Chapter 3: Preparations.
“That was way too easy!” Exclaimed Ajax grinning as he sat on top of the only head that wasn’t severed from Cerberus’s body.
“To believe that such a feeble monster would protect something as valuable as this.” Said Vergil, as he cleaned his sword from the blood by slashing it once against the air, the blood splattering the soil as the momentum stopped.
Sigma just stood there, his cold gaze shifting between the gates to Tartarus, to his allies, to Chrysalis, and back to the gates. “Are you sure this is the right place? If this monster is strong enough to keep all those others incarcerated, they must not be that strong.”
“Cerberus wasn’t so strong per se; he was more like a barrier to scare away all the unwanted visitors.” Explained Chrysalis, an evil grin displayed on her face as she did so. “For creatures like the ponies, it was enough to keep them away and us changelings aren’t as strong as to attack it directly and expect an easy victory.”
“So now what?” asked Ajax sounding impatient. “How much longer until we face the so called princesses and return home?”
“Take it easy,” Said the queen of the changelings, not taking her sight off of Ajax. “Even with the army we are about to gather, it will be difficult to beat the equestrian army, so we have to play our cards right.” She took a deep breath as she shifted her sight between each one of the three villains. “And you three are the ace in my sleeve.”
“I can’t believe this tastes so good!” exclaimed Dante, taking a spoonful of what appeared to be strawberry flavored ice cream, topped with whipped cream and sliced strawberries all arranged in a nice sundae glass. “This is so my favorite dessert as of now.”
“I knew you would like it!” Exclaimed Pinkie Pie, as she handed more of the Strawberry Sundae to everyone inside the cart. It was a small cart, arranged with a blue carpet on the aisle, the red colored seats facing each other on either side of the aisle, a table in front of each seat. Pinkie finished handling the delicious dessert to everyone except for the reploid. “Here you go Zero.”
Zero, who had been talking with Twilight, trying to figure as much as he could about the world they were in, eyed the dessert, but politely declined “No thanks Pinkie Pie.” This earned him a disappointed look from the pony, almost begging him to try the dessert with her big, bright blue eyes. Zero looked at her and with a sight he plainly explained. “I’m a reploid” this just earned him a confused look from the earth pony “I’m made of metal; therefore, I don’t eat food.”
“Ohhh~” Said Pinkie Pie in awe, before giggling. “Sorry for that, I forgot.”
Zero shook his head before looking back to Twilight “So you were saying that there are three pony races, right?”
“Yes,” answered the student, while levitating her spoon, scooping a little of the sundae. “They are Earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns.” just as she finished, she ate the contents of her spoon.
“And the princesses are alicorns.” Explained Deadpool, while reading a comic book labeled “Prelude to Deadpool corps. Issue #3” in the cover of the comic was displayed a race between four Deadpools, but each and every one of them was different to the one reading the comic, the first one was only a head, the second was a woman with a long blonde ponytail, the third a kid version of Deadpool and the fourth was a dog; all of them sported Deadpool’s trademark red and black spandex costume. Earning looks of confusion from everyone inside the car, except for his bubbly companion, who was devouring both her and Zero’s sundae. “They have all the important traits of the three other pony races. Celestia controls the sun and Luna controls the moon… oh! And Princess Cadance has something to do with spreading love.” Deadpool raised his sight from his comic to see that everyone was looking incredously at him. “What? Do I have the face of Bea Arthur or what?”
“And how in the hay would someone like you know anything of the princesses?” asked Applejack not taking her sight from Deadpool.
“I’m a brony.” Admitted Deadpool with a shrug.
“And just what is a brony?” asked Rainbow Dash, quirking an eyebrow in wonder.
Deadpool proceeded to explain what a brony is and all of their culture.
“So…” Started Twilight, as she tried to figure things out. “You are saying that in your dimension we are part of a TV show for little girls, and that it somehow attracts males from different ages?” Deadpool nodded with his head.
Dante burst out laughing as did Rainbow Dash, the former speaking between laughs. “I can’t believe you like a little girls show.”
Zero turned to see between Deadpool and Dante as they fought one another, and chuckled at the sight. The truth was that he liked this place; it was so calm, so serene that it made him forget of all the centuries he had spent fighting. After a while he decided to break them off, they had pulled out their guns and aimed at each other making all the ponies on board freak out, Fluttershy hiding behind Zero. “Okay boys, stop it. You are starting to make the girls worry.”
“Arriving at Canterlot Station.” Echoed a voice from the speakers inside the car.
“Well that’s our stop.” said Twilight trying to force a smile out of her face. “And please please please, could you guys stop about shooting each other?” Deadpool and Dante nodded a little disappointed.
“What happened to Canterlot?” Asked Rarity, as they walked through almost empty city streets. The only living beings other than the nine of them were mostly soldiers clad in golden armor.
“I don’t know.” Said Twilight as they arrived to Canterlot castle.
There they were greeted by a couple of unicorn guards that opened the door for the group of nine, but when asked what had happened in the town they just answered. “The princess will explain when you meet her.”
Deciding not to press more on the matter they headed inside and right into the court chambers. They headed inside and watched as the three princesses who were sitting in a big round table, were discussing with four different ponies: a unicorn sporting a lavender armor and a white coat, a pegasus clad in a black armor and had a dark blue coat, a red coated earth pony mare sporting a golden armor and a tan colored earth pony, wearing what looked like a silver armor covered in some kind of crystal. What the six mares weren’t expecting was seeing Princess Luna in an azure armor, not much unlike Nightmare Moon’s own, but instead of just wearing the chest piece, she wore a more complete armor, just like the one the royal guards used, her cutie mark visible in the center of the chest guard. Celestia was wearing a matching armor, but it was of a golden color, and sported her cutie mark instead of Luna’s.
As they entered the room the four soldiers, as well as the three princesses, turned to meet gazes with the newly arrived ponies and visitors.
“Twilie!” exclaimed the Unicorn “Glad you could make it little sis.”
“Shining?” said the lavender unicorn, a little surprised. “What is happening?”
“Relax Twilight,” said Celestia, in a warm, caring tone. She turned to see the three visitors, and added. “I think we all owe you some explanations.”
“It was us, who brought the three of you here,” started Luna before anyone could ask anything, the three soldiers and Shining Armor stood silently. “There is a threat looming upon Equestria, and you are the only ones that can help us stop it.”
“You brought them here?” exclaimed Twilight in disbelief. “What could possibly be so dangerous that you had to bring beings from other dimensions to fight with us?”
“The reason is because of three otherworldly beings.” Stated Celestia. “They appeared not more than a year or so before Nightmare Moon was released from her prison.” She took a deep breath before continuing. “I felt their arrival, and brought the Elements of Harmony with me, I found the three beings inside a cave, they were weakened, but I could feel dark energy pouring out from them, so I used the remaining powers left in the Elements to seal them in a crystal prison.”
“But why us?” Asked Zero not taking his sight from the princess of the sun. “What’s the connection between those three and us?”
“After auntie Luna was brought back,” said Cadance “the three of us started to investigate the origins of the rift in space that brought them here. We managed to track all of them to their home dimensions, and after doing some research we learned their names. Their names are Vergil, Ajax and Sigma.”
The pupils of each one of the heroes shrunk when they heard the name of their nemesis.
“So that’s why.” said Dante, bringing a hand under his chin. “It seems that my dear brother and I can’t simply be apart from each other for long.”
“Ajax is still alive?” said Deadpool incredulous, a steady anger building inside him. “I was sure I killed him that time in Switzerland. I just hope that Worm and all the other diaper wearing rejects from Weapon X don’t come back to haunt me.” He shivered at the thought.
“I thought we had finally gotten rid of him,” Said Zero, clenching his fist tightly. “Seems like my job isn’t over yet.”
“But princess that still doesn’t explain why there are so many guards in the city.” Said Applejack in a worried tone.
“We are in the brink of war.” Said the pegasus. “It seems Chrysalis found the cave and became allies with these beings. My name is Storm Chaser, leader of the pegasus division of the army.”
“Not only that,” explained the red coated mare “We’ve also received a message from the guards stationed near Tartarus; it seems they defeated Cerberus, and are preparing to unleash the forces of hell against us.”
The heart of the six mares sank, as they thought of the grave consequences this would have.
Princess Celestia stood up and with help of her telekinesis levitated a purple box adorned with all kinds of gems, as she walked towards the group she opened the box and showed the contents to the six mares. “That’s why we needed you to come Twilight, we need the Elements of Harmony to seal Tartarus and stop Chrysalis once and for all.”
The six mares formed a circle and discussed the matter, after some time of deliberation, Twilight turned to lock eyes with Celestia, with a confident smile on her face she said. “Leave it to us princess.”
The three warriors looked between each other before nodding at the same time. Dante directed to the princesses and said “Count us in.”
Celestia turned to see Shining Armor. “Take Shining Armor with you. He is by far the most experienced unicorn we have against the changelings; he’s fought them many times before and knows the way to your destination.” That earned her a nod from both the Devil hunter, as well as the Maverick Hunter.
“Great.”Celestia then locked gazes with the crystal armored pony. “Siegfried, you and the Dawn Warriors must go to the gates of Tartarus, and close them again.” The pony silently nodded.
“But princess, if I go with them, who will command the unicorn division?” Asked Shining Armor.
Celestia closed her eyes. “That task will rest on Luna’s shoulders as well as mine.” The princess opened her eyes, as she took in a deep breath. “The changeling invasion taught us not to underestimate the enemy, this time I’m going to protect my beloved subjects instead of waiting.”
Celestia then retreated to the balcony with Luna, all the ponies and the three heroes tagging behind. Both princesses rose to the sky, Celestia took the western sky and Luna the eastern sky, with a flare from their horns they lowered and raised the moon letting the day finally finish and the starry night begin.
“You will stay here for tonight.” Said Celestia as she gracefully touched the terrace marble floor with her hooves “Tomorrow we will leave to the east,” she focused her gaze on Deadpool, Dante and Zero. “You and the Elements of Harmony shall accompany us until we reach the halfway point of our destination; from there you will be alone.” The three red warriors nodded.
After heading for some dinner (which Deadpool and Dante found distasteful due the lack of meat), everyone went to sleep, they all had a rough day in front of them.
Zero walked through the empty halls of the Canterlot castle, not having the need to sleep had given him the necessity to wander around to kill time. He had already walked around the gardens and most of the first and second floor halls, greeting the night personnel. He hardly believed that this place was on the brink of war, it was so calm and serene, while in his home world everything would be chaotic, with people and reploids running in panic as the squads of Maverick Hunters would try to maintain order.
He endlessly wandered the castle until he met with Princess Luna, who was admiring the city of Canterlot through the exact same terrace where she had raised the moon just some hours ago.
“Good evening Princess.” Greeted the red reploid, Luna turned around clearly surprised to see the reploid there.
“Having some trouble to sleep, I presume?” guessed the midnight alicorn.
“Not really,” answered Zero as he approached the edge of the terrace. “I don’t need to sleep, I get my energies from the sunlight, and since I’m not currently using energy for fighting I’ve been storing more energy than the one I need.” Zero chuckled at the face of the princess that was currently trying to make do of what Zero had just told her. Zero then changed his look to a more serious one. “Earlier you said that you had brought us here. Am I right?”
Princess Luna’s face changed into one of concern as she looked to the glum face Zero was displaying. “That we did.” She focused her gaze on the red reploid. “I was the one in charge to bring you here.”
“But why me?” Inquired Zero his eyes concealed by his helmet, along with the lack of light on the terrace. “Why not Axl, or even Megaman X? Of the three of us X is the strongest and Axl may be a little hard headed but he is a really good Maverick Hunter.” Clenching his fist Zero turned his back to the princess. “All I want is to finish all this fighting, heh I guess you could say X rubbed that on me. I thought that finally that time had come for me when I was brought here.” Zero then turned to see the Princess. “All I’m asking is why me?”
Luna pondered for a while, before formulating her answer. “Not so long ago,” she answered. “My sister and I watched you and your two friends fight the cosmic entity known as Galactus.” She took a deep breath before continuing. “I was in charge of finding one from Sigma’s dimension so we could bring him here, I did consider bringing the one you call Megaman X, but after the display of teamwork that Deadpool, Dante and you displayed we were convinced that you had the skills to beat him.”
Tears started to build in the alicorn’s eyes. “I am sorry; we didn’t even think of your own desires and forced this fight upon you.”
Zero felt moved by the display of emotions showed by the princess, if it weren’t by the fact that he isn’t organic he would have died of diabetes at the scene. “Don’t worry your highness, it is my job after all, it’s just I’m getting tired of all of this ‘pulling me out of my dimension to fight a war that is not mine’ stuff.”
“Thanks Zero.” Said Luna giving him a warm smile, as she cleared the tears with one of her hooves.
“Wade, wake up.”
“*snort* no mommy…. Five more minutes… then I’ll go to school and blow the director’s head off.” Mumbled the Merc with a Mouth in his deep sleep.
“Come on Wade, wake up.”
Deadpool mumbled as he groggily opened his eyes, his mask was resting on the night stand next to his bed. He squinted as he tried to focus the red glowing silhouette that was floating on the end of the bed. “Santa is that you?”Inquired the Merc as he took a better look of the spiritual being, it was an old man with a large mustache, he was a little fat, and despite showing signs of baldness he possessed a long grey ponytail. “No, wait… Killbrew?!” said Deadpool shocked “How’ve you been? Have you lost weight? You look a lot lighter now!”
“Same old Deadpool.” Said the spirit of Killbrew with a smile.
“Wait a second,” said Deadpool. “Don’t tell me you came here to tell me I have to get revenge on Ajax as did all the other people from the Hospice, did you?”
“Not exactly,” retorted the fat ghost “I came to beg you. You have to stop him Wade, he’s pure evil.” Killbrew locked his eyes with Deadpool’s. “I know you can be a hero.”
Deadpool stared as Killbrew’s spirit form disappeared. “What the hell just happened?” I dunno. But I’m sure it wasn’t the food. “You guys again? I thought the writer had gotten rid of you.” That’s the thing. “Huh?” He must have thought it would be boring for you to be all alone. “Someone please introduce a screwdriver in my brain.” Pleaded Deadpool as he stood up, no hope in trying to sleep now. He took his outfit and his mask and put them on.
Deadpool walked aimlessly through the halls of the castle, as he turned through a corner he couldn’t help to shudder at the thought of someone watching him. His train of thought stopped abruptly as he stumbled upon a paper bag. What is that? Wondered one of the voices. I hope its food, I’m hungry. Said the second, a grumble echoed from Wade’s stomach. Well? What are you waiting for maybe there are hot pockets in there. Deadpool closed in to look at the bag a little closer; it had a label on it. “Banana bag.” Read Deadpool in a rather indifferent tone. Suddenly he realized as the cogs inside his brain started working that the bag belonged to the ultimate troll.
“Do you like them bananas?” Whispered a voice from behind Deadpool making him jump in surprise. Deadpool turned to see Celestia almost rolling on the floor laughing. “I’m so sorry.” Said Celestia in between laughs. “I couldn’t resist myself from pulling that prank after seeing that ‘animation’ as you call them in your dimension” Celestia continued snickering, and in no short time Deadpool joined in, normally he would kill anyone who outdid him in a prank, but being pranked by what the bronies called Trollestia was an honor.
“So let me guess.” Celestia began “You can’t sleep?”
“Not really,” Said Deadpool, a gloomy tone resonating in his words. “Ajax was something I had left in my past. I thought that chapter of my life was finished, just as Mark Hamill’s career after Star Wars.”
“I can’t sleep either.” Said Celestia as a stern look took the place of the normally calm and soothing she usually had. “I’m nervous about this. What if I’m not strong enough to protect my subjects? What am I going to do if we fail? If Luna and I die who will spin the sun and the moon? I have been asking these questions ever since the day started.” Deadpool heard what the princess was confiding to him. “Normally when I get stressed out I make some pranks to people I trust, it’s an easy way to blow some steam off and since it’s all in good fun it strengthens our bonds.” Celestia looked at Deadpool, Locking her magenta eyes with the mask’s own white ones. “I have full confidence in you, Zero and Dante. And I’m sure you will be able to beat that fiend Ajax. Just as Killbrew said: You can be a hero.”
Deadpool recoiled at that last part. “Huh? You saw Killbrew’s ghost too?” then another cog inside his brain started to spin. “Where you spying on me while I tried to sleep?”
Celestia gave him a warm smile. “Well I WAS trying to prank you wasn’t I? And yes I saw...” loud gunshots interrupted Celestia’s answer and with a nod from the merc with a mouth they both headed to the source of the gunshots.
Dante tried as hard as he could to put himself to sleep, but to no avail, he was so excited about the possibility of fighting Vergil again, and who knows, maybe his brother would understand the legacy that Sparda had left them this time.
Dante decided that sleeping was a futile idea, as he heard at what seemed to be two ponies regarding the clicking noises they made on the stone floor at each step they made.
The two ponies seemed to be pacing in front of his door, the first one had a heavier sound to his steps, to which Dante regarded as a male pony. While the other one made soft noises with each click on the floor, Dante assumed it was a female pony. They were talking. Dante stood up and got closer to the door so he could hear what the two ponies were talking about.
“I’m telling you we need to get out of here ASAP.” Whispered the male voice. “If we go now maybe we can reach the queen and warn her.”
“Or,” stated the female voice, also in a whisper. “We could get rid of them, and then get some kind of promotion.”
“A promotion sounds nice,” hissed the male one. “But killing the three of them is too risky; maybe we should just take care of one, and then get out of here.”
“Hmm…” wondered the female one. “You are right. We should play it safe, but with whom should we start?”
“Maybe the one with the white mane. He is the one that looked the weakest.” Dante chucked at their ignorance. Do they really think I’m the weakest? They are in for a little surprise then.
Dante grabbed his trusty guns, and with his right foot slammed the door open. He took sight of the two ponies that were about to enter his room. The first one was a grey colored unicorn stallion, the second a yellow coated pegasus mare.
“Hello ladies! You were looking for me?” asked Dante in a mocking tone as he watched the two ponies back away slowly fear combined with a hint of surprise displayed on their faces, eventually breaking into a gallop to get as far as they could from the devil hunter. Dante broke into a pursuit following the two ponies up close.
“Quick Silver.” As Dante said this the time started to slow, the only being able to move at regular speed was him, and with a calm step he walked in closer to the two ponies. He stood just in front of them and pointed them with his guns. And then the flow of time returned to its normal pace.
“Oh hello there, going anywhere?” Said Dante as the two ponies stopped dead just a couple of inches away from him, his gun’s cannons resting in the middle of each pony’s brow, the two ponies started to back away slowly. Just before Dante could press the trigger of his handguns, he was encased in a purple orb. “Huh?”
“What the hay is going on here?” Asked Shining Armor, his horn covered by a purple aura, Princess Cadance stood next to him watching at the scene with fear displayed on her eyes. “What do you think you are doing pointing with that at the guards?” asked Shining Armor to Dante.
Dante shrugged at the question and answered. “Hey, I’m sorry ok?” Shining Armor released the shield, but before anyone could react. Dante raised Ebony & Ivory, leveling them with the guards’ heads and shot; the two rounds pieced through the skull of the two ponies and imbedded themselves in the wall.
“The hell with you!” Snapped Shining Armor as he grabbed Dante with his aura. “Why did you do that?” Dante closed his eyes and with a smirk on his face, pointed to the dead bodies, who were now pouring some green gooie liquid. “Huh?” Still holding Dante in his magical grasp, Shining Armor took a closer look to the dead bodies, they looked different. The colors of their hide started to turn black and the fur disappeared leaving a carcass looking body frame, holes appeared on each of their legs and the still open eyes of the deceased changed from their regular form into sky blue colored orbs.
Noises came from the hallways as guards, as well as Zero, Deadpool, Celestia, Luna and the Elements of Harmony hurried to the scene.
“We heard gunshots!” Exclaimed Zero as he reached the scene.
“What happened?” Asked Celestia as she approached Shining armor, which was still holding Dante in place with his magic. Celestia looked in horror at the scene as she saw the two ponies on the ground. “Are those Changelings?”
“It appears so.” Acknowledged Shining Armor as he released Dante from his grasp. “I’m sorry Dante, seems I judged you too soon.”
“Hey no harm done,” Said Dante with a shrug before looking towards the corpses. “Well, except for them.”
“Can anyone explain what happened here?” Demanded Luna.
Dante explained what happened to everyone.
Celestia closed her eyes in concern. “I can’t believe changelings have already infiltrated our forces…” she looked to see Luna. “It seems it’s time we reveal our secret weapon sis.” Luna nodded and using the volume of the Royal Canterlot Voice summoned all the guards in the castle to the courtyard.
After some minutes the entire guard was formed and the Princess of the Night directed herself towards the guards. “As many of you have heard there has been some infiltrators among us, Celestia and I hoped to save this spell for later, but we can’t leave this situation without checking.” Luna took a deep breath before continuing. “This spell will remove all kind of transformations either from a changeling or any other source.” Luna gathered magic into her horn and a single drop of blue magic fell in front of her, as the drop fell before her hooves a spherical aura surged from the floor, it expanded rapidly as it passed through all things material, the expansion of the field stopped just to the outskirts of the castle grounds.
Two of the royal guards who had been strangely anxious since they had been summoned transformed into the black creatures, they were seized immediately by the guards, and brought to the castle dungeons to get information. Knowing that he wouldn’t be able to sleep, Zero sent all the other members of the group to get some sleep while he helped the guards in the interrogation task. He didn’t like the idea of torturing a living being, but they would need all the information they could get for what was to come.
A/N: I want to thank you all. It's such a wonderful thing for me to have so many readers (I know it's not much compared to other stories), I would never had hoped a story of mine to be of the liking of so many people. I want to give a special thanks to my pre reader The ArcadeLords who has helped me a lot improving my work. Please feel free to leave any comments below, them being corrections of things I might not have seen, Ideas you might have that could improve my story, what you liked or disliked about my story, your eternal praise to me..... or simply leave some random comment. Thanks again.