Empress Twilight's world. Canterlot Palace Dungeon. Nightfall.
Deep within the dungeon of the Canterlot which was now a palace instead of a castle due to the upgrades, Empress Twilight was off to do one quick thing for the night. She had already been down here after ordering Skyblue Shine to retrieve the Staff of Sir Aaron from Rota in Kanto. Now, she came here for another reason.
The prisoners who were down here in the dungeon.
"Evening. How are you all resting up?" The Empress whistled, speaking to prisoners who were being kept in aluminium bars while some of them had magic restraints on their horns and other restraints on their wings.
These prisoners were actually her old friends. Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie. All at an older age and locked up in the Canterlot Dungeons. They have been here for years now, living here with barely any sight of their loved ones anymore. Each of them were locked in by the Empress herself.
"T-Twilight..." Applejack groaned as she looked up at them. Her voice was weak and fading and the same went for everypony else. Out of all of the prisoners in here, the one most devoid of barely any life was Pinkie Pie who is usually full of life herself.
"Empress Twilight." She corrected the old earth pony. "You'll all need to have some rise and shine. You see, there's this world that's really giving me some trouble. More than it really should. Thanks to that world, I'll have to use more than I wish I would. You know what that means, don't you?"
"No..."Rarity's voice replied as she slowly looked up. "Twilight. You can't keep on doing this..."
"But I can." She smirked as she used her magic to control all 5 of them by surrounding their bodies in what seemed to be a rainbow. Very similar to the Sonic Rainboom that Rainbow Dash had made. "If I had known I could make friendship into greater power such as this, I would've done it around...I'd say Sombra maybe? But ah, it doesn't matter."
"How can you turn something as wonderful as that into something so controlling..." Someone had responded to the Empress. That someone was Pyrestar who had the most restrains around her. Chains, magic restraints, muzzle holders and more. She was deemed a high-level threat after all.
"Oh?" The Empress turned around.
"You've turned friendship into a controlling force...You're using the deep bond that they used to share with you to your advantage..." Pyrestar spoke. "How could you?"
"Used to? Oh, no. They still do. Isn't that right, girls?"
"Y-Y-Yes..." By her command, Fluttershy and the others had spoken at the same time. They were trying to resist but they just couldn't do so. The Empress had shifted the Magic of Friendship into something that was made to control by force instead of what friendship naturally does.
"How horrible. But it's fine." Pyrestar lowered her head. "Because that world thats' giving you trouble is going to put an end to your rule before you know it..." She gave off a confident smirk. "And you know it. You never underestimated them for a second and yet you're having to resort to various other tactics and decisions to try and gain the advantage."
"Tch! Quiet!"
"And I suppose some of that world's energy rubbed off on me. I was able to stop you for the most part. Plus, your precious little protege still hasn't been found and here you are worrying about Aura now, knowing about how powerful it is..." Pyrestar kept going on.
"Wait...Really?" Fluttershy opened her eyes, looking at Pyrestar as she and the others had heard that. Hearing something like that was revolutionary for them. For the longest time, no one has really been able to push the Empress and her forces like this. In fact, no one's ever pushed them at all.
News like this sparked up great hope in their hearts as a nice smile came across their faces. Their smiles were also encouraged by Pyrestar's confident smile.
"Really. Just you wait. Ash, Celestia and everypony will be here to help. You can count on it." Pyrestar reassured.
"Not if I can help it. I refuse to let all my efforts be ruined by some random Pokemon Trainer from who knows where and his pet mouse. And even if I can't conquer it, I'll just obliterate that world." The Empress went over to another part of the dungeon as she placed Applejack and the others down.
She had taken advantage of their friendship, sending it all to herself and powering her magic up. The Empress looked at the Ultra Ball that had Zekrom within it. Obviously, Zekrom was capable of obliterating a world at any moment. It was the perfect Pokemon to intimidate others and gain control and domination.
But there was another.
Another dragon that wasn't as powerful as Zekrom or its counterpart Reshiram, but it was dangerous enough to ruin an entire city or more. This dragon was also one that used to be great friends with Twilight in the past. And even more than that. Her assistant.
This dragon was, of course, Spike. And in this world, he had also aged up. But to a drastic degree. He had grown into a giant dragon over the years, large enough to be considered an entire tower. He was kept in the largest part of the dungeon that had the most space with giant aluminium chains holding him down.
The sound of Spike's growling could be heard even through the thick walls of the dungeon. Smoke flared out of his nostrils as green flames could be seen sprouting.
"Well, Spike. I might need you again this time." The Empress said as she came across the giant dragon, fearless of his overwhelming size and intimidating appearance. "There's just this one world that's giving me trouble. And I'll need some extra help if I want to deal with them. What do you say? Are you ready to begin an invasion?"
Kanto Region. Rota Kingdom. Cameran Palace. Nightfall.
Currently, Skyblue Shine and her own forces were invading Rota for one reason. To retrieve the staff of Sir Aaron and return it to the Empress.
They had already caused a ruckus by blasting a large hole in the palace walls and many soldiers who were on the ship had scattered across the palace to try and find that staff. They had also restrained the people who were at the ballroom, interrupting their dancing. An attempt was made to try and get answers out of them of where the staff was. The people, loyal to Queen Ilene, refused to do so, even though they knew who had the staff.
However, the guards of Cameran Palace were here to solve this sudden issue. They got to work, approaching the soldiers of the Empire to defend the palace and anyone else from harm. Very soon, a feud had broken out. But unfortunately, the guards of Rota couldn't compete against the Empire's arsenal. One was highly advanced and the other was still somewhat stuck in the past.
Thankfully, the Pokemon were there to assist.
Meanwhile, Ash and the others had come out to see the commotion happening all around. They immediately spotted how the palace had been overrun by the Empress' forces surprise attack.
"Look at that!" Rainbow Dash pointed her hoof at the soldiers, recognizing the armour by its descriptive appearance. "Aren't they from that empire universe?"
"So they came here?" Applejack said, peering her head over the stairs. "Why?"
"Is the staff here?!" Very soon, they got an answer as to why the Empress' forces were here in the first place. For the staff of Sir Aaron. "Nothing in this courtyard! Keep searching!"
"Well, now we know." Pinkie Pie looked at the staff as Ash was still holding onto it.
"Why would they want the staff?!" Twilight wondered.
"Whoever controls Aura can do many things that are unheard of." Lady Ilene responded. "To control Aura is the equivalent of being one with the universe itself. That was what Sir Aaron used to say. And if they receive that staff and tap into the grandiose nature of Aura, the results will be catastrophic."
"They won't get it." Ash looked at the staff. "No matter what."
"Pikachu!"
While the commotion and feud continued, something else was about to emerge. Something from the Empire's side. Yet again, more rumbling could be heard.
Out of the walls, once more, something had emerged. Something larger than the soldiers here. Ash and everyone turned in the direction of the walls as they had witnessed a gigantic 7 metres mechanical creature break through the walls with ease.
This creature was very familiar at a first glance. In fact, it was the same creature that Twilight and her friends first encountered when they were chosen as the Elements of Harmony and went through the Everfree Forest.
A Manticore. To be more specific, a robotic one. This manticore was mostly metal with technological parts all around it. It still had its usual figure but it seemed to be larger than it usually was. The only part of it that seemed natural anymore was one half of its face. It was larger than the average manticore by a margin.
"Is that a manticore?!" Rainbow Dash gasped. She found it to be terrifying but cool at the same time. The manticore let out a roar that sounded like its natural roar but was overlayed by the sound of metal being scraped, rumbling the castle. The Manticore was here to cause confusion and chaos while the rest search for the staff.
"Ash! Get the staff away from here!" Ilene turned to Ash. "They must not have it at any costs or even see it! Head near the Tree of Beginning and retrieve one of the Time Flowers if you can!"
"Got it! But what about everyone else?" Ash asked as the manticore started tearing the palace apart with its vicious metallic claws.
"We can try and help out here with you know...that!" Applejack pointed her hoof at the manticore in the distance. "You and Pikachu'd better focus on just making sure they don't see staff at all."
"Wait. We are?!" Chloe gulped while tightly holding her Yamper. She didn't agree to be apart of this. She just came to watch the tournament and be at the ball.
"You should get home instead, Chloe," Goh suggested, giving a better alternative for Chloe.
"Okay! That's a better option! I like that!" Chloe nodded in agreement.
"The guards will escort you out. Head home as soon as you can." Ilene said. "The rest of you must act quickly. The palace is big, but with these numbers, they could fill it all up in no time."
"We'll go now!" Twilight responded as they all started to move out. "Good luck, Ash!"
"No need to worry! Pikachu! Lucario! Let's go!" Ash dashed away with Pikachu and Lucario following. He kept the staff close to him even though the Empress' forces practically knew that he had the most Aura out of anyone else. So obviously, they'll flock to him. But if Ash is away from them, that's a different story.
The Cyborg Manticore was tearing the place apart relentlessly. But, it also had to deal with the Pokemon as well. Each of the Pokemon that were owned by the guards of Cameran Palace were capable of holding back the Cyborg Manticore. But they had to deal with the soldiers that came from the Empire.
And compared to the previous ones who had staffs that generated electricity, these were a step above. These new soldiers all seemed to be Earth ponies as seen by their large bulk. Similar to Big Macintosh. Their weapon of choice were large aluminium reflector shields with an unidentified object that had the rare capability to apparently shift appearances.
When a Pokemon move was sent their way, not only did they use the shields to try and reflect them but afterwards, they would use their new weapons. They had brand new weapons such as clubs, hammers, claws and more. And of course, they also generate electricity.
This collection of various weapons were doing surprisingly well against the Pokemon. The Empress made sure that if they were going to conquer this world, the main obstacle would need to be dealt with. The Pokemon themselves.
Ash, Pikachu and Lucario already got a move on as they could hear the commotion everywhere. Leaving out in the front wouldn't be such a good idea. But there were other options.
Ash was heading for the balcony. There he could use Dragonite to try and fly away from here. It'll be a quick and easy way to make a getaway while also advancing onwards to find a Time Flower. At least just one will do.
Unfortunately, due to the sheer number of soldiers arriving in this palace and how the manticore was breaking everything apart, it wasn't long until he ran into some of the Empress' forces.
"Hm? Hey! The staff!" One soldier pointed out as his call alerted his fellow soldiers to rush to his position.
"Uh oh! Pikachu! Thunderbolt!"
"Pika...!" Pikachu jumped over Ash, surrounding his body in a flow of electricity. At that same time, the soldier placed the shield up to try and reflect it. "Chu!" Pikachu then unleashed a bolt of 100,000 volts from his body, sending it forward. The bolt connected with the shield. For a few seconds, Thunderbolt was able to slightly push it back but the shield ended up reflecting it either way. "Pika?!"
"Whew..." The soldier sighed as he had almost been sent back by Thunderbolt.
"Reflective, huh? Then in that case...Lucario! Force Palm!"
"Lu!" Lucario dashed past his friends, headed straight for the guard. If the shield could just reflect anything that was thrown from afar then the obvious response was to get up close and personal. Which is exactly what Lucario did.
The soldier put his shield up for another hope of reflecting this incoming attack. But, it didn't pan out. The Aura Pokemon smashed right through the reflector shield with his palm glowing, shattering it in one hit.
"Oh!" The soldier screamed at the top of his lungs after seeing his shield break. In fact, Lucario's impact was so great that the armour even trembled. At the end of the day, Lucario was a Fighting-Type. Anything that was Steel was just asking to be crushed by him.
"Lucario!" Lucario then used Force Palm again, knocking the soldier back by both shattering his armour and sending him flying. The soldier hit the wall before falling to the ground, fainting. As if his fellow soldiers weren't alerted enough, now they most definitely were as they came out of the corner.
"There it is!" The soldiers said as they all approached Ash, Pikachu and Lucario.
"Time to go!" Ash bolted off with his Pokemon before looking back. "Pikachu! Electroweb!"
"Pika-Pikachu!" Even when running Pikachu could still attack. He summoned a ball of electricity from his tail before launching it forward. The ball then transformed into a net of electricity that was latched onto the corridors.
It acted like a spider net as the soldiers had crashed into the web, causing it to stretch forward. Upon collision, the electricity reacted to their armour. Even though their armour was now built to deal with Pokemon, the volts from an Electric-Type Pokemon still stung as their armour was going haywire, causing them all to stagger.
The path to the balcony had been overflooded by soldiers, causing Ash's getaway plan to have some obstacles. He was still going to make his escape from that direction regardless.
But Ash was approaching the balcony, the carnage of the manticore had broken the balance of the floor beneath him and his Pokemon. Before he knew the floor was on the verge of destruction. Not wanting any of that, Ash quickly held onto both Pikachu and Lucario while still having the staff in his grasp.
He then leapt off the remaining floor tile, using it to send him and his Pokemon to great bounds. They had just managed to escape from the collapsing floor. But the pathway to the balcony was now ruined. A large hole was all that was left.
Ash was still going to attempt to make his getaway from the outside either way.
Meanwhile.
Twilight and everypony had separated from all the commotion. Many sections in the palace were just flooded with soldiers. They chose to each take their own sections while some would stick together. Lady Ilene was escorted somewhere safe.
Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy came across the Mechanical Manticore face to face.
"M-Maybe we can talk to it like I did before?" Fluttershy suggested. She was able to tame and casually speak to a Manticore the first time, so doing a second time might work.
But with a quick roar, the Manticore blew their manes back with a horrible sound of metal passing through their ears. Audino took the worst of this because of her sensitive hearing.
The manticore clearly wasn't here for reasoning. In fact, due to its cyborg properties, it might be difficult to even tell if it can be reasoned either way.
"Forget that!" Rainbow Dash took out a Poke Ball. "This one's working for that Empress, so it's not wild at all! Go, Braviary!" When she threw the Poke Ball, out came the Valiant Pokemon Braviary.
"Braviary!"
"Use Superpower!"
"Vi!" By lighting his wings and talons up with an orange aura, the Normal-Flying-Type soared towards the manticore's head. The manticore roared at Braviary before using its sharp claws to swipe at the Valiant Pokemon.
Braviary's wings met with the manticore's claws as the instant they connected, the claws had been shattered in one go. However, despite that, even Braviary took some damage. The claws, before they were shattered, were sharp enough to pass through Superpower and injure the Valiant Pokemon.
"B-Bravi!"
After losing its claws, the Cyborg Manticore snarled before utilizing the rest of its mechanical body. Apart from just being a robot-like cyborg, it had also come with an arsenal that would fit a cyborg. Out of its back, a hatch had opened up. And out of that hatch, new mechanical creations came crawling out.
These new robotic creatures resembled crabs. They had a dusty blue colour scheme on most of its body, with some silver shades at the end of each leg. They were directly here to assist the manticore as they started crawling towards Braviary and the others.
And as if that wasn't enough, the robotic eye of the manticore was a part of this. Out of the eye, a silver ray came flying out that went straight for Braviary.
"Vi?!" Braviary gasped as he quickly flew to the side, avoiding the ray. The ray had broken through the walls with the properties of heat behind it. Parts of the wall had even melted.
"Oh my..." Fluttershy's ears dropped after witnessing that.
"Cool..." Rainbow Dash admired how impressive that was. But she shook her head, snapping back into it. "Oh, right! Braviary! Deal with the manticore! Castform, use Weather Ball on those crab things!"
"Castform!" Out of Rainbow Dash's saddlebag, Castform flew out, already entering his Sunny Form due to the weather, even when it was nightfall. Summer was certainly was something.
Aside from the manticore, the crab-like creatures had something in store as well. Their appendages AKA their claws came with something fairly explosive. They had released a short electrical burst from their bodies, moving on horizontal and vertical surfaces.
"B-Braviary!" Obviously, Braviary didn't take too kindly to anything electric related as the electricity staggered him and Castform each. Audino quickly put up a Protect to shield her friends from taking some of the electricity.
"Castform!"
After that stagger, the crabs moved in as they leapt at Castform and Braviary each. The golden eye they had on their faces started flashing repeatedly while changing to a red colour. From how fast they were beeping, Audino could tell from the frequency of her feelers that they were about to explode.
"Dino! Audino!"
"Explode?!" Fluttershy translated.
"Braviary! Blow them away with Superpower, quick!"
"Viary!" Not wanting to be caught up in a chain reaction of exploding robotic crabs, the Valiant Pokemon lit his wings up once more. This time, he clapped them together, utilizing the impactful energy of Superpower to cause a thunderclap
The shockwave from the thunderclap flew out blowing all the crabs away before they could reach Braviary and Castform. As they went flying, some of the crabs had crashed into the manticore instead.
Upon crashing, their explosive systems went off, causing the explosions to happen around the Cyborg Manticore instead of Rainbow Dash and the others. The manticore cried out. Despite being a cyborg it could still feel damage either way. A piece of it was still a regular manticore.
After the explosion ended, out of the smoke, the manticore snarled as it shot that hot silver ray from its eye once more. Braviary had been hit in the wing by this sudden ray, leaving a burn mark on him.
"Bravi!"
"Braviary!" Rainbow Dash flew over to her partner. But the moment she moved forward, the manticore leapt out, growing new claws as it was ready to either bite or claw at Rainbow Dash. The pegasus gasped after witnessing the Cyborg Manticore approach her.
"Scorbun!" Acting quick on his feet, Scorbunny jumped out of Fluttershy's hooves to save Rainbow Dash. The Rabbit Pokemon had used Flame Charge to have this moment of speed.
Before the manticore could claw or bite at Rainbow and Braviary, Scorbunny, who had cloaked his body in flames had tackled the Manticore in the face.
With a direct tackle, Scorbunny had knocked himself back. The manticore was way heavier than him. Plus, the metal just only increased that weight.
"Bunny!" He cried out as he tumbled on the floor. However, as a return, because the manticore's body was now made out of aluminium, this meant that any heat-related was a threat to it.
The flames of Flame Charge, while not insanely powerful, had left a mark. The Cyborg Manticore roared as a part of its aluminium face had been melted off thanks to Scorbunny.
"Thanks, Scorbunny! Weather Ball, go!" Rainbow Dash commanded as she and Braviary flew back.
"Form!" Seeing the obvious weakness of the Cyborg Manticore, Castform generated a giant ball of fire in front of him, harnessing the heat around him. The Weather Pokemon then shot the ball of flames forward.
Yet again, the Cyborg Manticore had been hit by flames, this time in the form of an exploding ball that had hit its belly instead of its face, leaving more of it to melt.
"Audino!" Audino quickly looked at Braviary's wing, seeing the damage he had taken from that one ray. And of course, the electricity from those crab creations. She used Heal Pulse to restore the damage to him.
And speaking of crab creations, once again, from the hatch, the manticore had released more of those robotic crabs. This time with an even larger number than before.
"Okay." Rainbow Dash took a deep breath. "They're weak to Fire and Fighting because of all that metal. Let's keep doing that. And we'll shut that hatch too! Braviary! Aim for the hatch with Superpower! Castform, Weather Ball!" She commanded as she took out another Poke Ball.
Out of this Poke Ball, Mienfoo had emerged. Her advantage towards everything Steel would greatly help here. "Mienfoo!"
"Mienfoo! Force Palm, go!"
"Scorbunny! Go!" Fluttershy encouraged Scorbunny to assist since he could also help out thanks to his usage of Flame Charge and High Jump Kick.
"Bunny!" With a salute, the Rabbit Pokemon wouldn't let Fluttershy down as recharged forward with Flame Charge, running alongside Braviary, Mienfoo and Castform.
"Rainbow Dash! A bit of it still a normal manticore! I can try talking to it!"
"Seriously?!" Rainbow Dash turned to Fluttershy as Braviary was avoiding the incoming silver rays from the manticore's eyes while Scorbunny charged through some of the crabs with his flame-cloaked body.
"Trust me, please?" Fluttershy pleaded.
"Fine, fine! Do what you can. It would be pretty cool to have an ally like that on our side too anyway."
Castform and Scorbunny's flames spread out, melting and destroying the crabs. Scorbunny, after gaining some good speed, used High Jump Kick next by flipping into the air and smashing his feet onto the robotic crabs.
Mienfoo swatted the crabs away like they were flies with her rapid arm movements. And with each wack, she would send them flying, causing the robotic crabs to explode near the others, draining their numbers.
After avoiding some of the rays, Braviary flew over the manticore, going straight for the hatch where the crabs originally come out from.
"Bravi!" With a loud caw, the Valiant Pokemon smashed his talon into the hatch with Superpower active. The manticore cried out as the immense pressure, tremor and shockwave from Superpower travelled through its body, rumbling the aluminium parts.
Braviary flew upwards as the inside of the manticore's hatch had blown up from Superpower's overwhelming force. That dealt with the crab problem.
The manticore fell to the ground with a damaged back as Fluttershy saw this as an opportunity to assist the Cyborg Manticore if she could.
"Mien!" Mienfoo shook a crab that was latched onto her arm off, causing it to blow up onto the other crabs. The number of robotic crabs had dwindled greatly. All of them had been defeated with Castform having the last hit with Weather Ball.
With all of the crabs gone, it was all down to Fluttershy to speak with the fallen manticore as all attacks had been ceased. The manticore, already receiving loads of damage, mostly from Braviary, opened its eye, staring at Fluttershy.
"Careful Fluttershy! I hear that cyborgs don't have-"
"I'll be fine." Fluttershy cut Rainbow Dash as she was positive in her abilities. She then looked the manticore in the eye. The eye that wasn't robotic that is. "Are you alright?"
The manticore let out a slight snarl before it had also looked Fluttershy in the eyes. From their eye contact, the manticore's pupils expanded as it actually recognized Fluttershy.
This manticore, despite coming from another world, had a counterpart that existed in Fluttershy's world. Obviously, manticore's are rare creatures that are hard to find so there would be others out there. However, this manticore had actually met Fluttershy before. Or at least, the Fluttershy from its own world.
This was the manticore that Fluttershy had saved in the Everfree Forest from its horrible pain. For this world's Fluttershy that was at least 2 years ago. But for the manticore, in its world, that was decades ago.
Recognizing Fluttershy, the cyborg manticore licked the pegasus, still having a tongue. It wasn't fully robotic after all as Fluttershy giggled.
"There, there. Sorry about all the damage done to you. You must be so uncomfortable in a body like this, right? Fluttershy asked and the manticore nodded in agreement. "No need to worry. We'll help you out however we can."
"Uh...how are we gonna help something that's mostly a robot?" Rainbow Dash wondered.
"There's a Pokemon for that. Or a lab, that too. Will you help us in this?" Answering Fluttershy's request, the manticore agreed to assist her and the others. After all, it gave the manticore a friendly nostalgic memory and eased its anger. However, all of its anger was now directed towards the empire as it stood back up.
It was still weakened but capable of having active movements either way.
Cameran Courtyard.
Down at the courtyard, the guards of Cameran Palace and Pokemon were also dealing with the Empress' forces. And so far, it seemed slightly even.
Thanks to the assistance of the Pokemon, they were able to hold their own. But, the overwhelming amount of soldiers popping up was starting to put tons of pressure on. Their variety of weapons were proving to be problems through and through.
The Empress' forces brought more than just a Cyborg Manticore with them. They had other mechanical creations. Arriving as support, new creations were spotted. Vehicle-type creations.
One of these vehicles had the appearance of a rhino that was mounted onto a wheel and carried additional shields on all sides to protect itself. Plus, the horn was perfect for attacking. The rhino vehicles were being controlled by the soldiers instead of them. Multiple of them came crashing through, charging with the speed of an actual rhino. And arguably even more.
The Pokemon and guards had been knocked back by this large group of rhino vehicles. By sheer brute strength, the odds were starting to favour Empress Twilight's side with how many there were. The charging rhino vehicles kept moving as they were backing the guards and Pokemon into a corner.
They stayed in a consistent vertical line to try and corner them. Like a liner. The Pokemon were doing their best to hold them back with everything they had. Mainly that larger Pokemon. Rota had Pokemon like Ryhdon on their side which were able to deal with these vehicles. Rhino on Rhino.
The Rhydon held the rhino vehicles, tossing them aside with their sheer strength or either just smashing them into each other like a child playing with its toys. If anything, the odds were yet again shifting thanks to Rhydon. Other Pokemon may not be needed with Rhydon present here. And there were more of them too.
The Empress' forces could see that the Rhydon were huge threats. Their bulk and strength outclassed their rhino vehicles. Perhaps not in speed but power was 100% guaranteed.
Seeing this, they decided to call for assistance. This whole invasion wasn't going fully well. It seemed even at best with both sides countering each other at every passing minute and second.
With assistance being sent through, out of the large ship, the bottom hatch was opening up, sending something out to give them the advantage.
Out of this hatch, a titanic robotic battle station descended. This metal monstrosity was loaded with multiple offensive weapons on all sides as well as carrying other soldiers inside. It was also a ship as well. Its searchlights were turned on due to the night sky as out of the robot, reinforcements were coming in.
These reinforcements were aerial based. Multiple airships that had the shape of an orca as its appearance came flying out. There were already forces on land, best to have some in the air. They also had some ponies commanding it.
And from both the giant battle station and the orca-shaped aerial vehicles, they had weapons they could fire from them. Out of these aerial machines, rays of magical energy were being sent out. They had found a way to utilize magic in different ways over at the Empress' world.
The rays of magic rained down on the castle and the Rhydon as well with an immediate bombardment. The Rhydon were able to resist it thanks to their bulky and defensive body.
After all, Rhydon's hide is so thick that it can run through molten lava without feeling a thing. However, the constant barrage of magic rays would obviously be overwhelming to the Drill Pokemon. It couldn't just take them forever.
"Rhydon! The Ground-Rock-Types held their arms up, trying to block the rapid array of magic rays that wouldn't stop falling on them.
They couldn't do anything against the aerial opponents at the moment. Any Flying-Type Pokemon they had hadn't arrived yet so they would have to endure this punishment as the magic rays blew up each time they hit.
However, they wouldn't have to wait for long.
"Grab them, Sceptile!" Applejack's voice had cried out somewhere.
"Sceptile!" From the shadows, two vines came flying out. Those two vines had grabbed onto one of the aerial orca-shaped vehicles. By holding the two of them together, the Forest Pokemon used his vines to mash the two aerial vehicles onto the rest of them, causing a sudden collision. The soldiers inside were thrown off balance after the collision as Sceptile swung them around, using these two aerial vehicles to whack away the rest.
The soldiers chose to jump ship as they felt like they were about to hurl. After escaping their ships, they had deployed parachutes for safer landings. After seeing the soldiers exit, Sceptile could officially obliterate the ships as he increased the speed, causing the aerial orca-shaped vehicles to blow up.
The guards gave both a collective sigh of relief and resounding cries of applause as their little aerial problem had great coverage thanks to Applejack and Spectile. Any of the soldiers that had jumped ship were immediately chased down by other Pokemon. They didn't have any weapons on them compared to their other forces.
"Nice going, Sceptile! But that big one's still there! Use Dragon Pulse!" Applejack commanded.
"Scep...Tile!" Sceptile huffed and puffed as he had gathered up draconic energy from within. Afterwards, the Forest Pokemon unleashed a dragon-shaped shockwave from his mouth, shooting it at the giant battle station.
However, it wouldn't be that easy. By using the magic, the robot had cloaked itself in a barrier of purple magic, shielding it from Dragon Pulse as the Dragon-Type blew up upon contact, doing nothing.
"Tile?"
"Magic huh? Didn't think that go well with robots..." Applejack growled.
"We can still deal with it despite that barrier." One guard said to Applejack. "It might not be immune to weather patterns. Even Pokemon move during heavy weather when using defensive moves."
"All we have to do is create some sort of heavy tornado and that barrier won't matter!" Another guard responded. "Our Flying-Types will be arriving here to help in no time!"
"Nice thinking ya'll!" Applejack nodded in approval before facing the giant robot again. "Best hurry before that thing sends out more!"
"Sceptile!"
Equestria. Canterlot. Nightfall.
Right now, everything was sound in Canterlot and most of Equestria. While there was an entire battle happening over at Rota, there was peace here in this world.
But, that wasn't about to last.
With Luna and Darkrai keeping watch during the night, they themselves could sense that something was off. In fact, it was Xatu that sensed it first.
"Xatu..." Xatu's eyes flashed.
"What is it, Xatu?" Luna flew over to her Pokemon.
"Tu. Xatu..." The Mystic Pokemon looked to the sky as he was looking into the future. He knew something was coming. Something that was unexpected and could be considered fairly sudden.
Usually, when Xatu sees the future, it barely does anything to change it. However, this time, it was different. Because after seeing the future, the Mystic Pokemon immediately spoke to Darkrai, telling him what was coming.
"What?!" Darkrai translated with a gasp.
"What? What is it Darkrai?! What did he say?!" Luna turned to Darkrai.
"They're about to invade sooner than expected. But without performing a full-on attack."
"Right now?! Are they coming through here?!"
"No. They're going to show up at other parts of Equestria. But they're bringing something gigantic that will rampage across the land."
"What is-" Before Luna could ask, far away in the far distance, the sound of a gateway opening up had crossed their ears. Luna had been startled along with everypony nearby as they had been woken up by the sound.
With a giant gateway being seen opening up in the sky, it was clear that the time had come. The invasion had now begun. While not the full-on invasion the Empress originally planned, it was an invasion nonetheless. Everything was being set into motion as the journey continues.
Chapter 448 End.