Hades shook his head with disappointment while he gazed into the portal to the other world--the world of magic that still wasn't his. 'I still cannot understand how I have not made that magic my own,' he seethed, and his anger caused the souls within the pit beneath him to howl with agony. 'Those who wield this magic are nothing more than children and yet they defy me at...no, it is not them. It is Diana. She is who keeps interfering.'
"This is what I get for being soft," Hades said to the soul he was clutching in his hand, a soul as black as the night. "For sending in Diana so that no one would be hurt. I should have just used you from the beginning and dealt with the souls you'd send my way afterwards. But no, I had to be nice. That will not happen again."
Hades then placed the soul into the center of his chamber and began to channel his power, giving form to the soul. Muscles formed from sand, and blood made of ash made up the body of the being, but before Hades could finish he felt his minion in the other world call out to him.
"Lord Hades, can you hear me?" Agatha asked through the vortex. Hades sighed with disappointment as he ceased working on the soul and turned towards the portal. Through it he could see the smiling face of the young girl, but Hades' face was anything but thrilled to see her.
"Why do you bother me? I am far too busy right now to be bothered with the likes of you," he replied in a cold tone that made the souls of the dead shiver.
"But master Hades, I bring news! I destroyed the source of communication between Sunset and her friends' world!" Agatha said, eyes beaming as she awaited praise from Hades. Instead, the Dark God sneered as he snapped his fingers and brought forth an image of the Earth.
"Do you know what this is? This is your world. And this," he began as he snapped his fingers once more and revealed a barrier of purple energy around it. "Is the barrier that is keeping me out. And it is getting stronger. In order for it to be doing so, Sunset must still be communicating with her friends on the other side. Which means that either she has a second way to contact her friends, or that you failed in your task."
"But that's impossible! I saw how she was talking with her friends! I destroyed the book myself!" Agatha argued, but Hades held up a hand to silence her.
"Did you check to see if the book you destroyed held the same magical properties as the girls?" Hades asked. The lack of answer answered for her. "Then it is clear that what you destroyed was a decoy, and that Sunset has once again proven herself superior to you."
"T-that can't be," Agatha stammered out as Hades turned away from her. "Lord Hades, please, give me another chance! I'll find the real-"
"No!" Hades said, silencing her with that single word. "You have done nothing but fail me when I instruct you with even the most miniscule of tasks. You are not only a failure as my trainee, but you are a failure at simply being useful. No, be silent and do not ruin anything else, lest I turn my wrath upon you."
Without waiting to hear what excuse she would come up with, Hades ceased communication with Agatha and turned back towards the black soul. To his surprise, he found that the sheer willpower of the soul had finished the rest of its body. The being was staggering towards Hades at a turtle's pace, but its eyes glowed with a red light as it extended a hand towards the Ruler of the Dead. But the hand it extended wasn't an attempt to get help. It was an attempt to kill Hades.
"Hello there, resident of my land," Hades greeted. The being let out a weak sound before it lunged forward towards the God of the Dead. Even with his godly strength, Hades was still pushed back as the creature slammed into his chest. "Enough," Hades decided, snapping his fingers and causing black chains to erupt from the ground and restrain the creature, bringing it down to its knees.
"You believe your chains can hold me?" the being asked in a weak whisper, but even as it struggled with its ungodly power against its bonds, Hades simply smiled at the display. "You cannot keep me down here. I will break free! And I will have my vengeance!"
"And all I wish to do is help you obtain your vengeance," Hades said in a voice like silk to the being, calming it down to the point where it did not struggle. "See, you are currently dead, but if you do a little something for me, I will repay you by restoring you to life. And then you will be free to exact your revenge on whomever you desire." The being went quiet for a moment before nodding up at Hades.
Hades smiled as he snapped his fingers and turned the chains to smoke, allowing the being to rise once more. "All I ask that you do, is go to another world and bring me the six girls there that wield a magic that you will be able to sense," Hades explained as he raised both hands towards the being, continuing the work that he had begun.
"Is that all I need to do?" the being asked Hades as skin began to form across its form.
"Well, there is something else you could do that I would greatly appreciate. While you are in that world, kill Wonder Woman." The being smiled with its newly reformed lips as Hades said this and let out a laugh that even the Lord of the Dead didn't enjoy hearing.
"Kill Wonder Woman? Hmph, I would have done that eventually," the being replied as it reached up and stroked its facial hair. "But since the opportunity has presented itself...how can I say no?"
=wWw=
The hundreds of students roared as the soccer ball was intercepted by Rainbow Dash's face, stopping its trajectory towards the Canterlot High goal. Dash used her forehead to slam the ball to the ground, where she began to kick it up the field while weaving in an out of the other team. Three of Crystal Prep's fastest players raced up to stop her, but the rainbow-haired girl smirked before kicking the ball over their heads. Then, in front of the dumbfounded girls, she performed a backflip and kicked the ball across the field and into the opponent's goal.
"And Rainbow Dash ties it up three to three!" the voice of Celestia rang across the soccer field, getting wild cheers from Canterlot High's side while the Crystal Prep students roared in anger from the other side. Dash raced across the field while blowing kisses to her school before turning and making faces at the opposing team.
"She's going to get kicked out of the game if she keeps acting like that," Sunset said with a shake of her head.
"Really, a lady should behave herself better. Then again, Dash isn't much of a lady," Rarity muttered from beside Sunset.
"She's Rainbow Dash. And that's all she's ever gonna be," Applejack said from behind the two before glancing down at Sunset. "So how ya feeling, Sunset? Diana manage to help ya with whatever ya were going through last week?"
"Yes, actually. She really...opened my eyes," Sunset said with a warm smile that was not lost on her friends.
"I'm glad that you're feeling better," Fluttershy said from Sunset's other side before glancing down at her bunny, who was holding up a sign that said he demanded to see blood. "Angel, what are you doing here? I thought I left you at home?"
"He probably wanted to see the biggest game in the history of Canterlot High!" Pinkie exclaimed, sending pieces of all of the candy and popcorn that she had been eating all over her friends. "I mean, we're all tied up with Crystal Prep in both the soccer game and points overall! If we win this, then it will be the first time in, like, ever that we beat them! Hopefully those clouds go away so the game doesn't get canceled. Nobody would want that."
"Well, right now we seem to be doing well, but Crystal Prep has figured out that Dash is their biggest threat and have moved more of their players to cover her," Twilight observed before writing some notes down on the pad she had brought with her. "However, that has also left a hole on the left side of the field that our team can take advantage of if we-"
"Dash takes the ball right up the center," Sunset finished for Twilight, who glanced up to see that Dash had once again stolen the ball from the other team. "Now I see why she was so desperate to play. She's really making this into her game."
"Yes, but I'm confused as to why she's playing," Twilight muttered, with the concern in her tone drawing her friends in close. "She showed me her test that she passed to return to soccer, but after adding up the numbers she shouldn't have gotten a grade high enough to satisfy Diana's request. Did Diana just let her back onto the team?"
"Yeah, that sounds like something Diana would do. It makes no sense and none of us can understand why she'd do it, but it makes sense," Rarity said.
"What is something I would do?" All six heads spun around to see that Diana was standing behind their bleachers, a bottle of water in hand as she watched the game. "I swear the amount of money people charge for bottled water is insane. Water should be free, or at the very least cheaper than this."
"Diana! You actually showed up!" Sunset said with happiness in every word.
"Of course I did. Considering how badly you've been pestering me for the last five days, I feared for what might happen if I didn't show," Diana replied with a smirk before sitting down in an empty spot behind Sunset. The crowd exploded around them as another of the players on Canterlot High's team scored another goal. "We have this won. Every time Crystal Prep focuses all of their efforts on stopping Dash, another of her team members will use their openings to score. All this game is now, is how many goals can they stop."
"That would be such a nice way to start the semester. Knowing that if we won, we'd never have to hear from Crystal Prep how better they are than us," Fluttershy muttered, Angel nodding his head in agreement before waving his sign around.
"It's been one heck of a semester already and that's only a few months in," Applejack added before giving Diana a look. "So, do you have anything else crazy planned for the rest of the year, or are ya saving some of your tricks for the year after this one?"
"Actually Applejack, it's very unlikely that I will be returning for the next school year," Diana informed them. All of the girls save Sunset gasped and turned their attention towards the teacher.
"But you're one of the best teachers that we've had in a long time! You keep Sombra in check! No one keeps Sombra in check!" Rarity informed Diana.
"You also give the best tests! Tests with tricky questions and riddles within riddles and...it's so much fun being in your class!" Twilight said.
"Yes, I know. But to be perfectly honest, I wasn't really sure that I would be a teacher here until very late. And even then, I had no intentions of staying long," Diana informed the girls. "It was more of a last minute thing. And there are many more people out there who need me far more than you do. I know that I haven't been here long, but I can already see that this school (and this world) are in good hands."
"D-do you know when you'll be leaving?" Sunset asked in a morose tone. Diana gave her a kind smile before gently placing her hands on Sunset's shoulder.
"Do not worry, I plan to leave at the end of the semester. After all, I have to make sure that you all actually learned in my class and just weren't getting by through luck." Most of the girls chuckled at those words, except for Sunset, who stared at the ground while gripping her drink tight. The crowd around the group then started to boo, and all of them looked up to see that Crystal Prep had managed to steal the ball back and score a goal in the process.
"Well, seems they have some fight left in them after all," Diana muttered as she gazed up at the score board. "And barely ten minutes into the game. This game sure does take a long time."
"Most sports generally do, "Applejack stated.
"Not the ones that I participated in," Diana muttered as she took another sip.
"Well, maybe that's because your superhuman strength crushes any that stand in your way," Pinkie pointed out, getting her a look from Diana. "What? We were all there when you obliterated Sunset's door. You scary."
"Right...girls, about the other day and my attitude-"
"You were worried about Sunset. There's nothing to be sorry for," AJ cut off.
Any other words that Diana was going to say were cut off by the roar of the crowd as Dash stole the ball from a Crystal Prep player and began to race down the field with it. The crowd of Canterlot High students leapt to their feet as Dash cleared by defender after defender, until all that was left was her and the goalie. Every eye in the stadium was upon Dash as she and the goalie sized each other up, leaving Dash to smirk as she brought her leg back and prepared to kick the ball in.
KRA-BOOM!
The sky was blasted apart as something came flying down with such speeds that it blasted apart both the sound barrier and the ground of the stadium as it impacted. The players and crowd screamed as they were knocked off their feet by the impact, which created a massive crater in the center of the field. Before any could wonder what was going on, a blast of red light erupted from the crater and incinerated the goal next to Rainbow Dash.
"What in the world?!" Diana roared as the crowd screamed, leaping to her feet as she began to head down to the field. But then something else came flying out of the crater, something that grabbed Dash by the throat and lifted her into the air with no effort. The crowd and the girls with Diana stared at the being in shock, none of them able to register the speed at which it had moved. But only Diana had been able to follow the being's movements, and what she saw in the being before her terrified Diana. For the creature was a man, a man with black hair and facial hair upon his face. But it wasn't at his face where Diana was looking. It was at his chest and the symbol that was upon it.
"Greetings, pathetic beings of this Earth. I am Zod. And before this day is done, you will kneel before me," Zod informed the crowd before turning his gaze to the crowd before him. "But before I conquer all of you, I have a simple question. Where are you, Wonder Woman?!"