//------------------------------// // Chapter 25 // Story: Equestria Crossover Confusion // by Garfield23 //------------------------------// Atop an isolated peak, a man stood looking down at the battles below him, seeing the destruction, caused him to smile, the screams of heathens below him and then he said "Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust. We are nothing, but dust and to dust we shall return. Amen." drawing his weapons, which were still coated in the blood from the Joker, he continued “Say ya’re prayers, ya heathens!” and as a cloud passed by the man disappeared. “So we’re down to two commanders?” Aizen said to Lord Zedd “Our plan is moving forward rather well, I want you to prepare another attack and this time send both of our remaining commanders, putties and some heartless too!” Lord Zedd nodded and Aizen smirked “Our plans shall not be halted, the weapon you speak of better be as powerful as you claim?” Lord Zedd nodded and said “Despite the original’s destruction. This one is built with no such weakness and when we bring it through, the ponies will surrender and we can move onto taking over other worlds!” he paused as he noticed Celestia tied in the corner “Your ponies are walking right into our trap” Celestia looked up, her eyes still full of defiance “They will not lose to you!” she snapped her courage showing no signs of faltering “The ponies of Equestria shall rise up and crush you!” she however was hiding her deepest fear, which the power of these villains would be too great to overcome. Aizen looked at Celestia with a bemused smile and said “Ah how amusing, you seem to forget our power is so much greater than yours and we have been allowing the ponies to win. So that our greatest weapon can come through” he rolled out a set of designs “May I present the ultimate weapon, build within the deepest darkest pit of the underworld and is now ready to destroy all our enemies” Celestia looked at the plans in horror, according to the plans, the weapon was enormous and if looks were to be believed the weapon’s power would be unstoppable “N…no it can’t be” Celestia said in a small voice, the last of her hope disappearing and shrivelling into despair “Pl…Please you can’t!” Aizen smirk grew even larger “After commander 1 and commander 2 are done losing, we’ll take you down to Ponyville and you can tell the ponies with their allies to surrender but if they fail to observe your warning….nothing will stop us from unleashing our weapon!” as Zedd and Aizen walked out, Aizen frowned and said in a low tone “Our prisoner won’t be able to get the ponies to surrender but it’ll certainly be entertaining to watch” Lord Zedd nodded “We received word from Commander 2 his plan is ready, he’ll be leaving within the hour!” he said as they walked along the halls of Canterlot castle “Lord Aizen, why would you give the ponies and their new friends a chance to surrender, no weapon they possess can stand up to the unspeakable power of my weapon and it’s wroth!” Aizen smiled cruelly “Arrogance once lead to my defeat, as it did to a great many of our other generals but here today is a golden opportunity to test our improved....toy but it’d be more fun to defeat a defiant enemy so we need to give them the chance to surrender or…it’s not defiance” he laughed as he walked into “his” room formally Princess Celestia room. Lord Zedd walked away before whispering “Soon Aizen, you will be out of my way and then I’ll take my revenge but oh so much more” after walking for a few minutes he spoke to Puppetmon “After your promotion to Commander 2, how is your plan coming?” Puppetmon added the finishing touches to his map of Ponyville and the mini figures “All I need to do is get this down to my hiding spot and then my game will begin. All I need is for Commander 1 to distract the ponies and their friends” he said as he looked over at Fleur Dis Lee tied up by Puppetmon’s stings, ever since the take-over Puppetmon had been using random ponies to play sick hunting games and many had already died “Once I get all those new toys…I’ll finally be able to destroy as many ponies as I want to!” Fleur weakly said “Pl…Pleas….please…no…!” despair heavy on her voice. “Aw your no fun…I guess that just leaves me with one option” picking up his hammer, he yelled “Puppet Pummel!” the attack streaked out and Fleur was vaporized, screaming as she disappeared and all Puppetmon said was “Hmm that kind of negative attitude really brings me down. So Zedd when can we start the party?” Lord Zedd laughed as he said “Well Commander 1 needs one more infusion of power so the darkness within him…can be unleashed” as the two left the room they headed for the dungeon, where a single cell contained a prisoner who was hidden in the shadows and along the way they had collected three pony prisoners which were the Flim flam brothers and Lighting Dust “Commander 1 are you ready for the final infusion of power?” “As if Zedd!” a weak voice said. “Well after we sacrifice these three to the evil magic…you’ll never turn again” Zedd turned to the three ponies and began to cast the spell “From the darkest pits, grand me the power and unrivalled fury of those long past! Allow goodness to be snuffed out like a simple candle in the wind of evil and never to be relit! Darkness creep back into all realms, fill those realms with your endless despair and know not the goodness that could have been! Now convert this fool back to evil’s cold light! Arise Commander 1! I grand you the power of all our fallen commanders, soldiers and these three sacrifices. Now your power will never be challenged again!” the ponies before Zedd were turned to vapour, screams filling the dungeon, their essence being drawn to Zedd’s staff, along with energy arising from the ground beneath him and then he turned to the prisoner. The energy gathered suddenly hit the prisoner and he screamed “Now re-join evil my, heir!” The prisoner stopped screaming and said “Yes…my master” as the chains that bound his wrists, were removed, he walked into the light to reveal, a man dressed in green and wearing a massive gold shield around his shoulders “I will serve you for eternity!” “And so Tommy Oliver you have re-joined the evil side, from which you shall never sway now and forever” Zedd said with a cruel laugh as he handed Tommy a black version of the white ranger’s saba sword “Now! Take Puppetmon and guard him as he prepares step two our master plan” after Puppetmon and the green ranger had left. Galaxia appeared from the cell next to the one Zedd was standing in and Zedd said “So our plan has entered its final stage. Have you got what I asked for?” Galaxia produced from behind her the Crystal heart “The one that fool, Aizen has is a fake, this one will grand our weapon untold power!” she said laughing as Zedd took the heart and added “So once our weapon appears, when can we start taking over other worlds?” Zedd merely said “Patience. Before long, the forces of good and evil will matter little to the power of Lord Zedd!” as they left the dungeon. Puppetmon and Tommy snuck down to Ponyville, after sneaking past the night watch of the town, they made their way to a burnt out hole in the ground and jumped into it. Once inside they looked around and saw many books lining the walls. Puppetmon began to lay out his toy map of Ponyville, while Tommy set up a TV in the corner which was powered by generator, in the days leading up to this, the evil forces had set up cameras all around Ponyville, while also partially preparing the hiding location and now Puppetmon had toy figures of every pony and every non-pony. Three putties were also within the hole as Puppetmon awaited morning and the coming chaos morning would bring, when he’d get to control the battles above ground but what few within the town could know, the battle for Equestria was entering its most devastating stage. The morning began as quiet as any other, Fluttershy left the castle, her home having been destroyed by Godzilla she headed for Sweetapple acre to check on Onix and Godzilla. Passing many of the Pony’s allies on route, she passed Pinkie as she opened the doors of Sugar cube corner “Good morning Pinkie, how are you this morning?” Pinkie turned with a smile “Great, the cupcakes are fresh out of the oven, want one?!” she said emergently as she looked up at the mountain, even Pinkie was on edge but Twilight had decided that Ponyville needed to retain calm as much as possible and even though Fluttershy’s cottage, along with many other buildings, it seemed to calm most of Ponyville down “So want one?!” Pinkie asked. “Oh no thank you, Pinkie, I only just had breakfast” Fluttershy said smiling gently, she was more eager than most to keep calm and forget about Shadowshy “I better get to Sweet Apple acres” she began to walk away but she saw reflected in a window, Pinkie, looking quite sad and she said in a low whisper “Oh my” Scootaloo was running through Ponyville, she was eager to find Tien and ask him a question “Hey! Basil! Basil!” she yelled seeing the tall hare walking down the street “Have you seen Tien?!” she looked around excitedly as she asked “I’ve been wanting to…well you know!” Basil chuckled as he said “I think he’ll be where he was yesterday at this time” he then winked as he saw the filly looking annoyed “Haha I think I saw the old chap training out by Sweet Apple acres” he laughed as he walked on towards the castle. Scootaloo smiled and ran towards Sweet apple acres, hardly surprising she saw a lot of sparks and bright flashes as Tien and Piccolo trained together. As she drew closer, she couldn’t see them but the sound of battle was unmistakeable, a few moments passed before Tien appeared panting as Piccolo appeared across from him and Scootaloo said “Hey Tien! I brought you some water!” pulling out a bottle of water from her saddle bag. Tien turned looking a little surprised “Oh thank you…uh…” “Scootaloo! You saved me remember” Scootaloo said looking a little hurt Tien didn’t remember her “From Godzilla over there” Tien blinked before saying “Oh…oh yeah, sorry, it’s just been a crazy week, some names are easier to remember than others” he was trying to give a logical reason, for what was actually a little joke but he looked at the Pegasus looking a little hopefully up at him. He couldn’t help but smile, he missed Chiaotzu but since meeting Scootaloo, she was like a female pony version of his friend and Tien did admit to himself, he’d miss her when he returned home “What do you want to ask?” before long he was flying with Scootaloo attached to his back by some rope. Twilight sat in her castle with Spike and Sunset, looking at various plans put forward by some of their allies to attack Canterlot but none were looking viable. It was a simple question, could their flying units claim air superiority from the enemy forces and sadly the answer was no. Even if the units they had were stronger than 95% of the enemy’s air units, according to Tien and Piccolo, Aizen was stronger than them and those two were their strongest fighters. Spike then asked the big question “What about the rainbow powers?” he asked as Twilight and Sunset shook their heads “Why not?! Just power up and this fight is done!” he snapped as he stood up from his chair “Think about all the ponies that have died so far! We have Fluttershy back, heck we even have a spare Fluttershy! So what we’re going to risk more lives, we’ve already lost Moon…!” “Spike!” Sunset snapped stopping the dragon, however the damage had been done and Twilight walked away from the table. She left the room “Oh well done, Spike! Don’t you think Twilight, more than any pony else wants to find a way to win this without losing more friends! She’s the Princess of friendship for Celestia’s shake!” Spike looked down, ashamed and said “I’m sorry…I didn’t think” he then had tears splashing down his face “Why do I always do that? Why is it I say or do something without thinking and…ruin everything!?” before Sunset could stop him, the dragon ran out of the castle and Sunset was left feeling ashamed of herself. Gandalf walked in looking strangely sad before looking thoughtfully at the map “I remember I once met a young man stranded in self-doubt and fear. He grew to face every challenge life put before him, including challenges that grew darker than any man should have to face but he grew and became strong” he explained, before smiling “In the hours to come we’ll face our darkest fears and hopefully we’ll overcome it. However we will not do it alone” Sunset looked at wizard with a raised eyebrow and asked “What do you fear, Gandalf?” Gandalf looked a little stunned but smiled and said “I fear much but fear is a part of us, it is when fear leaves me, that I am truly afraid and prepare for a fight” he then looked to the map and continued “To live life without fear is merely the dream of a fool, only fools declare they fear nothing and none of those we have fighting for us are fools” he then pulled out his pipe, he added his Pipe-weed but his matches were wet “Ah, there is one fear, my matches are wet” Sunset used her magic to light the pipe “And that is why fear is a part of us, our friends help us overcome it” Sunset smiled and nodded “Your right” suddenly Warmachine appeared in the room looking a little shocked as he didn't have his armour on and he was in his underwear "Where did you come from!?" that was when chaos was unleashed.