legs.
“Fascinating, I’m going to have to duplicate it if we want to get out of this place.”
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
On the western border the battle raged fiercely, the royal guards, unused to this kind of battle, were grievously outmatched and outnumbered; the only things keeping them from being useless were the spells that Celestia and Luna had placed on each of them, turning their vocal cords into weapons, and the princess’s own power, making them almost unstoppable. Princess Luna was a force to be reckoned with, blasting shadow ponies left, right, above and below, she obviously needed to be dealt with by someone harder to defeat. Vamprah grinned; time to break out his favorite move. He blasted the Pegasus guards away from him.

“Gavla take her sight, leave her voice and hearing, I want her to hear our anger.”
“Got it.” Gavla cut down a guard before turning to Luna, her eyes narrowed as darkness enveloped them, turning them into a dark meteor careening towards the princess, who had no more time to react than if it had been a real one. She was knocked from the sky and into a building; the darkness billowed away, filling the room they landed in like water, Luna, being the demigod of darkness, could still see until her sight was stolen by Gavla.

“How does it feel to be blind in a place of which you have no knowledge, unable to navigate?” Vamprah taunted Luna, who was obviously panicking, lashing out at anything within a five foot radius. “You don’t like it do you? You’re scared aren’t you? Well that’s how I felt!” Vamprah stomped a wing, taking a breath to calm himself. “Calm down, we’re not going to attack you like this, although I have plenty reason to.” Luna stopped attacking, breathing heavily. “Now that you understand, we can end this-”

“No, you cannot kill me; I have more power than you can possibly imagine.” Luna’s head swung wildly as she tried to pinpoint Vamprah’s voice.
“Don’t interrupt me! I have no plans to kill you, yet.” He took a step forward. “We can end this; I can release all of those affected by the shadow leeches if you simply do three things. Take back what you said in the forest, give me back my voice and give me a place in this world; it can be as a guard for all I care.”
“Never, you’re a monster; I’ve seen it all everything you did, all those you hunted like mice, everything you’ve destroyed, you don’t deserve a second chance.”

“Fine then. We’ll force you to!”
“Gavla release her sight. I want her to look at us when we take off her wings.” Gavla opened Luna’s eyes as Vamprah charged, knocking Luna back into the air and jumping after her, he sent two black orbs flying towards her with a flap of his wings, she flew higher, barely avoiding them, they hit a guard flying behind her and exploded with force felt all throughout the battlefield. Shadows and normal ponies alike stopped, looking towards the creature that had unleashed such power in awe and fear.

Luna looked down at what remained of the guard, nothing but a tattered wing; the rest was reduced to dust. She had to get Vamprah somewhere that he would cause as little collateral damage as possible. She flew north, leading him away from the battle. Vamprah flew with astonishing speed, catching her just shy of the border, wrapping her in his wings, he bit into the back of her neck and sucked out one gulp before the flow was cut, as they fell he opened his wings, drawing back from the wound.

“Black blood?”

The sound of his own voice startled him into dropping the struggling alicorn, who sped back off north. Vamprah, giddy with his recovery, started laughing, a sincere hearty laugh that filled the air. “But black blood can only mean one thing; ooh I’m going to love this.” He flew after his prey, grinning like a madman; he found her flying above a once beautiful building blackened by explosion. “Cover your ears Gavla.” He screeched, squaring Luna directly between the wings, which shrunk into her back, her horn sank into her forehead, her forward motion turned to downward causing her to crash with great impact into the dirt behind the Carousel Boutique. Vamprah laughed loudly, landing directly beside her.
“What have you done to me?” Luna asked, staring at her diminished body.

“I’ve taken your power with a single blast of sound. Just look at you, you’re not even a very strong earth pony; you’re absolutely defenseless.” He picked her up with a thumb claw. “And you’re so cute. So about my request, it is now a demand, you take back what you said, give me a place and not only will I release the shadow ponies, I will give you back your power. So, what do you say?” He cradled her gently with his wing as he looked at her hopefully through Gavla's eyes, praying that she took the deal so he could abandon this foolishness.

“Never.” Luna spat on his mask, Vamprah went ridged.
“What?! What!?” He wrapped his wing painfully tight around her in a leathery fist. “I have your power, I am offering you it back and peace, I am offering you an ally and you still refuse me. I am the Shadow of Odina, master of Rahkshi armies, I held an entire continent in fear before the shadow leeches even existed and you are now defenseless. What gall, what foolish pride makes you drive me to continue this madness, what moronic stubbornness forces you to hurt me so?!” He flung her to the ground, standing over her snarling and sobbing at the same time.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Krika looked outside, scurrying around to the side of the Carousel Boutique to see Vamprah standing over somepony.
“Vamprah!” He yelled, anger raising its head like a monster.
“Brother, hello; glad to see you, perhaps you can talk some sense into this stubborn princess.” Vamprah kicked the bruised and crippled form of Princess Luna towards Krika, she stared up at him with an angry determination, as if to say ‘do your worst’. Sweetie Belle, who Krika hadn’t noticed was there, turned back towards the door, crying as she ran. Krika stared on in shock that grew to a boiling rage.

“Vamprah you bastard!” He charged his brother, jumping at him with claws set to shred. Vamprah instinctively reared up to meet his attacker. They collided, clawing and biting at each other, Vamprah threw Krika onto his back down in the dirt.
“What is wrong with you?” Vamprah wiped his lip with a wing. “This ‘princess’ is the one you should bring your anger to bear on. She would have us both sent back to a world that hates us. Am I not justified in my fight?” Krika flipped his upper then lower body upright.
“This world is not ready for what you have done; you have engineered a place that will hate us as the last one did. And no deal forced out of their leaders will change that!”

He spat an orb of shadow at Vamprah, squaring him in the chest and sending the bat-like creature careening through the air. Vamprah quickly righted himself and replied with bolts of darkness that impacted the ground when their target dodged, sending up plumes of smoke and dust which blew away in an orb as Krika rejected the area around him, flying up after his brother, who blocked with crossed wings as Krika took them higher and higher, Gavla bashed Krika across the mask, forcing him to turn away. They broke the cloud layer and looped around, shooting bolts of shadow at each other and clashing blades with monstrous force that blew holes in the clouds beneath them, they collided, two blades on one, the air tense with their conflicting anger.

Krika scored a hit on Vamprah’s mask, causing him to go momentarily limp and forcing him down, giving Krika the high ground and the upper hand. He blasted himself towards Vamprah, clamping a pincer onto his neck. “If you strike me I break it.” He told Gavla sternly. He drove Vamprah down through the air into the dirt of the crater made by Kenpachi, sending up a massive cloud of dust and debris. Once it cleared Krika bore down on the back of his brother’s neck. “Now you listen to me you little punk, you are going to march back there, release the shadow ponies and give Luna back her power. They can decide what to do with us afterwards.”
“But Krika,” Vamprah pleaded, “they’ll send us back.”

“That’s a risk I’m willing to take.” Vamprah stared up at his brother through Gavla’s concerned eyes; Krika removed his mask, easing off Vamprah’s neck. “Have faith in them brother. Not all of them are as stubborn as Luna, in fact I know one who I will suggest that they council before the decision is made.” Vamprah looked back at his brother with both pairs of eyes, searching his face for doubt; he found none and slowly nodded. “Good.” Krika helped them back up. “We can walk if you wish to.” Vamprah nodded again.

They started the trek back across the town; Vamprah did as he had said and released the Shadow ponies, who were now milling about in various stages of confusion, ranging from a slightly drunk look to complete panic, most had no idea what had happened at any point after they had opened their doors that morning or the previous night and those that did only had jumbled flashes.

Krika strode, proud and tall, taking up old habits from his time as regent of the northern continent, Vamprah on the other hand was trying to make himself as small and unnoticeable as possible, which is hard when you’re two times the size of the creature next to you and anyone else in the area, Gavla was walking on Vamprah’s other side, whispering words of comfort as a small child does when they see one of their parents in a depressed state, although it was having nowhere near as profound an effect. They received a few puzzled looks but beyond that they weren’t bothered.

“Krika,” Gavla spoke up on her own, “do you really think that they’ll spare us?”
“I don’t know little one but don’t worry too much, I’ll have the best stallion I know on the job. He’s got a degree in everything.” Krika chuckled to himself.
“You know the doctor?”
“Yes and I hope to have him vouch for us.” ‘Hope’ it was a small word but it carried dreams with it and now it would be carrying one more burden. It was an odd thought but one that crossed his mind none the less.
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Princess Luna was faced with several problems in her tent the most important of which was ‘what was she going to do if the white Makuta won?’ No doubt he was going to be just as big of a problem as his brother despite the small white filly's protest. Second what was she going to do about her new form and how was she going to get her old one back? And thirdly, this one was starting to rival the first in terms of importance. How was she going to make this small unicorn shut up so she could take a report from Lyra.

“Mr. Krika is nice really, he just gets a bit angry with things that involve his brother, I don’t think they got along very well as foals. Please don’t send him back, he told me-”
“Please be quiet little one, I need to take testimony from my agent.” Luna turned back to Lyra. “Now as you were saying."
“He is undoubtedly the most childish thing I have ever met, despite his claim of being over seven thousand years old but other than that I only know that he is quick to anger when struck, beyond that my testimony mirrors Sweetie Belle’s.” Luna cocked an eyebrow and turned to the brown stallion who simply nodded his consent with the others.
“So we managed to just be caught in the middle of an ancient sibling rivalry?”

“I’m afraid not Lulu.” Luna locked up, turning back to the brown stallion with a look of disbelieving astonishment, only one creature on the planet called her that; what right did this colt have to call her by her sisters pet name. “We were caught in a feud that you sparked by leaving Vamprah in the Everfree, making a snap decision based on too little knowledge.”
“Who are you?” The stallion grinned, playful madness twinkling in his eyes.
“I’m The Doctor.”
“I’m pretty sure calling yourself by a profession is some kind of psychosis.”
“Well you can call me Doctor Whooves, I’ve grown quite fond of that nomenclature. It just fits.” His smile dropped. “But in all seriousness I say that you let them think you’re sending them home for twenty four hours and if you find no reason to let them stay in that time then by all means send a suffering being back into the place that causes it to suffer. I can no more influence the final decision than this child, can I?” Luna Glared at The Doctor in acceptance of his challenge.
“Fine, but just you wait Mr. Whooves these Makuta are more trouble than they’re worth. Monsters the both of them.”
“We’ll see.” Luna cast him one more venomous look and exited the tent only to be confronted with the ‘monsters’ themselves. Krika bowed low.

“Greetings Princess Luna, I am Krika, and you already know my brother.” Vamprah was holding his head close to the ground, looking up at her with an apologetic, shamed, look that mirrored a small foal caught stealing from a cookie jar. “Now if you would be so kind as to bare your neck.” Luna readied herself to defend from the attack she knew was coming. Krika read her posture “Now, now Princess we have no intention of attacking you, but if you want to remain powerless than by all means turn us away.” She removed herself from the defensive position.
“What do you mean?”

“The only way to recover your power is to allow Vamprah to restore it. Your power came from a lack of physical light which Vamprah undid; in order to restore the darkness Vamprah must use his abilities to drain your body of the forced light and he needs you to bare your neck to do that.” Luna hesitantly lifted her chin; Vamprah struck, clamping onto her neck with decisive force and wrapping his wings about her, Luna briefly struggled before a pleasant sensation spread through her body, forcing her to go limp as the light she hadn’t known had been paining her was drained, “there’s the anesthesia.” Krika mused. Her horn and wings sprouted back out. She gasped once Vamprah removed his fangs, her coat regaining its dark sheen. She then took a moment to recover her composure.

“Well –cough- I need twenty four hours to ready the spell and you three will be sent back to your own world.” Krika’s face became unreadable as he glanced beyond Luna, back towards the tent. Vamprah started to bristle, gathering himself to strike but Krika stopped him with a pincer placed on his shoulder. Vamprah looked up at him through Gavla, his own face still trained on Luna, Krika shook his head and Vamprah slumped, following Krika away from the base camp.
“I hope you’re happy.” Gavla muttered shooting a look that would make the sun go cold at Luna before she turned to follow them.
"That bite was a bit dramatic brother."
"I'm angry with her; sue me."
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Krika broke off from Vamprah and Gavla, heading up to the hill in front of the Carousel Boutique, where he could overlook the town and watch the sun set.
“Krika!” He looked up to see Twilight Sparkle running towards him through the ruined town. “I heard that Luna’s sending you home, is it true?”
“Yes it is true.” He looked past her to all the ruined buildings as they walked, places that would most likely never be the same. “It wasn’t always like this you know.”
“Of course it wasn’t.”
“No, we weren’t always like this.”
“Come again?”

“We were once a noble people, we Makuta. We would never in our darkest nightmares have caused the kind of destruction Vamprah did. We were good and just… but that’s all gone now; even our once great home of Destral has become a curse, a name spoken only out of anger, a place where demons lay in wait to wreak evil on the universe. But it wasn’t always like that. I wish I could say we were admired but that was never to be. When we go just remember this; we aren’t evil, no we were never evil, misguided yes but never evil." They reached the hill and Krika sat to watch the sky turn to night. His Gaze was drawn back to Ponyville, smoldering in the fading light. It took him back to when he had realized what he had been becoming, when he had first met the monster on the hill; he felt his resolve slipping and he decided to let it.

“Krika.” Twilight spoke, rousing him from memories he would rather not have had.
“Yes.”
“Why did you turn out like you did? Why did your people turn out the way they did?” Krika sat and thought for a few minutes, trying to think of a way to explain the years of chaos and rejection to a being whose life had been relatively peaceful and always accepted; he decided to answer one question with more.

“What would you do Twilight?” Sadness making his voice crack. “If everything and everyone in this world told you that being a unicorn was evil, and earth ponies and pegasi were seen as heroes for being unable to use magic?”
“I-” Twilight began to speak but found herself unable to think of an answer.
“What would you do if just being who and what you are was a sin redeemable only by death? Would you not seek the power to change this?” Tears started falling from his eyes but he didn’t care. “Would you not crush anything that told you this? Would you not hate them? Would you not hate yourself for it? Would you not... believe them?” He kneeled in the dirt, fighting against sobs. “Wouldn’t you want to change who and what you were? Even if you know you can’t.” He gave in to the sobs and curled up into the fetal position. In this moment Twilight could see the tortured child he really was, a creature that no matter what he did was shunned by even his own mother. She kneeled down next to him, nuzzling him comfortingly.
“I wouldn’t believe them.” Krika sniffed, recovering from his sobs.

“That’s what happened to us, we refused to believe them, but some part of us did. We decided morality was below us, that it was only needed by lesser beings, who couldn’t do what we did.”
“What did you do?”
“We killed. We were soldiers, born and raised. We fought for the matoran with the same three virtues as the toa; Unity, Duty, Destiny. The toa were sworn to defend, but never to kill and they were worshipped as heroes for it; they repelled attacks and we made sure they never happened again. We were shunned, seen as ‘something people don’t talk about.’ And for thousands of years we didn’t care; as long as the matoran were safe we could deal with the abuse. But how we wished they would accept us like the toa, so much that over time we grew to resent them. The toa, who had never asked for it were given all the love we begged for and more. We never truly hated them, no we wanted to be them. Did they think killing was easy? There were Makuta driven to suicide by it. We simply endured, for thousands of years. Until He came, Teridax, with the notion that we didn’t need them, we needed to rule supreme, give them the monsters they had feared for so long and become gods, create things that would accept us, and we believed him. We needed someone to tell us that they were wrong, that we weren’t really monsters, but they deserved them.

"We declared war, to take the power to justify our existence. The toa and matoran had hated us and had been prepared. The Thousand year war began and it was looking over a city just like this one is now, burnt and ruined. That I caught myself laughing, I stopped myself, horrified by what I was feeling, that city had been my home, there should have been grim satisfaction but not the psychotic mirth I was experiencing. It was then that I realized that our purpose was starting to mirror Teridax’s true desire; to obtain power for power’s sake. So many of us went insane, forced to take enjoyment from the fear and pain of the matoran.

"My home had been a place of beauty, of music and dancing, of life and friendship, of art and joy and laughter. And I had destroyed it, in pursuit of power that would be useless once I had it; I no longer deserved what I had wanted so desperately, there was no justification for me anymore. I had driven away the matoran, the ones that had given that land its beauty, the ones whose acceptance I had begged for and I realized that my people and I were too far down the road to turn back. We had never wanted to be the monsters they were right to fear, but that’s what we became. And we were forced to learn an important lesson through all this. ‘All beings not born of the dark fear it.’

"What would you have done, if after thousands of years of unearned exile you were given a chance to be truly free, to have your life made a good thing? Would you not believe him? No matter how evil he was.” The dams broke and he wailed in sorrow and regret, it was a mournful howl that rang loud and clear through the night air and made anyone who heard it want to cry out as well.

“Hush, hush. It wasn’t your fault.” She patted his back as he let out millennia of loneliness and rejection into the night air. “If you show me one thing that says it wouldn’t believe him I’ll show you a liar. No one should have to go through what you did. Nothing should have to justify its own birth.” The cries were joined by a voice in the east, both voices howled for what seemed like hours before Krika regained enough self control to speak again.

“When my home was beautiful I used to wander the streets, hiding in the shadows to avoid disrupting the celebrations that took place every night. I would see matoran smiling at one another and pretend that they were smiling at me. That’s all I ever really wanted, I wanted someone to smile at me, simply because they were happy to see me, not out of pity or masked fear, but true childish happiness. Here I’ve found someone who does that; there I’ll be hunted down like an escaped animal. Here I have a second chance at life; something that I’ve wanted since I caught myself laughing on that hill. Please don’t let them send me back please, please, please, please, please!” His barely patched composure shattered again and he again began the howls ringing through the moonlit land.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Luna was standing on the eastern border, waiting for Celestia to lower the sun so she could raise the moon. Something started clicking behind her and she turned to see Vamprah, without Gavla, walking towards her, head bowed in both respect and shame. He was using his newly regained voice to imitate echolocation.
“Hello Vamprah.” Luna tried to shove as much contempt into the two words as possible. “Out and about without your little hayseed I see.” Vamprah’s head shot up from the ground.
“Don’t talk about Gavla like that!” He closed his eyes, it was obvious that he was shoving down anger, he sighed. “I actually came here to ask something for her.”

“Huh?” Luna was almost as surprised that he hadn’t attacked her as that he was asking on another’s behalf.
“Please don’t send her back.” Luna glared at him, he looked back with pleading sightless eyes, he was slightly off target, his face pointed more towards her left than at hers.
“Why?”
“I know I probably deserve whatever I get, but she doesn’t deserve what the rest of her kind will do if they find out about her.”
“And what exactly will they do?”

“They will take her away and then if she doesn’t denounce me after their ‘purification’ they’ll hunt me down and lock me behind a protodermis wall while she watches and then if she still doesn’t they’ll put her in there with me. Both suspended in time for all eternity, never waking up, never truly sleeping. I can’t bring her back to that. So I ask you, no I beg you, please don’t send her back. I couldn’t bear to know that I had dragged her to such a fate with me.” When he stopped this time he was actually looking about four feet to her right. He let out a series of clicks and corrected his position, this time seeming to stare strait at her. The sun went down.

“Give me a moment.” She lifted into the air, calling out the moon and the stars.
“I can feel what you’re doing.” Vamprah said below her. “I just wish I could see it.” Luna waited until she was done painting the sky to be surprised. “Your nights are much nicer than the ones where I’ve been for the past thousand years.”
“You like them?”
“Who wouldn’t? It’s part of why being rejected by you hurt like it did. I am a being born of darkness, imagine if your mother told you that she hated you.”
“I don’t have a mother and if I did I never knew her.”
“I just never had a mother.” Luna stared at him.

Normally her darksight would have kicked in by now, showing the creature in front of her as what it really was in the deepest part of its heart. But it hadn’t, she could see faintly in the north, the form of a teacher and another she couldn’t quite read. It was always like this with the beings closest to her creation, if something belonged to the dark they were likely to bury themselves in order to fit in. She exerted a little effort and a layer peeled away, revealing nothing but a hazy outline, she tried harder and harder, each layer revealing very little if any detail until the last layer faded away and she saw the monster…

As a blue pegasus colt, horribly mutilated with only one eye and scowling weakly in a fierce determination to keep going, to not let those who had hurt it break it. This was not the soul of a monster, this belonged to a tortured foal, there was only one unscarred mark on his hide, right over his heart, but a line was slowly being made across that and it only took one guess to tell who was causing it; she would be causing the last unhurt part of this creatures soul to be devoured if she said no, she looked at his wings, all of the feathers looked like they had been pulled out not two hours ago, around the same time she had refused his offer of peace, ‘twice’.

She looked at his mane and tail, both had also been pulled out around the same time as the feathers, possibly when she had told him that she would be sending them all home, this creature had suffered almost as much by her words as by anything that had happened to him before, only the eye was worse and just by looking at it she could tell it was the mark left when your closest friend betrays you, she had seen it often on those befriended by griffins or had spouses that had left them. She could stand no more and looked to the north.

Only to be confronted with the image that she knew belonged to Makuta Krika. He was a small, white, earth colt, battered, bruised and scarred almost beyond recognition as a pony; but wait, there was a circular scar on his forehead. He wasn’t an earth colt, he was a unicorn foal that had lost its horn. But still it wore a shaky smile; the kind you give to a worried friend when your entire family has died before your very eyes, because of something you did, and you lie, telling them that it’s going to be alright, that you’ll be fine when you know you’ll never be able to look at yourself the same way again. There was a soft sobbing on the wind and the foal’s legs, which looked recently healed, snapped, bending at unnatural angles. The white foal forced himself back up.

Luna was crying now, not sobbing, just quietly letting tears flow through her fur. She wanted to turn off her sight, look away from the two tortured souls before her; but the knowledge that she was causing it made it impossible to look away. It was as if her power was looking down its nose and angrily demanding of her, “are you happy now?” The white foal’s legs gave out completely, letting him fall into the dirt, and this time all it did was struggle to lift its head. A mournful howl ripped through the air and after a few moments Vamprah joined the cries, finally snapping her at least halfway out of her darksight.

“What are you doing?”
“Offering what I can to my brother.” Howl “It’s not much and it won’t heal anything, but it’s all I can give.” That settled it in Luna’s mind.
“I can’t- I won’t do it.” She muttered; Vamprah managed to at least seem like he was paying attention while still howling. “To any of you.” The howls to the north stopped, as did Vamprah’s, he trained his sightless eyes perfectly on Luna. “You will stay here. You will all stay here. This is your new home.” The mark that had been snaking its way across his chest disappeared, his mane started filling back in and so did his wings. But the eye didn't change; in a slightly twisted way she was happy with this, it meant that the betrayal wasn't her fault. Vamprah sat flat on his rump, obviously at a loss for words for several minutes until the howling started again and Luna joined the mournful song with them. A song that lasted through the night.

Trial and Error

This chapter is more of a slice of life for the characters to help transition into bigger events.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Dimensional Chronicles Chapter 7: Trial and Error.

Three Weeks Later.
It was a hazy dawn in the Everfree Forest, the kind that made you wonder where all that water came from. Not that the creature waking beneath the earth knew or cared. with a simple flick of its power the creature blew away the cage that had imprisoned it for the past ten years to be greeted by its two best and only friends. A grinning red pegasus stallion with scars over most of its body, ragged feathers and dull black shark-like eyes, and a preened yellow pegasus stallion with ice blue eyes mirrored only in coldness by the rest of its demeanor. The red one’s cutie mark was a copper upside-down five point star, the yellow one’s was a gold and silver cross surrounded by blue flames.

“Good morning Andromeda.” The red one said warmly.
“We’ve lost valuable time thanks to your little nap.” The yellow one spoke. The only word able to describe its voice was frigid, you would have expected frost to form around its mouth. “The next stop is two miles to the north.”
“Well Raphael woke up on the wrong side of the bed… again. Good morning to you as well Beelzebub, glad to be welcomed back warmly by somepony.” Andromeda shook the dirt off its wings and took off, followed closely by Rafael and Beelzebub.

“Lets start with a school, I always like doing schoolfoals.” Beelzebub asked eagerly. “If I remember correctly the last time we got to do foals was that family the Pie’s, that was what, twelve years ago? And we missed the pink one with the balloon mark. What do you say Ralphy?”
“I say that as always, children is never the place to start. You judge the parents first, only then can you make the proper decision about them.”
“Doesn’t the teacher count?” At that moment two things happened, first the three figures cleared the forest to view the half rebuilt Ponyville and Andromeda was struck with a high frequency sound that sent its mind reeling along with its body into the dirt.

“Will you ever learn to fly properly, mare?” Raphael set down beside her as Beelzebub fell on her other side laughing. Andromeda picked herself up, growling.
“Who dares strike the great judge?” She yelled angrily in the direction that the inconvenient burst of sound had come from. Standing there was a mint green mare in an intimidating white and blue mask.
“Andromeda Morningdew; you are under arrest for breaking from your cell prematurely. you have the right to remain silent and a lawyer, although just the fact that you’re not in your cell means that you’ve already been found guilty.” Beelzebub and Raphael took one look at each other and said.

“Guilty! This mare is guilty of striking and then threatening the great judge, kill her.” Andromeda rose to her hooves materializing a great energy axe and glaring at this mint master of sound.
“Well they did warn me you wouldn’t go quietly.” The mare stood on her hind legs brandishing a clawed gauntlet which she flicked at Andromeda, sending another blast of sound at her. Andromeda dodged, striking with the great axe which the green mare sidestepped and struck back out with four wires that sprung from the claws, wrapping around each of Andromeda’s wings and her neck, bringing her back down to the earth, they then started to vibrate at such a rate which made it hard to even think about anything other than the need to breath.

The great axe evaporated into sparkling silver energy before disappearing completely.
“Raphael, Beelzebub… help me. Please.” Raphael turned up his nose and Beelzebub just shrugged before running strait through her masked assailant.
“You’re pitiful, talking to imaginary friends; how could something so delusional be considered a threat to the kingdom?” The mare tried to walk close enough to stand above her only to recoil, grunting in pain as she hit an invisible wall that shocked her. A wall Andromeda knew just surviving that much contact with while she was conscious was a feat to be proud of. “Oh right.” The green mare snapped her claws and the cords vibrated in a way that somehow rendered her unconscious.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

“So Celestia, what case could be so important that we both had to be called in to judge?” Luna yawned, she and Celestia were walking through what they called the Law and Order section of Canterlot towards the great courthouse that stood in the center of the district. "I should be in bed right now."
“Well Luna, it appears that a very powerful convict has broken free from her cell before her parole.” Celestia opened the courtroom door and strode with Luna beside her up to the podium in the back of the room. They turned back to view the jury and those who came to view the law and order process, mostly students but today they were both very surprised to see both Makuta’s Krika and Vamprah along with the shadow pony Gavla in the audience.

Those three were supposed to be back in Ponyville aiding with the repairs. But Celestia proceeded according to protocol. Luna looked at Vamprah’s nervous, sightless, eyes and Gavla whispering to him, he was worried that he was about to stand trial, Luna chuckled inwardly. “Bring in the prisoner.” Celestia said loudly. The side doors that led to the impound were swung open; from there a silver coated mare with a purple mane was wheeled in, her limbs, wings and neck bound to a frame to prevent any sort of movement, beyond observing her surroundings and speaking. Her cutie mark was a red nine point star that had a blue cross within all surrounded by a gold ring. The mare stared out at them all coldly with cruel judging eyes and an angry sneer; her feathers were ragged, she had five scars marked by black fur, one across the base of her neck going around to her right shoulder, one on her left wing, one on her right foreleg, another around the right side of her stomach, one more on her left hind leg and a hunk missing from her right ear; this mare had seen brutality, but even beyond the impressive battle scars the biggest surprise was this, she had a horn. Her horn and wings were bound by magic blocking braces. She looked the surprised Luna right in the face and said teasingly.

“Don’t look so surprised by the scars princess, your sister gave them to me.” Luna turned to her sister.
“Celestia, she’s one of us?”
“No Luna, you with your shadowsight should be able to tell this even better than I.” Luna brought her shadowsight to bear, peering past all illusions surrounding the mare. The wings were made of restrained fire and lightning and two previously unseen beings hovered about her, every now and then leaning in to whisper something; the mare’s soul was surprisingly intact for a convict with only a single mark in the shape of a broken heart over her scowling brow-line, marking that compassion was a dead thing to her, something never to be given to another and never willingly received, it was a rare mark indeed, known as the Heartless. Luna was about to turn off the power when something happened, the two beings came into focus both staring right at her, Luna recoiled in disgust; both bore the Heartless but one was terribly scarred, smiling maniacally with dead eyes and the other glared at her with a coldness to match prince Blueblood on an off day. She cast away the shadow sight.

“She bears the Heartless, that is not a mark given to an unwilling host; The Heartless can only be accepted by or given to one who will gladly bear it for the rest of their life.”
“Gladly; does she look happy to you?”
“No, but her red friend does.” At this Andromeda’s angry expression was replaced by one of surprise and malefic joy.
“You see them too?”
“Why yes I do; I ha-”
“They’re Real!” The mare cackled evilly “They’re Real! I told this exact court that ten years ago and none of you believed me. You called me mad Celestia but look now. They’re Real!” She cackled some more.
“No.” Luna spoke firmly and the chained mare stopped trying her best to hop in her restraints. “They are not real; they are outlets of you, the constructs of a deranged mind.”

“What, but you said?”
“I said I could see them, I see such constructs every night; although I will admit yours are the most hostile I’ve come across so far. They are not real, you are mad.”
“I’m not crazy! I am the true judge of this world, the guilty cannot stand in my presence, I’ve crushed entire cities just by walking through them, all fall to dust at my hooves, you think you can hold me, I showed you how pathetic that notion was last time you had me here. Raphael, Beelzebub give me your power!” Several seconds passed and nothing happened. “Guy’s a little help here, we discussed this back in the cell.” There was another pause, at this point even the sightless Vamprah had his face trained on Andromeda with an eyebrow raised. “What do you mean you're already doing it?!” She shook her head. “Nonononono what trickery is this, these are the same sorts of bonds I was in the first time, why isn’t it working you hydra?” Andromeda’s gaze was fixed on Celestia with a fury that could, and Luna was starting to bet had, melted through steel.
“I had these specially made for you Morning Dew, my little pony.”
“I am not yours! And neither is anypony else in this room. I refuse to be addressed by that name!”
“Why? Because it was your grandmother’s?”
“That mare was a fool! And she was only the first to fall under my judgment. The whole of Equestria is still unclean and I‘m the only one with the guts to clean it.” Celestia lifted a large stack of papers.

“Morning Dew, you are hereby charged with breaking sentence, resisting arrest, and assaulting an officer, on top of your previous charges of, repeated arson, mass murder, foal killing and the list goes on. How do you plead?”
“Not guilty.” Luna cast her a puzzled look. She had just admitted to murder. “None of these acts were committed against those who had not received the death sentence; I was simply carrying out the punishments.” Celestia rolled her eyes seeming to know what the answer would be to the question protocol required.
“Who sentenced them?”
“God.”
“God?” Luna spoke up. “Or your two constructs?”
“God gives the sentence, they deliver it, I carry it out.”
“You really are insane. They are part of you, they know nothing you don’t already; much less the commands of a divine being.” Luna felt her shadowsight ripped open.
“Who does she think she is? We wouldn’t lie to you. Even if we did, what would we get out of it? Ralphy is never happy.” The red one was yelling.

“Why would they lie to me?”
“Judging from the charges I would say because they are a manifestation of bloodlust.” Luna addressed the prisoner before turning to whisper to Celestia. “Are you sure imprisonment is best for her? She needs help, I would suggest an asylum so she can be rid of those two ‘things’ attached to her mind.”
“Well I guess that seeing as we now have strong enough power braces we could do that.” Celestia turned to the jury. “What is your verdict concerning the first charge?”

“Guilty.”
“Then Morning Dew I hereby sentence you to be held in the Canterlot Asylum until further notice, your braces will be stitched into your skin so that you cannot remove them. You are dismissed.” The frame was turned back towards the door as Andromeda screamed.
“You can’t do this to me! I will have my retribution on you all!” The guards rolled her out, rolling their eyes as they went.
“Well that was… different.”
“She did that last time when I buried her too.”
“Buried her?”
“Her cell was underground.”

“An old friend of yours?” Krika approached them with an enthusiastic Gavla in tow. At least she was enthusiastic until she noticed Luna was looking at her, then she started glaring daggers at the Lunar princess. Gavla considered the twenty-four hour warning test unforgivable. Krika stepped between the two. “Your highnesses.” He bowed low.
“I wish you wouldn’t do that.” Celestia shallowly bowed back.
“Oh you know how aristocrats are; one wrong move and they’ll think we’re engaged.” All four of them laughed. “Ahh. That’s not my joke.”
“Than whose was it?”
“Makuta Tridax I believe." Krika scratched the back of his head. "It was originally a jab at the Skakdi; a race of spiny primates with outrageous greeting customs, at least at the time the joke was made. It was sadly true at the time, one wrong move and you could find yourself being chased out by an angry mob for everything from public indecency to attempted rape.” Luna chuckled.
“This isn’t what you’re here for and we both know it.” Celestia had regained her regal posturing, suddenly terrified by the upper class ponies that were shuffling out of the room. Krika looked over his shoulder at Gavla.

“Say Gavla why don’t you take Vamprah out to see the rest of the city? Being in a courthouse obviously has him nervous.” Gavla looked skeptically up at Krika before looking back to Vamprah. He looked ready to jump out of his skin, every noise that was larger than the sound of hooffalls was making him jump, especially if the sound involved metal.
“Oh my! I need to get him out of here before he hurts someone, or himself.” Gavla ran up to a twitchy Vamprah.
“I have a feeling that you don’t want what I have to say to get out into the public eye.” Krika looked around the room. “So I suggest that we go somewhere more private.” Celestia cocked an eyebrow at him.
“Come with me.” She led them down a hallway to the left of the courtroom. They stepped inside the central Security room, dismissing the guard that had been monitoring the crystal feeds.

“Now what could you have possibly found out in Ponyville that we wouldn’t want getting out?” Luna questioned Krika directly.
“Well I have some good news and some bad news, which do you want first.” Krika said while soundproofing the room.
“Bad news; if the good news goes first the bad always ruins it.”
“I was doing some research into pre-exile Equestria, it all added up until the point of the actual banishing. I’ve been pouring over the texts and although the Nightmare Moon account and the previous three years of text say that they have the same author they do not. The Nightmare Moon account is a fabrication, a well done fabrication but a fake none the less. Although the author either had access to ponies who were inside the castle, or they were there through the entire thing, because in order to fabricate history this well it cannot be far from the truth; it is a subtle lie.” The sisters stared open-mouthed at Krika. “That was both the good news and the bad news.” It was Luna who broke the sister’s silence.

“Wait so the good news is that the lie was well done?”
“Well I figured that in order for it to have lasted this long without either of you correcting it meant that you wanted the fabrication to be seen as the truth. The bad news was that I saw through it.” Celestia and Luna looked at each other for a moment before turning back to face Krika. “I would like to know what really happened.” Luna’s eyes went cold.
“Collect Vamprah and meet us at the castle.” Krika noted her reaction.
“Thank you.” He dropped the wards on the room and left.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Krika found Vamprah and Gavla in a doughnut shop called ‘Pony Joe’s’ where she was doing her best impression of an angry drunk and he was scooting his stool away from her just slowly enough to not be noticed. Krika and Vamprah had to drag Gavla out kicking and screaming.
“I don’t want to go see Luna; she’s awful!”
“It’s a royal summons Gavla; you don’t really have a choice in the matter.” Krika was beyond irritated with her at this point.
“I know but was it really necessary to tie me to Vamprah’s back?” Gavla tugged at her restraints.
“Pony Joe was threatening to call the authorities on you so yes, yes it was.” Krika snapped, Gavla pouted.
“Fine.” Vamprah chuckled beneath her. “What’s so funny.” He didn’t respond. He hardly ever did in public and it didn’t get much more public than Canterlot Castle. “Oh come on Vamprah; they're aristocrats you had to deal with them all the time on Odina right?” Vamprah flinched.

“Those usually ended in riots.” He whispered. Gavla shuddered, some memory or emotion running through her mind.
“Don’t be so hard on yourself Vamprah. All you have to worry about is not making the same mistake twice.”
“Which one? The incident with Toa Dekal or joining Teridax?” Vamprah almost bucked her off; Krika could see him trying to restrain himself as they walked.
“Becoming so attached to you, you little saddlesore!” Krika retorted. Vamprah looked at him with an expression that no doubt meant ‘thank you.’
“Why are you doing that?” Gavla cocked an eyebrow.
“Doing what?”
“Saying things like saddlesore, it’s weird for one of your species.”
“I’m adopting native customs; it helps you seem more approachable and makes it easier to talk with ponies.”
“I still say it’s weird.” Gavla grumbled.
“And in case you hadn’t noticed, we seem to have become a species similar to the native.”
“Still weird.”
“I can’t say anything to sway you on the matter, can I?”
“Nope.”

“Well you are insufferable.” Luna walked up to them. “This is your new home after all. You should probably follow Krika’s lead.”
“In your twisted little dreams ‘princess.’” Gavla snarled, Krika rolled his eyes at her.
“Come with me.” Luna led them through the halls, drawing many curious stares from everypony, the waitstaff to the guards. They came to a large doorway leading up to Luna and Celestia’s personal armory.
“The closest thing to a war I’ve seen around here or even in your records for the past five-hundred years was Vamprah’s attack. Why do you have an armory?” Krika asked looking around at the intricate ceremonial pieces and plain utilitarian armor alike.
“It used to be purely ceremonial but ever since the Kenpachi incident last month we’ve been adding pieces.”
“Why weren’t you wearing any when you battled me?” Vamprah tapped a silver piece, wincing at the resulting sound. “Never mind. This stuff couldn’t protect you from a Makuta if it was a mile thick.”
“As I said, most of it’s decorative I only have two functional pieces. Good blacksmiths are hard to come by in Equestria. One of those pieces is actually why I called you here.”

“To see a piece of armor?” Gavla sounded incredulous.
“Without it there wouldn’t need to be a story.” Her horn lit up and the re-forged Nightmare Moon helmet sped towards her from the other side of the room. The blue metal of the helmet had been gilded around the edges with silver. It floated around the room to face the Makuta and Shadow. Vamprah reached out and tapped it, he was rewarded with a sharp shock. Krika leaned in closely, examining it. “The metal itself resisted enchantment so we had to gild silver onto the edges, as silver is easy to enchant. The metal is known as-”

“Protodermis?” Krika snatched the helmet out of the air. “What is protodermis doing in this dimension?”
“Well…” Luna said hesitantly. “Here we called it beforeskin.”
“Same thing.” Vamprah stated bluntly.
“My brother is right, Proto is the root for before and dermis is the root for skin. More importantly; where did you get this? And why did you need to enchant it?”
“It fell from the sky as a meteorite about seven thousand years ago. We had to enchant it because it has some sort of extraphysical properties. It opened my mind to an old imaginary friend; he was what caused me to become Nightmare Moon. It gave me great power but the price was dealing with a burning hatred.”
Krika looked long and hard at the armor.
“That must be some sort of allergic reaction, other than the silver this armor is powerless; it will flow to match the form of the one wearing it but other than that it’s just normal metal. It’s the same stuff Vamprah’s wing-blades are made of, along with Gavla’s and my blades.”
“Well the Enchanters said the same thing, but even if it is a placebo than at least it’s working.” Luna carefully put it up on a shelf. “He enhanced my anger and frustration; if anything good came from my ‘episode’ it was that it actually helped Celestia mellow out.” Gavla decided to speak up.

“Yeah, yeah; I’m real happy for ya and all but did I hear you say that you needed blacksmiths?”
“Well yes.”
“I used to assemble toa, pony armor for me would be a snap.”
“Gavla, are you offering your services to me of all ponies?”
“Yes.”
“And here I thought you didn’t like me.”
“Just you wait; I have conditions. Firstly I want a room in the castle for Vamprah and myself, secondly I want to be able to choose an assistant, thirdly, in case you haven’t noticed I have fangs, meaning I want some meat, enough of the vegetarian crap, and fourth I’ll need analogies for outfitting, living or otherwise.”
“Done, although I can’t promise anything on the meat problem.”
“Fine. Now if you need me I’ll be outside teasing upperclassmen. Come on Vamprah.” Vamprah turned to leave the room.

“She’s quite the little hellion isn’t she?” Luna asked smiling.
“You have no idea. We had to drag her out of a doughnut shop after the owner threatened to call the police on her.” Krika sighed.
“Why?”
“She threatened to stuff him into a giant jelly filled.”
“Oh my.” Luna brought a hoof up to her mouth, Somepony shrieked outside. Krika poked his head out the door.
“Is that prince Blueblood?”
“What?” Luna looked out. Prince Blueblood was running around like a chicken with its head cut off, bumping into walls, furniture and other ponies. “Yes that is. What in Equestria is he doing?” Krika looked to the left and saw Gavla laughing her flank off. He gave an exasperated sigh.
“Gavla.” Krika spoke curtly, he had run out of patience for her. She looked away from the still blinded Blueblood.
“I want that one.” She pointed at him, smiling mischievously. Luna looked over at her then back to Blueblood.
“Are you doing that?”
“Oh yeah!” Luna looked back at Blueblood.
“Gavla, what exactly does ‘assistant’ entail?”
“I get to give him all the crap I want and mess with his head as much as rationally possible.” Luna looked up and mouthed something that looked to be “Thank you god.”
“So it’s more like the court jester… deal!”
“Is he really that bad?” Krika had heard the story from Rarity but even that didn’t seem worthy of Gavla’s worst.
“Yes.” Blueblood started running towards Vamprah. Gavla cut the ropes binding her to him and jumped down right as Blueblood passed. She landed on his back, driving him to the ground and apparently released his sight. She pulled his head around to look at her.
“You and I are going to have so much fun together.” He shivered.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Later that night
The Doctor spent his first day off from the recovery team with Ditsy Doo and so far it had proved rather awkward between them. Oh well, at least dinky had been enthusiastic to see mommy's friend ‘Doc’ for the first time. She had spent the day playing with him and was at the current moment asleep in her room. Ditsy broke the silence between them.

“You’re so much different from the last time I saw you.”
“I regenerated. Twice, I had wings a few years back.”
“It’s been twelve years for me. How long has it been for you?”
“Thirty.” The Doctor rubbed his shoulder nervously, Ditsy was starting to look angry. She grabbed a wax grape from the centerpiece on the table.
“You haven’t visited them for thirty years?” Ditsy crushed the wax into the polished wood of the table. The Doctor realized that he’d made a mistake in telling her that. “One of them isn't even living here anymore. How many companions is that?”
“None.” The Doctor hung his head a little. “I tried but they always ran.”
“Understandable.” Ditsy managed to wrangle her lazy eye in to look at him. The Doctor could tell she was pissed.
“You know why.” The Doctor spoke calmly, Ditsy’s face fell a little.
“Maybe they’ll be different. They are yours after all.”
“It’s happened before but they never are.” Ditsy looked hurt. This was about more than just ‘that’. “You know why I had to leave.”

“I know; you can’t get attached.” Ditsy said hurriedly. “But you did.”
“I thought I could die.” Anger at no one in particular glinted in his eye, Ditsy bristled.
“I wouldn’t care!” Ditsy yelled, the Doctor hung his head.
“Has it ever happened to you?” The Doctor almost choked on the words, Ditsy stopped bristling.
“What?”
“Have you ever had to stand by and watch as everything around you, everything you love is destroyed by time?” He raised his head to look her in the eyes. “Do you have any idea what that’s like? Knowing that you will probably never see them again; mortal beings have the ‘afterlife’ but I am immortal, I can’t go anywhere! I’ve seen it happen so many times… I can’t do it again. I- I can’t.” He hung his head again. “I wish I could be mortal but I’m not. I’m sorry, I know it hurts you too but I can’t.”

“I’ve been lying to them.” Ditsy leaned over the table, trying to catch his eye. “Can I at least tell them the truth?”
“If you can figure out how.”
“They’ll hate you.”
“I know. But that will make it easier. Can I take you for a ride before I go?”
“I don’t know if that’s the best idea.”
“Come on; anywhere, anywhen in the universe. It gets lonely without someone else there.”
“Promise to keep me away from other creatures?”
“How about Sephilon 4?”
“The crystal seas?”
“Probably.” Just then there was a shifting noise from upstairs.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t either.” Ditsy gave him a look that was a mix between vengeance and sadness, The Doctor slumped, defeated.
“I understand. I’ll see you tomorrow at the rebuilding right?”
“I’ll see you.”
“Whatever happened to making it easier?” Ditsy opened the door for him.
“Being alone is almost worse.” He closed the door behind himself.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
“Is this truly necessary?” Blueblood pleaded as he was dragged through the streets. “Really there must be a better way.” Gavla had Blueblood on a leash and was currently dragging him to her and Vamprah’s temporary shack in Ponyville.
“Well yes but none of the other options let me put you on a leash or use you as a pack mule. Now could you just go with it? Thanks to your straining it’s taken all night to get here.” Gavla chuckled. “I asked Krika to bring over a very special guest just for your arrival.”

Blueblood straitened marching along next to them with all the royal grace he could muster while on a leash.
“Really, who is it?”
“Oh, you’ve met.” Blueblood went to open the door and Gavla pulled him back. “Bad boy, master goes in first.” He glared at her from the ground. “Now roll over.”
“I will do no such thing! I am not some dog!”
“You will if you don’t want to walk in there feeling around like a beggar.” Blueblood growled but gave in to his tormentor. Gavla laughed. “Okay that’s enough.” She opened the door yanking Blueblood in after her rather unceremoniously, driving him down onto his chin.

“Prince Blueblood?” His eyes went wide. He knew that voice. “Oh this is too perfect.” A white hoof entered his field of vision and he looked up. Rarity stood over him sporting one of the most evil smiles he had ever seen; his pupils became dots of fear.
“As your prince I-gag.” The leash was pulled tight.
“That’s not what you are here.” Gavla taunted him.
“I demand-Gnk.” Gavla was having more fun with this than she should have. “I respectfully-hurk.” “If you don’t- glak.” “Please don’t hurt me!” He curled up in a ball with his hooves over his face.
“Vengeance is sweet.” Rarity mused over him. “But I have no intention of hurting you. Krika told me to bring the worst color to go with a white coat.” Blueblood shrieked as he realized what exactly was about to happen.
“Not green!”
“Yes green.” Gavla slipped a ring over Blueblood’s horn.
“Nooooooo!” Gavla used the rest of the leash to immobilize him as Rarity got the water ready. “Please no, please! Gavla I beg you!”

“Awww but I’m having fun.” Blueblood looked into her eyes. This mare was mad! Rarity walked up to him with a bowl, not only was the dye inside green, it was almost vomit like. She, without flare, dumped it over his head so that instead of getting a solid color, it would come out in patches.
“I will have you both arrested for this.” Blueblood snarled, Gavla laughed manically.
“But I have permission to do this.” She took out a roll of paper. “You signed yourself over this afternoon.”
“But the only thing I signed was the deal to be adviser for the new smith.” His face went blank as he slowly realized what was happening.
“And who do you think that was.” His jaw hung open. “Silly aristocrats, never do check the fine print. Do you?” She pulled out a paintbrush and dipped it in some blue paint. “Hold still or I will make this hurt.” She drew a stylized G on one of the still white spots on his neck. “You signed over your freedom pal. And it is against the contract to quit. The only way to get out of this is to make me get tired of you.”
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Krika was writing in a blank book he and Twilight had discovered in the basement of the library while searching for the original blueprints for Sugarcube corners.
“Krika, whatcha doing?” Sweetie Belle sat down next to him.
“Oh, just writing down the history of my world.” Krika said absentmindedly, adding the finishing touches onto a sketch.
“But I thought you didn’t like it there.” Sweetie Belle leaned against him, the gale-like howling noise his gaseous insides made relaxing her.
“I’m writing it as a reminder to anypony who might read it.” He finished the drawing with a sigh.
“Reminder for what.” Krika stared down into her innocent eyes, trying to judge just how much he could tell her.
“So they don’t do what we did.”
“What did you do?”
“We fought, far too much. It tore our world apart. Many died for nothing.” Sweetie Belle was familiar with the concept of death because of her and Rarity’s parents passing.

“Did you know them?” Sweetie Belle stared at her hooves.
“Many.” Krika looked back at the drawing, it was of Gorast, in those last seconds that he could see her; as much as he despised that little wench he worried about her. There were few Makuta who started out like that, he wondered who had driven her off that last bit of road into the wastes of malevolent madness. Was Teridax the only one there for you as well? I wish I could have been there for you, before all that.
“Do you remember how it felt?” Sweetie Belle looked up at him cautiously.
“Felt to what?” Krika was snapped out of his worry and regret, realizing what he was thinking about was futile.

“Lose them.” Krika cocked an eyebrow but his mind recoiled from his memories. “I can’t remember when my parents died, I look back and there should be something. Instead there’s just nothing. I can’t even remember mom’s face.” She hung her head. And her voice choked a bit. “There’s just an emptiness.”
“That’s what it feels like.” Krika reached out with a claw, pulling her close. “It never gets easier; but it gets more manageable.”
“Is that why you cry at night?” Sweetie Belle asked, all innocence, Krika went stiff. “When you think nopony else is awake.”

“Yes.” They sat there a moment, just looking at each other. “How about I tell you a nice story from my world?” Sweetie Belle perked back up and nodded; she loved to learn about where Krika came from, even if it was a shadowed place. “How about ‘Takua and the Mask of Light?’” Sweetie Belle nodded again. Krika started reading, he watched her emotions change through the story. During the Kohli tournament she was excited, she was frightened at the mention of the rahkshi, she beamed when he told of the toa nuva’s heroic, if doomed, stand in Ono-Koro, but she was always confused at the mention of the evil Makuta.
“Why is the Makuta the bad guy? I haven’t met any bad Makuta.”
“This is Makuta Teridax.” Krika stated coldly. “If there was ever an evil creature, it was him.”

This answer was good enough for her as he continued the story. She whimpered when Jaller died, she cheered when Takanuva defeated the rahkshi of fear, as he told the last bits if the story he heard a quiet snoring beside him. He looked down at Sweetie Belle, she was asleep. “They turned and beheld a great city, floating in a sea of protodermis, Turaga Vakama pointed to it and said ‘At last we are home.’ They boarded the boats and set out to whatever the future held.” He closed the book and got up, grabbing a blanket off the couch next to them and tucking her into it.

The front doorbell jingled and Rarity walked in, looking very pleased with herself. “I take it you enjoyed your visit with Gavla’s new assistant.”
“Oh darling it was marvelous.” She picked up a cupcake from the counter and bit into it delicately. “Vengeance, is sweeter than this cupcake.” She took another bite before continuing. “You know, Gavla is quite the artisan. She drew this beautifully stylized G on his neck in blue dye. After that snooty stuck up thing had just resigned to his sobbing, we sat back and went over her designs for armor. They were beautiful; elegantly designed for maximum protection with maximum maneuverability, and it seems that she’s gotten her hooves on some rare ultra-lightweight durable metal. Her designs were marvelous, rivaling even my own; I’m just glad she’s not in the fashion industry, I would never sell a dress again. She calls for soft and ridged lines through the armor, making her proposed pieces intimidating and at the same time captivating.”

“Well she did used to construct armor for toa.” He held up a sketch from the book of Toa Iruni. “The Toa Haga in particular were some of her favorite creations.” Rarity studied the sketch for a moment. “My, my; she was part of some high end work.” She looked up at Krika. “Is it alright if I take this book to base some work off the armor?”
“By all means. I just finished writing to the point when I came here.” He smiled at her. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll get some sleep.” He sat back down. Rarity walked around to the other side of the couch. Krika was curled, his nose touching his tail-tip protectively, around Sweetie Belle’s sleeping form. Rarity leaned over him and kissed Sweetie Belle on the forehead.
“Good night little sister.” She whispered to her. “And goodnight to you too Krika.” He lifted his tail and waved before settling back down to sleep.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Far away a portal opened glowing blue, seven figures stepped out. The leader had luminescent blue eyes, trained on the land before him like a great trophy. He held a small device up to his face, it showed each of the races of Equestria and their worth.
“Tell the troops. We wait one week then we eliminate the entire earth pony population, they're worthless, ten percent of the pegusi and unicorn population, do the same to the griffins, and just kill off the dragons, I have enough great beasts at my disposal.” The other six Bowed. “Oh and before you go, the parasprites need to be destroyed.” Before turning and stepping back through the portal. The malevolent blue eyes stared out over the land; to him it was just another bauble that needed to be collected, that’s all a universe is. He started laughing, he loved this tactic; it always made his entrance a bang.

Rejecting Death

Rejecting Death.

Five days later.
"Blueblood!" Gavla looked up from her work. "Get over here you lump!"
"Are the insults really necessary?" Blueblood crawled out from behind one of her larger projects. He had definitely seen better days, his coat was grayed by coal and soot, his mane was still green, and his hooves were covered by flecks of metal from when Gavla had decided to make him dance by throwing molten steel at him.
"Yes. Now get into this harness." She stepped back from a rig that was about the right size to hold a guard perfectly still.
"Not planning on it."
"Now dear assistant you should know how this works by now. You do what I say willingly, or I make it hurt. Remember the razors?" Blueblood flinched, yes he remembered the razors.

"Fine." He walked into the harness and Gavla quickly secured him with belt straps that lifted him off the ground to hang over Gavla's head. She took out a set of gold plated metal claws attached to a horseshoe and Blueblood sighed in relief, then she cranked down red hot side spurs with magic until there was a large spike aimed right for the middle of his hoof.
"Are you mad; mare?!" He screamed straining at the straps.
"Probably, now stop straining you're going to make me miss." In one deft stab it sank into the soft material behind the nail of the hoof. Blueblood screamed going ridged in pain, the smell of burning hoof, flesh and fur filled the air as she repeated the process over all four of his legs.

Once Blueblood stopped sobbing Gavla rolled her eyes at him and flapped her bat wings until she was eye to eye with him.
"You're a cruel, evil mare." He growled "I will not rest until you receive your just des-"
"Shut up and flex!" Gavla barked at him.
"Huh?"
"The claws, flex them" Blueblood stared at her like the insane being she was but tried weakly to move the pieces of metal attached to him. They moved! The artificial, bladed digits curled and uncurled like they had always been there.
"What in the name of-"
"Yes it works!" She flew back down to the ground and magicked out a smaller silver set driving them unceremoniously into her own hooves without so much as a whimper. she flexed a smaller set of fingers that folded out from the talons using them to pick up a bolt and flick it across the room. "Oh how I've missed having fingers, not as useful as magic but much more satisfying to use."

She retracted the fingers and cut the straps holding Blueblood up with her talons. He fell to the floor with a thud.
"Vamprah!" The great bat-stallion swooped down from the ceiling. "Lift your back legs." Vamprah obeyed balancing on his wings as she repeated the process on her steed with a larger two toed pair.
"How does that not hurt?" Blueblood asked incredulously.
"Easy, you're just a woos." Gavla walked out from behind Vamprah, her new claws clacking`on the bricks of the floor. "Now lift a hoof." Blueblood obeyed, not wanting to tempt her eager wrath. She turned the claws counterclockwise and they slid off.
"What?"
"They're only loosely connected to the spur, you can take them off whenever you want, but in battle just flick up this tab here and they lock in place." Blueblood made good time in taking the things off. "Now I need you to go fetch the princesses." He cleared out of there as fast as his legs would carry him.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Insufferable little nag, I'll get her back yet. He fumed to himself as he ran through the halls. The impudence, the unrestrained gall. That mare must really be mad to assume that I can't get back at her. Then he figured it out.

She was issuing a challenge aimed at his dignity, she wanted him to find a way of fighting back, she wanted him to defy her. When he rebelled she got her chance to hurt him. That's why she picked him, his massive ego would make him almost impossible to break, she could be as cruel as she wanted. The thoughts made him stop in place for a moment as he contemplated whether that meant that she respected or looked down on him. He almost didn't notice when Celestia and Luna walked right past him.

"Princesses!" He yelled after them. Celestia visibly flinched; he had been coming to her practically every hour to complain about Gavla.
"Yes Blueblood." She said carefully.
"The smith has requested your presence." Celestia let out a sigh of relief, Blueblood noticed and repressed the reflex to glare at her. "Follow me." He tried to be dignified but when you're covered in soot that's been streaked around your face by tears it's hard to do that.
"Blueblood." Luna spoke. "Are you alright?"
"I signed myself over to the biggest psychopath since Discord, who might I add just shoved red hot pieces of metal up my legs; no I'm not alright."
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Vamprah had quickly mastered the unspoken code that the guards used when on duty, mostly it was slight changes in posturing but there were hundreds of signals in everything from the placing of one's forelimbs to the tilt of an eyebrow.

Footing was mostly used to illustrate the general mood you were in, for example hooves placed three inches apart meant that you were in a rather sour mood while six inches meant that you were having a good day; there was no signal to express fear but there were plenty to dispel it. A pair of guards across a hallway from each other could have a heated debate and none around them would even notice they had moved. It was such an efficient system that they often used it even when off duty. Vamprah preferred this form of communication because he needed his voice for echolocation.

Gavla, of course refused to learn the subtle art instead attempting to harass speech out of them. So it was no surprise to Vamprah that when he walked up to the break room legs were drawn to the three inch mark.
[tilt of left ear, lower right eyebrow, slight narrowing of the eyes, slight downtilt of the chin.] "She's not with me." The other guards relaxed pulling their legs to the neutral five inch mark. ["But I need some new recruits."] Newbies always got the dirt assignments because it was easy to talk them into things. Five recruits stepped out, two from the daytime unicorn squads, two from the daytime pegasus squads and one from the night pegasus squad. Vamprah tilted his right ear slightly forwards expressing confusion, it was almost unheard of to see a night guard on duty during the day so they mostly didn't even report in until sundown.

He had briefly considered taking a nightguard as his new eyes so that Gavla could focus on her work without worrying about him being able to navigate on his own but decided against it when he thought of the strenuous extra training the poor creature would have to go through in order to be a proper replacement, they would probably die in the process.

Vamprah pointed at the night guard one of the pegasus day guards and one of the unicorn guards and motioned for them to follow him. They did so without complaint, the constant clicking of Vamprah's 'sight' was the only sound but there was a conversation going on right behind him, echolocation gives you a three-hundred-sixty degree view if you know how to use it right.
["Wait, isn't he blind?"]
["Yes"]
["Then how did he learn how to use the code?"]
["The smith can be his eyes."]
["But he doesn't have the smith with him. How could he read everypony?]
["I can hear you."] Vamprah interjected.
"Sorry Sir I- wait, I wasn't talking."
["It's called echolocation, I'm not just making noise up here. I can hear all your movements. It's the same system some bats use, as a nightguard I would have expected you to know that."] They walked into the chamber that Gavla had adapted to serve her purposes. She was currently messing with a piece she had designed to be bolted into a pegasus wing, before she had been told that such a device would cripple the user. She had fumed about that incident for hours. The pegasus guards tucked their wings in closer to their bodies.

Gavla looked up from her work.
"Good you got them, and a night guard too; Vamprah you are incredible." She walked over to them sizing up the guards taking slight measurements every now and again. Once she seemed satisfied she started walking over to her desk and put her hooves up on it. "Now strip." Vamprah rolled his eyes, he knew that Gavla had set this bit up to send the wrong message but nonetheless he didn't inform the others, the nightguard's wings started rising; Gavla apparently decided to end the charade because she pulled out three sets of the claws.

The guards were relieved that they were there for an outfitting and not another one of Gavla's sick games, they removed their armor swiftly, at that moment the door swung open and Blueblood led Celestia and Luna into the workshop. "Welcome royalty." Gavla said dramatically without bowing. "I had hoped to have this done by the time you got here but apparently not even Blueblood can be as stupid as he looks." Blueblood visibly shook with rage. "But I guess since I made a pair for both of you already it's only fair that you get to see how they're applied before it happens to you."

She motioned the guards to get into three harnesses, it seems that she had picked up on the guard code. They did so in silence, Gavla strapped them in and hoisted them up so that she could get a clearer shot at their hooves. "As I have learned from my test on Blueblood, it's better if the subject doesn't know what I'm about to do." The guards all trained their eyes strait forward, not daring to see what she had in store for them. "Now this may sting a little." She positioned all twelve sets of claws and drove them in much more carefully than for herself or Blueblood. Not so fast that the pain came all at once but not so slow as to prolong it. Celestia gasped and held a hoof over her mouth in what was either awe or horror.

The guards didn't so much as wince. Gavla let them down slowly. "Now you may experience a slight burning sensation for a few hours but don't worry that's just the metal working its way into your nervous system, you should have complete control over the claws. Simply raise a hoof and flex." The guards obeyed flexing their new claws.
"Incredible!" Luna exclaimed. "But doesn't that hurt? A lot."
"Only if you're freaking out like Blueblood the Bum was."
"That's it!" Blueblood charged her horn down meaning to impale her on it. Celestia was about to stop him when Vamprah put a wing between her and him in a gesture to stop. Celestia looked down at him with concern.

Gavla grinned sliding out her blades from beneath the claws, she dodged to the side and clocked him with the flat of her blade.
"Aren't you forgetting something?" Gavla flung his claws to the ground next to him, Blueblood wasted no time putting them on and locking them in place. He charged her again, she dodged and the claws went through the concrete work desk like a hot knife through butter, he didn't give up, he kept attacking her only to be either repelled by Gavla's own claws or blades, or dodged, his claws finally stuck in something and he grinned, opening his eyes to find... that he had punctured one of Gavla's bigger projects, he pulled at the claws but they were stuck fast. "My turn." A voice said behind him, he turned around and to his horror Gavla was standing in full battle regalia, he gulped. "But first." She turned back to the small crowd of flabbergasted ponies. "As you can probably tell by now, the only thing strong enough to stop these claws is Protosteel which is exactly what they're made of thanks to Princess Luna's generous donation of her old Nightmare Moon armor. The funny thing about Protodermis is that it will only grow in liquid form so I simply had to remove the silver, melt it down and badda boom!" She tapped a pillar next to her. "I've got a whole vat full of the stuff. Then simply combine it with Equestrian steel and you've got an almost indestructible piece of metal. Now if you'll excuse me there's a homicidal prince that I need to pry off of a tank so he can get back to trying to kill me. Guards you are excused, your new uniforms are next to the door; you can remove the claws by unhooking the latch in the back and turning them counterclockwise."

She used her blade as a crowbar to pull Blueblood's claws out of the metal. "I don't know which I like more, me hurting you or you trying to hurt me." She gave a heave and Blueblood was free, he immediately tackled her to the ground, she punched him off of herself leaving a scratch along his jawline from the blade projecting beneath the metal fist, he got up clutching his face, Gavla retracted the blades and started clobbering him, hit to the face, stomach, chest, elbow to the back and hind claw to the face leaving more shallow gashes. He fell to the ground, bleeding and panting.
"You... Bitch..."
"I know right."
"I'm... going... to kill you."
"I encourage you to keep trying; this was fun."
"I hate you... so much." Gavla leaned in right next to his head and whispered.
"Keep telling yourself that." She cut his ear with a canine and stood back up strait. "That's what makes you so much fun." She walked off to outfit the princesses leaving Blueblood to fume and blush so furiously that it seemed that his head would catch on fire.

Vamprah sat down next to him with a rag and started cleaning his wounds; Blueblood cooled down considerably the second he noticed what was happening.
"Has she always been like this?" Vamprah nodded. "How do you put up with her."
"I understand her."
"What do you mean?"
"I know how her mind works. Lift your chin. She never really had anyone she liked, so when she comes across someone she does she doesn't know how to act, she becomes cruel and aggressive, she'll make that person's life a hell to try and push away any feeling she may have for them. She respects your will and your ego, they remind her of herself so she got you as close as possible in order to push you away. In short, she likes you." He brought out a needle and thread to stitch up the wounds.
"Well I hate her."
"Do you?"
"of course! How do you know so much about her anyway?"
"The eye link works in more than one way, we can see into each others minds."
"Could you give me something that I could use against her, something I could spread around the castle to discredit her."
"No."
"Why?"
"Because there isn't anything."
"But everypony has something they want covered up, some secret."
"I just told you her only secret and I'm already afraid that she'll pull out my tail when she finds out. I hope you realize that she was going easy on you, if she'd wanted to she could have plucked your eyes out and cut off your head before anyone could so much as start to think about helping you."
"Am I that pathetic."
"No like I said she was going easy on you, she even let you get a hit in."
"She did no-" He looked over, there was a small trickle of blood coming from her upper left foreleg. "She did?"
"As I said, she likes you." Vamprah cut the thread he had been using to sow up Blueblood's face and stood back up. "Have a nice day." He flapped back up to his place in the shadows of the ceiling.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Winona was barking, not an unusual occurrence when ponies were coming up the road or something but this was different. She was looking to the south and whimpering between barks.

"What'sa matter girl?" Applejack walked up next to her dog and stared out over the orchard, beyond which the Everfree forest loomed as it did for most of southern Ponyville but Winona had always seemed comfortable around the dark woods. That's when things started burning, off in the distance smoke started rising in a wall as if that entire side of the orchard had caught on fire at once. "Whoa Nelly, come on Winona." She was about to charge off to find a way to extinguish the flames when an accented commanding voice called out from closer in the trees.

"No you fool, do not go! They have more power than you know!" Zecora stepped out battered, and bloody. She heaved a cough and stumbled forward barely keeping her balance. Applejack ran up to her letting the Zebra lean on her for support. She noticed with horror that Zecora was riddled with holes. "Thank you Applejack you are most kind. *cough* But survival should be on your mind." Applejack managed to get her back to the barn and lay her down on some hay.

"Ya'll stay right there. Ah'll be back with my brother n' granny." Applejack ran to get them. Granny Smith, despite her old age was the best pony there at dressing wounds and Applejack didn't dare to let anypony else try with injuries this bad. Big Macintosh ended up having to carry Granny smith in order for them to make good time. Zecora had grown even weaker, unable even to lift her head.
"Oh mah!" Granny Smith moved with a swiftness that surprised everypony in the room. "Jus' settle down there missy ol' Granny'll 'ave ya' fixed up in a moment." She set to work removing metallic shrapnel from nearly every inch of the zebra's body. "Wha' happened ta you? It looks like ya' ad a bad run in with a tool shed."
"Fly..." She spoke weakly. "Fly you fools... they wield vile evil tools."
"Now if ya'll think we're gonna jus' leave ya you're sorely mis'taken." Zecora chuckled darkly and coughed managing to raise her head.
"Fools..." She fell and lay still no longer breathing.

"Ah no ya don't! Don' quit on me now!" Granny Smith yelled trying to revive Zecora, a piece of metal fell out of her chest and her lungs decompressed with a hissing sound. There was no saving her now.
"We need ta go." Big Macintosh was staring in horror out the door. The entire orchard was on fire, tall figures ran around in it swarming the actual house and dousing it in flames. "Good thing Apple Bloom's at school."
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Cheerilee came running into the schoolhouse, terrified.
"Filly's and colts we're going into the basement Now!" She hefted open a hatch in the front middle of the room motioning for the students to go down.
"Why Miss Cheerilee." There was an explosion outside.
"No time to explain just go!" The foals filed down rather quickly until.
"Snails! where's Snails?" Snips yelled, Cheerilee turned around in time to see the orange colt's brains get blown out.
"AAAHHH!" there was a collective scream from everypony who happened to be looking. Cheerilee took a quick look around to make sure that they weren't leaving anypony else behind before slamming the door and locking it seven different ways and bracing it with anything she could find. She turned and looked over the sobbing, shivering mass of terrified students.
"Now foals we just need to stay calm, help will come." Something exploded. "I hope."

In a corner with Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle clutched a small necklace and chanted
"Help us, help us, help us, help us." The sounds of destruction continued outside.

"Hey this is a school, where is everything? I was hoping to make my quota here." A crass rasping voice came from above them.
"Dude you have to nail twenty seven unicorns, thirty two pegasi and one hundred eighty seven earth ponies. How were you planning on filling the quota with a school this small."
"I already got two unicorns, a pink one and an orange one. Headshot on the orange one, hoya!" The strange sound of a firearm being discharged filled the air.
"You're a sick fuck, you know that right?"
"Just enjoying my job." This made Sweetie Belle chant even harder.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Krika was on crowd control trying to help terrified ponies to get out of the town and keep desperate parents from getting back in.
"I'm sorry ma'am but I can't let you go back in there. A trained team-" consisting of myself and The Doctor, He thought grimly. "- will be going in to find any missing children as soon as we're done evacuating the town."
"But my filly is in there!" A dark pink mare with a purple mane was trying to get around the field Krika had set up.
"And I will do everything in my power to get her out, but you're doing her no favors by making it harder for me to finish my job!" That's when he heard it, emanating from his mask a single phrase repeated over and over again.

"Help us, help us, help us. His eyes went wide, Sweetie Belle was using a piece of his mask that he had broken off for her to call for help. "I need somepony to take my place here, please!" A yellow coated mare with an orange mane ran over. "Thank you." He ran back into the half burning town using his mask of repulsion to escape bullets and other weapons and shrapnel that sped towards him as he ran through to the streets. Please don't let me be too late, please. The unending chant coming from his mask both comforted and terrified him; as long as it was going Sweetie Belle was still alive, but as long as it was going Sweetie Belle was still in danger. He let his mask lead him to its shard.

He stopped outside of the burning schoolhouse. There was a dead pink and purple unicorn filly at his feet, her cutie mark was a clover; there was a single bullet wound in the back of her neck; death had been instantaneous. He lifted the filly onto his back, not wanting to just leave her. He carefully scuttled up to the school using his Crast to repel the heat of the fire. The entire building went out, much to the chagrin of two figures inside.
"Aww come on, that's no fun." He tucked the filly's body under a foreleg and slithered in on the ceiling until he was directly above the figures who were trying to force open the basement door that led to the place where the mask was sending him.

He tucked the filly into the rafters and dropped down onto the hominid figures with a bull like ululating battle cry, he skewered the first one on one of his blades, the other one narrowly avoided him and screamed, firing his gun at Krika who deflected the bullets with his mask power before reaching out and grabbing the other, crushing his skull. He tossed them both away, rejecting the blood that had splattered onto his coat.

"Miss Cheerilee? Miss Cheerilee are you down there?" He knocked on the trapdoor.
"Krika is that you?"
"Yes. Are the students with you?"
"Yes, give us a second to clear the barricade." Krika didn't have time for that so he simply stressed his shadow power on the door, blowing it out, all sorts of junk popped out after it. Krika retrieved the pink filly's body from the rafters as the rest of them ran out from the basement.
"Hey that's Ruby." a small tan and brown spotted colt pointed to the body on his back. "Is she..." Krika nodded slowly.
"gather around me students." Krika motioned for the foals to come over to him, once they had he blew a hole in the roof. "We're going for a little flight." He used the Crast to reject the ground allowing him to take the students on a giant leap clear across town landing just behind the evacuation line. The foals ran to find their parents and the dark pink mare ran up to him.
"Did you find my daughter, did you find Ruby." Krika stiffened before nodding sadly and lowering the dead filly from his back. The mare just sat there staring from the body to Krika who stared down at the body.
"I'm sorry."
"No!" The mare wailed wrapping the body in her hooves. "Noooooooo!" The filly's horn started sparking weakly. Krika had read about this phenomenon. Sometimes when a unicorn died quickly their soul would be bound to their body for a few hours, it had been theorized that they could be brought back with the right application of magic to possibly "reject death", but he doubted that the mare had read about this.

"Did you see that? She's still in there!" Either he was mistaken or the mother was just desperate. "We can still do something." Krika didn't have the heart to deny her, so he sat down touching his mask to the filly's horn. An idea popped into his mind. He ran his magic through the mask to amplify its power and focused I reject this wound. The bullet that had been lodged in the filly's neck was gently pushed back out the entrance hole which closed behind it. I reject this death. his eyes rolled back and he collapsed to the ground, his own heart stopped and he was gone.

"Hello?" a small voice pierced the darkness around him. "Hello Mr." The darkness was swept away and in its place there was a small pink filly. He got up and looked around, there were two ropes attached to one of his legs one black, one red. He realized what he had to do.
"Are you Ruby?"
"Yes." The filly cocked her head at him. "Who are you?" Krika took the red rope off which also severed the black one.
"I've been sent to get you." He felt himself go cold and gave the rope to Ruby. "Just climb this." There was apparently no need to tell her this because the second the rope touched her it melded to her chest and whisked her away. A warm feeling passed over him, he had saved Ruby. The darkness came back embracing him in a warm tide and he felt himself going back into the shadows.

Berry punch stared at Krika's unmoving form not sure what to do. Ruby stirred against her shoulder.
"Mom...my?" she couldn't believe it, Krika had done it, he had saved her daughter.
"Ruby?" She brought her daughter around to look her in the face
"Mommy!" Ruby hugged her mother tight. Berry punch hugged her back, tears of joy staining the fur around her eyes.
"Thank you." she whispered.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Killed her. These monsters had killed Bon Bon. Right in front of Lyra's eyes and they would pay, every single one of them would pay with their lives.

Lyra was standing surrounded by the enemy, Bon Bon had been torn to shreds by their bullets the second she had stepped into the open. Lyra would make them pay. Her vision was going black but she didn't care, she knew the hollow was taking over but she didn't care, the hollow was a mad dog and Lyra was directing it towards the monsters that killed her wife.

She let out a monstrous wail, a piercing sound that made all who heard it feel as if they had already been run through with a blade.
"Bankai!" The area exploded, dust and bricks flying into the air, when the dust cleared, in Lyra's place was a white and blue bipedal being with a hole in its chest wearing a mask with three bladed horns sticking strait up from the middle of its forehead and right above its ears; green and white hair cascaded out the back of the mask and it was holding an electric guitar with blades on the body. It opened it's diamond toothed mouth and wailed. It was a vibrating noise that struck fear into the creatures around it, who open fired. To their dismay the bullets had no effect.

It lifted the guitar and struck a note, which sent out a wall of sound that made the hominids guns vibrate themselves to pieces, it then seemed to teleport into a crowd of the hominids and proceeded to rip them limb from limb, biting down on necks, severing limbs with the axe, crushing skulls in its fists, blood flew everywhere splattering the thing's body. The creatures never stood a chance. It rampaged, killing every enemy it could find and when it could find no more it started running towards the north to find more food.

But something stops it, a wall of blackness. It rages against the wall, clawing at it, slamming on it with the axe, screaming at it.
"Stop!" A loud regal voice rings from above, the thing looks up; there is food up there Princess Luna the name sounds tasty. It gathers itself and jumps, landing in the air to stare down the navy blue food thing. "Lyra you have to stop, you have to regain control!" What was Lyra? It stands and thinks for a moment, it is Lyra. And Lyra is hungry, Lyra will feast on this thing and its power, the others had no power, they hadn't been satisfying. Lyra lunges, mouth first, trying to bite into the Blue thing's flesh but it dodges making Lyra growl in frustration.

"I didn't want to do this but you leave me no choice." The Blue thing draws out a blade and starts chanting. "Jikan mae ni kodokuna ichi boido de kakimazeru; u~eiku, Kurayami!" [before time the lonely one stirs in the void; wake, Darkness!] The sword erupts into a massive swirl of blackness, dotted with bright points like stars, a pair of pupil less white eyes open in the maelstrom before it solidifies into a massive dragon that dwarfs Lyra the way a mountain dwarfs a hill. Lyra wanted to run but the power that has just been unleashed makes her hunger groan that if it simply eats this it will be soothed. So Lyra charges brandishing the axe. "Kurayami, dark blaze!" The dragon opens it's great maw and lets a tide of shadows flow out, shadows that burn when they hit, Lyra screams in pain as it's left arm burns off. Lyra staggers before it's arm reforms, Lyra howls in pain as the new bones take shape. Lyra want to run. It thinks But Lyra so hungry, can't stop now. Lyra lifts the axe and strikes a cord blasting sound at its massive opponent, the great creature takes the sound to its gut loosing a cry of pain that reminds Lyra of a whale and stirs happy memories in Lyra, memories of Bon Bon. When it remembers a crack appears in its mask.

Pain laces through Lyra's body and it screams. "Whale bad! Bon Bon bad! Remembering bad!" It clutches its mask. "Lyra don't want go back, can't make Lyra go back. Lyra stronger than you, you want Lyra power. No! No! Nooooooooo!" It screams in anguish as the hands tears the mask from its face. The warping in her voice disappeared. "You're not Lyra, you're Aryl, a monster." She said weakly as the blue and white body crumbled to dust leaving the mint unicorn to fall.

"Oh no you don't." Luna's voice rang out and she landed on something soft and black studded with stars before the world faded away to nothingness. The monsters had paid.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Krika felt warm, he felt fulfilled, he felt at peace. But it ended in a flash of light as a brilliant white alicorn with a crimson mane and a scroll and quill for a cutie mark burst through his bubble of darkness.

Krika covered his eyes lest he be blinded by the sudden re-entrance of light, when his eyes adjusted he lowered his claw and looked into the newcomer's eyes, they were a sapphire blue. Krika had a feeling that he was in the presence of a being far greater than himself and he bowed.
"Who do I have the honor of addressing?"
"You don't have to do that. I hate it when ponies freak out around me."
"Alright then, who are you?" Krika drew himself back up to look Lauren in the eye.
"I am the goddess of this realm but you may call me Lauren."
"Well Lauren, I take it you're here to take me to hell." He sighed, he'd known it was coming. She laughed good naturedly.
"No, nothing so dramatic. I've come to send you back." Lauren smiled as Krika stared at her in disbelief.
"Send me back?"
"Yes, the way you sent Ruby back to her mother, a very noble deed by the way although I wouldn't suggest doing it again. Your time has not come yet, nor had hers. But I do have a job for you. An evil being, powerful beyond imagination came through with you and Vamprah."
"I assure you Gavla isn't that bad." Krika joked, Lauren chuckled.
"No, not her."
"Then who?" Lauren's face hardened at Krika's question.
"He is known throughout the multiverse by many names, the Doctor knew him as Dwarvos, Kenpachi knew him as Aizen Sosuke, you know him as."
"Teridax." Krika shook in terror.
"He has found a way to prevent my interference in his plan, but you can stop him, you are the only being in any dimension who knows exactly what you're dealing with." The world started to crumble to white. "That is your mission, find Teridax and stop him." Her serious gaze melted into a comforting smile. "Oh and don't worry about hell, you're a much better being than you think you are." Krika disappeared. "Your move Teridax."

Krika gasped feeling life enter his cold form, he coughed hard. Someone shrieked to his right, he looked over and it was one of the palace nurses.
"B-b-but y-you've b-been dead for d-days." he looked at the bowl next to her, they had been preparing to preserve his body. He tried to speak but a rush of cold made it come out as a rasping moan.
"I n-n-need something warm." The nurse rushed away, leaving Krika to shiver in his slowly warming body.

The nurse returned with a bowl of steaming soup. Here goes nothing. Krika downed it in one go. To his joy it didn't come back up and warmth returned to him quickly. "Thank you miss..."
"Redheart."
"Miss Redheart. How long was I under."
"Almost two weeks." She seemed to be dealing with a pony coming back to life rather well. Krika looked around.
"Where is my mask?"
"The princesses have it, they've been using it to keep the invaders away." Krika started.
"Over how large an area?"
"The entire city of Canterlot."
"I need to go." He forced his stiff muscles to move, they warmed back up to use quickly and he ran through the halls to the throne room.
"Stop!" A guard stepped out in front of him. "None are to be let through."
"Oh get off it." he told the guard barreling past him. Celestia and Luna both were channeling magic through the mask, despite their combined power they both looked at the point of collapse. Krika walked between them, calling the mask to his face. It locked into place and he picked up where the exhausted sisters had left off.

"Makuta Krika?" Luna dropped to the floor, her power coming off the mask. Celestia managed to stay standing but took her power off too.
"But you're dead."
"Yet here I am."
"Are you sure you're up to this?" Luna regained her footing. "You just came back from the dead."
"I can give you two months."
"A-alright." The guard spoke outside the door
"Hey, little filly, you can't go in there. Sweet Celestia!" The door burst open and three filly's tumbled into the room on top of a guard. Sweetie Belle popped her head up from the tangle
"Krika! You're alive!" She shot onto his chest, giving him the hardest hug he had ever been given. It may have been the hardest of seven but it was still worth noting to him.
"Oof! Sweetie Belle; where's your sister?"
"We sent them to find allies almost two weeks ago." Celestia said.
"Allies? from where?"
"Other dimensions."

End of chapter eight.

Help in the Storm

Help in the Storm.
Twelve days ago
Princess Luna had arrived in Ponyville with a troop of nightguard unicorns to teleport the populous to Canterlot. The Elements of Harmony had been easy to gather up as their first instinct had been to gather together and they had followed it, Lyra on the other hand had been a rather violent find, the Doctor had yet to appear, Krika was by all medical terms dead and there were still hundreds unaccounted for. The display of brutality had been repeated across the entirety of Equestria only for the perpetrators to disappear. All in all this was shaping up to be the worst day in a thousand years.

“Princess Luna.” An unexpected voice came from behind her, it was Makuta Vamprah.
“You may speak.”
“At the risk of sounding callous, Krika’s Kanohi Crast may be able to keep the invaders away from Canterlot when they decide to show themselves again.”
“You suggest that we raid your brother’s body.”
“Are there any magics that may be able to do the same thing?”
“No.”
“The Crast seems to become exponentially more powerful when magic is used under its own power. He was able to use it to take a filly back from death, keeping these creatures out should be child’s play for it. At least for two weeks.”
“Fine.”
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Gavla was kicking the furnaces into overdrive forgetting even to be cruel to Blueblood, instead just barking orders at him.
“Compass, Now!” Blueblood worried by her single mindedness had been simply doing whatever he was told. Thanks to his cooperation and Gavla’s frenzied activity she had been pumping out hundreds of sets of armor and claws.

“Hey Blueblood, do you think the guards would agree to wearing this?” She held up blueprints that depicted a set of metal jaws.
“No.”
“Bummer.” She tore the paper in half and got back to work, using her magic to continue work on expanding the armory and using her mind to come up with more effective tools. “Genius!” She exclaimed. “Now that’ll give ‘em a run for their money.” She set the new weapon into production

“Miss Gavla, what exactly are you doing?”
“Getting ready for the war.” She sent a cylinder of metal into a separate chamber to test it. “You think I’m letting you morons go down without a fight?” The sound of flying metal came from the room Gavla had sent the cylinder into. “Good it works.” She put the device into mass production.

“But what about the Elements of Harmony or the Princesses, surely they could-”
“If you think this is like anything else your feeble little race has ever faced before, you’d be sadly mistaken. I know this tactic, it was popular among the Skakdi. First you take out a considerable portion of the populous then when the survivors are good and terrified of you, you make your demands. I for one have never been a fan of Skakdi so I’m not planning on letting your ‘aunts’ surrender.” She set back to work with a vigor that made Twilight Sparkle look like a slacker. “Go get me the captains of the guards, it's time for some heavy duty training.” Blueblood left her quickly and she inwardly cursed, she forgot to insult him.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Lyra was sitting on a balcony at one of the higher points of the castle looking out on the smoking ruin that was the rest of Equestria.
“Lyra.” She turned and standing in the doorway was Princess Celestia. Normally she would have bowed or something along those lines, instead she just stared at her coldly.
“What do you want?”
“I’m sorry about Bon Bon.”
“You’ve been telling others the same about their loved ones all day.”
“True but I mean it every time.” Celestia sighed. “Which makes what I’m about to ask you all the more difficult. Luna and I have found a way to buy two weeks time; we were hoping that you could lead a team to find allies from your travels as Luna’s agent.” Lyra responded to this, lifting her head from a half bowed mourning position. Yes old allies from her multiverse travels would be able to show these invaders who ruled here.
“I’ll do it.”
“Good, then I need you to get my student and her friends. Then report to the throne room”

“Now Sweetie Belle it’s alright.” Rarity was consoling her sister over Krika’s death. “He died a way he always wanted to, protecting somepony else.”
“But it’s not fair! Why did anypony have to die?”
“I don’t know.” She hugged the sobbing filly closer.
“Miss Rarity.” She looked up and standing in front of her was Lyra. “The princesses need to see you.”

Apple Bloom was in what could best be described as shock, she hadn’t said a word since she had been rescued from the schoolhouse and she had an almost dead look to her eyes. Applejack had been sticking close to her to make sure she didn’t do anything stupid, this hardly seemed necessary as she seemed content to simply pace back and forth in the room they had been given.
“Apple Bloom?” No response. “Lil’ sis’?” She looked up slightly. “You alright?” Apple Bloom exploded.
“Alright? Are ya’ll plumb crazy? Mah home is gone, I saw one of my friends get ‘is head blown ta bits, that’s right clean off and Ah’m probably gonna be dead in the month! No Ah’m not alright!” She panted heavily.
“Feel better?”
“Actually…” She paused “Yes, yes Ah do.”
“Miss Applejack.” She turned around; in the doorway were Rarity and Lyra.

Rainbow Dash was flitting around the ceiling of her room restlessly, for once in her life she didn’t know what she wanted to do. Even during the Best Young Flyer incident she had known what she wanted to do just not how. Now she didn’t know anything, her ambitions were sent packing by the carnage she had witnessed; she was aimless like a balloon taken by the wind. The door to her room opened and in stepped Lyra. Oh well. She thought. Let’s see where this takes me.

Fluttershy was holding up surprisingly well. As an animal caretaker she had seen her share of carnage, although never directed at her own kind. So she just sat with Angel unsure as of what to do; she felt something rising from the back of her mind, some forgotten portion of herself and she suppressed it.
“Oh Angel, what do you think I should do?” He took his carrot out of his mouth and brandished it like a sword. “But I don’t know the first thing about fighting. So I should learn?” He nodded. Just then the door opened.

Pinkie Pie was having trouble keeping her already questionable sanity from shattering entirely.
“Now you see what I was talking about.”
“No, shut up.”
“They weren’t there to help the Cake’s; they won’t be there when you need them either. And you ran, I can’t believe you ran.” The voice cackled.
“Shut up!” She clamped her hooves over her ears as if that would keep out the voice from her own mind.
“Coward, coward, coward, coward!” It chanted in her head drowning out her surroundings and infiltrating every part of her.
“SHUT UP!” She screamed and the voice finally went quiet
“Fine but only I’ll be there when you need somepony.” Pinkie was relieved that the voice had given up on its attack, for now at least. She decided to see if Twilight might know something about how to get rid of it. Opening the door she was stopped short by Lyra.

Incidentally Twilight happened to be going to see Vamprah and Gavla. She opened the impressive double doors to be greeted by Gavla’s scathing voice.
“Well that was fast, hanging out were they?” She turned around. “Oh, it’s only you. I actually just sent Blueblood out looking for the guard captains.” Twilight briefly wondered why but decided that it could wait.
“I’m here to see Vamprah.”
“Alright, hey big guy Twilight’s here for you.” Vamprah swooped out from the shadows on the ceiling landing directly in front of Twilight.
“Yes.”
“I need you to bite me.”
“Excuse me?”
“I need you to make me more powerful.”
“Why?”
“Why? So I can help defend my race, that’s why!”
“Are you sure?”
“I am asking for nothing more than the power to protect the things I love, why are you making this so difficult?”
“Because you won’t want to go back.”
“I am wholly aware of the risk involved and am willing to accept it.” Vamprah looked back at Gavla who nodded.
“Fine.” Twilight tilted her chin up and Vamprah bit down, immediately he felt something was wrong it felt less like he was draining her and more like he was forcing something in. He tried to let go but found his jaws stuck in a death grip making it so the only way to get away would be to take her windpipe with. “Gavla, something’s wrong!” He said around his teeth.
“Thank you Vamprah.” A growling male voice said in his mind and he was thrown back with force enough to crack the wall he landed on. Through Gavla’s eyes he was able to see what became of Twilight. Swaths of darkness began to swirl around her body, her eyes had become black soulless orbs as the unleashed powers lifted her off the floor of the chamber her eyes turned a luminescent ice blue and she screamed. The sound was a cross between a shriek of pain and a cry of triumph, an all too familiar mask began to piece itself together over her face, the Kanohi Kraahkan, the mask of shadows. “Teridax.” Vamprah breathed in horror. Twilight screamed again and again gaining intensity with each shriek. The mask wasn’t fully formed meaning the process could hopefully be averted; Vamprah quickly prayed that the same rules applied to this as to shadow leeches and let out the curing screech which squared its hit directly to the half formed mask which blew into dust. The air froze and Twilight hung in the air, mouth open in a silenced scream, the shadows around her fell and she hit the floor with a thud.
Vamprah stood against the wall for a moment before carefully walking up to her unmoving form, her eyes snapped open flashing the chilling blue before fading back to their usual amethyst. Vamprah heaved a sigh of relief.
“Wh-what happened?”
“I cannot help you.” He said coldly.
“What!” She forced herself to her hooves weakly. “What do you mean you can’t help me? I came in here and begged you jerk!”
“You’re immune.”
“Huh?”
“You can’t be changed, trying only hurts me.” His excuse seemed to stir some memory in Twilight that backed it up.
“Oh… sorry.” Gavla climbed up onto his back.
“You planning on telling her the real reason?”
“Not until this is over. She has enough to worry about.” Just then the doors opened letting in Blueblood and the six guard captains.
"Ah my comrades in arms; Twilight you are excused, I hear the princess is looking for you in the throne room."
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
“Alright, let’s get down to business.” Luna said upon their entrance. “I’m going to guess that only Lyra knows why you’ve all been summoned, so I’m going to let her explain. Lyra this is your team, explain the mission.”

“Yes ma’am. Three years ago as you know I spent time dimension hopping for Princess Luna. While out there I managed to earn a few favors from the dimensions I visited, we’re being sent to collect on those favors and see if we can gain new allies to help in the fight against the invaders. Which is why I brought these." She levitated six small daggers out of her saddlebags. "These will be our first allies but only if you unsheathe them once we get to our first stop. We'll be headed to the same dimension that Kenpachi was from. I earned a favor from a rather powerful figure known as Kisuke Urahara, so we should be able to get at least four allies from there. After that were just going to be hopping around looking to make friends in high places. Spike is going to be staying here as our link back home. Twilight I need you to get your owl, he's coming with us. Pinkie I'm going to need your alligator." Gummy popped out from her mane. "Good." She turned back to Luna.

"Twilight's owl is actually right behind her." They turned around and sure enough Owlowiscious swooped down to land on Twilight's back. "Now we need to get you through immediately, we don't know when the invaders will be back, Celestia and I will also be out of commission for the next two weeks which is also the amount of time you will have for this mission. Understand?"

"Yes ma'am." Lyra saluted.
"Good." Glyphs started to glow on the walls as power flowed from Luna into the room. "I can only set you on course to your first destination, after that your on your own." A large glyph shaped like a spiral shell opened up beneath Lyra and the others. "Good luck, and may the prayers of your race protect you." The glyph seemed to pop out of the floor and they were gone.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
The sound of grinding metal filled the courtyard, refugees and nobles alike stopped whatever they were doing to stare as the tardis materialized in the middle. The door was flung open and a pink mare with a dark purple mane came rushing out trailed by a small grey filly.

"Doctor!" Cheerilee ran into the tardis to find him pleading with the controls.
"Please, please, just this once let me save her, I'll do anything please!" He pounded on the control panel and a hominid figure appeared behind him, projected from the ceiling.
"You are attempting to change a fixed point, something that you expressly forbid this ship to allow. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."
"Shut up!" He yelled at it before crumpling to the floor in a sobbing heap.

A strange sensation briefly passed over those inhabiting the city before a great dome appeared over Canterlot repelling even the clouds.

It took Cheerilee a few minutes to calm the Doctor down enough to move.
"Doctor, are you going to be alright?" He looked up, a grim look in place of the normal manic vigor.
"I'll be fine; that version of me always was best at breaking bad news." He sluggishly dragged himself out of the tardis. "I'm always alright." He muttered to himself.

"Well this is impressive." A massive voice propelled itself over the city causing the Doctor to lift his head. "I set the dogs on you once and you've already gone into siege mode." He quickly pinpointed the source of the voice and ran towards the south. The voice remained silent until he reached the edge of the dome where he found the smoking remains of everything from bombs to tanks. "Finally, it really is hard to get you people's attention."
"Who are you." The Doctor growled.
"Who am I?" A hominid figure taller than the others with a fair face, no hair to speak of and almost glowing blue eyes stepped through the rubble. He was wearing a white suit and pants with a pair of black dress shoes, hardly the kind of dress one would expect for a general. "Who are you? I thought I ordered your kind wiped out." He turned back to look past the rubble. "Boys you missed one, I'll have you all strung up for this."
"I am the Doctor and I will be the one addressing you."
"The Doctor! Oh how I've waited for this day, I'm pitting my forces against The Doctor." The man rolled his eyes at him. "I on the other hand have a real name. I am Kal and I have my demands ready." Kal pulled a small list out of his coat pocket. "I will spare the remaining inhabitants of this world on the conditions that you simply submit to me and enlist in my army, where you will help me commit similar 'atrocities' throughout other dimensions. How do you respond?"

"Not happening." The Doctor snapped at him.
"Very well I'll get the uni- WHAT?" Kal's sophisticated demeanor dissolved like sugar in warm water. "You dare defy me? I'll tear this barrier down and slaughter you all."
"It's been a long time since this tactic hasn't worked hasn't it? These creatures are too peaceful to join any army that would do this." Kal smoothed his nonexistent hair.
"I will admit it's been a few decades, then again the last time I used this tactic it was against the Carrion race and they make the best shock troops you've ever seen. I don't think I've ever seen a race stubborn enough to deny me after I've wiped out this much of their population. Well that's not true; my own race refused to be concurred down to the last child so you know what I did, I wiped them out." A small smile crept its way across his face. "I still remember their children's screams, ah good memories." The Doctor stared open-mouthed at him wondering how psychopaths like this got started in the first place.
"You are disturbed."
"And loving it. I hope you know that I will be hammering this place nonstop until your shield gives in. Then I'm going to personally lead the attack, I'll remember how you scream." The depraved man turned on his heels and marched back to his army.

End of chapter 9

(I know it's not as good as the last four but it's simply a bridge to the next chpaters. I promise they will be better)

Pathetic

"It's bad enough that we have to be out searching for these morons, but do we really have to do it with another squad?" Marechiyo Ōmaeda was complaining, rather loudly, as per the usual when out on a mission and he doubted that the enemy was near. "Do the word's Stealth Force mean nothing to the old man."
"Yamamoto said he felt a familiar reiatsu, a nasty one, so yes it is necessary." Captain Hitsugaya said.
"I wasn't talking to-" He both saw and felt Hitsugaya's glare before he could finish his sentence, it cut him right off. He shrunk back behind his captain. "Stinking midget." He muttered

"Shut up." Captain Suì-Fēng elbowed him in the stomach. She pointed out to the west. "There, two unfamiliar pressures and Yumichika Ayasegawa, he seems to be keeping pace. He's either so outmatched that even a member of the eleventh squad is waiting for reinforcements or he's a prisoner. The second is far more likely." Just like that they were off, jumping rooftops in order to cover distance more quickly. They traveled in silence, more to avoid letting Ōmaeda complain than anything else. Once they could tell they were directly on top of the energy signatures they looked down into the halls below, a rather strange sight greeted them.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Rarity was feigning as hard as she could that she did not know the two hominids behind her, formerly Applejack and Rainbow Dash, now they were a pair of morons.
"For the love of Celestia! Girls would you stop that?" Rarity glared at her two companions, who both looked out from their vantage points to shush her.

"Be quiet!" Rainbow hissed.
"Sh!" Applejack whispered. "Yer gonna get us caught."
"Don't you shush me, we're in a blank hallway with no cover whatsoever, we've been in places like this for the past ten minutes, if anything walks by being quiet isn't going to do jack squat and neither is; HUGGING THE BLASTED WALLS!" Rainbow and Applejack both had their backs as flat on the walls as they could manage and had been slinking along sideways, directly under the meager overhang of the roofs above them.

"But what about the tenth squad captain, Lyra said he has wings if anything comes from above it won't be able to see us."
"You're on opposite sides of the corridor, if he comes from above he'll see one of you." Applejack chuckled nervously, removing herself from her wall.
"Ah guess that was kinda dumb." She rubbed the back of her head.

"Rainbow can't fly here, we have no idea where anything is, and we have creatures of ridiculous power after us." Rarity sighed. "I'm considering just turning ourselves in."
"No way!" Rainbow snapped. "We don't have time to be imprisoned, we have two weeks remember. And if my uncle's brush with court is anything to go by then we have no time to go through whatever system they have here."
"Yer uncle?" Applejack raised an eyebrow.
"Weathering without a licence."

Someone started laughing on a roof to their right.
"Masumoto!" A foal-like, if gruff, voice called after it.
"Cover's blown girls!" Rarity yelled, drawing her sword. Applejack and Rainbow followed suit, standing back to back they braced themselves for whatever was coming their way. "The second they give you an opening run."
"Not without you two."
"Ah second that."

Four hominids suddenly appeared, encircling them, a small one in a white robe with white hair, another smallish one also in a white robe with black hair and two massive braids, a massive one in a black robe with strangely pointed hair and a medium sized one in a black robe with orange hair.
"Sweet Celestia!" Rainbow took a step back, pointing at the big one. "That thing's huge!"
"Hey, do you know who you're talking to; I am Marechiyo Ōmaeda, and I'm plump not huge." The orange haired one snickered at Marechiyo, who growled back.
"Anyway," The orange haired one said, dismissing Marechiyo's outrage. "Ayasegawa, get over here so we can deal with those two." She gestured for Rarity to come over.

"I'm sorry." Rarity responded. "But I do believe you've mistaken me for another. I am miss Rarity and I'm not leaving my friends sides."
"Oh you're just embarrassed because they turned you into a pretty little unicorn."
"Flattery," Rarity flipped her mane. "While appealing, will get you nowhere miss." Applejack and Rainbow Dash were keeping their eyes on the two captains while Rarity did the talking. What happened next seemed to occur in slow motion for Rainbow, but for everyone else it wasn't even the blink on an eye.

"AJ look out!" The braided one had drawn her sword and lunged, Rainbow was between them, blocking the captain's blade with the flat of her own.
"What?" The captain looked openly surprised.
"They don't call me Dash for nothin'." She grunted as the captain exerted a little more force before jumping back. "Attacking from behind while she's distracted, that's cheating."
"Ah don' think she cares Rainbow." Applejack said. "Thank's fer savin' mah' hide there."
"No problem. I think it's time to see what we can do. Swords on three." Applejack and Rarity nodded. "One-"
"Two-" Applejack barked.
"Three!" Rarity shouted.

"Ribōndearu; Burēdo Fushichō!" [Be reborn; Bladed Phoenix]
"Dageki; Kyōdasha!" [Hit hard; Slugger]
"Kumo hanketsu; Kaizen!" [Cloud judgement; Refinement]

Dust flew up in the air as the blades changed form. The dust swirled for a moment, blocking the hominid's vision, they jumped back, up onto the roofs on either side.
"Captain." Marechiyo said. "I don't think that's Ayasegawa."
"She's using a different zanpakto, no it's not."
"But the reiatsu's the same? How ca-"

"Finally!" Rainbow Dash shot out from the dust cloud, propelled by wings comprised by hundreds of gleaming blades. She held a wickedly pointed short sword, shaped like a feather, in each hand. "I am back, yes!" She shouted. "Burēdo, I'm sorry I ever doubted you." She flipped through the cloud. With a beat of the new wings she dispersed it, revealing Applejack and Rarity. Rarity held a jeweled crossbow, Applejack wore a pair of knee high boots made from gleaming orange metal.

"Ah think Ah know how ta use these." She jumped up onto the roof with the braided one. "Ah don' think we were ever introduced. Name's Applejack!" She tried to dropkick the captain, who jumped back to avoid it. The kick impacted the roof, blowing it to bits. "What's yers?" She grinned.
"Captain Suì-Fēng." Marechiyo yelled, before running after her.
(Author's note: Suì-Fēng is pronounced Soy Fong)

"Hey." Rainbow shouted from above. "Which one of you's Tōshirō, come on! Toshi, Toshi-" A bolt of red energy flew by her head, silencing her.
"You will call me, Captain. Hitsugaya." The small white haired one growled.
"Yeesh Toshi's grumpy, come on let's see those wings!" Rainbow did a backflip. "I've got em, how about you?"
"Captain," The orange haired one said. "Calm down." Hitsugaya was shaking.
"Masumoto..." He growled
"Yes."
"Go get the white one while I deal with this."
"Yes sir!"

Rarity watched Hitsugaya jump after Rainbow.
"I guess it's just us." Masumoto said, jumping down next to her.
"I suppose." Rarity looked over at her. "Just between us, I'd rather not fight. We just don't have time to go through the justice system."
"Really?"
"Yes. We didn't even mean to come here, as soon as we find our friends we'll be out of your hair."
"Then how did you end up here. This isn't the kind of place you just fall into."
"Darling, that's exactly what happened. We were trying to land somewhere else. Lyra was looking for someone named Urahara."
"But he's down on earth; you're in the Soul Society, so aren't you kinda dead?"
"Don't be ridiculous, of course we're not dead."
"Since we're not fighting at the moment." Masumoto looked around. "I've got some sake hidden in my robe, wanna split it?"
"That depends, what's sake?"
"Alcohol." Rarity licked her lips.
"I guess I could go for a drink."
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
"This- is too- much- fun!" Pinkie hollered, jumping up and down.
"You've got to be kidding me." A bruised Yumichika Ayasegawa peeled Madarame Ikkaku off the floor. "She's a pastel pony, how in the hell is it even possible that we can't get around her sword?"
"Giant crocodile foot." Ikkaku mumbled.
"We've been trying for at least twelve minutes and this is what, the seventh time I've pulled you out of the floorboards?" Pinkie twirled, making the giant ethereal alligator spin with her; if the buildings in the area hadn't already been flattened then there wouldn't have been anything left.
"Come on, who's next? I'm feeling fighty."

"Hey Baldy, how're you doing?" Yachiru seemed to pop out of nowhere, as she frequently did. But this time Ikkaku was far too out of it to care.
"Hey Yachiru, you know, you always were a funny little kitty. Ha, ha."
"Wow, Baldy's not doing well. That does it." Yachiru huffed. "Featherface take Baldy to Squad Four, Unohana will have him fixed up in no time."
"Featherface?"
"I said move out!" She snapped playfully.
"Yes lieutenant." Ayasegawa started dragging Ikkaku away from the area.

Pinkie turned back around, looking at Yachiru with her usual cheery disposition.
"Hey, Yachiru look! I've got a giant alligator." She hopped up on her back legs and did a twirl. "Isn't it cool?"
"It also did quite a number on one of my subordinates."
"He tried to hit me first." Pinkie pouted.
"Hey, don't think I'm scolding you here, Ikkaku is one of the best. According to Ayasegawa you flattened him seven times. I'm impressed; I might not have to hold back all that much."
"Hold back...." In the veritable storm of stray thoughts and emotions that is Pinkie's brain one image in particular began to stand out. It was of a gruff stallion, pulling out a lawn chair and setting it up while saying.
"dis gon' be gud."
"Uh oh."

The air around Yachiru started to ripple with pink energy.
"Seeing as you can make an animal, I guess I can use mine." The pink energy began to condense around her body; the first thing to manifest was a cat's head directly in front of her face, then the torso, arms, legs and tail. The cat's body lifted Yachiru off the ground, settling her in its belly. The cat in all was about twice Yachiru's height. "Let's party!" She lunged at Pinkie who instinctively reared up, batting at her with the alligator's claws.

Yachiru's smaller animal easily avoided the claws, jumping up the alligator's ethereal arm, it climbed up to its throat and bit down. Pinkie howled in pain as a small gash appeared on her neck, seeping blood. She batted at Yachiru, tearing her off of the gator's neck. Pinkie staggered.
"I... didn't... expect that."
"Really, it's just like Dogface's. Whatever happens to the animal happens to you."

Pinkie jumped forward, hoping to catch Yachiru off guard, her claws met with nothing but dirt as Yachiru dodged and clawed at the gator's leg, opening a gash on both it and Pinkie.
"Stop that!"
"Make me!" Pinkie started stomping around the area, trying to overwhelm Yachiru with sheer force. Yachiru actually started laughing, nimbly jumping around to avoid the clawed feet. "You're no good at this; I thought you took down Baldy." Yachiru lunged up onto the gator's back and started hacking at it with her claws. Pinkie screamed and started trying to buck her off but Yachiru dug in with her teeth, only coming off when Pinkie rolled over onto her.

Pinkie rolled off and tried to run but Yachiru was faster, blocking her path. Pinkie whirled around, slapping Yachiru with her tail; the blow sent her flying into one of the few still standing structures. "Now that's more like it!" Yachiru came flying back out claws set to slash, this time Pinkie was ready for her, she batted her out of the air with a claw then bore down on her with the beast's tail, Yachiru dodged biting into the tail from the top, this caused a few hairs to fall out of Pinkie's tail. She lifted the gator's tail again and this time brought it around to the gator's face, Yachiru jumped off just before she closed its jaws around the tail causing more hairs to fall out of Pinkie's. Pinkie thrashed the tail after Yachiru who jumped up onto it, climbing up the tail to the gator's back. Pinkie started rolling immediately, not wanting Yachiru to get a hold again, Yachiru instead jumped just as Pinkie started rolling, landing on the gator's belly and clinging on tight.

Pinkie almost instinctively knew this was bad and started rubbing her stomach on the ground, dislodging Yachiru. Pinkie, coming down off the adrenaline high started panicking again, she tried to run but every path she chose would be blocked by Yachiru who would attack, opening more and more gashes over her body, Pinkie was losing blood fast. In desperation she called out.
"Somepony help me!"
"Who's gonna hear you." Pinkie whirled around to face Yachiru. "Twilight's with Kenny." She pointed to the north, dust and debris filled the air, probably from Kenpachi attacking Twilight. "I don't know where the others are but if I was looking for them I would follow the fires." Yachiru pointed out to the south and sure enough Pinkie could see the orange haze of fire. Who was she kidding, she was in the middle of a war zone, caught between the fires in the south and Kenpachi in the north.

Pinkie's gaze hardened and her hair fell flat, the storm of activity in her mind slowed as she focused. She took account of the situation, she was trapped, Yachiru was too fast to get away from, in order to get away and live she would have to go through her. A headlong attack won't work. She grit her teeth and dug in her hooves. But that might. She charged, head down. Yachiru gathered herself and pounced up to grab onto the gator's head. Pinkie grinned and spun in place, bringing the gator's tail around and smashing Yachiru into the ground, dust flew up from the impact and the ground shook. Pinkie turned back around, wanting to be sure that Yachiru wasn't getting up. She walked up to the edge of the hole that her tail had made in the ground. The second she stepped up to it she knew that was a mistake.

"Hey Pinkie!" Pinkie flinched, losing that last second that she might have gotten away in. "Good job." Yachiru sprang up into the belly of the gator, tearing into it towards Pinkie. Pinkie's body showed the effects of the hit, her stomach opened up, blood flew from the wound. She coughed up more, Pinkie wasn't sure she had enough of the stuff to keep this up. Yachiru reached Pinkie inside the alligator. "Aww you look tired." Yachiru was grinning ear to ear, her eyes lit with a battle craze. "Let's put you to sleep." She raised her unsheathed blade and brought it down into Pinkie's collarbone sticking it through her shoulder and into her lung.
"Please." Pinkie choked out as the world went black. "Help..."
"Fine, but only because you said please."
________________________________________________________________________________________________
"Facinating." Kurotsuchi poured over the data. "Nemu, according to this it and I have the same energy signature. For all intensive purposes this little pony is me."
"Should I re-calibrate the machinery sir?"
"No it's working perfectly. But one of the nodes above its ear is a little too far to the right, fix that." Nemu reached up and moved the electrode to be more squared between the other two on that side of Fluttershy's head. "She's in Jinzen, that explains why we can't remove the sword or move her limbs for that matter." He drummed his fingers on the dashboard.

"That's odd." Nemu looked over his shoulder.
"How many times have I told you not to do that?" He snapped at her. "But what's odd?"
"The zanpakto is just trailing her and there's a third entity in there."
"Well the third entity is obviously just some challenge her sword came up with. It's not that strange."
"But haven't we seen these readings before?"

"Have we..." Kurotsuchi opened some old files. "Yes this signature does look familiar." He punched in the numbers. "I'll run the numbers." Bount; negative, Arrancar; negative, Sword Fiend; negative. "Hmmm." The computer blinked. "Uh oh. Nemu, gather the equipment." Nemu took the electrodes off Fluttershy. "Hurry up before I shut the room on you."
"Yes sir." She picks up her pace a little. "If you don't mind me asking, what's wrong?"
"She's got a hollow."

Meanwhile inside Fluttershy's head.

"This was a bad idea, a very bad idea." Fluttershy muttered to herself. Her voice, normally so quiet that no one around could hear her most of the time, was amplified in this place to the point where Fluttershy was making herself jump almost every time she opened her mouth. "Come on Fluttershy, get it together, where's that confidence from when you told off the sword?" A twig snapped somewhere to her right and she jumped. "Oh right." She shrunk back down. "Why is it so important that I learn its name anyway?" Lyra's words back in the throne room came back to her. "Darn it." She immediately covered her mouth in embarrassment. "I didn't mean to say that." She thought for a second. "Yes I did. This entire situation is ridiculous, I'm in some alternate dimension and my sword, who was supposed to help me, pulls me into this place and then refuses to have anything to do with me. It's not okay!" She sat back on her rump

"Oh poor Fluttershy." She knew this voice; she remembered it from when Discord had messed with her mind."
"I can't deal with this right now."
"Too bad." The Rage thing crawled out from the undergrowth. "What's wrong, you didn't think you'd have to deal with me in this place did you?" It was different this time, last time it had simply been a ball of animalistic rage, now it stood taller, there was a glint behind its eyes and it bore a malefic smile as it looked down at her. "Hello Flutts, I missed you down here, since you buried me." Fluttershy started scrambling backwards but the Rage thing was fast, it had her pinned down before she could make it much of anywhere.

"Get off me!" Fluttershy screamed, kicking at it.
"Oh shushushushush, I don't wanna hurt you, I wanna help you. I've been evolving the longer you stay in this place, pretty soon I'll be strong enough to take control permanently. And you can stay down here; never have to worry about what's going on out there, you'll be safe. Just let me make the choices; don't deny you liked it when you were me." It flicked its tail, slapping her flank. "Both times."

Fluttershy gasped in surprise.
"Both times?"
"Oh that's right, you don't remember. Here, let me 'help' you." It slammed its forehead into hers, causing her time as a shadow to come back to her in a flurry of images and sensations. Fluttershy stammered, struggling to make sense of the scenes running through her head.
"I-I did all that." It nodded, smiling even wider.
"We did, it felt good didn't it?"
"N-no!" Fluttershy yelled shoving the Rage thing off of her. "I'm not like that, that's not good. What would Angel think."

"Why you little!" It growled at her. The place rumbled suddenly, it chuckled. "You feel that? This place is mine now! I tried to be nice, tried to make it a mutual deal, but let's face it, that's just not me." The world started crumbling into blackness below. "Run, run as fast as you can, the abyss can't catch you little gingerbread mare." It cackled as Fluttershy ran.

The armored figure came out of the bushes next to her, it scooped up Fluttershy and ran.
"Hello." Fluttershy said meekly. "Do you think I could have your name now, I have no Idea who to thank."
"No! Don't you dare!" The Rage thing yelled after them. The armored one made no movement suggesting that it had any intention of telling anyone its name. The Rage thing howled in pain and the blackness stopped advancing, the world started piecing itself back together.

Outside.

"Nemu did you feel that?"
"Yes sir and so did she."
"What's she doing now?"
"Just standing there." Fluttershy's body was frozen in place, the mask that had formed when the hollow had taken over was crumbling, Fluttershy's jawline became visible before it stopped.
"What in the afterlife? Nemu take a note. Hollow transformations can be delayed by large enough power surges. Yes that should be useful."

Back inside.

"What the candy coated hell was that?" The Rage thing yelled at the top of its lungs. "I can't move anymore, what's going on?" The armored one lifted its visor for a second, as if to confirm it wasn't seeing things. Fluttershy tried to get a look at its face and the visor slammed back down
"You want to protect me right?" It nodded. "Put me down." It hesitated for a second but put her down onto the forest floor. Fluttershy started walking up to the Rage thing. The armored figure reacted, reaching out to stop her. "Ah, ah, ah." Fluttershy chastised it like a misbehaving puppy. "You aren't allowed to help until I know your name." She took another step towards the Rage thing; the armored being's reaction was almost comical. It fell to its knees and clenched its hands together, begging her to stop. She almost did but this was no time to relent. "Your name?" It held up its hands in frustration, Fluttershy took another step and it relented, slumping a bit before removing its visor and tossing it to her.

"No, no, no, don't you dare." Fluttershy picked up the visor, flipping it over and putting it on; there etched into the metal was the name.
"Gādo." Fluttershy breathed.
"Noooooooooo!" The world faded to white.

Fluttershy opened her eyes behind another mask; she quickly pried it off before it turned to dust in her hooves. The door next to her decompressed with a hiss before opening.
"Congratulations, you've provided us with valuable research data. But I still need a specimen." Kurotsuchi walked in unsheathing his sword. "Just so you know, I have no qualms dissecting a creature with my reiatsu."
"Sir." A small voice said from behind him.
"What? Can't you see I'm busy?"
"Aizen, remember."
"Oh fine." He looked back towards Fluttershy. "Where'd she go? Dammit Nemu, you let the subject escape!"

Fluttershy sighed in relief as she flew away, keeping low to the ground.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
"Sure Yachiru, things are about to get ugly here anyway." Kenpachi said.
"Now you're just trying to make me jealous." Yachiru puffed out her cheeks in a pout.
"You should probably go before Ikkaku or someone gets her." Yachiru was gone in the blink of an eye. "Now that that's out of the way. Hey Lyra, I knew you were familiar, Heartstrings welcome back."
"Heartstrings?" Twilight looked up at Lyra.
"I only ever gave out my last name while I was here."

"It's a shame." Kenpachi sighed. "Kurosuchi's missed you, said you were one of the jewels of the twelfth squad. But enough about the old days, who wants to take me on first?"
"Twilight." Lyra hissed. "We won't be able to take him one at a time; if we go together we might have a chance." Twilight was frozen in fear, she remembered this pressure, she remembered that gleam in his eye, she remembered what they meant, Twilight's brain blanked and she gave into what every cell in her body was screaming at her, she scrambled to her feet and ran. "Twilight wait!" Lyra yelled after her, she looked back at Kenpachi. "I guess I'm first."

"Good." He opened his shirt. "Free shot."
"I have no chance do I?"
"I'm giving you the free shot."
"I'll take that as a no." She drew her blade and squared it off. "But I've gotten better since I was last here. Bankai, kyōshin; Kinzoku Ōkesutora!" [Final Release, Resonate; Metal Orchestra.] Lyra's sword glowed, morphing into the ax that was her bankai.
"I see you don't need the free shot."

"I would still like the free shot." She charged, swinging the ax at his neck, he brought his own sword up to block; the ringing sound of steel on steel filled the air.
"Sorry bankai's don't get freebies." He lunged meaning to run Lyra through, she twisted around bringing the ax around for another attempt. Kenpachi grabbed the blade, raising his own to hack down, Lyra pulled a string and a concussive blast of sound put some distance between them. "I forgot you deal with sound, that's why you would've been laughed out of my squad."
"Shut up before I make you shit yourself."
"You can do that?"
"Try me."

Kenpachi jumped forward, swinging down with his sword, Lyra blocked, Kenpachi started pushing down on her. Lyra grinned taking a hand off the ax. "Hado number four Byakurai!" [way of destruction #4 Pale Lightning] electricity flowed from her hand striking Kenpachi in the chest and sending him flying into the walls of the hallway, bringing it down on him. He pushed his way out from the rubble.
"Kido, that's dirty pool."
"Well I was in squad twelve." She flourished the ax. "What else can you expect from one of Kurosuchi's brats?" She charged this time, she slammed the ax into the ground vaulting herself into the air over Kenpachi, she braced the ax with her feet and pointed her other hand behind herself. "Hado number fifty eight Tenran!" [way of destruction #58 swelling storm] A gust of wind propelled her down onto Kenpachi, she drove the ax down on him, the force was more than tripled. Dust and rubble flew into the air, Lyra jumped back out. "I forgot how fun this is."

"Glad to see you're into it." Kenpachi's power surged, pushing away the dust surrounding him, there was a gash across his chest from where he had just barely managed to avoid being speared. "Now I can cut loose." He pulled off the eye patch, the energy became a physical force pushing down on any and everything in the area, the walls around him exploded out. Lyra grabbed at something invisible just above her head, pulling it down to reveal the skull-like hollow mask.
"Bring it!" They squared off with each other, trying to read the other's next move. Kenpachi was the first to move, charging outright, Lyra sidestepped clashing blades to prevent a sidesweep. As he passed she brought her ax up to chop at his back, he whirled around blocking the strike. "Hado numb-" Kenpachi punched her in the jaw before she could finish, sending her flying into another wall.

"That's for the Byakurai!"
"Fair enough, if I can use Kido then you can punch me." Lyra peeled herself off the wall, spitting out a tooth into the mask. She charged, the air became filled with the sounds of metal as they faced off, both trying for the upper hand, one less so than the other. "You're still holding back." Lyra was covered in nicks and gashes much like her opponent.
"You wan't me to really let it go?"
"I don't know, do I live longer or go for the twenty second thrill ride?"
"No choice anymore." It was like someone had broken down a dam, the power flung Lyra away, she had to dig into the ground with her ax to avoid being blown away completely.
"Shoulda kept my mouth shut." The wind cut out and Kenpachi started walking towards her, dragging his sword's tip along the ground. Lyra was finding it hard to breath under the pressure of his power. "Really... should have... kept... my mouth shut." She shakily raised the axe, fighting against every cell in her body.

"And that," The power seemed to cut out, letting Lyra breath again and causing her to flip over from the force she had been using just to lift her arms. "Is why I hold back."
"I see." Lyra coughed. "So back to the grind." She lifted her ax again.
"Actually, I'm getting bored." Lyra grinned.
"Let's see what we can do about that." She struck a cord, blasting Kenpachi with sound and forcing him back a few steps. Lyra tried to take advantage of the momentary distraction to charge him but Kenpachi swung at her, forcing her to jump over him, but not before he managed to cut open the front of her robe, just barely not cutting open her chest. Lyra and Kenpachi both were too caught up in the fight to notice.

Lyra struck three cords causing three waves of energy to fly at Kenpachi who blocked each one deflecting them with his sword, Lyra was directly behind them not giving him any time to recover, she brought down the ax, opening a gash down from his right shoulder to his left leg, she brought the ax back up and was blocked by Kenpachi who drove his forehead into Lyra's. She staggered from the force of the blow, he brought his sword up for an undercut but Lyra blocked, pointing her palm at him. "Hado number thirty three, Sōkatsui!" [Blue Firefall] The blaze of energy hit Kenpachi in the face, sending him reeling back. Lyra didn't give him time to recover, she leaped at him bringing her ax down on him, she managed one hit to his chest before he recovered.

"You know those aren't as good without the incantations right?"
"Are you going to give me time to say them?"
"No."
"Well there you go." She twisted her body, swinging the ax at him. "Ōkesutora, Suchīrukōdo!" [steel cord] The strings of the guitar came loose becoming a series of razor tipped whips that lashed out at Kenpachi once he blocked the ax, opening cuts that oozed blood, the strings fastened themselves back onto the guitar. Kenpachi flinched as he noticed a familiar reiatsu behind him.

"Parusu Arukana!" [Pulse Arcana] A chained blade of purple energy flew past Kenpachi's head, burying itself in the dirt. "Aw buck." Twilight ended up getting pulled down the chain, landing on her face next to Lyra.
"Hey Bookworm, welcome back."
"And where have you been?" Lyra snapped, not taking her eyes off Kenpachi for a second. Twilight pulled her head out of the dirt.
"Sorry, I panicked. I'm here now." She stared up at Lyra for a moment. "Uh Lyra, your shirt."
"What?" She looked down. "Oh." She tore a strip of the ripped cloth off and wrapped it around her chest. "Thanks. Kenpachi you perv, why didn't you tell me sooner?"
"Hey; I didn't notice."

Twilight got to her feet, she was still terrified, she wrenched the pulsating blade out of the ground and spun it on its chain. The blade looked as if someone had put a lightning bolt shaped Tesla Coil on a handle, on the end of the handle there was a chain that seemed to change length depending on how far the user wanted it to go. Twilight let go of the chain and the sword flew at Kenpachi who blocked with his own blade, the chains pooled on the ground in front of him.
"Lyra!" Twilight pulled on the chain; the chains started shooting back at her. Lyra took the chance to jump behind Kenpachi hacking down on his back with the ax.

"More dirty dueling?"
"Back where I come from teamwork is everything, sorry." Lyra teased Kenpachi. The glint in her eyes was starting to worry Twilight.
"Fine." Kenpachi started moving decidedly faster, Lyra was a flurry of movement just trying to hold him off.
"Parusu!" Twilight yelled the chain extended again, throwing the blade into the storm that was Lyra and Kenpachi, the sword buried itself in Kenpachi's thigh, Twilight yanked on the chain but instead of the blade coming out of his leg it dragged him over to her. Twilight blanched, her back to a building, she had had nowhere to go. Kenpachi swung at her, Twilight ducked and the sword went through the building instead of her neck, Kenpachi looked up and yanked her blade out of his leg, a spray of blood followed it and he jumped back.

"Huh?" Twilight looked back, Kenpachi had severed a support beam, the building began to lean and creak before barreling down at her. "Uh oh."
"Twilight run!" She turned back around but at the sight of Kenpachi about to bring his sword down on Lyra found herself unable to move her feet, instead she picked up her sword and flung it between Lyra and Kenpachi, knocking the blade off course. The building impacted, crushing Twilight.
"Pathetic."
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

The End of the Beginning

Chapter 12: The End of the Beginning.

Rainbow Dash charged down to meet Hitsugaya in the air, slamming her two swords down on his one. He continued to push, shoving her back through the air.
“Whoa! How’d you manage that?” Rainbow grinned down at him. She flipped backwards, bringing a foot up to meet with his jaw; it sent Hitsugaya into a spin while Rainbow gained the high ground. “Hey Tōshi, catch me if you can!” She sped off, goading Hitsugaya on further. He seethed at Rainbow a moment before running to follow her.

“You will call me Captain Hitsugaya.” He jumped up at her, bringing his sword up to hack, Rainbow blocked easily and pushed herself faster.
“Too slow Captain Tōshi! And you will call me Rainbow Dash the amazing, lighten up kid.” She pushed herself even faster. “I don’t plan to call you anything else until I see those wings.” He lunged again and Rainbow flew circles around him, taunting him with every flap of her wings until.

“Enough!” Hitsugaya yelled, stressing his power enough to push Rainbow away. “You want to see my bankai, fine. Bankai, sōten ni zase; Daiguren Hyōrinmaru!” [Final release, reign over the frosted heavens; Grand Crimson Lotus Ice Ring] The air around him froze over, solidifying and chilling the area around it. Rainbow shivered from the sudden chill.
“Oh this will be fun.” A voice said in her mind.
“Burēdo, is that you?”
“You bet your ass.”
“I don’t even know a donkey.”
“I-I-I… Nevermind. Whatever, I just want you to go supersonic real quick.”
“What? Piece of cake.”

At that moment the ice around Hitsugaya shattered, revealing Hitsugaya with what looked to be a dragon made of ice coiled onto his body, its head was over his right arm, his other limbs had been replaced by the dragon’s, he had a tail and the wings stretched out impressively. There were what appeared to be four flowers over his head in a circle.
“That’s cool.” She pointed dumbly for a second. “Heh, heh, cool.”

“Now, what is my name?” He growled at her.
“Huh?”
“I’m not moving until you get my name right.”
“Oh,” Rainbow took off gathering speed, “catch me if you can Hitsugaya.”
“That’s Captain!” He flew after her.

Rainbow was loving the sound her new wings made as they tore through the air, she was used to the sort of ruffling noise feathers made but this was something else entirely, instead of an unsteady sound this was a constant wizzing, the kind of noise that you get when you swing a particularly sturdy stick really hard, the sound was also making the metal of the blades vibrate and give off an almost melodious ringing. She reveled in the sound as she approached the sound barrier, leaving Hitsugaya further and further behind her.

The familiar mach cone started forming around her.
“Wait for it.” It pulled in tighter and tighter across her body. “Wait for it.” The wall that was the sound barrier presented itself to her. “Now!”
“Ribōndearu!” The familiar shock wave of a sonic rainboom flowed over her body, but this time something was off, there was more than simple pressure there was heat and a the roar of flame. She turned back to look. “Wow… Burēdo, you get more awesome every second.”

Instead of her normal trail of rainbows the air roared with fire, blocking Hitsugaya’s path and setting the sky ablaze. She looked down at her swords, flames trailed off the blades and a fierce glow emanated from the blades that formed her wings. “Fire against ice huh. Oh this will be so cool.” She dove through the flame barrier, swords at the ready. Hitsugaya charged back, sheer cold trailing off his blade.

They collided in the air, Rainbow’s swords ringing against the steel of Hitsugaya’s blade, she flipped over him to keep her momentum, he chased after her, she blocked his sword with the metal of her wings, spinning to keep her speed, she swooped down low bringing the battle into the hallways where her practiced maneuverability would have the upper hand. “Come and get me ice boy.” She muttered. Instead of following her chunks of ice started to rain down. “Alright maybe not.” She swooped back up, maneuvering her way around the blasts of cold bearing down on her. “You cheater!” She swung her sword at an especially large chunk of ice, it burst into steam and she shot through, bringing the fires of her blades against the ice of his.

“We never established rules.” He pushed down on her and she pushed back, heat and cold pushing against each other in the air, Rainbow drew back her second blade and pushed his sword under hers, allowing her to surge forwards blades set to stab when suddenly he disappeared.
“What?” Rainbow hovered in the air, looking around for her opponent. “Now that’s just not fair.”
“How so?” Hitsugaya’s voice rang out behind her; she whirled around to face him. “You did the same thing to protect your friend.” He brought his sword down to strike. Rainbow deftly countered knocking his blade to the side and swinging at him, he disappeared again.
“Yeah right, I may be quick but I’m not that fast.” She grinned, looking around for him.

“You countered Suì-Fēng when she was using her Shunpo, I’d say you’re faster.”
[Shunpo = Flash Step]
Rainbow lashed out at the spot she heard his voice coming from, managing to open a small cut on his arm before he disappeared again.
“Enough with the vanishing act, you’re worse than Twilight.”
“I’m not as fast as Suì-Fēng, you should be able to follow me rather easily.” To her right. “Or maybe that was just dumb luck.” To her left? “Well?” Behind her?

“Would you, STOP THAT?!” The fire on her wings exploded out, bathing the area around her in flames, Hitsugaya appeared to her right, patting out a flame that had caught on his sleeve. The only problem was that she was too far away to make it by the time he was finished, but she was gonna try. She was suddenly next to him; she swung at him, opening a gash on his shoulder before she realized what had just happened. Hitsugaya tried to get away again but this time she could see him, she swooped in front of him, blocking his escape. “Well, well, looks like I am that fast.” He pushed away from her.

“Hyōryū Senbi!” [Ice Dragon Swirling Tail] He swung his sword causing a wall of ice to shoot out at Rainbow.
“Hey Rainbow, swing the swords and repeat after me.”
“Fenikkusutoreiru!” [Phoenix Trail] A wave of fire erupted from the swords in her hands, cancelling out the ice from Hitsugaya’s blade, the ice erupted into steam and Rainbow dove through brandishing her swords. Hitsugaya blocked, pushing her away, they dove at eachother, sparks flying as their blades met.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
“I have a little sister and a cat to go home to and he traumatizes me just to prove a point. Then he turns out to be completely useless.” Rarity waved her crossbow in the air. “I don’t even know what this thing is!” Turns out Rarity, is a lightweight.
“I think you’ve had enough.” Masumoto, despite the fact that she was supposed to be capturing the unicorn, was worried.
“I’ve only had one bowl.” Rarity pouted.
“Yes, but this is the good stuff, I snuck it from squad eight’s barracks.”
“The guy with the floral print robe?” Rarity raised an eyebrow.
“That’s the one.” Masumoto puffed out her chest, obviously proud that she had managed to sneak alcohol from the biggest addict in the place.

“Tell me, I’ve seen many a floral print in my life and it almost always stinks. So does he… make it work?” She winced slightly, praying that she wouldn’t have to face something that was as unappealing to look at as it was to fight.
“I’d say he does but his lieutenant doesn’t think so. And it’s a break from the dress code so I’m not sure how he gets away with it on duty.” Masumoto put a finger up to her chin in contemplation.
“Well that’s a relief, if there’s one thing I will not stand for it’s a lousy dresser. Do you smell something burning?” Rarity sniffed the air.

“Bacroof!” The sky seemed to explode into flame as Rainbow Dash broke the sound barrier.

“Sweet Celestia, what was that?!” Rarity covered her face and curled up.
“Either Hitsugaya is kicking your friend’s ass or the other way around.” Masumoto whistled, “Guess you could say she’s ‘on fire’.”
“Why would there be a donkey up there?” Rarity cocked her head.
“No, ass is another word for a person’s butt here.”
“That seems kind of racist.” Rarity huffed, above such vulgarity. Masumoto fell over laughing. “Laugh all you like, but racism is below the belt at all times and as such should not be included in civilized conversation.”
“I thought this was drunken conversation.” Masumoto stopped laughing.

Applejack came crashing through a wall to their left, planting herself face first in the ground. Both Masumoto and Rarity doubled over laughing. Applejack pulled herself out of the dirt as Marechiyo walked through the hole she had left, holding a large flail and grinning down at her. Applejack looked over at Rarity.
“Hey Rar’, Ah’m glad to see you’ve made a new friend but Ah could use some help over here.”

“Oh alright.” She sighed, lifting the crossbow. What she did next was both an ingenious stroke of luck and a perfect example of why one should never operate projectile weapons while drunk. Rarity picked up the crossbow sideways, the firing end was trained on Applejack while Rarity thought she was aiming for Marechiyo.

“Uhh Rar’ Ah think Ah’m good now.”
“Shh, I’m concentrating.” Rarity decided she had the shot lined up and squeezed the trigger with her magic. Applejack turned around to run and Suì-Fēng took it as an opportunity to take her out from behind, having been behind Marechiyo and having missed most of the conversation. A bolt of blue energy flew from the end of the bow, striking Suì-Fēng in the back, directly into her heart. She gasped and clutched at her chest for a second before crumpling to the ground.

Rarity and Masumoto again doubled over laughing.
“Did you see that?” Rarity howled.
“Just… kerplunk.” Masumoto guffawed.
“Captain!” Marechiyo yelled, sprinting over to her. He picked her up. She muttered something. “She’s alive?” Suì-Fēng started grinning stupidly in her sleep.

“Mmmmm, Yurochi-Sama.” She pursed out her lips and Marchiyo dropped her like a hot iron. At this point even Applejack, who felt like she had just been flattened, was laughing.
You-you…” Marechiyo was sputtering with rage. “What did you do to my captain?” He trudged towards Rarity.
“I have no idea.” Rarity started laughing even harder.
“You bitch, I’ll kill you!” He lifted the flail, meaning for it to come down on the hysterical mare.

“Ah don’ think so!” Applejack put a kick into his back, sending him flying into the air. She jumped up after him, spinning and performing a dropkick into his stomach, as the fires from Dash’s battle danced around her. “An’ that’s fer knockin’ me through a wall.” Marechiyo landed in front of Rarity forcing her and Masumoto to shield their eyes from the debris. Applejack came down on him with her knees, forcing him down even further into the dirt.

“Woo!” Rarity threw her hooves in the air and cheered. With both Suì-Fēng and Marechiyo down for the count, all that remained was for Rainbow to wrap up her fight with Hitsugaya. The air was blooming in red, orange, yellow and white as the two airborne combatants threw everything they had at each other. Rarity and Masumoto were regarding the fight as a sort of fireworks show.

They saw the pressure wave before they felt it, the fire lit sky suddenly became pale blue as the flames dissipated in wake of the shock wave. Once it hit there wasn’t a thing that wasn’t nailed down that stayed where it was, the shingles of the buildings on either side of them were blown to dust, it knocked the alcohol clean out of both Rarity and Masumoto and sent them flying, Suì-Fēng and Marechiyo were jolted awake and flung into the building to their right, Applejack only managed to stay put because of a useful feature in her boots, two plates of metal descended from the sides of her boots and bolted themselves into the ground preventing her from being blown away. Rainbow Dash and Hitsugaya both were knocked from the sky and sent careening back down to the ground, it seemed like a miracle that the buildings were still standing.
“What the buck?” Rainbow yelled just before she smashed into the dirt.

Each of them wrenched themselves out of the wall or patch of earth that they found themselves smashed into, just as quickly as the power had come, it was gone, the overwhelming pressure that had sent half of them flying was suddenly gone, it was as if whatever had generated the energy had simply crashed through the area and departed this realm entirely.

“Captain Hitsugaya, was that?” Masumoto helped her captain pull himself out of the remains of his bankai.
“I believe so Masumoto. The intruders are of no concern any longer, Aizen is loose.”
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yachiru stood with her blade in Pinkie’s shoulder, watching the lights behind her eyes go out. She chuckled to herself, yanking the sword out of her, sheathing it, and turning to walk out of the fading pink gator. She hopped out of the hole she had made and looked back at the corpse that had once been the only being in existence who could match her exuberance and it started laughing. Yachiru rubbed her eyes, sure she was seeing things, but it kept laughing as the gator once more solidified, the hole she had opened in its stomach disappearing.

“Oh Pinkie Pie!” Pinkie yelled in a singsong voice. “You had no idea how to use this thing properly, did you?” Pinkie rolled over onto her stomach, facing away from Yachiru and pushed herself up to her hooves. She turned around and Yachiru’s eyes went wide, unsure what to make of what she was seeing. Pinkie’s face couldn’t be seen, in its place there was a white mask shaped like a foxes head with a purple stripe down the middle, the eye holes were two different sizes and the mouth was a smile that curled up behind its eyes giving the mask a crazed look to it, Pinkie’s eyes had turned from blue to red and the whites of her eyes had turned black. “Then sit back Pinkie and let aunty Pinkamena show you how it’s done. Hachūrui, daun kamu!” [Reptilian, bite down]

The alligator shimmered for a second before shrinking down onto Pinkamena’s body, grafting ethereal claws onto its hooves and turning the gator’s head into a helmet with ghostly jaws ready to rend through their target. Pinkamena started laughing, the singsong tilt never leaving its voice even once it was practically screaming. “Now Yachi,” Its voice lost the singsong tilt to it and gained that strange quality that vizard’s voices have, like the person is talking through a fan. Yachiru blinked and the voice was right next to her. “That hurt a lot you know.” Yachiru turned and Pinkamena raked its claws across Yachiru’s face, blood oozed from the wounds and into her eyes.

Yachiru jumped back, reaching into her robe for a bottle of salve that she had stolen from Ikkaku, she poured its contents into her hand and rubbed it onto her forehead, stopping the blood flowing into her eyes. She wiped the already drying blood off of her face.
“I’ll admit, you’re faster than I expected.” She spat out some blood that had found its way into her mouth. “This’ll be fun.” She jumped at Pinkamena who dodged and clawed at her, Yachiru brought her sheathed sword up to block the claws, they cut through the sheath and bit into the blade before stopping.

“You have no idea.” Pinkamena chuckled. “I really should thank you.” Pinkamena yanked its claws out of the sword, jumping back. “If it weren’t for you, I would have never proved my point.” Yachiru unsheathed her sword, inspecting the four dents in the metal.
“And that would be?” Yachiru jumped forward, bringing her blade down towards Pinkamena. It blocked the sword with a sweep of its hoof, pinning the blade with its claws.
“That she’s alone, that I’m the only one she can really count on.” Pinkamena hacked down with the other hoof opening a series of shallow gashes along Yachiru’s side.

Yachiru pulled her sword out from underneath Pinkamena’s hoof and bringing it up, meaning to cut into Pinkamena’s belly but it moved and opened another set of cuts in Yachiru’s back, causing her to stumble forwards. “And now, I’m going to kill you the way you killed her.” Pinkamena lunged; opening a set of cuts on Yachiru’s left leg. “I’ll wear you down,” Across her chest, “make you weak,” Down her arms, “unable to move,” Across the back of her knees, forcing her down onto the ground. “I’m going to make you call for help and no one will be there to save you, just me.” It stood over Yachiru glaring down at her through those crooked eyeholes. “And you’ll beg for death.” Yachiru started giggling. “Why are you doing that?” It growled.

“I haven’t had an opponent this strong before.” She forced herself to her feet, stumbling from the pain. “I hope you stay this good.” Pinkamena growled at her and lunged, Yachiru dodged and struck from behind, just managing to clip its tail. Pinkamena whirled around opening all three sets of jaws and biting into Yachiru’s wrist, causing her to yelp in pain and drop her sword. Pinkamena kicked the blade away and let go of her wrist, allowing Yachiru to jump away, cradling her crushed arm.
“Now, where were we?” Pinkamena cackled, walking over to her. “Oh yes, I was making you crawl.” It brandished its talons in Yachiru’s face, drawing one up the middle of her face and slicing it down the middle. Yachiru twitched, signaling that beneath her expressionless face she was screaming.

Pinkamena leaned in close, drawing the talon down Yachiru’s face, neck and right shoulder. “Oh it’s alright pet; you can scream all you want.” It whispered. Instead of screaming, Yachiru punched its bottom jaw, sending it flying away.
“You’re no fun anymore!” Yachiru yelled, picking herself up again. “You’re just being mean.” She grabbed her sword and leaped after Pinkamena, who had pulled itself out of the dirt.
“Fine, let’s do this the hard way.” It spat.

The battle was frantic. Yachiru hacked down, blocked by Pinkamena’s claws; Pinkamena attacks with its other foreleg, blocked by her sword hilt, Yachiru lashed out with a kick, squaring Pinkamena in the jaw, it snarled and tried to bite the offending limb but Yachiru yanked her leg away and brought her crippled right arm around and into its stomach, wincing as she made contact. Pinkamena coughed as it tried to regain control of its diaphragm, still lashing out with any and every part of its body.

Yachiru finally managed to score a cut along its shoulder, hardly a consolation seeing as she was covered in gashes and bruises. “AAARRGAH! You little, I’ll tear you apart!” The wound healed itself, abandoning the pink fur for skeletally white armor. It jumped at her, intending to tear into her with all four sets of talons, Yachiru dodged and cut across its back. Pinkamena howled and whirled around, blindly thrashing at anything it could get its claws on.

Alright, She thought, the trick is to keep it angry. She blocked another headlong attack, bracing herself on her left leg as Pinkamena drove her back trough the dirt, Yachiru took her right arm and punched Pinkamena in the eye, driving it away. It roared in pain, clutching its face and rolling in the dirt. Yachiru regarded the creature before her with contempt.

“You’re pathetic.” Yachiru glared at Pinkamena, who stopped whimpering, jerking as if it had forgotten that there was still an opponent to deal with. But only for a second, it curled back up and started sniffling again. Yachiru walked up, meaning to stab the creature.
“Gotcha!” Pinkamena sprang up, digging all three sets of teeth into Yachiru’s shoulder, she screamed, Pinkamena twisted and yanked until Yachiru’s entire left shoulder gave way, ripping off of her body in a spray of blood and blinding pain.

Pinkamena swallowed the chunk of meat and bone that she had wrestled off, and started laughing, a wheezing sound that came strait from the pits of insanity, it almost sounded more like a cough than a laugh. Yachiru staggered back, trying to hold the left side of her body together with her already crippled right, her sword clattered to the ground, tears streamed down her face as she fought not to openly sob, blood ran through her fingers and down her robe to the dirt, she fell to her knees in pain. All the while that mocking, wheezing laugh never stopped.

“Who’s pathetic now, you bitch?” The mouth of the mask hung open, dripping blood, Pinkamena’s tongue lolled out between the dripping teeth as she spoke between chuckles. “Buck the slow death; I’m just going to eat you, right here right now!” The edges of Yachiru’s vision started to go dark as the hollow sauntered over, getting closer every time her vision went black. She struggled to even try to get up. “Still fighting are we?” It turned around. “Here, let me help you!” It lashed out with its back legs, crashing into her chest, smashing ribs and organs alike. She was thrown several meters back to land crumpled into a broken, twisted heap. Her vision went dark again; the last thing she saw before she was swallowed by blackness was Pinkamena, laughing at her.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
“Hey, Yachiru.” She knew that voice. “Get up.”
“Ken…ny?” She forced her eyes to focus. Kenpachi was standing above her, as impressive as ever, surrounded by white.
“What ‘er you doing on the ground? Get up.” He reached out to her.
“But… it hurts… Kenny.” She tried to reach back but she couldn’t move.
“You’ve seen me fight, you saw me fight Ichigo, I was in worse condition than you are.” His fingers were directly in front of her face. His hands looked sturdy, strong, not like hers.
“But… I’m not you.” She tried again to reach back out to him again but she still couldn’t move, it hurt too much to even try.

“No you’re not me, but you’re my lieutenant.” This made Yachiru stir. “Even though I want to keep a close eye on you, I wouldn’t put you in such a dangerous position if I didn’t think you could handle it, that would make me a pretty shitty parent wouldn’t it?” She managed to turn her head to look up his arm. Did he just call himself my dad? “I may not be the one who was there when you were born but I’ve looked after you since before you could talk, that makes me your dad. No father would let his little girl get herself killed like this.” She managed to move her arm to rest on his hand, so small compared to his, his hand stretched the length of her entire forearm.

“I’m not allowed to die, am I?” She smiled weakly; the pain disappeared, replaced by a pleasant numbness.
“No daughter of mine in going to die like a dog.” He smiled and wrapped his hand around her arm. “Now get up.”
“Yes sir.” She smiled wide, pain forgotten.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Her eyes snapped open, Pinkamena was about to bring its claws down on her head. Yachiru rolled to the side and forced herself up as the talons crushed into the soil; she grabbed a handful of dirt and ground it into her shoulder, stopping the bleeding.
“What?” Pinkamena stepped back, visually terrified by the new light in her eyes. Yachiru took a deep breath and felt power flowing back into her body, her crushed ribs restricted her breathing but she powered around it.
“I am Yachiru Kusajishi, daughter of Zaraki Kenpachi, Lieutenant of the Eleventh Squad of the Gotei Thirteen. And I refuse to die on my butt, if I’m going to die, I’m going to stand and fight till I die of exhaustion. This is one meal. You. Won’t. Have!”

Yachiru surged forwards, grabbing her sword off the ground as she chased after Pinkamena who was in all but full retreat. She brought her sword down on the hollow, who batted it away and tried to counterstrike, but Yachiru kicked it in the mask, sending the creature reeling, she brought her sword around and hacked through the mask. Pinkamena screamed and lashed out, blinded by the blood seeping out of its own face. It howled and simply kept moving; lashing out at anything it heard including the rocks it shifted with its fits of movement.

Yachiru came up from behind lodging her sword in its spine, stopping its movement. It wasn’t dead, its terrified breathing could still be heard but it couldn’t move while the sword was lodged between its vertebrae. “I win.” She sneered in its ear, preparing to twist the blade down through its neck. The shock wave hit, blasting Yachiru away, bringing her sword with her, there was a flash of white as the hollow regenerated but the mask only withstood the blast for a second, blowing out into dust. Pinkamena’s terrified red and black eyes flashed for a moment.
“NNNOOOO!” It wailed as its eyes turned back to the soft blue of Pinkie’s.

Just like that the power was gone, completely vanished. Pinkie looked around, panicked for a moment.
“W-w-what’s going on?” She sputtered.
“Thanks for a good fight.” Yachiru breathed, then succumbed to her wounds and passed out.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
“I can’t move… Why can’t I move…” Blackness, everything was blackness and heavy. “I can’t breathe… Why can’t I breathe… It hurts… Everything hurts…”
“You are truly pathetic; I’m going to have to save you already aren’t I.”
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
“You bastard!” Lyra pounded on Kenpachi’s sword over and over, not giving him a second to move his blade from its defensive position. “You fucking bastard!” Kenpachi jumped back, eager to avoid Lyra’s wrath.
“How in the hell was I supposed to know the supports were there?”
“You fucking live here!” She jumped into the air in an attempt to cut him down when a bolt of electricity hit her square in the face. Lyra was blown back into a wall, both her and Kenpachi turned to stare at Twilight’s zanpakto. It was going nuts, blasting off lightning every which way, the chain suddenly pulled tight sending it shooting towards the pile of rubble where Twilight had been standing. “Huh?” Lyra stood, watching the chains as they snaked their way into the rock.

“CRRRAKKK!!!” The rubble exploded out with a shockwave of energy, throwing both Lyra and Kenpachi away, the surge lasted for about a second before disappearing completely. Only once the dust cleared did Lyra feel it safe to get up, the figure standing in place of the rubble could only be described as one thing. A black hole; it looked like Twilight, granted it was wearing a black mask that looked like someone had slapped horns on the bottom jaw of a snake. The eyeholes were massive, running from the front of the snout to the back of the jaw line, there were three slits in the forehead, the snout ran from the forehead to below the two tusk like extensions that began at the back of the mask and ran around in front of the snout. Instead of being able to see her eyes there was ice blue light emanating from the eyeholes.

Lyra couldn’t feel its power, it wasn’t like she was dead and the power was gone, It felt like there was nothing there, it felt like what she was seeing wasn’t really there.
“Hey bookworm.” Kenpachi pulled himself out of the wall he had been embedded in. “I didn’t know you were a vizard too.” Twilight’s head snapped over to look at him. “Ooh, real scary. Heartstrings why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because she isn’t.” Lyra was frozen in place, despite the fact that it didn’t seem to be there, the power was still oppressive. Can’t he feel this? It’s like she’s just sucking all the energy out of the area.

“We’ll see about that.” Kenpachi charged Twilight, who didn’t move an inch. Kenpachi brought his sword down on her.
“Twilight!” Lyra yelled when the sword made contact. It stopped, clattering uselessly against her shoulder.
“What?” Kenpachi was visually shocked; he looked up into the eyes of the mask. Twilight looked over to her shoulder looking first to the blade then down its length to Kenpachi’s face. She reached over and took the blade off of her shoulder.

“This is what you were so terrified of that you could hardly bring yourself to stand your ground?” She spoke in a growling male voice, clenching her hand tight around the blade; she brought her other arm up and slugged him, sending Kenpachi flying through the walls behind him. “Disgraceful.” She grabbed the hilt of Kenpachi’s sword, which she had wrenched away from him when she had sent him flying. She released the blade and brought the palm of her hand to the tip. In a single sweeping movement she crushed the blade onto a fine metallic powder. “Pitiful.” She tossed away the hilt and grabbed the end of her sword’s chains. “Ritorakuto.” [Retract] The chains seemed to be sucked back into the handle until there was only a foot of chain left on the end of the hilt.

She pulled the chain tight. “Anata jishin o kyasuto; Shadō!” [Cast yourself; Shadow.] The chains shot through her outstretched hand forming themselves into the exact shape of the sword in her other before they solidified into a single blade, tinting itself black, darkness billowing off the blade, the chains trailing off of the blade concentrated into a handle, leaving a length of chain connecting the two blades. Twilight pulled on it, extending the chain, she threw the first blade around her shoulders, wrapping herself in the chains and leaving the purple blade hanging over her shoulder.

Twilight bounced the new blade in her hand a few times and switched to the other hand. “This will do nicely.” Kenpachi came running back through the hole.
“What have you done?” He stared in horror at the bladeless hilt that had once been his sword.
“You again?” She sneered bringing her foot up into his chest and sending him flying away with an audible snap as his ribs broke. He landed in the wall, blood seeping from between his clenched teeth. Twilight flourished her free hand and chains of shadow sprouted from the cinderblocks around him, binding Kenpachi into place.

She strolled her way over. “Tsk, tsk, tsk; I am very disappointed in you Sparkle.” She started spinning the black blade on its chain. “You let this!” She lashed the blade across his chest. “Defeat you, being regarded as a great warrior myself, I am appalled that this brute!” She lashed him again. “Got the better of you.” Lyra finally found the will to move.

“Twilight,” Twilight jerked her head to look at Lyra. “That’s enough.” She put a hand on Twilight’s shoulder. “Send it away.”
“Send it away?” Twilight brushed off Lyra’s hand, turning to face her. “Send it away? I am shadow itself, I cannot simply be sent away, I leave when I feel that this weakling can properly handle herself. You cannot simply be rid of me.” He took a step forward, brandishing his blade.

“Hey, I’m the opponent here, not her.” Kenpachi strained against his bonds, they buckled and groaned against his strength.
“Impressive.” The Shadow snapped his fingers; the bonds disappeared entirely, allowing Kenpachi to fall to the ground. “So you do have some power in you. I take it you were holding back.” The light in the eyeholes blazed for a moment, a tide of shadows brought Kenpachi’s sword hilt into The Shadow’s hand. “I should have guessed, this was a warrior’s blade.” His eyes flashed again and the dust that had been the blade was picked up by darkness, flowing back onto the hilt. The shadow waved a hand over the collection of shards; the pressure could be felt as the pieces were compressed back into their original shape.

The blackness left the sword, revealing the gleaming blade beneath. “It doesn’t like you very much does it?” The Shadow threw the sword at Kenpachi’s feet.
“How about you give me your name so I know what I’m addressing. And so I can tell it to mind its own business.” Kenpachi bent down, picking up his sword and inspecting it for a moment before he decided that he wasn’t being tricked.

“Me? I am Makuta Teridax, but I believe that my counterpart in this realm is Sosuke Aizen.” Teridax chuckled, spinning the handle of his sword in his fingers.
“Heartstrings,” Kenpachi was surprisingly calm, usually when he had an opponent this strong he would be grinning like a madman. “You may want to get a few meters back.” Lyra took the hint and turned to run. “I’ll be honest, I’ve never seen something like you before; I never got to fight Aizen. I hope you won’t disappoint.” He smiled, cutting completely loose. Teridax cocked his head, studying Kenpachi’s power as the ground under Kenpachi’s feet cracked.

“I won’t.” He said smugly. Kenpachi charged, Teridax didn’t even seem to brace himself, standing loosely. Kenpachi brought his blade down. Moving too fast to be seen, Teridax blocked the blow and smashed his fist into the side of Kenpachi’s face. Who managed to stay on his feet but was still sent reeling by the blow. Teridax hadn’t moved an inch.
“What gives?” Kenpachi shook his head to clear it.
“I said I wouldn’t disappoint, you on the other hand,” He was suddenly behind Kenpachi, “are a different matter.”

Kenpachi tried to turn around in time but Teridax took off both his arms at the elbows. Kenpachi, who had laughed in the face of death more times than he could count, was left defenseless. Teridax then slashed his heels, severing the tendons. Kenpachi’s legs gave way and he was forced down onto his stomach. Teridax picked up Kenpachi’s right arm and took the sword from its grip. “Must I always repeat myself? Pathetic.” Teridax lifted Kenpachi’s blade, moving to bring it down on his neck.

“Ryūjin Jakka!” [Flowing Blade-like Flame] An immense release of power shook across the area, flattening buildings and seeming to compress the air around them. A tongue of flame swatted Kanpachi’s zanpakto out of Teridax’s hand causing him to stagger slightly. He turned to face the new opponent, one could almost feel him glaring at the robed figure that had intervened. “I don’t know who you are brat but I know this, you are through here.” The robed figure holding the hilt to the pillar of flame that had diverted Teridax’s attack was bald with a massive beard and had a pair of scars that passed across his forehead in an x.

“Head Captain Yamamoto?” Lyra spoke, surprised that Yamamoto had decided to take up the search himself. Granted Teridax appeared immensely powerful but Yamamoto would only bring himself in on the front line if he was familiar with the threat.
“Hello Heartstrings, here to beg forgiveness for deserting?” Yamamoto turned his head slightly to look at her.
“No sir.” She reflexively saluted.
“Then you’re here as an aid to this creature?” He growled slightly, Teridax seemed to be studying him, staring up at him with what could have been mistaken for curiosity. Lyra gulped, knowing good and full well what happened when you aided the enemy.

“Not exactly.” She cringed, finding herself unable to lie to a being that could fry her in a heartbeat.
“Captains Mugamara, Ukitake book her.” Two men with white hair in captain’s robes appeared on either side of her.
“Hey Ukitake-San, Long time no see huh?” Ukitake she was familiar with, she had no idea who the other was.
“Hello Heartstrings, I see you’ve reached bankai, impressive. Mugamara-San, confiscate it.” Before she could so much as tighten her grip, the axe was ripped from her fingers. Lyra eyed the new captain, chuckling nervously.

“Geezer.” Kenpachi spoke up from his pace in the dirt. “Let him do it.”
“Excuse me.”
“He took my arms, I can’t fight like this.” Kenpachi seemed on the edge of tears.
“Fool!” Yamamoto barked. “Unlike my arm, which was burned to the point of uselessness, we can put yours back. Don’t be such a baby. What would your lieutenant think?”

“Are you done talking now?” Teridax growled, tightening his grip on his sword.
“Kyōraku, Hirako, with me.” Two others appeared, one in a floral print robe with brown curly hair and holding two strangely curved blades, the other in a traditional captain’s robe with blond hair cut to the bottom of his jawline.
“It feels like Aizen, but what’s with that shape?” The blond one stared down at Teridax, frowning slightly.
“It matters not Hirako, all that matters is that it is an intruder, a dangerous one at that.” Yamamoto looked down on Teridax with contempt.

“I don’t like that look.” Teridax growled. “You’re not allowed to look down on me.” Teridax was suddenly up there with them, behind Yamamoto. He spun around, blocking the Teridax’s dark blade with the concentrated flame of his.
“And why would that be youngster?” Teridax stepped back, breaking contact with Yamamoto’s sword.
“I am older than you can imagine, I am most likely older than your entire pathetic race.” Teridax was bristling with rage. “You have neither the power nor the authority to belittle me.” He charged again, smashing into the pillar of fire with every once of strength he could muster, he came crashing through it, he reached out with the hand that wasn’t on the blade and grabbed Yamamoto’s face.

Teridax drove his opponent down into the ground, dust and debris flew from the impact. “I have killed and overthrown gods, you are meaningless.” He lifted Yamamoto by his neck, growling as he squeezed. Suddenly there was a sharp pain and a gash along his stomach, he dropped Yamamoto and clutched his midriff. “What?” He whirled around to be greeted by Kyōraku, who had raked one of his strange blades along Teridax’s shadow.

“Your turn, catch me if you can.” Kyōraku jumped away, hoping to distract him for a moment; Teridax started laughing.
“Shadow tag? Bad move.” He lifted his empty palm and closed it into a fist, Kyōraku Crumpled like a rag doll, his limbs sticking out at odd angles. “You are dealing with the master of shadows; that may have been the biggest and last mistake of your life.”
“Hyōryū Senbi!”
“Fenikkusutoreiru!” Ice cascaded down on him, followed by a blaze of fire, freezing and burning warred for attention in his mind, He staggered, trying to drown out the two conflicting signals.

Rainbow Dash and Hitsugaya both swooped down next to the fallen captains. Hisugaya took Kyōraku and Rainbow took Yamamoto, both falling back to where Ukitake and Mugamara were standing. Yamamoto shook his way out of Rainbow’s grip.
“Keep your hands off me intruder.” He growled, glaring at her. “You came through with that thing, don’t play innocent with me.”
“Whoa man, I don’t even know what it is. I don’t think I’ve ever seen something put off such a bad vibe, except maybe that face.” She shrank under his gaze.

“Dash, that’s Twilight.” Lyra blurted.
“Twilight?” Rainbow looked back at the creature, battling its half frozen body. “No way. That thing’s way too brutal to be Twilight.” Rainbow almost pleaded with her. Applejack swooped in, carrying Rarity.
“What’d Ah miss?” She looked, over at Teridax, who was finally regaining control of his body. “Well Ah guess that covers it, never seen a meaner feeling thing in mah life.” She jumped towards Teridax, a kick connecting with the side of his head, he was sent sprawling.

“Applejack.” Rainbow yelled. “That’s Twilight.”
“What, our Twi’? No way.” Applejack rolled her eyes.
“Enough!” Teridax yelled, picking himself up. “You pathetic, weak, underlings! You forced me to this.” He spun the black blade above his head, shadows started peeling off the ground, spreading until they covered the entire area in a cloak of grey.
“No way in hell.”
“Kage kōshin!” [shadows march] He slammed the blade into the ground, the greyness concentrated, forming itself into replica’s of his opponents. “Get them.” He growled. The shadow things charged, each one meeting with its real counterpart.

Applejack stood, trading blows with her doppelganger, completely unable to gain the upper hand, this thing might as well have been the shadow behind her, it knew every move moments before she even made it.

Rainbow was having an identical problem. Her doppelganger was just as fast as her, and if anything it was stronger, every blow she moved to make was shoved down by her counterpart, before it would attempt a blow with more force than she had put into hers.

Rarity stood with her doppelganger, staring it down, both sides had their bows at the ready, just waiting for the other to make the first move.

Chunks of ice and shadow flew through the air in Hitsugaya’s battle as they squared off with the dragon each commanded. The dragons bit and clawed at each other as the wielders clashed blades, each trying to force the other to buckle beneath their power.

Ukitake had unleashed his swords Sōgyo no Kotowari and was rebounding blasts of shadow sent from the doppelganger’s blades.

Hirako stood, contemplating his opponent, it was far more aggressive than he was, wildly charging without much coordination, making it easy to simply move out of the way and study it for some kind of weakness; as he continued to avoid the shadow’s strikes he looked around at the others, they all demonstrated control just as good if not better than their real counterparts. What made this one different? He looked at Rarity, as she stared down her opponent; her doppelganger was in the exact same position, mirroring it perfectly. Hirako took a swing at his Doppelganger and the change was immediate. For that strike it became a perfect opponent, forcing his blade back and demonstrating control far greater than what it had been doing before. He jumped back from it.
“Interesting,”

_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Fluttershy didn’t want to go towards the spot that the shock wave had come from, even less so once the area had caught fire. But something told her that was where she needed to be, so she flew towards it hesitantly. The area went dark and she nearly turned to fly away, but if she wanted to find her friends, no doubt she would have to go to the spot with the most going on; they had a knack for ending up in those spots.

“Fluttershy help!” A familiar voice called out from below her. She looked down and saw Pinkie Pie cradling the broken body of Yachiru in her fore hooves.
“Oh my.” Fluttershy swooped down landing next to the decidedly deflated Pinkie Pie. “What happened?”

“I-I didn’t mean to, I was scared and alone, she was attacking me and I panicked, I didn’t mean to.” Pinkie started sobbing, cradling Yachiru’s head next to her own. Fluttershy looked from her sobbing friend to the body in her forelegs. Yachiru was still breathing if very shallowly.
“Pinkie, this was a barracks right?” Fluttershy looked at a piece of wood with strange writing on it, yet somehow she could read it. She’d have to ask Lyra about that later.
“I-I guess.” Pinkie looked up, bleary eyed.

“Then they should have had some medical supplies, I’ll see what I can do for Yachiru, you look around for me okay?” Pinkie got a bit of that twinkle in her eye back and set out with grim fervor as she sifted through the debris for anything she could find.

Fluttershy looked back at her patient, taking stock of her numerous injuries.
“It looks like she was mauled by a pack of timberwolves.” Half her ribs had been shattered entirely, the other half were snapped, a large chunk of her left shoulder looked like it had been bitten off by something with carnivorous teeth and she was covered in clawmarks. How could Pinkie have done this? She looked back at her still distraught friend; whatever she had done she had terrified even herself by doing it. “There’s going to be some scarring across the face, arms and legs.” She analyzed, talking to herself a bit. “I may need some surgical equipment for the ribs, that wrist is going to need a splint. At least all the bleeding stopped.”

Yachiru stirred a bit, her eyelids fluttering for a second, she started trying to sit up before Fluttershy stopped her.
“Mmm I dead yet?” She slurred.
“Shh you’re hurt, don’t try to move.” Fluttershy pushed on her right shoulder, gently laying her back down. “I’d say it’s a miracle you’re even still alive. Don’t try to talk either.”
“That’s a lost cause.” Yachiru chuckled weakly. “I haven’t shut up when someone told me to-” She started coughing violently, blood leaking out of her mouth. “On second thought… maybe I should.”

Fluttershy put a hoof over Yachiru’s mouth.
“Yeah, you should. Now this may hurt a little, I’m going to check if I can re-set any of your ribs.” Fluttershy put her hooves gently on Yachiru’s chest, carefully working the still intact ribs back into alignment. Yachiru gasped through her teeth, pain flashing through her. “Sorry, I just need a few more seconds.” She worked the last rib back. “Done, all five sets.” Fluttershy smiled down at her, Yachiru almost chuckled. More than half her ribs were utterly pulverized and Fluttershy was just happy to have managed the ones that were still there.

“Fluttershy, I found some.” Pinkie came running back through the rubble, a simple first aid kit locked in her teeth. Fluttershy took the small box and opened it.
“Lets see what we have. Oh my, there’s not much here, but it’ll do to make sure her chest doesn’t collapse again.” The box had the essentials, nothing more, simple bandages, a needle, thread and gauze, but it would have to do. Fluttershy set right to work, careful not to disturb the ribs she had already set as she wrapped them tight in the gauze, she added supports, made from bits of the beams that used to hold up the squad eleven barracks, where pressure would be needed in keeping them from healing crooked. She put her crushed wrist into a splint with a bit of wood, and set to sowing up the gashes that covered her body.

“I can breath.” Yachiru moved her left hand up to touch the bandages on her chest, only to have her hand swatted away by Fluttershy.
“Don’t touch those, you’ll want to avoid touching there for at least a week, unfortunately that means no showers or baths, changing the bandages when you’re in this delicate condition can be problematic.” Fluttershy spoke through her teeth as she worked the needle through the gashes on Yachiru’s arms, she finished, biting off the thread as she knotted it in place. “I’m going to roll you over now. Pinkie, help keep her steady so we don’t aggravate anything.” Pinkie looked regretfully at Yachiru for a second before nodding her head.

They carefully turned her over, Fluttershy pushed up on one side while Pinkie braced the other, making sure the turn happened slowly. Yachiru gasped as the weight shifted, causing sharp pains to run through her chest. “Are you alright?” Yachiru nodded in response. Fluttershy set back to work, sowing up the gashes along her back, and the backs of her knees. “I’m sorry Yachiru but I don’t think I can do anything for that shoulder with this equpment, how did you even get that to stop bleeding?”
“I rubbed dirt in it.” Yachiru spoke carefully, hoping to avoid another coughing fit. Fluttershy giggled a bit. If all else fails go for the old school I guess.

“Uhh Fluttershy…” Pinkie started tugging on one of her wings, forcing her to abandon her place sewing up Yachiru’s knee. Standing in front of her was a woman in a captain’s robe, her black hair was pulled back in a bun from what she could see, the robe was slightly too long on the arms and she was looking down at Fluttershy with an indiscernible expression, she was flanked by a nervous looking tall woman with steel blue hair, who had her hand on the hilt of her sword. Fluttershy gulped.

“Captain’s robe, too big to be considered small, black hair,” Fluttershy tried to place which captain she was looking at. “Looks about middle aged. Are you captain Retsu Unohana?” The blank expression melted to one of bemusement.
“Yes.” Her voice was gentle, she was definitely a healer.
“Then could you help us please? Yachiru needs serious medical attention and I just don’t have the equipment needed for these sorts of injuries.” Fluttershy sat up strait, hoping not to come off as uncertain as she felt. Unohana gestured for her lieutenant to take her hand off her sword.
“Isane I need you to perform a Sentan Hakuja back to the barracks so we can help this creature with her patient.” The steel blue haired woman, namely Isane jumped slightly.
“Yes captain.” Isane took a step back and started a strange incantation that was part of the spell. Unohana chuckled softly, turning to look at Fluttershy.

“You know, from afar you feel like Kurotsuchi, but close up you feel more like her.” She gestured towards Isane, who had closed her eyes in concentration. “So nervous and unsure of yourself.” Fluttershy blushed.
“I tried not to come off like that.”
“It was written in your voice. What’s your name?”
“I’m Fluttershy and this is Pinkie Pie.” Fluttershy turned to look at her friend, she looked completely guilt ridden, staring down at Yachiru, her eyes glistening with tears.
“I take it she’s the one who did this.” Unohana pointed at Pinkie, Fluttershy nodded. “She has the same reiatsu as Yachiru. When she does fight, Yachiru has a tendency to get lost in it, doing anything she can to defeat her opponent. I’d be willing to bet that Pinkie has the same tendency. She shouldn’t feel bad if she was fighting, it’s just in her nature.” Fluttershy scratched her head.

“I heard something like that from Kurotsuchi when he captured me. What is reiatsu?”
“Reiatsu is spirit energy, it’s what makes it possible to tell one soul from another, without directly speaking to them, it can be used to measure power or personality. In other words if someone has the same reiatsu as another it means that they have the same soul, which makes it odd that you and Kurotsuchi are so different but rather predictable that Pinkie and Yachiru would have similar traits, such as the behavior that led to this.”
“Captain, it’s ready.” Isane finished the chant, a single ribbon was whirling around them.
“Alright Isane. Fluttershy you should go, I believe your friends need you.” Fluttershy nodded and stepped out of the ribbon’s range. “You should go too Pinkie.” Pinkie shook her head and didn’t move from her spot next to Yachiru.
“Hey I got her like this, it’s only right that I stay with her until I’m sure she’ll be alright.” Pinkie smiled weakly. Unohana nodded.
“Isane.”
“Yes captain.” The ribbon pulled tight around them, there was a bright flash of light and they were gone. Leaving Fluttershy to continue alone on her way.

Open Book

Chapter 13: Open Book
She had expected the afterlife to be disappointing, it couldn't possibly live up to all the hype, but this was downright boring. Twilight huffed in exasperation, the worst part wasn't that she was surrounded by a strange grey cloud that had lines of green flying through it every now and again, it wasn't that it had been creepy for the first few minutes, or the growling chuckle that would float through the air now and again, or even the fact that she couldn't move. It was that she was still stuck in a hominid form, she had been a unicorn but apparently what you were supposed to be had no bearing on the world beyond life.

She had been expecting heaven to at least be relaxing but that dark chuckle had her wound tighter than a spring. She had expected hell to be at least painful but she couldn't feel anything except the distant rumble of the thunder and that chuckle. If she hadn't known any better she would have said that she was just asleep and having a particularly vivid dream.

She started as that though passed through her. Maybe that's all the afterlife was. She tested briefly, willing herself the ability to move. A great weight seemed to be lifted off of her and she sat up. Well at least she seemed to be making some progress, she willed her environment to change into something a bit more defined; walls lined with books shot up out of the floor, the greyness faded, leaving that strange, dim, green light, it seemed almost toxic, cast sprawling shadows that seemed to morph into nightmare creatures and just made her all around uncomfortable. She willed it to change but she was met with another mind that swatted her away like a bothersome fly, or maybe one that had managed to really get on the other mind's nerves, considering that the mental blow was strong enough to send her flying down the endless corridors. She willed the air beneath her to cushion her fall and she impacted softly, brushing herself off she got up.

"Finally awake I see." The familiar silk soft voice of Arukana reached Twilight as a soft purple light enveloped her, depositing her near the center of the library next to the robed figure who regarded her bemusedly.
"Arukana? What are you doing here?" Twilight got to her feet carefully.
"Making sure you're up to speed on what's going on in your head," Arukana bent over and placed a hand on Twilight's head. "loving the new look by the way." She ruffled Twilight's hair.
"Hey, stop that." Twilight swatted her hand away, chuckling slightly. "So, what's going on then?"

"Oh nothing much, just an entity of evil controlling your body." Arukana stated this far too dismissively for it to really sink in, so instead of the proper reaction of anger or panic Twilight simply laughed. "I'm not joking." This on the other hand was said with such matter of fact grimness that it cut Twilight off as she simply stared at the source of sickly green light that Arukana gestured to and the open book directly beneath it.
"That's not good." Twilight gaped at the book for a few seconds before turning back to Arukana. "So I'm not dead yet?" She shook her head, "Well that's some good news, I should probably go close that." Twilight took a step forwards only to be blocked by a screen that popped out from the ground, showing the events going on outside.

Whatever was in Twilight's body was humming an unfamiliar, almost tuneless, song to itself, swinging a black blade on a chain and walking through a battlefield where everyone seemed to be fighting their own shadow. Her body stepped behind someone with white hair, wielding a pair of swords attached to each other by a length of red rope. As the song, which seemed to be some kind of march, reached a crescendo her body struck down with the black blade, opening a massive gash down his back, blood flew from the wound as he screamed, crumpling to the ground, the growling chuckle sounded from both the screen and the world around Twilight and Arukana.

"You woke up, good." A growling voice emanated from the screen. "As you can See," Whatever was controlling her body lashed the downed man again for good measure. "I'm dealing with your problem out here, so there is no need to attempt to wrest control from me." It drew the blade back in, idly swinging it on its chain. "So if you could back away from the book I won't have to eliminate you as well." It kicked the white haired man for emphasis.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Fluttershy couldn't believe what she was seeing, Rainbow Dash had been changed into a hominid and was being chased around by her own shadow, which was attached to her back by a long rope, which Rainbow didn't seem to notice. Fluttershy simply stared for a while as the two Dash's vied for the high ground. The real Dash suddenly veered towards her and Fluttershy panicked, raising her sword to defend herself from the shadow trailing after Dash. As the real Rainbow Dash passed Fluttershy the sword cut into the black rope. The shadow Dash convulsed before fading into nonexistence.

"Fluttershy?" Rainbow swooped back down towards Fluttershy, wrapping her in a quick hug. "Glad to see you're safe," she let go, narrowly avoiding the blade in Fluttershy's hooves. "where's Pinkie?" Fluttershy dipped down a bit as her sword threatened to drag her down.
"Glad to see you're alright too. Pinkie went with captain Unohana to make sure Yachiru would be alright. Where are the others, are they okay?"
"Look down." Rainbow pointed down just as a gout of flame blasted between them, sending Fluttershy flipping over herself on the updraft. Once she managed to right herself she looked and saw a group of other people in similar predicaments to what Rainbow had been doing.

"Oh my, they got mixed up in that?" Fluttershy squeaked, Rainbow seemed to appear next to her and Fluttershy jumped, she was used to Pinkie doing that but not Dash.
"Yeah, and you won't believe who started it. Twilight." Dash reclined for a second, looking a bit winded.
"Rarity, Applejack and Lyra are in there too." Fluttershy cringed.
"Yep, I've gotta go get em out now, come on." Rainbow Dash grabbed Fluttershy, who noted that her grip was much stronger in this form, dragging her down into the fray.

Fluttershy felt like she was going to have a heart attack as they swooped through the battlefield. Power was being thrown left and right, the shadow bindings constantly threatened to entangle them and there was a crushing pressure that emanated off all the combatants.
"What the hell, where did these ropes come from? Whatever, lets just get rid of them."

"I don't think so." A loop of black chain shot past before pulling tight around them. Fluttershy turned to look at their source.
"R-R-Rainbow. what is that?" Fluttershy strained against the chains that were pulling her closer to the masked figure.
"Twilight wake up, this isn't you!" Dash's wings blazed to life in an attempt to melt through the chains. The chains remained pristine, Fluttershy on the other hand.
"Stop, Dash!" Fluttershy batted at the flames caught in her feathers.
"I'll take that." Teridax reached down and grabbed the blades on Dash's back, the fire's immediately went out as the blades came tearing away from her body, Dash briefly screamed before passing out.

Twilight's body had seen better days. The arms had been ripped off of her robe, stray strands on hair hanging from under the mask were turning red from the scalp down as if her head was bleeding, the shadows of anything it came into contact with started bleed up onto her, slowly forming into plates of armor that seemed to weigh far more than her body was meant to carry if the growing bruises were anything to go by, her pinkie fingers had ripped away from her hands, realigning themselves into a grotesque, dripping, second set of thumbs, her chest was being crushed in by some unseen pressure, boils grew on every exposed part of her, popping to expel some kind of green gas which was being contained by the shadow armor.

"T-Twilight?" Teridax's head snapped around to look at her.
"Oh, it's you." Teridax's grip on the chains grew tighter. "You have no idea how much I would like to have these chains squeeze the life out of you. You are a manifestation of what I hate, a creature that relies on the weakness of others, their kindness, too frightened to even learn to defend itself." Teridax's voice seethed with rage and hate. "I will enjoy watching your eyes go dark." He reached out, making to grab her by the neck.

The purple blade started to spark wildly, Teridax straitened up, a hand flying to his chest. "I warned you Spark-"
"You won't touch them!" Twilight screamed. Teridax's power came crashing down into the realm of detectability, the shadow creatures shimmered for a moment before disappearing.
"The book! You little bitch! Lets see how you like-"
"Shut up, this is my body and you're not welcome here." The chains loosened around Fluttershy and Dash, the bladed wings fell from Twilight's grip, floating back to Dash. "Go back to the pit you crawled out of!" The shadow armor evaporated. Twilight smashed both fists into the mask, shattering it, the black blade squirmed for a moment before molding itself back into the chains it had come from.

Twilight stood for a moment, panting, before Yamamoto walked up to her, fire trailing him. "I'm sorry." Twilight braced herself for immolation. The captain raised the column of flames, his face set and grim. Fluttershy's mind raced, what could she do? Just standing near the head captain made it hard to breathe, but Twilight was about to die.

"Watashi no tate ni naru; Gādo!" [be my shield; Guardian] Fluttershy dug her sword into the dirt and a wall of steel erupted from the ground, forcing the Yamamoto away from Twilight. The wall curved around, separating Fluttershy and Yamamoto from the rest of the battlefield. "I won't let you hurt Twilight." She wrenched the sword from the ground, barely managing to keep her balance. Yamamoto looked at her bemusedly.
"You're going to stop me?" Fluttershy looked up at him, then down at her own sword. She sat down, placing the sword flat on the ground under her hoof.
"I-I'm not f-fighting you if that's what you mean."
"Than how are you stopping me youngster." He took a step forward, brandishing the flames.
"I'm not going to let you out." As if responding to their master's voice, panels of steel broke off the wall and formed a cieling, leaving holes every few feet so that the light could get in.

Yamamoto looked around for another way out of the massive metal box. He noticed Fluttershy eying the flames of his sword worriedly.
"What happens if I just kill you here." He took a step forwards.
"Then you'll have killed something that didn't even fight back." FLuttershy again faked confidence. "You might want to extinguish that before we both suffocate. If it's alright with you." I'm muttering again, confidence Shy confidence. She started pawing at the ground. To Fluttershy's surprise Yamamoto actually did revert him blade back to its sealed form.

"Are you really willing to die for that thing?" He kneeled down to be at eye level with her.
"Umm, y-yes. Twilight's my friend and I'm more than willing to die." Fluttershy hid behind her hair while Yamamoto regarded her as one might regard a particularly interesting bug.
"Fine." He relented. "I'll let them go, but you must promise to leave here and not come back."
"Really?" Fluttershy lifted her head, eyes wide.
"Yes just let me out of here." Yamamoto tapped one of the walls. It was then that Fluttershy realized the biggest flaw in her hastily put together plan. I have no idea how to do that! Her look of joy was quickly replaced by one of complete embarrassment and she drove a hoof directly into her forehead.

Yamamoto sheathed his sword, a gnarled wooden staff formed around the sheath as he placed it onto the ground. "This is your first time using a zanpakto isn't it?" Fluttershy squeaked an affirmation. "Damn rookies. Good thing I keep a tea set with me." He reached into his robe and pulled out a shattered wooden box. "Dammit!"
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Twilight stood shakily, unsure what to make of what just happened. Shocks of pain came from every inch of her body, driving her down to her knees.
"Twi' are ya' alright?" Applekack knelt down next to her. Twilight tried to brush her off but another jolt of pain kept her pinned.
"I'm -guuh- I'll be fine, where's Dash?" Her vision blurred as she felt Teridax throwing what could only be described as a temper tantrum inside her head.
"She's fine, just forgot those blades weren't her real wings. Are ya sure yer' alright?" The top of the wall crumpled in to make a domed roof.

"If I pass out -nng- do you promise to make sure he does too?" Twilight wobbled as her vision started to go black.
"Ah think he's taken care of fer now." Applejack put a hand on Twilight's shoulder, just as she slumped over, barely conscious. She was forcing herself to stay awake, waiting for Teridax to expel what little energy he had left to deal with. Her head suddenly went quiet and she permitted herself to faint, darkness claiming her once more.

"Twi'? Twi?" Applejack shook her and she started snoring. "Twilight's out everypony." A pair of panels formed themselves out of the metal wall before her, sliding apart to reveal Yamamoto and a triumphant looking Fluttershy.
"We have reached an agreement." Yamamoto declared, tapping the end of his staff on the ground.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Pinkie Pie sat anxiously outside of the operation room, rocking back and forth on her butt, thinking about the color blue and wondering if the oven was still on in the palace kitchen. Thinking about anything and everything that could take her mind off the current situation. And it wasn't working.
"Come on Pinkie, hold it together, she'll be fine. Unohana said so." Her hair deflated with a sound like a popped balloon, her left eye bugged out.
"She could always be lying." Her hair puffed back up and her eye went back to normal.
"But there's no reason for that." Pinkie reasoned.
"To make you feel better." Pinkamena pressed.
"Why would she do that? I'm kinda the bad guy here." Pinkie rubbed the back of her head.
"She just would!" Pinkamena barked.
"You're trying awfully hard right now aren't you."
"Don't you change the subject on me!" Pinkamena stomped for emphasis.
"You've been there for a while havent you?"
"Well... yes."
"Then why haven't you ever tried this hard before?"
"I... don't know. That is a good question. I've been feeling a lot more aggressive, I guess."
"Really? When did these anger issues really get out of hand?"

Seemingly out of nowhere, Pinkie had aquired a clipboard, a pencil, a pair of "sophisticated" glasses and a scrunchie to pull her hair back with.
"Well... since we got to this place I think."
"Really? And how does that make you feel?" Pinkie jotted down some notes.
"Angry, duh! And the teeniest bit scared." Pinkamena rubbed her front hooves together uncomfortably.
"Why?" Pinkie tapped her chin with the pencil, defying all logic by holding it in her hoof.
"I just don't know what I could do, I mean, look at what happened to Yachiru." A grin started creeping onto Pinkamena's lips. "What scares me most is that I like it."
"That's odd." Pinkie scribbled something.
"I know right." Pinkamena started pawing at the ground. "I miss the claws." She help up a hoof and waved it through the air, noting just how dull it was.
"Well I'm not getting them out, and as a volatile patient neither are you."
"Is that a challenge?" Pinkamena snarled.
"No, it is a statement of fact." Pinkie pointed at her vindictive "other" and waved the pencil.
"It sounded like a challenge." Pinkamena slapped the pencil away.
"Well it wasn't." Pinkie huffed, turning away from her counterpart.
"Wait, when did you get over there? When did I get over here?" Pinkamena pawed at her face.
"I-I don't know." Pinkie turned back around, pointed at Pinkamena and started shaking. "AAHHH!"
"AAAHHH!"
"AHHH!"

"Miss Pie..." Pinkie snapped to look over at the newcomer in the room, he was a short hominid with black hair, he slouched a little and had a pouch hanging from a sash over his shoulder, he gave off an aura of insecurity and near-constant failure. He jumped back a little when Pinkie looked at him. "I'm sorry to interrupt your... uhh... heated discussion-"
"She started it!" Pinkie looked back to where her doppelganger had been, only to face an empty wall. "Huh, I would have sworn there was more room there a second ago."
"Well, I'm sure she's sorry." He chuckled weakly, Pinkie could tell when she was being humored, it happened quite often, but this was the first time it had happened to her because someone was afraid. She didn't like it.
"I'm Pinkie Pie, what's your name?" Pinkie put up her best face, trying to put the strange hominid at ease, this was counter productive as her exuberance sent him fleeing, screaming, across the room. "Hey get back here!" Pinkie took off after the fleeing figure.

At that moment Captain Unohana opened the operation room door.
"Pinkie- oh." She observed the spectacle with a humored smile and chuckled too herself. "Hanatarō, Pinkie." She called out, like a mother that had just walked in on her kids fighting over a toy. The beings in question stopped running in circles to face the captain, who somehow managed to put off an air of complete control while wearing what on anyone else would have been a gentle smile. "We've healed Yachiru well enough for her to get back on duty in a couple days." Pinkie's eyebrows furrowed with guilt. "She asked to see you Pinkie, which is why I sent Hanatarō but it seems you're a bit too much for him to handle." Unohana chuckled as she ushered Pinkie through the doors.

The room inside was rather plain, the walls were a beige color that wasn't fun to look at but it wasn't out of place, if one was in pain they didn't want a bright or dark color that would strain the eyes, the neutrality of beige made the room seem soft. There were three tables and a bed, the tables held all kinds of medical tools, a few bottles of painkillers, some salves, and a tray of now reddened water. Yachiru sat in the bed, bouncing slightly. You wouldn't have known she had been on the brink of death fifteen minutes ago, most of the bandages were gone, only the ones on her chest remained, they had removed the stitches in her face and no doubt the rest of her body and she was rolling her wrist to make sure it was working again. In one way she looked a lot worse, her entire left shoulder was one big scar, Pinkie doubted that she would ever be able to move it properly again. "Yachiru, we have your guest." Yachiru snapped her attention straight to Pinkie, a goofy grin split her face as she jumped out of the bed and ran over to her.

Pinkie braced herself, preparing for the worst, when Yachiru swept her up into a tight hug, lifting her off the floor for a moment as Yachiru giggled and bounced around. Once the embrace was broken she deposited the very confused pony back onto her hooves, Pinkie took a step back, bewilderment plain on her face.
"B-but I nearly killed you, what's going on?" Pinkie looked back to Unohana, hoping for some clue.
"Silly, that was the best fight ever! I haven't fought that hard since I last sparred with Kenny, but you were trying to kill me making it even more fun!" Yachiru hugged Pinkie again, a smile slowly creeping back onto her face. "And you know the best part, this!" She pointed to her bare left shoulder. "My first ever battle scar, and boy is it a doozy! Kenny has them everywhere but I never got a chance to fight someone long enough for them to really land a big hit like that. Thanks Pinkie!"

Throughout Yachiru's speech Pinkie just sat there, for the first time in her life, at a loss for words. Yachiru just smiled at her and kept talking, but Pinkie couldn't get herself to say anything, her smile just started working its way back onto her face. Pinkie reached out and wrapped Yachiru in another hug, crying into her shoulder. whether this was out of guilt of joyful relief even she couldn't say. Unohana and Hanatarō had already left the room, leaving the two dimensional counterparts to share in a quiet moment, Yachiru gently wrapped the sobbing mare in her arms, returning the hug.
"I'm sorry." Pinkie choked out between sobs.
"For what?" Yachiru cocked an eyebrow, pushing Pinkie's head in front of her own.
"I hurt you." Pinkie wiped her eyes, trying to reel her emotions back in. Yachiru sighed.
"Look, Pinkie," Yachiru spoke firmly. "over in Equestria fighting may be considered 'against the rules'; but here, we of the Eleventh division see it is the greatest thing ever. You 'hurting' me was some of the most fun I've ever had and in case you haven't noticed, I gave you a scar too." Yachiru tapped Pinkie's forehead, feeling the bump under her slightly discolored fur. "So please, don't beat yourself up over this, it would suck all the fun out of our battle."

Pinkie looked into Yachiru's smiling face for any trace of falsehood, she found none. Yachiru started to laugh, seemingly in recognition of Pinkie's relieved conscience. Pinkie's smile shot out to full force as she laughed along, neither one really knowing why they were laughing.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Canterlot, Equestria.

The mask simply floated there, under the influence of both Celestia and Luna. The throne room had been sealed off to all but a select few, three of which were already in the room. six hours had passed with no word from Lyra, or the "away team" as spike liked to call them. Philomena sat on her perch next to Celestia's throne, ready to do her part if need be. Silence prevailed in the room, all three creatures trying their best to simply focus on the task at hand.

Suddenly Philomena squawked before releasing an owls hoo. Celestia Luna and Spike all crowded around the bird, who's beak hung open in preparation of her role.
"Hello, hello? Can you hear me? Is the spell working?" Lyra's voice came through Philomena.
"Yes we can hear you." Luna said, leaning in a bit closer to make sure her voice went through. "Is everypony else alright?"
"Yes they're fine, Twilight was a bit rattled but otherwise were all doing alright. In fact Twilight just woke up about an hour ago. We're getting ready to jump to the next dimension."
"Did you manage to convince your friend Urahara?" Celestia pressed, hoping to have some help as soon as possible.
"No, he's busy with a renegade soul reaper named Ginjō. Sorry, this world always seems to be in some kind of crisis, but the intended next stop is almost guaranteed to get us some results. Well right after we deal with some problems of our own anyway. Anditmighttakeusbothtendaystogetthere." Lyra spoke almost too fast to make out on the last sentence.

"Problems? What's happened?" Luna's brow furrowed.
"I wasn't duly informed of my companions mental states and it seems that two of our team had split personalities. And one had... something different."
"Split personalities?" Celestia cocked an eyebrow.
"Yes apparently they're changed into hollows in this world, unfortunately that's something we're going to have to bear with. we have to retain the powers of this world if coming here's going to have meant anything at all."
"And the 'other'?"
"It's Twilight, there's something weird about hers frankly." Lyra paused. "Hollows, you can differentiate them from the original being, there's a sort of taint to their energy that gets broadcasted. But Twilight... there's no change to the energy, it just leaps once this 'Teridax', as it calls itself, takes over. My best guess would be that it's her counterpart in this dimension that just so happened to be in need of a body. But..."
"But what?"

"That theory doesn't work!" Lyra shouted. "I'm sorry, I've spent hours trying to figure this out, it's why I didn't send a message sooner. We weren't here thirty seconds and all Thirteen of the stinking guard squads came down on us, we finally do manage to convince them we didn't come for a fight and by then we've already hospitalized half of the eleventh squad, so we're not getting any help. and on top of that Twilight's counterpart in this dimension happens to be the single most evil being in the place. What's more I have deduced that beings that have counterparts in the dimension they're landing in cannot change shape to suit the dimension. Which makes the fact that Twilight did impossible. Which means whatever it is inside Twilight's head is bad enough news to break the laws of trans-dimensional travel. Which means if we can't avoid the Guardian we're going to get our plots thoroughly kicked. This was supposed to be quick, but my intended next stop, and gateway to the rest of the places I intended to go, is on the other side of the Betweenspace, it could eat up all our time just getting there, not to mention that most of the area's between there and here are hostile and I'm going to eat my own horseshoes if we don't run into an obnoxious amount of trouble." Lyra trailed off into enraged panting.

"Feeling better?" Luna asked.
"Actually, yes, yes I am. Thanks for bearing with me. Anyway, the dimension I had planned on going to next is were I was planning on getting most of the forces needed so this shouldn't be a wasted trip but by my calculations if we want to avoid the Guardian we're going to have to take the long way and that should take us about eleven days by Equestrian time, luckily that dimension moves at twice the speed of Equestria, meaning once we get there we'll have eight days left to convince Senka to spare some troops. Knowing her she'll be more than willing to help us."
"Did you say the being in Twilight's head called itself Teridax?" Luna scratched her chin, her eyes glazed as she searched her mind for why that name was familiar.
"Yes, why?"
"Guard!" Luna called towards the door, one of the two guards flanking it stepped forward. "Fetch me the smith." The guard bowed and galloped fro the room.

"How long until the gate can be opened?" Celestia questioned.
"I was actually just putting the finishing touches on the runes when I remembered to check in. Oh, and according to some notes I found in Twilight's bag, Spike's first growth spurt should start tomorrow. Congratulations and condolences little guy you're getting your wings and about four feet of height." Spike visually paled at this, dragon growth spurts were notoriously painful as they took place over the course of about three months and involved major skeletal upheaval. "I'm going to be using the bird from now on so don't worry, we won't be adding to your suffering" Gavla came fluttering into the room as Lyra stopped talking.

"You wanted to see me 'princess'." She tapped a metal claw in impatience.
"Yes, was you who mentioned a being called Teridax to me?" Luna spoke calmly but Gavla's reaction was the exact opposite.
"Vamprah!" She yelled. "I know you're out there get in here, it didn't work!" Vamprah burst through the door, panic etched on every inch of his body.
"Explain." Celestia demanded darkly, Gavla cringed.
"Well, there was an incident just before they left. Twilight came down to the forge and asked Vamprah to help her get stronger by sucking the light out of her like he did for Luna." Celestia's glare became even harder but Gavla didn't seem to notice. "Vamprah and I both were against the idea but she made a very convincing argument and Vamprah tried. Unfortunately it appears that Teridax was hiding away inside of Vamprah and he tried to escape but we managed to stop him from fully taking control. We didn't tell Twilight or anyone else because we were pretty sure we had stopped him and because judging from what I've heard Twilight would have been a wreck if she caught wind of it." Gavla was now messing with her talons, while Vamprah had retreated into the rafters above Gavla, ready to swoop down if things got ugly.

"She has a point." Lyra's voice broke the mounting silence. "Twilight could hardly get herself to stand firm against Kenpachi, how do you think she would have reacted to knowing there was an evil being strong enough to take down that brute in seconds living in her head. She would have panicked, she would have refused to come along and, judging by the trek we have ahead of us, we need her on this. She's been able to repress him so far and I think I know a tactic to make it even easier." Philomena hoo'd again and the line was cut.

Gavla and Vamprah quickly excused themselves from Celestia's piercing glare.

What is a Smile?

Chapter 14: What is a Smile?
"When are you going to let it go?"
"When I can make them pay."
"They're dead Tanma."
"I know, I'm just waiting for a chance to make up what they did." Tanma brushed some dust from his shoulder.
"Well it's getting in the way of your part." Dekal rapped on the clipboard with a finger, snapping Tanma out of his daydreams. "We need everyone to help here but here you are standing around scowling, staring off into space and talking to yourself. These applications aren't going to sort themselves and I'm only allowed to help you with half of them this time."
"Fine, fine. Remind me why they want that colosseum rebuilt again?" Tanma picked up a stack of slabs with names and species designations on them.
"It has historical value or something... like... that..." Dekal trailed off, staring at her feet.
"Ha! They still get to you too." Tanma pointed accusingly.

"No, I get to me sometimes, stinking mask hasn't shut up for the past three minutes." She knocked on her squarish mask as if trying to drive out some invasive insect. She was about twice as tall as Tanma, with a bulky build, blue and purple armor and a mask that, in her opinion, was more a compilation of squares with a hole in it than anything else. Tanma had a much more sleek build; his mask swept back over his brow, his limbs and the silver propulsion device on his back were sleek. He was designed for air travel.
“What does that mask do again?” Tanma inspected the credentials of a vortixx whose application he had picked up. “I thought the vortixx just did weapons.” He muttered to himself.
“It’s a Kanohi Mashrak, mask of teleportational detection.” Dekal hit it again as it started screeching at her even louder. The room was suddenly bathed in light, streaming in from the window behind Tanma. The source was a ball of white energy streaking through the sky like a comet.

Dekal took a look at it; her mask calculated its exact landing point and it –thank Mata Nui- shut up. “Single teleport, eight unknown passengers, twenty foot blast radius,” She rattled off as the mask relayed the information to her brain. “impact in three seconds, two miles north of our current location.” She shook her head. “I hate that.”
“Hostile?” Tanma grabbed a sword from under his desk, tucking it onto his back before reaching for the other.

“You’re going to find out whether I want you to or not, aren’t you?” Dekal grabbed her three flanged mace from the corner, slinging it over her shoulder in preparation of whatever they may find.

Rainbow Dash bent over double, hacking and coughing into the dust; along with the rest of the away team.
“Space- Hack! - how did we land in - Graak! - in bucking space?” Rainbow wheezed out between breaths.
“The spell uses – Gaak! – exact coordinates. Hoo! That’s the spot we took off from; it’s in the orbit of a planet in this universe.” Lyra tried to stand up straight, only to fall back forward onto her hooves. “Well there go my hands, anypony still a hominid?”

“No, thank Celestia.” Rainbow flapped her wings a few times to get the feel back for them. Her zanpakto was still released, giving her wings bladed extensions.
“No, ah’m back ta normal.” Applejack rolled her shoulder to make sure the impact hadn’t hurt anything. Her zanpakto was hanging from a sash wrapped around her neck and shoulders.
“I’m still normal.” Rarity flipped her hair out of her eyes. Her zanpakto was hanging from her waist.
“I-I’m a hominid this time.” Fluttershy wobbled on her feet as she tried to find her center of gravity. She was gilded in sleek blue and silver armor, her zanpakto sheathed on her waist, her mask was roughly in the shape of a fish’s tail fin, and pair of silver flaps ran down her back. “It feels so weird.”
“I’m still upright.” Twilight rubbed her head. Her armor was gold and violet, wickedly spiked at the elbows and knees, she was a good head and shoulders taller than Fluttershy, her zanpakto was in a holster slung across her back, her right hand was slender and held wicked claws, her left hand was much bigger and had only three fingers as opposed to her right hand’s five, and all three held massive talons, her face was unquestionably reptilian, her feet were clawed as well, she wore her hair in a large ponytail that reached halfway down her back.
“I’m still a pony!” Pinkie yelled. “And I’m starting to feel left out.” She pouted playfully. Pinkie’s zanpakto was nestled into the hair of her tail.

“Alright,” Lyra surveyed her team, “I’ve never been to this part of this dimension before, last time I was here I ended up spending a week on an island made out of a giant robot’s face. Rainbow, get as high as you can and survey for towns so we can look for allies.” Rainbow quickly saluted before shooting off into the sky. “Pinkie, I want you to see if you can find any water under this sand.” Pinkie jumped and clapped a couple times before burrowing into the sand with gusto. “Rarity, you set up a perimeter to our site.” Rarity nodded shallowly before turning to scout out an area. “Applejack, help me set up the tents.” Lyra pulled a set of tents that by all logic shouldn’t have been able to fit out of her saddlebag. Noticing Applejack’s raised eyebrow she added. “It’s a space expansion charm.” She passed a hammer to Applejack. “Fluttershy and Twilight… figure out what those bodies can do.”

Lyra squared off an area for the tents, placing the stakes for Applejack to hammer in.
“Uh, Lyra, how er’ we gonna get these ta stay in the ground?”
“Oh, sorry.” Lyra’s horn glowed for a second, compressing the sand into hard packed dirt. “There we go.” Rainbow swooped back down.
“There’s a town about two miles south of here, built into the side of that mountain there. We seem to have attracted some attention, there are already two hominids headed this way.”
“Hostile?” Lyra fixed her eyes on the mountain, trying to pick them out.
“No idea, one’s blue and purple, about the same size as Fluttershy, the other is about our size and green and silver. They’re both armed.” Rainbow set down.
“Estimated arrival time?” Lyra looked back to Rainbow.
“I’d say three minutes.” Dash flew back up.

“We’ve got some time to finish this.” Lyra directed Applejack back to the stakes.

Twilight stretched out her strange left hand, trying to get used to the lopsided weight, she felt a surge of power from the two for-fingers.
“Interesting.” She concentrated, flexing the massive hand. Lances of energy sparked between her fingers. “Very interesting.” She focused on a rock, Maybe it works like a horn. extending the claws towards it. Her arm whirred for a second, locking itself in place, the claws started glowing with restrained energy. “That can’t be good.” The recoil was enormous, jarring her entire chest, a wave of fire-blue pressure and heat went through the entire camp, kicking up sand and dust, which had once been the rock she had attempted to lift, it knocked Dash right out of the air, sending her barreling into Rarity.
“Woo!” Pinkie jumped out of the hole she was digging, half of which had come down on top of her. “Do it again Twilight!”

Twilight for her part was looking at the impact zone with an expression that may have been awed terror but it was hard to pick out emotions on her scaly face. Where a rock had once stood there was a softly glowing sheet of natural glass. She looked down at her left arm, flexing the claws again. They were remarkably undamaged.
“What kind of creature has an energy cannon built into its body?” She screamed, holding the offending limb as far away from her as she could.

“Fluttershy!” Rainbow yelled, shooting towards the terrified blue creature.
“blublbulbul!” Fluttershy screamed though the orb of water that had formed around her. She was panicking, flailing in an attempt to get out, Rainbow simply bounced off the bubble when she tried to interfere. The rest of the team could only look on helplessly as Fluttershy grabbed at her neck, fighting not to give in to the urge to gasp. Her eyes rolled back as she gave in, taking a long draught of the water into her lungs.

“What?” She spoke with surprising clarity. “Girls, I can breathe!” Fluttershy jumped for joy inside her bubble. Twilight, still a little deaf from her own mishap, looked on the spectacle with raised eyebrows, then she had an idea.
“Fluttershy, concentrate on the bubble.” Fluttershy did as instructed and suddenly she could feel a massive reservoir, directly underneath their camp, where the water she was currently floating in came from. It was incredible, she could feel every flow and eddy as the water lapped at the walls, she could feel all the blind, nameless things crawling and swimming through it. The sudden stream of new information and sensation was almost too much for her, she almost pulled away in terror, but it was too... nice. It made her feel connected, powerful, like she had the strength to make a difference in even the worst times. She had never felt anything like it.

"Incredible." She breathed, staring off into space as she envisioned it all.
"Fluttershy?" Rainbow Dash's concerned voice brought her back to the reality everyone else was working with at the time. "You alright?" Fluttershy, for lack of a better phrase, "pulled a Pinkie". She hopped out of the bubble, wrapping the cyan pegasus in her arms, jumping around and squealing in delight. "Fluttershy! Cant, breathe!" Rainbow choked out around the smothering embrace.
"Oops, sorry." Fluttershy let go, allowing Dash to take in a deep breath, the orb of water collapsed in on itself. "It's just, just..." she wracked her brains, trying to come up with a word to describe what she was experiencing. "Huge!" She swung her arms wide and fell back into the sand, laying there with a smile on her face. She started to absentmindedly make a sand-pegasus, within seconds Pinkie had joined her.

"Uhh, Lyra." Applejack tapped the mint unicorn on the shoulder, rousing her from the task of driving the stakes into the ground.
"What is it now?" Lyra almost glared at Applejack.
"Ah think there's somethin' in the water." She pointed behind Lyra, who turned to see the display Pinkie and Fluttershy were putting on.
"Well this is interesting." A new voice rang out. Lyra turned back around to face the newcomer. A green and silver hominid, smirking down at her, she already didn't like him. "My name's Tanma, yours?"

"Tanma, wait up." A hominid, clad in purple and blue and twice Tanma's size, came huffing up next to him. "I'm not as fast as you, come on." The creature bent over double, panting.
"Dekal, you're a toa." Tanma chastised her.
"And you're built for speed, I'm built for defense." Dekal stood back up strait. "Let's see what we've got here."
"Can I help you?" Lyra asked flatly, her hostility towards Tanma asserting itself.
"Tanma." Dekal whispered loudly.
"What?" Tanma replied frigidly.
"You see that thing talking too right?"

"Of course I talk, I was smart enough to survive being a meteorite." Lyra snapped. "And I'd prefer not being talked about like I'm not here." Dekal took a step back.
"Okay, sheesh. So, what brings a Vortixx a toa and five... things, to the middle of nowhere?"
"Just give me a second to finish this." Lyra huffed, yanking the hammer away from Applejack. "I don't like being interrupted." She drove the stake home with a single smack. "There we go, now, we came here looking for help."
"A bit cranky for someone looking for allies, aren't we?" Lyra and Tanma glared death at each other, no one was sure what they were seeing but it was clear that neither liked it.

Applejack and Dekal each pulled the mental combatants away from each other, taking it upon themselves to continue deliberations.
"Name's Applejack." She offered a hoof, Dekal took it and shook firmly.
"Dekal, Toa of Lightning. You've already become acquainted with the local curmudgeon, but I don't believe we know the rest of your troop." Dekal gestured to the rest of the group.
"Ah, well, the white one's Rarity, the one having a starin' contest with yer buddy is Lyra, The one with the big hand is Twilight, we jus' call 'er Twi'. Not entirely sure what she is right now." Applejack scratched her chin.
"Vortixx." Dekal waved her on.
"What now?" Applejack raised an eyebrow.
"She's a vortixx, where have you been the last three months?" Dekal sat in the sand, to get more comfortable. "They've only been crafting all the tools in this wasteland."
"Well we only got to this place, two minutes ago."

"You know, Lyra said you were looking for help with something, how about you just gather up your team and I let you explain your situation to the turaga." Dekal pointed to the mountain pass.
"Did he say his name was Tanma?" Applejack snapped around to look at Twilight, who was pointing at Tanma.
"Yeah, why?" Dekal rested her head on her palm.
"I have a feeling we don't want him hearing this." Twilight said carefully. "Do you think you could send him away for a moment."
"My friend, you have no idea how long I've waited for that opportunity. I've been stuck with him for a week." She turned to Tanma, who was practically butting heads with Lyra. "Tanma," He looked up, "Could you go get Vakama?" Lyra snickered at him.

"Why?" He questioned.
"It's either that or keeping an eye on your new friend while I go get him." Dekal waved him off. "Unless you'd rather continue your little staring match." Tanma looked for a second like he was going to refuse to go, if for no other reason than to spare his pride.
"Fine." He deflated, shooting one last glare at Lyra before running back south a few yards and jumping into the air, igniting his jet pack.
"That gives us a good five minutes, what did you want to talk about."

"Are you familiar with a matoran named Gavla?" Twilight asked. Dekal gave her a withering glance.
"No but Tanma was, said Makuta Vamprah decided to take her down with him when Karda Nui went up in smoke." An expression somewhere between sadness and anger passed through Dekal's eyes as she said Vamprah's name, the sadness was outward but the anger was directed inward.
"What if I told you that they were both still alive?" Twilight pushed further. Dekal's eyes lit up for a second before darkening again.
"They're the thing you need help with, aren't they?" She seemed resigned.
"Far from it, they are currently one of our best chances at stopping the real threat." Twilight looked Dekal in the eyes.
"I'd say, when can I join?" Dekal flashed a cocky smile. "I'd been trying to find that Viper Vamprah for years, I need to apologize for something."

Dekal peered around Twilight at Fluttershy, who was molding a bubble of water into any and every shape she could think of, smiling from ear to ear. "Heh, I remember that look." She chuckled, nostalgia softening her face. "That's the look of a newly christened toa." She returned her attention to Applejack. "When you tap into your power for the first time and you can feel it everywhere, every cloud, every trace of the air is saturated with it, you can feel it move and know it's yours to command, and you are its. You can't really describe the sensation, it's just too..." She muttered something under her breath, Twilight felt something's eyes on her. "Huge. Isn't that right Helryx?"

"How is it you always know when I'm there?" A hardened voice called out from behind Twilight, Her new body's instincts kicked in and she whirled around to hack at the newcomer with her left arm, only to be blocked by the shaft of the blue toa's mace. "You obviously have no idea what you're messing with here girl." Helryx's mask was silver, With three blue indents in the shape of hourglasses on the forehead and cheeks, her eyes were hard and yellow, her body was blue and sleeked, her armor notched in a fish-scale pattern. Twilight backed off, not wanting to make a wrong move near a being that put off the aura of authority this Helryx did.

"And Brutaka, how goes the split personality problem?" A cloak seemed to fall away, revealing a towering golden and blue brute, standing over Helryx like some kind of monstrous bodyguard. "Still wearing that fake Olmak I see." Dekal seemed painfully at ease with the sudden introduction of a creature nearly twice her size. "You didn't forget what my mask did already, did you? Although, moving on. Were you aware that Vamprah is still alive?" A look that may have been mistaken for surprise passed through Helryx's eyes but was gone before anyone would have been able to register it, anyone that is, other than Dekal.

"No? Well than I'm glad not to be out of the loop." She gestured at Applejack. "Applejack here and her friends are looking for allies, not in getting rid of Vamprah mind you. And, from what I understand of your organization, you're always ready to help when the cause is just." Dekal's eyes almost flashed with a challenge.
"That depends on the cause." Helryx rebuffed.
"How 'bout the survival of a race?" Applejack interjected.
"Ah, it speaks." Helryx knelt down to look Applejack in the eye. "And what has your people done to deserve our assistance."
"How 'bout reform two Makuta?" Applejack stated, now real surprise fell over Helryx's face. "Seems 'Ah struck a nerve there." Helryx stood back up, looking down on Applejack.

"Impossible." She stated flatly.
"So what? If you didn't care ta' do it than it can't be done?" Applejack's eyebrows furrowed. "From what Ah've gathered, from both Twi's description of poor Krika's breakdown, an' a look at that book Krika gave Rar'. It doesn't look like ya'll even tried." Helryx looked stung.
"We did all we could." She averted her gaze.
"Yeah, in the way of stopping a spread. Rar' could Ah see that book?" Rarity, stunned by her friend's deft handling of the situation, reached into her saddlebag and pulled out the book Krika had written, passing it to Applejack. Applejack flipped through, quickly finding the page she was looking for. "Ah may not be some fancy psychiatrist, but ta' me, this looks less like help, an' more like a Griffin Inquisition." She turned the book around to reveal a sketch of a poster, on the poster there was a rather diabolical looking makuta, holding up a screaming matoran, the emblazoned text along the bottom read, in matoran script, "Don't be like him or you will be brought down." Helryx was now openly shocked. "Ah see we're gettn' somewhere, now don't ya' jus' feel plumb terrible 'bout that?"

Helryx recomposed herself, rubbing her forehead.
"Where did you get that?" She turned to Rarity, who nearly jumped.
"Krika gave it to me."
"Krika is alive as well?" Helryx turned to Dekal, questioning her with a single glare.
"It was hinted at," Dekal shrugged, "but the real question is, how good must AJ here be to get you not only get you to avoid a question, but to get you showing emotion?" She laughed. "I believe the answer is, painfully good." She gestured back to Applejack, who was wearing what could only be described as a predator's grin.

"A'll give you one guess as to why he's not 'ere with us." Applejack challenged, looking Helryx right in the eyes.
"He's dead." Helryx whispered. A look of realization passing over her face. "He died to make sure you could get here."
"Close but not quite. He is dead, but he died making sure a lil' filly got out alright. Wouldn't you like ta' pay him back?"
"What about Vamprah?" Helryx crossed her arms.
"You and I both know he was my fault." Dekal stated mirthlessly. "And I plan to go help him." A small lance of energy danced on Dekal's fingers.
"I'll see who I can spare." Helryx agreed before turning back to, the so far silent, Brutaka. "How about you?"

Brutaka grinned, framed by the tusk-like projections on either side of his mask.
"We would be glad to." The brute hefted a double bladed sword from his back, planting it in the sand to cement his agreement.
"Good, I'll see if I can get Axonn to go with you." Helryx nodded. "Artakha, back to the base if you please." The air around Helryx glowed for a second before she disappeared in a flash of light.

"Alright, Vakama's old, take's him a while to get anywhere, I'm slowed down by him, I come back and Brutaka has joined the number here. What did I miss?" Tanma set down behind Dekal.
"AJ just gave Helryx a verbal beatdown!" Dekal clapped. "It was awesome."
"Does this mean we've got The Order on list as allies?" Lyra asked around Rarity's book. "Cause if we do I'd say we're set. Eight members, all total badflanks, several of them practically invulnerable, the rest are extremely powerful, oh and one of them is invisible. How did Krika get this much info?" She lightly slapped the book. "He's got an entire chapter on these guys, and a well put together glossary." Tanma visibly stiffened.

"Krika?" He growled. "That monster's alive?" He grabbed Lyra by the scruff of her neck. Lyra snarled back.
"And if he is?" Her lyre snaked its way out of the bag cast over her back, melting over her hoof, the claws sprouted out of her gauntlet. She pushed him away. "What of it?"
"Tanma! Stop your foolishness!" A strong, if ancient sounding, voice rang out over the camp. A red and black being, about as tall as Tanma, walked up to him, the newcomer wore a red mask with a projection from the bottom, giving the illusion of a beard, his browline was large and rough, he wore a vest decorated with sown-on flames and carried a staff adorned with an orb that flickered as if it held a flame. He placed a hand on Tanma's shoulder, yanking him away from Lyra. "These are guests and are to be treated as such." Tanma looked like he was about to argue but took a deep breath and backed off.

"Go Vakama." Dekal muttered. Vakama turned back to the group.
"Brutaka, my friend, how goes life?" He bowed shallowly to the golden behemoth, who shrugged.
"We are content."
"Now Tanma told me that you were in search of allies to hold off some threat. What exactly is the threat?"
"Well," Lyra decided to take this one, "There is a pan-dimensional warlord that has seen fit to wipe our race from our world, our military hasn't seen any use for the past fifty generations, so we are woefully ill equipped to hold them off. We've found a way to keep them at bay for two weeks, just enough to buy time to search for allies."
"Other than makuta." Tanma snorted.
"Makuta?" Vakama cocked an eyebrow. "What are you going on about now?"
"Ask them."

"True we have Makuta Vamprah on our side, we had Krika but He died in the initial attack, ensuring the safety of a child." Lyra smirked at Tanma, who looked like someone had just slugged him with a brick and then insulted his mother.
"Impossible." Tanma snapped. "The makuta were monsters, that any of them survived is a stretch but you say they have reformed? That just stretches suspension of belief too far." He leaned in to whisper in Vakama's ear. "Turaga, they are spewing nonsense, I say we leave them to whatever their supposed 'attacker' has planned."
"Nonsense Tanma? The only one spewing nonsense here is you, now get away from my head. I see no deceit in her eyes." Vakama waved Tanma away. "Forgive him, he can be more than a little overzealous. I'll have to take council with the other turaga before I can guarantee that you have our support. But come, walk with me, I'd like to hear of how you turned the makuta. I had a brief stint as a villain myself and find such tales fascinating." Vakama turned, motioning for them to follow.

Lyra and the rest of the Away Team, or A. Team if you will, and Brutaka Fell in behind him.
"If you want to know how we got Vamprah on our side, it was rather easy, it only took two words." Lyra told Vakama.
"Oh, and what were those?"
"I'm sorry." Vakama stopped in place, turning to look Lyra in the eyes.
"No." He said, with the air of a man who had just heard a rather juicy bit of gossip.
"Yes, one of our rulers, who shall go unnamed-" She leaned in close as they continued walking. "Princess Luna" She whispered, Vakama chuckled. "- tried to have him killed, in response he took over a town and used it to make a personal army, when Luna showed up with hers there was a afternoon long battle, Vamprah was defeated and just when we were about to send him and Gavla, shut up Tanma," Tanma, who had opened his mouth to say something closed it and pouted, "back here with their tails between their legs Luna realized the error of her ways and said the magic words. As it is now he's working as a guard and Gavla has become the royal smith." Vakama nodded, stroking the projection on his mask.

"What of Makuta Krika?"
"Krika, you're going to have to ask Rarity about that." Lyra turned to look at Rarity. "Come to think of it you haven't told any of us. Mind sharing?"
"Well it's not much of a story." Rarity, shied away. "Nothing so epic."
"He was easily subdued?" Vakama cocked an eyebrow.
"My little sister smiled at him." Rarity shrugged, Tanma snorted.
"You have something to add to a tale you did not witness, Tanma?" Vakama challenged the matoran.
"Just this," Tanma stated flatly, "Once a monster, always a monster." Vakama's eyes seemed to flash and the faint flickering in his staff blazed for a moment. The Turaga took a deep breath and the staff's light calmed.

"May I tell you a story Tanma?" Vakama started firmly, this was a command not a request. "Long ago, when I myself was a toa, my team encountered the vizorak hoard."
"Yes the invasion of Metru Nui. I don't see what that has to do with-" Vakama struck the sand with his staff, the air seemed to grow warmer.
"Silence!" Tanma's mouth shut with an audible snap. "Now, as I was saying. We were captured, changed by the vizorak into hordika, more commonly known as?"
"Kronak Toa." Tanma droned out.
"Meaning Monster Toa. During our time as monsters we each had to suppress the primal instincts that come with that title, I believe you know a hordika by the name of Murtuk, for some of us like Matau and Whenua these instincts took on the form of pack behavior, which is honestly beneficial at times. For Nuju and Ownua they took on the form of isolationism and in Ownua it came with an almost uncontrollable rage. For Nokama it manifested as a deeper connection with her element."

"You mean it can get better?" Fluttershy squeaked from the back of the group, just in front of Brutaka. Vakama looked back at her.
"Apparently, you'd have to ask Nokama for a better description."
"Wow..."
"Anyway, for me, unfortunately, it manifested as anger. I was already angry with myself for allowing my team to fall to such a fate, I was also frustrated at them for blaming me for it, I saw it as disrespect and in all honesty I wanted to go home more than anything else in the world." He stopped walking, eyes glazed for a moment as he spoke. "To just go back to my days in the forge, carefully, patiently, crafting masks for others out of kanoka disks." He sighed before shaking himself and continuing to walk. "I struck out on my own, less to clear my head and more to rage at the world for cursing me so. And I was captured again, only this time," Vakama stared at Tanma, as if trying to pierce him with his eyes, "they didn't harm me. Instead they offered me a deal, I could go back to my home, begin my trade again and be left there in peace, with the blindly loyal vizorak as my assistants, if I brought her the rahaga, who had saved us, and the rest of my team. Do you know what I said to her Tanma?" He looked at Tanma, the shame of the answer clear on his face.

"You refused, what toa would give in to such demands?" Tanma waved him off.
"Wrong." Vakama knocked a rock from his path with his staff. "I agreed." Tanma's face was a mixture of shock and horror. "I agreed because I wanted to go home, I agreed because I was angry, I agreed to do an evil thing, not out of malice but out of what I believed to be justified rage, and the simple desire to go home. In my quest to carry out my end of the bargain I became a monster and when my team came for my I tried to kill them and I would have if one of them hadn't taken a blow from a misfired rhotuka spinner for me and them pleaded for me to remember my duty to the matoran. Contrary to popular belief it was the fact that he had taken the spinner that made me pay attention to him. I didn't give a kane-ra dropping about the matoran at that point, I had already lost everything while they had hated me and accused me of killing my hero, why should I have cared about them? Now Lyra, why do you think I became a monster in the first place?" He pointed his staff at Lyra, his eyes already holding the answer.

"Because you felt unappreciated, you had fought for them with everything you had and they still ignored you and blamed you when things went wrong."
"Correct. You could learn a thing or two about reading people from this pony Tanma." Vakama chuckled. "If that's why I turned than Tanma, why did I go back?" Tanma looked at him for a second then rolled his eyes.
"Because you realized what you were doing was wrong." Vakama brought the staff down on a large rock, a metallic clank pealed through the air and the rock glowed red hot.
"Wrong again!" He bellowed, Even Brutaka flinched at the sight of his wrath. Vakama cooled down quickly. "I went back because by first coming after me and then in taking that hit they had proven that they cared for me, that they wanted what was best for both me and the matoran. Now Twilight, since Tanma has the emotional depth of a spoon, what does a real smile between friends mean?" Twilight thought for a moment, considering what she had learned from her studies in friendship.

"A smile can communicate trust, happyness, caring and many other positive things directed both at the user and the recipient." Twilight smiled, satisfied with herself.
"Correct, though I wouldn't have broken it down quite so much. What I was looking for was simply the third example. Caring, by smiling she showed that she cared for him at some level, and may have even enjoyed his company. So you see, heart-of-an-ice-cube Tanma, the reason that smiling worked was all in Krika's motivations. I've been looking through historical documents and it seems that no one ever showed any kind of caring towards a makuta and for someone like that a smile can change the entire course of their life." He knelt, touching the orb on the end of his staff to the sand. "It can change it from something ugly, course and gritty," The orb started to glow, as did the sand beneath it, "to something beautiful." The orb stopped glowing and he lifted a sheet of softly glowing glass out of the sand, it was an oval with five shapes removed, two that looked like crescent brushstrokes and three small circles.

"Now even you can't get this wrong Tanma," He continued, "what do these five shapes symbolize?" Tanma looked puzzled by this question.
"The top and bottom crescents represent good and evil, and the three dots represent unity, duty and destiny as a path away from evil." Vakama nodded.
"Now, this next one I'm sure you will get wrong so I turn to the one who out talked Helryx, what was your name?"
"Applejack sir." She tipped her hat to him.
"Applejack, what would happen if one of these virtues were to fall out of the pattern, say unity?"
"Than whoever was trying to get over would be trapped."

"Exactly, and you can't have unity without caring for those you are to be united with. In order to care for those under your protection you must feel empathy towards them, and they must show it in return. It is a form of unity." They had long since entered the town and had been attracting stares. "Now remove that and all you have is duty, which is not worth anything if you don't care about it, which then leaves destiny which is nothing without a duty to guide it. In short you cannot cross without these three things, and they are also the only things keeping you on the side of good, remove or damage one and they all fall, leaving you to tumble down into evil." He stopped outside a building. "They always fall in the same order, and the most easily damaged of all three is unity, you choose your duty, you can influence your destiny but you only control a small part of unity, the rest is controlled by those around you and if they damage yours it's all too easy for your other virtues to fall. That is what I believe happened to the makuta, we damaged their unity, and caused their downfall, insofar only Nokama agrees with me but in my eyes it all adds up. We gave them no reason to care for us and so they didn't. We brought about our own doom and theirs."

He looked up at the building. "The council is still meeting, I will plead your cause but these decisions take time, especially seeing as we have our own issues to deal with, I should probably have an answer for you by tonight. Until then, you should explore, this is after all the elbow of Makuta Teridax's body on top of being a cultural hub, so I'm sure there will be something of interest to you here." He passed the glass ornament to Applejack, who caught it carefully. "You can keep that."

Somthing stirred in Twilight's head with a single word.
"What? What? What!?"

And You Thought Boot Camp Was Bad

Vamprah was in trouble, he had barely made it out the door when he heard a light cough from behind him. It wasn't the exasperated harrumph he had been expecting, but it was certainly meant to get his attention.
"Vamprah, may we speak to you, alone?" The voice belonged to Celestia, he was sure of that, he was also sure of the basic way she was holding herself, three inches, an almost painfully awkward way for a creature her size to hold itself. He heard Gavla turn her head to look at him, the mental link they shared conveying everything he needed to know.

He nodded, almost imperceptibly, and Gavla left the room, probably shooting a glare at Luna as she left.
"Yes, your highness?" Vamprah spoke carefully.
"Blueblood has been coming to me with some rather strange stories," ah, that was the issue, "but with him being Blueblood, and willing to say just about anything to get out of something he doesn't want to do, I didn't believe him. But certain... oversights, have forced me to re-evaluate his claims." Uh oh, turns out he wasn't the one in trouble.

"And you don't trust Gavla to come clean." Vamprah nearly cringed. He heard Celestia nod, vaguely. He hated using echolocation in places like this, he couldn't hear anything until almost a full second after it happened, big antechambers, a bat's worst nightmare.
"The green dye and the placing of her initial on him could be considered a uniform, her periodic artificial blinding and her near constant insults, she did say she was going to mess with him, and her outfitting of him for some of her more awkward inventions, the position of assistant often comes with the title of guinea pig. But, Blueblood has come to me with the following stories. Being used as a target for long range weapons, having molten metal flung at him to make him dance, having his face stuck in a furnace, and creating an elaborate illusion that involved being placed in a room made of sentient razor blades, all of which wanted him dead, and only being released from said illusion just before his head would be sliced to pieces. Are any of these stories true?"

He briefly considered lying to her, but he had always been terrible at hiding his tics, so he sighed and spoke honestly.
"All of them are true. Although, he wasn't being used as a target, she was aiming four feet to any side of him, if they came any closer to him than that she would throw out the design. All but one of her attempts exploded in her grasp, failing to so much as launch the projectile, the one that didn't explode was accurate enough and has been fitted onto the Earth Pony's armor. All in all Gavla sustained more injuries from that incident than he did altogether. And just for the record, I would like to say that I tried to talk her out of the razor blades." He heard Celestia tap the floor a few times.

"Tell Gavla that Blueblood has been removed from his position." She commanded calmly. "There is another matter that may need to be attended to. We have recently learned that the forces we will be obtaining may be much smaller than we originally planned, you remember when you told me about the rahkshi the other day." He nodded. "How many do you think you could make in two weeks notice?" Vamprah took a second to do a few calculations in his head. A kraata was simply concentrated antidermis. He thought about how much it took to make a single kraata, how long it took for him to regenerate his gaseous essence, and the speed at which they changed from kraata to the rahkshi armor.

"Do I need to move within the next four days?" He flexed a wing, anticipating not being able to do so anytime soon.
"No, the shield will hold." Celestia said apprehensively. "Although, I would prefer it if you didn't wear yourself out, making different kinds takes different amounts of strength correct?"
"Yes and no, it all depends on how often the makuta makes that particular kind of ktaata. I could make four-hundred Vorahk by tomorrow morning." He nodded, shifting on his wings. "But, I think I'll need a good flight beforehand, I won't be able to for a while." He took off, luckily the throne room had several large holes to allow Celestia and Luna to take off if they felt the need to.
_______________

There was a squirrel, and soon there wouldn't be. Gavla breathed softly from beneath the pile of leaves she had buried herself in, the nut she had positioned herself near was the perfect bait, at least in her eyes. It was so close, just barely out of her optimal range. It took one more step forward, she smiled, her fangs gleaming softly, and pounced, the rodent barely had a second to react, but managed with the expected speed, almost making it out of her range when she came down on its tail. She wrapped her claws around the bushy fur under her hoof and lifted it up.

"Thought you could evade me didn't you?" She taunted it, poking lightly at its exposed belly. "But guess what, no one escapes from me." She knew she was a sadist, and she was perfectly at peace with that, she knew how much she was going to enjoy peeling the flesh off this small morsel's bones. Unfortunately she was also aware of the horrified looks she was getting as she released and recaptured the little creature, opening shallow cuts on its body with each capture. She sighed, surrendering herself to the fact that her fun had to be cut short, and promptly bit its head off, ending the vermin's suffering once and for all.

Though she wasn't about to admit it, she loved the screams of disgusted terror that surrounded her as the blood's sweet tang filled her mouth, fear and pain, she loved causing them both; and while many would call her sick for this fact, she considered it more as self acceptance. She tried to keep her urge to hurt things under control, direct it at those that deserved it or those that were about to be dead anyway, and Blueblood, he reminded her far too much of herself. Self accepting doesn't mean not self-loathing. She took no enjoyment from death, it was boring, it was the extinguishing of those shadows that she held so dear.

That was another thing that most people found strange about her, most revere the light, they felt safe in the light. But her, she loved the dark, it didn't make sense to her that others would cling to light, light can hurt, light can burn away, light can hate, it can refuse to show itself, but shadows cannot, your shadow will always be there, shadows can't hurt you unless forced to, shadows can't hate, shadows can't hide themselves, shadows can embrace you, and death, the final mercy, was referred to as a shadow.

But she was letting her mind wander, she did that quite a lot when Vamprah wasn't there to keep her in track, she spit out the furry cranium of the ex-squirrel and set to work skinning it, fur would only complicate her digestion. She could still feel Vamprah in the back of her head, that was her favorite part about their link, that it was always there, it was something constant for her to hold onto, something, and someone, she could count on, even at this distance she could tell he was flying, and about to put himself out of commission for a few days, and that there was nothing she could say to stop him, she was also aware that she had to fire Blueblood, she had done that and gone straight to the gardens, where she had caught the squirrel that she was currently skinning.

She was in a bad mood, but she had something to look forward to, tomorrow she was going to have an army of Vorahk to terrorize her would be soldiers with. She was going to enjoy that, damn those guards were taking forever to get their claws installed. It was just pliantly hot metal, she had to deal with worse when she had been hired by a toa of lightning. Fun fact, toa of lightning actually have very little control, and pain is not something they deal well with.

"Miss Gavla?" A voice said behind her, forcing her to abandon her partially skinned treat.
"What?" She turned around, it was one of the earth pony guards, he was already in full gear, the black armor was built in columns, inspired by the towers one so often saw around Old Canterlot, the boxy design, while looking cumbersome, lent an air of authority to the wearer and was surprisingly comfortable and easy to move in, owing in part to the fact that the joints hid ball-joint-like fixtures, allowing for a maximum range of movement, her only working ranged weapon, she called it the Rampart Blaster, was attached to the back, when in use it would slide around the pony's neck into firing position, its shape suited the rest of the armor, and the recoil was so massive that she was sure only an earth pony could handle it.

"We're having a bit of trouble with a few of the stallions." He eyed the dripping carcass in her claws warily, more likely than not also noting the purple-stained fur around her mouth.
"And what do you want me to do about it?" Gavla sliced off a strip of meat from her catch's stomach, popping it into her mouth.
"Well, you said to come to you with any problems." He managed to wrench his face away from her maw, she almost chuckled at the shock still evident in his eyes.
"I did, didn't I?" She got up. "Alright, Who's giving you trouble?" She walked past him.
"It's a few of the unicorns, they've put up a force field and everything." A force field? That shouldn't be too much trouble.

"You can say it by the way." She spoke a few moments later to break the silence that had fallen between them.
"Say what?" He shifted nervously as he walked.
"What you've been dying to say since you found me... what's your name?"
"Copper Plate ma'am."
"Copper Plate, I won't be offended."
"What is wrong with you?" And there it was, her favorite question.
"You see these?" She bared her fangs, letting him take a good look before she spoke again. "These mean that I'm not an herbivore like you, I need meat as part of my diet, and the princess said she wouldn't get it for me. So I have to hunt."

"That I can understand but did you really have to play with the poor thing like that?" She hadn't expected him to see that.
"Well no... that was just for me." She pushed open the door to her forge. The four unicorns that had the shield up were cowering in a corner, as the rest of the guards just sort of looked on, there was nothing to suggest that the shield was anything more than a fixture. "You guy's need to lighten up a little, sheesh, a few whiners and your all up in a tizzy." She strolled over to the shield. "You have ten seconds to drop this shield before I break it down." She started to mentally count.

"So we can what? Have molten metal shoved up our legs, no thanks." He ate up all his time.

"Alright," she slipped the fingers out from below her claws, "have it your way." She slashed at the barrier, the fingers catching on the magic of the shield, causing them to spark wildly as a rend appeared in the ward, she pulled the fingers back out and the shield disintegrated. "You unicorns have such a trivial weakness, pure iron, give me a break." She waved over to where the sets of claws lay, the spires still sitting in the furnace to keep them hot. "You have," she checked with Vamprah, "ten minutes to get those claws on and get out of my forge, before I put them on you myself. You're new aren't you?" The shuddering nods were all the answer she needed, she loved causing fear. "Than you have five minutes."

"You're sure that there's nothing I can say to stop you?" Gavla paced behind Vamprah, he sighed.
"You already know the answer to that, and besides, we've already caused a rather big problem, I need to make up for it somehow." He shook for a couple seconds before gagging up a pair of dark grey slugs, kicking one of them into the charged vat Gavla had set up. Vamprah winced as the creature chattered in pain as it transformed, it was dead almost instantly.

What floated to the surface was the subject of many creature's, and basically everything on Odina's, nightmare. The dripping shell of a rahkshi. Vamprah placed the other kraata into the armor, waking the first vorahk, Vamprah nodded to it and it took its place near the wall. Gavla looked it over, appraising the grade of its armor. It was around twice her height, the tri-split reptilian face glaring back at her.
"So, I'm going to be in charge of these things while you're out, right?" Vamprah nodded. "Four hundred rahkshi, hmm, on second thought, go right ahead, this will be fun."

She crossed her forelimbs, hovering out of the room. "And just so you know, we both have to make it up to them, not just you." He smiled back at her as she closed the door.
Well, might as well get this over with. Vamprah started wretching directly into the vat, a noxious, acrid stench filling his nostrils. Ug, it stinks, this doesn't normally stink. He and the first rahkshi lifted the armored shells from the vat as they bubbled to the surface.

"Thanks." He grunted as it helped him lift the last shell from the energized metal. He knew it was just doing as its instincts commanded but thanking it made him feel better, he could already feel his strength flagging, he would have to finish making the kraata quickly. Wretching onto the floor, he telepathically instructed the vorahk to place the other kraata into their bodies. He could feel his consciousness fading. A little more, just a little more. he strained, forcing one last kraata to fall from his mouth, before he fell into dreams.

The next morning.

Vinyl Scratch hadn't wanted to get up yet, she was on the night guard, she had only just gotten to bed when they had called her out for special training. The Canterlot gardens, not someplace she went regularly, Octavia talked about them all the time, said they were peaceful. Yeah right, she snorted, try getting dragged out to them at the crack of dawn when you just pulled an all-nighter.
"Alright, you maggots!" The smith barked at the gathered crowd. "I am Gavla, and welcome to Warzone Combat Training! If you thought boot camp was bad, I suggest you find your drill instructor and apologize when we're done!" Gavla was wearing a pair of small saddlebags and had a squad of four massive reptilian hominids on either side of her, along with one of the unicorn nurses from the castle.

Wait a second, boot camp? Vinyl had never been to boot camp, she was working off a community service ticket. "The creatures on either side of me are known as Vorahk Rahkshi, they will be your obstacle course. One you can all make it through them without failing, you will be able to deal with anything the enemy will be able to throw your way." Gavla looked around, as if trying to figure out the most efficient way to kill them all. "Before we start though, I need you to form three member groups, each with one unicorn, one pegasus, and one earth pony." They quickly found their groups, old clicks asserting themselves.

Vinyl tugged at the collar of her purple-red armor, she had honestly been terrified when she had first seen it, there were pointed spires on the shoulders and all down the back, the knee joints on the front and back were also pointed, and anywhere that wasn't looked like it could slice a pony in half, she was the most surprised by how comfortable it was, she had asked what the practical reason for all the spikes was, and gotten a shrug from the green mare that had outfitted her. She'd told her to ask the smith, but as of yet she'd only seen her during the "claw incident". The "claw incident" was when they had told her to hold still and pulled a set of red hot claws out, that had not been fun, and the smith now scared her shitless. She had never seen anything just tear through a shield being cast by one pony, much less four, like that, and that smile, like they were already begging for mercy. She shuddered slightly as she thought about it.

Vinyl found herself floundering as she searched for a group to join. "Recruit!" She froze as Gavla yelled at her. "Look at me!" Vinyl whirled around, nearly tripping over herself. "There's a group over there that needs a unicorn." Gavla was looking at her with a raised eyebrow. "And by the way, I shouldn't be the one you're scared of today," she smiled that same smile, pointing at the vorahk behind her, "they are." She chuckled.

Bowl control? Are you still there? Good. Vinyl walked over to the group Gavla had motioned to.
"Hey, how's it going?" She asked the stallions.
"Fine." The pegasus said. The pegasus' silver armor was much less flashy than hers and much more sleek than the earth pony's, there wasn't a hard line on the thing, no projections, nothing, but the entire thing looked like a continuous blade, even the wings looked like they could slice through whatever they wanted, "The smith's such a blowhard, I know for a fact that my Drill Sargent was the worst of the worst. If she thinks she can top that, I dare her to try."
"Have you seen her smile?" Vinyl asked, looking over her shoulder to make sure Gavla wasn't watching. "It's like she wants to floss with your guts, I would not dare a pony that crazy to do anything."

"She's all show, trust me." He waved her off. "Name's Sandcroft, my silent friend here is Copper Plate."
"Listen up!" Gavla barked. "Before we start I want to make two things perfectly clear! One, these vorahk will not show mercy, they've been instructed to leave you alive, nothing more!" There was that smile again. "And two, You are expendable, the other ponies in your group are not! Anyone caught violating this command will be... reprimanded. I'll see what I can get away with!" Bowl control? Don't die on me now! We haven't even started yet! That smile, why in the hell couldn't she get over the look on Gavla's face? She could practically feel herself running away every time she saw it.

She saw the vorahk tighten their grips. "You have ten seconds." Everyone just sat there for a moment, unsure what to make of this command. "Ten!" Vinyl got it right away.
"Guys, come on!" Vinyl took off, running into the dense trees off the edge of the path, Sandcroft and Copper Plate looked at each other for a moment before following, quickly catching up to her.
"Why are we running?" Sandcroft yelled.
"Alive, nothing more." Copper Plate murmured.

"One!" Gavla shrieked, and all hell broke loose. A rahkshi burst from the canopy, screams and bolts of energy flew through the air.
"What in the hell is wrong with this mare?" Vinyl yelled as she ducked the rahkshi's staff, a massive crack pealed through the air, the vorahk was blasted through the brush, Copper Plate whinnied in surprise as he was nearly lifted off his hooves, the barrel of his Rampart Blaster smoking.
"That has a lot more kick than you'd expect." He pawed at the ground. "We need to find a defensible position, somewhere up high probably. Sandcroft."
"Already on it." Sandcroft flew up above the trees.

"New girl," he looked over at Vinyl, "what's your name?"
"Vinyl, Vinyl Scratch." She looked nervously at the underbrush around them.
"Alright, Scratch, you any good with resonance fields?"
"Yeah." She put a little energy into the field. A resonance field was an alarm system, designed to create a large sound when something touched it, what good would that do them here, these creatures weren't exactly stealthy. "Why a resonance field?"
"I get the feeling they're called Vorahk for a reason."
"And you'd be right." Sandcroft flew back down. "Bad news, they can fly."
"What?" Vinyl started eying the canopy, she had figured that one had just climbed a tree or something.
"It gets worse, their attacks can be ranged, they're picking off pegusi like flies, so getting up high doesn't seem like a good idea. Their attacks seem to drain energy from the target. The name makes sense now."

"Crick." Vinyl whirled around, eying the brush behind her, she knew she heard something.
"Scratch, what's up?" Plate walked up next to her.
"Thought I heard something." She shook her head. "So where should we go then?" A sudden wave of drowsiness washed over her and she stumbled forward.
"Scratch, what's wrong?" Plate took a step forward to support her.
"Nothing, just got up too early." She shook herself.

Something hissed, a lot of somethings. They snapped around, standing back to back, ready to defend themselves, no one breathed. Suddenly, snakes and other animals came pouring out of the brush, all fleeing in the same direction. "Think we should follow them?"
"Better question, why didn't they set off the resonance field?" The Rampart Blaster whirred to life, glowing lightly with restrained energy. Something big moved, causing a large bush to shake. "Run!" Plate shot off the blaster, vaporizing the bush. They charged through the brush, ducking branches, jumping bushes; after a second they could see their pursuer, the silver and black armor glinting ominously. Vinyl hazarded a glance as it screamed at them, its open jaw revealing the slug-like kraata.

Another wave of fatigue washed over her and she tripped, turning her ankle rather painfully. Falling onto her face she looked up at Sandcroft and Copper Plate, who had stopped, a few feet ahead of her, then back to the rahkshi, which was trying to pry its staff out of a stubborn bush, which was withering as it pried at it. Gavla's command shot through her mind.
"You are expendable, the other ponies in your group are not." She forced herself to her hooves.
"Plate, Sandcroft, run, I'll hold it here!" The two guards nodded and ran. The vorahk managed to tear its weapon from the plant, the promise of death in its glowing eyes. Vinyl tried to remember a battle spell, Energy Bolt, Fire Wave, anything. The rahkshi screamed at her and charged, Vinyl cast up a shield, the creature slammed headfirst into it, shaking itself off and jamming its staff into the shield, Vinyl felt that same wave of fatigue, she cast out the shield pushing away the vorahk, before banishing the wall of energy altogether.

Another wave of tiredness and it felt like a pit had opened in her stomach, a second and third Rahkshi jumped out at her, she forced magic to flow through her, the armor lit up, lances of energy flew from the spires, seeking out and blasting the three rahkshi, forcing them back. So that's what these are for. The three monstrous hominids wailed in frustration, before charging her, staffs set to spear her.

"Enough!" Plate's voice sounded somewhere above her, one of the Rahkshi was blasted through the underbrush, followed by another, the crack of his cannon was nearly deafening, a silver blur collided with the third Rahkshi's face, knocking it away.
"You didn't think we'd really just leave ya' did you?" Sandcroft grinned at her.
"Sandcroft, Scratch'll be fine, get me down from here!" Vinyl looked up, Copper Plate was hanging by the claws on his back legs, from a branch that looked dangerously close to snapping. "The kick on this thing is too much for this branch, it's going to snap." Sandcroft flew up, hooking his forelegs under Copper Plate's torso, Vinyl fought the urge to chuckle. "Not a word!" Copper barked at her as Sandcroft awkwardly flew him down.

"Thanks guys." She limped towards them.
"What happened?" Copper, lifted her onto his back.
"Hey!"
"Oh shush, you'll be a liability if your limping along, and this way you can focus on watching our backs." Sandcroft hovered next to her, looking dangerously close to laughing at her. "So, what happened to the leg?"
"I twisted the ankle when I fell." Suddenly Gavla's amplified voice sounded from somewhere above them.

"It's a beautiful day in the Canterlot Gardens and we've got quite a matchup today, twenty three squads of guards verses seventy rahkshi vorahk. there are currently seven guard squads left not drooling into the forest floor, could the vorahk that took them down please get them cleaned up and brought back to base. And just so you guys know, any one who can find and defeat me will get the rahkshi off their butts. Good luck."

"Well, I think we just found our goal." Copper nodded. "Vinyl, you any good with tracking spells?"
"No. My specialty is sound, I can make and control sounds but when it comes to tracking anything I'm useless."
"Well, so much for that, Sandcroft, she was above the canopy, think you could track her down from up there?" Sandcroft shrugged.

"If those things are still patrolling up there, I'd say that'll be difficult at best." He took off, shouting over his shoulder. "But I'm still gonna try, if I don't get zapped, follow the whistles."

The Doctor woke up slowly, he didn't want to. The world of dreams was so much more manageable, for example, Ditsy was still there in his dreams, the girls had never found him out. In his dreams he had never left, in his dreams he could grow old and die.

But someone was pounding on the door to the Tardis... again.
"Alright, alright, who wants to slap me now?" He forced himself over to the door, throwing it open. It was Cheerilee, oh great, it wasn't enough that every mother in stinking Canterlot wanted to kill him for refusing Kal, stupid amplification... however the hell he had done that. Now the teachers were in on it too. "Before you cuff me around the ears, let me ask; which would you rather have, slavery with the constant threat of death, or just death?"
"Death, I should think." Cheerilee pushed past him. "It really is bigger on the inside." She spoke curtly and with the detachment that came with scientific curiosity.

"Yes..." The Doctor eyed her warily. "I've never had someone react quite that way to it before. If you're not here to attack me, then what do you want?"
"Dinky came to me earlier," uh oh, "she told me the most interesting thing. She said that Ditsy couldn't board the big-inside ship."
"I never got the chance to spend much time with her, so you'll forgive me if I'm not quite sure how this is relevant." Why won't you leave? Is what he really wanted to say, he just needed some time to himself, without angry ponies trying to slit his throat.

Cheerilee whipped around, and there was the slap, this was a bit harder than the other ones, it sent him sprawling. He panted into the floor a couple times, "I get the feeling I should remember you." He forced himself back up. "Sorry, for whatever I did this time."
"I told her not to get mixed up with you." Cheerilee growled at him. The Doctor snapped to attention, that look, yes, he remembered her. Oh buck. "I knew there was something about you, you ooze trouble." He backed away from Cheerilee's enraged form. "And now where is she? Huh!" She pounced on him, pinning him to the ground. "Where's Ditsy you, sorry!" She drove her hoof into his face, his vision burst with white. "Excuse!" Again. "For a stallion!" Again.

He braced himself, eyes squeezed shut, expecting another blow to his jaw, but instead there was simply a soft patter of something wet landing on his neck. He opened his eyes, Cheerilee was just sitting on his chest, foreleg back and at the ready, tears had welled up in her eyes, she let her leg sag down to her side. Why had she stopped? It was no more than he deserved, coward that he was. "She thought the world of you." Cheerilee choked out. "Even after you left, she wouldn't let me say anything bad about you. No matter how long you took, no matter how many times she had to lie. She wouldn't tell you of course, she would never let her precious Doctor know she still cared." The Doctor caught a whiff of her breath, yep, she'd been drinking.

She brought her hoof back up again, tears streaming down her face. "And even that was for you!" She tried to clock him again but instead her hoof simply stopped a few inches from his face, they sat there for a second, staring at the hoof that was just barely not poking him in the eye. The Doctor with a sort of terrified astonishment, and Cheerilee like she was wondering what dark powers had stopped her from taking his eye out. After the silence had dragged far beyond the realms of awkward, Cheerilee lifted herself off of the Doctor and started heading for the door.

"Wait!" The Doctor almost looked around to confirm he was the one who actually said that. Cheerilee froze. "You're not the only one who lost something." He spoke just barely louder than a mutter.
"Oh and what would you care, you abandoned her, you-"
"You don't get it!" He nearly screamed. "What do you know me as?" It took a second for Cheerilee to realize that he actually wanted an answer.
"Tick Tock, why?"
"Because that's not my name, neither is Doctor."
"I don't-"
"No, you don't understand. I told her my name! I can only tell someone I truly love my name!" He stared her down through his swelling eyes. "It nearly killed me that I had to leave! You have no idea what I would have given up just to talk to Sparkler again! Or Dinky just once before the Makuta showed up!"

He took a step forward, forcing Cheerilee to the door. "Now leave my Tardis, leave me be!" He reared up and shoved her out, slamming the door behind her. He sat down, and finally, let himself cry.

He had fallen asleep again by the time someone knocked again. He blinked a few times, the soreness in his face making him draw in a quick breath. "Okay, this is ridiculous," he opened the door, "I'm trying to sleep off a rather rigorous beating here." He cocked an eyebrow when he realized that his visitor's face was actually a good four feet above him. The reptilian monstrosity hissed at him, motioning for him to follow it.

"I take it there's no chance you can talk is there?" It stared at him for a moment before motioning again. "I'll take that as a no."

Vision. Part One: The Victor

The padded walls of her cell mocked her, so fragile yet she could not destroy them. The cold, engraved iron, bound to her body nullified her power and bound her wings.. And Raphael chilled her soul. It was torture, plain and simple, they were trying to break her mind, but she wouldn't let them. She was the judge, she was the cleanser; it was her job to break these heathens, not the other way around. The impudence, she would not stand for it, she screamed, pounding on the door.
"Let me out, you filth!" No response, typical, they only responded during the blasted counciling sessions. There were no windows in the room, no clocks, no way to tell time at all.
"Give it up kid," Beelzebub drifted about the cieling, looking bored, "they aint gonna do that." He started bouncing on the walls. "They're scared stiff. Anypony wanna play charades again?"

"You and your blasted charades," Raphael growled, "what will it be this time, a violated child?"
"How would you know?" Beelzebub stuck out his tongue.
"Because it's always the same thing with you, all anyone has to do is think; what's the worst possible thing that could go with those movements." The ice on Raphael's voice was starting to chip away, leaving red hot anger behind.
"Oh, and you're any better?" Beelzebub took a step towards his counterpart. "You're always, Rightfulness this and Duty that. Let your tail down bro, have a little fun." Beelzebub's ever present grin faltered for a moment before returning even stronger. "Or does your great God hate enjoyment as much as he does mine?"
"You go too far, scum!" Raphael snapped, jumping onto his crimson counterpart, hooves pressing down on his neck as Beezlebub wheezed with laughter.

"Shut up, both of you!" Andromeda howled at the two combatants, causing them to break the glares they were throwing each other. "I can't believe you two, here we are, in a cage and you turn on each other like bloodthirsty animals! Help me get the buck out of here or so help me, I will buck you both to hell!" Raphael stepped off of Beelzelbub's throat, straightening his mane, which had begun to stick up at odd angles.
"Killjoy." Beelzebub muttered, pushing himself up from his prone position.
"I apologize, our scarlet friend just has a way of bringing out the worst in me." He shot a glare at Beelzebub.
"Well you better get it under control!" She was enraged at this point, not only was she trapped more completely than ever before, the beings she turned to for guidance were losing it too. The door opened behind her, but she didn't notice. "I can't believe I ever listened to you two, how do you ever agree on anything? Much less give a life or death judgement! I bet you couldn't ev-"

"Morning Dew?" Andromeda froze, slightly surprised that the essence of fury wasn't dripping from her eyes.
"I thought I told you ponies," She turned, eyes like coals of hate, "not to call me that." The nurse backed away a step. This was a new one, she was a unicorn mare, her coat was white, her mane blue and the mark on her side was a small stuffed bear. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have the heralds of heaven and hell to straighten out." Andromeda almost turned back around before she realized that this meant the door was open. "On second thought, if you would kindly step aside I won't have to kill you."

The nurse muttered something under her breath before backing through the door and stepping to the side. Andromeda was lightly surprised by the fact that that had worked, but spared it no second thought as she dashed for the door. As she stepped through she imagined that she could almost smell it, fresh air, flowers, the ashes of the guilty. There was a slight creaking sound behind her, like stretching fabric. Something grabbed her around the waist, pulling her back onto a soft surface, she felt her forelegs bound to her sides and she was brought down to lie flat. After a moments confusion she realized that she was strapped to a gurney... again. The nurse was standing over her, no anger was apparent on her face, no fear, only something that resembled disappointment.

"The doctor will see you now." The nurse monotoned. Oh, this was going to be her next therapy session.

Gavla was in heaven, or rather, a battlefield, stepping over the unconscious bodies of Canterlot's elite. Three troops of guards had found her, two troops were down and only the unicorn was left from the last troop. Still, eight out of nine wasn't bad. Her armor was designed much in the same manner as the pegusi's, all sleek lines with a pair of ridges running down her back to match her mask. But, seeing as this was her personal set, she had opted for a little flair. The breastplate was stamped with the three virtues symbol, Vamprah's mask on either side of it looking to her sides.

"I'll admit it, I'm intrigued; just who are you?" Gavla chuckled. "I mean really, you've lasted about three minutes, that's a new record." The stallion chuckled weakly.
"But surely, this is nothing compared to the warriors back where you come from?" Gavla frowned, disappointed. This was the first time the stallion had spoken, he had a boyish voice, she had been expecting something more deep and intimidating.
"I can see why you don't talk much, but no, you're not even as good as the average matoran."

Gavla noticed one of the guards at her feet was stirring, she couldn't have that. She gave him a solid crack on the head, slightly denting his armor and forcing him to go limp. The stallion twitched, his mouth curling into a snarl.
"Don't do that." Even with his juvenile sounding voice he managed to put a bit of menace into his words, Gavla grinned.
"Or what little boy?" She kicked the downed guard again. "You gonna stop me?"
"Bet on it." He growled, charging her, his armor crackling with energy.
"Good." Gavla jumped aside, letting the stallion run past her, he wheeled around, making sure to keep his front towards Gavla. "Come on, boy, that can't be the best you have, I gave you those claws for a reason." Gavla picked up one of the fallen guards. "Or would you rather I broke a few of his bones?" The stallion reared up, his horn shining for a moment. A wave of purple flame erupted from the light, barreling towards Gavla, ducking down she managed to just barely avoid the flames. When the heat passed she looked up to see the stallion's shoulder a second before it made contact with her mask, sending her sprawling back.

Gavla rolled back onto her hindlegs, holding her claws at the ready. "You're serious. I like that." Her claws swirled with shadows. "Let's play!" She rammed the claws into the ground, sending waves of darkness howling at the stallion, his horn flickered, pulling up the rock in front of him to halt the shadow blades. The rock exploded, debris pelting the stallion, a rather large rock knocked his helmet off, revealing a white coat and blue mane. The stallion scowled at her. Gavla took to the air, peppering the stallion with shadow-bolts, kicking up dust around him. A dome appeared around the spot he was standing, cutting through the dust and continuing to expand. Gavla dove towards it, claws held forward. As the iron tips made contact with the shield a sound like shrieking metal filled the air, the dome shattered. The look of horror on the stallion's face made her grin wider. She swooped down onto the stallion, pinning his neck. "I think I like you." She lifted a hoof, her claws balled into a fist.

"Captain, Shining Armor!" A stallion's voice sounded somewhere to her left, followed by the crack of cannonfire. Aw shi- She felt the Rampart Blaster's shot impact her side, blowing her off of the stallion, Her mask scratched against the stone ground, digging her claws into the ground slowed her skid, allowing her to look back up. The earth pony that had shot her had another unicorn on his back, a pegasus circled above them. The earth pony ran to his fallen captain, what had she heard him call the stallion? Oh right, Shining Armor. She was hardly given much of a chance to recover as the pegasus came barreling towards her, she rolled to the side, kicking the pegasus in the gut as he passed. The pegasus careened into the ground, landing with a clatter of metal. Gavla was on him even before he had a chance to right himself. She delivered a solid blow to his neck, causing him to choke and desperately crawl away from her.

"Sandcroft!" It was a mare's voice this time, a horrible screech filled her ears, Gavla grabbed her mask, trying to protect herself from the agonizing sound. She snarled, looking back towards Shining and the other two guards. Digging her back legs into the ground for a moment, she launched herself at them, shadow enveloping her form. The earth pony reared up, taking the full brunt of her charge into his chest-plate. He staggered, sliding back as the shadows exploded outward, blowing Shining Armor back and knocking the mare off his back. He brought his hooves back down in an attempt to pin her.
"Bad idea, that was a bad idea." She heard him wheeze. Gavla brought her head up into his stomach, winding the stallion and forcing him to back off. She was immediately assaulted by two bolts of magic, she drove her claws through both, the heat from them was intense, even through her armor. Jumping up she responded with a pair of shadow bolts that made their mark with a crash, sending both unicorns sprawling in the dust.

"Let's cut loose, shall we?" Gavla spat onto the ground, her blades sliding out from her hooves. She ran towards Shining Armor, who materialized an ornate blade to counter hers with, standing firm against her. Sounds of metal clashing filled the air for a moment. Gavla attacked like a mare possessed, bringing both blades down on the magical construct. She drew an arm back, ready to stab, Shining pushed her back, forcing her to fall short. Gavla attacked in rapid succession on either side, which he barely countered, she knocked his blade aside bringing up one of her hind legs to deliver a solid kick to his jaw, sending him sprawling as she spun back into place.

The pegasus, Sandcroft, and the earth pony seemed to have recovered in the time it took her to dispatch Shining. They were charging from both in front of and behind her, Gavla jumped, causing her opponents to veer slightly to avoid colliding. Gavla brought down the flats of her blades on them, forcing their heads together. They slumped down to the ground, out cold. Another blast of sound impacted her chest, knocking her from the air. She landed on all fours, digging her claws into the ground to prevent herself from sliding.

"Hey."
"Oh, hi Vamprah, feeling any better?" Gavla looked up at the mare, she was limping, vulnerable. Gavla grinned.
"Not really. I managed to wake up, but that's about it in the mobility department." Gavla flung herself at the mare like a pouncing cat, claws forward and spread. The mare jumped to the side, stumbling slightly but managing to dodge the pounce.
"Well at least you're up." Gavla stalked towards the mare, head down, letting her shoulders roll in a manner reminiscent of a large dog. The mare started scrambling back to her hooves, but fell back down when she attempted to place weight on her injured limb.

"Is she alright?" Gavla looked down at the wounded foreleg, sliding the plates back with a quick burst of magic, it was swelling up rather badly. The mare jerked back, pulling her hoof into a more protected position under her body.
"No, apparently not." Gavla stood back up straight, casting an analysis spell in an attempt to spot further injuries. The scan came back clean, but the leg was bad enough to warrant concern. Gavla nodded quickly and lit her horn, letting the charge build up in her horn for a moment before releasing it into the air. She was going to wait until she had disposed of this mare too, but it seemed like a good time to call in the medics.

Gavla sat down, scratching under her mask. "What's your name?" She said bluntly. The mare twitched slightly, surprised at the sudden change of attitude.
"Vinyl, Vinyl Scratch."
"Well Scratch, you worked rather well with your unit today." Gavla smiled at her. "Even if your timing on that last burst was just a second o-" A mass of pink energy slammed into Gavla mid-sentence, blowing her into the grove that was the rest of the garden. Vinyl stared after the armored ex-matoran for a moment before looking up at the source of the blast.

"You witch!"

Luna sat in a garden, it was a strange garden, there were windows hanging in the air. Some ornately carved, others plain, and others cracked and decaying. The rest of the garden was strange as well, she didn't recognize most of the flora, and the ones she did recognize had been twisted and enlarged. There was something she was supposed to be doing, she was sure of it. But at the moment she couldn't remember what it was, so she shrugged and decided that whatever it was could wait. Standing up, she walked over to the closest window. Its molding was silver, beautifully crafted to accent the fourteen stones set in it. The stones seemed to go around the molding in an order, as each was numbered. They were all clear as pure water.

As she watched, the image on the other side of the window came into focus and the first crystal turned white as snow. A large bipedal being in a suit, he walked alongside others like him for a time. Then he walked away from them, into the arms of an apparently female figure dressed in blue. Another followed behind them as they struck out into a black expanse. As they traveled through the darkness, two more figures joined them after a bout of shouting by the being in the suit. Once they set off again they encountered strange creatures, many of them hostile, but the man in the suit and his companions seemed to always come out on top.

After a time, the first figure that had followed the man turned back, leaving the man with the other three figures. They walked for a bit before coming across another figure that had fallen. The man in the suit helped the new figure to its feet and brought it with them. After a bit longer they stumbled across themselves, standing completely still and a new figure. The man shook his head and walked past the still versions of themselves, leaving behind two of the figures that followed him and gaining one. It was noticeable that after this he started slowing down, which he seemed to be grumbling about.

The process continued, gaining and losing companions, the one he had helped up left with a new figure and another joined him. They walked for a bit longer before the strange creatures that inhabited this dark path struck at them again, this time much more viciously. A new figure joined them but was swiftly dispatched by the creatures, along with one of the figures that had been following him. The man slowed down even further, trudging along. The last figure left him and for a time he was alone with the woman in blue. She reached out a comforting hand, resting in on his shoulder, but he didn't seem to notice. She shook her head and took him by the hand, leading him down another dark trail. To a spot where two figures, a boy and a girl, sat. the man seemed to brighten a little, moving a bit faster. They traveled for a while longer until they met a new creature, it was an uncanny one that seemed almost like a perversion of the figures that had followed him up til this point. The man fought them off, but he fell afterwards.

The boy and the girl ran to him and Luna feared as she watched this man take his last breaths, that this story was coming to an end. But the man changed shape instead, springing to his feet with new energy and life. Luna chuckled at him as he ran circles around his shocked and confused companions. The second crystal turned a golden brown. The woman in blue handed him a new suit and a pair of pants and after he changed into them they were off again. This cycle continued, companions coming and going, he changed shape six more times, more crystals changing colors as he did so. The third crystal turned a calming blue. The fourth was a set of four colors to match his scarf. The fifth jewel was a deep purple. The sixth was a strange mixture of several conflicting colors that seemed to vie for control of the others. The seventh was a dual sided jewel, one side white, the other a shallow black. And the eighth was a light pink. The only constant was the lady in blue, who had begun to guide him at every opportunity, a smile on her face.

During his eighth incarnation he and another figure she recognized crossed paths, as he had done many times before, with the group he had been with before he found the lady in blue. But this time they were going to do battle against one of the creatures the man had encountered before. The strange creatures were like odd squids, piloting great metal bodies. They were masters of hatred and death. The man joined the fight against them with gusto, this time dragging the lady in blue along; while the other figure ran. The fighting lasted impossibly long, other creatures, of terror beyond imagination, joining the fight. Then one day the man looked upon the leader of his people and backed away in horror. The lady in blue took his hand again and led him away from the fight, from his people and the death.

And she handed him a lock. The man stared at the lock for a moment before nodding solemnly, he turned walking back towards the fray, as he approached things suddenly became still and the man spoke, the first words she had been able to understand since she looked into the window.
"I'm sorry." The weight on his voice shocked her at first, but as she saw what he was doing, she came to understand. The man placed the lock on the ground, closing it with a look of sorrow. The battle started again, but now no one was dying, every fatal wound was healed, every victory undone. The combatants were locked in an eternal struggle. They had been locked in place, never able to go forward, never able to go back. And the man walked away, changing shape once more. The ninth gem was deepest black.

The man let the lady in blue take him again, they continued down their original path, helping other figures when he could, and watching when he couldn't. Until he came across a girl, he tried to drive her away, but his efforts were weak. He was lonely. A single line carved its way into the black jewel. The man and the girl traveled, letting the lady in blue guide them and the man was happy. Then, from the darkness emerged one of the creatures his people had fought, one of the things that had tainted his race. It was old, alone and hurt, but it was still one of them. He raged at it, attempting to kill it with the harness it had been strapped into, only to be stopped by a group of other figures. The lady in blue attempted to comfort him, but he didn't seem to hear her.

The creature managed to escape its captors, attempting to get to the girl who had given it the strength to do so. It contacted him as it carved a swath of destruction. And he screamed.
"Why don't you just die!" The creature did, by its own means, a bit later. After the girl told it to.

They started off again, and he was happy as they ran through the dark, more lines were carved into the black gem. Until the creatures returned again. This time the girl destroyed them, reviving a friend in the process. Before the energies she had used to do this destroyed her, the man took them into his own body. A final line appeared on the gem completing the image the others had formed, a rose. The man changed form again, the tenth gem turned a pale gold, but this time he slept. Standing still while the others moved around him, the lady in blue lay next to him, sleeping as he slept. Another figure dropped a small canister between them. Painful strands of gold left them both, allowing them to awaken, and they started down the road again.

The girl still followed, this new form was much more energetic and excitable than the last one. Luna watched as they traveled and laughed together, all the while a terrible shadow hung over them, a single crack in the worlds. The crack erupted, pulling the girl back through. The man clung to her with all his strength, but the hole was stronger and while he held fast other creatures were being let through. The Perversions and the Murderers did battle around them, threatening to destroy the other figures. The lady in blue placed her hand on his, looking down at him with sorrowful eyes and he understood. He let go, letting her fall back into the hole that ate the monsters. But at the last moment by some glorious providence she was saved, she was still pulled away from him, but she would live.

The lady in blue took him by the hand again, leading him to a window. Through the window he could see her, his rose, but the window shattered before he could complete his goodbye. Then another woman, like a fiery storm, fell onto his path. This woman was only with him a short time, but she managed to cheer him up a bit. He kept walking, he found another girl and she followed him. Together they faced more of the Murderers, only this time they were trying to coexist, but fell despite the man's best efforts. Four, seemingly harmless, figures chased after them and the man ran, dragging the girl with him. Once the four figures caught up with them, the man turned against them, locking them each away in an eternal prison. Then the one who ran approached. The man tried to welcome him as a friend, but the runner instead lashed out, unleashing untold destruction before falling at the hand of a figure he had kept beside him. After this, the girl left and the fiery woman returned.

Instead Luna turned her gaze to the lady in blue, while the man interacted animatedly with the others that crossed his path, the lady in blue was almost like a silent sentinel, something that the man had decided was simply supposed to be there. She led him with a smile when he let her and followed where he went otherwise. When he was sad she attempted to comfort him, when he was angry she tried to calm him down, when he was lonely she was there for him and when he was happy she watched and smiled. But the man never seemed to notice. He treated her well, with a great deal of tenderness, [even going so far as to kiss her hand at one point] but never seemed to truly acknowledge her.

He had changed forms again while Luna was focused on the lady in blue. The eleventh jewel was a scarlet red. He finally took notice of the lady in blue, acting almost as if she hadn't been there the entire time. The lady in blue was ecstatic, running and jumping and generally making a fool of herself around him. He was confused at first, not quite sure what was happening. Then something seemed to click and he swept her into a great hug, laughing and dancing with her for a short time. Then something appeared, a blue box. It seemed familiar, but Luna couldn't quite seem to place it. The man and the lady in blue looked at the box for a moment, sorrow etched into their faces. They turned back to each other and their faces softened, sharing a look of contentment they stepped apart, still holding hands they walked into the box. After a moment the man and his two latest companions stepped out, but the lady in blue didn't, instead the box changed into the lady in blue.

Luna realized that that was what the lady in blue looked like to them, a blue box. Luna continued to watch the lady in blue as she dragged the man around the path. She seemed to be a bit jealous of another woman that would appear from time to time, her pouts were slightly amusing. But once the other woman left they were alone, they walked together, for the longest time they were alone. Just the man and the lady in blue, his blue box. Suddenly they stopped walking, on the ground there was a full length mirror, on the back there was a name. River. The man turned it around, the lady in blue tried to take him away from it, but this time he didn't move. He was reflected in the mirror, but around him the world was falling to pieces, people were screaming and dying and it was all his fault. It didn't matter that the ones dying had attacked first. He saw himself step out in front of armies and they ran, he saw all that he was, all that he had been. And he hated it.

His face contorted in rage he smashed it, driving his fist into it again and again where it reflected his face. He cried, slamming onto the mirror even once it no longer reflected anything. The lady in blue grabbed his hand as he pulled it back for another blow. This time it stilled him, she wrapped him in her arms as he cried into her shoulder. Luna could hear the woman's silent plea.
"Let me take him somewhere good, let him start over, please?" The sound of grinding metal reached Luna from behind the glass, it grew louder until she could tell it was in the garden with her.

Authors note: Suck on that, writers block.

Vision. Part Two: Great Destroyer.

The garden shattered as she turned around, the sound of breaking glass filled her senses. Next came the pain, like her body was being pulled in every direction. Something was burrowing into the back of her neck, but no matter if she tried to stop it with her hooves or magic it kept going. Just as suddenly as it came, the pain was gone, leaving her with silence in the dark. She felt for some kind of shape and found walls, she was trapped in a sphere.
"Hello?" She called out. "Can anyone hear me?" She sat for another moment, listening for some kind of response.

"My fault..." A whispering, raspy voice muttered from somewhere beyond her bubble. "It's my fault... I need... to make it... Right." She heard something drop. "Hermarasta fe Duren, my Sister. I'll wipe this place clean for you."

"Hello?" Luna called again. She heard the clanking and sliding of metal in response. There was light, coming from the top of the sphere, a hole as if from a gloriously honed blade. The dome started to change color, like old projector film exposed to a flame. It bubbled and hissed, revealing the world outside.

It was horrible, a wasteland, charred and cratered, the trees bare, twisted and skeletal, the sky burning red under the gaze of an overlarge crimson sun. Strange bipedal creatures lay burned and cleaved on the ground. They looked familiar, as if someone had taken a pony and stretched them into this new form. Looking closer, she realized that she recognized many of them. There lay Shining Armor, curled protectively around the body of his wife, both hewn in twain. There lay fair Fluttershy, a hole through her throat. Beside her lay the stout Applejack, the head and nothing more. Luna cast her gaze around, searching for some living soul, she found none. Only enough dead to fill Canterlot Castle twofold.

What could have done this? She ran, trying to get away from the field of bodies. What manner of Destroyer is this? She continued running, diving into the charred forest. "Hello? Anyone? Please? What happened here?" She glimpsed another familiar face, propped up against a tree, this one stopped her dead in her tracks. She stood, staring at it. "No..." She breathed. Scrambling over to stand over the poor soul, his eyes unfocused, his mottled tan and brown coat stained with blood from the gash running down his chest. She fell to her knees before him, reaching forward with her hands to cup his blank face. She could feel tears running down her face, but she didn't care. Some vague part of her realized that she had been changed like the others around her, but she paid it no heed.

She wanted this to stop, this place didn't make any sense, she wanted things to go back to when the colt before her had sent her letters. She wanted the sun to stop watching, she could feel the malevolence rolling off it like the heat it gave. She had seen war before, but nothing like this, even Discord despised death, what would hand so many over to it like this? Nothing made sense anymore, what could have done this? Where did it go? Why was the land so ravished? Where was her sister?

The body shuddered, taking a weak breath and snapping Luna out of her rising shock.
"Who...?" He weakly croaked. Luna looked around frantically, making sure there was nothing else hiding among the ruined forest.
"Pip, it's me, Luna. You remember right?" Pipsqueak tried to look up at her, but Luna placed a hand on his face. "No, don't move. You're hurt bad." Pipsqueak took another shuddering breath.
"General... tell Master, I'm sorry." He smiled weakly. "We'll get him one day, right?"

"General? Master? What are you talking about?" Pipsqueak's eyes focused and he blinked.
"General Luna," he croaked again. "Run." Luna heard it, the clank of metal. She looked over the way Pipsqueak was looking. Standing among the ashes was a figure clad in alabaster armor, glinting red in the light of the malevolent sun. The head to the armor was draconian in appearance, ridges almost like vertebra ran from nose to crest. The entirety of the armor was done up in a similar motif, spines running down the limbs and back. The chest and barrel of the armor were crafted to appear as a skeletal ribcage. It was hard to pick out other details as the air around the figure seemed to ripple despite the fact that he stood over her not a foot away.

"Sadness?" The figure spoke in the same voice that she had heard in the dark, only now there was an edge of hatred and disgust. "That's a new trick for his creatures to have." Luna heard the sound of a blade being drawn. The figure drew a spear that looked as if it were carved from the spinal column of an immense serpent. He flicked it and the blade flipped down, changing the spear to a scythe. "What, does he think I'll pity you?" Drawing on some reserve of strength, Pipsqueak shoved her away just as the figure swung the blade. Causing it to miss Luna and instead bury itself through Pipsqueak's neck and into the tree.

"Pipsqueak, no!" Luna scrambled to her feet, looking first to Pipsqueak's lifeless body, and then to the figure attempting to telekinetically pull its blade from the burned husk of a tree. "You brute!" She screamed, running towards the being. She jumped at it just as it pulled its blade loose, knocking her away from it with the shaft. It picked her up by her feet, hanging her upside down in front of its face. And she recognized it. "Krika?"

"Oh, did your master not tell you who you were sent to kill?" Krika hefted his blade, cocking it back. "Then I have a message for your slug to take back to him. Know that no matter what you send after me, no matter whose face it wears like a mocking mask. I will kill it. No matter where you hide, I will find you, 'Wearer of the Sun', The Great Destroyer comes for you!" With that he brought down the blade, and she screamed as the trance was broken.

New World, New Conquest.

"Where's the head? Ask them where my head is!" Twilight winced. Have you ever had something literally pushing on your consciousness? It feels weird, really, really, weird. Like your mind is a thick sheet of rubber, being stretched out as far as it can go.
Why should I? Twilight shot back, pushing back down on Teridax.
"I will leave you alone for a good week if you do." That would be nice, she really didn't like that rubbery feeling.
Fine, Twilight turned to Brutaka, the behemoth had sat down on the edge of a fountain positioned outside the council building. He held a rather large whetstone, grinding it along the edge of his massive blade.
"Excuse me, Brutaka?" Twilight tapped the titan on his shoulder, noticing the faint crisscrossing green lines on his armor. He looked up from his sword, scrutinizing her for moment.

"Dekal, take the others and show them around the city, please. We need to have a word with this one." Dekal brightened a little, motioning for the group to follow her. "Be sure to take Tanma with you." Dekal stiffened before looking over to the aforementioned matoran, who was currently refusing to speak with any of them. She looked back at Brutaka, throwing him a glace that clearly meant, 'do I have to?' Brutaka nodded slowly and Dekal gave a defeated sigh.
"Come on Tanma, don't wanna interrupt Brutaka's little talk, do you?" Tanma merely glared at her a moment before walking past her, towards the rest of the group. "Little muaka spike." Dekal muttered, walking past them. Brutaka waited until they had turned the corner of the council building before speaking again.

"Our Brother wishes to know what happened to him?" Brutaka smirked at Twilight's look of shock, placing his bow-like sword into the sheath slung over his back. "You reek of Teridax's antidermis, Twilight, something We've had more than a taste of. The only reason We have not stricken you down is that you appear to have him under control." Brutaka drew himself up to his full height, the green lines in his armor glowing a ghostly green, a sound like a thousand dying breaths filled the air around him. "Lose that control, and We will have no choice but to destroy you." Twilight felt an almost instinctual urge to stand her ground, a rather strange turn, but then again, new body, new rules.

Her left hand twitched, a lance of energy dancing between the talons, Brutaka chuckled.
"S-sorry," Twilight stammered, bringing the claw in close to her chest. "I'm still not used to this thing."
"Worry not, young one," Brutaka waved a hand dismissively. "Makuta are natural shapeshifters, one just starting out is bound to have trouble with each body's instincts for a while." Twilight cocked an eyebrow.
"But, I'm not a makuta." Brutaka nodded, reaching out to tap her between the eyes.
"True, but the being who has taken up residence in your head is, and as such, his powers are yours as yours are his."

"I want out, right now, you can't have my power." Twilight felt as if some great weight was slowly being lifted from her head. She looked up and saw Teridax's antidermis flowing off her head, the green smoke billowed and shifted, reaching further and further.
"He never did like to share." Brutaka muttered, drawing his blade. As the last of the smoke left Twilight's head it shuddered for a moment, changing from green to yellow and orange, as if it was on fire. Twilight heard a bloodcurdling scream, clamping her hands over her hears to try and block out the noise, she fell to her knees; it felt like someone had put burning coals in her skull. The screaming didn't even seem muffled and she realized it was in her head, which of course did little to stop it from burning in her skull.

Brutaka's face shifted from confusion at the change of color, to shock at the agony it seemed to be causing Twilight. The now flame-like antidermis flowed back into Twilight. The screaming stopped, but she could still feel him shuddering in her head. Twilight stood shakily, leaning on Brutaka's offered hand for support. "That's a rather powerful seal Miss. A bit excessive honestly."
"I-I didn't p-put it there." Twilight panted. "I don't think I've even heard of a seal that hurts that badly." She stood up, brushing herself off.
"What have you done to me?" Teridax weakly groaned at her.
I just said I didn't do that. Twilight brushed him off, shaking her head to make sure she was properly centered.

"Do you still wish to know what happened to him?" Brutaka gestured to the north, Twilight nodded. "In that case, I believe we should wait for the others. If that level of seal is necessary, I may not be able to deal with the result alone."
"Result?" Twilight cocked her head.

"Tell us Miss, if you found your own dead body, stricken down by your worst enemy, how would you react?" Twilight felt Teridax stir in the dark corners of her mind and shuddered. "Exactly. We can give you an overview of the abilities you will have access to while He resides in your body, while we wait for them." Twilight nodded vigorously, excited at the prospect.

Teridax felt himself slipping, falling through the formless mass of unconsciousness. It was odd, he felt so weak, that shouldn't happen. He was a gaseous cloud, he didn't have a physical being to tire out. What did it matter anyway? He had failed, at least, he thought he had, too many of his enemies were walking around unhindered for him not to have failed.
"Bah," he grunted weakly, "even if I did win, I'm stuck in here." It felt a little odd, thinking of himself as two separate beings. Victorious or not, the version of himself trapped in Sparkle's mind would have to move on to new prospects. Namely the comforting abyss below him.

He felt something grab a hold of him, it was cold, but strong, like a winter gale. At that moment his consciousness recovered enough from his encounter with his gatekeeper. Reminding him that this was a mindscape, he wasn't as illusive here.
"Come on Master," the voice was shallow and rasping, as if it had spent too long treating itself to Ma-Matoran pipe blends. "We have work to do." Teridax shook himself, allowing this new force to craft a world out out of the blackness.
"Lead the way." He coughed as he crafted himself an avatar for this dreamscape. He first appeared in the form he had taken on Metru-Nui, an old favorite of his. He looked down at his bulk. Familiarity is comforting, but with a new beginning deserves complete rejuvenation. He ran a finger over his massive chest plate, thinking for a moment before deciding on a few modifications.

He flattened out most of his bulk, shifting it from a massive body to sleek, dense plates down his arms and legs. His chest smoothed out till it resembled musculature instead of the bulbous swell of a rahkshi's back. He looked down at himself for a moment, flexing a two-thumbed hand before nodding, content with his new form. Looking up, he gasped at the world his new ally had crafted. A massive throne hall, carved from purest alabaster stone. Inscriptions lined the walls in the script of The Great Beings, it gleamed in the faint light streaming in through massive windows along the hall.

"I hope it is to your liking, Master." Its voice sounded behind him. Teridax turned, facing a creature clouded from view by jagged shadows, almost like torn cloth, that writhed and billowed in some unacknowledged wind. The creature's form was all but concealed by the shifting darkness. It was big, Teridax looked behind it, strike that, it was massive. Standing several feet taller than Teridax at it's shoulders, a little more if one counted the extra height given by its neck. Even at that height most of its mass was coiled around the hall behind it in serpentine coils. Two large arms sprouted from its shoulders, shadow trailing off its wicked claws as it gestured to the white throne. Its head was hard to place, as it seemed to wear the shadows like a hood, trailing back from between its eyes to pool around its neck and shoulders. Its eyes shone yellow under the cloak of darkness and its teeth, caught in a perpetual grin, gleamed like protosteel. Teridax found himself nodding in approval, he would have to make something based off of this creature.

Teridax stepped up to the throne, eyeing the inscription that rested above where his head would lie.
"And the Dark One became brighter than driven snow." He muttered, recognizing it at once, a prophesy he had poured over again and again in the five years he had spent planning under Odina. There were only five other beings that knew of it, two were far greater than he could ever hope to become, one was dead, one was the head of the Order of Mata Nui, and he had stolen the last one's body. He turned, casting a hard glare onto the shadowed creature that had crafted this. "Who are you?"

"I am the voice that woke you, that whispered to you when your host was in danger. I am the blade with which you lay low those that stand against you." The creature performed a sort of bow, bending over at about where its waist would be if it had legs.
"Shadō?" Teridax sat down in the throne, as the word left his lips Shadō's blackness seemed to blaze, whipping off of his body to pool in the air around him. "A living blade," Teridax chuckled, "surprised I never thought of that."

"The entirety of that prophesy, what is it?" Shadō asked, "when I created this room for us I was only able to find that piece." Teridax felt strength rush through his being as he thought of the words that had inspired him through a thousand years of war.
"A city unending, a world unchanging, and one said enough. The sky went dark, the Great One falling into slumber unending as the Master of Shadow took his place. And shadow led the way, leading to the revival of the Great One, and the Dark One became brighter than driven snow under the suns." The light in Teridax's eyes blazed as he spoke, conviction radiating off his form as Shadō slithered up around the throne, resting his head atop the slab that was its back. "But, with one destiny fulfilled, another must take its place."

Teridax went silent for a moment, listening to the world around him. He could feel it, the thick wall between him and his host, he could not take control but this wall prevented little else. He reached out, grabbing hold of Twilight's memories. "New world, new conquest." Her memories manifested as a large tome, "fitting," he chuckled. Flipping open the book, he began to pour over the machinations of his new world, muttering to himself as he did. "Griffons, Buffalo, Zebra, Dragons, four opposing philosophies, useful. Surprisingly accustomed to killing for an herbivorous species, interesting." He brushed off a page, flipping to her knowledge of the predatory species. "Hydra, Manticore, Dragon again, Cockatrice especially insidious, Timberwolf. That would explain it."

He turned to the foes that she had faced. "Nighmare, pathetic, fueled by childish need. Discord, impressive, such a shame to see such wasted potential, but at least he's happy with it. Chrysalis, almost adorable, wishes for what she cannot have." Teridax fell silent for a moment, seeming to almost deflate before snapping himself back to attention. "Sombra, absolutely incompetent," he snarls a little. "A disgrace to the power of shadow and the ruling class alike. I'm going into a place where darkness has already had its image squandered by this fool." He tapped the side of his mask. "I'm not even there yet and I already have to deal with pr. problems." With that he set to planning, using all the knowledge of his host's mind to craft the tool that would take apart Equestria from within.

"Are you suggesting, Vakama, that we simply forget the crimes their kind has committed?" Onewa scowled, slamming his hammer into the table. The council was made up of seven turaga. Onewa, a po-turaga, stood on the end of the table opposite Vakama. He had sand brown armor and a mask that gave him the appearance of having an almost square jawline.

Standing with him was Whenua, a onu-turaga, his rounded brow creased with worry. His armor and mask were jet black, his mask rounded until the top and bottom, where it almost appeared that the oval had been cut. He carried a drill, spinning it up out of nervous habit. Dume, another ta-turaga, stood on Onewa's other side. From a narrow mouth his mask fanned out over the rest of his head. He stared at Vakama in an almost calculating manner, he didn't know the younger turaga to be so adamant about any cause as lost as this one.

Standing with Vakama was Nokama, a ga-turaga, her face set and determined. Her armor was a light blue, her mask a near perfect oval. She carried a trident, its blades set in the stone at her feet. Nuju, a ko-turaga, stood silently on his other side, his face impassive. His armor was an almost white grey, his mask was almost square. He carried an icepick, his hand slowly tightening and relaxing around it the only sign he gave of the severity of the discussion.

Standing between the two groups was the le-turaga Matau. Standing in a rare moment of stillness, his normally cheerful disposition marred by the look of turmoil on his face. His armor was green, his mask almost bean shaped. He carried a saw, which was quietly whirring as he thought. He had yet to speak in this meeting, simply listening and thinking. All seven of them wore vests decorated with sown-in motifs of their element.

"Far be it for me," Onewa continued, "to say that personal confusion isn't an excuse to cause destruction. I did my share of that as a hordika. But I don't care if your theory is true, even if it is, there must have been a good reason for it." He looked to Nuju. "Yes we must look to the future, but not at the expense of lessons learned in the past." He gestured to Whenua, who spoke next.

"Even before their 'fall', as Vakama puts it, they were a vicious race, all but eager to kill. It is in their nature to be excessively violent, as well as to see to their own safety before others. They were hard enough to deal with the first time, why would we bring them back now that the toa are spread so thin?"

"Teridax's original plan was far more covert than any of you give it credit for." Dume spoke up. "He was meticulous to the point of near psychosis, it's entirely possible that the pool's re-activation is simply a back up plan, to keep himself alive if all else failed."
"Why didn't we quick-find makuta when the Morbuzakh spread through Metru Nui?" Matau spoke without looking up, drawing everyone's attention. "He swore to safe-guard the city, why didn't we ask for his help?"

"Because we didn't nee-" Onewa started, only for Matau to cut him off.
"No, there were plenty of times when we bad-wanted help. If we had gone-found him, we might have been able to out-find that he had quick-switched with Dume." He looked up. "We could have quick-dodged so much kane-ra dung if we had just gone to him. If anyone had gone to him for help, his whole plan would shatter-break. Why didn't we?"

"I-" Dume started, only for Matau to interrupt again.
"During the Dark Hunter War, he was hand-given the entire east-end to protect. Alone." Dume cocked an eyebrow at him.
"And how would you know that?"
"Le-Metru right next to the east-end. We never sight-saw another being protecting it. Why was he given that karzahni-job alone? How did he manage to protect every-all of us without losing any? Against a mass-army no less. When I deep-think about it, Teridax should have been our hero." The group flinched slightly at the name, Matau looked at Vakama and his group. "Why wasn't he?"

"We don't know." Nokama stepped forward, "none of us know." Onewa opened his mouth, but Nokama waved him away to let Matau finish thinking. There was silence for a moment before Matau spoke again.
"I was terror-scared of him." He looked over to Dume. "We all were, and still are, dead-fright of him. Because he kill-fought for us. He was like some-kind destroyer, there was no limit to what he could do. And it scared us." He walked over to Vakama's group. "But that was no reason to deliberately ignore him. To away-exile him, or any of the others. I'm with Vakama, this was our bad-doing. We need to set-right."

Onewa turned to leave, groaning loudly.
"Four against three," Dume said bitterly. "Then it is settled, I will find Brutaka and tell him to begin preparations immediately."
"Wait," Vakama held up a hand. "Onewa, there is still one more matter to discuss. Tanma has brought a group of travelers to my attention." The rest of the turaga took back up their spots, standing in a circle around the table.
"So?" Onewa reluctantly went back to his spot.
"They are from another plain of existence, one that is in desperate need of help."

"Why did this have to wait until after the pool that isn't going anywhere?" Onewa grumbled.
"Because they currently have two makuta doing their best to hold back the end of their world."
"What?" Dume shouted, "first Brutaka returns from the grave, and now there are two more that Teridax missed. How is it that with two makuta they still need help?"
"The enemy is apparently powerful enough to rival them and on a mission of genocide. They already have the support of The Order, who are sending Brutaka and Axxon, but I believe we should send the Toa Nuva as well, just in case."

"Lewa has been restless-itching for something important to do." Matau nodded, "I suppose we could spare him."
"Wait, with the pool being reactivated, how can we justify sending toa?" Whenua asked.
"You forget, brother, that without Brutaka here we cannot begin resurrecting them." Nokama said. "Gali has become a bit of a shut in lately, I'm sure something like this will do her good."
Nuju nodded his approval.
"I would refuse, but as soon as Pohatu hears about it, he'll be gone." Onewa grumbled.
"And if Pohatu goes, so will Onua." Whenua nodded. "There is little I could do to stop him."
"Then it is settled." Dume sighed, turning to leave. "No good can come of this." He muttered as he left the room.

Demonstration.

Wow, as it turns out, getting hit by an angry magic user hurt a lot more than getting hit by a scared one. Gavla made a mental note of this as she peeled herself out of the wall of a gazebo located towards the center of the gardens, flopping onto the ground unceremoniously in order to take stock of what was still working. Arms? She dug her claws into the concrete, pushing herself into a sitting position. Check. Legs? She planted her hind legs, getting back up into a standing position. Check. Face? She opened her eyes, wincing slightly at the pain the sudden onslaught of light caused. Check. Wings?... This was what she was really afraid of, unlike the rest of her body, she was unable to get her armor to prevent the breaking of wing bones when faced with an assault of great force from above or behind. It was simply impossible to do without compromising maneuverability.

She then remembered something she considered a stroke of genius. She had built small flaps, into both the her armor and the pegusi model armor, that the wings could be tucked into in the event of such an impact, in order to protect them from harm. Stretching her wings out from under the light plates she sighed in relief, thanking the Great Beings that anything with wings' first instinct in to tuck them in when faced with such force. Check. She rolled her neck, popping a few vertebrae back into place.
"Well somebody's cranky." She called out after her assailant. "I knock somebody you like upside the head?" She leered at her opponent, grinning at the mare's glare. "Who in Karzahni are you anyway?" Gavla spat out a mouthful of dirt. Her opponent crouched down, pointing her horn at Gavla.
"Princess Cadance." She growled at Gavla.

"Oh, so you're the one I've been hearing about. The one who got kidnapped by an over-sized bug." Gavla taunted, Cadence glared at her. "It's embarrassing honestly, now I have to tell people that I got hit by someone who couldn't handle a Nui-Rama."
"Oh, shut it!" Cadance lit her horn, power surging through her form as Gavla braced herself, ready to knock the alicorn down a peg. Firing off a neon blue bolt of energy, Cadance took to the air. Gavla got up on her hind legs, bracing herself as the bolt hit, nestling itself in her hoof.

"Hate to break it to ya girly," Gavla cocked back her arm, "but it'll take more than that." She threw the orb of power, loosing one of her own to follow it. Cadance drove herself higher to avoid the volleys of energy, Gavla chuckled. "That which is the makuta's," Cadance's rebounded spell changed course, making a beeline straight for her, Gavla's did the same, the black swath following the blue bolt back to its master.
"Don't you dare say it."
"Shall return to him."
"You said it..." Gavla laughed as Cadance's eyes widened in surprise. She whirled around, putting up a shield, her own power impacted it, shattering the barrier. Gavla's bolt kept going, exploding inches from Cadance's face. A black plume burst out, clinging to Cadance's form as she tumbled through the air.

Righting herself, Cadance looked around for Gavla, not wanting to lose sight of her opponent. Gavla surged up, squaring a vicious punch to Cadance's stomach before flying past her. Cadance's flapping became irregular as she tried to catch her breath, forced out of her by Gavla's armored fist. "Oh, come on 'princess', I know you can do better than that, your aunt controls the sun, the other one controls the moon and you..." Gavla trailed off, taunting her with silence.
"I'll show you what I can do." Cadance muttered, pushing herself up through the air. Power gathered in her horn again. "By the time I'm through with you, you'll be a smear on that tree." Gavla grinned, she'd been wanting to see what happened when an alicorn let go.
"Now you've done it."
"Oh shush, you." Gavla said.

Cadance released the energy, letting it flow through herself. An unspoken rule among alicorns was that they never showed their true power, always locking it away behind several walls of sealing spells. Luna had been the first to break this rule, allowing herself to let go during the initial defense, to drive the invaders out of Ponyville. Cadance was about to do the same to punish the bitch who had beat her husband. The air around her rippled as threads of light appeared in the air around her, unraveling before disappearing completely. Cadances eyes closed tight as power flowed, unrestrained, through her body. In all honesty, it hurt like hell, like someone had poured red hot passion itself into her veins. All that power, bottled up behind something as weak as three layers of protective wards, now it was loose, and it had a target.

"Let's see you handle this!" Cadance's eyes flew open, abandoning their normal dark purple for the blue of her magic. The release was massive, momentarily blinding Cadance as it surged towards its target. The beam was far too large for Gavla to even consider dodging, and trying to outrun it would just make her die tired.
Give the order.
"Gotcha."

Gavla grinned, with a mighty heave she thrust herself forward, claws out, into the center of the beam. She tucked her wings in just as the beam hit, turning herself into a near-perfectly streamlined bullet. Heat engulfed her, electricity arching across her armor as power pooled in all the nooks and crannies of the protosteel. The iron tips of her claws parted the magic, allowing it to simply slide off her sleek armor instead of incinerating her. Bursting out the other end of the beam, Gavla swung a back leg, squaring Cadance in her jaw and opening several shallow cuts with the smaller talons there. Opening her wings, Gavla swung around Cadance, sticking close to prevent her from using properly destructive magics.

Cadance's horn glowed, a pair of wicked scimitars materialized in the air next to her. Gavla slid her blades back out, ready to fight. They charged at each other, protosteel clashing on magic with an electric sound, their fur stood on end as both sides tried to push the other down. Cadance broke off, swinging her swords in a circle around herself to put some momentum behind them. They crashed down on Gavla's, one after the other, spinning her through the air. Gavla used the momentum to bring about one of her hind legs for a heel-kick. Cadance took the opportunity to try and sever the limb, her blade clattering uselessly against Gavla's armor. Gavla pushed down, letting her leg push one blade out of the way and one of her blades to occupy Cadance's other sword. Gavla brought the flat of her blade down onto the left side of Cadance's face, making her see stars, before swooping back, putting a little distance between them.

Cadance shook her head, trying to calm the ringing in her left ear. Gavla retracted her blades, her claws swirling with dark energy. She spun in place, letting the bolts of shadow streak towards Cadance, who brought her swords down, cutting through one and then the other. Gavla was hot on their tail, claws set to strike. Cadance's horn glowed brighter, squaring Gavla in the chest with a burst of power. They were too close together, the release of power sending both spiraling through the air. Cadance was the first to right herself, surging towards the still stunned Gavla. She made contact, driving her shoulder into Gavla's back, pushing her even further down.

Gavla shook herself to regain her sense of balance, glad she had learned to let her wings essentially work on autopilot.
Vamprah, can I get number four real quick? Her claws started to crackle with electricity. Thanks, big guy. She turned back to Cadance, who was streaking through the air towards her. "Sup!" She yelled, thrusting her claws out, two bolts of lightning flew from them, arching towards Cadance with deadly accuracy. Cadance brought up her swords to defend herself, the bolts landed in the swords before arching through them and towards their intended target. Cadance quickly put up a shield, the chain lightning bursting ineffectually against it. Number thirty now, please?

As Cadance threw off the shield, Gavla took a deep breath, releasing it as a shrieking concussive blast of sound. Cadance hardly had time to blink before she was knocked completely out of the air, smashing into the ground with a crash. Gavla circled the spot she fell like a vulture, looking for some sign of movement. She got it in the form of a beam of blue energy, Gavla ducked to the side, flying around the beam and down towards her opponent.

They had gathered a bit of an audience. The order had been for Vamprah to call off the rahkshi, allowing the guards to watch. "Is that all you've got?" Gavla yelled, barreling towards Cadance. Cadance shot up to meet her, swords clashing on claws as they met, sparks flew from where the iron met magic. Gavla broke contact, swooping beneath Cadance and taking another breath. She screeched again, throwing Cadance up into the air and deafening her at such close range.

Cadance felt something hot running down the sides of her face, padding at it with a hoof she found it was blood. The pressure snap caused by Gavla's power scream had popped her eardrums. This, however, went unnoticed by Gavla, who was still a good thirty feet below her. "You like that?" Gavla yelled, "well I've got more!" Gavla flew up, blades out, at Cadance. Seeing the darker red fur around Cadance's ears she stopped, her blades retracting with the sound of metal on metal. Her smile fell, turning to a look of concern. Using the guard code, which Gavla assumed, seeing as Cadance was an ex-guard captain's wife, Cadance knew. She asked, "you good to keep going?" Cadance nodded in response. "You sure? I've got medics downstairs." Cadance nodded again, Gavla grinned fiercely, her blades sliding back out.

Gavla and Cadance clashed in the air again, becoming a storm of blades and magic, neither side giving an inch as they bombarded each other with everything they had. It was nearly imperceptible, but as the fight progressed Gavla was slightly more careful with the powers she borrowed from Vamprah, making sure there was a bit of distance between them before using the more destructive abilities. Space itself seemed to warp around them as they tore into each other, but still neither one would give an inch of sky.

When Shining Armor regained consciousness, nothing could be seen of the two except a ball of swirling black and blue energy. He looked around at the rest of the clearing, the entirety of the guard was there, medics tending to what wounds there were. Most just needed a good bar of chocolate after the rahkshi's draining. Copper Plate stood next to him, appearing to have woken up only a few moments before.
"Your wife packs a punch sir." He whistled before grinning cockily at the ex-captain. "Speaking of which, how was princely life treating you Captain?" Shining Armor pushed himself up, looking at Copper Plate and smiling bitterly.
"It was great, soft pillows and fancy meals every day. I'd do anything to go back."

The two continued to stare at each other for a moment, before bursting into laughter. "It's good to see you Plate, how've you been handling the new position as captain of the earth regiment?"
"Wait, Captain?" Vinyl walked over, her injury healed by a medic named Quick Fix.
"Oh, right, you're new." Sandcroft flapped over to them. "Copper Plate is the captain of the earth pony guard, and I'm captain of the pegusi guard. Unfortunately, Frigid Wind died in the initial attack." He paused for a moment as the Copper Plate hung head and Shining gasped. "The job's open, Armor, we need a new captain, so why not take an old one back?" Shining looked back up, and Vinyl got the feeling she'd walked in on something very important.

"Frigid's dead, my lieutenant is dead?" He asked, eyes swimming with tears, the other captains nodded. "The Shield's Sword..." Shining choked for a moment before speaking again. "What happened? It should have taken an army of dragons to take him down, at least that was what he always bragged."
"Well it took more." Sandcroft nodded. "Canterlot was going to be hit. They showed up when the princesses left to deal with them in other towns. It was gonna be massive, they brought all kinds of big war machines. Things that looked like elephants or giant bugs, they had a bunch of massive metal birds screaming through the skies. Frigid took one look at 'em and walked out, told the unicorns to wait until he gave the signal to raise a shield. He gave the signal, once he was outside the shield's range. All that scrap out there, he did that. Right pissed off their general too, the thing walked up to him and snapped his neck once it'd worn him down on its troops."

"Woah," Vinyl couldn't help but be impressed, everybody had seen the massive wall of debris to the north of the shield, but to hear one pony had done that was awe inspiring.
"Oh, you haven't met Scratch yet." Sandcroft seemed to perk back up. "She was on our squad for the training. And as much as it pains me to say it, she was right about the smith. Now I gotta find Ship Shape and apologize." Sandcroft fluttered away, towards the castle.

At that moment the orb of clashing energy that was Gavla and Cadance's battle came crashing down, flooding the clearing with power for a moment before dissipating. Gavla and Cadance had their blades at each other's throats, metal and magic pressed against flesh. No one dared move, lest they startle the combatants into killing each other. Gavla nodded, almost imperceptibly, at the same time the blades were pulled away and they smiled.
"And that, maggots, is exactly what I want to see from each and every one of you." Gavla yelled, shaking Cadance's hoof. "Thank you, Miss Cadenza." She nodded to the alicorn.

"A pleasure Gavla." Cadance bowed shallowly, speaking a bit more loudly than was really needed, on account of her busted ears. She walked over to stand next to her slack-jawed husband. "But do go a bit easier on Shiny here next time, alright?"
"I make no promises." Shining Armor noticed that Gavla was using the guard code as she spoke, looking over at his wife he could see why. The blood from her ears had hardened, leaving a pair of crusty red streaks on either side of her muzzle.
"Honey?" No response. "Gavla, what did you do?" He yelled at the navy blue mare.

"Get your wife to a good medic, alright Shiny?" Gavla chuckled, walking past him back towards the castle. "She's got some serious fight in her."

Luna gasped as she regained consciousness, feeling even more exhausted than when she has fallen into trance in the first place. Her fur was matted with sweat and her breath came in ragged, shuddering gasps as she tried to bring her emotions back under control. Celestia spoke, breaking through Luna's haze of panic.
"Are you alright Luna? I know how much visions take out of you." Luna cast her gaze around the room, it was the same as when she went under. The throne room still pristine, Spike still sleeping with Peewee and Philomena and the mask still hung in the green aura of Celestia and Luna's combined magics. Luna's noticed through her still muddled mind that she was crying.

"Sister, I believe I have just seen Makuta Krika's afterlife." She shuddered, "and he is not well."
"Why? What happened?" Celestia reached out with a wing, pulling a shivering Luna in close to her chest.
"It is a tartaros of the highest order, so much pain and anger, such fury in his eyes." She gulped nervously. "It has twisted what he believed to be salvation into a nightmare that he has to fight for his life against. I know not what he's done to deserve that, but after seeing it, I'm not sure he aided anyone in his life with pure intent."

"Luna, I'm sure he-" Celestia started.
"He cut me in half," Luna deadpanned, "he was raving about slugs and someone he called 'The Wearer of the Sun'. If nothing else he's gone mad." Luna shuffled her wings a little, turning to look at the mask with which they held the end of the world at bay. And it shuddered. "What?" Luna stepped out from under her sister's wing, walking towards the shaking mask.

~~"Wh-"~~ Luna started at the muffled sound, looking around frantically.
"Did you hear something, Celestia?" Luna asked cautiously. Celestia looked just as startled, and nodded slowly.
"Is someone there?" Celestia called out, searching the edges of the room for anyone hiding in the shadows.
~~"Who dares?"~~

the Brute [Fine, I've edited the damn things.]

Fine, seeing as people have apparently been ignoring me. I'm editing the grammar in the first three chapters, but I will not be editing the content.

Dimensional Chronicles Part 1 the Brute

Prologue

Celestia was panicking; she had used her most powerful magic’s, even abilities banned by law and good old morality. This scar riddled “thing”, she could no longer give it any sort of title, was completely unfazed it even looked a bit bored. How, how was a creature that wore an eye-patch and bells to give its enemy an advantage, something that let her run it through just as a handicap, defeating her so soundly. She was a god, but here she was cowering even though she had not been hit even once, cowering from a being that looked about as far below her as anything could get with what looked like the “soul reaper” version of pinkie pie cheering it on.
“What are you?” Celestia asked, fear written in her voice like words in stone.
“Silly he’s Zaraki Kenpachi,” the pink haired one said cheerfully. “I told him you wouldn’t put up much of a fight but he was too bored here to listen to me. Oh well, it was still fun to watch. Go Kenny!”
“Tch, I figured, seeing as you raise the sun around here, you would be more powerful. I doubt you even got the rust off this thing.” He brandished his sword, “oh well,” he lifted it to take off her head. “Maybe the real power in this place will respond to your death.” He brought down the sword, Celestia braced herself for death, but the blow never came. There was the blip of blood hitting the tile. “Finally,” Kenpachi said gleefully. Celestia opened her eyes and got a face-full of star studded tail.
Oh no, she thought, How did it come to this?

Two Days Earlier:

“Come on spike.” Twilight said impatiently. “I want to get to the crater before it causes too big of a stir.” A meteor had fallen from Luna's sky last night. Meteors were known as bits of the space beyond Celestia and Luna’s control; so whenever one landed it caused quite the fuss.
“Ready,” Spike yelled, jumping on Twilights’ back. “I still don’t see what the big deal is it’s just a rock.”
“From outer space,” Twilight explained, “as old as Celestia but even she knows nothing about it.” Twilight beamed with wonder, “and the place it came from is even older and full of secrets even the princess’ can’t get to.” They walked through town. It was early in the morning and most ponies out this early kept to themselves; so there was not much talking. The crater was about halfway to Fluttershy's hut outside of town. The walk was uneventful so they were at ease until they looked over the edge of the crater.

At the bottom were three strange bipedal beings, two giants, one lying on its face in a pool of blood. Another, sitting on its hindquarters, some sort of cloth wrapped stick resting on its shoulder as it regarded the wounded one with no emotion. And one about the same size as Twilight, beaming up at the sitting giant with a smile on its face. The face-down one was wearing what looked like a giant spoon over its head, so Twilight couldn't see its face, but it was wearing a white robe with black lines running down its arms and legs. The one with the stick wore a white tattered panchoish’ garment over a one piece black robe thing and an eye-patch on its right eye. It had a scar that ran the length of its face next to its left eye and wore its black hair up in eleven spikes, each tipped with a bell. The small one wore just the black one piece and had pink hair.

“Well that’s not a rock,” Spike piped up, apparently rousing the big one from staring at the wounded one. It babbled something in a language Twilight didn’t understand, which was impressive, Twilight knew over thirty used languages and five dead ones.
“Umm, hello, do you speak equestrian?” Twilight asked slowly; the big one made a noise around the lines of.
“Eh?”
“Just a second,” Twilight said, her horn started to glow.
“Reiatsu?” the big one said. Twilights’ horn flashed, bathing all three strangers in light. “What the hell?” The big one yelled, pulling something metal halfway out of the cloth.

“Yes it worked” Twilight said triumphantly.
“Kenny the little horsey can talk.” The small one pointed at Twilight
“And use Kido. This place may be worth my time after all.”
“Kido?” Spike asked, puzzled.
“That must be what they call magic.” Twilight responded, “hello,” she called down the side of the crater. “I am Twilight Sparkle and this is Spike. Who and, if you don’t mind my asking, what are you?”
“I’m Yachiru,” the pink one said, smiling despite the fact that she was standing on the wounded one. “That’s Zaraki Kenpachi and the one I’m standing on is Nnoitora. Kenny and I are soul reapers the one I’m standing on is an arrancar.”

“Okay I’m happy to meet you Zaraki-”
“Call me Kenpachi.” He grunted.
“sure; Kenpachi, Yachiru. But we really should get your friend there to a hospital.” Twilight winced as she looked down at the wounded one.
"No need, he’s dead.” Yachiru yipped.
“Wh-what!? How, did he break your fall?” Twilight marveled for a second over the fact that she almost instinctively knew that these three were not of this world.
“No, I didn’t need him to.” Kenpachi said, brushing dust off his sleeve.
“Then how-”

“Silly horsey; Kenny killed him.” Yachiru said, psychotic glee lighting her eyes menacingly. “He was a bad man so Kenny took him down. It was really fun to watch.” Twilight was shocked by how easy it was to tell she really had enjoyed watching the robed one die.
“S-surely he could have been reasoned with.” Twilight stuttered.
“I guess.” Kenpachi said, standing up, “but I was never any good at that.” As the soul reaper stood up Twilight saw just how beat up he really was. There was blood staining his white ‘overcoat’, Twilight didn't know what else to call it. He had a hole punched in his stomach and gashes along his shoulders and arms.

“Oh my; we need to get you to a doctor.” Twilight said, worried against her better judgment. “Can you walk?”
“Of course I can.” He sounded stung, as if the innocent, concerned question was an insult.
“Then come with me. Now, let’s see, the hospital is on the other side of ponyville.” Twilight looked at Kenpachi again, “and they probably wouldn’t know what to do with you anyway. I know, Fluttershy! Come on.” She took off at a full gallop and was amazed at how easily Kenpachi and Yachiru were keeping up with her. She had planned to have Fluttershy meet them halfway so she would have time to brace herself. They arrived at Fluttershy’s cabin and Twilight knocked on the door. Fluttershy opened the door, yawning groggily.

“Oh Twilight, it’s you,” she looked behind Twilight at the other two, “a-and you brought new friends.” She started trembling.
“I’m sorry to bother you so early in the morning Fluttershy, but the big one needs your help.” Twilight gestured at Kenpachi, who was standing as empty faced as when he had sat in the crater. Upon seeing his wounds Fluttershy went from terrified to protective.

“Oh my, you poor thing; I’ll have to get right to work.” She hurried him inside. “You two are going to want to stay out here,” with that she ducked in after Kenpachi.
“So Yachiru,” Twilight said, attempting smalltalk to pass the time. “Kenpachi sounds like a title; what does it mean?”
“It means he’s the strongest soul reaper; he had to kill the last guy to get the title” She responded, smiling.
“Kill for a title; but isn’t that wrong?”
“Wrong?” Yachiru said blankly, her face empty, but it wasn’t like Kenpachi, where it was obvious he was trying to get a handle on where he was. This was as if a mask had fallen away and beneath it was an endless chasm. “Don’t worry, Kenpachi doesn’t fight the weak.” And just like that the cheerful disposition was back. “You’re the third strongest thing we’ve sensed since we got here.”

“What’s the strongest?” Twilight hazarded.
“Nnoitora's dead body.” Twilight was shocked; Kenpachi was strong enough to take down a creature whose dead body was stronger than Celestia. Just the thought of something that powerful made Twilight shudder in fear.
“Shwoom!” the windows of Fluttershy’s cabin were blown out as the entire cabin was swathed in yellow light. The ground and wind shuddered as if they were being battered by whatever was causing the light.
“Looks like Kenny let her see his eye.”

“Fluttershy!” Twilight yelled, barging through the door. Fluttershy was cowering against a wall from Kenpachi, who was almost blocked from view by the yellow energy. It was crushing, Twilight could hardly move under the pressure, the pure intent to kill terrified her and she had the almost overwhelming urge to run, but Fluttershy could be in trouble. “What happened?” Twilight yelled as she struggled to walk to Fluttershy.
“I don’t know.” Fluttershy shouted. “I had just finished patching up his wounds, only the appendix was hurt by whatever punched a hole in him, thank goodness and the rest of it wasn’t as bad as it looked. It was an easy fix, but then I tried to remove the eye-patch to see if I could help with his eye, I unlatched the patch and it flew off flew off. Next thing I know I’ve been flung against this wall with ‘that’ staring me down.”

Twilight looked up, the energy swathing Kenpachi was shaped like a massive skull, glowering and straining to get at them. It was as if his very essence wanted to kill them. Something flew out from the rubble that had been the floor, it landed on Twilight’s leg as she clutched Fluttershy in fear. It was the patch. Twilight felt a pricking pain and a sudden rush of power, it was as if liquid fire was being injected into her veins. It was incredible and painful, she clutched at Fluttershy even harder to keep from crying out as she was blinded by the mounting power. She didn’t see or feel Kenpachi walk up to them.

“Sorry, that’s mine.” He said, peeling the patch off her leg. The power stayed but she got control over it rather quickly. Her vision cleared and she saw Kenpachi, not four inches from her horn, grinning from ear to ear. He was so close to her but she didn’t feel crushed by his power, more slightly pressured by it. The patch was still off, the power was still there, Fluttershy had fainted strait away because he was this close. It just wasn’t effecting Twilight as much anymore. “Does it feel good?” Kenpachi asked.

“Huh?” Twilight blinked, trying to clear her head.
“I’ve forgotten what it feels like to discover untapped power, power beyond your wildest dreams. So tell me, how does it feel?” Twilight thought for a second, but the newfound power surged slightly, breaking her train of though with jagged pain.
“It hurts.” She choked out, tears beginning to form in her eyes.
“Do you know what this is?” He held up the eye-patch, which seemed to be flailing in his hand. “It’s a seal that devours the excess energy I put off, but it’s gotten too used to the level of power I put off. So, if it latches onto anyone else, it breaks any seals put on them and unlocks any hidden power, pushing them as close to my power level as they can get." Kenpachi shrugged, "don’t ask me how it works, Korutsuchi designed it.”

He put the patch back on, “congratulations, you are now the most powerful thing I’ve sensed since I got here.” He turned to walk away. “Oh, and just so you know, if I had so much as touched your friend there she would have died.” Twilight struggled to move, her body was not used to handling this level of power. She laid Fluttershy’s’ head down as gently as possible and turned to clean up the mess Kenpachi had made; the pain was starting to fade. She used her magic to fix the floor and the windows, with surprising ease, normally doing either one of those tasks would take all her concentration. Now it was as easy as levitating a book, even Celestia had trouble reforming things that had been as effectively shattered as the cabin.

She was obviously still far below Kenpachi, as she reflected on this she found herself able to fully comprehend how strong he must be. This creature was a threat to everything and everypony in Equestria and she had to keep him occupied. The pain also disappeared while using her magic, as if it was a manifestation of sealed away and pent up energy. She ran out after Kenpachi.
“If you need somewhere to stay I can think of two places.” Twilight said
“Really?” Yachiru said, bored and sarcastic.
“Well yes, either my library or Applejack’s farm.”
“I’ll go with the farm,” Kenpachi said, “I never liked libraries.”

“Okay, but we’ll have to get her permission.” She paused for a second, “say Kenpachi?”
“Yes.” He grunted.
“Why do you carry that stick?”
“It’s not a stick it’s my sword, my Zanpakto.” He looked at it apologetic affection in his eyes. “It’s the only weapon I would ever use.” Twilight was trying to be nice to these two, but they made her increasingly uneasy. Kenpachi's power and Yachiru’s empty eyes terrified her and Kenpachi’s apparent affection towards a weapon, a killing tool, disturbed her. She decided to make up some rules.

“You know we have some important rules around here.”
“Eh?” Yachiru jerked her head over.
“One, you cannot carry that sword, two you cannot attack anypony, three do your best not to scare anypony and four, for the love of Celestia, do not remove that eye-patch.” Twilight listed off
“I refuse to give up my sword.” Kenpachi's hand tightened around his weapon.
“Fine then, just don’t let on it is a sword.” Twilight took him through the outskirts of town to make sure he didn’t cause much trouble.

“Is everyone here a pony?” Yachiru asked loudly, as if daring something that wasn't to come out.
“Pretty much,” Pinkie Pie seemed to pop out of thin air. “There are some dragons and griffins around here too. But you’re the first two Soul Reapers I’ve seen since Unahana.”
“Pinkie Pie, how do you know about Soul Reapers?” Twilight asked.
“Oh, I had one living in my basement for two days once, said she was a third seat; whatever that means." Pinkie rambled. "More importantly who’re these two? I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone with an eye-patch and bells; he’s like a musical pirate.”

“He’s Zaraki Kenpachi,” Yachiru said, peeking over Kenpachi’s’ shoulder. “And I’m Yachiru. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone with hair as pink as mine.” She smiled calmly, without the usual psychotic glint.
“Well you have now,” Pinkie chimed with her usual manic vigor. “Hey, do you like sweets?”
“I love ‘em” Yachiru chirped.
“I work in a sweet shop, wanna help me make cupcakes?”
“Sure; Kenny make sure you get us that room.” Yachiru yelled, jumping off of Kenpachi and running after Pinkie, laughing playfully.

“That was.... different.” Kenpachi said, obviously confused. “Pops out of thin air and has next to no Reiatsu.”
“That’s Pinkie Pie for you. Now lets get you that room.” Twilight smiled, if Pinkie liked her Yachiru couldn’t be that much trouble, but she was still more than a little worried about Zaraki. Every time he looked at her since the patch ‘unlocked’ her, it was with an unsettling smile.

“I noticed that when you were with that Fluttershy or Pinkie you got stronger." Kenpachi grinned. "If there were three more your power would double. Why is that?” Twilight sensed a trap.
“I would rather not tell someone of your… persuasion. Oh look, we’re here” Twilight dodged further questioning as they entered the grove. Applejack seemed to have started her work for today. The second Kenpachi stepped into the tree line they started to visibly grow, surprising Applejack.

“What in tarnation!?” She yelled as a root burst from the earth beneath her hooves, launching her into the air. She landed on her back and looked up at Twilights’ concerned face. “Well, that’s new. Oh hey Twi’, who’s your friend?”
“He’s Zaraki Kenpachi, and he has some explaining to do.” Twilight said accusingly.
“Looks like they like me.” He snickered, Applejack tilted her head in curiosity, but laughed at the little joke.
“Ah’ beg yer pardon but what exactly are ya’?” Applejack asked, picking herself off the ground.
“I’m a soul reaper.”

“He needs a place to stay, and judging by what just happened, I doubt my tree would be suitable.”
“Well anypony who the trees like so much is free to stay with the Apple family." She chuckled a little at her reference. “Heck ya’ll could help with the harvenstin’, ya’ look strong enough.”
“Just make sure not to hurt anything.” Twilight glared at Kenpachi. “And make sure to keep that thing sheathed.” She pointed a hoof at his sword.
“Fine, sheesh, you’re worse than Soi Fon.” Kenpachi said, annoyed. “You know, you two would get along nicely; she’s a killjoy too.” Applejack laughed.

“Pleased to have ya’ stayin’ Zarak-”
“Please, call me Kenpachi.” Kenpachi waved her off.
“How bout’ Kenny?”
“Sounds good to me.”
“Well Kenny, ah’m Applejack, ah’ll show ya where ya’ll be staying. Ah’m afraid we don’t have any beds in yer’ size, so ah’ hope ya’ll like sleepin' on hay.”
“Sounds good, I usually sleep with my back against a wall.”

As they walked to the barn Twilight kept a careful eye on Kenpachi. “Don’t worry,” he said blankly over his shoulder. “You’re the only one strong enough around here for me to even consider fighting.” He smiled but it dropped from his face. “Well you and that unicorn with the Lyre.” Now it was Twilight’s turn to be confused. A lyre, she didn’t personally know anyone who carried a lyre around with them. “To be perfectly honest I have no idea why Yachiru didn’t notice her, the only other person she couldn’t sense was captain Unohana...” He trailed off, stopped in his tracks and started grinning like a madman.

“Kenny?” Applejack said nervously. Kenpachi’s’ hand slowly started to make its way to his swords hilt.
“Kenpachi, remember the rules.” Twilight said testily. The smile fell from his face like a ton of bricks and he sighed.
“I would be having so much fun if I could just ditch you.” But it came back. “By the way your power is up again, that’s three, where are the other two?” Twilight started to panic, who knew what this reaper would do if all six of them were together. Just then there was a sound like a bullet that filled the air, Rainbow Dash crashed headfirst into Kenpachi, who didn’t move an inch. She slid down his chest slowly until she fell off his stomach.

“Stupid light speed barrier.” She grunted through gritted teeth. She opened her eyes and the first thing she saw was Kenpachi staring down his nose at her. He looked up at Twilight.
“Four?” He asked, pointing down at Dash with a confused look on his face. Twilight winced. “Yep you’re number four.” He picked her up by her tail. “So, who’s the fifth?”
“Get off me!” Rainbow Dash yelled, straining against Kenpachi’s’ grip. Applejack was laid out laughing at this point. It took about five minutes of straining before Dash gave up.

“Look,” Kenpachi said impatiently, “your friend here is the most powerful thing I’ve felt since I got to this damn rock. Judging by her reaction she has five boosters to her power. That pink and yellow pegasus Fluttershy, the Pinkie Pie Yachiru ran off with, Applejack here and you. Where is the fifth.”
“If I tell you where Rarity lives will you let me go?” Kenpachi dropped her like a sack of potatoes. “Ow." Dash rubbed the back of her head where it hit the ground. "She lives in a fashion boutique on the edge of town.” Kenpachi grinned playfully, sensing an opportunity to ditch Twilight.
“Race you there.” He challenged.

“Oh you’re on.” They were both off before Twilight had a chance to blink.
“Oh great,” Twilight groaned, running after them.

“Twi’, hahahaha, wait.” Applejack yelled, trying to catch her breath. “Ah just got an image of Kenny ,hahahaha, in one of Rarity's dresses.” She descended into a laughing fit and Twilight ran off.

By the time Twilight got to the Carousel Boutique it was obvious they had been there for a while. Yachiru, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie were on the roof, looking through the skylight and giggling. Pinkie was passing around a bag of popcorn. Twilight opened the door.

Inside, Rarity was hard at work, taking measurements of Kenpachi, who she had managed to strip down to nothing but his bandages and a strange undergarment worn around the waist apparently to block the groin from view. She had brought down his hair into a more orderly fashion, something most would call a mullet. The eye-patch was still there but, judging by the shattered mannequins and glass, she had attempted to remove it. He looked about as angry as that Manticore that had the thorn in its paw. Rarity started fitting a sleeve for him. Kenpachi spotted Twilight.

“Number five is a pain in the ass!” He growled at her.
“Silence you barbarian.” Rarity snapped at him.
“Umm Rarity what are you doing?” Twilight cocked an eyebrow at her.
“Outfitting this one with something more civilized; he just barged in here in those disgusting robes.” She pointed at the robes crumpled in a corner, “and his hair up in those horrid spikes, so I demanded that he let me do something with him. He didn’t want me to but I insisted.”

“She whined her face off,” Kenpachi interjected. “It was more painful than getting this scar.” He pointed to the scar across his eye. “Without the fun of battle.”
“Silence ruffian!” Rarity said. “Well I never, such a violent being; wherever did you find him?” She got back to work as she talked.
“The bottom of a crater.” Twilight said flatly.
“Figures,” Rarity huffed, “how else would his cloths get that beat up?” She finished sizing a sleeve and cut off the excess. “Although his bipedal form makes creating an ensemble for him quite simple; but just look what that eye-patch did to my shop.”

“You’re the one who tried to take it off.” Kenpachi snapped back, “ow!” He yelled as she poked him with the needle.
“Just be glad I let you keep your bells.” She had, they were attached to the sleeves she was currently fitting. The rest of the assembly was rather slow, done by the time the sun started setting. Kenpachi walked out of the boutique irritable and tired.

“Wow Kenny, you look great.” Yachiru said, jumping off the roof onto Kenpachi’s’ back.
“Shut up!” He snapped, but made no move to knock her off his back. “I’m going back to the farm.”
“What’s his problem?” Rainbow dash asked. “He really does look great.”
“He just wasn’t expecting Rarity to be so... well, Rarity.” Twilight laughed.

"She's like a female Ayasegawa!" Kenpachi screamed. "And I thought the bastard was annoying as a soul reaper!"

Dear Princess Celestia:
I made a new acquaintance today, his name is Zaraki Kenpachi. He worries me. He is insanely violent, barely able to keep his hands off his “Zanpakto” as he calls his sword. I would like to schedule a meeting for him to see how he reacts to you, but as scientifically intriguing as that is it seems like a very bad idea. Being around beings he considers powerful seems to excite him considerably.
Sincerely, your student; Twilight Sparkle
P.S. he seems to have figured out the Elements of Harmony’s effect on me making him quite unstable around me.
P.S.S. He mentioned an insanely powerful unicorn with a Lyre, could you please look into this?

Waking the Blades

Waking the Blades.
(Any links are to music I consider fitting for the scene.)
The best words to describe the between world they were flying through were beautifully abstract. Lyra and crew were flying through a massive cave of luminescent purple crystal, small islands each with their own ecosystem floated through the air. They could see themselves cloaked by a veil of white energy reflected on the walls making it look like they were surrounded by comets.

"Incredible." Rarity whispered. "I would probably sell my shop to get my hooves on a piece of that crystal." Five of the ponies were marveling at their surroundings, while Twilight and Lyra were talking over strategies.
"Lyra."
"Yes Twilight."
"You said the daggers would be our first allies, what did you mean?"
"The daggers are nameless zanpakto, once unsheathed a spirit will bind itself to it giving the blade a name which when called will give it power."
"How do you learn its name?"
"You simply meditate with the sword, try to feel it entering your mind, simply find it and help it along. Once you get that far it's different for everyone."

Lyra stopped talking staring at their destination in horror.
"Lyra what's wrong?" Twilight asked she looked and saw a massive complex of open roofed corridors.
"That's the Seireitei."
"So we're going to the wrong dimension. Just cast the spell again."
"No it's the right dimension."
"Then what's the problem?"
"That's the capital of the one place I was worried we would land in. That's where Kenpachi comes from and they don't take kindly to unwelcome visitors." Everypony cringed but this was not the level of fear Lyra had been hoping to inspire. "They're going to hunt us down and kill us!" This worked and they all screamed.

"Alright, now that everypony has a handle on how serious this is we need to get into order to best survive, I don't want you goofing off on me now. First grab a landing buddy if we hit halfway through the barrier you're gonna need one, second make sure your sword is strapped tightly onto your body and thirdly if we hit outside the barrier... it was an honor serving with you." Applejack and Rainbow grabbed Rarity, Pinkie jumped onto the closest pony which happened to be Fluttershy and Twilight grabbed onto the stone faced Lyra who started speaking almost as fast as Pinkie Pie.

"If you encounter a captain most would say run, but anypony who's spent time around them knows that running will be about as useful as throwing a pegasus down pillow at them. There are ten captains currently, one of which you've already met. Captain Yamamoto head of first division is an old man but stronger than most creatures could even imagine his zanpakto's name is Ryūjin Jakka, at it's basic level it is a massive wall of fire that he can command. Suì-Fēng is head of the second division and the stealth force, she has the appearance of a young woman with two massive braids, her zanpakto is Suzumebachi it appears to be a claw but if it hits you in the same spot twice you will die. The third division currently has no captain. Retsu Unohana is captain of the fourth division, she appears to be a middle aged woman, her zanpakto is named Minazuki, her powers are mostly for healing so she may be the one captain you can run from. The fifth division currently has no captain. Byakuya Kuchiki is captain of the sixth division, he has the appearance of a young man, he is most easily identified by the white holders he keeps his hair in, his zanpakto is named Senbonzakura it is a swarm of minute blades do not run from him under any circumstances. Sajin Komamura is captain of the seventh division, he has the head of a dog so he should be easy to identify, his zanpakto is named Tenken it creates a giant that mimics his movements. Shunsui Kyōraku is captain of the eighth division, he is most easily identified by his pink floral print robe, he is more likely to simply stall you with pleasant conversation than attack you so if you do encounter a captain pray that it's him, his zanpakto is named Katen Kyōkotsu I actually never got to see this one. Ninth division currently has no captain. Tōshirō Hitsugaya is captain of the tenth division, he has the appearance of a child with white hair, he is surprisingly easy to goad, his zanpakto is named Hyōrinmaru it takes on the shape of a dragon made of ice which he can command or that of a pair of wings. You already know the eleventh division captain. Mayuri Kurotsuchi is captain of the twelfth division, he is easily identifiable by his massive headdress and facepaint, his zanpakto is named Ashisogi Jizō if you are cut by this you will be paralyzed then you can consider yourself as good as dissected, probably awake and screaming. Jūshirō Ukitake is captain of the thirteenth division, he appears to be a sickly man with long white hair, his zanpakto is named Sōgyo no Kotowari I never got to see this one either. Brace for impact!"

They popped out of the between space and briefly hit something solid before bursting through, Lyra relaxed which Twilight guessed meant that they had hit halfway through the barrier so she relaxed too for a second before they started spinning and she had to hold on for dear life.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Rarity clutched her friends as they spun out of control still coated in the white light. Rarity tried to establish some sort of balance but all she could see were Rainbow, Applejack and the buildings rapidly approaching them.
"We are going to die!" one of them screamed just before they hit.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
"Weeee!" Pinkie cheered as she and Fluttershy careened towards a building with the same symbol that Kenpachi had been wearing on the front. "Woo hoo!" Pinkie raised her hooves as one would do on a roller coaster sending a shrieking Fluttershy flying off in another direction. "Oops..." Was all she had time to say before she crashed through the building's roof.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Twilight and Lyra crashed with a deafening boom, once Twilight was sure they had stopped moving she opened her eyes and lowered her hands from her face only to bring them back up again. I have hands! She examined the rest of her body, she was one of Kenpachi's species. Why am I like this? I shouldn't be like this. A thought that wasn't quite hers shot through her mind and she pushed it aside. She didn't have time to deal with any mental anomalies. She looked up to Lyra who was sitting cross legged in a robe similar to Yachiru's.

Twilight tried to stand up and ended up falling flat on her face.
"That's not how you walk in this body." Lyra pointed out without turning around.
"Huh?" Twilight was dazed by the impact to her head.
"Hind legs." Twilight carefully got up with more success and walked over behind Lyra who turned around, eyes closed. "Now Twilight do you- urk!" Lyra opened her eyes, grabbed her nose and turned back around.
"What's wrong, am I on fire or something."
"Twilight, you're naked."
"And? It's not like we wear cloths normally."
"I just forgot about it." Lyra turned back around. "You remember what I told you on the way in here?"
"Yes."
"Good, then you can take it from here, I'll set up some wards."

Twilight sat down cross legged grabbed the dagger from her saddlebag and unsheathed it. The dagger grew into the katana equivalent of a longsword. "Wow you're just a little powerhouse aren't you?" Twilight blushed as she always did when somepony complemented her power. What do I have to be embarrassed about? Twilight again pushed away the thought that wasn't quite hers. There was a sort of popping sound and a robe like Lyra's came into existence around her body. She placed the blade across her lap and concentrated looking for some spark from the sword, some tendril from her mind to its. Twilight had practiced meditation while under Celestia's tutelage so the dive into her own mind was simple.

She opened her eyes and the world was black. She could see nothing in the darkness, then a light soft and, purple broke through the shadows. She followed it to its source, a glowing blade, ethereal and flowing next to a black blade that looked as if it was the shadow the glowing one would cast, they were linked together by a grey chain that seemed to be rising above them. She grabbed the chain and the world exploded into white. She covered her eyes with her hooves to no avail until the light faded, she was surrounded by shelves of books.

Outside Lyra tapped her shoulder to make sure she was under.
"I forgot how... disarming the human form can be." She thought out loud. A nagging voice that came from being married surfaced in her mind. "I was married, not blinded I can look at whomever I like. Oh Faust, I'm already talking to myself." She looked out through the barriers she had set up. I hope the others can make it alright.
"Hoo." The owl swooped down and landed on her shoulder.
"Owlowiscious, I almost forgot about you."
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Rarity kept her eyes closed until she was sure she had stopped moving, something felt different she just couldn't put her finger on it. She opened her eyes to find herself between two large fleshy bodies, a streak of rainbow hair passed through her line of sight she followed it with her eyes back to its point of origin which happened to be one of the creatures she was sandwiched between, both of whom had their eyes squeezed shut.

"Rainbow Dash?" The creature opened its eyes and looked down at her.
"Who else?" The voice was Rainbow's but the face belonged to one of Kenpachi's species.
"Uh Rainbow." Applejack on the other side had also opened her eyes and was staring at her friend unaware that she was in a similar state.
"Applejack, Rainbow; darlings brace yourselves." She levitated a shard of glass from the floor between them, giving them each a good look at themselves. Rarity clamped down on their mouths before they could scream. "Now girls we have made enough commotion with our landing and if you remember correctly anything we come into contact with will try to kill us, so we don't need to be drawing any further attention to ourselves."
"Attention guard squads a group of ryoka have entered the Seireitei, capture if possible, resistance is to be met with lethal force." A voice boomed across the area delivering commands that were not to be ignored

"Case and point." Rarity stated. "Now we are going to need weapons. Luckily Lyra supplied us with some before we went in." Rarity opened her saddlebag and removed her blade from its sheath, it instantly blossomed into a rapier-like katana. She gave it a few test swings and thrusts, it was balanced perfectly.

"Whoa!" Applejack nearly fell over as her dagger leaped to great sword proportions, she overcompensated in the way back up and swung it over her head. She picked it up more gingerly. "It don' hardly weigh nothin'. Musta' caught me by surprise." Rainbow looked down at her own sword with disappointed eyes. It was more of a shortsword, designed to be fast but not as impressive as Applejack's or Rarity's. Three robes popped into existence around their bodies but they just figured it came with the swords

"We should get out of here and find a better place to lodge long enough to think of a way to find our friends."
"I think I saw a place just before we hit." Rainbow offered.
"Sounds good, lead the way." Rainbow tried to take off only to land on her butt.
"My wings! Not again." They heard voices from behind the wall they hadn't destroyed.
"Now may not be the best time to worry about that darling."

As it turned out the place that Rainbow had spotted was just around the corner, although seeing as the Seireitei seemed to be made up of massive corridors this was still quite a distance. Once there they ducked inside the small deserted building and Rarity disguised the entrance with illusionary magic. Applejack immediately sat down with the sword and closed her eyes seeming to fall asleep for a moment.
"Applejack, what are you doing?" Rarity asked staring at the farmmare with a cocked eyebrow.
"Ah heard Lyra n' Twi talkin' 'bout how ta wake up the swords."
"Mind telling us before you go and do it yourself." Rainbow scowled at her.
"Sorry Ah hadn't thought a' that. Ya just sit with the sword an' concentrate, try ta feel the swords mind enterin' yer own. Meanin' sit still Rainbow."

Dash Groaned but sat down with her sword across her lap and closed her eyes. Rarity also sat with her blade looking inward searching for the tendrils of another mind. She opened her eyes to a black world, the only light came from something silver in the distance, she ran towards it finding that the faster she moved the farther away the light seemed to get so she slowed down to a canter and the source of the light seemed to fly towards her, it was a silver arrowhead which impacted her chest bathing the world in white light. When the light faded she was in a cave filled with gems of every shape, size and color.
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Rainbow knew that sitting still would be the hardest part of this so she flitted around in her minds eye looking for anything out of place, The blackness was pierced by a pair of silver wings that she ran headfirst into. Once the light faded she found herself on her back looking up at a very angry looking winged hominid.
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Applejack had actually started practicing meditation after the "Applebucking Season" incident to prevent another scene like that, not that she would admit it especially to Rarity, the little fussbucket would probably hold it over her head for the rest of her life. Part of honesty was knowing when to keep your mouth shut.

Applejack was actually able to find her item by listening for it, it was a pair of old worn looking boots that made quite a lot of noise as they moved around. She touched them and the world exploded into white when the light faded she was in a golden field standing across a table from a hominid in a suit.
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"Whee Let's go again!" Pinkie yelled as she hopped out of her crater. She was surrounded by confused looking soul reapers. A bald one stepped forward.
"What the hell are you?" He asked poking her mane.
"I'm Pinkie Pie and you're bald." Pinkie replied rubbing his dome.

"Attention guard squads a group of ryoka have entered the Seireitei, capture if possible, resistance is to be met with lethal force." The bald one looked away for a moment before grinning at her.
"Figures you would land in squad eleven's barraks."
"Squad eleven..." Pinkie drooped as she remembered the terrible strength Kenpachi had wielded. "AAAHHH." She tried to bolt for the exit but reapers soon covered all possible exits, she was trapped. The bald one and several others closed in on her, he pressed the tip of his sword to her throat.
"Go ahead, make my day." he growled at her. One of them cut open her saddlebag and the dagger fell onto her hoof, the world froze.
"Well this is disappointing." A very cross looking bipedal lizard stepped out from behind the bald one's head.
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Fluttershy's head was spinning even though the rest of her had stopped moving a few minutes before the voice had announced that she and her friends were to be captured. Once the world stopped spinning she retreated into the still intact rafters and pulled out her dagger, after unsheathing it the sword blossomed into a scimitar that bent back on itself. Fluttershy marveled at how the how the handle seemed to be glued to her hoof for a second before she felt it reaching out to her and the world went dark.

She carefully struck out into the darkness heading towards a small yellow light that seemed to beacon her closer. It was coming from a helmet that swooped onto her head bathing the world in white. Once the light faded she found herself in a dense jungle.
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Twilight had started going through the books, there were thousands of them but all were books she had read. She was sitting with one of her favorites when a figure walked up behind her, it cleared its throat to get her attention. Twilight turned around, the hominid had a calming female face, she was wearing a flowing purple and black robe decorated with archaic symbols.

"Miss Twilight, I see you've been enjoying our home." The being smiled gently her voice like silk.
"I have miss..." The being laughed
"Oh it's not going to be that easy, you know that Twilight."
"It was worth a shot, then how do I earn your name?"
"I'll get to that but for now you may call me A. I like questions and riddles Twilight, I especially enjoy questions that make you think but I am frustrated by the number of these that are just ridiculous and not worth anythings time. Such as my least favorite, 'which came first, the chicken or the egg?' The egg came first evolution tells us this, but there is one question in this mind that really catches my attention, one that has plagued you since before you came here. Why wouldn't Vamprah help you?"
"I'm immune to the proce-"

"Oh come now Twilight, we both know he was lying. Though the process is similar shadow leeches and Vamprah's bite are quite different as exampled by Princess Luna. The shadow leeches simply devour all they can get, Vamprah only drains the physical, any immunity comes from mental fortitude, so how can you be immune physically?" Twilight opened her mouth to respond but found herself unable to think of anything to say.
"He lied to me? Why would he do that?"

"That's the thing isn't it. What side effect would be so terrifying that Vamprah would refuse to go through with it even after seeing how dedicated you were? I already know, but you don't, Vamprah thinks he wiped it clean from you, but we know better, don't we?" Her eyes flashed black, her voice became gruff and male on the last two words before reverting back. "That is how you earn my name, find the one book that doesn't belong and answer your question." There was a flash of lightning and she was gone.

Twilight paced through the halls searching for any obvious differences, something in the binding or the shelves that she wouldn't recognize, the library was huge. Twilight briefly regretted having read so much. There was one thing she didn't recognize, on the end of every shelf of books there was a plaque that read.
"When the shadows turn so does the door. What the hay does that mean?" She reached the center of the library which held a ball of light which appeared to be the only light source and a large rub emblazoned with her cutie mark. The rug was a large circle with a border that was wide enough to walk on. She looked from the light source to the border of the rug. "When the shadows turn so does the door." If she walked around the border her shadow would effectively turn around. She walked calmly around the edge, once halfway through there was a sound like a gong being struck she waited a moment but nothing happened so she kept walking, once she got back to the other side there was a painful noise like stone grinding on stone. The Five white stars on the rug fell through the floor and the large one turned black before tearing itself apart and reforming as a serpentine head, the center of which flipped over revealing a pedestal.

Twilight cautiously walked up to it, on the pedestal was a book much different from the others. The binding was metal, the pages seemed to be made from some kind of stiffened leather and it was emblazoned with the same face as the rug was. This book felt evil, every one of her senses rebelled at being this close to it but she wanted it, she wanted to open the book and absorb whatever resided within, she wanted to unleash the power she felt bound to it, her magic would make lifting the steel cover a breeze, it would be so easy. But it was wrong everything about this book was wrong, no matter how much she wanted it. She backed away from it terrified of what might have happened if she had given in.

"Congratulations." There was another flash and A was standing between her and the book. "You have not only answered your question but proved yourself above his control."
"Who's control?"
"The being that scared Vamprah into not helping you. Vamprah was worried that by helping you he would release him."
"You mean-"
"Yes this creature is nestled in your mind, Vamprah was unaware that he was harboring it and transferred it to you. My name is Arukana." Twilight vanished from the inner world as she woke up. "Shadō, let's get this game started." Arukana's shadow distended rising from the floor, it became a billowing black being. The only features distinguishable on it were its shining eyes and its shark-like teeth caught in a perpetual grin not unlike the Cheshire Cat. The black being walked over to the pedestal and reaching out a clawed hand hefted the book open unleashing a tide of blackness that swallowed the glowing orb above it.

"Welcome back." Lyra gave Twilight a hand in standing back up.
"How long was I under?"
"About ten minutes. Strangely long for this tactic, your zanpakto must have really not wanted to tell you its name." The wall behind them exploded showering them in rubble and dust.

"Hey bookworm, lookin' good."
"Kenny, now that you've found her can I go play with Pinkie?"
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Applejack stared at the well dressed figure in front of her. He would have looked like he was headed for a gala if he hadn't been wearing the most worn down and dirty pair of boots Applejack had ever seen and his black hair hadn't been such a mess.

"Hello Miss Applejack." A devious smile that matched his voice rested on his lips. "I've been looking through your head and I've seen all your thoughts and tricks. I'm not impressed, whether or not you get my name depends on how you respond to my request. Impress me." It was a simple command but by looking into his eyes Applejack could tell that he wouldn't be impressed by anything she did, he was actively trying not to be.

"Ah don't 'ave time fer this." He visibly jerked.
"Excuse me?"
"Ah know yer kind, mah friend Rarity fell fer one a yall's tricks at that gala five years back an' I don't plan on makin' her mistake." To her surprise he started clapping.
"I've had seventeen potential bearers before and every one of them killed themselves trying to impress me. My name is Kyōdasha. You'll find my appearance much different out there then in here. I think this is the beginning of a beautiful relationship."
"Ya mean friendship?"
"Don't push your luck." The world faded to white.

Applejack opened her eyes to see Rarity sobbing and Rainbow Dash scowling, things obviously weren't going as well for them.
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Rarity marveled at the cavern captured by the beauty that surrounded her until she heard the sound of stone being smashed. She whirled around to see a white coated maneless unicorn stallion picking crystal debris out of his hoof.

"Why are you here?" He said coldly.
"Excuse me?"
"War is nasty business, one as delicate as you has no place in it. I repeat myself, why are you here?" He looked up from his hoof and Rarity got her first look at his eyes. They were star sapphires.
"I'm here to find a way to save the ones I care about."
"You might have a chance if you were a soldier, but you're a dress designer; there is nothing you can do."
"So I should just leave? Just abandon everything I hold dear?" The stallion walked up to her looking her right in the eyes as his changed color from the cool blue to a fiery red, he locked her into his gaze.
"What is the point of fighting if you cannot win."

In his eyes she saw Celestia and Luna, Sweetie Belle, her friends, her neighbors, her home. She saw all the beautiful things of Equestria. And she saw it all burn, she saw Celestia and Luna beheaded, she saw the streets littered with bodies, she saw the rivers run with blood through a wasteland, she saw Applejack being forced to drag tanks, she saw Twilight being used as a battery for a death machine, she saw Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy strapped to tables having their wings plucked, she saw Pinkie Pie drawn and quartered, she saw Sweetie Belle being beaten and she saw herself broken and bloodied weeping in a grey stone cell.

"NO! Please stop!" She tried to look away tried to run from the nightmares filling her mind but she found herself paralyzed by his stare. "No more, please no more!" She cried out.
"Why are you here?" He turned away from her leaving Rarity to slump to the ground weeping.
"Why would you show me that?" She pleaded. "Why?"
"Because it is the inevitable, because it is what will happen whether you fight or not, it is the future. Do you accept it?" Rarity forced herself off of the ground.
"No." She didn't notice but the stallion's eyes turned a soft purple. "No I don't accept it, I can't accept it. Say what you will about me, i am no soldier but I will fight for the things I love. I will fight the future i just saw to whatever end and even if i fail I will at the very least die trying." He smiled.

"Congratulations Rarity, you're a soldier. Soldiers are not born of training or battle, soldiers are born of a refusal to be defeated, a willingness to die trying. i had to be sure you were ready for what you're going to have to do. My name is Kaizen." The world faded to white and Rarity woke up to Appejack's face.

"Rar' r' you alright?" Rarity didn't even bother with explanations, instead opting to sob on her friend's shoulder. "A'll take that as a no."
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Rainbow Dash was in awe of the irate creature standing over her, it had a hard male face and wings that seemed to be comprised of thousands of blades that sparkled in the sunlight, it was wearing a tunic that was the same shade of green as his hair. She looked at the rest of her surroundings. She was on an expanse of cloud that seemed to continue forever.
"Wow." She breathed staring at the creature
"That's not what you were saying earlier." It had a gruff voice that reminded her of the instructors at flight camp.
"Huh?"
"You were ashamed of me, so I've set up some challenges to see how you would fare without me. That means no wings for you." He snapped his fingers and her wings dissolved.
"My wings! Come on I need those."
"You need what?" He put a hand up to his ear.
"My wings."
"Until you earn my name you may call me Wings." Rainbow leered at him.

"First test, a simple race." The clouds rearranged themselves into two lanes. Rainbow grinned at Wings before taking off in front of him. she had already proved that she was fast on her feet and took off confidently, she didn't know how long the track was but she was determined to at least keep up with her opponent. She looked over at Wings who was barely even flapping to keep up with her, on top of that he was reclining on his back and even looked a bit bored.
"Hey you said no wings!"
"I said no wings for you. You're boring anyway." He flipped over and gave a single mighty heave of his wings he propelled himself out of sight. The clouds flattened themselves out and Wings came in behind her.
"What just happened?"
"I won."
"How?"
"I flew past the finish line and came back."

"Second test, a duel." He flapped his wings and seven swords embedded themselves in the clouds in front of her, they were all considerably bigger than hers had been. She picked up one that was about the same size as Applejack's.
"Bring it!" She brandished the sword. No sooner had she said this than Wings shot up above her and started raining blades down on her, she lifted the blade so they would glance off but it was too clumsy and one managed to get through sticking into the cloud next to her hoof, there was a small prick in her chin, Rainbow looked down and saw Wings holding a small blade to her throat.
"I win again." He dropped the sword and the rest of the blades disappeared.

"Third test, cloud hopping." The clouds they were standing on broke into smaller pieces distancing themselves. Dash cocked her head, cloud hopping was a sport used by pegasus to keep their legs from becoming too weak, the use of wings was restricted, how would this prove a point. Wings flew up to take a birds eye view. Rainbow made the Jump to the first cloud easily and simply kept going until things started moving making it harder for her to make the jumps bus she still kept going until she jumped herself into a corner, her cloud moved away from the others and stood there, there was a single other cloud that came just barely with leaping distance. He's doing this on purpose the jerk. She steeled herself and jumped timing it with the movement of the cloud which happened to stall just out of her reach. And she fell screaming.

"Help me!" She looked over and Wings was simply falling with her reclining like he would in a chair. "What are you doing? For Celestia's sake help me!"
"Why should I help you?"
"What do you wan't from me?"
"Me?" He flipped over glaring into her eyes. "I want you to be scared, I want there to be no one else there to help you when you are, I want you to apologize for being ashamed of me and in that moment I want you to admit that you need me." Dash just stared at him. He was insane, there was no way she would compromise herself like that to this thing. But she was scared and he was the only one there to help her, then the element of loyalty kicked in and she realized that if she didn't cave into this thing she would be leaving her friends and her race to annihilation for the sake of her pride
"I'm sorry!" A slightly malicious grin spread across his face. "I'm sorry I was embarrassed that you were my sword, I'm sorry I was judgemental, I don't know you well enough to do that, I'm sorry I wanted you to change just to please me, I-" This was the hardest part. "I need you Wings. Now help me!"

He reached out and grabbed her tail stopping them dead in the air. The clouds reformed under them and he dropped her on her face.
"You are aware that you have as much control over this place as I do right?" Rainbow looked up at him shocked.
"You knew that and didn't tell me!"
"My name's Burēdo Fushichō by the way."
"You bastard." She tried to tackle him but the world faded to white.

She opened her eyes to find Rarity and Applejack staring at her. She reached down and grabbed her sword.
"I swear Burēdo If I ever get my hooves on you I will wring your smug little neck!" She would have sworn that she heard him chuckle
"I take it yours was... unpleasant."
"Unpleasent? He's a total vent. He let me think I was falling to my death just for a laugh." Rarity who had obviously been holding in a laugh giggled. "Oh shut it, I bet yours was even worse. Rarity seemed to shrink as she stared off into space for a moment.
"Consarnit Rainbow Dash, Ah just got her ta stop cryin'."
"Oops..."
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"You weren't planning on dying before you learned my name, were you? Because that would be a real dick move." The bored looking reptile had the kind of voice one would expect from a lizard, raspy and hissing. It inspected its talons. Pinkie shook her head. "Good, I should probably help you. shouldn't I?" Pinkie nodded furiously. "Man I had all these cool games set up too." It sighed. "Fine I'll tell you my name but you need to say it like this."

Time restarted and the soul reapers that had been pinning her down were blown back by a wave of power.
"Waidosumairu, Hachūrui!" [Smile wide, Reptilian.] Pinkie's sword erupted into an alligator made of pink energy it was at least twice the height of the reapers it surrounded her protecting her from harm. The bald one was unfortunate enough to be on the ground in front of her when its front legs landed.
"What the- grah!" A foreleg landed on his chest. From the belly of the beast Pinkie observed her new power. When she lifted a hoof, it lifted a claw, it moved with her. "Oh yeah!" She yelled. "Let's get this party started!"
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Fluttershy was simply wandering through the forest, she found the sound of the birds and rustling leaves relaxing. She looked around completely forgetting why she was there in favor of the calming forest.
"I never knew my mind was so overgrown." She commented looking at the forest floor which was covered in vines.

There was a growling to her right and she snapped to attention. In the undergrowth a pair of almost catlike blue eyes stared at her so intently she felt that her mane might burst into flames. "Um, hello. Are you my sword?" The thing responded by growling at her and creeping out from the shadows. It looked identical to her, but its face was contorted onto a snarl the that made the fire burning behind its eyes seem tame by comparison.

"Oh my." Fluttershy started backing away as the enraged version of herself crept closer looking every second like it was going to pounce on her. "N-now there's no need to be a-angry. W-whatever's bothering you I'm sure we can work it out t-together." The rage thing simply growled in response. Fluttershy was beginning to panic backpedaling as fast as she could, the rage thing just kept pace with her. She backed into a tree cutting off her route of escape, the glint in the other's eyes reached a menacing high and drool started leaking out from between its clenched teeth. It gathered itself and pounced, at that moment an armored figure burst from the underbrush delivering an uppercut to the other's jaw. Fluttershy squealed hiding her face behind her hooves not daring to look until the other yelped in pain and rustling told her that it had left. The armored figure seemed to be staring at her through its vizor, the armor was silver and bulky with feather engravings placed on the forearms and the forehead.

"H-hello?" She tried to shrink against the tree. The armored thing saluted. "Are you my sword?" It nodded. "Could you tell me your name?" It shook its head. "Why not?" It pointed to its throat. "You can't speak?" It nodded. "Would you tell me if you could?" It shook its head. "Why not." It glanced briefly after the other. "Are you scared?" It shook its head again. "Do you not want to tell me?" It nodded. "Why not?" It made a series of gestures that seemed to mean [you cannot fight.] "I can if I need to." It made another series of gestures that plainly meant [I will not let you.] "Fine then, I'll find the other and see if it will help me." The time for her usual timidness was over, she had remembered why she was there, although she didn't understand how not knowing her swords name would effect her ability to fight with it. If she backed down now she would be letting everypony she knew down.

Outside Korutsuchi and Nemu were searching the Twelfth squad complex for signs of the intruders.
"Really Nemu, to think that those morons would call me away just to look for some unauthorized souls. It's simply criminal." He was so caught up in his rant that he almost didn't notice the partially decimated room they were walking by. "I have much more important things to be doing, like-"
"Sir." Nemu tugged on his robe.
"What?" He snapped at her. She pointed through the blasted out wall. Standing in the rafters was a small yellow and pink equine. "What?" He repeated although this time in genuine confusion. He jumped up next to it, studying it, paying no attention to the sword in its hooves as it stood still as a statue its only movement breathing. "Unnatural coloration, obviously warped skull, overlarge eyes, mark in the fur of the flank. Mark in the flank!" He giggled. "Nemu take this one back to the lab, I believe our little traitor Heartstrings is back."

End of chapter ten

Ho-ly S**t Guys

This is the first time I've actually checked on this story in quite some time and.... it broke out of it's bad Up-Down Vote Ratio. I was not expecting this. Thank you all and guess what, I'm going to get back to work on it. This and the Barraki one both. Expect the next chapter within the month.