Supporting Me.
Over with Tifa she stood at a standoff between herself and the manikins. There was a count of at least fifteen, Rarity just stayed and watched behind a rock.
"I’ll show you manikins Zangan’s secret technique!" Tifa Shouted as the manikins charged at her. Many attempted to hit her with their weapons. Tifa managed to dodge each attack and managed to punch a manikin in the face and shattered it. Tifa felt one coming from behind so she shattered it with a roundhouse kick. Unfortunately an Imaginary Soldier threw three fireballs at Tifa and successfully hit her knocking her off her stance. The Manikins started swinging their weapons at Tifa and she did her best to dodge but she was stuck to the ground, so she could only roll around to dodge.
"Rarity! I could really use your help!" Tifa called. Rarity continued to cower behind the rock, she took out the Thunder Tome and began flipping through the pages.
"I maybe against using this magick, but I have no choice." Rarity panicked trying to find the incantation. She found it and began chanting. The tip of her horn began to emit a yellow glow, then the glow shot lightning up to the sky and several lightning bolts struck the ground around Tifa destroying three manikins while the other bolts hit random places on the ground.
"Thanks for that." Tifa said getting back to her feet. She started throwing punches at the manikins she hit three in their faces and shattered them. Unfortunately the same Imaginary Soldier started swinging its sword at Tifa. She jumped backwards and dodged most of the attack but the blade managed to cut Tifa’s left leg. She winced in pain and Rarity started chanting the Thunder spell again, several bolts of lightning rained down and struck the Imaginary Soldier destroying it. Unfortunately the other bolts again struck random spots on the ground. Unfortunately the manikins refocused their gaze on the unicorn.
"Oh no!" Rarity panicked. The manikins began to run towards Rarity and she just turned around and ran for her life. Tifa got back up and began to chase the manikins.
"Don’t move!" Tifa shouted. She curled up and fire consumed her body as she began to spin around, she launched herself at the manikins and her fiery spinning caught five manikins she broke through four of them and all the fire collected right leg. She kicked the manikin downwards, the fire and the kick obliterated the manikin. "Good bye!" Unfortunately an Ephemeral Vision jumped at Tifa before she could stand on her feet properly and slashed her shoulder. "AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" She screamed as she dropped to the ground.
"Oh no!" Rarity shrieked, starting to feel somewhat responsible for Tifa getting hurt. The last two manikins one of the manikins went for Rarity while the Vision went to finish Tifa off. Rarity turned and began to run around in circles as the manikin, a Capricious Thief began to pursue Rarity. "Must use the new spell!" Rarity cried. She used her unicorn powers to take out the Cure Spell Tome and move it in front of her face and read as she tried to dodge the attacks of the Thief. She found the right page and began to chant the incantation. Her horn began to glow white, then the white light left Rarity’s horn and covered Tifa. The glow healed Tifa’s wounds and her pain went away. She looked at Tifa and felt proud when Tifa kicked up her legs and threw herself back on her feet. "Yes it worked!"
"Planet's Power!" Tifa called as she began to collect a huge amount of magical energy on herself and darted over to the two manikins and struck them with a whirling upwards kick shattering one of them. The Thief went flying upwards and Tifa went up after it and continued to punch and kick it. Her fist began to glow. "Burst!" The Thief shattered when she punched it. Tifa walked over to Rarity, she was out of breath so she panted.
"You did good." Tifa complimented.
"Yes but I’m sure that this could have gone better." Rarity sighed disappointed in herself.
"Don’t feel bad." Tifa said. "You actually looked better using that white magick than the Thunder spell."
"Really?" Rarity asked starting to feel better.
"Just keep me healed while I fight and this might work!" Tifa said. "Let’s go find the reports." The two walked to go find a Gateway as the day came to an end.
In Ponyville Warrior slept soundly in his tent after Derpy sung him to sleep, after a few hours Warrior woke back up. He was surprised to find out that Derpy managed to put him to sleep.
"Guess she has greater talents than I expected." Warrior admitted. He climbed out of his tent and noticed that it was still night time. He put his armor back on and put the tent back inside his magic bag. Warrior looked up and took in the beauty of the starry night sky in Ponyville, Warrior felt good to see such beauty due to the sky in World B was always cloudy. Warrior started walking through the town and looked around very closely, all the ponies were asleep so nopony was around to say hello. Warrior found no more manikins and began marching back to the Sanctuary when loud rave music began to fill the air. It was light from where Warrior stood but it did catch his attention.
"If music playing is that loud, maybe it’s disturbing the ponies that are trying to sleep." Warrior said to himself. "I guess I should convince whoever’s playing it to turn it down. In fact I think I may know who’s playing it."
Back over in World B. Laguna and Applejack went over to the Gaint’s Cave and made it to the Gateway.
"Maybe the reports are in here." Laguna suggested pointing to the gateway with his thumb.
"Let’s find out, and I’m ready to for the rodeo incase the manikins come knockin’." Applejack said with a lasso hanging out of one of her bags. They entered the gateway and it appeared to lead them into a mazelike cave.
"Wait a minute!" Applejack called as she noticed that the area didn’t appear to be as if they were in another world. "Are we in another world?"
"Oh, I probably should have explained. Not all gateways lead to other worlds. You’ve seen the ones with the dark flux pouring from it right?" Applejack nodded. "You see this gateway was green and had no flux pouring from it."
"Ooooohhhhh!" Applejack said. "Well let’s go and see if there are any reports." The two moved forward and halted when they spotted five manikins. Applejack’s Element of Honesty started glowing, Laguna smiled at Applejack and the two charged at the manikins. The Element of Honesty covered Applejack in magic while Laguna cocked his machine gun. Applejack jumped up high and landed on a manikin and squashed it, shattering it into dust.
"There you go!" Laguna shouted and he fired his gun and the rapid fire destroyed three manikins. While Applejack galloped and bucked the last manikin and shattered it.
"Wow I knew those years of applebuckin’ were makin’ my legs stronger but I didn’t think they were that strong." Applejack smiled amazed with herself.
"I think it’s all in the Element you have there." Laguna explained. With the manikins all gone the two looked around for any Reports. Unfortunately there were none, not even any treasure. The two exited the gateway and returned to World B, this green Gateway didn’t shatter upon exiting.
"Guess we need to look in another Gateway." Applejack suggested. Laguna nodded.
"Let’s go check in the cave that’s south of here!" Laguna suggested and the two headed southwards.
Back over in the woods, Yuna and Fluttershy made it to a Forest, hopefully Fluttershy will get to find some Chocobos.
"You think the Chocobo’s are in here?" Fluttershy asked.
"Maybe, they’re great speed makes them hard to find sometimes." Yuna explained. "The best way to get close to them is to give them their favorite food."
"What’s that?" Fluttershy asked. Yuna reached down to the ground and pulled up leaves that were blooming out of the ground. The plant was a vegetable that looked like an emerald green turnip.
"These are Gysahl Greens. Since this is a wild one, surly there are Chocobos nearby." Yuna explained showing the pegasus the plant
"Great! Let’s go find them!" Fluttershy cheered. The two walked around through the woods with Yuna holding the Gysahl Green forward in a presenting fashion. "Here’s another one!" Fluttershy cheered, she pointed to another Gysahl Green growing in the ground. Fluttershy flew towards it and pulled it out of the ground with her mouth. Fluttershy flew around and held the Gysahl Green in her mouth in a giving fashion. After three minutes of moving around they heard a noise.
“Kweh!”
"Hey! There's be one nearby!" Yuna said. They looked around and noticed a big yellow bird that resembled a chicken pecking at the ground.
“Kweh!”
"Is that it!?" Fluttershy asked in an excited tone.
"Yes." Yuna said, but before she could give Fluttershy any more instructions the Pegasus moved towards the large bird and stood still holding out the Gysahl Green.
"Come here little friend." Fluttershy said to the bird. Yuna watched as she got to witness Fluttershy’s skills with animals. The Chocobo turned around and looked at Fluttershy. "Don’t be afraid. I wanna be your friend." Fluttershy said in her sweet voice. The Chocobo stared at the pegasus and began to walk towards her.
“Kweh?” The Chocobo made it over to Fluttershy and she smiled at it. It reached its large beak and towards the Gysahl Green and took it from Fluttershy.
"There you go. Enjoy my friend." Fluttershy smiled at the bird.
"Wow she’s good!" Yuna thought. Once the Chocobo finished eating the plant, it continued to stare at Fluttershy. Fluttershy returned the stare with a friendly face.
"I’m Fluttershy. What’s your name?" She asked tilting her head.
"Kweh!" The Chocobo turned around and began to walk deeper into the forest.
"Did you scare it away?" Yuna asked.
"No, it wants us to follow him." Fluttershy explained. Fluttershy followed the Chocobo as Yuna followed Fluttershy. The two followed the Chocobo, it lead it to an area with many other Chocobos.
"This must be the nest! Oh this is the best thing ever!" Fluttershy cheered looking at all the Chocobos walking around digging at the ground and pecking at it with their beaks. One Chocobo walked over to Yuna took the Gysahl Green she was holding from her, Yuna simply reached out petted the bird. Fluttershy noticed something out of the corner of her eye. She turned and noticed a large yellow feathery blob within the trees. She flew over to the blob and eyed it, she giggled at what the blob really was.
"You must have let yourself go didn’t you Mr. Chocobo?" Fluttershy asked.
"That’s the fat Cocobo." Yuna said.
"Wark." The Fat Chocobo went.
"Nice to meet you to!" Fluttershy smiled.
"You understand what its saying?" Yuna asked.
"Anything’s possible if you just open your heart to another creature. It’s not much different than you and your Aeons." Fluttershy explained. Yuna noticed that the day was already over so they had only one day left before they had to return to Cosmos.
"Fluttershy if you want to go see the Moogles, then we must move now. I hate to do this to you, but you’ll have to say goodbye to the Chocobos."
"Ok you go, I’ll be right behind you." Fluttershy sighed. Yuna moved out of the woods.
"Wark!" The Fat Chocobo went. Fluttershy looked at it and the large bird reached its wing underneath itself and took out a large white egg.
"You want me to have that!?" Fluttershy said in an ecstatic tone.
"Wark."
"I’ll take good care of it! I promise!" Fluttershy smiled. Fluttershy flew over to the bird and opened one of her saddle bags, the Fat Chocobo placed the egg inside the bag.
"Thank you so much!" Fluttershy smiled.
"Wark!" She looked over at the other Chocobos and they returned her look.
"Kweh!" One of them carried a summon stone in its beak and it walked over to Fluttershy. She opened her bag and the bird placed the stone inside the bag and Fluttershy smiled warmly at the bird.
"Thank you so much little friends! I hope I will see you again!" Fluttershy smiled and flew away to rejoin Yuna. Once they joined each other outside the forest Yuna felt a little irritated that she was kept waiting.
"Happy you met them?" Yuna asked.
"Oh yes, very happy, thank you so much!" Fluttershy had the smiled the biggest smile she ever shown. Yuna returned the smile.
"Ok now let’s go to the Moogles." Yuna said.
"Where are they?" Fluttershy asked.
"Here and there, they’re everywhere. You just gotta look in the right places." Yuna explained.
"Let’s go then!" Fluttershy said happily. She decided to keep the Chocobo Egg a secret, she didn’t know how the others would take the idea of bringing an outside creature into Equestria. Especially after the Parasprite incident, but she hoped that they won’t really mind, because if they opened up to Warrior, they’ll open up to a Chocobo.
Over at the Edge of Madness, Garland brought Trixie over to Chaos’s throne. They marched up the stairs, and it would only take a few minutes to get in front of the throne.
"Now mare, let’s see how brave you are. Is your hatred for those that wronged you strong enough to fuel the powers of Discord? Or will you fuel our god by becoming his dinner?" Trixie gulped as she and Garland marched up the steps to the throne. Once they made it to Chaos’s throne Trixie’s eyes bugged out and her heart began to race as she stared at the demonic looking, four armed god. Who was simply resting his head on two of his folded hands while the other two arms rested on the arms of his throne.
"Allow me to present to you, the God of Discord Chaos." Garland announced as he motioned his hand towards Chaos in a presenting fashion.
"Garland, what is this unicorn doing in my domain?" Chaos asked in an irritated tone.
"This unicorn wishes to be one of us." Garland said in a mocking tone.
"A stray Equestrian wishes to join the Chaos army? This is the second one who has come to me begging my assistance."
"An Equestrian has already been here?" Trixie asked. "Did you let it join?"
"She made us an offer that would really be beneficial to our plans so we accepted." Garland explained.
"So Equestrian, what do you have to offer us? Why would we want to allow you to join our army?" Chaos roared. Trixie gulped and swallowed her fears and marched closer to the evil god and bowed.
"Chaos, God of Discord. I’ve been humiliated and robbed. I wish to get more power to outmatch Twilight Sparkle and one of your enemies, The Warrior of Light. I can offer you my greatest power that can help you conquer Equestria and defeat Cosmos." Chaos sat still and stared at Trixie.
"I can see you have been scorned, I can see the you truly are hoping I grant you my powers to crush your enemies." Chaos said. "Hmmm…. I’m curious to see what power you could possibly possess."
"You claim that your power is great? I’m telling you that your power means nothing if your power is the greatest only amongst the other Equestrians." Garland lashed. Trixie gulped as she awaited the final decision from Chaos as he continued to ponder the decision.
"I think a test is necessary before I choose." Chaos said. "Let’s just see how powerful you truly are." Chaos snapped his fingers and five manikins surrounded the unicorn. Trixie rose and looked at the manikins with a look of terror. "Let’s see how you handle these." Chaos said. He snapped his fingers and both he and Garland disappeared, leaving Trixie alone with the manikins. Trixie gulped for she understood that she needs to defeat the manikins before they kill her, and they won’t hesitate to do so.
Trixie started focusing her powers, horn and the tip of it began to glow. She shot out a powerful beam of red light at one of the manikins and shattered it, the other manikins charged at Trixie with their weapons ready to kill her. Trixie acted quickly and started to gallop around the area as the manikins began to chase and swing their weapons at Trixie. Luckily her pony legs gave her the speed to outrun the manikins. She started focusing her powers on her horn again and she fired another beam that traveled behind her and shattered two manikins that were standing behind one another. Trixie was still anxious, because she wasn’t aware of what just happened.
"Oh Celestia I don’t want to die!" She charged up her horn again but a Counterfeit Youth threw ice at Trixie and tripped her. She slammed against the ground and slid across it. Once she stopped at the edge of the cliff, she eyed the manikins. She looked around and noticed that she really did destroy three manikins. She noticed that her horn was still glowing, the manikins were standing apart from each other as they moved in to finish her off so she wasn’t going to get lucky twice. Trixie remembered one thing she could do to win. She put a lot of her concentration and energy into her power and the magic formed a large sphere at the end of her horn began to grow large. Once the manikins reached Trixie and swung their weapons to kill her, the sphere exploded. The magic used was powerful enough to destroy the two manikins. Trixie felt dizzy as her head swayed around, with many burn marks across her body. It took her about two minutes until she regained her senses, she looked and noticed that she won the fight.
"I did it!" Trixie cheered.
"I must admit that was impressive." The voice of Garland said. A flash occurred, then he and Chaos returned to the throne. Trixie began to shake nervously as she bowed to Chaos again.
"So will you let me join the Warriors of Chaos?" Trixie asked with anticipation.
"Grr.. I wanted those manikins to kill this stupid horse!" Garland thought.
"Hmmm…" Chaos thought as he continued to ponder his decision.
Back with Rainbow Dash and Lightning, they exited the Gateway Lightning convinced Rainbow Dash to leave the Land of Discord. They headed east as they currently traveled through the northern continent near the Citadel of Trials
"We sure showed them, didn’t we?" Rainbow Dash asked boastfully.
"Yes, but don’t get too cocky. There will be more ahead of us." Lightning warned.
"The day is over you think we’ll find the reports on time?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"We need to keep looking, but if we can’t find them then we must trust that the others can find them." Lightning explained.
"Hey look at this!" Rainbow Dash called. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a bright yellow glowing stone inside a green railing stone.
"A Teleport Stone." Lightning explained. "These are scattered throughout the whole world. In fact there are some that haven’t even been found yet. These can transport you to several different areas of the world in mere moments. Perhaps the reports are in another region."
"You think we should use this?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"Yes." Lightning replied. "Now the ones that haven’t been discovered are inactive. They can’t take us anywhere and we can’t get to them unless they get activated."
"So where do you think we should go?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"I have a feeling that maybe they’re in the Lufenian region." Lightning explained. "Give me one of your hooves." Rainbow Dash reached out her front right hoof and Lightning took it in her hand. Lightning placed her hand on the Teleport Stone. "Lufenia!" She called to the stone. The light left the center stone and covered the two and shot them upwards and shot them over to Lufenia.
In Ponyville Warrior followed the loud music to a small house with a light show of many flashing colors peering through the windows. The music was very loud Warrior, couldn’t hear himself breath over it. Warrior looked through the window and Warrior’s hunch was correct. The pony that was playing the music was in fact, Vinyl Scratch.
"I wonder if she’s gone deaf with this volume?" Warrior wondered. He turned to the door and wrapped his knuckles on the door to get her attention, but the music obliviously covered up the knocking. Warrior knocked harder and faster, but still no response. Warrior tried turning the doorknob but the door was locked. "I guess I may need to use force." Warrior noticed that nearby homes of ponies poked their heads out their windows and screamed cries of outrage at Vinyl’s home. Warrior readied his shield and used his shield of light attack to break open the door. "Shine!" The entrance blew open and the sound waves of the music exploded, it even knocked Warrior off his feet and blew his helmet away. The music was earsplitting loud. Warrior’s eyes bugged out at this power of the music. Warrior got back on his feet and fought the power of the sound waves and worked his legs to walk inside the house. Warrior saw Vinyl’s head pounding to the music with headphones on her ears. She was standing in front of her music station and messed with many knobs and switches as records with two large stereo speakers were playing the music. Warrior sighed and walked in front of the unicorn and waved in front of her head and got her attention.
"Oh hi Warrior!" Vinyl said happily. Warrior tried talking to her but she couldn’t understand him. Vinyl raised an eyebrow at Warrior and decided to turn the music down. The volume decreased dramatically and Warrior felt relieved to have the music down.
"Now Lady Scratch. I understand that you love music and in fact I do to, but you’re playing it too loud, it’s disturbing the other ponies here. In fact you need to keep the volume at this level." Warrior explained.
"Oh!" Vinyl said placing a hoof on her mouth. "I’m so sorry." She giggled. "When I get into my music, it gets a little distracted by it, so distracted that I may enjoy it to the max!"
"Well I had to destroy your door in order to get inside." Warrior said pointing to her broken door.
"Oh my. I guess I was enjoying it not just to the max, but the extreme!" Vinyl laughed. "Hey I didn’t know you had red hair!" She giggled and pointed to the hair on Warrior’s head.
"Well now that it’s over I bid you a good night. Here's money for your door." Warrior said. Handed her a large bag of Gil, he turned around and walked out the door. He found his helmet lying on the grass just across the street from the house.
"Hey wait!" Vinyl called rushing out of her house. "Since you’re here, you wanna…I don’t know. Go do something?"
"Like what?" Warrior asked raising an eyebrow to her.
"I don’t know, we could just walk around until something comes our way." Vinyl suggested. Warrior sighed and walked away, Vinyl moved to Warrior and walked next to him.
Back with Kain, Twilight and Spike, the two walked through the fields around the Ruined Keep.
"So where exactly are you taking us?" Twilight asked.
"I’m not entirely sure but Warrior defiantly has some sort of attachment to this place." Kain explained.
"What place?" Spike asked.
"I’ll tell you more when we get there. But right now we need to find the right gateway that will take us there." Kain explained.
"You think it’s somewhere around here?" Twilight asked.
"It should be." Kain replied, his head shifting around looking for the Gateway.
"Hey, there it is!" Spike called. The team looked to the west and noticed the rubble of the area where the Ruined Keep should be. Right next to it was the Red Gateway.
"Let’s go." Kain said, he took the lead and had the others and they followed him into the Gateway. On the other side the team looked around in awe. The place they were at was called the Empyreal Paradox, The area was completely blue and made of crystal. Large blue crystals laid out all over the place, the floor also made of blue crystal, and the Center was a Giant Red crystal. Lots of small energy streams were moving from the floor and to the Red Crystal. It looked as if the Red crystal was a life force or a vocal point for something. The sky was dark blue and starry.
"This place is amazing!" Twilight said looking around. "Just imagine what Starswirl the Bearded would do in a place like this!" Spike just stared at the giant red crystal in the center with hungry eyes. Kain walked over to him and smacked his head with the blunt end of his lance.
"Don’t even think about it!" Kain warned the young dragon.
"I’m hungry! I haven’t eaten any lunch. So please just a lick!" Spike begged at Kain’s feet.
"Not a chance!" Kain said in a firm tone. Twilight walked up next to Kain and gave Spike an angry look.
"Please Twilight!" Spike begged. She heard Spike’s stomach growl and found out that me really is starving. She rolled her eyes and called to Kain and began whispering in his ear. Kain sighed and looked at Spike.
"You can help yourself to one of the blue crystals but do NOT eat the red crystal." Kain said compromising with the Dragon.
"Yes!" Spike cheered as he leaped over to one of the large blue crystals. He eyed it with his starving eyes and leaped on the crystal and began to slowly devour it. Twilight and Kain watched him as Twilight giggled.
"Oh that Spike." Twilight laughed, she turned her attention to the red crystal. "So why don’t you want this Crystal eaten?" Kain refocused his gaze on the crystal.
"This crystal seems to be a large structural catalyst if it goes away, surely something horrible could happen to this land." Kain explained.
"So what makes this place so special to Warrior?" Twilight asked.
"Listen closely." Kain said firmly. "When Warrior gets any spare time to himself, he comes here and stares at the sky for several hours."
"But neither I nor the others ever saw him do that." Twilight pointed out.
"Well he hasn’t had much time to himself since, well he and I took out some of our allies, along with his new mission of protecting your world." Kain explained.
"Oh, so why does he come here and stare at the sky?" Twilight asked.
"I’m not sure but whatever it is, it must be very personal to him." Kain reiterated.
"Have you ever asked him?" Twilight wondered.
"I tried once. He only answered me with it’s all I have.”
"Poor Warrior, it obliviously has something to do with him trying to find out who he truly is." Twilight thought with a sad look.
"So sometime you should bring Warrior here and talk to him, maybe then you may be able to bond better." Kain suggested. Twilight nodded, they heard a burp from Spike and they turned to look at him. He was lying on the ground with a fat belly and a satisfied look on his face.
"Oh man, that was good!" Spike said burping again. The other two sighed exasperatedly.
"Ok so I should bring Warrior here sometime?" Twilight asked and Kain nodded. "Ok so let’s get back to searching for the reports." Then the three left the Empyreal Paradox and returned to World B.
Back with Vaan and Pinkie Pie they used a Teleport stone to warp eastward to the Cresent Lake.
"There’s a volcano around here." Vaan said as they passed through the ruins of the town that once lay nearby.
"A volcano!" Pinkie Pie said in an excited tone. "Is it active?"
"I’m not sure, we’ll find out." Vaan said. "Now there should be an inactivated Teleport Stone nearby, it will take us to the Volcano, you see without it we would have to forge a large river for several minutes."
"Oh I love swimming! You sure we can’t forge the river?"
"I want to be a sky pirate, not a sea pirate." Vaan argued. "Oh here it is!" Vaan walked in front of the inactive Teleport Stone, the center stone was not glowing. Vaan focused a small portion of his powers of Harmony on the tip of his finger and touched the center stone and activated it.
"Weeeeeee! We’re going to be warping again!" Pinkie Pie cheered bouncing up and down. Vaan grabbed her hoof and touched the stone and it warped them to the center of the continent were the Volcano laid.
"There it is!" Pinkie Pie cheered.
"Let’s go see what’s at the top shall we?" Vaan said. He and Pinkie Pie climbed up the steep side of the Volcano. There was no heat so it was a big indication that the Volcano was dormant. Once they made it to the crater they looked around but found no reports. Vaan panted and sweated from the workout he got from the hike, but Pinkie Pie was still energized. Vaan took immediate notice of that.
"Wow, how do you do that?" Vaan asked.
"Do what?" Pinkie Pie smiled.
"Not get tired."
"Oh I just not get worried out tiring out, but if you wanna know. Years of Partying and nonstop eating of the delicious sweets!" Pinkie Pie explained.
"Guess I would be that way to if I lived like you." Vaan laughed. Then he noticed something shining in the crater. "Look at that!" They both climbed into the crater and walked over to the object. Vaan picked it up the object which was in fact a ruby red stone. "What is this?" Pinkie Pie immediately knew what it was.
"A Summon Stone!" She announced.
"How do you know?" Vaan asked.
"Warrior has a couple, he showed them to us!" Pinkie Pie asked. "In fact! Here’s another one!" Pinkie Pie scooped up another one out of the dirt.
"Sweet!" Vaan said happily. "Well, since there’s no reports here, so let’s go search more of this area." Vaan suggested, Pinkie Pie nodded and the two left the Volcano.
Back with Lightning and Rainbow Dash, the two entered a Gateway south of the Lufenian village. The Gateway was green so the other side led inside a cave like structure.
"This gateway is vast." Lightning explained. "In fact it probably has five floors to it."
"Well I hope the Reports are here! I don’t wanna search this whole cave only to find more money." Rainbow Dash said.
"Well you can always turn around." Lightning suggested.
"No way!" Rainbow Dash objected. "What if the reports really are in here? I would feel so stupid for turning away from them!"
"Good." Lightning smiled. "Now let’s go look around."
Back with Yuna and Fluttershy in the mountain at the southern continent, the sun rose and the second day started. Yuna led the Pegasus to a small cuddly little moogle.
"Oh it’s so cute!" Fluttershy squeaked at the small white creature.
"Kupo!" The Moogle went. "Thanks!"
"Oh it talks!" Fluttershy squealed.
"Of course I can, Kupo!" The moogle said.
"The Moogles create items for us and we buy them. They’re a great help to us!" Yuna explained.
"How?" Fluttershy asked.
"Like this." Yuna walked up to the Moogle and made a request to it. "Can you please produce a potion?" The Moogle nodded and flew around the bend around the mountain and followed the Moogle. He hovered above a cauldron and stirred a red liquid inside it.
"What’s he doing?" Fluttershy asked.
"I’m not sure." Yuna said. "They can make just about anything from that. Weapons, armor, items."
"Really?" Fluttershy asked Peering over into the cauldron.
"Please! Let me concentrate, kupo!" The Moogle called, Fluttershy stepped away from the cauldron.
"Sorry." Fluttershy smiled. Then all of a sudden, a potion flew out of the cauldron and towards Yuna, she caught it. "Amazing!"
"Can I have my payment, kupo?" The Moogle asked.
"You really need money?" Fluttershy asked.
"I can do this and you won’t have a potion!" The Moogle clapped its hands and the potion disappeared.
"Please. I’ll accommodate you." Yuna smiled she reached into her chest and took out a handful of Gil. And gave it to the Moogle.
"Thanks, kupo!" The Moogle bowed and clapped its hands again and the potion reappeared in Yuna’s hands.
"You guys are so mystical, and so cuddly!" Flutttershy said giving a warm smile to the Moogle. "What’s your name?"
"My name’s Mogrika." The Moogle bowed.
"What’s this little thing?" Fluttershy said tapping the large red sphere dangling in front of her face with her hoof. The Moogle jolted backwards feeling violated.
"Please don’t ever touch my Pom-pom!" Mogrika squeaked.
"Oh, I’m sorry little friend." Fluttershy whimpered to the little creature.
"It’s ok, you didn’t know. Kupo!"
"Thanks!" Fluttershy smiled warmly to the Moogle.
"Ok hope you had fun. But we really need to get back to searching for the reports." Yuna advised.
"Oh….ok." Fluttershy frowned. "Bye Mogrika."
"So long!" The Moogle nodded and the two went on their way.
Back in Ponyville Warrior walked through the streets with Vinyl.
"Hey! I know!" Vinyl said happily. "I Have another recording studio outside of Ponyville, I’ll show it to you!"
"Well, that technology I saw in your home was impressive." Warrior admitted.
"Great! Since it’s outside nopony should be disturbed." Vinyl said happily. "It’s this way!" Vinyl took the lead as she led Warrior out of town. They came to a small building that was about the size of a shed, but decorated like a house with windows on each side, not too far out of Ponyville. Vinyl took a key out from under the ‘Welcome’ mat and unlocked the door. "Come on in!" Vinyl offered, she walked in and Warrior followed her. Warrior looked in awe at all the technology that was inside. Vinyl noticed Warrior’s expression. "Like it?"
"Very impressive." Warrior admitted. "So what exactly does this stuff do?" Warrior walked over the panels and examined them closely.
"It allows me to record and make music, duh!" Vinyl laughed. "Let me show you!" Vinyl went to the central hub of the studio and turned it on. The miniature lights lit up as the machines turned on.
"All this does something, impressive!" Warrior commented.
"That’s not the half of it." Vinyl pushed a button and the same song that was used in the fashion show started playing again. Warrior looked at the gauges of volume that the music was producing, how they kept going up and down in rhythm with the music.
"Amazing!" Warrior said not taking his eyes off it.
"I can do a lot more than just that!" Vinyl said. She turned many different knobs on the station and made the music change in many different ways. Tone, tune, and pitch. She made the music change genres, like techno and jazz, but still played the same notes.
"This is like magic. You must be a Bard!"
"A what?" Vinyl laughed.
"A being who traverses the world and sings songs, and from what I’ve heard Bard’s songs have strange powers. You must have powers of this music."
"Sorry, I’m just a unicorn, the power all lies in this room before you." Vinyl explained. "Let me show you what this thing can do with my voice." Vinyl got a mic and sang into it. “When you walk away.” Vinyl pressed a button and the words played back to her.
"Incredible!" Warrior said amazed as he walked over and eyed the mic.
"But wait there’s more!" Vinyl said, she turned some knobs and the words played back repeatedly with some changes in things, just like before with the music. She made her voice as low as a giant, as high as a mouse, and even tuned it to make her sound like a robot.
"Interesting!" Warrior complimented continuing to eye the mic.
"It is great isn’t it?" Vinyl laughed as she powered down the music station. Vinyl lifted up her glasses an revealed her red eyes. Warrior stopped eying the mic and took notice of her eyes.
"Your eyes are red." Warrior pointed out.
"Just like your hair." Vinyl replied. Warrior looked out the window and noticed that the morning sun had risen.
"I’m afraid that it’s time for me return to the Sanctuary." Warrior explained.
"It was fun! Hope to see you again!" Vinyl said. Warrior nodded and turned and left.
Back at the Chaos’s throne Chaos came to a decision.
"So do you think you have what it takes to serve me?" Chaos asked.
"Please!" Trixie pleaded.
"Then we must test your commitment to Discord. We must also test your commitment to serving me. And there’s only one place you can do that."
"Where?" Trixie asked.
"Hell." Chaos said. Trixie gulped and began to shake in fear. "I will send you to Hell and you will face a trial lead by the Judge who watches over the trial. If you pass you will be allowed to fight for us. If not, then Hell will be your new home." Chaos laughed at Trixie’s fear. "However to be fair I will grant you the powers of Discord, they won’t mean much to you if you stay in Hell."
"This is not for the faint of heart." Garland warned. Trixe felt that she should turn back and but she also knew that was not an option. She also remembered what’s in store for her if she succeeds. A chance to humiliate Warrior and Twilight.
"Send me. The Great and Powerfull Trixie will conquer Hell!"
"Very well then!" Chaos said. He raised two of his four hands, one of them held the powers of Discord. He gave them to Trixie and she began to feel more powerful. He waved his other hand and fire burst out of the ground and consumed Trixie, when it cleared she was gone.
"She’ll never make it out of there." Garland remarked.
"No, but if she does than it proves that we underestimated the Equestrians." Chaos added. "So tell me what is Cosmos doing?"
Our spy informed us that she is sending her warriors to seek something out but she cannot say what exactly. Cosmos has given their orders outside of their world, she must have the Equestrians involved. Because their little defender and the six that have been giving us problems left Equestria, only the Warrior came back. Garland explained. What is it you want us to do?" Chaos thought for a moment, then came to a decision.
"We shall wait, and see what develops."
Back with Lightning and Rainbow Dash, the two have cleared four floors of the Gateway defeating several manikins in their path. Rainbow Dash had the power of the Element of Loyalty covering her body. She bucked a manikin and completely shattered it.
"Feels good to finally show those things who’s boss!" Rainbow Dash said boastfully.
"Don’t get overconfident we still have one more floor to go." Lightning warned. The two went down some steppes and stopped as they came to a room filled with seven manikins and treasure chest.
"We can make quick work of these guys right? 'Rainbow Dash said. The power of her Element had not left her.
"They won’t be a problem!" Lightning said, they charged at the manikins. Rainbow Dash tackled down a manikin and shattered it. Lightning pulled out her two giant blades. "Who are you watching!?" She darted forward and destroyed three manikins in a flash, leaving behind only crystal dust and falling rose petals. Rainbow Dash began to swerve around to dodge attacks. While Lightning put away her giant blades and pulled out her Blazefire saber and fired bullets and destroyed them.
"No problem at all!" Rainbow Dash said.
"Let’s go check out the chest." Lightning suggested she walked towards it with Rainbow Dash hovering above her head. She picked up the chest and opened it. Inside were papers, there were documents of several pages put together.
"Paper!?" Rainbow Dash said disappointed.
"Did you forget what we’re looking for?" Lightning scoffed. She took out a piece and looked at the big bold writings on the front page of each one. Some of them said World A while others said World B. "These are them!"
"We found them!" Rainbow Dash cheered. "Let’s get out of here and show everyone!" The two found the exit Gateway and returned to World B.
The day next at the Sanctuary, before the heroes returned, Celestia and Cosmos spoke together.
"I plan to reward them." Cosmos said.
"How?"
"I wish to bless them with my powers."
"What!?" Celestia said shocked.
"I have this feeling that your sister wasn’t the only Equestrian Chaos has touched. I need to be prepared."
"But what about their memories? You know how this conflict works more than anyone." Celestia asked worried.
"I’ll just need to wait until the battle starts again, and their memories should be just fine." Cosmos explained.
"I just don’t want everything they’ve been through together erased." Celestia said, still worried.
"I have confidence that they’ll be fine."
Warrior returned to the Sanctuary, and not soon after he did, so did the other heroes. Some had found things even better than reports while others had nothing to turn up.
"After all the Gateways, we found two Summon Stones in the cave." Laguna said. "I guess it wasn’t a total loss."
"Same here!" Vaan called. "We found two Summon Stones also!"
"I did enjoy the time we spent." Applejack smiled.
"I had so much fun!" Pinkie Pie said happily. "I never had so much fun before in my life. Well, except this one time when…(Ramble)" Vaan just laughed.
"Don’t forget what I said." Kain told Twilight. She nodded.
"You can count on us!" Spike saluted. Kain walked over to Spike and kneeled before him.
"You are still immature and have much to learn, but know that you will be placed in a situation that will greatly define your character. When you make the right decision, you will be right then placed in high regards and we Dragoons will defiantly fight and win battles in your honor." Spike took a minute to take in what Kain told him. He looked at Twilight and she gave him a knowing look, telling Spike that Kain told the truth.
"I won’t let you down! I will be a dragon you will be proud to fight for!" Spike said boldly.
"I’m sorry we didn’t find the reports." Fluttershy whimpered.
"Don’t worry I’m sure you had fun seeing the Moogles and the Chococbos." Yuna smiled.
"Oh I had a really good time!" Fluttershy smiled.
"We had several battles with manikins but found nothing." Tifa said.
"Don’t worry. I’m sure you’ll be able to help your friend." Rarity assured Tifa.
"Hey you guys don’t have a thing to worry about." Rainbow Dash said boastfully.
"I usually don’t encourage that type of behavior, unfortunately she speaks the truth." Lightning said.
"Come on! We found them together, the least you could do is be more supportive." Rainbow Dash frowned.
"I’m being as supportive as needed, I’m not going to put on a parade for you because we found a few pieces of paper."
"But these aren’t any pieces of paper." Warrior said, flipping through the reports. Cosmos and Celestia stood side by side at the throne. Twilight walked over to Warrior.
"So Warrior, how was your time in Equestria without us?" Twilight asked Warrior looked at Twilight then went back to flipping through the reports.
"I’ve defeated more manikins, and spent some interesting time with other interesting residents of Ponyville." Warrior said. Twilight smiled, she thought that Warrior was finally opening up to making friends.
"Congratulations." Cosmos announced. "Now with the permission of Princess Celestia, Twilight Sparkle!" Twilight stepped forward and bowed before the Goddess. "Now with you being the keeper of the Library in Ponyville, I would like to bestow upon you the honor of being the keeper of the reports." Twilight jumped and her face lit up with joy.
"Oh thank you so much!" Twilight squealed happily.
"So Twilight did you learn anything while you were out there?" Princess Celestia asked. Twilight looked at the others conversing she remembered that some were bummed that they didn’t find anything but enjoyed the time they spent.
"I did, I learned that sometimes you may not get what you want out of a journey, but you may find something better. In fact whatever that better thing is, maybe something that’s more than just what you can see with your eyes. I see that the others even if they didn’t find the reports they made more friends and that makes them happier than the mission, including Warrior."
"Very good Twilight." Celestia smiled.
"You’re lessons will are serving you well, you must take them to heart for they will do you and everyone else good one day." Cosmos explained.
"Well, if we’re done with the after mission R&R then we still got manikins to defeat." Lightning announced. She turned around and began marching out of the Sanctuary.
"Wait!" Rainbow Dash called. "Aren’t you curious about what the Reports say?"
"Doesn’t matter, we still need to stop the flow of them before it’s too late." Lightning said.
"Sure we can’t go with you!?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"I wouldn’t recommend it, there’s a large chance that when we go for them we won’t come back." Laguna explained. The ponies looked shocked to hear that. But it quickly subsided with the remembrance that if they die they get revived to fight again.
"Well, if you’re going to leave. Just know I had fun!" Rainbow Dash called. Lightning smiled and nodded the Pegasus.
"We can’t leave her alone!" Laguna said, he turned to Applejack. "Wish I could chat with you but, like she said we got Manikins to defeat."
"Here take these!" Applejack gave Laguna one of her saddle bags and inside it were apples. Laguna smiled at her. "Can’t defeat dolls on an empty stomach, right?" Laguna nodded.
"Thank you so much for showing me those creatures, I’ll never forget it and I’ll never forget you." Fluttershy said to Yuna.
"I’m happy that you’re happy." Yuna said.
"Hope your friend finds his way, and that you two can be together again." Rarity said.
"Thanks, your support is greatly appreciated." Tifa responded.
"Maybe someday I may have energy like yours." Vaan said to Pinkie Pie.
"It’s not hard someday you’ll discover that it’s easy as pie!" Pinkie Pie smiled.
Kain looked at Twilight and she nodded, he nodded back.
"Goodbye, thanks for the advice!" Spike called.
"You’ll go far, I know you will." Kain said to the Dragon. They walked out of the Sanctuary and went back to searching to the source of the manikins.
"Let’s go put these where they belong." Twilight said and the group walked back into Ponyville with Celestia and left Warrior and Cosmos alone. Twilight held the reports on her back.
Once the team returned Ponyville, the group returned to the Library the team all sat around a table.
"So what do they say?" Rainbow Dash asked intently. Twilight took out the first report and cleared her throat and read it aloud.
"Your memories are of great significance.
Just as you've already realized,
this tale is most likely closely
related to the coming disaster.
Do you truly believe that is so?
My story is merely that of a single researcher...
no more than the tale of a mother and child.
Along with seeing what's beyond our reach and making new friends.
I fear the telling of this tale will most
likely do little more than add further
confusion to people living in a world that
has fallen into the depths of despair.
I do not intend to tell them.
After taking down your story,
I will keep the reports firmly sealed,
hidden from the outside world.
Yet, someday, a strong-willed person
will uncover the reports.
By the time they are read... this
story will be no more than a myth.
Still, we have a duty to hold it dear.
Stories are proof of life, after all.
Come then, speak.
Tell the story carved into your memories..."
"What do you suppose that means?" Rainbow Dash asked. The others were puzzled and were trying to figure out what everything in the Report meant.
"I’m not sure but something tells me that this may not be just a mere war between gods." Twilight said.