"Cupcake?" the pink pony offered the new arrival.
"Uh... no thank you, Pinkie." Mako denied.
"Suit yourself." Pinkie threw her cupcake in the air and caught it like a frog catching a fly. When she swallowed it, she joined up with the rest of the Mane 6, who arrived right after Mako.
"Hold on an apple-picking minute." Applejack said. "I'm having a hard time understanding. You think Korra was taken?"
"I only know what happened." Mako said. "Look, it all started a few weeks ago. Me, Korra, Bolin, Asami, Miles, Iris, and Lok entered another world. We were in a jungle terrain where the only intelligent forms of life we found were a few bugs. That night, Korra started to stir in her sleep. I woke her up and she told me she was talking to Aang."
"Aang?" Twilight asked. "Wasn't that the Avatar before Korra?"
"Well, that doesn't make sense." Rarity said. "That man is dead. How could she communicate with the dead?"
"Maybe the Avatar has a special ability to communicate with the Avatars of the past." Pinkie Pie guessed.
"Oh, Pinkie." Rainbow Dash chuckled. "You say the nuttiest things."
"Actually, she's right." Mako said.
"WHAT?!" everyone gasped.
"Korra can talk to past Avatars... or did, at least." Mako said. "Look, a few years ago, Korra's psychotic uncle gained powers similar to the Avatar and used them to weaken Korra's so much, she lost all connection to every Avatar before her. We defeated him, but Korra still couldn't talk to Aang or anyone else."
"But why is she saying she's doing it now?" Twilight asked.
"I don't know." Mako said. "I told her it was impossible, but she insisted. She said Aang told her all of Creation was in danger and that she needed to speak to Avatar Stelle."
"The first Avatar that made contact with Equestria?" Twilight asked. "What else happened?"
"Well, Korra was insistent on interacting with her past lives, so we all headed straight for the Tree of Time."
"The tree of what?" Starlight asked.
"It's sort of this big place in the Spirit World." Mako said. "I think it's the most spiritual place there. Anyway, Korra meditated inside the tree all day trying to reconnect with her past lives. After half a day, we were all worried. I was about to check up on her until... we were attacked. These four green vultures appeared out of nowhere and started attacking us. We tried to fight back, but these vultures were quick. They separated us from Korra and chased us into the Physical World. I ran back in after them, but when I returned to the Spirit World, they were gone, along with Korra. Those vultures must have kidnapped her."
"What, were they spirits or something?" Spike asked.
"I don't think so." Mako said. "We've seen hundreds of spirits before, and whatever they were, they were different. After that, we went to see everyone we can who can connect to the Spirit World, but they couldn't find her anywhere. Even Zaheer was no help."
"So why are you here?" Twilight asked.
"Bolin remembered that he heard one of those vultures talking." Mako said. "According to him, the vulture in the lead was talking about getting the objectives before the ponies show up."
"You mean us?" Fluttershy asked.
"Mako, I've never heard of any green vultures." Twilight said. "But if Korra's in trouble, you can bet I'll be happy to help."
"Me too." Spike said.
"Same with us!" Rainbow Dash said standing with Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Rarity.
"Ooh, don't forget me." Discord said. "Princess Twilight, her friends, and Discord off on another whirlwind adventure!"
"Hold on!" Starlight said. "I'd like to go also."
"All right." Twilight said. "We could use all the help we could get."
"Thank you." Mako said. "Shall we go now?"
"Hold on." Spike called out. "I need to write to the princess explaining where we'll be."
"OK, Spike." Twilight said. She then turned to her student. "Are you sure you want to do this? There's no guarantee that it'll be pleasant."
"I know," Starlight said, "But I missed out on the last one. I'm not missing this one. Besides, this could be educational for me."
"All right." Twilight said. "Just needed you to be sure."
"So where do we go when we get to Republic City?" Starlight Glimmer asked.
"We should head to the scene of the crime." Twilight said. "The Tree of Time."
"Ooh, that rhymed!" Pinkie smiled.
"And here, we have the new spirit portal." Ryu said as he presented the glowing portal to the crowd of tourists. "Here, the Avatar and Kuvira fought until an explosion created a brand new spirit portal."
"That's our son." Ryu's overenthusiastic mother called out. "He's so informative."
"Yeah, whatever." Ryu sighed rolling his eyes. "Anyway, the portal, at first, lead to the spirit world, but because of otherworldly matters months ago and the advancements made by Atlas Consilidated, it can give you access to other worlds, but only with permission from Atlas Consolidated CEO, Amsem Stratus. Atlas Consolidated..."
Suddenly, the tour was interrupted by the sound of a beautiful screech. The tourists looked up and saw two creatures soaring the sky. They had the resemblance of horses and fish combined. The only difference was their color. One was orange and the other was purple. They divebombed until the purple one caught Ryu by latching her teeth on the back of his collar. The other one tried to catch another human, but the humans scrambled to confusingly. In the end, the two creatures decided to fly away out of everyone's sight.
"MY BOY!" Ryu's mom shouted. "THEY TOOK MY BOY!"
The two monsters flew through the sky with Ryu screaming his head off. The monsters then flew into an abandoned warehouse and dropped him on the ground. When Ryu took the time to examine his surrounding. he was frightened when he found the vials and lab equipment all over. He then turned seeing the two creatures change form. They now looked like human teenage girls.
"YUCK!" the purple girl exclaimed as she rubbed her tongue. "OH, COME ON!"
"What are you complaining about, Melody?" the orange girl asked. "You caught someone."
"Yeah, but this guy is a mess!" Melody said. "Serena, consider yourself lucky. This guy tastes like week-old noodles and I don't think he washes his suit."
Ryu looked around in fear until he caught sight of another person. He looked human, but he had a hood and a mask on. The mask looked intimidating, and there was a red circle on the forehead of the mask. The look of him frightened Ryu.
"AMON?!" Ryu screamed. "HOW... YOU'RE DEAD! YOU WON'T TAKE ME ALIVE!" He tried to throw strong gusts of wind toward the masked figure, but before he could, a metal hand caught his wrist. Ryu looked and gasped when he saw the thin, cloaked man with black hair and a mechanical eye.
"I think we just did." the newest man said. He then threw Ryu aside. Ryu looked again and saw the mechanical arms and hands his attacker had when he used them to hold up a syringe filled with a white fluid.
"Don't you know who I am?" Ryu asked.
"Vaguely." the metal-eyed man said observing the needle. "Based on my records, you're a man who doesn't care about anything and freeloads in his mother's basement. When you discovered your airbending abilities, it only took you three years before you decided to embrace your destiny, and what do you do with it? You give tours in the spirit wilds. Not exactly a full life... Ryu, was it?"
"You... You've been watching me?" Ryu asked in a trembling voice.
"Heavens, no. You're not worth the effort. But you did encounter Avatar Korra once. You know, when she came to your house and tried to convince you to learn airbending. But like I said, it took you three years to even get out of the house."
"What are you going to do?"
"Oh, you're not the first person I'm doing this to," the man smiled approaching Ryu with the syringe, "And I promise, you won't be the last."
"You're insane! Who do you think you are?"
"Well, the girls are the Siren Sisters, Serena and Melody, my masked friend over there is Kira, I'm Tartus and... I'm taking back what is rightfully mine." Tartus then struck the side of Ryu's neck and injected the white fluid within. When he pulled the syringe out, Ryu felt dizzy and about to pass out. All he could do was listen to Tartus' short ditty before passing out.
"T is for 'terror' which is filling in your eyes
A is for 'awesome'. This is quite a surprise
R is for 'revenge,' for what I'm going to claim
I've waited forever to finally finish this game
T is for 'toture,' my most beloved noise
U is for 'ultimate power' that I'll rejoice
S is for 'struck' much like a heart attack
My name is Tartus, and let me just say... I'm back"