//------------------------------// // Episode 106: Duty Versus Ambition // Story: Equestria Girls: Friendship Souls // by thatguyvex //------------------------------// Episode 106: Duty Versus Ambition A thunderclap of air pressure shattered glass across three different office buildings, spreading a hail storm of glass chunks down towards the crowded street below. Fortunately forward thinking Soul Reapers of the Tenth Division had already set up Kido spells that created several shielding barriers of incandescent blue reishi that prevented the deadly rain from reaching the confused and panicked humans still in the streets.  Sweet Cider swore under her breath, whipping blood from her sword from yet another Hollow monstrosity she’d just split in half with her latest blow, which subsequently had caused the blast of air that had broken all the windows. “Fer cryin’ out loud, I can’t even use a’ fraction o’ my strength, otherwise these flimsy buildings come apart just from swingin’ near ‘em!” As the two severed halves of the Hollow fell to the ground behind her, a new Hollow dove at her from above. It was a pulsating mutation of a Hollow bearing a body of three split centipedes, with a centaurian overall shape bearing an upper body of eight scorpion pincer arms and a head more akin to a wasp, if a wasp had human teeth set in a skull mask over it’s bulbous face. Al eight of its pincers opened and fired jets of thick, black poisonous goo that Sweet Cider had already seen the deadly effects off when it had hit several of her squad earlier. She wouldn’t have any issue dodging, but it proved unnecessary as a chunk of rock the size of a small house careened into the path of the poison, not only blocking the streams, but continuing on to smash into the Hollow with a resounding crash. “I figure that’s got to be part o’ the enemy’s intent, Captain,” said Silver Star. His Zanpaktou was already released to it’s Shikai state, shaped like a cavalry saber, as he directed its power to move more chunks of stone gathered from already broken portions of street to assault the mutated Hollow, “They know we can’t fight usin’ our full power in the middle o’ the city.” “They’re just delayin’ us. Ain’t like we can’t take these buggers down, it’s just takin’ minutes we ain’t got!” Sweet Cider said past clenched teeth. The mutant Hollow weathered the storm of rocks Silver Star had thrown at it and let out a gurgling howl as it moved with speed akin to Sonido, flickering right towards her. It did surprise Sweet Cider these Hollows, despite not being Arrancar, could use Sonido, but while this thing was strong enough that it’d be a serious threat to lesser ranked Soul Reapers and probably even give a Lieutenant a serious workout... well, even if she was having to hold back her power she was more than a match for even these freaks of Hollowdom.  Her sword flashed once, twice, three times in a fraction of a second. Pincer arms went flying every which way and the Hollow howled again, opening its mouth and gathering a deadly sphere of pulsing red energy. Sweet Cider let out a deep, guttural snarl as she smashed the open palm of her left hand right into the gathering Cero and shoved the energy right back down the Hollow’s gullet. It’s head distorted, bulging hideously before the entire thing exploded with the release of the condensed Cero energy it had failed to fire and instead had been force fed. Sweet Cider stood amid the smoking debris of the Hollow’s body that fell to the streets, her hand barely singed as she brushed it off and she looked to the northeast. She could sense the distant spiritual pressures off in that direction, and knew full well that Camp Everfree had to be under some kind of attack. She could feel Celestia and Luna’s reiatsu, along with the now familiar reiatsu from her daughter and her friends. She also could feel the presence of Arrancar, at least three with a noteworthy amount of power. No doubt whoever is over there planned ta use these weird mutant Hollows ta keep us busy. An’ dang it, it’s workin’, ‘cause fast as we kill ‘em, more keep comin’! So far she’d slain at least five of the mutants herself, and she knew her troops, along with the Eleventh Division unit under Lieutenant Posey’s command had taken down half a dozen more. Yet Garganta portals kept opening, revealing more freakish Hollows that came flying out to assault the city. That was the real problem. Sure, some of the Hollows went after the Soul Reapers, but the majority were targeting Canterlot City’s human population, and the only thing keeping them from outright slaughtering the helpless populace was the Soul Reaper’s swift response. It infuriated and frustrated Sweet Cider, but the fact of the matter was that if she left the city to go to Camp Everfree, then people would die in the city for lack of her aid. Her Tenth Division was well trained and fighting with all the skill and dedication she could ask for, but her raw prowess as a Captain would make all the difference here, and she damn well knew it... even if her heart was torn in two between her duty here and the desire to go protect her daughters.  “Has there been a’ response from Seireitei yet?” she asked Silver Star as they both rushed towards the next crisis point, sensing three of the mutant Hollows attacking the front of a nearby mall. “They received our alert, an’ I know they’re mobilizin’ more o’ the Eleventh an’ part o’ Ninth Division fer immediate deployment,” Silver Star replied. “That’s it?” Sweet Cider said, but even as she said it she could fathom the reasons why. There were already four Captains in the general area, including herself. Considering Platinum’s betrayal, and Amore and Zecora being out of actions, that meant that only six Captains were left to defend Soul Society presently. Deploying even one more, with any amount of further support from the lower ranks, would compromise Soul Society’s defenses. Scorpan had to be considering the possibility that this attack on Canterlot City and Camp Everfree was a feint by Tirek, meant to strip Seireitei of its protectors.  It was too risky to deploy too many additional forces here, however dire the situation seemed. She could see it in the grave cast on Silver Star’s face that he had reached the same conclusion. Some additional reinforcement might be coming, but it wouldn’t involve any Captains, and they were largely on their own for the time being. They reached the mall’s front parking area, where several cars had already been overturned by the Hollow mutants hunting for fresh human souls. Sweet Cider and Silver Star didn’t waste a moment before launching themselves into the fray, both targeting separate Hollows. Sweet Cider went after one she recognized from earlier, which looked like the strange flying wheel with multiple skulls embedded in it’s spokes surrounding a central, larger skull. Meanwhile Silver Star targeted one that looked much like a humanoid insect, bearing a deformed hump of a hive on it’s back. Leaping up and hacking down with her blade in an air splitting slash, Sweet Cider was momentarily confused as the wheel-like Hollow began to rotate at high speed and start to let out a piercing shriek. The noise was like a physical vibration, breaking car windows all across the parking lot. Of more immediate importance, the sonic wave disoriented Sweet Cider, as if the sound was affecting her inner ear’s sense of balance. It threw off her swing just enough to miss the Hollow and crunch into the ground with sufficient force to send a fissure through half the parking lot.  “Damn noisy varmint! Cut out that racket!” she said, ignoring her normal senses and focusing purely on her spiritual ones. Disoriented or not, there was no way to fool her sense of spiritual pressures, and the wheel Hollow’s noise trick wouldn’t save it twice.  Of course it seemed intelligent enough to sense this, and was literally rolling away on the ground like some out of control, high-speed unicycle, shrieking all the way. It then charged energy up and down the length of its wheel and began firing off what looked like concentrated balls of sound at  Sweet Cider. With an annoyed growl on her lips, Sweet Cider powered right through the barrage like a locomotive, catching up with the Hollow at the entrance to the parking lot after only taking four or five hits from the sonic blasts, which struck hard enough to rattle her teeth but didn’t do much more than that. She grabbed the Hollow by the end of it’s wheel, halting it dead in its tracks.  She then just halted it dead, period, when she raised it above her head, still shrieking, and smashed it into the ground hard enough to make the city’s street planners feel chills for the repair bills. Just to make sure, she followed up by impaling the mutant Hollow through its central skull with her Zanpaktou. That done, she glanced to check on Silver Star. He was fighting toe to toe with the humanoid insect Hollow, which had sprouted claws from it’s fingers that it used like bunched up knives, stabbing and slashing at her Lieutenant, who was doing an admirable job of keeping the Hollow at bay while simultaneously using his Shikai’s power to control a series of concrete parking lot chunks as both shields and ballistic projectiles. Swarms of smaller insects, bearing saw-like mandibles, flew from the hive hump on the Hollow’s back, but Silver Star seemed to be handling them with the concrete chunks he was controlling. Sweet Cider would have gone to help him, but the third mutant Hollow in the area was already ripping down the mall’s front entrance, and she could hear frightened human screams from inside. This Hollow had a form of unbalanced, oversized arms combined with almost atrophied, small legs, with a mold green body pulsating with vines across its grotesquely bulging muscles. It’s skull mask was shaped like a deformed bear’s, and it took great bites out of the wall with its humongous jaws. Sweet Cider moved to strike, but paused halfway through her Flash Step as she saw three forms dart overhead.  A resounding crack like cannon fire sounded, and a blazing blue musket ball of reishi zipped across the distance to the Hollow in front of the mall in a series of sharp, zig-zagging angles. The reishi bullet pierced the Hollow multiple times, blasting holes across its thickly muscled body. This was followed an instant later by an arrow of reishi that struck the Hollow’s spine and upon impact released a circular pulse of sound that caused the Hollow to flop backwards, thrashing it’s giant arms wildly.  Finally, a barrage of three arrows coated in deep violet flames struck the Hollow, one in the eye, one in the heart, and one in the throat, each exploding simultaneously in gouts of incinerating reishi and ethereal purple fire.  As that Hollow began to disintegrate into ashen motes, Sweet Cider narrowed her eyes at the ‘help’ that had arrived. She didn’t know any of them personally, but she knew two by reputation, and one by the stories Applejack had told her. The savvy looking middle-aged man with light brown skin and still wearing a business suit despite having stepped onto a battlefield was Filthy Rich, and he was wielding an ornate musket with practiced ease. Sweet Cider had known the man to a degree when she’d been alive, as the Rich family was famous in Canterlot City, and had even had minor dealings with the Apple family once upon a time. As a Soul Reaper Captain, she knew him by intelligence reports as a member of the Quincy Sternritter. The younger man with blue skin and darker blue hair, wearing a more proper Quincy uniform, was unknown to her outside of a minor report that also pegged him as a Sternritter, although the name escaped Sweet Cider. The young lady by his side with her distinctive glasses and pink streaked violet hair, bearing an unusual looking bow and gauntlet on her left hand, was recognizable from Applejack’s stories as Twilight Sparkle.  All three Quincy landed not far from Sweet Cider, and while all three did spare Sweet Cider a glance, it was clear their attention was on the Hollow Silver Star was still fighting. “Filthy Rich,” Twilight said, “Trap it.” Sweet Cider wasn’t certain if it was simply that the girl had gained a commanding presence, or if Filthy Rich was just indulging her, but the elder Sternritter didn’t voice complaint or objection at the order and even gave a bit of a cocky smirk, as if he was enjoying himself. He placed his left hand on the ground, and blue veins of reishi stretched out through the parking lot to gleam beneath the Hollow. Silver Star seemed to sense what was happening and leapt back, just in time as the ground rearranged itself around the Hollow, becoming a dome of concrete that entrapped the insectoid mutant and it’s swarm of drones. Twilight Sparkle then drew back on her bow, purple energy streaming down its string of reishi, to form another arrow of blue reishi coated in teal witchfire. Twilight’s eyes briefly glowed with the same energy as she released the arrow at the dome, but then gestured with her hand. With a flash of light the arrow vanished, and Sweet Cider sensed it appearing within the dome of concrete, as if it had been teleported there. The dome then bulged, cracks appearing all over it as teal flame shot out from the contained explosion within. Then the dome crumbled, showing the charred remains of the insectoid Hollow and its drones. Silver Star blinked, then turned his attention to the Quincy, not dropping his guard as he held his Zanpatkou at the ready. “Captain?” he asked, but she held up a hand. “I ain’t rude ‘nough ta not thank ya fer the assist,” she told the three Quincy, “But what’re y'all doin’ here?” “Why, defending human lives from Hollow predation,” said Filthy Rich, “That is our sworn duty as Quincy.” Twilight Sparkle turned to her, holding up her right hand in a peaceful gesture. Sweet Cider noticed the hand wasn’t flesh and blood, but appeared to be made out of intricate ceramics, like puppets, and with a moment of concentration she could sense the strings of reishi inside it, controlling the hand’s motions. She hadn’t heard from Applejack that her friend had lost a hand, and for a moment her heart softened a bit. Clearly this young girl had gone through a lot.  “We’re not here to fight Soul Reapers,” Twilight said, “You’re Captain Sweet Cider, correct? You’re Applejack’s mother.” “That’s right. Look missy, I ain’t got time fer chattin’. Hollows are still swarmin’, an’ if ye ain’t here ta cause trouble with us an’ yer only here ta kill Hollows, then fer now consider us as havin’ a truce,” Sweet Cider said, shouldering her Zanpaktou, “I’ll tell my people ta leave ya be, long as ya don’t start nothin’.” “That’s incredibly reasonable, coming from a Soul Reaper Captain,” said Filthy Rich, smiling as he rubbed his chin, “But then I do remember you from when you were alive, Sweet Cider. You were always a sensible woman.” “Save it, Rich. We both got work ta do.”  Twilight nodded, “Yes, the Hollows here need to be dealt with, but there’s more attacking Camp Everfree. I intend to go there and help, while Filthy Rich and Soarin assist in dealing with the Hollows here.” Both men nodded, but Sweet Cider detected mixed feelings from both. The younger man, Soarin, was looking at Twilight rather protectively and with clear worry in his eyes. Filthy Rich looked... distracted, as if his mind was focused elsewhere than on the prospect of battle, and was also worried about something involving Camp Everfree.      Wait, that’s right, he’s got himself a daughter who’s probably at that camp right now, Sweet Cider realized.  “Twilight Sparkle, right? Applejack told me ‘bout ya. You go on then, an’ help out yer friends. Keep everyone there safe, if ya can, includin’ Filthy’s kid.” Filthy Rich’s eyes showed a moment of astonishment, followed by gratitude, “I suppose, Soul Reaper or not, you’re still a parent. Thank you. Let’s destroy these Hollows quickly so we can all look after our families.” “No need ta tell me twice,” Sweet Cider said, already sensing for the next group of Hollows to go after. “Be careful, all of you,” Twilight said, turning to brace herself to leap into the air and start making her way to Camp Everfree. Just before she did so, Soarin touched her shoulder. “You be careful too, Twilight. His Majesty will have my head if anything happens to you on my watch.” “Heh, I’ll try, that’s all I can promise.” With that Twilight jumped into the air and began dashing across the city skyline. Filthy Rich gave Soarin a wry grin, casually twirling his musket, “Looking to marry into the Sparkle family someday, Soarin?” The younger Quincy blanched and shook his head, “That’s not funny, Rich. I take my job as a bodyguard seriously, and Twilight’s not making it easy, running off every which way while...” Soarin paused, glancing a Sweet Cider, “...While things are the way they are. C’mon, let’s just get to dealing with these Hollows already!” Sweet Cider didn’t know what that was all about, but she didn’t much care. She as in agreement with Soarin. There were Hollows to kill, and as far as she was concerned if the Quincy wanted to help, the more the merrier. ---------- Less than a dozen yards from the lake shore, Di Roy and Roka lay hiding in wait amid a thick cluster of trees near a stream that emptied out into the lake itself. This was the designated rendezvous point where Twilight Sparkle was supposed to meet them, and they could begin the extraction of Ember from the lab. With the intel Adagio had gained, they knew where the warded lab entrance was. Getting in probably wouldn’t be that hard. Getting out on the other hand... “Show’s started,” Di Roy said, looking at the clashes of power in the sky above, where concussive blasts of force were blowing away clouds and causing small eruptions of energy. “Here’s hoping that Quincy girl gets here soon. It’s kinda nerve wracking being this close to ground zero of a fight between so many powerhouses.” Roka touched his arm gently, smiling behind her half skull mask, “Be at ease. Adagio will be fine, and so will Gaw.” “I...I’m not worried,” Di Roy said, glancing away, then grumbling, “Okay, fine, I’m worried. Boss lady’s taking on two freakin’ Captains, with Grogar of all people as backup. Not exactly an inspiring combo. As for Gaw... hell, I like to think I can trust her not to do something crazy, but on a battlefield like this, who knows what’ll go down? And hey, I’m saving plenty of worry for us as well! I mean, there’s another Captain down in that lab. I know he’s supposed to be some kind of scientist, but that doesn’t mean he won’t be able to kill us in any number of gruesome ways.” A stray Cero beam from somewhere off to their left exploded uncomfortably close, causing Roka and Di Roy to duck even lower. Roka then said, “It won’t be easy, I agree, but our sole goal is to get Ember safely back to Hueco Mundo. We don’t have to defeat this Captain Starswirl, just keep him occupied long enough to break Ember free and open a Garganta to flee through.” “Yeah, and in theory that shouldn’t be impossible, but a Captain is a Captain. Even tangling with one for a few minutes is a tall order for us mid-tiers. Heck, I’m more lower mid-tier, if I’m being honest with myself. This whole situation is way above our heads, Roka.” “We’ve been in similar situations before,” she reminded him with that comforting tone and soft smile of hers, “We do what we must for those we call our own, even if the odds seem stacked against us.” “Yeah, I know. Laughing in the face of certain death, that’s me. Except for the part with the laughing, and more with the getting my ass kicked. At least I do it in style, though.  Ain’t no one makes being a punching bag look as good as I do.”  Just then, there was a significant burst of power from above, and Di Roy and Roka both looked up. They could barely see it, but two forms moved in blinding streaks across the air just above the lake, the sound of their weapons clashing akin to echoes from a thunderstorm. Reiatsu was pouring out from both combatants like rising tidal waves, and Di Roy and Roka could both sense Adagio’s spiritual pressure rising alongside her opponent's, the darker skinned of the two Soul Reaper sister Captains. “That’s getting damn intense out there,” Di Roy said, “If boss lady keeps this up, she’s going to force that Captain to get serious, and then she’ll have to get serious, and then say goodbye to the local topography.” “I’m here!” “AAAH!” Di Roy whipped his Zanpaktou around, having been taken off guard by a flash of purple light. He stopped himself just short of Twilight’s face as she stood there, rather suddenly behind him and Roka. She held up her hands and smiled sheepishly, her hair a tad frazzled and smoking. “S-Sparkle!? How the-!? Why the-!?” Di Roy stammered, then took his blade away from her face. The Quincy girl let out a sigh. “Teleportation. I studied this location before leaving for the city last night. I wasn’t certain I could make it such a distance from the city limits, but time was so limited, and Midnight and I thought it worth the risk. Hmm, I’m still a bit singed, it seems. Must need to adjust for relative elevations over long distances and account for changes in humidity...” “It’s fine, as long as you’re here,” Roka said, “We were worried you might not make it in time.” “What were you doing in the city anyway?” asked Di Roy, but Twilight’s expression grew guarded almost immediately. “It’s purely Quincy related business,” she said, and the girl’s demeanor rapidly shifted to one something as solid and walled off as a bunker. Her eyes were especially... not cold, but somehow infinitely more flat when she looked at Roka. “Adagio has not called upon your father yet, has she?” “No,” Roka replied, not as frosty as Twilight, but clearly adopting a purely neutral expression, “Hopefully it will not come to that and we’ll have Ember safely away before things escalate to that point.” “Yes... let us hope,” Twilight replied, voice tightly controlled, now.  Di Roy would have been lying through his shark-like teeth if he said he liked this situation all that much, or even really trusted Twilight Sparkle. Adagio might have had some minor history with the girl, and seemed to think she could be relied upon, but Di Roy still remembered what had happened at Lament’s tower pretty keenly, even if he and Gaw had been making tracks by the time things had gotten seriously out of hand. It seemed impossible to him that this Twilight chick was just... okay working with Hollows after what had happened.  He wasn’t about to question Adagio’s call, but he planned to keep a close eye on Twilight, especially with Roka around.  “With you here, we can get this hand-basket to hell rolling,” he said, “We know the lab entrance is roughly over there, on the east side of the lake, all invisible and crap from some ward. Chances are the second we hit the ward, it’ll trip an alarm, or a trap.” “Don’t worry about that,” Twilight said, “The moment we reach it, I’ll teleport us inside without having to actually touch the ward. So far spiritual wards haven’t proven effective at blocking magical teleportation, at least the Quincy wards I’ve tested the theory on.” “Great, so you don’t actually know if Soul Reaper wards are different. Swell. If I end up with my insides scattered across several square kilometers, I’m blaming you,” Di Roy groused, and Twilight shrugged. “It should be perfectly safe. Once we’re inside, they’ll likely detect us soon anyway, so it’s a moot point. If things go right, we can strike quickly, get to Ember, and I can teleport all of us out before the Soul Reapers can mount a proper response.” “Is there any concern about the Soul Reapers recognizing you?” asked Roka, “From Adagio’s words, I imagine they must know your relation to both her and the human girls from the local high school. Won’t that complicate matters, if you’re seen?” “Normally, yes, but...” Twilight paused, glancing at the pair rather seriously, “I can do something about that. I won’t ask you not to tell Adagio. Just consider this a sign of trust in her that I’m allowing you to see me do this.” Di Roy wondered what the weird Quincy girl was going on about, until he saw her raise a hand and place it over her chest. He both saw and sensed traces of reishi flowing from her hand and coating her body like a sheet. He wasn’t sure what she was doing, but he sensed the reishi doing something inside her body, at least on a surface level. Then swiftly, as if someone was painting a picture over her, Twilight’s body changed. It grew an inch taller. The color of her skin shifted to a darker shade of purple. Her... chest became flatter yet somehow broader, along with her shoulders. Her hair grew shorter, and become forward swept, with spiky waves, while also changing color to appear more blue with a red streak rather than it’s original purple with a pink streak. Her frame grew slightly more muscular as well, with her facial features becoming somewhat rougher, square and more... masculine. “Oh, I am still very much not used to doing this,” Twilight said, in a voice that was no longer her usual soft, feminine lilt, but a clearly more masculine if still somehow soft voice.  “Did you... just become a dude?” Di Roy said, and Roka tilted her head in silent confusion. “Ahem, well,” Twilight said, “You could say I changed a... variable, within myself, yes. Only temporarily, of course, for the sake of disguise. I do not intend to stay this way any longer than needed, but this should throw off any likelihood of my being recognized. Just don’t call me Twilight while we’re in the lab. If you have to address me use the name... hmm... Duskshine. That should work as an alias.” “That’s quite clever. And if I may say so, quite handsome as well,” asked Roka, and Twilight... Duskhine, blushed. “Um, can we just go now? This is actually extremely uncomfortable, and I’m just glad my uniform still fits.” “Heh, bet it’s suddenly tighter in a few places-” Di Roy said, only to get a stern look from Roka where he quickly coughed and said, “But yeah, let’s do this. One rescued Fifth Espadas daughter, coming right up!” ---------- Water exploded around the titanic clash of ruby tipped trident against razor edged scythes as Adagio and Luna’s Zanpkatou met once again in a high speed flurry. The pair danced across the lake in eye tearing streaks of motion, creating sonic booms with their deadly movements.  For the moment Adagio was holding her own against the vastly more experienced Luna, but Adagio was no fool. She could tell that the Second Division’s Captain was still testing her, and had yet to get serious. Yes, Luna had her Zanpaktou released to it’s Shikai state, but Adagio could tell Luna was still holding back, and had yet to make use of any of her shadow-based powers. That was fine by Adagio’s reckoning. Unlike Luna, Adagio knew the real purpose of this battle was to buy time and nothing more. Much as she wanted to take Luna down a peg for abducting Ember in the first place, humbling the Soul Reaper was not the objective, so for the moment she was perfectly fine letting Luna test her. Adagio was enjoying truly stretching her Arrancar muscles for the first time. Sure, she’d sparred a few times with her vassals back in Las Noches to get used to her new form, but this was her first real battle as both Arrancar and Espada. Like finally finding a good stretch of empty road when one had a new muscle car, it was time to open up the throttle and see just how much she could push the envelope. And if Luna gave her an excuse to go all out, just to see what she could do, then Adagio wouldn’t complain... And so far, so good. She was keeping up with Luna’s speed, and while Luna’s skill was borderline otherworldly, Adagio was estimating she had an advantage in terms of raw physical power that was helping her hold the edge. It helped that her trident was an excellent defensive weapon, it’s long shaft perfect for spinning blocks and parries that kept Luna’s weapons at bay, although Adagio noted that Luna had only been using one of her scythes to attack so far, while relying on the other to defend with. In a dark blue blaze of motion Luna caught one of Adagio’s trident thrusts between the prongs with her defensive scythe, and turned the scythe blade to the side to get the trident out of the way. She then stepped forward with a powerful motion, cocking her other scythe back. Adagio sensed the build up of reiatsu there, and saw shadows creep up around the scythe to form a blade-like layer around it. Guess she’s done toying with me, Adagio thought, and yanked her trident backward with one hand and used her other to make a sharp gesture, calling up a frothing cascade of water from the lake right beneath them. The shield of water bled off some of the momentum of Luna’s scythe, but the shadow encased blade still cut through the barrier of water and struck Adagio in the side. She turned to roll with the blow, and even then it nearly knocked the breath out of her and she went skidding back. Fortunately her Heirro was strong enough to keep more than a shallow cut from forming, but Adagio suspected if she let a direct hit from a shadow-enhanced scythe land, it’d be bad news for her.  Luna immediately followed up by leaping into a spinning kick, her leg suddenly became coated in a spinning arua of white reiatsu. Adagio countered with her trident, swinging the shaft to crash into Luna’s descending leg. The resulting shockwave of force sent up a twenty meter geyser of water from the lake and left both combatants flying backwards. They quickly recovered and both Adagio and Luna flew upwards to meet each other at the apex of the still falling geyser of water. Adagio took control of that water, causing the geyser to halt in mid-air, then churn into a condensed sphere that then shot out bullets of highly pressurized water at Luna. Luna flickered in and out of view with Flash Steps even Adagio had to struggle to follow, slipping through the literal shower of water bullets. She then saw Luna slash with her scythe while still at a distance. Shadows rose up in a wave that took the form of multiple knife-like shadows, all slashing in at Adagio at a single point. Adagio thrust out a hand and formed a pulsating sphere of Hollow energy that was mostly red, save for a small core of blue. When she fired the Cero beam, the beam mimicked that coloring, with intense red on the outside, encasing a core beam of neon blue. The beam struck Luna’s shadow wave, and for a moment the blades of solid darkness cut into the beam, but Adagio’s Cero overpowered the shadows a second later and forced Luna to dodge upward, leaping ever higher into the sky. Rushing in pursuit, Adagio pushed her Sonido faster, leaving a faint after image of herself as she caught up to Luna and launched into a rain of stabbing blows that turned one trident into a veritable avalanche of ruby tipped points seeking Luna’s flesh. Luna forced to use both her scythes for defense now, whirling about in a tornado of steel to keep Adagio’s hail of blows at bay.  “So what was that kick? Soul Reaper martial arts?” Adagio asked, partly out of curiosity, partly to annoy Luna by making it look like the fight didn’t require her full concentration and she had all the mental acumen needed to talk while Luna was trying to kill her. It was impossible to tell whether that actually worked or not, as Luna was wearing a spectacular poker face, and spoke back with measured calm, “Hakuda techniques are practiced by all Second Division members, more so than any other Division. Its so that, even if we’re captured while scouting behind enemy lines, we have a means to fight if separated from our blades.” Her face might have been as unreadable as a stage mask, but her tone did betray a hint of cocky satisfaction as she added, “It also happens to have a few techniques that work with a weapon in hand, as well.” That was all the warning Adagio had before Luna extended her reiatsu aura around her two Zanpaktou and with a harsh, spinning parry knocked Adagio’s trident upward, then completed the spin by crossing her scythes in front of her. This created a dual, cross shaped pressure wave that slammed into Adagio and sent her reeling backwards. The impact disoriented her for a second, and was the first real strike form Luna that hurt, despite not actually causing an obvious wound. Her Heirro kept the sharp pressure wave from cutting skin, but she knew the hit would leave one heck of a bruise across her abs tomorrow.  Adagio didn’t see so much as heard the rush of air from Luna using Flash Step to get behind her, and didn’t hesitate to jab backwards with the end of her trident while bringing the sphere of water from earlier closer so it could shoot out a blast of water like a giant hose. Her trident was blocked by Luna’s left scythe, and while the Captain tried to get a strike in with the other scythe, the water blast came in too quickly and cascaded into Luna with full force. Adagio immediately followed up by swinging her trident around, this time conjuring water forth with her own power, which roiled and churned around the tips of her Zanpaktou. Even as Luna was being pushed back by the water from the now shrinking sphere, Adagio added to the wave with another blast from her trident, causing Luna to lose her footing on the air particles she was using to stand. She went careening away and slammed into the lake. Adagio didn’t imagine she’d done much damage to the Soul Reaper, but took a second to try and sense the overall situation around her. She sensed Grogar and Celestia had moved off to the north, and that they were clashing above the forest. It felt like their fight was moving towards the mountains. Probably Celestia’s doing, trying to lure Grogar far enough away to activate her Shikai.  There was a great deal of conflicting reiatsu coming from the closer forest trails to the south and east. Gilda was fighting what felt like two of Sunset’s friends, but one of them had suddenly gained a significantly higher reiatsu than normal. Adagio couldn’t sense Greta anywhere, and it felt like the Arrancar that had engaged Sunset had been largely cut down, save a few weak reiatsu from two or three survivors.  She sensed Gaw, but the sensation was... odd. She could tell Gaw was fighting something, but she couldn’t sense precisely who. It was as if something was interfering with her Pesquisa, muddying the sensation of reiatsu coming from that area. That was worrying, but she’d just have to trust Gaw to take care of herself.  Finally, Adagio sensed what she was looking for. They were hiding themselves well enough that unless one knew what to look for they’d be hard to spot, but Adagio knew Di Roy ad Roka’s reiatsu well enough to pick them out even while they were trying to hide. She could sense them, and another reiatsu that Adagio assumed was Twilight Sparkle’s, on the move near the lake edge. Good. Then all I need to do is keep Luna busy, and provide them with a proper distraction. Her optimism soon became readily misplaced as the lake began to grow... dark, and Adagio felt Luna’s spiritual pressure shake the air with a distinctly violent vibration. So far Luna had only made minimal use of her Zanpaktou’s Shikai powers, but it was clear that Luna was done testing Adagio. This new reiatsu wasn’t strong enough to be Luna’s Bankai, but it was clear the Captain had decided to finally take the fight seriously. Adagio prepared herself, but there really wasn’t any preparation for facing a Captain of the Gotei 13. Luna’s attack was as fast as it was deadly. Adagio had been able to respond to Luna’s strike on Grogar because she’d specifically been looking for it, but Luna didn’t attack in the predictable manner of going for Adagio’s rear, but instead the lake erupted with a series of ink black shadow pillars that surrounded Adagio. Then in a blinding series of streaking motions Luna burst from one pillar, both her scythes flashing by Adagio, only for Luna to zip right into another pillar of shadow and appear out of another one from an entirely different angle. Dozens of times in the span of seconds Luna was a midnight storm of slashes, and even Adagio summoning forth barriers of water and spinning her trident to parry for all she was worth couldn’t keep those deadly scythes from striking home a few times. To Adagio’s credit, each time she did manage to turn with the blow to keep the wounds to a minimum, but she was quickly accumulating a series of shallow slashes across her limbs and torso from the insanely fast barrage. Yet even so, Adagio was not without a plan to counter something like this, as she suspected Luna’s shadow powers would make it difficult to track her when combined with Luna’s speed. So while the water barriers she created did serve to deflect many of Luna’s scything strikes, Adagio was also using that as a distraction while she coated the air in an ever growing mist, until Luna noticed that amid her shadow pillars was now a thick, white fog. Fog being little more than water particles hanging in the air, Adagio now knew precisely where Luna was coming from, so on her next attack Adagio was now able to sense the motion through the fog and hammered her trident in that direction. The strike caught Luna by surprise, who crossed her scythes to catch Adagio’s trident just barely in time, and even then the tips of the trident touched Luna’s flesh and stabbed small wounds in her upper stomach. Adagio concentrated a trio of Aqua Bala into the tips of her trident, and fired them at point blank range. Luna jumped back, literally falling into her own shadow to avoid the charged bullets of water and Hollow reiatsu, but Adagio saw one of them clip the Soul Reaper’s shoulder, blasting off chunks of uniform and bruising Luna’s shoulder. The shadow pillars shifted now, swarming up around Adagio. She saw the shadows were growing smaller by the second. She suspected that when Luna just used her own raw reiatsu to create the shadows they could only function for so long under the light of the sun. She didn’t have much to base that assumption on other than observation, but so far Luna had kept her use of shadows to a minimum until now, and it felt like it was causing a bit of a drain on her. Still, coalescing the shadows into a square shaped plane, Luna didn’t immediately appear from it, leaving Adagio to narrow her eyes at it and wonder what Luna was up to. She reached out with a hand behind her and began to call up swirling tendrils of water from the lake, summoning up ten of the heavily pressurized pillars of water and having them poised like cobras to strike the moment Luna showed her face. However, Luna didn’t show her face. In fact there was no warning at all before from the floating plane of shadow a white streak of lightning shot out, almost catching Adagio square in the face if she hadn’t been fast enough to lean to the side just in time. Then a barrage of red spheres of explosive reishi shot out, although Adagio dodged those as well. Kido spells. She’s hiding in her shadows, firing out Kido at me, Adagio realized, just as intense red light formed from several hexagon shaped symbols that appeared in the air beneath her, each filled with a different complex kanji script. From these hexagons rose what looked like red, wooden arches that Adagio recognized as torii gateways, akin to the kind that appeared around Shinto shrines. Crackling bands of crimson energy flew between the center of each tori gate, surrounding Adagio and once joined, generated a binding force that made movement difficult. Adagio cold feel the energy of the binding Kido pressing on her skin like she was buried underground. Only then did Luna appear from her still shrinking plane of shadow and aimed her scythes at the Espada. “I do not wish to cut you down, Adagio Dazzle, but as long as you stand before me as an Espada, my duty is clear. I’ll grant you one opportunity to return to Hueco Mundo, now. Otherwise your soul will be purified right here.” “Your duty is irrelevant to me, and you’re not ‘purifying’ me either. I’ll counter your offer with my own; give me back the person you stole, and I’ll spare you the humiliation of making you kiss my feet after I’m done with you.” Luna’s eyes narrowed with a dangerous glint, but she also wore a small, satisfied smirk, “I suppose I’d be disappointed if you gave up that easily. But this is the Ninety Second Bakudo, Shitai Geto (Corpse Gate), that I have you bound with. Even an Espada should not find it easy to wriggle free of, given it drains a Hollow’s own reiatsu to reinforce it’s binding field.” Well, that would explain why Adagio was starting to feel oddly weary as she tried to muscle her way free of the pressure holding her body still. Focusing her Pesquisa, she could almost see the strands of her own spirit energy being dragged out of her and pulled into the gates in an intricate, web-like pattern, which then only strengthened the nearly invisible bonds on her. Casting a binding Kido like this from the shadows, while Adagio had been distracted with the attack Kido, had been a clever plan. But Luna hadn’t accounted for the fact that Adagio still controlled water, regardless of her own body’s ability to move. The ten tendrils of water Adagio had already summoned went into action. Six of them swarmed at Luna, moving like living, high-speed battering rams. Luna was forced to Flash Step away, and even then the tendrils tracked her, their ends sharpening to drill-like points of such highly pressurized water that Adagio imagined they could readily penetrate steel walls. While Luna was being kept busy by those six tendrils, the remaining four all pointed towards the torii gates. Channeling her reiatsu into the tendrils, each one glowed red and blue, and proceeded to independently disgorge a Cero beam. The four beams smashed the gates, and Adagio took a deep, relieved breath as she felt the pressure fall off of her and she could move again. By that point, Luna had been surrounded by the other tendrils, but the Captain showed off her physical speed and prowess once again, her dual scythes spinning in swift, dark arcs that cut the tendrils into several pieces. Normally that wouldn’t do much, as Adagio did control the water itself and it wasn’t as if the tendrils were living things, but Luna was using her spiritual pressure through her Zanpaktou to disrupt Adagio’s control of the water, at least in the areas Luna could strike and actually push some reiatsu into the water. This caused the severed tendrils to fall back to the lake, inert, and although Adagio still had four others, and could easily summon more, she wasn’t in the mood to keep things going at this pace. Luna had proven she was too crafty an opponent to take lightly, and with her allies entering the lab, Adagio needed to make sure that no one would be paying the lab any mind for the next few minutes, especially not Luna! That meant kicking things up to the next level, laying all her cards on the table, and gambling that she could either beat, or at least force Luna to a draw so that Adagio’s allies would be free to focus on getting Ember out of this mess. That was all that mattered right now! “Alright then, Captain Luna, I can tell this will drag on without either of us giving it our best... so let me be the first to ‘show you mine’, as it were.” With those words she held her trident at a downward angle in front of her, and her body became touched by an outline of radiant neon blue energy as her reiatsu began to flood out of her in a wave that would turn the head of literally every spiritually aware person for miles around, even as far out as Canterlot City itself where multiple mutant Hollows and Soul Reapers paused in their fighting to glance towards the distant but intense beacon of spirit energy. Adagio’s siren gem began to pulse, sounding like a heartbeat as the gleam of neon blue was joined by a boiling aura of red. Luna was no fool. She knew exactly what Adagio was doing, but she’d been driven too far back by the tendrils to stop it. She braced herself as Adagio spoke. ”Strive; Ambicion!” (Ambition) ---------- “Captain, shouldn’t you go up there and help?” Clover asked Starswirl, glancing up at the darkness of the lake hanging above the lab’s wards. She’d been feeling the spikes in reiatsu up there, and everyone in the lab had been feeling the impacts and shaking of the ground from the battle taking place just above. “No, not while we’re getting so many good readings,” Starswirl said, his eyes locked on his monitors, “Celestia and Luna are capable of handling things just fine. With so much magic pouring out of these strange portals, we can’t afford to miss a single iota of data! Whoever or whatever is making them must be connected the strange readings we were getting earlier. They wavelengths are nearly identical. I’m tempted to kick on our own experiment to see if we can get a resonance reaction. This might be the key we need... and oh, look at this! These magic readings are interlaced with spirit energy readings as well, coinciding with the Beast Realm!” Clover kept glancing towards the lab entrance, knowing that the rescue party would be arriving any second. If she could just provide them with some kind of distraction, or convince Captain Starswirl to go help the other Captains... And wait, did he just suggest...? “Captain! We can’t start up the portal now! That might tear open holes between the living world and the Precipice World, or worse!” Then, rather abruptly, her words, and Captain Starswirl’s response, became rather moot as suddenly all of the water surrounding them exploded upwards like a titanic force of suction was vacuuming it into the sky. ---------- Raw blue and red light like a pair of twin stars exploded into existence where Adagio was standing, her body encased in an entwining of the two spheres of energy. At the same instant the entirety of Camp Everfree’s lake erupted upward, engulfing Adagio and Luna both.  Luna held her breath and grounded herself with her reiatsu, so she wasn’t swept away, and a moment later the water was past her and continuing upward. The lake water pooled in the sky above, forming a new lake in the air a good hundred and fifty meters above. Stretching down from the floating lake was a thick whirlpool that surrounded the still gleaming, intertwined twin stars of red and blue energy encasing Adagio. Then abruptly the energies burst apart, along with the whirlpool of water, with an intense heat causing steam to pour out around the spot while the lake above began to rain, causing everything to fall into gray shades. Luna held her scythes at the ready and stared into the steam and rain, awaiting what she knew would be a potent foe. She could feel Adagio’s reiatsu well before she could see Adagio herself, and Luna had a moment to understand that she had been underestimating this new Sixth Espada. In fact, she wasn’t sure Tirek hadn’t lowballed Adagio, with that number, but then again, this new released reiatsu felt stronger than it should, given Adagio’s power just moments prior. Was Adagio’s Resurreccion itself stronger than normal? Perhaps due to the woman’s unique origin as a siren, and the gem fused with her Hollow body? Regardless of the reason, Luna knew she was in for a difficult fight. When the steam cleared and Adagio was revealed, she’d grown nearly twice her original size. Her upper body was still very much human looking, although her body was armored by form fitting segmented plates of white armor akin to sharpened scales. Her arms were further armored, with elegantly curved backswept blades extended from her forearm, elbow, and shoulders, while her hands were encased in smaller segmented armor pieces ending in sharpened talons. Her shoulders and a generous portion of cleavage were left to her bare skin, still revealing her Hollow hole and siren gem in the center of her chest. Her face was the same, but her crown-like crest had grown larger, with face guards on the side. A large, fin-like crest rose from her head and fell down her back, its tall spikes made of white bone, and the membrane in between a burning orange.  Her lower body was no longer human in shape, but instead the long, sinuous form of an armored siren, with a curved aquatic body tapering down into a powerful tail, all of it covered in thick, white armored scales. Like her arms, this body also bore a trio of curved, backswept blades, this one larger and along the sides, starting at her hips and going about halfway down her tail. The spiked fin-crest from her head extended down to her tail as well, somewhat smaller, but ending at the tip of her tail, which had transformed into a wide, fan shaped fin. The sides of this fine were formed from outward curved bone blades, like giant sabers. In between these, the spikes of the fin pointed outward like a trident, the membranes between the tips also orange like the head fin. Finally, Adagio’s actual Zanpaktou, the trident itself, had doubled in size, and was now entirely forged from pure red ruby, like her siren gem. It’s three prongs had become joined through the center by a fourth blade that extended out to either side, gleaming lethally. The far end of the trident was now caped by a large, conical point, like the tip of some deadly sea shell.  Adagio held her trident out to the side while cracking her neck and stretching her arms. Behind her, her siren tail flexed, and then gave an experimental whip-crack of motion. The power of the motion alone created a blast of air force that cut down a long swath of trees in the forest behind her.  Luna felt her muscles tighten with her tension, holding one scythe in front of her and the other behind, ready to counter an attack from any direction, or step into her shadow as a defensive measure if neccessar- Adagio was instantly in front of her. Luna barely had a moment to comprehend that Adagio had just slipped right past her guard before she felt Adagio’s left hand grip her face like a steel vice. With tremendous force, Adagio whipped Luna around and launched her upward hard enough to crack the sound barrier, sending the Captain hurtling up into the floating lake now hanging in the sky. Luna spun uncontrollably into the dark waters, crashing through it and bursting through the upper end. She managed to grip the air with her feet and scythes, grinding herself to a hand, but only an instant before she felt Adagio appearing behind her with a disgustingly fast Sonido. Adagio’s bladed tail came around with meteoric force, and Luna only got one scythe up in time to block, and even then the tremendous impact wrenched her arm to near break and sent her careening back into the lake where she was driven at an angle across the floating lake’s surface. Still trying to regain her senses, Luna felt the water surge around her, and the lake itself seemed to come alive, gripping Luna and yanking her along as the edge of the floating lake reared up and formed an inwardly bent ramp that it accelerated Luna onto, and shot her out of it like a high speed cannon to go flying right back at a waiting Adagio, who thrust her trident forward with enough force to cause a localized windstorm as she tried to impale Luna. Finally Luna had gotten enough of her wits back to properly respond, crossing her scythes in front of her to meet Adagio’s attack. Upon impact the weapons caused a burst of force that rippled through the floating lake, but even with both of Luna’s scythes she was driven back by the incredible strength in Adagio’s trident. She didn’t lose her stance entirely, but she was forced to the lake surface, skidding back across it in an explosive wake of water before she managed to stop herself. Then Luna saw the water beneath her was glowing a baleful, pale blue as reiatsu surged from below. Adagio gestured with her free hand, raising a finger as if beckoning the power within the lake. “Cero Abismo.” (Abyss) A whirlpool formed beneath Luna, and at the center of it’s depth swirled a frosty blue sphere of Hollow energy that combined with an intensely pressurized sphere of water, which then fired upward in a mixed beam of destruction and raw, cutting force from the pressurized torrent of water. The beam shot up into the sky, and then cut downward, blasting away several clouds before striking one of the distant mountain peaks to the northeast. The beam cut into the mountain, until a half-circle shaped chunk of the peak was blasted clean through.  Of Luna, there was no sign, but Adagio didn’t make any assumptions, and simply glanced about, expecting the Captain to appear again soon. Luna didn’t disappoint.  Shadows spread across the surface of the lake, and from the center of the darkness rose Luna. She was clearly wounded, having not fully evaded the Cero Abismo. Her left side was missing most of its Captain’s robes and jacket, torn to scraps while her blue skin was burned and bleeding. Her reiatsu hadn’t been able to fully save her from the raw damage potential of Adagio’s attack, but at least it had kept the left side of her body intact, although she suspected her left leg was twisted to the point of uselessness, and her arm wasn’t much better off, just barely able to grasp her left scythe. Luna’s face was grimacing, unable to hide the pain from her wounds, but she didn’t flinch from Adagio as she pointed her trident down at Luna. “Well?” Adagio said, “As I see things, you only have two options; flee, or use your Bankai. Just how far are you willing to take this? The only thing I’m after is my ally’s safe return to Hueco Mundo. Let me take her, and I’ll withdraw, along with my own forces. That will allow you and your sister to deal with Grogar, if he’s too stupid to run, and allow you to help those humans who I can sense are having trouble with whatever is running amok from the forest. What will it be, Captain Luna?” Luna stared back at Adagio, and gave a slow shake of her head, “I see... you don’t really understand what you’re doing, do you? If I was worried about my sister handling Grogar, I would never have bothered with you in the first place. If I was concerned for Sunset Shimmer and her friends, I would have already gone to help them. As it happens, I witnessed their capabilities back in Soul Society, and they’ve only grown stronger since then. They don’t need my help, and neither does my sister. As for your ‘ally’, you’d have to get through Starswirl to get to her, and he’s never given up a specimen willingly. But beyond all that, there’s one simple, inescapable fact of our situation, Adagio Dazzle...” Luna raised her scythes above her head, crossing them together, “You are a Hollow. I am a Soul Reaper. My duty is to purify your soul and return it to the proper cycle of reincarnation. The moment we crossed blades, this became a fight to the end, yours or mine.” Pure darkness enveloped both Luna and her crossed scythes, flowing outward like the spreading of a pool of oil. All around the area started to grow dark, as if night was starting to fall upon the land, despite the sun still being clearly visible in the sky. Briefly Adagio considered stopping Luna. She could have. She'd already proven her speed in her Ressureccion form to be superior to Luna's, and even if she didn't feel like just blitzing Luna to keep her from invoking her Zanpaktou's full power, Adagio could just as easily have assaulted the Captain with the water from the lake, or water simply conjured from her own reiatsu, in any dozens of different ways. But Adagio held off for three reasons. One was that she'd told Luna she was going to humiliate her, and that meant defeating Luna entirely, not through technicality. Another reason was that now that the fight had escalated to this point Adagio wanted to find out just how much stronger she'd gotten, how far this new power of hers could really take her. If she couldn't beat Luna, then her ambitions to overcome even the likes of Tirek seemed foolish indeed, so this would be a true test of how far she'd come. And the final reason, Luna using her full power here would only add to the amount of conflicting spiritual pressures in the area, which would make it even more difficult for the Soul Reapers in the lab to detect her allies coming. Besides, she wasn't that worried about Luna winning. If things did start going against her, she did have Lament as a backup plan. Luna's face expressed a momentary look of surprise that Adagio wasn't making a move against her, as she suspected there must be a reason that Adagio either didn't mind or wanted Luna to unleash her full strength... but regardless of what those reasons were, Luna wasn't about to stop, and her voice rang out like a wolf's howl in the night. “Bankai.”