//------------------------------// // Chapter 24 // Story: Equestria Crossover Confusion // by Garfield23 //------------------------------// “So that’s the situation? Well it certainly seems strange, all these people and yet no good reason for why the attack is taking place. The enemy didn’t need to give us fighters, so why do it?” Sunset asked as a council of war sat around the table within Twilight’s castle. Sunset sitting in Applejack’s chair “They gave us all these allies? Why? Wouldn’t it be easier to attack when Equestria didn’t have defenders with such power?” Basil Stag hare nodded sitting in Fluttershy’s chair “Your right old gal, this certainly seems poorly planned, yet it’s also seems as if a lot of planning went into their attack and they still seem to have the advantage!” he said as he ate a carrot and looked at the map “Have any of you noticed the map seems a jolly bit confused?” they all looked at him “Well look here, at this bally place, the crystal empire, right?” to which Twilight nodded “Well I can tell what’s there but Canterlot, I can’t bally tell if there is a city there?” Gandalf looked at where Basil was pointing “He’s right” the map in every other area was detailed, even including changes the last few battles had brought about, the holes from Tien and Piccolo’s attacks had caused, even the smallest change due to damage but yet Canterlot seemed strangely unaffected despite Moondancer’s reports there was now some changes there “It certainly seems strange the map would be lie? Considering it’s your side” he looked at Twilight who nodded “So someone must be tampering with it” “The Tree of Harmony?” Twilight asked and then turned to Tien and the pony Applejack who were standing behind her “Applejack! Guide Tien to the tree and investigate!” Applejack nodded saying “On it!” Tien nodded but Piccolo walked over “I’ll join you! Whoever is doing this might be stronger than Aizen and we nearly lost you, Tien” Piccolo explained as they walked out before Piccolo asked “Applejack, which way?” Back in the meeting, Twilight turned to Gandalf “I think we better take a break till they get back” she suggested as she looked at the map “I mean if this turns out to be a lead then, our decision could be decided by what they bring back” Gandalf nodded and Twilight turned to Sunset who seemed confused by the whole thing “I’ll need to have a word with you and our friends you brought from Canterlot High” “Sure thing Twilight” Sunset said, after getting the group together including Captain America and Wes, Sunset turned to Twilight “So what’s going on? I mean the portal has been acting strangely that’s crystal clear and suddenly all these various…fighters…” clearly looking for an idea word to describe the new comers to Equestria “Are here” Twilight nodded “Well it turns out the mirror was a creation of Discord but when we tried to see if the mirror could go to other worlds, Discord said the portal malfunctioned and now creatures from many other times and places are here” she explained “However it would appear…that if this was an accident someone was unusually well prepared for it because Lord Zedd began to try and take over but it turns out he wasn’t the one in charge. Moondancer told us that Zedd is General three with two generals above him and apparently a master but at the moment the strongest one we’re aware of is Aizen” Captain America nodded and asked “So their master was able to use the opportunity to keep the portal open and make the portal bigger?” to which Twilight nodded “Well that doesn’t explain one thing, why would they allow you so many allies?” Wes nodded “From what I remember, from talking with Tommy and Jason, Lord Zedd isn’t the kind to stock the decks of his enemies” he said “If only we had a couple pf Zords, I had a word with Billy, Adam and the Magna Defender, they told me they’ve tried to summon their zords but with no success” Captain America turned to Wes “So wait! You mean the Power Ranger’s greatest weapons? Those giant robots and you can’t summon them?!” Captain America asked in shock, to which Wes nodded “Well…that’s just great…” Human Twilight however cut it in “What I don’t understand is, if the enemy has such complete control over who we have as allies, why not transport something capable of winning in a single shot? Why make a fight of this?” she asked as she looked around “Surely if they’re so powerful they shouldn’t be giving us a sporting chance?!” Meanwhile Tien, Piccolo and Applejack had made it to the bridge across from the Castle of the two sisters, as they descended down the stairs they could see that there was a lot of flashing lights from the cave that held the tree. They sunk up slowly but the point was proven pointless as a voice called out “Ah! Tien, Piccolo it’s been too long, I was hoping when I brought you, that I’d get to see you” a tall blue man in reddish and black coloured clothing stepped out from the cave “Ah and honest Applejack too, might I say I have been impressed with your exploits since you gave Centiback such an impressive kick!” the man smiled as if they were friends but Tien, Piccolo and Applejack looked ready for a fight! Tien looked at the man with fury “Who are you?!” he screamed “Oh yes Tien, scream something that cliché and I’ll off course tell you everything but…then again, would make this game rather boring” the man said as he rubbed his chin “I mean this is all a game” “A game?!” Applejack screamed her eyes stricken with tears “Ya call murdering Chief Thunderhooves, Moondancer and goodness knows how many more innocent ponies, a game?!” she looked ready to leap at the man “Ya’re a monster! You toyed with our lives! I’m gonna buck ya through a wall!” Piccolo however said “Allow me!” he also looked incredibly cross “Special Beam Cannon!” the attack fired out but the man raised his hand and the attack seemed to be cancelled out “What the?!” “Oh really, Piccolo you’d think you’d realise just how out classed you truly are but apparently fighting is the only way to get that point across and alas I hoped I'd be able to avoid this sort of thing" the man said as he flew forward and flicked Piccolo on the forehead and this send the namekian flying into the wall behind Tien and Applejack “Now if you’ll excuse me, our little game is entering it’s final stage…ooo looks like Aizen has send Commander 6 and a squad of Cybermen! You’d best get back” Tien clenched his fists preparing to throw himself at the new enemy but Applejack stopped him by saying “Woah there, cowboy, if what he says is true….then the others may need our help!” and so after helping Piccolo to his feet, the three flew off to support their friends and battle. The figure by the tree of harmony smiled gently “And so the final battle begins” he said as he turned to a small mirror in the corner “Yes, Lord our new game will be set up before long. Lord if I might say the ponies from this world should make the upcoming game very enjoyable but may I ask isn’t this all very stressful?” after getting his answer the man nodded “So you’ll step in when the moment arises!” “Twilight! Twilight! We’re under attack!” Jiraiya yelled as he ran into the castle, all within turned and Twilight looked horrified “There seems to be an army of silver men and they’re being led by Orochimaru, please I need help so fight Orochimaru!” “Hang on!” Zorro said as he walked up “So you know who this Orochimaru is?” to which Jiraiya nodded “Then may I suggest that I take him on and the rest of you can have his army. I’ve let to find a worthy opponent!” “Alright! Enough waiting! Let’s go take care of these guys!” Warmachine said as those within the castle charged out to battle the oncoming tide of Cybermen approaching Ponyville. However when they got outside, what they saw horrified them; the entire space between the castle and the mountain seemed to have been painted silver. The number of Cybermen seemed endless and in front of them stood, Orochimaru looking very pleased with himself “Well looks like they thrown everything but the kitchen sink at us!” Wes laughed and said “Don’t tempt them! We’re already fighting an uphill battle, so let’s not give them pointers!” he then yelled “Time for Timeforce!” morphing into his red ranger form “Oh I feel ready for a proper battle!” Jumping high into the air he drew his chrono sabres “Time Strike!” the attack cut five cybermen to ribbons. “Triceratops!” Billy yelled as he too changed into his blue ranger costume “Blue ranger, armed and ready for battle!” running forward he drew his power lance and cut a few cybermen apart “Boy that wasn’t hard” “Zeo ranger 4! Green!” Adam yelled too as he morphed into the green zeo ranger “Alright guys let’s get them!” as the Cybermen approached Adam jumped high into the air and drew his twin axes “Zeo power axes!” and as he fell forward he struck forward cutting the cybermen below him in half. Jiraiya quickly began to move his hands in handsigns, as he charged towards a cyberman, dodging incoming attacks and yelled “Rasengan!” the attack hit home with such devastating power it send the cyberman into several more cybermen “Come on Orochimaru let’s settle this once and for all!” Orochimaru looked at Jiraiya with boredom “You cannot be serious, Jiraiya, you’d think our previous fights would spoil for you how this promises to turn out” he said as he yawned to finish his sentence “My forces will be more than enough for you!” However the ponies and their allies were winning, the cybermen for their massive numbers, lacked the power to win the advantage. Warmachine and Metalgarurumon were able to supress them with overwhelming fire power, Stitch and Armstrong were using their superior strength to overpower whole groups of Cybermen and Deadpool was giving one very unlucky Cyberman a wedgie. Overall the forces of Equestria were pushing the enemy back but then their chances fell, as two more commanders arrived. “So Orochimaru, looks like your struggling!” the first one said bored looking at the forces of good “Right Commander 4, Saruman what’s your orders?” as he turned to look at the old man who also looked bored by the whole situation “Well you are in charge!” “Commander 5, Rampage you must remember we’re here to finish the job and nothing shall stop us!” Saruman said as he pulled out his staff “Now shall we begin!” Rampage smirked and pulled out his missile launcher “OOO I can hardly wait to inflict such glorious pain” but suddenly Gandalf and Depthcharge landed in front of the two villains “Ah Fishboy! It’s been too long, I was hoping we’d meet again so I could settle the score with you!” “X! You disgusting piece of slag! This time I’ll crush you!” Depthcharge yelled as he charged forward pulling out his blaster “For Colony Omicron!” he fired his weapon and the shots hit Rampage sending the evil transformer into several cybermen “Is that all you got, X?!” “Hardly!” Rampage snapped as he rose his feet but suddenly he transformed into his tank form and fired his rocket launcher, however Depthcharge was able to block the blows by using his wings as a shield and quickly threw his tail spear into the rocket launcher “Oh no! Not again!” the resulting explosion destroyed not only Rampage’s body but all the Cybermen around him but before Rampage could reform Warmachine was able to fire a rocket which destroyed his spark, leaving the silver Z as usual behind. “It’s over” Depthcharge said as he aimed his blaster at more of the Cybermen. Saruman was winning the fight against Gandalf “It’s over Gandalf, you were never a match for me” he kicked Gandalf to the ground “Now it ends!” but just before he could land a finishing blow Erza flew forward and blocked the blow “I won’t let you!” she growled as she pushed Saruman back “Now Gandalf, an older gentlemen should let a younger mage take over when he is struggling” she teased as she helped Gandalf to his feet “What say we team up?” Gandalf smiled and said “A marvellous idea” he drew his sword and both of them prepared for Saruman to rise “What say I distract him, so you can sweep in and finish him?” Erza nodded and said “I think that sounds like a plan!” so Gandalf charged forward, Saruman raised his staff to block the first blow but because he was so busy blocking the first blow he couldn’t stop Erza flying forward and cutting him in half, again leaving the silver Z behind “That was way too easy” Jiraiya was struggling to land a blow on Orochimaru who was avoiding the worst of Jiraya’s attempts but suddenly the two Pinkie Pies appeared behind Orochimaru and stuck their hooves out tripping him over and gave Jiraiya an opening to launch “Rasengan!” the attack hit Orochimaru square in the chest followed by Zorro cutting Orochimaru's head off “Sorry old friend but I have a mission to complete here!” he stood up, while Zorro grumbled about not getting a proper chance to fight but Jiraiya turned to the two pinkies “Who’d have thought you ponies knew a thing about shadow clones?” “Oh she’s not a clone, she’s from Canterlot high and she is currently causing more than one person a lot of confusion” Pinkie pie explained as the silver Z appeared where Orochimaru had fallen “But that was a little too easy. The villains might be letting us beat their commanders to allow them to open a massive portal and allow a massive weapon through!” “Did you hit your head or something?” Jiraiya asked as both Pinkies looked around wildly. However all around them the last of Cybermen were being destroyed, Princess Twilight was blasting a cyberman to bits, while both Rainbow Dashes were flying around seeing to the last of the cybermen. The Power rangers supported by Captain America and Deadpool were dusting off some other Cybermen “You might be right Pinkie we didn’t take a single casualty and these robot guys should have been much tougher. Even with you two helping Orochimaru should have killed at least one of our number?” Iroh nodded “Their three commanders are eternal rivals of those that helped defeat them and they certainly fell way too easy. That’s what you told me Gandalf, that other older fellow was a rival of yours?” Iroh said as he turned to Gandalf and Erza both nodded “So maybe they’re falling on purpose?” Basil sighed “Certainly a dashed bit odd, those chaps are talking about beating us and yet they can’t win a battle?” he said as the group began to gather round “They’re tactics certainly boggle the mind, aye what?!” he then looked up “Looks like the sirs and the lady have returned” all turned to see Applejack, Tien and Piccolo “So what’d ya discover?!” Applejack explained what they had discovered and Princess Twilight spoke up first, after five minutes to an oddly subdued group, that was clearly in shock about all the pain they had been through being nothing but a game “Game or not, we have to take back Canterlot! With Fluttershy back on our side, we can use the rainbow powers to put an end to Aizen and his bucked up plan!” she was furious, if this was a game Aizen was going to pay for it but then a man almost entirely in black stepped forward “Who are you?! Another enemy?!” The man was silent for a moment before saying in a subdued voice “I was listening to the orange pony’s evaluation of what they found…this Aizen person isn’t the ring leader…such…games are always controlled by someone in the shadows” he then looked around “Your group will be no match for their master…their plan is probably a diversion anyway” Twilight thought through the newcomer’s logic and found it to make some sense “You may have a point but…what’s your name?” she asked uncertain of the man who’s face she couldn’t see aside from his chin and mouth. “I'm Batman!” the man said with a small smile "I'm here to help!"