Chapter 31
“...For cupcakes! For victory! For Fun!” After her rousing speech Pinkie Pie unleashed her swarm of clones against the horde of monsters that were advancing on Ponyville. After sending them off the real Pinkie bounced back and sat at in a lawn chair next to Xellos who passed her a drink as the rest of the Bearers of Harmony watched on in shock.
“I don't know how I should be feeling about this. While an army of Pinkie Pie is terrifying I really don't think sending them to be slaughtered like this is a good idea. On the other hoof I almost feel sorry for the monsters.” The others nodded in agreement to Rainbow Dash's comment not know how else to express the feelings they were having.
“I know we said that we needed to find the real Pinkie and get rid of all the fakes but this is definitely not what I had in mind.” Twilight winced as she watched one clone get cut in half while a small group ran up to hug another one before exploding causing her eye to start twitching. “I'm not even going to ask how that even happened.”
Xellos took a sip from his own drink before setting it down beside him. “What? It solves both of your problems at once without any real effort and it even comes with free entertainment. The clones are removed, the monsters, trolls, and other threats are removed, everyone's happy. It's not like anyone is getting hurt.”
The mares just stared at him as one of the clones performed a stellar face plant nearby and dug a two foot trench before fading away. “Well, no one important anyways. It's not like these magical constructs actually are alive or feel anything. They are basically just puppets really. Hmm, too bad I never figured out that doll spell, it would have been interesting to have dozens of little Pinkie's running around.”
All the mares except Pinkie shudder at the thought of a swarm of smaller Pinkies that could hide anywhere even more easily than the original. They were snapped out of their daze by the real one soon enough though. “Uncle Xellos, can you maybe please speed things up a bit. I mean it's kind of super duper creepy watching me die over and over again which is also kind of cool. Would that make that coopy or crooly? Anyways as neat as this all is we really need to get to the party soon.”
The biped looked over to the perturbed pink pony before shrugging and rising to his feet. “I had almost forgotten about that. Well I guess I had better make this quick instead of drawing it out.” Looking out over the field his eyes quickly locked onto the biggest threats advancing on the town before raising an arm above his head. Slowly six black javelins formed above him and when they were completed he threw his hand forward, sending them off into the gathered mob. Faster than the eye could see his attack flashed out across the field and impaled each of his chosen targets before the spear erupted in an explosion of darkness consuming all within the blast radius.
With their strongest fighters wiped out in an instant the rest of the monsters fled from the area with a Pinkie clone or two still giving chase. Turning back to the gathered mares Xellos brush his hands together. “Well that's that. So shall we head back to town now?”
Twilight just glared at him a moment before looking out at the retreating creatures and leftover clones. “I'm really not sure what it says about me that I'm actually starting to get used to some of the things you do. Though are you sure that it is a good idea to just let those Pinkie Pie clones run off like that?”
Xellos just casually waved a hand at the purple mare before responding. “Oh I'm sure it'll be fine. Magical constructs like that never really last long without a magical source to keep them animated and I'm sure that they'll be taken care of by the things they are chasing before that.” The others just rolled their eyes at him before turning back towards town, none noticing the pink figure that was sneaking away in a direction away from both groups.
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The party was in full swing at Sugarcube Corner when the group arrived. It wasn't long after entering the building that three pony-shaped missiles collided with Xellos' chest, babbling in excitement. “Xellos! You made it!”
The biped chuckled at the yell of the three fillies as he carried them back towards the party in the building. All around the room were decorations each with the cutie mark of one of the three lucky fillies. “What? You expected me to miss one of the most important days of my precious students? Of course watching one of Princess Sunbutt's little ponies get a cutie mark in something she tried to rid the world of is just a side benefit.”
Twilight Sparkle shot a glare at him before her eyes turned towards the flanks of the three fillies. She could guess what some elements of them meant, yet for the most part the meaning of the marks escaped her. “So what do your cutie marks mean? I'm guessing that the shield is for your friendship with each other, which is nearly unheard of being shown in a mark, yet except for Applebloom I can't tell what they are supposed to mean.”
The three fillies look at each other for a moment before glancing back at their flanks. “Uh, that's a good question. As awesome as it is I have no clue at all what it means.”
Sweetie Belle nods in agreement with Scootaloo as she frowns at her own mark. “Yeah, and mine is rather tame in comparison. I mean, what does a strangely drawn star even mean? At least the music note is easy to explain.”
The last of the trio looks up towards the monster next to her with a hopeful look. “Well, maybe Xellos knows. He did just say that they were for some kind of magic, and we did get them in Canterlot when all those changelings were attacking while helping keep those guardsponies safe. I'm pretty sure mine has to do with those golems and enchanted gems I've been making.”
All eyes were on Xellos as he snacked on one of the cupcakes that Pinkie made for the party. “Well, *gulp* it isn't surprising that the meanings of at least two of your marks have been lost to time. Sweetie Belle's star is the classic symbol used to represent white magic, hence it pointing upwards while black magic is downwards. Scootaloo's is a bit more complicated though.”
Taking a seat with a tray of treats he looked more closely at the design on the pegasus filly. “This though is more interesting in that it resembles the mark of a royal house from long ago, but not a pony one. It is much like the crest of the old minotaur ruler Phil Strongarm and his daughter used magic in a way much like Scootaloo was. I highly doubt that she is a descendant of bipedal bull people though so who knows why she has that specific mark.”
The fillies looked thoughtfully at their cutie marks as they were led away by their sister-figures. Xellos relaxed as he watched the room though one pony stayed near the biped instead of wandering off. “Um, Mr. Xellos? How is your arm if you don't mind my asking? You left so suddenly last time with that injury and... um... meep...”
Looking down Xellos saw that Fluttershy was looking up at him shyly. He never did much with the mare for various reasons, mostly because he didn't wish to anger the pegasus time bomb, though he did occasionally talk with her. Throwing back his cloak he flashed his arm to the mare. “It's all healed up now just like I said it would be. Being that close to the Crystal Heart was keeping me from healing so I had to go elsewhere for a while.”
What he didn't tell the mare was that his true body was still recovering from the fight but since there was nothing she could do about it he kept the information hidden. He just had to hang around the noble district of Canterlot a bit more to soak up some of the negative emotions to finish, that or find a more violent area outside of Equestria. “Oh, that is a relief. I would hate to know that you had gotten seriously hurt helping us. Not that we don't appreciate it, but...”
The pegasus looked away from the monster who just smiles at her. “Oh don't worry too much, I probably won't make a habit of that. If it wasn't for the fact that you stood no chance against him you never would have known I was there.”
The mare looked up at him from around her mane in confusion at his words until a crashing sound rang out across the room. Looking away from Xellos she saw a table flipping through the air with Pinkie Pie below it catching the raining food. Moments later the table landed back where it was originally with Scootaloo looking embarrassed while rubbing the back of her head with a hoof. “”Uh, sorry about that. The table just came out of nowhere.”
Pinkie Pie, after setting most of the food back on the table the rest having gone down her throat, just patted the filly on the head. “Oh don't worry your little head, it's your party after all and was only an accident. Besides it was Dashie that asked you to show off like that.”
All eyes turned towards the cyan pegasus who was standing near the two looking guilty. “Yeah, this may not have been the best place to ask for her to show me her moves. Maybe tomorrow, squirt, when I show you my latest move we can try again?”
The filly bounced around in excitement at hearing that she would be able to spend more time with her idol. Many ponies just grinned at her antics though a couple were still glaring at Rainbow Dash for causing the disturbance. Xellos was with the former group as he made his way around the edge of the party, casually chatting with a few of the ponies he knew while keeping his ear open. Mostly he ponies were talking about the havoc the Cutie Mark Crusaders always seemed to spread and how it would hopefully lessen now that they had their cutie marks, but there were a few other interesting conversations going on as well. “But Applejack! I want to help out with the applebucking more this year and and this is the perfect way!”
The older farm pony just sighed while shaking her head at her sister. “Ah know you want ta help, but ah really don't think that this is the way ta do it. Remember what happened last time you tried to use those rock ponies of yours ta help out? Ya dang near destroyed an entire row of apple trees and if Xellos and Twilight weren't there it would have been even more.”
The filly wasn't to be dissuaded from her course though as she brought more arguments to bear. “But that was before I knew how to really control them. I know what commands to give them now so they won't go out of control again. I'll even write down everything that it will do so you can check it and make sure that I didn't forget anything.”
Applejack looked down at her sister as the filly gave her a pleading look. Eventually she pulled her hat down over her eyes and sighed. “Fine, but we'll start by having them do something simple first as well as having Twilight go over your list. Ah expect that she will have a few things ta add and find what else ya should tell them.”
As Applebloom began happily hopping around her sister Xellos attention was pulled towards the third member of the trio. Sweetie Belle was also with her sister though she wasn't quite as enthusiastic as the other two and actually looked a bit unsure about something. Rarity was doing her best to cheer her up though her efforts were a bit off the mark. “But Sweetie, you have such a beautiful singing voice and it even shows in your cutie mark. I know so many ponies that could help you learn everything that you need to become a huge star. I'd even have the perfect dresses for you to wear for every situation.”
With a roll of her eyes the filly voiced her protests towards her sister's idea. “But Rarity, I don't want to do anything like that. Sure I like singing but I have no interest in singing in front of others like that.”
While her eyes drifted over in the direction of Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon whispering in a corner, Rarity just looked at her as if she was crazy. “But why? You would just be so perfect at it. What could you even possibly think of doing that would you rather do than that?”
Sweetie Belle turned to glare at her sister as her attitude was starting to get to her. “Well not something that is just picked out for me like that! You always do this! You keep trying to shove your expectations on me without even considering what it is that I want! If you had at least asked then you would have known that I already asked Nurse Redheart if I could come in and help out at the hospital when I had free time. I don't know if it's something I want to keep doing but at least I'll be doing something to help ponies instead of just showing off!”
Rarity was taken aback by her sister's tone of voice with her as well as what she insinuated about her profession. Yet she couldn't fault her reasons for wanting to try working at the hospital either since it fit with her own reasons for many of her own charity-work. She watched as her sister stomped off towards her friends and considered everything she had learned as well as her teacher. She still didn't fully trust Xellos, yet she had to admit that what he had been teaching was very powerful and her sister's talent would be in high demand. While she wasn't going along the path she wanted for her, she did have to respect her sister for living up to the example she tried to portray as the Element of Generosity.
Xellos was mildly entertained by everything was was hearing and relaxed where he was with a small smile as he made the lives of ponies just that much more interesting.
New chapter, yay. Not sure how often I'll be able to update now that I have a new job but I'll still be getting something out over time. Hmm, I thought I was going to do something with Babs here as well, guess she got lost somewhere in the confusion. 
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7634230 There's also the fact that red shirts are the LEAST likely to die statistically. They were generally the most numerous overall on a ship and I believe that yellow shirts were the most likely. Casualty rates were like 13.4% gold, 5.1% blue, and 8.6% for a red shirt out of the entire crew though the red shirt deaths were most likely security instead of the ops/engineering departments.
7678430 That would be 'The Slayers' though this is more specifically from 'The Slayers: Next' I believe. It's surprisingly not well known even though I consider it one of the best anime series around... Until they ruined it in season 4/5 when they tried to continue it in a cash-grab sort of way.
7678878 Can you please hurry up and update this.
Can't believe I haven't put that in the Favorite folder yet. Glad I fixed it now, considering it will be easier to find, and I always like to go other stories with funny chapters again once in a while.
I also am thrilled to see how this will end. Xellos wants to destroy the world after all. The question is if the others can stop/convince him not to. Maybe the CMC pleading with him and letting his friendly side win out over his monster side?
Oh! Not to mention what happens with Discord! I mean, will he even be reformed after everything that happened? I still hope so. I feel sorry for him, considering he was a victim himself! 
I'm glad that AJ and Rarity are slowly learning to accept that things will not always go their way.
Quadrupedal, minotaurs do not walk on two legs