//------------------------------// // B.O.T.E. Part 4: Reunion // Story: Pony Ball: The Saga of Kitsune // by Matthew Stone //------------------------------// The fire was set slow and steady in the fireplace, as Dissonance warms up tea from it’s stove surface. Kitsune, Flash Sentry, Pico, Nate, and New Moon make themselves comfortable on cotton shaped cushions when they look around the room. Nate then pulls out one of the opal elements they have so far, observing it gleaming when rotating it in his hand.          “So, that’s the first one that you’re keeping safe?” Dissonance asks, as he turns around to see it.          “So far.” New Moon tells him, “We have a friend named Kendra who’s trying to find the second element, just before we find the third.”          “You also look… dusty…” Dissonance noticed.          “We just got out of another fight before the one you rescued us from.” Kitsune explains, “A village has been attacked, and we fought some crazy magician named Trixie.”          “I’ve heard of her…” Dissonance admits, “Caused some trouble to… con ponies in the past.”          “Well, they don’t call her great and powerful for nothing.” Nate adds.          “And the worst doesn’t stop there.” Pico moans, “Kitsune’s cousin has the crested crown, the final element probably impossible to get back this easily.”          Dissonance flinches.          “It wasn’t golden, was it?” he wonders.          “With red veined jewels on it’s sides too.” Nate describes further.          “Well, if you do find six more of the elements, you can use them to manipulate the crown they’ve stolen.” the draconequus hums, “Only then can…”          Dissonance then knells, rocking back and forth.          “This is all lame… but yet… DANGEROUS.” he shudders, “How can anything like this happen so soon?”          “Like what?” Kitsune asks, “And how do you know about what will stop the power held within the element in an evil clutch?”          “I’ve been doing research and reading about the elements for several years.” Dissonance admits, “I’ve been wanting to find out more about them, because I’m obsessed… obsessed that anypony can be killed…. and… and I didn’t want that to happen. I’ve tried to find ways to prepare some emergency plans in case anything like this would happen.”          He looks back at the gang.          “Have you seen the papers?” he says, “Changes in the stars of the skies, further invasions, earthquakes in the villages? They had something to do with those beings up in the ships… so dark in space. If they had your cousin involved Kitsune, they could have him observe any more activity to plan ahead on finding the next element to…”          “Destroy it maybe?” Nate guesses.          “Maybe…” Pico thinks aloud, “And if they don’t destroy it, they may keep it for their own purposes, such as…”          “Enslaving all life form?” Nate guesses, “Just a prediction.”          “Whatever the plan is, we have to leave tonight if we want to get to the next element before Justin does.” Kitsune plans, “We need to map out it’s location first though, and draw out a fighting strategy in case we come across those toad-beings again.”          “Remember your Psycho Dog technique?” Pico asks Kitsune, “I recommend you use that move when we fight the enemies with weaker stamina. We better save the Mega Voltage when we’re up against something bigger.”          “Good call.” the fox nods.          “What’s the Mega Voltage attack?” New Moon asks Pico.          “It’s when a mighty blast is used from a charged source from something electric.” Pico explains, “Martial Art moves can be combined with the attack to pull out a lethal blast.”          “The nearest town Dissonance lives close to is where we’ll look for the element first.” Kitsune states.          KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!          A soft bang on Dissonance’s door is heard, and Nate perks his ears up as he turns to walk towards the entrance. He opens the door, seeing Ekko, Athena, Megan, Kendra, and Hollow in front of him. Kitsune then comes up beside the dog warrior, surprised to see his other friends have arrived.          “Guys? What are you doing here?” he asks.          “Came here to see me, I suppose?” Dissonance grins, as he poofs behind the fox.          “We… ran into a bit of trouble as we tried to protect the next element.” Kendra explains, “We also ran into Trixie.”          “Wha… WHAT?” Kitsune stutters in shock.          “Had to hold her hostage for a while so we can have her guide us to another element, but she got away.” Hollow sneers, “William somehow volunteered to hop out of the plane to explore the village near here, before we were attacked.”          “Anything else besides the element stones?” Kitsune wants to know, “Invaders? More battle toads?”          Just then, Athena starts to buzz on Ekko’s wrist.          “Ekko, I’m picking up an intrusion nearing here.” she yelps.          “What… no…” Ekko panics softly, “Can you detect what it looks like?”          “It’s heading towards the village…” Athena tracks, “It has some swarm following him, and they’re splitting up into two separate teams.”          “One of those halves may be heading toward the village.” Ekko breathes vastly.          “If there’s any chance they crush…” Kitsune growls, “No time to plan. We need to go and stop those… things. NOW!”          The fox rushes out the door, as Pico follows him.          “Kitsune! WAIT! We need to think through this!” the dragon warns.          The fox can see the horror flying in the sky as he stops in place. Once again, he can see his giant cousin leading the diving swarm of reptile beings that resemble changelings. Kamoril. That’s the name of the evil that will echo in his head. Each winged reptile also shaped like turtles and frogs with yellow fangs.          One of the reptile beings then flash in front of Kitsune’s eyes, as it pushes him down onto the ground. The fox looks up to see the muscular enemy leering over him in its battle armor. It even wears a scanner over both his eyes.          “Kitsune.” the slimy frog sneered, “I have heard of you. You’re a disgrace to your own kind.”          “I don’t take any offense from disgusting monsters like you.” the fox huffs.          “Please sir, let us tackle him now.” another reptile soldier begs the one leering over Kitsune, “We’ll take that twerp down along with his other friends.          Kitsune can see the way the next two reptiles are respecting the one staring at him. That muscular reptile must be the general of the pack. Kitsune then winches as he hears a couple of toad ruffians starting to pick a fight with Nate behind him.          “I have to admit, he really knows when to battle for his friends.” the general snickers when eyeing Kitsune, “I can sense the fighting spirit in him.”          “Yeah, this will be a real work out.” an ugly turtle cackles as Kitsune slowly gets up.          The fox can hear them laughing louder as he then hears Kendra and Hollow being surrounded by more of those turtle soldiers.          “Actually, those two ponies over there might be the toughest to fight.” the turtle soldier taunts in front of Kitsune.          “They’ll be no match for us at all.” another frog soldier adds, coming behind Kitsune.          Some of Kitsune’s friends try to come over to intervene, but ten more aliens block their path.          “You guys should have never messed with Justin.” Kitsune snarls.          “What do you say we cut to the chase?” the general asks.          Kitsune then skids his ankle backwards, thrusting around as he lifts his palms up. He then scotches backward again as he dodges the general’s punch. Another frog soldier then flashes at the side of Kitsune, raising his fist for the next attack.          The fox jumps to miss both their throws, and throws his feet up to kick them both in their jaws. As they fall backward, two more turtle soldiers float up towards Kitsune for their turn. The fox hops back again, punching both the turtles as two more frog enemies hop behind his back.          The fox keeps jumping, punching the frogs behind him with his backward fists, and then hits the general trying to attack him with his knee. He dodges another attack from a turtle, and goes underneath a toad soldier to hit it in the stomach. The fight pursues, as the fox keeps running backward while dodging the aliens’ attacks.          All the moves are in front of Kitsune like a ballet. As the fox keeps dodging, another mysterious figure floats down from the air, observing Kitsune’s tactics. The fox takes no notice, and hops again to try and escape the enemies surrounding him in a circle form. He tries to kick a frog soldier, but it hops up over his leg to miss the attack. Kitsune then twirls around to kick the frog general behind him into the stomach, as the bastard coughs out blood.          Kitsune then throws a punch to his cheek, slamming him to the ground yet again. The figure nods in awe to the fox, yet it’s smile is not visible. Pico then notices the shadow, and hops up to confront it.          “This isn’t a sport!” Pico screams.          The dragon then raises his fist to try and hit the dark enemy. As the dragon grabs the being’s arm, the figure blocks the attack, having its muscles grow big with its veins pumping faster. The figure then tosses his arm aside, having Pico let go as he falls backward. As Pico lands on the ground, he hops back up to throw a punch, only to have the shadow challenger block the attack. The dragon snarls as he brings his fist back, wondering what he’s up against.          Suddenly, the shadow figure falls forward to then punch Pico into the stomach while pushing him back. It then punches Pico by his cheek, having him twirl backwards towards the dirt. The dragon then controls his aura from his forehead, and has a gravitational beam spurt out from his finger to aim at the figure. Pico shoots the beam, as the mysterious challenger goes into its defense pose. A GIANT flash is made, as purple smoke starts to appear when the flash starts to die down.          As the smoke fades, Pico growls to see that the move had no avail to have the figure back down.          “You singed my fingernails.” the figure smiles.          Pico gives a look of disbelief. As he starts to stutter, the figure raises him palm upward and has a giant purple aura grow from his hand. Pico screams, as the shadowy villain blasts the beam to strike the dragon in the most agonizing pain possible. It sends Pico flying upward towards the sky, with gravel floating in his path. Nate looks up from below during his fight, whimpering at the bad sight.          Meanwhile, Kitsune keeps dodging the punches and throws from the reptile soldiers. He then goes under another throw while kneeling down, grinding his teeth. As soon as he dodges five more moves from the soldiers, he stands up tall to end this while confronting them.          “DRAGON FIRE!” Kitsune shouts, having a huge beam of aura flash around him.          Kitsune raises and thrusts his arms forward, and a fiery dragon-like flame shoots forth to breathe out a giant blast through the soldiers’ stomachs. They scream in shock, as their insides start to burn like marshmallows. For an untested move, Kitsune was convinced that it was used for the right time.          Huge explosions from the blood are made, as the reptiles’ body parts boil in extremely hot temperature. They scream out as if they’re in an oven. Kitsune then gives his final punches to their faces, showing nor remorse. He even gives a karate kick to more soldiers who dodged his blasts, knocking them out instantly. The final knee hit was given to the general, as the muscular frog coughs out parts of his brain before dying.          Kitsune then looks up to see that his friend Pico is falling to the ground, as his enemies are doing so as well. The soldiers’ armor starts to sizzle, loosing all their powers from the suits instantly. As Kitsune wonders what powers are used to control those suits, he hears a screaming plea of help from one of his friends.          He looks up, seeing the shadowy figure holding New Moon by her neck!          “KITSUNE!” she screams!          “NEW MOON!” Kitsune cries.          “The wasp queen has given me my share!” the being shouts, “I help her out if she doesn’t harm me!”          Kitsune then knew that his enemies blackmailed the figure, and that he’ll do anything to protect himself and his planet.          “This… isn’t the answer…” Kitsune tries to assure, “We can help you…”          “Until you come face to face with the wasp queen and her friends…” the being threatens, “You’ll won’t see your precious pony girlfriend again!”          “LET HER GO!” Dissonance yells, as he flies to come to New Moon’s rescue.          But before the draconequus can get closer to the figure while holding his aura in his palm, another flash is made at the same time. The being is gone, WITH NEW MOON! Dissonance droops down with a halt immediately, floating slowly to the ground.          “I was so close…” he mumbles, “It’s not fair…”          “New Moon…” Kitsune weeps.          It’s all too sudden, first Justin, and then his girlfriend. The fox then looks up in the sky. She’s up there now… with KAMORIL, the thing that used to be his cousin!  He can also see missiles shooting out of the sky, as they near more villages on this planet. Kendra also looks at the missiles in fear, knowing William is in one of those villages.          “Those creeps…” Kitsune growls, talking about the aliens, “They won’t get away with this… not without me fighting them. As soon as we find the elements as quickly as possible, we’ll ram their ships!”