I'm broken. I am both proud and ashamed of that fact. I am broken in mind, but I am also broken in power. What do I mean? Well I'm OP as hell, but it comes at the cost of my sanity.
So I guess I got your attention huh? Well, do you really wanna hear more? Alright, just remember that you asked for this. Back on earth, I was a nobody. I was old, I was overweight, I was weak, and I was lonely. Then, he came. I recognized him, how could I not? He offered a chance to do things over, what could I do other than accept? You wanna know more, huh? Fine then. You really wanna know then you're gonna be here a while. So sit down, make yourself comfortable. Eh? Who am I? Sometimes even I don't know. But most folks around here? They just call me Jack.
I sighed as I looked at two graves, I still couldn't believe they were gone. 20 years and my parents' deaths still hung over me like a storm cloud. A storm cloud brimming with electricity, just waiting for something to trigger a thunder strike on my head. All it would need is one spark, one tiny jolt and it would make a bolt to connect with the ground through me.
Ah, I did it again it seems. I got wrapped up in a metaphor. I hate when that happens.
With another sigh and a nod, I placed the flowers I had brought upon the base of their tombstones.
"Mom, Dad," I said as I gently lowered myself to one knee, "I've come to see you two again. Though, this might be the last time."
The graveyard was silent, not even the songbirds were singing as I continued on.
"I've been given an offer. One that I just can't refuse. If I make it to where I'm going, then I probably won't come back very often, if I do at all."
Once more there was silence, nothing but the wind blowing through the changing autumn trees.
"I wish I could refuse, but there is literally nothing left for me here but you two. And I know that eventually, I will have to move on. I can't stay in a place with so many bad memories lingering about."
I shook my head slightly; trying to clear not only my mind, but also the tears in my eyes. Some men might try to blame the cold wind for making their eyes water, but I was willing to be honest with myself. This is hard, I won't deny it.
"I guess this is goodbye. But before I go, I just want you both to know that I love you. You were my role models in life, my anchors in any bad situation. Between me and the rest of the cold, cruel world, you two stood like a wall of steel. And now, even in death, I can still look at you two and know that you went out fighting. So to both of you, I say this with regret. I am leaving. Hopefully, even if something happens, I'll get to see the both of you."
I stood up straight, took off some of the dog tags that I wore, and put them on the stone between the graves. Returning them to their rightful owners.
With a final salute, I turned and walked away.
I drove back to my home, wondering how I got myself into this mess. I knew that what I was being offered was impossible, but at the same time, it couldn't be anything but true.
Pulling into my garage, I left the key in the ignition. And then I went into the house to pick up the final piece of the puzzle. He had already gathered most of the materials necessary, but the last item we needed to do this was in my possession. It had been since I was ten. All I had to do was grab it, put it in a bag, and then bring it with me to meet my partner.
Why do I get the feeling that this was going to be harder than it seemed?
I have the item, I'm in my car, and my car is in the parking lot of my destination. Why he would want to meet here of all places is beyond me. I mean, if we're going to do this, I would prefer it if I didn't have to do it in a crowded place like a comic convention.
Well, what can you do? I ain't gonna say no to this offer. I know it's impossible, but like my dad always said:
"You miss every shot that you don't take, and every shot you miss is one you regret." I quoted with a sigh. Well, time to face the music I guess.
I wandered the hotel for a bit, looking for any sign of him, I was almost ready to give up. Then I entered the merchant room and saw him.
He was manning a booth. The booth held all sorts of props and other paraphernalia. All of them were shockingly accurate. His brown hair was barely peeking out from under a white hood, which was attached to the vest he was wearing. Ruby red eyes peeked out from a face that seemed slightly sunken, covered in pale white skin. He was thin, almost unhealthily so, but if you were to look closer you would see the tensing and loosening of extremely tightly coiled muscles as he moved. A mouth with long canines and a few teeth that were much more subtly sharpened was shown as he talked with and smiled at his various customers.
I took a deep breath. This was it. Once I approached there would be no return. I looked out the window at the city skyline. Was it really worth it? Should I really do this? If I turned around right now, just walked back to my car, I could drive home and simply forget that any of this happened. Then I noticed my reflection in the said window.
A man in his late fifties looked back at me, green eyes pondering. A white head of hair that was already falling out in the front that looked like it hadn't been combed in days sat atop my skull. My stomach hung over my jeans like a muffin top for a good four inches.
I sighed. It looks like I have nothing to lose. After all, there really is nothing left for me here.
With a firm nod to my reflection, I turned and approached the booth.
As I approached, he looked up. No doubt he sensed my presence.
"Ah! There you are, mate! You are the one who placed that special order, aren't you?" He said with a subtle wink at me.
"Yep, that was me. Did you get the stuff I asked for?" I said with a fake smile.
"Right on! Yeah, I did, sorry to make you pick it up here. I insisted on bringing it myself since we were coming out this way anyway, but the boss wouldn't let me make a trip out to your house since it was so far off the path." He explained with a sigh, "Anyway, your stuff's in the truck out back, I'll bring you to it. Hey, Murphy!" He said to the other person running the stall. "Keep an eye on things for me, will you? I gotta show this dude out to pick up his order.
The other vendor was easily recognized as the merchant from Resident Evil 4. He looked up from his magazine with eyes crinkled from smiling.
"Sure thing, buddy. Don't take too long though." He said as he stood up and stretched.
With that, he signaled for me to follow him, and we walked into the back toward the loading area.
"So," I started once we were out of earshot, "That Murphy fellow, was he really...?" I left the question hanging, knowing he would connect the dots.
"Yessiree! That was indeed the being you're thinking of." He said with a smirk, "I'll bet you wanna know why he does what he does right?"
"Definitely, is he just cruel? Or is there a method to his madness?" I asked, honestly curious about why The Merchant sent so many people away like he did.
"Oh, there's a reason, a very good one at that." He said, his face becoming serious, "The truth is, by sending them away, he is actually saving their lives."
"What?!?" I asked in shock.
"Yeah. See, what most people don't know, is that void dwellers can pass freely between Heaven and Hell." He began, as we reached a metal door with a card reader. He swiped his card and the door started to slowly crawl open.
"To us, they're nothing more than another dimension." He continued, as the door was sliding at a snail's pace. "However, some void dwellers get the job of taking people to wherever they belong after they pass and end up in the void. If they don't, the soul goes mad and becomes a monster much like a hollow from Bleach, only much more dangerous."
Finally, the door opened all the way, revealing an elevator, which we got into.
"In order to help these dwellers, they are given the ability to look at souls directly." He kept going as he pressed the button for the garage, "Now, this next bit is a bit of a tangent. Some souls are born into the wrong universe. That's as simple as I can make it for you." The doors were shutting at the same speed they opened.
"To be more specific, they are born in one universe, but resonate VERY strongly with another." The doors were still closing. "Now, this is a very bad thing. Because when a universe picks this kind of thing up, it treats it like an immune system does a disease. It tries to remove it." The doors finally shut, and the elevator started moving, though it was still slow enough that I could barely feel the movement.
"Unfortunately, like the immune system, it thinks the only way to remove said soul is to destroy it." The elevator was only halfway past the floor. "Another job of the void reapers; is to find souls like this and send them to the universe they resonate with. If they don't then the soul is killed. Murphy saw this happen once."
The elevator was in full view of the next floor down, thus it was fully illuminated. And as such, I could clearly see the terrifying expression on his face.
"Once was enough. Murphy decided to wait a bit to displace the kid. He waited too long. He watched the kid get hit by a car in slow motion." He shook his head. "It made Murphy decide to work as hard as he could to make sure the souls went where they belonged. Since then, he hasn't missed a single one."
I stood there in shock, unable to comprehend this. The Merchant...was saving lives...It was a shock. Suddenly, the elevator sped up slightly, enough to where it was on par with a normal elevator.
"What just happened?" I asked in surprise.
"I dispersed the time dilation field we were in." He said with a smirk. "What? Did you really think that the elevator was designed to be that slow? That's just ridiculous!"
I was once again flabbergasted. I was actually in a TDF. How the hell is that even-?!
My thoughts were interrupted by the elevator reaching the garage. The place was pretty much empty, except for one lone truck in the middle.
"Go on." He said, shoving me out the door. I walked to the truck, very uncertain of myself.
He came up and unhitched the shutter door to the back of the truck. Inside was a shelf with Three items,
The first was a plain looking sword with a jagged handguard, Zeltrech's Jewel Sword. The next was a striped shirt in green and dark green, the same shirt that Spiderman's foe, The Sandman wore. Finally, was what seemed to be half of a helmet with horns and an open front, Just like Ulquiorra Cifer's.
I sighed, knowing what was coming next, as He reached into my bag and pulled out a gray metal case. Turning the three dials to the correct numbers before opening it, and pulling out my gun that my father gave me as a kid to learn how to shoot. A .22 hunting rifle that I never bothered to learn the make or model of.
"You know, most people would be freaking out right now." He said, running through the safety checks on the gun.
"Yeah well, I was considering suicide before this if things didn't get much better," I said with a sigh. "I guess this still counts though, doesn't it, dude? After all, I'm still killing myself, aren't I?" I said with a smirk.
"I guess it does."My other self laughed as he loaded the bullet. "I wish we could displace you like we normally do, but since the items I gave you are so powerful, It needs that extra push to make it work." The bolt was locked in place and he was about to take aim.
"Now you can either turn around and see me fire, or just let it happen from behind, which one do you want?" He asked.
I looked at him and smirked, "Are you kidding? It wouldn't be me if I didn't face my problem head on, would it?" I asked.
"Should've known..." He muttered, reloading the round and taking aim at my forehead. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry."
And with that, the trigger was pulled.
Starting Anew...Though Probably Not in the Best Way
So, I'm awake. I honestly almost hoped I wouldn't be. Oh well, at least I get a new start out of it, I hope.
It takes me a couple of seconds to notice I'm falling.I'm nowhere near the ground though, so I'm fine. Huh, I must be channeling Ulquiorra here.
That is not like me. Let's see if I can meditate and get those memories sor-
AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGG! THE PAIN! IT'S TOO MUCH! GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
At that point, my soul was forced out of my body. I must have died. I watched as my body fell through the atmosphere, burning, and healing due to Ulquiorra's regeneration, and the pain just didn't stop. I watched in horror, as what used to be my body crashed to the ground, practically liquefied.
In disgust, I watched myself being rebuilt, Becoming unhealthily thin as the atmosphere burned off most of my body fat. I couldn't watch anymore, so I turned to look around.
Okay, so...Where am I? Let's see...
Hmmmm, scary trees over there...Scary trees over here...Scary trees to my right, scary trees to my left... A stone castle dead ahead- Wait back up a minute! Stone castle?!?
I looked back and sure enough, there was a stone castle not too far from where I landed. It seemed to be on high alert, I wonder why-Oh. Right. Something falling from the sky and landing very close to their home? Of course they're going to f^*&ing panic, dumbass.
With a sigh, I watched as two women who I could not see clearly lead what looks like a platoon of guards to my body.
And there they are. One of the guards comes up and checks my pulse, even though I have a hollow hole. And he calls it. Just as they are about to turn around, I start feeling myself be pulled towards my body. Well, I guess it's time to make an entrance, heh heh heh...
Princess Celestia and her sister Luna had seen a lot of things in their time. They had seen the harshness of war, felt the harmony of peace, and even faced off against a user of the darkest magics known to Pony-kind in the form of Queen Umbra.
As such, they could be forgiven for thinking that nothing would surprise them anymore. But nothing could have prepared them for the sight they now beheld.
A being had fallen from the sky, a being that the captain of the guard had declared dead. A being that was very clearly moaning!
"Ugh...I HATE it when that happens!" Said being exclaimed in a masculine tone. He slowly stood and cracked his neck twice, before putting a hand on one shoulder and rolling his arm.
The guards were quick to recover from their shock and get between this being and the princesses.
"Halt! Who are you, and why have you come to the Castle of the Two Sisters?" The captain asked.
"Pipe down Sargent Hardass!" The being replied as he continued to do what the ponies now recognized as stretches, "I have a headache and need to get my blood pumping or else I'll lock up. Can't have that now can we?"
The captain growled and ordered the platoon to attack.
'Oh boy, here we go...' I thought as I stepped aside and turned to face the guard who had tried to hit me with a vertical slash.
"Dude, that was a stupid move." I said as I kneed him in the gut and hit him between the shoulder blades to knock the wind out of him. He collapsed to the ground and I picked up his sword.
"Geeze, a gold sword? Really?" I asked in exasperation as I used the sword to deflect a spear thrust so that it intercepted a battle-ax coming down on me from behind, "Seriously? All of your weapons are made of gold?!?"
I grabbed the two guards' heads and slammed them together. After knocking them out, I removed one of the helmets and examined it, "What the hell?!? Good f*&^ing lord...Gold armor too?!?"
I threw the helmet and nailed an archer who was about to take his shot. He turned slightly in pain, and the arrow instead flew right in front of a horned one's face as the horn glowed with magic energy. It surprised him enough that whatever spell he was going to cast blew up in his face, taking out him and a few of the other guards around him.
"I mean I get it, gold is easy to enchant..." I continued as I ducked under a war hammer's swing, "But it's also not very durable. In fact, if not enchanted, Then gold is absolutely useless in weapons and armor." The hammer hit another guard who was charging at me. I firmly planted my hands on the ground and did a kangaroo kick to the guy with the hammer, Hitting him, as with the first guard, in the gut.
And so it had come full circle. All of the guards were laying on the ground, moaning in pain. I shook my head and 'tsk'ed at them.
"Really now, whoever trained you was an idiot. None of you really kept track of each other in the slightest. I hardly had to do anything." I complained as I bent down and flicked the forehead of a guard who tried to reach for a sword.
I then stood once more, turned to the two women, and bowed in a gentlemanly fashion.
"My apologies for that ladies. I would have liked to keep things peaceful, but the leader of your guards seems to have been rather rude." I said as calmly as I could. I then looked up and smiled. "My name is Jack. And I would hope that you could politely tell me where I am?"
The white woman (NOT RACIST! SHE LITERALLY HAD WHITE SKIN!) looked at her guards, sighed and shook her head in disappointment, while the blue one tried and failed to hide a giggle behind her hand.
The clearing was pretty, I had to admit. I also had to admit that the two ladies I met, who had turned out to be princesses, were pretty hot.
Anyway, the two of them and I had sat down on seats that Celestia (The white one) had snapped up. Since I had only attacked after being attacked, they were ready to give me the benefit of the doubt.
I found the two to be pretty cool. Sure Celestia was a bit uptight, but Luna...
Well, let's just say I made a friend. She just couldn't stop giggling as I subtly insulted the guards in a way that Celestia didn't seem to pick up for about five minutes. And whenever Celestia asked what was so funny, Luna tried to explain and wound up laughing out loud for her troubles. I think Celestia was seriously concerned for her sister's mental health. I took pity on her and told her to go over what I'd said with a fine-toothed comb. The look on her face when she realized what I had implied about her guards was downright priceless.
What was not priceless, however, was having my head blown off by the captain of the guards after he woke up with a magic blast.
Luna screamed as she saw her new friends head disintegrated by the blast. Celestia turned to berate the guard when she heard a familiar groan of pain.
"Okay, that was annoying..." She heard Jack's voice declare, though she didn't know where from.
"Oh boy...Down here, Celestia." He called, making her look to the ground below, only to find absolutely nothing.
"Look a little closer." Jack said, and doing so, Celestia saw a copy of Jack's face in the sand. She immediately stepped back in shock, just as Luna noticed what her sister had.
"JACK?!?" Luna exclaimed in surprise. Wondering just how this was possible.
"Bingo, Luna." He replied.
Well, this is embarrassing. I guess this is Sandman's power. Well, let's see if I can't fix this.
I focused on moving the sand that made up my head back into my body through my feet. It took a few seconds, but it worked. A few more seconds and I had my head growing out of my neck. Once I was back in one piece, I slowly turned and my head and rolled my neck.
"Well now, that was extremely irritating," I muttered under my breath as I turned to the guard.
"Honestly, I dunno whether to thank you or curse you out," I said slowly in an annoyed tone. "On the one hand, you just blew my head off. On the other, you gave me a chance to test out and learn to use a power that I had no understanding of how it works. However, since Luna seems very angry at you at the moment, I'll let her take over."
'Very Angry' seemed to be the understatement of the century. Luna looked downright livid. I got ready to take notes in case she started cursing him out.
And boy, am I glad that I did, she turned the air blue without a single expletive! Seriously, she may be a princess but her vocabulary downright astounds me!
After about five minutes of Luna tearing into the captain, the other guards were awake and Celestia invited me to the castle.
Okay, I am impressed once again. The castle looked huge from the outside, but it was even bigger on the inside. Luna explained that it was due to rather liberal use of expansion spells, which I was slightly worried about failing until she mentioned that the spells were tied to runes that had been carved into the tops and bottoms of the stone bricks which made up the walls. I had to admit that that was a rather clever way of hiding the expansion and defense runes.
The only problem I could see was that if one of the runes failed, they would have a hell of a time getting to it. When I voiced this, Celestia explained that every brick had the same arrays on it, and only one brick was enough to cover the entire castle. So if one brick's arrays failed, another one would activate.
It was ingenious! If the runes were done well, each brick could last at least 100 years. And by only having one cover the entirety of the castle at a time, they could literally run the castle's enchantments for almost eternity!
By the time I managed to fully process this fact, we had reached the throne room. I quickly shook my head, watching as Luna and Celestia walked up and sat on their thrones. And as they did, their aura seemed to...shift for lack of a better word.
All of a sudden, it became very clear that I was not gazing upon the two ponies that I had talked to earlier. Now, I was facing the judging stares of two rulers of the land. Two rulers that showed that they were not afraid of anything, and are ready to destroy me at any moment. If I showed even the slightest aggression towards their subjects, then there would not even be ashes to blow away upon the wind.
I doubled over laughing. I couldn't help it. So that was how they did it. I had wondered how two beings of such purity could possibly handle the dark world that was known as politics. Now I understood, these two deliberately dirtied their souls in a way that could be washed off in an instant.
This allowed them to reign in the less than savory nobles whilst upon the throne, whilst presenting a loving maternal image to the commoners.
"Amazing!" I said as I calmed down, "You two have truly mastered the art of ruling. But tell me, what would your subject say if they knew that both sides they have seen of you..."
I raised my head with a predatory smirk as I finished, "...Are but masks to hide your true selves."
The guards looked at me as if I had gone crazy, but if anything Celestia and Luna's aura got more intense.
"You hide behind a mask of maternity when amongst the commoners." I continued, "And to the nobles, you present a strong towering wall that stands between them and the throne, one which they could climb or dig away at for 1000 years and never get past. But in reality..."
At this point, I allowed my smile to soften, as I stood up straight and spread my arms wide, "...In reality, you two are the very image of purity. A symbol that represents innocence and love. You both shine so brightly that your true selves could blind the unworthy fools who try to corrupt you. And yet, you darken yourselves intentionally so that those who look up to you with awe and admiration may gaze upon you without harm."
As I ended my monologue, I got down on one knee and lowered my head. Just as a knight would to their king, "Truly, you two have earned my respect. I do not bow to anyone, but to you...You two who sacrifice your everything that makes you who you are, I lower my head. I recognize someone who stands upon a pillar I can never reach. I recognize you both, as true heroes."
For a moment there was silence. Then one of the guards began to clap. And another soon joined them. Soon the entire room, except for Celestia and Luna, were clapping for the two alicorns. Slowly, I raised my head once more to see that the two sisters were completely shocked, their faces as red as a rose.
I stood again and soon began clapping myself. If anything, their blushes deepened.
It's been about three weeks since I got here. The locals seem friendly enough, I guess. They all have gotten used to me, but since I can't seem to rein in the hollow presence Ulqiora gave me, almost everyone is always a little tense, as if they are ready to run at a moment's notice.
Now from the civilians, I could understand and forgive this. After all, they are supposed to stay out of combat for the most part. But the thing that really annoyed me was that even the guards had this kind of reaction.
My eyebrow twitched as I watched how tense the guards were while I leaned against the wall in a shadowy corner towards the back of the throne room.
'That's it!' I thought as the last noble left, thus ending the royal court, 'This needs to be taken care of. These folks are supposed to guard the princesses with their lives, yet they are ready to run at the first sign of aggression!'
"Celestia, Luna..." I started out loud, thus gaining their attention, "...Can you clear the room? I need to talk to you and I don't want to risk the guards spreading what I'm about to say around."
Celestia and Luna shared a look before nodding and waving the guards out. Once it was only us in the room, the doors shut.
"Alright, we're alone," Luna said, "What's going on Jack?"
"Your guards suck ass, that's what's going on!" I replied heatedly, "Sure they put up a brave face, but whenever I enter the room they're ready to run and leave you two behind to save their own hides! If they can't handle my presence, then how are they going to react when a real threat comes along?"
Celestia seemed shocked by my language, but Luna had spent more time around me and was used to it. After a bit of time where she seemed thoughtful, she eventually sighed.
"You're right, Jack," Luna said with her hand massaging her temples, "The thing is, I don't know what we can do to fix it. Celestia, do you have any ideas?"
"Not really," Celestia replied with a shake of her head, "Jack, what about you?"
"I may have a few..." I said as I smiled evilly.
The next morning, at the crack of dawn I went into the guards' barracks. Shaking my head as I saw that they were deeply asleep, I used the only bit of Kaleidoscope magic I had mastered so far to pull out a crank powered air-raid siren and some earplugs. I could only pull out general, everyday items so far.
Quickly getting back on track, I put the earplugs in and placed the siren on the ground while the foam expanded to fit my ears. Once I was assured that all sound would be blocked out, I got on one knee and started turning the crank at high speed.
The guards all jumped out of bed and started running around in a panic before I pulled out the plugs and shouted "ATTENTION!"
Immediately after I shouted they lined up and stood as stiff as boards. Looking at their stances, I rubbed the bridge of my nose before glaring at them.
"I said ATTENTION soldiers! That means legs together, backs straight, hands at your sides and your heads held high! Is that clear?!"
"SIR, YES SIR!" They exclaimed as they altered their stances to my specifications.
I examined them once more and nodded. Then I started to pace in front of them, speaking as I did.
"Excellent! It seems you can be trained. Speaking of which, Princesses Celestia and Luna have authorized me to start your re-training. Yes, I said RE-training. The reasoning behind this is simple. You all right now, are feeling the presence given to me by certain powers that I have obtained. I am sure you have felt it to a lesser degree before."
I stopped and looked at them with a frown, "The reaction to the lesser amount of this aura, is why you are being re-trained. Your reaction was to ready yourselves, even if subconsciously, to run and leave everyone for themselves. Including the princesses you guard."
I noted that several of them had their heads down in shame, making me sigh and shake my head once again.
"Keep those heads up and let me finish, soldiers!" I exclaimed, startling them back into position, "Now, where was I? Ah yes, right..."
I started pacing again, which helped me to stay on track, "Now, I realize that this was an instinctual reaction. But, with the right training, those instincts can be ignored."
I looked over all of them, "I have gone through a lesser version of this training as I did not have instincts as strong as yours. You all, however, will be getting a version which is extreme even by my standards. I will not lie, it will seem that this training is straight out of hell. That means that you will hurt in ways that you have never hurt before, you will feel pain in places you didn't even know you had, and you will be exhausted to the point that you will want to pass out. If you are too scared to do this training, then you can stay here..."
I waited until I saw a few sigh and start to raise their hands before finishing, "...And write a resignation letter to the princesses that explains exactly how much of a coward you are. Just so you are aware, these resignation letters will be placed in tomorrow's newspaper. Thus you are very unlikely to get a job anywhere near here." I said the last bit with a devilish smirk, watching as those who had been about to quit paled and immediately got back into position.
The sound of screaming is surprisingly satisfying. I have no idea why...Maybe because of the training?
I watched as all of the guards attempted to run from my full presence, only to run full on into the electrifying bounded field that I had set up. For the fifth time. With a sigh, I brought my presence back again.
"ATTENTION!" I called, making them groan, though they didn't move.
"I said...ATTTEEEEEEEENNNNNTIOOOON!" I shouted the last word with a brief flare of my reiryoku. They quickly scrambled up.
"Now that's more like it!" I said with a nod, "Alright...From this point until I say otherwise, you are not soldiers, you are MAGGOTS!" The glare I sent at them stopped any protests.
"I understand that my aura is scary, but there are things out there with aura's far worse than my own!" I watched with hidden glee as they paled, "What would you do if you encountered such an aura, huh? I'll tell you what I think you would do. You would take your weapons and kill yourselves in order to get away! That's if you don't die of heart failure first!"
With a growl I put my hand on the ground, altering and enhancing them to go from a taser-like shock to something similar to a very low-level shock from an electrical outlet, along with a few sparks that would cause first-degree burns.
"Since it seems that a weak punishment like the last one didn't teach you not to run, then I guess I'll have to up the stakes," I growled out as I stood once more, "The injuries from this field will be more severe, and this time, I won't be healing you of any aftershocks."
The protests that came were turned into screams of fear and pain as I turned my presence back up to full and they tried to run again, only for the field to shock them again.
The training seemed harsh sure, but the idea was for them to associate fear with pain. Eventually, they would learn.
The guards groaned as they trekked back to their barracks at dusk. I called out to them just before they entered.
"Remember maggots, fear is the enemy. Stand proud and fight, and your legend will live on. The sooner you learn this, the sooner this training will end. For now, be here at the crack of dawn tomorrow, or I'll wake you up with yet another shock. And it won't be a mental shock either." The last bit was said with a smirk and another flare of my power, thus making them panic and start to fight each other in an effort to get inside.
I turned around and shook my head with a sigh before going into the castle to find my room so I could write up a report for Celestia and Luna to go over.
Just about a year has passed since I started the guards' training. It took them three months to stand still when I showed my power, and another two before they were able to actually try and attack me. I was honestly just glad that I no longer needed to get up that early anymore. I enjoyed spending time in the daylight sure, but more often than not I would rather spend the night laying on the roof of the tower where I stayed trying to make a star chart and comparing it to one that I pulled from my home dimension. I had learned how to draw on larger or more powerful items at this point, I also learned how to sync up with my alternates to a minor degree. I could link with, say, an alternate who was an astronomer, but not one who had any actual powers or abilities.
Most of these nights were spent in the company of Luna, who would sometimes ask me to explain the stories behind the constellations from my home. We spent many a night exchanging myths and bonding over a mutual love of the stars.
One night, however, Luna asked a question which nearly tore our friendship apart.
"Jack?" I remember her asking quietly.
"Yes, Luna?" I replied.
"I've noticed that you don't talk about your life back on earth that much...Why is that?"
I stiffened. That was a sensitive topic for me, I still remember a lot of the troubles that I had in my old life. Unfortunately, Luna seemed determined to find out more about me.
With a sigh, I stored the star chart I had been working on into my hammerspace. Then I laid back on the sloping roof of the tower. Telling Luna to get comfortable, I attempted to gather my thoughts.
"I was born in a no name town. Not a lot really happened there, and it wasn't even on the map. Hadn't been for decades before I came around. The hospital was barely up to scratch, and my mom barely survived."
I shook my head and focused back as memories of my parents began to bombard me, "About a year after that, we moved into some suburbs that were on the edge of city limits for both a small town and a large city. Things were good for a while."
I moved my hands behind my head to form a makeshift pillow before I continued, "My mom and dad were career military. That means that at least one of them was always away on a tour of duty. My dad was gone during most of the early years. When I was five, he came back and we got to be a full family for about a year before mom decided that she was going on a tour for herself."
I sighed, "It went on like that for a while, sometimes one of them would be gone for two years, others five, but there was always at least a year of family time between the tours. But that all changed when I was fifteen."
I brought out one of my hands before reaching skyward, towards the equivalent of the north star, "On my fifteenth birthday, my parents sat me down and explained that they thought I could take care of myself. For the most part, they were right, but I still had to learn a few things on my own. They told me that they were both going out on tour again, this time together."
Luna gasped, seemingly shocked that parents could do that to a child. I looked over and saw the pity in her eyes, making me close my own.
"Don't, Luna. If there's one thing I can't stand it's being pitied." I took a deep breath to gather myself once more and began again.
"Anyway, they left soon after that. Only a few days later in fact. I just kept on going through life, getting a job at sixteen even though they sent a portion of their stipend to pay for groceries and the like. Things were normal, and I occasionally got to video chat with them on days like Christmas. But once again, things changed once I hit eighteen."
This time, I had to call on Ulquiorra's personality to keep me somewhat calm, "I was about to graduate high school, and both my mom and my dad had a bit of shore leave so they were going to be at the ceremony. But when I stood at that stage and looked around at the crowd, they weren't there. I got a bit worried, but that worry turned to dread a little after I came home."
Even with the apathetic hollow's calm, I was still slightly tearing up at this point. This was where things got really touchy for me.
"Soon after I pulled into my driveway, I saw a car I didn't recognize stop on the road just in front of my house. When a man in an elaborate uniform came out of that car, I knew that something terrible had happened."
Luna seemed to figure out where I was going with this, as she reached out and put a hand on my shoulder. I gave a wet smile in thanks before inhaling deeply and letting it out slowly.
"The man told me that the ship that they had been stationed on was sieged by Somalian pirates. No one knew how, or why. All they knew was that those pirates had rocket launchers and managed to deal enough damage that the crew was forced to abandon ship. My mother was below deck at the time, and the blast caused shrapnel which killed her."
I couldn't hold my tears in anymore, and Luna brought me into a hug in order to comfort me. I don't know how long I cried, but it took a while before I could finish the story.
"As the last life boat was about to be deployed, it was discovered that more shrapnel had gotten lodged in the winch. This meant that someone would have to cut the line and then jump down before swimming into the lifeboat. My father volunteered to do it and had just cut the line when another rocket hit him head on. They thought that the pirate was aiming for the lifeboat, but missed because he cut the line. He wound up giving his life to save theirs."
The tears started again, and simply wouldn't stop. Luna held me closer, wrapping her wings around us. I must have cried for an hour. I don't remember much, but by the time I stopped the sun was starting to rise and Luna had to lower the moon.
After that night, Luna and I were much closer than before. It didn't take longer than a week to notice that I was starting to develop feelings for the moon princess. I didn't really know what to do about it at that point though, so I just kept quiet.
It's been about two months since that night. I was pretty sure about how I felt towards Luna now. I knew I was falling in love, but I was scared. If I mentioned it, how would she respond? But at the moment, that's the least of my problems.
I've decided to see if I could use cero, bala, or any other hollow abilities Ulquiorra contributed for me. Now normally, this would be simple, I meditate to find my reiryoku and once I do I bring it to the surface and attempt to use it. What I was not expecting, however, was to end up in what could only be Hueco Mundo. I looked around, with my guard up for anything. But there was only silence.
Confused, I searched for my reiryoku, only to find that I was literally standing in a place where even the air was made of my own energy!
"This...This is impossible!" I exclaimed to myself, wondering what was going on. It took me about five minutes of freaking out before an idea hit me.
"Wait, Soul Reapers have an inner world inside their soul. Could this be mine? Wait, no that doesn't make sense, the show said that Arrancar Zanpakutos are just manifestations of their power!" That's when it all snapped into place for me.
"Of course! The Kaleidoscope! It must have drawn out a version of Murcielago that comes from a dimension where Zanpakutos are either reversed or maybe even the same for both sides! But if that's the case, then where would my blade's representation be?" I muttered the last part to myself, not expecting a response.
So you can imagine my surprise when I heard a feminine and monotone voice reply, "How about right behind you."
I must have jumped like ten feet into the air from surprise. When I landed, I looked at where the voice came from and was completely shocked. This was not what I was expecting!
Understandably, my jaw hit the floor. She was hot as hell! But after an initial once over, I forced myself to focus on her eyes. Eyes which showed no emotion whatsoever, leaving me wondering just what she was thinking.
The silence stretched on for a moment. I think she was analyzing me, trying to figure me out, but I felt that it was far too quiet.
"So..." I began, causing her eyes to come into focus slightly, "Your name wouldn't happen to be Murcielago, would it per chance?"
She tensed. It was slight, but it was there. However, she surprised me with her answer.
"No. Though that is the name of my blade. I am Ulquiorra Cifer."
"Fuck, Shit, Piss, Damn Son of a bitch!" I paused at the last one before hanging my head. I not only dissed myself with that last bit, but I also insulted my mother whom I loved very deeply. I made a note to offer extra prayers before I went to sleep tonight. Shaking my head I turned to look at Ulquiorra, only to see her stone faced.
"Sorry about that. Now don't freak out, but...I think that I might be responsible for you getting sealed in here..." She quirked an eyebrow, non-verbally asking how responsible I was, "It might have been a version of myself from an alternate dimension who did this..."
I didn't get much further than that before she threw an energy javelin that missed my balls by an inch, blowing up behind me and making me land at her feet. I looked up only to see her readying another javelin.
"Give me one good reason not to kill you where you lay." She said in that monotone voice. I figured that this version of Ulquiorra was able to show anger at least. And what's worse, it was the cold, glacial type of anger that focussed it all into a point.
"Well...Ummm...I honestly didn't know you were here for one thing...And for another, I already plan to get you out as soon as I can! Nobody deserves to be trapped in their own weapon, even if both the weapon and its wielder are absolutely gorgeous..."
Her eyes narrowed, and I barely managed to roll before the javelin hit the ground. Standing up quickly, I began the desperate run for my life!
I quickly started running through the dunes, with her flying right behind me. I turned a corner, only to come out from behind a totally different hill as Ulquiorra came from one beside me. I was distinctly reminded of a scooby doo hallway chase scene.
Such shenanigans continued for about five minutes before I stopped and slapped my forehead and turned into a pile of sand that then merged with the rest of the dessert, giving me a much larger amount of power.
Just as Ulquiorra stopped above a dune to look for me, I used the sand to reach up and grab her. Pulling her onto the ground, I encased everything but her head in about two feet of sand just to be safe. Then I materialized beside her and squatted down, putting my lower arms across my knees.
A/n: Stop Music
"Alright, now that you can't attack me anymore, can we at least try to talk this out? I get that you're angry, but I don't think you should take it out on me." I said this and sighed as she continued to struggle for release. "Look, I'm perfectly willing to let you go, but first you need to calm down."
She glared at me again, making me stand up and put my hands out palms open.
"See, I'm not armed. You're not hurt, as far as I'm aware, and all I'm doing is restraining you. Like I said, I am completely fine with releasing you once you're calm. When you want to talk, let me know."
With that, I went back underground and started manipulating the sand from another, far distant dune. Forming another body and taking direct control, I began working on something I had thought of weeks ago. Loosening the bonds between the grains that made up my form, I then began to rotate the particles randomly. Slowly at first, then gradually beginning to speed the motions up.
Eventually, I had built up enough speed that my entire body was acting as a kind of grinder or sander. So far so good. Now for the next step.
I tried to get into my hand to hand stance, only for the entire thing to fall apart and the particles that were moving at the time to go flying. Reforming, this time in a fully solid body, I shook my head with a sigh as I crossed my arms.
"Not again. Why won't this work? Is it a matter of control? Or is it the fact that it requires some way of multitasking? Maybe I should look into Memory Partition. Actually, that might be a good idea since it'll let me set background tasks for my mind to work on like accessing alternates." This was the tenth time I'd tried to use what I liked to call the Drill Fist. The first five times I couldn't get it up to speed, the next two I had trouble getting the sand to go in multiple directions, and from the eighth time onward it failed just like it had on this attempt.
With another shake of my head, I went to check on Ulquiorra. She seemed a lot calmer now.
"So, are you willing to talk now?" I asked, getting a nod, "Good, now just give me a second. I accidentally compressed the sand into sandstone. so I need to try and grind it back down. However, I don't want you underneath it when I do so I am going to separate it from the ground and use the sand to push it up. If you could push up as well, then I will have a much easier time."
I then started to make channels along the edges of the sandstone, to loosen it up. Then Ulquiorra started to push on it. I started lifting from above and using small pillars of sand to push from below as well. With all of that, the stone turned out to be very light, and thus it wound up flying off and crashing in the distance somewhere.
"Ummm...Oops. I'll find that later. Now then, Ulquiorra, I am willing to let you out of the blade once I figure out how to do it. But, since I don't know how at the moment, there's not a lot I can do. I could try and form a sand clone of you on the outside and use my body as a conduit for you to take it over, but I don't know if that will work. And even if it does, you won't have any real powers. Also, you won't be able to go too far away from me."
Ulquiorra stared at me for a bit. It was kind of creepy at first, but then she spoke in that monotone voice of hers.
"While it would be nice to get out of the sword, I'd rather not be so restricted."
"Yeah, I figured. I mean you're kind of like a bat. Like all flying animals, bats hate being contained. I'll figure something out." I replied before snapping my fingers in realization, "Oh yeah! I almost forgot why I came here in the first place. Ulq, I have a near exact copy of your powers. I was hoping to learn how to use bala and cero, do you think you could teach me?"
Again with the staring, and this time I noticed her eyes seemed slightly out of focus. Maybe that means she's thinking? I was brought out of my own thoughts by her voice.
"I am willing to teach you, but first I have a suggestion on how to get me out of here..."
She explained her plan to me, making me facepalm so hard that my head disintegrated again due to the force because I didn't think of it.
I came back into reality after about ten minutes of simply trying to get to know Ulquiorra a bit more. But just like in the show, she showed no emotion. Always speaking in that monotone voice. I wanted to be creeped out, but instead, I couldn't help but feel sorry for her. I knew from the show that she was always alone, and I kind of understood that in a way. Going through high school without parents is tough. And because I had trouble connecting with other people I didn't have very many friends. So I swore to myself that I would try to help her out.
Anyway, once I came out of jinzen, I immediately stood up and walked out to the (currently empty) training grounds. Once I was there, I used the kaleidoscope to summon a tenshintai dummy. I used structural analysis on it and located the three-day limiter enchantment. I then used alteration to turn that off and add an energy absorption spell so that I could refuel the dummy if I needed too.
Satisfied with my work, I then stabbed Murcielago into the tenshintai.
There was a burst of dark green and black energy, which created a shockwave that would have knocked me flat on my ass if I hadn't braced myself. Said energy quickly coalesced into the form of Ulquiorra in her base form.
She opened her mouth to say something, only to be interrupted by the doors back into the castle slammed open, revealing Celestia and Luna standing in fighting stances.
"Jack! Are you alright? We felt a surge of dark-!" Luna started before noticing Ulquiorra, "Foul creature! Get away from our friend!"
With those words, Luna and Celestia both fired beams of magic which merged and made a larger beam right at Ulquiorra. It would have hit too if she hadn't used sonido to dodge. She then got right up in their grills and would have fired a bala straight through their heads if I hadn't grabbed her collar and pulled her back to make her miss.
"Would you all just calm down already!" I shouted, "Ulquiorra, these are the princesses I told you about! Celestia, Luna, Ulquiorra here is the source of some of my powers! Now chill before I kick all of you to the damn curb!"
They all stared at me, then exchanged a look, then looked away from each other with a grunt.
"Good. Now that that's settled, Ulquiorra, I'm going to need you to go over there so I can have a word with these two. I'll let you know when we're done."
She glared at me, likely because I just gave her a not so subtle order, then spoke.
"I thought I was supposed to be teaching you, why should I do as you say?" She said.
"I know I asked for your help, but I don't think you want to hear the things we'll be talking about. This shouldn't take long, I just need to explain some things."
She grunted and sonido'd over to the opposite side of the field. With a nod, I turned and glared at the two sisters.
"Alright you two, listen up cuz I'm only gonna explain this once." What you did was stupid as hell," I held up a hand to stop any protests, "I understand you were trying to help, but if I hadn't stopped her then she would have blown your heads off. And unlike me, you can't heal from that kind of thing. There's also the fact that you immediately jumped to the conclusion that she was my enemy. That dark energy you felt was me freeing her from the sword she was trapped in. Due to what she is, she will always feel dark. And before you ask, I'm not going to tell you what she is. She doesn't need me blabbing about all her secrets."
With a sigh and a shake of my head, I continued, "What I can tell you, however, is that she has not had a very good life. It's because of that that she will feel empty. She learned to suppress her emotions to the point she forgot she had them in order to cope. Be patient with her. Can you do that for me?"
I waited until they both nodded before nodding myself. Then I signaled to Ulquiorra that we were done, she sonido'd over and I continued to speak, this time addressing all three of them.
"Alright, now that we've all calmed down, how about we go to the kitchen and I'll make up something for us real quick."
It's been about two years since I freed Ulquiorra. Surprisingly, she seems to get along just fine with Luna.
Speaking of Luna, I just can't wait anymore. I've been hiding my feelings for as long as I have because I was afraid that she would reject me, and thus ruin our friendship. But it's gotten to the point where I just have to confess. Holding in these emotions is tearing me apart.
I used memory Partition this morning and set it to the task of trying to figure out the best way to do this, let's hope it pays off.
So, here we are. At the dinner table after the courts have let out. Celestia and Luna have just finished their meals, and Celestia at least looks like she's ready to get up. Just as I'm about to ask Luna for a word in private, She calls out to her sister.
"Celestia, would it be possible to leave the moon up for a couple more hours tonight?" She asked, getting a raised eyebrow in return.
"Luna, you know that isn't possible. The effects it would have would be-"
"Relatively minor. I only ask for two hours more, please sister? I just want our little ponies to be able to look up and appreciate my work."
"Luna you call ponies panicking a minor effect?!?"
At this Luna slammed her fist down on the table, "That is the problem, Celestia! The only ones who are awake to appreciate the night sky are my guards and Jack! Everyone else sleeps through it! Well, no more! I am sick and tired of people giving you praise while completely ignoring me! From now on, the night will last...FOREVER!"
As Luna spoke, she had begun to change. Her mane began to darken as stars seemed to form within it. Her skin became a much deeper shade of blue. Her eyes became slitted as they changed to a glowing acidic green.
"LUNA! What have you done?!" Celestia recoiled in shock and horror, then screamed as 'Luna' blasted her through a window.
"There is no longer anyone named Luna here..." This twisted mockery of my friend proclaimed, "Now there is only...NIGHTMARE MOON! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
I watched, helpless as this monster flew out of the window after her prey. Shaking free of my shock, I immediately jumped through the window as well.
I landed in the courtyard, where the two alicorns were fighting with all of their abilities. Hearing the flap of wings, I turned to see Ulquiorra in her first resurrection form landed beside me.
"What is going on?" She asked showing very little emotion, though a small amount of concern could be found if you looked hard enough.
"Luna underwent something that seems almost like hollowification! She's like a completely different pony now! We need to take her down, but we also need to be careful to keep our attacks non-lethal, got it?" I asked the last part, getting a nod in return. With that, Ulquiorra flew in to join the fray.
As for myself, I used my sand to start grinding up more sand. I planned to assume Sandman's giant form, but I needed time to grind up enough particles. So I once again watched, unable to do anything but stay on one knee and keep my hands on the ground.
In just under five minutes, Celestia was knocked back. She suddenly turned very serious and teleported away. I don't know where to. Ulquiorra was holding her own rather well, but she was reaching her limit, I could tell.
It was a good thing that I had finally built up enough of my reserves then, wasn't it? Setting aside a portion of my sand and using memory partition, I set it to automatically grind up more of the ground as I transformed into what I liked to call The Beast.
With my transformation complete at last, I immediately thunder clapped Nightmare Moon and compacted a very thick sandstone case, leaving only her face uncovered.
"Come on Luna! Snap out of it!" I shouted as I increased the thickness once again to compensate for her struggles.
She managed to free her horn and blast the case to pieces. Then she cast a high-powered wind spell in my direction.
Now for anyone else, this wouldn't be a problem. But for me, because I was made of sand, I got blown to bits that scattered all the way to the very base of the mountain.
I formed a small drill out of my sand and immediately started carving my way back to the top.
I got back eventually, only to see Celestia blast Luna with the Elements of Harmony. Watching as the mare I had fallen in love with was sent into the moon infuriated me enough that I pinned Celestia to the nearest wall by her throat.
"WHY?" I shouted, "TELL ME WHY! AND IT HAD BETTER BE GOOD!"
"I thought..." She gasped out, "I thought that the element...Would purify her...Not banish her!"
Feeling a hand on my shoulder, I turned to see Ulquiorra looking at me with a glare. It promised pain if I didn't calm down. With a deep breath, I released my grip, letting Celestia wheeze and cough as she attempted to fill her lungs with much-needed air.
"You have no idea...Just what you have done Celestia." I growled out, "I have been trying to build up the courage to tell Luna how I feel about her for years. Now, thanks to you taking an unnecessary risk, I may never get that chance. You had better hope to heaven and hell that she comes back, or I will shatter your heart like you have mine...By killing everyone you hold dear..."
With my piece said, I turned and nodded to Ulquiorra. I opened a Garganta to this dimension's version of Hueco Mundo. I had some training to do.
Among the Sandy dunes of this wasteland of eternal darkness, a portal appears. From this portal appears a monstrous black being resembling a pig the size of a small house with arms coming from its sides and a bone white mask bearing a psychotic grin and wide yellow eyes. This was an adjuchas class hollow, who had forgotten his name. Now he was simply known as Squeals.
In his hand was a struggling mare in a wedding dress, her entire body slightly transparent. A chain stuck out of her chest with a few short links.
Squeals gave a sickening laugh as he said, "Ah the sounds of sorrow. Just like my bitch of an ex after I kidnapped her on her wedding day. I don't know why the souls of freshly killed newlyweds are so satisfying, but I don't really care!"
After these word were spoken, he pinned the mare to the sand in front of his face. Her struggles increased as the hollow opened his mouth and was about to bite her head off...
...Only for a spike of sand to grow out of the ground and pierce his arm and force him to let go of the mare. As he screamed in agony, a cocoon of sand rose up and surrounded the mare, dragging her underground and bringing her back upon a dune about ten feet away.
"Stay here, you'll be safe." A male voice said before fading away.
Back with Squeals, he was raging, ranting and cursing as the hole in his arm healed.
"Dammit! Who did that?! I swear I am going to find you and tear you to peices for this you f*&#ing kill stealing scavenger!" He roared as the hole slowly shut. Unbeknownst to him, a humanoid shape formed from the sands behind him.
The figure quickly grew more defined before a glowing golden sphere formed in front of it. Sqeals, sensing the buildup of energy, tried to dodge. He soon discovered, however, that his hooves were encased in sandstone.
"Hasta la f&*$ing vista, baby." The figure intoned as he released the energy in the form of a massive beam, completely disintegrating the adjuchas class hollow's limbs. The light of the beam revealing the attacker to be Jack.
PoV: Jack
I sighed as I watched this bastard roll around as his limbs slowly grew back. Deciding to get it over with, I summoned the zanpakuto I was given and slashed his mask. The gates of hell appeared and opened, as chains lashed out and wrapped around his body before dragging him in.
I shuddered. I may be a tough mother lover, but even I don't dare to think I could take on the kushanada due to how many of them there are and how toxic their aura is.
After taking a moment to get ahold of myself, I returned to where I dropped off the mare. I had to admit that she was certainly pretty. However, I had a job to do.
"Alright, listen carefully please." I said as I rose out of the ground in her field of vision. "In order to let you pass on properly I will need to pull out my sword and tap the bottom of the hilt on your forehead. Okay?"
She nodded, and I performed the konso. With a grateful smile, the mare glowed before becoming a white luminescent butterfly which left through a small white portal. I gave a small smile before turning into sand and transferring my consciousness to a spot near Las Noches. It seems to have been abandoned for a while so I think I missed the events of Bleach by a long shot.
Reforming just outside of the front gates, I nodded in the direction of Ulquiorra as I passed her leaning against the door.
"Jack." She said monotonously. Though if you looked close, you could see a small smirk on her face.
"Ulquiorra." I replied, "Everything quiet around here while I was gone?"
"Indeed." She answered as she stood up, "I don't suppose you really remember what day it is today do you?"
"Ulquiorra..." I sighed as I gave her a deadpan look. "You know that my sense of time is severely screwed up because I've been here so long. Hell, if I didn't have such a good connection to the sand around here my sense of direction would be as bad as Ryoga Hibiki's."
She shook her head as she didn't get the reference. Afterwards she pointed at the moon, which I had discovered was in sync with the one back in Equestria. I looked up and saw something that completely shocked me.
It was hard to notice, but the silhouette of a mare's face which represented Luna's prison...
...Had several cracks in it.
I fell to my knees in shock, realizing that I had now been training and waiting for 1000 years. More importantly, it meant that Luna would soon be free!
It started with a simple hiccup, then a chuckle as the first tear fell. Finally, I fell to pieces; crying and laughing in both elation that I would soon see her again, and guilt that I would probably have to fight her at least temporarily until Nightmare moon was purged from her system.
While I was releasing my emotions, Ulquiorra slowly walked up and put a hand on my shoulder to show that she was there to support me. She rarely showed emotions like this, but when she did it was usually in subtle ways like this.
After I got myself together, I went and meditated for a few hours in order to set some of the hundreds of memory partitions I had created over the centuries to sync up with some of my other alternates while stopping the ones that were previously syncing up and collected the data that they had amassed on the powers of their targets.
Once that was done and the information properly sorted within my mindscape, I quickly opened a garganta to the last place I had been in Equestria...
...The courtyard of the Castle of the Two Sisters.
Upon arrival, I realized I was a bit early. It was still daylight out, about noon if I had to guess. With that in mind, I went into the throne room before jumping up into the rafters. After I secured myself with a bit of rope I summoned I went to sleep for the first time since I had left for Hueco Mundo.
It was a few hours later that I woke up due to sensing another's presence. Looking down, I saw Nightmare Moon appear with a purple unicorn mare in her late teens if I had to guess. The unicorn tried to power the orbs at their feet and it almost worked, but then they were shattered by NM using a massive battle axe she summoned. The only reason the mare wasn't beheaded was because a rope had encircled her waist and yanked her back towards a group of other mares, with an orange earth pony holding the lasso that had saved the mare.
Nightmare was about to fire a spell at them, but I decided to make my entrance at that point. And I really couldn't resist making it completely hilarious (at least in my mind).
PoV: Twilight Sparkle
"This is it! It's all over for you meddlesome fools!" Nightmare Moon shouted as she charged her spell. I couldn't move out of the way or the beam would hit my friends, yet I recognized high level magic when I saw it. No shield spell I had would even stand a chance against this.
With tears in my eyes, I turned to the other mares...No, my friends...And said, "It's been wonderful knowing you all."
I looked forward just as Nightmare was about to release the spell...
...And saw a pile of sand tall enough to cover her waist fall and land on her?
The impact must have startled her, because the spell blew up in her face. But rather than being sent flying back, the sand pile held tight as she was forced to bend back in what must have been a very painful manner. She straightened back up, only for the sand to flatten to just her feet before a pony-like silhouette made of sand rose up in a boxing stance. It unleashed several combos as Nightmare's feet were held still.
Finally, with a cry of "Shoryuken!" The figure released her feet and jumped while executing a spiraling uppercut which sent Nightmare flying away to land painfully on her back.
After he landed, the figure began to solidify into a sickly looking stallion of about twenty years with a flat face, a brown mane and red eyes. He had a grin on his face as he said, "I always wanted to do that!"
Pinkie started cracking up as Rainbow looked on in awe for some reason. Rarity seemed to be looking at him intently along with Applejack, while Fluttershy hid behind her mane with one eye poking out.
"You!" Nightmare Moon exclaimed in anger, "I thought I killed you!"
The being smirked, revealing sharp fangs. "Bitch please. I'm immortal, you got that? You just scattered me for a bit. Too bad it took so long to pull myself back together or I would have helped to kick your ass last time."
Nightmare Moon smirked herself, then replied "Than I'll have to scatter you again!"
With those words she quickly charged a high power wind spell and cast it at her foe, who simply stood there.
"You really think I wouldn't have learned to counter wind spells in the time you were away?" He said calmly with a raised eyebrow. Then he turned to me and said, "You might wanna hurry up with those elements. You're standing right in front of them and have yet to call on their power. I'll buy you some time."
With those words he charged at Nightmare Moon.
PoV: Jack
As I charged at NM I swerved from side to side to doge her spell-fire. Once I was close enough, I raised my fist to punch her. She tried to block my feint as I guessed she would as I turned back into sand and reformed behind her, grabbing her neck as I slammed her into the ground. I quickly pinned her using my sand form and watched as the elements began to charge.
Just as the elements fired, I reformed and rolled out of the way, watching with a fist pump as NM was purged from Luna.
I was about to approach before Celestia appeared and explained to the purple unicorn, Twilight Sparkle apparently. She then turned and welcomed Luna back.
With a smile on my face, I turned to leave. Before I could however...
"Sister, what happened to Jack?" Luna asked, looking around and not seeing me as I was in the shadows.
"After your banishment, he entered a sort of portal, and hasn't been heard from since." Celestia explained sadly. Seeing Luna tear up in response, I had to make an entrance.
"Until tonight that is." I said as I stepped into the moonlight. I heard Celestia gasp in shock as Luna turned towards me with tears still her eyes.
"Jack!" She exclaimed before tackling me into a hug, "I was so worried! Nightmare Moon showed me the results of her wind spell and..."
She started to cry as I smiled softly and wrapped my arms around her.
As I held Luna to calm her down, Twilight walked up to Celestia and asked, "Who is this pony Princess?"
Celestia chuckled as Luna began to relax before the sun princess started her explanation.
"He is no Pony, my precious student. This is Jack, a being who came to our world from a far away place. He and Luna have always been close. As I said to Luna, after her banishment he vanished." She said before glaring at me, "Though I wish he would have stayed, as it gets lonely ruling for 1000 years." The last part was said in such a way that it implied she wanted an explanation.
I sighed as Luna released me before saying, "I didn't want to stick around without Luna. While you and I were at least civil to each other, without Luna to act as a buffer between us we likely would have driven each other crazy! That and the fact that I had a feeling Luna would return meant I decided to go into another dimension to train in my powers and abilities. I figured I would come back when the seal started to weaken, but an influx of rather unpleasant natives to the dimension made me completely lose track of time." With those words I looked at Luna with a smile, "I'm just glad I was here to welcome you back."
She smiled back before the pink earth pony shouted something about a party. Next thing I know there is a flash of something very similar to kaleidoscope magic and we were all standing in some kind of restaurant.
'WHAT THE-?!? HOW?!?' I thought in shock before shaking my head and making a mental note to talk to that pony about her magic.
I spent about twenty minutes just hanging out and wandering around the party before I noticed Luna was on her own. Making up my mind, I finished my drink before walking over to her.
"Luna, could I have a private word with you outside?" I asked quietly, she looked confused, but nodded an let me take her by the hand out the front door.
Once we were outside, I turned to Luna with a solemn look.
"Luna, there's something I have to tell you." I said as I took her hands in both of mine, "I wanted to tell you back before everything went wrong, but well..."
With a sigh, I continued, "Listen, I've never been good with subtlety so I'm just going to flat out say it. I think I'm in love with you."
She gasped, her cheeks bright red as I turned away, "I understand if you don't feel the same. But I just wanted to-"
"Jack" Luna interrupted as she took my chin in her hand and made me face her, "Just be quiet."
And with those words she kissed me. It started off tentative, but quickly escalated into something that conveyed how we felt towards each other.
We were startled apart by the sound of cheers and wolf whistles. Turning, we saw the partygoers had seen us kiss with Celestia at the front. She gave a smile and nod as the pink pony shouted about having yet another reason to party. This caused us both to blush bright red as the people went back inside.
With a soft smile shared between us, I took Luna's hand and lead her back inside.
It's been about a month since Luna returned to Equestria and agreed to be my marefriend. We knew each other well before I confessed, but I still wanted to take things slow. Unfortunately, that didn't happen.
Flashback: One Week Ago
I stood guard over Luna as she 'slept'. She wasn't really sleeping, instead patrolling the dream realm. The sun was about to come up, so she would probably finish up pretty soon.
As if she could hear my thoughts, her eyes snapped open. Just I was about to ask how it went, she grabbed my arm and flipped me onto the bed on my back. Straddling me, her horn flashed with magic as the walls, windows, and door all glowed as well.
I opened my mouth to ask what she was doing, only for her to kiss me rather ferociously.
"I'm sorry Jack, but I can't hold back anymore!" Luna exclaimed as she pulled back.
"Luna what the heck?!? I thought we were going to take this slow?!?" I said in shock as I tried to get up, only for her horn to glow again before my arms were tied to the headboard. Panicking, I tried to turn into sand only to have nothing happen.
"I've waited over a thousand years Jack, and with estrus cycles happening every year, it builds up. I was willing to wait a little longer, but one of the dreams I saw featured you. You and another mare, doing things that brought back those feelings. I want you to do to me what your dream self did to that mare!"
Flashback Over
It only took her a few minutes from there to...*Ahem* persuade me. We didn't leave the room until it was time for Luna to raise the moon. Even then, she dragged me back afterwards!
The next morning we walked into breakfast with a distinct limp. Celestia had smirked at us for only a moment before looking at me with a serious face. The conversation I had with her at that moment took an unexpected turn.
Flashback: 6 Days Ago
"I hope you realize what will happen if you break my sister's heart, Jack." Celestia said.
"Oh trust me, I'm more than aware." I replied as I sat down and summoned a bottle of painkillers with the kaleidoscope. I would have gotten some for Luna too, but I wasn't sure if human medicine would be safe for ponies or any other race from Equus to take. Luckily it seems that she was far ahead of me and was already taking some medicine she had requested a nearby servant to get for her.
Then I turned to Celestia with a glare of my own, "Just like I hope you realize what'll happen if you or any other mare gets between us."
To my surprise, she looked genuinely confused. Then she said something that shocked me to my core.
"Why would you not want another mare in your herd?"
My shout of "WHAAAAAT?!?!?" was heard throughout all of Canterlot.
Flashback Over
It took Luna kissing me again to calm me down. Apparently there was something 'lost in translation' in a sense.
It turns out that the gender ratio in Equus was skewed 10:1 towards females. Because of this, harems (or rather HERDS) were legal. Luna and Celestia seemed shocked when I explained that humans normally married one person and stayed with them their whole lives. They were even more shocked when I mention that humans had no genetic bias towards one gender or the other.
Anyway, after breakfast Luna dragged me back to her room. Though this time, rather than engaging in more explicit activities (Thank goodness!) she wanted to have a serious discussion with me about rules for if I did want a herd.
When I explained that I would be more than willing to only have her, Luna shook her head and muttered something about me being too noble for my own good. She then explained to me that she wanted me to have a herd, but that she would have to approve of any other mares I brought in.
Right now, however, I had more important things on my mind. Such as the fact that an entire squad of the night guard were now in the medical wing with severe magical exhaustion and a few physical injuries. Due to magical exhaustion they would be unconscious for at least a month. Now this would be cause for concern on its own, but this was the fifth squad this week. Whatever is doing this is scarily efficient, and only struck at night. Even doubling the squads per patrol route after the first attack did nothing to impede it.
Luna, Celestia, and the captains of both the day and night guard (A unicorn named Shining Armor, and a bat-pony named Shadowed Blade respectively) were attempting to help me figure out what to do.
"Something has to be done!" Shadowed Blade exclaimed as he slammed his fist to the table, "My men are getting completely torn to pieces by whatever this thing is!"
"Calm down Captain Blade." Luna said with a minor glare, "I understand that you're worried for your soldiers, but getting angry will do nothing. If we are going to get this right, then we must keep control of our emotions."
As he hung his head, Shining Armor put a consoling hand on his shoulder. Apparently the two saw each other as brothers in all but blood due to the amount of joint missions together.
"Princess Luna is right Blade." Shining said, "I would feel the same way if my men were attacked like this."
Turning to Celestia, he offered to have the day guard join in on the night patrols.
"While it may work Captain Armor, your men need their rest. The lack of sleep would only hinder them." She replied.
We descended into a ponderous silence for a few moments before an idea occurred to me.
"Everyone, you are aware that I can reform my body from any point with enough sand, correct?" I asked. They nodded, "Well what if we have all of the remaining night squads carry a sandbag with them at all times? If they are attacked, then they will dump the contents of their bag, allowing me to appear at their location to at least try and hold off whatever is attacking them."
"A sound idea in principal Jack. However, what if you cannot defeat the attacker?" Celestia asked.
"And here's the minor catch to this plan." I replied, "If things turn out that way we can blast it with the elements of harmony. But in order to do that..."
"We would need to bring in my sister and her friends." Shining said.
"Your sister? Who is she and what do she and her friends have to do with the elements of harmony?" I asked in confusion.
That got a laugh out of almost everyone there, confusing me even more.
"Big brother!" Twilight exclaimed as she glomped Shining armor on sight, which left me reeling.
"What? But...But the two of you are nothing alike!" I asked while scratching my head.
"I do concur, my dear Twilight. Why did you not tell us you had a brother, let alone that he is captain of the day guard?" Rarity asked, making Shining raise an eyebrow and Twilight go red.
"W-well...It just never came up..." She stammered while looking down and kicking at the dirt with her hoof.
HNNNNNNNNG! TOO ADORKABLE! With a hand clutching at my chest, my body fell to the ground as my spirit was forced to take a few steps back to keep upright. I looked between my spiritual hand and my body a few times. I couldn't help but grumble bit. I was killed, not by a demon lord or anything remotely epic. Heck, even Celestia throwing me into the sun for kissing her sister would be more appropriate. But no, I was killed by a deity be damned CUTE-ATTACK!!
Oop! Healing's done. Rebooting systems now.
PoV: Fluttershy
I watched in shock as Jack had what seemed to be a heart attack. I quickly snapped out of it and kneeled by his side, performing CPR.
Once...Twice...Three times...Tears started to appear in my eyes before Jack took in a massive breath.
"Great deities above! Of all the things to die from..." I heard him mutter as he sat up while massaging the bridge of his nose. He looked around and noticed my position. "Oh, hello Fluttershy, what are you doing on your knees, next to me of all people?"
Oh Celestia why did he have to word it that way? I haven't told anyone but Rainbow dash but I am a large fan of...Adult media. My mind started going into overdrive as most of the blood in my body flowed into my wings and face.
When Fluttersy's eyes rolled into the back of her head, Rainbow Dash was quick to get behind her and keep her stiffened wings from hitting the ground. I couldn't help but smirk a little. The night before last Luna had finally told me who it was that had the wet dream about me. Of course the first thing that came to mind was...
'It's always the quiet ones.'
After Fluttershy had recovered and Celestia had explained the situation, the girls agreed whole heartedly to help. With that, my plan was approved.
So here I was, meditating in the throne room to both be ready to switch at any time and warn the others. It's almost midnight, so if the attacker's going to-There!
"Heads up, it's here!" I shouted, "Garden near the fountain! I'm going!"
With those words I switched just as the others started to rush out the door.
When I arrived, the first thing I saw was a single night guard attacking the others. I quickly restrained him, only for a black mist to escape his mouth as he went limp. The mist possessed another guard and kept up the attack.
"Well that makes things more difficult." I said with a grimace as I began deflecting all of the magical attacks while blocking the physical ones with shields formed from my sand. Things went on like this for about fifteen minutes until the girls arrived and blasted the guard with the elements.
The mist was quickly ejected and coalesced into a very familiar form.
"Nightmare Moon!" Twilight gasped. There was a definite difference in Luna's dark side however, Namely that she was missing her wings. Two guards quickly held her arms while another put a horn ring on her to keep her magic restrained.
"Let me go you fools!" NM began to shout, "I need this! I need this sustenance to survive!"
As she spoke, she was glaring at everyone there, though I noticed she was looking at every male there with slight undertone that I couldn't quite place. I had a suspicion, and synchronized with an alternate of myself who was an empath.
Immediately, I was slammed with three emotions in major amounts. The anger was expected, the grief was slightly surprising, but the third...
"Luna, use empathy on her. I think her reason for attacking will make a lot more sense." I suggested. She gave me an odd look before taking it. It took a few seconds for shock to register on her face, then she had to cover her mouth with her hand to hide a massive grin.
"Can you feel that?" I joked, which broke the camel's back as she rolled on the floor laughing. The others looked between us for a few moments in confusion as NM glared at us.
As Luna regained her composure, I whispered our discovery into Celestia's ear, which made her face glow so red I was sure she almost went supernova. She immediately looked to Luna for confirmation and received a nod in response. With a sigh, she ordered her guards to release NM into me and Luna's custody but leave the ring on her.
As NM looked between us in confusion, Luna took on of her arms while I took the other and we dragged her into Luna's room.
Yup. That last emotion I felt was LUST!
The next morning, NM (Or rather, Nyx as she insisted we call her) was a completely different person. Apparently having over a thousand years of negative emotions and lust shoved onto you really screws with your psyche.
Nyx now acted more like a total hippie who was on an eternal high. Her manner reminded me a lot of Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter. A lot of what she said didn't make sense to most, but thanks to kaleidoscope I realized that she was talking about things from other dimensions. Thus we bonded over the craziness that was the multi- and omniverse.
It only took about a day for Luna to want to bring her into the herd. I agreed whole heartedly.
Location: Luna and Nyx's Chambers, Canterlot Castle/PoV: Jack
So it's been a few days since we helped Nyx to relieve her stress. Since then, Celestia has had the guards discreetly spread rumors that Nyx was the product of a magical accident caused by bad timing and a few misplaced runes while testing a new spell. The people bought it, surprisingly enough, and accepted her very quickly.
Speaking of Nyx and Luna, at the moment we were in the middle of a game of "Sorry!" that I pulled from a random earth. Celestia would have joined in, but there were more Nobles than usual in Day Court today so she was having to work on paperwork.
"Hah! I've got you this time!" Luna said as she played a card that let her swap one of her pieces with Nyx's.
"Oh well. The humped-backed claw bugs are telling me something." Nyx said with a hand to her ear.
"Oh shit! Last time they showed up was before that rather memorable night at the gala!" I exclaimed as I tuned into that dimensional frequency.
"PiNkpriSm..." The beings, which were actually sentient void beasts, began softly. Suddenly, a pressure that I heard more than felt appeared.
"DANGER!" The sudden, almost demonically deep tone that this word was delivered in knocked both me and Nyx flat on our asses!
With that, the pressure faded and the frequency was silent. Nyx and I looked at each other in confusion, while Luna fretted over us due to our falls.
"Pink prism, danger? Now what could that..." I trailed off as I remembered the magic almost similar to my own which belonged to a certain pink party pony, "SHIT! We need to get to Ponyville, NOW!"
With those words I immediately warped to the outside of Sugar Cube Corner. Seeing the ponies fleeing the building made my bad feeling worse as I worked my way through the crowd.
Once I was inside however, I was hit with one of the most insane aura's I'd ever felt. Madness almost literally dripped from the walls and ceiling. I rushed upstairs and broke down one of the doors to see an eldritch abomination hovering over a cowering Pinkie Pie.
"HEY, BARNACLE BEARD!" I exclaimed as I summoned a rock and threw it at the back of this...thing's head. The stone bounced off harmlessly, but it got its attention.
I flared my full aura at the thing, then focused that aura into my throat. I didn't know if this would work, but apparently if you use this with a bit of kaleidoscope magic...
"BEGONE" The word was an order, a command to the world, no to the universe. It was an order to use everything it had, even the darkest of magics to banish this foul existence which did not belong!
The power flowed through me, and if I hadn't trained to disperse any recoil from using too much power throughout my entire body, then I likely would have died for a third time. As it was, I knew my throat was going to be absolutely killing me later.
There was flash of rainbow light that blinded me, and when I could see again the creature was gone. I ran a quick scan through the kaleidoscope and confirmed that it wasn't anywhere near this dimension. With that done, I staggered over to Pinkie and put a hand on her shoulder.
"Pinkie..." I said, my voice extremely hoarse from the force of using that much power, "Pinkie it's okay. That thing is gone now."
She opened one of her eyes, peering cautiously into the world around her.
"Jack? Is...Is that you?" She asked in an absolutely terrified tone, which broke my heart due to how such a happy pony could be reduced to this.
"Yeah it's me. What happened?"
"W-well, I was just looking around to see what I would see today in the place only I can see...I wound up looking at that thing and it noticed. I pulled away, but it followed me and...and..."
She broke down into tears as I pulled her into a hug. It was starting to come together for me now. Pinkie wasn't using a variant, she had the real deal. The kaleidoscope had chosen yet another wielder.
It's been a week since then, but it took a few days for pinkie to get back to her old self. She was lucky that she pulled everything of herself into her mind when that thing appeared or she might have gone insane. After she had recovered, however, I went to talk to her about training her magic.
The first thing I taught her was how to sense the general aura of worlds like the one that thing was from. that way she would know to instinctively avoid them. But when I tried teaching her how to summon objects, I found that she already had a grasp on that and teleporting. All I really had to teach her was how to sync up with alternates and how to find specific worlds, which was a rather pleasant surprise.
She also helped me with using the dimensional refraction phenomenon. Though the way she did it was rather unorthodox.
Flashback: Two Days Ago/Location: A random uninhabited desert planet
So here I am, working with the kaleidoscope to practice firing dimensional beams. Pinkie suggested that if she practiced enough then she might be able to create small ones that simply let her use the kaleidoscope from a distance. I tried to tell her that she could simply do without the beam, but she said she wanted to prank Twilight with the possibility of an earth pony having unicorn magic and I just couldn't pass that up.
I checked the time on Equus, and saw it was getting late. Just as I was about to Pinkie to call it for the day, she went and shot multiple beams at one spot!
"Holy shit Pinkie! How'd you do that?!" I asked in awe.
"I made multiple 'me's in a sub-dimension who all charged up the beam, then opened the door to the sub-dimension facing the way I wanted the beams to go!" She exclaimed with a finger pointing up and her head tilted to the side as she smile with closed eyes.
'Cute...' I thought before shaking my head and focusing on what she said, trying to decipher just what she meant.
'Okay, so it sounds like she made a pocket dimension where the duplication of an object or person is possible...Then had them all act in sync before opening multiple portals. I wonder if... I trailed off as I created a pocket dimension for myself and then focused on creating reverse-mirror images of myself so that we all faced the same way. As one, we raised our hands to our mouths and bit our thumbs to draw blood which we smeared on our palms. Then we stretched our hands out in front of us.
"Gran Rey Cero...Barrage." We intoned before I opened several portals in front of the mirrors which the massive attack came through. It hit a dune that was as tall as mount Everest in the distance and caused an explosion which I had to shield Pinkie from the shockwaves of. When I looked back, there was a massive crater where the dune used to be.
End Flashback
I told Ulquiorra and the princesses about my new attack. The princesses nodded and accepted it until Ulq did something that was seriously out of character for her.
She paled and passed out! I made sure to take blackmail pictures but the fact that this attack had this effect on Ulquiorra of all people told the princesses just how bad this could be. I promised not to use it on Equus and if an opponent ever warranted it I would take them off world. Though that was a no-brainer considering if it took that much firepower to destroy then odds are it had probably not come from this world.
Location: Uninhabited Desert World (New Designation: Training Ground 0/TG0)/PoV: Jack
Here I am, on TG0. I've compressed a massive slab of sandstone the size of two football fields side by side, which now lays in front of me with an absolutely massive ritual circle engraved upon it. The inch-deep engravings are filled to the brim with blood that I have been storing for the last three months in a pocket dimension.
This took forever, not only did I have to compress the sandstone, which took weeks, but then I had to use loose sand to grind in the circles and sigils. That took a week but I luckily was able to speed up the process due to the fact that it was loosely compacted and easy to carve. I solidified the stone after, then waited until I had enough blood.
Speaking of getting enough blood, that was a nightmare in itself. I had to sneak off and extract it myself in the same pocket dimension I stored it in. I always had to consider my limits and drink a lot of fluids to restore the lost blood. I played off the excess drinking as simply having accidentally brought my vampire instinct to the fore and was drinking a non-alcoholic red wine to satiate it. On the bright side, I think I could be considered a bit of a connoisseur now.
Shaking my head to get back to the present, I focused on double checking that all the sigils and circles were correct. Even the slightest mistake could be disastrous. After all, Kaleidoscope, Blood Magic, and Reiatsu have never been mixed in the same circle before. With my paranoia satisfied, at least for now, I added the final component: a massive orb of Reiatsu in the center.
Taking a deep breath, I channeled the Kaleidoscope through both the orb and the blood. The orb quickly destabilized as I had calculated it would and I jumped back to the outside of the array. With a mighty flash of rainbow light, the circle was fully illuminated.
As the light faded, a single, massive form was seen in the middle of the remains of the baseplate. The smoke obscured its features until I cast a wind spell. The beast was an amalgamation of several Monster Hunter monsters about twice the size of a normal horse. It had the head of a Kirin, though its mane belonged to the Oroshi variant; a Nargacuga tail that ended in a Glavenus's massive blade with a second jaw on the outer thigh of one of the back legs filled with said monster's fangs to sharpen the blade; the wings belonged to a Valphalk, and the joint at the top of them had a Brachidios's slime; finally, it's body and legs were that of a Zinogre.
All in all, it was absolutely beautiful, at least in my opinion. At the moment, it was unconscious. Though I planned to change that. Quickly warping in front of the beast, I gently started to scratch in under its chin. It (or rather she, as I realized after a quick glance) gave a rumbling groan with a bit of purring and slowly opened her eyes.
"Hello gorgeous," I joked as her eyes met mine, "How are you feeling? Summonings can be rough from what I've heard, and an Alchemical Chimera Fusion Array triggered as soon as all of your 'donors' arrived."
She sniffed me, seemingly unsure of what to make of me. I could understand the sentiment. Her sentience was limited due to having only the amalgamate brain matter of eight animals, Though I did arrange it in such a way that she would have as much intelligence as possible. She knew enough to know that she was mostly made from deadly predators and the fact I wasn't scared probably confused her.
I just smiled and kept petting her, she really was an amazing creature. The best and most deadly traits of at least three elder dragons and a few traits of the more wild monsters blended into one deadly biological WMD.
Eventually, once she realized I wasn't going to run or try to hurt her, she simply gave in and rolled onto her side for a belly rub. I laughed a bit as I switched my attentions to the area she wanted. It was another few minutes spent in a comfortable silence later that I asked my next question.
"Say, how about a deal?" I said to catch her attention, "I need a familiar, and that's kind of why I created you. (Although saving seven of the most awesome creatures from dying is a big bonus.) If you want, I can make you my familiar so we can work together from now on. If you don't want to, I can just send you to a jungle planet to live out your life."
The beast stood and stared me in the eyes, seemingly staring into my soul. I stared right back, watching how her multichromatic eyes twisted and contorted within the iris. After a while, she stepped closer and nuzzled her head against my chest.
"So I guess that's a yes then?" I rhetorically asked with a laugh. I hugged her neck and slowly ran my fingers through her mane. "Well If we're going to be working together, then you're going to need a name."
I stepped back again and put a hand to my chin in thought. While I pondered, she decided to sit for a while, turning to look at the various dunes, then at the star-speckled night sky. I followed her gaze and saw that she was staring at a constellation I surprisingly recognized.
"That's Orion, according to legend he was a mighty hunter who took down his prey using his great strength and cunning. But he never came home very often, and it made his wife very angry. One day, when he was going to go hunt, his wife slipped a deadly scorpion into his arrow quiver without his notice. Later, when he found his prey and went to draw an arrow for his bow, the scorpion stung his hand. The poison was swift, and he died shortly after. Soon after, Artemis, the goddess of the hunt and moon, took his spirit and cast it into the sky to honor one of the few males to have ever earned her respect due to his skills."
As I finished the tale, I noticed the beast watching the moon intently, and came upon the perfect name for her.
"Artemis." I said softly, "Your name will be Artemis. You are made from sever predators that are masters of the hunt, and at least one of them is nocturnal. I think it's perfect, don't you?"
She gave a snort, then nuzzled me again. With that figured out, I went ahead and opened a gate to the courtyard of the old castle. I had a certain yellow pegasus I wanted to introduce my new friend to.
When we exited the forest, there was a mass panic as the entire town rushed to get inside their homes. I sighed and lead Artemis over to Fluttershy's hut. The place was silent as a church, no animals were out and about. I figured Fluttershy had brought them into her house for safety.
Knocking on the door, it opened just a crack as a blue eye peeked out. Immediately after seeing Artemis, there was a squeak of fright and the door slammed shut. Sighing again, I repeated the knock.
"Fluttershy, it's me, Jack! Look Artemis won't hurt you, I wanted to have you check her over so that if something happens you'll know what to do to heal her." I called just loud enough to be heard through the door as calmly as I could.
The crack re-opened and I heard a timid voice ask, "Are...Are you sure?"
"Positive, Fluttershy. Now come on out here so you can meet her."
Five minutes later, Fluttershy is going gaga over how much of a sweetheart Artemis is and several foals are crowding around petting her. I'm just standing back and smiling as I watch the kids trying to climb up onto her back, only to get gently shaken off. Eventually, Fluttershy broke off and came over to me.
"So Jack," She began with a smile, "Just what kind of animal is Artemis anyway?"
I winced, I was hoping to have more time to figure out how to explain this tactfully.
"Well," I replied nervously, "The truth is that she's not just one animal. She's an alchemically made chimera."
Suddenly, something in Fluttershy shifted. She stopped smiling and stared at me.
"What?"
I winced again, her tone was almost glacial. I quickly began to explain.
"Well, I was always a fan of all the animals that make her body up. But I couldn't choose between them, so I set up an Alchemical Chimera Fusion Array with four Double Layered Summoning Arrays connected to the Kaleidoscope and influenced by instructions conveyed through Reiatsu to..." I realized that she didn't want to hear all the details and skipped to the important part. "I had the circles seek out versions of the animals that were dying in agony and then merged the dying animals to save their lives."
The stare continued for a few moments as she tried to figure out if I was being truthful. I guess she believed me before breathing out an exasperated sigh with closed eyes.
"Well, as long as you did it to save those animals lives...I guess I can forgive you." She then gave a small smile that would have given me another Cute Attack If I hadn't learned how to stop them from happening. Then she turned and smiled a little more as the kids played with Artemis.
I was tending to my animals with Pinkie Pie when it happened. All of my little friends started to panic, and before I could calm down I felt one of the darkest presences in my life. It felt like pure evil and was bad enough to make me pass out, the last thing I saw wasPinkie vanishing in a flash of rainbow light.
Location: Canterlot Castle Dining Room/PoV: Jack
I was enjoying a nice meal with Celestia, Nyx, and Luna when Pinkie warped right into the room behind me. She was panicking so I quickly grabbed her shoulders and applied enough pressure that it would hurt just enough to snap her out of it.
"Okay Pinkie," I said seriously, "What happened?"
"Jack, you have to get to Fluttershy's. Like RIGHT NOW! I think another one of those eldritch abominations showed up!" She explained hurriedly. Widening my eyes, I quickly told Luna to help her out before warping myself away.
When I appeared at the hut, the first thing I noticed was someone with extremely long black hair streaked with purple examining Fluttershy.
"Hey! Get away from her!" I shouted as I fired a Bala in their direction. They jumped back and turned to face me, and I found myself shocked.
"No...F*%^ing..Way." I muttered as my jaw dropped. "Blackwing?!? You're real?"
The extremely feminine-looking kid looked about eighteen, extremely pale with a blindfold over his eyes and the aforementioned hair which I could see would drag along the ground behind him as he walked. He tilted his head in confusion.
"As far as I'm aware I most certainly am." He said with a small smirk and a distinct lit and British accent to his voice. "Now would you care to explain how you know me chap? As I'm pretty sure I've never seen you in my life."
Once I realized who it was I relaxed as I distinctly remembered reading that he had an attitude of 'don't attack me I won't attack you'...Though I just attacked him...
"First of all, sorry about the Bala. I didn't recognize you and I just saw someone leaning over my friend. Secondly to answer your question, in the world I was born in, you were just a character in a crossover fanfic between the Harry Potter and Type-Moon fictional franchises. I knew logically that somewhere out there, there was likely a version of you. But I never expected to actually meet you. Speaking of which, might I just say that I am a huge fan of how you completely screwed Voldemort over in your homeworld." I said with a grin at the last bit, getting a chuckle out of this living legend in front of me.
"I should have guessed that would happen somewhere in the omniverse. Anyway, I probably never would have come here, but there was a massive flare of Kaleidoscope magic along with Death not getting eight minor souls that should have arrived from eight different dimensions. I tracked both to a desert world, then to this place." He replied.
"Shit! Yeah, that would be my fault. I wanted an absolutely awesome familiar, but I couldn't decide upon which monster to summon, so I made an array using five different circles. Four triple layered summoning circles with one of them being instructions to seek out dying versions and the other two both set to summon. Then I surrounded it with an alchemical chimera fusion array that I guided the magic on manually to help shape the chimera and let it get the most out of the brain matter of eight different animals." I rubbed the back of my head in embarrassment while I waited for his response.
"I see. And where is this chimera now?"
"Currently? She's napping in the Royal Palace Garden in Canterlot. She's a real sweetheart, even if she does scare most people with her appearance."
"I'm going to need to take a few photos for paperwork purposes." Blackwing deadpanned as he pulled out a camera.
A few hours later, Blackwing was satisfied and left to go and file the paperwork for my stunt. He said that he would come back later with the forms that I needed to sign.
I still couldn't believe how much paperwork was involved for him.
