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// (Prologue) Punch 0 
// Story: The Strongest There Is 
// by Dizastrous 
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Punch 0


Twilight and her friends had failed.  The Elements of Harmony had proved to be not enough in the face of the ever rising forces of evil, where once evil had only arisen to break the long lasting peace in the form of single villains, they now showed up on a regular basis. The ancient artifacts could not keep up with the demand the ponies had for them, and their power had waned to an alarming extent. Celestia figured that there was perhaps only a single use left before they would need to be returned to the Tree of Harmony to begin restoring their magical powers.

Equestria’s position had only worsened as news of this spread. Villains began sprouting up at alarming rates that the guards could not handle. The only silver lining had been several ponies who had taken up mask and costume to battle evil in their own way, inspired by tales of heroics from sources like Mare Do Well, Daring Do, and even their own comic books. These heroes could only quell minor threats on their own, needing to team up to tackle a greater foe. 

After months of this, Celestia and Luna decided to create an organization to better equip these masked vigilantes, the Hero Organization. The heroes who joined this organization were given a ranking depending on how much they helped, and how powerful they were. The ranking started at D being the lowest, and A being the highest. But it was clear that even with these brave ponies defending their cities and towns, evil was slowly winning the war.  As the heroes defeated and brought to justice as many villains as they could, newer and stronger foes would arise. The first sign that they needed more help was when the first hero fatality occurred.  Her hero persona was The Weather Mare, a Pegasus who had used her skills as a weather Pegasus to defeat villains with lightning and heavy rain. Her funeral was attended by not only her fellow heroes, but also the citizens of the town of manehattan that she had saved. Her true identity was kept confidential to protect her mourning family, who were told personally by the princesses that they should be proud of her but not attend lest they become targets of the villain who was still at large.

Celestia and Luna realized then that something more had to be done. That was when the idea was brought forward by Twilight Sparkle that perhaps it was time to use the last of the Element’s magic. Not to vanquish evil, but to summon a paragon of good. Twilight had been studying interdimensional magic, when she discovered a spell to summon something. She had reasoned that it would be possible with the power of the elements to summon a hero that could protect Equestria as a whole from any foe that was too powerful for the other heroes. After days of consideration the two royal sisters agreed that this would be the best use of the Elements of Harmony in the face of so many evil beings infesting the land.

The spell was simple enough, the magic did the hardest part of making the choice itself. All Twilight had to do was ask the spell to bring to them the most powerful hero in existence. A hero with not only a code of morals that would lead them to do the right thing even in the face of the temptation of evil, but also the power to defeat any foe in a single blow. The Elements came to life upon Twilight completing the incantation. The Element Bearers who had arranged themselves around the large spell circle gazed in wonder, as did their princesses as a rainbow orb formed within the circle. The light grew in intensity until even Celestia who controlled the sun had to look away from the magic’s brilliance.

When the light dimmed, and the ponies all unshielded their eyes there stood in the circle among a large cloud of dust that had arisen two bipedal figures. Obscured from the dust nopony could make out any characteristics, only that these two were close in height, and both of them were roughly a head taller than Celestia when they were standing up. Not a single eye blinked, nor was a breath taken as the dust settled and the two came clearly into view. The now powerless elements forgotten as the ponies marveled at not one, but two beings that were summoned. The ponies all wondered which one of these figures, if it was not both was the one the spell had meant to summon. All that was certain was that one of these was the most powerful hero to ever exist, the strongest there is.