//------------------------------// // Chapter 9: Fog of Friendship // Story: Mordekaiser Recalls to Equestria // by Dleifragcat //------------------------------// Darkness shadowed grimly over the throne room, its smoke and ash clouds left out any sunlight from the outdoors turning mere shadows into areas of pitch-black fog. And somewhere within the smoke were six separated ponies, a metal terror, and an over one-thousand year old angry spirit somewhere flying about. Celestia however was stumbling out to the edges of the smoke clouds where they made in contact with the walls. Her head was hurting from the intensity of the migraine she had obtained from Mordekaiser. Through the mixed convulsions going on inside her head, she couldn’t help but give that brute some credit for his tactics. Trying to open her eyes from the pain wasn’t an easy task with all the pain. She slumped her back down against a wall. What she could really use was some breathing room from all the fog to get her mind thinking again. Her horn lights up fighting against the surging amount of headache pain the regal princess endured, and tries to cast a simple repel spell against the fog. It only nudged out for a few metres before receding back to its previous state. “Of course, Sombra uses dark magic. That means I would have to put more focus into my spells…” she winces in pain as she rests a hoof on her horn. “No chance of that happening right now.” She figures out through all the blistering pains in her head that she’s able to repel the fog just a bit, yet it would always recede. Celestia placed her horn up against the wall and channeled her magic into the throne room. Her same repel magic spread across the room seamlessly condensing the fog towards the centre of the room. She slid even further down her back against the wall in exhaustion. “I hope Twilight and her friends will make it out of the fog and seek safety against the walls, the spell should hold for a few more minutes.” She opened her eyes to see a bright cascade of light shining from her sun and into the room. “AAAARRGH!” she grabbed her horn with both hooves from the massive burst of pain from the oversensitivity of light for her migraine. She toppled over and fell to the floor in agony, cursing one name. “Mordekaiser, you jerk… you have an ironic sense of humor.” It wasn’t every day that the Princess of the Sun would be suffering so much pain from looking at her sun rays. It was true enough to say that no matter how overpowered anything was, a migraine would always be stronger than that. And so would be any irony associated with it. ----------------------------------------------- While Celestia was busy tending to her horn outside the fog, Mordekaiser was casually walking around looking for any potential victims. He had to admit, that spectral equine did a great job turning the room into one giant fog of war. Perhaps too much of a great job… “I CAN’T SEE A DAMN THING!” Now would’ve been a good time for something like a vision ward, but of course… “I’M NOT THE DAMN SUPPORT! I blame YOU King Sombra!” he shouted into the swirling dark fog. He shrugged realizing his shouting would be pointless, for all he knows his servant would be flying around trying to find some equines for him to fight and demoralize. If he couldn’t find them, then they would find him, and if that doesn’t work then he’ll order Sombra to go find them so that way, he or they could find themselves. “Foolproof.” Suddenly, Mordekaiser felt a tingle in his chest. He reached out his arm to scratch it; it was right where that ‘friendship rainbow’ made by the six ponies had hit him. “I feel… ticklish.” Soon the feeling passed with a more-than confused Mordekaiser, he was certain it had happened but it went away after a few seconds leaving nothing but his usual metallic demeanor of pain. “This place is driving me more insane by the minute.” With a revamped drive, he set forth through the fog of war to locate the ponies. Maybe he will use them as hostages, maybe he’ll go on a killing-spree there were six of them after all. He was always curious to know what would happen if he got a kill immediately after a penta. Though this world is strange in its designs to mock and torment him. There would be no knowing what would happen should he score that extra kill. Just then he remembered something, something rather important. There was no doubt that Mordekaiser was once a powerful general, but he was also a tactile one. If he was right about his assumption playing on his head, then maybe… “Oh ho… yes.” He couldn’t help but let out a loud laugh that pierced through the dense membranes of the fog. Should he somehow fail in obtaining that sixth kill for whatever reason, he knows how to get it either way. It was inevitable, and there is nothing that Celestia or these ponies could do to stop it. ----------------------------------------------- “HUE HUE hue hue….” Applejack turned her ears to the direction of that vicious laughter with a nervous impulse chilling down her spine. She yelped when she felt something slither past her back hooves. She craned her neck to see nothing but dark fog before her. “Ah… Ah’m not afraid of you Mordekaiser!” She burst out. Then the familiar nervousness worked its way back into her, “… o-or Sombra for that matter.” She gulped and took a few steps forward only to feel an ominous gust slide past her; this was too much for her to take. She sprinted as fast as she could away from that gust in the opposite direction. Her redirection sent her bursting through gasps and exasperated breaths trying to get away from whatever that thing was. The fog was so deep that she barely had any time to react before colliding with a frantic rainbow Pegasus. “Rainbow! Oh am I so glad to see you!” Applejack said in relief as she tried to unscramble herself from her friend. “Applejack!” Rainbow beamed and gave her a hug before flying back up a few feet in the air. “Did you see what happened? Sombra just jumped in and exploded!” She looked to see Applejack giving her a dry expression. “Right, aha… So I can’t seem to blast way any of this fog with my Pegasus abilities, which sucks! And I tried flying up to the ceiling, but it seems it reached all the way up too!” “Argh! This blows!” Rainbow crossed her hooves. Just then a gust of wind blew across them, and when they turned their heads to its direction, any hope they had left of rejoining everypony else was shattered. A pair of glowing red eyes pierced through the fog. The ground vibrated when the metallic figure hiding in the shadows took a scarce amount of steps towards them just enough to reveal the sharp gleam of his suit. “Ah, so I see what Sombra’s game was… More clever than your average spirit.” He looked down upon the two ponies. “But an equine nonetheless.” “YOU!” Applejack shouted in anger. “Hmmm?” Mordekaiser raised an eye. “Ah knew, you were trouble the moment ah saw your thick metal hide! You think y’all can just do what you want ‘cause you’re a crazy psycho lord?” Applejack went up closer to him, right until she could feel the chill of metal wafting off his boots. “I’ll tell you what! You’re lord of NOTHING to me! Ah don’t like ya and now you’ll get a good kick of mah hooves!” Immediately to Rainbow’s horror, Applejack slammed a hoof into Mordekaiser’s armor. It didn’t do anything other than send a ringing of clanking metal through the air. Unsatisfied with her kick, Applejack continued to barrage Mordekaiser’s leg with repeated follow-up kicks. “Honesty. That is certainly a noble trait.” His arm reached down and grabbed an orange hoof before she could cause anything more than a dent. He lifted her high into the air upside down and locked eyes with her emerald ones. “It is also quite unwise. How many secrets have your allies been keeping from you? Or, I could say the opposite for you.” His eyes furrowed into her soul. “It’s like when a creature says to me they won’t tell me what I need to know. Enslaving them as my spirit seems to be a reputable solution.” His voice leered towards the upside down cowpony. “Fortunately for you, I could care less about Equestria’s secrets. Just like I could care less about having you voice your opinions about me.” He brought his face closer towards hers; the stench of his death was sickly intoxicating, she tried to hoof him once more but missed. “Hue.” With that he threw her through the fog, Applejack shouted all the way from the velocity of the throw. She sailed out of the fog and slammed hard into a wall. Satisfied with his first technically un-official Equestrian kill, he turned his attention back to the crayon-maned pony. “You… You… A-APPLEJACK! I WON’T LET YOU HURT ANY MORE OF MY FRIENDS!” with tears in her eyes she flew far ahead passed him in a blinding cyan blur. “Loyalty. From my experiences, the weak always follow the strong. Why protect those weaker than you when you can easily crush them? Ahh… but what happens when there is more than one who is strong. It will, and always become a slaughter, a series of back-stabbings and uprisings. Allies or not, it will always end with pain and torment to decide a victor of the highest calibre.” A flash of rainbow caught his eye along with a booming sound a single second later. Having anticipated and learned Rainbow’s speed from the train ride, he turned his body sideways, just as a rainbow blur tried to slam into him from the shadows. The cyan Pegasus was mere inches from Mordekaiser’s metallic spiked chest plate. Rainbow Dash was shocked at Mordekaiser’s simple turn to doged her attack. It had caught her off guard. Unable to control her speed from the small sonic rainboom, she sailed out from the foggy mess and slammed into the wall next to Applejack before landing on top of her in pain and discomfort. “You are so blinded by the ‘loyalty’ of protecting your friends and princess; you can’t even hit the obstacle that’s going to crush them.” His cape swung back around him as he made his journey deeper into the fog, leaving the two ponies in near-unconscious agony. ------------------------------- He took a few more steps through the dark fog; his spectral servant’s plan of luring the wretched ponies to him was beyond satisfactory. He could feel the lasting pain from his curse upon Celestia’s horn weaken every second. But at this rate, he’ll have crushed enough morale to get Celestia to comply with his demands. He could just easily find her, take her soul and be done with it. But there are… complications. Not only will I be stuck with an equine, there would be two of them! And this one has past his expiration date! I cannot allow yet another glitch in the death cycle. It would just be painful… This time he heard an ear-piercing shriek. He rushed towards the source of the sound to see King Sombra hovering above an alabaster-furred unicorn with a regal purple mane. “You! You got all this ash on my fur! Don’t you tyrants know it will take WEEKS to wash off!?” she said with an ever-growing desire to want to erase the spectral pony from existence for ruining her fur. Sombra turned to look at Mordekaiser approaching, he grinned before slithering off in a cloud of shadow. As soon as Rarity noticed why he had left so abruptly from her ranting it was already too late. A large metallic shadow loomed over her, its eyes seething with merciless spite. “White unicorn, we finally have a chance to talk in individual company, considering all I’ve heard from you so far were complaints on either my servant or me,” he rested his mace horizontally together with both hands. “I don’t rather enjoy long conversations, by the way.” Anger and heartache for her friends and fur taking over her body, she was unable to sustain herself with all the destructive emotions she felt for this metallic jerk. “I can’t BELIEVE YOU!” she started by shouting at him. “You came to Equestria not knowing where you were, we went to help you, and tried to arrange the meeting with Princess Celestia! Fluttershy let you use her home as a steady rest-spot until then. BUT NO, you just had to become impatient! Sometimes life will throw things your way which you can’t possibly fathom of escaping.” Her eyes narrowed on the curvatures of his sharp steel linings of plate armor that bound him to life. “And sometimes… good things will come your way. Instead, you decided to turn down all our gifts of generosity towards you and now… and now...” It only took a second for Mordekaiser to process that information. “HAH! Generosity? Ahh, yes of course. I see now.” he said slyly, Rarity’s eyes were shifting from his tone. “Yes, after I spared the yellow one’s life, I was thanked by being attacked by that magic purple equine. She generously showed me her kindness in its fullest extent I believe…” Rarity could already see where this is going. “I only wanted a way out of this insanity-ridden place of sunshine and rainbows. But noooo…” he imitated Rarity’s whining to mock her. “Being offered a home to rest in… is the same as being offered a place to stay. A PRISON if you want a better definition!” He raised his voice in anger. “I wanted assistance to leave, not to stay in this forsaken place! And now look where we are: your princess will not cooperate with me and no one else on this damn land! My time is precious and I had to be generous in not wasting it.” He quickly grabbed Rarity’s hoof with one of his arms. She yelped in fright as the cold sting of metal burned on her skin from his clutch. “So allow me to be generous and offer you, my gift.” His voice filled with malice overtaking itself into a vile laughter, he released a portion of his affliction into the defenseless unicorn. She screamed and shouted in terror before going sick and limp. Bags were under her eyes, her skin had a tinged of green to it and it looked like she had caught the flu. Rarity hadn’t felt sicker in her life. Fortunately for her, she was alive, but just barely. What was unfortunate was immediately after receiving her ‘gift’, Mordekaiser chucked her over his shoulder through the fog. The flying unicorn landed right on top of Applejack’s orange stomach in pain while kicking Rainbow in the nose causing grunts in all of them. Rainbow had finally gotten a bit more conscious from her impact, but her head was still standing on the ground with her hind-legs upwards. Without wanting to waste any time, Mordekaiser continued onwards looking for more ponies to obtain ‘unofficial kills’ from. Killing their disposition to fight was better in his opinion. It was odd though, the tickle in his chest came back again and quickly left. Maybe it pacified him or maybe it only tickled because being touched by a rainbow is a once-in-a-death-time experience. Through the gloomy darkness, he stopped in his tracks. A box. Past matches from his league experience flooded and polluted his thoughts. He took a step forward towards the wooden entity. “SURPIRSE!” A bright and colourful pink pony of vibrant energy and happiness leaped out from the tiny box showering the master of metal with confetti and balloons. “Were you surprised, were you, were you, you big meenie? You or that craaaazy flying ghost can’t sneak up on me! I can already hide in the dark, but I hid in a dark box in the dark! It was my ultimate scheme to get you to laugh, smile and enjoy everything even though you are a giant walking cheese grater from a different dimension!” she beamed with a fit of giggles and laughter. Not only did Mordekaiser despise the burst of laughter and surprise from this pink pony, but he also had to be reminded of those boxes. The pink equine just kept laughing and hopping around. Prancing up and down like a raving mad creature from this cartoon-world of magical talking ponies. Whatever threshold the Kaiser of Morde’s sanity was before was nothing compared to the large mental snap he felt in his helmet. He grabbed her with both of his arms on her shoulders to restrain her bounces. “WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!?” he shouted with a force of a gale of wind into her face. “ARE YOU TRYING TO MOCK ME EVEN MORE THAN THIS WORLD ALREADY HAS!?” “What? I don’t understand what you’re talking about, silly!” “Oh, you know. You definitely know…” he let go of her. “YOU HARLEQUINN!” He slammed his mace down into the castle tiles causing a massive shockwave. “You have NO IDEA what you are mocking! That jester laugh, your hiding, YOUR BOXES! YOUR DAMN BOXES! I am hunting down your friends quickly and brutally and all you do is sit back and LAUGH AS YOU PLAY A GAME OF HIDE-IN-A-BOX!? You remind me too much of a crazy maniacal clown champion.” “Only this time, the jester is a DAMN PONY!” “HEY! You can’t associate me with crazies! That would be crazy! You could just be a little bit nicer you know! I did wait in that box for you! I wanted that surprise to brighten up your day! Not turn you away on one of your memory delusions!” “You don’t know me.” “I wanted to know you. Before all of this crazy stuff! I mean, who runs around swinging a mace? That just sounds silly! From what you told us, your world sounded like a really nasty place to live. That’s why I wanted to make you smile--” “My head is a helmet.” Mordekaiser quickly interrupted her. “Make your life better--” “I’m dead.” “Make you laugh?” “I don’t see how saying, “Mordekaiser es numero uno huehuehuehue” any more is going to change my opinion.” “Well…” Pinkie said trying to think. She couldn’t and swung her hoof back. “It was worth a shot!” “And you failed because of it.” Mordekaiser said. “Wh-what do you mean?” she asked, the fun in her stopped for a moment. Her ears were shifting down behind her head and her voice got scratchy trying to comprehend even more heartless riddles this giant will tell her. “You were so busy trying to help me that instead the rest of your friends are doomed to share a similar fate that Sombra has obtained.” He said to her with a sneer. “Yes, yes, good job pink equine. Good job on trying to make someone happen in expense of your friend’s happiness. You can feel it can you?” “F-feel…?” “Their pain. Their sense of loss. The dread and despair overshadowing them every minute this room is covered in this fog. Oh, but not you! You had to give me… a surprise; all in the cost of your friends’ happiness. Well done.” He mocked a laugh for her. He could see the pink pony’s appearance began to shift. Her hair once springy and puffy now replaced to strands of discolouration. She was a loss for words. She could only feel sadness. Not only with what he said to her was true, but that she failed to spark a life filled with joy for the hollow-spirited beast. He could feel the amount of misery and torment his handiwork had done. He couldn’t have enjoyed it more; he really had outdone himself on this one. “Now go to the ones who have already incurred my wrath, and think about what you’ve done.” He pointed her to the direction of the friends of hers who have already met with the master of metal. With her head down and her body drooping she sulked away in sniffling silence. Once she parted through the fog, Mordekaiser looked down to see the box the pink equine once popped out from. He slammed a boot through it and splintered the wood to pieces. “I… hate… boxes.” ----------------------------------------- Twilight stumbled around within the immense confides of the fog. It’s only been a couple of minutes since Sombra had worked his evil magic and already Twilight could tell things had already gotten horribly wrong. The sounds and screeches from her friends before alerted her to the fact that likely Sombra or Mordekaiser had already got to them. It was honestly the most horrifying noises she could have heard in her lifetime. Being lost in the fog with no idea where to turn made everything all the worse. Twilight called out her friends’ names, each one she cried a desperate plea, and the five responses she expected were all silent. The one response she did not expect was a spectral stallion rushing through her body. The ghostly cold of death passing over her chilled her spine and soul as it took her breath away momentarily. “Fear…” Sombra said threateningly as he rested on a floating patch of fog. “I-I’m not afraid of you, Sombra! We destroyed you once before and we will again!” Twilight shouted back trying to shake off the chill of Sombra’s decay. “Grrrr… not… me…” his voice trailed off into a whisper as he flew off. Twilight couldn’t shake the feeling of what he meant; the large amounts of confusion she had to endure today were reaching her peak. Not to mention just how paranoid she was. She finally did understand what the tyrant meant when she was suddenly grabbed by a cold metal claw from behind. She yelped when she was lifted up into the air. She was twisted to turn and face a pair of frightening red eyes peering sinisterly from a metal helmet. “M-Mordekaiser…” “Hello again, equine. Did you miss me? I certainly won’t miss you with my mace!” He held his mace in his other hand and swung it threateningly with ease. “You can’t stop the Princess, Mordekaiser! She’s too powerful, even for you!” “Oh really… Unlike you?” He could feel not just the pain of anger through her, but also her magical levels and strengths. “You do happen to have a strong connection with the forces of magic. Quite strong in fact.” He pressed her closer towards his helmet. “However, your ability power… is weak. It makes sense that you have nothing in your build other than those lower-skilled magic artifacts you call the Elements. Pathetic.” “Well, at least I’m not running around beating up random ponies and stealing bits to buy things that make it easier to continue beating up everypony!” She craned her neck over to see some objects sticking out from under Mordekaiser’s cape. Mordekaiser had indeed switched his item arsenal when he first arrived at Canterlot’s front gates, before the siege. He remembers terrifying the shopkeeper well. “You’re the one running around with items stapled under your cloak! What are those anyway?” “THEY ARE MAGNETIC YOU FOOL!” Mordekaiser shouted in her face. Immediately, a small hourglass filled with immense ancient power of invulnerability and being stronger than the universe itself fell out from the dark confides of his cape and smashed in half on the ground. “… I don’t need that.” After regaining his composure and fixing up any loose items from his build inside his cape he turned his attention back to the defenseless and feeble pony he held within his clutches. “Any last words before you become a part of my ever-growing list of demise?” Without waiting another moment Twilight burst, “You could have waited!” Mordekaiser raised an eyebrow at this. “It would’ve only been a day…” A tighter grip formed around the equine’s abdomen. “… a few hours?” “Waiting is for cowards who don’t seize the opportunity right in front of their face,” Mordekaiser said to her. Twilight understood those words and what they meant, seeing as she has no alternative, she raised a quick hoof and slammed it in Mordekaiser’s armor. Only it bounced off without so much as a dent. “Ow…” she said holding her hoof in pain. “Nice try.” Taking her completely by surprise, Mordekaiser threw her high into the air. Twilight panicked and brought up a small protective lavender shield around herself if she was going to crash on the way down. As she fell, she could see through the fog that the Kaiser’s mace was readying for a strike. Like a bat to a baseball, Mordekaiser hit a homerun, a surge of exploding energy, and sent Twilight and her now-brutally shattered shield through the dense fog and out the end to where the rest of her friends were groaning in pain. The wall was a suitable obstacle in breaking her speed. Back in the fog, Mordekaiser picked up his mace and turned to find the sixth pony he had to find. Fortunately, standing behind him trying not to whimper was a timid yellow Pegasus. “You. It’s been too long.” Mordekaiser started to say but stopped when he noticed her eyes. She was giving him the most sinister death glare he has ever witnessed. He was petrified, it felt as though she was peering right through him and trying to locate his soul so she could tear it up from the inside out. “You—you’re a monster… To think I held compassion for you. To think I thought about becoming friends with you! But you… you, DO NOT HURT MY FRIENDS! WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY FOR YOURSELF!” Mordekaiser was transfixed he couldn’t move. His hand was shaking, trying to curl itself into a fist, trying to fight the gaze that the yellow equine was giving him. This invisible force was unlike anything he has felt before. His metal fingers began to angle towards his palm trying to fight this insufferable graze. --------------------------------------------------- Outside the fog, Celestia finally had enough time to rest and relieve herself of her headache. Noticing the ominous clouds of dark fog swirling in the distance she gave a sigh. “I hope they are all right.” Summoning as much positive and light magic as she could in her horn, focusing and channeling the flow through her mind, she released a large wave of yellow brilliant energy towards the fog, it broke through the layers destroying each puff with a forceful gust of magic until nothing remained but two figures standing and five figures rolling and groaning in agony. “MORDEKAISER!” Celestia shouted at him, now noticing him standing precariously over Fluttershy. “Fluttershy!” Applejack shouted from across the room, the only one not to be completely writhing in pain. However, she quickly went back to it. Fluttershy repeated herself to what she said to Mordekaiser. “What. Do. You. Have. To. Say. For. Yourself?” She spoke each word assertively and with a fierceness no pony could have ever expected from her. A long pause came from the metal suit of armor. His hand was now curled into a ball, trying to fight control of his senses. Of the five ponies he has had the pleasure of beating; this one was proving to be a far greater challenge. “Be… hind me… is… a P-Pentakill.” The more he spoke, the stronger he could feel himself regaining control. His clutched hand was irradiating his affliction. “Misery… loves company…” He could feel the affliction within him getting stronger. “Your… gaze will fall… and so… will… the… PRINCESS! RAAH!” He released his pent up energy, a field of metallic shards and fragments exploded from his body and scattered across the room imbedding the sharp pieces into the walls of the castle. It was a miracle that none of them splintered through any ponies. Though Fluttershy, her effect now broken fell down into a scared nervous breakdown. “Fluttershy…” She looked up to see that it was Mordekaiser who spoke her name. She could tell he was trying to hide a snicker after saying the name, yet was intensely serious. “I should have killed you in that forest, I didn’t however.” He continued, “It was all a part of my glorious scheme. A scheme of which I would gain an audience with your princess, where I could return to my world without any worse for the wear.” “I saved you so that I could use you as collateral should things not head my way. And here we are.” He turns over his shoulder and looks back on the five ponies he had either hurt or demoralized. “Your kindness was my greatest weapon of abstraction in this realm of equines. For now, I have an unofficial pentakill. No matter how inconclusive it looks, your world mocks me so I shall mock it!” He crushed his hand into a tight powerful grip in front of Fluttershy, wisps of pale decay and death emanated from it. “The friendships all of you have made all have made to protect one another have all been severed. I sensed in each one that it was you who still wanted to ‘befriend’ me. Note that I do not care, nor have I ever cared. Your act of kindness for me was your own downfall. For that, I thank you in making my goals that much closer to my grasp.” Fluttershy couldn’t believe her ears; Mordekaiser had been using her this whole time. Any moment she had felt remorse for him was crushed like an object under the weight of his boots. He was a jerk, and poor Fluttershy had fallen in trying to be kind to a being whose kindness was gone since death. Suddenly he spoke again, “I may be a manipulative general, but I am not unkind. Your friends are still alive and will be until their times come. But know that since this world has mocked me, I will classify that pile of insufferable ponies as a penta.” He could see the look of desolation on her face, the misery that filled her heart, and the torment that was playing on inside her head. Was he so merciless that he didn’t feel a thing other than bliss after seeing the sad yellow pony’s face? Yes, yes he was. He moved his arm to her head; she shuffled in fear of what he might do. What he did was far beyond what any could expect. He patted her on the head. “Adorable. Run along now.” Fluttershy with her head down left Mordekaiser to go help and tend to her friends in pain. Mordekaiser looked ahead to see his goal, Princess Celestia. Her brow furrowed when he focused his attention onto her. “Now Princess… where were we at? I believe I was about to humiliate you for your insolence.” “You’re unbelievable you know that?! Never in all my years could I have met such a heartless being!” she shouted back at him. He laughed, “I have no heart. Not anymore.” He shifted his eyes across the room and they took a few seconds to look at a certain wall before gazing back into Celestia’s. “I have dealt with your ‘minions’… how will you fare against mine?” Unexpectedly, Sombra charged through a wall in his ghostly visage and rushed towards the celestial Alicorn. He has been waiting for this moment for over a thousand years and he can’t wait to savour the death of the one who had locked him away. Unfortunately for Sombra that was not on Celestia’s plan for today, she shot a beam of electrifying magic towards him, hitting right in his chest. He tumbled from the air and landed on the metal-torn floor, paralysed from the pain of Celestia’s attack. “You have a tremendous amount of power, Princess.” Mordekaiser sneered from across the room. “I have enough to banish both you AND Sombra into a cold and uncomfortable prison!” “Well now… that hardly seems fair. After all, I haven’t even BEGUN to show my true power, mortal!” This caused Celestia to stagger, trying to prevent herself from the distraction of rage within her being. Just how powerful is this menace!? It has to be a bluff. I will not be fooled into lowering any of my defenses again. She remembered the migrane which had fortunately passed. “Behold behind me, we have what I like to call… a Pentakill. Now, I wonder what will happen when I reach six.” “You can’t kill me Mordekaiser! And if you hurt Fluttershy or anyone else, I will do worse than simply banish you to the SUN!” her voice echoed and spiked fury and wrath. Mordekaiser was unimpressed, after all… “Death would be too good for the likes of you.” Mordekaiser raised his arm high into the air, he held all his fingers up and began to pull each one down every second. To Celestia and the recovering ponies it looked like counting. When he reached his last finger, his index, he said to Celestia with a powerful and loftier voice. “Have you heard of my band?” His finger dropped, and suddenly a loud roar torn through the air outside the castle. It quaked the building and nearly made Celestia lose her footing. She was reminded of who those terrible roars, that screech, belonged to. “I told you, that getting my sixth kill was inevitable. Now then…” Mordekaiser had no idea if anything would happen after getting that sixth kill. He was unsure what would happen, however, what he was sure was the land of Equestria functioned quite differently than Summoner’s Rift. There was no telling what would happen. His chestplate began to glow, he howled out in pain as light began to pour out from the spot that Elemental Rainbow had hit him. Soon a magical light enveloped Mordekaiser to the point where no one could focus on his brightness yet could only hear his cries of agony. Thunder boomed and lightning erupted from the light. The sound of a guitar quickly amplified to a deafening boom of metal. A laugh echoes within the confides of the light. When the lightshow ended, a cracking noise erupts from where Mordekaiser stood proudly. His chestplate breaks off and disintegrates into nothingness without hitting the ground. It revealed a pale-skinned chest, ripped in muscular greatness. Even a pair raging biceps could not be held by metal, destroying and shattering them into the same disintegration as the chestplate. Mordekaiser grabbed his mace which exploded revealing an electric red guitar in the shape of an axe. Lightning coursed through its cords sending ripples of metal sound through the air. “I like my music how I like my weapons: heavy and METAL!” He shouted before strumming away madly and grinding the strings of his axe with superb skill and speed. Never missing a cord or a note, he sent a wave of metal sound through the air. Celestia had to put her hooves over her ears to cover up the racket she heard. “WELCOME TO, PENTAKILL! Prepare yourself Celestia, FOR THE CHORDS OF DESTRUCTION!” Pinkie who was sitting on the sidelines along her friends got excited, “OOOHH! I have all their CD’s!” She brought out a case and opened them to reveal nothing. Her joy still killed she went back to moping. “Too bad I left them at home…” His vocals boomed as the sounds of his band played in the background. He didn’t know how that was possible, but finally this world has done something he enjoyed! Celestia was beyond horrified, so was every pony in the room. Even Sombra who was incapacitated could hardly believe what was going on. Now they can all finally see that Mordekaiser does not belong in this world, and that his actions may not be justified but rather made more sense. "TIME TO SHRED!" Celestia could only recoil in his taste of music. But she wasn’t about to let that stop her from putting this beast in his place. No one comes to Equestria to do the atrocities he made (and promised to further make) and gets away with it. Her magic exploded and enveloped around her casting a shimming bright light throughout the throne room. The intensity of her light was like walking on the surface of the sun. The floor tiling melted under her hooves as she approached her brutish adversary. This fight was going to be one for the ages. The only question that lingered in everypony’s head was one none of them could have figured out. “How did he get that sixth kill to transform like that?” ----- Roughly two minutes ago before the starting Age of the 6th Kill -------- Cho’gath wasn’t a fan of heights. He didn’t like flying and he certainly didn’t like falling. So it made sense the moment when that brute of a metal statue tossed him through a wall and out a window, he was more than a little peeved at that ruthless suit of armor’s inconsideration of gentlemanly duels. Oh how he would have loved to have fulfilled his daily amount of iron from at least one of Mordekaiser's arms. During the entire time Mordekaiser had spent playing hide-and-demoralize in the fog of magical pony friendship, he had been falling and falling and falling. Canterlot was situated on top of a large cliff. So it made sense that the fall would be long. But he never expected it to be THAT long. So he fell, and fell, reminiscing on everything that has happened in his life. He remembered all the good meals and champions he devoured, the dinners with Discord were fantastic and it was a nice change of pace playing Ambassador from the Void. He hoped to one day be able to do those activities again soon. Though, in this situation he couldn’t tell if there would even be a next time. Eventually, the giant red menacing monster had fallen quite a bit from the castle’s mountain to get noticed by two passing guards doing ground patrol. “Hey, do you see that up in the sky?” “Yeah, dunno what that is though, looks red.” “Looks kind of big too. Think it might be another one of those ambassadors that Discord fellow occasionally brings?” “How would I know? I’m stuck on the patrol under this giant rock we call a mountain all day!” The two guards still couldn’t distinguish what was falling from the sky, but they knew to back away because of its size. It wasn’t until the object got in enough range for the guards to hear its terrifying screams. First, they saw a giant red blur, and as it landed into a nearby tiny bush roughly one-third of its size, the creature disappeared. Presumably, despite its size, Cho’gath went hidden the moment he entered it causing the guards to flinch out of what just happened. The only sound the two guard ponies heard before the screams halted from the red creature was a sickening SPLAT.