I landed right outside the entrance of the small cave I had started building before I had continued on towards Hollow Shades. I had barely gone in more than six meters. Fire Wave had run out of ammo before I could actually get anywhere in the first place. It was smack dab in the center of the highest peak of the mountain range. That alone gave me plenty of ideas on what I actually wanted to do. For an organization like the Maverick Hunters I needed something secret but nondescript. A mountain was honestly the best thing I could come up with.
Discord could find me easily. I expected it in fact. The moment he did I would blast him in the face with whatever weapon I had on call at the moment… though I doubted it would do much unless I had a better plan in the first place. For now that particular train of thought was left in the knee jerk reaction folder which to no surprise was held on by Fefnir.
‘Master X, if I may.’ Harpuia called out breaking me from my thoughts.
‘Yes?’ I stopped and kept my eye out to the forest instead of the hole.
‘I know you are trying to create a new branch of the maverick hunters within this world but are you sure that is wise? We are an outlier in all this and from what information we have gleaned during that meeting with Star Swirl and the Pillars and the treks through both the Crystal Empire and Hollow Shades; we do not belong. We are an anomaly. From what the other being told us and the energy being given off by these tokens you collected… we are but one of many dragged into a situation where our actions have dire consequences.’ Harpuia summarized and presented me relevant data which scrolled through my memories.
He was right on all accounts. We would change things and those changes wouldn’t always be for the better. We didn’t save the Crystal Empire, per se, but changed the fundamental course of history. I knew what this was given that I disappeared so soon after season eight had ended. I knew what land I was in after that incident with Wyatt.
I should have picked it up faster. The moment Discord was here I should have known what world I was in. His actions made me doubt that I was actually there. Hell, the name of the government was the Equestrian Principality. Was I really that stressed out? I had tuned out the more human thoughts because they hadn’t coped well with the transfer but there was a limit to the ignorance, wasn’t there?
In the end I made my decision.
‘Be that as it may we need to prepare for the changes in our own way. Corundum was far more dangerous than we first thought after we encountered him the first time in the Crystal Empire. If I were to compare him to someone it would be Sigma. A supremacist by any other name with a body count to match considering his first strike involved nuking Abel City back then.’ I mentally snarled as I finally made the connection in more than just thought, figuratively speaking.
‘Understood sir. I take it the battle in Hollow Shades made you come to this decision.’ Harpuia motioned as video footage played back of that crystal pegasus and the thestral body he took with him.
‘That was factor one. Factor two is that without me breaking those things, it’s a one to three slaughter most if not all the time. The golems are efficient killing machines and they take out ponies before they can be stopped. Honestly the best case scenario is that we stop Corundum permanently. As bad as Discord is he keeps to the no killing rule with the only exception being me.’ I placed the teleport unit back into my arm and switched over to Fire Wave.
‘There must be another reason otherwise you wouldn’t be so firm on this sir.’ Harpuia replied clearly knowing the answer. I was glad he was so direct on these matters at the very least. With me as I am it was necessary to be a bit more blunt both to get me to speak and to make a point.
‘They won’t be here forever. Hurricane is holding this place together alongside Puddinghead and Platinum. Even then Hurricane is the most militant and his righteous fury is the only thing keeping Aegis from staging a coup of some sort. If not now… then who knows when. Worse comes to worst I would need to step in to stop a rebellion from getting any further than that. His prejudice and racial bias is going to be a sick poison on this land until something happens to change that.’ I mentally explained before tunneling further into the mountain.
Due to the funneling properties of my buster I needed to evenly distribute the heat across a large area. Even with Fefnir’s assistance in modifying the power output there was always an uneven bump whenever I stopped. I couldn’t use a charged buster shot since it would go to far in before dispersing.
‘Master X, should we deal with Aegis now then?’ Fefnir brought up as I inspected the handiwork of melting stone. I switched to Shotgun ice and froze the stone allowing it to give off a lustrous sheen. It also blasted a whole bunch of steam out of the hole filling the area in fog.
‘Innocent until proven guilty. Just because he is an asshole of the highest level we can’t condemn him until he’s done something.’ I sighed and I switched over to Gaea Armor. I had run out of ammo again over twenty feet into the newly built cave.
It was quiet once again as Nana began to build an electronic map for me to navigate in the dark. I would get out and back into the fray soon enough but for the moment I needed to build some things up.The foundation for an organization I could let exist forever throughout history at least in some capacity.
‘Fefnir… attach to my armor like Harpuia had.’ I commanded to an affirmative.
My armor turned completely red as two large cannons appeared over my arms and my helmet had several protrusions grow out of it. It had a flamethrower and while I needed to switch weapons I decided it was worth the risk. I would have to increase the power in order to disintegrate anything but that would have been overkill.
Regardless I got to work on making a cavern which I could build into later.
It had taken a few hours tearing down trees to form posts to keep the cave from crumbling in on itself. At most it would only act to keep the structure sound until I could get metal panels ready to place within. The sun was at its lowest point now falling back to its restful slumber but still I had only gotten twenty feet of the tunnel done within the time so far.
I sat quietly over one of the fallen trees for a small break to watch the sun set finally. Curiosity finally managed to win out as I pulled out the small thalassa shell I had found in the wreckage of Hollow Shades. It shone lightly in the dimming sun as I held it gingerly in my palm. I had hear something being said when I first picked it up but ignored it as there were other matters that needed to be attended to. Now that I had time I decided to listen to what it had to said.
“So, this is Alex Lionheart. If you need help in a fight or just someone to talk to, I’m game. Just call me up and I’ll show up with a big dumb key-sword to do the thing.”
“Really…? That’s your message to others.” I muttered feeling a bit disappointed. Just from the words alone it sound unconfident and clearly unsure of what they were doing. Maybe I was too harsh in my assessment but I had dealt with someone who was trying to be the ideal hero. Perhaps my expectations were too high. “It doesn’t sound like you could figure out a way to get me metal though.”
“Oh getting metal is easy. You just shackle some dogs and make them dig.”
“No wonder the proximity sensor was going weird…” I turned up to whatever was speaking now. Honestly I had muted my emotions down to near non existent levels if only to stop the boredom and solitude from getting to me. “You are…?”
“I don’t expect you to recognize me, I have gotten quite the makeover.” An alicorn stood before me, her body seeming to be made of obsidian with cracks all over that pulsed with a reddish glow. “You would know me as that snotty little brat, with an annoying little sister.” A flaming mane waved in the air, crackling softly.
“Hm… you got uglier.” I answered almost immediately. I had also switched in Chameleon Sting just in case.
‘Celestia’ cackled, a set of fangs glittering in her muzzle. “You’re one to talk, you’re nothing but a living action figure.”
“Yup… with real kung fu grip action. Truly a higher calling had never been found.” I deadpanned, rolling my eyes. My buster had been charging in the meantime and thanks to Fefnir’s work turned off the glowing notification I gave whenever I charged my buster. “Well aside from the fangs and the punk rock look… I can tell you’re not here to exactly talk peacefully.”
“X, I’m hurt,” ‘Celestia; pouted, putting a hoof to her chest. “I’m just here to talk with you. It’s very hard to make time travel work and I only wanted to see you again. Why, today is the day you and Luna vanished.”
“Right… sounds bad. Though I really doubt you’re Celestia. Your magic levels are nowhere near matching to what she has right now. It’s almost as if your thaumic signature had been completely broken beyond repair. Though that would explain why you look as though someone beat you over the head with an ugly stick.” I answered in kind. Nana started placing several energy spikes ready to trigger within my armor and legs. “So… are you going to stop the act or are we going to be playing the game longer.”
‘Celestia’ scoffed, lowering her hoof. “Of course I’m not Celestia. I am Solar Flare.” Spreading flaming wings, the air around the alicorn began to shimmer and heat waves poured off of her molten body. “And you, you’re about to become a pile of slag.”
I released my charge shot turning intangible to any attacks and dashed over to the mountain wall switching over to the Falcon Armor. Using the energy spikes I flew straight for the peaks away from all my work and towards the east. I started cycling my weapons until I picked up Shotgun Ice and kept dashing across the peaks. The intangibility would wear off in only a few more seconds.
Like a rising star, Solar Flare rose into the sky. “How cute, hit and run, hm? Luna pulled that same trick too. Managed to stretch it out for a few centuries; all the while watching as I took her precious Equestria piece by piece.”
I answered by smashing a section of the mountain with my bare fists and threw a two ton boulder at the flaming alicorn.
Grabbing the boulder in deep red magic, Solar Flare orbited it around herself. “Come on, X, get creative.” With a kick, she sent it alight and rocketed the rock back at me.
I fired Shotgun Ice several times in succession. The weapon, while not the best freezing weapon, still had that property embedded within it. Fefnir made sure of it. As the rock reached me I punched it back, shattering it into shrapnel as billions of ice shards flew back towards Solar Flare.
With a visible yawn, Solar Flare expanded her fiery aura. The shrapnel melted before it even got within ten feet of her. “You’re a robot, surely you have more interesting things to use then that.”
I fired my charged buster. Luckily, the Falcon Armor had piercing properties in the buster shots and with her acting as calmly as she was along with the distraction of the shattered ice I had aimed through her neck. I switched weapons once again to Electric Spark and charged up keeping the charge on the backburner.
The shot connected, mostly because she didn’t even bother trying to avoid it. Judging by a sharp hiss of inhaling through gritted teeth; the fact that it actually hurt, to a point, was a surprise. “That’s unexpected. Is your armor enchanted?” Solar Flare rocketed towards me, the air around her igniting. A cone of fire vomited forth from her muzzle, a stark white against the sky.
“Oh crap…” I released Electric Spark but the speed she was going at was too hard to stop outright. It knocked her slightly to the side forcing me to skid along the mountain wall as she melted a hole along one of the peaks leaving a crater almost entirely like glass.
Solar Flare rose from the crater, shaking herself off. “Oh good, you do know how to fight. That’s more than I can say for my sister.” A good portion of the obsidian coating her barrel had shattered from the impact, the molten rock underneath fully exposed.
“You would have been a useful friend… if you hadn’t been completely bitchy…” I muttered as I switched back to Storm Tornado. I fired off several buster shots… which did absolutely nothing to her. It was unexpected though I kept firing, since I just needed to piss her off into direct assaults.
“Really? The sling shot against me? That’s just insulting.” Solar Flare’s horn shined brightly, calling an object to her side. A massive war hammer floated in her grasp, vaguely familiar to me. With burning glee, she closed the distance, swinging the hammer at my chest.
“That weapon looks like it was kept horribly. I can see the cracks clear as day and how poorly maintained it is!” I shouted at the sight of the war hammer. My former training as a blacksmith taking over. I dashed forward instead of any other direction and released Storm Tornado. A pillar of twisting air appeared above and below me tearing through the mountain side and keeping the war hammer away from my body. Her leg did manage to kick my face though and I fell a bit further down the mountain losing the high ground advantage.
Solar Flare spread her wings out further, regaining her stability. The coating on her hoof was gone completely, though the magma underneath remained where it was. “Let’s play a game. Spear the falling robot!” Several energy spears appeared around her horn, each fired like an arrow down at me.
“More crap…” I switched to Dark Hold and fired activating the time stop effect. It had modified it to only last three seconds just to not run out of ammo. Three seconds, I dashed back to the wall after the gyro stabilizers in my body reoriented me back to ground. Two Seconds, I dashed away from the projectiles. One Second, I switched over to Shotgun Ice which had the unfortunate effect of canceling the time stop a few milliseconds too early.
The majority of the spears sailed by me, boring holes into the landscape below. One managed to pierce my leg, fading from existence a moment later. Solar Flare dove from above, the hammer raised high.
Several sensors were going off as the system dealt with the burnt sections of the armor. The secondary source was taxed and forced to initiate self repair functions. I fired fruitlessly up at the war hammer. It was meant to slow her down but with how hot she actually was it melted on impact into a fine mist. I switched over to Rolling Shield and charged up waiting until the last moment of impact.
‘Master X, Secondary power source at eighty five percent capacity. Please be advised.’ Harpuia warned me before he fled back to handle any other internal problems.
Solar Flare slammed into me with the force of a meteor. Slamming into the side of a mountain, we tumbled down the slope, pieces of her body breaking off with each subsequent collision. My shield cracked with each collison both from her first strike and the repeated smashing against the wall. By the time we reached the bottom the shield was splintered open.
I switched weapons over to Goo Shaver.
“Now this, is a rush!” Stradling my body, Solar Flare leered, her hammer poised above her head. Half of her face was completely exposed, and her left wing had been sheared off somewhere along the line. Not that this seemed to bother her. “It’s almost a shame to smash in that pretty face of yours.”
I fired Goo Shaver into the section of her exposed magma body. Even through the heat the liquid nitrogen shots held their effect freezing her internal body. With my free hand I gripped her horn and in one twist snapped it completely off before shoving the pointed end into her still intact eye.
Solar Flare’s body burst into a purple mist, leaving not a trace of her.
I looked around and had Nana boost every sensor up. Thaumic sensor only sensed the magical ambient in the air. Motion trackers registered nothing within our one hundred and fifty meter radius. Thermal Sensors… were kind of useless at this point because it was too hot from all the places Solar Flare had flown over. I tried to recall what symbol was on her but it was hard to recall what could be thousands of video games that it could have come from. Regardless, I pulled out the Thalassa Shell and decided why the hell not.
“Whoever you are come here and help now.” I almost ordered. “...Please.” I added almost like an afterthought.
“Eugh. Nicole, we need to petition Celestia about getting the decimal system put into use. Algebra was bad enough in base ten. It’s unbearable in base four.” Alex grumbled as he pored over the various equations and examples in the book, all of which took up a lot more space than they needed to due to the smaller number scale in place.
“Change the way an entire country does math just to appease two people? Alex, it’s hard, but it’s not impossible. At least the formulae we know from home are still generally applicable.” Nicole was working through her problems at a slightly faster pace than Alex, while stealing a few vegetable chips from the center of the table that she, Alex, and Snails were sitting at outside of Fluttershy’s cottage.
“Alex just likes to complain,” Snails teased, looking up from his work.
“I’ve had quite a bit to complain about over the last couple years. This? We’re wasting so much space because we’re limited to three digits per space, not counting zero! This is pure tedium.”
“Well, then make a petition, or write a proposal. Do something to prove to the ponies that you’re right about it instead of just complaining to us about how long it takes to write anything over forty.” She kept her voice calm, not really feeling angry about the topic. “Any news from Lee about new nobodies?”
“Not recently.” Alex shook his head. “Well, none that could join the org. There’s always some number of lesser nobodies showing up.”
“I wish I could help you guys out with that stuff, but all those spells are really draining.” Snails frowned and shook his head quickly. “And I can’t help remembering the sound of Diamond Tiara crying after that time…”
Reaching over the table, Alex scratched Snails’ ears. “Hey, let it go. She’s as much at fault as you are, got it?”
“Yeah, I know. Dad said I only got in trouble because she got hurt, that he’d have demanded no punishment if it had been the floating version like I thought.”
Straining with his free hand, he poked Nicole’s cheek. “I’m pretty sure Nicky here can-” A bright light engulfed the three of them, sending them off to another world.
“How long does this thing take!?” I shook at the shell in my hand even though my sensors still hadn’t detected anything. I didn’t want to take any chances.
A light emitted from the shell, lazily floating about before it expanded rapidly. It quickly resolved into three figures, two of which dropped to the ground from a foot or so above it as they resolved into a teenage humanoid and adolescent pony respectively. The third stayed hovering in air as it slowly stretched out into another teenage humanoid as well.
The pony simply grunted as it stood up and shook its head, the light fading to reveal an orange-coated unicorn colt with drab blue-green mane and tail colors while the two humanoid figures resolved into a pair that could pass for twin sisters. The one that had fallen to the ground was wearing a white blouse and pale blue slacks while the one that had stayed floating was wearing a long black leather jacket with long sleeves that was open in front, revealing a pair of blue jeans and a shirt with a mare in what looked like some kind of superhero outfit on the front.
“Ow! Alex, couldn’t you have given that thing some kind of warning?”
“Children… this is what you send me, shell…?” I muttered into my hands as I covered my eyes in frustration. The unicorn colt had barely any magical power based on the thaumic reading he was giving… meaning a civilian. The girls… had better levels which meant some combat experience. Hopefully..
“I’m twenty-five, metal dork,” the black-haired girl responded, landing next to the other two.
“If you use dork then you are a child as far as I’m concerned. Can you fight?” I mentioned.
“Alex is censoring himself because of Snails. We catch enough crap for looking like we do back home without teaching a classmate human swears.” The other girl replied while standing up and brushing herself off.
“Can you fight?” I demanded a bit more heavily. “I have some crazy monster which I think after a lot of pondering about it was an unversed. Now answer the question otherwise I need to send you back so nothing bad happens.”
“Unversed?” The colt spoke in a way that just sounded slow. “Is that like a nobody, Alex?”
The black-haired girl groaned. “This is just what I needed, base 4 algebra and now we have to deal with that psycho.” Zipping her coat up, the girl grunted. “Yeah, we can fight, X-Man. Don’t get your lugnuts in a twist.”
“Way to not be helpful, Alex.” The other girl turned to look at me with a sigh and a roll of her eyes. “As long as magic still works, I know all the base combat and healing spells.” She looked over towards the colt and shook her head. “Snails hasn’t really had any combat training, though. Is there someplace safe he can go nearby?”
Snapping her fingers, the black-haired girl put her hand on the colt’s head. “You trust me, don’tcha, Snails?”
Snails nodded quickly. “I trust you more than anyone outside of my family, Alex, not counting Miss Cheerilee.”
“Right! So... this might get weird...”
A sound similar to shattering glass echoed through the mountains as Snails melted into light and merged with Alex’s coat. A few seconds later the glow faded to reveal that the coat and other clothes had changed into a simple sports bra and tight pair of yoga pants, both of which had Snails’ orange coat as the dominant color with blue-green highlights on the seams.
“Did you just… Alex, you know he has feelings for you!”
“Hey, this is the safest place I could think of!” Alex argued. “I didn’t hear you coming up with any ideas.”
“Enough! Drama later. Right now make sure you’re ready. I ripped off her horn and shoved it through her eye making her turn to smoke. I doubt that kills it so no arguing until it’s gone.” I shouted almost letting my real human emotions bleed through the mental shield I usually kept up.
“Oh no, please. Let them continue. Watching the Yuri twins fight is like watching a Borderlands cutscene. Far more interesting than watching you and Fireball go at it.”
I fired the charge shot I kept charged up, missing the speaker by a wide margin.
“You know, I think your computer got screwed up.” The speaker sat on a rock, gazing at us from behind a black glass-faced helmet. “That wasn’t even close.”
“Warning shot. I thought you were the other girl who was chastising… him?” I lied keeping a neutral expression on my face.
The man stood up, his movements calm and sure. “Gotta love how you call the experts in and then act like you’re the one who knows what they’re doing. I can tell you never worked in retail.”
“Well… Alex was it? Go ahead and be an expert then. I’ll provide support for this.” I answered whatever the faceless knight had spoke about. I switched my weapons around choosing Electric Spark. I set up the FOE tags on both girls… that would give them a certain immunity to area of effect attacks.
Alex held a hand out, summoning a weapon to his hand. “You say that like it’s easy. Dude’s a monster maker; he can just send out an infinite number of unversed and wait until we’re too tired to fight him.”
“This doesn’t sound promising.” I admitted looking up at the figure a bit more. “So… displaced as well then?” I called up to the floating figure.
“Considering he calls us the yuri twins instead of just being pissed we exist? Should have been obvious.” The blonde-haired girl took a step back and simply held her hands up in front of her. “So what’s it going to be this time? More mockery, or are you hoping to get something out of this other than more bruises to your ego?”
“You know, things have gotten more unpredictable since you came into the picture, Namine. Your puppet girlfriend was always so easy to overwhelm on her own.”
“I’ve told you before, my name’s Nicole, and you know Alex isn’t a puppet.”
“Yeah, but it does get you riled up, so it’s still useful to me as a distraction.”
“Fuck!” I dashed forward, grabbing both of my new allies by the scruff of whatever they were wearing and jumping backwards away from what my sensors picked up. Seconds later, the ground began to tremble beneath me as whatever had just appeared began to move up and towards where we had been through solid rock.
“Hey, I can move just fine!” Alex hissed, glaring back at me. “I don’t need you manhandling me.”
“Alex, it’s not like he had much time to give us a warning first if he can react faster than human reflexes allow for.” Nicole’s face was tensed up slightly as she said this, and she began flexing her fingers as the tremors intensified and whatever was underground shifted the angle they were coming up to come out closer to where I’d landed with them. I kept my grip on the two firm as I kept jumping backwards even with Alex wriggling around like a child.
“Shut up! I’m trusting you like an adult to handle the main threat and not the fodder. So Miss Adult be an adult and handle your role in dealing with the main threat.” I argued back before releasing Electric Spark’s charge shot as huge claws began to tear through the solid rock of the ground as if it were clay. Thanks to placing the FOE tags upon Alex and Nicole they were immune to the effects of my weaponry so long as my system identified them as non-hostile to me. I released both of them to be on their own feet once again.
Alex pulled away, fighting a frown. “Damn robot, should leave you to Edgelord over there.” Simply on his heel, he brought up his blade to block a sudden strike from the ‘Edgelord’.
“Ah, I see. Dealing with hormones huh? Ain’t that a bitch?”
Before I could take advantage of how close the main opponent had just made himself, the creatures that had been churning through the ground broke through and emerged. Each one was a vaguely mole-shaped mechs, with claws the size of swords and a blue coloration on their metallic bodies. Each one was partially transparent lacking any visible inner machinery, but each had a cavernous mouth that opened up to that inner space. All of them were easily large enough to swallow me, and more began following the first ones through the holes.
I looked over the tanks pondering whether they had something special about them like that Solar Flare creature. She was made of magma and for as goofy looking as they looked they were obviously built in a way that meant to keep anyone off guard. I didn’t dare use Fire Wave or Ground Fire against Solar Flare for obvious reasons. These things could have been built with me in mind. I switched over to Boomerang Cutter so that the moment I tore one apart, if I could, Nana would immediately scan their internal mechanisms. Best plan I had at the moment, leaving me to dash forward back into combat.
I dashed forward as the first tank creature lunged for my face leaving the confines of the ground. Perhaps a probing strike to see what I would do but they needed to go. I fired out Boomerang Cutter allowing the ceratanium blade sailing out into the creature’s mouth. Due to its natural flight pattern the blade sliced through the mouth cutting open the creature’s side. The blade returned to me replenishing my ammo even though the moon had started rising up into the sky.
‘Sorry Sir, we couldn’t get any readings off of the creature. We can only say that they don’t have any internal organs so if you thought they were alive then you don’t have to worry about that.’ Nana explained as several thaumic readings came up. ‘We did find that they might have a higher resistance to magic. As for how high; we don’t know.’
“Right… Whack-a-mole it is then.” I muttered under my nonexistent breath.
The moles didn’t exactly seem to care that their brethren were just sliced viciously apart though most dug back underground tearing apart the earth beneath my feet. The three who did stay above ground remained at a distance readying their claws. As much as I liked the Mexican Stand Off I found myself in the monsters below the surface were making their rounds already circling me. Sharks of the earth that they were I could tell they were waiting for the smallest chink in my armor to strike. As much as I wanted to use Boomerang Cutter’s full charge shot. It wouldn’t strike below ground as far as I knew.
I jumped up as one of them got too close thrusting their blades forward right where my left foot was. That was the opening they needed as the three still on ground level leapt to meet with me. I fired off a few wanton blades from my buster. The first two got knocked off course as the blades bounced at just the wrong angle while the third managed to push into my chest. The blades hadn’t fixed themselves forward making the awkward image of a mole tank hugging a robot. Pushing it back a bit I punched it back down to the ground firing several Cutters into it.
The blades sunk into the creature getting stuck on the ground impaled through the tank before it dissipated. Two out of the over a dozen to go. I raised my buster once again and waited. They were circling faster now.
I chanced a glance over to the two other fighting noticing that they were off in their own little world now. Nicole… Nicole was getting ready to cast spells keeping an eye on the two of us.
I stepped back and a set of blades broke the ground. I kept taking steps back as blade after blade kept trying to pierce my leg trying to stop my movement. The two still on ground level… no three again. One rose back up from underground to keep the pressure up. A few veered off from me moving on Nicole speeding off to strike.
“Hey kid! They’re after you!” I shouted out as one of the moles jumped out of the ground and locked me in their damn gullet. It was dark… and wet…? Serious questions for another time as I charged up Boomerang Cutter. A quadruple set of blades burst from my body tearing large gashes into the body of the tank. I gripped the broken edge and tore myself out of the stomach just as it dissipated like the rest. Three out.
Nicole seemed to have barely moved in response, other than currently moving her hands and seemingly tossing the moles back with rocky spires that impacted their underside to toss them away before the ground returned to normal. “I can handle the ones I can see. Just let me know if you get hurt so I can try a cure spell on you.”
I gave a simple two hand salute if only because I needed to keep my eyes on the enemies before me. Several still underground and three on ground level. Thus began a battle of attrition where the one underground went for my legs forcing me to dodge while the one above leapt at me slicing their claws through the air where I was.
I was forced more often than I liked to punch them away for a counter attack. It wasn’t even that they were exceedingly threatening at this point. Of course that made me far too overconfident. The few that did manage to surprise me left large gashes on either my sides or my back. Without the sun out I couldn’t regenerate my armor and I had Nana put the kibosh on using the secondary power source. It took more than fifteen percent to restore the damage Solar Flare had managed… even if it was internal damage. Fourth tank came forward and several Cutters sliced through its head. Another pushed its blade up at the wrong angle letting me grab them and drag it above ground making it the fifth victim of its hubris.
The two above ground circled closer tightening the web they tried to weave. Underground was another matter as they started to zigzag underneath me but not striking. Harpuia started preparations to shift into his armor mode for the Falcon Armor on my order if necessary.
I shifted my feet faster as several blades worked in tandem using their flexibility to add a little slice to their attack. I was forced to jump at this point just to keep the blades from locking my movement. It was in that lull that another tank swallowed me up. A frustrated growl escaped my mouth and I released another Boomerang Cutter shot. I pulled myself out of the cavity as it dissipated once again after I climbed out.
This continued on throughout my entire fight keeping the mooks at bay. Several times a new gash would appear on my armor. It was always scratch damage but it would add up had I allowed any actual feeling in my body. I had turned that off for this reason.
Seventh. Eighth. Ninth, I had dragged up another that tried to claw at my leg and another gash was along my back. The tenth I had grabbed just as it had opened its mouth to swallow me. I was getting real tired of it. As I was carried back I fired several Cutters into its mouth slicing it apart and being released. Gyroscopic stabilizers made me land on my feet and I dashed off as another blade shot up.
Ten were gone and only a few targets remained. I was certain that they were overlapping or something because my sensors kept showing two, then four, then three targets. They kept cycling through random numbers, but never dipping below two or above five. I wondered if they were eating each other then spitting them out to confuse me.
Two dug up above ground and three remained underground. Then two then one then three. It was a cyclic action but as to what they were actually doing I couldn’t tell. Three blades intersected where my foot was before the tanks charged forward. The small movement allowed the first one to swallow me. Then it felt like that one was swallowed. Then it happened again. Then again. Then again. Five times it happened. I charged up Boomerang Cutter then had Fefnir overclock my weapons system once again.
Instead of the four blades that Boomerang Cutter’s regular charge shot produced, eight sharp blades were released and did three arcs around slicing through each of the mole’s stomachs in tandem. I stood still in the middle of where I was eaten once again. My weapon slowly recharged as the moon shined down upon me.
I waited and watched to see if Alex was in bigger danger. His words echoed in my head of leaving me to deal with the armored figure in his own eloquent way. I switched over to Homing Torpedo and charged it up letting Fefnir overclock that particular weapon as well. If he needed the help then he would ask.
*Third-person Perspective*
Alex moved in time to his opponents strike, the sounds of their blades colliding ringing in the air. A parry, a thrust, Alex moved as much speed as his enhanced body allowed. Catching the man on the side, he spun around as the figure vanished. Bringing his keyblade up, he barely had time to block a downward strike.
“I keep forgetting you know my tricks,” the masked man complained. Jumping back, he threw a ball of purple fire into Alex’s chest. “At least the old ones. Let’s hope your little friend is fireproof.”
’Ahhh! Alex, that’s really hot!’ Snails spoke up in Alex’s mind for the first time since he’d been pulled in, the mental cry carrying an added hint of pain from Snails despite him mostly lacking an actual body at the moment.
“Shit!” Alex hissed, casting a quick Reflect spell to ward off another strike. “Sorry, sorry! This probably wasn’t the best plan.” Taking advantage of the spell’s damage reflection, he retaliated with a thrust at the man’s mask.
’N-no, it’s fine. It’s not hurting for long, just a flash of pain. I mean, I’m inside you so I...I meant I’m in your head and all. I didn’t think I’d feel anything.’
Knocking Alex’s blade to the side, the masked man he slashed downward, sending a crescent blade of energy forward. The strike knocked Alex off his feet, granting his opponent a chance at his stomach.
“You’re not even trying are you? What’s the matter, stage fright?”
“Coordination.” Nicole’s voice cut into the conversation as a blast of icy magic washed over him, leaving a thin, chilling layer of frost over his armor as well as a sensation of extreme lethargy clinging to his mind. “You really do have a problem of focusing on only one thing at a time, Vanity.”
“See, yeah should have used Zero Gravity.” Alex pushed himself up, brandishing his keyblade in one hand. “I’ll take a snowman though.” Flexing his other hand, he summoned another keyblade. “Payback’s a bitch, ain’t it?”
This keyblade seemed to be an almost-uniform gunmetal gray with the exception of the hand guard being black. The shaft of the keyblade was a mostly-bifurcated blade which joined together towards the tip, which was capped by a roaring lion’s head facing away from the hilt. The teeth of the blade were made of a single, large fleur de lis. Overall, it looked more like a sword with some impractical decorations than a unique weapon like a keyblade.
“...What?” Alex questioned, his thoughts derailing quickly. “I didn’t have this keyblade before.”
“No time for introspection, Alex! The slow effect in my last spell won’t last forever, even if it was more effective than I thought.” Nicole slumped a little and managed to send out a small blast of cold energy once more. “Ethers, I can’t seem to remember to bring ethers with me.”
“Because we never get any heads up!” Recovering from his daze, Alex brought up his new keyblade, cutting across Vani’s chest. He cursed under his breath as Vani vanished and whirled around to meet blades as his opponent appeared behind him.
Vani kicked Alex square in the chest, batting a weak retaliatory strike away. “And yet, you still seem to forget I can do that.”
Alex couldn’t hold back a grunt of pain in addition to the kick knocking the wind out of him to begin with, and the only thing that helped him get back to his feet quickly was a small jolt of healing energy sent his way. “More like I was hoping you’d stay locked up for another second or two.”
“Right, good luck with that.” Vanishing into a wisp of darkness, Vani reappeared above Nicole. “You know, I run into you two so often, maybe I should pick you a tramp stamp?” Diving downward, he slashed across her back, casting a darker version of her ice spell.
Nicole managed to throw herself forward at the sound of his voice above her, but not in time to avoid the effect of the spell as well as the slash. She ended up starting to tumble down the slope of the hill that had been her vantage point, with most of her body covered in a glaze of grey, polluted-looking frost.
Seeing Nicole fall, Alex closed the distance between himself and Vani. “Screw you, Asshole! I’m the one fighting you, not her!” Thrusting the new blade out, he managed to catch the man in the shoulder, leaving a long gash that bled dark smoke.
“Even you should recognize the value in taking out artillery and support. She wore herself out helping you, like always.” Vani whipped his own keyblade up to deflect another incoming blow while waiting for the sting from the last one to fade. “You’re both so weak alone.”
“I’m not alone.”
A lone beam of energy flew through the air piercing through Vanitas shoulder. Silently gliding and dissipating as darkness exited his body.
Honestly I should have intervened a while earlier… though I guess his comment was still on my mind. I fired at the moment he let his guard down… enough to incapacitate and if necessary nearly kill the masked man. His name was unimportant in the grand scheme of things as I allowed Fefnir to access my systems and ready my giga attack. If nothing else I would bury this whole mountain range in a field of laser beams.
“You talk too much.” I glibly stated as I dashed up next to Alex.
“I talk just enough, Astro Boy.” A dark sphere enclosed the man, the surface pitch black. Pure black copies of himself ejected from its surface, swarming Alex and I.
More than a few scored hits across my body, my sensors unable to track them properly. Bursting through, the man gouged a chunk from my cheek. My vision flicked and died, leaving me in the dark.
“Looks like you need better optics. Maybe Dr. Santa can make you some new ones from the grave.”
I switched to Dark Hold, fired and stopped time for three seconds. I grabbed his sword arm and twisted it until I heard it break. I really didn’t need to hear the meta commentary on my current body… especially since the Dr. Light A.I. didn’t exist in this reality in either of the two capsules I had found.
He vanished from my grip and I felt a sword tear through my back though it didn’t feel as strong as it could have been. “Oh, am I getting under your skin? I didn’t know a robot could be so self-conscious.”
“Hm…? Sorry I stopped listening to every word you said and turned off the limiters on my lethality protocols. At this point I just decided that since you don’t really count as human I shouldn’t be holding back.” I switched to Fire Wave and fired in the direction of the slash at an upward angle.
I was met with the twin forces of electricity and cold, my body locking up.
“Hang around, X. I need to put the yuri twins in their place.”
The sounds of combat continued, Alex grunting and heaving as metal clashed with metal. A few minutes passed, my vision beginning to return. Alex moved with previously undisplayed grace, almost as if she spared her movements no thought.
A lean, a duck, a parry. Alex’s blades whisked to and fro, meeting the man’s note for note. Even when he pulled out his teleporting trick, Alex seemed far more ready to counter.
“Good. Looks like that helped then. Hey… Nicole was it? Are you okay?” I stepped over to the girl who seemed to be out of it still. The sparks coming off my back forced the secondary energy source to pump out more energy. Nana informed me that I had 57% left in that tank after the injuries.
“I s-should be okay. Been doing s-some small checks with the fall. Lots of bruising from the tumble but n-nothing feels like it’s more s-serious other than how cold I feel.” Nicole didn’t really move much other than to push against the ground with a trembling arm. “I’m not like Alex, with extra durability from forms. I just cast the spells that make people fall down.”
“Right…” I heated up my arms holding it around her to hopefully counteract the cold. “Don’t touch I am still trying to control the power and I need to get ready to rush in again. I may have to break something else if necessary.”
“Go help Alex. I’ll be better as long as I’m off Vanitas’ mind. I can h-heal myself safely if he’s not paying attention.”
“Give me a second then…” I answered keeping the heat on my armor on which just confused her since I wasn’t moving. ‘Fefnir… do you have a firing solution?’
‘Yes sir. Every area around Alex is targeted so long as she doesn’t move.’ Fefnir announced as the targeting data appeared in my central hud.
I stood up and allowed Fefnir to overcharge the functions of my giga attack. With a burst of energy several rapid bursts of energy appeared around Alex both above and below and raced out at lightspeed around in two waves. Whatever magic that had come from what Discord had done to me seemed to mix in as the thaumic sensor started to beep dangerously at this point.
Each wave burned into Vanitas, black wisps rising off his body. Leaping away, he landed in a crouching position. “That’s fine, I was done talking to the puppet anyway.” Standing up, a portal opened behind him. “Sorry, but, you just don’t match our requirements, robo-boy.”
“My heart weeps for the masses.” I dryly stated.
“Cya around, girls.” Stepping back, Vanitas vanished into the portal, leaving only shadows as a reminder of his existence.
“Right then… let’s make sure you’re fine then.” I ambled over to Nicole once again as I formulated my plans. Cinnamon wasn’t active still and that was one of the capsules I needed to find eventually.
Nicole was still half-laying on the ground, though the thick rime of dark frost had mostly vanished. “S-sorry about that. He’s usually not so quick to use spells. I guess he’s learning a bit more about how to screw us over every time we fight, and for once we got caught off-guard.”
“It’s fine. He’s gone. Give me a second.” I heated up my arms once again keeping it over the cold parts. It shouldn’t take too long to heat her up.
Alex dispelled his keyblades, making a beeline for Nicole. “You better be okay! You better be goddamn okay!” Dropping next to her, he pulled her head onto his lap. “...Please be okay...”
“Ack! Alex!” Nicole didn’t really try to push away, but she clearly wasn’t that happy about being moved. “Rule number one with possible neck injuries! No sudden movements!”
“Stay here. Also unfuse. I need to go get something.” I stated and grabbed some of the random bramble into a small pile. I lit a fire for the two and placed the teleportation unit nearby. “Stay warm and I’ll be right back.” I bent a knee as my entire body turned to light and I teleported back to the fortress into Star Swirl’s study.
“X? What are you doing here?” Star Swirl shook as I appeared before him in a flash of light.
“Battle. Need some help for a bit at the foot of the Foal Mountains. About seventy meters east of those strange stone monuments.” I answered quickly and concisely.
“Understood.” He replied without a hint of trepidation. “And you mean Ponhenge, don’t you?”
“Ponhenge? Really?” I shook my head and ignored it. “Yes just come on over and help me out for a bit.”
I teleported ahead of him returning back to the teleportation unit while Star Swirl performed several multi jump teleports.
I landed at the same spot I teleported away from, the blinding light hiding as I reformed from the beam of light. Luckily it only took me a few minutes to get Star Swirl’s attention as he warped in moments later, though he had taken several more jumps to appear near me. The scene that greeted me, however, was not what I had expected. Alex and Snails had unfused, as I had requested, but Nicole was laughing rather than the expected near-silence. Alex was simply staring at the blue keyblade floating over Snails’ head, held up by the colt’s magic, with an expression of complete confusion.
“I-I don’t know how I got one, Alex...but it...um, oh no. Now I’m going to have to actually train to hurt things, aren’t I?” The orange colt drawled.
Alex groaned, pinching his nose. “I know exactly why you got one, it just... didn’t click until now. Remember when Steel and I had that exhibition match at the gala? You brought me aubade. Normally it just pops back to my hand, but it let you bring it to me. It thought you were worthy.”
“Does that mean you did a rite of succession like Aqua then?” I spoke up, breaking their little trance.
“Yeah, the unofficial kind. Haven’t given the speech to anyone yet.” Turning his head, Alex’s gaze fell on Starswirl. “Oh hey, you brought the Beardo. Hope he’s not a dick like the one back home.”
“I’ve heard that a lot.” Star Swirl ignored the remark and looked at Nicole. “As for you… you have been affected by dark magic. We should do this quickly before it corrupts or breaks your physical form.”
“Oh, wait, is that an actual danger?” Nicole’s laughter subsided quickly at the sobering statement from the unicorn. “I was more concerned about having broken a bone or something in the fall than any kind of corruption.”
“I would have to scan you to make certain but certain dark magics cause ruptures of several organs if you aren’t powerful enough. In some cases it can deprive certain cells in the body oxygen causing several necromantic effects.” Star Swirl explained and awaited whether there was consent or not.
“Eh, I don’t think she’ll be that bad off.” Kneeling down next to Nicole, Alex brushed a few strands of hair out of her face. “I mean, shit. I got Nightmare Moon rattling around my head and I’m fine.” He shrank back at Nicole’s glare. “Mostly. Mostly fine. Kinda.”
“You… I have no idea what you speak of and neither do I want to know. Second, whatever that is sounds serious and should be taken seriously. Now… miss, may I run a scan?” Star Swirl turned to Nicole.
“Yeah, mostly fine, except for the days I wake up with your arms practically crushing me while you’re soaked with sweat.” Nicole gently pushed Alex away. “Come on, we don’t want her Royal Mindbenderness corrupting the data. You can scan me as long as you promise me it’s not going to cause any cancers.”
“Magic doesn’t cause cancers.” Star Swirl answered and lit up his horn. “With your consent I shall begin then. Please stay still during this.”
Several thousands of runes appeared underneath Nicole and began glowing in successive colors before turning white. A band of magic wrapped around her; covering the areas affected by the dark flames earlier. His mouth frowned at first but then turned neutral.
“Hm… good. It only affected the surface. Had it affected further it seemed whatever hit you could have caused liquefaction of all your organs. A quick cleansing spell and you will be fine.” Star Swirl smiled as he cast the cleansing spell all at once taking the darkness into a small glass sphere before it was vaporized in his magic.
“And we didn’t even have to break out the friendship magic,” Alex joked.
“Alex, spoilers! If Starswirl’s up and walking around we’re obviously in the past. Anything we say about stuff back home could mess with history...or the future here, but history to us...and now I know why Austin Powers always went cross-eyed when dealing with time stuff.”
“Uh, I was making a Kingdom Hearts joke. Should’ve been obvious, Nicki.”
Nicole stared at Alex for a moment, and then just facepalmed.
“X… your allies seem foolish.” Star Swirl whispered under his breath ignoring whatever the two were talking about. “And who are you young colt?” Star Swirl switched his attention to Snails who he finally noticed when his assistance in breaking dark magic was finished.
“Uh, my name’s Snails. Alex and Nicole go to school with me for math and history classes because the world they come from uses different numbers, and they need to re-learn things.” He looked down and slightly away from Star Swirl after answering for a moment. “You don’t happen to have a spell that would create a painting, would you? My, uh, my magic tutor would probably love to have a painting of you.”
“Oil or Water? Paints have been getting popular nowadays.” Star Swirl nonchalantly answered.
“Yeah... I got something for that.” Alex reached into his coat, pulling out what I could only describe as a smartphone. “Hows about a photo?”
“Hm… is that what that was called. I suppose some dimensional traveling I did when I was younger was worth it then.” Star Swirl pondered as he nodded his consent.
“Alex, I meant as a gift for Twilight, not just a keepsake for me.”
“Another Twilight? X is that that same mare who got all weird when I appeared?” Star Swirl called out.
“Yes.” I answered unabashedly and bluntly.
“Are they all this strange about me?” Star Swirl grumbled sighing as his magic conjured up several paints and created a small hand painting of himself before handing it to Snails.
Snails took the picture with his magic and held it carefully while looking at it. “Huh. I guess you never really became known as an artist in our world. This is really good.”
“A simple spell to be sure. I never really cared to make myself known for anything but magic. Plenty of other ponies are far superior to me in several aspects. That is all I need to keep my motivation in striving for ponies to finally have a decent home here. Though I think you should get something as well. Here. Keep this scroll with you. It has a self levitation spell I wrote down a while back. I’m certain somepony with as much potential as you can handle something so trivial.” Star Swirl handed the scroll over to Snails as well.
“Wait, that’s really complicated magic back home...but if you say I have the potential I’ll do my best to learn it!”
Alex closed the distance between himself and Starswirl. Grabbing his beard, Alex leaned in close enough that their noses touched. “BURN. THE. TIME. TRAVEL. SPELL.”
“What time travel spell?” Star Swirl questioned completely confused.
“Alex! What the hell did I say about spoilers?!” Nicole stood up and walked over, then gently hugged Alex from behind with one arm while the other reached for his hand. “Let him go, now. This is a different world, and you may have just given him the idea to create it now when he wouldn’t have considered it possible in this world before!”
Alex released Starswirl and whirled around on Nicole. His face was a mix of disgust and hate. “Two words, Nicole. Olivia and Eris.”
“I know. I know, Alex, but you can’t take out your anger at the spell the one in our world’s history created on the same pony in a different world with a different timeline. We need to go home, and the sooner the better.”
“None of this would be a problem if he wasn’t a light-obsessed, racist asshole who treated Luna like shit because she’s connected to the night!” Alex snapped, his shadow starting to squirm around on the ground.
“Different. Universe!” Nicole poked Alex in the sternum.
“X… your ally here is a fool if he lashes out at different versions of me, as it may cause these opinions to form because of his actions.” Star Swirl answered before teleporting away.
Alex turned his head back, glaring at where Starswirl had been. “When you see him again X, ask him about Stygian. Ask him why he crushed the guy’s dreams of reforming the Dazzlings.”
“You are an idiot. Different worlds means different people. If anything you just caused him to think of the time travel spell and showed how bad anything other than ponies are and all you had to do was open your mouth. Nicole, here. You can have this.” I answered, handing over the cyber elf case to her. “This allows you to use my armor and my abilities so you aren’t as squishy. Also my cyber elves will assist you whenever you need one. Only one at a time.”
Nicole blinked as she took the case from me, and then an almost disturbing smile formed on her face. “I get to have magitech armor?! Cool!”
“It’s keyed to your DNA now, so no one else can use it. If anyone does it’ll explode and vaporize itself.” I continued as I looked over the charm that summoned the three.
Snails stepped up, pawing at the ground. “Um, Mr. X. Please don’t think bad about Alex. A lot of bad stuff happened to him and with Nightmare stuck in his brain it just kinda... explodes sometimes.” Lighting his horn up, he levitated a book out of Alex’s coat. “Here, this is a copy of Master Aqua’s spellbook. It’s the book our world’s version of Celestia and Luna learned combat magic from.”
“Thanks. I’ll keep it safe for later.” I responded placing the book behind one of the pieces of debris. “I’m just placing it for later cause I don’t have any compartments to hold the book on my body.”
My sensors were starting to ping as I looked over the three. I was about to send them home when for some reason magic similar to Discord was being picked up. My limiters were immediately turned off as I leveled my buster and looked around.
“What?” Alex questioned, wiping at his eyes. “Yeah, I get it. I exploded. I’m an idiot who doesn’t know how to control his temper. You don’t have to point a gun at me.”
“No… Discord is nearby. We’ve settled a war to the death against each other a few days ago. Already he attempted to warp a monster of a stallion who was about to rape a princess when she grew older a while back. I keep sensing his magic and since he forced me to be the Spirit of Order we are opposites destined to kill each other.” I belted out. “I need to get you out of here before he comes and changes you to fit his whims.”
“Oh. Nah, we’re fine.” Alex waved off. “That uh, chaos you’re detecting is me. I’m a chaosling.” Rubbing his neck, Alex looked anywhere that wasn’t X. “To cut to the jist of it, Celestia used to be a guy, was in a relationship with Discord and they had a kid. Discord turned him female, and after the nuclear fallout that was their breakup, he eventually got with my adopted mom. Being around my dad and Screwball meant that I was taking in all their excess chaos magic and now... Poof! I’m a chaosling! Not the best thing to be. Not when you have a crazy, beak-faced bitch for an aunt who rules over probability-”
“Alex, I think that’s more than enough information for X.” Nicole cut in while waving a hand in front of Alex’s face. “He really doesn’t want to hear our life story right now.”
“Right...” Blushing, he made himself as small as possible. “Sorry. I mean that, for blowing up on Starswirl... It’s just...”
Snails put a hoof on Alex’s leg and nuzzled his stomach. “Something really bad happened to Alex because of that spell. I dunno what but... even if something really good came out of it, it’s still messing him up.”
“You need to leave.” I answered almost monotonously.
‘Right...” Alex nodded, offering his phone weakly. “I dunno if you can but, if you wanna try and copy it, it’s got weird multiversal internet. Could be useful or something.”
I touched the phone but my weapon copy chip didn’t work. “No sorry. Doesn’t work that way. I already got an ability from you in my weapon archive.”
“Right...” Pulling the phone back, he held it close to his chest. “I’m sorry, X. I shouldn’t have...” A tear slid down his face before he latched onto Nicole.
“...” I didn’t answer at first. Not because I was angry but because there wasn’t much I could say that didn’t stay negative. So I decided to be blunt about it. “Consequences follow every action. You’ve made your decisions and caused a ripple to occur. Whatever happens next will happen because of the choices you’ve made. Consider me not giving you something a consequence of acting like you did. I don’t hate you. I can’t, because of what my enemies are like. But that doesn’t mean I like you. I will help if asked but until you get that temper under control our interactions will be quiet and to the point.”
“As far as I’m concerned, that’s completely fair.” Nicole’s voice was calm as she held onto Alex with one hand while the other still clutched the cyber-elf capsule. “Quite frankly, he’s gone through a ton of shit, and the psychologists back home have no experience with half of his issues. Still not an excuse for being an ass to a pony who informed us that there are potentially deeper consequences than we thought to the magic Vanitas uses.” She closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. “There are a couple new spells I’ve made using the formulae in that book as a base. The book doesn’t have elementally-attuned protection spells in it, so start off combining shield spells with an element and see what the results are here. Some worlds have had different rules from home when it comes to making new spells.”
“I can’t use magic but okay. I’ll look into it.” I answered almost calmly.
“Okay, well, then for whoever ends up looking into it.” She smiled and nodded before pulling Alex in tighter against her.
“Contract is complete.” I stated; ending our deal and letting the three depart through whatever means had brought them here. The trio collapsed into a sphere of light, which shot up into the sky and dwindled out of view.
“He was lucky I had self control. Several of my processors wanted to destroy any form chaos.” I numbly mumbled as my limiters finally returned back to stun levels.
The landscape was torn and looked very chaos filled. Discord hated that. With a snap of his talons he undid the damage that was done. He could smell the scent of another chaos being somewhere around there. He could also feel X hiding in the cave nearby.
‘Disgusting… a waste of chaos. Didn’t even try to kill X.’ Discord thought as he snapped his talons disappearing into the aether once again.
As he left one thought went across his mind.
‘Nothing but a disappointment.’