Chapters What It's Like To Call This Place Home
Dimitri appeared in the throne room, only to see PK, RED, and Echo, evenly matched by a black version of themselves. And a young female half-dragon beating a scared King Sombre, to a pulp. "What in the name of Tartarus is going on here?" Dimitri's outburst got the attention of Emma, who warped to him, leaving King Sombre too beaten to stand.
"You seem familiar..." Emma said as she looked Dimitri up and down, then she took a pice of paper out, looking from it to Dimitri, her eyes went wide "D-dad?" She looked over to Fluttershy, who simply nodded. "DAD! You... Your back!" She caught him off guard, by attacking him with a hug.
Dimitri felt a couple wet spots on his shirt, looking he saw she was crying, not sobbing just a lot of tears. "What's the matter?" He asked in a gentle tone.
"We thought something happened to you five years ago, when you stopped answering our calls." She closed her eyes.
"Earth's governments gave me a warning that made me make a choice; if you leave that base for more than 5 minutes, we are going to turn it into a crater. The choice being; either I stay there, only being to talk to a couple of you, or not converse with any of you long enough to complete the portal and live the rest of my life being surrounded by loved ones. I think it's obvious what I chose."
"Thanks for the distraction! Now I can do this!" King Sombre levitated Emma, then slammed her agains a wall, knocking her unconscious. "Ha! Now let's see what the legendary Dimitri can do in real life!"
Dimitri's torso went limp, his arms swaying side to side, then his head looked up. His irises went blood red, pupil went to a needlepoint, and the whites of his eyes went pitch black. "That was the biggest mistake of your soon to be over life." There was a thick reptilian tone overlaying his voice.
The alternate Specters stopped thief fights, and moved to protect their king. Wile the originals moved to the prison containing the girls, picked the lock and shut themselves, and Emma, inside. "Why didn't you free us?"
"AJ, you have seen all three of our turbo modes, and its extremely rare that he uses his. Trust me, this is the only safe place." Echo secured the lock.
"It won't matter if you pit alternate versions of my comrades against me, I will end you in the most painfully way possible." Dimitri started to slowly walk towards the four non-friendlies, arms swaying to each step.
"Kill him! Kill him now!" King Sombre was not as cocky as before. The alternates went pseudo turbo, copying the exact abilities as the originals. Alternate PK was the first, sprinting to, and punching Dimitri, who just caught the giant metal fist with a single hand, swinging the evil PK around. Once he got to a god speed, he grabbed the metal forearm with his other arm, ripping it out, he tossed the evil giant into a wall. Dimitri disappeared, reappearing behind an angry evil giant, he grabbed its head, slamming it on the ground and walls, until it stopped moving. He through the dead giant out the window. Then turned to the others in time to receive a ice blue, cold, fireball to the chest.
"Ah... you use freezing fire, instead of superheated fire. This should be fun." He started to walk towards the groups, as the evil RED used a rapid fire attack. It had no effect on Dimitri, who was only getting closer. "Is that all you have? Oh well, I was hoping for explosions, but I guess Sombre didn't know much about RED's abilities." He then disappeared, reappearing behind the fake RED. Grabbing him by the throat, he started to squeeze, forcing the fake to grab at Dimitri's hand "What's the matter? Can't use explosions? Well then you will die here." He slowly squeezed harder and harder, until there was an audible crack, then crunching sound, as his entire neck was crushed.
Dimitri turned to King Sombre, as he started walking in his direction the dark Echo attempted to drop kick Dimitri. He succeeded in hitting Dimitri square in the face, knocking the enraged juggernaut to the ground. Dimitri flared his wings, launching himself onto his feet. Dark Echo sprinted at him, Dimitri disappeared, reappearing behind the evil clone, as he grabbed him by the throat, a black gem spike rose from the ground, impaling him. "H-ha! Haha! HAHAHA! You don't realize I'm unstoppable!" He chucked dark Echo at a wall, disappeared then reappeared in between the flying copy and the wall. Dimitri caught the copy by the back of the shirt, flew up, smashing a large hole in the ceiling, going up and up, until the palace looked like a child's play thing. "Tell me this, do you want to try and survive this fall, or, do you want me to take you back down?"
The copy looked down, then back to Dimitri. "I think, I want to live, so you can take me down there."
Dimitri gave him a psychotic smile "Wrong choice!" Dimitri then dive bombed aimed down holding Dark Echo, with his head ahead of him, at the hole in the roof. He started laughing psychotically, as a cone of energy formed around them, Dimitri forced them down faster, then the caused a sonic boom, moving faster through the hole, directly into the ground, the impact was loud enough to wake the princesses, and Emma, who all looked to the cloud of dust. As it settled, reviled Dimitri, holding an unmoving dark Echo. Dimitri spotted Sombre, then tossed the corpse over his shoulder. "Your fighters are dead, and you have angered the wrong parent. For this, you must pay the ultimate price, I hope it was worth it." As he finished, a half dead looking, white halfdragon, and Trixie, appeared behind him, grabed him, and disappeared.
Dimitri released a loud guttural roar "......... How? How did he escape? How did I lose?" He fell to his knees.
What It's Like To Call This Place Home
Dimitri was on his knees in the center of a foot deep crater, in the center of the throne room. Echo unlocked the cage they were in, then walked over to his life long friend "At least time has hit him harder than we thought it would. And we'll find him again, but this time, all three of us will help you."
Dimitri looked to Echo, then stood "You're right... Plus I do need to catch up with everyone. And who better than a family I never got to see properly..." He walked over to the girls, Fluttershy to be specific, picking her up in a hug "I'm never gonna leave you again." She embraced him.
Trixie, Sombre, and the half-dead white half-dragon appeared in a large, scorches, circular room "Get your dying, scaly, claws off me!"
The white halfdragon started laughing. "You do realize, I could have used Dimitri killing you as the perfect escape cover; you see, when you got him to actually use his turbo, you set me free!" He then started to cough violently.
"Oh and your so powerful, how exactly?" Sombre squinted at the dying dragon.
"He is Dimitri's rage, the pure incarnation of Dimitri's rage." Trixie smirked as Sombre looked the dying dragoon up and down, then noticing it was missing its entire right Arm.
"Tell me, where is your arm?" Sombre scratched his chin with a hoof.
The dragon stoped coughing "The portal... Gave it to him, along with the Alicorn amulet. The curse saw it as me giving it to him for nothing in return, he can now use it with no drawbacks."
"WHAT?!" Exclaimed Trixie, and Sombre at the same time.
"Quiet down, he refuses to use it unless necessary. We will kill him, but first I must heal..." The dying dragon walked to a stone throne, and sat down. As he closed his eyes a white aura enveloped him. The scaly spot where there was no arm started to bleed, as the scales were magically ripped off. A dust covered mythril arm, missing two fingers, and a panel of armoring, rose from its sitting place on the floor. It levitated to him, connecting to the empty spot, where there was no arm.
"There, you are healed. Now let us go." Sombre started tapping his hoof on the ground.
"The healing process takes weeks, if I'm close to deaths door, so make yourself comfortable, use this free time to re-summon those alternate Spectors."
Dimitri opened the door to Fluttershy's cottage "Ah, home sweet home. It's good to be bac-" he was inturrupted by a projectile carrot. Looking around, he noticed Angle bunny, prepared for a race to get to the couch first "Your on." As Angle sprinted for the couch, Dimitri disappeared, reappearing in a laying down position, on the couch. Angle jumped, landing on his chest, then he curled into a ball. "He still remembers me, awesome." Emma appeared behind the couch, then she tilted the couch, dumping both Dimitri and Angle off. As she put it back down, she jumped over the back, taking the spot on the couch. "Hey no fair, I was remembering the good ol' days!"
"You snooze, you lose!" She crossed her arms.
"How did I know you two would argue over the couch?" Twilight walked in, Fluttershy, and Echo following suit.
"Oh, I almost forgot." Dimitri looked at nothing in particular "SC-7, move to my position." He looked back to Echo, and Twilight "I wasn't here for your wedding, so I brought something that you will get a lot of use out of."
Echo scratched his head "SC-7? Wasn't he the one you designed to fight Anitchka if the tests went wrong?" He looked away "Which they did." He coughed. Causing Twilight to cover her mouth to hold back a giggle.
"Anyway, yes SC-7 was originally designed to combat Anitchka, he was repurposed. He is now able to find my location, no matter where I am, but until he has an Equestrian map installed, he will have to move to my location, instead of being able to tell you where I am. And when he gets here, I will program Echo, RED, and PK into his GPS system." A time-beaten metal humanoid, walked into the room.
"Dimitri, I am perplexed. It is not physically possible for equines to use telekineses, have wings, or talk. Yet here, on this side of the portal, that impossibility has been ignored." The mech sounded panicked.
"It's the multiverse theory, what is possible in our universe, is impossible in another universe, and vice-versa." Dimitri looked him up and down "Hey Flutters, is my equipment still down stairs?" Dimitri asked while looking at her.
"We have a down stairs?!" Emma shot up from her fake sleep. "Why didn't you tell me that mom?"
"Yes, it is, and it is your fathers work room." Fluttershy then moved off the rug in the center of the room, unce removed, revealed a mythril door that had been fixed since Dimitri's last time in the cottage.
Dimitri walked to the door, opened it, then jumped in. Once he hit the floor, he noticed that his comrades had lined the walls, ceiling, and floors in mythril. "SC-7 jump down here, I'm gonna upgrade you." SC-7, and Echo landed in the hole.
"Yo, are you gonna replace the steel with mythril?" Echo looked Dimitri in his mismatched eyes "That dying dragon was Anitchka, wasn't it?"
"Yes, and yes." Dimitri led SC-7 to a working table, then had him lie down "SC-7, do you still have the defensive, and offensive routines to combat with Anitchka?"
"Affirmative, plus when he broke free, I scanned his movements, and tweaked the routines accordingly."
"Good, Echo, can you round up the others?"
"Yup!" He then leapt out the hole, then sprinted out.
"He could have radioed them, but he can do it any way he wants." Dimitri then agent to work.
Two Hours Later
Dimitri was lowering the last mythril panel, after having to repair parts on SC-7 he removed the two eyes, replacing it with one big one. "SC-7 activation code 0317, power on."
The mech's eye turned blue "Power on... Good morning Dimitri, how are you?"
"I'm doing perfect, I want to see if mythril will mess with your circuits. Give me your mental status." Dimitri stained at the drone.
"Power running at 100%. Vision is repaired and at 100%. I seem to have been given a memory upgrade, memory at 98% free space. Mythril armoring structure stability at 100%. Mythril seems to be giving me feelings of safety, and power." SC-7 looked at Dimitri "It seems the unidentified entity mythril gives of, has given me emotions, is this supposed to occur?"
Dimitri smiled "Yea, it is. Spectors, meet the new squad mat-"
"Would you mind referring to me as Atlus, I assume you will be giving me nanobots to scan the geographic scape of the planet." He stood from the platform, then walked around. He looked around for a bit "I assume this is your 'invention room'. Echo, RED, PK, I am... happy to be off earth... They were a year away from detonating the nukes under the base, had Dimitri not shown up."
Dimitri stood and walked to the group "Yes your new title is Atlus. Now I must speak with the girls, so lets go."
What It's Like To Call This Place Home
Atlus walked to a work bench containing a recreation of the machine that makes nanobots, he plugged himself into it. Filling a tank inside of him with nanobots, he started programming them for mapping out the landscape, and landmarks of the planet. "PK, would you take me to meet some of this new planets inhabitants?"
"Of coarse, I would be glad to." PK climbed out of the basement, followed by Atlus.
"First, I wish to meet a specific pony. The townspeople informed me to stay clear of an 'excessively clumsy grey mare' with bubbles for a 'cutiemark'. They said her name was Ditsy Hooves." Atlus followed PK to a store with the name of the Sugar Cube Corner, walking in atlas noticed a grey mare with a blond mane and tail, and bubbles on the side of her hind legs. He approached her "Excuse me, but I wish to make your acquaintance."
The blond mare turned to look at him, her eyes facing two different ways "Oh, hello, my names Ditsy Hooves, but most ponies call me Derpy, who are you?"
"My identification is SC-7, but my name is Atlus." His eye moved to looking at both eyes "How is your vision?"
She looked down "I hate it when the first thing new ponies ask me is if I can see strait."
"I did not refer to the straitness of your vision, but the clarity of it." He crouched to her level "I do not mean to offend you, but to nearly meet you."
At that she looked back up to him "I can see perfectly clear, but in two directions."
"That is not necessarily a bad thing, in combat, being able to see in multiple directions can be very helpful." He stood looking to PK "Would you allow me to demonstrate how multiple points of view can help in batt-"
"You don't have to mock me, you could just tell me to leave!" Her eyes started to water.
"I am not mocking you, I have a 360 degree view."
She stomped a hoof "Prove it!" She was obviously angry.
"PK come outside, I'm going to prove it." The three of them moved to outside, Derpy flying to a small cloud above them, the two ground-bound took their places.
PK sprinted at Atlus, who jumped over the Titan. Landing he spun, grabbing PK's leg. He tossed PK through the air, then faced Derpy "My vision is even active when my eyes are closed." As he said this he closed the shutter style eyelids Dimitri had given him. PK came up from behind Atlus, slamming a massive fist into the ground where Atlus was previously standing. Atlus landed on PK's arm, making PK swing at him with the other, free arm. Atlus ducked, but grabbed the giant fist, stopping it. He turned, throwing PK through the air. His eyes opened, and he noticed Derpy staining in amazement "Do you now believe that I am not mocking you?"
"Uh huh. Hey I'm late for work, do you mind walking and talking with me?" She flew down to him "It won't take that long."
"I have plenty time to spare, PK, can you inform the others that I am going to return in a bit?" Atlus looked to the giant.
"No problem at all, have fun." The giant walked into the Sugar Cube Corner.
After several minutes the two made it to a post office "How is it that a pony as intelligent as you, is working at a post office?"
"Nopony wants to hire me because of my eyes. They always think I'll break something important." She looked down.
"That is not very fair. At any rate, would you like to converse after you get off work?" She looked back to him.
"Sure, that sound nice. I get off in five hours."she walked up to the doors.
"I will meet you here, have a nice day." She walked into the doors, when they closed, Atlus started walking back to the Sugar Cube Corner, but stopped when he herd yelling from inside the post office. Curious, he turned back and entered the building in time to see a large stallion slap Derpy. When the stalion noticed him, his eye started changing from a blue glow, to a crimson one. "That is very disrespectful, apologize now."
"Or what? Your gonna keep starrin' at me like an idiot?" He emphasized his lack of care by preparing to repeat the offense, but was stopped when something made him fly into the wall.
"I said apologize, now." Derpy looked at him in a way that said 'thank you'. "I am not gonna tell you again, if you do not apologize, I will make you."
The stallion glared at him with hatred "Ya' think that cause you got a cheep shot in, you can take me? Your wrong!" He moved at Atlus quickly, kicking him in the chest, Atlus slammed against a wall. "Ha! Your just all talk! You couldn't do any thing to me if ya' tri-" he was inturrupted by Atlus pinning him to the ground.
Atlus grabbed him by the mane, slamming his head into the ground "Apologize, and I will not break you!"
"Fine! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Get this psycho off me, please?!" After Atlus got his wish, he released the stallion, then went and helped Derpy to her hooves.
"I apologize for losing my temper, so to speak. I hope you don't hate me." Atlus looked down "I went to meet PK back at the Sugar Cube Corner, but I heard yelling, so I came back, and when I saw him hit you I... I could not control my anger... What happened?" He looked back at her.
"When I came in, I tripped and caught myself by grabbing his desk, but that made the desk shake and spill his coffee onto his lap. It was an accident." She said while putting a hoof over the spot where she was slapped.
Atlus picked her off the ground, hugging her he stated quietly "I will never allow anything to cause you any harm, physical, or mental."
She hugged him back. "I'm happy to hear that."
What It's Like To Call This Place Home
Two weeks later
"ANITCHKA! You have had enough time to heal, we need to act before they get too prepa-" Sombre stomped into the room.
"The Spectors are always prepared, that is why we wait until I get my army!" The now mostly healed dragon appeared next to Sombre "I messaged Queen Crisilis, asking for an army of large, heavily armored, changelings, and am awaiting a reply. And how many alternates have you made?"
Sombre smiled "A thousand."
"Not enough, they will last maybe 15 minutes against the real Spectors, unless..." Anitchka turned, facing the stone throne.
"Unless what?"
"Unless I gift them with the turbo ability! They won't last a minute against our army!" Laughing psychotically, he moved back to the throne and sat "Send Trixie in, please."
"Yes, my L-lord..." Sombre reluctantly walked through the door. A second Trixie walked in.
"What is it, Anitchka? Do you need any help?" She smiled "I know he does, with all the degrading feeling of being commanded by a dying half dragon."
He laughed "Do you really think I'm doing that much emotional harm? She nodded, then trotted over to his side "Good, maybe he will try to betray me on the battlefield. Then I can kill him for a good reason..."
Trixie leaned against him "What's wrong, you usually laugh more?"
Anitchka shrugged "It seems as though, Dimitri is not searching for me... It's disappointing... To say the least."
Trixie looked him in the eyes "He's probably trying to get to know his daughter, and catch up with friends."
"That's right, I forgot he had a child..." He smiled unnervingly "We can use this against him..."
"Atlus, you can get up now, your synthetic skin is finished." Dimitri stood back as Atlus stood up.
"Thank you, I believe she will be happy... Do you think I would be able to have rarity make me some custom clothes?"
Dimitri held out a stack of cloths, and a pair of combat boots "Way ahead of you, try these on."
Atlus put the garments on, a white coat, black tee, a circle with an X through it was stitched in, and black cargo pants. His new synthetic skin was light colored, with short blond hair. "This is perfect, I will thank her later." He walked out 'Derpy should be at work right about now, that is my destination.' As he walked he noticed he was going to pass the Carousel Boutique. When he got to the boutique, he walked in "Rarity, are you here? I must give you thanks for the ensemble."
"One moment darling!" Seconds later the white mare came down the stairs "Oh, it looks much better on you than it did on the mannequin. Echo made a mannequin of himself, RED, PK, and Dimitri, so I used the one of RED for your clothes. Turns out you and him are the same fitting."
"Thank you, but I must head out, or I will be late." Atlas turned and started to leave.
"Feel free to stop by, and have a nice day."
As Atlus stopped at the Sugar Cube Corner "Hello, welcome to Sugar Cube Corner, what would you like to sweeten your day?" Pinkie looked at Atlus closely "Do I know you?"
"Yes, I am Atlus, Dimitri made some skin for me." Pinkie gave a massive smile "Oh! What would you like?"
"One blueberry muffin, please?" As he said that a brown paper bag was placed I front of him "Thank you Pinkie, have a nice day." With muffin in tow, Atlus made his way to the post office.
Atlus walked into the post office a smile on his face "Hello, what can we mail for y-" the stallion looked Atlus in the eyes "H-hello... She's in the sorting room."
"Thank you, and you do not have to be afraid of me, I am very forgiving, until you anger me again." Atlus walked into the sorting room. He noticed Derpy sitting with her back to him, trying to sort a stack of letters. He took it as a perfect opportunity to test how strong the nanobots are. He manipulated several to go into the paper bag, lifting the muffin out quietly. Levitated the muffin in front of her, while walking to the opposite side of her, she stared at the muffin for a minute, then attacked it, only to have it move away. She tried a few more times, much to Atlus' amusement.
"This is the first time a muffin has run away from me..." She scrunched her face in annoyance "Come back here!" She jumped for it, only for it to levitate away, and onto Atlus' head.
"You must say hello, before you get your gift." He smiled, but stopped when he saw her face, she was pouting, her ears laid back "D-don't be sad! I was only joki-" he started frantically before he was assaulted by a flying Ditzy Hooves.
"Never taunt me with a muffin! I will always get it!" She sat on his chest, consuming the muffin. When she finished the muffin she smiled at Atlus "Thank you for the muffin!"
Atlus stood, while she hovered in front of him "I wanted to show you my new synthetic skin... What do you think?"
She looked at him in her scrunched up 'I'm thinking' face. After a few minutes of her staring, and moving around him she responded "It totally fits you, both in the size aspect, and looks!"
Atlus took hold of her hoof "Derpy, could I show you something, out side?" She looked at him then nodded "good then let us go." They walked out in front of the post office. Atlus took a few extra steps then turned to face his grey companion. "Dimitri added a few upgrades, to assist my combat."
"Cool! Can I see?" She looked as though she was going to explode in excitement.
"That is what I wanted to show you, Dimitri enhanced the strength of the nanobots, and the amount of weight they can carry, they also glow now. But you can only really see them when they are in mass numbers." As he said this a blue, slow moving, fire looking cloud came from under his sleeves, engulfing his hands.
"That looks totally cool, but it kinda looks like the aura of a unicorns magic." She cocked her head sideways.
"I have explained the nanobots, correct?" She nodded "Good, I manipulate them to do what I require, that is out of my normal reach." A blob of nanobots floated up to an apple high in a tree, engulfed it, then after removing it from the tree, brought it to Derpy "This apple is for you."
She took the apple and bit into it "Mmmm, juicy and sweet!"
What It's Like To Call This Place Home
Atlus was walking randomly around town when he was stopped by a light brown pony, with a short, darker mane "Hey, cybermen!" Atlus turned to look at the voice "Stay away from Derpy!" Atlus was then hit by a massive bolt of electricity. He fell to the ground, his good eye blinking between red and blue.
As the pony started towards Atlus, he responded to his attacker "I am not a zzzyberman. I am an Artifizzzial Intelligenzzzzze, and you have angered me!" Atlus slowly stood back up, noticing a tool pointed at him, it was glowing green, as another bolt began its arc, Atlus made a shield of nanobots around him. When it made contact, all the nanobots glowed red. "She makes me... Happy... But not like normal happy..."
The brown pony began to flee "lies! I'm going to get her away from you!"
Atlus jumped, getting on a nearby roof, then moved quickly towards Derpy's workplace, using the roofs to avoid turns. He saw her leaving to go on her delivery runs, knowing her route, he altered his course for her first stop, Sweet Apple Acres. He arrived just before she did "Derpy, come with m-" he was hit with the green electricity.
"Atlus! Are you okey?!" She went to his side, but was stopped, when the brown pony grabbed her by the hoof, pulling her into the thick part of the apple orchards.
Atlus stood, his good eye glowing red. His bad eye activated, reveling that it was, under the outer casing, shattered. "You will not take her from me!" His voice was in three octaves at once. "I will find you!" Atlus dashed into the forest of apple trees, red vapor leaking from his damaged eye, giving it the appearance of fire. He saw the brown pony pull Derpy around a corner, following he noticed them go into a blue police box, one meant to be on earth. 'So I finally meet the Doctor, pity he must be punished.' Atlus stopped at the door to the Tartis "I will get her back!"
"No you won't!" This enraged Atlus, he reared his arm back, then slammed it into the door, only denting it. "Your a lot stronger than I thought, but your not going to break in!"
"You are angering something you have never encountered!" He hit the door harder, cracking it enough for him to see through.
"Atlus help!"
"Who's Atlus?"
"Me!" Atlus' arm punched a hole through the door, he put his other hand in the hole, ripping it open. "And now I will punish you!" He aimed his hand at the doctor, red glowing nanobots engulfed his hand. They pulsed green, then a ball of green plasma formed in his palm, just before it was released, a hand covered in burn scarring, grabbed his wrist, aiming it at the wall. The glowing orb made contact with the wall, exploding on contact, and decimating a large amount of machinery. "RED, this is not your fight, go back to your living place, now."
"Um, yea, your totally trespassing on AJ's land, and chasing two the Doctor, and Derpy into his home. You've destroyed hi front door, and were about to remove him from existence, why?"
Atlus looked RED in the eyes "He tried to take her from me."
"Wait... What? Dude, just because you like an indiv-"
"He attacked me with that." He pointed at the glowing, obviously overcharged, sonic screwdriver. "Twice, thinking I was a cybermen."
RED looked at the doctor "SC-7, how long have you known her?"
Derpy answered before Atlus could "he's known me for two weeks, and has been hanging out with me every day of that time."
"Ah... Um, Doctor, I think you should say something, like, now."
"I'm not apologizing to a cybermen!" The cloud of nanobots pulsed green "on second thought, I wish to know how it is possible for a cybermen to fire explosive plasma..." The cloud pulsed green three more times.
"I am no a cybermen!" Before Atlus could launch his attack, RED grabbed him, throwing him out. There were three explosions, all within ten feet of the Tartis.
"Where did Atlus go? RED sprinted back in "Doctor, get out of here, n-"
"You are too slow." Atlus was standing next to Derpy, his bad eye off, his good eye reverted back to blue, and he was holding the Doctor, who was smiling sheepishly, by the scruff of the neck. "I will help you repair what I have damaged. I apologize for my anger, and I have always wished to meet you in person. I have catalogued much proof of your escapades, and figured, that I was most likely never going to meet you, but here I am, holding the Doctor. I will give you your Sonic Screwdriver, but if you use it on me again, I will destroy it." Atlus set him on the ground, then handed him the tool.
"Um... Thanks... I guess..." The doctor looked to RED, who was just as confused.
"Yay! Atlus won!" Derpy tackled Atlus to the ground "Now I won!"
"Well, we bid you farewell!" Atlus and Derpy disappeared it a cloud of static.
What It's Like To Call This Place Home
Questionable/Burnable Findings
RED looked around "Well, that happened."
The Doctor sat down "Yep, and I was gonna ask her out..."
"Your too late, dude." RED turned and left the Tartis "I think Atlus has won." RED walked randomly around the orchards for several minutes, until he heard his name from somewhere towards the middle of the orchards, so he redirected his course in that direction. After several minutes, he arrived at the barn "Did somepony call me name?" RED walked to the front, finding Applejack sitting and waiting for him "Sup, AJ, you called?"
She nodded "Ah got a letter from Luna, she wants t' see y'all in Canterlot, today." She led him to a chariot with two of Luna's royal guard.
"What's with the chariot?" RED looked bored "I'm assuming she sent transportation for the other Spectors as well."
She nodded "Its important, but don't say anything, it's top secret."
"Cool, it's been too long since we got a top priority mission, I'll radio Atlus, let him know to get to Twi's place A.S.A.P."
She nodded, then stood on her hind legs, and kissed him "jus' be careful, alright?"
"I'm walking fire, being careful is the least of my concerns, don't worry about me, I'll be fine, k?" RED lifted her in a hug, then kissed her back "'Sides, I've got the others to help, should I need it." He put AJ back down, walking towards the chariot, he activated his radio "Atlus, report to Golden Oaks Library, A.S.A.P."
-"Affirmative"-
All five Spectors were standing on the flat roof of the tallest tower of the royal palace. It was a giant black slab of stone, in the center it looked like someone lived there. A book shelf, bed, and telescope, was placed about, as though it was used, very recently. They all stood at ease. "Attention!" Dimitri commanded the Spectors, as Luna began to appear, the Spectors obeyed the command, moving to attention.
Luna noticed this "A-at ease." Luna looked surprised, Dimitri noticed.
"Permission to speak, ma'am." Luna looked more surprised.
"Granted."
"You look surprised, may I ask why, ma'am?"
"Equestria has not been a military power since a massive was way back when Celestia and I had first gained control... It was also the last time we saw any of these" she conjured an illusion of a massive, armored, Changeling. "I think somepony has recruited The Changeling Queen's heavy soldiers, for warring reasons."
"How do you know they were recruited? Is it possible they have just quit?" PK questioned.
"I don't think they would all be going to the same location at the same time if they quit."
Atlus stepped forward "You wish for us to find the location they are heading, correct?"
Luna nodded. "Destroy any you encounter, you are the only military power Equestria has."
RED smirked "So what your saying is, that Equestria will never fall, as long as we live."
"If that is how you interpret it, then yes." She smiled "and since you are so cocky, the mission is all yours."
"Bad ass! Is this slab explosion-proof?"
"Yes."
"Atlus, what direction are they in?"
"North, Two-Hundred miles."
"Peace!" RED detonated the air around him, launching himself into the air, Atlus pointed north. RED continually detonated the air behind him, constantly moving him towards his target. "Atlus, what is their Position!"
"-They have stopped, I will keep you updated on their location, until you can see them.-"
Several minutes tater, RED had visuals "Atlus, cancel next update, I have visuals, I repeat, I have visuals." Red dropped through the air, landing a quarter mile away, before he lost view of them he used his nanobots to quickly count them "Ho-ly shit."
"-What did you see?-"
"My nanobots counted one-thousand-fifty of the bastards."
Dimitri chimed in "-Why so many... It's as if they're trying to build an army to rival us, specifically...-"
"-RED, this is the fifth pack to travel this path, Luna thought it was just a mating season kind of thing, but there apparently have never been reason for that many to have existed.-" Echo informed them "-What, Twi has been teaching me the history of Equestria, from the very beginning.-"
RED began laughing "Neeeerrrrrd! Man, E, you officially fail!" He began sprinting toward the Changeling camp "At any rate, this battalion is NOT getting any closer to their destination!" He jumped through a bush, several feet away from them, the second they noticed them, several exploded, the ones that should have been crippled, just stood back up, but the specific targets would never move again.
Anitchka was watching the show on a viewing portal, laughing "It will take a lot more of your fire to damage them, you fool!" His outburst caught Sombre's attention.
"Whats happening?" He looked at the portal, he watched horrified as RED, although having some trouble, slaughter the giant changelings "You allow your most powerful soldiers to be slaughtered, and laugh at their pain?!"
"Yes, he does!" Trixie appeared next to him "And I love that sense of humor!"
"And they thought I was Evil... That's really messed up."
"Silence yourself, and go Finnish the augmentations, I told you to make, or you will face him!" Sombre quickly trotted out of the room "Now it seems that I must retrieve the soldiers myself, if we ever want to have an army, of the correct proportions. I leave you in charge, until I return, my love." He kissed Trixie, before disappearing.
RED placed his palm on the face of the last Titan, causing the fluids in its head to rapidly explode. "Last one dead. I'm coming back, and leaving a note saying it took me..."
"-Fifteen minutes.-" Atlus informed him.
"To do this damage, and that there are four mor like me, ready for combat."
"-That is perfect, do you wish for me to teleport you?-" Atlus questioned.
"You can do that?"
"-Yes, Dimitri developed a perfected version of his teleportation system, one that allows me to teleport item not infused with nanobots.-"
"Why doesn't he do that to himself?"
"-The procedure would kill him, permanently.-"
"Ah, yea teleporting sounds like a good idea." RED said before Atlus appeared in a cloud of static.
"Let us go." Atlus grabbed RED's hood, then they were on the roof, with the other Spector
"Whoa, dude! You fuckin' stink!" Echo, and Dimitri covered their noses, PK fell forward (most powerful sense of smell) thudding on the ground, Luna covered her mouth, trotting to the edge and picking over the threshold.
RED looked at his arms "Oh yea, I forgot to burn of the gore!" He lit up, as a red flame engulfed him, incinerating all gore.
"Much better, damn, changeling gore smells bad! Why couldn't you smell that?"
RED scratched his head smiling as the fire went away "Gore smells like gore to me, not much difference."
The meeting was coming to a close as Luna was asking the final question "Now I cannot send a guard to acquire all of you every time, any ideas?"
RED thought for a second "Do you have something that will never stop burning?"
"Yes." She clapped her hoove together, causing an inch thick column to rid from the ground, an ice blue emerald sat atop the column "the only way to stop a fire on this emerald, is to completely submerge it in freezing water."
RED launched a crimson flame at it, lighting it "I can move through my own fire, like a checkpoint. Also, do you have more?"
"I have as many as you like."
"One-Hundred, please."
She summoned a pouch full of miniature versions of the ice blue emerald "Just place it in a spot, where it will not catch anything else on fire."
"Cool, peace!" He launched himself off the tower, then detonated the air behind him once, arcing him perfectly to land outside Sweet Apple Acres' sign. "Ah, home, sweet home!"
Trixie was sitting on the stuns throne, thinking, while Sombre trotted in "Hey.. Wait a minute... Where is the dragon?"
"He is manually retrieving the army." She sighed.
"Can I ask you something?"
"Sure, what's up?"
"What do you think of him, honestly? Are you using his love of you for power? Or is his love shared?"
She looked him in the eye "At first, I was just using him... But sixteen years ago he risked his only chance to kill all the Spectors by himself, to save my life... And sixteen years is a lot of time to think... And his love is... Shared."
"What a pity."
"Why?"
"He is the type who will sacrifice anything and anypony, to get exactly what he wants... I've only encountered one other being who was like that... He was a terrifying fighter..."
"And let me guess... It was you?"
He looked horrified "No, no it was not. That being was a true monster. It was the leader of the Spectors."
Trixie flinched "So that was him... If Anitchka says this army will work, it will."
"Is that what happened last time?"
What It's Like To Call This Place Home
RED looked around for a minute, then walked towards the Apples' farmhouse. Knocking he opened the door "Anypony home?" He stopped when he saw Big Mac, unconscious. He sprinted to the crimson stallion "Big Mac! What happened?"
He started to wake up, looking around, before jumping to his hooves "Where's Applejack?"
RED raised his eyebrows "Big Mac, what happened?"
"Ah don't know."
"I gotta find her!" RED sprinted our towards the Sweet Apple Acres sign, but was stopped.
"Sugarcube? Ain't y'all gonna give me a kiss, before you leave again?"
RED turned to face Applejack 'Somthin ain't right here...' "Why was Big Mac unconscious?"
"He hit his head." She immediately answered, unblinking.
"That doesn't sound like Big Mac..." He looked at her Stetson (not the original, RED made a new, darker one for a proposal) then into her eyes. "Why aren't you blinking?"
"Ah don' wanna blink, and you be gone." Again an immediate answer.
He scanned her, noticing a very slight shimmer of a fang "Your not AJ!"
She smiled psychotically "Course ah am."
Red boosted into turbo, before the fake could move, he had it two feet off the ground. He was holding it by the throat "Where is AJ?!"
"You will never know!" It started turning into its changeling form, RED removed the Stetson, then through the fake into the air. He snapped his fingers, causing the changeling to go boom. He put the Stetson on his head "Don't worry AJ, RED's comin'."
"Ah, it seems you were right... He can see through the changelings falsetto..."
Applejack was hanging in a cage from the ceiling "Let me go! I wanna go home!"
Anitchka ignored her "Sombre! Send a squad to him, and send her as well... As incentive to fight harder..."
Sombre reluctantly bowed "Y-yes m'lord... Squad one, you have your orders!"
As RED arrived at the edge of the Everfree, a team of Spectors, minus Dimitri, stopped him, with them was AJ in a cage "Ahh... Our target came to us..."
"Release her, or you will not walk away from here!"
"I don't think I will." The copy of Echo stated.
"I'm warning you!"
"Yeah, as if you have the power to stop us."
RED smiled, but not a pleasant smile "You have no clue what you are toying with." RED boosted to turbo, lighting his left hand on fire "Lets just say, if you play with me, you will get burnt."
The false PK dropped the cage containing Applejack "You will not beat our full squad."
"-RED, I will remove her from this place after you initiate combat.-" the voice of Atlus stated in his head.
The impostors left the cage behind them as they moved toward RED. The copy of himself launched blue fire in his direction, RED put his arms in a cross position, blocking the fire, witch froze the bits of his jacket that were touched. As the fire died, RED noticed the feet of the Echo clone, en route to his chest, RED slid to the side, avoiding the assault. When the False Echo passed him, he jumped, avoiding a massive fist. While in the air, RED noticed his copy charging a large ball of blue fire. RED snapped the fingers of his right hand, causing an explosion inside the giant blue flame. The cold fire mixed with the hot explosion, caused a massive boom, incinerating the copy of RED, leaving behind only the right hand. RED noticed the second hand of the PK copy coming towards his chest, RED detonated the air under his right foot, flipping him out of the way. RED landed facing the enemy, running towards them, he prepared an explosive punch in his right hand. When he reached them, the Echo clone tried to tackle him, RED detonated the ground under his feet, launching him just barley above the clone of his friend, he twisted, smashing a punch into the back of the fast clone, just before detonating the prepped explosive punch. The explosion pushed RED's fist through the false Echo, as RED's hand got halfway through, he detonated the skin on his hand, blowing the false Echo in half. 'Two down, one to go' landing, RED looked to the giant angry PK "We can do this only one of two ways, the hard way, or the easy way."
"And tell me, what is the easy way?"
"I don't kill you, and you go back where you came from."
After hearing this the giant started laughing "Only one of us will walk away from here! And it will not be you!" The PK imposter moved toward RED, once he got within distance, he began swinging his fists attempting to smash RED's chest. Each time his fist was close, RED jumped either over it, or back away form it, this angered the giant even more. After several minutes of this, a gem spike impaled RED, allowing the false PK to smash him into the ground. Once his opponent was down, he started smashing his fists down on the bloody body, until it stopped moving. The giant stopped, walking to a barley alive clone of Echo "Thank you, but now I will be the only one to return."
"W-what? They can h-heal m-me."
The copy of PK picked the clone of echo off the ground, by the head. He crushed the head of the legless copy of Echo, killing it immediately "Not anymore."
"You disgust me." The giant turned to see RED standing, his ribs moving back into place, or back together "He just helped you kill me." He layered the 'kill' with sarcasm"So you smash his head? Wtf man?" RED boosted back into turbo, disappearing in a ball of fire. The giant dropped his dead teammate, looking around, before noticing RED standing mere feet from him "Do you want to try and survive my biggest attack?"
Feeling cocky the giant smiled "I bet you could barley damage my hair."
RED smiled psychotically "You asked for it!" His eyes closed as the area began to drop in temperature, several minutes later RED's skin began to look more and more charred, the RED began to laugh psychotically as the wind picked up, swirling around the area, then his eyes opened.
"NO! YOU FOOL!" Anitchka yelled at the portal, as Sombre approached.
"What is the matter, who is the fool?" Sombre looked in confusion at the portal, as a white lite filled the entirety of the screen, Anitchka moved the view to a much higher location, showing a swirling ball of fire "What is that?"
Anitchka sighed "that is why you are charging your magic instead of growing your army, I want you to assist me in making our ultimate weapon."
What It's Like To Call This Place Home
RED awoke at what used to be the edge of the Everfree, it was now a large blackened, charred, dot of landscape. He stood, looking around, the cage AJ had been trapped in was still smoking 'I haven't been out too long then.' He started towards town, but stopped when he noticed he wasn't wearing AJ's Stetson. He searched frantically, finding it, at the bottom of a flowing stream, that his fire uncovered. He fished it out, looking it over, it was undamaged. 'Thank god! It survived! Now I just gotta find AJ.' He turned, sprinting towards town "Atlus, is she with you?"
"-...-"
"Atlus?"
"-...rry, the heat from....... ininova..... ausing a good amount of interferen....... is with me.......... the library.-"
"Cool thanks!" RED detonated the ground below his feet, launching him towards the library. After several minutes RED arrived with a loud thud against the tree home "That hurt."
Echo helped him off the ground "Are you alright?"
RED shook the soot off "No, I'm RED."
"Very funny, smart ass. AJ is waiting inside." RED sprinted into the library "Hey, no running in the library!"
"Too late!" RED called as he shut the door on Echo. RED slowed to a stop when he saw AJ, she was sitting in the middle of the floor, with tear stains along her face "AJ, what's the matter?"
"There was a white light, so Twi cast a spell to allow us t' see through th' light, and when we saw th' giant ball of fire, Atlus said that you might've gone terminal. That you mightn't come back..."
RED moved to her side, embracing her in a tight hug "I will always come back." He put the Stetson on her head while adding "I will never let anyone, especially you, down. It'll take a lot more than some cheap excuses for clones of me and the other Spectors, to kill me."
"Cheap excuses?! I used a lot of my magic to create them! How strong could they b-"
"Science yourself, this test has done exactly as it was intended to."
Sombre looked the dragon in the eyes "What, waste my magic?!"
"No. This test was to see if one squad can take him down, at least for a few seconds, and it has."
"So they are not wasted... Brilliant, just brilliant..." Sombre walked out of the room, as Trixie was entering.
"Ah, my love returns, what news do you have?"
Trixie levitated a letter from her hat "I have no clue where's this came from, but it was obviously for one of us."
"How do you know it wasn't just dropped and forgotten?" Anitchka took it in his grip, he noticed it had the Alicorn amulet printed on it. He opened it reading it aloud.
-Dear Anitchka,
-You have caused much chaos in Equestria, which is my job, however I am a peaceful spirit. I cannot stop you however I shall see to your downfall.
-With great irritation, Discord.
As Anitchka read the last line, the letter morphed into a floating mouth, spitting in his face, then it burst into confetti. "I have no clue what that was all about, but when I rule, this 'Discord' will regret that letter."
RED and AJ were walking home together, as the walked they shared stories from their past. Stories of happy times, and sad ones, when they finally arrived at the barn, they were both about to collapse and sleep wherever they landed. They managed to make it halfway from the gate to the two buildings when they heard something fall in the barn. This caused RED's soldier instinct to force him fully awake, he turned to AJ "Get inside."
She began to look a little worried "Why?"
"Just trust me, get inside, tell Mac to wait for me to call."
She had a look of understanding "Alright, but ah had better see ya' either later tonight or tomorrow, okey?"
RED nodded, causing AJ to get inside the farmhouse quickly. RED approached the barn, boosting to turbo while he did so. When he reached the door, he heard a voice whisper to itself "Maybe if I'm still nopony will notice I'm here..."
RED threw the barn door open, he could see nothing. After a minute of looking for any movement, he spotted a large pile of hay shivering, this caused him to raise an eyebrow. "Hey I'm not gonna hurt you, just come out, nice an' easy, okey? If you don't attack me, I won't attack you, okey?"
"How do I know you won't call me a witch and burn me at the stake?"
"Look pal I'm a fucking soldier, who commands fire, and creates explosions from thin air. Plus, I'm fairly certain Twi said that all that shit stopped like four hundred years ago, or somethin'." RED went back to normal.
"Y-you can do what?!" He exclaimed as he stood, showing he was, in actuality, an Alicorn, white coat, with brown splotches, brown horn, sea foam green eyes, and short black mane, the tip of each hare was the same as his eyes. "Wait, you said you were a soldier. Who's army are you aligned with?"
"Princess Celestia. Um... Your not from here are you?"
"Of coarse, but not from this time... Has my Lu- I mean Princess Luna returned?"
RED's shoulders fell, as did his head "Great, now I can't go to sleep with my wife." He looked toward the farmhouse "BIG MAC, COME ON OUT IT'S SAFE!!" RED looked back to the Alicorn "What is your name?"
"Cosmic Plane... Why?"
"Because you obviously know my boss personally, so they should remember who you are." Big Mac arrived at the end of that statement.
"..." Big Mac stared at Cosmic Plane for a few seconds, then turned to RED.
"Can you tell AJ I'll see her in th' mornin', I get to escort this guy all the way to Canterlot, like now."
"Eeyup." Big Mac started walking towards the farmhouse.
"Can you actually fly with those things?"
Cosmic Plane looked at his wings, then nodded to RED.
"Good, follow me." Red detonated the dirt touching his feet, launching himself into the air, as he was moving up he attached lines from his belt to the bottom of his jacket, creating a mini-glider. The Alicorn quickly reached the same hight as RED, as red put enough hot air under his jacket to keep him afloat. "Try to keep up." Red leaned forward, causing him to start gliding quickly in his leaning direction, he made himself stay at a level altitude using a method that constantly creates hot air under his jacket. He looked the the side of him, noticing the Alicorn was watching him curiously. "If you got a question, ask it, I'm not totally unapproachable."
"Well, if its not too much to ask, what are you, and are there more of you?"
"It is a long story, but I am a human, a bipedal species, we do not have a protective coat so we all wear clothes at all times. Technically there are five of us, but only two of us are in our original form, me and the others are technically the entire Equestrian army. Was that so hard to ask?"
"Is your wife also a human?"
"No, she is an earth pony, and the Spectors and I are all men."
"Wait, you said that the five of you are the only members of the Equestrian army! What has happened to the royal guards?!"
"They are still in place, but they don't fight the wars, so that they don't get in our way."
"I don't understand, what do you mean by get in our way?"
"You'll see later."
What It's Like To Call This Place Home
Echo and twilight were walking home from an eventful dress and tuxedo fitting at the Carousel Boutique, when twilight went to open the door Echo stopped her "Hold still." Echo slowly disappeared "Something big is heading over Ponyville." Three green dots appeared before Echo's nano bots could hide his knight-vision goggles. Echo reappeared as he was removing the goggles. "It just some lunar guards heading two reds Sugar Cube Corner, which means I'm probably going to be getting a letter soon."
"Okey, so first we find Spike?"
"Eeyup." They opened the door just as Spike was reaching it, making him freeze up like a fainting goat, and fall onto his back. This caused Echo to burst out laughing.
"That wasn't that funny." Twilight said helping her assistant off the ground.
"Your lying, it was totally that funny."
Spike, who was now the same size as an adult pony, was giving Echo a death stare "You have a letter, Echo."
Echo noticed a difference in Spike's voice 'Oh, I may have pissed him off, I haven't made him jump that badly since he was still small.' Echo stopped his laughing, making Spike raise an eyebrow "I'm sorry Spike, I didn't mean it that way, if you'd seen what we had for comedy back on Earth, you'd see how I thought that was funny, I've been doing that all day. Anyway, you wanna pass me that letter, so you don't miss your date?"
"Oh, hear, I almost forgot! Do you think Emma is gonna be mad?"
"Not if you hurry. You shouldn't be late, if you use that parkour I taught you, hell if you start now, and use parkour the whole way, you should be early."
"Thanks, also twilight can't be standing behind you when you open it; magic something or other, the princesses put in it, bye!" Spike sprinted out, jumping onto a fence, then leaping onto a nearby roof and out of sight.
"You really think he'll make it?"
"Trust me, he'll be early, as long as he keeps his pace steady at what he was doing." Echo moved back, then faced Twilight "Well, lets get this over with." Echo made sure his hooves were firmly on the ground, then looked at the letter in his hand. He opened it, immediately getting enveloped by a golden magical aura, after a few seconds there were two bulges under the back of his T-shirt, then they ripped two holes in the back, revealing them to be new wings, the feathers were light blue, but shifted in the light, and made no sound when flapped, unlike Pegasus wings. Twilight immediately began inspecting his wings as he read the letter aloud.
-Dear Twilight and Echo,
-Please gather the other Elements, and Spectors, something important has come up. I have given Echo permanent wings, that suit his stealth style combat, they do not posses normal avian feathers, but owl-like feathers. You've probably also noticed that they shift in the light, so that your nanobots don't have to work so hard. It also imprinted the knowledge of how to use them most efficiently, we will see you soon.
-Celestia & Luna
Echo put the letter on a table near him "Well, I guess I'll see you later." He turned towards the door "Dimitri, Atlus, RED, PK, move to Celestia's position, I repeat, Dimitri, Atlus, RED, PK, move to Celestia's position."
-"Affirmative, I am on my way." Atlus responded.
-"I'm already there, E, and I've sent lunar guards to retrieve PK, an Pinkie."- RED replied.
-"I've got Fluttershy with me, we'll see you there."- Dimitri stated.
"Great, I'll get rainbow, and meet everyone there." Echo flew out into the knight sky.
After several minutes, Echo finally found Rainbow Dash sleeping on a random cloud, higher than the rest. 'This is too perfect!' Echo slowly went invisible, then stopped at a hover in front of the sleeping multi-color pony "Rainbow Dash, wake up!" Echo yelled, making her jolt awake, then look around, trying to find where the loud voice came from.
"Odd, I could've sworn I heard a voice..." As she began a single blink, Echo became visible again.
When she opened her eyes, Echo was inches from her face. "Boo." She froze, making Echo start to laugh, until Rainbow bit his outstretched finger "Ow!" Echo stopped laughing, holding his finger close "You bit me!"
"Yeah, I did." She smiled "And I'll do it again if you scare me aga- wait, how are you flying?"
Echo turned his back to her, revealing his wings "Celestia gave me permanent wings, cool huh?"
She looked at them, noticing they made no sound when they moved "How are you doing that?"
"What?"
"Your wings don't make any sound, how?"
"Oh... Owl feathers."
"Ah." She stared at him for a moment "Well?"
Realizing he had almost forgot his reason for being in the air he quickly answered "Celestia wants the elements, and Spectors to report to Canterlot Castle! Lets go!"
After a few minutes of flying as fast as they could manage, they arrived at the palace, rainbow entered through the front door, while Echo dropped into the hole in the roof. He landed at attention with his comrades.
Celestia was sitting at her throne, Luna sitting next to her, with her eyes at the floor. Then he noticed a new allicorn, lunar guards at his sides, his hooves were bound in chains, and he looking at Luna sadly. Echo decided to break the silence, before the rest of the elements arrived "What the hell is going on here? Who is this guy? And why is he in chains?"
Celestia looked at his in a way that said *mind your own business, and do your job* then she addressed his questions "He has been arrested for fleeing the country when he was the only one who could save it."
"That makes no sense, and who is he?" Echo broke formation, walking to the allicorn, the lunar guards went to stop him, but he just threw them aside "What is your name, and why did you flee?"
The allicorn looked him in the eye "Cosmic Plane, and I did not flee."
"Liar! He teleported away, when my sister was being taken over by Nightmare Moon! He was the only pony that could stop the proce-"
"Shut the fuck up! I wasn't asking you!" Echo bursted, shocking all three allicorns, and the guards "Now what really happened?" He looked into Cosmic Plane's eyes. He could see fear, sadness, pain... anger.
"I went to use my magic, to put a shield over her and I, incase I failed. The Nightmare messed with my magic, and sent me four hundred years into the future. I did not know how long Luna was sentenced to the moon for, so I kept trying to replicate the magical failure, but kept failing, and having to move to another town. Every time I failed, the townsfolk called me a witch, then tried to burn me at the stake. After twenty years I perfected a portal to the past, so I could stop Nightmare Moon, but when I jumped through, I fell from the top floor of a barn. Then that human thing found me, and brought me here." He looked to the ground.
Echo walked over to Luna, and put his hand on her shoulder, making her jump "What was his connection to you?" He whispered.
"He was my closest f-friend... And... And...." She closed her eyes, looking down.
"Everyone out! Now!" Echo ordered, his comrades look at him questioningly.
Celestia looked offended "What makes you think you can order me arou-"
"NOW!" he yelled, slammed his fist into a column. There was a crunching sound as his arm was bent at an awkward angle, only for it to move back together. The Spectors moved, pulling Celestia, the guards, Rainbow, Pinkie, and Fluttershy out of the room. "Leave Cosmic here." The doors slowly shut. "Luna, please tell me his affiliation with you?"
She looked into his eyes, they held nothing but understanding and pain, not physical, but emotional. He slammed his hoof on the ground, causing a wall of emerald sprout from the floor "It's sound proof, if you don't want him to hear something out of uncertainty, now is the perfect time to tell me." She said nothing "Listen, I respect you, almost as much as I respect my brothers, that is why I accepted you as the new director for the Spectors. And I refuse to just sit by and watch my leader, no, my friend in this kind of emotional turmoil... So you can tell me whatever you deem fit for me to hear."
"I... Before... Before the Nightmare tried to take over, he and I were the closest of friends, but I've always liked him more than he thought I did... But I never got the chance to tell him, and when he teleported away, it made me think he did not like me anymore... I was going to tell him the night that the nightmare chose be begin the procedure..." A tear fell from her face as she closed her eyes, looking down to the floor.
"I'll bet the Nightmare messed up his shield, because it sensed that love you held for him..." Echo walked towards the wall, a doorway opening for him, as he walked through it, it shut. 'Now I want to hear what he has to say about their past...' As he got close to Cosmic, he summoned a sapphire dome over both of them "Cosmic, what is your history with Luna, what is your opinion of her?"
"We were always close friends, but I wanted more than friendship... I wanted love... But she never acted like she felt the same, I was always afraid that if I confessed to her, that she might laugh at me, or never talk to me again... And I was going to confess after I freed her from the Nightmare's grip... Celestia an I could sence it long before it tried to take over, and it was Celestia who told me to develop something to stop it, my great creation was the Elements of Harmony... But before I could try to use it, the Nightmare sent my into the future..." He looked down, echo made the gem seep back into the ground.
He walked to Luna and stood next to her "Cosmic, come here, you both have something to say."
What It's Like To Call This Place Home
Echo flung the doors open with a triumphant smile, Celestia moved towards him "And what are you so happy about? Did she exile him?" Echo's smile died.
"No. But they are now a couple!" After saying this Celestia's jaw dropped. Echo began laughing "I win!"
Dimitri put his had on Celestia's shoulder "He has always been able to help anyone with emotional problems... But up until he met Twilight, he could never help himself."
Celestia burst through the door, staring at Cosmic and Luna leaning against each other, she saw that her sister was finally truly happy, making her smile "Cosmic Plane, you may stay as long as you like... But if you hurt my sister again, the royal guard will be the least of your worries."
Cosmic, and Luna looked at Celestia "Thank you." Cosmic smiled.
Echo opened the door "Twi, you home? You never showed up at the palace. Echo noticed the library was wrecked, as though there was a fight "Okey Twi, you can come out now!" He said as he walked into the home, he found a letter pinned to the wall by an arrow. "What the hell?"
-Echo, if you want your precious allicorn back, be at Ghastly Gorge tonight, alone.
-Anitchka
Echo stared in disbelief for several minutes, before opening his wings. He smashed through a window, instead of going through the door. "If there's even one hair missing from her head, you will be dead!" His knuckles turned to diamond as he slowly boosted into turbo.
After a minute of high speed flying, Echo reached his destination, Ghastly Gorge. He went into full cloak, searching for his missing love, once he spotted her, his rage boosted, she was in a cage surrounded by inhabitants of the area. While they were trying to gain access, he landed quietly on top of the cage. His cloak deactivated, exposing him to the creatures. In an attempt to rescue Twilight, he led the creatures into a cave, a few minutes later he returned, grabbed the cage, then lifted it into the air, flying up into the clouds, he stopped when he was at the correct altitude, created a sapphire clone of himself, capable of flight. He handed the cage to the clone, pulling two bars apart, he woke her up. "Echo? Oh thank Celestia it's you! Sombre turned me back into a unicorn!"
She almost started to cry, but echo stopped her "I don't care what shape you take, you are still the mare I fell in love with." Echo picked her up, and out of the cage, causing the clone to die, falling to the ground below. "Now lets go home."
"And what might I ask, was the point of me taking her allicorn status away?" Sombre stared angrily into Anitchka's eyes.
"I siphoned the extra magic that her Unicorn form released, and now I can use the weapon that you are charging your magic to create." Anitchka smiled, as another wave of changeling soldiers teleported into their cave "Go, and introduce the new recruits to the rest of our forces, I have a meeting to attend to..." Anitchka disappeared.
Anitchka reappeared in a white room. "This room seems to orderly if your job is to create chaos..." He felt the walls 'hmmm, there fake' he sat in a chair "I'm here, you can come out now."
"Oh, I don't think I will... But tell me, what is your plan? What is the point of those banned war creatures? And why are you amassing them?"
"I'm going to take over Equestria, slaughter millions, and make the *princesses* watch as I slowly kill the elements of harmony, starting with Pinkie, and ending with Fluttershy." He began laughing.
"What's so funny?" Discord's voice sounding angry.
"You have just gotten me to monologue, and quite frankly I don't give a living damn, now goodbye, my little pest." Anitchka disappeared.
Echo woke up sitting in a bedside chair, Twilight shifted "Hey, you awake?" Twilight opened her eyes, nodding to Echo. "You wanna try standing again? If it doesn't work again, I'll call Atlus, okey?"
"Okey." She slid herself to the edge of the bed, then tried to stand, catching her balance she looked at him "See, I told you that I just needed some sl-" she stopped as she started to fall, only to be caught, and placed back into the bed by Echo.
"You are not moving until Atlus confirms that there's no trauma to your spinal column." Echo sat back into the chair "Atlus, can you hear me? I repeat, Atlus can you hear me?"
-"Affirmative, what is it that you require, Echo?"-
"I need a medical scan of Twilight, how soon can you come over?"
-"How serious is it?"-
"She can't stand, at all."
Atlus appeared in the center of the room. "That is a very serious problem." He walked over to the bedside "Can you please lie on your stomach, the scan may take anywhere from a few seconds to a couple hours, depending on the severity of the damage."
"Okey." She said as she rolled onto he stomach.
Atlus held both hands an inch from her back, and he began moving his hands up and down the length of her spine, his palms glowed white. Thirty minutes of this process he spoke, while not stopping the scan "Seven fracture points, four torn ligaments, three spots of severe nerve damage, spinal cord completely intact." Echo released a breath he had no clue he'd been holding "You are lucky Dimitri had chosen to bring me through the portal here, had I not been here she would never use her hind legs again, but the healing process is an odd, extremely painful, and complex. But unluckily we can not use pain killer for said procedure."
"Why not?" Echo and twilight asked in unison.
"Using pain killer would cause the procedure to fail, with a 99.9% chance of causing more damage. Do you wish to continue, might I add, she can be moved somewhere more peaceful and relaxing, it might help distract from the pain." Atlus looked at Echo, not stopping the scan "How did this damage occur? There are no creature that would cause this through damage, and not kill the target."
"I'll tell you." Twilight said, making both Echo, and Atlus look to her. "They didn't only use a spell to remove my Alicorn status. Anitchka ripped my wings out, then Sombre cast the spell to physically turn me back to a unicorn." She looked at the opposite wall "They used an ancient form of dishonorably removing the status... The way was reserved for traitors, or those who committed an otherwise unpublishable crime..." A tear rolled down her cheek.
Echo moved to console her "I don't know if it'll help, but I kinda preferred you as a unicorn, we didn't have to worry about too much attention, bad publicity, or ponies trying to be friends with you or I for the political power, just you and I. Don't get me wrong I was beyond prows of you, but you were born as a unicorn, not an Alicorn... And you look much better as a unicorn." Echo made her look at him. "No matter what you look like, I will always love you, Twilight Sparkle, for who you are."
What It's Like To Call This Place Home
Echo put Twilight in a similar sling to the one Dimitri had use in the final part of their escape from earth, Atlus had informed him that teleporting my cause more damage, so it was to the skies for them. Once up past the clouds, Echo had uncovered Twi's head, allowing her to see the sights of Ponyville, without the press stalking her like injured prey. "Where do you want to go?"
"How about Fluttershy's cottage, she can keep anypony calm." Echo nodded, gliding slowly towards the small, secluded cottage, once within view Echo could see Dimitri dragging a large log, into a clearing of dirt, about fifty yards away from the cottage. After a few seconds, Atlus appeared next to Dimitri, talking and pointing in their direction. Dimitri nodded, then disappeared, reappearing next to Echo.
"Do you need any help? Or do you want me to get Flutters?" Dimitri's left arm was visibly trembling.
"Could you get Fluttershy?" Twilight looked at him. He nodded, disappearing.
After a few mor minutes, they touched down onto the small bridge, Echo walked into the house, where Fluttershy was frantically fixing her coffee table to be used as a makeshift stretcher. "Place her, stomach down, on the table, and the procedure can begin, I have already debriefed the others of the situation." After Echo set her down, Dimitri walked Echo into his work room, witch had been converted into a surgical room, it was lit as best as possible. Echo looked to Dimitri.
"Why isn't the procedure taking place down here?"
Dimitri pressed a switch, and a white stretcher rose from the ground. "It is, Atlus is preparing her for the procedure."
"How?"
"He is informing her that you and I can't be in here for the procedure, but Fluttershy is allowed, so that she can keep Twilight calm." Dimitri walked under the hatch, hitting a button a platform rose, after a few seconds it came back down with Dimitri holding the table. Twilight was engulfed in a red aura, then she was levitated onto the stretcher, as Atlus and Fluttershy appeared in the room.
Echo kissed twilight "Be strong, I'll be just upstairs if you absolutely need me."
She smiled "Okey..."
Dimitri walked to the elevator hatch exit "C'mon Echo, I've got some questions for ya." As Dimitri turned to look, the elevator started up, Echo standing beside him. Once the hatch closed, Dimitri led Echo to the couch "It was him, wasn't it?"
Echo looked down "Yea, and I wasn't there to save her." Echo tooled into Dimitri's living and mechanical eyes "He can't be allowed to live this time!"
"Do you know how long I've been trying to kill him? The whole time I've been on earth, I've been trying to kill him, without releasing him. But apparently, he wants to feel pain when I kill him."
Once Dimitri finished that sentence an orange mare, with a purple mane walked into the cottage "Mom, I'm home! One of my friends told me that dad has retur-" she paused as she noticed Echo and a bigger version of her little sister, but it looked bored. "Wh-who are you?"
Dimitri picked up a picture off the couch-side table, showing it of her he said "Dose he look familiar?" While pointing at himself in the picture.
"Dad?" She looked at him, Echo started laughing.
"What's so funny?" Both the Pegasus, and Dimitri asked in unison.
Echo moved to Dimitri's side "She had a bet with me!"
"What was this bet?"
She looked embarrassed "Hey, PK is in the bet to!"
"What was the bet?" Dimitri was getting impatient.
"She thought, along with PK, that the human military had killed you. So I made a bet with them! If I won, she has to move to a closer high school location, and PK had to start high school!"
At this Dimitri burst out laughing "And PK went along with this?! Considering how shy he is?"
"Eeyup!" Echo and Dimitri continued to laugh for several minutes, Scootaloo getting irritated.
"It's not funny! Now I have to be in the same school as Diamond Tiara again!" She huffed "Is there any way to confines you to let stay in the same school?"
"Nnope!" Dimitri calmed down "Don't worry, you'll have PK, and your friends to help you!" He looked to Echo "Hey now one of Equestria's best soldiers is in high school!" They continued to laugh for more than half an hour, until the hatch to the basement started to slowly go down.
Echo held his Breath as the elevator rose, holding Atlus, Fluttershy, and a standing Twilight, he rushed to her side. "How'd it go?"
"She will require one more checkup in two weeks, for me to insure her spinal column has been correctly settled back into place, and the nerves were completely healed. You ar not to allow her to walk farther than the distance from her bed to the front door." Atlus looked at her "But, all and all, it was a success, and do not worry, the checkup will be completely painless."
"You should apply at the Ponyville hospital, it wasn't as painful as you made out..." Twilight said while looking to him.
"That is because, when you tell someone that a required procedure is worse than it actually is, they mentally prepare for the worst, unknowingly dulling the much smaller pain that actually occurs." He looked at Echo "do you require any assistance in getting her back into the sling?"
"Nnope." Echo said, while scooping twilight up, and depositing her into the sling. "Peace, we'll see you all later!" Echo stated while flying out of the building, and into the knight air.
What It's Like To Call This Place Home
PK felt a shiver run down his spine as he awoke 'That is weird... Something is not right...' He stood from his sitting position next to Pinkies bed (he's to big to lay on it) he began to walk toward the door but stopped. 'I should let her know where I will be...' He walked over to the nightstand, her pet gator was sleeping facing her, he put a note on the end of the gator's snout 'Now to Sweet Apple Acres, I must talk to RED...' He opened the door, quietly closing it behind him. He made his way down to the first story floor of the sweets shop, noticing the Cakes had already awoken 'It seems I have slept in... How unlike me...'
He entered the room "Good morning PK, it feels so weird to have awoken up before you for once." Mr. Cake stated, PK nodded.
"It is very weird, indeed..." PK replied "I am heading to Sweet Apple Acres, do you need anything from the market?" They shook their heads. "Alright, I will see you at a later time then." He walked out the door, towards his destination, after several minutes he saw Echo flying overhead, towards the library 'Why is Twilight strapped to his back?' When she noticed PK looking at her, she quickly disappeared into the sling 'That is suspicious...' He started walking towards the library 'RED, I will be late to help, but if Pinkie shows up before I do, send her to the library.'
-"Alright, don't be too late."-
"Affirmative." He continued on his way, once the library was in view, he saw Echo closing the door 'What is your hurry...' When he reached the door, he knocked lightly, and heard rustling "Echo, it is PK, can you let me in? I have some questions for Twi."
"She's asleep." He heard as the door opened "What's up?"
"She is not asleep, I saw you flying home. Now, I have a few questions regarding the latent magic that formed inside of me." 'And why she was in a sling on your back...' Echo sighed, then let PK in.
"She's upstairs, be quick."
"I will." PK moved up the stairs, through the door and into the bedroom.
"Hey PK, how are you?" Twilight greeted him.
He looked her in the eyes "Why were you warped in a sling on Echo's back?"
She looked down "It's a long story... But take a seat and I'll explain everything." Echo answered before Twilight could say anything.
The explanation took all of about half an hour 'Anitchka must be planning something big...' He stood "I apologize for my questioning, but I must be on my way, I was supposed to help RED and the Apples with this years harvest." He picked up, and hugged both Twilight and Echo "Anitchka will be feeling pain from all of us for this." He set them down, then exited the room, down the stairs, and out the door. He sprinted down the street, noticing Pinkie skipping towards the Apple's farm. As he got in range, he picked her off the ground, and put her onto his shoulder.
"PK! I thought you were at Applejack's farm!"
"I had to make a quick stop at the library."
"Oh... Okey!"
PK continued his fast pace, until they reached the gate entrance to the apple farm 'now where is Red?' He set pinkie on the ground, walking towards the barn, inside was Big Mac, loading a new cart with empty baskets "Big Mac, I am hear to help." Big Mac only nodded in response. PK moved grabbing a stack of crates 'This should be enough' he set the crates down into a cart not being used by anyone "Pinkie, could you come with me? I need a pony to pick out the bad apples."
"Sure!" She jumped into the cart.
He put the baskets back into a pile 'Since she will be sorting through them, I can just basket them after we get a full cart...' He started pulling the cart forward, as he did Pinkie moved to a standing position on his back. "Are you having fun there?"
"Yup!"
"Why do you like standing on my shoulders, or back?"
"Does it annoy you?"
"Not at all, you are virtually weightless to me, I was just curious."
Pinkie gave him a large smile "Oh, okey!" She thought for a second "Maybe it's because it makes me feel like a giant! And who could turn down that, it's like a party inside of a giant cake!" The comparison made PK chuckle.
"That is one way of putting it!" PK stopped next to a tree, parking the cart underneath. "Are you ready?"
"Yuperoo!"
"Okey," PK punched the tree, sending all the apples to the fat of gravity, and the judgement of Pinkie Pie. She began hitting bad apples out of the air, one splattering on PK's face. 'Well that just happened...'
Pinkie noticed after a second "I'm so sorry!" She said as PK wiped the apple goo off his face.
"It is no problem, in another situation it would have been pretty funny." He chuckled as he moved the cart under another tree "I'm going to cover my face this time."
"Okey!" PK repeated the action, but this time he covered his face.
When all the bad apples were gone he turned to move the cart under another tree, but revived a pie to the face. 'I should have seen that coming...' He wiped the pie goo off his face, while hearing the voices of both Pinkie and Applejack laughing. "It truly is funny, but... It's funnier if everyone gets the joke!" He said as he smeared the destroyed pie into their faces. Making them stop laughing, making PK start laughing 'Yes this truly is funny...' After a second they rejoined in the laughter.
The rest of the day went smoothly, PK and Pinkie helped cut down a large amount of work, and now PK was walking home with a very tired Pinkie on his shoulder 'Today has been a good day, but now we must go home, perhaps tomorrow will be even better...'
"Aw, look at the peaceful giant, it sickens me!" Anitchka yelled as he hit the wall "He has all that strength, and invincibility, he could take over the world if he wanted to!" He yelled as he hit the wall again, making a hole "But he doesn't! He just wastes it!" He yelled as he made the hole in the wall bigger.
"Why are you getting worked up over the giant one, he won't stand much of a chance once you revile your secret weapon." Trixie stated, calming him down.
"You're right, I should just stop watching them for awhile, and hep finish the weapon." He replied.
"I know I'm right, I'm The Great and Powerful Trixie!" She stated while taking on a sophisticated pose, making Anitchka laugh.
"I know, and soon you shall also be my queen!" Anitchka stated as he smashed the spell he'd been using to watch the Spectors.
What It's Like To Call This Place Home
-One week later-
PK shifted nervously next to an irritated Scootaloo outside of Ponyville High School, while Emma walked ahead of them. 'I heard high school students can be fairly cruel... I hope it is not the same in Equestria...' As if on cue, Scootaloo tried to comfort the giant.
"It's okey PK, there are only two ponies you have to worry about, and they are Dia-" she was interrupted by a pink mare, shoving her out of the way.
"Hello tall, strong, and handsome! I'm Diamond Tiara, maybe you've heard of me!" She said whilst swishing her hips.
"No." PK replied, making Diamond Tiara stand still, and Scootaloo burst into laughter. 'What the hell is so funny?'
Scootaloo stood next to PK "He's already taken."
Diamond hit Scootaloo, knocking her down "You little b-" was all she said before PK was holding her high off the ground by her mane.
"Do not touch her again, or it will be a fatal mistake!" PK yelled, scaring both Scootaloo, and Dimond Tiara. He dropped her, then helped Scootaloo off the ground. "It is okey, if she tries that again, she will regret it."
"You think you can treat me like that?!" This made PK glare at her, she turned and ran into the building.
-two hours later-
PK was walking to a class he'd been looking toward to; a class taught by Atlus 'Finally, a class where I know someone...' He walked into the room, and sat in a seat in the back, so as not to block anyone's view, after a few minutes he was surrounded on three sides by Apple Bloom, Sweety Bell, and Scootaloo 'Good, at least there are friends here...' "Good morning Apple Bloom and Sweety Bell, how is your morning going?"
"It's okey, ah guess, how 'bout you?" Apple Bloom replied.
"First it was infuriating, then it has only been a very nervous day for me, I guess you could say, that until now I've been like Fluttershy..." He answered hiding behind his black hair. "On the bright side, I know my next two instructors, so at least I won't be an outcast in two classes a day."
"Aw, don't worry, I'm sure you'll be fine, just give it some time." Sweety said in a calming voice.
"Thank you, I will try." PK said as Atlus walked through the door.
"Hello, I am your new instructor, Atlus, I will be teaching several forms of mathematics." He drew a perfect circle on the board, with a line going from a dot in the center to the edge. On the line he put 157. "Now who can give me the circumference first?" PK's hand went up immediately "Yes, PK?"
The entire class looked at him, he had some of them in other classes "The answer is 24,649." The entire class laughed, minus PK and Atlus.
"That is correct." This made the entire class stop laughing, and look at PK in amazement. Atlus erased the 157 "How about if the radius was 225?"
Again PK's hand was up instantly 'Why is he even trying?' Atlus nodded at him to speak "499,142.25" the class looked at him as if asking, seriously?!
"Again that is a correct answere... Let us try something bigger, shall we?"
"Sure."
"The radius is 97,340" the class looked at PK expectantly.
"The circumference is 9,475,075,600."
"Correct, may I ask how you got your answer?"
"Circumference is Pi-radius-squared, you multiply the radius by Pi, then the total of that is multiplied by itself." 'I see... He was using me as an example, and a way to introduce the lesson plan... But circumference is easy... Why is he doing an easy subject...'
"Today you will be doing mental calculations, using multiplication."
"That's easy, why are you even bothering?!" A fim iliac voice came from the front, PK looked to see who he had obviously missed when scanning the room; Diamond Tiara.
"It may be easy for PK, and I, but you will be using large numbers, and will not be allowed to write anything, but your final answer." This made Diamond glare at him with hatred.
The class went by faster than PK would have liked. But the rest of the day was painfully slow 'Finally, I can go home to Pinkie!'
"Hey, I've got a question to ask you!" The voice was one PK had hoped he didn't have to hear: Diamond Tiara.
"What is it?" 'Why can I not just go home?!?!' PK turned to face her.
"Why do you choose a looser like her?"
"...What do you mean?"
"The living crash!"
"...Can you explicable your question? You are confusing me."
"Why are you going out with her?!"
PK started laughing 'Is she really this stupid?!' "I am with Pinkie Pie, not my technical niece!"
"Why are you going out with that psycopa-"
PK interrupted her by lifting her by the neck "Do not insult her. This will be your only warning." He dropped her, walking towards home.'Today has been exhausting...' It took him several minutes to arrive at Sugar cube corner. Looking around, he saw Pinkie talking to Rainbow 'I wonder if I can make Pinkie jump. As Rainbow noticed PK walking up behind Pinkie, he made a shhh motion, Rainbow smiled. PK stopped just behind Pinkie "Good afternoon, Rainbow Dash." The sudden voice made her freeze, then fall over, still frozen like a Pinkie statue, making both PK, and Rainbow burst out laughing.
"PK! Your home! Yay!" Pinkie yelled as she shot him with her party cannon, knocking him back "Oopsie, I had it set to 'stadium'. Silly Pinkie Pie!"
PK stood , picking her up in a hug "Silly Pinkie Pie is best Pinkie Pie!" Pk said as she hugged him back "How was your day?" The next couple hours were spent with Pinkie explaining in great detail, how her day went.
As pinkie was finishing, Echo called PK over the COM -"PK, atlas is on his way to get you, we have training today."-
"Okey, I will be outside SCC, awaiting Atlus."
-"Affirmative."-
"Was that Echo? Dimitri? RED?" Pinkie asked hopping up and down.
"It was Echo, we have training today." Atlus stated as he appeared next to PK.
"I will see you later, Pinkie."
"Okey, have fun!"
PK and Atlus disappeared, reappearing in a cave lined with gems. 'Where are we?' PK walked up to Dimitri "PK, reporting for training."
Dimitri smiled "Perfect." Dimitri's emotion went to serious "we all know Anitchka is back, is recruiting a massive army, and creating a massive army made up of alternate Spectors. To aid us, I developed an upgrade for our nanobots; Overdrive. It will multiply your Turbo abilities. But reduce your healing ability."
"How badly will it reduce the healing?" Echo asked.
"For all but PK, overkill ranked damage will be close to fatal to us." He looked to PK "For PK, it will make his healing equal to our norm."
Atlas gathered everyone to the center, administering the upgrade. "There is also a 'last stand' upgrade included."
"What does it do?" PK asked as he was given the upgrade.
"It is called 'Terminal Mode'. It will boost everything thousandfold, but when it is over, it makes your body a massive bomb. It can only be activated in a 'no other way' scenario." Dimitri paused "I have had the royal guard inform the girls, and PK's school, that we will be gone for two weeks. In that time we will be training nonstop, to ensure we can use overdrive efficiently." He ended.
PK looked to Dimitri 'Maby we can finally end this drama between the Spectors and Anitchka'
What It's Like To Call This Place Home
-Twenty four hours later-
PK was in turbo "Dimitri, I am ready to attempt to achieve Overdrive."
Dimitri walked over to him "Alright, lets see if this works."
PK focused more energy to strength his muscles grew a few inches thicker, the electricity arching over his mechanical arm grew and spread to his back, and other arm, the knuckles on his living hand turned to a glowing green metal, he's fetlocks copied his knuckles, and his glowing green retinas intensified. The Spectors gathered around the first of them (not including Dimitri) to achieve Overdrive. 'This is an insane amount of power... Let us see what I can do...' He walked to a, supposedly unbreakable, gem stalagmite, he gripped it, pulling to the side. It began to groan as the Spectors watched in amazement, aside Crome Dimitri, who smiled. Les than a second later, PK snapped the stalagmite from its base, he charged it with a sizable chunk of electricity, as he threw it toward the ceiling. When it got half way, he released the grip on the energy, detonating the (supposedly unbreakable) gem structure. 'Well, that skill is absolutely worth training with...' He turned to the other Spectors "This makes my normal strength seem like that of Pound Cake's." 'I wonder what I could do if I combined Overdrive with Bull Ram...' He rammed shoulder first into the back wall, making a small tunnel, on impact 'Well... I think it may be a little over powered...'
"Dude, are you okey?" RED called down the tunnel, as PK walked out from his hole.
"Yes." He powered down to normal "I believe this upgrade has done what it was intended, a hundredfold. It will defiantly help with fighting Anitchka's army..."
RED looked at PK "My turn!" He quickly boosted to Turbo, then forced more heat into his inferno, his Stetson began to heat up (Atlus had infused it with RED's nanobots) as orange glowing outlines of fire appeared on it. His skin charred, looking like charcoal, his hands turned to fire, as did his feet, finally, his orange glowing retinas intensified. "Man, this is awesome!" He aimed his hands at the back wall, several feet from where PK made his tunnel, the heat in that area completely disappeard, as a small glowing speck appeared in his palm, a column of fore sprang from the speck, melting a tunnel in the rock, as though it was a wall of ice. "This kicks ass!" He laughed, reverting to normal.
"Alright, you've had your fun, now it's my turn!" Echo boosted into turbo, but not slowing down, as he forced more speed to his pace. His skin turned to a diamond surface, which shifted in the light, the tips of his wings glowed blue as did his hands, and his blue glowing retinas intensified. Echo had archived Overdrive. "Woo Hoo!" Echo moved to the rock wall, his arms a blur as he began punching in front of himself, when he made contact, he just kept walking into the wall until he hit ten feet deep. Stopping, he walked out, dropping back to normal. "That was awesome!"
PK walked to Atlus, who seemed to just be standing and watching the rest of them, "Do you posses the ability of turbo?"
"Indeed I do, and I was the one to test the Overdrive program." Atlus confirmed.
"Then let us see it, I wish to know what my comrade can do." PK looked to Atlus, who nodded.
Atlus was engulfed in his own nanobots as he levitated, his bad eye activated, it and the vapor it released, began glowing a bright red as the retina of his good eye did the same. He fell back to the ground as most of the nanobots moved to cover only his hands, also glowing the bright red. "This is my Turbo." The glowing shifted to a deep purple, as the circuits at the corner of his eyes glowed the same deep purple, the circuits in his forearms soon followed suit. "And this is my Overdrive." He aimed his palm at the wall just above the three holes, the cloud of nanobots pulsed green, then a marble sized ball of plasma shot into the wall, the hole the plasma created expanded explosively, making a tunnel similar to the other three. He put his hand down, reverting back to his normal state "And that is my signature plasma cannon dialed down to normal usage."
PK looked into the hole "That will come to good use." 'Good, at least I'm not the only door-maker anymore...' PK walked to Dimitri "How long can Overdrive last?"
"I don't know, that's why we're here, we know that we can stay in Turbo for almost a month, but Overdrive could be different for each of us." Dimitri looked to them "I want to see if Overdrive lasts even half that time."
PK boosted into Turbo, then into Overdrive "Alright, I am ready for the test."
-Two weeks later-
PK walked over to RED "How are you holding up?"
"I'm almost out of power, I think I have like two hours left." Red looked around. Looking back to PK he stated "How much longer do you have?"
"I would say, about another week." PK looked up to see Dimitri and Luna moving over to them.
"RED, PK, if you are feeling like you at at your limit, power down. If you try to force more time out of it, you might auto activate Terminal." Dimitri said, making RED power down.
PK looked to Dimitri "Why are you not testing your time limit as well?"
"I developed Overdrive while on Earth, my Overdrive lasts for three weeks." Dimitri answered.
"Ah, so why is RED only able to stay in for two weeks?" PK questioned.
"He uses a lot of power, so, while he only has two weeks, he makes up the the small time with massive power." Dimitri answered.
"How long does Atlus have?"
"Four days."
PK and RED looked at the sleeping living android "That is very powerful."
"Yes, but I'm also incomplete, and by his estimations, if I were complete, I would only have twenty-four hours."
PK stood "So the longer we last, the less power we have?"
"Not necessarily. It means the longer you last, the more you can do. It also means, that less time means more power exertion." Dimitri looked to Luna "PK will show you what he alone can do."
PK looked to Luna, bowing as he did so "Do you wish to see physical proof, or an explanation?"
"Proof, I must see it in person for Celestia to believe it." She stated as PK stood.
"Okey, stand back." PK said as the princess obeyed. PK raised his fist, smashing it into the floor, pulling up a chunk twice his size, he threw it into the air, as he charged his energy burst, aiming at the chunk with one hand. "There is so much power in this, that I can arc my electricity into any material." He said as a loud bolt of deep green electricity arced from his palm to the giant rock, that had reached the top of its flight, just as it exploded into nearly molten chunks of rock, witch Atlus picked out of the air using small plasma balls. "And expand it, detonating said item." He stated with a smirk.
Luna smiled triumphantly "It seems, the Spectors shall be ready for the war times, even better so than the actual Equestrian army."
PK stood at attention "Affirmative, we will be more than ready for Anitchka's army.
What It's Like To Call This Place Home
-Gem mines under Canterlot castle-
-two weeks later-
Dimitri walked over to Echo "How much longer can you last in Overdrive?"
Echo looked up at Dimitri "Five hours remaining, I think."
Dimitri walked back to the other Spectors, and Luna, who insisted to stay in the mines with her most prized soldiers, and informed them that they were to leave in three hours. Soon after he had communicated the message, Atlus froze up "Dimitri, we have a situation, I am reviving a distress signal from units SC-3, SC-19, and SC-21."
"What is the message?" Dimitri responded immediately.
A smell speaker folded from his chest -"SC-7, we need assistance, you are the only other unit that is still online, the human governments have captured us and are going to disassemble us to recreate Dimitri's portal. They wish to colonize the world he has escaped to, if you can return to assist as, it would be a miricle, so to speak."- said the voice of SC-19.
"Atlus, you and I are going now!" Dimitri yelled as he boosted into turbo, and opened a portal on the wall "focus on the coordinates of the message, and I'll follow you through the portal."
Atlus deactivated the speaker, as he stepped through the portal, Dimitri looked to Luna "Do not go through the portal." Dimitri the stepped through the portal
-underground facility on earth-
Atlus stepped into a dark room 'Motion detecting lights...' Dimitri stepped out of the portal. The lights came on, reviewing three units, SC-19 was missing his lower half.
"Grab SC-19, I'll get the other two." Dimitri commanded, he and Atlus moved to the units and began removing them from the wall as thirty soldiers poured in through two doors, and opened fire, five soldiers went through the portal.
-gem mines-
PK stabbed his hand into the ground, making Luna look to him "What's wrong PK?"
PK prepared to throw the massive stone past the portal "I have a ad feeling, get behind something, now." As he finished, five soldiers stepped out of the portal, but stopped and stared at Luna. They began to raise their guns at her, but were stopped by PK ramming them, the stone separating the soldiers from PK, who embedded the stone into the wall, crushing the soldiers.
-underground facility-
Dimitri broke the chains holding SC-3, and SC-21. Once free they sprinted through the portal. "Atlus, get SC-19out of here, now!" Atlus put the unit on his back, who grabbed hold. As Atlus was about to go through the portal, a large caliber round tore through SC-19's head, but he kept his hold.
Dimitri began grabbing soldiers and throwing them at walls, as he temporarily closed the portal "Now then... I can get my revenge..." Dimitri said as he began to force himself into his Overdrive.
-gem mines-
Atlus exited the portal a second before it closed. He set SC-19 on the ground, checking the new hole, he found the unit only had a few minutes left before he was 'dead'. The other two units moved to Atlus' side "SC-3, SC-21, he will not live... Dimitri can not repair this damage."
SC-3 dropped to his knees "Why do I feel a sadness? Is it because he was our brother? Is this anger do to his loss?"
"Yes, when you entered this world, you developed the small emotions that all life feels, but when Dimitri is done you will be much more... Human." Atlus looked down to SC-19 "I will give you new names, SC-19, your name is Spectus." Atlus looked to SC-3 "Xatarrus." He then looked to SC-21 "And Sumarus."
Spectus looked to Atlus "A-a-a-atluzzz... W-w-w-we ar-r-re zzzzzafe?"
"Yes, Spectus, we are safe." Atlus confirmed.
"G-g-g-g-good-d. . ." Spectus went still, and his eyes deactivated, Spectus died.
Sumarus looked to Atlus "Are we truly safe?"
Atlus closed the shutters on Spectus' eyes as he stood "Indeed, we are." As he said this, the portal reopened, dimitri stepped through as he was going from turbo to normal.
"Lets go home." he looked to the dead unit "What is his status?"
Atlus looked to Dimitri "Spectus is dead, but Xatarrus, and Sumarus were unscathed." He said while motioning to them.
Dimitri walked down a tunnel with a deep groove carved along the ground "Everyone follow me, I had Atlus map out the mines to find an entrance, and the quickest path to it." They all followed dimitri silently, Atlus carrying Spectus.
After several minutes of walking uphill through the cave, they came to a wall, more specifically, the south wall of Canterlot castle's underground prison, at the end of the path between the cells. Dimitri moved to a brand new control panel. He typed a code, the wall slid down to allow them access, he typed a second code then they all moved into the building, just before the wall moved back into position. "That wall was never touching solid stone in the first place." Dimitri smirked as he led them to the throne room.
Once they entered, Celestia approached the group "Who at the three new ones?"
"Two living, one dead." Dimitri stated then looked to the two living ones "This is Xatarrus and Sumarus, Atlus' brothers."
She noded "They will be informed of the laws of Equestria?"
"Of coarse." Dimitri answered.
-The next day-
The Spectors, elements, and Derpy were standing at a grave in Ponyville cemetery "We gather to bury Spectus, brother to Atlus, Xatarrus, and Sumarus." Dimitri started as PK carefully lowered the emerald coffin into the ground "He survived many things, that any one person never could. He helped fight Anitchka, and suggested puting him back into my head, witch had he not escaped, was the best choice." The Alicorn Amulet lit up as Dimitri levitated the dirt to fill the grave. "He helped me stay calm when I was gone, and saved me several times from permanently severing myself from this world. Spectus truly will be missed."
After all had said their final farewells, Xatarrus, and Sumarus walked into the cottage, saying nothing to anyone. Dimitri moved to flutters side "I'm gonna go and see what's wrong with them.
"Okey, don't be to long." She answered as Dimitri leaned down and kissed her.
"I won't." Dimitri opened his wings, beginning to hover, he moved towards the cottage. Once inside he could not see ether of them, as he searched for them, he found them conversing in his workroom.
What It's Like To Call This Place Home
Dimitri hovered down the hatch, and into his workroom "Xatarrus, Sumarus, what's wrong?" Dimitri looked to both of them.
Sumarus brought his attention to Dimitri "Spectus was our brother, and Xatarrus wants to go back and avenge him." Xatarrus looked away "But I am informing him, it would not be logical."
Dimitri looked to Xatarrus "You know I won't allow you to go back, if they kill you, then you will have failed Spectus."
"But I must fulfill my final act of loyalty to my lost brother!" Xatarrus snapped, making Dimitri raise an eyebrow. "If you do to me, what you did to Atlus, then they can not harm me, am I correct?"
Dimitri sighed 'Why did I make them smart?' "In theory, yes." Xatarrus' face lit up "But that's only in theory, I'm never going back there, and that's the only way you could get there."
Sumarus looked to Dimitri "If you can make him indestructible, then why can't you send him, then retrieve him when he is done?"
"Because I said so, end of story." Dimitri flew out of the hatch.
As Dimitri was pouring the last bowl of critter chow to be transported to the feeding location, flutters walked to his side "I almost forgot to tell you, do you remember the pack of timberwolves that attacked us?"
Dimitri flinched "Yes, why?"
They made amends with me, and now they guard the smaller animals while they eat, they even help me with some of the bigger ones."
Dimitri stopped pouring the critter chow "Wait... What?!" Dimitri put the bag down looking at the yellow Pegasus "what do you mean 'made amends'?"
When I got back home, they were waiting there, they said that they wanted to apologize to my guardian, you, for the attack. But when I told them what happened, they said they are honor bound to work until you return, and they can ask for your forgiveness." She picked up a basket packed with prepared bowls "So let go."
Dimitri held his wings In the carrying position, as he loaded them with food bowls "Let me guess, Anitchka did something."
"Yep, he told them, if they worked for him he wouldn't destroy their homes." She replied as she led the way to the familiar clearing.
"That's not cool." Dimitri stated as they entered the clearing, several timberwolves stood and began to growl, but stopped once they noticed both Dimitri, and Fluttershy. 'They truly are guarding the little ones...' He thought as he noted the little ones were waiting in the clearing, the timberwolves lying on the edge of the space.
One week later
Dimitri watched as Sumarus stood, he had spent the most of a week swapping the metals in Sumarus', and Xatarrus' bodies with mythril, and just finished adding the synthetic skin. Sumarus opened his new eyes, both were grey, due to damaged circuitry (Beyond repair), and was left half blind. His skin kept turning pale, so Dimitri just stopped trying to re-apply the skin. There were six circular holes on his back; one on each shoulder blade, one three inches below each shoulder blade, and two three inches below those. He had holes that were covered on each of his palms. Dimitri handed him a stack of old, tattered clothes. Sumarus walked behind a changing panel on the wall, stepping out from behind it a few seconds later. He now wore an old tattered faded green half vest, holes cut where it would have covered the top four on his back, a white shirt with the operator logo on the front, and holes cut over the holes in his back. A pair of old faded black cargo pants, slightly shredded at the bottom. And a tattered pair of black combat boots.
"Do you by any chance, have a pair of glasses? It seems you could not repair my vision." Sumarus asked.
"Yea, I had to scan your eyes, and if I had tried to repair the problem, it could have damaged your memory unit, but you have been upgraded fully in every other aspect." Dimitri responded as he removed a pair of glasses, handing them to Sumarus. They had a mythril frame that had been painted black, they were half lenses (bottom half).
Sumarus put them on, then smiled before he disappeared in a cloud of static in the shape of his body (Xatarrus is the only one of the three that can't teleport).
Xatarrus stood next, he had blond hair, and wings with owl feathers (like Echo's, but they don't shift with the light). His skin took a purely normal complexion. His eyes were cyan. He stood, as Dimitri held out set of old battle worn cloths, just not as bad as Sumarus'. He yanked the pair of baggy black jeans, and a grey t-shirt with the operator logo on it, he then grabbed the old combat boots, and after putting them on, he flew out and away quickly, without a single word.
Xatarrus flew into the clouds, laying on one he noted that upon entering this world, he and Sumarus gained the magic of the specific pony races they would have been (Sumarus = Unicorn, Atlus = Earth Pony, Xatarrus = Pegasus). He also realized this allowed them the physical abilities of said races. As he rested on the cloud, he heard the sound of wings beating the wind. He opened one eye, noticing a certain rainbow Pegasus trying to Sneak up on him, when she got close he spoke before she could "Hello, go away."
Rainbow raised an eyebrow "Um, you do know you are in my favorite spot to nap, right?"
"Do now." He said, not moving.
"And?" Rainbow asked.
"Not moving." Xatarrus closed his eye.
"Yes you are!" Rainbow retorted as she kicked the cloud, destroying it, and dropping Xatarrus.
"Thanks, I defiantly needed to be given more of a reason to hate this world." Xatarrus said as he beat his wings, diving toward the ground.
Sumarus appeared in the Ponyville town square, he approached the nearest pony "Hello, might I ask where the best fashion shop is?"
Lyra looked at the stranger "Your looking for the Carousel Boutique, it's down that way. Don't worry, you can't miss it." she said pointing down a center road.
"Thank you." Sumarus began walking in the pointed out direction.
What It's Like To Call This Place Home
After several minutes of walking, Sumarus stopped in mid-step in-front of a round building with a flamboyant sign that read 'Carousel Boutique'. "Ah, here we are!" Sumarus entered, noticing the mannequins were all shaped like ponies. "Hm... This is very odd." he said as he put his hand to his chin.
"What, may I ask is it that you find odd?" asked a voice coming down the stairs.
"Well, if you are the creator of these rather... antique designs... then you are the one I am looking for." Sumarus stated, making the body of the voice halt halfway down the staircase.
"What? Antique?! My designs are far ahead of the fashion world!" exclaimed an Alabaster unicorn racing down the stairs.
"If you were designing for a 1840s themed gala, maybe." Sumarus stated smiling.
"And maybe you should leave my store, now!" she looked at him for a second "And get a clean set of clothes."
"I never stated that it was bad, nor did I insult you, now did I?" he questioned.
"No, but your tone suggested otherwise." she retorted.
Sumarus hit his forehead with his palm "Oh, I am terribly sorry... I have been informed of this problem before." Sumarus looked around, scanning the dresses "I can not control my tone, however I will make up for my rudeness!" he stated then noticed a few problems with a particular piece. He lifted his hand as the holes in his palms opened, releasing five hair thin, needle pointed wires, from each palm.
"You don't have to do tha- NO STOP THAT ONES NOT FINISHED!!!" She yelled as seven of the wires lifted the dress, and the other three began sewing new thread into the design, causing little change to the design. "Wait, keep the first, and third thread in place, but continue the other two until they meet."
"So you see the change I am making? Good." Sumarus stated Smiling. "Where are my manners, I am Sumarus, SC-21."
"My name is Rarity." she replied smiling
Several hours later Rarity returned from retrieving a few new spools of thread, Sumarus ran out in the middle of another design. "I'm back! I hope i didn't take to lo-" she stopped as she noticed several stacks of finnished dresses and suits sitting on a few tables, Sumarus folding and sewing at the same time, using the wires from all the holes on his back. "Wha- I thought you ran out of thread.
"I lied, my nanobots can synthesize a thread made of any material I can think of, just as fast as i can use it." he smiled at her "I used the lie to make this surprise for you, I only got one eighth through your Design book, In each color too." he stopped smiling.
"You managed to do three years worth of work, in two hours !" she exclaimed.
"I know, I must e lagging from corrupt data... I only got halfway through what I had planned." he frowned "I must have Dimitri look at my Memory unit, and Processors..." He finished the current dress, then folded it, depositing it on a stack of the similar dress in several different colors. "I will be off now." he began to move toward the door, as his tendrils moved back into place
"Now wait just a minute!" she snapped, making Sumarus stop and look to her "What did you mean by 'surprise for you'?"
"Is it not obvious?" he paused waiting for an answer, when he got none, he continued "I did this because in the five hours I have known you, I have learned very much, and what I have learned is... I have developed new feelings for you, your personality, the fact that your so generous and forgiving. If you were not, you would have thrown me out when I modified the first dress."
"Oh, well, that was surly unexpected." she stated.
"It does not hurt that you, unlike me, care that you make a good impression on all you meet, and have a high natural beauty." he stated, causing her to blush.
"Y-You can stay here tonight if you want." she stated blushing.
Sumarus Smiled "Thank you, for giving me a chance."
Anitchka punched the wall "WHAT THE HELL?!?" Anitchka yelled "I THOUGHT THE BASE GOT NUKED!!!" he stood, grabbing and smashing his throne into the wall.
"What is the matter my love?" Trixie asked as she entered the room.
"TWO MORE OF THE DRONES DMITRI DESIGNED TO FIGHT ME ARE STILL ALIVE! AND WHATS WORSE, OUT OF A HUNDRED, IT JUST HAD TO BE TWO OF THE FIVE MOST DANGEROUS ONES!!" he roared, making the light blue unicorn jump. "At least two of the five are dead, but the other three are here and alive!
"Try to calm down, they cant possibly win the upcoming war. There are only seven of them" She moved closer "against an army of us."
Anitchka lifted her into a hug "Ah... but of course, that is why I had that waste of atoms, Sombre, contact the changeling queen in the first place..." he looked into her eyes "But, SC-21, he is the worst, do you want to know why?"
"If it will help to calm you, then yes." she answered as he put her down.
Anitchka levitated what remained of his throne, placing it back into its spot, then sat in said throne "That soulless killing machine has hair thin tendrils, he can make them into razor sharp wires, or dull enough to lift a flesh being, without so much as a scratch, in a nanosecond. He could lift a human, than rip him to pieces, before even a single drop of blood hit the floor." Anithcka put his chin in his palm "The worst part is he just steps into the shadows, and steps out in a completely different location altogether. He is literally walking death." he sighed with a half growl behind the breath.
Trixie smiled "Then we shall kill the walking death."
What It's Like To Call This Place Home
As Xatarrus dove towards the ground, he noticed a cone of light forming around him 'Hm, it seems i am at the point of breaking the sound barrier.' he shifted mid air, aiming his feet down, as he landed, he decimated a boulder. Standing he noticed he was near the familiar field his brother, Spectus, was buried in, now adorned with a Ruby headstone. 'No doubt Echo made this.' He stared at the ruby tombstone.
After several minutes, a bipedal figure in a tattered brown robe appeared next to Xatarrus "It is a shame..."
Xatarrus looked down "What is a shame?" He looked at the stranger "What do you know of his importance?!"
The stranger extended a slightly wilted arm, draconic with white scales, pointed at Xatarrus "He was brother to you... That much is correct, Right?"
Xatarrus looked down "Yes, he was of great importance to me... my younger brother..." Xatarrus tightly shut his eyes, slightly shaking.
The stranger put his arm back under the robe "Dimitri could not save him, because he didn't have the technology necessary, I could repair him for you. but for now, I must go..."
Xatarrus looked to the empty space the stranger once occupied. he looked back to the tombstone 'Was that, a hallucination?' He turned, then began walking into town.
after several minutes, he stopped. 'What was the point of coming to this world?!' Xatarrus clenched his fists.
"To start anew, brother." Atlus put his hand on Xatarrus' shoulder "At least, that is what I, and the Spectors have done."
Xatarrus looked to his brother "How did you know what I was just thinking?"
Atlus just smiled as he responded "I have no idea!"
Xatarrus looked down 'What in Android Hell, has this world done to him?!' He looked back to his brother 'But, he is right, Sumarus and I have been given another chance here.'
"Maybe you should converse with the others about your concerns?" Atlus asked.
"Maybe I will do just that..." Xatarrus began walking further into town. after a few minutes he noticed Echo walk into a large tree 'Does Echo live in a tree?! Now this I have to see!' a smile crossed his face for a brief moment. When he arrived at the door, he knocked three times.
The voice of Echo came from inside "Who is it?" The door opened, Echo standing there smiling "Ah, Xatarrus, come in." Echo stepped out of the way to let Xatarrus inside.
"Thank you, Echo." Xatarrus stepped inside "I was wondering what you decided to do as a carrier in this new world?"
"Oh, Dimitri said one of you two would ask." Echo put a hand behind his head "Well, All the Spectors work as Equestria's Defending 'Army'. but a few of us got jobs outside of that. PK got a job at Sweet Apple Acres, Red also works there, but he mainly just does patrol around the perimeter for animals, and harvest thieves, and Atlus has two jobs, he teaches at the school, and does the sorting for the post office." Echo smiled "What do you plan to do?"
Xatarrus frowned "I do not know..." Echo lost the smile.
"Maybe you should talk to the other Spectors, try to get an idea." Echo put his other hand on Xatarrus' shoulder "I get the feeling you're having problems grasping the concept of this new world, try talking to some of the ponies that live in this town."
Some time after leaving the tree home, Xatarrus found himself slowly walking down a street towards what he assumed was a marketplace. As he walked he heard what sounded like a struggle, and not a 'trying to move merchandise into a store' kind of struggle. He moved into a full sprint towards the alleyway. Upon reaching the only way out of said alleyway, h noticed too large stallions, wearing black suits that covered everything but their eye's. they were tying a burlap sack shut. Xatarrus stepped toward them "Hello." The sound of his voice made the stallions jump "Why have you put a defenseless mare into a burlap sack?"
The stallion on the right squinted "How did you know it was a mare?"
"i did not, however you just kindly gave me that information." Xatarrus smiled evily as the stallion on the left hit the first one "But if you do not let whom ever is inside the sack free... I will make you feel a plethora of pain filled tortures before i slowly kill the both of you... So what do you say?"
The stallion on the left looked Xatarrus in the eye "I'm not afraid of you, the royal guard would never allow it to happen!"
"Alright, if that is your wish... by the way, before I start I must inform you... I was designed for making death look as brutal as possible, to intimidate entire countries."
The stallions laughed as Xatarrus dashed at them. As he reached them they jumped to the sides, time slowed as hidden blades was launched from both of Xatarrus wrists, digging deep into the hip of both stallions. "Did you think simply moving out of th way can save you now!?" Xatarrus turned as the stallions began hurriedly limping towards the exit of the alleyway. As they got just outside, Xatarrus pulled the chains connected to the blades, dragging the two stallions into the alleyway screaming for help.
Outside the alleyway
Two large stallions limped out of the dark alleyway. several ponies looked as the two stallions were yanked to the ground as they were slowly dragged into the darkness screaming for help. after several minutes of screaming, one of the voices ended with a sickening crunch, the other ended the same way a few seconds later.
In the alleyway
Xararrus wiped the fresh blood off his blades as he walked to the burlap sack, which was now squirming. "Calm down, I am not going to cause you any harm." this seemed to calm whoever was inside "In fact, I am only here to free you." Xatarrus stated as he ripped the sack in half, reveling none other than Rainbow Dash, who just stared at him in surprize "It seems that this is a surprise to both of us..."
Rainbow simply jumped on him in a tight hug repeatedly saying 'Thank you'
What It's Like To Call This Place Home
Anitchka's cave
How am i going to kill Dimitri with three of his strongest abominations assisting his every move? the slightly withered alabaster drake thought as he paced, unaware of Trixie entering the room.
"OOH! LOOK AT YOU!" Trixie excitedly screamed, making the drake turn to face her.
"Ah, Trixie, my love, I see you can tell that my scales have regained much more of their life!" he stated. He paused momentarily as his mood heightened. "If I play my cards right, I could get rid of Dimitry for good!" Excited he grabed his queen-to-be in a hug "there is not much time!" He looked to the right as though there was someone in that specific direction "I must leave for a little while." He looked her in the eyes "You are in charge, if Sombre starts acting out of line, call my name, and I will send punishment."
Trixie nodes as she said "Don't worry about a thing, he wouldn't be that stupid, after all, once he is gone, the three of us can easily take over!" She smiled as she added " So, what are you waiting for? Go begin setting your plans in motion, I'll be waiting for you to return." They shared a kiss as he set her down.
Anitchka walked to a flat wall. Snaping his clawed fingers, he opened a portal on said wall. Looking back, he waved as he stepped through.
Over the coarse of the next two months, Anitchka went back and forth through the portals, sometimes gone for days. Until two days after snow had fallen all across Equestria, Anitchka came through the portal laughing, as, for the first time, the portal closed behind him. 'Oh, I can't wait until I can unveil my little project to that unremitting fool Dimitry!' He thought as he laughed. "oh, what a surprise that it shall be indeed!" He laughed.
"What shall be a surprise to whom?" Trixie asked as she entered the room, accompanied by Sombre.
Anitchka turns to face them "oh, do not worry, you both shall play witness to the plan when the time is right.
Sombra chose then to finally speak up "why do you just passively plot, like a coward?"
This entirely killed Anitchka's good mood "Why do you feel tjhe need to endanger yourself?" Anitchka questioned, making Trixie step away from the foolish ex-king. Sombra did not answere, instead, he stared Anitchka in the eyes. Anitchka dashed towards Sombra. Before the ex-king could react, Anitchka grabbed him by the throat, pinning the ex-king to a nearby wall. Anitchka brought his face close to Sombra's "If you think you can do better, then kill me! If you can do that, then you have a very slim chance of standing a fraction of a chance against them!" Anitchka slammed his fist into the cave wall, millimetes from Sombra's head, a massive spiderwab of cracks was the result of said punch.
Anitchka dropped Sombra, then walked through an archway leading to a much larger room. Anitchka stood at the railing of a built in balcony, which looked over the sea of large, armored changelings at his disposal "Soon, we shall take all their is to take!" The massive hive started getting excited "We shall first crush the humans!" He paused, enjoying the ruckus below "Then we shall remove the rulers from existence!" Another pause to enjoy the admiration "And finally, all the lands precious resources, shall be ours!" As he ended his rant, he thought 'The final step, shall be to exterminate these disgusting, yet beautifully chaotic insects...' "Tomorrow... Is the day... We, all, find out... Who is better, Dimitri, or Me." All the changelings calmed down, responding to the change in their leader's tone of voice. Anitchka turned and began to leave, but stopped as he yelled one last statement "I will see you all, in a week!" This excited each, and every massive changeling.
Anitchka moved to a writing desk that had been carved into the wall and began writing.
Trixie, my love, should I not return, the changelings will listen to you, and you alone.
Now for an explanation of how I came to be. Dimitri had come up with a hypothesis stating that he could create the ultimate soldier, by removing the natural since of evil that every human posesses, putting it in a body of its own, use nanobots to controlled it. However, no moronic burocrat would ever allow the funding of a project the gave pure, unadulterated, evil, its own body. So he told them, he would be using the essence of loyalty, they were far too quick to fund this project. I was the first, and last attempt at this. He somehow also managed to reverse the process, after I had shredded the walls of the underground facility, and most of the android army he was building, of course. And when he came to this world, the damage he had already done to him self, was given a soul of its own, and I was born, but this world gave me a sence of love, which connected me to you. No matter what, I will give you this world.
Now for Sombra, I have placed a spell on the two of you, actually, for you it would be called a curse. If I die, you shall be Trixie's personal slave, and if anything happens to her, you will die a horrible, slow painful death! So be nice!
Anitchka rolled the letter into the scroll, and put a spell on it, that would teleport it to his beloved the second he goes through another portal to earth.
What It's Like To Call This Place Home
Ponyville
Dimitri was walking through the snow with his small family. His beloved Fluttershy, his biological daughter Emma, and his adopted daughter, Scootaloo. They were on their way into town, to meet up with the others. "Hey, dad?" Scootaloo asked.
Dimitri looked to Scootaloo "Hmm?"
Scootaloo looked at him "Did you know, I know it was you who saved me all those years ago?"
Dimitri looked to the skies "I had a feeling. That's not something that would be easy to forget for either of us." Dimitri smiled "I guess you could call it destiny, when you really come down to it."
"How was it destiny? Fluttershy asked.
Emma answered before her father could "Fate had dad save her life, for you to adopt her. This provided her with a loving mom, and a baby sister, and jyou with a loving daughter to help you with said baby, while dad was gone. But it also provided dad a loving family to come home to."
Both Fluttershy and Scootaloo responded in unison "I never thought about it like that!" This made all laugh.
As they continued walking Dimitri began humming a tune. his family got quiet, to hear the tune, Dimitri raised in volume so they could hear it over the sounds of nature. The tune ended when Dimitri let out a howl, had they had their eyes shut, they would have beleived it to be real.
After a few minutes, the edge of town came into veiw along with a familiar white drake. Dimitri flared his wings, guarding his family "Ahh, Dimitri, what fortuity, running into you hare... Oh wait, no, I've come to civily challenge you to a fight to the death..." Dimitri only staired as he began shifting into turbo. "Before you and I go at it, I have a request."
For whatever reason, Dimitri reverted back to normal "What would you want from me?"
"Oh, nuthing realy... I just thought you might want to fight where the innocent can't be involved... Like Earth?" Anitchka disappeared, reappearing inches from dimitri "I can't make a portal, but you can... What do ya say?" Anitchka asked smiling.
Dimitri stood up straight, keeping his wings between his family, and the monster before them. "Flutters, Emma, Scoots, meet with the others, inform them of what is going on, but don't move until we're gone."
Emma began to protest "But, you ca-".
"Don't argue!" Dimitri snapped, making his daughter jump. Dimitri then snapped his fingers, a portal forming on a wide tree "You go first Anitchka, I'll follow." Anitchka stepped through the portal, followed by Dimitri. Soon after the portal closed, Fluttershy collapsed in shock, once again Dimirti was gone from their world.
Scootaloo began galloping towards the Apple's farm Yelling over her shoulder. "Take mom to Twilight's place, I'll go get the others!" Emma helped her mother up, walking her into town. It seemed as though hours had passed when they finally
Ponyville was under attack.
Earth, The middle of an unknown desert
A Portal opens on the side of a steep dune, a few seconds later a white drake casually stepped through. As the last of his tail slipped through, he took flight away from the portal. Moments later a black drake came rocketing through the portal, chasing his quarry. While fleeing the white drake smiled, his plan was working without a hitch.
What It's Like To Call This Place Home
"Test number, 1750, failure." SC-7 moved to Dimitri's side "Do you wish to use the Alicorns Arm? It may help us."
Dimitri slammed his hand on the console "No! I will not stoop to using his 'gift'! I will solve this problem on my own!" Dimitri turned to face the failed test. 'Maybe use of the arm would only corrupt him, and not me.'
'No it will corrupt you and not me.' Anitchka's gloating voice rang out in Dimitri's head.
'Tell you what, if you tell me the truth, I will put you into a new body.'
'It does not corrupt either of us, the portal that put me back in your head considered it as me giving you the amulet without anything in return. So the curse on the item is no longer existent. So how long until I get a new body?'
'After I return to Equestria.' Dimitri held his arm up, palm facing the failed portal "SC-7, fire up th portal again."
SC-7 did as he was instructed "What made you change your mind?" The portal started to glow bright blue again, but instead of allowing it to destabilize, Dimitri fired a black aura at the portal. It turned to purple smoke, then started spiraling.
Dimitri looked at SC-7 "I... It worked. It worked!"
SC-7 moved to his side "What do we do now?"
Dimitri faced SC-7 "Set the base to vaporize itself after two items go through the portal, then meet me back here."
SC-7's eye blinked "Why destroy what you have worked on for 16 years?"
"The whole point of this was for me to return to Equestria, not to unleash the death machine that is humanity on a world of peace." Dimitri looked at the portal "I'm coming home now." Dimitri stated barley above a whisper.
Fluttershy was walking to Sugar Cube Corner "I hope Emma's lessons are going well..." She walked into the small store.
"Hi Fluttershy! If you're looking for Emma and PK, there in the basement, it's the only room PK can move to his full exten-"
The pink pony was interrupted by the sound of something big hitting a wall, making both mares move to the basement, throwing the door open they saw Big Mac had been catapulted into the wall.
"That's th' last time ah agree to help in any training." He slowly stands back up "Hello Miss Fluttershy yer daughter has got quite an arm, just like her father."
PK walked over next to a female humanoid dragon, blue scales, long bright blue hair braided into a ponytail, orange eyes, and a humanoid face. "Emma, you are improving, but move more swiftly, so that you can continue with a defensive, or defensive move at the end of the throw."
"Okey, I will." She took a defensive stance. Then twilight appeared in a purple flash.
"Princess Celestia has called on the elements, I've already gotten everypony else." Her horn started to glow, she opened her wings, then they were all in the throne room.
Emma walked over to Celestia "What's wrong? What's the emergency?"
"Sombre has returned, and he has sent a note saying 'my time for rule has come at last.'"
"Not if my uncles and I have anything to say about it!" She slammed her fist into her palm.
"Emma, calm, patience, focus, use these virtues. They are key to truly learning combat, and winning it." PK put a hand on her shoulder.
"Tell me PK, how has her training been going?" Celestia looked to the giant.
"She has apparently nattily gained a slight teleporting ability."
"How slight?"
She can warp up to 50 feet in any direction, but it is slightly slower than Dimitri, her reaction speed is amazing, her strength is incredible, but she is not moving as fluidly as she could be.
There was a loud thud against the wall, then a section of said wall exploded, showing a black skinned version of PK, behind it was a black skinned RED, and Echo.
"Hello... I must kill PK!" The black PK yelled, before jumping at the original giant.
"Dude, where is that coward RED?" The black RED asked before he was hit by a fire ball. RED stood from the fire, then was yanked down by his counterpart.
"I demand Echo, he dies today!" He yelled as he moved towards Twilight, before he could get close enough Echo drop-kicked him in the chest.
Sombre then walked out of the hole. The girls (does not include Emma) ran at him, he levitated them, then grapes them in a crystal prison. "Now, Celestia, give the throne to me, now!"
"The base is now set to make a hefty sized crater where it sits, the second two items go through the portal." SC-7 stated as he returned to the portal room.
"Good, now you go through first." Dimitri pointed to the mech.
"I am going as well? I thought you wanted to take a vehicle."
"No, I'm bringing you as a gift to an old friend."
"Who?"
"Echo, and Twilight."
"Ah." SC-7 walked to the portal, then stepped into it, disappearing.
"SC-7, can you still read my radio signal?"
-"Yes, and I'm being surrounded by talking ponies."-
Dimitri jumped into the portal, rolling to his feet as he appeared in Equestria. "I'm finally home."
"Mister Dimitri?" A teenaged Applebloom walked over to Dimitri. "I think you should go to Canterlot, Celestia called mah sis an' all her friends for an emergency."
His eyes went wide "Take SC-7 to Fluttershy's cottage, I've got a meeting to attend!" He then disappeared in a static flash.