Pony Piece: Yonko Journey

by Theblondeknight

10) Rekindle the Fire: Battle Reset!

"Are you OK?"

The sensation of having been decapitated was enough to make Twilight vomit, and she nearly did. Choking it back, she opened her eyes to see Benn Beckmann pulling her up. The others were still out cold, and the darkness around them was colder still.

"What was that?" She asked.

"A powerful attack, unlike most anything I've ever seen. Devil Fruit more than likely."

"Of course..."

"Seems the Three Idiot Pirates didn't tell us all they knew, or they were in the dark too. Either way we may be getting in over our heads."

A bird called out from somewhere, and the feeling that mustered in the pit of your stomach when you were being watched fell on Twilight rather quickly as well. She quickly put her backside to Beckman and they watched the darkness together. A radiant glow shot from her horn, and the lush green around them was scanned to reveal figures in the far distance - the perimeter guard. The source of the nightmarish disturbance, however, remained unknown.

"Let's not take a chance...we need to wake them," Beckman advised.

---

Bedep bedep bedep bedep bedep.....bedep bedep bedep bedep - CLANK

"What's going on?"

"Fisher sir, we have confirmed activity on the island! Intruders, including Ben Beckmann."

"Hmmmmm, that's interesting."

"Orders?"

"Stall them. I have someone very interested in meeting with Ben Beckmann and his Captain here with me."

"Yes sir!"

The transponder snail clicked back off, and Fisher smiled, the puff of his cigar wafting through the air towards his guest.

"Did you hear that? How does that sound?" He asked with a slight pause while he blew his cigar smoke towards the man opposite him, "Basil Hawkins?"

The Magician remained expressionless as he gazed out the window towards that very island some miles away. He looked Fisher dead in the eye when he turned around. The chill in the air grew, they both knew, and both relished in it.

"I do not guarantee participation. My partners should not be far off, but as there is no way to know if Red Hair will make an appearance..."

"Oh? I figured you'd turn over one of those cards of yours and dictate the future. Kuha ha ha ha."

"I do not claim to affect the future, only to see how it may unfold. As it stands...the Yonko may be occupied elsewhere."

The Supernova walked towards the desk, and pulled up one such magic card. His expression remained blank, but when he looked back at the man sitting across from him, his voice grew deeper.

"We play a dangerous game."

"Of course, why shouldn't it be dangerous? Such is a pirate's life."

"As I see it...there is exactly a 50% chance we will succeed in this conflict, and thus, exactly 50% of a chance we will all die....yourself included."

Fisher's smile grew wider, "Better men than Red Hair have tried to do me in."

"You overestimate yourself."

The air shifted, the cool edge falling in favor of a heated temperament.

"No reason to start a war with me, cause if this turns nasty between us, I can guarantee that if Red Hair doesn't kill you, I will."

"Calm yourself. Shifting the odds now would be catastrophic. Let us go and see for ourselves how fickle fate will be this evening."

Another thick puff of smoke followed in answer, and the man currently called Fisher stood up, "Follow me."

The men proceeded down the wooden hall, their conversation the sole sound of life in the dimly lit mansion serving as headquarters. Outside the moon was glowing behind dark clouds.

"I heard you fought an Admiral once. Kizaru."

"I did, and thankfully, fate was kind to me that day."

"Is that why you rookies banded together? To keep each other alive?"

"We saw common goals. We learned from your generation not to fight each other until those we could not defeat ourselves were attended to."

"Hmph. Well said."

"I calculate many things, Fisher, I see an 80% chance of betrayal on the battle field, I see the ways more than one of us could double cross another....in fact, I see very clearly a double agent among those who will fight........and I also see the desperation on you. You need allies, deliver Red Hair to us, and we can be allies...for a time."

"I don't need your help, but I won't stand in the way of convenience when it knocks on my door. Let's just get this done and move on from there."

"Agreed. The most important man in this scenario is Red Haired Shanks."

---

"What happened!? Who did me in!? I'll murder 'im!"

"And Mu makes three!" Kari cheered as the last of the downed pirates awoke.

"Together again at long last!" Rari echoed.

The jubilant duo hugged their third, who brushed them off angrily, "I think I preferred my nightmares."

That word confirmed it: Nightmares. Twilight and Beckman had confided in each other their experiences, which were more similar than she would have ever guessed. To all accounts, they had fainted and lived out a hellish dream, awoken one by one with no memory of what had happened before this attack. Someone was targeting them systematically, and though the presence still felt strong, Twilight couldn't help but fear the possibility that this entity had moved on, for example, to their friends with the ship.

"What happens now?" She found herself asking the first mate.

"I'd push ahead, but I might have more faith in my nakama on the ship than you do. You're the captain here."

That was true; Twilight held a higher rank, but that was all she had over Ben Beckmann. Knowledge, experience, skill, she was dwarfed in those regards, yet the choice was ultimately hers. Irony was something she loved and hated, depending on the circumstance.

"Then let's do it. I trust your crew and I trust mine. We have to keep going!"

Like a reverberation, a refraction of her dream, those few words haunted her for a brief moment. "I trust your crew" she had said. And in her heart, she trusted Shanks, no bad dream could undo that trust and all that he had done to earn it. But she was painfully aware of how much more wary she felt of them all now. Thinking on it, that may have been the intent all along. To sow seeds of discord. By Celestia...if the actual Discord was here........

"OK, then let's get going!" Rainbow insisted, leading the way through the darkness and crowded brush that swallowed them whole. The presence seemed different as they moved ahead, somehow more aware of them than before. A terrific omen if there ever was one.

---

"Oi! Ukuma! You messed up in reverse! They're coming this way!"

"Sshhhh...I need concentration."

The man called Ukuma was an odd one. His tattered brown cloak bore a faded logo on the back, his skin held a purple tint to it, and his eyes were masked with pitch black lines like tears of ink. His chestnut hair was leaving him, but only barely, and was shoulder length and unkempt. He stood still like a rock for a time, but suddenly he moved his hands, wrapped in fingerless gloves, into an "X" shape and a wave of royal purple shot through the wild outside of the ruined town.

"Nightmare: Shake!"

"Well?"

"That should keep them away for a bit, at least. Fisher will be pleased, I think."

"How could the same trick work twice?"

"It probably wouldn't...not on the stronger ones among them. 'Shake' is not a nightmare in and of itself, you see, it brings pieces, little dark seeds of their fears into reality for a few seconds off and on...quite the good distraction."

"Nightmares are well and fine," a familiar third voice came from the stairs leading to the rooftop, "But they don't cut it against my ability."

"Easy there Mr. Bones....you haven't seen my full power yet," Ukuma insisted, "And believe me...'Shake' and 'Whisper' are the minor aspects of the true power of terror. Nightmares become real when I bid them. Minds shatter against the monsters I command."

The man in the suit who stepped out of the shadows remained unconvinced, or if he was, he did a good job of not showing.

"Anyways, Fisher will be here with our guest shortly. We can kill some of them, but Beckman is to remain alive, as is the pony captain."

"As if I would be so stupid as to think so," Ukuma complained.

"Let them enter and allow them to make ground. They need to be on the verge of confidence before we strike," The man in the suit instructed.

"Again, lecturing me on things I already know!"

"As is my place per Fisher's orders."

Ukuma scowled, but could not argue with the facts of his station. One of these days, Fisher would see the truth, and he hoped that day would arrive sooner rather than later. He couldn't wait.

"Very well. By all means, lead us into battle."

"Let's go."

The night was once more still above the once peaceful home of a boating village, and the waiting began. The storm was soon to be unleashed, and whoever could ride it the longest would stand victorious. Such was the way of battle. But Ukuma had a habit of turning victory into defeat, and he was intent on making that a reality this time as well.

---

"Twilight?" Rainbow put her hoof on her captain's shoulder.

"I...I'm fine. Really."

They were all uneasy, each had in their own turn paused, grimaced, or gasped at something in the distance. She was sure it was nerves at first, but this could not be coincidence. The enemy had re-engaged, it seemed. She had a couple ideas on how to defend against this manner of attack, but she wasn't ready to let them fly yet. So long as they could keep together and make into the town, they ought to be fine. If not...well, she hoped the message would get back to the ship in time.

The humidity in the air was rising, and the covering of branch and leaf and mist was becoming overbearing, more so than before. They didn't have eyes on the perimeter guards anymore, and rushing in before realizing their location was a fool-proof way to get into a bad spot. So they waited and watched, and felt the seconds tick by with their heartbeats while the guards went about their rotations beyond their sight.

It was maddening, and she was really hitting herself inside for dragging them all into this.

"Mu, Rari, Kari," She whispered, "Are they changing shifts? What's going on?"

"Let me see..." Mu whispered back, rubbing his chin as he ran through what he knew in his head.

"I don't think they do that until midnight," Kari pseudo-whispered his two-cents.

"How do we know what time it is?" Rari pseudo-whispered in reply.

"How am I going to hurt you two if you don't shut up?" Mu asked with rhetoric as sharp as his tone.

"Focus...please," Twilight begged with a sigh.

"Alright, alright...let's see....I think this is about the time the jerk in the suit wraps up his business for the night. He often takes some of the guards with him when he leaves to who knows where. They don't usually come back. I think we're safe to move on in."

A gambit to be sure, especially if the unknown power that assaulted them had anything to say about it. Despite that, it was too late to turn back, they were going in no matter what.

"OK...stick to the original plan and watch each others' backs. I'll make the first move."

It was good to take initiative, she reminded herself by doing just that. Now then.....were the enemy expecting a loud, flashy entrance? Was stealth going to play into their plans or the enemy's? At the end of it all a fight was a certainty, but the less bloodshed the better as far as Twilight was concerned. She was here for a ship, not revenge, not profit, not anything in between.

She crept up close to the treeline, watching for guards and finding some a ways off. They wouldn't see her if she decided to sneak in and start a distraction from the middle of the town. Since they were targeting the warships and, if possible, the executive working under Fisher, a nice explosive entrance on the opposite side of the town would serve them well.

Twilight's horn grew warm and shown brightly as she shot several successive spells into the air.

Rainbow and others were already racing along the outskirts of town to make it to those warships, while Ben Beckmann and the rest joined Twilight under the light of multi-colored fireworks. The guards and goons didn't miss that. She expected more of them, to be honest, but they were coming from buildings and the shadows all around like an infestation; perhaps Fisher had more lax expectations than she had imagined him to have. Either way, she was putting her all into it now.

She shot off a follow up spell that exploded high in the air and rained fire down in the night. A little thuggish of a move, but the town was already in a shambles, and this would make sure any stragglers knew to be here and away from the ships.

"Get them!" Someone called.

"Go to work everyone!" Twilight commanded.

She fired several basic concussive spells into the fray, knocking goons back and downing enemy pirates rather easily, though the stragglers were now coming up in the rear, and it was clear Twilight's side was the smaller. That didn't stop their courage when pushing onwards, though.

The enemy stock was falling before their push rather easily, when the first sign of true opposition mounted atop a nearby roof. A trio of goons hoisted bazookas over their shoulders, and a light brighter than any flare illuminated the scene for a moment as Twilight shielded her allies by creating spherical shields around the projectiles. The shockwaves were still enough to blow a few of them away, and a fourth from a rooftop on the opposite side of the lane followed up. The blast knocked Twilight and others forward, but was not lethal.

The rushing wave of enemies kept her occupied, but Ben Beckmann was cleaning up nicely, already having disposed of the bazooka wielders. After possessing one of the thugs with her magic and knocking him around into his friends, she took hold of a sword and chanced a glance behind the bulk of the action. The ships were sitting quietly, unguarded. Excellent.

---

"You realize we can't fight him...not yet."

"What was that?" Vice Admiral Dalmation asked the subordinate who dared raise his voice among the gathered officers.

"Forgive me, sir," The younger man stuttered, "I...We lack our full strength. It m-might be better to wait until Admiral Kizaru arrives."

"Of course it would be," Smoker scolded from the railing, "but if push comes to shove...."

"Red Haired Shanks....cripes," Vice Admiral Strawberry muttered beside Dalmation, gazing at the very man through his spyglass.

The gathering grew quiet. In the far distance, the Yonko and a small group of his men were cooking over an open beach fire. Rumor had it the man calling himself Fisher was somewhere nearby, but if it was true, Shanks clearly didn't seem interested. They were lucky he hadn't spotted them, and were pushing it every second they were without the Admiral's assistance.

As to when we would arrive, it was anyone's guess at this point. Either way, the group consensus was clear, taking on that man as they were was tantamount to suicide.

"Might as well get the boys ready...I think we'll be fighting whether or not the precursor events go our way," Smoker said.

"Yes sir," The non-officer marine replied, hurrying down to the hold.

An eerie calm set over them, and with the wind Strawberry raised his voice: "By the way...Weevil destroyed another garrison."

"Damn," Dalmation cursed.

"All those Warlord scum are going crazy right now. Last I heard a big announcement was on the horizon. A meeting. Almost like its got them scared. If Admiral Fujitora is to be believed...they should be scared," Smoker said as his cigars burned over the deck.

"Personally," Momonga, who rose from his chair on the opposite side of the deck, at last spoke, "I think we ought to leave things be. Imagine a world where the little dependability we have in the Warlords doesn't exist. Imagine Weevil destroying our bases and actually aiming to kill our men."

It was an unsettling thought. Fujitora was well loved by most (unless you feared the Fleet Admiral more so than you admired Fujitora himself) but his ideas were radical, to be sure.

"These past couple of years have brought big changes, more than enough, I believe. We must proceed carefully," Momonga continued, "...or we'll be lead into ruin."

"I wouldn't mind abolishing the system if the Marines alone could keep balance...but we've never had the numbers we need," Dalmation agreed.

"In the end it comes down to One Piece...the reason the pirates rise. If we could find it first....." Smoker mused, his thoughts broken by the subordinate running back to the Vice Admirals.

"Sirs! Sirs! We have new orders, effective immediately we are to position ourselves and await the arrival of Admiral Kizaru," He paused to catch his breath, "Arrival is imminent!"

---

The flaming of those warships was the most beautiful fire Twilight had ever seen. Even more than the fireplaces in the Crystal Empire or the bonfires out in the late Apploosa nights, this burning was admirable above all. It was, unfortunately, not viewed as such by all present. After the first wave had gone down rather easily, the man in the suit revealed himself. Along his backside was an even larger army of thugs, none happy to see them.

"Those weren't your ships," The suited man raised issue.

"No," Twilight agreed, "They weren't."

"You going to pay for them with gold, or blood?"

"Your blood, maybe."

That was awfully pirate-like, but it still made her feel less like a Princess. Thus was the balancing of roles and duties, she supposed. The man in the suit displayed no emotion other than a raised eyebrow. Maybe she needed to sacrifice more of Princess Twilight to bring Captain Twilight out.

"Cockiness without power," He said darkly, simply backhanding the telekinetic sword strike from Twilight away, "is always fun to exploit."

"Well, let's just see who bleeds first," Twilight retorted, opting to sheath her blades for her spells.

"Sure," He replied, holding his arm out and contorting it into a metal frame, his skin becoming steel. A devil fruit ability...a nasty one.

In the time it took for Twilight's heart to beat she had a shield around her, and the man in the suit was in her face, his arm contorted like a sword, and thrashing against her defenses with tremendous speed. She let him wail away a few times and teleported out of the crumbling shield. From behind his back, she used a paralysis spell, which stopped his fingers like darts from taking her eyes out, but barely.

She chanced a glance to the thugs behind her, most of whom seemed rather confident they had the upper hand. She did not dwell on them.

He broke through the paralyzing force an instant afterwards and formed his whole hand into a swinging machete, which she once more teleported away to avoid. Before she was fully back into her senses, and once more behind him, his other hand shot up from under her like a scythe, making a fine red line appear over her muzzle.

She made a flash of magic and retreated to Benn Beckman and the others' side, but he remained still.

"Well look at who bled first," He mused with a smile.

Twilight kept silence as she wiped away the blood. Benn Beckman snuffed his cigarette under his boot and stepped forward.

"Big talk from a small fish. Think you can keep up with me, youngster?"

"Benn Beckman? That's a bit much for just me, I admit."

"Daz Bones...which means Fisher is another name for Crocodile. Not as big a threat as I imagined."

Despite his calm, Beckman's words sent a jolt of panic through Twilight. She'd brushed up on the names of the world, she knew Crocodile was once a Warlord, and to this day a wanted man with a current bounty of 230,000,000 berries. Another big name in a big world, and her without much of her crew and friends.

"The clue is in the name, isn't it?" Daz Bones asked, forming swords with his arms and sending his masses charging forward.

Throwing her thoughts to the side, Twilight created a whirlwind and blew a patch of the enemies away, and then took up her swords again. In the chaos, it was easy to progress towards a goal by simply pushing the enemy aside or teleporting around them. By the time she was close to Daz Bones, Benn Beckman was putting him through the wringer, battering him with every blow, each time they clashed Crocodile's man lost ground and blood.

She hovered up to make a pincer attack with Beckman, but as she ascended a dark sword barred her path, and she shot back down, only to find it gone. She scanned the skies, looking around until a rifle butt found the back of her head and Mu came to her aid.

"What's going on!?" He asked, clashing sword against rifle with the other pirate.

"I don't know..." Twilight whispered back.

Daz Bones grunted and fell to his knees, panting heavily. Benn Beckman had his own rifle in hand, but as he raised it up to deal a finishing blow, the shadow returned. Like a phantom it glided from the backside of the Yonko's right hand, and Twilight teleported high above the battlefield, horrified as she hovered in the dark sky.

The dark was playing tricks with her, or something else sinister was. She could do nothing but shake her head and try to unsee the grim face of Admiral Shanks, but it was aligned perfectly. Unbelievably, Admiral Shanks was drawn out in the carnage below, staring through her soul, the fires, the battling men and ponies, the shadows mingled into an evil presence. And she felt it for the first time since the battle began: the inner dread that held the same effect as Conqueror's Haki. It was back, but it seemed to be focusing on her.

She drew magic to her horn and felt it tremor on the tip, putting effort into creating a flare that blew away the image. In the afterglow of the flare, she found a faint trail of purple shadow, which descended onto a rooftop. Despite her fears, she flew down and found a man alone.

"You must be Twilight Sparkle. The whole world is throwing a fuss over you right now."

"Who are you?"

"They call me Ukuma, I call myself a master of fear."

He was perched in a squat, like a vulture sitting on a barren tree branch, observing its dying prey. His hands had stopped glowing with the purple shadows, but he still spoke like he was all powerful. Either way, Twilight approached him warily.

"So it's you. You've been keeping us lost in our nightmares...you're creating illusions to throw us off."

"That's right. I've come across a few different treasures working with Fisher, but you're certainly the brightest. Why does the World Government care so much about such an odd creature? To give you such a high bounty, and to be allied with a Yonko....you are special...the question is why."

If she was honest, she didn't know what made her so special here other than the fact that she was not home to this world, but he didn't need to hear any answers. He was just putting up a villainous bravado.

"Odd then..." He continued as he stood to full height, being half a head shorter than Benn Beckman, "that you fear your only ally in this world."

"Shanks isn't my only ally."

"He is the only one of this world you can trust....but that's what makes him dangerous. Why you really can't trust him after all," Ukuma went on.

"I'm not going to play this word game with you. Fight me, or leave," Captain Twilight shot.

Ukuma cracked a smile and his neck, spinning his head around and moving his fingers like a puppeteer would pull at the strings of their wooden tools.

She shot a flurry of magic blasts at the man, but he moved his hands forward and the purple energy returned, absorbing her magic like a sponge taking in water, and Admiral Shanks returned, bathed in a purple glow, right in front of her. He had dashed to her and cut her in two before she could blink, and as the immense pain of being eviscerated consumed her, he vanished once more.

The disembowelment was broken only when Ukuma jumped at her with knife in hand, cutting into her horn and drawing blood, but not doing anything to cause irreversible damage; on top of that, she realized only when the blood had been spilled from her head that she was in fact still in one piece. The pain did not subside very much though. This was a cruel power. To attack in body and in mind, and to make both hurt so deeply.

But mind games could be overcome, with the right confidence and traps in place.

She erected a multi-layered bubble shield around herself, and set a revealing pulse spell to emanate from it every five seconds. Despite his mental abilities, Ukuma seemed to be a lackluster physical threat. He confirmed it by hesitating, unsure of how his power would stack against a coordinated effort of her magic.

She watched him carefully, simply standing still and thinking through his options, all the while she was creating black holes in her head. She forced herself to see the triggers, to feel Admiral Shanks return, to cry out as his unstoppable sword ended her. She watched herself die in her minds eye so many times, but every time she was reborn, and could never be killed the same way again. If Ukuma tried to project such an imagine into her brain, her spells would seep in and suck away the memory, emotion, and physical sensations of it all. Time flew by as she worked, and it seemed that after a few blinks Ukuma had refocused his strategy.

He stood like an orchestral conductor, his hands raised high. The purple energy swirled out of his fingers in a hazy blur, blowing with the night wind over the battlefield.

"Fear is not always crippling," he told her smugly, "sometimes...fear can be empowering."

If he was attempting what she thought...he may be the craziest person they'd yet faced off against.

She waited and listened, unsure of what to make of his move. Soon she heard it. The shaking cries, not of her allies, but of the enemy. The entire battlefield gave a short pause and watched as the thugs behind Daz Bones cried out. Pure terror and unrelenting fright filled the night. It seemed he wasn't sure if her magic was affecting herself alone, or her allies as well; in truth, it would be hard enough to place traps in the minds of her close friends while in combat, but for those like Benn Beckman and Mu, Rari, and Kari, it would simply be impossible.

Yet, Ukuma had found a way out. He was using his powers on his half of the chessboard. Fear could indeed be empowering, when it triggered adrenaline, and augmented your abilities for fear of certain doom. Despite the crazed panic in the enemy, they were fighting back twice as hard, faster than before, and more vicious than Twilight had ever seen a coherent force fight.

They were all too scattered among each other, friend and foe too mixed in, to protect her side efficiently, her magic wouldn't work quite the same as a controllable mist would. Furthermore, it was possible that by subduing Ukuma his powers would ware off. It was worth a shot, at least, Captain Twilight needed to do something.

She moved as one with her protections, physical and mental, and dashed at Ukuma, who continued to pose and smirk. A quick fire of ranged spells proved as ineffective as it did the first time, for his strange energy protected him like last time. Now he tried his hand against her, and though her shield strained under the weight of his mist's fury, she stood firm and her shield outlasted. She felt some of the traps going off, but felt not a single twitch of fear of anxiety from his power.

Perhaps it was a matter of enduring. Whether or not she could create enough mental traps to survive his powers might determine their whole mission in this strange world.

They both moved around warily, knife coming out of a lunge clean, spells fizzling into nothingness inside the purple screen around Ukuma. Basic powers were null against the other, it was time for new tricks. Twilight focused magic under his feet and reversed gravity's flow, flipping him upside down and launching him into the air. He laughed as his purple mist leveled him out and glided down with him.

Deciding to be extra bold, Twilight ran at him with her swords, and she saw the flash of alarm in his eyes as she charged forward. The purple power surged out of him like a wet shirt wrung to expel water, and she lost him in it. She did not stop though, and despite the pressures of the mist on her defenses, she hurried through it until she found him.

She swung swiftly, and as he breathed in his toxins deeply, his skin seemed to take on new color, a lavender that nearly matched her own. She swiped more than once, just to be sure, but she never made contact. He had completely disappeared from within his mist, and she flew out of it, her bubble now cracking, and her mental traps snapping like mouse traps.

She scanned the building top, the battlefield, even the outlying landscape, but he was nowhere to be found. Surely Ukuma was no nightmarish figment...was he? She settled back onto the rooftop, circling around and around, but he was still nowhere to be seen.

And out of the blue, his knife burst through her shield, sticking her in the foreleg and drawing a steady stream of blood. In shock, she found him, like a ghost coming out of the shadows, his mist no longer purple, but pitch black like the night around her, his skin almost luminescent. He was shaking like Pinkie Pie had spent the week torturing him, his eyes vibrating like jumping beans. And then his words came back to her.

"Sometimes...fear can be empowering."

Was he living in a nightmare, augmented by dread and unholy terror to outmatch her on a physical level?

Before she could gain a good telekinetic hold on the knife and snap it in two, he had pulled it out and disappeared into the darkness of night and his mist again.

"What are you afraid of? Deep within?" The night asked her.

She sealed the whole and continued to circle around, adding power to the revealing pulses, but even still she could not see him...he may be moving too fast for the spell to reach him.

"Admiral Shanks is but a recent fear...what have you long dreaded? What haunted your youth?"

She bit her tongue, wanting to converse and draw things out, but with types like Ukuma, words were ammunition if you weren't careful. She opted to place more mental traps, realizing that if he started targeting older, deeper fears, she would be in danger all over again. Magic Kindergarten, failing those she cared for, Discord and Nightmare Moon and the horrors Starlight Glimmer had almost unleahed...none of it could be used against her if she acted fast enough.

But how could she hope to be fast enough if she didn't get even a second to focus? One instant the knife was breaking through behind her, the next it was over her head, nearly clashing with her lit horn, and then out of nowhere it was slashing right through the side of her bubble. She managed to gather up force and expel it all around her, holding Ukuama at bay, but not in place.

"You can't run from the feeling of fear, heightened awareness of your fate as the demons of your soul close in to take your life...you can't outrun my nightmares!"

The enemy was practically invisible, too fast to anticipate, and could take her out in one move. What could be done? Running wasn't an option, even if she wanted to. But he could still be kept away, he was much faster, but only marginally stronger. He could not outdo her in force, so she had to be forceful. But in what form?

Her mental traps were going off like a lottery machine, tapping and snapping and rattling away, his mist was enveloping her, but had not yet touched her. Even still, he was within it somewhere, and his influence alone was tearing her apart. And with the frantic ticking of her traps, it came to her. She didn't need to run, she needed him to get closer, to deliver a killing blow.

She spun around and around and around, more and more and more until she began to get dizzy, and then she stopped short.

"I don't run from my nightmares...I face them," She told him, closing her eyes and dropping her magic with a flash.

"Then perish!" The night cried.

"Gotcha."

Ukuma's eyes went wide as his knife fell from his grip, and his hallucinating eyes looked straight into hers as she reappeared behind the hollow image she had placed down as a trap. In his haste, he had run his arm right through the edge of her blade.

"You're not the only one who can camouflage," She told him as she grasped his wounded form with her magic, locking him down over and over again with binding spells.

"I....I am...fear itself."

"Power that comes from being afraid isn't real power," She told him a very Captain Twilight way.

He still seemed shocked by it, as though he were still trying to work out how she had substituted the fake of herself and hidden behind it; actually, he looked more so as though he were wondering how he had ended up there, and it was clear despite his mistake, he was still wandering in his own hallucinations.

".....One day...you and all the others...you will suffer in the despair I bring.......I will hunt you down.....Twilight...Sparkle.......I will hunt you....."

He began to shake rapidly, seizing up and breathing in short, painful looking bursts. Was he going to die?

Something in her said that wouldn't be a bad thing. One less foe, one less problem to deal with in the future. What good would come of letting him live? But that was Captain Twilight speaking, and she had been saying too much lately. Princess Twilight was the pony she wanted to be. She could not kill him...it made cold, hard sense to do so, but she would not. Chilly logic was never her style...she could not.

But a tangible voice spoke out against her just then.

"Well? Finish him off."

She turned and found two men standing opposite her. By the large golden hook on his arm, she knew the man who had spoken was the former Warlord, Crocodile. Fisher.

She had gotten lost in her fight, did not consider the battle going on below. She saw Benn Beckman, a single cut on his brow, looking around at fallen enemies. The others in her sortie still standing were in much worse shape. Ukuma's devil fruit was crude, but it could be this effective at least.

"She does not have the heart for it...I sense a ninety percent chance this man will live through the night," The other man announced upon looking at a card in his hand.

"Weakling," Crocodile called out.

She raised her defenses again, more so physical this time, but given the crazy night they'd been having, she did not let go of all her mental traps. This was serious. This was the toughest foe she'd ever faced down.

"I won't let the world change who I am!" Twilight cried out.

"The talk of fools and dreamers," Crocodile belittled again, morphing partially into a cloud of sand.

"Crocodile!" Benn Beckman shouted, appearing between Twilight and the two men in the speed of a blink.

Rifle butt clashed with hook, each laced in the black coat of haki, and the crash was palpable in the air as it echoed through the ruined town.

"Looks like you and these ridiculous new allies of yours cleaned up Mr. 1 and Ukuma. Maybe it's time I showed you the real deal."

Beckman's rifle swept through the air like a blade, knocking the hook away twice more and swatting at scurrying sand patterns that moved through the air, a desert virus come to put them down. The golden hook shot upwards and then angled down into a dive bomb, aiming for Twilight head.

Before she could react, Beckman slid his rifle down his hand and his finger found the trigger, firing a bullet and knocking the hook off course.

"Your ego has always been bigger than your own head," Beckman told him, "I won't let you touch her."

"Keep talking," The ex-Warlord egged on.

Crocodile leapt up, still mostly scattered sands, and shot down many hardened blades, further reinforced with armament haki. Beckman coated his rifle and both arms in the same, and fought through the sand blades, leaping up and landing a solid blow on Crocodile's face. Rolling on the rooftop, Crocodile wiped the blood away drew the hook back to himself.

Despite continued efforts, Crocodile was shut down at every opportunity by Shanks' second right hand. At last, Crocodile skidded away on his back, human again and bleeding out of his nose, mouth, and from under his eye. His breathing was sharp and haggard.

"I'm shutting your operations down. It's all over," Beckman declared, "Don't think of getting involved, Basil Hawkins."

"That would be unnecessary," The man called Hawkins replied as calmly as ever.

Crocodile was back on his feet, looking half of what he had when he arrived. He was still breathing hard, but now he laughed and grinned at the Yonko's enforcer.

"What now?" He asked.

"What are you on about?" Beckman asked.

"Shut up. I'm talking to the mysterious new captain here...Twilight Sparkle."

"Don't - gaah!"

Now it was Benn Beckman's turn to drop to his knees, clutching his stomach. Twilight's eyes and mouth were as wide as his, and she saw the blood leaking from tiny holes under his shirt.

"What? When..." He tried, further shaking and collapsing.

His answer came from a slow trickle of sand, escaping the corner of his mouth. Crocodile was a smarter fighter than he seemed at first. Twilight had to admit the brilliance of it. He had simply been buying time while he slipped bits and pieces of his sand inside Benn Beckman during their short clash. And when there was enough, all he had to do was manipulate it and tear him up from the inside.

"So...What now?" Crocodile asked Twilight, who was suddenly very alone.

Author's Note:

Welcome back to another chapter, I have recently been inspired to write more, both fan fiction and original works, but I have so many (so, so many) it took quite a while for this piece to get out. Apologies. I'm glad to say my planning for later chapters has developed considerably....especially for the reappearance a great character a ways down the line. I mean, it's not like he was gonna be in manga anytime soon.....

Anyways, I always love to read the input you guys give me, so keep reviewing and what not.

Thanks, have a fantastic day!

-TBK