Breakfast had gone by and yet no sign of Infinite. Of course this had the princesses a bit troubled, however the confirmation from the guard staying at his door eased up things. Apparently, Infinite hasn't left his room nor he heard any noise from the inside. If he did try leaving through the window, he would've been easily spotted, which meant he was still there.
Was there any reason for his behaviour? Maybe the news he received yesterday from Luna?
Celestia wanted to try and talk to him, but perhaps a more familiar face could help.
"You should go and talk to him." - suggested Celestia.
"Why me?"
"Well, you're the one most closest to him, so he trusts you."
Luna looked away. She was trying, but it was a slow progress. Almost like when she returned.
"I don't really know if he trusts me that much."
"I doubt he would listen to me. I believe in you."
"Ok, ok, I'll try." They shared a quick hug and parted ways, as Celestia sighed about having to deal with the nobles.
Luna glanced at the door and raised her hoof. Infinite, or rather, Zero seemed like a closed book, hard to read and to judge, but there was something about him she liked, just not sure what though.
She knocked and the reply was silence. Maybe he was still sleeping? Luna used her magic and tapped into the dream realm. No, he was indeed awake. She knocked again, a bit harder this time. Nothing.
"I know you're awake. If you do not open this door, I'll bring it down myself!"
A few seconds later the door slowly opened. Luna poked her head and took a look around. The room was dark with a few rays of sunlight going through the curtains. Her heart skipped a beat when her eyes had met Infinite's. The phantom ruby was softly glowing, giving quite a eerie sense.
"Umm, morning?" She stepped inside and closed the door. Part of her said to keep it open, but she chose to ignore it. "Did you sleep well?"
Infinite shrugged.
"Just well enough."
All of the sudden the floor seemed rather interesting to look at.
"Are you upset about what I said yesterday?" - she inquired, her eyes never leaving the floor.
"No."
The silence was deafening. Maybe he did wanted to be left alone.
"You know how it feels like don't you? To arrive in a new world that you barely know anything off. Everyone looks at you like you have two heads or something. They whisper behind your back." Luna's body tensed up. The first year after her return, she could barely go around the castle without jumping at shadows or the castle staff giving her odd looks. Celestia did the best she could to help, and she was thankful for that. "Luna, please look at me."
The princess raised her head and stared into his eyes. What was that look? Fear? Regret? Loneliness? She had seen him upset, angry, even bored. However this was new, this was actually troubling him.
It only made sense, he wanted to go back home.
She never gave too much thought into that.
"I... understand what you're saying." - she finally admitted. "It wasn't easy to deal with."
Infinite moved a bit so she could climb up the bed. The alicorn took the invitation, and now was a few inches from him. She felt her heart beating as her cheeks got more red. Thankfully she hoped it was dark enough that Infinite couldn't noticed.
Unknown to her, the jackal was struggling to figure out his own feelings. Why was he acting like this? Letting her getting this close and saying those things. Was he growing soft. Is it because they shared something in common? He sighed.
"I guess we are both in the same boat."
"So it seems."
"Also I'm sorry for the way I left your room."
Luna raised her hoof.
"No, it's fine...but when you get back, what are you going to do? Continue what you left off?"
Infinite thought about it. The Resistence by now could've done some progress, or even won the war. He wasn't really sure since he was here that his illusions would still be working. So much fighthing, he barely got to do what he wanted, to crush Shadow. He was beaten once, but that was mostly testing his powers.
"Zero?"
He looked away.
"I don't know yet."
"You can always stay here!" - she said, perhaps too quickly.
He let out a chuckle.
"I don't think your sister likes me that much to offer such chance."
"Maybe she doesn't, but I do."
He glanced at Luna, she was in fact being very serious about it. It had been so long since the last person that really cared about him.
The jackal smiled.
"I'll think about it."
It wasn't a no, so Luna was happy about it.
"Let's get out this room, I saved your breakfast, just in case if you wanted."
After a rather long breakfast and some talking, the pair had nothing much to do. The guards were still busy with finding clues and such.
"Got anything for today?" - he inquired.
"No, no really, but I thought of something we can do!"
At first Luna didn't said what it was, she only told Infinite to follow her.
The more he saw, the better he remembered about the place.
"So, you wanna fight?"
"Yes, fighthing against you is proving to be quite the challenge."
"Am I this unique?"
Luna pratically jumped in place.
"Yes! We never had the chance to fight a power like this, though it reminds me of Discord in a way."
"I guess a little practice won't be too bad."
"Ready?"
"I was created to be ready." Infinite released a wave of phantom energy throught out the training area. Luna expected something to change, but nothing really happened. Everything was still in place.
She glanced at him, he seemed ready to attack, most like he wait for her to go first, to see her reaction.
Luna used her wings to get above him and started sending several attacks with her lunar speheres.
Infinite got out the way, as the long water like arms appeared from the ground and tried to grab her. It's was the same arms from their first encounter, just without the body.
In the middle of that dodging, the princess lost track of Infinite and was nowhere to be seen. 'Curses, where did he go?'
She barely managed to dodge a red dashing jackal, before he did a loop for a second try. Luna dodged again, only to get hit by the arm, sending her to the ground.
When she opened her eyes, her vision was distorted, confusing even. Luna was literally seeing red, the world was once more beyond the usual normal. Even though she knew she got hit, it didn't hurt.
"Not this again..."
"Hahah." His laugh echoed throught the distorted mayhem.
Infinite sent out his own red speheres. The alicorn quickly brought out her shield, blocking all of it.
"Is that really all you can do?" - she taunted him.
"Target in range. Locking on."
That was a completely different voice. Luna turned around to see a strange red and black creature. It sure was shiny. "Firing missile barrage!"
Whatever that was, it just launched multiple small things straight at her. The princess took to the skies, doing her best to avoid the attack. No matter how much faster she was, those things were still following her. 'How do I get rid of these annoying things?' - she thought as Luna glanced at the strange creature. 'Unless...' She did a quick u-turn and went towards him. In response, he raised his metal gauntlels aiming at Luna.
"Big mistake princess. Activating Gatling guns."
The copy fired what Luna could only describe as tiny blazing pellets. She summoned a forward shield as she got closer. He readied one of his gauntlets to punch Luna. Just as she was about in range to get hit by the heavy punch, the princess teleported away, instead he was faced with own missile barrage.
"Error! Error!"
A loud explosion was heard and felt as the attack got the wrong target, sending the metal copy into a wall.
"Huzzah, it worked!" After that failed attack her vision became normal again.
"... I'm not weak... I'm not weak..." Luna heard the strange creature say that and it quickly reminded her of Infinite's nightmare. The copy looked at Luna, the red eyes emanating a bright glow. "Locked on target!" He activated his boosters, going at a higher speed that Luna couldn't even predict.
Luna powered her horn and grabbed hold of him, slightly sending off into another wall. He collided against it, making a big crater as a result. She knew someone would be annoyed having to fix all this.
The machine rose once more, before fading into Infinite.
"Not bad."
"You're going to have to try harder than that."
"I wasn't done yet." He waved his arms in a circle as he released more phantom energy. Infinite created more duplicates of himself.
"Maybe I shouldn't said that..."
"I trust you're ready to face us, if not...oh well" - with that being said, all the copies dashed towards her. Luna got some distance from them in the best way she could, either using her speed or magic to take some of them out. Unfortunately for Luna, she couldn't quite see which one was the real. She guessed by attacking the real one, the copies would fade out. It was just a random guess, but that was all she got.
Luna went straight up, the Infinite's rapidly chasing her. 'If I can gather them all up, I might be able to hit the real one.' The princess decided to hide among the clouds, as the copies struggled to find her. It wasn't an effective hiding spot but it would do for now.
She noticed Infinite seemed to use a similar tactic. Let his opponent guessing. So, now it was her turn.
She remained hidden in the clouds, guessing which one was the real Infinite, however there was one small issue. None of them had those visual glitches.
"Now what?"
After some thinking, she did the best method to deal with them. Literally blast everyone.
The copies did their best to dodge her attacks but one by one they started falling. The real look Infinite gazed at the clouds, with a smirk.
"Clever mare." He summoned more cannons and fought back while his copies charged forward, removing the clouds.
At first Luna was winning but she was slowly losing her cover.
"Time to surprise him."
The princess quickly left the safety of clouds and went straight into Infinite.
"What is she doing?"
The jackal charged his ruby, attempting to slow down time, however Luna was faster as she teleported right behind him. "What?!" The princess used her forelegs to strike him down, followed by a magical sphere.
Luna's victory was short lived as one of the copies tackled her, sending her down alongside Infinite.
"That was crazy, you know that right?" - he shouted.
"Yes, but it worked." She finally managed to escape from the clone and safely landed, while Infinite warped space and time to prevent meeting the floor. "That is a cool trick."
"It has its uses. Wanna give up princess?"
"In your dreams Zero." She cast a sword by her side.
He did the same, wielding his trusty red sword.
"I was hoping you would say that."
They both charged as their swords clashed, releasing a few sparks. It was obvious to Luna, that he clearly knew how to wield a sword, probably before using the ruby. Everytime she found an opening, he would immediately block her advance.
"You're really good at this."
"Was that a praise?" - he inquired, going for a quick attack.
Luna stepped to the side, dodging his sword.
"It's not everyday I get to practice sword fighting like this."
They went like this for a couple more minutes, both getting tired, but not showing any signs of slowing down.
"Want to called it a draw? Otherwise we will be here all day." - she finally said it.
"You know what?" - he paused to catch his breath. "I agree, just because I'm getting very hungry."
"Sure, whatever you say."
On their way back to the castle, they shared a few tips and tricks about sword fights.
The duo met Celestia at dinner and talked about their day, unfortunately for the Sun Princess nothing exciting happened, instead having to deal with nobles and their dumb requests.
"You really need to take a day off."
"I wish I could Luna, I really do."
"Your ponies can survive even if you take one day off. What's the worse that could happen?" Luna and Celestia looked at each other, unsure what to say. "What? Don't tell me you actually believe in that sort of stuff."
As soon he said that a royal guard entered the room and delivered a letter to Celestia.
After reading it, she let out a sigh.
"Seems like we have problems at the Crystal Empire."
Both princesses stared at the jackal who kept eating like nothing happened.
"Why are you looking at me like that? It wasn't my fault."
"Shut up." - they replied at the same time.