//------------------------------// // Chapter 88 // Story: Humans Assemble! // by Mistershield //------------------------------// Chapter 88 Nightfall Rainbow Dash flew through the darkened sky, back and forth looking through that blasted foliage that was the Everfree Forest. Once more, thoughts raced through her mind. Last time, only Phoenix had vanished from Appleloosa. Now, the entire human troop was missing. The search over the old castle had no luck, and there was no signs or clues to where they could have gone. Even with Samus’ airship, there was no way all of them could have moved somewhere. The ship was way too small to carry them, and even then they should still be able to send a radio or signal to say they left. There was no signs of a fight in the area though, so she was pretty sure they were alright. But Everfree was still a dangerous place, and poison joke was the least of her worries. “So far everything matches with what Gilda said,” Rainbow muttered to herself. Why had no one else bothered to come help her? She had been looking for a- “Derpy?” Rainbow hovered in place and blinked once, her eyebrows raised at the sight of the gray pegasus flew overhead, looking down at the ground. Her head was looking left and right, as if searching. Had Twilight finally gathered the others and get a search party? “Derpy!” “Huh? Rainbow Dash?” Derpy picked up her head, and turned to spot her friend fly in close to her. “I-” “Did Twilight send you? Are any others searching?” Rainbow’s attitude lightened up a bit, her smile slowly fading though as Derpy lowered her head to the left side and look away. “What’s wrong?” She knew that look. Depry only made that face when she had done something really bad, even with her eyesight and accidents. No matter what, Derpy always owned up to her mistakes and apologized. This was way out of her character though. “I- Twilight isn’t sending a search party.” “What why?!” Rainbow’s wings flared out in shock, her mouth wide open. “I know what went wrong,” Derpy said, raising her head up. Her eyes were a bit shiny, tears building in them. Rainbow calmed down a bit, noting the tone of voice in her voice. She was almost cracking. “What went wrong Derpy?” Rainbow relaxed her face and tensed up muscles. “No wait. Tell me after we land.” Derpy nodded, following behind the cyan pegasus. Rainbow landed, giving Derpy a chance to clear her mind and find her voice. When they both landed, Derpy sighed and stood straight to face her friend. “Do you remember what Twilight told us?” Derpy’s eyes relaxed a bit, moving to straighten out in place. “What part?” Rainbow blinked once. She had to force herself to stay patient, but it was hard. Her knees bent up and down as her wings fluttered a bit. “The part about how we can send them back.” The gray pegasus lowered her head once more, but this time not to scan the area. “Wait a sec. You mean how we touch our-” Rainbow went still, eyes opening wide again. “Yeah. I um... Sokka is back home.” Derpy frowned, seeing Rainbow’s reaction as she started to shake her head. “No no no no no no no... I didn’t send Phoenix away so why is he-” “Um, I wasn’t the only one,” Derpy look away again, both eyes closed. “I um, think that when Sokka and the other humans were sent away-” “The others went looking for them?!” Rainbow’s head moved up to look left and right. “But there is no sighs that the others left a trail. With so many humans, there must be some sort of tracks!” “That’s the thing. Twilight thinks because the spell went wrong, the sending back was also changed,” Derpy replied, eyes opening halfway. “Twilight also told me that some of the humans took off to look in Samus’ ship, and that the rules in Everfree don’t apply. There may not be tracks humans left behind.” “That makes no sense! Why is no one else helping to look?! If humans went missing, why would they not contact us to help look, or use magic to find them?!” Rainbow’s chest moved up and down as she took deep breaths of air. Needless to say, she was losing it. Kinda odd how her reasoning skills were sharp though. (I happen to know that it was Phoenix’s influence on her.) “Twilight and the others as back in town. She is trying to find out who else got sent back home.” Derpy leaned in to place a hoof on Rainbow’s left shoulder. “Everyone has been so busy, and some of the other ponies had to catch up on the old work and errands.” Rainbow took a moment to relax, trying to think clearly. “I came to look help too, but also tell you to come back. Twilight is making a plan.” “Well,” Rainbow frowned again, and then turned to look back at the old castle. She had to give the humans some credit. They could take care of themselves, and from the grill left over she knew that they had not gone hungry. “I suppose if the others are not running around in a panic, I shouldn’t either. But-” She stopped talking, and turned to raise a brow at her friend.  “Why would you send Sokka back home?” Depry raised her eyebrows, a bit thrown back by the question. She shook her head in response and then started to fly back home. “Sokka told me something while we were making muffins.” “Really? What was it?” Rainbow flew to stay at her friend’s side. “Sokka said that, “We are in trouble.” I wasn’t sure what he meant, so he explained it to me.” She turned to look back at Rainbow as she explained. “Phoenix is Hope, what is why we are doing so good. When Phoenix was... um, Roger? The bad guys were winning.” “Well, yeah we all get influenced and stuff. Pinkie does that all the time.” “But what do the really bad humans represent? What do they bring to the Changelings?” Derpy turned to look back ahead of herself. “I told this to Twilight. She frowned  then too.” Rainbow noticed her gaze was in a frown as well and then opened her eyes wide. If Twilight was worried, that means it was a bad sign. “I sent him back, because I was scared of what he would have to fight. Some ponies will be ok with meat eaters. But I’m more afraid of what those bad humans can do on the changelings.” __________________________________ “The queen is freshening up, so we should be ready for the final preparations,” King Aurelius said as everyone gathered. With the news of Octacon’s vanishing through, the changeling king feared the worst. Many of the plans made not only rested on his intelligence, but supplies and tools for the upcoming invasion hinged on the good doctor’s boons. But he kept a stoic face, as a ceasefire had been called upon. Not only could none of his spies send an update, but he could not afford to send Vegeta out to search for him. He would have to pray that Otacon was a spy, or at least not revealed anything. Upon hearing the news, Queen Chrysalis had to take a bath and relax from the day’s activities. “Now that The Tower has given us much needed info, is there anything else we need to tell the queen before we start with plans for tomorrow?” The Darkbrands and the other changelings had gathered around one of the larger chambers, able to seat many gathered. Queen Chrysalis had arrived not too long ago. General Tumbler and Spy Beta had given her their updates.Vegeta and Imago the Elder had their own concerns for the missing doctor, but for different reasons. The humanoids sat down on a bench, from oldest to youngest out of all seating orders. Something about changeling protocol when such a large assembly was called for. Sombra sat to the side of his champions, in front of Vegeta. “Since we are waiting, I would like to know a bit more about how you came about to this land,” Master Xehanort asked. The master had leaned over, a keyblade resting in front of him as a cane. “Hm... I do not see why not,” Aurelius called out. He turned his head to Imago and nod. “As you already know,” Imago said as he stepped forward, face hidden into his hood a bit, “we came initially because of the rumor of the Crystal Heart. With its power, love could be spread and feed the hive.” Many nods of changelings were illuminated by the lanterns, illuminating moss, and candles in the cavern. “It was a slowly process, with spies being sent out first to check out things.” “There was no Heart though,” Queen Chrysalis spoke out, walking back into the cavern. “No matter how many news we found out.” She moved to stand next to her king, on top of a rock overlooking all. “We even sent spies to other cities for any news, save the Frozen North.” “My queen,” Imago bowed, as the other changelings did the same. “Shall I continue?” With a nod of consent, Imago raised his head. “Not only were spies and resources used up, much time and also living conditions worsened for us. Spies were making friends and eating off ponies, staying changed forms to travel was also an issue, and other factors prevented us to coordinate properly. In order to at least salvage things, the queen decided to invade the land and at least take it over.” “We still have no idea how Princess Celestia caught wind of our actions. When her niece and Shining Armor got wed, she already had many suspicions of danger. That force field Armor had up was proof enough.” Chrysalis narrowed her eyes a bit. “Armor was such a tasty treat too.” Sombra scoffed, fighting back the urge to laugh at King Aurelius’ stoic face change into one of annoyance. “Twilight Sparkle managed to thwart that plan, and the aftermath scatter many of our forces away,” Imago related. “But many of our spies remained in cities. King Aureiuls himself was station in Everfree Forest as a reserve force should the plan fail, or as a contingency plan in case the Elements of Harmony posed a threat.” “A good summary of what happened,” Exuvia said. “That is when the humans being summoned happened, and when we found Otacon. You should all know what happened from this point.” Master Xehanort nodded. The old keyblade master guessed that there was more to it, but why reveal things all at this time, much less to strangers loyal to Sombra. “Anything else?” Everyone picked up their heads, turning to look behind themselves. In shock, eyes and eyebrows were opened up, not to mention mouths fell open as Octacon walked in. The good doctor walked through the changelings, moving a hand out to pet some of them with a smile. King Sombra stood straight as a grin formed on his face. It seems that the doctor was wearing the same clothes, and not a single thing on him had changed since they first met. Well, the human smelled better at least. The king waited as Otacon came to a stop in front of the changeling rulers to bow with both eyes closed. “Hail King, Queen.” “Otacon, our strategist, “ Queen Chrysalis said as both of her eyes closed. This was the human that her king had placed so much faith on?! He looked worse than Xehanort, and he was an old man! She was not the only one thinking ill of him, as the Darkbrands also studied the man. The changeling generals also had raised eyebrows. Even Lex Luthor, the man that needed armor to fight, looked more intimidating than the man that wore eyeglasses and was as thin as a stick. “Dr. Hal ‘Otacon’ Emmerich at your service,” Octacon said as he stood straight. “It is good to see you my king.” Aurelius in turn, moved off his throne to step up to the man and nod. “I feared the worst,” Aurelius said, smiling up as the element of science smiled. “What happened?” “I was found by other humans,” Otacon said, moving to stand up and moving a hand out to his crew. Samus Aran, Blue Spy, Ralph Jones, and Zeke Dunbar stood at the entrance to the chamber. None of them were smiling, but the gave nod in greetings. “We had to kill the Diamond Dogs due to a plague.” “I see,” Vegeta said as he stood up. Along with the others, he inspected the humans gathered. Only Sams picked up his interest, as he has seen such space suits. If she had a spacecraft, he could say farewell to the god forsaken place! “That would explain the funeral pyre I found.” Wait a moment... He narrowed both eyes. Tumbler mentioned a spacecraft had picked up the humans as Appleloosa. Samus merely nodded behind her visor. “What about the Twilight mentioned in the letter?” Exuvia asked. “My crew and I went to Ponyville,” Otacon said, turning to look at Exuvia. “We found out how we got summoned here. She had been to cast the spell.” Gilgamesh raised his head and studied him intently, and found no deception in this man. Even better though, no malice or evil intent. “Why are there no pony... um... partners?” Tumbler asked. He had been the one to notice how Rainbow had caused Phoenix to vanish. “We left them behind. Listen, we don’t have much time. Tomorrow, after the wargames, we invade Equestria,” Otacon said as he raised his left hand out. Bonus: Sora and Gilda walked through Ponyville, taking a look at things. Rainbow Dash was rubbing noses with Phoenix Wright. Rarity was having tea with Nathan Drake outside, feeding each other cookies like a newlywed couple. Fluttershy was being carried by Soma Cruz, as they went shopping. Twilight Sparkle and Hal Emmerich were reading together under a tree. Pinkie Pie and Dan Mandel were on the roof of their house, Dan installing a TV satellite as she hugged him from behind. Then Dan fell to his doom into a rose bush. Applejack and Dovahkiin were selling apples, though she was sitting between Dovahkiin’s legs as he combed her hair. Trixie and Snake were hiding under a box, and hearts kept coming out from under it. Sephiroth held Lyra in his arms as they walked around. Princess Luna and Travis Touchdown were napping, Luna resting her head on Travis’ shoulder as he rested on her side. Did... Did the night princess have a blush on her face? Cherilee and Ralph Jones were having a picnic as the Kids Next Door and their partners played in the playground. Zecora and Blue Spy were sitting across Nurse Redheart and Red Medic in an outdoor restaurant. Both men had a frown on their faces as the mares spoke with smiles. Mayor Mare and Ash Williams were conducting a wedding, well, the Mayor was conducting the wedding while Ash simply held a shotgun to the back of the groom getting married. Why was the father of the bride giving a stink eye to the groom? “I do,” Octavia said as she smiled. Kratos only gave a nervous twitch of the eye. Ditzy Doo (Derpy) was smiling as Sokka and her were running the stationary and mail store. The door was open to let people that walked by see the twoo looking over some blueprints. Big Macintosh and Samus Aran were sitting down on a bench, the bounty hunter outside her suit. She was brushing his fur with a brush as he grinned. Merchant Creeper Pasta opened up his raincoat, showing off Daisy was hanging from the inside. In her front hooves she held out some flowers to sell. Princess Celestia and the Doctor were looking at the couple. The Princess giggled as the Doctor shrugged and bought the flowers to hand them to her. Princess Cadence and Shining Armor kissed, while Vergil Sparda frowned. Terra Branford merely clapped and smiled at the display of affection. Prince Blueblood and Johnny Bravo were dancing in the streets, doing the Monkey as DJ Deadpool and Vinyl Scratch played some beats. “I feel weird,” Sora admitted, having seen so many display of love and affection. Gilda merely blushed, trying to look away from the keyblade wielder. “Why do you think we are hiding?” Sora raised his eyebrows, as Spike and Samurai Jack were hiding inside a garbage can. “Gross.” They were not the only ones, as Caramel Apple and Barry Steakfries were also in a can. Other partners that were not in love, like Iron Will and Edide Rigs, were hiding in the same alley. “Are we...” Gilda turned to look at Sora again. “You know, gonna-” They were interrupted as Vegeta and Sombra looked at each other shrugged, and leaned in to kiss.