//------------------------------// // Chapter two: An old "acquaintance" // Story: Kyōka Suigetsu, crumble! // by The Archiver //------------------------------// Pov: Sōsuke Aizen "That mare was easy enough to gain trust in me. No matter how miniscule the amount of trust she actually has in me, it's proof that she can vouch for me in the future, if need be." On my little excursion I notice little problems here and there like fires, sentiment chair and the occasional man eating fruit but I ignore them... Most of them. Out of the corner of my senses I notice three fillies huddling together, all of them being nearly the same height, one filly to the left which is a unicorn, has a light gray coat, light green eyes, and a purple-like twin grayish rose mane and tail. Another filly to the right, presumably a earth pony, has orange eyes, a yellow coat and a red mane and tail. The one standing in front of both of them is putting on a brave act, who's most likely a peagsus, has a orange coat, dulled purple eyes, and dark purple mane and tail. However as I'm analyzing them the earth pony speaks up "Scootaloo! You know you can't take that thing on, it's mouth is literally the same length as its body!" The filly warns her, backing up a few steps herself. "Apple Bloom, you know that it'll catch up to us again if we all try and run. Plus we're corned anyways, we've gotta do something." The filly, now dubbed as "Scootaloo" gives them both a determined look. She widens her stance while holding her head up high, pushing her small wings out to the side. Still, her small frame is shivering from the severity of the problem. The apple monster decides to take Scootaloo's shivering as a moment of weakness. It starts making small hops towards the trio before fully leaping towards them, intent on devouring the orange filly whole. "It looks as if an opportunity is forming. I can likely bend the children's opinions to sway the masses towards my favor. Ponies were always so trusting, but I didn't want to reveal myself just yet. No matter, this shall be my sink or swim moment. This shall be determinantal to whether these ponies trust me or hate me." I make a bold move and deactivate Bakudo #26: Kyokkō. I approach the fillies and the apple monster with a cocky smile on my before extending my hand out forward, everything seems so slow to me right now. But that's to be expected from something so miniscule in comparison to me. "Now, I can't simply sit by and watch three adorable fillies become lunch for some twisted apple. Hado #1: Shō!" my palm expels a small burst of Reiatsu towards the monster, everything speeds up once more, time starts moving normally. The bullet whizzies past the yet to be named white coated filly, striking directly into the creature, blasting it into apple bits. The fillies look confused, turning every which way while wiping the apple juice and apple chunks off of themselves. Then they look in my direction, I simply blow my smoking palm as if it were a gun. I walk over to this trio, only stopping a few feet from them before crouching down. "Are you all okay? No scratches or anything?" I question them. "Not really, but that was really freighting, who exactly are you-" The white coated filly is then interrupted by the one called Scootaloo. "Forget that Sweetie Belle! What type of awesome move was that?! It was almost as cool as Rainbow Dash, you just shot out something that I couldn't even make out, and I've got the best eyesight out of all of us." Scootaloo excitedly jumps up in front of my face, trying to hog all my vision from the rest of her friends. However the white filly, now called Sweetie Belle releases a puff of air. Clearly agitated from her friend's rude behavior. "Ugh Scootaloo! What did we say about cutting each other off?" Scootaloo looks over to Sweetie Belle with a embarrassed expression. "O-oh, sorry Sweetie Belle. But c'mon you saw what he did, he shot something from his palms and it blew up that apple thing." This time, the yellow filly speaks up while those two are bickering. "Well regardless of manners ya saved us. And ah think that you deserve a thank you. So thank ya mister...." She trails off, obviously implying she wants my name. "Oh how silly of me. I forgot to introduce myself, but you know what they say. Better late than never." I keep this goofy facade up for a bit longer, however I can't forget my current task at hand so I must cut this shorter than I'd like. "I am Sōsuke Aizen a tactful genius filled with knowledge normal ponies cannot even begin to grasp at." As I finish up my little establishing sentence. Apple Bloom tilts her head in confusion. "Ah actually have been confused about something, what exactly are ya mister Aizen?" I have my hands waving in a nonchalant manner. "Oh please just call me Sōsuke or Aizen but I do prefer being called Aizen, and as for what I am? I'm a bit of a hybrid, that's all your adorable mind needs to know right now. Although I must be off, I promised a friend I'd do something for her." Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle both share a glance before coming to a sense of mature understanding, which nearly caught me off guard from their mental maturity. Scootaloo on the other hand looks severely disappointed. "Aw do you really have to go?" I shake my head with a sense of amusement. "I'm sorry Scootaloo but this is very important but hey, I promise I'll show you some more cool moves, alright?" The filly lights up after hearing this, rapidly nodding her head. "Alright fine, but I'll hold you to it Aizen!" She declares. "Okay then, see you girls later, and make sure to stay out of danger and stay indoors if you can." I give them a two fingered salute, watching them gallop away towards what seems to be the town hall. I sigh from all that extra effort I had to put in for children but know it shall soon be worth it. "Now then, back to what I was supposed to be doing." I actively begin using my spiritual senses to search for the elements of harmony. I can feel their faint signature however it feels purposely hidden. "Discord must've thought someone would try to sense them. But that means little in the face of what true power is." I internally laugh, the Hōgyoku starts to glow inside my upper abdomen. It corresponds with my desires, the Hōgyoku warps my senses, manifesting the desire for the ability of more precise spiritual senses. My mind keeps pinging this one specific place that seems to stick out like a sore thumb. A large sinister grin takes hold of my face, I beeline for the large building and arrive there in no time. Realizing that this is a... Literal tree house?! I start laughing at how brilliant yet stupid it is. I descend down from the sky, opening the door. I walk around for a bit, seeing towers of books in shelves. There seems to be a second story to this place, thus I head up the ladder. Yet, I felt something, the same pang in my chest that led me here in the first place. A small turn of my head is all I need to see that the lone book over there has to be important. I hop down from the ladder, picking up the strangely designed book. A surge of energy is felt from it, the realization hits me like a truck. "Discord, you're one sneaky prick." I end up blurting that out loud but nobody was around to hear. I open the book up that's obviously hiding the elements and low and behold they're here. I snatch them up, also starting step two of my plan. "So if my device worked, then the alternately purposed Caja Negación should've trapped the excess energy from each of these elements into a different dimension." I silently tell myself. I proceed to pop out all the gems from their golden casing. With the wave of my hand I reveal the tiny black box that was held invisible due to a more precise version of Bakudo #26. I take them all out, storing them for later use while placing the elements back into their accessories. "There's just one last thing I need to do now. I have to meet up with an old acquaintance." I mentally sigh, knowing I'll have to deal with a major pain in the ass but I exit out of the library door. Only to be stopped by a falling letter above my head. I snatch it out of the air with an annoyed look and reveal its contents. The letter reads as follows. "Dear Sōsuke Aizen, it's come to my attention that my old pal (that's you) has been released from their prison. Which is great news old chum, however it's also come to my attention that you hold the elements of harmony and are planning to give them to those pesky ponies which just wont do. Still, I have a plan to rectify this! Just meet me by the huge flag that's waving in the air, I'm just below it. Anyways this letter will explode two seconds after fully reading it, toodles." I grunt and chuck the letter away. Right on cue it decides to explode into confetti, the confetti however turns into fire crackers that pop mid air. I end up face palming from the sheer stupidity, almost gaining an aneurysm. After getting over the fact on how stupid that was I leap off the railings, air walking towards the newly built flag pole. Taking my sweet sweet time. After a two minutes have passed I arrive at my destination. I cross my arms while looking around, only realizing Discord's presence isn't here so I leap down and walk off. As I do that, that's when Discord thinks it's a good time to make an appearance right in front of my face, instinctively I reel back and punch him directly in his gut, sending him flying. He makes some terrible fake coughing noises before playing dead. "Discord I'm not in the mood for this tomfoolery, get back up this instant so we can take care of business." I state in an annoyed tone. Discord however just gets back up and dusts himself off while producing a mirror from nowhere to inspect himself. "Now now Aizen, is that any way to treat an old buddy of yours?" Discord says with mock hurt. Although I just give him a tired stare. "Listen, you know what I'm trying to do, I know what you're trying to do. Lets just cut to the chase and get you back in stone already." Discord, in response, glares at me. "Really? You think I'll go ahead and let those elements of harmony shackle me to that stone imprisonment? C'mon Aizen, I know you're smarter than that. Besides we're friends, friends don't lock each other up." I give Discord a "are you actually being serious right now?" Look, I shake my head and pull my Zanpakutō from its sheath before pointing it at him. "I'm not giving you an actual choice Discord, and you should know by now that we aren't friends." Discord blows out a puff of air before crossing his arms. "Well then I guess that since you aren't my friend anymore then I should kick you out of my life then, permanently." I shake my head, clearly done with this conversation long before it even started. I rush towards him, intent on making this fight end as quickly as possible. I start slashing at him in both short and wide arcs. Discord snaps his fingers and produces a broadsword, moving it with his magic he blocks all my slashes, yawning in the process. I grow enraged from this mistake's care-free attitude towards this fight. "Am I a joke to you or something? Because it sure seems like it." Discord shakes his head and says. "What? No, jokes are funny, you aren't. You're more like the punchline." He goes onto the offensive while further enraging me, I start attempting to parry his attacks but he summons a scimitar to slash me from behind. Although the cut doesn't manage to get through due to my heirro, it simply slides off me like butter. I take this opportunity to thrust my sword into his abdomen, draining his Reiatsu or "magic", before twisting the blade and slash the blade to his right, drawing blood this time. "Ah t-that one actually hurt a bit." Discord hisses in pain but continues to fight. As the fight progresses and we trade blows I manage to keep up with the pace of his second blade. Discord only manages to slash my cheek in all this time, making a small cut but it regenerates just as easily due to the Hōgyoku and in response to this my heirro temporarily evolves to withstand cuts with much harder force. "Discord just give up, you're making a fool of yourself, you know who the victor will be, I am a force of nature. One that shall never be slowed down, and I'll tell you this much. Evolution will always best chaos!" I tell his with a small manic-like grin. Yet despite his wounds he manages to laugh me off and produces two more blades with his magic that are blurry to the naked eye, yet to me they just seem to be moving a bit faster than normal. I try to stop the blades as best as I can but some of them manage to get through my further condensed heirro, leaving larger and larger cuts upon my body before I release some Reiatsu in a large area, knocking the swords and Discord back. "I've just about had it with your shenanigans! I didn't want to have to debase myself into using Kido but I'm not going to risk potentially losing to try and prove a point." I move my palm outwards with a glare. "Hado #4: Byakurai!" A sizable bolt of electricity, one that's measurable to a marble pillar, comes soaring towards Discord. However he manages snap his fingers and create a large metal shield around himself, the spell clashes with it for a bit before traveling through the metal and electrifying the insides of it. And what I hear afterwards is music to my ears, Discord is screaming in pain. I begin laughing before taunting him. "Aw is widdle Discord okay? Don't worry, I'll make it all better soon." I flick my hand like a frisbee toss, a purple orb flies out to the metal shield and immediately incinerates the shield into ashes. As the shield incinerates, a limp Discord falls from it before crashing onto the floor. "Hado #54: Haien." Even though it's not even necessary to say the spell out loud for me, it's still quite exhilarating. Anyways I descend downwards to meet Discord before landing on top him. "Hey 'buddy' you took one nasty fall there, you alright?" I rhetorically ask him, he grumbles in response. "Oh that's okay, I don't care either. Anyways I can feel the elements coming here, none of them have your chaos magic laced inside them either so you're done for." He doesn't respond but I keep going. "I guess that you're done for now, heh, honestly, this ending was so predictable. Just. Like. you." For a while, Discord doesn't doing anything but after a bit I hear his fingers snap and his wounds start disappear. He ascends upwards as I look on in amusement before I notice something. His eyes are pupil-less. He growls in anguish while snapping his fingers. He completely disappears from my sight before I notice a large shadow, I look upwards and see a huge meteorite crashing down towards Ponyville, although it's moving quiet slow. "Well lookie here, I guess he did still have more gas in the tank. Guess that gives me the opportunity to test just how strong I've gotten." I'm estatic by this new form of Discord I've never seen before even while the meteorite is approaching the town. I sense 6 precise presences that I mentioned before hand coming towards me. I promptly turn around to see two earth ponies, two pegasi, and two unicorns, all of which are mares. I give them all a friendly wave. "Why hello there. You must all be new element bearers, it's pleasant to meet you all." The purple unicorn mare, otherwise known are Twilight looks at me with a horrified expression. "A-Aizen, why is there an entire bucking meteorite that's falling from the sky?!" She begins hyperventilating from sheer panic. I look behind her and notice that two others are having similar reactions, one butter colored coated pegasus and a snow white coated unicorn, similar to that of Sweetie Belle's. I turn my attention back to Twilight and give her a fake dumbfounded expression. "Hm? Oh there is, isn't there? Well then that just wont do. If there's no Ponyville then how're you girls gonna save it?" I shake my head in dismay and twirl my Zanpakutō around. However Twilight gives me a stern glare. "Aizen! Now's not the time for jokes, we need to figure out how to stop it right now." I simply shake my head. But the blue pegasus and orange earth pony take this as a sign that I don't care for the current situation. The blue pegasus flies up directly in front of my face with one hoof smashed into the other. "Listen here buster! I don't know who you think you are to be messing with our friend like this. I don't care if Twilight did say you were sent by the princesses. You're a criminal that deserves to be locked up underneath the prison itself." The orange earth pony follows up next. "Now ah normally don't agree with Rainbow Dash bout things like this because she's so hard headed." A small "hey!" is heard in the background but she keeps going. "Yet ah can't shake the feeling like there's something off about ya, so whatever it is, I'll be making sure to keep a close eye on ya." After that she backs off but keeps staring at me. A deep silence hangs over us before Twilight speaks up. "Listen Aizen, I know that Apple Jack and Rainbow Dash were both a little forward there but they're right. You're a little suspicious to me. But we'll pick this up at a later time... Since there's still the meteorite situation going on!" I nod my head in agreeance with her. "Oh just leave that to me, you shall all have the honor of seeing a spell that hasn't been preformed in a thousand years, witness the greatness that is Kurohitsugi!" Twilight's jaw hangs open, most likely remembering the spell from books that held tales. Although her friends look confused from this. Without another second to waste I dash up into the air at Mach speeds, surprising all of them. I keep reaching higher and higher until I stoop a mile from the meteorite that falls downwards. I put my sealed Zanpakutō away and hold out my right palm into the air and grin. "Discord, although you are most likely cannot hear me, I'm glad that you've done this. Because now I shall allow these weaklings to hear 1/4 of the spell's true power." The sky slightly darkens as my power begins boiling over, I start shouting from the top of my lungs for all to hear. "Seeping crest of turbidity." A small gravitational pull holds the meteorite in place as black spiritual energy begins to encase it from the bottom up. Arrogant vessel of lunacy! Hado #90: Kurohitsugi! The black box finally reaches the top and seals into, my palm slowly closes as hundred of serrated spears pierce into the box. Grinding the meteorite to dust while precisely piercing Discord's paws, hooves, and wings though they don't hit any vital parts of his body. He falls down as I Shunpo over to his unconcious body, catching him before finally descending. Pride fills up my body but I manage to hide it. I softly lay Discord on the ground and turn over to see every last one of the element bearers have their mouth's hung open just as Twilight previously did. I toss them the elements of harmony but none of them make any attempts to catch it. They all simply stare at me until I snap my fingers to get them out of their stupor. As soon as I do, the pink earth pony, a purple unicorn, and a blue pegasus are in my face. I immediately hear a chorus of "that was so awesome!" And "how'd you do that?" Or "what type of spell matrix did you use for that?" I put up my hands in a 'stop' motion "Wait, we can handle questions after we handle Discord." And point to the elements to solidify my request. All three of them sigh and pick up their respective elements as do the other three. Although the butter colored pegasus is still too frightened to move so Apple Jack moves in to put it on for her. Twilight has a self-conscious look on her face from being so enraptured from my little trick. But manages to proceed. "O-okay everypony, lets get Discord back in stone." Twilight begins to charge up her element of harmony as does every other pony Rainbow Dash butts in saying "Heck yea! We're saving Ponyville again." While the butter colored pegasus only lets out a small "yay" and with that they fire a rainbow colored beam at Discord, encasing him in stone once more. "Good job you guys, now then I thought you had some questions-" Before I can finish the pink earth pony mare comes directly into my face again, but for some reason I couldn't see it coming. "Oh oh, pick me pick me!" She hyperactively asks. "Sure, I pick you, but you sure do have a lot of energy inside you." I jokingly declare. "Aw thank you so much, I'm Pinkie Pie by the way and I was just wondering if you liked playing games." She speaks at nearly sub-sonic speeds. My head almost spins from it but I answer her as best as I can. "Well first off nice to meet you, I'm Sōsuke Aizen but you can call me Aizen. Anyhow, I guess you could say that I enjoy playing games but I rarely ever have time for them." Pinkie Pie hops in place with a smile before nodding her head and mumbling something under her breath. "What was that Pinkie Pie?" I try to inquire but she just shakes her head and keeps on smiling before hopping back a little bit. Suddenly the snow-white unicorn that's yet to talk walks up to me and gives me a close inspection "Excuse me darling but I couldn't help but notice that the outfit that you're wearing is simply so plain but it works well with this 'mysterious' style that you have. How did you come across such clothing?" I'm a little confused that she'd ask about something as futile as something about clothing but I don't object to her. "I actually made this myself thank you for asking. And you are?" She nods her head and says. "I am Rarity Belle but you may simply call me Rarity my dear." After hearing her last time I start piecing together the fact that Sweetie Belle and Rarity Belle are most likely sisters but choose not to say anything. And before anyone says anything else I point over to the Butter colored pegasus. "You there, I've noticed that you've been shaking the entire time that I've been here. Do you normally do that or is something wrong?" I'm a little curious and think I may already know the answer but allow her to speak. "I-I'm sorry, your vibes are just a-all wrong. Your aura is so... Crushing it feels like it's t-trying to snuff us all out." Despite her talking in such a low tone I can hear her quite clearly. My expression is mimicking one of concern as I try to answer her, yet before I can get a word out someone else cuts me off while two ponies or rather alicorns land behind me. And Celestia, as she always has, uses a regal tone to say. "That's because it is, do not get close to this monster Fluttershy, else he tries to manipulate you into feeling sorry for you." Yup, it's Celestia and Luna. I sigh out loud and prepare to present my case.