//------------------------------// // The Park (Goal Achevemient Special) // Story: RWBY: Darkness and Harmony // by The P Co //------------------------------// Welcome to the Goal Achevemient (that's how Millie says 'achievement') super special episode, an interlude. The viewer was at least somewhat confused, when they had seen the new chapter, they were expecting the second part of 'Shatter like Glass', not to end up in some sort of park. At the gates was some sort of absurd creation, a human woman who looked like no thought beyond 'sex and sex stuff' went into her design, with D cup breasts, a quite large backside, and a submissive, lusty, glazed-over look in her eyes. "Hello, sir/madam, please enjoy all that we have to offer." she greeted, shuddering at the simple movement of doing a half-turn to face the park itself. Walking inside, the viewer found themselves in a strip of simple buildings. "FUCK YOU, THAT'S BULLSHIT!" someone said, looking over revealed it to be Ivan from team VOID, standing up quickly from a poker table, his white shirt was currently clean, but it seemed like it would soon be stained with blood again. "Please, I swear, I didn't do it, I'm too fluffy to cheat!" a winged version of Gabriel Iglesias half-wailed, holding up his hands in defense, which would have been more serious-seeming if his hands weren't spattered with cake frosting. "Derek Ganter, sit down and calm your balls, dude." a guy who looked like Oscar replied, putting parent-like emphasis on the other white clad man's name, an unfamiliar weapon on his back. "Shut up Blue Comet, if it weren't for Shanka, we'd probably still be alive." Ivan/Derek pointed a golden pistol made of some sort of aura or hard-light at a man who was obviously Daniel, but was apparently named Shanka. "Do I need to get out all of my tools, Derek?" it was Joax, still a pony, sitting at the table, playing poker. "I want to know who slipped Abriel here a few extra cards." the viewer thought it best to leave this group alone before the warmonger that was Ivan came out, and the reader-of-many-stories knew that Daniel's cidophilia would soon follow. Continuing to walk down the street, more people were there, most were humans with weird mutations, some had wings, some had hand markings that ranged from a single star to complex tattoos that trailed up both forearms, and a few just looked, quote, "ripped as hell", unquote. A strange quartet, father and son, twice, two pairs of male family, though one of the pairs looked younger than the other. All four were winged, and they seemed to be going insanely fast, I'm talking at speeds that would make Rainbow Dash's head spin. "Oh Gray, you're doing wonderful, keep it up, yes, there you go." looking to the side, it was a blush-inducing sight, some guy who looked like a white-haired Captain America, and the very voluptuous woman who had been watching the gate, were engaged in public sex. Disgusting to some, arousing to others. Jogging several feet past, the viewer saw that, judging from the seemingly never-ending line of buildings, it would probably be a very long journey to the end of this path lined with growing madness. A guy who looked like the Director from RvB, but younger, was handcuffed to a guy who looked like a goateed stoner. "Sykes, why are we still handcuffed?" oh hey, there was the Grimm Reaper, Qrow's laser scythe. "I don't know, but I need to walk around, these red flip-flops on my feet, and these jeans that I wear below my ass-crack, while going commando, aren't going to air themselves out." oh god, keep moving, this guy was either really depraved, or too stoned to give a fuck. Two large warrior guys and a girl who looked like Ruby, but in pink more casually dressed, were sitting together, the first man had wings and a pair of hand-scythes, the other was much larger, had hand marks, and an enormous poleaxe. The girl seemed to have what was Crescent Rose, but as a halberd rather than a scythe. Next was what looked like an Egoraptor clone and what looked like an Eminem clone, the Egoraptor one even had a crystal ball staff with a raptor's foot in it and the Eminem one had a pickaxe that looked like the Minecraft easter-egg from Skyrim. Next was a guy who looked like a tattooed-with-no-wings copy of the fathers in that group of four earlier, what was odd was that he carried a Browning M2 fifty caliber machine gun, but looked about as timid as Fluttershy. Johnny Depp with a herculean build, wielding nothing more than brass knuckles. Two guys, one was using troll physics by jumping off of his own foot in order to have infinite jumps, the other carried a somewhat skull-shaped warhammer. Lee from the Walking Dead by Telltale with nature-based magic and a glass dagger, Doc Brown from 'Back to the Future 3', in his old west attire and carrying a pocket-watch tasseled revolver. Joax again, but as a human this time, with many magical relics floating around him. "Hello." the mage greeted the viewer. Not sure whether to break the fourth wall in reverse, or not, the viewer just continued. Dante rip-off wielding a suitcase with a large Uzi in it, an modern military version of the Dovahkiin, Gassy Mexican with a cactus sword and riding some sort of quadruped demon wolf, whose collar read 'El Chupacabra', Draven from League of Legends with a golden badge that read 'High Executioner'. Whoever made these people didn't bother backtracking up the uncanny valley to be more unique for most of them, as the obvious cloning of other characters, yet the lack of said characters' key characteristics, made it hard to not form a negative first opinion of them. A Japanese guy, a German guy, an Italian guy, an American guy, a French guy, a Russian guy, a Mexican guy, an Australian guy, an English guy, and a Canadian guy, all in the same place at the same time. Maybe it was surprising that none of them had killed any of the others. The most generic, un-unique person the viewer had ever seen, so forgettable that what his face looked like was forgotten immediately after he passed by. A classy looking woman who played the violin, a middle-aged scholar guy, a guy who looked like a politician, a clone of SlyFoxHound with wings and a robotic arm, leg, and eye,an Albert Einstein clone, a Felix Baumgartner clone, a young gray haired mechanic looking guy, and finally a con-artist looking guy who seemed to wield a lot of syringes of various bad stuffs, most notably 'HIV', 'Cyanide', 'Sexual Organ Shrinking Steroids', 'Diabetes', 'Super Diabetes', and 'Lemon Juice (for stinging the veins like hell)'. The next table had another poker game that looked to be proceeding normally. A second Derek/Ivan, another Blue Comet/Oscar, a second Gassy Mexican, another (and more closely resembling) Ruby clone, but this one had long hair, another Johnny Depp with an Adonis build, another Dante clone with the Uzi in the suitcase, yet another Joax-looking-guy, though he wore a maroon, gold buttoned jacket this time, another of the goofball pair of mildly evil guys, looking slightly more goofy, and a fuck-tonne more evil. Another of that father guy with the gold and chocolate striped hair and the head-spinning speed, the wings on this version were large like an angel's, an archangel's more likely, they could probably send him across the known universe in about ten minutes, despite the vast emptiness of space. A new section of this strip of buildings, changing from mostly white to mostly gray, the first people that could be seen were a scientist guy, some girl with a lot of gunblades, a magic girl who looked like the super-heroine Storm with pink hair, a cross between Azekahh the commentator and Phoenix Wright the lawyer, the last of this five was a guy who looked like a young Starswirl the Bearded, with bleach blond hair that made him look really good, even if he was just Starswirl the Goateed at this point. A tall, skinny guy with a paintbrush and a platter of food, a dapper gentleman in gold and his classy lady-friend in purple, Knuckles the Echidna as a human, PaperBatVG with a paper-bladed-sword, ImmortalHD with a red Optimus Prime helmet. Sylvester Stallone with icy colored fingernails, Skylord Lysander from the Yogscast: Shadow of Israphel series, the Joker with a cane shotgun. A magic girl who looked like she was locked in a constant state of relaxation and maybe high on ecstasy, just like the Ruby clones earlier, and the other was a shakily hovering girl whose wings were hardened in what was obviously arousal, she was probably a winged version of the sexy chick earlier, judging from the... oh lord the front of her pants were wet. Rushing farther ahead to avoid more of these excessively manly men and too-gentle-and-high-on-ecstasy women. Finally, there were four men standing in front of a gate that lead up a hill. They each had nametags, they read: Omega Ombl Xero Termveli. Hank Whispers Hay-zoos Kristeson "The Lord has permitted your entrance." the one named Omega says, opening the door with his crimson magic, Finally an end to all of this stupidity, useless information, and perversion of concepts and copyrights... .... Hopefully. Up the hill was different, it contained the only remarkably ornate structure in this makeshift town, a throne made of gold, platinum, gems, silks, and downs. A dark-red-haired winged man floated by the throne, attending to the one sitting in it, he had an arm towel, kind of like a butler. Far off to the sides were pedestals, with the many ponies standing on them, though upon closer examination, they were merely colored statues. The Mane Six, with Fluttershy, Twilight, and Pinkie Pie wearing golden shoes, and Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Applejack wearing silver shoes. The Cutie Mark Crusaders, with Scootaloo wearing gold shoes, Applebloom wearing silver shoes, and Sweetie Belle wearing copper shoes. Some background ponies, Ditzy Doo, Vinyl Scratch, Octavia, Lyra, Bonbon. and Doctor Whoosh, which was just Doctor Whooves as a pegasus. Much closer to the throne, though the ruts in the ground and mounds of dirt belied their recent repositioning, was the teams, RWBY, JNPR, and DOGS, with four more pedestals, clean and ready to hold another team of four in the future. The throne itself held some sort of godly figure, he was about ten feet tall, with an intricate attire. A powder blue hoodie with a topaz zipper and string aglets, the front had a few markings, with a set of three feathers on the belly pocket, a small orange one, a medium pale yellow one, and a large dark blue one. The man snapped his fingers and stood up, turning around to show his back-side. Three fancy looking pairs of golden colored wings were emblazoned on the back of the hoodie, the hood was like one from Assassin's creed, wide and peaked, with a dark blue lining. His pants were simple gray denim jeans, with a thigh sheath with a knife in it on the left leg, and a thigh holster with a pistol in it on the right. Broad, thick leather knee guards were sown into the jeans. Finally came his size eighteen shoes, which fit well with his thick, rippling muscled form, the shoes were red Converse(tm). On his back was a large pair of wings, almost like a cross between an angel's and Luna's, they shone like gold, but the way they rustled told that they were normal fluffs-and-stalk feathers rather than metal castings of feathers. This ability of perception was much higher than the viewer thought possible for a normal person, before being able to ask the question of this newfound ability, the regal man merely nodded and pointed over to a diagram. Below it read, "Collaborative efforts from Pinkie Pie, Bill Cosby, and Gavin Free." which only made it more hilarious. "Oh wait, no, it's that one." he pointed to another diagram on the other side. The other chart showed a six pointed star, almost like the Star of David, but the bottom point stuck out far further than the others. the arms were labeled. Top read Spirit, upper left read Fire, upper right read Air, lower left read Earth, lower right read Water, the middle read Power, and the bottom read Knowledge. A circle was around the five points, the bottom one was only partially encased, the circle read Creation "It is the Nexus of my power, the symbol of intelligent and creative powers, and the glories and beauties that can be made with them." the man said after having returned to sitting in his throne. There were some things clinging to him, the sun adjusted itself to shine the light down on him more revealingly. On his left shoulder was Scootaloo, looking happy as she hugged the side of the winged god-avatar's head, she had her cutie mark, a pale orange star with a long streak of violet lightning trailing behind it, a pair of black-outlined orange wings to the sides. Fluttershy was hugging him around the right side of his muscled torso, his right hand was around her, returning the hug. Luna was sitting across his lap, curled up in comfort as his left hand idly scratched being her ears and rubbed her back. "So, you are probably wondering who I am, I am Lord P1, and yes, my name is P1, it's short for Player 1." the man said, swishing his short locks of brown hair into view and putting on a pair of aviator glasses with his sand-colored magic. "I have brought you here because I am very particularly happy about something, look here." he nodded to a wall covered in all sorts of logos from video games, TV shows, movies, even music artists. "Oh no wait, SHEEEEEEEEEIT, it's that one." he nodded to another wall covered in statements. PRODUCTION: Make 1 story [X] Make 3 stories [X] Make 5 stories [] FAVES: 1 fave [X] 5 faves [X] 10 faves [X] 25 faves [X] 50 faves [X] 75 faves [X] 100 faves [X] 150 faves [X] 200 faves [X] 250 faves [X] 300 faves [X] 350 faves [X] 400 faves [X] 450 faves [X] 500 faves [X] (special episode) 550 faves [] COMMENTS: 1 comment [X] 5 comments [X] 10 comments [X] 25 comments [X] 50 comments [X] 100 comments [X] 150 comments [X] 200 comments [X] 250 comments [X] 300 comments [] (shout out) FAME: Have a story get a few comments, likes, and faves [X] Have a story get a lot of comments, likes, and faves [X] Have a story get featured [X] Have a story get featured multiple times [X] Have a story get someone doing a 'reading of' video for it [] Have a story get a TVtropes page [] (note: nigh impossible) The lists ended there. "I have reached my goal in faves, and so for your contributions, I shall give you a reward." P1 informed, looking to the sky and breathing in the cool, crisp air. The ponies clinging to him kept him nice and cozy warm in the fair, yet slightly chilled weather. "So, here is a brief insight in video form, not really video, since we lost P4 and he was like our own personal Monty, anyways, let's begin... THE SUGAR!" the tall player raised his fatherly voice, shrouding all of sight in darkness. Next thing the viewer knew, they were sitting in front of what looked like a stage. Know they knew the true purpose of this plane of existence taking the form of a 'park' It was a Trailer Park, and it was time for Trailers. The stage began filling up with content that seemed to have been waiting an abhorrently long time to be viewed. HRMONY: Heliotrope Trailer She was the leader of the Elements of Harmony. Twilight stood in the middle of a field, a branch from the legendary Starwood Tree held directly below a pure, clear diamond, its fractal edges severing the sunlight into several blinding rainbows upon the grass. She had spent a long time gathering these two items, but it was worth it, now she would have a saruma, an ancient way of making magical assistance staves, done my magically growing a tree branch around a large gemstone, typically one bigger than one's hoof. It was done, she looked at her weapon. At that moment, a few dozen Sin broke through the foliage, having picked up the scent of pure flesh nearby, ripe for the taking. They weren't counting on the mind that moved the flesh to fight back. Twilight blasted a lot of them with magic missiles before they got close enough to do harm, her highly advanced mind moving at top speed. Reacting quickly, she side stepped a few clawed strikes, though one punch landed and she was sent flying several feet. Rolling onto her stomach quickly, the stripe-maned mare got up and used her hard-light spell to create a blade on her staff, slashing up quite a few of the wolf-like foes before getting charged at again. *SHA-WING* *POOSHV* She teleported out of the way, trying to keep her cool, but attempting to maintain telekinesis while teleporting sent a pang of agitation through her brain. Another hard-light spell, a hammer head. *BAN* *BANBAN* *BANBANBAN* Several more creatures were banned from the very plane of existence they had resided in, Twilight's ability to perform this spell was of eldritch explanation, as it was a little known (she was probably the only one) fact that not even all three Princesses together could cast the spell, and yet she had just done so more than a dozen times. Magic worked differently for different ponies, so that may have had something to do with it. Only a few were left, the lavender unicorn drove her saruma, topped with a hard-light spearhead, through two of them, the last getting close, but not close enough. Casting out a shield, the fighting mare blocked the black wooden beast, the impact of head-to-barrier sending it into near-unconsciousness. "I feel bad for having to do this, but this is how it has to be." a hard-light axe head formed on the saruma, and it was driven down, severing the monster's head. The Sin bodies melted into the ground, and Twilight, breathing quite ragged with anxiety after her rather violent victory, walked back to town. On the way, she got out a book to read. Classic Twilight. HRMONY: Raspberry Trailer Pinkie Pie looked around at the black and red skinned scum, the party mare didn't seem very threatening, not even with the skull-for-a-crossbar claymore on her back. As far as the many Daeponies that surrounded her were concerned, she was just trying to delay her death. She reared up on her hind legs, a red longcoat appearing around her, something shifted, and her bipedal stance became more relaxed and natural looking. The sword flared up with darkness-draining power, and a pair of pistols were drawn from her sides, making her look like a bit of a badass. While she didn't truly look the part of a Daepony Hunter, she still did it well. She smiled as her two personalities achieved equilibrium, her mane maintaining its puffiness, but in a more tamed and slicked-down manner. Her very presence called for music, music of how eventful her life was. Her sword was gripped in the magnet-like grip that pony hooves were capable of. She ran over to the nearest daepony, thrusting the blade through its spine, bringing out one of her pistols and blasting another's head off. Being chambered in .44Remington gave the desert eagles great power. For the time being, her sword had drained the Sin power from the impaled monster and used it as fuel to power its Virtue abilities. A set of seven buttons were set onto the skull, she pressed one of them. Appraisal, a virtue to counter Envy, she could 'appraise' that these daeponies were barely tougher than regular ponies of their races. A conflagration of fire was launched at her, and Chastity, the virtue version of (kinda obviously) Lust, allowed her to shake off the normally debilitating pain of the unholy immolation. Several slashes had powered up Diligence, the virtue counterpart of Sloth, and the pink mare sped up to about half the speed of sound. Virtue powers had just as much effectiveness as Sin powers, like Humility, the opposite of Pride, turned her invisible. Only streaks of light were seen as more daeponies dropped, slashed to bits, their beastly cries shaking their fellows' minds to the core. The number of the monstrous pony-like creatures was proportional to their morale, so morale was leaving fast. Her combo counter was in the hundreds. Suddenly, in a wild swing of its wicked knife, one of the beastly ponies struck Pinkie, ending her combo of over two hundred and fifty. They weren't prepared for the announcer, as breaking combos was subjective, so the higher the combo, the more exaggerated the announcement of its shattering. C-C-C-C-C-C-C-CO-CO-CO-COOOMBOOOOO BRRREAKER! EAKER! EAKER! EAKER EAKER eaker eaker eaker eaker eaker eaker EAKER! *NOPE*... as Satisfaction, the virtue form of Gluttony, was activated, protecting her combo count. Temperance, the opposite of Wrath, temporarily prevented her from being damaged by physical means, useful when under attack by the hellish blades of her foes, as she had to stop to recover after Diligence had been cast. A whole several daepony's worth of vile energy, ready to be converted to righteous energy and used for Virtue powers, was used up for her mighty finisher. Charity, the opposite of Greed, it was her most powerful attack. "Oh great Faust, bless this, the Holy Hoof Blast of Charity, thy generosity and mercy." she recited the instructions for the Holy Hoof Blast of Charity. Her demon-draining blade was placed on her back again, and her hooves crackled with clerical energy, she struck the ground with a mighty shockwave. Everything in the radius of the shockwave was blasted off of whatever they stood on and popped into black flakes that fell to the ground as light permeated the area. Pinkie smiled, her spine readjusting to normal, longcoat disappearing, and her pistols fading into the mysterious place that hero's items go when they're not needed. She sat back on her haunches and resumed eating her cupcakes that the daeponies had interrupted her from. They were so rude, attacking her when she was in the middle of eating some delicious cupcakes. The screen faded to black as the blue eyed mare happily (and loudly) munched on her pastries. HRMONY: Magnolia Trailer Rarity trimmed the ribbons on a dress she had been making, singing a tune. She looked to the cracks around of the general 'front' of her boutique, remembering what had caused them, which induced a flashback. *FLASHBACK* Rarity was actually putting the very ribbons that she was now trimming onto the dress she had received a commission for Screams could be heard outside, and a very large spider tried to force its way through her front door. Luckily, she happened to have a very large balisong on hoof, about eighteen inches long, the same as the length from one of her hind hooves to her tail, the massive weapon was used to quickly and effectively slash the monster's face. Its brain scrambled, the beast died too quickly for the god of music to bother with the brief scuffle. *FLASHFORWARD* The alabaster mare had gather a lot of precious silk from the spider, but moving the body was a hassle. Luckily she didn't have to haul it away, seeing as how she more than likely wouldn't be able to. It was a short encounter, but at least it was useful... somehow. HRMONY: Orange Trailer Applejack had been faced by a partially corrupted minotaur, in a shootout at high noon. In front of the Town Hall was where it would take place, and as high noon came around, both combatants started. Back-to-back, twenty paces forward, turn, count to three, draw, shoot, die/win. The duo had stood back-to-back as much as possible, and walked forward twenty paces. Well, actually, at nineteen paces, the minotaur spun around and fired. Applejack heard his shifting, and buck out, time seemed to slow down, showing clearly how her apple-bucking skills paid off by deflecting a three-five-seven magnum round. Applejack pulled out her own gun, a S&W29, and fired a few shots, causing the avulsion of the partially-corrupted bull's right arm, and the perforation of his left leg. "GAH!" the minotaur screamed, squealing in pain, "I will find you, and I will kill you and your family." her threatened. "Do you feel lucky?" the orange farmer asked in tranquil fury, aiming her revolver at the minotaur's head. "I'm not sure, but I'm feeling an overwhelming need for revenge." the black coated bull replied. "Well ya got yerself in a pickle, tell me, did ah fire four, or five shots?" the earth pony asked, her tone implying bad things to come. "I don't know!" the beast had gone from smug to frightened in only a few seconds. *BANG* "It didn't matter, pardner, its a six-shot." she informed the corpse. The earth pony mare dragged the body out of town, making sure that she was quiet about it. "*sigh* Just remember, pardner, iffin' I ever gotta kill you, you'll be awake, you'll be facin' me, and ya'll will be armed." Applejack warned, throwing the body into the forest, waiting for it to 'melt', and turning around. She walked back to Ponyville with her hat tipped down, her day had been made. HRMONY: Nophoto Trailer Rainbow Dash was flying through the sky to clear her head, she had been experiencing a growing feeling of anxiety when she entered the Cloudsdale Weather Factory. She didn't want to do what she had to do. Most ponies that weren't in the 'inner circle' of highly trusted workers or the most disciplined of guards had theories about 'making rainbows' It was a closely guarded secret of the pegasus race, how to make rainbows. Most outsiders thought that rainbows, being what they were, were made of 'Sugar, spice, and everything nice'....... ... They were wrong... ........... .................. .............................. ...................................................... ........................................................................................ ................................................................................................................................... ........................................................................................................................................................................................ Rainbow were made of 'Sugar, spice, and water.' It was closely guarded because anypony competant enough could make their own rainbows for free. A giant glass container was the device, it was filled with water, then the sugar and spice were added. The sugar acted as a prism that divided sunlight into a rainbow, and the spice absorbed the color, producing the desired rainbow color. The colors were then divided, filtered of the sugar to prevent color contamination, and recombined in a controlled manner. When fully processed, a rainbow's colors would keep themselves separate. Rainbow Dash was actually here to complain about the details of the workforce. She entered the office of the weather factory's CEO, clearing her throat to gain the mare's attention. The figure that turned around to look at her was an unfamiliar one. "You're not Toaster...." she trailed off, something about this platinum eyed, gold coated, silver maned, copper hooved stallion was off, almost.... demonic. "EQUISH, MOTHERFUCKER DO YOU SPEAK IT?!" he suddenly shouted, catching her off-guard and sending her backwards onto her haunches. "Sorry about that, I was slightly confused by your saying that I'm not a toaster, but you said it in a grammatically incorrect way. So, what can I do for you, and what can my brother/sister do you for?" Mammon may have been greedy, but his siblings were the only exception, and even they were only a minor exception, he wouldn't be charitable, but he would at least share. "Um, I was going to speak with Miss Wooden Toaster about the conditions of the workforce here in the factory." the speedster explained civilly. "You can... *gasp* suck a dick! I don't give a shit about improving the conditions, so long as I get profits, it's all good." his eyes briefly flashed with fire. This incident didn't go unnoticed by Rainbow Dash, she could now feel a foreboding aura coming off of this weirdo. "My name is Mammon, prince of Greed, ready to take everything you have, and then some." he gave a sarcastic bow and threw the desk out of the way with a single hoof. Rainbow Dash clenched her eyes shut at the sudden, un-prepared-for noise, when she opened them, she wasn't in the office anymore. A mostly flat field of golden grass, lit by a silver sun, a few burnt patches of now-iron-colored grass also revealed the copper dirt. "Welcome to my vault, where all types of wealth will be held at the end of the world." Mammon had some sort of leaf-blower on his back, the nozzle of this strange device strapped to his hoof. Rainbow Dash prepared herself for whatever this demonic seeming pony was going to do. As it turned out, he wasn't really much for battling, and a leaf-blower/vacuum wasn't a practical weapon in the slightest, well, at least not in his sticky hooves. All that the athletic mare needed to do was give him a hind hoof to the face, which was enough to nearly knock him out. "GAH! Listen now, you young, foolish mortal, you should prepare for what is to come, for the Sin shall strike soon, and we will not stop until the world is consumed by our corruption." he shouted, turning his weapon to her, and using his demonic powers to send a conflagration of acidic fire at her before disappearing in a burst of golden light. The fire didn't bother her so much, as pegasi had evolved to resist temperature induced damage, the level of which climbed almost up to Bunsen burner level heats, and dived almost down to dry ice level colds. The bad part was the acid, which melted through a lot of her feathers and dissolved patches of fur, going so far as to melt a series of wide, shallow holes in her forelegs and hooves. Luckily the acid had become saturated at this point, so she suffered no more than what she already had. When she transported from Mammon's Greed dimension to the normal Equestrian plane of existence, she had, as though the 'powers that be' were in her favor, appeared in front of Cloudsdale Hospital. Rainbow Dash was pissed off, to say the least. Her injuries had kept her in the hospital for two weeks, the longest she'd ever spent cooped up in the bleached walls, her wings and legs hadn't fully healed until about two months after the Mammon incident. Unfortunately for her physique, oh how the mighty fall, her hard-earned lithe, streamlined, high-velocity form had been crumbled like the cookies her recovering self had eaten so many of, much to her present self's chagrin. Her flying skills were also shot down, so about three and a half months were spent rejuvenating herself and regaining her lost thresholds. Unfortunately, the information that Mammon had given her was most decidedly correct as hell, and the Sin had attacked about one month after the fight with the demon master. Dealing with all of this was awful, but the spectral maned mare pulled through as best she could. Now she had not just a bone, but a whole fucking skeleton to pick with the Sin. The cyan pegasus approached the remains of Cloudsdale, the city had been one of the first destroyed. Pulling out a map, the daredevil did what she did best, do something quickly. It was only a rough draft of the proper 'Map of New Equus', but it was still depressing. This map was magically connected with dozens like it, it would update whenever somepony or someone of another species would update their copy of it. Vulcan Hold was, as its name implied, (luckily) holding up, the dragon-only populace was composed of strong, mighty fighters, they could handle themselves. The ponies... not so much, millions were dead, to be blunt. Bearussia had remained relatively unscathed due to its climate, the weather was so harshly cold that even in the summer it snowed at least a foot. On the map, the searchers had crossed out all of Istaly, Prance, and Spurn, the juggernauts of the Medium-Terrain Sea, situated between Zebrica and Steurope, Japone had been next, followed by Chineigh, even Ausaddlia and Germaney had fallen. The closest nation allied with Equestria, Engallop, formerly known as Great Brimain, fell not too long before bits and pieces of Equestria were shrouded in the all-consuming corruption. While industry had kicked into higher-than-high gear to fight back this oppression, more and more of the world had its life-forms eradicated, until only Canterlot, Ponyville, Neigh York, Vulcan Hold, and surprisingly almost all of Bearussia (snippets of the borders had been nipped up, but there weren't any significant chunks missing) remained. Rainbow Dash was checking out Cloudsdale, which hadn't been heard from since the Sin rose up, and she was worried about its fate. To tell the truth, though, she was sick of being on the sidelines. It was time to get into the game again. She was now standing on the heavy-with-rain clouds that once made up the walls of the Cloudeseum, now suspended amongst its floor. It was at that point that several Sin creatures attacked, coming up from below the dark cloud layer and screeching at her. These were harpies, pegasi, usually female, that had become husks filled with Sin corruption, using the once-precious gift of vocal chords to make squawks and screeches. Several of them died as she whipped around, small bullets impacting their skulls. Her weapon of choice was the Strafing Chainsaw, she had made a few tweaks to some odd assault rifle, the M249SAW if she remembered correctly, and not only sped it up, but re-chambered it as well. While it was only nine by nineteen parabellum pistol rounds in what was supposed to be a rifle, that weakness was negated by the fact that it fired at twenty four hundred rounds per minute, or forty rounds in a second. Everypony had been essentially forced to learn at least the basics of engineering, and she had taken up both machinery-setup and dimensions, which greatly helped her make her own box magazine, containing a belt of about six hundred rounds, giving her a solid fifteen seconds of continuous fire if she could manage it. The other harpies shot forth, trying to claw at her with their jagged, cracked, partially broken hooves. A few scratches and abrasions, not much damage because of Rainbow's thick hide, toughened by years and years of harsh training and more crashes than she could neither count nor cared to admit. Swiftly dodging the failed melee strikes, she sprayed more hot lead at the beasts that used to be ponies, perforating their skulls in more than a few places. They all went down before they could get close, and the spectral maned riflemare breathed a sigh of relief. Then came the Valkyries... Valkyries were stronger than the Harpies, due to their being corrupted from the undiluted source, the power of Sin, rather than a secondary infection from the Sin infected creatures. They were not only stronger, but most of them maintained cognitive abilities, meaning that they were still sentient. The Valkyries swooped down, trying to strike away at the cyan pegasus, but about three of the ten were shot down before they were too close. She was running on well-developed endurance, which was further bolstered by a rush of adrenaline, which temporarily enhanced her reflexes. Flying away from her pursuers, the speedster easily outmaneuvered the bulkier, less trained Sin ponies. The area below the Cloudeseum was clear of actual clouds, if a bit muggy from the fragile-yet-effective dam of clouds above, its nearly black mass teeming with water and lightning.... Water... and... lightning..... yes. Leading her enemies below the stormy floor, she grabbed one without the others noticing, quickly and gently going back up on top of the broad arena-like surface, choking it out. "AND THE WINNER OF THIS WRESTLING MATCH... IS..." she began as the former-pony's struggles quickly became weaker, until it finally suffocated and died, "RAINBOW DASH!" she shouted, delivering a swift, dam-breaking buck to the clouds. Zoomed out and at a side view, one could see that when she struck the cloud, rain and lightning struck the other six Valkyries, making a series of ringing noises similar to a bell, with the side effect of frying the Sin into crispy corpses. Hovering above the now-much-lighter-colored cloud, Rainbow Dash pumped her hooves, "Aw yeah, I'm the best! WOOHOO! Yeah, can I hear an applause?!" she asked to the broken, empty stands. Oh great, she reminded herself that her hometown was dead. Dead and gone, it hadn't stood a chance. Meanwhile in Canterlot, Princess Luna noticed that a tiny splash of staining marked out Cloudsdale, and a few more splashes confirmed that the surrounding area was heavily corrupted. "Odd, I wonder if somepony thought it funny to pour water onto the map, oh dear mother, these things are important tools, not toys." she said, wondering who was haphazardly marking the landscape. In Cloudsdale, in the deafening silence, one could hear quiet, mourning sobs, like somepony who had lost a good friend, or two, or a lot. Definitely a lot. HRMONY: Yellow Trailer Fluttershy was picking flowers in a field, feeling good that the Sin influence hadn't reached the lovely plants. It felt nice, the smell of water.... and....... Blood, dust, ash, of darkness itself. *CRACKA-BOOM* Lightning woke her from the daze, a hallucination induced by a chemical trap. She was disappointed by this, what awful tricks those pesky Sin tried to play on her. Why, she ought to teach them a lesson. She pulled out a pair of her 'little friends', the 'little friends' were a bunch of figurines she had made, most were inspired by the humans, creatures of myths and fables, it was said that they were the epitome of brevity, resolve, and moxie, the butter yellow mare tried to be like them in terms of a strong personality, but she often failed. She had a lot of figurines, and the two she had picked out of her bag were great. As the large crowd of various Sin creatures came out, Fluttershy gently sang a tune that came to mind. Her weapon was the best thing she could find, not many ponies knew, but she had a lot of bits from her (brief) modeling career, so she got the finest weapon on the market, after making a few modifications to it, utilizing her recently gained knowledge of sound physics, she had it, the Whispering Screecher. It was nigh silent, the noise of the Barrett M82 rifle had been mitigated to, well, a whisper. She threw out her friends, hoping that the magic that she had gotten Twilight to put in them would activate. The magic did indeed activate, expanding the two figurines into full sized, fully motioned people, loyal to their wielder, Fluttershy. Link, Hero of Time, and John-117, the Master Chief They fought valiantly, John using his rifle and training and Link using his sword and shield, the two warriors protected her. Using her rifle to pick off larger foes from a distance, she sent out some more 'friends'. So came forth the might of Sonic the Hedgehog from the series of the same name, David Mason from Black Ops II, Lee Everett from the Telltale's The Walking Dead, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Mario from the series of the same name, and Conker the Red Squirrel from Conker's Bad Fur Day. A loose, but very protective ring of summoned guardians surrounded the pink maned mare, allowing her to snipe the stronger enemies while the mooks were slaughtered by her friends. Incoming Challenger: A motherfucking DRAGON! Any D&D nerd would say that she rolled a natural twenty on intimidate, with the dragon getting a natural one to resist, because she flew up to the dragon, stared that sack of shit down, and WON. "Get..... out." she said at normal pony speaking volume, which was quite loud for her. The dragon, too entranced in the tormenting fright of 'The Stare' to resist, flew back the way it came. With the (relatively) small dragon gone and the attacking Sin already dispatched, the bearer of Kindness floated down to the ground, her guardians returning to statuette form. She felt proud of herself, and took in a mighty breath of air. "*breath IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIN* yay." she cheered in happiness. With that, she took what few uncorrupted flowers she could, and went back to town. She still had a few animals to care for, after-all, even though about ninety percent of them were set free when her cottage was excluded from the town's borders, and she would feel just awful if she left the cute little critters waiting. "There is more to come, it's not over yet." P1 warned the viewer, the god-figure laughed for almost a whole minute. He waved his hand, bringing up the next set of trailers upon the stage. JNPR: Jaune Trailer Jaune had exercised a lot, thinking that his lack of efficacy with his family heirloom of a sword was due to his lack of physical strength. He had heard of others taking months to get into shape, much longer to get a great deal muscle, maybe he had good genes, because in only a couple of weeks, he had gone from average build, to a phrase that his mother quietly muttered, "fucking ripped". His height helped, when he was a bit younger, he thought that his massive stature, a solid six feet six inches, was freakishly gargantuan, not now. No, not now, in fact, the worries of the past had been converted into confidences of the present, which was useful right now. Right now, he was using his immense strength of about two hundred pounds of hard packed muscle to cut through some Ursas. He had peerless skills with a claymore, and with his shield work, his healing factor was made almost superfluous. His shield changed from a shield to a katar, AKA a knuckler grip push-dagger, and stabbed an attacking Ursa's paw before using his sword to blow its heart out. The thing that was a major enhancement to his already existing badassery, since he was a killing machine before he even learned how to properly manipulate it, the 'thing' was the force dust forged into the blade. It was an old weapon, and forging dust itself into an alloy itself was the only well-proven way to enhance weapons with dust at the time of its creation. It was known as the Breaker Sword, for its tendency to burst things into pieces. The Feinting Steel was his shield, and transformation dust was forged into it. An easy example was that the blonde man had transformed it from its default shield form into a katar. Now it was a celica, AKA a battle gauntlet, and the swordsman used his great strength to shatter the bones of his enemies with extremified punches from the 'brass knuckles' portion of the finger coverings. Blade and covered fist met bodies, and soon the lives of these Ursa were snuffed out. With these Ursas taken care of by his badassery, he left the field of battle a winner. It was then that he noticed his old friend Pyrrha. "Hey there, hunk." she greeted playfully, ever since their graduation from Beacon and their becoming a full blown Huntsman/Huntress, they had both managed to drop a lot of formalities. "Hey again, Pyrrha, so, what brings you to this neck of the woods?" he asked politely. "Well, I just wanted to see you again, talk for a bit, y'know, catch up." the spear wielder replied, she frowned for a second when she remembered, all four of them had been separated after a few tragic events shortly following their promotions to true Hunters. It was unfortunate, and it seemed like the whole quartet couldn't manage to get back together again. "Listen, remember when you told me about how you faked those transcripts, and got into Beacon, then you proved yourself worthy, and turned those fake transcripts into truth?" Pyrrha listed the happenings in chronological order. "Yes, I bet you're wondering who gave me the transcripts in the first place?" he knew what she was going to ask, she had been waiting for a while, "Well, I'll tell you, I got them from Ozpin, as part of one of this little 'experiments' to see how the not-so-average would handle his school." the For a few seconds of silence, both Hunters examined eachother's forms. Pyrrha noted Jaune's intense musculature and negligible fat count. Jaune noted Pyrrha's very much sheared down form, which was funny, considering that she looked older at seventeen that she did now at twenty three, she was a normal bloomer, with the average time, but a very well endowing blooming extent. Puberty and piles of fat were no match for the power of reductive surgery, though, and her form was much more combat capable than before. "So, blondie, what do you plan to do, as our 'Glorious Leader'." the redhead suppressed a giggle at how un-ironic the term had become. "Simply, ya redhead," the blonde looked to the sun, and then too the moon over the horizon, it was dusk, "We're getting the gang back together. With that, the badass man and the super-warrior woman set off, they had a quest to reform their divided team. JNPR: Nora Trailer The burning landscape was..... no wait, it wasn't burning, it was just daylight out. Silly Nora, get your head out of the clouds. "Hoh hum, I wonder where Ren is?" she thought, the ginger greatly cared for her quiet friend, and very actively tried to make him un-quiet, just like he tried to make her un-loud, but both of them just weren't able to pull it off. One of the more humorous attempts was Ren duct-taping her mouth shut, with her responding by gluing a sound amplifier to his face so that no matter what he said, it would always come out a lot louder than normal. They had lots of fun like that. Not right now, though, Ren had run away from this fight, mainly because he currently had a broken arm, which would have spelled out his doom. Nora was left to fight off the menace of the Grimm, Magnhild did her talking for her. "...take THAT, and THAT, and some of THIS, don't forget THIS TOO!" she shouted as she blasted the Ursas with her grenades. Taking a moment to eject the spent casings of her grenades and swapping them out for fresh ones, she noticed that one of the monsters was coming at her.. She dodged out of the way, she was good at dodging, and changed Magnhild to its hammer form. It was easy to crush the beast's skull, especially with her explosive smashes. Looking around, she found that all of the Grimm were dead. "YAY ME! I did it, I did it, I deed eet, I deed eet, I win, I won the Hunter Games, WOOT!" she cheered at her great success. She ripped out the things claws, watching the dark blood pool on the ground while she fashioned a knife, using it to carve off a majority of the furry skin, tracing the exposed musculature with her eyes, it looked tasty.... She decided 'what the hell.' and began eating the raw, freshly killed Grimm. It was tasty, really tasty, almost perfect, but it was missing something.... "... AHA! It needs more wasted marrow." the pink-themed girl concluded, pounding her hammer on the skinned leg until it made a sick crunching sound. "YAY, BROKEN LEGS!" the hammer-wielder ate with more vigor this time. It was obvious that she wasn't at all in touch with reality. JNPR: Pyrrha Trailer The Sanctum Colosseum was packed to the brim with spectators of all ages and social classes, from young to old, and from poor to rich, they were here to see Sanctum Academy's top student, Pyrrha Nikos. Pyrrha was sixteen years old, it was early summer, her birthday was coming up, and if she won this tournament, she would be admitted into Beacon Academy, the best Hunter School in the world, it had to be the best, because it was led by the legendary Professor Ozpin. Professor Ozpin was legendary because he was literally the best Huntsman in the world, it was his title, the Jagermeister, the Hunt Master. This was why the armored spear-wielder greatly wanted to win, it was for honor. There were two sides to the tournament brackets, the 'Aspiring Hunters' side, AKA the people who were trained to fight, and the 'Notable Civilians' side, AKA the normal people who wanted to fight. "ROUND ONE, MATCH ONE, Pyrrha Nikos, VERSUS, Sean Ligament," the announcer shouted, "FIGHT!" The tournament was simple, it hadn't changed in its lifetime, single elimination, first to draw blood wins. The latter part could be confusing, but the gist of it was that the two combatants fought until one of them had their aura levels dried out, then all that the other fighter had to do was induce bleeding. For Pyrrha, it was easy, she was top of her class in Sanctum. The first round went as follows: an initial charge, Pyrrha outmaneuvered her opponent, Pyrrha stabbed Drake in the abdomen, steadily bleeding out his aura, then he bled actual blood. As drippings of the red life-fluid fell from Sean's midriff, the announcer confirmed it, and announced, "THE WINNER IS, Pyrrha Nikos!" he shouted into the microphone. The redhead had plenty of time to recover from the rush of the first round, and before she knew it, it was time to fight again. "ROUND TWO, MATCH ONE, Pyrrha Nikos, VERSUS, Harold Porous," the microphone wielder paused to take in a breath, "BAAAAATTTLLLLLEEEEEEE!" he almost screamed. Almost immediately Pyrrha was pegged in the face by a garishly red grenade, which exploded into fire, igniting the redhead. The spear-wielder gave a surprising infernal retaliation, that is, even though she had been set on fire, she still fought her opponent, while on fire! She ran at the pyromaniac, Milo at the ready to pierce his face, Akuou protecting her from the high-pressure flamethrower that was being sprayed at her. A single, heavy swing was all that it took to knock the fool over, his crude setup for his flamethrower bursting from the impact with the ground, sending him sailing over her preparedly crouched form, deflecting off of her shield, and crumpling to the ground several feet away. Luckily for her, the pressurized wave of non-flammable propellant gas extinguished her own fire. She was led back to her area, given a few shots of chemicals to make her recover from the flames. She sat on a bench, draped in a set of simple replacement clothes while her armor was being cleaned of charring. Another contestant sat a few feet away from her. "Hey, motherfucker." he greeted in a casual tone, though his voice was familiar. "You're Marshall, Marshall Math, correct?" the young woman asked, trying to make small talk during her wait. "Yeah, Marshall Math, AKA Skittles, AKA, Tiny Terror, famous for my smooth voice and my so pwetty good looks." he coughed as he lit up a crack-pipe. "What are you doing?!" Pyrrha demanded, appalled at this sudden change of activity. "Don't question it, I'm addicted, yes, but I'm trying really hard to kick it, Pyrrha, can I call you Pyrrha?" Marshall answered. ".... Well fine, just keep that stuff away from me." the spear-wielder insisted, scooting away. "Alright, so, I noticed that you used some sort of aura back in your match, what did you do to make that guy's tank blow up?" the addict questioned, holding his pipe in his mouth like a cigarette and cleaning one of his three weapons, an auto-rifle. "My aura specialty is polarity, I made the tank's shell become very strongly singly-polarized, I'm not sure the proper terms, but the result is like a north and north magnet, the tank's shell was deflecting itself so much that it burst." the redhead explained, unsure of herself. "Cool, my specialty in mental instabili-TEE!" he twitched and shouted midsentence, his tone changing, "So that these motherfuckers lose their minds and I just get a free kill, I'm unmatched, y'know, well not really, I got out of my second match a few minutes ago." his tone had shifted to a much more venomous one, he was now inspecting the second of his three weapons, a sledgehammer asphyxiated to the barrel of a shotgun, positioned so that the shotgun was the shaft of the hammer. "Miss Nikos, it is almost time for your match." an attendant informed the fighter. "Well, I wish you good luck." Pyrrha said, looking back at Skittles. The facial expression the young man had on was one of a horror movie killer, it certainly helped that he had an axe in his hands, when they locked eyes, he gave a childish giggle with a murderous glint in his eyes. It took all of Pyrrha's self-control to not sprint away from the psychotic man-child. Redressed in her armor and armed with Milo and Akuou, the warrior reentered the arena. "ROUND THREE, MATCH ONE, Pyrrha Nikos, VERSUS, Kane Wilson." the announcer took in a breath, "RRRUUUUUUMMMMMMBLLLLLLLEEEEEEE!!!" the loud voice finished, officially beginning the match. Kane wore a gasmask, and his first motion was to toss out a pair of grenades. Pyrrha cursed her luck, two fighters with Drainer fighting styles in a row, it always took her longer to recover from fights against Drainers, mainly due the fact that their methods involved debilitation. Pyrrha thrust her shield out, reflecting the first one back, but the second one burst on impact, blanketing the immediate vicinity in smoke. The spear-wielder coughed, the smoke was infused with dyspnea toxins, inflaming her brachial tracts and making it hard to breath. She had to do it now, taking off one of her gloves holding it against her mouth and nose as a sort of crude air filter, all in an attempt to mitigate the effects of the toxins. Milo was changed to rifle form, wielded in one hand, Pyrrha used all of her skills to load up an incendiary round with only one hand. Luckily for her, Kane's other grenade was loaded with ethanol gas, gasoline fumes, and hallucinogens, which invaded his system through his eyes, debilitating him. His aura wasn't being drained, while Pyrrha's was, the riflewoman took aim at the flammable cloud, using her polarity ability to shrink it down, but in the process increasing the pressure, and thus compressing all of the effect into a much smaller area. She took aim and fired. *BOOM* the cloud rang out in a violent explosion of blue, red, and green flames, sending Kane flying away straight into a wall, a few splinters of bone coming out of his legs, hot blood leaking around the mostly-white shards. "AND THE WINNER IS... Pyrrha Nikos!" the announcer ended the match there. Back in the sort-of-locker room-sort-of-hallway-sort-of-waiting-room that held the remaining contestants, Pyrrha had been administered some medicines for the toxins, after a quick breathing test, she was cleared to fight again. "That was awesome, Terror liked when the guy was so high he blew himself up." Tiny Terror, the other persona of Marshall, greeted. Pyrrha was about to correct him, clarifying that she was the one who made the explosion, when she saw the bracket chart. Marshall was on the other half of the chart, at the top of the bracket, and he just got out of round three, if he won his next match, she would be fighting him for the chance to get to Beacon. She couldn't reveal her secrets to him right now, or else he would have something to use against her. "Well, I'm about to get back into the fray, good luck on your next match, Marshall." her words seemed to have an effect on the other warrior, as his eyes seemed to brighten. "Right, good luck to you too, Miss Nikos." he said kindly. Walking onto the battlefield again, Pyrrha faced the other portcullis, which raised to allow her opponent through. "ROUND FOUR, MATCH ONE, Pyrrha Nikos, VERSUS, Lilith Longington," the announcer took in a deep breath, "BRRRAAAAAAAWWWWWLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!" he screamed, beginning the match. Lilith had a spear like Pyrrha, however, rather than a heavy spear with a rifle form, it was just a really long spear, about nine and a half feet for the shaft, and half a foot for the head. "I would, indeed, touch you with a ten foot pole." the other girl taunted, swinging wide with her weapon. Blocking the attack with her shield, Pyrrha got in close, far too close for her opponent to give any effective retaliation. Several strikes, some stabs and a few slashes from Milo, along with a decking punch fronted with Akuou later, and Lilith was on the ground. Pressing her foot down on her foe's stomach, the redhead spun her spear, gaining some momentum, before performing a hemorrhaging strike to Lilith's right shoulder. "My only regret *cough* is that I have *cough cough* bonitis." the pike-wielder coughed out the joke before blacking out from pain. With that, the announcer announced her victory, and Pyrrha went back to the waiting/prep room. ... Looking around, all that she found was an almost depressing absence of people, she had won all of the previous matches, but now she would have to fight the toughest fighter on the other side of the bracket chart. One of the attendants had just moved Marshall's nameplate to the final round slot at the same time that she looked over to the chart. "Oh no..." she cursed her luck, she had let herself get friendly with the boy that she now would have to fight. Walking through the hall-like structure and exiting the portcullis into the arena again, the redhead locked eyes with the blank-faced young man. The announcer was lowered onto the field by a rope attached to his waist, he landed between the two warriors. "THIS IS THE FINAL ROUND EVERYBODY, LET'S HEAR A CHEER!" everyone in the stands roared in applause, "YEAH, THAT'S WHAT I LIKE TO HEAR! This year, we have our final two contestants, on this side, we have the redhead with a red hot prowess, the girl at the top of the charts, we have, PYRRHA NIIIIIIIKOOOOOS!" everyone cheered louder, then calmed down to hear the other name. "On this side, we have the verbal muckraker, the great Skittles, the Real Tiny Terror, the apprentice to Doctor Andre Beats, the one, the only, MARSHALL MAAAAATH!" everyone cheered again, then quieted down for the most emotional part. "So, normally tournaments ask the winner what they will do 'now that they've won', but we like to ask both of the final contestants what they would do before they battle to the death so we know who might have a more noble cause, OH YES, I AM REMINDING YOU ALL THAT THIS FINAL MATCH, IS TO, THE DEATH!" he paused to breathe, "So, Miss Nikos, what will you do after you win, assuming you do?" he asked. "I will be going to Beacon Academy to become a Huntress." the spear-wielder answered, bringing up a round of compliments. "What a noble answer, what about you Mister Math, what will you do after you win, assuming you do?" the suited man queried. "I'm gonna go get some cupcakes," he answered flatly, bringing up a round of laughter, "What? I like cupcakes." he added with a blank look on his face. "Well, that's not a very 'worth it' reward for going through something so difficult, but everyone has their preferences," the announcer was now being lifted off again, "FINAL ROUND, THE LAST MATCH, Pyrrha Nikos, VERSUS, Marshall Math," the ascending man breathed in deep, "*GAAAAAAAAASP* kill." it was very underwhelming. "I must ask you something, Marshall, are you on drugs still?" Pyrrha watched as the black-hoodie-clad man walked backwards from her. "I'm on.... syrup, painkillers, cigarettes, weed, Hennessey, Vodka, hahahahaha.... I'm on everything, and yes, I'm on crack, I'm straight up B-A-N-A-N-A-S crazy." he pulled out a small, plus-sign shaped pill, crunching it down in his mouth and swallowing it. He suddenly had a look of clarity, like he was at peace with himself. Using his rifle, he shot several bursts at Pyrrha, most ricocheted off of her shield, but a few hit her, knocking off a few bits of her aura bar, she could see it in her Scroll, but the odd thing was that for some reason, Marshall had three health bars. A wave of nausea passed through her head, and was suddenly replaced by chaos, it was as though the pieces of her cognition were now at war, trying to take full control of her body. Through great determination, she calmed herself and looked at Marshall. The young man reloaded his rifle and charged forward, gun blazing bullets, though they all bounced back and strafed him. When his bar was almost completely empty, Pyrrha swung out, catching him and making a bleeding gash on the side of his face, to the left of his mouth. He merely picked her up by the front of the neck and threw her several feet back. With a bleeding wound on his cheek, his eyes suddenly went from warm and almost mirthful, to cold and very hateful. He pulled out an actual skittle, putting the dark red candy in his mouth, chewing it up and swallowing. He had changed into Skittles. "It's time for a meta-mega-maniacal comeback, I'm making a comeback, like nut on ya spine." his tone was filled with venom and he pulled out his shotgun-sledgehammer. "I'll merk ya with a Mossberg, pissed off get murdered, I'll chainsaw you with a maul, yer 'bout to get mauled, bitch!" he threatened, rapidly swinging at her. Pyrrha blocked his sudden assault of hammer strikes with her shield, but it stopped, she waited, and still nothing, she looked up. Skittles had quietly slid the barrel of his shotgun over her shield, and unloaded a shell of buckshot right into her face. Her aura levels were cut in half, and then she had an idea. Stabbing her spear into the ground, she used her polarity powers to steal the hammer-shotgun. Her foe used his mental-instability powers to try to convince her to shoot herself. She merely used her polarity powers to make him slap himself across the face. *CHIK-CHIK, BOOM* *CHIK-CHIK, BOOM* *CHIK-CHIK, BOOM* *CHIK-CHIK, BOOM* *CHIK-CHIK, BOOM* *CHIK-CHIK, click* She threw the weapon far off to the side, watching her foe. The Scroll said that he had two bars empty, but the third was full. Looking up, she saw that he had a strange look on his face. His mouth was slashed so that he had a sort of Joker style scar smile, in his hand was a fireman's style axe, and his eyes were filled with childlike wonder. He was sitting on the ground, though, "Won't the Real Tiny Terror, please stand up." he said, jumping to his feet with an insane grin to accompany his scar one. "Yeah girl, can you hear that?" his tone was insane. Pyrrha took up a defensive stance, blocking a few axe swings, countering with a few stabs. A powerful punch to the face with her shield dazed his weakened head. She needed to finish this, or she would die. The first four rounds were just to first blood, but the final match was to the death. She fired nine of her ten shots from Milo's rifle form, turning it to spear form again for the final strike. Taking careful aim, the riflewoman threw the spear, blasting out the last round to accelerate the weapon's speed far beyond what even her strong arms could manage. Tiny Terror ended up pinned against the far wall. Running over quickly, she looked at how the seventeen-year-old young man really did look tiny from this angle. Pyrrha was five foot eleven, and Marshall was about five foot four. "*giggle* You know, you really do look like a Tiny Terror like this." she remarked. "Yeah yeah yeah, laugh it up, then you can go finger-fuck yourself, bitch." his tone was still dark, he knew that he was going to die anyways, so he might as say what he wanted to. "You are quite rude, and here I was considering sparing you, given how funny you look, despite the spear in your body. "Yeah right, I'm fucking funny, I'm a cute bastard too, I'm so humorous, I'm just really hilarious, yeah, I'm.... I'm just..... ... yeah, so this 'sparing me' thing, you'd really do it?" he asked, his face still mostly blank. "Yes, you must act like you are dead, and I will that that I killed you, agreed?" she asked the small warrior. "Sure, *ahem* OH WHAT CRUEL FATE! I HAVE BEEN SLAIN! *blargh*" he made a weird sort of sound and went limp. Pyrrha removed her spear and returned to the center of the arena, her arms raised in victory. "AND THE WINNER, of this year's Sanctum Tournament of Skills, IS, PYRRHA NIKOS OF THE ASPIRING HUNTERS SIDE!" the announcer returned to the field. "AND SO IS SLAIN, the Real Tiny Terror, of the Notable Civilians side, he will be dearly missed." almost everyone shed a few tears at hearing that. Pyrrha knew better, so she held a stiff upper lip, and accepted her prize. In less that a few months, she would be attending Beacon Academy, and then she would be on her way to becoming a Huntress. It was for honor, for justice, it was what she was good at, what she was trained for, and what she desired. She knew that it would be tough, but when the going gets tough, the tough get going. JNPR: Ren Trailer Lie Ren, he treated words like valuable things, and thus didn't often waste them on superfluous details. The young martial artist needed a weapon, he may have been born and raised in the Mistral Region, in the city of Mondoam, his father, the somewhat famous Lie Bruce (in his culture, surnames went first), was from Mondoam, but his mother, Linda Emren, was from Vale. Even though Bruce was dead, and dishonoring him was the last thing Ren wanted to do, reaper-belt-level martial arts just wouldn't cut it with the Grimm, even though Reaper-belt was the equivalent of ten black-belts. So the young Lie made his own art, and his own weapons. His personal martial art was Homizu, the method of water, he practiced it for hours on end every day. The core of it was negating damage by not resisting attack. By moving with an opponent's punch, what would be a punch if you resisted movement, would be a mere push, the methods of moving in time, distance, and speed of your enemies' attacks required great sense, vision, reaction, and agility. These things were his greatest strengths, along with his aura powers for shields. His weapons were the Jade Dragons, modeled like the Colt M1911, but with the mechanisms of the Beretta 93R and the chambering of the Glock 22, and utilizing the extra space on the barrels to mount a pair of axe-like dagger blades. He spent almost two whole days at the forge, working nonstop, shaping the barrels, forming the frames, customizing the grips, adding the impurities to the alloys to give them both the right color and the right balance of metal traits, the cartridges, which he quickly realized were quite weak against armor. A pair of compensators were added for them to have negligible offset and recoil, and the magazines were oversized to allow more ammunition, a set of spare blades were made to replace the first two in case they were damaged, and four extra magazines were forged up. The trailer ends with him in a dark room, meditating. "I can't do this, I'm not full Mistral." he said suddenly, standing up, storing the Jade Dragons up his sleeves, and walking away. Or at least, he would have walked away, if he hadn't realized something. "I've been up for almost forty hours, I've been awake to work the forge, to make the shapes, to calculate the chemistry, and to create the Jade Dragons, and now that that is done............." *thud* He collapsed onto the ground out of exhaustion, no, it wasn't like a normal falling asleep, no, not like that at all. He was out like a light. "Are you ready to fucking fly?" P1 asked the viewer in an excited tone, not waiting for a response, "Well TOO DAMN BAD, I say that you can't leave until you watch this, these next four are also pretty cool." he assured, though his face belied worry that he might have been unintentionally lying. The stage once again filled up with content. DOPG: David Trailer Professor David Ozpin had been working towards this for twenty five years, TWENTY FIVE, FUCKING, YEARS! Doctor Blazing Blazes was his opponent, a priest who attained the highest position of Hunter in the world. The Jagermeister, the Hunt Master. Blazes was an avid church-goer, his dedication is how he also got the position of Priest. "Alright, Ozpin, you know the rules, no hitting below the belt unless you really want to, this is a fight to the death, no outside help unless your weapon involves summons, and do your best, because unless you are always doing your best, what reason do you give for others to follow you?" the white haired man instructed. One last scratch of his glorious white beard, and Blazing was ready. Ozpin ran a hand through his still-partially-brown hair, he was sixty years old at the moment, so his hair had been graying for a while now. "So, what are you going to do, David?" the older man taunted, laughing, and then coughing, he was about eighty five years old, he had obtained the position of the Jagermeister when he, too, was sixty. Ozpin hated being called David, he didn't spend an extra eight years of his life in additional schooling to become a professor for people to call him by first name. "I'll kill you with my coffee mug!" the green-clad man proclaimed, gulping down the last of his coffee and changing his mug from mug form to hammer-axe form. The younger man charged forward, the Brewtality at the ready to cleave or smash Blazing to bits. Blazing had a sniper rifle, but his time as a doctor, then as a priest, had left his skills rusty........ ................. .................................................. and he missed every single shot. EVERY! SINGLE! SHOT! How did he do that ONCE? It's a SNIPER RIFLE for god's sake, against SOMEONE WHO'S CHARGING AT YOU! This should have been INCREDIBLY EASY! Switching to his pistol, he fired that.... ... ........ ................. and missed every single shot........... ............................... ....................................................... damn, Blazing, get your shit together. A single hammer uppercut and the alleged 'Hunt Master' was down on the ground, a cleaving downward swing from the axe split his sternum. Blood spilt from the wound in steady streams, and Blazing began speaking again. "And so falls another Master of the Hunt, take my cane, the weapon of the Jagermeister, it is known as the Wraith of the Smoke, wield it with pride, Ozpin, for you are truly the greatest Hunter on the face of Vytal, the road ahead is tough, but so long as you battle, only your fellowman can slay you." the white haired huntsman spoke in a praising tone. "I will battle with honor, Blazes." Ozpin assured the dying legend. "*wheeze* Always do so." with his final breath made into words, Blazes passed. A montage of Ozpin taking the cane, pinning a badge to his jacket, his hair fully graying out and lightening, and finally the acquisition of reading glasses. "So, do you know who I am?" he asked his interrogatee, sipping some more coffee. "Um, you look familiar, at least.... wait, you're Master Ozpin, the top Hunter in the world." Jaune answered, remembering seeing the elderly man from a few Hunter magazines he read. "That is correct, and you are Jaune Arc the Fifth, the latest in the line of the Arc family, you're two greats grandfather fought in the Great War, and you now wield his sword and shield." Ozpin recognized the blonde hair immediately, Jaune Arc the First was in the Hall of the Jagermeister, because he was the one who founded it. "Yes, that is correct, sir." Jaune sipped the juice he had been given, Ozpin claimed that all of his 'Sweat Session' victims received a bit of comfort while being asked questions. "I knew it, you're hair is one hundred percent Arc, your eyes are even the same blue color, tell me, do you want to be a hero like your forefathers?" there was the hard one, the solid question that was supposed to make Jaune think hard. That would be the case, if the blonde aspirer hadn't already made up his mind beforehand, "Yes, I need to carry on the legacy of Jaune Arc, which is why I want to go to Beacon Academy one day." it was a very honest answer. "Well, I'm glad that you wish that, Mister Arc, because I have already drawn up some transcripts for you." the coffee-addict passed over the papers. Jaune began reading the documents, finding that the basic things were already filled in, all that was missing was his skills, "I can't help but notice that I reportedly can't do anything of particular excellence." he remarked eloquently. "That's your job, put down what you believe you can do best, and I will approve it, then you'll be on your way to Beacon." Ozpin watched as the blue eyed swordsman wrote his least-suckass abilities into the proper fields. "Okay, my word says that you're in." to prove his point, the silver-haired man pressed an 'accept' button and Jaune's forged files were put into the system. "Congratulations, Mister Arc, you've won, your prize is an all-expense-paid entrance to Beacon Academy, enjoy it." the green-clad man praised, standing up just as Glynda walked back into the room with a fresh pot of coffee. "I don't understand why you needed me to wait and watch the coffee pot fill up, watching all of that pouring has made me need to pee." the blonde old woman looked to Jaune, "Oh, I didn't realize he was still here." she blushed slightly after realizing that the young juggernaut had no-doubt heard her quip about bathroom needs. "Well, you know where the bathroom is, Miss Goodwitch, and Mister Arc?" he turned back to the other man, "We are done here, you can leave, but you'd better pack your bags, 'cause you're on your way to Motha-fuckin' BEACON ACADEMY!" the Jagermeister suddenly shouted in a tone unlike what either of the blonde warriors had heard from him before. David merely walked down the hall, not looking back. Ozpin simply did not have a fuck to give. DOPG: Orchid Trailer "Alright, Ruby, one more time." the faunus repeated, he had already said 'one more time' about a dozen times, but he was having fun. "Okay uncle." the cheery young scythe-wielder, winding up again. Ruby and Qrow both did the cool thing were they spun their scythe around to make it look awesome when they brought it out. Ruby ended with the tip of her scythe embedded in the floor, Qrow ended with the bottom of the staff tapping against the floor, the energy blade shooting out with the sound of lasers. "Excellent work Ruby, I'll call it there, then, do you need me to walk you home?" the black-clad man asked, fluttering his ebony wings to warm them up. "No need, I'm going to my favorite dust shop." the red-clad girl assured, Crescent Rose locked up on her back. "You mean 'From Dust Till Dawn'? That shop run by the old man?" Qrow went through his mental map of Vale, finding the small shop two blocks off of the beaten path, a safe enough distance. "Alright, you go on ahead then, and tell Patrick I said hi." the middle-aged huntsman requested, turning from his niece to put away his Grimm Reaper. The clacking of the door closing was all that the faunus needed to hear, and he began cleaning up his garage. He was still young enough, only having recently turned fifty, it was common for humans to maintain great health well into their later lives. Of course, Qrow wasn't human, he was a faunus, as anyone could tell. Faunus had a series of 'classes', rating them from more human to more animal. Class One Faunus usually had animal ears and abnormal hair growth, they were the most common. Class Two Faunus were the veritable middle ground, usually having a tail to go with the ears, or maybe claws, they were also the middle ground in commonness. Class Three Faunus, the type that he was, were mostly animal, he himself was (as his name somewhat subtly implied) a crow, with long, downy feathers for hair, shorter and slightly stiffer feathers for his beard, talons in place of fingernails and toenails, and even bird wings. He could fly, yes, he was very able to do so, his wings were of great strength, and his bones were hollow, combined with his aura ability to lessen gravity's effect on him. It didn't make him lighter, no, it seriously made gravity have a weaker effect on him, rather than the equation Mass x 9.8m/s2, his weight was the equation Mass x 4.7m/s2, it was the only cool thing that his soul did, the other thing was rather humiliating (especially how he found out), but it allowed him to properly digest seeds and grasses, it was humiliating because it was an undeniably animalistic trait, permanently cementing him as 'only a partial person' in the eyes of racists. His garage, which he also used as a training room, was a mess, so the black hair-on-black clothes-on-caucasian skin man set to work on cleaning it. His few tools were re-hung on the tool-board, a broom swept up bits of dirt and dust and launched them out onto the driveway. His house was a typical house-in-the-suburbs, so it had a garage and driveway, front and back yards, and a second floor. Whistling while he worked, he checked the tape that outlined the area occupied by the empty space where his car would be, if he had one that is. One of the major few things left in the fight for Faunus Civil Rights, was, oddly enough, 'the right to own and operate motorized vehicles' AKA having a car and a driver's license. He grimaced at the thought, if the right was gained in his lifetime, he would buy the most expensive, aesthetically garish car he could find, and be a 'sore winner' with it. Walking into his living room, he plopped down on the couch and started watching cartoons. Qrow had just finished watching the latest episode of Professor Who on Internet-Flicks, he looked at the time, it wasn't even ten in the morning. "Scroll, Message: David Ozpin," the winged scythe-wielder commanded the device, he used the voice command because it was too far away to pick up, "Tell him......" he trailed off, going very quiet. *sigh* "I guess it's time to pay them a visit, send." Qrow concluded, standing up and walking over to his pet's perch. Since he was just so badass, his pet was a motherfucking juvenile Nevermore, it currently had a wingspan of about eight feet. "Hey Gavvy." the owner greeted his pet. *ringtone* "God, that sound, though, I wish you would never make it again." Qrow complained as he grabbed a bag of seeds and went back to Gavvy, who was perched on a bird-stand outside. "Alright, Gavvy-Wavvy, let's fly." the black-clad man gently commanded, and the large bird complied, flapping its wings and taking off. Qrow had a strange feeling that today would change his life.... Nah, he was starting to get crazy, he sighed at the comfortable feeling of the slightly blowing winds, and brandished his Scroll. "Scroll, progress on the downloads?" he asked the machine. "All downloads complete." the mechanical voice replied. "Play download file one." the faunus smiled as the familiar music started playing, and he began whistling it. "Da-da-da DO-doooo, da-da-da DOO-doooo, do do DO DOOO" it started.... And the rest is history. DOPG: Peter Trailer The young man had set out on a mission, an advocate for Beacon Academy would be coming to his town in a mere two days, and he needed to prove he was worthy. He wasn't a good speaker, no, that was a skill that would take him many years to develop, but he decided to live an exciting life to tell his elder years' youths about. Since he couldn't talk his way into Beacon, he would need to prove himself in a way that didn't require words. He was going to capture a Grimm. No, not kill it, capture it, take it alive. It would be a miracle to take it dead. He had to do this, he had to, it was his goal- nay, his DESTINY, TO BE, a HUNTSMAN! The red haired man trekked out into the forest, his pack filled up with supplies, both incidental and backup, including some food, water, and ammunition and gunpowder. "Come at me, Beowolves, I am NOT AFRAID!" he was a brave youth with a great amount of stout strength. Stout strength was his advantage, because even though he was fat, his fat hid a lot of muscle. The wing blew past his small pencil moustache, which would one day grow into a mighty handlebar of facial hair, but for now he was content with what he had. A single Beowolf, probably a scout, burst from the bushes in an attempt to surprise him and get in an attack of opportunity. Peter swung the Buster Axe hard, severing the beast's head. "HAHA! The first blood of the day." he proclaimed, his boisterous side coming through full force. The blunderbuss portion of the Buster Axe was loaded, ready to fire at a moment's notice, and not a moment too soon. Another Beowolf came out of the brush, and Peter pressed the stock of his weapon firmly against his shoulder, taking as much careful aim as possible. *BANG* The bundle of metal shards held together by 'glue' made from gunpowder that had been wet, clumped, then dried. The shrapnel tore the beast's neck to shreds, its body thudding to the ground, followed by its head a moment later. *THUD* *thock* Reloading the blunderbuss with a regular bullet, loading up the gunpowder while walking, the black shirt and plaid kilt clothed young man steeled his nerves when he smelled the unmistakable smell of Beowolf urine. "I see that they still mark their territory like common animals, it reminds me of Stockholm syndrome with my cow, Edmund." he took a moment to relive his recent memories.... ........... ........................That moment took longer than expected, because would you look at that? Its already nighttime. Taking a few minutes to hoist himself into a decently high perch in a tree, Port ate a small, yet satisfying supper, tied himself to the tree, and dozed off. The ginger headed warrior had found the pack of Beowolves that had been terrorizing his town, they were all ripe for the slaughter. The hunt was on. One of the beasts ran at his full force, only to be slain by the hunter's axe to its spine, a fatal blow. The Alpha growled at him fiercely, a tactic to make him scared, and thus less able to fight. It would have worked if the monster had used it on anybody else from Port's village, but he had chosen the one man who was immune. "ROOOOOOOAAAAARRR! YES, I am AWARE of YOUR PRESENCE!" the ginger responded, using his axe to kill another Beowolf, and the blunderbuss to kill another. Three of the beast's remained, including the Alpha, which was easily five times bigger than the other two. "I am a HUNTER, and you DEEEEMOOONS are my prey." the badass boast came right before he was struck across the chest. The monsters looked in horror as their vicious claws hadn't even cut through their enemy's clothing. "I am a HUMAN, my SOUL shall PROTECT ME!" Port explained, loading gunpowder into his gun. The last thing that went through their heads was his axe, moving in a cleaving arc that hit both of them. The Alpha was all that was left and a shredding cluster was loaded up. "ROAR FOR ME! GIVE ME ALL YOU HAVE! I'LL TAKE ALL OF IT AND THEN SOME!" he yelled at the behemoth monster. *ROAR* *BOOM* Its arm was blown off. *ROOOOAAAAARRRR* "That's not good enough!" Peter berated as his sliced off one of the Alpha's feet. The beast fell with a mighty- *RRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRR* "YES, YES, GOOD." the man praised, using his flint and steel to set fire the demon's wounds, crudely cauterizing it. He grabbed the Beowolf by the neck with his powerful hand, dragging it back to his village. After several hours of walking, with brief bursts of jogging, running, or even sprinting, the ginger hunter was finally back at his small town. Walking through the gates with his head held high in pride, all sorts of onlookers watched as he strode past houses and small shops, all the way into town square, where the Beacon Advocates were recruiting. Everyone's eyes turned to him, dragging a living Alpha Beowolf into town. Peter let it fall to the ground. *YELP* "My name is Peter Port, and THIS, sirs and madams, is my application to Beacon." was his only statement, his head still held high. A few seconds passed, nobody moved or spoke, then: "Congratulations, Mr. Port, you have been accepted into Beacon Academy." one of the advocates informed, writing on his clipboard. "I am grateful, sir." the ginger replied, being as polite as possible, waiting to be excused. When everyone was tallied up, the advocates informed them all about the grace period between when they were accepted and when they would be relocated. The strapping young man returned home, to his small farm. He was the spitting image of his father, so his mother said, though his father had passed away during his own time as a huntsman, so that left his mother and himself to take care of the place. "I have returned, mother." he greeted as he walked into the house. "Peter, I haven't seen you since yesterday, where were you young man?" Patricia Port, Port's mother, demanded to know, more than a little upset at her son's sudden vanishing. The hunter was still riding high from his acceptance, "I have slain the menace of the Beowolves that have been terrorizing the town, and I captured their Alpha, on top of this great achevemient, I was also accepted into Beacon Academy!" he proclaimed, his mother was struck in awe. "Oooooh, my big man is going to Beacon~" her motherly pride in him was evident, "How long until you're relocated?" it was an innocent enough question, "I'm going to whip up a nice big dinner every night until you have to go, your father gave me the idea when he got accepted, its to help you sustain good health while you're there, staying power and all." the thin old brunette rattled on. His mother was a stick of a person, her tiny frame was absolutely dwarfed by her son's massive figure, Peter was rippling with young, steely muscles, years of genuine hard work and dedication to working the land. "I'll get some meat." he insisted, taking a large cleaver and going out to the barn. His stride was long, his form was strong, as he and his mother knew, working the land and performing animal husbandry was the main cause of the bodybuilding. The main products of their little ranch were milk, beef, eggs, and chicken, occasionally pork, wool, and mutton too, but the farm's only consistent livestock was cows and chickens. Quietly opening the barn door, then shutting it, he walked over to his favorite place in his whole home area... The cellar..... Opening the door and closing it behind him, the ginger said a quick prayer of thanks, then moved to his prey. He was polite, taking care to wash it thoroughly before he ended its life, and making sure that his cleaver was as clean and sharp as possible, to make easy cuts through its glorious hide. "I'm not really sorry at all for doing this, but it's time for you to go," he reminisced the previous prey, how they would make beautiful sounds of pain as he sliced their flesh open, spilling hot blood on the hard packed dirt floor, the rush of the butchering, "It's time for you to go......... Edmund." *mooooooooo* Peter was a gentleman, after all, he had at least waved goodbye to the poor bovine locked in his barn cellar, he remembered Edmund before Edmund, whenever Edmund escaped (that had only happened one time over a period of eleven years) or died (most often by being butchered), a new Edmund took its place. Few people knew about this, and all of those few just didn't understand why it was never 'Edmund the second' or 'Edmund the fortieth', they were all fools, because it was very, very, very simple: 'Edmund' was the one in the cellar. *moooo-* *SHICK* *SLICE* *HACK* *SLASH* *THUD* When all of the mess was cleaned up, another cow was led down there, down into the cellar. Into the cellar, never to get out alive. DOPG: Glynda Trailer "...I just don't understand why you would choose someone so obviously irresponsible, Ozpin." the blonde old woman argued. Her superior, the famous Professor Ozpin, had allowed not one, but two young warriors into the illustrious, fable-starting, the one, the only, the Beacon Academy. The beacon of hope for freedom from the (relatively non-invasive) oppression of the creatures of Grimm. A beacon that had been manned by a man who was gradually turning from a master to a maniac for the past thirty years. "Miss Goodwitch, I must implore that you first shut your whore mouth, and that you second don't question my motives, even though I'll answer your questions anyways." Ozpin began, clearing his throat to prepare for the next statement, "Some people have great power, they may not realize, or even show that they have it, until they are forced to use it, I am willing to take a chance with these two students being hidden masters of their trades rather than having another two normal Hunters." the green clad man walked away without another word. Glynda was about to make a witty retort, really she was, she had been a second from saying it, but her scroll interrupted her. *EMERGENCY* *DEATHSTALKER ATTACKING THE CLIFFS!* *EMERGENCY* *DEATHSTALKER ATTACKING THE CLIFFS!* *EMERGENCY* *DEATHSTAL-beep* The message disappeared with a simple press of a touchscreen button, Glynda knew that it would continue with the annoying and somehow-urgent-sounding jingle until she dismissed it. Ozpin hadn't heard her scroll's message, this might have been an opportunity for her. Without the older man's intervention, Glynda could finally do some real Huntress work. How long had it been? One, two, four, eight months? A year? However long it had been since her last battle, it was too long. Glynda discarded her heels in favor of sneakers, and ran to the aero-docks. A few minutes of flying one of the fastest airships in the world, the JM1 'Pyro Slicer', a rather small jet capable of reaching Mach speeds with great ease, and she was at Beacon Academy's cliffs. The area under attack was the Emerald Forest cliff zone, turning on the autopilot and ejecting herself from the jet, Glynda descended upon her enemy. The Deathstalker, a giant, vicious, and very deadly scorpion creature, looked like it was attempting to break the base of the mountainous mesa-like formation upon which Beacon Academy was perched. Descending to the ground at the speed of a falling feather, Glynda thought about the implications of this act. If such an action were to be completed, Beacon Academy, as well as all of its resources, materials, and people, would end up collapsing into the forest, reduced to a state of impotency, just waiting to be destroyed by the Grimm. The green eyed witch landed a few dozen feet away, turning to the mighty beast and shouting at it. "AYE, STOP THAT, GO AWAY!" she had a very thin book of insults, but she would use what she had to her advantage. "YOU, YES YOU, CEASE AND DESIST, YOUR MOTHER WAS A HAMSTER, AND YOUR FATHER SMELT of ELDERBERRIES!" it was offensive at an intellectual level. The mother being a hamster, meant she was a fast breeding rodent, the insult there is obvious. The father smelling of elderberries, in her youth, wine was most often made with elderberries, which meant that the father was a drunkard. The Deathstalker turned around to face its relatively small enemy. *HISSSSSSS* Goodwitch the.... good....... witch............. fired off an energy missile. The giant Grimm was stunned by the projectile's forceful impact, though not stunned enough to attempt to counter. Glynda turned herself into a cloud of frost, travelling away from the stinger strike and reforming above, landing on top of its tail. Casting a burst of poisonous rot infection through its prehensile appendage, causing a significant amount of flesh to either disintegrate or peel away from the stinger, revealing the tendons. The witch slashed an energy formed blade through the tendons, severing the enormous stinger from its tail, the point of it jamming into the beast's face. Flipping through the air, casting a supercharged magic missile to force the stinger through the Grimm's face. Landing gracefully a few dozen feet away, Glynda watched as the Deathstalker writhed in pain. Sending a prayer to the powers that be, she stared intently, hoping against the odds that this was the end of it. Deathstalkers, if killed with their own stinger, had a fifty-fifty chance to either die, or mutate. The writhing didn't stop, oh shit.... *SCREEEEEEEEEEEECH* The ear piercing screech threatened to deafen the poor old woman, who watched in horror as the changes took place. A few pairs of small, elastic-like tentacles sprouted from the sides of its horizontally-snapping maw, using their combined force to remove the stinger and put it back onto the tail. The flesh sizzled as the tail repaired itself, and was then joined by another two tails to either side. The bony plate covering its top side cracked and tore apart, making way for a thinner, weaker plate...... ...and about four times more eyes. The legs crackled and became over five times longer, supporting the body with, as Glynda could count, two dozen chitin spikes. This was a crucial point in the transformation, when the two pincer arms became four, the weakest moment. Why was this the weakest moment? Because the main body splint into two halves, top and bottom, to make it happen. As soon as the flesh was fully yawed apart, Glynda fired off the intensely charged spell. *NEKODAH* A mighty, (not copyrighted in the slightest) blasting bolt of energy practically ripped the almost-formed Wraithhunter to pieces, then ripped those pieces into smaller pieces, then set those smaller pieces on fire, then extinguished the charred tatters with a highly-corrosive/non-flammable substance. Essentially, the Wraithhunter ate nobs. Glynda was, herself, a top rank huntress, she wasn't the best of the best, that title went to David Ozpin, but the still-blond woman was among the best. Using the cloud-body spell, Glynda formed into a cloud of smoke, then reformed back at the top of the cliff. She hadn't even realized it, but it was still nighttime, judging from the moon still in the sky. Several gray speckles dotted her vision, she removed her glasses and wiped away the offending particles, immediately after the lenses moved away from her eyes, the world was wreathed in shadows. With the lenses clean and placed once again in front of her perfect eyes, the world was once again bright as day. Glynda didn't really need glasses, these were night-vision devices, but the Grimm didn't know that, yet they did understand the purpose of glasses. The witch formed into a cloud of dust (the normal kind, not the energy kind), sped to her office, and began working on her paperwork again. Huntsmen and Huntresses came and went, but the Grimm stayed, and they learned, while they didn't learn through organized means, nor with (apparent) communication, but they knew a lot about humans. A lot about humans, their culture, their knowledge, and above all... ....their limits.... Glynda sighed, "Time to see who all shall die this year." it wasn't the best way to determine who could be a hunter, but it was efficient. After all, if these younglings couldn't survive a journey into and out of the Emerald Forest, what did that say about their abilities as a hunter? It only said a few things, and none of those few things were good. "Now weren't those cool?!?!" the mentally-slipping deity asked feverishly, his hands shaking with the force of an earthquake. He looked red in the face, as though he had spent weeks delaying the production of something, all in favor of reading a whole bunch of clopfics. By his side stood Oscar/Blue Comet, the white hoodie clad man pointed to a golden five-pointed-star-shaped medal on his chest, over his heart, tiny letters read 'Medal of Honor'. "I have been trusted by his highness to direct you to the next set of trailers." his militaristic tone was offset by a smile, as he pointed into the small theater-esque structure. The empty stage instantly filled with new content. WRHS: Warden Trailer Evening Warden. Lieutenant Evening Warden of the Lunar Patrol read the letter and smiled, his little sister, Scootaloo, with his material and moral assistance, had learned how to fly, a great thing. Her excessive use of capital letters and exclamation marks told him all he needed to know, she was hysterically happy about her newfound abilities. It was excellent, if the Sin attempted to attack her, she could now fully (and quite literally) utilize the 'fight or flight' response. His sand colored magic set the letter down and took a minute to compose himself from the overinflated pride and joy in his heart, taking a few large gulps of ice tea helped. Switching from the tea to water, washing down the calming taste, he needed a bit of energy. 'First tea, then water, then soda, reverse if needed.' the note above his desk read. He got the drink habit and his mane from his dad, Blue Jay, and his coat from his mother, Big Red, thinking about her made him remember what had happened a decade ago. He had received two letters that day, one said that his father had been promoted to a very prestigious position in the delivery industry, the other said that his mother had succumb to two strokes in her brain. He didn't cry over it any more, he had done all of that when he cried himself to a blackout at the hospital. The thoughts still made him groan in mental pain, his mother had developed diabetes, and even with the help of Silver Calling, a close family friend, her self-destructive eating habits ended up killing her. He swore to be the healthiest damn stallion he could be, every day of the week, when his minimal required schoolings were over, he spent time exercising both magic and muscle. About three years before the present day, Princess Luna returned, and he was enraptured in her grace and glory, and joined the military as part of the Lunar Patrol. His ears pricked up as he heard his best friend, Jeering Mareon, knocking on the door. He could tell it was his pegasus ally because words of song came with the knocks Equipping his rune-laden armor, enchanted for at least some protection against everything, as his younger days as a gamer had told him 'you can never be too protected'. His scarlet coat, azure mane, and red eyes shifted to murky grey coat, pale purple mane, and yellow eyes as the illusion enchantment in the helmet activated. His weapon was the Storehouse, a weapons cage about twice the size of a bathroom sink mirror, it had several weapons inside of it, he had been working on his collection for quite a long time. Jeering was knocking louder, singing a song, for some reason, it made Evening think of green foliage, which would be a lot nicer if the foliage wasn't cut into a penis-like shape, "Adrenalin level GOES UP, and then it drops and you could use a PICK UP, STAND UP and FIGHT, DON'T DIE ON ME, so now you're bleeding fast, half an gallon is left, but DON'T DIE, DIE DIE, die-die-die-DIE! COME ON EVENING GET YOUR ASS UP, THEY HAVE SCOOTALOO!" the tan pegasus shouted at his fallen comrade. His red eyes shot open as they were bathed in the liquid hellfire known as 'guardian angel charge-in-danger response' his sclera became pink, pupils were maroon, and his irises filled up with an unholy amount of 'super red', his sand colored magic flared up in whips, tendrils, sprays, and bolts. His mind raced at a pace well above nine thousand miles a minute, he had been struck in the head, knocked unconscious, and a merciful evil had allowing his head to be filled with sweet memories, even as his body lay prone for his life to be ripped away from him. White magic, a silver shield, black magic, ebony balls of energy, and the most important piece: The Storehouse. The cage was summoned, teleported from a small pocket dimension his ally Joax Ryther Hellstorm had in a bag of holding. The masked mage gave his leader a glance, a sigh of relief, and turned back to the raging fight. A magical key of aura unlocked the thick, slightly ventilated metal doors, releasing the parts to his 'ultimate weapon' Several clicks, a few twists, some slides, many turns, and it was constructed. He had taken it upon himself to examine the constructs of the teams RWBY, JNPR, and DOGS, so he made his own 'crazy hybrid weapon', the ultimate 'crazy hybrid weapon', as when he was making it, he had pulled out so many stops that stops than didn't even exist were uprooted to make way for power. "JUST REMEMBER, MEN," he started, before the black and white magic took over for his brief demonstration, the containment box doing all the speaking he needed. A few hearty chuckles were shared by Evening, Jeering, and Joax before turning back to the skirmish, Skull wasn't laughing though, he merely kept aiming his rifle with his eyes squinted with focus. In a brave-yet-quiet charge across the scorched field, past Jaune Arc, past Ren and Blake, past Yang, past Weiss, past Glynda and Ozpin. Several suppressed *GLACKS* from the pistol part, as well as the grenade from the launcher cleared a ten foot radius from his sister, whom he guarded with a silver shield, taking her large revolver and levitating her unconscious form onto his back, he blasted away as many Sin as he could. He casted 'Ball of Spell', creating an small, easily carried sphere that housed a special emergency spell, casting it had drained most of his magical energy, however, but he didn't worry. He had taken some great perks upon character creation, and recovered from the exertion quickly. "RUBY, CATCH!" he shouted to the red-and-black clad girl somewhere in the fray, launching the Ball of Spell to her. He had to get out of there, it wasn't safe for his sister to continue being here, nor was it safe for him, as he had been knocked out by a hard blow to the head a few minutes ago. Turning to the fighters, he gave a salute to the teams, Ruby, Juniper, Dogs, and his own squad Warhorse. *SHWING* *VORP* Joax had given him some tips on how to teleport more efficiently, using less magic for the same distance, or more distance for the same magic, or both, preferably, but technically all three were the same, just taken from different standpoints. Standing in the infirmary of the Castle Canterlot, he set to work immediately, for the battle still raged on back in the Far Fields. Rolling a skill check for medicine, he got an eleven, but used her bonuses to get a solid nineteen, which was good enough. Mixing a few things, stimulants and analgesics, about three attempts later he had a simple mixture of morphine and adrenaline. Administering a shot to both himself and his sister, they were both overcome with a mighty surge of health and energy. "Alright, Scoots, wait here, if any Sin attack while I'm gone, just shoot them." he handed over the Lovechild, his scoped grenade launching silenced pistol bipod attached katana handle crowbar, along with the other four grenades and two magazines. Taking the Law's Edge with him, the scarlet unicorn ran through the halls, looking ready to fire at anypony. Skidding to a halt and composing himself outside of the silver, blue, black, and gem-laden door, he gave a quick three knocks before gently pushing his way in. Princess Luna, in her War-Goddess path chosen glory, stood in the middle of the room, meditating. He had known of this development. In a state of peace, an alicorn female can choose one of two paths, the path of fertility or the path of protection. Celestia had chosen fertility, the way of making peace, creating love by dissolving hate, diplomacy, raising a nation on it's unsteady legs and making it big and strong. The path is permanent, so in this time, Luna chose war, a mare bred for battle, with discipline and constructive force for her allies, and wrath and destructive force for her enemies. The cobalt blue armor, crafted from moon rocks and sea-salt, was strong and cold, attempting to hit it would result in being defensively-offended with ice. "You have fled the field of battle, retreated, why, great knight? Have you lost faith in me?" he words were spoken gentler than the implications they carried. Breathing in, the blue maned stallion recited his pledge: "It shall take little effort to wreck it. No time to see their eyes and feel sympathetic, Never regret it. A true knight never stays a true blade. Never says 'touché'. But would forever lay, in blue rays, of weathered glades, to demonstrate his never-ending dedication to the crusade. The only reformation will be through flames. But my faith shall never be tested. For I am, loyal beyond death." it was his pledge of the paladin, something that he strove to be with all heart, mind, and soul. "I did not retreat, I merely postponed victory." he added, shifting his weight forward a bit. "Very well, I understand, I trust that your armor, despite your enchantments, was insufficient for your defense?" the blue alicorn asked. "Yes, I am willing to become like a thing unto glory worthy of your memories." the knight answered. "Very well, you have two options, I shall dub you a paladin and implant upon your mind the magical spells of my holy power, or you may take the position of the mightiest of warriors, the Black Knight." the moon goddess offered. Evening was at a impasse. Become a paladin, and don't get more awesome physical skills, but instead awesome holy powers, or take up the position of the Black Knight, and don't get awesome holy powers, but instead awesome physical skills. He remembered his weapon, the Lovechild, and that made it all the easier. "I request upon you and all of your high, majestic glory, that you may bestow upon me magic, the likes of which representative of your power." he chose paladin status. The Black Knight was the antithesis of the antithesis of the antithesis of the thesis, the thesis being Luna, Black Knight opposed the Light Bringer, who opposed Discord, who opposed Luna and Celestia. The Light Bringer was only opposed because while he may have started as a valiant soul and 'The Great Liberator' who was given tribute in the design of the great and revered 'Medal of Honor', but he made himself wrong with his actions afterwards. He did not have the right to take the reins of destiny into his own hooves, though he really, really wanted to. Their horns touched tips, and great knowledge was passed on to his mortal mind. He felt not one, but two voids of power open up inside of him, nigh infinite in capacity, yet contrasting in tones. Then he knew the truth of dark magic. There were two forms of dark magic, Sacred Darkness and Vile Darkness, he had access to both. Sacred Darkness would be best represented by the colors black and blue, and a spell, say... a death bolt, made from Sacred Darkness, would make the recipient merely fall over, as though they had been put into a deep sleep, inducing a peace of mind as their bodies shut off and died. Vile Darkness would be best represented by the colors black and red, and a death bolt spell made from Vile Darkness would make the recipient writhe in pain, tortured by suffering as their soul was dragged into the abyss. The two voids, the voids of dark magic. The Sacred Dark void came with the gentle, calming sound of wind. Its infinite expanse not scary, but soothing, as its power came from peace of mind, health of body, strength of heart, and purity of soul. The Vile Dark void came with the horrifying screams of the souls of the damned, as its power came from anger, from sadness, from suffering, from greed, from all the Sins and all emotions of vileness. No words, only dreams, a few short dreams of his nigh-infinite gratitude for his princess's acceptance, taking place on a beautiful backdrop of sacred darkness. When Luna opened her eyes, he was gone, disappeared into a portal of his new powers. "Gone.... just like Vermillion...." the war goddess mourned again, even though it had been many months. ...................................... And all faded to white. WRHS WRHS: Ryther Trailer Joax Ryther Hellstorm. Sin? Yes. Magic? Hell yes. Hellstorm yes. Eldritch magic of a purple hue weaved energies along a specific wavelength of power. Holes in space were torn and patched with effortless ease. *BAMF* *VORP* He had reached it once again... He had reached The End. The End was a place located between universes, its inhabitants, the Endermen, were capable of two types of teleportation: 1) Teleport from anywhere in any universe to The End. 2) Teleport from The End to anywhere in any universe. Infinite in distance and unbound by physics, this power was both their, and his own, most useful of all. He had witnessed great horrors within the bottomless vortex of their soul-sucking maws, along with a whole host of other monsters The Blood Katar, a blade made of red matter, a material of even greater mass than dark matter, so much so that it willed light to follow it. The sickly yellow glow coming off of it was the only light in The End, besides that of the Endermen. In this place, he could be free of his Animal Morph spell. Left and right, Endermen fell to the Blood Katar. One of them was stronger than the rest, an Alpha-male, as it were. Joax's ninja training allowed him to guard against the rapid-fire punches and kicks that were thrown. The flames on its shoulder's burned soundlessly, it teleported away. *BAMF* *VORP* "Bro, I can do that too." he responded, teleported to face the Alpha that had gone behind him and stabbing it in the diaphragm. Twisting a blue-and-purple-glowing silver blade into the black beast's rib area, Joax smiled at the agony he inflicted. It couldn't breathe, and it wanted nothing more than to scream. It tried to teleport, but as its shoulder flames were extinguished, leaving it stranded, it only accomplished a few spasms. It's only salvation from this painful death was much too far away, mounted atop massive obsidian towers that speckled the otherwise barren chunk of ivory rock, the Ender Crystals would save it, as they burned with pure, undiluted Ender Magic and would relight its shoulder flames with but a single touch. By the time the dirty skinned man stopped grinning with glee, the Alpha was long dead. *ROOOOOOOOOAAAAARRRRR* There she was! "She" was the Queen of the End. The Ender Dragon. This was it, it was either now, or not for a long time. Hellstorm ran up to her, blade held low. He brought himself up and..... and..... and.............. and?.......................... ... and.... hugged the Ender Dragon around the neck, the Blood Katar clattering to the ground. "Hey mom." he greeted cheerfully, "Sorry about the mess, my brothers just won't leave me alone." he apologized sheepishly. *GROOOWOOAAH* the Queen of The End grizzled in response, though her son knew she meant "I know, they just hate you for your father." "It's nice to see you again, I came by because I need some advice..." he started, releasing the hug and stepping back. Putting his hands into the pockets of his patched-up, purple-trimmed lab coat, he looked down to his boots and kicked at the ground. *groowooah?* his mother replied, curling a wing around to hug him for comfort. "My.... my girlfriend died, you remember her, right? Zoom Proficiency?" he asked, receiving a small, gentle grizzle in response, "Well, I mean, I want to use necromancy to bring her back, but I'm not sure if the results will be.... desirable...." he realized how much that could be taken out of context, "I-I-I mean, n-not like I want her to be some sort of, sort of... eye candy.... n-no, no no no, not at all, I'm just... not sure if she will be... 'all there', like what if she's missing a leg? Or part of her brain is left out? Or something else? I don't know, I was going to ask dad for advice, but he's not really the best 'moral support' kind of figure, not like you." the mage explained. It was true, being the Ender Brood Mother, the Ender Dragon had developed magnificent skills in comforting and supporting her children. "Hey, I can be a really good fucking supporter, I say revive her ass, and the rest of her too." his father was there. While his mother was a goddamn DRAGON, his father was the god of the void, Herbri, brother of Marper, god of creation. "Ugh, I'm not doing this anymore, I give up on trying to have a normal family, fuck you two, I'll be back to kill you both later." he said suddenly, levitating out Enderbane, a bowie knife shaped blade with the six cuboids of an Enderman's distilled eyes as the crossbar, and Demonbane, a shortsword-like blade with a goat skull as the crossbar, its horns acting as a handle-guard. "SAME GOES FOR YOU, LICH COFFEE!" he shouted to the blond haired, green flame eyed, goggle wearing, black robe clad skeleton man. Lich Coffee merely shrugged and went back to his own world, a world where he was the Lich King. Prince Ryther, his name was two parts, Ryth, which was Runic for End, and Ther, Runic for Void. He was physically weak, due to the powers of mortality, neither possessing the indestructibility of a dragon, nor the powers of a god, but he balanced weakness with speed, and had spent a few centuries learning ninja and monk skills. Despite only being ageless rather than fully immortal, he still had great powers, he could do plenty of magic, and teleport. Speaking of which...... *BAMF* *VORP* Casting the Animal Morph spell again, turning into a pony, his light, pale brown skin replace with a medium purple coat of equine fur, hooves took the place of hands and feet, and his spine bent into a quadruped shape. Sliding his facemask down, his Enderman mouth guzzled down a liter-sized bottle of water in about two seconds, his great thirst coming from the fact that he often forgot to eat and/or drink anything. "Joax? 'sthat you?" one of his teammates asked, concerned for the sudden sounds of teleportation and the slurping of water. "Yeah, it's me, I just got back from visiting my family." he told the truth, as it was an easy-to-believe truth, and walked into the shared dormitory. "Oh? How'd it go?" Warden asked, smiling as he was no doubt thinking about his little sister, who was in this same prestigious place. "It was.... well.... I spoke my mind and made a promise." he still wasn't lying. "Okay, by the way, you can dispel your illusion whenever you want." Warden had rolled decently for his Detect Magic, and could sense a spell akin to illusions. It was then that Joax realized that he hadn't put his mask back on, his Enderman mouth, with its jagged, demonic lips showing to any that looked. Quickly putting his mask back on, he cleared his throat, "Rrrrrriiiight, yeeeeaaaaah, illusion." he said as nonchalantly as he could. 'Nonchalant' meaning that it sounded almost as if Patrick Warburton had read those three words out of a script. Though he didn't have them at the moment, he still felt his fingers twitch. This was going to be a looooong school year. WRHS: Hellraiser Trailer Skullcruncher Hellraiser Griefhoof. He stood in the middle of the little building his squad had chosen to hide in until receiving the orders. His rifle was loaded and cocked, ready to plug anypony up with hot lead. "So, Pat, Bull, Arm, shall we?" the masked stallion asked. His squad consisted of four members, himself, his good friend Pattern Maiming, a Brimish-raised guy by the name of Dune Bull, and an angry zebra with great dental health known as Alcohol Armor. "Yeah dude, Roight Lad, LET'S DO THIS SHIT!" came the responses of his three teammates. "Attention, enemy spotted, mission begin, take 'em down." the call came over the radio. The skies burned overhead, the hunt for lesser creatures was on. The abandoned desert town of Dodge Junction was reinforced with sandstone walls, some were broken or perforated, and mangled remains of ponies, little more than dried blood and old bones, were the only things left. Moving from the cover of a four-walled sandstone building to the outside, distant roars grew closer. "They're coming in from the north, the distraction machine needs to be activated if you're going to keep them there long enough to thin them out enough to be taken down by the ones still in the towns." the radio-mare instructed. Just then, a helicopter flew over the town, carrying a crate. The crate was dropped and the pilot turned around and flew off. Skull used his pickaxe to break a few holes in the wooden box, but with negligible process to opening it. "Tell me that somebody brought something useful against wood." he looked at his team. He himself had a miner's pickaxe, Dune had a claymore sword, Pat had a sledgehammer. Armor stepped up, on his back was a firemare's axe. "Let's DO THIS, MARINES!" he shouted, cleaving through the surprisingly flimsy crate in only a few swings. Inside was a Magic Executor, and a Ball of Spell containing Lightning Strike. The two were combined and, several seconds to clear the way later, a brilliant flash of lightning and a deafening clap of thunder lashed out, sufficiently drawing the Sin's attention. Skull and Pat looked to the side, seeing an abandoned saloon. Claiming the last non-stagnated mugs of hooch, and setting up flash charges on the walls, they walked out onto the street again. The other two were nowhere to be found, leaving Skull and Pattern to deal with several Sin that looked at them curiously. Skull put his great voice to use. "So...." he began, clearing his throat. I'm outside of the club, and you think I'm a PUUUUUUNK (yeah) So I go to my loaded TEC-9 that's, off in the TRUUUUUUUNK (yeah) Oh, WHO AM I~?!?! SKULLCRUNCHER, MOTHERFUCKER!!!! ATEN-CHUUUUUUUUN, WHERE MY SOLDIERS MOTHERFUCKER?!?! I'll give you a hole in ya head, me to YOU, SUCKA And I'll give YOU ONE, and YOU ONE, and YOU SUCKA! I ain't SCARED of YOU BITCHES! I'll put yo' BRAIN in STITCHES! This rap's for REAL, SUCKA For those who can't tell difference. Check out my resume, trick, I got that 'One-hitta-quitta' And you bastards ready to flee saying 'What's up with that zigga?' A harsh and disappointed glare from Armor, who took offense to Skull's usage of the word 'Zigga', as Armor was a zebra. He ran past, but he slowed down for a second when he saw that Skull's expertise in headshots led him to clear the whole street with only an M16A5. "Take it Pat." the leader called out. Coming up the main street, with loaded guns against hungry maws When we're done here, everypony will know who we are Y'know being a gangster, has got its pros and cons But the best part is: we got it goin' on We haven't a single reason, why we should let you live We were sent to slaughter you all, and not even ponies can forgive Brought up by alicorns On this land we swore: We'd protect the soil Of our ancestors And we'll do this task and much MORE! We only want our lives back, it can't get WORSE We may be speaking your language, but these are my WORDS: The earth will shake when we roar, and we'll make it HEARD If we can't free our land, we'll see that it will BURN You think we're just mere prey, that won't put up a FIGHT We'll make your leaders believe, before the end of the LIGHT It was inspirational, so much so that the heavens wept in emotion and agony at seeing the living going through Hell on Equus. Skull had no tears left, he had cried them all out upon word of the first falls of civilization. "More are coming from all around, keep it up though, they're thinning out." the radio mare piped up. "Dune, you're up." Skull announced as light rain began making the ground slick and slippery. "On it, chap." the Brimish soldier replied, taking the metaphorical stand as his somewhat posh accent took over. We learned to band together And endeavor, Clasp our hooves together Ponies developed language, letters An incredible advantage Gettin' plans together... But would we stand the test of time, against the planet's reckless climate And it's angry weather? The day breaks and the light changes Illuminating newer equine faces, as fights rage! The pony species is now facing the might Of dark masters who would write The history books, even if it took a knife's blade To find the right page But the sun is coming, and we're watching it like a MOVIE REEL For a new era's here, it's as solid as HIGH STEEL No longer do we use a blacksmith AND AN ANVIL To craft weapons that bring our enemies to a STANDSTILL Our world of wonder Was plundered And the only changes will be through FLAME And after the cremation, there'll be a NEW AGE For time's quill is quick to spill its ink onto a new PAGE The faces will be the same as when in these days now gone But life will be cultivated, thus creating a Renaissance And we'll still be using steel tools to stay strong But we'll replace blades with greater trades Story, paint, and song And we'll revere the history of the methods Through which we managed to be self-liberated I implore great leaders, to lead with all the grace Of which we're capable, and YOU be the AUTHOR of YOUR fate Please band together, and endeavor Clasp your hooves together As our ancestors have, and... Stand the test of time, forever The light rain amplified into a thunderstorm that blotted out most of the sky, but the sun was still up though, and there was conveniently plenty of light by which to see. The Sin were significantly slowed by the onslaught of refreshingly cool water that did little more than bounce harmlessly off of their black hides. "Armor, let them hear it!" Dune called out to his zebra companion. "I don't sing, faggot." came the zebra's response as he dual-wielded shotguns and blew many Sin monsters apart. "Well then, it's back to me." Skull took off the initiative, as well as his pants. Oh I'm runnin' 'round town, crazy pants-less I'm lovin' all these pyro-mances I do what I want, from heartlands to ports, but even when I'm at the top, I'm always GONNA NEED MORE yet I should have learned the awful truth by now I'll have to burn the whole world down Rain may wash away the frowns But the future is bleak, there's only four remaining towns. Skull's rap was interrupted by the sound of Pattern getting torn apart. Several explosions rang out, the brave soldier detonated all of his grenades and explosives in his last breaths, taking dozens of Sin with him. "ALLY DOWN! Stay strong, only a few more waves of Sin, they're coming strong from the east!" the radio mare encouraged. The skies were burning as the three alive soldiers took refuge in what buildings they could, the rain turning from droplets of cool water into tiny balls of fire. The Sin were burned alive, weakening their resolves until only a single bullet took them out. Potshots were had, but the radio mare was quick to smash morale into submission, "Dune is dead, I repeat, Dune is dead, Skull, do you read me? His life sensor has deactivated, either he's naked or he's dead, can you confirm?" the radio mare demanded. "I can neither confirm nor deny that he is dead, I believe he was at the east end of Dodge Junction when that last wave came in, I will commence the cleanup." Griefhoof tried to stay positive, but two of his friends were dead, and that made it hard to keep his enthusiasm alive. Bullets sprayed the weakened Sin, dropping bodies left, right, and center. "Come AT ME, you BASTARDS!" Alcohol Armor shouted, his dual shotguns discarded in favor of a sawn-off sniper rifle. Jumping into the air right before he fired, he did backflips every time the barrel spat out another high velocity leaded bolt of death. A choke point provided him with about two dozen headshots in a single shot, a difficult achievement. However, on one of the backflips, while he was upside down, he saw another Sin approach quickly from behind, and fired. Bad mistake, while the advancing enemy was halted, on the grounds that it was missing an important part of its torso, Armor ended up landing harder than expected, stunned and laying prone on the ground. "NOOOOOO!" Hellraiser protested cruel fate, as a group of Sin came in and mauled his zebra ally, the radio mare piped up and somehow made it even worse for him, "Princesses dammit, you're the only one left, Skullcruncher, this is the last wave, try to hold out." it was false positivity, he was doomed. Letting out a battle cry, Skull ran through town, slowing his sprint only long enough to shoot more Sin. Climbing the bell tower, he stood on the edge, using all of his weaponry, from rifle to pistol, to kill the Sin. He felt awful for having to resort to hiding, but it was the only way. "You can do it!" he could hear words of encouragement, all from his dead teammates, and it pushed him to do better. Within a minute, the remaining Sin were dead. "YES! I DID IT!" the tan stallion cheered, pitching all of his empty weapons, which was all but his pistol, all the way from the bell tower to town hall. He waited, there was no call from the radio mare. "Get them, there's still more!" she suddenly berated out of nowhere. Skull only had one bullet left, if his calculations were correct, there was only one Sin left. Where the fuck was it? *GROOROAAAR* came from behind. Time became slower, getting jittery and choppy, the last stallion raised his pistol. Turning around just in time to be tackled by a black buffalo, he went flying off of the bell tower. As his mind attempted to make sense of this, he fired the last pistol round into the Sin buffalo's head, blowing the cranium to bits. It didn't make a difference, while its unnatural roar was silenced, he was still falling. He was an earth pony, if he had wings he could fly or at least glide to safety, if he had a horn, he could teleport away. He had neither, and it was his undoing. Hitting the ground, Skullcruncher died how he lived: With a skull getting crunched. ......... .............................. ............................................................................ ........................................................................................................................................................ MATCH LOST "FUCKING, DAMMIT! If it wasn't for that LAG at the end, I would have clutched it and WON! DAMMIT!" Skull complained as he threw his Ybox Zero controller to the floor, the hard plastic bouncing off of the carpet. It was a bravely fought match of 'Life vs. Sin' mode, but his clan simply didn't have the coordination to do it. "Ugh, we were SO CLOSE, alright guys, we need to cut out the singing next time and just focus on killing the Sin, alright?" he proposed the idea with his head held in his hooves "Good, I fucking hate singing, singing is for faggots, unless it's rap, then it might be cool." Armor replied over the party chat. "Okay, chaps, my tea is done, so I'll talk to you buggers later, byyyye." Dune added, signing out. "Yeah, my marefriend is here and she wants to play with me, alone, gotta go, later cockbites." Armor excused himself and logged off. "I have work, so I'm going to have to go as well, I'll talk to you later, bro." Pattern piped up before his gamer-tag disappeared from the party chat. Removing his headset, Skull got up and went over to his Ybox Zero and opened the disc tray. The game disc was removed and placed back into its case. "Ugh, I feel like actually trying to burn the sky, now." Skull thought aloud as he walked over to the other cases. The latest in the series, Call of Cutie: Burning Skies, was placed back in its prestigious location on his games shelf, the cover was amazing, showing a ball of light in the form of a weapon-wielding pony, placed in the middle of a corrupted ground and a, as the name of the game says, a burning sky. "Man, I'm going back to Haylo 4 for a while." the griefer decided, nearly tripping over his Flint&Steel and rifle on the floor as he went back to the Ybox and put the disc in. Brushing off loose bullets for his M16A5, he plopped down, his pickaxe bouncing a bit before falling to the floor of his messy house. He didn't care about the state of his abode, all he cared about was that, in Haylo 4, he was: The Greatest Ever. WRHS: Sparkles Trailer Jeering "Sparkles" Mareon "Oooooh boy, this is it." the black maned knight was excited, his sword glowing with customizations, his armor made of obsidian, his red rimmed sunglasses placed over his eyes, he was ready. "Shut your trap, Captain, this is extremely important." General(4) Mogar Ragom commanded. "Yes sir, oh-" Jeering stopped himself in the presence of the General(4). Mogar was one of only three esteemed individuals who had the possibility of holding the rank of General(4), he was the pegasus, the other two were a unicorn named Darkened Gander, and an earth pony known as Arms Forger. It was a position of power and authority, all four Medals of Excellence, the symbols of being a General rank, were present on his hat, the Horn of Wisdom, the Left Wing of Initiative, the Right Wing of Caution, and the Shoe of Might. "Alright, here's what I need you to do, take this package to Ponyville, this is a very important package, top priority, so just a mailmare or a mailstallion, with a guard, won't be sufficient. Our job is to not risk innocent lives, so you'll be going alone." the larger stallion explained, halfway through he began cleaning a pair of identical shotguns "Not even my team can come with?" he asked, staying as polite-sounding as he could, because his voice naturally had a jeering tone, which is not a tone you'd want to talk to your boss with. "If I am not misunderstood, Evening relocated himself to Ponyville already, Joax is nowhere to be found, and Skull is... unreliable... and by that I mean absolutely shit... to handle things carefully." as a General of the highest class, Mogar didn't have to care about other's feelings when not in battle. "So it's up to me, don't worry sir, I won't let you down!" Mareon stood up and saluted. "Get your ass, and the rest of you, out of my office, Sparkles." normally Mogar would have just bashed him upside the head, but while jockeying his office desk, he felt like things could be a bit more casual. "Shouldn't I take the package, sir?" the smaller pegasus asked, pointing to the smallish box laying on the middle of the desk. "Yes, take it now." pointing with his shotgun staff, Mogar let out an angry snarl as Jeering slipped back into his usual voice, which was a mixture of condescending, and jokingly insulting. "Okay, and might I say, nice helmet, sir." that was the left thing the sunglasses-wearing stallion said before zooming down the hallway. "What?" Mogar took off his helmet and looked at it. He had grabbed Forger's headdress, a bronze helmet with a pair of little bear ears attached (almost cute looking) to the top, placed there by the axe-wielding Arms Forger's affinity to bears. "Great, I probably just looked like a fucking idiot, actually, now that I think about it..." he looked into his mirror, seeing himself, "I like it, I might make my own, at least I'm not as idiotic as Liberator." he reminisced his lime green friend, his gentle voice and caring hooves belied his tendency for doing/saying really, really, REALLY stupid things. "At least I won't say things like; 'WhAAAt if, you're legs, didn't know they were legs? Celestia fucking Morningflame he can be so DAMN IDIOTIC!" his voice instantly raised to an angry shout. He heard muffled laughter from behind the door, "GET TO PONYVILLE YOU FUCKING BASTARD JEERING!!!" he screamed in rage. Jeering immediately hauled ass and flew away. Mareon didn't have the flying prowess to go the whole five miles, so he was now trotting quickly to Ponyville. "Oh man, oh boy, oh wow, this is soooo exciting." he said to all of the nothing around him. It was all either trees with black trunks and black leaves, or fields of black grass, at least the sky was still mostly blue. He didn't fear the dark, he had bunked with Evening long enough to learn about the 'sacredness' and 'vileness' of darkness. "Evening says that; if black is with blue, it's sacred, and it should be loved, for it brings comfort," the black maned pegasus heard a low growl, like that of a Sin beast, "... but he also said that if black is with red, then it's vile, and should be feared, for it brings horrors," another low growl, "... and now I wish that I didn't start speaking out loud, because I tempted fate when I did that, and fate is a... very.... bad-mannered pony." his jeers where mitigated by fears "Ho-kay, this is bad, this is BAD, this is VERY NOT GOOD, I'm gonna.... I'm gonna die." his tone wasn't fear, he actually sounded like he was whining about dying. "But I don't wanna die, I'm too handsome to die." he complained, accelerating into a gallop. He saw a large black mass lumbering around up ahead. "Looks like I'm gonna be a ninja, or at least a try-hard." the words were spoken in his usual voice, almost jovial, with painfully heavy amounts of sarcasm. Jumping over the lethargic being, he turned around and ran backwards, gazing back at the thing. It opened what was presumably its eyes, they were red. "Black and blue, it won't harm you, black and red, it wants you dead," he recited, eyes growing as wide as possible as a giant mouth was opened up on its face. "It's an Alver, its mouth is big enough to swallow four ponies whole, and I'm only one pony." he was a 'great mather' as he always called mathematicians, and with his 'great' math skills, he found that he had a one-fourth of the normal chance to be eaten. "Jeering-3PO, never tell me the odds." the line was cheesy, easily over-doable, and poorly executed to boot. Yet he laughed. "Drawing his sword, Jeering asked," are you here to steal my stuff? Wait what? Oh LUNADAMMIT JEERING, you pulled a Pinkie Pie and switched your speech with the narration. "Sorry." Mareon apologized, correcting his metaphysical mistakes. Mareon wasn't the most perceptive of ponies, no, that title went to somepony else, he didn't know who, because he lacked the perceptive ability to gain that information. Still, he was a knight, a knight that was about a mile out from Ponyville, maybe a half, maybe a quarter, maybe a tenth, he didn't know, it wasn't his position to know. His position was to wave a sword around, have a nice voice, and look pretty. The last two were accomplished by merely living, the first one was harder than it looked. His sword drawn and pointed at the black-and-red monster, Jeering interrogated, "Are you here to steal my stuff?" *ROOOOOAAAAARRR* "I'll take that as a yes, luckily I have my bow, the one that I use... sometimes." he shot arrows in the air. "AAAAAAYYYYYOOOOOOOO buddy." he said as he charged the Sin, sword held at his side at the moment. Getting close enough, Sparkles lashed his sword out, the handle held firmly in his hoof's magnet-like grip. "I'm digging this Soldier Style." a series of X-cuts hit both of the small red things he called eyes. Magical fire and force enhanced each strike, threatening to either set the monster ablaze, electrocute it, or choke it out. "Ha ha, Mexicolt filly face, say 'Why not both', because the joke, it is, the funnies." the knight found what intelligence he had before lost to the passion of music. "Oh oh-oh-OH-OH, and the castle feels SO good, I came to kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, yeah, unh, I'll BLOW IT UP, with some TNT, I think Skull has a lot of that stuff." his thoughts trailed off as he jumped into the air, his heavily serrated sword trailing wisps of fire, arcs of lightning, and poison particles. "Enchanted diamond swords are, le bestness." if anyone were to hear him, they would probably think he had lost his marbles. The two small red openings let out a shriek of pain. "Ooooooh, silly me~, it's not an Alver, it's a Beholder, the big thing is the eye and the two small things are mouths." he said as a tentacle knocked him and his sword away. The Beholder got closer, wanting nothing more than to turn this pest into stone. *THOCK* "Hmm?" Mareon dared not open his eyes, but he had heard an odd noise. *SHICK SHICK SHICK SHICK SHICK SHICK SHICKA-SHICK* Jeering felt his body being washed over by a numbing sensation, like stone was being set around him. Opening his eyes, he saw that there were several holes in the Beholder's main eye, all of its ocular fluids had gushed out and covered him. "Oh ew~, thank Luna for my arrows taking so damn long to come down, but ew~." his arrows had, indeed, taken so long to fall down, that they had conveniently saved his life. He wouldn't suffer the 'Encased in stone' thing like Discord had. "I.... totally meant to do that." he would tell tales about it later, tales that painted him as a lot more valiant hero, but for right now he would think up these tales while trotting to Ponyville. A border guard stopped him for a few moments, using a scanner device and going over him. "Oh wow, I am the threateningest looking pony to have ever crossed the border of the town of this town of Ponyville, I am like a knight, but I am a knight, and I have a sword, a sword of swordiness and lightning, can I finish my delivery now?" the pegasus rambled, flaring out his wings and waiting for procedure to be complete. "Well, Sir Flankhole the Sarcastic, you're clear for entry." the young mare said, putting her scanner back into her saddlebag and moving on. "Right, okay, that is, the coolness." he wasn't exactly trying to be a flankhole, but not everypony understood that he: A) had a job to do, and B) had a cutie mark for sparkles and jeers Flying from where he was standing to the Books & Branches Library, it was very easy to find, seeing as how it was a giant tree in a town mainly composed of hay-thatch roofed houses made of wooden supports and bleached granite masonry. Casting his eyes lazily to the tree itself, not just its presence, he noted that it was changing from brown wood and dark green leaves to white wood and azure blue leaves. "Huh, Joax must be changing it." he observed, his eyes slowly moving from the tree to the ground from behind his sunglasses. Despite all of the pressures that his superiors and Evening put on him, his life was actually really easygoing and slow-paced. In fact, it was almost like the only pressure he got was from the superiors and Evening. Being a knight was easy, put on your armor, strap on your weapon, walking patrol or go someplace for a few hours, and you're done for the day. Of course Evening had insisted that knights had to live by things like 'Codes of Honor, Conduct, Chivalry, and Valiance, because we aren't just plain guards, no, we earned our position as better ponies through tenacity and living-through-things. He wasn't about that at all, he was only a knight because he had heard that the job was very liberating and empowering, like learning an important skill, or drinking one of Joax's healing potions. Giving the door a single knock before opening it, he walked inside. The knock was only courtesy, some might say that it was rude to just walk in within being invited, to that he would say, "It's a public library, if I wasn't supposed to be allowed entry, the door would be locked or have a sign on it, if I am supposed to be allowed entry, then I can just walk in with no problems." receiving an odd look from Twilight after thinking that, he realized that he had been thinking out loud. "Oh, sorry about that, I was thinking about how some ponies feel that they need to knock before entering, but it's a public library, so ponies are allowed to come and go as they please, within reasonable limits, anyways, SPECIAL DELIVERY from Canterlot, it's for you." Mareon greeted. "Oh, thank you....." the mage motioned for him to introduce himself. "Everypony calls him Sparkles." Joax came up from the basement, levitating a pair of gems and a few piles of yellow glassy-looking powder, as well as his trademark Philosopher's Stone, its magenta surface glowing with orangish-red energy. "Okay, thank you Captain Spark-" the lavender mare was cut off. "SSSCHCHCHSSSSSSHHHHHH! Don't rile up the reference spotters and copyrighters." Sparkles reprimanded, looking around fearfully. "I was just being courteous, Captain Sparkles." the mare replied, a bit miffed. *foaming and gurgling sounds* Jeering "Sparkles" Mareon fell backwards, his mouth foaming with frustration and rage. "Is he going to be okay?" Twilight asked, suddenly concerned for the pegasus. "He does this every time somepony says 'Captain Sparkles', he'll be fine, he always is, let's see what he brought, probably spell components." Ryther concluded. "It's smells like such." Twilight and Jeering said at the same time. Jeering was suddenly standing there, looking as lazily calm as he usually was, his front hooves were stained with Sin blood, it was how he dealt with rage. Unwrapping the packaging paper with his magic, Joax looked intently as the contents fell onto the floor. All three pairs of eyes went wide, Twilight felt sick, Jeering felt saddened, Joax felt a bit confused. The only thing wrapped up in the packing paper.... ... it was... ............................ ..................................................... .................................................................................................. the head of Vladimir Ursin, the leader of Bearussia. "Well..... that's....." Jeering tried to hold the mocking remark in, looking at Joax, who glared at him in a violent way, as if threatening him to not say it. "That's...... that's......" it was coming out, and the black maned pegasus couldn't hold it in, as if it was a full bladder and he had been holding it for hours, "That's....... unbearable!" the pun provoked an attack from Joax, who set about first removing the obsidian helmet, then smacking him across the face several times. "OW *smack* OW *smack* IT WAS *smack* WORTH IT *smack smack* OH LUNA WHY DOES THIS HURT SO MU-*punch in mouth*" he stopped there, laying still as his eyes occasionally blinked. "Hey you two, what's up with...." Evening trailed off as he walked inside, the first thing he noticed was Jeering laying on the floor in pain, but he stopped when he saw Vladimir's head. "Well.... shit." he responded, it was an understatement. "That's *cough* what I, wha-*cough* what I said. *cough* Jeering croaked as Evening did not realize that he was standing on top of the pegasus' stomach and chest. "Well, I must say, Bearussia will be fine, same with Equestria." Warden and Mareon said at the same time as the unicorn teleported himself and Jeering to be standing beside each other. "What makes you assume that Equestria will be fine, or even recover in the first place?" Twilight was shocked at their morbidly-high-seeming optimism. "Well..." Jeering started, wondering what his last lime of the trailer should be. "....... it's just a hunch." he finished as the background and background noise faded away.. Fade to black. Trailer end. "Alright, those had to be good, right?" P1 asked nervously while he was sweating bullets, no literally as soon as the sweat dripped off of his face it turned into a bullet. The collective consciousness of the entity known as 'reader' no doubt had differing opinions. "Well, here's the last batch of trailers, then I'll be off again, and you can leave." the ten foot man had regained some confidence in his abilities to please, and directed the reader's gaze to the stage again. Another set of contents came up, and all vision was replaced with them. Ponies: Celestia Trailer Princess Celestia, known to a special few as Celestia Morningflame, was awoken by the sounds of screams. It was night time, the time when she usually slept, who in the name of Tartarus was screaming at this hour? Much to her own chagrin, she got out of bed and walked out into the hall. Her warm, massage-like mattress was calling back to her, telling her to go back to sleep, and let the problem sort itself. She looked at the Lunar Patrol guards stationed outside of her door, noting how there 'at attention' stance stares seemed a lot colder than usual, then simply went back inside. She hadn't noticed the change of décor. The orange walls were replaced with purple, the red carpet changed to blue, even the colored cracks in the polished marble floor were changed from yellow to gray. The solar diarch laid back into bed, letting sleep overtake her again. In Celestia's dreams Her dream was a lot nicer than usual, the young alicorn was in a land of milk, ice-cream, cookies, and most of all, CAKE! Messily eating everything in sight, even her pastel-colored mane and tail had reverted to pink, which somehow gave her a lot more stomach space. Getting really messy eating cake and ice-cream, not to mention a little-too-enthusiastic drinking of yogurt, she washed her messy body in the milk river. Looking up at the sky, she saw that it was night-time, she couldn't recall the last time she had seen the night sky. It was awe-inspiring, amazing, fantastic, magnificent, glorious, and all sorts of beautiful. The black canvas spattered and speckled with stars of all tiny sizes and colors, the moon providing a calming white illumination, not as intense as the sun, but it was much more comforting. She shed a few tears, this was what Luna made, she had created it with her brilliant young mind, and all she wanted was for other ponies to see her masterpiece. Regret panged the white princess's heart, she had so vehemently denied Luna the opportunity to show her craft to the world. Very few ponies stayed up at night, those that did were mostly either astronomers who were too emotionally distant to appreciate it, or ponies lost out in the dark, too afraid to see the night as anything but a trap. Taking a long time to simply absorb the sky with her eyes, she felt something trying to tug her away from it. Oh yes right, she had to bring in the sun.... Could she though? Could she bring up the sun and hide away this beauty? She had to, it was the only way to allow the kingdom to grow, the sun brought strength, the moon brought wisdom, she saw this now. She tried and tried to bring up the sun, but her power faltered, she felt guilty for the way she had treated Luna. She only hoped that Luna would not treat her the same. A few hours after Celestia awakens to night after noon It was awful, Luna, overcome by grief for her night, had lashed out in hatred, using magic that Celestia had no idea existed. She tried and tried, but she found no answers to what beautiful horrors and horrible beauties that the dark brought against her. *clank clank clank clank clank* "Your highness, we have brought you those of the highest treason." the Solar Soldiers reported, before leaving. Celestia looked up from her scroll, furiously written equations and notes scrawled all over it. She was facing a group of silver armored ponies, four stallions and two mares. "Who are you all?" she asked in an authoritative tone, trying to maintain face. "We are her true majesty's chosen, we are Luna Nightstone's paladins!" one of them spat. "I wish to know your names." Celestia reworded. "I am Shank Grim, chosen for the v-void." the first unicorn spat back, his tone was gushing venom, his armor was black. "I am Blue Comet, chosen for the stars." a noble looking pegasus stallion, his face was hard and blank, his armor was cobalt. "I am Thorn Forger, chosen for the ice." a large earth stallion looked like he was trying to stay strong, but his eyes were full of worry, his shoes were missing. "I am Joax Ryther Hellstorm, chosen for the s-void." the other unicorn had an apathetic tone on, he was the only one not wearing armor. "I am Gray Starlight, chosen for the sea." the pegasus mare replied, her eyes watery and teeth grit, as though the warmth of the day was too much for her to handle. "I am Shrouded Rose, chosen for the earth." the earth mare answered, her eyes half open in boredom. She looked at each of the six for a long time, contemplating the situation. They were now facing the sister/banisher of their chosen ruler, Princess Luna, who would not return to Equestria for an entire millennia. A paladin swore to glorify their deity and dedicate life, thought, and belief to whom they believed in. Essentially, Celestia had ripped these ponies sole purpose in life away from them. "If you have a foal, keep your head raised." the white alicorn asked, receiving heads up. She looked at the ones that stayed up, Shank Grim, the gray maned and white coated stallion, Thorn Forger, the white maned and brown coated stallion, and Gray Starlight, the brown maned and gray coated mare. "You three may leave." the solar diarch couldn't bear to have three families who were no doubt already crushed by religious loss, burdened further by familial loss as well. The three ponies looked at her in disbelief, then looked at each other, then back to her. Undoing the leg spreaders on their forelegs, the shackles on their back legs, the copper choker on Thorn, the silver wing tie on Gray, and the golden magic blocker on Shank. "I implore you to depart, leave your armor here though." surprisingly, they did as she said, removing their armor and then leaving peacefully, she looked to the remaining three, "Now then, you three, having no family, will be executed." her tone was now grave. Blue Comet stepped forward as best he could, standing defiant in the face of certain death, all in the hope that death was not as certain as it seemed. "I shall not back down, for I am a messenger of the goddesses and gods, smite me, oh mighty smiter, do your worst with your hellish light and exhausting heat." Blue cursed her, sliding his surprisingly thin hooves out of the leg spreader and removing his helmet. Standing there in his white coat and red-highlights-on-blue mane and tail, his eyes golden as the stars, he stared at Celestia with impudence and fury. "Well then, you have earned a fate worse than execution." Celestia would not stand for such defiance in the presence of the exacting rightful justice. She gave a different-than-usual incantation, the sparkles in her mane shining like the stars that they were. Blue Comet's façade of discipline was utterly shattered, he began to scream and rage to the heavens at what she was chanting, it was an outright bastardization of her majestic highness, the great Goddess of the Moon, Princess Luna Nightstone of Equestria's, beautiful, wise, and ever-holy glory. Yet despite his protests, or rather in spite of them, the moon rose with Celestia's words, sending down a silver beam of energy and disintegrating the metal winged pegasus on the spot. Levitating the earth mare onto the spot where Blue stood a moment ago, the solar diarch began the other incantation, the colors of her mane becoming like streaks of fire. Vicious sun, End all, liiiiiiiiiife The dusk, Shall no longer cause, striiiiiiiiiife The sun sent down a red-shrouded beam of golden energy, the greatest of all light magic. The Minaro Smite Celestia looked to the only pony of the six that had been unarmored, his purple coat and yellow-stripe-on-brown mane and tail were very visible under his gray vest, brown pants, and black slippers. "So, mister masked unicorn, what do you have to say for yourself." Celestia had done enough executions to make this part her favorite, finding out what excuses the guilty had to offer. "I must say, those are impressive spells, and merely by witnessing them, I think I could do them, but enough talk, I cast this spell with a time limit this time." with that, Joax suddenly became a silhouette of purple light, his form shifting for a few seconds before the magic blocker and leg divider fell to the floor, the shackles removed in a second, then he was back to normal, uninhibited by physical objects. "I must say, I will see you again, Celestia, I will see you again, eventually." he said, casually walking towards her. The princess of the day was furious, she summoned the Solar Zweihoofer, kissing the crossbar and throwing its wavy blade at him. He caught it in midair and responded with "Wow, that is a really shitty way to throw a sword, you should have lobbed it upwards, then gravity would be on your side." he dropped the golden massive golden sword and pulled a pickaxe out of nowhere. "Now then, if you'll excuse me, I must make my leave to another world." he turned at conjured up a bit of purple magic, right before leaving he said, "SAYONARA, BITCH!" *BAMF* Celestia cast out a detection spell across all of Equus, finding nothing from Joax, she sighed in defeat, even when she won, she lost. She won the fight with her sister, lost her sister for a thousand years. Succeeded in finding the traitors, failed to execute four out of six. She would manage to make it a thousand years alone, yet she wouldn't be able to deal with her sister when she returned. She would find a student to pass her knowledge onto, but she would fail to reconnect to the rest of society. She would help Twilight Sparkle grow, but she would fail to help her grow up. She would live to face her sister again, but lose the fight when it happened. That day a thousand years ago, the day when the sun rose at 1PM, was the longest day in normal history, because the sun didn't set until 7PM the next day. A painful reminder disguised as a holiday every year, a shift of timeframes every season, a full moon every month, a 24-Pack of alcohol every week, a crying fit every day, a sigh every hour, a thought every minute, and a pang of regret every second. It was this way for so long, that it had taken her until Discord returned to quit most of these habits, and until Nightmare Night a few weeks later to break the others. Celestia had lived for many millennia, but she was aged like a mare in her early thirties, Luna was like a mare in her mid twenties. The days passed by like the blink of an eye. "So, great Light Bringer, tell me, why have you done this? You started in the right, you had so much glory and love that we designed the Medal of Honor in tribute to you!" she shouted at the smug-faced tan alicorn standing about five meters away. She had brought him to a cloud platform in the Skyrealm, a place only accessibly by alicorns. "You don't understand, Celly, I'm like you, I find it impossible to give up Pride, it is my Element of Sin after all." the suited bleach-blond stallion replied. "You come to me on the day of reckoning, after KILLING the warrior known as Ruby Rose, and you accuse me of this? What do you think this is like? You think I'll be buddy-buddy and give you a hoof-bump, then we go to the bar? No, no it's not like that at all. This is life, in life sometimes you have to be cold, vicious, selfish, and mean, sometimes you have to be warm, friendly, sacrificing, and kind. This is not the latter, nor am I the former," she stopped for a moment, her horn charging up powerful magic, "I am Princess Celestia Morningflame of Equestria, and I will not stand for your corruption any longer." "Very well then, have a medal, you brave, yet sinful bitch." the demon-pony pitched a small object at the white alicorn. Celestia pulled the golden mass off of her face and looked at it. "Oh yeah, by the way, the sun doesn't hurt me, despite me being the most corrupting motherfucker in the world, I'm still the bringer of light." he shouted before teleporting away in a brilliant shower of gold and silver particles that left light trails where they fell. Celestia sighed, looking at the medal, then to the slowly fading cloud of radiance. "You may have started off in the right, finding the Tree of Harmony and guiding us to it, all to defeat Discord, who had offered you power and wealth beyond your wildest dreams, but you put yourself in the wrong by trying to take it all for yourself, claiming that you had rightful ownership, such vileness cannot be tolerated." she said to the empty air. Teleporting herself back to Equestria, Celestia sat in her throne again and sighed. She had a funeral to help with. Ponies: Luna Trailer The armored war-goddess of the night was currently flying over a pit of screaming nothingness. Luna's turquoise eyes gazed out across the vast expanses of nothingness, there it was, the Tower of Tyranny, the Capital of Corruption, the Bastion of Bastardization. The Pillar of the Sin Princes. Below her was the Vile Void, not the source of corrupt dark power, but the actual physical manifestation of it, the Sacred Void, alternately, was the infinites of outer space. Still though, it was odd how they had all gotten here, who'd have thought that there was a tunnel to Hell underneath Canterlot Mountain Range? Gazing back to the peninsular ledge on which the last three Hunters were, she saw them fighting vigorously with the last few demons. The revered Ruby Rose. The feared Jaune d' Arc. The Jagermeister David Ozpin. All three of them had made it this far, but now they would face the final test. Landing with a clacking sound from her armor shoes, Luna observed the tower's peak. A ring of flames (currently deactivated) covered the rim, in the middle was a set of seven chairs set at a triangular table, each of them with label. A blood colored one inscribed 'Sad', a purple one inscribed 'Bell', pink marked 'Ass', green one marked 'Levi', yellow mark 'Mon', brown marked 'Bub', and at the base of the triangle was an brilliant orange chair with 'Lucy' written on it. "Hello Lulu, nice to see you again." the smug voice came from behind her. She whipped around to face Him, the last of the Princes of Sin. The infamous Light Bringer. The one known as.................................... Lucifer. "So, you have finally chosen to stand and fight us like a true warrior?" Luna asked. "Well, after all of you not only thwarted my schemes to take over the last bits of the world, you now have turned to the offensive position, so I have no choice." Lucifer explained, brushing some blood off of his suit and flexing his dead-gray wings. "You were banished for a reason, not much unlike the reason that I was, but yet you insist on committing evils against Equus and all those who live on it, so you will be forced to pay the ultimate price." Luna stood her ground, turning into Nightmare form to be on eye-level with the demon lord. The tan stallion only smirked, "You are very brave, y'know, they make medals for tha-" he was cut off by a tri-bladed slap across the face, cutting open his nose and cheeks. "I know the story of the Medal of Honor, and it shall be remade for the glory of Equus United, after you are righteously slain!" the blue alicorn reared back and gave the tan alicorn another tri-bladed slap from the other side. "T-t-that..." the red-eyed alicorn smeared his own blood across his face, "That will be never, I will not go quietly into the void, not at all." his slash wounds healed, but his blood had dried onto his fur, "You may have taken the rendered your sister powerless to unknowingly aid me, but I SHALL PREVAIL!" his pupils were now pinpricks in a sea of red irises. "In place of a Dark Lady, they shall have a KING! NOT DARK, but AS BEAUTIFUL AND AS TERRIBLE AS THE DAWN! Treacherous as the SEEEEEAAAA! Stronger than THE FOUNDATIONS of EQUUS ITSELF! All shall LOVE ME.... and DESPAIR!" his eyes were filled with horrible orange light. "I was prepared in case you might say something like that." Luna replied, a small smile forming on her lips. Luna waited a few moments, listening to the enraged snorting of the Light Bringer. The lunar diarch began the incantation. Cruel moon, Bring the, eeeeeeend, Thy enemies, Shall never rise, aaagaaaaaaiiinnn A hole was blasted through the ceiling, a the moon had launched down a blue-shrouded beam of silver energy, the greatest of all dark magic. The Majora Smite. It was not her destiny to slay the lord of demons, the ruler of Sin, the master of corruption. Destiny said nothing about her beating the ever-loving shit out of him for his transgressions. Already in great pain, Lucifer was broken all the more by the strikes of shod hooves on his skin. Luna swore each of this hits to someone or something. *SMACK* for Celestia, after he had drained her of power, forcing Luna to do a grievous deed against her. *SMACK* for Discord, who was the original victim of Lucifer's burning light, now that his chaotic powers has been re-directed towards constructive goals, he had been a really nice guy. *SMACK* for Ruby, who he had driven into the void, even though the young girl came back with no problem, it was still a no-doubt traumatizing experience for the little Saint. *SMACK* for the others, if it hadn't been for him, they wouldn't have been dragged into Equestria to begin with. *SMACK* for her mother, Luna could feel her blue eyes, with their mixed emotions, gazing down at her desecrating of this abomination's body. *SMACK* for herself, even though she was the one in control of it, he had been the one who cursed both Luna and Celestia with their super-powered evil sides, Nightmare Moon and Supernova Sun. And one last *SMACK* that threatened to crack her hooves, that one was for all of the world and everypony, no, everybody, both alive and dead, that was or had been in it when this vile stallion had enacted his plans for domination. Luna only hoped that Ruby, Jaune, and Ozpin, would be able to take Lucifer out. As the blue alicorn flew up to the surface, she created a dark bridge across the vast Vile Void. A few minutes later Landing on the surface, Luna got her bearings and looked towards Canterlot. She saw the ghostly images of her paladins, Shanka, Blue, Thorn, Gray, Shrouded, and even one from the still-alive Joax, she had learned of his agelessness not long before setting off into Hell. The images dispersed as her new paladin, Evening Warden, appeared in front of her, a black-with-blue-trim cleric/bishop's robe worn underneath his platemail, a moon symbol placed at the front. "Milady, I am here to see you safely to Canterlot." he greeted, looked down into the hole in the ground. The blue trim turned red and he cast a maroon illumination into the hole. Red returned to blue and the paladin turned back to his sworn. Luna smiled at his slight naiveté combined with his boyish charm, not to mention his great faith in her. "Well, my faithful paladin, lead the way." she commanded lightly as her armor faded into hammerspace storage, replaced by her black and silver regalia. "Alright, follow me." he instructed, trotting towards Canterlot. All throughout the night, the two enjoyed each other's company. Luna felt truly loved and adored, she listened intently to his words. "And so, in my song, the two ponies, Shine and Gray, despite being so different, they truly love each other, and Shine proves his love by taking the ever-beautiful Gray's maidenhead." Warden's life's motto was NATSTW (nat-stew), 'not afraid to say the words' "So, they had sex?" Luna asked. "Yes, yes they had sex, a lot of it, actually, the song actually goes into a whole verse about how much and how many different types and positions of sex they had, of course I'm sure that if I sang it, you, milady, in all of your wisdom and, *ahem* experience, would surely be able to tell me some positions that I missed." the scarlet stallion, for once, was actually blushing slightly. "Actually, just wisdom, no experience, I can walk dreams, so I have seen many things." lunar diarch corrected. "Oh, okay, no experience then, well.... um..... would you ma-" he was cut off. "No, no I will not have sex with you." the blue alicorn declined. "Okay, okay, I understand..... shit." Evening was willing to accept this loss. "I have more important things to do than to copulate with my paladin." Luna added. "I get it, I won't ask again." the armored stallion assured. The rest of the trip was silent. Later, at Canterlot "Alright, you may take leave, loyal one." the lunar diarch gave the order as soon as her haunches met the night-themed throne. The throne, rather than simply build two of them, was enchanted to be either day-themed or night-themed with a little bit of magic. Evening eagerly shook his head yes, saluted, then teleported away, he had a sister to spend time with. Luna smiled at him, at her guards, at the tapestries, at all of the things around her. She felt it, she felt the love. And love was all that she needed. Ponies: Scootaloo Trailer Flying through the sky, blazing through the sky, going so fast, soaring through the air, Scootaloo was loving it. She was loving all of it. Her Law's Edge and the more recent Phoenix Bullhawk were laying on the recolored grass below her, It had been a couple of years since the end of Lucifer's reign of Sin, but the mightiest foe of all was Ontological Inertia, the Sin were still out there, still keeping the world suppressed, but they would fall eventually. Her brother, Evening Warden, the one and only paladin of Luna, had helped her along the way to the present. First he had sent her the parts for the Law's Edge, a SW500 revolver combined with a knife, it had also been enchanted with ice magic, so the large bullets would do even more damage since they would be going against a brittle target rather than a flexible one. The next bout of help was a manual on the basics of flight, to which she facehoofed after learning a simple maneuver she had never been informed of. After that, flying had been incredibly easy for her, no thanks to Rainbow Dash. She had learned the problem with Rainbow Dash, flying came to her without thinking, so she only needed to learn the advanced stuff, leaving her clueless on teaching the orange filly about the basics. In fact, if Scootaloo had wanted to fly in the first month of life in Ponyville, she could have asked Fluttershy and been off the ground in an hour. The latest helping had been a series of packages with parts for a large weapon not unlike Ruby's. The first parts Steyr AUG's bullpup body, with an extending stock, then the parts for an FN FAL's barrel and foregrip. The next set of parts was for a half-halberd-half-naginata, the sword above the barrel came back several inches and protruded forward several inches, totaling about twenty inches in length, the axe blade on the bottom was a convex one, and went forwards several inches and backwards to cover the foregrip in such a way that left plenty of space for her grown-up hooves. The last bits and pieces were for decorations, she had engraved an angelic wing onto the axe blade, an elongated image of a pegasus filly in a bucking pose on the foregrip, the word 'Dust' on the more frontal area of the frame alongside a front-facing skull with no lower jaw, a bull's-eye on the more read area of the frame, the word 'Scoot' on the bit from which the stock extended, and a small cloud-with-lightning bolt, small star-with-tail, and a small moon on the flat of the sword. The Phoenix Bullhawk was named so because: The word 'halberd' was close to the words 'Hell Bird' which sounded almost like a description of a phoenix, thus making it 'Phoenix'. The rifle was a bullpup, and it was like a hawk, made for adequate speed and great precision, so the 'pup' in 'bullpup' was replaced with 'hawk', thus making 'Bullhawk'. It was also enchanted with lightning magic and chambered in a custom thirteen-by-one-hundred-eleven millimeter cartridge, making it very, very powerful. Why shouldn't she had a powerful weapon? It wasn't like the Sin were going to limit themselves, so why should she? Her cutie mark had also come in, it was a day like when Rainbow Dash got her own cutie mark. While she was twice RD's age at the time of her own cutie mark acquisition versus the spectral maned mare's cutie mark acquisition, it still didn't make it any less awesome. In fact, it was almost like fate had been an asshole to her, just so it could be all-the-more generous later on. She remembered that day as clearly as when she had lived it. ~~~Flashback~~~ Scootaloo was thirteen years old, starting today, because today was her birthday, and she was going to do something awesome. Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, the other four of the Mane Six, and most importantly, Evening, Sweetie Belle, and Applebloom, had encouraged her to do something awesome, and she agreed wholeheartedly. So now she was perched on a cloud high above the ground, the re-greened field north of Ponyville had a few lights carried by those who were watching, which meant her brother, her princess, the Mane Six, her friends, and teams RWBY and JNPR. They had lights because it was night out, which she knew would only make her big boom all the more amazing. Flying as high up as she could, Scootaloo could feel the sheer cold of high altitude, but it didn't bother her, not at all, she was a full blooded pegasus, so she could handle extreme temperatures. Diving down, she thought of great things during her descent. A quote by a wise stallion who had been dead for many decades. "All great things are simple, and many can be expressed in single words: Freedom, Justice, Honor, Duty, Mercy, and above all, Hope, - Whinnyston Churchill." she recited as the speed ramped up greatly. It was exhilarating, the feeling of the wind whipping past her. The mach cone had formed and was getting narrower and narrower. Scootaloo smiled as widely as possible, this was the moment that she had been dreaming and waiting for. There was a mighty explosion, then she couldn't hear anything, she flew down a bit and turned back up to see the effect of her Sonic Flareboom. Orange and purple fire raced out across the sky, Scootaloo, with her newfound extreme awesomeness, wrote her name in fire. Scootaloo Hotshot Letting her speed peter out before gliding to a gentle stop, the orange filly listened to the shouts and cheers of the others, the loudest of all being her brother's. Then everybody noticed her cutie mark, a large, dark orange star with a long, thick trail of purple fire coming out of it, the multi-shaded flames trailing down her hind legs. The celebration moved into town, where the already-going-on Winter Moon Celebration was taking place. Torches lit with green, blue, and purple flames lined the streets, many ponies out and about, enjoying the stars, though they had been distracted by the wave of fire in the sky. A single glance of little Scootaloo and the other eighteen ponies and humans following her, along with her somewhat glowing star-and-fire cutie mark, told them all they needed to know. It had been the best day, and the best-er night, of her life. ~~~End Flashback~~~ After that, Scootaloo had built a cloud-house, cloud-houses were easy to make because it was literally just clouds, and clouds can be found anywhere above Ponyville. Ponies thought that Rainbow Dash was loaded because she had a fancy cloud-house with rainbow waterfalls, but that was bullshit, Rainbow Dash had merely spent a lot of time making her cloud-house, adding extensions to it, the only thing that really cost much was the rainbows, which went for about five bits a gallon, which came out to the cyan pegasus spending about five hundred bits on rainbows, while she had probably spent about two days making everything else. With the contemplation of cloud-houses over with, Scootaloo swooped down to grab her equipment, and missed. She looped up and back around, then swooped down again, and missed again. "Dammit." the violet maned pegasus cursed under her, landing on the ground and taking a minute to put the revolver in the holster and the rifle on the strap. When everything was securely fastened to orange filly's person, she flew off again. Flying through the sky, blazing through the sky, going so fast, soaring through the air, Scootaloo loved it. Every part of it, from the complex emotions that flight gave her, to the fire trails she left behind, to the sheer speed of it all, to the simple feeling of wind whipping past her, she loved it with a great passion. It had been the pleasure she earned, the home she adored, the one thing that never failed to make her smile. A few minutes later Scootaloo had returned home, placing her weapons in the small closet near the door, the cheery filly fluttered up the stairs, past her bed, out to her balcony, and laid down on one of the two chairs. "It's starting soon, y'know." Evening said simply, gazing up at the night sky, counting the stars. "I know, I got in with no problem, and I know Princess Luna made sure that you were completely barred from restrictions dealing with attendance." the young mare replied. "I just can't believe, that even though they're gone, even though he's gone, we still have to do.... this, it's the final step to our transformation from a peaceful species to a violent one." the paladin contemplated, abandoning his self-given task of counting the stars. "Well, sometimes you have to get angry, you have to get meeeean." from the way she said it, Evening could tell that that was a quote, and he knew exactly where it was from. "I can't believe you watched the movie Dodgeball, I've seen it, I know what's in it." indeed he did, the contents of that particular cinematic production had left him laughing his flank off at the same time he was... *ahem* puking vanilla. "Really? You of all ponies, the great King of Vulgarity, Evening Warden, you can't handle the thought of me watching a movie in which I can be checking out a few hot pieces of flank at the same time I'm getting tickled pink?" she was sixteen now, which was the legal age for ponies nowadays. "It's just, you're my little sister, and as your big brother, I'm supposed to feverishly prevent the former and joyfully induce the latter." Warden explained, checking his cloud-walking spell and recharging it. "Whatever, we should probably get some sleep soon, we ship out tomorrow morning." Scootaloo stood up and trotted back inside "It's the one time I won't stay up late, the day that I head off to Hope Academy." It was the first year that the prestigious school for warriors would be open. Laying in the spare bed, Evening drifted off quickly, he cast a sleep spell on himself and was out like a light. Laying in her own bed, Scootaloo looked up at the moon for a few moments before drifting off herself. Not in-universe, but in the editing, words appeared upon the moon. OMNI "Well, wasn't that great?!?" P1 returned to confidence, or maybe had just thrown fear (and maybe caution) out of the window. The readers, as usual, had mixed reaction, but the tall god-figure sent them away to their homes again. "Alright, Blue Comet!" he shouted, his voice booming throughout the area. "Yes, my liege?" the metal-winged man replied, saluting immediately. "Turn off the camera." P1 commanded. "At once, milord." Comet reached over towards the screen, his hand going behind it, "Ah, there's the record button." he muttered, before flexing his arm slightly. *CLICK*