//------------------------------// // Chapter 27 // Story: Equestria Crossover Confusion // by Garfield23 //------------------------------// Big Mac ran with the CMC as fast as they could through the deserted remains of Ponyville, the battle against Serpentera wasn’t going well when Twilight ordered them to run for the Crystal Empire but the battle behind them made the CMC stop every once in a while. Finally they were running past a river, when Scootaloo finally stopped and turned. “We can’t just leave them!” Scootaloo yelled as she looked on with tears in her eyes and turned her head to the other three “Come on, Big Mac there’s got to be something we can do? Anything please!” she looked at the big red stallion her eyes pleading for him to say there was something they could do. Suddenly the blue man with white hair appeared before the four “Well there are the three fillies, I’m looking for and I’ve already managed to get hold of the spirit of chaos Discord!” he said as he sat down but Big Mac had gotten between the man and the fillies “Oh How noble Big Mac? But in all fairness your chances against me are non-existent…please let me take the Cutie Mark Crusaders into my care and you can go help that delightful, Twilight Sparkle” Big Mac yelled “Nope!” he then charged forward the man, effortlessly dodged his every kick and tapped Big Mac on the flank but despite how small the blow was, it send Big Mac crashing into a tree. The red stallion rose to his hooves shaking and said “We’ve already lost; Granny Smith and the rest of Ponyville to that giant robot dragon….I won’t let ya take ma sister and her friends from us!” Applebloom looked at her brother, tears splashing from her eyes and she screamed “No don’t!” but Big Mac was already charging forward “Big Mac!” there was a bright flash and Big Mac was sent flying over into the nearby river “No, my big brother” Applebloom ran for the river but the man stood in her way “Get outta ma way!” “I’m sorry no can do dear, Applebloom. My lord has no need for him!” the man said as he raised a finger and the CMC were raised high into the air “Now he should be here shortly, I just need to collect our last…game piece!” “It’s got to have a weak spot somewhere!” Rainbow Dash screamed as they kept trying to attack the oversized robot dragon “Come on!” Tien flew up and tried to hit Serpentera on the dragon’s face but the energy absorbing armour drained every ounce out of his punch “Damn it!” he screamed as he flew down beside Twilight who was mapping out the structure of the machine “So any luck?!” “It would appear the armour absorbs whatever attack we attempt…there aren’t many areas where the armour doesn’t protect but those exceptions apply mostly to those whiskers and the horns on top!” Twilight pointed up to the head “Otherwise those areas are so small, they’d be impossible to hit!” Basil nodded and said “Damn tricky don’t you know, if only we could get inside and fight that Zedd blighter fist to fist!” he shook his head before smiling “I have an idea! What if we focused all our attacks at one spot…maybe that would weaken it’s armour?” Twilight shook her head “It’d take too long, Zedd won’t wait for us and when he realises what we’re up to…he’d try to stop us” she said with a sigh of defeat “It’s hopeless…” Applejack jumped up in rage “Ya cannot be serious!?” she screamed her rage barely contained “Do ya have any idea what ya’re saying?! We can’t fail, Twilight!” but then a small cough made Applejack turn “Fluttershy?” “We’ve already failed…look around Applejack…there’s nothing left…apart from Big Mac and the girls…we’re the only things left alive in Equestria!” her meek tone didn’t hide the total despair, Fluttershy felt “We might as well give up” Pinkie Pie however snapped “I’m not ready to stop this party! We can win…we beat Nightmare Moon, we beat Discord” Pinkie kept going “We beat that meanie, Tirek and that grump Sombra!” “Face it Pinkie, Darling. We tried, but Serpentera was Zedd’s trump card and he played it” Rarity said with a sad shake of her head “I don’t want to give up to that travesty of fashion but how are we supposed to beat that?!” Rainbow Dash hoovered over Rarity’s head and said “By never giving up! We can win! I’d rather give up Apple cider for life than give up this battle!” she then flew over to Sunset Shimmer and said “Right, Sunset?” Sunset sighed and said “As much as I want to save Equestria….for once…so many ponies have already died...and what’s a few more to the death count?” she shook her head “I’m not ready to give up!” Basil Stag Hare let out a little chuckle before saying in a very boastful tone “Pardon me, my lady, giving up is so frightfully dull, beside better out in a blaze of glory than out with a whimper, aye what!” Tien smiled “So Twilight where are those weak spots?” he said to Twilight who smiled and pointed to the joints around the legs and arms “Are you kidding?! I can defiantly hit those with my dodon ray!” Twilight nodded “But you can’t even be a millimetre off, if you are off target, then the armour will absorb the blow and Zedd will know about our plan” she explained and then smiled “Alright Tien you attack the left leg and Stitch can you attack the head with Sailor Jupiter? While the rest of us will attack the other point…I think one of spells might be capable” “Eh!” Stitch said nodding, with eh being the way he said yes. “We’ll make sure Zedd is only thinking about us!” Sailor Jupiter said as the two ran off to find a way up to the head but Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash flew up “Hey she didn’t say you were to help?” Rainbow Dash smiled “Well do you want a lift up to the head or not?” she asked as both Stitch and Sailor Jupiter nodded “Alright Just get on” Fluttershy picked up Stitch and the four flew up to the head “Hey Zedd we’re going to kick your flank!” Lord Zedd looked out the window and laughed “Well with my two batteries, I’ll toast those four!” he then turned to Galaxia and Celestia both were tied to the back of the head “So sorry Galaxia but your usefulness was only really to help power Serpentera!” Galaxia growled “You’ll pay for this!” as she felt the power being absorbed being stored in her, however she couldn’t escape because Zedd had been able to paralyse very muscle in her body except for those needed to keep her alive and her mouth “When I get free, I’ll destroy you and take your robot under my control!” Zedd laughed but when he turned Stitch was on the reinforced glass of the eyes and was beginning to scratch it “AH Abomination stop that! Get off my prized Serpentera!” he yelled in frustration “Tengu warriors! Stop him!” the bird warrior flew out to fight Stitch but Sailor Jupiter and Rainbow Dash intercepted them “What the?!” “Jupiter Supreme Thunder!” the attack struck down the Tengu warriors before they could resist further “Keep going Stitch!” she called down as Stitch kept scratching. While they were distracting Zedd, Tien flew over to the weak spot while Basil Stag Hare and Sunset Shimmer kept the Tengu warriors off him “Dodon Ray!” Tien screamed and the attack found it’s mark it severed the left leg out from under Serpentera “We did it!” At that same moment Twilight managed to launch her attack on the right leg and while also making contact with the weak spot, it only partially severe the leg but it was amount for the giant robot to fall forward “That’s it we did it!” Twilight said in glee but while the Serpentera had fallen narrowly avoiding anything of value, it was still a danger. Stitch however smashed his head into the cockpit and yelled “Aloha!” then he ran about the cockpit with Zedd trying to blast him with his staff “OOOO what does this button do!?” Zedd screamed “Don’t touch that! It’s self-destruct system!” “Wow I can’t believe your that stupid…really?! You just had to scream what it does?!” Celestia said as Stitch pushed the button and the giant technical logical terror began to break down, Stitch pulled her free and the two leapt out with Celestia able to fly free “Wow that was close…thank you…uh what’s your name?” “My name Stitch” Stitch said as they landed. “Princess Celestia!” the ponies yelled as they ran over but they had dropped their guard and Lord Zedd jumped down from the exploding Serpentera “Zedd!” “All my plans….gone…you’ll pay with your lives!” Zedd yelled as he charged forward, swung his staff at Applejack and his attack nearly made it to Applejack but suddenly a massive metal hoof stopped his staff and send Lord Zedd flying backwards “What’s this a pony in a tin can?!” “You threaten Equestria…You cross the line!” the newcomer said as he prepped his weapons “Maximum force…acceptable!” suddenly there was a click before all hell was let loose upon Zedd and the sounds of whirling machine gun fire and rockets filled the air “Target….eliminated!” he wasn’t wrong, whatever was left of Zedd was disappearing into the air “Applejack…you…okay?” “I’m…fine” Applejack said looking at the massive metal pony before saying “Who the blazes are ya?! How do ya know ma name?!” she felt strange looking at the creature who’s face she couldn’t see, the look it seemed to give her, was that of almost…mourning, clearly it was feeling pain and strangely she felt the need to comfort it “You…saved me…why? You don’t know me” “I’m known as Steelhooves…Applejack…I…saved you because…” he looked away and turned “You’re not…her” he walked away disappearing like a ghost…if he was truly gone, none of the ponies could tell. So the forces of Equestria and her allies gathered round, looking round they could tell…they were alone and the damage had been done, no amount of hoping could restore Equestria to her glory…by all accounts, only a few ponies had survived and the destruction of all they had fought for was total. Their courage was courageous but all for not. Basil sighed as he looked round and a tear trickled down “Not quite as glorious as the victory at Redwall is it chaps?” he said with depression heavy on his tongue “I’m so sorry” Tien sighed “It’s a shame these planet doesn’t have…” but he interrupted by the Blue man appearing in front of him. “Dragonballs? Hello everyone my name is Whis, I’m the attendant of Lord Beerus, the God of Destruction!” Whis said politely he looked round “Ah! Celestia! It is a true honour…but I’m afraid I have my orders from Beerus” with that his staff glowed and Celestia disappeared into a portal in a flash “Now I’m afraid…I’m here to announce the end of one chapter begins another and Beerus has decided this game was so much fun, he wants…” “To make the fun continue” A voice said from above them and as they looked up they saw a tall bipedal purple dog wearing blue trousers and a black neck brace “My name is Lord Beerus…the last one hundred years have been so boring…I’ve decided to get the kais of various powers to help me have some fun. So here are the simple rules, Whis tell them” Beerus said as he smiled, it was then the ponies noticed he was playing with the crystal heart and Twilight flew up “Ah Twilight Sparkle isn’t it? Watching you play our little game has been very entertaining” Twilight yelled “Where is Celestia!?! What have you done with her?!” Whis floated up and said “She’ll be returned to you if you can complete our little game” he coughed and produced a book, which Twilight took in her magic, looking through the book showed faces of ponies and non-ponies that had fought for Equestria “We have taken ten creatures we have deemed exceptional, not including the bearers of the elements of harmony. So here’s our challenge to you, two of you must travel to other worlds, collect a trophy of our choice but here’s the catch…we choose who goes…” he snapped his fingers and another book appeared showing the trophies, none of them looked familiar to Twilight “If you succeed we’ll return the ponies we took and you’ll get two wishes…but fail and Beerus will destroy what remains of your world” Beerus smiled “We’ll return in two days to begin the games” and before any pony could say anything they were gone. “Twilight, who have they got?!” Sailor Jupiter asked the book opened and the taken included Spike, Celestia, Luna, Cadence, Applebloom, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, Discord, Iron Will and Gilda. “I get the feeling we don’t get a choice in this” Sailor Jupiter said, the group knew they had no choice by all purposes they had defeated one evil for another to take its place and their world was stable but only for the moment. For now they entered Beerus’s new game.