Chapter 12: War of Shadows Pt 1
*3rd person POV*
It had been a few months after the Tyranid attack, and Ponyville was finally repaired.
Sebastian and Sebaste had helped with the repairs, moving wooden beams and doing all sorts of heavy lifting. They had just finished fixing the Town hall when they heard the sound of fighting nearby.
“Now what’s going…, HOLY THRONE!” Sebastian yelped as he saw something flying at him.
He ducked and the object landed with a loud “OOF!”.
Sebaste ran over and asked, “ The hell was that?!”
“I have no idea, but that was a person that landed, I think it’s another Displaced!” came the reply.
To their surprise, it was a woman wearing a red and black mask and a cloak. Two metal rods were by her sides, rolling away from her due to momentum. She groaned, and sat up.
“Who are you?” Sebastian asked, aiming his bolter at her, “If you’re here to attack this town, you’ll regret it!”
“Wow… You’re a real gentlemen…” She said sarcastically. She picked up the rods, and two blue beams shot out.
“Holy..! You’re a Jedi?!” Sebaste asked in shock, he then shook his head and said, “Sorry about that, we’ve been through a lot recently. We just finished rebuilding after some Tyranids rampaged through here, before that it was orks and Covenant. My name’s Sebaste, and my friend here is Sebastian, but he prefers to be called Sasha.”
The woman walked around him and started limping away.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa! You haven’t told us your name or why you’re even here! It’s been awhile since we saw another Displaced, and Craig was the first one!” Sebastian said.
“Craig’s a jackass.” She simply stated. “And if you wanna talk to Displaced, there’s a bunch just outside the Everfree Forest. But leave me alone.”
Sebastian cocked an eyebrow, “What exactly is going on here? This many Displaced in one world is uncommon.”
Sebaste shrugged, “I don’t know, but we’d better investigate!”
They followed the woman at a discreet distance, when they arrived at the edge of the Everfree, they were in for a shock.
“Merciful Emperor…” Sebastian whispered, “What’s going on here?!”
Several Displaced were battling violently along with clones and droids.
“What’s wrong with you!?” A girl wearing a yellow trench coat yelled. “This was supposed to be our vacation!”
“Is she talking to us?” Sebaste asked in confusion.
All of the Displaced stopped fighting and turned to Sebaste, most in shock and confusion, while the others looked pissed.
“No, she was talking to me.” A guy wearing simple black clothes stepped forward. “Gabriel Sylar, at your service.”
Sebastian frowned, “Nice to meet you, but may I ask, WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE!” He yelled that last bit in anger and frustration.
“You haven’t heard?” The yellow coated girl asked, surprised. “There’s a war.”
“No, we’re new here, we were sent here 15 months ago” Sebaste answered, “We’ve only met two displaced, one of them I believe you know, has a Token that looks like a sword with Luna’s and Celestia’s cutie marks on each side of it.”
“We don’t memorize tokens, dweeb.” Said a female wearing a white Spiderman suit.
“Silence, Spider Gwen.” Sylar ordered. “But back to the war topic… Two Displaced have gotten into a dispute. I’d ask if you’ve heard about the War of Understanding, but we can all assume you haven’t. The war we’re in is between the Alliance of Heroes and the Empire of Nightmares.”
“Empire of Nightmares?” Sebastian growled,narrowing his eyes, “what forces do you have exactly? Because if it has chaos forces, then you’ve picked the wrong guys! I’ll never support those who ally themselves with the Dark Gods!”
“Uh… We have battle droids…” Sylar said. “We don’t align ourselves with gods period. Nightmare is because our leader is fearsome.”
“If you ask me, this ‘Empire of Nightmares’ is bad news all around!” Sebaste stated, “What do you think?”
Sebastian nodded, ”Sorry, but if you’re trying to recruit us into this ‘Empire’, forget it! In my book, Tyrants are just as bad as heretics.”
A red mare resembling Pinkie yelled, “You’re racist against freaks! Aren’t you!?”
“Aaand, who the hell are you supposed to be?” Sebastian asked.
“Pinkis Cupcake to you jerk!” She yelled. Her voice sounded painful, almost like a guy was saying it but used a voice adjuster to make him sound female.
“Ma’am, I’m not racist, but I don’t follow those who try and subjugate those by force and rule them by fear!” Sebastian snarled, “If I were to choose a faction to follow, I’d choose the Alliance!”
“Don’t waste your breath Harper, these fools are blinded by the word ‘hero’.” Sylar said. “Dawn, call Giratina, we’re getting out of this doomed world.”
A blue haired girl that looked like Dawn from Pokemon nodded and whistled. A wormhole opened up, and the Legendary Pokemon’s head came out.
“Aw! But I wanted to try this world’s Sugarcube Corner!” Pinkis whined.
Sebaste smiled underneath his helmet, “Wrong thing to say.” He then summoned a Plasma repeater and opened fire, while Sebastian summoned his jump pack and lightning claws with built in storm bolters and charged with a roar of “FOR THE LION!”
Sylar created a forcefield of purple that resembled that of Shining Armors. “I was insulting you, not threatening your world… Pinkis, go and have fun at Sugarcube Corner, I bet the little one’s hungry.”
Pinkis squealed and ran away at lightning speed.
“OH NO YOU DON’T!” Sebastian fired a stun round at the Pinkie look alike, but missed.
“Sasha, don’t worry about her, we’ve got other problems!” Sebaste yelled.
Sebastian sighed and turned towards the fight. “Time to teach you punks why you don’t mess with this world!” He said as he went into his Contemptor Dreadnought form.
“You’re making a big mistake. Dawn, Gwen, Sara, Exile, go get Cole. I’ll deal with the blind men.” Sylar said, and the other imperials ran off in different directions.
“Gah! Misty, Revan, Bell, Rainbine, go find Blossom!” The yellow coated girl yelled, hands starting to spark. “I’ll help the newbies!”
Sebastian then let rip with his Kheres Assault Cannon at Sylar, trying to put a dent in the shield. It only rippled, and in return, Sylar let loose a solar beam like what Celestia would use.
“++FRAG!++” Sebastian swore, changing back to his power armored form and jumping out of the way.
In the background, Lyra was watching the whole thing. “I knew Humans were real! But, why are they fighting each other?” she pondered.
Sylar tsked, shaking his head. “Is that all you’ve got? I thought you said you’d teach me why I don’t mess with this world?”
Sebastian smirked, “And you’re about to, you see, in making you fire that beam, you’ve made the mistake of dropping your shield, and now it’s time to BRING THE HAMMER DOWN!”
“Wha..!” Whatever Sylar was about to say was lost as Sebaste swung his Gravity Hammer at him and sent him flying into a tree.
“When you’ve played WH40K as much as I have, you tend to pick up a few tricks.” Sebastian said, “That one was a distracting tactic, making myself the target, while my friend snuck up behind you to bring you down.”
“Cute… But I’ve got a few tricks too…” Sylar said. Just then, his body started to split, and a second Sylar was there.
“I think-” One started.
“-You should-” The second continued.
“-Surrender.” The first finished.
“If you think I’m gonna surrender, then you don’t know anything about the Dark Angels! WE. NEVER. SURRENDER!” As Sebastian said this, his armor started glowing, the glare became so bright that everyone present had to look away. As the glow died down, Sebastian was still standing, but he was now in Deathwing Terminator armor, equipped with a power fist and a plasma cannon.
“This time, I’m not gonna let some war ruin my world, I may be allied with the Alliance, but this is where I live, and I’m not going to let some Empire take it over!”
“Stoooooop!” The yellow trench coat wearing girl yelled. “Order Sylar to stand down!”
“As you command.” Sebastian said. “You heard the lady Sylar, STAND DOWN!”
Sebaste put away his weapon, but kept an eye on Sylar in case he tried to pull a fast one.
Sylar growled, but let his shield down and the double vanished into confetti. “Cute, Jube. Cute…”
“Jube? As in Jubilee, the girl that works with the X-Men from time to time?” Sebaste asked. “That Jube?”
“Yeah, that’s my name. And Jubilee doesn’t just work with the X-Men from time to time.” Jube said.
“Sorry, haven’t read that many comics about her. My memory of her history isn’t that great.” Sebaste said in embarrassment. “My name’s Sebaste, The guy in the Terminator armor is Sebastian, though he prefers to be called Sasha.”
“I’m secondary high Commander of the Alliance, and I was here with my friends to get some vacation time, but the Empire decided to prank us.” Jubilee stated.
“And of course we ended up finding you guys after one of your friends crash landed in Ponyville. The point is, what is the War of Shadows, and how does it involve Displaced?”
“There was an accident, and the leader of the Empire overreacted. So this guy, Lee Connors, is trying to defeat the Emperor.” Jubilee said.
“You know that’s not the truth. Lee cut Darkaloo’s wings off and Folteren wants vengeance! Lee’s just hiding behind his Displaced follower like the parasite he is!” Sylar shouted.
“Darkaloo?” Sebaste nearly burst out laughing at the name. But he then got serious, “How far has this war escalated? Sasha and I might be able to help you and the Alliance. We both have the ability to summon any type of Halo and WH40K Imperium weapons, add to that, Sasha can act as an Assault trooper or a heavy hitter with his Terminator and Dreadnought forms.”
“We’ll discuss that later, right now I need to gather my group and find one of the Neutrals.” Jubilee said. “She’s another reason why we came here. She got hurt, so both sides are trying to find her to please the guy who started the war.”
“Who does she look like? We might be able to find her.” Sebastian asked. “But if you don’t need our help finding her, we’re fine with that, I’m more of the soldier type anyways.”
“We’ll get her. You though, might want to keep an eye on Pinkis.”
“Believe me, we know what she’s capable of, I’ve read about the Elements of Insanity, she’s supposedly always hungry” Sebaste said.
“I’ll go check Sugercube Corner, that’s where she was headed.” Said Sebastian, and he headed off towards the sweets shop.
“Out of curiosity, you wouldn’t know a Displaced named Craig, would you?” Sebaste asked Jubilee.
“Yeah, I think he’s with the Empire.” Jubilee stated. “But I might be mixing names up.”
“He said that he had fought another Displaced named Ahriman, and the last time we saw him, he helped us take out a mob of Orks when we were on patrol. And the power he had, he did a Skyrim shout that decimated them…”
“Oh! Sorry, I get Draigo and Craig mixed up. But yeah, Craig’s with the Alliance. Although I think his daughter and Darkaloo are a couple.” Jubilee started to zone out.
“Who is Darkaloo? I heard Sylar mention him, but I have no idea who this pony is…”
“Darkaloo is Emperor’s daughter. The Darkaloo is a name so we don’t call her Scootaloo around other Scootaloo’s.” Jubilee answered.
“So I’m guessing both Sasha and I have to report to your Commanding Officer in order to join the Alliance?” Sebaste asked
“Nah, you joined when you attacked Sylar. The Alliance shall call you two whenever you’re not busy.” Jubilee said.
Sebaste nodded, then frowned under his helmet, “ The hell’s taking Sasha so long? I’d better check on him…” He looked at Jubilee, “You coming?”
“Nah, I’ll make sure Sylar doesn’t take anypony’s brains out.” Jubilee stated.
The Spartan nodded, then headed over to Sugarcube Corner. When he arrived, the sight that met his eyes made him halt in disbelief. Pinkie and Pinkis were chatting while Pinkis was drinking a milkshake. Sebastian was also there, also looking in disbelief. The two augmented humans looked at each other. “Let’s not think about this for a long time.”
“Agreed.”
“-And the six of us formed the Elements of Insanity, and together we fight crazy villains who want to… Well, I’d rather not say, it’s not really PG.” Pinkis said to Pinkie Pie.
Both humans facepalmed. “It’s just Pinkis being Pinkis, and Pinkie being Pinkie…” Sebaste said in exasperation”
“Oh, you should have been there for the Christmas party! Wait… No, that’s not PG either, everyone ended up in bed with each other…” Pinkis continued, “I did get pregnant though… There was that...”
“Damned 4th wall breakers…” Sebastian muttered. “Next thing you know, she’s gonna say that she’s fought a Night Lord…”
“I still don’t know how a mare impregnated me…” Pinkis mumbled. “So how was your week?”
“It was fine, had some aliens from different dimensions attack, but Sasha and Sebbie always managed to defeat them!” Pinkie replied.
“Cool.” Pinkis smiled, which made a ‘squee’ sound.
Sebaste facepalmed. “What is it with the ‘Squee’ every time someone here smiles?!” He said to no one in particular.
It’s just something that happens a lot in the show, you’ll get used to it…
Oh bug off!
Don’t make me delete you!
Fine….
“You okay Seb? It looked like you were having an argument with someone.” Sebastian asked
“He was having an argument with Halo40KInquisitor, the author of this story” Pinkie said.
Sebastian looked at Pinkie, then at Sebaste, then shook his head and headed back to where Jubilee was, muttering about his friend going bonkers.
“Oh, it’s you guys, the racists.” Pinkis said, before sipping her shake.
“I’ve said it once, I’ll say it again, we’re not racist!” Sebaste snapped
“Then you’re specisict.” Pinkis said. “Wordist, people who immediately think everyone in a group called Nightmare Empire is evil, you think I’m a monster, etcetera, etcetera.”
Sebaste sighed. “Look, we got off the wrong foot here, the point is, what exactly happened that sparked this entire war? I’ve heard two different accounts, but then Jubilee said that someone else had started it. So I need an actual account of what happened that made this war start. ”
“Lee and Folteren were hunting a psychopath named Killjoy. Time Spinner, their Displacer, sent them and a few other to deal with it. When they were combating Killjoy, Lee accidentally cut off Darkaloo’s wings. Folteren retreated a bit, while Lee ignored the problem. Lee called Folteren a bad father for letting Dark get in the fight, even though Dark was supposed to be outside.” Pinkis took a deep breath before continuing. “Folteren got pissed, and chopped off Lee’s Twilight’s horn. Killjoy got away with only a minor injury. The two fought for a bit, until their Displacer, Time Spinner, arrived to sort things out. He couldn’t do much, but create the War of Shadows. Displaced from all over the multiverse now pick sides, either to help their friends, because they think one or the other is right, or to get the reward.”
“All this war, because of a mistake?” Sebaste asked in shock “That’s stupid, they should have realized that it was an accident and transported her to a safe place then finish up dealing with Killjoy!”
To be continued...