The ten of us made our way up to the hills zenith in silence, besides the soft treading of hooves and feet across the green grass. I silently feared for what this beautiful land would look like after this fight. Maybe we could stop them before they did any real damage. It was something to hope for at least.
"So, what exactly are we going to need to build this portal?" Dash asked, still holding the rabid storm cloud down.
"Let's see, one pissed off storm cloud, a Pegasus to buck said pissed off storm cloud-" He paused and glared at Dinky, who was stifling a snicker, "Mind out of gutter!" He deadpanned back to us before continuing, "An Interdimensional Chaos Lord with a wisp of power, bait-"
"Wait, wha-" Flynn tried to interrupt, but Azuro cut him off by raising his voice.
"And, oh yeah! A few tons of metal." He said nonchalantly.
"That would have been useful information earlier." Twilight commented.
"What are we suppose to scrap to get that kind of material?" Dash asked outrageously.
"Nothing." Azuro answered. Rainbow Dash threw her hooves out to her bland and quite empty surroundings.
"Right. Because we have such an abundant supply on us." Sarcasm over flowing in her voice. "What are we going to need?"
"A credit card that has no limit." Azuro joked. Rainbow Dash looked thoroughly confused, but Flynn and I let out a chuckle as we got it. "Wait... We have better! An Alicorn." He deadpanned. There was a bright, yellow flash and a very large crash.
"There." Celestia said contently, "Now that we have the proper material, I would suggest we begin."
"Right. But I should mention that the humans on Mars did this exact thing. Yet, only a few of them knew about it." Flynn's voice spoke the newer information.
"Was that Tangi's doing?" Luna asked.
"No. I don't think that he was in the same predicament as we are. He would've told me about it. It was Gengena." He logically pointed out.
"And what stops you from being Gengena?" Spike asked, setting an even more tense mood, "You could just be lying to us all." He accused, causing Azuro to back up a step.
"What? No! If I was Gengena, you would all be dead." He said.
"Betruger kept those few marines and scientists alive." Flynn started his own accusations.
"Oh come on! You too? Seriously? I teleported your ass here!"
"Now hold on, guys," Rainbow Dash spoke up, "I believe him. Call it an instinct, or maybe its just my element kicking in. But this is not Gengena."
"Instinct can't be relied on, Dash." Twilight spoke her opinion.
"I have to agree with Dash on this. I know Darkwind, and this is definitely him." Celestia said.
"I concur with my sister. This is Darkwind." Luna agreed.
"Rarity?" Twilight asked for her vote.
"Wait?! Are you guys actually voting to see if I'm real or not?!" Azuro said, outraged, but ignored by everypony around him.
"I'm going to have to go with Discord's side, darling. It just... Feels like the same pony." Rarity replied nonchalantly, inciting a sigh of frustration from the lavender mare.
"What about you, Dinky?" She asked.
"Seriously?!" Azuro's cries were unheard.
"I don't trust him." All eyes fell on my as my eyes widened and my muscles tensed.
"Looks like you're tie breaker." Twilight said expectantly.
"I... er.. um... Recount?" I asked in desperate nervousness.
"No time!" She shouted, making me even more nervous. I took a deep breath and examined Azuro's face. It was scared looking, but I was more focused on his eyes. He met my gaze and I searched his iris's and pupils deeply for any hint of Azuro. And, luckily, I found one. An age old coldness, but a warming deep inside.
"It's Azuro. I'm sure of it." I stated, causing a sigh of relief from the aforementioned pony. A few ponies grumbled, but quickly got over it. More important things were to be done.
"Now, with that settled. I believe it would be appropriate to begin?" Azuro's rhetorical, yet relieved, voice said.
"Yes. Do you have the blueprints?" Luna asked. In response, Azuro tapped his head with his hoof.
"All in here." He smirked.
"Great. Because that totally helps." Spike said sarcastically, rolling his eyes while folding his arms.
"I believe you are forgetting the memory spell, my dear dragon." Azuro's mocking voice said.
"I believe that would be my job." Luna said, "Everypony here has already taken a stroll through my mind. And don't deny it. I could feel you ponies snooping." She accused, causing a few of us to blush. She then walked up to Azuro and calmly put her horn, which held a small, teal ball on its end, to his head.
After a moment of her searching his memories, she opened her eyes and walked to the center of where we stood. She let eight small, teal ribbons escape her horn and flow into our brains, imprinting our thoughts with the images of blueprints and designs. After she was done, she began levitating the metal to make the base plates.
"Everypony, you may relax while I do this part. We shall take turns in creating this portal." Luna said as she worked. All of the other ponies shrugged and went to converse with one another. I found myself leaning back on the pile of metal with Flynn next to me and Dinky conversating with Twilight and Celestia about the aftermath of our decision. I began to hum the main guitar part for one of my favorite songs from back on Earth, but then was joined by Flynn's voice, harmonizing the words perfectly with the rhythm.
"Hello me ... Meet the real me
And my misfits way of life
A dark black past is my
Most valued possession
Hindsight is always 20-20
But looking back it's still a bit fuzzy
Speak of mutually assured destruction?
Nice story ... Tell it to Reader's Digest!" I stopped humming as his voice ceased.
"Good to see that good music survived the ages." I smiled with nostalgia.
"Well, after the airplane crash that killed everyone in that One Direction band, things just went uphill for the music industry. Lil' Wayne overdosed, Beiber was assassinated, Drake was killed in a gang fight, Mackelmore got AIDS from some underwear that he got at a Thrift Shop, Ryan Lewis got AIDS from Mackelmore after a fling, Jason Aldean died in a freak accident involving a horse, Rebecca Black turned out to be a serial killer and took the electric chair, Taylor Swift was murdered by one of her ex's that got tired of her writing songs about him, the entire band of Sugarland got a fatal form of diabetes, and Nicki Manji got hit by a car." He finished his list of awful musicians deaths. Highly ironic awful musicians deaths.
"It's not a good thing that they died, but at least they didn't pollute the musical world with their auto tuned noise anymore. Seriously, the stuff was just annoying." I said.
"Yeah, but we had our dark days as well. Ozzy finally bit the dust. He lived to be one hundred and forty fucking three, and still made music till the very end. The rest of Pantera and Slayer died off as well as the members of Megadeth and Metallica. Of course, I wasn't even swimming around in my old dads testes when they died, but I listened to their music a century afterward." Flynn laughed.
"That would never get easy to hear." I said and shook my head, "But at least they made their imprint like Beethoven and Bach." I added. Flynn smirked and began to hum Fur Elise. "Damn! You really are my great, great grandson!" I exclaimed with a laugh and patted him on the back.
"Jack. Flynn. I need to use you two for a minute, get over here." Azuro called. Flynn and I shared a groan before forcing ourselves off of the pile of metal. We made our way over to Azuro and the half built machine that probably was going to bone half of the pony race.
"What do you need?" I asked.
"Hold this." He said and pointed his hoof at a hunk of steel that was shaped like the head of a pony.
"So you brought us over here to hold something?" I deadpanned.
"Yep." He simply answered. I sighed and picked up the chunk of metal after a shrug.
"Right. And why did you need me?" Flynn asked. Azuro laughed and pointed to the portal.
"Stand there." He said. Now it was Flynn's turn to laugh.
"Are you fucking nuts?" He rhetorically asked.
"Little. Now stand there." Azuro casually remarked. Flynn sighed, shrugged, then stood where Azuro had told him to. Azuro grabbed a few pieces of metal with his mouth and placed them on various spots, each time calling for one of the magic users to seal it onto the portal. The process continued for a little bit, without him using me or Flynn. But, finally, he picked up the piece of metal out of my grasp with his teeth and called Luna over.
"What do you wish of me?" She asked.
"Float this up there and seal it to the portal." He said and tossed the chunk of metal into the air. Luna caught it with her teal aura and placed it onto the place Azuro had indicated. Teal light shined from the seams, but disappeared as the piece became sealed to the portal.
"Okay, ponies, get ready. I am about to add my last bit of power to the conductor." He announced. "Get behind me." Flynn stepped out of the middle of the portal, only to be pushed back in place by Azuro.
"What the hell?" He asked.
"You have to stay there until the portal opens. It needs a catalyst or it may take weeks to open. Which we do not have, if I need to remind you." He said. Flynn opened his mouth to protest, but then closed it as he realized the gravity of the situation. He clenched his jaw and nodded.
"Ready." He said simply. Azuro trained his eyes on the head of the portal and strained to get that last bit of power out. Dinky burst in laughter and fell back, simply pointing at the Interdimensional Lord and laughing. Azuro started to look annoyed, and swiftly turned to face the Unicorn.
"Hey! You want to do this?!" His irritation showed. Dinky tried to calm down, but couldn't force herself.
"S-S-S-Sorry! Ahahaha! You just- You just looked so constipated! Ahahahaha!" Dinky exclaimed between laughs, incited a few chuckles, even from Azuro himself. Eventually, the laughing subsided and we were able to get back to the matter at hand. Or rather, at hoof.
Azuro turned back towards the head and began to strain again, this time, however, Dinky looked away while stifling another laugh. A small, golden wisp escaped the lips of said pony and gradually floated up towards the metal pony head. When it reached it, instead of going through the lips of it, it flowed into the eye sockets and disappeared into the skull.
"Um... Is something suppose to hap-?" Twilight was cut off by a resounding crack.
"Dash! Buck the storm cloud now!" Azuro shouted.
"Right!" Dash said and kicked the growling cloud, causing it to release a bolt of lightning that struck the portals head. The eyes of the head filled with crackling energy and a bright red, nontransparent aura flowed into the opening of the portal. Flynn looked terrified as the aura came nearer.
"Flynn! Before the aura touches you, jump out of the portal or you will be sent to Hell!" Azuro warned. If Flynn looked terrified before, now he was absolutely horrified.
"I wish I knew that earlier!" He yelled.
"Then you wouldn't have agreed to be in the portal." Azuro said.
"Exactly!" Flynn retorted. The aura was almost at his head, which was turned to make sure that he knew when to jump. When it came time, he leaped from the portal, and put his fist forward, using the propelling force to superman punch Azuro in the snout. To which Dinky and I responded with a hearty laugh and the others with shock. Flynn stood up and brushed himself off.
"That was for not mentioning that little tidbit at the end!" He said, then held his hand down to the Earth Pony that was sprawled across the ground. Azuro looked up at it, then took it in his hoof.
"Fair enough." He said in a nasally voice as he was hoisted up. We all turned our attention back towards the portal as it neared closing. Finally, all portions of the red aura met, or so it appeared so, and a large shock wave emitted from the center, causing all of us to be knocked back about eight feet. I met the ground with an 'Oof' and quickly had the air knocked out of my lungs again as my marefriend landed on top of me.
"Dinky! Are you okay?" I asked.
"Yeah. I'm fine, you're human body softened the blow." She chuckled as she rolled off of me. I got up and shook the dizziness out of my head, then stared up at the portal, but something was wrong. There was a single space where the red had not met. A small circle. And within it, a single, small strand of human hair floated. By a nearby groan, I could tell that Azuro had noticed it as well.
"Um... What does that mean?" I asked.
"I wish I knew." He said.
"You know, I thought you were suppose to be funny and sarcastic." Twilight commented as she rubbed her head.
"Well, that was before I lost a brother and witnessed a ten year war full of destruction and death." Azuro retorted.
"I know better than most..." She said. The portal rippled outward rather violently, then black energy crackled around the hair and another shock wave exploded from the portal, knocking us all back to the ground. But this time, a bright light accompanied the shock wave. I had to shield my eyes from the light as it expanded outward.
Eventually, it subsided and I was able to view the aftermath. But, instead of a stable portal with a bunch of blood thirsty demons running out of it, I saw something that I less than didn't understand. It was a stable portal with... A twenty year old boy standing in front of it.
"The hell am I?" The newest human asked his shocked audience.