"It is almost ready." Rasputin told his four comrades as he made some final adjustments to the Long Range Scanner, LRS for short, that stood in the basement of their house. It was the day after Griffin's talk with Twilight Sparkle and they decided that, would they be staying in Ponyville longer then expected, they would have to keep an eye out for threats from all angles.
It was al large cylindrical machine with fout large spikes at the top that pointed to the north, east, south and west respectively. A red gem sat on the end of the north spike, a white one on the east spike, a blue gem on the south spike and a purple one on the west spike. And a brown gem in the center which lit up with a soft glow.
"Now. You four go set up. Signal me when ready." Rasputin continued to them as he activated the machine. "First Scarlet, then Midnight, then Jaina and then Griffin. Da?"
"Understood Rasputin. Scattering." Griffin said as he teleported himself and the three ladies to their appointed spots. Scarlet at north, Midnight at east, Jaina at south and himself at west. "Ready Rasputin." He telepathically continued after receiving confirmation from Scarlet, Midnight and Jaina.
"Good." Rasputin said as he fired up the LRS. It made a soft whirring noise as the display on the side read '10% Output'. "Ready yourselfs. Magic-Echo experimental and will hurt with higher output." He continued as he activated the North Spike first. "Now Scarlet!"
"Right!" Scarlet returned as she scratched herself along her arms, blood softly flowing out. She willed the blood to flow faster, it collected in jelly-like spheres along the lenght of her arms. She stopped the flow now that she had enough blood to form her Manifestation. The scarlet red liquid flowed towards her hands and formed two sharp daggers. Without a second thought Scarlet stabbed Rose and Thorn, the names of her blood daggers, in the ground.
The LRS picked up on this and sent a pulse of specially treated magic to her. Scarlet coughed up blood as she felt the magic churn in her before it blew outwards in an echo pulse. It bounced around the landscape untill a certain range and then returned to her, it forced itself back inside her magic reserves before returning to the LRS. The red gemstone lit up with a soft glow as the display raised to '30% Output'.
"Damn that hurt!" Scarlet yelled over the comms as Rose and Thorn returned to her bloodstream. The wounds sealing themselves back up.
"Da. Told you." Rasputin replied with a chuckle. "Midnight now."
"Certainly." Midnight said as white energy formed and danced around her hand in a fire like fashion. With but the flick of a wrist the energy condensed and formed a pure white gauntlet with a shiny golden gem on the back. Midnight calmly laid her armored hand on the ground.
She recieved a splitting headache and a bloody nose from the LRS' painful manner of scanning. Once the process was done Midnight fell over and clutched at her head. "For once I agree with you Scarlet Streak. Now if you'll excuse me." Midnight said as she flashed over to the Everfree Forest before screaming bloody murder, hearable all the way in Canterlot.
With that the white gem on the LRS lit up and the display raised to '60% Output'.
"She be fine. Jaina." Rasputin spoke as he monitored the LRS.
"I got it." Jaina said before she held her hands out in front of herself. Jaina used her magic to conjure all the water vapor in the air to a shape akin to a staff that laid in her waiting hands. The vapor turned to water then to ice as she started carving the magical runes into it. At the end the staff held an orb in four claws. With the staff finished the orb glowed a faint blue color. Jaina put the other end of the staff on the ground.
"I doubt it will hurt as much as Scarlet and Midnight say." She thought, a small smile tugging at her lips.
It vanished as the LRS forced it's magic into her Mana Pool. She doubled over in pain, clutching at her head but didn't scream. Instinctually a pyramid of ice formed itself aroung her but it would do nothing against magic type offense. With a grunt she punched the ground, ice devouring the grassy plain around her. The cold onslaught stopped just short of Ponyville as Jaina became completely encased in ice. The Freeze Mage just barely keeping herself from giving the town a new coat of icy paint. Now, it was over.
With that, the blue gem glowed and the LRS' output raised to 100%.
"Griffin, you sure you want do this? It very painful and I am sure-"
"No. I can do this, I've survived worse... I think." Griffin cut off Rasputin as he drew Maelstrom from his chest with his left hand. It glew a soft blue and crackled with a tiny bit of lightning. "Besides, Maelstrom should be capable of defending me when in Lightning mode."
"I guess." Rasputin said in doubt. A hundred percent output was just shy of lethal. Even for Griffin, who had received more spears through the heart then should be possible for a normal human being. But then again, none of them couldn't even be described human anymore with the things they had accomplished. "Fine then, but we are getting payed if you bite it." Rasputin joked with hearty laughter laced with worry for the man who had pulled him out of the gutter. Even if the man in question was three years younger then him. Griffin had earned Rasputin's respect, something only a few people had managed to gain.
"Very well." Griffin said as he held Maelstrom by the grip and stuck the tip of the blade in the dirt. A small bit of lighting arcing of the blade and into the ground.
Griffin's sight became fuzzy as his own Mana Pool was invaded by the LRS, yet stopped. The speed of his heartbeat rose as it tried to keep up with the nonstop flow of alien magic, and rose, and rose, and rose. His heart now beat a hundred and eighty times a minute, thrice as fast as his calm BPM. "Rasputin... what's going on?" He asked as he started to panic.
"Oh no, nonono! Griffin, do magic, your reserves too full, no place for pulse magic. It hide in body. If this keeps up, your heart explodes!"
"Under... stood." Griffin told as a column of purple magic shot up around him. His heartbeat stopped rising at two-sixty. Griffin fell to his knees as he clutched his chest with his right hand. It was rising again. Two-seventy. Two-seventy five. Two-eighty. Blackness invaded his vision as his blood was flowing so fast that oxygen couldn't be released into his brain. He was starting to pass out.
"No choice." He thought as he raised Maelstrom above his head. He brought it down and chopped of the lower quarter of his right arm. All that pent up magic seeped rapidly out of the blood vessels in what was only three-quarters of an arm now. And just as quickly the magic was functional again and pulsed across the landscape before returning to Griffin. Barely conscious, he redirected the magic to the LRS.
And then, Griffin fainted.
~~~Ponyville Hospital. Three days later~~~
Griffin awoke with a gasp and opened his eyes, but he quickly closed them again as he laid eyes upon the bright white ceiling of the hospital room in which he lay. Without opening his eyes again he could feel an array of bandages surrounding his right arm, which was whole again. "I see that that arm being made of Hellfire has it's perks." He thought. He tried to open his eyes again, he blinked a couple of times as he got used to the light, he tried to sit up but was pushed back down.
"Don't, you wake them." Rasputin whispered as he sat back down in the chair oppostite the bed.
Only then did Griffin notice the three weights holding down his left arm and two legs. Midnight and Scarlet had apparrently fallen asleep at the foot of the bed, as they were currently pinning down both his legs. And Jaina was using his left arm as a makeshift teddy bear with how tightly she was hugging it.
"You been out for three days. They stayed at your side whole way. I had much ice to clean up." Rasputin explained.
"Three days!?" Griffin whispered in shock.
"Yes, Midnight wanted to heal you but doctors, idiots they are, wanted to scan you."
"Wanted?"
"Jaina is persuasive as hell. So they wanted you to stay here when your arm regenerated. Should've seen expression on doctors faces when they thought hospital burn down! Priceless!" Rasputin laughed.
"Yeah." Griffin said as he examined his right arm. "I guess being a Hellraiser has its perks."
"Da! Indeed!"
Griffin wanted to wriggle his left arm free to unwind his right but Jaina wouldn't have none of that. "If you do that again I'll freeze you solid." She mumbled in her sleep as the temperature in the room dropped a couple degrees.
"Deadly while sleeping. Ha!" Rasputin said in amusement.
"Should have known she wouldn't let me." Griffin said as he realized he could do nothing except wait for three of them to wake. "What time is it?"
Rasputin looked to his watch. "Six am. Why?" He answered.
"No reason. I think I'll continue sleeping actually." Griffin said as he laid his head against the cushion, and closed his eyes.
"Da, call me when leaving." Rasputin told as he quitly left the room.
"Sure thing." Griffin replied before falling back asleep.