Friendship is SHOWTIME!!

Chapters

Spell Two - Questions and Hope
Spell Three - It's... Showtime
Spell Four - Change
Spell Five - Apple Hunt Season
Spell 6 - Gnome
Intermission 1 - Rare Testing
Spell 7 - The Pranks
Spell 8 - The Brush Off
Spell 9 - Feathers Together
Spell 10 - Djinn
Intermission 2 - Gear Shift
Spell 11 - It's MAGIC!
Spell 12 - Tunes and the Feather
Spell 13 - Dragon
Spell 14 - Burn
Spell 15 - Burn, Burn!
Spell 16 - Final Hope
Spell 17 - Stripes, Medals and Boxers
Spell 18 - Taka Tora Batta
Spell 19 - Canterlot Royal Business Part 1
Spell 20 - Canterlot Royal Business Part 2
Spell 21 - Canterlot Royal Business Part 3
Spell 22 - Canterlot Royal Business Part 4
Spell 23 - L I
Spell 24 - O N
Spell 25 - Beast-Bite
Intermission 5 - Scales and Feathers
Spell 26 - A Life Yesterday
Spell 27 - The Joy of Today
Spell 28 - A Life for Tomorrow
Intermission 6 - Hope and Imagination!!
Spell 29 - It All Started with Horseshoes
Spell 30 - Friendly Competition
Spell 31 - Running A Head
Spell 32 - Dullahan
Intermission 7 - Rain and Flames
Spell 33 - Needlework
Spell 35 - Fashion Disaster
Spell One - The Tale and Rings
Intermission 3 - Answers - PLEASE
Intermission 4 - Average Day in Ponyville
Spell 34 - Trending Threads, Despair Deducing

Spell Two - Questions and Hope

“Hope can be a powerful force. Maybe there’s no actual magic in it, but when you know what you hope for most and hold it like a light within you, you can make things happen, almost like magic.”

-Laini Taylor, Daughter of Smoke & Bone

TTTTTT

Spell 2

Questions And Hope

TTTTTTT

As the flames died down, the Wizard stood there, spinning the gun as the fire began to full disappear. “And with that, the curtain falls.”

Twilight and Spike looked at the weird character as he turned his attention towards the two, holding up his left hand to show off the red jeweled ring on his finger. Twilight stepped forward, being a little cautious about the Wizard, “Who… Who are you?”

The masked Wizard tilted his head slightly at the question…

Time seemed to slow down as the masked individual stared back at Twilight and Spike, although, with the mask, it was hard to see if he was even looking at him.

However, instead of answering the young unicorn’s question, the masked Wizard sighed loudly, “Looks like the big lug got away…”

A familiar chirping sounded through the air, and soon, the ruby bird – Garuda – landed on the masked Wizard’s shoulder, “Hmm…”

“Ah! That bird!!” Spike sounded out as the Garuda chirped in response.

The masked Wizard reached for the left side of his belt, where a chain of rings were connected to the bulky silver piece. Pulling two of the rings off of the chain, the masked Wizard fitted one of them on his right hand while his other hand messed with the belt around his waist. The hand symbol on the front of the belt flipped around, “No way around it I guess…”

The belt began to glow and chime in a rather catchy melody from it, “LEPARCH MAGIC! TOUCH GO! LEPARCH MAGIC! TOUCH GO!”

Then with his right hand now donning one of the rings, the masked Wizard slid his hand in front of his glowing belt buckle, “UNICORN! PLEASE!”

That’s when Twilight’s eyes widened, watching as a weird rectangular mass of sapphire popped in front of the masked Wizard, floating down as pieces of it popped from the mass. “KRAKEN! PLEASE!”

And just like that, a rectangular mass of topaz materialized alongside the mass of sapphire, pieces of the jewel floating up and connecting. When the pieces came together, the sapphire parts formed into a very small, toy-like unicorn while the topaz parts combined into a small horned octopus-like creature.

The masked Wizard took both of the rings he used and snapped them into place – The unicorn’s ring in its chest and the kraken’s on its forehead. The Unicorn fell to the ground as the jewel remains began to fade away while the Kraken floated around the Wizard’s shoulders, trying to push the Garuda off from its master’s shoulder.

Garuda responded by slamming right back into the Kraken. The masked Wizard sighed, “Oi, oi, don’t act all childish.”

A little ashamed, both of the flying familiars lowered their heads while the Unicorn shook his head in disappointment.

“Now then,” the masked Wizard chuckled with a wave of his hand. “If you guys wouldn’t mind, I’d appreciate if you could find that Phantom – He should still be around here somewhere.”

All three of the jewel creatures chimed out in response before the Garuda and Kraken flew off while the Unicorn galloped away.

With his familiars on the trail, the masked Wizard stretched his arms over his head, “Well, I guess it’s back to the waiting game.”

Another one of the red rings appeared over Wizard’s head before it dropped down over his body, making the black suit fade away into flames. As the flames began to flicker away, the wizard revealed who he was underneath the stylish suit…

“What the!?” Twilight gasped with her eyes widening. “How is that even possible?”

“No way!” Spike yelped with a large smile on his face. “He’s a dragon!”

Indeed, the very same Wizard who had just helped the two was a dragon, a rather small one in comparison to others, but still, with the red scales and reptilian appearance, it was obvious that he was a dragon. He was twice as tall as Spike, but had features similar to the younger dragon but was sleeker and his features seemed a touch more mature. A slightly longer tail that ended with a spade, coiled slightly around his black clawed feet. The spines he had on his back were a rich onyx color and the ones atop of his head were laid out, trying to resemble that of hair that was brushed to the sides. His slim body was covered in a black, denim jacket, which had its share of scuffs on it.

Around his waist was a belt that had a buckler that had the same five-fingered hand emblem on it, which was an odd thing to wear, since he wasn’t wearing pants, or a shirt for that matter. But it was because of that fact that Twilight saw something on the dragon’s legs – There were the same runic circles that had appeared whenever he used one of his spells, a black version of it, but still the same in design.

‘I can’t believe this,’ Twilight thought to herself as she watched the unmasked dragon slowly walk towards her and Spike. ‘This guy’s a dragon, but he’s capable of using magic? And magic that I’ve never seen before too! Just what is going on here!?

‘Well, at the very least, he owes us an explanation and it looks like he’s about to…’

The mysterious dragon just walked past Twilight and Spike, eliciting a puzzled look on Twilight’s face while Spike just looked at his fellow dragon, star struck with the amazing abilities that the dragon just showed off and for the fact that there was another dragon around!

“Hey!” Twilight called out as she galloped quickly to catch up with the mysterious dragon, Spike tailing her. When the lavender unicorn was alongside the casually walking dragon, she slowed her pace to match his. “Just where do you think you’re going?”

The dragon turned his head to face her and smiled, “I’m going to get donuts.”

“Huh?” Twilight questioned, having to stop for a moment to process the answer that the magic-using dragon just gave her. “What kind of answer is that supposed to be?!”

“That was amazing!” Spike gushed, rushing alongside the dragon. “I didn’t know that dragons like us could do stuff like that! Was that stuff magic?”

The mysterious dragon chuckled as he threw his arms behind his head. “Curious little guy, aren’t ya?”

“Isn’t that natural?” Twilight chimed in, getting back to alongside the weird dragon. “You just defied three or four basic precepts of academic magic! It took me ten years to -muddle- one! Like how unicorns are the only ones capable of using magic! Who are you exactly?! How are you able to use magic? And those monsters! What were those things and…”

“Can you summon more of those jewel creatures?!” Spike interrupted with a lick of his chops. “Those last two were looked just as tasty as that bird!”

“Spike, aren’t you concerned about those things that attacked us?” Twilight asked giving her scribe a narrowed gaze.

“Yeah… But I’m hungry too,” Spike replied looking down at his feet.

The mysterious dragon stopped in his tracks, and then just chuckled, “Look, I’m flattered that you wanna learn more about me… After all, I know that some can see me as the coolest thing around, but it’s better if you don’t get involved with this.

“That’s it. Bye!”

And with that, the mysterious dragon began to run off towards Ponyville, leaving Twilight and Spike in the dust. Twilight shook her head before she began to give chase, “After him Spike!”

“Right! He’s gotta have more of those jewel animals with him!” Spike added trying to keep up with his four legged friend.

TTTTTT

Even at night, Ponyville was a colorful place; it just had a blue hue to the buildings and such. Still, even though it was dark, there were still signs of life going around the town – For example the rainbow colored blur that flew air, pushing many of the clouds away from the sky over the town.

The blur came to a stop in the sky, revealing a young, sky blue Pegasus mare sighing loudly. “Man, sometimes this job can be a real pain.”

With her strong sky blue wings keeping her afloat in the air, the young Pegasus gently floated through the cool evening sky above Ponyville, her long rainbow colored mane and matching tail billowed slightly as she went through the air. This particular mare was currently setting up a number of the clouds in the sky, trying to make sure that the weather of the town was completely set up as the weather schedule dictated.

Partly cloudy for tonight.

‘Sometimes I wish these clouds would move on their own,’ the Pegasus thought to herself as she flew towards another cloud, using her hooves to push it slightly. ‘Especially when I get stuck with night duty, I should be catching some Z’s so I can get some training in tomorrow.’

At the very least she was almost done with her job with the evening, but it was still a pain in the flank to do. Just a few more clouds to put in place and she’d just zoom right back to her home.

But before she could finish her work, something on the ground caught the attention of the sky blue pegasus. Galloping through the grassy roads of Ponyville, a familiar lavender unicorn was chasing what appeared to be a sleek yet short, red dragon that was running through the emptied roads. And far behind the two, was an all too familiar purple baby dragon who was struggling trying to keep up with the mare.

“A chase scene, eh?” the pegasus chuckled with a smirk on her face. “Good enough for me!”

On the ground itself, no matter how fast and how far he ran, the mysterious dragon knew he had a pair of extra shadows following him through Ponyville. “Oi! How long are you going to stalk me like this?!”

“Not until I get some answers from you!” Twilight shouted back. “Hurry up Spike! He’s going to get away!”

“I… I’ll catch up,” Spike panted, stopping to catch his breath.

A rainbow colored blur zoomed past Spike, making the baby dragon spin around with a slight yelp. The blur slowed down enough when it reached Twilight’s side, making the unicorn turn to see the very same rainbow maned pegasus speedily trotting next to her, “Hey there Twilight, getting some late night exercise?”

“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight exclaimed. “Perfect timing! Do you think you can help me here?”

“I got a few minutes to kill,” Rainbow replied with a smirk. “So, what’s with this dragon here? He lift something off you?”

“I’ll tell you when we catch this guy,” Twilight answered turning back to watch the mysterious dragon turn a corner.

“That’s a little lame,” Rainbow sighed as both ponies turned the corner. “Fine. What’s the plan?”

“Simple, we corner him,” Twilight answered. “Cut him off until we get him to a dead-end!”

“Ha! Piece of cake!” Rainbow Dash laugh as she took off from the ground and flew into the air.

Meanwhile, the mysterious red dragon turned another corner to try to elude his pursuers, but as he was about to continue down the same path, a rainbow blur landed right in front of him, and forced him to make a sharp right turn. However, he didn’t get too far when the rainbow blur landed in front of him again, making him turn once more.

This continued until the sleek dragon skidded to a stop in front of a wall, with the sky blue pegasus and lavender unicorn now blocking his only means of escape. A few seconds later, a winded Spike managed to join the two mares, using one of the nearby walls to prop himself up. "We-We finally caught him...”

“And now that we have you,” Twilight stated as she slowly began to walk towards the sleek red dragon. “I think it’s about time you answered a few of my questions.”

“Not a bad plan,” the mysterious dragon answered as he lifted up his right hand, admiring one the ring he had on the middle finger. “You even had back up, I didn’t expect that. Totally caught me off guard.”

“Well duh!” Rainbow Dash pointed out as she crossed her front legs. “You got nothing on us!”

“Really?” The red dragon mused as he lowered his right hand towards his belt buckles. “Cause I think I’ve got a trick or two that might just work.”

“CONNECT! PLEASE!”

Pulling his hand from the belt buckle, the red dragon threw his right hand behind him and a large runic circle appeared on the wall behind him. With a smile and wave, the dragon leapt back, “Have a good evening, mares!”

“Rainbow!” Twilight called out to her winged friend.

But Rainbow Dash was already flying towards the dragon as he began to sink into the runic symbol. Before she could reach the rune, it disappeared which resulted in…

WHAM!

“WAAAH!”

“Ooh,” Both Twilight and Spike winced at the sight of Rainbow Dash now mashed up against the wall, her legs stretched out in a cartoonish comedic style.

As the pegasus began to slide down to the ground, Twilight trotted over to friend, “I guess it’d be redundant to ask if you’re okay, but…”

With a slight pop, Rainbow Dash pushed herself from the wall and shook her head a few times, “What in Tartarus just happened?! Twilight, who in the world was that jerk?”

“That’s what we were trying to find out,” Twilight explained as she closed her eyes in thought. “Like you just saw, he did some things that blew my mind.”

“Yeah, but he was real cool!” Spike chimed in with a large smile on his face. “You should’ve seen him in action Dash!”

“Yeah right,” Rainbow Dash scoffed, rolling her eyes. “I guarantee I'm at least twenty percent- nah, FIVE HUNDRED and twenty percent cooler than that guy!”

‘Oh boy,’ Twilight thought to herself. “Dash, I don’t think math even – Never mind, let me explain-”

TTTTTT

Meanwhile, at the same grassy area where the action took place not too long ago, the damaged Minotaur was searching through every bush, branch and even some of the gopher holes. “Tartarus damn it! Where is it?! Where could it have gone?!”

Standing up from the current gopher hole, the Minotaur gingerly touched the jagged broken horn that was sticking out of his head. “I can’t face the others… Not when I’m half a minotaur! I already failed this simple mission, but if I show up looking like this, I don’t wanna even think about it!!”

“Oh my, so is that why you haven’t returned?” A chilling voice sounded out from the darkness, making the Minotaur stand up straight with a shiver running down his spine.

Looking up into one of the many nearby trees, the Minotaur staggered back slightly at the large shadow that was resting in one of the thicker branches. The shade from the leafs cloaked the figure’s details, but with the pair of large wings that casually hung from the shaded figure’s body and the chilling, yet feminine voice, he knew exactly who it was. “I-I can explain!”

“Oh?” The winged figure mused as she leapt from the branch and gracefully landed in front of the Minotaur. “Then indulge me, Minotaur. Tell me what I should say to Madame Medusa when she asks how we are doing in this town.”

Minotaur rubbed the back of his head, turning his gaze away from the winged figure, “There – There was a complication. Someone stopped me.”

The winged figure walked up closer to the Minotaur, placing one of her wings on the Minotaur’s chest, “And who, pray tell, could stop you? You’re more than three times the size of the gate, you’ve got your special ability, and you had about twelve Ghuls with you. Who the Tartarus could stop you!?”

At first, Minotaur cleared his throat, then rubbed his neck nervously. He knew what was going to happen when he spoke the one word that would make the winged figure freak out, and possibly hurt him in the process. “… Wizard.”

For a moment, the entire world went silent. The winged figure shook her head before she looked up at her larger companion. “I’m sorry, I think I misheard you Minotaur. Do you mind repeating what you said?”

“I said it was the ‘Wizard’,” Minotaur repeated trying to get away from his winged companion, with little success.

Once again, silence filled the night’s air. The winged figure took a few steps away from Minotaur. Hesitantly, Minotaur reached out to his winged companion, in hopes of comforting her, “Uh, are you okay?”

“Okay? OKAY!?” The winged figure growled loudly as she turned towards Minotaur. “DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS?! THIS IS A GRAND OPPORTUNITY FOR US!!”

Minotaur staggered backwards as his winged companion began to scare him, “Huh!? But, isn’t this bad?”

“Only for those who can’t see what this can do for us!” The winged individual laughed out loud. “Don’t you see? If there’s a Wizard wandering around here, then that means if we can get this guy in our grasp and hand him over to the higher ups, then we can seem like we quelled down an opposing force!

“Tartarus! If we play our cards right, then not only will we get on the big man’s good side, but we can finally shut up those stuck up minions of his!”

“You really don’t like Lady Medusa and Master Phoenix, do you?” Minotaur asked as he scratched the side of his head nervously.

“Are you blind or something?” The winged companion hissed as she pointed one of her wings accusingly at Minotaur. “Just because those were the strongest and the first ones to be awakened, they think that they’re royalty! But, if we do this right, we can be promoted and our little group won’t have to break up after this!”

“It would be nice to still have this kind of thing going on,” Minotaur admitted, rubbing his chin in agreement. “But you’re getting ahead of yourself. This guy was strong, so strong that he actually managed to break one of my horns!

“And that was before he… He transformed! My fire attack was just absorbed and he transformed! After he did, he just continued to smack the Ghuls down like they were nothing!”

“And here I was thinking you were doing something to make you look more intimidating, Minotaur,” The winged individual sighed with a wave of her wings. “But tell you what, you just focus on the gate, and leave the big bad Wizard to me – If he absorbed your fire attack, then his element is probably fire. He won’t be able to keep up with me, and you know it.

“But my orders still stand, Minotaur, you get to awakening that Gate as soon as possible.”

Minotaur sighed loudly as he threw his arms up into the air. “Fine! But at least let me find the rest of my horn before I do this. I don’t feel like the monster I was meant to be without it!”

With a roll of her eyes, the winged figure sighed again, “Fine, do what you want. When you do, I want you to give me all the information about this Wizard. I want to take him out as soon as possible, who knows what sort of strategies he’s trying to come up with at this very moment!”

TTTTTT

A loud grumble roared from a familiar red dragon’s stomach, forcing him to sigh loudly, “Damn, I really need to stop skipping out on my snacks.”

Currently, the weird red dragon was near the river in Ponyville, with a tent and campfire around him. With a sigh, the dragon tapped his sleek stomach a few times, “It doesn’t help that those mares chased me and even forced me to use magic. If I had known that a pegasus would’ve gotten into the fray, I’d just use connect sooner.”

With a snap of his fingers, the dragon lifted up his right hand again, “Oh right, I almost forgot! I wonder if those donuts are still there.”

“CONNECT! PLEASE!”

Moving his hand from his belt buckle, the same runic circle appeared to the dragon’s side and he reached into the circle. “Please be there, please be there.”

That’s when the dragon’s claws brushed up against something that crinkled in his black claws, a smile popped on his face as he lowered his claw down more, feeling up the bag and that smile grew even more. Not only was the bag of donuts he had left in that tree still there, it seemed that the donuts were safe!

Although, they seemed a tad bit heavier than he remembered them…

Licking his chops, the dragon pulled the bag through the portal – A little surprised that the paper bag was bulging a little bit when he placed it next to him. With a cocked brow, the red dragon poked the bag.

And it shook.

“Damn it, did a squirrel get into my donuts?” the dragon muttered to himself as he poked the bag again.

Once more, the bag quivered.

“Okay, now I’m afraid to open the bag,” the dragon admitted to no one in particular. ‘If this were a piece of horror literature, everyone reading would scream ‘DON’T OPEN THE BAG!!’.’

And so, the dragon slowly began to unfold the top of the bag, leaning back to make sure that if there was a squirrel or bird in the bag it wouldn’t leapt out and attack him.

BAM!

A large amount of confetti erupted from the paper bag, making the sleek dragon fall backwards out of surprise. But the confetti wasn’t the only thing to appear from the donut bag, rather a few colorful balloons floated out from the rather small bag, and after them…

“Ooh! I’ve been waiting to do this for a while!”

“Huh?” The sleek dragon questioned as he pushed himself up off of the ground, and blinked a few times at the odd sight that was before him.

Poking out of the bag was a hot pink earth pony mare with a rosy, light-ish red mane that was poofed out and curly. On her face was a large smile that seemed to border on the unsettling side, and her hind legs were still inside the bag.

‘Did I just open Pandora’s Donut Bag?’ the dragon thought to himself as the pink pony leapt from the bag.

Landing dramatically on her hind legs on the ground in front of the sleek dragon, the pink pony held out her right front hoof in front of her chest. “Ore…”

Then throwing her right front leg back and moving her left front leg forward, the pink mare struck a powerful and dramatic pose… Or it would’ve been dramatic if a noble warrior performed the pose, not a pony! “SANJOU!!”*

“What?” the red dragon questioned, blinking his eyes a few times at the pink mare landed on her front hooves.

The smile came back on her face, but seemed a little warmer than before, “Well, there’s my big entrance.”

“How in the world did you do that?” the red dragon asked getting to his feet.

“That’s how I do things,” the pink mare answered bouncing around the dragon. “Pinkie Pie style! The only style that I know!”

“That doesn’t really answer the question though,” the dragon retorted with a flat look on his face. ‘Although, I’m guessing her name’s Pinkie Pie… Why does that feel so ominous all of a sudden?

‘Maybe I shouldn’t push the issue, I feel as though I’d go insane if I knew the answer.’

“So, you must be camping out here!” Pinkie Pie stated as she peaked inside the open tent nearby, then she pulled her head from the tent and looked at the fire. “Ooh! Were you planning on making S’mores?! I love S’mores!”

“Actually, I was banking on these donuts,” the red dragon answered, using his tail to grab the donut bag. When the dragon looked into the opened bag, the red dragon sighed loudly before he slumped to the ground. “And there goes that idea.”

“Aww, I’m sorry,” Pinkie Pie stated as she looked into the emptied bag as well. “When I found the bag up in the tree, it was empty, well, except for a partially eaten, plain sugar donut, but I threw that one away since who wants to eat an already bitten donut?”

The dragon’s eyes widened before he smacked his forehead. “Great, there goes my dinner for the evening.”

Pinkie’s smile drooped slightly when she saw the dragon’s plight, but that smile immediately grew back to full life as she jumped around the red dragon. “OMYGOSH! I just had the greatest idea, ever!”

“Huh?” the dragon questioned before Pinkie Pie got behind him.

“C’mon! If we hurry, we can still get something yummy in your tummy!” Pinkie Pie announced as she began to push the dragon away from the camp site.

“H-Hey! Wait a second here! What about my camp and my tent!?”

Unfortunately, Pinkie Pie’s mind was practically overflowing with her greatest idea so his complaints couldn’t register with her mind. In fact, she was now pushing the dragon even faster. “You know, I only know one other dragon, so to see a dragon camping around here is just so amazing! And you like donuts? I didn’t know what dragons like donuts, I thought jewels were their favorite foods, so this is awesome! Well maybe donuts with jewels baked into them, personally I don’t get how dragons can enjoy eating jewels, I tried to eat one once and I had to go to the dentist to fix one of my teeth. But wait, you’re new here right?! We should throw you a party to welcome you to this town, it’d be great for you to meet other ponies and I’m sure they’d love to attend a party for a dragon! The last party I threw for was also for a dragon, and it was a hit, and most of the parties that I throw are top tens most of the time, so this was a top twelve for me! So I need to outdo myself for your party, oh, but it’s late for a party isn’t it? So we’ll just have to throw the party tomorrow, when everypony is awake! That’ll give me time to hand out invitations and get a cake ready for you! Oooh, maybe we can get donuts baked into the cake too! I’m sure you’d love that! What do you think?”

The dragon was dumbstruck with the insane amount of banter, and his brain was trying to register with all the information that the little chatterbox was pouring into his brain. ‘I think I heard something about teeth, a party and something about donuts.’

If you don’t say anything, you can’t say no. And that was the philosophy that Pinkie just adopted, “YAY! So what kind of theme should we go with your party? Lots of balloons and confetti? Royal theme? Prance theme? Ooh! Or maybe dragon themed! That’d be a big hit with Spike and you! Jewels around and a lotta fun stuff for dragons! Ooh, yeah! That reminds me what’s your name? I just realized that I haven’t asked for your name, and I haven’t really properly introduced myself! I’m Pinkie Pie, and it’s so good to meet you!”

TTTTTT

The next day came with the sun looming high in the sky, giving Ponyville rather sunny weather. Unfortunately for Twilight Sparkle, her attitude wasn’t as bright this morning. The reason being was that for a good chuck of last night, the unicorn and her two friends had wasted trying to find that mysterious red dragon. The only thing that they could really find was an abandoned campsite near the river, with only the smoldering remains of a campfire, an emptied tent and an equally emptied donut bag.

Eventually, it got too late for them to continue the search, and Rainbow Dash still had to finish her work for the evening – So, seeking the weird red dragon was called off.

Throughout the night, all of the questions of the previous day rolled around in Twilight’s head, preventing her from sleeping or even getting in some studying. The pure curiosity from the events puzzled her, the weird form of magic the dragon performed, and even her own magic failing was a troublesome fact. But, whatever the cause of her spell failing the previous day, it was gone since she was able to use her levitation spells to get her books in proper organizational order.

So, here she was, trotting through Ponyville, on her way back to that traveling bookshop. With her saddle bags placed on her back, she was prepared to find some more books, maybe even one that could explain the strange magic she saw yesterday.

She was on her own today, Spike was too tuckered out to really join her today, and Twilight had decided to let the young dragon sleep in for the day. Besides, he’d probably be safer at home, especially with a magic barrier protecting the library.

However, as Twilight trotted through the town, saying good morning to the ponies that she was familiar with – She didn’t notice of a certain ruby bird following behind her from a distance. The bird was rather quiet, taking any opportunity it could to land on any surface to blend in with the other birds in the area.

“Oh! Twilight! There you are!”

The lavender mare stopped and turned to her right to see a familiar mass of pink galloping towards her, many pieces of paper flying out from the saddles that she had resting on her back. With a slightly tired smile, Twilight greeted her friend, “Morning Pinkie, I see you’ve got your usual amount of energy this morning.”

“It looks like you could use some of that,” Pinkie stated as she craned her head back slightly to grab one of the remaining flyers from her saddle bags. “So here! This is something that’ll get your spirits into high gear! Might even get you to WAKE UP!”

Twilight was a little taken back, but was still glad that her friend was in high spirits. Using her magic, the unicorn brought the flyer a few inches away from her face. The flyer itself was really colorful with several cartoonish donuts, jewels and a picture of Pinkie Pie herself surrounding the words ‘Haru’s Welcome Extranaganza! Noon Today at Sugarcube Corner!’

Twilight looked at the picture with a tilted head, the pink mare was definitely no stranger to throwing welcome parties, or regular parties for that matter. But this was a little confusing, “It looks fun Pinkie, but who’s this ‘Haru’? I didn’t think any other ponies moved to Ponyville except for me.”

“And you’re right, Twilight!” Pinkie replied with a large smile on her face.

“Then, why are you throwing a party for ‘Haru’?” Twilight asked.

“That’s a surprise for everyone Twilight!” Pinkie answered as she began to trot away. “Normally, I like to throw a surprise party for the newest in town, but with Haru, having him appear will surprise the entire town! Just wait! Hope you show up too!”

Twilight smiled as she watched Pinkie Pie trot away, maybe a little harmless fun would help the unicorn figure out what was going on with Ponyville. ‘But who’s this Haru? And that’s a weird name for somepony.’

Brushing the thought off, Twilight knew she’d find out who this Haru was later, but for now she had another goal on her mind – Finding some good research materials to help her solve these mysteries.

It didn’t take long for the lavender mare to arrive at the outdoor store, the shelves of books still standing in front of the large wagon. The mare that helped her out yesterday was nowhere to be seen, but the large colt was – Although there was a big difference in his appearance from the day before.

“Good morning,” Twilight greeted as she approached the large colt, who was currently shelving a few new books.

The colt finished with the current book and turned towards Twilight, his size already making her a little nervous. “Oh, it’s you. You’re that unicorn from yesterday.”

“Yup,” Twilight replied with a nod. “Are you okay? What happened with your head?”

The colt used one of his front legs when he lowered his head to rub the large bandage that was wrapped around his head. “Oh, one of the other ponies I worked with was messing around with some stuff on the roof of our wagon – He wasn’t paying attention and he dropped some stuff atop of my head.

“Left a bruise I’m not too proud of.”

“Ouch,” Twilight winced with one of her eyes closed. “Sorry to hear that.”

“No need to apologize,” the colt chuckled as he stood up straight. “Not like you’re the, pardon my language, dumbflank who was messing around on the roof.”

Twilight didn’t know how to respond to that.

“So, can I help you with something?” The colt asked as he looked over some of the other books, making sure that they were in their proper places.

“Well, I don’t want to bother you,” Twilight replied, looking at the bandage once more. “Especially if it hurts you.”

“Not the first time I took a blow to the head,” the colt replied back. “I’m as clear headed as the day I realized I was clear headed.”

Twilight decided not to push the issue, “Well, the mare who was here yesterday said she’d save a book for me, and have a few other books that would be related to it.”

“Oh yeah, I remember that she told me about an order she made for a purple unicorn,” The large colt stated as he walked towards the large wagon. “Give me a few, she got the books wrapped up for ya somewhere. I just need to find them, feel free to have a look around while ya wait.”

“Thanks,” Twilight replied before the colt disappeared into the large wagon. Taking the colt’s advice, Twilight began to walk amongst the shelves, hoping to find a book that she could skim over while she waited for the books that were selected.

A few minutes passed and still the colt didn’t emerge from the wagon, and by this time, Twilight was already reading from another book, just passing the time. ‘I hope he didn’t hurt himself or strain something. Maybe I should check on him.’

Just as Twilight was thinking this however, a familiar and dreadful shadow began to tower over Twilight and the book she was reading, its horns signifying a familiar being behind her (although, one of the horns was obviously missing the top point of it), “Well now, I didn’t expect to see you so soon, little gate.”

Twilight may have been surprised, but as she turned around and faced the large Minotaur, her horn was glowing brightly. The same light appeared around Minotaur’s body and he slowly began to float off of the ground. “Not this time!”

However, Minotaur seemed to merely cross his arms in annoyance. “Brave little one, aren’t ya? Too bad you didn’t learn anything from the last time we met.”

The light around the minotaur seemed to seep into his body and he landed on the ground, shaking all of the nearby book shelves. “Petty little tricks like that don’t work on Phantoms.”

“Phantoms?” Twilight questioned, her memory ticking at that word. “What exactly…”

Before Twilight could answer, Minotaur grabbed her by the back of her neck and lifted her off of the ground. “I don’t have time to deal with idle chit-chat, little mare. You’ll soon know what a Phantom is, you’re about to become one!”

There were a number of times that Twilight was very afraid – When she was face to face with Nightmare Moon, her exam into Princess Celestia’s school, the time she accidentally turned her parents into plants (for the second time), and now this. The Minotaur had lifted her up so she could look him in the eyes, and those eyes were a murky red, almost devoid of any sort of soul of sorts.

Minotaur lifted his other hand up and slowly began to reach towards her, her eyes widening as he laughed, “Now, give into despair and give birth to a new Phantom!!”

BANG!

Before Minotaur’s free hand could even get closer to Twilight, a surge of red energy crashed into side of his head, the same side where his broken horn was. The force made him drop Twilight down to the ground and sent him staggering a few feet away from the young unicorn. “ARGH!!”

“Oomph!” Twilight yelped as she landed on the ground.

“I never understood why heroes waited till the last minute to save others,” a familiar suave voice sounded out. “I guess it just adds to the dramatics, but it seems a bit risky for my tastes.”

Both Twilight and Minotaur looked to see that standing a few yards away was none other than the same red scaled dragon, the silver device he had used the previous day held tightly and rested on his shoulder.

“You again!?!” Minotaur roared as he composed himself. “Stop getting in my way! This doesn’t concern you!!”

“Actually it does,” the red dragon replied took aim again with the silver device. “Although, I was a little confused, I couldn’t tell if you were after the dragon or the unicorn. Looks like having one of my familiars watch for each of them was a good idea.”

Twilight then noticed that the small Garuda was perched on one of the nearby shelves, pecking at one of its wings. “A familiar?”

“I don’t care about that!” Minotaur snarled as a flame appeared in his hand, the fire growing until it formed into the same sleek battle axe he was wielding yesterday. “You get in my way, destroy my horn, and try to act all cool about the whole thing – I don’t care if Harpie tears my head off for this! I’m gonna end you right now!”

“Miss! Move!” the red dragon called out.

“Don’t have to tell me twice!” Twilight yelped as the large minotaur began to charge towards the dragon, the young unicorn dodging out of the way at the last second.

Tossing the device up into the air, the dragon revealed a ring on his right hand that had the same symbol as his buckler on it. Quickly placing his clawed hand over the buckler, the buckler began to glow brightly. “DRIVER ON – PLEASE!!!”

In a flash of light, the belt morphed into the same bulky silver belt that was on the masked Wizard waist, but the Minotaur was quickly closing the gap. Not even flinching at the approaching enemy, the sleek dragon quickly slipped on another ring on his left hand and brought his hands to the belt, making the hand symbol on it flip. The moment he did that, the belt buckle began to glow brightly, “Sha Ba Do Be Touch Henshin! Sha Ba Do Be Touch Henshin!”

“Henshin,” the sleek dragon called out as he threw his left hand in front of the glowing belt.

“FLAME – PLEASE!!”

Only a few feet to go before the minotaur was right in front of the sleek dragon, still he maintained his cool as he brought his left hand up and to the left, creating a large fiery runic circle that quickly enveloped his body – As the circle passed over his body, the same black and ruby covered suit covered the dragon’s body. “Hii Hii Hii Hii Hii!”

Just as the transformation was ending, Minotaur attacked – His battle axe swiping to cleave the Wizard’s head clean off. At the last second though, the masked Wizard ducked down and spun behind the larger enemy. “It’s… Showtime!”

Knowing that he missed, the Minotaur spun around and with a stab with the spear head that was atop of the axe, only to have the Wizard lean backwards and grabbed the pole of the axe. Using what strength he had, the Wizard pushed the axe away from his body and slammed his foot into the solar plexus of Minotaur, forcing whatever air was in his lungs and to make him stagger backwards a couple of feet.

It was then that the Wizard leapt up into the air and spun around to slam the bottom of his foot into the monstrous Minotaur’s face – Forcing the monster back a couple of feet. “ARGH! You lousy little sack of scales! Why is it always the head?!”

Holding his right hand out, the Wizard stood where he was as Minotaur charged once more, holding his axe high over his head. “JUST PERISH!!”

At that very moment, the silver device landed in the Wizard’s hand, and he immediately fired several bursts of red energy at point blank range at the Minotaur’s chest. With each shot fired, Minotaur cried out in pain before he was blown back by the sheer force.

Meanwhile, hiding behind a few of the bookcases, Twilight watched the fight play out in front of her, watching as the Wizard unfolded the device back into its odd sword form, ‘I don’t know what’s going on with these two, but I’m not going to let him get away this time.’

Minotaur then charged forward, aiming with a low sweep with his axe. The Wizard however leapt over the axe and spun through the air. The moment that the Wizard landed on the ground, the masked Wizard spun around just in time to parry with a forward stab by the axe’s spearhead. Both blades sparked, but Minotaur was quicker to recover from the backlash, and immediately began to bring the axe down on the Wizard’s head with a horizontal slice.

At the last second though, the Wizard leapt back just as the blade was about to strike him, his feet striking Minotaur directly at his chin in the process. “ARGGH!”

Getting back his bearings, Minotaur used his axe’s spearhead to once again stab at the Wizard, at the same time, the Wizard spun around and countered with own stab. The two blades connected, but Minotaur’s spear and axe shattered like glass, allowing the Wizard’s sword to make contact with the Minotaur’s armored skin. Sparks erupted from Minotaur’s chest as he was flung backwards several feet, crashing into several book cases.

Twilight galloped away from the fallen Minotaur as the large monster rolled past her. The Wizard twirled his blade in his hand before he rested the dull edge in his left hand.

Minotaur lifted his head up and immediately slammed his fists into the ground, shaking the immediate area. His fingers dug into the ground before he cried out and began to charge towards the Wizard, quickly standing up on his hind legs to improve his momentum. Even the Wizard was surprised with the Minotaur’s speed and quickly brought his sword up at the last second to have the blade catch the Minotaur’s remaining horn.

Although he was protected from being pierced by the horn, by the sheer speed and size of his opponent, the masked Wizard was easily pushed back, his feet cleaving the earth. “Whoa! Oi! Oi! Hey! Hey!”

Then reeling his head back quickly, the Minotaur sent the masked Wizard flying through the air behind him. While in the air, the Wizard flipped around until he landed safely on his feet. However something was wrong…

“Heh, that worked out better than I thought,” Minotaur laughed as he stood up straight and turned around, revealing that stuck in his remaining horn was the Wizard’s very sword. “I’ve got you figured out ‘Wizard’, you probably only got one or two spells in your little book of tricks. In both of our fights, you’ve relied on only this little weapon.”

Pulling the blade from his horn, the Minotaur stabbed the odd sword into the ground near his feet. “Let’s see how long you last without your precious weapon! With my size, I could crush four of you in a second!”

The Minotaur slammed his hands into the ground once more, preparing for a second charge, all the while the Wizard lifted his right hand up and fitted a different ring on it. “… An interesting theory.”

Charging once more, the Minotaur quickly closed the gap between him and the masked Wizard, who was holding his right hand in front of his glowing belt buckle once more. “BIG! PLEASE!”

Immediately, the same red runic circle appeared in front of the Wizard. Just as the Minotaur was only a few feet from the Wizard, the masked magic user threw his right fist through the runic circle.

Much to Twilight’s and the Minotaur’s surprise, what emerged from the other size of the circle was an extremely large version of the masked Wizard’s fist. And before the Minotaur could even think about slowing down, the fist crashed into him and sent him flying backwards. “GACK!”

“Who got crushed by whose size?” Pulling his arm back out from the circle, the Wizard revealed that it was back to normal size, and just as quickly he replaced the current ring he had on his right hand with another one. “Now for the build up.”

Hovering his right hand over the buckle once more, the Wizard’s belt glowed brightly, “COPY! PLEASE!”

Another red ring appeared over the Wizard’s head, immediately falling over his entire body. And in a flash of light, a second exact copy of the Wizard appeared to his left. Twilight blinked in surprise, “A duplication spell!?”

Both of the Wizards nodded before they messed with the belt for a second and held their right hands in front of the buckle again, “COPY! PLEASE!”

And just like before, two red runic circles appeared over the Wizards’ heads, covering them before two more exact copies of the Wizard appeared. All four of them laughed slightly before they reached for another ring and fitted them on their ring fingers.

Minotaur was still struggling to get to his feet when he lifted his head up to see the multiple copies of the Wizard. “W-WHAT?!”

All four of the Wizards brought their hands in front of their belts, as four of the same runic circles appeared at their feet. “VERY NICE! KICK STRIKE!”

“The finale!” All four Wizards announced as they brought their right legs forward, pulling back the coat tails.

“THE BEST!”

From the runic circles, flames began to surround all four of the Wizards’ right legs. Symmetrically, all four of the Wizards cartwheeled for one rotation before using their hands to push them up high into the air. The Minotaur tried to get back to his feet, and just as he was about to, all four of the Wizards spun through the air with their right legs extended, the flames instantly propelling them towards the armored monster.

However, just before all four of the Wizards were about to hit the mark, several feathers flew between the masked Wizards and the Minotaur. Still, the attack just went through the feathers, and all four of the Wizards slammed their feet into Mintoaur’s chest, the force making him fly through the air with flames coursing over his body.

When the Wizards’ feet landed on the ground, three of the four faded away into several embers that danced through the air, allowing the original one to turn back to see the Minotaur kneeling on the ground, the flames coursed over his body. “Hmm, tough little rampager, aren’t ya?”

More white feathers floated down from the sky, garnering both the Wizard’s and Twilight’s attentions. From the air, another odd creature landed on the ground before the Minotaur – A large, bird-like monster standing atop of a pair of golden armored talons with long white wings that had a tint of green to them. The creature’s figure suggested that of a female, with her torso covered with a golden armored vest with green jewels embedded on it. The creature’s head resembled that of a hawk’s, with the beak opened to show the porcelain mask that acted as the creature’s face with glowing green eyes.

“Oh?” the Wizard mused as he crossed his arms. “So, there were two Phantoms, odd to see you working with each other.”

The winged Phantom didn’t speak, instead she flapped one of her mighty wings, allowing a storm of feathers to completely envelope the two Phantoms. The Wizard dashed forward to stop the two, but when he reached the feathers, they floated away to show that the two Phantoms had disappeared.

With a shake of his head, the Wizard sighed loudly, “Damn, they got away.”

Throwing his arms behind his head and beginning to walk away, the black and ruby suit began to fade from his body, showing the red scaled dragon in the mystic Wizard’s place. “Looks like I’ll be stuck here for a while.”

The dragon continued to walk away, but then he realized something – He wasn’t going anywhere. In fact, he was actually being raised off of the ground, “What the?!”

Looking closer at his claws, the dragon realized that there was a dull aura that was actually lifting him off of the ground.

“Sorry, but I’m not going to let you get away this time,” Twilight announced, her horn glowing the same light that was levitating the sleek dragon off of the ground. “I’m going to definitely get my answers this time.”

The dragon sighed in defeat as the Garuda flew up next to him, chirping loudly a few times. “Don’t rub it in."

TBC

Translation and other things to Note (Because you should learn something every day!)
*Ore… Sanjou!! – Japanese phrase, a dynamic way of announcing “I have arrived!”

Relevance to the story: This is actually the catch phrase of Kamen Rider Den-O’s Sword Form/The Main Imajin – Momotarous.

Author's Note

Hey everyone, I was thinking about posting this on Friday, but -shrugs- I figured I should post this bad boy a little early so it can garner more attention and blah blah blah.

Anyway, I'll be updating next week, maybe next week Tuesday or Friday.

So, Stay Pony my Friends.

Spell Three - It's... Showtime

I don’t have a dream. But, you know, I can protect dreams.
- Inui Takumi: Kamen Rider Faiz

TTTTT

Spell 3

It’s …Showtime!

TTTTTTT

Magic – a mysterious force in this world, capable of bending reality. At the beginning, magic was studied as progressively as a science, with as many kinds of magic as there are stars in the night’s sky. But as civilizations advanced, many forms of magic were forgotten. Time passes and in modern day, there are at least three confirmed types of magic, one used by each of the three kinds of ponies.

Magic of the Earth – A magical connection to the land itself, earth ponies are the best at using the land to produce fertile crops and to be able to have a natural affinity to the creatures that roam the land.

Magic of the Sky – To be one with the blue sky above and the clouds itself. Pegasus ponies possess this form of magic – Allowing them to manipulate the weather and ride the clouds. Although, other creatures are able to walk on clouds – Winged creatures such as Griffons and other animals blessed by the sky are able to achieve this.

And finally – Magic of the Stars – The final, and strongest form of magic documented, used to move even the Sun and Moon, unicorns and alicorns. Telekinesis, levitation, teleportation and several other variations of the forms of the magic have been reported, but this type of magic has the greatest variation and potential to it.

Twilight closed the book she was reading from with her hoof and continued to speak with her eyes closed. “Of course, there are other forms of magic – One of which I know about first hand. The magic of friendship, and it too has the ability to even surpass even the Magic of the Stars. It was even strong enough to…”

“Yeah, this is all riveting, but how long are you going to keep me floating up in the air like this?”

“Until I get some answers from you,” Twilight replied as she leered at the red dragon she was keeping afloat midair in her home. By taking the right route, Twilight was able to get the sleek dragon back to the library without any pony seeing her or him.

The work was worth it to get the weird dragon to finally answer her. “So, let’s start with an obvious question – Who exactly are you?”

“A dragon who can use magic,” The dragon answered holding up his left hand to look at the large ruby ring he had on. “Next question, please.”

“That answer doesn’t count!” Twilight scolded as she stomped her front hoof into the floor. “I meant what’s your name?”

The dragon took a deep breath and was about to speak, when all of a sudden several loud raps against the front door to the library caught both Twilight’s and the dragon’s attentions. Twilight sighed as she looked at the dragon, “I’m still expecting an answer from you.”

“Right,” The dragon replied as he breathed a few times on the large ring on his right hand, before he used his jacket to clean said ring.

With her magic still levitating the dragon behind her, Twilight moved said dragon so he’d be hidden from view from anypony’s view from the front door. With that done, Twilight pushed the door open and…

“Twilight!”

The lavender mare staggered back slightly as a rush of pink rushed to the doorway, the rosy red mare bouncing with each trot. “Oh thank Celestia you’re home! I need your help!”

“Pinkie!” Twilight gasped, almost losing control of her magical hold. “What’s wrong?!”

“Oh, it’s just terrible!” Pinkie sighed with her head lowered down slightly. “Ever since I handed out those flyers for that party, I’ve been looking for Haru. He said he had to do a few things to do before the party, but he said he’d be back about an hour before the party started, but its only half an hour before and he still hasn’t shown up! I hope he’s okay, but I can’t help but think he just walked away from the party I was going to throw him. We were going to do this huge reveal to everyone who showed up and they’d be so surprised to see him! They’d be all like, ‘OOOH’ and ‘AHHH’, and an ‘Eeep!’ because that’s what I think some ponies would be afraid of him, but he’s really just a nice guy! Sure, he’s a little scary, but he’s really, really cool and awesome and nice and funny and he likes doughnuts! Really, really likes them! I even managed to get the Cakes to make some doughnuts for the party, I even got his favorite kind of doughnut that he told me about, plain sugar! Isn’t that a little strange how he only seems to like plain sugar? I like them too, but I think chocolate doughnuts are the best, just like cake and…”

“Pinkie!” Twilight interrupted by placing her hoof on Pinkie’s mouth to stop her overly active friend’s rant. “Now, calmly, what’s the problem?”

When Twilight lowered her hoof, Pinkie took a deep breath and calmly began to explain, “I need your help! I need to find Haru, and you’re the first pony I thought of who can help me out with this!”

“Calm down, Pinkie,” Twilight pleaded, trying to settle her friend down. Although, in the short time she knew Pinkie Pie, that almost seemed like an impossible task. “I have a few things I need to do, but maybe I’ve seen him. What does this pony look like?”

“Well, he’s not really a pony,” Pinkie explained as she lifted her front hooves up. “But he’s tall, kinda twice my height.”

A number of colts could easily be twice Pinkie’s height.

“He’s red.”

That narrowed the list down a little bit.

“He usually stands on his hind legs and has this cool, yet smug attitude.”

Part of that wasn’t a physical description, but still, there were only a few individuals who fit the descriptions that Pinkie provided. But she couldn’t be talking about who Twilight thought she was talking about.

“Ooh! And he wears this old black jacket with a weird, gaudy belt buckle, even though he doesn’t wear pants.”

Okay, there was a small chance that Pinkie couldn’t be talking about…

“Oh yeah! He’s also, and this is a surprise for the party, so don’t tell anyone, but he’s a Dragon!”

No way Twilight could deny it any more…

“Hey Pinkie Pie!”

Twilight’s eyes widened as a large smile appeared on Pinkie’s face, and with the speed rivaling that of a certain blue pegasus streaming through the sky, the pink land pony sped past Twilight. In the process, Pinkie accidentally bumped into Twilight, sending the young mare spinning about with a loud yelp.

This had the unfortunate side effect of making Twilight lose her concentration and break the levitation spell she was using. So, that made the red dragon fall face first into the floor with a loud smack. “Ow.”

“OH WOW!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed with stars in her eyes as she hovered over the red dragon. “Twilight! You didn’t tell me you knew Haru! I get it, you were just trying to help him practice for his entrance into his own party to add for dramatic effect! That’s amazing! And it was so perfect! You even got into acting like you didn’t know him, didn’t you? Such commitment to the act! Ooh! You know what would be an amazing idea?! We should have Haru’s welcome party here! That way he won’t be late for his own party and we can use that dramatic entrance that he just pulled off! Although, I think he should probably work on the ending, landing on your face looks like it would be painful, so you should stay here while I get the supplies and make a sign so that people know to come on over to Twilight’s so we can make this party the best EVER!”

And just like that, Pinkie rushed out of the library, bumping into Twilight again and making her spin further into her house until she came to a slow stop, her vision slightly blurred due to the insane spins she was forced to endure. Even when she stopped spinning, Twilight stumbled about until she was near the mysterious, red dragon – Whose name was apparently Haru. “W-What just happened here?”

“I think your friend just made your house the central,” The dragon named Haru answered as he peeled his face off of the ground. “Is she always this – compulsive?”

“You have no idea,” Twilight answered as she struggled to gain her balance. “But, don’t think we’re done with my questions!”

Having gathered her composure, Twilight was about to ask more questions about the dragon, when suddenly, a loud yelp echoed throughout the library, making Twilight jump.

“AAAH! TWILIGHT! HELP!”

“Spike!” Twilight yelped as she galloped away.

It didn’t take long for the mare to reach where the cries of help originated, but when she stood in the doorway, the young unicorn stopped in her tracks at the sight before her

Spike was currently being held up in the air by the end of his tail and the front spine atop of his head. The culprits were the Garuda and Kraken familiars that the mysterious dragon had summoned earlier, while beneath Spike was the small Unicorn familiar, which seemed to laugh as it dodged Spike’s flailing arms and legs.

“Twilight! Help!” Spike called out as the Garuda and Kraken flew him closer towards the mare. “These guys aren’t playing fair!”

Twilight sighed, realizing that Haru had followed her to investigate the cry of help, “Hmm, I was wondering where those three went. I guess they like your little friend.”

TTTTTT

The Everfree Forest was a mysterious patch of land of Equestria where nature has a mind of its own. With the plants growing on their own, animals roam and hunt to survive and the weather itself moves of its own accord, it could be said the woods were cursed. To many ponies, this place is the worst place to go, and was often used in the past as a means of punishment for crimes against Equestria, and while there were numerous occasions that somepony would venture into the dangerous woods, it was usually a place to avoid.

So, it made the best place to go when running away from masked Wizards.

WHAM!

“GAH! NOT SO ROUGH!”

“Tough luck, Minotaur! You’re lucky that it was me and not another Phantom who came by! They would’ve left you to get destroyed!”

Minotaur was on the ground, his armored body covered with burns and cracks, some of the cracks now a little bigger from being tossed onto the ground haphazardly by the winged Phantom that saved him. The winged Phantom landed on the ground with a loud sigh, “Minotaur, all you had to do was awaken the Gate’s Phantom. How bad is your luck that you keep running into the guy?”

Not getting a completely verbal response, the winged Phantom ran one of her wings over Minotaur’s shoulder. “I’m just glad that we don’t have one of the higher up generals hanging over us.”

HISSSSSSSS

A chill ran down the winged Phantom’s spine, making her straighten up and turn to see that she and Minotaur were surrounded by a large variety of snakes, all of them just leering at them with glowing yellow eyes. The snakes’ very presence made the already heavy atmosphere of the Everfree Forest intensify.

“I will never understand this ‘bond’ you have between your little group,” A cold, daunted voice echoed through the woods.

The winged Phantom turned around to see the snakes that were behind her had slithered to the side, allowing a shadowed slim figure to sway into the clearing, using the shade from the trees to keep herself hidden from sight. But the voice and figure were enough for the winged Phantom to know who was addressing her.

And with one of her knees brought to the ground, the winged Phantom bowed towards the shadowed figure, “L-Lady Medusa! W-What brings you to the Everfree Forest, let alone Ponyville?”

Holding one of her hands to one of the snakes near the ground, Medusa allowed the creature to coil around her arm, “I’ve never felt the need for small talk, Harpie. So don’t bother trying to waste my time with it. Instead, waste your breath to answer why Minotaur is barely clinging onto life.”

Harpie kept her head lowered towards Medusa, gulping audibly before she answered, “L-Lady Medusa, please, forgive us. We were only following your orders to locate the two Gates you informed us about here in Ponyville. But, we ran into a snag.

“A Wizard got in our way. Please! Show mercy, Lady Medusa!”

For a few seconds, only the natural sounds of the Everfree Forest chimed through the air, adding to the tension that was only building up in the air. Then, Medusa finally spoke, “So, he’s finally revealed himself. Interesting.”

Blinking a few times, Harpie lifted her head up to see Medusa gently coddling the snake in her arm. “I-I’m sorry Lady Medusa, but, what did you say?”

“While there are Gates in this town,” Medusa answered nonchalantly as the snake coiled up around her neck. “The intention of sending your little group here was only to be used as a means to draw out one of the beings that have been interfering with our plans.

"Canterlot, Cloudsdale, Manehatten, and even out here a number of our Phantoms were reported missing. We had suspicions that it was an alternate being of magical ability that was the cause of it… And thanks to Minotaur here, we have confirmation at least out here there is such a being.”

“S-So, we were bait?” Harpie questioned followed with heavy, angry breathing.

“If you want to be blunt,” Medusa chimed back before she crossed her arms under her chest. “Then yes. You were all bait.”

With a loud screech, Harpie flew into the air with her mighty wings, and immediately dove towards Medusa with her talons flung forward.

But her attack was halted in midair as two phantasmal serpents flew from Medusa’s body and coiled around Harpie’s wings, forcing her to stop in midair. Medusa shook her head, “Tsk, tsk, Harpie. I would’ve thought a Phantom like you would know that emotions are only useful to us by using to awaken Phantoms. We must discard any emotions we have if we are to fulfill the goals.

“But if you insist on having such useless baggage, then maybe it would be easier to make you no longer an issue at all.”

The chill rolled down Harpie’s spine as the phantasmal snakes curled tighter around her wings, now starting to rack pain through her appendages.

And then, all of a sudden, the pain was gone and she was dropped to the ground. “Omph!”

“Just consider yourself lucky that we need all the Phantoms we have right now,” Medusa sighed as the phantom-like snakes withdrew back into her body. “So, you and your little group are going to continue your mission, awaken the Phantoms within the Gates you’ve been assigned.

“However, since I stepped into this town, I’ve realized that there are more Gates than initially speculated. So, more Phantoms will be assigned to this area to help you. Until you receive such orders saying otherwise, you are to continue with your two targets until they are awakened. Other Phantoms will have their own individual missions, and you will provide support.

“I suppose Minotaur is in no shape to do said mission, so, what you do with him is up to your discretion. Allow him to heal, leave him where he stands, or remove him from the picture completely.”

Harpie lifted her head up but didn’t say a word as Medusa walked past her, and the shadowed Phantom loomed over the injured Minotaur. “Although, if Phoenix was here, you know what he’d do.”

Harpie turned her head back and quickly ran in between Minotaur and Medusa.

“Once again, I fail to see the reason why you value this group of yours,” Medusa sighed as she spun around and began to walk away. “I expect some results soon, Harpie. You don’t want me to come back to waste my valuable time.”

And, as quickly as she appeared, Medusa slipped back into the shadows of the Everfree Forest, leaving Harpie to tend to the now barely conscious Minotaur. “…Don’t worry, I won’t let that happen.”

TTTTTT

Thirty minutes, that’s all it took for the mass of balloons, streamers, confetti and several party foods (most of which being a multitude of doughnuts) to completely take over the library and make it the center of entertainment for the day in Ponyville. Twilight tried to question Haru, but between trying to get Spike free from the weird jewel creatures, and Pinkie Pie coming and going to bring the party props to the library, Haru seemed to have the perfect excuse to avoid answering any question that the unicorn had whether it was to help Pinkie or to get his crystal familiars to drop Spike.

And then there was the party, just like the first day that Twilight was in Ponyville, her residence was the epicenter of Pinkie’s positively popular parties. Many of the residents of Ponyville were crowded in the main lobby, some of them dancing to the music that Pinkie had selected (joyful tune that had a number of fun guitar rifts), others enjoying the snacks and some just curious who the party was actually for.

Twilight was near one of the walls, trying to stay away from the party so she wouldn’t get absorbed into the festivities. After all, what was stopping Haru from walking out from the party halfway through it and avoid her questions again?

Well, due to the fact that Haru was surrounded by many ponies, each of them asking him questions and seeing if he wasn’t just an elaborate costume. ‘He certainly doesn’t seem too shy about answering questions now.’

“Come on Twilight!” Pinkie Pie announced before she pulled the string of a party popper near her friend’s ear, followed up with a loud bang of noise and confetti that caused Twilight to slip slightly out of surprise. “It’s a party! Lighten up! Almost everypony’s here! You can’t have a frown at a party like this, it’s like rule number one of all parties!”

“Sorry Pinkie,” Twilight sighed as she used her hoof to massage the ear that took the noisy abuse. “It’s just that I was hoping to ask Haru a few questions.”

“Ooh, what kind of questions?” Pinkie asked as she leaned closer to Twilight. “He told me a lotta stuff when I met Haru last night! He’s a real fun guy!”

“Like what?” Twilight questioned.

“Well, he didn’t really tell me much,” Pinkie admitted with a bright smile on her face. “But you should’ve seen the tricks he did! He could float, he was able to transform, ooh! And those little creatures he summoned were so cute!”

‘I guess I was a little star struck when I saw him use those spells,’ Twilight thought to herself.

“Oh you have gotta be joshing me!”

Both Twilight and Pinkie looked up to see a familiar blue pegasus floating above them both, her hooves crossed over her chest in annoyance. “Pinkie! You didn’t tell me that the guy this party was for was that jerk!”

“He’s not a jerk, he’s a dragon, Rainbow Dash,” Pinkie corrected.

“Yeah, well, I think he’s both,” Rainbow countered with a roll of her eyes. “Besides, look at him, he acts like he’s the best of the best, everyone here knows that I’m the only one who gets to act like that!”

“Aw come on, it’s his welcome party!” Pinkie replied. “So it’s natural for him to be in the limelight!”

“I still don’t like him,” Rainbow muttered under her breath. “Just cause he’s a dragon and he’s got that freaky ability, he thinks he’s all that!”

“Can’t you both be awesome?” Pinkie asked before she hummed an energetic tune. “You’re a blue streak in the sky, too fast for the naked eye! Rainbow Dash, you can really move! Dash, you’ve got an attitude! Ponies look out when you storm through, and we don’t doubt what you can do.”

Rainbow Dash smirked as she landed on the ground next to her two friends. “Yeah! Take away that little trick of his and I doubt he’s as awesome as me! I’m positive I’m over a hundred times cooler than that bag of scales!”

“Yup, yup!” Pinkie Pie cheered before she wrapped one of her hooves around Twilight. “Now that we’ve got Rainbow in the party mood, it’s time for you to get into it as well!”

“As much as I would love to, Pinkie,” Twilight sighed looking at Haru who was munching on a plain sugar doughnut near the snack table. “I can’t enjoy the party with all the questions I’ve got in my head.”

Pinkie rubbed her chin before she trotted through the party’s crowd, leaving Rainbow Dash and Twilight to watch the pink earth pony head towards the doughnut munching dragon. When Pinkie approached the dragon, Haru pulled his doughnut from his mouth and the two seemed to chat for a few seconds before Pinkie trotted back to her two friends.

“Alrighty Twily! Haru says he’ll answer your questions right now outside,” Pinkie reported as she bounced a few times in place.

“Wait, what?” Twilight questioned.

A few minutes later outside the Golden Oaks Library, Haru was leaning up against the tree that the library was made out of while Twilight, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie were standing around him. “Not that I mind, but why are you two listening in on this?”

“It’s always good to learn about any competition,” Rainbow Dash explained as she pointed a hoof at Haru. “If I learn how you pulled that little teleportation scheme, then I can use that to prove how awesome I am.”

“And I just wanna hear some neat stories!” Pinkie Pie added.

Haru blinked a few times before he shrugged his shoulders. “That’s fine, any reason would’ve worked, even if you didn’t have a reason.”

“Alright, so who exactly are you?” Twilight asked. “Pinkie says your name’s Haru, but the name isn’t something I expected from a Dragon.”

“And you’re right,” Haru replied as he curled slightly to give himself a bit of a bow towards the young mares, “Souma, Haruto Souma is my real name. But, if you’d like, Haru, that’s how most ponies referred to me as.”

“That’s still a weird name,” Rainbow Dash pointed out.

Haru lowered his head slightly, “Yes well, I’m not exactly from this country, I was born in another country but my family moved over here afterwards. So, I was stuck with the name. So, what’s your next question? How did I get so handsome?”

“Alright, stop trying to change the subject,” Twilight scolded, stomping one of her hoofs against the hard wooden floor. “I want to know how you’re able to use magic!”

“All creatures possess the ability to use magic,” Haru answered with a shrug of his shoulders. “You explained that to me in that little lecture of yours a while ago. So, is it so hard to believe that dragons can use magic?”

“Not the kind of magic I saw you use!” Twilight retorted, waving her hoof at the cocky dragon. “Now you’re just dodging the question!”

Haru sighed as he reached into the jacket and held up one of the rings he had on his claws a few times. Holding the ring between his claws, Haru held it towards Twilight, “I can only access my magic by using specific rings. This is the ring I used before in order to escape from you and your hotheaded friend.”

“Hey!” Rainbow Dash barked.

Using her magic to take the ring from Haru’s claws, Twilight looked at the ring closely with Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash looking over her. Twilight noted that the silver ring had large orange jewel inside of the metal. Atop of the ring was a very noticeable carving in the jewel, showing a simple dragon head emerging from a circle. “This is the source of your magic?”

“Ooh! I love the design of it!” Pinkie Pie chimed in as she took the ring and held it in the sunlight above her.

Haru leaned back once more on the tree and lifted up his right claw, the red ring on his claws gleaming, “Like you said, every living creature has magic within them, these rings allow me to manifest said magic within me. Each ring allows me to use the magic within in a different manner.”

“So, they’re conductors to refine the magic,” Twilight muttered to herself as her horn glowed brightly, making a quill pen and notepad pop in front of her. Quickly, the quill pen furiously began to scribble down a lot of information. “That’s amazing! From what you’re saying, these very rings could change the very basis of magic studies!”

“And just like that, the bookworm has appeared,” Rainbow sighed.

“Before you get too excited,” Haru interrupted with a small bead of sweat rolling down the side of his head. “I should point out that unless the rings are used in conjunction with certain individuals, they won’t work for anyone.”

Haru tapped against his weird belt buckled a few times, “If someone wears the ring, I can transfer my magical energy to them and the spell will work. It just needs to be in close proximity.”

“Fascinating!” Twilight squealed as the quill moved even faster on the paper. “So far, I’ve seen spells for teleportation, duplication, even a spell that can make you into a giant! What other forms of magic do you have?”

“Wait, a giant?!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

“Duplication? Oooh! I wish I could do that!” Pinkie announced with a large smile. “If I could then I wouldn’t be able to miss out on any of the fun in Ponyville! I could even spread cheer to everyone too!”

“I think one Pinkie Pie is more than enough of Ponyville to handle,” Rainbow Dash pointed out with a roll of her eyes.

Haru chuckled, “You’ve got some nice friends here, Twilight. But in response to your question, that’s one I can’t answer.”

“And why’s that?” Twilight asked looking up from her notepad. “Are they the only spells you know? Or are there limited versions of these rings?”

“Nope to both,” Haru answered. “The reason I can’t answer is because I need to have a few aces up my sleeve.”

“I see,” Twilight sighed, not fully believing in that answer. “You mind telling me why that is?”

“Ya know,” Haru sighed as he pocketed his claws. “When most ponies get attacked by a large, weird monster with odd magic, they usually question what in the world just attacked them.”

Twilight blushed a little bit at Haru’s point. The magic using dragon did have a point, but the prospect of a foreign type of magic was too much for the young mare to focus. “Right, so those monsters, you called them Phantoms, right? I remember the term in a book I read, but…”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Rainbow Dash interrupted as she stepped in between Haru and Twilight. “I think you may have forgotten to mention that when you were telling me what happened!”

“Are you alright Twilight?” Pinkie asked as she ran around her unicorn friend, looking all over Twilight’s body. “You didn’t get a scuff or bruise or cut or bump did you?! Or even worse - A wet willie!?”

“Girls! I’m fine!” Twilight croaked slightly as she waved her hooves in front of her. “I… I’m sorry for not telling you Rainbow Dash, but I didn’t want anyone to worry.

“Uh, you were saying Haru?”

“Beings with high levels are magic are what Phantoms call Gates,” Haru explained as he picked up the ring that Pinkie Pie dropped. “Phantoms use the Gates to create a mass of magic, from that mass, Phantoms are born.”

“I see,” Twilight mused with a slightly worried look on her face. She knew of her talents with magic, even if she didn’t want to admit it, the facts that she was a unicorn and Princess Celestia’s student would probably make her a perfect example of a Gate. “So, how is the mass of magic obtained? Is it extracted by Phantoms? I noticed that my magic was acting strange when that minotaur Phantom attacked.”

“Extracted?” Haru muttered with his eyes slightly narrowed. “… No, I wish it was.”

The dragon took a deep breath, for a few moments he remained silent before he lifted his head up and stared directly at the three mares. He opened his mouth, but hesitated.

“What’s wrong Haru?” Pinkie asked as she leaned towards the dragon.

“Phantoms are born,” Haru sighed with his clawed hand at his eyes. “At the expense of the Gate’s life.”

If it wasn’t for the lively music that was pumping out of the library, you could hear a pin bounce off of a wooden floor. All three of the mares just looked at Haru as he stood up straight.

“What?” Twilight gasped with her hooves brought up to her mouth. “You mean I was…”

“Phantoms have a unique, magical aura,” Haru continued, unfazed by the mare’s reactions. “If a Gate experiences true despair in the presence of a Phantom, that aura will awaken the Gate’s inner Phantom.

“Have you ever seen a butterfly emerge from a cocoon? It’s rather similar in the process – The Gate acts as the cocoon for a Phantom, and the Phantom destroys the Gate in the process of awakening, leaving only pieces of their former shell behind.”

Twilight’s jaw dropped when she heard that, if what Haru was saying was true, then that meant any unicorn with strong enough magical abilities would be targeted by these monsters just to create more monsters. ‘Does that mean that even Princess Celestia could be targeted?’

“Now wait just a minute here!” Rainbow Dash snapped as she stomped up to the magic-using dragon. “I haven’t heard of these Phantoms before! And if these sorts of monsters were going around Equestria, I think I would’ve at least heard of rumors about them!”

“Until six and a half months ago, I didn’t know about them either,” Haru admitted with his right hand fitting into his pocket. “But I learned the hard way that they do exist, and if you ask your friend Twilight, or even her dragon scribe, then you’ll learn that they do exist.”

“What are you do mean by ‘the hard way’?” Twilight asked. “Was someone close to you a Gate?”

Haru didn’t reply, instead he lifted his right hand from his pocket to reveal that the very same ring that he had shown the girls was back on his claws. “Miss Pinkie, I have to say, it was a nice party, and thank you for going through all the trouble for setting it up for me.”

Haru slid his right hand over his belt buckle, making the odd fashion accessory glow brightly, “CONNECT – PLEASE!”

The red runic energy popped behind Haru, and quickly he began to step through it, “But I think this is when I must bid you all adieu.”

Before the mares could react, Haru fully stepped through the circle, with the circle disappearing behind him.

“Wait Haru!” Twilight called out.

… But it was too late, Haru and his magical charms were gone.

TTTTTTT

Meanwhile, as the party in Ponyville was roaring on, outside the town was a large apple orchard, with a near countless trees that surrounded a large farm. On one of the hills that overlooked the mass of trees, two ponies gazed over the orchard.

One of the ponies was a young, orange earth mare with a blonde mane that ended with a red band to give it a tailed look, which matched her tail. Atop of her head was a well-worn cowboy hat which signified her southern roots. Her cutie mark was a trio of bright red apples. “Boy howdy, Ah got my work cut out fer me. That there is the biggest bump a crop of apples that Ah’ve ever laid eyes on.”

“Eeyup,” the other pony, a slightly large red stallion spoke calmly. He was a big earth pony colt with a mid-length orange mane, a cropped tail and a yoke around his neck. His mark was a sliced in half green apple, and the other thing to note about the colt was that around his torso were a few bandages. “Too big fer you to handle on yer own.”

“C’mon big brother!” the southern pony said as she leaned closer to her older brother. “Ya need to rest up and get yerself better! I haven’t met an apple orchard I haven’t met yet that I couldn’t handle!”

As she said that, the orange mare accidentally poked her front hoof into bandaged area on the colt. The colt’s eye widened as he brought up one of his hind legs to cover the bandages.

The mare chuckled sheepishly as she drew back slightly, “Oops, sorry.”

Trying to clear the air, the mare took a steps forward to look at all of the trees, “Ah’ll take a bite outta this job by day’s end.”

“Biting off more than ya can chew,” the colt pointed out. “Is just what I’m afraid of.”

“Are ya saying my mouth is making promises my legs can’t keep?” the mare asked as the colt rolled his eyes.

“Eeyup.”

“Why of all the…” The mare growled before she stomp a hoof into the ground. That’s when she got into the larger colt’s face, staring down the larger pony. “This is yer sister Applejack, remember?! The loyalist and most dependable of ponies!”

“But still only one pony,” the colt replied, his gaze turning away. “And one pony plus hundreds of apple trees just doesn’t add up.”

“Don’t be using yer fancy mathematics to muddle the issue!” Applejack retorted, stepping back to wave a hoof at her brother. “Ya’ll don’t think I can do this, don’t ya Big Macintosh?”

Big Macintosh blinked a few times, “Eeyup. I don’t question yer skills, but I’m just trying to make sure ya’ll don’t overwhelm yerself.”

“Well, what choice do we have?” Applejack questioned. “We can’t have Granny working like this with her hip, and Applebloom just ain’t strong enough to do this.”

“That’s why I took the liberty of hiring some part time help,” Big Macintosh stated.

Applejack’s jaw was dropped at the bomb that her older brother, “Ya did what?!”

“We don’t have much of a choice,” Big Macintosh replied as his attention was turned to the dirt road that ran between the orchard. “The colt himself isn’t working fer much, and I’d be able to rest easier if I knew somepony would be out here with you helping.”

Applejack just stood there with narrowed eyes at her older brother, who only kept his eyes out on the road. “In fact, here he comes right now.”

Turning her attention towards the dirt road, Applejack saw the hired help trotting towards the two. The pony in question was a slim, brown colt with a short fancy black mane. At his flank was a mark that depicted a vine of grapes.

All Applejack saw was a prissy pony trotting up to the two, what in the world was Big Mac thinking?!

When the colt finally reached the two siblings, he stopped and bowed slightly towards Applejack, “Bonne journée, madame. Je suis Pierre Escargot. Votre frère Big Macintosh m'a engagé pour vous aider dans votre entreprise au cours de pomme buck saison. ”

Applejack blinked a few times at the weird colt before she narrowed her gaze, “Dang it boy, don’t be talkin’ fancy to me! Ah don’t know where ya’ll come from, but here we speak Equish!”

“My apologies madame,” the colt coughed slightly. “Moi was simply introducing moi’s self. Pierre Escargot at your service. Moi hopes moi came at ze desired time, Mousier Macintosh.”

“Eeyup,” Big Macintosh replied as he began to turn around and trot away. “Now, I’ll be heading back in to get some rest. I hope I don’t need to tell you little sister that he’s here to help ya’ll. We are paying him.”

Applejack leered daggers at Pierre, making the French-speaking pony smile sheepishly. “Now ya’ll listen here, Mister Fancy Speak. Ah know mah Big Brother hired ya’ll to help, but Ah can do this job perfectly fine by myself! So, here’s what ya’ll be doing, Ah’ll be bucking them apples from the trees, and ya’ll can gather them apples.

“Hope yer ready to get yer hooves dirty.”

“Madame, moi worked on a vineyard during moi’s youz,” Pierre admitted. “Moi is no stranger to hard work wiz produce.”

“… Fine,” Applejack huffed as she trotted towards the orchard. “Then let’s get started then, no need to keep jawing it up around here.”

“Oui, oui!” Pierre chuckled as his eyes glowed slightly bright orange for a split second before he trotted after Applejack. “Moi shall get to work immediately.”

TTTTTTT

Outside Ponyville, hidden amongst a number of trees, Haru sighed as he began to set up his new campsite. As he fixed up his tent, Haru sighed with a roll of his eyes before he turned back to Ponyville that was in the distance.

There was a small twinge of guilt coursing through his mind, ‘Maybe I shouldn’t have run from the mares. At least Twilight deserved some answers.’

Kicking his sleeping bag to the side, Haru sighed before he sat down on a hallowed out log. ‘No Haru, you did the right thing. They don’t need to be more involved in this any more than they have already.

‘… Everyone needs hope, and someone needs to protect that hope, even if that someone needs to sacrifice everything to protect that hope.’

TBC

Author's Note

MangaKamen: Yeah, don't expect updates this soon, but this chapter is more like an exposition, and with the way things have been going for me over the last week, I just felt like posting this. Prepare to wait a while before the next chapter, I mean it this time!

On another note, please recommend this story to people! I made a bet with the guy who did my avatar and cover art for the story that if I could get enough people to like this story, he'd actually draw a comic for it! COMICS! THAT'D BE KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITAAAAAAA!

The only downside is, I can't tell you guys how many people we need to like this story to convince him. He's kinda being a little... Meh, like that. But hey, its worth it, don't ya think?

So, yeah, recommend to many people so we can get Wizard/MLP Comic!

Spell Four - Change

Everyone is searching for a world where they belong. A place of light, free of falsehood. We are on a continuing journey to go there.
- Kadoya Tsukasa / Kamen Rider Decade

TTTTTTT

Spell 4

Change

TTTTT

After Haru’s disappearance from his very own party, Twilight, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie all went searching for the magic using dragon. However, even though they searched throughout Ponyville, and even following Pinkie Pie to where his campsite, the dragon and almost every trace of him had disappeared from the town. Even after all of the information Twilight received from Haru, her curiosity was hardly satisfied if anything, Haru left more questions than real answers. ‘I should send Princess Celestia a letter about this, but what would she say? About these other forms of magic? About the Phantoms? About Haru? Or would she request for me to leave Ponyville out of safety?’

“CHIRP! CHIRP!”

The only thing left of Haru was the Garuda familiar that was currently following Twilight as she trotted through Ponyville. It had been here since Haru had literally disappeared, which was about a day ago. Of course, Spike was with her, but kept on trying to catch the ruby bird. “Hold still!”

Garuda chirped before it swooped past Spike, making the dragon run ahead of Twilight to chase the familiar. Twilight sighed before her horn began to glow brightly, making Spike lift off the ground, “Spike, please don’t mess with that.”

“He started it Twilight!” Spike pouted as he struggled through the air. “He’s been taunting me ever since the party!”

“I know Spike,” Twilight admitted as she placed Spike down on the ground near her. It was then that the Garuda landed atop of Twilight’s head. “But I’m sure he’s here for a reason.”

After the fruitless search, Twilight had returned home to see that Spike was being bullied by the very same jewel bird – The jeweled Unicorn and jeweled Kraken were nowhere to be seen. Why the Garuda was still around was a little bit of a mystery, but if Twilight had to guess, it was here to watch her. ‘I guess Haru must’ve left him here to keep an eye on me. Those Phantoms are still out there, so, I’m willing to wager that Haru’s still around here too.’

“Hey Twilight,” Spike stated, tapping Twilight’s back. “Does it feel like the ground’s moving?”

A little confused at what Spike was saying, Twilight was about to respond until she felt the unmistakable shake through her hooves.

The shaking was getting stronger too!

“What’s happening?!” Twilight yelped as the shaking grew stronger.

In the air over the town, Rainbow Dash flew overhead to see the plains, where a large dust cloud was coming closer towards Ponyville. Drawing a deep breath, Rainbow Dash yelled out with all her might, “STAMPEDE!!!!!!”

At those words, coupled with the massive amounts of quaking, many ponies in town ran about to take cover. Earth Ponies and Unicorns ran into their homes, taking their doormats and any young foals into the shelter, while Pegasai flew up high to dodge the damage that was sure to come.

Said stampede was a herd of cattle that galloped towards Ponyville, their faces racked with fear and their cries drowned out by their hooves slamming against the ground. With each second, the herd drew closer to destroying Ponyville in their path.

However, galloping alongside the herd was a familiar blonde maned mare with a rope around her neck and a cowboy hat atop her head. Applejack was accompanied with a cute brown and white furred dog following her. “YEEE-HAW!”

Applejack nodded back towards the dog, “Other side Winona!”

The small dog barked as she slowed her pace to get behind the herd, but soon Winona dashed back to the other side of the herd, barking all the while. “Herd ‘em up girl!”

With Applejack and Winona on either side of the charging herd of cows, the mass of cattle began to come together, gaining some order to the chaos charging towards Ponyville.

The herd grew closer as Applejack rammed into one of the cows, trying to prompt her and the rest of the herd to turn from Ponyville. When that didn’t work, Applejack whistled loudly, signaling Winona to rush in front of the herd. At the same time, Applejack leapt atop one of the cows, the end of her rope in her mouth while the rest was spun in the air to reveal a lasso. With a flick her head and dead-eye accuracy, Applejack made the lasso go through the air until it wrapped around the lead cow’s neck.

Leaping next to the lead cow, Applejack used all strength she had to pull the lead cow to the right, drawing the rest of the herd to turn right as well, just barely reaching the bridge and river that separated them from Ponyville. As the cows slowly came to a stop, Applejack dropped the rope to hear all the cheers coming from Ponyville.

Of course, she couldn’t get a swelled ego at this moment, so ignoring the cheers, Applejack trotted up to one of the cows. “Now what in tarnation was that about?”

“Moo,” replied the lead cow before she cleared her throat. “Ohh, my, begging yer pardon Applejack, but when we heading to our grazing patch for our afternoon, there was this big nasty red snake hanging about, and wouldn’t ya know it, it gave us all the willies.”

“Ah perfectly understand,” Applejack replied with a nod of her head. “But next time ya’ll get spooked, could ya’ll try not to trample over Ponyville.”

“Of course Applejack,” The cow replied with a sheepish smile on her face. “But do ya think ya could help us out? We can’t go back to our usual field with that nasty beast around there.”

“Ah’ll tell ya what,” Applejack said as Winona barked. “Lemme go see how the folks in Ponyville are, and Ah’ll see what Ah can do to help out.”

“Thank ya kindly Applejack,” the cow replied. “Do ya mind if we stay here till ya get rid of that nasty snake?”

“Ah don’t see why not,” Applejack stated before she trotted off with Winona. “Ah’ll head on over in a sec.”

TTTTTT

After checking on her friends, Applejack traveled to the plains where the cattle usually grazed at. With Winona by her side, Applejack searched the area for this ‘red snake’. “Ah don’t have much time fer this, Ah need to get back to the apple orchard ‘fore that fancy speaking scab gets ahead on that work.”

Before Applejack could really search, Winona growled. “What is it girl?”

Winona barked as she ran across the field, heading towards one of the few trees in the area. The small dog jumped up to place her front paws on the tree, continuing to bark. Applejack trotted to the tree and looked up at the branches. “What in tarnation? That ain’t a snake!”

Indeed, whatever was hanging out in the branches wasn’t a snake – What kind of snake munches on a doughnut? What Applejack was looking at was definitely a dragon, certainly had the same traits that another dragon that Applejack knew. Only this one was red, was wearing a black jacket, and was a little bit taller.

“Howdy pardner!” Applejack called out to the doughnut munching dragon.

Haru stopped mid-bite from his current plain sugar doughnut and looked down to see the barking dog and cowboy hat wearing mare beneath him. “Hello.”

“Ah hate to interrupt yer snack,” Applejack spoke as she placed a hoof on gently on Winona’s back, making her loyal canine cease her barking. “But do ya think ya could enjoy yer snacking somewhere else?”

“I don’t see why not,” Haru replied looking at his doughnut. “But I also don’t see why. What’s wrong with me eating doughnuts in this tree?”

“Well, ya see, some cows saw ya’ll up there,” Applejack began to explain. “And some of them got spooked, thinking that ya’ll were a snake.”

Haru almost dropped the doughnut he had in his claws. “A snake? How in the world do I look like a snake? I’ve got arms and legs!”

“Yer kinda missing the point,” Applejack sighed. “Point is, ya’ll being here kinda caused a bit of a stir with them cattle, and they almost turned Ponyville into a scrap lumber yard. So, Ah don’t mean to bother ya, but if ya could move from that tree, Ah’d be much appreciated.”

Turning his attention towards Applejack, Haru had to admit, what she brought up was a good point. But then again, when the dragon turned to the doughnut that he just finished, he shrugged his shoulders. “Nah. Sorry, but I just got cozy here, and after clearing out where I was before, I need a little bit of time to enjoy my…”

WHAM!

“HUH!?” Haru yelped at the sudden shaking of the tree, quickly regaining his composure.

“Ah ain’t got time fer this!” Applejack barked, having turned around and lifted both of her hind legs, and then slammed her hooves into the tree, making it quake again. “So if yer not gunna move on yer own, A’m gunna make ya move!”

With another powerful slam, Applejack’s powerful legs rocked the tree and forced Haru to fall face first into the ground. A little dizzy, Haru lifted his head up to reveal that his face was covered with powdered sugar and doughnut bits. “Ow.”

Too bad Haru didn’t get a chance to mourn his crushed doughnut, a lasso wrapped around his arms and immediately tightened, “What the?!”

More of the rope coiled around the dragon’s body, tightening as Applejack roped up Haru, “Sorry ‘bout this, but Ah just don’t have the time to deal with yer funny business. It’s just easier to drag ya off.”

Haru barely heard Applejack’s explanation, he was more concerned with the fact that Winona was eating the remains of his plain sugar doughnut. Applejack didn’t seem to notice this and continued on as she tightened the hold of the rope. “Now Ah’ll drag ya to Sweet Apple Acres, leave ya there for a little while, and when the cattle git back here Ah’ll be letting ya go. Ah’m sure ya’ll don’t have a problem with that, right pardner?”

The dragon didn’t get a chance to answer, since Winona had turned to lick up any powdered sugar that was on Haru. With no verbal response, Applejack tugged on the rope with her mouth and began to drag Haru across the ground, “Good!”

‘Not the weirdest thing that’s happened to me,’ Haru thought to himself with a roll of his eyes, moving his head around to try to scare the dog that was trying to make a snack out of him. ‘But definitely ranks up in the top ten.’

TTTTTT

It took a little bit of time, but eventually Applejack had dragged the troublemaking dragon back to Sweet Apple Acres, even though the Haru wasn’t causing any trouble while he was being dragged (aside from complaining about how Winona was trying to nip at his tail now and then). Just making it through the front gate and past some of the trees, Applejack released the rope and trotted around Haru to look him in the eyes, “Now listen here, Ah’ll be back in a few. Ah just gotta check on the fancy prance, then Ah’ll let the cows know they can get back to the field.

“When that’s done, Ah’ll be back to untie ya’ll.”

“Please, take your time,” Haru replied as Applejack trotted past the dragon. “I’ve gotten used to the rope straight jacket that you so generously gave me.”

“Don’t tempt me boy to leave ya’ll like that,” Applejack stated before she continued on her way. “Winona, be sure to keep an eye on our guest.”

Winona barked as the young pup ran in front of Haru.

With his back turned to the pony, Haru craned his head back to watch the southern mare disappear over the hill. A smirk appeared on his face as he stretched his black claws, and then using his pointer claw, Haru began to cut through the ropes that bound him. ‘I guess there are some ups with having these claws.’

He didn’t get too far with cutting through the ropes when all of a sudden…

“WHAT IN THE NAME OF CELESTIA!?!”

At her owner’s cry, Winona barked and ran off to follow her master’s path. Haru on the other hand sighed as he picked up the pace of trying to cut through the ropes with his claws.

Meanwhile, Applejack just stood in place as she looked at the orchard before her – A large number of apple trees were completely uprooted from the ground along the dirt road, a number of apples scattered along the way. “What in tarnation happened while Ah was gone!?”

It was then that another tree crashed a few yards in front of Applejack, making the southern mare jump slightly. But that wasn’t the only thing she saw, standing next to the tree that was just uprooted was a very odd creature.

The creature in question stood on its hind legs with its body covered in a rather bulky orange and black armor with curved feet, shoulder pads, gauntlets and even a curved head piece that had a masked fact just above its chest. The creature had a few blue jewels embedded on its thighs while there was a silver emblem under his lowered head. The creature’s green eyes turned towards Applejack and gleamed at her.

And then the creature lifted its right arm up and bowed slightly toward Applejack. Said mare narrowed her green eyes right back at the creature, “Ah dunno who are, but nopony messes with mah family’s trees!”

Applejack charged towards the odd creature, and was about to pounce on the armored creature – Only to miss as the odd creature sidestepped her charge. The creature cackled loudly before he began to spin around quickly. Dirt and rock flew around the creature’s body as it spun deep into the ground. Applejack looked at the large molehill that was left behind from the creature, “What in Granny Smith’s dentures?”

However, another tree nearby was quickly uprooted with the odd creature leaping up from the ground with it. Once again, the creature cackled loudly as it landed on the fallen tree, sitting down on it. Applejack didn’t care for how the creature was not only destroying her property but was also making fun of her! “Listen here ya… Whatever ya are, Ah’m gunna give ya one last chance to put these here trees back or else Ah gunna tan yer hide!”

The creature stopped laughing. Then pushing itself off of the tree, the armored creature snapped its fingers, forcing a tall pillar of gravel to erupt from the ground next to him. Slamming its right hand into the pillar, the dirt and gravel transformed into a large, gunmetal gray trident that the creature gripped.

“Is that supposed to scare me?” Applejack countered as she stomped a hoof into the dirt. “Boy, ya’ll have no idea what yer getting into.”

Waving one of its fingers, the odd creature egged on Applejack. This prompted the young mare to gallop towards the creature quickly. Once again, the odd creature sidestepped Applejack, however, when the Applejack noticed this, she immediately stopped and slammed both of her hind hooves into the creature’s side, forcing the creature to skid back a few feet.

“Ha! How do ya like them apples?” Applejack chuckled as she turned towards the weird creature.

However, the weird creature didn’t seem wounded at all, instead all it was doing was scratching the area where he was kicked. “Keekeekee!”

Holding up its trident, the weird creature now charged towards Applejack. But before the creature got close enough, several streams of red light crashed into its torso making it stagger backwards. Applejack blinked a few times at what just happened.

“Sorry about the rope,” A cocky voice sounded, making Applejack turn around to see Haru casually walking towards her with his weird silver gun aimed point blank at the weird creature. “But I can’t let a cry for help go unnoticed. Although, I didn’t expect to see a Phantom here.”

“A what?” Applejack questioned raising an eyebrow at the dragon.

The Phantom growled as it lifted its trident towards Haru.

In response, Haru tossed his gun into the air as he brought his right hand in front of his belt buckle. “DRIVER ON!!”

Then lifting his left claw up, Haru revealed the red ring on his claws and immediately brought it to the now bulkier belt. “FLAME! PLEASE!

“Hii Hii Hii Hii Hii!”

The fiery runic circle appeared to Haru’s left and immediately covered his body, transforming him into his ruby and black clothed masked form, with the red mask gleaming in the light.

The creature’s green eyes widened at the sight of the Wizard, and Applejack’s mouth was slightly slacked as Wizard held his right hand out to catch the gun. Quickly unfolding the gun, Wizard held up the unique sword up, “It’s… Showtime.”

And with that, Wizard ran over the dirt road towards the surprised Phantom, the Phantom shook its head and began to lift up its trident to attack. However, Wizard was faster and brought down a quick slice down on the Phantom’s chest, sparks flying from the monster’s chest and sending it staggering back.

Before the Phantom could recover, Wizard spun around and slammed a powerful roundhouse kick to the Phantom’s side, sending it flying into one of the apple trees, breaking it in two by the powerful force.

Wizard was about to charge to continue his attack, when Applejack galloped in front of him, “Hold it! Just what do ya think yer doing?!”

Wizard tilted his head slightly before he tapped the dull side of his sword against his shoulder, “Uh, destroying the phantom?”

“No, yer destroying Apple Family Property!” Applejack yelled out, making Wizard take a step back from the enraged mare. “It mah family’s bread and butter! We’ll be taking this little squabble away from here and…”

“LOOK OUT!” Wizard shouted as he tackled into Applejack, just before several pillars of solid rock crashed into the area where both were at just at.

Near where the Phantom was recovering at, its hand was lifted up with the pillars on the ground where he was near. The Phantom picked himself up and snapped his fingers, making the towers crumble to dirt.

Picking himself up from forcibly pushing Applejack out of harm’s way, Wizard growled under his breath, “Damn, an Earth Phantom. Well, if that’s the case…”

Reaching for the chain of rings at his side, Wizard pulled off a large green ring and replaced the ring that was on his left hand. “I think it’s time for a change. Though to be honest, I wanted to see how far I could get with just Flame Style.”

Standing straight up, Wizard stabbed his sword into the ground as he messed with the belt, flipping the hand symbol twice. That’s when Wizard placed his right hand in front of the buckle, “HURRICANE – PLEASE!”

A green runic circle appeared before Wizard, and before he leapt through the circle, he grabbed his sword. When he dashed through the circle, a bright green light enveloped his entire figure. “Fuu Fuu Fuu! FuuFuuFuuFuu!”

When Wizard passed through the runic circle, all of the red jewels that covered his form were transformed into bright green emeralds with a triangular theme to them. Applejack blinked a few times as the Wizard flew over the ground, the wind around him completely visible and green. “What in Sam’s Hill am Ah watching here?!”

The Phantom was surprised as well, but not just at the change but for the fact that the Wizard was now directly in front of him. And with a powerful kick to his chin, Wizard sent the Phantom flying into the air. Using the twisting wind and his powerful legs, Wizard flew into the air after the surprised Phantom.

When Wizard reached the Phantom, he spun around to deliver several slashes to the Phantom’s chest, forcing the monster to fall towards the ground. However, before the Phantom could fully reach the ground, Wizard quickly flew beneath him and slammed both of his legs into the Phantom’s back, propelling the monster through the air once more.

Once again, Wizard used his newly acquired flying abilities to soar back above the Phantom, where using both of his hands, the magic user slammed his sword into the Phantom’s torso, forcing the Phantom towards the ground, and this time allowing the monster to crash into the dirt road away from the trees.

And as gentle as a as a leaf falling to the ground, Wizard landed next to Applejack, “There, Ah managed to fight the Phantom without damaging yer precious trees.”

“Ya’ll making fun of my accent?” Applejack asked giving Wizard a dirty look.

“What?” Wizard questioned, a little taken back. ‘Oh holy Tsuyoshi Kida!* It’s contagious!!’

Shaking his head free of that thought, Wizard stepped forward and opened the hand symbol on the sword, “Anyway, time for the finale.”

But before Wizard could place his left hand onto the hand symbol though, the Phantom was already back to its feet and began to spin around until it drilled into the ground, leaving nothing but a hole in its place. Wizard quickly ran over to the hole and sighed, “Damn, the guy got away. Great.”

‘Three phantoms, Two gates and only One me,’ Wizard thought to himself as he rubbed his masked chin. ‘This is gonna be a problem, especially if these Phantoms are working together, they could attack both of the Gates at once.’

“Hey, pardner…”

‘I’ve got Garuda to keep an eye on Twilight, but, if I use the familiars too casually here, I’ll just be wasting my mana and even if I fight the phantoms, I’d be unable to last long against them.’

“Excuse me!”

Wizard jumped slightly when he realized that Applejack was standing right next to him, yelling right into his ear. “Oh, I hope you’re alright Miss.”

“Alright?” Applejack growled at Wizard, leaning closer towards the suited up dragon. “Ya’ll have the nerve to ask me if Ah’m alright!? Look at this place!”

Wizard craned his head around a few times, realizing that the trees that were uprooted were… Well, still uprooted. Applejack slammed her hoof back into the ground loudly, garnering Wizard’s attention. “These here apple trees are the life blood for the Apple Family, we need them in order to put food on the table!

“And with Applebuck season here, Ah ain’t got the time to fix all this!”

Wizard sighed, he didn’t know what Applebuck season was, but he knew at least these trees were what probably gave Applejack here her hope. “This is what mah family needs! And Ah gotta do what I can to make sure mah family doesn’t get hurt.”

Family.

The term echoed in Wizard’s head. With a sigh, he drew a ring from the chain and replaced the ring he had on his right hand. “Give me five minutes.”

“BIG – PLEASE! BIG – PLEASE!”

Four and a half minutes later…

Applejack had never seen anything like it in her life, the dragon she had easily roped up less than an hour ago had called up two more of those green runic circles appeared before Wizard. And when he stuck his arms into the circles, they managed to make his arms incredibly huge! It didn’t take long for Wizard to re-plant the trees into the ground, and he even managed to repair the broken tree.

Granted, all he did was refit the two pieces of tree together, and tied it with the rope that had been used to tie him up, but the thought still counted.

When the work was done, and his arms were back to normal, the suit disappeared and allowed Haru to slump to the ground, exhausted. ‘Yeah… I’ve used too much mana today. Even just maintaining Garuda’s starting to get hard to do.’

“Well now, that was a purty neat trick,” Applejack admitted as she trotted alongside Haru, Winona following her. “Ya’ll alright?”

“Hey, don’t worry about me,” Haru chuckled sheepishly as he shakily stood up. “I just need some rest, I’ve just been real busy today and it’s tuckering me out. I didn’t even get a decent lunch.”

Applejack rubbed her chin with her hoof a few times before a smile popped on her face, “Well, tell ya what, Mistah Dragon, as thanks fer cleaning up this mess that jerk made here and even being a good sport with me tying ya up, why don’tcha come follow me to the house fer a few, and we’ll see if we can’t fix that last problem.”

Having skipped out on the party and all the free doughnuts that Pinkie had brought was a big mistake, but then again, he had to leave. There are just some things in this world that nopony should know, and having told Twilight what the Phantoms did to Gates was more heartbreaking than what Haru let on.

Besides, with Garuda, if there was a problem, Haru could easily use Connect to get to where she was. ‘Thank goodness that I had Unicorn hide out as well…’

With a curt smile, Haru turned towards Applejack, “It’s not really necessary, but if you’re insisting, then I don’t mind.”

“And Ah am,” Applejack replied as she trotted ahead of Haru, Winona following her.

With a tired shrug, Haru began to follow the mare and pup. “So, I know this is a little late, but my name’s…”

TTTTTTT

Back in the Everfree Forest, Harpie had moved Minotaur to a nearby patch of moss where he could relax in the shade of the Everfree. Currently, Minotaur was sleeping peacefully, but the cracks in his armor were still very visible. Harpie sighed as she shook her head. “Minotaur…”

“Mademoiselle Medusa was right, this little group of Phantoms do act like a family.”

Harpie craned her head around to see the exact same Phantom that Wizard had made run off, save for a few cracks in his armored body, the Phantom seemed to be doing rather well. Harpie lifted her wings up defensively and stood up to guard Minotaur. “You must be one of the Phantoms that Lady Medusa told me about.”

“Oui oui, madame,” The orange phantom replied with a slight bow. “You need not worry zough, moi has no interest in your petty little family. Moi only came here to grant you some information about ze Wizard.”

“You got your tail handed to you, didn’t you?”

The orange Phantom didn’t say a word, but rather cleared his throat. “Moi’s name is Gnome, and for zat comment, moi shall be keeping zat piece of information to moi’s self!”

“Let’s not get out of hand,” Harpie chuckled sheepishly. “Now, how about you tell little me about this information.”

“Non, non, non!” Gnome replied with a wag of his finger. “Moi only came here to recover and to see ze ozer Phantoms here. Oh, and moi has to tell you, madame, zat moi will not tread on your territory, moi needs only to complete moi’s own mission.”

“… What?” Harpie questioned with her head tilted slightly. “I can’t understand you with that accent.”

Gnome rolled his eyes with a sigh. “Stupid Equestian Phantoms, can’t understand zeir own language. Zat matters not.”

Harpie sighed loudly. ‘What is the point of this conversation?’

“Anyway,” Gnome said with a wave of his hand, making a large column appear to his side. With a snap of his fingers, the excess of the column fell off of it until a statue version of Wizard appeared next to him. “While moi has no interest in ze Gates you were all assigned. Even ze Wizard is of no concern of moi, but if zis fool dares to show his face to moi once more, moi will personally bring zis fool to his early grave!”

With a mighty spin, Gnome slammed the back of his fist into the head of the Wizard Statue, knocking the head off and into the air. “Moi came here to tell you zat your troubles wiz zis fool are over!”

The stone head bounced a few times until it rolled away from the clearing and deeper into the woods. The stone head of Wizard managed to even reach the dark dirt road that went through the Everfree Forest, stopping at the hooves of a mysteriously cloaked individual.

The cloaked individual turned their head towards the direction of where the statue head came from, then observed the well-crafted head. ‘This is a warrior with a mask, is this perhaps a new task?’

TBC

Things to Note

* - ‘Oh holy Tsuyoshi Kida!’ A joke parodying a theme I’ve noticed in some MLP fiction, where the characters refer to ‘Oh dear Faust’, considering that Faust was the main reason why MLP FiM took off so greatly. Tsuyoshi Kida is the series’ main screenwriter, and I thought it would be funny for characters from Kamen Rider Wizard to refer to it like this.

Author's Note

MangaKamen: I really need to get a better schedule for posting these chapters.

Spell Five - Apple Hunt Season

Let me tell you from the start, I am strong enough!
- Yuto Sakurai / Kamen Rider Zeronos

TTTTTTTT

Spell 5

Apple Hunt Season

TTTTTTT

A week had passed since the Phantoms attacked Ponyville, and life seemed to have returned to normal for all the ponies in Ponyville. Although, looking at the town hall, with all of the decorations covering the large building, there seemed to be some sort of event going on. Balloons, confetti, and even banners that had apples embroidered on them.

Eventually though, with the stage finally set up almost every pony was drawn to the city hall. At the podium, a familiar lavender unicorn trotted up to the podium with a stack of notecards floating alongside her and a familiar ruby bird resting on her back. Taking a moment to straighten the notecards a few times, Twilight used her magic to lift up the top card and began to read from her speech, “Welcome everypony! Today we are here to honor a pony we can always count on.

“A pony whom we can always…”

Before Twilight could continue, Rainbow Dash flew gently into Twilight, pushing the mare and making Garuda fly over the pegasus. “Did you see Applejack’s slick moves out there?!”

Garuda landed on Rainbow Dash’s head and began to mimic the mare’s arm pumps with its wings, “What an athlete! Later today, she’s gonna help me with my new flying tricks, and I know it’s gonna be so AWESOME!”

Twilight pushed Rainbow Dash to the side, prompting Garuda to land on the podium where Twilight used her magic to gather her note cards once more. “Exactly! And…”

Too bad those notecards got scattered as Pinkie Pie popped up from behind the podium with her front legs pumped up into the air, while at the same time Garuda mimicked the pink mare’s actions. “This week I get to run Sugarcube Corner for the first time!”

“Uh, what does that have to do with Applejack?” Twilight asked as she poked her head out from behind Pinkie.

Both Pinkie and Garuda blinked a few times at the unicorn, but then Pinkie giggled, “Oh! Right! Applejack, being one of the best cooks ever, is gonna help me out! So free samples for everypony!”

The crowd seemed to love the fact of free food, but Garuda seemed to be a bit down. Pinkie rubbed the ruby bird’s head, “Aw, don’t worry Birdie, you can get a free sample too!”

Garuda chirped happily.

“Okay, that’s great.” However, with a push from Twilight, Pinkie Pie was pushed from the podium. Trotting back to the podium and using her magic to get her notecards once more, “Now if I could get on with my speech without getting inter…”

Before Twilight could continue however, a yellow hoof tapped her side and Twilight realized that there was another pony who had snuck up alongside her. This pony was a young bright yellow mare with a long pink mane, she also had a pair of wings folded against her sides, and her cutie mark was that of three pink butterflies. “Um, Twilight?”

“… Rupted,” Twilight sighed as she took a step to the side, allowing the soft spoken pegasus to take the podium for a few moments.

“Twilight,” the yellow pegasus stated. “I’m so sorry, but I just wanted to mention that Applejack is also helping me this week with the official bunny census, where we count up all the new baby bunnies that were born this season. She’s going to help gather them with her wonderful herding skills.”

The yellow pegasus backed off slightly when she realized that Twilight’s brow was narrowed and she obviously wasn’t too please with all the interruptions. So, slowly easing her way off stage, the yellow mare allowed Twilight to step back up to the podium. “Anyone else? Anyone?”

Garuda chirped a few times, before he as flung through the air via Twilight’s magic. “No?”

There was a single cough from the crowd, allowing Twilight to re-gather her notes again, “Good! Now, what I was trying to say…”

Twilight stopped when she realized that the mayor of Ponyville was standing on the stage with a large smile on her face. Twilight groaned loudly before she made all her notes fly into the air, the notes scattering about amongst the area. “Nevermind!”

Clearing her throat, the Mayor trotted towards the podium as the note cards joined the confetti and streamers that riddled the ground. “So, without further ado, it is my privilege to award the guest of honor with the Prized Pony of Ponyville Award…”

Pointing to the side, the Mayor revealed a rather extravagant golden trophy that was topped with a pony striking a dramatic pose, “To our beloved guest of honor, a pony at the upmost trustworthiness, reliability and integrity – Ponyville’s most capable and dependable friend, Applejack!”

All of the ponies cheered out as some of the curtains that were made onto the stage pulled back to reveal… Nothing. The cheering slowly stopped until a certain purple dragon was the only one cheering, “YEAH! APPLEJACK You… Uh…”

There was a moment of silence throughout the entire ceremony, save for another cough from the large group. Spike, despite his little bit of embarrassment, looked around and whispered, “Awkward.”

“Ah’m here!” A southern voice called out from the crowd. The crowd parted as a familiar blonde maned mare slowly trotted through the large group of ponies, strapped on her back was a saddle that had a pair of apple filled buckets that had a few apples falling from them with each step. “Whoops! Sorry ‘bout that, didn’t mean to step on yer tail there!”

After a few more apologies, Applejack got atop of the stage and slowly trotted towards the podium. But there was clearly something wrong with the mare, around her eyes were lines and her usual chipper demeanor seemed to be a bit dulled. Pushing the Mayor aside from the podium, Applejack staggered slightly before she stood behind said podium, “Miss Mayor, thank ya kindly fer this here award… Thingie.”

The gleaming light of the trophy caught Applejack’s attention before she became mesmerized by the glittering gold paint. “Heh, it’s so bright and shiny – Heh, Ah look real silly in it.”

The crowd got real quiet as Applejack seemed to play with her reflection in the award. Save for Pinkie Pie who was joining in the quite entertaining act of insanity.

For a few moments this lasted until Twilight stepped forward, “O-Kay, well, thank you Applejack for saving the town from that scary stampede last week, and always being there for everypony.”

“Y-yeah” Applejack yawned, trying to keep her eyes open. “Ah… Ah like helpin’ them pony folks and…”

It was then that Applejack just decided to fall asleep standing up, Twilight looked at her friend with concern before the Southern pony woke herself up. “Oh! Uh, yeah, um, thanks!”

Taking the trophy with her mouth, Applejack dragged the trophy off stage and through the crowd. Everypony watched as the southern mare just broke the dirt in the path of the large trophy, until she was gone.

Twilight blinked a few times at what just happened, and Garuda landed atop of her head, chirping a few times.

TTTTTT

An hour or so passed since the rather awkward award ceremony took place, Twilight was on her way to Sweet Apple Acres, with Garuda flying closely behind her. ‘Applejack wasn’t acting herself, and with all of the other weird stuff going on, I should really check up on her.’

Reaching the gate, Twilight nodded to herself as she trotted on the dirt path with Garuda landing on her back. Over the course of the week, Twilight had gotten used to Garuda hanging around the library. Spike on the other hand, was basically trying to chase down the ruby bird every chance he got, failing every single time as well.

Most of the time, the chases ended with Spike falling flat on his face, or getting locked out at night, or having a book dropped on his head. Twilight of course wasn’t a fan of seeing her scribe getting hurt, but she couldn’t just allow Spike to devour the ruby encrusted familiar. It was the only clue Twilight had to finding Haru. And besides, it was a perfect chance to study some new type of magic!

Of course, when Twilight sent her weekly report to Princess Celestia, she had neglected to mention Haru or the Phantoms in her writings. The reason for this was that Twilight needed to get more information about these Phantoms and Haru himself before sent a report to Celestia.

She had even returned to the same outdoor bookstore she was attacked at to get the same book. However, when Twilight had reached the store, there was no pony there. Sure, Twilight could’ve left some bits and taken the book, but she didn’t feel it was the right thing to do.

Back to the matter at hand, Twilight looked around at the trees, noting that a number of the trees near the path had freshly been replanted, the turned up dirt and uprooted grass was enough proof at that. ‘Did Applejack plant a few more trees?’

Twilight observed the trees, tilting her head slightly to see that further down the line was another tree, only this one had a large amount of rope tied around it. “And what happened here?”

“Where’d ya go? Come out, come out wherever ya’ll are!”

A cute voice rang out from the trees, garnering the attention of both Twilight and Garuda to see a small yellow mare trotting calmly out from the trees with a slightly curled red mane and tail with a bow in her mane. The foal seemed to be looking for something as she drew closer towards Twilight. “Well, howdy Miss Twilight!”

“Hello there Apple Bloom,” Twilight replied with a smile on her face. “And what are you up to today?”

Apple Bloom shifted her head left and right before she trotted up the lavender unicorn, “Ah’m trying to find mah new friend. We were playing hide ‘n go seek, but he’s cheating! Have ya seen him?”

“Sorry Apple Bloom,” Twilight replied with a curious smile on her face. “But I just got here, and I haven’t seen no pony since I got here.”

“Aw,” Apple Bloom sighed disappointedly as she lowered her head. “Ah’m never gunna find him.”

That’s when Apple Bloom looked up and noticed Garuda perched on Twilight’s back. “Say, Twilight, who’s this?”

“Oh, that’s right, you haven’t seen this little guy before,” Twilight giggled slightly as Garuda took a bow towards Apple Bloom. “This is Garuda, he’s staying with me and Spike for a while.”

“He sure is purty,” Apple Bloom complemented as Garuda seemed to puff out his chest in pride. “And he kinda looks a bit familiar. Hmm.”

“Apple Bloom,” Twilight stated getting back into Apple Bloom’s sight. “Do you know where your sister is? I need to talk to her.”

“Gee Miss Twilight,” Apple Bloom replied as she watched Garuda fly off of Twilight and fly around Apple Bloom a few times. “Ever since Applejack got back from that big award thingie, she just went back to work. Ah think ya might be able to find out where she is if ya head to the barn.

“Ah sure Mistah Escargot or… Or…”

“Apple Bloom?” Twilight questioned as she noticed that the younger mare was looking past Twilight. “Are you alright?”

“Sorry Twilight!” Apple Bloom replied before she sped past the unicorn. “But Ah just saw the little bugger! Ah got ya now!”

Twilight blinked a few times as Apple Bloom dashed into the apple orchard, quickly disappearing between the trees. Garuda chirped a few times before it landed back on Twilight’s back, “Huh, oh well, I guess we’ll just have to find this Mister Escargot or whoever. I’m sure we’ll find Apple Jack with their help.”

Garuda chirped a few times before Twilight trotted back on the dirt path. Just as she had reached the top of the hill however, a familiar topaz octopus-like creature flew past the trees that Twilight was observing. Kraken squeaked a few times before it flew off to the other side of the road with Apple Bloom chasing after it.

TTTTTTT

It didn’t take long for Twilight to reach the Apple Family household, a quaint large building in the midst of the large Apple Orchard with a barn not too far in the distance. The fresh air was mixed with the smell of apples was enough to brighten anypony’s spirits, Twilight was no different from the almost intoxicating peacefulness that swept through out the farmland.

When Twilight reached the front door of the house, the young mare had to stop and take a deep breath of fresh air. Garuda did the same thing before it chirped wildly. “Yes Garuda, I have to admit Ponyville has its real good charms – The air. The ponies. And even…”

“Hey there Twilight.”

“Hello Haru,” Twilight sighed with a warm smile.

A few seconds passed before it sunk in,” HARU!?!”

Indeed, standing near the corner of the building with a broom in his claws and a red apron over his black jacket that had a large apple symbol on the chest. The magic using dragon merely waved one of his clawed hands up, “How’s it going?”

“Haru!?” Twilight yelled as she stomped up to the still calm dragon. “What in the Equestria are you doing here?!”

Haru looked down at the broom in his hand and shrugged, “Sweeping?”

Twilight brought a hoof up to her forehead with a loud sigh, “That’s not what I meant, I mean why are you here at Sweet Apple Acres?”

“Oh, well,” Haru stated as he leaned on the broom, using it to prop himself up. “Last week, I kinda helped out around here, the little miss here offered me lunch as thanks. I got to talking to the family, and when they learned that I was camping out, they offered to allow me to sleep in the barn.

“But since I’m not really a free loader, I offered to do some of the house chores while the little miss is out doing her Applebuck Season.”

“Applebuck Season?” Twilight questioned with her head tilted slightly. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It’s what the Apple Family here calls their harvesting season,” Haru explained with a wave of his claws. “They gather the apples that they need to sell to support themselves.”

“I see,” Twilight muttered out loud. ‘I guess this would explain why Applejack wasn’t herself at the Award Ceremony, but still, she looked like she skipped out on some sleep and such.’

Twilight was about to question Haru where Applejack was, but before she could, a loud crashing sound echoed through the air. Many birds flew from the orchard of apple trees, drawing Haru and Twilight’s focus to the orchard.

With a growl and tossing his apron into the air, Haru began to run towards the orchard. “Damn it! I was wondering when this guy would show his mug!”

Twilight saw that as Haru was running he already had donned a familiar ring, and when she heard the magic words…

“DRIVER ON!”

… Twilight instinctively ran after Haru, Garuda flying not too far behind.

“FLAME – PLEASE!”

“HARU!” Twilight called out as the large fiery circle appeared ahead of the red dragon, allowing the dragon to run through it. “IS THERE ANOTHER PHANTOM!?”

“Hii Hii Hii Hii Hii Hii Hii!”

Although, Twilight knew that was the case, the moment she saw Haru’s form become that of Wizard, his black and ruby armor gleaming in the light that seeped through the leaf covered branches overhead. She had only see Haru dressed like that whenever he fought against these monsters, so as fast as her legs would allow her, Twilight galloped behind Haru.

TTTTTT

Deep in the hilly orchard, Gnome stood before another fallen tree that he had ripped out of the ground with his superb digging abilities. But, he wasn’t happy with the results he was getting. A week before, pulling the trees out or cutting them in two was enough to enrage the southern mare before him.

But since he was licking his wounds to get himself back to full strength during the week, something had changed in the behavior of the orange earth pony. She didn’t realize his presence when he had appeared, and even when he was delivering his threatening speech, all she did was yawn and trot over to another tree that had a few buckets surrounding it.

And so now he had pulled the tree out of the ground, “Now zis is getting ridiculous!”

Anyone would get annoyed with this, Applejack was at the very same tree, trying to knock the apples out of the branches with every kick she sent. Unfortunately, she was a few feet away from the tree, and only succeeded in hitting the air several times.

Gnome tapped his foot against the ground a few times with a growl, “If zis is not going to go according to moi’s magnificent plan, zen moi must go wiz ze direct approach.”

With a snap of his fingers, Gnome summoned a column of rocks from the earth next to him. Slamming his right fist through it, Gnome produced his trident from it and gripped the metallic weapon tightly. “Moi hates zis mezod against mares, but zere is no choice here.”

Before taking even one step, Gnome sniffed the air. Then he sniffed it a few more times as he closed his eyes. “Hmm, burnt charcoal, powdered sugar, and a touch of lilac – Zis smell…

“WIZARD!”

Gnome spun around, only to receive a volley of red bursts of energy to the chest and sent him flying. “URK!”

Crashing into the ground Gnome rolled around on the ground with smoke lofting off of his body. Leaning up against one of the trees was Wizard, spinning the gun on his finger. “Hark, the Phantom speaks, and here I thought it would be a change from the usual bad dialogue.”

“Burnt charcoal, powdered sugar, and a touch of lilac?” Twilight asked as she trotted next to Wizard. “Is that what you really smell like?”

“Hey, I’m a dragon,” Wizard retorted with a wag of his finger. “And I like to maintain my personal hygiene. I suspect your little scribe is like that too.”

“Yeah, but not lilac,” Twilight replied as Garuda chuckled happily.

“What I smell like isn’t important,” Wizard growled as he pushed himself from the tree, unfolding his gun into the sword in the process. “What is important is that you get Applejack away from here, I’ll deal with our Nosey Little Phantom here.”

“You still owe me some answers you know!” Twilight retorted before her horn glowed brightly, making her and Garuda pop into a large flash light. Moments later, Twilight appeared in front of the almost asleep Applejack.

“Hai, hai,” Haru replied as he charged towards the Phantom.

Gnome was back on his feet, and immediately brought his trident up to block Wizard’s downward slash. “Cheap tactic you used, Monsieur Wizard!”

“Like you Phantoms can really talk,” Haru stated as the Gnome used his full strength and pushed Wizard back.

With Wizard’s sword raised in the air, the Gnome spun around to slam the trident’s pole into the magical dragon’s torso. Before the metal could strike, Wizard dropped down to the ground, dodging the attack.

While Wizard was on the ground, using his tail to push himself, Wizard spun on the ground to deliver a dual footed donkey kick towards Gnome’s abdomen. However, Gnome quickly brought his trident in front of him and allowed the force of the kick to be absorbed by the metal staff of the weapon. Still, the force was enough to push Gnome back.

Smacking his tail against the ground, Wizard was back on his feet and charged once more towards Gnome. Gnome spun around to unleash a powerful swipe of his trident, with Wizard gracefully leaping over the attack.

Both combatants spun around, and stabbed both of their weapons towards each other. When the blades of both weapons crashed into each other, a large amount of dirt flew from their feet and two stood there deadlocked. Wizard chuckled slightly as he pushed forward with the blade, but the two weapons didn’t budge.

“Surprised?” Gnome questioned before both he and Wizards leapt back from each other. “Do not mistake moi for ze common Phantom! Zis shall be your last day on zis earz for moi is not some regular blue Phantom! Moi is ze…”

BANG!

“GARGH!” Gnome yelled as several sparks of red energy crashed into his torso.

“You talk too much,” Wizard stated with his sword reverted back into a gun, with which he promptly pointed at Gnome once more.

While Wizard and Gnome were locked in battle, Twilight was trying to convince Applejack to leave the area. Unfortunately, words seemed to be useless on the southern mare, “Applejack! You have to run!”

Applejack just yawned as she inched closer to the tree she was trying to harvest. With a powerful kick, most of the apples knocked into the baskets, “H-Howdy there Twilight, Ah can’t really talk, Ah got a lotta work to git done.”

And calmly, Applejack just trotted past Twilight towards another tree, unaware that Wizard had donned a familiar ring on his finger.

“BIG – PLEASE!”

Twilight turned just in time to see Wizard slam his hand atop of the unsuspecting Gnome, mashing him into the ground. The earth shook and caused a number of apples to fall from the trees. Applejack grumbled as she spun around, “Darn it Mistah Souma! What did Ah tell ya about helpin’ me out here?!”

“Not like I’m doing it on purpose!” Wizard called back as he drew back his large arm though the magical circle, returning it to normal size. “I’m kinda fighting a Phantom over here!”

“Well, try to fight it without helpin’ me!” Applejack ordered before she walked over to one of the trees that still had apples in it.

Twilight just had to blink in confusion as Wizard tossed his gun back into his right hand and took aim at Gnome. Shaking her head, Twilight galloped in front of her earth pony friend. “Applejack, we can’t stay here! We need to leave!”

“Unfortunately, Ah can’t,” Applejack replied trying to gather her senses before she walked past Twilight. “Ah gotta gather these here apples done ‘fore Applebuck season’s done. Ah can barely squeeze time in fer helpin’ the others – With Big Macintosh injured, Ah gotta get this done myself.”

“Applejack, normally I’d offer my help with this,” Twilight stated as she trotted in front of Applejack. “But there’s a monster over there! We need to run from here!”

“Rain or shine, alone or with mah family,” Applejack sighed as she smiled weakly. “Monster attack or evil apocalyptic plot, Applebuck season still rolls around, and so must Ah. So, if an ya’ll don’t mind, Ah kinda need to git back to work. Ah got some places Ah need to be real soon.

“Uh, hint, hint?”

Twilight rolled her eyes and was about to use her magic to just teleport her and Applejack away when all of a sudden Gnome landed a few inches from the two mares. Twilight yelped while Applejack just took the opportunity to walk past her friend. Gnome pushed himself off of the ground and was about to just attack Applejack with his bare hands…

“EXTEND – PLEASE!”

A familiar hand flew over the Gnome’s shoulder and soared around the Phantom, with an insanely long arm wrapping around the monster’s body. Gnome grunted as the extended limb bounded his limbs to his body.

“Is this a new spell?!” Twilight questioned as she quickly galloped out of the way.

Wizard’s body began to catch up to the elongated arm, and before the mystic dragon slammed both of his feet into the Gnome’s head, the arm uncoiled itself. At the moment of impact, Wizard slammed the Phantom’s head into the ground, leapt off of the monster and landed on the ground next to Twilight with his arms lifted up into the air. “What ya think? I think I stuck the landing.”

“This isn’t the time to be silly!” Twilight snapped with Garuda chirping loudly.

“I disagree,” Wizard replied as he spun around and lifted his left hand up, allowing the ring on his finger to gleam brightly. “But, I suppose I should get serious!”

At Wizard’s feet, small flames erupted around his ankles. With a great leap, Wizard delivered a powerful kick towards the now standing up Gnome, the foot slammed into Gnome’s chest and he skidded backwards. “URK!”

Landing on the ground, Wizard ran forward and unleashed another kick, but Gnome ducked down. With his initial kick missed, Wizard spun around to send another fiery kick towards Gnome, still the Phantom yelped and leapt back to dodge the kick. The process continued, with fiery attacks missing the Phantom, until Gnome snapped his fingers.

The ground rumbled and Wizard jumped back as several jagged spikes erupted from the ground where Wizard was only half a second ago. Gnome took this opportunity to cross his arms over his chest and spin around. Within seconds, Gnome had dug himself into the ground behind the spikes and disappeared.

Wizard clicked his tongue against the inside of his teeth before he turned towards the lavender unicorn behind him, “Twilight! You and Applejack need to get out of here right now! This guy can travel underground and I don’t know where he’s going to strike!”

Twilight nodded and turned to where Applejack was, but the mare was nowhere to be seen. “What? Where did she go?”

Even Wizard was confused where the southern pony had gone, but he had other problems, the ground beneath his feet shook and just as he looked down, the ground at his feet opened up with a rocky fist aimed right at him.

The fist collided with the bottom of Wizard’s masked jaw, the rest of Gnome leaping out from the dirt. Wizard flew from the impact and landed on the ground near Twilight as Gnome spun through the air.

While he was at the apex of his ascent, Gnome looked around the orchard and scoffed loudly, “Curse you Wizard! Zis is not over! Consider yourself lucky zat moi has his job to fulfill!”

Then with a spin, Gnome dove towards the ground, forcing Wizard to dodge the oncoming Phantom. From where Wizard was, Gnome spun into the ground, disappearing underground once more.

For a few moments, Wizard kept his hand to the ground, trying to feel where Gnome was going to strike. But after some time passed, no attack occurred.

Wizard rubbed his chin through his mask, “I think he’s gone. Are you alright Twilight?”

“I’m perfectly fine, thank you,” Twilight huffed as she trotted up to Wizard. “But that’s beside the point. WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME THAT APPLEJACK WAS A GATE?!”

That yell was enough to have Wizard fall backwards onto his rump and tail, the costume disappearing to reveal a nervous looking Haru. And yet, Twilight just leaned closer at the slightly quivering dragon, “And you just left me and the girls hanging! There were so many questions that we had to ask you and you just up and left!”

Pulling himself away from the enraged mare, Haru stood up and cleared his throat, wincing at how his jaw as a little sore, “Look, I didn’t mean to do that to you mares, it’s just that it’s a touchy subject with me. Besides, I didn’t want to get you all involved any more than you were.”

“A little late for that!” Twilight yelled at the sleek dragon in front of her. “I was attacked, and now so has Applejack! That Phantom’s probably after her right now!”

“Right!” Haru stated as he rubbed his chin. “So don’t you think we should be trying to find her instead of bickering?”

Twilight was about to yell again, but sighed when she realized that Haru was right. “Right, but where did she go? I couldn’t tell where she went.”

“Well, that’s where this guy comes in,” Haru chuckled as Garuda flew down from the air and landed on Haru’s shoulder. “Garuda, you mind finding our friend? I’ll be keeping an eye on Miss Sparkle over here.”

The ruby encrusted bird chirped a few times before it flew up into the air, disappearing through the grove of trees.

“Look, Twilight,” Haru sighed as he slumped his shoulders. “I don’t really wanna talk about what happened with me and the Phantoms, it’s really, really, REALLY personal. And to be frank, I didn’t want to throw that onto with everything else that happened with you on those days.

“I promise you someday I’ll tell you everything, but not now.”

“I suppose I can understand that,” Twilight stated. She knew that there were a few things that anypony (or dragon) would want to keep secret from others – Even she had a secret or two hidden. “But why didn’t you tell me that Applejack was a Gate?”

“I had to confirm it for myself,” Haru answered as he looked over the damage that was done. “There are other ponies on this farm who depend on this farm – Big Macintosh, Apple Bloom, Granny Smith and of course, Applejack herself.

“Huh, the parents must’ve really wanted to insure that the family business would be still alive.”

Shaking that thought off of his head, “I mean, the Phantom only attacked once and that was a week ago. I didn’t have enough proof to conclude who the Gate was, so, I had to stick close with the family to make sure of it.

“I could’ve had my familiars watch them, but I had Garuda and Unicorn stick with you, so if you were attacked, they could signal me. Since Big Mac, Granny Smith and Applejack usually stay here most of the time during the day, I had Kraken follow Apple Bloom around.”

“I guess that makes sense,” Twilight admitted but lifted a hoof up to her chin. “But, I’m a little curious, how do the familiar signal you?”

“Well, since the familiars are made of my own magic,” Haru explained with a smirk on his face. “I can easily sense where they are – Eventually, though, the magic I transferred into them returns to me. How long it takes depends on how much I put into the rings, of course, the familiars can deactivate themselves automatically.

“When that happens, the magic that returns to me gives me a precise idea where the Ring is, and thus, I can easily use Connect to transport myself there.”

“That’s a pretty smart approach,” Twilight had to admit. “So, if I was in trouble…”

“Either Garuda or Unicorn would’ve sent the magic back to me,” Haru replied with a smile on his face. “And I’d be back as your meddling mage to help you. But we’ve got something else to worry about, do you know where Applejack would go? If that Phantom didn’t see her on the orchard, she must’ve left…

“And I just realized, she must be quick on her legs, cause it didn’t take her long to leave.”

“Well, Applejack is Ponyville’s best athletes,” Twilight answered as she closed her eyes. “She has a number of ponies who count on her…”

That’s when it hit her!

“Rainbow Dash!”

“Rainbow Dash?” Haru questioned with a raised brow. “Oh, that rude, blue pegasus friend of yours, right? What about her?”

While Twilight didn’t care for how Haru was describing her friend (even if it was slightly true), she easily remembered something from earlier, and quickly galloped through the trees. “I’ll explain on the way! Hurry up!”

Haru blinked a few times before he ran after Twilight, “Okay! But slow down! Two legs don’t exactly give the same amount of speed as four!”

TTTTTT

Midafternoon, just outside of Ponyville, Rainbow Dash sighed as she tapped her front hoof against the fence post in annoyance. It was about over half an hour past the desired time that Applejack was supposed to meet her in helping her with her tricks. Ever since she made plans with the earth pony a week ago, Rainbow Dash had spent the better part of the week building the contraptions she felt would help her in her quest to make new tricks.

She had even enlisted the help of another Pegasus to help her build them, although, admittedly, the only help she could get was that of one Ditzy Doo. Sure, the pegasus in question wasn’t the most reliable around, but she was the only one Rainbow Dash could get to help.

Besides, the wooden platform and catapult looked to be in top condition. Besides, they only needed to last for one day.

When the sound of skidding hooves echoed through the air, Rainbow Dash turned around to see Applejack yawning behind her. “There you are!”

“Ah a might sorry there Rainbow,” Applejack yawned as she rubbed the back of her head with her hoof. “It’s been crazy at Sweet Apple Acres, and Ah almost forgot about mah promise with ya.”

“Don’t sweat it,” Rainbow Dash replied as she leapt off of the fence post. “See this contraption?”

Applejack followed the direction that Rainbow Dash pointed at with her hoof, seeing the wooden tower and catapult. “Yeah?”

“Well, I’m going to stand on one end,” Rainbow explained as both ponies trotted towards the two wooden structures. “And you’re going to be atop of that platform, when you jump off and land on the other end of the catapult, it’ll send me flying into the air where I’ll be able to do some amazing tricks!”

“Ah see,” Applejack muttered. “But, ain’t this a might dangerous?”

“Not for a skilled flyer, like yours truly!” Rainbow laughed with her head held high.

“Pardonnez-moi, Mesdames,” a snooty voice called out to the two. “Mais cela ne sonne dangereux, peu importe le niveau de compétence.”

Both Applejack and Rainbow Dash turned to see Pierre Escargot standing a few feet from the two mares, with a saddle that had two bags strapped to both sides. “Bonjour.”

“Oh, if it ain’t Mistah Fancy Talk,” Applejack sighed. “Shouldn’t ya’ll be back at the farm gatherin’ them apples?”

“Oui, oui, zis is true,” Pierre chuckled as he waved a hoof towards Applejack. “But, Madame Smith request zat moi pick up some groceries. Moi was on ze way but, when moi’s eyes saw you Madame, moi just had to say hello. Moi assumes zat zis is one of your friends?”

“Yeah,” Applejack yawned. “Rainbow Dash, this here is Pierre Escargot, he’s a pony that Big Mac hired behind mah back.”

“A pleasure to meet you, Madame Dash,” Pierre greeted with a slight bow towards the Pegasus. “It is always an honor to meet a lovely pony such as yourself.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Rainbow Dash sighed as she turned away from Pierre. “So come on Applejack! Let’s get this show on the road!”

“Right,” Applejack yawned once more.

Pierre only smirked as he leaned up against the very same fence that Rainbow Dash was atop of moments ago. ‘Moi knew zat moi would find her… But, zis could be entertaining, so moi will hold off on moi’s plan for now.

‘Zere will always be time to awaken ze Gate, but moi will take moi’s time wiz zis.’

TBC

Author's Note

MangaKamen: Next up, a super special extra long chapter! And as a bonus, we got an image from my artist friend, with a picture of our friend Haru! Enjoy!

Spell 6 - Gnome

“There are two things a man must never do. One is to not make girls cry. The other is to not handle food so crudely!”
- Tendoh Souji / Kamen Rider Kabuto

TTTTTT

Spell 6

Gnome

Art by Lux-Nero/FlairNightz Thanks again Dood!

TTTTTTTT

“I’m a little confused on this,” Haru stated as he followed Twilight through the town, the dragon trying to hide the fact that he was a bit winded from following the galloping mare. “How is an Earth Pony supposed to help a Pegasus with aerial tricks?”

“You shouldn’t underestimate some ponies,” Twilight replied with her head lifted up slightly. “But this isn’t the time for us to be discussing this! We need to find Applejack and Rainbow Dash!”

“Y-Yes, of course,” Haru sighed as he wiped his brow. “But do you even know where the two were supposed to be meeting?”

Twilight stopped in her tracks, and chuckled sheepishly, “Um, well, it was the heat of the moment – I just kinda ran off without thinking.”

“Yeah, I know a few others who are like that,” Haru admitted with a roll of his eyes. “I think we may just have to wait for Garuda to… Huh.”

“What’s wrong?” Twilight asked noticing that Haru was looking up into the sky.

“There’s a rainbow in the clear blue sky,” Haru answered as he pointed towards the rainbow streak that was curving through the air. “What does it mean?”

“That someone’s watching us?” Twilight suggested.

“I dunno, I think we’d need two rainbows for that excuse to fly,” Haru replied with a shrug of his shoulders. “Anyway, doesn’t it look like it’s getting close?”

Twilight looked up to see that the rainbow that Haru was looking at, and after watching for a few seconds, she realized that Haru was right. The rainbow was getting closer, getting closer to the two of them, at top speed!

That’s when Twilight realized something about the oncoming rainbow. “Rainbow Dash!!”

“Huh?” Haru questioned as he looked around. “Where is she? Do you see Applejack?”

“No!” Twilight sounded as she used her hooves to move Haru’s head to make him look back at the oncoming rainbow. “That’s Rainbow Dash!”

“Look, I know she’s got Rainbow in her name,” Haru admitted as he pulled his head free from Twilight’s hooves. “But come on, there’s no way she makes a rainbow when she flies. Then again, the Wonderbolts do have that smoke coming from them when they do their shows, and that just makes me question how they do that. Rather odd now that I think about it…”

Before Haru could continue his musings, the rainbow crashed into Haru, sending the dragon and the rainbow rolling across the ground. Twilight blinked as the two came to a stop and showed that Rainbow Dash had crashed into the sleek red dragon and they both now were in a heap with Rainbow Dash atop of Haru.

Twilight sighed as she trotted to her friends, “Now do you believe me.”

“I’ll take your word from now on,” Haru replied with a roll of his eyes. “Now, how about a little help here?”

A few moments later, both Haru and Rainbow Dash were back on their feet and hooves respectively, a few scuffs covering their bodies. Rainbow Dash sighed loudly as she shook her head to get back her senses, “Dang it! That hurt!”

“Are you alright Rainbow Dash?” Twilight asked.

“I think some pony else needs your concern,” Rainbow Dash replied as she stretched her wings. “I’ve had worse crashes, and at least this time I had something soft to land on.”

“Hey! I’ll have you know I’m rather trim for being a dragon!” Haru retorted with his arms crossed.

“Let me guess, Applejack,” Twilight sighed.

“Applejack,” Rainbow Dash answered back.

“Where is she?” Haru asked.

“I kinda lost track when I was flung into the sky,” Rainbow Dash replied with a sigh following. “Still, we were on the other side of town when Applejack ‘helped’ me with my flying tricks. She sent me flying when I wasn’t ready on that catapult.”

“A catapult?” Haru questioned with a raised brow. “Couldn’t you have just done any practicing in the air by taking off from the ground normally?”

“Yeah, like I’m really going to take advice from a flightless lizard,” Rainbow Dash retorted as she pointed a hoof at Haru.

“One, it’s WIZARD, not lizard,” Haru corrected as he pushed the hoof out of his face. “Second, I can fly, you just haven’t seen it.”

“Third, we’ve got bigger issues than that!” Twilight interrupted as she slammed a hoof into the ground. “We have to find Applejack!”

“What’s wrong?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Remember what I told you and Pinkie about when I was attacked?” Twilight explained before she began to gallop away, with Rainbow Dash flying after her. Haru threw his arms up into the air before he followed the two mares slowly. “Well…”

TTTTTTT

Applejack yawned as she stepped off of the catapult, stumbling somewhat. With a yawn, Applejack slowly leaned against the towered platform.

Pierre on the other hand smirked. It was rather comical for the pony from Prance to watch Applejack leap off the top of the tower, only to slam into the ground – multiple times. And when she had finally landed on the catapult, her pegasus friend wasn’t ready and was propelled into the air. ‘Moi did not know zat ze pegasus would make a wonderful rainbow zough.

‘But, enough of ze admiration of ponies getting hurt, it is time for ze Awakening!’

Quietly trotting towards the lightly snoozing Applejack, Pierre’s body slowly became engulfed with a mysterious orange dirt and dust that began to change his entire form. During the change, the colt began to stand on his hind legs as his skin began to morph into familiar curved armor. As the dust and dirt fell to the ground, Pierre’s transformation had finally been complete. “Zis shall not hurt but for a mere moment, madame.”

Applejack then woke up and used her front hoof to push herself from the platform, unaware that she had touched a weakened spot on the structure. As the southern mare slowly trotted away, Gnome began to reach the tower, unaware that the structure was now beginning to shake violently. “Zough zis is a rough mezod, it is necessary for moi to do. Zis shall be moi’s finest moment! And now for ze… GARGH!”

However, before Gnome could lay his claws on Applejack, the large platform had crumbled and fallen onto the Phantom. Applejack had managed to get enough distance to not get hurt by the confusing structure, and due to her exhaustion, Applejack didn’t seem to notice the sound that was made by Gnome or the clattering wood.

She just continued on her way as one of Gnome’s hands stuck out of the mass of wood, twitching slightly. The hand snapped its fingers, allowing a number of rocky pillars to erupt from the ground near the fallen Gnome to clear the wood off of him. When Gnome got to his feet, the Phantom roared loudly, “Zat is it! Moi cannot take zis no more! No more interruptions! No more dramatics! No more…”

Gnome took a couple of whiffs with his nose, and his eyes widened, “Zis smell! Zis is…”

That’s when two clawed feet slammed into Gnome’s side and the powerful attack sent Gnome flying into the catapult, breaking the contraption in two and sent the Phantom crashing into the ground several feet away.

Haru landed on his clawed feet, the dragon spun around towards Twilight and Rainbow Dash, and waved his hand a few times through the air. “This guy’s stubborn.”

“Ya know, if you didn’t break my catapult,” Rainbow Dash admitted as she landed next to Haru. “I’d say that was pretty cool.”

“Haru! Look!” Twilight called out. “There’s Applejack!”

Indeed, the southern mare didn’t get too far, and she seemed oblivious to everything that had just happened.

Meanwhile, Gnome slammed his hands into the ground and immediately spun into the ground, creating a large molehill behind him. Haru snapped his claws, “Damn it, he’s going underground again. Twilight! Rainbow! He might be running, but it’s a good idea that you two get Applejack outta here before…”

The ground beneath Applejack opened up and two familiar hands grabbed her. Even with the slightly dulled senses, Applejack jumped slightly before she was dragged underground.

“… That happens,” Haru sighed loudly. Fitting a familiar ring on his right claw, Haru brought his right hand to his belt buckle.

“DRIVER ON – PLEASE!”

As the larger, bulkier belt appeared, Haru produced another ring and fitted on his left claw. However, Twilight noticed something different about this ring – It wasn’t the usual ruby circular ring that Haru normally used, instead, this ring was a square topaz. “Miss Sparkle, tell me something, is there anything underneath Ponyville? Mines or something?”

“Sha Ba Do Bi Touch Henshin! Sha Ba Do Bi Touch Henshin!”

“Well, there’s a large tunnel that’s used for irrigation water,” Twilight recalled, remembering that she read up on some of the history of Ponyville. “But, why do you ask?”

Haru didn’t answer, and instead brought his left claw to his belt. “LAND!”

Several small rocks emerged from the ground around Haru’s feet, and the wind around him began to shift and stir with dirt surrounding the dragon. “Henshin!”

“PLEASE!”

With his arms lifted up to his sides, the rocks and dirt transformed into a large yellow runic circle that appeared at the dragon’s waist before it spilt in two and covered his body. Instantly, Haru’s body was covered in his usual black Wizard attire, but there was a major difference than when Twilight last saw him. The jewels on his attire were now all topaz and were rectangular, including his mask. “Dododo dododon! Don Dododon!”

“Whoa,” Rainbow Dash was almost for a loss of words at what she was looking at. “When you said transform, I didn’t expect something like this.”

“Ah yes, this is the first time you’ve seen me transform,” Wizard replied as he reached for his chain of rings and fitted one on his right hand. “I apologize Miss Dash, but it appears that I will have to show you how I can fly at a later time. Right now, I need to be in this style to save your friend.”

Wizard messed with his belt for a second before he brought his right hand to it, making the large device chime out, “DRILL – PLEASE!”

“You two may want to stay back,” Wizard warned before he brought his feet together.

Before Twilight or Rainbow Dash could question the masked dragon, his entire body was surrounded with a conic yellow aura and began to spin wildly until he began to disappear into the ground. When he was gone, the only thing that was left was a large hole.

“Okay, even I have to admit that’s pretty cool,” Rainbow Dash stated as she trotted over to the hole. “If he’s not using his magic against me, that is.”

‘I guess this means he has other forms,’ Twilight thought to herself. ‘I wonder what else he can do.’

Meanwhile, down below in the dank irrigation tunnels, Gnome stood before the tired Applejack. Although the tunnels were rather dark, there was some light coming from the lanterns that were built into the rocky walls. A steady stream of water flowed behind Gnome as he lifted a clawed hand up, “Moi has had enough of zis. All zis week, moi has been subjected to beatings, horrible labor and ze indignity of searching for false teez. And once moi has delat wiz you, zen that accursed ringed mage shall be next!”

“Come again?” Applejack yawned, not fully aware of what was going on. “Ah can’t understand ya’ll at all with that there thick accent of yers. Ya’ll remind me of that lazy Pierre that Big Macintosh hired.”

Gnome blinked a few times before he tilted his head. “Are you serious? You really don’t know who moi is? Zis is unbelievable!

“Zen again, you are nozing more zan a souzern hick.”

“Now you listen here you nasty little varmint!” Applejack growled as she pointed a hoof at Gnome. “Ah’m the one who should be yelling at ya’ll! Ya’ll have been damaging mah family’s property and yer messing with mah schedule! Ah’m supposed to be gettin’ back to Applebucking!”

“Moi zinks you’re about to have a change in your schedule,” Gnome stated as he grabbed Applejack’s face with his clawed hands. “Now, tell moi, what will drive you to despair? Ze terror of ripping out your heart? Or should moi break ze very bones zat you use to support your family?”

Gnome pulled its hand back, and was about to thrust his claws forward.

The rocky ceiling above shook, making both Gnome and Applejack look up just in time to see a yellow and black blur bored through the ceiling with rocks and dirt falling along with it. With the sunlight pouring through the hole above, the blur came to a stop to reveal none other than Wizard standing in the makeshift spotlight. “It’s showtime.”

“Ah, ze ringed mage,” Gnome cackled as he stood up straight, his arms folded behind him. “Could you please stop interfering? Zis really does not concern you.”

That’s when Gnome immediately threw its right arm forward and tossed several stones that flew around Wizard. The stones glowed a dull purple before they transformed into several spear armed Ghuls, all of them growling at the ringed Wizard.

However, Wizard just calmly turned his body slightly, “When it comes to protecting others from despair, I make it concern me.”

One of the newly formed Ghuls slashed down with its spear, only to have Wizard step back and slam his bicep into the Ghul’s neck, sending it to the ground with a loud boom!

Using the momentum, Wizard spun around and kicked another Ghul in the chest, making the stone monster fly into the water nearby. Another Ghul took the chance and actually slammed the pole portion of its spear into Wizard’s side…

… But Wizard just stood there before he grabbed the spear, spun around and threw the Ghul into another two.

One of the stone grunts took a stab towards Wizard, who turn his body and lifted his arm up to grab the spear. Continuing the turn, Wizard brought his foot up to slam the bottom of his boot to the attacking Ghul’s abdomen, making the grunt drop his weapon.

More of the Ghuls closed in on Wizard who turned to the nearby wall, and using the wall for leverage, flipped over the Ghuls as they all stabbed at the Wizard. When he was over one of the Ghuls, Wizard grabbed the demonic monster’s head and pulled it down to the ground as the masked mage landed.

A disarmed Ghul threw a punch at Wizard, only to receive an elbow to the face and force it to stagger back. While Wizard was distracted, another Ghul took this chance to perform a thrusting jab with its spear, but Wizard caught the spear and pulled the Ghul towards him. Just as the Ghul was about to slam into Wizard, the masked mage released his grip and clotheslined the stony creature in the chest, sending the creature into the water with a large splash.

Another unarmed Ghul tried to kick Wizard, but missed when the masked mage ducked down. The attacked Ghul’s luck was about to get worse since Wizard immediately stood up with his right arm hooked up and actually lifted up the Ghul over his head and into the air. The air born Ghul crashed into three other Ghuls, sending them all into the water.

The remaining Ghuls shook slightly before one of them charged at the Wizard, only to have its weapon knocked away and have one of Wizard’s arms locked around its neck. Then using his body weight, Wizard used the Ghul to lift up into the air and slam his feet into the surrounding Ghuls’ heads, knocking them over.

And with a mighty swing, Wizard threw the remaining Ghul into the water with the others. With all of the Ghuls temporarily disposed, Wizard fitted a ring on his right hand and brought it to his belt. “CONNECT - PLEASE!”

A yellow runic circle appeared in front of Wizard and he threw his right hand into it to pull out his odd silver gun. And with his left hand he unfolded the hand charm on the weapon. “C’MON SHOOTING SHAKE THE HANDS!”

Wizard brought his left hand on the gun’s hand charm, instilling the energy into it, making the gun glow a bright yellow. “LAND! SHOOTING STRIKE!

“Dododo dododon!”

With a quick spin, Wizard fired a volley of yellow blasts that crashed into all of the Ghuls, exploding into several yellow stones that crashed around the irrigation tunnel. Wizard sighed before he heard Applejack yelp.

When Wizard turned, he saw that Gnome was holding Applejack with his arm at her throat, making the Southern mare kick her hind legs. “Moi suggests zat you drop ze weapon! Ozerwise, well, let’s just say zat zis mare won’t be able to wear zis poor excuse of a hat no more!”

Wizard remained silent, keeping his gun trained on Gnome.

The Phantom snarled as he used his free arm to clutch the cowboy hat atop of Applejack’s head and ripped it to shreds with his hand. “Hurry up and drop it!”

When Wizard didn’t lower his gun, Gnome lifted his free hand up into the air…

BANG!

A yellow burst of energy flew from the gun heading straight towards Applejack and the Phantom, and just as the attack was about to hit the southern mare, the yellow magical energy curved and struck Gnome in the shoulder. Gnome cried out as he released Applejack and was thrown backwards by the magical force that struck him.

Wizard dashed forward just in time to catch Applejack, while at the same time fired more rounds that crashed into Gnome’s body, propelling the Phantom deeper into the irrigation tunnels. When Wizard finally stopped shooting, Gnome’s body was smoking and had several cracks in the armored portions of his body. Gnome roared loudly as he slammed his fists into the ground, “Why?! Why is zis happening!?! Moi is superior! Moi is a Phantom! Why are you stronger zen moi!?”

“It’s not a matter of strength,” Wizard replied, keeping his gun trained on Gnome. “It’s a matter of why I fight!”

Gnome’s cry echoed through the tunnel before he dove both of his arms into the ground, disappearing even further into the earth. Wizard sighed as he kept his gun at the ready, but after a few minutes, Wizard sighed loudly before he lowered the gun. “Man that guy’s a coward.”

Wizard looked over at Applejack, seeing that she was actually asleep in his arm, “… I don’t blame her for being asleep - working almost all day, dealing with this Phantom’s attacks, and trying to keep her word. She really is one of the most dependable ponies of this town.”

TTTTTT

With some help from the Extend Ring, Wizard was able to pull himself and Applejack out from the irrigation tunnels through the hole he had made earlier. As expected, both Twilight and Rainbow Dash were standing near the hole. “Haru! You did it!”

Wizard sighed as he slumped down on the ground, Applejack soundly snoozing a few feet from him. “Yeah, but the Phantom escaped again.”

In a fade of yellow light, Wizard’s armor disappeared to allow Haru to fall backwards onto the ground. He sighed loudly as he closed his eyes, “I wanted to chase him… But, I used too much magic. I’m nearly drained here.”

“Well, what’s important is that you managed to save Applejack,” Twilight stated with a smile on her face. “Thanks Haru.”

“Hey, don’t mention it,” Haru chuckled opening his eyes slightly. “You can thank me by letting me rest here for a while.”

“Sure,” Twilight replied as her horn began to glow brightly, that same light appearing over Applejack’s form. “I’ll just take Applejack back to Sweet Apple Acres in the meantime.”

That’s when a familiar chirping filled the air, and Haru saw that Garuda was not resting on Twilight’s back. Haru narrowed his gaze, “Where in Equestria were you Garuda? We managed to find Applejack faster than you.”

Garuda seemed to slump his head slightly in disgrace.

“Just do me a favor and stick with Twilight and Applejack for a while, okay?” Haru requested, getting a winged salute from Garuda. “Good.”

“Are you coming Rainbow Dash?” Twilight asked as her magic lifted the sleeping Applejack off of the ground.

“Nah, someone’s gotta keep an eye on this lazy dragon,” Rainbow Dash stated with a sly smirk on her face. “Who knows if this guy will ditch us again.”

Twilight giggled before she walked away with Applejack floating behind her and Garuda resting on her back. When Twilight was gone, Rainbow Dash sat down next to Haru. “Ya know, at first, I thought you were nothing more than a lame trickster.”

“Gee, thanks,” Haru sighed loudly as he kept his eyes closed.

“But what you did for Applejack and Twilight,” Rainbow Dash continued, ignoring Haru’s comment. “That was pretty awesome. And that suit of yours rocked too.”

“Thanks,” Haru yawned.

“But, you’re still not as awesome as me!” Rainbow Dash added with her chest puffed out slightly. “Or the Wonderbolts, or even the Skull Stallion!”

“Skull Stallion?” Haru questioned with his eyes opening. “What in Equestria is that?”

“Oh, right. Most ponies outside Cloudsdale don’t know about him,” Rainbow Dash admitted with a sheepish smirk. “You see, he’s kind of a living legend at my home city, or he was. He was a very awesome looking pegasus, covered with a black suit, white fedora and a skull-like helmet.

“He would always appear whenever there was trouble and beat up the bad guys and wouldn’t let them get away! And he even had an awesome catchphrase!”

“Oh?” Haru questioned raising a brow. “And what was that?”

The blue pegasus stood on her hind legs, shook her left front hoof, and then pointed it at nopony in particular. “Now… Count up your sins! It was so awesome!”

Haru chuckled before he folded his arms behind his head, “Sounds like my kinda pony, is he still around?”

“Actually,” Rainbow Dash sighed with her head lowered. “One day, he just disappeared. Nopony knew what happened to him, but one day, he was just gone. But, he’s still considered a legend, an inspiration to all the fillies and colts.”

With a smile on his face, Haru waved his hand slightly. “Sounds like somepony that would’ve been amazing to work with.”

“Yup,” Rainbow Dash answered with a smirk on her face. “So, how exactly can you fly?”

Haru sighed inside his head.

TTTTTTT

It took a little time, but Twilight was able to get Applejack back to Sweet Apple Acres. All throughout the trip, her friend was still asleep, which made Twilight glad to see her friend resting after the ordeal. When she reached the dirt road that lead past the opened gate to the Apple Family Orchard, Twilight decided to take a few moments to rest up and used her magic to easily place her friend on a grassy patch in the shade of the apple trees.

Twilight sighed as she took a seat next to Applejack, Garuda landing on the ground next to her, chirping gently. ‘I’m glad that Applejack’s alright, but this is getting out of hoof. If Phantoms show up here, then what’s stopping them from appearing all over Equestria? Haru’s a good wizard, but he’s only one dragon.

‘I have to write to Princess Celestia about this, there’s no other option. But, should I write about Haru in it? Maybe I should at least ask Haru about this.’

“Wha-What in tarnation is going on here?”

Twilight’s thoughts were interrupted when she realized that Applejack was now awake, stretching her limbs and was trying to stand up. “Applejack! Don’t push yourself! You were just attacked by a monster and…”

“And Ah appreciate yer concern,” Applejack sighed as she finally got to her hooves. “And Ah appreciate Mistah Souma helpin’ me as well, but Ah still need to get to work. So, if’an ya’ll excuse me, Ah need to get back to work. But first, Ah need to go get my spare hat.”

“But Applejack!” Twilight called out to her friend, but Applejack was just continuing her trek back to her family’s house. Twilight sighed with Garuda doing the same. “That pony’s as stubborn as a mule.”

Twilight realized something and chuckled sheepishly as she turned to the side, “Uh, no offense.”

Apparently, there was an old gray donkey standing a few feet from Twilight who just simply replied, “None taken.”

Garuda tilted his head and chirped a few times. If Twilight could understand the little ruby bird, she would’ve known that the familiar said, “Uh, where did he come from?”

TTTTTTT

The afternoon passed without any further incidents, well save for Applejack missing a few of the trees with her kicks, but the Phantom hadn’t returned to Sweet Apple Acres. The day turned to evening, evening turned to night, and eventually, the dawn signaled the new day.

After some early Applebucking, the stubborn southern mare was trotting her way through Ponyville, but something was a little off about the ‘most dependable pony in all of Ponyville’. For one thing, her mane was messier than usual, the lines under her eyes were more pronounced, and the usual cheery pony sported a rather grumpy frown on her face.

That frown was attributed to the fact that she had a sleek, red scaled shadow following her ever since she had left Sweet Apple Acres. “Ya know, Ah am old enough to look after myself, Mistah Souma. Ah don’t need a babysitter.”

“I’m not here to babysit you,” Haru replied, keeping his hands in his new navy blue jacket (a little gift that Granny Smith had given the dragon for helping out her granddaughter). “I’m just here to make sure that Phantom doesn’t strike.”

“Ah just said Ah’m not a tike!” Applejack growled as she used one of her front hooves to rub her ears.

“What?” Haru questioned with a raised brow. “No, I was saying that I’m just here to make sure that Phantom doesn’t attack!”

“No! Ah ain’t gonna go back!” Applejack barked back.

Haru had to shrug his shoulders in confusion. Unbeknownst to Haru, earlier while Applejack was harvesting some of the apples in her family’s orchard, she had accidentally knocked her head against a lowered branch, which subsequently had messed with her hearing.

But that still didn’t stop Haru from following Applejack to Sugarcube Corner, albeit, the dragon was a little confused with the conversation he was trying to have with the Southern mare.

When the two reached the rather delicious looking shop, they were immediately greeted by a familiar pink blur that appeared in between the two. “Applejack! Thank you so, so, SO much! We’ll make the bestest of the best muffins in all of Equestria! Ooh! And you even found Haru! I’m a little miffed at you just leaving your party, but you can make it up to me by being our official taste tester!”

Haru was a little taken back by the amount of energy that Pinkie was radiating, Applejack didn’t seemed fazed by the energetic pony, but that was probably due to the fact that she hardly understood every other word that came out of the pink mare’s mouth.

“So, while me and Applejack are working on these muffins, it’s gonna be super duper secret! So, no peaking!”

With a gentle tap with her front hoof, Pinkie pushed Haru out of the bakery, making the dragon blink a few times as he realized he was outside. With a shrug, Haru sat down on the ground near the door, ‘Huh, I don’t think she’s forgiven me for ditching her party. I guess I’ll have to make it up to her later.’

Throwing his arms behind his head, Haru sighed as he looked up into the slightly cloudy day. At the very least, if that Phantom does attack, Haru could try to intercept the cowardly Phantom – Hopefully.

“Hey! Haru!”

Tilting his head down, Haru smirked as a familiar baby dragon was running up to him. “Ah, hello Spike. Been a while since I’ve seen you.”

“That’s an understatement,” Spike replied as he stopped in front of his fellow dragon. “Yesterday, Twilight told me that you were still around – How come you left the party?”

“Meh, it’s kinda complicated,” Haru answered with a shrug of his shoulders. “But, I’m sorry I did that, I should’ve at least say goodbye.”

“Why? You apparently stayed in Ponyville,” Spike pointed out. “We probably would’ve seen each other eventually. I mean, we are the only two dragons here.”

“You got me there,” Haru admitted as he rubbed the back of his head. “You’re a smart little guy, aren’t ya?”

Spike smiled brightly, “Of course! I have to be since I’m Twilight’s number one assistant!”

Haru chuckled slightly, not wanting to point out that Spike was Twilight’s only assistant, although, that did make a thought come across the older dragon’s mind. “Speaking of her, where is Twilight? I figured she’d be trying to stick close to Applejack for a while.”

“Well…” Spike trailed off slightly. He knew that Twilight trusted Haru with Applejack’s safety, but the real reason why the lavender mare wasn’t around was actually because she was actually observing Garuda – Studying the familiar.

That in and of itself wasn’t enough to make Spike hesitant telling Haru why Twilight wasn’t here. The actual cause of that was because last night, in a stroke of luck, Spike managed to actually catch Garuda. By the time Twilight had noticed that, Spike had already taken a huge bite out of Garuda’s left wing!

Sure, Spike felt guilty, but the moment his tongue touched Garuda’s ruby wing, the dragon couldn’t help himself and took a large bite out of the jeweled bird! The ruby was nothing like other rubies that the baby dragon had eaten before in his short life! It was spicy, it was sweet, and, dare he say, Spike would’ve admitted that it was better than that one time Princess Celestia had given him that large diamond for his birthday! And that was nearly ten carets!

If it wasn’t for Twilight interfering and pulling the poor Garuda away from Spike, the small familiar probably wouldn’t have been able help himself and the familiar would’ve been inhaled into Spike’s maw.

Just thinking about it was starting to make Spike wish he had Garuda back in his claws.

“Spike!”

“Huh?” Spike sputtered, his fantasy suddenly broken.

“You’re drooling,” Haru pointed out flatly as his tail lifted up to reveal that Spike had been drooling on his fellow dragon’s tail.

“Oh, uh, sorry about that,” Spike chuckled nervously as he wiped his mouth. “What were we talking about again?”

“Twilight, and where she is,” Haru stated with his eyes slightly dulled.

“Right!” Spike yelped. “Well, she’s back at home doing some studying. And that leaves me to run some errands for her. What about you? Why are you outside Sugarcube Corner?”

“Well, I kinda got kicked out from there,” Haru chuckled. “I gotta keep an eye on Applejack, but Pinkie Pie kicked me out.”

“Yeah, Twilight told me about Applejack,” Spike stated as he rubbed his chin. “Do you think she’s okay to be in there?”

“Hey, if there’s a commotion, I’ll run in,” Haru replied with a smile on his face.

“Not what I was talking about,” Spike corrected with a nervous look on his face. “I mean, Twilight told me that Applejack wasn’t acting herself, and might be pushing herself a little too much.”

“I’m not worried,” Haru said. “Pinkie Pie’s in there, and they’re only making muffins. What’s the worst that could happen?”

– One Hour Later –

Twilight (with Garuda seated on the top of her head, its right wing covered with a temporary bandage) and Spike were awestruck at the sight before them, when they had heard the news, at first they didn’t believe what had happened. But looking at the makeshift medical center and all the occupants, it was like a nightmare come true. “Oh my goodness! We came as soon as we heard!”

“Oh thank you Twilight,” A nurse pony replied, her face tired and eyes full of worry. “This is awful, and we need all the help we can get.”

Twilight grimaced as she watch the other nurses work with all the ponies that were in the center, some of them on the floor with their faces a nasty shade of green. Those ponies that were bedridden had buckets close by, with a few of them with their heads stuck in them. “What in Equestria happened?”

“There was a mishap with some of the baked goods,” The nurse explained, neither her nor Twilight aware that Spike had just picked up some of said baked goods that were gathered for the hazardous waste disposal unit. “All these ponies were sickened after eating some free samples at Sugarcube Corner. It just some food poisoning, but I’ve never seen an epidemic of food poisoning of this caliber.”

“No…” moaned a familiar, if not sickly voice. Twilight turned to one of the beds to see Pinkie Pie bedridden, her face green and her mane a complete mess. “Not baked goods… Baked bads!”

Pinkie Pie would’ve continued, but she had to use the bucket that was set next to her bed.

Twilight turned back to the nurse, “I can’t believe these ponies would eat these ‘baked bads’. A few of them sure, but, why all of these?”

“Apparently, somepony ate one,” The nurse explained as she trotted over to another patient. “He was a taste tester of sorts and claimed it was delicious. I don’t know if that pony’s here or not, but, nopony could get by with eating these monstrosities.”

Twilight was about to ask if anyone had seen said pony, but was interrupted by a series of ‘Yums!’ and ‘Mmms!’. When Twilight turned to her scribe she was drawn back slightly when she saw that Spike was eating the baked bads. “Spike!!”

“Mmm, want one?” Spike offered, holding out one of the baked bads to the lavender unicorn.

“Well, now I think I know who the taste tester was,” Twilight stated with a roll of her eyes.

TTTTTTT

While a number of ponies were in the medical ward getting their stomachs pumped of the deadly muffins, one said muffin was being torn into by a certain red dragon. “Mmm, I’m more of a doughnut dragon, but I’ll admit these muffins are tasty.”

“Glad ya like ‘em,” Applejack sighed as she trotted on the path, Winona walking next to her and Haru following a few feet behind. “But ya’ll really didn’t need to come here either, ya know. Ah don’t really need a second shadow.”

“I completely understand your frustration,” Haru stated after polishing off the muffin he had brought with him. “And I’m respecting your wishes and not helping you with your business, but as long as that Phantom’s around, I can’t let you out of my sight.”

“Fine,” Applejack growled.

Haru tucked his claws into his jacket’s pocket, the sound of footsteps mixed in with the calming sounds of nature. Taking a quick breath, Haru looked towards Applejack, “So, why exactly are you so gung-ho about not letting anypony help you?”

Applejack sighed as she stopped and turned her head towards the sleek dragon, “Ah ain’t got anything against getting help – Tartarus, mah family helps me out a lotta the time. But Ah can do this stuff on mah own, Ah don’t need any help from nopony! Mah family, mah friends, even this whole town counts on me. Ah can’t let anypony down.”

“Applejack, you’re just one pony,” Haru pointed out with his arms crossed. “There’s just so much one pony can do on their own before they break.”

“Look, Ah appreciate the concern, but it’s not a matter of choice,” Applejack retorted with her tired eyes focused on the dragon before her. “On Sweet Apple Acres, most of the work falls on me and Big Macintosh. Mah little sister’s too small to pick them apples, and Granny’s too old to yelp with harvesting.

“And Ah gotta do this – Not fer myself, but fer everypony I care about. Ah gotta do it fer… Fer them too.”

“Them?” Haru asked.

“… Ma and Pa,” Applejack answered bitterly as she turned away. “Sweet Apple Acres was sacred to them, each tree they took care of, and Ah gotta make sure that it stays in mah family. Ah gotta fer their memory.”

Parents.

Haru sighed as he closed his eyes, “I can understand that.”

“Then ya’ll can understand that Ah gotta work hard,” Applejack continued as she began to trot away from Haru, Winona following her. “Now, if ya’ll excuse me, Ah gotta go help one of mah friends.”

With a shrug of his shoulders, Haru followed the southern earth pony, keeping a little bit of distance.

Applejack and Winona didn’t get too far when another pony soon came into view, a yellow pegasus mare with a bright pink mane. The pony smiled as she trotted up to Applejack, “Oh, Applejack, thank you so much for coming. I really appreciate you offering your herding skills to help me.”

“Yeah, don’t worry about it Fluttershy,” Applejack yawned, noticing the little bunny rabbits hopping around. “Why are we doing this again?”

“Well, lots of new baby bunnies have been born,” Fluttershy explained with a bright smile on her face. “So, it’s up to me to… MEEP!”

“Meep?” Applejack questioned with her brow raised up.

Surprisingly, Fluttershy had practically frozen up on the spot, her eyes widened in pure absolute terror. Applejack blinked a few times at her friend’s odd behavior, “Uh, are ya’ll okay?”

“D-D-Drag…” Fluttershy whimpered slightly as she shook.

“Yeah, Ah know Ah’ve been draggin’ mah hooves a bit,” Applejack sighed with a roll of her eyes. “Ah’m a sorry fer being late.”

“N-No, n-not that,” Fluttershy staggered as she slowly stepped back. “It’s… It’s a…”

“So, who’s this?” Haru asked walking up alongside Applejack. “I’m guessing a friend of yours, right?”

“Eeyup,” Applejack sighed as she adjusted the cowboy hat atop of her head. “This here is Fluttershy, Ah guess she’s living up to her name now though.”

“Well, a pleasure to meet you Miss Fluttershy,” Haru introduced with a slight bow. “I am Haruto Souma, but you can call me Haru.”

Fluttershy didn’t reply. All she did was freeze up even further.

“Uh, is your friend alright?” Haru asked turning towards Applejack.

“Tartarus if Ah know,” Applejack replied with a wave of her hoof. “Now, if ya’ll don’t mind, could ya’ll step back? Ah’d like to git this over with.”

“Not a problem,” Haru replied as he shrugged his shoulders. “I guess I’ll just be resting in one of those trees for a while.”

The moment that Haru had disappeared from sight, Fluttershy relaxed and took a deep breath, “… Count all the brand new baby bunnies for the yearly census.”

“Uh, are ya’ll okay?” Applejack questioned. “Ya’ll just kinda froze up right there.”

“Um, y-yes, but,” Fluttershy stuttered before she cleared her throat. “Well shall we get started?”

“Yeah,” Applejack yawned loudly before she stepped in front of Fluttershy. “Let’s get on with this.”

“Certainly,” Fluttershy replied, back to her calm demeanor. “But remember, these are baby bunnies, not cows. They are a timid bunch and need to be treated gently.”

“Ah do not need any direction on corralling critters,” Applejack scoffed back gently before she turned to her trusty pet. “Ain’t that right Winona?”

Winona barked in agreement.

While the corralling was going on, Haru was pulling out a number of rings from his jacket pocket and looked them over. ‘Let’s see, what rings haven’t I used so far since I got into Ponyville? Looking at what I’ve got, I haven’t used Defend, Dress Up, Liquid, Smell and... It. I can’t use It though, so, I should probably do some hunting for some more Magic Stones when I get the chance.

‘But I need to think – How can I get an advantage against that Phantom. He keeps running away every chance he gets by going underground, and he’s also able to find Applejack so easily. Hmm…’

Before Haru could continue his train of thought, the ground began to rumble, making Haru quickly gather the rings he had pulled out and placed them back inside his jacket. “This shaking! Could it be that Phantom?!”

Getting back to his feet, Haru quickly fitted the Flame right on his left claw and was about to activate his driver when all of a sudden a veritable army of bunnies ran past him on the dirt path, creating a large dust cloud that followed them. Not too far behind them was Fluttershy, trying to calm down the racing rabbits.

The slim dragon just tilted his head slightly at the weird sight. ‘Well now, I don’t know what to say to that.’

A few moments later, Applejack and Winona trotted past Haru, both of them with their heads held up high. The dragon blinked a few times before he shrugged off, “That was quick. Didn’t you and your friend have to count up those bunnies?”

“Don’t sweat the small stuff,” Applejack called back. “Sides, this means Ah can get back to Applebucking.”

Once again, Haru shrugged his shoulders – What’s the worst that a bunch of baby bunnies can do?

Unbeknownst to Haru, a familiar fancy speaking colt was hiding in a nearby bush, and he had been camped out there ever since Applejack had answered Haru’s questions. And a smirk appeared on his face, ‘So, it is not just for ze apple trees, it is what zey represent, eh? Zhen zere is no choice.

‘It is uncouz, but it must be done.’

TTTTTTT

The next day at Sweet Apple Acres, Twilight was able to find Applejack rather quickly, the southern mare was atop one of the hills on the farm. AJ kept kicking the lone tree until the remaining few apples shook from their branches, landing in the baskets she had on her saddle.

Twilight trotted closer to her friend as Garuda chirped a few times, perched on the Unicorn’s head, “Alright Applejack, we really need to talk.”

Applejack had her head lowered and eyes closed, and still she kicked the tree as Twilight spoke to her friend, “You can’t keep doing this on your own, you’ve got a pursuing Phantom chasing you, and there’s the Applebucking itself! It’s not only causing problems for you, but it’s over propelled pegasus, practically poisoned plenty of ponies, and terrorized bushels of brand new bouncy baby bunnies.

“I don’t care what you say, you need help!”

With one final kick, the rest of the apples fell from the tree and into Applejack’s baskets, making the southern mare smile brightly, “Heh! No Ah don’t, cause Ah’m done! Ah managed to harvest the entire Sweet Apple Acres without any help!”

Twilight looked past Applejack and saw that the orchard behind Applejack was certainly harvested, not a single apple to be seen in the branches.

“How do ya like them apples?” Applejack asked with a large smirk on her face. “Ah didn’t even need that fancy speakin’ Pierre to help me neither!”

“Zat is most impressive,” a familiar thick accented voice sounded out, garnering the two mares’ attentions towards the other side of the hill. Trotting up the hill was none other than Pierre Escargot. “Très magnifique, ma belle. Zere is but one problem, however.”

Using his front hoof, Pierre Escargot pointed behind him. Both Twilight and Applejack looked past the Pranch Pony to see that there were countless trees with apples hanging from their branches. Applejack’s eyes widened and she slumped to the ground nearly fainting. “Ya’ll have gotta be pulling mah leg.”

“Well, madam,” Pierre chuckled. “If you so wish, zen zese apple trees shall not be a problem.”

At that very moment, a powerful explosion of flames erupted from the unpicked grove. Applejack’s eyes widened as she watched the fire grow and begin to consume the rest of the trees. “NO!”

Dropping the baskets of apples behind, the southern mare galloped towards the fire engulfed trees. Twilight gave chase after her friend, “Applejack! No!”

Pierre cackled as he casually trotted behind the two mares.

Applejack was just at the edge of the enflamed grove when a bright purple aura wrapped around her body, and lifted her up into the air. Twilight skidded next to her floating companion, the horn on the unicorn’s head glowing brightly, “Applejack stop! You’ll only hurt yourself!”

“But if this here fire spreads too far,” Applejack shouted back, her gaze turned towards her friend. “Then all of Sweet Apple Acres could be burned up too!”

“Then we’ll get Rainbow Dash and other Pegasai to get a storm over here to put out the fire!” Twilight retorted.

“Unfortunately, zat will not work.”

From out from behind one of the fiery trees, stepped out Pierre, a coy smirk on his face. “Zese flames are no average fire – Regular means cannot put zem out.”

“What are ya blabbering ‘bout?” Applejack questioned.

That’s when Pierre stood up on his hind legs, while a large amount of orange dirt and stones flew around his body. The stones emerged into the Pranch stallion’s body, transforming the stallion into the Phantom known as Gnome, his arms folded behind his back. “Magic from phantoms is different zan ze magic zat all you regular ponies can use. Blue Phantoms, for example, can absorb magic, but Orange Phantoms such as moi, our magic is different.

“Anyzing zat is produced by moi’s magic is much more durable. As such, the flint and combustible materials moi produce and ze flames that occurred will not be prevented by such mundane tactics.”

Applejack’s eyes watered as she watched the flames grow more intense. Twilight’s horn glowed as she let Applejack down to the ground, “Phantom… Why are you doing this!?”

Gnome laughed loudly as he lifted a clawed hand up. “Take a good look, Gate. Ze zing zat’s been bracing your heart is about to scatter to ze wind. When zat happens, you shall fall into despair!”

Applejack quivered as she slumped to the ground as Gnome’s laughter echoed through the air. ‘Ma… Pa… Ah… Ah’m sorry…’

“I will protect your hope.”

“DRVIER ON!”

Gnome’s laughter stopped as he turned around.

Twilight and Applejack looked into the blaze to see Haru standing amongst the flames, his large belt glowing brightly. “Haru!!”

The sleek red dragon lifted up his clawed hand to reveal that there was a new ring circled around them, a blue ring in the shape of diamond. “Sha ba do bi Touch Henshin! Sha ba do bi Touch Henshin!”

“Henshin.”

“WATER – PLEASE!”

Haru threw his left claw into the air as a large blue runic circle appeared over his head. As the circle lowered over the dragon’s form, a surge of water warped around his body, changing Haru’s form into Wizard – Only this one had blue sapphires in the shape of diamonds covering his body. “Sui Sui – Sui Sui!”

When the ring touched the ground, a torrent of water surged around Wizard’s body, and the ring mage spun around before he lifted his arms up. The water erupted from the runic circle to encompass the flames, crash into Gnome to send him flying and make both Applejack’s and Twilight’s jaws drop.

The flames were immediately put out, and amazingly enough, there was hardly any damage done to the trees or apples, save for a few singed branches and leafs. The blue Wizard slowly stepped over to the two mares and knelt down before them. “Sorry for being late.”

Admittedly, those muffins that Haru had tasted earlier had taken a nasty toll on his stomach, but he wasn’t going to let these two know that.

“Mistah Souma,” Applejack muttered as she looked at the masked dragon.

“Honoring those that have been lost,” Wizard stated as he turned his head towards the trees. “I know exactly how that is, AJ. But I learned a long time ago that if you dwell on those who are gone, you’ll lose the ones who are around you now. Twilight, me, your family, and all your friends, we depend on you, but you have to be able to depend on us.

“You need to put your pride on the side sometimes and let your friends help you.”

There was a moment of silence as Wizard pulled a ring off of his chain belt and fitted on his right hand.

“DAMN YOU, RING-BEARING MAGE!”

Both Applejack and Twilight turned to see a soaked Gnome standing a few feet from the group, waving his arms in annoyance. “Moi has had enough of zis! How long are you going to get in moi’s way!?”

“As long as I need to,” Wizard retorted as he stood up and fitted his right hand in front of his belt. “Obviously!”

“LIQUID – PLEASE!”

Wizard’s body shimmered a light blue before it transformed into large amount of blue water that flew through the air. Gnome yelped as the water crashed into him sent him flying over the ground.

“Every time I turn around,” Twilight sighed with a shake of her head. “It’s like he’s got a brand new trick up his sleeve.”

“Yeah, but he’s kinda got a point,” Applejack admitted with a slight chuckle.

“Wait, what?” Twilight questioned.

“Twilight,” Applejack stated as she got to her hooves. “Do ya’ll think ya could help me out with a few things?”

Twilight smiled brightly before the two mares began to gallop off.

TTTTT

Gnome crashed into the ground with a spin, landing in a clearing inside Sweet Apple Acres, nearly hitting some of the empty barrels in the process.

The shining liquid crashed into the ground a few feet away, reforming into Wizard. As soon as he was solid once more, Wizard replaced the ring on his right hand with another and fitted his hand in front his belt buckle. “CONNECT – PLEASE!”

The blue runic circle appeared once more, allowing Haru to reach into it and draw his silver sword. At the same time however, Gnome had gotten to his feet and summoned another pillar, slamming his clawed hand into it to pull out the long trident from it. Both magical beings stared at each other for a moment before they charged at each other!

“This time, the curtain will fall!” Wizard yelled with his blade at the side.

“BUT ZE CURTAIN SHALL FALL FOR YOU!” Gnome roared out loud as he sent his trident forward with a thrust.

Wizard slammed the blade onto the trident’s blade, forcing Wizard to flip over Gnome, the Phantom was surprised and when Wizard landed on the ground behind the Phantom, he brought his blade down and slashed Gnome across the back.

As the sparks flew from the Phantom’s back, Gnome spun around to stab his trident into Wizard, but with a quick upward slash, Wizard pushed the attack back. And with the same momentum, the ring-bearing mage brought the blade down once more, mystical sparks erupting from Gnome’s chest.

With a twist of the blade, Wizard slashed his blade once more, running the blade at Gnome’s stomach allowing Wizard to pass the Phantom with the monstrous creature crying out loudly.

As Gnome was about to turn around, he was meet in the chest by Wizard’s foot, sending the phantom soaring backwards into the empty crates. Wood and dust flew up into the air as Gnome struggled to get up, using one of the barrels as leverage, “Moi curses your name! Moi will not stand for zis!!”

“You look like you’re barely standing at all,” Wizard stated as he spun his sword on his finger.

The phantom’s eyes flashed before he stood up straight and threw his arms out to the side. Several stones shot out from Gnome’s body, and faster than Wizard could respond, the stones crashed into his body and the ground around him, exploding into several small explosions that flew Wizard off of his feet. “GARGH!”

Gnome cackled as he picked up his trident.

“Gagh,” Wizard groaned as he got to his knees. “Since when could you do that?”

“Always,” Gnome answered as slowly stepped forward. “But showing every trick at ze beginning will only be a hindrance in future battles.”

Gnome charged forward just as Wizard got to his feet, and as the Phantom threw its weapon forward once more, the masked mage was barely able to block it in time. Gnome kept charging and throwing attacks, but when the Phantom brought its trident down on Wizard, the magical dragon stepped forward to allow the pole of the weapon slam into his shoulder.

Through the pain however, Wizard grabbed onto weapon and began to spin himself and the Phantom around a few times. Neither magical being released their grip on the trident, but when the spinning stopped, Wizard kneed Gnome in the stomach twice before grabbed the Phantom by the curved helmet.

That’s when Gnome’s feet left the ground and he was hefted on to Wizard’s shoulder, his legs dangling in the air, his head locked onto Wizard’s shoulder, and his left arm tightly gripped by Wizard. “W-WHAT IS ZIS!?! HOW ARE YOU ABLE TO DO ZIS TO MOI!?!”

“Showing every trick at the beginning,” Wizard growled as he began to spin around. “Will only be a hindrance in future battles!”

With one final spin, Wizard tossed Gnome as if he were ragdoll, and even got some good distance before the Phantom crashed face first onto the ground.

“Heh,” Wizard chuckled before he charged towards the phantom.

Gnome got to his feet before he brought his trident up in front of his face, “In zat case…”

The phantom spun around quickly before it dove into the ground, disappearing into tunnel it just created. Wizard couldn’t reach the Phantom in time before the digging sound subsided. “Damn it, he ran away again!”

However, the sound of parting earth made Wizard spin around just in time to block a stab from Gnome’s trident. Before Wizard could counter, Gnome and his trident spun back into the ground, “What the?”

Once again, the same sound echoed through the air making Wizard jump forward before he was stabbed in the back by the same trident. When Wizard got back to his feet, ground opened up right in front of him and a clawed fist slammed into his masked face. “URK!”

Wizard flew backwards, but gathered himself with a spin in the air and landed on his feet. “How in the world is he able to sense me from underground?”

“Moi remembers your scent quite well,” Gnome’s voice whispered into Wizard’s ear. “Moi’s nose is unmatched!”

Wizard spun around to cleave his sword into Gnome, only to hit nothing by air. Before Wizard was none other than another hole that the Phantom had escaped too. With a growl, Wizard stabbed his sword into the ground and reached for his chain of rings. “A good sense of smell, huh? In that case…”

Wizard lifted up the large yellow ring from his belt and was about to replace the rings on his left hand. But when he had slipped off the blue ring, Gnome erupted from the ground several feet away and unleashed another volley of stones that knocked the masked dragon off his claws and sent the yellow large ring bouncing a few feet away. “Damn it!”

However, before Wizard could go after the ring, Gnome leapt from the ground once and stood over Wizard, his trident held up high. Gnome cackled, “Wiz zis, ze tale of ze ring-bearing mage comes to an end. Fare zee well, you damn fool.”

Gnome began to bring down his trident, but before he could make it connect, a familiar rope flew around the Phantom’s head and tightened around his neck, pulling him backwards, “GARGH! WHAT IS ZIS!?!”

Wizard looked up and followed the rope to see Applejack several yards back with the rope gripped tightly in her mouth, “Applejack!”

With the rope in her mouth, Applejack couldn’t really reply but simply nodded towards the masked dragon. Taking this opportunity, Wizard slammed both of his feet into Gnome’s stomach, sending the Phantom to the ground.

“HARU!”

Wizard turned his head to the left to see his Land Ring floating towards him, and looking past it, Wizard saw Twilight a few yards away with her horn glowing brightly. Wizard grabbed the ring and fitted it on his left hand.

At the same time, Gnome was getting back to his feet and used his claws to cut the rope that was around his neck, “DAMN YOU, YOU STUPID EQUESTRIAN MARE!! ZIS SHALL NOT STAND!”

“LAND – PLEASE!”

Gnome turned around to see the yellow runic circle rise up around Wizard’s body, carrying several stones along with it. Soon, the sapphires turned into topazes, and Wizard slammed his right foot into the ground, making the earth shake slightly. “DODODO DODODON – DON DODODON!”

“Not zis again,” Gnome moaned before he spun around, disappearing into the earth.

Wizard spun around too, but had quickly replaced the ring on his right hand and threw it in front of his glowing belt. “BIG – PLEASE!”

The yellow runic circle appeared over Wizard’s head, and he casually lifted his right hand up through the ring, making his right arm incredibly large. And with a loud yell, Wizard slammed his hand into the ground, open palm, shaking the ground incredibly.

The shockwave shot Gnome up through the ground near Wizard’s hand, forcing the phantom up into the air, screaming like a mad pony. When Gnome began to fall to the ground, Wizard still used his giant arm and slapped the Phantom several yards away.

When Wizard pulled his hand back through the ring, he chuckled to himself, “Heh, I was always a fan of Whac-A-Mole.”

And within seconds, Wizard dashed forward and closed the gap between him and Gnome. The Phantom in turn took a stab with his trident, only to have the weapon kicked out of his clawed hands. With a loud growl, Gnome tried to strike Wizard with his claws, only to have his wrist grabbed by the masked dragon.

And with a quick spin, Wizard twisted the Gnome’s arm behind his back and threw the Phantom to the ground. With the monster still in his grip, Wizard lifted up one of his rings, fitted it on Gnome’s hand and brought the monster’s hand to his belt. “Here’s a little parting gift.”

“SMELL – PLEASE!”

Quickly releasing and jumping away from the Phantom, Wizard chuckled as the Phantom stood up. “W-What is zis accursed zing!?”

A yellow runic circle appeared in front of Gnome before it was drawn into the monster’s body, and from between its armor, a visible cloud of yellow smoke poured out from it, and the Phantom began to gag and cough. “Moi nose! Moi’s lovely nose! What is zis abhorrent smell!?!”

The cloud immediately covered the area, making Wizard grab one of his coattails to cover his mask and wave the air in front of him. “Nasty.”

Even Twilight and Applejack dashed away from the evil odor, but Gnome had the worst of it as he was gagging and had fallen to his knees. What was worse was that the ring was stuck on its claws, he couldn’t get it off. ‘If moi retreats into ze ground, moi will suffocate even worse!’

Wizard equipped a different ring on his right hand and slid it in front of his belt. “Finale!”

“VERY NICE! KICK STRIKE!”

“THE BEST! PLEASE!”

Wizard spun around and threw his coattail back as a yellow runic circle appeared at his feet. From the circle, several rocks floated around the mage’s right leg and charged up with yellow energy. Leaping forward into a frontward flip, and using his legs to backflip into the air, Wizard spun around until the energy propelled him towards Gnome who had just gotten on his feet.

And then Wizard’s magically charged foot connected with Gnome’s chest, yellow energy and stones flying off of the monster’s body. Then as the rune appeared behind Gnome’s body, Wizard passed through the Phantom’s body and landed on the other side.

Gnome’s body sparked and surged with yellow energy before a large yellow explosion covered the Gnome’s body.

When the yellow energy disappeared, Gnome just stood there, but there was something different. The Phantom wasn’t moving and all the color from its armored body was drained away. Gnome almost looked like a horrible statue.

With a loud cracking sound, Gnome’s body broke into a large heap of rubble.

Wizard sighed loudly before he walked to the pile of rubble and pulled the Smell Ring from it, “Heh, I never thought I’d have a use for this one.”

As the suit faded away, Haru turned towards the two mares that were trotting towards him, “I owe you mares a debt of thanks. But, that was kind of dangerous to follow me.”

“Ya’ll need to listen to yer own advice,” Applejack retorted before she slammed a hoof into Haru’s arm. “Ya’ll been fighting that there monster by yer lonesome each and every time, we’re friends and ya’ll need to learn to depend on us.”

“Ow,” Haru muttered as he rubbed his arm slightly. “I think that’s going to leave a bruise.”

“You really can’t take a punch?” Twilight asked with a roll of her eyes as Garuda chuckles. “You fight Phantoms, can use magic that can make you into a giant or turn you into a liquid, and yet you can’t take a punch.”

“Phantoms are easy to deal with,” Haru sighed as he drooped his arms slightly.

TTTTTT

It was about an hour since Gnome’s defeat, and Haru was standing in front of the Apple Family’s house, a backpack on his shoulder loaded to the brim. In front of him was the Apple Family, save for Applejack. “Once again, thanks for letting me stay here for a while. It was nice.”

“Do ya really hafta leave?” Apple Bloom asked, trying to give her best puppy dog eyes at the sleek dragon.

Haru knelt down as he messed up Apple Bloom’s mane with his claws, gently of course, “Don’t worry, I’m not leaving town or anything. I’ll stop by to visit whenever I can, I promise.”

“Okay,” Apple Bloom sighed still looking down.

Haru chuckled as he brought up his right claw and held it to his belt buckle, “KRAKEN – PLEASE!”

Within seconds, the topaz octopus appeared around Haru’s head, “As promise of that, I’m trusting you to take good care of Kraken. I’ll be visiting to make sure that you do and whenever I need to have him help me, okay?”

Instantly Apple Bloom smiled as Kraken landed on her head, squeaking a few times. “You bet’cha, Mistah Souma!”

Haru smiled as he turned to Big Macintosh and crossed his arms, “Big Mac, I hope you feel better, and I’ll miss our long discussions. I dare say we may have solved some of life’s greatest mysteries.”

“Eeyup,” Big Mac replied with a nod.

And finally, Haru turned to the last pony that was with him, an elder mare with a gray mane done in a bun with a pie on her flank. The elder pony smiled at the young dragon, “Ya’ll better keep them promises, sonny. Can’t have you setting a bad example for Apple Bloom.”

“O-Of course, Granny Smith,” Haru chuckled nervously with his free claws lifted up.

“Besides, after all you did for this family,” Granny Smith added. “Protecting our land, and helpin’ my hard headed granddaughter, you’re practically one of the family here.”

“Family, huh?” Haru stated as he looked up towards the blue sky. “I appreciate that Granny Smith.”

Fixing the backpack over shoulder, Haru walked backwards, waving to the Apple Family, watching them as they waved back.

A few minutes later, Haru was walking forward down the dirt path in between the trees, the shade covering his body. Although the dragon had a smile on his face, it was a slightly sullen smile, “Family, been a while since I’ve been considered to be in one of those.”

“There you are Haru!”

The sleek dragon stopped in his tracks when he saw a familiar unicorn trot towards him, Garuda still perched atop of her head. “Oh, hello there Twilight, I thought you and your friends were helping AJ with picking apples.”

“We finished a few minutes ago,” Twilight explained with a smile. “And I was hoping to catch you before you disappeared again.”

“Nice call,” Haru admitted with a wave of his hand. “So, what can I do for you?”

“What are you going to do now?” Twilight asked.

“Well, I was thinking about setting up camp somewhere,” Haru answered looking over his shoulder. “Maybe buy a dozen doughnuts for dinner.”

Twilight blinked a few times at what Haru was planning on doing, but then shook her head, “Actually Haru, I was wondering something.”

“Hmm?” Haru mused.

“You see, I’m still rather curious about your magic and the Phantoms,” Twilight explained as she trotted in front of Haru. “So, I’d like to ask if I could get a little more information from you.”

Haru rubbed his chin slightly, and then smiled slightly. “Tell you what Twilight. You got a couch at that library?”

“Yes, why?” Twilight questioned with her head tilted slightly.

“I’ll make you a deal,” Haru said with a large smile on his face. “You let me crash on your couch for a while, and I’ll give you all the answers you’d like.”

“Deal,” Twilight replied with a warm smile.

“Oh! Haru! Twilight!”

Both Twilight and Haru turned to see Spike running up to them, with a plate that had some pre-eaten muffins on it. The taller dragon blinked a few times, “Uh, hey there Spike, what you got there?”

“Muffins!” Spike cheered loudly as he lifted up the familiar deadly muffins up to Haru and Twilight. “You want some?”

Haru was a little on the edge of taking he muffins, especially since they already looked like somepony had already taken eat half of the muffins. “Uh…”

“Don’t do it,” Twilight whispered to Haru. “He got those out from the trash!”

The sleek dragon’s eyes widened before he turned to the unicorn, ‘Twilight, what are you teaching this kid?!’

TBC

Dear Princess Celestia,

My friend Applejack is the best friend a pony could have, and she’s always there to lend a hoof to anypony. The only trouble is that when she needs help, she has a hard time accepting it. So, while friendship is of giving of yourself to friends, it’s also accepting what our friends have to offer.

I also met someone new within the last couple weeks, and he’s a dragon like Spike! Well, he’s not completely like Spike, he’s a bit older and has this unique talent – He can use a weird form of magic that he’s agreed to let me study. But, the conditions on which we met were… Well, not the best situations. His name is Haruto Souma, and he actually saved me and Applejack from some weird monsters called Phantoms.

And I was hoping that if you knew anything about Phantoms, or the term Gates, I’d like to get any and all materials pertaining them, if there is any.

Your Loyal Student,

-Twilight Sparkle

Author's Note

MangaKamen: And with that, we've gotten our first Phantom destroyed!

Thanks to my friend Lux-Nero/FlairNightz for the awesome image at the beginning of the chapter.

Please recommend this story to as many people as you can! And follow the Tumblr we've got! Featuring art from my friend and posts from yours truly! http://friendshipisshowtime.tumblr.com/

For now though, I'm gonna take a little time off. I'll see you guys in a week. But, don't worry, I'm not going to leave you guys hanging. I've got a special chapter that will be up later next week.

Intermission 1 - Rare Testing

Without limits, there are no merits.
- Urataros / Kamen Rider Den-O Rod Form

TTTTTT

Intermission 1

Art by Lux-Nero/FlairNightz Thanks again dood!
Rare Testing

TTTTTTT

A few days had passed since Haru had defeated Gnome and the dragon had begun to live at Twilight’s house, sleeping on the unicorn’s couch in one of the spare rooms. During his short time at the library, Haru was subjected to numerous questions and had to do a few demonstrations with his magic for the unicorn.

Nothing too strenuous, a bit annoying since the questioning and testing often went late into the night. But with peace surrounding the quaint Ponyville, it wasn’t an issue for the magical dragon to sleep till noon almost every day.

Today wasn’t one of those days though. Twilight, with Spike seated on her back, was leading a rather tired Haru through Ponyville. With a yawn, Haru walked a little faster to catch up with the unicorn, “So, tell me again, why did I have to wake up this early?”

“We’re going to have you meet another one of my friend’s today,” Twilight explained with a smile on her face. “Applejack tells me you met Fluttershy, and I’d like you to meet my friend Rarity.”

“Rarity?” Haru questioned as he threw his arms up behind his head. “I’ve got nothing against meeting new ponies, but I thought you wanted me to show you how I made my ring today?”

“I do,” Twilight replied. “But, I figure since we’re going to be working with jewelry, I think it would be the perfect icebreaker for you to meet her.”

“I guess that makes sense,” Haru admitted as he rubbed the back of his head. “So, what’s this Rarity like?”

“Oh, she’s the most beautiful unicorn in all of Equestria,” Spike cooed as his eyes softened slightly, a warm smile growing on his face. “And she’s so regal! She’s so amazing!”

Haru was a little taken back with how Spike was getting all flustered talking about this mare, but smiled slightly. “Oh, does the little Spike have a crush on this Rarity?”

“It’s not a crush!” Spike retorted with his cheeks a bright red. “I’m in love with Miss Rarity!”

“Love, huh?” Haru laughed as he patted Spike on the head a few times. “That’s a strong word little dragon, not something you should use so easily.”

“I’m serious!” Spike retorted as he waved his arms, swatting Haru’s claws off of his head.

Twilight giggled at the two dragons squabbling, “Come on you guys, try to compose yourselves before we reach Carousel Boutique.”

“Alright Twilight,” Spike sighed.

“Not a problem,” Haru muttered as he rubbed the back of his head.

A few minutes later, the trio was now standing in front of the rather fancy looing building that did fit the name of Carousel Boutique. Haru craned his neck up slightly to take in all of the ornate designs and the height of the building, “Wow, that’s rather… Something.”

“Welcome to Carousel Boutique,” Twilight announced as she used her front hoof to push open the front door to the shop.

Haru watched as the unicorn and her scribe walked into the shop, but the sleeker dragon was a little hesitant from entering. This didn’t go from unnoticed by his two friends, with Twilight poking her head out of the door, “Are you coming Haru?”

The red dragon kicked a random stone near his clawed feet, “Yeah, I’m just bracing myself.”

“Bracing yourself? For what?” Spike asked.

“I don’t know,” Haru sighed as he walked towards the front door. “But I get the feeling something might happen.”

“You’re over exaggerating,” Twilight reassured as she allowed Haru to enter the shop. “I assure you, nothing bad is going to happen.”

Haru had to stop in order to take in everything inside the shop – Mirrors, mannequins, several violet purple curtains, with several jewel and heart symbols embroidered everywhere. The dragon blinked a few times before he rubbed his eyes, ‘This place seems kinda posh. This makes me wonder what the owner’s like.’

“Rarity!” Twilight called out as Spike slid off of her. “We’re here, are you busy?”

“Coming,” A calm and sophisticated voice sang out from the nearby stairs.

A few moments later trotting down the stairs was the very pony that Haru could guess was Rarity – A white unicorn with a beautifully groomed purple mane that curled slightly, just like her tail. The unicorn trotted down the stairs with a calm smile on her face. “Ah, Twilight, it is so nice to see you this morning.”

The white Unicorn then turned towards Spike and patted the dragon atop of his head, “And good morning to you as well Spikey-Wikey.”

Spike chuckled sheepishly before he fell to the ground with a large, goofy smile on his face.

That’s when Rarity turned towards Haru, and blinked a few times at the red dragon. Haru did the same in return as an awkward silence filled the boutique. ‘Uh, okay, why is the marshmallow pony looking at me weirdly?’

Sensing the tension in the air, Twilight cleared her throat slightly, “Uh, Rarity, this is Haruto Souma, he’s new to Ponyville. And as you can tell, he’s a dragon.”

“Oh my,” Rarity muttered as she turned her attention away from the magical dragon. “Hmm, how do I put this?”

“Huh?” Haru questioned with his head tilted.

“That jacket,” Rarity said with her hoof brought to her face.

Pulling on his worn out jacket’s sleeve, Haru eyed his jacket, “What about it?”

“Oh, I shouldn’t say any more,” Rarity replied as she waved her hoof a few times. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Mister Souma.”

‘I get the feeling she was going to say something about my jacket,’ Haru thought to himself as he crossed his arms. ‘But I’ll let it go, don’t need to be rude here.’

“So, tell me, Twilight,” Rarity stated, before she turned to her fellow unicorn. “What brings you and your two dragon friends to my boutique this fine morning?”

“Haru’s the actual reason we’re here today,” Twilight replied as she turned towards the slightly annoyed dragon. “He was going to show Spike and I how he makes rings, and I thought that you’d be interested in that. Since you haven’t met him, I thought it would be a perfect chance to introduce you two to each other.”

“Oh my, Mister Souma, you’re a jeweler?” Rarity asked trotting a little closer towards the dragon. “I suppose that would make sense with that rather charming little buckle you’re wearing. It does make a testament of crafting skills to whoever made it.”

“Uh, thanks,” Haru replied as he rubbed the back of his head. “But I wouldn’t call myself a jeweler, I just collect the materials and refine them.”

“Is that how you made that awesome suit of yours?” Spike asked. “Cause that has a lot of jewels in it, right?”

“An ‘awesome suit’?” Rarity questioned before she trotted up to Haru. “Mister Souma, may I ask to see this ‘awesome suit’ of yours?”

“I don’t really see a reason to transform,” Haru replied as he inched back slightly. “It’s not something that I should really use for leisure.”

“Oh, but I must insist!” Rarity said as a caring smile appeared on her face. “My little Spikey-Wikey knows his jewels, and if they’re on this suit of yours, they must be of high quality! Please?”

The mystical dragon was a little conflicted and lifted his hands up slightly. “Well, I don’t think I should…”

“Haru, you don’t have qualms about using your other spells,” Twilight pointed out with a roll of her eyes. “You used that connect spell to get doughnuts without getting off the couch just yesterday.”

“Spells?” Rarity questioned.

“That’s different,” Haru retorted, wagging one of his claws at Twilight. “That was an emergency, I hadn’t had doughnuts in twenty-four hours. I needed that powdery sugary goodness!”

“Haru,” Twilight said, her eyes narrowed down at the dragon.

“Alright, alright,” Haru sighed as he waved his hands a few times. Then reaching into his jacket, Haru pulled out the bright red ring and fitted it on one of his left claws. “But just a basic transformation, you’re lucky I carry these with me all the… Hey!”

Before Haru could even finish putting the ring on his claw, his left claw was covered with a bright blue aura and pulled him closer towards Rarity. “Oh my! Such an exquisite ruby! It’s so finely cut and the metal is so finely crafted! You must tell me where you found a stone of this caliber!”

“This one was given to me by someone,” Haru answered as he gently pulled his hand back, making the aura disappear from claws. “Now, if you excuse me, I need some space.”

Taking a few steps from the two ponies and fellow dragon, Haru placed his right claw over his belt buckle. “DRIVER ON – PLEASE!”

Haru’s belt buckle immediately flashed brightly before it transformed into its bulkier form. With a quick flick of the hand emblem on the belt, Haru lifted his left claw up. “Sha ba do be Touch Henshin! Sha ba do be Touch Henshin!”

With a loud sigh, Haru slipped his left hand in front of his glowing belt, “Henshin.”

“FLAME – PLEASE!”

Throwing his left arm to the side, Haru called forth the fiery red runic circle. Rarity’s eyes widened as she watched the circle engulf the dragon’s body. When the circle was finished, Wizard stood before the two mares and dragon, the large rubies on his suit and mask. Haru crossed his arms and sighed loudly as he waved his left hand through the air, “It’s showtime… yay.”

“You don’t sound too excited like you usually do,” Spike pointed out as he walked up to his masked dragon friend.

“Of course I’m not excited,” Wizard sighed back as he shook his helmeted head. “I usually don this armor when I’m about to save somepony or fight a Phantom, showing off like this isn’t my style. When I’m in action, that’s when I show off.”

“I must say!” Rarity exclaimed as she galloped up to Wizard, and circled him. “Such fine materials! Such a unique and bold design! The chain of rings on the side add a bit of beauty too! The way it seems to just scream high culture! I’ve never seen such a bold outfit before!”

Wizard tilted his head, “Well, thanks I guess. Glad you like it.”

“Mister Souma, I must know how you came across this sort of outfit!” Rarity continued on as she observed the bracelet that was clamped around Wizard’s tail. “And these jewels as well!”

“This suit is a physical manifestation of my magic,” Haru explained, his spirits lifting up slightly. “By using this ring, I can filter the magic and it’ll produce this suit. Depending on the ring, my raw magic can change, same thing with the suit.”

“You mean this suit can change?” Rarity inquired as she looked slyly at Wizard. “Do tell.”

“These are rubies,” Haru explained, motioning to the jewels on his chest and helmet. “The other forms turn these into sapphires, topazes, or emeralds.”

“I see!” Rarity exclaimed. “Mister Souma, if I may be so bold, would you mind allowing me to copy the design of your suit? It’s simply magnificent and so fancy! Why, I can already imagine a beautiful dress based off this!”

Now this was something that made Wizard chuckle as he scratched the side of his mask, “If you like this, I can even make this outfit be appropriate for formal occasions.”

“You can?” Twilight asked.

With slight chuckle, Wizard fitted a new ring on his right hand and immediately waved in front of his belt. “DRESS UP – PLEASE!”

A larger runic circle appeared in front of Wizard and as he stepped through it, both he and the circle spun around until the circle was absorbed into the suit. When Wizard stopped spinning, there was an obvious change to his outfit – Atop of his head was a pure white top hat with a black band around the base, a large glittering bowtie around his neck, his black pants were replaced with white dress pants with white dress shoes at the bottom, and in his right hand was a long white cane topped off with a ruby that he spun around before he clacked it against the floor.

Tipping his hat slightly, Wizard bowed towards the trio before him, “Ta-da! Fancy, no?”

“Uh, how’s that supposed to help you?” Twilight asked.

Wizard merely spun around to allow his coattails to flutter in the air, “Well, this is more for civilian mode – And as you’ll see, sometimes the rings I make often have some really weird results.

“This is one is a good example but the Smell Ring I used also worked. Besides, you never know what can be useful in the real world.”

“So, this is what your magic perceives to be fancy?” Spike asked as he took the cane from Wizard’s hand, smelling the ruby atop of it.

“In a word, yes,” Wizard answered as he ran a claw along the rim of his hat. “So Miss Rarity, does this fit your fancy?”

“The oversized bow is a little gaudy,” Rarity stated bluntly.

Wizard froze slightly, unaware that Spike had just taken a bite out of the ruby on the cane. “Excuse me?”

“I’m just saying, the rest of the outfit looks amazing,” Rarity stated as she used her magic to pull at the large bowtie at Wizard’s neck. “But this is just offsetting. It completely clashes with the classy nature of the suit! And something so well designed and crafted shouldn’t have that mark on it!”

If his eyes were visible, Wizard would’ve rolled them.

TTTTTT

After allowing Rarity to sketch the details of his suit (minus bowtie), Haru had dispelled his suit. The two mares and two dragons were circled around a table in Carousel Boutique, on the table were a number of the rings that Haru had stashed away in his jacket, including all four of the larger Style rings (that Haru had dubbed). Although, those four rings weren’t on the table for too long, all four of them were lifted up by Rarity’s magic so she could observe them closer.

“I must know how you craft these rings, Mister Souma,” Rarity exclaimed as the flame style floated down in front of her eyes. “Although, I must admit, I’m a little disappointed that you don’t have any in purple.”

“I don’t get to pick the colors,” Haru explained as he picked up a few of the rings off of the table. “And I don’t get to pick what the rings can do. It’s usually a shot in the dark, and so far, I like to think I’ve been kind of lucky with them.”

The rings floated back down into Haru’s claws before he pocketed them.

Twilight cleared her throat, “So, how exactly do you make the rings?”

Haru smirked as he lifted a ring up on his right hand and brought it to his belt buckle, “One second and I shall show you.”

“CONNECT – PLEASE!”

A smaller runic circle appeared in the middle of the table, and Haru reached into it. A few seconds passed before Haru pulled out a small woven sack with the circle popping out of existence.

“Oh my, that’s a rather handy spell,” Rarity stated with a smile. “It could help with me sending my orders to my customers or getting materials faster! Mister Souma, would you be willing to help me with that?”

“As long as I know the exact location,” Haru stated as he began to open the sack. “It shouldn’t be a problem, even living beings can go through the Connect spell, so maybe later we can discuss business.”

“Excellent!” Rarity crooned as she clapped her hooves a few times.

Twilight sighed as Haru finally opened the woven sack, revealing about six different jagged stones that bounced about the table. “What are these? They don’t look like jewels.”

“These are magic stones,” Haru explained as he picked one up in his claws. “While they’re not as pretty as jewels, they have unique properties to them – They contain essence of magic, and like jewels, they can be found almost all over Equestria.”

“How do they taste?” Spike asked as he reached for one of the magic stones…

… Only to have his hand slapped by Twilight’s hoof. “Spike!”

“Nah, it’s alright Twilight,” Haru stated as he flicked one of the six magic stones towards Spike. The small dragon caught the stone and licked his chops. “These are only a handful that I’ve found around Ponyville, and I can always find more anyway.”

Spike tossed the magic stone up into the air before it landed in his mouth and he bit down. The young dragon chewed a few times before his eyes widened and he spat out the chewed up bits from his mouth. “BLEH!”

“Spike!? What’s wrong?!” Twilight asked as she galloped to her scribe’s side. “Did you choke or something?!”

“N-No! That magic stone,” Spike sputtered as he stuck out his tongue and used his claws to scrap off the remains of the magic stone. “TASTED AWFUL! It was like that one time you tried to make chocolate mouse without your magic!”

“It wasn’t that bad,” Twilight sighed as she rolled her eyes.

Haru shrugged his shoulders with a nervous grin on his face, “Sorry about that Spike, I didn’t expect it to taste bad. I never had the need to eat these things.”

“It’s okay,” Spike groaned, a little down trotted. “Let’s just call us even for me taking a bite out of Garuda.”

“You did what to Garuda?” Haru asked with a raised brow.

“Uh, so Haru!” Twilight interrupted. “How do you turn these into rings?”

For a moment, Haru just leered at Twilight and Spike, but kept his tongue still as he reached into his jacket and pulled out another ring. Holding it between his fingers, Haru showed the ring to the unicorns and fellow dragon, revealing that carved in the ring was a dragon symbol that had a ring held between its wings. “This is the Ring Ring. And I realize that’s a redundant name, it’s just what my buckle says what it is.”

To prove his point, Haru slipped the ring on and held his right claw over his buckler, “RING – NOW!”

Haru quickly held his hand over the remaining five magical stones, with a runic circle appearing over them. But instead of the red runes that usually appeared with Haru’s spells, the circle was a bright white with slightly different markings on it than, almost making it more regal and superior than the usual runic circle.

The stones flashed a bright golden light before they popped, revealing five silver rings with the orange jewels now expertly cut with symbols on them. Haru rubbed the bridge of his nose with a smile on his face, “Ta-da! And with that, five new rings and five new spells!”

“Tell me something Mister Souma,” Rarity poked one of the rings with her hoof. “Does that ring work on regular jewels? It would save me a lot of money to have customized jewelry for my own personal collection of accessories.”

“I suppose I could try it out, I don’t see the harm,” Haru answered blinking at the ring on his claw.

Rarity squealed as her eyes brightened, “You are simply divine, darling!”

Chuckling sheepishly, Haru rubbed the back of his head. He was about to say something back, when he felt an icy chill run down his spine making him shake slightly. ‘I sense a killer intent!’

Moving his eyes, Haru realized that Spike was glaring at him, and normally the younger dragon was calm and collected. But the look that Haru was getting was enough to scar anyone if they looked too long at it.

Haru coughed loudly as he lifted up one of the rings, “SO! Who wants to try one of these new spells out?! Hehe…”

“You mean others can use this sort of magic that you can do?” Rarity questioned as she used her own magic to levitate one of the rings from the table. “So, I can use that Ring Ring of yours?”

“Well, I gotta be around to activate the magic,” Haru explained as he removed the Ring Ring and pocketed it. “But whoever wears the ring gets the effects of the spell. So, if you had the Dress Up Ring, you’d be in a very fancy outfit that my magic would deem appropriate.”

“Haru, before that, I have to ask you a question,” Twilight interrupted.

This garnered the others’ attentions towards the inquisitive unicorn, “I noticed something with that Ring Ring. Normally when you use your spells, I usually hear the word ‘please’, but for that one, I heard the word ‘now’. What does that mean?”

Haru pulled out the ring once more and admired it for a few seconds, “… This ring was a gift from my master.”

It didn’t take long for that fact to sink into Twilight’s mind, “A master? You have a master?”

“Well, kind of,” Haru replied as he tossed the Ring Ring back into his jacket and quickly lifted up another ring from the table. “But hey, enough about that, let’s get back to these rings!”

Twilight frowned, but didn’t say anything. In the last few days that she was able to talk to Haru, she had learned a few things about him. Other than just his magical prowess, he had a talent for baking (as evidenced of how he was able to make fresh baked goods), and one little tick he had was that he wasn’t really interested in talking about certain subjects.

One such example was how he discovered how to use magic, he always changed the subject when that came up.

And not wanting to have the dragon run off again, Twilight decided to let him decide when the appropriate time was that he’d tell them this stuff.

“So, who wants to try one of these lovely rings first?” Haru asked as he looked at Rarity, Twilight and Spike.

Before anypony could say a word, Spike scooped up one of the rings – A ring that had a dragon flexing its wings with a flame atop of its head. “I’ll give it a go, I hope that’s okay with you Haru.”

‘I guess I owe the little guy a little bit,’ Haru thought to himself as he stood up. “Alright Spike, all you have to do is hold your hand in front of my belt.”

Spike casually did so, and the belt buckle lit up brightly.

“EXCITE – PLEASE!”

As the light from the belt disappeared, Spike lowered his arm. After a few seconds, the small dragon sighed loudly, “Haru, I think that this ring might be a…”

It was then a powerful red aura rushed over Spike’s body and the strangest thing happened to the baby dragon. At first, the purple dragon’s body began to become sleeker and he grew taller, rivaling the height of Haru. Then, just as Spike was about to say something, his muscles bulged out, his chin defined and even his spines looked sleeker.

Haru’s and the two mares’ jaws just dropped at the suddenly matured Spike.

The now muscular dragon lifted up his claws and blinked a few times, “WHOA! THIS FEELS… AWESOME! WHAT DO YOU THINK RARITY!? IS THIS MACHO OR WHAT?!”

Even his voice sounded more mature, and managed to send his three friends flying from the table with just his excited shouting. “Whoops, sorry!”

Luckily, Twilight and Rarity had landed on something soft and didn’t get hurt at all.

Unfortunately, they landed on Haru, who was bent at an irregular shape at the moment. “Ow… Spike, being so big and all, you think you could straighten out my spine?”

“Sure!”

Five minutes later, Spike was back to his normal self with the ring safely tucked into Haru’s jacket. The red dragon winced as he sat back down on the floor, “Well, that one looks like it’s promising for what I do.”

“I’m just glad that my Spikey-Wikey’s back to his cute little self,” Rarity stated as she patted Spike on the head gently with one of her hooves.

The young dragon smiled brightly as the blush returned to his cheeks.

“Okay, anyone else wanna volunteer?” Haru asked.

“I don’t know Mister Souma,” Rarity mused with a worried look on her face. “I’d rather not risk my shop or Spikey-Wikey again.”

“I’m sure the rest of the rings aren’t that dangerous, Rarity,” Twilight chuckled sheepishly as she used her magic to pick on up. “Look at this one, its got a picture of Haru’s suit on it with musical notes on it. I’ll even prove that this ring isn’t dangerous. I’m sure this ring isn’t dangerous at all, right Haru?”

Haru honestly didn’t know, but he nodded.

Twilight smiled nervously as she lifted up one of her front hoofs and had the ring slide on it, the ring actually resizing to fit her leg. Slightly hesitant, Twilight lifted the same hoof to Haru’s belt buckle, making the magical charm glow brightly.

“DANCE – PLEASE!”

“Did that thing just say dance?” Twilight asked before a purple aura began to overtake her entire body.

A bright purple light flashed in Twilight’s eyes before she leapt off of the ground and onto the floor a few feet away from the table. She stood up on her hind legs before she began to dance around the floor, falling to her side to allow one of her left front legs to support her weight.

With a single push, she flipped back on her hind hooves and spun around in place before she slipped to her back to continue her spin. When her spin ended, the purple mare got to all four of her hooves and pushed her hind legs up into the air. Twilight lifted up one of her front hooves and bounced a few times before she leapt backwards. The lavender mare continued her dancing, flipping and spinning through the boutique.

When the aura around Twilight was beginning to die down, she stood on her hind legs and threw her right front hoof into the air and shouted, “Kotae wa kiitenai!”

Haru just raised a brow while Rarity and Spike applauded the rather fancy, yet totally out-of-character, hip hop dancing that was just performed of their friend. “Twilight, dear, I had no idea you were so limber.”

“N-Neither did I!” Twilight admitted as she slumped to the ground, completely tired. “And… What was that?! It was like I was possessed by something!”

“I honestly have no clue,” Haru replied as he walked over to Twilight, offering a clawed hand to help her up. “Other than for a party, I can’t see the practical application for that ring. Still, it looked very fun to watch.”

“Yeah, fun,” Twilight sighed as she was helped to her hooves.

“So, three rings left,” Haru replied looking back at the table. “I guess I’ll try them out myself. I wouldn’t want anyone to get…”

“Actually, I would like to try one,” Rarity announced as she used her magic to make one of the fly up in front of her. “Mister Souma, if you could be so kind.”

Haru looked at Twilight, and the two just shrugged each other.

With her ring selected and snuggly around her hoof, Rarity trotted over to Haru and lifted up the ring towards his belt buckle. “PERFUME – PLEASE!”

“Perfume?” Haru, Twilight and Spike questioned as a lovely purple aura flowed over the white unicorn’s body.

That’s when a lovely fragrance filled the air, Haru’s licked his chops, while Twilight seemed to be reinvigorated by the scent. Spike still seemed to be swooned, but he sighed a lot more often, “My lovely Rarity, you smell like the greatest of fire rubies.”

“Rubies?” Haru questioned with a raised brow. “What are you smelling? I can smell fresh out of the oven powdered sugar doughnuts, I haven’t had fresh doughnuts that smelled like that since I was in Canterlot.”

“Hmm, I think this perfume ring creates an aroma that is different for everypony,” Twilight observed with a smile on her face. “I, myself, can clearly smell the scent of fresh ink on a new manuscript, with a dash of lilac.”

“I’m starting to fall in love with your magic, Mr. Souma,” Rarity admitted as she took a whiff of her own new magical scent. “Would you be so kind as to allow me to use this ring for the Gala?”

“Gala?” Haru questioned with his head tilted slightly. With a snap of his claws, Haru smiled sheepishly. “OH! You mean the Grand Galloping Gala, yeah sure, I don’t mind.”

“You know about the Grand Galloping Gala. Mr. Souma?” Rarity asked.

“Why wouldn’t I?” Haru retorted as he rubbed chin. “It is one of the greatest events in all of Equestria for anypony. Hosted by Princess Celestia in Canterlot every year, it is filled with nobles, amazing treats and classical music.”

“Wow, I didn’t think you’d know about that,” Twilight admitted. “Aside from Spike, I didn’t think dragons were interested in Pony Culture. Then again, I’ve only known two dragons, and they’re both in the room.”

“We’re probably just both special cases,” Haru suggested as he walked up to the table and picked up one of the remaining two rings. “Well, I guess it’s my turn then. Who knows? Maybe I’ll get lucky too.”

“Does testing the rings usually end up with bad results?” Twilight mused.

“Sometimes at first,” Haru answered as he fitted a ring onto his claw. “But trust me on this, after I see the ring in action, I can usually work the bugs out of it. Now, let’s see what this one can do.”

Haru floated his hand in front of the hand emblem, and the buckler called out, “SMALL – PLEASE!”

Before anypony could say anything, three runic circles appeared around the dragon’s body. The circles then began to shrink down in size, with Haru shrinking down at the same time with the rings. When the runic circles disappeared, Haru was barely over two inches tall. Twilight had to crouch slightly to look at Haru, “Wow, you know, you actually look pretty cute at that size.”

“And what’s that supposed to mean?!” Haru questioned in a voice that was a lot higher than normal.

Spike just laughed a few times at his now ‘smaller’ dragon counterpart, “HAHAHAHAHAHA! OH MAN! SAY SOMETHING ELSE!”

Haru just rolled his eyes when he saw a shadow lurking underneath the table, “Huh? What is that foul beast?”

Slowly inching out from the table was a rather large (to Haru’s current form) Persian cat with a purple ribbon atop her head and an opal-studded collar. The cat slowly lurked towards the shrunken dragon, making Haru step backwards slightly.

Rarity huffed as she leered at the smaller dragon, “How rude! That is no beast! That is my lovely Opalescence. She is a pristine Persian, one whom I love and groom all the time.”

“And I can see that she’s well groomed,” Haru admitted as he was lifted up by his tail, Opalescence lifting him up with her mouth. “But, I’m more concerned with the fact that she’s trying to EAT me!”

“Opal! No!” Rarity yelped as her horn glowed brightly, the same aura appearing around Haru. “You’ll spoil your dinner!”

Haru popped out of the Persian cat’s mouth and floated through the air, the dragon rolled his eyes. “Yes, Celestia Forbid that I cause your poor little kitten indigestion.”

After Haru had returned to his normal size, the dragon was pocketing the rings into his jacket, “Well, thanks for helping me test these rings, it’s been a pleasure to meet you Miss Rarity, and…”

“Wait!” Spike announced as he reached over the table. “There’s still one more ring left!”

Haru sighed as Spike held up the ring for all to see, the ring itself was different from the others and had silver covering most of the jewel, save for two parts that looked similar to a pair of eyes. The silver itself was shaped rather weird, a soft triangular shape with a pair of wing-like protrusions on its side. Over the ‘eyes’ atop of the ring were two large antennae that looked almost like narrowed eyebrows.

“Yeah, with the way this batch has been going, I’m not too sure about this one,” Haru explained as he took the ring from Spike. “I’ve never had a ring like this one before, and frankly, I’m a little scared of what this one can do.”

“It hasn’t been that bad of an experience,” Twilight said.

“You weren’t almost eaten,” Haru retorted with a flat look. “You got to boogie, Spike became a macho dragon, and Miss Rarity found herself a cost-effective way to save perfume. So, if I’m being a bit blunt here, I’m not going to test this one cause I don’t want anypony to get hurt.”

“Then Mr. Souma, we could test it outside?” Rarity suggested. “That way my shop will be spared of any damage, and there would be more room to dodge any collateral damage.”

“Come on Haru, aren’t you a little curious about the ring?” Twilight questioned.

“The ring does look real cool,” Spike chimed in.

Haru just sighed as he donned the ring.

TTTTTT

A few moments later, the small group was outside Carousel Boutique, with Haru standing a few yards away from the two unicorns and smaller dragon. Haru looked at the weird ring and squinted slightly, ‘Now that I get a closer look at this thing – It kinda reminds me something I saw when I was just starting to get used to my magic.

‘That was almost as weird as the week before. Almost.’

“You ready Haru?” Twilight called out.

Haru shook his head, before he gave a thumb claw up. Taking a deep breath, Haru hesitantly waved his hand in front of his belt buckle. For a second nothing happened, but that’s when the belt glowed a bright white. “FOURZE - Uchū kitā!”

“What the Tartarus?” Haru questioned as large white runic circle appeared overhead. But, besides the color, there was something different – The center of the runic circle was replaced with a flat version of the ring that Haru just used, and around the symbol were several numbers (one through forty).

The circle sparked before a single blur fell from the circle and crashed next to Haru, creating a large amount of dust to fly up from the ground near the surprised dragon.

Twilight and the others watched as Haru investigated the figure.

The blur was actually a rather trim and tall brown earth pony colt, with a short black mane that was gelled into the style known as a pompadour. The colt himself was dressed in a black, school uniform jacket with a chain around his neck that had a dog tag attached to it. The pony himself was rather strange with his choice of hair style and clothing, but Haru noticed that there was an odd symbol for his cutie mark – It looked to be a sky blue ‘40’ with several white, blue and teal stars around it.

‘Kinda looks Twilight’s symbol, only different in color and the forty,’ Haru thought to himself as he knelt down to the colt’s side, shaking the knocked out colt’s body slightly. “Hey, are you alive?”

The odd colt stirred before he shook his head, leering at Haru before he jumped to his hooves, “Oi! What just happened!? One minute I’m in class, next thing I know there’s this bright light and…”

The colt just stopped and looked at Haru, a more intrigued look on his face. “Hey, do I know you?”

Haru looked at the colt with a tilted head. “Hmm, I dunno. Your face I don’t recognize, but the voice does ring a bell.”

The colt puffed out his chest, rapped his hoof against his chest a few times before he pointed said hoof at Haru. “I’ll pay you back for pulling me from class, but for now my friend, allow me to burn my face and name into your mind! Kisaragi Gentarou! I’m the stallion who will befriend any and all ponies!”

“Haruto Souma,” the magical dragon replied looking at the hoof. The hoof didn’t lower, so Haru used his claw to grip the hoof, “That’s quite a claim, especially since I’m not a pony, I’m a dragon.”

“That doesn’t matter!” Gentarou replied as he began to shake Haru’s claw. “Dragon, pony, machines, I’ll befriend everyone! That includes jerks like you.”

“Uh, right, well I apologize,” Haru said as he lowered his head slightly. “I was testing something out, and it was just an accident that you got pulled out here.”

Gentarou smiled brightly as he pulled his hoof away, only to use his hoof to tap into Haru’s claw, then bump it from top and whap it from the bottom. The dragon blinked a few times as the weird colt smirked wildly. “And with that, we’re true buds Haruto!”

“I can’t believe that’s all it takes for you to consider me a friend,” Haru admitted with a roll of his eyes.

“Nah, that’s not all,” Gentarou chuckled as he tapped Haru’s shoulder a few times. The friend loving colt pointed towards the dragon’s belt. “Cause I just figured out who you are!”

“Oh?” Haru questioned with a claw to his chin.

“Yeah! You’re Wi…” Gentarou started to say until he stopped. “Wiz… Wii…Ah! I can’t pronounce it! We’re warriors who fight ponity’s enemies in secret!”

Haru’s eyes widened when he heard that, then with a sly look of his own, Haru lifted his arms up, “Well, I’m just a meddling mage, Wizard.”

“AH! Yes! That’s who you are!” Gentarou announced as he pumped one of his front legs in the air. “Although, I wasn’t expecting to see a dragon be behind the mask.”

“And I wasn’t expecting an Earth Pony in that kind of a suit,” Haru retorted with a shrug. “I see you managed to survive that ordeal.”

“Right back at ya!” Gentarou laughed as he threw a front leg around Haru’s neck. “And that’s why we’re friends! Only a true friend helps another in a pinch!”

“Haru, who is this?”

Both Haru and Gentarou turned to see that Twilight, Rarity and Spike had walked up to the two ‘friends’. When Gentarou’s eyes landed on the two mares, he gripped his chest and his eyes widened, “So pretty! This place isn’t half bad! Haruto! You are a true friend!”

Gentarou removed his arm and trotted up to the two mares, a friendly smile on his face, “I’m the trashiest of trash! The stallionest of stallions!”

The easily excited colt stood up on his hind legs and used one of his front hooves to beat against his chest before he held it in front of the two mares, “Kisaragi Gentarou! And I am the stallion who will befriend everypony here at… Uh, where am I?”

“Ponyville,” Haru stated with a loud sigh following. “And you do know what trash means, right?”

“It means the stallionest of stallions!” Gentarou proclaimed as he placed both of his front hooves at his hips. “And any friend of Haruto’s is a friend of mine!”

“My, Mister Kisaragi, you certainly have a ‘way’ with words,” Rarity pointed out with a nervous chuckle. “And such a ‘bold’ fashion sense.”

“Rarity!” Twilight hissed slightly.

Gentarou merely laughed loudly as he landed on his front hooves, “Not like I can match up in style like you. Besides, friends can be honest with friends! So, Haruto, who are these…”

Before Gentarou could even finish his sentence, he popped into the same runic circle that he appeared from and disappeared without a trace. Twilight, Rarity and Spike jumped in surprise at the quick disappearance of the mysterious colt. Even more concerning was that Haru was now on the ground, trying to catch his breath.

“Haru! Are you okay?” Twilight asked as she used her magic to help the red dragon sit up. “What just happened?”

“I ran out of magic,” Haru answered as he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. “It’s kind of a side effect of using new rings – Since I haven’t gotten used to using them yet, my body uses a lot more magic in order to get used to them. And since I just summoned Gentarou, I can only assume that my magic pulled him from where he was, and my magic couldn’t sustain keeping him here, so he probably just popped back where he was before.”

“So, who exactly was that?” Spike asked. “You two seemed like you knew each other.”

“Well, I met the guy a little after I got my spells,” Haru explained as he took the ring from his claw and held it up. “I was still a newbie when I met him, but he was in trouble, so I helped him out. We’re kind of in the same business.”

“You mean he fought Phantoms?” Twilight inquired.

“Phantoms?” Rarity questioned with a slightly confused look. “You fight ghosts, Mister Souma?”

“Oh, right, you don’t know Rarity,” Twilight muttered sheepishly. “I’ll explain it in a little bit.”

“Well, I wouldn’t call them Phantoms,” Haru continued with a wave of his free hand. “But something like that. It’s kind of complicated, so let’s just say, I’m not alone in the cause.”

“Does that mean he has a suit similar to yours?” Rarity inquired as she trotted up closer to Haru. “Oh, if it’s even half as nice as yours Mister Souma, then I could get even more inspiration!”

“I’ve seen it, and it’s not what it’s called fashion savvy,” Haru sighed as he got to his legs, shakily standing up. “Anyway, I need to get some rest to recharge. Could someone help me back to the library?”

“Spike, if you could?” Twilight asked her scribe. “I still need to talk to Rarity about a few things.”

“Sure, I guess,” Spike sighed, not wanting to leave Rarity’s side. But if it got Haru away from his love, then he was all the more willing to do so.

The two dragons slowly made their way from Carousel Boutique, and when they were out of eyesight, Rarity lifted up one of her fine hooves to reveal a familiar ring. “Twilight, darling, you don’t think Mr. Souma would mind me keeping this one, do you?”

“Rarity!”

TBC

Author's Note

MangaKamen: Hooray for funny filler! But now, with this, Haru has met the Mane Six, and we learn a little more about our dragon friend. Suggest this fic to others so we can get a comic of this bad boy out and about!

Thanks again, and see you guys in a few days or so!

Spell 7 - The Pranks

I’m the man that will make all students become my friends.
- Kisaragi Gentarou

TTTTTT

Spell 7

The Pranks

TTTTTT

My dearest student,

I am glad that you have been continuing your studies in friendship, and I am also happy that you are making new friends. This Haru sounds like an interesting character, and I would like to meet him sometime in the future.

That being said, Twilight, the next time that Spike is on official Canterlot Business, I would like to ask that you send this Haru with him. These Phantoms that you wrote about are rather troubling, but I would like to talk to your new dragon friend first hoof before I can confirm anything.

If he refuses to come on the pretense that he can’t leave Ponyville out of somepony’s safety, tell him not to worry. He is not the only one with unusual forms of magic in Equestria.

With Love,

Princess Celestia of Equestria

Twilight had to read the letter quietly to herself for a second time.

The letter had arrived early in the morning, Spike was barely awake when the letter arrived, and at least it woke up the little baby dragon from what little remains of sleep were in his system.

At the very least, Haru was still asleep when Twilight had received the letter. The sleeker dragon usually slept till noon most days, of course, that’s because he kept using his magic on the prior day, either to help around the house, run some errands or to use them to allow Twilight to observe the magic that was used.

And frankly, she was learning a lot about Haru’s magic! She also had to admit that using some of his spells were quite fun. Although, she skipped out on the Dance Spell (once was enough for her), but other spells were good.

A small neighing sound echoed through the air, making Twilight look at the nearby table to see the sapphire built Unicorn trying to get her attention with a note in its mouth. At first, seeing a small, toy-like unicorn move was rather unnerving, but Twilight got used to it.

“Thank you Unicorn,” Twilight used her magic to take the note from the smaller unicorn. “Although, I wish Haru would’ve come up with a much better name for you. Hmm, maybe I should come up with one sometime.”

Unicorn neighed loudly in agreement, which made Twilight smile as the note flew up to her eyes, “So, let’s see what this says.”

Dear Twilight,

Spike woke me up a few minutes ago, saying he had to run some errands this morning. I decided to go with him and see him to his first errand, after that, I’m going to try to find some work. I don’t like being a bum, so I’m at least going to try to chip in for groceries or something.

See you later this afternoon,

Haruto.

Twilight smiled at the small note. ‘I guess that explains why Unicorn’s here. Although, I’m rather surprised, Haru’s been really helpful. He saved Applejack and myself, but he doesn’t think that’s enough. I guess that’s good.’

Shaking that from her head, Twilight looked outside, seeing that it was a beautiful day. With a smile, Twilight used her magic to pull a nearby book from the shelves, “Might as well enjoy the day, care to join me… Hmm, how about Sapphire?”

Unicorn shook its head before it leapt onto the lavender mare’s back.

“We’ll work on that,” Twilight chuckled sheepishly before she began to trot through the library. ‘I wonder where Haru’s going to get work.’

TTTTTT

“CONNECT – PLEASE!”

With the runic circle a few inches away, Haru reached into the circle with both of his arms and pulled out a few bags of sugar and flour. “Mr. Cake, where do you need these?”

“You can put them right atop of the shelves,” A tall, skinny yellow stallion replied as he reached into the runic circle. The stallion was sleek with a developed jaw, and a short carrot colored mane. “This feels rather weird to use, Haruto.”

“I know, I felt the same when I first reached into it,” Haru replied as he fitted the sacks of material onto the nearby shelves. “You should try going through it sometime, it’s kind of a trip when all of you goes through it.”

Mr. Cake chuckled as he pulled his front hoof out of the circle to reveal another sack of flour. “Well, I think I’ll just stick with using this spell to help with restocking.”

Haruto chuckled as he jumped through the circle and jumped right back out with a crate of materials in his claws. “You don’t know what you’re missing out on here Mr. Cake. Thanks for the work though, I really appreciate it.”

“I should be the one saying that,” Mr. Cake replied, a rather sheepish smile slipping on his face. “It usually takes me hours to get the restocking done by myself, but with you here and your magic, I think we might just get done within the hour.”

Haru stuck his head into the runic circle and immediately pulled back, dusting off his claws, “Actually, the cart outside is empty, we managed to get everything in here.”

Mr. Cake blinked a few times, “Wait, really?”

“You’re more than welcomed to see for yourself,” Haru offered as he gestured towards the connect portal.

“I’ll just look outside,” Mr. Cake replied as he trotted past the mythical dragon. “I’d be glad if you continue the stocking while I make sure we didn’t miss anything.”

“Sure thing, Mr. Cake,” Haru replied with a slight nod towards the older stallion who was trotting out of the room.

A few minutes later and with all of the shelves fully stocked with cooking materials, Haru was out in the main lobby of Sugarcube Corner, sipping on a cup of coffee with Mr. Cake. “Nothing like some coffee after hard work. Thanks again for the work, Mr. Cake.”

“Think nothing of it,” Mr. Cake replied with a wave of his hoof. “That magic of yours is rather handy.”

“It’s got its ups and downs,” Haru stated before taking a quick sip of coffee.

“Well, cutting down how long it takes to do stock is certainly an up,” Mr. Cake chuckled. “Especially since Pinkie’s taking a couple days off.”

“Oh right, I remember Pinkie works here,” Haru muttered to himself out loud. During his first night in Ponyville, Haru learned that fact when said pink mare had dragged him off to plan for his party. Subsequently, it was also during that time that Haru had met Mr. and Mrs. Cake of Sugarcube Corner and that Pinkie worked at the building and even lived in one of the spare rooms above.

The red dragon coughed as he rubbed the back of his head, “Yeah, uh, once again, I’m sorry for scaring your wife.”

“Don’t you worry, Mister Souma,” A charming, yet mature voice said, drawing Haru’s attention towards the doorway that led to the kitchen. Trotting carefully from the kitchen with a bag placed on her back was a mature blue mare with a slightly swirly, pink mane and tail. “I just wasn’t expecting to see a dragon so suddenly.”

Haru chuckled slightly before he placed his coffee mug on the table, “Uh, right, so, anyway I really appreciate you two giving me a temporary job, and if you ever need any extra help, I’d be glad to supply it.”

That’s when a rather loud growl echoed through the air, making Haru’s face light up a touch redder than usual, “Uh, sorry about that.”

“No need to apologize, dear,” Mrs. Cake replied with a warm smile on her face before she slid the bag onto the table. “It’s early, and from the sound of your stomach, you probably didn’t get a chance to eat, so here’s a little extra for coming by.”

Haru quickly peeked into the bag and licked his maw, “Plain sugar doughnuts, how much do I owe you?”

“They’re on the house dear,” Mrs. Cake replied with a warm smile. “After all, didn’t you come by just to get some breakfast in the first place?”

That was true, Haru was on his way to pick up a little something to tie him over during the morning, but, when he had come by Sugarcube Corner, the dragon had noticed that Mr. Cake was unloading materials from a cart. Hence, Haru offered to help the stallion with his work.

And rather to not break his back, Mr. Cake took the assistance happily.

“Yeah, but the few bits Mr. Cake gave me was enough,” Haru replied as he closed the bag.

Mr. Cake pushed the bag closer to Haru, “Nonsense, just think of it as a bonus for helping. There’s nothing wrong with accepting a gift every now and then.”

“Well, it would be a waste of good doughnuts,” Haru muttered as he inched one of his claws to the bag.

TTTTTT

Meanwhile in the Everfree Forest, Harpie looked over Minotaur – Though his armor was fully recovered, the larger Phantom hadn’t been able to move.

“How long are we going to wait for this?”

Harpie craned her head back to see another Phantom standing within the shadow of the trees, small sparks popping off its body. “Harpie, it’s been over a week since Minotaur failed. We need to get back to work and to Awaken the Gates!”

The Phantom stepped from the shadows to reveal a canine-like design with a slim body with crystalized flames that made up its armored body. The new Phantom’s face was overshadowed by a jaw-like helmet with the same flames that formed a bit of hound-like ears. “This reprieve is so boring.”

“Hellhound,” Harpie hissed as she lifted up a wing at the Phantom, Hellhound. “We can’t rush this, you know what we’re up against, and without half our muscle, we won’t be able to succeed. Especially with that Ring Bearing Mage around.”

“Then just send me out!” Hellhound laughed before he stomped one of his hind paws into the ground. “I can make this extremely showy! And I’ll get the job done! You know what I’m capable of!”

“Yes, and Gnome had the same mindset and a power similar to yours,” Harpie countered as she spun around, her back to Hellhound, which made the canine-like Phantom wince slightly. “And we both know what happened to him, even Minotaur, who’s physically stronger than both of you was defeated easily and almost got killed. If we’re not careful and pull all of our resources together, then we’re destined to only fail.

“And even if the Ring Bearing Mage doesn’t do us in, you know that either Master Phoenix or Madame Medusa will be the end of us.”

Hellhound sighed loudly as he kicked a nearby rock… Only to cry out as he lifted up his now bruised paw-like foot, “ARRGH! STUPID ROCK!”

Harpie rolled her eyes at her fellow Phantom, not even bothering to turn around at Hellhound’s pain. “You’re the one who kicked it, you know.”

“I KNOW!” Hellhound barked before he threw his arms up and down into the air. “But that still doesn’t change the fact that we’re stuck here and we’ve got two Gates just walking with targets on their backs!

“Com’on Harpie! You know what I can do! I can do this mission! I won’t fail like Gnome did! And we’ve got another Phantom nearby! We can’t let any other Phantoms make us look bad!”

“Hellhound!” Harpie roared back, turning around to glare at the complaining Phantom, her wings held up tall and her eyes narrowed down. “I am well aware of your abilities to sense Phantoms, but you won’t do anything unless I give the okay, is that clear?! We almost lost Minotaur, and I’ll be damned to Tartarus if we lose you or Dryad!

“Now, if you want to do something to quell your anxiousness, then you keep an eye on this other Phantom you sense. Hopefully if Minotaur recovers quick enough, then we might just be able to find another Gate that we can target.”

Hellhound growled before he jumped backwards and into the shadows, immediately disappearing into the darkness.

With a loud sigh, Harpie turned back to fallen Minotaur, “Minotaur, I don’t know what to do with that brother of yours… I don’t think I can keep him on leash for too much longer.”

TTTTTTTT

Haru took a whiff of the doughnuts from their bag. The sleek dragon had left Sugarcube Corner a few minutes ago, with a few bits in his black jacket’s pocket and a full bag of doughnuts in tow. He hadn’t eaten any of the doughnuts yet, mainly because he wanted to find a nice quiet place to eat his breakfast.

Although, he could’ve eaten at the pastry shop, that was interrupted when a real weird pegasus flew into the shop, yammering about all the muffins that the Cakes had put out for the morning rush. Normally, a grey pegasus with a yellow mane going gaga over muffins wouldn’t make Haru not eat his doughnuts.

But, those eyes. Dear Celestia those eyes!

That pegasus trotted up to Haru just as he was about to take a bite out of his first doughnut of the morning, and when he got a good look at her, he stopped in mid-bite when he looked into those yellow eyes of hers.

Those crossed eyes.

The dragon had fought against a couple of nasty creatures, could use magic and even acted cool and level headed under pressure. But, when he looked into the gaze of the wall-eyed pegasus before him, Haru was rendered speechless. Luckily, the mare seemed more preoccupied with her tirade of how muffins were superior to doughnuts (a point that he wanted to object to, but those eyes), so Haru couldn’t get a word in edgewise.

Haru had slipped out from the business establishment when the pegasus’ order was ready and she turned to get said muffins.

Hence, that was why Haru was now walking the streets of Ponyville, reaching into the bag. ‘I guess I’ll enjoy some right now. After all, breakfast is the most important meal of the day.’

Pulling out the top doughnut from the bag, Haru stopped in his tracks and held the plain sugary treat in front of his maw. Taking a couple of whiffs of the baked good, Haru took simple bite from the doughnut and a large smile appeared on the mystical dragon’s face as he slowly chewed the delectable sweet. ‘With the name Cake, those two do know how to make a good doughnut!’

However, when Haru was about take a second taste, a blur of rainbow colors crashed into him, sending him and his bag of doughnuts flying through the air. The dragon, the bag of doughnuts, and even the blur crashed in the midst of Ponyville, yet, none of the walking ponies seemed to react to the devastating crash that just occurred.

When Haru regained his composure, he realized that a rainbow was blocking his line of sight, and the gears in his head began to turn. “Why the rush, Rainbow Dash?”

“OH RAINBOW DASH~!”

Half a second later, said pegasus had pushed herself off of Haru and landed on the ground in front of the downed dragon. “Can’t talk! Gotta fly!”

And just like that, in a speeding rainbow, the pegasus took off, leaving a confused Haru behind. Although, the pegasus simply flew up into the air and hid herself into one of the clouds overhead. The dragon shrugged his arms and began to push himself off of the ground, a loud crinkling and squishing sound made him wince with every move. ‘No… No no no!’

Using his tail, Haru peeled off the bag of doughnuts from his backside – the look of anguish plastered on his face was the stuff of legend. ‘My poor breakfast! You were so young, I only took one bite from one doughnut from the dozen! Rainbow Dash! I swear to you that my breakfast shall be avenged!’

Hunger can be very dangerous, turning a usually level headed character like Haru into a being of vengeance.

“Good morning Haru!”

With his thoughts of revenge popped away, Haru blinked to realize that Pinkie Pie was trotting towards him. Before Haru said anything, the dragon used his tail to pull the crushed bag and toss it into one of the nearby trashcans, “Oh, yes, morning to you too Pinkie – Enjoying your day off?”

Pinkie Pie stopped in her tracks and gasped, “How did you know that? AH! I get it! You’re not only a wizard, but you’re also a psychic! That’s amazing Haru! It’s like I learn something new about you every time I see you! Ooh! I bet that if I close my eyes, I’ll learn something else!”

The pink mare closed her eyes for a few seconds before she opened them, “So! What did I learn?”

“Uh, well, I’m not psychic,” Haru answered with a roll of his eyes. “I just helped out Mr. Cake this morning, and he told me it was your day off.”

“WOW! That’s still something that I learned!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed as she hopped around Haru. “But, its a bit of a bummer that you aren’t psychic, cause that would make finding Rainbow Dash so much easier!”

“Rainbow Dash?” Haru questioned as he looked up at the cloud overhead.

Rainbow Dash was still hiding in the cloud overhead, she even had her head poked out and shook her head while mouthing something to Haru.

An evil smirk crept on the dragon’s face as he nodded back to the pleading pegasus.

“So, why do you need to find Rainbow Dash?” Haru asked with his calm look back on his face.

“Oh, I just need a favor from her,” Pinkie explained with an equally innocent smile on her face, comparable to Haru’s. “But every time I try to talk to her, she’s busy. So, I learned that she’s got the next few days off, and I asked Mr. and Mrs. Cake to have the next few days off as well so I can get that favor!”

‘That’s kind of borderline stalker behavior,’ Haru thought to himself, but that evil smirk appeared back on his face. Simply pointing up with his right claw, the mystical dragon said, “Well, Pinkie, I may not be psychic but if you simply look up, then you’ll be able to find your rainbow.”

Pinkie’s smile brightened even more when she looked up at the cloud above the two to see a long rainbow-colored tail sticking out from cloud. “Oh Rainbow Dash~!”

With that slightly malicious call, Rainbow Dash rocketed out of the cloud, leaving a streaming rainbow behind the fleeing pegasus.

Pinkie Pie just giggled and began to hop calmly in pursuit.

Which left Haru with a small smirk on his face, soon his doughnuts would be avenged.

TTTTTTT

A little bit after setting Pinkie Pie to chase after the pegasus and snagging himself a piece of toast from a nearby café, Haru was aimlessly wandering around Ponyville. It was rather amazing that the populace had gotten used to seeing the red dragon walk around so quickly, then again, he wasn’t the first dragon that the town had seen before, and Spike was a real good first impression to the town’s folk on dragons.

Eventually, Haru’s wandering had brought him near the town square pavilion – Where Haru had found his fellow dragon running about the area trying to pick up a few loose scrolls that were strewn about. However, whenever Spike picked up one of the scrolls, the small dragon hiccupped a large green flame that made the scroll disappear in a magical burst.

In his time with Twilight and Spike, Haru learned that most of the time when the baby dragon used his green flame breath, the object that was engulfed in it wouldn’t get burnt. Rather, the item would be magically transported to Twilight’s teacher – Princess Celestia.

Although, it was rather odd to see his fellow dragon send random scrolls, he knew for a fact that Spike didn’t have them when the two left the library this morning.

With curiosity in his veins, Haru walked over to his fellow dragon who had just burned the last of the remaining scrolls accidentally, “Hey again Spike, what are you up to?”

The smaller dragon turned around, and was about to speak, only hiccup and unleash a green flame at the older dragon. Haru merely turned to the side to dodge the flames, “If you didn’t want to talk, you just had to say so.”

“N-No! I didn’t mean to do that,” Spike yelped as he waved his claws. “I just got scared into getting the hiccups!”

“I thought it was ‘get scared to get rid of the hiccups’,” Haru mused to himself with a shake of his head. “Nevermind. So, how’d that happen?”

“I was the target of a prank,” Spike explained, stifling a hiccup in the process. “Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie make a dynamic pranking team!”

A chill ran down Haru’s spine at that thought, ‘Holy Ishinomori! With the chaotic abilities of Pinkie and the fact that Rainbow might now have a grudge against me – This won’t end well.’

Haru shook his head, “So, they made you hiccup? That doesn’t sound too bad.”

“Well, not for me really,” Spike replied with a nervous smile on his face. “But, Princess Celestia, not so much. She must be buried in blank scrolls about now.”

“Spamming useless information, sounds like that can get annoying,” Haru muttered with a roll of his blue eyes. “I’ve been meaning to ask you, how can your dragon flames transport letters and such?”

“You mean other dragons can’t?” Spike questioned with a slight tilt of his head.

“I don’t know,” Haru replied with a shrug. “You’re technically the only other dragon I’ve met so far.”

Spike closed his eyes in deep thought, but after a few seconds he opened his eyes with an inquisitive gleam in his eyes, “Well, I’ll have to ask Twilight about that later. But Haru, I just thought of two things.”

“And what are those?” Haru asked as he took a seat at the pavilion’s stairs.

“Can’t you breathe fire?” Spike questioned. “I’ve never seen you do it, wouldn’t that be useful against Phantoms?”

“Actually, it wouldn’t,” Haru replied with a shrug. “I’m wearing a mask whenever I fight them, I’d probably just get the flames back in my face. And I suppose I should be able to breathe fire, I just haven’t seen a need to use it. My magic has it covered.”

“Could you at least try it?” Spike requested. “I wanna see what kind of flames you can breathe!”

With a roll of his eyes, Haru pushed him off of the steps and took a deep breath, “You know what? I’m curious too, but stand back.”

Both dragons took a few steps away from the pavilion, with Spike a little bit away from the older dragon. Haru shook his head before he took a deep breath and held it for a second. Then, calling forth the fire deep within his body, Haru opened his mouth…

… And a few medium sized clouds of smoke popped out as he wheezed between smoke clouds. After panting to get his breath back, Haru cleared his throat, “Okay, that was a bad idea.”

“Haru, do you know howto breathe fire?” Spike asked as he walked up to his fellow dragon.

Haru didn’t answer, instead he just turned his head and whistled a simple tune. Spike’s gaze didn’t waver, although it did dull slightly. The older dragon ceased his whistling and shrugged his shoulders, “Fine, I can admit it – I’ve never breathed fire before. But when I can use magic to control fire, water, earth and wind elements, as well as various spells, I think it’s a good trade off.”

“Yeah, but breathing fire’s just awesome,” Spike retorted.

“… Can’t deny that,” Haru admitted with a sigh following. “In any case, I need to get going Spike. See you back at the library later?”

Spike nodded, “After I get more scrolls, that’s where I’m heading next. It’s getting close to lunch anyway.”

At the mere mention of lunch, Haru’s stomach growled in protest, “Yeah, I’m hoping to get some lunch too. But this needs to take priority, so, just try to save me something, okay?”

“Sure thing!” Spike announced as he watched Haru walk off.

TTTTTT

Pranks in Ponyville were actually very well received by most of its citizens, especially if they were just harmless. And most of the pranks caused by the newly dynamic duo of Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash were just that. Sure, it made for a little bit of an annoyance for Spike, but still just harmless fun.

He wasn’t the only target of their pranks today though, especially when the two had just raided the local party and prank store.

With a lovely bouquet of flowers left at Carousel Boutique’s door, Rarity was given a rather charming gift from what she probably thought was from a secret admirer. Unfortunately for her, when she stopped and sniffed the flowers, Rarity had unknowingly sniffed up a large amount of sneezing powder. As anyone could imagine, this led to the fancy unicorn to have a sneezing fit.

The next victim of pranks was none other than Twilight, who was in the park jotting down notes in an empty scroll with Haru’s Unicorn in front of her. Unicorn was performing various tricks, including digging underground with its horn, which was interesting to the lavender unicorn. However, each time she turned away from her notes about Haru’s familiars, the ink that was written on the scroll faded away.

How Pinkie and Dash managed to swap out her usual bottle of ink with invisible ink would always be a mystery. Although, considering that Pinkie was capable of bending reality, anything was possible.

Back to the pranking, next on the list was Applejack – Or to be more general, Sweet Apple Acres. With the speed of a rainbow, the duo ponies had managed to pain a good portion of the apples on the farm into various colors and patterns. When Applejack had seen the result of the prank, and then the two other mares nearby snickering with paint palettes and berets, it didn’t take AJ long to realize what was going on.

Thankfully, when Applejack was throwing apples at Pinkie and Dash, one of the apples had landed in one of the many water barrels. This allowed AJ to realize that the apples were only painted in harmless water colors.

After getting chased off the apple orchard, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie found themselves at one of Ponyville’s lakes, setting up one of their pranks. With a fake squirting turtle toy, the two were laying in wait with a telescope to watch the other side of the lake where their trap laid.

Pinkie Pie jumped around their hiding place with the squirter pad in her mouth while Rainbow Dash was looking through the telescope to see whom would fall for their trap.

“Is anypony over there?” Pinkie asked excitedly, a slight squeak with each word. “Who’s getting squirt? Who’s getting squirt?!”

Without even looking away from the telescope, Dash snickered loudly, “Target in sight! Fluttershy!”

Pinkie’s eyes widened and she dropped the squirter, “What?! Nonononono! We can’t prank Fluttershy! She’s super sensitive! It’ll hurt her feelings! Even our most harmless prank!”

The rainbow maned pegasus sighed loudly as she pulled away from the telescope, “Yeah you’re right. What we need is another victim, one made out of tougher stuff.

“So, who’s it gonna be?”

Pinkie Pie snickered to herself as she looked at Rainbow Dash. Calming herself slightly, Pinkie spoke, “Oh, I’ve got somepony in mind… One of the toughest around!”

“Oh awesome!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, not realizing that there was black ink around her left eye. “Who? Who?! Wait! I know who you’re talking about!”

Pinkie snickered, realizing that she could keep her little prank on Rainbow Dash going on. “And who’s that?”

“Who else?” Rainbow asked with her nose held up. “He’s the only guy who can even come close to my awesomeness – He’s still about a hundred and fifty percent short of reaching my level, but he’s still closer than others in town!”

‘Besides, it’ll be fun to have a karma prank for him!’

“Who’s that?” Pinkie asked with her head tilted.

Rainbow Dash sighed again.

TTTT ~ 20 Minutes Later ~ TTTT

Haru didn’t know what he was looking at.

One minute he was looking for a few more magical stones (only finding one in his current search), and when he was on his way back to the town, the sleek dragon couldn’t help but blink at the weird sight before him.

In the middle of the road was a plain sugar doughnut that was on a fine little plate. Said plate was set upon a bunch of leafs that were expertly placed on the dirt road. “… Are you serious?”

Haru looked left and right, looking at the bushes and trees. His blue eyes looked around until he spotted a puffy patch of pink poking out of a nearby bush, and a slight stream of rainbow slipping from a branch.

The dragon shook his head, and was about to say something when his stomach growled loudly. ‘It’s an obvious trap, but it’s getting late for lunch – Luckily, I’ve got a way around this.’

“Sorry ladies,” Haru chuckled as he reached into his jacket, pulled out a ring and fitted it over his right hand. “But you’re going to have to do better than that.”

Haru slipped his hand over his belt buckle, “EXTEND – PLEASE!”

A runic circle appeared at the red dragon’s right, and he slipped his hand through it. His arm grew longer and slipped through the air until his claws reached the plate. “I was expecting something a little more creative than the old pitfall gag, especially from you Pinkie. Still, thanks for lunch.”

Haru’s claws gripped the plate and he quickly lifted it up from the leaves. However, there was a loud snapping sound as Haru pulled the plate far enough, and the dragon could see a rather large string attached to the plate.

The dragon’s eyes widened when suddenly the leafs pulled back and a white blur flew quickly the air. Before the dragon could react the white blur crashed into his face and made him stagger back a few feet.

Laughter filled the air as a silver pie tin fell from Haru’s face, revealing that what had just crashed into his face was a banana cream pie. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie popped out of their hiding places to laugh loudly at the dragon now.

“Lovely prank ladies,” Haru sighed as his arm retuned to normal, and he lifted the doughnut up to his banana cream-covered face. “But I still win in the end, because I have my doughnut.”

However, before the dragon could even place his other claw on the doughnut, the small pastry bulged and then exploded into a patch of confetti and streamers that flew around his body. The two mares just laughed even louder as Haru used his free claw to whip off some of the pie filling off of his face.

“That was *HAHAHAAHA* so awesome!” Rainbow Dash declared between laughs.

“A double whammy!” Pinkie Pie added through her own laughter.

“Yes, yes, a rather impressive joke,” Haru chuckled as he dropped the plate and began to clean his face. “But girls, let me warn you of something. Not everyone’s as good a sport at taking pranks.”

“Oh come on, Wizard,” Rainbow Dash laughed as she trotted up to the dragon and elbowed him. “Everypony likes a good prank.”

“Hey, I’m not saying anything bad about that,” Haru replied as he wiped off a dollop cream off of his nose. “I’m just saying that you have to pick carefully who and how you prank somepony, you never know how others will respond.”

“Aw, you’re just being a sore loser,” Rainbow Dash retorted.

Haru just sighed to himself.

While the trio was discussing the finer points of pranking, from one of the clouds that floated above them, a shadowed figure gazed down upon them. The figure sighed loudly as their legs kicked back and forth off of the cloud, “Well, that was boring. I thought it’d take longer to find Rainbow Dash… It’s kind of hard to miss a pony that encompasses a full spectrum of colors in just their mane.

“Oh well, I suppose I shouldn’t be complaining – compared to what I had to deal with beforehand, a little extra work shouldn’t be too hard to deal with.”

TBC

Author's Note

MangaKamen: Well, another chapter, technically filler, yet technically not.

On a side note, we're almost to fifty favorites here! A little more to go my friends!

Also, my friend's working on more images for this, but he's got some commissions to get done with before that, so it'll be a little bit before the next chapter. I hope you guys don't mind the wait for the images that he's working on.

Spell 8 - The Brush Off

Because there’s no one else but me who can do this.
- Godai Yuusuke / Kamen Rider Kuuga

TTTTTT

Spell 8

The Brush Off

TTTTT

The next day came quickly, the morning sun just over the horizon and lighting up Ponyville’s streets, with its citizens just barely waking up.

Oddly enough, Haru was up early and was walking through the town, holding up his latest ring up to gleam in the sun – The image on the ring a small dragon with its wings folded with more rings behind it. ‘A rather weird design, but then again, there isn’t much normal to my life.'

He had fashioned it last night with the Ring Ring, but instead of using the ring in Twilight’s house where it could potentially blow up the tree.

Hence the sleek dragon was on his way out of town to test it. Haru wanted to make sure that no one got hurt when he tested the ring out, and he hadn’t awoken Twilight or Spike this morning since it was only one ring – nothing to get too excited over. ‘I wonder what this thing can do.’

Haru would’ve continued on his trek out of town, but, that’s when the dragon heard a rather papery tweeting sound that was getting closer and coming up behind the sleek dragon. Haru turned around to see a familiar party-crazed pink pony, only he had to do a double take when he realized what accessories she had on today.

An arrow headband, a pair of goofy glasses with swirls on the lenses, a big rubber clown nose, a droopy mustache and a party kazoo in the pony’s mouth that she tweeted with every step the mare took.

And Haru just blinked a few times at the oddly accessorized mare, ‘Why is it that I’ve fought against a few Phantoms, including a Pranch Gnome, and yet I’m freaked out more by Pinkie Pie’s antics?’

“Morning Haru!” Pinkie Pie greeted as she trotted around the dragon. “Hope you’re still not sore about being pranked yesterday – It was all in the name of fun.”

“Well, with a face like that,” Haru chuckled as he pocketed his new ring. “I can’t help but smile. And I wasn’t really sore, I was just trying to warn you and Rainbow Dash about how pranks can backfire.”

“But it was funny, right?” Pinkie Pie inquired as she leaned closer towards the dragon.

With a sigh of defeat, Haru threw his claws up slightly, “Yes, it was.”

“Yay!” Pinkie cheered before she leapt up into the air a few feet. “OOOH! You know what would be amazing?! You should come with me and Dash today! I bet all three of us could come up with some super duper pranks! Especially with your magic.”

“I’m not much of a prankster…” Haru admitted as he rubbed the back his head’s spines.

Trailing off his little excuse, the dragon looked at Pinkie who had pulled down her goofy glasses to give Haru the biggest pair of puppy dog eyes that Haru had ever seen before in his life. ‘The cutesy… It’s too much!’

Two minutes later, Pinkie Pie was leading Haru out of town with the arrow headband now on his head. Apparently, Pinkie was on her way to wake up Rainbow Dash, who lived just outside of Ponyville.

When the two reached the place, Haru had to crane his head up and blink a few times at the floating mansion – With columns, rainbow decorations, fountains and even a miniature waterfall at the side. The dragon was awestruck at the cloudy home, ‘I guess it pays to be a pegasus, damn what a nice looking house.’

“Rise and shine Rainbow Dash!” Pinkie Pie called out to the floating house. “It’s a brand new day, and we’ve got a lot of pranking to do! I even managed to get a special guest to…”

That’s when an unfamiliar form popped out from the front door, and looking down at the earth pony and dragon was what appeared to be an eagle head with combed forward, white feathers. The eagle looked down at the two with her large, yellow eyes and observed the two.

“Ooh,” Pinkie stated.

“Huh,” Haru added.

Stirring conversation aside, from the higher level of the cloud mansion, Rainbow Dash flew off the clouds and head towards the ground. “Morning Pinks! Wizard!”

When the brash pegasus landed on the ground, the eagle flew from the house as well, revealing that it wasn’t an eagle, but rather a griffon!

“Gilda!” Rainbow called out to the descending griffon. “This is my gal pal Pinkie, this dragon over here is Haru.”

The griffon named Gilda took a good look at the two (during which Pinkie removed her gags, Haru however kept the arrow headband on) and turned slightly, “Hey, sup?”

“Guys, this is my griffon friend, Gilda,” Rainbow Dash introduced

“Cool! Uh, what’s a griffon?” Pinkie Pie asked.

“Griffons are rather interesting creatures,” Haru replied with a claw at his chin. “They’re part eagle and part lion, two beings that are considered kings of their dominions, and they are thought to be especially majestic creatures. They normally reside in the Griffon Kingdom to the south, but they’re not that common around these parts.”

“You forgot to mention that we’re a hundred percent awesome,” Gilda chimed in as she landed on the ground near the three. Gilda pulled Rainbow close before the two jumped from each other and exchanged a talon/hoof pump.

“Indeed,” Haru chimed back with a slightly flat look in his eyes.

“Gilda’s my best friend from my days at Junior Speedster Flight Camp,” Rainbow explained as a rather sly look appeared in her eyes. “Say, remember the chant?”

“Pswhay, who could forget that lame thing?” Gilda retorted raising an eyebrow at her pegasus friend. “They made us recite it every morning. I don’t think I’ll ever get that thing outta my head.”

“Sooooooo?” Rainbow Dash cooed as she leaned in closer to Gilda, and winked a few times at her griffon friend.

Gilda sighed and rolled her golden eyes, “Only for you Dash.”

Both Rainbow and Gilda flew up into the air, Rainbow Dash exuding energy while Gilda was less than enthusiastic as the two posed as they sang.

“Junior Speedsters are our lives,
Sky-bound soars and daring dives!
Junior Speedsters, it's our quest,
To some day be the very best!”

Both landed on the ground, Dash waving her front legs in the air while Gilda waved her talons. Pinkie was laughing loudly while Haru just stared blankly. ‘I think I need some brain bleach now.’

“That was awesome!” Pinkie announced as she quickly donned the wacky accessories on her face again. “And it gave me a great idea for a prank! You game, Gilda?”

“Huh, well, I groove on a good prank as much as the next griffon,” Gilda replied as she stretched her large wings. “Dash promised we get a flying session in this morning.”

Gilda flew into the air while Dash trotted over to Pinkie, “Yeah, uh, well, Pinkie Pie, you’ve still got Haru with you, but you don’t mind do you? Gilda just got here, so, we’ll catch up with you later.”

Although obviously disheartened, Pinkie Pie used her gag glasses to cover up her disappointed look, “Uh, sure, don’t worry about me! I’ll be fine! You two go and have some high-flying fun!”

Rainbow Dash looked back at Pinkie before she leapt up into the air, following Gilda as the two soared through the air.

With a sad tweet, Pinkie Pie slumped to the ground. Haru scratched the side of his head, “Uh, are you okay?”

“Yeah,” Pinkie sighed as she took off her goofy glasses.

“We could still pull some pranks,” Haru offered with a nervous smile on his face. “I’m not the best prankster, but, hey, I can learn.”

“That’s okay,” Pinkie sighed again. “I really appreciate that Haru, but, I a few of the pranks I had planned kind of need a winged companion.”

Haru smiled as he picked up the pranking gear that Pinkie had dropped to the ground, “Well, then how about I show you something amazing? I might not be able to fly, but we can still have some fun with some magic.”

Pinkie’s smile grew back on her face.

TTTTTT

Having reached a cleared out plain, Haru pulled off one of his rings and held it up to Pinkie Pie. “So, let’s have a little fun first. I believe you remember this spell.”

Slipping the ring on his claw, Haru brought his claw up to his belt buckle, “CONNECT – PLEASE!”

Haru brought both of his hands up, and instantly two red runic circles materialized in front of the dragon. Pinkie nodded a few times. “Yup! Yup! You used that to ditch your party… We still need to finish that you know.”

“Uh, yeah,” Haru chuckled nervously as he cleared his throat. “Well cover that later, for right, watch and be amazed.”

Haru’s claws actually gripped both of the runic circles and he moved them about with his hands. With the circle in his left hand, Haru slipped it on one side of him on the ground, after which Haru placed the other runic circle a few feet away on the ground. “Now, here’s something I discovered when I first used this ring. Keep an eye on both connection portals.”

With a large smile on his face, Haru jumped up and landed atop of the ring. However, the red dragon sunk into the connection circle, while his clawed feet popped out of the other connection portal upside down. The rest of Haru disappeared into the ring while he fully appeared upside down from the other.

But that didn’t last since the dragon sunk back into the circle, with him appearing out of the original circle right side up. Haru began to sink again before his legs and tail popped out of the other one.

Pinkie’s eyes widened and a large, bright smile appeared on her face. “WOW! THAT’S AMAZING HARU!”

Haru laughed before he used his tail to pull him away from the two portals, “Care for a go?”

“DO I!?” Pinkie cheered before she leapt high into the air, and curled up. “Cannonball!”

Haru stepped back as Pinkie dropped through the portal, and popped up from the other one upside down, and thanks to gravity’s pull, she quickly fell once more. Haru watched with a warm smile on his scaly face, Pinkie Pie’s laughter echoing through the clear sky. “Haru – If you did this at your party, you would’ve been the coolest dragon around!”

“Well, it’s between me and Spike for that title,” Haru replied with a warm smile on his face as Pinkie Pie began to do extravagant poses whenever she popped out of the circles. “And he’s already gotten the ‘cutest dragon’ title to him. So, I’d like to think that I’d at least have the ‘coolest dragon around’ title.”

Using his tail to grab Pinkie’s waist, Haru stopped the young mare. “Aww, I was having so much fun.”

“I’m not stopping it,” Haru replied as his tail gently placed Pinkie Pie on the ground. “I’m just about to literally change it up.”

Using his claws to lift the magical circles up to be side by side, Haru clapped his claws and gestured to one of them. “Please step on through, but don’t go all the way through.”

Pinkie Pie raised an eyebrow, but trotted towards the circle on the right until she passed through it, her head and front legs poking out from the left circle. “Now what Haru?”

That’s when Haru’s head and front claws popped out of the right circle, a large smile on his face. “Now behold! You have become half dragon! And I have become half pony!”

Pinkie looked back and saw that on the other side of the runic circle, her flank was behind Haru while his red tail and legs were right behind her. Pinkie bit her lower lip before she exploded with laughter.

Even Haru laughed as he wagged his tail to match with Pinkie’s laughter.

A few minutes later, both Haru and Pinkie Pie were seated on the ground, the Connection Portals had faded away. Pinkie was still laughing while Haru just smiled, “Feeling better, I take it?”

Calming her laughter slightly, Pinkie grinned back at her dragon friend, “Yup! Thanks Haru! That was really fun! You should do that more often!”

The dragon cackled as he looked up into the sky, “Maybe I will in the future Pinkie, but anyway, I hope you’re not bummed about Rainbow not pranking with you today.”

“Nah, I’m just glad that I’ve found another friend!” Pinkie replied as she leapt to her hooves. “Gilda! Anypony who’s friends with Rainbow Dash has to be just as awesome, right?”

‘Well, then I guess that means you’re just as awesome in that regard,’ Haru thought to himself. Just as Haru was about to say this to Pinkie Pie, a familiar stream of colors flew through the sky overhead. “Hey, guess who?”

Pinkie looked up after following Haru’s claw to see that the rainbow above was descending towards them, “Rainbow Dash!”

Indeed, it was the sky blue pegasus that was quickly landing near the two, “Pinkie! Wizard! Glad to see you two!”

“Dash?” Haru asked as he pushed himself off of the ground and walked over to the mare. “Weren’t you with Gilda?”

“Yeah, well, we were having a race, but I kinda went extremely fast,” Rainbow explained with a slight blush on her face. “And I lost her. I was flying around trying to find her, but so far, no luck. You two didn’t see her, did you?”

Pinkie shrugged, “Nope! Sorry Dash!”

Haru was about to answer when something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye. His eyes widened as he quickly slipped a ring over his claw and threw it over his belt. “DEFEND – PLEASE!”

Haru dashed past Rainbow Dash and threw his claw up into the air, creating a pure white, large version of his usual runic circle over the trio. One second later, a powerful burst of purple flames crashed into the barrier, shaking up both of the mare.

“Aw man, that’s whack!”

When the flames died down, Haru, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash looked towards the sky where a lowered cloud was floating in front of them. Seated on the cloud was a weird creature, a humanoid-like creature that had pure ebony skin with a sleek feminine build. The creature was dressed in a rather revealing, armored outfit similar to golden fitted top, a matching white hip belt, and a pair of red harem pants – All of which was used to show off her figure. The armor was adorned with several little coin-like charms, something you would see from Saddle Arabia. The creature’s face was completely blank save for the ebony skin and pair of yellow eyes, and atop of her head was a gold tiara that had a large tail of dark purple flames that looked to be her hair.

“Phantom,” Haru growled as he made his barrier disappear and reached into his jacket.

“Just my luck to run into a mage,” The phantom moaned as she shook her head, the flames following her. “And that’s totally lame to just call me Phantom! I’m Djinn! Not some common Ghul!”

Haru didn’t say a word as he looked back to Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie, with a new ring donned on his right claw, Haru lifted his hand to his belt buckle. “DRIVER ON – PLEASE!”

“Both of you, get out of here.”

With his left hand now with a new ring, Haru messed with his belt before he began to run forward. [i][b“Sha Ba Do Be Touch Henshin! Sha Ba Do Be Touch Henshin!”

“HURRICANE – PLEASE!

“Fuu Fuu Fuu Fuu Fuu Fuu!”

“Henshin!”

A green runic circle appeared in front of Haru, and as he leapt through it, the dragon was now covered in his triangular emerald themed Wizard garb. The air around Haru’s body dyed a bright green before he flew towards Djinn, leaving the two mares on the ground watching him charge the Phantom.

“He wasn’t kidding,” Rainbow muttered with her eyes widened. “He can fly!”

“Haru! Haru! He’s the dragon, if he can’t do it” Pinkie cheered with her hooves flapping in the air. “… Something that rhymes with dragon!”

Wizard shook his helmeted head as he spun around through the air before he unleashed a green twister covered kick towards the relaxed Djinn. “It’s showtime.”

“Puh-lease!” Djinn sighed before she leapt from the cloud, just as Wizard’s kick slammed into the cloud and dispersed the cloud. “No need to go postal, dweeb! I’m not after you, spaz!”

Using the wind to spin around, Wizard saw that the Phantom was diving towards the Rainbow and Pinkie, the two mares flying and galloping away, respectively. Fitting a familiar ring on his right hand, Wizard dove after the Phantom. “CONNECT – PLEASE!”

Djinn drew in a deep breath when she was near the two mares, the flame atop of her head growing more intense. “LATER LOSERS!”

Before the Phantom could attack, several streams of green light crashed into her back, forcing her head to look up and unleash several purple flames up into the air. Djinn turned around to see that Wizard was flying towards her with his gun aimed at her. “Oh that’s just whack!”

Wizard unfolded his gun into its blade form and continued his descent at Djinn. The phantom landed on the ground, her fiery hair warping until a good portion of the purple flames transformed into a crystallized scimitar that she swiped at the oncoming Wizard. Using the magical gale around his body, Haru flipped over the attack, and slammed his feet into Djinn’s back, sending her to the ground.

Quickly pushing herself off of the ground, Djinn looked around to see that the two mares had run out of sight. “You lousy dweeb! Don’t you know you’re not supposed to hit a lady?”

“Hard to see you as a lady when you attack other mares,” Haru replied as he charged, holding the blade downwards.

Djinn leapt into the air and brought down the scimitar at Wizard, who spun around and slammed his blade into the Phantom’s curved sword. Sparks and flames flew from where the two weapons clashed, and the two magical beings locked gazes.

Once again, the green gale wrapped around Haru’s legs, and propelled him, making the blade strong enough to break through Djinn’s scimitar. “WHAT!?!”

But Wizard’s sword continued along with the magical dragon, and he slashed his blade into Djinn’s side, sending her flying to the right with a flurry of purple sparks and flames exploding from her body. “GARGH!”

Wizard landed on his feet while Djinn crashed on the ground with a slight roll. The masked mage turned around casually and walked over to the Phantom. Djinn was trying to get to her feet, but slipped on the grass a few times.

“The finale,” Wizard announced before he dashed across the field, the green gale surging around his sword.

Wizard spun around when he was only a few feet from Djinn, but before the blade could connect, another blade shot out from Djinn’s shadow and blocked the attack. Both Wizard and Djinn were surprised as a dark and red blur leapt from the rest of the shadow and crashed into Wizard, sending him flying back with sparks flying from his body. “ARGH!”

The blur landed on the ground as Wizard spun through the air, using the green gale to make him correct himself through the air.

“Sorry, but the show has just begun,” cackled the blur, revealing a second Phantom – Hellhound – A crooked sword gripped tightly in his left hand. “Besides, ending this show so soon without a twist is just dull.”

“Another Phantom?” Djinn questioned as she struggled to get to her feet.

Hellhound spun around and wagged a finger, “Uh, uh, uh, remember your own words – ‘That’s totally lame to call me just Phantom’, I am Hellhound. A fellow Phantom, your ally, and most recently, your savior!”

Hellhound laughed loudly before several green shots crashed into his back and sent him flying over Djinn. The other Phantom blinked a few times before she turned to see Wizard had returned his sword into a gun that was smoking with green energy. “Here’s a tip, don’t show your back to the audience during a show.”

Tossing his gun into the air, Wizard reached for his chain of rings and grabbed the newest ring that he created earlier. ‘Might was well try this out right now.’

With the new ring on his finger, Wizard messed with his belt before he waved his right hand in front of his belt. “MULTI – ERROR!”

Wizard’s head lifted up in surprise at the words his belt chimed out, “What?”

Taking advantage of Wizard’s confusion, Hellhound got back to his feet and stood next to Djinn. “We’ll be back right after these intermissions!”

And like that, both Phantoms began to disappear into their very own shadows.

“Wait!” Wizard shouted.

Wizard jumped up to grab his gun and unleashed a volley of magical energy that flew towards the retreating Phantoms. However the onslaught of mystic onslaught crashed into the ground just after Hellhound and Djinn disappeared.

“Damn it,” Wizard growled as he lifted up his right hand to study the Multi Ring. “I should’ve tested this earlier… But, why didn’t anything happen?”

A loud sigh echoed from Wizard’s helmet as he looked around the vacant plains. ‘Two Phantoms though, this is just perfect – They’re starting to work together. And there’s also the fact that I don’t know who the Gate is.

‘It’s either Pinkie Pie or Rainbow Dash, but I can’t discredit the fact that they could both be Gates – It would make sense if they were, two Phantoms, one for each of them.’

Wizard shook his head as he called forth the green gale around his legs and tail, with a powerful leap, the masked mage flew across the plains with his coattails billowing behind him. ‘First things first, I need to find the two of them! I can sort out what to do when I get to them.’

TTTTTTT

~ Half an hour later… ~

Wizard flew through the sky gently, looking over Ponyville in desperation. When he started, the cloaked dragon had called out Garuda to help him out in finding either of the mares, but so far, nothing had turned up. ‘I’ll give them this much, they’re probably the fastest ponies around.’

Taking a moment to land on one of the random roofs in Ponyville, Wizard sighed loudly to take a break. With the Multi Ring still on his claw, Wizard looked at the ring. ‘If this thing actually worked, I might’ve been able to take both of those Phantoms out, then this wouldn’t be a problem.’

Removing the ring, Wizard placed it back into chain belt and was about to equip another ring when all of a sudden…

“TWEET! TWEET!”

Wind style Wizard looked up to see the familiar ruby red Garuda flying in front of him, “Ah, Garuda, good to see you’re here. Did you find one of them.”

Garuda whipped both of its wings up excitedly before it spun through the air and soared through the air. With a nod, Wizard leapt up with the green gale surging around his legs again. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

A few minutes, Garuda had led Wizard to a random cloud that was hovering a little bit outside Ponyville. Thanks to his wind style, Wizard was able to land gently on the cloud with Garuda on his shoulder, both of which were looking around, “I’m guessing since we’re up in the sky, you spotted Rainbow Dash around her.”

The ruby familiar nodded.

“Well, where is she?” Wizard questioned, unaware that a large amount of balloons were floating up behind him.

Garuda shrugged.

Wizard slapped his right claw on his helmets visor, “That’s no good, we gotta find them!”

“Hey Haru! What ya up to?”

Turning over his shoulder, Wizard saw all of the balloons that were tied around the pinker of the two mares’ stomach, lifting her up into the air. Wizard turned his attention away from her and waved his left hand through the air, “I’m trying to find you and Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie. And I’m having a hard time trying to…”

Both Garuda and Wizard jumped slightly see that Pinkie was floating higher into the air, only waving her front hoof at the costumed dragon. “What the!? Where did she get all those balloons?!”

Garuda shrugged again.

While Wizard was watching Pinkie ascend through the air, he say that one of the higher up clouds had Rainbow Dash and Gilda flying towards. “Well now, looks like I owe you a cola Garuda.”

The familiar chirped loudly.

“Do me a favor and keep an eye on Pinkie Pie,” Wizard ordered as Garuda saluted to his dragon master. Garuda flew off of the armored shoulder as Wizard leapt from the cloud and began to float up towards the cloud where Dash and Gilda were.

However, when the masked mage was ascending, several popping sounds echoed through the air. “Bye Haru!”

Wizard watched as Pinkie floated down past him, a number of her balloons already popped and she was safely descending towards the ground. ‘A nice mare, but she’s a bit of a free spirit.’

Shaking his head, Wizard reached his cloudy destination, only to realize that both of the two flyers had already soared through the air towards another cloud. Wizard threw his arms up into the air as he shook his head, “This is starting to get annoying.”

The gale returned to his legs, but before Wizard could take off, a loud jumble of noises caught the masked hero’s attention to see Pinkie fly by in a quad-pedaled flying machine that quickly flew past the magical dragon. It took a few moments for that to register in Wizard’s head before he slapped his masked forehead. ‘I turn away for not even a minute, and she’s already got something new. How in Equestria did she… It’s Pinkie Pie, don’t question it too much unless you want your head to explode, Haru.’

Garuda landed atop of Wizard’s helmet, looking just as confused as his master felt. “Yeah, I know Garuda. If you want, maybe you’d be better off keeping an eye on Rainbow Dash.”

With a loud sigh Garuda flew from Wizard and flew up towards the clouds, just as Rainbow Dash soared through the air away from the cloud.

Before Wizard could make a move however, the weird device that Pinkie was using begun to spin around wildly until the mare and her weird transportation flew through the air with Pinkie yelling out. Using the gale, Wizard chased after the out of control flying machine as it madly dashed through the air.

The flying machine haphazardly zigzagged through the air as it descended rapidly to the ground, and with a powerful burst of green twisted wind behind him, Wizard dived towards the contraption.

Wizard landed on the ground and slipped a familiar ring on his right hand, and slid his hand on the belt. “BIG – PLEASE!”

The circle emerged in front of Wizard before he threw his right hand into it, making it turn giant and grabbed the device, instantly making it stop spinning while Pinkie was stuck in the seat with her eyes spinning around. “Oooh.”

“Are you okay there, Pinkie?” Wizard asked as he gently used his enlarged hand to place the device on the ground.

After a few moments, Wizard dispelled his armor and enlarged arm, allowing Haru to help Pinkie Pie off of the slightly crushed transportation (he had to grip the darn thing so he couldn’t hurt Pinkie but also to stop the copter from spinning). Pinkie staggered a bit around until Haru used one of his claws to help support her a bit. “Whoo, what a ride! Can we go again?”

The dragon blinked a few times before realizing that he was questioning Pinkie Pie’s state of mind. “Uh, maybe later. But for right now, what happened?”

“Well, after you told us to run,” Pinkie Pie explained having gathered herself, well, as best she could. “Rainbow Dash ran into Gilda, although, I think the word flew would be much better to explain it, but that’s not the point! I suggested that we had to stick together, but Gilda was all like…”

Pinkie shook her head a few times before she stopped to make her mane stylized to resemble that of Gilda’s feathers, with her eyes mimicking Gilda’s. “‘Hey Dash, think you’ve got enough gas left to beat me in a race over to that cloud?”

‘That was a real good impression,’ Haru thought as Pinkie shook her head.

“And ‘Whoosh!’ they flew off!” Pinkie Pie continued waving her front legs as if they were wings. “I even had a trampoline in order to bounce up and be with them in the clouds! But when they flew away, I had the awesome idea of getting a bunch of balloons and that’s when I saw you when I was trying to get up to them! But then Gilda popped a lot of my balloons and made me go down to the ground, and that’s when I…”

Haru held up his claws up to Pinkie’s face, making her stop talking with him sighing, “Yes, yes, I think I can figure out what happened there. So, Rainbow Dash is hanging out Gilda, huh.”

“Yeah!” Pinkie exclaimed. “But Gilda’s really mean! She told me to get lost, called me a dweeb, and told me to buzz off before she caused me to spin out! I would’ve crashed!”

“I see,” Haru muttered under his breath as he rubbed his chin. His thoughts turned to the thought of the griffon. ‘I wonder… Could it be possible?’

“Thanks for catching me by the way!” Pinkie cheered with a large smile.

“Don’t worry about it,” Haru replied, closing his eyes in the process. ‘Now that I think about it, one of the Phantoms was talking like a 90’s punk reject. She even called me a dweeb… It can’t be though…’

“Haru?”

‘Anypony could talk like that,’ The dragon mused to his mind. ‘But, I can’t disregard this as coincidence, still…’

“Hey Haru,” Pinkie Pie stated finally drawing Haru from his thoughts.

“Huh? Yeah, Pinkie?” The dragon questioned with his eyes open.

“Can I have my headband back?” Pinkie questioned with a slight giggle.

Haru brought his claws up to realize that he still had the arrow headband on his head, a slight shade of pink propped up on the mystical dragon’s face as he took the gag item off of his head. “H-How long was that on my head? Was it visible when I was Wizard?”

“Yup!” Pinkie giggled as she swiped the gag headgear. “Now come on!”

“Huh?” Haru questioned, just now realizing that Pinkie had just wrapped her tail around his wrist.

“I’m sure Twilight can help provide an answer!” Pinkie announced as she trotted off, dragging Haru behind her. “I know you’re thinking how Gilda can be such a grouch! And I know that Twilight can shed some light on this mystery! So come on Haru!”

“W-Wait a second!” Haru yelped, unfortunately before he could get too far, Pinkie Pie began to bounce up and down, making the dragon wavier in sync with the party obsessed mare.

TBC

Author's Note

MangaKamen: Hello everyone! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter!

On side note, we need to make this story more out there, and if you guys can help out, we can get a comic of this! So, if you guys can do what you can, we can make this story out of this world!

Speaking of my friend, FlairNightz/Lux-Nero is going to be at an Anime Convention up north in Michigan in a few weeks, selling artwork and taking commissions. So, if you live in East Lansing, and/or going to Shutocon, look him up. If you mention my name to him during the convention, he'll give you a discount on commissions. After that, if you guys need any artwork done, he'll be accepting commissions from his DA account, and you'll still get the same discount if you mention 'MangaKamen' to him. He's been such a good sport and has provided excellent art for yours truly, so, lets give him support!

Spell 9 - Feathers Together

Chase two birds, and catch two birds.
- Tendou Souji’s Grandmother

TTTTTT

Spell 9

Feathers Together

TTTTTT

It was a rather awkward scene for Haru to be dragged through Ponyville, Pinkie’s tail effectively keeping him locked behind the usually perky pony. However, it was obvious that Pinkie wasn’t in the best of moods, she stopped bouncing a few minutes after she managed to get the dragon cooperate and follow her.

‘I guess Gilda really got under her skin,’ Haru thought to himself as he saw the Golden Oaks library come into view. ‘Then again, if I was dropped from the sky, I’d probably not be so cheery.’

When the two reached the library, Pinkie had finally released the dragon from her surprising strong tail wrap. “Okay! Now that we’re here, Twilight will definitely know what to do!”

Haru shrugged his shoulders before he reached into his jacket’s pocket, “Actually, Pinkie, I need to go find Rainbow Dash.”

“What?” Pinkie gasped. “You’re going to ditch me now too?”

“Pinkie, it’s not like that,” Haru replied as he pulled out the Multi Ring from his pocket. “I need to find her to confirm something for me. Besides, if you’re going to be here with Twilight, that’ll put my mind at ease, since I’ve got one of my familiars here with her, so if the Phantom is after you, I can at least be alerted to your position.

“Trust me, I don’t want to leave you after what happened Pinkie, but I need to do this, for you and Rainbow Dash’s sake.”

Haru closed his eyes, ‘Especially if my suspicions are right. I don’t want to be right about this though, because if I am…’

With a shake of his head, Haru turned back to Pinkie, “So, please, I promise that when this is all said and done, we’ll finish that party I skipped out on, okay?”

“You promise?” Pinkie asked with the smile creeping back on her face.

Haru saluted slightly, “I swear on my dragon’s blood.”

“Okie-dokey-lokie!” Pinkie replied with a large smile back on her face.

“Oh yeah,” Haru continued as he held up the Multi Ring. “You mind taking this inside with you?”

“Ooh, that’s one of your rings, right?” Pinkie questioned as she leaned into the ring and eyed it. “Don’t you need to keep this with you though?”

“This Multi Ring kinda conked out on me,” Haru replied as he tossed the ring into the air, allowing Pinkie to catch the little trinket with one of her front hooves. “Until I get a chance to really experiment with it, I can’t really rely on it… It could make the difference in me defeating the Phantom or me being the one down for the count.”

Spinning on one of his heels, Haru began to walk away, waving one of his claws over his head to bid goodbye to Pinkie Pie.

The young mare looked at the creative ring before she shrugged and walked into the library.

TTTTTT

“You did what?!”

Hellhound winced as he hid behind one of the Everfree Forest’s many trees, trying to keep away from the scary Harpie who had her wings lifted up, using her feathers to make her look even more terrifying. “I… I, uh, fought against the Wizard.”

Harpie screeched loudly before she flew towards Hellhound and pinned the fellow Phantom to the ground with her talons at his arms. “Hellhound, did you think it was smart to test my patience? I told you can only observe, not get involved!”

“I was just trying to help another Phantom!” Hellhound barked back. “You keep going on about how we need to look over Minotaur, and just because I helped out a fellow Phantom, you’re getting mad? You’re a bleeding hypocrite!”

Harpie screeched once more, this time directly into Hellhound’s face, making the Phantom cry out loud, “If you hadn’t returned with those wounds and told me you retreated, then we wouldn’t be having this conversation! You got blasted because of your stupidity, I’ve got nothing against helping other Phantoms, but you let your ego get the better of you!

“You should’ve just escaped with the Phantom.”

With a mighty flap of her wings, Harpie leapt off of Hellhound, “So… Where is this other Phantom?”

Pushing himself off of the ground, Hellhound growled loudly before he threw his arms to the side, “Tartarus if I know. As soon as she got out of my shadow dive, she flew off.”

Harpie sighed loudly, she did not need this, not right now.

TTTTTT

Haru was in the midst of walking through the streets of Ponyville, carefully walking past a number of ponies as he tried to sense where his familiar was. Although, it was rather amazing that a number of the ponies had grown accustomed to the red dragon that stalked their streets in such a short time.

Tartarus, even some of them saw him in the background most times.

‘Maybe I should ask a pegasus,’ Haru thought to himself as he stopped in his tracks. ‘I can’t get a good beat on Garuda, besides most Pegasai here seem to work in weather control, so, maybe, one of them at least saw her.’

Looking around the square, Haru spotted only one nearby pegasus looking at a produce cart, a gray pegasus with a blonde mane and tail. ‘She looks familiar, but I don’t see any other pegasai, so. What’s the harm?’

“Excuse me! Miss Pegasus!” When Haru walked up and called to the pegasus, said pegasus turned around and the dragon stopped in his tracks. ‘THOSE EYES!!!’

“Hmm? Oh! You’re that dragon I saw yesterday!” the wall-eyed pegasus gleefully announced with a bright smile on her face. “Did you ditch those doughnuts and get some muffins?”

Haru didn’t respond to that question, he was too entranced with her golden, crossed eyes. ‘My Ishimori, this is weirder than that one show I watched about that evil lamp that cursed a bunch of ponies. And it was an EVIL LAMP!’

Shaking his head, Haru cleared his throat, “Well, uh, kinda. I didn’t eat too many of those doughnuts, wouldn’t mind a muffin right now though, but that’s not why I wanted to talk to you. I wanted to ask, have you seen a blue pegasus with a rainbow colored mane and tail? Is probably hanging around with a griffon?”

“You mean Rainbow Dash, right?” the cross-eyed questioned with her head tilted.

“Uh, yeah,” Haru replied turning his eyes away from the pegasus’.

“Aw, no need to be shy,” the pegasus stated with a warm smile.

“I-I’m not shy,” Haru replied turning his attention back to the pegasus. ‘I just feel that I’d lose my mind if I looked into those eyes of yours for too long.’

“A-anyway, have you seen her?”

“Yup!” the blonde maned pegasus replied as she lifted a hoof up and to the right.

Haru followed the hoof to see that indeed, Rainbow Dash was flying through the air with Garuda trying to keep up with her. The sleek dragon slumped his shoulders before he sighed loudly, “… Thanks. I really appreciate it Miss…”

“Ditzy, Ditzy Doo!” The pegasus cheerfully answered.

“Well, I owe you a muffin, Ditzy Doo,” Haru replied before he ran off.

Ditzy tilted her head slightly, “Huh? How’d he get my name wrong? It’s Derpy Hooves!”

Now that he was able to see Rainbow and Garuda, Haru was able to follow the two of them, even though they were faster than the dragon. Eventually, just outside of Ponyville, Haru was able to see that Rainbow Dash was moving some of the clouds over Ponyville. Haru used one of his claws held over his eyes so he wouldn’t get blinded by the sun. ‘Did she get called into work or something?’

Shaking that thought from his head, Haru brought his claws to his mouth, “Oi! Rainbow Dash!”

The pegasus stopped pushing the cloud she was near and saw the mythical dragon on the ground waving towards her. Of course, Rainbow Dash had to finish pushing the cloud to where it needed to go (using a buck to send the cloud flying), but once that was done, the Pegasus glided down to the ground. “S’up Haru? I take it you schooled that Phantom?”

Haru rolled his eyes slightly before he rolled his eyes, “Uh, not exactly. I’m not too proud, but the Phantom got away.”

“What? That’s kinda lame,” Dash stated rather bluntly as Garuda floated next to her. “That would explain why this guy’s been following me.”

“Yeah, look, are you alright?” Haru asked with a serious look in his eyes.

Rainbow gave Haru a rather dull look.

“Right, force of habit,” Haru stated with a sigh. “Don’t worry though, I’ll take care of that Phantom when I see them again.”

“Heh, I doubt that Phantom can even catch up to me,” Rainbow Dash replied as she jumped slightly and flapped her wings to fly around Haru. “In case you didn’t notice, I’m a hundred and twenty percent of pure, high-flying awesomeness! There’s no pony around that out fly me! And I doubt there’s any Phantom that can either!”

Haru did have to admit that when he used his Wind Style neither of the Phantoms were fast enough, the only reason why Hellhound was able to propel Haru back was because of a sneak attack. And if it wasn’t for the Multi Ring not working, Haru would’ve been able to have wounded the Phantoms more before Hellhound had escaped. “I guess that’s true, but still…”

“Besides!” Rainbow Dash announced with her chest puffed out. “I’m not afraid of any Phantoms! Bring’em on!”

‘No one can accuse Rainbow Dash lacking confidence,’ Haru thought to himself as he rubbed his temples with his claws. After getting his headache down, Haru shrugged. “Fine, I’m sure you can take care of yourself, Rainbow.”

“Darn straight!” Rainbow laughed loudly as Garuda seemed to laugh as well.

The dragon rolled his eyes, “Just try to be careful. By the way, what happened to Gilda? Pinkie told me that she was still with you.”

“I had to do some weather work,” Dash replied as she leaned back, using her wings to keep her afloat. “So, Gilda’s getting something to eat in town right now. I’m meeting up with her later.”

“I’m rather curious, I know you said that met Gilda at, what was it?” Haru mused before he snapped his claws. “Oh yeah, flight camp.”

“Yeah? What about it?” Rainbow retorted with a raised brow.

“Curiosity,” Haru replied with a shrug. “I’ve only seen Griffons in the sky, I’ve never had the pleasure of meeting any of them. I didn’t even know that they lived in this country.”

“Actually, I know two griffons,” Rainbow Dash stated with a smirk. “In fact, with another pegasus back in flight camp, we were an awesome group! I even send mail to them all whenever I get a chance. Not that hard since two of them still live in Cloudsdale, Gilda’s one of them.”

Haru nodded. “Must be nice.”

That’s when Rainbow Dash thought for a moment before she spoke up again, “Although, I didn’t really get a letter from Gilda for a while.”

“Really? How long since the last one?” Haru questioned.

“Think about half a year ago or so,” Rainbow answered.

With that answer, Haru’s eyes widened. ‘Six months!? The mannerisms, the fact she can be on clouds and the times match up, I didn’t want to think it was possible, but it would make sense.

‘Still, there’s something bugging me though…’

CLICK! CLACK!

Both Haru and Rainbow Dash turned as several small rocks bounced against the ground near them. A little curious, Rainbow swooped down to pick up one of the rocks, “What the? Who’s chucking rocks?”

Haru spun around and snapped the rock out of Dash’s hooves, just as the stones glowed brightly. It was then that the stones popped and transformed into several Ghuls, all of them unarmed and moaning loudly as their newly formed bodies began to loosen up. Haru slipped on a ring as he turned and stood in between Rainbow Dash and the stone creatures. “What the Tartarus?!”

“Ghuls,” Haru growled as he was about to slip his right hand over his belt buckle.

However, before Haru could activate his Driver, one of the Ghuls threw a punch right at the dragon’s face. Dipping backwards, Haru lifted his clawed foot and slammed it into the Ghul’s chin, sending it back into a couple of other Ghuls.

When Haru stood back up straight, he spun around to whip his tail into another Ghul’s chest, knocking it over. “Rainbow! You gotta…”

WHAM!

Haru looked behind him to see Rainbow Dash actually buck a pair of Ghuls in their faces, making them stagger back before she flew past them, making the two mindless drones spin until they fell over.

Rainbow smirked wildly as she flew higher into the air, “Yeah! These Phantoms got nothing on me!”

‘I don’t have the heart to tell her these technically aren’t Phantoms,’ Haru thought as he ducked to dodge a sloppily thrown punch.

Thankfully, when he spun around and knocked the Ghul off of its feet with his tail, Haru slipped his right claw over his buckle. “DRIVER ON – PLEASE!”

With a bright light, Haru spun around to reveal that his belt had transformed and that on his left claw was a familiar large red ring. “SHA BA DO BI TOUCH HENSHIN! SHA BA DO BI TOUCH HENSHIN!”

Haru slipped his claw in front of his glowing belt, “Henshin.”

A large fiery red circle crashed into a trio of Ghuls who were trying to gang up on the transforming dragon. “FLAME – PLEASE!

“Hii Hii – Hii Hii Hii!”

With the embers from the circle still around, Wizard appeared and roundhouse kicked a Ghul with a fiery kick and sent it flying through the air. “It’s… Showtime.”

The Ghul crashed into two other Ghuls, who were about to be kicked by Rainbow Dash. When she kicked nothing but air, the pegasus scowled at the now garbed dragon, “Hey! I called dibs on those two!”

Wizard merely shrugged before he leaned back to grab another Ghul by its arm and force it to crash into another Ghul. “Then don’t be so slow.”

“What?!” Rainbow Dash growled before she flew up higher into the air to make a Ghul miss her.

The blue pegasus immediately flew back and dove down quickly, spinning as she did until she slammed both of her hind hooves into a Ghul’s back, and made it eat the earth as she smirked wildly. “Top that!”

“Well, if you insist,” Wizard chuckled as he spun behind another Ghul.

When Wizard was directly behind the Ghul, he threw his arms around the Ghul’s waist and lifted the stony monster off its feet. With a loud yell, Wizard bent backwards and slammed the Ghul’s head into the ground. The Ghul’s legs slumped as Wizard stood up straight and dusted off his gloved claws.

“No need to show off while I’m around!” Rainbow Dash scoffed as she spun around, prepared to unleash another powerful kick to one of the Ghuls…

Only to have all of the Ghuls jump back and make her miss. Both Haru and Rainbow Dash turned to see that all of the Ghuls were standing in line before them in two rows. Wizard and Dash looked at each other before a loud whistle made them all part and kneel down.

Standing behind the Ghuls was none other than Djinn, who was sitting on the shoulders of two more Ghuls, casually messing with her fiery purple hair between her two ebony fingers. The Phantom sighed loudly before her bright eyes leered at the two, “What’s your damage, Ring Mage? Can’t you take a chill pill and let me just do my job?”

‘Great, she’s devolved into 80’s slang,’ Wizard thought as he fitted a ring on his right claw.

The action didn’t go unnoticed by Djinn who brought up her hand up to her face and pulled it away with a loud smacking sound. From her hand, several purple, fiery hearts floated through the air until they crashed into all of the Ghuls save for the two that were her makeshift seat.

When the flames crashed into a majority of the Ghuls, making them all stand up straight with a line of pink on their faces. All of the blushing Ghuls groaned loudly as their gray rocky skin began to turn a bright red with steam rising up from them. Wizard tilted his head slightly, “What in the?”

“Jealous, much?” Djinn cooed before she laughed loudly. “Don’t worry though dweebs, they’re willing to be friendly though.”

“They just changed color, big deal!” Rainbow Dash pointed out as she flew up higher into the air. “If I can knock them down when they’re monochrome, I can take ‘em down now!”

Dash dove towards the red Ghuls, tumbled through the air to deliver the same hind legged kicks she had been before… But when the attacks connected on the chest of one of the Ghuls, the creature didn’t even flinch at the powerful impact. The Ghul that was struck merely looked down at the two hooves that were planted in its chest and growled loudly at Rainbow Dash.

The Ghul quickly lifted its arms up and reached for Rainbow Dash, but Wizard was quicker and yanked the pegasus away before the red Ghul could wrap its arms around her. With a quick turn, Wizard slammed a fiery foot directly into the Ghul’s stomach, flames and sparks erupted from the connection point, but the Ghul did not move either.

“What?” Wizard questioned before he jumped away from the line of Ghuls.

When the mythical dragon landed on the ground, Wizard released Dash to fly in the air. Without a word, Wizard slipped his right hand over his belt buckle with the belt glowing a bright red. “CONNECT – PLEASE!”

Reaching into the newly formed runic circle, Wizard drew out his weird sword and leapt into the air. With a spin, Wizard brought down the blade on the same Ghul, which didn’t move at all even though the sparks from where the steel landed on the rocky skin did signify damage. “What in Celestia’s mane?”

Before Wizard could pull back though, the same Red Ghul slammed its rocky fist into the mage’s stomach, flinging him from front line with his sword flying through the air as well. Wizard landed on the ground beneath Rainbow Dash, but used his tail to push himself back to his feet. “What in Equestria is going on?”

“Aw, what’s the matter, spaz?” Djinn called out as she waved her hand up in the air. “Can’t understand what I just did? Oh well, I guess it doesn’t matter. With my wily charms, I can empower these lame Ghuls, so they’re stronger, faster, but certainly not smarter.

“So dream on if you think you can beat them! Get’im boys!”

The front row of Red Ghuls charged forward, all of them snarling loudly as they quickly closed the gap between them and Wizard.

Calmly however, Wizard slipped on a new ring on his right hand, “Rainbow, I’m afraid that I’m gonna have to ask you to leave.”

“Are you kidding me?” Rainbow hissed at Wizard who messed with his belt slightly before he slid his right hand in front of the buckle. “I’m not leaving you to deal with this by yourself!”

Wizard sighed loudly as he threw his right hand forward, “Alright, but don’t get mad. I’m about to one up you.”

“EXCITE – PLEASE!”

At Wizard’s feet, an enlarged runic circle appeared and slowly, the circle began to climb his body. As it did, Wizard lifted his arms up and flexed the rather small muscles. Djinn laughed at the action, but just before the Red Ghuls reached Wizard… His body grew taller and massive muscles erupted from his body, his suit tailoring to his newly acquired, insanely macho physique.

Both Rainbow Dash and Djinn’s eyes widened at the extremely large Wizard before them, but the Red Ghuls only continued to charge.

However, the fastest of the Ghuls only received a powerful kick to the chest that sent it flying into the sky until it was nothing more than a gleaming star in the clear blue sky.

That didn’t deter the other Red Ghuls from attacking, but they simply encircled the muscular Wizard. One of the Ghuls charged from behind, only to have Wizard reel his leg back and caused the Red Ghul explode. Two Ghuls that charged forward, but Wizard slammed the bottoms of his fists into both of the Ghuls, flattening them into the ground.

One Ghul, the same Red Ghul that had struck Wizard in the stomach earlier, punched the enlarged mage. But just as when Wizard attacked it before, the Red Ghul’s attack didn’t have an effect. In fact, Wizard grabbed the Red Ghul by the head and spun around, slamming the struggling Red Ghul’s legs into the other Ghuls.

Oddly enough, when Wizard took that swing, the Red Ghul that was used as a makeshift bat, it didn’t break. The Ghuls that it was used against, were practically cleaved in half. And when Wizard was at full swing, he flung the remaining Red Ghul at Djinn!

The Phantom leapt from her two Ghuls as the Red Ghul crashed into them, exploding them into large flames.

Wizard sighed as his body popped back to normal and he crossed his arms, “I guess this means that I won.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Rainbow Dash grumbled. “Just one question, why did they all explode?”

“A wizard did it,” the dragon mage stated as he picked up his sword.

“You are a wizard though!” Rainbow Dash pointed out.

“Exactly,” Wizard replied before he dashed across the ground with his blade, sparks flying from where the metal touched the ground.

Djinn growled loudly as the purple flames of her hair flew into her hands, the flames solidified and transformed into a large spear that had a curved blade at the end of it. “Ugh! That’s completely whack! No one told me you could do that!!”

Wizard didn’t answer and immediately brought his blade up into an upward slice at the Phantom. Djinn brought her crystallized spear down, and the two weapons clashed with red and purple embers dancing through the air. However, it didn’t last long as Wizard used his tail to propel himself up into the air, and over Djinn, who stumbled forward.

While still in the air, Wizard slammed his tail into Djinn’s face and with his descent, pulled her to the ground as well with a loud bam following. Wizard spun around and brought his sword down on the Phantom, who quickly lifted her spear up to defend herself from the attack. At the same time, Djinn drew in a deep breath and then unleashed a powerful burst of purple flame from her ebony face.

Seeing the flames, Wizard flipped backwards, his covered tail getting slightly scorched by the flames. That moment of time allowed Djinn to jump back to her feet and spun around to bring her spear at Wizard’s back.

Instead of turning around, Wizard lifted his right arm back, brought his sword up near his back and blocked the attack. Once again using his tail once more, Wizard whipped his tail into Djinn’s stomach and forced the female Phantom to stagger to the side. At the same time, Wizard turned his body and slashed his sword across Djinn’s body with purple sparks flying off her ebony body. “ARGH!”

Wizard snapped his sword up and folded it into its gun form. With the Phantom nearby, the dragonic mage unleashed a flurry of red bursts of energy into her body and forced her to fly backwards. “Finale!”

The hand emblem on the gun unfolded and Wizard gripped it with his left hand. “COME ON SHOOTING – SHAKE THE HAND!

“FLAME – PLEASE!”

A powerful flame emerged at the barrel of the gun and Wizard quickly aimed the gun at the struggling Phantom. “Hii Hii Hii! Hii Hii Hii!”

The flames shot out gun and flew towards Djinn… None in the area noticed that the shadows around the Phantom’s feet warped until a black blur swept from the darkness.

When the flames crashed into the ground, a large amount of fire flew up into the air. Wizard tilted his head slightly at the charred ground. “Huh.”

“That was AWESOME!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed as she flew around the armored dragon, pumping her front legs a few times. “You gotta let me take that suit of yours on a test flight sometime. Especially that green one.”

Wizard chuckled as he spun the gun in his claws before he rested it against his shoulder. “Sorry, but this suit’s custom made. And frankly, you’re much faster than my Wind-style. One second…”

That’s when Wizard aimed gun to the right and fired a single burst towards a shadowed area near a tree. A familiar jagged black sword knocked the fiery shot to the side.

“What the?” Rainbow questioned as two familiar figures stepped from the shadows.

“I thought it was too easy,” Wizard sighed as he kept his gun trained on the two shadowed figures. “Normally when a Phantom is destroyed, my runic circle appears before they’re no more.”

Djinn propped herself up against the tree while Hellhound waved his sword slightly, “Good to know that little fact… Too bad we won’t be seeing that today.”

And with that, Hellhound and Djinn slipped into the shadows once more, with Wizard sighing loudly. “Well, that’s just perfect.”

The suit faded away from Haru’s body before he turned towards the still flying Rainbow Dash, “This is starting to get a little cliched.”

“What are you talking about?” the blue pegasus asked as she landed next to the red dragon.

“Don’t worry about it,” Haru stated with a wave of his claws. “Look, I’m sure that you’re more than capable of taking care of yourself, but could you at least let Garuda follow you around? I’d like to be able to keep an eye on you in case either of those Phantoms confront you.”

‘Especially since I’m ninety percent sure that Rainbow Dash is the target… And if that’s the case, then…’

“Sure, I don’t mind the little guy,” Rainbow Dash admitted watching as the small flying familiar landed atop of her head. “I saw him following me, and I figured he was one of yours. I saw Twilight earlier with that blue unicorn.”

“Yup, Unicorn, Kraken and Garuda are my familiars,” Haru explained with a nod.

Rainbow Dash just gave the dragon a rather flat look, which didn’t go unnoticed by Haru, “What?”

“Those names kinda stink,” Rainbow Dash stated flatly as Garuda nodded his head.

“W-What?” Haru questioned with a few blinks. “I didn’t choose their names! That’s what my rings call them!”

“Still, you could at least try to come up with some nicknames or something,” Rainbow Dash continued.

Haru rolled his eyes.

TTTTTT

Back at the Golden Oaks library, Twilight was seated on the floor, trying to read one of the many books she had. But, every time the violet unicorn got absorbed into the literature, her thoughts turned back to what had happened while Haru was fighting the Ghuls with Rainbow Dash…

~~~~

Twilight was looking at the Multi Ring, or was trying to at the very least, in order to figure out why Haru left the ring with Pinkie Pie. “So, Pinkie Pie, are you sure that this friend of Rainbow Dash is really all that mean?”

“Um, yeah!” Pinkie Pie retorted as she paced around Twilight and her book. “She keeps stealing Rainbow Dash away, popped my balloons, and told me buzz off! I never met a griffon this mean! Or actually, I never met a griffon at all before, but I’m sure the next one I meet won’t be as mean or grumpy as Gilda! I’m even willing to bet the next one is a joyful spirit! Someone who likes weird things, and is a little wonky themselves, but still a lot nicer then Gilda!”

“You know what I think, Pinkie Pie?” Twilight mused turning away from her book as her pink friend trotted up to her. “Well… I think you’re jealous.”

Pinkie Pie’s eyes widened in surprise, “Jealous?!”

“Green with envy,” Spike added as he walked down some of the nearby steps with a book in his claws. “Well, Pink with Envy in your case.”

“Well, yes, jealous,” Twilight continued as Pinkie looked back and forth between her two friends. “Listen Pinkie, I don’t want to upset you, but just because Rainbow Dash has another friend, doesn’t make Gilda a grump. I mean, it could be you who need to improve her attitude.”

The pink mare’s eyes watered slightly, “I-Improve my attitude? My attitude?! But, I, and, but, she, Gilda is… Are you serious?!”

With a loud hiss and stomping her hooves on the floor (which made some hilarious squeaking sounds, effectively making her angry huff less serious), Pinkie stormed towards the library’s front door and closed it behind her.

Hard and loud.

Both Twilight and Spike winced at the echoing slam and turned to each other.

~~~~~

Twilight sighed loudly as she used her magic to close the book she was trying to read, her mind too muddled about how she talked to her friend. ‘Did I really say the right thing to Pinkie? I don’t even know Gilda and I took her side over Pinkie’s.’

The young unicorn looked around – Spike had left to run his daily errands, and wanting to make sure that Pinkie was still okay, Twilight had asked Unicorn to follow her. So, that left the lavender unicorn all alone with her thoughts.

Trying to get her mind off of a possible mistake with one of her friends, Twilight turned her gaze towards the Wizard Ring that was placed on the table she was at. “Why did Haru leave this with Pinkie?”

With her magic lifting the ring, Twilight looked at the ring closer, “He usually keeps these hidden or even in his jacket. That actually brings up another question, how much room does he have in that jacket?”

Before Twilight could continue on her train of thought, several tweets sounded through the library. She had learned what that sound was a while ago, “Garuda? Haru? Are you here?”

Twilight turned around to follow the sound and indeed, at the window was a familiar bird-shaped creature perched on the sill. But when Twilight looked at the bejeweled familiar, she instantly saw that it wasn’t the same little red bird that had been teasing Spike over the past couple weeks. But it was a dead ringer for the red winged familiar, the only difference was that instead of rubies, this Garuda was made up of flawless diamonds.

“Did Haru have another familiar?” Twilight questioned as the diamond-studded bird flew from the window, taking its time before it landed on the table before the inquisitive unicorn.

When the bird landed, Twilight was able to see that the White Garuda had a pair of scrolls clenched within its talons. The White Garuda chirped before it tossed the scrolls in front of the unicorn. “Messages? Did Haru send them?”

White Garuda shook its head before it flew away from the table, Twilight blinked as the diamond encrusted bird flew up to a higher perch in the library. ‘It is possible that Haru could make another Familiar Ring, but, it’s just weird that he wouldn't tell us about a fourth familiar.’

Using her magic to lift up one of the scrolls up, Twilight unfurled the message and began to read it. All the while, the White Garuda watched her.

TBC

Author's Note

MangaKamen: Hey everyone! I hope you've enjoyed this chapter and artwork done by my friend!

I say this since I'm going to be taking a little break from writing for a while, just going on vacation with the family for a little bit. But when I get back in about two weeks, I'll have a ton of chapters at the ready, my friend's gonna do more artwork for this story, and we'll be ready for not only another entertaining Intermission chapter, but another saga at the conclusion of this.

Now, this doesn't mean I won't post the next chapter while I'm on vacation, I'll probably just be a little busy and away from the internet, so you never know. Next chapter will be a doozy anyway.

Thumbs up doods and doodettes!

Spell 10 - Djinn

Shh… Be careful. Behind each word is a hundred hooks. A thousand fabrications, ten thousand lies. If you’re okay with that… let me… String you along?
- Urataros

TTTTTT

Spell 10

Djinn

TTTTTT

It was early afternoon in Ponyville when Twilight trotted away from the library, her saddlebags slung over her back. The young unicorn had only read the two scrolls that the White Garuda had left for her, and was rather confused with the two messages. Even more confusing for the young mare was the fact that the White Garuda had disappeared from the library before she had a chance to observe the odd familiar.

‘The only one I know who would know about this is Haru,’ Twilight reasoned to herself as she looked around each street she trotted past. ‘He’s the only one I know who can summon those kinds of familiars, but why would he send me some weird messages? And if he had a copy of Garuda, he would’ve told me about it.’

Indeed, almost every time Haru would get a new ring to his name, the dragon would at least show Twilight. That included the ring that Haru had made earlier, albeit, it was only for a few moments, but still.

Twilight shook her head, and continued her search for the magically enriched dragon friend throughout the town. ‘He has to be somewhere, although, he can just magically disappear whenever he wants to. So that might make things a little more difficult – Still, those two messages are worrying me.’

However, the young unicorn was unaware that the White Garuda was on her trail, watching her from afar and keeping its distance perched atop one of the nearby buildings. It wasn’t that hard to spot a purple unicorn in Ponyville, not many ponies shared the same coloring.

Of course, also from its vantage point, the White Garuda was also able to see that on the other side of the buildings was the very same red dragon that Twilight was looking for, just casually walking through the streets, one of his claws at his scaled chin. ‘Rainbow Dash… Gilda… The pieces are lining up. But I can’t be sure about this, and if I don’t play this right, then things might just end up worse.’

Haru stopped for a few moments and looked into the sky. ‘I wonder if sometimes this is worth the trouble.’

The dragon closed his eyes as his mind drifted into thought, images that he had buried deep within his conscious slowly began to surface…

The sun being eclipsed by the moon.

Countless beings trapped on the ground with dark energy coursing through the earth and through those very same beings.

Screams echoing through the air as the energy began to crack those beings’ bodies.

Those horrible screams as their bodies were shattered to unleash monstrous forms that stalked the area.

The deafening beat of his heart, trying to rip itself out of his very chest.

The pain of his very body tearing itself apart.

“I…”

His eyesight failing, he lifted his head up, a sick laughter piercing through the horrid screams.

“I…!”

With his cracked limb lifted up towards the eclipsed sun, purple energy surging from between the cracks.

Haru’s eyes opened as he looked down at his right claw and clenched it tightly, ‘That’s right. This is the only path for me now. I cannot allow these Phantoms to do what they please, not after what they did, I can’t let there be another victim!’

With his spirit reignited, Haru turned away from his balled up claw and continued to walk through the streets.

A loud roar blasted through the air, drawing Haru’s attention towards the farmer’s market. But before he could even take a step, a familiar yellow pegasus flew through the air above Haru, the dragon easily noting that the pink maned mare was crying audibly. The red dragon watched as the pegasus fly off into the distance. ‘That was ‘Fluttershy, right?’

Looking to where the young pegasus had fled from, Haru looked past the crowd of ponies to see a unique figure amongst them. It wasn’t hard to distinguish a griffin from a town of ponies, the shear height and difference of body type was a dead giveaway. ‘Well, I found the needle in this haystack.’

Target in sight, Haru quickly but casually slipped through the crowds to follow Gilda, which incidentally became a tougher to do since she flew off right after Haru laid eyes on her. But, by some miracle, the red dragon was able to keep the griffon in sight as she flew to the outskirts of Ponyville.

Thankfully for the tired dragon, about that time, Gilda was finally descending from the sky heading for one of the many trees outside the town. Haru was quite a few yards away when he stopped to look at the now perched griffon from a distance. Taking a few moments to compose himself, Haru slowly walked towards the tree that Gilda was in.

“Afternoon Gilda.”

The griffon grimaced as she looked down at the oncoming dragon, “Great, someone else who wants to bug me. What do you want, Lizard?”

Something clicked inside Haru’s mind and he narrowed his eyes a bit at the griffon. Before he spoke though, Haru smiled brightly, although his right eye twitched slightly. “It’s Haru, but that’s not important right now. How are you doing Gilda?”

Gilda sighed loudly before she turned around on the branch with her back to the red dragon. "Is there a point to this boring conversation?"

‘This isn’t going to be easy,’ Haru thought to himself as he cleared his throat. “Well, if you’re going to be brash about this, then yes, there is a point. I’m here to talk to you about your attitude.”

Gilda rolled her eyes, “You got a problem, dweeb?”

“I make it my problem when someone makes ponies cry and drops them from the sky,” Haru retorted with his eyes narrowed. “Your attitude is one thing, but assaulting is a whole other matter. And frankly, if you hurt anypony here, I assure you it won’t end well for you.”

That got Gilda to shift around so she could leer at the dragon in front of her, taking note that he was placing a big red ring on his left claw. “Those are some big words for a little lizard like you.”

Ignoring that little comment, Haru kept his attention on the griffon, “So, I finally got your attention, huh? Good.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Gilda grumbled as she waved one of her talons in the air. “Look, if you’re just going to lecture me, you might as well just take your story walking, I heard that junk before.”

“Fine, fine,” Haru sighed. “I’ll get to the point then, why’d you make Pinkie Pie fall out of the sky? You could’ve gotten her badly hurt, or worse!”

Gilda sighed with a roll of her eyes. “Yeesh, you’re just as annoying as that pink headache. I was just trying to get rid of her, she couldn’t take a hint!”

“That doesn’t justify trying to hurt her,” Haru retorted with his eyes narrowed. “And I don’t think Rainbow Dash would appreciate that you’re trying to hurt one of her friends.”

“Friend? That’s a laugh!” Gilda scoffed. “She doesn’t need losers like you or that walkin’ headache now that I’m around!”

“Why are you around anyway?” Haru questioned, tilting his head slightly.

Gilda snarled slightly, “What the Tartarus are you talking about?”

“Dash told me that she kept word with a couple of her friends from Cloudsdale,” Haru explained as he crossed his arms, keeping his right claw near his belt buckle. “Of course, that includes you. Or at least, it did until six months ago. Then out of the blue, you just arrive here in Ponyville. If you think you’re Rainbow Dash’s best bud around, then why did you stop writing to her? Furthermore, why did you just show up without any word to Dash?”

“I… I don’t have to explain anything to you,” Gilda growled as she spread her wings. “I’m outta here!”

“Fine, you can fly away,” Haru stated as Gilda began to flap her wings. “But if you do, then I’ll just have to tell Rainbow Dash about what you did to Pinkie Pie. I doubt she’ll see eye to eye with your line of reasoning.”

Gilda stopped her wings and growled loudly, “You wouldn’t dare.”

“If it’s to protect my friends, I’ll do it,” Haru retorted with his eyes sharply aimed at Gilda. “Now, I suggest that you come down to the ground, and we’ll continue this little conversation.”

With a loud growl, the young griffon leapt from the branch and landed in front of Haru.

The red dragon nodded before he smiled slightly, “Rainbow Dash must mean a lot to you, huh?”

Gilda scoffed as she turned away, “Did you have a point in threatening me? Or did you just want to keep up with idle chat?”

“It’s relevant, I assure you,” Haru stated with his arms raised up. “You’re willing to do anything for Dash, she’s that important to you, isn’t she?”

“Yeah, what of it?” Gilda spat back, rolling her eyes at the dragon. “She’s just a friend.”

“Junior Speedsters are our lives,
Sky-bound soars and daring dives!
Junior Speedsters, it's our quest,
To some day be the very best!”

Gilda jumped slightly when that familiar chant was proclaimed to her by the red dragon in front of her. With a blush now adorning his face, Haru cleared his throat, “Ahem, I doubt I’ll ever get that out of my brain, it’s quite the embarrassing song, wouldn’t you agree? I can’t believe Dash got you to sing in front of two practical strangers.”

The feathers on Gilda’s face streaked slightly red, yet Haru continued on, “I think you also said ‘Only for you Dash’, if I can remember that right. Feel free to say I’m wrong, but if that’s the case, then Rainbow Dash must be a special case to you.”

Gilda didn’t say a word, but she did growl at Haru.

“Right! Then that just makes this all the more puzzling – Why would you consider Dash a real good friend, to the point that you’re willing to embarrass yourself for her, but not respond to any of the letters she’s sent you? Or even send a letter to her over the six month period?”

“Shut up!” Gilda snarled loudly, stomping one of her talons into the dirt.

“Something must’ve happened to make you leave a good friend hanging,” Haru stated bluntly as he lifted his right claw up to reveal the second ring on his claw to Gilda.

“What’s it matter to you?!” Gilda growled as she grabbed Haru’s jacket and pulled him closer to her. “So what if something did happen?! It’s got nothing to do with you, you scaled dork!”

“That’s where you’re wrong!” Haru barked back, grabbing ahold of Gilda’s wrist, making her let go of the dragon’s jacket. “You’re Dash’s friend, and she obviously cares about you! I’m her friend as well, and so is Pinkie, if there is something wrong concerning our friends, then it concerns us as well!”

Gilda pulled her talon away with a loud growl, “That is so stupid and lame! You don’t know what I’ve been through! You wouldn’t believe what I’ve had to deal with!”

Haru looked down at the rings on his claws, “I’ve seen my fair share of troubles in my life, stuff you wouldn’t believe either. So, try me.”

Keeping her narrowed gaze locked on the dragon, Gilda scoffed to the side, before she turned her narrowed eyes down at the dragon. The griffon took a deep breath before…

“LISTEN HERE YOU BLOODY TALKING LIZARD!! YOU BETTER NOT CROSS MY PATH AGAIN, CAUSE I’LL RIP YOU INTO A MILLION PIECES! I’LL MAKE YOU INTO A PAIR OF DRAGON SKINNED BOOTS!”

The force of all that rage forced the spines atop of Haru’s head stand up straight, although the rest of him was calm and collected. Gilda huffed and puffed as Haru fixed his spines atop of his till they were back in place. “… You done?”

Gilda slumped back with a loud sigh, her head drooping down. “Yeah…”

“Good, then let’s get this started,” Haru replied as he reached for another ring from his jacket.

A few moments later, and with a quick use of a Connect Spell, Haru and Gilda were seated underneath the same tree that she was perched in earlier with a small table with a couple of cups of water on it. Gilda was a little surprised at the magic that the dragon just performed in front of her. “Never saw a lizard use magic before, thought that just those horned ponies called dibs on that stuff.”

Haru took a sip from his cup, his eyes closed before he set the cup on the ground, “I’m a dragon, not a lizard. And what you’re referring to is a unicorn, but that’s not the point – We’re talking about you.”

Gilda sighed with her eyes narrowed at the rather snotty dragon, “Whatever dweeb. If you really want my life story, fine.

“You were kinda right, dork, something did happen six months ago.”

Haru opened his eyes and looked at Gilda. ‘Alright moment of truth…’

“I’ve been through a lot of lame stuff over the last few months,” Gilda sighed as she gripped the cup in front of her. “It started almost six months ago when I was working my job, I worked in the delivery business for the Cloudsdale Mail Express, and I was real good at my job too. Tartarus, I was on my way to getting another promotion.

“But, after I was done working a late night, there was a fire and a whole lot of packages and letters were burned to a crisp. There was an investigation, and somehow a lot of my feathers were found at the scene and it was thought that I caused the fire! I wouldn’t do something so stupid like that! Not when I was up for a promotion!”

‘So, you destroyed packages when you weren’t up for a promotion?’ Haru thought to himself.

“I didn’t do it!” Gilda snarled making Haru blink a few times in confusion. “Anyway, it just went downhill from there – I was lucky that I didn’t get locked up by the coppers since they thought it was an accident, but I got canned from my job and I was forced to take another that I hated. I hate the damn food industry, but when you got bills to pay, you can’t be choosey.

“To throw more fuel on the fire, I still owed a load of bits to the Mail Express to compensate those losers who lost those damn packages. I couldn’t pay them back with my current job, so after some thought, I had to sell some of my stuff to get out of that debt, either that or get locked up. But wouldn’t ya know it? My place got jacked! Everything valuable was broken in two and any bits I had locked up were gone!”

Haru remained silent (save for a sip from the cup of water) as he listened to Gilda’s rant. Gilda growled as she slammed a balled up talon onto the table. “What the Tartarus did I do to deserve this stuff!? I didn’t do anything to nobody! I had to sell my home to make sure I didn’t end up in the slammer, but the problems just kept piling up! My former co-workers kept getting assaulted, and a bunch of ponies who had a grudge against me did too!”

‘Gee, I wonder why they had grudges,’ Haru mused with a roll of his eyes

“The law kept getting on my case,” Gilda continued as she turned away from the dragon. “Nothing stuck thanks to some half-boiled pony that I knew kinda proved that I wasn’t guilty, but it just kept happening again and again! I had to get away from Cloudsdale otherwise I’d probably just get tossed in the slammer, no matter how many times I’d get cleared.”

“So you came here, cause you knew you had a real good friend who could help you,” Haru mused out loud.

“Yeah, that’s pretty much it,” Gilda sighed.

“I take it Dash doesn’t know,” Haru guessed with his arms crossed. “There’s no way she’d be all chipper if she knew what was happening to her.”

“She doesn’t need to know,” Gilda growled with her gold eyes narrowed down at the dragon. “I made sure that half-boiled pony who helped didn’t tell her this in his letters, and I’ll make sure that you don’t tell her either. These are my problems, and I sure as Tartarus ain’t going to burden Dash with them!”

Haru lifted his hands up defensively, “Hey, it’s not my place to tell her. That’s up to you to decide Gilda. But keeping things from friends isn’t the best, especially if they can bring problems to the ones you care about.”

“You think I don’t know that?!” Gilda barked as she stabbed her talons into the table. “I just want things to go back to the way they were! I don’t know why the Tartarus this kind of plop is happening to me, but it doesn’t involve Dash! But I… I…”

“You really do treasure your friendship with Dash,” Haru interrupted with a smile on his face. “But, you can’t just look to the past Gilda, if you do that, you’ll just be trapped there, and lose those who continue to the future, unfortunately that includes Dash.

“She’s still your friend, but she has a life here outside of Cloudsdale. If you don’t open up to her and keep ostracizing her friends, then you’re going to end up regretting it.”

“GARGH!” Gilda snarled loudly as she threw the table to the side, making the dragon in front of her lean back slightly in surprise. “You loser! You don’t know what the Tartarus you’re talking about! I don’t know why I even opened up to you in the first place!”

“Well, that’s simple really,” Haru chuckled with a smile on his face. “Some ponies, and griffons too, bottle stuff up. Eventually, the pressure gets to be too much, and sometimes they explode, other times, they’re just waiting for someone to listen.

“I kind of pegged you as someone like that when you kept being way too unauthentic, putting on too much of a tough girl façade kinda made me realize that you’re just hiding beneath all that bravado.”

Gilda growled loudly.

TTTTTTT

A little while later, Twilight was at the small river inside Ponyville, looking at the water below the bridge she was at. She had looked all over Ponyville for the magical dragon, but her search turned out to be futile. ‘There has to be a spell that I can use to keep tabs on him, or at the very least find a way to communicate with him far away.’

Using her magic to pull the ring out from her saddlebags, Twilight floated the Multi-Ring in front of her. ‘I wonder, Haru’s able to use these rings by having them tap into his own source of magic – Couldn’t I do the same if I channel my magic into them?’

Twilight was about to do so, but stopped herself, “No, it wouldn’t work, at least not for this ring.”

‘Those scrolls said that this ring could only be used when…’

“Hey there, Twilight,” a familiar voice called out surprising the lavender unicorn, almost making her drop the ring.

The mare quickly used her magic to fit the ring into her saddle bags before she turned around, “Haru! There you are, I was looking for you and… What the!? Haru! Are you okay?”

Haru rubbed his bloody nose with a warm smile on his face, “Don’t worry Twilight, in the words of an infamous figure – ‘If you can't take a little bloody nose, maybe you ought to go back home and crawl under your bed. It's not safe out here. It's wondrous, with treasures to satiate desires both subtle and gross. But it's not for the timid.’

“I just kinda went a little too far with my ‘exploration’.”

“Who exactly said that?” Twilight asked trying to think about who could’ve said something like that.

“Some entity of chaos I once read about,” the dragon admitted as he stepped onto the bridge next to Twilight. “But that’s not important, you said you were looking for me?”

“Yeah, but when I found you, I wasn’t expecting to see you covered in blood,” Twilight pointed out blatantly. “What exactly happened to you?”

“Uh, better if you drop it,” Haru recommended with his claws held up defensively. “Now, what did you need from me?”

“Well, I was kinda curious about something,” Twilight stated, not wanting to push the issue with the dragon. “You only have three familiars right?”

“The PlaMonsters?” Haru questioned with his brow raising slightly. “Yeah, I’ve only got three – Yellow Kraken’s with the Apple Family, I have Red Garuda following Dash, and Blue Unicorn should be with you. Uh, speaking of, where is Unicorn?”

“Well, I asked him to keep an eye on Pinkie Pie,” Twilight stated. “But are you sure you don’t have another version of Garuda?”

“Another version of Garuda?” Haru questioned, blinking a few times at the lavender Unicorn. “What do you mean? I only have the Red Garuda.”

“So, who has the White Garuda?” Twilight asked.

Haru’s eyes widened in revelation when he heard that, “A White Garuda?!”

The dragon stomped closer to Twilight, his eyes narrowed and his claws held up, “Twilight, are you sure about that!?”

The unicorn was a little surprised at Haru losing his cool bravado over the second Garuda, but she nodded towards the dragon. “Yes, I’m sure. Its body wasn’t made out of rubies, it was pure diamond. And it even had a few scrolls with it…”

Twilight used her magic to pull out the two scrolls out from her saddle and used the same spell to unfurl them. “One just had a runic circle similar to the ones that you use with your magic, and the other was just a simple sentence.”

Haru looked at one of the scrolls and did note that it was a golden runic circle that had the basic principles as his, only this one with different phases of the moon surrounding the central symbol. The dragon then turned his attention to the other scroll, and read it out loud. “Two is better than one… What the?”

“Yeah, I don’t get it either,” Twilight sighed with her head lowered.

“I feel like I’m being trolled somehow,” Haru admitted with his head lowered.

“I know how that is,” Twilight added as her horn glowed once more, pulling out the same ring she was looking at earlier. “But, I got the messages when I was looking at this ring that you left with Pinkie. I’m sure that’s got something to do with it.”

Haru looked at the ring and gripped it with his tail, “Hmm…”

“Anyway, why do you have Garuda watching Dash?” Twilight questioned as she leaned at Haru, making him lean back. “Is Dash a Gate? Is there another Phantom in Ponyville?”

Haru lifted his claws up defensively, “Well, I’m pretty sure that Dash isn’t a Gate, but I’m keeping Garuda around her so that there won’t be a problem. As for the Phantom, well, I’m not going to lie, there are two Phantoms this time.”

Twilight bit her lower lip as she turned her attention away from the dragon, “How long did you know?”

“Since this morning,” Haru answered with his claws now in his pockets. “I wanted to tell you, but I didn’t know who the Gate was and I had to find out before the Phantoms appeared again.”

“I understand that Haru,” Twilight replied as she turned her attention towards the dragon. “But I have to ask you, why are my friends and myself being targeted by these Phantoms? It can’t just be a coincidence!”

“It can’t, can it?” Haru mused as he rubbed his chin. “And I wish I had an answer to give you, all I know is that I have a duty. And that duty is to protect anypony from these Phantoms, and Twilight, as long as I’m here, I’ll make sure that you or your friends won’t be harmed by Phantoms.”

The unicorn smiled at the dragon before she giggled, “Odd, I seem to recall that AJ and I had to come to your rescue when you fought against that Pranch Phantom.”

Haru reeled back as if he was just socked again, “Hey! I wouldn’t start this kind of argument! Let’s not forget who saved who’s flank the first time!”

For a moment, both magical creatures leered at each other before they laughed for a little. When the laughter ceased, Twilight smiled brightly at the dragon, “So, any chance you’re going to tell me how your nose got like that?”

“I’m taking that secret to the grave,” Haru replied.

Before either of them could say another word, a small neighing sound caught their attention towards the bridge’s edge. At the ground was none other than the small Unicorn Familiar trotting towards the two with a basket filled with pink envelopes that had a familiar trio of balloons on it. The small familiar jumped to its dragon’s shoulder and neighed loudly as it bumped the basket against Haru’s cheek a few times.

Taking the hint, Haru grabbed one of the envelopes and the small familiar leapt down to Twilight and made a similar gesture towards Twilight. The lavender Unicorn used her own magic to pull one of the envelopes. Unicorn neighed happily before it galloped away.

Haru sighed as he looked at the envelope, “Ya know, I don’t mind if you ponies use my familiars to help you, I just wish I’d get a little forewarning.”

Twilight chuckled sheepishly as she used her magic to open the envelope, “Well, not like I asked him to do this. Pinkie probably did.”

Haru rolled his eyes as he used his claw to open up the envelope and pull out the small sheet of paper inside. “Let’s see… Huh, apparently I was just invited to a party. Gee, I wonder who’s throwing it.”

“Says here that the party’s for Gilda,” Twilight pointed out, ignoring the little bit of sarcasm that Haru spouted. “Haru, I don’t suppose you met this Gilda, have you?”

“Actually, I’ve had the ‘pleasure’,” Haru replied adding the air quotes with his claws.

“What’s she like?” Twilight inquired as she used her magic to slip the invitation into her saddlebag. “Pinkie told me a few things earlier, and I feel bad because of what I said to her. I was hoping to hear what you know about her in order to figure out if I was wrong or not.”

“Then I suggest you go to this party and meet Gilda yourself,” Haru replied with a nod to himself. “Trust me, it’s not a good idea to form an opinion on somepony you haven’t met unless you meet them yourself. I believe a good saying for you is ‘Don’t judge a book by the cover’.”

“Indeed, that is a good saying,” Twilight admitted with a bright grin on her face. “So, what are you going to do now?”

“Well, I’m thinking about going to this party,” The red dragon stated before he rubbed his nose. “But before that, I’m going to back to the library and clean myself up. I doubt that even Pinkie Pie would be thrilled to see a dragon covered in blood appear at her party.”

Twilight nodded before Haru began to walk off, his tail still wrapped around the Multi Ring. ‘That symbol on that scroll was the same when he used that Ring Ring, so it must be from his master. It wasn’t that hard to figure out, but it would make sense that his master would have similar magic.

‘I wonder, is Haru’s master a dragon too?’

Twilight mused her thoughts before she began to leave the bridge area as well, unaware that the White Garuda was watching her from the air. The diamond encrusted familiar chirped once before it dove down to keep a closer look on the lavender unicorn.

TTTTTT

Sugarcube Corner in the late afternoon was abuzz with life on this day, with several ponies entering the highly decorated bakery. Music, streamers and several balloons filled the air with the pink hostess of the party at the door greeting each and every one of her guests.

Twilight had arrived a little earlier and was surprised to see that most of her friends, save for Rainbow Dash and Haru, were there. Even Spike was amongst the ponies, although, he was keeping an eye on a certain stylish mare.

On the other hoof, Twilight was trotting up to a rather timid Fluttershy – even more so than the usual timidity that the mare showed – in the middle of the shop, “Are you alright Fluttershy? You’re looking a little nervous.”

“Oh, T-Twilight, hello,” the shy pegasus squeaked back. “It’s n-nothing.”

“Alright,” Twilight replied, thinking of a way to change the subject. “Have you met Gilda before, Fluttershy? What’s she like?”

“Oh, um, well,” Fluttershy stuttered, looking down at the ground. “I’ll tell you later Twilight.”

Said unicorn blinked a few times as she watch Fluttershy trot past her and head straight towards the hostess of the party. Twilight shook her head before she herself trotted to find her dragon scribe.

“Welcome! Welcome!” Pinkie cheered gleefully to a pair of mares who casually strolled in.

“Um, Pinkie Pie?” Fluttershy said, getting her pink friend’s attention. “Listen, about this party for Gilda, do you…”

However, before the young pegasus could finish voicing her concerns about this welcoming celebration, Fluttershy froze up completely with wide eyes. Pinkie tilted her head slightly, “Oooh! Are we playing a new game? Is it freeze tag?! No wait, that’s not much of an indoor party game, oh! How is it charades? I love charades! Lemme guess… Hmm, is it a statue? Is it the Statue of Miss Li-Bray-Ty? No wait! You’re one of those Ghuls that Haru fights!

“Nonononono! I know what you’re doing! You just saw a ghost didn’t you? Lucky! I’ve always wanted to meet a ghost - Especially a green one that when it goes through anything, it would leave a green slime trail!”

“Unless I just turned green and can float without magic,” A familiar voice chuckled behind Pinkie. “I’m afraid you’ll have to make do with a red, flightless dragon who can’t phase through walls.”

Pinkie Pie spun around with a large smile on her face as she saw Haru, who was now wearing a dark gray denim jacket that had a few pin buttons on it that had weird symbols on it. “Haru! I was almost, kinda, sorta, a teenie-weenie little bit worried that you wouldn’t show up!”

“Huh?” Haru questioned as he leaned up against the doorway. “Why wouldn’t I show up?”

“Uni told me that you got hurt,” Pinkie said with a slight grimace to her face before it melted away into a really warm smile. “But it must’ve just been a nose bleed since you’re here! I’m so glad!”

It was then that Pinkie lifted up her hoof to Haru, but the dragon just looked at the pink pony, “Uni? Who’s Uni?”

“Uni!” Pinkie called out gently.

Leaping from the air above was none other than the blue unicorn familiar, with a small pink party hat atop of its head. Haru just blinked a few times before he slapped his forehead, ‘Unicorn… Why are you… Forget it. I’m starting to think that Pinkie Pie’s free spirit insanity is contagious, at least when my familiars are concerned. But… How did Unicorn tell Pinkie Pie that I had a bloody nose?!’

Shaking the thought from his head least his head would explode, the red dragon turned his attention towards the still frozen stiff Fluttershy. “So, what’s up with her?”

“Dunno,” Pinkie replied as she lifted her hoof up once more to Haru. “Anyway, come on in Haru! We’ve got plenty of yummy food and plenty of fun games, in a little bit we’re gonna play one of my all time favorites! Pin the tail on the pony!”

The dragon looked down at the hoof with a raised brow, but shrugged before he used his right claw to grip the mare’s pink hoof…

BZZT!

The spines on his head and his tail shot up into the air as a jolt of electricity slipped through the dragon’s body. “GAGH!”

Snickers echoed through the air as Haru pulled his hand away from Pinkie’s hoof, his blue eyes wide. The pink mare laughed as well and revealed that strapped to her hoof was a joy buzzer. Haru shook his right claws while his left claws pulled his spines back down over his head. “A j-joy buzzer, nice one.”

Haru still shook his claws as he entered into the party, passing by Fluttershy. When he did, Fluttershy shook her head and finally continued to speak, “… Um, do you really think it’s a good idea? I mean…”

And just as if the conversation hadn’t been weirdly interrupted, Pinkie turned to her friend with a bright smile. “Don’t worry your pretty little head about mean old Gilda.”

Using her non-buzzer front leg, Pinkie lifted her hoof up and gently tapped her pegasus’ head a few times. “Your Auntie Pinkie Pie’s got it all taken care of!”

Fluttershy had a rather annoyed look on her face as Pinkie Pie turned away, “I’m a year older than you.”

Amongst the party guests, Haru had found himself near the table of snacks, looking over the confectionaries with a grimace on his face. ‘Cake, lemon drops, marshmallows, pudding… No doughnuts. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised, not like everyone likes doughnuts.’

Haru reached for one of the lemon drops…

“Gilda!”

Before Haru could wrap his claws around one of the lemony treats, everypony (plus two dragons) in the shop turned towards the door to see Pinkie Pie greeting a familiar griffon at the door. From his vantage point, the red dragon was able to see that Rainbow Dash was also there, but was simply watching the two with Garuda perched on the pegasus’ back.

Haru realized that Pinkie held up hoof that had a familiar gag on it, and he watched as Gilda reluctantly lifted her talons up to grab the hoof…

BZZT!

It was a rather interesting sight to see Gilda react to the hoof buzzer, her wings and feathers forced to stand on end, her yellow eyes bugging out, and electricity sparking over her body. Haru could even swore that he saw the griffon’s skeleton a few times as the gag struck her. ‘Oh boy, I hope that I didn’t have the same reaction.’

After she released her talons from Pinkie, Gilda slumped to the ground with a number of the ponies in the shop laughing along with Pinkie’s. Haru didn’t laugh, but took notice that Gilda was glaring at the pink pony for a mere second before Dash got in her line of sight, the griffon put on a rather fake smile for her friend’s sake.

Haru grimaced slightly before he walked away from the snack table, heading towards where the drinks are, ‘Seeing as how the last time we interacted didn’t go so well, I think I’ll just make friendly conversation with the wall and watch what happens.’

Indeed, for most of the party, Haru did keep his back to the wall and watched as the antics of the party occur. After the initial prank with Pinkie Pie, Gilda kept getting struck with pranks – lemon drops with pepper in them which resulted in the griffon in breathing fire (which Spike had pointed out was better than the smoke that Haru had puffed out a day before, much to the taller dragon’s chagrin), a glass of punch that had a hole in it to have it spill on her crest of feathers, and even a classic gag of surprising snakes disguised as a present.

All the while, Gilda kept her cool, but the tension behind that forced smile that looked like it could break any moment.

During a small break between pranks, with Fluttershy having some of her bird friends singing some rather cute music, Pinkie Pie rolled out a rather large cake that had a number of candles atop it. “Cake-time everypony! It’s not a lie!”

All the ponies in the room gathered around the large cake, some licking their chops at the sight of the frosted confectionary treat. Amongst them was Spike, who was bouncing up and down on his toes. “Hey! Can I blow out the candles?”

Twilight smiled at her young dragon scribe, “Why don’t we let Gilda blow out the candles Spike? She is the guest of honor after all.”

Just like that, Gilda slid into the small dragon and knocked him over to the side, “Exactly!”

While Gilda drew in a deep breath, Haru was near Pinkie and whispered to her, “Hey Pinkie, I’m not much of a cake dragon, but do you know if there are any doughnuts here?”

The pink mare leaned back to Haru as Gilda blew out the flames on the candles, only for them to relight themselves. “Oh! You’re more than welcomed to see if there are any in the kitchen!”

Haru nodded, noting that Gilda kept trying to blow out the candles, failing each time. With a shrug, the red dragon slipped through the giggling crowds of ponies and went into the kitchen. Even when Haru stepped into the kitchen, he could hear the laughter that was echoing though out the shop. The sleek dragon shook his head before he looked through the room for some of the sugary treats.

While the sleek dragon was searching for his favorite treats, a familiar diamond encrusted bird flew in through the opened windows and landed atop of the cupboards. The White Garuda remained silent as it watched Haru look about, rolling its eyes at the sight of the dragon.

“TWEET!”

Haru’s head perked up when he heard that and turned his head about, “Garuda?”

The White Garuda sounded out once more, alerting Haru to crane his head. It didn’t take long for Haru to follow the noise, but when his eyes landed on the diamond studded familiar, they widened greatly, “Twilight was right. You are here, White Garuda. Does that mean he’s here?”

White Garuda lifted one of its wings and pecked at it a few times. Haru reached into his jacket and pulled out the two scrolls that Twilight had given him, the young dragon lifted the scrolls up towards the familiar, “He had you deliver these, right? Is he still around? Or is he somewhere else?”

Deep down, Haru knew he wasn’t going to get a verbal answer from the White Garuda, but this was something that the dragon had to do. Before Haru could continue his pointless questioning, a loud yelping echoed through the air, both Haru and the White Garuda turned towards the entrance of the kitchen to see a blindfolded Gilda slipping into the kitchen, having stepped on large dollop of icing.

Unfortunately for Haru, he didn’t react in time.

A loud cry of pain echoed through the shop before Haru ran out of the kitchen, a violet tail pinned on his backside next to his regular tail. Dashing past all of the ponies, Haru leapt out the front door, yelping in pain. The ponies couldn’t help but laugh, especially when Gilda stumbled out of the kitchen, covered with various kinds of mushed up pastries.

“Well, at least you pinned the tail on an end,” Pinkie snickered with a bright smile. “Although, we were playing pin the tail on the pony, not pin the tail on the dragon.”

Gilda snarled loudly with fire in her eyes.

TTTTTT

Haru winced as he gingerly pulled the colorful, toy pony-tail from his backside, stifling a yelp. With the toy tail between his claws, the dragon sighed before he tossed the tail over his shoulder. “I hope the local doctor knows how to give tetanus shots to a dragon.”

Now that he was just outside Sugarcube Corner, Haru rubbed his bruised behind, ‘I’m taking a lot more abuse than usual today. The two Phantoms, getting pranked, and even assault , I think when I get this day over with, I’m just going to crash on the couch with a box of doughnuts…’

The dragon’s tasty thoughts were immediately interrupted when a loud roar blasted out of the shop, nearly tripping over himself in surprise.

Worried that a Phantom was attacking, Haru ran to the door and looked back into the shop – There wasn’t a Phantom, but there was something much worse.

A very angry Gilda flying in the air, yelling at the top of her lungs, pointing a talon at Pinkie Pie, “This is your idea of a good time? I've never met a lamer bunch of dweebs in all my life! And Pinkie Pie, you! You are queen lame-o with your weak little party pranks! Did you really think you could make me lose my cool?”

‘What do you call this? You’re yelling at everypony,’ Haru thought to himself as Gilda landed on the floor near Rainbow Dash.

“Well, Dash and I have ten times as much cool as the rest of you put together!” Gilda exclaimed as she threw a talon around the blue pegasus, unaware that Dash narrowed her eyes slightly. “Come on Dash, we're bailing on this pathetic scene.”

Gilda took a few steps towards the door, but soon realized that she was walking alone. The griffon turned towards her pegasus friend, “Come on Rainbow Dash, I said, we’re leaving.”

However, Dash stood her ground and continued her leer at Gilda. “You know Gilda, I was the one who set up all those weak pranks at this party.”

‘What a twist,’ Haru thought while Gilda gasped in surprise.

“So, I guess I’m Queen Lame-o,” Dash continued back.

Gilda chuckled nervously, “C’mon Dash, you’re joshing me.”

“They weren’t all meant for you specifically,” Dash admitted looking a little ashamed. “It was just dumb luck that you set them all off.”

“I shoulda known,” Pinkie Pie stated with a smile. “That dribble cup had Rainbow Dash written all over it.”

“No way!” Gilda hissed as she leered at Pinkie. “It was Pinkie Pie! She set up this party to trip me up! To make a fool of me!”

“Me?” Pinkie questioned with a slightly hurt look in her eyes. “I threw this party to improve your attitude, I thought a good party might turn that frown upside down.”

“And you sure didn’t need any help making a fool of yourself,” Rainbow Dash continued. “You know, this isn’t how I thought my old friends would treat my new friends. If being cool is all you care about, maybe you should go find some new cool friends someplace else?”

Gilda growled loudly and was about to say something, but instead turned around and stomped out of the shop, almost knocking Haru out of the way to do so.

The sleek dragon turned back to the shop, and then towards Gilda who didn’t turn back at all. “Gilda…”

“Get bent, loser,” Gilda growled before her wings began to flap and pull her from the ground.

Haru sighed before he snapped his claws, getting the red Garuda to fly out of Sugarcube Corner. The sleek dragon gestured with his head and immediately, Garuda flew after the griffon. ‘This is not going to end well…’

TTTTTTT

Though Gilda had flown out of Ponyville, she didn’t go too far. She was back where she and Haru had their discussion, only difference this time instead of trying to nap in the tree previously, the griffon was slashing at the bark of the tree. “STUPID PONIES! STUPID DASH! STUPID… TREE!”

Gilda cried out as she dug her claws into the bark of the tree, and stopped with her head lowered. “Damn it… Why?”

Tears slowly welled up in the griffon’s eyes, “Dash… I…”

“Aw, little baby gonna cry?”

Gilda snapped her head up and stepped away from the tree as two shadowy figures stepped out from behind the very tree that the griffon was attacking. Although she had no idea who these two were, or for the matter of what they were, the fact that they were creatures that she had never seen before. “I… I wasn’t crying!”

“Sure you weren’t,” Djinn cackled with a wag of her finger towards the Griffon. “You’re just a sad little child aren’t you? A scared little child, all alone in this world – Everything you know is gone.”

“Shut the Tartarus up!” Gilda roared at the Phantom. “You don’t know a damn thing about me!”

“You drove the last pony who could help you away,” Djinn stated bluntly with her arms crossed. “Everything that happened to you – Nopony believed you when you declared your innocence in Cloudsdale, why do you think that is? Despite your cold demeanor, and your proclamations that you don’t care about what others think, you’ve isolated yourself from every single being from you.”

Gilda growled as she lifted up her talons. “Be quiet you… You… Whatever the Tartarus you are!”

But Djinn just continued as she leaned up against the tree, uncaring that Gilda was threatening her, “And just now – Thanks to that little attitude of yours – You’ve broken the only real friendship that you held dear. You could’ve salvaged it, but you had to burn any bridges that you could save it.”

Djinn lifted up her other hand to reveal an old photo that had younger versions of Gilda and Rainbow Dash flying through a clouded sky. That made even Gilda stop and her jaded eyes softened slightly. “That’s…”

“The only reminder of your time with your good friend,” Djinn chuckled before she tossed the picture into the air.

Gilda reached for the photo as it slowly floated down.

Only to pull her talon back as a several purple flames flew through the air and completely engulfed the picture. Gilda’s golden yellow eyes widened as the embers of the photo danced around her. “NO!”

BA-DUM!

Gilda’s pupils shrunk as she slumped to the ground, the sound of her heartbeat echoing loud enough for the two Phantoms to hear. Hellhound chuckled loudly as he lifted his arms up, “Subarashi! Most excellent work Djinn! Soon, a new Phantom shall be born into this world!”

“No need to tell me that,” Djinn replied with a shrug of her shoulders. “I know I’m just pure awesomeness – Still was a pain in the flank though. Having to follow this loser in Cloudsdale just gave me a headache, and ruining her life was just as annoying.

“Although, since we’re about to welcome a new Phantom, shouldn’t we get a birthday cake?”

Hellhound just looked at the female Phantom with his head tilted slightly. “What the? We’re not celebrating anything! Not like we got cake when we were brought into this world!”

Before Djinn could say another word, several beams of red light crashed into both Phantoms’ bodies, sparks flying from them as they flew away from the fallen Gilda.

“You sure know how to throw a party,” a familiar voice called out as the two Phantoms landed on the ground a couple of yards from Gilda. “No food, no drinks, and the way you treat girls is just in poor taste.”

Both Phantoms turned to see Haru walking towards Gilda, his gun trained on the two Phantoms. But the dragon wasn’t alone, behind him was a pair of ponies following the dragon – Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle.

“WIZARD!”

“RING MAGE!”

When the group reached Gilda, that’s when something strange began to happen to the griffon, a large purple crack of energy appeared on Gilda’s body. Rainbow Dash looked at the weird crack as smaller cracks appeared on her body, “Gilda! What’s wrong!?”

“Haru! What’s happening to her?” Twilight asked observing the cracks before she turned to Haru.

“DRIVER ON – PLEASE!”

“The Phantom within her is awakening,” Haru answered as he lifted up his left claw, revealing the Flame Style ring on his claws.

“What does that mean?” Dash questioned as Gilda growled slightly in pain.

“Isn’t there something we can do?” Twilight asked.

“Nothing!” Djinn laughed loudly as her fiery purple hair flickered a little bit before the excess of it transformed into her scimitar. “Once a Phantom inside a Gate gets its wake up call, there is nothing that you dweebs can do to…”

“I can stop it,” Haru stated as he messed with his belt for a few seconds.

“Sha Ba Do Bi Touch Henshin!”

“What?”

“What?!”

“FLAME – PLEASE!”

“I just need to deal with these two first,” Haru replied as he lifted his left claw up, summoning the fiery runic circle. “Henshin.”

Haru ran through the runic circle, transforming him into Wizard with his gun snapping into his sword. “Hii Hii Hii Hii Hii!”

“It’s Showtime,” Haru announced calmly as he charged at the two Phantoms.

Djinn already had her weapon ready and charged forward, while Hellhound reached into one of the shadows to pull out his own sword out and joined with the other fiery Phantom in their charge towards the ring mage.

It didn’t take long for the two Phantoms to reach the oncoming Wizard, both of which took a slash at the masked dragon. However, Wizard slipped and skidded below both of the attacks, but when he skidded past the two Phantoms, his tail hooked around Hellhound’s ankle which caused the Phantom to fall face first into the ground. “GARGH!”

Quickly getting back to his feet, Wizard spun around and immediately blocked an oncoming slash courtesy of Djinn. The two locked gazes as Djinn growled loudly, “Do you think you can really bluff your way out of saving that pathetic griffon? You can’t stop her Phantom from awakening!”

“I can, and will,” Wizard replied as he quickly stepped back, forcing Djinn to stumble forward and into a kick that slammed her into Hellhound, forcing them both back to the ground.

Taking this opportunity, Wizard stabbed his sword into the ground before he reached for his chain of rings and looked over to where Twilight and Dash were moving Gilda away from the fighting – Taking note that more aura-like cracks were appearing on the griffon’s body. Wizard nodded to himself as he lifted two rings from his chain. ‘Here’s hoping this works.’

Wizard fitted both rings on his right hand and grabbed the sword with his left hand. Using his right hand, Wizard held the sword up and waved his right hand over the closed hand emblem. “MULTI COPY – PLEASE!”

A powerful red aura surrounded Wizard’s sword before he threw it high into the air. Both of the Phantoms had gotten back to their feet, with Hellhound snarling loudly, “This is just getting embarrassing! There’s two of us! One of him!”

“Congratulations, you can do basic math,” Wizard stated with a wag of his finger. “You want a gold star or something?”

Hellhound growled loudly as he dashed across the field, Djinn slipping to get back to her feet, but managed to get her bearings quickly and joined her fellow Phantom in their attack.

Wizard just stood there as Hellhound brought his blade up into the air and prepared to bring its crooked sword down on the masked magician. “Feel the despair of death!”

A moment before the sword could connect with Wizard, several gleams of silver fell from the sky, some of them striking Hellhound, with sparks flying from his body. “GARGH!”

Djinn jumped back just in time to dodge more of the falling gleams of silver, but came to realize that the gleams were actually an almost countless supply of identical swords – The same that Wizard had just tossed up into the air, all of which stabbed into the ground where the three were fighting. “What in Equestira is this?”

Hellhound had just recovered when Wizard began his counterattack, grabbing one of the swords in the ground and quickly slashing it across the dark Phantom’s body, propelling the canine themed Phantom through the air once more with a mass of sparks flying from his body. “Steel is my body and fire is my blood.”

Undaunted, Djinn charged forward and quickly leapt over the earth-embedded blades, bringing down the blade on Wizard, using her full weight in the attack. In response, Wizard lifted his sword up to block the attack, blocking the attack easily with only one claw. “I have created over a thousand blades.”

Using his free hand, Wizard gripped onto a nearby sword and slashed the blade across Djinn’s stomach, purple flames pouring from the contact. “Unaware to death, nor aware to life.”

As Djinn was forced back, Wizard dashed forward with both blades in his hands, and leapt into the air, spun around and slammed both of the blades into the girlish Phantom’s body, knocking her to the ground with her crashing into several other swords. “Withstood despair to forge hope for all.”

A loud cry echoed through the air, and Wizard spun around to lift his left sword up to block Hellhound’s attack. But he quickly realized that he had to lift the right blade up as well, since Hellhound had grabbed one of the embedded swords to use against Wizard. The fiery phantom cackled loudly as he pulled back his own blade and brought it in for a close stab.

Wizard spun to the right to dodge the attack and delivered a swift swipe with his left sword, racing it across Hellhound’s back, embers flying from the Phantom’s body as he cried out in pain. “Lighting the flame of hope, this is the only path.”

Djinn ran quietly behind Wizard and was prepared to stab the magical dragon in the back, however his tail wrapped around another sword and stabbed the blade into her, forcing her back. “GARGH!”

“This is my showtime,” Wizard announced as he flicked open the hand symbol on one of the swords he held. When the original emblem opened, all of the emblems on the other swords opened up as well, all of them glowing a bright red.

“Come on a Slash, Shake Hands!”

Tossing the blade in his left hand away, Wizard raised his claws up to the emblem in his right hand. “And this is your finale.”

When Wizard brought his claws up to the emblem, all of the swords in the ground glowed a dull red. “FLAME – SLASH STRIKE!”

Djinn landed on the ground between a number of swords, taking not of how much heat was pouring off of the swords. “What in Tartarus is this supposed to be?”

“Hii…”

The female Phantom turned towards Wizard, shocked that the mage was right in front of her, and slashed his blade across Djinn’s right arm with flames erupting from her arm.

“Hii Hii…”

Wizard skidded to a stop for a moment, and grabbed another glowing blade while he dropped the blade he just used against the Phantom. In a red and black blur, Wizard slipped past Djinn’s left with a quick slice with the blade he just drew from the ground. More flames erupted from Djinn’s body

“Hii Hii Hii!”

Before the Phantom could react, Wizard had grabbed two of the glowing blades and leapt over her, bringing down both of the weapons down on Djinn’s shoulders, sparks and fire exploding from her body.

And this time with two more swords, with a third one that was coiled by his tail, Wizard charged once more, this time with a spin and brought all three of the blades across Djinn’s body. When the masked mage passed Djinn, he dropped all three swords and grabbed one more and flipped through the air with the blade completely covered with a fiery aura over it. “Hii Hii Hii HiiHiiHii!”

The blade connected with Djinn’s body, and the fiery energy slashed through Djinn’s body as she screamed loudly. The flames completely engulfed Djinn before she exploded into a familiar runic circle that absorbed the flames into it.

Wizard sighed as he turned to see Hellhound struggling on the ground, flames spurting from a crack on his armor. The masked dragon tilted his head slightly as he lifted his sword up, “Get lost.”

Hellhound breathed heavily before he staggered towards some of the shadows of a nearby tree and slipped into it. As he did, all of the swords that were on the ground disappeared, leaving only the remaining sword left in Wizard’s hand.

“Haru!”

Wizard turned back to where Twilight and Dash had brought Gilda away from the fighting, and quickly ran towards the group. When the masked dragon reached them, he noticed that the cracks in Gilda’s body were more prominent.

And despite the fact that Dash had told off Gilda a little earlier, the Pegasus was concerned for her ‘old’ friend’s well-being. “Just hold on Gilda!”

“D-Dash?” Gilda sputtered out as some of her cracked body.

Twilight saw that Wizard was nearby and was reaching for his chain belt of rings, pulling one off. “Haru! We need to get Gilda to a doctor or something! She’s practically falling apart!”

“Don’t worry Twilight,” Wizard stated as he held up a ring in the air. “Though a Phantom is about to be born – I will never let that happen before my eyes again.”

The masked dragon knelt down to look Gilda in the eyes as he held up a single ring, one that had the same symbol as his mask. “Gilda.”

The griffon wearily lifted her head up and leered at Wizard, “… What a lame suit.”

If his eyes were visible, Wizard would’ve rolled his eyes, but just settled for a sigh. “Insult me all you want, just don’t give into despair. I will be your hope.”

Wizard held up the ring to Gilda before he gently lifted up Gilda’s talon and slipped the ring onto one of her claws. Quickly reaching for his belt, Wizard lifted Gilda’s claw to the emblem on it. “ENGAGE – PLEASE!”

That’s when Gilda slowly lowered her head down to the ground, the large red runic circle appearing over her body. Twilight and Dash watched as Wizard slowly floated off of the ground and over the rune. “Do me a favor, and keep an eye on her, will you?”

Before Twilight could reply to the masked dragon, he quickly slipped into the rune with it disappearing into Gilda’s body. “Haru! Wait!”

“Yeesh, what the Tartarus was that?!” Dash growled as she propped Gilda up, being careful of not messing with the cracked areas of her friend. “He just ditched us!”

“I don’t think so Dash,” Twilight replied, taking note that Wizard had accidentally left a couple of rings behind when he teleported. “I think you’re confusing the Connect Spell he uses with this one… Although, I have no idea what this one can do.”

“Then how can you be sure he didn’t just run off?” Dash questioned.

“Because Gilda’s wearing the ring,” Twilight pointed out using her magic to lift up one of the rings. “Normally, he’d wear it, but…”

“Frankly, it doesn’t matter.”

Both ponies turned to see a slightly wounded Hellhound emerge from the same shadows he had disappeared into, clutching onto his wounded arm. “All that really does matter, is that the ring mage is gone, and now, I can finally get my own show on the road!”

Twilight’s horn glowed brighter, unaware that the ring she had floating was glowing bright as well.

TTTTTT

Wizard flew through a purple vortex, shards of glassy material flying past him as the runic circles around his body provided a path for him.

Within seconds, Wizard fell from the vortex and landed on a very cloudy area. The masked dragon stumbled slightly before he realized that he was able to stand on the cloud without falling. Wizard looked around to see that it wasn’t just one cloud he was standing on, but rather an entire city made out of clouds, with pegasai flying through the air, rainbows from the buildings and plenty of buildings.

Although he had never been, Wizard was easily able to figure out where he was – Even if it was completely devoid of color, “Cloudsdale? No, this is the world of her mind.”

Wizard walked across the clouds, carefully treading with each step. “Underworld.”

“SLOW POKE!”

The masked dragon’s head craned up to see two rather familiar figures flying low through the cloudy streets, the first figure a small little feathered filly with a grayscaled mane who was trying to outfly the second figure. The second figure was really different, it was a little griffon with a familiar style of feathers on her head.

“Dang it Dash! I’m not slow!”

The two flew past Wizard, and his suspicions were confirmed, “Dash and Gilda, huh, they really haven’t changed much, just a little smaller.”

However, when the two winged friends were about to ascend again, they suddenly stopped in midair. It was then that a familiar purple crack appeared over them, making Wizard step back slightly. The crack exploded as a loud screech echoed through the air, and from the purple void flew an incredibly large, monstrous bird with electricity surging from its body. Its rainbow colored feathers billowed through the air before it crashed into a random building, sending purple cracks through it.

“Thunderbird,” Wizard muttered under his breath as he watched the large Phantom fly through the air, creating damage. The ring mage reached for his chain of rings and held up a single ring that he hesitated to fit on his right hand. “I haven’t used this one before, but I made a promise. I have to do this.”

Fitting the ring on his claw, Wizard messed with his belt before he threw his hand in front of his belt. “DRAGO RISE – PLEASE!”

Once again, the runic circle appeared, only this time it appeared on Wizard’s ruby covered chest before it drew itself inside the magical dragon. The mage fell to his knees as he wrapped his arms around his chest, flames covering his entire body. “YARGH!”

The flames grew stronger around Wizard’s body until two wing shaped flames erupted from his back and another sleek stream of fire pulled itself from his head. The flame that originated from his head flew into the air, drawing most of the fire from his body and warped into a second runic circle.

The circle then flashed into an incredibly large dragon with steel like skin, small wings, silver and gold armor adorned with rubies that roared loudly before it flew off towards the Thunderbird. Wizard panted loudly in pain as he looked up, “D-Dragon…”

Dragon roared loudly before it slammed into the Thunderbird into another clouded building, making more purple cracks appear in Gilda’s Underworld. Wizard slammed his claw into the clouds as the flames from his back snapped from him, “Damn it! W-What are you?!”

The flames that erupted from Wizard’s back melded together until they too formed into a weird being – However, unlike the previous flames, these ones formed into a non-living being. Instead, they transformed into a weird silver vehicle that stood on two wheels, one in the front with a weird design to it that resembled that of Wizard’s mask. The ring mage stood up and strode towards the weird vehicle.

The moment that he rested his claws on one of the bars that was on it, his mask gleamed brightly, “Machine Winger.”

Throwing one of his legs over the seat of the Machine Winger, Haru revved the handle bar and it zoomed across the cloudy street.

Meanwhile, the Thunderbird slammed both of its electrified wings into Dragon’s body, forcing it to fall into the clouded streets with a pain filled roar. The dragon rolled on the clouds before it landed on its stomach, growling loudly in annoyance. Before the dragon could bring itself up, the Machine Winger flew over it, its main body transforming into a pair of wings that latched itself onto Dragon’s back, allowing Wizard to ride the steel covered dragon.

Dragon roared loudly before it took off from the ground, using its much more powerful wings to quickly reach back to the rainbow feathered Thunderbird. The large Phantom drew back in surprise at the quick speed of its armored foe, and screeched loudly as it charged forward.

With Wizard now at the control though, he managed to lead dragon to fly over the Thunderbird and slam its long tail into the Thunderbird’s head, nearly cracking its beak. The force of the strike made the Thunderbird struggle to keep its large body in the air, but it quickly regained its composure and flew around.

The Thunderbird screeched loudly before several streaks of rainbow colored electricity shot from its body towards the dragon riding masked mage. Dragon spun around through the air to dodge, its mouth opening to unleash a powerful flame that crashed into the Thunderbird’s chest, sending it plummeting to the clouded ground, crashing into the clouds with cracks following its body.

Taking this opportunity, Wizard made Dragon fly high into the air as he slipped a new ring on his right claw. “Finale!”

“VERY NICE – KICK STRIKE!

“THE BEST!”

Wizard actually leapt off of Dragon, as the armored covered dragon’s body began to shift, transforming into an extremely large, armored dragon claw with the Machine Winger at the back of the claw. Wizard’s body became engulfed in flames before he struck his right foot into the back of the Machine Winger, completely covering the armored dragon claw with flames. The flames that followed behind the falling attack formed into an incredibly large fiery version of Wizard himself.

Thunderbird screeched loudly in pain before it lifted its head up to see the fiery claw just an inch away from it. When the kick struck the Thunderbird, it exploded into a fiery explosion with Wizard’s runic circle appearing around its body before the claw landed behind the fiery aftermath.

As the flames died down and the claw landed on the clouds, Wizard and the Machine Winger flew from it and gently landed on the clouded streets. Wizard sighed as he watched the transformed Dragon fade away into embers. ‘Well, not as bad as I thought it would be. And hey, I got me a new toy!’

Wizard crossed his arms as he looked around the gray-scaled Cloudsdale, his gaze falling to where he originally saw where the younger versions of Dash and Gilda were. They weren’t but the damage was magically repaired and he casually walked over to the area.

When he did, he noticed that there was something on the clouds at his feet – A photo.

TTTTTT

Meanwhile, while Wizard was dealing with the Inner Phantom and his own Dragon inside Gilda’s Underworld, back in the real world, Hellhound had drawn his jagged blade once more from the shadows. His gaze set on the two ponies before him, “Relax, I’m just gonna expose you to the despair of death, get another Gate awakened. Gotta make up for your Mage friend destroying Djinn and Gnome after all.”

Dash gritted her teeth, “Twilight…”

“I know Dash,” Twilight replied, unaware that the ring she was levitating was glowing bright purple.

Hellhound roared as he leapt high into the air, his sword held over his head before he began to fall towards the two.

“DEFEND – PLEASE!”

Twilight’s and Dash’s eyes widened as a rather familiar runic circle appeared before them, almost the same as Wizard’s. However, it was clearly different since the circle was a bright shade of lavender and the runes on the circle were completely different, looking like a familiar star-symbol in the middle of it. Even the voice that called out the spell was different, instead of the masculine voice that occurred when Haru used the magic, but this voice was clearly feminine.

Hellhound yelped as he crashed into the rune and was forced backwards, until he landed on the ground, rolling backwards until he got to his feet. “What the?! Where is he?!”

Twilight watched as the circle faded away and looked at the ring that was floating near her, ‘Was I… Was I able to use Haru’s magic?’

“Whoa!” Dash exclaimed. “Twilight! That was amazing! How’d you do that?”

Twilight was a little awestruck, but before she could speak, she saw something. “Dash! Look at Gilda!”

The rainbow maned pony looked down at her Griffon friend to see that all of the purple cracks of energy were starting to fade away from her feathered and furred body. “Gilda! You’re alright!”

“BUT YOU TWO WON’T BE!”

Once again, Twilight and Dash turned to see Hellhound charge at the two of them, Twilight looked at the floating ring and tried to channel more magical energy into it…

However, before she could, a familiar red runic circle appeared without notice in front of them and a loud, rusty roar erupted from it. Flying from the circle was none other than Wizard, mounted on the Machine Winger and rode it through the air before the first wheel slammed into Hellhound’s chest and sent him flying once more.

The Machine Winger landed on the ground with Wizard sighing, “I thought I told you to get lost, unless you want to face the same fate as Djinn.”

Hellhound snarled loudly before he dove back into the shadows of the nearby trees. “I won’t forget this!!”

“That’s rather clichéd,” Wizard sighed as his ruby covered suit disappeared, leaving Haru atop of the Machine Winger.

“Where in Equestria did you get to?” Dash barked at Haru as she pointed a hoof at the red Dragon. “And… What exactly is that awesome thing you’re on?”

“Really long story,” Haru stated with a shrug as he looked at Gilda. “But it looks like we’ll have some time before Gilda wakes up. So, prepare yourself some exposition – Filled with dragons, magic, and whatever this thing is called that I’m on.”

TTTTTTT

It didn’t take too long for the knocked out griffon to awaken, thirty minutes top actually. And during those thirty minutes, Haru had explained what he did and that he had gone inside Gilda’s Underworld – A psyche of sorts that housed the Inner Phantoms, and thanks to the Engage Ring, Haru could enter the psyche and defeat the Inner Phantom.

Although, the magical dragon left out the fact that he hadn’t done that before, and was only told that he could do so. But, unbeknownst to him, Twilight and Dash had left out the fact that Twilight was able to use one of Haru’s magical rings.

“W-Wha? What’s going on?”

Gilda struggled to get to her talons and paws, but was held down gently by a familiar blue hoof, “Don’t strain yourself Gilda.”

“W-What happened?” the griffon asked as she looked down at her talons, realizing that she had a ring on one of her claws. “And what the Tartarus is that thing on me?!”

“Consider it a gift,” Haru answered with a coy smile on his face.

“What?!” Gilda hissed as she got back on all fours, glaring at the dragon with daggers. “You lousy scaly freak! Did you…”

“I didn’t tell them anything you told me,” Haru answered with a calm expression on his face as he reached into his jacket. “Although, I think it would be best if you talked to Dash in private, after all…”

Haru pulled his claw out of his jacket and produced a familiar photo from it, the same photo that Djinn had burned earlier, only completely intact. Gilda reached for the photo hesitantly before she took at it and looked at it, “How did you get this?”

“A wizard did it,” Haru answered as he walked off, gesturing to Twilight to follow him.

The unicorn nodded as she followed her red dragon friend, when the two were far enough from the two winged friends, Twilight trotted in front of the dragon. “Thank you Haru.”

“For what?” Haru replied with his head tilted.

“For, well, everything you’ve done so far,” Twilight answered with a slight blush on her face. “When you dragged me and Rainbow from the party, I was a little confused why. But you did it not only to help Gilda, but to help Dash from making a mistake.”

“Truth be told, I only grabbed Dash,” Haru admitted with a roll of his blue eyes. “You just kinda stalked us. But yeah, I had a chat with Gilda earlier and learned that there was more to her than that bad girl bravado she had going on. Although, I have to ask, why a prank party?”

“You’d have to ask Pinkie,” Twilight replied with a slight blush on her face. “Gilda probably saw those pranks as attacks and they threw fuel on the fire.”

Haru simply nodded, “I’m also surprised that nopony else followed us. I would’ve thought that Pinkie Pie would’ve at least done that.”

“Yeah,” Twilight added.

“Yup yup!” Pinkie Pie chimed in.

It took a moment for that to register with both magical beings that the pink mare was standing right next to them, both Haru and Twilight jumped into the air at being surprised by Pinkie Pie’s sudden appearance. Haru clutched his chest tightly while Twilight was trying to catch her own breath, and Pinkie just stood there with a smile on her face. “Boy, you’re both really active!”

“Pinkie Pie!” Twilight exclaimed with her eyes widened. “How did you find us out here?”

“Oh, the author was nice enough to lend me the outline for this chapter,” Pinkie Pie explained with the bright smile on her face. “It really helps out a lot when you can skip ahead. And being a beta for the story helps too.”

“Wait, what?” Haru questioned with a cocked up brow.

“Nothing!” Pinkie Pie sang as she looked past her two friends to look at Gilda and Rainbow Dash talking. “But anyway, I guess Gilda wasn’t really mean after all. After all, if Dash can make up with her after everything, she can’t be all bad.”

“Pinkie, you’re really confusing me,” Haru admitted as he rubbed his temples.

“Don’t worry about that,” Pinkie chuckled as she tapped her dragon friend’s back. “Your Auntie Pinkie is here to make things all better! Especially now that we can get the party back on track!”

“I’m pretty sure I’m older than you,” Haru sighed with a narrowed look in his eyes.

“Details, details,” Pinkie Pie replied with a wave of her hoof. “Besides, who can say no to a party? I just need to get everypony to help bring stuff out here!”

“Uh, Pinkie, I think I’m a little partied out,” Twilight sighed with her head lowered. “I don’t think anypony over here is up for it.”

“Oh,” Pinkie Pie sighed with her ears drooping slightly.

“But, uh, how about tomorrow, we throw the conclusion to my party?” Haru suggested with a weak smile on his face.

“REALLY!?” Pinkie Pie gasped with joy. “That’d be perfect! Ooh! But I’d have to get all the stuff we originally got for your party in the first place, so that won’t be a problem! So, we’ll need doughnuts, hot sauce, balloons, treats, juice…”

As Pinkie Pie listed off what she needed, both Dash and Gilda made their way to the trio. Haru and Twilight turned towards the two friends, with Gilda moving forward a little quicker. “Hey, lizard?”

“Yeah?” Haru questioned.

WHAM!

Haru fell backwards with blood streaming from his nose, a familiar symbol plastered on his sniffer. All three of the ponies jumped back slightly as Gilda lowered the ring adorned claw, “Heh, that felt good.”

“Gilda!” All three of the ponies snapped at the Griffon.

“It’s okay,” Haru moaned as he rubbed his bloody nose. ‘That’s gonna leave a mark for a while.’

Gilda held a talon to Haru, and the dragon grabbed it to pull himself off of the ground. “I probably deserved that.”

“You did,” Gilda replied. “But, that’s the last time I’ll hit ya. Thanks, dragon. Dash told me everything you did, that you brought her over here, how you ‘saved me’, and all that other junk too.”

Haru only shrugged as he kept one of his claws to his nose. “Don’t worry about it.”

“No, I have to,” Gilda growled back. “Even after I just slugged you again, you’re still treating me like I haven’t done a damn thing to you. Why?”

“I told you before,” Haru sighed with a wave of his free claw. “You’re Dash’s friend, I’m her friend – I make it a concern to help you. Not just for Rainbow Dash’s sake, but for yours as well.”

Haru smiled brightly, which would be heartwarming if he didn’t have blood dripping down from his snout, “I’d gladly do anything for a friend.”

“Friend, huh?” Gilda said with a flat look in her eyes. “That’s really corny. But I can dig it.”

“I still think punching Haru’s a little much,” Twilight stated with a slight leer towards Gilda. “But, he’s right, Gilda, we’re willing to help you in any way we can. Any friend of Dash’s is a friend of ours.”

“Yup, yup!” Pinkie Pie added. “So… How about we get back to that party for you Gilda? No more pranks, it’s a Pinkie Pie Promise!”

“Yeah, I wouldn’t have set up those pranks if they were going to get you all at once,” Dash admitted with a slight blush on her face. “I’m sorry about that.”

Gilda chuckled slightly, “Well, they were good pranks, but I need to get back to Cloudsdale. I have to deal with what I left there.”

The griffon pulled the ring off of her talon and held it up to Haru, “Here, Dash told me that you gave this to me, so here.”

“Keep it,” Haru replied as he turned to the side. “You can pawn it for a few bits, should help you out with your situation.”

Gilda clutched the ring. “Gee thanks.”

“Well, how about some cake for the road?” Pinkie offered.

Gilda sighed loudly.

Unbeknownst to the group, two different figures watched the group. One of the figures was the small White Garuda who flew off after watching the group.

The second figure was seated atop of a cloud in the distance with a pair of binoculars trained on the group. “Hm hehehehehee, oh my. This is so exciting and amazing! So that’s the magic-boy, hmm. Very curious, I’m sure I can have a little fun with the magic-boy and his little filly friends.

“Hehehehehe!”

TTTTTTT

Dearest Princess Celestia,

Today I learned that it's hard to accept when somepony you like wants to spend time with somepony who's not so nice. But there’s always more to anypony than what’s on the surface, there could be reasons why they act like that.

As a friend, you have to take the good and the bad, nopony is perfect and we need to learn to accept that.

Just continue to be a good friend. In the end, the difference between a false friend and the one who is true will surely come to light, especially if you can help your friends as well.

Your faithful student,

Twilight Sparkle

The scroll that this letter was on was quickly rolled up with a bright yellow aura. “My, my student is learning a lot.”

Inside a very regal and extravagant room was the owner of that very magic – A beautiful, and tall white Alicorn with a flowing mane and tail made up of various colors: light cerulean, light turquoise, light cobalt and a light magenta. Around her neck was a golden necklace with a matching crown atop her head. On her kind face was a bright smile as she placed the scroll gently into a small desk near her. “Hmm, I should write a reply to her.”

“You have an excellent student, Princess Celestia.”

Princess Celestia gently turned her head to the side, near one of the opened windows stood a tall, white cloaked figure. “And from what I’ve heard, I’m not the only one.”

The white cloaked figure knelt down slightly with his head lowered, “You honor me with your words, Princess Celestia.”

“There is no need for you to lower your head, my friend,” Princess Celestia replied with a bright smile. “And you do not need to address me with my title either, you are my elder after all.”

“However, I am not of royal blood,” The cloaked figure responded, keeping his head down. “That title is rightfully yours.”

Princess Celestia got to her hooves and trotted over to the still knelt down, white cloaked figure, “Then by royal decree, I order you to raise yourself from the floor and speak to me informally.”

The cloaked figure sighed slightly before he stood up, only on two legs. The figure in question was tall, even taller than Princess Celestia herself, and towered over her slightly. His cloak and robes were a bright white with a gold trim, the same was true for the hood he had over his head, which was slightly star-shaped around a bright orange colored mask with curved silver portions around it, similar to Haru’s mask as Wizard.

At his chest were two straps that had several rings clicked onto it, and at his waist was a silver belt that was adorned with a familiar hand symbol. The white robed being lowered his head slightly, “If that is what you wish, Celestia.”

“You were always formal, White Wizard,” Princess Celestia stated with a smile on her face. “There is no need to be so rigid, especially for someone you haven’t seen in ages.”

“Indeed, it has been a long time,” White Wizard replied lifting his head up. “I had heard that Princess Luna has returned, but, I apologize for not sending my congratulations sooner. How is the fair mare?”

Princess Celestia snickered slightly, “Oh you know, freaking out most of the staff with the ‘Traditional Canterlot Voice’, it’s rather entertaining to see her do so.”

“You’ll have to eventually inform her about today’s society and properly train her,” White Wizard stated bluntly.

“Oh, I know,” Princess Celesita replied turning slightly. “You should join us for dinner sometime, White Wizard. She would enjoy seeing your familiar face, or should I say mask?”

The White Wizard coughed out a slight laugh as he turned to the side, “Perhaps in the near future I shall do so. But, I am here for more serious matters, I trust that my letters have been reaching you?”

“It’s always a pleasure to see Garuda and Cerberus every now and then,” Celestia answered with a bright smile. “But you seemed to have neglected telling me in your letters that you yourself had taken on an apprentice.”

It was then that the White Wizard rubbed the back of his head nervously, his mask turning away from Celestia’s stare. “I was always curious how you learned of this foresight, but, this time it’s easy to deduce that your own apprentice informed you.”

“Yes, that is correct,” Celestia replied with her smile curling a little more. “Twilight did write about a certain magical dragon who appeared at Ponyville. Although, I must confess, I’m a little surprised that he would show up there. Is it just a coincidence?”

White Wizard recomposed himself and folded his arms behind his back. “No, it is not, Celestia. My apprentice needs to learn and grow by himself. I just pointed him in the right direction with the tools. How he uses the tools is up to him, and so far, he’s done well.

“And from what I’ve seen through Garuda’s eyes, your student has caught my attention as well.”

“I see,” Celestia stated with her smile settling slightly. “Then we have much to discuss, don’t we?”

“Yes we do,” White Wizard replied with a nod.

“Then we can discuss it over dinner,” Celestia stated with a bright smile as she trotted past the White Wizard and towards the door. “After all, it’s almost time for Luna to awaken, and she would enjoy seeing you for while she has her breakfast.”

White Wizard was about to say something, but lowered his arms in defeat when his stomach growled loudly. “Very well then, I suppose a decent meal would be best. It has been a while since I had a good, royal meal.”

TBC

Author's Note

MangaKamen: Hello everyone! I have returned! And this time, I have two pics in this chapter! Enjoy!

I'll be back in a few days with the intermission chapter!

Intermission 2 - Gear Shift

“The evil pizzas were no match for a simple stoplight.”
- The Blue Centurion

TTTTT

Intermission 2

Gear Shift
(Art by FlairNightz)
TTTTTT

A few days had passed since Gilda was saved from the no longer around Djinn, and life in Ponyville had returned to a semblance of normality. Gilda had flown off early the next day. Well, as normal as it could be, especially with a familiar red dragon zooming around the outskirts of the city on his brand new Machine Winger. The roar of the vehicle echoed through the air as Haru tried to get the hang of the magically empowered motorcycle.

The first time that the magical dragon had revved the engine on the Machine Winger, which was a day or so earlier, most of the ponies in the town were scared that a weird beast had turned up outside Ponyville. It wasn’t long for a few of the ponies to figure out that Haru was the cause, with his weird machine.

Although some were annoyed with it, it didn’t take long for the town to get used to the dragon’s newest toy.

But that’s not where the story starts, rather it’s at the Golden Oaks Library, where it was the day that both Twilight and Spike organized the library.

“The Foal of the Rings?”

“Check!”

“Little Ponies?”

“Check.”

“Middletrot?”

“Yes.”

“A Tale of Two Fillies?”

“… Yup.”

Much to Spike’s chagrin that meant going through every single book in the library, checking off what books weren’t checked out and making sure that any books that were damaged would get reordered from publishers. Spike was checking off a double check for inventory list while Twilight was listing off the books that she floated past her with her magic. The young dragon sighed as the last of the books floated onto the shelves, “And with that, we’re done Twilight!”

The young mare smiled brightly as she looked at her young dragon scribe, “A job well done Spike.”

“Yeah, it didn’t take as long with these guys,” Spike admitted as he turned to the side, watching as Garuda and Unicorn were fitting another couple of books on the shelves. “For being so small, they really work hard.”

“They are made from Haru’s magic,” Twilight explained as she trotted up to her dragon scribe. “I wouldn’t be surprised if they had some of his tenacity in them.”

“Yeah, well, they seem to love teasing me,” Spike sighed as both of the jeweled familiars snickered slightly before Garuda flew off into the library while Unicorn leapt to the shelves, trying to get to the top.

“After what you did to Garuda, I’m not really surprised,” Twilight said with her eyes a little flat at her dragon scribe.

“It was just one little bite!” Spike retorted with his arms slumped. “A tasty bite, but still just one bite!”

‘I’m glad he didn’t see that White Garuda,’ Twilight thought to herself as she looked around the library. “We’ll drop that for right now, but are you ready Spike?”

“Huh? I thought we were done,” Spike gasped with fear appearing in the green of his eyes. “We just double checked everything!”

“Yes, and now we need to do our triple check!” Twilight announced with a bright smile on her face.

Spike just fell backwards with a loud grown, “But I have a claw cramp! And why couldn’t we get Haru to do this? He’s got good enough claws!”

“I asked him if he wanted to help,” Twilight answered as her horn began to glow brightly once more. “But he said that he wanted to get some practice on that weird vehicle, but he did say he’d pick up lunch for us. And he’s going to get something special for you Spike.”

Immediately the small dragon sat up with his eyes gleaming, “R-Really?! What’s he going to get?”

“Well, he told me he was going to get some doughnuts for himself,” Twilight answered as a few of the books flew off of the shelves. “But he’s going to pick up some pizza for us, and I told him that you like extra cheese and emeralds on yours.”

Spike licked his chops as he jumped back to his hind claws, quickly producing a second quill pin and scroll “I’ll work through the pain Twilight! Your number one assistant shall work hard!”

Twilight giggled at her dragon friend, and just as she was about being listing off the books she had floating towards her, but that’s when a knock on the door caught both librarians’ attentions.

“Ooh! Pizza time! Pizza time!” Spike cheered as he threw his quill pen and scroll through the air.

Twilight dodged the quill pen, which caused her to lose concentration and drop all the books she had floating. “Spike!”

But the little baby was simply crying out ‘Pizza Time!’ over and over before he opened the door with his eyes closed.

“So! Where’s the pizza?” Spike asked with a lick of his chops after he opened the door.

“Oooh! Pizza? I love pizza!”

Spike jumped from the door at the unfamiliar voice, with the door wide open, the owner of the voice joyfully hopped into the library.

Both Twilight and Spike reeled back as an unfamiliar colt bounced into the library – He was a sleek, light green pegasus with a brown mane of hair that was brushed to one side of his face. His face was adorned with a large grin while atop of his head was a black hat and around his neck was an ornate orange scarf that billowed up and down with every hop he provided. He also had a black saddle bag that was slung behind his folded wings. At his flanks was his cutie mark, a trio of clouds circling his thigh.

The joyful pegasus sang in rhythm with his hopes, “Pizza time, pizza time! I hope you’ve got extra, EXTRA cheese! It’s a time that I really love, so give me a big pizza pie PLEASE!”

Twilight stepped back as the pegasus continued to sing and bounce around the room, ‘It’s a flying, green, colt version of Pinkie Pie!’

The pegasus stopped singing, but kept bouncing about, when he saw all the books on the floor, “Wow, for a pizzeria, you sure got a lotta books around here. You should open a library here!”

“It is a library,” Twilight replied, a little afraid what this colt would do next.

The green pegasus stopped bouncing and looked around with a bright smile on his face, “Oooh, you unicorns sure are quick workers! Hehehehehe!”

‘That’s a rather marish laugh,’ Twilight thought to herself as the colt trotted up to her. “Uh, is there something I can help you with?”

“Is there?” the pegasus asked as he looked up with his dark green eyes. “Oh! Right! I was looking for a library! Good thing this place is a library! That’s what the sign outside said.”

“Then why did you think this was a pizzeria?” Twilight asked.

“Well,” the Pegasus stated. “You’ve got books all strew about, but the little dragon was singing about pizza, there’s a banner outside that says dry cleaners, ponies are leaving here talking about noodles and you’re thinking about pies! So… I was confused, but since there was more food references, I assumed it was a restaurant.”

“I guess I can see that,” Twilight muttered before something came to her mind. “Wait, how did you know I was thinking about…”

“Hehehehehehehe!” the pegasus cackled before he waved one of his front hooves. “I was just joshing ya! Seriously, how could I read minds? I’m not Psycho Mantis, it’s not like I need scissors sixty-one.”

“What in Equestria are you talking about?” Twilight asked as the pegasus reached into his saddlebags.

“Uh, Twilight,” Spike whispered as he leaned closer to Twilight. “I think this pony’s a little… out there.”

“Now Spike, don’t be rude,” Twilight whispered back, unaware that the weird pegasus was pulling out a lot of weird stuff from his saddlebags – a lunchbox, a deck of playing cards, an video game controller, a rubber chicken, a real chicken, an extremely long oar, a bouquet of wilted roses, a rubber bat mask, etc.

“Found it!” The pegasus announced as he pulled out a very large red book from his saddlebags and placed it gently on the floor, quickly slipping the rest of the stuff into the inter-dimensional pockets that were his saddlebags. When he had mysteriously stashed his items into the saddlebag, he smiled brightly. “You see, I was just a passing through this charming little town when I found this book in the streets. I’m not the kind of pony to pick up stuff and carry it away most of the time, so, I thought I’d donate this book to the local book depository.”

Twilight blinked a few times at the book on the ground and smiled sheepishly. “Well, thank you very much, but we don’t really accept books from random ponies.”

“Aww,” The pegasus sighed with his lower lip pouting a little bit as he lifted the book up with one of his hooves. “You’re not going to give this poor little book a home? You’ll deny him a chance to be with his paged brothers? His chaptered sisters?! How cruel! To deny a poor little thing with blood of words the one thing that he desires – A shelf to call a home?”

Much to Twilight’s surprise, Spike was wiping away a tear. With a roll of her eyes, Twilight smiled, “Fine, maybe it’s one of ours anyway – Maybe somepony dropped it.”

“YAY!” The pegasus cheered as he placed the book on one of the nearby tables. “Thank you Miss… Miss… Oh my! How could I be so rude?! I haven’t given my name and I haven’t even asked for yours! I’m Sora! A pleasure to meet you two!”

Sora held out the same hoof that held the book, a bright smile on his face. Twilight smiled back as she placed her hoof next to Sora’s, “I’m Twilight, and my little scaled scribe here is Spike. It’s nice to meet you Sora, interesting name. I believe it means cloud or sky, right?”

Sora’s face curled up into a very bright smile, “Wow! You must be really smart! Most ponies in this country don’t know that, and just think I’ve got a strange name.”

“Well, we kinda know a guy with a weird name,” Spike admitted, getting a jab to the side from Twilight’s free hoof. “Oof!”

“Hehehehe, oh, don’t worry about it,” Sora chuckled pulling his hoof back. “When you travel as much as I do, you get used to getting weird looks and weird comments. Anyway, as much as I’d like to stay, I need to get me some lunch. All this talk about pizza and books has me hankering for a slice of Za and some classic Alfred Hitchhoof. Thanks for taking that book off of my hooves!”

And just like that, Sora just trotted past Twilight and Spike, leaving the library as quickly as he came.

“That was weird,” Spike admitted. “He kinda reminded me of a slightly tamer Pinkie Pie.”

“I don’t think there’s ever been such a thing,” Twilight replied as she trotted over to the table that the book was at. “In any case, let’s have a look at this book. I’m actually rather curious about this book.”

Twilight looked over the book and raised a brow at the cover, “Well, that’s an odd title.”

“What do you mean, Twilight?” Spike asked as he walked to his friend’s side.

“Have you ever heard of the ‘Racing Squadron of Pegasus Garage’?” Twilight asked back as her horn glowed brightly, the same aura around appeared around the book, lifting it off of the table. “I’ve never heard of a title like this.”

“It sounds cool,” Spike chimed in as he looked at the book. “But, I think I’d remember a book like that, especially when we usually double check the listings.”

“I wonder what it’s about,” Twilight muttered as her magic slowly creaked open the book.

The book’s cover snapped open with the pages glowing brightly, making Twilight and Spike jump at the unexpected light. Before the two could do anything, the light from the book completely covered the unicorn and little dragon. While the two were blinded, six bright lights flew from the pages, four of them were different colors while two were crimson. The two crimson lights crashed into each other before all of the different lights shot out of the library’s open window.

When the bright light died down Twilight and Spike stumbled around

With a shake of her head, Twilight regained her composure as the red light that remained began to take shape behind the two of them. “Okay, that was something new.”

“Were we just pranked?” Spike asked as he rubbed his eyes.

“I… I guess so,” Twilight sighed taking note that the book she was still levitating with her magic. When Twilight looked at the book closer and had the pages flipping, she realized something. “But, how did the flash happen? There doesn’t seem to be anything in here to cause a flash…”

Meanwhile, outside the library, Sora smiled as he watched the six lights stream through the air, “Nothing like a little chaos to break the ice. Hehehehehehe.”

TTTTT

Meanwhile in Ponyville, Haru was walking through the streets with his claws on the Machine Winger to walk it through. The red dragon didn’t think it’d be a good idea to ride the machine through the town since he didn’t want to run over a pony or something, besides, it made it easier to carry the pair of pizzas and bag of doughnuts on the seat.

And although the dragon was a common sight to the ponies as he walked through the town, the motorcycle was another matter, garnering attention from many of them as he walked through the farmer’s market. ‘I think I need to find a place to put this thing, it’s way too eye-catching.’

“Mistah Souma! Mistah Souma!”

Haru’s head perked up as he turned to the right to see a familiar yellow filly galloping towards him from the side with an equally familiar topaz octopus flying over her. Haru smiled as he unfolded the kickstand to let the Machine Winger stand on its own, “Why hello there Apple Bloom.”

“What’cha got there?” Apple Bloom asked as she zipped around the Machine Winger, tapping one of her hooves against the motorcycle. “It sure looks neat!”

The red dragon chuckled as he watched Apple Bloom look at her reflection in the chrome. “Well, Apple Bloom, this is my newest little trinket. I call it Machine Winger.”

“What does it do?” Apple Bloom asked as she jumped atop of the seat near the pizza boxes and doughnut bag.

Haru patted Apple Bloom’s head a few times before he tapped the dashboard with his claws, “This thing is a vehicle, and I can ride it to go really, really fast!”

“And it gets loud, really, really, REALLY quick!”

Haru winced as he heard that voice and turned around with a nervous smile on his face, “G-Good day, Applejack.”

Indeed, it was the southern mare trotting up behind the dragon, a rather annoyed look on her face. Applejack trotted towards the Machine Winger and looked to her little sister, “Apple Bloom, ya’ll git off that darn thing this instant.”

“Awe,” the young filly groaned before she leapt off the motorcycle. “Ah was just curious ‘bout it.”

“Ah know,” Applejack replied as she smiled softly. “But Ah don’t want mah kin to be on this whatchamacallit doohickey, ya’ll might crack yer head open on this thing. Ain’t that right, Haru?”

“I take it that you’re still miffed about yesterday,” Haru chuckled nervously as he rubbed the back of his head.

“Ya think?” Applejack stated with a dulled look in her eyes. “Ya’ll come around outta nowhere and smash into mah favorite cart!”

“I didn’t mean to do it!” Haru barked back with his arms crossed. “I was driving along and when I turned, the cart was there! I’m just glad I had a helmet on.”

“Them apples weren’t cheap either ya know,” Applejack added with a nod of her head. “But, Ah can see an accident as plain as day, so don’t ya’ll worry too much about it. Just send a few bits to pay fer the repairs and we’ll call it even.”

“Sure,” Haru sighed with his arms slumped.

“Still, Ah’m surprise ya’ll still have this doohickey still,” Applejack stated looking past the dragon to look at the Machine Winger. “Ah’d of thought that ya’ll would ditch it.”

“Well, it’s not like this thing cost me anything,” Haru stated as he leaned back on the motorcycle. “And just imagine the applications – I can get around even faster thanks to this thing.”

The dragon smiled brightly as he snapped his claws, “In fact, if you ever need a delivery job, just let me know! With this thing, I can probably get anything anywhere in a flash!”

“Mighty kind offer, Mistah Souma,” the southern mare replied. “But the Apple Family still prefers to do things by tradition.”

“Still, it looks cool!” Apple Bloom proclaimed as she got closer to the motorbike. “C’mon Applejack! Just one little ride?”

The look that Haru got from the older Apple Sister was one that sent chills of terror through the dragon’s body and he couldn’t help but gulp loudly. ‘Oh Ishimori, if you’re up there, give me a distraction from this!’

Before Haru even opened his mouth, several lights slipped through the air, garnering the attention of most of the ponies in the farmer’s market. This was enough to get both of the Apple sisters to stop looking at the dragon, the six lights flew through the air before they quickly disappeared.

“Hmm, Dash must be practicing again,” Applejack mused as she adjusted her hat. “She’s cutting it a little close.”

“Uh, quick question though,” Haru stated with a claw lifted up. “Since when did Dash have two streaks of red and a line of pink to her hair?”

“Ain’t that beat all?” Applejack questioned as she rubbed the side of her head. “Then what were them colors then?”

Haru shrugged his shoulders and was about to speak, but stopped when a loud yelp echoed through the air. The two Apple sisters and their dragon friend turned to see that quite a few yards away a couple of fillies were staggering back from a large blue, bipedal creature dressed in blue retro rider attire with a large ghoulish head. The monster was holding up a large red ball and had its tongue stuck out at the two scared fillies. “ZOKU BLUE!”

“What in tarnation?” Applejack questioned as the two fillies ran off from the blue ghoul.

Before Haru could say a word, a loud shattering of glass sounded and from a window of a nearby shop, a sleek frog faced creature leapt with the broken glass. The creature spun around and struck a goofy pose, showing off the camouflage racing outfit. “ZOKU GREEN!”

Another yelp sounded through the town’s farmer market, at the far side, another weird, yellow racing outfit wearing being was stealing a popsicle from a unicorn filly. This one however had a roster head that had a pair of goggles atop of its head. “ZOKU YELLOW!”

A loud meow echoed, drawing attention towards a pink, cat-like creature dressed in a pink version of the rest of the ‘Zoku’ beings who was throwing dirt at random ponies and businesses. “ZOKU PINK!”

As the four being raced around the farmers’ market, causing mischief, a majority of the ponies galloped away from them. Haru, Applejack and Apple Bloom on the other hand were just staring at the weird sight before them. Applejack shook her head and whapped Haru on his back, “Hey! Mistah Souma! Are them more of those Phantoms?”

“I… I don’t know,” Haru sputtered with a few question marks popping around his head. “Out of the few I’ve seen, I’ve never seen a Phantom so… So…”

“Goofy?” Apple Bloom suggested.

“Yeah, that’s the word,” Haru stated as he reached into his jacket. “But, even if they’re not Phantoms, I’m not gonna let these guys pull these kinds of stunts while I’m around.”

The dragon pulled out a familiar ring, but just as he was about to slip it on…

“ZOKU RED!”

Several apples flew through the air, sailing from behind the three and getting their attention towards the Apple Family’s apple cart, where two red figures were rolling from the turned over remains of the cart. Haru’s eyes widened as he grabbed both Applejack and Applebloom before the two red figures almost rolled over the two of them.

When Haru got the two sisters out of the way, they all turned to see that the two red figures broke from each other and with a few feet from them. The red figure closer to Haru’s bike was a sleek stallion covered in a bright red suit with white boots on all of his legs. Sticking out from the stallion’s sides was a pair of red wings that stuck out of his suit. The stallion’s head was covered with a helmet that had a large black visor, silver mouth-piece and weird chrome bars around the top of his helmet. At his covered flank, there was a weird triangle mark that had a wrench head in the center of it.

The red being across from him was quite different – like the other weird creatures causing mischief, this one was a tall, bipedal being covered in rather goofy red armor with a tall helmet that had a black Mohawk-like charm on it. The weird being had a long red scarf, black gloves and boots and had a mask over his white face. The weird red being threw his arms up into the air and cried out, “ZOKU RED!”

“Okay, this is just weird,” Haru admitted as he slipped a ring back onto his claws.

“Yer telling me,” Applejack stated.

“Give it up Red Racer!” Zoku Red proclaimed as he pointed a gloved finger at the red covered pegasus. “You cannot defeat the Zoku Rangers!”

“Whatever you say, SS Paaman!” Red Racer countered as he crouched closer to the ground, his wings flared out. “I managed to defeat you before, and I can do it again!”

“Perhaps,” Zoku Red laughed loudly as he snapped his fingers. “ZOKU RANGERS!”

The four strange beings stopped their mischief and leapt through the air, spinning about before they landed on either side of Zoku Red. All five of the Zoku Rangers struck a whacky pose. Zoku Red laughed as he drew a gun from his holster, “And in case you didn’t notice…”

All of the other Zokus materializing similar guns and all of them aimed at Red Racer. “You’re all alone.”

Red Racer shifted his head left and right, and audibly gulped.

“FIRE!” Zoku Red roared loudly.

Just before all of the Zokus could pull the triggers, Red Racer leapt behind the Machine Winger, and Haru’s eyes widened. “NO!”

Several shots blasted through the air as multi-colored blasts crashed into the poor, defenseless motorcycle. Sparks, bits of pizza, and remains of doughnuts flew from the attacked bike from the onslaught of ammunition. Haru’s eyes widened as he fell to his knees, “No… NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

“Ah think ya’ll might be overreacting a little bit,” Applejack sighed.

Haru growled before he took a deep breath, “AJ, Apple Bloom, you may want to stand back.”

When the shots stopped, Red Racer poked his head out from behind the now hole-ridden motorbike, “Okay, that might be a problem.”

Zoku Red and the other Zoku Rangers holstered their guns before they produced other weapons from out of nowhere. Zoku Red pulled out a sleek sword that was welded out of junk.

A cleaver with a sickle attached with a chain was the Zoku Blue’s choice of weapon.

The green Zoku had an axe that was chipped in several places.

The rooster headed being had drawn… A stick. That’s just it, a simple stick.

Zoku Pink’s weapon wasn’t as dignified, it was a rake.

“Boso Sentai – Zokurangers! Charge!”

“FLAME – PLEASE!

“Hii Hii Hii Hii Hii!”

All five of the Zoku Rangers turned to the side just to see Wizard sail through the air towards them with his sword gripped tightly in his gloved claws. The five monsters were stunned when the mage spun around, quickly slashed his sword clean across their chests with sparks erupting from them and sent them flying backwards with loud yelps.

Wizard took a few deep, angry breaths as Red Racer trotted up from behind, “Oooh! That was very impressive! You a new sentai leader or something?”

The masked dragon growled loudly before he turned his attention towards the red suited pegasus, “And you! Are you stupid or something?!”

“Huh?” Red Racer questioned as he reeled back.

“Why did you dive behind my bike when there was a perfectly good stonewall to use as cover?!” Wizard snapped as he gestured to first his bike, then the stonewall fence that was only a few feet away.

Red Racer chuckled sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head with a covered hoof. “Whoops, my bad.”

“Mistah Souma! Look out behind ya!” Apple Bloom shouted from her and her sister’s hiding place.

Wizard craned his head around to see that Zoku Red was right behind him with his sword raised up, and unfortunately for the masked dragon, he couldn’t turn in time to block the attack with his own sword.

“FENDER SWORD!”

A sleek silver blade appeared and blocked Zoku Red’s attack, both the fiendish Zoku and confused Wizard followed the blade to see that Red Racer was on his hind legs with a goofy rapier being held up by his right front hoof. Taking advantage of the situation, Wizard spun around and slammed the bottom of his foot into Zoku Red’s stomach and forced him back.

Red Racer chuckled as he rested the blade against his shoulder, “Look who’s the idiot now.”

Wizard remained silent as he quickly folded his sword into its gun version and quickly lifted it up, making Red Racer yelp loudly. “WWHAAA! I TAKE IT BACK! DON’T SHOOT!”

Red Racer ducked just as Wizard tilted the gun and fired, sending a red energy crashing into an oncoming Zoku Blue, knocking the ghoulish creature back with sparks flying from its body. The red covered pegasus turned his head back and sighed with relief.

“I believe the word you’re looking for is,” Wizard stated as he lifted his gun up and turned his back to Red Racer. “Irony.”

Getting back to his hind legs, Red Racer turned to see that all five of the Zoku Rangers were surrounding the two of the red clad warriors. The pegasus lifted his sword up defensively before he turned his helmeted head slightly towards the mage, “Oh plop.”

“Hey! Watch yer language!” Applejack shouted with her hooves covering Apple Bloom’s ears.

Zoku Yellow ran forward and jabbed with the plain stick, however Red Racer and Wizard slipped to the sides. With a quick spin, Wizard lifted and shot several red shots into the rooster based monster.

With his back turned, Wizard didn’t see that Zoku Blue had thrown the sickle portion of his weapon towards the mage. But the weapon didn’t reach the mage since Red Racer blocked the attack with his Fender Sword and knocked it to the side.

Wizard unfolded his gun back into its sword form and spun to the side just before Zoku Green tried to cleave the dragon in two with its axe. The frog themed monster’s eyes widened when Red Racer bucked both of his hind legs into the monster’s chest, spinning the Zoku Ranger through the air.

Zoku Pink meowed loudly as she began to bring down her deadly rake on Red Racer’s head, only to have a familiar tail catch the gardening tool. With a fast turn, Wizard pulled the rake from her and slashed his blade across her stomach and made the feline themed ranger cry out in pain.

Apple Bloom’s eyes were sparkling at the sight before her, watching as both Wizard and Red Racer countered each goofy attack that the Zokurangers tried to deliver. ‘WOW! Since when did Mistah Souma get even cooler?!’

“ENOUGH OF THIS!” Zoku Red called loudly as he charged towards both of the red themed heroes, two swords now in his hands.

Zoku Red brought down one of his swords at Red Racer, only to have his attack blocked by the Fender Sword. Wizard delivered a powerful horizontal slash, but it was blocked by Zoku Red’s second sword. The red monster leapt back from the two as the other Zoku Rangers lined up behind him, “Sentai Hero number one finisher – Zokurangers! Ranger Ball!"

Zoku Red, Blue, Green and Yellow spun around towards Pink who nodded and posed her arms goofily. All four of the other Zokurangers turned and began to run, surrounding Wizard and Red Racer, both of which were too distracted to see that Zoku Pink spun around to produce a colorful soccer ball. “Yellow!”

The feline monster tossed the ball high into the air, allowing Zoku Yellow to jump high into the air, and kick the ball towards the ground, passing both Wizard’s and Red Racer’s heads. “Green!”

The soccer ball glowed a bright yellow as Zoku Green crouched down and smacked the ball with his arms, bouncing it back through the air, this time giving the ball a tint of green. “Blue!”

While the glowing soccer ball flew through the air, both Zoku Blue and Zoku Red jumped high into the air, with Zoku Blue bouncing the glowing ball higher into the air. “Red!”

And with a blue color to the ball now, Zoku Red spun through the air and slammed his foot into the energized weapon. “ENDBALL!”

The ball quickly shot from Zoku Red, energy peeling off of it as it headed towards both Wizard and Red Racer. Wizard tilted his head slightly, “… A soccer ball attack? Really?”

However, Red Racer’s wings fanned out before he dashed into Wizard’s back and propelled both of them from where they were standing. But before they could get too far, the Ranger Ball slammed into the ground and exploded into a flurry of multicolored energy that sent both of them falling face first into the ground.

Both Applejack and Applebloom watched in awe as the energy disappeared, leaving nothing more than a rather large patch of scorched ground… Well, that and a bunch of broken bike parts.

Wizard turned and threw his arms up into the air, “MACHINE WINGER!!! DOUGHNUTS!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

“Oy, oy,” Red Racer comforted as he nudged one of the wheels that had bounced near the two. “Don’t worry ‘bout it pal, we got bigger things to deal with!”

Although Red Racer was right, with all five of the Zokurangers now with their weapons drawn once more and slowly walking towards the two weaken red heroes, Wizard merely gripped onto the handle bars of the Machine Winger tightly. Then with a loud growl, Wizard slammed the handle bars into the ground. “THE FINALE!”

“That’s the spirit!” Red Racer announced as a bright red light surged from his body and flowed over his body. “The finisher!”

The next second, the red aura that was over Red Racer’s body washed over all of the broken motorcycle parts and even Wizard himself. The red light surged brightly, forcing the Zokurangers and the Apple sisters to turn away.

When the light died down…

“What in sweet Celesita’s mane?” Applejack questioned with her eyes dulled slightly.

“Wow! How’d they do that?” Apple Bloom asked with a bright smile on her face.

‘How DID this happen?’ Wizard thought to himself as he gripped onto the handle bars once more.

Right where Wizard and Red Racer were standing moments earlier, the two were now on a rather dated, red bike. With Wizard on the seat, pedaling and steering, while Red Racer was on the bars on the back wheel, waving his hoof over his head, “Two on a bike isn’t allowed! But I’ll let it slide for this one time!”

The Zokurangers weren’t impressed and simply charged towards the two as they shakily and slowly made their way towards the oncoming monsters. That’s when a familiar red aura shot around the two on the bike, the aura quickly transforming into a bright red flame that propelled the two across the grassy ground.

“WIZARD KURUMAGIC ATTACK – RED VERSION!” Both Wizard and Red Racer proclaimed loudly before they transformed into red streak of fiery energy that sped towards the surprised Zokurangers.

All five of the Zokurangers tried to dodge the fiery blaze, but the enflamed bicycle crashed into them! A powerful burst of fire erupted as both Wizard and Red Racer skidded to a halt behind the flames that flickered up into the air. The red covered pegasus hopped off the bicycle and pumped his front hoof towards him, “Ah, that brought back memories.”

When the flames disappeared, the Zokurangers were gone, and Wizard just tilted his head before he turned towards the two Apple Sisters, “Okay, what the Tartarus just happened?”

“We were victorious!” Red Racer laughed as he slammed his front hoof into Wizard’s back, nearly knocking Wizard off of the bicycle. “Now, you enjoy that bicycle, but remember to practice proper traffic safety! Only one on a bike at a time, always wear a helmet, and always be attentive. We don’t need some poor pony getting run over.”

Wizard gripped the handle bars even tighter before he snarled loudly as he turned his attention towards the red covered Pegasus.

This didn’t go unnoticed by Red Racer who coughed and slowly began to back away from the apparent bloodlust in the air. “Uh, well, now if you excuse me, I need to go spread the word of traffic safety!”

Kicking his back legs up into the air, Red Racer quickly lived up to his name and began to gallop away, creating a large cloud of red dust/smoke with each step that he took. Wizard was already on his tail, pedaling as quick as he could to follow the odd pegasus, “OI! GET BACK HERE! YOU OWE ME A NEW MACHINE WINGER AND THOSE DOUGHNUTS!!!”

Applejack sighed as she watched the two masked heroes dash away, “Ponyville’s certainly getting weirder by the day.”

“That, was, amazin’!” Apple Bloom exclaimed loudly as she bounced around her big sister. “Ah didn’t know that Mistah Souma could do all that! Ya think he could teach me how to do some of that stuff?!”

The southern mare sighed loudly.

Meanwhile, atop of some of the clouds, Sora was laughing loudly, “Hehehehehe, just as I thought, Mahou-kun is certainly a barrel of laughs.”

Sora sighed in relief as his laughter died down, “Although, I think I can make it even more hilarious next time.”

With a bright smile, Sora reached into his saddlebags and pulled out what appeared to be a large, red, fiery feather with his teeth. Steam slipped from his mouth as his smile grew, 'Mahou-kun maybe akin to fire, but this burn might just be more than what he can handle.’

TTTTTT

While the plague of insanity was going through Ponyville, back at Golden Oaks Library, the books were back on the shelves, Spike had his cramped up claw in a bowl of ice, and Twilight was going through the book that Sora had left. Ever since the triple check, her eyes were practically glued to the pages of the story.

‘Detrot,’ Twilight thought as she closed the book with her magic. ‘What an interesting thought! A city based around a new form of technology and transportation, and even with heroes that are based off of that technology, such a fun little tale.

‘But the heroes are kind of weird, especially that Red Racer. Who obsesses over traffic safety? I’m glad that this is just a story… Although, the Legend of Nightmare Moon was considered a story, but who knows? Maybe this will be a reality someday?’

Oh Twilight, if only you knew.

TBC

Author's Note

Sora: Hehehehehehe! Hel~lo everypony!

What? Were you expecting MangaKamen? Sorry, he's a little tied up at the moment, but he'll be back in a little bit, I just wanted to have a little fun here with Mahou-Kun and a few of his pony friends.

Now, while I have your attention, MangaKamen will be back in a week or so with the next chapter and I'm sure you all know what's coming up next! The Great and Powerful Sora does! Hehehehehe!

Oh, and its come to my attention of something that any readers might've guessed... NO! I'm not the ponification of Sora from Kingdom Hearts - What I am is... Well... Spoilers!

And if you're still reading this, MangaKamen wanted me to let you guys know that the guy who does his art for him is taking commissions! All you need to do is go here: http://flairnightz.deviantart.com/ and he'll do some quality art for anypony at low prices. This artist needs all the help he can get, and when something like what you see above is only about 11 dollars, I like to think that's a good deal.

Now if you excuse me, I need to go cause some mischief! Bye bye!

Spell 11 - It's MAGIC!

Tada! Let’s make a dramatic entrance! Tension fortissimo!
- Tatsulot

TTTTTTTT

Spell 11

It’s MAGIC!

Art by FlairNightz!
TTTTTT

“Come on, Twilight! You can do it!”

The young unicorn took a deep breath as she focused her thoughts, calling forth the magic deep within her, her horn glowing brightly. Twilight kept her eyes focused on her dragon scribe in front of her.

Then, with a flash of light popping on his face, a thick, bushy mustache sprouted on Spike’s face, a large smile following suit! “HAHA! Ya did it! Growing magic, that’s number twenty-five! Twenty-five different tricks and still counting!”

Spike took the opportunity to check off a pad of paper that had a number of spells listed on it, Twilight blushed a little bit with Spike’s praise.

The baby dragon was looking at a nearby mirror, stroking the mustache on his face, “You know, I think this is your best spell! I bet with this spell and if Haru lets me use that Excite Ring of his, then…”

Taking a moment to cough and lift his arms up, Spike spoke in a deeper voice, “Hello, Lady Rarity! What’s that? Aw, it’s nothing, it’s just an awesome mustache and I’ve just been hitting the weights lately.”

Twilight giggled as her horn began to glow brightly once more, “Sorry Romeo, as enticing as you look, it’s just for practice. And it’s gotta go.”

“N-No! Wait!” Spike yelped as he waved his arms.

But, within a few seconds, the glorious mustache disappeared from the baby dragon’s face, with Spike slumping down close to the floor. “Aw rats.”

Twilight stifled a little bit of a snicker and trotted up to the list that Spike had crossed off. Within the last few weeks, Twilight was able to learn these new spells, it was actually a personal best in her track record to learn so many new spells within such a sort span of time. Before she came to Ponyville, it had taken her a few years to master some of the spells she’s used many times. ‘I guess with more real life experiences that I’ve had gone through, I suppose my growth and studies have matured quicker.

‘I owe that to my friends.

‘But there’s still something that’s bugging me – I was able to use Haru’s magic. From his explanation, it sounded like anypony who could channel magic into his rings would be able to use his spells. But, it’s still hard to imagine that I could use his own kind of spells, was it a fluke?’

Twilight shook her head and turned towards Spike, who was still slumped on the floor, ‘Hmm, maybe I should ask Haru if I could borrow a couple of his rings to test them out. I’m sure Spike wouldn’t mind if I could have him use Haru’s Excite Ring, outside of course.’

TTTTTTT

Speaking of the red dragon, his day wasn’t looking too good so far. Aside from the weird chaos he had to deal with the other day (including a red pegasus who shall not be named in order to protect the dragon’s mind), Haru was trying to get some work for the day. Unfortunately, that wasn’t going too well – Seemed like today was going well for the businesses of Ponyville, everypony was at work and everything was running smoothly.

Which wasn’t a good thing for the usual part-timing dragon, he wasn’t able to find work that morning like had usually done in his time in Ponyville. So, Haru was currently unemployed and traversed out of Ponyville, ‘If I can’t get a job today, I might as well go search for some magic stones. I need to catch up on my searches, practicing my riding and repairing the Machine Winger ate a bit too much of my time.’

When he was a good portion outside of the town, Haru stretched his arms through his black overcoat and lifted his head up high into the air. With his eyes closed, Haru whiffed the air a few times before he dropped to all fours and began to sniff at the ground. The red dragon whipped his head left and right, sniffing all the while, and after a certain whiff, Haru’s tail pointed straight up into the air. “I got your scent!”

Crawling along the ground, Haru began to follow the scent of the magic stone, his tail shaking wilder and wilder with every step he took. He had made good distance from the town before his tail slapped against the ground with a large grin on his face, “And here it is!”

Haru stood up for a second before he drove his claws into the ground, pulling the dirt away quickly. Quickly, the red dragon dug deeper and deeper into the ground until only his tail was sticking out from the hole he just made.

TINK!

“That sound is almost as sweet as a fresh plain sugar doughnut.”

Haru popped his head out of the hole and lifted up a jagged magic stone in his claws, the rest of his body and clothes covered with dirt. “Well, let’s see if I can get some more.”

TTTTTTT

A loud roar echoed through the Everfree Woods, birds flying from the branches and the weird wildlife running off. The roar was actually a booming yawn that emerged from a familiar clearing in the woods, “What a good nap! I haven’t one like that for ages!”

Harpie and Hellhound sighed loudly at the almost fully recovered Minotaur who was stretching his armored body. Minotaur stood up straight and took a deep breath, “I feel strong! I feel refreshed! I feel… Like I could defeat that Ring Mage!”

A feathered wing whapped the back of Minotaur’s head, making him stumble forward slightly, “URK!”

“Don’t pull those sorts of stunts yet,” Harpie scolded as she folded her wings. “We still need to work on our plan, and in case you hadn’t notice, you’re not back at a one hundred percent yet.”

Minotaur moaned as he brought his hand up to his still broken horn, and he fell down to his knees, “Damn it, why’d you remind me of my shame?!? I’m still half a Phantom!”

“You should just be glad that you’re still able to talk,” Hellhound sighed loudly as he shrugged his shoulders. “Just get better soon you big lug, we’ve gotta get back at that loser mage. He’s been nothing but a pain! Two phantoms gone! Three if you count Inner Phantoms!”

The largest of the three Phantoms stood tall and cracked his knuckles, “I see, then that means that we’ll have to pay him back threefold! Harpie! When can we start the fun?”

“We’ll start by the end of the week,” Harpie replied as she spun around on her talons. “Until then, you’re to remain here Minotaur and complete your recovery. We’d need you at tip top shape for our plan to work. Hellhound and myself will be dealing with some other matters before that.”

Minotaur nodded as he made his way towards a particular spot of moss and jumped onto the ground, “Great, I’ll just keep on catching up on my Z’s then again.”

Hellhound snarled loudly as he threw his arms up into the air, “Great, since when did he get so lazy?”

Harpie snickered slightly, “Jealous of your big brother?”

“TARTARUS YES!!”

Meanwhile, above the clearing in Everfree Woods, a familiar green pegasus watched as both Harpie and Hellhound walked away from the quickly dozing off Minotaur. “Hehehehehe, ooh, this is gonna be fun.”

TTTTTTTTT

The midmorning had dawned on Ponyville and with it, both Twilight and Spike were walking through the large town, and above them was none other than the ruby emblazoned Garuda, following the two.

“Twenty-five, Twilight!” Spike stated as he ran alongside the lavender mare. “That’s a lot more tricks than what Haru can do, and you’re learning more almost every day! And most unicorns only have a little magic that can match their special talents! That’s saying something!”

“Oh, Spike, stop,” Twilight replied with her face blushing red. “I’m sure there are lots of ponies right here in Ponyville that know just as much magic as me. Even Haru’s spells are unique, I’ve never seen them done by other ponies, or that they even existed before he showed up.”

“Yeah, but I bet that if you tried,” Spike stated with a bright smile on his face. “I bet you could learn magic like that in a snap!”

The student of Princess Celestia stopped in her tracks and looked up into the sky…

Hellhound roared as he leapt high into the air, his sword held over his head before he began to fall towards the two.

“DEFEND – PLEASE!”

Hellhound yelped as he crashed into the rune and was forced backwards, until he landed on the ground, rolling backwards until he got to his feet. “What the?! Where is he?!”

Twilight watched as the circle faded away and looked at the ring that was floating near her, ‘Was I… Was I able to use Haru’s magic?’

Twilight shook her head, trying to make sense of that memory.

Spike on the other hand was trying to snap Twilight from her thoughts, “Besides Twilight, I don’t think there’s another unicorn in Equestria who could match you. A dragon maybe… But I’m sure you can top that!”

“Spike,” Twilight giggled sheepishly. Twilight was about to continue, but spotted something out of the corner of her eye. “Huh? Spike! Move!”

But before the baby dragon could react, two young unicorn colts crashed into him, Twilight winced as all three of them ended up in a slightly tangled pile before her. “Oooh, that’s gotta hurt. Are you three okay?”

After a few moments and using her magic to help untangle the three, Twilight looked over the two young unicorns, “Snips and Snails, right? Is everything okay? You two were kind of running fast.”

“Wha?” The taller, orange unicorn colt questioned, his green mane bobbing slightly as he turned his head. His eyes seemed a bit glazed over and he had a snail at his flank. “Haven’t you heard? There’s a new unicorn in town!”

“Yeah!” The shorter, teal unicorn colt chimed in, his buck tooth smile widening as he spoke. At his flank were a pair of scissors as his cutie mark. “They say that she’s got more magical powers than any other unicorn – EVAH!”

“They even say she’s got an assistant!” Snails added as he jumped up and down. “And they got a really, really, REALLY big shown about to go on!”

Twilight was a little surprised about that, “Really?”

“No way!” Spike retorted, gesturing towards Twilight. “There’s no way that unicorn could top Twilight! She’s the best unicorn in Equestria!”

That pesky crimson crept back on Twilight’s cheeks as she looked away for a moment. “Ahem, so, where is this unicorn’s show?”

Both Snips and Snails looked at each other before they smiled brightly at Twilight and her scribe.

TTTTTT

Even though they followed the two youths to the town square, it wasn’t hard to find where the show was taking place. After all, there was a large amount of ponies gathered in front of the town hall, where a large wagon was placed in front of it.

Pushing through the large crowd, the small group of ponies plus one dragon made their way to the front of the crowd just as a loud booming voice blasted from the wagon. “COME ONE, COME ALL! COME AND WITNESS THE AMAZING MAGIC OF THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE!”

The wagon began to unfold into a stage with many colorful sparks flying from all about it, even firing off a few fireworks through the air. A large cloud of blue and silver smoke erupted on the stage and standing on the stage was a rather suave looking blue mare with a silver mane poking out from underneath her star and moon adorned hat, with a matching cape and cowl that covered the rest of her frame. The unicorn smiled as the crowd was struck with surprise. “Watch and be amazed as the Great and Powerful Trixie performs the most spectacular feats of spell slinging ever witnessed by pony eyes!”

More fireworks fired into the air as a cheerful music began to play through the air, eliciting more ‘oohs’ and ‘awes’ from the ever growing crowd.

Even Twilight and Spike were mesmerized by the show that was before them, at least until…

“My, my, my! What boasting!”

That voice was able to pull the two of them from their trance, with Spike shaking his head, “Oh come on, no pony’s as magical as Twi— Twi—Twi– Oh!”

Spike froze when he turned his head and his eyes widened when he realized that a certain white unicorn was standing right next to him. And with a clearing of his throat and puffing out his chest, Spike rubbed his now-hairless upper lip. “H-Hey, Rarity, I, uh – MUSTACHE!”

And just like that, Spike dashed away from his crush, making Twilight realize that it wasn’t just Rarity who was here – Applejack and Rainbow Dash were there as well (she also thought that she saw Pinkie Pie in the crowd, but there was no way she’d be that quiet). “There’s nothing wrong with being talented, is there?”

“Nothin’ at all,” Applejack replied, keeping her eyes on the stage to see that Trixie just made a bouquet of roses pop in front of her. “‘cept in when someone goes around showin’ it off like a school filly with fancy ribbons.”

“Isn’t that the point of a show?” Twilight asked with her head tilted slightly. “After all, I doubt anypony would come to see the ‘Average and Boring Trixie’.”

“While that may be true,” Rarity stated. “However, just because one has the ability to perform a great deal of magic, it does not make them better than the rest of us.”

“Especially when ya got me around being better than the rest of us!” Rainbow Dash laughed loudly as she floated around. But when Applejack leered at the blue pegasus, Dash laughed nervously, “Eh, I mean, yeah, uh, magic shmagic. BOOO!”

The stupendous Trixie furrowed her brow at the front of the crowd, “Well, well, well, it seems we have some neighsayers in the audience. Who is so ignorant as to challenge the magical ability of the Great and Powerful Trixie? The Marvelous Trixie shall be glad to show you more of the Amazing Trixie’s mindboggling magic!”

A single, large slip of red paper slid out from under Trixie’s magician hat with a pale blue aura around it. With a smirk, the paper began to fold and crease for a few seconds until it floated in front of Trixie, revealing an origami dragon. The crowd wasn’t as mesmerized as the folded dragon floated down to the stage, but Trixie removed her cloak and draped it over the folded dragon.

Standing on her hind legs, Trixie threw her front hooves towards the cloak, as it slowly began to rise from the stage with a large bulge in the center of it. The cloak continued to ascend as the crowd leaned in closer to get a better look. Trixie smirked as a blue aura wrapped around the cloak and pulled it away, “And now the Breath-taking Trixie will now introduce the Super Trixie’s non-adjective-given assistant!”

When the cloak was fully off, a familiar red scaled figure stood on stage with his back turned. He was dressed in a black cloak that billowed in the wind with a matching black top hat and in his black claws was a simple brief case. The dragon figure spun around to reveal an absolutely familiar face with an equally familiar belt buckle. “Ta-da!”

“HARU!?!” The four mares questioned, completely surprised by the dragon’s appearance.

Haru didn’t say a word but rather pushed his top hat up slightly towards his friends, then with a spin, Haru revealed that there was a sitting stool behind him. And when he was behind it, Haru placed the briefcase on top of it and opened it. Reaching into the briefcase, Haru pulled out a large red bowling ball that he dropped to the stage and allowed it to roll of off it. “Figure that one out.”

Most of the crowd laughed at that little trick.

Trixie smirked as her cape wrapped around her neck once more before she trotted in front of Haru, “Gaze upon the Amazing Trixie and the Moderate Souma!”

“Why can’t Souma be the Spectacular Souma?” Haru whispered to the unicorn. “Also, Souma doesn’t know why we’re talking in the third pony, but okay.”

“Just go out there and do your job,” Trixie hissed back, trying to keep her smile on her face.

Haru sighed as he jumped off of the stage and pulled his top hat off, slowly walking through the crowd, holding his hat up towards some of the ponies. “Tips, donations, any sorts of bits are welcomed!”

“What in tarnation is that Souma doin’?” Applejack sighed with a roll of her eyes.

As Haru collected a few bits from some of the ponies, Twilight smiled, “I think he’s just doing his job.”

“That’s what he does all day?” Rarity questioned, watching as Haru continued to walk through the crowds as Trixie continued to perform tricks on the stage. “I never pictured Mr. Souma as a beggar.”

“Actually, he does odd jobs around Ponyville,” Twilight explained with a smile. “He’s usually working hard for anypony, but I guess this was the only job he could get today.”

“Tartarus, if the dragon needed a job, Ah’m sure Ah could’ve found ‘im somethin’,” Applejack sighed as she shook her head.

“Indeed, even I had a few errands that needed to be done,” Rarity chimed in. “His magic would’ve made them that much easier.”

“I think he has a little bit of pride to him, and doesn’t want to burden us to give him work,” Twilight answered as she watched Haru traverse the crowd, smiling brightly. ‘He does have a good heart though.’

“Behold!” Trixie called out to the crowd as several streamers popped around her. “Now you all know that you are in the presence of the most magical unicorn in all of Equestria!”

Rarity scoffed to the side when she was reminded that the boaster was still around, “Still, I can’t believe he’d take work from her. Just who does she think she is?”

“Yeah!” Spike added with his arms crossed. “Besides, everypony know that Twilight here is…”

“Spike! Shhh!”

Twilight was immediately pulled from the crowd via his tail until he was standing face to face with a nervous Twilight. “Twilight? What’s wrong?”

“Didn’t you see the way they reacted to Trixie?” Twilight replied, turning back to the stage to see said performer. “I don’t want anyone to think I’m a show-off. What’s stopping them from…”

“Twilight, you’re one of the most modest ponies that Souma knows.”

Both Twilight and Spiked turned to realize that Haru was standing right next to them, his claws barely able to hold up the top hat that was almost overflowing with little gold coins. “Besides, they’re you’re friends, if they can tolerate Rainbow Dash’s boasting, Souma thinks you don’t have anything to worry about.”

Twilight smiled slightly, but Spike was a little less than pleased with his fellow dragon, “Haru! What are you doing?”

“… Uh, working so Souma doesn’t become a bum?” Haru innocently said with his head tilted slightly.

“Not that, I mean why are you working for her?” Spike asked, gesturing towards the stage. “She’s so overbearing that I can’t stand it!”

“It’s either this or mooch off you two,” Haru replied as he waved his tail about behind him. “Besides, she’s not that bad, she’s just trying to make an honest day’s pay, and she has to sell herself.”

“Exactly,” Twilight added. “Besides, it’s not like she’s hurting anyone.”

“But Twilight, you’re obviously better than her!” Spike pouted with his tail and arms drooping. “You’ve already mastered over twenty-five spells! And Haru, you’ve got just as many spells too! They may be whacky sometimes, but still something amazing!”

“Whacky?” Haru questioned with a raised brow.

Whether Haru was about to continue the questioning about what Spike really thought of his magic he was never able to confirm since more several more fireworks erupted from the stage, drawing their attention back.

Twilight noticed that Rainbow Dash was flying towards Trixie before she floated over the stage, “What makes you think that you’re so much better than the rest of us?”

Trixie smiled as she lifted up her hoof, nearly hitting the pegasus in the process, “Very well commoner, the Magically Gifted Trixie will graciously bestow upon you all why the Amazingly Stupendous Trixie deserves your respect and admiration!”

Another firework shot off into the air, however, the sparks began to form into what appeared to be the outline of a large, neon bear in the sky with one of its paws waving in the air. “Many moons ago, the poor town of Hoofington was attacked by the dreaded Ursa Major! In their hour of desperation however, a hero appeared on the scene!”

One more firework exploded, this one forming into a small, neon version of Trixie, all dressed in her similar attire, “Yes! The Beautiful Trixie arrived and fought the terrible beast with her Amazingly Awesome magic, forcing it back into the dreaded Everfree Forest!”

The neon-like Trixie waved her front hooves, making the neon Ursa Major pop into many colorful sparks that danced through the air, eliciting the crowd to cheer out. Well, most of the crowd anyway.

“That settles it!” Snips announced as he and Snails galloped to the front of stage.

“Trixie really is the bestest unicorn in Ponyville!” Snails added with slightly dulled tone in his voice as he gestured towards the Prim Trixie.

“No! In all of Equestria!” Snips corrected before both of the young colts waved their front hooves about.

“How do you know?!?” Spike shouted as he stepped in front of the crowd once more. “You weren’t there! Besides, that title belongs to…”

One of the spells Twilight learned was a fancy little trick that allowed her to silence a pony or dragon. Oddly enough, when the spell was casted, the one who was afflicted the spell often had their lips shut and even had a zipper appear on their lips. A rather hilarious sight as Spike tried to unzip his mouth.

Trixie laughed out loud as Haru slowly made his way backstage, obviously to place the bits he collected into the wagon. “But it is true my enthusiastic admirers, Trixie is the most miraculous and amazing unicorn in all of Ponyville.”

The only response that time was the cricket that sounded out through the crowd.

That didn’t sit well with the stage pony, “Don’t believe the Great and Powerful Trixie? Very well, then Trixie challenges any pony to do anything! Anything you can do, Trixie can do better!”

The thing about that silence spell that Twilight used on Spike was that it didn’t last long, so when Spike was able to unzip the zipper on his mouth and fall to Twilight’s front hooves. “COME ON TWILIGHT! SHE’S UNBEARABLE! YOU GOTTA DO IT! PLEASE!”

“There’s no way I’m going to use my magic now Spike,” Twilight whispered looking down at her dragon scribe. “If I did…”

“Perhaps you think you can outdo Trixie?”

Twilight’s head snapped up when she realized that Trixie was looking at her, and even had her hoof pointed at the young unicorn. Twilight’s stomach was beginning to twist as she tried to speak up. “I… I…”

“Do you think that, little hayseed?” Trixie asked with her gazed turned slightly, not caring that Haru was going back into the crowd with an empty hat.

“That’s it!” Applejack growled before she jumped onto the stage. “Ah’s can takes no more of this!”

“Ah, our first volunteer,” Trixie chuckled as she took a few steps back from Applejack. “Go right ahead Southern Bell, but like Trixie said, anything you can do, Trixie can do better.”

“Fine, little missy,” Applejack scoffed as she trotted towards the side of the stage, heading for a spare rope that was on the side of it. “Ah don’t know who ya’ll think ya are, but ‘round here we don’t take kindly to show offs!”

‘So, you’re going beat the show-off by being a bigger show-off?’ Twilight thought to herself with a flat look in her eyes. ‘Logic at work.’

Within a few moments, Applejack had tied the rope around her tail and was whipping about a lasso for a few seconds before she jumped through the loop several times, wowing the crowd before she snapped her lasso through the air. The lasso flew over a branch and snapped tight over a single apple, and with a quick spin, the Southern mare pulled the apple from the branch.

And with the apple sailing through the air, Applejack opened her mouth and caught the apple, instantly eating it. The crowd was cheering loudly as Applejack whipped her tail once more through, making the lasso dance through the air once more, “And now fer the encore!”

With a quick turn, Applejack sent the lasso through the crowd, and with a quick turn once more, Applejack snapped the lasso back. It didn’t come back alone again, this time it returned with a familiar hand shaped belt buckle. “Tadah!”

“HEY!” Haru growled as he stood up straight in the crowd, showing that he was quite taller than most of the ponies. “I’d like that back, please!”

“Don’t worry yer little head off,” Applejack chuckled as she kicked the belt buckle back to the crowd, watching as Haru leapt into the air to catch it. But with a smirk, Applejack turned her attention towards Trixie with a smirk. “There, top that Showoff.”

“The Superb Trixie can easily do so,” Trixie chuckled as her hat floated off her head, revealing her unicorn horn now, which was glowing brightly.

The same aura that was around Trixie’s horn slipped over the very same rope that Applejack used a few moments ago, making the rope lift off the stage to wavier in front of the southern mare, almost hypnotizing her with its fluid movements. The other end of the rope however was coiling around the other end of her body, and before Applejack could notice, the rope constricted around her.

When the rope tightened around her body, Applejack disappeared in a flash of light while Trixie smiled. “She takes an apple from a tree, then the Great and Powerful Trixie shall replace the apple.”

With a flick of her hoof, Trixie gestured towards the same tree that Applejack had lassoed the apple from, and the crowd turned to see that Applejack was hanging from a branch with the rope tied around her hind legs with her strung upside down. “WHAT IN TARNATION!?! GIT ME DOWN!”

The crowd laughed at Applejack’s plight before the rope snapped in two and she fell to the ground with a number of apples falling from the very same tree.

Although the crowd’s eyes were drawn back to the stage, where Trixie was smiling brightly, “Once again, the Super Special Awesome Trixie prevails.”

“Hey!”

Trixie turned her head slightly to see that Rainbow Dash was flying over her stage in place, her hoof pointed down at the still smug Trixie. “There’s no need to go strutting off like that!”

“Oh?” Trixie mused with the same intrigued look on her face.

“That’s MY JOB!” Dash snapped before she blitzed through the air, leaving a sharp rainbow through the air behind her.

Dash sped through air, flying around a nearby windmill to make the propellers spin around quickly before she shot straight into the air, piercing through several clouds. The mass of ponies were in awe when they saw her stop right in front of the sun for a few seconds before she dove back through the clouds, pulling a lot of moisture with her as she quickly descended and followed the spin of the windmill.

With a large smirk on her face, Dash skidded to a landing on the stage, with the moisture she pulled behind her smacking her still fully extended wings creating a small rainbow overhead. “Touch the rainbow! Taste the rainbow! They don’t call me Rainbow and Dash for nothing!”

The crowd cheered loudly while Twilight blinked a few times at her flying friend’s ability. ‘That is impressive, but I’m not sure about that catchphrase…’

“When the Extremely Showy Trixie is done with you,” Trixie chuckled as her horn glowed brightly. “They’ll be calling you loser.”

The same aura appeared around the rainbow over Dash and caused the spectrum of light to wrap around Dash, creating rainbow twister around the blue pegasus before she flew off the stage in the magically created twister until she spun onto the ground with her eyes spinning as well. “I… I feel sick…”

‘Looks like Dash spun right round,’ Haru thought with a roll of his blue eyes. ‘Filly, right round, round, round… Dear Ishimori, Souma need to listen to some more modern music.’

“Seems like anypony with a dash of good sense would think twice before challenging the Dynamic Trixie,” the show unicorn chuckled before her magic conjured up a small storm cloud over the still recovering Rainbow Dash and shot out a loud boom of thunder that made the mare yelp loudly.

The crowd laughed at the fact that Dash’s tail and mane stood out straight. Spike grumbled before he turned towards Twilight, “What we need is some unicorn to challenge her! Somepony with some magic of her own!”

“Y-Yeah!” Dash exclaimed as she began to regain her suave style. “A unicorn to show this unicorn who’s boss!”

“A real unicorn to unicorn tussle!” Applejack added.

Twilight could feel her throat drying up as she felt the gazes of her friends fall onto her, but then she immediately realized something. “W-Well, how about a dragon? Haru’s talented at his sort of magic.”

“Sorry, but the Stupendous Souma can’t,” Haru stated as he casually walked past Twilight and the others, the top hat once again filled with many bits. “Souma get twenty percent of this, and with what we’re getting here, Souma can’t pass that up by out doing Souma’s boss.”

“Uh,” Twilight sputtered out.

“Enough,” Rarity cleared her voice as she began to trot away from the crowd. “I know what you’re all thinking, but Rarity is better than such nonsense. Rarity is a refined unicorn who has nothing to prove to somepony, especially somepony in an outfit as gaudy as hers.”

“Ooo, pretty little words,” Trixie replied with a devious smirk on her face. “Hard to believe that they’re coming from a narwhal with a rat’s nest atop of her head.”

Rarity stopped her tracks, her right eye twitching slightly, every pony who saw that stepped back slightly, while atop of one of the remaining clouds in the area, a certain green pegasus was jumping excitedly atop of it. “Hehehehehehee! Ooh! Catfight! Catfight! I love this unicorn!”

“IT. IS. ON!” Rarity snarled as she leapt atop of the stage and spun around to reveal a completely cool and calm demeanor. Rarity smiled brightly as her horn glowed brightly, and the bright blue curtain on Trixie’s stage flew off. “Little Miss Showoff, there’s more to a unicorn than your cheap little tricks, but magic isn’t simply brute force. Magic is used to improve this world, not just for flexing ‘muscles’.

“A unicorn needs style!”

The curtain spun around Rarity’s body with sparkles and several pieces of neatly cut out fabric billowing through the air. When the spinning fabric ceased, Rarity was now wearing a blue dress with yellow trim and a matching yellow saddle on her back. The young unicorn’s mane was also done up into a fancy Canterlot beehive style that glistened in the sunlight. “Grace and beauty are staples in what makes a unicorn truly a unicorn.

“And while your magic is impressive, it is only for mere parlor tricks. Unicorns are not unicorns unless they possess elegance and intelligence that are on par with the highest class of noble ponies.”

Trixie just looked to the crowd admiring the classily dressed unicorn then smiled brightly as an all too familiar aura appeared at her horn. The crowd gasped loudly as the same aura quickly popped around Rarity, and their eyes widened as the aura quickly disappeared.

This didn’t go unnoticed by Rarity who stood on the stage almost completely frozen like a statue. “… She did something to my hair.”

It wasn’t a question, Rarity knew that the showmare had done something to her mane. “Mirror. GIVE ME A MIRROR!”

“T-There’s nothing wrong!” Dash lied through her teeth.

“Still purty as evah,” Applejack coughed to the side.

“Y-Yes! Just as magnificent as always,” Twilight added with a nervous smile.

“What are you ponies talking about?” Spike stated with his head slightly cocked to one side. “Her hair’s…”

Before he could even finish his sentence, a red tail covered his mouth. Haru leaned close to Spike and whispered, “Trust me Spike, as one guy to another, you don’t want to finish that sentence. It won’t end well.”

Unfortunately, even with that advice silencing the little baby dragon, Rarity’s scream echoed through the air. “GREEN!?! NO! NOT GREEEEEEEEEEEEEN!”

As it turned out, there was a rather large mirror dangling right in front of the green maned pony, being held up by a single fine line from above. From one of the clouds over the stage, Sora was snickering loudly as he held onto a fancy looking fishing rod, ‘Ah, nothing like causing a little mischief, hehehehehehehe!’

Like a mad mare, Rarity galloped off of the stage, screaming at the top of her lungs! “SUCH AN AWFUL, AWFUL COLOR!!!”

Although, as the distraught unicorn dashed through the crowds, another mare with natural green hair turned up her nose and snorted slightly, “Well, I never!”

As the mirror was being reeled back to the cloud, Spike turned towards Twilight pulling Haru’s tail away from his mouth, “Looks like it’s up to you Twilight! Come on! Show her what you’re made of!”

“Spike, I’m nothing special,” Twilight sheepishly replied as Trixie wiped one of her hooves against her cape.

“Yes you are!” Spike shouted back as he pumped his arms. “You’re better than her!”

“Spike, I’m not better than any pony,” Twilight retorted. A little louder than she intended.

“Oh? So you think you’re better than the Mighty Powered Trixie?” the showmare questioned as she trotted to the edge of the stage, all eyes falling towards Twilight. “Do you think that your prowess in magical talent is greater? Then by all means, step onto the stage, show everypony what you can do.”

“M-Me?” Twilight squeaked slightly as she stepped backwards. “I’m no one special, just the same old same old citizen of Ponyville, nothing special or magically gifted here! Oh! Did you just hear that? I think I heard the laundry burning! BYE!”

And just like that, Twilight galloped away from the crowd as fast as she could, leaving a small cloud of dust in her wake. Spike’s arms slumped down as he watched his foster sister dash away, “Twilight?”

Trixie on the other hoof was laughing loudly as she turned slightly, “Another win for the Supremely Amazingly Magnificent Trixie! The Great and Powerful Trixie has proven to be the greatest and obviously most powerful unicorn in all of Equestria!

“Was there ever any doubt?”

TTTTTTT

After a few more tricks of the trade, the crowd had dispersed from the wagon and that left Trixie with a large mirror grooming her silver mane with a brush she was using with her magic. She was humming a tune to herself before a familiar red dragon stepped out from the wagon, now dressed in a black overcoat. “Miss Trixie?”

The mare in question didn’t stop grooming her mane, but rather just looked towards the dragon who was looking over a small notebook, “Right, well, I counted up all the bits I collected from the crowd, and you’ve doubled your initial quota for the day.”

“Excellent,” Trixie snickered as she put the brush down. “Then again, the Great and Powerful Trixie didn’t expect anything less.”

“Right,” Haru coughed out as he tossed the notepad over his shoulder. “Anyway, before we get to paying my services, I couldn’t help but notice something in your wagon. And I was wondering if you’re not using it, perhaps I could have it?”

Trixie tilted her head slightly, “That depends. What exactly caught your eye? The Beautiful Trixie knows she’s breathtaking, but to have a dragon enamored with her and to want her stuff is pushing it.”

“W-Well,” Haru coughed loudly as he rubbed the back of his head. “I was just talking about the steel guitar that you’ve got in the corner collecting dust.”

“Oh, that old thing,” Trixie sighed as she whipped her head to the right, showing off her silver mane once more. “Well, the Benevolent and Gracious Trixie is very generous – You can have that guitar…”

A large smile graced Haru’s scaly face.

“… But if you’re willing to take only fifteen percent of today’s profits,” Trixie continued.

That smile certainly disappeared from the red dragon. “… Fine.”

With a defeated sigh, Haru walked back into the wagon, “I’ll just be in here counting my fifteen percent.”

“Yes, yes, whatever,” Trixie chuckled as she turned back to the mirror, admiring the mare in the mirror before her. ‘Let’s see, the Great Trixie will stay here for the evening and head out in the morning after getting some supplies…’

Trixie’s thoughts were interrupted when a smoothie balanced on a flank was shoved right into her face, making the showmare reel back slightly. “I got you that smoothie you asked for! Extra hay!”

Trixie’s eyes narrowed slightly when she realized that the flank belonged to Snips, with Snails right next to him with a goofy look on his face. It was a look that Trixie knew all too well, it was a look of infatuation. “Hhmmm, hay…”

Well, either that or the colt really liked his hay.

Regardless, using her magic, Trixie took the smoothie and sipped from the straw – noting that the two colts were still there and still swooning over her. “Yes?”

“Ooo! Tell us another story oh Great and Powerful Trixie!” Snips pleaded as he jumped a few times.

“Yeah! Ooh! Ohh! How about the Ursa Major one again?” Snails asked with that same goofy smile on his face.

“Nonononono!” Another, cheerful voice sounded out from above. “Tell us about the Tardius! Ooooh! W-W-Wait! I know! Tell us about the Golden Wolf Knight from Tartarus who slays Horrors! That’s a real good one!”

All three of the unicorns looked up to see that Sora laying down atop of the wagon, a large cheerful smile on his face while his head was propped up by his two front hooves. “Tartarus, I’d be fine if you told me the story about those red and blue ponies that kept fighting each other over a little valley with nothing but grass in it. I just love the blue dumb one.”

“What are you babbling on about?” Trixie questioned with her brow narrowed. “Better question, why are you on my wagon?”

Sora’s wings folded out and he flapped them a couple times. “Well, being atop of clouds is fine and dandy and all, but sometimes, a stallion just needs to knock on wood.”

To illustrate his point, Sora knocked his front hoof against the wagon’s roof a few times before he leapt off of the mobile home. With a graceful land, Sora bowed slightly towards the showmare and the two colts, “I apologize for dropping in, but I just had to say hello, and thank you for the wonderful show! I rarely get to see such nice entertainment in first pony, and it’s just so fun!”

Trixie rolled her eyes at the three weird colts, having fans of her greatness was nothing new, but this was just getting annoying now. “Trixie is far too tired from performing feats beyond your imaginations. Begone with you all till the morrow!”

Sora drooped his head down with his lower lip pouting while Snips and Snails bowed slightly before they trotted backwards.

“Oh, of course, Great and Powerful Trixie!”

“We are at your beck and call!”

Sora sighed as he watched the two younger colts trot away, with a roll of his eyes the goofy pegasus followed the two colts as they backed up into a familiar purple, baby dragon, “What are you two… Wait, aren’t you Sora?”

“Yuppers!” Sora replied with a large smile on his face

“Well, what are you three doing?” Spike continued as Snips and Snails turned towards the baby dragon. “How can you fall for her lameness? She’s just a showoff! Unlike Twilight who…”

“The Great and Powerful Trixie vanquished an Ursa Major!” Snips interrupted as he tapped his hoof a few times into Spike’s chest. “Can your Twilight claim that?!”

“Oh really?” Spike inquired as he pushed Snips’ hoof away. “And were you guys actually there? Did you see her do that?”

“Really? You two saw it?” Sora asked with his head tilted. “What was it like?”

“Uh, w-well, I-I…” Snips stuttered looking a little nervous.

Spike rolled his eyes at the stuttering colt, “And there ya go! Look unless an Ursa Major comes waltzing up the street, I’m not going to believe that…”

“I like pudding,” Snails stated randomly, breaking up the conversation.

“Ooh! Me too!” Sora chimed in with a bright smile. “Chocolate or Vanilla?”

“Why choose?” Snails replied.

“Good point!” Sora laughed loudly.

Both Spike and Snips looked at the two pudding obsessed ponies before Spike cleared his throat, “Anyway, I’m not going to believe a word that Trixie says unless an Ursa Major comes waltzing down the street and she ‘smites’ it. And I suggest that you two, er, three don’t believe a word she says either!”

And with his two bits spoken, Spike walked away from the three colts, leaving Snips to tap his chin a few times. “Hmm, an Ursa in Ponyville? Snails! Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“I think so Snips,” Snails replied with a slightly dulled look in his eyes. “But wouldn’t going into the Everfree Forest in hopes of finding a creature that’s more than likely fifty times our size, angering it, and bringing it into Ponyville only end in disaster?”

Snips blinked a few times at his friend’s surprising reasoning. “Wait, what? Say that again.”

“That again,” Snails chuckled with that dulled look in his eyes appearing again.

Snips sighed loudly, “Oh come on! We got something to do!”

“Now hold on a minute you two,” Sora cleared his throat as he threw a hoof out in front of the two young colts. “I want you two to think for a second – Why bring an Ursa Major into town for Trixie to face off against, when there’s something much more amazing for her to defeat? After all, she’s already defeated an Ursa Major.

“So why not bring something that’s more of a challenge for a mare of her talents?”

Both Snips and Snails looked at the green pegasus, with the smaller of the two unicorns stepping forward, “And what’s that?”

Sora reached into saddlebag and pulled out a glowing red feather in between his teeth, and yet he was still able to talk perfectly fine. “Tell me something, you two ever hear of a creature called a Phantom?”

TBC

Author's Note

MangaKamen: Why hello there everypony!

I hope you enjoyed this slightly late chapter, I know, its been a while, but I've got a number of pieces of good news to share with you all! First off, I've finally convinced my artist friend - FlairNightz, to actually do a short comic about this story! YAY! However, he's got so much on his plate that its going to be on the back burner for his other stuff.

BUT!

He told me that if people really want the comic, they should go here dot his DA account, FlairNightz, and note him. He' tells me that if people show enough interest, and if he gets a little compensation for it, he'll put out full colored pages for the comic. Of course, he'll wanna put them out somewhere where everyone can see them and do it massively, so, it'd take a little bit of time.

In other news, there's another Tumblr that you guys can follow, and even ask questions about! And all you need to do is become friends with a certain pony - The Stallion of Stallions: Kisaragi Gentarou!

You can even ask him questions about this story, and he'll answer them to the best of his ability - Here's the Tumblr!
Stallion of Stallions!

Spell 12 - Tunes and the Feather

“There are times when I think life is enjoyable. Because… The sky is blue, for one.”
- Eiji Hino / Kamen Rider OOO

TTTTT

Spell 12

Tunes and the Feather

TTTTTT

It had been an hour or so since Twilight had run away from the stage and had holed herself up in the library to do some studying to clear her mind of her troubles. The thought of Spike egging her on to one up Trixie was still floating about in her head, weighing down on her. Her friends were all shown up by Trixie, and all she did was watch.

She could’ve stepped up and tried her hoof at outdoing Trixie at her own game, but with how her friends were reacting to the showmare…

Twilight shook her head, remembering Haru’s words about how her friends wouldn’t think any differently about her for doing so. ‘But I don’t want to take that chance... I don’t want to lose my friends.’

The young mare’s thoughts were interrupted when she heard the downstairs door open up, prompting Twilight to trot towards the main lobby of the library. As much as she wanted to stay upstairs with her own personal collection of literature, Twilight knew that she attend to her responsibilities as librarian of the Golden Oaks Library and had to help any pony who wandered into the building.

Of course, when Twilight was atop of the stairs that led into the main room of the library, she was a little taken back at two ponies in the room, “Applejack? Rainbow Dash? What are you two doing here?”

Indeed, the two mares were standing in the lobby of the library, their attention drawn towards the unicorn at the steps. Applejack tilted her hat towards Twilight, “Nuthin’ much, Twi. Just wanted to come check up on ya’ll. Ya ran off like yer tail was set ablaze.”

Twilight stopped her descent on the stairs and turned slightly away from her friends. “W-Well I…”

“Yeah! What’s up with that?” Dash asked as she flew up through the air and floated in front of Twilight. “You could’ve easily mopped the floor with that show off if you stuck around!”

Twilight bit her lower lip. This was part of the situation she wanted to avoid!

“Dash, that’s enough,” Applejack stated as she trotted closer towards the stairs. “Ah’m sure that Twilight here has a good reason that she didn’t get up on stage. And we certainly can’t force her to go against that reason.”

‘Well, that was easily resolved,’ Twilight thought as she stopped holding her breath. “Well, I’m fine, but you two didn’t have to come here.”

“It was no biggie,” Dash sighed with a shrug. “Sides, we had to go check on Rarity, and she’s much worse off than you.”

“Dash!” Twilight gasped slightly.

“Nah, she’s right, Twi,” Applejack added with a roll of her eyes. “She’s locked herself up in her boutique, and when we tried to get to her come out, she just screamed back at us. Somethin’ about gettin’ the horrible green out.”

“Don’t see what the problem is,” Dash scoffed to the side. “I got green in my hair and you don’t see me freaking out.”

“It’s a bit more complicated than that Dash,” Twilight sighed with a roll of her eyes.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Dash muttered as she landed on the floor, waving one of her front hooves in front of her. “I just don’t get why she freaked out about it. Hair is hair, it’ll grow back if you cut it.”

‘You’re missing the point Dash,’ Twilight thought to herself. The unicorn was about to speak out loud once more…

But that’s when a beautiful song echoed through the air, drawing the attention of all three of the mares to the guitar stringed beat. The song was close by and had a soothing rhythm that soothed through the normally quiet library’s walls. The music continued to play for a few moments before Applejack tilted her head and spoke out, “Where in tarnation is that coming from?”

“Wicked beat,” Dash admitted as she bobbed her head up and down a few times.

“It’s coming from outside,” Twilight stated.

TTTTTT

Following the music outside the library, the three mares trotted around the library to find the source of the music. Twilight, Applejack and Dash blinked a few times as black claws strummed on the strings of the guitar, creating the notes that graced the flowing breeze around the library.

“Haru?” All three of the mares questioned.

Indeed, seated on the grass next to the library was none other than the sleek red dragon, only this time he had a guitar placed on his lap. His eyes were closed and he continued to play the music from the guitar, yet he lifted his head up slightly, “Afternoon ladies.”

Still Haru continued to play his guitar as he looked up, his claws still strumming out the tune, “What’s going on?”

“Sweet! You know how to play the guitar?” Dash asked with a large smirk on her face. “Gotta say, that makes you about twenty percent cooler, Wizard.”

“Heh, thanks,” Haru chuckled, not missing a single beat.

“Still got a lot to get to a hundred though,” Dash added.

“Gee, thanks,” Haru muttered with a roll of his eyes. But with a final flick of his claws, Haru finished the song.

“I don’t mean to be rude Haru,” Twilight stated garnering the dragon’s attention. “But, since when could you play a guitar? And where in Equestria did you get that thing in the first place?”

“I’ve always had a thing for music,” Haru explained as he leaned the guitar gently on the tree behind him. “I’ve always enjoyed it whenever I get the chance, but I got out of practice when I got into my magic training – Kind of took priority. That and the fact I didn’t have a guitar to my name during that time, so practicing was impossible.

“As for where I got this stylish guitar, I got it from Trixie.”

That made small scowls appear on Applejack’s and Dash’s faces, which didn’t go unnoticed by Haru and Twilight. The dragon chuckled sheepishly as he pushed himself off of the ground with his tail. “Still a little sore about this morning?”

“Mistah Souma,” Applejack stated as she trotted up towards the dragon, making him reel back slightly. “Ah ain’t got nuthin’ against ya’ll working fer that showoff, since Ah know some ponies, and some dragons, need to get bits to live off of. But what Ah shocked at is that ya’ll didn’t come to me to get some work!”

Haru leaned back more as the Southern Mare’s leer continued to take effect on the dragon. “Ah thought Ah told ya’ll that if ya ever needed work, ya’ll were more than welcomed to come to Sweet Apple Acres! We’re always in need of help, and willing to lend a hoof to our friends!”

“Y-Yes well,” Haru coughed as he turned his blue eyes to the side…

… Only to realize that Rainbow Dash was just as close as Applejack and her violet eyes were leering at him. “And how come you didn’t show up that stuck up mare? Twilight or you could’ve easily out shined her! Twilight could’ve easily outdone her with her own unicorn magic!”

Twilight blushed as she turned her attention away slightly.

“Or you could’ve even done something!” Dash continued as she stood up on her hind legs and crossed her front hooves. “You got all that kooky magic of yours too! Couldn’t you have, oh, I don’t know, drilled right through her stage? Or fly through the air without wings? Or even just smash her with a large claw! That would’ve been awesome!”

Haru gulped slightly as he lowered his claws.

“SMALL – PLEASE!”

Both Dash and Applejack reeled back when suddenly Haru disappeared, leaving only a single red runic circle in his place before it faded away.

“What in tarnation?!”

“What the?!”

Twilight, having already seen the spell before, looked down past her friends’ legs to see that a mini Haru was running from in between them. With a small snicker, Twilight’s horn glowed brightly and lifted the miniature dragon off of the ground and through the air with a high pitch yelp. “I see you found a use for that spell.”

Both AJ and Dash turned back to see the miniature dragon being brought back to the ground. Applejack’s hat nearly flew off her head, “What in the name of Granny’s Dentures?! Since when could ya’ll pull that off?”

“Meh, it’s not as cool as those other spells you got,” Rainbow Dash sighed with a roll of her eyes.

When Haru was back on the ground, the same runic circle popped around his body and he returned to his normal size. “I’ve found it’s a lot more useful than it looks, like it’s good to get out of crowded or cramped spaces. But anyway, I wasn’t planning on helping Trixie out, it just sort of happened.”

“Care to elaborate on that?” Twilight inquired, tilting her head at the dragon. “How do you just suddenly get employed into something like that?”

“Well… You see,” Haru coughed as he looked up, trying to remember. “I wasn’t going to look for work this morning. Like a few ponies know, I tend to go out and search for some materials for my rings. I didn’t get much, only one Magic Stone for the day, and I already got my ring for it.

“But that’s not important, when I was done searching and on my way back, her wagon was stuck in a hole that I forgot to fi… I mean, it was stuck in a ditch.”

All three of the mares gave Haru a flat look.

“What?” Haru questioned, his face turning a little redder than usual.

“Mistah Souma,” Applejack stated flatly. “That was one of the worst lies Ah’ve ever heard in mah life.”

“Huh?” Haru muttered with his eyes wide.

“Not cool,” Dash added.

“Huh, huh?” Haru sputtered.

“Haru, just come clean,” Twilight requested.

“Gargh! Fine!” Haru sighed loudly as he hung his arms in defeat. “I forgot to fill in the hole that Trixie’s wagon got stuck in! I wasn’t expecting anypony’s wagon to get stuck in it! It wasn’t even on the road!”

All three of the mares sighed at the dragon.

After a moment, Haru continued on with his explanation, “Anyway, I did help her out of the hole, wasn’t too hard with my BIG ring. I did kinda owe her, and she didn’t know much about Ponyville, so, one thing led to another, and somehow I got hired to be her temporary assistant.

“Wasn’t too bad of a job actually, and it was definitely good pay. Even if it was just a guitar and fifteen percent of those donations.”

“That makes sense,” Rainbow Dash stated with a few nods. “I’m betting that you’d get right on stage though and show her up if you weren’t working for her!”

“Nope,” Haru answered with his arms crossed.

“Huh?” Dash questioned, blinking a few times. “Why not?!”

“Do you know what it’s like to live on the road?” Haru asked with his brow raised up slightly. Without waiting for an answer, the dragon walked past Applejack and Rainbow Dash to get to his guitar. “When you don’t have a permanent residence and need to live out on the road, you need to be able to do what you can to survive. For a performer, they need to do what they can with what they’re good at in order to provide for themselves.

“Could I have easily outdone Trixie? Who knows, but I’m not going to ruin a pony’s source of income just to prove that I’m better than them.”

Haru picked up the guitar and nodded at it, “Sides, it’d be unfair if I used my own magic against her.”

With a quick spin, Haru sat back down on the ground and strummed the guitar strings once more. “Still, I don’t approve of what she did to you two and Rarity, but then again, she was just trying to drum up some income from the crowd. Still, I’m sorry for not interfering.”

“Ah guess that makes sense,” Applejack admitted as she scratched the back of her head. “Still, Ah don’t have to like it. But I can see why she would do it.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever” Rainbow Dash grumbled with a roll of her eyes. “But how come you’re taking her side?”

Taking a moment to adjust the guitar strings, Haru looked up at Rainbow Dash with a smile on his scaly face. “I’m not taking her side, I don’t like how she humiliated you guys, but sometimes we need to do things that others don’t like. But enough about that, got any requests?”

“As much as Ah’d like to spend the afternoon listening to yer music Haru,” Applejack stated with a smile on her face. “Ah got some errands to run. Ah’ll be see ya’ll around Twilight, and Mistah Souma, next time ya’ll need work, ya’ll better get yer tail to Sweet Apple Acres, ya hear?”

Haru gulped audibly as he nodded a few times. Applejack smiled brightly before she trotted off.

“I gotta jet too,” Dash added as she leapt into the air with her wings flapping to keep her up into the air. “Got some cloud stuff to deal with, but you owe me a song Haru! You got that?”

Haru nodded before Dash flew off into the blue sky. The dragon then turned towards Twilight and smiled, “I hope you’re not going to ditch me too.”

Without a word, Twilight sat down and looked at Haru. “Actually, I’m kind of curious.”

“Oh? About what?” Haru asked as he plucked a few more notes.

“You talked real passionately when you were defending Trixie,” Twilight reasoned with her eyes closed. “Especially when it came to living on the road, it sounds like you have experience with it. You even know how to play music, I’ve never heard of a dragon that can play music.”

“Well, I did have a life before I started living among the books,” Haru stated with a smile.

“And that’s what got me curious,” Twilight continued, making Haru stop playing. “You never talk about your past – Aside from when you started living here in Ponyville. You know a lot about me and most of my friends, but you’re still practically a walking mystery. Why is that?”

“Well there’s a good reason for that,” Haru replied with his right claw at his chin. “And that reason is – Because it’s cool!”

Twilight looked at her dragon friend with a flat look in her eyes. “Yeah, I’m not buying that for a second.”

The red dragon snickered slightly as he rubbed the back of his scales. “… And you shouldn’t. I’ll tell you what Twilight, I will tell you about my past, but before I do, I need to mentally prepare myself. It’s not something I can talk about casually, so, let me practice with my music for a few hours so I can relax and gather my thoughts.

“But, you’re more than welcomed to stay and enjoy the music.”

And with that, Haru didn’t say another word, and began to play the same song that had caught Twilight’s attention in the first place. The unicorn smiled at her dragon friend before she got to her hooves and began to trot towards the front of the library, “Take your time Haru, I’ll be in the library doing some studying.”

The dragon didn’t answer as he slowly played the song once more…

TTTTTT

“Uh, Snips? Are you sure this is a good idea?”

“Of course! We gotta do this to prove to everypony that the Great and Powerful Trixie is pure amazing!”

The two young unicorn colts slowly trotted through the thick Everfree Forest, a saddle bag on Snails back that had a familiar red feather sticking out of it. “I dunno… We really shouldn’t be in here. Especially when it’s getting dark…”

Indeed, the woods were creepy and dangerous during the day, but when sun set, the woods were a practical deathtrap. The wild beasts’ cries echoing through the trees with the wind shaking the bushes were enough to send shivers down any brave stallion’s spine.

Luckily, the two weren’t unsupervised.

“Oh don’t worry!” Sora giggled as he trotted behind the two young colts. “It’s not even close to midnight. And nothing evil will be lurking in the dark.”

“But, ma always said that under the moonlight,” Snails gulped as he inched closer to his friend. “That the Everfree Woods would have a sight that could stop a pony’s heart. Even if we try to scream, the terrors take the sound before we make it.”

“Hmm, I should’ve brought my red leather jacket and single white glove,” Sora giggled to himself as he took the lead. “But don’t worry little ones, we’re almost done!”

The goofy green Pegasus stopped near a bush and gestured with his head to the two young colts. Snips and Snails trotted quietly to the bush as the older stallion, used his front hooves to pull back the bush’s leafs. The two unicorn colts peered through and saw that what they were looking at was a moss covered clearing with the shadows of the nearby trees covering the edges. But what caught the attentions of the two colts was the large, turquoise armored minotaur sleeping in one of the shadier spots of the clearing, laying on its back with its horn covered head pointed towards them. A large, transparent bubble grew and shrank from the creature’s nose.

Sora lifted one of his hooves up to his mouth and shushed the two entranced colts, “Be very, very quiet. We’re hunting Phantoms. And there’s one there.”

“It doesn’t look mightier than an Ursa Major,” Snips pointed out, his eyes narrowing slightly at the goofy, green pegasus. “It just looks like a bad Nightmare Night costume.”

“It looks real to me,” Snails chuckled.

“Trust me you two,” Sora replied with an honest smile on his face. “All you gotta do is use that feather on that bully, and he’ll become something that would send any Ursa Major back into their cave for hibernation.”

“Uh, how do we use the feather?” Snips questioned before he took the feather from Snails’ saddlebag.

“Do we use it to pop that bubble?” Snails asked.

“Nope!” Sora quietly replied as he gestured with his free hoof. “All you have to do is use that Phoenix Dow… I mean, Feather of a Phoenix, don’t wanna get sued by Square Enix. You take that Feather of a Phoenix and place it on that bully’s broken horn. Once you do that, you’ll see what’ll happen.”

“Un, Snips?” the taller of the colts whispered to the shorter one, both of which inched from the weird Pegasus. “Are you sure we should do this? Didn’t Miss Cheerelee tell us something about strange ponies?”

“Oh come on, I think we can trust Mr. Sora,” Snips retorted, with the Feather of a Phoenix now on his back. “How can we not trust a pony with a face like that?”

Sora was smiling warmly at the two colts, waving with his free hoof.

“Well, alright,” Snails replied before both colts gently, and quietly trotted into the clearing.

With the two colts’ backs to him, Sora’s warm smile began to mutate into a much more diabolic smirk, his eyes growing darker with each step they took to get closer towards the sleeping Minotaur. ‘It’s best to have failure happen early in life. It wakes up the Phoenix bird in you so you rise from the ashes… But sometimes, a feather from Phoenix is just what is needed to make things…

‘Fun!’

Both of the young colts grew closer towards the snoring Minotaur, having stopped when the Phantom turned in his sleep slightly. When Minotaur stopped moving once more, the two colts got closer, Snips taking the feather from the back of Snails.

Time seemed to slow down as Snips leaned forward with the feather in his mouth, and quickly dropped the feather over Minotaur’s broken horn. Sora cackled under his breath the moment that the feather touched the Phantom’s broken horn.

The bubble from Minotaur’s nose popped as he roared out in pain, getting to his knees as his hands shot to his glowing, broken horn. The Phantom screeched loudly as the feather sunk into his horn, red energy surging from in between the Minotaur’s armored body. A powerful flame then erupted from his broken horn, and solidified to create a second horn. “IT… IT BURNS! WHY!??!”

Minotaur got to his feet and stumbled about the clearing, making the two young colts back away. The same flames that recreated his horn washed over the Phantom’s body and immediately melded to it, turning his turquoise armored skin into a bright red and yellow.

Then, Minotaur’s screech silenced and he slumped his arms to his sides.

There was a moment of silence before the transformed Phantom creaked his head towards the two colts, leering down at them with his now fiery eyes. Minotaur roared while the two young unicorns screamed loudly.

Sora laughed as he watched the two young colt gallop away in fear while the enraged Minotaur began to give chase. “OH! This is rich! So very, very…”

The goofy pegasus didn’t get a chance to finish that monologue, at that very moment, Minotaur charged past him and whapped his arm into Sora’s chest, sending the pegasus flying through the air before he crashed into a thorny bush. “Ow.”

TTTTT

The dusk was slowly overtaking Ponyville and most of the ponies in town were beginning to close up shop for the day. Stores closing, windows in many homes starting to light up, and only a handful of ponies were walking the streets.

And amongst them was a familiar purple dragon, sulking even more with each step he took until he was outside Ponyville. For the last few hours, Spike had been keeping his distance from the library – He didn’t feel like talking to either Twilight or Haru, part of him was annoyed that his two magically gifted friends didn’t stand up to Trixie’s boasting or even when she outdid their friends.

The young dragon stopped in his tracks and looked up at the sky, and sighed loudly as he watched the stars beginning to appear in darkness above.

“AAAAAAAAAH!!!”

Spike jumped when he saw two familiar colts galloping towards him, tears in their eyes and screaming like wild stallions. Spike was about to turn away from Snips and Snails when they just galloped right past him, confusing the dragon. “Guys? Where’s the fire?”

“CAN’T TALK! TOO BUSY SCREAMING!” Snips yelled out loud.

“STEER CLEAR!!” Snails added.

“THERE’S A BIG BULLY COMING!!!”

Spike scratched his head in confusion when a loud snorting sound caught his attention, the young dragon turned around to see the Red Minotaur stomping towards him, flames slipping from between the gaps of his armored skin. The horned phantom snarled as it picked up its pace, which made Spike run as fast as his tiny legs could take him, and miraculously, the young dragon was able to out run the two colts!

“TRIIIIIIIIIIIIIXIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEE!”

“TWILIGHT! HARU!”

Minotaur roared loudly as it slammed its shoulder into a tree, breaking it in two!

Snips and Snails galloped even faster to the town square, and when Trixie’s wagon was in sight, they made a beeline towards it. The moment the two reached the door to the wagon, they slammed their front hooves against the wood countless times while calling out to the mare insie. “TRIXIE! TRIXIE! C’MON OUT! SOMETHING SCARY’S COMIN’!”

The door flew open, nearly knocking the two colts away. “Who dares to break the Beautiful Trixie’s ten hour sleeping regiment? The One Hundred and Fifty-One Percent Amazing Trixie needs at least nine hours of sleep to perform her most amazing tricks.”

“GAAAAAH!” Both Snips and Snails screamed at the showmare in front of them.

“That’s even scarier!” Snips yelped out.

Anypony would be scared of the sight before the two young colts, Trixie had her silver mane done up with a single ironing curl, her face was covered with some sort of green goop, and she had cucumber slices over her eyes. Using her magic, the cucumbers over Trixie’s eyes floated off, “Oh, you two. Look, you two can continue to grovel at the Marvelous Trixie’s hooves in the morning.”

“But, we kinda have a bit of a little, teensy, weenie problem,” Snips chuckled sheepishly.

“Actually it’s a growing pain,” Snails corrected.

“Can’t this ‘problem’ wait till morning?” Trixie growled, looking up when an even louder growl echoed through the air.

A number of yards away, several broken trees that were outside Ponyville were flung through the air as the red Minotaur charged right towards the wagon with flames flicking from its body. “RARGHH!!”

At a blinding speed, the Minotaur quickly closed the distance between it and the wagon. Trixie screamed loudly as she leapt into the air, the hair curl and facial mud flew off her before she jumped from wagon, with Snips and Snails following suit. Half a second later, Minotaur slammed both of his horns into the wagon and sent it flying through the air.

The enraged phantom cackled as the wagon sailed through the air. “Going… Going… GONE!”

Minotaur pumped his muscular arms a few times as he snorted out some flames from his nose. The monstrous Phantom creaked his head, remembering why he was annoyed in the first place – The two little colts that ruined his nap!

The two brats that caused a pain throughout his entire body!

Who cares if there was another pony there!

Smash! Smash the two!

Crush that mare!

The whole town for that matter!

“BREAK IT ALL!!” Minotaur roared out loud, shaking the entire ground and causing a number of the houses to light their windows.

TTTTTT

Twilight was reading from a book in the second floor of the library, with the library now officially closed for the day, the young mare was able to enjoy her literature without any interruptions. The afternoon was actually rather quiet since Rainbow Dash and Applejack had left, save for the music that Haru kept playing.

For hours on end the dragon continued playing his music, playing different songs every so often. Twilight was a little annoyed that he needed so much time to prepare himself, but at least the music was comforting and creative.

‘One of those songs sounded familiar though,’ Twilight thought to herself as she used her magic to turn another page in the book she had. ‘But I can’t remember its name… Oh well, probably just has a familiar beat to it.’

“TWILIGHT!”

The young mare turned around just in time to see Spike stumbling into the room, barely standing and trying to catch his breath. “YOU! NEED! TO *pant* COME QUICK!”

“Spike? Are you okay?” Twilight asked as she trotted towards her tired dragon scribe.

“Big… Big… PROBLEM!” Spike panted as he fell to the floor. “T-Trixie…”

Twilight frowned at the baby dragon, “Spike, I thought I told you before, I don’t want to try to show up…”

The young unicorn didn’t get a chance to finish as a familiar wagon crashed through the wall of the library, getting stuck in the wall and surprising the two in the room. Twilight blinked a few times before she turned towards Spike, “Um, I’m guessing this is what you’re referring to.”

“Well, I wasn’t expecting that, but yeah,” Spike admitted.

“WHAT THE TARTARUS!?!”

“Looks like Haru noticed,” Twilight chuckled sheepishly. “So, what exactly is happening?”

TTTTTTT

Minotaur slowly walked towards Trixie and the two young colts, snorting loudly as flames shot from his nose. The enraged Phantom bellowed loudly at the three.

“C’mon Great and Powerful Trixie!” Snips yelped out. “You can beat this guy! You just gotta!”

“Yeah!” Snails added with a goofy smile appearing on his face. “Vanquish it so we can watch.”

“It took a lot of trouble to get this… Uh, what was this thing called again?” Snips asked as he turned to his friend.

“Ghost? Nah, Phantom!” Snails answered.

“Right! A Phantom!” Snips exclaimed as Trixie looked at the two colts. “Aren’t you glad we brought it here?”

“Are you two messed up in the head!?” Trixie yelled out, making the two colts reel backwards. “What would possess you to bring a monster like this here!?!”

“Aw c’mon!” Snips moaned. “You’re the Great and Powerful Trixie!”

“Yeah, remember?” Snails chimed in. “You beat up an Ursa Major! No way this thing’s as big as that!”

Minotaur tapped his foot against the ground a few times, waiting patiently for the three to start screaming in terror again. Trixie gulped audibly as she trotted forward slightly “S-Stand back! Watch and b-be amazed!”

Minotaur crossed his arms over his chest as he watched Trixie’s horn engulf itself in a bright aura, the same aura appeared over rope at a nearby stand and caused it to shoot through the air. The rope coiled around Minotaur’s body, tightening about its armored skin until his legs and arms were bound tightly to his body.

Trixie sighed with relief at the sight of the bound Phantom and smiled brightly, “Behold! The Phantom Buster Trixie has caught this terror!”

With a shake of his head in disappointment, Minotaur drew in a deep breath before he snorted out flames. The flames quickly burned through the rope and released his arms, which he promptly brought together and cracked his knuckles loudly. “Lame.”

“Uh, that was kinda lame,” Snips chuckled sheepishly.

“Stop goofing ‘round and vanquish it, eh?” Snails requested.

A bead of sweat rolled down the side of Trixie’s head as her horn glowed brightly. Using all of her concentration, Trixie summoned a large black storm cloud over Minotaur’s head. The red Phantom craned his head up to see what was happening just in time for a bolt of lightning to strike his left horn. Minotaur roared loudly as electricity surged through his body, and within a second, he fell face first into the ground before the three ponies, his body smoking.

For a few seconds, Trixie just stood there, letting what she just did sink in. With her chest puffed out and a large mile on her face, Trixie stood up on her hind legs. “BEHOLD! THE GREATEST UNICORN TRIXIE HAS SLAIN THE PHANTOM!”

Both Snips and Snails cheered loudly as Trixie rubbed one of her front hooves on her chest and smiled brightly, “YAY TRIXIE! YOU REALLY ARE THE GREATEST!!”

“But of course,” Trixie laughed as she got back on all fours.

Unfortunately, the three didn’t seem to notice that Minotaur’s left horn glowed a bright, fiery red before the same aura wrapped around his entire body. The Phantom’s already large body began to bulge with its muscles growing larger. Then, all of a sudden Minotaur snapped his upper body back up and roared extremely loud, which of course made a number of ponies flock out their doors or to their windows to see the red Minotaur get back to his feet.

Of course, this didn’t go unnoticed by Trixie or the two young colts. Minotaur snarled as he lifted his arms high into the air, brought his hands together and immediately began to bring them down on the three ponies.

Or would’ve if not two familiar black clawed feet slammed into the side of Minotaur’s face, knocking him off balance and stumble away.

“DRIVER ON!”

With a spin through the air, Haru landed directly in front of Trixie and the two colts, his belt glowing brightly at his waist. “Sorry to steal the spotlight from you, the Grandstanding Trixie. But this is the part of the show where the assistant gets to shine.”

Minotaur cracked his neck before he slammed his hoof into the ground, shaking the ground, turning his attention towards Haru who messed with his belt. “RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING MAGGGGGGGGGGGGEEEEEEEEE!!!!”

“Looks like someone’s been doing his crunches,” Haru stated as his belt glowed brightly and began to sing its song. “Although, I think you’re taking it a little far turning red – Someponies might start thinking you’re a fan of mine instead of a foe.”

“RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING MAGGGGGGGGGGGGEEEEEEEEE!!!!”

“And this is the point that I realize that something’s not right,” Haru muttered out loud as he lifted up his left claws up to reveal the large red ring on his claw. Minotaur roared loudly as he charged forward, making Haru wave his left claw in front of his belt.

“FLAME – PLEASE!”

The red dragon ran forward and leapt into the air as Minotaur threw a powerful punch towards the leaping dragon. Midair, the familiar fiery runic circle appeared before Haru flipped through it. “Hii Hii Hii Hii Hii!”

And landing on the ground with embers around him was none other than Wizard who spun around to see the back of Minotaur. “It’s showtime.”

Minotaur spun around, trying to backhand Haru with his large muscular arm, however, Wizard just leapt over once more with a spin to slam his tail into Minotaur’s face, making the Phantom stagger back a few feet, shaking the ground with each step it took.

Snips and Snails watched without blinking, watching as the masked Wizard dodged each of the enlarged Minotaur’s attacks with ease and quickly whip his tail across the enraging Phantom’s face each time. “OOOOH! AWESOME!”

Trixie on the other hoof was standing there with shock, “W-What sort of magic is this? And the Amazed Trixie’s temporary assistant is doing this?”

With once more flip over an attack, Wizard spun around and waved one of his coat-tails up to wave the red fabric inside at the Minotaur. “Torro! Torro! Isn’t red supposed to miff you off?”

Minotaur snorted loudly with flames erupting from its armored face and slammed its fists into the ground. The masked dragon spun around and began to run off while he fitted another ring on his gloved claw and threw it in front of his hand-shaped belt buckle. “CONNECT – PLEASE!”

Several yards ahead of Wizard, the large red circle appeared with the Machine Winger slowly wheeling out of the circle. Minotaur roared loudly as he charged after Wizard, who in turn leapt over the circle and landed on the motorcycle, and immediately revved it up. “Right this way!”

As the Machine Winger raced off, the red Minotaur chased right after him, many ponies watched the large monster pursue the masked dragon out of the town.

“What in Equestria is going on here?”

Both Snips and Snails turned to see Twilight skidding to a halt next to them with Spike on her back. Snips smiled goofily before he proudly proclaimed, “We found a Phantom for the Great and Powerful Trixie to face off against!”

“WHAT?!” Twilight gasped loudly. “How do you two even know what a Phantom is? Wait, that’s not important…”

“Right! Don’t worry!” Snails added. “The Great and Powerful Trixie just summoned her Dragon Assistant to fight the bully! But she’ll vanquish it! Just like she did with that Ursa Major!”

Trixie bit her lower lip before she lowered her head in shame, “W-Well, you see the thing about that is…”

Meanwhile, atop of one of the many clouds in the sky…

“Ow… That big meanie hurt me!” Sora whimpered as he rubbed the bruise that was now on the side of his head. The green pegasus was also covered with thorns that stuck to his clothing and his wings. “I’m glad I’m using that big lug for my mission! Humph!”

“MADE IT UP!”

Sora looked down from his cloud to see that Trixie was confessing her lies to the ever growing group of ponies that came to see what the commotion was. A smile appeared on the pegasus’ face as he chuckled, “Heehehehehehehe! Oh how delightful! She’s on the brink of despair! I can see how some Phantoms can like this sort of job.”

That smile disappeared as Sora winced from the pain, “Owwie! I can’t laugh while I got these thorns! Humph! Too bad it’s a waste of despair.

“The Fake and Phony Trixie isn’t a Gate.”

Sora turned his head to watch Minotaur chase Wizard out of Ponyville, and with a lick of his lips, that smile appeared back on his face, “But maybe after I get done seeing if Magic-Boy is what he’s supposed to be or not, I’ll have Minotaur do a one-eighty and head back to Ponyville.”

Taking a moment, Sora spat his tongue out, “Bleh! Exposition! I feel like I just did the work for a lazy author in a somewhat popular story!”

TBC

Author's Note

MangaKamen: Hello! I'm back with a new chapter! And hopefully, in a few days, we'll have the conclusion to this chapter! Keep your eyes out for this, and later dayz!

Spell 13 - Dragon

“One. I didn’t know about the darkness within the friend who was always by my side.”
- Narumi Soukichi / Kamen Rider Skull

TTTTTTTT

Spell 13

Dragon

TTTTTTTT

Wizard rode out of Ponyville on the Machine Winger, his tail and coat-tails billowing behind him. The masked dragon turned his head back to see that the enlarged and red armored Minotaur stomping a few yards behind him. ‘I don’t know what’s going on with this Phantom, but he’s just rampaging like a wild stallion!

‘If he’s chasing me, then I’m his target – But this is that same Phantom that I faced off against on the same day I met Twilight. I don’t know if this is the same Phantom or not, but I doubt there are two Minotaur Phantoms running about…’

“REVENGE! FOR… HORN!”

If his eyes were visible, Wizard would’ve rolled him. ‘It’s the same Phantom.’

With a quick turn of the Machine Winger, Wizard turned his full attention towards Minotaur who was now stopped outside Ponyville, a good distance from the town too. Minotaur snorted loudly with flames erupting from its nose, all the while, Wizard revved the engine loudly, “Well, well, well, looks like we’ve got a game of chicken here.”

“RING-MAGE!” Minotaur snarled loudly as he waved his muscular arm to the side. “ENDGAME!!”

For a moment the two stared each other down before Minotaur charged forward while Wizard drove the motorcycle. Both magical beings raced towards each other, neither one of moving their sights from the other as the gap between them began to shorten. With a loud yell, Wizard forced the Machine Winger into air, leapt from the vehicle and spun through the air.

Minotaur lifted one of his hands up as he aimed for the now airborn Wizard, unaware that Wizard had slipped another ring over his right claw and had brought it to his belt.

“BIG – PLEASE!”

Just before Minotaur’s hand could reach the Wizard, a runic circle appeared in front of the masked dragon who whipped his right leg through it, making the limb grow incredibly large and slam sole of his boot into Minotaur’s hand, knocking it back and allow the foot to continue right into the red Minotaur’s body. “GRAGH!!!!”

Minotaur was flung back by the massive foot, but dug his other hand into the ground to prevent himself from getting too far. With a loud roar, Minotaur quickly charged forward once more.

Having landed on the ground and his foot back to normal size, Wizard turned to the left for a second to see the Machine Winger now on its side. As he reached for his chain of rings, Wizard sighed loudly, ‘I just had that thing fixed! Now I gotta fix the paint job again!’

The Phantom was quickly closing the gap once more, making Wizard slip another ring on his right claws and waved it in front of his belt. “Focus!”

“DANCE – PLEASE!”

Wizard snapped his head up and looked at his right claw, “Aw plop! Wrong ring!”

Unfortunately for the masked dragon, he didn’t have time to swap rings since Minotaur was standing right over him and immediately brought down one of its mighty fists onto Wizard’s head. Just as the fist was about to connect, a pair bright purple lights flashed from the jeweled mask and Wizard spun on his feet, narrowly missing the attack.

Minotaur turned slightly to see Wizard pointing his finger right at the Phantom, “Mind if I defeat you? I can’t hear your answer!”

With a leapt, Wizard slammed the side of his foot right into the side of Minotaur’s face, making the Phantom reel back. When Minotaur snapped his head back, the enraged Phantom had to rub his eyes for a moment – Realizing that Wizard was now dancing right in front of him, waving his arms and spinning around.

There was also some sort of weird purple aura surrounding the masked mage, but Minotaur shook his head as he swept his large arm at Wizard’s upper body, only to miss as Wizard bent over backwards to have the attack miss him. “Hehe! Come on! You can do better than that!”

Steam rose up from Minotaur’s head before he quickly turned back, attempting to backhand Wizard, but before the attack could even hit, Wizard’s tail slammed into the ground and sent the masked dragon through the air. Wizard flipped through the air over Minotaur’s head and as he sailed over the Phantom, he grabbed onto both of the Phantom’s horns.

Using his body weight and momentum, Wizard managed to force Minotaur to fall backwards with a loud boom. Wizard quickly removed the ring as Minotaur tried to cope with what just happened, the purple aura around Wizard disappearing as he replaced the ring on his claw, ‘Dear Tsuyoshi Kida, that was weird! Yet strangely awesome.’

With a quick mess of his belt, Wizard threw his hand in front of the buckler, making it glow brightly. “NICE CHOICE – KICK STRIKE!!”

Flames began to erupt around Wizard’s right foot as Minotaur began to get to his feet, but the Phantom slipped on the grass and fell back to the ground. When the flames were now completely covering Wizard’s leg, the Dragon leapt high into the air with a spin. “FINALE!”

“THE BEST!!

Minotaur had gotten back to his feet just in time to see Wizard falling towards him, the flames propelling the masked mage’s foot right into the Minotaur’s chest. For a moment, the impact seemed to freeze time – Until Wizard leapt back as Minotaur exploded into a fiery blast with his runic crest appearing in front of it.

The masked dragon landed on the ground and watched as the flames danced in front of him, “Whew, well, that was easy.”

“Haru!”

Wizard tilted his head and turned around to see a pair of mares galloping towards him, Twilight and… Trixie? ‘Why’s she here?’

“Are you okay?” Twilight asked as she skidded to a stop in front of Wizard with Trixie following suit.

“But of course,” Wizard chuckled as he lifted his arms up. “Nothing I can’t handle. At the very least, we’ll never see that Phantom again.”

“That’s good,” Twilight sighed with relief. “When I saw that Phantom, I had Spike go get Dash and Applejack for help…”

“And I appreciate that,” Wizard answered with his head slightly bowed towards Twilight. “Though, there’s no need for that now – The Phantom’s gone.”

Wizard crouched down and sighed loudly. “I could really go for a late night doughnut run.”

“Now wait just a second!” Trixie yelled out, making the masked dragon reel back slightly. “You will explain to the Great and Powerful Trixie how you’re able to use that magic! Dragons shouldn’t be able to use magic like that!”

“A wizard did it,” Wizard replied with a shrug, unaware that the flames behind him were starting to grow more intense.

“That’s not an acceptable answer!” Trixie huffed as she stomped a hoof to the ground. “Trixie demands that you teach her how to use that sort of magic!”

Twilight coughed with a roll of her eyes.

“So, is that why you came?” Wizard asked with his head tilted as he stood up straight. “Look it’s not like I don’t wanna teach anypony my magic, it’s just that that I don’t know if anypony can learn it.”

Neither unicorn said a word, rather their eyes widened and their jaws dropped. “I’m actually flattered you want to learn but…”

“Haru,” Twilight sputtered out, not taking her eyes off of the sight behind Wizard.

“In a second Twilight, I have to explain this,” Wizard replied with a shrug of his shoulders.

“Turn around!” Twilight and Trixie shouted, making the masked dragon jump back slightly.

Turning his head first, Wizard spun around to see Minotaur standing amongst the flames, his left horn glowing brightly as the fire was drawn into growing body. The Phantom’s height doubled that of Wizard’s and his body grew to accommodate his new height as Minotaur roared loudly, shaking the ground with the shockwave.

Wizard just stood there as he looked at the enlarged Phantom, then turned his head back to the two mares behind him. “Huh… That’s new.”

TTTTTT

While Wizard fought against Minotaur, a pair of ponies calmly walked into the clearing of the Everfree Woods that Minotaur was sleeping in, one stallion and one mare.

“Any reason why we’re in pony form?” The stallion asked as he tugged on the saddlebags on his back. The lightish red stallion was skinny with a messy blonde mane rolled his eyes as he sat down the ground, showing off the wolf-like cutie mark on his flank. “I like it better when I had, you know, fingers! Makes things a Tartarus of a lot easier to do things!”

“And do you want to blow our cover?” the mare growled as she trotted past the stallion. The mare in question was the same mare that Twilight had met those many weeks ago at the traveling bookstore before she was attacked by Minotaur. “Hellhound, if you waltz to the stores in your Phantom form, then we’re just going to ask for that Ring Mage to find us. Not every day a monster walks down the street.”

“No, but that would make this boring flank town much more livable!” Hellhound barked back as he stuck his snout into the air. “C’mon Harpie! Being stuck in this tiny form is cramping my limbs! How can you stand it Harpie?!”

“It’s a psychological issue actually,” Harpie replied with a smile. “A few Phantoms complained about that too, turns out it’s just like wearing a tight suit or dress, only in your mind. Just takes a little bit of getting used to again, it’d be easier if you took that form more often than usual.”

“Oh yes, take this form more often than not,” Hellhound scoffed to the side. “The same form that was bullied in school – Shoved into lockers, beaten up for lunch money, and of course, my favorite form of torture that happened at the end of every class day – Getting a swirly.”

“It’s always good to talk about your issues, Hellhound,” Harpie sighed as she trotted further into the clearing. “But, we should get something to eat right now. That’s why we did all the shopping earlier. Minotaur! We’re back!”

No response.

“Huh, he’s not here,” Hellhound pointed out with a raised brow. “Where the Tartarus did he get off to?”

At that moment, a loud roar rocked the ground, making both of the disguised Phantoms brace themselves as the shaking intensified. Hellhound’s eyes widened before he fell to the ground, spilling all of the groceries from his saddlebag. “WHAT THE TARTARUS!?!”

Just then the shaking stopped, but the roar continued making Harpie’s pony form crack. With a screech, Harpie’s disguise shattered and her Phantom form flew up high into the air. Hellhound sighed as he watched Harpie soar higher and higher. “This is one of the times I wish I was a flying Phantom. Or even if I was a Pegasus, that would make this guise at least bearable.

“HEY HARPIE! WHAT DO YOU SEE?! SOME OF US DON’T HAVE WINGS, YA KNOW!”

Harpie didn’t say a word before she flew off through the sky.

“OY! WHAT THE TARTARUS!?!?” Hellhound snarled as he began to trot off slowly. “Damn it, there she goes again, sometimes I wonder why I’m even here following her stupid ideal of ‘family’.”

“Ya know, I gotta agree with ya.”

A chill ran down Hellhound’s spine when that voice called out to him, but when a bright light surged behind him, a large bead of sweat rolled down the side of his head.

“A strange little thing this group of Phantoms have got going on… Dunno why Medusa puts up with this plop.”

Hellhound gulped loudly.

“Ya gonna just keep pointing yer ugly flank at me? Or are you gonna look me in the eye?”

Hellhound slowly turned around, his eyes widening as he saw the tall, red being standing a few feet from him. “Ma… Ma….”

“I ain’t yer momma, ya idiot,” The fiery being sighed loudly as he took a step forward, the ground singed from where he was originally standing. “Now look, I’m in a very bad mood, and if you give me any plop, I won’t hesitate to give you a one-way ticket to Tartarus!”

Hellhound stepped backwards until he slipped on a random apple that fell from the bag and he fell backwards. The fiery being continued walking towards the stallion, the scorched trail following him. “I know what yer thinking – What’s an upper class Phantom doing here? Well, to tell you the truth in all this excitement, I’ve kinda lost track myself.”

Throwing his right arm to the side, the large enflamed being summoned a large number of flames form his hand which formed into a large gold and red sword with stylized wings at the hilt. The sword was immediately brought up to the frozen in place Hellhound’s neck, “But being this is the Catastrophe, one of the mightiest weapons that Phantoms can get and can cleave you in two with only one slash, you gotta ask yerself one question.

“Were you the punk who stole one of my feathers? Well, are ya, punk?”

The ground where Hellhound was laying on, suddenly just got wet.

TTTTTTT

“WATER – PLEASE!

“Sui Sui Sui Sui Sui!”

“LIQUID – PLEASE!”

Minotaur slammed his mighty fist into the ground just after the blast of mystical water carried both Twilight and Trixie away from the attack. The two mares yelped as the mystic liquid carefully dropped them to the ground several yards away and formed back into the now sapphire-donned Wizard. “Sorry about the rough ride, but I have to be conservative with my mana, and I can’t keep changing styles.”

“He… He just turned into water!” Trixie gasped loudly as she lifted up her still wet hooves. “Trixie feels… DISGUSTED!”

“Hey!” Wizard growled with his claws at his hips. “Is that what you say to someone who saved you not just once, but twice in the last half hour?”

“Uh, Haru?” Twilight cleared her throat. “I think you literally have bigger problems to deal with.”

Wizard lifted his right claw up, “R-Right! Sorry!”

“LIQUID – PLEASE!”

With his body shimmering brightly, Wizard transformed back into the brightly glowing blue water that flew through the air towards the towering Minotaur, the liquid whipping about its large, red armored body. The Phantom roared at it tried to swat at the magical water.

“How is this even possible?!” Trixie questioned as she watched the mystic liquid slam into the Minotaur’s chest, forcing the large Phantom staggering back. “When he got Trixie’s wagon out of that hole, Trixie just thought that he just pulled it out from the hole with his own strength!”

“Well, technically, he did,” Twilight snickered as the water crashed into the ground in front of the slightly dazed Minotaur and quickly replaced the ring on his right hand. “I know exactly what you’re going through, I never thought this sort of magic is possible, but as you can see, it is.”

Wizard slipped his right hand in front of his belt and immediately pumped his arms up as his belt chimed out. “It’s about to get wild!”

“EXCITE – PLEASE!”

A blue runic circle traveled up Wizard’s body, and his entire form became muscular and he was almost as tall and muscular as Minotaur, save for being short a few inches. Minotaur staggered back slightly surprised at the empowered masked dragon, which allowed Wizard to slam his right elbow right into the Minotaur’s face, a loud, sickening crack echoed through the air as the Minotaur roared in pain.

Minotaur threw a right jab in retaliation, only to have Wizard lift his left arm and block the attack. Wizard then grabbed Minotaur’s arm and pulled the Phantom past him, now behind the Phantom, Wizard spun around and lifted his right leg up into the air behind him. “Spin around behind, and then from below…

“BOOM!”

Wizard threw his leg right between Minotaur’s legs, with a delicate ding echoing through the air. For a moment, tears flew from Minotaur’s eyes as the two unicorns turned away from the sore sight, and with the same force, Wizard flipped the empowered Minotaur until it landed face first into the ground.

With his body returning to normal size, Wizard lifted up a familiar ring to his right claw, “Well, here’s a first, two finishers in the same day. But I don’t have a choice!”

Wizard slipped the ring on his right claw and threw it in front of his belt, “NICE CHOICE – KICK STRIKE!

“THE BEST!”

Wizard leapt into the air, and quickly slipped another ring on his right claw, messed with his belt mid-air and threw his right claw back over his belt. “LIQUID – PLEASE!”

With his body shimmering brightly, Wizard’s lower body transformed into water and propelled him higher into the air. When he reached the apex, Wizard’s lower body reformed while his upper body transformed into a torrent of water, shooting him towards the recovering Minotaur. “FINALE… AGAIN!”

Minotaur had pushed himself up before both of Wizard’s feet crashed into the Phantom’s back, with a blue runic circle completely covering Minotaur’s body. Wizard flew from the runic circle and skidded to a stop in front of both Twilight and Trixie, his coattails billowing as Minotaur’s entire body exploded into surge of water. “Now that was BRAVE!”

And then Wizard promptly fell to the ground. “Need… Need… Doughnuts.”

“Are you going to be okay?” Twilight asked as the masked dragon began to sit up. “I’ve never seen you use so many spells in rapid succession before, and fight at the same time.”

“I… I’m fine,” Wizard coughed as he got back to his feet. “At the very least, we’ll never see that Phantom again.”

A large burst of fire erupted several yards from behind Wizard, making the sapphire donned mage slap his mask while Twilight and Trixie watch as the flames flew high into the air. An all too familiar roar blasted through the air as the flames began to reform into the roaring Minotaur, his left horn glowing brightly as the Phantom’s body grew even taller than most of the buildings in Ponyville.

Wizard slumped forward and sighed loudly, “This one is tenacious!”

“Well, smashing it doesn’t seem to work,” Twilight stated as trotted next to her dragon friend. “It just seems to make things worse.”

“But I like smashing,” Wizard sighed as he stood up straight. “It’s a great stress reliever.”

“Are you seriously making a joke right now?” Trixie asked with a flat look in her eyes. “There’s a thirty foot tall monster that’s getting angrier every time it’s defeated! It got mad the first time, and it’s going to get madder each and every time!”

“First time?” Wizard and Twilight questioned as they turned towards the showmare.

Trixie puffed out her chest with a mighty smile on her face, “Grovel before Trixie! She was able to defeat the monster when it first came into the town! With a bolt of lightning to its horn, the beast fell!”

“And then it got back up, just like the last two times, right?” Twilight asked as Minotaur stretched his large arms over his horned head.

A slight blush appeared on Trixie’s face as she nodded in reply.

Twilight closed her eyes for a second before she spoke out loud, “Trixie, this is important! Did that Phantom’s left horn glow brightly?”

The showmare blinked a few times as she nodded in response, Twilight smiled as she turned towards Wizard. “Haru! Aim for his left horn!”

“Huh?” Wizard questioned, not taking his eyes off of the still recovering Minotaur. “Why?”

“Don’t you remember?” Twilight asked as she lifted a hoof towards Minotaur. “When you first fought him, you shot off his left horn! And unless Phantoms have the ability to heal armored tissue like that naturally, then that’s his weakness! Each time he gets bigger and stronger, his left horn glows brightly!”

Wizard turned his attention towards the left horn of the creature, seeing that the horn wasn’t glowing. ‘For some reason, that feels like a cliché - But at this point, I’m willing to try anything!’

Before Wizard even had a chance to reach for his chain of rings, a familiar rainbow-colored blur zipped overhead and soared right towards the Minotaur. The titanic Phantom waved its large hands, trying to swat the rainbow away, but failing each and every time. The rainbow even slammed into the side of Minotaur’s head a number of times, forcing the titanic Phantom back.

“Rainbow Dash?” Wizard questioned.

“Ya’ll didn’t think ya’ll were the only ones willing ta fight?”

Twilight, Wizard and Trixie turned to see Applejack galloping towards the three, a few ropes slung over her back. “C’mon! This is our town! Nopony’s gonna just let this bully wreck our town.”

“Good to hear,” Wizard sighed as he held up a ring and replaced it on his right claws. “Glad to see you and Dash here, think you two can keep him still for a few moments?”

“Mistah Souma, Ah’ve dealt with worse bulls when Ah was a filly at the rodeo,” Applejack replied with a smirk before she galloped off.

“CONNECT – PLEASE!”

A familiar blue runic circle appeared next to Wizard, prompting him to reach into it and pull out his oddly ornate sword. With it in his grasp, Wizard reached for his chain of rings. “You think you all can distract him for about two minutes?”

“Absolutely,” Twilight replied as Wizard replaced the blue ring on his left claws with a familiar green ring. “What about you Haru? What are you going to do?”

“I’m gonna use gravity to my advantage,” Wizard answered as he messed with his belt and threw his hand in front of the buckler.

“HURRICANE – PLEASE! FUU FUU FUU FUU FUU!!”

The masked dragon jumped straight into the large rune over his head, turning the demimonde-cut sapphires on his suit into triangle-cut emeralds and propelled him into the air with the WizarSwordGun in his right claw. Wizard shot through the air with a green twister wrapped around his legs and tail.

Trixie stood there with her mouth agape before she turned towards Twilight, “Just how many forms of magic does he have under his belt? Ugh, ignore that pun…”

“I’ve kinda lost track myself,” Twilight replied before her horn began to glow brightly. “But, it doesn’t matter, what matters is why he’s using his magic even if it’s starting to drain him – To help anypony he can.”

Trixie huffed as she watched Twilight gallop after Applejack, and just like that Trixie sighed and trotted behind the studious unicorn. As the two unicorns made their way towards the still rampaging Minotaur, Rainbow Dash continued to fly around his head, easily dodging the Phantom’s swats.

Applejack on the other hand was preparing the rope she had when Twilight galloped up to her, “Alright Applejack, what’s the plan?”

“Mistah Souma needs him still,” AJ replied as she tossed the rope up into the air, nodding to Twilight who made the rope levitate in the air. “So all we gotta do is hogtie him. Ah just need ya’ll to tie this around one of his legs, then when ya’ll get that done, Ah’ll take over. After that, just keep ‘im occupied.”

Within the next few seconds, Twilight had managed to get the rope full bound around one of Minotaur’s legs. Applejack took the other end of the rope and began to gallop around Minotaur, the rope coiling around its large ankles.

It didn’t take long for Applejack to make her lap around the large Phantom, but the enlarged Minotaur managed to take notice of the small pony at its feet when it blocked one of Dash’s attacks with its massive arms with its head down. The Phantom snorted loudly as it began to reach for down towards the galloping mare.

However, Minotaur got a large rock pelted in its face, followed by a large patch of dirt, forcing its head back from the impact. Many yards away, both Twilight and Trixie were using their magic to levitate random objects to hurl at Minotaur while Rainbow Dash continued to assault as well.

Meanwhile, Wizard kept ascending higher and higher into the air as he swapped rings on his left claw. ‘I’m only going to get one shot at this… And it better work!’

Back on the ground, Applejack was making her third lap around Minotaur’s feet before she leapt over the rope and pulled it tight, trying to get the two large legs to come together, ‘C’mon! C’mon! C’mon Applejack! PULL HARDER!’

As the Southern Mare continued pull on the rope in between her teeth, a blue and purple aura wrapped around the rope and pulled along with her. Out of the corner of her eye, Applejack saw that Twilight and Trixie were helping her pull the rope with their magic. With the added boost, the rope tightened and pulled Minotaur’s legs together.

And when Applejack was out of the Phantom’s path, Twilight lifted her head up, “Rainbow! Knock him down!”

With a salute, the rainbow maned pegasus flew through the air until she was behind the large Minotaur and soared quickly right into the back of the Phantom’s head. Minotaur roared loudly as it fell forward landing face first into the ground, shaking the earth violently.

“Woo-wee!” Applejack laughed with a bright smile. “That’s gotta be a rodeo record right there! Hmm, too bad there’s no judge, we’d all make it in the record books fer that one!”

Minotaur slammed both of hands into the ground, and began to push itself up as Dash flew next to the three other mares, “Uh, did Wizard have a plan or something?”

A bright light exploded through high through the air, making all four of the ponies look up to see a huge, familiar blade wreathed in fire being held up by a familiar red jeweled adorned figure. All four mares’ eyes widened as the sword quickly dropped down towards the rising Minotaur.

“Okay, now that’s just awesome,” Dash stated with a large grin.

When Minotaur had gotten to his knees, Wizard brought the gigantic WizarSwordGun down on Minotaur’s left horn. Minotaur’s eyes widened as sparks and flames erupted from where the metals met and the Phantom roared loudly in pain.

Wizard himself roared as he forced the blade down even further on the horn. ‘BREAK! BREAK! C’MON! BREAK!’

A loud cracking sound echoed through the air, and a small, yet highly visible crack appeared on Minotaur’s horn. Wizard laughed slightly as the flames pushed down even further. “TIME FOR THE FINALE!”

“NOT TODAY!”

Wizard lifted his head up just in time to see Harpie slam into his torso. The masked dragon cried out as he was thrown from his sword, with the large sword flung through the air and shrinking as it spun through the air.

“Haru!” Twilight, Applejack and Dash shouted out.

Before Wizard could even get a chance to recover, Minotaur threw his hand forward and grabbed Wizard tightly in his grip. Minotaur seemed to chuckle as he got back to his feet and snapped the rope around his ankles to stand up tall once more. The Phantom tightened his grip around Wizard, making cracks appear in the red jeweled chest armor as Wizard cried out loudly.

“Haru!” Twilight shouted.

“I got this!” Rainbow Dash announced as she propelled herself through the air.

The pegasus quickly soared through the air, holding out one of her front hooves in front of her, prepared to slam it into Minotaur’s fist. However, before she reached the fist, Harpie flew in front of her and screeched loudly at the pegasus, the burst of nose making Dash flutter back slightly holding her ears. Dash began to descend as Harpie flew in front of Minotaur, “What are you doing?! This wasn’t part of the plan!”

Minotaur tilted his head slightly at the flying Phantom who continued to hiss, “But… We can improvise from here. Finish him!”

With a loud snort, Minotaur lifted his other hand up towards Harpie, confusing the feathered Phantom. Then with a quick flick of his finger, Minotaur sent the feathered Phantom streaming through the air with a loud screech.

All four of the mares watched as Minotaur roared loudly before flinging Wizard to the ground, creating a slight crater as the masked dragon’s body bounced off the ground slightly. However, he didn’t get too far off the ground before Minotaur slammed his fist into Wizard’s body, forcing him into earth.

And Minotaur threw another punch into Wizard, forcing him further into the earth.

And then another wild blow.

Followed by another massive strike.

And as Minotaur was raising his fist once more, a large boulder smashed into his large shoulder, forcing the Phantom to halt his attack and turn to the side to see Twilight standing away from her friends with her unicorn magic lifting up more debris from the ground, her eyes narrowed. “GET AWAY FROM HIM!”

Minotaur snorted loudly, flames erupting from its nose as it cracked its large knuckles.

“Are you mad?!” Trixie yelled with her mane standing on end. “That monster…”

“I’m not going to let him just kill Haru!” Twilight shouted as she used her magic to fling another large rock at Minotaur. “I’ll distract the Phantom! Applejack, get Haru!”

“Just be careful, Twi,” Applejack replied before she turned to Trixie. “And as fer ya’ll, yer gunna help me dig Mistah Souma out!”

Before Trixie could complain, Applejack galloped past her, grabbing the showmare’s tail and dragged her towards the crater. The lavender unicorn kept her eyes on the titanic Phantom before she used her magic to propel a large mass of dirt at the hulking monster.

Minotaur merely backhanded the dirt as he turned to come after the assaulting unicorn.

Meanwhile, Applejack dragged Trixie to the large crater and released the showmare’s tail when she reached the center of it. “Sweet mercy.”

Amongst the crushed earth was none other than Wizard, most of his body impacted into the ground with only his chest and head not buried within the earth. The rubies covering his mask and his chest armor were cracked, the metal bent and a few shards of the jeweled armor scattered about.

“Is… Is he alive?” Trixie asked as she messed with some of the scattered jewels on the ground with her hoof. ‘And I wonder if this stuff is worth anything.’

Applejack placed her ear to Wizard’s armored chest and nodded to herself, “He’s a breathing alright, but barely. Listen, Little Miss Showoff, use yer fancy magic to help me git this mess off a Mistah Souma! Unless of course if ya’ll wanna run interference instead of Twi and Dash?”

Trixie turned to see Minotaur wave its arms at a recovered Rainbow Dash, and the magical assaults that Twilight was throwing at it. “Trixie sees your point.”

As the two mares began to dig out the masked dragon, atop of some clouds in the sky, a rather disgruntled, green pegasus sighed loudly. “Well this is turning out to be a bust.”

Sora twisted and turned on the cloud, trying to add some sort of excitement to the massive battle that he had deemed boring. ‘I was hoping to see what the big boss had told me was true. There has to be something that I can do.’

The bored green pegasus looked around the scene and his eyes fell upon a certain purple unicorn, and his smile appeared on his face. ‘Now let’s see what I can do to exploit this.’

Reaching into his saddlebags, Sora shifted through it, “Anvil? Nah, too clichéd.

“Banana Cream Pie? Nope, that was used a few chapters ago.

“Pink Flamigo Animation symbol? I think I’d get sued if I threw that.”

After shifting a little bit more in his saddlebags, Sora pulled his head out and smiled brightly, “Ooh, this is gonna be perfect! This is what ponies call – IRONY!!!”

Back on the ground, Twilight kept using the same rocks and dirt against the large Minotaur, ‘I’m glad my magic isn’t being absorbed by this Phantom, but even if we do get manage to get Haru away, we still have no idea on how to stop this rampage!

‘Maybe if I could get my hooves on some of Haru’s rings maybe I could…’

Before Twilight could even finish her thought, something smacked her upside the head, breaking her concentration and forcing the magic she was using to fade off. The young unicorn stumbled about before she turned to the object that just smacked her and blinked a few times at it, “Is that… A doll version of me?”

On the ground a few feet away from Twilight was a small plastic toy that resembled her – Same mane style and coloring as her, but there were a number of differences. The doll was covered in a fancy, frilly dress, had a crown atop its head, and had WINGS on its back!?

“What am I looking at here?!” Twilight yelped at the weird doll before her. “And where did it come from? It came out of nowhere!”

While Twilight was a little confused with what had just hit her, Minotaur’s large hand appeared next to her and immediately wrapped around the unicorn. Twilight yelled as she was pulled from the ground and lifted up in the air.

“Let her go!” Rainbow Dash shouted as she flew towards Minotaur’s face once more.

This time however, Minotaur snorted flames from his nose and forced Rainbow Dash to fly back from the flames. But through the flames, Minotaur’s free hand shot through them and latched around the pegasus. “What the!? Lemme go! Let me go you lousy…”

Dash didn’t get a chance to finish when Minotaur tightened his grip slightly on the mare, and doing the same to Twilight, which in turn made both of the mares yell out in pain.

Applejack turned from digging out Wizard and narrowed her eyes, “What in tarnation!?! Twi! Dash!”

TTTTTT

In Haru’s mind, there was only darkness.

He couldn’t do anything.

His limbs as heavy as lead, his lungs burning, and he was pretty sure that his tail was broken.

“Hmm, this could be an issue.”

Out of the darkness, a large flame erupted and formed into the large steel skinned dragon with flames that slipped over its body as it flew through the darkness casually. “What a pathetic excuse of a dragon – defeated by a mere low level Phantom that was gifted with a taste of power.

“Not only that, but you’re on the brink of death! How a being like you managed to stop my awakening fully baffles me!”

“You want an answer?”

Dragon tilted his head slightly, the voice that sounded was Haru’s. “Hark! The mortal weakling speaks! But is what he saying the truth or pure blissful ignorance?”

“Dragon, we both know who the real weakling is!”

“I am not the one who lost this fight,” Dragon retorted as he blew a few flames from his armored mouth. “You may only have a small taste of my power and form, but that would be more than enough to defeat a false Greater Phantom.”

“Then there’s only one thing you can do.”

Dragon narrowed his eyes. “Oh? And is that?”

“A little more of your power… Give it to me. I need it to save them.”

A large smile popped on Dragon’s face, “My power? I can do better than that.”

Dragon’s entire body began to glow brightly before he transformed into flames that lit up the darkness.

“This isn’t a gift.”

TTTTTTT

“Hold on, ya’ll!” Applejack shouted. “Ah’ll be right there to…”

A powerful burst of fire erupted from the ground behind Applejack, making her and Trixie jump back as the flames sent the earth up into the air. Both mares turned to see a shadowed figure stand up amongst the flames, stepping from the rubble. The flames were immediately drawn into the figure as he reeled back his torso.

With the flames no longer around, both mares saw that it was Wizard who was standing up.

Applejack was about to say something, but Wizard roared loudly and snapped his head forward, unleashing a large blast of fire that had shattered remains of his mask flung from his face while the flame soared through the air. The roar caught the attention of Minotaur, causing him to turn his large head about just in time to get hit in the face with the flames.

The Phantom cried out in pain and released both Dash and Twilight, both of them plummeting to the ground, at least until Rainbow Dash fanned out her wings and flew to quickly catch Twilight. “You okay Twilight?”

“Yes, I’m alright for the most part,” Twilight sighed with a smile on her face. “But, did Haru do that?”

“Well, Wizard’s up and about,” Dash pointed out as she began to descend.

With his mask now broken, Wizard stood up straight and looked at Minotaur who snorted loudly, “I believe this is where I say – It’s showtime. The line does have its little charm.”

Applejack slowly trotted towards Wizard, but the magically gifted dragon dashed towards the empowered Minotaur. “Whoa, Mistah Souma must be a quick healer.”

As Wizard sped towards Minotaur, the large Phantom pulled his fist back and immediately threw his fist at the slightly masked dragon. Still, Wizard continued his charge, his arms held back as the large set of knuckles descended upon him.

“Haru!? What are you doing?!” Twilight called out as the fist was about to make contact.

However, Wizard snapped both of his arms up and actually managed to catch Minotaur’s fist – And actually stop it! The impact of the two powerful forces caused the air around them to burst away from the two.

Minotaur blinked a few times at his assault’s sudden halt.

With a smile on his face, Wizard dug his claws into the armor, actually managing to crack it. Then with a simple turn of his body, Wizard easily tossed Minotaur further away from Ponyville, flinging the Phantom into a large and empty field.

All four of the mares stared at Wizard’s latest feat, and watched as he ran towards the recovering Minotaur. A certain pegasus was laughing loudly as he jumped and down on the cloud, “Yay! So it is true! A change of demeanor and fighting style, and the intimidation I can feel from this guy is amazing!”

Wizard leapt through the air as Minotaur swatted down on the dragon – Only to have his pointer finger caught by the magical dragon. With a loud roar, Wizard twisted his body, dragging the large Phantom on the ground before he flung Minotaur high through the air, creating a large distance between Minotaur and the ground.

“Whoa,” Dash whistled as she lifted her hoof to point at it. “Wizard’s got quite an arm on him.”

After throwing Minotaur up into the air, Wizard landed on the ground and clenched his fist tightly as Minotaur spun through the air. Minotaur grabbed both of his fists and began to bring down fists on Wizard.

Using his legs and tail, Wizard propelled himself through the air with his right hand pulled back with flames around his claws. Minotaur’s fists and Wizard’s fiery fist collided against each other, with the fire around Wizard’s fist flaring away from where they connected. The two seemed to be at a standstill in mid-air, until Wizard began to push back Minotaur’s fists, and immediately parted them.

With the large fists no longer in his way, Wizard flew through the air and slammed his right claws into Minotaur’s left horn. For a mere second, the horn withstood the attack until the crack that was made earlier grew and snapped the horn from the red, giant Phantom’s head.

Minotaur screeched with pain as his body began to fall to the land, his body losing its red tint and slowly shrinking as he plummeted to the earth. When the no longer empowered Phantom crashed into the ground, a large surge of dirt flew from where he landed.

“Okay, now that was pretty awesome!” Dash exclaimed as a the dirt began to settle. “Why didn’t Wizard do that in the first place?”

“I… I don’t know,” Twilight muttered as she brought a hoof to her mouth. ‘Something’s not right here – I’ve seen Haru battle against Phantoms before, and he’s never actually punched them unless he used a spell to do so, like he does with Excite or Big. I can understand that this wasn’t a typical Phantom, but…

‘But he didn’t use any spells in that last exchange with that Phantom.’

Then gracefully landing a few yards in front of the four Mares, Wizard kept his back to them as he slowly walked towards the crater where Minotaur had created. His fists clenched tightly, his now tattered coattails billowing in the wind behind him, and his gaze dead set on Minotaur, who’s armor had lost all color to it, being only a simple conglomeration of various shades of gray.

When Wizard reached Minotaur, the Phantom turned its head towards the dragon who stood next to him, “You… You are not the same mage I fought before…”

“How insightful,” Wizard sighed as he crouched down and wrapped his claws around Minotaur’s neck. Without any effort, Wizard pulled the Phantom from the ground and easily lifted the wounded monster from the earth. “Then again, it doesn’t matter anymore. Without that little horn of yours giving you your revival powers, all you are is a clump of dust about to be scattered in the wind.”

“N-No! Please!” Minotaur gasped and wheezed as he tried to struggle free. “I… I wasn’t in control of myself! That power it… It was too much! The pain it caused me!”

“Hark, the monster speaks,” Wizard replied as he tightened his grip around Minotaur’s neck, creating a loud cracking sound, breaking the Phantom’s armor. “But what’s this? All he speaks is nonsense! A beast! A wild beast! One who’s barred his fangs at his better!

“Learn your place.”

A few sparks popped from Wizard’s claw before a powerful flame washed over Minotaur’s body, the Phantom roaring loudly in pain. When the flames disappeared, Minotaur’s body was visibly charred with smoke rising off of his body, “P-Please… I-I won’t hunt the G-Gates anymore! I-I’m sorry! I’ll d-disappear from your sight! J-Just please! Let me go!”

The response that Minotaur got was a laugh, “You’ll disappear from my sight? What a lovely idea. But letting you go is just so boring. I’ll still make you disappear from my sight, except, I’ll just burn you until nothing’s left!

“How does that sound?”

“Haru!”

Wizard sighed as he dropped Minotaur back into the crater, he didn’t have to turn around to know who was behind him. “Twilight Sparkle.”

“Haru, what are you doing?!” Twilight asked as she slowly trotted up behind the magical dragon.

The dragon shrugged his armored shoulders. “I’m destroying the very being that attacked not only you and Spike, but all of Ponyville. Why do you ask?”

“But you don’t need to destroy him!” Twilight shouted as Applejack and Rainbow Dash followed up to her. Trixie was keeping her distance from the rather intimidating dragon mage. “I heard him beg to be let go! He can’t fight back!”

“You didn’t have a problem when Haruto Souma destroyed those other two Phantoms,” Wizard replied with a wave of his claws. “Why start now?”

“Because they wouldn’t stop going after our friends!” Rainbow Dash answered as she pointed her hoof at Haru. “This guy may have attacked the town, but you got him beat! He’s not going to hurt anypony!”

“Sides, this ain’t like ya,” Applejack chimed in with a stomp of her hoof. “Ya’ll help folks who can’t fight, and clearly this Bull can’t fight anymore!”

Wizard sighed loudly with a shake of his head, “Ah, bleeding heart sentimentality – I will never understand why ponies possess it. It will be the downfall of this world when fools like this…”

The masked dragon jabbed his foot into Minotaur’s side, making the Phantom cry out in pain, “Get a small taste of power. And who knows how many Phantoms exist in this world, and this one is just a lower level Phantom, most are stronger! Most are more devious! And others are beings that appear in your nightmares!”

Slowly, Wizard turned around to face the ponies behind him, showing the broken mask that revealed his right eye and mouth, both which made the three stare at the slightly unmasked Wizard – Gone were the soft, calm features that Haru had on his face when the mask was off.

His features were sharpened, and Haru’s exposed eye wasn’t its normal soothing blue, but rather a rustic yellow that resembled that of a lizard’s – Only devoid of that spark that Haru usually had in his eyes.

“Whoa, were Haru’s eyes like that before?” Dash asked taking a step back.

“No way,” Applejack answered.

“You… You’re not Haru,” Twilight stated bluntly.

“As I said with the Phantom, how insightful,” ‘Wizard’ replied as he brought one of his gloved claws to his chin. “I am not that pathetic being you know as Haruto Souma, and yet, I am him at the same time. His body is my prison, and he uses the magic that my very being produces to protect you foals.

“How he’s managed to keep me suppressed all this time it is baffling, and yet at the same time, inspirational on how strong his will is.”

Twilight’s eyes widened when realization came to her, “You’re the Phantom in Haru’s body, aren’t you?”

“Say what now?” Applejack questioned. “Haru’s got one of them Phantoms in him?!”

“Oh right, we forgot to tell you about that,” Twilight chuckled sheepishly.

‘Wizard’ brought up his left hand up and looked to the ring that was on Haru’s claw. “Once again, very insightful. That’s something that Haruto Souma admires about you Twilight, as do I. Yes, I am the Phantom within Haruto Souma – Dragon.”

“Wait, Wizard’s a Dragon,” Dash pointed out looking up slightly. “And he’s got a Dragon Phantom in him? Isn’t that kind of… Uh, what’s that word?”

“Redundant,” Twilight answered.

Dragon chuckled slightly as he turned to the side, Haru’s right claws brought atop of his mask, “Oh yes! That’s right! How hilarious! Haruto Souma hasn’t informed any of you!”

“What in tarnation are ya’ll going on ‘bout?” Applejack questioned with her head tilted slightly.

“It matters not,” Dragon sighed as he took a step towards the three mares. “Haruto Souma’s past will soon be inconsequential. While this form of his is… Cute, it is too cramped for me to use for my own desires. I must shed this form.”

“Shed?” Twilight questioned before she narrowed her eyes. “Haru told me that when you Phantoms shed your forms, you…”

“We can spare the gory details,” Dragon answered as he stood over Twilight, overshadowing the mare. “But, in order for me to cast aside this horrid form, I must instill true despair into Haruto Souma. And as the fates would have it, my options for instilling said despair are right in front of me.”

Before the three mares could even blink, Dragon held Twilight up by the throat with Haru’s left hand, surprising Applejack and Rainbow Dash. “To have his claws spill the blood of those he calls friends – Truly that will instill despair in this wretched Haruto Souma. So, my apologies Miss Sparkle, it isn’t personal, but a necessity.”

“Get yer claws off her!” Applejack shouted as she turned around prepared to buck Dragon.

“Yeah you scaled freak!” Rainbow Dash yelled as she leapt towards Dragon.

Before the two could even reach Dragon, he used Haru’s tail to quickly slap the two ponies to the side without even batting his cruel eye. Dragon sighed as he tightened his grip on Twilight’s neck, “Don’t worry ladies, only one of you should suffice to fully awaken me. And I prefer to spill as little blood here as necessary.”

“H-Haru!” Twilight sputtered as she smacked her hooves against Dragon’s arm. “P-Please! Stop!”

“If it makes you feel better,” Dragon sighed with a grimace on his face. “Haruto Souma’s been knocked out since that lower level Phantom slammed his fist into him. Do not blame him for my actions.”

Meanwhile, in the crater, Minotaur was sweating with tears streaming down his eyes, ‘Oh dear Lord Hades, don’t let him know I’m still here!’

“You! Dragon!”

Dragon turned his attention slightly to see Trixie trotting towards him, now donning her usual magician’s outfit. “The Great and Powerful Trixie demands you get out of the body of Trixie’s assistant this instant.”

Dragon rolled his yellow eye as he lifted Twilight out of the way and quickly shot out a small blaze of fire from his mouth towards the showmare. Trixie’s eyes widened before a large cloud of light blue smoke popped in front of her just before the flames struck.

“Can’t you all just let me have a dramatic moment?” Dragon asked with a roll of his eyes. “Taking a life is not an easy endeavor, especially one that has so much potential!”

“The Great and Powerful Trixie still demands you stop this!”

Dragon blinked a few times when he realized that Trixie was now standing to his right, “How did you do that?”

“The Great and Powerful Trixie is the greatest Unicorn in all the land,” Trixie proclaimed with a large smile on her face. “A flame from an uncouth dragon is no match for her magic!”

Dragon narrowed his eye at Trixie as a blood vessel bulged on his exposed skin, “Ucouth?! You dare to insult me?! Your parlor tricks are not even a match for my vessel’s mundane magic!”

To illustrate his point, Dragon lifted his right claw up to reveal the ring, “I grow tired of these interruptions! I’ll use Haruto Souma’s own magic to end this!”

Dragon threw ‘Wizard’s’ right claw in front of the belt buckle – However, instead of glowing like it usually did, sparks flew from it. “Huh?”

“ERROR!”

A burst of fiery magical energy erupted from the belt, propelling Dragon through the air while releasing Twilight to the ground. The young unicorn was shaken up while taking a moment to feel the burning sensation that was at her throat. ‘T-That was too close.’

“Looks like you owe the Great and Powerful Trixie your life,” Trixie chuckled as she trotted up next to Twilight.. “You may grovel at any time you wish.”

With a flat look in her eyes, Twilight sighed, “Well, thank you Trixie. Although, how did you know that his magic would backfire on him?”

Trixie rubbed her front hoof against her chest with a smile on her face, “A truly skilled unicorn never reveals her secrets.”

Truth be told, Trixie didn’t know that would happen, she was just very lucky in that regard. Trixie was just trying to buy some time until Applejack or Rainbow Dash had gotten back to their senses.

“W-What… What was I doing!?”

The two unicorns turned back to see Wizard ripping the broken mask off of his face and throwing it to the side. With the mask no longer on his face, the dragon lifted his head up to reveal his tear stained face with his eye back to their regular shade of blue and his features returned to normal.

Haru looked down to his claws and then towards Twilight, “I… I…”

“Haru,” Twilight started as she stepped forward.

“STAY AWAY!”

Twilight reeled back at Haru roaring at her.

The magical dragon reached for his belt and swapped rings on his right claw, “I… I’m sorry…”

“CONNECT – PLEASE!”

Haru threw his right hand in front of him and jumped into the runic circle, the magical rune disappearing as he went through it. Twilight was galloping to where Haru had thrown the mask and tapped it with her front hoof. “Haru…”

TTTTTTT

Back in Ponyville, Mayor Mare was trying to keep the citizens calm throughout the monster attack, although most of them had watched the fight from a safe distance. Damage to the town was minimal, although, with a giant Minotaur rampaging through and near the town, the shock was enough to cause a disturbance amongst the ponies.

After making sure that Applejack and Rainbow Dash were okay and were headed back home, Twilight and Trixie were heading back to Golden Oaks Library – Mainly because they had to get Trixie’s wagon out of the tree. Although, throughout the trip, Twilight was quiet as she kept looking back at the broken Wizard helmet that she had on her back. ‘Haru…’

“Are you still sulking?” Trixie huffed. “For a mare whose life was saved, you certainly don’t act like you’re full of life.”

“… Haven’t you ever lost a friend?” Twilight replied solemnly, not even turning towards Trixie.

The showmare opened her mouth to speak, but closed her mouth immediately without a sound. Even she knew when not to boast or speak.

After that small exchange, the two unicorns reached the library – At which point Twilight noticed something strange with the whole scene. There was no damage done to the library and Trixie’s cart wasn’t stuck into the side of the tree, no damage to the cart either, in fact, it looked like it was brand new.

‘Wait, that’s not right,’ Twilight thought to herself blinking in confusion.

“Ah, marvelous!” Trixie laughed as she slowly trotted towards the wagon. “Not even a scratch! Now if you don’t mind, the Showy and Brave Trixie shall be going to sleep. It has been a long day.”

‘I get the feeling that my night’s just started,’ Twilight thought to herself before Trixie disappeared into her wagon.

“Twilight!”

The door to the library quickly opened up and Spike ran from the tree, “Are you okay?! What happened?”

“Spike, I’ll… I’ll tell you in the morning,” Twilight sighed as she trotted towards her home. “How about you? What happened?”

“Well, I tried to get Rarity to help,” Spike answered as he followed Twilight. “But she was still dealing with her green mane, but that’s not important! Someone’s here and…”

“I’ll have to send them home,” Twilight replied with her head fallen as she entered the building with Spike in tow. “We’re closed and this isn’t the best time.”

“Oh?” A regal voice sounded. “That’s a shame, your dragon scribe made tea and its quite good.”

The young unicorn lifted her head up and reeled backwards at the sight in the lobby before her. Seated on the couch with a cup of tea in his hands was a familiar, yet obviously different figure – The design was aesthetically the same to Wizard’s, but pure white with atop of his orange jeweled mask. His costume was a white robe with a familiar belt at his waist and two silver bands strapped on his chest with rings upon it.

The masked being lifted up the tea cup to his mask and actually drank it through his bejeweled mask, “Nothing like a spot of tea to soothe the nerves.”

“W-Who are you?” Twilight asked as Spike kept next to her.

The White Wizard placed his tea cup on the arm of the couch and placed his hands together. “Shiroi Mahotsukai – The White Wizard. And I am here to speak to you, Miss Twilight Sparkle.”

White Wizard waved his right hand up, revealing a familiar looking ring on his finger. “I am here to bestow my knowledge to you.”

TBC

Author's Note

Sora: -snickers- Ain't I a stinker?

Hehehehe, oh I have had a lot of fun with this chapter - And look! One of my cohorts has arrived.

But I have a serious issue that I need to talk to you guys about, we need to get this story on Equestria Daily! I keep trying to, but they keep giving me a lame excuse about the description or whatever. So, if one of you guys could do that for me, then I won't have to shave MangaKamen's head while he's sleeping.

So please, do it before we've got a cueball writing this story.

Spell 14 - Burn

“I could grow to like you. Amuse me. That’s a good scream.”
- Phoenix

TTTTTT

Spell 14

Burn

TTTTTT

It was a restless night for Twilight, after she had told Spike of the battle between Wizard and Minotaur; the young dragon was in a very upset mood until he had fallen asleep. Even when Spike had fallen to sleep with the half eaten emerald tucked in with him, Twilight tried to get to sleep, however, every time she closed her eyes, Haru’s teary eyes appeared at the front of her mind.

Essentially, it was a near sleepless night for the young scholar.

Even when the sun was beginning to rise, Twilight tried to get some sleep – But to no avail. It wasn’t the first time that Twilight wasn’t able to sleep, but most of the time she’d fill in the time by studying or practicing her magic. She didn’t feel like it though, she wanted to sleep, but it wasn’t meant to be.

Pulling herself from the bed, the young unicorn rubbed her throat with her front hoof, there wasn’t a mark from last night, but it still stung slightly. It wasn’t the only thing that stung Twilight, the words of the White Wizard also rung in her mind. ‘Haru, you didn’t need to hide that past of yours – We would’ve understood.’

Twilight shook her head, ‘I need to talk to somepony about this, and there’s only one pony I know who’s up at this hour.’

However, before Twilight began to leave, she managed to catch herself in the mirror and frown slightly, ‘Although, I should probably do something with that mess of a mane.’

TTTTTT

Twilight wasn’t the only one to not enjoy a good night’s sleep. Near the peak of one of the largest mountains near Ponyville, Phoenix was in a cave, seated atop of a large pile of jewels, coins and pieces of treasure that he kicked slightly. “In this world you gotta make the bits first. Then when you get the bits, you get the power. Then when you get the power, you get the mares! That’s why you gotta make your own moves.”

Holding up one a large ruby, Phoenix clenched the jewel tightly in his fingers as the ruby began to melt in his grasp. “Too bad I’m not interested in bits or mares, just more power.”

Phoenix tossed the ruby through the air as a large, dark shadow appeared in the middle of the large cave. From the shadow arose Hellhound in his Phantom form, surrounded by even more treasure, “M-Master Phoenix, this is the last of it.”

“Oi, kiddo, relax,” Phoenix chuckled as he pushed himself off of the large pile of treasure. “You look like I did after I mistakenly took a swig of Worcestershire sauce. You got the job done.”

The shadows at Hellhound’s feet slowly disappeared, and the Phantom gulped loudly as Phoenix walked around him. “I know that I’m pure awesome and looking at me can make you feel so small, but just relax. I’d say chill out kiddo, but we’re both born of the flames of Tartarus, so that’s asking a lot.

“But feel proud, for when this day is done, you will be a part of the second Sabbath! Darkness will spread over all of Equestria and it’ll only be a matter of time until Phantoms will walk this entire world!”

Phoenix walked towards the mouth of the cave, holding his arms up as the morning sun began to reach over the horizon. “Enjoy the sun while you can Hellhound, for once this plan is completed, it shall be the last we see of it for a while.”

Hellhound blinked a few times as he walked towards the Greater Phantom, “W-Wow, really Master Phoenix? That’s really impressive.”

“Yes, my brilliance impresses even me at times,” Phoenix cackled with his arms crossed as he lifted his head up in pride. “Of course, I could care less about this – You know what I’m after.”

With a nod, Hellhound looked towards the sunrise, “Y-You’re referring to the Ring Mage, r-right?”

“Ding-ding-ding!” Phoenix chimed out with his hands raised up over his head, waving them about. “Give the Phantom a prize! Yes, I don’t care if this plan works – It’s just bait to draw him to me, and it’ll give him a reason to go all out against me.”

A loud roar blasted through the air, shaking the cave’s basic foundations. Hellhound shuddered at the sound while Phoenix just lowered his arms. “Huh, faster than I thought, not bad for a living pair of scaled boots. Listen kiddo, you can get outta here for now, but you better get your flank back here outside the cave in a couple hours. I’ll need you to run recon for me.

“But when you come back, bring me something to eat.”

Hellhound tilted his head slightly at his superior’s request, Phoenix was scary, there was no doubt about that. But it was the shear unpredictability that the fiery Phantom displayed in the last few hours that really yanked on Hellhound’s fears – from the fact that when they first met Phoenix threatened to off Hellhound, to being nice to the canine Phantom and playfully call Hellhound ‘kiddo’, and then promptly punched Hellhound for trying to wuss out for messing with that treasure.

“W-Well, sure Master Phoenix,” Hellhound chirped out as a large shadow began to the cave a few times, making the smaller Phantom much more nervous. “Anything in particular?”

“A DLT – Daffodil, lettuce and tomato sandwich, extra tomato with a dill pickle on the side,” Phoenix listed off with his fingers, keeping his eyes on the large form that was flying towards the cave. “Hay fries, extra crispy. And a medium diet cola. But if its regular, Lord Hades help me, I’ll slice you in two and feed you to that living pair of boots!”

Tears welled up in Hellhound’s eyes before he sunk down into the shadows quickly. When the lesser Phantom disappeared from his sight, Phoenix laughed loudly as he walked out of the cave, “I never get tired of that. Feels good to get fear and respect.”

As soon as Phoenix stepped out of the cave, the large overshadowed being landed in front of the cave, a titanic being with large wings and red scales. The large shadowed creature snarled at Phoenix, who in turn playfully lifted up his hands in front of his chest, “Hello there big guy, looking for something? I think you’ll find what you’re looking right in there.”

Phoenix gestured with his hand and stepped off to the side, allowing the large being to stomp into the cave with the Phantom cackling loudly. ‘Just a little more to go, if this doesn’t work, I may have to take a page out of that Minotaur’s book and rampage that town myself. Oh well, I’ve got plenty of time.’

TTTTTT

After fixing up her mane and placing her saddlebags on her back, Twilight made her way through Ponyville. While she did, Twilight noticed that there wasn’t much damage to the town, save for a few trees that were strewn about through the streets. Most of the ponies who were awakened were actually taking care of the debris and clearing the streets.

Of course, Twilight was more concerned with getting to somepony she could talk to, fighting against fatigue. And while she dragged her hooves slightly against the ground while she trotted through Ponyville, Twilight soon found herself on the road towards Sweet Apple Acres – Applejack was the only pony that Twilight knew was awake at this time in the day.

The fresh scent of apples filled the air and reenergized Twilight slightly, making the unicorn sigh in relief when she reached the path near the apple orchard. The warming sun and cool crisp morning air was enough to at least allow Twilight to clear her head, even the calming sound of nature was able to allow the young mare to gather her thoughts and…

“Ride on right time! Ride on right time! Just run and run, like a cheetah! Emitting light! Ride on fate acting tough! Ooh-huh! If you wish it, don’t lose it, shut out the noise – Become strong like a lion! Ride on right time! Always have a target like a tiger!”

That loud screeching that could quite possibly be considered singing since there was a fast paced instrumental music that was obviously going faster than how the singer could keep up with the beat. Twilight winced as the poorly sung music was getting closer. “What in Equestria?”

When Twilight looked down the dirt path, the young mare was able to see the source of the horrid singing – Further down the road were two figures that were slowly getting closer. When they were close enough, Twilight was able to make the two travelers out in more detail.

One of the travelers was a stallion, but he wasn’t a pony stallion, it was a zebra. Twilight had seem a few of them in her books and even in real life a few times, but to see one so close was rather rare – Especially near Ponyville. This particular zebra had a messy black mane and had a large shirt that was made up of various shades of purple fabric and had a saddlebag on his back.

But what was odd about the zebra was that he had a stick attached to the side of his saddlebag that had a pair of colorful, floral boxer shorts that fluttered in the air.

The zebra had an exasperated look on his face, and for good reason. The other traveler was singing along with a portable radio that was sticking out of the zebra’s saddlebag, and was the cause for the bad singing.

The singing traveler was a tall, yet youthful looking male griffon, with the white feathers atop his head bobbing up and down a few times in rhythm with the tune as he sung. The griffon had a large, bulky red jersey on and had a large backpack that was even bigger than his whole body. How the griffon was able to carry something that looked really heavy was a little confusing to Twilight, but in the last few weeks, it wasn’t the weirdest thing she’s seen.

With a sigh, the zebra turned his head and switched off the radio with his teeth, this obviously made the griffon lift his neck up and narrow his green eyes at the zebra, “Oi! Eiji! What the Tartarus!? I was rockin’ out!”

The zebra, Eiji chuckled sheepishly as he turned his gaze away from his fellow traveler. “W-Well, it’s just we’re getting close to Ponyville, and considering it’s still early in the morning, we don’t wanna inconvenience anypony, do we?”

The griffon waved one of his talons in the air while the two continued down the path, “We’re near a farmland. I doubt anypony will be bothered with a little karaoke while we’re out here.”

It was at that moment that the two realized that they were only a few feet from Twilight Sparkle, and she was eyeing the rather odd pair for a second before she lifted up a hoof and waved it. “Uh, hello.”

Eiji bowed his head slightly while the Griffon tilted his head at the unicorn. The zebra lifted his head and smiled brightly at Twilight, “Good morning, how are you?”

“Good, I guess,” Twilight replied, still a little curious at the weird pair of travelers.

The griffon was still staring at Twilight though, at least until Eiji elbowed the feathered creature in the side with his leg, “Oi, it’s rude to stare.”

“Ow!” the griffon yelped as he rubbed his side. Then with a slight bow of his head, the griffon sighed, “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay, really,” Twilight chuckled sheepishly at the two’s odd behavior.

That’s when both of the travelers nodded towards Twilight before they walked past her, the studious unicorn blinking a few times as the griffon tried reaching for the radio once more, only for Eiji to shuffle to the side slightly to make the radio just out of the feathered traveler’s reach. Twilight shook her head as she continued her way to Sweet Apple Acres, ‘A lot of odd characters are coming to Ponyville as of late.’

Twilight didn’t notice that a ghostly, red armored hand flew about the air over her, the hand turned slightly to look at her before floating off to follow the two travelers.

After shaking the odd encounter from her head, Twilight managed to find Applejack at the farm, pulling an emptied wagon from the farm. When the Southern Mare saw her friend, Applejack trotted over to Twilight, “Morning Twi, how are ya’ll doing?”

“I’ve been worse,” Twilight answered, turning her eyes slightly. “Thanks for asking Applejack, but I need to talk to you about something.”

Shuffling away from the wagon, Applejack trotted a little closer to her friend, “Sure thing Twi, Ah’ve got time for a friend. Especially after yesterday, what’s on yer mind?”

‘Something that could probably fill up a book,’ Twilight thought as she looked around. “Any place where we can go in order to get comfortable? I’ve got a lot to tell you.”

TTTTTT

At a cottage outside of the Everfree Forest, a familiar yellow pegasus was flying about to feed quite a number of different animals. As Fluttershy did her usual morning work, she couldn’t help but turn her attention back to the Everfree Woods, her wings flapping faster than usual.

When she was finished with feeding the birds with a bucket of bird seed, Fluttershy had floated down to the ground and kept her eyes on the forest for a few minutes. She whimpered a little bit as she slowly back to her house.

Last night, while most of the town was shocked with a giant Minotaur rampaging out of the town with a little armored dragon completely demolishing said Minotaur, Fluttershy had seen something even scarier (or at least she didn’t seem to really see Minotaur’s rampage since she had to search for some of the animals who had gotten lost earlier in the evening and had returned after Minotaur chased after Snips and Snails).

When Fluttershy was handing out breakfast to more of the more nocturnal animals, a large, fiery light flew through the air and scared most of the animals. Fluttershy herself hid herself behind her chicken coop as the fiery light crashed into the ground outside the Everfree Forest. When the light began to die down, the young pegasus saw that what she was looking at was a tall, red armored being with large, bird wings composed of flames that slowly dissipated from the figure’s body.

The red armored figure had stretched his body before he looked around the area. When the creature’s soulless blue eyes turned at Fluttershy’s general direction, the young pegasus tucked her head behind the chicken coop with her long pink mane slipping right after her.

She didn’t know if the fiery monster had saw her, but her fears only increased when what she assumed was the monster’s voice sounded out through the night’s sky. “Now let’s see, I can sense where my feather was used, so that’s a good start. It shouldn’t take too long to find the flank who stole my feather.

“Maybe when I’m done, I’ll burn this entire town to the ground.”

Fluttershy held her breath as she heard the fiery monster laugh, his laughter drowning out over a short amount of time. Although everything in her mind told her to not to do so, but carefully, Fluttershy peeked around the corner to see only the scorched ground and the slightly burned forested area where the monster most likely walked through. Looking further, the monster didn’t seem to notice Fluttershy at all.

Although her heart was beating a mile a minute, Fluttershy was glad that the monster was gone.

But the night after that was practically sleepless for the pegasus as she kept her eyes on the forest almost all night. Fluttershy had hoped that the scary monster had disappeared because she was pretty sure her covers weren’t going to protect her this time.

With a slight yawn, Fluttershy slowly trotted towards a smaller house with a wooden carrot sign over the door where a cute little white rabbit was quickly munching on a rather large carrot. Fluttershy smiled at the rabbit, “Good morning Angel bunny. I’m glad you’re doing so well, but, um, you may want to slow down on eating that carrot. It wouldn’t be good if you got a tummy ache or choked.”

For some reason, this seemed to offend Angel. The rather cute bunny tossed his carrot to the ramp to his little house and turned his nose up and away from Fluttershy. Fluttershy reeled back slightly before she leaned closer to Angel’s little house and pushed the carrot back up with her hoof, “Oh, um, you really should eat more.”

Angel wouldn’t hear of it!

With a quick leap, the little bunny dashed past the pegasus mare and made a beeline towards the Everfree Woods. Fluttershy’s eyes widened before she gently picked up the carrot in her mouth and stretched out her wings before she flew off. “Oh n-no! Please wait!”

Despite being able to fly, Fluttershy wasn’t able to catch up with Angel, and the small bunny was almost at the edge of the forest. But before the little rabbit was able to get into the woods, the little critter skidded to a stop as an odd, mint green pegasus casually trotted in his path. “Hello! Aw, what a cute little critter.”

Fluttershy gently landed on the ground and placed the carrot near Angel, “Oh, t-thank goodness. Angel, you don’t w-want to go in there.”

“Ah, you must be the owner of this little cutie,” The familiar pegasus – Sora chuckled as he gestured towards the scowling Angel. “Such a precious little thing.”

“Oh, um, w-well, yes,” Fluttershy whispered as she kept her distance from the unknown pegasus in front of her. “Uh, t-thanks for stopping Angel…”

Sora pushed up his hat with a bright smile on his face. “Not a problem! I, as a gentlestallion, couldn’t let a pair of ladies wander in a dreadful place like these woods. Quite the nasty place there and…”

Sora didn’t finish as a partially eaten carrot whacked him in the face, the weird pegasus reeled his head back. His gave shifted down, Sora noticed that Angel had his front paws crossed with a nasty look shot at him. “Uh… Ow?”

“I’m s-sorry,” Fluttershy sheepishly stated as she lowered her head slightly so she’d be closer to Angel. “But Angel Bunny gets a little annoyed when ponies call him a girl.”

“Oh, well, do I look like a vet?” Sora countered raising a brow at the little bunny in front of him. “If anything, I’m more like a bum. Hehehehehee.”

Both Fluttershy and Angel seemed to stare at the ever stranger pegasus before them, and while Sora wasn’t a stranger to being stared at or being considered a freak, there was usually a reason for why he did – Even if it was just for fun. With a large smile on his face, Sora quickly turned on his hooves and threw one of his front legs up towards the sky. “Oh! Look over there!”

Oddly enough, both Fluttershy and Angel looked to where Sora was pointing, and oddly enough, there was an ever-growing cloud of thick, black smoke billowing through the blue sky. Fluttershy lifted her hooves up to her mouth, “Oh my goodness! S-Smoke!”

Sora blinked a few times in confusion before he looked at his hoof, “There was something actually there? By the heavens, I have the power!”

Quickly snapping that same hoof up into the air, Sora called out to the skies above, “Let the ice cream rain down from the sky!”

For a few moments, Sora just stood there with his mouth wide open, Fluttershy blinking a few times at the weird pegasus in front of her. When it was apparent that ice cream wasn’t going to fall from above sky, Sora rubbed the back of his head with the same hoof, “Worth a shot. Oh well, that’s all folks! Dah dadada daaah!”

And just like that, Sora flew off at top speed, leaving a few feathers behind. Fluttershy turned towards Angel, who just shrugged with a disappointed look on his face. “I… I think I should tell everypony about t-the smoke.”

TTTTTTT

“So, wait, let me see if Ah got this right,” Applejack questioned as she rubbed the side of her head in confusion.

Over the last half hour, Twilight had retold everything about the meeting with the White Wizard had told her the night before – How he was Haru’s master, about White Wizard apologizing for his student’s actions (or the Phantom’s), and the biggest one of all…

“Mistah Souma’s actually a stallion?” Applejack questioned with her eyes widened.

That was a point that Twilight had brought up at the very end, and while she kept telling Applejack what she saw and what she heard, for some reason it wasn’t sticking with the southern mare. So with a sigh, Twilight lowered her head, “Yes Applejack, he was once a stallion.”

“Ah just can’t wrap mah head around that,” Applejack replied as she pulled her hat down with her hoof. “How does something like that work?”

“Well,” Twilight muttered out loud with her hoof rubbing her chin. “If I had to guess, Phantoms create their own bodies after they, well, ‘awaken’. But Dragon wasn’t fully awakened, but the damage was done and Haru’s body was probably transformed partially into the Phantom’s. Then again, I haven’t studied any Phantoms, so I can only speculate.”

Applejack blinked a few times before she shifted her eyes slightly, “So, outta curiosity, what kinda pony was Mistah Souma?”

“What?” Twilight replied, reeling slightly. “Does that matter?”

“Nope,” Applejack answered with her hat falling down over her face. “Ah’m just a little curious ‘bout that, if he was an earth pony, then Ah could probably have ‘im work out in the fields sometime. Speakin’ of the scaly poke, Ah don’t suppose he showed up at yer place after a while?”

“Unfortunately, no he did not,” Twilight sighed under her breath. “I don’t know where he is, I’m worried he’s probably beating himself up over last night.”

“Can ya blame him?” Applejack questioned fixing her hat. “Even though it wasn’t him in control, he probably thinks that he tried to hurt ya.”

Twilight turned her head slightly, she didn’t want to admit it, but even now her neck was still sore from Haru’s… No, Dragon’s claws. ‘We need to find him, we need to talk to Haru, but, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little afraid of what would happen if we found him.’

The unicorn was quiet for a few moments before Applejack got to her hooves and trotted to her friend, “Twi, Ah don’t know what’s going on in yer head right now, but when something like this happens, there are two things ponies can do. Either we can find Haru, or we can leave him to figure this out on his own.

“Ah don’t know which path is right, but as his friends, we need to try to find him. He’s been there to help us ever since day one, and we need to be there for him now. There were a few words that dragon gave me – ‘Yer just one pony, there’s just so much one pony can do before they break.’

“Ah think he just reached his breaking point.”

Twilight nodded, a smile reaching her face, “You’re right Applejack, but we don’t know where to start looking for him.”

“Oh? Ah don’t know ‘bout that,” Applejack replied with her own smile. “Tell me something Twi, did Haru leave those fancy familiars behind?”

The young student’s eyes widened as the gears in her head turned, “That’s right! Garuda, Uni, and Kraken…”

“Actually, Apple Bloom named Haru’s familiar Kenny,” Applejack stated out of the blue.

“Uh, okay,” Twilight sputtered before she shook her head. “Anyway, they all have their own minds and are connected to Haru’s magic, so if we can get them to help, they can lead us right to Haru!”

Applejack smiled, “Sounds like a plan!”

However, before the two mares could go off in search of one of the three familiars, the sky began to darken over them and made the two of them look up to see the very same mass of dark clouds that Fluttershy had seen as well. Applejack tilted her head slightly, “What in tarnation?”

Twilight sighed loudly, “When it rains, it pours.”

TTTTTT

Back on the mountain, atop of a fallen tree near the large cave’s mouth, Phoenix was relaxing on the brush with his arms thrown behind his head. A little bit of time had passed since his plan was finally taking effect, and he watched the large amount of smoke billow out of the cave. With a slight laugh, Phoenix pulled one of his hands out and held it towards the smoke. ‘Stallion, I am so smart to steal this plan from Medusa. Not only do I get to relax and have a few lower Phantoms at my beck and call, but if from what I’ve heard about this Ring Wizard, then there’s no way he won’t let a nasty Phantom like me pull a stunt like this.

‘Even if this doesn’t draw him to me, I can still awaken a number of Phantoms within Equestria – If I don’t get what I want, I can still come out on top. Damn, I’m awesome.’

“M-Master Phoenix?”

Phoenix didn’t even lift his head up when he heard that voice and waved his hand at the pony-disguised Hellhound. "Ah, good timing. I was starting to get the munchies. You get my order right?”

“Uh, well, y-yes,” Hellhound coughed as he slipped the saddlebags off of his back and onto the ground. “But I had to do some recon before I came back like you said to do, and I’ve got quite a bit of news.”

“Excellent, let’s hear the news.”

“To start off,” Hellhound listed off as he sat down on the rocky ground. “The smoke from the cave has already reached over Ponyville, and at the rate its going, it should reach Canterlot by nightfall.”

Phoenix rubbed his fingers together a few times before he chuckled, “That’s good.”

“Bad news is, there’s a task force being rounded up to investigate the smoke,” Hellhound continued with his head lowered slightly. “As it turns out, Princess Celestia seems to know that there’s a dragon causing the smoke.”

The Greater Phantom moaned loudly as he rolled his blue eyes, “That’s bad, and annoying.”

“But the task force is just made up of six ponies,” Hellhound added. “And said ponies are just a group of six, teenage mares.”

“Did Celestia recruit a team of teenagers with attitude?” Phoenix questioned as he sat up from the slightly singed tree. “That’s strangely awesome.”

“Yeah, but the six mares are kind of the wielders of the Elements,” Hellhound chimed in with a sigh following. “You know, the Elements of Harmony.”

Phoenix winced as he rubbed the back of his head, “Ooh, that’s bad, really bad if they got them shiny rocks with them.”

“I doubt that’s the case,” Hellhound pointed out as he pushed the saddlebags towards Phoenix, who was jumping down from the singed tree. “Besides, I should point out that for some reason, some of these mares who tended to be with the Ring Mage.”

While Phoenix was going through the saddlebags, the Phantom cackled loudly, “Good, good! I can use that, if they’re in danger, then I can get that Ring Mage to come quicker and fight me with everything he has! The only thing missing is how to find the guy and to get him to come.”

“I don’t think that’ll be a problem,” Hellhound chuckled sheepishly. “He tends to have eyes following some ponies. He loves to make dynamic entries by kicking or shooting us Phantoms before he kicks our tails afterwards.”

“A big time hero, huh?” Phoenix questioned as he pulled out a large brown paper bag from the saddlebags. “That’s good, real good – After I finish my meal, I need you to keep an eye on those six mares. Don’t attack them when they reach the mountain, just come to me and I’ll see what I can do.

“Now, while we’re on the subject of lunch – I hope you got everything I wanted.”

“Well, they were out of pickles,” Hellhound replied, noting that Phoenix was leering at him. “B-But! I… I managed to talk them into giving you a free frozen yogurt! Which I call frogurt!”

The look in Phoenix’s eyes softened slightly, “I love frogurt! That’s good!”

“Unfortunately, they said that the frogurt is cursed,” Hellhound replied with a shifty look in his eyes.

“Oooh, that’s bad,” Phoenix chimed in.

“But we got free toppings,” Hellhound countered

“Yay! That’s good!”

“The toppings contain potassium benzoate,” Hellhound replied.

Phoenix didn’t say a word, but rather tilted his head towards Hellhound, “… That’s bad.”

“Yes, yes, whatever,” Phoenix sighed as he pulled out the large sandwich from the brown paper bag. “Go make yourself useful and do recon around the mountain. If you see those mares or find the Wizard, let me know. Don’t engage any of them, if a single hair is out of place on their heads, I’ll break one of your limbs.”

A chill ran down Hellhound’s spine before a deep shadow appeared around his hooves and drew the Phantom pony into it. Phoenix pulled out his DLT and took a big whiff of the sandwich, “Hmm, too bad I have to change back to eat this – Fingers are useful for this sort of thing.”

TTTTT

It was early afternoon when Twilight looked upon the tall mountain before her, watching the smog from the top of the mountain flow from its hidden top. When Twilight had returned to the library, the young mare learned from Spike that a letter from Celestia had come, to which Twilight had learned that there were reports that a dragon had recently taken residence at the top of this very mountain.

Said dragon was also the cause of the smog, for when a fully grown dragon snores, it produces smoke. If nothing was done, then all of Equestria would be plunged into darkness for a hundred years, ‘That’s oddly specific and kind of sounds like something you’d read in an old story. What’s with darkness and evil taking specific times to last? Thousand years of darkness, a hundred years without the sun…

‘Seems too specific.’

Shaking that thought from her head, Twilight turned to see her friends behind her, all of them looking at the smog covered sky. When Twilight had explained to the town what was happening with the smoke (as per instruction by said letter), Twilight had gathered her friends in order to ask the dragon to leave.

Although, there were a few reservations about the plan, especially considering what had happen just the night before. But when the ground shook with a loud booming noise, those reservations started to grow.

“Whoa,” Rainbow Dash stated, using her wings to fly above the others. “What was that?”

“That is what a dragon sounds like when it snores,” Twilight answered with her eyes closed. “Trust me, when you’ve got two dragons sleeping under the same roof, you can tell. Albeit, they don’t snore as loud.”

“Ya’ll okay there, Fluttershy?” Applejack questioned, turning towards the young pegasus who had hidden behind her when the dragon snored.

“It’s j-just so… high,” Fluttershy yelped back.

“What?” Rainbow Dash scoffed with a roll of her eyes. “Okay, first off, of course it's high! It’s a mountain! Second, why are you afraid of a little altitude? We’re from Cloudsdale, that place is nothing but altitude!”

“Oh, um…” Fluttershy struggled to come up with an answer…

“Forget it,” Rainbow replied as she began to fly up higher. “I’m gonna fly up there and check it out!”

Rainbow Dash began to soar higher into the air, but however, she was quickly pulled back to the ground courtesy of Applejack pulling on her tail. A little surprised, Dash fell to the ground, with Applejack over her, “Now hold on! This ain’t a solo show, we need to stick together. Safety in numbers and all.”

Dash rolled her eyes and crossed her front legs in annoyance.

“Twilight,” Rarity stated as she trotted towards her fellow unicorn, garnering the lavender unicorn’s attention. “I’m a little curious, why didn’t we bring Spike or Mister Souma? Surely having a dragon come with us would make this dragon more compliant with our request.”

“Actually, dragons tend to be more territorial with other dragons,” Twilight explained as she looked at the mountain again. “Especially with their nests, more than likely this dragon set up a new nest for taking a nap. If we brought another dragon into the den, then the result wouldn’t be good.”

“Ooh, but I was so looking forward to seeing Haru!” Pinkie Pie sighed as she bounced around the two unicorns. “I bet his magic would’ve made this a breeze! That or maybe we could’ve had some more fun! A party only gets better with more party animals!”

“Indeed,” Rarity added. “Even if we couldn’t use Mister Souma as an ambassador in order to speak to this dragon, his magic would make this trip easier.”

“Well… You see,” Twilight tried to explain.

“After last night, Mistah Souma needed some time off,” Applejack replied as she trotted to the group. “Not every day a giant monster attacks a town.”

“Yeah, that only happens about once a week,” Pinkie stated with a bright smile.

Twilight was about to say, but then she blinked a few times, ‘Yeah, the Phantoms seem to only attack once a week. Weird.’

“So, how are we gonna get up there?” Applejack asked. “Not all of us have wings.”

“Yep! We’re not going to be able to climb up that mountain,” Pinkie Pie stated as she lifted her hoof up towards the mountain. “Ponies aren’t made to live in a mountainous ecosystem. With our strong legs, dangling head, and tall stature are for more of the grasslands – And don’t get me started on the hooves, that’s a different lesson entirely.”

All five of the other mares just stared at the pink earth pony as Pinkie reached into her saddlebags, and quickly pulled out a cute porcelain bunny. “Ooh! Maybe the dragon will leave if I give him the pretty bunny!”

Twilight was dumbfounded by her friend’s weird personality, but shook her head, “Well, you don’t have to worry. While you girls were preparing yourselves, I researched a spell that will allow us to traverse the mountain range. We’ll be able to climb the mountain terrain without having to worry about falling.”

A few moments later, with Twilight’s magic covering most of the mare’s hooves (Rainbow Dash was flying overhead), the ponies were traversing the mountainside, with Twilight behind them in order to keep up her magic and prevent any of her friends from falling off.

“I heard that dragons hoard a number of rare jewels and treasure,” Rarity muttered under her breath. “If Mister Souma’s any indication, then perhaps I can persuade this dragon to part with a few of his little trinkets.”

“Welcome to my cave Rarity!” Pinkie Pie joked with her voice a little deeper and scraggily. “Care for a diamond? Raaagh!”

Pinkie and Rarity giggled at that, however Dash, Applejack and Twilight didn’t laugh – Which didn’t go unnoticed by the two other mares. Pinkie Pie tilted her head slightly, “What? Wasn’t that a good impression of a dragon?”

“More than you know,” Applejack sighed.

“Yeah, it’s just been a long night,” Dash added as she floated overhead.

“Y-Yes, this is no laughing matter,” Twilight replied as she began to walk past her friends with a rolled up map floating next to her. “We need to do this, and not every dragon will be like the ones we know. Fluttershy, what do you think? You’re the expert on wild creatures, what do you think this dragon will be like?”

There was no answer.

“Fluttershy?” Twilight questioned as all of the ponies turned back to the ground to see the yellow pegasus hiding in a bush.

“Hey!” Dash called out to her fellow pegasus. “What are you waiting for? An invitation?”

“Ooh! I think I’ve got one in my bag!” Pinkie exclaimed before a large amount of confetti, streamers and party poppers shot from her saddlebags, scaring most of the mares. Rainbow Dash got the brunt of it though, with her mane standing on end.

“It’s… It’s just…” Fluttershy stated as she looked up to her friends…

And then looked past them when something red caught her eye, in contrast with the dark gray stones of the mountain, this red and yellow thing was easy to spot past her friends. It was even easier to recognize since Fluttershy saw the ‘thing’ just last night – It was the very same monster that had appeared outside the Everfree Forest!

The fiery monster was looking down at the group with his legs dangling over the ledge he was sitting on. The monster seemed to have seen Fluttershy, since it was waving one of its hands towards her.

The young pegasus whimpered loudly before she dove back into the bush, shaking the leafs and branches within it.

Applejack sighed before she trotted next to Twilight, “Looks like there’s no two ways about it, Ah’ll just have to take her around the mountain. Poor dear looks like she’s about topple over. It’ll take a while…”

The southern mare leaned closer to Twilight, “Twi, Ah’m gonna take that map and we’ll meet ya’ll up at that cliff up there. But while Ah take there, Ah’d like ya to tell the others what ya told me.”

“Applejack,” Twilight replied.

“Twi, they need to know too,” Applejack stated with her eyes narrowed at her unicorn friend. “They’re all Mistah Souma’s friends too, and should know what’s going on with him.”

Twilight nodded slowly before Applejack took the map and skidded down to the ground near Fluttershy. Twilight turned to her other three friends and sighed, “Well, come on girls, let’s hurry up there. While we wait, I need to tell you all something important.”

Rarity, Pinkie and Dash looked to each other in confusion. Meanwhile, Phoenix, the fiery monster had disappeared from the ledge.

TTTTTT

“Ya know, this would go a lot faster if ya’ll actually use yer legs.”

A little bit of time passed when Applejack volunteered to help Fluttershy up the mountain, and while they were taking a much easier path. But it didn’t help that Applejack had to pull on Fluttershy’s tail, and literally drag the pegasus up the mountain.

Fluttershy turned her eyes away from her friend, “I… I’m s-sorry Applejack.”

When the two reached a side of the mountain that had a few bushes and trees around it, Applejack pulled her head from Fluttershy’s tail and fell to the ground. “D-Don’t worry ‘bout it. Just try to walk from now please. We’ll continue in a few minutes.”

The yellow pegasus got to her hooves and shook the dirt from her before she lowered her gaze, “Applejack, c-can you keep a secret?”

“Of course,” Applejack replied as she sighed loudly and stretched her legs. “Anything for a friend.”

“I can’t d-do this,” Fluttershy stated bluntly. “I… I don’t want to be here.”

“And why’s that?” Applejack questioned, taking her hat off and using it to fan herself.

“W-Well, you see…” Fluttershy muttered as she looked up at one of the nearby trees. Unfortunately, when she did, the young pegasus froze up when she looked at the branches, her eyes widened and she whimpered.

That didn’t go unnoticed by Applejack, who in turned looked at the same tree that Fluttershy was looking at and her eyes widened when she saw a familiar red tail and navy blue jacket hanging off of the branch. “What the?! Mistah Souma?!”

Atop of a nearby ledge however…

“Hmm… Didn’t expect to see the mage on the mountain so soon. Maybe I’ll go down and have my fun.”

TBC

Author's Note

MangaKamen: Hello!

I'm back, and now prepare to face one of the greatest trio of chapters in a long time - Epic battles! Awesome comedy! And of course, art by my friend Lux-Nero!

On a sidenote, be sure to support his Tumblr, if he gets enough support there, we'll have a better chance of getting a comic. Soon, he'll be offering items for you guys to buy - Prints, buttons, and etc., all for low, low prices!

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Spell 15 - Burn, Burn!

So you’re finally here! Damn, I was getting tired of waiting!
- Phoenix

TTTTTTT

Spell 15

Burn, Burn

TTTTTTT

“I can’t d-do this,” Fluttershy stated bluntly. “I… I don’t want to be here.”

“And why’s that?” Applejack questioned, taking her hat off and using it to fan herself.

Atop of a nearby ledge however…

“Hmm… Didn’t expect to see the mage on the mountain so soon. Maybe I’ll go down and have my fun.”

Haru didn’t have the best night, like most of the ponies in Ponyville who saw the Minotaur attack, of course his mostly sleepless night was due to the fact that Dragon never shut his yap for two bloody seconds!

Every single time he closed his eyes, the inner Phantom would spout off some sort of drivel that was disguised as something that philosopher would say. The only reason why Haru was finally able to get some sleep in the early morning was only due to the fact that he drowned out Dragon’s rambling by thinking about nothing but show-tunes.

This unfortunately led him to sleep throughout most of the day, Dragon’s voice no longer keeping him awake. He was unaware of the smoke that was billowing overhead, or for the fact that Applejack was trotting over to the tree that Haru was sleeping in. “Mistah Souma!”

The young dragon didn’t seem to hear the Southern mare.

Applejack snorted slightly before she turned around and slammed both of her hind hooves into the tree, effectively shaking the red dragon out of the tree and land on the ground before the earth pony. “Ow…”

“Good, yer awake,” Applejack stated as the groggy dragon pushed himself off of the ground.

“Hard to not be when you fall out of a tree,” Haru replied as he rubbed the back of his bruised head. “This is the second time you kicked me out of a tree, AJ, are we going to make this a habit?”

“It is if ya’ll keep running off,” Applejack retorted as she pointed a hoof at the dragon. “What in tarnation are ya doing up here?”

“Trying to get some sleep,” Haru answered as his tail wrapped around the fallen jacket. With his eyes closed, Haru spun around and dug his claws into the tree trunk. “Now if you excuse me, I’ll be going back to sleep.”

Before Haru could even get his feet off the ground, Applejack stomped on the sleek dragon’s tail and caused him to fall back to the ground. “Now hold on there! Ya’ll just ran off last night, and now yer trying to run again? Haru, just hold on for a second!”

The dragon sighed loudly as he lowered his head, “Just leave me alone AJ, it’s for everypony’s own good.”

“Ya’ll know that ain’t true!” Applejack scolded as she trotted around to look the sleek dragon in the eyes, only to see that he was turning his head away from her with his eyes closed. “Mistah Souma, fer some sorta wiz at magic yer acting like an idiot.”

“You’ve got a funny way of consoling,” Haru replied as he waved his claws about. “I’m doing this so nopony gets hurt because of me.”

“And yer doing this by separating yerself from yer friends?” Applejack pointed out with a roll of her eyes. “Mistah Souma, it wasn’t yer fault what happened last night – Twi explained that and…”

“IT IS MY FAULT!” Haru snapped back with his eyes open and narrowed down at Applejack. When Applejack reeled back slightly from Haru, the red dragon shook his head and looked down at his claws. “These claws of mine, they… They almost took the life of somepony. Not just any pony though, one who I consider a friend.

“I unleashed that monster in me, I almost allowed him to kill Twilight with these very claws!”

“Mistah Souma,” Applejack stated with a slightly annoyed look on her face.

“How can I even look Twilight in eyes after that?” Haru asked as he buried his face into his claws. “And I don’t even know if I can even control that monster within me and…”

“Haru…” Applejack growled with her eyes narrowed.

“Who knows what Dragon will do if he controls me again?” Haru asked shaking his head a few times before he lifted his head up. “It might be me ravaging Ponyville next time, and I don’t want to hurt anypony! I…”

WHAM!

Haru’s eyes widened as his face began to sting with pain before he was propelled through the air courtesy of Applejack kicking him with both of her legs with all of her strength. The force was enough to make Haru crash into the rocky side of the mountain a few feet from Fluttershy, making the young pegasus yelp before she galloped away from the dragon.

When Haru fell to the ground with his face and front of his body scuffed up slightly, “Ooooowww…”

“Sorry ‘bout that,” Applejack stated, she nodded towards Fluttershy who had galloped behind her Southern friend. “And as for you Mistah Souma, Ah hope that knocked some sense into ya.”

“It knocked something around,” Haru mumbled as his eyes spun about dizzily.

“Mistah Souma,” Applejack sighed as she slowly trotted over to the dragon. “Ya’ll have done so much for yer friends, so much for Ponyville, and just cause of one little incident, yer ready to abandon everything? That doesn’t sound like the Mistah Souma Ah know.”

Haru sat up straight and shook his head, “This isn’t just some small incident, Applejack. I almost killed a friend and…”

“Okay, enough of the pointless angst!”

The two ponies and single dragon jumped slightly when that voice rang out, making them all look up to the side of the mountain to see Phoenix sitting on one of the cliffs, waving his hand at the three. Fluttershy yelped as she dashed behind the tree that Haru was sleeping in while Haru jumped to his clawed feet. “Phantom!?”

“What in tarnation is one of them doing here?” Applejack questioned as she crouched down slightly, preparing herself for anything.

“Let’s see,” Phoenix mused as he tapped his finger against his chin. “There are a number of reasons why I’m here, let’s check our options. Option one, I’m not really here – You’re all in a group hallucination and you’ll wake up in a few moments.

“Option two – I’m here for the Monster Fan Convention and this is my costume. I just happened to get lost. Really lost.”

Phoenix leapt from the mountainside and landed on the ground with flames erupting from where he landed on the ground. With a slight chuckle, Phoenix spun around and lifted up his hand with three fingers, “Or option three – I’m here to kill some boredom. If I had known this plan of mine would take so long, I would’ve threatened the kiddo to bring me a couple magazines.

“All seem viable, but I’d go with option three personally.”

Phoenix looked towards Haru and Applejack, crossed his arms as he shook his head. “Although, I gotta say, I’m not impressed. When I heard that there was a Ring Mage running about destroying Phantoms, I was kind of expecting something a little more… Intimidating.

“After what I saw last night, fighting against that poser of a Greater Phantom, I was expecting you to be a buff warrior of great strength and intimidation.”

The sleek dragon looked towards Applejack, and then towards Fluttershy. He knew that Applejack was a Gate, but could Fluttershy have been one too? What were they doing at this mountain anyway? And how long was this Phantom around?

Haru shook his head from those thoughts, ‘GARGH! Too many questions! And I don’t have the time for this! Not when there’s a Phantom right in front of me!”

The last action that Haru performed didn’t go unnoticed by the fiery Phantom, which resulted in Phoenix chuckling as he waved his hand about. “But here I see nothing more than an angst little insect. Suck it up or give it up, just pick one! But if you’re just going to stand around thinking about everything, I could always roast one of these little mares to make it easier on you…

“DRIVER ON - PLEASE!”

Phoenix cackled loudly as the buckle on Haru’s waist glowed brightly, “Looks like I’ve found the spark to make you act. I’ve been looking for you, Ringy Wizard. Everything before me doesn’t last long, but I bet before you bite the dust…”

Several flames erupted from Phoenix’s back as he clenched his fist tightly, a loud sickening crack echoing through the air. “I’ll get to really take my time hurting you.”

Haru turned towards Applejack as he slipped a small red ring over his left claw, “Applejack, you and Fluttershy get out of here, now.”

“But Mistah Souma,” Applejack started.

“NOW!” Haru growled before he threw his hand in front of his belt. “This isn’t a debate! Now GO!”

“FLAME – PLEASE! Hii Hii Hii Hii Hii!”

Applejack nodded as Haru’s body was immediately covered in his Wizard garb, the red jewels gleaming from both his own flames and Phoenix’s. The southern mare galloped past Phoenix, keeping her distance from the fiery Phantom who didn’t even turn his head as the pony dashed to Fluttershy.

Rather, Phoenix kept his gaze on Wizard, and Wizard did the same. The masked dragon lifted his hand up and pointed towards Phoenix, “Why do you want to fight me so bad?”

“Because I can’t sing or dance,” Phoenix replied, not caring that Applejack was pulling a frozen stiff Fluttershy from her hiding place.

“Well, you’ve got your wish,” Wizard replied as he lifted up his left claw showing the ring on his claws. “I’ll take you on.”

“Good,” Phoenix cackled as he threw his right arm in front of him, creating a powerful flame that transformed into a large golden broadsword with a wing-like hilt to it. “I am Phoenix of the Phantoms. What is your name?”

Wizard tilted his head slightly at the Phantom’s question, but turned his body to the side, “Haruto Souma. Why does a Phantom care about a name?”

Phoenix pointed his sword towards the masked dragon, “Everything has name – Ponies, Dragons, Phantoms, and even the land itself – It is a name that makes us what we are, and it isn’t something to be taken granted for. Consider it a courtesy, one of the few you’ll see in this fight.”

Silence filled the air, save for Applejack’s hooves clacking against the rocky ground. With an unannounced signal, both beings of magic charged at each other. Phoenix swung his sword right towards Wizard’s upper body, with the masked dragon quickly ducking underneath it.

The fiery Phantom spun around and took a low swept at Wizard, who dodged simply by lifting up one of his legs. But with the momentum of his missed slash, Phoenix had lifted his broadsword up into the air and just as quickly brought the blade down on Wizard, who in turn spun about to dodge the attack with his tail wrapped around one of Phoenix’s ankles.

Then, with a swift kick to the Phantom’s back, Wizard pulled his tail back and caused Phoenix to fall face first into the ground with a loud whap. However, Phoenix only cackled under his breath before he jumped to his feet. “Not bad!”

“CONNECT – PLEASE!”

Wizard drew his hand out from the portal and pulled out his WizarSwordgun and charged Phoenix. Both magical beings clashed their blades with flames erupting from the steel, the two pushed their weapons towards the other, undaunted by the fire that surged past them.

Then both magical beings pushed from each other, with Phoenix rushing forward to make his move and slashed horizontally at Wizard, only to have the masked dragon leap over the golden broadsword. The moment that Wizard’s feet touched the ground, he spun around and stabbed at Phoenix.

But the Phantom’s speed seemed to be improving as he blocked the attack with his sword, and pushed Wizard back, taking the opportunity to bring his sword across Wizard’s armored chest. Sparks erupted from Wizard’s chest and sent the armored dragon skidding back with smoke lifting up from his body.

Wizard brought his left hand to his jewel covered chest, but shook the pain away when Phoenix charged forward once more. When Phoenix brought his sword down on Wizard once more, the masked dragon dove to the right at the last second and fitted a pair of rings on his right claw. ‘The battle just started, but I can already tell this Phantom’s not like the others… He’s on another level! I can’t mess around here!’

Phoenix sighed loudly as he turned towards Wizard who brought up his right hand to the hand symbol on the WizarSwordGun, making a bright light erupt on silver weapon. “MULTI COPY – PLEASE!”

Wizard threw the sword up into the air, the fiery Phantom tilted his head slightly before he charged towards the magical dragon.

However, before Phoenix reached Wizard, several copies of the silver sword fell from the sky and stabbed into the ground around both of the fighting magical beings. Phoenix stopped before any of the blades had reached him and he looked around, “Ooh, nice choice! This makes the battlefield all the more interesting!”

Without saying a word, Wizard dashed over the ground, grabbing two of the swords and charged at Phoenix. The Phantom stood still as Wizard brought down both of the blades on Phoenix, who in turn casually lifted his broadsword up to block the attacks. “That’s it? You go through all the trouble to…”

Before Phoenix finished his sentence, Wizard leapt over the rather surprised Phantom and landed behind Phoenix. Wizard quickly spun about and slashed down with one of his swords, but Phoenix turned and blocked the attack with the broadsword once more, and twisted his wrist slightly to block the next oncoming slash from Wizard’s other sword.

With a spin, Wizard revealed that coiled in his tail was another sword, which actually caught Phoenix by surprise with the blade actually making contact and slashed across Phoenix’s stomach, surprising the Phantom and actually making him stagger back a few feet.

Wizard crossed the swords in his hands and had the blade in his tail resting on the ground while Phoenix brought his hand to his stomach.

“… heh… Hehehehehe… YES!” Phoenix proclaimed as he stood up straight, throwing his free hand to the side. “That’s what I’m talking about! That’s the ferocity that I was looking for! Show me more!”

Wizard was a little drawn back from Phoenix’s attitude, but shook his head to compose himself and charged towards Phoenix, leaping into the air to bring down all three blades onto Phoenix. The Phantom laughed loudly as he countered with his own broadsword…

CLANK!

All three of the blades flew from Wizard’s hands and tail, with Wizard forced back through the air, courtesy of the powerful slash that Phoenix had delivered. ‘I need to grab one of my swords! Quick!’

“No need to fly off on my account!”

Wizard lifted his head to realize that Phoenix was right over him, having leapt over Wizard. Before Wizard could react, Phoenix threw a powerful left jab into the masked dragon’s stomach and flung him to the ground, forcing a number of swords in the ground to pop from the earth.

It took only a second for Wizard to gather himself, and realized that Phoenix was falling towards him with his broadsword held overhead.

Wizard quickly grabbed two of the nearest blades and crossed them up at the last second to catch Phoenix’s broadsword. Although he managed to block the attack, Phoenix’s broadsword was still pushing down with Phoenix lowering his head slightly to look Wizard right in the visor. “C’mon! You can do better than this! I didn’t go through all the trouble of setting this up just so you could fail so quickly!”

The moment that Phoenix finished that sentence, Wizard slammed both of his feet into Phoenix’s stomach and flipped the fiery Phantom off of the masked dragon. Wizard jumped to his feet as Phoenix landed on the ground, and immediately, Wizard pointed the sword in his right hand at Phoenix. “Setting this up? What in the world are you talking about?”

Phoenix tilted his head slightly at Wizard, “You’re serious, aren’t you? You didn’t see the growing cloud of smoke overhead?! It’s been spreading over the land for the last few hours!

“Does this mean that I didn’t have to do this plan!?”

Wizard took this opportunity to drop his left-handed blade, quickly unfolded the hand charm on his right blade, and brought his ring covered hand to the hand of it. “C’MON SLASH! SHAKE THE HAND! SLASH STRIKE!”

All of the copies of the WizarSwordGun glowed a bright red as Wizard spun around to grab another one with his left hand and a third with his tail. While still spinning, Wizard slashed through the air, creating several surges of red energy that floated in front of the masked dragon, and with a loud roar, Wizard propelled all of the surges of fiery mana through the air towards Phoenix. “HII HII HII! HII HII HII!”

Phoenix lifted his head up to see the energy zoom right at him, and he quickly brought up his broadsword to block the surges of fiery mana. The attacks exploded upon impact with flames completely wrapping around Phoenix’s body.

The copies of the WizarSwordGun faded away from the ground leaving the only the real weapon at Wizard’s right claw, Wizard sighed as he shook his head. ‘That should do it.’

“Oi!”

Wizard snapped his head up saw that the flames were now whipping around Phoenix’s body, with his sword in the ground he was leaning on the weapon’s hilt. “Did you really think fire would work against me? The only thing these flames are doing is giving me a rather nice tan.”

“Great,” Wizard sighed as he stabbed his sword into the ground as he reached for his belt of rings.

“Don’t feel so bad,” Phoenix consoled as he drew his sword from the ground. “You actually got me to block the attack. Most of the time when a dragon breathes fire on me, I just take it since it’s just regular fire, but you forced me to block it.”

“WATER – PLEASE!”

Phoenix’s eyes widened as he watched a blue runic circle pop at Wizard’s feet and surge up over his body, turning the rubies on his armor into sapphires. “SUI SUI SUI SUI!”

Wizard folded the sword into a gun and quickly brought his right hand to the unfolded hand on his weapon. “WATER – SHOOTING STRIKE!”

Then without a moment of hesitation, Wizard shot a powerful burst of glowing blue water towards Phoenix. The Phantom spun his left hand, making the flames around him combining into a large fiery shield that blocked the watery attack with steam floating into the air. Wizard stepped back as Phoenix waved his hand about, “Didn’t know you could change elements, not bad at all. Too bad that squirt gun of yours isn’t going to do much.”

Wizard tossed his gun to the side and fitted different ring on his right hand before he threw it in front of his belt. “LIQUID – PLEASE!”

Phoenix chuckled as he watched Wizard’s body shimmer into a torrent of water that flew through the air. This time, the Phantom drew his sword from the ground and slashed at the mystic liquid, only for it to go underneath it and slam into Phoenix’s abdomen. The force caused Phoenix to skid back, but immediately he was sent stumbling forward when the liquefied Wizard crashed into Phoenix’s back.

The red Phantom turned his head to watch the magical water surge around him, every few seconds crashing into Phoenix and making the Phantom stumble about from the attacks. Phoenix cackled as he slashed down only to have the liquefied Wizard spilt and reform over Phoenix. “Not half bad, Haruto Souma! But petty tricks will only work so far!”

With a loud battle cry, flames erupted from Phoenix’s body and forced the mystic liquid back and crash into the ground, forming back into Wizard who’s body had smoke rising from it. “Gargh!”

“You’re not a bad fighter, Haruto Souma,” Phoenix sighed as he slowly walked towards Wizard, his broadsword resting on his shoulder. “But this isn’t what I was hoping for. Your tactics and tricks are good, but they pale in comparison to what I witnessed last night – Surely you can do better!”

Wizard quickly pushed himself off of the ground and reached for his chain of rings, exchanging the rings on his left claw.

“But this? This is just plop,” Phoenix stated as he slowly closed the gap between him and Wizard. “The Phantoms you destroyed must’ve been at the bottom of the barrel, and frankly, I’m disappointed in you and in my fellow Phantoms. Show me that power that you used last night!”

“LAND – PLEASE!

“Dododo dododon! Don Dododon!”

The earth at Wizard’s feet rose up and immediately covered his armor with square topazes with the masked dragon slipping another ring on his hand.

Phoenix sighed loudly, “… Really? It was just a fluke, wasn’t it? Oh well, another disappointment.”

Phoenix picked up his pace and lifted his broadsword up as Wizard snapped his hand in front of his belt. “DEFEND – PLEASE!”

Wizard threw his hand forward and created a large stone wall between him and Phoenix, however, the fiery Phantom brought his sword down and cleaved the wall in two, allowing him to continue towards Wizard.

The masked dragon threw his right claw in front of his belt once more, “DEFEND – PLEASE!”

The same rocky wall erupted from the ground, but Phoenix just slashed the stone slab and shattered it into millions of pieces. Wizard threw his hand in front of his belt a third time, “DEFEND – PLEASE!”

However, Phoenix didn’t even wait for the wall to fully emerge before he spun around and crushed the defensive spell, sending debris flying towards Wizard, surprising him. While he was surprised, Phoenix slashed his sword across Wizard’s chest, sparks flying and sending the masked dragon flying through the air. “GARGH!”

Wizard crashed into the ground near his sword, and quickly lifted it up when he realized that Phoenix was bringing down the broadsword. And even though Wizard managed to block the attack, the flames from Phoenix’s sword flew into Wizard’s body, forcing the masked dragon to falter closer to the ground.

Phoenix brought his face closer to Wizard’s mask, the oddly cold blue eyes looking into the yellow visor, “Let me tell you something, Haruto Souma, despite how this world looks, the world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place, and I don’t care how tough you think you are, it’ll beat you to your knees and keep ya there permanently if you let it!

Phoenix then kicked Wizard off of the ground, allowing him to bring his sword across Wizard’s chest, flames and bits of Wizard’s chest jewels flying from him. Phoenix then kicked Wizard in the stomach and forced Wizard to the ground. “You or nobody ain’t gonna hit as hard as life. It ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get it and keep moving forward. How much can you take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done!

“That’s why this victory is mine! I’ve conquered what this life has thrown at me! I’ve conquered countless monsters! I’ve even conquered death!”

That’s when Phoenix wrapped his fingers around Wizard’s neck, lifting the sleek dragon off of the ground and even off of his feet. Wizard dropped his sword and clawed at Phoenix’s armored arm. Phoenix pulled him close as the air from Wizard’s lungs wheezed out of his masked covered mouth. “This victory leaves a bad taste in my mouth, I had hoped you were something more. But you’re just like the monsters I’ve slain - Unsatisfying.

“If you’re done, then time to die.”

Phoenix tossed Wizard up into the air, the broadsword in the Phantom’s hand covered in flames. When Wizard fell back to the ground, Phoenix began to bring up his sword towards Wizard…

SMACK!

At least until something smashed into right side of Phoenix’s head, making him stumble off balance and make his attack miss Wizard completely. When the masked dragon landed on the ground, Phoenix brought his free hand to his head and pulled whatever had smacked him upside the head – pulling what appeared to be a smushed apple, “… Hehehe… Hahahahaha! An apple! Oh hahaha! What pony attacks with an apple?”

As if in response, a second apple slammed into Phoenix’s face, making him stumble back slightly. When he wiped off the apple bits from his face, Phoenix turned to the side of the mountain to see Applejack standing there with her back to him, but with her head turned around, leering at the Phantom. “Ah’m only gonna warn ya once, leave Mistah Souma alone!”

Peaking from around the side of the mountain was Fluttershy, shaking visibly in contrast to Applejack.

Phoenix stabbed his sword into the ground and lifted his right hand up into the air, “Quite the brave little mare you are, wishing to take me on after seeing me utterly destroy your friend here. I can respect that.”

“Then git away from him!” Applejack shouted as she reached into her saddlebag and pulled out a couple of apples.

“Let me tell you something, little mare,” Phoenix said as his right hand immediately engulfed in flames. “While I can respect you helping your friend, I hate it when somepony interrupts my fights! Even if they’re at the end! It just pisses me off so much!”

Phoenix quickly waved his hand in front of his chest, creating several flames in the shape of small birds that cawed loudly. Then with a point of his finger, the fiery birds flew towards Applejack and Fluttershy.

“NO!”

But before the fiery birds could hit the two mares, using the last of his strength, Wizard forced himself in front of the attack with his arms raised up. The fiery birds crashed into Wizard with bits of jewels and his armor flung from him as he cried out.

“Mistah Souma!” Applejack cried out as the flames began to disappear from the dragon’s body.

As Wizard’s outfit shattered like glass, Haru fell to his knees before he fell face first into the ground, his body covered with scuffs and bruises. Smoke rose from Haru’s motionless body while Phoenix shook his head. “Tch, he wasted his life on you two. I was hoping for the steel of my sword to be the end for him, too bad. Would’ve been a fitting end for him.”

With an annoyed growl, Phoenix drew his sword from the earth and spun around to walk away. “Consider yourselves lucky, I’ve got a bad taste in my mouth after this fight and I need to wash it out.”

Applejack was about to go after Phoenix and stop him, but looking at Haru told her to just let the Phantom go. Mistah Souma wasn’t able to make a dent in that Phantom’s hide, so, what could Applejack do? Besides, she had something more important to deal with, quickly galloping over to the fallen dragon’s side, “Mistah Souma! Fluttershy! Gimme a hoof!”

Fluttershy on the other hoof was keeping her distance from the fallen dragon, and kept her eyes on Phoenix who had distanced himself quite a bit from the two mares and dragon. “This…. This…Um… Well…”

TTTTTT

While the fiery battle between Phoenix and Wizard was slowly ending, Twilight was explaining to her other three friends about her meeting with the White Wizard, what he said, and even that Haru was in actuality a stallion but was transformed into a dragon. She had even informed Pinkie and Rarity about the events of last night before she met with the White Wizard. Rainbow Dash and Rarity were simply awestruck by the information that Twilight gave them.

“I… I simply don’t know what to say to that,” Rarity mused as she brought a hoof to her mouth. “I’ve never heard of such a thing – A stallion turning into a dragon?”

“Yeah, well, I can believe that sort of stuff,” Dash stated, still flying overhead with her front hooves crossed. “I’ve seen some of the weird stuff that Haru’s dealt with, and I’ve even fought with him against some of the weird things he deals with on a daily basis.”

Twilight then turned to Pinkie, who was oddly quiet throughout all of Twilight’s explanation, in fact, aside from having that usual smile on her face, the pink mare didn’t seem phased by Twilight’s information. “What about you Pinkie? Aren’t you shocked by this?”

“Well, yeah, I kinda was,” Pinkie stated with her head tilted slightly. “But it was kind of obvious.”

“Huh?” All three of the other mares questioned as they turned all of their attention towards Pinkie.

“What? You girls didn’t see the signs?” Pinkie questioned blinking a few times before she smiled brightly. “They’re kind of out in the open – Haru’s eyes, the fact he has a cutie mark, his knowledge of pony culture, and the author’s summary of the story that he blatantly leaves on his desk – After all that, I kinda figured he wasn’t the average dragon.”

“Wait, what?” Twilight questioned as she drew her head back.

Pinkie just smiled at her friend, “Oh don’t worry about it Twilight, besides, it still is a really good twist on this.”

Pinkie lowered her head and her ears drooped slightly, “Still, I can’t even imagine what Haru went through, it must’ve been really rough for him.”

‘I wonder if Phantoms don’t like their monstrous forms,’ Twilight thought to herself as she looked up to the clouded sky. ‘I don’t know if Haru hates how his body looks, but it certainly couldn’t have been easy for him to adapt to becoming a dragon. And even if it wasn’t, who knows if he could ever return to being a pony, he could be stuck in that form for the rest of his life.’

Twilight shook her head slightly, trying to keep the thoughts in the back of her mind for the moment, “Girls, I told you this because we’re all Haru’s friends, and because of what happened yesterday, he’s going through a lot in his head. He’s helped us all in some way, either in big ways or in small ways. And as you girls taught me, we have to help our friend.”

“That’s obvious,” Dash retorted with a roll of her eyes. “The dragon’s awesome! Soon as we’re done here, I’ll fly all over Equestria to find him!”

“Yup! At times like these, everypony needs a friend,” Pinkie added with a nod. “Haru’s strong, but nopony’s strong enough to be alone at a time like this.”

“Quite so,” Rarity chimed in as she trotted over to Twilight. “Mister Souma may have a clashing sense of style, but he’s a decent dragon. Or should we refer to him as a stallion?”

“I say we stick with dragon,” Dash suggested as she flew over her friends, keeping a smirk on her face. “It’s twenty-percent cooler.”

“Rainbow,” Twilight sighed as she looked at her winged friend. “In any case, we’ll deal with the dragon on this mountain first, then we’ll go find Haru. I’m sure he hasn’t gotten too far from Ponyville, I doubt he’d just up and leave.”

“So, anypony up for tic-tac-toe?” Pinkie Pie asked, getting her three friends to stare at her weirdly. “What? We still have to wait for Applejack and Fluttershy, and this’ll be perfect!”

Before anypony could take on Pinkie in the oh so dramatic game of tic-tac-toe, the sound hooves against rocky ground echoed through the air, drawing the mare’s attention towards the rough path. “C’mon Fluttershy! We’re almost there!”

“Applejack!” Twilight called out, with the orange mare slowly coming around the corner with a rope tied around her forehead. Fluttershy wasn’t too far behind Applejack, but seemed to keep her distance from whatever was tied at the other end of the rope.

“We… We made it,” Applejack announced with a loud sigh of relief before she fell to the ground.

Rainbow turned towards Twilight while flying upside down, “Told ya it’d take forever.”

The young unicorn trotted over to Applejack, looking down at her friend as she drew closer, “Applejack? Is everything alright?”

Lifting her tired head, Applejack slipped the rope off from her forehead before she turned towards the studious unicorn. “Twi… We got bigger problems than just a nappin’ dragon.”

Twilight followed the rope and her eyes widened at what was at the end of the rope – Tied up at the waist was none other than the very same dragon that Twilight was friends with. Only instead of the cheerful dragon, there was only a very bruised up and burned Haru, who’s eyes were closed.

TBC

Author's Note

MangaKamen: ... Wow, just, wow.

I hope you guys liked this chapter. Since its memorial day weekend next week, I'll be taking a break, but we'll have a real powerhouse chapter ready in the wings on the week after that!

Spell 16 - Final Hope

It’s showtime.
- Haruto Souma / Kamen Rider Wizard

TTTTTTTT

Spell 16

Final Hope

TTTTTT

Twilight was horrified to see her friend just laying there on the ground, Haru’s body burned and bruised with his chest rising and falling slowly. Haru was alive, but in the condition that he was in, only Celestia knows how long that would last.

While five of the six mares were looking over their wounded friend (for some reason, Fluttershy kept her distance from Haru), Applejack told them all of Phoenix’s appearance and how the Phantom had defeated the magical dragon rather easily. Not even managing to even really hurt the Phantom at all, Haru really got injured by blocking an attack that the Phantom launched at Applejack and Fluttershy.

Twilight stood there for a few seconds soaking in all of the information before she turned to her friends, “Girls, we have to get Haru back to Ponyville, and fast.”

“Would he be okay on the trip back?” Rarity questioned, nopony realizing that Pinkie Pie had trotted over to Haru and reached into his jacket, ruffling her hoof through it. “With how he is, I doubt that Haru would be able to last too long.”

“Not a problem!” Rainbow Dash proclaimed as she brought a hoof to her chest. “I’ll just fly Wizard to Ponyville, drop him off at the hospital and zip right back here! It’ll only take me ten minutes! No wait! I can do it twenty percent cooler! It’ll take seven minutes!”

‘That math is wrong,’ Twilight thought to herself.

“And if ya’ll were going that fast, what do ya think would happen to Mistah Souma?” Applejack questioned with a slightly raised brow. “Sides, do ya really think ya’ll can even lift the dragon? He’s not exactly the lightest thing around.”

“He should probably cut out some of the doughnuts every once in a while,” Pinkie stated nonchalantly as she pulled out a crumpled, emptied bag of doughnuts from Haru’s jacket and tossed it out to the side.

“Yeah, well, we gotta do something!” Dash retorted to Applejack before she pointed a hoof at the growing smoke overhead. “Every second we waste here, Wizard’s getting worst and the smoke above us isn’t making this situation any better.”

“And we can’t disappoint Princess Celestia,” Twilight mumbled before she looked at Haru. “But we have to help Haru…”

“Ooh, then you can use this,” Pinkie Pie announced as she pulled a ring from Haru’s jacket and held it towards Twilight, surprising the unicorn. “This should be the right deus ex machina!”

Twilight blinked a few times at the ring that was being held in front of her, the ring itself showed a rather calm looking dragon carved into it with a nurse’s cap atop its head with a cross in the hat. “A Magic Ring? Pinkie Pie, I know how to use his rings, but if I were to use his Connect Ring, I don’t know where he’d go.”

“Well duh!” Pinkie Pie replied. “Of course you don’t know how to use his Connect Ring, that’s why I got one of the newer rings he made – The Recover Ring!”

“Recover?” Twilight questioned as her horned glowed brightly. “I’ve never seen him use that ring before.”

“Of course, he didn’t see a need for it,” Pinkie Pie answered with a bright smile on her face. “He usually never takes a hit when he fights a Phantom, but he’ll use it for other things! Didn’t you ever wonder about those times he went to get those Magic Stones but didn’t use any new rings?”

Twilight had to concede those points.

“So, this ring can fix up Wizard?” Dash asked looking over Twilight.

“Pinkie Pie, did you see Mister Souma use this ring before?” Rarity asked.

Pinkie Pie shifted her eyes left and right for a second before she kicked a beaten up black notebook that had the words ‘Friendship is Showtime Outline – For MangaKamen’s Eyes Only’ off of the side of the cliff. “Yeah, let’s go with that. I saw Haru use this on a filly who scrapped her knee, maybe it’ll work on him?”

Twilight eyed the ring for a second before she closed her eyes, ‘I did this once before… I’m sure I can do this! For my friend!’

Taking a deep breath, Twilight began to focus her magical energy into the ring. For a moment, nothing happened, at least until the ring glowed a bright purple. Twilight kept surging her magic through the ring as a large purple, moon-adorned runic circle appeared over Haru’s body. “RECOVER – PLEASE!”

The circle began to turn quickly, allowing several purple sparks to slip from the circle and float down into Haru’s body. As the sparks flowed into the dragon’s body, the burns, bruises and cuts began to fade away and his breathing began to return to a slower, more normal pace. When the circle disappeared, Haru looked back to full health, to the fact that he almost looked like he was just sleeping.

And by the fact that he was snoring slightly, that was probably the case.

Twilight sighed loudly as she slumped to the ground, the ring falling to the ground and bouncing a few times on the rocky ground. ‘W-Wow… That took a lot out of me. The last time I did that, I barely used my magic that day, but that nearly wiped me out. Either Haru’s got a lot more mana to him than he lets on, or using one of those spells just takes more than he shows.’

“Alright! Great job Twi!” Dash yelled out as she landed next to Haru and poked his head a few times with her front hoof. “Now all we gotta do is wake him up and we can get him to follow us.”

“As much as that plan would work, Rainbow Dash,” Rarity pointed out as she helped Twilight to her hooves. “From what Applejack told us, I think it would be best for Mister Souma to get his rest.”

“Ah agree with ya, Rarity,” Applejack sighed as she pulled her hat down. “It took almost everything Ah had just to drag Mistah Souma. So, until he can move on his own, Ah doubt we can move.”

“But come on!” Dash groaned loudly. “Couldn’t we just have Twilight lift him up with her magic? Then we could just continue on the paths here on hoof… Well, you girls can, I can fly.”

“I… I guess I could try,” Twilight sputtered slightly as she stood up straight and took a deep breath. “We do have to continue with this quest from Princess Celestia.”

“Nonsense Twilight,” Rarity stated as her horn began to glimmer a bright blue. “You’re not the only unicorn in our little group. And while I’m not accustomed to levitating something as big as Mister Souma, I’m sure it won’t be an issue.”

The same blue aura slipped over the knocked out dragon, and slowly he began to lift off of the ground, his limbs dragging against the ground. Rarity took a deep breath as she began to trot off with Haru floating behind her. “Well, shall be going then?”

“Finally!” Dash sighed as she flew overhead, taking every few seconds to tap Haru on the face with her hoof in an attempt to wake him up.

Pinkie Pie, Applejack and Twilight followed their friends, however, Fluttershy had been completely silent and kept her distance from Haru. There were so many scary things on this mountain – Two dragons and that Phantom monster that all her friends seemed to know about.

Her wings had locked up and snapped to her back, and no matter how hard she tried, the young pegasus couldn’t spread her wings. It was a nervous little tick she had when she was really frightened by something – And one of those ‘things’ was right next to her friends.

But, the thought of being left behind by her friends on this mountain with that fiery Phantom walking about wasn’t appealing. So, with a slight gulp, Fluttershy slowly trotted behind her friends.

TTTTTT

“Alright, what ya got there?”

“Um, Reach out to the truth?”

“Nope.”

“Uh, Wyld Stallions?”

“Tartarus no! That’s a first print!”

“The Bat-Stallion soundtrack?”

“TOSS IT!”

Near the cave atop of the mountain, a sleek, vinyl record flew through the air until a bird made of flames crashed into it, sending shards flying through the smoky air. Hellhound whistled as he watched the charred remains of the record fall to the ground. “Nice shot Master Phoenix!”

The fiery Phantom waved his right hand, making a few embers float from his hand. Phoenix was laying atop of one of the rocks near the cave and sighed loudly, “Enough of the praise, kiddo. What’s the next record ya got?”

“Uh, Pony in Pink?” Hellhound stated as he placed a hoof on the record.

“PULL!”

With a quick twist, Hellhound spun the record through the air as Phoenix snapped his hand towards it and shot another fiery bird of flames. The flame crashed into the vinyl record and made its broken shards fling through the air. Hellhound shook his head before he turned towards Phoenix who threw his arms over his head. ‘Master Phoenix, didn’t you get to fight that Ring Mage? I know Master Phoenix is known among the Phantoms as the Dreaded, but even he should’ve had a hard time against that masked dragon.

‘The Ring Mage destroyed at least two Phantoms, laid the smack down to Minotaur – Even when he did have Master Phoenix’s power – And only Lord Hades knows what else this Ring Mage did!

‘Master Phoenix… You’re much scarier than I thought…’

Phoenix sighed loudly as he sat up and rolled his head about. “Oi, Kiddo.”

The pony disguised Phantom gulped audibly as he nodded, “Y-Yes Master Phoenix?”

Phoenix lifted his hand up to his face and clenched his fingers tightly as flames flew from in between his fingers. “Did you see something when you were awakened?”

“Uh, you mean when I woke up this morning?” Hellhound questioned with his head tilted slightly.

“No, dingus!” Phoenix growled as he jumped off the rock and walked over to Hellhound. “I meant when you became a Phantom!”

“Uh, I… I can’t remember,” Hellhound stated with his head lowered and his ears drooping. “I can remember a few things about what my life was before this, but… some things are fuzzy.”

“I see, well, I can remember what I saw when I was awakened,” Phoenix stated as he lifted his arms up. “When I awoke, I had one vision – The world set ablaze. And do you know what I saw there?

“A fury. It was a great and terrible fury – The flames of Tartarus engulfing anything and everything that I come across. As I stumbled across the land for those first few days after the Sabbath that vision was burned in my very eyes – Even when I wasn’t in my Phantom form.

“But that fury, that fire soon drew its way into my very core, creating something within me. At first, I didn’t know what it was – Until that fateful day.”

Phoenix turned his head up to the dark clouds above and chuckled, “Ya know, that day was as cloudy as it is now. On that day, I was in my Phantom form when a platoon of Canterlot’s Noble Soldiers crossed my path. Something about Canterlot Nobles just rubs me the wrong way, but I didn’t pay them any mind…

“But they surely paid attention to me – I guess they never saw a creature like me before, doesn’t help that I was still experimenting with my powers on a nearby forest – So they decided to attack me.”

Phoenix lifted his arms up clapped his hands together, “Of course I fought back – But, when I did, that flame in my very being grew. The intensity of it became stronger and stronger with each soldier that I cut down, and suddenly that vision made sense. I was reborn to fight.

“I found that out when a white stallion with a shield-like cutie mark confronted me in that group – He was stronger than the rest of them. He even managed to stop my attacks with his surprisingly strong defensive spells, but I knew he wouldn’t last long against me.

“If Medusa hadn’t shown up and stopped me, I would’ve taken that stallion’s life along with his comrades.”

Taking a moment to take a deep breath, Phoenix turned to the cave where the smoke kept pouring out from it. Then after a few moments, he looked over his right shoulder pad and turned his gaze towards Hellhound, “Defeating the strongest around, that’s what the flames meant to me. They are the flames of battle that demanded to grow with stronger and stronger opponents!

“And that’s why I wanted to face this Wizard – I thought he’d be able to make the flames grow stronger…”

Phoenix lowered his arms and shook his head, “Ya know what, never mind – What else we got in that box of records I can burn?”

“Uh, give me a sec,” Hellhound muttered as he shuffled through the box of vinyl records. “Uh, let’s see, would this Daniel Ingram record do?”

“That all depends,” Phoenix stated with a shrug.

TTTTTTT

“Your turn Fluttershy,” Twilight called out to her friend.

Fluttershy gulped as she looked to the rest of her friends on the opposing cliff. Having found a rather convenient flat path, the group of ponies and knocked out dragon had reached a portion of the path that required them to jump across to another ledge.

All of the ponies save for Fluttershy had easily made the jump to the other ledge, and Haru was still asleep on the same ledge as the young pegasus. Before the group made their daring leaps, Twilight wanted to make sure that they were all on the other ledge before they moved their dragon friend.

Although, Fluttershy had some reservations about this idea – The fact that the fall between the two ledges was really high, the sleeping dragon that was waiting for them at the top of the mountain, the sleeping dragon that was just a few feet behind her, and that mean Phantom that was wandering about on the mountain itself.

In short, there were a lot of reasons why Fluttershy just wanted to go back home, grab her covers and hide under the bed. “B-But, I… It’s so… Wide…”

“Once again, you can fly!” Dash pointed out with a roll of her eyes as she flew over the gap.

“There’s nothing to be afraid of!” Pinkie Pie announced before she leapt through the air and landed on the ledge near Fluttershy. “It’s just a hop, skip and a jump! See!”

Pinkie Pie then took a deep breath, preparing to sing a song to raise Fluttershy’s spirits. But just as the first note was about to be sung, a loud roar-like yawn echoed through the air, making Fluttershy yelp and leap over the gap to hide behind her friends.

Pinkie released her breath with a deep sigh and turned her attention towards the origin of the yawn, seeing Haru sitting up with his claws in front of his mouth. “I had the weirdest dream… I dreamt of a world where doughnuts didn’t exist…”

“Haru!” Pinkie announced, making the dragon jolt with his arms lifted up. “You’re awake! But you ruined a perfectly good chance for a song!”

“Huh?” Haru questioned with his head tilted slightly. “I, well… Wait, what?”

“Haru!” Twilight called out to the dragon.

The sleek dragon turned his attention towards the mares on the other cliff and then lowered his head with a sigh following. The dragon slowly got to his clawed feet and reached into his jacket, “Well, it was nice seeing you ladies, but if you excuse me…”

Haru’s eyes widened when he realized something was very, very, VERY wrong. Pulling the jacket up, the magical dragon saw that all of the pockets inside the jacket were completely empty, “My rings! Where are my rings?!”

A coy whistle caught the dragon’s attention to see that Rainbow Dash was flying over him with the Flame Style ring held in her hooves. “Sorry Wizard! But we had to make sure you didn’t run off again.”

“Rainbow Dash, give me my rings,” Haru growled as he jumped up trying to grab Dash, only to miss as the pegasus kept flying, just out of his reach. “This is not funny!”

Dash flew away from Haru, making the dragon throw his arms up into the air before he stepped over the surprisingly small gap between the two ledges and then began to chase after the pegasus. “GET BACK HERE!”

Twilight shook her head as she watched her dragon friend go after Rainbow Dash, without his magic rings he didn’t have a chance to catch the speedy pegasus.

“Should we tell him that Rainbow Dash doesn’t have all his rings?” Rarity suggested as she used her magic to pull out a few of Haru’s rings from her saddlebags.

“Nah, if Mistah Souma got his claws on the rings,” Applejack stated as she calmly began to follow the dragon and Pegasus. “He’d just up and disappear on us ‘gain.”

Twilight nodded in agreement as Pinkie leapt over the gap and the ponies continued on their path, following the brave pegasus. Fluttershy on the other hoof was still shaking slightly, not wanting to follow the red dragon that was up ahead. But being alone was worse, and thankfully, her friends were with her…

TT ~ A good half hour later… ~TT

“D-Dash! Give… Give me my…” Haru wheezed before he doubled over to catch his breath. “Oh, forget it!”

The dragon fell to the ground and wiped some sweat off of his brow as Dash floated about him, “Not bad, but c’mon Wizard, you’ve got more in ya than that!”

“Get… Off my back,” Haru retorted as he lifted his head up at Dash.

The rest of the ponies were able to catch up with the tired out dragon and speedy pegasus, with Twilight leading the group and Fluttershy way behind the others. Twilight trotted a little faster so she was able to reach Haru first, and looked him right in the eye. “Haru…”

The dragon turned his head away from Twilight, shifting his gaze away from the mare. However, Twilight lifted her hoof up to Haru’s chin and forced his attention to her, “Haru!”

“Oh! Hello there Twilight,” Haru chuckled sheepishly with his eyes turning away from Twilight’s.

There was an awkward moment of silence as the rest of the ponies reached them, Fluttershy still keeping her distance. It wasn’t until Haru realized he was surrounded before he lowered his head once more. “What?”

“Haru, about last night…” Twilight started.

However, Haru slammed his claws into the ground and lowered his upper body towards the ground, “I… I’m sorry! I… I didn’t want to attack you Twilight!”

“Haru! It wasn’t your fault!” Twilight snapped back at the dragon, her hoof still under his chin as she tried to make him look up (but he wouldn’t have it). “I know about that Phantom you have within you! He spoke to me before he tried to attack and…”

“That doesn’t matter!” Haru shouted as he shook his head. “It was still my claws, it was still my body, it was me who tried to attack you! It doesn’t matter if I wasn’t in control! I don’t want you Twilight, or anyone I care about to be hurt! Especially with my own claws!”

Haru placed his head into his claws and shook his head, “Don’t you see? I ran so I couldn’t hurt anypony… I don’t know if I’ll be in control and... And I’m scared. I’m scared of ponies dying, of seeing those I care about disappear before me.”

“Then what the Tartarus did ya think would happen with ya’ll pulling that disappearing stunt last night?” Applejack countered back with her eyes narrowed.

“At least you’d be safe from me…” Haru mumbled.

“Oh c’mon Haru,” Pinkie chuckled as she patted Haru on the back. “Sure you get a little crazy when you ingest all that sugar, but you’re hardly a danger.”

“Besides, you need to cut this emo stuff!” Rainbow Dash barked as she crossed her hooves over her chest. “It’s twenty-percent less cool than how you usually are! The Wizard I know wouldn’t be like this!”

“Nopony is perfect, Mister Souma,” Rarity stated with a nod. “We all make mistakes, and sometimes they are out of our hooves – Like that one time there was a mix up in my supply orders and I received these three weird coins with animals on them. Sure, I didn’t get my proper materials, but you have to work with what happens – The good and the bad.”

“Haru, you can keep beating yourself up,” Twilight added as she used her magic to lift her dragon’s head up. “But we’re your friends, we understand that some things happen that are out of your control. You don’t have to run Haru.”

The dragon didn’t say a word, however, a familiar red jeweled ring was lifted in front of his face, his attention drawn to Rainbow Dash. The rest of the mares began to place the many rings on the ground before the dragon, until Twilight placed the Flame Style Ring in front of him, which made Haru raise a brow in confusion. “Haru, we have to continue on our mission for Celestia, but here. We’ll be following this path if you want to find us.”

Slowly the mares began to pull away from their dragon friend and continued on their path. Fluttershy was the last to pass Haru, with her looking at the saddened eyes of the magical dragon. For a moment, Fluttershy lowered her head slightly at him before she trotted to catch up with her friends.

Rarity trotted a little faster to catch up with Twilight, “Darling, are you sure that was a good idea? Won’t he just run away again?”

“Don’t worry Rarity,” Twilight replied with a smile on her face. “I’m confident that Haru will do the right thing and…”

“CONNECT – PLEASE!”

At that moment, all of the mares turned around to see a familiar tail slip into the large red runic circle. All the rings were gone, along with the present, all pulled away in the fading rune. Twilight lowered her ears with a sigh, “Haru…”

“Mistah Souma,” Applejack muttered under her breath.

“Oh come on, everypony!” Pinkie Pie stated with a bright smile. “I’m sure he’ll be back! He probably just went to get some doughnuts.”

“Oh yeah right!” Dash barked as she flew up through the air. “He just up and ditched us!”

With their spirits slightly sullen, the mares continued on their trek through the mountains. However, they were unaware that a familiar red jeweled bird was following them from high overhead.

TTTTTT

More than half a day went by since Master Phoenix had taken Hellhound with him to aid him in his plans, and Harpie was actually enjoying the quietness as she tended to Minotaur’s wounds. Both were in their pony forms, just to make sure that no other ponies would come to mess up Minotaur’s recovery.

Of course, even with his pony form bandaged up and him resting, Harpie was still concerned for her fellow Phantom’s wellbeing and what the higher Phantom, Phoenix, would do to him. Phoenix was known for two things – His reputation as an enforcer of the Phantoms, and his unpredictability. Whether he still thought Minotaur was the one who stole one of his feathers was a mystery to Harpie, and if he was going to do something to the wounded Phantom…

“Hello!”

Harpie jumped into the air before she fell to the ground in surprise. She lifted her head up and looked about the clearing in the Everfree Woods, trying to find whoever had just spoken. Aside from the still sleeping Minotaur right next to her, the pony-disguised Phantom didn’t see anypony. “Who’s there?! Show yourself right now!”

“Aw, but where’s the fun in that?” the voice called out cheerfully. “Doesn’t everypony like a game of hide ‘n seek? Besides, all work and no play make Sora a dull colt!”

“Sora?” Harpie questioned with her head tilted slightly. With a shake of her head, Harpie’s pony body began to glow brightly. “Whatever! Show yourself right now before I’ll make you regret it!”

“Psst! Want a hint?”

“What?!” Harpie hissed as her body slowly began transform into her feathered Phantom form.

“Look down!”

Cancelling her transformation, Harpie looked down to realize that she was within breathing distance of a familiar green pegasus who was on the ground. “Hello!”

Harpie leapt backwards and fell to the ground with a rather loud slam with dust flying from the ground. Sora giggled as he pushed himself off of the ground, “Ah, what a nice happy reaction. Just what I would expect from Miss Hoofdini.”

“It’s… It’s Harpie!” The surprised Phantom wheezed out with her eyes narrowed down at the gleeful pegasus before her. “And now I remember you – You’re Gremlin!”

“Nope!” Sora chuckled as he trotted around Harpie. “It’s pronounced So-Ra. Sora! Not that hard to remember four little letters in that order, right?”

“Whatever you want to call yourself, I guess,” Harpie growled as she rolled her eyes. “Now what are you doing here?”

“Awe, no need to be all defensive against little ole me,” Sora pouted as he lifted up a hoof. “After all, I’m just here to help!”

“Help? How?” Harpie questioned, getting back to her hooves and got in front of the still sleeping Minotaur. “And more importantly, why?”

Sora waved his hoof in front of his face with a bright smile on his face, “You shouldn’t be so mistrusting. After all, isn’t he part of your family?”

Harpie’s eyes widened as Sora turned his head back and reached into his saddlebags. A few seconds later, Sora pulled out a few large leafs and such, and placed them on the ground. “You’d be surprised of the plants in this place. A lot of herbal and unique plants around here, and a good portion of them can be used for natural remedies.

“I’m not a doctor, just a traveler. Hehehehe.”

Sora sat down on the ground as Harpie looked at the herbs in front of her. For a moment, the disguised Phantom turned towards the smiling pegasus in front of her and then back at the herbs. With a sigh, Harpie used her hoof to take the herbs and draw them closer to her. “Why are you bothering to help?”

“Oh, cause ya know,” Sora replied as he pulled his fedora from his head. “I can’t ignore a Phantom with a Pony’s heart.”

Harpie’s eyes widened and she quickly lifted her head up. “Wait, what?!”

However, Sora was nowhere in sight. Just as quickly as he appeared, he disappeared. Harpie looked around the clearing, but there was no trace of the weird pegasus – Only the herbs that he brought for her was the only indication that he was around.

‘Just what the Tartarus is he after?’ Harpie thought to herself before she began to tend to the wounded Minotaur.

Meanwhile, Sora was sitting atop of one of the smoke clouds with a smile on his face. “Ah, how intriguing – Wife, husband, brother-in-law and daughter, a family of Phantoms and only one of them remembers the truth. These are odd times indeed.”

Sora then turned his head towards the mountain, watching as more smoke continued to pour out from the top of it. ‘I wonder how Mage-Kun is doing, hehehehehe.’

TTTTTT

It wasn’t long for the ponies to reach a rather daunting path on the mountain, but it certainly felt like a lifetime to Twilight with her head lowered down. But she kept her head up so she could keep her attention on the path before her. Most of the trip was quiet, most of the mares being quiet, save for Rainbow Dash who kept complaining under her breath.

Using her magic to pull the map from her saddlebags, Twilight looked at the paper and lifted her head up. Then with a calm and rather quiet voice, the young unicorn turned her head towards the others, “Let’s keep it down, according to my map we’re entering an avalanche zone – The smallest peep could cause a rockslide.”

Fluttershy stopped in her tracks, “An… Ava… Ava…”

Twilight quickly shushed her before the six mares continued onward, all of them being quiet and with Fluttershy taking up the rear. The mares cautiously trotted on the path (Rainbow Dash just taking her time by flying over), with Red Garuda slowly descending and landing on Fluttershy’s back.

Needless to say, Fluttershy wasn’t expecting that.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!”

All of the other mares jumped up and turned towards the yellow pegasus who had quickly brought her hooves up to her mouth. For a moment, all was still.

But when the mares all sighed in relief, the ground began to quiver before many countless boulders of many shapes and sizes fell from the nearby cliff side. All of the mares galloped as fast as they could as the boulders fell fast towards them.

“MULTI CONNECT – PLEASE!”

However, before the boulders even reached halfway down the mountain, several red runic symbols appeared high above the mares, each of them absorbing the boulders into them. All of the mares stopped and looked as the runes saved them. Twilight’s eyes widened at the familiar red runes. “This is…!”

“Doughnut?”

Twilight jumped when she realized that Haru was standing next to her with a box of doughnuts, one in his claws that he quickly took a bite from. “W-What the?! Haru?!”

The rest of the mares turned to see that indeed it was the magical dragon himself. The boulders had stopped falling and the runic circles faded away. Pinkie Pie cheered before she hopped over to the dragon, “See! I told you all! He just went on a doughnut run!”

With an audible swallow, Haru lifted his partially eaten doughnut and waved, “Uh, yeah… I hadn’t eaten in the last twelve or so hours, so I…”

Before Haru could even finish speaking, a familiar purple aura surrounded the box of doughnuts he had and it smashed into his face, powdered sugar and bits of doughnuts flying about from him. When the box fell to the ground, the red dragon’s face was completely covered with sugar and he even had a doughnut sitting atop of his nose, his blue eyes were dulled slightly. “I deserved that.”

“Yes, yes you did,” Twilight replied calmly as she trotted past the dragon with her eyes closed. “But you’re forgiven and thanks for that save.”

The rest of the mares slowly trotted past him, with Rarity’s horn glowing a light blue to have a cloth brought up to the dragon. “Here you go Mister Souma, you should clean yourself up.”

Haru took the cloth as Rarity trotted past him, with Pinkie Pie bouncing up next, “Yay! Now we can really have a fun time!”

The dragon shrugged as he took the doughnut from atop his nose and was about to take a bite out from it, until a familiar blue blur snatched the doughnut from his claws. Haru didn’t even need to turn his head to know what just happened. “Nice dramatic entrance by the way. But, for being so emo, I’ll just take this as compensation.”

Haru just clamped his claw tightly in frustration before he wiped off the powdered sugar from his face with Rarity’s cloth.

“Mistah Souma,” a familiar southern voice sounded, making the dragon pull the cloth down slightly to see Applejack in front of him. “If ya’ll pull a stunt like running away ‘gain, Ah won’t hesitate to kick ya’ll into another wall.”

“Good to know,” Haru chuckled sheepishly with a bead of sweat rolling down the side of his head.

However, Haru realized that Fluttershy didn’t move an inch since he appeared, so with his head tilted slightly, the dragon slowly walked over to the quiet mare. “Are you okay?”

Fluttershy turned her head so she wouldn’t look at the sleek red dragon in front of her, and she was visibly shaking. “I… I…”

The magical dragon knelt down so he could look Fluttershy in the eye, “Are you still scared about falling rocks? Don’t worry, they aren’t a problem now.”

“Um, w-well,” Fluttershy mumbled before she looked past Haru and quickly trotted past the dragon. “W-Wait up girls!”

Haru blinked a few times as he watched Fluttershy catch up with the others. Then with a shrug, the dragon began to follow the ponies. ‘… What’s up with her?’

TTTTTT

It didn’t take long for the mares (plus one dragon) to get near the cave where the smoke was originating from, following an odd, well-crafted path to the cave. But on the path were several broken shards of vinyl records that were randomly strewn about the rocky path.

“Anybody else notice all the trash around here?” Haru questioned as he knelt down and picked up a piece of the vinyl.

“I know, it’s simply dreadful,” Rarity added as she used her magic to levitate a number of pieces. “What sort of pony would be so disrespectful to nature?”

“We’ve got bigger problems,” Twilight stated as the group reached the top of the path.

The area before the cave was large, with many boulders and trees lining the cliff’s edge. The mouth of the cave was huge with thick, black smoke pouring from the roof of the cave and into the sky. However, while the smoke was eye catching, there was something outside the cave that drew the attention of all the mares and the dragon, a red and golden being who was seated atop of one of the large rocks outside the cave…

“Ah, I was wondering when somepony would show up,” Phoenix announced with a wave of his hand. “And it’s a bunch of mares. Nice.”

“Phantom,” Haru growled as he stepped before the mares, placing a familiar ring on his claws.

Phoenix tilted his head slightly as he chuckled, “Oh, this is a surprise, you must be made of tougher stuff to be able to walk around. You look like you don’t have a scratch on ya, Haruto Souma.

“And by the way, my name’s Phoenix we went over this already.”

Phoenix pushed himself off of the rock and landed on the ground, lifting his arms up as embers began to float off his body. “I took the effort to remember your name, Haruto Souma. I would think my name would’ve been burned into your mind just as my blade was burned into your chest! I am Phoenix! The dreaded enforcer of the Phantoms and I…”

“Ooh! Question!” Pinkie Pie announced, appearing right next to the fiery Phantom with her hoof waving in the air.

Reeling back at the sudden appearance of the pink mare, Phoenix blinked his soulless blue eyes at the mare. “Uh… Sure? I guess?”

“Can we call you Feenie? Or Nick? Or Xin Eohp?” Pinkie Pie asked as she hoped around the Phantom.

“Listen here, mare,” Phoenix growled loudly as he crossed his arms over his armored chest. “I don’t particularly care for you calling me any of those. How would you feel if I were to call you, uh, um, Pinkie? Yeah! How would ya like that, Pinkie?”

“I’d love it!” Pinkie Pie cheered loudly as she bounced around Phoenix. “That’s my name! How’d ya guess it?!”

“I… I uh…” Phoenix stammered as he scratched the side of his head.

Then Phoenix began to laugh as he doubled over with his arms at his stomach, “Whahahahahahaha! Oh, that is priceless! Just for that, you can call me whatever you’d like, Pinkie.”

“Yay!” Pinkie Pie cheered loudly.

“Pinkie Pie!” Twilight shouted with her eyes widened. “He’s dangerous! Get away from him!”

“Oh just relax, Purple Unicorn,” Phoenix replied as his laughter died down as waved his hand at her as Pinkie Pie trotted back to the group. “None of you are on my list – Save for Haruto Souma, but technically he’s off it when I took him down. I don’t take pleasure in picking on weak, little ponies unless I have to.”

“Weak?!” Rainbow Dash growled as she flew towards Phoenix, who didn’t react as she flapped her wings to be right in front of him. “Listen up Phantom, do you know who you’re talking to?!?”

“If you were worth remembering, then you wouldn’t have asked that question,” Phoenix replied as he threw his arms behind his head. “Besides, I’ve got a bad taste in my mouth from that last fight – I don’t need to make it worse by bullying a bunch of mares.”

“Oh yeah?!” Rainbow Dash snarled as she pointed a hoof at Phoenix. “I’ll knock you off this mountain so hard that you’ll…”

Before Rainbow Dash could continue, Applejack grabbed the pegasus’ tail and pulled her to the ground with her mouth. When the pegasus was grounded, Applejack released her tail, “Don’t antagonize the Phantom that defeated Mistah Souma!”

“Thanks Applejack,” Haru sighed loudly as he slumped forward. “That boosted my confidence.”

Phoenix snickered before he leapt to the rock he was originally on and laid down on the rock with his arms pillowing his head. “What a funny little group. So, I’m guessing that you’re all here to stop that dragon in the cave, right? Well, feel free to do so. I’m sure as Tartarus not gonna stop ya.”

“Wait, then why are you here?” Twilight asked, still keeping her distance from the Phantom.

“It was a plan I had,”Phoenix answered with a shake of his head. “I did all this to try to get a half-way decent fight out from the infamous Ringy Mage – Who defeated a number of Phantoms, and he even managed to best a Phantom who had a taste of my power. I was trying to force him to not hold back – Putting all of Equestria in danger felt like good fodder for him to go all out.

“Of course, if that’s not going to be enough to get a half-way decent battle, then nothing will. So, I don’t care. You wanna stop my plan? Go for it, not like anything you do will actually work.”

“You’re going to just stand there and let us stop your plan?” Haru questioned as he lifted his hand up.

“Did you become deaf when I knocked you around?” Phoenix questioned with a roll of his eyes. “I had my fight with you already – It doesn’t matter if this plan is foiled or not. And I don’t have any more interest in fighting you anymore. Knock yourselves out.”

The mares looked to each other before they trotted towards the cave, Haru on the other hand kept his attention squarely on Phoenix. This didn’t go unnoticed by the Phantom who tilted his head at the dragon, “I know I’m a handsome devil, but could you please not stare? I don’t like it when guys stare for too long.”

“What are you after, Phoenix?” Haru asked with his eyes narrowed.

“… To fill a void,” Phoenix simply replied with a wave of his hand.

When Phoenix stopped speaking, Haru shook his head and turned towards the mares who were lined up in front of the cave. ‘… I’ll keep an eye on him.’

“Alright,” Twilight stated as she used her magic to get her saddlebags off of her back. The young unicorn turned towards Rainbow Dash. “Dash, you’ll use your wings to clear the smoke.”

The blue pegasus saluted to Twilight before she zipped up into the cloudy air.

Twilight then turned her head, “Rarity and Pinkie Pie, you two will create a diversion to distract the dragon if things get hairy.”

Pinkie Pie squealed as she reached into her saddlebags to pull out a rubber chicken that she waved about with it squeaking loudly. Rarity just shook her head with a bewildered look plastered on her face.

“QUACKY!” Phoenix called out as he waved his hands about.

“You are… A really confusing Phantom,” Haru admitted with a flat look in his eyes as he looked at Phoenix.

The Phantom just shrugged his shoulders in response.

Twilight looked at Phoenix for a second before she shook her head, “Applejack, get the apples ready in case he decides to attack.”

Applejack had already pulled another pair of apples from her saddlebag and tossed them up into the air before she kicked them, sending them through the air before they slammed into a dead tree near the edge of the cliff.

“Wow! Apples as ammunition?” Phoenix cackled loudly. “Oh yes, that’ll be really effective against the fire breathing dragon that’s twenty times your size and could eat you all in a single gulp.”

“Are you going to keep giving peanut gallery commentary?” Haru questioned as he leered at Phoenix.

“I’m bored, so yeah,” Phoenix sighed, shrugging off Haru’s question. “I certainly can’t fight you, you’ve lost that spark that made you interesting. I can’t fight the dragon in the cave since, well, this plan is going so well on its own so I’d be stupid if I messed that up.”

“Aren’t ya’ll doing that though by letting us stop the dragon?” Applejack asked with her head tilted at the Phoenix.

“Nope,” Phoenix answered bluntly as he sat up straight on the rock he was on. “Cause I know that nothing that five mares and a Ringy Dragon can do will make that dragon leave this cave.”

“Five?” Twilight stated. “There are six of us, and one dragon.”

“Huh, then I must have another finger on my hand,” Phoenix replied as he lifted his hand up with all of his fingers stretched out. “Cause I see the same number of mares equal to the number of fingers I’ve got. Stallion, I love having fingers, they sure as Tartarus make things easier.”

Twilight looked around the area, and much to her shock, Phoenix was right! Fluttershy was nowhere in sight! “Where’s Fluttershy?!”

All the mares and Haru looked around the area while Phoenix just hummed a happy little tune to himself. It didn’t take long to find the shy pegasus, especially since her long pink tail was sticking out from behind one of the larger rocks, and it took Applejack to drag the mare out of her hiding place. Twilight trotted up to her friend, “Fluttershy, what’s wrong? We need your animal expertise to make this work.”

“I… I can’t go in the cave,” Fluttershy stated as she looked away from Twilight.

“Are you afraid of the Phantom?” Twilight questioned, turning her attention to Phoenix who was still humming his tune. “I can understand that but Fluttershy, we need you to help and…”

“It… It’s not just that,” Fluttershy mumbled as her voice began to waiver even more. “I’m… I’m… I’m scared of… dr…s…”

“Could ya’ll speak a little louder?” Applejack requested, getting closer to her friend.

“I’m scared of… dra…” Fluttershy muttered, slightly louder.

“Darling, you’re going to have to speak up,” Rarity stated.

“I’M SCARED OF DRAGONS!” Fluttershy blurted out loudly.

The ground then shook as the dragon in the cave snored loudly, a larger cloud of smoke shooting out from the cave and covering the group of mares and sleek dragon. When the smoke cleared, all the mares were coughing and Fluttershy was hiding behind Applejack.

Twilight zipped to look at her hiding friend, “But Fluttershy, you’ve got a great talent dealing with animals!”

“Yes, because they aren’t dragons,” Fluttershy explained with her head drooping down.

“Oh come on!” Rainbow Dash called out as she threw her front hooves into the air. “We’ve seen you go right up to a huge Manticore like it was nothing!”

“Yes, because it wasn’t a dragon,” Fluttershy corrected.

“Spike is a dragon, you’re not scared of him!” Pinkie Pie stated with a bright smile on her face.

“Yes, because he’s not a huge, gigantic, enormous, sharp teeth barring, horn wearing, smoke snoring, could eat a pony in one bite, totally all grown up dragon!” Fluttershy explained, taking a few moments to catch her breath as the dragon snored loudly once again.

Phoenix’s blue eyes widened slightly, “Huh, with a description like that, even I might be hesitant to fight this dragon. Maybe.”

Fluttershy fell to the ground quivering.

“But, Fluttershy, what about Mister Souma?” Rarity questioned as she comforted her friend. “He’s a dragon as well but…”

“Y-Yes,” Fluttershy stated, keeping her eyes closed. “B-But t-there’s just something I… I can’t help but feel scared around him!”

Haru closed his eyes and leaned up against the rocky wall.

‘Hmmm, hahahaha, looks like the mare can sense me… How intriguing.’

‘Dragon,’ Haru spoke in his head to the inner Phantom. ‘How?’

‘I don’t see the harm in telling you. Some ponies can sense sources of powerful magic – And even though you’re a shell that dampens my magic, even then others can sense it. It would make more sense why she’s afraid of the Phantom who kicked your tail a couple of hours ago.’

‘Gee, thanks…’

“But, if you’re so afraid of dragons,” Twilight stated. “Why didn’t you say something before we came up here?”

Fluttershy looked away from her friend, “I… I was afraid to.”

“Bwahahahahahaha!” Phoenix laughed loudly, holding his sides. “Priceless!”

Twilight leered at Phoenix who just keep laughing.

“All of us are afraid of the big dragon in the cave, Fluttershy,” Applejack stated as she helped her winged friend to her hooves.

“I’m not!” Rainbow Dash proclaimed with a smug look on her face.

Applejack rolled her eyes at her friend, “Well most of us are scared of that dragon, but we’ve got a job to do. And Mistah Souma’s not so bad, he helps us out whenever he can. So, c’mon girl, git in there with Twi, and show us what yer made of.”

Fluttershy lowered her head, “I… I… I’m sorry, I just can’t.”

With that, Fluttershy trotted towards a nearby large rock and hid behind it.

“Awe, that would’ve brought a tear to my eye, if I could cry,” Phoenix mocked as he brought his hand up to his eye.

Haru narrowed his eyes at Phoenix and then turned towards the cave.

A few moments later and explaining that bringing another dragon in the cave would end with bad results, Twilight carefully trotted into the cave. “Okay, time to do this… I’m sure he just doesn’t know what he’s doing.”

The other four mares tried to sound confident to back Twilight up, but with them hiding behind the cave wall, that didn’t have much of an impact to the studious unicorn.

Phoenix’s comments weren’t helping either, “This will be funny.”

Twilight turned her attention back to the cave before her and stopped when she saw the dragon herself – It was a huge behemoth of a monster, red scales, huge wings, spines jutting from its head and down its back, and the huge monstrosity barely fitted in the cave, especially with it resting on its jewels. From the large dragon’s nostrils, black smoke floated from its sleeping form.

Twilight gulped loudly, especially considering she was only a few feet from its mouth, which was about four times her size! “Um, excuse me, Mr. Dragon?”

The dragon was still sleeping and turned onto its back to scratch his underbelly. Twilight took a deep breath and spoke a little louder, “Mister Dragon?”

That got the dragon’s attention as he opened his eyes and leered his bronze eyes down at the small pony before him. Twilight chuckled sheepishly, “Oh, g-good you’re awake. Please allow me to introduce myself – My name is Twilight Sparkle and…”

At that very moment, the dragon yawned loudly, with a visible air of stinky morning breath that Twilight had the misfortune of being right in front of. When the morning breath subsided, Twilight’s eyes were watering, her mane was standing on end, and some of the smell stuck with her. Took her a few moments to compose herself, “… And my friends and I are residents in Equestria, Ponyville to be exact. We’ve come here to ask that you find another spot to take your nap. You seem to be doing a lot of snoring and every time you snore, more smoke is billowing the sky.

“Equestria simply cannot survive in a dark haze, you understand don’t you?”

The dragon’s response?

He blew a large amount of smoke onto Twilight, forcing her out of the cave, completely covered in soot. “W-Well, that didn’t work like I planned.”

“Denied,” Phoenix stated with his arms crossed.

While Twilight was using her magic to clean herself off, Rarity stepped up towards the cave, “Obviously this situation requires a little pony charm. Allow me ladies!”

“Heh,” Phoenix scoffed as he watched Rarity trot inside the cave. “So the Marshmallow Pony’s up to bat? This should be interesting.”

It was then that Rarity just stopped and turned her attention towards Phoenix, “Excuse me?! What did you just call me?”

The Phantom waved his hand slightly, “I called you Marshmallow Pony, Marshmallow Pony.”

“Oh my!” Rarity gasped as she trotted up towards Phoenix. “Have you no manners?! I am not ‘Marshmallow Pony’! I am Rarity, or Miss Rarity, or Madame Rarity! Have you no idea how to talk to a mare, Mr. Phantom?”

“Meh, you fancy types always get under my skin somehow,” Phoenix scoffed to the side. “Don’t get all out of shape, Marshmallow Pony… Although, that might just be a little too late to say that. After all, you do kinda look like the Stay Puff Marshmallow Pony, all puffy and such…”

Rarity’s eyes widened before she narrowed them down at the Phantom, “OH! IT. IS. ON!”

Rarity’s horn began to glow brightly with blue magical energy, all the while, Phoenix jumped to his feet and waved his arms slightly, “Bring it on, Marshmallow Pony! Give me a reason!”

Rarity was about to go on the attack, if not for the fact that Applejack pulled on her tail and dragged her away from the Phantom. “WHOA THERE NELLY! We don’t need another problem on our hooves!”

Phoenix laughed as Rarity tried to break free from Applejack.

“I thought you didn’t want to fight?” Haru questioned with his eyes narrowed.

Phoenix dropped back to his backside to sit back on the rock, “So sue me, I’m bored.”

Haru lifted his arms up and then just dropped his arms in frustration.

That’s when a loud whistling sound echoed through the air, drawing everyone’s attention towards Pinkie Pie who was dressed up with a large box with colorful wrapping paper, a bright and large bowtie, flippers on her hooves, oversized sunglasses on her face, balloons and balloon animals tied to her mane and tail.

Phoenix tilted his head, “Uh, how did she fit all that in her saddlebags? It’s way too…”

“It’s Pinkie Pie,” Haru replied. “I stopped questioning what she can do ages ago.”

“That’s just ridiculous,” Dash sighed with a roll of her eyes.

“Exactly!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed as she slowly waddled into the cave. “Sharing a laugh is a surefire way to get someone on your side!”

A few seconds and many comical noises later, Pinkie Pie slowly inched out of the cave with her goofy costume completely ruined. “Apparently, he’s not a big fan of laughter.”

“Okay! That’s it!” Rainbow Dash shouted, flying up into the air. “It’s time to stop wasting time! I’m going in!”

“Rainbow! No!” Twilight called out before Rainbow Dash flew into the cave at high speed.

“Oh my Kida,” Haru muttered with his eyes widened. “She went in!”

“LLLLLLLLLLLLLLERRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOYYYY JEEEEEENKINS!” Phoenix called out through his laughter.

A loud ‘WHAM’ sound echoed from the cave, immediately followed by a loud roar that sent Rainbow Dash spinning out of the cave and into the other mares, knocking them over.

“STTTTRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIKKKKKEEEEEE!” Phoenix yelled loudly.

The mares got to their hooves as the large red dragon appeared at the mouth of the cave, slamming his large claws into the ground before he stepped from the cave. The large dragon roared loudly while Phoenix just laughed loudly. “Simply priceless!”

“DRIVER ON – PLEASE!”

Phoenix turned his attention towards Haru who was running in front of the five mares who were cowering with each other. “… Hmm…”

“FLAME – PLEASE!

“Hii Hii Hii Hii Hii!”

The large red runic circle appeared in front of Haru as he ran through it, immediately transforming into his usual red Wizard attire with him skidding to a stop before the mares. The large red dragon snorted loudly as it drew its head back.

Wizard slipped a ring over his right claws and threw his hand over his belt buckle. “BIND – PLEASE!”

Several red runic circles appeared around the large red dragon’s head, with many chains wrapping around the larger dragon’s mouth, binding it shut. The dragon tugged at the chains while Wizard turned towards the mares, “Get outta here! I got this!”

Phoenix chuckled as he leapt from the rock, “Well now… Looks like there’s a spark left after all.”

The large dragon ripped the red chains and snarled loudly at Wizard and the group of mares. Then the dragon blew a large cloud of smoke that crashed into Wizard and the five mares, forcing them into a large boulder. The boulder cracked before it shattered into pieces, revealing that it was the same boulder that Fluttershy was hiding behind.

The young mare looked to her dazed friends, watching as Wizard got to his claws and reached for his chain of rings. However the larger of the dragons snarled loudly.

Fluttershy narrowed her eyes. “How dare you… HOW DARE YOU!”

Everypony turned to see Fluttershy flying up to the dragon and land on his nose, trotting up to his eyes, making the dragon’s eyes widen in surprise as he looked into Fluttershy’s. “Listen here, Mister! Just because you’re big doesn’t mean you get to be a bully! You may have huge teeth, sharp scales, snore smoke, breath fire and may have just woken up, but that is no excuse – I repeat – That is no excuse! TO HURT! MY! FRIENDS! YOU GOT THAT!?!”

Much to Phoenix’s surprise, the large dragon whimpered loudly with his head lowering, making Fluttershy fly to keep her gaze down on him. All of the sudden, the huge dragon didn’t seem so big. “Well?”

“But… That rainbow kicked me,” the dragon replied as he pointed to Rainbow Dash. He then turned his claw to point at Phoenix. “And that red and yellow one stole my treasure from my usual napping place.”

“And I’m sorry about that,” Fluttershy replied with a nod of her head. “But you’re bigger than her, and you should know better. You also should know better than to take your nap where it won’t be a health hazard to others. As for the red and yellow one…”

“WHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” Phoenix laughed out as he grabbed his sides. “Are all dragons this pathetic?! This is bucking hilarious!”

“And you!”

Phoenix’s eyes widened when he realized that Fluttershy was now flying in front of him. The Phantom shook his head, with a slight laugh following, “Oh no, are you going to tell me off now? Oh please, spare me!”

However, when Phoenix looked right into Fluttershy’s eyes, his laughter died down and his soulless blue eyes flashed slightly. Fluttershy tapped her front hoof into Phoenix’s chest, making the Phantom flinch slightly, “You should know better than to pick on others! You can’t go around stealing things, using foal language, threatening to destroy towns or hurting my friends just for your kicks!”

Phoenix leaned back as Fluttershy loomed closer to him, the fiery Phantom mumbling slightly, “B-But I… I was just…”

“There’s never a good reason to hurt others!” Fluttershy retorted as she intensified her stare on the Phantom. “I don’t know what a Phantom is, but you should also know better than to act this way!”

Phoenix whimpered as he fell backwards, landing on his backside as he tried to make a coherent sentence.

Wizard just stood there dumbfounded as he watched Fluttershy fly back to the dragon who was sniffling slightly. “I… I have no idea how to react to that.”

“There, there,” Fluttershy comforted the larger red dragon. “No need to cry. You’re not a bad dragon, you’re just a victim of a bigger bully. Now, please go gather your things, you just need to find a new place to rest, that’s all…”

The dragon stifled some of its crying and was about to say something as a powerful bright, fiery light erupted drew everyone’s attention towards Phoenix who’s body was producing a large amount of flames around him. “Nobody… And I mean, NOBODY looks down on me!”

Phoenix drew the flames into his right hand and immediately flung his hand towards Fluttershy, sending countless fiery birds streaming through the air towards the yellow pegasus.

However, before the fiery birds reached Fluttershy, Wizard leapt in between them with his coattails intercepting the fiery attack, absorbing the flames. Phoenix growled as Wizard landed on the ground and turned his head towards the fiery Phantom. “And nobody hurts my friends! Phoenix!”

Haru lifted his left claw up to reveal the red ring on his claws, “It’s showtime.”

Phoenix laughed as he placed his hands on his hips, “Haruto Souma, this time you won’t be as lucky. You may have that spark in you again, but I’ll stamp out that flicker for good.”

“I have no intention of running,” Wizard replied. “I will defeat you right here.”

“Heh, bullplop!” Phoenix roared as he charged towards Wizard.

Wizard ran forward as well, and when the two magical beings met, Phoenix threw a right jab at the masked Wizard, who blocked the attack with his left hand. However, Phoenix delivered a powerful left hook to Wizard’s shoulder, knocking the dragon to the left a few feet.

Wizard stumbled about before Phoenix leapt into the air and plowed both of his feet into Wizard’s chest, sending Wizard flying off the side of the cliff.

“Yer not getting off that easy!” Phoenix roared as he leapt after Wizard.

“Haru!”

“Mistah Souma!”

“Wizard!”

“Haru!”

“Mister Souma!”

Fluttershy’s eyes widened as she watched the two magical beings land on the path that they traveled earlier. “He’s not a bad dragon either… Mister Haru.”

TTTTTT

Meanwhile, in the royal court of Canterlot, Princess Celestia was at her throne going over some important royal matters with her guards standing near her throne. The large doors to the throne room were flung open as a number of royal guards galloped in.

The lead guard ran up to the throne and knelt down, “Your majesty! The chamber for the Elements of Harmony! It’s glowing! Something is happening.”

Princess Celestia however just looked outside one of the large windows and smiled at the sky, ‘Shiroi… Looks like your pupil is about to evolve…’

TTTTTT

Wizard crashed on the ground, at another plateaued clearing on the mountain with Phoenix landing next to him. Phoenix quickly grabbed the masked mage up by the throat and then tossed him against the ground, however, the magical dragon used his tail to push him back to his feet.

Phoenix stretched his arms as Wizard fitted a ring on his left claws and threw it in front of his belt. “CONNECT – PLEASE!”

Wizard threw his hand into the runic circle in front of him and pulled out the familiar sword. The masked dragon charged forward and brought his sword down on the slowly walking Phoenix. The fiery Phantom lifted his wrist up and intercepted the blade with sparks erupting where the steel connected.

With a twist of his wrist, Phoenix grabbed the blade and pulled it away from Wizard’s claws, tossing it towards the side. Wizard was surprised and took a powerful jab to the gut which forced him to stagger backwards. “Your little tricks aren’t going to be enough, Haruto Souma!”

It was then that Phoenix slammed his fist into Wizard’s mask, sending the dragon spinning through the air and into a rock that shattered on impact. “You know what’s going to happen… I’ll break you again like I did before. And then I’ll break your little mare friends.”

Using whatever strength he had, Wizard pushed himself from the remains of the rock just in time to dodge a high kick from Phoenix. However, the fiery Phantom quickly spun around and slammed the back of his hand into the side of Wizard’s head, sending him to the side. “You said you’d defeat me right here, right now.”

Wizard struggled to get up, only to realize that Phoenix had summoned the flames around his right hand once more and threw countless fiery birds towards the masked dragon. The birds crashed into Wizard’s body, with several sparks and embers erupting from his body. A loud sigh of pain slipped from Wizard’s mouth as he fell to his knees.

Phoenix cracked his knuckles, “But look at what’s happening, I’m gonna smash that shiny head of yours to pieces!”

“HARU!”

Wizard lifted his head up to see the six mares standing on the path, watching the fight from a safe distance. Floating in front of Twilight was an odd, gift wrapped box that was levitated by her magic. “CATCH!”

The box flew through the air towards Wizard, with Phoenix not caring as the masked dragon caught it. Wizard quickly tore the box open to reveal a large red ring inside of it – Similar to the Flame Style ring he was wearing on his left claw, however there were more details to the ring than the one he was using. Wizard took the ring and then looked to the mares, “A magic ring? But… How did…?”

“Don’t turn away in a fight!” Phoenix called out as he charged towards Wizard.

Wizard quickly replaced the rings on his left claws just as Phoenix was a mere foot from him, and as the fiery Phoenix lifted his fist up into the air, Wizard threw his claw over the belt buckle.

TTTTTT

Everything was dark.

Once again, Haru found himself surrounded by darkness – His Wizard garb gone.

“Mom… Dad…”

The dragon turned around to see a small red colt standing next to a pair of hospital beds, two very bandaged ponies laying in the beds as the colt fell to the ground crying loudly.

Haru’s eyes widened, “This is…”

“Nostalgic, isn’t it?”

Haru turned to the side to see… Himself watching the seen before him, a cruel smile on his face. The cruel Haru chuckled as he watched the small colt cry loudly. “Your moment of greatest despair, where your life began to fall to pieces.”

Haru turned away to watch the scene, “Yeah, it is.”

The cruel Haru laughed as he lifted his arms up into the air. “Everything around you is falling apart – Your new life is about to shatter like your old one.”

“But,” Haru replied.

Cruel Haru turned towards the sleek dragon as he lifted his left claw up to reveal the newest ring he was just given. “This was the moment that I received the hope from them. Their hope lives on within me.”

“You’re a stubborn fool, Haruto Souma,” the cruel dragon scoffed as its body began to transform, turning more metallic until it formed into the Inner Phantom – Dragon. “You desire to use my power with me still trapped within your pathetic body. However, my power will draw you closer to despair, and you alone cannot hope to contain me.”

“You don’t get it, Dragon,” Haru replied as he kept the ring lifted. “I am not alone.”

“What?” Dragon questioned.

It was then that six bright lights erupted around Haru’s body, making Dragon reel back. The Inner Phantom roared loudly as the light began to engulf him, and Haru smirked. “You may be my despair, but your power is my hope.”

When the light died down, six bands of light were coiled around various parts of Dragon’s body. The inner Phantom snarled and tried to break free of the mystical binds, “I am hope!?”

Dragon looked at his bindings and laughed loudly, “Amusing! You wish to use my power? Very well, use it to your heart’s content! But these chains will rust away eventually, and I shall be freed from this prison one day!”

“And when that day comes,” Haru replied as he casually lifted the ring in front of him. “I’ll be sure to hold you back again, stronger than before!”

A powerful flame erupted around Haru’s body as Dragon flew towards the sleek dragon.

TTTTTT

Flames pour out from Wizard’s body as Phoenix was about to throw his final punch, with the flames actually blinding the fiery Phantom. Wizard’s belt glowed a bright red as a large runic circle erupted from the belt and crashed into Phoenix, sending the Phantom spiraling backwards.

“FLAME!

“DRAGON!”

Wizard stood up as the runic circle began to engulf him. When the ring passed over him, a large fiery dragon erupted from Wizard’s chest and flew around him, engulfing Wizard in a towering inferno. “BOU BOU BOUBOUBOU!”

The six mares watched as the flames began to peel off some of Wizard’s armor until the flames exploded with shards of jewels and black armor flying through the air. When the flames disappeared, standing tall was Wizard, now dressed in a more ornate version of his Flame Style – A long, gleaming red coat with a fancier dragon face-like chest armor, his shoulders were covered with silver pads with rubies in them. Wizard’s tail was covered with the same red material with a black band around them, and his mask had a pair of silver horns from the top of it with golden material at his forehead.

“Whoa, that’s awesome!” Dash called out.

“Simply fabulous!” Rarity added. “Red is definitely Mister Souma’s color!”

“Amazing…” Twilight mumbled.

Phoenix, however, wasn’t as impressed. “Heh, a palette swap? That’s your answer for this? You tried that last time and it won’t work now!”

Wizard didn’t say a word as he slowly walked towards Phoenix, the Phantom however, charged forward and threw a powerful punch towards Wizard’s new head – Only to have his hand deflected by the masked dragon’s claw, allowing the masked dragon to spin past Phoenix.

Phoenix growled and turned around to backhand Wizard, only to have his hand caught by Wizard’s tail, “Phoenix – You’re strong, and you seek to find strong opponents to fill that void of yours. Me?”

Wizard spun around, pulling Phoenix with his tail into a powerful round house kick that sent the Phantom through the air. When Phoenix crash landed into a large boulder and shattered it, Wizard lifted his left claw up to show off the ring on his claws, “I’ve got a different problem.”

Phoenix quickly got to his feet and summoned his large broadsword with his flames, charging towards Wizard. When Phoenix slashed at Wizard’s head, the masked dragon easily ducked down and dodged the attack, spinning past Phoenix’s second attack. “Ever since I got these powers, I felt like I lived in a world made of cardboard.”

When Phoenix did a low sweep at Wizard’s feet, the masked dragon leapt into the air and spun around to slam his tail into Phoenix’s face, making the Phantom stagger backwards with a loud yelp. When Wizard landed on the ground, he used his tail to grab his WizarSwordGun and lift it to his left hand. “Taking care not to not break something, break somepony. Never allowing myself to slip to Dragon’s control, even for a moment otherwise somepony could get hurt.”

Wizard lifted his right hand up to reveal another ring on his claws. And holding the ring over his sword’s hand symbol, the blade glowed brightly. “COPY – PLEASE!”

Holding out his free hand, a second sword appeared in Wizard’s hand, and he held the swords up. “But you can take it, Phoenix. What we have here is a new opportunity for me to cut loose and show you a real SHOWTIME!”

Phoenix roared as he brought his broadsword down on Wizard, who caught the blade with one of his swords, and sidestepping the rest of the attack, Wizard drew his other sword across Phoenix’s stomach, sparks erupting from the fiery Phantom’s body. Phoenix turned around to slash at Wizard’s back, only to have his blade to be caught by Wizard’s tail.

The phantom was stunned to see his attack blocked so easily that he didn’t notice Wizard spin around to slash both of his swords across his stomach once more. And while Phoenix was still recovering from that attack, Wizard ran past Phoenix and brought both blades down on Phoenix’s right shoulder. After the sparks flew, Wizard slammed his foot into Phoenix’s back sending the greater Phantom stumbling forward.

Phoenix took a deep breath and turned around, “How? How did that little spark of yours turn into an inferno!? I can’t believe this!”

The phantom charged forward once more, his blade raised up. However, Wizard calmly slammed both of his swords into the side of the blade and knocked it away from Phoenix’s hands. The fiery Phoenix roared out as he tried to throw a punch at the Wizard, only to have his fist blocked by one of Wizard’s swords. The other sword promptly stabbed at Phoenix’s chest, making sparks fly from the Phantom’s body and sending him flying backwards.

Wizard dropped both of his swords into the ground, allowing them to stab into the dirt. “I told you. I’d defeat you right here and now.”

That was when Wizard reached for his belt of rings and pulled a bright red ring, “Its time I break out something special for this occasion.”

Fitting the ring in on his right claws, Wizard immediately threw his hand in front of his belt buckle. “VERY NICE – SPECIAL!

“THE BEST!”

A familiar red runic circle appeared on Wizard’s back as a large fiery dragon flew from his belt buckle, flying around the masked mage as he was slowly lifted off from the ground. The dragon flew into the runic circle and the dragon head on Wizard’s chest transformed into a large metallic dragon head that roared loudly. “The finale.”

Phoenix slammed his fist into the ground before he charged forward, throwing an extremely large fiery bird towards Wizard – Only for it to be engulfed in a powerful surge of fire that the dragon head on Wizard’s chest spewed out. The flames crashed into Phoenix, causing the Phantom to roar our in pain. “This… THIS IS NOT OVER! D-DON’T THINK IT IS! GARGH!”

Phoenix exploded into the flames as Wizard’s runic circle appeared in his place, absorbing the flames as Wizard landed on the ground, the dragon head on his chest fading away. Wiping the top of his helmet, Wizard turned towards the six mares on the mountain path. “Whew.”

“Still think Mistah Souma is scary?” Applejack asked, lightly jabbing Fluttershy in the side.

“W-Well, a little bit,” Fluttershy stated as she looked down at the masked dragon down below with a warm smile. “B-But the good kind of scary.”

Meanwhile, hidden behind the rocks, Hellhound watched the entire fight with him in his Phantom form. ‘HOLY LORD HADES!! HE DEFEATED PHOENIX!!! JUST WHO THE TARTARUS IS THIS DRAGON!?!’

TTTTTTT

With the sky now being cleared of smoke by the local weather pegasai, Ponyville was back to its cheery disposition. The group of mares plus one dragon were just outside the outskirts of the town, seeing all the ponies enjoying the sunlight that had returned. When the tired group reached the entrance to the town, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie and Rainbow Dash went their separate ways to rest at their respective homes.

Twilight and Haru were about to head back to the library, when Fluttershy trotted in front of Haru, “Mister Haru?”

“Yes?” Haru replied.

“I… I wanted to say thank you, and sorry,” Fluttershy stated with her head lowered slightly. “You helped us and I’ve been scared of you this whole time… I… I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright,” Haru replied with a smile. “I should thank you, you were the one who actually scared Phoenix and gave me the courage to defeat him.”

Fluttershy smiled brightly with a slight blush to her cheeks, “T-Thank you. I’ll see you later Twilight and Mister Haru.”

And with that, the yellow Pegasus began to fly off, heading towards her home. Haru sighed as he threw his arms behind his head, taking note that Twilight was looking at him. “Well, this has been a crazy couple of days.”

“Yeah, it has been,” Twilight replied as she nervously turned her head. She hadn’t told Haru how she acquired the Flame Dragon Ring, nor did she tell him that she and the other mares knew of Haru’s past. She didn’t even tell him about the fact that the White Wizard had visited her the last night – It had been a long day and she had one other issue on her mind. “Um…”

“So, Twilight, is that couch still available?” Haru asked with a nervous smile on his face.

Twilight smiled brightly.

A few minutes later, the two had reached the Golden Oaks Library – noticing that Trixie’s wagon wasn’t there anymore. Haru rubbed his chin as Twilight trotted towards the door, “Huh, Ponyville must have some really good carpenters – Wasn’t a wagon in the side of the library last night?”

Twilight whistled slightly as she noticed that there was a note taped on the door, using her magic, Twilight pulled the note off and began to read it in her mind…

Dear Lesser Unicorn and Number One Assistant,

If you’re reading this, then the Great and Powerful Trixie has already left town. To Trixie’s number one assistant, thank you for your assistance and the Marvelous Trixie hopes that you return to this town at some point. When the Amazing Trixie returns, the Spectacular Trixie shall be requiring your assistance once more, for when the Magical Trixie returns, she shall become an even greater Unicorn.

To the lavender unicorn, Twilight Sparkle – The Fanatastic Trixie rented a book from your library and shall return it when Trixie returns. It was the book that had a weird runic symbol on it.

- Here’s your free Autograph,
Trixie Lulamoon

Twilight’s eyes widened as she stuffed the letter into her saddlebag, ‘D-Did she take the book that the White Wizard gave me?!’

“Everything alright there, Twilight?” Haru asked as he stepped next to the unicorn.

“Oh… N-Nothing’s wrong,” Twilight sheepishly chuckled as the door opened up. “N-Now let’s head inside, I need to send Princess Celestia a letter about our mission, and I’m sure Spike will be glad to see you.”

TTTTTT

Dear Princess Celestia,

I’m happy to report that the dragon has departed our fair country, and it was my good friend, Fluttershy, who convinced him to go. As it turned out, it wasn’t his fault that he had to sleep there, a Phantom was the cause of the dragon taking a nap there, but thankfully, another one of my friends, Haruto Souma, was able to take care of that dreadful Phantom.

This adventure taught me that you can never lose hope in your friends, they can be an amazing source of strength, and with their help anypony can overcome the greatest of trials.

Always your faithful student,

Twilight Sparkle.

P.S.

Princess Celestia, do you know a character by the name of the White Wizard? He told me that he owed you a couple of favors and I was just curious about how he knows you.

Princess Celestia giggled as she read the letter from her student, furling it up with her magic as she carefully placed it with the others. With a sly smile on her face, Princess Celestia used her magic to bring up another parchment and quill pent up to her. ‘I think it’s about time that I meet this Haruto Souma. I’ll just have to prepare some things before that happens though…’

TTTTTT

Night had fallen over Ponyville as an single stallion stumbled down the path that lead from the mountain. He was a lean red pegasus with a wild black mane, his body covered with a bright, ragged and large vest that had several burn marks on it. The stallion’s cutie mark was a fiery red wing that had a sword behind it. “D-Damn it…”

The stallion fell to the ground and took a couple of breaths. When he had caught his breath, the stallion lifted his head up to look at the moon with a smile on his slightly bearded face. “I can’t believe this… I really can’t believe…

“Haruto Souma… You’ve lit an inferno in me…”

Meanwhile, just outside Carousel Boutique, a tall, winged figure stood in the moonlight as it held up a shining silver coin up into the air. The coin itself had a hawk like design on one side while on the other was an ‘X’ symbol. “I can sense it… Such a wonderful source of desire!”

TBC

Author's Note

MangaKamen: Hello everyone! I apologize for the long wait, but with what you all can see, this was a chapter worth waiting for. As for why the wait, my artist friend was working on a few pics for this chapter when a nasty virus struck his computer so he was unable to finish them in time. When he does finish the images, he'll post them to his DA account and I'll have them on this chapter.

Spell 17 - Stripes, Medals and Boxers

Just as humans have changed, so has the nature of their greed. It’s become immensely large… And bottomless.
- Kazari, Greeed

TTTTTTT

Spell 17

Stripes, Medals and Boxers

TTTTTTTT

The sky was a rich, blue with the sun gleaming overhead, bathing Ponyville with its warm light as a familiar purple unicorn trotted through the town with a purple little dragon on her back. Twilight smiled as she looked up into the deep blue yonder of the sky, “What a gorgeous day, wouldn’t you agree Spike?

“Yeah! You wouldn’t even think that just a couple days ago the sky was filled with smog,” Spike replied as he looked about Ponyville. “Rainbow must’ve gotten up early and…”

“Yoohoo!”

With Spike’s comment interrupted, Twilight and her young ward turned to see a rather odd sight at the entrance of the town’s center – A goofy looking griffon was seated on a bright red carpet that had a number of odd trinkets spread out on the carpet with a large blue backpack behind him, most of the trinkets seemed to be really old and the griffon himself was gesturing towards them to come over. “Yes! The unicorn with the dragon on your back! I just opened up shop! Check out my wares and be my first customer!”

Twilight tilted her head at the griffon – He seemed very familiar with the feathers on his head styled to stand up, dressed in a bright red jersey with a hood on it – Spike on the other hoof jumped off of Twilight and skittered towards the edge of the carpet to get a better look at a small emerald statue in the shape of a serpentine dragon.

The unicorn trotted towards the edge of the carpet as the griffon lifted up a necklace that was made out of copper with a horse like design on it with a sapphire on the horse design. “Welcome! Welcome!”

“Uh, what are you doing?” Twilight asked, looking over a cracked vase in front of her.

“Well, even griffons need to eat, Miss,” the griffon replied with a sheepish grin on his face. “So, I figured that I’d set up shop and sell some of my one-of-a-kind antiques!”

The griffon lifted the necklace he had in his talons towards Twilight, “Take this little treasure for example – This is an ancient Caballon artifact, a rain dancer’s tribal necklace! And this little trinket can be yours with the low, low price of twenty-five bits! What d’ya say, Miss? I think this would look dashing around your pretty little neck!”

Twilight blinked a few times at the odd griffon, and then realized something, “Wait, aren’t you that griffon I saw a few days ago with that zebra?”

The griffon’s face lit up even more as his smile grew, “Ah! You remember me! That’s good! We should commemorate this second chance meeting with a sale! Since you remember me, I’ll take the price down to twenty-two bits! What do you say?”

“Well, as good of a deal that is,” Twilight replied as he horn began to glow brightly, the same aura appearing around Spike and lifted him off of the ground. “I am afraid I will have to pass this offer of yours.”

Spike huffed as he was placed back on Twilight’s back, and as the mare trotted off, the griffon slumped down to the ground with his head lowered. “Awe… That’s not good…”

When Twilight had distanced herself from the griffon’s shop, said griffon lifted his head up and pumped one of his talons. “No! I can’t let this get me down! I’m in a pinch! But when driven into a corner, you can think of new ideas!

“When you’re down, you can see your surroundings better! I won’t be dining on grass again tonight!”

Unfortunately, Twilight and Spike were able to hear the griffon’s proclamations, and that just made Twilight trot a little faster. “What a weird character.”

“Yeah, but he had some really cool stuff,” Spike huffed with his arms crossed over his chest. “That statue was pure jade! And did you see that he had a samurai sword there? That would’ve been awesome to have!”

“Spike, why in Equestria would you want a sword?” Twilight questioned, turning her head to look at her number one assistant. “They’re dangerous and you could hurt yourself with it.”

“Yeah, but Haru’s able to use one like a pro!” Spike answered with a bright smile. “I’m sure he could teach me how to use it!”

Twilight rolled her eyes, she had a feeling that’d be the case – While Haru was a good influence and didn’t cause trouble, the young mare did have to admit that the magical dragon did leave an impression her assistant. She didn’t really see the appeal of swordplay, but then again boys will be boys. ‘I guess even Shining Armor had his moments like that. Although, I’m probably going to have to have Haru talk to Spike about this.’

Speaking of the magical dragon, Haru had gotten up early this morning (roughly a little earlier than Twilight) and left for town to find work. The last few days, the ring mage had spent most of his time at the library in order to study up on the new ring that he had acquired in his fight against Phoenix. He had even transformed into his Flame Dragon style to test it out, and it went without a hitch… Save for part of the outside of the Golden Oaks Library that caught a flame when he transformed. But it didn’t take long for the fires to be put out.

After his testing, Haru had asked Twilight about where she got the ring… Well, that was a little more difficult to explain. Twilight didn’t want Haru to know that she was visited by White Wizard or that she and her close friends knew the magical dragon’s deepest secret. Especially since Haru wasn’t comfortable telling them about him becoming bipedal within the last half year of his life, and if he found out that they knew his secret, then it probably wouldn’t end well.

“Twilight?”

The student of Celestia shook her head from those thoughts and turned her attention towards the dragon on her back. “Uh, I’m sorry Spike, what were you saying?”

“I was asking if we could go back and pick up that samurai sword?” Spike asked with a bright gleam in his eye.

Once again, Twilight sighed at her foster brother’s request. When she turned her head forward, Twilight was about to speak up when she noticed something about Ponyville on this shiny day. The streets were empty!

“Where is everypony?” Twilight mumbled out loud to herself as she trotted slower through the town.

“Don’t change the subject!” Spike barked, before he too realized that the tow was almost completely devoid of anypony – well, save for the griffon behind the two who was still in his inner monologue. “Uh… W-What happened to everypony? Is it some sort of holiday or something?”

“Not that I know of,” Twilight replied.

“PSSSST!”

Twilight stopped in her tracks and looked around, trying to find the source of that weird sound.

“TWILIGHT! SPIKE! Come here!”

Both Twilight and Spike turned towards Sugarcube Corner, where the building was darkened yet the door was opened to reveal a pink hoof was motioning for them. “Hurry! Before she gets you!”

Without a second of hesitation, Twilight galloped into the confectionary with the door slamming shut behind her. Once inside, the darkness inside the building had completely covered the two, and the young mare stumbled about. “Pinkie? What’s going on here?”

That’s when a bright light shined in front of the two, revealing that Pinkie was standing before the two with a flashlight held up next to her face. “Oooh, one of the spookiest things ever!”

“Anything’s spooky if you’re alone in the dark,” Twilight replied with a flat look in her eyes.

“Oh, I’m not alone in the dark,” Pinkie Pie stated with a bright smile as the unicorn’s and young dragon’s adjusted to the dark. “At least, I don’t think I’m a video game series that was turned into a horrible movie rip off at the box offices.”

When they did Twilight realized that indeed it wasn’t just the three of them in sweet shop: gathered around Twilight were the other members of her little group of friends, including Haru (who was munching on a doughnut at the counter) and little Apple Bloom who had the Topaz Kraken (scratch that, the Topaz Kraken who was named Kenny) atop her head near the magical dragon. Twilight was a little surprised to see everypony around her and jumped slightly, which in turn made Spike slide off her back. “O-kay, so then, what are you all doing here in the dark?”

Applejack pulled back some of the curtains of the shop, while taking care that she was still hidden by said curtains. “We’re hidin’ from… HER!”

A little curious, Twilight trotted towards the window and looked out to clearly see that the same griffon who tried to sell her something had another customer. Twilight focused her eyes to get a better look as Spike and the rest of the mares crowded behind her to watch. Standing before the makeshift shop on a carpet was an odd cloaked figure, with only their legs showing to reveal gray fur covered legs with black hooves, and at the right front leg were a number of golden circlets.

Suddenly, the cloaked figure turned towards Sugarcube Corner, showing that under the hood was a pair of glowing yellow eyes that made everypony, save for Twilight and Haru, duck for cover.

Twilight rolled her eyes, “Her? What’s so scary about her?”

“Did ya see her Twilight?” Apple Bloom asked as she stood up next to the young studious unicorn, Kraken (Kenny) squeaking a few times. “Did ya see… Zecora?”

“Apple Bloom!” Applejack scolded. “Ah told ya never to say that name!”

Twilight turned back to the window to see that the cloaked figure, Zecora, was back to talking to the griffon (who at the moment had lifted up the same copper necklace that he tried to sell to Twilight a few minutes earlier). “All I saw was her glancing this way…”

“Glance evilly this way,” Pinkie Pie corrected, putting emphasis on the word ‘evilly’.

Twilight rolled her eyes, “And you all flip out for no good reason.”

“No good reason?” Applejack questioned as she pulled her little sister close to her, with Kraken floating over the two Apple Sisters. “Ya call protectin’ yer kin no good reason? Why, as soon as my sister saw Zecora headin’ into town she started shakin’ in her lil horseshoes!”

“Did not!” Apple Bloom protested.

However, the little filly’s complaints fell on deaf ears as her big sister tossed the young filly on her back, “So Ah swept her up and brought her here!”

“But Ah walked here myself.”

“Fer safety!”

“Zecora,” Fluttershy gulped. “She’s mysterious…”

“Sinster,” Rainbow Dash chimed in.

“And spooooooky!” Pinkie Pie finished up.

“So is Haru without his morning coffee,” Twilight pointed out as she pointed towards the sleek dragon behind the counter.

“Hey!” Haru protested, stopping himself from finishing his doughnut.

“And I’m kind of surprised to see you hiding, Haru,” Twilight stated. “You fight monsters almost every week or so, but you’re afraid of a cloaked pony?”

“I’m not hiding,” Haru replied as he waved his doughnut slightly. “I came to Sugarcube Corner for some breakfast, and all of a sudden, everypony here comes rushing in here and the lights go out.”

Twilight nodded before she looked out the window once more, seeing that Zecora pulled back the hood of her cloak to reveal the back of her head with a black and white Mohawk-styled mane, stripes on her fur, and large golden earrings. Everypony, save for Twilight and Haru, gasped at the sight.

Instead, Twilight sighed loudly, “Will you please stop doing that?”

“Darling, haven’t you seen those stripes? That mane style? And that jewelry?” Rarity pointed out as she brought her hooves to her mouth. “So garish!”

“She’s a zebra,” Twilight stated bluntly.

There was a moment of silence before Haru raised his claws up into the air, “Uh, Twilight, she’s a ‘what’ now?”

“A zebra,” Twilight began to explain as she kept her attention towards the window. “And her stripes aren’t a fashion choice Rarity, they’re what most zebras are born with.”

Rarity’s blue eyes widened before she fell backwards and fainted.

“Born where?” Applejack asked, with an audible gulp following. “Ah’ve never seen a pony like her in these here parts, ‘cept fer… her!”

“Well, zebras are indigenous to Zebrica,” Twilight explained with a hint of pride that her studies were being used once more. “That’s across the sea, but, that doesn’t stop zebras from coming to this land. In fact, just the other day, I saw another zebra near your orchard, Applejack. But, I’ve never seen her in town before.”

“That’s because she lives in,” Applejack explained taking a moment to take in a breath. “The Everfree Forest!”

BAM!

All of the ponies, and even Haru, jumped at the surprising loud noise that erupted from the kitchen. From the door to the kitchen, Spike poked his head out with a claw full of sweets, “Uh, s-sorry! My bad!”

With his doughnut finished, Haru stepped from behind the counter, “The Everfree Forest, huh? I’ve heard of it, but I don’t think I’ve ever been there. What’s so wrong with it?”

“Mistah Souma, them woods just ain’t natural,” Applejack explained with a cold bead of sweat rolling down the side of her head. “The plants grow…

“Animals care for themselves,” Fluttershy added as she trotted up next to the tall dragon.

“And the clouds move,” Rainbow Dash chimed in, flying over the dragon’s head.

“All on their own!” All three yelped at the same time.

Right on cue, Rarity fainted once again.

“How does it make her evil?” Twilight asked, keeping her attention at the window. “Seems like she’s being pretty nice to that griffon out there.”

Dash flew to the window and squinted her eyes, watching as Zecora placed a few bits on the carpet in front of the griffon. Said griffon smiled goofily as he lifted the necklace to Zecora. “Hmmm, something about that griffon seems familiar…”

“She’s probably just sizing him up!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed as she bounced into the center of the shop. “She does all this evil… uh, stuff! And I even wrote a song about her evil deeds!”

“A… Song?” Haru questioned with a raised brow.

Pinkie Pie took in a deep breath before she began to sing,“There’s a light~ in the distance!

See them coming closer!
With the force of ages
Of centuries gone by!
Protectors of the right!
Defenders sworn to fight! Dino – Whoops! Sorry! Wrong song!”

Clearing her throat, Pinkie Pie began to sing once more, this time dancing about the room, “She's an evil enchantress!

“She does evil dances
And if you look deep in her eyes
She'll put you in trances
Then what will she do?
She'll mix up an evil brew
Then she'll gobble you up
In a big tasty stew
Soooo... Watch out!”

The song ended with Pinkie Pie atop one of the tables with her front hooves raised over her head, the pink earth pony trying to catch her breath.

“Wow, catchy,” Twilight admitted.

Pinkie jumped off the table and smiled brightly, “Thanks! They’re both works in progress.”

“Okay, aside from gossip,” Twilight coughed to get back on topic. “What exactly have you seen Zecora do?”

It was at this point that Rarity had gotten back to her hooves, “Darling, there’s more to it than that. Over half a year ago, Zecora appeared in town, and whenever she appeared in town, strange things start happening.”

Haru raised his brow slightly. ‘Over half a year ago, huh?’

“Yeah!” Rainbow Dash added as she flew through the air. “Once a month, she comes to Ponyville, and every time she does, something strange happens – Like one time, after she visited, a lot of ponies claimed that they were stalked by a weird cloaked figure at night.”

“Another time,” Fluttershy gulped as she shuddered to the floor. “A lot of the animals were scared and told me that a cloaked figure destroyed their homes.”

“And most recently,” Rarity chimed in once more. “As of late, a lot of ponies including yours truly have reported a number of jewel thefts! I may not have seen the culprit, but a few ponies claimed to have seen a cloaked figure lurking about at night!”

“Anypony can wear a cloak,” Twilight replied with a roll of her eyes. “Besides, did anypony see Zecora commit any of these acts? If not, then its only speculation that Zecora did them – And it’s only coincidental that they happen when she’s around. I’m sure there’s an explanation for everything, and if anypony here were actually brave enough to approach her, the truth would appear.”

Nopony noticed that Apple Bloom was quietly sneaking out of Sugarcube Corner with Kenny the Topaz Kraken floating behind her. It wasn’t hard for her to sneak out since Twilight was trying to argue her case, while Pinkie Pie was singing her songs once more, and the other ponies were trying to convince Twilight that Zecora was bad news, ‘Ah’m brave ‘nough; Ah’m gunna find that truth mahself!’

With the older mares in deep discussion (and singing), Apple Bloom snuck through Ponyville, keeping her attention on Zecora who had left the makeshift shop and was making her way out of town. Taking cover behind a rather large cardboard box, Apple Bloom and Kenny the Topaz Kraken popped their heads from behind the box. “Ah wonder if she’s as bad as everypony says…”

“There’s always one way to find out.”

Apple Bloom and the Kraken Familiar looked about to find the source of the familiar voice, Apple Bloom blinked a few times, “Mistah Souma? Where are ya?”

“I’m right in front of you,” Haru spoke once more, as the box in front of Apple Bloom lifted up to reveal that indeed the jacket wearing dragon was hidden within the box.

“Uh, Mistah Souma, what are ya doing?” Apple Bloom asked with her head tilted.

“Well, I got a little curious about Zecora,” Haru explained as he pulled the box down over him. “So, I snuck out while Twilight was making a few points.”

“Ah was more curious about the box,” Apple Bloom asked with her head tilted.

“Oh,” Haru coughed slightly from inside the box. “W-Well, I just used some of the magic I had, my Dress Up Ring, and my magic made this for me. I get that a tall red dragon sticks out, but this box just seems to fit right.”

“Ah guess that makes sense,” Apple Bloom answered with her head tilted slightly.

‘But when I put it on,’ Haru thought to himself as he turned around in the box and slowly began to follow Zecora with Apple Bloom following behind him. ‘I suddenly got this feeling of inner peace. I feel… Safe. Like this is where I was meant to be. Like I’d found the key to true happiness.

‘Does that make any sense?’

“Mistah Souma, ya’ll don’t mind if Ah tag along with ya?” Apple Bloom whispered to the hidden dragon.

“Huh? Y-Yeah, sure,” Haru replied as he shuffled a little faster in the box. “If I’m with you, I’ll make sure that nothing bad happens.”

TTTTTTT

It didn’t take long for the box covered dragon, the blank flank filly, and the Kraken familiar to follow Zecora to the entrance to the Everfree Woods. The cloaked zebra kept trotting deeper into the woods, Haru discarded his cardboard box disguise and darted behind some of the bushes with his familiar and Apple Bloom. ‘Hmm… If Everfree Forest is so dangerous, why is there an obvious path through it?’

“So, what’s the plan, Mistah Souma?” Apple Bloom asked as she leaned closer to the sleek dragon.

“Well, that’s a good question,” Haru muttered under his breath as he rubbed his chin with his dark claws. “We’ve still got Zecora in our sights, and we don’t want to lose her… But, I’ve never been in the Everfree Forest, so, we’ll have to follow her so we don’t get lost. On the other claw, I don’t know what’s in there…”

“Like a tall, fancy rooster?” Apple Bloom stated.

“Wait, what?” Haru questioned with a raised brow.

Apple Bloom pointed towards a few yards away from the entrance of the woods, where a rather odd creature was heading towards the brush. The creature itself did look like a tall rooster with black feathers sprouting from its shoulders and covering its 'hands'. The creature’s head looked like a gamecock’s head, with an odd face under the beak. The creature had red ribbons tied around its arms, was wearing an elaborate loincloth, and had a large burlap sack slung over its shoulders.

The odd creature sauntered into the woods, leaving a rather confused Haru at the bushes. “Uh, okay, that’s rather odd.”

“Ah heard that many weird creatures living in Everfree Forest,” Apple Bloom stated, garnering Haru’s attention. “But a big rooster?”

“Apple Bloom,” Haru said as he stood up. “I want you to stay here for a little bit.”

“Huh? But what about Zecora?” Apple Bloom asked with her head tilted slightly.

“There’s a lot going on in these woods,” Haru replied as he reached into his jacket and pulled out a pair of rings. “But, I’d feel better if you stay out here.”

“But Mistah Souma,” Apple Bloom protested, but Haru had already dashed off to follow the weird Rooster creature.

The young filly huffed as she turned towards the actual entrance of the Everfree Woods where Zecora was disappearing into the distance. Apple Bloom turned to see Haru disappear into the shrubbery, ‘Even Mistah Souma treats me like a baby… Ah can do this mahself! Ah’ll prove Ah can do this!’

That was when Apple Bloom galloped towards the entrance of the Everfree Woods, the topaz Kraken familiar flying after her.

As the filly went into the woods, she didn’t notice that pair of colorful, floral patterned boxer shorts flew past the entrance of the woods.

TTTTTTTT

The path that Haru took wasn’t as cleared off as the path that Zecora and Apple Bloom had taken, with the magical dragon having to get through a large amount of lowered branches, several roots that stuck out from the ground and a large amount of thorny vines that scratched the dragon’s exposed skin. ‘Ooh, that stings. Maybe I should’ve transformed before I entered here, but I don’t want to lose that creature…

‘Certainly has the look of a monster – But what in the world is it? Is it a Phantom?’

Originally, the magical dragon’s intentions were to follow Zecora – The incidents that the mares talked about were concerning, but they seemed to follow another pattern that Haru took notice. When he heard the mares talking about it, it reminded the dragon about Gilda’s own problems.

He couldn’t discount the possibility that this Zecora was a Gate being targeted by a Phantom just like Gilda was: being falsely accused of misfortunate events which would eventually ostracize the zebra. But Haru also had to consider that Zecora was possibly a Phantom herself, but deep down he hoped that wouldn’t be the case.

‘But then here comes that weird rooster thing – What is that thing supposed to be? A Phantom version of a Cockatrice?’

“Took this thing a while to get back this time.”

Haru’s eyes widened when he heard the voice and he crouched down. Thankfully, the voice kept sounding out so Haru could shift through the bushes to find the source. “C’mon, this thing’s speed is just a crime.”

“Perhaps, but he’s getting the job done. Soon we’ll have enough medals to get our own personal army.”

“Yes, the better soon than late. With our own personal army at our command, I will change every Phantom’s fate.”

Eventually after enough shifting through the leafs and thorny vines, Haru peeked through one of the bushes to see a rather small clearing – Where he saw the owners of the voices. There were three beings in the small clearing, one of which was the odd rooster creature who was dumping the contents of the large burlap sack: Dumping several kinds of jewels into a rather large pile of jewels. ‘A nest?’

The next figure that caught Haru’s attention was a tall, sleek, cloaked character with a ragged top hat covering its head. When Haru looked down at the cloaked figure’s feet, he noted that the creature was bipedal, but the being’s ankles seemed to be made of some sort of coiled metal of some kind. “But you’re damn lucky, Shocker. If we didn’t meet up a couple nights ago, you would’ve been just a gawker.”

“You’re one to talk, Spring Heel, I at least had a mission to fulfill – You were just causing mischief.”

The owner of that last voice was the remaining being in the small clearing near the jewels was a tall, eagle-like creature covered with musty grayish-brown feathers with a large gas-mask covering its face. At random parts of this monster’s body were bronze snakes that popped from the creature’s body, and around the monster’s waist was a white belt that had a large golden buckler that was engraved with a large eagle perched atop of a world symbol. The feathered monster called ‘Shocker’ lifted one of his talons towards Spring Heel. “What sort of respectable kaiju are you? You’ve got the fearsome look down, but your attitude wouldn’t even scare a filly.”

Spring Hell snapped his arms up into the air, revealing that at the end of his arms were several knife-like claws, “I’d watch my tongue if I were you, you never should underestimate a Phantom’s power. Shocker is a thing of the past, Phantoms are what ponies cower!”

“Humph, whatever delusions you wish to carry they do not matter to me,” Shocker scoffed as he walked towards the rooster monster with his right claw lifted up. “Soon this Yummy shall soon be ripe enough for us to harvest the cell medals. These ponies are a great source of desire, and so easy to determine which ones will give the most out of our medals thanks to those marks on their legs.”

It was then that Shocker stabbed his talons into the Yummy’s chest, making the gamecock monster stagger slightly before Shocker pulled his talon free. To Haru’s amazement, the Yummy didn’t have nary a scratch on its chest – No blood, no wound, just a few silver medallions falling from Shocker’s talons that fell to the ground. “You shall get your army in due time Spring Heel, but only as long as you aid me in my own desire.”

With a wave of his hand, Spring Heel knelt down and grabbed a few of the medals from the ground with his free clawed hand, “To help you find the one with the cores. Yes, yes, there’s no need to remind me of the bores.”

‘An army? Why would this Phantom need an army?’ Haru thought to himself watching the strange scene in front of him. ‘Phantoms have the Ghouls and their own numbers to draw from, why does this Spring Heel need this Shocker’s help to make an army? And how are medallions supposed to help them acquire this army?

‘And this Shocker, what in the world is he supposed to be? For some reason, I doubt he’s a Phantom, they usually have a sort of mythological theme or something like that. But for the life of me I can’t tell what this Shocker id supposed to be…’

It was then that Shocker lifted his head up and looked around. “… We’re being watched.”

Haru stilled his breath.

“Come out this instant,” Shocker demanded as he dropped the medals to the ground. “If either of us have come out to find you, then the end result won’t be pretty.”

With a roll of his eyes, Haru knew what he had to do.

“DRIVER ON – PLEASE!”

Another sound echoed through the air as Haru’s belt appeared, three chimes echoing though the forested air…

“HENSHIN!”

When Haru called out his trademarked transformation battle call, he noticed that he wasn’t the only one to say it. There was an unfamiliar voice that called out at the same time…

“FLAME – PLEASE!”

“TAKA TORA BATTA!”

“Hii Hii HiiHiiHii!”

“TA-TO-BA! TATOBA TATOBA!”

TTTTTTTT

While a battle of epic proportions was raging on in the woods (the author would write it in, but this story has a certain formula to it, and we can’t deviate from it too much or else it would be EVIL!), Apple Bloom and Kenny the Topaz Kraken had managed to catch up to Zecora, right when the mysterious Zebra was passing by a large bunch of odd blue flowers.

Apple Bloom was about to just gallop through the weird blue flowers, but the Topaz familiar had stopped her. Making sure she wasn’t spotted by Zecora, Apple Bloom carefully trotted around the odd blue flowers as per her cute little pet’s odd request.

But just as she was about halfway passing the odd flowers…

“APPLE BLOOM!!”

The young filly jumped when she heard her name called out, and she immediately turned around to see that not only was her older sister was behind her standing within the weird blue flowers, so were the other five mares that were close friends with her. “Ya’ll get back here right now!”

Before Apple Bloom could even say a word…

“Beware! Beware, you pony folk!”

Zecora had called out from her side of the blue flowers, “Those leaves of blue are not a joke!”

Applejack had already galloped to her younger sister and the young mare was hoisted onto Applejack’s head, with the filly now on her back. “Is that supposed to scare us?! Y-Ya’ll keep yer creepy mumbo-jumbo to yerself, ya hear?!?!”

The other mares (save for Twilight) were trying to speak over each other, the purple unicorn rolled her eyes, “Oh brother…”

The rants and ravings of the group fell on deaf ears as Zecora began to disappear into a mysterious fog that seemed to come out of nowhere, “Beware! Beware!”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever!” Dash barked stomping on a few of the blue odd flowers in the process. “Keep those weird flank curses to yourself Zecora! Otherwise you’ll be the one to beware!”

“Dash!” Twilight scolded.

Of course, Twilight wasn’t the only pony who was scolding, Applejack had her eyes narrowed as Apple Bloom shrunk down with her eyes looking down. “And you! Why couldn’t ya just listen to yer big sister?”

“B-But, Ah… Ah…” Apple Bloom stuttered trying to say something. “M-Mistah Souma was with me, and Ah…”

“And where exactly is Mistah Souma then?” Applejack questioned with her eyes narrowed down. “Ah know he’s a dependable dragon with these sorts of things, but still, not even Mistah Souma could break a hex from Zecora!”

“Where is Mister Haru?” Fluttershy asked.

Almost as if it was a cue by Celestia herself, an oncoming, yelling, black and red blur fell from sky, crashing into the blue flowers in front of all the mares with all the blue petals flying up into the air. When the petals began to fall, the mares saw that before them was a rather dazed Wizard with several silver coins scattered about. “Stupid… Boxing… Rooster…”

Most of the mares just looked at each other as Haru’s Wizard attire faded away. Twilight blinked a few times as her magical aura slowly materialized the dazed Haru, his blue eyes spinning. “I think he’s just a little out of sorts. I wonder what happened to him…”

“Probably just got swatted by a manticore or something,” Dash scoffed as she jumped into the air to let her wings spread out. “I dunno about you guys, but I’m getting outta here before that curse takes effect.”

“There’s no such thing as curses!” Twilight stated as Haru was lifted up into the air with her magic.

“Then how do you explain the mysterious fog?” Pinkie Pie retorted as she leaned close to Twilight. “The weird ‘warning’?” Haru falling from the sky with several coins?”

“Quite the unique design these coins have,” Rarity admitted levitating one medal that had a peacock design on it up in the air before her. “Hmm, I swear I’ve seen this design somewhere…”

“There are plenty of reasonable explanations,” Twilight started, but her friends were already leaving the path of weird blue flowers. “Curses are just pony tales.”

“Just you wait, Twi” Applejack said as she trotted off. “You’ll find that some pony tales really are true.”

Twilight sighed.

TTTTTTT

When Twilight managed to get out of the Everfree Woods with the still dazed Haru being lifted up behind her with her magic, she squinted slightly from the bright sunlight overhead. Twilight sighed as her eyes adjusted to the bright light, ‘Why would they be afraid of a curse?’

It was then that Twilight turned towards Haru and chuckled to herself, ‘Then again, we’re in a world where a stallion can be cursed to become a dragon. Speaking that, I should probably speak to Haru about what we know of his past… But, would he be able to handle that we know his secret?’

“Uh, excuse me Miss.”

Twilight jumped a little when somepony’s voice sounded from behind her, almost making her drop Haru to the ground. But she was able to compose herself before he hit the ground, and with a sigh of relief, Twilight turned around to see a familiar zebra standing behind her with a worried look on his face. “Uh, hello there.”

“R-Right! Hello,” the zebra replied as he lowered his head, his purple clothes wrinkling as his muzzle brushed up against his neck. “I hope I didn’t scare you or anything, I’m just trying to find something that got away from me.”

“Uh, okay, you didn’t scare me too much,” Twilight lied under her breath, her heart still racing a little bit. “And there’s no need to be that formal, we’ve actually met before. I think that griffon friend of yours called you Eiji, right?”

The zebra, Eiji, brightly smiled as he lifted his head up, “R-Right! It was near that orchard on that day when that weird weather came around. My name’s Hino Eiji, but Eiji is good enough.”

Twilight smiled at the zebra’s good behavior, “Well, Mr. Hino, allow me to properly introduce myself – I am Twilight Sparkle.”

“A pleasure to meet you,” Eiji replied with a slight nod before he turned towards the still floating Haru. “Oh, um, is he okay?”

“Haru? He seems alright, just a little dazed,” Twilight mused with a confused look on her face. “Do you know him?”

“Well, kinda,” Eiji replied with a nervous smile on his face. “We kinda just met a little bit ago, but we didn’t exchange names – Kinda busy with everything happening all at once. But anyway, I’m kinda searching for something, you didn’t happen to see a pair of floral patterned… Um… W-Well…”

Twilight couldn’t help but notice that the zebra’s face had a noticeable blush, even showing through his gray and black fur. “A pair of… boxers…”

“Excuse me?” Twilight questioned with her ears leaning forward. “What did you say?”

“BOXERS!” Eiji sputtered out with his face completely red. When he realized that he blurted that out, his face turned completely red and his hooves were brought to his face. Then with a nervous chuckle, Eiji turned to the side. “Uh, s-sorry about that, it’s not really a subject a stallion should ask a mare, but I’m kinda in a pickle.”

“Well, if I see a random pair of boxers,” Twilight giggled with a bright smile on her face. “You’ll be the first to know, Mr. Hino.”

“O-Okay,” Eiji chuckled as he rubbed the back of his head. “Also, make sure you’re careful around here, there are a few weird things running about.”

“Tell me about it,” Twilight sighed, a flat look appearing in her eyes. “I’ve been hearing about curses, weird events happening in Ponyville, and all of a sudden my friend here falls from the sky with a bunch of weird coins next to him.”

Eiji whistled innocently as he turned his eyes away, “O-Oh, really? Well, Miss Sparkle, it was nice chatting with you, but I need to find those bo… My unmentionables…”

And with that Eiji spun on his hooves and slowly began to trot into the woods behind him.

“Wait! It’s dangerous in there!” Twilight called out.

Eiji stopped and turned around with a bright smile on his face, “Don’t worry! I may not look it, but I’m able to take care of myself. Besides, my friend lives in Everfree Forest, and she’s able to survive with the comforts of home.”

“Your friend?” Twilight questioned as she looked down at the ground. That’s when realization struck her. “Wait, are you talking about…”

But when Twilight lifted her head up, she saw that Eiji was gone. All she was looking at was the empty path that led through the Everfree Forest. “How are some ponies able to disappear out of thin air?”

“Practice, lots and lots of practice,” Haru answered.

Twilight snapped her head to the side to see that Haru was awake, and had his arms crossed over his chest… And he was currently upside down. “I hope it’s okay if I can walk on my own two feet.”

“R-Right,” Twilight chuckled as she used her magic to gently lower the dragon to the ground.

When Haru was standing on his own, the dragon dusted off his jacket and fixed his belt. “Much better.”

“Haru, why were you in the woods?” Twilight asked with her head tilted slightly.

“Twilight, I’ve got a lot to tell you,” Haru replied as he stretched his arms. “And luckily, we got a long enough of a walk to talk it over.”

TTTTTTTTT

A little time passed in the Everfree Forest, in the small clearing where Spring Heel and Shocker were discussing was completely devoid of almost every little thing that proved that the two were there – Save for the small trail of jewels that led out of the clearing and into the bushes.

“Well, well, well, looks like this forest hides more than just Phantoms…”

Stepping from some of the bushes, Sora stepped into the clearing with his trademarked smile plastered on his face. “Although, I must admit, I didn’t expect a Phantom to work with a Greeed. This just gets all the more interesting all the time.”

Sora trotted over to one of the jewels and swept it up with his wing, “Maybe I should try to get into the fun myself.

“Heeheehee!”

TTTTTTTT

By the time Twilight and Haru had reached the Golden Oaks library, the mystical dragon had explained his thoughts about Zecora and how she could be being targeted by a Phantom to make the mysterious zebra be blamed for all of the recent odd events that her friends informed her about. “That’s what happened to Gilda, right?”

“Yeah,” Haru stated with a nod as the two stopped at the front door to the library. “And as I said, I already found the Phantom with a number of jewels in the Everfree Forest. So, if it turns out that Zecora isn’t the Phantom, then at least we can prove her innocence of the jewel thefts.

“Getting them back is another matter entirely…”

“What do you mean?” Twilight inquired, a little lump appearing in the back of her throat, a little afraid of what Haru was referring to.

“This Phantom wasn’t alone,” Haru explained as he rubbed his chin. “Whatever this Spring Heel is up to, he’s got a couple of partners that are not Phantoms.”

“Not Phantoms?” Twilight questioned. “Are you talking about ponies helping the Phantom? Or…”

“I’m not sure what they are,” Haru admitted as he reached into his pocket and pulled out one of the silver medals that fell from the sky with him. “But whatever they are, they certainly aren’t ponies or Phantoms - When I fought against the three, and managed to land a couple of blows on these two…

“They ‘bled’ these coins.”

“That’s… Rather fascinating!” Twilight stated with her eyes gleaming as she looked at the medal in Haru’s claws. “This came from those other individuals? I’ve never heard of such a thing before!”

Before Haru could get a word in about the subject again, Twilight used her magic to pull the medal from his claws and floated it in front of her face. “I wonder what this thing is? It looks to be made of metal, but if it came from a living creature then… This is amazing!”

Haru sighed with his arms falling to his sides. “I think I’m just going to crash for the rest of the day, it’s been a long day…”

Twilight was more mesmerized by the odd medal that she had floating in front of her.

TTTTTTT

Eventually, night had appeared over Ponyville, and all of its residents had drifted off to dream land. Even Twilight, who had spent most of the rest of the day observing the odd medal in the basement of the library, had her own visit by the Sand Stallion. However, as she slept, the words of her friends concerning Zecora haunted her dreams – to make matters worse, Pinkie’s song was stuck in her head!

The morning couldn’t come fast enough for Twilight, who woke up when she dreamt of a maniacally laughing Zecora with yellow eyes. “Ugh, again with the dreams…”

Twilight pushed herself from her bed with a groan. “I’m starting to think I should talk to somepony about these sorts of things. Curses, schmurses.”

Slowly the mare made her way to the vanity mirror she had in her room and reeled back at the sight she was looking at. “Whoa!”

Her mane was a complete mess! Twilight elicited a small giggle before she used her magic to levitate her brush. “Maybe Zecora cursed my hair.”

With few brushstrokes, Twilight’s wild mane was easily tamed, but when her mane was tamed – Her eyes widened, the brush dropped to the floor, and her jaw dropped when she saw her horn. Her horn was covered with odd blue spots and seemed to be rather wobbly.

It took a few moments for that to sink into Twilight’s mind.

And when it did, an extremely loud scream echoed though the air around the library, scaring countless birds from trees.

TBC

Spell 18 - Taka Tora Batta

Desires create new civilizations. Takes us to unknown worlds. They guide us to new heights! They evolve us!
- Kousei Kougami

TTTTTTTTT

Spell 18

Taka Tora Batta
TaToBa!

TTTTTTTTT

Hours before Twilight had awoken up and made her horrid discovery, the night around Ponyville was peaceful, quaint, and no pony was stirring. The same could not be said about the Everfree Forest…

“I did not expect these turns of events,” Shocker stated as he stepped about the bushes of the Everfree Forest, his large wings folded at his back so he wouldn’t be hindered.

“So we gotta move these jewels,” Spring Heel cackled as he dropped several jewels to the ground haphazardly, the gamecock Yummy following suit behind him. “It’s not like we’re in any danger from those two fools.”

“The only fool I’ve seen today is you, Spring Heel,” Shocker growled as he spun around to look at the rhyming Phantom. “You didn’t inform me that there was one of them around here!”

The top hatted monster tilted his head slightly, his glowing yellow eyes blinking a few times. “You’ll have to explain your reason. To me, I figured we knocked those two masked losers into the next season.”

“You really are a fool,” Shocker sighed as he brought his talons to his forehead. “What we fought today are the very beings I was born to fight – The ones that have defended everything that beings like you and I have been practically hardwired into our very systems to destroy. Justice, hope, courage…

“They are the thorns in our sides! The very beings who’s sole existence is to stop us!

“Kamen Riders…”

Spring Heel was spinning one of his bladed fingers around the side of his head before he stepped forward and cackled. “Your rambling is a nice show, but I think your train of thought is a little slow. In case you didn’t see, we defeated those two in a matter of minutes, less than three.”

“Over confidence will be your downfall, Spring Heel,” Shocker growled as he walked over to the gamecock Yummy, eyeing the odd creature. “We’ll have to send out the Yummy once more tomorrow to get the maximum amount of Cell Medals that we can get for our army.”

“Why do we need to limit ourselves to one more day?” Spring Heel questioned with a tilt of his head. “After all, this town is the best place to let our army play.”

“I’ll concede the point that this ‘Ponyville’ is an ideal location for some good old fashioned chaos,” Shocker admitted, keeping his back turned to the Phantom. “But we can’t risk sending the Yummy out too much longer – Especially now that those Riders know about us. Worst of all, one of those Riders actually uses Cell Medals.”

Spring Heel sighed loudly as he pulled his top hat off, revealing his long, jagged black hair with a pair of devilish horns atop of his demonic face. The sharp clawed Phantom reached into his hat and pulled out a number of gray rocks with gold veins on them. “Shocker, I ask that you stay the fear you hold, for I have a plan that is really bold. If we’ve got one last shot, then let’s go titanic! This Yummy shall not be alone, I’ll use these and create a massive panic!”

It was then that Shocker threw his talons into the Yummy’s stomach, making the gamecock Yummy stagger back as its superior drew his talons back with a number of medallions in his talon. “I see your strategy, Spring Heel. If that’s the case, then I do not mind spending a few of these medals to create a little chaos.”

Unbeknownst to the two scheming creatures, up above atop of the clouds over Shocker and Spring Heel was a certain, mint green Pegasus who hummed to himself a joyous tune as he watched the clearing. A rather bright smile crawled onto Sora’s face as he gazed at the scene beneath him…

As more figures began to join the original three in the small clearing, Sora’s grin grew larger and larger, even to the point that his face was beginning to hurt. ‘Oh my, what an interesting turn of events we have on our hooves. Makes me glad that Harpie and her ‘family’ took that little vacation to the beach to recover.

‘Still, I didn’t think Spring Heel would have the guts to do this – To actually team up with a remnant of the past like ‘that’. Hmm, I wonder what this joyful Phantom is up to.’

Lifting up his hoof, Sora looked at the silver coin – A Cell Medal if he heard correctly – and tossed it up into the air a few times. ‘But, maybe I could have some real fun with these little things – After all, money, money, money, it’s really funny in a rich mare’s world.’

Several loud groans echoed from the forest below, drawing Sora’s attention to see that the entire, small clearing was no longer cleared. It was completely full with shadowy creatures stumbling about Spring Heel, Shocker and the gamecock Yummy. With a sigh, Sora extended his wings and flew off into the night. ‘Better go get my seat ready!’

TTTTTTTTTT

“NO NO NO NO NO!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

Twilight galloped throughout the library, tripping over herself, Spike’s bed, Spike himself (who woke up with the initial scream), nearly the stairs, and a few of the books that she had pulled off the shelves with her magic in her mad dash. “None of these books have a cure!”

“Hehehehe…”

“Spike!” Twilight scolded as she turned to her assistant, her spotted horn wiggling in the process. “This isn’t funny!”

The young dragon took a deep breath and put on a straight face, “Y-You’re right Twilight, this isn’t funny…”

The young unicorn raised an eyebrow at Spike, but turned her attention, “I’m going to look at the books downstairs, and get Haru to help me out. Spike, just… Just keep looking.”

As soon as Twilight trotted down the stairs to head to the main lobby and disappeared from Spike’s sight, the baby dragon broke out into laughter, tears appearing in his eyes. “Bwahahahahaha! It’s hilarious!”

Twilight heard Spike’s laughter, but she drowned it out. Her horn was her main concern right now, and in the short time she was awakened, she had noticed that due to her ‘condition’, her magic wasn’t working as it normally did. It seemed weaker, and even the aura that usually appeared when she used her magic was polka-dotted just like her horn.

When she got down to the main floor of the library, Twilight instantly looked to the couch were a certain red dragon was sleeping on with his back to her. There was a small cloud of smoke over the sleeping dragon that grew as he snored lightly. There also seemed to be a pile of sand at the floor near the couch, but Twilight didn’t really notice that when she called out to the dragon. “Haru! Wake up!”

The magical dragon just snored in returned.

Twilight sighed as she trotted over to the dragon, and when she was close enough, Twilight tapped Haru’s back with her hoof. “Haru! Please! This is an emergency!”

This time Twilight got an actual response from the still sleeping Haru, but it was only his arm pushing away the mare’s hoof from his back with a grunt.

“HARU! GET UP!” Twilight yelled at the dragon at the top of her lungs (although, it wasn’t as loud as her scream only a few minutes earlier).

“Oi! Can’t you see I’m sleeping?!?!” Haru snapped as he quickly sat up, scaring Twilight with his sudden movement and surprisingly rougher voice.

“H-Haru?!” Twilight questioned as the dragon growled under his breath.

The sleek dragon stood up, and it was then that Twilight noticed something about the Haru (it wasn’t hard to see since the dragon wasn’t wearing one of his jackets). The normally rail thin dragon had more defined muscles on his body, nothing too extreme, but his muscles were bigger than they were usually. The red dragon’s black spines were also standing on end and there seemed to be a red scale that stood taller than the other spines. Speaking of red, Haru’s normally blue eyes were a sharp crimson and narrowed down at Twilight. “Oi, ya know it’s rude to stare.”

The unicorn stepped back from Haru, ‘Is… Is he possessed by Dragon again? Oh this is bad! I can’t use my magic to…’

‘Haru’ stood up from the couch and stretched his arms up over his head with a yawn, “Oh well, if I’m awake, then it’s time for breakfast.”

What happened next only made Twilight blink in confusion – ‘Haru’ sniffed the air a few times before a large goofy grin appeared on his face. “Hmmm! I can smell it! That aroma! It’s… It’s…

“Pudding!”

With a lick of his chops, ‘Haru’ quickly walked past Twilight with ash falling off his form with every step he took before he disappeared into the kitchen. Twilight just blinked a few times in confusion, “… What just happened?”

“Twilight! Twilight!”

The unicorn turned her attention towards the stairs to see Spike running down the stairs with a large green book held over his head. “I think I found an answer! How about this!”

Twilight looked at the book that the young dragon was holding up to her, and she furrowed her brow at the title of it, “Supernaturals? Spike, this isn’t going to help, we’re not dealing with ghosts, spirits, or curses. This book isn’t going to help with my horn! This could be an allergy, or an illness, or… or… or…!”

“But Twilight, what if this book is what you need?” Spike retorted. “I mean, Haru kinda deals with the supernatural all the time. What if…”

“Spike, there are other things we have to worry about besides hooey curses!” Twilight replied as she turned to the kitchen. “Haru’s acting weird.”

“Weird?” Spike asked as he lowered the book. “Weird how?”

“Well, for one thing,” Twilight began to explain. “I think he’s eating pudding.”

Spike tilted his head, “Pudding? I thought the only sweets he liked were powdered sugar doughnuts?”

“Yeah, but he looks different as well,” Twilight added as she turned back to Spike. “And he kinda acts like a brute, a goofy brute, but a brute nonetheless.”

“Uh, but Twilight,” Spike muttered out loud as he rubbed the back of his head. “Doesn’t this all sound like…”

“Ah pfurse!”

Both Twilight and Spike turned to the side to see that Pinkie Pie had entered the library – But something was really wrong with the usually cheerful pink pony. Her tongue was sticking out of her mouth and had the same blue spots on it. Obviously, this made the mare have a saddened look in her eyes.

“A hearse?” Spike questioned. “What’s a hearse? And how could it be one of those things?”

“Pinkie?” Twilight gasped as she trotted up to her friend. “What happened to your tongue?”

“Pee pah Zthecora!” Pinkie Pie spat out, sending spit flying onto Spike, who made the young dragon lift the green book up to shield up. “Sthe put a cursthe on me!”

Before Twilight could even question what her friend was saying, the front door to the library flew off the hinges before a familiar rainbow blur flew through the air and crashed into one of the many shelves in the room. As it turned out, it was Rainbow Dash who was now on the floor with countless books underneath her.

And from where Twilight stood, it looked like the pegasus’ wings were now inverted and moved from her back to her lower sides. “Ow…”

“Dash?!” Twilight yelped. “How in Equestria did your wings end up there?”

“I would think the answer would be obvious, dear,” Rarity’s voice sounded out, immediately drawing Spike’s attention towards the door.

“RAR… I…” Spike trailed off before he brought his claws up to his mouth to cover it.

Indeed standing at the door was Rarity, or at least it was a pony with the same mane and fur color as the mare – the pony in question had extremely long, white fur that covered her entire body with her messy, blue mane doing the same to her head (except for the white horn that stuck out from the messy mane). Of course, when the shaggy pony blew some of her hair from her face, Rarity’s face peeked out for a second before it was covered once more. “I believe you’re aware of yesterday’s encounter, Twilight?”

“Rarity, there’s an obvious explanation for all of this,” Twilight replied, a little shaky in her response. “Maybe an allergic reaction?”

“Twi, Ah hate to say Ah told ya so,” A squeaky voice sounded out. “But Ah told ya so!”

Rarity moved away from the door, easily tripping over her own fur in the process. When she did, Twilight was able to see that Apple Bloom and Fluttershy were entering the library. However, the squeaky voice wasn’t from them, but rather it was coming from above them where a miniature Applejack was riding atop of Kenny the Topaz Kraken familiar. “It’s a curse, Ah tells ya! Zecora cursed us all!”

“O-kay, I definitely haven’t heard of an allergy that can shrink a pony’s entire body,” Twilight admitted as she turned over to Rainbow Dash, who was now flying through the air haphazardly. “Or move a pegasus’ wings… But Fluttershy she seems fine!”

“Yes,” Rarity huffed as she pushed herself off of the ground. “She seems to be the lucky one of us.”

“Fluttershy?” Twilight questioned as she stepped towards her shy Pegasus friend. “Are you okay?”

Fluttershy looked away with her ears drooping down.

“Is there something wrong with you?” Twilight asked, looking over the yellow pegasus, taking note that there were no physical changes to her friend.

Fluttershy sheepishly nodded before she cringed.

Now Twilight was getting a little annoyed, “Would you care to tell us?”

Fluttershy just flinched again.

“So, you’re not going to tell us?” Twilight inquired.

The yellow pegasus nodded.

“Is that a yes or a no?” Twilight muttered to herself.

“Good grief girl!” Applejack squeaked as she had Kenny the Topaz Kraken float her down to the table near Fluttershy. “What in tarnation is the matter with ya?!”

Fluttershy sighed as she turned from her friends, “No pony knows the sorrows I’ve seen.”

There was a moment of silence as Fluttershy’s deep voice echoed through the library, everypony’s eyes wide (well, it was assumed that Rarity’s were wide, but no one could tell thanks to the current state of her mane).

The silence that followed was immediately shattered by two reasons – The first was due to Rainbow Dash crashing into the nearby ladder that Spike often used to get books, her head getting stuck between two steps. The second reason was due to Spike breaking into a loud, mad laughter. “BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! THIS IS HILARIOUS!!”

“This ain’t funny!” Applejack snapped at the dragon.

“But look at you all!” Spike chuckled loudly. “We’ve got: Hairity, Rainbow Crash, Spitty Pie, Apple Teeny, Flutterguy, and…”

Spike turned towards Twilight and rubbed his chin. “Twilight Wobble? Nah, that’s no good.”

“Spike!” Twilight scolded. “This is serious!”

“Indeed. That is no way to speak to ladies!”

Everypony in the room turned towards the source of the voice, which was coming from the kitchen…

TTTTTT

While the Golden Oaks Library was ensuing with chaos, the rest of Ponyville was rather calm and peaceful. Near the edge of town was a pair of mares that were deep in discussion.

“Oh come on Bon Bon!” A mint green unicorn moaned with a look of desperation in her golden eyes. The mare’s mane and tail were a brilliant cyan with a white streak in both and her cutie mark was a lyre. “Why is it so hard to believe? I know what I saw!”

The other mare sighed with a shake of her head, making her blue mane (with pink streak) move with her movement. The mare, Bon Bon, had a beige fur coat and her cutie mark was a trio of ribbons. “Lyra, how many times do we have to have this discussion? Humans don’t exist! They’re just a fairy tale! I’ve told you to drop this insane belief, and now look what you’re saying!”

“What’s so insane about seeing a floating, red hand flying about?” Lyra asked with her head tilted at her friend. “I saw it flying out Carousel Boutique this morning!”

“Lyra,” Bon Bon sighed with a roll of her eyes. “As your friend, I’m telling you that flying ‘hands’ and ‘humans’ don’t exist. If you keep this up, some ponies are going to have you committed.”

“But I…” Lyra started only to stop talking when she saw something past her friend.

“There’s a difference between interest and obsession,” Bon Bon explained, unaware that a familiar gamecock-like humanoid was joyfully walking towards the two, throwing a few punches through the air using it’s ‘fists’ in a mock boxing match. “You can’t just expect to see something that walks on two legs with five ‘fingers’ appear just one day. Mythical creatures don’t appear out of thin air!”

Lyra began to smile as the weird gamecock creature drew closer, and she saw that it wasn’t alone. Behind it were a group of odd creatures – All of which were standing on two legs and had hands! “Bon Bon!”

“Lyra! I’m not done talking!” the earth pony sighed, unaware that the Gamecock Yummy was now standing right behind her. “This is important! I don’t want to see anything bad happen to you! Your family is worried about you and so am I, and we…”

Bon Bon stopped when she felt something tap her back a few times. The earth pony turned her head around and her cerulean eyes shrank when she realized she was looking at a feather covered finger. Her shrunken pupils travelled up the hand and then the arm that the feathered finger was attached to the odd looking Gamecock Yummy. “W-What the?”

“You! Hand over any jewels you have!” The odd humanoid creature commanded.

Bon Bon just stepped back and realized that there were other odd creatures next to the Gamecock Yummy – All of them human shaped! To the Gamecock Yummy’s right were about six Ghouls that stood tall and had their arms crossed over their rocky chests, while at the Yummy’s left were six humanoids that had black bodies covered with silver bandages covering them. Instead of having a face at their heads, the odd creatures had circular, black glass.

“W-What are these things?” Bon Bon sputtered.

The Gamecock Yummy threw its feathered fist up into the air, “You two are being uncooperative!”

“SQUEEEEE!” Lyra loudly squealed as she jumped in front of the Gamecock Yummy, surprising the monster, along with the other humanoid creatures. “Those hands! That shape! That posture! The way they move! Bon Bon! Humanoids! Humanoids! Not exactly humans, but this is evidence! Evidence that humans exist!”

The Gamecock Yummy squawked slightly as it turned to the Ghouls and other odd creatures behind it – They just shrugged in confusion.

“Oooooh! Bon Bon! They just shrugged!” Lyra cheered loudly as she brought her hooves to her face and stared at the large group of humanoids with stars in her eyes. “OOOH! It’s just as amazing as I imagined!”

The Gamecock Yummy tilted his head at the mint green unicorn before it scratched the top of its red comb. That just made Lyra lean closer towards the monster, “Amazing! Hey! Hey! Can I see your hand? Please? Pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease?!?”

Once again, the Gamecock Yummy was a little puzzled by this unicorn’s behavior. Why wasn’t this pony running away scared? Or why wasn’t she giving the feathered Yummy the jewels it had demanded earlier? Reluctantly, the Yummy lowered its left hand towards Lyra, and almost immediately regretted it.

Instantly, Lyra’s hooves grasped the Yummy’s feather hand as she began to fondle the fingers, putting a little pressure on the tiny limbs with her hooves. “Amazing! The bone structure is different from ours! Bon Bon! You’ve gotta feel these fingers! I bet human fingers are just like this! He’s got five just like humans are supposed to have!”

“Lyra! Get away from that thing!” Bon Bon yelled at her friend. “It could be dangerous!”

“Aw, don’t be a party plopper,” Lyra replied with her tongue sticking out at her friend before she turned back to the Gamecock Yummy. “Hey, hey! Are there humans where you’re from? Are there? Are there?!”

The Gamecock Yummy pulled its hand away from Lyra and turned to the others behind it, “No jewels. We go elsewhere now!”

“W-What?!” Lyra gasped. “Bon Bon! Quick! Give him a jewel!”

“Does it look like I have any on me?” Bon Bon replied with a dull look in her eyes. “In any case, just let them go Lyra!”

“Hey! Wait!” Lyra called out to the Gamecock Yummy.

The Gamecock Yummy looked over his shoulder before he pumped his fist up into the air. “Ghouls! Trash Yummy! RUN FOR IT!”

The leading monster dashed past the others before they followed after the Gamecock Yummy, it only took two seconds for Lyra to gallop after the group. “WAIT! I STILL HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS!”

“Lyra! NO!” Bon Bon yelled as she chased her friend.

Up in the clouds above the town, Shocker flew over Ponyville with Spring Heel on his back. The Phantom cackled loudly, “Some mares are just plain mad, but to see our grunts run away is just so sad.”

Shocker sighed loudly as he turned through the air, “Keep your trap shut Spring Heel. We’ll prepare the rest of our forces. Once we have done so, we shall take care of our Rider problem and satiate the desire of the Yummy.”

“I bet you’re just hoping that they don’t run into that crazy mare,” Spring Heel cackled with a wag of his knife-like claw. “She’d probably even give you a nasty scare.”

Shocker only growled in protest.

TTTTTT

“Hmm? Is there something on my face?”

Back in the library, standing the doorway to the kitchen was none other than Haru himself with a tray of coffee mugs being held up with one of his claws. The red dragon had his slim figure back, but he was still different looking than usual – His black spines were slicked back and had a blue streak to them, around his neck was a long blue scarf, and on the bridge of his scaly muzzle was a pair of glasses that highlighted his now sky blue eyes.

Twilight blinked a few times as the dragon sauntered into the room before he placed the tray of coffee on the same table where the mini Applejack was standing at. “Oh yes, Lady Twilight, I hope you don’t mind but I made coffee when I heard the voices. I’ll be sure to do dishes later when this is resolved.”

“Lemme guess,” Applejack squeaked out as Haru carefully placed an oddly small cup of coffee next to the miniature southern mare. “Mistah Souma was cursed too.”

“It isn’t a curse!” Twilight groaned, noting that the now classy dragon was passing out coffee to the mares. “… I just don’t know what’s going on with Haru. He was really rude earlier but now he’s… I don’t really know what to say about him right now.”

“Here you are Miss Pinkie,” Haru stated holding a mug to the pink mare in question. “I didn’t know if you liked coffee, so, I got you hot chocolate. I even managed to get some marshmallows too! Oh, and I didn’t forget to get some for you either, Lady Apple Bloom.”

Although she couldn’t speak, Pinkie Pie’s face lit up as she graciously accepted the mug of hot chocolate.

“At least he got rid of the garish jacket,” Rarity admitted looking through her long, unruly hair. “Although, I didn’t know you wore glasses Mister Souma.”

The oddly classy Haru merely shrugged his shoulders before he continued dispersing the fresh coffee. While Haru kept serving the beverages to the ever puzzled mares, Rainbow Dash freed herself from the ladder she was stuck in and floated carelessly about the air. “Enough talk about Wizard! We need to take action! It’s obvious we’ll find a cure to this hex at Zecora’s place!”

“It’s not a hex either!” Twilight yelled out, reeling slightly when she realized that there was a mug of steaming coffee right in front of her. “Ah!”

Gently pulling the coffee back so Twilight would bump into the mug, Haru smiled and brought his hand to his glasses. “You never know Madame Twilight, behind every word is a hundred hooks, a thousand lies. Perhaps there is more than what meets the eye. This Mademoiselle Zecora could know something.”

“Haru, you don’t tell me you believe in this curse stuff too!” Twilight gasped.

It was then that the entire library was filled with the mares’ protests about what to do, and mixed along with it was Spike’s laughter and the oddly suave Haru trying to diffuse the tension in the room. Nopony seemed to notice that Apple Bloom was silently walking out of the library with Kenny the Topaz Kraken following her.

Of course, the young filly didn’t notice that her ‘big’ sister jumped into her tail.

And when Apple Bloom had successfully escaped from the library, an odd, red disembodied arm slipped into the establishment, making sure it wasn’t seen by any of the ponies or dragons in the room.

“Okay! ENOUGH!” Dash yelled out, finally managing to somehow stay flying in one spot, awkward as she looked with her hind legs being pointed out at both her sides. “Twilight, I don’t care what you have to say, it’s time to pony up and get some answers from Zecora! C’mon! Who’s with me?!”

“Ahf am!” Pinkie spat out.

“And I as well,” Rarity chimed in.

Fluttershy looked away as she spoke, “Ah, well, I don’t know. She’s awfully dangerous.”

“Come on!” Rainbow Dash countered back, nearly losing her precious balance in the process. “There’ll be at least seven of us! We’ll fight any other hexes she’s got with a wizard of our own! What do ya say, Wizard?”

Haru swirled the coffee mug in his claws before he smiled, “Well, it wouldn’t be the gentlemanly… Er, I suppose it’s called, gentledragonly thing to let a group of mares go off on their own for something that could be dangerous. Don’t worry Lady Fluttershy, I shall go too.”

Twilight sighed. There was something odd about how Haru was referring to her and her friends, he never used honorifics before.

“And how about you, Applejack?” Dash asked.

After a few seconds with no answer, every pony turned to the table to see that there was no trace of the pocket-sized mare.

“Sphf gone!” Pinkie exclaimed, adding a fresh new coat of spit to the floor.

Rarity gasped as she lifted up one of her back legs to look at her hoof, “Or what if some pony stepped on her!”

All the mares frantically checked their hooves, even Haru and Spike looked at the bottom of their clawed feet.

It was then that something occurred to Twilight, a horrible thought dawned to her. “Or… Sat on her!”

All of the mares raised their flanks up, which prompted Haru to turn away slightly, and use his tail to cover Spike’s eyes. “Hey!”

“Sorry, but no fan-service for you,” Haru snickered before he took swig of his coffee.

“What if she fell in somepony’s drink?!” Dash exclaimed.

“The only one who took a drink was Mr. Haru…” Fluttershy pointed out.

Haru’s blue eyes widened when he realized all the mares were looking at him, and he had a mouthful of coffee in his maw so he couldn’t say a word.

But before the classy dragon could say a word, Rainbow Dash crashed into him (not on purpose mind you, she just lost balance) and Haru spat out his coffee onto the floor. But no Applejack

Twilight sighed in relief when she noticed something else, “Apple Bloom’s gone as well.”

Dash pushed herself off of the slightly dazed Haru, “Then they must’ve gone ahead to Zecora’s!”

“E-Excellent deduction, Miss Dash,” Haru sputtered as he kept his arms at his stomach.

“If that’s the case, then we need to find them!” Twilight replied as she trotted towards the door, leading the group. “Let’s go!”

And so the journey began – With the five mares and single dragon out to find their friends and save them from the evil clutches from the supposedly wicked sorceress, Zecora! Only Celestia knows what perils await them in the Everfree Woods!

But before they could find their friends in the woods, they had to get past their own personal perils. For example, Rarity tripped over her own long fur and fell face first into the library’s floor. “Oomphf! Oh, this is so unseemly!”

“Fear not, Lady Rarity,” Haru stated as he knelt down beside the shaggy pony, his clawed hand held out to her. “Allow me to aid you.”

“I see that your taste in style is as exquisite as your chivalry,” Rarity stated as she lifted her hoof, missing Haru’s claws. “Although, I’m not one to talk right now…”

“Lady Rarity,” Haru stated as he took Rarity’s hoof and aided her to the rest of her hooves. “A mare of your class is more than just your mane and fur, you are beautiful in my eyes.”

That statement caught everypony’s attention, including a certain purple dragon’s , who at the moment was glaring daggers at the back of Haru’s head (wondering if he could throw a book that far to hit the taller dragon). If her face wasn’t hidden behind the long locks of hair, Rarity’s crimson endowed face would be on display for everypony to see.

This didn’t go unnoticed by the glasses wearing dragon, and as he stood up, he pushed up his glasses with his claws. “Is there something wrong?”

“Wizard! What the Tartarus are you doing?!” Rainbow Dash yelled out as she clumsily flew in front of the dragon.

“Hmm? Oh, I see the problem,” Haru stated as he lifted his arm up. “I don’t know what I was thinking, Madame Dash.”

“Good, cause we don’t…” Rainbow Dash started…

But, before Rainbow Dash could finish her sentence, Haru had gripped her front hooves and his azure eyes looked deep into her rose colored ones. “It was so rude of me to neglect Equestria’s flying ace – Truly your flying is a work of art. Articulated wings that paint the sky while in motion.”

She didn’t know why, but for some reason Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but feel her face warm slightly…

TTTTT

Having barely escaped the insanity that was ensuing at the library, Apple Bloom galloped towards through the entrance of the Everfree with Kenny the Topaz Kraken familiar following her. The little filly’s eyes filled with determination and…

“Hold it right there missy!”

Apple Bloom skidded to a halt when she heard that familiar squeaky voice. The filly looked around to find her tiny big sister, unaware that the teeny Applejack popped up from the top of Apple Bloom’s mane. “Turn around right now!”

Kenny used one of his bejeweled tentacles to gesture up, and Apple Bloom realized that her older sister was atop her head. “Nope.”

“Nope?!?” Applejack questioned before she threw her hooves up into the air. “Ya’ll can’t ignore a direct order from yer big sister!”

Apple Bloom giggled, “Sorry Applejack, but Ah think Ah’m the bigger sister right now. Kenny?”

The Topaz Kraken grabbed Applejack from the filly’s head and lifted her to nearby branch, “Kenny! What in tarnation are ya doing!?”

Unfortunately, the familiar bowed its head slightly before it flew after Apple Bloom, leaving Applejack to groan loudly. “Apple Bloom! Kenny! Ya’ll get back here ‘fore Ah… ‘fore Ah… Aw pony feathers.”

The tiny mare sighed loudly as she looked around, unfortunately for her, Kenny had put her on a branch that was far too high from the ground for her to jump (it wouldn’t have been too bad of a jump if she was her regular size, but if she tried, she likely would’ve broken some bones in her body). ‘Maybe if Ah fashion a rope from some vines or something…’

“KeeeKeeeKee!”

Applejack blinked a few times as she looked deep into the woods, and her eyes widened as countless shadowed figures began to come into view towards the path in the woods. As they came closer, Applejack pulled a nearby leaf to keep herself hidden so she could see Spring Heel, Shocker and the Gamecock Yummy reaching the path, leading a small army of Ghouls and Trash Yummys (she didn’t know that they were Trash Yummys though). ‘Great, just what we needed for this whole curse thing – Them darn Phantoms! And looks like there’s an army of them! What in tarnation are they up to?’

Shocker, Spring Heel and the Gamecock Yummy stopped once they reached the dirt path, the three waiting for their army to follow suit. From where Applejack was standing, she couldn’t count how many in total there were, but there was enough to completely block the path they stood on. ‘At least it looks like they didn’t spot Apple Bloom.’

Shocker raised his right talon into the air while his left arm locked to his chest, “For the glory of Shocker! Ghouls! Trash Yummy! Forward march!”

“Step by step,” Spring Heel chuckled as the three leading monsters began to lead the army out of the Everfree Woods. “Our army shall eliminate those Riders inept!”

“Now you’re just stretching with your rhymes,” Shocker growled, not bothering to turn his attention away from the dirt road in front of him.

“Not like it’s a crime,” Spring Heel cackled loudly as he brought his claws up to cover his smirking face.

The bird-like monster sighed loudly with a shake of his head.

TTTTTT

Meanwhile, outside the very same woods, Twilight skidded to a halt to make sure that her friends were right behind her. Fluttershy, Rarity and Pinkie Pie were coming to a halt behind her and Rainbow Dash was flying through the air like a mad mare. But a certain dragon who had followed the group out of the library… and was constantly flirting with each of the mares with each step he took.

Needless to say, it made the entire journey to the forest a little bit awkward.

“Okay, where’d Haru go?” Twilight asked looking around.

“Last I saw,” Rainbow Dash stated with an annoyed look on her face. “Casanova was making a pass at Fluttershy.”

Twilight did notice that the yellow pegasus did have a shade of crimson dashed on her face, “I-I knew that M-Mister H-H-Haru was nice, but… But… I…!”

“Sheesh,” Rainbow Dash groaned. “Forget Wizard! Can we hurry this up? I’m starting to get a migraine with how this hex is messing with us!”

“Indeed Twilight, I’d like to get back to having a manageable mane,” Rarity sighed before she blew some of her hair out of her face again. “Rather sooner than later.”

“Buff whaff about fem?” Pinkie Pie spat out pointing towards the forest entrance.

The four other mares turned (Rarity had to move her hair out from her field of vision with her hoof again) back to the Everfree Forest where the small army of Ghouls and Trash Yummy being led by three different looking creatures – Shocker, Spring Heel and the Gamecock Yummy. Spring Heel cackled loudly while he brought up a claw to his snickering face, “Oooh! Lookie, lookie! Another welcoming party! Hey Shocker, here’s hoping that they won’t be like that mare who was quite so hearty.”

Shocker brought his talons up to his head and rubbed his temples. “Stop with the damn rhyming! It’s giving me a headache!”

Realizing that the five mares were leering at him, Shocker brought one of his talons towards the group, “Mares, this day is unfortunate for you, this army shall make you rue…”

”Make you rue? Makeru? Nakeru.”

A loud cracking sound echoed through the air before a loud booming voice sounded out, “Nakeru! Nakeru ze!”

Twilight blinked a few times at the odd language that sounded through the air, she had never heard it before. A little curious Twilight turned her head around and her eyes widened as a familiar dragon slowly began to walk up from behind. “W-What the?! Haru!?”

Rainbow Dash was about to turn to see where the dragon was coming from, but Haru had passed her and once again there was a definite change in the dragon. Gone were the glasses and scarf, and now his body was garbed in a yellow kimono with black vertical stripes running down the fabric with his usual hand-shaped buckler at his waist. Haru’s black scales were also pulled back and tied together with a string, with a bright yellow scale amongst them. “What the Tartarus?! What’s wrong with you now?”

Haru didn’t answer as he continued to walk past the ponies until he was standing in front of them with back to them and his arms crossed.

Rarity bit her lower lip before she yelped out, “Wha-Wha… MISTER SOUMA!!! What is that thing you’re wearing!? It’s so… So… It clashes with everything about you!”

The dragon didn’t respond.

“Ooh! Plis fis phawesum!” Pinkie cheered out with spit flying through the air.

“Um, where is Mister Haru getting all these clothes?” Fluttershy asked to nopony in particular.

“Oh, what fresh plop of Tartarus is this now?” Shocker groaned before he slapped his forehead with his talons. Using his free talons, Shocker slapped the Gamecock Yummy’s shoulder. “Get rid of him! And then clear the path! I’m getting tired of these theatrics!”

The rooster monster bowed towards his master before he threw his feathered fist into the air. Then with his fists raised up in a boxer’s stance, the Gamecock Yummy dashed towards Haru with a loud battle cry!

Twilight tried to think of a way out of this – If her magic was affected by whatever was wrong with her horn, then what if Haru’s magic was affected as well? In the mess of everything that had happened this morning so far, she neglected to ask the oddly acting dragon. ‘If he can’t use his magic, we’ll have to run! I can’t use my own magic, Rainbow doesn’t have complete control of her wings and… And…’

The Gamecock Yummy drew closer with its right arm pulled back.

“Girls! Haru! We have to run for…” Twilight started to yell out…

Only to have a clawed hand held out in front of her. Twilight turned to Haru who only took a step forward to cross his arms once more. “My strength…”

The Gamecock Yummy skidded in front of Haru, and before Twilight could even call out the dragon’s name, the rooster monster slammed its feathered fist into Haru’s face. Upon impact, a force of air made the loose dirt fly from the two, and even forced the mares back off slightly.

And yet, the Haru and the Gamecock Yummy seemed to be frozen in place, with the feathered monster’s fist still connected to the dragon’s face.

Then, with a shrill squawk, the Gamecock Yummy threw its right arm up into the air before the arm shattered into several silver medals that fell to the ground. The Yummy screeched in pain as it brought its other hand up to where its right arm was once before, trying to stop the cell medals that were pouring from its wound.

“Whoa,” Rainbow Dash muttered with her eyes wide. “So… Awesome!”

“Mmhm!” Pinkie chimed in with a smile around her stuck out tongue.

Shocker and Spring Heel looked at each other like the other was on fire.

And Twilight’s jaw had dropped. ‘How? Why? What?!’

The Gamecock Yummy lifted its head up with its eyes narrowed, only to realize that it was looking at a red palm with black claws that were right in its face. Haru was standing in front of the coin-filled monster with his right claw pulled back. “Has made you cry!”

Before the Yummy could react, Haru threw an open palm strike to the Gamecock Yummy’s stomach and the force flung the Yummy through the air with medals flying from its body. Both Shocker and Spring Heel jumped to the side to dodge the flying rooster. The Trash Yummy and Ghouls behind them weren’t as fast and the Gamecock Yummy crashed into them, flinging them into the ground and creating a large gap in the monstrous forces.

The Gamecock Yummy screeched out before its body exploded into countless cell medals, with the Ghouls and Trash Yummy exploding due to the force.

Everypony watching was awestruck with what just happened.

“Uh, Haru? How in Equestria did you do that?” Twilight asked, trotting up alongside the yellow garbed dragon.

Without a word, Haru slipped a yellow ring onto his left claw and widened his stance out to throw his right claw over the belt buckle. “DRIVER ON – PLEASE!”

“My strength has cleared a path for you,” Haru replied before he clapped his claws together in front of the materialized belt. “I shall stay here and fend them off.”

“LAND – PLEASE!

“Don Don DonDonDon!”

A large yellow rune appeared at Haru’s feet and crawled up with body with rocks and dirt floating up into the air along with it. As the rune climbed over Haru’s body, his entire form was covered with his topaz jeweled Wizard garb. However, when the rune disappeared over his head, several white tissues flew about the entrance to the woods. “My strength will make you cry. Wipe your tears with these!”

Wizard slammed his right hand into the ground, and immediately drew his hand back with a large golden battle axe. Then slowly, the axe wielding Wizard walked towards the large army.

Shocker growled before he threw his talon forward, “GET HIM!”

Wizard kept walking towards the forest, and none of the Trash Yummy or Ghouls were making a move towards the Wizard. In fact, they actually took a few steps backwards, trying to keep the distance between them and the imposing magical dragon.

“Why are you hesitating?!” Shocker screeched loudly as he turned towards the grunts. “GET HIM OR ELSE I’LL DESTROY YOU ALL MYSELF!!!”

Reluctantly, the large group of Ghouls and Trash Yummy charged towards Wizard. The magic garbed dragon lifted the rather crude looking axe, and just as the first of many monsters were about to attack, Wizard delivered a wide slash and knocked several Yummy and Ghouls up into the air.

“Twilight, do you have any idea what’s going on?” Rarity asked, while Wizard grabbed one of the Trash Yummy by its neck and tossed it into a group of Ghouls, knocking them over.

“Rarity, I’m seriously considering throwing logic out the window today,” Twilight sighed as she watched Wizard bring the axe down on a Ghoul’s chest, sparks flying from where the blade connected. “Let’s just get to Zecora’s while we have a chance.”

The mares galloped past Wizard, as the oddly stronger dragon slammed his tail into some of the Trash Yummy, clearing the path for the mares to gallop into the woods unhindered. Well, Rainbow Dash tried to fly over the mess, which resulted in her flying upside down into several bushes and branches until she crashed into the ground.

Dash groaned and tried to speak, but she realized that something was stuck in her mouth. Well, not something, but rather somepony. The small Applejack pulled herself from Dash’s mouth, “Rainbow! Thank Celestia! There’s no time to lose! Ah gotta find Apple Bloom!”

“Yeah, well, there’s kinda a few other…” Dash started, only to get a crudely made bit and reins from leaves, a stick and some vines, shoved into her mouth. “MHPHF!?”

“Ah need to find Apple Bloom, pronto!” the small Applejack stated as she jumped onto Rainbow Dash’s chest and grabbed hold of the reigns with her front hooves. “There’s an army of them there Phantoms in these woods, and Ah gotta find her pronto! So giddy-up, Pony!”

“Excuse me!?!” Rainbow growled through the bit.

“YYYYEEEE-HHAAAAWWWWW!” Applejack shouted before she slammed her back hoof into Rainbow Dash’s side.

That seemed to be enough to make the cyan pegasus’ wings move into action, propelling the mare into the air. “What the?!”

Meanwhile, back at the entrance of the forest, Wizard was quickly decimating the forces with his axe and surprising physical prowess. Shocker growled as he tightened his talons, “Spring Heel, it’s time that we step in and end this charade.”

The eagle Greeed was expecting another annoying response that rhymed, but the only thing that Shocker heard were the sounds of combat. “Spring Heel?”

Shocker turned to the side to see that Spring Heel was gone! And in his place was a single Ghoul that held up a piece of paper for Shocker to read. “Dear Shocker, I hate to cut and run, but seems that the time has come. With the ring mage fighting about, I have to go away without a shout. I had a few Ghouls pick up the cell medals from your Yummy, and left none for you, isn’t that funny? Enjoy fighting these riders that you obsess, but remember to keep calm and don’t be over taken by stress.

“Love, Spring Heel Jack.

“P.S. I’ll be back!”

Shocker roared loudly as he took the note and roared loudly as he ripped the paper up with his talons, scaring the Ghoul near him. “That lousy sonva-… I’m going kill him!”

“FLAME – PLEASE!

“Hii Hii HiiHiiHii!”

Shocker looked up from the remains of the letter to see that most of the Trash Yummy and Ghouls had backed off from the flames that covered Wizard’s body, turning the topazes on his suit into rubies. “Stupid Kuma hogging all the action, I’m the main star here! Me!”

Wizard threw his right hand towards Shocker, “Yo! Chicken Wuss, let me say this to start, I don’t give warning shots. From start to finish, I’m at a climax!”

It was then that Wizard threw his right thumb towards his chest, “Ore…”

Then he threw his left arm forward with his right arm behind him, Wizard struck a dynamic pose, “… Sanjou!”

“Ugh, I’m surrounded by idiots,” Shocker groaned loudly with a roll of his eyes.

Wizard spun around with flames erupting at his right hand, the flames seemed to solidify into a curved silver sword with a red hilt with a flame design in the steel. “Ikuze! Ikuze! Ikuze!”

TTTTTTT

While the sparks were flying outside the forest, Twilight and her slightly dwindling group of friends had finally reached what appeared to be Zecora’s home – A large, weird tree that had a number of tribal masks and charms about the shrouded grove. The whole area seemed to give off a spooky aura that sent chills down Twilight’s spine. “Okay, so this place looks spooky… That doesn’t mean she’s a bad pony.”

“Eviphif!!” Pinkie sputtered out with her eyes slightly narrowed.

“Pinkie says ‘Evil’,” Fluttershy translated.

Twilight rolled her eyes.

“I don’t know what’s more horrible,” Rarity sighed with her no longer covering one of her eyes. “Those dreadful and tacky monsters at the front of the forest, or the tacky decorations.”

The four mares quietly trotted up to the window of the house to peer inside. The inside of the house was just as creepy as the outside – a bubbling cauldron in the middle of the room, creepy masks hanging from the walls, vials, odd plants and other oddities atop of the shelves, and in the corner of the room was a statue of a familiar, bipedal figure with a familiar ring-like helmet.

That didn’t go unnoticed by the mares, but only Twilight spoke, “Is that Wizard? What is a statue of him doing in there?”

But before anypony could say a word, Zecora appeared in the room with an odd container in her mouth. The zebra no longer had her cloak on and revealed her thin physique with a sun-like mark on her hind quarters. Zecora trotted towards the bubbling cauldron and poured the contents of the container into the odd mixture.

With her mouth no longer holding onto the container, Zecora began to speak in an exotic tongue that seemed to have a familiar musical tone to it.

“Sthe sthtole my sthong! Shthe shtole mm mm!” Pinkie shouted out before she jumped away from the window.

“She stole your song dear?” Rarity guessed.

“Hmmm mmm!” Pinkie replied with a sad nod

“Pinkie,” Twilight sighed. “That doesn’t sound a thing like your song.”

Pinkie Pie was about to start singing but then realized that her tongue wouldn’t really allow for it. So, the pink earth pony put on the best set of puppy dog eyes and skidded to Fluttershy. The yellow mare sighed. “She's an evil enchantress

And she does evil dances
And if you look deep in her eyes
She will put you in trances
Then what would she do?
She'll mix up an evil brew
Then she'll gobble you up
In a big tasty stew
Soooo... Watch out.”

Throughout the song, Pinkie was doing the usual dance, ending with her front hooves raised over her head.

“You saw all those terrible things,” Rarity stated turning her head where she thought Twilight was. “Now do you believe us Twilight?”

Although Rarity was speaking to one of the masks that decorated the area, Twilight looked into the window once more and then turned back to her friends, “Scary looking masks, confusing incantations, a statue of Haru in the corner for some reason, and a great big bubbling cauldron? Everything does point to Zecora being… Bad… Or… What if she’s just making soup?”

Twilight could feel the leers her friends were giving her (except for Rarity who was possibly leering at the mask through her messy mane).

“Mmm, the perfect temperature for ponies, I presume.”

Everypony turned back to the window to see that Zecora was looming over the cauldron once more, “Now, where is that little Apple Bloom?”

All of the mares gasped as Twilight could feel her heart sink slightly, “Or… What if she’s making Apple Bloom soup?”

“That actually sounds really tasty,” an unfamiliar voice sounded out behind the group.

All four of the mares yelped loudly and spun around to see another zebra standing behind them – dressed in a purple baggy shirt with saddlebags on his back. The zebra smiled as he lifted his front hoof, “Oh! Hello Miss Sparkle! I didn’t expect to see you here. Are these your friends?”

It didn’t take long for Twilight to realize who she was speaking to, “Mr. Hino?”

Indeed it was the same zebra that seemed to keep bumping into the purple unicorn, and he wasn’t alone. “Mistah Hino! Ah’m not a soup!”

Next to Eiji (who was busy rubbing the back of his head with his hoof) was none other than Apple Bloom herself, also with saddlebags on her. Twilight, Fluttershy and Pinkie smiled at the filly, but it was hard to tell if Rarity was smiling.

“Apple Bloom!” Twilight gasped with joy as she trotted to the filly. “You’re alright!”

“Why wouldn’t Ah be?” Apple Bloom asked as she tilted her head. “Mistah Hino and Miss Zecora are really, really nice! And Mistah Hino’s really funny! He kept on losing them box…”

“Ah! A-Apple Bloom! N-No!” Eiji yelped loudly as he waved his front hooves about. “Y-You can’t discuss that in front of mares! It’s too embarrassing!”

“But Ah’m a mare,” the filly pointed out.

“T-That’s different!” Eiji stumbled about with his gray and black face starting to get a tint of red through his fur. “You found out by accident! Y-You’re not allowed to talk about it!”

“Twilight, just who is this character?” Rarity asked, trying to see through her long mane.

“Oh, well this is…” Twilight started to say.

“Eiji Hino, an eccentric nomad,” An exotic and familiar voice introduced, sending chills down the four mares’ spines. “Although he is a goofy zebra, he is a very good natured lad.”

Standing behind the mares was none other than Zecora with a bright smile on her face, “Next time when you try to sneak, it’s better to find a place where anypony can hear your loud speak. The pony folk from the day of fore, from the looks of you, you didn’t hear me when I tried to warn.”

“Warn? You cursed us!” Rarity growled, pointing her hoof at Eiji, surprising the young zebra. “You made me look ridiculous!”

“You made me sound ridiculous!” Fluttershy chimed in, her deep voice threw Eiji off at how a pretty mare could have such a deep raspy voice, a voice that was on par with a stallion’s.

“Yuff mahd miff talk ridoncilus!” Pinkie Pie sputtered out, the spit somehow managing to hit Eiji – Even though he was currently behind the mares.

The traveling zebra brought his hoof to his muzzle, “The mares in this country are a lot more…”

Eiji stopped himself when he realized that the three complaining mares now had their sights set on him, and the zebra whistled to himself.

This elicited some laughter from both Zecora and Apple Bloom. Twilight tilted her head with her horn wobbling at the same time, “W-What’s so funny? My horn is… Is…”

“Twi, it ain’t a curse,” Apple Bloom stated with a snicker in her voice.

“Indeed, even if these afflictions may seem to be the worst,” Zecora stated as she gestured towards Twilight’s horn. “I assure you all, this isn’t a curse. Yesterday you all came in contact with a plant much like the poison oak. But instead of a fate of itching, this plant loves to play a joke.”

“Right, Poison Joke,” Eiji stated as he reached into his saddlebags, and pulled out a plastic baggy that had a familiar looking blue flower in it. “When it comes into contact with equines, it usually makes the worst kind of ridicule-inducing affliction on said ponies. Has some good magical charms, and can even change a pony’s physical traits.”

Twilight sighed with a smile, “See? I told you all it wasn’t a curse, or a hex… They don’t exist.”

“AH’M COMIN’ FER YA, APPLE BLOOM!!!”

Everypony turned up to see a blue blur flying right towards them, but completely missed the group and crashed through the window and flew into Zecora’s home with a loud boom that erupted through the air. “Darn it Rainbow!”

“Hey! I wasn’t the one steering!”

“I apologize Apple Bloom,” Zecora sighed as she turned towards the filly. “But it sounds like the brew inside has faced its doom.”

Twilight peered into the window and winced as she realized that it was due to Rainbow Dash (with the still small Applejack holding on to some reigns that were sticking from Dash’s mouth) that the brew that Zecora was working on was now spilled all over the floor. At the moment, Dash was resting on the weird Wizard statue, with the head of the statue now knocked off. “What was that brew?”

“It was a natural cure for the Poison Joke,” Eiji stated as he reached into the saddle bags once more and pulled out a familiar book that he held in his mouth.

“Yeah, turns out that all ya need is a special kinda of bubble bath,” Apple Bloom stated as she pointed to the book in Eiji’s mouth. “It’s in this book that Zecora had.”

Twilight couldn’t help but notice that the book was titled ‘Supernaturals’. ‘… Spike’s never going to let me live that down.’

“Uh, Zecora?” Twilight sheepishly turned. “Would you be kind enough to make another batch of that herbal bath?”

The zebra merely smiled and nodded back. “Mix it up I certainly will. Yet I am missing herbs from Ponyville. The only vendor who was kind, was that one griffon with many charms that were a real rare find.”

It was then that a large explosion rocked the ground and drew everypony’s attention to where the path led to outside the forest.

“Oh right,” Twilight chuckled sheepishly. “I thought we forgot something…”

TTTTTT

“Hissatsu… My hissatsu attack!” Wizard announced as he brought his left hand up to the odd blade he held in his right hand as the remaining Ghouls and Trash Yummy charged towards him. “WIZARD VERSION!”

A powerful flame erupted over the blade before Wizard delivered a wide slash which sent the flames from the sword into the oncoming enemies. The flames crashed into the Ghouls and Trash Yummy, which caused them all to explode in a fiery explosion.

When the flames began to subside, Wizard stepped forward and raised the odd curved sword towards Shocker. “You’re next, Chicken Wing Bastard! Come on! We’re still in the climax! The action can’t stop here!”

However, before Wizard could continue flinging insults, several silver feathers flew into his torso and exploded, sending the dragon through the air until he landed on his back. “GAH! You bastard! That hurt!”

Shocker immediately landed over Wizard and brought one of his talons down on the masked dragon’s neck, making him drop his sword. “You Rider scum! After the day I’ve had to deal with, I’m going enjoy what I’m about to do to you a little too much!

“I’m going to start by digging my talon into your chest, right through those jewels you’ve got protecting you. Then I’ll rip out your still beating heart from your chest, and crush it right in front of your eyes!

“And then I’m going to do the same thing to Spring Heel!”

“W-Wait!” Wizard sputtered out as he tried to break free from Shocker’s grip. “Y-You can’t do that! We have to keep this story teen rated!”

“ENOUGH!” Shocker snarled before his other talon dove straight down into Wizard’s chest.

Wizard yelled out in pain, but then stopped when he came to a sudden realization. “Huh? It doesn’t hurt?”

Then it was Shocker’s turn to scream, as while is talon did stab into Wizard’s chest, it didn’t pierce through the magical dragon’s armor or body – Instead, it was as if the talon fazed into Wizard’s body. “This… This shouldn’t be possible! The only way this could happen is if… Wait, you have Core Medals in you?!”

“… Core what?” Wizard growled with his head tilted slightly.

Before Shocker said another word, two black hooves slammed into the back of his head, forcing him off of Wizard and his talon leaving Wizard’s body. That wasn’t the only then that shot out of Wizard’s chest, three odd coins flew from the air. The owner of the hooves flipped through the air and caught all three in his front hooves before he landed on the ground next to Wizard who sat up to shake his head. “Gah… Geez, what in Kida’s name? Where am I? Why am I in my Wizard garb? And why do I have a craving for pudding?”

“Uh, I can’t answer that last one,” Eiji stated as he pocketed the three medals before he offered a hoof to Wizard. “But, you’re in front of the Everfree Forest and I believe you’re dressed like that because you’re fighting the Shocker Greeed.”

Wizard took Eiji’s hoof, and the zebra helped the dragon to his feet as Shocker roared loudly, “For the love of…! Why isn’t anything going my way today!? I just wanted to get some Cell Medals and fulfill my own desires! Is that so much to ask?!”

“When your desire is to harm innocent ponies,” Eiji replied as he stood on his hind legs to reveal that he had an odd belt around his waist with a buckle that had three slots on it. “Then it’s us Kamen Riders who’ll stop you.”

“Kamen Riders?” Wizard questioned with a tilted head as he watch Eiji lift up three medals up with his hooves.

With a warm smile, Eiji snapped two of the medals into right and left slots of his buckler, then when he snapped the third one in, the zebra clicked the buckler to a horizontal degree and grabbed a disc that was connected to the right of his belt. “Riders should help each other out.”

Then with a swift movement, the mysterious zebra ran the disc in front of the buckler, with three musical chimes sounding out as it passed in front of the medals. Wizard then chuckled as Eiji lifted the disc to his chest. “I see, the one from yesterday…”

“HENSHIN!”

Several, large, phantasmal medals floated around Eiji’s body until three came to a halt in front of him, “TAKA! TORA! BATTA!

“TATOBA! TATOBA TATOBA!”

The three medals came together in front of Eiji’s chest before the conjoined emblem slammed into his body. Almost immediately, a black, armored suit materialized over Eiji’s form with a red, hawk-like mask, yellow shoulder pads with matching gauntlets that had three long claws attached to them, and green, insect-themed leg armor covering his hind legs. At the new armored zebra’s chest was the very same emblem that had melded with his form, with a red hawk at the top, a yellow tiger in the middle, and a green grasshopper in the middle.

“You bastards!” Shocker growled as he threw one of his talons forward. “Just who the Tartarus do you think are?!

“OOO,” The new masked equine answered as he lowered his front legs to the ground, getting into a pouncing stance. “Kamen Rider OOO!”

“Has a nice ring to it actually,” Wizard stated as he stepped forward holding his left hand up to show off the Flame Style ring gleaming in the light. “Kamen Rider Wizard, and it’s showtime.”

“Oooh, that was so cool!” OOO was in awe as he watched the masked dragon strike a pose. “I really need to get my own catchphrase.”

Shocker screeched loudly as his wings fanned out before he flapped the wings, sending several gray feathers towards the two masked defenders of justice. However, both Kamen Riders leapt in different directions just in time to dodge the exploding feathers.

While in midair, Wizard slipped a familiar ring on his right claw and waved it in front of his belt buckle. “CONNECT – PLEASE!”

Throwing his hand into the runic circle, Wizard pulled out his familiar WizarSwordGun and fired several rounds that zipped over the field and crashed into Shocker’s body, knocking the eagle-based monster stagger back with a number of medals falling from his body from where the magical bullets connected with his body.

Before Shocker could unleash a counter attack against the masked dragon, a loud tiger roar sounded behind him, and caused the Greeed to turn around just in time to see OOO charging quickly at him with the claws on his front legs extended. The yellow claws lashed across Shocker’s chest as OOO passed the coin filled monster. Glowing yellow wounds appeared over Shocker’s chest as even more Cell Medals fell to the ground and the winged being fell to his knee.

Rapid footsteps drew Shocker’s attention back to in front of him to see Wizard and OOO right in front of him. Wizard and OOO spun around before they slammed their feet into Shocker’s shoulders, making the monster fly backwards with several coins bouncing off of the ground before he landed on his feet. But then, the monster fell to his knee and gripped his chest. “H-How?! How were you two unable to defeat me yesterday, but today I’m on the losing end?!”

“Monsters like you never understand it,” OOO stated as he reached to the left side of his belt, and pulled out two more medals. “Riders stand together, and when we stand together, nothing can defeat us.”

“We are the beacons of hope,” Wizard added as he slipped another red ring on his left claw. “No matter what obstacles come our way, we will always fight, never giving up!”

Shocker spread his wings once more, but this time he flew up into the air, trying to put distance between him and the two riders.

OOO replaced the two left medals on his belt and immediately scanned the disc over the belt buckle. “TAKA KUJAKU CONDOR!”

The phantasmal medals appeared in front of OOO before they snapped together and flew into OOO’s chest. Flames flew from OOO’s body as his torso and leg armor turned a bright red with wing and talon-like additions to them with a disc-like shield on his front left leg. Even the hawk-like helmet flared out with a bright red visor now appearing in front of his face. “TAJADORU~”

Fiery wings erupted from the new red OOO’s back, and the masked zebra flew up into the air with several fiery feathers following him.

Wizard shook his head before he threw his left hand over his buckler, “Not gonna let you show me up.”

“FLAME – DRAGON!

“BOU BOU BOUBOUBOU!”

The familiar fiery dragon flew around Wizard’s body before his black cloak turned red and he transformed into Flame Dragon style with him grabbing another ring from his chain of rings.

Shocker flew higher and higher into the air, his wounds quickly closing up. “I’ll find another town , make another Yummy and… And…”

A loud eagle screech echoed through the air, drawing Shocker’s attention to see the phoenix-like OOO soaring right behind him. The winged Greeed spun around and flapped his wings at OOO, sending more feathers towards the chasing Kamen Rider, OOO did the same, with fiery feathers shooting from his flame covered wings.

The projectile feathers from both sides collided and exploded between the two winged fighters. Shocker flew towards OOO and brought his talon down on the red armored zebra. OOO lifted up the shield up and blocked the attack before he pulled the shield back and slammed his left hoof into Shocker’s chest with a fiery punch. Shocker grunted before he took a swipe with the other talon, but missed as OOO fell backwards.

Throwing the shield forward, a powerful flame erupted from the OOO’s left hoof and slammed into Shocker’s body. And with a loud painful screech, Shocker’s wings stopped supporting his weight and he began to fall. OOO’s wings propelled him to fly to the right to dodge the falling Greeed.

“Time to end this!” OOO announced as he grabbed the disc on his belt once more and scanned it over his belt buckle once more.

“SCANNING CHARGE!”

A large flame surrounded OOO’s body before he fell after Shocker.

The eagle-like monster growled as he continued to fall towards the ground, seeing OOO coming after him once more, both of the Zebra’s hind legs pointed at Shocker. “You think that’s enough to stop me?! You riders can never…!”

“NICE CHOICE – KICK STRIKE!

“THE BEST!”

Shocker craned his head back to see that Wizard had propelled himself from the air with flames at the dragon’s back, his right foot aimed towards Shocker with embers erupting from the masked dragon’s heel.

A scorching phoenix from above. “SEI-YA!”

A blazing dragon from below. “The finale!”

With the two infernos closing in on him, Shocker brought his right talon to his chest and then threw his arm up into the air. “To the illustrious Dai Shocker! DAI BANZAI!!!”

Both rider’s kicks connected into Shocker’s body before the eagle-like monster erupted into a fiery explosion that had several medals raining down to the ground. Along with the medals, both red donned riders landed on the ground, with the medals bouncing off their armor.

Wizard chuckled as he lifted his arms up to catch some of the medals in his claws. “Now this is my kind of rain.”

“Yeah, but it’s a pain in the flank to pick them all up,” OOO stated as he lowered his head. “Better get started. Mind giving me a hoof? Or claw in this case?”

Wizard shrugged his shoulders, and began to grab some of the cell medals that were on the ground.

“That. Was. AWESOME!”

Wizard and OOO turned to the entrance of the Everfree Woods to see all of the mares who were in the woods throughout the fight, although managed to see the final attack that the two Kamen Riders delivered to Shocker, and they could see Rainbow Dash was haphazardly flying about as she kept shouting.

“Somepony tell me what happened, I couldn’t see!” Rarity demanded, trying to pull back her mane. “Do it again!”

“That’s Eiji, right?” Twilight asked when she turned to Zecora. “I thought only Haru had that sort of ability… Is Mister Hino a mage as well?”

“The sort of power Eiji owns of ancient lore,” Zecora answered as she pointed a hoof to the red armored zebra. “But his power is not of magic, but the medals he uses allow him to soar. My child, there are many other ponies who wear a mask. To protect the hope and dreams of all ponies is their task.

“The two we see before are a part of that select few, and although it’s hard to believe, I assure you it’s true.”

“Yes, yes, while this is all fascinating,” Rarity interrupted. “But can we please get that natural cure please? I feel like there’s a bird about to make a nest in my mane.”

Wizard tilted his head slightly at the mares, “… Okay, something’s different about you ladies today.”

TTTTTT

Dear Princess Celestia,

My friends and I all learned an important lesson this week: Never judge a book by its cover. Someone may look unusual, or funny, or scary. But you have to look past that and learn who they are inside.
Real friends don't care what your "cover" is; It's the "contents" of a pony that count. And a good friend, like a good book, is something that will last forever.

Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.

P.S.
Do we have any books that refer to the term ‘Kamen Rider’ in the royal library?

“Did you get all that, Spike?”

“Yup!” Spike replied as he pulled the quill from the parchment to look at all the mares who were now soaking in a large spa bath.

After witnessing the curbstomp of a battle between the two masked individuals and monster, the comical group of ponies with Apple Bloom and Zecora had made their way back to Ponyville, and after some explanation to some of the local shops, the mares were now in the Ponyville Day Spa with the herbal bath that Zecora had whipped up.

And almost immediately getting into herbal bath, the effects of the Poison Joke were washed away.

“Ah, much better,” Rarity sighed with relief as she shook the water from her regularly styled mane. “I was getting worried that I’d be stuck with that horrendous mane style. And this bath is simply divine, Zecora.”

“Oh my gosh!” Pinkie cheered as she splashed some water about with her hooves. “I had no idea how bad it was that I couldn’t talk! It was the worst! Ooh! I hope I never have to deal with that again! How about you Fluttershy? Don’tcha agree?”

Fluttershy smiled before she calmly spoke, “Yes.”

“Thanks again Zecora,” Twilight stated as she watched the zebra pour in more of the herbs into the bath water. “And sorry for thinking you were an evil sorceress.”

Placing the jar on the floor, Zecora nodded towards Twilight, “Rest your fears, Twilight. Your fears were caused by a small insight.”

“Hey Zecora,” Dash said, stretching out her readjusted wings by flying over the bath. “I gotta ask, how come you’ve got a statue of Wizard in your place? You know the scaly guy?”

“Actually, that’s something I’m curious about as well,” Twilight added. “Do you know Haru?”

“Until today, the dragon’s name was quite unknown,” Zecora answered as she trotted around the water. “The statue I found one night in the woods when I walked back from this town.”

“Hey ladies!”

Speaking of the dragon, Haru and Eiji walked into the spa, making their way to the upper level to where the bath was. Both of the riders had saddle bags that were filled to the brim with so many Cell Medals that some of them bounced out of the bags. While the mares were curing their afflictions, the dragon and male zebra were hard at work trying to gather the Cell Medals that came from Shocker’s defeat.

Haru was back in his usual black jacket and waved a claw at his friends, “Feeling better?”

“Ah think we should be askin’ ya’ll that question, Mistah Souma,” Applejack stated, having gotten to her original size thanks to the herbal bath the southern trotted up to the dragon. “Ya’ll were acting all weird today, so that Poison Joke must’ve gotten to ya too. Ya’ll should take a dip too.”

The dragon scratched the side of his head, “Like I said before, AJ, I don’t remember anything about today before I met Eiji here. And I feel fine.”

It was then that Spike slowly walked up to Haru, drawing the taller dragon’s attention, “Oh, hello there Spike. Haven’t seen you at all today, what’s going on?”

WHAM!

Haru’s eyes widened as he brought his right leg up, his shin now sporting a fresh bruise, “OW! WHAT THE TARTARUS SPIKE!?!”

Instead of a verbal answer though, Spike just spun around and slammed his tail into Haru’s other leg, making the red dragon fall backwards and into the bath. The mares in the herbal bath managed to get out of the way before Haru fell into the water with a large splash.

A few seconds later, Haru’s head peeked out of the water, and he spat out some of the water that got in his mouth.

“Spike!” Twilight colded.

“What? He needed to get in the bath anyway,” Spike defended.

The entire spa filled with laughter, save for Haru’s laughter

TTTTTTTT

Meanwhile…

“What a great haul today,” Spring Heel cackled loudly as he walked the path away from Ponyville, two Ghouls behind him carrying sacks filled with Cell Medals. “Got my instant army, screwed over Shocker, and even had some time to play! But soon, my plan shall be enacted in full, and soon, I shall be the Phantom with all the pull!”

Both of the Ghouls looked at each other and shook their heads at their master’s declaration. This Phantom sure did like his rhyming monologues.

“The best part of my little plan, if I do say so myself,” Spring Heel added to his monologue as he flipped a cell medal into the air a few times. “Is that nopony can stop me, and I can feel my pride a growing all by itself!”

“Nopony can stop you, eh?”

Spring Heel and the two Ghouls stopped in their tracks and looked down the path to see an odd figure leaned up against a single tree in front of them. The figure was dressed in a black jumpsuit with golden armor covering his body, a large lion head-shaped shoulder pad covered his right arm with the lion’s mane stylized to flow over his chest. The individual’s head was covered with an odd, feline-like mask with large green eyes. “Good thing I’m no pony.”

Spring Heel tilted his top hat covered head at the gold armored individual, “Oh? Another freak in a mask. Are you here to interrupt my task?”

“I don’t really care for your ‘task’,” The golden individual replied as he pushed himself off of the tree and turned to face the Phantom. “All I see is a main course with two side dishes.”

“What? That makes no sense,” Spring Heel questioned before he threw his cloak up to reveal his skinny, yet oddly formal attire covered, figure. “But it doesn’t matter! I’ll make you disappear into the past tense!”

Spring Heel threw his right, claw endowed hand forward, and it shot towards the golden individual. The Phantom’s arm was coiled like his name sake and the claw was just about to connect with the golden individual’s head.

But, with just a slight tilt of his neck, the claw covered hand barely scratched the side of his helmet. In the next instant, the golden individual wrapped his white gloved hands around the spring like arm and pulled with all his strength. “GRAGH!”

Spring Heel screamed loudly as he was lifted off his feet and yanked toward the golden individual. Said individual released his grip and dashed towards the oncoming Phantom, his right arm pulled back.

WHAM!

The golden individual’s fist connected with Spring Heel’s face and slammed the phantom into the ground, creating a small crater into the dirt path. When the golden individual removed his fist, there was a definite imprint of his three fingers in Spring Heel’s face, and smack dab right between the Phantom’s eyes was an imprint of a ring.

Spring Heel snarled as he quickly pushed himself from the ground and immediately used his name sake ability to propel him into the air, not even caring that his top hat had fallen off in the process. “A lucky shot from the new guy! But now it’s time to say buh-bye!”

While up high into the air, Spring Hell drew his cloak around him, almost covering his entire body. When he threw the cloak off again, several sharp knives were hanging off of his body, and with a spin, the Phantom quickly threw the knives down towards the golden individual…

… who didn’t even move when the knives connected with his body, but oddly enough, there was a good reason why the golden individual didn’t move. The knives just bounced off his armor and jumpsuit without causing even a single scratch to him. In fact, the golden individual just sighed in annoyance before he crouched down. “Really? That’s the best you can do? You’re not making this hunt all that exciting.”

Then using his powerful legs, the golden individual leapt towards Spring Heel, who in turn laughed loudly, “What a fool! Do you really think you can reach my height! Now it’s time…”

“To end this fight!” The golden individual announced as he reached for a chain of rings that were attached to his belt and pulled a ring off it and replaced the ring he had on his right hand.

“FALCO! GO – F-F-F-Falco!”

A loud bird screech echoed through the air as several red feathers appeared around the golden individual’s body and he disappeared in a red and gold blur. Spring Heel’s eyes widened when he lost track of his opponent. “Right behind you!”

The Phantom turned around just in time to get a familiar fist planted right between his eyes. The force rocketed Spring Heel to the ground, and the ground shook upon impact. Dirt and debris flew from the crash site, and as the dust began to settle, Spring Heel pushed himself off of the ground, his entire body wracked with pain. “How in the world can I be put in such a pinch? Normal ponies to harm me shouldn’t be such a sinch!!”

“GO! KICK STRIKE! FALCO MIX!”

Spring Heel craned his head up just in time to see a titanic phantasmal red falcon appear over the golden individual’s body, his right leg extended in front of him and into the falcon’s beak. The phantasmal falcon and golden individual crashed into the Phantom’s chest, and at first, the only thing that happened was that the phantasmal flacon scattered into several red feathers, and the two fighting magical beings seemed to be frozen in place.

But then, several red and golden sparks flew from Spring Heel’s body as he slowly lifted his hand up. “T-This is the can’t be how my story stops! My plans! My ideals! All my work! It’s all a flop! Just what are you supposed to be?! A being who defeat a Phantom with such ease?!”

“Wanna know the name?” the golden individual asked before he twisted his foot around on Spring Heel’s chest. “Then take it with you as you get devoured!

“BEAST!”

The sparks erupted into a powerful explosion, allowing Beast to land on the ground. The flames that surrounded him immediately turned into a gold runic circle that floated in front of Beast. The mysterious golden individual clapped his hands together before the circle was drawn into his belt buckle, with a loud gulping sound. “Hmm, has a bit of a tangy after taste, still, I’ll take it.

“Thank you for the meal!”

The two Ghouls who just witnessed their master’s defeat stepped back and immediately dropped the sacks of cell medals to the ground. Unfortunately, this garnered Beast’s attention towards the two, “Oooh, a pair of desserts – Just the right chaser after that meal.”

While the two Ghouls were being smacked down by Beast, a certain, mint green pegasus watched the entire scene from a cloudy perch, blowing a large pink bubble from his mouth. ‘Hmm, I knew it was a good idea to follow Spring Heel Jack, otherwise I wouldn’t have found this little treasure right here.

‘A lot of good treasures I found today – This new interesting character, and of course this little number.’

Looking down at his hoof, Sora’s bubble of gum popped, allowing him to smirk at the golden medal in his hoof that had an eagle on it. ‘So much fun to be had now-a-days! But it’s not yet time!’

TBC

Author's Note

MangaKamen: Whew! I never wrote that long of a chapter within a week, but damn it, I did! I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, and all the twists and turns that happened. I hope you enjoy it, cause I'm gonna be gone for a week and a half, VACATION!

... With the family. Joy.

But in any case, I'll be back in a while, with a new intermission chapter for you all to enjoy and laugh at.

On related notes, my friend FlairNightz / Lux-Nero is working on the comic for this story, but he needs more support in order feel motivated to continue (he's got his own projects to work on so it's not his fault). So, can you guys do your good friend MangaKamen and get more people to support him?

I'd greatly appreciate and I'll even do something awesome that will allow you guys to help with the story here. I'll reveal it in my author's notes next chapter, so please be patient.

Spell 19 - Canterlot Royal Business Part 1

Dear Haruto Souma,

It is an honor to finally be writing to you, I have heard a lot about you from my student – Twilight Sparkle. Your ability to use magic, and the unique spells that you have demonstrated before my student have caught my attention. There are a number of other things about you have drawn my attention.

It is at this point that I ask that you keep the rest of this letter’s contents to yourself from my student, for reasons I shall explain in the following paragraphs.

In her letters, Twilight has brought up a certain term that has drawn some concern – Phantoms. Although I am not an expert on the subject of these odd creatures, I have heard of them. And there are a number of reports from my soldiers about odd creatures that share characteristics with the descriptions that Twilight has sent me.

What’s more concerning is that the reports are stating that the sightings are drawing closer to Canterlot. The reports come from both civilians and the royal guard, but there have been no incidents thus far, but nopony knows how long the calm will last before this storm will arise.

Therefore, I would like to ask for you to come to Canterlot with Spike when he returns with to do his Canterlot Royal Business. I would like you to meet with the captain of the Royal Guards so that he can get a better understanding of these Phantoms, their abilities, and if it is necessary, aid the guards.

If you are worried about Ponyville and your friends, do not worry. They will be in capable hooves, I assure you.

From,

Princess Celestia

P.S.

I am certain Twilight Sparkle will be curious about how this letter is not addressed to her. Have fun with that.

Haru looked over the letter once more as he relaxed on the couch, silently reading it in his mind. After the day he had at Fluttershy, when he returned to the Golden Oaks Library in the evening (after getting his ankles bandaged up by the mare – even though she was confused why Haru was hanging around upside down from the tree with a few scratches covering his body. She didn’t believe the fact that her bunnies used him as a dragon piñata), Haru was surprised to find not only a letter waiting for him, but a large, green magic stone.

The dragon dulled his eyes slightly as he quickly lowered the letter to his chest, “I feel eyes on me.”

“Come on Haru!” Twilight pleaded as she poked head up from behind the side of the couch, trying to read the letter. “What did Princess Celestia write to you?”

“Legally, I don’t have to tell you,” Haru replied as he kept his claws tight on the unfurled scroll, making sure that Twilight couldn’t get a chance to read it. “It is a private letter.”

“But it’s from Princess Celestia!” Twilight replied with her eyes narrowed at the red dragon in front of her.

“And?” Haru asked with a raised brow. “Your point is? Not every letter Celestia sends has to be for you, and in fact, it’s addressed to me.”

“Fine!” Twilight groaned loudly as she rolled her eyes at the dragon. “But can you at least tell me what the letter says? Is it important?”

“Well, apparently somepony’s been writing about me,” Haru chuckled before he tucked the letter into his jacket. “I didn’t know you thought I was so awesome, I’m rather flattered that you’d speak highly of me to royalty.”

Twilight reeled slightly with a slight blush on her face, “T-That’s… I…”

Haru snickered with a wide grin on his face, “Heh, just having some fun with ya Twilight.”

Twilight rolled her eyes at the dragon.

“I’ve just been asked to go to Canterlot with Spike,” Haru replied with a wag of his claws. “Apparently, you’ve sent a few reports that have talked about Phantoms, and Princess Celestia would like for me to meet with the guards about them.”

“I see,” Twilight muttered as she brought a hoof to her mouth. “I hope you don’t mind me telling Princess Celestia about you, Haru. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you that I was telling Celestia about you.”

“It’s not a big deal Twilight,” Haru answered, the smile appearing back on his face. “I mean, I transform in front of anypony without a second thought, and it’s not like I’m actually trying to keep my identity a secret.”

“Then, why the mask?” Twilight asked with her head tilted. “Why wear it if you don’t need to hide your identity?”

“Because it’s cooler to wear it,” Haru replied as soon as Twilight finished asking her question.

The lavender unicorn sighed under her breath at the answer. The magical dragon chuckled, “Just kidding, kinda. It provides protection for my head, I prefer not to not get hit at all, but you can never be sure.”

“Right, so what are you going to do?” Twilight asked. “About the Princess’s request, I mean.”

“Well, it’d be rude to deny a request from the Princess,” Haru replied as he pushed himself off of the couch. “So, if it’s okay with Spike, I’ll head off with him when he does his… Canterlot Royal Duties, right?”

Twilight nodded to the sleek dragon in front of him, which allowed Haru to smile, “Good, now, when does he leave? Next week?”

“Actually, tomorrow morning,” Twilight replied with a nervous grin.

At that moment, Haru’s blue eyes shrunk when he heard that and he sighed loudly.

TTTTTTT

It was a cloudy morning at Ponyville’s train station, with many ponies walking about the wooden platform near the train. Amongst the crowds, there was an odd group of four near one of train’s entrances which managed to garner a lot of gazes from the incoming ponies. After all, it wasn’t every day that a group of two dragons, a single unicorn and a zebra (who had a stick with a pair of colorful boxers stuck on it) together at a train station.

“This is so awesome!” Spike cheered out as he lifted up his claws. “I can’t wait to show you all over Canterlot, Haru! I know the best places to go, and there’s this one doughnut shop that’s got the best doughnuts in the world!”

Haru didn’t answer. The bags under his eyes, his legs barely holding up his body, and dull gaze in his blue eyes told the tale of a sleepless night. At the moment, he was barely conscious.

“Uh, Miss Twilight,” Eiji coughed as he looked at the tall dragon who was teetering on his feet. “Is Mister Souma alright? When he came by Zecora’s last night, he was in a bit of a hurry.”

“Well, he had to get himself ready for this trip,” Twilight stated as she used her magic to pull out a pair of emerald jeweled rings from the black jacket that Haru was wearing. “And he spent a little bit of time on these two. So, he’s a little drained. But, why did Haru visit you and Zecora last night?”

“Well, Mister Souma wanted to ask me to watch Ponyville for a week or so,” Eiji explained with a smile on his muzzle. “I have to stay here for about a week or so anyway to have Zecora do something for me, so it’s no trouble.”

“That’s good to know,” Twilight stated as she tilted her head at the zebra. “But, and not to sound rude, but what exactly is Zecora doing for you?”

“Oh, not much,” Eiji replied as he brought his hoof to the back of his head. “She’s just trying to help me fix something, it’s something for a friend.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Spike sighed as he flexed his claws in a mouthing manner. “Are you sure you don’t wanna come Twilight? I’m sure everypony would want to see ya.”

“I would love to go Spike,” Twilight answered with a warm smile. “But somepony needs to stay here and watch the library.”

‘Besides, I really need a few nights of calm reading – I haven’t had a chance to do one of my late night cram sessions. The only thing that might make that difficult is the storm that’s set to happen this week.’

Spike shrugged it off, “Okay, your loss then. C’mon Haru! Let’s get go get our seats!”

“Meh,” the older dragon grumbled with his eyes struggling to keep open.

The purple dragon rolled his eyes at Haru before he stomped his foot on Haru’s tail, making the red dragon’s eyes widen as the pain. “GAH! I’M AWAKE!”

A few minutes later, the two dragons were on the train waving to Twilight and Eiji through the window as the large train began to pull away from Ponyville’s train station. Eiji and Twilight waved before they could no longer be seen from the train, allowing Haru to recline in his seat with his claws thrown behind his head. “Spike, I’m gonna try to get some sleep, you okay with that?”

“That all depends,” Spike chuckled as he licked his chops. “Can I get a few bits to visit the snack car?”

“Don’t you have your own bits?” Haru asked with his head tilted slightly.

“Yeah, but I wanna save them for Canterlot,” Spike state as he held his claws out to Haru. “So, c’mon! Spare a fellow dragon some bits so I can get some primo sweets!”

The sleek red dragon sighed as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a few bits that he dropped into Spike’s claws. “There, that should get you something – Do me a favor, if they got any plain sugar doughnuts bring me back one, kay?”

Spike saluted before he began to run through the train’s car, allowing Haru to take up the full seat so he could lay down. ‘The estimated arrival time will be about two and a half hours by train – It won’t be much, but I need to catch up on my sleep.’

Slowly, the magical dragon’s eyes began to close and he began to drift asleep…

“Hello, hello!”

Haru’s eyes immediately shot open and he craned his head slightly to the side to see a rather husky looking unicorn stallion looking at him. The unicorn had pale fur with a neatly combed, short mane with glasses atop his muzzle and he was wearing a black business jacket. All in all, the stallion didn’t have any features to really comment on – He was bland, pure and simple.

B-L-A-N-D! BLAND!

And his dark, dull eyes were gleaming right into Haru’s blue eyes, “Uh… Hello…”

The bland stallion bowed his head towards Haru before he turned his attention towards the seat across from Haru. “I hate to bug you, but do you mind if I sit across from you?”

Haru swiftly turned his gaze around the train car – taking note that there was hardly anypony in the car. The only others in the car were a familiar pair of mares that Haru saw around Ponyville (were their names Lyra and BonBon? Haru didn’t really talk to either of them, so he didn’t know) as well as a fancily dressed griffon who had a bowler derby hat and an umbrella who was preoccupied with a newspaper. Haru turned his attention back towards the stallion, “Oh yes, the place is positively packed, you can sit wherever you want and…”

“Excellent,” The stallion replied as he jumped atop of the seat. “Thank you very much! You know, this is the first time I’ve ever seen a dragon, especially one that was so very close! And I’ve never thought I’d ever see one on a train. Oh! Right, I haven’t introduced myself yet – I’m Sigrun Mist! A pleasure to meet you Mister Dragon! I can’t wait for the others back at the offices in Canterlot to hear about this! I’m sure they won’t believe me, they didn’t believe me about the one time I saw a blue diamond dog who had a katana and wore a cloak with ‘S.P.D’ on its back – What do you think SPD means? Super Power Dog?”

‘Ugh… This is gonna be a looooooong train ride, isn’t it?’ Haru thought to himself as Sigrun Mist continued rambling on and on about how his co-workers wouldn’t believe that he’s actually having a conversation with a dragon.

‘Shoutarou Ishimori – Why do you hate me so today?’

TTTTTTT

Spell 19

Canterlot Royal Business
Part 1

TTTTTTTT

Canterlot – the capital of Equestria – as one would expect would it to be, was a very large and beautiful city filled with a great number of unicorns. The city itself had many tall buildings surrounding the pinnacle of the city – The castle – which could be seen by all. It was hard to miss the mountainside spires of Canterlot, especially when pulling into the train station.

“… And wow! Two dragons! TWO DRAGONS! THERE’S NO WAY ANYPONY’S GONNA BELIEVE ME!”

A hour or so into the ride, Spike had returned from the snack car (with a chocolate doughnut, no less!) to have Sigrun Mist gush over the two dragons in front of them. Spike didn’t really mind the stallion gushing over him, in fact, the baby dragon seemed to really enjoy the attention.

Haru on the other claw was completely livid about how this stallion was talking for the last two hours, twenty-nine minutes and thirty-three seconds, and it was taking everything that Haru had left of his mentality to keep himself from attacking Sigrun Mist just to shut the earth pony up. ‘Remember Haruto Souma, you’re a good guy! You don’t use your power against innocent ponies! Even if they annoy you to death!’

“Gather your belongings!”

Haru’s dark thoughts slowly faded away when he saw one of the conductors trotting past the seats, stopping every few seconds to call out, “Gather your belongings! We’ll be arriving in Canterlot in a few minutes!”

“Aww, and I was so enjoying talking to you dragons!” Sigrun replied with his lower lip pursed out slightly as he jumped from his seat and began to trot away. “But I really need to get my things in order before we arrive.”

‘THANK YOU, SHOUTAROU ISHIMORI!!!’ Haru thought to himself with tears welling up in his eyes.

“Hey Haru! Look!” Spike stated as he tapped Haru’s arm, while gesturing towards the window.

This prompted Haru to look out the window to see that the train was now entering the walls of Canterlot – The light gleaming through the clouds highlighting the city’s natural beauty made Haru’s stress melt away while he and Spike fought to take more of the window for themselves so they could see the city.

“Man, it still looks amazing,” Haru muttered with a smile appearing on his scaly face.

“You’ve been here before, Haru?” Spike questioned before he took a bite from the chocolate doughnut that Haru had neglected to eat.

“A… A long time ago,” Haru answered the train slowed down near Canterlot’s train station. “Just stayed here for a few days, but it was when I was really young, so I don’t remember too much. By the way Spike, you never told me where we’re going to be staying while we’re here.”

The train came to a halt when Spike swallowed the doughnut he had in his mouth, “Oh, don’t worry about that! Shiny’s already here!”

“Shiny?” Haru questioned.

Spike pointed out the window towards the platform where several unicorns were standing on – But the one that Spike was pointing towards was a tall stallion with a white coat with a long sapphire colored mane and tail, with deep blue hooves. His cutie mark seemed familiar to Haru, even though it was a blue shield with a lavender spark in the middle of it with three stars over the shield. ‘It kinda looks like… But…’

“C’mon Haru!” Spike called out.

Haru snapped from his thoughts again to realize that Spike was jumping off of the seat with his backpack in his claws. The older dragon quickly reached under to grab his own knapsack and followed the little dragon, “Spike! Wait up!”

A few moments later, both dragons were on the platform and were looking at the white stallion before them. For a moment, Haru just stared at the unicorn in front of him – realizing that the stallion had his gaze piercing at Haru skull. ‘Yeesh, what’s this stallion’s deal? If looks could kill… Well, if looks could kill, I’m pretty sure Phoenix wouldn’t have been defeated by me, but by Fluttershy…’

“Hey there Shiny!”

Haru blinked a few times to realize that Spike was running up to the stallion, and as the baby dragon drew closer, the stallion’s gaze softened and he brought up one of his hooves to the top of Spike’s head. The stallion then messed up the spines on the small dragon’s head, “Spike! It’s been so long! I barely recognized you! You’ve gotten so big!”

“Shiny!” Spike moaned as he playfully swatted the Unicorn’s hoof from his head. “There are only two dragons here! How could you barely recognize me?”

“Well, you still got bigger,” the stallion replied as he drew his hoof from Spike’s head. “Pretty soon you’ll be beating off the mares with a stick Spike… Unless you finally hooked up with that one mare you kept writing about.”

Spike’s face flushed slightly as a large smile drew on his face, “Don’t you worry about that! I’ll be winning that fair mare’s hoof in due time!”

The stallion chuckled with the smile on his face growing, “So, how’s Twily doing? I assume she’s still at the library studying the days away?”

‘Twily?’ Haru thought to himself.

“Yeah, ever the egghead,” Spike snickered with his arms crossed. “I’m a little worried about her though… Without her number one assistant around, Twilight will probably do something weird.”

“What’s the worst that could happen?” the stallion replied before he turned his attention back to Haru, his eyes still maintaining the kindness he was showing the younger dragon.

Spike picked up on this and held his claws up towards Haru, “Oh right! I almost forgot! Shiny, this is…”

“Haruto Souma,” ‘Shiny’ replied as he lifted up a blue hoof towards the taller, red dragon. “Am I correct?”

Haru tilted his head slightly before he wrapped his claws around Shiny’s hoof, “Yes you are. I am Haruto Souma, but feel free to call me Haruuuuuuurk!”

Haru’s eyes widened when he realized that ‘Shiny’ had his claws in a very tight hoofshake, and he wasn’t easing up on the pressure. “Well, Haruk, I am Shining Armor – The Captain of the Canterlot Royal Guard.”

Shining Armor lessened his grip and pulled his hoof back, taking note that Haru was shaking his claws, “I am also the older brother of Twilight Sparkle, and the foster brother to Spike here.”

“Wait, Captain?” Haru questioned, still shaking his hand slightly. “Wait, your Twilight’s older brother?! She never said anything about having a brother…”

“Twily’s really smart,” Shining chuckled as he rubbed the back of his head. “But she often gets lost in her studies, and it has a bit of… Backlash. So, I’m not surprised that she didn’t tell anypony about me. Or in this case, any dragon. Still, welcome to Canterlot you two!”

“Thanks Shiny!” Spike replied with a bright smile on his face, oblivious to the tension that was building up between the older dragon and stallion.

“You two must be tired,” Shining replied before he used his magic to lift off Spike’s backpack from the dragon. “How about we get you two settled into your accommodations and then we’ll get some lunch?”

“Sounds awesome! Can we get some rubies?” Spike pleaded with claws clasped together and his eyes gleaming at the white Stallion.

Shining Armor chuckled as he began to trot off with Spike in tow, “Sure thing little guy! Anything for you!”

Haru rubbed his chin with his claws, but shrugged his shoulders before he followed the two.

TTTTTT

Canterlot was a bustling city, with it’s mostly unicorn population trotting through the streets to perform their daily rituals. Most of these unicorns had a certain air about them, one of superiority, especially considering that most of them had their noses turned up into the air. Although, with a pair of dragons roaming the streets with the captain of the Royal Guards leading them, well, it made that air of superiority fade away to curiosity.

Each time the trio passed a unicorn, the unicorn’s head would turn to double-take the fact that there were two dragons calmly walking the streets of Canterlot.

“Have you ever seen a dragon before?”

“Not one that was wearing clothes…”

“Don’t get too close to that red one – you can never trust a dragon, they eat meat!”

“Isn’t that Shining Armor?”

“It is! He must have that dragon captured!”

For a creature with no actual ears, Haru was perfectly capable of hearing all the whispers that most of the unicorns were gabbing about. ‘I’m rather curious how they’re not talking about Spike like that…’

Although it seemed that Spike and Shining Armor didn’t hear those whispers since they were continuing on – Well, Shining was trotting along, Spike had jumped onto the white stallion’s back and began to ride him through the streets.

“You okay back there Haru?” Spike called back to the older dragon. “Need Shiny to slow down?”

“I’m only five feet behind you two,” Haru yawned back with his claws in front of his gaping maw. “So, Shining…”

“I’d prefer if you refer to me as Shining Armor,” the white stallion replied, not even looking back at the older dragon behind him.

“Sure, not a problem,” Haru replied, noting the hostility in Shining Armor’s voice. “Anyway, Shining Armor, how much longer till we get where we need to go? I need to catch up on my sleep.”

“We’re not far from where we need to go,” Shining Armor answered, keeping his attention on the road before him. “Once we get past the city’s square we’ll pass by the academy and it’s only a few…”

“Hey! What’s going on over there?” Spike shouted as he threw his arm towards the square.

Both Shining and Haru turned to where Spike was pointing where a number of unicorns were gathered and were gawking at one particular building. All three followed the gazes of where the unicorns were set at, and atop of the building was a pole that had a weathervane atop of it with a bright red balloon stuck on the decoration. But what wasn’t the architectural ornament that stole attention.

It was the young stallion who was climbing up the pole.

“Wow, I didn’t think ponies from Canterlot were that reckless,” Haru commented as the trio continued to gaze at the idiotic stallion.

“Despite the high society most here display,” Shining answered with a sigh. “We tend to get the occasional daredevil, criminal and idiot every once in a while. Society here just tends to have a way of pushing them out of the spotlight.

“Of course, I can’t ignore this – I am captain of the royal guard.”

“It’s no problem, Shiny!” Spike replied with a smile.

“Yeah, gotta do what ya gotta do,” Haru chimed in. “Ya know what they say – both idiots and smoke float up high.”

“Who says that that?” Spike asked with a flat look in his eyes.

As the three drew closer to the large group of unicorns, the idiotic stallion managed to climb up to the very top of the pole and stopped to catch his breath. The stallion then managed to turn around and look down at the group, and one could visibly see his eyes widen. The stallion had his hind legs wrapped around the pole, while one of his front hooves supported his weight, when he waved his free hoof into the air, “HEY! CAPTAIN! HEY THERE! YAY!!”

Shining just stopped in his hooves and groaned loudly as he slapped his forehead, “Great…”

“What’s wrong Shiny?” Spike asked with his head tilted slightly at the waving stallion.

“I know who that is,” Shining grumbled under his breath as the daredevil stallion returned to his goal. “He’s one of my idiots.”

“… You’re kidding right?” Haru stated with a flat look in his eyes. “That stallion up there is in the royal guard?”

“In a sense,” Shining sighed before he stepped forward. “KAI! GET DOWN HERE NOW!”

“WHAT?! I CAN’T HEAR YOU CAPTAIN! GIVE ME A SECOND – I GOTTA GET THIS AND I’LL BE RIGHT DOWN!”

The stallion named Kai turned back to the balloon and used his mouth to grab the string attached to it. However, the moment he did, Kai’s front hooves slipped from pole and he fell backwards towards the ground. There was a collective gasp from the crowd as Haru reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a ring.

“CONNECT – PLEASE!”

Just before Kai hit the ground, a large red runic circle appeared between him and the concrete. When the stallion touched the circle, he immediately disappeared into it – Much to the shock of the crowd. Most of the crowd was looking for where the stallion went to when…

“W-WOAH! H-HOLD STILL!”

Everypony turned around to see that the stallion was balancing in both of Haru’s claws, who the dragon had lifted over his head. The two staggered about, trying to maintain their balance, as the crowd erupted into applause.

“BRAVO!”

Both Haru and Kai finally stopped moving and the stallion jumped from Haru’s claws, his short black mane billowing slightly. The idiotic stallion trotted over to a young filly who had puffy red eyes, lowering his head, Kai smiled at the filly who took the balloon from him. “There ya go.”

“Thank you!” the filly replied before she trotted off.

Kai smiled before a light rose aura wrapped around him and lifted him off of the ground, “WAAAH!”

A few minutes later in an alleyway…

WHAM!

“OWW! Captain! That hurts!”

Shining growled he lowered his blue hoof while Kai kept his front hooves on his head where a fresh bruise was now growing.

Spike had leapt from Shining when the group reached the alleyway, and the two dragons were watching Shining Armor berate Kai. Kai was a younger stallion than Shining, with a short black mane and tail (each that had a streak of red racing through them) and he had dark crimson fur, with his cutie mark of that of a black winged creature. The young stallion was wearing a long black and red jacket that covered his upper body.

“What the Tartarus were you thinking?!” Shining snarled as he lifted his hoof up. “You know that you’re supposed to on medical leave – That means you don’t pull these kind of stunts!”

“B-But, Captain,” Kai moaned as he curled slightly with his hooves lifted over his head. “I… I had to do it! I bumped into that filly and she lost her balloon, and I had to recover it!”

“Then why didn’t you just buy her another balloon?” Spike pointed out.

“W-Well, yeah,” Kai chuckled nervously. “B-But, you don’t get it. That filly’s balloon was that one.”

“You’re an idiot,” Shining sighed with a roll of his eyes, and then he smiled at the younger stallion. “But an idiot with a good heart. But if you pull another stunt while your left wing is still recovering, I won’t hesitate to take you out of the field again.”

Kai lowered his head to the ground, “I… I understand sir! I-I’m sorry! I’ll be sure to take it easy!”

“Good, you’re dismissed now,” Shining chuckled. “Now go and enjoy the rest of your leave.”

“Yes sir!” Kai replied before he trotted off.

Haru shook his head slightly with a smirk on his face, “So, he’s a pegasus. I’m not an expert on how the military works, but why would a pegasus call you a captain?”

“It’s a little complicated,” Shining Armor replied before he turned his back to Haru. “Now, let’s hurry, I’d like to get you guys some lunch.”

TTTTTTT

“I never… This is amazing,” Haru stated as he walked around the large, well-decorated main hall of the castle.

It was about ten minutes after dealing with the reckless Kai that the three reached the main castle – To Shining Armor and Spike, this was no big deal. Due to their connections, the two had been to the castle a number of times in the past, but this was Haru’s first time in Canterlot Castle.

“Pretty impressive, isn’t it?” Spike questioned as he puffed out his chest.

“I… Don’t know what to say,” Haru admitted, spinning around to look at his fellow dragon and Shining Armor. “When you said we were going to where we were going to be staying, you didn’t say that it was in the castle! I thought it was just going to be fancy hotel!”

“Well, Twilight is the student of Princess Celestia,” Spike replied, crossing his arms over his chest. “There are a few perks being associated with Twilight’s Number One Assistant.”

“Well then Spike,” Shining Armor chuckled as he rubbed the top of the smaller dragon’s head with his hoof. “How about you go to the kitchen and inform the cooks that we’re here. I’m sure they’ll be glad to see your claws sneaking about and sneaking off with some of the treats.”

“Aw, how’d you know I used to do that?” Spike grumbled before he walked off into the depths of the castle. “But don’t forget Shiny! We gotta hit up Doughnut Joe’s while Haru’s here with us!”

“We’ll make time for that later,” Shining chuckled with a bright smile as he waved off the younger dragon.

And so, for the first time since the two met, Haru and Shining Armor were alone – And the moment that Spike had disappeared from sight, the serious look reappeared on Shining Armor’s face before he turned around. “If you’ll follow me, I’ll lead you to where you’ll be staying. I hope a spare room in the guard quarters will suffice.”

“I spent six months living in a tent,” Haru replied, throwing his arms behind his head to follow Shining Armor. “I’ll take a decent roof over a plastic tent any day of the week.”

“At least you’re practical,” Shining Armor stated as he led the magical dragon down a hall.

Save for their echoing step, it was quiet down the hallway the two took. There was an awkward air between the two, with Haru taking note of the artwork and décor in the hallway, “So… What’s this Canterlot Business that Spike talks about?”

“It’s not really your concern,” Shining Armor answered back, still keeping his attention on the hallway in front of him. “It’s a private matter concerning family, and Spike is family.”

Haru narrowed his eyes and stopped in his tracks. Shining Armor realized this after increasing the distance between the two. “Alright, I’ve stilled my tongue for long enough. Why don’t you do the same?”

Shining didn’t make a move.

“I’m not dumb, Shining Armor,” Haru stated as he shrugged his arms up. “I may not look the part, but I’m a pretty smart dragon. And I’m used to dealing with this sort of stuff on a daily basis. So, why don’t you just come on out and say it? I know you’ve got something to say to me, so get it out.”

For a moment, Shining did nothing but take a deep breath. “Are you sure you want me to speak my mind?”

“To be honest, the curiosity is starting to get me,” Haru questioned with a smirk crawling on his face. “After all, you know my name before I mentioned it – Now, that fact in and of itself doesn’t mean a thing, especially since there are a number of ways you could’ve learned it.

“But the way you’ve been interacting with me, you’ve rarely looked at me when you spoke to me – And when you did, you’ve been shooting me a dirty look and you take a much more rugged tone with me than with Spike.

“So, if I’ve somehow offended you, then I’d prefer you to cut out this act of yours and just tell me.”

Shining Armor turned around, and of course, those narrowed eyes focused down on the red dragon. “Offended? You think it’s as petty as that?”

The stallion trotted towards the dragon, his gaze sharpening even further as he drew closer to the magical dragon. Haru didn’t move an inch as Shining Armor stood right in front of the dragon and their eyes met. However, instead of saying something, Shining’s horn glowed brightly and Haru could feel his clawed feet leave the ground, “What the!?”

“Haruto Souma, I don’t know what your goals are,” Shining Armor growled as he used his magic to levitate the dragon in front of him higher into the air. “And frankly, I don’t care – But what I won’t stand for is anypony – or any dragon, or anything – to hurt my little sister!”

Haru’s eyes widened.

TTTTTTT

Blissfully unaware of the happenings in the castle, Sigrun Mist trotted to the front of Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns with a suitcase floating next to him thanks to his magic. ‘Ah, it’s good to be back home – I hope the jerks here enjoy the sweets I got them from Manehatten. Oh, they’ll enjoy them! I got the cheapest that I could! I think they might be spoiled… Oh well!’

With a cheap smile on his face, Sigrun Mist slowly trotted towards the gates to the prestigious academy with a cheery hum.

HIISSSS!

“Hmm?” Sigrun Mist questioned as he turned to the right.

On the ground next to him was a small, purple snake that hissed at him a few times. A smile appeared on the unicorn’s face, “Hmm, purple snake. A purple snake not attacking me… Oooh! I know exactly what this means!”

The purple snake hissed once more before it slithered off away from the gate, with Sigrun following it. A few moments later, the snake led the odd unicorn to the side of the walls of the academy, with the shadows from the buildings cover the area…

“Good to see you’re back from Manehatten, Valkyrie…”

Sigrun smiled at the tall, sleek, shadowed being before him. Then, the unicorn bowed, “Awe, Mistress Medusa, I didn’t know you cared! It was fun! I tossed a wanker out of a window! Oooh! Would you like a sweet, Mistress Medusa?”

The shadowed Medusa sighed with a wave of her hand, “No. I know those sweets are spoiled, Valkyrie, I’m not falling for that cruel joke.”

“Awww,” Sigrun groaned with his head lower than before.

“Now listen, since you’re back, I have two missions for you to do,” Medusa replied as she turned her back to the unicorn.

“Really? Is there a Gate around here?” Sigrun questioned as he lifted his head up.

“No,” Medusa replied as she waved her hand about. “We have a deserter in Canterlot – You are to find him and immediately inform me of his whereabouts. There are reports of him being seen around this school at night as of late, and since you work here…”

“Say no more,” Sigrun replied as several white feathers erupted from his body, the feathers immediately flowing over his body. “I live to serve!”

“And once we’ve found this deserter,” Medusa stated as the feathers began to warp Sigrun’s body. “We’ll awaken the holder of N Ma’s Eye…”

TBC

Author's Note

MangaKamen: I'm back doods and doodettes!

While I'm still working on one of my other projects here... (seriously, I've got two ideas, but one of them is more advanced that the other) but here's the next chapter. Please spread the word that this story's about to get real in here!

Spell 20 - Canterlot Royal Business Part 2

While the chaos in the castle was ensuing, back in the streets of Canterlot, there was only peace. Well, for the most part.

“C’mon Lyra, we didn’t come to Canterlot just to eat at a diner,” Bonbon sighed loudly as she rolled her eyes at her friend. “We came so you could tell your family about your ‘findings’.”

“Yeah, well, I need to prepare myself,” Lyra answered as she nervously shifted about. “You barely believe what we saw a couple of days ago, and you were right there!”

“I guess saying ‘A man-shaped chicken asked to borrow a couple jewels’ would probably land somepony in the loony bin,” Bonbon sighed, and Lyra was right – Bonbon could barely even believe what she had saw on that day. Even more surprising was that Lyra was able to scare not only that walking, talking chicken, but the monsters that had followed it, just by going gaga with her fascination with Humanoids. “But you dragged me here so you could finally prove it to your family. Wouldn’t it be better just to get it out of the way?”

“Yeah, but still,” Lyra sighed as she lowered her head to the table, blowing some of her mane out of her eyes. “I need to prepare. Even if I’ve got another witness, they still won’t believe me.”

“Why do you even have a fascination with humans anyway?” BonBon asked with her head tilted. “I don’t see why you have such a fascination with hairless apes.”

“They’re not just hairless apes!” Lyra snapped as she slammed a hoof into the table, which unfortunately knocked over the vase of flowers on the table and made all of the other ponies nearby look at the commotion. Sensing the stares, Lyra lifted her hooves up defensively with a nervous smile on her face. “S-Sorry about that!”

The citizens of Canterlot who saw the squabble shook their heads at the two.

“It’s a bit complicated, BonBon,” Lyra sighed as she looked down at the overturned flowers. “I mean, when I first read about humans – They just seem so awesome! Especially with their hands! Can you imagine what it’d be like to have fingers? We’d be able to pick up these flowers so much easily!”

“Lyra, you’re a unicorn,” BonBon stated with a dulled look in her eyes. “You can use your magic to pick them up.”

“That’s not the point,” Lyra groaned.

Before Lyra could continue however…

“Grandmother once said this…”

A well groomed paw hovered over the spilled vase and flowers and quickly fixed the centerpiece of the table “Flowers can make any girl glow.”

Lyra and BonBon turned to see a creature known as a Diamond Dog standing next to their table with one of his paws fixing the flowers vase and had his other paw holding up a tray that had a pair of salads on it. The Diamond Dog himself was dressed in a very fancy black waiter’s jacket and the hair atop of his (surprisingly handsome) face was topped with messy dark fur that covered most of his head.

When he was done fixing the vase, the Diamond Dog placed both salads before the two mares and bowed towards them, “Please enjoy your meal.”

“Excuse me, waiter!” Lyra interjected before the Diamond Dog could even turn around. “Before you go, can I trouble you for a favor?”

The Diamond Dog folded one of his arms behind his back and bowed with his other paw in front of him. “I work to serve. What can I do for you?”

“Can I see one of your paws for a few seconds?” Lyra asked.

The diamond dog didn’t even seem fazed as he immediately held out his paw over the table. He didn’t even react as Lyra began to point at his paw and even fondle it a little bit. “Thanks, now BonBon, as you can see, Diamond Dogs have something similar to hands, albeit, it’s different, but it’s still amazing! Hands could have a higher level of dexterity than magic, and they would make the world a whole lot easier for non-magic users!

“Don’t you get tired of using your mouth to use your quill pen? Don’t you wanna be able to unwrap candy or presents without getting bits in your mouth? And think about it! Using tools and even those game controllers would be easier too!

“Opposable thumbs rock!”

With that, Lyra removed her hooves from the diamond dog’s paw and smile, “You saw what this guy was able to do with his paw, but there are other aspects of humans that are fascinating as well. Anyway, thanks again, waiter!”

The waiter nodded before he lifted his paw up into the air, using his pointer finger to aim at the sun above. “Always a pleasure – oh and miss, Grandmother once said: ‘Once you know the real thing… You won’t be fooled by an imitation’. I truly hope you find what you are looking for one day.”

And with that, the Diamond Dog waiter walked off to take care of other customers in the café.

“He was nice,” Lyra replied as she used her magic to lift the fork off the table. “Though he’s a bit odd.”

‘You’re not one to talk,’ BonBon thought to herself with a bead of sweat rolling down the side of her head.

TTTTTT

Spell 20

Canterlot Royal Business
Part 2

TTTTTTTTT

Shining Armor turned around, and of course, those narrowed eyes focused down on the red dragon. “Offended? You think it’s as petty as that?”

Haru’s eyes widened.

“Wait a minute!” Haru sputtered as he struggled against the magic that was holding him up against his will. “I… I didn’t… How do you even…?”

“It doesn’t matter how I know,” Shining replied with his gaze narrowed even further at the levitating dragon in front of him.

Despite what he said, Shining’s mind slowly drifted back to what had happened only three days prior…

“Alright everypony! You have your routes, if you see anything out of the ordinary, you are to report immediately. And if you see the target that I described, you are not to engage the target. I repeat, do engage the target!”

“YES SIR!”

Shining sighed with relief as he watched his soldiers trot off to perform their rounds. ‘Of course we get reports of monster sightings when most of the Ozu Family’s out of Canterlot. Well, no rest for the weary, time to get to my own rounds…’

“HELLO!”

Shining Armor stopped in his tracks and craned his head around to see a mint green Pegasus standing behind him, his right wing holding up a fancy hat. Shining narrowed his eyes at the pony, “Civilians are not allowed to be here without permission – I’d ask how you got here, but you are a pegasus. State your reason for being here.”

The pegasus placed his hat back atop his head and smiled brightly, “Awe, no need to be like that! I was told to come here to report something to one Shining Armor – You know the guy? With a name like that, I figure he’s a real stuck up stallion.”

“You’re talking to that stuck up stallion,” Shining Armor groaned, rolling his eyes at the pegasus.

“Ooh! Then that’ll make this easy then!” the pegasus sang out with a bright smile.

The white stallion couldn’t help but notice that the pegasus didn’t apologize for his comment. “Well then, state your name and business with me.”

“Awe, don’t be a stick in the mud,” the pegasus replied with a pout on his face. “Anyway, you can call me Redd Herring.”

“But, you’re green,” Shining Armor pointed out.

“Shush, I’m doing this to appease the commenters!” Redd Herring whispered before he turned his head towards the side. Then, he visibly winked to no pony in particular. “This story needs more support!”

“Uh, what you doing?” Shining Armor asked as he looked in the same direction as Redd, trying to see what the other stallion was doing.

“Now that we’ve gotten that blatant fourth-wall breaking advertisement out of the way,” Sora continued as if he didn’t do something weird. “I have very important information regarding your sister, Twilight Sparkle.”

Shining’s eyes widened when he heard his sister’s name, “Twily? How do you know…?”

“Tsk, tsk, that’s not important!” Redd Herring replied as he trotted up closer to Shining, so uncomfortably close that in fact any closer, the two Stallions could’ve had an… Incident. “You should be more concerned about a little Twily and that a dragon almost killed her!

“You hearing me, Shining?”

“Uh, Shining?”

The white stallion shook his head and looked up at the magically bound Haru, who had a bored look on his face. “You’ve had that blank look on your face for about five minutes, and I need to get to a restroom soon. Are you going to continue with what you were saying, or are you content with floating me up like this?”

With a snort, Shining’s magic dissipated and Haru fell to the ground with a loud whap. “OW!”

Shining trotted towards the fallen dragon, forcing their eyes to meet, “Then let me make this clear for you, Haruto Souma. You will keep your distance from my sister, got it? You will not hurt her, and if I find out otherwise, I will personally make you wish that you were…”

The stallion stopped when he took a deep whiff of the air and his eyes widened with his pupils shrinking down. Haru was about to question why Shining was acting like this, when his own nostrils caught a small sample of what the dragon could only assume that the stallion was smelling, and Haru’s claws quickly flew to his snout. “GEEZ!! WHAT IS THAT SMELL!?!”

“I DON’T KNOW!!!!!” Shining replied, tears welling up in his eyes.

It was at that moment that the sound of trotting hooves echoed through the hall, and both magically inclined beings turned to the source – Where an odd looking stallion was trotting towards them. The stallion in question was covered in head to hoof with thick clothing that would make any normal pony sweat to death, he was even wearing a winter cap, goggles and a surgical mask covering his muzzle. Around his neck was a notebook tied with a string.

The only part of this stallion’s body that wasn’t covered were the deep red bat wings sticking out, one of which was carrying a jar that had a visible air billowing from it.

It was suddenly very clear where the smell was now coming from.

“Wataru!” Shining called out.

The fully covered stallion jumped slightly and almost dropped the jar he had. The bat-winged pegasus quickly steadied himself before he fell to the ground, his front hooves on the notebook and he flipped through a few pages before he lifted it up. “Sorry!”

“… Didn’t we have an understanding with your varnishing?” Shining growled with his hooves still covering his nose.

The fully covered Wataru tapped the notebook again, “Sorry!”

“As you were,” Shining sighed as he motioned with his head. “And get a cap on that thing immediately!”

Wataru nodded before he quickly galloped off, making sure that his varnish wouldn't slip from his wings. As soon as the odd stallion was out of the hallway, the smell lingered for a few more seconds before it disappeared.

“Uh, do I even want to ask what was up with him?” Haru questioned as he used his tail to push off of the ground.

The dragon was met with the same hardened glare that Shining was giving him for a while now, and Haru scratched the side of his cheek with his claws, “I guess we’re still being serious here then.”

“You better believe we are,” Shining replied as he poked one of his hooves into Haru’s chest. “I won’t tolerate anyone trying to hurt Twilight, the same goes for Spike. I don’t know how you managed to gain their trust, but once this trip is over with, you will leave my family alone – If you don’t, then you’ll see what the captain of the Canterlot Royal Guards is capable of.”

And with that, Shining began to trot off, not even stopping as he continued to speak, “Now hurry up, we have to meet up with Spike.”

Haru’s gaze followed Shining before he looked down at his claws – sure, he didn’t appreciate Shining giving him this kind of treatment, but considering the stallion’s position and what he was told, ‘… Even I would be distrusting of a weird dragon. I’m still a little guilty about these claws almost hurting Twilight, but…’

The dragon shook his head before he reluctantly followed the white stallion through the hallway, “Wait, weren’t we going to drop the bags off at the room?”

TTTTTTT

Hours later, the sun had set over Canterlot, with the cloudy sky blocking the moon, and the streets were mostly empty. Only the streetlights and the occasional glimmer from a bedroom light were the only forms of activity…

However, near the academy for gifted unicorns, a shadowed figure slowly sauntered over the wall, its yellow eyes glowing brightly, “Da Dah, Duh Dun, Da duh… Doo, deedee doo. Screw it, I can never do the Manes Bond theme right.”

The figure shook his head as he dashed across the grounds, hiding in bushes as a security guard trotted nearby. This was a mission of stealth, the last thing he needed to deal with was some louse security and cause a ruckus.

However, it didn’t take long for the thing figure to reach the side of the main science wing of the school, with him at one of the windows. Even inside the building it was dark – Save for the soft glowing blue light that illuminated part of the room. ‘Jackpot, baby!’

Ten skinny fingers pressed against the glass and tried to lift up the glass, only for the skinny figure to realize that the window wasn’t moving. “Curses, my one weakness – A locked window! Damn these bookworms and their crafty ways! I wish I could just punch right through the glass, that’d be awesome.”

The shadowed figure rubbed his chin with his hand for a few moments before he snapped his fingers. “I got it! I am so smart! I am so smart! S-M-R-T!”

How no pony heard this being’s yelling was a mystery in and of itself.

The shadowed figure lifted his right hand up before he used his left hand to promptly rip his right hand clean off of his body. The being then tossed the hand up and down a few times before it landed atop of his shoulder. “Now for the second half of my brilliant plan.”

Without a second thought, the shadowed figure jabbed his left fingers into the right side of his head. A moment later, the figure pulled his hand back and revealed that his yellow eye was now glowing in his still attached hand. “See what Eye did there.”

It was then that the disembodied hand on his shoulder seemed to come to life and crawled down his left arm into his hand, grabbing his removed eye with in between its middle and ring finger. The shadowed figure then promptly tossed his hand and eyeball up over the ceiling. “And now I play the waiting game…”

Five seconds later…

“The waiting game SUCKS,” The shadowed figure groaned with his back to the wall and him using his remaining hand to spin a yo-yo about.

However, just as he was about to toss the yo-yo over the wall, a few taps of the window caught his attention and he was met with his disembodied hand and eye atop of the window.

*CLICK!*

With a smirk on his boney face, the shadowed figure quickly lifted up the now unlocked window, “Now that was worth a Manes Bond moment!”

Sliding the window open with his still connected hand, the shadowed figure slipped into the academy and allowed his disembodied hand to reconnect with his body. Testing the fingers a few times, the shadowed figure popped his eye back into his skull before he walked through the darkened academy.

It didn’t take long for the shadowed figure to find the reason why he was even in the academy in the first place. He loomed over a lab table that had a bluish tint atop of it, the light coming from what looked to be the remains of shattered armor. The shadowed lawbreaker looked at the glass case that encased the armor, rubbing his chin with his bony fingers in deep thought. “I don’t know what that feathered smarty guy wants with this armor, but bits are bits. Now then, it’s obvious this thing is protected by some magical alarm thingy, and I can’t just break it.

“That would alert the guards to my presence and would be grounds for me to be… Aw screw it!”

After lifting his arms up over his head, the thief slammed his hands into the glass shattering it into millions of pieces amongst the armor. For a moment, the thief looked about, trying to see if there was any change in the room, but he just shrugged his shoulders at the apparent silence. “Huh, no alarm? Well that’s boring! Still, it’s easy bits.”

Producing a sack from his pants, the skinny thief began to scoop the armor and broken glass into said sack. “Still, I was hoping for some form of excitement tonight…”

That was when the lights in the room turned on in the room, making the mysterious thief look about as several armored and security guard stallions poured into the room, all of them surrounding the odd thief in front of them. “HOLD IT!”

“FREEZE!”

“DROP IT FREAK!”

“THANK YOU KARMA!” The thief happily laughed as he threw his arms to his sides.

Meanwhile, nearly on the other side of Canterlot, a single shop had its lights on. This was a rather famous shop amongst the residents of Canterlot – Known to all as Joe’s Donut Shop (rather simple in hindsight), and it had some of the best donuts in all of Equestria.

So naturally, a certain red dragon was seated on at the bar of the shop, sipping on a cup of coffee with a plate that had only the remnants of powder sugar scattered about it. ‘… I don’t think I can ever go back to eating donuts from Sugarcube Corner again – I have tasted the nectar of the gods!

‘I’m sorry Mister and Miss Cake! I’m sorry Pinkie Pie! I’m sorry Sugarcube Corner!’

“Don’t get too many dragons here,” the amber colored stallion from behind the counter stated as he trotted up to the counter. The stallion had a strong build for a unicorn (at least from the unicorns that Haru had seen around Canterlot) and had a slightly messy moderate orange mane underneath his paper cap. “I used to get Spike in here all the time, and all of a sudden he shows up with Shining and you. I thought Spike was an exception to dragons.”

“You learn something new every day, Joe,” Haru replied before he took another sip of his coffee before he looked into the remaining drink, seeing a brown version of his reflection. ‘Like how I learned Shining Armor’s got it out for me today – Yeesh, I don’t think even a miracle can fix this mess.’

“That’s a given fact of life,” Joe chuckled as his horn glowed brightly, lifting a pitcher of coffee from a nearby burner. “Still, I’m not gonna complain – You’ve got good taste for donuts. Here’s a refill on the house.”

“I appreciate it,” Haru stated as he lifted his mug up, allowing the coffee to be poured into it. “Think you can sling a couple more powdered sugar donuts my way?”

“I dunno, Mr. Souma,” Joe chuckled as he pointed a hoof at Haru. “Don’t you think you’ve had enough? I mean, this is the second time you came to my shop – Eat any more and you might just break that belt you got around your stomach.”

Haru looked down at his stomach, it was still trim as usual and he rolled his cerulean eyes at Joe, “Oh ha ha, very funny. Fine, but how about just one more powdered sugar for the road? PLEASE?”

“Heh, alright,” Joe stated as he trotted back to the kitchen. “Lemme see if the latest batch is done with. It’ll be about two bits.”

“Got it covered!” Haru exclaimed with his arm raised up, a smile on his face. ‘Spike wasn’t kidding about this place – It’s one of the best donut places around! The Cakes can make a good donut, but it’s not their specialty.

‘Now that I’ve got some good food and coffee in me, I’ll take the rest of the night to figure out a way to talk to Shining. Sure, I could probably just ignore the issue of him, but sooner or later, he’d probably find out that I’m going against his wishes, and I may just have the entire Royal Guard on my tail.

‘Odd thing is, I was supposed to be here to help the Royal Guard and discuss Phantoms. But Shining didn’t want to talk – Was that letter not sent from the princess? Did Shining send it to get me here? No, that makes no sense…

‘Gah, I couldn’t even talk to Shining about it with Spike around, and even then, Shining had to go back on his guard. So I gotta find a way to…’

“Here ya go Mr. Souma,” Joe stated, drawing the dragon’s attention back to the unicorn and the bag that was floating in the middle of the air with his magic. “Last donut for the night, last fresh powdered sugar donut. Hope you enjoy it!”

“That’s not going to be a problem,” Haru joyfully chuckled, reaching for the bag as it floated over the counter…

It was at that moment that one of the windows in the shop shattered loudly, garnering both the dragon and stallion’s attention towards the large blue blur that had broken through the window and was sailing through the air. “HYAHOOO!”

Time seemed to slow to a standstill as the being flew through the air, coming closer to the counter with each slowly ticking second. Haru looked at the being and took in every detail that it seemed to have – It’s human-like body was a deep shade of blue with its skin clinging to its extremely skinny body to the point that Haru could see the being’s bones, including its spine!

Its arms were long and gaunt, suffering the same fate of its torso, save for a few muscles and ending in gloved hands that had yellow, claw-like fingers, his right hand holding onto what appeared to be a large, slightly torn sack. Around the boney waist of this creature were a pair of ripped jean pants that had an odd flag symbol (a blue background with a red cross in the middle of it with white trim) imprinted on his right leg. But what was most attention grabbing about this being was the fact that his face was more like a skull that was hallowed out to be a mask for his real face – Long, royal blue hair erupted from the back while his slack jaw stuck from underneath it, and his yellow eyes gleamed brightly from the eye holes of the skull.

There was only one thought on Haru’s mind as time began to speed up once more, ‘Phantom!?!’

The Phantom’s feet slammed into counter, forcing Haru and Joe to jump back at the last second which unfortunately made them fall backwards as the Phantom landed. The wood of the counter splintered beneath his weight as he craned his head back towards the broken window. “Meh, a chase like this isn’t gonna get the old ticker beating again, c’mon boys! Get yer rears in gear! We gotta make this party last all night!”

And with that, the ghastly Phantom leapt through the air once more, smashing through another window in the process. However, just as he did, several members of the Royal Guard and unicorns dressed as security guards galloped through the same broken windows and chased after the Phantom.

“My shop!” Joe called out as he got back to his hooves. “It’s ruined! I’m RUINED!”

It was then that Joe looked down at the counter to see a familiar, ring adorned, black claw grasp the broken wood. At that moment, Joe stepped back to see that two cerulean eyes had turned dark and had a nasty glare to them. “Uh, Mister Souma? Are you okay?”

“My… My… Donut…” Haru snarled as he clawed at the crushed bag that held the remnants of his last donut of the night.

TTTTTT

“Damn, what a bunch of slow pokes,” The ghoulish Phantom sighed as he skidded to a halt in the middle of Canterlot Square, his yellow eyes narrowing down at the oncoming soldiers and security guards.

The Phantom’s eyes then turned towards the large clock tower in town and they immediately narrowed down at the sight of it. With a sigh, the Phantom ran his free hand through his long blue hair, pulling out a number of rocks from it. “It’s almost time for me to meet with the client anyway – Don’t wanna run the risk of him skimping out on me just cause I’m late. But, I got at least five more minutes to kill…

“Might as well enjoy them!”

With a flick of his wrist, the Ghoulish Phantom flung all of the rocks onto the ground, and in a less than a second, the stones transformed into a dozen ghouls, each of which wielded a rusty red spear.

The guards stopped in their tracks at the sudden appearance of this army of weird creatures, each of them with their horns glowing brightly. The leader of the group stepped forward and pointed a hoof at the ghoulish Phantom, “You there! Whatever you are! Surrender now and return what you stole!”

The Phantom sighed as he rolled his eyes in his skull, “Ah, that good ole unicorn superiority – I got tired of that shtick the moment I got here in this dump.

“But I’ll say this – Just don’t die too fast boys! I wanna enjoy the show!”

“Stallions!” the leader called out as the horns of all the unicorns glowed even brighter. “Don’t stand down from these things! Take them out!”

However, just as the stallions were about to fire volleys of magic, the magic faded from them. The leader of the group stood there dumbfounded as he tried to use his own magic, but to no avail. “W-What is this?!”

“BLEH-HEHEHEHEHEHE!” The Phantom laughed loudly as he lifted his free hand up, revealing that in between his yellow fingers was an aura that was composed of multiple forms of color. “Looking for this? It’s a little talent that guys who have blue skin like me have – We can absorb Unicorn magic like a sponge! Too bad we can’t use it.”

The Ghouls growled as they stepped towards the powerless stallions, who in turn stepped back.

“Heh, you guys really are useless without this stuff, aren’t ya?” The Phantom questioned before he closed his hand, crushing the aura between his fingers. “Oh well, just try to bleed good for me, kay? I haven’t seen a good bloodbath in ages, it’ll be fun!”

All of the Ghouls charged towards the battalion of stallions, roaring loudly.

But several streams of green light slammed into each of the Ghouls’ chests, sending them spiraling back and landing on the ground near the Phantom’s feet. The ghoulish Phantom tilted his head at the peculiar sight before he looked up just in time for…

WHAM!

“URK!”

Two black covered feet slammed into the Phantom’s face, his yellow eyes bugging out in the process before he was propelled backwards and slammed into a large cart filled with cabbages. Then with a twirl, the owner of those two feet landed in front of the stallions, his black coattails billowing as he landed and the glow from the streetlights glistened off of the emeralds on his suit and mask.

A silver gun that had a closed fist emblem on both of them was in both of his claws, both of which the familiar figure spun on his claws before he pointed them back at the recovering Ghouls.

The lead unicorn trotted to reach the side of the one who stopped the Ghouls and looked at the gun totting being with narrowed eyes. “Who are… This is Royal Guard affairs! All civilians are to stand back! State your name immediately!”

Wizard sighed the wind around him began to whip about, forcing the stallion to stagger back. “Just your friendly, wandering Wizard at your service.”

The wind propelled Wizard through the air towards the Ghouls, spinning him about before he landed in between the Phantom’s foot-soldiers. The Ghouls flinched before Wizard spun about and fired a second volley of magical ammunition into the Ghouls, knocking them even further back.

“Sir! What are your orders?”

The lead unicorn shook his head away from the sight of Wizard nimbly dodging the attacks of the Ghouls, while simultaneously hitting them with much more powerful counter attacks. “R-Right, my orders. Send word to the castle – Inform Captain Armor of this, and advise for reinforcements!”

“SIR!” The stallion replied with a salute before he galloped towards the castle.

“As for the rest of you,” the lead unicorn called back before he pumped a hoof into the air. “We may not have magic, but we aren’t going to just let a civie outdo us here, are we?”

“NO SIR!”

“Then let’s get in there!”

Wizard turned his head towards the oncoming unicorns, watching as the ones leading them were already ramming into the Ghouls. With an amused chuckle, Wizard nonchalantly pointed his gun to the right and shot into an oncoming Ghoul, phasing it just in time for two unicorns to slam into it. ‘Well, I can’t blame them for doing their jobs. Still, that doesn’t mean I can’t make this job any easier for them.’

Amongst the rubble of the cabbage cart, the ghoulish Phantom erupted from the remains with his neck twisted in a very painful fashion. “Bleh, I hate cabbages!”

Placing the sack of stolen goods on the ground for a second, the Phantom used both of his hands to fix his head. And with a sickening crack, his head was back on straight – Well, physically anyway. The Phantom picked up the sack and scratched the side of his skull at the sight before him – Most of his Ghouls were being taken down by the unicorns, some even being cracked into several pieces by the combined force. “Huh… How’d this happen? How long was I out?”

Pushing himself from the remains from the cart, the ghoulish Phantom blinked as he watched Wizard cleave a Ghoul with two underhanded slashes, allowing two pairs of unicorns to slam into the Ghoul before it shattered to pieces. “Ah, I see… That must be the mage I’ve heard so much about. The guy got a good shot on me…”

The Phantom looked up at the clock tower once more, and frowned at what he saw, “Too bad I can’t stay and play, if I waste any more time, I’ll be late!”

And without another word, the ghoulish Phantom began to run off – However, he didn’t get too far before an emerald clad individual flew after him. ‘You’re not getting away – Not after what you did to Joe! To Joe’s shop! And especially – MY DONUT!’

There were only two Ghouls left as Wizard flew after the Phantom, and they were being easily overtaken by the overwhelming guards. Just as the remaining two Ghouls were destroyed, a familiar white stallion galloped onto the scene. “Report!”

“Captain!” All the armored guards announced with a salute towards the blue maned stallion who was observing the scene, taking everything in.

“Somepony report, now!” Shining Armor commanded as he turned his attention to the leader of the little ragtag group.

“Well, sir…” The lead unicorn coughed.

“MY CABBAGES!”

Shining and most of the other unicorns turned to see that the shopkeeper who own the cabbage stand had returned to find his stand a wreck.

TTTTT

“Bleh hehehehehe! This one is really persistent!”

Using his powerful legs early on, the ghoulish Phantom had leapt to the rooftops of Canterlot, and was using them to quickly escape.

Unfortunately, he was unaware that Wizard could fly while using his Hurricane Style when he was escaping to the rooftops.

Spinning his head around a hundred and eighty degrees, the ghoulish Phantom saw that indeed the inflight Wizard was gaining up on him. “GAH! I’m used to having mares chase me, but stuff like this is just wrong!”

With a powerful leap through the air, the ghoulish Phantom landed on the relatively flat roof with Wizard landing on the opposite side. With only one sword in his hand, Wizard lifted it up towards the Phantom. “I’m surprised that you’d stop escaping.”

“What can I say?” the ghoulish Phantom cackled as he tied the sack to the side of his pants. “I love to please my fans – If you wanted the autograph of the great Zombie, all you had to do was ask! Although, with that mask and suit, I’m not sure if you’re a stallion or mare under there, that usually makes a difference.”

“Neither,” Wizard replied the wind around his body began to whip about once more. “And I’m not interested in your autograph, but rather in who you’re targeting. Who’s the Gate?”

Zombie tilted his head slightly with his yellow eyes turning into question marks (literally), “Gate? I ain’t interested in awakening more Phantoms!”

“Hmm?” Wizard mused, his gaze never leaving the cackling Phantom.

“Bleh ehehehehehee! You deaf, Mage?” Zombie cackled loudly as he pointed his finger at Wizard. “I don’t really care about making more Phantoms! I don’t need more competition! I just wanna have fun and bits, and if too many of us run about then business will go bad.

“So, since I’m not gonna try to make some Phantoms, you mind just letting me go?”

Wizard answered by propelling himself towards Zombie and immediately slashed horizontally – Slicing Zombies upper body clear from his waist, Zombie’s yellow eyes widened as he called out in pain. “NARGH!”

“No,” Wizard replied as he spun around and prepared to deliver a slash to Zombie’s chest.

But before he could, a powerful force slammed into his ankles, and tripped the masked dragon the roof. “What the?!”

Wizard didn’t have time to question what had hit him as the upper body of Zombie flew over with both its hands lifted over his head, clenched together. “BLEH HEHEHEHEHEE!!”

A burst of green air at his feet, Wizard flew out of the way as Zombie slammed his hands into the roof. With a flip, Wizard landed on the roof to see that Zombie’s torso was floating through the air while his legs were dancing about on the roof. “What the Tatarus?”

“That little knife you got there ain’t got nothing on me!” Zombie cackled loudly as he drew his right arm back. “So, BYE BYE!”

Zombie threw his fist forward, and like that, the fist launched from the ghoulish Phantom towards Wizard. The emerald masked vigilante spun about to dodge the attack, but behind his mask, Wizard’s eyes widened when he realized he was now facing to Zombie’s disembodied legs.

The legs immediately kicked Wizard in the stomach, knocking across the roof with his feet skidding across the paneling. But before Wizard could get his bearings, Zombie’s torso appeared behind him and slammed his remaining fist into the masked dragon’s head, slamming him into the roof of the building with a loud crash. “URK!”

Zombie laughed loudly as his flying limbs shot back to his legs, and his body was immediately reconnected as Wizard pushed himself off of the ground. “BLEH HEHEHEHEHEE! I’ll say this, Mage, you certainly at least were more entertaining than those guards. I might just finish you off, I’m sure being only five minutes late won’t be an…”

Zombie’s eyes widened before he leaned back, just in time to dodge the WizardSwordGun that was flung at his head. “Really? Desperation already?”

“… Nope, just a distraction.”

With his eyes blinking a few times, Zombie stood up straight once more just in time to see Wizard fit a ring on his left claw before he messed with his belt. Zombie cackled before his nearly nonexistent waist disconnected from his legs once more. “Bleh Hehehehehehehee! Are you kidding? If it’s a distraction, ya need to take advantage of it!”

As the disembodied Zombie flew towards Wizard, the masked dragon threw his claws in front of his belt. “I did, cause now…”

“HURRICANE – DRAGON!”

A phantasmal green dragon erupted from Wizard’s back, immediately twisting around his body as the green runic circle erupted over his body, transforming the black cloak into a vibrant emerald green. Zombie continued to fly towards Wizard, despite the fact that his yellow eyes glowed brightly in surprise at the sudden hurricane that swept over the rooftops.

As the forceful wind swept about, Zombie had to concentrate hard so he wouldn’t get swept away before he could get back to his legs. Even when he did, the ghoulish Phantom’s body was still having trouble not being blown away by the green wind magic. “This… This magic!?! W-What is this!?”

“Byuu Byuu – ByuuByuuByuuByuu!”

“This is my showtime,” Wizard answered as the green storm disappeared from his body – revealing the dragon-head chest plat with triangular emeralds at his mask and chest.

“Showtime? Showtime, Baby!” Zombie laughed loudly before he flung both of his fists forward, sending both of his bony hands towards Wizard

Without a second thought, Wizard threw his right hand in front of his belt buckle and threw his hand up, “DEFEND – PLEASE!”

A small version of the green runic circle appeared before Wizard’s hand before Zombie’s hands were about to strike, and from the runic circle a powerful green twister erupted into the two hands. Zombie yelled out before the twister crashed into him, sending him flying into the air, unarmed.

As the ghoulish Phantom spiraled through the air with his arms near him. ‘How the Tartarus did this happen!? One second, I’m beating a crack into this Wizard’s head, next sec I’m getting tossed like a rag…’

It was then that Wizard appeared right in front of Zombie, one of his legs lifted high into the air over his head. Zombie’s eyes widened before Wizard slammed his heel into Zombie’s chest, rocketing the ghoulish Phantom into Canterlot Park.

Tree branches, dirt and debris erupted from where Zombie had crashed into and the unarmed Phantom lifted his head up just as both of his disembodied hands slapped him in the face. His yellow eyes narrowed at the powerful ring mage who was slowly floating down from the sky. “This… This is the Mage? The one who defeated Master Phoenix?”

Zombie looked to his pants and breathed a sigh of relief that his stolen goods were still attached to his pants – But it was a hallow reassurance, the green clothed mage was coming down towards him.

However, as the scene was unfolding in the park, neither of the magical combatants took notice of the shadowed figure that was slowly sauntering towards them. “Hmm… Looks like I didn’t need Valkyrie’s assistance in finding Zombie – but this is a treat, the Ring Mage in Canterlot.

“It’d be rude if I didn’t introduce myself…”

TBC

Spell 21 - Canterlot Royal Business Part 3

Zombie looked to his pants and breathed a sigh of relief that his stolen goods were still attached to his pants – But it was a hallow reassurance, the green clothed mage was coming down towards him.

“It’d be rude if I didn’t introduce myself…”

TTTTTT

Spell 21

Canterlot Royal Business
Part 3

TTTTTTTTT

Shining Armor galloped through the streets, a number of the Royal Guards following him. Moments ago, he was trotting through the street to get some fresh air before he was going to sleep that was until a couple of guards came to him and informed him about how there was commotion going on in the middle of the city.

When the guards appeared before him, they said something about the odd monsters that were appearing in the city and how this odd masked figure appeared to save his soldiers. ‘A masked vigilante? We don’t need another issue in this city!’

As Shining Armor followed the path that his soldiers pointed out, the battle between said monster and masked vigilante was continuing in the park – Their battle tore up the grass and foliage as they dashed about.

“DANG IT! HOLD STILL!” Zombie snarled before he threw his fist towards Wizard, firing the bony limb towards the green coated mage.

However, Wizard sped over the ground, a green air surrounding his feet. In fact, he didn’t even have to move his legs to dodge, it was thanks to the green magical air around his ankles. ‘This is amazing! I’m so fast! He can’t even keep up with my wind magic now!’

Zombie’s hand popped back into place just in time for Wizard to slid right in behind him and slammed his foot into the Phantom’s back. The scrawny Phantom staggered forward before he spun about to slam the back of his hand into the side of Wizard’s head, only to miss as the magical wind slid the magical dragon out of the way. “W-What the?! Where’d you…?”

Wizard slid about the grass before he spun around behind Zombie and slammed his tail into the Phantom’s ankles and knocked the blue skinned monster off his feet. “GARGH!”

When Zombie crashed back first into the ground, Wizard propelled himself into the air. Zombie winced in pain before he looked up into the air to see that the green coated dragon was spinning through the air. Using his skinny limbs, Zombie pushed him off of the ground just in time to dodge a powerful drop kick from the dragon.

The foot connected with the ground, and a large crater was created upon impact, making Zombie’s yellow eyes widen at the sight. “Dangatang! I didn’t know we were playing for keeps!”

Wizard remained silent as the wind whipped around his body once more and he shot through the air towards Zombie, his twisting his body so his tail would whip into Zombie once more. However, before the strong tail could connect, Zombie’s body disconnected from the joints and the limbs flew out of the way, making Wizard’s attack miss.

“Bleh hehehehehehee!” Zombie’s head laughed loudly as his body began to come together once more. “Nice try, Mage! But I’m used to your attacks and they won’t be able to…”

Ignoring Zombie’s taunting, the masked dragon slipped a new ring on his right claw, a green one that gleamed in the moonlight. The ring was green with a dragon that had lightning bolts erupting from its winged body. Spinning about, Wizard landed on the ground with his new ring being thrown in front of his belt. “Then here’s an extra service!”

“VERY NICE – THUNDER!

“FABULOUS!”

Casually, Wizard lifted his right claws up, creating a green magical circle before him that cackled with green electricity. A loud roar echoed through the air as a large dragon made up of green electrical energy shot from the runic circle. Zombie’s eyes widened at the sheer speed of the dragon and before he could react, the dragon passed through his body, a large amount of green sparks from his body.

The thunder dragon flew up through the air before it charged once more at the still stunned Phantom. Zombie cried out as the dragon shot through his body once more, even more streams of electricity erupting from his joints and body. “GARGH! THIS ISN’T FUN ANY MORE!!!”

“Oh nice job, Dragon,” Wizard mused. Lifting his left claw to look at the Hurricane Dragon Ring, Wizard nodded to the piece of jewelry. “A thundering success.”

Zombie cried out as the green dragon flew up high into the air before it dove down towards the Phantom, the undead monster on his last ropes. “NO!!! SOMEONE DO SOMETHING!”

Just as the electrical dragon was about to crash into Zombie, a large stone tree was thrown over the blue phantom and took the brunt of the attack. The stone tree shattered with its bits falling over Zombie’s form and green sparks flying over the park. Both Zombie and Wizard stood there surprised at what just happened.

Wizard shook his head. “What the Tartarus just happened?”

“I’m not gonna lie,” Zombie admitted as he jumped to his feet, his bones cracking loudly in the process. “Being saved by a statue tree – Didn’t call that one.”

“Zombie…”

The blue skinned Phantom immediately stood up straight before he shook visibly and his yellow eyes widened.

“If I did not require your abilities, I would’ve allowed you to face your death.”

Stepping from the shadows from the trees, a slim figure slowly emerged into the moonlight – And Zombie fell to his backside once more, tears appeared in his eyes. “GAGH! ANYONE BUT YOU!!!”

Wizard turned towards the being that struck fear into Zombie’s heart – amongst the shadows was a slim phantom with purple, black and gold scaly skin that resembled that of fancy clothes with coattails, high heels, and golden shoulder pads. She had a revealed, human-like mouth with purple lips while the upper portion of her head was hidden by a black visor with bright purple scales that parted the visor. And from the visor, many snakes slithered out from her head, hissing loudly.

But there was something else, something about this Phantom that made Wizard still his breath,
‘This… This Phantom, this magical presence – It’s just like Phoenix’s!’

Zombie crawled away from the snake Phantom, tears starting to well up in his eyes as he lifted one of his hands up towards her. “L-Lady Medusa! I… I…”

The snakes from Lady Medusa’s head grew longer and quickly slithered over the ground towards Zombie, the blue skinned Phantom quickly slammed his hands and feet into the dirt to propel him out of the way just as the snakes crashed into where he was. The undead Phantom leapt into a tree before he jumped into another tree, his aim to escape.

Lady Medusa snickered as the snakes slowly coiled back to her, “Hmm, too bad – Oh well, this just makes the chase all the more thrilling.”

With a snap of her fingers, a dark shadow flew over the park at Lady Medusa’s command, flying after Zombie. It was then that Lady Medusa turned her attention towards Wizard and then bowed slightly. “Although, I’ve found something more interesting – Apologies, Ring Mage, but I had business to attend to. Now, I’ve got only eyes for you.”

Wizard snapped out of his slight daze, and lifted his left arm up, creating a defensive stance. “I believe he called you Medusa, right?”

Lady Medusa lifted her head up and stood up tall before she crossed her arms over her chest. “Lovely, that’ll spare us the mundane tradition of introductions, Ring Mage. Now, how about you be a good little dragon and go on your merry little way to find some jewels to munch on.”

At that comment, Wizard tilted his head slightly. “No choice here – If you know my name, then you probably know what I do.”

“I didn’t realize that Phantom Hunting was a job,” Medusa joked as she waved her hand in front of her lips. The snakes from her head hissed loudly before Medusa caressed the snakes. “I should at least be courteous, I’ve heard of your more recent exploits – Particularly how you managed to defeat Phoenix.”

With a swift yank, Medusa ripped one of the snakes from her head and it began to grow within her grasp. The snake grew and stiffened until it became a bronze staff that Medusa snapped to the side before she continued to speak. “He and I are considered some of the best of the best amongst the Phantoms – However…”

“Connect – PLEASE!”

Appearing right over Medusa, Wizard immediately brought down his sword down upon Medusa’s head quickly.

CLANK!

But Medusa’s staff was quickly lifted up and she blocked the attack quite easily, supporting Wizard’s attack. Her purple lips curled up into a devious, if not seductive smile, “Between the two of us, Phoenix and I are on completely different levels.”

Disappearing into a green blur, Wizard sped across the ground, circling Medusa by using his magic. Coming up from behind, Wizard spun around to deliver a powerful stab towards Medusa’s back.

“Pathetic…”

Before Wizard’s attack could even connect, the snakes from Medusa’s head snapped into action and crashed into the masked dragon’s stomach, knocking the air out of Wizard and sent him flying back into random park bench, shattering it on impact. “Ow…”

Medusa turned around and ran a finger atop her staff. “Done already? I was hoping for a much more of a Showtime.”

The snake phantom slowly walked towards Wizard who was quickly getting to his feet once more. With a quick snap, Wizard transformed his sword into a gun and immediately fired several rounds towards Medusa.

Another sigh slipped from the Phantom’s lips before she quickly lifted her staff up and spun it around, catching all of the magically charged shots into it. Then, Medusa lowered her staff to the ground to reveal that all of the rounds were still intact and she lined them up.

“What the?!” Wizard questioned as he stepped back slightly from the sight.

A smile graced Medusa’s lips before she slammed the top of her staff into the magically imbued rounds, sending them flying through the air towards Wizard with a purple aura floating around them. Before Wizard could react, the rounds crashed into his body, sending sparks flying from his chest and propelling him to the ground once more. “GARGH!”

Skidding on his back, Wizard used his tail to flip himself up through the air and land on his feet to replace the ring on his right claws once more. He then threw his gloved claws in front of his belt. “VERY NICE – THUNDER!

“FABULOUS!”

Once more, the runic green circle appeared before Wizard, but just as the runic circle was charging with energy, several purple phantasmal snakes immediately coiled around it and even bit down on the runic circle. “What!?”

Several cracks appeared in the circle before it shattered like glass, and quicker than the naked eye, all of the phantasmal snakes coiled around Wizard’s limbs, torso and even his neck. “GAGH!”

Slowly, the snakes coiled even tighter and began to lift him off of the ground, the sound of bending metal and cracking jewels echoing though the night’s air. Medusa giggled as she sauntered towards Wizard, the snakes from her head the very same that were slowly squeezing the life from the masked dragon. “I’m not like other Phantoms, Ring Mage. You may have defeated a number of my brethren, and even toppled Phoenix off of his high and mighty tower, but I’m in a league all of my own.”

Wizard continued to struggle free from the snakes, but with every movement, they just coiled tighter and tighter. ‘I… I can’t break free… And, I’m… feeling… w-weaker with… every…’

“You feel it don’t you?” Medusa chimed out, garnering Wizard’s attention. “You can feel the mana being drained from your very form – Being pulled away from you with every passing second. I’m no Blue Phantom, but I do possess the ability to steal mana from any form of living creature, not just Unicorns.

“So relax, enjoy the last few moments of your life. And rest assured that your mana will go to a good cause – Me.”

Slowly, Wizard’s vision began to tunnel, ‘Is… Is this really it? Is this how it… How it ends? It can’t be, I finally…’

Using whatever strength he had in his right claw, Haru fought against the snake that was binding the limb and lifted it up towards the moon. ‘I finally found…’

Thoughts of his friends in Ponyville suddenly filled Haru’s mind – Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Spike, the Apple Family, the Cakes, even that pony with the crisscrossed eyes – They were all on his mind. ‘I finally found a h-home…’

Slowly, Wizard’s right arm began to slump, and Medusa began to snicker, the last voice that he would hear would be…

“HOLD IT!”

Wizard’s eyes snapped open and he turned his head as best he could to see where the familiar voice came from. Standing a few yards away was none other than Shining Armor with a number of Canterlot guards behind him.

Medusa had also turned her head towards the entourage of guards, and even seemed to freeze up for a moment before she turned her head away from them.

“As captain of the Canterlot Royal Guard,” Shining Armor commanded as he stomped towards Medusa, his horn glowing brightly. “I order you to release him at once!”

‘Shining Armor! No!’ Wizard thought to himself as he continued to struggle, trying to get free. ‘I may not like the guy, but I can’t let him get killed by Medusa! Twilight would never…’

At that very moment, the phantasmal snakes disappeared around Wizard’s body, and he floated in mid-air for a second. “Huh?”

Then with a yelp, Wizard fell to the ground on his back with a loud smack. “OW! I LANDED ON A ROCK!”

With her back still to Shining Armor, Medusa brought her staff close to her chest and one hand to her lips. Her breathing seemed to hasten a little bit, and her heart’s beat sped up when she heard hooves getting closer to her. “By the authority of the Canterlot Royal Guard, you are under arrest!”

“You… You certainly know how to charm a girl, Captain,” Medusa mused, keeping her back to Shining Armor. “But having silver cuffs on my wrists is hardly flattering, so… I must bid adieu!”

A large amount of purple radiated from Medusa’s body, forcing Shining Armor to create a powerful shield of magical energy to block it. Shining lowered his shield when it seemed that the energy had died down, and saw that Medusa was nowhere in sight.

The oddly dressed figure before him was still on the ground, moaning about a rock or something. Carefully, Shining trotted over to the figure with his eyes narrowed slightly, “Are you alright?”

“Uh…” Wizard moaned slightly as he lifted his head up. “Well…”

Before Wizard could say another word, his entire suit flickered slightly before it shattered away with a green rune circle – revealing a certain red dragon in place of the impressive Wizard.

Shining’s eyes widened as he quickly drew his head back while Haru chuckled sheepishly with a claw rubbing the back of his head. “Hello!”

TTTTTT

It was almost ten p.m. near Canterlot’s train station, with the last train of the night only fifteen minutes away from departure. The finely dressed griffon who was seated on a bench a few yards away from the loading platform, his yellow eyes trained on the pocket-watch he held in one talon. “… He’s late.”

Pushing himself from the bench, the griffon lifted his tail up to reveal that the end of his tail was coiled around a brief case. He sighed loudly as he slowly made his way towards the platform, “Rather disappointing – I was hoping to get my research materials quickly.”

“Hey, hey, why so glum?”

The fancily dressed griffon turned his head to see a rather creepy looking stallion a few feet from him – The stallion was really thin, to the point where his rib cage was visible to the skin, his long blue, messy mane and tail were dirtied and his white fur also had the same fate. On his back was a ragged knapsack and embroidered on his flank was a familiar red and white crossed blue flag.

“Union Jack,” The griffon sighed as he turned around with narrowed eyes at the earth stallion before him. “I thought we had an agreement that you’d be here twenty minutes prior to the tenth hour of the evening.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Union Jack grumbled as he spun around, making the sack fall to the ground before the griffon. “Don’t get yer wings tied up – I got the goods right here. Just be glad I managed to get away from the Castle Guard, a masked vigilante, and even my former employer to make this delivery, Shinkuro.”

Shinkuro the griffon snorted as he used his tail to place the briefcase on the ground next to the sack, and then used his tail to take the sack. “You Phantoms lack subtly, but you do at least get the work done.”

With a quick peak into the bag, Shinkuro’s beak slowly curved to reveal a slight smile that immediately disappeared when he closed the bag. “Enjoy your bits to your heart’s content – If you Phantoms even have one. Rather curious about that, would you be interested in being a test subject for my experiments?”

“No way, Doc,” Union Jack scoffed as he used his front hoof to pull the suitcase closer to him. “I tend to like my organs inside their home.”

“Pity,” Shinkuro sighed under his breath as he reached into his jacket’s inner pocket. “I was hoping to examine that monstrous form of yours – It’s rather similar to the forms created by these things.”

It was then that Shinkuro pulled out a small device, a white rectangle that had a small silver square on the end of it, and had a ‘W’ on it that was composed of a twister, a bolt of lighting, rain and sun beams. “I wonder if there’s a connection – Oh well, perhaps next time.”

“Don’t bet on it,” Union Jack chuckled before he grabbed the briefcase with his mouth as Shinkuro began to head towards the loading platform. ‘I think I’ll head on over to Manehatten for a while and enjoy my newfound bits.’

Just before Union Jack was about to turn around, several purple phantasmal snakes coiled around his body and pulled him into the darkness without a sound while he dropped the briefcase to the ground.

Shinkuro smirked as he heard the hissing and slowly turned around, ‘Such a shame, oh well – At least my bits are back in my possession. Thank you very much, Miss Mysterious Pony, I hope you finding Union Jack will be fruitful.’

With a smirk, Shinkuro snatched up the briefcase and placed it on his back before he went back towards the train.

“ALL ABOARD! NEXT STOP – NORTHWEST STATION: BENEATH CLOUDSDALE!”

TTTTTT

A loud yawn escaped from a scaly mouth.

“Morning already?” Spike mumbled as he turned around in his bed a few times, taking the blanket and curling himself into it. “Ten more minutes, Shiny…”

A few seconds passed before the blanket flew up into the air and Spike sat up quickly in the rather large bed, “Wait a minute, where is everypony?”

Looking around the rather large quarters, Spike jumped from the bed and turned towards an undisturbed bed next to his. The room was an empty soldier quarters that Shining Armor provided to the two dragons for their stay in Canterlot, the white Stallion had even had another bed set up so he could be with the young dragon – But no pony was in the room save for Spike. “Hello? Haru! Shiny!

“Where are they?”

Spike peeked his head out of the room and into the empty hallway, his short legs pulling him from the room. The castle was normally bustling with noise, but it was oddly quiet on this cloudy morning. There would at least be a few guards trotting around the castle grounds, but the only noise was the usual Canterlot busy work.

Shrugging his shoulders, Spike knew there was only one thing to do – Get breakfast.

It didn’t take long for the small dragon to make his way to the Castle’s kitchen – But stopped near the entrance to the room. ‘If I remember right, the chefs didn’t really like me sneaking about to sneak some food –Oh mane, I missed those times.’

Getting down on all fours, Spike peeked into the kitchen and slowly crawled across the tiled floor, his claws clicking against floor. Only moments after he did, he ducked into a nearby cupboard as the head chef trotted by, the moment that the stallion was gone, Spike slipped out and slithered his way towards one of the counters with some of the royal breakfast atop of it.

Slowly, he lifted one of his claws up over the counter and began to reach for one of the baked goods…

Spike cringed however when his claws brushed against a hoof and he stilled his breath. With an audible gulp, Spike lifted his head up and realized that the hoof he had touched didn’t belong to the chef, rather it belonged to a certain red pegasus he had just met the day before. ‘That’s Kai… Right?’

Indeed, it was the somewhat idiotic pegasus, who was also reaching for some of the breakfast muffins that were laid out on the counter.

“AHEM!”

Both Spike and Kai turned to see the head chef leering at them, daggers in his eyes. “Spike, good to see you – Back to your old tricks again…”

“Uh,” Spike chuckled sheepishly.

“Kai,” The head chef growled as his gaze shifted slightly.

“Run,” Kai stated calmly as he turned towards Spike. “Run.

“RUN!”

Kai galloped out of the kitchen with Spike desperately holding onto the pegasus’ short black tail, yelling as pots, pans, a couple soup ladles, a few knives, and even the kitchen’s sink were being magically thrown at the pair.

A few minutes later, the pair was outside on the castle’s walls, Kai sprawled out on the ground with him gasping for air as Spike looked about, “I think we’re safe… Good thing we got outta there quick.”

“W-We?” Kai wheezed as he looked up at the baby dragon. “You didn’t do anything! I was the one with the leg work! I didn’t even get one of the muffins I wanted…”

“Yeah, but I was the dragon who snagged two of the muffins!” Spike stated as he held his tail up to reveal that coiled around his scaly appendage were indeed two muffins.

Kai’s eyes brightened as Spike pulled them from his tail and immediately tossed one of the confectionaries to the red pegasus. Bumbling a little bit with his hooves, Kai quickly caught the muffin and sniffled slightly. “Nice one! Thanks little scaly friend!”

“It’s what I do,” Spike replied with his chest puffed out for a few seconds before he sat down on the ground, taking a bite out of his muffin.

For a moment, the two kitchen escapees just sat there in the warm, if not really cloudy, morning, enjoying their muffins – But it wasn’t long till Spike turned towards Kai and pulled his muffin away. “Say, you’re in the royal guard, right?”

“Uh, kinda,” Kai responded with a mouth full of muffin. “I’m in what you’d call a special case of sorts.”

“Well, do you know where Shiny and Haru are?” Spike asked, looking down at the slightly chewed on muffin.

“Shiny?” Kai questioned his eyes looking up slightly. It took a few seconds before he connected the dots. “OH! You mean Captain Shining armor! And I’m guessing Haru’s that dragon from yesterday, right? Well, let’s see, I think I saw them earlier today…”

Spike sighed with relief before he took a large bite from his muffin – at least the two were okay and around somewhere. What was the worst that could happen with the two?

“Yeah, I think that dragon was arrested by the captain,” Kai stated bluntly with a smile on his face.

Spike immediately spat out the muffin he had in his mouth.

TTTTTT

“Let me see if I get this straight – You’ve got all these magical powers that you use to fight against monsters, like the two last night, who are called Phantoms. These Phantoms are creatures born from ponies known as Gates, and these Phantoms seek to awaken more Phantoms by instilling despair into the Gates, which causes the magic inside of them to form into the Phantoms and then break free from their pony exteriors.

“Is that correct?”

Haru nonchalantly munched on a doughnut, not caring that Shining Armor was glaring at him from across the table. Ever since last night, Haru was being detained in an interrogation room with mostly just a pair of guards at the door keeping an eye on him.

It wasn’t until twenty minutes ago that Shining Armor appeared before Haru with a box of doughnuts and some coffee.

With a quiet gulp, Haru sighed as he looked at the powdered donut, “… Not as good as Joe’s or the Cakes’.”

Shining growled with his eyes narrowed at the dragon before him, garnering the magical dragon’s attention. With a sheepish smirk on his face, Haru placed the donut on the table and weaved his claws together. “Uh, yeah, that’s pretty much the gist of it.”

With his horn glowing brightly, Shining brought up a familiar green ring in front of Haru’s face. “Then there’s you – Where do I begin here with you?”

“Well, I’m a handsome devil for one,” Haru stated with a smile on his face and his arms lifted up, only to realize that his arms will still bound by the cuffs around his wrists. “And that I prefer rings to bracelets.”

“You really think this is the best time to get smart with me?” Shining Armor pointed out with his hoof aimed directly at Haru’s nose. “You’re already on my bad side with what I’ve heard about you, and now I find out that you’ve got these strange abilities and weapons, going about like some comic book vigilante.”

With a shrug of his shoulders, Haru turned to the side. “I can’t really help it, in a situation like this one, I have to have a clear mind. There’s a lot going on here Shining Armor – More in the shadows than I like.

“Although, I’m in the dark about why you decided to arrest me, isn’t that a little extreme?”

“It’s because you have the stench of danger about you,” Shining Armor answered.

‘You can get arrested for smelling bad?!’ Haru thought as he lifted up his arm and took a quick whiff. “Eh?! Really?”

“Not literally,” Shining sighed before he rolled his eyes. “Wait a sec, are you just making another joke right now?!”

“Nope,” Haru answered, mimicking a certain friend of his back in Ponyville.

There was a moment of silence as Shining levitated the ring back down to the table and leered at Haru.

“Oi, Shiny…” Haru started as his blue eyes turned towards the white stallion in front of him.

“Don’t address me so informally,” Shining Armor growled bringing his front hooves down to the ground. “Now, you’ll continue to tell me what you know about the Phantoms.”

“Ya know, this has been bothering me for a while now,” Haru muttered as he reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a familiar looking rolled up scroll. “But should you really be this hostile? Especially when I was asked to come here by the very princess you serve.”

“What?” Shining Armor questioned before Haru tossed the scroll onto the table.

“I was a little hesitant to show this to you, especially since you gave me such a warm welcome earlier,” Haru continued as Shining Armor used his magic to lift the scroll up and unfurl it. “And considering that I didn’t want to burden Spike with this stuff - But now I’m given no other option here.”

Shining furrowed his brow as he read the letter – The seal was perfect, even the penmanship of the letter was the exact same that he had read a number of times when he read orders from the princess herself – it was the contents that brought concerns up. ‘Why wasn’t I informed about any of this?! I know that the Princess can be a bit… Eccentric at times, but if she wanted me to meet with Haruto to discuss this, then why…?’

“Oi, Shiny~”

With a shake of his head, Shining Armor lifted his head up from the letter to leer at the dragon, “Didn’t I just say to not refer to me so friendly?”

“It seems like you’re rather insistent to deal with Phantoms,” Haru mused, ignoring Shining’s complaints. “Why?”

“Why?” Shining Armor replied with a snort. “You’re really asking me that? I’m Captain of the Royal Guards for Equestria, it’s my duty to protect any and every pony from any threat! And these Phantoms are obviously a threat!”

Haru only looked at Shining Armor, his cobalt eyes seemingly piercing into Shining’s very core – And then, the dragon only shrugged again before he leaned back in his seat and grabbed the half eaten doughnut from the table. After taking a quick bite, Haru chuckled, “Heh, and here I was thinking we wouldn’t be able to find any common ground between us.”

“Common ground?” Shining questioned with a raised brow. “What are you talking…”

“Shining Armor,” Haru interrupted as he looked up towards the ceiling with a smile. “Let me tell you something interesting – When I first really spoke to Twilight, you know what the first thing I did was? I ran away from her. I knew that my power, my curse, my… Hope, it was dangerous for anypony to get near me.

“But… She and her friends got to me – They convinced me that I was more than just destructive magic. That I was their friend. I will honor their words till the day I’m in the grave, and I’ll use whatever power I have to protect that friendship.”

It was then at that moment that a loud crash of thunder echoed through the air, with lightning brightening the interrogation room for a second.

“Pretty words,” Shining Armor replied as he looked towards the barred window, seeing a few raindrops falling from the sky. “But, that’s all they are – Pretty words. Redd Herring saw what you tried to do to Twilight.”

Haru slammed his claws and head into the table before Shining, making the stallion jump slightly. “I… I’m not denying that – It was a mistake, one that I’ll carry for the rest of my days – But, I don’t want to lose the friendship that I got with them!

“I… I don’t want to be alone again… N-Not again…”

Shining drew back when he saw a few tears fall onto the table near Haru’s head, and Shining turned away and rubbed the back of his head with his hoof.

“That’s why…”

Shining drew his attention back to Haru, seeing that the dragon had lifted his head up, “That’s why I have to do whatever I can to protect that hope. To protect that friendship.

“TO PROTECT MY FRIENDS!”

For a moment, Shining Armor remained silent at the sudden outburst from the dragon – Both of their gazes locked on the other for a few moments with a moment of silence. In the corners of Haru’s eyes were the remains of tears while Shining’s own eyes softened slightly.

Another crash of thunder boomed through the air, a second bolt of lightning that followed a few seconds later. “Haruto…”

WHAM!

Both Shining and Haru turned to the door to see a single guard who opened the door, panting loudly, “C-Captain Armor! The main street! E-Emergency!”

“Compose yourself, soldier!” Shining commanded as he moved from the table. “And calmly tell me what is happening.”

“Sir!” The soldier replied with a salute before he took a deep breath. “Sir, an army has appeared at the city square!”

“An army!?” Shining questioned with his eyes wide.

TTTT – Half an Hour Earlier – TTTT

Unbeknownst to most of the citizens of Canterlot, there was a large, extensive cave system right under their hooves. Years upon years ago, these tunnels were mined for precious gems by greedy unicorns until its supplies were exhausted. When the precious gems were removed from the crystal caverns, the mines were sealed up and closed off to be forgotten.

“P-PLEASE LADY MEDUSA! SPARE ME!”

However, three figures slowly traversed the caves – Well, two of them traversed, the third one was being held up in the air by several phantasmal snakes by Lady Medusa. “Zombie – If I was you, I’d keep my mouth shut. Your incessant whining is starting to give me a headache.”

Union Jack quickly closed his mouth with a sour look plastered all over his face.

The third figure – A tall humanoid with green and white armor that had a feather-like motif to it and a split mask – Walked a little closer to Medusa, “Lady Medusa, if you don’t mind me asking – Why did we need this deviant? Not that I’m questioning your plan, Lady Medusa, but it’s a rather curious situation.”

Medusa didn’t say a word as she continued to lead the third being through the crystal caverns, but a few moments later, the snake Phantom turned towards one of the larger crystals to admire her reflection. “Valkyrie, let me ask you something. If you were a Princess…”

“Oh, only in my dreams,” Valkyrie cooed with his hands brought up to his face.

It took a moment for Medusa to turn her gaze towards the swooning Phantom before she shook her head, “If you were a Princess who had to store a magical artifact and make sure no pony finds it, wouldn’t you want to make sure that you had some wards to make sure that nopony would mess with it?

“We’re going to use Zombie here as a sponge to soak up all of that magic.”

“Ah, I see,” Valkyrie mused with a nod of his head. “But don’t you have that magical absorption ability too?”

“Why soil my own hooves?” Medusa replied with her hands lifted up. “Besides, this is a win-win situation here – If he absorbs the magical wards, we get the Eye of N Ma. If he doesn’t, he’ll probably just be destroyed in the process: Win-win.”

“How is it a win for me?!” Union Jack cried out with tears in his eyes.

“You survive, you get pardoned for deviating from your mission,” Medusa answered curtly before she continued on her way through the caves. “You probably have a good fifty percent chance of surviving… Maybe.”

“MAYBE?!” Union Jack wailed loudly, his cries echoing through the crystal caves.

Having the brilliant idea to use one of her snakes to bind Union Jack’s mouth shut, Medusa and Valkyrie’s trip through the caves went smoothly – until they reached a large, carved-out room that had several runic symbols etched into the crystals, chains bound around the entrance, and of course what had brought the three down to the caverns in the first place.

Standing tall in the middle of the cave was a statue of a fully armored knight with sharp, curved armor that had wolf-like shoulder pads and a large shield that had a red crystal in the middle of it. The statue was made out of a different sort of crystal, one that seemed to glow a bright purple.

Slowly, Medusa’s lips curled into a dark smile.

TBC

Author's Note

MangaKamen: -smirks- Behold everyone! The next chapter has appeared before you all! And next time... The conclusion!

Everyone! Give support! The comic is still in the works, but it needs more support! Let's get help from Equestria Daily! You guys!

Its thanks to guys like you that I'm writing this - I love to write, but you guys give me that extra push, so... THANKS!

Spell 22 - Canterlot Royal Business Part 4

Magic, it is a sacred power.

Magic, it is an adventure into the unknown.

Magic, and it is the proof of courage!

TTTTTT

Spell 22

Canterlot Royal Business
Part 4

TTTTTT

Medusa was quite possibly one of the most deadly and cool headed of the Phantoms. Yet, she was a powerful force that none of the Phantoms would dare to disobey lest they face the fate of being a perch for pigeons.

But even she had to step back with what she was about to do.

With the crystal knight statue only a few yards between her and Valkyrie, Medusa lifted up Union Jack with her snake hair to make him look her in the face, “Zombie, change forms now.”

“Why should I?” the gaunt pony huffed with his front legs crossed in front of his chest.

“Because it’ll be the only way you’ll survive,” Medusa replied as she ran a finger along Union Jack’s lower jaw.

The gaunt stallion’s body shivered before the phantasmal snakes quickly lifted him towards the statue. As they drew him closer to the statue, Union Jack’s eyes widened as he realized that the statue was glowing a deep purple. “EH!?!”

In a blue flame, Union Jack’s body immediately transformed into the blue skinned Phantom – Zombie – but he was still bound by the phantasmal snakes. “N-NO! There’s so many laws I haven’t broken! So many mares I haven’t smooched! So many songs of Sapphire Shores’ CDs that I haven’t destroyed! I don’t wanna do this! I don’t wanna! I don’t wanna!”

He didn’t have a choice in the matter.

The phantasmal snakes crashed Zombie into the ground at the statue’s feet, with the aura around the statue intensifying. Zombie lifted his ghoulish head up and raised his arms up as the aura began to engulf his own body. “GARGH! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooo… Hey! Wait a tick!”

Zombie licked his chops as he jumped to his feet and began to walk around the statue, the aura seeped into his blue skin. “This is actually feeling pretty choice! Ooh! It’s like there’s a party in my bones and all of Canterlot is invited!

“Mares and me only though! Blehehehehehehehe!”

“He’s… Actually enjoying it?” Valkyrie questioned with his head tilted to the side. The feather-armored Phantom turned his attention towards Medusa. “Is Zombie right in the head, Lady Medusa? What is going on?”

Medusa only shrugged her shoulders.

With a quick jump, Zombie leapt to the shoulders of the statue, his yellow toed feet curling around the wolf-shaped shoulder armor. “Whoo! Why didn’t you tell me it was like this Lady Medusa? If ya told me earlier, I would’ve come here by myself!”

With a snap of his fingers, Zombie threw his head back to draw more of the aura into him, this time through his boney mouth. A loud audible gulp sound echoed through the crystal cavern followed by several others. It was so loud that none of the three Phantoms noticed that a small crack appeared on the head of the tall statue.

“Is… Is he drinking it?” Valkyrie question as he leaned forward to get a better look at the odd Phantom. “Is such a thing possible?”

“Magic in this world is just weird,” Medusa sighed, her arms crossed over her abdomen. “In my travels to fulfill orders, I’ve seen a lot of weird things – Dark force creatures roaming the land to corrupt beings, an amulet that can grant anypony magic on par with that of an Alicorn, a pink haired stallion that was actually able to use fire magic and devour various sorts of flames, a genie cat being trapped in a lamp, and much, much more.

“It doesn’t surprise me at all that something like this is happening. Although, I’ll admit that I was expecting the idiot to get blown up the moment he touched the damn thing.”

With a final slurp, Zombie wiped his boney mouth with his arm. A cackle slipped from his mouth as he spun on his heel and looked directly at the statue. “Done already? Aw come on, don’t kill the tap! It was just as tasty as that Zap Apple cider I stole once!”

Zombie looked over the statue for a few seconds before his beady, yellow eyes locked onto the large red jewel in the middle of the statue’s’ shield. His eyes immediately turned heart shape and almost popped out of his skull. “WHOO BABY! I’M IN L-U-V! LOVE! HEY – Lady Medusa! Since I got all that magic that you wanted sucked up, I’ll just be taking this shiny rock as payment, m’kay?”

Medusa lifted her head up quickly and threw her hand forward, “NO! YOU IDIOT, DON’T TOUCH THAT!”

But Medusa’s orders fell to deaf ears and Zombie placed his yellow fingers on the red jewel. The moment his fingertips graced the jewel, the red jewel began to glow a bright red. Zombie staggered back as a new aura wrapped around the statue’s form – A reddish-purple aura that made more cracks appear on the statue’s body. The cavern began to shake as the cracks crawled down the statue’s form and into the crystals that were around its body.

A loud wolf howl echoed through the air.

Medusa scoffed to the side as she drew away from the dark purple energy that webbed throughout the cavern. “I see… So this is what ‘he’ had planned.”

Valkyrie blinked a few times as he watched Medusa spin on her heels and begin to walk away from the scene. “L-Lady Medusa? Where are you going?”

“I’ve fulfilled my mission,” Medusa answered, not even being bothered to stop to talk to her subordinate. “We’re leaving - Try to keep up, Valkyrie.”

The feather-armored Phantom bobbed his head up and down a few times before he began to follow the purple Phantom.

“OI! You can’t just leave me here!” Zombie yelled out, unaware that behind him, bits and pieces of the statue fell to the ground. “Wait for…”

KER-KRASH!

Before Zombie could finish his sentence, a powerful yank to his hair pulled him back. With a loud yelp Zombie tried to break free from the sudden tug. “WHAT THE TARTARUS?! DID MY HAIR GET…”

That was when Zombie turned his head to see that what had grasped onto his hair was the right hand of the statue – Only now it was no longer made of crystal, but black leather with silver and purple armor.

More and more bits of crystal fell from the statue’s form, the knight’s armor gleaming in what little light there was in the cavern. The statue’s helmet was still half-covered with crystals, but the black visor in the helmet had a purple gleam from it.

“Oh, bugger,” Zombie gulped loudly.

TTTTTTT

While Haru was interrogated by Shining Armor, the streets of Canterlot were almost empty due to the onslaught of rain that was falling from the sky…

“Yeesh Lyra! Did we really have to leave in the rain?!”

“I’m sorry Bon Bon, but the sooner we get out of here, the better!”

The two mares trotted through the watered down streets, their hooves getting wet while the rest of their bodies were covered by the saddle umbrellas they had on their backs. Lyra growled under her breath as she continued to trudge through the rain with BonBon a little bit behind her, “They still don’t believe me! Even you saw those humanoids!”

“Yeah, but it’s still hard to believe that a bunch of human-like creatures just happened to appear one day,” Bon Bon replied with a sigh. “You can’t fault your family for not believing that – Even I can barely believe that happened, and I was there!”

Lyra stopped in her tracks and sighed. “I know, but still… I thought they would at least believe you.”

“Lyra, unless they see if for themselves,” Bon Bon stated as she trotted alongside her friend. “They aren’t going to believe it. But you can’t expect, oh, I don’t know – A human to appear in the street in front of us with a flash of light. That’s not how the world works.”

The mint green unicorn was about to speak up when a bright purple light erupted before the two mares, making them jump back as a large purple runic circle erupted onto the concrete. The circle spun around as a shrouded figure oozed from the circle, and stood up promptly.

The figure stood up to make the runic circle shatter like glass, and the rain fell onto the being’s purple and silver armor. The armored being was tall, with wolf-head shaped shoulder pads atop his broad shoulders and he stood on two legs. He resembled that of a royal knight with his strong form, impressive armor, and regal air that floated about him.

But what caught Lyra’s attention was the fact that the armored being had gauntlets and hands! HANDS! Both of which were lifted up to catch the falling rain.

“Bon Bon!” Lyra squealed with her front hooves lifted up to her face.

The earth pony sighed loudly as she slapped her forehead, ‘How the Tartarus did this happen?’

The armored knight trained his eyes at the palm of his hand, where the rain water had begun to pull up in his palm. “One thousand years, one thousand years since I last saw the rain fall.”

The knight lifted his head up, which allowed the rain to bounce off the black visor to his helmet. “Truly, a beautiful sight – Although, I have no idea where I am.”

“SQUEEEE!”

“Hmm?” The knight lowered his gaze to see Lyra standing mere inches from him, a large smile plastered on her face. He lifted his free hand up and waved at the mare. “Hello there.”

Lyra’s mouth curved even more (to the point where her face was starting to get sore) to reveal the pearly whites she had. “H-Hi!”

The knight rapped a finger against the armored chin of his helmet, the clank of his armor made Lyra wobble at the sight of his finger. “Fortune is smiling upon me today, Miss Mare, may I trouble you for a few seconds?”

“N-NOTATALL!” Lyra squeaked.

‘Hmm, she must be nervous about my appearance,’ The knight thought as he knelt down in an attempt to look Lyra in the eyes and to lower his intimidation to the mare. “Thank you, tell me, where am I?”

“C-Canterlot,” Lyra answered with a nod of her head. “You’re in Canterlot sir! The capital of Equestria.”

“The capital?” The armored being stated before he looked towards the castle in the distance. “Does that mean that Princess Celestia is here?”

“Of course she is!” Lyra replied.

The knight immediately stood up much to Lyra’s surprise and jolts of purple energy coursed around his left hand. “Gu Zazare…”

The sparks transformed into large shield with a sword sticking out from the top of it. The knight turned his gaze towards Lyra once more before he knelt down, “Madame, I thank you for your assistance.”

It was then that the knight placed his hand atop of Lyra’s head, which made the unicorn freeze up on the spot with a bright smile on her face. “As thanks, I shall tell you that you have five minutes to leave this city safely. What you do with this information is up to you and your friend.”

Once more, the knight stood up and slowly began to walk towards the castle in the distance. He stopped to give a polite nod towards Bon Bon before he continued on his way.

The early pony trotted to her friend, Lyra still frozen with stupor. “Lyra? Lyra? Are you okay?”

Bon Bon gently tapped her friend’s side, and immediately, the mint green unicorn toppled over and into a puddle of water. Bon Bon sighed loudly, “Oh, not again.”

The purple armored knight continued his trek through the streets, his gaze scanned each and every little detail as he reached into his shield. “A thousand years allows for many changes to occur – How drastic a change is surprising. The buildings and even the beings that reside in his world are a curious marvel.”

With his hand pulled back from the shield, the knight shuffled the numerous stones in his black gloved hand, “Even the magic is different. Infusing magic into these very stones, marvelous.”

The knight tossed the stones into the air, with a dark purple aura surged around them. When the stones clacked against soaked concrete, they exploded into purple clouds of smoke. From that smoke, several Ghouls stalked onto the streets with their rusty red spears and their stone-like bodies. The only difference to other Ghouls was that the gold veins on their bodies were replaced with amethyst jewels.

The dark knight looked over the five dozen Ghouls that turned their attention towards him, “Hmm, intriguing – It was good thing I pocketed these stones from that odd, blue character, for now I have my own forces to aid me. Soldiers, follow me!”

The Ghouls nodded towards the Knight as they watched him continue his trek towards the castle grounds, when he passed the small army, they began to follow him.

TTTTTTT

“Have there been any casualties?” Shining Armor asked as he used his magic to place the golden armor onto his form.

“No sir!” One of the fully armored members of the Royal Guard replied. “Aside from scaring a few ponies, there have been no reported injuries or any damages to property. So far, the army just appeared ten minutes ago and is marching through the streets, and according to reports, most of the members of this army are similar to the monsters that appeared last night.”

With a furrowed brow, Shining Armor placed his helmet atop of his head, his horn sticking through the hole made in it. ‘Great, just what we needed – With what Haruto told me about that letter, this isn’t what I needed.’

Shining shook his head slightly before he began to march out of the armory, the soldier following him immediately, “You said most of the members of the army as similar to what we dealt with last night, what else is with the invading army?”

“Well, according to the reports, sir,” the soldier continued, unhindered by the captain’s speed. “Aside from the golem-like creatures, there’s only one other being amongst them – A purple armored knight.”

“A knight?” Shining muttered under his breath as he and the soldier took a turn through the hallway. “We’ll deal with it when the time comes, for now, make sure the royal chambers are well protected and the defenses are reinforced.”

“Yes captain!” The soldier announced with a salute before he galloped away from Shining Armor.

‘Where did this army come from anyway?’ Shining he quickened his pace. His thoughts were going as fast as his hooves clopped against the tiled floor. ‘Monsters, armies, knights, and now a magical dragon – Can this city get even weirder?’

“Shiny!”

“Captain Armor!”

Shining stopped in his tracks when he realized that Kai galloped towards him with Spike on his back. However, when he realized who was near him, Shining continued his trek with the two right behind him, “You two shouldn’t be here. Didn’t a soldier escort you two to safety?”

“We must’ve missed him,” Kai coughed, but that was a flat out lie – He and Spike ditched the soldier escort. “What’s going on here?”

“There’s an invasion,” Shining answered bluntly, his gaze still focused on the path before him. “We have the castle on high alert and we’re not taking any chances – This army appeared out of nowhere and we need to stop it immediately! You two need to go find a safe place to be at!”

“But Shiny!” Spike called out. “What about Haru? Kai here tells me that you arrested him! He can help you and…”

“At the moment, he’s detained,” Shining responded without hesitation. “Until this fiasco is over with, he’ll be contained until I can question him further.”

“But… But…” Spike started.

“But what about me?!” Kai snapped as he trotted faster to get alongside Shining Armor. “I’m practically the only one left here! I can help! I can fight! My brothers and sisters aren’t here to help you now, but, I’m here! Why can’t I…”

Shining stopped and slammed his hoof into the floor, which forced Kai and Spike wince at the sudden motion. “Spike! Kai! I don’t have time to deal with this! Both of you are to go to a secured location and wait there! If you don’t then I’ll have no choice to detain you to make sure you’re safe! Your choice!”

Both Kai and Spike gulped audibly at the serious look that Shining had on his face. While the two were frozen in place, Shining Armor trotted past them before he galloped past them.

A few minutes later, Shining Armor was out on the castle’s walls with a number of his soldiers around him, the rain from above still fell onto them and pooled around their hooves. From his perch he saw the opposing army that marched towards the gates, with the purple, silver and gold armored knight in front with his shield held out. Shining lifted his hoof up, “Prepare yourselves, Stallions! Wait for my command!”

The army of Ghouls stopped as the dark knight took a few more steps, the rain still falling down from the sky above. The knight lifted his head up and looked towards the unicorns and pegasai that were on the wall to the castle, “Who is the commanding officer here?”

There wasn’t any hesitation from the blue mane stallion, “I am Captain Shining Armor, state your name and your purpose here.”

With his hand lifted up, the purple knight clenched his right hand tightly, “Born in darkness, clad in darkness – The Dark Magic Knight…

“Wolzard…”

The knight, Wolzard threw his hand to the side, and the Ghouls behind him stood tall. “My purpose? It has nothing to do with the likes of you – I have no interest in spilling the blood of innocent soldiers. As a captain, you should know that your soldiers are the most vital resource you have.

“This can be resolved with the least amount of bloodshed as possible – Allow me admittance into the castle and to meet with Celestia.”

“And what is your business with the Princess?” Shining Armor asked with his eyes narrowed down at the purple armored knight.

“My business with the Princess does not concern you,” Wolzard replied with a calm tone. “This will be your last chance Captain Shining Armor, if you do not permit me entry into the castle…”

Wolzard drew the sword from his shield and pointed it towards Shining Armor, “Then I shall have no choice but to enter by force! As I said, I have no interest in harming your soldiers, but I have no qualms about doing so.

“So, I ask you, Captain Shining Armor – What is your answer? Will you allow me to enter, or will you put all your soldiers at risk?”

Shining Armor closed his eyes and took a deep breath – Only the sound of the rainfall filled his ears as he stood there in deep thought. It only took five seconds for him to open his eyes and narrow them down at Wolzard, “You invade our streets with an army and raise your sword to us – We will not be intimidated!

“Soldiers!”

All of the unicorns on the wall charged their horns, however, Wolzard brought his sword to the front of his shield. The shield opened up to reveal the large, eye-like, red jewel in the middle of it, and Wolzard threw his shield forward. “Touza Wol Zazard!”

A loud howl echoed through the air as several phantasmal wolves erupted from the shield and flew towards the wall. Shining’s eyes widened as his horn glowed brightly to create a large barrier over the wall. The phantasmal wolves crashed into the barrier, which erupted into a powerful explosion that forced almost all of the unicorns and pegasai back from the force.

Shining Armor was barely able to keep his footing from the overbearing surge of energy. ‘Such… Such power! I was barely able to throw my barrier up in time! Just who is this Wolzard?!’

Several loud growls sounded out, which made Shining Armor lift his head up to see a number of the Ghouls leap up high into the air to get over the wall. The stallion charged up his magic once more, the aura around his horn crystallized into a sharp blade, and Shining shot into the air towards one of the oncoming Ghouls.

With a flick of his head, Shining slashed his aura bladed horn through the side of the unfortunate Ghoul. Sparks flew from the Ghoul’s wound before it crashed into the side of the wall. The other two Ghouls landed atop of the wall, but were immediately met with immediate a number of offensive spells that forced them back.

Shining Armor landed on the ground before Wolzard, and the two began to leer at each other as the Ghouls fell around the two. Wolzard lifted his sword towards Shining, “I applaud your efforts to protect your soldiers, Captain, but it won’t be enough.”

“Soldiers! Don’t give them an inch!” Shining shouted into the air as many Pegasai dove through the air to attack some of the ghoul while the Unicorns atop the wall unleashed several volleys of magic towards the small army.

Yet, the magic that was focused on Wolzard merely bounced off of his armor. “Fools – You have no idea what you’re up against.”

“I was about to say the same to you!” Shining roared as he leapt through the air to bring his aura covered horn down on Wolzard.

The dark knight immediately brought his shield up into the air to catch the attack. Then, Wolzard countered with a wide swipe of his sword. Shining saw the attack and used his front hooves to push away from the shield to dodge the attack.

The moment that Shining’s hooves scraped the concrete, he immediately galloped towards Wolard with his aura covered horn aimed right at the dark knight. Wolzard lifted his sword up and the two blades collided with each other with sparks flung from where they connected. The two warriors stood there, their gazes at each other as many Ghouls and Royal Guards fought around them.

Wolzard chuckled for a moment before he and Shining jumped away from each other, “Loyalty and strength, commendable traits for a captain. But enough talk.”

Wolzard brought his blade down to the ground before he charged forward, the steel and concrete sparked up with every step he took towards the stallion before him. Shining jumped back just as the Dark Knight delivered an upward slash. “HAVE AT THEE!”

As the two brave warriors and their armies clashed, atop the roof of a nearby building, Medusa watched the onslaught of attacks flung at each side. She was seated on the edge of the building, her legs hung freely from the edge while she hummed to herself. “I wonder, did ‘he’ really plan all this? I was just to awaken the Knight of Darkness and take the Eye of N Ma for ‘him’.

“Was it really to have this happen and allow this chaos to roam?”

A single caw drew Medusa’s attention to the side where a single raven flew towards her. Medusa lifted her right hand up and allowed the raven to hand on her pointer finger, where she was able to see that tied around the raven’s leg. “Hmm, I wonder what this is?”

Medusa pulled the message from the raven’s leg and unfurled it. As she read it silently, her lips slowly curled up into smirk.

Back on the street level, both Shining and Wolzard skidded to a halt, back to where they were – Neither one taken a single hit from the other. Shining kept his head lowered to keep his horn trained on the dark knight. Wolzard loosened his grip on his sword, and immediately grasped its handle to hold it underhanded. “You are an honorable opponent, Captain, however, I cannot allow you to stand in my way.”

“Too bad,” Shining replied with his eyes narrowed. “Neither you nor your forces will get past these walls, not as long as I’m here!”

“Quite so, traditional tactics won’t work against you,” Wolzard admitted as he wrapped his other hand around the handle of his sword. “Which is why I have this!”

Wolzard then stabbed his sword into the ground, which prompted Shining into a more defensive stance. However, that was then that Shining notice that the ground before him was glowing in a same fashion as when Wolzard had appeared in the middle of Canterlot. Shining’s eyes widened as several runes materialized in between the circle and a loud roar blasted from the runic circle.

“During that squabble of ours just now,” Wolzard stated as he drew his sword back from the runic circle. “You must’ve noticed that I struck the ground more than you… It’s a little makeshift, but it’ll suffice for a simple summoning spell! Now, arise Troll of Tartarus!”

Two coal black hands broke out from the runic circle and slammed into the ground nearby. The powerful limbs craned out the rest of the extremely tall creature’s form – a mountainous humanoid with a rocky, muscular body that was draped with a tattered cloth over its ripped body. The troll emerged from the runic circle with a loud roar as its bare feet stomped into the concrete.

The large Troll opened its eyes, and the hulking monster stomped off into the city, its massive feet cracked the streets with each step.

Shining shook his head at the sight before him, “What are you doing?! Didn’t you say you didn’t want to spill any innocent blood? That monster will…”

“That is not my concern,” Wolzard replied as he aimed his sword towards the white stallion before him. “I no longer have any allegiance to this world, let alone this city. Rather, the concern is yours, Captain – It is your responsibility to see to the safety of this city’s citizens. Either you divide your forces to stop the troll, or have your forces remain here to prevent me from entering the castle?

“The choice is yours.”

Shining gritted his teeth and turned his head up, “Pegasai guards! Half of you after that Troll! Don’t let him do as he pleases!”

Some of the pegasai guards in the air saluted before they flew off after the Troll, Wolzard stepped towards Shining with his sword drawn from the ground. “A noble decision, but will it be enough?”

“I just need to defeat you,” Shining replied as his horn glowed brighter. In a flash of light, a second magical aura appeared around the stallion’s tail. “Once that’s done, I’ll join them and take down that troll.”

“Solid thought process,” Wolzard admitted before he charged towards Shining Armor. “But can you accomplish such a feat?”

Wolzard quickly brought his sword down onto Shining’s body, but the aura covered tail caught the attack easily and Shining countered with a quick stab at Wolzard. The dark knight whipped his shield before the attack, and blocked the assault.

The white stallion smirked. “I think it’s possible.”

TTTTTT

“Connect – PLEASE!”

Haru hummed to himself as he reached into the red, runic circle that floated in front of him. Half an hour had passed since Shining Armor galloped out of the room, and had left Haru with only his thoughts and a plate of powdered sugar.

Luckily, Shining Armor had neglected to take a few of the magical dragon’s rings, so the dragon was easily able to use his magic. ‘This should work.’

A smile appeared on Haru’s face as he pulled his black claws out from the circle, a small box of powdered donuts now within his grasp. ‘Good thing I packed this before I left Ponyville.’

The runic circle faded as Haru swiped a donut from the box, his chops licked by his long tongue. However, just as he was about to take a bite from the powdered confectionary, the door to the interrogation room opened slowly. ‘Plop!’

Haru tossed the doughnut back into the box and took the box under the table as the door fully opened.

The magical dragon expected to see one of the royal guard, or even Shining Armor himself, however, that wasn’t the case. His sky blue eyes widened at the sight of the tall white mare before him – Even a dragon like him knew who he stood before him.

That tall graceful form.

The colorful mane and tail that moved even though she just stood there.

That horn.

Those wings.

And of course, the sun cutie mark that adorned her flank.

“So, you must be Haruto Souma, correct?” Princess Celestia asked with a smile on her face.

“Uh, well,” Haru coughed. He had no idea how to deal with royalty… No, that was an understatement. This was the alicorn who lived for over a thousand years, who spent each and every day of those thousand years raising the sun – A practical goddess among mortals and one who had the power to move worlds.

What was the red dragon supposed to do?

All Haru did was lift the box of doughnuts up to the Princess, “Donut?”

For a few moments, Celestia remained silent as she eyed the box of donuts for a few moments before she smiled. “Maybe later, Haruto Souma, thank you though. I actually have a little favor I’d like of you and one more. You two can come in now.”

Haru looked past the alicorn in front of him to see a familiar pair of faces. “Wait a second…”

TTTTTTT

The large troll roared loudly as it swatted at the multiple pegasai that flew around its large form, the rain bounced from its hardened body. Two of the pegasai royal guards landed on the ground in an attempt to catch their breath. “This… This isn’t going to end well…”

“Just keep it up,” The other pegasus panted before he lifted his wings up. “We just need to hold out until reinforcements arrive.”

The first pegasus guard groaned loudly before he reeled himself up to take flight…

Only to jump back when another pegasus was flung to the ground at their hooves, bits of armor clanked against the concrete. Both pegasai looked up to see that the troll loomed over them with its hands aimed towards the small group of winged stallions.

“KIVATTE IKUZE!”

A gold and black blur flew through the air and slammed into the Troll’s face, right between the eyes with a loud clank. The burly troll staggered back as the gold and black blur spun in between the small group of pegasus guards. “Gagh! That guy’s got a thick skull! My own is ringing like the bells of Tartarus!”

Both of the conscious pegasai looked to each other for a second before they turned back to the small creature that was floating between them. “A… A bat saved us?”

The gold and black bat spun around in the air, his large red, glassy eyes narrowed down at the two bats. “How rude! I’m not just some common fruit bat! I am known as Kivat the Third! And you guards should consider yourself lucky that…”

“Kivat!”

The red eyed bat sighed before he flew up high into the air towards one of the rooftops, where a shadowed figure stood tall with his right hoof thrown up high into the air. With the rain and darkened skies, it was hard for the pegasai to see who was atop the roof. Kivat flew into the figure’s raised hoof with a slight laugh, “Heh! Ikuze!”

The large Troll snarled as it turned its attention towards the figure on the roof, its yellow eyes narrowed down at it. Then, the burly monster lifted its hands towards the figure.

“HENSHIN!”

“GABU!”*

A large amount of silver and black glass flowed over the figure’s body until it shattered, the shards of it crashed into the Troll’s hands. The large creature cried out in pain as it stepped back.

The newly armored figure leapt off of the roof and slammed his right foreleg into the Troll’s neck. Thanks to the armored figure’s momentum, he forced the troll back, and crashed the monster into the ground. All the pegasai watched in awe as the armored figure leapt back to the wet concrete.

The armored figure stood tall – his black jumpsuit with a silver, bat winged vest that covered his torso, a blood red chest plate, and a silver greave wrapped with chains over his right leg. But the stallion before the group had a helmet that had curved, yellow visors with a silver muzzle guard.

The armored stallion watched as the Troll pushed itself off of the ground, and snarl at the new masked stallion.

“OI! You stallions oughta get out of here!” Kivat’s voice sounded out from… somewhere. “It’s dangerous!”

“That’s our line!” The pegasus guards yelled back before the masked stallion leapt towards the Troll. And yet, as the masked stallion began his assault, the pegasai helped the injured pegasai away from the scene.

The Troll was back on its feet when the armored stallion slammed both of his hind legs into Troll’s chest, which forced the larger creature back once more. However, the large monster managed to keep to its feet and swiped at the masked stallion with its huge hand, but the silver adorned stallion leapt over the attack and landed on the big hand. The Troll’s eyes widened as the masked stallion galloped up its arm.

With a quick spin, the masked stallion turned around and bucked both of his hind legs right into Troll’s eyes. The pained roar that cried out from the Troll echoed through the air as it lifted its hands up to its face.

As the Troll did so, the masked stallion leapt up into the air, the clouds behind him darkened. From the stallion’s waist, a familiar gold and black bat flew around him before he snapped the chains off of the stallion’s left leg and a blood red aura erupted over his leg. Then, the red aura propelled the masked stallion towards the troll.

Just as the Troll recovered from the attack from its eyes, the stallion’s left hoof collided with the Troll’s chest with enough force that for a few seconds, a pair of blood red wings erupted from the Troll’s back before they disappeared and propelled the troll through the streets with its feet dragged against the concrete.

“Yosh! Excellent!” Kivat cheered as he flew around the masked stallion that landed on the ground.

The masked stallion lifted his head up, and then gasped, “GET OUT OF THERE!”

Kivat turned to where the stallion was looking at and his red eyes widened when he saw what the masked stallion saw – a few yards away from the propelled Troll was a single figure in the distance who walked on two hind legs while his paws were full, one held an umbrella and the other lifted up a small silver bowl. Although he couldn’t see it, the figure seemed to be a grey Diamond Dog wearing some rather casual clothes.

At the rate that the Troll headed towards the Diamond Dog, he would be crushed by the troll’s fallen form.

The masked stallion galloped as quickly as his four legs could take him in order to get to the Diamond Dog before the Troll fell on him.

The dog didn’t seem to notice that the troll closed in on him, in fact, he seemed to be more preoccupied with the bowl in his paw than the impending doom that was only a foot away from him.

The water splashed at the masked stallion’s hooves, but no matter how fast he was, the troll’s descent onto the innocent civilian was inevitable.

The troll crashed into the street, rainwater and concrete flew up into the air which forced the masked stallion to skid to a stop at the sight. “No!”

The masked stallion and Kivat lowered their heads from the scene, and the golden bat flew closer to the masked stallion. “These things happen Wataru, we can only…”

Kivat stopped himself when he realized that the Diamond Dog walked past both him and the masked stallion, “Good day.”

“W-What the?!” the masked stallion questioned at the sight of the diamond dog next to him. “How did you…”

“Hmm?” The diamond dog mused, stopped in his tracks to look down at the stallion before him. “Relax, that thing couldn’t have crushed me. I decide my own path in life.”

“Are you nuts?!” Kivat growled as he flew up to the Diamond Dog. “What does that have to do with anything!? That’s reckless!”

“No, what’s reckless is moving haphazardly,” The dog replied before a large roar echoed behind the trio. Both the masked stallion and Kivat looked back to see that the Troll slowly pushed itself back to its feet. Still the Diamond Dog continued as if he heard nothing. “If I had moved suddenly like that, then my tofu would’ve been ruined.”

The large troll lumbered towards the three, the masked stallion was about to leap once more, but the Diamond Dog’s tail quickly wrapped around Kivat’s body. “Huh?”

It was then that the Diamond Dog’s tail whipped the gold and black bat through the air before it collided with the Troll’s forehead, which sent the Troll back to the ground with a loud crash. The masked stallion stood there dumbstruck as Kivat spun back to the Diamond Dog’s tail. “And another thing – Grandmother once said this…”

With a moment to place his bowl of tofu on the sidewalk with his umbrella over it, the Diamond Dog lifted his right paw into the air with the pointer claw up in the air. “Walking the path of Heaven, the one who’ll rule everything. I will not allow anything to harm this world.”

TTTTTTT

Wolzard lifted his sword to his shield, the shield opened to reveal the red jewel within it, “Touza Wol Zazard!”

Shining Armor’s eyes widened as several phantasmal wolves shot from the shield. Howling loudly, the wolves flew towards Shining who began to focus the magic from his horn to form into a large barrier around his body. The phantasmal wolves pounced all over the barrier, their magically imbued claws slashed at the barrier.

Shining gritted his teeth as he continued his barrier. Out of the corner of his eye however, Shining caught sight of the rest of the battle. A good portion of the Royal Guards were on the ground, knocked unconscious (or that’s what Shining hoped for, due to the lack of blood anywhere, he hoped that was the worst that happened to them) and the Ghouls fought against the remainder of the guards.

“RAGH!”

With his cobalt eyes widened, Shining saw that Wolzard charged towards him with his sword and slashed down on Shining’s barrier while the phantasmal wolves continued their assault. “You care for your soldiers, admirable trait Captain!”

Wolzard delivered a powerful slash down on the barrier.

“But…”

The wolves crashed into the barrier.

“A real captain has to focus at the battle at hoof!”

With the next blow, a large crack appeared in the barrier.

“A true captain must learn when it is best to fight…”

Wolzard threw one more slash, and the barrier shattered like glass, the shards flew past Shining Armor and the force made Shining recoil.

“And when to surrender to save his troops!”

The Phantasmal wolves dove into Shining Armor and forced him to the ground, their aura-like fangs clamped down on his body to keep him pinned to the concrete. The white stallion growled before the tip of Wolzard’s sword was drawn right in front of his face. “This is the time to surrender.”

Shining Armor looked down the blade and up to Wolzard’s helmet, and it was then that he was able to see into the dark visor of the helmet, and for a split second, Shining swore he could see the Dark Knight’s eyes through it.

“Captain!” Wolzard growled as he brought the sword closer to Shining Armor’s neck. “This will be your last chance! Admit your defeat to my forces, and your soldiers will walk away with their lives!”

With a deep breath, Shining closed his eyes. There was only one thing for him to say, only one thing to do.

“The Royal Canterlot guard will not surrender!” Shining Armor growled back.

A small snicker slipped from Wolzard, “I wouldn’t expect any less.”

Wolzard drew his sword back and then…

BANG!

Several red streams of light flew through the air, several knocked into the Ghouls’ bodies and forced them away from the royal guards. Wolzard took notice of this and leapt back as a few of the streams struck the aura wolves, and they flickered away.

Wolzard’s feet splashed onto the wet concrete as he looked up to find the source of the attack, only to quickly lift up his shield to block a pair hooves that immediately slammed into his shield. The dark magic knight pushed his shield back and forced the attacker back through the air. “Hmm?”

Shining Armor got back to his hooves just in time to see that the one who assaulted Wolzard land right next to him. The white stallion’s eyes widened when he realized who was now next to him, “Kai?!”

Indeed, it was the red pegasus who smirked at his commanding officer. “Say my name, and I appear!”

“But you appeared before he said your name,” a familiar voice sounded out from behind the two stallions. “Isn’t that being a bit over the top?”

Shining Armor craned his head back to see Haru right behind the two stallions, his odd firearm rested against one of his shoulders. The red dragon sauntered up next to the two stallions and kept his gun trained on the recovered Wolzard. “You gotta be able to keep cool under pressure, and be able to be stylish. After all, I managed to knock away all of the Ghouls from the guards.”

“Yeah, but kicking is a lot more awesome than shooting!” Kai countered with his brow narrowed down at the red dragon.

“This is true,” Haru admitted as he waved his free claws about, revealing that he had a familiar, red jeweled ring on it. “But you lost points when you made that very bad one-liner.”

Kai jumped up with his fore hooves at his head. “NO WAY!! NO FAIR!”

‘Idiots,’ Shining thought to himself as he got back to his hooves, albeit he wobbled a bit, but he still managed to stand up straight. “What the Tartarus are you two doing here? Didn’t I…”

“I got orders from the higher up,” Kai answered, his glare still set on Haru. “I was ordered to help you out Shining Armor, and unless your orders are to be in this battle with you, I have the right to ignore you.”

“And I got a royal pardon,” Haru added, not even caring that he was getting a death glare from the pegasus. “Also, I’m currently a temporary member of the Royal Guard apparently.”

“Wait, what?” Shining Armor questioned before he slapped a hoof to his face. ‘Looks like the Princess is at it… again.’

“You two,” Wolzard growled as all of the Ghouls clambered behind the Dark Knight Wizard. Both Haru and Kai turned towards the imposing force before them. “Who the Tartarus are you?”

“Just a pair of passing through mages,” Haru replied before he threw his gun high into the air to hold up his left claws up. “Shining Armor, you may want to get your men out of here.”

“Aw, but it’d be fun for them to stick around for the show,” Kai answered as he threw his cloak into the air, an odd small staff between his right wing’s feathers.

Both Haru and Kai stepped forward before Haru threw his left claw in front of his belt and Kai lifted the small staff into the air.

“HENSHIN!”

“MAHOU HENSHIN! Magi Magi – Magiiro!”

“FLAME – PLEASE!”

“MAGI MAGI – MAGIIRO!”

Two red runic circles appeared to the sides of Haru and Kai, with flames erupting from the circles. The rainfall from above turned to steam as it made contact with their bodies and slowly the runic circles began to cover both the dragon and pegasus.

“Hii hii hii HiiHiiHii!”

Haru’s form was now covered with the usual red jeweled Wizard coat while a red jumpsuit appeared over Kai’s body with a long flowing red cape, a golden belt and a helmet that had a bird-shaped black visor over his face.

Kai stood on his hind legs and threw his fore legs into the air with a dramatic pose, “Magician of the Red! MagiRed!”

Wizard tilted his head slightly at MagiRed and sighed before he lifted his right hand up to catch his firearm. “It’s Showtime!”

“R-Red Magicians?!” Wolzard gagged before he shook his head and pointed his sword towards the two magical beings. “Humph! Doesn’t matter! Nopony will stand in my way! Soldiers! Get them!”

All of the Ghouls growled loudly before they charged towards the castle gates once more. Both Wizard and Magired turned to each other before they nodded and charged forward as well. Magired galloped forward and brought his head back to his belt to grab onto the staff at his side. Somehow the staff attached to the front of his mask and transformed into a long blade. “Going forth earnestly! Magistick Sword!”

Three of the first Ghouls brought their spears down on the sword wielding pegasus, only to get a number of red rounds into their chests. Wizard spun his firearm around before he snapped it into its sword form.

While the three ghouls were stunned from the shots, Magired slashed the three Ghouls with the sword at his muzzle which crashed them back into a few other Ghouls. That allowed Wizard to jump over Magired and bring his sword down on one of the Ghouls.

A number of other Ghouls immediately began to stab at the red jeweled mage, only to miss as Wizard ducked down. The rusty red spears collided with each other before Wizard slammed his foot into the metal and knocked them up into the air. That allowed Wizard to spin around and bring his blade across the chests of the Ghouls. Both red Magicians leapt back as the Ghouls recovered slightly.

“Not bad,” Wizard stated as he tossed the sword into his left hand and lifted his right hand up. “But a little lackluster.”

One of the Ghouls leapt up into the air, prepared to skewer one of the two mages.

“Lackluster?! Well, watch this!” Magired stated as he pointed the red jewel at the end of his Magistick at the Ghoul. “Giruma Magiiro!”

Several red sparkles flew from the staff and immediately covered the surprised Ghoul. The foot-soldier yelped as its arms, legs and even its pear were drawn into its body until it was a perfect sphere that bounced a few times off of the ground. Magired laughed as he jumped to his hind legs. “Now I’ll show you my sure-kill shot!”

Wizard tilted his head slightly before Magired slammed his right hind leg into the spherical Ghoul and kicked it right into a number of other Ghouls who had just recovered. The Ghoul/Ball flew back to Magired who bounced it off of his chest before he delivered another powerful kick to the ball.

With a loud whistle sound, the ball-like Ghoul crashed into another group of Ghouls and sent the ball high into the air. Magired chuckled as he prepared himself to leap into the air when all of a sudden…

“NICE CHOICE – KICK STRIKE!

“FABULOUS!”

Magired lifted his head up to see that Wizard was already in the air, several flames wrapped around the masked dragon’s body, particularly around the dragon’s right leg. The Ghoulish ball flew right towards Wizard who spun through the air before he delivered a powerful overhead kick to the ball. For a mere second, it appeared that the two were frozen in midair, before the Ghoulish Ball was engulfed in many red flames and was propelled back to the large force of Ghouls.

The group of Ghouls staggered back before the fiery Ghoul Ball crashed right in the center of the group and erupted into a powerful surge of flames that engulfed a good portion of the group. Several pieces of rock and purple jewels flew through the air from where the explosion occurred as Wizard landed on the ground with a spin.

“Oi! No fair! That was my technique!” Magired roared loudly as he waved his front hooves about in the air.

“You didn’t call dibs,” Wizard replied with a shrug.

“Ooza Wol Zazardo!”

Both Wizard and Magired turned just in time to see several phantasmal wolves shot towards them. But before the wolves could connect with their targets, a familiar barrier appeared between them and the wolves, forcing the mystical assault to bounce off of the magical wall.

“You both need to learn to pay attention,” Shining Armor growled as he trotted alongside the two mystic mages. “Wolzard is still there, did you think he’d just stand still while his forces were decimated?”

“Well, it was a hopeful feeling,” Wizard replied as he turned towards the dark armored knight that was several yards away.

Wolzard kept his gaze set on the trio, not caring that the remainder of his Ghoul forces clambered behind him or that the Royal Guard were being dragged away by the less injured members. ‘It looks like things don’t change – The Red Mage and it looks like a black version of Shiroi. But this doesn’t change a thing.’

Shining Armor sighed before he lifted his head up, “Kai! Haruto!”

“Y-Yes sir?!” Magired yelped as he stood up straight.

“Yeah?” Wizard questioned.

“Listen, I don’t want to do this, but we’re left no other options,” Shining replied as he kept the barrier up. “Most of the forces here are injured save for us, and most of the pegasai guards are dealing with something else we’ll have to face off against as soon as possible. For now however, listen, Kai, you’re with me. We’re both injured to some degree, but together we should be able to take out these… These…”

“Ghouls,” Wizard stated.

“Right, these Ghouls,” Shining Armored continued before he turned to Wizard. “So, that leaves you Haruto, think you can hold off Wolzard for a while?”

“I can hold my own,” Wizard replied as he lifted his right hand to the hand-symbol on his sword.

“COPY – Please!”

A smaller runic circle appeared at Wizard’s right hand and immediately formed into a second WizardSwordGun in his grasp. “Just don’t take too long – I can already tell this guy’s on another level.”

‘Hopefully not the same level as Medusa.’

Shining and Magired nodded before the barrier fell and the three dashed towards Wolzard and the Ghouls.

TTTTTT

“Clock up.”

“CLOCK UP.”

The Troll slammed its fist into the ground, but lifted it up when it realized that there was nothing between its fist and the concrete. A red and black blur slammed into the Troll’s face, reeling the large creature backwards. The same blur sped around the street before it crashed into the Troll’s stomach, the impact visibly parted the air and rain before the large troll staggered about.

“HA!”

That battle cry made the Troll lift its head up to see that the Masked Stallion with Kivat fell from sky and delivered a powerful kick right to the massive Troll’s jaw. The Troll stumbled to the ground when the silver and black adorned stallion landed on the ground.

And materializing right next to said stallion was a tall bipedal figure covered with a black jump suit with a red chest plate, shoulder pads and a large helmet that had the horn of a beetle adorned on the front of the large blue visor for its eyes. And at his waist was a silver belt that had a red Kabuto beetle as a buckler. The figure turned his attention towards the armored stallion next to him and nodded.

Kivat flew around the armored stallion with a large smirk aimed at the beetle themed vigilante, “What a surprise, I didn’t think Canterlot had another one of us roaming around. And here I was thinking Kiva was a Canterlot exclusive.”

“And it will stay that way,” The beetle themed masked vigilante stated as the Troll roared loudly. “I’m just passing through on my journey to master cuisine of this world. But this world is mine to protect, after all, those who walk the path of heaven…”

Kiva and Kivat turned to see that the Troll stomped towards the three, then both of the bat themed beings flew high into the air while the beetle vigilante brought his paw to his belt buckle.
“1. 2. 3.”

“Must protect those who walk their own paths. Rider Kick.”

A burst of electrical energy surged from the Beetle Themed Vigilante’s belt that traveled up his body to the horn on his helmet, and then surged to his right leg. “RIDER KICK.”

The Troll continued its charge at the red armored dog, unaware that Kiva with Kivat flew high into the air with Kiva’s armored right leg glowing bright red once more. “WAKE UP!”

Just as the Troll was about to wrap its hands around the red armored dog, said vigilante leapt up and spun around with a powerful surge of electricity over his right leg. The foot collided with the Troll’s chest and sent the energy right through the Troll’s body.

It was at that moment that Kiva slammed his right leg into the Troll’s chest, with blood red energy erupting from where the foot connected with the Troll’s body.

Attacked from the front and from the back, the Troll gagged as several cracks appeared on its body, with blood red energy and blue electricity escaping from the webbed cracks. Both of the vigilantes leapt away before the Troll exploded with the energy, its bits and pieces bounced off of the wet concrete.

“Walking the path of heaven,” The armored diamond dog announced as he lifted his right paw into the air with his pointer claw lifted up. “Justice is myself. I am justice. I am Kabuto.”

“What kind of a name is Kabuto?” Kivat questioned as he floated around Kabuto.

Kabuto didn’t say a word as he walked towards the umbrella and bowl of tofu, his armor slowly fading away. When the armor disappeared, the diamond dog pulled the umbrella over his form and got his tofu. It was then that he just began to walk away, not even bothered that Kiva and Kivat stared at him.

“Uh… Okay,” Kiva muttered as he looked away shyly.

“This world’s made up of a lot of weird characters,” Kivat sighed loudly with a roll of his bright red eyes.

“Y-You’re not one to talk,” Kiva muttered as he slowly trotted away with Kivat flying behind him.

TTTTTT

CLANK!

Sparks flew as steel connected with each other, and then it stopped when two blades clashed. Wizard glared at Wolzard as the two continued to push their swords towards each other, the Dark Magic Knight growled, “Why do you stand in my way? This has nothing to do with you!”

Wizard quickly brought down his other sword, only for it to be caught by Wolzard’s shield. “Whether or not is has anything to do with me is irrelevant! I exist to protect everypony’s hope!”

Wolzard scoffed as his shield opened up, “Ooza Wol Zazardo!”

However, before the dark magical attack could activate, Wizard leapt back and spun around. From the shield, several phantasmal wolves erupted from the jewel embedded in the shield, all of them pounced towards the red jeweled dragon. With both of his swords in his hands, Wizard spun around and used the swords to deflect the wolves to the side, however, the Phantasmal Wolves kept on their assault.

“Hope,” Wolzard stated as he slowly walked towards Wizard, who in turn just kept on deflecting the wolves away from him as best he could. “It is a false promise. If you protect one pony’s hope, you run the risk of destroying another’s. To say that you do so is nothing more than foolishness.”

Wizard tossed the sword in his left hand up into the air after he smashed one of the wolves to the side with his tail. The masked dragon lifted his left hand up to the blade in his right, “Come’on Slashing! Shake the hand! FLAME – PLEASE!

“SLASHING STRIKE!”

As the remaining Phantasmal Wolves dove towards Wizard who spun around and unleashed a powerful fiery slash that crashed into each of them and burned them into nothing but embers.

Wizard quickly lifted his sword up to block a downward slash from Wolzard, “URK!”

“You talk of hope, but hope is nothing compared to the darkness!” Wolzard roared as he lifted his sword up before he slashed down on Wizard, only to have the attack blocked once more. But that didn’t stop Wolzard from continuing his assault. “Hope can be suffocated by the smallest of beings!”

Wizard quickly brought his sword up again and again, but out of the corner of his eye he saw something fall towards the ground. Wolzard slammed his sword into Wizard’s once more, “It is a useless concept! Hope is unnecessary!”

As the Dark Magic Knight brought his sword down once more onto Wizard, only to miss as the dragon dove to the right. Wolzard turned to see Wizard latch onto the copy of his sword and skid onto the wet pavement before he dashed right back towards Wolzard. Wizard brought his right sword down onto Wolzard’s shield, which forced the Dark Magic Knight to skid back. “Hope isn’t useless! Hope is what can save lives!”

Wolzard growled as he swung wide with his sword, but Wizard leapt over the assault. “Even the smallest spark in the darkness can light up an inferno! And hope is just the spark to light the darkness!”

A powerful slash ran across Wolzard’s back, dark purple sparks surged from his armor as Wizard’s sword flew over the silver and purple armor. The Dark Magic Knight staggered forward when Wizard landed on the ground, but both turned to each other and charged at each other. Wizard lifted both of his blades up and caught Wolzard’s sword. “I don’t know what caused you to throw away your hope, but I won’t let you destroy any one else’s hope!”

“It is not hope that I despise,” Wolzard growled before he quickly slammed his foot into Wizard’s stomach, sending the masked dragon back. “Nor do I care to destroy it, rather I only seek one thing.”

Wizard stood up straight and readied himself for Wolzard’s next move. “And what’s that?”

“The truth,” Wolzard answered before he charged forward.

“The truth?” Wizard questioned as he ran forward as well.

Both magical warriors met in the midst and their blades met, red and purple flames flew past them each time their blades connected.

“Yes! The truth of what happened a thousand years ago!” Wolzard roared as slammed his blade so powerful into Wizard’s swords that the masked Dragon reeled back slightly. “To learn the truth behind the injustice to the one that I served loyally! To learn why I was sealed away! Why she was sealed away not of her own volition! The truth of everything!”

Wolzard began to deliver a powerful downward slash to Wizard, only to have his sword blocked by a third blade. Both Wolzard and Wizard turned to see Magired now in between the two with the Magistick Sword in front of his mask covered muzzle. Wolzard growled loudly, “You! Mage of the Red!”

“I don’t know what you’re going on about,” Magired replied before he and Wizard leapt back. “But this isn’t the way!”

“There is only one thing that will get through to a mare like Celestia,” Wolzard replied as he threw his arm to the side, the sword still tightly grasped in his hand. “Force! And it’s the same way that you two will be dealt with!”

Wolzard was about to take a step forward when a powerful burst of magic forced him to lift his shield up and force him backwards. Both Wizard and Magired turned to see Shining Armor right behind them, his horn glowed brightly. “And it’s the same thing that’ll stop you. Now it’s your turn to have your own ultimatum.

“Wolzard, your forces have been decimated – Surrender now!”

The Dark Magic Knight looked about, only to see the remains of his Ghoulish Forces. Wolzard growled loudly before he brought his sword to his shield, “Even if I am alone – That won’t change a thing! Those mindless drones did their job! All I need to do is defeat you three and that’ll be it!

“Eye of N Ma! Ooza Wol Zazardo!”

The jewel in Wolzard’s shield glowed a bright crimson before a deafening roar rocked the area. From the Dark Knight’s shield, a large surge of purple energy erupted into the air before it formed into an incredibly large wolf made of the magical aura. At the aura wolf’s forehead was a segment of red energy that gleamed brightly like a jewel.

“Uh… Captain!” Magired gulped as he stepped back at the large aura wolf.

But the masked stallion looked towards Wizard and Shining Armor, seeing that the two stood strong in the face of that wolf – Shining’s horn was glowing brightly while Wizard snapped the two swords into their firearm forms and quickly lifted his left hand over the hand symbol on them. “C’MON SHOOTING – SHAKE THE HAND!”

“Kai! Don’t back down!” Shining Armor yelled out as the aura over his horn glowed even brighter. “This is the final attack!”

“Don’t forget about yesterday!” Wizard added as he took aim with both of his guns aimed up with red energy around them. “You had courage to help that filly, use that courage right now!”

Magired chuckled before he used his right hoof to pull the Magistick away from his helmet and lifted it up into the air. “No need to remind me on that!”

A powerful flame surged at the red jewel at the tip of the staff and Magired lifted it alongside his comrades’ weapons, “You’re right – The moment that real courage appears, the true power of magic will appear! My heart’s on fire! Magi Magica – RED FIRE!!”

“FLAME – SHOOTING STRIKE! Hii Hii HiiHiiHii!”

Shining Armor’s horn flared up and unleashed a powerful burst of light rose-colored magic.

Wizard pulled the triggers on his firearms, and fired off a large of dark red magical flames into the air.

And then with Magired’s staff raised up high into the air, Shining’s rose aura combined with Wizard’s flames, and the three magical sources combined into a huge bright red flame that flew about the air.

“This magic!” Wolzard growled before he threw his sword towards the three magical beings before him. “Humph! It won’t be enough!”

The large aura wolf roared loudly once more before it shot through the air, meanwhile, Shining Armor and Magired threw their right front hooves forward and Wizard threw his right claw up. “GO!”

The flames over the three warped and shifted until they took the shape of a large serpentine being with large wings and a tall horn on its head. The fiery serpent flew towards the aura wolf, and the two powerful attacks crashed into each other – flames and bits of magical energy flung high into the air as both attacks continued to overwhelm each other.

“YEAH! DO IT!” Magired cheered out as he jumped up into the air.

The aura wolf snapped its jaws down on the fiery serpent, and the fiery attack screeched, almost in pain. But then the long enflamed tail slammed into wolf’s head and knocked it back into the air – Which allowed the fiery serpent to crash right through the aura wolf.

Wolzard growled as he quickly lifted his shield up just in time to defend himself from the powerful flames that crashed into it. At first, it seemed as though he was able to endure the attack, but then his feet slowly skidded back from the sheer force of the attack. “This… This…!”

The flames washed over Wolzard’s shield and crashed into his chest plate. The flames surged over his armor and forced him backwards. And yet, even though his entire body was covered with flames, Wolzard didn’t yell out in pain, he just took the attack and flew backwards.

When the flames died down, Wolzard landed on the ground with remainders of the fire on his cracked armor.

“YEAH! THAT WAS AWESOME!” Magired cheered with his front hooves thrown high into the air. “It’d only get more awesome if we had an awesome theme song playing while we did that!”

WHAP!

“OW!” Magired yelped as he lowered his now bruised head to the ground while Shining Armor lowered his hoof.

“Don’t stress yourself too much,” Shining Armor sighed loudly with a shake of his head.

Wizard chuckled as he rested the two firearms on his shoulder pads.

“This… This isn’t over with!”

All three of the magically imbued warriors turned to see Wolzard slowly get to his knees, being forced to use his sword to prop himself up, “I… I won’t be stopped… B-By an attack like that…”

“Whoa, how is he still conscious?!” Magired questioned as he stepped back.

“Quite tenacious, isn’t he?” Wizard asked with his head tilted slightly.

“Nothing will… Nothing will stop me,” Wolzard coughed as he slowly pushed himself back to his feet before he fell back to his knees. “Even if it’s my last breath… I… I…”

“That’s enough, Barikion.”

Wolzard, Wizard, Shining Armor and Magired turned to the tall castle walls where a tall, regal figure stood atop the stone wall with a golden aura over her body to keep the rain off her white fur and wings. Atop her back was a familiar, small purple dragon who was practically hiding behind her flowing mane.

“Celestia,” Wolzard growled under his breath.

The regal alicorn’s wing unfolded and she slowly flew down to the ground in between Wolzard and the three who defeated him.

“Princess!” Shining Armor called out as he galloped to get to his highness’s side. “Please stop – That being there is…”

However, Shining stopped when Celesita used her magic to remove Spike from her back and placed him on the white stallion’s back. “I know, Captain. Do not worry.”

Celestia kept her gaze trained on Wolzard, and then her face slowly curled into a small smile, “Barikion – Still hardheaded as usual.”

Wolzard scoffed to the side as his armored body shook. “That is not my name – I threw it away when I donned this armor. My name is Wolzard! The Dark Magic Knight!”

“Whatever your name is now, you are still the same stallion that I knew all those years ago,” Celestia replied, the smile still on her face. “You still hold your own code of honor, you still speak with that regal tone, and you run the same sort of tactics – A number of injuries, but no casualties.”

“Life is an important thing,” Wolzard stated as he lowered his head. “If it’s possible to avoid its loss, then it shouldn’t be taken.”

“And there it is,” Celestia said. “Tell me, Barikion – How were you awakened? And why have you decided to take this action against Canterlot?”

“The how does not matter,” Wolzard growled, calling forth whatever the strength he had left in his body to stand up. “But rather the why – I did all this to just to ask you why. A thousand years ago – Why did you have to sin against the one I was to protect?!

“Why didn’t you help her? Why did you have to banish her?!”

Celestia turned away from Wolzard and took a deep breath, “Barikion, times have changed, there’s something that you must learn about what had happened all those…”

HISSSSSS!

Celestia lifted her head up when she realized that several, purple snakes had mysteriously appeared all around the small group.

“S-Snakes?!” Magired gulped at the sight of them.

Spike shared the red covered stallion’s fear with the surrounding snakes, so much so that he gripped tightly onto Shining’s neck.

Wizard growled as he looked around, “Medusa!”

“It’s an honor for you to remember my name.”

From the sky above, Medusa dropped to the ground next to Wolzard with her head lowered and one of her arms folded in front of her. “And it’s an honor to meet with such fascinating ponies – Especially you, Princess Celestia.”

Celestia narrowed her eyes down at the Phantom, “And you are?”

Medusa lifted her head up and coiled one of the snakes from her head around her finger, “Lady Medusa – A pure pleasure to make your acquaintance, your Highness.”

“Princess! Get away from her!” Shining Armor yelled out.

“Now, now, now, handsome, there’s no need to be like that,” Medusa cooed as she pulled her hand from her snake hair. “I’m not here to cause trouble for anypony, and as much as I’d love to give some tips on fashion to the royalty in front of me, I’m just here to pick someone up.”

Medusa placed a hand on Wolzard’s shoulder, which made the Dark Magic Knight lift his head up to look at the Phantom. “I was the one who woke him up, and thus – He’s my responsibility. Wouldn’t you agree?”

“What?” Wolzard questioned.

“Unfortunately, I will not allow that to happen,” Celestia stated as her horn glowed a bright gold. “Barikion is a member of the royal guard, and I will not stand for anyone trying to take him.”

For a moment Celestia and Medusa stared each other down for a few seconds, only the sound of rain falling to the concrete broke the tension. And then Medusa cackled as she brought a pair of fingers to her lips. “Hmm… Tempting to fight you Princess Celestia – But it’d be a shame to ruin that majestic coat and mane of yours. So for right now, you’ll just have to deal with this!”

It was then that Medusa pulled her fingers from her face and then snapped her fingers that made all of the snakes that surrounded the group hiss loudly until they flew high into the air. The snakes all turned phantasmal and flew around the area in front of Medusa and Wolzard. Celestia didn’t say a word as she immediately aimed her horn and unleashed a powerful surge of golden energy that crashed into the phantasmal snakes – And knocked them all away with relative ease.

“Holy Ishimori!” Wizard yelped as he stepped back. ‘I knew that the Princess was strong, but… But damn!’

However, when the snakes scattered about the area, Medusa nor Wolzard were anywhere to be seen. Celestia galloped forward to where the two were, and then stomped her front hoof into the concrete out of frustration. However, she sighed and turned back to Shining Armor and the others with a smile on her face.

TTTTTT

“Why did you do that?”

“Hmm?”

After their escape, Medusa had brought Wolzard to the outskirts of Canterlot, the battered knight placed up against a tree to shield him from the rain. “Why did you whisk me away before I drew my answers from Celestia?”

“Did you honestly believe that she’d give you answers?” Medusa retorted as she sauntered up to Wolzard. “I heard what you said to her – A thousand years is a long time to wait for an answer. But in those thousand years, the world has changed. As have ponies – Celestia is nothing more than a placeholder with her hooves tightly griped around the sun.

“She sends others to do her dirty work for her until the last moment – She did it with her student and her friends a while ago, and she did the same just now: Sending the mages and her captain to weaken you until she appeared.

“Do you think she, a princess, answer to a knight such as yourself?”

Wolzard didn’t answer, and instead turned his head away from Medusa. However, that’s when Medusa placed her fingers on his helmet’s chin and forced him to look at her, “But, you can still get your answers – All you need to do is aid a new cause… One that’s tailored to fit your desires – Wolzard.”

TTTTTTT

A day or so passed since the attack was halted, and although the weather was still terrible, inside the castle – There was nothing but peace and tranquility. Even the damage that was done to the city was repaired, especially one certain shop…

“Another round over here Joe!”

“Coming right up!”

It didn’t take long for Joe’s Donut shop to get repaired – after all, a number of Canterlot Royal guards apparently went to the stallion’s shop after their rounds. And when they learned of the fate of their favorite donut bar, the guards all joined together to fix the place up and were already celebrating at the joint.

And at one of the corner booths, a pair of stallions and a pair of dragons were amongst the partiers.

“Should we really be celebrating?” Haru asked as he waved a donut about. “I mean, Medusa got away with Wolzard and…”

“Don’t be a spoilsport!” Kai shot out before he chugged his mug of coffee. “We kicked flank while looking awesome!”

“Yeah! We were awesome!” Spike chimed in.

“You weren’t even there, Spike,” Shining Armor pointed out with a smirk on his face, which had a few bandages on it.

“That doesn’t negate the fact that I’m awesome,” Spike retorted as he puffed his chest out.

Shining chuckled at his little dragon brother’s answer, and then used his magic to lift up a single powdered donut from the plate on the table. “But in any case, Kai’s right Haruto. We’ve got a number of guards surveying Canterlot twenty-four seven, if there’s any sign of either of them.”

“Well, if you say so,” Haru muttered before he tossed the remains of his donut into his mouth and chewed on it.

“But, Haruto, I still have a few things I need to talk to you about,” Shining replied after he took a few bites from his donut.

“Shiny! Are you gonna arrest Haru again?” Spike asked with his large eyes gleamed over to the white stallion.

Shining Armor chuckled slightly, “No, I’m not going to do that again. I just need to talk to him.”

A few moments later, Haru and Shining Armor were outside the shop, both underneath the veranda to watch the clouded sky above.

“So,” Haru stated before he took a nibble of his donut. “What ya need to talk about?”

“… I still don’t like the fact that you’re close to my sister and brother,” Shining stated, not even looking at the red dragon. “You’re dangerous, you’re nonsensical, and frankly, I can’t stand you.”

“Gee, thanks,” Haru muttered.

“But, you’ve got a good heart,” Shining continued with a smile. “And there’s more to you than meets the eye.”

Haru’s face slowly curled up into a bright smile.

“I’ve been captain of the guards for a few years now,” Shining answered with his eyes closed. “And in that short time, I’ve learned a number of things – On the battlefield, you have to trust anypony who fights along with you – And you’ve fought for Canterlot out of your own volition.

“Besides, if Twily and Spike can trust you – I guess you’re not half bad.”

“I guess I’ll have to accept that,” Haru replied with a shrug of his shoulders. “Thanks Shining Armor.”

“Just Shining will do,” The white stallion corrected as his horn glowed a bright rose. Then in a burst of light, two golden tickets floated through the air in front of Haru’s face. “Also, the Princess wanted me to give these to you – As a little thanks to you helping in defending the castle.”

“Tickets?” Haru questioned as he plucked the tickets from the air. He took a few moments to look over the tickets and his eyes brightened. “Wait, these are for the Grand Galloping Gala?!”

“Two of the last tickets,” Shining chimed in. “The princess wanted me to add that. But yes, she’s appreciative of you helping out. So, you along with another guest are invited.”

“Hmm… Maybe I should ask Twilight,” Haru chuckled with a devious smirk.

WHAP!

“OW!” Haru yelped as he held the back of his head.

Shining Armor lowered his hoof down with a small blood vessel on the side of his head. “Don’t even try it. Besides, Twilight and her friends all have their tickets.”

“I see,” Haru muttered under his breath. With a shake of his head, the red dragon stood up straight and shrugged his shoulders.

“You know, I was against having my sister being sent to Ponyville,” Shining admitted as he turned back to the clouded sky above. “I was worried about her safety, I was worried if she would fit in, I was worried about her and Spike. But, from what I’ve heard from some of her letters, I’m glad she found some real good friends.

“And one donut-obsessed troublemaker.”

“Hey,” Haru snapped with his arms waved up and down. “There’s nothing wrong with enjoying a decent donut.”

Shining chuckled a little bit and then Haru joined in with him.

And then the laughter died down and the red dragon turned towards Shining with his black claws held out. “Shining – From the depths of my heart, I didn’t mean to hurt Twilight, and I promise for the rest of my days I’ll use whatever I can to protect not only Twilight, but every pony who matters to her.

“You have my word as a dragon, and on my very own soul.”

Shining Armor looked at the claws and then closed his eyes. “If I ever hear that you hurt anypony, then I’ll take you down personally.”

It was then that Shining Armor lifted his hoof up and placed in Haru’s claws. “But you also have to make sure that nothing happens to them either, or I’ll hunt you down as well.”

“Wouldn’t have it any other way,” Haru replied as he shook Shining’s hoof slightly before he released his grip.

The two magical creatures turned back to the rainy sky, a bolt of lightning crashed through the air. Shining chuckled, “I wonder how Twily is – The weather’s supposed to be like this today in Ponyville.”

“Knowing her – Probably just curled up with a good book,” Haru replied as he sat down on the ground with a smile.

Oh Haru, if only you knew...

TBC

*Gabu – Japaense sound effect for ‘Bite’

Author's Note

MangaKamen: Whew! This was a long one! But it was worth it for something this action packed!

I honestly don't know what I can do to top this off...

-smirks- Who knows?

Please support and get more bronies to read this!

Spell 23 - L I

There was a lot to Fluttershy’s job that not many ponies knew about, being Ponyville’s animal caretaker was a difficult profession. Learning about the many needs and conditions for a wide variety of wild life was difficult enough, but being able to provide the necessary dietary needs for said animals would be enough to bankrupt any sort of normal pony within a week.

Thankfully for the young yellow mare, that concern wasn’t an issue.

Long before Fluttershy had taken the unique job in Ponyville, the wildlife had often eaten the town’s crops and even had broken into many hard working ponies’ stands at the market in order to survive. So it was decreed that any pony who took the position as animal caretaker in the town would receive proper funding in order to not only ensure that the animals were well-fed, but so that the caretaker would also be able to provide for themselves.

Well, so long as the animal caretaker was still capable of performing their job.

And thus, on this early morning, Fluttershy pulled a large cart filled with several bags of feed and food. The sun hadn’t even risen as the young mare pulled the cart through the emptied streets of Ponyville, humming small tune. Ponyville was slowly waking up for the day ahead, as Fluttershy could see that a number of the shops were still closed.

In fact, the only noises that Fluttershy heard were the chirps of the morning doves, the creak of the tires on her cart against the dirt road near a number of trees and even…

*GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWLLLLLL!*

Fluttershy froze in place, so suddenly that she forced the cart to shake and forced an apple from one of the bags to bounce from the cart. The apple rolled over to one of the nearby trees’ shadows, where a pair of green eyes glowed from the darkness and eyed the small morsel.

A second growl echoed through the air before a single talon erupted from the darkness and scooped up the apple. “Mmm!”

Within a few seconds, the apple was tossed into the darkness and was followed with a loud crunch sound. The green eyes slowly turned towards Fluttershy, who just stood there to look at the green eyes. The two stared at each other, the morning sun slowly crept over the horizon, and as it did, Fluttershy’s face slowly curled up into a gentle smile.

“Neato?”

“Flutters?”

TTTTTT

Spell 23

L I

TTTTTTT

The sun finally rose over the land, and Ponyville was having another calm morning…

“YOU WERE ARRESTED!!”

“I don’t see the big deal about it…”

“A-RRES-TED!!!”

Haru winced and he nearly dropped his guitar from his lap - The violet, narrowed eyes made the red dragon lean back and almost over the edge of the library’s upper outer balcony. Twilight had asked Haru about his trip with Spike to Canterlot during the previous week – and nonchalantly, Haru explained about how he spent time with Shining Armor, Spike, the pegasus Kai, how he got arrested, and about Joe’s donut shop.

What the dragon didn’t count on was that Twilight was able to pick up on him whispering his arrest.

“It was just for domestic disturbance,” Haru defended with a nervous smile on his face. “And destroying public property… And, uh, breaking a cabbage cart. Hehehe…”

That glare that Twilight was shooting the young dragon was almost on par with the Stare that Fluttershy gave Phoenix. “You were still arrested! My word! You’re lucky that it was only one night and you got pardoned!”

“R-Right,” Haru coughed out as Twilight pulled back from him.

It had been a day since Haru and Spike had returned from Canterlot, and thus Twilight had waited until now to ask about the trip since the two dragons returned at night. Of course, now that she learned what had happened in Canterlot, Twilight would've asked earlier.

Clearing his throat, Haru lifted up his guitar again and strummed a few notes. “Although, I was kind of surprised you had a brother – You never talked about him.”

“W-Well,” Twilight replied as she looked away from the dragon. “You never asked.”

Haru’s eyes went flat, “Twilight, from any other pony I’d accept that excuse – But you’re not that kind of pony. You’re rather on top of these sorts of things, and I would think you’d at least talk about your family a little bit.

“Cause I kinda doubt that Spike would be your only family.”

“Well, there wasn’t a good time to bring up Shining,” Twilight answered before she laid down on the wooden floor next to her book. “There’s been a lot going on – Moving to Ponyville, the Phantoms, you appearing out of nowhere…”

“Touché,” Haru replied with smirk. “You kinda just bombarded me with questions ever since we met so you could learn about my magic.”

“Well, we could change that,” Twilight offered. “It’s a beautiful day – Nothing’s going on, and it might…”

A loud burp sound echoed through the air which stopped Twilight. A moment later, Spike’s head popped up through the doorway that led to the balcony with a scroll held tightly in his claws. “Twilight! Twilight! It’s a letter from the Princess!”

A familiar violet aura wrapped around the scroll and gently pulled it from the baby dragon’s claws. “Thank you Spike, let’s see what the Princess has to say…”

Haru stopped strumming on his guitar and watched as Twilight began to read the letter in her head. He took note that as the mare studied the scroll’s contents, her pupils began to shrink drastically and for some odd reason, a single hair stuck up from her mane. “Uh, Twilight? Are you alright?”

The scroll just fell to the wooden floor of the balcony, and Twilight’s pupils were extremely small. Slowly, and with a loud creak sound, Twilight turned her head towards the two dragons before her. “Spike. Haru. We need to clean and prepare.”

“Prepare what?” Haru questioned with his head tilted.

“And what for, Twilight?” Spike asked with a nervous smile on his face.

“Prepare all of Ponyville,” Twilight stated as she jumped to her hooves. “Princess Celestia is coming to the town!”

TTTTTTTT

Meanwhile, deep in the Everfree Forest at a familiar clearing…

“Ah, nothing like a nice vacation to get rid of that stress.”

“Speak for yourself, Harpie – We went to the beach. THE BEACH! I’m a fire based Phantom!”

“So am I, but I had a good time… I even got my coloring back.”

Still in their pony forms, Harpie, Hellhound and even Minotaur trotted into the clearing – Harpie had a pair of sunglasses balanced on her nose while Minotaur and Hellhound carried several saddlebags, so many that a number of them were dragged against the ground. Hellhound’s normal fur seemed to be a bit redder than usual, “Yeah, good for you, ya big lug! You didn’t get sunburned!”

“I’m a bit confused how that happened with you,” Minotaur sighed loudly as he fell to the ground and unloaded all of the bags. “But you can’t deny it’s good to get away and recharge. I feel like I’m ready to tackle the Gates in the town again!”

“Indeed, once we meet up with Dryad,” Harpie replied as she used one of her front hooves to pull the sunglasses off. “We’ll get a report of what’s been happening, and get right back to work in the morning. Dryad! We’re back!”

The only sound that replied was Hellhound collapsing onto the ground with the saddlebags. Harpie looked about the clearing and tilted her head, “Dryad? Are you here?”

“Did she go into town?” Minotaur asked as he trotted up next to Harpie. “She doesn’t usually hang around the clearing here anyway – She’s usually exploring and stuff.”

“I don’t know,” Harpie muttered.

“… I was wondering when you three would return,” A voice as slick as oil cackled. “You took your time getting back.”

Both Harpie and Minotaur gazed about to find the source of the voice, Hellhound would’ve looked as well, but he was still stuck under the luggage. Harpie and Minotaur’s bodies slowly engulfed into green and blue flames…

“No need for such hostility,” The voice sounded out once more as the bushes rustled about. “I shall appear right now.”

From the bushes behind the trio, a tall figure stepped out from the darkened forest and into the light. The two unbounded Phantoms turned to see that now at the forest’s edge was another Phantom. This one looked to be an insect – With large, segmented green eyes with mandibles and antennae on its head, a white furred collar, bronze armor that had a number of insect-like legs out of the shoulder pads. White and bronze colored fur poured out from the gaps in the armor and the Phantom’s arms ended with paws that resembled that of a lion’s.

The odd Phantom bowed towards the two before he lifted his head up, “The elusive Harpie, the bratty Hellhound, and the failure Minotaur, a pleasure to meet you all.”

“HEY!” Minotaur and Hellhound protested.

However, Harpie lifted up one of her hooves up to silence the two, “You are… Manticore, correct?”

The buggy Phantom nodded as he wagged one of his claws. “Excellent memory, Miss Harpie. It’s too bad that the fates didn’t allow our meeting to happen earlier. Otherwise I would’ve included you three in my plan.”

“Plan? What plan?” Harpie questioned with a quizzical look shot towards Manticore.

Manticore chuckled to himself before he dropped to the ground with his legs crossed. The phantom brought his paw-like hands and waved them about slightly before he clapped them together, “Answers are what you seek, then I shall provide quite easily. But in order to do so, I believe a visual aid is in order.”

When Manticore pulled his hands away from each other, in both of his hands was a pile of long cards that had a blue border to them. The Phantom immediately tossed the cards up into the air and they slowly floated down around him, oddly enough, the cards all seemed to land face down on the dirt. “Twenty-one cards, countless ways to see your past, present and future. Let’s test to see what fate has in stored for you and your little group, Harpie.”

Within a few seconds, Manticore gathered the cards into a pile and immediately threw his hand over the top of the deck. Three cards gracefully slipped off and were neatly placed in front of the bug eyed Phantom, “A general reading should suffice, so let’s start with the past, shall we?”

With his fingers on the leftmost card, Manticore flipped the card up to reveal a tall, tower on it, “Ah, The Tower in the upright position – This card signifies that some situations are no longer possible for you at this point, I wonder why that is…”

Harpie narrowed her eyes as Manticore flipped the second card up, which revealed a gray unicorn pony with a long beard with a blue cloak and hat that were adorned with bells and imprinted with stars and moons. The card itself was upside down. “And wouldn’t you know it? It looks like the present tells all – The Magician reversed. Normally this would represent doubt that would cause problems, but considering what I’ve heard, I can say that there’s a deeper meaning.

“I’ve heard of the Ring Mage around these parts – A mage who is on par with even Lord Phoenix. Normal tactics won’t work against him anymore, as strong arm tactics have resulted in the demise of a number of Phantoms.”

“Manticore, what is the point of this?” Harpie asked as her eyes flashed green slightly. “I don’t particularly care for what you’re going on about.”

“Ah, but there is a point, my dear Harpie,” Manticore chuckled as he lifted his hand atop of the last card. “Just allow me to reveal the future.”

Manticore quickly revealed the last card – A sad stallion that had a noose wrapped around his neck. The card was also upside down and Manticore tapped his fingers against each other. “Hehehe, the Hanged Stallion reversed, what an interesting card to have as the future – Time to let go of outdated ideals and to try something new.

“Since you just got back here – You were unable to learn that just over two hours ago, the Mayor of Ponyville had made an interesting announcement and all the residents are preparing for tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow? What’s happening tomorrow?” Harpie questioned as Manticore gathered his cards once more and clapped his hands together to make the tarot cards disappear.

“Let’s just say a special guest is coming,” Manticore chuckled as he pushed himself off the ground. “My original orders were to track a certain Gate down, but when I managed to learn that he was here in Ponyville, I was given additional orders.

“Thankfully, I am more than capable of fulfilling both orders. Especially since I was able to enlist the aid of your Dryad.”

“And what exactly are your orders, Manticore?” Harpie demanded as she stomped up towards the fellow Phantom. “I don’t care for anypony who messes with my family and…”

“You need not worry,” Manticore interrupted as he walked past Harpie. “The order was to awaken the Gate that you lot failed to awaken – And my plan has already begun, and unlike your brutish tactics, I don’t need to use violence against that Gate. Research on the citizens here is all that is needed in order to find how to awaken the Phantom, and with current events withstanding…

“I’ll be able to awaken the Gate.”

“Wait, what?!” Harpie yelped while Minotaur and Hellhound looked to each other with worried looks.

“Don’t sound so surprised,” Manticore huffed as he stopped at the edge of the clearing and looked over his shoulder. “The lot of you have failed time and time again – A number of Phantoms were destroyed, including Master Phoenix. It’s time for a change in tactics when we’re dealing with this ring mage.

“Now if you excuse me, I need to go perform my own part of the plan so the Ring Mage won’t be an issue. When I succeed, you need not worry, I’ll be sure to let the higher ups know that you fulfilled your own roles expectantly – You didn’t get in the way.”

And just like that, Manticore disappeared into the Everfree Woods, leaving the remaining three Phantoms in the woods to stare at each other in disbelief.

TTT-TTT

“I still can’t believe this! It’s amazing!”

Fluttershy smiled brightly. The young mare did have a busy schedule for the day (especially with the announcement that was spread across Ponyville that Princess Celestia was to visit tomorrow) so she really couldn’t spend time at a cafe, but this was an exception. “I know, I-I didn’t know you were Ponyville, Neato.”

Seated across from Fluttershy at the café’s table was a rather odd Griffon – A tall example of his species with the feathers atop his head styled up and curled back slightly with red feathers around his eyes. The griffon had a single pendant tied around his neck and his upper body was covered with a red jacket that had a yellow, furred hood that rested on his shoulders. And at the moment, his beak was curled up into a pleasant smile as he leaned his arm against the large backpack he dragged with him.

As Fluttershy affectionately called him, Neato began to speak again, “Well, I was just passing through here a couple weeks ago, Flutters. I set up a little shop for a few days to earn some scratch for the road, so I wasn’t expecting to stay here for a while.

“But then I found out something awesome – This town has some really good meals around here!”

“Oh, yes, I guess the food is good,” Fluttershy admitted as she tapped her hoof against her chin a couple times. “But if you were in town, why didn’t you visit?”

Neato rubbed the back of his head nervously as the feathers around his cheeks seemed to turn red for a few seconds, “W-Well, to be honest, I kinda forgot that you moved here after you left Cloudsdale. M-My bad!”

“Oh, don’t worry about it Neato,” Fluttershy replied with a warm smile. “I’m sure you have a good reason.”

The griffon lifted his right talon up and wagged one of his claws, “That’s still no excuse – But since I’ll be staying in town for a while, we should really get a chance to catch up on stuff! I barely recognized you Flutters! You were a real cutie, but now you’re a real beauty!”

Now it was Fluttershy’s turn to blush slightly at the griffon’s comments, “Um, well, I don’t know about that.”

“Nah, nah, nah! Don’t sell yourself short!” Neato chuckled with a wave of his claws. “I’m betting ya got Stallions beating down on your door everyday just to spend time with ya! I should consider myself lucky that you’d wanna hang out with a ragged griffon like me.”

“N-Neato! You’re my friend!” Fluttershy retorted as she looked away bashfully. “Y-You don’t need to feel like that.”

Neato smiled again as he lifted up a glass of water to his beak, “Swell to hear.”

As the griffon began to sip from his water, Fluttershy came to a realization and tapped her hoof on the table a couple of times to garner her friend’s attention. “Also, if you’re interested, Rainbow Dash is living in Ponyville too.”

Neato’s green eyes widened before he turned to the side and spat out the water that had gathered in his beak.

“ACK!”

“S-Sorry miss!” Neato promptly apologized to the completely soaked mare who was leering daggers at him. The griffon nervously turned back towards a slightly oblivious Fluttershy, “W-Wait, D-Dashie’s here? In town? As in right here, right now?!”

“Yes, and I’m sure she’d be glad to see you too, Neato,” Fluttershy said with a blissful smile with her eyes closed. “We should all get together some time and…”

“Here’s your order! Thanks for waiting!”

Both Fluttershy and Neato turned just in time to see the unicorn waiter levitate a large plate down to the table’s center. Tossing his fears over his shoulder, Neato licked his chops at the platter before him, “Oho! Fried potato skins! Excellent!!”

Fluttershy giggled under her breath as Neato’s eyes gleamed brightly at the large plate of food, “Still the same Neato… Um, d-do you still…”

“Would you like some ketchup? Sour Cream?” The waiter asked as he levitated a few bottles of condiments up.

“Tsk, tsk,” Neato scolded as he wagged a talon at the waiter. Then with a simple smile, Neato reached into his jacket and pulled out a bottle that spun in front of his talons until he grasped onto the bottle. “No need!”

The griffon lifted the bottle up high into the air, and the plastic bottle gleamed in the sunlight, both Fluttershy and the waiter looked to see the odd bottle until they both stammered out, “M-Mayonnaise?”

Neato had a huge grin plastered on his face before he opened the bottle and began to pour the contents on the potatoes – nearly drowning the food with the creamy white condiment. The waiter gagged to himself as he watched Neato stab one of his talons into a piece of potato and placed the mayonnaise drowned piece into his beak. “MMMM! Delicious!”

“Uh, if you’ll excuse me,” the waiter coughed out, with his tongue now stuck out of his mouth.

“Um, you s-still put mayonnaise on everything, Neato?” Fluttershy asked as the goofy griffon swallowed the large piece of potato in his mouth.

“Why wouldn’t I?” Neato asked with a bright smile on his face as he reached for more of the potatoes. “Mayonnaise is the best food in the world! It can make anything taste better! Care for some, Flutters?”

The young yellow mare lifted her front hooves up with a nervous smile on her face, “Um, t-that’s very kind of you, Neato, b-but, I really should be g-going. I have a lot of chores that I need to do before tomorrow and…”

“Say no more,” Neato replied as he lifted up talons and lifted them up to Fluttershy. “I completely understand Flutters! I’ll be in this town for a while, so, I’m sure we’ll see each other some time later.”

Fluttershy smiled brightly before she pushed herself from the table and slowly trotted past Neato, “R-Right, next time, I’ll make you some tea.”

“Ooh, that’ll be sweet!” Neato cooed with a goofy grin. ‘Me in a pretty mare’s house as she serves me tea – That’s how life should be!’

“Do I have sugar for tea?” Fluttershy questioned before she waved at Neato. “I’ll stop by Sugar Cube Corner to make sure I have some.”

“You’re the best, Flutters!” Neato chuckled before he lifted up another piece of mayonnaise drowned potato up into the air. “Take it easy!”

Fluttershy nodded calmly before Neato chucked the piece of potato into his opened beak. The young mare trotted to where she had placed her cart, and smiled to herself, ‘It was really good to see Neato – I hope he’s in town for a while…’

“E-Excuse me, are you Flutterby?”

The young mare jumped at the new voice that called out her name (incorrectly one may add), and spun around to see that another pony was right behind her. This mare was a simple earth pony who had an earthly green coat with a rose red mane that covered up most of her upper face and only allowed half of her right, purple eye to peek through her mane. Her cutie mark was that of a number of different colored flowers with thorns around them.

Fluttershy shrunk back slightly before she nodded.

The odd mare shook slightly as she gulped audibly, “I… I’m sorry, I d-didn’t mean to scare y-you. I… I just needed a moment of your time.”

“Um, o-okay,” Fluttershy stated.

The green mare shook her head, and from her mane popped out a small blue, sphere-like creature with large green eyes, two pairs of bug wings and four stringy legs. The creature buzzed about for a few seconds before it flew in front of Fluttershy. The yellow pegasus’ face lit up brightly as she lifted a hoof up for the little critter to land on her, “Aw, why hello there little guy. I’ve never seen anything like you before…”

“I… I’m sorry,” The odd green pony muttered as she looked away. “I… I understood that you were good w-with animals, and this l-little guy followed me home this morning and I… I don’t know how to take care of animals s-so…”

“T-There’s no need to w-worry,” Fluttershy replied as she brought the little bug to her pink mane, and allowed it to nestle into the locks of hair. “I can take care of him, I’m sure I can do so.”

“T-That’s good,” The green mare replied with a nod. “I… I just fed the little guy an apple, so, at l-least he eats fruit…”

“I’ll take good care of him, you don’t have to worry,” Fluttershy reassured as she latched herself to her cart. “Thank you so much for bringing him to my attention.”

“Y-You’re welcome,” The mare muttered as she watched Fluttershy pull the cart away.

When the pegasus was out of ear shot, a familiar shadowed figure stepped out of a nearby alleyway and knelt next to the green mare. “Good show, very good show – I’m very impressed, Dryad.”

The young mare shriveled slightly as a pair of paw-like hands gripped her shoulders, “Now then, you’re welcome to head back to your camp – The Parasprite has been given, and now it’s time to deal with the Ring Mage.”

Several growls hissed behind the shadowed figure, and said figure stood up from the mare. “The cards have shown me the way – Soon, new Phantoms shall be born into the world!”

Back at the café…

“Oi waiter!” Neato called out as he used his knife and fork to hold up a good portion of the mayonnaise covered potatoes. “Can I get seconds here?”

“Sir, there’s no need to yell out,” the waiter sighed loudly as he trotted up from behind the griffon, which made Neato crane his head back to face the waiter. “I’m more than capable of coming over to serve you… You… YOU… YAAAAAAHHH!”

It was then that the waiter and all of the other customers (aside from Neato) ran off from the café. The griffon raised an eyebrow at the weird actions, but didn’t notice that from his front were a number of Ghouls stalked towards him with Manticore in tow. It wasn’t until one of the Ghoul loomed over his table that the Griffon finally took notice of what was happening. “Huh?”

The Ghoul reached for Neato, but before the stony hand could make a grab for him, a large bottle of dust cleaner slammed into the Ghoul’s head. The Ghoul staggered about before it crashed into the table and along with it, the potatoes and mayonnaise smashed into its head. Neato’s eyes widened and he dropped the silverware he had in his talons, “GARGH! MY LUNCH!”

It was then that Haru ran alongside the café with his WizardSwordGun atop his shoulder, the red dragon sighed loudly, “Yeesh, I get away from cleaning to pick up some cleaning materials, and I come across a Phantom. Just my luck. Hey, griffon, you okay?”

“Okay? OKAY?!” Neato questioned as he fell to his knees and brought his talons to the mess of food with tears in his eyes. “My food will never be alright!”

“… Okay, I’m going to ignore you for a little bit,” Haru stated as he turned his attention towards the Ghouls and Manticore. “You really picked a bad time to appear, Phantom.”

Neato’s head perked up slightly. “Phantom?”

“On the contrary,” Manticore chuckled as he lifted his hands up, to show off the cards in his hands. “I think I’ve drawn the perfect hand – After all, a wild Ring Mage appeared.”

Once again, Neato’s head perked up as Haru lifted up his left claw up to reveal the ring on his black claws. “Mage?”

“Whatever you want to say,” Haru retorted before he threw his left claw over his belt. “Henshin!”

“FLAME – PLEASE!”

Haru threw his left arm to the side and the red runic appeared to crawl over his body. “Hii Hii HiiHiiHii!”

“Ghouls, get him,” Manticore chuckled as he shuffled the tarot cards in his hands. The Ghouls began to charge forward.

The circle faded over Haru’s body as the red jeweled Wizard suit appeared over his red skin. “Its showti…”

“WAIT!”

Neato leapt onto Wizard and tackled the dragon to the ground with a loud thud. Manticore and the Ghouls reeled back at the sudden assault, with the Ghouls looking to their Phantom master for advice, but Manticore just rubbed the back of his head in confusion. “Uh…”

“EH?! What the Tartarus are you doing?!” Wizard yelped as he used his free claw and tail to pull Neato’s claws from his collar.

“Don’t give me that!” Neato snarled as he pointed towards the fallen potatoes and mayonnaise. “How are you going to fix this?! This is my meal!”

“Look,” Wizard groaned as he leapt back to his feet and readied his sword. “I’ll treat you to a buffet later! Just get out of here!

"It's showtime!"

The Ghouls shrugged their shoulders before they charged towards the magical dragon, the first Ghoul however received a powerful diagonal slash from Wizard’s sword and sent it through the air with flames about it’s body.

Another Ghoul brought its lance down on Wizard, but the dragon’s tail caught the weapon and allowed Wizard to spin around and stab his blade into the Ghoul’s chest.

Neato barred his teeth before he ran to his large, bulky backpack. “Damn it! The one time I’m not wearing it!”

The goofy griffon dug into his backpack, with random items tossed through the air, all the while, Wizard kept his fight with the Ghouls going. Eventually though, Wizard, the Ghouls and even Manticore fought their ways away from the café.

“Ah-Ha! FOUND IT!”

Neato popped out of the backpack with a large silver buckle lifted over his head that was in the shape of a gate. A large goofy smile was plastered over his face before he brought the buckle to his waist, “Alright, you tasty morsels – It’s time to… HEY! Where’d everyone go?!

“DAMN IT! THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE MY BIG ENTRANCE!”

TTT – TTT

“LAND – PEEASE!”

“Dododo dodoDon! Don DodoDon!”

The round rubies over Wizard’s armor transformed into the square topazes as a yellow runic circle faded from over the masked dragon’s body. With the power of the earth behind him, Wizard spun around, slammed his tail into a Ghoul’s head and sent the stony monster to the ground.

Wizard had managed to lead the small platoon of Ghouls, and surprisingly Manticore as well, to continue the battle in the back alleyways of Ponyville. This was of course to make sure no pony would get caught up in the onslaught.

Which at this moment included to perform a dynamic suplex to one poor Ghoul right into the ground.

When Wizard got back to his feet, he lifted his right claw up to catch the spear of another Ghoul and pulled the golem towards him. That’s when Wizard clotheslined the Ghoul’s neck with his arm and used the momentum to throw it into the other Ghouls. The force must’ve been too much because the Ghouls shattered into millions of pebbles.

“You’re all that’s left,” Wizard stated as he lifted his right claw to point at the Phantom, who only observed the fight, never got involved.

Until now.

Manticore lifted up his hands to reveal that he had several tarot cards between his fingers, “That’s all that’s needed – Ring Mage. The cards have spoken your fate!”

The Phantom tossed the cards up into the air and began to wave his arms, immediately the cards began to encircle Manticore’s body and spun faster with each passing second. Wizard perked his head up as he quickly changed the rings on his right claw and threw it before his belt buckle.

“DEFEND – PLEASE!”

Manticore threw his hands forward and the cards flew quickly through the air, but just before they made contact with the masked dragon, a large stone tablet erupted from the ground and caught all of the cards. Manticore reeled back as Wizard then charged right through the stone shield and ran towards the Phantom.

When Wizard closed the gap between him and Manticore, the masked dragon leapt to the air and spun to deliver a powerful kick. But the Phantom was a little faster and managed to duck down to dodge.

With his opponent’s back turned, Manticore threw his claws towards the back of Wizard’s head. At the last second though, Wizard dipped to the left and had Manticore’s claws barely scratch the side of his helmet.

It was all the opening that Wizard needed.

In a matter of seconds, Wizard grabbed Manticore’s arm and spun to be right behind the Phantom. Manticore’s bright green eyes flashed for second when he realized that Wizard locked his right hand around his neck and pulled tightly on the Phantom’s left arm. To make matters worse, the masked dragon had kicked the back of Manticore’s leg and forced the Phantom to kneel to the ground in pain. “GARGH! So… The rumors are true! This is the power that defeated Master Phoenix?!”

“Sorry, but that’s how it is,” Wizard stated before he flexed his biceps.

And with a slight grunt, Wizard lifted Manticore off of the ground and propped the surprised Phantom atop his right shoulder. Wizard spun around before fell back and slammed Manticore into the ground – Hard.

The Phantom bounced against the ground a few times before he pushed himself off of the dirt and leered at Wizard with his segmented eyes. “Well, at this point, the cards say…

“RUN!”

“Eh?” Wizard questioned before Manticore stumbled to get to his feet and dash off through the alleyway. “HEY! WAIT!”

Wizard began to give chase to the bug-like Phantom, but just a few steps in, Manticore stopped and a hidden tail shot from his back. Wizard tried to dodge, but the stinger on the tail’s tip stabbed right through the topaz chest plate and into Wizard’s stomach. “URK!”

As the masked dragon fell to his knees, Manticore stroked one of the mandibles around his mouth and cackled loudly. “I told you before – The cards have spoken your fate.”

With his claws to his chest, Wizard fell face first into the ground as his armor faded away and forced Haru’s face into the dirt. “W-What the…?”

“I have to say, I’m surprised,” Manticore stated as he sauntered over to the fallen dragon. “You didn’t die right on the spot from my venom.”

“V-Venom!?” Haru wheezed as he slowly lifted his upper body up, pain racked through his body. “W-What are you…”

Manticore then knelt down in front of Haru, the Phantom’s body exuded a dark green aura. “Since we’ve have the opportunity, and you’ve been such a wonderful host…”

The aura transformed Manticore’s body into a purple unicorn who was draped with fancy black robes and a few pieces of jewelry. The unicorn stallion’s mane was black, but it was definitely starting to recede, and it wasn’t any mystery why – He was an older stallion. “Please allow me to divine how much longer you have to live. A last courtesy if you will.”

The unicorn’s horn glowed a bright purple before a single card floated down from the sky. The older stallion lifted his hoof up and caught the card, and the older stallion winced, “Ooh, a grim reaper – Too bad!”

The older stallion slapped the card against Haru’s head with the card a few times, “Your hope has just faded away.”

The card fell to the front of Haru’s face as the pony disguised Phantom slowly totted away. “Have a nice day.”

“D-Damn it,” Haru wheezed before his head fell back to the ground. ‘Eyesight – Blurry. Throat, dry… Thoughts, thinking like this. Not good. Not good at all…’

“Oh my gosh!”

The red dragon lifted his head up to see who had spoken, but his vision was blurred and all he could see was a gray and yellow blur in front of him. He tried to focus his eyes, but there was no use. The burning pain he could feel coursed through his veins.

“Are you okay?” The blur asked. “Hey! Stay awake!”

Haru’s eyes closed and the world began to fade to darkness…

“Oh no, oh no! I… I… Do…or!”

TBC

Author's Note

MangaKamen: -puts Mayonnaise on his ramen noodles- ... What? You all knew this was coming for a long time. Time to swap protagonists!

Spell 24 - O N

Spell 24

O N

TTT – TTT

Stress is an oddity.

Typically, stress could affect a pony’s mental and physical status greatly. Anypony knew that too much stress could cause anxiety to a great level, but, stress could also lead a pony to excel, with activities like strength training, studying, or in the case of almost all of Ponyville – preparing the town properly for the arrival of Princess Celestia that was scheduled for tomorrow.

And no pony was more stressed out at this moment than Twilight herself – With a banner that misspelled the Princess’s name, a red pegasus who just lazed about (She felt like she met that rude stallion before), and now in Sugarcube Corner…

“Pinkie! What are you doing!?”

While the royal student was asking this, the energetic pink pony had sunk her teeth into one of the largest cakes in the bakery, with frosting and bits of cake scattered on her face. There was a sheepish smile on Pinkie’s face before she licked the sweet bits off her face. “Why, I’m taste testing!”

Twilight eyed the banquet of sweets, each treat had a bite taken out of it – It didn’t take a genius to figure out what had decimated the poor sweets. “Pinkie – These sweets are for the Princess…”

“And it’s vital to see if they are worthy of a Royal Tongue,” Pinkie replied as she trotted over to a large batch of cupcakes that were placed on a nearby display table. The party pony licked her lips as she used one of her front hooves to lift up one of the cupcakes from the tray. “Nothing but the best for the Princess!”

“Yes, but I want there to be something there for the Princess!” Twilight yelped back as she used her magic to pull the cupcake from Pinkie’s grasp. “This is really important! We can’t have the Cakes baking all day, and…”

Twilight would’ve continued until a thin, brown tail wrapped around the magically lifted cupcake and yanked it from the magical aura. “Hmm, Royal Sweets? That sounds rather rare!”

The young unicorn turned her head around just in time to see a beak chomp down on the cupcake and rip a good portion out from it. “Hmm, cherries! Tasty, but it’s missing something.”

Twilight blinked a few times at the odd griffon who reached into his jacket and pulled out a small bottle with his talons. The griffon popped the top of the bottle and gingerly squeezed the bottle’s contents onto the cupcake, giving the sweet a swirl of white condiment. The griffon tossed the cupcake into his beak and squealed. “Pure deliciousness!”

The griffon gulped loudly and smiled. Unfortunately, that smile slowly faded away when he realized that a pair of purple eyes leered at him, “Uh, hello?”

“Excuse me, but what do you think you’re doing?” Twilight asked as she poked Neato’s chest a few times. “Don’t you know that…”

“Stop, I know exactly where you’re going with this,” Neato replied as he lifted up one of his talons right before Twilight’s face. “And you’re right! It was rude of me to do so!”

Twilight smiled a little bit at the griffon, “Well, at least you…”

Neato then used his tail to lift up another cupcake from the display and held it in front of Twilight. Then the griffon poured the contents of the bottle on the cupcake and held it up. “Don’t hold back on my account! Eat! Eat!”

The lavender mare pulled back as Neato lifted the mayonnaise covered treat to her, “It’s really good!”

“I… I’ll take your word on that,” Twilight replied as she trotted back slightly. “And I don’t want to eat the sweets, they’re for Princess Celestia and…”

Once again, Twilight was interrupted – This time it was when Pinkie Pie leapt up to the griffon’s tail, rolled out her tongue and wrapped it around the confectionary. Neato’s eyes widened as he quickly unwrapped his tail from the treat at the last second before it was pulled into Pinkie’s maw. Neato cradled his tail in his free talons with tears in his eyes, “Geez! I almost lost my tail!”

“Wow!” Pinkie Pie gasped with bits of cupcake and mayonnaise flying from her mouth. “This is amazing!”

The thought of losing his tail was pushed out of his head, Neato smiled brightly at the mare, “I know right! Nothing like mayonnaise to bring out the best of any food!”

“M-Mayonnaise?” Twilight gagged in her mouth. “Why would you put that on sweets? That’s just weird.”

“You just don’t get it,” Neato chuckled as he lifted up the bottle of mayonnaise up into the air once more, a bright light shone from the container. Twilight turned away from the mysterious illumination. “Mayonnaise is the best food in the world! It can bring out the flavor of any food!”

“Look, you’re more than welcomed to put whatever you like on your food,” Twilight sighed as she tried to look at the griffon (not really effective due to the light that originated from the bottle). “But could you please stop eating these sweets? That goes for you too, Pinkie Pie! These are supposed to be for the Princess!”

The griffon rubbed the back of his feathered head a few times before he squinted down at Twilight. Then with a snap of his talons, Neato smiled brightly, “Ah-ha! Now I remember! You’re that pony who was my first customer! Meeting for the third time – Now that’s fate!”

“Ooh! You’re that one griffon!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed with a bright smile on her face. “Do you remember Twilight? It was that day where we all got in that Poison Joke and I couldn’t speak and your horn got all wobbly, and we all thought that Zecora was evil but it turned out that she was a really cool zebra, and we met Eiji the next day and there was that awesome battle with all the fire and everything went BOOM! And ROAR! AND TAJADORU! And it rained coins!”

Twilight and Neato looked at each other for a few seconds before the sleek griffon smiled brightly, “Heh, I don’t know what half she said, but it sounded awesome!”

A grin that stretched ear-to-ear curled on Pinkie’s face, “Do you know what this means? We have to have a welcome party! You’re the second griffon I ever threw a party for, so this’ll be perfect!”

“A party? For me?” Neato questioned as the smile on his beak grew. “Sounds like my kind of scene! Let’s cut to the chase and throw down!”

“NO!” Twilight yelled out at the top of her lungs. Both Pinkie and Neato faltered at the loud cry of the now heavily breathing mare. With a deep breath, Twilight lifted her head up and calmly smiled, even though there was a single strand of her mane that curled up. “I mean… Pinkie Pie, we need to focus on tomorrow, can you please try to contain party animal self until tomorrow night to throw a party for Mister…”

Twilight tilted her head slightly before she turned towards the griffon, “I don’t think I ever got your name before.”

Neato rubbed the lower portion of his beak as his green eyes turned up in deep thought, “Well, I was kinda hoping to save that for a real big reveal – But, I suppose for a couple of sweet mares, I can break that tradition.

“Very well, my name is…”

“Um, I-I’m sorry,” A familiar voice sounded out. “A-Am I interrupting something?”

Neato’s beak curled up while Pinkie and Twilight looked past the large griffon to see Fluttershy seated at the door with her front legs crossed. The griffon turned his head and smiled brightly, “Of course not, Flutters! Come on in!”

It was then that Fluttershy smiled and trotted over to the trio in the sweet shop, “Oh, Neato! What are you doing here? Weren’t you still enjoying your breakfast?”

“I was, till this rude dragon came out of nowhere and stole my meal!” Neato huffed with his arms crossed. “And nopony was at the café, so I sniffed around a bit and came across the delicious smells in here, lo and behold, I couldn’t help myself.”

‘Spike’s back at home, so, is this griffon talking about Haru?’ Twilight thought to herself before she shook her head. “Wait, Fluttershy, you know this griffon?”

“He’s an old friend of mine from Cloudsdale,” Fluttershy answered with a real bright smile on her face. “Girls this is…”

“Stop right there, Flutters,” Neato interrupted his pegasus friend with his talon lifted up. The griffon pocketed his mayonnaise bottle and stood up on his hind legs. “A griffon needs to be able to introduce himself!”

The griffon leapt up into the air and landed right in front of the door with his arms held up into the air. “Wanna know the name? Very well! I am a simple griffon, one who has five very unique traits!”

Flexing his left arm, the griffon pumped his talon towards the three mares, “There’s a deep red sun on my back!”

With a quick turn, the griffon threw his right talons before he brought it to his chest, “There is justice in my blue heart!”

It was then that a large amount of yellow confetti and streamers popped from behind him as he lifted his arms up, “Bathing everyone in my yellow cheers!”

He then twirled around and poked his feathered face with his pointer talons, “I know you can’t see it through my feathers, but my squishy cheeks are pink!”

And then, the griffon threw this right hand up to form a peace sign, “The green fresh leaf of a new hero!

“Gleaming gold! And of course, my name is…”

Slowly, the griffon lowered his talon and spun around to throw his pointer talon into the air. At that moment, the gold confetti and streamer shot up from the floor once more and made the griffon smile brightly, “Kosuke Nitoh! At your service, ladies!”

“Oooh!” Pinkie cheered out as she clapped her front hooves a few times. “Amazing! And you even managed to find the confetti cannons that I installed in here! How’d you do that?”

“Confetti cannons?” Nitoh questioned as he rubbed his lower beak. The griffon quickly made his way to Pinkie and threw one of his talons around her, “That’s so crazy – I love it! I can tell you and I are gonna get along greatly!”

“Neato Nitoh!” Pinkie laughed along with Nitoh.

Twilight however was quiet, and only stared at the griffon before her. She was a little stunned at Nitoh’s introduction – But it wasn’t the fact that the entire presentation was incredibly over the top, it was rather the griffon’s name. “Kosuke… Nitoh.”

At the call of his name, the griffon smiled at Twilight, “Ah, my name sounds even cooler when a mare says it.”

“Y…You’re not THE Kosuke Nitoh, are you?” Twilight asked as her horn glowed brightly. In a flash of violet magic, a familiar magazine that had a fancily dressed griffon on the cover floated through the air. “The archaeologist who discovered the Caballon ruins in the south and contributed to finding a lost chunk of history?”

Nitoh yanked the magazine out of the air and pulled it in front of his face, the goofy grin on his beak curled up even further before he whistled out, “Dang! They did a real good job with my picture, and I didn’t expect to have a fan here.”

“Well, I… I never…” Twilight muttered. “It’s just that you…”

“Stop right there,” Nitoh chuckled before he reached into jacket and pulled out a small ink pen. “I know exactly what you going to say – And it’s no problem!”

Within a few seconds, Nitoh wrote down on the magazine and held it out to Twilight. “My autograph! Free of charge!”

“Uh, t-thanks,” Twilight muttered under her breath before she used her magic to make the magazine disappear from Nitoh’s talon. With a cough, Twilight turned towards Fluttershy in an attempt to change the subject. “So, what brings you here, Fluttershy?”

“W-Well, I wanted to show you girls, and Neato too, something,” Fluttershy answered as she turned to her long pink mane. “Some nice pony gave me this little critter. Come on out little guy, it’s okay.”

A little blue bug popped out of Fluttershy’s mane, followed by a brown one and a yellow one, all three flew around the surprised pegasus. “Three?”

“Ew,” Nitoh gagged with his tongue stuck out. “Flutters, what was that thing doing in your mane?”

“Don’t be like that,” Twilight scolded the griffon as she trotted up to Fluttershy. “I’ve never seen anything like them before, what are they Fluttershy?”

“I’m not sure myself,” Fluttershy replied, the odd insects flew around the sweet shop. “And I only had one to begin with, I don’t where these two went.”

“Well, I can take one off your hooves,” Twilight stated as one of the weird bugs floated down on her head. “I’ve never seen anything so adorable!”

“And here I thought girls didn’t like bugs,” Nitoh muttered under his breath.

“I-I mean, it’ll be good for Spike,” Twilight coughed with a slight blush on her face. “Ever since Haru came by, he’s been asking for a pet. I’m sure this would be perfect for him.”

“Would you like one, Neato?” Fluttershy offered as she lifted her hoof up to have one of the bugs land on her.

The tall griffon lifted his talons up in front of his face and waved them, “Ugh, no thanks. Bugs and me don’t get along – I tend to step on them.”

“Pinkie?” Fluttershy suggest.

“Ugh! A parasprite?” the pink mare spat out with her tongue poked out. “No way! Great grandpa Piper would not approve!”

The two mares and griffon watched as Pinkie trotted past them and to the door, “Now I have to find an accordion!”

“What?” Nitoh asked with a flat look in his eyes.

“You know, one of those fun, annoying instruments that Polka music is used for?” Pinkie explained as she drew her front hooves in front of her and pulled them back, humming an odd tune all the while. “I don’t have much time!”

And like that, Pinkie trotted out of the bakery.

Nitoh sighed loudly and shook his head. “Great,” he said as he waved at the remaining two mares. “Well, it was great seeing you Flutters, and nice to meet you, Miss, but I need to follow that mare.”

“Why?” Twilight questioned with a raised brow.

“You ever overhear something so inexplicable, that you’re forced to think and think on it?” Nitoh asked as he crossed his talons over his feathered chest. “Like say you’re at a restaurant and you hear something like ‘if it wasn’t for that dog, I wouldn’t have spent that year in college’.

“It’s so random and weird that you can’t help but ponder it until it drives you to the point that you have to turn around and ask the pony who said that – But they just left! And you’ll never get that answer! ‘If it wasn’t for that dog, I wouldn’t have spent that year in college’, you have so many questions!

“And I’ll be damned if I’m going to go through that again!”

And just like that, Nitoh chased after Pinkie Pie, which left Twilight to turn towards Fluttershy, “That’s uh, some friend you’ve got there, Fluttershy.”

“He’s got a good heart,” the pegasus replied with a slightly tired smile. “But he’s really, really… Eccentric.”

“And he’s one of Equestria’s best archeologists apparently,” Twilight sighed as she lowered her head. ‘I would’ve figured a griffon on the cover of Equestria’s top magazine would be a little more… Refined.’

TTT–TTT

Ponyville bustled with energy, decorations filled the streets and topped the buildings, and the ponies galloped about to finish the preparations for the next day. Save for two who slowly trotted amongst the streets – a purple, older unicorn stallion and a green earth pony with a short red mane and tail. “Um… M-Manticore…”

“Hmm?” The older stallion mused as he craned his head back, not bothering to slow down. “Why are you following me, Dryad?

“W-Well, I… I don’t really…” Dryad started with a little flush of pink on her face.

BA-DUM!

It was then that both disguised Phantoms stopped in their tracks as an intense heat surrounded the two of them. No other ponies seemed to notice the intensified temperature as the two looked about the area.

“Humph, I thought I saw you, Manticore,” a fiery voice sounded up from above the two.

Both Manticore and Dryad looked up to see a familiar red pegasus drop from the sky and gracefully land right in front of the two. That powerful heat grew stronger as the pegasus slowly trotted towards the two disguised Phantoms, his blue eyes narrowed down at the two.

Manticore stepped back, “This… This isn’t possible! How are you alive?”

The stallion leered at the ponies before him and turned his head to the side, and gestured towards an alleyway that was only a few feet away. With an audible gulp, Manticore inched to the alleyway while Dryad shriveled up a little bit. The red pegasus didn’t pay her any mind and followed Manticore between the buildings.

The moment the two were out of plain view…

WHAM!

The purple unicorn that was Manticore was flung into the wall with a red hoof pushed against his chest. “Just what the Tartarus are you trying to pull, Manticore?!”

“L-Lord Phoenix,” Manticore gagged out with several tarot cards falling out from his robes. “I… I’m just following orders! I need to awaken the Gate and… And…”

“That’s not what I’m talking about!” Phoenix snarled as he applied more pressure to Manticore’s chest. “What the Tartarus are you doing with the Ring Mage!?”

“W-What?” Manticore sputtered out with his eyes wide.

“I saw your fight with him from the sky,” Phoenix growled, the fiery Phantom leaned closer towards his fellow Phantom’s face. “I. Don’t. Like. IT! You poisoned him and…”

“Not all of us are prolific in battle, Lord Phoenix,” Manticore replied, he struggled to get free from the stronger Phantom’s lock. “I… I am a master planner. I can barely fight! And…”

“I don’t want to hear it!” Phoenix snarled back as flames flickered around his body. “You practically stabbed him in the back! And frankly I don’t really care for such tactics… But if you really want to suggest the style of a coward, maybe I’ll give it a try right now.”

The flames began to coil tightly around Phoenix’s body as his equine form slowly burned away into his red and gold armored Phantom form. But as the transformation eased its way to his upper body, it just stopped. Phoenix and Manticore both looked at the odd combination of Phantom and Pony for a few seconds before Phoenix’s body began to revert back to his pony form.

“W-What?!” Phoenix stammered as he dropped Manticore to the ground.

Manticore smiled as he trotted around Phoenix, who had lowered his body slightly. “Oh ho, I see… I had heard that whenever you slayed that Ursa Major, you neglected to take on any more missions. Tell me Phoenix, did you actually die at the claws of the Ursa Major?”

Phoenix’s blue eyes shrunk slightly before he barred his teeth, “You… Lousy…”

The red pegasus turned his head towards Manticore, only to see a tarot card suspended in the air in front of him. Manticore levitated the card with his magic and slowly turned it over to show jester pony with a number of balloons around the mare. “Ah, the fool – How appropriate. Phoenix, you’re nothing more than a self-destructive fool. You may be powerful, but your mindset is nothing but a hindrance and you’ll only continue to spiral downwards.”

“Bastard,” Phoenix growled loudly.

Manticore dropped the card onto Phoenix’s head, and slowly walked past the pegasus. “My suggestion to you is to relax while the bridge you walk on burns beneath your hooves – Soon, you’ll no longer be a Greater Phantom. Let’s face it, you were dealt a great hand of cards, and you screwed it up.”

And like that Manticore casually trotted away from Phoenix, who struggled to get back to his hooves, but slipped on the grass in the process. ‘Damn it! Have I become nothing more than a joke?! Is this is what has become of me?!’

Phoenix slammed his hoof into the ground. “Damn it!”

TTT - TTT

“Hold still, Rainbow Dash!”

“Gargh! I can’t! I don’t get how Wizard can stand wearing this stuff!”

Inside Carousel Boutique, Rainbow Dash fidgeted about on top of one of the modeling table in the middle of the main hall while Rarity slowly stitched the odd outfit on the blue pegasus’ figure. The outfit in question was made out of black fabric with silver trim, with sapphire demimonde-cut jewels where her wings were along with sapphire bands on her legs. “Seriously! It’s awesome, but I need to stretch my wings!”

“It was either this, or the powdered wig,” Rarity countered as she pointed a hoof at Dash. “Do you want to look good when Princess Celestia arrives, or do you not?”

“GARGH!” Dash growled loudly before she sat down on the table. “Seriously though, how can he stand wearing this stuff – And fight in it!?”

“Please, it’s just fabric, not chains,” Rarity replied as she used her magic to hold up a few pins. “Besides, it’ll be a lot better once I resize and let out some of the fabric.”

“And how long will that take?” Dash asked.

“Well, if you stop moving now, and I’m able to put the final touches on,” Rarity thought out loud as she trotted around her winged friend. “I’d say, maybe another half hour to an hour.”

“GGGGGGGGGAAAAAAAAAAAAARGGGGGGGGH!”

“Dash! You can’t rush art!”

WHAM!

Dash slammed her head into the table loudly, “How did I get roped into this?”

Dash wished for anything, ANYTHING, to take her away from this crime against her freedom.

“That’s… An interesting outfit, Dash,” Twilight admitted as she trotted into the boutique.

Well, that works.

Twilight trotted through the large amount out mannequins that had a number of different kinds of dresses, saddles, and accessories that almost glistened in the light in the boutique. Although, there were a couple outfits that made Twilight raise a brow – and they were in the same vein as the outfit that Rainbow Dash was dressed in. “Um, Rarity, they look great, but why…”

“Why Twilight,” Rarity replied as she gestured towards a nearby dress that was the same design as what Dash was wearing, save for the ruby oval-cuts on it instead of sapphires. “I had drawn up these dresses, why wouldn’t I breathe life into these marvelous creations?”

Dash sighed loudly once more.

A small chirp echoed through the room, and from Twilight’s mane the little yellow critter she had gotten earlier popped out - followed by a blue one and red one that flew around Twilight’s head.

“Oh my,” Rarity cooed as she lifted a hoof up, and allowed the blue bug to fly to her hoof. “What a simply cute creature! What are they?”

“The better question is – where did they come from?” Twilight replied as she eyed the three bugs. “I only had one to begin with… So did Fluttershy…”

As Twilight trailed off, Dash began to take a step towards the edge of the table, “Well, I’ll take one off your…”

“Dash! Don’t move from that table!” Rarity called out before she used her magic to bind Dash’s hooves to the table. “We’re still not done here!”

“GAGGGH!”

“Girls!” Pinkie called out as she quickly zipped into the opened door. “Quick! I need four tires!”

All three of her friends turned to look at the pink mare who had suddenly just appeared in the doorway. After a rather awkward silence that lasted for a moment, Twilight finally spoke up, “Tires? Pinkie Pie, why do you need…”

“Double P!”

Popping his head into doorway, Kosuke smiled brightly at the pink mare a few inches from him, “I found them! I got the tires right here!”

“Ooh! Nice one, Neato Nitoh!” Pinkie Pie thanked with a large grin on her face. Then, from out of no-where, Pinkie Pie lifted up a small pink clipboard. “Next on the list, we need… Confetti and glue! Lots and lots of glue!”

“Uh, okay,” Kosuke sheepishly replied as he rubbed the back of his head with his talons. “What exactly are we building here?”

“That’s a secret, Neato Nitoh!” Pinkie Pie answered innocently.

“Right,” The griffon sighed under his breath. It was then that he peered into the boutique and blinked a few times. “Wow, swanky digs! Nice threads! And a couple of…”

Kosuke’s head reeled back when he looked at the grouped up mares in the main hall, a large amount of sweat rolled down his feathers. “Uh… Well…”

“Pinkie Pie, what exactly are you doing?” Rarity asked before she turned her gaze to the nervous griffon. “And who exactly are you?”

“Kosuke Nitoh…”

Everypony turned to see Rainbow Dash, her eyes narrowed, her teeth barred and her tail and mane stood up slightly. The air stilled, and all noises around silenced as Dash lifted her head up. “You lousy…”

“GAAAAAH!” Kosuke threw his talons up into the air before he ran away from the door.

“GET BACK HERE!” Dash snarled before her wings ripped through the fabric and she quickly flew from the table. “YOU OWE ME FOR THAT SPITFIRE ACTION FIGURE!”

Rarity’s mouth was agape as she watched Dash soar through the door, bits and pieces of the outfit ripped from the cyan pegasus form. “RAINBOW DASH! NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

But it was too late, Dash had flown from the boutique and after the griffon. Rarity slumped down to the ground and sobbed to herself. “All that work…”

Once again, the awkward silence slipped back into the boutique, only broken by Rarity’s whimpers. Pinkie Pie seemingly ignored the sobs and the wails of pain that were no doubt coming from Kosuke, and the pink mare spun around, “Looks like Neato Nitoh already on the hunt for that glue and confetti, and I gotta join him!”

And just as quickly as she appeared, Pinkie Pie bounced away from the boutique.

Rarity sighed, finally gotten out of her little funk, “I swear, that mare gets more eccentric by the day.”

TTT – TTT

After a full day of cleaning and making sure that the town was ready, Twilight looked outside her window to see the lull of the town with the starry night sky hung over it. Even from her room’s window, Twilight was able to see all the hard work that the ponies in the town had completed even through the darkness of the night.

‘I hope that everything goes well,’ the violet mare thought to herself as she turned away from the window. ‘But there are a lot of things that I’m worried about – The food, the decorations, everything seems to be ready, but something like this is just begging for a disaster. And Haru hasn’t even gotten back yet, he usually doesn’t stay out this late.

‘Maybe he’s just out for a late night donut – But who knows.’

Twilight sighed and turned towards Spike’s bed, the little baby dragon curled up in the blankets with the little bug she brought home nestled next to them. The two had fallen asleep, with their snores almost perfectly synched.

In that moment, Twilight’s worries melted away. To see how peaceful the two looked was enough to quell any fears that dwelled within her heart. It was when that the studious mare yawned and smiled, ‘I’m sure everything will be fine. Haru’s more than capable of dealing with almost anything – He’s probably just making sure that no Phantoms will interrupt the ceremony tomorrow.

‘What’s the worst that could happen?’

Meanwhile…

‘Oh Kida… It… It burns!’

Haru took deep, slow breaths. No matter what he did though, every breath burned his lungs greatly. This wasn’t the first time he was in pain after he battled a Phantom, but it still hurt like Tartarus each time.

The magical dragon struggled to open his eyes, his vision was blurred. Haru tried to gather whatever strength he could muster in order to find out where he was, but with the bright lights that blinded him and the constant beeps and clicks…

‘B-beeps and clicks?’

“My, aren’t you just intriguing?”

‘Who in the world is that?’

“I can already tell how extraordinary you are – Quite amazing actually, I never thought I’d see something like this here.”

‘What’s he talking about?’

“Can you do anything for him, Doctor?”

Now that was a female voice, one that Haru was sure he heard of before. But he couldn’t put his claw on where he did. “Please! He’s a really good dragon! Even if he eats doughnuts and…”

“He eats doughnuts? How curious!”

“Doctor…”

“Right, right, now then… Lef’s see whaf’s wrong wifh you!”

An odd sound buzzed over Haru’s head, which made him wince slightly. ‘Just what the Tartarus is going on here?’

The buzz stopped, “Lucky dog, he got fingers!”

Though his throat was dry, Haru mustered through the pain, “W-What…”

“Oh! He’s awake! Excellent! So many questions I have to ask!”

“W-What’s going on h-here?” Haru stuttered out, his vision still blurred.

“Yes, well, hate to tell you this, but you’ve been poisoned,” the male voice replied nonchalantly. “So tell me, what’s it like to be a dragon? Why do you carry so many rings on you? And what’s with that jacket?”

“Huh?” Haru mumbled.

“Doctor!”

“Right, right,” the ‘Doctor’ sighed back. “Don’t worry Mr. Dragon, you’ll be back in tip top shape in no time – But what’s it like to have scaly skin?

Who in the world was this guy, and why was he asking Haru so many questions?

TBC

Author's Note

MangaKamen: Sorry, no image for this chapter - Instead, we'll be getting two for the next one.

Spell 25 - Beast-Bite

Spell 25

Beast – Bite

TTT – TTT

Ponyville was quiet, with most of the town lulled into the sweet embrace of the night’s slumber. Save for a few lights here and there, the town was swept into the darkness with only the symphony of the night that cracked the silence.

WHAM!

“OW! MY TALON!”

“Ooh, never heard that song before, Neato Nitoh!”

Outside the borders of the town, with a number of lights surrounding them, Pinkie and Nitoh attempted to combine a large amount of oddities – An accordion, several tires, confetti, chicken-wire, hammers and much, much more – which was a losing battle. Especially since Nitoh had one of his talons in his beak, a hammer at his lion back legs. “Owwie…”

Pinkie Pie however was more concerned with molding some of the chicken wire. “Whistle while you work – That’s what my great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, GREAT, great grandpa said!”

“Speaking of work, what exactly are we doing here?” Kosuke asked after he pulled his thumb talon from his beak. “I get that we making some sort of… Whatchamacallit, but…”

“Actually, its more of a thingamabob,” Pinkie Pie answered back with a warm smile on her face.

“There’s a difference?” Kosuke questioned as he used his tail to lift up the hammer again. “Wait, that wasn’t my question – What I want to know is why. Why do we need all this stuff?”

“Oh, we still need a lot more,” Pinkie Pie answered before she kicked a large chunk of chicken wire, and molded it more. “We’re not even half way done with what we need! We need a couple speakers from Vinyl Scratch, some nails and lots more!”

“That doesn’t really answer the question,” Kosuke stated bluntly, a small bead of sweat rolled down the back of his head.

“Well, let me tell ya, Neato Nitoh,” Pinkie replied as she trotted up close to the griffon, leaned near the side of his head, and then whispered. “It’s a secret!”

Kosuke’s face slumped and his eyes dulled greatly.

“Now that we got that question with the right answer,” the pink mare sung before she trotted back to her mysterious project. “Let’s get back to work! We need to get this done as soon as possible!”

The griffon sighed loudly to himself, “The things I do to keep myself entertained.”

TTT - TTT

“Twilight Sparkle! What an excellent job you did!”

Twilight could feel her chest swell with pride as she trotted alongside Princess Celestia through the highly decorated Ponyville. Everything was perfect – The food, the decorations, the ponies themselves – There weren’t even any Phantoms around. Nothing could possibly ruin this. The purple mare bowed her head slightly, “Thank you, Princess! It’s an honor to hear you say that!”

“I just have one question,” Celestia stated.

“And w-what’s that?” Twilight asked.

“What is that sound?”

Twilight’s eyes snapped open, revealing the slightly reddened orbs. ‘Darn it! It was just a dream and… What is that noise?’

At first, Twilight chalked up that what she heard was nothing more than Spike’s snores. But, there were far too many noises to be a single snore.

As she lifted her head up, Twilight turned around and saw something that struck fear into her heart. “W-Where did you all come from!?”

All around her – on her bed, on the bookshelves, atop of the curtains, on the floor and pretty much everywhere – Were countless carbon copies of the little creature that Twilight had gotten from Fluttershy yesterday, the only difference was that they were all completely different colors. And, unfortunately, when Twilight had yelled out, she had woken up almost all of the bugs and buzzed about the room.

“AAAH! TWILIGHT HELP!”

Twilight turned to see that Spike was lifted through the air by his tail, spines and even his legs thanks to the bugs. Comically, Garuda was on top of Spike’s head, he wasn’t being bugged by the critters, he just relaxed much to the baby dragon’s chagrin. “Get’em off! Get’em off!”

“Spike! What happened?!” Twilight questioned, lighting her horn with her magic to pull Spike free from the little bugs’ grasps.

“I… I don’t know!” Spike yelped out, being gently lowered to the floor with Garuda still seated atop his head. “I gave the little guy some of Haru’s donut stash as a midnight snack, but there was still only one!”

Garuda tweeted a few times.

As a familiar who didn’t need any actual sleep, Garuda was graced with the knowledge of where the many bugs originated from. As it turned out, whenever the buggy creatures devoured food, that food would activate their asexual reproductive systems and they would literally cough up their offspring.

It was actually an interesting event to see happen again and again, although, if Garuda needed any food to live, he’d probably be a little mad since the bugs had raided the fridge and cupboards to devour all the food in the library. Then again, at most, Garuda just pecked at a few seeds every once in a great while, but he still didn’t need to eat food.

Unfortunately, Garuda was unable to convey this information to Twilight or Spike, since, well, he could only speak in tweets. Oh, the stories he could tell if he could only speak their language – not only about what had happened last night, but also the one time he flew across Ponyville he saw this big blue box that faded out of sight, or the one time he went out at midnight and noticed that there was an extra hour between midnight and the next day.

This world is weird.

“Where’s Haru?” Twilight asked as she galloped about, trying to shoo some of the bugs from the bookshelves. “The Princess is going to be here in a few hours and we need all the help we can get to clean this up!”

“I don’t know!” Spike yelped, shooing away some of the little buggers away from him as they tried to lift him off of the ground once more. “AHHH!”

“Spike! This isn’t the time to play around!” Twilight scolded as she watched Spike get lifted off the ground once more.

Garuda snickered from his perch as he watched Twilight’s horn glow once more, only this time that aura spread throughout the entire room and capture all of the little critters into a lavender aura net. This net however also caught Spike amongst the bugs with it, and he was trapped inside the magic.

Once again, Garuda was getting a kick out of this and laughed loudly as Twilight used her magic to send the baby dragon spiraling to the floor from the net.

Without a sound, Twilight used her magic to stuff all of her captured prey into her saddlebags as best she could. “Spike, I’m going to bring these to Fluttershy, if anypony knows what to do with these things, she would.”

“B-But, didn’t you say that she didn’t know what they were?” Spike pointed out as he picked up a few of the fallen books.

“Yes, but she’s great with animals,” Twilight countered as she lifted the saddlebags onto her back. “She’s sure to have learned something about these… things by now! I’ll go see her, but Spike, can you try to clean this place again?”

“Sure!” Spike replied with his tail lifted up in a salute.

“And if Haru shows up, enlist him immediately!” Twilight continued before she trotted down the stairs.

“Aye aye!”

A few moments later, Twilight bustled out of the library, taking a few moments to make sure that none of the destructive little bugs had gotten out from the saddlebags. ‘Gotta hurry up! Gotta hurry up!’

“Excuse me, miss,” a suave voice called out to Twilight.

The young mare turned to the right to see that there was a small table set up a few feet from the library that was covered with a purple cloth with several cards laid atop of it. Behind the table was an older unicorn stallion with a receded black mane, his horn glowed brightly as he shuffled the cards on his table. “You seem troubled, is there something the matter?”

“I’m sorry, sir,” Twilight replied with a slight bow of her head. “But I really don’t have time to talk…”

“I would image so,” The fortune teller chuckled as one of the cards from the pile fell to the table, a familiar white mare with horn and wings was on the upside down card. “After all, with the sun itself coming to visit, anypony would be nervous.”

Twilight slowly turned away from the odd fortune teller as another card fell from the pile – This one with a stallion with a powdered wig and gavel, upside down once more. “I should warn you Miss, you need to have clear judgment on this situation! Otherwise, you’ll be stuck with those nasty little buggers and make things quite bad for your princess.”

The studious mare stopped in her tracks and turned to see that stallion still shuffled the cards with his magical aura. “W-What?”

“Oh, do you find it strange that I know of your infestation problem?” the fortune teller stated with a coy smile on his face as he looked at the cards on the table. “My dear, my talent is seeing the future, and knowing the unknown. You’d be surprised what the cards hold, after all, we still have to show what your future holds – could be good, could be bad.

“And as a plus, I’m doing this for free.”

Twilight turned back and shifted her eyes about at the odd stallion. Part of her was curious what else this stallion knew of her situation, but another part of her didn’t want to waste time – And yet, she couldn’t help but trot over to the stallion as he used his magic to bring the messed up cards into a single pile that floated over the table.

The fortune teller smiled as he focused his magic on the top of the deck, however as he did, a few sparks flew from his horn and two cards slipped from the deck. “Gah!”

The two cards floated down onto the table – One that had a familiar bearded stallion dressed in a blue cloak and magician’s hat that had stars, moon, and bells on it. The other card was rather odd – With a pink stallion with a wild black mane with a pan-flute and dressed in a brown tunic. The fortune teller eyed the two cards and tilted his head, “Well, one of them is the magician card – and it would say that you’ll have the knowledge needed to meet your challenge.

“But the other one… I… I never saw this card in my deck before. I have no clue what it means – It could be good, it could be bad, I’m not sure.”

“Well, this was nice, but as you already pointed out with your pretty little cards,” Twilight huffed as she turned to walk away from the stand. “I have a bit of a problem that I need to be able to deal with! Have a nice day.”

“W-Wait a second!” The fortune teller staggered with his words, but slumped his shoulders when he realized that Twilight had trotted off.

With a sigh, the stallion smiled brightly as he lifted his left hoof up to reveal a green bug, the same that Twilight had stuffed in her saddle bags. The fortune teller’s eyes gleamed a bright green, “Well, her fault for not listening to the rest of my prediction. Now my little friend, go enjoy a meal for my account.”

The little critter buzzed before it flew off into the air, the fortune teller’s grin grew darker with each second. ‘Just a little longer – And once this Gate is awakened, we can awaken any other Gates in this town, after all, nothing like hunger to cause despair… Muhwahahaha…’

“Hey there!”

The fortune teller reeled back when he saw a feathered face only a few inches from his. Kosuke smiled brightly with his beak and pulled back, a large sack filled with odd parts sticking out from it. “A fortune teller, eh? I always love these things! Hey, can I get a reading?”

The stallion smiled once more as he used his magic to gather all of his cards and shuffle them into the air. “Ah, how interesting – A griffon. I don’t normally get a customer like you. Would you care for a free reading?”

Kosuke blinked a few times as he sat down on the ground, “Ah, really? I don’t mean to trouble you with that.”

“It’s no trouble at all,” the fortune teller stated as he placed the shuffled deck right in front of him and then used his magic to lift the top card from it slowly. “I can’t help but worry about you – You seem to have an aura of danger around you.”

“Oh?” Kosuke mused as the card slipped down in front of him – The same card that had the bearded stallion on it.

“This is -!” the fortune teller gasped. ‘Again with the magician card – I thought I eliminated the ring mage already though…’

“You don’t need to tell everypony,” Kosuke chuckled as he lifted his hand up in front of the fortune teller’s face. The griffon then snatched up the card and lifted it into the air. “It’s swirling around in me… But it’s whittling away at my life. That’s what you wanted to say, right?”

The fortune teller cleared his throat as he produced more cards from the deck, “Uhh, I’m rather amazed you know. Not many know what the tarot cards mean right off the back. Back to your fortune however, it suggest that your current situation may be hopeless.”

“Heh, what’s expected from a fortune-teller,” Kosuke chuckled with a goofy smile on his face. “You must know everything!”

“To a degree,” the fortune teller chuckled. “But, it’s quite amazing – You have yet to give into despair. Is there something to support your heart?”

“What?” Kosuke asked with his head tilted slightly. “Support my heart? My ticker’s doing just fine.”

“So I can see,” The fortune teller loomed in closer towards the griffon. “But you must have something that prevents you from falling into the depths of despair – Would you mind sharing that with me? It’ll help my reading greatly.”

Kosuke crossed his arms and rubbed his lower beak. “Hmm… Well… This would be a pinch, right?”

“A pinch?” The fortune teller questioned as Kosuke dropped the sack of items to the ground.

“Yeah! You see, basically, a pinch is a chance,” the griffon explained as he walked around the balding stallion. “When driven into a corner, you think of new ideas. When forced to rock bottom, there’s only one place to go, and that’s up! Your job is to tell ponies’ fortunes…”

Kosuke used his tail to whip up the magician card and hold it over his head. “So, I think your advice should be a bit more positive! After all, if you know what’s going to come, you need repeat business and get those ponies a coming again and again!”

“I, uh, well, I guess it wouldn’t hurt,” the fortune teller admitted.

“That’s the spirit!” Kosuke stated as he wrapped an arm around the balding stallion’s neck. “Who knows! Karma might smile upon you and get you your hair back!”

“Wait, what?!”

Before the fortune teller could tell off Kosuke, a joyous voice called out, “Neato Nitoh! There you are! Hurry up! We still need a kazoo!”

“Sorry about that, Pinkie!” Kosuke called back before he leapt away from the fortune teller, with his tail wrapped around the burlap sack. The griffon waved his talon to the balding stallion, “Thanks again, sir! I had fun here!”

The fortune teller stood there dumbfounded as the griffon walked away from his table. ‘What the Tartarus just happened? Oh well, after I awaken the Gate I’m currently after, he’s next. I’ll make him suffer despair and… Gee, I sound so clichéd!’

TTT – TTT

“P-Please stop. Stealing is wrong! T-That food belongs to… Oh! Please don’t knock that over!”

At Fluttershy’s cabin, a countless and colorful assortment horde of the bugs flew around the area just outside the Everfree forest, eating plants and the animals’ food, or just flew about to take up space around the area. The yellow mare trotted about and attempted to try to calm the horde of insects. “N-no! Angel! Please stop hurting them!”

Angel just ignored Fluttershy as he reeled up a random carrot and slammed it into one of the bugs. The little white rabbit pumped one of its paws as it readied itself to whack another bug with the carrot.

The young mare winced as Angel knocked another bug through the air.

“Fluttershy!”

The animal caretaker turned to see her two unicorn friends quickly trot up to the mare, while in the air above, Rainbow Dash flew through the air trying to dodge the onslaught of bugs that chased her. With a nervous smile, Fluttershy trotted towards her friends, “Oh, h-hello girls. I didn’t know that you were visiting today, if I-I had known…”

“Dear, I believe you’ve got bigger issues to deal with,” Rarity pointed out, while trying to keep the bugs within her saddlebags.

“Fluttershy, do you know what these things are?” Twilight asked as she used her magic to pull one of the bugs from the air. “They’re everywhere!”

“I… I don’t know, Twilight!” Fluttershy wailed as she fell to the ground. “I tried everything I could with them! I tried asking them to stop. I tried pleading, bribing, giving them the ‘stare’, but nothing works!”

Twilight bit her lower lip, “This isn’t good, we need to figure out what these things are and how to deal with them!”

“They’re Parasprites,” A familiar masculine voice called out to the mares.

Walking up to the small trio of mares was none other than Kosuke, an empty sack wrapped up in his tail. Almost immediately, Fluttershy’s worries melted away and she trotted over to the exuberant griffon. “Neato! You know what these things are?”

“Not personally,” Kosuke replied as he rubbed the back of his feathered head. “Way too many of them to do that, plus, they only speak insect. I’m not too familiar with dialect.”

“Mr. Nitoh,” Twilight drew the griffon’s attention. She froze for a few moments, still having a hard time trying to believe that this griffon was the famous archeologist that she had read about for ages. “How do you know what these things are?”

“Hmm? Oh, that’s simple, Little Miss Magic,” Kosuke chuckled, one of his clawed talons lifted up and wagged it a little bit in front of him. “Your pink friend informed me of what this little buggers are and she’s working hard on a solution.”

A smile crept onto Twilight’s face, “Really? She knows what these are and how to get rid of them? How is she doing it?”

Kosuke chuckled as he looked away from the purple eyes that leered at him. “W-Well, she didn’t really tell me what we were making with all the stuff we’re borrowing. Oh, that reminds me, Flutters, you got any, uh well, you got tools around here? I’m kinda looking for a wrench, headlight fluid and some sort of soup can mechanic or something like that.”

“Um, sorry, but I don’t have those things,” Fluttershy replied.

The griffon snapped his talons and clicked his tongue against his teeth, “Great, that’s going to be a problem. Oh well, I’ll find that stuff later… So, why are you all out here?”

Rarity and Twilight leered at the griffon before they pointed towards the clouds of Parasprites that flew overhead. Kosuke chuckled nervously as he rubbed his feathers again. “Oh, right, duh! Flutters was always good with animals.”

“And you were always good at breaking things,” A rather familiar voice sounded out, which sent chills down Kosuke’s spine.

Slowly, the feathered hybrid turned around to see Rainbow Dash now midair behind him, using her wings to keep herself afloat in the air (as well as to slap away some of the Parasprites that flew around her). She had her front hooves crossed over his chest with a cold glare aimed directly at the griffon. Kosuke’s feathers were immediately drenched with an icy sweat as he slowly backed away from the obviously angered pegasus. “N-N-Now, Dashie, let me warn you. There are witnesses here, and if you strike me down, I shall return twice as…”

Kosuke never got to finish. Because at that very moment, Dash had slammed both of her hind legs into the griffon’s chest and sent him through the air. Kosuke screamed as he sailed through the massive amount of Parasprites.

“Going, going, gone!” Dash laughed loudly.

“Rainbow!” Twilight scolded as she trotted up to her multicolor haired friend. “Why did you do that!? We need all the help we can get with this situation!”

“I can’t help it, Twi,” Dash sighed with a roll of her eyes. “That griffon is nothing but trouble!”

“Rainbow, Neato’s just a little clumsy,” Fluttershy spoke up, her brow a little furrowed. “I’m sure he doesn’t mean to cause any trouble.”

“Oh?” Dash huffed. “What about the one time he ‘accidentally’ stole your lunch and slathered it in mayonnaise? Or when he crashed through my old house’s roof? Or when…”

“Dash, we don’t have time for this!” Twilight interrupted as she stomped a hoof into the dirt. “Princess Celestia will be here soon, and we need to clear this mess up! We’d need all the help we can get!”

“Doubt that you’d get any help from that slacker,” Dash muttered under his breath.

WHAM!

“UGH!”

“What in tarnation!? MAH APPLES!”

The small group of mares turned to see that Kosuke had smashed into a cart of apples that Applejack had pulled up to Fluttershy’s house. Not only did the griffon smash into her apples, the Parasprites were eating the bits of apples that fell from the cart. Applejack narrowed her eyes at the griffon and Parasprites, “Who in Celestia’s mane are…”

“Applejack!”

The southern mare’s head snapped back to see her friends trotting up to her, Twilight leading the group. “This is perfect! Applejack, you’re the best pony around who can herd like no other.”

AJ rubbed her front hoof against her chest, a bright smile on her face, “Ah don’t like tooting mah own horn, but…”

“Can you help us round up these Parasprites, please?!” Twilight begged.

AJ smiled brightly, “Shoot Twi, no need to be so formal! Ah’m always ready and willin’ to help a friend!”

A couple of loud crunches caught the mares’ attentions back to the apple cart, where Kosuke was munching on one of the apples he managed to save from the Parasprites. “These are really good apples!”

“Alright, Mistah Griffon,” Applejack sighed as she bucked the cart to knock Kosuke out of the cart. “Yer gunna help us out with this.”

“What?!”

TTT - TTT

“And with this last book… DONE!”

Spike sighed with relief as he wiped his brow. He had spent the good portion of the last hour fixing up the mess that the Parasprites had made, of course, the baby dragon didn’t do the cleaning by himself. Garuda and Uni gave their own aid to the number one assistant, with Uni pushing away debris while Garuda helped sort books.

When the work was done, the three sat down on the floor, exhausted. Spike smiled as he rubbed his claw against Uni’s sapphires, “You two really are helpful – And you still look tasty.”

Both Garuda and Uni leered at the dragon.

“Kidding, kidding!” Spike nervously chuckled as he lifted his claws up. “I’m not gonna take a bite out of you guys… Again…”

Garuda didn’t buy it for a minute and flew away from the dragon.

“I’m serious!” Spike stated.

The door to the library quickly opened up and allowed a familiar red dragon to fall to the wooden floor. “Ugh… So, tired…”

“Haru!” Spike ran towards his fellow dragon and got to his side, with both Garuda and Uni right next to him. “W-What happened to you? Where were you?”

“I… I was poisoned,” Haru sputtered out as he slowly pushed himself up. However, his claws slipped on the wooden floor and he landed face first into the ground once more. “By a… A Phantom…”

Spike reeled back when he heard that, “A… A Phantom?! Are you alright?! Should we get you to a doctor?”

“Already saw one,” Haru sighed, not bothering to lift his face up. “I’m cured, but I’m really, really low on mana and tired. But we can still track down the Phantom, I was only poisoned half an hour ago – Ya know, when I was going to get cleaning materials.”

“Huh? Haru, that was yesterday!” Spike pointed out.

The red dragon’s blue eyes widened and he struggled to lift his head up. “W-Wait, what? Are you kidding? But I was just poisoned less than an hour ago and… and…”

“Maybe that poison’s messing with your mind,” Spike suggested.

“Well, I just walked out of a blue box that wasn’t outside the library earlier,” the magical dragon muttered under his breath as he tried once more to push himself off of the ground. This time actually able to get to his feet, admittedly he was still shaky, but still he was up. “In any case, Garuda, Unicorn…”

The two familiars nodded and went out of the library through the door. Haru sighed as he ran his claws over his face. “Thanks. While those two look for the Phantom, I need to rest for a few minutes – Spike, do we have anything to eat or something?”

“Uh, well… Not really,” Spike answered with a nervous smile on his face. “A lot’s happened since you left to pick up the cleaning materials.”

TTT – TTT

Thanks to the efforts of Applejack’s herding skills, the five mares and one griffon were capable of forcing the Parasprites into the Everfree Forest – which was to cram the bugs into a large ball and rolled them into the woods. With Fluttershy and Dash in the air, the rest of the group galloped around the orb of bugs (which was odd since Kosuke should’ve been with the two pegasai, but didn’t do so).

With the last of the Parasprites now in the Everfree Forest, Twilight was able to finally breathe a sigh of relief. ‘This is perfect! Now all we have to do is do some clean up the mess the Parasprites made, and everything will be all ready for Princess Celestia.’

“Woohoo!” Kosuke cheered as he threw his talons up towards Twilight. “Great job! High hoof!”

Twilight blinked at Kosuke’s action, and when the griffon realized that Twilight wasn’t going to slap his talon, Kosuke turned to Rarity. “High hoof!”

Rarity stepped back from griffon’s talons and Kosuke pocketed his talons into his jacket. “Great, thanks for leaving me hanging.”

“I’m sorry, Mr. Nitoh,” Twilight replied with a slight bow. “Thank you for your help, you too girls. You don’t know how much this means.”

“Shucks, Twi, ya’ll don’t need to thank us,” Applejack stated with a wave of her hoof. “That’s what we’re here fer.”

“Indeed, we all have to pitch in to make sure Princess Celestia’s visit is absolutely perfect,” Rarity added.

“Well, it was nice working with you all,” Kosuke chuckled as he waved his talon. “But I gotta find Miss Pie and…”

Kosuke started to leave, but was yanked back. As it turned out, Rainbow Dash had landed on his tail without him noticing. Of course when he realized that he was trapped, he looked up to see that Dash had her eyes narrowed down at him. “Uh… Could you please move?”

“I’m not gonna let you get away this time,” Dash growled as she put pressure on the griffon’s tail, sending a jolt of pain up the griffon’s body.

“Gah!” Kosuke yelped loudly.

“Um, girls, why don’t we head back to my cottage for a moment? I’ll make us some tea before we get back to work,” Fluttershy offered as she used her wings to fly into the air. Save for Rainbow Dash, the other mares trotted behind the yellow pegasus to the cottage in the distance.

“N-NO! DON’T LEAVE ME!” Kosuke pleaded as he reached out to the mares – But they left him alone with Rainbow Dash.

With a loud, audible gulp, the goofy griffon slowly turned his head back and met with a pair rose colored eyes that pierced his very soul. A nervous smile crawled onto Kosuke’s beak and he lifted his talons up defensively, “H-Hey there, little Dashie! L-Look, I’ll pay you back for your Spitfire figure, I have the bits and… And I just need to find one and I can…”

“Oh, just shut up!” Dash barked.

Kosuke’s neck lowered slightly, “Yes, Dash.”

“Good,” Dash growled as she pushed off of the ground so that she was off of Kosuke’s tail. “This isn’t about just the figure – There’s more!”

“Uh, okay,” Kosuke gulped.

“You just up and leave Cloudsdale one day,” Dash jabbed her hoof into Kosuke’s chest a few times. “You just disappear – After everything you break, after everything that happened, what the Tartarus happened that day!?”

Kosuke turned his attention away Rainbow’s gaze, knowing full well he couldn’t evade it. He took a deep breath, and with a weak smile on his face, the griffon lowered his head. “A lot happened that day, Dash… Way too much for me to recount. And a lot has happened in five years…”

“But you just disappeared!” Dash barked back. “Did you even see me pull off…”

“You don’t need to worry, Dashie,” Kosuke replied as he smiled brightly. “I saw that spectacular little stunt you did! The colors were amazing! You were really impressive, I’ll never forget that day!”

The scowl on Dash’s face slowly melted away into a cocky smile before she pumped out her chest, “Of course! Who else could be so awesome to pull off a Sonic Rainboom?”

Kosuke crossed his left arm over his chest and gripped his right shoulder tightly between his talons. And yet, he still had that smile on his face, “Nopony else, Dashie, nopony else. You run on pure, Grade-A kick-flank!”

“Aw yeah!” Rainbow Dash cheered out as she flew through the air. “Now hurry up! We’re getting left behind by the others!”

The griffon smiled as Dash flew off after the other mares, but Kosuke sighed under his breath and gripped his right shoulder even tighter. With a shake of his head, Kosuke slowly followed his old friend on the ground. ‘… Someday I’ll tell Dashie and Flutters, just not right now…’

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!”

When that scream shattered the silence, Dash turned back to Kosuke before she quickly flew through the air, the griffon running as fast as he could to keep up with the mare. When the two reached Fluttershy’s cottage, they saw that the others were surrounded by an incredibly large swarm of Parasprites that buzzed around the area. The griffon had to stop and take in everything that he was looking at, “Where in the world did they all come from!?”

“Um, w-well,” Fluttershy sheepishly answered with a shy smile on her face, and from her mane, a single Parasprite popped out to join its fellow bugs. “I might’ve kept one…”

The leers that Fluttershy got in response made her shirk back.

“Now, wait,” Kosuke questioned as he raised a brow. “Where did the Parasprites come from?”

“Fluttershy opened the door to her house,” Applejack explained. “And all them things just flew out into the sky!”

“But didn’t she keep one in her mane to keep?” Kosuke asked with his head tilted. “Then, if we just gathered all of them, then wouldn’t that mean that it wasn’t her Parasprite that made all of these?”

Twilight opened her mouth to speak, but then closed it to think, ‘Mr. Nitoh does have a point – Even if Fluttershy did keep one, she had it on her while we were herded the others. Did someone else do this?’

“That’s it!” Dash yelled out as she reached into her mane and pulled out a pair of goggles that she slipped over her eyes. “Time to teach this adorable trash not to mess with the best!”

“Adorable?” Kosuke snickered with his talon brought to his beak.

WHAP!

“OW!”

After slapping Kosuke upside the head, Dash flew up high into the air and began to spin around through the air. The cyan pegasus flew faster and faster in circles until she became a multicolored twister that danced over the ground and actually began to suck up the Parasprites into it.

In order to make sure that they didn’t get drawn into the twister, the mares and griffon gripped onto nearby trees. The twister flew about the dirt road and the Parasprites disappeared into it.

“That’s it Rainbow!” Twilight yelled out, keeping her grip on tree. “Keep this up and soon our problems will be solved!”

“Don’t worry Twilight! They will be with these!”

Twilight turned to see Pinkie Pie skip down the path, four, silver circular items hung around her body that were connected with a rope. The items jingled with each step she took, but when she got close enough, the Twister immediately pulled them from the pink mare’s back. “HEY! Give those hubcaps back! They have to be bought in packs of four!”

Kosuke jumped from the tree he hugged, and latched onto the rope that was attached to the hubcaps. “Got them!”

“Neato!” Pinkie called out. “Who’s got you!?”

It took the griffon a second to realize that his feet and talons didn’t reach the ground, so he was being sucked up into the twister. “NOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooo!”

The feathered and furred being was drawn into the multicolored twister, and moments later, both Kosuke and Rainbow Dash were flung from the twister and then crashed into the ground. Thankfully, Dash had managed to land atop of the griffon’s back. The two were completely dazed, but safe – however, with Dash no longer supporting the twister, the Parasprites were flung through the air towards Ponyville.

“No, no, no… NO!” Twilight screamed as she watched the small little bugs float down from the sky onto the town. Another hair atop of Twilight’s head sprung up as she turned towards the pink mare near here, the unicorn’s face contorted with anger. “PINKIE! What have you done?! You just ruined everything!”

“Ruined?!” Pinkie Pie gasped as she brought her hooves up to her mouth. “I’m not the ruiner! I’m the ruinee!”

“Grammar needs work,” Kosuke moaned loudly.

Twilight sighed as she used her magic to lift Rainbow Dash off of the dazed griffon, “C’mon girls! We have to hurry!”

All the mares, save for Pinkie, chased after Twilight. The pink mare sighed and trotted over to Kosuke, “Those girls need to learn to listen. Are you okay, Neato?”

“Meh, I’ve had worse,” the griffon coughed as he lifted his talons up into the air, showing that he still held tightly on the rope that had the hubcaps. “By the way, I believe these are yours.”

“Good job, Neato!” Pinkie Pie cheered as she lifted her hooves up into the air. “Now let’s hurry! We have just enough time to strap these bad boys in and we’ll be good to go!”

“Alright… But, can we make a pit stop?” Kosuke requested as he pushed himself off of the ground. “I’m getting a bit hungry and I need to grab something from my camp. Is that okay?”

“Hmm, well, we haven’t had a snack break for a while,” Pinkie Pie admitted with a bright smile. “So sure! What ya need to pick up?”

“Oh, nothing much,” Kosuke replied, dusting off his hoodie at the same time. “I just need to pick up my belt.”

While the two chatted it up, a familiar balding unicorn stepped out from behind Fluttershy’s cottage, a single Parasprite rested on top of his head. With a smirk on his face, the fortune teller slowly made his way back towards Ponyville, ‘This is turning out to be a rather interesting – Good thing I had Dryad leave me one of these little Parasprites. Now, to watch the fruits of my labor.’

TTT – TTT

All over Ponyville, Parasprites rained over the town. Citizens were perplexed as to the mysterious creatures that floated about their town – The cute and innocent creatures that lofted around their buildings, their outdoor furniture and even their food…

Even around the Golden Oaks Library, the Parasprites fell from the sky. When the had just started falling, Spike and Haru had returned from getting some groceries to replenish the ones that were eaten earlier. Spike stopped in his tracks when he saw all of the Parasprites, but Haru was more interested in the donut that he munched on.

“Haru! They’re back!” Spike cried out as he nearly dropped the bag of groceries to the ground.

With a mouthful of donut, the magical dragon looked up to see one of the Parasprites land on his nose. “This is the menace you were telling me about? How could something like this be so dangerous?”

The Parasprite chirped before it flew from Haru’s nose and devoured the donut in his claws. A few moments passed before Haru narrowed his eyes, “You bastard!”

Haru dropped the groceries and swiped at the little bugger, he missed the Parasprite, and the other bugs began to snack on the dropped groceries. The red dragon staggered back when he saw that more and more Parasprites were around his feet. “What the!?”

“So many of them!” Spike yelled out, shooing away some of the Parasprites from the groceries. However, more and more of the Parasprites flew from the air and countless continued to erupt from around the two dragons’ feet.

“Gah! How is this even possible?!” Haru yelped out as he valiantly tried to defend the donuts, but failed as several Parasprites knocked the box out of his claws. “NO!”

Shaking his head, Haru used his tail to slam into a few of the Parasprites, “Spike! Where was Twilight again?!”

“S-She was headed towards Fluttershy’s,” Spike shouted out as he watched a few other ponies gallop about, trying to get the parasprites away from them. “But that was a while ago! I don’t know where she could be!”

Haru gritted his teeth as he closed his eyes. He then reached into his jacket and pulled out one of his rings, “Spike, I’m gonna go find her, try to do what you can to make sure that things don’t go south here!”

A loud crash echoed through the air which made Haru wince, “Or, try your best to do so.”

“I’ll try to do so!” Spike yelped.

Haru fitted a ring on his claws and brought his claw to his belt, “ERROR!”

‘Damn it! I still haven’t recovered my mana back!’ Haru thought to himself as he threw his fist to the side. ‘I can’t use Connect to call my motorcycle – Damn it, I’ll have to find my WizardSwordGun too in case that Phantom appears! I hate carrying it around, but I don’t have a choice!’

And like that, Haru dashed away from the library. Meanwhile, above in the clouds a certain mint green pegasus who laid down atop the clouds and watched as the Parasprites wreaked havoc on the town. Sora rubbed the side of his head and adjusted his fedora, ‘Yeesh stallion, I leave you in charge of this place for a couple days and you infest it with these cute little buggers… I’m almost impressed! Too bad they’re just eating food.’

From his perch on the clouds, Sora looked over Ponyville and saw a familiar group of five mares enter into the chaotic fray. A little curious, Sora leapt from his cloud and flew over to a nearby roof so he could observe the group. ‘Little Miss Librarian and her cute little friends – I guess Manticore decided to take advantage of this and target her. Applause for the bug guy later.’

Sora was close enough to be able to hear the group (which was amazing since most other ponies were screaming out for their stolen food or ruined gardens) and the one he knew as Fluttershy immediately spoke up. “O-Oh my! What do we do? They’re eating all the food in town!”

The orange mare (wasn’t she named after some sort of breakfast cereal? Meh, didn’t matter. Then again, Sora never interacted with her before – And why would he? She seemed to be a bit of a bore to him) quickly dashed away from the group, yelling something about apples. ‘Apples? Doesn’t she know that apples are so last season? Oranges are where it’s at! Maybe bananas, melons and grapes, but definitely not apples. Huh, now why do I get the sudden urge to watch a feudal battle between these fruit?

‘Nah, that’ll never happen.’

“I… I… I think I have an idea!” Twilight announced, garnering her friends’ (and Sora’s) attentions towards her. “I’ll case a spell that’ll make them stop eating all the food!”

“Uh, Twilight, how do you know a spell like that?” Dash asked as she landed on the ground next to the purple unicorn.

“W-Well, when I was studying,” Twilight began to explain as she looked away from her friends. “I kinda goofed a spell that, well, to put it lightly, made me not wanna eat food for a long time. Just the sight of food would make my stomach turn.”

“Dear, do you think it’s wise to use such a spell?” Rarity asked.

“At this point, I’m willing to do anything!” Twilight replied as she lowered her head down and charged her horn with magical energy. Then, when she lifted her head up, Twilight unleashed a powerful surge of purple energy that washed over the Parasprites in town.

When the magic absorbed into the disastrous insects, they stopped eating all the food in sight. Rarity, Dash and Fluttershy stood in awe at the sight before them. As the Parasprites flew about confused, one of them came close to a discarded box of donuts (with only one donut within it). Twilight bit her lip as she watched the disastrous insect hover about the donut.

And then it turned away from the baked treat.

“It worked!” Twilight sighed with relief with a large smile on her face.

It was then that the Parasprite opened its mouth extremely wide and devoured the entire box! Then it spat out the donut. All over, the Parasprites were no longer eating food, but were rather eating everything else!

“Smooth,” Dash sighed.

From atop the roof, Sora snickered. “Ooh, I can’t believe that stallion’s luck with his plan! This is the kind of thing that borders on being the god of luck!”

CRUNCH!

Sora’s eyes widened as he looked up to see a Parasprite in front of him, munching on something. There was a large bite mark in his fedora, “Hey, my hat!”

CRUNCH!

“My scarf!”

CRUNCH! CRUNCH! MUNCH!

“MY TAIL!”

Sora screamed as he propelled himself from the roof, his tail much shorter. Several Parasprites flew after him, some of them nipping at his tail. As the green pegasus tried to escape the Parasprites, he flew past the group of mares, which caused them to stare at the sight.

It was then that Rarity came to a realization, “No! If they get inside my store… EVERYPONY FOR HERSELF!”

And just like that, the white unicorn dashed off.

“Not good, not good, NOT GOOD!” Twilight yelled out as a number of Parasprites flew overhead, devouring what appeared to be a half-eaten couch. “What do we do? What do we do!?”

“Perhaps it would be best if you just accept your fate,” A familiar voice chuckled out. “After all, you cannot go against fate itself.”

The remaining three mares turned to see the balding Fortune Teller slowly trot behind them, a coy smile on his face. Around the Fortune Teller’s body were several Parasprites, yet they didn’t even bother him, just floated around him. “Although, I must say, not even the fates could see what you would do to these wondrous creatures.”

“Who the hay are you?” Dash questioned as she pointed a hoof at the fortune teller.

The balding stallion chuckled as his face shimmered slightly, where another face superimposed over his muzzle – The face looked to have mandibles and large, green, segmented eyes. The stallion’s horn lit up and a single tarot card appeared, “Oh my, the Grim Reaper – A proper card to describe me, for I shall be the end of your current lives…”

TTT – TTT

Rarity was distraught. No, that was an understatement. She was on the verge of coming apart! All about in Carousel Boutique, the Parasprites had broken into her shop and begun munching on most of her dresses, materials and even her furniture. “NOOOOOO! My outfits! GET OUT OF HERE!”

At first, Rarity tried used her magic to get rid of the pests, however, when a few of them literally coughed up a few more dozen of them, the white mare had to back off. Earlier, before she had met up with Twilight and the others, she had used the Parasprites in her work (despite the fact that using the creatures was against animal labor laws) and had witnessed their ‘miracles of life’.

Needless to say, the sight of it wasn’t the most appealing thing to the usually cool headed designer.

“AAAAAAH! Stay away from me!”

Rarity had leapt to the top of one of the chairs in the room, fearful that she’d come into contact with the disgusting bugs. The white mare winced as the Parasprites flew past her, some of them brushed against her hooves, mane and tail. Rarity was on the verge of breaking down when all of a sudden…

“I’ll SAVE YOU!”

Before Rarity knew what was happening, something scooped her up and had brought her outside of her boutique. The young mare blinked a few times and shook her head. “You have no need to worry, mademoiselle – you have been saved!”

Rarity turned back to see that she was being carried in the arms of one Kosuke Nitoh – A warm smile on his face. The white mare shyly looked away, “Thank you… I’m sorry, but what was your name again?”

“Kosuke Nitoh,” The griffon replied with his grin growing larger.

A few moments passed, and then the awkwardness began to settle in. Rarity chuckled sheepishly, “Well, any time today you can put me down.”

“Oh, I’m aware of that,” Kosuke answered back. “I’m just waiting for the rest of my thank you.”

“Excuse me?” Rarity questioned.

“Think about it,” Kosuke spoke back as he turned his cheek slightly. “A handsome griffon comes to the aid of a beautiful mare, saving her from a fate far worse from death… How’s about a little peck on the cheek?”

WHAM!

Kosuke fell to the ground, a fresh bruise rising up from the right side of his face. Rarity huffed before she trotted off, “The nerve!”

‘That… Actually works,’ Kosuke thought to himself, slowly pushing himself off of the ground. When he brought a talon to his the bruise, the griffon winced. ‘OW! Oh well, I guess I’ll have to get back to Pinkie… After all, it’s almost time for my big reveal!’

Kosuke stood up to reveal that around his waist was a large belt that had a silver gate as it’s buckle. With a tap of his talons on it, Kosuke smiled to himself. ‘Soon… Very soon, I’ll get you something to eat, so just be patient.’

TTT – TTT

Twilight had only seen one Phantom transform from a pony – but, from what she saw when she witnessed Gnome’s transformation, it wasn’t as horrendous as Manticore’s. Several green cracks appeared on the fortune teller’s body before the monstrous form tore away the shattered bits of the purple unicorn’s skin.

Anypony that wasn’t running from the Parasprites had stopped to see the odd Phantom stand tall before Twilight and her friends. “So, interesting. I never thought that it’d escalate to this level – Having the Parasprites changed to devour anything but food. You practically did my work for me.”

Manticore lifted his claws up and allowed a few Parasprites to land on his armored finger. “Such a destructive little creature, isn’t it? Crafted by the entity of Chaos himself…”

“A Phantom,” Twilight gasped as she stepped back. ‘Who is he after? And from what he said, he was the one who orchestrated this but…’

Before Twilight could continue her thoughts, a multicolored blur crashed into Manticore’s body, and sent the Phantom to the ground. Dash kept her hooves on the Phantom’s shoulders as she leaned close to his eyes. “Alright, you bug eyed freak! Tell us how to stop these things! You’re the one who started this whole mess, aren’t you!?”

“The plan was mine, yes,” Manticore admitted completely calm, despite the fact that Rainbow Dash was interrogating him. “But the means were acquired by a fellow Phantom of mine – All she did was plant the means of this. I have no idea how to stop these little critters, especially now that their fundamental nature has been so radically changed.”

It was then that a large scorpion tail wrapped around Dash’s neck and pulled her off of Manticore. The Phantom cackled as he pushed himself off of the ground and brought Dash close to his face, “I’m curious though… Are you a Gate as well? It certainly would make things easier if you were…”

“Dash!” Twilight called out as her horn began to charge with magic. ‘I don’t know if my magic will work with that Phantom around, but I still need to try!’

Just as Manticore brought his hand up to Dash, a purple aura popped around the cyan pegasus and she disappeared from his tail. The Phantom tilted his head to see that Dash had appeared next to Twilight and Fluttershy, the latter making sure that her fellow pegasus wasn’t hurt.

Manticore chuckled, “That’s fine – Not like it matters either way. I’ll soon be able to tell if you’re a Gate or not. With this swarm, everything about this town’s life shall be shaken to the core!”

“Not if I have anything to say about it!”

The Phantom turned around just in time to have a familiar blade slash against his chest, sparks flew from where the metal connected. “URHG!”

As Manticore stepped back, Haru stumbled to the ground, his blade being used to help him from falling face first into the ground.

“Haru!” Twilight called out as she galloped towards the dragon. “Where were you?!”

“Just… Just trying to survive,” the dragon wheezed out as he pushed himself up to his feet.

“W-What exactly happened?” Twilight asked. Twilight’s ears perked up as she turned to a nearby hill. ‘Is that music?’

“I’m amazed you were able to survive, Ring Mage,” Manticore applauded with a his segmented eyes narrowed slightly. “I’m really surprised that you managed to survive my poison for so long.”

“Poison? You were poisoned?!” Twilight gasped.

“I… I got better,” Haru wheezed out as he stood up and switched the WizardSwordGun into its gun form. The dragon lifted the weapon up and aimed it at the Manticore.

The Phantom sighed and shook his head, “Are you seriously going to try to defeat me? You may be tenacious, but you can barely stand up… And even if you do manage to defeat me, what can you do to stop the Parasprites? They’ll still devour everything… And…

“And for Hades’ sake! What is that music!?”

Everyone turned towards the hill, ever since Manticore began his little tirade, there was a subtle song being played through the air. And just as everyone’s attention was drawn to the hill, a large mass of pink slowly emerged in sight. Said pink was a large float that looked to be a familiar pink mare with several instruments strew about. The float was moving on its own since on the float was none other than Pinkie Pie and Kosuke who danced with each other to the joyful music.

The float was also going pretty fast, since it was able to run Manticore over rather easily. “GAGH! WHAT THE TARTARUS!?!”

As the float slowed down and rolled over the Phantom, everypony just stood there dumbfounded at the sight. Even more puzzling was the fact that the Parasprites had stopped eating and began to bounce after the float. Manticore lifted his head up and tilted it at the sight of what happened, “WAAH!? WHAT IS HAPPENING?!”

“If we knew, we’d tell you,” Haru muttered under his breath.

Manticore growled as he quickly jumped to his feet. To his disdain, most of the Parasprites were mesmerized with the music. “Damn it! Why is this happening?! Grrr… Oh well, I can still…”

“MY MEAL!”

Manticore turned around just in time to get tackled by Kosuke, the griffon forced the Phantom back to the ground before Kosuke leapt back into the air. The goofy griffon landed in front of Twilight and the other and licked his chops, “Ooh, this pinch is awesome! I knew I’d find you again!”

“Oi, you’re that griffon,” Haru coughed.

“Kosuke!” Dash shouted.

“Neato?” Fluttershy questioned.

Kosuke turned his head around and smiled, “Dashie! Flutters! Sparkles! And…”

The griffon narrowed his eyes at Haru, “YOU! You’re that dragon that tried stealing my meal!”

“Steal?” Haru questioned with his head tilted. “I was just trying to defeat the Phantom and…”

Kosuke lifted his talons up towards Haru as Manticore slowly pushed himself up, “Ah, no need to say any more, I found this Phantom first, and he’s mine!”

“What are you talking about?” Twilight asked as she stepped towards the griffon.

Kosuke didn’t say a word as he stood up on his hind legs and reached into his hood’s pocket. Manticore snarled loudly as he lifted his hands up, several stones between his fingers, “You lousy… I’ll tear this entire town to the ground! Not like you can fight me in your poisoned state, Ring Mage!”

Manticore tossed the stones into the air, and seven Ghouls landed on the ground, each with a spear in their hands. Haru gripped the handle of his gun and slowly stood up.

“HERE IT IS! MY INTRODUCTION!”

Everyone turned back to Kosuke who lifted both of his talons up to reveal that there were rings on his middle claws. Kosuke brought his right talon over to his waist.

“DRIVER ON!”

A bright gold light erupted in front of Kosuke, followed with a loud roar.

“That voice…” Haru muttered with his eyes wide. “He’s…”

Kosuke then threw his left arm high into the air, circled his arms in front of him before he threw his left arm towards his right leg. “Heeeeeennnnn… SHIN!”

With his arm snapped back, Kosuke slammed his ring before his waist. “SET!

“OPEN!

“L – I – O – N! LION!”

Kosuke threw his arms to the sides as a large gold, runic circle erupted in front of him. The circle enveloped his body and immediately, the griffon’s body was covered with a black jump suit with golden armor, a lion head covered his left shoulder while his head was masked with a lion-like face with bright green eyes.

Everyone around stood there stunned at the sight of the golden mage as he pumped his left arm towards his chest. “The name’s Nitoh Kosuke – I’m the wild mage: BEAST!”

Haru blinked a few times in confusion.

Twilight was dumbfounded. “Mage…”

Fluttershy brought her hooves to her mouth, “Neato?”

“When the hay were you able to do that?!” Rainbow Dash shouted.

“So… That’s what the Magician Card meant, it didn’t mean the Ring Mage!” Manticore gasped as he staggered back. “G-Gremlin didn’t mention anything about this!”

‘Gremlin?’ Haru thought to himself.

“Heh, looks like I got an all you can eat buffet before me!” Beast chuckled as he cracked his knuckles loudly.

The Ghouls hissed loudly before they charged towards Beast, the spears aimed towards the golden mage’s body. However, before the spears connected, Beast lifted his hands up and grabbed the spears. “Oh come on! You guys can do better than that! Make me work for this meal!”

Beast pulled the spears away and spun around to slam his foot into the two Ghouls’ faces, that sent them back to force the other Ghouls to dodge their comrades. Beast leapt high into the air and slammed both of his hands into the necks of two of the Ghouls forcing them into the ground. Neato’s covered tail whipped around and reached for his opened belt buckle and pulled out a thin rapier that he whipped through the air. “Time for some proper utensils!”

The golden mage spun around and slashed his sword against a number of Ghouls that charged towards him. And with a quick toss of his sword, Beast got back on all his hind legs and stabbed his sword into one Ghoul’s stomach, with several cracks emerging from the point where the blade connected.

One Ghoul charged from behind, but Beast’s tail coiled and flew back to slam into the Ghoul’s face. “Heh, enough tenderizing!”

Beast ran towards the ghouls that had gathered before Twilight and the others, and slashed his blade against them several times. When Beast stopped in front of the group, he spun about and brought his left hand towards his belt, the Ghouls’ bodies surged with golden energy before they exploded into several similar golden runes.

The runes flew towards Beast’s belt buckle and were absorbed into it, each time it absorbed one, a loud gulp sound echoed through the air. Beast sighed as the last rune got absorbed into his buckle, “Not bad for an appetizer, but not filling enough.”

“Is… Is he eating the magical energy?” Twilight questioned as her eyes gleamed brightly. “That is amazing! I’ve never seen a griffon perform magic before, and it’s similar to yours, Haru!”

Twilight’s euphoria at a new form of magic however didn’t last long, her eyes were drawn towards Canterlot, and she saw a familiar chariot being pulled by four pegasai, with a familiar white form in the chariot. “Oh no! Princess Celestia! The town’s a disaster!”

“T-Twilight,” Haru coughed as he stood up. “Go… Go to Celestia…”

“Haru,” Twilight muttered before she turned toward Fluttershy and Dash, and nodded at the two. The three mares dashed after Pinkie’s odd float, which was headed in the same direction that Celestia’s chariot was headed to land.

“Aw stallion, why’d you send the mares away?” Beast questioned as he turned around to scold the dragon behind him. “I was making an awesome impression! First the meal, then the mares! You just like getting in my way, don’t ya?”

“Look out!” Haru shouted.

“Huh?” Beast mused.

SHINK!

“GAH! MY BUTT!” Beast yelled out as he leapt high into the air, his talons drawn to his backside.

As it turned out, Manticore had used his stinger to inject his poison into the griffon’s ‘blind spot’. The phantom chuckled as the golden mage landed on the ground. “You may not be a Gate, but if I eliminate two Mages, I’m sure to become a greater Phantom! Let my venom drain you of your mana, sap your life away like it did that other mage…”

“Huh, is that why you’re so weak?” Beast coughed as he stabbed his sword into the ground, his attention draw towards Haru. “Heh, like something like that won't stop me!”

Beast held onto a different ring from the chain-ring at his belt, and slipped it over his right talon. Stiffly, Beast brought the ring to the right side of his belt, “Dolphi!

“Go! Do-do-do-do Dolphi!”

A large blue aura erupted next to Beast’s right side as he lifted his arm up, the aura engulfed his arm and immediately his left arm was covered with a blue shoulder pad that was in the shape of dolphin’s head. His right arm was draped in a blue mantle with several golden runes on it. The echo of a dolphin’s cry billowed into the air before Beast spun around.

Several blue sparkles flew from the fabric and billowed over the golden mage and Haru. “A drink on the house, Mr. Dragon!”

As the sparkles absorbed into the mages’ bodies, Haru’s eyes brightened and he stood up straight without any trouble, “What the?”

“It’s a healing spell,” Beast chuckled as he jumped about and reached for another ring on the chain at his belt. “Stallion, I’m such an awesome guy to heal his rival.”

“I-Impossible! My venom had no effect?!” Manticore stammered as he slowly stepped back.

“Sure looks like it,” Beast chuckled as he slipped a new ring over his talons. “Now then, time for the main course! You gonna make me work for my meal too?”

Manticore stammered before he turned about and ran off. Beast sighed as he shook his head, “Heh, a chase? That’s always a good way to burn calories.”

“Buffa!

“Go! Bu-Bu- Bububu – Buffa!”

Beast held out his right arm again, this time a red runic circle appeared over his arm. As the circle wrapped up his arm, the mantle over his arm transformed into a bright red one with a bull-head shoulder pad that had a pair of golden horns protruding from its head. Beast lifted his hand up to his mouth guard and made a kiss noise as he brought it away. “Time for the mane dish!”

With his rapier in his left hand, Beast spun the odd dial that was attached to it before he brought the ring on his right hand into the opposite side. “SIX!

“Buffa Saber Strike!”

The large golden rune appeared before Beast before he brought his blade down into it.

Haru’s eyes widened as six figures appeared from the runic circle, “You have gotta be kidding me…”

TTT – TTT

While Beast was ultimately decimating Manticore and his forces, Twilight and the others had managed to gallop/fly ahead of Pinkie Pie – Rarity and Applejack saw Pinkie’s interesting float, and her small parade of Parasprites and joined their friends.

The group of five mares managed to reach the road where Celesita’s chariot landed, and approached the smiling princess. As the sun princess disembarked her chariot, Twilight and her friends bowed their heads. “Twilight Sparkle, my prized pupil!”

“Oh, h-hello Princess,” Twilight replied as she lifted her head up, followed by her friends doing the same action.

Celestia opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted when Pinkie’s float drove past the group, the Parasprites bouncing along with the tune. Celestia stood there, watching the odd parade that occurred before her.

“So, how was your trip here?” Twilight chuckled sheepishly, trying to draw her teacher’s attention away from the little bugs that destroyed the town. “Would you care for a peaceful walk in Whitetail Woods?”

Celestia opened her mouth to say something, but…

“Nononononononononononononononono!”

Running down the path, was none other than Manticore being chased by six golden, phantasmal bulls that had Beast atop of the lead bull. “Yeehaw! Dinner time!”

Manticore continued to run, but thanks to a random pothole in the dirt road, he tripped face first into the dirt. Unfortunately, that was the last thing the Phantom did before all six of the bulls crashed into him, and exploded into a yellow, fiery explosion. From the smoke and flames, Beast flew through the air, his arms outstretched as he yelled out loud. “WHAHOOOOO!”

And yet, Beast easily landed on Pinkie Pie’s float, which had managed to get to the entrance of Everfree Woods to allow the Parasprites to bounce into. “Heya, Pinks!”

“Ooh, neato, Neato!” Pinkie Pie gasped before she lifted up a large card that had a blue ten on it. “You stuck the landing!”

“Oh, that’s good, I guess,” Beast muttered as he rubbed the back of his head as a golden runic circle flew from where Manticore exploded and towards him. ‘I was hoping that she’d be in awe of my awesomeness and… Hey, wait a second, she didn’t see me transform, so how does she it’s me under this mask?’

“Well Miss Sparkle,” Celestia coughed out. “I’m very grateful that you and the fine citizens of Ponyville arranged a parade and even a show for my arrival…”

“O-Oh yes!” Twilight chuckled nervously before a bright smile grew on her face. “A parade and show!”

“But unfortunately, this little visit will have to be postponed for a while,” Celestia explained with a warm smile. “As it turns out, there’s a little bit of an infestation in Phillydelphia and I need to meet with the Zect Company to discuss how to contain it.”

“An infestation?” Twilight questioned as she looked at some of the remaining Parasprites that still hadn’t disappeared into the Everfree Forest. Her four friends nervously looked at each other for a few moments.

“Yes, but it shouldn’t be a problem,” Celestia replied before she slowly trotted to her chariot. “But I still need to apologize, you and your friends obviously did a lot of work for my…”

“Yo!”

Beast casually walked up to the ground waved his right hand, “Woo, that was a good meal! An earthy texture with a hint of lime.”

Celestia tilted her head at the odd golden armored griffon in front of her. “Oh, and you are?”

Beast puffed out his chest and placed his white gloved talons at his belt. “A pleasure to meet ya, your royal highness – The name’s Kosuke Nitoh, the wild mage: Beast!”

“Hmm, Kosuke Nitoh,” Celestia mused as she leaned towards the golden mage. “If I recall, you're the Griffon Archeologist, I’m aware of your contributions to Ponykind’s history – I wasn’t aware that you were this… Exuberant.”

“Well, you know what they say about geniuses,” Beast chuckled as he walked around Celestia. “We tend to be awesome. Hahahaha!”

“Although, I would appreciate it if you didn’t sell some of your discoveries to private collectors,” Celestia sighed loudly. “We’re still trying to track down that Alicorn Amulet you sold.”

“Hey, hey, a griffon’s gotta eat somehow,” Beast replied as he slipped a different ring on his right hand. “Besides, I’m the guy who discovered it, and legally, I can do whatever I want with my discoveries.”

“Perhaps, but I would still like to discuss this stuff with you,” Celestia pointed out as she backed off her chariot and stood over Beast – But not by much, Beast was rather tall.

Beast snapped his new ring into the side of his belt buckle, and a whipping sound echoed through the air, “Chameleo! Go, Cha-Cha-Cha-Cha-Chameleo!”

“I apologize Princess,” Beast chuckled as he lifted his right arm up as a green circle appeared over hand and rode up his arm. The runes changed the red mantle into a bright green that had a chameleon’s head as his mantle with a long golden tongue out of its mouth. “As much as I would love to discuss the finer things with you, particularly over a candle lit dinner, I have some other things to do!”

Beast spun around, and his body shimmered in green light before he vanished into thin air. Everypony save for Celestia looked shock as the golden griffon had disappeared from sight, Celestia herself smiled, ‘First Haruto Souma as the next Wizard, and now Mr. Nitoh as a Primordial Mage – Shiroi, is this just a coincidence? Or is it more?’

Celestia shook her head and turned back towards her student and her friends, “Well, until we meet again Twilight Sparkle, I look forward to your next friendship report, and please say hello to Spike and Mr. Souma for me.”

“Of… Of course, Princess Celestia!” Twilight exclaimed as Celestia got on her chariot.

Within a few moments, Celestia’s chariot was drawn into the air and she flew away. Twilight nearly fainted out of relief just as Haru casually walked up to the group, “Did I just miss the Princess?”

“I’m glad I just missed that near fatal heart attack,” Twilight sighed loudly as she lowered her head.

“So, wait, who in tarnation was that golden armor?” Applejack asked as she looked around.

“That was Neato,” Fluttershy explained with a smile. “Although, I’m pretty sure he didn’t have that armor before… Did he, Rainbow Dash?”

“Hay no!” Dash huffed as she flapped her wings up. “He was never able to pull that off!”

“That ruffian was in that armor?” Rarity asked as she tipped her nose up. “And it looked so interesting in design too – Gold and black, with the additional mantles… Such a shame.”

“Too bad none of you realize that I didn't leave,” Beast’s voice sounded out as he immediately materialized behind them all. "Rather rude to talk 'bout someone when they aren't around."

The group jumped and spun around as Beast slowly sauntered around the group, “Like I said Dashie, a lot can change in five years. And you shouldn’t say anything bad ‘bout someone who just saved the day, ya know.”

“Kosuke, right?” Haru inquired, drawing the attention of the green eyed mage. “You eat Phantoms’ magical energy?”

Beast chuckled as he stood face to face with Haru, “I’m sure you do too.”

“Huh?” Haru questioned with his jaw slightly slacked.

“Don’t play dumb,” Beast stated as he leaned his arm atop of Haru’s shoulder. “It’s pretty sad if you have to lie to your rival.”

“Rival?!” Haru sputtered. “No… I’m -”

Beast lifted his hand up in front of Haru’s muzzle before he circled the red dragon, “Nope, no need to say it in front of all these mares. I know how it can be when ya got a good number of pretty mares watching ya, and you probably feel threatened that I’m moving in on your turf. Under that cool persona of yours, you’re probably in an uproar."

“No, not really,” Haru stated with a dull look in eyes.

But he was ignored as Beast walked away and wagged his finger. “But, I found the Phantom first this time! So, it’s only natural that I get to eat ‘em. I got to eat today, so it’s fine… But let me say this to start…”

Beast threw his finger towards Haru’s face, nearly hitting the dragon’s snout, “I’ll show no mercy the next time you try to steal my meal! Got it?!”

And with that, Beast spun around with his green mantle flowing over his body, his armored form shimmered with green energy until he faded away from sight.

It took a moment, but Haru turned back to the mares, “Anypony know what just happened?”

“Haru, do you actually eat the Phantoms?” Twilight asked as she trotted up to the dragon.

“What?! No!” Haru shouted as he lifted his arms up defensively. “I’m more than capable of getting my own mana, and the only thing that could be considered my prey is a box of donuts!”

“That’s kinda true,” AJ chuckled.

“Ah, you guys are thinking too much on this,” Pinkie Pie announced as she trotted up to the group. “Neato’s just awesome! He was really helpful with me, and he’s really fun!”

“That reminds me,” Twilight stated as she looked at the float that was still playing music. “How did you know that would make the Parasprites follow it?”

“Oh, that’s easy,” Pinkie Pie replied with a large smile. “My Uncle told me a story a few times about one of my great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandfathers – Piper Pie! Parasprites once over took the town of Neighlin, but my great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather Piper Pie appeared and made a wager with the town’s mayor.

“He wagered that he could drive away the Parasprites in return for a place to stay and some bits. When the wager was made and set, Piper played his flute and began to draw the Parasprites after him through the foodless town and into a local forest.

“And thanks to his music, Piper Pie lured them all into the forest where they stayed. Well, save for one, but the point is that he managed to save the town, and my Uncle Kougami told me that if a parasprite ever appeared before me, I needed to use very lively music and lead them to a forested area.”

“Wait a sec,” AJ stated as she trotted forward. “Granny told me the story of the Pied Piper of Neighlin, are ya really saying…”

“Oh, that story was based off of Piper Pie,” Pinkie explained with a wave of her hoof. “The story makers just switched up his name a little bit.”

Everypony just looked at each other for a few moments, while Pinkie just smiled innocently. Haru on the other hoof just looked about, his eyes landed on the location where Beast’s final attack ended Manticore. ‘Beast – Kosuke Nitoh, just what are you? And how did you gain the ability to use magic like that?

‘What in the world is going on?’

TTT – TTT

“DAMN IT! THAT HAT WAS A WINDSCALE EXCLUSIVE!” Sora cried out, looking at the remains of his hat that he held in his hooves. After some inexplicable reason he was able to escape the Parasprites, Sora found himself on the outskirts of Ponyville, seated on a single cloud with his ragged tail and clothes with several holes and bite marks in them.

The stallion had tears in the corners of his eyes as he brought the hat close to his chest. ‘I’m gonna have to go to Cloudsdale to get this repaired… Damn it…’

“I thought I saw you flying about, Gremlin.”

Sora’s ears perked up as he quickly turned around to see the red, pegasus stallion whom he knew as Phoenix flying right behind him. The mint pegasus narrowed his eyes at the red stallion, “Hey! Feenie! No fair! Appearing behind others unexpectantly is my schtick!”

“Phoenix,” The red pegasus growled as he landed on the cloud. “My name is Phoenix, just like your name is Gremlin.”

“Ah, ah, ah,” Sora scolded with a wag of his hoof. “Sora’s my name, and your name, Feenie, is…”

“Don’t say it!” Phoenix snarled as he slammed his head into Sora’s, his blue eyes leered into Sora’s. “That name means nothing to me anymore, the owner of that name died on that fateful day and so did Sora.”

“Nope!” Sora laughed as he playfully trotted around his fellow Phantom. “I’m still Sora! Always have been, always will be! Now, what do I owe a visit of the legendary berserker of Phantoms - Feenie?”

Phoenix sighed loudly. “Manticore was your subordinate, correct?”

“Yeah, I’m sorry to see him gone,” Sora stated with a roll of his eyes. “But, he was kind of an idiot. His stupid plan cost me my tail, my scarf, and even my hat!”

“At least you can see that he was a screw up,” Phoenix chuckled as he turned towards Canterlot in the distance. “He was also a coward…”

“Not every Phantom is a force of nature like you, Feenie,” Sora pointed out. “Some need to rely on tricks and backstabbing to get their jobs done.”

Phoenix scoffed to the side before he laid down on the cloud, “Whatever. But you need to know this, since we’re both here, and with the arrival of this new Mage, focus is being drawn to this town. He’s going to be sending her here soon.”

Sora’s eyes widened and he slowly turned his head towards Phoenix, “H-Her?! W-Why?!”

“She’s the most successful of us Phantoms,” Phoenix answered. “She can sense Gates, and she even managed to acquire a veritable well of magic that we have access to.

“Once all three of us are here… Those Mages won’t survive for long. And neither will these gates.”

Sora trembled as he turned from his fellow greater Phantom, but unbeknownst to the fiery Phoenix, Sora had a large, cocky grin plastered on his face. ‘This is perfect… Just so perfect!’

TBC

Author's Note

MangaKamen: And thus, we have a new mage in Ponyville - Will he be a hero? Will he be a villain? Will he mooch off of ponies?

Who knows?

Intermission 5 - Scales and Feathers

Hammers slammed into flanks of woods.

Walls were raised.

And crops were being replanted.

Sure, Ponyville was greatly damaged by the Parasprites and their insatiable hunger, but the spirit of the citizens could not be beaten so easily. Within a day or so, the town was fixed for the most part – It was almost as if the ponies were getting used to disasters and monster attacks.

“Quaint little town, isn’t it?”

“Hmmph, in the time that I was sealed, I was kind of hoping that things would get past this kind of culture.”

“Don’t be like that Bari, this isn’t Manehatten or Canterlot, this is Ponyville. You have to expect this level of culture in a town – Not a city.”

At the entrance of the town, two ponies slowly trotted into the recovered town – One a tall, black unicorn stallion with messy purple hair and dark eyes, dressed in a fancy dark violet vest with a wolf at his flank. The other was a petite, young unicorn mare who’s purple and white splotched fur coat was covered with a fancy black and bluish dress while her long black mane was topped with a sun hat. “Or are you one of the first ponies to adopt the Canterlot attitude?”

The black stallion huffed and turned away, “Do not compare me to the spoiled offspring of noble stallions and mares – And my name is not Bari.”

“When we’re in public, it is,” the mare replied as she trotted in front of Bari. “Besides, Bari, you’re supposed to be my new bodyguard while we’re here. Now come along, I’d like to get to the hotel room and off my hooves before we get started in here.”

Bari sighed loudly as he slowly followed the mare. ‘At least she has a little bit of honor to her…’

TTT – TTT

Intermission 5

Scales and Feathers

TTT – TTT

~One hour earlier…~

“COPY – PLEASE! COPY – PLEASE!”

At Sweet Apple Acres, three copies of a certain red dragon helped push up the wall of a barn. On the other side, Applejack and Big Macintosh pulled on rope to lift up the opposite wall. It didn’t take long for the walls to be raised, and when they were, the two copies of Haru faded away and the red dragon fell to the ground, with his jacket thrown off. ‘Yeesh, I never thought that farm work would be this tiring… Still, it’s a good test to see that my Mana’s returned.’

Haru lifted his head up and looked to the sun that slowly rose over the horizon. ‘I still wish I didn’t have to get up this early – But no rest for the weary…’

“Hey there, Mistah Souma!”

The red dragon turned to see Applejack trot up towards him, a smile on her face, “Thanks again fer comin’ this mornin’ to help out. After that mess with them parasprites…”

“No worries,” Haru sighed, taking a moment to whip his brow with his arm. “Needed to get the blood flowing in me again somehow, this was just perfect.”

“Well, whatever the reason, Ah’m glad ya decided to help,” Applejack stated as she offered a hoof to Haru. The dragon took the hoof in his claws and the young mare pulled him back to his hind claws. “Care to get yer fill on some breakfast ‘fore ya leave?”

“I would,” Haru replied as his tail lifted up his jacket. “But, I’ve got a few things to do today, and I need to get right into them.”

“Yer gonna burn yerself, ya know,” Applejack pointed out as she trotted behind the dragon and kicked him right in the tail. “Yer not leaving this farm without gettin’ something in that stomach of yers! ‘sides, Granny Smith is gonna wanna see ya!”

“F-Fine! Fine!” Haru yelped as he brought his claws to his bruised backside. ‘I suppose that searching for that griffon can wait an hour or so…

‘I get the feeling the guy’s probably still around here… Somewhere…’

As Haru was being pushed away from the barnyard by AJ, the two didn’t see that from the top of the newly built was a diamond studded Garuda who’s eyes zeroed in on Applejack before it flew off into the sky.

TTT – TTT

Kosuke Nitoh: Griffon, archeologist, overzealous flirt, and apparently the Wild Mage – Beast. There were so many questions that surrounded this bizarre griffon, not helped that he disappeared from any pony’s sight after he appeared and saved the day.

“Mmm! This is gonna be good!” Kosuke licked his beak at the sight of the pot of boiled vegetables he had on the portable hot plate he had in front of him.

After the mess with the parasprites, Kosuke had disappeared to his current campsite and had hidden himself for a while. Why? Because he had to pull off a bad flank disappearance to look good – Which apparently made sense in the griffon’s head.

Kosuke was an odd griffon that was for sure.

The goofy griffon leaned back on the wood wall and looked up into the cloudy sky, his green eyes curled slightly, ‘A warm day, vegetable stew almost done, a primo camping spot, managed to get myself introduced to a bunch of cute mares and look cool while doing it. This town is a goldmine! And I can already smell Phantoms running around!

‘I just can’t wait to start my hunt! Hmm, that reminds me…’

Kosuke dug his talon into his jacket’s pocket and lifted up a single ring. With the ring now slipped over his right middle talon, Kosuke brought it to the middle of his belt. “GRYPHON – GO!”

A green runic octagon appeared in front of the griffon with several pieces of gold and emerald that swirled into the air until a small, miniature gryphon made up of the parts flew in front of Kosuke. The goofy griffon popped the ring into the smaller gryphon’s back, “Now then, you know what to look for right? My cute, little Gryphon?”

Gryphon saluted before he flew off into the sky. Kosuke sighed under his breath, ‘I should probably consider the ramifications me owing a Gryphon familiar… But I can’t help but be jealous of that little bugger…’

Kosuke would’ve continued his line of thought, but his nostrils caught whiff of the stew before him and his beak curled up slightly. “Sweet!”

With a bowl in his talons, Kosuke poured himself a big portion of the stew. As he licked his beak, Kosuke lifted up a familiar bottle, popped the top and carefully spread the white condiment over the broth and vegetable, “Itadakiyes!”

And with that, he slurped up a good portion of the mayonnaise drenched stew into his mouth. ‘MMMM! DELICIOUS!’

A sigh escaped from Kosuke as he brought his free talon to his belt buckle, rubbing the claws against the gate like structure. ‘Kinda wish something like this would fill him up, but then again, he’s a wild beast – He wants to hunt, not get fed…’

“Excuse me!”

Kosuke turned around to see Mayor Mare behind him, the mare carefully trotted towards the griffon, “Oh! Hello!”

“What exactly are you doing up here?” Mayor Mare questioned with her eyes narrowed down at the goofy griffon.

An innocent smile graced Kosuke’s face along with his answer, “Me? Oh, just having breakfast!”

“I can see that!” Mayor Mare snapped back as she looked about – Her eyes drawn to the large blue tent, the sting of laundry tied to the side of the wooden balcony, and then the griffon who had returned to sipping on his stew. “But what about all this?! Why is it all on of town hall?!”

“It’s my home.”

“Y-Your home!?” Mayor Mare gasped before she narrowed her eyes. “This is the roof of town hall! You can’t set up a tent and cook up here! It’s dangerous and…”

“Wait!” Kosuke interrupted as he stood up and lifted his talon up towards Mayor Mare “Say no more! I know exactly what you want – You also want to live here and eat my food! Isn’t that right?”

Mayor Mare was speechless, that didn’t stop Kosuke though…

“Well, normally I don’t like sharing,” Kosuke chuckled as he turned his back to the Mayor and crossed his arms. “But with a mare, I don’t really mind – So, pull up a seat and help yourself to a bowl!”

Three seconds later, Kosuke was promptly kicked off the roof. “AAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

WHAM!

“OW!”

Mayor Mare winced as she watched the griffon crash into the ground, “Ooh, I was kind of hoping he would fly off… But he didn’t even try.”

“PAIN!” Kosuke groaned loudly from the ground.

TTT – TTT

“One lump or two?”

“One sugercube will be fine, thank you Fluttershy.”

Fluttershy smiled as she used her wings to place a pair of teacups on her table, “I’m so sorry that I forgot about you coming today Twilight… It’s just that we didn’t really plan anything today and you kind of just showed up and I’m sorry if I forgot and…”

“Fluttershy, there’s no need to worry,” Twilight assured her friend with a wave of her hoof as she used her magic to lift the tea cup up. “We didn’t really plan anything today, I just came by to ask a few questions. You really didn’t need to go to the trouble of tea…”

“Oh, w-well, isn’t it proper to offer something?” Fluttershy asked as she brought her teacup closer to her. “I-I mean…”

“I appreciate this, Fluttershy,” Twilight chuckled nervously before she sipped her tea. With a quick breath, Twilight lowered her teacup to the table. “But, I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind telling me about Kosuke.”

“Neato?” Fluttershy questioned with her head tilted. “What about him?”

“Well, how about how he’s able to use magic,” Twilight sighed, her head lowered slightly. “That’d be a good start…”

“Oh, w-well, I wouldn’t know that,” Fluttershy replied, her entire form shrunken a little bit. “He was never able to use the same kind of magic that Mister Haru is able to use. The last I heard of him was just a little before I got my Cutie Mark.”

Now that caused Twilight to rub her chin with her hoof, “Why?”

Fluttershy’s ears dropped a little bit, “I really don’t know the reason, but his family was moving out of Cloudsdale afterwards – He must have left with them…”

Twilight turned her gaze to the side, sensing the distress that was in Fluttershy’s voice, ‘Time to change the subject…’

“So, Kosuke lived in Cloudsdale with you and Dash, right? What did you three used to do for fun?”

Fluttershy’s mouth slowly curled up into a smile, “Oh, we used to slide down on clouds, and on one of the nearby mountains, we used to go exploring with him, Gilda and our other friend Sho. Neato was so nice, I’m not the strongest flyer, so Neato used to give me rides on his back – It wasn’t a comfy ride, but it was the thought that counted.”

‘Well, it certainly sounds like Kosuke was different than he was back then,’ Twilight thought to herself as she took a sip of coffee. ‘Still, there’s a few things that I’m confused about – How did he become a mage, or even more confusing, how he became an archeologist? The best way to find the answers are to find him…

‘But, I was hoping that he would be with Fluttershy. Dash didn’t know where he was, so I thought he’d be here…’

WOOF!

Both Twilight and Fluttershy turned towards the window, and the pegasus trotted towards the sill. “Oh, excuse me for a second Twilight…”

Twilight watched as her friend gently pushed the window open, a few seconds later, a small, canine creature made out of obsidian and silver leapt onto the sill. Twilight reeled slightly when she saw that the canine had three heads, ‘That’s Cerberus! And it looks like one of Haru’s familiars! I can even see the ring right under its heads!’

“I thought it was you again,” Fluttershy cooed as she gently patted the small Cerberus’s central head a few times. “How are you today?”

The small obsidian canine barked loudly as its three heads all barked at each other, trying to get some attention from Fluttershy. The young mare giggled at the cute familiar’s behavior. “Now, now, don’t be like that. Why don’t you come on in?”

The familiar’s heads nodded before it leapt into the cottage and sauntered about the room.

“Fluttershy, have you seen that familiar before?” Twilight asked as she watched the familiar stop and leer at Angel who was in the corner.

“Familiar?” Fluttershy questioned with her head tilted. Then her eyes lit up and she smiled, “Oh, you mean little Cerberus here? I’m a little familiar with him, he’s been showing up for the last couple days – He gets along with most of my animals…”

BONK!

That was evident when Angel slapped one of Cerberus’ heads, which elicited the other two to growl at the rabbit.

“Uh, sure,” Twilight muttered. “But, that’s not what I mean – Have you ever seen Garuda? He’s the little red bird that usually follows Haru, one of his familiars.”

“Oh!” Fluttershy’s face blushed slightly as she brought up her hooves. “Well, now that you mention, little Cerberus here does look a little like Mister Haru’s pet – Does that mean Cerberus is also Mister Haru’s?”

“I don’t think so,” Twilight answered as she trotted up to Cerberus, who took a swipe at Angel, only to receive a swift kick to the left head. “I’ve never seen Haru use a familiar like this before though.”

‘Then again, there’s also the fact that Haru’s not the only mage around who can use a spell like this – The White Wizard also has the ability to make familiars. I wonder… Does Kosuke have that ability to summon familiars too? W-Wait a second, I need to focus here.’

“How long have you seen this Cerberus around here?”

Fluttershy blinked a few times as she rubbed her chin with her hoof, “Um, well, it was a little before Neato came back. Just before all the Parasprites – Once again, s-sorry about that...”

“Don’t beat yourself over that, Fluttershy,” Twilight sighed as she lowered her head to get a closer look at Cerberus – Who had turned around to investigate the unicorn that was looking at him. “It wasn’t your fault. But back to Cerberus here…”

The three headed familiar barked loudly before it leapt into the air, which surprised Twilight and made her slip over her hooves. “WAH!”

Cerberus landed atop of Twilight's head and growled a few times, two of its heads nipped the mare’s ears. “Ow!”

Then with its powerful legs, Cerberus leapt to the window sill and turned all three of its heads back to the two mares in the room. The obsidian familiar snapped his heads a few times to the outside world. “Oh my, Twilight, are you okay?”

Fluttershy helped her scholarly friend up to her hooves. “Y-Yes, thanks. But what was he…”

Cerberus barked once more and snapped his heads a few times out of the window.

“I think he wants us to follow him,” Fluttershy suggested. “A lot of animals often make that motion when there’s something they want to show somepony.”

‘If this Familiar is the White Wizard’s, then maybe it’d be best if we follow it,’ Twilight thought to herself as Cerberus leapt from the window. “Thanks for the tea, Fluttershy, but we need to follow that familiar!”

“O… Okay,” Fluttershy replied.

TTT – TTT

“Ya know, ya didn’t have to help me set up shop today,” Applejack stated as she stood behind her apple stand.

“Meh, I was headed back to Ponyville anyway,” Haru chuckled as he placed a sack of apples down on the ground next to the stand. “Not like it was a problem. Besides, consider it on the house.”

“Yer starting to get a little cocky there, Mistah Souma,” AJ pointed out with a flat look on her face. “We may need to have ya work on the farm a little more. A few early mornings oughta fix that pride on ya.”

“Uh, w-well, maybe we can talk about this later,” Haru whistled as he nonchalantly waved his claws at AJ. “But for now, I need to get going!”

And with that, the red dragon dashed off with AJ shaking her head at the dragon’s actions. ‘Ah swear, that dragon’s as sneaky as a snake sometimes – Ah gotta fix that sometime…’

When Haru was a good distance from the apple stand, he lowered his head and wiped some sweat from his brow. ‘Whew – That was a bit of work, but still, a few bits here and there go a long way. But I still need to be able to find that griffon… There are so many questions I need to ask him…’

Haru slowly stood up and began to walk his way through the town, the dragon took care to make sure he didn’t bump into any ponies in his wandering. ‘How is he able to use magic – I’m no expert on Griffons and if they can use magic, but since he’s able to use magic using a similar catalyst like mine…’

The dragon lifted his left claw up to see his Flame Style ring over his black claws, ‘Using Magic Rings, it might not be the same – but he still uses a magic similar to mine. Was he at that ritual too? But that wouldn’t make sense, Fluttershy and Dash remember him as a griffon when they were kids, so there has to be something else at work here…’

Next to a nearby café, Haru brought his claws up to his head and gripped his red skin and black scales, ‘GAH! There are so many possibilities and questions about this situation! I can’t even tell if this Kosuke is a good mage or if there’s something more to him.

‘Grrgh, if only I could find the feathered headache – then I’d get some…’

“Hey Mr. Dragon,” Kosuke gleefully greeted with a wave of his talons from his seat in the café.

“Not now,” Haru growled as he lifted his claw up. “I’m trying to find that one griffon.”

“Oh, okay,” Kosuke chuckled as he lifted up a glass of water up to his beak.

Haru slowly walked away as he kept his claws to his chin, ‘Now where was I? Oh yeah, if I find that griffon, then I’d be able to get some answers to… Wait a second…’

The red dragon leapt back to the café as Kosuke munched on some mayonnaise covered bread, “You!”

After taking an audible gulp of his bread, the slightly bandaged Kosuke waved his talons to Haru, “Me! Care to join me, Mr. Thieving Dragon? I just ordered more breadsticks.”

Haru’s shoulders slumped at the weird griffon’s offer.

TTT – TTT

Twilight and Fluttershy followed after the obsidian Cerberus as he ran as fast as his little legs could carry the three headed familiar past the Everfree Forest. Every so often, the familiar would look back at the two mares before he leapt forward to gain some distance between the two, even going so far as to lead the two towards the lake that was near the edge of Ponyville.

‘Where are you leading us?’ Twilight thought to herself as she kept her attention on Cerberus. ‘And… Why?’

Fluttershy was quiet while the two mares traversed after the familiar, her eyes darted every so often towards the nearby forest. “T-Twilight, d-do you think this is a good idea?”

“Huh?” Twilight mused back, her concentration slightly broken. “What do you mean? Are you worried about what the familiar is doing?”

“N-No, I… I just feel like we’re being…” Fluttershy gulped as she looked to the woods once more. “Being watched.”

Twilight opened her mouth to speak when three loud barks all chimed in and drew the mares’ attentions to see Cerberus now in front of a large cave that erupted from the forest. The obsidian familiar barked once more before it leapt into the cave. Twilight turned back to her friend, “Fluttershy, thank you for coming all this way – But I won’t force you to go any further if you don’t want to.”

“I… I c-can’t just leave you and Cerberus,” Fluttershy stuttered back as she watched Cerberus disappear into the cave. “T-That wouldn’t be the r-r-right…”

Twilight smiled at her friend before she and Fluttershy trotted towards the cave.

TTT – TTT

“Mmm! Ya know, if you don’t eat, you’re gonna miss out on the breadsticks!”

Haru eyed the basket of freshly baked bread, but stuck his tongue out at the fact that the breadsticks were drowned in mayonnaise. “Uh, yeah, but I just ate so…”

“Oh well, more for me then!” Kosuke chuckled to himself as he gulped down some of the bread.

The red dragon sighed under his breath before he narrowed down his eyes at the fellow mage, and the action didn’t go unnoticed by the griffon. “Look, I know this mug is handsome and all, but I’m not really into dudes, especially ones with scales.”

“You’ve certainly got a high opinion of yourself,” Haru growled under his breath. “Just who are you?”

“Are you deaf?” Kosuke replied as he wagged a breadstick at Haru. “You were there when I made my big introduction – Kosuke Nitoh, the Wild Mage Beast.”

“That’s just it, are you really a mage?” Haru questioned.

“You were there,” Kosuke answered bluntly before he tossed the breadstick into his opened beak and continued speaking with his mouth full. “Bu vere sere (You were there). Bu maw vi trassfrun (You saw me transform).”

The griffon gulped the bread, breathed a sigh of relief and pointed a talon at Haru, “And you saw me eat the Phantom – Of course I’m a mage. Mages need to eat Phantoms to get their mana, I’m sure you do.”

“Actually, I don’t.”

Kosuke’s green eyes widened when he heard that, then blinked a few times in confusion, “Wait, what?”

“My body produces mana,” Haru answered as he tapped his claws against his belt buckle before he snapped the belt off his torso and placed his belt onto the table. “And this allows me to channel it. Doesn’t yours do the same?”

Kosuke didn’t say anything, but removed his own belt, and placed it next to Haru’s. “A conductor of magic? Not exactly, mine’s more of a cage.”

“A cage?” Haru questioned. “What are you talking about?”

“That’s my line,” Kosuke growled as he leaned over the table and brought one of his talons up to Haru’s nose. “You’re a mage, but you can live without eating the Phantoms’ magical energy?”

“Right,” Haru muttered as he gently pushed Kosuke’s talon from his face. ‘If I didn’t need information from this griffon, I doubt I’d really care – But I have to make sure that this Mayonnaise isn’t a threat to anypony.’

“Well that’s not fair!” Kosuke huffed as he fell back into his seat with his arms crossed over his chest.

“In any case, Mayonnaise,” Haru started.

“Hey!” Kosuke snarled as he lifted up his half empty bottle of mayonnaise. “Remember my name! I’m Nitoh Kosuke, and this is mayonnaise – We’re two different things!”

“Whatever,” Haru sighed under his breath as he pulled his belt back. “How exactly did you become a mage?”

A large grin grew on the griffon’s face as he sat up straight. “Oh, so you have an interest in your rival, eh?”

“You’re not my rival,” Haru pointed out bluntly.

However, Kosuke just continued onwards, “Fine, say no more. I’m sure you can’t help but wonder, after all, this cool, suave and dare I say, handsome griffon mage comes out of nowhere to sweep all the cute mares off their hooves.”

“Those bandages of yours a testament to that?” Haru questioned.

Kosuke coughed a few times with his feathers on his face slowly turning red, “T-These are wounds of love. But in any case, if you wanna know my background, ya gotta give me something that’s as good as my information…”

“You want to know how I got my powers?” Haru sighed as his gaze shifted to the side. “Well, I…”

“NOPE!” Kosuke laughed as he wagged a talon at Haru. “Names and tastes my friend, I wanna know them all of each of the mares that was with Flutters and Dashie, Pinks is very cute, and Rarity’s classy. But the fanmare and country gal caught my attention too and… Ooh, doesn’t it hurt to slam your head into the table.

‘Twilight… AJ, I pray to Ishimori that you never find out what I’m about to do…’ Haru thought to himself with his head now on the table. “Mayonnaise, you got some paper and pen?”

“My name isn’t mayonnaise!”

TTT – TTT

Within the cave at the beach, Twilight and Fluttershy trotted quietly through the caverns. Unexpectedly, the caves were actually well lit with the floors carved smooth. With Cerberus quite a bit ahead of the two, Twilight took notice of these facts, ‘There’s no way this cave is natural – Could this be some pony’s home? But who would live in a cave?’

Cerberus barked once more, the bark echoed through the cave and drew the two mares attention ahead. Fluttershy tilted her head slightly, “Um, T-Twilight, is that normal in c-caves?”

A few yards in front of the two mares, a large white curtain waved slightly in the light breeze that flowed through the cave. Behind the curtain, there seemed to be a large bed with pure white sheets that brushed against the floor. Twilight trotted forward slightly, “No… We must be in somepony’s house. We should probably…”

WOOF! WOOF!

Cerberus was now underneath the curtain before it leapt onto the bed, disappearing from sight.

“Oh my, Cerberus, that’s someone’s bed!” Fluttershy gasped before she quickly trotted after Cerberus.

Twilight immediately followed after Fluttershy, and the two mares stepped passed the curtain. Cerberus had disappeared, but on the bed in front of the two was a large, jagged blue stone that sat in front of them. Twilight used her magic to levitate the stone off the bed, ‘This is a Magic Stone! Is this what Cerberus wanted us to find? But… Why? And how, it’s not like it could’ve known I’d be at Fluttershy’s and…’

“T-Twilight,” Fluttershy whispered as she leaned towards her friend. “D-Do you hear that?”

The unicorn’s ears flicked slightly as she heard footsteps along with a joyful whistle that echoed through the cave. And it was getting closer, very quick. Twilight gulped before she nodded towards Fluttershy and gestured towards the bed.

The whistling stopped as a tall figure stepped in front of the large curtain, its spike adorned head rolled around its shoulders before the figure pulled back the curtain. “Now then, where are you?”

The armored being stepped around the edge of the bed, his armored feet clanked against the rocky floor. Twilight and Fluttershy had ducked under the large bed just before the figure had appeared, and watched with their breaths held. “Where did I put that thing?”

Twilight’s eyes turned to the Magic Stone she had pulled down with her. ‘Is he looking for this?’

“Ah-ha! Now I got it!”

The bed creaked as weight was slowly placed on it, and Fluttershy brought her hooves to her mouth, trying to make sure that she didn’t make a sound. The armored feet turned around, “Ah, the KingFisher Nine Thousand – I can never fish properly without you.”

Then owner of the armored feet sauntered off with a cheerful whistle.

When the whistle and the footsteps stopped their echoes through the cave, Twilight pulled herself from under the bed and stood up straight. With her hoof extended to Fluttershy, the young unicorn pulled her friend out from underneath. ‘Was that a Phantom? It sounded like it was – But, is this cave its home? And it didn’t seem to notice that the Magic Stone was missing…

‘Was it not guarding the stone? Could it be that it didn’t know about the stone? And if that’s true, then did something put the magic stone there when it wasn’t around? And how did Cerberus know that it would be here? I… There are so many questions!’

“Um, Twilight? C-Can we leave now?” Fluttershy muttered, her body shook in fear.

“Of… Of course,” Twilight replied as she used her magic to lift up the magic stone. ‘I need to tell Haru about this –The Phantom, the Magic Stone, and I need to ask him about Cerberus… Wait… Where did Cerberus go anyway?’

Outside the cave, Cerberus barked a few times as a familiar white garbed figure knelt down to lift up the obsidian familiar. “You did good Cerberus… Now, remember to keep an eye on Compassion. Do not reveal yourself unless directed to.”

Cerberus barked as all three of its head nodded. The white garbed figure allowed the obsidian familiar to leap from his grip and dash off. ‘Truth has proven to have potential, but I must see if the other four possess that same potential…’

TTT – TTT

Now this is the story all about how my life got flipped, turned upside down. And I’d like to take a minute just sit right there, I’ll tell you how I became a mage that makes many scares.

“What are you doing?” Haru asked with a dulled look on his face.

“Don’t interrupt me!” Kosuke scolded.

… Damn it! Now I lost my train of thought… So, I guess I’ll have to do this normally.

In case you didn’t know, I’m kind of a big name in this world with archaeology. I’m one of those action-packed archaeologists, kind of like Daring Do, only male with lion bits here and there. And I was always looking for the next thing to find – And sell. I admit that upright that maybe I shouldn’t be doing that, but I need to eat.

Anyway, one day when I was investigating some ruins that were in the badlands down south. I was scaling the side of the ruins when I came across an odd rune carved into the side of it. The moment my talons brushed against it, the wall I was on collapsed and I fell into the ruins.

What I found was amazing – A broken shrine with humanoid statues armed with spears and an odd lithograph that was still in tack on the floor. Albeit, the lithograph was covered with moss and stuff, but once I uncovered it, I found a certain gold ring that had green eyes on it.

When I pulled the ring from the lithograph, it reacted! And from the lithograph, the belt that you see before you emerged from it – Whatever magic was at work seemed to only work once as the lithograph broke immediately afterwards.

Now, in case you hadn’t noticed, I don’t wear pants.

“Anyone can see that,” Haru sighed with a roll of his eyes. ‘I don’t wear them either, but that’s beside the point.’

Quite so, but I didn’t think it was a belt buckle. It was by pure luck that I slipped on my hind legs and the belt fell to my waist. The darn thing wrapped around me and it certainly surprised me!

But when it wrapped around me, the ruins shook violently and the statues came to life. But just as I was about to be attacked by them, I heard a voice call out to me…

“USE THE RING.”

… I didn’t have a choice – It was either listen to the ramblings of my possible insane mind, or be slain by these odd creatures. So, I donned the ring, and when I used it on the belt, time seemed to freeze all around me…

And then he appeared.

Even today, I don’t know exactly what he was – In my travels, I came across many different creatures, and he was… He is nothing I ever saw before. A jumble of creatures: the body and head of a lion with a hawk head on his right front shoulder blade, a dolphin on the left, a bull’s head on his chest and a chameleon that used its tongue for his tail. He had a pair of wings and he was at least four times bigger than I with his body almost completely made out of steel.

“I am Khimaira…

“Nitoh Kosuke – You have opened the doors to my cage and have become one with I. You have released me from my prison, and I am not without gratitude.

“I am not without gratitude…”

At first I thought that I was meeting with some guardian of Tartarus – Chimera, that’s a fabled creature that was supposedly made up of many different creatures: And they weren’t known to be the friendliest of creatures around.

“I can see everything, and I shall grant you magic – I shall fill that void.”

… I don’t know how, but when he said those words… They… They just…

Clicked…

But nothing’s free… Not like how ponies see it.

“In exchange, however, you must hunt for me – Hunt mana! If you do not, your life shall fade away…”

… I didn’t know what to say to that… What could I say to that?

“Living a life as you have, is it any different from death? Hunt down the Phantoms so that I may devour their magical energy…

“And I shall give your life a purpose once more.

“WILD MAGE – BEAST!”

L-I-O-N! LION!

As you would imagine, when I transformed for the first time – I was surprised. But those statues, those golems, I was able to defeat them and satiate Khimaira’s hunger.

“And that’s my story,” Kosuke chuckled as he looked at the list of information. “That happened three months ago, and ever since, I’ve been going around and I’ve been pretty lucky finding these Phantoms. Khimaira has the ability to sense large sources of mana and it led us here – A ton of Phantoms are around here.”

Haru’s eyes widened. “Wait, you need to defeat Phantoms in order to live? How can you be so carefree?”

“I don’t know if I’ll be alive tomorrow,” Kosuke replied as he took back his belt and fitted the list into his pocket. Then he looked at the red dragon across from him. “It doesn’t matter if I’m carefree or not, everyone goes eventually… But you really don't need to eat mana, right? So, why are you after the Phantoms?”

Haru sighed and looked up towards the sun, “To protect the Gates.”

“Gates?” Kosuke questioned as he tilted his head. “What the heck? Are the Phantoms trying to get into something around here?”

“No, the Gates are innocent ponies, griffons, any creature being targeted by the Phantoms,” Haru explained with a flat look in his eyes.

“So, total strangers?” Kosuke questioned as he rolled his eyes. “You owe them or something? You offer your services for a price?”

“Nope,” Haru replied with a smile on his face. “I just can’t let the Phantoms drive anypony into despair…”

‘I don’t want anypony to go through what I did – Nopony deserves that…’

“OOOOH! How cool!” Kosuke moaned as he brought his talons up to his face. “Must be pretty sweet when your life isn’t at risk.”

Haru sighed under his breath, “You’re more than welcomed to think what you want – But listen. Gates driven to despair by a Phantom will…”

But Haru stopped when a talon was brought in front of his face, “Stop! Say no more!”

Kosuke pushed himself from the table with a smile, “I can tell that you’re doing your best – I’ve heard rumors about some mage fighting Phantoms. However, you should remember this.

“My life’s at stake. If you don’t need to eat magical energy, then don’t get in my way. We’re done here.”

The griffon pulled up his large backpack over his shoulders and walked off. “Feel free to keep playing your little magic games, dragon. But I won’t hesitate to knock you out of my way the next time you get in the way of my hunt.

“After all, griffons are carnivores too.”

And with that, Kosuke walked away from the café, his lion tail swished with each step. Haru locked his claws as he closed his eyes, ‘Khimaira, it might be possible that this is a Phantom, but if that’s true, then it must’ve been a Phantom from a long time ago. Are there more ancient Phantoms?

‘But this Kosuke’s more important at the moment – In a sense, he’s a victim of the Phantoms too. However, I need to think about how to do this, cause if I play my cards right, I might just be able to have another mage help me with…’

“Excuse me, sir.”

Haru shook his head and turned to see the unicorn waiter near the table, and float down a single piece of paper. “Your bill, sir.”

“Wait, what?” Haru questioned as he reeled back. ‘HE STIFFED ME WITH THE BILL!!!’

TBC

Spell 26 - A Life Yesterday

Spell 26

A Life Yesterday

TTT – TTT

“So, how long has it been since all three of us were in a single location?”

“I think the last time was at the Sabbath itself.”

“Aw, I should’ve brought some cupcakes to celebrate this!”

“Gremlin, you did. And you ate them all.”

“You have no proof, Feenie!”

“You have frosting around your mouth.”

“I plead the fifth.”

“Enough!”

Both Phoenix and Sora winced at the dark haired mare’s snarl. The two pegasai cowered at the unicorn before them, her face covered with the large sunhat, when she realized that the two would behave, a small smile crept on her face, “I was wondering if I would have to separate you two.”

“Ah, no need to be like that Mi…” Sora started with a wave of his hoof.

However, the mint green pegasus froze as he realized that two purple eyes narrowed down on him, “I… I mean… Y-Yes, Lady Medusa. I… I’m sorry.”

Medusa sighed as she turned towards Phoenix, “Are you going to give me trouble as well?”

“Meh, not worth it,” Phoenix answered.

“Good, now then, let’s get down to business,” Medusa sighed as she sat down on the cushion that she had waiting for her. “While it has been a long time since we last saw each other – It’s no time for idle chit-chat. This town has cost our cause a number of Phantoms, but it also has a number of potential Gates within it…

“Makes me wonder what you two are doing around here.”

Phoenix snorted before he turned away from Medusa, “I ain’t interested in that – My sights are set back on that mage, Haruto Souma.”

“One tracked mind, as usual,” Medusa sighed under her breath. “And you Gremlin?”

“That’s not my name!” Sora hissed as he waved his forehooves about. “Sora! SO-RA!”

“And that answers my question,” Medusa groaned as she brought a hoof up to her face and shook her head. “But unlike you two, I’ve actually have been working hard – I found somepony to join our little trio…”

“Aw, and we were so good as the Three Musketeers,” Sora chuckled with a large goofy smile. “Ya know, all for one, one for all.”

“Actually, Alexandre Dumob’s original novel had a fourth member of their group,” Phoenix explained with his eyes closed. “Athos, Porthos and Aramis were officially musketeers, but d’Artagnan was their mutual friend and was the one who originally came up with their life motto – tous pour un, un pour tous.”

There was a moment of silence as Medusa and Sora looked to each other before they turned back to Phoenix – The fiery Phantom cocked his head slightly to the right, “What?”

“I… That was unexpected,” Medusa admitted, her eyes shifted slightly. “How did you know all that?”

“I got a lot of free time on my hooves,” Phoenix admitted with a roll of his eyes. “Till I get better, I don’t have anything better to do other than kill a few hours at the library – The little dragon working there keeps giving some good things to read.”

“Well, good for you, Feenie!” Sora giggled before he turned his attention back towards Medusa. “So, who’s the newbie? Is it Gargoyle? Siren?”

“He is not a Phantom,” Medusa answered bluntly.

Phoenix narrowed his eyes, “Not a Phantom? Then what the Tartarus is he?”

“An ancient source of magic,” Medusa answered as her horn glowed brightly, the sun hat over her head lowered over her eyes. “Though he doesn’t possess the ability to awaken gates, we can still use his knowledge and skills to add our cause.”

“So where is this fourth member?” Phoenix questioned with his brow raised. “Do we have the pleasure to see this applicant?”

“Hehehehe, you sound like we’re conducting an interview,” Sora snickered loudly. “All you need is the monkey suit, a nice shave, and a little grease in your hair and you’ll be a desk jockey.”

Phoenix took a moment to picture himself with the details that Sora laid out – and he shivered. “Oh dear sweet Hades! I would rather lick the bottom of a buffalo’s hoof than be stuck in a suit.”

“Must we do a comedy act?” Medusa asked dully. “I swear you two are nothing more than colts sometimes – I am not your caretaker, so don’t make me act like it.”

“Uh, right,” Both Phoenix and Sora gulped loudly.

Medusa’s face curled up slightly into a diabolic smile, “To answer your question – I’ve decided to give him a test. There are a number of Gates within this town, and while I shall aid him in locating the Gate, it is up to him to awaken the Gate.”

“But he’s not a Phantom,” Sora mused as he brought a hoof to his mouth. “So, he must be getting a little more help.”

“Right you are,” Medusa chimed back. “I’ve allowed him to do this in his own manner – But he’s not the only one who’s up for promotion in our little group: Two other Phantoms who have been successful in their missions will be joining them. So, this little test will see if they can awaken a gate while there are two mages in this town.”

“What did they do to deserve this?” Phoenix scoffed to the side. “I haven’t heard any new Phantoms appearing in our little group for a while.”

“That’s because their missions were not to create Phantoms,” Medusa answered. “They were both successful in setting up a marker in their own respective areas.”

Both Phoenix and Sora looked to each other in silence for a few moments before they both smiled at each other.

Medusa chuckled, “Quite impressive that they managed to set it up – Only three more to go, and then we will be able access the lapis philosophorum.”

“While that’s good and all,” Phoenix interjected. “We still have a few issues to deal with – Namely, Harpie’s little crew.”

“Yes, they’ve been failing quite a bit, haven’t they?” Medusa sighed with a shake of her head. “I suppose it’s my fault that it happened – After all, I allowed Harpie to garner Hellhound, Minotaur and Dryad for her ‘family’, therefore, it is my responsibility. I shall deal with this within the coming days.”

“You personally getting your hooves dirty?” Sora cackled as he pulled his head back. “Ooh, I can only imagine what you’re gonna do.”

Medusa’s smile grew more sinister.

TTT – TTT

“Mistah Souma, how’d ya’ll get your Cutie Mark?”

Haru blinked a few times as he turned from the book he had in his claws to see a rather eager Apple Bloom looking up at him. Twilight and Spike had left him in charge of the library for the afternoon so they could run some errands, and it was relatively uneventful so he had picked up a random book and begun reading. He was so engrossed with the sci-fi story (a blue, robotic stallion who had to fight against six other robots and save the world from a mad scientist) that he didn’t notice that Apple Bloom had entered the library with Kenny the Topaz Kraken atop her mane.

So, when the red dragon heard the filly call his name, he was a bit surprised. “Oh hey there Apple Bloom, what about my cutie mark?”

“How’d you get yours?” Apple Bloom asked again as she trotted a little closer. The little filly brought up her hoof to the black runes on Haru’s thigh. “Ah ain’t never seen one like yers, and ah was just curious.”

Haru smiled as he closed the book in his claws, “Well, I got this mark when I learned I could do magic.”

The red dragon lifted up his right claw and then brought it to his belt buckle, “CONNECT – PLEASE!”

A familiar red runic circle appeared at Haru’s right shoulder and he pointed to it. “You see that circle? It looks almost like my mark, it not only signifies my magical abilities, but its also my hope – hope to help any pony.”

Apple Bloom’s face lit up. “Really?! You’ll help any pony?!”

“Of course,” Haru stated as he reached into the circle and pulled out a single powdered donut from it. “No matter how big or how small, I’ll help anypony out.”

“Then, can ya help me, Mistah Souma?” Apple Bloom begged as she jumped atop of the couch Haru was seated on.

“There’s no need to ask,” Haru replied with a nod. “Now, what do you need help with? Homework? Chores?”

The young filly shifted about slightly as Haru took a bite from his doughnut, as he chewed Apple Bloom immediately spoke up. “HELP ME GET MAH CUTIE MARK!”

The sudden yelling made Haru gag and he brought his claws to his throat. His regular red face started to turn blue and he slammed his fist into chest a few times before he gulped loudly, “Gargh! Oh Ishimori, that went down the wrong tube!”

“Well, Mistah Souma?” Apple Bloom sputtered out. “Can ya help me get mah Cutie Mark?”

Haru took a few breaths and looked towards the young filly, “Apple Bloom, I… I don’t mind helping you out, but what exactly can I do to help you with that?”

“Well, maybe mah talent’s in magic too!” Apple Bloom pointed out. “Maybe ya’ll can teach me how do it! After all, Ah only thought unicorns could do magic – Then it turns out that ya and some griffon can use magic, so why can’t an Earth Pony learn how to use magic?”

‘With that logic – I can’t really deny her…’ Haru thought to himself as he rubbed his chin with his claws. “Apple Bloom, I don’t mind helping you with my magic, but you really shouldn’t try to force your Cutie Mark to appear – you’re still young, and the whole world is opened up to you, no need to rush…”

“B-But, everypony else in mah class has theirs,” Apple Bloom countered back. “Even mah friend Twist just got her’s yesterday! C’mon! Please! Please let me see if Ah can use yer magic – PLEASE!”

It was then that Haru took note that the young filly was looking at him with the biggest puppy dog eyes he had ever seen. He opened his mouth to tell her no, but he just couldn’t bring the words up deep within himself to do so. So with a defeated sigh, Haru pulled off his belt buckle, “Alright, fine, just one sec…”

“DRIVER ON!”

In a flash of light, the buckle transformed into the silver belt that Haru lifted up in his claws. “… Hmm, ya know, I usually keep this thing around my waist most of the time when I use it, so I never really got a chance to look at it from this angle… Almost looks like a toy…”

“Ooh! Yer gonna let me wear the belt?” Apple Bloom gasped as Haru unhooked the back of the belt and slowly brought around the young filly’s middle.

“Well, you wanted to try my magic, so, might as well go all the way with it, right?” Haru asked while he tightened the belt around Apple Bloom’s waist. “Not like I’m keeping it a secret that I transform. Now, all you need is a ring – So, which one do you want to try?”

Haru pulled out the four style rings from his jacket’s inner pocket and held them up to Apple Bloom. The filly’s eyes glimmered at the four jeweled rings. “Uh, Ah don’t know… Which one would you go with?”

“I usually start off with the red one,” Haru suggested as he picked up the flame style ring. “It’s got a great balance, but personally, I just like red.”

“Then Ah’ll use that!” Apple Bloom stated as she lifted up her right hoof up so Haru could slip the ring on her leg. “Ah’ve seen ya trans… Trans…”

“Transform,” Haru replied.

“Yeah! Ah’v seen ya do that, and it looks amazin’!” Apple Bloom stated as she looked at the ring at her hoof. With a large bright smile on her face, the young filly began to bring the ring to the belt buckle but…

“Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!” Haru grabbed onto Apple Bloom’s leg. “You can’t just transform, you need to do it the correct way.”

“There’s a right way to do it?” Apple Bloom questioned.

With a smile, Haru lifted Apple Bloom to the floor and stood up, “Of course, in order to transform, you need to strike a pose and yell out ‘henshin’!”

“Why?” Apple Bloom asked with her head tilted slightly.

“Why? Haru coughed under his breath as he looked away. “W-Well, you see…”

‘Shoot! Think Haru, THINK! You can’t tell her that it’s just for being cool – I mean, I just got the idea of the pose from those old nanga I used to read.’

“It’s because… The pose empowers you! It gets your body pumped up and prepared for the transformation! It charges every cell in your body!”

“Really?!” Apple Bloom gasped in surprise and yet joy.

“In the words of a famous stallion –Eeyup,” Haru stated as he lifted his right claw up. “Now, how about I show you how to do the pose?”

“Got’cha!” Apple Bloom replied as she pushed her front hooves against the ground and she stood up on her hind legs (shakily, but she still managed).

“First,” Haru brought his claws to the front of his waist. “First, you wanna shift the switches on the side of the belt…”

The young filly nodded as she did so, however, there was no sound that emerged from the belt.

“Then, lift your left hoof up,” Haru continued as he held up his left claw up. “You wanna show off the ring.”

“Why?” Apple Bloom asked as she lifted her hoof up and showed off the ring.

“Uh, it’s just for show,” Haru admitted before he threw his left claw in front of his waist. “After you do that, all you have to do is throw your hoof in front of the belt and then just let the belt do the rest.”

With a large smile on her face, Apple Bloom threw her hoof in front of the belt. However, nothing happened. The young filly looked at the belt and threw her hoof in front of it once more, but not a sound echoed from it. With her face slowly turning sullen, the young filly turned towards Haru, “How come it’s not working, Mistah Souma?”

The red dragon sighed under his breath as he rubbed the back of his head, “Well, I can tell you that you did everything right…”

Apple Bloom sighed under her breath as she slipped the ring off her hoof and the belt from her waist. “Thanks fer trying Mistah Souma, but this is just another thing Ah’m not good at.”

“Now hold on there,” Haru stated as he scooped up the items. “Apple Bloom, I can understand you wanting to get your Cutie Mark, but you’re young and it’ll come to you eventually.”

“But Ah’m the last pony in my class to get hers,” Apple Bloom sighed loudly as she slowly trotted towards the door to the library. “Thanks again though.”

Kenny the Kraken floated around Haru’s head as Apple Bloom slowly exited the library. Haru nodded and the Topaz Familiar flew after the young filly. ‘Oh, to be that young again… What am I saying!? I’m barely in my twenties!’

TTT – TTT

Apple Bloom sighed under her breath as she slowly trotted through town – Her eyes turned to the many mares and stallions that walked past her, her attention drawn to the many cutie marks that were on the flanks of each pony.

Kenny the topaz kraken landed atop her head and dropped slightly, “Ah know Kenny, Ah shouldn’t be sad, but Ah just can’t help it.”

Cutie Marks (although some stallions didn’t really care for the name) were a sign of maturity. A sign of what a pony was meant to do with their lives – Their purpose, their place in this wide world. It was a basic principle in any pony’s life, and a rather important one too.

Still to a young mare like Apple Bloom, seeing how everypony around her gained their own, including the ones in her class…

“Blank flank!”

Those words sounded out through Apple Bloom’s mind, so much so that she didn’t notice until it was too late and she trotted into another pony. “Omphf!”

Apple Bloom fell backwards onto her flank with Kenny the Kraken being whipped from the top of her head. The young filly quickly got to her hooves and lowered her head to the ground, “Ah… Ah’m so sorry! Ah didn’t mean to…”

“Now, now,” a calming voice sounded out to Apple Bloom as she felt a hoof placed on her back. “There’s no need to be like that, it was simply an accident.”

Apple Bloom lifted her head up to see a petite, young unicorn mare who’s purple and white splotched fur coat was covered with a fancy black and bluish dress comfort her. The older mare’s silky black mane whipped slightly around her face as she smiled at Apple Bloom, “Although, it’s best that you make sure that you keep your eyes up front.”

“Ah-Ah will, Miss,” Apple Bloom gulped under her breath. ‘Gosh, she’s really pretty!’

“Good, now run along,” the mare replied as she gestured with her hoof. “A young filly such as yourself should be playing with her friends.”

Apple Bloom’s ears drooped slightly, “R-Right…”

And with that, the young Apple filly trotted off slowly, her hooves dragged against the ground with each step she took.

The mare smiled to herself as she herself continued her trot, her shadow growing with every step, “I know you’re here, Hellhound.”

Her shadow shivered.

“Consider this yours and your ‘family’s’ last chance to redeem yourselves,” The mare continued. “Succeed, and all transgressions shall be forgiven. Fail, and I don’t think I need to say any more.”

The shadow whipped about until it formed into a more demonic figure, “Y-Yes, Lady Medusa – I shall not fail.”

“Good, now here is your last chance,” Medusa sighed.

TTT – TTT

“Ah mou…”

Kosuke moaned loudly as he staggered about through Ponyville, his cheeks sunken and his body looking a bit thinner than usual. Even his feathers seemed to be a bit sullen as well and his tail dragged against the ground as he walked, ‘Khimaira’s getting hungry again. Big guy can survive off of the mana around here, but it doesn’t fill him up at all. Wish he wouldn’t drain me though…’

With the shade of a nearby tree over his head, Kosuke sat down and rummaged through his jacket. ‘Then again, I’ve got my cute little Griffon searching this town for Phantoms…’

From the confines of his jacket, Kosuke pulled out two items – A small, plastic baggy that had a sandwich wrapped inside and his usual bottle of mayonnaise. Within a flash second, Kosuke unwrapped the sandwich and slathered it with the mayonnaise, ‘Tartarus, after all of the rumors I heard of Phantoms around here, I was hoping to find at least more than two… Oh well, after lunch I’ll keep on searching and…’

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t the little blank flank.”

Kosuke eyes widened as he took a bite from his sandwich and he turned towards his furry backside, ‘Huh?’

The voices continued as Kosuke turned about to see that the voices came from, and thanks to some bushes that were next to the tree, the griffon remained hidden to see that there were three fillies gathered at the base of the tree. Two of the fillies (one with a tiara atop her head and another with large glasses) circled the yellow mare, who had an odd topaz kraken atop of her red mane.

“Diamond Tiara, are you excited for your cute-ceañera?” the glasses wearing filly asked.

“But of course,” the tiara wearing filly (apparently named Diamond Tiara). “It’ only one of the biggest parties a pony can have in their life.”

Kosuke shook his head, ‘Great, Cutie Mark bullies – I never really understood the appeal of having that mark on the flank. Then again, I’m not a pony.’

The griffon shrugged and returned his attention to his sandwich, with a large bite taken out of it. ‘As such, I shouldn’t get involved with this stuff unless it gets physical…’

Just as Kosuke was about to swallow the bite…

“AAAAAAHHHH!”

Kosuke’s eyes widened as the food got caught in his throat and he quickly slammed his talons into his neck a few times. When he managed to get the food down, the griffon turned back to see that the three fillies were now cowered against the tree as Hellhound seeped out from the shadows, his claws brushed against his metallic chest plate. “I’ll terrorize you into…”

“PHANTOM!”

Hellhound looked up just in time to have Kosuke tackle into him, “URK!”

As Kosuke and Hellhound tumbled over the ground, the two fillies who picked on Apple Bloom galloped away while Apple Bloom sat there watching. “Is that a griffon?”

Kosuke pushed himself off of the surprised Phantom and landed on the ground right before Apple Bloom, a large smile on his beak, “Ooh! This is gunna get good! I knew I’d find a Phantom!”

The griffon licked his beak and quickly got to his hind legs, revealing the belt around his waist, “Now then, you look like a tasty morsel!”

Hellhound growled loudly as he got to his feet, “Just what the Tartarus do you think you’re doing?!”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Kosuke chuckled as he wagged a talon. “I’m here to…”

WHAM!

Kosuke’s eyes widened as he was backhanded through the air, Hellhound’s right fist raised up. “I don’t have time for this! I’ve got bigger things to deal with!”

Hellhound turned his gaze back at Apple Bloom and lifted his claws up towards the scared filly. The Phantom tilted his head slightly at Apple Bloom, “Damn it… I don't feel right about this.

“Sorry kiddo, but its either you or me, and frankly, I like breathing.”

The fiery Phantom charged towards Apple Bloom, but stopped when two talons wrapped around his waist and pulled him back. “W-What the?!”

“We’re not done yet!” Kosuke shouted out as he threw Hellhound to the ground. “This pinch is my chance to eat!”

“You lousy…!” Hellhound barked before Kosuke latched onto him again. “STOP THAT! GET YOUR TALONS OFF THAT!”

“You stop moving!” Kosuke yelled back as he struggled to keep his grip on the Phantom. “You’re my meal ticket for another day! So just let me devour you! I CAN'T QUIT YOU!”

Apple Bloom sat there perplexed, watching as the griffon continued to grab onto the Phantom, with Kenny squeaking loudly to garner her attention, “Ah don’t think Ah should be watching this, Kenny.”

Somehow, Kosuke had gotten behind Hellhound and had his talons hooked under the Phantom’s arms. The two struggled about until several surges of red energy crashed into Hellhound’s chest and flew him out of Kosuke’s grip. Surprised, the griffon slipped on the grass and landed on his back, “Gah! Wait… This pattern… It can’t be!!”

A few feet away stood none other than Haru, his claws wrapped around his gun and held it up into the air.

“Mistah Souma!” Apple Bloom called out.

“Kah!” Kosuke snarled as he got to his paws. “I knew it!”

Haru blinked a few times at the griffon before him, “Mayonnaise?”

“It’s not Mayonnaise!” Kosuke growled as he stomped towards the dragon. “And are you here to interrupt my meal again?!”

Haru raised a brow slightly, “No, I’m–”

“Say no more!” Kosuke shouted as he lifted his talon up towards Haru’s face. “This is…”

“Bang.”

Kosuke jumped up slightly with his arms wrapped around his stomach. When he realized that the sound didn’t come from the gun, but rather Haru himself, he narrowed his eyes. “That’s not funny! I obviously found this Phantom first! So it’s my right to eat him! Just get…”

“Behind you,” Haru stated as he pointed behind Kosuke.

“Huh?” Kosuke questioned as he turned around.

When the griffon did, he quickly ducked to dodge a punch thrown by Hellhound, “I’m going to rip those feathers off you, ya punk!”

Hellhound quickly latched onto Kosuke’s tail and pulled him off of the ground, “GAH!”

Haru sighed under his breath as he turned to Apple Bloom, his belt glowed brightly, “Apple Bloom, get back home as soon as you can! I’ll meet you there later.”

“A-Alright, Mistah Souma!” Apple Bloom called out as Haru lifted his left claw up.

“Henshin,” Haru called out as he threw his claw against his belt buckle.

“FLAME – PLEASE!

“HiiHiiHii – Hii Hii!”

As Haru threw his claw forward, the large fiery rune circle flew in front of him and he dashed through it – and emerged from the other side in his ruby covered form with his gun raised up. However, with a powerful leap, Wizard slammed both of his feet into Hellhound’s shoulder and sent the Phantom through the air away from Kosuke.

“Oi! I had him right where I wanted!” Kosuke growled as he threw his talons in front of his belt.

“DRIVER ON!”

Kosuke lifted his left talon in the air before he spun his two arms about, “Hen… SHIN!”

And that’s when Kosuke threw his ring into the side of his belt, opening the gate-like buckler, “SET! OPEN!

“L-I-O-N! LION!”

The golden circle emerged in front of Kosuke and bathed the hybrid creature in its light until the golden armored mage – Beast appeared right where the griffon stood.

Hellhound’s eyes widened as he staggered back, “T-TWO OF THEM!?!”

“It’s,” Wizard stated as he spun around, turning his gun into its sword form. “Showtime!”

Beast watched as the black clothed dragon charged forward, his arms crossed. “Huh? Eh… Then I’ll... I can’t let him one up me!

“It… It’s LUNCHTIME!”

Wizard and Hellhound stopped and looked at Beast as he threw his arms up into the air, “Lunchtime?”

“Lunchtime?”

Taking advantage of the situation, Wizard brought his sword down on Hellhound’s chest, sparks flew up. Not wanting to be out done, Beast leapt through the air and slammed his fist right into Hellhound’s face, which forced the Phantom down to the ground. Once more, Beast leapt up into the air over Hellhound, “Ha! I’m not going to give up a meal…”

With a quick breath, Hellhound quickly unleashed a powerful burst of flames from its mouth that crashed into Beast’s chest. “GAH!”

Hellhound quickly got back to his feet, only to get slashed against the chest by Wizard once more and sent the Phantom staggering backwards, and allowed Beast to slam his foot into Hellhound’s chest multiple times before he spun around and slammed his armored tail into Hellhound’s face. “URK!!”

And then, Beast turned to Wizard and threw his fist right into Wizard’s jeweled helmet and forced the dragon to stagger back. It took a moment for that to register in Wizard’s brain, “W-What the?! What are you doing?!”

“I told you,” Beast barked back as he crossed his arms. “Next time you interfere with my meal, you get the fangs!”

Reaching into his belt buckle, Beast produced his rapier and took a stab at Wizard, who quickly managed to lift his sword up to block the attack. Sparks erupted from the metal that clashed against each other, Beast continued to unleash attack after attack at Wizard, who was quick to block each attack. ‘Damn it! This isn’t good at all! If I’m dealing with Mayonnaise here, then that Phantom can…’

As Wizard thought this, Hellhound had gotten back to his feet and begun to look around. ‘NO!’

Beast brought the rapier down once more, but this time, Wizard stepped to the side and slammed his tail into the golden mage’s stomach and sent the armored griffon across the ground. “Oofmph!”

Wizard quickly changed the rings on his claws, and Beast charged towards the dragon as he threw his left claw in front of his belt buckle. “WATER – PLEASE!

“Sui-sui! Sui-sui!”

The blue runic circle emerged at Wizard’s feet before it rose up and replaced the rubies with demimonde-cut sapphires. Beast tilted this head for a second before he charged forward, “Don’t act so fancy!”

Wizard threw his right claw over the belt buckle just as the rapier was about to connect. “LIQUID – PLEASE!”

When the thin sword slashed through Wizard’s body, Beast’s jeweled eyes widened as the dragon’s body melted into blue water that flew around his body. “W-What the Tartarus!?!”

The water dashed through the air until it crashed into Hellhound’s back and made the Phantom stagger forward. The Phantom spun about to see the water surge about him before it slammed back into his chest. Hellhound growled before he unleashed a powerful flame from its darkened mouth to strike the water.

However, the water surged about the flames before it crashed into Hellhound once more and coiled around the Phantom’s body. When the water solidified, Wizard had Hellhound in a headlock with the dragon’s tail wrapped around the Phantom’s right arm to pull it away from his body. “H-Hey! Get off of me!!”

“Don’t count on it!” Wizard growled before he slammed Hellhound’s face into the dirt using his entire weight into the attack.

Beast growled as he charged towards Wizard, “Get away from my…”

WHAM!

Beast was flung through the air after a green fist slammed into his chest.

“Yeesh, when I came to find you, Hellhound, I wasn’t expecting this kind of headache.”

Wizard lifted up his head to see that what had knocked Beast away was none other than the Phantom known as Minotaur. The Phantom’s red eyes turned towards Wizard and he cracked his knuckles loudly. ‘Two Phantoms?! What’s going on here!?’

TBC

Spell 27 - The Joy of Today

Spell 27

The Joy of Today

TTT - TTT

Wizard threw his right claw over the belt buckle just as the rapier was about to connect. “LIQUID – PLEASE!”

When the thin sword slashed through Wizard’s body, Beast’s jeweled eyes widened as the dragon’s body melted into blue water that flew around his body. “W-What the Tartarus!?!”

“Don’t count on it!” Wizard growled before he slammed Hellhound’s face into the dirt using his entire weight into the attack.

Beast growled as he charged towards Wizard, “Get away from my…”

WHAM!

Beast was flung through the air after a green fist slammed into his chest.

“Yeesh, when I came to find you, Hellhound, I wasn’t expecting this kind of headache.”

Minotaur roared loudly and charged towards Wizard. Before the masked dragon could react, the larger Phantom lifted his fist back and threw it right into Wizard’s head. When the fist connected, Wizard’s body exploded into water and released Hellhound to the ground. “What?”

The water flew through the air and splashed into the ground to form back into Wizard, who sighed with relief, ‘Good thing my Liquid spell was still in effect…’

With a snort, Minotaur latched his hand around Hellhound’s arm and yanked Hellhound to his feet, “What in Hades’ name do you think you’re doing?! Did you get bonked on the head or something?”

Hellhound shook his arm free and waved his hands in front of him, “N-No! You don’t understand it, Minotaur! I have to do this so that…”

“BUFFA! Go, Bu-Bu-Bububu-BUFFA!”

Both Minotaur and Hellhound turned around just in time to see Beast ram into Minotaur, his right shoulder covered with a bull-headed mantle that sent the horned Phantom through the air and over Wizard’s head. Hellhound staggered back as Beast leapt up and down. “YEAH! Now this is what I’m talking about! Hey! Dragon!”

Wizard was swapping rings over his claws as Beast ran towards him, “What?”

“Dibs on the big lug!” Beast laughed as he leapt over Wizard as the magician dragon lifted his left claw up.

‘Well, at least he’s not attacking me,’ Wizard thought to himself as he looked towards Hellhound, the fiery Phantom jumped slightly when he saw the sapphire armored Wizard leer at him.

“Uh… Could we possibly reschedule this fight for later?” Hellhound chuckled nervously as he rubbed the back of his head.

Wizard didn’t say a word as he messed with his belt buckle and threw his left claw in front of the glowing buckler. “WATER, DRAGON!”

A loud roar erupted from Wizard’s belt as a dragon completely made out of water began to encircle the ring mage. Immediately, Wizard’s body became covered by water. “Jabajaba, Bashan! Zabun, Zabun!”

The water froze and then immediately shattered to release the now blue cloaked Wizard, his armor now resembling that of his Flame Dragon style, only with sapphire demimonde-cut jewels and ice crystals floated through the air. Wizard waved both of his arms up before he spun them around to show off the Water Dragon ring on his claws.

“Oh plop!” Hellhound yelled as he threw his arms to the side, his shadow growing around him. With a slight snicker, Hellhound began to sink into the darkness.

“Trying to run? Not this time!” Wizard yelled as he immediately switched rings on his right claws.

Wizard threw his right claws over his belt buckle and threw his hand up into the air. “LIGHT – PLEASE!”

From his claws, a bright blue light flowed into the air that gleamed into the darkness, casting the shadows away from Hellhound’s body and forced the Phantom to stagger backwards. “GAH! MY SHADOWS! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!”

“Making sure you never hurt Applebloom!” Wizard roared as he charged forward. When he was in range, the masked dragon leapt into the air and slammed his foot into Hellhound’s chest, forcing the Phantom to the ground. “I won’t let a monster like you hurt such an innocent filly!”

While Wizard was wailing on Hellhound…

CLANK!

Beast’s Dice Saber caught Minotaur’s axe as the two magical beings continued their attacks. Beast chuckled as he leapt back, “Yeah! You better make me earn my meal! A big lug like you will be enough to fill me up for weeks on end!”

Minotaur snorted as he slammed his axe’s blunt end into the ground, “A second mage? Fine! I wasn’t looking for a fight, but now I don’t have a choice.”

“Then let’s start the buffet!” Beast chuckled as he tossed up his Dice Saber into the air and had his tail catch it before he charged towards the Minotaur.

The Phantom pulled his battle axe from the ground and brought it down on Beast, however the armored griffon skidded to the side and spun around, allowing his tail to slash his Dice Saber across Minotaur’s stomach, sparks flew from where the blade met. “GAH!”

Minotaur snarled as he spun about and slammed the axe down at Beast, however, the golden mage turned his body and had the horns of his mantle catch the axe. Minotaur’s eyes widened as the griffon latched onto the handle of the axe and threw it from the Phantom’s hands. With his opponent no long armed, Beast rammed the Buffa Mantle right into Minotaur’s stomach and sent the bull-like Phantom into the air.

“Heh, time for the main dish!” Beast announced as he jumped to his hind legs and used his tail to toss the saber into his talons. When he did, Beast brought his claws to his beak-piece and blew a kiss before he spun the dial on his saber.

Just as Beast was about to slam the ring on his right talon into his sword, Hellhound was flung into Minotaur and caused Beast to halt his attack. “Hey!”

Wizard skidded next to his golden counterpart and lifted his right hand up to fit a new ring on his claws, “Finale!”

“Oi!” Beast growled as he rammed his left shoulder into Wizard. “What the Tartarus do you think you’re doing?!”

“I’m trying to destroy the Phantoms!” Wizard growled back as he shifted his belt.

“You mean you’re hogging the Phantoms!” Beast snarled before he tackled into Wizard.

“The Tartarus?!” Wizard yelped as he and the golden mage fell to the ground. Wizard was about to speak, but then he noticed that Beast had his right talon clenched tightly. As quick as he could, Wizard shifted his head and dodged the punch that Beast threw right at his head. “WATCH IT!”

With his tail and legs, Wizard threw the armored griffon off of his body, surprising Beast as he sailed through the air. A powerful whip of his tail, Wizard got back to his feet just in time to see the top of both Minotaur and Hellhound’s heads disappear into the shadows of the nearby tree. “Damn it!”

With a shake of his head, Wizard’s Water Dragon form faded away, and Haru stood there with his arms and head slumped over. ‘This isn’t going to be easy at all…’

“WAH!”

Haru turned his head to see Beast run forward, his golden form disappeared when he skidded to a halt near Haru and faded back into the goofy Kosuke – Although, the mayonnaise obsessed griffon had his eyes narrowed at the red dragon. “What is your problem!? There were two of them! One for each of us!”

Kosuke gripped Haru’s collar and actually managed to lift the dragon off of his clawed feet. “I need Phantoms in order to live, are you seriously trying to get me killed by the Phantom within me?!?”

This time, Haru barred his teeth and slapped Kosuke’s talons from his neck, “I know your life is at risk, but so are others’ lives! I won’t let any other Gates get…”

“Yeah, yeah, you won’t let them Phantoms go after the…” Kosuke snarled back. But then he stopped as the gears in his head began to turn. “Wait, you said that you’re protecting these ‘Gate’ things, and those are certain kind of individuals right? Was that yellow filly a Gate?”

A sigh escaped from Haru’s mouth, at the very least it looked like this would be the best chance for him to finally explain what a Gate was, “Quite possibly, Phantoms seek out the Gates so that they can…”

Haru stopped when Kosuke lifted his talons up in front of Haru’s face, “I got ya on this. So, if I follow the Gates, then I can get me some primo Phantom bait! And since that scrawny mutt Phantom kept going after that yellow filly, if I find her, then I’ll find the Phantoms!”

“Eh?” Haru was dumbfounded by Kosuke’s logic, and yet, Kosuke did have a point. The Phantom would go after Applebloom, but that wasn’t the point! “N-Now wait a minute! This is an innocent’s life at risk, and I’ll be damned if…”

“NO TIME!” Kosuke laughed loudly as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a couple of odd silver orbs that he tossed into the ground.

Three explosions of smoke erupted around Kosuke and Haru, and made the dragon cough in surprise. “W-What –hack- the Tartarus?!”

When the smoke cleared, Kosuke was nowhere to be seen.

Haru waved his claws in front of his face and brought his claws to his mouth. The dragon then whistled, which summoned Garuda from the air and fly in front of him. “Garuda, I’m heading off to Sweet Apple Acres, do me a favor and let Twilight know that we’ve got a situation.”

Garuda nodded before he flew off, which had Haru dash off in the opposite direction. Unknown to Haru however, Kosuke didn’t run too far, as evident when his head popped out of the bushes nearby with a large smirk on his face. ‘And now to follow him… Thank you brain for this plan.’

TTT – TTT

Meanwhile, outside Golden Oaks library, a single mare trotted up to the door and stopped, her eyes nervously watched the door from behind her rose red mane. ‘I… I shouldn’t b-b-be here… But, I… I need to do t-t-this…’

Slowly, she lifted her hoof up to the door, but then pulled back the green limb. ‘N-No… I can’t ask him, if I do, he’ll know and… And I-I’ll be destroyed! B-B-But… But if I c-c-calmly s-s-surrender, t-then m-maybe he’ll listen to me and w-won’t destroy me…’

That’s when the door opened up to the surprise of the mare and she lowered her head, “PLEASE! DON’T DESTROY ME!!!”

Twilight staggered back at the sudden proclamation by the odd pony before her, “Um, excuse me?”

The rose mane mare lifted her head and breathed a sigh of relief before that nervous look on her face returned. “Um… Is… Is that r-ring mage here?”

Twilight tilted her head slightly, “Haru? No, but does he know you?”

“Um, n-not really,” The mare replied as she looked away from Twilight. “B-But he knows my f-father and u-uncle, they met a few times.”

“Oh, well, is there something I can help you with?” Twilight offered with a gentle smile on her face. “I may not have his crazy ring magic, but I’m no slouch at magic.”

The mare turned back to Twilight and slowly her face smiled slightly – It was then that it hit her. This was her chance. From what she had heard from her mother, the ring mage not only lived with this mare, but protected her – She was a Gate! And if the ring mage wasn’t here, this could be her chance to help her family: But she knew it was only a temporary solution…

“C-Can we t-talk inside?” the mare asked as she lowered her head. “T-This is kind of important…”

“Sure, come on in,” Twilight replied as she gestured with her head.

The rose mane mare gulped as she slowly trotted into the library, with Twilight following behind her. The green mare stopped and looked around the lobby, her eyes gazed upon the books, “W-Wow… The tree’s hallowed out…”

“And yet it still lives,” Twilight stated as she trotted up next to the green mare. “I’ve lived in this tree for a while, and I’ve noticed that even though it’s hallowed out, it’s still very healthy. The leafs on it are still fresh and there’s even a calm nature to it.”

“Yeah, nature is a wondrous thing,” the green mare replied with a smile.

“So, what can I help you with?” Twilight asked as her horn lit up and allowed a book to levitate off of the table in the lobby.

“W-Well, I need to introduce myself,” the mare replied as she backed away from Twilight. The studious mare blinked a few times at the green mare’s actions. “N-Now before I do so, I need to stress that I don’t want trouble, I don’t want to do any harm, and I’m not like the r-rest of my family…”

Twilight was a little unnerved at this sudden proclamation – but stood her ground and allowed the green mare to continue.

“I… I am called Dryad, and I am a Phantom.”

As if to demonstrate that her words were not false, Dryad’s body began to shift and change – And now before Twilight stood a rather small Phantom. She wasn’t even as tall as Twilight on her four hooves, and looked like a mythological sprite that Twilight once read about in her books – a green humanoid with leaf-like armor and vine like hair that had various flowers that covered her eyes.

And now she was on the ground with her head against the floor, “P-Please! D-Don’t be afraid! I-I need help!”

And just as quickly as she transformed, Dryad returned back to her mare form – Her head still on the ground. “I… I have no interest in m-making p-p-ponies go into despair, I j-just need help! I’ll do w-w-what you w-w-want to, just please h-hear me out!”

Twilight didn’t know what to say to this – While her track record with Phantoms wasn’t all that great, this was a chance to learn more about the Phantoms. So carefully, Twilight trotted towards the Phantom and placed a hoof on her back, “It’s alright, I’ll hear you out. Everypony deserves to be heard out, and I’ll do my best to help.”

Dryad lifted her head up and tears actually welled up in the corners of her eyes. “T-Thank you…”

Outside the window of the library, neither mare seemed to notice that a certain green stallion watched as the two mares conversed with each other. ‘Hmm, what an interesting turn of events…’

TTT – TTT

“This had better not some elaborate joke, Mistah Souma.”

“I wouldn’t joke about this sort of thing,” Haru replied as he crossed his arms. “You should know I’m serious about two things – and one of them is Phantoms.”

“Uh huh, and the other’s donuts, right?” Applejack questioned as she eyed the box of confectionaries in the dragon’s claws.

“I’ll have you know that I burn a lot of calories when I use my magic,” Haru sighed with a wag of one of his donuts in his claws. “But that’s beside the point, I’m pretty sure that Applebloom is a gate…”

When Haru had reached Sweet Apple Acres, he found Applejack bucking some apples from the trees near the entrance and had explained to her about how Applebloom was attacked by the Phantom.

Applejack, needless to say, wasn’t too thrilled about that.

“Alright then, what do ya suggest we do then?” the southern mare questioned with her gaze narrowed at the donut munching dragon. “Ah can’t just keep Applebloom at home, she’s got her schoolin’ and has her friends too.”

“I’m not saying that at all,” Haru replied. “What we need to do is find Applebloom first and explain the situation to her. Delicately of course, and we’ll have Kraken keep an eye on her closer than he has so far and…”

“Ya do realize that yer Kraken’s name is Kenny, right?” Applejack pointed out.

Haru replied with a flat look in his eyes, “That doesn’t really matter right now, Kra… Kenny can alert me to if Applebloom is in trouble or not. But if anything does happen then…”

The red dragon would’ve continued if not for the fact that something flew in and knocked the box of donuts out of his claws. Haru quickly got into a defensive stance and looked around. “What the?! Where is it?! Where’s the Phantom?!”

“Uh, Mistah Souma,” Applejack sighed as she tapped Haru’s shoulder with her hoof.

Applejack pointed to where Haru’s doughnuts had landed, there was a small little toy that looked to be made out of wood – with thin wings, a propeller on the front, two plastic red wheels and a rubber band underneath its wooden body.

“Is this what the Phantoms look like now?” Applejack questioned, now she had the flat look in her eyes. “They look like toys?”

“N-No!” Haru coughed out, his cheeks tinted a little pink now. “I… I was just a little surprised by that… That… What is that thing exactly?”

“Ah think I saw this way, Mistah Neato!”

“Good eye, filly!”

Both AJ and Haru turned to the trees just in time to see Applebloom gallop out from behind the trees, Kenny the Kraken atop of her tail. And right on her tail was a familiar goofy griffon who had his tail coiled around an exact copy of the item that slammed into Haru’s doughnuts. The griffon had a large smile on his face as he saw Applejack, “Afternoon, Miss!”

“Applebloom, what in tarnation is going on here?” Applejack questioned as she pointed towards the odd toy that was in front of her. “And what is this thing?”

“It’s a glider,” Kosuke answered as he held up his glider with his tail up to the blonde mare. “It’s a popular toy among griffons, and your sister’s a natural at building and flying them! Not bad for a being that doesn’t have talons or claws too.”

“Ko… Ko… Sorry, but what was yer name again?” Applejack asked. “Yer Fluttershy and Dash’s friend, if I remember, but…”

“Hey, while I don’t mind introductions,” Kosuke snickered with a shrug. “I can easily remember yours, Applejack – I’m the Golden Beast, Kosuke Nitoh!”

“Yeah sis, Mistah Neato’s cool!” Applebloom pointed out as she trotted over to the glider that was on the ground. “He and Mistah Souma even helped me out earlier! And now he’s teaching me how to use these glider things!”

“That’s all well and good, Applebloom, but there’s some things Ah need to talk to ya about,” Applejack stated as she turned towards Kosuke. “And thank ya, Mistah Neato, but Ah really need to talk to mah sister…”

“Aw, just one more flight? Please?” Applebloom asked with her eyes wide, trying to her best to give her sister the puppy dog eye look.

Applejack was about to say no, but then Haru’s words appeared in the back of her head and she sighed, “Alright, just once more. Truth be told, Ah’m kind of curious how these do-dads work.”

Both Kosuke and Applebloom smiled brightly, and Kosuke got to his hind legs and took the glider from his tail. “It’s really simple actually, all you need to do is wind the elastic on these puppies as such.”

With his talons, Kosuke quickly wound the elastic and held it up once he got a good portion of the rubber band wound up. “And then you just set them on the ground, and these things are so realistic…”

Everyone watched as Kosuke placed the glider onto the ground. And the glider sat there not moving.

“Wow, realistic,” Haru stated with a snicker. “The flight’s already delayed.”

“Huh, that’s weird,” Kosuke muttered as he used his tail to brush the side of the glider.

The moment that his tail nudged the balsa wood flyer, Kosuke was repaid with the small flyer being snapped right into his beak. The half-lion/half-eagle staggered back as the glider took off into the air, “GAGH!”

Applejack, Applebloom and even Haru snickered as the griffon shook his talon at the small toy. “Darn thing!”

“I’m certainly liking the toy,” Haru chuckled with his claws up to his mouth.

Karma’s funny sometimes. The moment that Haru said that comment, the glider flew around and smacked him in the back of the head. The dragon’s eyes widened as he staggered forward with the glider falling in between him and Kosuke. The two magically gifted spellcasters looked towards each other before they lifted their legs up and smashed their feet into the glider.

KER-SNAP!

“That was a bit excessive,” Applejack pointed out as she rolled her eyes. “Ah swear, sometimes…”

“Um, Mistah Neato, did ya just have the two gliders?” Applebloom questioned as she looked around the apple tree orchard.

Kosuke snapped out of his blind rage against the small balsa wood toy and rubbed the back of his feathered head. “Oh, uh, y-yeah, sorry about that, little filly, I shouldn’t have gotten…”

“It’s not that,” Applebloom gulped as she stepped back. “Its um, well, we’re kinda surrounded…”

AJ, Haru and Kosuke looked around the orchard and noticed that there hundreds, if not thousands of balsa wood gliders – some in the trees, some on the ground and some that seemed to fly in from Celestia knows where. For some odd reason, the gliders seemed to squeak and chirp in anger.

“Ah don’t like the feel to this,” Applejack admitted as she pulled Applebloom closer to her. “Ah don’t like the look of this…”

“Revenge is a dark, dark thing,” Kosuke chuckled nervously as he backed off.

“Oh come on, it’s just wood,” Haru sighed loudly. “Plastic, and a rubber band. What’s the worst that could…”

And that’s when the gliders flew up into the air, encircling the four, a couple of them slammed into Haru and the others, “OW! RUN! RUN LIKE THE WIND!”

Applejack had already thrown Applebloom on her back and had galloped away from the oncoming glider attack, Haru and Kosuke weren’t as fast and had several gliders slam into them. Haru turned his head towards his fellow mage with his teeth barred, “What the hell is this all about?! How is this even possible?!”

“You’re the mage who doesn’t, OW!” Kosuke yelped as a glider smacked him in the back of the head. “You don’t eat Phantoms! You tell me how this is possible!”

“Tartarus if I know!” Haru shouted back as the two got out of the orchard, however, it was then that they noticed the sheer number of gliders that were after them – Then again, one would doubt one could count so many balsawood gliders with them flying about.

The two mages ran as fast as they could towards the large barn that the Apple Family had, and as quickly as they could, the two mages ducked into the barn with the doors closed behind them.

The two mages breathed a sigh of relief as they slumped to the ground, as the two caught their breathes, Haru leered at Kosuke. “You’re nothing but trouble, you know that right?”

“Trouble? Me?” Kosuke stated back with his tongue dripping with sarcasm. “I don’t know the meaning of the word! I’m just trying to eat so I can have a tomorrow!”

“You’re using that innocent filly as Phantom bait!” Haru growled as he pointed a claw at the griffon.

Kosuke slapped Haru’s claws out of his face, “Please, don’t act like you’re a saint! Isn’t that what you’re doing with your hunt with the Phantoms?”

“Huh?” Haru questioned as he reeled backwards.

“I bet that you just like being the hero,” Kosuke growled with a large smirk on his face. “Being there to save the mares, being there to get that warm feeling in ya…”

“If a Phantom gets a hold of a Gate, the Gate will die!” Haru yelled out.

Kosuke reeled back in surprise. “W-What?”

“When a Gate falls into despair by the hands of a Phantom,” Haru explained as he turned away. “A new Phantom will be born from a Gate’s heart. They take everything from the Gate and appear in the real world – Destroying their dreams, their hopes, their tomorrows, and even their lives.”

The griffon tilted his head slightly, his beak wide open in shock. “I… W-What… You’ve gotta be pulling my leg…”

“You kept running and interrupting me whenever I tried to tell you,” Haru sighed as he closed his eyes. “Sure, I get to the play the hero, but if you’re willing to risk somepony’s life, then I’ll have no choice but to play it!”

“Now hold on a minute!” Kosuke snarled as he got his second wind. “I gotta eat those Phantoms so I can live! Khimera isn’t gonna be satisfied by just drinking the mana in the air, he needs substance and if it’s not the Phantoms’ then it’s gonna be mine! Do you expect me to just give up on my tomorrow?!”

Haru was quiet for a few moments before he took a deep breath and spoke out, “Applebloom’s life is in danger right now.”

“Eh?” Kosuke questioned.

“Today’s life comes before tomorrow’s,” Haru stated as he stood up. “And…”

A loud, echoed screech sounded through the barn and the two mages looked up to see that several gliders were among the higher levels of the barn. Both mages’ eyes widened just in time as the gliders attacked.

“AAAAAAAAAHHHH!”

TTT – TTT

“… I… I see…” Twilight mumbled to herself.

While Haru and Kosuke were being attacked by the gliders, Twilight listened to Dryad’s tale. And although she kept her distance from the Phantom, Twilight couldn’t help but feel sorry for the young mare. In comparison to some other Phantoms, Dryad was calm and even meek – She almost reminded Twilight of Flutterhsy, even when she talked.

But it was the story that Dryad told that tugged at her heartstrings – About how Harpie tried to keep a semblance of a family, and how the minor Phantoms were being threatened to be destroyed by the Phantom known as Medusa.

The name sounded familiar, when Haru finally told Twilight about the mess in Canterlot, he mentioned about a Phantom that was even stronger than Phoenix. And that scared Twilight deep down. ‘Phoenix was a monster – And it took Haru to improve his magic to defeat Phoenix. And even when Haru had his upgraded Dragon form, he said that he couldn’t even touch this Medusa…

‘And she’s here in Ponyville…’

“I didn’t realize that there was a hierarchy for you Phantoms,” Twilight muttered under her breath. “Does that mean you Phantoms don’t even have a choice to terrorize Gates?”

“N-None of us h-had a choice,” Dryad answered back with her head lowered. “B-But, w-while a small n-number of us do t-this out of f-fear, a g-g-good portion love to l-live in sin. Some terrorize, some follow orders, others just do w-w-whatever they w-want… I can’t s-speak on behalf of other Phantoms…

“B-But I… I know my f-family doesn’t w-want to do this! We… We just want to live in peace! Like we did before the Sabbath!”

“And you think Haru can help?” Twilight questioned.

“He’s d-defeated a number of high p-profile Phantoms,” Dryad answered back as she turned away. “And w-w-with another Mage, t-they might be able t-to protect us from M-Medusa and G-Gremlin…”

“Gremlin?” Twilight questioned as thoughts went back to her bestiary of the Phantoms and then there was that odd file of a Phantom that was given to her by… By…

“TWEET!”

Before Twilight could finish, Garuda flew in from an opened window and landed on the horse-head bust in the middle of the table. The crimson familiar flapped his wings a few times to garner the mare’s attention. Twilight nodded at the familiar before she turned to Dryad, “I understand your situation, but if this Medusa is here in Ponyville, then it would probably be better for you to seek asylum outside of Ponyville.”

“B-But, where would I go?” Dryad questioned. “W-Where would be safe?”

“Miss Dryad, I know the perfect place for you to go,” Twilight answered with a reassuring smile on her face. “I can arrange for you to be protected by the Royal Guard of Canterlot – All you and your family would need to do is provide information about the plans of the Phantoms or anything of that sort, and I’m sure that Princess Celestia will be more than willing to aid you and your family.”

Dryad’s eyes widened in surprise as she smiled brightly, “I… I don’t know what to say – T-Thank you!”

“I know what it’s like to protect the ones you love,” Twilight answered. “And I knew that you Phantoms had some good in you, and you reaffirmed my suspicions. Now, I’ll have my assistant write a letter to Celestia and I’ll go get Haru. I need to convince him that you’re not here to hurt anypony and that you need help, so please stay here for the time being.”

“A-Alright,” Dryad answered back

“Spike, you can come out from hiding now,” Twilight announced.

Dryad jumped when she realized that Spike was hiding behind a stack of books near her, “I… I wasn’t hiding, I was just merely organizing some books!”

“Sure,” Twilight chuckled as she trotted over to the horse head bust, allowing Garuda to hop atop of her head. “In any case, can I trust you to get that letter to the Princess immediately?”

Spike saluted towards Twilight, which allowed the mare to smile brightly at the baby dragon. “Thank you Spike, and please make sure that our guest is treated well.”

“Wait, what?” Spike asked as Twilight trotted out the door, Garuda with his wing pointed out. “A-Alright!”

Spike and Dryad looked to each other as the door closed, and both smiled at each other – Both had a rather nervous smile on their faces. Spike whistled as he walked over to the table, “Well, I’ll get on that letter and then I’ll get something to drink for you. Anything specific you’d like?”

“Um, some Earl Gray tea would be nice,” Dryad requested with a slight bow. “But, a-anything is good…”

Outside the window, Sora smiled brightly as a green aura began to surge over his body. “Oooh, Dryad, you naughty little mare… You’re not playing by the rules any more. I guess its high time that I not play by them any more as well.”

TBC

Author's Note

Attack of the Killer Gliders...

Spell 28 - A Life for Tomorrow

Spell 28

A Life For Tomorrow

TTT – TTT

It didn’t take long for Twilight to figure out where Garuda was leading her – Sweet Apple Acres, but her mind was on other matters. Everything that Dryad was weighing down on her, and certain thoughts that crept into her thoughts…

‘What if the other Phantoms were coerced into doing this? They’re victims as well. What about Haru? Is what he doing wrong?’

Twilight shook her head – while it was true that Wizard had to defeat the Phantoms and destroy them, he never actively hunted the Phantoms. He did it to protect others, and it’s not like he took pleasure in destroying the Phantoms…

Still, she had to be careful: She had no idea how Haru would react to Dryad, but this was a chance to learn more about the Phantoms and possibly even finding a way for…

“GAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGH!”

That loud scream echoed through the air which made Twilight snap out of her thoughts. She just realized that she was already at Sweet Apple Acres, and the scream sounded real close. Garuda chirped a few times and flew ahead with Twilight right behind him. ‘I hope nothing’s wrong! I hope that…’

“Now hold still, Mistah Souma!”

“A-AJ! Not so hard! It hurts!”

“Ah quit yer bellyaching, and get down where Ah can get at it!”

“J-Just try to be gentle…”

Twilight stopped and stared at the sight before her…

“OW!”

Applejack pulled back from Haru with a pair of tweezers in her mouth that had a few splinters of wood between them. Haru had a few tears in the corners of his eyes and his jacket was off.

“Uh, what happened here?” Twilight questioned as Garuda landed atop of his master’s head and chuckled at the dragon’s misfortune.

Applejack spat the tweezers out and smiled at her magically gifted friend, “Howdy there Twilight, as fer what happened – Well, Ah figure you’d be more than willing to help figure out what the hay happened a little bit ago.”

“Well, I’d have to know what happened,” Twilight stated with a slightly flat look in her eyes.

Haru sighed as he lifted up a broken glider up with his claws, “Apparently these things were given sentience and attacked us – Although, it was just Mayonnaise and I who got the brunt of the splinters…”

Twilight used her magic to lift the glider from Haru’s claws, and observed the glider, “There doesn’t seem to be a spell on this, but…This wood is rather weird. Where did you get it?”

“Don’t look at me,” Haru sighed with his head slumped. “It was Mayonnaise in the house who brought the things.”

“I’m guessing you’re talking about Kosuke, right?” Twilight mused with a slight smile on her face. “We’ll just have to…”

“NO! NONONONONONONONONO!”

Just as the three turned towards the Apple Family house, the door flew open to show Kosuke staggering out of the house, his jacket being pulled upon by Big Mac, “G-Get off of me! I… I’m fine!”

“Nope,” Big Mac replied as he slammed his hoof into the jacket, which then got pinned to the ground when Big Mac stomped the ground. Kosuke slipped and landed on his back, which made him wince.

“Look, just point me towards the bathroom, a separate mirror and a pair of those tweezers and I can get it myself,” Kosuke sighed as struggled to get free from Big Mac, while trying to keep his jacket on. “I’m sure it would be better for a guy with talons to do this than with your mouth.”

Big Mac narrowed his eyes before he shook his head. With a snort, he lifted his hoof up – Unfortunately for Kosuke who was tugging with all his might, he was unprepared and pulled too hard to have him roll over the ground and into a tree…

With his jacket now flung off of his body.

WHAM!

Everyone winced as they saw an upside down griffon with his eyes spinning and his left wing sprung out. “Agh…”

“Uh, Kosuke? Are you alright? That must’ve…” Twilight trotted over to see if the griffon was alright, but when she got to his right side, she stopped and staggered back, “W-Wait… What the?”

Now it was Haru and Applejack who walked to Kosuke’s side… And reeled back at the large scar where his right wing should’ve been…

TTT – TTT

“You’re both a pair of idiots.”

Both Minotaur and Hellhound flinched at Harpie’s words, it had only been a few minutes since the two Phantoms had retreated back into the Everfree Forest, and while the two were still in their Phantom forms, that didn’t stop Harpie from scolding them in her pony form.

“Don’t you think this would’ve been better if we had an idea?” Harpie snarled as she stamped a hoof into the ground, making both Minotaur and Hellhound shiver. “This is our last chance – And with two mages running around, we can’t afford to be reckless!”

“Yes, Harpie.”

“Now, where is Dryad?” Harpie barked as she looked about the clearing in the Everfree Forest. “If we’re going to deal with these mages and awaken the gate, we’ll need all four of us to do this! With my brains, Minotaur’s muscles, Hellhound’s craftiness, and Dryad’s powers over plant life, we’ll be able to…”

“Oh my, then this won’t be good at all for you,” a rather playful voice called out from above.

All three Phantoms craned their heads up to see Sora seated atop of a rather low cloud, a large smirk on his face, “Hello!”

Sora fell from the cloud and gently landed right atop of Minotaur’s head, “Good afternoon, Phantoms of the Damned.”

Sora tapped his chin and shook his head, “No, no, that won’t work. Now, what haven’t I riffed or parodied yet? Hmm…”

“OI! GET OFF!” Minotaur barked as he reached at Sora.

The green pegasus flew up into the air to dodge Minotaur’s grasp, and then he slowly landed on the ground behind Harpie. “So, what would be good here? Perhaps a reference to…”

“Gremlin!” Harpie growled loudly as she pointed a hoof at the disguised Phantom. “What are you going on about?”

“Oh?” Sora replied with his head slightly tilted. “I was just trying to lighten the mood before I drop the bomb like Major Kong – Then again, I’m not out to steal your precious bodily fluids. Hehehehehehe…”

“If there’s a point, get on with it,” Harpie hissed as she trotted up towards the green pegasus. “I’m not in the mood to deal with your usual plop, Gremlin.”

Sora sighed as he turned his gaze to Harpie, his eyes rather misty, “I… I really hate to be the one to tell you all this, but unfortunately, Dyrad is no more.”

Harpie’s eyes widened, while Hellhound and Minotaur looked to each other in shock. Harpie galloped up to Sora and hooked her hoof under the green pegasus’ scarf, “Listen you lousy, little sneak! I’m in no mood for your stupid jokes and…”

That’s when a green armored hand wrapped around her hoof and lifted her up, it was then that she saw the diabolic, masked face with red eyes looming right in hers instead of the goofy mint green pegasus she knew. “I assure you Harpie, I wouldn’t joke about something like this.”

‘He… He transformed so quickly!’ Harpie thought to herself as she looked deeper into the red eyes.

What now held onto Harpie’s neck was a rather tall and gaunt Phantom, his upper body covered with green armor that had two beak-like, silver shoulder pads and his lower body was covered with black armor. But what was odder was that there was a large scissor-like reverse blade that he held in his other hand. “Death is something that I never joke about – If you don’t believe me…”

And then, Gremlin dropped Harpie back down to the ground, and in the place of the green Phantom was the fun-loving pegasus with his fedora lowered over his eyes. “After all, she was slain by the Ring Mages, but I can understand why you wouldn’t believe me… But I do have some evidence.”

With his wings, Sora removed his hat and dumped a bunch of red hair onto the ground before the three fellow Phantoms. Harpie’s eyes widened when she recognized the hair color, “T-That’s…!”

“Quite the shame, really,” Sora sighed as he placed his hat back atop of his head, a tear at the corner of his eye. “If I was just a few moments earlier… Well, I don’t think that really would’ve done any difference in the long run. I’m a prankster, not a fighter. And I’m more of a troll than gremlin.”

“Which one?”

“Hmm?” Sora mused as he looked at Harpie.

“Which one killed her?!” Harpie snarled back as a green aura wrapped around her. Slowly her pony form slowly faded away to her winged Phantom form. “WHICH MAGE?!”

Sora merely shrugged, “Well, both of them were there, so they could’ve tag teamed her. But Harpie, you need to remember, you’ve got Medusa on your tail – So, you can’t really afford to be reckless here…”

“I DON’T CARE!” Harpie screeched as she threw a feathered wing towards Sora’s nose. “This entire town will burn if I have to!”

A wily smirk slowly appeared on Sora’s face, “Well, you know something? I think I’ll give you three a hoof with this – I’m not a fighter, but I’m not just a prankster. I’m a schemer as well, and I happen to have something that might just be able to help you out…”

TTT – TTT

There was an air of silence in the Apple Family household, save for the occasional…

“OW!”

Since Haru had the opposable claws, he was given the task of getting the splinters out of Kosuke’s hide while Twilight and Applejack had a discussion about the latest Phantom attack and what to do about Applebloom who was the target…

It certainly left the two mages to deal with an awkward situation.

Haru tossed the most recent splinter into the trash and looked back down at the griffon’s bare back. And he couldn’t help but have his eyes fall down to the scar where Kosuke’s right wing should’ve been. The magical dragon opened his mouth, but immediately closed it.

“You wanna ask about it, don’t ya?”

Haru blinked a few times when he realized that Kosuke was looking back at him, his beak still curled up into a rather goofy looking grin. “Whenever somepony sees it, they always ask two things…

“One, what happened? And two, did it hurt?”

Haru looked away slightly, only to have his face turned back by Kosuke’s tail, “It’s alright! To answer the second question – It hurt like Tartarus!”

“You seem rather chipper,” Haru stated as he looked at the large nasty scar. “You were trying to hide that thing pretty hard.”

“Yeah, well, I didn’t want that filly to see that,” Kosuke answered back with a little bit of pink on his face. “I… I don’t want to make her uncomfortable, especially if what you said is true.”

“I find it odd that you’re able to act like this,” Haru pointed out. “One point you’re acting goofy with your obsession with mayonnaise, another you’re getting ready to smack me upside the head, and then you’re acting sweet to a little filly. You got multiple personalities or something?”

“Haha, very funny,” Kosuke spat back with his tongue stuck out at the dragon. “Everyone’s got different parts to them, Dragon. You’re not just some snobby, doughnut eater, are you?”

Haru’s eyes dulled slightly.

“Of course you’re not,” Kosuke answered with a smirk. “Everyone is made up of different parts – Our likes, our dislikes and of course our experiences, that’s what makes us ourselves. My love of mayonnaise, my magical abilities and even the loss of my wing… That’s what makes me, well, me.

“And the me of myself doesn’t think it’s acceptable to let an innocent die just so I can survive another day – That’s not life, that’s just despicable.”

Haru didn’t know what to say as he pulled out the next splinter, there was more to this griffon that met the eye. And the magical dragon had to admit that he was blind-sighted by the odd entrance, then again, he probably did the same thing when he first appeared in Ponyville to save Twilight…

“So,” Kosuke chuckled as he gestured towards his scar. “Ya curious?”

“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t,” Haru admitted before he tossed another sliver to the trash. “But I’m not one to pry – You wanna tell me, I’ll listen, but everyone’s got their secrets. I got a few under my sleeve and I know that sometimes it can be very difficult to tell others.”

“Well, there are only two ponies who I don’t wanna tell about this,” Kosuke answered back with his head lowered. “Otherwise, it doesn’t matter to me, just promise me that you won’t tell Flutters and Dashie about my scar.”

With his brow raised, Haru reached for another splinter, “And why’s that?”

“I thought you didn’t pry?” Kosuke questioned as he winced as the dragon pulled another splinter from the griffon’s hide.

“I don’t like to do so,” Haru answered. “But you’re the one who put it out there, and I don’t really have much of a choice but to ask.”

“Well, I… I don’t want them to worry,” Kosuke stated as he lifted his right talon up to his shoulder. “It happened on a day I’m sure they both remember, a day I don’t want to sully with the loss of my wing…”

With that, Haru nodded and continued his task, “Alright, I’ll give you my word – I won’t speak of it. Consider it a promise, Kosuke.”

“I see you’re finally calling me my name, Dragon,” Kosuke chuckled with a large smirk on his face. “Not mayonnaise.”

“Would it kill you to learn my name?” Haru requested with a flat look in his eyes.

“But Dragon’s much easier to remember,” Kosuke replied with a large smile on his face.

Haru lifted the tweezers up…

“OW!”

With the splinters now removed from his body, Kosuke slipped his hooded jacket back on his form and had a large smile on his beak. “Most excellent!”

“Yes, it was most lovely to remove splinters from you,” Haru stated bluntly, his mouth dripping with sarcasm.

“Consider it an honor to view my glorious form!” Kosuke replied as he wagged a talon at the dragon. “After all, not many males can say they saw me with nothing on my back.”

Haru slapped his forehead.

“Everything good here?”

Both mages turned slightly to see Twilight and Applejack come down from the stairs. Kosuke smiled as he lowered his head towards the two mares, “Indubitably! Splinter free griffon at your service!”

“So, what’d you two decide to do?” Haru asked as he walked past the griffon.

“Ah’m not too thrilled about this situation,” Applejack answered back with a loud sigh. “But nuthin’ Ah can do ‘bout that. Still, Ah don’t wanna scare mah sister, so we’re still gonna have her go to that cute-ceañera tomorrow.”

“Hmm, I see,” Haru replied with a nod. “So, do you want me to stay here for a while to keep an…”

“Actually, Kosuke would be a better choice,” Twilight stated.

“Wait… What?” Haru questioned as he reeled back.

With his signature goofy grin back on his face, Kosuke playfully walked over to the two mares and threw his talons around the two mares’ backs, “Ah, it’s good to be popular with the mares!”

Both Twilight and Applejack stepped forward, and had the griffon fall flat on his face as the two mares slipped from under the griffon’s arms. “URK!”

“It’s nothing personal, Haru,” Twilight answered to the dragon. “It’s just that there’s something that needs your attention back at the library that’s really important. We’ll meet with Applejack and Kosuke tomorrow to talk.”

“Uh, sure,” Haru muttered as he looked towards the ceiling. “At least I’ll have Kraken…”

“Kenny,” Twilight, Applejack and even Kosuke corrected at the same time.

Haru looked at the two mares and griffon with a dulled look in his eyes, “Whatever… He’ll be here to at least keep an eye on things as well.”

“So, I’m gonna be here all night?” Kosuke asked with a bright smile as he walked alongside Applejack. “Well, should I go gather my things and wash up for dinner?”

Applejack sighed at the griffon’s words.

A few minutes later, both Twilight and Haru had left the Apple Family ranch, the dragon with his arms thrown over his head, “So, what’s so important about me getting back to the library? We get another odd magic stone from this supposed weird pegasus?”

Twilight sighed under her breath, “Not, it’s something more important, Haru. But, I need to ask you something before we get there…”

“Well, ask away,” Haru replied.

The studious mare looked to the side as she trotted ahead of the dragon, “Haru, what’s your opinion on the Phantoms?”

“My opinion?” Haru questioned as his right brow raised slightly. “What do you mean? What to do about them? Or…”

“Do you think that they’re all evil?” Twilight corrected as she looked at the blue eyed dragon next to her. “Do you believe that they are only capable of hurting others?”

Haru rubbed his chin with his claws, “Well, I… I’m not really sure. But, it’s not like I actively hunt the Phantoms, unless they attack somepony, I won’t hurt them.”

“So, you don’t believe that they’re all bad?” Twilight suggested with a warm smile on her face.

“I learned that no one is born evil, Twilight,” Haru sighed as he pocketed his claws in his jacket. “And I learned a little bit ago that no-one is exactly what they seem…”

“You mean you can’t judge a book by its cover?” Twilight answered back.

“I guess,” Haru admitted. “But, what’s with all the questions, Twilight? I’m used to you asking me them, but you usually keep them to what my magic can do.”

Twilight took a deep breath before she turned to the magically gifted dragon. “Haru, there’s a Phantom waiting for us back at the library.”

Haru stopped in his tracks. After slapping the side of his head a few times, Haru blinked at the mare as if she had suddenly exploded into flames, “I’m sorry, what did you just say?”

“Haru, just stop and listen,” Twilight huffed as she lifted a hoof up to the dragon’s chest. “She had a chance to attack me, but she didn’t! She came to the library to get your help!”

The red dragon closed his eyes.

“You just said that no one was born evil,” Twilight continued onwards. “Doesn’t that mean you should give her at least the benefit of the doubt?”

“I… Twilight I just…” Haru stammered as he lifted his claws up. But with a loud sigh, the dragon’s arms fell to his sides. “… You’re right… But that still doesn’t mean that it was dangerous for you to do something like that! What if…”

“Haru, despite what you may think,” Twilight interrupted the dragon. “I’m more than capable of taking care of myself – And I seem to recall a couple of times when I helped save your flank.”

A small streak of pink appeared on Haru’s face as he pocketed his claws, “Alright, alright, you got me there.”

“Good, besides, Phantoms aren’t as scary as Nightmare Moon,” Twilight replied as she trotted ahead of Haru.

“Yeah… Wait, what?” Haru sputtered as he tried catch up with the mare. “Since when were you afraid of an old mare’s tale?”

“When I learned that it wasn’t an old mare’s tale,” Twilight answered back.

“Wait, what?” Haru questioned.

TTT – TTT

♪♪Go! Be like the wind! Swordsman of fate… Slip into darkness! ♪♪

“Are you going to tell us what we’re doing here, Gremlin?”

The fedora adorned, mint green Pegasus continued his song, practically ignoring the disguised Harpie, Minotaur and Hellhound behind him. It was almost as if he was just playing around the riverside area and the three just happened upon him practicing his song. ♪♪For what reason do you fight? Ask your sword! ♪♪

♪♪Things like justice and love always elude me! ♪♪

“…Harpie,” Hellhound spoke up, drawing the yellow mare’s attention. “Are you sure this is wise? I mean, we all know that Gremlin isn’t really the most trusting pony around…”

♪♪Born in the darkness… Hiding in the darkness… Cutting the darkness apart! ♪♪

“I understand what you’re saying, Hellhound,” Harpie replied as she lifted a hoof up to her fellow disguised Phantom. “But among the Greater Phantoms, he’s the only one who would be willing to show leniency and even help out others – If what he said is true, then we’d need his aid to defeat these two mages.”

♪♪Because it is a mission inherited from distant, ancient times!♪♪

“But we don’t even know if he’s telling the truth,” Minotaur pointed out. “For all we know, that piece of mane could’ve come from any pony… There’s another option, but I’d rather not mention it…”

♪♪Go! Be like the wind! Makai Swordsman!♪♪

Harpie turned her head away from her two fellow Phantoms, “T-That may be true, but still, what seems more likely? Gremlin killing her for no reason? Or the two mages doing her in because she’s a Phantom?

“Gremlin may be… Well, Gremlin, but even he isn’t crazy enough to attack a comrade with no reason…”

“I might be cray-cray enough to listen to your conversation though,” laughed a jovial voice, which surprised the three Phantoms.

As it turned out, Sora had led the three other Phantoms to a large rocky cave that was near the riverside, the same one that the Cerberus PlaMonster had led Twilight and Fluttershy to earlier. “And it’s rude to talk about somepony like that, especially if they’re right in front of you. Yeesh, and I go out of the way to help you three and this is how I get treated?”

Sora took a deep breath and puffed his cheeks slightly, “If this is how you show gratitude, maybe I should just tell Feenie and Beautiful Bloom about this, since it technically counts as a failure…”

The other three Phantoms’ eyes widened when Sora said that… But when he laughed loudly, the three breathed a sigh of relief, “Nah! I ain’t gonna do something like that! After all, where’s the fun in that?”

“Uh, who’s Beautiful Bloom?” Hellhound asked with his head tilted.

“I think that’s actually…” Minotaur muttered out loud.

“No time!” Sora laughed as he spun around to trot into the cave. “We’ve got so much to do, and the author is losing patience with us wasting so much time in the chapter.”

Meanwhile, across the river in Ponyville…

Pinkie Pie hummed a cheerful tune as she placed a tray of uncooked muffins in the oven – She had a big, big, BIG party to get ready for tomorrow, and she was helping the Cakes with their orders of sweets and baked goods for the party.

But just as she was about to fully place the tray into the oven…

“Hmm?”

The pink mare’s entire body crouched and then bounced into the air, her body almost made of rubber as she bounced against the kitchen’s floor and ceiling, the tray of muffins unfortunately fell to the ground with the mixture being splattered all over the floor.

And just as violently and quickly started bouncing about, she stop and stood in the exact same spot she was a few seconds ago. Her face twisted slightly in confusion before she smiled, “Oooh, somepony’s having fun poking at the fourth wall! I wish I could be there to see how they’re doing it!”

Back at the cave, the group of Phantoms slowly descended into the cave, Sora leading the group. “In case anyone of you are wondering, this cave has a very, very interesting background to us Phantoms…”

“What do you mean, Gremlin?” Harpie questioned.

“Well, you see,” Sora chuckled as he spun around and trotted backwards. “We usually have a Phantom stationed here – Lizardman if I remember. But he wanted a vacation to go on a fishing expedition, so I volunteered to watch the cave for a while.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Harpie sighed loudly with a shake of her head.

“Well, we need to have a guard here,” Sora answered back, leaping up into the air to land on a platform that was behind him. “Don’t want just anypony waltzing into the resting place of the Akumaizer!”

Harpie, Minotaur and Hellhound had to stop for a few moments to look at each other. However, before they could speak, Sora piped up once more with a large grin on his face. “For those of you who don’t know, about thousands of years ago, there was a clan who called themselves the Akuma Clan.

“They were a strong clan, a powerful clan that was once said to traverse the lands of Tartarus and leave without so much as a scratch, and they were known for their magic. However, other ponies and races of this world saw them as monsters, and rightly so: They kinda looked like us Phantoms, but more devilish.

“This cave houses the last three remnants of that very clan – And what we’re gonna do is instill some of their power into you three so you can easily overpower the mages.”

“Why was something like this near Ponyville?” Minotaur questioned.

But Sora never answered, he just turned around and playfully trotted through the cave without answering any more questions that the three other Phantoms had – He just ignored them.

However, it didn’t take long for Sora to lead the crew to a large, stone-cut room that was decorated with ragged curtains and rugs around a large alter.

But what really garnered their attention were the three coffins that were on the ground before the large altar – and Sora simply leapt onto the middle coffin and then onto the altar. “We’re here!!”

“That’s really disrespectful,” Hellhound pointed out.

“Ah, they’re nothing but dust by now,” Sora chuckled as he waved his hoof. “They sure as Tartarus ain’t gonna care. But that dust still contains their magical essence, and with a little patchwork, you’ll all be a lot stronger!”

“And what do you want us to do?” Minotaur questioned as he tapped his hoof on the far left coffin. “If you’re going to suggest us eating that dust…”

“EW!” Sora gagged as he retched with his tongue stuck out. “No! No! That’s just icky! Why would you ever wanna do that?!”

“W-Well… I just thought…” Minotaur muttered out loud.

“Look, it’s just simple to do,” Sora sighed loudly as he pointed towards the coffins. “Just sit on the coffins for a while. That’s all you need to do.”

“For how long?” Harpie asked as she quickly leapt atop of the central coffin and sat down to look at Sora.

“Oh, let’s see…” Sora muttered as he used his right wing to tap the fedora atop his head. From the hat, a rather old pocket watch fell into his hooves. When he looked at the watch for a few moments, Sora lifted his head up. “Shouldn’t take more than a single night for you to get the energy from these old fogies.”

“ALL NIGHT!?!” Hellhound and Minotaur yelled out their complaints.

However, before the two earth stallions could say a word, Harpie leered at the two and they slowly crept onto the other coffins.

“Well, good luck you three!” Sora laughed loudly as he flew through the air and landed at the entrance.

“Wait, you’re not going to stay here?” Harpie questioned with her head tilted.

Sora spun about and shrugged his shoulders. “Are you kidding? Hay no! I got me a life to live, the afternoon’s young and I’m practically immortal! I think I might actually go to that Sugarcube Corner place and eat my body weight in cake! Or I could go moon somepony, nothing like having your flank pressed up against the glass of a boutique or school to hear a bunch of yells and screams.”

“You do realize that most ponies’ flanks are on display most of the time, right?” Minotaur pointed out.

“Details, details, not that I need any,” Sora replied as he waved his hoof a few times at the three. “See you three later! I might just bring you some cup ramen if you still haven’t… I’ll just bring you the cup ramen later. Bye bye!”

And with that, Sora playfully trotted out of the room, leaving the three Phantoms to sit on the coffins – All three of them with a quizzical look on their faces. Harpie sighed loudly as she shook her head, “Gremlin just keeps getting weirder by the day…”

Neither of the three Phantoms noticed that the shadows around the coffins began to warp and form into nefarious forms with glowing red eyes at their heads.

Outside the room, Sora stopped and slowly his face curled up into a smile as – A dark smile that would only appear on those of the most hardened sociopaths, his eyes devoid of the life that most ponies had, ‘Life is so much fun, so much to do and so many ponies to have fun with! Soon, very soon!’

TTT – TTT

It didn’t take long for Twilight and Haru to get back to the library – Although, Haru was a bit frazzled after Twilight explained a few things about what happened before Haru came to Ponyville…

“So, wait, I’m still processing this,” Haru moaned as he rubbed the temples of his head. “How in the world is Nightmare Moon real?”

“Was real,” Twilight corrected as she stopped in front of the door to the library. “As I said, Princess Luna was Nightmare Moon and…”

“NO! STOP! DON’T DO THAT!”

Both Twilight and Haru jumped when they heard that familiar voice – And the two quickly slammed the door just in time to see Spike…

“And that’s Yahtzee,” Dryad announced quietly with a small smile on her muzzle.

Spike sighed loudly and slammed his face into the table with his claws lifted up, “Gagh! That’s fifteen games straight! How do you do that?!”

“Um, s-sorry about that,” Dryad chuckled sheepishly. “I… I never knew that I was good with d-dice…”

“Spike?” Twilight called out, surprising both the baby dragon and disguised Phantom in the library foyer.

With a shifty look, Spike spun about and knocked the materials of the game off of the table with his table and whistled innocently, “O-Oh! Twilight! You found Haru! That’s great!”

When Dryad’s eyes landed on the red dragon at the door, the green mare shrunk slightly and hid behind the table that she was at. This didn’t go unnoticed by Haru as he rubbed the back of his head, “Yeah, uh, hi?”

The disguised mare shrunk back even further, Haru shook his head, “I feel like this I did this before when I first met Fluttershy…”

“Well, to be fair, Fluttershy was afraid of dragons in general,” Twilight explained as she trotted over to the Phantom. “Dryad here is more afraid of both you and a couple of other Phantoms, so she’s nervous of who to trust.”

“Alright, alright, I get the point,” Haru admitted as he stepped towards Dryad, but stopped a few feet from her to keep her distance from her. “So, Twilight tells me that you need help?”

Dryad nodded, but kept her distance from the dragon.

“This feels really awkward,” Haru sighed loudly as he scratched the back of his head. “Well, let’s try this... Hello, my name is Haruto Souma – Haru for short – And I’m, um, well, I’m a mage.”

“I… I know that,” Dryad replied as she lowered her head. “I… I need your… Your help…”

“I know, Twilight told me about your predicament,” Haru stated as he knelt down to be eye level with the mare-disguised Phantom. “I’m a little surprised that you didn’t attack her or Spike, but Twilight’s word make it sound like you wouldn’t want to do that…”

“Y-Yes, I… I don’t want to hurt anypony,” Dryad answered with her head lifted up and a sad look on her face. “M-My family, they… They’ve done so much to hurt you, b-but, I want to help them a-anyway I can. They… They’re all I have l-left… I don’t want them to be killed!”

Haru placed his claws at Dryad’s shoulders and looked her straight in the eyes, surprising the mare, “When I became a Wizard, I made a promise to become the hope of any and everypony I could – If I can’t extend that to a Phantom who needs help, then I’m not worthy of this power I was given.”

“Y… You’ll help?” Dryad asked with tears in the corners of her eyes.

“Of course we’ll help,” Twilight added as Spike and she stepped alongside with Haru. “This is what ponies do for each other – Even if you’re a Phantom, you’ve still got a heart of a pony.”

“I don’t really have much to add,” Spike pointed out with a smile. “But I sent that letter to Princess Celestia, and we should be able to get some response soon…”

“Wait, why’d you do that?” Haru asked with a question mark appearing over his head.

“I hope that we can have Dryad and her family put into protective custody,” Twilight answered back with a smile. “Think about this Haru, if a few of the Phantoms are not eager to attack innocent ponies, then there must be others as well – In addition, who knows that information Dryad and her family has.”

“Um… W-Well, we know what a number of the Phantoms look like,” Dryad answered as she rubbed a hoof against her chin. “And… And there’s one thing I know for sure, but m-mom… Er… I… I mean… H-Harpie would k-know more…”

“Harpie?” Haru questioned with a raised brow. ‘Mom?’

“W-Well, she wants me to refer to it like that,” Dryad answered back. “I-In fact, M-Minotaur and H-Hellhound do too and…”

“Waitwaitwaitwait,” Haru sputtered out. “I recognize those two! Those two are the ones who attacked Applebloom earlier! Minotaur was also the one that attack you Twilight, and he grew to bigger size, and Hellhound’s that one who attacked during the time Gilda was here!”

Twilight bit her lip – That did make her a little nervous to learn that. But what made her more nervous was the narrowed look that Haru was shooting towards Dryad – And his claws were still on her!

“I… I’m sorry!” Dryad cried out, the tears starting to flow from her eyes. “B-But… T-The Greater Phantoms, t-they threatened to d-destroy them and…”

Before she could continue, Haru wrapped his arms around her and pulled her in. This surprised everypony and Spike, and Haru kept his eyes closed.

Twilight watched for a few moments as Haru just embraced Dryad and then she spoke up, “Haru…”

“I have no intention of going back on what I said,” Haru stated. “I will be a light of hope for any and everypony that I can – Even those who have tried to hurt others: So long as they stop trying to hurt others, then I shall do what I can to help.”

Twilight smiled brightly as she watched Haru pull back from Dryad, the shoulder of his jacket stained from the tears. “Still, this will complicate things – I doubt those three would want to talk to me about this, and I don’t want to put anypony at risk for this…”

“T-Then how about you come with to the Everfree Forest?” Dryad offered. “Y-You can be in your funny costume and hide nearby while I speak to them…”

“… Funny costume?” Haru stated flatly with a dulled off look in his eyes.

“T-Then, we can talk about this,” Dryad offered.

“Would they even listen?” Haru muttered as he rubbed his chin.

“It wouldn’t hurt to try,” Twilight offered. “Besdies, if they care for Dryad then…”

“URP!” Spike yelped before he burped loudly with a green flame that erupted from his mouth. The green flame swirled around and transformed into a single rolled up scroll that fell to his claws. “Well, whatever you guys decide, at least we got a reply from the Princess.”

“Well, don’t just stand there, what did she say?” Twilight asked as Spike unfurled the letter.

“I have to open it first, Twilight,” Spike stated. When he finally unrolled the scroll, the baby dragon cleared his voice. “To my precious student, Twilight Sparkle…

Spike has informed me of the situation, and after some careful deliberation, I agree that having these Phantoms in protective custody is probably best.

However, there are a few conditions that must be met for this to happen.

Condition number one: They must not harm any pony in anyway while they are protected, if this is broken, then we will have no choice but to retaliate.

Condition number two: Any information regarding the plots of other Phantoms is to be offered without hesitation.

Condition number three: If the previous two conditions are accepted, then a day after a response to this letter has been sent to me, I shall arrange an escort for them.

From what I read, I feel as though there is more to the Phantoms, and I would appreciate the chance to learn more from them.

“Signed, Princess Celestia,” Spike concluded before he lifted the letter to Twilight.

Twilight looked at the letter to confirm that was indeed what was written on the paper, and with a nod she turned towards Dryad, “Do you think that the other Phantoms would be able to accept these conditions?”

“I… My f-family would,” Dryad answered with a warm smile. “E-Especially if it’s the alternative to b-being… W-Well…”

“Family, eh?” Haru muttered. “You said mom before you corrected yourself to say Harpie – Is it okay for me to assume that…”

“Y-Yes,” Dryad mumbled with a slightly warm smile on her face. “H-Harpie is my mother, Minotaur is my p-papa, and Hellhound is my uncle. It… It’s thanks to Harpie t-that we’re all together… Even after the… The…”

‘The Sabbath,’ Twilight thought to herself, recalling the words that White Wizard had said to her a long time ago.

“An entire family turned into Phantoms…” Haru growled under his breath. “I… I don’t know what to say to that…”

“It… It was bad luck,” Dryad answered, her ears drooped down slightly. But then, her head perked up and she smiled at both Twilight and Haru. “But, t-this is really good luck! We… We can finally be a real family again without having to worry about the other Phantoms!”

“Indeed it is good,” Haru stated as he crossed his arms. “But I’m a little curious about something – Well, a lot of things, but they can wait. You mentioned before Greater Phantoms… Can you explain what exactly they are?”

Dryad shifted slightly and looked around, “W-Well, s-sure. L-Like the name suggests, they… They kind of are the bosses of other Phantoms. T-There are supposed to be three of them, but there are rumors that some Phantoms who c-c-complete their goals can ascend to become a G-Greater Phantom…”

“Three of them?” Twilight asked with a raised brow. “And do you know exactly who they are?”

“Um… Y-Yes?” Dryad answered back nervously. “T-There’s Medusa, she… She’s said to be the strongest of the three, but s-she’s not much for fighting – She… She’s r-really scary…”

“Yeah, tell me about it,” Haru muttered as he rubbed the back of his head. ‘So, she was one of the big bosses…’

“T-Then there’s G-Gremlin,” Dryad added with a puzzled look on her face. “He… Um, well, he’s just odd…”

“Gremlin,” Twilight muttered. ‘That reminds me – That file I had on a Gremlin, didn’t I get that from that one time Sora visited the library? But, I’ve never seen a Phantom like that… Could it be possible that maybe Sora knows something about the Phantoms? Or could it be possible that…’

“And… And then there’s P-Phoenix,” Dryad shivered visibly at the thoughts of that fiery Phantom. “W-While he’s not as strong as M-Medusa… He… He’s much crueler and… And…”

“He’s gone,” Haru interrupted with his chest puffed out. “That means that there’s one less Greater Phantom out there.”

“That is true,” Twilight added. “My friends and I watched Haru defeat Phoenix – Still, he was an odd Phantom: He kept cracking jokes and made weird comments…”

“Um… I… I don’t mean to be rude,” Dryad coughed. “But… But… Phoenix is alive. I… I saw him j-just a couple days ago…”

It took a moment for that to sink in for the two. “WHAT!?!?”

The conversation was way over Spike’s head and had gathered the spilled dice and cup from the floor. With the materials back on the table, he looked towards Garuda, “Alright, I’m pretty sure I can beat you.”

Garuda lifted his wings up and pretended to crack his neck.

TTT – TTT

Later that evening, just as the sun was beginning to set, a familiar mint green pegasus carefully trotted down to the room where the remnants of the Akumizer and where the three Phantoms were. Balanced among his wings were three cups of instant noodles that he carefully held up. “Yoohooo! Sora’s back! And I brought you all food!”

There wasn’t a response, and yet still, Sora continued his descent to the room, a large smile plastered on his face. “I hope you don’t mind, but I got the cheap stuff – Oh, and I didn’t bring any hot water, but I figure that Hellhound there could…”

A soft snarl echoed through the air as the shadows from the room ahead of him flickered about. This caused the pegasus to stop in his tracks, and smile nervously, “I can see you’re busy right now, I’ll come back later.”

Slowly, Sora backed up the path before he spun about and dropped the cupped noodles to the ground as the snarls grew more intense. “Running, running, RUNNING!”

‘AT LEAST IT’S WORKING!!!’

TTT – TTT

There seemed to be an air of uncertainty about Ponyville during the night –Especially when Haru (dressed in his Wizard garb) followed Dryad into the Everfree Forest to find Dyrad’s family… Which was unsuccessful, since the clearing that the Phantoms were at was completely devoid of any sort of Phantoms. Much to the chagrin of both Wizard and Dryad, and as such, Dryad was offered to stay at Golden Oaks Library for the evening.

It would be a sleepless night for Haru.

Golden Oaks Library wasn’t the only place where there would be a night of restlessness for some, back at Sweet Apple Acres…

“… And after I saved the village,” Kosuke laughed as he lifted up a fork of apple pie at Applebloom. “They were so grateful that they all decided to make me their chief!”

“Wow!” Applebloom gasped loudly as she watched Kosuke gulp down the large piece of pie into his beak, Kenny the Kraken squeaked a few times that resembled that of laughter. “That’s amazing Mistah Neato! Yer just as neat as Mistah Souma!”

Kosuke nearly coughed up the pie he was eating, but with a few whaps of his chest, the Griffon swallowed the large piece with a loud sigh. “Just as? What makes him superior?!”

“Well, fer one thing,” Applejack commented with a roll of her eyes as she trotted over to the table that Kosuke and Applebloom were seated at. “He doesn’t put mayonnaise on apple pie.”

“Oh, what’s the diff between mayonnaise and whipped cream?” Kosuke retorted with a large grin on his face.

“How they taste, and what they’re made of,” Applejack replied before she turned towards Applebloom. “But that’s not why Ah’m here, Applebloom, its ‘bout yer bed time, so off ya git. I’ll be up in a sec ta make sure yer in bed.”

Applebloom’s ears drooped a little bit as she heard that from her sister, “Ah… Alright…”

And with that, the small filly slowly ushered herself from the table and headed to the stairs. Kosuke shrugged his shoulders and turned towards Applejack, “Aw, c’mon, not like staying up late one night is gunna hurt the filly. Sides, she seems to like my stories…”

“Yes, but Ah’m nnot so sure that Ah like ya telling her them stories,” Applejack replied as she leered at the griffon. “Sounds like yer stretching the truth there, Mistah Nitoh. That’s something Ah don’t want little Applebloom to do.”

“Ah, I get ya,” Kosuke replied as he cut himself another piece of pie. “I’ll tone it down on the stories, but a lot of that stuff did really happen to me: I mean, I kinda got proof, after all, I bet you wouldn’t believe that I could use magic unless you saw it first hoof, ya know?”

Applejack rolled her eyes, “Yeah, but yer magic certainly ain’t like Mistah Souma’s… But in any case, Ah owe ya some thanks.”

“Hmm?” Kosuke replied with his mouth full of pie that he chewed a little bit.

“Mistah Souma told me that ya stopped that Phantom from hurting Applebloom,” Applejack stated as she pulled her Stetson hat from mane and held in front of her. “And fer that, thank ya kindly.”

A small blush crept on Kosuke’s feathered face before he swallowed whatever pie was in his mouth. “Heh, there’s no need to thank me – I… I mean, it was just coincidence that I was there. Tartarus, I didn’t know she was even your little sister…”

He conveniently left out the fact that he was more interested in eating the Phantom…

“But, if you really want to thank me,” Kosuke chuckled as he stepped away from the table and drew close to Applejack. “How about you let me treat you dinner some time?”

“And how exactly would that let me thank ya?” Applejack questioned with a raised brow as she stepped away from the griffon – He was a little too close for comfort.

“Weeeeelllllll…” Kosuke chuckled as he threw an arm around Applejack’s neck and drew her close. “A candlelit dinner, lovely music, and of course, a beautiful mare to spend the evening with is something that any guy would love to do! Well, any normal guy…”

Applejack sighed as she pulled away from the flirty griffon, “How ‘bout a fresh apple pie fer ya?”

“… That works too,” Kosuke chuckled.

“Good, now, if ya’ll be kind enough,” Applejack stated as she trotted away from the griffon. “Ah’ll be showing ya where ya’ll will be sleeping fer the night. Ah got an earlier mornin’ tomorrow, and Ah have to git Applebloom to that cute-ceañera tomorrow too.”

“Cute-ceañera?” Kosuke muttered under his breath, his memory clicking on once more. “Oh! Hmm… Well, that’s something that’s got the old belfry a thinking. Are you sure that’s a wise idea?”

“Excuse me?” Applejack questioned as she fitted her hat atop of her head. “What in tarnation are ya talkin’ about?”

“I’m no expert in filly psychology,” Kosuke muttered out loud as he ran a talon on the ground a little bit. “I’m more into archeology, of course. But even then, I’m not dull-witted enough to ignore when somepony is in tough times, and I even I know that the time when others in a pony’s age bracket start getting their cutie marks often can be the toughest of times.”

“Ah know that, everypony knows that,” Applejack countered back. “Ah was the last pony in my class to get her cutie mark – Ah know that others can pick on those who don’t have their cutie mark.”

“Then you know what she’s probably going through,” Kosuke replied as he narrowed his eyes at the mare. Then with a loud sigh, Kosuke rubbed the back of his head. “Wait, hold on… Let me try this a different way…”

Applejack watched as the odd griffon in front of her mouthed a few words, possibly in an attempt to make sure that he had everything all set before he spoke up. Then with a snap of his talons, Kosuke had a large smirk on his face, “Alright! I’m all set to present my case! The defense is ready!”

“Ya’ll do realize that isn’t a courtroom, right?” Applejack pointed out as she lowered her eyelids slightly.

The griffon cleared his throat and took a deep breath, “While that is true, allow me to point something out to you dear Applejack – When I was with Applebloom earlier today, making Gliders that would attack us, she shared a little bit of information with me. Her friend, Twist I believe, recently got her cutie mark, making her the last in her class without one.

“She also told me that she had been bullied constantly by two certain fillies – Dunno why she told me though, but whatever. And from what I can gather, one of those fillies, well, that’s the one who’s holding the cute-ceañera that you want Applebloom to go.”

Kosuke sat back on his haunches and crossed his talons over his feathered chest and rubbed his chin in deep thought, ignoring the look that Applejack was giving him. “Now, as it’s plainly obvious, griffons don’t get cutie marks – But we do go through a time period where our bodies change drastically, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse, so I do have a point of reference here.

“I guess what I’m trying to get at is she’s probably not eager to go to a party of a filly who’s been treating her with less than respectable means – She probably might even think that it’s just a means to rub salt in the wounds and that might make things even worse for her in this state.”

Applejack narrowed her eyes and slammed her hoof into the ground a few times. “Dang it!”

Kosuke reeled back slightly. “Um… Yeah, sorry, I don’t mean to sound presumptuous here… Like I said, I’m no psychology major…”

“Ah’m not mad at ya,” Applejack growled before she lowered her head. With a sigh she shook her head, “Ah’m mad at mahself, mah sister didn’t want to tell me ‘bout this…”

“Don’t be like that,” Kosuke replied. “I’m sure she was gonna tell ya, but I was just the griffon who found her – And after having a day like today, I wouldn’t be surprised that she’d spill into anypony or anygriffon that found her.”

“Hmm, then what should Ah do?” Applejack questioned as she lifted a hoof to Kosuke’s feathered chest. “Should Ah keep her from the cute-ceañera tomorrow? From the way yer saying it, she wouldn’t want to go…”

“I’m not saying that at all,” Kosuke answered with a shrug. “She should still go to the party, after all, it’s still something most everypony her age will be attending, and she shouldn’t be left out. But, my advice is to keep an eye on her while there, there’s nothing wrong with a little hazing here and there, but bullying is another matter.

“If she looks like she’s not having a good time and such, then you should step in… That’s your call.”

Applejack sighed. “Yer right… But what ‘bout the Phantoms? Ah really don’t wanna risk…”

That’s when Kosuke puffed out his chest with a large grin on his face, “Well, that’s why ya got me and Dragon on the case! We’ll make sure that not a single Phantom will crash that party!”

A small smile crept on Applejack’s face before she turned around, “Alright, good to hear. Now, how ‘bout ya let me show ya where ya’ll be sleeping?”

TTT – TTT

The night quickly melted into the morning, the sun lit up Ponyville with three figures slowly walking from Sweet Apple Acres – Well, two were walking, Applebloom was on Kosuke’s back, something that the griffon suggested so that she would listen to his stories while Applejack trotted alongside the two…

“And I swear to you, that colorful group protects the railway from bandits!” Kosuke chuckled as he wagged his tail in front of Applebloom. “They could even swap colors! And even though they were made up of different walks of life, it was still confusing to see who was who…”

“Still, Ah can’t believe there are ponies out there that can do that,” Applebloom stated playfully. “Think Ah could get my cutie mark in something like that?”

“Maybe, but Ah think Mistah Neato is makin’ that up,” Applejack said as she changed her gaze from Applebloom to Kosuke. “Ah mean, who ever heard of five ponies that could do that?”

“But Mistah Souma changes his clothes’ colors all the time,” Applebloom pointed out as she waved her hoof at her sister. “And Mistah Neato can do the same too!”

“Yeah, but it’s still an odd tale,” Applejack interjected.

“But it’s true!” Kosuke yelped out. “They fought against these steampunk gangster ponies and they kicked flank! Although, I’m sure there was something about IMAGINATION that made the whole thing goofy…”

“Well, ya certainly have a wild imagination, Mistah Neato,” Applejack sighed as she trotted ahead. “Now let’s hurry, we gotta meet up with Twilight and…”

“Ooh! There’s Mistah Souma!” Applebloom announced as she pointed a hoof ahead at the trail.

And indeed, Haru was a few yards ahead on the path, but he was actually laying the ground with his jacket balled up behind his head. It was easy to see that the dragon was asleep as a small cloud of smoke billowed out from his mouth every time he exhaled. The two mares and griffon reached the dragon, who was sound asleep.

Applebloom leapt off of Kosuke as he stepped closer to the dragon, “Heh, and this is my rival mage? Yeesh, how can he sleep out here like this?” The griffon brought his talon to Haru’s right should and began to shake the dragon awake. “Oi, get up! What are you doing here? And why the hay are you sleeping here?”

A small smile appeared on Haru’s face as he sat up, but his eyes were closed. The dragon licked his chops as he grabbed the griffon’s talon, “M… Mmmm, breakfast time?”

*KER-RUNCH!!*

“YEEE-OOOW!”

Two minutes later, Haru was wide awake with his tongue stuck out and Kosuke now nursing the new bite mark he had on his arm with tears in his eyes. The Apple sisters tried to cover up their snickers, but failed quite miserably.

“Why would you bite?!” Kosuke barked as he waved his talon a few times.

Haru ran his claws over his tongue a few times before he shook his head, “Wasn’t a joy for me either, you taste horrible! Bleh! I’m gonna need a couple of plain sugar donuts to get that horrible taste out.”

“Mistah, *snrk*, Souma, what are ya’ll doing out here?” Applejack questioned, getting the last of her snickers out of her system. “Ah thought Twilight told ya that we’d meet you and her at Sugarcube Corner…”

“Yeah, well, I really couldn’t sleep last night,” Haru answered as he slipped his jacket over his form. “So, when it was a little earlier, I thought I’d stay here for a while… I must’ve dozed off.”

Haru yawned and stretched his arms over his head, “I didn’t mean to fall asleep… But in any case, shall we be off?”

Applebloom’s ears drooped slightly, “A-Alright.”

Applejack sighed as she turned towards Haru and Kosuke, “Would ya two mind hanging back fer a little bit? Ah need to talk to mah sister fer a little.”

Both Haru and Kosuke nodded and watched as Applejack follow her sister. The two mages then turned to each other, with Haru kicking up some dirt with his claws, “So, yeah, I’m sorry that I bit ya…”

“Heh, if that’s enough to make you sorry,” Kosuke laughed with a wave of his talon. “Then I should be groveling for forgiveness for trying to smack ya upside the head yesterday. I mean, I’m not gonna, but I’m still sorry – After our little talk yesterday, I think we can come to an understanding, just so long as I can do a little hunting and quell Khimera’s hunger, I think we can work together to stop them Phantoms!”

The dragon rubbed the back of his head, this wasn’t going to be easy to explain to the griffon, but he had no other choice. “Yeah, about that – Kosuke, there’s something that I need to talk to you about. Last night, a Phantom came to me, and she asked for help.”

“Help? Help with what?” Kosuke inquired as he lifted a talon up to his beak. “Why would a Phantom want to get help from a mage – Especially when we’re practically the natural enemies to Phantoms…”

“Well, she actually doesn’t want to hurt anypony,” Haru stated as he rubbed his chin. “Hmm…”

“But you don’t trust her?” Kosuke commented.

“Maybe,” Haru answered back as he looked towards the sky. “But she didn’t attack Twilight when she was alone, and Twilight’s a Gate as well…”

“Twilight? Oh! That fine librarian!” Kosuke chuckled loudly with a snap of his talons.

Haru didn’t know if he liked how Kosuke referred to Twilight as that…

“Whoa, she’s one of those gates?” Kosuke muttered out loud. “Huh, think it was wise to leave her with the Phantom?”

“Twilight’s not one to be taken lightly,” Haru replied after he wagged a claw at the griffon. “But I gotta ask a favor from ya – Those Phantoms we saw yesterday? Don’t defeat them, or eat them in your case.”

Kosuke’s eyes widened and the griffon immediately narrowed at the dragon before him, “What?! Why?!”

“It’s part of the deal we made with her,” Haru answered back. “These Phantoms are being threaten with destruction by other Phantoms, and they’ll offer information about the Phantoms’ goals and movements. If other Phantoms don’t want to stop, then you can help stop them and eat them.”

“Hmm, I dunno,” Kosuke replied as he used his tail to whap a rock against a tree. “This doesn’t sit right with me – Can you even trust this Phantom? I’ve had to eat a couple, and they aren’t really the most trustworthy and honorable. I was always curious why they kept trying to get after someponies, but I was more preoccupied with getting Khimera filled up.”

“I get what you’re saying,” Haru admitted as he looked down at the ring on his left claw. “But I wanna hope that there’s some portion of good in the Phantoms. It certainly would make things easier.”

With his shoulders slumped and head lowered, Kosuke sighed loudly. After a moment, he lifted his head up with a disgruntled look on his beak, “If what you told me yesterday was true, then I’m still not so sure we can trust these Phantoms – Especially since I kinda need them to keep alive…

“But, so long as they don’t cause trouble, I guess I can go hungry for a little bit – I got used to it when I was coming here.”

“I’m glad you can see that way,” Haru sighed with a look of relief.

“However, ya know if they do try something,” Kosuke pointed out as he jabbed a talon onto Haru’s chest. “All bets are off – I get to do my hunting.”

“Of course,” Haru answered back. “While I hope that we don’t have to do that, I know that it’s a possibility.”

“By the way, I think it’s a possibility that the mares left us behind,” Kosuke pointed out as the gestured to the path to see that Applejack and Applebloom had trotted quite a bit ahead of them.

“Ah plop,” Haru sighed.

TTT – TTT

“Hello? You three still alive?”

Sora quietly crept through the caves, his breath now stilled when he heard the growls that emanated from the Akumizer’s resting place. Even as a Phantom, the mint green pegasus couldn’t help but take pause whenever he saw the shadows that danced from the room, not helped with the fact that the sound of steel against steel echoed through the caves. And it seemed the closer he got to the room, the more savage the sounds became, even with the occasional wet smacking sound that was less scrupulous…

The sound of steel that ripped through flesh.

It sent shivers down Sora’s spine, and yet there was a smile on his face that grew larger every passing second.

And when he reached the room, Sora had to stifle his snickering at the sight before him in the room…

“Oh… So majestic…” He cooed at the sight in tomb of the Akumizer.

Within the tomb, the three Phantoms that he brought were still in the room, but there was a definite change to them – Their armor had changed color now: Mintoaur’s bluish green armor was now gun metal gray, and the black to Hellhound’s armor was now a pure white with blue trim to it. The two had drawn their weapons, a halberd for Minotaur and a sword with Hellhound, and attacked each other, sparks erupted whenever they crossed blows.

The two Phantoms were fast, their attacks were almost a blur and every once in a while, the two occasionally struck the other with their weapons, and yet they continued as if nothing had hit them. What was odd was that both their eyes glowed a deep crimson, and with each set of blows that exchanged, the fire in their eyes grew more intense.

“Hmm? I thought there were three?” Sora mused as he stepped into the room.

That’s when several black feathers began to fall from the air which caused Sora to blink a few times and he looked up into the higher parts of the cavern. Perched at the rocks near the ceiling of the room was Harpie herself – Her white feathers now a pitch black and her green armor now a deep blood red. She watched as the other two Phantoms continued their sparing match, until her eyes landed Sora himself.

The green pegasus smirked wildly, his eyebrows raised, and he brought a hoof to his mouth, “Ooh, this is perfect! They’ve been corrupted by the Akumizer… So it wasn’t just a theory, ooh, I wonder what this means…”

With a snarl, Harpie leapt from her perch and immediately landed in front of Sora, her eyes piercing into his. However, she didn’t say a word as she leered at the pegasus, and soon, the other two Phantoms turned their attention towards Sora and slowly walked alongside their winged companion.

Sora rubbed his front hooves together as he smiled brightly, “Hel~lo! Good to see you’re all up and ready! And with a spiffy new paint job to boot! Looking classy!”

The three Phantoms didn’t say a word as they leered at Sora. The green pegasus smiled brightly, “OOOH! Looks like you’re not anything like your previous selves! You’re almost complete monsters! Amazing!”

Both Minotaur and Hellhound lifted their weapons up towards Sora, ceasing his laughter immediately. “Uh… uh oh…”

TTT – TTT

“Yeesh, you put a little dollop of mayonnaise on a cupcake, and you’re ostracized.”

“You do realize that we were party-crashing, right?”

"She was just jealous that Mayonnaise was better than frosting!”

“That’s not what that little filly said..." Haru sighed loudly to himself. Both he and Kosuke stood outside Sugarcube Corner, making sure to keep their distance from the building as requested. Even with the plate of donuts that Pinkie Pie provided wasn’t enough to quell Haru’s boredom or Kosuke’s complaints.

Although, when Kosuke had spread Mayonnaise on a few of the donuts…

“You see, this is why you got kicked out,” Haru stated as he lifted up one of the only three donuts that managed to escape the onslaught of mayonnaise. “Who puts mayonnaise on a donut?”

“Who doesn’t put mayonnaise on a donut?” Kosuke replied before he tossed a donut into his beak.

“That doesn’t make sense,” Haru pointed out with a flat look on his eyes.

“Or it makes perfect sense,” Kosuke countered.

With a second sigh, Haru turned his attention back towards the party in the building. When the small group met up with Twilight and Dryad, they immediately made their way into the party – Which consisted mostly colts and fillies, which made sense since it was a cute-ceañera. So, a grown up griffon and a dragon at the party would probably raise a few alarms amongst the parents and guardians.

“I swear, youngsters have no respect for their elders,” Kosuke spat with a few bits of donut from his mouth.

“I doubt that they hold respect for griffons who talk with their mouth full,” Haru pointed out with his brow raised. “That reminds me, how old exactly are you?”

“Me? Turning twenty-two this year,” the griffon answered with his chest puffed out. “And I’ve already made a name for myself!”

“Hmm, well, I’m younger than you at the very least,” Haru chuckled under his breath.

“Wait, what?” Kosuke grumbled as he looked Haru up and down a few times. “I knew dragons grew faster, but, aren’t dragons supposed to be a little bit taller in their teens?”

“You’re thinking of western dragons,” Haru answered with a shrug. “For an Eastern dragon, I’m a bit taller…”

“So, are you a blend?” Kosuke questioned with a rub of his beak. “You’re not serpentine and from what I can guess, you don’t have wings…”

“GAHHH! H-HELP!”

Both Haru and Kosuke blinked when they heard that cry for help, both of the mages looked about to see where it came from. However, when a second yell echoed through the air, their eyes locked onto a green blur that had another black blur following it while two bursts of flames flew from the ground below.

“Huh, that’s something you don’t see every day,” Kosuke muttered as he turned to the side. “Think that’s…”

Kosuke blinked a few times when he saw that Haru was already running forward, and the griffon sighed at the sight of the donuts, “Gah, such a waste. Oh well, I might be able to have something else to eat!”

Unbeknownst to the two mages, Twilight watched the two from Sugarcube corner, and saw them as they ran off.

Meanwhile…

“GAH! Is this about the time I stole your food?!” Sora yelled out before Harpie swooped down on him, the green pegasus barely dodged the attack. “The time I accidentally put red dye in your mane?! Or did you want something more suitable than cup-o-noodles?!”

Harpie flew about and attempted to strike the pegasus with her talons once more, meanwhile, Minotaur and Hellhound were on hot pursuit on the ground, occasionally used their abilities over fire to launch projectiles through the air towards him.

Normally, the Pegasus would’ve been able to outfly any of them – But his right wing filled with bloodied feathers, he wasn’t flying at top condition.

WHAM!

And there goes the other wing, the green feathers now dyed with blood, which unfortunately meant one thing – Gravity would soon take effect.

Sora turned and said, “Oh, you’re despicable.”

And then, just like that, he plummeted towards the ground.

With his hooves atop of his hat (he’d rather die than lose the Windscale fedora), Sora yelled out as the ground below quickly drew ever closer. Still, he closed his eyes and waited for said impact that would eventually turn him into green pony/Phantom paste…

“EXTEND – PLEASE!”

And yet, that moment never came.

Sora opened his eyes and realized that an insanely long, red dragon arm was wrapped around his waist and had caught him. His eyes trailed down to see Haru with a red magic circle that his right arm had shot through and was connected to the claws that saved him.

Immediately, Haru brought Sora down to the ground and had his arm return to its normal length, “You okay to run?”

Sora’s face curled up into a bright smile. “Why… Yes I am!”

Harpie immediately landed on the ground, with the air being pushed away from where she landed before the dragon and stallion. From behind Harpy, the corrupted Minotaur and Hellhound walked up.

Haru raised an eyebrow, “What the? They’re… They’re different…”

“Yes, well, they just started trying to kill me!” Sora pleaded out as he leapt behind Haru, hiding behind the dragon. “They’re crazy!”

‘Is this stallion a gate?’ Haru thought as he kept his gaze locked on the three Phantoms. ‘But… Something’s not right here. These three, I’ve seen these Phantoms before, but they’re completely different from before – And not just with their coloring scheme.

‘I… I can feel a darkness from them that’s different…’

“OI!”

Haru’s gaze turned slightly just in time to see Kosuke skid to a stop right next to him, “Heh, looks like three tasty morsels just appeared! Let’s see if my attacks are super effective!”

“Not so fast,” Haru stated with his claws lifted up. “First we need to get this stallion some…”

But when Haru turned back, Sora was gone. “Uh… Okay…”

Meanwhile, in a nearby tree…

“Ooh, this’ll be a fun little thing to watch,” Sora chuckled as he aimlessly kicked his legs about from the tree branch. Oddly enough, the blood that was on his wings had disappeared and he was back to complete normalcy… Well, as normal as a Phantom could be.

Back at the confrontation…

“Alright, he must’ve run off,” Haru replied as he lifted his claws up defensively towards the three Phantoms who stared down both mages. “Listen, you’re the three who Dryad considers family, right?”

The three Phantoms didn’t answer.

“She’s worried about you three,” Haru continued. “So worried that she came to me to ask for help – And I can do so, everything can…”

Kosuke immediately tackled into Haru, just in time to make sure that the two weren’t struck by two fiery blasts. The flames flew up into the air as the two mages stood up to see that Minotaur and Hellhound had their free hands lifted up with smoke smoldering from them.

“Looks like they’re not interested in listening,” Kosuke stated as he stood up on his hind legs.

Haru closed his eyes and pushed himself off of the ground as he slipped a ring on, “… I didn’t want it to come to this…”

“DRIVER ON! PLEASE!”

“DRIVER – ON!”

“I’m not gonna go all out,” Kosuke replied as with a wild smirk. “If they’re not willing to listen, then we’ll smack them around for a little till they do! Nothing lethal though.”

Haru smiled back as he lifted his ring up. “Thanks Kosuke… I don’t… I don’t know what to say to this.”

“I’m sure you got one thing to say…” Kosuke replied as he struck his pose.

FLAME! PLEASE!

Hii-hii! Hii-Hii-Hii!

SET – OPEN!

L – I – O – N! LION!

The two red and golden mythical runes appeared before Haru and Kosuke, and engulfed them to have their bodies covered in their oval-cut, ruby armor and beastly golden armor, respectively. All the while, the three Phantoms watched the transformation.

With the embers of his transformation fading away, Wizard lifted his left claws up to show off the Flame Style Ring. “It’s… showtime!”

“It’s lunctime!” Beast announced as he drew his rapier from his belt.

“I’m not sure if I like you parodying my catchphrase,” Wizard stated as he slipped a new ring on his left claw and threw it over his belt.

“CONNECT – PLEASE!”

“Meh, don’t worry about the little stuff!” Beast roared out before he charged forward as Wizard drew his own sword from the rune that appeared.

Wizard quickly followed after the golden mage, all the while the three Phantoms stood still, however, just when Beast was about to slash his rapier down on Hellhound, the corrupted Phantom quickly brought his sword up to block the attack. Then, with Beast’s attack halted, Hellhound tackled into Beast and drove him away from the other two Phantoms.

It was then that Minotaur and Harpie charged towards Wizard, the former with his halberd with a low sweep and Harpie bringing her wings up to get the dragon from above. However, Wizard leapt over the attacks, all the while changing his sword into its gun form. When he landed behind the two, he quickly spun around and fired a couple of rounds into the two Phantoms as they turned around, which made them stagger back slightly…

But then Minotaur charged towards Wizard quickly.

With barely enough time, Wizard unfolded the gun portion into the sword and caught Minotaur’s wild charge, but the force that Minotaur had behind his charge forced the masked dragon back, his boots actually skidded through the grassy ground. “Gagh!”

Meanwhile, Beast was dealing with Hellhound, both of them exchanging slashes that the other blocked with their individual swords. However, every time Beast saw an opening…

“DAMN IT! STOP SLIPPING INTO THOSE SHADOWS!”

When Beast took a slash at Hellhound, the white armored Phantom dove into nearby shadows and leapt out from Beast’s to continue his onslaught. However, while Hellhound had the agility, Beast was able to block the assaults. And when he caught the current attack, Beast spun around and slammed his hind paw into Hellhound’s stomach and sent the Phantom through the air.

“You wanna do disappearing tricks?” Beast stated as he changed the ring on his right talon. “You got it!”

Beast threw the ring into the slot on his belt.

“CHAMELEO! Go, Cha-Cha-Cha-Cha-Chameleo!”

Beast threw his right hand over to the side and the green Runic Symbols flew over his arm and the chameleon head mantle appeared over his shoulder, the tongue flowed along with the fabric hiding his arm. “Now you see me…”

Beast crossed his arms and slowly faded away. “Now you don’t!”

Hellhound staggered about, trying to figure out where Beast would strike… But he wouldn’t wait long, as a long silver streak of metal appeared out of nowhere and wrapped around his body. The fiery Phantom shuffled about trying to break out, but Beast reappeared a yard or so away with the tongue of the Chameleo mantle the source of the metal streak.

With a slight laugh, Beast wrapped his left talon around the tongue and pulled immediately, which forced Hellhound through the air. “GET OVER HERE!”

Before Hellhound could react, Beast pulled his left talon back and slammed his fist into Hellhound’s face. With the Chameleo Mantle’s tongue now uncoiled around Hellhound’s body, the Phantom went flying through the air, right towards…

“GAH! HEY DRAGON!” Beast called out. “HEADS UP!”

Wizard lifted his head up and used his tail to flip propel himself over Minotaur, which caused the Phantom to stagger a little bit. But as Minotaur turned around, Hellhound crashed into the horned Phantom.

“Boo-ya!” Beast cheered out with a pump of his arm. “We’re awesome! We’re kicking flank! We’re…”

“Not paying attention!” Wizard shouted.

The armored griffon tilted his head slightly and shrugged his shoulders, “What? Can’t I gloat a little bit? We got these two on the… Wait… Two?”

At that very moment, Harpie swooped down and wrapped her talons at Beast’s shoulders. The Phantom lifted Beast off of the ground. The golden mage yelled out as he was immediately brought up high into the air. “WWAAAAH!”

Wizard shook his head before he turned back to see that Minotaur and Hellhound were back on their feet and had their weapons drawn. “Kosuke can handle himself, I guess that leaves you two for me…”

Wizard swapped rings on his left claw and threw it before his belt. “WATER DRAGON!”

A large blue circle appeared before Wizard, and a dragon made completely out of water erupted from the runic circle. As the dragon flew around Wizard’s body, his black cloak turned a bright blue with the rubies turning into demimonde-cut sapphires. “Jabajaba, Bashan! Zabun, Zabun!”

Wizard waved his arms before he circled them in front of his chest.

Neither Minotaur or Hellhound were impressed and lifted their weapons up before they charged towards Wizard. The masked dragon slipped another ring on his right hand and threw it in front of his belt. “BIND – PLEASE!”

Just as the two Phantoms were about the strike the blue clothed Wizard, several chains of ice wrapped around the two Phantoms’ limbs and bound the two where they stood. Wizard tilted his head towards the two, but kept his distance, “I don’t know what the Tartarus has gotten into you two, but you’re going to listen!”

The two Phantoms continued to struggle to break free from their bindings, but the ice wasn’t even cracking. Wizard continued, “Dryad came to me and my friend, one whom both of you had attacked! So, when she told me that she wanted help with you two, I’ll admit that I didn’t really want to help her or you…

“But she cried, she told me she didn’t want to lose her family again! So, stop this senseless fighting, and let me help you!”

Minotaur and Hellhound breathed deeply, with Minotaur snorting flames.

Ker-RACK!

Wizard stepped back when a large crack appeared in the ice. “If you continue, then I won’t have any choice! Don’t do this!”

Both Phantoms roared and shattered the ice, which allowed Wizard to flip backwards and grab his sword that he had thrown on the grass earlier. Both Phantoms lifted their weapons up and focused in on the dragon before them.

“HARU!”

Wizard turned slightly to the side just in time to see Twilight and Dryad gallop alongside the blue clothed dragon. “You two, no! You need to get out of here!”

“N-No!” Dryad replied with a shake of her head. “Please! You said that you’d help!”

“I am!” Wizard answered back. “But you can clearly see they’re acting strange and…”

“WAAAAH!”

Beast landed face first into the ground, with a loud smack that made the two mares and Wizard reel back slightly. And then Harpie gently flew from the sky and landed before Minotaur and Hellhound, her wings now crossed.

“Are you alright, Kosuke?” Twilight asked as the armored griffon began to push himself up.

“Ugh, after this is over, I’ll need some mayonnaise on fried potatoes,” Beast spat out.

Dryad galloped past Kosuke to get to her family, “Please! Stop! We don’t have to do this anymore! The R-Ring mage promised that we could be safe as long as we…”

WHAM!

Harpie slammed her wing into Dryad’s face, and knocked the mare to the side with a large bruise on her face. Minotaur then lifted his halberd over his head with his eyes narrowed down on Dryad.

Wizard reached for his ring of belts, “NO!”

However, before Wizard was able to reach his rings, Minotaur brought the axe down…

CLANK!

The halberd collided against a large, purple runic circle that had appeared over Dryad’s form, the circle had a familiar mark in the center of it. And Wizard turned to see Twilight’s horn glowed with her magical energy, “Uh, Twilight? That… That kinda looks familiar…”

“We’ll talk about it later!” Twilight replied as the magical runes wrapped around Dryad and pulled her away.

Wizard nodded as he pulled a different ring from his belt as Twilight pulled Dryad away with her magic.

“I guess this means that we can’t hold back any more?” Beast asked as he swapped rings on his right talon.

Wizard sighed and nodded. When the three Phantoms began to stalk forward, Wizard lifted his head towards them, “I’m sorry.”

Both mages threw the new rings to their belts, and the MUSIC began to sound out from their belts.

“DOPLHI! GO!”

“Nice Choice – SPECIAL!”

Beast threw his right talon to the side as a blue runic circle crawled over his arm, transforming the Chameleo Mantle dark blue with the dolphin armor piece over it. “Do-Do-Do-Do-DOLPHI!”

Meanwhile, the same watery dragon flowed over Wizard’s body before it crashed into his back, “THE BEST!”

Wizard looked about, “No dragon head on my chest, no wings? What’s this one supposed to do?”

Beast chuckled as he tapped Wizard’s shoulder, “Heh, I didn’t know you got tail extensions.”

“Huh?” Wizard muttered as he turned back to see that his normally clothed tail had been replaced by an extremely large silver tail that ended with golden spikes on it. “Heh, well, this’ll be interesting to say the least.”

The three Phantoms charged again, Hellhound and Minotaur on the ground with their weapons while Harpie took to the air.

“High or low?” Beast asked as he drew his rapier.

“High,” Wizard replied before his steel covered tail slammed into the ground. The force of the tail was enough to propel him high into the air and faster than Harpie could fly.

Wizard twisted his body about and slammed his mighty tail into Harpie’s back, which flung her back to the ground right in front of Minotaur and Hellhound, which forced the two other Phantoms to stop to make sure that they didn’t get hit by the fallen Phantom.

However, that left them wide open as Beast had quickly leapt up into the air as well and slammed both of his boot covered paws into both of the Phantom’s chests which forced them back.

Both Mages landed back on the ground, the two of them looked to each other with Wizard gesturing towards the mantle. “So, does that just give you healing capabilities?”

“Not just that, but it makes me at my fastest,” Beast chuckled with his arms crossed. “It’s also handy when I need to go swimming and sometimes even get water when I’m not near a stream or something…”

“Hmm…” Wizard mused as he turned to the side. “Think you can keep them busy for a minute?”

“HUH!?” Beast yelped as he pointed towards himself. “I know I’m a tough guy, but even I can tell when I’d be overrun!”

“It’ll only be for a minute,” Wizard replied before he ran off to the side.

“Oi, oi!” Beast growled as he shook his fist at Wiard. However before he could further his complaints, he jumped to the side just in time to dodge a thrown halberd. “WHOA!”

Beast ducked at the last second as Hellhound had leapt from the shadows to slash at him. “GAH! JUST HURRY UP!”

Wizard dashed as quickly as he could to where Twilight was helping Dryad recover, her horn aglow to heal the bruise that was on Dryad’s face.

“Haru,” Twilight stated as she watched Beast fend off Hellhound and Minotaur. “What’s going on? Why did they attack Dryad?”

“Something’s not right here,” Wizard answered. “From what I can recall, Minotaur and Hellhound there weren’t the most eloquent with their words, but they still spoke – And yet I… I’m not getting anything from these three…”

“I… I don’t know what’s going on,” Dryad sniffled as she brought a hoof to her bruised face. “They… They never struck me, even after we were turned into Phantoms…”

“Dryad, what do you want us to do?” Twilight asked as she garnered the attention of the Phantom. “We both saw that when Haru tried to bind them, it didn’t last long… And if they’re like this, who knows what they’ll do to Ponyville.

Dryad’s ears drooped slightly, “I… I don’t know… I…”

Wizard sighed and stood up. “I’m sorry…”

And with that, Wizard dashed back towards the fight as Twilight and Dryad watched with their eyes widened.

“NO!”

Beast slipped past Minotaur’s wide punches and Hellhound’s slashes with everything he had, so much so that he couldn’t counter attack. However, when a powerful tail slammed into Hellhound’s body, Beast spun about and sent a powerful kick right to the side of Minotaur’s head.

Both Phantoms were flung to the side and both mages stood with their backs to each other. Beast looked over his shoulder, “So, I take it we’re ending this?”

“Unfortunately,” Wizard stated as he slipped another ring over his claws on his right hand.

Kosuke nodded and jammed the ring on his right talon into the slot on his belt. “Well then… I guess we should do this. It’s time for the main dish!

“But I know it’s gonna leave a sour taste in my mouth.”

As Kosuke turned the ring, a loud squeak of a dolphin sounded out and his blue mantle began to glow brightly. “GO! BEAST MAGIC! DOLPHI MIX!”

Hellhound got back to his feet and charged towards Beast, his sword now ignited with a black flame over it. The corrupted Phantom closed the gap as a large amount of water appeared in Beast’s right talon.

“VERY NICE – BLIZZARD!”

As Minotaur snorted loudly and ran towards Wizard, a small runic circle that appeared in front of Wizard’s right claw, several snowflakes flew from the circle. “THE BEST!”

Both Phantoms continued their assault towards the two mages, who in turn dashed forward as well – Minotaur kept his horns locked on Wizard, while Hellhound had leapt through the air. Wizard threw his right arm up towards the oncoming Minotaur while beast dipped to the side as Hellhound’s attack and threw his right talon at the Hellhound’s side.

The surge of water from Beast’s talon slammed into Hellhound and propelled the Phantom high into the air, all the while a powerful blizzard flew from Wizard’s runic ring with snow and ice crashed into Minotaur, which immediately froze the Phantom in place with a fine layer of frost covering it.

With a loud smack, Hellhound landed on the ground a few yards away and squirmed in pain while Minotaur was a brand new icy statue in the grassy plains.

Beast sighed before he felt a tap on his shoulder, when he turned he was greeted with the sight of Wizard’s magically imbued tail now rested on his shoulder. “EH?!”

“You held back, didn’t you?” Wizard stated, not even looking back at the surprised mage behind him.

“Look who’s talking,” Beast growled as he pushed the tail off. “I told ya, it’d leave a bad taste in my mouth. Besides, I’ll be fine: Khimera’s still rather full from the last time he ate, so it’s no big deal.”

“Heh,” Wizard chuckled.

From far away, Twilight smiled as she watched the two mages walk away from the downed Phantoms. She then turned to see that Dryad had tears in her eyes, but had a smile on her face nonetheless. ‘Haru, you kept your word and… Wait…’

Twilight’s eyes widened. “Haru! Kosuke! What about Harpie?!”

Both mages turned towards each other silently.

That’s when a large shadow flew over them towards Twilight and Dryad, Wizard and Beast shook their heads and ran towards the two mares when they realized that Harpie dove towards the two.

Twilight’s horn lit up and the same barrier that she had called upon earlier appeared around her and Dryad. And yet, Harpie continued her deadly divebomb towards the two with a loud screech. The two mages raced as fast as their legs could carry them, but they weren’t going to be able to make it in time to stop the corrupted Phantom’s assault…

WHAM!

However, before Harpie reached the barrier around the two mares, to jet black armored feet crashed into her face and sent her spiraling through the air at the two mages. Wizard and Beast stepped to the side as Harpie crashed into the ground past them. “What the?”

The two armored feet that struck Harpie landed on the ground before Twilight and Dryad, both of the mares looked up to see the green armored back of the one who attacked Harpie. The figure sighed under his breath, “Yeesh, this is such a pain… Then again, I might be able to have some fun…”

“N-No…” Dryad gasped as she slunk behind Twilight. “It’s... It’s…”

“Gremlin,” Twilight finished as the green armored Phantom craned his head around.

Gremlin tilted his head slightly, “Oh my, at least these two are admirers – Well, that’ll make this fun.”

Harpie quickly got back to her talons and leapt through the air, flying past the two mages and towards Gremlin… Who was looking at the claws on his hand. With a loud screech Harpie spun about to have her talons ready to stab into Gremlin…

WOOSH!

Twilight blinked and saw that Harpie flew over her head, several glowing cuts now covered her body. She turned towards Gremlin to see that now he held onto two giant, scissor-like reverse blades in his claws, both of them glowed with the same energy that covered Harpie.

With a loud clank, Gremlin slammed his blades together and then the green energy over Harpie’s body grew over her body before she exploded into a surge of energy that flowed through the air. Everyone at the scene watched as the energy flowed away, scattered through the air.

“Hehehehe… Well, that was boring.” In a puff of smoke, the blades in Gremlin’s hands disappeared and he threw his arms behind his head. That’s when a certain rapier and steel covered dragon tail appeared around his neck. “Hmm? Oh my, what’s with this development?”

“Looks like the second course is tantalizing,” Beast stated as he kept his rapier up to Gremlin’s neck.

“Who exactly are you?” Wizard growled, making sure the sharp steel of his tail was kept at Gremlin’s neck as well. “And why did you kill… Huh?”

Gremlin disappeared from between the two mages.

“Oi, oi! Should you really be acting like that to the hero of this story?”

Everyone turned to see that Gremlin stood over Hellhound, his foot now atop of the fallen Phantom’s chest. Gremlin pushed harder with his foot and made Hellhound cry out in pain. “After all, aren’t these three the ones who you were just fighting? Weren’t they the ones who were a constant thorn in your side? Weren’t they the ones who have attacked you multiple times?

“I’m just doing what you two don’t have the guts to do – You hear a sob story, and it makes you want to spare your enemy? Despite how this world looks, you cannot ignore the black and white truth that you’ll be killed by enemies like this unless you kill them!”

Gremlin lifted his foot high up into the air, and delivered a powerful drop kick to Hellhound’s stomach, which made the Phantom cry out in pain before he shattered into countless sparks that glittered through the air.

“STOP IT!” Wizard roared loudly as he leapt through the air and spun around to have his steel covered tail slam into Gremlin. When Wizard landed on the ground, he saw that Gremlin was no long in front of him.

“Did you not want to dirty your hands with blood? Such a pointless endeavor.”

Wizard flinched and he turned to see that Gremlin was top of the tip of his steel covered tail, “How?”

“This is reality – Not some mare’s tale,” Gremlin stated with his head tilted forward slightly, as if he struggled to stave off slumber. “Nothing is as easy as you may think it is – Every action has a reaction: Do you think that by sparing these three Phantoms everything would be alright?

“No, they would just keep coming, destroying everything in their path, they’re almost like a natural disaster…”

“For a morsel, you sure like to talk!”

Gremlin didn’t even turn when Beast leapt behind him and brought his rapier down on the green armored Phantom. However, when the blade connected with Gremlin’s shoulder, the Phantom disappeared in a cloud of green smoke. “H-Huh!?”

“It’s rather sad when you think about it…”

Both mages turned to see that Gremlin was now leaned up against the frozen Minotaur, with a large cartoonish mallet now on the ground with his hands rested on the handle. “A Phantom is nothing more than the remains of the being who was destroyed – Mostly made up of hatred, spite, jealousy, and countless other emotions that would tarnish this world…”

Kicking the metallic part of the mallet up, Gremlin lifted the mallet over his shoulder. “Phantoms, we don’t belong in this world – we’re nothing more than stains on this world: And as such…”

Before anyone could move, Gremlin slammed the mallet into Minotaur and shattered the frozen Phantom into millions of pieces. With Minotaur destroyed, Gremlin fell to the ground and crossed his legs. “Whew! As such, someone needs to cleanse this world.”

Dryad fell to the ground, her face stained with tears while Twilight leered at Gremlin. “You… You’re a monster!”

“I won’t deny that,” Gremlin answered as he tilted his head. “I am a monster in your eyes, but perhaps in the eyes of others, I’m a hero. After all, I vanquished three dangerous monsters that would’ve burned this town to the ground without batting an eye. I just showed up to do what you two mages couldn’t, and I even helped out by saving those two mares.”

Gremlin stood up and dusted off his armored pants. “So, while this has been fun, I think I’ll go take a nap.”

“Hold it!”

Gremlin stopped and turned to see Wizard stand right behind him, his tail poised and ready to attack. “Hmm? Would you really attack me? I’ve done naught to deserve that – I’ve not attacked anypony, all I did was remove a few stains from this world…

“Made it a lot more cheery…”

“Why?”

“Huh? Why what?” Gremlin questioned.

Wizard pumped his fist towards Gremlin, “Why would you attack your fellow Phantoms? Why would you destroy them?”

“Is that all?” Gremlin asked as he gestured towards Dryad. “Why would she appear to you for help? After all, she herself is a Phantom. I’ll give you a reason right here and now…

“While it is true that a number of us Phantoms are nothing more than embodiments of sin and despair, there are a hoofful of exceptions to this rule. In fact, I’m one of the few that actually managed to retain their original selves after that one incident…”

Gremlin then rubbed his chin, “In fact – My little ring mage, you’ve caught my attention quite well. After all, you and I… Mage and Phantom… We’re alike…”

“We’re nothing alike,” Wizard growled before he spun around to whip his tail into Gremlin.

However, the green armored Phantom disappeared from sight. “Ohyohohohoho! Soon Wizard, very soon, you shall see the truth!”

Wizard slammed his tail into the ground and turned towards Twilight who was comforting Dryad. “Damn it!”

TTT – TTT

It was later in the evening at Golden Oaks Library, when both Haru and Kosuke sat outside with a box of donuts. Haru had barely even took a single bite out from one donut. Kosuke, however, was downing them like no tomorrow.

Well, after he doused them with mayonnaise of course.

“MMM! Delicious!” Kosuke cheered out after he gulped down another donut.

Haru didn’t say a word as he looked at the powder sugar donut in his claws.

The griffon next to Haru sighed loudly as he used his tail to lift up another donut from the box, “… Ya know, every creature in Equestria can produce their own mana. It’s a part of one of the energies we get from eating stuff, the calories we ingest can produce a small, steady stream of mana for those who aren’t born with horns in their foreheads.

“I can survive if I keep eating, cause Khimera can eat my own manga, but doing that can get a little tiresome so I need to beat Phantoms to quell his hunger.”

“… Neat,” Haru replied as he took a bite from his donut.

Kosuke narrowed his eyes, “Okay, look, I know you’re bummed… I know the cutie librarian is bummed, and I know that today was kind of a bust, but snap out it!”

“Hmm?” Haru questioned.

“We couldn’t save those Phantoms, yeah,” Kosuke continued as he placed a talon on Haru’s shoulder. “And I’m sure that one Phantom in there’s not feeling good, but that’s life… Sometimes there are times where you can’t do something about it – Losing someone you care about, not being able to help, or being caused great pain…

“That’s a part of life that I know all too well. I mean, you saw what I hide under this jacket, thing is, you gotta move on. I may not be able to fly without Beast Magic, but that doesn’t mean my life was over when I lost that wing – It just means that I have to work extra hard to make up what I lost!”

Haru smirked before he tossed the rest of the donut into his mouth and swallowed. “Aah… You know, you stink at giving pep talks.”

“Yeah, yeah, feel free to say that,” Kosuke laughed. “But still… We both just have to keep going on ahead, cause it wasn’t our fault that we couldn’t save those three – Sure, we can dwell on our loss, and have a few tears… But we also need to remember what we won…”

“Mistah Souma! Mistah Neato!”

Both mages looked up and smiled as Applebloom galloped towards them, but she wasn’t alone. Right behind her were a pair of fillies – A small white unicorn who had a curled mulberry mane and tail that had streaks of rose to them and a small, light orange pegasus with an unruly, purple mane and tail.

“See! See! Ah told ya Ah knew a dragon and griffon!” Applebloom stated as she jumped around a bunch.

“W-Wow, I’ve never seen a dragon up close before,” the small unicorn stated as she stepped back slightly.

“Yeah, they’re pretty cool looking,” The pegasus admitted, looking a touch bored at the situation. “But that’s not all that cool.”

“Oi,” Kosuke grumbled.

Haru smiled at the three fillies, “Well, hello there Applebloom – Who are your friends here?”

“Well, we met just a little bit ago,” Applebloom stated as she held a hoof towards the other two fillies. “This is Sweetie Belle…”

The small unicorn nodded towards the two mages. “Hello, Mister Souma and Mister Neato.”

“And this is Scootaloo,” Applebloom added.

“Sup?” The pegasus replied.

“Ya know, you don’t have to refer to me as Mister,” Kosuke chuckled as he scratched the side of his feathered face. “Kosuke or Neato will do…”

“But, you’re old, and its only proper respect,” Sweetie Belle pointed out.

The color drained from Kosuke’s face and lowered his head in defeat. “Gah… I feel so old!”

Haru chuckled before he turned back to the three fillies, “So, what can we do for you girls?”

Applebloom nodded to her friends and they quickly ran to one side of the dragon, much to his confusion. “Hmm?”

“Hey! You were right Applebloom!” Scootaloo stated as she placed a hoof on Haru’s leg. “This dragon does have a cutie mark! How’d he get one? I thought only ponies could get these?”

“That’s cause Mistah Souma’s talent is in magic!” Applebloom explained with a large smile.

“That doesn’t really answer the question, you know,” Sweetie Belle stated as she tilted her head.

“What Ah’m getting at is that if he can get a Cutie Mark,” Applebloom replied. “Then we’ll get ours too! We just gotta find what we’re good at! Just like Mistah Souma here!”

“Yeah!” Scootaloo added.

“That’s right!” Sweetie Belle chimed in.

“Because we are,” Applebloom stated.

“THE CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS!”

Both Haru and Kosuke looked at each other with odd looks and then at the fillies that were now striking an odd pose.

“Ya know, these three remind me of that one group I once saw on a train,” Kosuke chuckled. “They’ve got a lot of imagination like these three…”

Haru just chuckled under his breath before he looked at the three fillies, ‘We may have lost a few things, but we’ve save things that are just as important – I’ll have to work harder to protect what is important.’

TBC

Author's Note

HELLO EVERYBODY!

After a couple of weeks of dealing with... Stuff, We're back with the story! I wanted to get an image for this chapter, but you'll all have to wait till the next chapter to get an image! Cause next time we'll be using IMAGINATION to the fullest!

Intermission 6 - Hope and Imagination!!

The 7:30 chapter is departing now, be careful to avoid boarding late!

Go for it!

What’s that thing shining at the end of this endless line?!

Let’s board the exciting train and find out!

Let’s get our express running! Don’t be late! Be careful not to board late!

Ride that rattling dream – Cut through the wind no matter where you go!

Check the hand signals!

That way - This way - Which way?!

Let imagination guide us to your station too!

After this tunnel, it’s a non-stop ride to the future!

The train squadron’s all set to depart!

TTT – TTT

Intermission 6

Hope and Imagination!!

TTT – TTT

It was a foggy morning at Ponyville Station, with only a few figures who stood on the platform waiting for the train to arrive. There was a rather odd and awkward silence between the two mares and dragon, with Haru who stood afar from Twilight and Dryad.

Haru sighed under his breath when he turned to see Dryad, her face stained with tears – And who could blame her? After what she experienced yesterday, she was more than allowed to spend the previous evening crying – but things had to continue onwards, that’s how life works.

That didn’t mean anyone had to like it.

But, to be a bit respectful, Haru kept his distance from the in pain Phantom – He couldn’t save Harpie and the other Phantoms.

‘I’ll just have to make sure no harm comes to her,’ The dragon thought to himself as he yawned.

Last night, Spike had burped up the letter from Princess Celestia which requested Twilight and Haru to escort Dryad to Canterlot via the train. Haru would’ve used Connect, but the distance was too much for living creatures – So, train it was.

And with Kosuke promising to keep an eye on the town while Haru was gone, there wasn’t anything for Haru to worry about while he escorted Dryad. Save for what might happen on the train, but then again, what’s the worst that could happen on a train?

The sound of the oncoming engine drew closer on the train tracks, which drew the attention of all who were on the platform, and watched as the train slowed down at the station.

“Haru, you ready?” Twilight called out.

The red dragon merely nodded in response.

“ALL ABOARD!” The conductor called out from the train.

Meanwhile a few yards away atop of a cloud, a certain mint green pegasus hummed to himself as he watched Twilight, Dryad and Haru board the train. And while he watched he began to sing a cheery little tune, “♪Train, Train, Take us away. Take Us Away Far Away. To the Future We Will go. Where it leads, no one knows!♪”

“Oi! Gremlin!”

Sora stopped his singing when he realized that a certain red Pegasus floated down upon the same cloud he was on, “Oh! Good morning Feenie! I didn’t expect to see you roaming the skies for another few hours, has something happened?”

“What’s happened is that I’m surprised that you pulled that stunt that you did,” Phoenix spat back with his eyes narrowed down at the fellow pegasus. “You slayed three Phantoms, and I wanna know why.”

“Aren’t you known as the Dreaded Enforcer?” Sora questioned with a smirk. “Not only was Dryad going to convince them to defect, but I saw them exiting the cave of the Akumizer – If I recall, only a select few of us Phantoms are allowed to grace those cursed grounds.”

“Yeah, well, shouldn’t you destroy Dryad then?” Phoenix retorted as he stood up alongside Sora.

“There’s no need,” Sora answered back as he playfully wagged his front hooves off of the clouds. “She doesn’t even know what we higher Phantoms look like – And all she knows is the basis of our plans, using despair to awaken Phantoms from ponies and other creatures.

“I highly doubt that is enough information to go off of – Unless of course somepony did something stupid, like say, try to transform in front of her.”

Phoenix gritted his teeth.

“Of course, you’d have to be a total idiot to do that,” Sora sighed with a shrug of his shoulders. “Wouldn’t you agree, Feenie?”

“Watch yourself, Gremlin,” Phoenix warned as his scowl morphed into a cocky smirk. “I can feel myself getting my strength back, soon I’ll be back to bringing…”

“Oh, don’t worry yourself, Feenie,” Sora chuckled as he tipped his fedora over his eyes. “I was just talking ‘what-ifs’. Besides, I’ve done more damage to the mage than any physical attack could ever do.”

“Huh?” Phoenix questioned. “What the Tartarus are you going on about?”

“You like having fun with using terror and force to see what your prey will do, correct?” Sora suggested with a large smile on his face.

Phoenix opened his mouth to speak but closed it. He was pretty axe-crazy at times, and he’d be lying if he didn’t enjoy it at times.

“Well, I myself enjoy seeing reactions,” Sora continued, not bothering to wait for Phoenix to answer. “The only difference is that I prefer more subtle tactics.”

“And killing three Phantoms is considered subtle in your book?” Phoenix stated flatly.

“You misunderstand the situation,” Sora sighed as he lowered his head. “While it is true that I removed three Phantoms from this world, that in there lies the rut. Not only did I state my ‘reasons’ for why I took their lives, but thanks to Dryad down there, there’s something planted within our little mage…

“The seeds of doubt.”

The smile on Sora’s face curled up and the gleam in his eyes slowly disappeared, “Not only are there Phantoms that regret being Phantoms, not only are there Phantoms that actually wish to help, and not only are there Phantoms that are willing to destroy other Phantoms to save ponies… All these fact are now planted within the little dragon’s head.

“Now, whenever he puts on one of those rings to fight a Phantom…”

“Should I fight?”

“Is there a reason for why they’re doing this?”

“Do I have the right to take their life?”

“Those thoughts will echo through his mind,” Sora cackled before he stuck his tongue out. “Everything that he fought for, he’ll question. And while protecting his friends and the innocent is a worthy cause of course, but is it worth it if your opponent doesn’t have a choice in attacking those friends and innocent?”

Phoenix took a deep breath and then sighed. “Gremlin… What are you really after?”

“♪Train, Train, Take us away. Take Us Away Far Away,♪” Sora sang out loud with his head moving in rhythm. “♪To the Future We Will go. Where it leads, no one knows!♪”

Phoenix sighed loudly with a shake of his head, “For the love of… I don’t know why I bother even talking to you. I should just spend my free time reading at the library…”

“You know that librarian is getting aboard that train, right?” Sora snickered, taking note that Phoenix’s face lit up slightly.

“And what the Tartarus does that mean to me?” Phoenix spat as he turned his head away.

“Hey, I’m just saying,” Sora snickered with his hooves brought up to his mouth. “For somepony who tried to kill the dragon she’s friends with, you sure spend a lot of time at said library – one could assume that you might fancy the book worm type…”

“… Moment I get my full strength back,” Phoenix growled bluntly. “First thing I’m going to do, I’m kicking your flank.”

“♪Train, Train, Take us away. Take Us Away Far Away,♪” Sora sang out loud with his head moving in rhythm. “♪To the Future We Will go. Where it leads, no one knows!♪”

“Damn that’s annoying,” Phoenix grumbled.

“ALL ABOARD!”

Both Phoenix and Sora turned to see that the train was about to leave the station. Phoenix chuckled, “Ya sure you want to let them go just like that?”

“There’s nothing to lose or gain by going after them,” Sora answered before he lowered his head to the cloud once more, his eyes closed in order for him to sleep. “Besides, today’s perfect for a lazy day to sleep.”

“Whatever,” Phoenix sighed under his breath before he looked to the train again. “Say… Doesn’t that train look weird?”

Sora opened his eyes and looked over at the train that slowly pulled away from the station. “I think all the trains in Equestria look weird. Too colorful for my taste.”

“… That’s weird hearing that from you,” Phoenix replied. “And I won’t disagree that the trains are weird, but at least the train cars aren’t all a single color – That steam locomotion in the front is all red, the second one’s all blue and looks like those bullet trains I hear are in development, the yellow one seems to be an underground train that’s also supposed to be in the works and…”

“Wow, I didn’t know you were an aficionado of trains,” Sora chuckled.

“Shut up, I read the stuff in a book,” Phoenix growled as he shook a hoof at Sora. “You should try it once in a while, you might be able to get some actual jokes besides pop culture references.”

“I find it amazing that you’re able to read,” Sora cackled as he pulled his hat down over his eyes. “Especially if you’re around that cute little librariAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNN!!”

Phoenix chuckled, he always wanted to kick Sora off his high cloud – He didn’t expect it to be literal though.

TTT – TTT

Inside the colorful trains, Haru had to stop and take a look around the train’s car. Unlike the last time he was on a train with Spike to Canterlot, this train was completely different – The interior was white with red plush seats and there were silver rails around to help anypony who needed to grip onto something.

There was even a fancy table that was bolted into floor with a few seats next to it, and that’s where Haru took his seat while Twilight and Dryad sat at a booth a little ways away. “Huh, they really upped the train’s interior design.”

“Perhaps the train company received more funding?” Twilight offered as she patted the seat a few times. “It’s comfortable, but I preferred the older version… What about you, Dryad? Have you ever been on this train before?”

“Um, n-not really,” Dryad replied with a shake of her head.

“Well, not like it matters,” Haru sighed, his arms thrown behind his head. “Whether you like it or not, we’ll only be on this thing for a few hours. Then we’ll take the train back from Canterlot… Might as well enjoy the ride.”

“True, but…” Twilight started to say.

“Have an intense morning!”

Everypony in the train car turned towards the back to see who had said that, and immediately they all reeled back at the sight of the mare who slowly walked through the train car, pulling on a cart that had several drinks and snacks on it. The mare herself… Well…

She was something that Twilight or Haru had never seen before. The mare seemed to wear a black and dark violet jumpsuit with white and black armor with a heart shape emblem on her chest and a violet cravat around her neck. Her face was covered with a white helmet with a handle bar at the back of it and a black visor that obscured her face, but had a pair of red lips where her muzzle would be. “Wagon is here to deliver delicious breakfast boxes! Only three bits each and you get a complimentary drink!”

Wagon approached Haru and bowed slightly, “Ooh, a dragon? A~ha! Don’t see many of those on a train – Would you like a breakfast box?”

“Uh, got any donuts?” Haru asked with a sheepish smile.

“Oh, sorry, Draggy,” Wagon muttered as her metallic ears dropped slightly. “But we’ve got A-Class breakfast boxes…”

Haru sighed as he reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out three small golden coins, “Three bits, right?”

“Yes sir!” Wagon stated as she gestured to her head to one side of the cart she pulled. With a quick kick, a small slot opened up and she gestured towards it once more. “Exact amount please.”

Blinking a few times, Haru slipped the coins into slot as a couple beeps echoed from the cart. Wagon bowed slightly, “Thank you for your patronage! Please enjoy your meal!”

With a second kick, Wagon had one of the boxed lunches pop up from the cart and then have it land on the table where Haru was seated. Haru looked at the plastic covered breakfast and gulped at it, “This… This looks…”

The next moment, the plastic covering was torn off and Haru was scarfing down the breakfast.

Twilight sighed at the sight of Haru devouring lunch like a wild animal, “Yeesh Haru, was that really necessary? You act like you haven’t had a meal in…”

“Yeah, but it’s delicious!” Haru replied after he gulped down the mouthful of food he had. “I would even say that this is on par with the breakfasts at AJ’s.”

A large pink glow appeared on Wagon’s visor and she wagged her flank about. “Oooh, what a compliment! Thank you Draggy!”

“… Draggy?” Haru questioned, hesitating to get back to his boxed breakfast.

Wagon didn’t have time to explain the nickname, but she trotted over to Twilight and Dryad instead, “And how about you two? Would you like something tasty to eat?”

“Well, that sounds rather good,” Twilight replied as her horn glowed brightly and six bits flew from her saddlebags. “One for each of us please!”

“Hai, hai!” Wagon cheered.

TTT – TTT

Meanwhile, several yards from the train tracks a single, single figure watched the tracks while being seated at a portable table that had an odd device that he held to his right ear. The ebony skin and black armor of this individual gleamed in the light as he listened patiently while his other hand rested on the rose emblem adorned chest plate he wore. “… Hmm, so, there are other passengers on the Rainbow Line.

“This is an opportunity that I cannot pass up. Kurous!”

With his oddly white gloved hand raised up into the air, the ebony individual snapped his fingers. From his shadow, several odd bipedal creatures dressed in black overcoats, porcelain masks, white cravats and black top hats that had odd gray markings on them. Gripped with in the hands of the odd creatures were axe-Tommy gun combinations that they spun about.

The creatures spun about and then tipped their hats towards the one who summoned them all, “Kuro!”

“Prepare my personal Kurainer,” the shadowed figure stated simply as he lowered his head, his military hat lowered over his glowing yellow eyes. “We shall use these new passengers as a means. Failure shall not be tolerated.”

“Kuro!” all of the fancily dressed Kurous replied before they galloped away.

The general dressed individual sighed as he pushed his hat up a little bit. “The sun is a bit too bright today. I had hoped that the whole eternal night event was nothing more than a fleeting dream, a shame though.”

The sound of a steam engine drew the general’s attention back to the tracks as the red steam engine appeared in the distance. The general sighed as he rubbed his rugged chin, “… Those trains shall become mine.”

TTT – TTT

“Whew, not bad for a boxed breakfast,” Haru chuckled as he tapped his claws against his stomach.

“Weren’t you saying that they were better than AJ’s breakfast?” Twilight pointed out as she used her magic to lift up a napkin to her muzzle.

“N-No, you must’ve heard that wrong,” Haru coughed a few times while keeping his attention away from Twilight’s gaze. “I never said that… And if you say otherwise, I’ll deny it up and down.”

Twilight snickered slightly at that, and turned back to Dryad, noticing that her boxed breakfast only had a few nibbles in it. “Dryad, shouldn’t you eat more?”

“It’s alright,” Dryad sighed with her hooves held up defensively. “P-Phantoms don’t need as much to eat as regular ponies do…”

Twilight furrowed her brow slightly and opened her mouth to speak once more…

“WHOA! Wagon was right! It really is a dragon!”

Much to the surprise of everyone else in the train car, a tan pegasus with an orange-brown mane that was styled to curve about his eyes now stood next to Haru. The pegasus was dressed in a red jersey that had his wings stuck out of the sides and there was an embroidered, yellow ‘R’ on the back of it. Adorned on his flank was a white and black segmented circle that had a red ‘1’ in the middle of it.

The stallion’s short tail whipped about playfully as he observed Haru greatly (although, he didn’t seem to notice the nervous look on the dragon’s face). “I’ve never seen one so up close before! Aren’t you guys supposed to be the size of mountains or something? Or are you special?”

Haru cleared his throat turned towards Twilight and Dryad, hoping to get some help from either of the mares. But unfortunately, there was no hope here for this dragon today, as the two mares snickered, Haru narrowed his eyes and sighed towards the stallion, “Uh, yeah, I’m a special case – After all, if I was the size of a mountain, I wouldn’t fit in this train, now would I?”

“Hmm, true,” The stallion muttered as he tilted his head slightly. “Although, it must be neat to be a dragon! You can breathe fire…”

“More like smoke,” Twilight pointed out, earning herself a glare from the red dragon.

“You’ve got those claws,” The stallion continued as he trotted to Haru’s side. “And you’re red! That’s just awesome!”

“Is me being red all that awesome?” Haru muttered under his breath before he shook his head. “From the way you’re talking, it sounds like you want to be a dragon…”

“Why not?” the stallion retorted with a large grin. “Can you imagine all the things a dragon can do that a pony can’t? You guys can even swim in lava!”

Haru stared at the stallion for a few seconds before he chuckled. “Indeed we can. So, who exactly are you?”

The pegasus smirked as he leapt back and pumped one of his front hooves towards his chest, “Me? They call me Right!”

“Huh, well, that’s a rather unique name,” Haru stated with a shrug of his shoulders. “Then again, I go by Haruto, so, I’m not one to point out unique names…”

“Haruto?” Right mused, his hoof up against his chin. “Hmm, would you happen to be from Neighpon? Hey, hey! Are ya?”

“Well, maybe,” Haru muttered under his breath. “I actually live in Ponyville currently…”

“Huh, I guess they must be used to seeing dragons around,” Right chuckled with a goofy smile. “So, what ya doing on the…”

It was at that moment that the lights in the train car flashed brightly before they dimmed greatly and the rather calm ride began to shake violently, which had forced everyone from their seats to the floor.

“UGH!”

“W-What’s going on?!”

Right bit his lower lip as he quickly dashed to the nearby window, and grimaced at the sight of it. “Heh, they really have bad timing – Just when I was finally meeting a dragon!”

A little curious, Twilight herself quickly ran to the window that was closest to Right and her eyes widened, “Where did that other train come from?!”

Both Haru and Dryad joined the other ponies at the window just in time to see the large black, devilish train ride up alongside the Rainbow Line, the tracks just materializing before the mysterious train allowing it to slam into the multicolored train once more and flung the passengers from the window once more.

“Attention all passengers, attention all passengers.

“I apologize for the inconvenience, but we will be making an emergency stop. All passengers please take your seats as the staff tries to rectify the situation. We apologize for the inconvenience and will be providing free lunch to all non-staff passengers for today.”

And just like the announcement from the speakers said, the train came to a stop. Haru got back to his clawed feet and went back to the window to see that the black train had stopped several yards away. ‘Could they be Phantoms after Dryad?’

“Well, you three heard the announcement,” Right sighed as he stood up straight. “Leave this to the professionals!”

“You work on the train, Right?” Twilight asked as the pegasus began to search his pockets.

“You could say that,” Right answered, looking a little nervous when he realized he wasn’t finding what he was looking for. “Uh… Excuse me, but have you seen a little model of the front steam engine of this train on the ground somewhere? I kind of need it…”

Reaching into his own jacket, Haru produced his usual pair of rings, “Twilight, I’m gonna go see what this is about.”

“Huh?” Right yelped before he jumped to Haru’s side. “W-Wait a second! There’s no need for you to go out there! Please let us…”

“Sorry, but when another train rams into another on tracks that come out of nowhere,” Haru pointed out as he walked past the tan stallion. “And slams into the train I’m on… Sorry, I just realized how weird the situation is. In any case, something this weird kind of deserves my attention.”

“Ah, mou!” Right groaned as he lowered his head slightly, at the same time, the door of the train car opened up and allowed the dragon to hop out of the train. “Conductor and Ticket are gonna kill me for losing the Red Ressha!”

Right then turned his attention back towards Twilight and lowered his head, “Miss! C-Can you please help me find it?”

“Uh, sure, but from what it sounds like,” Twilight mused as she looked under the seat she and Dryad were on a few moment ago. “This ‘Red Ressha’ is just a model of this train – Is it that important?”

“Are you kidding? It’s one of greatest treasures of this world!” Right replied with a large grin on his face. “Fueled with the greatest source of power this world has to offer!”

“You mean magic?” Twilight guessed.

“Well, that’s strong,” Right stated looking under the table that Haru was seated at. “But magic would be just dull without what I’m talking about.

“Imagination!”

TTT – TTT

When Haru leapt from train and landed on the ground between the two trains, the red dragon looked about to see that where they were happened to be an old abandoned train yard that had a large amount of crates, stones, and ruined train traffic signs all strewn about.

DRIVER – ON!

With his belt activated, Haru prepared his rings for whatever was about to happen.

“Oh ho, a dragon? Quite the brave lizard, aren’t you?”

One of the side doors of the black train opened up to allow a ebony skinned creature to step out onto the ground across from Haru. This bi-pedal being was dressed like a war general with roses on his chest plate, chains on his shoulder pads, metal bands over his metallic face, and had a sheathed sword at his waist. In his white gloved hands was an oddly beautiful, red rose. “I commend you for stepping out on your own accord.”

“And I have to commend you for attacking with a train,” Haru stated with a shrug of his shoulders. “In the long list of things I’ve experienced, I was not expecting to be attacked with a train.”

“Humph, it is only a taste of what I have planned,” the ebony general replied, his yellow eyes gleamed brightly. “And you shall help me with that.”

“Oh?” Haru questioned as he pointed a talon towards the ebony general. “I didn’t think I was that famous of a character to get noticed by someone like you…”

“I know not who you are,” The ebony general stated, using his fingers to turn twist the rose in his hands a few times. “Nor do I care to understand where that ego of yours comes from – I am only interested in you as an item to acquire the Rainbow Line. A mere bargaining chip if you will.”

“You sure it’s wise to assume that my use is limited to that of a hostage?” Haru retorted. “After all, I’m just a passenger on a train. But I’m not just any passenger…”

“And you do not know who you speak to,” the ebony general replied as he used his free hand to caress the handle of his sword. “I am General Schwarz of the Shadow Line – You are inconsequential in the grand scheme of things, and I have no interest in you other than using you as a bargaining chip. So the choice is yours…

“You can surrender and I can guarantee your safety, or…”

Schwarz snapped his fingers, and all of the black adorned Kurous leapt from the train, almost as if they poured out of the vehicle and stood behind Schwarz. “I shall have no choice but to strongly request your assistance in this matter. Using force if I must.”

Haru sighed and lifted his left claw up to show the ring, “Straight to the point – I find that rather refreshing actually. So how about we…”

“Doors opening!”

Haru turned to the side that the train behind him started showing movement, with one of the side doors opening up.

“The Toqgers are exiting…
So please be careful if you’re near the door.”

When the door slid open, there stood a blue jumpsuit adorned figure – This one seemed to have a body structure akin to that a of a diamond dog, what with the fact that he stood on hind legs, had paw-like hands and a short tail. But Haru was more surprised at the outfit the Diamond Dog wore. A light blue jumpsuit that had a white belt, white gloves and boots, and a checkered circle that had four lines racing from it on his chest with a ‘2’ emblem in the middle of it. The helmet that the Diamond dog had was a rather odd design – It looked like the second train car of the Rainbow Line with train tracks racing over the black visor.

The diamond dog chuckled before he took his first step off the train…

“WAH!”

… And promptly slipped off and onto his face. “OW!”

Haru blinked a few times. “Okay…”

General Schwarz lowered his hat down slightly and sighed loudly, “… Toqgers…”

“Come on! It said to watch your step!”

Haru turned back to the door to see another figure leap from the train, this one dressed in an exact same manner as the Diamond Dog before her, only this one was yellow, had a skirt over her hind legs and had a three on her chest. From the tail, the fact she had talons and yellow covered wings, she looked to be a Griffon.

The third figure who leapt off the train had a familiar style as the last two, but with green coloring and a ‘4’ in the middle of the circle on his chest. This was the biggest of the colorful bunch so far, mainly because he was a minotaur – his muscular upper body with horns that stuck out of the side of his helmet. He swung his arms and picked up a random rock off of the ground and tossed it up and down in his hand.

The yellow griffon lifted a talon up to the door and a white gloved hoof took the talon. The griffon then helped down a unicorn that was dressed in a pink version of the uniform that the previous three wore, with a five on her chest and a single horn that was covered with black material. “Thank you, I appreciate it.”

“Good day, Toqgers,” General Schwarz greeted with a slight bow.

“Wha! It’s General Schwarz!” the blue diamond dog yelped as he struggled to get to his hind paws.

“Today shall be the day that the Rainbow Line shall be added to my arsenal,” General Schwarz stated, tossing the rose up into the air. “Either surrender it peacefully, or blood will be spilled.”

The minotaur sighed, keeping his attention on the rock in his hands. “You certainly have a way with words, ya know.”

“Yeah! We already beat you once, remember?” The griffon spouted as she wagged a claw at General Schwarz, with the pink uniformed mare hid behind her. “What’s the point of coming after us again when all you’ve got is a bunch of Kurous?”

“As I recall, none of you alone could scratch me,” General Schwarz replied bluntly. “And that was when I didn’t have my trump card.”

General Schwarz then turned towards Haru, which in turn garnered the Toqgers’ attention towards him. The dragon blinked a few times before he waved, “Hello.”

“Wait, didn’t Wagon say that there was a dragon passenger?” The yellow griffon questioned. “That must be him!”

“Do you see any other dragons?” Haru asked with a shrug.

“Yeah, and Right’s not here,” The blue diamond dog muttered. “Did he sabotage Right?”

“Huh?” Haru questioned as he tilted his head. “Excuse me?”

“Relax, if he was part of Shadow Line, we would’ve been alerted,” the green minotaur sighed, throwing the rock over his shoulder. “Besides, he’s not as ridiculous looking as the Shadows we’ve seen.”

Haru’s eyes went flat and he slumped forward slightly, “Yeesh.”

“Besides, how could such a cute dragon be evil?” the pink clothed unicorn proposed.

That caused a small blush to appear on Haru’s face. It was rare for anypony to call him cute…

“Enough,” General Schwarz growled as he lifted one of his hands up into the air. “Your stale comedy routine is getting on my nerves. Kurous, attack!”

The Kurous cackled before they aimed their tommy guns. The Toqgers and Haru leapt at the last second before the onslaught of ammunition crashed into the ground where they stood.

Thankfully, the crate remains, rusted barrels and traffic signs were there and provided a good enough cover from the bullet fire. Haru sighed as he leaned against the crates he hid behind, “Damn it, can’t I have one day where my friends or I aren’t under attack by some evil force?”

“Sorry about that.”

Haru realized that the pink, helmeted mare and the blue dressed Diamond Dog had dove behind the same cover he had. In the Diamond Dog’s paws was an odd gun that held tightly and he shook, while the mare’s horn glowed and lifted up an identical weapon. The mare was the one who spoke up and bowed her head slightly, “I hope we didn’t cause any inconvenience – We don’t usually have passengers on the Rainbow Line…”

“Nah, I’m used this sort of thing,” Haru replied as he looked at the ring on his claws. “Truth be told, I think I was starting to get bored.”

“Yes, well, you may want to retreat back to Rainbow Line,” The diamond dog commented before he peeked over the cover, and pulled back when more bullets were focused where he was. “Gah! Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot!”

“Sorry, but it’s not really my style to let others do work that I can easily do,” Haru replied, a smirk appeared on his face when he heard the shots cease. “HENSHIN!”

Using his tail, Haru propelled himself to the air, much to the shock of the diamond dog and unicorn mare. The Kurous watched in awe as the red dragon flipped through the air, and General Schwarz narrowed his brow, “What is this?”

FLAME – PLEASE!

Hii Hii – Hii Hii Hii!

With several embers around him, Wizard landed on the ground between the two trains, the rubies on his armor gleamed in the light. When he stood up straight, Wizard showed off the large red ring on his claws, “It’s… Showtime.”

“Oh, so this is where that confidence came from,” General Schwarz stated as he ran a finger on the hilt of his blade. “Interesting. So, what are you? You’re no Toqger…”

“Oh, don’t mind me,” Wizard stated as he slipped a different ring over his right claws. “I’m just a passing through Wizard.”

CONNECT – PLEASE!

The moment that the glowing red circle appeared, Wizard reached in and pulled out his silver gun. Without a moment of hesitation, Wizard unleashed a volley of red covered ammunition right towards General Schwarz.

In a flash, General Schwarz drew his sword and knocked the shots to the sides, which consequently slammed into a couple of the Kurous and made them shatter into sparks and puffs of smoke. The ebony general cackled as he held his sword before his face, “I did not anticipate facing a being like you on the battlefield, but I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t intrigued.

“It will make turning you into a bargaining chip all the more satisfying.”

“Tough words, Schwarz,” Wizard replied, unfolding his gun into its blade form. “Let’s see if you’re more than just that.”

The Kurous charged past General Schwarz and towards Wizard, only for a number of them to get blasted back by several shots. Wizard and Schwarz turned to see the Toqgers with their own guns aimed, with the Minotaur quickly spinning the main portion of it and turn it into a blade.

SLASHING!

“We’re not ones to just sit by either,” the minotaur stated as he tapped the blade on his shoulder a few times before he stepped up next to Wizard. “Wizard, eh? Feel free to call me Toq Four.”

Wizard let out a slight chuckle, “Inventive name.”

Some of the Kurous shifted the guns in their tails into axes and charged at the two masked bipeds. However, before they could take even a single step, several blue charges crashed into them and the Diamond Dog poked his head out from behind the crates, “Toq Two… And if you’d like, I can give a supplementary explanation and…”

“We don’t have time for that!” The griffon spouted as she waved her own sword with her tail through the air. “Look, Dragon… Wizard… Whatever you call yourself. I’m Toq Three, and the mare behind me is Toq Five.”

“Hello!” Toq Five greeted as she waved a hoof towards Wizard.

“And together we are…” All four said at the same time, each with varying degrees of enthusiasm.

RESSHASENTAI
-
TOQGER!!

“Although, we’re technically missing one member at the moment,” Toq Two admitted as he used his paws to push up the rails over his visor. “So, we’re not a complete sentai… We don’t have our Red member out here…”

“What are you talking about?” Toq Three scoffed as she patted Wizard’s shoulder. “He’s red! And he’s a dragon – That’ll give us not only a balance of colors, but a nice balance of species too!”

“Wait, what?!” Wizard questioned.

“Ooh, now that you mention it, he does meet the qualifications,” Toq Two agreed as he looked Wizard up and down. “The only thing that’s missing is the aesthetic design here.”

“He’s also got a ring on his head,” Toq Five pointed out as she gestured with her hoof towards Wizard’s head. “Then again, we’ve got tracks around ours…”

“You all do realize that the enemy’s still right in front of us, right?” Toq Four stated as he kicked a random rock off to the side.

Everyone else turned back to the enemy, seeing that General Schwarz was polishing the sword he had with a rose adorned cloth. Even the Kurous were busy doing other things – Some were playing cards, others took naps, even one seemed to selling some chocolate bars to other Kurous.

“Wow, they… They aren’t attacking,” Wizard muttered as he slumped over slightly. “I can hardly believe that. Are they that confident that they can win so easily that they can leave openings alone?”

“It’s a preference actually,” General Schwarz stated as he lifted the sword into the air to reflect the sunlight off of it. “Victory is like a rose – if not handled the right way, the rose will wilt. There is no honor in claiming victory if I do not seize it correctly, overpowering the Toqgers and this Wizard with my strength is the only way to properly achieve it.”

General Schwarz aimed his sword towards the group of five masked characters before him, “Let the battle commence! Kurous!”

The Kurous all stood attention to General Schwarz’s command, and readied their weapons.

“Alright temporary Toq Red,” Toq Two stated as he patted Wizard’s shoulder guard a few times. “Let’s do this!”

“Huh?” Wizard questioned. “Since when was I drafted into this? And how come my name isn’t in the same theme as yours?!”

“No need to question it,” Toq Four replied before he dashed off to the right. “Time to get going!”

Wizard shook his head as the rest of the Toqgers dashed forward. “Dear Ishimori, what have I gotten myself into?”

One of the axe wielding Kurous leapt up and spun about to bring its axe down on Wizard, only to have the armored dragon side step and slam his tail into the poor masked mook. That didn’t stop the other Kurous from charging at the dragon. With a quick turn, Wizard brought his sword down on one of the charging Kurous, which sent it flying back with his tail whipped about to slap down another one that came up his right.

Unbeknownst to the magical dragon, another Kuro slowly tip toed towards Wizard who had his back to it.

“Oi!”

The sneaky Kuro stood up straight and noticed that Toq Three was standing right next to him, her own blade held tightly in her griffon tail. “That’s cowardly!”

The Kuro lowered his head as the yellow clad griffon wagged a talon at him, “It’s not a good example of being strong, you know!”

All of a sudden, Toq Three lifted her tail up and used the blade she had coiled in it to block another Kuro’s sneaky attack. The original Kuro shook as Toq Three slowly turned her head back, “What did I just say?!

“UNFORGIVABLE!”

WHAM!

With a powerful kick, the yellow clad griffon sent the cowardly Kuro flying through the air. The first Kuro still shook in place before she delivered a swift punch to his masked face and knocked him down, “You too!”

Wizard saw all that and shook his head slightly, “Dear Ishimori, why can’t I fight against goofballs like this?”

“They may be goofballs,” Toq Three said before she slashed another Kuro that tried a more direct approach. “But even they can get dangerous when they gather like roaches.”

“Nice analogy,” Wizard muttered.

“Aaaah! Stay away!”

Both turned to see Toq Five was running away from a large amount of Kurous, almost tripping over her hooves in the processs. Wizard started to follow after them, but was stopped by Toq Three’s tail. “Huh?”

“It’s better you stay back,” Toq Three warned. “For your safety.”

“Huh?” Wizard stated.

Toq Five continued running till she realized that she was running into a large wall of debris. She yelped and skidded to a stop but realized that all of the Kurous now loomed in front of her, “No no no!”

The mare lowered her head down as the Kurous slowly descended upon her, “I think I can… I think I can… I think I can!”

Just as the Kurous were about to bring down their weapons on the poor mare…

“SUPER MARE!!!”

Toq Five flew up into the air with one of her front hooves held up and had used it to slam into a number of Kurous, which sent them flying back into their fellow well-dressed mooks. When Toq Five landed on the ground, two of the Kurous charged at her from behind, only to receive two well-placed hind hooves right smack dab in the middle of their chests.

For a moment, the two Kurous stood still before they were propelled through the air with such force that it sent skyrocketing over the trains.

If his face was visible, Wizard’s jaw would be slacked. “Wow…”

“Yeah, when she gets like that,” Toq Three chuckled, watching as some of the Kurous flung against the nearby black train. “She’s pretty hard to stop.”

Meanwhile at the farther end of the train yard, Toq Two held his own gun up towards an oncoming group of Kuous. “Hold with both paws, take aim, and then…”

The blue clothed diamond dog then dropped to the ground and rolled on the ground, but didn’t fire a single shot at the surprised enemy. “Huh?”

The Kurous, however simply took aim and unleashed their own volley of bullets towards the surprised Diamond Dog. “AHH!”

As quickly as his paws could, Toq Two ran as fast as he could to get behind cover of some nearby barrels. “Why? Why does it always end this way!?!”

“HA!!”

That’s when Toq Four leapt in between the firing Kurous and using his minotaur arms and strength, he slammed the Kurous off to the side. This was all that Toq Two needed, and leapt from the crates to fire several streams of blue energy into the Kurous and forced them to the ground, “Thanks!”

Toq Four waved his hand slightly before he threw his arm to the side which rammed the back of his fist into another Kuro’s face, making it spin about in pain. “No need for that.”

Wizard flipped through the air, able to dodge a Kuro’s attack, and when he landed he spun about and slashed one of the finely-dressed grunts with his sword. When the masked mage looked about though, yelled out, “Oi! You… Tokkyugers or whatever you’re called, do any of you see that General Schwarz guy?”

Almost immediately, the fighting ceased with the Toqgers looking at each other while the Kurous all whistled innocently on the subject.

“EH!?!”

However, the answer for that question drew a resolution as a bright purple light erupted from the Rainbow Line and in a surge of purple energy, General Schwarz flew out from one of the opened doors, several rose petals followed him through the air. “GARGH!”

The Kurous all scrambled together and managed to catch the ebony general, and immediately placed him on the ground gently. “Humph, I wasn’t expecting this either…”

From the opened door, Twilight and Right stood, with Twilight’s horn glowing brightly as Right smiled brightly, “Amazing! You’re amazing!”

“Well, just because I can’t transform into a bright costume,” Twilight replied with a slight blush on her face. “That doesn’t mean I’m helpless…”

“Ah! Right!” Toq Five gasped as she waved her hoof up towards the pegasus stallion. “Where were you?”

“Ah, s-sorry, but I had a little trouble,” Right chuckled nervously before he used his wing to lift up a smaller version of the front part of the Rainbow Line. “But we’re all good now!”

“Humph, Toq One,” General Schwarz growled as he rested his hand on the hilt of his blade. “We meet once more…”

“Ah! You’re that one guy!” Right announced as he leapt from the train and stood between the Toqgers and Wizard. “General… General Shorts!”

“Schwarz,” the ebony general corrected.

“Yeah, well in a few minutes, you’re gonna be nothing but black and blue in a few minutes!” Right roared as he pumped his hoof up. “We Toqgers and…”

That’s when Right actually got a good look at Wizard and tilted his head slightly. “WHOA! Where did you come from?! Who are you?! You’ve got a Ring on your head!”

Wizard sighed as he tapped the side of his helmet, “Apparently, I’ve been dubbed Toq Red – Dunno why, I don’t have any connection to trains.”

“Awe! You guys replaced me?!” Right questioned as his ears and wings drooped down. “That’s no fair!”

“It was a temporary solution,” Toq Three replied as she threw her talons behind her helmet. “No harm, no foul.”

“Yeah, but there is harm and foul!” Right huffed before he laughed out loud. “Just kidding! So, who are you exactly?”

“I’m that dragon,” Wizard answered bluntly.

Right was almost at a loss of words. “Wha… WHAT!?!”

Almost being the key word there.

“That… Is… AWESOME!” Right cheered as he leapt up into the air, flying for a few seconds before he landed on his hind legs. “But you’re not the only one who can transform!”

That was when Wizard noticed that there was a black band wrapped around Right’s right front hoof that he had lifted up. The yellow and black bar on the band lifted up as Right held the small train in his left wing.

TRANSFORMING!

Please stay behind the white line!

Out of nowhere, a broken up white line appeared between General Schwarz’s forces and the rest, which made most of the Kurous fold their hands patiently in front of their chests. General Schwarz sighed, “I suppose now I have no choice but to go all out. I would’ve preferred this not get messy…”

“Toq Change!” Right announced as he slid the train into the band.

A white and black lined circle appeared in front of Right, with four lines extending from it. The circle turned and crashed into his chest, making a red jumpsuit appear over his body and a similar helmet to the rest of the Toqgers’, only this one resembled the steam engine with a large ‘1’ in the black lens over the visor.

TOQ ONE! TOQ ONE!

The other four Toqgers lined up behind Toq One with the sound of a train whistle echoing in the background. “THE VICTORIOUS IMAGINATION!

RESSHASENTAI!
-
TOQGER!!

It was then that all five of the brightly colored characters struck a pose with several burst of colored smoke (most notably it was their own colors) behind him.

Twilight rubbed the back of her head, “Wow, there are some weird kinds of magic in this world…”

“Not magic!” Toq One announced as his wings spun. “Imagination! Departing now! FULL SPEED AHEAD!!!”

And with that all five of the Toqgers charged towards the small army, all in a straight light to break up the forces.

“Well, this has been a fun little trip,” Wizard chuckled as he rested his sword on his shoulder before he turned towards Twilight. “What do you think?”

“HOME TRIGGER!”

Twilight watched as Toq Two leapt through the air, with an odd shaped, dual barreled blaster in his paws. When he took aim at the Kurous, a blue and white rectangle shot out from it and paralyzed the small group. “I… I don’t know what to think…”

With a laugh, Toq Two dropped to the ground and rolled around, firing blast after blast of blue energy that crashed into all of the Kurous before him. With success, the diamond dog pushed up the rails that over his visor, “Whew…”

However, a familiar dark shadow appeared behind Toq Two with his sword held up. “Celebrating before the full victory? How foolish…”

Toq Two slowly turned around to see General Schwarz was behind him, and the Diamond Dog yelped as the general’s blade was brought down on him…

CLANK!

However, the steel of the General’s sword never connected – At least with Toq Two. It was blocked by a familiar sword with a hand-like symbol on it. General Schwarz’s yellow eyes narrowed at Wizard who had dashed in at the last second. “Impressive reflexes.”

Toq Two stood to the side and nodded towards Wizard, “T-Thanks!”

“Heh, no worries, I’m used to saving tails,” Wizard replied, not taking his gaze off of General Schwarz. “Hope you don’t mind, but I’ll be your opponent, Schwarz.”

“Humph, just don’t disappoint,” Schwarz growled before both warriors, with their blades crossed, dashed off towards the side.

Toq Two shrugged his shoulders and turned back to fire his weapon some more.

“SIGNAL HAMMER!”

From above, Toq Three fell with a large yellow mallet in her talons, the mallet’s metal part was shaped to be a signal light, with only two lights – One blue and one red. When yellow clothed griffon slammed the mallet into the ground in the midst of a large group of Kurous, the light turned red and a large shockwave rocked all of the nearby Kurous and sent them flying through the air before they exploded.

Nearby, the green clothed minotaur lifted up a large green axe that resembled that of a shovel and rammed it into the torso of a nearby Kuro. “Tunnel Axe!”

As the Kurous all charged towards him, Toq Four spun around, unleashing a powerful burst of green air that flew the Kurous up into the air. And as the black suited gangsters fell back to the ground, the minotaur spun around once more and sent a powerful burst of green wind that propelled the Kurous through the air. “Hmm, good distance.”

Elsewhere, the pink adorned unicorn ducked down from an axe slash and spun about before her horn glowed a bright pale pink. “Railway Bridge Claw!”

In a flash of light a dual bladed claw popped onto Toq Five’s right from hoof and with a flip she slashed it across one Kurous’ chest. But when she did, Toq Five quickly lifted her right hoof up and blocked an attack that forced her to spin to the ground, landing on her back.

A bunch of Kurous charged towards her but she lifted her Bridge Claw up, “GO!”

In a pink light, the small claws grew to immense size and the Kurous accidentally stepped through it. When they did, they fell through the other side…

… But were shrunken to the size of small figurines.

“Aw… Even they look cute at this size!” Toq Five squealed as she scooped up the mini Kurous in her hooves and hugged them close to her torso.

Unfortunately, when she did that, they all popped into tiny little sparks.

“… Oh…” Toq Five groaned as she slumped forward.

Twilight watched as the colorful dressed group continued to fight, “And here I thought Haru’s magic was weird.”

“Ah mou! How many times do I have to say it?!”

Twilight turned to see Toq One right in front of her, a large red saber with train tracks embedded on the blade wrapped in his tail. “It isn’t magic – It’s IMAGINATION! Rail Slasher!”

Several Kurous charged towards Toq One, who turned around and pointed his sword towards them. The rail on the blade flowed from the sword and wrapped around the Kurous in a rail-like binding and bound them into a cluster.

“Alright!” Toq One announced before he galloped towards the group and slashed his sword across them. The Kurous yelped before they exploded.

With his sword now in the ground, Toq One turned back to Twilight, “So, what ya think? Still think this is magic?”

“Of course,” Twilight replied with a nod. “What you did was a simple binding spell, your sword is probably infused with magic and allowed you to do that.”

With a huff, Toq One noticed that his griffon companion wasn’t too far from him, “Oh yeah?! Well, let’s see if your magic can do this! Mio!”

Toq Three turned back just in time for the red dressed pegasus to gallop next to her, “What?”

Without warning, Toq One lifted up the griffon’s right talon and messed with the black pad on it, “Let me borrow this!”

“WHAT?!”

Ignoring her please, Toq One lifted pulled the yellow train car from the black wrist band with one of his wings and with his other wing, pulled out his own.

“UNTRANSFORMING!

Those in a hurry, please transfer now!”

And with a blink of an eye, the pegasus swapped the trains and clicked them in.

Toq One RED
Transferred to
YELLOW

Toq Three YELLOW
Transferred to
RED

In a flash of light, the two Toqgers had swapped places – But something was odd. The yellow griffon was much taller with a more muscular physique and the skirt was no more, and rather it was on the pegasus that was much leaner now. Interestingly enough, the symbols on their chests were different – With the ‘1’ on the griffon’s chest, and the ‘3’ was on the pegasus’.

However, the now-pegasus Toq Three stomped her front hooves against the ground, “Damn it, Right! You know I don’t like it when you do that! I hate having hooves!”

With his new talons, Toq One lifted the signal hammer up and flew through the air. “Sorry! But I had to make a point!”

Toq Three growled before she used the Rail Slasher to attack an oncoming Kurous.

Twilight blinked a few times before she shook her head, “No… No, it’s not possible… Did they actually just swap species?!”

Toq Four hummed to himself before he grabbed the blue clothed diamond dog next to him, “Hey, Tokacchi, swap with me.”

“Huh? Toq Two questioned before the minotaur quickly swapped the trains in their bands. “W-Wait a second!”

Toq Four GREEN
Transferred to
BLUE

Toq Two BLUE
Transferred to
GREEN

When the light around the two disappeared, a more muscular diamond dog stood strong with the Home Trigger in his paws that he immediately shot off. “HA!”

However, the green minotaur seemed to be much scrawnier than before and struggled to just lift the Tunnel Axe, “H-Hikari! I can barely lift this heavy thing! S-Switch back with me!”

“Don’t worry Tokacchi,” Toq Five stated as she carefully trotted up next to the struggling minotaur. Her horn glowed brightly and immediately, the small trains in their black bands switched. “I don’t mind switching…”

The two faded in a bright light.

Toq Five PINK
Transferred to
GREEN

Toq Two GREEN
Transferred to
PINK

And in their place was a female minotaur dressed in the green uniform, plus a skirt. She cheered as she easily lifted the Tunnel Axe over her head, “Kairiki GIRL!”

With a mighty swing, Toq Five slammed the axe into a few surprised Kurous, and knocked them away while Toq Two used the Railway Claws to block another attack.

All the while Twilight’s jaw had gone slack as she watched the species swapped Toqgers duke it out with the remaining Kurous. “I… I don’t know what to say to this! They’re able to change species like it was nothing!

“The only creatures that have an ability similar are those Changelings that I read about – But even then… This is…”

“This is the power of Imagination!” Toq One laughed out as he slammed the Signal Hammer into a Kurous. The transformed griffon turned to Twilight and chuckled. “The victorious imagination! Magic may be cool, but Imagination is awesome!”

‘I get the feeling that Pinkie would love to be a part of this team,’ Twilight thought to herself. “Although, I can’t tell who’s who anymore.”

TTT – TTT

Steel clashed against steel, with Wizard using his sword to block one of General Schwarz’s powerful slashes, but was forced back due to the ‘This guy… He’s strong.’

General Schwarz narrowed his eyes and leaned in to put more weight into his attack, “Humph, you are strong, but why do you only defend?”

Wizard didn’t say a word and leapt back to break away from the ebony fiend.

“It seems as though you are hesitant to use your power,” General Schwarz stated as he placed a finger on the steel of his blade. “Why is that? What is holding you back?”

“Heh, didn’t think an enemy would ask that,” Wizard replied, not lowering his sword down. ‘Then again, this is an enemy who wouldn’t attack when his opponents were squabbling.’

Wizard stood up slightly, “There’s no need to fight. This is a pointless battle, and there’s no need to…”

“Heh, Wizard, was it?” General Schwarz cackled as he lifted his blade up. “There is no such thing as a pointless battle – Whether the battle involves swords or words every conflict has a purpose. Each side has their own goals and morals, and my goal is simple.”

General Schwarz dashed forward and quickly brought down the sword onto Wizard with so much force, that even when Wizard could block it, he was forced back and could barely hold back the ebony general. “If you cannot muster your own goals and morals, then you only have one fate! To be nothing more than a footnote in my victory!”

Wizard growled as he tried to push back with his own sword, but the General had much more strength…

“That doesn’t matter!”

That’s when Wizard felt something at his waist, and when he turned his head slightly, he saw that Toq One, back in his pegasus form had appeared behind him with his hooves on the masked dragon. But that wasn’t all, the other multicolored group was following suit, with Toq Two’s paws on the pegasus’ back, Toq Three’s talons on the diamond dog’s waist, and etc.

“No matter what, everypony,” Toq One shouted before he shook his head. “Or every-dragon, or every-whatever, they have a right to not fight! But, when against some jerk like you… Some-whatever needs to stand up against you!

“FULL-SPEED AHEAD!”

“Wait, what?” Wizard questioned before he felt more pressure put on his back.

It was then that the Toqgers pushed Wizard forward and allowed him to actually make General Schwarz skid back from the combined attack.

“Here we go!” Toq Five announced playfully as the group forced General Schwarz to run backwards so he wouldn’t get steamrolled or slashed.

Twilight had followed the group by running across the top of the Rainbow Line and watched the odd scene playing out in front of her. “… I… What? Is that even considered fighting?”

General Schwarz snarled before he slammed his foot to the ground, “Enough of this!”

Then by side stepping, General Schwarz forced Wizard and most of the Toqgers to stumble forward. The only one who didn’t stumble past the ebony fiend was Toq Five, who chuckled sheepishly and then pulled her hoof back, “PUNCH!”

Once more, General Schwarz side stepped and dodged the attack. With his eyes narrowed down, General Schwarz quickly brought down his blade onto the unicorn mare.

However, before his steel could connect, two familiar feet slammed into the general’s shoulder and propelled him away from the mare. Then Wizard landed on his feet and nodded towards Toq Five, “You okay?”

The mare nodded back as the rest of the Toqgers ran up to Wizard, with Toq One standing alongside the dragon. “Yo! Nice moves out there!”

Wizard rubbed the back of his head, “… I guess…”

“Don’t let that jerk’s words get to ya,” Toq One replied as he tapped his hoof against Wizard’s chest plate. “But, sometimes, you have to fight – Even if you don’t want to, you’ve got your reasons to fight. If you got something to protect, then you can only believe in what you can protect – Let it guide you!”

“I don’t know if that was a pep-talk or not,” Wizard stated as he lifted his sword up. “But… It’s definitely showtime!”

“GAH! Such a cool catch phrase!” Toq Two sighed as he pushed up the rails.

“Alright!” Toq One cheered as he lifted up his Rail Slasher with his tail. “Think you can do me a favor?”

“And what’s that?” Wizard asked.

“One, I want you to imagine what we’re about to do,” the pegasus suggested.

“Imagine?” Wizard questioned, and then he lowered his head slightly. “Sure, why not?”

“Just imagine it – Imagine our glorious victory!” Toq One announced as he pumped his hoof up into the air. “Can you see it?”

After a few moments Wizard lifted his head up along with his sword. “I do!”

“Good! So lead the charge!” Toq Three suggested before she pushed the dragon towards General Schwarz.

Taking a moment to look back at the Toqgers, Wizard noted that most of them were gesturing him to continue his assault, the only one that didn’t was Toq Four (he was trying to balance the Tunnel Axe by the handle in the palm of one of his hands). With a shake of his head, Wizard charged towards General Schwarz and immediately brought his sword down on the general.

The ebony fiend brought his own sword up and caught the attack, “So, you do have a fire of battle in you.”

“More than just a flame, Schwarz!” Wizard growled as he pulled back, spun around and delivered a another slash, which was unfortunately blocked.

As the two traded slashes, the Toqgers nodded to each other before Toq One stepped forward, “Alright! Let’s do this!”

LINK UP BAZOOKA!!

All of the Toqgers threw their weapons up into the air and watched as they merged into one, multicolored weapon. The bazooka lowered between the group, with Toq Five near the front to use her magic to hold up the end, while Toqgers Four through Two were at the right and Toq One was at the back, holding up a weird train-like bullet that had yellow energy flowing from it.

And immediately, he loaded it into the cannon.

RESSHA DEPARTING

“Rainbow Rush!” Toq One announced as the bullet traveled down the bazooka. “Dragon’s Fire!”

NOW DEPARTING!

A powerful burst of energy erupted from the cannon and flew towards both Wizard and General Schwarz. However, the ebony fiend narrowed his eyes and immediately kicked Wizard back… Which unfortunately had him be struck by the powerful energy.

And promptly exploded in a burst of red flames.

Twilight’s jaw dropped once more, “You shot the wrong target!”

General Schwarz chuckled as he lifted his sword up, “Obviously you’re more foolish than I thought.”

“Oh? You think we were aiming for you?” Toq One stated. “Nope!”

That’s when a loud roar echoed through the air, which made General Schwarz turn towards the flames just in time to see a large, silver figure step from it – A large dragon with skin made of steel and covered with golden armor with a red jewel in its forehead. “What?!”

The dragon roared once more before it spun around and slammed its tail into General Schwarz, the ebony fiend just barely able to lift his sword up to block that powerful assault. But it was too much and sent him skidding backwards with sparks erupting from between his feet and the concrete. “URK!”

“Oh, you’ve gotta be kidding me,” Twilight muttered at the sight of the dragon.

With its mighty wings unfolded, the dragon flew towards General Schwarz before it spun about, flames covering its body. The general didn’t get a chance to try to block this attack, for when the dragon connected with him, it exploded into a powerful explosion with a familiar, red runic circle appearing in front of it.

And a few feet away, Wizard landed on his back. “OW!”

When the flames resided, General Schwarz was on his knees, using his sword to prop himself up. “Ugh… Such power…”

That’s when a few Kurous leapt from the black train, a few of them stood before him while two helped him to his feet. “This… This is not over Toqgers. And I shall not forgive this Dragon… No, Wizard, this shall not be the end of this!”

The Kurous that guarded General Schwarz aimed their guns and fired their weapons at the Toqgers’ feet and hooves, trying to get them to back off. While the colorful group struggled to not get shot, General Schwarz was escorted back on the black train.

And then, as quickly as it came, the black train chugged off at an amazing speed, the remaining Kurous leapt onto the end of the train before disappeared into the distance.

“Yeah! You better run!” Toq Three shouted as she waved her free talon through the air. “Wish I could’ve socked that yellow eyed freak…”

“We just sicked a dragon on him,” Toq Four stated as he crossed his arms. “Do you think that your fists could do more damage?”

“Yes!” Toq Three barked back.

“Hey! Shouldn’t you help him?” Twilight yelled at the group as she gestured towards Wizard, who was still on the ground – Probably dazed at what happened with him.

“Oh,” Toq Two chuckled sheepishly. “Sorry about that! We’ll get right on that!”

TTT – TTT

A few hours later at the Canterlot Train Station the Rainbow Line slowly pulled up to the station with steam flowing from the front train’s stack. While a few ponies were confused at the odd design, three particular figures exited the train a little more confused at riding on the fancily colored train.

“Once again, sorry about that!” Right chuckled sheepishly as he leapt out from the train behind Haru, Twilight and Dryad.

“Nothing broken,” Haru replied with a wave of his claws. “It was more… Unexpected than anything else.”

“I guess our images of victory were slightly off,” Right suggested with a goofy face. “But still – We won!”

“I’m still confused on how you were all able to swap species,” Twilight sighed with a leer aimed at the goofy pegasus. “That’s breaking a basic principle of magic, and only one of you is a unicorn!”

“Ah, don’t worry about that,” Right replied, waving his hoof a few times. “I keep telling you, it’s not magic, it’s IMAGINATION. Two separate powers.

“But I’ve got my own question for you three… How were you able to get on the Rainbow Line?”

Haru reached into his pocket and produced three small card-like devices that had ‘TOQ’ written on them with either red, purple or dark green coloring to them. “Well, when we were buying tickets for the train, there was this weird stallion in a gray coat and hat who gave us these.

“Which is weird, since I’ve bought train tickets before, and they didn’t look like these…”

“WHA?! Those are Rainbow Passes!” Right yelped as he jumped back. “I didn’t know you could buy those!”

“Apparently, you can,” Twilight replied as she cleared her throat. “And although I would like to stay onboard and observe you five, we have something we need to do.”

“That’s fine,” Right replied, slightly calmed down. “But if you’re ever onboard again, we’ll be glad to treat you with the greatest of services – Without the whole fighting against the forces of darkness thing.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Haru chuckled as he lifted his claws up.

Right smiled as he lifted his hoof onto the dragon’s claws and the two shook.

NOW DEPARTING! PLEASE
STAY BEHIND THE WHITE LINE!

“Well, looks like it’s time to go,” Right stated before he pulled his hoof back. “Till the next time! Later!”

And with that, Right stepped back onto the colorful train with the engine roaring loudly. However, as the train began to pull away from the station, several windows opened up and Right’s head popped out of one of them.

From the other windows – a blue Diamond dog with glasses, a griffon with combed down feathers, a rather bored looking, green minotaur, and a pink unicorn with a long black mane done in tails followed suit and waved towards the three. “BYE!”

As the train began to fade into the distance, Dryad turned towards Twilight, “Does this sort of thing happen all the time?”

“More often than you think,” Twilight admitted with a sheepish grin. “Now then, the royal guard should be right outside the station… Haru, could you get our tickets for the next train to Ponyville?”

“Sure,” Haru answered as he watched the two mares walk off. After a moment, the red dragon sighed and threw his arms over his head. “… I wonder, is that change of theirs permanent?”

“Who knows?”

Wizard turned around just in time to see a white, older stallion dressed in a gray raincoat and hat with a pair of glasses on his face. He had a smile on his face as he used his hooves to push up his glasses, “Hello.”

“Hey… Aren’t you the ticket stallion back at Ponyville?” Haru questioned with his head tilted. “How’d you get here?”

“That doesn’t matter,” the stallion replied as he shook his head, allowing two small pass-like items to fall into his hoof. “What matters is that you paid for return tickets, and I’m here to give them to you.”

Haru took the tickets and then looked at one of the Rainbow Passes that he had. There was a clear difference to them, but then he looked towards this weird stallion. “Who… Who are you?”

The stallion smiled as a gray field of energy appeared behind him. “… I am Narutaki. The ally of all Riders. Prepare yourself – Haruto Souma, Wizard.”

Haru’s eyes narrowed slightly at the stallion who turned around. “The destroyer of worlds shall soon appear before you – The fate of this world will depend on what you do.”

And with that, Narutaki faded into the field of energy behind him and disappeared.

Haru just blinked a few times, “… Huh?”

“Haru!”

The dragon shook his head as he turned back to see Twilight trot back to him. “Well, Dryad’s in good hooves now.”

“Great to hear,” Haru stated as he lifted up the weird train passes. “Well, we’ve got the tickets, and all we need to do is wait for the train…”

The moment that Haru finished speaking, a loud train whistle echoed through the air garnering the two’s attention to the tracks.

Coming down the same way that the Rainbow Line went, a new train slowed down at the station – this one a bright silver, bullet train with the front that had two red screens that reflected the light.

DEN-LINER NOW ARRIVING AT CANTERLOT
PLEASE BE CAREFUL WHEN YOU DISEMBARK
AND PLEASE DON’T FORGET YOUR
COMPLIMENTARY COFFEE.

Haru and Twilight turned towards each other before they stared at the odd train…

Author's Note

Please be sure to leave a comment! I would greatly appreciate it, and there's a lot here to add to the TVTropes page...

In addition, if anyone wishes to use the concept for the Toqgers here for a story, just let me know, and I'm pretty sure I'll let ya do so.

NOW DEPARTING!

IMAGINATION!!!!!

Spell 29 - It All Started with Horseshoes

Spell 29

It All Started with Horseshoes

TTT – TTT

“Alright! Stand back! This is how it’s done!”

WHOOSH!

“Ya know, Mistah Nitoh,” Applejack pointed out with a flat look in her eyes. “Yer supposed to get the horseshoes closest to the stake.”

“Yeah, yeah, at least I didn’t break a window,” Kosuke huffed with his chest puffed out slightly.

“I said I’d fix that!” Rainbow Dash growled, a hint of red on her face. “Sides, I wouldn’t be getting cocky – You two are losing.”

“I’m still confused on that,” Haru admitted as he scratched the back of his head. “We’ve got opposable claws and talons! We should have the advantage here!”

Amongst the trees of Sweet Apple Acres, a group of four were in a picnic area playing horseshoes. Unfortunately for Team Magic, they were losing badly to Team Mare.

“Shoulda, coulda, but ya don’t,” Applejack chuckled before she snapped her hoof onto the horseshoe and got her muzzle. “Now watch and learn, boys. Yer about to see some real magic in the making!”

With a snap of her head, Applejack sent the horseshoe through the air…

CLANK!

“Woohoo!” Both Dash and Applejack cheered out before they slapped their hooves together.

Kosuke growled, then turned towards Haru who was shuffling through his pockets. “C’mon, dragon! They’re making us look bad!”

“Looking bad in front of who?” Haru questioned as he fitted a ring on his claws. “We’re the only ones out here… Well, there’s also Big Mac behind us, but who’s he going to tell?”

“You gonna take your turn?” Dash joked about as she poked a hoof into the red dragon’s side. “Or do you two want to call it quits? We’ve got you two beat!”

CONNECT – PLEASE!

As a small red rune popped next to Haru, he lifted the horseshoe up with his tail. With a sly smirk on his face, the red dragon tossed the horseshoe through the runic circle.

CLANK!

Everyone turned back to see that the horseshoe that Haru had just tossed had made it around the stake. The dragon sighed contently and wagged a claw near his head, “I believe that’s a ringer.”

“HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” Kosuke erupted into laughter. “That’s our point!”

“I call foul!” Dash huffed as she flapped her wings furiously. “You can’t use magic!”

“Never said that I couldn’t,” Haru whistled innocently.

“Mistah Souma, that’s weak coming from you,” Applejack pointed out with a flat look in her eyes.

“Yeah! No one said you could use magic!” Dash added.

“Poor form, Dragon, poor form,” Kosuke chimed in.

“You’re on my team, Kosuke!” Haru barked back before he crossed his arms. “Besides, the goal of the game is to get a ringer without getting too close to the stake. And I technically didn’t break the rules.”

“He does have a point,” Kosuke chuckled, having slipped next to Haru.

“Neato, you can’t flip-flop!” Dash huffed as she pointed an accusatory hoof at the griffon.

“What can I say, Dashie?” Kosuke whistled innocently. “I swing for the winning team… Wait, that didn’t come out right.”

“Alright, Dash, time we show these boys a real win looks like!” Applejack stated as she stomped on a horseshoe and clicked it to her mouth. With a quick toss, the horseshoe spun through the air and hooked around the stake.

“YEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAWWWW!”

“WE WIN!” Dash cheered before she and AJ slammed their front hooves together.

“GAGH!” Kosuke gagged before he slumped to the ground. “I call Shenanigans! SHENANIGANS!”

“It’s just a game, Kosuke,” Haru muttered as he rolled his eyes. “No need to get all upset.”

“Great to see that you’re not being a sore loser, Mistah Souma,” AJ stated, a rather arrogant smile appeared on her face. “Especially when your cheating can’t even beat one of the best athletes around.”

“Yeah!” Dash added before she took a moment to think about that. “Wait, what do you mean by ‘one of the best’?”

“Well, no offense Dash, yer a good athlete and all,” AJ replied with a wave of her hoof. “Ah’m just better.”

“Excuse me?” Dash huffed with her eyes narrowed. “You think you’re the top athlete of Ponyville?”

“Ah was gonna say in all of Equestria,” AJ chuckled. “But Ah think that might be over the top…”

“Ladies, ladies,” Kosuke interrupted as he lifted his talons up. “I can settle this right now for ya. The most athletic creature in Equestria has feathers and two thumbs. Who is it?”

Kosuke pointed his thumbs towards his chest. “This guy!”

Both Dash and AJ leered at the goofy griffon, who, upon realizing he was getting looks, returned the leer.

Sparks flew between the three, and Haru sighed under his breath. “Yeah, I’m staying out of this one. AJ, mind if I raid your fridge for a drink?”

“Go help yerself,” AJ replied, not taking her eyes off of the other two leers.

No one noticed that Haru walked away.

“So, you think you’re the top athlete, Neato?” Dash questioned. “What makes you think that?”

“When you dodge traps, poisonous darts, and evil head-shrinking sha-ponies,” Kosuke counted off, his green eyes narrowed. “You kinda need to be in shape to live. Throw in the fact that I keep fighting Phantoms in order to survive, I’ve got one of the best bodies a griffon can have!”

To illustrate his point, Kosuke rolled up his sleeves and flexed his arm, showing off a rather decent bicep. “Not to mention, Griffons tend to have more sport claims to our names. Baseball, basketball, archery, and dare I say, bowling?”

“Ya’ll only get to say that cause ya got them fancy talons of yours,” AJ replied as she pointed towards Kosuke’s talons.

“Exactly,” Kosuke retorted as he rubbed his chin. “Although, your bowling balls are just huge, glorified marbles. Ours have talon holes.”

“I think she’s talking about something different,” Dash pointed out before she smirked. “So, you both think you’re the most athletic in Equestria? Well, why not put your bits where your mouths are?”

“Oh? Whatcha got in mind, Dashie?” Kosuke chuckled with a lick of beak.

“Simple, we’ll hold an Iron Equestrian contest,” Dash answered with a smirk as she used her wings to propel her into the air and float over the two. “A series of athletic events to decide who’s the best of the best!”

“Ya know what Rainbow,” AJ stated as she lifted a hoof up. “Yer on!”

“Count me in!” Kosuke chimed, pumping his one of his talons up. “For the good of all griffon-kind, I’ll show you what I can do!”

“Then it’s on!” Dash cheered. “But just three? It’s not gonna happen – We’d need at least just one more…”

“AJ!”

All three turned to the side to see Haru running up – With his eyes narrowed and a large yellow, jagged crystal in his claws. Dash and Kosuke turned to each other and smirked.

“What’s the matter, Mistah Souma?” AJ asked, trotting up to the dragon. “And why do ya got Granny Smith’s paper weight?”

“Cause, this isn’t a paper weight,” Haru growled, a small blood vessel appearing on the side of his head. “This is a Magic Stone! One of the bigger ones that I need! How long have you had this here?!”

“Shoot, Granny Smith bought that thing a month ago at the flea market,” AJ answered.

That answer weighed heavily on Haru’s shoulders as he slumped to the ground, his head lowered. “A month?!? I’ve worked here a number of times and I never once noticed it? I didn’t even smell it…”

“What’s gotten into Wizard?” Dash asked as she threw her forehooves behind her head.

“Ah, he’s just a bit miffed ‘bout not seeing this here rock,” AJ answered with a wave of her hoof. “Mistah Souma, Ah’m sure that Granny won’t mind ya taking it. Ah mean, after all of the hard work ya do ‘round here, that’ shouldn’t be too hard.”

“Thanks AJ,” Haru sighed with relief as he stood up with the magic stone in his claws. “I’ll make sure to replace it with…”

“Now, don’t ya be worrying ‘bout that,” AJ interrupted with an almost too sweet smile. “But, if ya wanna repay me for giving that to ya, Ah can think of one thing.”

Haru meandered his head slightly at Dash and Kosuke, and noticed that all three of his friends had these oddly ominous smiles on their faces. “… Is the stone worth the pain I’m thinking about?”

TTT – TTT

While the plans for the very first Iron Equestrian Games were being laid out, at the outskirts of Ponyville, a familiar red pegasus was within a deep gorge, his long black hair slicked down with sweat and his clothes following suit.

He took a deep breath before he yelled loudly, a powerful flame erupted around his body as it began warp into the gold and red armored form of the Phantom known as Phoenix. The stallion continued to roar loudly, but still his body continued to transform.

“He’s going Super Saiyan!”

When he heard that, Phoenix’s flames died down and he stumbled to the ground, reverting back to his stallion form. With a few deep breaths, Phoenix craned his head up to see Sora on a low cloud and a rather attractive mare - a petite, young unicorn mare with a purple and white splotched fur coat that was covered with a fancy black and bluish dress while her long black mane was topped with a sun hat – near the cloud.

“Gremlin… Me…” Phoenix began to speak out.

“Remember what I said,” The mare interrupted with a wave of her hoof. “While we are out in the open, we must refer to ourselves as our prior names – its only becoming to refer to a lady by her proper name.”

“Gah, fine, whatever, Beautiful Blossom…” Phoenix spat out. “And Sora… What do I owe this visit for?”

“Well, Feenie,” Sora chuckled with a large smile. “It’s been weeks since you revived, and you’re still unable to transform. We’re thinking that maybe you aren’t up to par anymore to be a Greater Phantom.”

“Trying to replace me?” Phoenix chuckled before he wiped some sweat from his brow. “Well, I suppose if you try to kill me here, I won’t come back… But I would suggest that you wait. I got somepony coming to help me out here.”

“Oh? How exactly can any pony help you with this?” Blossom asked with a rub of her chin. “Wouldn’t your powers come back by now?”

“That’s because his powers are being blocked.”

Both Sora and Blossom turned over to the side and then craned their heads up slightly. A few feet away was a tall, muscular dark blue stallion with a styled back black mane and a goatee at his chin. Around his neck was a large chain with a whistle attached to it, which matched the mark on his toned flanks.

“Drag Curl,” Phoenix chuckled with a wild smirk. “About time you showed up.”

The large stallion, Drag Curl laughed loudly and trotted to the red, and admittedly smaller pegasus. “My apologies, Master Phoenix, but as Drag Curl, I have an obligation to maintain my clientele. However, had I heard about your condition, Master Phoenix, I would’ve made haste.

“I guess this requires… ‘That’.”

The red pegasus turned to the side with a little twinge of pink on his face. “I c-can remember the last time… it was the first time in my life that… I’d ever felt so good..

“My body remembers that pleasure…”

That was when Phoenix’s wings shot out to the sides, with his feathers stuck out. Both Sora and Blossom turned to each other with Sora speaking out, “… ‘That’?

“Are you actually talking about that ‘That’?”

Blossom sighed under her breath. “Listen, whatever ‘that’ is, Phoenix we still need to discuss…”

“Lady Medusa,” Drag Curl interrupted with his eyes narrowed. “I’m gonna let you speak, but frankly, this is a matter that needs to be dealt with. And the moment that this matter is dealt with, your complaints will no long hold any water.

“Come with me Master Phoenix, when I’m done with you, you’ll be stronger than before.”

“Yes!” Phoenix laughed before he and the muscular stallion trotted off.

Both Sora and Blossom blinked in confusion before Blossom shook her head, “What in Hades’ name just happened?”

“I think we just came across something scandalous,” Sora giggled with his hooves brought up to his face. “Wanna go follow them and watch?”

“Huh?” Blossom questioned as she raised an eyebrow at Sora. “What are you going on about?”

“Ah, c’mon, you can’t tell me you’re not curious,” Sora questioned before he elbowed the mare in the side.

“I’ll admit, Phoenix may be a bit eccentric,” Blossom admitted as she narrowed her eyes at Sora. “So, I’m a little curious, but its not our place to deal with…”

“Oh, Blossom, those who do not run, will never reach the goal,” Sora chuckled as he leapt from the cloud. “I say… WE FOLLOW THEM!”

Blossom’s face turned a bright red and she reeled back, “E-Excuse me?!”

Sora’s tail wrapped around Blossom’s front hoof and dragged her behind him. “TO ADVENTURE!”

Five minutes later at the Ponyville Day Spa, both Phoenix and Drag Curl entered the building, the smell of exotic herbs filled Phoenix’s nose and made him sneeze slightly. “Ugh, why here?”

“It’s not like I have residence in this town,” Drag Curl laughed loudly as he slapped Phoenix on the back a few times. “And performing this in a public place would be greatly inappropriate.”

“But, why here?” Phoenix gagged.

“Mister Curl!”

Phoenix blinked when two mares playfully trotted up to Drag Curl – One was a petite pink mare with a well groomed blue mane that was pulled back with a white headband, and the other was pretty much a palette swap. They even had similar cutie marks – a white lotus. Phoenix was a little surprised to see the two mares clamor over the larger stallion, “Where have you been, Mister Curl?”

The pink mare nodded and raised a hoof up to her mouth, “It has been months!”

“Lotus, Aloe, my apologies,” Drag Curl replied with a slight bow towards the two mares. “But you know what my business entails – I often have clients across Equestria and I just haven’t had time to write. I apologize.”

“Next time, please be sure that you let us know,” the blue mare: Lotus replied with a warm smile on her face. “So, what brings you to our humble spa?”

“Well, I was hoping that you had a spare room,” Drag Curl requested with a warm smile before he gestured towards Phoenix. “I have a client who requires my services. And if it’s not too much trouble, I’ll even pay if necessary.”

“No, no,” Aloe interrupted as she waved a hoof towards the stallion. “It will not be a problem at all! Please, it would be an honor! There’s a room in the back, we’ve got a few moments while some of our customers are in the mud baths.”

“Thank you Aloe,” Drag Curl replied before the two spa ponies trotted off.

“How do you know them?” Phoenix questioned, following Drag Curl through the spa behind the two spa ponies.

“If my memory serves correctly,” Drag Curl whispered with his eyes closed. “I was the one who taught them their massaging techniques – Sometimes our previous personas can be quite advantageous. You should try it sometime, Master Phoenix.”

For a moment, Phoenix didn’t say a word until he glared at Drag Curl, “I gave up my previous name the moment I became Phoenix.”

“What a shame,” Drag Curl stated. “But let’s continue, shall we?”

TTT – TTT

“Front legs out! Up and down, up and down!”

Twilight hadn’t really seen anything so goofy before her very eyes – A dragon, a griffon, and a Pegasus moving in rhythm with the griffon in front showing off the odd stretches. “C’mon! C’mon! You can do it! Stretch them muscles!”

“Um, should I even ask?” Twilight mused before she turned towards Applejack.

“They’re just doing stretches fer the events today,” AJ answered back with a bright smile towards Twilight and Spike who was on the scholarly mare’s back. “My morning chores are a good enough work out fer…”

“The Iron Equestrian Competition!” Dash interrupted before she stretched her back slightly.

Applejack leered a little bit at the blue mare before she turned back to Twilight, “See, we’re setting up a bunch of events to decide who’s…”

“The most athletic pony ever!” Dash shouted again.

“Or griffon!” Kosuke barked

“… Or apparently dragon,” Haru sighed with dulled look in his eyes.

“And I’m here because?” Twilight asked.

“Um, I don’t know,” Dash pointed out with a shrug. “Why is she here?”

“We needed someone to keep track of the wins,” Kosuke answered as he flexed his arms. “After all, there needs to be a record to show that Griffons are the superior athletes!”

“Ha! You kidding me?” Dash countered with her hoof lifted up towards the griffon. “I used to trounce your flank all the time back in Cloudsdale!”

“Those were races,” Kosuke replied with a devilish smirk. “Iron Equestrian games test not only agility, but also strength, dexterity, endurance and all that other junk. I seem to recall that every time we had a hoof-talon wrestle, I’d always come out on top!”

“That’s it! You and me right now!” Dash snarled before she galloped to a nearby barrel and slammed her hoof on it.

“You’re on DASHIE!”

As the two feathered friends began to get their own competition going, Spike leapt off of Twilight and ran to his fellow dragon, “It’s weird seeing you here, Haru.”

“Indeed, I didn’t peg you as one for competition,” Twilight pointed out, recalling the time that Haru worked for Trixie.

“… My arm’s twisted,” Haru grumbled with a flat look aimed at AJ.

“Now, now, some healthy competition never hurt nopony,” AJ retorted as she pushed her hat up.

“You call that healthy?” Haru replied before he pointed over to Dash and Kosuke.

The two were still trying to beat the other in their little hoof/talon wrestling game, with a deadly gaze in their eyes poised at each other. Neither hoof nor talon gave way to each other, yet they shook violently in an attempt to get the other to falter for even a second.

“If it was anyone else,” Haru pointed out with a dulled look. “They’d have a broken limb by now.”

“Says the dragon who could toss a Phantom over his shoulder,” AJ countered. “Sides, ya got yer magic rock, and this’ll be fun.”

“I’m starting regret that decision,” Haru muttered under his breath as he looked at a ring that he clutched in his claws. ‘Still, two new rings… Plus with a couple of new spell rings as well. I just think this might bite me in the backside.’

“In any case, how ‘bout we head over to the competition grounds?” AJ offered with a smile before she trotted ahead of the two dragons and unicorn. “Ah’m sure those two will join us when they’re done.”

It didn’t take long for the small group to reach the makeshift competition grounds – Which was actually impressive. All around the farm grounds were various areas set up for athletic events: A small track with barrels in the middle of it with a finish line, a strength test that had a bell attachment, a pen filled with hay, a large area with sand, and even a sign that had four silhouettes of the competitors next to ‘0s’.

A pegasus obviously meant Dash, the earth pony was Applejack, the griffon wood carving was Kosuke and oddly enough, there was a donut for Haru’s.

“Why is it a donut?” Haru questioned as he slapped his forehead.

“Applebloom thought it’d be a cute idea,” AJ answered.

“I’m not a pastry, you know,” Haru sighed. “I just like them.”

“That’s an understatement,” Spike pointed out with a sly smirk. “You practically live on the sugary treats…”

“Says the dragon who takes a nibble out of my familiars,” Haru countered.

“Alright, alright, that’s enough,” AJ sighed loudly before she puffed her chest slightly. “It’s time for the competition!

“Mistah Nitoh! Dash! Get yer hides over here!”

“Just one sec! I need to teach Dashie here a little lesson in humility!”

“HA! The day you beat me in a competition is the day Twi gets wings!”

“Miss Sparkle! I’m gonna have to ask you to grow wings right now!”

Twilight’s gaze dulled slightly.

TTT – TTT

“That was one of the worst wastes of time I’ve ever seen!”

Sora chuckled as he trotted behind Blossom, every time he tried to get alongside her or in front of her, he would always be repelled back by a spell by the fashionable unicorn. He could only speculate that she was referring to what the two had seen involving Phoenix and Drag Curl.

The pegasus could easily remember the scene from yesterday…

“Ngggg.... Uhhhh... Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”

Sora whistled as he and Blossom looked into the window to the Ponyville spa – Thanks to Sora’s flight and Blossom’s magic, the two were able to levitate to the second floor where Sora had spotted the stallions.

“Wow…” Sora stated with a rather goofy grin plastered on his muzzle. “I didn’t think it was possible.”

Blossom’s face in contrast to Sora’s had her face slightly scrunched and dashed with a touch of crimson. “Seriously?”

It was then that Drag Curl’s voice boomed out. “TAKE THAT AND THAT AND THAT!!!”

“I… I don’t know how you do that…” Phoenix groaned taking heavy breaths whenever he could. “But your hooves… Dear Hades they… They were…

“THEY WERE MADE FOR MASSAGES!”

Indeed, the moment that Drag Curl gently placed his hooves on Phoenix’s back, the fiery Phantom’s body practically melted due to the pressure that Drag Curl applied to his back. “Master Phoenix, I recall the battle you had with Ursa Major. Although you slayed it, you still lost your life when the thing’s corpse crashed upon you…”

“You swore you’d keep that a secret!” Phoenix barked, but then soothed once more when Drag Curl hit a specific knot in between his wings. “Oooh… Ah…”

“I have yet to say a word to anypony else,” Drag Curl answered back. “As I was saying, you couldn’t transform back then as well. If we waited on your body, eventually it would be suited to the new mana that would course in your body.

“But with my Champissage techniques, I can unlock your muscles and allow the mana to flow.”

“I barely followed that,” Phoenix panted. “But those Chimpanzee hooves of yours are… AAAAAAAAAAAAHhhhhhhhh…”

“It was a waste of time!” Blossom barked out, her face still flushed.

“Ooh? Then what about that blush on your face?” Sora giggled as he playfully tried trotting in front of his companion, only to be met with a wall. “Perhaps you thought that there was something raunchy going on?”

That’s when a purple aura wrapped around Sora’s neck, and constricted around the Pegasus’s neck. “URK!”

“I’ve always wondered if a Phantom could live without air,” Blossom admitted with her horn aglow. However, with a sigh, Blossom’s magic disappeared with Sora landing on the ground. “Then again, I’m not in the mood to clean up your messy body, Gremlin.”

“Aren’t you breaking your own rule, Blossom?” Sora gasped loudly.

“You must admit, Sora” A familiar deep voice called out. “You were being rude to the mare.”

“Drag Curl,” Blossom stated as the large muscular stallion walked up to the fellow Phantoms. “Where is Phoenix?”

“After our session,” Drag Curl explained as he turned his attention towards the cloudy sky. “I tossed Master Phoenix onto a nearby cloud. He’ll be back in action in a day or two – He just needs rest now.”

“And yourself?” Blossom inquired with a raised brow.

“I could ask you the same as well,” Drag Curl replied with a wicked smile. “After all, you two along with Master Phoenix are my superiors – Even if I am taller than you. I came to inquire if there was anything I can do to aid either of you.”

“Humph, I can see a use for you,” Blossom answered back, a small grin on her face before she turned towards the large orchard of apples. “I do not know if you can recall my abilities, but I possess the ability to sense Gates.”

“I’ve heard the rumors,” Drag Curl stated.

“Well, I can sense a number of Gates on this farm,” Blossom continued, not turning her attention away from the orchard. “I’d like to confirm the numbers and if possible see if we should act then and there. After all, it should be a fun little time, wouldn’t you agree?”

“Would the two mages I heard about be there?” Drag Curl questioned with his eyes narrowed down.

“Oh? And if they are?” Sora mused.

It only took a second, but in the place of Drag Curl stood a large humanoid-shaped suit of silver and blue armor with rust covering its body. The armor lifted his hand up and clenched his fist tightly, “Because I intend on seeing if those rumors of two powerful defenders of justice are true – I need to test my own mettle.

“And I wish to see how I stand alongside with Master Phoenix.”

TBC

Author's Note

Hey everyone!

If you're interested in my story, check out a prequel that's being written with the Kamen Rider W cast - MangaKamen approved!

Here it is!

http://www.fimfiction.net/story/183382/in-search-of-f
In Search of F By Godzillawolf

Spell 30 - Friendly Competition

Spell 30

Friendly Competition

TTT – TTT

“HELLLLLLLLLLLLLLOO, EVERYPONY! And welcome to the first annual Iron Equestrian Competition!”

“Spike, who are talking to?” Twilight questioned as she turned towards the small purple dragon on her back, who now held onto a branch as if it were a microphone.

“Well, we’re getting a crowd!” Spike replied, using the branch to gesture towards the path where Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy were trotting towards the duo. “We’ve gotta be able to put on a show for them! And what’s more entertaining than a charismatic announcer?

“Let the games begin!”

And indeed, the competition had begun! All four of the competitors in front of a stretch of land that had barrels lined up in them and a finish line. AJ, Dash and Haru lined up, Haru not wearing his traditional jacket (but still wore the belt) and Kosuke was walking up with a smirk on his face – And his hoodie over his body.

“Hey, Neato, should you really be wearing that?” Dash pointed out as she gestured with her hoof.

“Consider it a handicap,” Kosuke replied with a cocky smirk. “It wouldn’t be fun if I just swept the competition.”

“Confident, aren’t ya?” Dash laughed back. “We’ll see if you can keep that up!”

“Alright, alright, save that energy for the competition,” AJ stated with a wave of her hoof. “We’re just about to start the Barrel Run!”

“I’m not sure if this is my sport,” Haru muttered under his breath.

“Then how ‘bout Ah show ya’ll how it’s done?” AJ chuckled as he steadied herself. “Ya ready Spike?”

Both Twilight and Spike were at the finish line, with the baby dragon armed with a stopwatch. The purple dragon smiled as he lifted his claws up, “Ready? Go!”

The moment that Spike finished saying ‘go’, Applejack galloped onto the track, dipping and diving between the barrels – accidentally nicking the last barrel with her tail, “Shoot!”

But she skidded to a halt just after she crossed the finish line.

“Time!” Spike announced just before he clicked the stopwatch. “Seventeen seconds!”

“Wooo! That’s a new record fer me!” Applejack cheered loudly as she playfully trotted back to the starting line.

“But, you hit the barrel,” Spike pointed out with a shake of his head. “So that’s a five second deduction.”

“Dagnabbit!” AJ cursed under her breath as she kicked a nearby rock. “Still, twenty-two seconds… That ain’t bad at all!”

“It is good,” Kosuke chuckled before he rolled his neck around. “But dipping past barrels is nothing compared to zipping between clouds at high speed… Right Dashie?”

Dash shook her head slightly with the nervous look on her face melted away, “Uh, right! Yeah! Let me show you how it’s done!”

“Ready?” Spike announced as he lifted the stopwatch up. “GO!”

In a multicolored blur, Dash sped over the track, easily slipping in between the barrels before she crossed the finish line.

“Eighteen seconds!” Spike announced as he waved the stopwatch through the air.

“Booyah!” Dash laughed loudly before she flew through the air before she leered at Kosuke and Haru. “Think you two can top that?”

“If Haru and Kosuke can’t beat that, then Dash will win the barrel lead,” Twilight pointed out, turning towards the two non-ponies nearby.

“Then watch and learn,” Kosuke replied before he dug his talons in the ground. “I’ll show you how a griffon does it!”

“Ready?” Spike chimed in. “GO!”

And just like Dash, Kosuke charged onto the track, quickly turning into a brown, red and yellow blur that easily slid between the barrels and dove past the finish line. “TIME!”

Spike clicked the stopwatch and his eyes widened at the time, “Eighteen seconds!?”

“What?!” Dash yelled out as the Griffon playfully jumped next to her. “How the hay did you pull that of?!”

“Two words,” Kosuke chuckled as he lifted up one of his talons and one his hind legs. “Talons and claws.”

“That’s three words,” Twilight pointed out.

“Details, details,” Kosuke answered back as he waved his talon. “As for details, I’m able to get some more traction, I’ve more practice on running on the ground than you Dashie, and I’m used to dodging stuff that you’d find in a Daring Do novel. When they’re not moving, it just makes this a cake walk.”

“But we’re tied!” Dash countered. “How the hay are you just as fast as me?!”

“You may be the blue streak in the sky, Dashie,” Kosuke explained with a large grin. “But with all four hooves on the ground, you’re just as fast as any other pony – No offense of course, but in case you didn’t notice, my legs are longer than yours.”

“Then by that logic, Haru’s got you beat,” Spike suggested, which made everypony and griffon turn towards the red dragon who was still eyeing one of the rings on his claws.

“Huh?” Haru questioned when he heard his name.

“Go on, Haru!” Spike cheered loudly as he pumped his claw up in front of him. “Show them what dragons can do!”

“Well, alright,” Haru sighed as he knelt down. “Don’t expect much though…”

“Go!” Spike announced as he clicked the stopwatch.

Unlike the previous three quadrupeds, the red dragon ran on his two legs, doing his best to run around the barrels. There was no red and black blur like the previous runners, and eventually, he passed the finish line.

“Forty-two seconds,” Spike sputtered out with his head lowered.

Haru doubled over slightly and sighed loudly, “Well excuse me! I don’t have four legs, I’ve got two! So, I’m not gonna…”

“Alright, so, how about we say that both Dash and Mister Nitoh get a point?” Twilight suggested, trying to change the subject.

“I’m cool with that,” Dash answered.

“Same here,” Kosuke added.

“Shoot, Ah’m good for that,” Applejack chimed in.

“… This was a bad idea,” Haru grumbled as he kicked a nearby rock.

After Fluttershy placed a ‘1’ sign next to Dash’s and Kosuke’s portraits, the competition continued onwards, continuing with the bucking contest – which was a high striker only with a target that was at the ground level.

“… I don’t think bucking is gonna work for me,” Haru stated with a dulled look on his eyes at the target.

Since he was last in the previous competition, everypony decided whoever was last in the last event would go first in the next event.

“Is anypony against me using a hammer?” Haru asked as he turned towards the other three competitors.

“A hammer? Are you kidding?” Dash scoffed. “C’mon Wizard, don’t be cheap like you were at horseshoes.”

“Actually, it’s okay with me,” Kosuke admitted with a wave of his talons. “I mean, c’mon, we gotta throw him a bone – Most of the events are made for quadrupeds, and he’s bipedal.”

“… ‘scuse me?” AJ questioned as she pushed up her hat a few times. “Anyway, Ah think we kinda have an advantage here, so Ah’m good with it too.”

“Whatever,” Dash sighed, a large grin on her face. “I doubt that any hammer can take one of my patented…”

“HAMMER – PLEASE!”

Dash’s eyes widened as a familiar large, red runic circle appeared in front of Haru that had the dragon reach into it. When he pulled his arms out from the circle, a large silver handled mallet with it’s head made a gun-metal black, was gripped tightly in his claws. When the runic circle faded away, the mallet crashed into the ground with a large crater at it.

Dash, AJ and Kosuke’s jaws dropped at the sight of the large hammer, and even more so when Haru easily lifted the large mallet that was roughly his size onto his shoulder. The dragon smirked as he turned his head to the trio, “Like the new trick I got? I’ve been itching to try this one out for a while.”

“Ooh! Ohh!” Pinkie Pie cheered out from the sidelines. “Stop! H-“

“HAMMER TIME!”

At the sidelines where Rarity and Pinkie Pie were, the two mares looked up to see that a familiar green pegasus was slowly floating down next to them. When he landed on the ground, he pulled his fedora down, “Sorry about that, Miss, but I couldn’t resist!”

“I know exactly how you feel!” Pinkie Pie chimed in with a large bright smile on her face. “It’s always fun to make jokes! But how did you know what I was going to say?”

“Oh you know what they say about great minds,” Sora stated as he trotted around Rarity and got closer to Pinkie Pie.

“What do they say?” Pinkie Pie questioned.

“... I dunno, I forget,” Sora answered back with a shrug.

“Mister Sora?” Rarity cleared her throat, garnering the mint green pegasus’ attention. “Not to be rude, but why are you here?”

For a few moments, Sora tapped his hoof against his chin before he turned his head to his saddlebags and pulled out a flyer in his mouth. Oddly enough, he was able to talk perfectly well with the flyer in between his teeth, “Well, these were all over town. Something about some Iron Equestrian games – It sounded like a good way to burn an afternoon.”

DING!

Everypony turned back to see Haru slamming the mallet into the target, sending the bell skyrocketing into the air. With a sigh and a cocky smile on his face, “Well, I guess it’s my point then.”

Back at the sidelines, Sora whistled with his eyes wide, “Wow! That dragon’s got an arm on him. By the way Miss Rarity, could you introduce me to your friend here? I’ll be more than willing to introduce you to mine!”

“Well, I wouldn’t want to be rude,” Rarity stated as she looked up into the sky. “But where are your friends?”

“Right behind you,” Sora answered as he gestured behind him.

Rarity turned to see Beautiful Blossom and Drag Curl slowly trot up from behind the small group. The normally classy and cool-headed fashionista’s eyes widened at the sight of the mare, “Y… You’re…”

“Allow me to introduce my friends!” Sora chimed in before he leapt in front of the other two ponies, pulling his fedora off to wave them towards the unicorn and earth pony behind him. “The stallion’s Drag Curl, who may or may not be a little risqué…”

Drag Curl narrowed his eyes, “I have no idea where you’re getting that term from, but stop it.”

But Sora just continued on by lowering his head slightly, “And this is…”

“Beautiful Blossom, the Fashion Mare Extraordinaire…”

Sora lifted his head up to see that it was Rarity who had spoken up, and the mare was stammering slightly at the sight of Beautiful Blossom.

“Oh, so you’ve heard of me?” Beautiful Blossom snickered slightly with a warm smile on her face as she brought a hoof up to her face. “I was hoping to remain unnoticed for a while longer.”

“My apologies,” Rarity cleared her throat. “But, it’s hard not to gush at one of Canterlot’s top fashion models – But, I had heard that you disappeared over half a year ago, that you had given up on your career.”

“Oh? But that isn’t the first time that I’ve been accused of that,” Blossom continued on as she trotted past Sora. “Everytime I wish to take a vacation or am seen eating a hay burger, everypony with a camera thinks that I’ve decided to just up and quit the business.

“But everypony needs a chance to relax.”

“Quite true,” Rarity admitted, tapping her lower jaw a few times. “But, and this is no offense to Ponyville, but why would a mare of your caliber come here?”

“Well, that’s because of yours truly!” Sora chimed in once more. “I mean, I heard of all the most wonderful things about this town – The scenery, the excitement, the ponies, and most of all the parties that seem to be held on an almost daily basis here seem to be the most fun, fun, fun times around!

“Whoever catered those parties must be a party mastermind!”

Pinkie Pie gasped loudly, “Oh, my gosh! Are you serious?!”

“Practically the only time I truly am!” Sora replied with a large smile. “I’d love to meet the pony who planned all of those parties.”

“Well, look no more!” Pinkie Pie cheered loudly before she lifted up a hoof to Sora. “Name’s Pinkie Pie!”

“My friends call me Sora, quite a pleasure,” the pegasus replied as he lifted his own hoof up to the mare’s

For a moment the pink mare and mint green stallion looked at each other just after their hooves connected. A spark had been lit.

“You know,” Sora started with a slight chime in his voice. “There’s something about you…”

“Oooh, ooh! I was just thinking the same thing!” Pinkie replied as she lowered her hoof. “Are you-”

Both ponies slid back to back – flattening their manes/wings – Before they both spoke out at the same time, “A MIND TAKER?!”

Blossom’s face went flat, “What are they…?”

“Uh oh,” Rarity gasped with a hoof up to her mouth. “There’s two of them now! Together!”

“I just can’t explain it,” Sora hummed out loud.

“It’s on the tip of my tongue,” Pinkie chimed in.

♪Something Familiar, ♪
♪Something Peculiar, ♪
♪Something for Everypony,
A fun time for all!! ♪

Rarity, Blossom and Drag Curl looked at each other as the brightly colored ponies begun to sing, the two trotting playfully at the sidelines of the competition. Which garnered the competitors’ attention at the two singing ponies.

“Oooh! I just had a great idea!” Pinkie cheered loudly.

“Lemme guess,” Sora mused with a very suave smile on his face. “Could it be…”

Both ponies lifted their hooves up in the air side-by-side, “A PARTY?!”

“What the hay is going on over there?” Applejack questioned as she tilted her hat.

“I think… A musical number?” Kosuke suggested with a confused look on his face.

♪Something appealing! ♪
♪Something appaling, ♪
♪Something for Everypony,
A fun time for all! ♪

♪Nothing but balloons! ♪
♪Nothing to do with a lie! ♪
♪Bring on the good times, with Sora and Pinkie Pie! ♪

As the two energetic ponies leapt onto the nearby stands with a flip in the air, Blossom turned towards the white mare, “Is she like this?”

“I could ask the same of your friend,” Rarity countered with a smile.

“I think I’m gonna leave now,” Drag Curl coughed out before he walked away to the other side of the competition area.

When both Pinkie and Sora landed on the stands they began to sing once more…

♪Colorful locations,
No aggravations! ♪
♪Nothing for a party to stall♪
♪Laughter tomorrow,
A fun time for all! ♪

Sora’s wings snapped open and flew up into the air with a spin.

♪Nothing Abhorrent! ♪
♪Something to warrant, ♪
Something for everypony:
♪A fun time for all! ♪

That was when Pinkie Pie jumped high and atop of the score board where Fluttershy was placing a ‘1’ sign next to the donut that represented Haru.

♪Something inventive, ♪
♪Something incentive. ♪
♪Something for everypony:
♪A fun time for all! ♪

Sora floated down next to Pinkie and the two threw one of their hooves around the other’s neck and kicked one of their hind legs in the air:

♪Nothing can predate: ♪
♪This must be fate; ♪
♪This is a celebration
That just cannot wait! ♪

It was then that Sora pulled away and began to fly slowly around the mare, “So tell me, Miss Pie.”

“What can I do for you, Mister Sora?” Pinkie replied before she gently flipped off of the score board.

“Why is that we suddenly broke out into song?” Sora asked, landing on the ground right next to the mare.

“There’s an excellent reason for that,” Pinkie answered with her chest puffed out. “Because we can!”

“So, how long do you think they can keep this up?” Blossom questioned with a flat look on her face.

“Oh, I have no doubt that they could sing all night,” Rarity answered.

The flat look on Blossom’s face went even duller, “Riveting.”

♪Nothing too formal! ♪
♪It simply can’t be normal! ♪
♪Ooh! I can be a masquerade ball! ♪
♪I love that idea! ♪
♪A fun time for all! ♪

As the singing ponies began dancing on the barrels at the barrel run, Rarity mused to herself. “Actually that might not be a bad idea. A masquerade ball, I mean.”

“Oh? How so?” Blossom questioned.

“Why, it’s an excellent excuse for ponies to purchase my dresses and suits,” Rarity explained with a confident smile.

“Hmm, touché,” Blossom mused, her brow raised up slightly. “So, does that mean you’re a dress maker, Miss Rarity?”

“Why, yes I am,” Rarity replied, trying her best to keep her composure.

“I’d love to see some of your work, if possible,” Blossom stated with a smile… And immediately reeled back. “Uh, Miss Rarity? Are you alright?”

Rarity had fainted backwards.

♪Something Climatic! ♪
♪Nothing Problematic! ♪
♪Something for everypony! ♪
♪A fun time for all! ♪

♪Craze and antic! ♪
♪Surely gigantic! ♪
♪For the fillies and colts, ♪
♪A fun time for all! ♪

Oddly enough, when Pinkie and Sora reached the path that led to Ponyville from Sweet Apple Acres, several other ponies appeared and joined in the singing.

♪Something Familiar♪
♪Something peculiar, ♪
♪Something for everpony: ♪
♪A fun time for all! ♪

Rarity had gotten back to her hooves and sighed, “♪Hopefully something not gaudy.♪”

“♪It shouldn’t be bawdy--,♪” Blossom chimed in.

It was then that Drag Curl appeared out in between two of the mares, “♪Something for everybawdy!♪”

♪A fun time for all!”

Sora flew through the air, “♪Nothing that’s grim! ♪”

Oddly enough, Pinkie stood atop of the flying mint green pegasus, with her front hooves up in the air, “♪Something with swing! ♪”

“♪Kosuke! Drop that ring! ♪” Haru barked as he lifted his mallet up after the griffon who had snatched one of his rings.

“♪Colorful surprises! ♪”
“♪Little filly prizes! ♪”

“♪Countless Ponies by the haul! ♪”

With a couple of Ponies lifting her up with their front hooves, Pinkie continued singing, “♪Punch and sweets! ♪”

Sora dipped down slightly to fly around Pinkie, “♪Don’t forget funky beats! ♪”

It seemed that the music continued to spread throughout Sweet Apple Acres, with Rarity and Blossom lifting their hooves up towards the partying pair.

“♪Fashionable dresses! ♪”
“♪To your successes! ♪”

Dash now flew overhead, a little annoyed at how the competition now had turned into a musical in the span of two minutes, “♪Sports! ♪”

Spike didn’t seem to mind, adding his own lyric through the branch that he had picked up to use as a pretend microphone, “♪Quartz! ♪”

AJ pushed up her hat, “♪Pastries! ♪”

Haru tapped his belt a few times, “PLEASE!”

Twilight sighed under her breath, “Mistakes..”

It was then that Kosuke leapt in front of everypony with two bottles of mayonnaise tightly gripped in his talons. “♪Mayonnaise! ♪”

Oddly enough there was record scratch followed by several cricket chirps, as all of the ponies stared at the griffon for a few moments as he slumped his shoulders, “What? It’s the greatest treat anyone could eat.”

“We’ll have mayo for you, Neato,” Pinkie Pie assured as she threw a hoof around the feathered creature’s neck. “Of course!”

Sora popped right next to the griffon, “It’s a party for griffon, dragon and horse!”

“♪Goodness and badness, ♪”

Medusa and Rarity sighed loudly at the same time, “This is madness…”

Both Sora and Pinkie stood back to back and lifted their hooves up into the air.

“♪We’ll party till the break of sol, ♪”

“♪Good times tonight, ♪”

“♪Fun times for all!! ♪”

Haru sighed and shook his head at the sight of all the ponies now standing still in elaborate poses as the music (where he was still trying the source of) died down. “Well, that was odd.”

TTT – TTT

After the song and dance, a number of ponies stayed to watch the Iron Equestrian competition between an earth pony, a pegasus, a dragon and a griffon. Needless to say, it was a very colorful competition;

With Rainbow Dash taking the lead in the Bronco Buck – Nearly sending Spike into the stratosphere (the poor dragon was nearly sick after AJ’s and Kosuke’s attempts to throw him off their backs). But AJ managed to get her own point by using her natural lasso talents, easily hogtying the poor dragon. Dash on the other hoof managed to get herself tied up in a tree somehow, which was odd since the tree was outside the pen and no where near where they started.

Throughout the contest, each participate had their strengths and their weaknesses – Applejack with her natural Earth Pony strength, Dash with her pegasus agility, Kosuke with his griffon endurance, and Haru with his cunning mind and unique body structure.

After so many events (including one that Twilight dubbed Chick Wrangling, which essentially had the four competitors carry four baby chicken chicks down a mud-filled trench where a mother hen waited for them – Oddly enough, Haru won that competition mainly due to the fact that he was able to carry the chicks in his claws), the score was set.

Rainbow Dash: 6
Applejack: 6
Kouske: 4
Donut Haru: 4

And left the final event, and tie breaker between the two mares.

Both Kosuke and Haru were on the sidelines next to the scoreboard, their heads lowered slightly in shame with Fluttershy comforting them both. “There, there, you both did your best. I’m sure next time you can win.”

Kosuke sighed loudly with his head lowered, “Nah, it’s not just that Flutters – It’s the fact that I boasted so much that now I look so… So…”

Kosuke slumped to the ground, almost deflated. “Weak…”

Fluttershy chuckled sheepishly before she turned to Haru who was now wiping off sweat from his brow with a towel he had pulled out from one of his Connect Portals. “What about you, Mister Souma? Are you okay with this?”

“I wasn’t really interested in participating,” Haru answered as he lifted up his left claw up to show a yellow gem ring on his claw. “I only joined because they bribed me.”

“Oh my,” Fluttershy muttered before she turned back to the competition. “Um, looks like they’re about to start the finals.”

And indeed, both AJ and Dash stood on opposite ends of one of the trails of mud, with a rope tightly clamped between their teeth. Both mares pulled with all their might, trying to get the other into the mud. All around the two, the ponies that were caught up in the singing earlier cheered loudly for one of the two mares.

The two seemed to be at a standstill, neither side backing down or letting any slack in the rope between their teeth. However, after a few moments, Applejack dug her hooves into the ground and pulled the rope quickly to yank Dash over the mud.

However, instead of the sound of mud splashes, there was only the sound of wings flapping furiously. Dash was now flying over the mud pit, and immediately took advantage of that fact to fly higher into the air and pulled AJ off of the ground.

The earth pony growled loudly as her hooves dangled in the air, “Mur eatin’!”

“What?” Dash chuckled through her teeth as she lifted a hoof up to her ear.

“Mur eatin’!” Applejack growled.

“I can’t understand you with that rope in your mouth,” Dash replied, still trying to keep her teeth clenched around the rope.

It was then that Applejack opened her mouth to speak up, “Ah said yer… Uh oh…”

SPLOOSH!

Mud went flying everywhere when the farm pony fell into pit. And with AJ wallowing in the mud, Dash release the rope in her mouth and flew down to the mud covered mare as the cheers of the large crowd sounded, “Oh yeah! That’s my win!”

Then, Dash flew up into the air with two other pegasai (one was a yellow mare who didn’t have a cutie mark while the second was that cross eyed mare who loved muffins), “I am the Iron Equestrian! Or rather – The Iron Pony!”

“Only cause ya cheated!”

Dash’s moment in the sun quickly faded when she heard that, making her leer at the orange earth pony that was being helped of the mud pit by Haru, with Kosuke only a few feet away. Dash dove down and leered at AJ, “Excuse me?! No one likes a sore loser, Applejack.”

“Ya’ll used yer wings!” AJ countered. “Ya’ll used yer wingpower to help ya win most of the contests!”

“Sounds like sour apples to me,” Dash scoffed to the side.

“Boo! Bad pun!” Kosuke sounded from the side with one of his thumbs pointed down. “GO HOME!”

“Ah, keep your beak shut,” Dash growled.

“Are ya sayin’ ya didn’t use yer wings?” AJ countered as she shuffled away from Haru’s helping claws.

“Well… no,” Dash admitted with a cocky smile. “But you never said I couldn’t use my wings!”

“It’s called fair play!” AJ retorted. “Ah didn’t think Ah had to say anything!”

“Well, we let Wizard use his magic!” Dash pointed out as she gestured towards the red dragon.

“Hey, that’s because I can’t buck!” Haru defended with his arms lifted up. “Besides, it was only for that one event, and I still lost this contest…”

“So?” Dash questioned with a sigh as she threw her hooves behind her head. “I still would’ve won, even with my wings tied behind my back! Sides, there’s no rule that said that I couldn’t use my wings.”

“Interesting you would say that,” a rather imposing voice sounded out.

Everypony turned to see Drag Curl slowly walk up to the small group of competitors, with a book wrapped around his tail. The large earth stallion puffed his chest up and tossed his tail up to balance the book on his muzzle, revealing the book’s name was ‘Iron Equestrian Official Rule Book’, “I apologize for interrupting, but I couldn’t just stand by and let such an injustice go unchecked.”

Pulling his head back, the large stallion allowed the book to fall to the ground and open up. With his free hoof, the stallion flicked through the pages until he came to one in particular. “If you thought you were the only ones to have an Iron Equestrian contest, you’re sadly mistaken.”

“And who the hay are you supposed to be?!” Dash interrupted as she landed on the book with her front hooves.

Drag Curl rolled his eyes before he took a deep breath and breathed out, actually managing to push Dash out of the way. “Just a concerned citizen – With a wealth of knowledge of these kinds of things, and according to page three of the rules, “In the event that different species are competing in competitions, including those species that have extra appendages including paws, claws, a secondary head, and of course, wings, cannot use them in events that consist of species that do not have them, unless there is a consensus agreement on allowing them amongst the competitors.

“And as I watched, I couldn’t help but notice that the griffon never once used his wings.”

Kosuke’s eyes widened before he lowered his head, “I…”

“Yeah, but who says we were using those kinds of rules?!” Dash huffed as she pointed a hoof at Drag Curl who closed the book and lifted it up with his teeth.

The large stallion didn’t speak until he stood up next to Twilight and lowered the book gently on the ground. “Thank you for letting me read that, Miss, it was quite an enlightening read. So, tell me, are you not the judge for this little competition?”

“Well, I am,” Twilight answered, a little taken back by the sheer size of the stallion before her (somehow, he was just a head shorter than Princess Celestia, but had the muscle definition to make up for it).

“Then by that means,” Drag Curl continued before he turned over to Dash. “The rules listed in that book, are the same rules you used to judge the competition – Correct?”

“W-Well, yes,” Twilight admitted as she looked to the side. “But this is…”

“Undeniable proof that the pegasus cheated!” Drag Curl interrupted with a loud laugh.

Dash growled but then smirked, “Yeah, but I would’ve won even without my wings!”

“Oh yeah, prove it!” Applejack countered as she pointed a hoof at the blue pegasus.

“Gladly!” Dash laughed but then raised an eyebrow. “How?”

“There’s the Running of the Leaves,” Drag Curl suggested with a large smirk. “You could always have a race to see who’s the best – Only using your legs of course, no wings.”

“Fine,” both Dash and AJ replied with their eyes narrowed down at each other.

Drag Curl smiled warmly, ‘And with this… It begins…’

TBC

Author's Note

Author's Note: ... I am not a musical composer. I can barely rhyme to save my life, but all in all, I hope you all enjoy the chapter. And maybe if anyone's interested, we'll have auditions for some people to actually sing this song.

Spell 31 - Running A Head

Spell 31

Running A Head

TTT – TTT

“Are you sure you wanna go through with this?”

Somepony had to clean up the equipment that was used in the Iron Equestrian Games, as such, the four competitors were hard at work making sure that the materials were put away properly. With Dash and Kosuke at one side of the competition grounds, while Haru and AJ were pushing the barrels into the barn.

AJ stopped with her barrel and gave the red dragon a look, pushing her hat up to give the full effect, “Mistah Souma, Ah’m getting tired of hearing that question. Yes, somepony has to teach that cheater a lesson! And Ah’m just the mare to do it!”

Haru sighed under his breath, if there was one thing that Haru was sure about AJ – It was her stubbornness. Pushing the barrel to the side, the red dragon stretched his arms up over his head. “Yeah, but are you sure it’s wise to do it? I mean…”

“Mistah Souma, it’s just a race,” Applejack countered with a smile. “What’s the worst that could happen? Sides, Mistah Nitoh said that he’d be able to watch the entire race with that Griffon Familiar of his… Somehow. He wasn’t clear on that… But it’s just some friendly competition. Nothing to worry about.”

“Whenever somepony says that, the worst usually happens,” Haru muttered out loud as he rubbed the back of his scaly head.

The southern mare sighed and shook her head, “Ah git it, competition brings out the worst outta everypony – But it can also bring out the best in anypony too. Sides, it’s not gonna be too bad, Ah can handle a simple race on mah own.”

Once more, Haru sighed.

On the other side of the farm, Kouske was taking down the large scoreboard, with Dash holding a rope up in the air so the scoreboard wouldn’t fall down and crush the griffon. “Can you believe that she’d accuse me of cheating?! Me!”

“Dash, you’ve been repeating the same argument for the last half hour,” Kosuke yawned, trying to keep himself awake so he wouldn’t get crushed. “I know you got a bit of a bruised ego, but I’d rather have your ego bruised than get a bruise on my head.”

“Whatever,” Dash replied before the scoreboard was successfully lowered to the ground. That’s when a thought struck Dash’s head. “Hey, you didn’t use your wings at all, why didn’t you?”

Kosuke froze slightly and slowly craned his head towards the blue pegasus who slowly floated down in front of him. The griffon brought his talon to his beak and coughed a few times, “Well… Dashie, you see I didn’t want to come off as cheap or a cheater…”

“Yeah, not buying it,” Dash replied as she tapped her hoof against Kosuke’s chest a few times. “This coming from the griffon who used to take head starts at each race, who took every shortcut he could find, and who literally had a book of every little dirty trick under his pillow.

“Besides, you’re a bad liar – just as bad as Applejack. You might as well cough it up!”

Now the griffon was sweating bullets, the glare of those rose colored eyes was enough to make anypony or griffon falter, and from what Dash had told him, Fluttershy’s glare was enough to make dragons and even Phantoms quiver in fear. Well, this mare’s stare could possibly be on par with it.

Kosuke gulped loudly. ‘Plop, plop, PLOP! Something! Anything! Give me a distraction! I’d even take a Phantom attacking! Anything!’

Unfortunately, nothing came, and with Dash now leaning in at the griffon, Kosuke could feel the pressure. “C’mon Kosuke! You’re not the kind of griffon who wouldn’t think twice about pulling a fast one, and you’re pulling a fast one right here!”

“What? Me? No!” Kosuke chuckled with his talons lifted up defensively. “I would never think about pulling a fast one on you – After all, you’re Dash! I could never hide anything from you. Your keen eyes and indomitable spirit are enough to make anypony or griffon croak out the truth.”

“Now you’re just stalling,” Dash growled, her face even closer to Kosuke’s – Which made the griffon a little uncomfortable.

“Well… Yes! Yes I am!” Kosuke admitted with a loud laugh. “I’m stalling of course, but for what, I don’t know! Even now I’m just hoping for… Oh, I don’t know, maybe a second musical number?”

There was a moment of solitude between the two, however, that didn’t last long as Kosuke shrugged his shoulders. Too bad he didn't know that the author didn't care to have another musical number after the last chapter's, “Well plop that didn’t work.”

“Enough!” Dash commanded as she now had a hoof planted firmly in Kosuke’s chest. “I wanna know right now!”

A few times Kosuke’s beak opened, but then closed, trying to keep himself from speaking. Slowly his tail brushed up against his right side over his hoodie, and the griffon gulped loudly…

“Well, well, this is a picture perfect scene,” A rather coy voice sounded out.

Both Dash and Kosuke turned to see Haru leaned up against one of the remaining barrels that needed to be put away only a few feet away. Dash pushed away from Kosuke and sighed, “Hey Wizard, what’s up?”

“Me and Kosuke are gonna finish up around here,” Haru explained with a shrug. “Since you and AJ have a race in the morning, I thought it’d be good for you two to get some rest so you two can give it your all.”

Dash leered at the dragon before she sighed, “Yeah, yeah, but this isn’t over, Neato. The moment the race is over with, you’re gonna spill your guts on this.”

Kosuke gulped loudly as he watched the mare trot off. When he was positive that she was gone, Kosuke sighed loudly and turned towards Wizard with a large smirk on his face, “Uh, thanks… So what do I owe ya?”

“Nothing much,” Haru replied, shrugging his shoulders. “You do know that you’re not gonna be able to hide that…”

“You think I don’t know that?” Kosuke muttered as he rubbed the back of his head. “Not like you’ve got any skeletons in your closet…”

“Yeah, I’ve got a few,” Haru admitted, his head lowered slightly. “But even I’ll have to tell everypony about them someday.”

“Yeah, not easy is it?” Kosuke chuckled before he gestured towards the scoreboard to get Haru to help him with it. “Tartarus, there are more ponies that know about my little… Well, you know.”

“Doesn’t seem to stop you though,” Haru answered back, couching down to grab the scoreboard.

“That’s cause I’m badass,” Kosuke chuckled.

“That’s not an appropriate reason,” Haru countered.

“Oh, and ‘a Wizard did it’ is?” Kosuke retorted.

“Shut up.”

TTT – TTT

With the moon high in the sky over White Tail Woods, Drag Curl trotted through the woods with a number of Ghouls behind him. Unlike the Everfree Forest, the White Tail Woods was the picturesque form of a peaceful timberland that was governed by the hooves of ponies, with its red, yellow, and orange color patterned leaves sprouted from the many trees within its confines.

It was easy to tell that fall was coming, the cold breeze that blew through his slick black mane, Drag Curl sighed and watched as he saw a little bit of his breath. He then gestured with his head to the nearby bushes and the Ghouls all began to dash off in different directions. After the Ghouls had disappeared from sight, blue flames began to cover Drag Curl’s body.

After the flames completely engulfed him, in his place was his Phantom form – The bulky, humanoid, blue, knight armor. As the Phantom lifted his hands up, he looked towards the large bulky shackles that were around his wrists, and with every movement he took, black smoke billowed from the spaces between his armor.

If one could see it, on his chest was an emblem that had a horse head on it while his helmet had a Mohawk mane atop of the silver armor. After he lifted his metallic hands, he clenched his fists and the black smoke began to transform. “That day… Almost a year ago, Drag Curl was slain. And here I stand…

“Stronger, faster, with a brand new body…”

The smoke flew about and immediately solidified into a large stick with a black, curved blade in its end. Taking a moment, the Phantom drew an armored finger across the blade, “I wonder if this is how unicorns feel – To have so much power at their hooves. A shame that I had to die in order to experience this thrill.”

“I didn’t think you talked to yourself… You have this habit since you were a regular pony?”

The Phantom turned around to see none other than Phoenix walk through the forest, small fiery sparks around his body. The transformed Phantom bowed slightly, “I see you can finally walk, Master Phoenix.”

“That doesn’t answer the question,” Phoenix chuckled as he continued to walk towards the Phantom. “But forget about it – I doubt you’d answer the question anyway.”

“You know me well, Master Phoenix,” Drag Curl’s Phantom chuckled as the scythe of shadows dissipated. “So, what do I owe this…”

Drag Curl’s Phantom lifted his left arm up just at the last second, blocking a red and yellow covered fist that was covered with flames. Right before Drag Curl’s Phantom, stood Phoenix’s Phantom form, his red and gold armor glistened in the light from the flames from his back. “Heh, do you really have to ask? Dullahan, I am grateful for you restoring my strength, so allow me to repay the favor by granting you something that I know you desire…

“A chance to duel against me!”

Dullahan laughed loudly before he smacked Phoenix’s fist away, and lifted his other hand up in order to catch Phoenix’s next fist. “BWAHAHAHAHAAA! Indeed! I do desire a fight with you, Master Phoenix! However, I have other matters to deal with – And before I can truly accept a duel with you…”

Pulling Phoenix by the arm, Dullahan drew the fellow Phantom close and delivered a counter punch to the fiery Phantom’s face, which pushed the Greater Phantom back. “I must test my mettle against those who defeated you!”

Although his jaw was sore, Phoenix laughed loudly and pointed a finger at Dullahan. “Yes, I understand, Dullahan.”

Both Phantoms were then engulfed in flames – Phoenix’s red and Dullahan’s blue – Which transformed them back into their stallion forms. Phoenix slowly walked past Dullahan, “If you survive your… Encounter, I look forward to our fight, my friend.”

Phoenix was about to continue walking away, until he felt a hoof on his side and turned back to Drag Curl, “Master Phoenix, before you go, I have a question for you.”

“No Drag Curl, for the last time,” Phoenix sighed loudly with a coy smile. “I don’t have tickets for Saturday Night Live in Canterlot – I used those three months ago.”

“Damn it,” Drag Curl cursed under his breath. “You know how hard it is to get those tickets?! You practically have to make a deal with Lord Hades to get your hooves on those!”

“How do you think I got them?” Phoenix retorted, his eyes flat and dulled slightly.

“Well, that wasn’t what I was going to ask,” Drag Curl coughed out, his hoof brought up to his muzzle. “My question to you Phoenix is this: What do you plan to do?”

“Hmm?” Phoenix mused. “What do you mean?”

“Let’s say that either of us defeat the ring mages,” Drag Curl supposed, a large smirk plastered on his face. “What do you plan on doing afterwards? Do you intend on continuing to follow the orders laid out before you from Lady Medusa and our Master? Or is there something more that you plan on doing?”

Phoenix turned his attention down towards the ground, and dug his hoof through the dirt, “Thanks for hitting me below the belt. In all honesty, Drag Curl, I don’t know – I suppose for the time being that I’ll continue being a little lap dog so long as I can get some decent fights, but even a dog grows tired of its leash.

“So, we’ll see what’ll happen if you’re actually able to defeat Wizard… No, Haruto Souma, when that day comes, then we’ll talk.”

Drag Curl smirked as he watched Phoenix walk away into the darkness of White Tail Woods. When the greater Phantom faded into the shadows, Drag Curl turned his attention towards the large full moon in the sky, ‘… This has to be done; either by my hooves or by Master Phoenix’s. If we can’t defeat these mages, then what hope do we Phantoms have?’

TTT-TTT

In contrast to its calm and lonely night, the White Tailed Woods this day bustled with several ponies lined up on the path that went through the woods. Earth ponies, pegasai and even a few unicorns were prepared for the Running of the Leaves, stretching their legs about in preparation for the big race.

“So, what’s your plan again?” Haru asked, seated against a tree with a bag filled with donuts on his lap.

Twilight sighed as she used her magic to levitate a pair of stickers that had ‘42’ labeled on them to her flanks. “You’re not the only one worried about Dash and AJ, Haru. Those two are the most competitive ponies I know, so I’m going to compete in the race to make sure nothing bad happens.”

With a donut in his mouth, Haru looked at Twilight with a dulled look in his eyes. “… Uh, sorry Twilight, but uh, aren’t you more well-read than athletic?”

“I’m just as good as the next pony to race,” Twilight countered, her brow slightly narrowed. “I’ve read a lot on the subject, and I’ve even studied the Running of the Leaves since it’s a part of Ponyville’s culture, and I’m more than certain that I’m prepared to take on this race.”

“Well, just be sure to pace yourself,” Haru suggested before he tossed the remainder of the donut into his mouth and swallowed.

“Should you really be giving tips when all I ever see you eat is donuts?” Twilight countered with a bright smile.

“I got a fast metabolism,” Haru growled, pouting slightly as he waved a donut at the unicorn. “Besides, I do eat other things, I just prefer donuts.”

“How your teeth haven’t rotted out is a mystery to me,” Twilight commented under her breath.

Before Haru was about to speak up, a small emerald and gold griffon swooped down and snatched the donut from Haru’s claws. “HEY!”

The small griffon flew about before it dropped the donut from the air and hooked around a familiar tail that caught it, “Hmm, thanks for the free breakfast!”

Kosuke reached into his hoodie and produced a familiar bottle that he used to pour mayonnaise on the confectionary treat. The small Griffon Familiar landed atop of the griffon mage’s head as Kosuke munched on the mayonnaise covered treat and gulped loudly, “Tasty!”

“Good morning, Mister Nitoh,” Twilight greeted.

“Gah, don’t use ‘Mister,’ please,” Kosuke requested as the Griffon Familiar chirped in agreement. “I’m only a few years older than you, Little Miss Magic. Mister doesn’t suit me at all, but good morning to you as well.”

The griffon turned about and smiled at the sight of all the racers – Noticing that most of them were mares. “Quite a nice turn out here, I’ve never seen so many ponies stretching: A sight that’s easy on the eyes…”

“Uh, okay,” Twilight was a little confused with Kosuke’s choice of words, and it didn’t help that he had this very creepy smile plastered on his beak. “So, why are you here… Kosuke?”

“Much better,” Kosuke chuckled as he turned back to Twilight. “To answer your question, Twi, that can be answered with this!”

Pocketing his bottle of mayo, the griffon then pulled out a rather odd looking little golden device that had a screen on it. Kosuke lifted it up towards Twilight and whistled, “This little thing allows me to see what my cute little Gryph sees.”

“Griff?” Twilight questioned before the Griffon Familiar leapt from Kosuke’s head and landed atop of her head. “Oh, your familiar. Don’t you think it’s odd that you have a griffon for a familiar?”

“Don’t you think it’s odd that your number one assistant is a dragon?” Kosuke countered as he tapped on the screen of the odd device. “Or that the Donut Dragon has a unicorn familiar?”

“If you can call me Donut Dragon,” Haru sighed before he stood up in order to look at the device that Kosuke had in his talons. “Then there’s no reason for me to not call you Mayo.”

“How about you losing a couple teeth?” Kosuke growled before he smiled brightly at Twilight. “You see Twi, I’m going to have my little Gryph following the racers overhead and I’ll be able to watch our two little competitors to make sure that they don’t pull any dirty tricks.”

“This is actually a pretty interesting device, Kosuke,” Twilight admitted, taking note that on the screen she was actually seeing through the eyes of the griffon familiar. “To be able to see through the eyes of a familiar – I’ve never seen Haru ever do this.”

“I’ll give you that,” Haru sighed loudly tapping on the glass with one of his claws. “All I can do is sense where my familiars are.”

“It’s not that hard to fashion one of these things,” Kosuke replied with a smirk as he used his tail to grab onto the box of donuts that Haru had under his arm. “I can show ya how to make one of these things. Just gotta grease the wheels for me…”

“Fine,” Haru muttered.

While the two mages were talking, Twilight slowly trotted off and looked up slightly to see a hot air balloon that hovered over the ground with Pinkie Pie and Spike in the balloon’s basket. Pinkie saw her magically talented friend and waved, “Oooh! Twilight! Twilight! Over here!”

“Hey Pinkie,” Twilight greeted back, then smiled at Spike. “Thanks for letting Spike ride along and announce.”

“Aw, he’s a natural,” Pinkie Pie replied, pushing a megaphone over to the small dragon. “Spike’s great to work off of for bits!”

“I’m just glad I can announce again,” Spike chimed in. “It was really fun!”

“But, I would’ve figured that you’d be with Sora,” Twilight commented. “You two really seemed to hit it off well yesterday.”

“Oh that’s easy,” Pinkie Pie replied with a wave of her hoof. “He’s getting the party supplies while I announce the race – We decided that we’d have the party in celebration of today’s race!”

Meanwhile, across town in Ponyville’s party store…

“My, how kind of you to give this all for me for free – Are you sure it’s okay?”

The clerk of the party store gulped at the curved blade that rested on her neck as she looked at the large green armored Gremlin that sat on her counter with a large cart of party favors stuffed in it. The clerk was sweating bullets, she was very nervous as the Phantom applied a little more pressure with the blade against her neck.

“Um, y-yes! Please! It’s on the house!”

Gremlin pulled back the curved blade slightly and leapt off of the counter, “How generous! I’ll be sure to come back here with my friends sometime in the future!”

Back at the race…

“I sure hope that Sora has enough bits to get the supplies,” Pinkie mused to herself out loud.

“With those bottomless saddlebags, I don’t think you’ll have to worry,” Spike pointed out.

“Indeed, the little bugger seems to enjoy breaking physics,” a deep voice sounded out.

Twilight turned back to see Drag Curl walking up, a tag on his flanks labeled with ‘13’ and a smile on his rugged muzzle. “Mister Drag Curl? You’re competing in the race?”

The large stallion laughed loudly before he slammed a hoof to his broad chest. “Indeed! I wouldn’t have suggested such a thing if I wasn’t prepared myself to do the same thing! A simple jog through the woods is good for circulation in the legs, and its for a good cause, knocking them leaves down!”

“Yeah, those leaves are really lazy,” Pinkie Pie chimed in.

Drag Curl laughed loudly at the comment, “Too true! Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to do my stretches before the race starts.”

And indeed, the large stallion trotted to the side and begun to stretch his limbs. Twilight shrugged and turned back to Pinkie and Spike, but realized that they were slowly ascending into the air so the studious mare trotted over to where Dash and AJ were stretching. It was easy to see that wrapped around Dash’s torso and wings was a thick, and tightly tied rope, more than likely a precaution to make sure that Dash couldn’t use her wings.

Applejack was the first to notice that the violet unicorn was coming up towards the two, “Twilight? Odd seeing you here.”

“Not really, I’m racing too,” Twilight replied with a little pride in her voice.

Both Dash and AJ turned towards each other and then erupted into laughter that was louder than what Twilight would’ve liked. Twilight was about to speak up when all of a sudden…

“ALL RIGHT, PONIES! ARE YOU READY?!”

Above, Pinkie and Spike were in the balloon announcing to the racers that the Running of the Leaves was about to begin, so the many ponies who were participating lined up on the path behind the white line. Right in front were Dash and AJ, both were leering at each other, a few ponies behind them stood was Drag Curl with Twilight not too far behind him.

“Get set…” Spike called out through the megaphone.

Then from out of nowhere, Pinkie lifted up a large bell with her tail and shook it wildly, which had alerted the plethora of power sprinting ponies to begin the arduous trial to agitate the leaves off from their perches.

“Hmm, looks like the author’s been hitting the dictionary again,” Pinkie Pie mused with a rather coy smile plastered on her face.

“Uh, Pinkie Pie? What are you talking about?” Spike questioned, blinking a few times at the pink mare’s words.

“Oh, don’t worry, Spike,” Pinkie replied before she turned back to the megaphone and spoke into it. “Anyway, this is the official coverage of the Running of the Leaves! It reminds me of that one event in Baleselona – Running of the… I forget, but I think it’s full of bullies.”

“Uh, right,” Spike countered, his throat cleared before he looked over the basket to watch the ponies gallop down on the path. “Well, it’s thanks to the ponies down there that the leaves can fall, their running shakes the trees and forces the leaves to fall.”

“Righty-O, Spikey-O!” Pinkie Pie chimed back before she clapped her hooves together a few times. “But this isn’t just about the weather Spike, there’s some fierce competition out on the track today!”

“That’s right!” Spike added with one of his claws lifted up. “Applejack and Rainbow Dash are in a fierce grudge match that they’re trying to settle – Whoever crosses the finish line first will prove which mare is the most athletic!”

“Yes,” Pinkie Pie gleefully added. “And ‘grudge’ rhymes with ‘fudge’.”

“Wait, what?” Spike questioned.

“It does!” Pinkie Pie chimed again. “And I love fudge! But if I eat too much fudge, I get a pudge and then I can’t budge and it leaves a big smudge on my face, and I’m lucky to be able to trudge!”

My Tsuyoshi Kida! I love alliteration!

“I don’t think that’s alliteration…” Pinkie Pie mused with her eyes closed. “It’s more akin to consonance since the repetition of the similar sounding isn’t at the beginning of the words.”

Spike looked left and right, trying to figure out who the hay Pinkie was talking to and then draped over the side of the basket. “I don’t think I can make the jump back to the ground.”

“Oooh! Spike look!” Pinkie Pie announced as she pointed a distance. “Look! It appears that Dash and AJ have pulled away from the pack!”

Spike squinted his eyes, and indeed, on the path between the trees were a pair of blurs – An orange blur and a sky blue blur that had pulled away from the multitude of colors that flooded the forest. But there was a third blur that was easily able to get away from the rest of the colors, “But there’s somepony else that’s right on their tails… And it’s…”

“Mister Drag Curl!” Pinkie Pie cheered out. “A real dark horse! Even though he’s technically a dark blue so I don’t know if dark horse would work there.”

On the ground, Dash and AJ were galloping as fast as their hooves could take them, each of them trying to out race the other ones and exchanged first place back and forth every so often. Dash smirked as she took a jump past AJ, “Tell me AJ, enjoying the view?”

“Ah don’t know,” Applejack scoffed back before she took the lead. “Ya’ll tell me!”

“I think the view is wonderful,” a strong voice called out.

The two mares didn’t need to turn back to see who had spoken, since Drag Curl had galloped past the two and just stole the lead from the two. “Then again, I usually jog ten miles every morning, so it’s no surprise that it’s good back there! HAHA!”

Both AJ and Dash turned towards each other with their eyes narrowed down at each other, they couldn’t let that big galoot get ahead of them! They already had created a large gap between them and the rest of the competitors, and while they were just competing between themselves, they just couldn’t seem to bear that somepony else was ahead of them.

There was no question, they had to push themselves even more to make sure that this stallion didn’t outdo them, if he won, what was the point of proving which of them was the Iron Pony if somepony else beat them?

And thus, the two mares galloped even faster, following the same path that Drag Curl was taking which was easily labeled by the many signs that were placed along the path. And struggling to keep up behind the two was none other than Gryph, the little familiar struggling to keep up with the two fast mares.

However, when the two mares and the griffon familiar followed Drag Curl down one of the branching paths, a single Ghoul popped its head out from the bushes, made sure that he wasn’t seen and adjusted the sign so that the rest of the runners wouldn’t follow them down the wrong path.

With his job done, the Ghoul sighed, shook his head in disappointment and laid back down in the bushes just before the rest of the runners came by.

TTT – TTT

At this point, Dash and AJ had managed to make quite a distance from the original track, with no sight of the other competitors. Even Drag Curl had disappeared from their view, and where he had disappeared to was a mystery to the two mares.

“Hey, Dash, ya know where that show-off ran off to?” AJ questioned, but still kept her eyes on the path before her.

“I think you should be more worried about losing!” Dash retorted with a wild smirk on her. “So how ‘bout you…”

Before Dash could continue a loud scream echoed through the woods, and it didn’t take long for them to see what was the cause of the scream was. In a rather large clearing ahead, Drag Curl was stopped by a ton of Ghouls, each armed with a red spear that was pointed at the large stallion.

Drag Curl took one step back…

SHINK!

One of the Ghouls immediately brought down its spears.

And then Drag Curl’s head slid off from his neck and onto the ground right before Dash and AJ, a few seconds later, his body fell to the ground. The two mares stared at the beheaded Drag Curl for a moment before they realized that the large amount of Ghouls were inching towards them.

“Run?” AJ suggested.

“Run,” Dash agreed.

And with that, the two mares turned around and ran off, with most of the Ghouls chasing after them, save for one that stood near Drag Curl’s beheaded body.

“Are they gone?”

The single Ghoul growled and nodded, allowing a powerful blue flame to engulf Drag Curl’s decapitated body. Soon, the armored suit stood tall and stretched his arms over where his head would be. “I swear, I don’t know how Zombie deals with this all the time with his detachment abilities. Still, I can understand why he’d be willing to do this.”

Dullahan reached down and grabbed Drag Curl’s head, the moment his armored fingers brushed against the disembodied head, the stallion’s head transformed into Dullahan’s helmet. Tossing it up a few times, Dullahan slipped it atop of the head hole in his armor. “Shock value can really be good when trying to instill despair. Now, alert the Ghouls near the entrance, cut off their path.

“Today, a new Phantom shall grace Equestria!”

TBC

Spell 32 - Dullahan

Spell 32

Dullahan

TTT - TTT

One of the Ghouls immediately brought down its spears.

“Run?” AJ suggested.

“Run,” Dash agreed.

And with that, the two mares turned around and ran off, with most of the Ghouls chasing after them, save for one that stood near Drag Curl’s beheaded body.

“Are they gone?”

The single Ghoul growled and nodded, allowing a powerful blue flame to engulf Drag Curl’s decapitated body. Soon, the armored suit stood tall and stretched his arms over where his head would be. “I swear, I don’t know how Zombie deals with this all the time with his detachment abilities. Still, I can understand why he’d be willing to do this.”

“Today, a new Phantom shall grace Equestria!”

TTT – TTT

For long they ran was beyond them, the two mares just kept running, trying their best to get away from the gruesome scene that was behind them. And those who had decapitated Drag Curl, the Ghouls, were chasing them… And weren’t that far behind the two mares.

Neither had seen a pony lose their head, and it was something that most would rather not see.

“Something ain’t right here!”

Dash turned slightly to see AJ galloping alongside her, but looking forward. “What do you mean? Hard to think those rockheads wouldn’t pull something like this…”

“Not what Ah’m talkin’ ‘bout,” AJ stated before she skidded to a halt on the dirt path. “Mistah Souma once told me ‘bout these things – How they fight, and that they can fire, well, fire from them arms of theirs. But they haven’t… Tartarus, look at ‘em!”

Dash leered back and noticed that the Ghouls were chasing them, but most of them were just casually following them, only a handful seemed to be actually interested in chasing the two mares.

“So, what you getting at?” Dash questioned.

AJ pulled the ropes from the Dash’s middle, allowing the Pegasus to spread her wings out, “Ah say they’re trying to round us up somewhere – And Ah’m not interested in where they’re trying to take us.”

“Thinking what I’m thinking?” Dash replied with a wild smirk on her face.

“Wanna change the race to a straight up brawl?” AJ suggested as she fashioned herself a lasso from the rope. “Which ever pony manages to take out the most wins?”

Dash nodded before she crouched her legs and shot off towards the Ghouls with AJ right behind her. The two mares charged at the surprised group of Ghouls, with Dash crashing into a number of the Ghouls.

As one of the non-knocked out Ghouls watched Dash fly up, AJ’s lasso wrapped around over the Ghoul’s body and tightened. The Ghoul struggled before it was yanked through the air towards AJ, who had turned around and bucked the Phantom right back towards the remaining standing Ghouls and sent them flying into the many trees in the forest.

The Ghouls were stunned and allowed Dash to drop from the sky and slam her hooves into one of the Ghouls’ chest, making several cracks appear over the monster’s body before Dash flew off and the Ghoul exploded into golden magical energy.

“That’s one for me!” Dash laughed as she spun about through the air.

While the two mares fought against the Ghouls, Dullahan watched their battle from the nearby foliage, the branches and leaves covered up most of his armored body. ‘They’re not as shocked by my ‘death’ as I had hoped. Then again, I did read reports that these are two of the six who stood up against a living nightmare.

‘Not bad at fighting either – Then again, not surprising considering how athletic these two are.’

Dullahan stepped to the side just as a Ghoul was flung from the clearing and just past him, barely scrapping by the large Phantom’s armored body. ‘They must be willing to do anything to get my ‘decapitation’ out of their heads… Well, this plan certainly backfired. Then again, I’m not the sharpest sword in the armory, I didn’t do much research on these two…

‘Ah well, I guess the despair of death will just have to do: If I have to eliminate one of them to get a new Phantom, that’s fine with me.’

Black smoke began to seep out from the joints of Dullahan’s armor and poured into his armored hand. The smoke began to bulge and twist until it formed into a large black scythe, ‘Then again, they’re not really my targets – Still, I have to at least make it look like I’m trying to make more Phantoms.’

Back at the clearing, AJ leapt over one of the Ghouls that took a swipe at her with its spear, and when she landed behind the rocky creature, she bucked her hind hooves into its back. The assault was enough to send it flying into a nearby tree.

The earth pony took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a second, the sight of Drag Curl’s limp head appeared in her mind’s eye. With a shake of her head, Applejack opened her eyes and dashed past a pair of Ghouls that dove after her. ‘Get it together Applejack! If you don’t stay focused, yer gonna end up just like him!’

One of the Ghouls skidded in front of AJ, but a multicolored blur crashed into the monstrous goon. Dash flew in place as she turned towards the earth pony, “What’s the matter, AJ? You going to…”

“Look out!”

AJ leapt into Dash, bringing down both mares to ground just as an obsidian scythe spun through the air and embedded into a tree just over their heads. Both mares looked up to see the scythe dissipate into black smoke, and then the sound of clapping metal echoed through the forest.

“Bravo, bravo… Quite the performance you two.”

Dash and AJ turned to see Dullahan stepping out from the bushes, with a number of other Ghouls around him. The Phantom finished clapping and lifted his hand up with a finger lifted, “Grade A work! I’ve only seen other Phantoms and heard that Mages could even put a dent in the Ghouls.”

“Yer one of them Phantoms,” AJ growled as she and Dash got back to their hooves.

“I prefer Dullahan,” The Phantom chuckled, before he crossed his arms over his armored chest. With a sigh, Dullahan waved a hand about near his head. “Now insert usual dramatic speech about despair, blah, blah, blah… You gonna make this easy?”

Dullahan lifted his arms up at the last second to block four hooves that clacked against his armor, Dash smirked as she pushed Dullahan back, “How’s this for an answer?!”

“My, you even keep a cool head,” Dullahan admitted before he pulled his arms back and knocked Dash back through the air. “Even though you just saw a head roll nary half an hour ago.”

“That was you, Ah take it?” AJ huffed with her hat lowered slightly. “Why’d you do that to Mistah Drag Curl? Ah was under the impression that you Phantoms were only after Gates – Not lives.”

“… Should it matter who gets caught in the crossfire?” Dullahan countered, black smoke began to pour from the joints in his armor. “Us Phantoms are nothing more than devils to you ponies, why shouldn’t we play the part you’ve given us?”

“You gonna just keep talkin’ or are we gonna fight?” Dash shouted before she slammed her front hooves together.

“Hold it Dash!” AJ called out. “Mistah Dull…”

“Dullahan,” The armored Phantom corrected.

“Mistah Dullahan,” Applejack continued. “Ah’ve heard that not all ya’ll Phantoms are interested in this ‘mission’ of yers. Ya don’t have to fight ya know, there’s a way to stop this.”

For a moment, Dullahan rubbed his chin, the smoke still billowing around his body, “… And end up Harpie and the others? None of us Phantoms asked for this life, but it’s either this, or no life at all. And I mean that in the most literal sense.

“Besides, being a Phantom has its perks – We’ve got hands, unique abilities, and even those who were graced with the worst of fates were given a second chance…”

“And where do you stand?” AJ questioned.

The smoke began to culminate within Dullahan’s hands, transforming into the scythe once more before he clanked into the ground. “It doesn’t matter where I stand, what matters is where you two shall fall!”

The ghouls behind Dullahan lifted their spears up and began to charge…

Until several sparks erupted at the Phantom’s and Ghouls’ feet, making them stagger back.

The roar of an engine drew everyone’s attention to the side to see Wizard driving his motorcycle down the path… With Beast riding on the back of the transport holding onto Wizard’s usual gun shakily. “Damn it! The sight on this thing is off!”

“You sure it isn’t that you’re just a bad shot?” Wizard countered, not bothering to turn back to Beast. “I use that thing all the time, and I rarely miss.”

“Oh shut up,” Beast growled before he crouched slightly on the seat. “The day I use my own gun is the day that I eat my jacket!”

“… I’ll hold you to that,” Wizard stated before Beast leapt through the air, dropping the gun through the air.

As Beast leapt through the air, he brought his talons to his belt and drew his saber from the buckle. And when he was in range, the golden armored griffon brought down his saber on Dullahan, who in turn lifted his scythe up to catch the attack. Steel against obsidian, sparks flew through the air as Dullahan chuckled, “At last, the two Mages – Just what I was waiting for! Now, prepare yourselves for…”

Dullahan stopped when he realized that Beast broke from his attack, but then realized why the Golden Mage had pulled back – Wizard was still driving and was only a few inches away from Dullahan. Before the Phantom could do anything, the masked dragon leapt from the motorcycle and had the vehicle crash into the armored Phantom which propelled both of the Phantom and vehicle through the woods.

Wizard flipped through the air and landed on his feet with his arms over his head, this prompted the Ghouls to applaud in amusement.

“Showoff,” Beast sighed as he shook his head, the griffon then turned back to the two mares. “Sorry for being late ladies! But it looked like you two were having so much fun that we wanted in on this competition you just set up!”

“How’d ya’ll find…” AJ started, only to be interrupted as a familiar green and gold griffon familiar landed atop of her Stetson cap. “Oh right, ya’ll had Mistah Gryph follow us.”

“Yeah, yeah, that’s very interesting,” Dash sighed, her wings spread out. “But in case you didn’t notice, we’re in the middle of a fight!”

“Indeed, you can continue your race after we get out of this,” Wizard stated as he turned back to the Ghouls, their applause now stopped when they realized what those words meant for them. Wizard lifted his left claw up towards them with his red ring gleaming in the sunlight. “Its showtime.”

“And it’s also…” Beast started as he crouched down and was about to throw his arms up into the air, but stopped. “Uh, let’s see, it’s not really noon, but it’s not really early morning… It’s BRUNCH TIME!”

“Do ya have to yell that?” AJ asked before she dashed past Beast towards the Ghouls.

“What’s wrong with my catchphrase?” Beast questioned as he tossed the saber in his talons to his tail.

“You just basically ripped off Wizard’s,” Dash answered, propelling herself through the air towards a group of Ghouls, and knocked into them to the ground.

“… Meh,” Beast growled before he charged towards the Ghouls.

Meanwhile…

“Ugh… I feel sore,” Dullahan grumbled as he pushed the motorcycle off of him. “Reminds me of that one bar crawl that Phoenix orchestrated last Nightmare Night – All I remember from that night is a bloody jaw, a hangover and somehow lost fifty bits to an old stallion with a monkey on his back…

“Still, I got a high-five from the monkey, so that’s probably worth fifty bits…”

When Dullahan got back to his feet, he saw that his army of Ghouls wasn’t really doing too well – Dash was flying about and kicking the Ghouls to the ground where Beast would slash at them with his rapier. All the while, Wizard flipped about and delivered powerful kicks and AJ’s powerful kicks were enough to send the Ghouls flying about.

Dullahan couldn’t help but laugh under his breath, the smoke starting to seep out from the joints in his body. “Wow, I was expecting a fight, but so resourceful. But I too am very resourceful.”

The smoke poured into his armored hands, and Dullahan cackled as a new shape began to appear.

Beast roared loudly as he brought down his saber on one of the remaining standing Ghouls, and the moment it fell to the ground, it along with the other Ghouls exploded into fiery explosions, several of which transformed into familiar golden runic symbols that flew into Beast’s belt, with several gulping sounds following.

With a sigh, Beast tapped his belt a few times, “Thank you for the meal!”

“I don’t think I’m gonna get used to you saying that after a fight,” Dash admitted as she landed on the ground next to the golden mage.

“Why not? It’s appropriate,” Beast answered back with a chuckle. “Sides, it’s appropriate, haven’t you ever seen Shou eat? He always said that after he had a meal… It’s a Neighpon courtesy.”

“And I say you’re both weird,” Dash commented with a roll of her eyes.

“Don’t let your guard down,” Wizard stated as he used his tail to grab his gun off the ground. “We still have the Phantom left.”

“Yeah, we still got a fight on our hooves,” AJ added.

“But shouldn’t you two get back to your race?” Beast suggested waving his saber in his tail a few times. “I don’t mind sharing a meal, but I doubt you two would find a Phantom tasty.”

“For the last time,” Wizard sighed under his breath. “I don’t eat Phantoms!”

“Eat this!!”

The two mares and two mages dropped to the ground as a large, spiked ball flew over their heads and crashed into the woods behind them. A large amount of dirt and debris flew through the air as a chain yanked back and the spiked ball flew back over their heads and crashed into Dullahan’s free hand. “Now then, how about we try this again?”

Dullahan dropped the obsidian spiked ball to the ground and lifted up a large handle that had a chain attached to it, “Prepare yourselves – Dullahan’s about to attack!”

The chain flail that Dullahan held popped into smoke, but then popped into black smoke that immediately reformed itself into a large broadsword that he grasped with both hands, allowing the large armored Phantom to charge towards the group.

Wizard and Beast both switched rings on their claws/talons and then threw them to their belts.

“LAND – PLEASE!

“Dododo, Dododon! Don, Dododon!”

“Buffa! Go, Bu-Bu-Bububu-Buffa!”

As the runic circles traveled down their bodies, both Mages charged forward - Beast with his bull-headed mantle over his right front arm and Wizard with the rubies on his armor turned into topazes. They weren’t the only ones who made their way towards the Phantom, Applejack and Dash made their way towards the Phantom.

When the two forces were about to collide, Dullahan took a swipe at the group with his broad sword, however, both Wizard and Beast brought their blades up and blocked the attack. This allowed both Dash and AJ to spin about and deliver a pair of kicks into the Phantom’s chest plate, and knocked the Phantom back with his obsidian broadsword knocked out from his hands.

“Now!” Beast and Wizard called out before they dashed past the two mares.

Dullahan lifted his head up just in time to see both Wizard and Beast spin around and brought their blades across the Phantom’s chest, sparks erupted and forced the Phantom back further. “GARGH!”

Dullahan’s arms hung down as he skidded to a halt. He lifted his head up to see that Wizard, Beast, Rainbow Dash and Applejack were leering at him, with Wizard aiming his sword up towards the Phantom, “I think it’s obvious who’s at a disadvantage here – Surrender and I promise we won’t feed you to Beast.”

“I could always go for a more filling meal,” Beast chuckled.

“Ya know, that’s a little unsettling comin’ from a griffon,” Applejack pointed out with a flat look in her eyes.

“Hey, I’ll have you know that the only meat I ever eat is fish,” Beast defended with his talons lifted up defensively. “And at those griffon restaurants in Cloudsdale, I never touched the meat menu – They do make good tofu though.”

“Ugh, those places always made me sick,” Dash gagged with her tongue stuck out. “The smell never set right with me.”

“If you’re done with your comedy act,” Dullahan growled before he slammed his arms together, sending cracks through the bulky armor at his wrists. “I have no intention of surrendering! In fact, I think it’s time I stop giving you all a handicap! RAGGGGH!”

The armor around Dullahan’s body shattered, a ton of black smoke erupted from the Phantom’s body that clouded over the group. “Stop me if you heard this one before… I am the flesh and bone of my own sword…”

Wizard gasped loudly as the smoke above everyone’s head began to solidify into many different forms, “This is…!”

Dullahan crossed his arms as several various weapons crashed into the ground around not only him, but in between the group he was facing, with a large chain flail crashing in between them to split them apart.

This was Dullahan’s chance!

So grabbing a nearby spear, Dullahan charged forward, much faster than before, “Steel flows through my body, and fire is what courses through my blood!”

Wizard brought his sword up just at the last second to block the sword, “How in the world did you…”

“I have created over a thousand blades,” Dullahan answered back as he dropped his spear, and immediately drew a battle axe from the ground, and with an upwards slash, brought the blade across Wizard’s chest.

As the sparks flew from Wizard’s chest plate and the dragon was flung through the air, Dullahan flung the axe up and spun about to grab the handle of the chain flail. With a spin, the Phantom attempted to slam the spiked obsidian ball into AJ, but the mare dipped out of the way at the last second, “Unknown to death…”

Releasing the handle, Dullahan dipped down and lifted up a pair of large shields nearby and used them to block both Beast’s slash and Dash’s kicks. “Nor known to life…”

Dullahan drew his arms to his chest, and flung them out so that he could use the shields to push both Beast and Dash away from him. “Many times I have withstood enormous pain to create thousands of wea…”

“HAMMER – PLEASE!”

Dullahan turned around just in time to receive a large hammer right to his armored face, courtesy of Wizard. Time seemed to slow down as Dullahan’s helmet flew from the rest of his body, the large armored Phantom’s body crashed into ground with more dirt flying up into the air.

When the dust finally fell to the ground, Dullhan’s body just sat there on the ground, not moving at all. Wizard brought his giant mallet to the ground and took a deep breath, “That was easier than I thought.”

“…pons.”

Everyone froze when they turned back to Dullahan’s headless body – To see that the large armored form beginning to push itself up. When it stood tall, Dullahan’s body stood tall to reveal pure darkness from the collar of its armor, smoke puffing out of it. “And yet, those hands that have braved so much will never hold anything.”

Dullahan’s headless body flew its hands up into the air, unleashing several stones that fell to the ground and clattered about until they shattered into several other Ghouls. Each of the Ghouls took that opportunity to grab one of the nearby weapons: Each now armed with a sword, or lance, or hammer, or even a baseball bat with nails in it.

All the while Dullahan lifted his empty hands up. “So as I pray now, I call forth Unlimited Phantom Power!”

The now armed Ghouls charged towards the four, Dashing taking to the air while Beast and AJ ran forward as well. Wizard however, begun to switch rings, holding up a large yellow one, “I may have to use this…”

“I won’t let you!”

Wizard lifted his head up just in time to see the headless Phantom fall down from the sky with its fist thrown at the masked wizard. Wizard spun about just in time to miss the first punch, but when he stopped spinning, Dullahan threw a second punch, this time knocking the ring out of Wizard’s claws.

With his ring knocked a few yards away, Wizard slammed his foot into the mallet head of his Hammer which spun the weapon into the air. When he grabbed the large mallet, Wizard brought down the hammer onto Dullahan.

The armored Phantom lifted his hands up and caught the mallet in his palms, sparks flew through the air. Dullahan chuckled… From the collar of his armor, “For a Wizard, you’re pretty strong. But…”

With his fingers grasped firmly on the metal, Dullahan yanked the large Hammer from Wizard’s claws and then threw it into the air. “A mage will always be lacking in the physical department!”

Before Wizard could respond, a large fist collided with his masked face and propelled him through the air. Wizard’s body skipped across the dirt path like a rag doll, even passing over the ring that was knocked out of his hand earlier. And just as he was about to fly completely over the ring, Wizard’s tail scooped up the ring and brought it to his hands.

When he landed on the ground, Wizard slipped the ring onto his claw and stood tall to see that Dullahan was still charging at him. ‘He’s not going to give me any chance – I’ll have to…’

WHAM!

A powerful force suddenly collided with the top of Wizard’s head, sending a powerful echo through the air. Atop of Wizard’s head was his large hammer, it had fallen from the sky where Dullahan had thrown it, and landed squarely on his head.

For a moment, Dullahan froze as he watched Wizard creak loudly and then fall to the side, his hammer doing the same. Then Dullahan held his arms to his side and began to laugh loudly, “PRICELESS! HAHAAHHHAAAA! Defeated by his own weapon! Oh, how irony’s side is being tickled!”

Dullahan walked over to the knocked out Wizard, and with some smoke that poured through the cracks of his armor, Dullahan now held a broadsword in his hands that he lorded over Wizard with, “Still, it was a nice fight – Short, but still, I can see the skills that defeat PhoeniXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX!”

Two pairs of hooves slammed into Dullahan’s back, both AJ and Dash kicked the large Phantom through the air, over Wizard’s body and into a bunch of trees. “… Ow!”

Both mares landed next to Wizard, with Dash rolling her eyes, “Yeesh, that was kind of lame – He got beaten by…”

“Ya mind keeping the sarcasm down a touch fer now?” AJ interrupted as she tapped her hoof against the side of Wizard’s helmet. “We’re still in the middle of a brawl here, and we need all the help we can get!”

Several explosions blasted behind the two mares, both of them turning around to see that the Ghouls were being defeated, with their mana being devoured by Beast’s buckle. Beast brought his talon up to his mouth guard and stifled a slight burp. “Whew! Been a while since I could just gorge on that! That’ll keep Khimera on the sidelines for a while.”

As Beast strolled up, he stopped and looked at the dazed Wizard. After a second for that to sink in, the golden armored griffon gripped his sides and laughed loudly, “Bwahahahahhaahhahahaahaa! Oh, oh, that is hilarious! Was this a one hit KO?”

WHAP!

“OW!” Beast yelped as he held the back of his head. Dash had smacked the golden mage over the back of his head with her hoof. “What was that for?”

“Cause you’re the one who’s gonna carry Wizard,” Dash answered back. “You’re the only one with talons, and can carry him.”

“… What?” Beast questioned.

That was when a large surge of dark smoke exploded from where Dullahan had been kicked to. Beast and the two mares turned to see that the smoke completely covered the Phantom’s form. “Such power… Such ferocity! I find myself in a conundrum – Should I no longer hold back? Yes…

“Yes I should!”

The smoke flittered away to reveal that Dullahan’s armored body had changed – While his torso and arms remained the same, it was his legs that had dramatically changed. The two armored legs were replaced with four legs that seemed to be made up of black flames in the shape of regular pony legs, the front legs kicked up with a loud neigh.

“Oh… Plop!” Beast cursed before he yanked Wizard by the tail and tossed him atop of AJ’s back as Dullahan slammed his hooves into the ground. “GET HIM OUTTA HERE! NOW!”

“Huh? What the hay’s gotten into you?” Dash questioned.

“Look, even if this is a Phantom,” Beast growled, standing on his hind legs and holding up his rapier up defensively. “This is a Centaur! Something ponies shouldn’t be near! Trust me!

“Now… GO!”

Both mares took a moment to look at each other…

“GO!” Beast roared loudly.

That loud roar echoed through the air, which forced the two mares to run off, Wizard being carried on Applejack’s back. When the two mares and dazed dragon were out of sight, Beast lifted his rapier up towards Dullahan, “So tell me – What are you? Phantom? Headless Knight? The Headless Horseman?

“Or how about I just call you a Centaur?”

Dullahan laughed loudly as he slowly trotted towards Beast, “I prefer referring myself as Dullahan – Has a nice ring to it. But how quick you are to send your friends away, is my new form such a threat that you send them away?”

Beast aimed his right shoulder towards Dullahan, the Bull Mantle gleamed in the light, “Better to be safe than sorry. I know all about Centaurs, I’ve seen ancient drawings depicting a Centaur actually stealing magical energy from not just unicorns, but earth ponies and pegasai as well.

“Who knows if you have the same ability – If you do, then Dashie and Jacks wouldn’t be able to defend themselves from another assault from those Ghouls you like to use.”

There was an odd moment of silence, it was hard to tell if Dullahan was staring at Beast since he still didn’t have his head. But then Dullahan bellowed loudly with his hands lifted up, “BWAHAHAHAHA! I know not of this Centaur, but I assure you that this form of mine is just something for me to gain an upperhand!

“As a blue Phantom, I only possess the ability to absorb magic from unicorns: Although, it’s an interesting thought… No Phantom has tried to absorb magic from the other pony types, might be something…”

“FOUR!!

“BUFFA SABER STRIKE!!”

Before Dullahan could continue, four golden phantasmal bulls crashed into his chest plate and forced the larger Phantom back. “URK!!”

It was then that Beast tossed his rapier to the side and slammed the ring on his right talon into the slot on his belt, with a red aura over his mantle and then his body.

“GO! TACKLE STRIKE! BUFFA MIX!”

A large, dark red aura appeared over Beast’s body, the aura took the form of a large bull that snorted loudly. Beast roared before he and the aura charged quickly towards Dullahan, who had tossed the other bulls away.

When Dullahan threw the last of the phantasmal bulls to the side, Beast was only a foot away and had jumped up to ram his right shoulder right into Dullahan’s chest, the horns actually pierced through the large Phantom’s body. With the force of the bull at his back, Beast’s charge pushed Dullahan back, the Phantom’s shadowy hooves dug against the ground as he tried to push back Beast. “W-WHAT THE?! WHERE DID THIS COME FROM!?”

“I’m not gonna let a feast like you disappear!” Beast snarled loudly, as he continued to charge into the Phantom. “Something like you isn’t gonna be tasty, but I’ll make sure that you don’t touch my FRIENDS! So I’ll gladly eat a nasty meal like you!”

“Noble words!” Dullahan sputtered out as he lifted his arms up over his empty collar. “BUT THAT’S ALL THEY ARE!”

Dullahan slammed the bottoms of his fists into Beast’s back, not only breaking the horns on Beast’s mantle when the golden mage was flung to the ground, but also dissipating the aura around the golden mage. Beast was flung into the ground, a large amount of dirt and dust flung from where his body had made the impact.

The armored griffon slowly pushed himself up, only to get a pair of hooves slammed into his back, sparks flew from his back as Beast was forced into the ground once more. Dullahan’s hooves lifted up once more and slammed even further into Beast’s back. “URK!”

The hooves remained on Beast’s back as Dullahan brought a hand to the two large holes in his chest, “… You… You managed to hurt me, I must applaud you. However, this just means that I’m going to have to give you just as much force that you threw at me!”

Dullahan lifted his front hooves up once more, and immediately brought them down on Beast’s back once more. “GARGH!”

As the dust fall to Beast’s sides, the golden armor on the griffon’s body shattered, leaving a bruised and battered Kosuke underneath his hooves. The griffon’s eyes were glazed over as Dullahan lifted his hooves off of Kosuke and lifted the griffon up by the hood’s collar. “… What a surprise, you’re still alive.”

Kosuke groaned and slowly lifted his talon up. ‘Plop… Armor disappeared… Body bruised and battered… Consciousness starting to slip… Brain! Status report!’

‘Blargh… I need pants…’

‘That… Is not… Good…’ Kosuke thought to himself before his eyelids closed.

“… I could probably use this to my advantage,” Dullahan muttered out loud before he tossed Kosuke over his shoulder.

TTT – TTT

While Dullahan was putting the smack down on Beast, both Applejack and Dash, with Wizard still knocked out on the earth pony’s back, managed to get to the original path that they were on earlier. With not only the race but fight on their shoulders, the two mares slumped to the ground, with Wizard rolling off of AJ’s back.

“I can’t believe Wizard got knocked out by his own weapon,” Dash sighed loudly before she brought up a hoof up to her forehead to wipe some sweat off. “That was totally not cool…”

“Ah think we’ve got bigger problems at the moment,” Applejack pointed out with a flat look in her eyes. “Ah’m not too worried about Mistah Nitoh fighting that Phantom, but wasn’t he a tad bit… Excessive in trying to get us away?”

“Neato’s a goofball,” Dash admitted with a shake of her head. “But he’s not the kind of guy who would freak out like that unless there was a reason.”

“And he had good reason to.”

Both AJ and Dash turned around just in time to see a bruised and battered Kosuke land on the ground behind them, and a few yards away behind the dazed griffon was none other than Dullahan, still with the shadowy hooves for his legs but with two large gaping holes in his chest where smoke slowly filtered out.

The tall phantom lifted his arms up proudly, “He obviously wanted to prove that he was capable as a fighter and protect you. However, I don’t know why he sent you two away, do I look that weak that he thought that he could take me on himself?”

“You’re a headless guy running around,” Dash counted off with a roll of her eyes. “You got a pair of holes in your chest, and you look like you’re part pony with those hooves. You’re more than a little freaky.”

“Really?” Dullahan questioned as he rubbed the collar of his armor. “I was always told that I was quite the handsome devil.”

“Ah don’t think ya can be called handsome without a head,” AJ pointed out. “How exactly are ya talkin’ anyway?”

“I’d tell you,” Dullahan countered back with a shrug. “But it’d probably go way over your head.”

There was a moment of silence, save for the lone cricket that chirped in the background.

“Are ya being serious here?” Applejack sighed with her head lowered.

“How often are you gonna deal with something like me?” Dullahan chuckled before he reached into the collar and pulled out a small notebook. “Now before I make your own heads roll… Eh? Eh? Get it?”

This time the cricket didn’t chirp, but a cough did echo through the woods. Dullahan coughed out before he lifted the pad of paper, “Anyway, before I instill despair in you two, I need to annoy you with bad head puns.”

“Ya know, you’re not as threatening as you were a little bit ago,” Dash pointed out bluntly as her wings unfurled out. Without another word, Dash flew towards the Phantom with her front hooves.

Dullahan couldn’t move past enough as Dash slammed into the large Phantom’s stomach, which pushed the Phantom back quickly. “Urk?!”

It was then that AJ leapt over Dash and slammed both of her hind hooves into Dullahan’s chest, adding a pair of dents to match the pair of holes in the Phantom’s chest. Dullahan stumbled back as Dash and AJ landed back on the ground before him, making sure that they were between him and their knocked out magical friends. “Heh… Hehehehe… Not bad, not bad at all! But heads will roll when I get warmed up.”

“Boo!” Dash jeered as she waved a hoof towards Dullahan.

Dullahan ignored the comment and crossed his arms over his chest, a large amount of smoke billowed from his body. Before either mares could do a thing, Dullahan threw his arms to the sides and the smoke transformed into various weapons once more: Daggers, swords, chain flails, a toilet plunger, a small hammer, a baseball bat with nails hammered into it, a stick with a flag that said ‘Bang’ on it, an old soda can, and various other knick-knacks and weapons.

Both mares looked at the amassed arsenal, their eyes widened as the weapons now floated up in the air. Dullahan on the other hand chuckled as he gently brought one of his hands forward with his pointer finger lifted up. “Behold! My ultimate attack! Gilgamesh’s Arsenal! Now, let the despair of death take you!

“FIRE!”

All of the weapons shook for a moment before they were propelled towards the two mares and dazed griffon…

MULTI DEFEND – PLEASE!

Several stone walls erupted from the ground and immediately blocked the onslaught of attacks, most of the weapons shattered against the blockade while others just bounced off.

“I don’t know how you managed to knock me out,” A familiar voice sounded out as the walls slowly sunk back into the earth. “But, I think it’s time for the show to get to act two!”

Everyone turned to see that Wizard was back on his feet, lifting up the ring that was left claw. “I hope you’re ready for the show!”

“Think we should tell him what knocked him out?” Dash asked, trying to whisper to AJ.

“Ah reckon so,” AJ whispered back with a hoof lifted up over her mouth. “But we should wait till later.”

“What are you two whispering about?” Wizard asked, his head tilted slightly.

“Nothing,” Both AJ and Dash answered back, AJ’s muzzle scrunched a little bit.

“Ah, so you’re finally awake,” Dullahan chuckled as he pumped a fist up towards Wizard. “To be honest, I was hoping that you’d wake up before I had a chance to defeat you… There would be no honor in killing a knocked out enemy.”

“Would you two mind if I take over?” Wizard asked, ignoring Dullahan and keeping his focus on the two mares.

“Did… Did you just ignore my small speech?!” Dullahan gasped as he brought his hands up to his neck hole.

“I don’t mind sharing the spotlight this time,” Dash answered back, a smirk plastered on her face. “Make sure you get one in for Neato!”

“… What happened to Kosuke?” Wizard questioned before he looked down to see the bruised and battered griffon on the ground. “Oh.”

“Yeah, ya might wanna take this elsewhere,” AJ advised.

“Both good suggestions,” Wizard stated before he stepped in front of the mares and leered at Dullahan.

“Got something to say to me, mage?” Dullahan chuckled as the smoke began to flow from his armor once more. The smoke flew into his hands and transformed into an obsidian broad sword that he rested on his shoulder. “Any last words?”

“Yeah, I got some for ya,” Wizard answered back before he threw his left claw in front of his belt. “It’s SHOWTIME!”

LAND – DRAGON

Dan Den Don Zu Dogon – Dan Den Dogon!

A large yellow runic circle popped from the ground with several bits of debris being flung through the air. A loud roar echoed through the forest when a dragon made up of rocks and dirt flew from the circle and began to wrap around Wizard’s body.

As the dragon faded away, Wizard’s black coat was replaced with a yellow one, with the shoulder pads now rectangular with large topazes on them, and there were pair of horns that stuck from his helmet.

Wizard took a deep breath before he tucked his elbows at his waist and growled under his breath.

“A palette swap isn’t going to intimidate me!” Dullahan cackled before he galloped towards Wizard, the broadsword held over his head. “NOW – DIE!!!!!”

As Dullahan’s broadsword fell down towards Wizard, the yellow clad mage lifted his right hand up with his pointer claw extended…

CLANK!

And amazingly enough, that was enough to block the attack! Dullahan’s sword was stopped by Wizard’s finger, with dust flying up around the two.

“Fer land’s sake!” AJ yelped with her eyes widened.

Dash’s jaw was agape at the sight.

And Dullahan – Well, somehow he just gulped, “Uh… Okay, that’s a little intimidating…”

The hoofed Phantom made to pull his sword away, however, while everyone was awestruck by Wizard’s logic defying block, the dragon had lifted his claws up and latched onto the weapon’s blade with the rest of his left claws. Dullahan attempted to pull back, however, Wizard yanked the Phantom’s weapon and pulled the Phantom close to him…

WHAM!”

“GAH!” Dullahan yipped in pain as Wizard’s helmet collided with chest plate, adding to the growing collection of dents and holes to the armor.

The sudden attack was enough to have Dullahan release the weapon, and with a quick toss, Wizard drew his right claw back and immediately slammed his claws into Dullahan’s stomach, which forced the Phantom to double over.

With his opponent stunned, Wizard spun around and slammed his tail into the front hooves of the Phantom. Dullahan cried out as he fell towards Wizard once more, however, Wizard had lifted his hands up and caught Dullahan.

And with relative ease, Wizard lifted Dullahan over his head as he stood up straight. “Wha… What the Tartarus!? Where did this strength come from!?”

Wizard didn’t answer verbally, and instead spun around before he tossed Dullahan several yards away from the group. The large phantom bounced off of the ground a few times before he landed on his hooves, skidding about, ‘Seriously! What the Tartarus is going on here?! I was expecting a decent fight – But this… This is….’

“Wow, now Ah don’t feel so bad putting ya to work on Sweet Apple Acres,” AJ joked with a large smile.

“I highly doubt that,” Wizard sighed under his breath.

“Okay, I can dig this power,” Dash pointed out. “But couldn’t you use the green one? Twi said you got that one, and I know the green one can make you fly.”

“Yeah, but this is new,” Wizard countered as he slipped a new ring on his right claw. “Next time, I’ll use the green one.”

“You better,” Dash scoffed.

“You must have a lot of confidence if you’re able to carry on a regular chat,” Dullahan sputtered as a large amount of smoke poured from his body. The smoke then transformed into the massive arsenal that he had before. “But do you think that you can stop my Giglamesh Are…”

VERY NICE– GRAVITY!

THE BEST!

That was when a powerful surge wrapped around Dullahan’s body with the massive amount of obsidian weapons clattered against the ground. Dullahan struggled to stand up, but his hooves buckled under the increasing weight of his body. “Wha… WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME?!”

Wizard’s right hand was lifted up, the ring on his claws glistened brightly. He then lifted his hand up and Dullahan flew up into the air along with the movement. For a few moments, Wizard suspended Dullahan in the air before he threw his hand down, and consequentially, had Dullahan fall to the ground, creating a large crater in the forest path with several leaves falling around. “You can control gravity?! I didn’t hear about this! I didn’t hear about this at all!”

With a snap of his fingers, the ring’s glow disappeared and Wizard quickly swapped rings on his claws, “It’s time for the finale.”

His body no longer pinned by the gravity spell, Dullahan pulled himself out from the hole. “Fine! If weapons won’t work, then I’ll just use my own fists! ARGH!”

Wizard threw his hand over his belt as Dullahan charged towards him, his right fist pulled back. Wizard also drew his right fist back as a powerful yellow aura drew over his arms.

VERY NICE – SPECIAL

THE BEST!

Both magical beings threw their fists towards each other, however, just before they collided, a pair of three bladed claws appeared over Wizard’s arms. The right claws crashed into Dullahan’s fist and shattered the armor into millions of pieces.

Dullahan staggered back a foot but then roared as he threw his left fist towards Wizard – While Wizard did the same. The fist and claws connected with sparks flying, however, Dullahan’s fist shattered once more and he stumbled about with his armored biceps wagging about. “Oh no! I’ve been unarmed!”

Wizard stopped for a second and tilted his head, “You’re…. You’re really taking this in stride.”

“Let’s face it, I’m screwed,” Dullahan laughed loudly as smoke billowed from his arm holes and wrapped about until they formed into obsidian fists. “My smoke constructs can’t be made to move like regular limbs – All I can do is try one more bum rush against you and hope for the best.”

“You don’t have to fight though,” Wizard stated as he lowered his claws slightly. ”Surrender now, and I can promise you not only your life, but a safe haven from other Phantoms.”

For a moment, Dullahan stood there quietly. But then shattered that silence with a loud laugh, “BWAHAHAHAHA! Quite the interesting fellow you are! However, I cannot accept those terms! As a Phantom, nay, as a stallion! I cannot back down from a fight – Even if it will cost me my life!

“This battle will not end unless one of us falls this day!”

And with that, Dullahan charged towards Wizard, who in turn lowered his head for a second before he lifted it along with his claws. “Finale!”

TTT – TTT

While the battle was raging in the forest was drawing to a close, at the finish line, Twilight sprinted across the finishline while many of the other ponies were gasping for breath and were barely able to walk.

“And coming in third place is the underdog – Twilight Sparkle!” Spike announced from the hot air balloon.

“Silly Spike,” Pinkie Pie giggled with a bright smile. “Twilight’s not wearing a red jumpsuit with a blue cape – But you’re right about her being third place! Who knew she had it in her?”

“Uh, right,” Spike muttered away from the megaphone, for the last half hour or so, he had been commentating with Pinkie Pie: All the while having to listen to her weird comments. Now, he didn’t have anything against Pinkie Pie, but there was one point during the race that he wanted to jump off of the balloon. ‘So much for a career in announcing.’

“And here come the rest of the racers,” Pinkie Pie chimed into the megaphone. “However, I still can’t see the two ponies of the hour – Rainbow Dash and Applejack. Think they took a wrong turn at Albuquerque?”

“What’s Albuquerque?” Spike asked, this time actually interested.

“Oh it’s a trope that’s usually caused by, oh, say,” Pinkie Pie muttered as she lifted up a small book labeled ‘TVTropes for Idiots’. “Road sign reversals, your other lefts, short cuts make long delays, or even random teleportation! Oooh! Maybe there’s a giant floating head in a tube that needed to recruit five ponies with attitude to fight evil, so Dash and AJ got recruited!”

‘I think I might be able to survive a jump from here,’ Spike thought to himself as he looked over the edge of the balloon basket.

However, instead of continuing the pros and cons of jumping, Spike noticed that a familiar red jeweled bird was flying up towards him with a scroll in his beak. “Huh? Garuda?”

The ruby familiar chirped a few times before it dropped a scroll into Spike’s claws. The young dragon blinked a few times before Garuda landed on his head and pointed at the scroll. Spike unfurled the scroll and began to read it, his eyes widening as he read it.

“Did you get good news Spike?” Pinkie asked. “Did you save fifteen percent on insurance?”

“Uh, Kosuke’s hurt,” Spike pointed out.

Pinkie brought her hooves up to her muzzle with a slight gasp.

It didn’t take long for Spike and Pinkie to tell Twilight of the situation, and thankfully in Garuda’s note, they were told that Kosuke was going to be taken to the local hospital. And when the three managed to get to the hospital, they saw Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Haru seated in the lobby.

“Everyone! Is Kosuke alright?” Twilight gasped, trying to catch her breath. “Are you three okay?”

“Yeah, we’re fine,” Dash sighed with a roll of her eyes. “It’s just a Phantom attacked – Those things seem to happen every other week.”

“And yet it feels like it takes a month for the next attack to happen,” Pinkie Pie chimed in as she leered at the ceiling. ‘I’m looking at you author!’

“Kosuke’s fine,” Haru explained with a shrug. “He just has a few bruises, cuts and got a concussion. The doc said that we can go in, the griffon should be alright, he just needed to get bandaged up.”

“Well, at least it doesn’t seem serious,” Twilight sighed as Dash, Pinkie Pie and Spike slowly followed the older dragon to Kosuke’s room.

Twilight was about to follow, when a hoof stopped her, “Say Twi, mind if Ah ask ya a quick question?”

“Sure, what is it?” Twilight replied turning to her friend.

“Mistah Neato was going on ‘bout that Phantom,” Applejack started as she adjusted his hat. “Normally, Ah’ve seen that griffon act like nothing more than a goofball who seems to be addicted to mayonnaise, but he really freaked out when the Phantom seemed to grow hooves – Called it… A centaur. Any idea what the hay that’s supposed to be?”

“A centaur?” Twilight questioned with a raised brow. “I… I’ve heard of a creature, but I don’t know what…”

“ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?”

Easily able to determine that voice belonged to Dash, and the two mares quickly followed it to Kosuke’s room – Where they saw that Kosuke was indeed alright: With a few bandages covering his body (a lot over his torso to cover up his secret), the griffon looked to be alright…

Especially considering that the Griffon was being spoon fed pudding by an admittedly cute unicorn nurse. However, when Kosuke realized that Dash was leering at him with daggers, Kosuke shooed the nurse away with a rather innocent smile. “Hey! Visitors! Try the pudding! It’s great with mayonnaise!”

“…” Dash’s glare suddenly went colder as she walked towards the nervous griffon.

“Uh, Dash?” Kosuke chuckled nervously. “You wouldn’t hurt a griffon who’s in a hospital bed, would ya?”

WHAM!

“OW!”

“I think that’s a yes,” Spike pointed out.

TTT – TTT

Back at Whitetail Woods, the remains of the finish line were being taken down as a familiar red pegasus landed on the ground near the edge of the leaf-deprived forest. Phoenix looked about, the look on his face grim.

“Looking for somepony, Feenie?”

Phoenix turned around to see Sora slowly float down from the sky, a number of party favors spilling out of his saddlebags, “Yeah, what’s it to ya?”

“Oh, Phoenix,” Sora sighed as he landed on the ground next to Phoenix and pulled the fellow disguised Phantom close for a hug. “It greatly pains me to be the one to tell you this – But, unfortunately, Dully is no longer with us.”

Phoenix’s eyes widened when he heard that, and immediately slammed his front hoof right into Sora’s nose… Only hitting the air.

“Awe, can’t accept the truth?” Sora sighed as he floated over Phoenix, his hooves brought up to his face. “I get it, its part of the five stages of grief… It is a big loss, after all, this Phantom went to all the trouble of…”

“Shut up,” Phoenix growled before he stomped off. “If you ever say his name in disrespect again, I’ll kill you where you stand or fly. I’m not against Pegasus barbecue, so don’t test me.”

Sora just floated in the air, watching Phoenix for a few moments as the red pegasus stomped off. When the Phantom Enforcer was no longer around, Sora smiled and slowly flew off to a deeper part of Whitetail Woods.

It didn’t take long for Sora to see his destination, a large clearing where a single Ghoul stood in it. When Sora landed, the Ghoul nodded towards his Phantom Master, “Ooh, you’re here, good, does that mean you found it?”

The Ghoul nodded once more and walked over to a nearby bush, where it pulled out a familiar helmet that had a few shadows spilling out from out of it. The eyes of the helmet lit up slightly, “Hmm, looks like I’ll be a head in life for a while. How’s it going Gremlin?”

“Good to see you’re in such high spirits,” Sora giggled with a bright smile. “I’m surprised you’re still alive though…”

“So long as my head is alright,” Dullahan explained with a slight chuckle in his voice. “I’ll still live, still since my head isn’t bolted to my body, I have a nasty habit of losing it – That’s the thing ‘bout me, by the way, you got any aspirin? I got a splitting headache.”

“Perhaps,” Sora answered with a smile. “But, Dully, I have a little favor I’d like to ask you.”

TBC

Author's Note

Sorry it took so long for this chapter to get out - I don't have any excuse, but I hope you all enjoyed it.

Intermission 7 - Rain and Flames

The echo of the harmonica chimed amongst the drops of rain outside Ponyville as a lone figure traversed along the train tracks. With an orange hard hat atop of his head (save for the black horn that stuck out from it), many tools strapped to the faux leather, brown jacket he had over his surprisingly tall build, and a harmonica that was levitated in front of his mouth, he slowly walked amongst the rain in the night.

Oddly enough, there was only one cloud in the otherwise cleared night’s sky, and it seemed to follow this unicorn stallion.

When the stallion lifted his head up, he spotted Ponyville in the distance and the harmonica music stopped.

The stallion sighed. ‘Rainy weather… Cancellation. Should I risk going to the tracks here? As long as I don’t enter the town, that should be fine.’

Once again, the harmonica music began to play…

But in the distance away from the tracks, a tall figure stood in the distance from Ponyville, his ebony armor glistened in the moonlight as he walked towards the town with a large staff in his hands, “… After his defeat, it’s up to me now to acquire more darkness – This will be easy. But still, as an Overseer, this is beneath me.

“Damn management issues.”

With each step the figure took, the color from the grass faded away…

TTT – TTT

Intermission 7

Rain and Flames

TTT – TTT

The Phoenix.

A legendary creature in Equestria, a bird with feathers of fire and a being that possessed the ability to be reborn from its own demise. There were few creatures that could measure up to the majesty that this creature held, some of them even being said to have the ability to speak and even use magic.

“But why do you girls want to learn about Phoenixes?”

It wasn’t that Twilight was against teaching Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo about the mystical bird of flames, but it was such an odd request from the three fillies.

“Oh, well, that is…” Sweetie Belle tried to find the right words.

“We’re doing a report for school!” Scootaloo chimed in quickly. “Yeah! With all the weird monsters around, Miss Cheerilee thought we should learn about new creatures to make sure that we know what to not run into!”

“Y-Yeah!” Applebloom added with a large smile. “It’s to make sure we don’t go near any of those really odd critters.”

Twilight looked at the three small fillies, deep down she could tell that there was definitely more than what they were saying – From what Applejack and Rarity have told her about the Cutie Mark Crusaders’ escapades, they had tried a variety of things since they became friends (some of which included zip lining, dragon tamers, superheroes and many more) and Twilight didn’t want to facilitate…

“Excuse me.”

While Twilight was dealing with the Cutie Mark Crusaders, they weren’t the only ones in the library with Twilight. Over the last few weeks, an odd red pegasus stallion had come in for hours on end and had poured himself into many of the books Twilight had to offer. That very pegasus had walked up to the group with a book in his wings, “Sorry to interrupt, but I’d like to check out this book, that okay?”

“Sure, just go by the table for a minute, and I’ll be there,” Twilight requested before the stallion did as he was asked. Twilight then turned back to the three fillies with a smile, “Now girls, I don’t mind giving you this book, but promise me that you won’t do anything dangerous.”

“We promise,” All three fillies replied with the most innocent looks on their faces.

Twilight shook her head at the three fillies but gently levitated the book on Apple Bloom’s back, and just like that, the three fillies dashed out of the library. With a sigh, Twilight trotted over to the table where the red pegasus waited patiently for her, casually flipping through the pages of the book he was hoping to check out. “Sorry about that sir.”

The pegasus lifted his head up, his rugged and tired face curled slightly up into a smile. “No worries, little fillies can be a hoofful. Anyway, mind if I get this book?”

“Sure,” Twilight replied as her horn lit up to bring over a quill pen and a log book. “Of course, I’ll have to see your library card for this.”

“I… I don’t have one,” The pegasus chuckled sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head. “I usually just read the books here, I don’t check them out.”

“Understandable,” Twilight answered back as she levitated another piece of paper up. “I usually spent most of my time in the library reading every book, I never really had a need for a card because I would usually sleep in the library.”

The pegasus chuckled weakly. “Yeah… Well, I haven’t had much of a reason to read recently. Been too bummed out.”

“Really? Did something happen?” Twilight questioned.

The pegasus turned away slightly and shook his head, “Aw what the Tartarus? I might as well tell ya – I just lost a… A friend, recently.”

Twilight reeled back slightly then turned slightly, “I’m sorry to hear that.”

“Meh,” The red pegasus grumbled as he looked towards the cloudy sky outside the nearby window. “Guy was an idiot, obnoxious, loud and considered himself a rival to me. We’d often get into fights, beating each other to a bloody pulp each time.

“But we were still friends.”

‘That’s an odd way for ponies to express friendship,’ Twilight thought to herself. “Well, he sounds like he was… Interesting.”

“Interesting, yeah,” the stallion replied with a sigh. “You don’t need to sugarcoat it, it’s a stallion thing – Sometimes stallions who butt heads all the time can sometimes become the best of friends.”

Twilight tilted her head slightly, was this another form of friendship that she didn’t know about? “How exactly does that work?”

“Uh, well, it’s kinda hard to explain to a mare,” the red pegasus admitted with his eyes closed. “I mean, if I had to spitball it… It’s like a manly bond. Stallions often respect each other by smacking each other silly, proves that we’re strong and that kinda plo… stuff. I… I don’t really know how to explain it really…”

“You mean like a mutual respect?” Twilight suggested. “Showing that you’re both equals while at the same time proving that neither of you would back down from a challenge.”

The stallion’s eyes widened as he looked around nervously, he then sighed with his head lowered, “Yeesh, and there goes one of my stallion cards – A mare managed to explain the complicated friendship between stallions much easier than I could…”

“Um, sorry?” Twilight stated.

“Nah, I’m just joshing ya,” the pegasus replied with a shake of his head. “You made it easier for me to understand.”

“I’m still not fully understanding it myself,” Twilight admitted using her magic to lift the parchment to the stallion. “But maybe we should change the subject, here’s the paperwork for your library card, all I’ll need is your name.”

The stallion smirked before he took the quill pen in his mouth and began to write. After a few moments, the stallion pulled his head back with a smirk, “Heh, I’ll never get used to writing my name.”

Twilight levitated the paper up, “Well Mister… Feenie Nix, if you give me a few minutes I can…”

That was when the door flew open, “Hello, Miss Sparkle!”

Both Twilight and Feenie turned to the door to see Kosuke stepping into the library, the goofy griffon still had a few bandages over his body, but he was able to walk around with a smile on his face.

“Perhaps I can pick up the library card at another time,” Feenie requested before he walked towards the door. “I have some other things to do, Miss Twilight.”

“Oh, uh, sure,” Twilight replied. “I’ll be sure to have it ready for you next time – But what about the book?”

“I’ll pick it up next time too,” Feenie said before he walked out of the door, past the goofy griffon.

Kosuke blinked as he watched the odd stallion walk out, “Did I interrupt something?”

“It’s… It’s nothing,” Twilight covered up as the griffon strolled up to her. “So, what do I owe this visit to?”

“Ya sure it’s nothing?” Kosuke asked turning back to the door. “I mean, I don’t wanna bug ya…”

“It’s fine,” Twilight answered back.

Kosuke returned back to this goofy grin, “Okie dokie! Well, me and Dragon were talking while I was at the hospital, and he told me that he was able to make new rings for himself and get new spells. Is that right?”

“Yes,” Twilight answered with a nod. “Haru’s been able to make his own rings for a while now, and I’ve been able to learn how to tap into the spell through Haru’s ring. If I keep studying it, I should be able to use Haru’s spells without using his ring.”

“That’s perfect!” Kosuke cheered loudly with his talons lifted up into the air.

“Huh?” Twilight questioned. “How is that perfect?”

“Well, I keep seeing Dragon with these new spells,” Kosuke answered back with a smirk. “And at the hospital, he told me that he used that yellow rock to make himself a new power. So, as his rival…”

“He’s not really your rival,” Twilight pointed out.

But Twilight’s reasoning fell onto deaf ears… Or deaf ear holes, or whatever griffons use to listen, “So I got to thinking that I need to up my own arsenal – And from what Flutters and Dashie tell me, you’re the best mare for the job with your talent in magic!”

This was a rather odd choice Twilight had on her hooves, while she wasn’t sure if she could make magic rings for Kosuke, this was an opportunity to study the griffon’s ‘wild magic’ as he dubbed it.

“Well, first I’d need to see if I could even use your magic,” Twilight began to explain. “If I can’t access your magic and see how it works, then I can’t help.”

“That’s all?” Kosuke asked as he reached into his pockets, after a couple moments, Kosuke pulled his talon out with a familiar ring on it adorned with a dolphin on it. “Will this work?”

“Well, in theory,” Twilight answered.

With the purple aura appearing over her horn and around the ring, Twilight lifted the ring over her head. “If I put a little magical energy into the ring, I should be able to…”

It was then that the ring began to glow a bright blue, with a loud dolphin squeak echoing through the air. “Dolphi! Go, Do-Do-Do-Do-Dolphi!”

Twilight’s eyes darted around, trying to find where the magic had taken place, at first her eyes fell onto Kosuke, but… There was no change to him. Well, except for the wide eyes that he had trained on her, “Mister Nitoh, is there something wrong?”

“Uh, don’t turn around!” Kosuke warned with his talons waved in front of his face.

Of course when someone says that, the first thing someone does is turn around – And as such, when Twilight turned around, her own eyes widened at the sight of her flanks… Or rather, the lack of her flanks. Gone were her legs and tail, in their place was now a dolphin tail that matched her fur coat.

Now, there were a few ways Twilight would’ve responded with this – One would be with amazement that the ring actually managed to transform her physically, and question if the dolphin tail was real. Another would be to get mad at Kosuke, even though he didn’t do anything wrong, and demand his help.

But Twilight just settled for screaming so loud that it would’ve shattered the windows of the Golden Oaks Library if it was one decibel higher.

TTT – TTT

“So, what kind of tea can I get you, Miss Blossom?”

“Please Rarity, there’s no need to be so formal with me. And I’m sure any tea you make shall be superb.”

In contrast to the screaming that was in the library, Carousel Boutique was the epitome of calm, classical music playing in the background on the magic music player that Rarity had gotten to entice her customers.

Rarity smiled as she brought a tray into the main room with tea and some small little pastries that she had gotten in advance for this little get together. Still, she was very nervous since she had Beautiful Blossom, one of the top models in the Canterlot fashion in her very own boutique!

Sure, Rarity questioned why Blossom would be interested in a competition of brute strength, but who cares! This was a chance of a lifetime!

“I hope rosehip tea is acceptable,” Rarity stated as she levitated the tray down at the table where her guests were seated.

“Ah, somepony’s been studying me,” Blossom laughed a little bit as she used her own magic to pour herself a cup of tea. “Very astute, Rarity. You know how this business works.”

“Oh, I’ve been following almost every little detail of Canterlot fashion,” Rarity explained, lifting a cup to her lips. After a little sip, Rarity lowered the cup slightly and smiled at the mare across from her. “Is it not necessary to know the models that would wear the clothes?”

“Quite so,” Blossom stated as she looked around. “Although, I must say, you’ve got quite an eye for fashion, Rarity. I wouldn’t be surprised if Sapphire Shores would come knocking on your door in the future.”

Rarity calmly sipped from her tea cup again, but in her mind she was practically on the edge of screaming in joy. “Why thank you… and I hope you don’t think I’m being rude, but I must ask, what brings you to our humble little town of Ponyville?”

Blossom’s warm gaze dulled over slightly as she turned towards the mint green pegasus who’s head was slammed atop of the table, a feather stuck in his mouth that he rolled around with his tongue. “Bored, bored, bored…”

“That would be because of him,” Blossom answered. “He practically dragged me here… Then again, if he hadn’t, then we wouldn’t be talking now, would we?”

“That is true…” Rarity admitted. “But I just find it a little hard to imagine that the two of you would be acquaintances.”

“It’s not that complicated,” Sora sighed, now content with blowing the feather up into the air. “I used to be Blossom’s hair stylist.”

Rarity had to do a double take at the lofty pegasus – Never in a million years would she have pictured Sora, the rather rude and energetic stallion who could keep up with Pinkie Pie, was a member of the stylist world! He certainly didn’t look like it, save for his clothing which made him look like a hipster.

“I know, I don’t look it,” Sora sighed loudly with a roll of his eyes. “But then again, if we’d go by looks, I’d halve expect you to be a jeweler, Miss Rarity.”

Both mares narrowed their eyes down at the stallion, with Blossom speaking up, “You know Sora, if you want to leave, you’re more than welcomed to…”

Blossom didn’t even have a chance to finish her sentence before Sora flew out of boutique, only leaving a green blur and several feathers to float through the boutique.

“He’s horrible, isn’t he?” Blossom chuckled before she took a sip.

“Hard to imagine him as a stylist,” Rarity added.

Blossom lowered her tea cup, and smiled at Rarity, “Now then, Rarity, I think it’s time for us to discuss business.”

The white unicorn gulped silently as she lifted her tea up to her mouth, this was it – The chance she was waiting for… Now if only Blossom said those seven little words…

“I would like to commission a dress from you.”

Okay, that was nine, but the same principle was there! It took everything that Rarity had in her will to not faint right there on the spot.

“However.”

However? HOWEVER!? This was never a good sign! Once again, Rarity was on the verge of fainting, only this time for a much different reason.

Blossom seemed to pick up on the fretting that was going on within and smiled with a slight giggle, “You don’t need to worry – It’s nothing serious. I just want to see how well you can work under pressure, I’d also like to see some more… Hmm, what’s a good word here? Ah, more recent designs of yours.”

“Oh, t-that shouldn’t be an issue,” Rarity assured with a smile on her face. “Anything particular you’re looking for?”

“Well, I would like to see your adaptability,” Blossom explained. “I intend on wearing a brand new dress to the Grand Galloping Gala this year, so perhaps that’s something that you can work off of.”

“What a coincidence,” Rarity gasped slightly. “I’ll be attending the Grand Galloping Gala this year with my friends as well, I’m even in the midst of finishing my own dress for it…”

“And your friends, what of them?” Blossom inquired, a smile on her face. “Are you designing their dresses as well?”

“Well, no,” Rarity admitted. “In fact, I don’t know what they’re wearing to the Gala… I would imagine one of them would probably wear goulashes of all things there.”

Blossom giggled slyly with a rather calm smile on her face. “Then this is an avid opportunity for not just the two of us, but your friends as well.”

“Hmm?” Rarity questioned, but she was easily able to see where this was going…

TTT – TTT

Ghastly Gorge, as the name would imply it wasn’t the best place to be, a deep and long cleft in the earth near Ponyville, a place filled to the brim with countless dangers – creatures called the Quarray eels that lived in the holes of the gorge, rockslides and various other hazards.

It made the perfect training ground.

“C’mon! C’mon! C’mon! Don’t you stupid eels want some fresh Phantom Meat?! Come and get it!”

From several holes, the large red eels screeched loudly before they shot out towards the red and golden armored figure before them.

With a snicker, Phoenix leapt towards the eels, his fist enclosed tightly. Just as the first eel was about to bite down on the armored phantom, Phoenix threw his fist up and slammed it into the eel’s snout, sending it flying upwards.

That allowed two more eels to snap towards the fiery Phantom, but he was prepared and spun around to throw his legs out and rammed them into the eel’s foreheads, forcing them back. The rest of the eels watched nervously as Phoenix landed on the ground, cracking his neck when his feet reached the floor, “What’s da matter? You got yourselves a piping hot meal, and you’re not going to take up on my offer? Well, how about some delivery?”

Two sparks popped at Phoenix’s back before he yelled out, the sparks erupted into a pair of fiery wings that flapped and allowed the phantom to fly towards the remaining Quarray Eels. ‘I have become stronger! I know I’ve become stronger! Strong enough to take down Haruto Souma!’

Unbeknownst to the fiery Phantom, three pairs of eyes watched as Phoenix continued on with his assault.

“Ah don’t know ‘bout this Scootaloo,” Apple Bloom admitted as she watched Phoenix deliver a roundhouse kick to one of the Quarray eels’ jaw. “Are you sure that’s a phoenix?’

“C’mon, it’s got wings of fire,” Scootaloo listed off from the book that the three had gotten from the library. “Its red and gold, and its really terra… Terra…”

“Territorial,” Sweetie Belle read out from the book.

“Yeah! That!” Scootaloo added.

“But the picture in the book looks nothing like that,” Apple Bloom pointed out with her hoof tapped against the pages, showing off a red bird.

“Then what would you call that?” Scootaloo countered as she pointed at the Phantom.

“Trouble?” Sweetie Belle suggested. “Phoenix Taming would’ve been dangerous on its own to get our cutie marks, but dealing with… That thing is a whole other mess.”

As the three continued their discussion, none of them noticed the tall, ebony armored figure that stood behind them amongst the bushes and trees. The armored being chuckled silently as he lifted his rook-chess piece styled spear up into the air, ‘And so, I cast my shadow to delve this world into darkness – May these three be the first of many to sample the void… Notice: This is the beginning!’

Back in the quarry, the last of the Quarray Eels slithered back into their holes with Phoenix holding his arms up. “Aw… What’s the matter? Running away already? Aw c’mon, we were just getting started! If you’re not going to come to me then I’ll just…”

Phoenix stopped when he realized something, it was raining, the droplets that contacted his body turned into steam. When the Phantom lifted his head up, he was met with a sky that was clear of clouds, but the rain continued to fall, “Rain with no clouds? What exactly am I…”

Once again, Phoenix stopped when he realized something – There was some sort of dreary tune that filled the air, being played by a harmonica. The music itself wasn’t grating or anything, but with the rain, it seemed to darken the atmosphere…

Phoenix turned his head, near the opening of the quarry appeared to be the source of the song… And oddly enough, the rain itself since it seemed to follow the black unicorn stallion as he drew ever closer to Phoenix. The stallion’s horn stuck out from his orange hardhat, lit with the same glow that held the harmonica to the stallion’s mouth.

The stallion then stopped and continued to play his harmonica, with Phoenix standing there, “… That’s a hero’s entrance if I ever saw one.”

The music stopped and the stallion lifted his head up towards Phoenix, “… What are you? You’re not a Shadow, you’re too colorful. But you’re definitely not of the light.”

“What? Never heard of a Phantom before?” Phoenix scoffed to the side. “We’re beings that hide in the shadows and create despair – You got a problem with it?”

The black stallion shook his head, “I sensed the darkness here – If despair is what you create, then I am here to stop you from destroying the colors of this world.”

“Now you’re just spouting nonsense,” Phoenix growled loudly as he lifted his fist up. “You gonna keep trying your luck in trying to piss me off?”

With a smirk on his face, the stallion pushed his front hooves off of the ground and stood up straight, “I am Nijino Akira – The one who will defend the rainbow. These ponies who all shine bright, I will defend their shine.”

It was then that a small orange device appeared in Akira’s hoof, along with a small train in his other hoof. “… TOQ Change!”

NOW TRANSFORMING!
Please stand behind the white line!

Phoenix reeled back as an actual white line appeared before Akira, following by two crossing yellow and black lines with a similarly styled circle in front of him. When the lines and circle crashed into Akira’s chest, a bright orange light engulfed the stallion.

When the light died down, a new form stood before Phoenix – Like the Phantom himself, this being seemed to have a humanoid shape: Standing on two legs with a pair of hands and no tail. He was covered with an orange jumpsuit that had the yellow and black lines and circle over his chest while he had black boots and black wrist guards. His helmet resembled that of a railroad shove with the black visor covered with silver train rails.

In the orange figure’s hands was an odd sword that resembled that of a light guide stick, which was lifted up towards Phoenix – The rain above scattered away with a rainbow gleaming above.

TOQ SIX!
TOQ SIX!

Phoenix’s brow raised slightly at the odd orange being, “What the…? Just what the Tartarus are you supposed to be?”

“Nijino Akira,” Toq Six answered back. “This is my place to die.”

Once again, Phoenix raised his brow slightly, “… Do… Do you want me to kill you or something? I’m kinda getting mixed signals here…”

Toq Six didn’t say a word as he calmly walked towards Phoenix, the fiery Phantom sighed loudly as he clenched his fist. “You know what? Screw it! I just wanna kick your ass!”

Phoenix threw his right hand towards Toq Six, unleashing a powerful burst of flames towards the orange being. However, when the flames were about to strike Toq Six, the orange being snapped his arm to the side and knocked the flames into the wall. A little surprised, Phoenix staggered back before he threw three more flame bursts at Toq Six.

All of them were knocked away to the side with ease.

“… The Tartarus?” Phoenix questioned as he lowered his hand slightly. “Just what did… How in the… You lousy…”

Toq Six lifted his weapon up before he tossed it to the side and dashed towards Phoenix. Before Phoenix knew it, Toq Six had tackled into him, and sent the two rolling onto the ground. “GAGH! What’s the point of having a weapon if you’re just going to throw it away?!”

The two rolled along the ground until Phoenix found himself being held down by Toq Six’s weight. The orange dressed warrior pulled his fists back and began to deliver a flurry of punches straight to Phoenix’s face. However, Phoenix snarled loudly and threw his own fist right back into Toq Six’s visor.

WHAM!

“Heh! Don’t think that…” Phoenix started.

However, the phantom stopped his gloating when he felt two hands wrap around his wrist. “You talk too much!”

With a spin, Toq Six wrapped his legs around the base of Phoenix’s shoulder, pulling the Phantom’s hand closer to his neck. Phoenix cried out in pain as he felt his shoulder slowly pulling out of its joint. ‘W-What’s going on here?! Am I actually losing to some orange?!’

If his mouth was visible, Phoenix would’ve gritted his teeth and he began to pull his arm back from Toq Six. The orange fighter pulled back just as hard, “Stop! If you try to escape from my lock, you’ll snap your arm in two!”

“THAT’S FINE WITH MEEEEEE!” Phoenix roared back, flames starting to spark from his joints.

Slowly, Toq Six was lifted off of the ground, while Phoenix began to stand up straight. Despite the pain surging through his arm, Phoenix continued onwards and turned his gaze at Toq Six. With his feet on the ground, Phoenix was able to gain the leverage and was easily able to keep Toq Six up.

Next, Phoenix quickly ran towards one of the nearby walls of the quarry and slammed Toq Six into it, sending cracks webbing throughout the rocks. The force was enough to have Toq Six loosen his grip, and thus allowed Phoenix to toss the orange clad being off of his arm.

Toq Six rolled around the ground, his suit scratched and scuffed up by the brutal onslaught, but the odd orange being realized something.

“Ya know, there’s gotta be a hundred reasons why I don’t just blow you away,” Phoenix growled as he lifted his right hand, summoning forth several flames that transformed into his large broad sword. “Right now I can’t think of one.”

Toq Six slowly pushed himself up, his back to Phoenix.

“And I don’t know why you attacked me,” Phoenix chuckled, slowly closing the gap between him and Toq Six. “But you ever notice how you come across somebody once in a while you shouldn’t have f’ed with? That’s me!”

Phoenix roared out before he brought his sword down on Toq Six, however, just as the blade was about to connect, Toq Six turned around and brought his light guide sword and blocked the attack. Sparks erupted as the two weapons collided, and the two warriors skidded back away from each other.

The two stared at each other, both circling the quarry to keep their distance from the other, both waiting for the other to make a move…

“AAAAAH!”

Both warriors looked up towards the cliff on the quarry, where a white unicorn filly and an orange pegasus filly were trying to lift up a yellow earth filly. However, they weren’t alone, behind the two mares that tried to lift their friend up to safety was an extremely large armored being. The bulky armored being had a helmet that was similar to that of a rook chess piece, with two more rooks on his orb-like shoulder pads.

The rook-like creature lifted up his staff behind the three fillies and immediately slammed the butt of the weapon into the ground behind the three. The shock was enough to cause the ledge the small fillies were on to crumble.

Toq Six growled before he dashed away from Phoenix and towards the nearby wall, leaping against any and all ledges that he could, trying to get to the falling fillies. Phoenix growled as he gave chase afterwards, “WE AREN’T DONE HERE YET!!”

With his fiery wings, Phoenix flew up after Toq Six, and was catching up quickly with his hand extended towards the odd orange being. However, Toq Six leapt from the rocky wall just past Phoenix with both of his arms held out.

Phoenix then watched as the three fillies were caught by the odd orange being. ‘Seriously? He stopped fighting to catch them?’

Even though Toq Six had the three fillies in his arm, he was up too high in the air. And when the orange being realized this, he began fall towards the ground.

However, before he fell too far, Toq Six suddenly stopped. “Huh?”

Toq Six looked up to see that Phoenix had grabbed onto his shoulders, “It’d be pretty pathetic if you died from falling instead of getting beaten by me. Try not to do that.”

“You could just drop me, that’d solve the problem,” Toq Six suggested as he was lowered down to the ground.

“Naw, it’d leave a bad taste in my mouth,” Phoenix admitted before he set Toq Six on the ground. “Sides, I’m not interested in hurting some fillies – I may be axe crazy, but I’m not that axe crazy… Maybe.”

Toq Six lowered the Cutie Mark Crusaders down and knelt so that he could look them in the eyes… even though he had a visor over his. “You three shouldn’t be playing around here. It’s very dangerous, especially when this red bag of hot air is around.”

“I can still kick your as…” Phoenix caught himself when he remembered that there were fillies around. “… Meh, just don’t push your luck.”

“Thanks for saving us though!” Apple Bloom cheered out.

“Not a problem,” Toq Six chuckled as he ruffled Apple Bloom’s mane slightly. “Now you three run along…”

BOOM!

A few yards away from the small group, the rook armored being landed on the ground, two large craters surged around his feet. The being was extremely tall, with the sun glistening off of his ebony armor and his equally tall staff he lifted his hands up, “Humph, so, it looks like I’ve got a traitor in my midst. I was wondering why I felt some darkness nearby – Zalam.”

Toq Six turned back to the small fillies, “Run along now – This is something that little fillies shouldn’t see.”

“Ah, let’em watch,” Phoenix cackled as he drew his sword once more from his flames. “It’ll be a fun romp seeing someone that big get tossed to the side.”

“You intend to fight him as well?” Toq Six asked. “Why?”

“Meh, you’re starting to bore me,” Phoenix admitted, his sword rested against the armor of his shoulder. “… At least this big lug might be a little fun to play with.”

“Don’t think Rook here is a push over,” Toq Six warned as he watched the three fillies gallop away behind a couple of rocks. When the orange being turned his head back to Rook, the three fillies poked their heads out to watch. “Speaking of, aren’t you supposed to be an overseer, Rook?”

The tall Shadow growled before he slammed the butt of his staff into the ground, “I actually owe my new line of work to you, Zalam. Ever since you decided to leave the Shadow Line, and with those multi-colored switchers, we have to go frugal and some of us need to cover other shifts. Unfortunately, that means I have to do the grunt work of lower Shadows.”

“My name’s Akira Nijino,” Toq Six corrected.

“Your name could be mud for all I care,” Rook spat back as he slammed his right foot into the ground a few times. “Point is, cause of you and the colored freaks, I’m stuck with dealing with grunt work!”

Reaching for the back of his belt, Rook lifted up a small intercom to his mouth. “Kuros! Get out here!”

Rook’s shadow began to bubble up and formed into several black cloaked creatures with top hats, white cravats and porcelain masks. In each of the Kuro’s hands were tommy gun-like weapons that they spun about before they adjusted their caps.

“Sweet, a portable army,” Phoenix chuckled as he lifted up quite a few stones in his hand. Every Phantom possessed the ability to create Ghouls, Phoenix was no exception, he just didn’t like having grunts taking all the fun though. “… Ya know, I got my own personal army too – But this is too much of an opportunity. Been a while since I’ve fought an army!”

“I don’t know who you are,” Rook replied before he slammed his knuckles together. “But I’m sure you’re a jerk too! Kuros! Take ‘em both out!”

The Kuros spun around before they took aim at Toq Six and Phoenix, while the orange Toqger tossed his weapon to the side before he dashed forward.

Phoenix shook his head, “Will you stop throwing your… Ah screw it, might as well join in the insanity!”

Taking his sword, Phoenix threw it to the side as well and charged towards Rook and the Kuros.

The machine gun wielding Kuros took aim at the two oncoming foes, however, before they could even pull the trigger, several fiery feathers flew from Phoenix’s back and crashed into the shadowy lackeys’ chests. This allowed Toq Six to continue running past them while Phoenix stopped and grabbed one of the Kuros by the back of its belt and spun around to slam it into the other Kuros.

Toq Six continued onwards Rook, the larger Shadow pulled his staff up and took a swipe at the orange Toqger, only to have Toq Six leap over the attack and slammed his foot into Rook’s masked face, and made the bulky being stagger backwards. “URK!”

When Toq Six landed on the ground, he tackled into Rook, and forced the bulky shadow to the ground. “GAH! Notice: GET OFF OF ME!”

Meanwhile, Phoenix was wiping the floor with the Kuros, easily shrugging off any shots that they fired upon the Phantom while he either threw them into the ground, uppercut them into the air, kick them straight into the wall, or flicked his finger right into their hat covered heads to knock them out. “Oh yeah! Oh yeah! OH YEAH!”

“Should we really be watching this?” Sweetie Belle asked, slinking behind the rock for more cover.

“Aw come on, it’s just a fight,” Scootaloo countered as she watched Phoenix jump up into the air and then slammed his feet right into a Kuro’s face. “They happen all over town now-a-days, I even saw Rainbow Dash fight against some rocky things a while ago! It was awesome!”

“Yeah, but something seems… Weird,” Apple Bloom pointed out. “Does that red guy really like fighting a lot?”

“WHAHAHAHAHAAHAAA!”

“And, that kinda sounds like a bad guy’s laugh,” Apple Bloom continued as she watched Phoenix perform a suplex on a crying Kuro.

“Well, he and the orange guy did save us,” Sweetie Belle stated. “So… Maybe he’s just eccentric about fighting?”

“The orange guy’s also… Ec… Xsen…” Apple Bloom tried to speak up, but struggled when she tried using the same word that Sweetie Belle used.

“Eccentric,” Sweetie Belle corrected.

“Yeah! That word!” Apple Bloom chimed back in with a smile.

“WAAAH!”

Speaking of the orange being, he was quickly flung through the air and crashed into the ground near the three fillies. When he got back to his feet, Toq Six shook his head and ran back towards Rook, dipping down to grab his light guide stick that was on the ground.

With most of the Kuros on the ground, moaning in pain, Phoenix turned to Rook, with the large Shadow grabbing his staff, “What are you supposed to be exactly? Some sort of hero?”

“Far from it!” Phoenix laughed loudly. “In fact, I’m more on the side of evil… But, then again – I don’t really care about sides right now, I just wanna kick your butt!”

“Notice: You’re about to die!” Rook roared loudly and threw his staff towards Phoenix, several purple flames shot out from the top of the weapon towards Phoenix.

Phoenix didn’t move a muscle when the flames crashed into his body, however, he just chuckled as the purple flames began to turn a bright red. “Seriously? You think fire will hurt me? That just tickles!”

Snapping his arm to the side, Phoenix flew the flames off to the side before he charged towards Rook, his fist pulled back. Just as Phoenix was about to throw his punch, Rook spun his staff up and knocked Phoenix’s fist to the side. That allowed Rook to fling his hand around Phoenix’s neck and lift the Phantom up off of the ground. “Notice: You’re too reckless!”

“And you need to pay attention!”

Rook pulled Phoenix to the side just in time to get tackled by Toq Six, sending all three to the ground in a heap of red, orange and black.

“GAH! My neck!”

“Notice: Someone is touching my butt! Who is doing that?!”

“That’s your own hand!”

“You’re an idiot!!”

“Which one of us?”

“Both of you!”

“Offer: Shall we take a minute to get to our feet and try this again?”

“… I’m good with that, how about you, tori-san?”

“Do I look like a fricken’ bird?!”

“Well, you act like a turkey.”

One minute later…

Back on their feet, Phoenix and Toq Six kept their sights on Rook, each of the three with their own weapons lifted up against the opposing side.

“Notice: We’re about to fight!” Rook announced before he lowered his staff down and fired a burst of purple energy through the air towards the two colorful opponents.

Both Toq Six and Phoenix dipped to the side, dodging the attack before Phoenix charged forward, his large broadsword lifted up into the air over his head. With a powerful downward slash, Phoenix countered the large armored goon.

Rook lifted his staff up and caught the attack, but when he was focused on Phoenix, Toq Six had slipped in and managed to strike his light stick right into Rook’s stomach, with orange sparks flying off of the Shadow’s body. “URK!”

Rook staggered back, lowering his staff slightly.

This was Phoenix’s chance and with a snap of his hand, Phoenix unleashed several flames that crashed into Rook’s body and made him step back even further. Rook groaned as he lifted his head up, “Notice: You’re about to die!”

It was then that Rook stabbed his staff into the ground, with several clusters of dark energy erupting from the tower-like structure on the top of the staff and flew into Rook’s body. The large shadow’s body began to grow larger and taller, until he was about twice the size of either Phoenix or Toq Six. “Behold the power of an overseer!”

“Huh, usually they have to be beaten before they get bigger,” Toq Six admitted as he rubbed his chin.

“Sometimes it’s fun to have it the other way around,” Phoenix chuckled, holding his sword up. “I got a new finisher I wanted to try anyway – Wanna finish this now?”

Reaching for the back of his belt, Toq Six lifted up a small train-like charm that had a drill on it. “Sure, but I don’t think he’ll be just as willing.”

“Notice: I’m stomping!”

Both Phoenix and Toq Six jumped to opposite sides of the quarry, just in time to dodge the large foot that was intent on crushing them.

When he got back to his feet, Toq Six slid the drill train into the side of his light stick and spun it around.

ALRIGHT ALRIGHT!

A large amount of orange energy surged about the light stick, spinning around like a drill. The orange clad being jumped through the air and stabbed the drill into Rook’s giant foot.

“GARGH!” Rook howled in pain as he lifted his foot up.

“Phoenix…”

Rook lifted his head up towards the sky where a pair of fiery wings flapped wildly through the air, the flames overtook the small figure that was between the wings and propelled it. That figure was none other than Phoenix himself with one of his legs extended out. “KICK!!!”

Rook lifted his free hand up into the air in an attempt to block the oncoming attack, however, when Phoenix’s foot collided with Rook’s large hand, the force knocked the back of his hand into his face. Phoenix roared loudly as the flames from his body engulfed Rook’s body and the large Shadow crashed into the nearby wall. “URK!”

Phoenix landed on the ground next to Toq Six, who sighed loudly and shook his head at the Phantom, “Think that was flashy enough?”

“Says the guy with the drill attack,” Phoenix countered as he tapped Toq Six’s shoulder with the back of his hand.

However, Rook pushed himself up from the side of the quarry and roared loudly, “Notice: I have had enough! I shall eliminate you two and…”

RING RING RING! RING RING RING!
PHONE CALL! PHONE CALL!

The large Shadow reached for the back of his belt and lifted up the receiver to his helmet, “Rook reporting in! Yes? I… I see…

“YES! YES I’LL BE RIGHT THERE, SIR!!”

The shadows from Rooks body faded from him as he shrunk back down to his original size and pulled his staff from the ground. “Notice: I shall take my leave now – I have just been informed that we have just recruited twenty new Shadows, and I need to return to my job!”

“Do… Do you think that you can just walk away from this?!” Phoenix snarled with his fist pumped up. “We’re in the middle of a fight! You can’t just walk away!!”

“Watch me!” Rook roared before he turned his staff down and unleashed a powerful burst of purple energy from the top of the staff towards the two.

Both Phoenix and Toq Six jumped to the sides to dodge the attack, and when they turned their attentions back to Rook – In his place was a cloud of dark dust that streamed through the quarry.

“He ran,” Toq Six stated with his hand over his visor.

“He ran so far away,” Phoenix added, with a bead of sweat appearing on the side of his helmet.

“He might even run all night and day,” Toq Six finished off.

Phoenix groaned loudly with a shake of his head, “Even I find this joke to be out of date and in bad taste… And I’m the master of making bad jokes.”

Toq Six merely shrugged back, “In any case, Rook shouldn’t be a problem here.”

“Heh, I hope you didn’t forget we’re still in the middle of a fight,” Phoenix cackled as he cracked his knuckles loudly. “And now that I’ve seen that you can actually use that little light stick instead of just tossing it away, I really wanna…”

It was then that Toq Six lifted his hand up towards Phoenix and stopped the Phantom from speaking, “… I have no qualms about fighting. However, I’d prefer fighting an opponent who is honest with themselves.”

“Oh, I’m honest alright,” Phoenix cracked as his flames engulfed his fists. “I’m honestly about to kick your ass!”

“If that were the case, then why didn’t you drop me earlier?” Toq Six questioned before he tapped Phoenix against his chest. “If you were really a monster who was bloodthirsty for battle – You would’ve dropped me and the fillies without a second thought.”

Phoenix took a deep breath to speak, but then stopped, ‘Why didn’t I do that? They’re just some snot-nosed brats. What do I care if they get hurt?’

“When you can figure out an answer,” Toq Six stated as he started walking forward, his orange covered body began to glow a brighter orange. “I’ll be more than willing to fight you again – And next time I won’t hold back. There’s more to you than just flames of destruction, I can see it.”

Phoenix was at a loss of words, and as he watched Toq Six walk away, the orange being’s body flashed and transformed back into the black stallion that Phoenix had saw earlier. The stallion stopped and turned around towards Phoenix, “I’m Akira Nijino – The defender of the rainbow, lover of bathhouses, and former Shadow. If you can figure out who you really are, just follow the train tracks, I’m sure we’ll cross paths again.”

And like that, Akira just walked off while Phoenix just watched the stallion disappear into the distance. ‘What the Tartarus is wrong with me?’

Phoenix looked down at his hands. ‘I should’ve easily killed the bastard just now – Why didn’t I attack? Am… Am I getting soft? Or… Or is there more to it?’

The fiery Phantom sighed loudly as his fiery body began to recede, transforming back into his stallion form. “Ah mou! I came here to get some stress outta my system – But now my head’s hurting like crazy! I… I think I just need to nap on this…”

And like that, Phoenix’s wings folded out and he flew out of the quarry.

As he flew away, he was unaware that three pairs of eyes were watching him transform and fly off…

“Uh, wow…” Applebloom spoke in awe.

“That was awesome,” Scootaloo added.

“Um, should we tell someone about this?” Sweetie Belle asked.

TTT – TTT

“So, explain this to me again…”

Haru sighed before he drew his claw back from Golden Oaks Library’s front door and leered at Spike, “Look, it’s just a tradition in Neighpon – When you get out of a hot spring or bathhouse, you need to put your left claw on your hip, and down a bottle coffee milk in one shot. It’s just a weird thing that some ponies and dragons do.”

“But coffee milk sounds disgusting,” Spike gagged with his tongue sticking out.

“Trust me, Spike,” Haru chuckled with a smirk on his face. “It may be bitter at first, but once you get used to it – You’ll understand what it means to be a grown up.”

“Says the dragon who’s blood has probably been replaced by powder sugar,” Spike snickered back. “What would you know about bitter?”

“Look, you just asked me what I thought about long baths,” Haru sighed loudly with a roll of his eyes. “And I told you my experience, although, I still can’t believe you try for eight hour baths… You try that in a Neighpon hot spring and you’d end up a purple prune.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Spike waved off.

Haru opened the door to the library, and both dragons were immediately met with a very odd sight – On the floor was none-other than the griffon, Kosuke Nitoh, his eyes were blank and he had a large amount of foam spilling out onto the wood around his head.

At the floor near Kosuke, were is usual beast rings, save for there being two more: one that depicted the face of a yellow cat that had spots on it and another had an odd purple mammal that had an armored back.

Spike and Haru looked deeper into the library to see that on the couch in the lobby, Twilight seemed to be completely absorbed in a book, although, her brow was narrowed down at the pages.

“… Haru, slowly retreat,” Spike warned as he closed the door before the two dragons…

TBC

Spell 33 - Needlework

Spell 33

Needlework

TTT – TTT

Within the last few months, Ponyville had seen some very strange things going on in its humble, grassy streets.

An ancient evil bent on world conquering, monsters of ancient folklore fighting in the street, odd yet colorful trains passing by, the rumor that there was a disembodied hand floating around stealing bits, whatever chaos was wrought by the newly established Cutie Mark Crusaders, and even the occasional drunk escapades by one Berry Punch were some of the strange occurrences.

But today’s strange occurrence…

DING! DING!

BAM!

DING! DING!

BAM! BAM!

Everypony turned to see the small group of three walking down the street – two dragons and a griffon. The smallest of the group, Spike had a ton of fliers wrapped in his tail while he rang a musical triangle with his claws that he tinged a number of times in rhythm with the light drum beat.

Said drum was strapped to the chest of the black and red armored dragon to Spike’s right – Wizard sighed every time he brought the stick down on the drum. And his tail also had many fliers caught in its coil.

The last figure who walked on Spike’s left was Beast – a large sign being held up by his armored tail that read ‘Fashion Show This Friday at Nightfall – Carousel Boutique’ in bright bold letters on the sign.

Of course, when one would see two colorfully dressed characters walking down the street, it was going to draw some heads towards the trio. Mostly little fillies and colts dragging their parents to see the colorful characters in the middle of the street, but the trio also attracted a number of older ponies.

“Come one, come all!” Spike cheered out as he handed out the fliers to everypony who came close. “Come to Carousel Boutique this Friday for the fashion show!”

Wizard sighed under his breath, ‘How the Tartarus did I get roped into this?’

TTT – Three Hours Earlier… - TTT

“So, wait, Rarity, you’re gonna have to explain this to me again.”

It hadn’t been long since Twilight had asked Haru and Spike to go help Rarity with a little issue she was having at Carousel Boutique. The issue in question was a large gaping hole in the ceiling in Rarity’s workshop, with a large amount of debris strew about the classy unicorn’s usually pristine floor.

“How’d the roof get busted?” Haru questioned, his claws at his waist as he looked at the gaping hole overhead.

“Rainbow Dash,” Rarity replied with her horn aglow, levitating a pencil to a sketchbook.

“Ah, I get ya,” Haru stated before he lifted his claws up to his mouth. “What do you think, Mayonnaise? How’s the damage out there?!”

A familiar griffon popped his head into view, Kosuke’s brow had narrowed down at the two dragons in view, “Ya know, that’s stopped getting a rise out of me – To answer your question, it’s not too bad out here, should be able to fix this damage soon.”

For those wondering, while Spike and Haru were on the way to the boutique, they had come across the griffon’s latest camping ground: underneath one of the bridges of Ponyville. It was odd to see jackets hung up on strings, bottles of mayonnaise lined up on the bridge, and a ton of odd artifacts strewn about the nearby shore.

They had to cross the bridge, and, unfortunately, Kosuke started following the two dragons to the boutique and had offered his services as well.

And so, the small group was formed.

“I greatly appreciate your help,” Rarity replied, not bothering to look up from her sketch book. “I’d do it myself, but I have to get these dresses done before Friday.”

“It’s a pleasure!” Spike announced with a salute to the fashion loving mare.

“Right, you got a big order or something?” Haru questioned as he leaned over Rarity’s shoulder to look at the sketchbook.

“In a sense,” Rarity replied with a smile. “You see, I’m making gowns for not only myself but for Twilight and the others. I hope that they’ll wear them for the Gala, but before that, we’re putting on a fashion show!”

“The Gala?” Haru questioned as he rubbed his chin. It then clicked inside his head. “Oh! You’re talking about the Grand Galloping Gala, right?”

“Indeed!” Rarity sighed with a sly look in her eyes. “One of the, if not THE, premiere celebration of Canterlot! Oh, Mister Souma, it’ll be a perfect party… Where I’ll meet ‘him’.”

“Him?” Haru questioned, picturing a red being with an odd design aesthetic with claws.

“Mister Perfect,” Rarity sighed longingly. “So that’s why everything needs to be perfect! Perfect atmosphere, perfect gown and of course…”

Haru didn’t really listen to the last of that sentence, he was trying to stifle the snickering he had watching the annoyed look on Spike’s face.

“Oh, where are my manners,” Rarity spoke up again. “I’m sorry Mister Souma, I didn’t realize that you…”

It was then that Haru pulled out a pair of golden tickets up, “I guess I’m going too.”

“Oh, you’ve got tickets too?!” Rarity gasped, Haru couldn’t tell if it was surprise or some other emotion in her voice. Since Rarity was a kind mare, he had to guess it was more surprise than anything. “Hmm, tell me Mister Souma, are you planning on inviting anyone?”

“Well, I was just going to give the tickets to somepony,” Haru replied with a shrug. “Parties like that aren’t really my style, but Twilight told me that pretty much my only seven friends in town already have tickets. And after she told me about how insane everyone gets when they learn that someone has a spare ticket…”

Rarity chuckled rather sheepishly. With a slight cough, the fashionable mare turned towards the dragon. “Then why not join us for the Gala, Mister Souma? If you have a ticket, then you’d be able to join us, it’d be fun.”

“I may not like the setting,” Haru sighed with a smile. “But, it’s not like I’ll have anything to do with everyone else going that evening, so why not, I’ll go. What about my spare ticket though?”

“I’ll take it off your claws!” Kosuke announce before he slipped in through the hole in the roof and landed right between Haru and Rarity. With the larger dragon surprised, Kosuke’s tail whipped up and snatched the ticket from the dragon. “Ya know, I can be the perfect date!”

“Wait, what?” Haru questioned with a flat look on his face. “Date?!”

Spike laughed out loud, holding his sides, “I think you two look like the perfect couple!”

Even Rarity had to stifle a small snicker.

That just made Haru leer at the odd griffon with a familiar ring slipped over his claws, “… If we weren’t indoors, I’d smash you with my Big Ring.”

“Joking! Joking!” Kosuke chuckled nervously with his talons lifted up, the ticket between two of his talons. “But I really do wanna go. The Grand Galloping Gala allows its guests to go through Canterlot Castle’s archives! Do you know how many ancient documents, artefacts, and little hors d’oeurves are going to be there?! It’s an archaeologist’s buffet! A chance of a lifetime for a griffon!”

“I can understand your excitement, Mister Nitoh,” Rarity mused. “But aren’t you over exaggerating a bit? From what Twilight tells me, you’re actually a well-respected archeologist, so why would it be a ‘chance of a lifetime’? Couldn’t you get a ticket for the gala whenever you’d like?”

Kosuke lowered his shoulders slightly and turned his gaze away from everyone’s, “… Even after all the work I did, all the discoveries of the past, and the danger I put myself in, it means nothing to the highbrow of Canterlot. I’ll still just be a griffon in their eyes…”

There was a moment of silence in the boutique, and Haru was about to lift his claw up to his griffon friend… At least until Kosuke snapped his head back with the goofiest grin plastered on his face, “JUST KIDDING! Hehehehehe! I’m usually moving about too much to have a ticket delivered to me!”

‘… For a moment, I thought there was something more to that…’ Haru thought to himself. After a quick sigh, Haru chuckled. “Well, go ahead and take the ticket – Not like I can multiply myself to use it.”

“AWESOME!” Kosuke cheered out before he jumped into the air, kissing the ticket he now held onto in his talons. “I promise next time there’s a Phantom attack, you can have first pickings, dragon!”

“I don’t eat Phantoms!” Haru spat out with narrowed eyes.

“Hmm,” Rarity mused with a sly smile curling on her face. “Tell me, since I know Spike is going to the Gala, and now you two are, what are you three going to wear?”

“I got an old suit that Twilight gave me,” Spike answered.

“I was just going to use my Dress Up ring,” Haru chimed in.

“And I was planning on washing this old thing,” Kosuke commented as he rubbed his hoodie’s sleeve between his talons.

Rarity’s jaw had dropped when she heard the answers, but she quickly regained her composure, “No, no, just no. This kind of event requires that you all look your best, and it can’t be some sort of magic trick, Mister Souma. After all, this is the premiere of Canterlot, you all need to look your best!

“Therefore, I shall make you three your own outfits as well!”

There was a moment of silence in the boutique, both Haru and Kosuke looked to each other, however, Spike spoke up. “I will gladly accept your charity, Rarity! But… Uh, don’t you already have enough work to do already?”

“Perish the thought, Spikey-Wikey,” Rarity assured as she patted the small dragon atop his head a few times. “A few all-nighters won’t hurt me at all. Besides, this is an opportunity, I’ve been curious about griffon fashion, and this is a good chance to experiment, I have never designed clothing for anyone but ponies, and occasionally cats, so this’ll be a great experience.”

“Still,” Haru muttered out as he rubbed the back of his head. “I don’t feel right about just taking something for free – Just not in my nature.”

“Well, you are fixing my roof,” Rarity suggested as she looked up at the gaping hole overhead.

“Yeah, but I was going to do that anyway,” Haru pointed out.

“Hey! I got an idea!” Spike spoke up with his claw held up into the air.

TTT – Back To the Present – TTT

‘Right, I think I need to get my memory fixed sometime,’ Wizard thought as he banged on the drum in front of his chest. His visor covered gaze turned towards Beast. “By the way, isn’t it dangerous for you to be transformed like that? I doubt you’re gonna get any mana from handing out fliers.”

“You make it sound like every time I transform, I’m gonna die after I undo the transformation,” Beast chuckled with a wag of his finger. “Not so, definitely not so! So long as I don’t use any of my mantle rings, I’ll be good to go for just a simple transformation.”

“Sure, whatever,” Wizard sighed out loud as he watched Spike run up to a few ponies and hand out the fliers. “Still, I’m not sure if I really like doing this – I shouldn’t transform for something like this…”

“Oh just enjoy yourself, Dragon,” Beast suggested, waving towards a small filly who had come up to him. “Come to the fashion show, yahoo!”

“I get the idea,” Wizard muttered out loud. “But that doesn’t change the fact that these powers shouldn’t be used for something like this…”

“Excuse me.”

Wizard turned his head to the side to see a trio of stallions standing next to him, the one who had spoken up was a black unicorn stallion with a combed back purple mane with a fancy purple vest around his torso. The other two stallions were a large silver earth pony stallion with a black mane that covered one of his eyes and a small dark blue pegasus with a white cravat around his neck, who was asleep on the earth stallion’s back.

The black stallion lifted his hoof up, “May I have one of those fliers?”

“Oh, sure,” Wizard replied as he lifted his tail to the stallion.

“Thank you,” the stallion replied as he used his magic to levitate one of the fliers away from Wizard’s tail. “By the way, interesting attire, must be a hit with the colts and fillies.”

Wizard sighed before he slowly walked away from the group of ponies, Beast following. When the two mages had gone on ahead, the black stallion turned to his compatriots, “It would appear that Madam Medusa was successful in preparing this test.”

The silver stallion smirked at the black pony, with the pegasus waving a hoof in front of his mouth as he stirred awake, “Guten Morgan*, Cyclops, Bari. Are we done faulenzen*?”

The gray stallion nodded silently. However, the one eyed stallion narrowed his brow at the pegasus on his back, “Cyclopsis.”

“Was auch immer*,” the pegasus spat back before he leapt off of his companion. “Herr* Bari, is this truly the time for our prüfung* into greatness?”

Bari sighed loudly as he folded the flier and stuffed it into his vest pocket, “If you’re going to refer to me by a false name, Barikon is my proper false name.”

“Zu steif, zu steif,” the pegasus huffed as he lifted his head up. “I grow tired of waiting, we should just send our target into despair and get it over with.

Barikon sighed once again, “It matters not, our plans won’t fully begin until we meet with Lady Medusa. And that won’t be for a few more days, Beelzebub. Until then, we shall continue our training.”

Beelzebub snorted loudly and turned away from Barikon. “Herr Bari, you make it sound as though we are schwach!* Nothing has been able to stop Cyclopsis nor myself alone, and zusammen*, we could defeat anyone!”

“Would you rather be defeated by that?” Barikon commented as he gestured towards Wizard, who was now futher down the street talking to a gray pegasus mare with a blond mane and tail. “A number of Phantoms have fallen to that dragon’s claws, do you wish for the same fate as all of them?”

A loud sigh escaped from Beelzebub’s mouth, “Fein, fein*! But can we at least get us something to eat? I grow weary of eating grass, berries and the five alarm chili that Cyclopsis keeps making us - Nearly abgebrannt meine* tongue!”

“Wimp,” Cyclopsis spoke up for the first time with a shake of his head.

TTT – TTT

Alchemy.

An ancient science that developed thousands of years ago, the precursor to chemistry, where alchemists would explore many possibilities from creating an elixir of life to turn lead into gold.

Even by today’s standards, there were still alchemists around, even Twilight herself had dabbled in alchemy when she was in Celestia’s school for gifted unicorns. But there was one form of alchemy that was touched upon, but never really taught in her classes…

Transmutation Circles.

It was a form of alchemy that allowed one to draw runes onto any surface, and by pouring a little bit of mana into the runes along with the proper items, you could forge anything within the runes as long as you had a plan on what you were making.

Ever since Twilight had used Haru’s magic and when she ‘used’ Kosuke’s recently, there was something that bugged her, but throughout her research she just couldn’t find what irked her about Haru’s magic. She never considered that Haru’s magic was related to alchemy…

But after she had given the book on Phoenixes to the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Twilight dusted off some of the older books in the library and came across one of her old textbooks that pertained to alchemy.

Oddly enough, the runes that were jotted down into the book resembled that to the runes that were on not only Haru’s magic circles but Kosuke’s as well.

Twilight looked at her notes – Each with a rather crude drawing of both Wizard and Beast (complete with childish smiles drawn on their masks… What? It wasn’t like Twilight was a master artist) with a surprisingly more detailed sketches of their magical rune circles. Next to her notes was the very same textbook on alchemy that she had from her academy days, opened up to a surprisingly similar transmutation circle.

‘There are some obvious differences,’ Twilight thought as she brought a hoof to the pages. ‘But, it’s generally the same concept. If everything I have is correct, then is it possibly that Haru’s and Nitoh’s magic has a basis in alchemy? What about the Phantoms? Could they be a product of alchemy as well?

‘I should probably ask Princess Celestia about sending me some books on Alchemy, there could possibly be a chance of using this to stop the Phantoms!’

Atop of one of the many shelves of the library, a familiar diamond studded Garuda watched the mare as she looked at her notes, its eyes didn’t move away from Twilight’s studies. The white Garuda tilted its head slightly towards the door when a few knocks drew Twilight’s attention from her books.

As Twilight turned to the door, the White Garuda flew off to another shelf to make sure it wouldn’t be seen by the studious mare or her guests which turned out to be a familiar trio of fillies that were in the library just the other day.

“Girls?” Twilight questioned as she allowed Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo to enter the library. “It’s a nice surprise to see you three so soon, did you want to borrow another book?”

“Actually, Miss Twilight,” Sweetie Belle started off, looking away from the taller unicorn’s gaze. “We wanted to tell you something that we saw the other day.”

“Oh? And what was that?” Twilight asked with a curious smile on her face.

“You remember that stallion that was in here?” Apple Bloom questioned as she looked around. “The same one that when we got that book on phoenixes?”

Twilight knew exactly who she was talking about, Mr. Nix. The red pegasus who seemed to have a penchant for reading and often kept stopping himself from swearing in front of Twilight. The violet unicorn nodded her head, “Mister Nix, yes I remember him. What about him?”

“It was so cool!” Scootaloo shouted out as she jumped about. “There was this odd stallion with rain around him and he transformed into this orange, jumpsuit thing and that red pegasus transformed into that large fiery bird-like monster and they fought and then there was this huge, black castle-monster thing that tried to take us down but the bird monster and orange guy managed to…”

It was at this point that Scootaloo fell to the ground, trying to catch her breath. Twilight had gotten used to hearing Pinkie’s rants (mostly on random things that she saw like a robotic red tyrannosaurus being played with by a stallion who called himself king), and so she was able to grasp most of what Scootaloo was spouting off.

It was a little confusing, but Twilight knew what they were trying to say.

Mister Nix had become a monster. Twilight remembered that Phantoms could transform back and forth between their monstrous forms, like with Gnome did and that one called Manticore. Both had the ability to transform, and if Feenie Nix transformed into a monster, could he be a…

Twilight shook her head. It didn’t make sense – If Mister Nix was a Phantom, then why didn’t he attack her? She was a target of the Phantoms, and there were a number of times he could’ve…

Once again, Twilight shook her head and managed to clear her thoughts. Silently, Twilight lit her horn up, lifted up a small notebook from the number of notes she had on the table and levitated it in front of the Crusaders. “Girls, you said that he looked like a monster, can you tell me if he looked like any of these?”

“Sure Miss Twi,” Apple Bloom replied

Twilight watched as the three fillies flipped through the pages Phantoms, sometimes stopping to point at one of the pictures…

However, when the trio stopped on a certain page, Twilight took notice. The three turned the notebook around and smiled at Twilight before they all spoke out at once, “This is it!”

And Twilight’s eyes widened at the sight of the picture and the name that was written on the page…

Phoenix.

TTT – TTT

After a day or two of handing out fliers, measurement taking, one musical number and research, everyone who was the recipient of Rarity’s generosity had gathered in Carousel boutique – Five mares, two dragons and a griffon.

“So, what do you think Rarity’s done with our duds?” Applejack asked, to nopony in particular.

“Oooh! It’s gotta be spectacular!” Pinkie exclaimed as she bounced around the room. “Rarity’s like the bestest of the best when it comes to clothes!”

“Oh?” Kosuke mused with his talons brought up to his chin. “Have any of you gotten clothing from Miss Rarity before?”

“Nope!” Pinkie replied rather cheerfully.

“Yeah, Neato,” Dash sighed loudly. “I don’t know if you noticed this, but not a lot of ponies go around wearing clothes all the time. I’m surprised that even you or Wizard wear clothes at all.”

“Don’t ya know Dashie?” Kosuke chuckled as he grabbed his sleeves. “Clothes are awesome! Having pockets, keeping you warm or cool, and it adds a bit of more color to the wearer. You aren’t going to tell me that Mister Narumi didn’t look awesome in his fly white suite and fedora, are ya?”

Dash turned to the side, not wanting to argue. “Yeah, well, that stuff just gets in…”

“Besides, don’t the Wonderbolts wear uniforms?” Kosuke continued onwards, not wanting to lose the argument. “You’ll have to wear one when you join their ranks!”

Fluttershy smiled at her two friends, it was just like in Cloudsdale many years ago. Dash and Kosuke would get into their little arguments, while she and Shou would be on the sidelines trying to stop them from breaking out into a full-on brawl, with Gilda not really caring either way.

But now, there were even more friends around her, and it was lovely.

But then Fluttershy’s eyes turned towards Haru, who was cradling his rather bruised up tail, “Oh my, Mister Haru, is your tail alright?”

The red dragon sniffled slightly as he turned towards Fluttershy and smiled brightly at her, “Phantoms, monsters from the shadows, and who knows what else I’ve fought against, they all pale in comparison to little colts and fillies…

“Why did they feel the need to climb on me!? My poor, poor tail…”

“What do you expect?” Spike tried stifling his chuckling. “Your costume looks like something you’d see in a stage show, and since you’re so big, you’re practically asking to be climbed on like a statue.”

“That doesn’t explain how Kosuke didn’t have to deal with that,” Haru sighed, his tail slipped from his claws and to the floor.

Kosuke turned away from his argument with Dash and smiled, “What can I say? I dunno why they didn’t do it.”

“Well, at least it was just a bruised tail,” Fluttershy stated as she brought a hoof up to Haru’s tail. “Shouldn’t be too bad, just give it a day or so.”

Twilight remained silent throughout the exchange. Her mind was more focused on other things, she hadn’t told anyone about what she talked about with the Crusaders. Not even Spike or Haru knew, and she even had the Crusaders make sure that they kept the secret until she was completely sure on the matter.

That somepony who had visited the library so many could be a Phantom, let alone be Phoenix, one of the worst Phantoms she had ever seen – It was completely illogical!

“Hello! Equestria to Twilight!”

The violet unicorn shook her head when she realized that pretty much everyone was looking at her, “Um, I’m sorry, what were we talking about?”

“Rarity just called us up, Twi,” Applejack explained as she gestured towards the stairs that everyone else was heading up. “Ya’ll okay?”

“Y-Yeah, I just have a lot on my mind,” Twilight confessed as she followed Applejack up the stairs. “Still, it’ll be nice to see what Rarity’s made for us.”

“Ah hope it’s nuthin’ too fancy,” Applejack replied with a shake of her head. “Ah really can’t stand wearing frilly stuff, a good hat cleanin’ will do it for me most of the time.”

“I know where you’re coming from,” Kosuke added in looking back. “I can’t stand not wearing one of my hoodies, I’ll feel naked without one of them on me.”

“You would be naked,” Rainbow Dash pointed out bluntly.

“Exactly!” Kosuke laughed. “I can’t walk around without my trusty jacket! It’d be obscene!”

“So, by yer logic, we’re all being obscene now?” AJ questioned at the griffon.

Kosuke winked with a sly smirk following, “Obscene? Perish the thought! Its commonplace for everypony to walk around all free – I just happen to have a personal preference to wearing something, and…”

Kosuke had lowered his head, but anyone who looked could easily tell that he had one of the most suspicious smiles on his face and if one listened well enough, they could hear him mutter something about ‘view’ or something like that.

WHAM!

And unfortunately for Kosuke, Dash had been one of the few who had heard Kosuke’s muttering and promptly slammed her hind hooves right into Kosuke’s chest which sent him tumbling back down the stairs, right past Twilight and AJ. “ARGH!”

And Dash just trotted onwards while everyone else watched, “… Neato’ll be fine. He’s taken worse hits.”

“MY TAIL!”

“Like I said, worse hits,” Dash added.

After waiting for Kosuke to get back to the others, the small group now stood in front of Rarity’s room, the door closed.

“Rarity! We’re all here!” Spike called out.

“Perfect!” the fashionista called back through the door. “Everything is ready! Are all of you ready?

“Then come on in!”

TBC

Author's Note

* Every word with an asterisk is actually German. I apologize if my German is a little rusty, but if you don't use it everyday ya know...

Spell 35 - Fashion Disaster

Spell 35

Fashion Disaster

TTT – TTT

Haru sighed loudly as he wiped away the sweat that had appeared on his brow, while he was tired from the hard work, the empty stomach he had didn’t help much either. After he received the scroll from that thieving White Garuda, the magical dragon had returned to the library to follow the instructions that were given to him.

Not wanting to take a risk in the ground floors, Haru retreated to the basement – Twilight had converted the oddly spacious cellar into a lab of sorts, and even then there was a large amount extra space. As such, that extra space was being put to good use with Haru taking chalk to the floor, drawing a really familiar runic circle into the ground.

‘I’m not sure what this will accomplish,’ Haru thought before he dusted his claws together, getting the chalk dust off of his claws. ‘But then again, I’m not one to pass up a chance to improve my chances against Phantoms.’

In the middle of the circle were the materials that were listed on the scroll – A bar of silver, a few chunks of the large magical stones (Haru made sure to keep a few bits of the stones used to make his style change rings in case the rings were ever destroyed), and something that Haru never really expected, a small bowl that had a bit of his blood in it.

Haru looked at the bandage on his left hand, ‘Still smarts, and I hope that Twilight doesn’t mind that I used that bowl… Hope it wasn’t important. Now, all that remains is the last part.’

Reaching into his pockets, Haru lifted up the four Dragon Style rings and slowly made his way to the four specific shapes that corresponded to the individual rings. When all four rings were on the ground, Haru stepped out of the circle, taking care that he didn’t mess up any of the lines.

Outside the runic circle, Haru took a deep breath and clapped his claws together and then placed his hands on the edge of the circle. The moment that his claws brushed up against the circle, the chalk lit up with a series of red, blue, yellow and green lights that flowed towards the center of the circle.

Haru’s eyes gleamed brightly as he watched the items in the middle of the circle, ‘The transmutation is working, too bad it’ll take a day or so for this thing to finish. And while its doing that, I can’t access my Dragon Styles – Oh well, I’ve been able to handle Phantoms before I had to deal with that, and the only Phantoms that really required me to go dragon are Phoenix and Medusa…

‘And maybe that green one too…’

Haru sighed again as he shook his head and smiled, ‘Then again, I’m not alone. I’ve got a lot of great friends, each who can hold their own. Tartarus, Twilight can use my spells, Fluttershy was able to make Phoenix quiver in fear, and then there’s Kosuke, my fellow mage.

‘I’m not alone at all.’

With a smirk, Haru began to walk to the stairs, his claws in his pockets.

“Haru! Are you here?”

Haru lifted his head up when he heard Twilight’s voice and hurried his way up the stairs. It didn’t take long for the dragon to reach the first floor, “In the basement, Twilight!”

The door opened up and Haru was met with Twilight, one of her brows lifted up. Immediately, Haru could feel the tension that was emanating from the unicorn and lifted his claws up defensively, “Uh, hey there Twilight. Everything okay?”

“Haru, what are you doing in my lab?” Twilight calmly asked, and yet there was something in her voice that sent chills down the spine of this dragon.

“N-Now Twilight,” Haru coughed out. “I didn’t touch anything of yours, I just needed a large space for something special, and I figured that you didn’t want anyone who comes to the library to be freaked out by the light show.”

“… Light show?” Twilight questioned with her brow raising a little bit more. Then with a shake of her head, Twilight sighed, “We’ll talk about that later. Haru, I need to talk to you about something very serious.”

Haru picked up on the serious tone that was in Twilight’s voice and nodded, “Sure Twilight, what’s on your mind?”

Using her magic to close the door behind Haru, Twilight walked towards the middle of the library’s lobby. And after taking a deep breath, Twilight turned back to Haru, “Haru, I found out that…”

Before Twilight could continue, a loud roar echoed throughout the library, the source coming from the basement. Both Twilight and Haru raced to the basement door and immediately entered just in time to see a phantasmal dragon thrash around the transmutation circle that was drawn into the ground.

Flames, rocks, gusts of green air and water flowed around the metallic dragon, who tried to keep breaking free from some sort of invisible force field that was seemingly generated from the transmutation circle.

“Haru, just what did you do in my lab?” Twilight questioned, her right eye twitching slightly at the sight before her.

“I… I don’t know,” Haru answered bluntly as he lifted his claws up defensively. “I was just following the scroll’s instructions! But I think we’re safe, I’m pretty sure that Dragon can’t…”

It was then that a large splash of water splashed onto Haru, soaking the dragon. “Twilight. RUN!”

The unicorn didn’t need a second warning, both dashed out of the basement just as a large boulder crashed into wall where they were standing in front of a few seconds before. The two slammed the door behind them with Dragon roaring loudly.

Both were trying to catch their breaths in the main lobby of the library, and Twilight was the first to regain her composure, “What exactly do you do when I’m not around?”

“Look, I’m just trying to get something new to fight the Phantoms,” Haru sighed with his head lowered down. “I didn’t think I’d just summon Dragon like that. I thought it was gonna be a longer version of when I make my magic rings.”

Twilight shook her head, “Speaking of Phantoms, Haru, I really need to talk to you about that.”

“Did you see a Phantom attack someone today?” Haru questioned, standing up tall and removing his soaked leather jacket. “If so, let me know and I’ll…”

“No, it’s not that,” Twilight replied with a shake of her head. “It’s just that I think I found out who…”

“Excuse me, am I interrupting something?”

Twilight turned towards the main door to the library, her eyes widening as she saw that familiar red pegasus stallion with messy black mane and stubble around his muzzle.

It was Phoenix, or the stallion that Twilight had deduced was Phoenix.

Mr. Nix tilted his head slightly before he looked towards Haru, for a moment, the two just looked at each other. However, Mr. Nix drew in a breath and trotted towards Twilight, “Since I’m not getting an answer, I’d like to ask for a few books to read.”

“Uh,” Twilight stammered.

“It’s alright, Twilight,” Haru sighed as he stretched his arms over his head. “I need to head over to Rarity’s for our meeting – don’t know why, I actually liked the suit she made for me. But whatever… Can we talk later?”

“Uh,” Twilight turned back towards Mr. Nix who had walked towards one of the shelves, looking over some of the books. “Sure, we’ll talk later.”

Mr. Nix watched as Haru walked out of the library and then turned towards Twilight, “Sorry about that – I didn’t know that you were in a heated discussion.”

“Oh, it… It’s nothing like that,” Twilight replied with a shake of her hoof. “Haru just lives here so I can study his magic.”

“Huh, wouldn’t know a thing ‘bout that,” Mr. Nix replied as he lifted a wing to his forehead. “Don’t have one of those drills atop of my skull.”

“Drill? It’s a horn,” Twilight retorted.

“It’s sharp, it has a spiral to it, and it charges energy through it,” Mr. Nix chuckled back. “Sides, I’ve seen ponies charge their magical energy into a drill, so seems appropriate.”

Twilight narrowed her eyes at Mr. Nix then sighed, “Are you just joking?”

“Yup, just yanking a chain,” Mr. Nix snickered as he pulled out a book from the shelf. “This one any good? Prelude to a Storm?”

“Oh, that’s supposed to be about three ninjas working together to save the world,” Twilight answered as she kept her distance from the stallion. “I can probably make a better recommendation though, Mr. Nix.”

“But, its ninjas,” Mr. Nix replied as he lifted the book up. “What story fails with ninjas? Besides, if it’s in your library, how could it not be good?”

Twilight turned to the side with a slight blush on her face, “Well, it was actually something I got for Spike for one of his birthdays, my brother suggested it.”

“Heh, should be a good read,” Mr. Nix chuckled before he tossed the book up into the air and allowed it to land on his back. “Got anything else? Maybe something along the lines of a murder mystery or something like that?”

"Well… I may have something like that,” Twilight coughed, a little nervously.

This didn’t go unnoticed by Mr. Nix who raised an eyebrow at the purple unicorn, “Alright, so what’s wrong?”

Twilight didn’t answer.

“Was it cause I interrupted you and the dragon?” Mr. Nix asked as he slowly walked closer to the mare.

“… You’re a Phantom, aren’t you?”

Mr. Nix reeled back when he heard that. Then he lowered his head, his mane overshadowing his eyes. “A Phantom?”

The book fell from Mr. Nix’s back as he slowly circled the room, Twilight widening her stance and preparing herself. “Heh… So, what gave it away? I thought I was being very careful and actually managed to blend in with everypony.”

Once again, Twilight didn’t answer, just focused on keeping her distance from the odd stallion.

“Don’t wanna tell? Fine, you know first hoof that we Phantoms can be really scary,” Mr. Nix chuckled loudly, a large smirk appearing on his face as he had one of his wings lift up and ran it along the bookshelves. “But, you let the ring mage leave… You could’ve told on me. You could’ve had the two of us fight.

“So why didn’t you?”

“I met another Phantom not too long ago,” Twilight finally spoke up, a small purple aura emerging around her horn. “Dryad. She didn’t want to fight, she wanted to help her family – I learned from her that not all Phantoms are bad, that you’re all just living creatures like Haru or I.

“Besides, you’ve been here countless times, many of them when Haru wasn’t here. I know for a fact that other Phantoms have targeted me, but you never even tried once to hurt me. So, your actions are more suspicious.”

It was then that Twilight lifted a hoof towards the now-exposed Phantom Stallion, “Especially since I know who you are – Phoenix!”

The stallion stopped moving and the smirk on his face grew more intense as a fiery aura began to engulf his body, “You really are somepony smart, aren’t ya? But at the same time, you’re an idiot. An idiot!”

And just like that, in the place of the red pegasus, Mr. Nix, stood the Phantom Phoenix, leaning up against the bookshelves. He ran a finger along the spine of one of the many books, actually making a small scorch mark on it. “You could’ve had Haruto Souma, the Ring Mage here and expose me – At least then I’d have some fun without turning a Gate into…”

“You’re not like that!”

Phoenix lifted his head up to see that Twilight had actually gotten closer to him, her eyes narrowed directly towards his blue eyes. “You had plenty of times to attack me, to turn me into a Phantom, but all you’ve done is talk to me and borrow books. You’ve even returned them on time!

“You even showed grief for when one of your allies fell, a monster wouldn’t do that!

“You also saved three fillies that I know, why would Phoenix – the same Phantom who tried to cast Equestria in dragon smoke to make Phantoms appear, the same Phantom who had no problems fighting Haru to the death – Why would he save three fillies?”

Once again, Phoenix reeled back at the information, “It… It was just one time! I was young! I didn’t know what I was doing! It was peer pressure!”

“It was last week,” Twilight commented with a flat look in her eyes.

“Feel like months to me,” Phoenix retorted before he pushed himself from the shelf and stood before Twilight. “But back on topic, so you’ve figured out who I am. So what’s your plan now?”

“I originally thought that Phantoms were monsters who wouldn’t listen to reason,” Twilight admitted, slowly inching towards Phoenix. “But after everything that’s happened – Meeting Haru, helping Dryad, seeing so many suffer, I know that Phantoms aren’t monsters.

“You’re not a monster either, Phoenix. I’ve made my claims, and you said you didn’t care to drive ponies to despair, you may not be the best character around since you wanted to pick fights, but even then, you’re not a monster. You were once a stallion, just like the other Phantoms, please, let me help you.”

Phoenix looked at his hand then sighed, “Is that it? Is this the part where you try to make me into your friend?”

“To be honest, I don’t know if I want to be friends with you,” Twilight answered back, not looking away. “You tried to destroy Equestria, you almost killed Haru, and you’re rude, but that doesn’t matter. I don’t need to be a friend in order to help someone, even if it’s you.”

Phoenix then knelt down, making his eyes leveled with that of Twilight’s and cackled slightly, “And what makes you think that I even need help? I’m a monster, and unlike the last time I fought with the Wizard, I know for a fact that I’m stronger. Like my namesake, I’m more than capable of handling myself in a fight…”

“Because Dryad told me that most Phantoms are strong armed into helping,” Twilight countered back. “And ever since you transformed, you haven’t even attempted to attack me all this time.”

“Maybe I just like the sound of my own voice,” Phoenix retorted as he brought a hand to Twilight’s chin and placed his fingers on her. “And you’ve gotten real comfy with me, the dreaded enforcer of the Phantoms right in front of you. What’s stopping me from breaking you in two?”

“Nothing,” Twilight replied. “Just like all the other times I’ve had my back turned to you. You had plenty of chances, and never took them.”

For a moment, the two just stared at each other.

Until Phoenix drew back his hand and laughed loudly as he stood tall. “BWAHAHAHAHA! Look at you, look at you, you managed to show me a side that I really like. You’re brave, so I’ll tell you something you’ll wanna hear.”

Phoenix walked away from Twilight and headed towards the book he had dropped to the ground, picking it up and dusting it off. “There’s a couple of Phantoms and a Knight I don’t like, at all. They’re trying to team up to target that marshmallow Gate that’s got a big show at the end of the week.”

“A big show?” Twilight’s eyes widened as she was able to put the pieces together. “Rarity?! She’s a Gate?!”

“Oh, that marshmallow pony that’s yer friend?” Phoenix replied as he made sure that there wasn’t any damage done to the book. “Well then, looks like things just got a bit more interesting.”

“There’s another thing,” Twilight pointed out. “If you were truly a monster, why would you tell me this?”

Phoenix looked over his shoulder before he faded back into his pony form, the book now tucked under his wing. “This is due back next week, right? I’ll give you an answer then.”

Just like that, Phoenix walked out of the library leaving Twilight alone in the library, “H-Hey! You still need to sign out the book!”

Near one of the windows, a certain mint green pegasus pulled down his fedora and smirked, ‘So many things to do, so little time.’

TTT – TTT

“Rarity? Sorry I’m late!” Haru called out as he entered Carousel Boutique and closed the door behind him.

There was no answer when Haru called out, however, as he listened in carefully, he could’ve sworn he heard someone singing.

Singing?

It wasn’t that the singing was bad, quite the opposite actually, it was one of the best songs that Haru had ever heard. The only question is why someone was singing it, but then again, Haru questioned a lot of times ponies sang.

‘Hard to believe that I once broke out in song for no reason once,’ Haru thought to himself as he walked through the lobby of the boutique and headed towards the stairs. ‘Sometimes I’m glad that the Sabbath happened, if it didn’t then I wouldn’t have met my friends or be able to help out so many others.’

Every step that Haru took up the stairs, the singing became more prominent. As the song continued its course, Haru caught himself bobbing his head up and down to the rhythm of the music, but stopped when he reached Rarity’s workshop.

Haru tapped his claws against the door a few times and the singing stopped, replaced by Rarity’s voice, “Just one moment please!”

The sound of crashing echoed through the air before the door opened up to reveal a rather frazzled Rarity opening the door. Her mane was a complete mess while she had dark rings under her eyes. “Ah, Mr. Souma, please, please come in. I’m sorry about the mess, but with the show only a day or so away…”

Haru looked past Rarity and into the room, noticing that there was a large amount of fabric, sewing tools, and other various items floating in the air with a blue aura around them. The same aura was around Rarity’s horn, and although Haru was aware of the white mare’s magical prowess, the fact that everything seemed to shake in the air seemed to raise up a red flag in his mind.

“Uh, is it safe to come in?” Haru asked, hesitantly peering into the room.

“Of course, Mister Souma,” Rarity laughed, rather tiredly actually.

It was at that moment that a pair of scissors fell from the air and stabbed the floor between the two. Rarity chuckled sheepishly and smiled at the dragon before her, “Oh, that was just a little slip.”

Haru coughed and looked to the side, “I see. Rarity, have you gotten any sleep?”

“Of course! Of course!” Rarity replied with a wave of her hoof. “And of course a cup of coffee here and there is enough to help.”

“Uh, huh,” Haru stated with a dulled look in his eyes. “Look, I actually like my original suit, so why don’t you take this time to just relax? Maybe take in a nap or something?”

“Don’t be absurd!” Rarity coughed out with a shake of her head. Then with a slight cough, Rarity brought a hoof to her head. “I do apologize Mister Souma, but I don’t have the luxury to rest, not while I have all this work before me, especially since I learned something that’s just… Oh, I can’t even say it.”

For a moment, Haru just leered at Rarity before he sighed loudly, “Rarity, do you have any tea?”

For a moment, Rarity was taken aback by the odd question, but then shrugged it off, “Yes, of course, did you want some? I suppose I could make some…”

“No, I just want to talk,” Haru replied as he threw his claws behind his head. “You’d be surprised how far a cup of tea and an hour of just talking can do.”

One brewing of tea later…

“This is… horrible tea,” Rarity sputtered out, looking at the tea she just sipped.

“I’m more of an instant tea dragon,” Haru admitted before he gulped down some of the bitter tea that he had made. “I’m not that good at making it from tea leaves, tea bags work just fine.”

“Still, I appreciate the thought,” Rarity admitted as she place the tea cup on the table. “But why exactly are we doing this? I enjoy a cup of tea as much as the next mare, but I need to get back to work. I have so much to do and…”

“That’s why we’re having tea, or just relaxing,” Haru coughed out, mulling over the tea he had in his claws. “Don’t you think that you’d be able to create something a lot more effectively if you had a clearer mind?”

“But of course, Mister Souma,” Rarity sighed with a shake of her head. “But there is so much on my mind. So much is riding on this fashion show.”

“I thought it was just supposed to just be a fun little thing for you and the others to do,” Haru commented, swirling the tea about in an attempt to try to make the tea tasted better. Of course when he took a sip and nearly gagged on it, it was a failed attempt. “Gah!”

“You don’t have to drink it, you know,” Rarity pointed out with a slightly flat look in her face.

“It’d be a waste,” Haru sputtered back after forcing himself to drink the poor concoction. “But, what exactly is riding on this fashion show?”

Rarity sighed as she looked into the terrible tasting tea before her, “I haven’t told Twilight or anypony else… But, I was approached by a very reputable name in the Canterlot Fashion world, Beautiful Blossom.”

‘Yeah, I have no idea who that is,’ Haru thought to himself. ‘Then again, a lot of pony names tend to be pun themed or represent their talent. Huh, I wonder if that holds true for my name.’

“She’s going to the Grand Galloping Gala as well,” Rarity explained. “And she wanted to wear one of my dresses to the event. You can imagine, if one of the most famous models were to wear my dress to one of, if not the, biggest events in all of Equestria, that would propel my name into the world of professional fashion!

“But, she wants to see if I can cater to the desires of the clientele, so, I’m making dresses that have been customized to my friends’ tastes. The fashion show is to highlight that I can make any adjustments to the customers’ tastes.”

“That sounds logical,” Haru admitted.

“But the dresses,” Rarity moaned before she slammed her head into the table. “They’re just so HIDEOUS!”

“Huh?!” Haru questioned, a little taken aback from what his friend just blurted out.

“I followed everyone’s suggestions,” Rarity sighed loudly, lifting her head up to look at the dragon in front of her. “But, they just made the dresses just… UGH! Even Opal thinks that they would be better shredded!”

“Uh, okay,” Haru coughed out. ‘I’m glad that she’s getting this off her shoulders, I just wasn’t expecting that.’

“The only one that looks partially acceptable is Mister Nitoh’s!” Rarity wheezed out, lowering her head back to the table. “And even, his tux is orange! Nothing against orange, but it’s really not his color!”

“So long as he didn’t want me in a blue tuxedo, I don’t really see the issue,” Haru admitted as he scratched the side of his head. “But is there anything I can do to help you with?”

“I appreciate the offer, Mister Souma,” Rarity chuckled nervously. “But I remember the last time that you helped, I’m still finding some burnt fabric around here.”

“The one time I actually breathe fire, and I screw up,” Haru sighed with a roll of his eyes. “I’m sorry.”

“Oh you don’t need to apologize, I do appreciate the offer though,” Rarity snickered slightly. “And I do really appreciate the tea as well, even if it is terrible tea.”

“Still, there’s no need to make me anything else,” Haru replied with a wave of his claws slightly. “I like the surcoat you made me.”

“Are you sure?” Rarity questioned. “Even if it’s just a little charm or trinket…”

Before Haru could assure Rarity, there was a loud bam, drawing both of their attentions towards the flying open door, revealing Twilight standing in the doorway, completely out of breath. Rarity was the first to speak up in concern, “Twilight? Darling? Is everything alright?”

“Did something happen?” Haru questioned as he took a few steps towards the violet unicorn.

Twilight took a deep breath and looked towards Haru and Rarity, “Rarity, we need to cancel that fashion show.”

“What?” Rarity gasped with her hooves brought up to her mouth. “Twilight, dear, where did that come from?”

“P-Phantoms,” Twilight wheezed back, still a little tired from her run over to the boutique. “There are two phantoms that are planning on attacking the show.”

“What?!” Rarity and Haru yelped at the same time.

Twilight lifted her head up and looked the two friends, “Rarity, you need to cancel the show, and we…”

“Twilight, I… I can’t cancel the show,” Rarity interrupted lowering her head. “There’s a lot riding on this, and I can’t just stop it.”

“But Rarity,” Twilight started.

But the mare stopped when she noticed the tired look in Rarity’s eyes and reeled back slightly.

Haru sighed and crossed his arms, “Twilight, Kosuke and I are going to be there, we’ll handle the Phantoms.if they attack.”

“But Haru, it’s a much safer idea to make sure that nothing happens,” Twilight countered back with her eyes narrowed at the dragon. “Not just for Rarity’s sake, but for everypony else who will be there!”

“True, but,” Haru muttered as he turned towards Rarity. “Ultimately, isn’t it up to Rarity though? I mean, it's her show and…”

“Twilight,” Rarity sighed with her head lowered. “I appreciate your concern, but this is too important to me, I have to go through with this and I don’t know if I’ll be able to get another chance.”

“Alright, but Rarity, please, at least consider cancelling it,” Twilight advised.

Rarity sighed and shook her head, “I’ll… I’ll think about it. But for now, could you two please leave me to my own devices? I’d like to think on this for a little bit of time.”

Both Twilight and Haru heard the quiver in Rarity’s voice, and they nodded to each other before Twilight spoke up, “Sure Rarity, but please, think this through.”

“I will,” Rarity replied, a sigh following. “I just need to think.”

TTT – TTT

“I’m a little curious, Twilight.”

Twilight stiffened up when Haru spoke up, and slowly turned back towards the dragon. “C-Curious about what, Hau?”

“How’d you learn about this plan?” Haru asked, scratching the side of his head. “I’m not saying anything bad here, cause I know you wouldn’t say something like this for no reason. But how’d you learn about these Phantoms trying to do this?”

Twilight closed her eyes…

“Oh, that marshmallow pony that’s yer friend?” Phoenix replied as he made sure that there wasn’t any damage done to the book. “Well then, looks like things just got a bit more interesting.”

“There’s another thing,” Twilight pointed out. “If you were truly a monster, why would you tell me this?”

Phoenix looked over his shoulder before he faded back into his pony form, the book now tucked under his wing. “This is back next week, right? I’ll give you an answer then.”

She couldn’t tell Haru that it was Phoenix who told her about this, there was something more to Phoenix than just a monster. “I… I got a scroll from that White Garuda from the White Wizard. It told me about what was going to happen.”

Haru tilted his head slightly, but then shrugged it off. “I can see that. I’m a little surprised that the Garuda didn’t go find me. Oh well.”

Twilight sighed under her breath, “I just hope that Rarity makes the right decision with this, it’s her life we’re talking about.”

“At the same token, it’s her dream as well,” Haru pointed out throwing his arms behind his head.

“I know this show is important to Rarity,” Twilight answered back.

“Twilight, have you ever experienced loss?” Haru asked, looking towards the sky.

“Excuse me?” Twilight questioned. “Haru, everypony has lost something.”

“Yes, but did you ever lose your chance at a dream?” Haru retorted with his gaze still aimed at the sky. “From what you told me, you got your dream of becoming the student of Celestia when you were a filly, but you almost didn’t thanks to that… What was it again?”

“It was a large explosion that shocked me,” Twilight replied.

“Right, right,” Haru coughed out. “But imagine if that didn’t happen. Imagine if you never were spooked enough to tap into your magic, and that you’d never be accepted into Celestia’s school. That was a big step in your life Twilight, and this show is Rarity’s big step, and it’s actually in her hooves to decide this and she may not get a chance like this again.”

“But it could put everypony in danger,” Twilight countered back. “That includes Rarity herself!”

“And I hope that she doesn’t go through with this either,” Haru sighed with a shake of his head. “I’d rather not put her at risk at the hands of Phantoms, but it’s her choice. Kosuke and myself will be there, and I’ll respect her choice on this matter.”

Twilight opened her mouth but then closed it, Haru was right on this matter. It was Rarity’s choice, and while she didn’t want the show to go on, it was very important to Rarity.

But that just lit a fire in Twilight’s heart. “Fine, if Rarity does go through with this though, it won’t just be you and Kosuke, Haru. All of Rarity’s friends will be there.”

“Oh, I know that,” Haru replied with his claws lifted up. “After all, Dash and AJ are strong enough to go toe to toe with Phantoms, you’re pretty powerful with magic, Pinkie Pie is… Pinkie Pie. And Fluttershy can freeze a dragon and Phoenix in their tracks.”

“Woo! We’ve got our own personal army of friendship!”

Both Twilight and Haru turned around to see a certain griffon walking up behind them, a large grocery bag wrapped around in his tail. Haru’s eyes rolled, “Really? You had to go there, Mayonnaise?”

“Hey, is that how you treat your rival?” Kosuke chuckled. “Don’t forget that this bird can flip you the bird.”

“Flip the bird?” Twilight questioned. “What does that mean?”

“Oh, it’s just something that can be done with the right equipment,” Kosuke replied as he wagged his talons up. “Sorry Twilight, but this is something that only those with fingers, talons, and claws can do.”

Kosuke had a smirk on his face, but Haru elbowed the griffon in the side of the neck, making the griffon cough out and smile meekly, “Uh, n-no offense of course! Sides, it’s, uh, it’s something that a mare of your high caliber wouldn’t want to know.”

“Now I want to know even more,” Twilight replied as she stepped towards the griffon.

“Yes, well, Twilight,” Haru coughed out as he wrapped an arm around Kouske’s neck. “Us armored mages have a bit to talk about, so come along, bird brain!”

And like that, Kosuke was dragged off with Twilight shaking her head at the two mages, ‘Do they really think that I don’t know what ‘flipping the bird’ means? I studied griffon culture after Gilda appeared.’

TTT – TTT

Day slowly melted to night as Beautiful Blossom walked into a large cave outside of Ponyville, the same cave where the Akuma Clan laid. As her hooves clacked against the stairs, her body became engulfed in purple aura that transformed her into the Phantom known as Medusa. It wasn’t long till she reached the resting chamber where a large shadowed figure stood before the three stone coffins.

Medusa knelt down with her head lowered, “Master, I have arrived as you requested for a report.”

The shadowed figure didn’t turn his head, “Medusa… Are the plans ready?”

Medusa kept her head lowered down and nodded, “Wolzard and the two phantoms are ready to strike when that fashion show is about to take place.”

The shadowed figured chuckled as his shoulders bounded up and down. “Excellent, soon our plans will reach fruition. With one pawn ready, we must prepare the others.”

“If I may be bold, Master,” Medusa sounded out, her voice a little shaken. “I… I trust you fully, Master, but, is this not going against our plans? Is this not going against our original plans?”

“Medusa,” The shadowed figure finally spun around and walked towards the snake phantom. He knelt down and placed a hand beneath her chin, having her look him right in the eyes – His bright red eyes. “Your worries are noted, and know that without your strategic mind, your power, and your… Command over other Phantoms… These plans of ours wouldn’t work right now.

“I cannot reveal my plans since we have only acquired the first of many pawns, but once our second pawn has been claimed, then I will dispel the fog around my plans to you.

“And only you. You are the only one I trust.”

A small shade of pink appeared on Medusa’s cheeks, “You… You grace me with too much praise, Master. I’m not…”

“You are,” The shadowed figure replied as he stood up. “Should I fall, you are the only one I trust to continue the Liberation of Phantoms. You are a fine leader, and I would be honored for you to take the mantle should I fall.”

Medusa didn’t say anything to that, but stood up and bowed her head, “I… I shall not disappoint you, Master!”

And with that, Medusa spun about and gracefully ran out of the cave with the shadowed figure lifting his hand up, revealing a small ring with a blue jewel embedded in it. “Oh, I know. All for the greater good of Phantoms, Equestria shall fall by the hooves of those who saved it.”

TBC

Spell One - The Tale and Rings

Please…

Allow me to tell you a tale.

Thousands of years ago, when the land, sea and sky were still at its foundations, and the cities were still young - There were once two powerful beings of the mystic arts, known throughout the lands as the two wizards.

They were considered to be the best of the best when it came to magic - And although they were rivals, they were also the best of friends. It was their very competition that drove them to be the masters of the arts. Their skills in the mystic arts were used to right any wrongs, aided those who were in need of their powers, and became teachers to many.

One day, however, the leader of one of the villages the two wizards traveled to could only afford one of their services to help their village. Seeking the best, the leader requested both prove which one was truly the one who could aid the leader and his village.

The two wizards worked hard to prove themselves, but ultimately the one that was chosen was given the title as the White Wizard – Given said title for curing many villagers from countless injuries and illnesses.

The other wizard, known as the Wise One, was happy with his friend's success - but time drew on, and while his friend the White Wizard gained more and more jobs due to his talent and reputation. That happiness grew to envy, and then grew to jealously

The Wise One eventually decided to show that his skills were the best, and decided to perform a spell that was not done before, and even his companion the White Wizard dared not to attempt.

To return life to where it was lost.

Countless hours were poured into his research, pushed his capabilities to the limit in order to draw upon the very essence of origin… When the time came, the Wise One put his magic to the ultimate test.

His magic and skill, while impressive and his resolve as strong as steel, the Wise One aimed to revive one who was close to him. It was not enough and tragedy struck, and the life he tried to save was lost. But was all was not in vain, for a new kind of creature had life breathed into it.

The Wise One dubbed the new entity with a name that fitted it’s origin…
Phantom.

The Wise One saw the potential in his creation, devoting his studies into creating more Phantoms, even using the magic for leaders of the villages across the land to protect their homes.

Word reached the White Wizard, and he became happy with his friend’s success. But, when he discovered the process of how his friend was crafting the Phantoms, the White Wizard knew that his comrade had truly become, and confronted the Wise One.

The two’s friendship was broken at that very instant.

The skies darkened as the two masters of magic battled each other, the fight lasted for ages – Light VS Dark, the land shook with each blow that was struck.

The two fought for years upon years, and the two slowly faded to the pages of history... The traces of the two crumbled with dust as a new world order was being created.

For the result of this mighty battle…

TTTTTT

Friendship is Showtime

Spell One

The Tale and Rings

TTTTTTTT

Before the rest of the story could be finished, a purple hoof closed the book that held the story within its pages. “Hmmmmm, the Two Wizards. It certainly was an interesting story… I wonder if there’s any truth to this story. I don’t remember there being any mention of these two Wizards before in my studies.

“Maybe I should do some more research? This could be the start of a new form of magic!”

“But Twilight, isn’t this story just a fairy tale?”

“Well, yes, but remember, you said the same thing about Nightmare Moon. There’s always a hint of truth behind any tale.”

“But doesn’t that stop you from enjoying the story, trying to overthink things?”

“Yes, but…”

“And didn’t we come here to see if there were new books to add to the library?”

“I suppose so…”

“And it’s not like you read this story before and…”

“Spike!”

Twilight Sparkle sighed as she rolled her eyes at her small, dragon assistant. He was helpful alright, but every once in a while things she didn’t see eye to eye with him. Unlike her assistant, Twilight was a unicorn.

She was a young, lavender mare with an indigo mane that had a streaks of purple and pink going down her mane. Poking out from the moderately and well groomed mane was a short horn, signifying that she was no regular pony – Rather, she was a unicorn. Thanks to that horn, Twilight was able to use magic and it explained how she was making the book she was just reading to float around her and Spike.

Spike on the other hand was a dragon, a baby dragon, but a fire-breather non-the-less with purple scales, green rounded spines that ran down his head, back and short tail, and a green underbelly.

The two were the newest residents of a town known to one and all as Ponyville, a prosperous town filled with earth ponies, pegasai and unicorns all living their lives normally. With the occasional, rare, near-catastrophic events that could possibly ruin the lives of many.

But those were rare occurrences.

Currently, the young unicorn prodigy and her number one assistant were going through the wares at a traveling shop called ‘Harietta Hoofdini’s Traveling Books and Show’ – As the name suggested, it was large carriage that had a number of bookshelves placed outside, each lined with a good number of books. The shop itself was set up just near the outskirts of Ponyville, and the store itself only had Twilight and Spike as the only customers.

“Find anything good, Miss?”

Both Twilight and Spike turned to see one of the only two employees at the traveling shop trot up to them – A young mare with a warm smile on her face. The mare in question was a bright yellow earth pony with short feathered white mane that waved with every trot she took. The mark on her flank was rather weird, a pair of purple feathered wings that were stretched out prepared to take flight. “If you need anything, please feel to ask me.”

“Thanks,” Twilight replied as she levitated the book that she and Spike were looking through atop of some other books. “I’m really surprised that you have books that our library doesn’t have.”

“That shouldn’t be a surprise,” the mare laughed slightly as she trotted around the unicorn and dragon. “We travel a lot and get our hands on various goods – Books from across the sea, books from long ago, even books that are in some dead language. I think some people called it French.”

“It must be nice to travel around,” Twilight stated watching as Spike was looking through a few other books that were on the shelves. “Seeing the places that most of these books are written about must be exciting.”

“Yes, but it gets tiresome sometimes,” the mare sighed as she leered over to the edge of the movable store’s area. “Especially when the rest of the help is either lazing about or ditching on their chores.

Twilight followed the mare’s gaze – seeing that near the bookshelves was another pony in the immediate area, a colt from the size of the pony. The colt was a rather large, sea-green earth pony who had a short, curly black mane, who seemed to just be lazing about in the warm, late afternoon sun. His mark was rather unusual just like the mare’s, on his back legs there seemed to be an outline of a bull’s head with the horns having more focus on them. “Family?”

“No, just someone who’s a friend,” the mare sighed again with her head lowered. “At least he’s here. The other two just disappear when the sun raises.”

Feeling a little uncomfortable with the conversation, Twilight turned back to the book that she was reading, “So, where’d you get this book? I’ve never even heard of this tale before.”

“Which one?” The mare questioned before she looked at the book in question. “Ah, the Lost Tales of the Phantoms, I remember reading this a long time ago. Hard to believe that this could’ve been a true story.”

“Phantoms, and two great wizards?” Twilight giggled slightly. “While it sounds like a fairy tale, this world is full of things we don’t understand. You never know in this world, and there are a lot of different opinions on what could’ve happened so long ago in this land.”

“I suppose so, but the ideas are rather hard to swallow,” the mare admitted with a slight blush on her face. “Still hard to believe there are other forms of magic in the world than what those fancy horns you unicorns have can do.”

Twilight had to agree there, but being a student of royalty and having practically read every book in the best of libraries of the kingdom – Learning of other powerful users of magic, such as Star Swirl the Bearded and their contributions in the world of magic were astounding. Still, nothing about the White Wizard or the Wise One came to her mind than what she had just read.

“So, anything you’re looking for in particular?” The mare asked again, getting Twilight away from her thoughts.

“Well, there are a few things here that would be great additions to the library here,” Twilight admitted with a sheepish smile on her face. “But, I just came across your store without many bits to use.”

“Well, don’t worry about that,” the mare cheerfully said with a nod. “We’ll have our little shop here for a while. We almost didn’t come here with that whole eternal night fiasco my crew and I heard about a few weeks ago.

“Huh, thinking about it, I guess that was a fairy tale that turned out to be true as well.”

Twilight smiled innocently, as the memories of the legendary Nightmare Moon encounter popped up back into her head, although, the Mare in the Moon was now Princess Luna. “Yeah, it was a little bit of an… Experience.”

“I would guess so,” The mare stated. “But anyway, if you’re interested, a couple of days from now, we’re going to be putting on a show for the little ones at the school. Feel free to come by and watch, its sure to be nice for the kids. And I’m sure your little friend will enjoy it too.”

Twilight smiled back, “Thanks, we’ll keep that in mind. Um, do you think you can hold onto some books for me? Like some of the same nature as the one I was reading.”

“The Lost Tales of the Phantoms? Of course! Anything for a fellow literature lover!”

“Thanks,” Twilight added before she turned. “Ready to go, Spike?”

…

“Spike?”

With a twist, Twilight saw that Spike was near the end of the row of shelves, his eyes drawn to the top of the shelves. “Spike? Are you okay?”

The baby dragon didn’t answer, so instead Twilight followed her young scribe’s line of sight to the air above the bookshelves – And she immediately saw what had attracted her (foster) brother’s attention. Flying small circles over the bookshelves was what appeared to be a small bird, but the bird itself seemed to be made up of ruby with silver metallic trim around it’s main body.

The ruby bird chirped a few times, as if taunting the little dragon before it flew off. Spike slumped his shoulders and sighed loudly, “Aw, it got scared away.”

“That was a weird creature,” Twilight stated looking down at Spike. “I never saw a bird like that before… I wonder if it’s a legendary creature or something.”

“It was made of ruby,” Spike said with a lick of his chops. “I could tell that it was real good quality too! Oh, Twilight! Can you get it with your magic?!”

“Spike, I’m not going to catch an innocent creature for you to just eat it up,” Twilight replied as she walked past the young dragon. “Now come on, we’ve got to get back home and…”

“But come on Twilight, I wasn’t gonna eat the little guy,” Spike begged with large puppy dog eyes. “I just wanted to see if it was really made outta ruby.”

“And what would you do if it was?” Twilight asked raising her brow slightly.

“Um, keep it as a pet?” Spike replied, not looking Twilight in the eyes. “I’d take real good care of it!”

Twilight kept her gaze focused on the small dragon. “Spike…”

“Oh, but come on Twilight!” Spike moaned with a sad look plastered all over his face. “I can’t even remember the last time I got my claws on jewels that well! It was so… So… Shiny and… And…”

Twilight sighed as she looked up into the air, trying to look for the bird in question, but it must’ve obviously flown away. The bird itself was something that the unicorn had never seen before, not even in her studies… Maybe she just skipped something while reading her books.

With the story about the two Wizards and even this weird creature that she saw, the urge for research began to swell up within the young mare’s mind.

This gave her an excuse to go through her literature once more!

“Spike, we’ll have to get you some jewels when we get back home,” Twilight said as she trotted off with Spike following her. “I promise.”

“Really?! Yes! Can we get some rubies? Just like that bird’s?”

“We’ll have to see if we’ve got some lying about when we get home.”

The clerk of the outdoors store smiled as she watched the two customers walk away, a little sullen that she didn’t make a sale at that moment, but smiled nonetheless. When the young mare and her dragon scribe were out of sight, the mare clerk walked up to her sleeping co-worker and tapped him a few times with her hoof. “Hey, get up.”

The large colt yawned loudly as he lifted his head up slightly, a little annoyed that his mid-afternoon nap was just interrupted.

The mare smiled, “It’s time for you to get your flank in gear and get to work.”

With a slight grumble, the colt got to his hooves, “Imma going. Sometimes I wonder why I do this.”

TTTTTTT

The sun had almost set, the sky above a rich and lovely amber when both Twilight and Spike got back to their home – Which was the local library of Ponyville, the Golden Oaks Library… An odd thought that the library was being used as residential home, and that the town didn’t see the problem with such an arrangement.

Twilight herself was already getting absorbed into her studies, having gotten into one of the books in the library that focused on odd creatures – After all, a bird made up of rubies was an actual oddity that would garner anyone’s attention, not just a dragon’s.

Speaking of dragons, Spike was just getting comfortable on the second floor of the library-turned-home, a little disappointed. Sure, Twilight did have a few jewels in the building for the young dragon to feast on, but the thoughts of the practically living jewel danced around in Spike’s head.

Such a fine color.

The shine.

And it was within claws reach of the young dragon…

Just even thinking about the living jewel was enough to make Spike lick his lips. He could almost even sense that the jeweled bird was nearby… But that was impossible.

What were the odds that Spike would see such a magnificent… Tantalizing… Shiny creature like that again?

TINK!

“Huh?”

TINK TINK!

Spike’s attention was drawn to the nearby window – Where his eyes widen in pure bliss.

Tapping against the window was the very creature that was haunting Spike’s mind – The living ruby bird!

It was if the small creature was trying to call out to Spike, to tell him something.

Quickly opening the window, Spike was practically drooling at this point at the beautiful bird, “Hey there little guy! What’s the saying – You’re just cute enough to eat.”

The bird chirped louder with its wings flapping wildly, almost as if he was trying to get Spike’s attention.

Too bad Spike could only just admire the ruby-like texture of the flying creature before him, “Ah, almost as beautiful as Rarity… Almost though.”

The ruby bird rolled its eyes before it used its beak to point down… Too bad its beauty was completely distracting Spike from its action. “Ya know, how about you come on in here? You must be tired from flapping those…”

Spike had to take a moment to wipe his mouth, those ruby wings were really starting to make his mouth water, “Wings… Come on in and I’ll give you a tour! We’ll start with the kitchen!”

If it’s wings weren’t the only thing keeping the ruby bird from falling to the ground, it would’ve slapped its forehead. So using its wings to fly up a little higher, the bird used its weight to make Spike look down out of the window. “Huh?”

Now that his line of sight was brought down to outside the hallowed out tree he called home, Spike saw a small group of… Well, he didn’t know what they were.

There were four of the ‘creatures’ that were stationed outside the house seemingly conversing through grunts and such. The ‘creatures’ were over twice Spike’s height and seemed to be made out of cracked stone that had small streams of gold veins racing across their bodies. Atop of the ‘creatures’ heads were a pair of red horns, and they stood on their hind legs like he did. And they had hands!

Hands with five fingers.

That’s just weird.

“Uh, Twi?” Spike called out as he slowly pulled his head back inside…

However, one of the ‘creatures’ had heard Spike, and signaled the other ‘creatures’ of the dragon’s presence. Without a second thought, one of the creatures jumped up to the window, surprising the young dragon, “AAAH!”

Spike’s yelp echoed throughout the library, breaking even Twilight’s focus on her studies. Normally, when Spike cried out like that, it was usually due to the fact that he had taken too many books and slipped over something to have the books fall atop of him. “Spike? Are you okay?”

Once Twilight had reached where Spike was, she realized there was no mess of books (save for the pile of books that she had pulled out for herself) and no baby dragon in sight. “Spike? Spike!? Where are you?”

A few loud chirps are what caught the young unicorn’s attention towards the second floor window, seeing the very same ruby bird that the two saw a bit earlier – Trying to get its balance as it was flying just outside of the home. Quickly getting to the window, Twilight watched as the bird flew away and saw the four strange creatures walking away into the plains outside Ponyville, with one of them carrying Spike by the tail as he struggled to get away.

“What the?” Twilight gasped at the group of weird creatures. “Spike!”

While Twilight rushed to her scribe’s aid, the little ruby bird that tried to warn Spike flew off at top speed.

TTTTTTT

Yards away from the Golden Oaks Library, in a random tree in the town, a rather curious figure sat atop one of the branches – Holding up what appeared to be a doughnut up in his clawed hands to the setting sun in the distance, admiring both of them before he took a large bite from the doughnut, “Hmm, I’ll give this place one thing, the donuts here are top notch.”

Just as the mysterious figure was about to take a second bite out from the powder sugared treat, something landed on his shoulders. A small, tired smile popped on his face, “Oh, Garuda, you’re back pretty quick. I take it that means you found them?”

The small ruby bird chirped happily as the shadowed figure sighed loudly, “Oh well.”

Fitting the partially eaten doughnut into a bag that was placed on the same branch he sat on, the mysterious figure lifted up his right hand – Allowing the light to gleam off a mysterious right that was on his middle finger. “Guess I’ll have to hold off on these. Time to get to work…”

Hovering his hand over his waist, the ring on his finger and the rather odd belt buckle that was at his waist glowed brightly, “CONNECT – PLEASE!”

Beneath the shadowed figure’s feet, a large red circle materialized in the middle of the air, with several runic symbols spinning through the mysterious rune. The mysterious figure nodded towards Garuda, “Mind leading the way?”

The ruby bird dove into the red runic circle, with the shadowed figure dropping into the circle immediately after.

As soon as he was fully enveloped into circle, the runes disappeared as quickly as they came.

TTTTTT

Normally, in a situation like this, Twilight knew that she should’ve gotten other ponies to help her – But there wasn’t time to get help. Especially if she could easily follow Spike and those…

Those things that had taken him. Whatever those things were, they seemed to be quick on their feet, even though the young unicorn could see them in the distance, they had lead her pretty far from Ponyville, to the point where there was barely anything around save for a few trees around the near flat stretch of land.

‘Just what are those things?’ Twilight thought to herself as she galloped quickly, trying to close the gap between her and the stone-like creatures. ‘First that weird bird and then these things – Is there a connection? No, I can’t think about that right now, I need to save Spike!’

That’s when Twilight realized that the group of ‘things’ had stopped moving not too far ahead – just standing near some trees. With her determination to save her friend, Twilight moved faster with her horn charging with magic.

When she got closer, Twilight saw that one of the four… Things held Spike by the tail, the young dragon struggling to break free, but the stone-like creature was holding the young dragon far enough from its jagged body so that he couldn’t make even a scratch.

“Spike!” Twilight called out as she stopped a couple of feet away from the small group of stone beings.

Spike and his captors looked to see Twilight standing not too far from them, Spike waved his arms wildly, “Twilight! Help! These guys are creeping me out!”

“Don’t worry Spike!” Twilight replied confidently as she pointed her horn at the four. “A simple teleportation spell will do the trick!”

“Then don’t talk about it, do it!” Spike yelped out.

The light covering Twilight’s horn grew brighter before the energy from it warped from her and flew towards the captive dragon. But before the light could even reach her young scribe, it just dwindled into nothing, and even the light that was emanating from her horn was dwindling as well. “W-What? What happened to my magic?!”

“Anything you try will be useless, my fair little mare,” A ragged voice sounded out from behind Twilight.

That very voice seemed to send chills down Twilight’s spine, accompanied by many diabolic groans… And the large shadow that eclipsed her form only added to the cold grip of fear that was engulfing her, and with the sun slowly setting, it made the shadow longer and more intimidating.

The young unicorn slowly craned her neck back to see the very owner of that shadow tower over her. The being in question was similar to the creature known as a minotaur, and while she had never seen a minotaur with her own eyes, she knew enough that those imposing creatures didn’t have skin that looked similar to armor, a bright sea-blue color with pale, jagged shoulder pads, gold streaks over its muscles, and even its daunting face was fully armored. Even its two long horns that stuck out from its head were covered in segmented armor.

And it was a huge monster, almost as tall as some of the nearby trees and it was a mass of hulking muscle. But the worst thing about the creature was that it wasn’t alone.

More of the mysterious creatures, the same ones that had taken Spike, were standing behind the minotaur. The only difference was that these creatures were wielding odd, rusty spears, each of them seemingly prepared for a battle, or worse.

The minotaur growled as he (from what Twilight could gather, the monster’s voice sounded male) took another step forward. “Go right ahead, little mare. Why not try another spell? Test the futility of your situation.”

Instinctively, Twilight took a step back from the large minotaur, which didn’t go unnoticed by the monster. “What’s wrong? I would’ve expected more from an elite unicorn. Or are you ready to surrender to despair?”

The Minotaur slowly began to reach out for the scared pony.

BANG!

A high pitched whistling shattered the tension in the air, and before several red forces of light crashed into the Minotaur’s horn and a number of the stone-like creatures, including the one that was holding Spike hostage. Simultaneously, the stone creatures fell to the ground with the one that held onto Spike dropped the dragon – While the Minotaur’s left horn broke off of his body and the broken off piece flew into one of the nearby trees. “ARRGGH!!!”

“Here’s a little tip,” A calm voice called out. “Now’s the chance to run.”

Not even hesitating for a second, Twilight quickly galloped to Spike, threw the baby dragon on her back and immediately turned tail, dashing as fast as she could. Some of the stone-like creatures that were knocked over tried to grab the two as they dashed by. However, whenever they got close to grabbing them, another red burst of energy crashed into the stone monsters, allowing Twilight and Spike to get past the monsters.

Once they got past the monsters, there was another on the scene, one who merely stood far away, with the setting sun to his back and his own shadow covering his features. When the two got closer, the glare from the sun wasn’t as harsh and the two could see the individual in question...

“DAMN YOU!”

But with the Minotaur getting back to his feet, along with the stone creatures, Twilight turned back to see the leader of the monsters holding up its right hand – Calling forth several flames over its hand, “BURN!!”

The Minotaur threw the flames, and Twilight used whatever strength she had to gallop faster, aware that the flames were drawing closer.

“FLAME! PLEASE!”

But the flames never reached Twilight or Spike, with a loud crash followed by a loud chime, Twilight skidded to a halt and turned to see that the flames themselves were being drawn into a large, red, runic circle.

Next to the flame absorbing circle was the one who had saved the studious unicorn and her young scribe – A weird individual dressed in in a black suit with coat tails and silver trim. The weird individual stood on his hind legs, with a fully covered tail sticking out from between the coattails. He had a pair of metallic black and silver shoulder pads that had what appeared to be a dragon-like symbols embedded in the silver. His head was covered with a silver helmet that had a ring like design to it. In the mysterious masked person’s right hand was a weird silver device, one that Twilight had never seen before while his left hand was before the large circle.

As the last of the flames were drawn into the circle, the mysterious masked individual turned around to Twilight, revealing that his mask, chest and the bands at his wrists and ankles were covered with glossy, jewel-like armor that gleamed in the setting sun’s light. His mask had silver around the red jewel, even signifying where his eyes were and had a pair of small fin-like/antennae protrusions with a yellow jewel at the forehead. And around the individual’s waist was a large bulky silver belt that had a hand (with five fingers no-less) embroidered on it.

The masked individual sighed and turned back to see the Minotaur and the stone creatures seemed to hesitate. The minotaur growled as he slammed his fist into his hand, “You! It can’t be. You’re Wizard?!”

‘Wizard?’ Twilight thought.

“It’s…” The masked individual stated as he lifted his left hand up, showing off the large red ring that was on his middle finger. “Showtime.”

Casually, the mysteriously dressed character walked forward, spinning the odd silver object in his hand.

The damaged Minotaur lifted its hands up and pointed towards the odd stranger, “GHULS! Destroy that Wizard! Then we’ll get the Gate!”

The Ghuls, as they were called, dashed forward, the ones with the spears leading the charge. All of the stone monsters headed towards the calm Wizard. The first three Ghuls leapt towards the masked individual, but with a calm and swift lift of his arm, the Wizard pointed the weird device in his hand. Immediately, he fired three concentrated blasts of red energy, sending the monsters flying back with sparks erupting from their bodies.

One of the other Ghuls took a swipe at the Wizard with its spear, but with a quick duck and spin, the Wizard dodged and leapt up into the air as another Ghul swept its spear low to get him, missing by a hair. While in the air, the Wizard spun around and flung his foot into that very same Ghul, slamming it into the ground.

Other Ghuls began to enclose around the Wizard, when he landed on the ground one of the unarmed Ghuls rushed him, only to receive a roundhouse kick to the chest. Using the momentum from the kick he delivered, the Wizard propelled himself through the air to send the heel of his foot into the shoulder of another Ghul, forcing the stone creature to the ground.

When he landed on the ground once more, five of the spear armed Ghuls began to charge once more, but with the same calm demeanor he had throughout this fight, the Wizard merely pointed the weird device at the closest three and fired three more rounds that forced the stony creatures back.

One of the remaining five Ghuls took a swipe at Wizard, only to miss as the black clothed hero spun alongside the monster, while the fifth Ghul took the opportunity to slam the side of its spear at the side of the Wizard’s head… Only to have the spear caught by the Wizard’s free hand. Then, quickly, the Wizard pointed the weird silver device up and unleashed a volley of red blasts to the Ghul’s stomach, sending the creature flying through the air.

All the while, Twilight and Spike watched the sight before them, with mixed reactions.

“WOW! THAT’S SO COOL!” Spike yelled out, his eyes gleaming brightly.

‘What… What in the world is this guy?’ Twilight thought to herself as the Wizard sighed loudly.

Aware of their fallen comrades, the recovered Ghuls rushed towards the Wizard, their spears raised up and their monstrous cries echoing through the air.

With a snap and unlock, the weird device in the Wizard’s hand began to unfold until it straightened and took on the qualities of a sword. Now with his weapon transformed, the Wizard dashed towards the recovered Ghuls, and with several clean swipes of his blade, followed up with a spin, mowed through the stone monsters, sending them off to the side.

“ARGGGH!!”

The Wizard lifted his head up to see that the Minotaur, now armed with an axe, was dropping from the sky. Sidestepping to dodge, the Wizard jumped over the wildly charging Minotaur in order to dodge the wild attacks. The Wizard landed amongst the Ghuls, slashing and defending with the weird sword he used, even using one of the Ghuls as a makeshift shield to block the wide swipe of the Minotaur’s axe.

More of the Ghuls stepped in front of the Minotaur who growled loudly in annoyance, the Ghuls then charged forward while the Minotaur rested its axe on its armored shoulder and began to walk away. “This is far from over.”

As much as he wanted to chase after the fleeing Minotaur, the Wizard still had the small army of Ghuls surrounding him and trying to end him. “Please don’t get in the way.”

With a quick low sweep kick, the Wizard knocked over a number of the Ghuls down, forcing the remaining Ghuls to stagger back so they wouldn’t fall over either.

This was the opening that the Wizard needed, and folding up his sword back into the original form, the Wizard revealed the closed hand symbol on the side of the item. With his left hand he quickly moved the thumb on the device, opening the hand. “C’mon Shooting! Shake Hands!”

And even when the Ghuls were back on their feet and began to charge the Wizard, he simply grabbed the device’s hand with a large flame appearing at the end of it. “FLAME! Shooting Strike!

“Hii Hii Hii! Hii Hii Hii!”

And with a quick spin, the Wizard unleashed several flames from the device, all of them crashing into the Ghuls. The same red runic circle appeared in front of each of the Ghuls before they erupted into several fiery explosions, with the flames completely covering the Wizard.

As the flames died down, the Wizard stood there, spinning the gun as the fire began to fully disappear. “And with that, the curtain falls.”

The masked Wizard tilted his head slightly at the question…

TBC

Author's Note

MangaKamen: Greetings one and all – I am MangaKamen, and this is my first fiction here. I have to say, I was looking forward to posting this for a while now – But you all may be asking “Why post a story like this for your first?”

…

-shrugs- I dunno. I just thought the two fandoms would be good together, but I guess that’s not for me to judge, but you for you guys. I don’t own the two franchises, the characters or whatever. I should point out, I’m a fan of both series, and you never know what goofy ideas or what other faces you’ll see here.

On a side note, I should point out that this story happens after the episode three, also known as ‘The Ticket Master’. Just wanted to give you guys a little bit of hindsight where this story is starting out, so yeah, you can follow along with what’s going on. Although, now that I think about it, I will be swapping some of the episodes, but season-wise, everything will happen in its canon season.

And with that…

It’s… Showtime.

Intermission 3 - Answers - PLEASE

I just wanted to grant his wish. That’s all.
- Kintaros / Kamen Rider Den-O (Axe Form)

TTTTTT

Intermission 3

Answers – PLEASE

TTTTTT

The masked being lifted up the tea cup to his mask and actually drank it through his bejeweled mask, “Nothing like a spot of tea to soothe the nerves.”

“W-Who are you?” Twilight asked as Spike kept next to her.

The White Wizard placed his tea cup on the arm of the couch and placed his hands together. “Shiroi Mahotsukai – The White Wizard. And I am here to speak to you, Miss Twilight Sparkle.”

White Wizard waved his right hand up, revealing a familiar looking ring on his finger. “I am here to bestow my knowledge to you.”

Silence filled the library as Twilight and Spike stared down the White Wizard before them. The white mage tilted his head slightly as he waved his left hand. “PSYCHOKINSSIS – NOW!”

The broken remains of Haru’s Wizard helmet flew from Twilight’s back and immediately drew towards White Wizard’s open hand. “How intriguing – To think that his inner Phantom would be able to destroy a lesser Phantom imbued with a Greater Phantom’s mana. He has grown faster than I expected.”

Then with a roll of his wrist, White Wizard made the helmet float over to the horse head wood carving that Twilight had put up for decoration in the room. Twilight shook her head and trotted towards the white robed being, “Why here?”

“Hmm?” White Wizard questioned with his arms crossed. “Well, I would’ve crashed on Mary Marvel’s couch, but Darkseid already laid claim there.”

“Wait, what?” Twilight replied drawing her head back in confusion.

White Wizard cleared his throat and waved his right hand a few times, “Sorry, I thought that joke would be relevant and cheer you up after your ordeal.”

“I got the joke,” Spike replied with a bright smile on his face. “I didn’t think anypony else read the comics in here.”

Twilight sighed loudly as she rolled her eyes, comics weren’t something often read, but since Spike liked them she had ordered them and had them in a specific wing of the library. With a shake of her head, the unicorn trotted to White Wizard, “You said White Wizard, are you the same White Wizard in the Lost Tales of the Phantoms?”

The ring on White Wizard’s left hand flashed, changing the ring on his finger, then with a wave of his hand a golden runic circle popped in front of him. “CONNECT – NOW!”

The White Wizard reached into the circle and pulled his arm out to pull out a copy of the very book that Twilight had named. The rune disappeared, and Wizard held out the book towards Twilight, “Here, have a first edition, signed copy. I was informed that you enjoy reading.”

Blinking a few times, Twilight used her magic to take the book from the White Wizard, “Someone told you about me? Who?”

“Excellent questions,” White Wizard replied as he crossed his arms. “Inquisitive, I like that. However, I do not have too much time to stay here, and I must inform you of many things. Please, enjoy some tea that your young scribe made for me while I tell you the information.”

“Can I stay and listen?” Spike questioned as he held up a cup of tea to Twilight.

“Of course,” White Wizard answered as he held up his own teacup. “I wouldn’t have it any other way – As Twilight’s number one assistant, you deserve to know what I am about to tell.”

A moment passed as White Wizard took another sip of tea through his mask and gingerly placed the teacup on the decorative plate. “I’ll start this off with a simple question Miss Sparkle, what was one of the biggest signs that signified the return of Nightmare Moon?”

With the teacup on the floor, Twilight tilted her head at White Wizard. “There were a number of signs, the alignment of the stars was one, but one of the most major ones was the day of dark sun – A solar eclipse that blocked the sun for an hour. I remember when it happened, a number of ponies were shocked at it happening, and it was then that I devoted the time into studying the moon and why it occurred.

“During my studies I came across the tale and I figured that the Mare in the Moon was responsible as a Solar Eclipse was one of the signs of her return.”

“Really? I thought it was because you got obsessive over an old mare’s tale,” Spike pointed out with a little smirk on his face. That earned him a little leer from Twilight.

White Wizard chuckled slightly as he locked his fingers, “Quite so Twilight, I am impressed that you can remember an event that occurred over eight months ago. Yes, a solar eclipse was one of the major signs of Nightmare Moon.”

“But what does that have to do with anything?” Twilight questioned. “And are you the same White Wizard in the story?”

“The day of the solar eclipse,” White Wizard sighed as he turned his head. “That was the day that this nightmare was reawakened – That was the day that many Phantoms were born.”

Twilight reeled back slightly. “Wait, Haru mentioned that Phantoms were born from despair when another Phantom was present when a pony was exposed to despair – But how would those Phantoms be born from a solar eclipse?”

“As there are many forms of magic in this world,” White Wizard replied as the ring on his left finger glowed brightly, transforming the ring once more. “There are many ways for darkness to appear and take shape in this domain. In the Lost Tales of the Phantoms, it is written that the Wise One created the first Phantom… However, it neglected to tell the process of how the Phantom was brought into this world.

“This was before the Sun and Moon were guided by Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, when the sun and moon were divined by a single being. But even then, the being needed to have the moon and sun coincide once in a great while in order to restore control over both celestial bodies.

“When the solar eclipse was performed, a surge of magic would be released and imbue the land with mana as well as empower the being who controlled both the sun and moon. However, on the day that the solar eclipse, the mana that was produced was used to create the very first Phantom many years ago. Unfortunately, that is all I know about how the first Phantom was born.

“However, when the signs of Nightmare Moon’s began to appear, a being saw its chance and prepared for the solar eclipse.”

With a wave of his hand, a window of light began to materialize to the White Wizard’s side. The window flashed with light until an image of a rocky waterfront appeared in the window. On the shore there were a number of ponies – Earth ponies, pegasai, and even unicorns – but there were other sentient creatures that Twilight read about in books or had seen. There were a few griffons, a diamond dog, a zebra or two, satyrs and even a regular minotaur.

“Whatever darkness was behind this,” White Wizard explained as he kept his hand up. “It gathered a great number of sentient beings to a secluded location. And when the eclipse occurred, it began the ritual what most of the Phantoms referred to as the Sabbath.”

On the window, the sun above the large group was beginning to be blocked by the moon itself, plunging the shore with darkness. Of course, that didn’t last long as dark purple energy erupted from the earth at their large groups’ feet.

The dark energy traveled up their bodies, causing them all to scream – Although, there was no noise generated by the window, but the looks of pure pain and terror that were drawn to their faces were enough to make Twilight and Spike assume the worst. White Wizard cleared his throat as the beings felled to the ground as the dark energy cracked even more of the creatures’ bodies. “You may turn away if you wish.”

Spike closed and covered his eyes, but Twilight kept her eyes on the magical window – Which now displayed a chestnut colored stallion with a messy coal black mane with multiple cracks over his body. The stallion threw his head up as his body shattered like glass with many purple flames cascading from the new being that stood up tall in the stallion’s place. The being’s body was overshadowed, but was tall with beak-like shoulder pads now on its humanoid-shaped body.

More of the beings’ bodies began to follow suit, transforming into various monstrous forms – A few looked familiar: Minotaur, Gnome and Djinn, all of which stretched their new bodies and sauntered off. Other Phantoms continued to shed their original forms and began to walk away from the ritual area.

White Wizard nodded his head, “The Sabbath – A day of rest, or in these poor souls’ cases, the final rest for them. I tried to find the location where the ritual was taking place, but nopony can be everywhere at all time. If it wasn’t for the mass of mana that surged through the air, I wouldn’t have found this scene.”

The window shifted once more to a higher shot, showing that most of the Phantoms had cast off their original forms, or were removing the remains. “At the same time, from this darkness of despair, I found a single spark of hope.”

There was but one remaining pony amongst the wandering away Phantoms, a stallion who’s body was cracking with a pair of large, dragonic wings ripping out of his back and a dragon-like tail had replaced his regular tail. The stallion struggled to lift his head up and tried reaching towards the blocked out sun, the magical cracks trailing up his front hoof. “This young stallion was able to control the Phantom within him with only his will. While the Phantom was awakened, he still contains the monster within.”

Twilight tilted her head slightly at the image, leaning closer towards the stallion in the window. “A Phantom within… But, if this stallion was the only one who was able to survive this ritual. A stallion who’s name was…”

TTTTTT

Harpie, worse for wear in even her regular pony form, had Minotaur’s charred and wounded form slung over her body. After the four ponies had left the wounded Phantom, Harpie had returned in her pony form to pull Minotaur from the impacted area, still having the strength to pull the large phantom from the ground. However, due to Minotaur’s rage and swatting her away, one of her wings as a Phantom was damaged enough that she couldn’t fly with Minotaur in tow.

So, dragging him back to the Everfree Woods was the best option she had, and after a long journey to keep the two Phantoms from being seen, she reached the clearing where this whole incident had begun. When she did, Harpie dropped her Phantom companion to the ground, “Hellhound! Where are you?”

“H-Harpie?” Hellhound gulped as he slowly emerged from the bushes nearby, his eyes wide and his body shaking slightly. “I… I see you’re back. Is, is Minotaur okay?”

The pony disguised Phantom blinked a few times at Hellhound’s odd behavior and trotted towards her fellow disguised Phantom. “Hellhound, what’s wrong? You didn’t follow me, you’re actually showing concern, and you’re shaking. What in Tartarus is wrong with you?”

“Fear…”

Harpie’s ears perked up when that voice sounded from behind her, and when a bright light surged from behind her and made her turn back to Minotaur, seeing a fiery figure stand next to the fallen Minotaur, even going so far as to have his foot atop of Minotaur’s chest. The being in question cackled as he lifted up one of his hands, a powerful flame erupting around his fist, “It resides in the hearts of all living creatures, dwelling deep within them silent, waiting like an unlit fuse to explosives.

“But all it takes is a single spark to make that fear absorb an entire being’s existence. The fear of death, the fear of the unknown, the fear of failure – It matters not what form it takes – Fear follows anybody like their shadow.”

The fiery being tossed the fire up and down in his hand a few times. “What do you call something that even monsters fear? What is a name that is tied to fear? What makes even the most diabolical of nightmares pale in comparison?”

Harpie trotted backwards, trying to put more distance between her and the fiery being “M-Master Phoenix!?!”

The being sighed loudly as he pulled his foot from Minotaur’s back and stepped into the moonlight, the flames from his body slowly disappearing to reveal himself. He was tall, sleek, covered in shiny red armor with gold trim and lines on it. At his broad shoulders were a pair of golden shoulder pads that were beak-shaped while at his helmeted head were red, wing-like protrusions that stuck out from both sides of his helmet. “Hehehahahaha, to see that look upon your face, it sends shivers down my own spine. And I’m glad you remember my name, you poor excuses of Phantoms.”

“W-Why are you here?” Harpie asked, gulping down her own fear at the same time.

“Why?” Phoenix asked as he lifted his arms up into the air. “Because somepony tasks me! He tasks me and I shall have him. Round the moon of Equestria, I chuckle at thee! Beyond the corpulent clouds, I chuckle more at thee! Revenge is a dish best served with pinto beans and muffins!

“Kirk! Old friend I… Wait… What am I saying!?”

Both Hellhound and Harpie looked to each other before Phoenix cleared his throat, “Sorry about that, I tend to go overboard with those kinds of things. But that doesn’t mean that the first part of what I said isn’t relevant – A while back, some flank thought it was a good idea to anger me by stealing one of my special feathers.

“I don’t take kindly to flanks who think they can steal from me and get away with it!”

Several flames erupted from Phoenix’s back for a moment, making both of the other Phantoms lean closer to each other, trying to protect each other from the rage that Phoenix was displaying. Taking a deep breath, Phoenix turned his attention towards the knocked out Minotaur, “Originally, I tracked the thief here, and much to my surprise, I found this flank here with a very familiar ability when I was coming here. I should end his pathetic existence right here and now!”

To illustrate his point, Phoenix threw his right hand to the side, creating a large flame at his fingertips – the flames changing into a large wing-hilted broadsword. With a spin of his wrist, Phoenix held his broadsword at Minotaur’s neck. “It doesn’t take a genius to figure this one out!”

“No! Stop!” Harpie cried out as he galloped towards Phoenix.

The fiery Phantom cackled loudly before he made his broadsword disappear in a flutter of sparks, making Harpie skid to a stop. “Oh, I wouldn’t do that – Not yet anyway. I’m not interested in this little thief anymore.

“Yes, my eyes are only drawn to the Mage that I saw beat this guy down! And damn it, I want a crack at him so badly!”

“Wait, what?” Harpie questioned tilting her head.

Phoenix laughed as he turned his back to Harpie and looked to the moon hanging in the night’s sky, slowly he lifted his hand up towards the moon and curled his fingers slightly. “Stronger than before. Powered up for more. Phantoms at the core! Higher I can soar! I’m fired up for more! This ring mage evens up the score!

“I can’t explain it, but ever since I took my first steps as a Phantom, there’s been a void in my very soul – A void that’s been filled temporarily whenever I fight against some of the deadliest of creatures that our master has me face off against – Hydras, Tartarus Hounds, Ursa Majors… Tartarus! I’ve even fought against full grown dragons!

“But this Mage… Ooh! This mage! I’ve never felt so excited! If he can defeat a lower classed Phantom who was given a mere taste of my power, just imagine the fight we could have if we ever clashed!”

Harpie shuddered at the thought.

Phoenix turned his head back towards the disguised Phantom and lifted his hand up towards her, “But in order for that fight to happen, I must give him a proper reason to fight, and from what I heard, he has a tendency to protect those he cares about… A bleeding heart, how appropriate.

“In order for me to make him give his all, I’ll push this entire land to the edge of despair if I have to! And your group is gonna help me pull this off! I may be one of the most feared Phantoms in all of Equestria, but that’s just it, I’m only one Phantom.

“So, I’m gonna say this, either your group helps me, or a certain member of your group will become dust in the wind. And looking at the poor sucker, he doesn’t seem to possess my feather anymore.”

Harpie turned back to Hellhound, who was still frozen in fear of the Phantom before the two of them. When she nodded towards him, Hellhound lowered his head, with Harpie doing the same a few moments later. Phoenix cackled as he clasped his hands together with flames erupting from between his fingertips. “Ah, soon, my blade shall soon taste blood!”

Above the clearing was a familiar, green pegasus seated atop of a cloud with a large smile planted on his face. “Oooh! I didn’t think that he’d actually follow me to Ponyville, but, I guess this’ll just double the fun! Hehehehehehehee!

“Let’s see, I’ve wrecked about ten percent of Ponyville, made the resident Phantoms paranoid, made the Ring Mage attack his friends, and I’ve even managed to bring one of the higher ups here! And all I did was pluck a single molting feather.

“Now that’s convenience!”

TTTTTTT

“Haruto Souma?” Twilight muttered as the magical window that White Wizard created flashed brightly, showing that after the solar eclipse had passed, the entire coast was devoid of almost any living being with several scraps of black ashes floating about the area. “But, there wasn’t a dragon there and…”

“How can a pony become a dragon?” Spike asked with his head tilted up.

“You’d be surprised what magic lays within this world,” White Wizard replied with his other hand lifted up. “I’ve seen a carp swim up a waterfall to a gate at the top, and when it did, it emerged as a serpentine dragon once it passed the gate. If a fish can become a marvelous being like that…”

The window’s image shifted, panning the coastline to reveal a familiar, sleek, red dragon laying on the ground. The dragon stirred a few times before he began to push himself off of the rocky shore. “Then a dragon can be born from within a pony. Anything is possible in this world – a princess trapped within the moon itself, a deity of chaos trapped within stone, monstrous beings escaping from within a living creature, and even more mysteries to this world – the possibilities are endless, Miss Sparkle.”

The dragon stood up straight, shakily trying to gather his balance as he realized that he was on his hind legs and had claws. The dragon stumbled back in surprise and fell back to the ground with a look of pure fear strew upon his face.

That face.

It was a face that Twilight and Spike knew all too well – After all, it was the same face they saw every morning over the past few weeks in the morning and at night. Those blue eyes and those black spines that resembled a hair style, the only thing that was different was the look of pure terror and surprise that was plastered on his scaly face.

Twilight sighed as she looked down at the ground, “So, Haru is… Or was…”

“Yes, a pony,” White Wizard answered with a nod of his head. “Please continue watching.”

The young unicorn lifted her head up and watched as another scaled figure slowly walked up from behind the still freaked out Haru. Slowly, the red dragon turned his head around to see that what stood behind him was a green and white scale-armored monster whose armor was similar to what some Ponympian warriors used to wear, Twilight had remembered seeing it in some of her text books. The monster’s face was fully armored save for a large red jewel in the middle of its upper forehead.

“A Phantom,” Twilight gasped with her hooves to her mouth.

The Haru on the screen reacted pretty much the same way as the scaled Phantom lifted up its hand and leapt from the rocks. However, before the Phantom got too close, a golden, runic circle appeared in front of it and propelled the Phantom through the air.

Haru turned his head, and the window panned to show that the White Wizard was standing a few yards away from where the young dragon was. With that, the window disappeared, with the White Wizard waving his free hand about, “I regret not showing up in time to stop the Sabbath. So many lives ended, so many monsters created, those lost lives I will bear for the rest of my days.

“But I am not here to drown you in my self-pity Miss Sparkle and Scribe Spike. I came to share my apprentice’s origin with you, when the Sabbath occurred, his life was taken from him in another manner. Now he walks Equestria in that form, quite possibly for the rest of his days.”

“Is being a dragon so bad?” Spike questioned with his eyes narrowed.

White Wizard chuckled as he stood up from the couch and walked past the two librarians, his arms folded behind him, “Of course it isn’t. But from Haruto Souma’s perspective, his life has forever changed – Even though he caged the Phantom within him by his own will, the damage was done to his body. The Phantom had awakened enough to transform his body into the Wizard that you know.”

“It’s just so unbelievable,” Twilight stated as she trotted behind the tall, mysterious mage. “I never heard of anypony being transformed into completely different species before.”

“Indeed, but you must have found it odd,” White Wizard replied, keeping his back to the unicorn and dragon. “Dragons do not possess cutie marks, yet Haruto Souma has one. Albeit, it changed the moment I trained him in the ways of magic, as his new talent had emerged.”

“Once again, you’re talking the impossible,” Twilight stated as she trotted in front of White Wizard. “Once a cutie mark has been discovered, nothing can change it!”

“And once again, I say that the impossible isn’t as impossible as one thinks,” White Wizard answered as he knelt down to look Twilight in the eyes. “You’ve seen creatures that should only exist in nightmares appear before you, even attack you and your friends. You just watched as many creatures become those very nightmares. However, I didn’t come here to argue the laws of nature with you.”

White Wizard lifted his right hand to his chest and lowered his head, “Rather, I came to ask that you forgive my student for his actions.”

“T-That’s not necessary,” Twilight replied, a little taken back by the regal wizard suddenly bowing down towards her. “I… I know that it wasn’t Haru who went berserk, it was the Phantom within him that did – Dragon.”

“Wait, what happened?” Spike asked as he walked up to Twilight.

“Spike, I’ll tell you later,” Twilight muttered under her breath, her throat was still burning slightly from where Haru… No, where Dragon had grabbed her.

“Twilight, please,” Spike pleaded. “If something bad happened, I have to know!”

Before Spike could continue pleading for an answer, a gloved hand was placed atop of his head, making the dragon to turn to the White Wizard who looked at him. “Please young scribe, Miss Sparkle will explain what happened immediately after I have finished my business here. I have nearly finished, so please trust in your foster sister.”

For some reason, Spike just looked into the orange jeweled mask and nodded towards the magical being. White Wizard stood up and pulled his hand back, “Thank you, noble dragon. Miss Sparkle, I hope that you understand a little more about your friend Haruto Souma.”

“Yes, but why did you tell us this?” Twilight questioned as she lifted a hoof up towards the White Wizard. “Haru already told me and a few of my friends that he had a Phantom inside of him, and I could’ve easily figured that it wasn’t him in control. So why tell us this?”

“Haruto Souma considers himself a light of hope,” White Wizard answered as he lifted his right hand up into the air once more, the ring glowing brightly. “And it is true that he is, but even a small flame such as his cannot withstand the mass of darkness that the Phantoms have unleashed. Even hope cannot stand alone.

“Truth, Compassion, Joy, Charity, Faithfulness and Mysticism – Hope may be necessary, but without those attributes, hope cannot survive in the face of true evil. Twilight Sparkle, you have witnessed the power that Hope can perform, and you have experienced what the other six attributes are capable of.

“I ask that you keep Haruto Souma on this path of hope, for when combined with the attributes, a miracle shall awaken.”

“CONNECT – NOW!”

The golden runic circle popped in front of White Wizard and he reached into it with both of his arms. When he pulled his arms out of the circle, the Wizard revealed that in his arms were three, rather nicely gift-wrapped boxes. White Wizard placed all three of them on the floor before Twilight and Spike, and then he bowed slightly, “Here, these are gifts for you, your scribe, and my apprentice – You may open them at your leisure.

“I must ask that you keep my apprentice’s gift with you, knowing how this world works, then your paths shall cross again. Open it if you wish.”

Before Twilight could question the White Wizard’s reasoning, Spike’s eyes gleamed brightly as he quickly found his gift, the largest amongst the three presents and quickly tore into it. Wrapping paper flew through the air and surprised Twilight. “Spike! We’ve got company!”

“It’s quite alright,” White Wizard replied with a wave of his hand. “Where I originate from, it’s tradition for a guest to give his hosts a present, it respects the home and the hosts. Normally, it’s just little trinkets or food, so I decided to get him a…”

“EMERALD!” Spike cried out with joy as he held up a large, shiny emerald in his claws, licking his chops.

“Well, yes,” White Wizard replied with a slight chuckle as he watched Spike lick the emerald. “I apologize for not giving them when I first appeared, but there were other details that needed to be taken care of immediately.”

“But, you’ve just made more questions than answers,” Twilight stated with her eyes narrowed slightly at the mysterious mage. “Like why did you showed up here out of the blue? Why didn’t you help Haru with the Phantom? And how do you know so much about me and Spike?”

“If all the answers to life were handed to us,” White Wizard replied as the ring on his finger glowed brightly. “Then no one would grow, life would be dull, and this world would grow smaller with every passing second. I cannot give you all the answers Miss Sparkle, rather, that is for you all to decipher and I can merely give you the tools necessary to find the right path.

“It is the same for my apprentice, what he does with this gift or curse is up to him. As a great mind once said – ‘Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.’ It is how my apprentice shall learn, it is how he shall grow, and with you and your friends, you all shall grow alongside him.”

“TELEPORT – NOW!”

A familiar runic circle appeared at the White Wizard’s feet, and began to slowly rise. As it did, the mage’s body slowly disappeared as the runic circle passed his body. The White Wizard bowed towards Twilight and Spike, “Well, it has been a pleasure Miss Sparkle, but I must be off. Spike, thank you for the tea, we must do it again sometime in the future.”

“Wait!” Twilight called out as the circle reached up to the White Wizard’s waist. “Why even bother telling me about Haru’s past if you’re not going to tell me everything?!”

“Because,” White Wizard replied with a finger brought up to the mouth of his mask. “I owe Lady Celestia a few favors, and I can cross this one off of the list.”

“Wait, what?!?” Both Twilight and Spike questioned as the rune quickly reached the top of White Wizard’s chest.

With a wave of his hand, the weird mage nodded towards the two before the rune completely engulfed him. “Ta ta! Cheerio! Pip pip!”

And with that, the White Wizard disappeared from the library’s lobby, leaving Twilight slightly dumbfounded and Spike a little confused, but shrugged it off and nibbled on the emerald he just got. Twilight blinked a few times before she rolled her eyes. “I… I don’t… It’s too late for this sort of thing.”

Spike didn’t say a word, rather just munched on the emerald. The young unicorn turned her attention to the gifts that the weird mage left behind.

Using her magic, Twilight brought the two remaining gifts to her and tilted her head slightly as she looked at them. The smaller of the two presents was placed on the nearby table as it was labeled ‘Haruto Souma’, still using her magic though, Twilight unwrapped the other present to reveal another book. This book was leather bound with a familiar symbol etched into the cover – The same symbol that the White Wizard’s magic created whenever he used it. ‘A tome? What is this?’

Twilight opened the book, with the pages turning revealing that most of the pages in the tome were blank – Save for the first page. ‘This is a spell! Could this be a spell book?’

However, before Twilight could even work with the spell, the unicorn shook her head – Fatigue was starting to rear its ugly head over her. Using her magic to place the book on the table, Twilight trotted over to Spike who had managed to finish off half of the emerald. “Spike, you may want to save the rest of that for tomorrow.”

Spike actually burped slightly as he licked his chops of the emerald dust at his mouth. “Awe… But it’s sooooooooooooo tasty! Can’t I have a little more?”

Twilight smiled at her dragon scribe, “It’s getting late, and I need to tell you a few things of my own Spike.”

TTTTTTT

Meanwhile, at one of the nearby mountains, still wearing the ragged Wizard outfit over his form, Haru leaned against one of the many trees with tears streaming from his eyes. The red dragon held up his gloved claws, taking note that they were shaking with every breath he took. “W-Why?”

‘Because I am awakening…’

Haru shook his head before he buried his face in his claws, “Shut up! Shut up!”

‘My voice shall not be silenced, Haruto Souma. I am your inner despair, and I shall be freed!’

“N-No!” Haru shouted into the night. “I’ve managed to keep you at bay so far and I…”

‘Your will is cracked… It is only a matter of time before you shall share the same fate.’

Then realization struck Haru as he lifted his head up, his eyes narrowed down, “… No, I won’t let you have your way, Dragon. I won’t let you hurt the friends I’ve made…”

‘Bold words, but that’s all they are. We’ll see how long you’ll last… Haruto Souma. Your hope will not last forever.’

Haru didn’t say another word as the Wizard suit slowly faded from his body, exposing his scaly body to the cold night’s air. ‘… I’ve gotten used to sleeping indoors. I need to change that again, I have to, for their sakes.’

TBC

Author's Note

MangaKamen: ... Yeah, I'm updating once a week now, but here we are... We finally get some answers! Enjoy everyone!

Intermission 4 - Average Day in Ponyville

It’s fun to add a secret flavor so that no one knows. But… It’s more fun to find it.

-Tendoh Souji / Kamen Rider Kabuto

TTTTTTTT

Intermission 4

Average Day in Ponyville

TTTTTTT

It was a battle for the ages, neither side showed signs of backing down from each other.

Their eyes narrowed down at each other as the flames within their pupils grew more intense with every passing second. The two beings ignored the world around them as they focused on their battle.

“Uh, Fluttershy? Are you sure it’s okay to leave them like that?”

“Oh, Mister Haru, it’ll be alright. It’s just a friendly little staring contest.”

Staring contest?

Yes.

Friendly?

Not even close.

There was some sort of tension between Garuda, the flying, ruby familiar and Angel, the spoiled, little fluffball, so much so they had a nasty little glare going on between each other. Whether one party had insulted the other first, or it was a natural hatred that the two had, Fluttershy didn’t seem to notice the intensity between the two.

“Whatever you say Fluttershy,” Haru muttered under his breath. “But, anyway, thanks again for the work. Twilight told me that you usually have to take care of a number of animals, so I decided to offer my services.”

“And I appreciate that Mister Haru,” Fluttershy stated, smiling warmly at the tall red dragon. That smile turned sheepishly slightly as her gaze turned away from the magical dragon. “Oh, b-but I can’t pay you much, Mister Haru, I’m sorry.”

The dragon shrugged his shoulders before he threw his claws behind his head, “No need to apologize Fluttershy, I came to help because I wanted to help. That’s what friends do for each other.”

The warm smile quickly reappeared back on Fluttershy’s face before she continued to lead the dragon around her house. Haru followed the pegasus mare about the forested area, “So, what kind of animals are we talking about here? Rabbits? Birds?”

“Oh, you’ll see,” Fluttershy answered cheerfully.

When the two reached the other side of Fluttershy’s house, the dragon had to rub his eyes at the sight of all the animals that were residing at the cottage’s backyard – Of course there were animals that Haru expected to see, like rabbits, ferrets, various birds and other furry/feathered little critters. But the usual magical dragon wasn’t expecting things like flamingos, a hippopotamus, and if his eyes weren’t deceiving him at the moment, Haru was pretty sure he was looking at a lion and a bear in the corner of the backyard.

‘How in Kida’s name does Fluttershy take care of all these animals by herself?!’ Haru thought to himself with his arms slumped and his face slightly scrunched up into a bewildered look. ‘And how does she not get eaten in the process?’

“Mister Haru, can I ask a favor?” Fluttershy requested, pulling Haru from his thoughts. “I don’t want my animals spooked, so, c-could you refrain from doing that hen… Hen… um, that thing you do to get into that suit of yours?”

With a slight chuckle, Haru removed both rings he had on his claws and pocketed them into his jacket, “You mean ‘henshin’? That won’t be a problem Fluttershy, I don’t need to use magic to help me.

“I just have one request, you don’t need to call me ‘Mister’, I’m not that old you know.”

“Oh, I-I am so s-sorry, Mister Haru,” Fluttershy yelped with a blush on her face.

Haru just sighed under his breath.

TTTTTTT

Dear Twilight Sparkle,

I am so glad that you are experiencing so many different lessons and meeting new ponies from different walks of life, and I hope to hear more of these ponies that you meet. Just be aware, not everypony walks the same path and has many different experiences tied to them.

On a side note, enclosed with this letter is one of the few pieces of literature that pertains to the title that you wrote in your last letter – ‘Kamen Rider’. One of the royal guards who patrol the library informed me that this particular piece of literature is very old and very rare, and it must be handled with the greatest of care.

With loving care,

Princess Celestia

P.S.

This piece of literature has been requested to return to the shelves by many members of the royal guard, so please be sure to have this returned to the palace by the beginning of next week.

Twilight eyed the odd letter as she used her magic to lift up the book that came with the letter, ‘Is Princess Celestia being serious here? It’s an old nanga!’

Indeed, the book in question was a foreign comic book from Neighpon that was translated for other countries in Equestria to read. But, when she looked at the large comic book, Twilight shook her head at the image of a masked pony mounted atop of the same sort of vehicle that Haru used commonly, with several creative monsters appearing in the corners of the cover image.

Using her magic to place the book on the nearby table, Twilight sighed to herself, ‘Mr. Hino was the one who first used that term, so maybe he’s just a fan of this... ‘literature’, and just wanted to give himself that title of a superhero. Haru never used that title before Mr. Hino said that to him…’

Thinking of the boxer obsessed zebra brought back the crazy events of the previous few days from the back of her mind – meeting Zecora, the Poison Joke (she made sure to keep an eye out for those plants, she wasn’t interested in experiencing that again), the odd conglomeration of monsters in the Everfree Forest, and the clean up that followed after said events.

Twilight didn’t realize that there were so many jewels were actually stolen by that Gamecock Yummy thing (she learned the name of the creature from Mr. Hino after he and Haru had returned the jewels to their proper owners).

That just prompted another sigh from the lavender unicorn’s mouth before she sat down at the table in the library’s center. ‘Phantoms, Ghouls, Greeed, Yummy… What other sorts of odd creatures reside in Equestria?’

With that thought rolling around in her head, Twilight used her magic to levitate a quill pen from the bottle of ink on the table and began writing down some notes on some blank papers she had on the table. Aside from her self-monologue and the sound of the pen quill scratching against the paper, there were no other sounds in the entire library.

She was all alone… Well, save for Uni the Blue Unicorn Familiar who had brought the aspiring student a cup of tea balanced on it long, sapphire horn. “Thank you very much Uni.”

The familiar unicorn neighed before she leapt from the table and walked away. One of the few things that Haru told Twilight about the familiars was that they didn’t really have a set gender, although technically they were alive in his opinion. In her observations of the familiars, Twilight discovered that they all had their own personalities.

Kenny the Topaz Kraken was a bit of a prankster, but loved having fun with Apple Bloom, and acted like a little filly as well.

Garuda (the one familiar that Haru seemed to like keeping by his side most of the time) was regal, kind of snobbish, and had a lot of pride. Not to mention he liked to tease Spike most of the time, so Twilight concluded he was a noble, if not snobbish, bird.

Uni the Sapphire Unicorn seemed to be kindest of the three familiars, even seemed to be the most proper as well. Twilight didn’t know if Uni had the regular magical capabilities of an actual unicorn, but acted like some mares that Twilight remembered in her academy days – Prim and proper.

Twilight’s thoughts were interrupted when a rasp knock at the door drew her attention from the table. “Coming!”

Quickly making her way to the door, Twilight pushed open the door to see a familiar, pure white mare was standing in the doorway, adjusting her marvelous blue mane with her hoof. “Ah, Twilight, I knew I’d find you here.”

“Good afternoon Rarity,” Twilight replied as she stepped back from the doorway to allow her sophisticated friend inside the library. “What brings you here?”

“Oh, just thought I’d stop by and see how you’re doing today,” Rarity answered as she looked around the library, taking in every sight around. “No offense dear, but it’s simply a crime to be stuck inside on a beautiful day like today. Even I decided to close my boutique so I could enjoy the sun shining in the sky, it’s simply not healthy for a young pony to be closed indoors all the time.”

Twilight sheepishly laughed at Rarity’s comment, and she did have to admit, it was a beautiful day out. “You’re right Rarity, but I do have some work I need to get done, and I would prefer to do it when Haru and Spike aren’t here.”

“Speaking of our fine scaled fellows,” Rarity stated before she turned back to Twilight. “Where are they?”

“Well, I sent Spike out on some errands,” Twilight answered, noticing that Uni was trotting into the room with a second cup of tea that she was bringing to Rarity. “And Haru’s working at Fluttershy’s today, helping her take care of her animals.”

Rarity had seen the small, sapphire familiar approaching her and used her magic to levitate the cup from Uni, although, while the pristine unicorn did so, her eyes widened when she heard Twilight. “Really? Darling, are you sure that was wise?”

“Huh? Why do you say that?” Twilight asked with her head tilted slightly.

“It’s just that Fluttershy’s animals aren’t the friendliest to strange ponies,” Rarity explained before she took a sip of tea. She took a second to enjoy the flavor before the young mare continued. “I can only imagine how they’d take to a dragon, after all, it took a while for Fluttershy to get used to Mister Souma.”

“What’s the worst that could happen?” Twilight replied with a smile on her face. “Besides, Haru has his magic, so once again, what’s the worst that can happen?”

TTTTTTT

“Nice bear, good bear, you don’t wanna tear me apart now,” Haru chuckled sheepishly at the large shadow that loomed over him.

The overshadowed bear roared loudly, making Haru lift his arms up defensively. “AAAAH!”

TTTTT

“So, if you don’t mind me asking, Twilight,” Rarity stated as she looked at the table in the library’s lobby. “What is so important that you can’t have our scaled friends here to aid you?”

“Well, I guess I can tell you,” Twilight answered as she used her magic to lift up a few pieces of paper. “I’m working on a bestiary to send to Princess Celestia.”

“A bestiary?” Rarity questioned as she brought a well-hooficured hoof to her chin. “Pardon me Twilight, but I’m not familiar with the term bestiary.”

“Well, I’m just compiling data about the Phantoms and other such odd creatures,” Twilight stated as she focused her magic on a number of papers, shifting them about until she came to one in particular. “I wanted to compile a list of the Phantoms that have appeared in Ponyville, as well as what they were capable of, and send it to the Princess when I was finished with what I got.”

Finding the paper that she was searching for, Twilight levitated it in front of Rarity to show the fellow unicorn the ink drawing on it with dabs of information on it. Almost immediately, Rarity scoffed at the drawing, “Oh, that one. What was his name again? I tend to forget those who are just rude.”

“Phoenix,” Twilight answered as she pulled the drawing back, revealing that it was a rather crude, yet strangely cute version of the dreaded fire Phantom.

“Right, he was a brute,” Rarity sighed as she turned away from the drawing. “But, enough about him, I suppose with the last few weeks being filled with atrocities, I can see the reason why it would be good to catalogue these ‘Phantoms’.”

Rarity took this opportunity to look at the other drawings that were on the table, grimacing slightly at them, “I must say, they are quite dreadful.”

“If I recall,” Twilight muttered as she trotted up next to her friend. “You only saw a couple of Phantoms, Phoenix and that strange one in front of the Everfree Forest.”

Rarity didn’t answer quickly as her attention was drawn to the drawings in front of her, when she realized that Twilight was talking, the fashionista shook her head. “O-Oh! Right, right, well, darling, if I recall, there was that big one that occurred on ‘that’ day.”

Twilight smiled sheepishly, she guessed that Rarity was a little sensitive about her mane getting turned green by Trixie. “You mean the Minotaur Phantom? I guess it would’ve been hard for anypony to miss him during that, he was almost as big as some of the buildings in Canterlot.”

“Indeed,” Rarity replied as she used her own magic to lift up some of the papers up until she found one. “Ah, here’s the one. But, dear, I think you have the coloring of this one mixed up. It may have been dark, but I’m certain that this one was red and yellow.”

“Oh, well, that wasn’t the first time this Phantom showed up in Ponyville,” the lavender unicorn answered as she watched Uni the Unicorn jump atop of the wooden horse head statue she had on the table, balancing atop of it. “It was after that whole ticket fiasco, in fact, it was the first Phantom I saw.”

Rarity sipped her tea once more as she took a seat on the floor. “I believe that was when you first met, Mister Souma, correct?”

Twilight nodded, “Yes, and it was also the first time I saw his magic.”

“Would you mind telling me about that encounter?” Rarity requested as she levitated the teacup to the table. “I don’t believe that Mister Souma or you were ever truly clear about that chance encounter.”

The studious unicorn tilted her head slightly with her brow raised slightly at her friend, “Rarity, I don’t mind telling you about it, but why the sudden interest?”

“Oh Twilight, dear sweet, young Twilight,” Rarity sighed as her muzzle curled slightly into a bright smile and her eyes softened. “Do you not realize it yet?”

“R-Realize what?” Twilight questioned.

“Why, how you lived out a scene from a romance novel,” Rarity answered slyly.

It took a moment for that to sink into Twilight’s mind. “W-WHAT!?!”

That yell had enough force behind it to make Uni stumble off of the horse head wood carving and crash into the floor near Twilight.

“Think about it darling,” Rarity began to explain as she used her magic to swirl what remaining tea was left in the cup. “A young mare coming face to face with an odd, and obviously dangerous, monster bent on hurting not only you but someone you care about – When suddenly, a masked stallion comes along with the falling sun at his back and saves the mare in distress. Sure, it’s a bit clichéd, but still, it has the marks of romanticism in it.”

“B-But, Haru’s not a stallion!” Twilight blurted out with a blush appearing on her face. “Besides! Haru helps anypony being targeted by a Phantom!”

“True,” Rarity conceded. “But then again Twilight, Mister Souma does live here with you and Spike.”

“I-I’m just trying to learn more about his magic, and this was a compromise with him!” Twilight defended, turning her gaze away from her friend’s.

“Perhaps,” Rarity snickered. “But remember Twilight, wasn’t you who informed us that Haru wasn’t originally a dragon? He was a stallion who was transformed into a dragon, correct?”

“I… I…” Twilight stumbled with her words. “W-Where did this come from!?”

“Well, I’ll admit, I’m just a little curious Twilight,” Rarity answered as she helped Uni back to her sapphire hooves. “After all, Mister Souma has been the model of a gentlestallion, why, just the other day he found the jewels that were stolen from me. He also does have a knack for style, at least most of the time.

“Besides, he hardly talks about himself, and as I said, he lives here with you and Spike, so logically, the two of you should know the most about him.”

By Faust’s name, Twilight needed something to break this extremely odd conversation…

And Twilight’s prayer were answered when several playful knocks echoed through the library, drawing both mares’ attentions towards the door. And Twilight couldn’t move faster to the door even if she became a pegasus that very instant. “C-Coming!”

Twilight quickly opened the door…

“Hello! Hehehehehehee…”

TTTTTTT

Normally, anypony would be bored to death on a slow work day in any established business, especially when the owners were out delivering sweets and baked goods to a number of ponies in town.

That only applied to the average pony, and as anyone knows, Pinkie Pie wasn’t your average pony in any regard.

Trotting around the lobby of Sugarcube Corner, Pinkie Pie was doing her usual cheerful cleaning routine with her bubblegum pink tail wrapped around a broom handle as she swept the floors. As she did the rather mundane task, a song was being hummed out from the mare’s mouth.

Almost any task, no matter how soul-crushingly boring, was no match for Pinkie’s endless supply of cheerfulness. She was able to find fun out of almost anything.

But then something happened.

Something that Pinkie Pie didn’t expect to happen, although, she rarely expected this sort of thing to happen… At least when she wasn’t stealing the transcripts to this story!

“Excuse me, Mister Disembodied Voice Narrator,” Pinkie Pie chimed as she looked up to the ceiling.

Huh? Great, she’s breaking the fourth wall again!

“Well, technically,” Pinkie Pie stated as she rubbed her chin with her hoof. “You broke the fourth wall first.”

… Say what now?

“Yeah, I just wanted to let you know that,” Pinkie Pie answered with a warm smile on her face. “So, can we get back to the story? I’m excited to find out what happens next! What happens next?!”

*… sigh* Where was I?

Right.

It was then that Pinkie’s entire body began to shudder, shaking the broom free from her tail and making her voice quiver as she realized what was happening to her now. “O-O-OOH! I-I S-S-SENSE A D-D-D-DIST-URB-ANCE IN-IN TH-THE PINK-PINKIE FO-FORCE!!”

And just like that, the quivering stopped and Pinkie just stood in the middle of the room as if nothing had happened. Her mouth slowly curled up before she began to bounce about, “Ooh! Something big’s gonna happen! Ooh! Ooh! I can’t wait for what it is!! Maybe I’ll get to see a giant mechanical dinosaur rise from the ground while a green dragon plays a magical dagger flute?!”

“Oi…”

“Or maybe, maybe… Maybe I’ll find an ancient puzzle from a pyramid that’ll make my mane star shaped and I’ll become really, really, really, REALLY good at playing filly’s card game?! And maybe get me an outfit with chains and leather, that really sounds Super Special Awesome!”

“What? Uh, hey, Pinkie…”

“Nah, I don’t think I have that many mane colors to pull that one off,” Pinkie muttered to herself as she rubbed her chin. “Maybe I’ll be meeting a weird pair of characters – A vampire who has a deep insatiable hankering for sardines with a tsundere werewolf follower? Ooh! And maybe I’ll meet some penguins that say ‘dood’ all the time!! That’d be amazing!”

“… Talkin’ penguins? Who thinks of that stuff?”

“Waitwaitwaitwait!” Pinkie exclaimed as she jumped into the air. “I got it! I’ll probably be finding a black cat with a red scarf around its neck, but secretly it’s actually a ghost cat that can go back in time to save anypony from a terrible fate! I’d love to make a friend like that!”

“… Somepony’s had more than enough coffee for a lifetime…”

“Oh, don’t be silly,” Pinkie Pie replied as she turned towards the one who made the comment. “I don’t drink coffee, too bitter… Unless somepony pours tons and tons of sugar in it!”

“Wait, how long did you know I was here?”

Pinkie smiled brightly at the new face in front of her, “Oh, ever since you trotted through the front door. I just wanted to see how long till you said something silly.”

Standing before Pinkie Pie was an older pegasus stallion with a messy black mane and tail with yellow tips to both and had red fur covering his body. His rather tired looking face had a bit of stubble to it, and his torso had a large baggy red vest covering his body, with the sides slit open to reveal his wings. From where Pinkie was standing, she was clearly able to see his cutie mark – a fiery red wing that had an oddly familiar sword behind it.

The stallion rolled his blue eyes with a sigh, “Yeah, yeah, whatever. You guys open? I need something in my stomach, and I’m not in the mood for dealing with snooty waiters.”

“Yuppers! Of course we’re open!” Pinkie replied as she bounced around the new pony. “But before that… OHMYGOSH! OHMYGOSH! A NEW PONY! A NEW PONY! You must be a new pony in town cause I know everypony in town, and I don’t know you! And if I don’t know you, then that must mean that you’re new! So what’s your name? C’mon tell me, tell me, tell me! Once I know your name then… Wait, you look familiar, do I know you?”

The black pegasus rolled his blue eyes again, “I just came in for some food, so can I just drop some bits and get something in my stomach.”

“Okey-dokey-lokie!” Pinkie Pie replied as she happily trotted towards the other side of the counter. “What would ya like, Mister?”

The dark pegasus lowered his head down and looked through the glass to peer at the sugary treats inside. The pegasus licked his chops, “Heh, gotta say all this looks tasty. And after what I had to deal with, some of this stuff is mouthwatering.”

“Well, you know what they say,” Pinkie Pie cheerfully stated as she used her hoof to slide the door to the display. “Stressed spelled backwards is desserts. Coincidence? I think not!”

The pegasus perked his head up with a smirk on his face, “And there are only two kinds of ponies in the Equestria: Those that love chocolate and communists!”

“What’s a communist?” Pinkie Pie asked after she pulled out a slice of chocolate cake from the display.

“Meh, something that doesn’t exist anymore,” the pegasus replied as he used one of his wings to sweep up the piece of cake off the counter. Then as quickly as he swept the piece up in his wings, the pegasus had taken a bite from the confectionary. “Hmm! Not bad! Not bad at all!”

When the pegasus turned back to Pinkie Pie, his eyes dulled when he saw that the pink mare in front of him had a large smile on her face. “Uh… W-What are you doing?”

“You smiled!” Pinkie squealed with joy with her own smile on her face.

Slowly chewing the mass of chocolate and frosting, the pegasus rolled his eyes for the third time in the last ten minutes. “Yeah? What’s’ your point?”

“Aw, there’s need to be like that,” Pinkie Pie replied as she bounced from behind the counter and got alongside the pegasus. “It’s always good to have a smile on your face! Besides, weren’t we just sharing a love of chocolate?”

The pegasus sighed under his breath before he tossed the remainder of the cake into his mouth and he quickly swallowed the treat. “What do I owe ya for the cake?”

“Oh, not much,” Pinkie replied, the smile not leaving her face. “Just your name!”

“Huh?” The pegasus questioned with his eyes widening. “What?!”

“Yup! Just your name!” Pinkie Pie replied. “I mean, you’re a new pony in town and that means I don’t know your name, if I don’t know your name, I won’t know what to call you the next time I see you! I also wouldn’t be able to write your name on the cake for your welcome to Ponyville party! That reminds me, do you want a chocolate cake? What sort of party games do you want to have at your party? I like pin the tail on the pony personally, but what’s your favorite game? Do you wanna play a game right now? How about a guessing game! Can I guess your name, new pony?”

The pegasus was taken back by the sudden surge of questions from the super energized earth pony before him.

And Pinkie took advantage of his stunned nature and observed the pegasus, “Hmmm, Black Snooty? Nope, you’re not a mare. Sword Wing? That’s an odd name, even by pony standards. Hmmm, ya know, you kinda remind me of somepony I met not too long ago, then again, he wasn’t a pony, he was something called a Phantom and he was really mean, and a bit of a bully. But he was also kind of funny too, but still he was a really big meanie!”

The pegasus’s blue eyes dulls slightly.

“But you seem really nice!” Pinkie Pie replied as she continued to bounce around the stun locked pegasus. “So, can I call you Feenie? I think that name would suit you better than it did for him!”

‘Feenie’ sighed loudly as he counted the number of times he rolled his eyes at the pink mare – Which currently was clocked at four times. “Sure, whatever floats your boat Pinkie.”

“You did it again,” Pinkie Pie pointed out.

“Huh?” Feenie questioned with a bead of sweat rolling down the side of his head. “W-What are you talking about?”

“Why, you said my name again, Feenie,” Pinkie Pie explained. “I never said it, but you knew it, and you just said it again.”

‘CRUD!’ Feenie screamed in his head as he slowly backed away from the pink mare. ‘I let it slip out! J-Just relax! There’s no way she can make the connection, nopony here has ever seen my pony form...’

“W-Well, I was just making an observation,” Feenie explained with a cautious smile on his face. “I mean, you’re a pink pony and… and…”

“Ya know, the last Feenie kinda said the same thing when I first met him,” Pinkie Pie countered.

‘DOUBLE CRUD!’ Feenie roared in his head before he audibly gulped louder than he would’ve liked. “W-Well, m-maybe it’s a coincidence! That does tend to happen every once in a while…”

Feenie trailed off when he realized that Pinkie Pie was leaning towards him, her own light cerulean eyes peering directly into his cobalt orbs. “… And that… Maybe… Uh… Hehahahaha…”

That nervous laughter slowly died down as Feenie seemed to shrink under Pinkie’s gaze, ‘Damn it! I don’t know what that yellow pegasus did to me, but… But I’m shaking in my hooves, and this isn’t even the same mare!! Get it together Stallion!’

“Okey-dokey-lokie!” Pinkie Pie chimed out before she hopped away from the pegasus.

Feenie stood there with his jaw now slack with his cobalt eyes wide as dinner plates. “W-Wait, are you just going to drop the issue? Just like that?”

“Yuppers!” Pinkie Pie replied. “Sides, I don’t wanna scare you off! After all, we still haven’t had your party yet!”

“Ah, I see,” Feenie replied with a nod of his head before he opened his eyes to realize something. “Wait… Party? What party?”

“Your ‘Welcome to Ponyville Party’ party!” Pinkie Pie replied as she trotted around Sugarcube Corner’s lobby. “I’ve got a ton of work to do, but a party is just what we need to do for you, Feenie! The last Feenie I met may not have been very nice, but he did have a sense of humor. Not the best around, but I know other ponies who were like that and even a griffon too, but sometimes just the right party can change a pony, or griffon. Speaking of griffons, I know there’s a new griffon in town! I should find him and throw him a party too sometime! It would be really amazing! But I can’t go with a prank party again, that didn’t go too well.

“Anyway, I’m sure if I threw that Feenie a party, I’m sure he wouldn’t have been such a Meanie-Feenie! So, I’m not going to make that mistake again! So what kind of theme should we go with for your party? I’m thinking along the lines of a party with a chocolate fountain!”

Feenie cocked his head to the side as he eyed the mare in front of him. ‘She’s gonna throw me a party? This mare is just crazy, she doesn’t even know me and she’s willing to throw a party just for me.

‘This Pinkie is just crazy.’

A small smile appeared on Feenie’s face as he reached into his vest’s pocket with his wings and pulled out a few bits that he tossed on the counter. “As much as would love to party the night away, I’m not going to be able to stay here for too long. I’ve got somepony I need to meet, and I gotta do it soon. Doubtful that I’d be able to stay and enjoy a party, and I don’t want to make this pony wait, she’s the only pony I don’t wanna tick off.”

“Aw,” Pinkie Pie groaned as she lowered her head, with her lower lip quivering and her cerulean eyes giving Feenie a pair of saddened eyes that would make even a puppy envious.

Feenie drew back suddenly as his eyes widened, ‘Triple crud! This mare’s not playing fair!!’

With one of his wings brought up to his muzzle, Feenie turned his gaze away, “I’ll tell you what Pinkie, let’s make this an I.O.U. one party. Next time I’m in town, we’ll party all night till the sun comes up.”

“Promise?” Pinkie replied as her cheerful look reappeared on her face.

“Promise,” Feenie answered back as he saluted.

“Cross your heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in your eye?” Pinkie Pie stated as she moved her hooves across her chest, then waved them about as if they were wings, and then brought her hoof up to her eye.

Feenie looked about before he shrugged his wings, “Uh, sure. Cross my heart, hope to fly, and uh, stick a cupcake in my eye.”

“Then it’s a Pinkie Promise, Feenie!” Pinkie Pie stated. “Now remember, you gave your word, so you have to keep your promise forever!”

“Forever?” Feenie questioned.

“FOREVER!”

‘Quadruple crud, what did I just do?’

And like that, Feenie turned from the pink mare and began to head towards the exit, “Have a nice day, Pinkie.”

“You too!” Pinkie called out. “Bye Phoenix!”

The pegasus stopped in his tracks, his eyes widened and he turned back to the counter, but Pinkie Pie was nowhere to be seen. ‘Where’d she go!?

TTTTTT

“Hello!”

Twilight reeled back as a familiar face peered in through the door to the library, “Miss… Sparkle, right? Fancy meeting you here!”

Trotting into the library past Twilight was none other than the mint green pegasus with his feathered fedora and colorful scarf around his neck – Sora. His smile was warm as he used his wing to remove his topper to bow towards the lavender unicorn next to him. “Then again, this pizzeria is the place where you do work at, isn’t it? So I shouldn’t be surprised that you’re here.”

“Uh, this is a library, remember?” Twilight pointed out. ‘I wanted something to break up that conversation, but…’

But Sora wasn’t listening, he was trotting into the library, looking about until he looked at Rarity, “Oh my! Madame! I remember you!”

Rarity blinked a few times as the oddly dressed pegasus approached her. “Oh? I do apologize, but I do not seem to recall you.”

“That’s not a problem,” Sora replied as he trotted around Rarity. “When I saw you, I saw the travesty that showmare did to your lovely mane. Surely it was a crime against such a lovely styled and beautifully colored mane.”

Rarity used her front hoof to push up her mane a few times, “My, what flattery. And you have an excellent eye.”

“Thanks!” Sora replied with his cheery smile. “But, it was still funny to see your hair turn green! And even funnier to see your reaction to it!”

Rarity stopped pushing her mane up and her eyes dulled slightly at the rude comment.

“Hehehehehe,” Sora snickered as he continued to look around the library. “Hmm, oh how rude! I can’t believe how rude that was! So very, very terribly rude!”

Once again, Sora removed his fedora for a few moments to reveal his feathered mane to bow towards Rarity. “I haven’t introduced myself to you miss! Sora’s the name! S-O-R-A is my claim to fame!”

“Well, it’s nice to meet you, Mister Sora,” Rarity replied. ‘Even though the late introduction wasn’t what was rude…’

“Mister Sora,” Twilight called out, drawing the eccentric Pegasus’ attention to her. “This is my friend Rarity, and while it is… Fun, to see you again, can I help you with anything?”

“Help me?” Sora mused to himself as he brought one of his wings to his chin, rubbing the feathers against it. “Hmm… Ya know, I did have a reason to come here today but… I didn’t expect to see such lovely manes today! And I didn’t say this last time Miss Sparkle, but I must say, whoever did your highlights did a masterful job! Whoever did it even managed to get your tail!”

“Highlights?” Twilight questioned as she turned to her tail. “I don’t have highlights in my hair, it’s my natural hair color.”

“Sure honey, whatever you say,” Sora replied with an innocent smile. “Anyway, as much as I would love to talk about such beautiful manes, I do have something I have to do here. Correct me if I’m wrong, but Miss Sparkle, is there a dragon who lives here who goes by the name of Haruto Souma?”

Twilight was a little wary of Sora’s sudden question, something that the pegasus instantly picked up on. So with a slightly nervous wave of his wings, the goofy pegasus chuckled sheepishly, “Now, now, now, it’s my current job ya know. I act as a courier for some ponies, and some pony asked me make a delivery to the dragon named Haruto Souma, and I was told to come to the Golden Oaks Library since that’s where the dragon apparently crashes.

“So, once again, does Haruto Souma live here?”

“Yeah, he does,” Twilight replied.

Sora smiled as he turned his head and reached into his saddlebags. “Alrighty! Let’s see if I can find it!”

Just like the last time Sora reached into the infinite space that was his saddlebag, the pegasus pulled out some of the weirdest of items imaginable – a freshly baked apple pie (fully intact and even had steam lifting off of it), a plushie that was a blue bear in a red and white jumpsuit, several pink flamingo lawn ornaments, a box of French fries, a paintball gun, a purple and white guitar that had the name ‘Axel’ written on it, an atlas, lint, more lint, a lot more lint, a half-eaten granola bar, a bunch of balloon animals (which Twilight noticed that they had a few familiar color schemes to them, like the white pony with a blue mane, and a bright pink pony with a hot pink mane).

“Here it is!” Sora cheered before he pulled his head out of the saddlebag and revealed what looked to be a large, rough cut jewel that had the same qualities that of an emerald. After placing the jewel on the table, Sora stuck his tongue out. “Ugh, I never understand why dragons like to eat those things. Must be tasty to them.”

Then as quickly as he pulled the stuff out from his saddlebags, Sora had scooped up everything back into his bags… Save for the pink flamingos that had somehow managed to be set up around the entire library, sticking out of the shelves, sticking out of the books, and even had a few that were somehow sticking out of the ceiling.

“How in Equestria…?” Rarity questioned as she noted that Uni the sapphire unicorn familiar had a pink flamingo that was attached to her back.

“Well, have a nice day!” Sora sung as he slowly trotted out the door, leaving a slightly stunned Twilight behind him.

“Hey! Wait! Sora! Take your…” Twilight called out as she quickly followed after Sora. “… Flamingos?”

Twilight had to stop herself when she realized that Sora had disappeared, even for a pegasus, she should’ve at least seen him in the air. And if his saddlebags really held all that stuff he pulled out (which Twilight was confused about since the bags didn’t even look half-way full!), but he was gone. “How did he…?”

“One more thing!”

Twilight jumped when she realized that Sora had popped out of nowhere right next to her, “W-WHAAAA! I thought you flew away!!”

“Oh, I couldn’t fly away,” Sora chuckled as he used his wing to reach into his saddlebag. “After all, I don’t want to risk taking an arrow to the wing, it happens more often than you think. But anyway, I just realized that I took a couple of your papers from your desk, and as I was taught, stealing is wrong.”

Sora lifted up one of his wings to reveal that there were a number of papers being held between the feathers. “Sorry ‘bout that! By the way, I really like the drawings! The green one’s a handsome devil!”

Twilight used her magic to take the pages, but instantly noticed that one of the pages of her Phantom bestiary wasn’t hers – It was evident by the script and even the picture that Sora was talking about, it was more detailed and it depicted a slightly ghoulish, bipedal creature with green armor covering his chest with silver-bestial shoulder pads and black leg armor that ended in curved boots. “Gremlin? I…”

‘This isn’t mine…’

“Bye bye!”

Twilight lifted her head up only to see a dust cloud that oddly enough looked like Sora until it fell to the ground. And Twilight was standing there with a blank look on her face.

“These flamingos are simply tacky,” Rarity sighed as she stepped outside, making her fellow unicorn turn to her. “Twilight, that stallion was… Well, he was rather odd. In fact, he kind of reminds me of somepony we both know, only he doesn’t seem interested in throwing parties for every pony he meets.

“May I ask how you know this Sora?”

“Well, I met him a few weeks ago,” Twilight explained, looking around to try to find the pegasus in question. “He just came in singing about pizza and donated a book. It was rather random, then again, he seems to be random as well.”

“Somepony like him shouldn’t have a hard time fitting in around here,” Rarity stated as she casually looked around outside. “Even if he was a bit rude.”

Twilight nodded in agreement with her friend – the odd green stallion did seem to enjoy life too much, to the point that it was an inconvenience to others. But Twilight was more concerned with the file that Sora had just left with her. ‘Is this even a Phantom? And if it is, how in Equestria’s name did Sora get it? Does he know something about the Phantoms? And… And…’

“Hey Twilight! OOH! Rarity!”

Both unicorns turned to see Spike walking up to them with a large paper bag in his claws, a blush on his face as he quickly ran up to Rarity. “If I had known you were going to be here Rarity, I would’ve gotten here sooner and prepared some tea! If you’re still interested, I can make you some!”

“You’re quite the sweetie, Spike,” Rarity replied as she patted Spike on the head with her hoof. “But you don’t need to do that. Miss Uni served some excellent tea earlier.”

Spike turned to the door to see said unicorn familiar stepping out – The pink flamingo still atop of its back, “Uh, what’s with the flamingo?”

“Sora happened,” Twilight chuckled sheepishly.

“Sora?” Spike questioned before the memory of the green pegasus slowly began to claw itself out from the depths of his mind. “Wait… Him!? The weird pegasus? What did he do this time?”

“Oh, just decorated the library with lawn ornaments,” Twilight replied as she looked back into the library. “How were your errands? Did you find everything?”

Spike smiled brightly as he puffed out his chest. “Was there ever any doubt? I got the groceries, and I even found the magazine you asked for.”

Without a second thought, Spike pulled out said magazine which had the title of ‘Equestrian Geographic’ at the top of the cover, while the picture of the cover featured a griffon with fancily groomed feathers, dressed in a black suit, and holding onto a beautiful vase in his talons. Rarity turned her attention towards the cover and mused, “Equestrian Geographic, I didn’t think you were into magazines Twilight. Although, it is an educational one…”

“Well, I there’s an article featuring a rather famous archeologist,” Twilight replied as she used her magic to take the magazine from Spike’s claws. “I heard that the griffon archeologist – Kosuke Nitoh – Wrote an article pertaining to the Caballon culture, and I wanted to read about it since…”

Twilight coughed slightly when she caught herself, stopping her explanation for the magazine. “Sorry about that. Thanks Spike, and Rarity, as much as I’d like to continue our conversation from before, Spike and I have to clean up the library.”

“I suppose that is true,” Rarity replied as she waved a hoof. “Very well, have a nice day Twilight. You as well, Spike.”

“Bye Rarity!” Spike called out as he watched the white mare trot off. With a sigh, Spike smiled brightly. “I didn’t know you were meeting with her today…”

“Well, she just popped in today,” Twilight replied as she and Spike walked back into the library. “And she wanted to chat for a while.”

“Bleh, girl talk,” Spike gagged with his tongue sticking out. “I don’t mind talking with Rarity, but, I can only imagine what you two talked about.”

Twilight looked innocently away from Spike, “Y-Yeah, girly stuff, you wouldn’t be interested in that stuff.”

Spike stopped when he looked at all the pink flamingos in the library, and then he sighed, “I’m really looking forward to getting back to Canterlot for the next week. I really like Ponyville, but the crazy here is getting to be…”

The small dragon suddenly brought his claws up to his mouth before he burped loudly with a mystical green flame popping out from his mouth. The flame twirled through the air until it formed into a rolled up scroll with the golden Canterlot seal on it. Unfortunately, when Spike had burped up the flame he dropped all the groceries he got to the floor.

“A letter from the Princess?” Twilight stated as she placed the magazine and papers on the Plastic-Flamingo decorated table. “That’s odd, I hope everything’s alright. What does it say Spike?”

“Uh, I don’t think I can open it, Twilight,” Spike answered as he looked at the scroll in question. “It’s not addressed to us.”

“Wait, what?” Twilight questioned as she trotted over to Spike. “It came from the Princess, who else would it be for?”

“According to writing here,” Spike answered as he brought a claw up to scroll. “Haru.”

Twilight looked at the scroll, and indeed the writing on the scroll did read in black ink ‘Haruto Souma’. ‘Why would Princess Celestia send Haru a letter?’

Meanwhile…

“GAGH!!!”

Haru had no idea how he ended up like this – Hanging upside from a tree with a rope tied around his ankles. He had managed to avoid getting mauled by the bear by diving into nearby stream at Fluttershy’s cottage, which resulted in him having a ton of leeches latch onto him.

And after using some salt that Fluttershy had in her cottage, Haru went back to work, leech-free!

But the moment that he and Fluttershy had split up once again, Haru was caught in that exceptionally elaborate trap with Angel Bunnie now looking up at him from the ground. “What did I do to deserve this!?”

Angel just stuck his tongue out at the dragon.

“… You realized that dragons are omnivores, right?” Haru growled at the little bunny that just kept mocking him as he hung from the tree.

Haru was met with a carrot flung into his face. ‘Ishimori, I hate, hate, hate, hate, HATE this rabbit!!!’

TBC

Author's Note

MangaKamen: Hello everyone! Been a while since I've been here, but here's the chapter, and I hope you guys all enjoy it!

Now, for something serious - I'm going to ask you guys, everyone who faved it a question that'll affect the story. Yes, you all have a say in what happens...

What sort of stallion should Haru originally be? Earth? Pegasus? Unicorn?

Leave your choice in the comments for this chapter, and I'll keep accepting your votes until the next time I update. One vote per person and yeah. Let me know!

Spell 34 - Trending Threads, Despair Deducing

Spell 34

Trending Threads, Despair Deducing

TTT – TTT

Within Carousel Boutique second floor, Rarity stood tall and proud before the five dresses and three jackets that she had poured her heart and creative soul into. Even her usually well groomed mane was a little messy, she had neglected to put as much time and effort into her usual grooming, so there were a few out of place strands…

But it was totally worth it.

The looks on her friends’ faces were enough to make it worth the late nights and hours of hard work. Each article of clothing she had made for her friends was tailored to their interests and styles.

A blue dress adorned with stars for Twilight, star horseshoes and a regal collar for the studious mare.

A green and tan dress for Applejack, complete with apple symbols on the bolo, saddle and front boots.

Something green and flowing, just like how nature was, for Fluttershy, compete with flower and butterfly charms around it.

Colorful and flowing for Dash, a dress that had just as many colors as her rainbow colored mane with a head ornament made of golden leafs.

Of course for Pinkie, something pink and bright, with blue bows and swirls, adorned with plenty of sweets (not actual sweets, just small pieces of jewelry that resembled them).

For Spike, Rarity had decided to go with a classic – A black suit with a matching bowtie and top hat.

Now for Haru, Rarity had decided to go for a design that she’d made for a young colt a few weeks ago – Essentially what she had prepared was a more mature version made for a dragon, namely a black surcoat with red sections on the chest area and shoulders. The young colt named Baron certainly had a unique idea for an outfit, and had said that he’d return when he needed more of the same.

And last, but certainly not least, Kosuke. It was an interesting experience working with the griffon (with her vowing to not reveal his secret to Fluttershy or Dash), and designing an outfit for a griffon was challenging. But taking inspiration from Kosuke’s Beast armor, Rarity had created a black vest with a golden feathered boa for the collar. In addition, she’d managed to recreate the Beast Symbol and stitch it on the back of the vest.

“So, what do you think?” Rarity asked, her head held high, waiting for the words of praise from her friends.

“Wow! They’re amazing!”

That was Spike. The small dragon’s reaction was expected, after all, she knew that he had a bit of a crush on her. Still, it was nice to hear that.

“Uh, yeah, they’re great.”

So Rainbow Dash spoke up next. Well, Rarity wasn’t too distraught on that opinion. Dash rarely wore clothes, barely did anything with her mane, and had so many split ends to said mane that it was a miracle that she had a mane at all.

“They sure are… Something!”

Applejack, you’re such a bad liar.

“Um, I like it.”

Dear Fluttershy… Was something wrong with the clothes?

“I actually really like this. This looks to be one of the nicest things I own.”

Well, Mister Souma was genuine. Then again, he only wore jackets most of the time.

“Neat!”

That last one was in unison – Mister Nitoh and Pinkie obviously seemed to share opinions, but there was something off in their voices.

That was it.

“Is there something wrong?” Rarity questioned looking over her group of friends and then towards the dresses. “If there’s anything that I can do to make them look better, please let me know.”

“Oh no, we don’t want to be any trouble,” Twilight spoke up with a wave of her hoof. “And you did a lot for us already and…”

“Nonononono!” Rarity announced before she slammed her hoof into the ground. “I couldn’t call myself a modiste if my clientele wasn’t happy with my work. Just because I think the dresses are perfect, that doesn’t mean that my perceptions and tastes would suit yours, and a modiste should tailor the clothes for the wearer of the clothes.”

“Oooh! Great speech Rarity!” Pinkie Pie cheered, but then she tilted her head. “What’s a modiste?”

“It’s just a fancy way of calling yourself a dressmaker,” Kosuke pointed out with a large grin. “A very fitting title for Rarity though.”

“I learned one new thing today! YAY!” Pinkie cheered again, confetti actually popping from her mane and tail.

“Well, shoot, if it ain’t any trouble,” Applejack stated as she pulled her hat off and held it to her chest.

“Trust me, it isn’t,” Rarity answered back.

TTT – And thus… - TTT

While it was no trouble for Rarity to easily make five dresses and three suits, customizing would be another matter. While it would be easy for her to read a list of suggestions and changes, the fact that everypony wasn’t exactly sure what they were looking for in their clothing was stress inducing.

Thus, a schedule was made.

The schedule would allow Rarity a chance for a one on one with each of her friends so that way they could bounce any and all suggestions towards Rarity. With only three days before the fashion show, Rarity had the schedule all set so she could get the job done.

First one on the list was Rainbow Dash.

“Okay! Let’s do this!” Dash called out loudly as she pumped a hoof up into the air.

“My, I wasn’t expecting such vigor from you Rainbow Dash,” Rarity admitted, a little shocked to see her friend so pumped up. Still she smiled at her rainbow haired friend, “Perhaps have you awakened to the world of fashion?”

“Nah!” Dash answered bluntly. “I just wanna have something cool to wear to impress the Wonderbolts.”

“Oh, so do you want something similar to their uniform?” Rarity suggested. “I could go with the lightning bolt design for your dress.”

“Wait, what about a flight suit like theirs?” Rainbow Dash questioned, a large smirk on her face. “Only, ya know, twenty percent cooler.”

“Dash, it’s the Grand Galloping Gala,” Rarity sighed loudly. “You can’t go waltzing in there with a flight suit… Besides, knowing you, you’d probably fly all over the place with the thing on and ruin it, several times probably.”

Dash whistled innocently back, not looking Rarity in the eyes.

“Still, I can make a dress that’s similar to the Wonderbolt’s flight suit,” Rarity offered with a smile. “Hmm, now that I think about it, blue and yellow centric with lightning bolts would probably be a good fit for you.”

“Whatever,” Dash sighed. “Just so long as the dress is cool.”

Rarity grimaced. “Okay, but should we start with the color?”

“Color, schmulor. It just needs to be cool.”

Rarity slapped her forehead, a little offput by the lack of descriptiveness that her friend was giving her…

TTT – A few hours later… - TTT

“Pinkie Pie,” Rarity coughed as she levitated a rather intricate drawing from her pink friends hoof, albeit while leering at the crayon drawing with ever growing disgust. “While I do appreciate the fact that you came up with your own design…”

“Thanks Rarity!” Pinkie Pie replied with a large smile on her face. “I really, really, really, REALLY worked hard on that!”

“But Pinkie,” Rarity sighed as she turned the drawing around. “This isn’t even a dress! This is armor and… And is that a tire around the chest? I’m not a blacksmith, Pinkie Pie!”

“Well, where’s the blacksmith?” Pinkie Pie asked as she stroked the pink mustache she now had on her muzzle. “Where’s the blacksmith?”

“Where did that mustache come from?” Rarity questioned.

TTT – Eventually...– TTT

“So, how’s this all work again?” Kosuke asked as he tapped his talon against one of the models that Rarity had in her room.

“If you have any ideas for what you want to wear,” Rarity explained, preparing herself a drink. “Let me know – But please don’t expect any armor and please try to be descriptive.”

“Lemme guess,” Kosuke mused, his talon at his lower beak. “Twenty percent cooler?”

Rarity took a rather long sip from her drink.

Kosuke chuckled under his breath, “Well, trust me, I know exactly what I want. I do like what you’ve got for me, but I wanna make a real good impression with the Canterlot highbrow.”

“Oh, I know exactly how you feel,” Rarity sighed as she rubbed the side of her head. The mare turned her head towards her own dress, which was still a work in progress. “I still need to finish my own dress. But enough about me, let’s talk about your idea for what you’ll be wearing.”

“I was thinking something classic,” Kosuke chuckled before he stood up on his hind legs and pumped his talons up into the air. “So how about we go with a tuxedo?”

“Hmm, I never thought that you’d be interested in something like that,” Rarity admitted. “You kind of struck me as one of those characters like in those Daring Doo books I used to read to Sweetie Belle.”

“Well, I kinda am,” Kosuke admitted with a nod of his head a few times. “I should tell you about some of my adventures sometime, they’re a great way to burn through an afternoon.”

“If you don’t mind me asking,” Rarity stated as she looked over to the side. “Was it one of your misadventures that led to… Well… You know…”
Kosuke sighed and shook his head, “No, unfortunately I didn’t. Maybe I’ll tell you and the others someday. But for now, do you have enough orange fabric to make that tux?”

“… Orange?” Rarity asked with a bead of sweat rolling down the side of her head.

TTT – TTT

While the designing was going on at Carousel Boutique, Haru was out and about handing out more fliers for the Fashion Show at the end of the week. However, with it being mid-afternoon, Haru was taking a break with his favorite snack food, fresh from Sugar Cube Corner.

Powdered donuts.

The red dragon was seated at a bench in the park, in the shade of one of the nearby trees, the bag of donuts seated warmly on his lap. Haru looked left and right as he licked his chops, ‘I’m not taking any chances this time. I feel as though the life of my donuts is short-lived… So, everything seems to be all set on the left and right.

‘Alright! Ishimori, you better not try anything this time, I just wanna eat these in peace, and actually finish one.’

Opening the bag, Haru reached into it and drew out a plain sugar donut. He took a quick whiff of the donut and slowly brought it to his opening mouth…

“Hello!”

Haru’s mouth remained open before he shoveled the donut right back into the bag, fearing for its existence. When he closed the bag, Haru turned to the side to see a slightly familiar mint green unicorn smiling at him. “H-Hello, can I help you?”

“Yes, I certainly hope you can,” Lyra answered back. “I was wondering if you could answer a few questions, if it’s no trouble.”

Haru eyed the strange mare, but then smiled back. “Well, I guess that’s okay. What’d you want to ask?”

“First, my name is Lyra, and let me say, it is an honor to finally meet you!” the mint green unicorn, Lyra, introduced as she lifted her hoof up.
Haru took the hoof and shook it. He smiled, but he noticed that Lyra seemed to quiver as he did. As Haru took back his claws, Lyra chuckled nervously “W-Wait! Can I see your claws?”

The dragon didn’t know what to make of that, but nonchalantly lifted his right claw up again for the mare. For a few moments, Lyra just stared at the claws, almost lifting a hoof to them. But then pulled it back with a snicker, “Now, could you move your claws about? Clench them in a fist or something?”

Okay, this was getting a little weird, but Haru did what the mare asked. He waved his claws about and then balled up a fist, and Haru couldn’t help but notice that Lyra gasped when he did that. “Uh, is everything okay?”

“Oh, it’s just simply amazing,” Lyra giggled with a large goofy smile on her face. “It’s just like watching fingers on a hand!”

“O… Okay,” Haru coughed out as he pulled back his claws. “If that’s all you wanted…”

“Actually, I wanted to ask you about your transformation,” Lyra added as she trotted around before leaping onto the bench, sitting in a...rather odd position. She sat like Haru did, with her back to the bench and her hind legs dangling off the lower seat. Wasn’t that uncomfortable for ponies? “Bon Bon’s seen you transform a few times in the middle of town, and when I saw you the other day in the town, in that suit of yours…”

Haru had placed his bag of donuts on the bench next to him, and began to listen to the mint green unicorn, occasionally answering one of her many questions about what it’s like to walk on two legs, have claws, and how Haru’s face wasn’t scrunched up when he wore his helmet.

As the questioning continued onwards, neither Haru or Lyra noticed that a small red armored hand was floating low to the ground near the bench. The hand slowly crept up the legs of the bench, stopping to look at the two talking before it snuck into the bag and pulled out a donut. “It’s no popsicle or iced candy, but this will do nicely.”

“Hey!”

The hand snapped up to see both Haru and Lyra looking right at it. It was almost as if the hand had its own eyes at the tips of its fingers. The hand then flew off as fast as it could, “I’ll be taking this!”

“My donut!” Haru cried out just as he was about to dive after the hand.

“I got it!” Lyra yelled out loud as she leapt over Haru and began to chase after the hand. “A HAND! AN ACTUAL HAND!!!”

Haru just sat there watching as Lyra chased after the flying hand, then he looked down at the bag of five donuts, ‘This town’s getting weirder, it’s getting to the point where a dragon can’t even eat his donuts in peace any more. At least I’ve got five more…’

“Oi!”

Haru then looked up into the air, seeing a small, white pegasus colt flying overhead with a short chestnut mane that was feathered in front of his face. The odd thing about the pegasus was that he was wearing a black surcoat with red trim on it. Haru thought he had seen the clothing before, somewhere.

The pegasus dropped to the ground and leered at the dragon, “You’re on my property. If you want to sit there you either need to pay the toll or fight me for it.”

“This is a public bench,” Haru commented back. “I’m free to sit here whenever I want and I don’t see your name on it.”

“That’s cause you’re sitting on it,” the colt answered back.

Haru stood up and noticed that there was a crest plastered on the bench, a fancy black and red emblem of a top hat and cloak that had the word ‘Baron’ written on it. ‘How did I miss that?’

“And, I also have this property slip,” Baron answered back before he lowered his head into his surcoat’s inner pocket and pulled out a piece of paper with his mouth.

Haru took the paper in his claws and read it. Sure enough, it said that the park bench was officially property of this little colt named Baron. “It’s even got the mayor’s signature on it…”

“Now, either pay the toll for you and that mare,” the young colt Baron barked out as he pumped a hoof up and snatched the paper away from the dragon. “Or you’ll have to beat me and take the bench from me!”

Beating a colt in public? That’s social suicide.

So, Haru sighed loudly, “Fine, fine, what’s the toll? A couple of bits?”

“No, but a couple of those donuts will work,” Baron replied with a smirk. “One for you and one for the mare.”

“WHAT?!” Haru barked loudly.

TTT – TTT

Back at Carousel Boutique, after taking the odd request for the orange tuxedo for the one winged griffon (and making sure that she wouldn’t be talked into making a sky blue suit for Mister Souma), Rarity sighed in relief when she saw Twilight walk into the boutique. Twilight was the last of the group that Rarity would see for the day, the rest would be taken care of tomorrow.

“Hello again, dear,” Rarity greeted her friend with the wave of her hoof. Then after taking a moment to push up her mane in an attempt to make it look a bit presentable, Rarity smiled at her fellow unicorn. “I do hope that you’re ready to create something simply fabul… Twilight, are you alright?”

“Huh? Oh, I’m sorry Rarity, I just have a lot on my mind.”

“Care to share?” Rarity asked as she levitated up a few empty glasses and a pitcher of iced tea. “After all, you’re here to share your thoughts on how we make a dress just perfect – We can’t have things on your mind muddling your creativity.”

“Well, I don’t really know,” Twilight replied softly, watching as Rarity poured her a glass of iced tea. “I mean, I don’t have anything solid to really talk about…”

“Even if it’s just harmless gossip,” Rarity answered back before she took a sip of her iced tea. With a slight sigh, Rarity looked her friend in the eyes with a kind look. “I am your friend Twilight, if it’s something that’s troubling you and you need to tell somepony, you can rest assured that I shall not speak of it to anyone else.”

Still, Twilight fidgeted a bit. She looked conflicted, but then the unicorn sighed, “Alright Rarity, I trust you.”

After taking in a deep breath, Twilight looked Rarity in the eyes, her gaze not wavering, “It… It’s about a stallion…”

Rarity’s gasp made Twilight wince, “Oh darling! Could you have fallen for another? Oooh! This is just like one of the novels! Tell me everything! Don’t leave out a detail! Wait, does Mister Souma know?!”

“Rarity! It’s not like that!” Twilight sputtered out with a large blush on her face. “But, I haven’t told Haru about this, I mean, this might be like what happened with Dryad.”

“Oh yes, I believe you mentioned that,” Rarity recalled, tapping her chin with her hoof. “Still I must admit that you’re quite the magnet to these Phantoms. And after the last time, shouldn’t you inform Mister Souma about this? Even Mister Nitoh would be a wise choice to talk to this about.”

“Well, it’s just that this particular Phantom,” Twilight whistled out innocently. “He didn’t actually come to me for help, I just managed to figure out that he was a Phantom…”

‘I’ll just leave out the fact that Sweetie Belle and the others told me…’

“Please continue, Twilight,” Rarity requested. “I don’t find it surprising that you’re able to discern the identity of a Phantom. After all, you managed to find a way to return Princess Luna to her normal self.”

Twilight coughed slightly, “It’s nothing. Anyway, this stallion… If I’m correct is actually Phoenix.”

There was an awkward silence throughout the entire boutique, before the sound of crashing glass echoed loudly, making Twilight reel backwards. Despite the fact that Rarity had dropped the glass, she still carried that rather calming demeanor. “Oh, I’m sorry dear, but I thought you said that the Phantom was Phoenix. But that’s impossible, we all saw Mr. Souma defeat Phoenix right before our eyes.”

“Well, that’s the thing,” Twilight coughed out. “I’ve been studying the Phantoms’ abilities. A lot of them are based off of many creatures in our world, but stem from mythical legends about the creatures. Manticores are said to have a very lethal poison that attacks a pony’s magical core, Gnomes were theorized to have tunneling and geomancy abilities, and in the case of Phoenix...”

“I’m familiar with the lore of the firebirds,” Rarity interrupted. “Sweetie Belle was very interested in the topic of the rather elegant birds, and I do remember a few details about it from my school years. You don’t seriously believe that dreadful Phantom is able to revive himself?”

“I’m not sure,” Twilight answered back. “Like I said, I don’t know if this guy is really Phoenix. There could be other Phantoms similar to Phoenix, but the possibility is there.”

“Twilight, you need to tell Mister Souma or Mister Nitoh about this,” Rarity stated rather bluntly.

Twilight began to open her mouth up, but Rarity lifted her hoof up to stop her friend, “I know that you want to believe that there’s a good heart in these Phantoms, and I believe that some of them do – But we know Phoenix. We’ve seen what he’s done to Mister Souma, and he nearly caused all of Equestria to become covered in dragon smog.

“If this stallion is Phoenix, then he’s very dangerous!”

“That’s the thing, Rarity,” Twilight replied. “If he is Phoenix, then his behavior is weird – He’s had plenty of times to attack me, but never took them.”

“… Twilight,” Rarity sighed under her breath with a shake of her head. “I honestly don’t know what to say about this. But, if this stallion is Phoenix, then you need to let one of our resident colorful costumed friends be near you the next time you see him. For all we know, he’s biding his time.”

Twilight finally turned away from Rarity, she knew that her friend was completely right about this situation. But, there was an opportunity here – If this was Phoenix, one of the more powerful Phantoms that Twilight knew about, perhaps he could give more insight about what the Phantoms’ goals were and maybe be an ally.

That was still a pretty big ‘IF’.

But, even if Phoenix did try attacking Twilight, she had a few tricks of her own.

She wasn’t helpless.

“In any case, Twilight,” Rarity said with a smile. “I want you to be careful. Can you at least do that for me, your friend?”

“Sure Rarity,” Twilight replied with a smile. “I’ll be careful, you have my word.”

“Good, now, let’s talk about your dress,” Rarity suggested. “Do you have any ideas for how to improve it?”

“Well, how much do you know about constellations?” Twilight asked.

Unbeknownst to the two mares, perched outside one of the opened windows, a certain mint green pegasus with a colorful scarf and fedora was listening in on their entire conversation. His muzzle curled up into a wild smirk, ‘Oh, they just keep giving me things to have fun with… Now, how am I going to do this? Oh, so many things to do, but so little time! I especially since I have to deliver lunch to those battle hungry guys.

‘Here’s hoping they like fruit salad.’

And with that, Sora flew off, humming a little tune.

TTT – TTT

‘Kids are cruel now-a-days,’ Haru thought to himself as he leaned back on the bench. After giving the small colt, Baron, a couple of his doughnuts, the colt had ‘allowed’ the dragon to use his bench for an hour. ‘How’d a small colt get the Mayor’s signature?'

Still, he had doughnuts, which was all he needed. He just had less, not the end of the world.

As Haru began to open the bag, a silver and white blur flew down and snatched the bag out of the dragon’s claws. For a moment, Haru just stared at his emptied claws.

Then, after taking a deep breath, Haru roared loudly with smoke seeping out of the corners of his mouth. “ALRIGHT!!! WHO’S THE GUY WHO PULLED THAT STUNT?!”

Haru’s eyes traveled about, trying to find the silver and white blur that stole his food, but when his eyes turned up towards the sky, his jaw began to slack. Flapping its diamond wings was none other than the White Garuda, with Haru’s bag of donuts pinned within its mouth and a scroll caught between its talons.

The White Garuda noted that Haru’s eyes were leering at the diamond bird. Normally, the dragon was rather glad with seeing the bird, but there was nothing but contempt in the dragon’s eyes, all of it directed at the bird.

With smoke still puffing out from the corners of his mouth, Haru pulled out a ring from his jacket and immediately slipped it over his claws.
The White Garuda’s eyes widened as Haru threw his claws in front of his belt buckle.

“EXTEND – PLEASE!”

Haru threw his arm through the magic circle that materialized in front of him, which stretched his arm out towards the surprised familiar. However, the White Garuda managed to dip and dive out of the way of Haru’s assault, barely, but still managed to keep airborne.

“I don’t care if you’re White Wizard’s familiar,” Haru growled throwing his other claw through the circle and allowed his other arm to extend towards the Garuda. “I’M TIRED OF EVERYONE TAKING MY DONUTS OR CRUSHING THEM OR EATING THEM OR WHATEVER THE TARTARUS YOU’RE GOING TO DO WITH THEM!”

When the two dark claws snapped at Garuda, the white familiar tossed the scroll into them and flew off with the bag of doughnuts. “DAMN YOU BIRD! DAMN YOU!”

With a loud sigh, Haru brought his extended arms down and looked at the scroll. “… This must be from White Wizard, but still…”

Snorting out some smoke from his nostrils, Haru unfurled the scroll and looked at the picture that was drawn on it. His eyes widened as he read the text on the scroll, “Holy Ishinomori – Is this serious? But, how am I going to build this damn thing? Guess I’m gonna ask Twilight about this… Or maybe see if Mayonaise knows anything about this sort of thing.”

‘Although, normally when I get something like this, there’s usually something about to happen – So, if something this amazing just falls into my claws, karma’s probably getting ready to bite me in the flank or something.’

TTT – Meanwhile – TTT

CLANG!

Outside of Ponyville, far from where any wandering eyes may be, three figures ran across the empty fields, one of which was a familiar purple armored knight with wolf-headed shoulder pads armed with just his shield.

That shield was at the moment blocking an incredibly large silver fist, “Good! But you need to throw from your waist if you want a more effective punch! Power is nothing if you do not know how to use it properly! Cyclops, try harder!”

“Cyclopsis!” The owner of the large fist growled before he pulled back his fist, spun around and began to deliver a powerful drop kick to Wolzard.

“Ein! Zwei! Drei! Ein! Zwei! Drei!”

Both Wolzard and Cyclopsis stopped their fight and turned to the side to see the third figure a few yards away waving his arms about with a conductor’s wand in his fingers. “Ein! Zwei! Drei!”

“Beelzebub!” Wolzard called out loudly with Cyclopsis scratching the side of his head. “Why are you not fighting?! We need to continue our training!”

“Armselig,” Beelzebub sighed loudly with a shake of his head. “You’re insistence on training is wasted – My skills allow me to not worry about taking a hit. I am the ubesiegbar Beelzebub! Polishing gold only makes it shiner, it will not make perfection even greater…”

“Cyclopsis, if you can knock out Beelzebub,” Wolzard stated bluntly. “Then I shall go into town and purchase the one thing that you desire.”

The largest of the three jumped up and looked towards the purple armored warrior before him, “Seriously? Melon!?”

“Yes,” Wolzard chuckled.

“YEAH!” Cyclopsis roared loudly before he charged towards the smaller Phantom. With a quick spin, the large Phantom threw a powerful punch towards Beelzebub.

Beelzebub sighed and turned his conductor’s baton towards Cyclopsis, and the air between the two shifting and drawing Cyclopsis’ fist into a vortex. Cyclopsis’ single eye widened before his own fist slammed into his face, forcing him to fall backwards with a loud slam.

And with another sigh, Beelzebub bent his baton slightly, “So since I was the one to knock out Cyclopsis, does that mean you’ll go buy me that new Octavia CD? I do miss listening to her classical music and…”

“Touza Wol Zazard!”

When several wolf howls echoed through the air, Beelzebub turned around to see many fiery, phantasmal wolves flying right towards him. He chuckled and shook his head as he waved his baton about, a large vortex appearing between him and the phantasmal attack, “Wie sehr dumm! Did you just not see what I did with Cyclopsis? Have you not seen my abilities!?!”

A second large vortex appeared just to Beelzebub’s right, unleashing the wolves back from whence they came. Beelzebub laughed loudly as the watched the wolves crash into the ground, “Dumm! Dumm! So very dumb, wie sehr dumm! How are you the leader of our group?!”

“Because I know that the element of surprise…”

Beelzebub turned around, just in time to get a shield slammed right into his face, knocking him to the ground at Cyclopsis’ feet. “AU!”

“Doesn’t work twice in the same fight if you only have one trick,” Wolzard sighed as he lowered his shield. “You’re too dependent on your warping abilities. They are strong, but even the weakest warrior knows to not depend on one tactic. Now, both of you stand, we’ll be continuing the training.”

“This is dumm!” Beelzebub snarled loudly as he threw his arm to the side after he got to his feet. “We have another means of making the Gate fall to despair! I’ve done it numerous times with my minions! Let me use them! I’ll have that Gate turning into one of us within a matter of seconds!”

“Our target is a mare,” Wolzard growled back as he shook his head. “I am a cursed soul and you two are Phantoms, we’re not monsters. We have a shred of honor left, and if we are to make a mare suffer, it should be quick and painless.”

“My, quite the gentlestallion, aren’t you, Bari?”

Wolzard and the two Phantoms turned to see Sora slowly float down to the ground, gently placing a sack in front of him. “Hello! Lunch time everypony!”

A dark aura seeped over Wolzard’s body before he transformed back into his black stallion form of Barikon, “Sora, what is the meaning of this? I requested that you bring us our nourishment within an hour. We have still much training and…”

“Oh yes, fighting each other till you knock out your teeth is such an excellent training method,” Sora sighed loudly with a shake of his head. “Then it’s a good idea that I brought lunch early, after all, I don’t know where to get dentures for you guys. So, come on, eat up!”

“Lunch!”

Barikon watched as Cyclopsis reverted back to his large stallion form and ran towards Sora.

“Au… meine jaw,” Beelzebub grumbled as he rubbed his jaw with his hoof, also reverting back to pony form. “I’m always sore after I transform back to this form…”

Barikon sighed and shook his head, “Whatever, I suppose we should take a break. Tensions are rising, and a chance to fill our stomachs might be just what the doctor ordered.”

“Good! Cause I brought some delicious fruit salads!” Sora announced as he tugged at the corner of the sack, opening it up to reveal a few lunch boxes and a few melons within it. “Although, I don’t know why they bothered giving full melons, seems like a bit of a flaw in sales, but who am I to judge?”

“Melon?” Cyclopsis questioned as he lifted up one of the melons up in his hooves.

“NO!” Both Barikon and Beelzebub called out.

“Huh?” Sora questioned as he watched Cyclopsis sniff the melon.

OH YEAH!

And just like that, Cyclopsis sank his teeth into the fruit, ripping the skin off and devouring the fruity flesh, bits and pieces flying about.
With a sigh, Cyclopsis dropped the remainder of the melon’s skin to the ground and got on his hind hooves, pumping his legs as a green aura rippled around him. “RRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAGHHHHHH!”

It was then some very odd, yet catchy music began to play as Cyclopsis spun around and began to dance, waving his front hooves about. “♪VERY! ♪”

Both Beelzebub and Sora began to mimic Cyclopsis’ odd dance movement, spinning around as the large stallion continued to sing. “♪CATCH MY HEART! VERY MELON!♪”

“♪Very melon!♪” Both Sora and Beelzebub sang as a chorus.

“♪CATCH MY HEART! VERY MELON!♪”

“♪Very melon!♪”

Cyclopsis began to punch the air, somehow getting Sora and Beelzebub mirrored him. “♪It melts in your mouth! Very Melon!♪”

“♪Very melon!♪” Sora and Beelzebub sang with tears in their eyes.

Cyclopsis began waving his front hooves up and down, and once again, Sora and Beelzebub did the same, “♪One, two, one, two! Very Melon!♪”

“BLAGGH!” Cyclopsis sputtered out, actually shooting some green energy from his mouth a few times. “BLAGGH!

“♪VERY MELON!♪”

“♪Very melon!♪” Sora and Beelzebub cried out, now with tears in their eyes.

With a large grin on his face, Cyclopsis turned towards Barikon and threw his hoof towards the black stallion, “I’ll have some more!”

WHAM!

“GAAGGH! PAIN!” Cyclopsis cried out before he fell back, blood seeping from his nose, courtesy of Barikon.

“… No,” Barikon growled.

“What the Faust was that?!” Sora cried out, using his fedora to fan himself.

“Cyclopsis’ phantom ability,” Beelzebub grumbled while shaking his head. “He seemed to develop it when he transformed into a Phantom – Whenever he sings and dances, he can force other Phantoms to mimic his movements. Barikon over there was the only one of us who wasn’t induced by his power.”

“If it only affects Phantoms, that seems kind of useless,” Sora admitted with a flat look in his eyes. “Why even bother using him if his special ability would only hinder us?”

“Because he’s more than just his special ability,” Barikon replied with a smirk. “Cyclopsis is a capable fighter with more than just his special ability at his disposal.”

Sora smiled brightly at Barikon, “Nice words! But, let’s see you prove it on Friday.”

“You need not worry,” Barikon barked back with his eyes narrowed. “Now leave us, I’d rather not deal with a backstabber like you.”

“Whoa, whoa! No need to be like that!” Sora sniffled with his hooves waving in front of him. “Even I have feelings – They may be homicidal feelings, but feelings none-the-less!”

“… Backstabbing will only get you so far, Gremlin,” Barikon warned before he and Beelzebub walked away from the mint green pegasus. “It’ll only be a matter of time till you yourself get backstabbed by fate. You best remember that.”

Sora flipped his fedora back atop of his head and spread his wings, immediately flying away from the area. ‘Humph, I may not care for being a Phantom, but don’t underestimate me – We’ll see who’ll survive the longest here, Barikon.

‘I might be in need of Cyclopsis’ little ability though… So, this might be a good chance to capitalize on that. Ooh! I haven’t used that word yet! Thank you word of the day calendar!’

TBC