//------------------------------// // Those Born of the Blood // Story: The Stupendous Gallivanters of Starlight Glimmer // by Dawn Flower //------------------------------// The Supreme Kai of Time was in the Time Vault, organising all of the different scrolls which corresponded to different moments in history along different timelines. With several scrolls in one hand, she carefully traced the shelves with the index finger of the other, looking for very specific scrolls… with a bored look on her face. Closing her eyes briefly, she let out a sigh. “So many scrolls, so little time.” When she opened her eyes again, her free hand had reached a scroll which was currently emanating wisps of dark energy, indicating a disruption in time. “What have we here?” She spoke to herself, in the same bored tone, though now with a raised eyebrow in curiosity. Taking the corrupted scroll in one hand and opening it up, she began reading it to view the vision of what was causing the disruption. At first, she viewed it with the same bored look on her face; however, after a few seconds, her eyes widened a little, turning to face it completely. After ten, her look of intrigue had turned to that of panic. Quickly grabbing the scroll with both hands in order to read it more closely, dropping the pile of others in the process, the Supreme Kai of Time’s expression only got worse the more she read. “Oh no, this is bad. Really bad,” she whispered to herself. When the vision had ended, she immediately left to go warn a very specific Time Patroller. --- “And so I says to the guy, ‘Get Dumped’,” Dumplin concluded his story. “Hahahaha… so you doing anything later?” The male Saiyan that he had been talking to simply gave him a flat look. “Uhhmm, Dumplin? I’m a guy.” “OMNI. SEXUAL.” Was all Dumplin retorted with, jerking his thumb towards himself and punctuating each part for emphasis. “…still didn’t answer my question.” “Dumplin!” The Demon God suddenly heard Time Kai calling him. With an exasperated look on his face, he turned in her direction to see her running towards him. The first thing that he noticed was her waving in his direction to get his attention. Second, the scroll she held in her hand, emanating wisps of dark energy, and he could already see where this was going. “Not now, I’m trying to get laid.” By the time the Supreme Kai of Time had reached him, she was already out of breath from running for so long in her small body. “This is way more important,” she began, still trying to catch her breath. She then held the scroll out towards him. “Something’s going on and you need to see…” “Yeah, yeah,” Dumplin said, snatching the scroll from her before she could finish, with a bored tone in his voice. “I know how this goes by now.” In spite of the dire circumstances, the Supreme Kai of Time still puffed up her cheeks in annoyance. Ignoring her, Dumplin opened the scroll and started reading. --- The vision in the scroll showed a field of flowers at night, beneath a full moon, whilst a burning building raged in the background. In the field, there were two men who looked like they had been fighting. The first one was a very wrinkly old man with greying hair, so dead-looking that he looked like a walking corpse that had simply forgotten to die. He wore a black suit and cloak, with a top hat on his head, and an enormous scythe in his hands. The other one, in contrast, looked aged but still full of life, with a convex face, and a very pronounced chin and nose, wearing a very regal-looking purple dress. He had blue skin, with bright red hair, yellow beard, and a pair of googles covering his eyes. The older one was currently surrounded by a dark aura, and had the younger one pinned down beneath his massive scythe. Lifting up his head, revealing his glowing red eyes, he then raised his scythe so that it was cutting into the younger man’s throat. “Now, raise your head and prepare to die,” he uttered, in a withered yet eerily calm tone of voice. With his neck cut open and coughing up bits of blood, which caused the scythe’s blade to cut into his neck even more, the younger of the two men summoned up all of his remaining strength and simply said, “…you totally stole that line from Bleach.” For a brief second, the older man’s eyes all of a sudden lost their red glow and his left one started twitching slightly. With just a twinge of emotion coming off of his previously stoic expression, he then suddenly raised his scythe up quickly and cut the younger man’s head clean off, spraying the white flowers around them red with his blood. His task done, the older man then looked up at the full moon and simply said, to no one in particular, “We are born by the blood, made men by the blood, undone by the blood.” Reaching up with his hand as if to grasp the moon, he then added, “Mother, my task to you is now done. Once more, and for the final time, Gehrman retires from the hunt.” --- “Dumplstilskin! NO!” Dumplin yelled into the scroll. Before he could say anything else, however, he suddenly felt a familiar tingling sensation in his fingers, which quickly spread across his entire body, and the next thing he knew, his body was once again see-through, and the scroll fell from his grasp. “Oh no, not again.” Reacting quickly, he held his hand out to the side, and with a flash of light, he once again summoned Starlight Glimmer from the Fuck Box. As soon as her hooves touched solid ground, she immediately started looking around, confused, and trying to get her bearings. The Fuck Box really messes with your sense of direction. “Wh-what?” She stuttered out. “Don’t fuck up.” Dumplin said to her before disappearing in another flash of light. Noticing Starlight’s confusion, and having heard about her from Trunks, the Supreme Kai of Time started to explain the situation, stopping first to pick up the scroll. “We have another time distortion along a pivotal moment in Dumplin’s timeline,” she explained. “If the Dumple Legacy is disrupted, it could once again prevent Dumplin from existing, which could once again undo Demigra’s destruction and lead to the destruction of time itself.” “Ahahahahahahahahaha,” the Supreme Kai of Time suddenly heard a maniacal laughter from directly above her. “That’s right, Chronoa,” Demigra spoke to her as soon as he had fully reformed once again. “Now that I have once again disrupted the Dumple Legacy and prevented my own destruction, I can…” “Quickly, take the scroll – go help Dumplstilskin!” The Supreme Kai of Time shouted towards Starlight Glimmer, throwing the scroll to her, completely ignoring Demigra’s monologue. Starlight caught the scroll, with a strong and determined expression on her face, and with a bright flash, she was immediately transported through time. Demigra’s eyebrow twitched from the not-believing-this-shit. “Seriously, let me finish a goddamn sentence.” Looking back up at Demigra, the Supreme Kai of Time put on a completely serious look and got into a fighting position. Looking down at her from on high, Demigra once again couldn’t believe this shit. “You’re kidding, right? You’re going to fight me?” He spoke, his words dripping with sarcasm. The Supreme Kai of Time, however, merely hardened her resolve. “I’m going to beat you, Demigra; just like I did before!” This exclamation actually got Demigra to smirk sadistically. He then swept his arm out, twirling his staff around between his fingers as he did so, getting into a battle stance himself. “Oh, I’m going to enjoy this.” --- Gehrman swung his scythe at Dumplstilskin once again, but the not-so-pale-blood-anymore simply rolled out of the way of the attack. “Now I know y’all be lovin’ this shit right here. Keep rollin’ rollin’ rollin’ rollin’. Keep rollin’ rollin’ rollin’ rollin’.” Dumplstilskin continued to sing as he repeatedly rolled to dodge Gehrman’s attacks. Dumplstilskin’s antics were now really starting to get to the old hunter, and he was fuming. “I am trying to kill you and save the world from the monster you have become.” He said in an eerily quiet tone. “Will you please be serious?!” He suddenly shouted at him. “Make me,” was all Dumplstilskin responded with, in a childish tone, which, of course only served to aggravate the old hunter even more. Gehrman gripped the hilt of his scythe even tighter in anger, and unbeknownst to him, he suddenly started radiating a dark aura and his eyes began glowing red. Dumplstilskin noticed this when he came out of his last dodge roll, and found this sudden change confusing. Gehrman used that slight moment of confusion on his opponent’s part and launched himself forward, now moving much faster instead of his slow lumbering from before, striking at the Dumple with his massive scythe, knocking him down. Grinning in satisfaction at having finally hit him, he then raised his scythe up above his head for one final attack. As he brought it back down, however, there was suddenly a bright flash of light, and the next thing he noticed was that his scythe had impacted on something harder than his opponent’s supple flesh. When the light faded, what he saw instead was a small, purple unicorn, projecting a shield between the hunter and his prey. Now, living in the fucked-up world of Yharnam for as long as he had, Gehrman was certainly no stranger to… well, strange sights, but the appearance of a small, cartoon unicorn was a little too strange, even for him. After successfully blocking the attack upon arrival, Starlight then focused energy into her horn, pushing her shield outwards, forcing her opponent back a few steps while he was surprised by her sudden appearance. Turning to the side to see Dumplstilskin picking himself up, she started to explain. “I’m here to help you. Now I know that I might look strange to you, but…” “Nah, I’ve seen weirder shit,” he responded, picking himself back up. Grabbing his huge broadsword and hefting it over his shoulder, he then faced forward, towards Gehrman again. “So… you said you’re here to help me?” addressing Starlight Glimmer, but still not facing her, keeping his eyes on Gehrman as he regained his balance. “That’s right.” Starlight responded, her eyes narrowing a little. “I literally just said that.” She deadpanned. Looking back at him as she responded, a small thought that popped into her head was that she could swear that she had seen his goggles somewhere before, but for the life of her, she just couldn’t place them. Dumplstilskin was about to retort that he didn’t need any help, as he had already defeated who-knows-how-many powerful foes at this point all by himself, without help from anyone. However, still not breaking his stare at Gehrman, he couldn’t not notice that dark aura surrounding him and how much stronger it had made him. While death was really nothing more than a shot to the brain to him, he still didn’t want to give this guy the satisfaction of killing him now. Also, if this was truly to be his final battle, then he may as well accept help and fight with a partner at least once, if for no other reason than to see what it was like. “Alright then,” Dumplstilskin responded with. The two of them then faced Gehrman together, ready for a battle. Gehrman was the first to move and launched himself forward quickly, instead of lumbering towards them slowly. Dumplstilskin was able to react in time and used his mad skills to roll out of the way in time. When the old hunter’s scythe came down and met with nought but the earth, Starlight Glimmer then rammed into his exposed back, horn first. The back attack caused the old hunter to lose his balance for a moment, allowing Dumplstilskin to follow up with a three-strike combo with his giant sword. As soon as Dumplstilskin’s last attack ended, Gehrman suddenly gripped his scythe tightly in both hands and raised it skyward, and the dark aura surrounding him suddenly released a wave of dark energy outwards, with him as the epicentre, knocking both of his opponents back and off balance. Gehrman then used that opportunity to launch himself forward, towards Dumplstilskin, focusing on him, and hit him with his own three-hit combo. When the first combo ended, he tried launching into another one instantly, but the junior hunter managed to roll out of the way just in time, and quickly stuck himself with a blood vile to heal; he needed it after just one combo from his opponent in his enhanced state. Gehrman turned to face him immediately and moved to attack him while he was healing, but Starlight managed to hit him while he was distracted instead. This caused him to spin around instinctively, to try and strike at his other opponent, but she had similarly moved on instinct and got around him while he did that and hit him from behind again. She then immediately raised another shield to block when he once again spun around quickly, and brought his scythe down, again hitting her shield instead of her. Dumplstilskin then suddenly jumped over the small unicorn between himself and his opponent, and using her still-intact shield as a step, brought his huge sword down on top of his opponent from above, smashing his face into the dirt. Starlight was about to fire off another magic beam when suddenly another wave of dark energy blew outwards from Gehrman, knocking the two of them back. With them off balance, he then quickly swung out with his scythe; it’s size making it possible to hit both of them at once. After knocking them both back from his one attack, and before they even touched the ground again, Gehrman launched himself forward, towards Dumplstilskin, focusing on him, and slashed at him again. Starlight Glimmer hit the ground first since she was only hit once, and she regained her balance quickly; something she had learned to do quite well ever since her battle with Dumplin. That one attack was enough to seriously damage her, so she needed to stop and think of how she could fight. She wasn’t Dumplin – she couldn’t just charge in and overwhelm her opponent with superior power and risk taking more damage. She needed to fight strategically, hold back and provide support where she could, just like she had with the Captain. Turning around to focus on Dumplstilskin and Gehrman, she could see the old hunter was using his superior speed and his opponent’s loss of balance to attack relentlessly, keeping him juggled, not giving him the chance to dodge his attacks. Instead of charging in to attack him from behind, Starlight instead quickly enveloped Dumplstilskin with her levitation magic and moved him to the side, enough to get him out of the way of Gehrman’s relentless attacks. Confused as to what exactly happened, but not focusing on it in the heat of battle, Dumplstilskin unleashed another sword combo into his opponent’s side. After his attack on the old hunter, Dumplstilskin tried to immediately follow up with another one, but he was once again pushed back by a wave of dark energy. Gehrman was also about to repeat his earlier strategy and quickly attack him while he was off balance, but Starlight also repeated her earlier actions and grabbed Dumplstilskin with her magic to help him dodge out of the way. Dumplstilskin then once again followed up with his own repeated action and hit Gehrman in another three sword slice combo. It would forever be known as the round of repeated actions. Anticipating that his opponent would release another dark energy wave to push him back again – which he did – Dumplstilskin instead rolled backwards, out of the way, and jabbed himself with another two blood vials to heal himself. While he was doing that, Starlight quickly enveloped herself in her levitation magic and used her weightlessness to launch herself forward, towards Gehrman, and rammed into his back, horn first, preventing him from using that moment to attack Dumplstilskin while he was healing. She then immediately sped away again before he could react, and not risk getting hurt again. He did turn around, though, and that was just enough of a distraction for Dumplstilskin to hit him from behind again. Starlight and Dumplstilskin kept up this strategy for a while, alternating their attacks and using hit and run tactics, witling Gehrman down little by little. The attacks from both sides were now really starting to get to the old hunter. Even with his enhanced speed, he still couldn’t hit them. Gritting his teeth and gripping his scythe even tighter, the dark aura surrounding him grew even more intense. Starlight and Dumplstilskin both braced themselves for what was coming next, but instead of releasing it out into a wave, however, the hunter was instead lifted up into the air by some unseen force. The dark energy continued building up until it began to coalesce into a ball of energy above his head. Sparing just a quick glance above him to inspect the object of his next attack, Gehrman looked down at his opponents beneath him, with a triumphant smirk on his face. “Die.” He said, as he readied the death ball to strike. That ball of energy looked like bad news to Starlight. With how much power he seemed to be pumping into it, she wasn’t sure if they would survive being hit by it. With the attack coming and no time to properly formulate a plan, she reacted purely on instinct and did the first thing that popped into her mind. Quickly lighting up her horn, she disappeared from the spot she had been standing, and upon reappearing, she quickly opened her hooves wide and grabbed Gehrman around the neck in a choke hold. She can teleport? The old hunter thought, caught completely off guard by her abilities. He then started losing focus on his death ball as he tried to reach around and swat her off his back. While the old hunter was distracted, Dumplstilskin took the opportunity to take aim at him with his blunderbuss, and with the last bullet that he had left in the chamber, fired at him. Gehrman was knocked down to the ground by the shot, while Starlight was thrown further away, but she remained unscathed. Gehrman grit his teeth in irritation as he pushed his hands against the ground to stand back up. When he lifted his head, however, Dumplstilskin had already closed the gap between them, with his giant greatsword reared behind his back, ready to strike. “Cast!” The younger hunter began. “In the name of God! Ye not Guilty!” He yelled, slamming the full weight of his sword against his opponent all at once in one powerful strike. The force of the attack knocked Gehrman, who was already lying face down, back several feet, and caused him to do a complete 360 degree flip through the air, landing belly-down against the ground again. When he hit the ground again, the dark aura surrounding him completely dissipated. While Dumplstilskin simply stared back at his opponent, knowing that he was defeated, Starlight picked herself back up and moved to stand next to the blue skinned hunter. Gehrman struggled to stand back up, waving about on his feet as he did so. Dumplstilskin merely eyed him carefully at the moment, with his weapon at the ready. With the dark aura gone, he now no longer had the strength to lift his massive scythe and dropped it at his feet, staggering back a few steps in defeat. Looking up at his two opponents, as he gripped at his chest with one hand, he then turned his gaze skywards and held up his other hand, outstretched, as if to call the Moon itself. “Mo…ther.” He stuttered out. Starlight was confused by this one word. Looking up in the same direction that he was, her eyes immediately widened when she saw some… thing descending from the sky. It was as black as the darkest void, and rather top-heavy, with a massive head of writhing tentacles, and a thin body with exposed ribs and elongated limbs and tail – vaguely looking like a bunch of different creatures were pulled inside out by their buttholes and stapled together. As the creature descended, Gehrman had a bright smile on his face, as he gazed longingly at it, with his arms outstretched to embrace it. When the thing landed in front of him, it also reached his giant arms around him, pulling him into an embrace. The old hunter then suddenly started sinking into the creature, being absorbed by it, all the while his smile never faded. Starlight Glimmer and Dumplstilskin just stared ahead as this was happening, neither knowing what was going on. After Gehrman had been fully absorbed, the strange creature then turned to face them, standing upright on its two legs, looming over the two of them. It then started radiating the same dark aura that Gehrman had before, standing over the two of them, as intimidating as the presence of the moon itself. This made Starlight worried; it looked like her job here still wasn’t done. The creature stared down at both of them, focusing more intently on Dumplstilskin, though. However, once its gaze fell upon Starlight Glimmer, even though this creature didn’t have a proper face, it still almost looked like it was glaring at her. Starlight didn’t have time to think about that, however, as beside this new creature, another entity was also descending from the sky – one that Starlight had seen twice before, but was permanently engraved into her memory. “Demigra?” Starlight uttered in shock. The once-again Demon God didn’t say anything in response, but merely stared back down at her, in complete silence, with a smug grin on his face. Suddenly noticing the entity next to him, trailing only his eyes over towards it while keeping his head facing towards Starlight, his grin then hardened as he returned his full attention to the purple unicorn, and he gestured his left hand towards the tentacle creature next to him. “Well, Piper,” Demigra began. Starlight eyes immediately widened in response. “I promised you the Captain’s life and you got it. Now you can have his son, as well.” Starlight’s eyes kept getting wider the more he spoke. “Piper?” She said to herself. “The Silver Shroud?” She added. She then turned to look over at the tentacle creature that he was gesturing towards while he spoke. “That thing?!” Dumplstilskin turned on his side to look at Starlight as she said that. “Piper?” He took his time to speak that name, as if he had heard it before from an unpleasant story. “The Silver Shroud?” He added, more familiar with that name, turning to look at the tentacle monster before him. As soon as he got a good look at it, now that he knew who it was, he bit down hard as he tried to supress to urge to scream out his next words. “The one who killed the Captain? My father!” He then tightened his grip on his sword as he was now visibly shaking with anger. “Pony.” He suddenly spoke up, a bit louder than before, clearly intending to be heard now. “You take that white guy. Leave the big one to me.” He spoke in an eerily soft, tranquil fury. “But I…” “Help me out if I’m about to die, but don’t you dare interfere for anything less!” He yelled at her, but not for a moment averting his gaze from the entity right in front of him. “She. Is. Mine.” He punctuated each word for emphasis. It was in that moment that Starlight knew that any further words from her would be useless, and from the look in his eyes, he might even start attacking her if she did interfere. Besides, like he said, she could still help him out if he needed it. She also had her own opponent to worry about right now. “Alright,” she responded simply. She then also faced forward again, at their new opponents. However, before anyone could say anything or start monologuing, Dumplstilskin immediately launched himself forward at high speeds, slamming his greatsword into what was once a human named Piper Wright, knocking the both of them back and away from Starlight and Demigra, continuing their own battle away from the two of them. With just an offside glance at the two of them as they left, Demigra quickly returned his attention to the pony in front of him. “So, I finally get to meet the one who’s been ruining my plans, which I had to set up from outside of existence, with my own existence on the line… and it turns out that they’re just a little pony.” He then hardened his gaze so that his stare was now a glare. Starlight gritted her teeth in response. “And here’s the guy who’s behind everything that’s happened to me lately,” she responded in a similar tone. “But why? Your actions would lead to the destruction of all of time and everything else. What do you stand to gain from all of this?” In response to her question, Demigra returned to his smug grin again. “Don’t you get it yet? I am the Demon God Demigra. This entire universe belongs to me, and is mine to do with and shape to my will. And if I have to destroy all of time first in order to do that, then so be it.” “I won’t let you do that,” Starlight barked back at him, her newfound resolve filling her with determination. “Oh, that’s rich coming from you. I know all about you, Starlight Glimmer. You tried messing with time in order to get what you wanted as well. How is that any different?” “I didn’t want this. I wanted equality; I wanted peace.” “What you want is impossible!” Demigra barked back at her, his calm demeanour slipping a bit. “Don’t you know? No matter who you are, in this world or any other, there are only two things that a person fights for:” He extended two fingers as he spoke. “Revenge and self-gratification.” His smug smile then returned once again. “So tell me, Starlight Glimmer: are you fighting me now because you want revenge on me for doing what you couldn’t, or for the glory of defeating the Demon God?” In response, Starlight didn’t blink or shift expression even slightly. “I’m going to beat you to save everyone and everything.” She stated simply. For a single moment, Demigra’s smug expression dropped, but was back again in no time. “So you want everyone and everything indebted to you for saving them?” he said, with his eyes closed and smiling, looking down at the ground. “So, self-gratification it is.” Opening his eyes and looking up again, he then started getting into a battle position, spinning his staff between his fingers. “Then let’s do this. I still have plenty of time to defeat you and get back to the Crack of Time… err, in time, to save myself.” Without wasting a moment, Starlight quickly wrapped herself in her telekinetic aura, becoming weightless, and launched herself up at Demigra. However, the Demon God merely swatted her away with his hand. Since she never dropped her telekinesis, she was able to steady herself in the air quickly enough, to see Demigra quickly create a large ball of red energy and fired it towards her. “No, no, no, no, no, no, no.” Starlight repeated, with her eyes widening. She then threw herself backwards, but the ball of energy continued to follow her. The ball of energy was relentless, as no matter how far she flew to avoid it, it kept following her, all the while Demigra hadn’t moved from that spot, with that same smug look on his face as he directed the attack. While she was in the middle of avoiding her possible death – while accidently intercepting one of the Moon Presence’s attacks on Dumplstilskin, giving him a chance to attack back – Starlight ended up flying right up against a wall. Stopping in her tracks, she looked back to see the ball of energy approaching fast. With no time to move to either side to avoid it in time, she was about to consider that this might be the end for her when she suddenly realised something: she could fly. Mentally slapping herself, wondering why she didn’t think of that first, she took to the sky. With less obstructions in the air than on the ground, she was able move and weave around much faster. With a sharp turn, the ball of energy shot passed her, into the cloud of smoke from the burning building, giving her a moment to think. Looking down, she saw Dumplstilskin fighting the Moon Presence and seemed to be holding out alright so far. On the other side of the battlefield, Demigra stood, staring back at her, silently mocking her. Suddenly, the ball of energy emerged from the smoke cloud, and she had just enough time to avoid it before it began circling back around towards her again… and that gave her an idea. Looking back down at Demigra again, Starlight put on a look of determination before charging down at full speed towards him, with the ball of energy close behind her. Seeing her coming at him, with the ball of energy so close behind her, Demigra could already guess what her plan was. “Ha! Do you really think that I’m going to fall for that stupid, million year old trick? Really, of all the stupid, asinine, idiotic…” Suddenly, Starlight’s horn lit up and she fired a quick magic blast at the ground in front of him, and with the speed that she was moving at, the magic blast travelled even faster, kicking up a cloud of dust as soon as it made contact with the ground. “Oh, Medammit,” Demigra said, his eyes widening, raising his arm to shield his eyes from the dust kicked up by the magic bullet. He then quickly launched himself straight up into the air so that he wasn’t accidentally hit by his own attack. “Okay, I’ll admit, that was actually pretty good, but…” However, he was cut off as Starlight’s hoof suddenly slammed right into his cheek. Now, Demigra may be a God, but taking a horse’s (or pony’s) hoof, travelling over fifty miles an hour, straight to the face would hurt anyone. The force of the blow sent him flying back down to the ground, causing him to land face first in the dirt, creating a small crater amidst the grass and white flowers. Picking himself back up, he put his hand to his chin to pop his jaw back into place. He then turned to face Starlight Glimmer, who touched back down to the ground, wearing an expression of determination on her face as she met his gaze. “Not bad. I actually felt that,” Demigra said, falling back into his relaxed, smug attitude as he continued. “Tell me, where did a little pony find this kind of strength?” “I’m not about to tell you,” Starlight responded, her newfound determination helping to remain calm despite the situation. “Cute,” Demigra deadpanned. “However,” he began, the smirk returning to his face. “You don’t need to tell me; it will be mine either way.” He then held his hand out towards her, which started glowing in a dark, purple aura. Starlight didn’t even have time to process what exactly he meant by that or what he was doing, as she suddenly felt an intense pain shoot through both her body and her soul, causing her to clutch at her heart in response. Through her pain, Demigra’s smirk deepened. “You’ll be my newest puppet.” Starlight felt as if her sense of self was slowly slipping away, moment by moment. It took everything she had to resist it. Despite the pain, she couldn’t help but wonder if this is what it felt like for all the ponies in her village when she took their cutie marks. Had what she done to them really been as bad as this? Maybe she really was more like Demigra than she thought. With Demigra’s full attention focused on Starlight, he failed to notice a small twinkle of light in the distance behind him, which after appearing, closed the distance between them in an instant. Snapping to attention suddenly, sensing the new energy at the last second, Demigra turned around but was immediately knocked to the side as it zoomed passed him, breaking his connection with Starlight. Now that he had tried corrupting her and failed, he wouldn’t be able to do it again. Irritated, he turned back around to see Trunks, in his Super Saiyan form, interposed between him and Starlight. “Are you alright?” Trunks asked Starlight, looking back at her. With the connection broken, Starlight was freed from Demigra’s corruption, and she heaved a sigh of relief, as well as a way to catch her breath. “Yeah… thanks,” she said in reply. “Good, I’m glad,” he said with a relieved smile. He then quickly swapped back to his determined expression, turning back to face Demigra again. “The Supreme Kai of Time is safe,” he continued, still addressing Starlight. “All we have to do now is correct history and Demigra will disappear and everything will go back to the way it should be.” “I won’t let you do that,” Demigra said, in an eerily calm tone of voice. Holding both arms out to the sides, he suddenly started radiating a dark aura of his own. “I will erase you from history! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!” He yelled out as he charged to two of them. Bracing themselves, Starlight and Trunks both put on determined expressions. With that, the fighters on both sides charged towards each other to continue the battle. --- Over on the other side of the battlefield, Dumplstilskin was battling with the entity which had once been Piper Wright, but was now known as the Moon Presence. She was a formidable foe already, and Demigra’s power had made her even faster and stronger, but Dumplstilskin was more determined right now than he had ever been in his life, and his mad dodging skills allowed him to avoid her attacks even now. The Moon Presence slammed its giant hand down, shaking the earth on impact, but met only ground as Dumplstilskin rolled out of the way in time. With the momentary distraction, Dumplstilskin jumped forward and swung out with his large sword, slashing the creature across the face, making it bleed, causing it to stagger back a step. Putting one hand up to its face to stop the bleeding, but swiping out with the other one to stop the hunter from unleashing another attack, the Moon Presence was able to recover from the strike fairly quickly. “Impressive,” she said, even though she didn’t have a mouth. “You show much promise even though you’re still mostly human.” Dumplstilskin, however, didn’t respond to that. “I used to be human too, you know,” she continued, lowering her hand from her face again so that she could stare down at him properly. “Back when I travelled with your father.” The mention of his father caused Dumplstilskin to grip his broadsword tighter. He had never known his father personally, but he had heard stories about him from Captain Ironsides growing up, as well as stories of the woman that once travelled alongside him and later became his greatest enemy and eventually killed him. Knowing that that entity was standing before him now only served to increase his boiling rage even further. The Moon presence continued speaking. “Long ago, back before I knew the monster that he really was…” “Really?!” Dumplstilskin suddenly barked back, interrupting her. “That’s cheap, coming from you. Have you looked in the mirror lately?” The Moon Presence stood up taller in response to that, as if as a literal way to stand its ground. “I knew what I had to become in order to stop someone like him. I knew that as I was back then, I wouldn’t stand a chance of putting him down. Then – after the Vault 81 Massacre – I was contacted by Demigra, who offered me the power I would need to put him down for good. In exchange for my soul, I was granted powers like you couldn’t imagine. Immortality, agelessness, actual teleportation.” She listed off. “And now, I’m on my way to becoming the new Demon Goddess.” “You can still bleed.” Dumplstilskin deadpanned, which then turned into a sly smirk. “And in my experience, anything that can bleed can be killed. Even if you are a God, I’ve killed plenty of Gods already. I’m going to succeed where the Captain – where my father – failed, and put you down once and for all!” He announced, raising his broadsword up above his head. Catching the giant sword in her own giant hand, the Moon Presence simply held it in place. “Oh, if I still had a mouth, I would be grinning so hard right now.” With a quick shove, she flung the hunter backwards, though he managed to stab his sword into the ground to steady himself and keep his balance. “I’m going to enjoy this. My plan to kill you and end your father’s legacy for good has been a long time in the making, and I will finally accomplish it this day.” Quickly launching himself forward, while she was still monologuing, to catch her off guard, Dumplstilskin swung at her, drawing blood, though not doing much damage as she apparently didn’t even feel it. He then quickly jumped backwards in order to avoid her follow-up attempt at squashing him under her misshapen claw. “What are you talking about?” Dumplstilskin asked, readying his sword for another attack. “You don’t know anything about me.” The Moon Presence simply grabbed his sword, however, stopping his attack. “Oh, I know more about you than you know. Have you never considered how strange your arrival here was?” She began, as she looked down at him. “That the ship that was carrying you just happened to crash in the place where my son just happened to be waiting for you?” Dumplstilskin tried – unsuccessfully – to pull away from the Moon Presence’s grasp, though only with half of his strength, as he was caught off guard by her questioning. “What?” He wondered. The Moon Presence leaned forward a little bit, approximating a smirk. “I knew where you were and where you were heading from the very beginning. By that point, my teleportation powers had grown far beyond what they once were, so I teleported Gehrman ahead of you first so that he would be there to deal with you. And the incident which caused you to crash here…” she then leaned in so that her face was right up against his. “…was caused by none other than yours truly.” Time almost seemed to stop for Dumplstilskin upon hearing those words. He remembered the day of the crash even now, even after everything that he had been through since. It had started as just another ordinary day – he was below deck, playing with his kickball, then all of a sudden, the entire boat shook, and in just a split second, everything went dark. When he awoke, he was lying in the wreckage of the ship, and he was the sole survivor; everyone else was dead. Captain Ironsides. Bosun. Mr. Navigator. And the rest of the crew. Everyone that he had ever known was dead, and he was all alone in a hostile, alien world, where everything wanted to kill him. He was just so angry after losing everything, that he wanted to kill everything around him, to try and vent his unyielding rage, and why he had his ‘Kill Everything’ mentality. And now, learning that all of it was because of her… the entity standing right in front of him… the same entity that had killed his father. Lifting his head suddenly, Dumplstilskin kicked against her with all of his rage-fuelled strength, freeing his sword from her grasp, forcing her skidding back a few feet, even in her enhanced state. “It’s all your fault.” He began as he started walking slowly towards her, with his sword swung over his shoulder, his voice eerily low. “You’re the reason I’m here.” He continued, his voice slowly rising. “You’re the one… who killed Ironsides.” Stopping just in front of her, he suddenly screamed, “I’m gonna kill you!” at the top of his lungs, swinging out with his broadsword with all of his strength. The Moon Presence lifted her hand to try and block, but Dumplstilskin put so much force behind the attack, that he sliced her palm wide open, spraying blood everywhere. Without letting up, he continued in his relentless attacks like a berserker, slicing her here and there, this way and that, never letting up until he was practically drowning in her blood. “Enough!” Piper Wright/The Silver Shroud/The Moon Presence bellowed out. Charging in close to him, with Dumplstilskin’s sword coming at her straight on, instead of trying to dodge or block his attack, she instead chose to take it head on, his sword piercing right into where her face would be. Blood poured from the deep wound, scattering all over the grass beneath them, but she didn’t mind at all; she now had him right where she wanted him. Rearing back her giant hand, with his six foot sword lodged deep inside her and him unable to pull out in time, she slammed it down on him hard with all the force she could muster with her two tonne Demon body, pinning him down and crushing every bone on the right side of his body. No amount of blood vials would be able to fix that. “Dumplstilskin!” Starlight called out after seeing him take that last attack. However, that one moment of slipped focus was all her opponent needed, as Demigra slugged her right in the face, knocking her to the ground. “Starlight!” Trunks called out, charging in to help her. However, Demigra quickly caught him and punched him hard in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him and quickly put a stop to his little rescue. He then picked up the two of them and slammed them into each other, grinning with pride all the while. The Moon Presence, meanwhile, continued applying as much pressure as possible to the hunter beneath her claw, trying to break as many bones as possible, so as not to risk the chance of him getting up again. “Finally,” she began. “After so long, it will all come to an end. The Captain is gone, all of the synths are gone. Now with your death, I will finally end his line once and for all.” She lifted her hand up, leaving a completely broken hunter in a patch of dead grass and drenched in blood. Raising her hand up high, she flexed each individual finger in anticipation, preparing for the strike that would end his life, the Dumple Legacy, and ultimately, all of time. “Aaaaaaaaaaaagggggggggggghhhhhhh!” The Moon Presence unleashed the guttural roar of a ravenous beast as it brought down its giant claw with all of its remaining strength. BLAM! The sound of a gunshot echoed out of seemingly nowhere, and the next moment, the Moon Presence’s attack was knocked off course courtesy of the bullet that had planted itself in the side of her head, with the momentum of her attack sending her crashing face first into the ground just off to the side. With his death no longer literally looming over him for now, Dumplstilskin weakly cracked open an eye to try and discover the reason, and out in the distance, in the open window of the burning church, sitting in a wheelchair, he saw him: an old man, even more ancient-looking than Gehrman, with skin so thin his skeleton was almost visible, and so pale he likely hadn’t seen the Sun in over two hundred years, at least. His dirty black hair had grown out so much that the face behind it was almost completely hidden, except for this moment, which showed a hard expression, as he clutched a blunderbuss in his hands. “Hands off my grandson.” Still able to move the left side of his body, Dumplstilskin weakly lifted his left hand, and gave a thumbs up. “Thanks Grandpa.” The sight brought a smile to the ancient hunter’s face, but it faded once again when he saw the Moon Presence stir. The blunderbuss was no good at this range; the next attack had to come from up close. Opening up the barrel of his gun, there was one bullet left. Taking it out, he looked back up at Dumplstilskin, clutching the bullet tightly. “Dumple, my boy. Catch!” He said as he reared back and threw the bullet as hard as he could. This bullet would end it. Knowing that that bullet was his only chance right now, Dumplstilskin weakly reached up and out with his one good arm to try and grab it. Seeing this, the Moon Presence simply re-applied the pressure she was applying to the young hunter and crushed him further beneath her misshapen claw. This caused Dumplstilskin to cry out in pain. Hearing her ally’s cry, Starlight turned away from Demigra, towards him. Noticing the glistening light from the bullet, even from a distance, she mentally traced its trajectory and quickly realised that it wouldn’t go far enough to reach Dumplstilskin. Reacting on instinct, she broke away from her own fight and ran towards it. Noticing Starlight leaving their battle, Demigra merely smirked and raised his outstretched hand in her direction, readying an energy blast to shoot at her; however, Trunks rammed into him, breaking his concentration. When Starlight got closer and she was able to make out the bullet more clearly, she lit up her horn in its turquoise aura and mentally grabbed on to the bullet and levitated it over to Dumplstilskin, dropping it right in front of him. Using all of the remaining energy that he had in the left side of his body, Dumplstilskin eventually managed to wriggle his arm free from beneath the Moon Presence’s large bulk. Grabbing the bullet in front of him, he managed to quickly insert it into his blunderbuss. Seeing his move, the Moon Presence simply applied more pressure on to the hunter beneath her, with both hands this time, to try and get him to drop the weapon and give up. She wanted to break him mentally and physically. Under the weight of her blow, even more bones began to snap. “Die! Die! Die!” The Moon Presence repeated; what was left of her own sanity slipping away even faster than Dumplstilskin’s bone structure integrity. At this point, Dumplstilskin’s body was running on nothing but adrenaline. If he didn’t do this quickly then he was dead. No matter how this turned out, one way or another, this would be his final battle. With his grip still firmly on the blunderbuss, which he absolutely refused to let go of, he slowly turned his head around, his eyes locked on where Piper’s used to be. Steadying the blunderbuss on his target, he moved it as close to her face as he possibly could and pulled the trigger. The firearm exploded right in her face, the force of the blast ripping it completely open, causing the beast to release its grip on the young hunter and stumble backwards. “Thanks for the Family Bullet, Grandpa,” Dumplstilskin whispered to himself. In the distance, in the remains of the burning building, Grandpa simply gave one last contented smile before he was crushed by a piece of rubble. Now that he was free, Dumplstilskin knew that every bone in his body, except for his left arm was completely broken. He had to end this now. With the fiercest scowl of his entire life now etched on to his face, he used his arm to push himself up. As the Moon Presence finished recoiling from the explosive shot, she instinctively drifted back towards Dumplstilskin. At the same time, Dumplstilskin pushed himself towards her, and reaching out with his arm, pushed it into her open face wound, grabbing her very insides. The Moon Presence howled in pain at Dumplstilskin gripping her insides, and in response, the hunter simply tightened his grip in order to maximise the amount of pain that he could cause her. As he tightened his grip, blood started to spout from her face, on to his. Dumplstilskin now started to sink deeper inside of her as he reached further, all the while he couldn’t help but smile in satisfaction as he did so, his smile becoming more manic the further he went. This was almost as satisfying as when he killed Ludwig. Almost. As he continued to reach deeper inside of her, he suddenly felt himself grasp something other than blood and viscera. It felt smooth, clean, and majestic, in contrast to everything else about her. Instinctively, he tightened his grip in response and began pulling out. When he got a closer look, he saw that it was a bright, spherical transcendent light, that somehow had physical form, and somehow, on some level, he knew that this was divine energy that Demigra had given to her so long ago – energy that she currently needed to live. Knowing that this was his chance to end this – and her – once and for all, Dumplstilskin put every last ounce of strength he had left into tugging at her source of divine energy, pulling it out of her and towards him. The Moon Presence screamed in pain as he did so, but that just caused him to pull even harder. Once the transcendent light was outside of her body, he gave one final tug, and completely separated it from the no-longer-a-demon-goddess. With the connection to her divine power severed, Piper howled in pain, as parts of her body immediately started falling off and began crumbling into dust. And then that dust became nothing. As parts of her began disappearing into nothingness, Dumplstilskin silently swore that for a single moment, he could make out the image of a young woman with curled, dark hair, buried beneath a red press cap, wearing a matching red coat. And she looked very, very… tired. “N… N… Na… Nat.” Just ten seconds after being deprived of her divine energy, Piper Wright disappeared completely, and was now nothing more than a memory. As soon as Piper Wright was no more, a bright light suddenly exploded from around Dumplstilskin, as the divine energy began flowing into him, lifting him up into the air. Demigra, who was currently in the middle of slamming Starlight Glimmer and Trunks into each other again, couldn’t help but notice the light and turned to see what was causing it, and as soon as he saw that the Moon Presence was gone and where the light was coming from, his eyes immediately widened in shock, instinctively dropping Starlight and Trunks as he did so. “No…” The Demon God began, in a low rumble. As her body hit the ground, Starlight’s gaze was naturally drawn to the holy light radiating from Dumplstilskin. It began quickly spreading outward, washing over everyone and everything in the area. The light’s touch almost seemed to invigorate her, allowing her to stand back up. As the light surrounding Dumplstilskin continued to glow brighter, Starlight was transfixed, unable to avert her gaze. Both the light and this feeling of tranquillity from the sight only seemed to increase with time, and… *Pop* The light faded and a small slug appeared in place of Dumplstilskin. … Starlight could only blink in confusion at what she had just seen. “Errr… what?” “No, no, no, no,” Demigra began shouting. “No, no, no, not again. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” He yelled out before vanishing back into non-existence. A moment later, there was another flash of light to her immediate left. “I’m back, bitches!” Dumplin announced. “…hey, why am I not being swarmed by said bitches?” At that remark, Starlight and Trunks both simply exchanged a quick glance between themselves and let out a relieved sigh, before finally being able to smile again. “It’s good to have you back, Dumplin,” Trunks spoke, stepping towards the once-again-true Demon God. “I know. What would the universe be without the Demon God Dumplin? Nothin’, that’s what – literally nothin’.” Starlight couldn’t help but giggle a bit at that. Taking a look around the battlefield, she noticed that the fire from the building had finally died down, signifying a true and final end to the battle. When she then looked over towards Dumplstilskin, or what he seemed to have become, she saw someone new enter the area: a girl, so pale-looking that she looked more like a living doll. She had long, blonde hair, and wore a black robe, with a red scarf wrapped around her neck. Starlight took a step forward in response, but Trunks simply held his arm out to stop her and gave her a knowing look. Turning back towards the girl, she picked up Dumpl-slug and began caressing him gently. “Oh, good Hunter.” She whispered quietly to him, but still carrying over to the other three in the area. She then turned back around and walked back the way she came, apparently unaware of their presence. “You don’t have to worry about him,” Starlight heard Dumplin speak up. She turned to face him, but he simply continued staring out ahead of him, at where the girl had taken Dumplstilskin. “Now that Dumplstilskin has become a Slug God, she’ll take care of him until he’s fully mastered his new powers.” Dumplin then smiled. “Then he’ll use his new God powers to create a successor to continue the Dumple Legacy.” “You know, it’s funny.” Trunks spoke up, cracking a smile. “Demigra originally gave Piper that power in order to defeat the Captain and prevent the Dumple Legacy, but now Dumplstilskin will use that same power to ensure that it continues on after him. In trying to prevent Dumplin’s existence, he instead gave his precursors the means to bring it about.” “Ha!” Dumplin laughed out loud. Trunks looked back up again. “Well, anyway, Dumplin’s right,” he spoke up. “The timeline is now back on track. We’ve done our job here.” He then turned to look at Starlight Glimmer and smiled. “Let’s head back.” Trunks then pulled out the Scroll of Eternity, which was once again free of corruption, and its bright light washed over the three of them, transporting them through time. --- With a flash, the pony, the half Saiyan, and the true Demon God reappeared, now standing in the centre of the Time Nest, which still showed damage from Demigra’s recent revival. “You’re back!” The Supreme Kai of Time called out, noticing their return. She was bent over, hands on her knees, and sporting a few bruises, but otherwise seemed alright, with a relieved smile on her face. “Supreme Kai of Time!” Trunks called out, in a worried tone, noticing her injuries. “Are you alright?” He asked, running over to her. “I’m fine,” she responded, standing up straight, giving a confident smile. “I take it from that the fact you’re here means that you’ve once again stopped Demigra?” “That’s right,” Trunks answered, with a nod. “It was really all thanks to Starlight,” he said, stepping to the side so that she could see here. “I don’t think we could have won today without her.” With Trunks’ and the Supreme Kai of Time’s gaze on her, Starlight couldn’t help but blush. “Oh, right, the pony,” Dumplin suddenly spoke up in a tone of realisation, slamming his fist into his palm as he did so. When Starlight turned to face him, he then quickly spun to face her too, with a ball of yellow energy instantly appearing in his hands. “Get in the Fuck…” “Dumplin, stop!” The Supreme Kai of Time called out to make him stop. Starlight wasn’t even able to process exactly what she had just stopped until she had done so. Dumplin turned his head to look at Time Kai, his body still facing Starlight, with his ball of energy still charged in his hands, inches from her face. The SKoT held a firm look on her face as she stared at him, while Dumplin simply stared back at her. He blinked once. Twice. Three times. “Ugghh, fine,” he finally relented, cancelling his energy attack. “I swear we need a new hierarchy system around here. Some sort of… pecking order, if you would?” Ignoring him, the Supreme Kai of Time turned back towards Starlight and walked towards her, now with a warm smile on her face. “As I was saying, you’ve certainly been a big help to us lately, especially considering the stakes of those battles.” Starlight Glimmer blushed in embarrassment again. “Well, you know, the fate of all of existence was on the line, so…” The Supreme Kai of Time’s expression then changed a bit to her earlier firm look. “It’s also been brought to my attention that you at some point threatened the timeline yourself,” she stated, folding her arms. “Uhhmm,” Starlight stuttered, her blush now one of a different kind. “Well, I, uhhmm…” “Messing with time is a very serious offense,” she continued. “As the Supreme Kai of Time, only I and my Time Patrollers are officially allowed to control time. Anyone else is therefore breaking a very serious law.” Starlight gulped nervously. “Uhhh…” Before she could properly speak up, however, the Supreme Kai of Time’s expression changed again back to her warm smile from before. “But then, you’ve already served a considerable sentence in Dumplin’s… ‘Fuck Box’,” she said in an awkward tone before taking a breath and reaffirming herself. “And you’re assistance in these last two matters shows me that you’re incredibly capable, as well as where your true moral alignment lies, and it would be a shame to waste that kind of potential.” She then unfolded her arms and took two steps closer to the purple pony. “So I would like to extend to you an invitation to officially join the Time Patrol,” she said, holding her hand out towards her. “What do you say?” Starlight Glimmer was speechless. Out of all of the different ways that things could have played out, she certainly wasn’t expecting this. She lowered her head in contemplation, so that she could think things over. As for what she had done to be punished in the first place: technically she had broken a major law of the universe, not to mention several other crimes back in Equestria in order to get her hooves on the time travel spell in order to put her plan into motion; and looking back on it now, her plan did seem kind of petty and excessive. Was she really willing to mess with the natural law of the universe and spend eternity locked in a closed time loop just to mess with the life of one pony who had simply chosen to resist and fight back against a mare that had de-powered and held her and her friends prisoner? Suddenly, she was looking at everything that had done in an entirely new light. There was also the fact that her actions back in Equestria had made her a wanted criminal, and her world didn’t recognise the Fuck Box as an official form of sentencing. Even if by some miracle Princess Twilight did let her off the hook, what did she even have in Equestria to go back to? Everypony in her village thought of her as a monster and would never forgive her for essentially brainwashing them for years. Her one and only friend had left her years ago and had completely moved on with his life. And she was an orphan, so she didn’t even have any family. There wasn’t even anything back there that she could really use her abilities for. As a part of the Time Patrol, however, she could put her exceptional skills to good use and do some real good, as well as try to make up for all the bad things that she had done. Maybe… she could even make some friends here. Trunks seemed friendly enough, and in a way, Dumplin at least recognised her abilities. Looking back up to look the Supreme Kai of Time in the eye, Starlight Glimmer came to a decision, and nodded her head in affirmation. “Alright, I’m in.” “Good to hear,” the Supreme Kai of Time nodded back with a similar expression her own face. “Well then, now that you’re officially one of us, the first thing that we…” However, before she could finish, she was cut off as the ground beneath them suddenly started shaking violently, and the sky above them turned dark with storm clouds. The three Time Patrollers started frantically looking around, trying to spot the source of the disturbance, when suddenly multiple time portals began opening up all around them, each one showing a distortion in time. As the most seasoned Time Patroller amongst them, Trunks was the most familiar with the different types of time distortions, and he knew instantly that these weren’t another of Demigra’s backup plans. With an awkward look on his face, he turned towards his little pink boss. “Uhhmm, Supreme Kai of Time, what happened?” The Supreme Kai of Time nervously scratched at her cheek with a finger. “Uhhmm, well, earlier when I discovered a change in history, I kind of maybe might have dropped a few scrolls.” After hearing her explanation, Trunks could only let out an exasperated sigh. Quickly regaining his composure, however, he looked over his shoulder at Dumplin and Starlight, who both looked back at him with expressions of resolve and fierce determination on their faces. Seeing the confident looks on his partners faces, gave him confidence, as well. “Alright then,” the half Saiyan leader of the Time Patrol began as he took a step forward. “Time Patrol,” he continued, unsheathing the sword on his back. “Move out!”