Episode 119: Schutzstaffel
Episode 119: Schutzstaffel
The only sound that penetrated Rarity’s consciousness for several seconds was the pounding thump of her own heartbeat. Which seemed ludicrous, considering the circumstances. Sure, she understood on an intellectual level that spirit bodies had hearts. Spirit bodies, in fact, felt no different and functioned all but identically to physical bodies. Which would explain why she hadn’t noticed that she no longer had a physical body when...
...when she died.
“-arity! Snap out of it!”
Was someone trying to talk to her? Oh, right, Rainbow Dash was here. The athlete was in fact shaking Rarity rather vigorously by the shoulders, eyes like red dinner plates, “Damn it Rarity, say something! I can’t have you going catatonic on me! We need to find your body!”
“...What?” Rarity said, her own voice a sort of phantom whisper to her own hearing, like someone else was talking.
“Y-your body! If we find it, and take it to Discord, maybe he can fix you!” Rainbow Dash shouted, sounding far more panicked than Rarity felt. Then again, Rarity wasn’t sure what she was feeling at that moment. Everything had gone a bit numb, like her brain wasn’t allowing anything to fully process. What was the term? Shock?
Rainbow Dash had ceased shaking Rarity and instead was scanning the ground, zipping about this way and that in little blue sparks of motion, like an electrical firefly on a caffeine high. “Where is it!? Do you remember? M-maybe I can give it an electrical zap, like those shock-pad thingies EMTs got!? Or CPR? Crap I never paid attention when we had that class! If I have to do mouth to mouth on you I’ll do it, but I don’t want to hear any jokes about it later-”
“Rainbow Dash, stop,” Rarity said, stepping over and grabbing her friend’s arm, “Just stop.”
Rainbow Dash snapped her head around to stare at Rarity, sweat on her face, eyes wild, “What? Why? If we don’t hurry you might not be able to come back! Now where’s your body!?”
“I don’t think I have one anymore,” Rarity said, again her voice sounding distant to her own ears, and strangely steady, almost clinical. “I chased the assassin, it turned out to be Hoity Toity-”
“Huh, that fashion designer dude you were always going on about?” Dash asked, but Rarity ignored the question and just kept talking.
“-but he wasn’t alone. Sapphire Shores is also a Quincy, trying to kill Twilight. During my fight with Hoity, she stabbed me through the back. I was bleeding out. Dying. I felt my Fullbring’s power well up and... I embraced it. I felt the power surge through me. Explode through me. Just like Ditzy warned us, it... I think it consumed me. Destroyed my body. I just didn’t realize, because the power felt so good. My spirit body felt... feels, fantastic. I fought Hoity Toity again, and killed him, but I didn’t realize I was... was dead too...”
Saying it out loud somehow brought reality crashing back in with full force. Her voice choked, and the next thing she knew she was gripping Rainbow Dash with both hands, practically pinning the other girl in place as she started to hyperventilate. Which seemed unfair to her. She didn’t have a body anymore. Hyperventilating should be off the table.
“Oh God, I’m actually dead, aren’t I? What am I supposed to tell my parents? How am I supposed to explain this to Sweetie Belle? And forget starting up my own boutique, because I’m fairly certain there are laws against ghosts applying for business loans! What am I supposed to do, start up a haunting business? The Halloween season will be booming, but the rest of the year I’ll be out of luck! Nobody wants ghosts for Christmas, Rainbow Dash, nobody!!!”
A blue hand smacked her across the cheek, and Rarity blinked, touching the stinging spot as she looked at Rainbow Dash, “What was that for?”
Looking embarrassed, and hiding her offending hand behind her back, Rainbow Dash mumbled, “It’s what they always do to hysterical people in the movies, isn’t it?”
“I suppose it is,” Rarity said, rubbing her cheek still, but finding that the shock of the blow had knocked her out of her immediate hysteria. Her mind was still a tempest of conflicting emotions, but the moment of clarity and levity that Dash’s slap had given Rarity an opening to not so much order her chaotic thoughts, but pluck a few pieces of focus from the storm. “Right, at any rate, my body is probably gone, Rainbow. If there is any of it left, it’d be in no condition for you to perform any kind of medical aid. Even before I, well... exploded, I’d been fatally stabbed through the heart.”
“By Sapphire Shores the international pop sensation?” Rainbow Dash said, as if baffled by her own words. At Rarity’s solemn nod, Dash gripped her lightning spear tighter and a truly frightening glower appeared on her face, “Well then, the pop world’s about to need a new damned idol, because by the time I’m done with her she’s going to be singing from hell, which I know is a real place so I can look forward to booting her in there myself!”
There was anger enough in her words that Rarity didn’t doubt that, to a degree, Rainbow Dash meant what she was saying. But Rarity also saw the shaking in her friend’s hands and the wetness in her eyes. Rarity took a moment to gently grasp one of Rainbow Dash’s hands.
“Our first priority is protecting our friends. Sapphire Shores is after Twilight. If we have to kill Sapphire to do that, leave that to me. I’ve already done it once. If need be, I can do so again.”
Rainbow Dash gulped, “Hoity Toity, right? You sure you actually... killed him?”
“Yes,” Rarity said, wondering, fearing, expecting some kind of judgement in Rainbow Dash’s eyes. There wasn’t any. Not judgment, at least. Instead there was pain, sadness, and a small lessening of the bright, innocent spark in Dash’s eyes as they hardened, and her voice hardened with it.
“We gotta do what we gotta do, right? You shouldn’t be the only one carrying that burden, Rarity. If the time comes, I’ll do it. You don’t have to carry that alone.”
A burst of both relief and love for her friend filled Rarity, while at the same time a deep mourning for what this fight was costing both her and the friends she held dear. She didn’t want to see her friends getting their own hands stained, and she sincerely hoped they could save Twilight without more death on either side, but she was resolved to do whatever needed doing, and there was a certain comfort in knowing she wasn’t alone on that front.
“Well,” she said, “First we have to find Twilight. Can you sense her?”
Both of the girls closed their eyes briefly to focus their spiritual senses, casting out in all directions. Immense spiritual pressures could be felt all over the place, with an especially concerning one back in the direction of the lake, but before Rarity could wonder what that growing reiatsu was, she felt Twilight’s not very far away!
“I feel her!” Rainbow Dash said, eyes snapping open, “She’s not alone!”
Rarity had felt it too. There were other reiatsu signatures near Twilight’s location. Three? Four? It was hard to discern with the intensity of the battle mixing the reiatsus like different paints on a canvas. One felt like a Soul Reaper, and judging by the strength of it, and the lack of how familiar it felt, Rarity was going to guess it was Captain Starswirl. Another reiatsu was horrifyingly strong, eclipsing both Starswirl’s and Twilight’s. Rarity was getting skilled at telling the differences between types of reiatsu as well, so she was able to identify it as a Quincy’s. No doubt that was Sapphire Shores. The fight had already begun. Rarity wasn’t sure who the other spiritual pressures belonged to, but she thought they might be Quincy as well. Allies or enemies? There was no way to tell at this distance.
“We have to hurry!” she said to Rainbow Dash, who gave a reluctant nod.
“Alright, then just try to keep up,” the speedster said, her body becoming luminous with cobalt light as she flew off towards Twilight’s location in a burst of electrical discharge.
Rarity focused her own reiatsu and kicked off the air, leaving a glittering trail of green Bringer Light as she flew after Rainbow Dash. She found that she was able to keep up, although she imagined that was because Dash was still holding back a bit on her speed. Even so, they’d catch up to Twilight’s location in no time.
“Rarity,” Rainbow Dash said as they flew through the air, “The others, when we see them... what do we tell them? About...” she nodded towards Rarity’s chest. By now Rarity’s armor had repaired itself, so the broken soul chain was hidden from view.
Rarity thought about it for a moment. Finally she said, “For now, nothing. This crisis is far from over, Rainbow. When it’s done, then I’ll take care of it.”
“Discord might be able-”
“Yes, he might,” Rarity said, “But I can’t afford to think about that right now. We deal with what’s in front of us. Everything else can wait.”
The last thing she needed right now was to let her mind wander down the rabbit hole of overthinking the situation. Whatever Discord could or couldn’t do, whatever options he might be able to provide, and whatever consequences might result in regards to Soul Society was all stuff to think about later. Right now she couldn’t afford to get mentally tangled up like that. She was dead. That was the fact of the matter. She’d had her brief freak out over it, and was likely going to have quite a few more when the time was appropriate, but in the right here and now, Rarity just wanted to focus.
Otherwise someone else could die, and Rarity wasn’t keen on any of her friends joining her as one of the living impaired.
“Hey, I think I can see them!” Rainbow Dash shouted, and Rarity squinted against the wind.
The fight was still a fair distance off, but Rarity could make out the glimmering trails of reishi arrows firing, and the flash of other explosions in the air. The battle was taking place fairly high above the forest canopy. There were the distant dots of the combatants moving about at high speed, but Rarity couldn’t make out the individuals yet. She and Rainbow Dash were still about half a minute away, even at the speed they were moving at.
Then, abruptly, there was a surge of spiritual pressure from the fight and a searing flash of silvery light from one of the combatants, most likely Sapphire Shores. Rarity had to shield her eyes from the intense brightness that coated the sky, but she managed to see what looked like eight bolts of light shoot from the central flash, then form a circle around a kilometre wide. Then a shining silver substance started to form a giant, spherical shell around the battle area.
“What the heck is that!?” Rainbow Dash asked, but Rarity had no answer, but the sphere was forming with alarming speed, encasing the area where Twilight was fighting! She and Rainbow both picked up the pace, pushing to reach the area in time to get within the sphere. As they got close, Rarity thought she saw something or someone moving in a pink flash of motion from the opposite direction that she and Rainbow were coming from, just barely entering the sphere’s area before it fully formed.
The girls pressed on, and a mere twenty seconds later reached the sphere, but too late to get inside, as the last small holes had sealed up, leaving a gigantic silver sphere hanging in the air.. It’s surface was polished to a near mirror finish, and laced with geometric patterns of white light. Rarity felt nothing beyond it, while the sphere itself appeared solid and felt distinctly of Sapphire Shores’ reiatsu.
“I think it's another Quincy barrier,” Rarity said, thinking of the unusual screen-like barrier Hoity Toity had used to obscure his initial appearance, “They do seem to have quite a few different kinds, just like the Soul Reapers.”
“Well I’m gonna smash it!” Dash said, twirling her spear, the lightning from it thundering to a larger size as she charged it up with power.
“Wait, Rainbow, that might not be wise,” Rarity cautioned, but Rainbow Dash was already thrusting forward, unleashing a furious shout alongside her strike of explosive lightning. Rarity was, admittedly, impressed by the volume of power put behind the blow, which shook the air and filled it with an electrical buzz as the storm of lightning crackled over the silver sphere.
Unfortunately the barrier didn’t seem affected, and Rainbow Dash backed off with a frustrated growl.
“Arrrgh, c’mon! Seriously!? It’s not even dented!?”
“Rainbow, I don’t think brute force can open this,” Rarity said, lips pressed to a thin line of furious thought as she carefully placed the tip of her sword against the surface of the sphere. She tried to push her reiatsu into it, to grow crystals into the sphere’s surface, but very potent reiatsu pushed back, halting her efforts.
“Sapphire Shores made this, I’m positive of it,” Rarity said, “And if my senses weren’t deceiving me, she’s of a caliber much higher than Hoity Toity was. We can’t break this on our own.”
“Man! This is such BS!” Rainbow Dash shouted “I thought when we completed our Fullbrings we’d have leveled the damn playing field!”
“We have, Rainbow. Considerably, from where we started. But never forget that our opponents have been at this much longer than we have, and have individuals among them that are exceptional even among their elites.”
“Well what do we do then? We can’t leave Twilight in there!”
It was a good question, and one Rarity didn’t have an immediate answer to. She didn’t see any way they could force their way into Sapphire Shores’ barrier. Pinkie Pie might have been able to slip through with her oddly reality-warping Fullbring, or perhaps Fluttershy’s ability to influence reiatsu as a whole? But neither of them were here, and Rarity doubted Twilight would last long enough for her and Rainbow to go find them and come back.
Before she could ponder any further on the matter, Rarity felt a massive eruption of reiatsu back towards Camp Everfree. She and Rainbow Dash both whirled around in time to see the incredible sight of what looked like an unnaturally enormous tree growing up from the center of the dried out lake.
“What in the world?” Rarity murmured.
“Am I going crazy or did a Godzilla-sized tree just show up out of nowhere?” said Rainbow Dash.
“I see it too, so I don’t believe you’re crazy,” Rarity replied, “But I have a bad feeling that this means things just got even more desperate for us than they already were.”
----------
A brief time earlier...
Within the first few seconds of the battle with Sapphire Shores being joined, Twilight fully realized that she’d severely underestimated the difference between herself and her opponent.
Her first barrage of magic-infused reishi arrows were annihilated by the silver streaks of the bolts Sapphire Shores fired, and Twilight would have been peppered with arrows right then and there if not for a hexagon shaped, blue barrier of energy that appeared in front of her.
“Bakudo Number Seventy One: Kongoseiki Ryu no Uroko.” (Diamond Dragon's Scales)
Starswirl had chanted the spell and invoked it in front of Twilight within the span of a mere second, shielding Twilight from the hard hitting rain of arrows that embedded themselves into the hexagon of blue light. Before Twilight could so much as thank him, however, she noticed something wrong with the arrows.
The arrows Sapphire Shores fired were a bright silvery color, and she sensed Sapphire Shores’ reiatsu inject itself into the Kido barrier and the very nature of the barrier’s reishi changed in that instant. Seeing the barrier turn silver itself, she didn’t need to think about it to understand the danger, and used Hirenkyaku to kick backwards and fling herself away from the barrier.
A mere moment later the barrier exploded, the very nature of it’s defensive reishi altered into something volatile and explosive.
She can change the nature of reishi, and at such high speeds. How am I supposed to beat that? She’s physically superior to me as well. Speed, strength, durability, all of it is affected by reiatsu. Her Blut Vene and Blut Arterie will be far stronger than mine. I can’t beat her head on. My only trump card is magic, since she can’t alter it like she can reishi. But she destroyed my arrows so easily, simply by overpowering them with pure reishi density. I need a plan, fast!
“Miss Twilight!” Starswirl called in warning, and Twilight turned to find Sapphire Shores already behind her!
In the fraction of a moment that it’d even taken Twilight to think, Sapphire had already used an incredibly fast Hirenkyaku to get behind Twilight. Her silver bow was already aimed, it’s strange mercury-like form seeming to pulsate with its owner's murderous intent.
I can’t dodge!, Twilight thought, trying to alter course and move to the side to avoid the arrow she knew was coming, but it was like watching a video in tiny steps, already knowing the outcome. She was too slow. She’d never make it in time to evade!
Tch, Midnight’s voice filled Twilight’s mind, So it really is up to me.
Twilight felt a stab of pain in her mind as she felt Midnight channeled magic on her own, all but momentarily drowning Twilight in the burning heat of magic’s warmth as it flooded her body. This wasn’t the cooperative magic they’d been using. This was Midnight forcing magic from deep inside Twilight, bringing it up from the massive well of power that had never really left Twilight, but Midnight had kept the faucet closed in order to keep Twilight from burning out. But this was a matter of survival, and a little burning was in order as far as Midnight was concerned. So she opened the valve wide and let magic course through Twilight’s veins and mind like a flood from a broken dam.
Blazing witchfire erupted from Twilight’s body, firing out in a teal storm towards Sapphire Shores, who in turn fired a streaking silver bolt of reishi.
The magic couldn’t be altered, so the bolt was swallowed by the firestorm and Sapphire Shores was the one forced to dodge, streaking above the inferno of ghostly witchfire.
Her senses picked up another threat almost immediately, and she spun to fire an arrow at Starswirl, who had waved the warfan of his Shikai at her. Starswirl was wise enough to not let the arrow hit his Zanpaktou and instead dodged aside, while chemicals he’d unleashed surrounded Sapphire. The gases wavered with a rainbow sheen, forming a deep haze around Sapphire Shores. These particular gases were among the most potent chemical narcotics that Starswirl had ever invented, designed to induce a blinding euphoria that would render almost any target instantiate with overloaded stimulation, effectively paralyzing a target in a dream-like state.
However Sapphire Shore’s body was coated in a silver light as her Quintessence Schrift tore into the very reishi particles making up the spirit-realm based chemical gases and changed their nature into an inert and harmless field of mist.
She then came straight at Starswirl, drawing back an arrow that vibrated with a sound like the echoing of a choir of female voices. The arrow of liquid silver streaked towards Starswirl like a laser, and he blinked away from its path with a Flash Step, but then the arrow burst just beneath him in a splatter of goblets like mercury. Some of the silver liquid stained his tattered robes or got on his Zanpaktou, and he winced as the volatile reishi of the silver liquid started to sizzle where they struck.
It wasn’t burning, however, but rather the Quinteccens working through the reishi of the splattered arrow, which started to dismantle the bonds of the spirit particles they came into contact with.
“Quite the troublesome foe you’ve got, Miss Sparkle,” Starswirl said, “I’ll need Bankai to-”
“As if I’d allow that, wizened old Reaper,” Sapphire said as she chased after him, flying above the man and aiming her bow down, which flared with a font of silver light. Now a full storm of arrows shot down, arcing out and curving in upon Starswirl like the closing jaws of a predator.
Teal magic flared around Starswirl as Twilight teleported in front of him, sweeping her artificial hand out to cast a dome of burning magic that blocked the oncoming arrows. Her eyes were surrounded by a more intense aura of teal flame now, and the aura of wings from her back was starting to slowly solidify into something more tangible, pieces of dark feathers taking shape. Licks of teal fire were reaching up and down her arms and legs, not fully transforming the clothing of her shredded uniform just yet, but starting to form the patterns of Midnight’s dress.
Inside Twilight, there was a brief struggle, taking place in the span of a mere moment.
Midnight, I didn’t say it was alright for you to just yank control from me like that! Twilight shouted, still in control of her body, but feeling like her mind was splitting apart from the magic coursing through her.
If I don’t take control, our mind and body can’t handle the magic we need to defeat this stuck up twit! I’ve played things your way this long, Twilight. I’ve trusted you to be in control, to sit here and let you put both our lives at risk. Now it’s time for you to trust me. You need me right now.
It wasn’t strictly untrue, Twilight understood. Midnight was sitting upon a vast well of power that was still buried inside Twilight, power that Twilight herself wasn’t skilled enough to manipulate in large quantities yet. The Hexenfaust and her studies and training had been helping greatly, but she’d taxed those to their limits. The Hexenfaust itself was so hot it nearly burned her skin, the magic-tech gauntlet’s gems shining far too brightly and starting to show cracks from trying to channel too much power.
If Midnight took full control. If she became “Midnight Sparkle” again, then that was the kind of power that’d be an even match for the likes of Sapphire Shores. But...
How do I know you’ll give control back? Twilight asked, I don’t have a way to guarantee you won’t run amok like you did at Canterlot High.
The alternative is what, exactly? Dying? You can’t win like this.
That’s not true. If Starswirl can use his Bankai, that’ll even things up. And I still have Vollstandig.
Argh! So does she! And your shadowy boy-toy already told you that if you use yours like you are now, you’ll probably fry your precious Quincy powers. Just let me behind the driver’s seat! Magic is better anyway!
Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t, but that’s not important. I haven’t exhausted all my options yet. If we can just hold out a few more minutes then everything should come together...
The mental conversation took all of a millisecond, but even that was enough time for Sapphire Shores to get around the half dome of witchfire that Twilight had created to halt the arrow barrage, appearing behind Twilight and Starswirl. The woman’s speed was terrifying enough, but her precision was even more deadly, as she wasted no motion in her movements and gave no pauses or openings. Twilight could barely react as Sapphire drew a Seele Scheider from the folds of her ornate dress and cast the blade-arrow at her like a throwing knife. The brilliant blade of reishi flew right at Twilight’s head and if it wasn’t for Starswirl heaving his Zanpaktou into the weapon’s path, Twilight would have been dead then and there.
The reishi blade still pierced Starswirl’s Zanpaktou, the large iron fan gaining a crack through its surface. Instantly strange lines of silver light permeated the Zanpaktou, and Starswirl frowned as he yanked the offending reishi blade out while causing a caustic blast of acidic liquid to shoot out of the fan towards Sapphire Shores.
The liquid contained denser reishi than the gases used earlier, so Starswirl surmised it’d be harder for Sapphire to alter the reishi using her Quintessence. This theory was confirmed as she dodged out of the stream’s path rather than let it hit her. Starswirl would have found more satisfaction in finding some limits to the woman’s ability if not for the fact that he was having to concentrate a great deal of his reiatsu into his Zanpaktou now to try and keep Sapphire Shore’s own power from infecting his sword further.
Unfortunately he already knew what her aim had been and what she was doing and he grimaced as he said, “Miss Twilight, that woman just closed off my Zanpaktou from it’s Bankai.”
“What!?”
“I can still utilize the Shikai, but until I purge it of this infecting reishi, it's essentially blocking off my ability to use Bankai. Unless you have another trump card, you might wish to consider retreating while I keep her distracted.”
“I’m not running. Just focus on defending me, Captain Starswirl... I’ll handle offense. We just need another minute or two,” Twilight said, and immediately rushed out from under the dome of witchfire, which petered out behind her.
Sapphire was too fast for her to react to easily, but that was a factor, a ‘variable’ that Twilight could change! Using her own Schrift, she cranked up the variables on her own physical abilities. This was a dangerous prospect, because while she could indeed boost herself in such a manner, changing the variables of her body like that didn’t necessarily mean she could withstand that extra power output for very long. Fortunately, this was a matter where magic could make up the difference. Midnight, still growling in frustration, reluctantly helped Twilight with the spells, while Twilight was watchful for any forceful attempt of her alter ego to grab control.
In short order Twilight layered several spells across her body to boost her speed, strength, durability, and senses. Each spell looked like a magical circle she flew through, creating a whole line of them that she passed through, each one layering a fresh set of magical symbols over her body.
Without me being in full control this isn’t going to last long, Midnight warned, You can’t breath fast enough to oxygenate your blood like this. Do it for more than a minute, and this meat sack of a body will pass out.
It’ll be enough. It has to be, Twilight replied as she instantly changed course to the sensation of danger from above. She just barely avoided the arrows that flashed past her. Looking up she saw Sapphire Shores repositioning for another barrage, and Twilight altered course to streak straight towards her, raising her own bow.
The sky filled with a brilliant dance of intersecting arrows as both Twilight and Sapphire Shores unleashed upon one another. Like a dense shower of stars or meteorites colliding, the silver bolts from Sapphire’s bow collided with the flaming teal lances of Twilight’s, leaving incandescent trails of explosions trailing through the air.
Twilight’s arrows were still over-matched, so she was forced to bank and twist through Sapphire Shores’ oncoming arrows, while Sapphire herself was largely safe from needing to dodge anything. Fortunately the boosts Twilight had given herself allowed her to narrowly wind her way through the storm, and beside her she sensed Starswirl, who helped guard her further with swings of his Zanpaktou that shot out globs of a thick gray chemical that solidified instantly into thick sheets of resin that intercepted even more arrows.
Twilight was almost feeling confident she could get close to Sapphire Shores and get a hit in, but the moment she broke through the storm of arrows, no more than a few meters from her opponent, a shock of fear went through her system. In front of her was an array of ten ginto tubes that Sapphire Shores had placed upon what looked like a wide plane of glowing blue reishi.
It was similar to the reishi platforms Quincy made to stand on the air with, or move quickly with Hirenkyaku, only much larger. Twilight could sense the complex patterns of reishi in the platform as the ten ginto tubes bubbled up with alchemical water and spilled out.
Sapphire Shores smiled, her gold eyes twinkling as she tapped a finger to her head, “Don’t forget, I can predict your moves, little star.”
A light akin to the sun striking a field of diamonds flared up and Twilight thrust her artificial hand forward, calling upon what magic she could to shape a teal shield of force in front of her.
”Lichtwelle Loschen!” (Erasure Light Wave), Sapphire Shores invoked the alchemic spell, and Twilight felt her magical shield get hammered by waves of scything light. It was as if the light produced by the ginto tubes were living, harsh things of tangible death, smashing and cutting with a charring, bright heat. Her shield couldn’t hold against the assault and she cried out in pain as multiple beams of bending, searing light tore at her. With the magic and the Variable boosting her base abilities, her Blut Vene kept her from being torn apart, but she was left with multiple burning wounds on her body as she was thrown backwards.
She felt herself be caught by someone, and blinked as Starswirl shielded her from the remaining beams of light, his Zanpaktou deflecting most of what was left.
“If you don’t mind my saying, you seem quite at the end of your rope,” he said, “I feel I should apologize for pushing you so far, earlier, otherwise you’d be in much better shape to handle this.”
Despite the dire circumstances, Twilight cracked a small smile, stepping back from him but still staying near, “Even at full strength I’d be in a tight spot right now. But this was never about me beating her, just surviving long enough for the cavalry to arrive.”
At that moment, she felt a fresh breeze blow across the sky. She’d already sensed their approach, which was why she’d known that holding out was key, but more importantly she’d needed to keep Sapphire Shores’ attention completely focused on her. The Quintessence could predict an opponent’s actions through reading their reishi, and Twilight knew Sapphire would be doing that to her the entire time. But doing so meant Sapphire wouldn’t be looking anywhere else. Not until it was too late to do anything about it.
“I’m sorry it took me so long, Twilight. Things got hairier than we expected.”
“Quite. I’m in a terrible mood, all things considered, but I’m glad to see you’re still alive, Twilight Sparkle. Shall I take it the Soul Reaper with you is... an ally?”
Twilight nodded to the new arrivals who had appeared a dozen or so meters away, relieved to see them both but no less wary of Sapphire Shores. Even with reinforcements, this wasn’t over, but she could feel her chest lightening just a little to see her plan had worked out.
“Yes,” she said, “Captain Starswirl is not a hostile at the moment. However, I regret to report that Sternritter Q, Sapphire Shores, is the ringleader of the assassination plot on my life.”
“We know,” said Soarin, scowling as he held his bow at the ready and glared towards Sapphire Shores, who was in turn looking most displeased with the turn of events, “We found... well... you can see it for yourself.”
“Indeed,” Filthy Rich said, his voice sounding tired. Both he and Soarin bore the marks of battle, with bruises and a few bleeding wounds on their uniforms. Between the two Sternritter were two more Quincy, both of them managing to stand on the air like Soarin and Filthy Rich, but were bound tightly with their arms behind their backs clapped in thick silver chains.
One was a terrified looking Spoiled Rich, her eyes darting between her husband and everyone else like a caged animal.
The man next to her had a more calm and dignified look about him, but it was a look tainted by an air of defeat, desperation, and indignation. When he looked at Twilight and Sapphire Shores, the man actually shrugged at Sapphire and cracked a grin upon his dark blue features.
“Well Sapphire, looks like the plan has really gone belly up hasn’t it?” said Gladmane, almost conversationally, yet there was a manic edge to his voice, ”Heh, the great ‘Schutzstaffel’ can’t even kill one measly kid on her own, eh?”
Twilight felt a twinge of curiosity. Schutzstaffel? She wasn’t familiar with that term itself, although the German translation was roughly something akin to 'Protective Echelon', or perhaps be interpreted as something akin to 'Royal Guard'? She didn’t dare take her eyes off of Sapphire Shores, but she found herself asking Filthy Rich, "What is a Schutzstaffel?"
His response was given with weight as he, too, didn't take his eyes off Sapphire Shores, "They are His Majesty's handpicked elite guard, and without question the strongest of the Sternritter, with power second only to our King."
Twilight found herself swallowing a frightful lump in her throat, "Oh. I see. Well, it seems my plan worked, at least."
Filthy Rich’s face was a desert of emotion, his voice matching it as he said, “It worked perfectly. Once you departed, I found the map could track all Quincy reiatsu in the area. I found my... my wife’s reiatsu at our home, with him.”
Filthy Rich threw a murderous glare at Gladmane, who looked back with a devilish smirk, “Oh don’t glare at me, Filthy ol’ boy. Jealousy doesn’t become you. Just because mines bigger, and I could get Spoiled howling louder than you ever could-”
There was a meaty smack as Filthy Rich’s fist met Gladmane’s jaw, but the bound man barely flinched while Filthy Rich looked like he was debating whether to keep punching him. Twilight cut him off with a question.
“Why did you bring them here?”
“There was nowhere safe to stash them,” Soarin replied when Filthy Rich didn’t, “I had been chasing after you, by the way, when I felt Filthy and Gladmane’s reiatsu flare up at his mansion. I got there just in time to stop Spoiled Rich from fleeing the scene, and helped Filthy capture Gladmane. I didn’t think it’d be a good idea to leave them alone, even to come help you, so dragging them along was the only option. Glad we made it in time.”
“Yes...” Filthy said, running a hand through his thick, brown hair and turning from the smirking Glademane to look straight towards Sapphire Shores.
“Sapphire Shores,” he said, “I don’t know why you concocted this plot, but it will cost you dearly. I’ve already sent the call to our central network. The word would have reached the Silburn by now. His Majesty knows of my wife and Gladmane’s treachery, and soon enough he’ll know of yours. Surrender yourself, throw yourself on His Majesty’s mercy. Perhaps he’ll spare some of you traitors...” his eyes slid towards his wife, filled with such a trembling storm of emotions it was hard to tell what he was thinking, “...or perhaps he won’t.”
“P-please, husband, you have to understand I... I only did it for the family!” Spoiled pleaded, voice hoarse, makeup running as tears left ugly dark streaks down her face, “I was thinking only of us!”
“Don’t, Spoiled,” Filthy Rich said quietly, “Just... don’t. I can’t even look at you right now.”
Gladmane let out a dry, humorless laugh, “Aw, don’t blame her, Filthy. She really didn’t have a lot of options, you know? Sleeping with me was her only chance at giving you what you wanted.”
“What... do you mean by that?” Filthy Rich said, blinking.
“Man oh man, this is what always bugged me about you Rich my boy. Never fast up on the uptake. This is why I was always ahead of you in business. Look, didn’t you ever wonder why it took so long for you and Spoiled to have a child? Didn’t you ever think that maybe, just maybe, you were shooting blanks, old buddy?”
Gladmane’s words left Filthy flinching and his eyes turning towards Spoiled Rich, “What is he talking about, Spoiled?”
“Go ahead, Spoiled, tell him the truth. What do we got to lose at this point?” Gladmane said, jostling the woman next to him, who gave a terrified look between him and her husband.
“Gladmane, don’t do this,” Spoiled said, “H-he doesn’t need to know!”
“Know what?” Filthy Rich demanded.
Gladmane grinned broadly, “Don’t you think that Diamond Tiara’s got my chin? More of her mother’s eyes, but the chin’s definitely mine. Aw, she’s such a cute kid. You’ve done good raising her, Filthy. Real dad of the year. Too bad she’s not yours.”
“I’m sorry...” Spoiled Rich said, “I’m sorry, Filthy... you wanted a child so badly. You wanted to be a father, but... we tried so much, and nothing. So I... I asked him. I only meant it to be the one time! So we could be a family!”
“Yeah, ‘one time’,” Gladmane said, “That one time sure turned into a regular affair, didn’t it? Just couldn’t get enough of me, could you? And here I thought I was doing my old friend Filthy a solid by knocking you up, so he could be a dad, but I’m thinking you just liked the thrill.”
“Enough of this,” Twilight said, unable to listen to more. She’d been left in morbid shock herself, hearing these sordid details, but now she shook that malaise off and called upon Midnight’s help to cast a spell of silence upon the pair. For good measure she also added additional bonds of magic to them, with bindings of glowing purple chains wrapping around their legs and arms to further keep them from moving. “Filthy, Soarin, focus on Sapphire Shores right now. She’s the main threat.”
Filthy, still looking stunned by what he’d just heard, shook his head and steeled himself, walking to stand beside Twilight, while Soarin did the same on her other side.
“Yes... yes you’re right, Miss Sparkle. Sapphire Shores! Will you surrender, or not?”
“Oh? Are we back to focusing on me now? I thought you might enjoy playing out that pointless drama a little longer,” Sapphire Shores said, sneering at Gladmane and Spoiled Rich, “Worthless cretins couldn’t even serve as useful distractions.”
“Why did you bring them into your crazy plot?” asked Soarin, “I don’t get it at all.”
“Ideally they were to be the ones I’d pin the blame on once Twilight Sparkle was dead,” Sapphire Shores said, “Glademane thought that with the family’s brightest star snuffed out that he would be in a better position to improve his own family’s standings, especially if he married one of his legitimate children into the Rich bloodline.”
Twilight grimaced at the implications of that, “But if Diamond Tiara is also his daughter... ugh, first the Hooffields and McColts, now this? I’m going to have a serious talk with Sombra about expunging this particular aspect of Quincy culture.”
“Trust me, Twilight, most of us don’t like it either, and it really isn’t done anymore” Soarin said, then cast a disgusted look towards Gladmane, “At least I didn’t think it was.”
“That aside,” Filthy Rich said, “You haven’t given us an answer, Sapphire Shores. You now stand against three fellow Sternritter-”
“And myself,” said Starswirl, “Let’s not ignore the Soul Reaper in the room, shall we?”
Filthy Rich sighed, rolling his eyes, “Yes, and a Soul Reaper Captain-”
“Ah ah, Captain of the Twelfth Division, Starswirl. At least give me my proper title,” Starswirl said, smiling slightly.
“Stop enjoying this,” Twilight said, lightly elbowing the elderly Captain.
“My point,” Filthy said, “Is that you’re outnumbered, Sapphire. Give up, and His Majesty may be merciful.”
Sapphire Shores looked at them all arrayed against her, then lowered her head slightly, her brilliant electric blue hair covering her eyes for a moment. Her shoulders started to shake with sporadic tremors, and a sound like cracked chimes filled the air. A moment later Twilight realized it was Sapphire Shores laughing, the chiming noise rising to a feverish pitch as the woman threw her head back and laughed.
“Outnumbered? By a girl on her last legs, a defanged Captain, and two Sternritter who’s Schrifts pale in comparison to my own? I think you’ve miscalculated who should be considering surrender, Filthy Rich. Indeed, you and Soarin should stand aside and allow me to finish my work. I am His Majesty's prophetess, and I have seen that Twilight Sparkle shall be our King’s downfall if she is allowed to live. If you are true Quincy you will not stand in the way of what must be done!”
Filthy Rich and Soarin exchanged glances, Soarin looking more confused than anything else, while Filthy Rich’s middle aged features were difficult to read as his brown brow creased. “I’m aware of your predictive abilities, Sapphire, but to seek the life of one of our own, especially one of Night Light and Velvet’s children...? His Majesty clearly has not approved this action, otherwise you wouldn’t have done things this way. No, I won’t stand aside.”
“You’d take the side of this neonate child over me, one of His Majesty’s chosen? Are you mad?” Sapphire said, voice rising to a cracking pitch.
“Not mad,” Filthy Rich said, raising his hands in front of him, where blue strands of reishi formed into the shape of his ornate musket, “But Miss Sparkle helped save my daughter’s life. My daughter, no matter whose blood runs through her veins. I shall stand with Twilight against you or any other fool that seeks to take her life.”
“And I’d be a piss poor bodyguard if I let Twilight die on my watch,” said Soarin, cracking his knuckles and then forming his own bow, “His Majesty ordered me to guard her with my life if need be, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do!”
Twilight felt a twinge of a smile on her lips. She hadn’t been entirely certain if Filthy Rich and Soarin would give Sapphire Shores more credit as the senior Quincy, or indeed if either of them might have been in league with her, but Twilight had gone with her gut feeling that she could trust them when she’d formulated her plan to modify Filthy’s model of the city with her Schrift. She had to trust that once the assassins struck that Filthy and Soarin would both act on her behalf, and side with her when the time came.
It was good to see the plan pay off, although one last component remained. Twilight wasn’t surprised it was taking awhile, though. Filthy had only just sent word to the Quincy’s communications network. Even if they’d been on standby and waiting for the signal it’d take time to arrive, even with the arrangements Twilight had made with Adagio. It might not even be necessary. For all of Sapphire Shore’s confidence, well earned as it was, numbers did matter in a fight. Perhaps they could defeat her before-
Twilight let out an involuntary gasp as a fresh tidal wave of reiatsu rushed out of Sapphire Shores, encasing the woman’s entire body in an intense silver sheen of light that outlined her features in stark contrast. Her usually pulled back hair now billowed out almost like a living thing, strands fanning around her like the raised hackles of a wild animal. Just how much more spiritual power did this woman have? Twilight started to find it difficult just to breath, although she managed to keep her legs from shaking.
Anytime you want to stop screwing around and let me have control, just say the word, Midnight told her, both desperation and sarcasm filling her tone in equal portions. It’s not like it’s our lives on the line or anything!
Twilight wasn’t given the time to even decide upon a response to that before Sapphire Shores went on the attack, and everything became too chaotic to think much past the next second.
She targeted Filthy Rich first, likely because he was the most experienced out of those on Twilight’s side. Sapphire moved like a shooting star, leaving silver after images in her wake as she let loose a hellstorm of piercing bolts towards Filthy Rich. He whipped a trio of ginto tubes from the breast pocket of his uniform and flashed them towards the arrows, chanting an alchemic invocation.
“Geschichtete Stahlwand!” (Layered Steel Wall)
A trio of hexagons of dull gray metal took shape from the bursting ginto tubes, absorbing some of the arrows, but only for a moment as they became shredded by the intense barrage. However, that gained Filthy Rich a moment to dive down from the center of the barrage’s path and rapidly fire his musket. Twilight almost cringed at seeing an archaic musket essentially fire like a semi-automatic rifle, but she knew Filthy was forming the bullets from reishi inside the weapon as fast as he could pull the trigger.
Each bullet streaked out in a gold colored, sparking path, and moved at harsh, twisting angles to try and chase after Sapphire Shores.
Soarin matched Filthy Rich’s movements, going above instead of below, and his bow hummed with a vibration of building sound before he fired a large, blunt arrow of blue reishi that created a sonic vibration in the air so dense that it looked like a massive fist of sound surrounded his arrow.
With the smooth elegance of a practiced dancer, Sapphire spun, firing one arrow toward Soarin's while in the same motion drawing a sheet of bright liquid silver into the air and letting it fan out below her. Her arrow struck Soarin’s and seemed to instantly cancel out the sonic vibrations in it, deflecting the rest of the reishi arrow. Meanwhile Filthy Rich’s bullets were caught up in the fan of liquid silver, dissolving into the liquid as their base reishi was consumed.
“As if I’d be beaten by a lesser version of my colleague's Octave,” Sapphire chided Soarin, “Your Echo might have prevented a direct assassination earlier with it’s marvelous detection abilities, but it’s quite weak in direct combat, isn’t it?”
Twilight, still ignoring Midnight’s pleas in her head, pulled up more magic to infuse into an arrow that she fired towards Sapphire, utilizing the Variable to alter it’s trajectory so that the shield of liquid silver Sapphire had used to stop Filthy Rich’s bullets was in the wrong position to keep the arrow from getting close. Once it was, the spell Twilight had placed on the arrow caused it to burst into multiple chains not unlike the ones she’d cast around Gladmane and Spoiled Rich, which swiftly surrounded the woman.
“Her Schrift can’t affect my magic! Hit her now!” Twilight shouted.
Captain Starswirl, Soarin, and Filthy Rich all complied, working in a surprisingly effective tandem for those who were technically sworn enemies. Starswirl came at Sapphire’s left side, sweeping his iron warfan out and ejecting a combination of explosive gasses. Filthy Rich complemented this move by boxing Sapphire in on the right side, firing off several bullets that were overcharged with reishi so that when he used his Schrift, the Mason, to expand the bullets into cannonballs, they exploded with waves of deadly shrapnel.
Finally Soarin stayed above Sapphire, thrusting out his hand in lieu of his bow and utilizing his own Schrift. The Octave and Echo were very similar in most respects, by the primary difference was that while both affected sound, the Octave generated sound to then control as needed, while the Echo sensed and affected all existing sound around it’s user who could also then increase the reverberation of that sound to any degree they wanted. As a result, Soarin usually had to make his own noise to affect, but then amp up, so when he let out a fierce warcry, the Echo amplified it into a echoing blast that hammered at Sapphire from above.
Yet despite all of the attacks coming at her and the chains seeking to enclose her, Sapphire Shores’ expression was one of a deadly fanatic, iced with a razor smile. Her hand moved in a blur beyond sight, another Seele Schneider blazing to life in her hand. The blue reishi blade surrounded her in a gale of slicing arcs that severed Twilight’s chains in a single instant. In another instant that same Seele Schneider was loading in her bow, where the blue blade turned into blinding silver and was fired towards Filthy Rich. The arrow moved with such speed and power that the simple air waves of it’s passage reversed the direction of Filthy Rich’s own shrapnel cannon balls. She then flew up, straight through Soarin’s sonic blast, while evading the explosion of the gases Starswirl had sent towards her. She weathered the sonic attack, tanking it with pure Blut Vene durability, and before Soarin could blink she was in his face, driving a fist into his sternum and sending him catapulting backwards.
Meanwhile Filthy Rich threw everything he had into dodging the Seele Schneider fired his way, but even though he just barely dodged it, he still took some wounds from his own blown back shrapnel.
Twilight was overwhelmed by how easily Sapphire Shores seemed to be able to counter their attacks, but she refused to let her mind freeze up and thought furiously to work out a way to turn the tables while she fired a Licht Regen barrage at Sapphire, if only to distract her for a moment.
Filthy Rich’s Mason is at a disadvantage up here in the air. He needs physical material or lots of ambient reishi to work with to build things. Soarin’s Echo is too weak on the attack to be effective. Starswirl can’t catch her with his chemicals easily, but we know liquid is more effective than gases.
Ideally it’d be better to take the fight back to ground level, where Filthy Rich could make better use of his Schrift. Soarin needed to pull back, assuming he was still conscious after the hit he’d just taken. Maybe if Twilight could coordinate with Filthy and Starswirl, they could use a combination of the Mason and Starwirl’s chemicals to trap Sapphire?
But even as the plan was trying to take shape, Sapphire Shores disrupted Twilight’s thinking, descending to Twilight’s height in a sliver of an instant. Only Twilight having maintained the spells boosting her base abilities allowed her to dodge what would have been a neck breaking kick that still broke the air with a sonic boom that Sapphire Shores aimed at Twilight’s head. Twilight bent to the side, feeling the air pressure for Sapphire’s kick on her face, and she countered with a point blank arrow boosted with magic and her Schrift, lacing another spell upon herself to grant her a degree of heat resistance as the arrow exploded almost instantly between her and Sapphire.
The blast of the arrows explosion pushed her back, but thankfully didn’t do much damage with the spells coating her, but Sapphire wasn’t affected nearly as much as Twilight had hoped as the woman sent snaking tendrils of silver reishi towards Twilight like the grasping tentacles of some horror-movie alien.
Fortunately a blast of cryogenic chemical liquids descended from above as Starswirl swung his Zanpaktou and unleashed a shower of chemicals that’d put liquid nitrogen to shame in their ability to flash freeze. As he’d already learned that liquids took Sapphire more time to affect with her Quintessence, it worked to freeze her own reishi tendrils in mid-air and bought Twilight time to fly back and gain distance.
Soarin appeared next to her, blood trickling from his mouth as he clutched his stomach with one hand.
“Are you alright?” Twilight asked.
“Banged up, but still good to fight,” he replied.
“We need to take this to the ground,” Twilight said, “Filthy Rich can use his Schrift better there. Does yours have any extra tricks you’re holding out on?”
“Not without Vollstandig. The Echo doesn’t hit hard like the Octave does. It's more for scouting and infiltration, but I do have one thing I can do that might mess with her and give you guys an opening. I just can’t do it without transforming.”
Filthy Rich, still sporting a few shards of shrapnel, had joined Starswirl in pressing the attack on Sapphire Shores, his musket firing up a storm of shells at her while Starswirl kept sending out waves of his freezing chemicals at her. This was forcing Sapphire to focus on defense for a moment while firing back with streaking arrows of her own. This gave Twilight the time to have her exchange with Soarin and consider a plan.
Just as she was starting to form an idea, however, Sapphire Shores broke past Filthy Rich and Starswirl with a burst of speed. Twilight and Soarin both saw it coming and fired off twin LIcht Regens towards the oncoming Sapphire, but she immediately dodged the thick swarms of reishi arrows by turning at a right angle and going straight up, then she swept both her arms out while her bow of silver light and semi-solid liquid hovered in front of her.
“None of you are escaping. It’s time I sealed your fate, Twilight Sparkle.”
Her dress billowed out, the skirt of it flaring upwards, and Twilight now saw where Sapphire Shores had been keeping all of those Seele Schneiders. The under-folds of her dress were covered in belts of the reishi blades, and with speed that defied comprehension Sapphire Shores grasped eight of them and threw them out at different points in a circle around the battlefield. Each Seele Schneider bubbled with silvery liquid, not unlike Sapphire’s bow, as she controlled and altered the nature of the reishi inside them. Raising both hands in a gesture like prayer, Sapphire’s body gleamed white as she intoned, “Unvollkommener Heiliger Kafig!” (Imperfect Holy Cage)
“Oh crap...” Soarin breathed as Twilight saw a blinding light flare from the eight Seele Schneider blades.
Within mere seconds a distortion filled the air and an enclosing wall of mirror-like silver grew around them. Before Twilight knew it, they were all trapped with Sapphire within a prison of shining silver. The interior was lit by strange reflections of eerie white light, and the walls of the prison were distorted in such a manner as to leave it impossible to tell distances. In fact, Twilight sensed a distinct change in the space around them, as if the area within the sphere was somehow larger than what it had been before.
“This... this is like what Sombra did outside Las Noches,” Twilight said, and Sapphire Shores chuckled darkly.
“It is. Oh, I can’t replicate His Majesty's divine techniques, not in full, and certainly not without his Absolute. But I have managed to craft a worthy imitation with the Quintessence's assistance. Welcome to your tomb, Twilight Sparkle...”
Sapphire Shores raised her right hand and with her left, removed the white glove she wore there, exposing the black glove beneath and the gleaming Quincy cross upon it.
Seeing this, Filthy Rich gasped, “You’d use Vollstandig? Sapphire Shores, it’s different for you than it is for the rest of us. For a Schutzstaffel, the cost of Vollstandig...”
“Is our humanity, yes. A price I am willing to pay, for the sake of His Majesty. No...” Sapphire Shores eyes bored into Twilight Sparkles with a fresh fury, nearly mad as her pupils dilated, “If you can call him Sombra, so shall I. For my King, Sombra, I will end you, Twilight Sparkle.”
“No, you won’t.”
The words, spoken in a richly feminine voice that Twilight recognized instantly, was followed by a shower of soft blue reishi arrows with pointed tips shaped like hearts. Sapphire Shores was interrupted from activating her Vollstandig by having to erect a barrier of her silvery liquid reishi from her bow to intercept the barrage.
“What!? How are you here!?” Sapphire shouted, “You’re supposed to still be in Hueco Mundo!”
“C...Cadence!” Twilight cried, relieved beyond measure as she saw her friend and soon to be sister-in-law descend from above where she had just moments ago barely managed to fly through the last closing hole in the imprisoning barrier. Cadence was wearing her usual uniform, and her arm mounted crossbow was formed and still blazing with fresh arrows to fire at Sapphire, although she sparked a brief warm smile and wink to Twilight.
“I’m glad I made it in time. I’ll have to thank your ‘friend’ for the competent timing of her vassals. Their ‘portal’ brought me quite close to where I needed to be, as soon as we got the message.”
“Ah, Cadence, interesting to see you here,” Filthy Rich said, not really hiding his confusion, “Just how did you arrive so quickly? I only sent the message a short time ago.”
“An explanation for later, Filthy Rich,” Cadence said, eyes fixing upon Sapphire Shores, who’s reiatsu was flaring up behind the shield of her silvery reishi, “Let’s deal with this first, shall we?”
“Deal with this?” Sapphires Shores’ voice echoed like a church bell in the otherworldly interior of the barrier, “Yes, let us see you try.”
“Stop her! She’s going to-” Soarin started to shout, but there was little that could be done.
The entire space was engulfed in a flare of purest white as one of the strongest of the Quincy, just short of Sombra himself, activated her Vollstandig.
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Hmm, the more I learn about bleach the more impressive this is
Because of Sapphire's standing among the Sternritter her Vollstandig strips her of her humanity once it's expended? Does that mean that afterward she'll be entirely reduced to reiatsu for Sombra to absorb in the manner Tirek alluded to before? I'm ignorant of the TYBW lore, so a heads up on this would be appreciated assuming her situation is parallel to someone in Yhwach's army.
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Without spoiling anything, what I'm doing with the Schutzstaffle's transformations in this story is inspired by ideas I got from the final arc of Bleach, but there are a few spins of my own I'm putting on things and exploring that weren't strictly a part of Bleach either.
Well if the barrier is "imperfect" and not on the level of Sombra's dimensional barrier, it's unlikely it'll actually withstand Vollstanding Sapphire's attacks for very long. Remember the Schutzstaffel weren't even allowed to use this shit in the battle at Las Noches, likely out of fear of friendly fire, especially if it robs them of their humanity. The power of this "thing" will be unreal so I doubt the barrier will hold up long.
I get the sneaking suspicion that at least one of the Sternritter fighting with Twilight, is going to die. I can't see Cadence showing up at the last minute, just to be killed off immediately. Soarin is the least relevant to the overall plot and other characters but that also means him dying wouldn't be all that emotional. Things aren't looking good for Filthy, especially given his speech in this chapter. I say either he or Spoiled (sacrificing herself to save Filthy) are gonna be killed here.
Poor Diamond, as if all this hasn't been enough of a mind fuck, now you throw another curve ball her way. Poor girl's gonna need therapy after this.
"I reject my humanity, Twilight Sparkle!"
JoJo references aside, I'd say something about trouble brewing, but it's already been boiling over for quite awhile, and we're just starting to see what the end results are, or will be...
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I kinda hope ti's Spoiled rather than Filthy who dies as Diamond deserves to have a good parent survive.
Dam this is tense. Twilight is really making headways with the multiracial diplomacy already, but I can already see the side effect this will have for the quincy. Sapphire isn't wrong, Twilight will destroy the quincy. I can taste a quincy civil war arc in the air. I feel so bad for DT. Her world is going to be completely shattered.
10305722
If Filthy Rich dies, the Humane 7 + Adagio will gain another staunch ally in their quest to end the fighting on the Quincy side in the form of Diamond Tiara, I bet.
Well, if Twilight does let Midnight take the wheel, she could open up a portal or two so the group could escape the cage. Then Rarity and Rainbow, or whoever, could provide yet more reinforcements. Or she could just throw Sapphire into Hueco Mundo, or something. Who knows, Midnight might actually be their best option for getting into Equestria and back, long-term.
Also, Rarity and Rainbow's conversation about the former's death was pretty much pitch-perfect for both their characters.
This chapter was most excellent. A triumph in every way I can think of. I've given you praise before, but you have outdone yourself. Congratulations.
Saphire reminds me of Lille Barro, just more insane, and if her transformation is anything like his it's gonna get weird.
That's a question actually. If an "evil" quincy died would they reincarnate or would they go to hell?
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I don't think it works that way with the Quincy, they all go the King when they die and eventually reincarnate.
The ability to send souls to hell is a Soul Reaper Zanpaktou/Division 0 thing only.
You spelled „Schutzstaffel“ wrong.
I'm guessing this was supposed to be Spoiled Rich, not Milk.
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I'm not so sure about DT. I mean, as far as we know, she's pretty much normal. Every one else got to where they were through years of training, or bullshit power boosts. Most of the Soul Reaper Captains and Hollow Espada have had centuries of experience. Sunset and Co used extreme methods to force themselves to grow, plus they have magic to give them a boost.
Unless Gladmane's lineage has some unique benefits to it, I'm guessing that she'll have to take the long way to being a Quincy. The rest of the cast is so far ahead of her right now that even the weakest main characters (Di Roy probably) could run circles around her. And the enemies are just going to get stronger from here. I can't see her catching up anytime soon, unless there's a lull in activity, and a timeskip to go with it.
It would be an interesting spinoff to see her, Silver Spoon, and the CMC work together. Maybe they could do regular patrol duty, while everyone else is tackling the bigger threats.
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Gotta say Schutzstaffel is rather unfortunate name. I mean Quincy were first to use it but still. Hope someone in the story will point it out, just for self-awareness.
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Yeah, nothing screams "we're the good guys" quite like naming yourself after the fucking SS!
\s
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It's a name inherited from Bleach canon, where the Vadenreich really was composed pretty much entirely by axe crazy nazi psychopaths. Right down to most of them having European/German names.
You're right that Vex probably could have changed it to better suit his version of the Quincy, but it's a minor detail in the grand scheme of things.
10308315
Yeah, I know I've read Bleach, few times. And I don't mean to change the name, Nazi stole and warped many things, most prominent swastika, just to point out that the first thing someone will think at the world "Schutzstaffel" will be Nazism. Not the problem for canon Quincy but for FS's Quincy, well, they're not one dimensional villains. That's why I said self-awareness, I bet there were some weird talks amongs them about that. Too obvious to not to point out.
Like this, just not actually baddies.
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I had considered trying to change a number of terms for the Quincy, back when I first started this fic and realized it might cause some issues. Figured that ultimately most people could probably tell that they're just names in this story and don't have any deeper connotations in the plot than that. Still, I could see Twilight at some point bringing this up with Sombra and asking about why the Quincy have all these terms. I think I briefly mentioned it a bit when the "Strafbatallion" came up, too., but I could always go into a bit more detail if people think it'd help.
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I can just see Sombra get all indignant/embarrassed and be like "we came up with that name first."
Also this is the most meticulously crafted s**t show that I have ever seen. Congratulations.
I meant to ask: was the design of Grogar's experimental hollow - the one that put the seed in Hard Nail - supposed to be a Hollow Knight reference? Black body with pointed limbs, upward curving horns? It fits, even if unintentional.
10312047
Grogar's experiment is a reference to "White", a Hollow from the Bleach manga:
i.redd.it/zgr67bcg5pk41.jpg
There are a few design differences, like the positioning of the horns, and Grogar's experimental Hollow doesn't have hair, but it's meant to have a very similar appearance to White.
10312077
Ah, that makes more sense. Though the name is fitting, the main character of Hollow Knight is a tad cuter than knock-off Vasto Lord Ichigo there.
Well, they just got one heck of set of shocks on the Quincy side. Proud of Filthy thought his daughter is his no matter what. He’s proved that time and again here. Gladmane, ya, I’ll take pleasure in ideas to eradicate him.
10308455
honestly, i'm just going by the thought that in this 'verse nazis didn't happen. If Nazis happened in the bleach 'verse it'd be because the quincy let them. In this verse, I imagine Somba would have prevented their rise.
10321965
Uh we know that the Nazi happened in this universe.
Can't remember exactly which chapter it was in, but Sombra and Twilight had a conversation about the Quincy uniforms being similar to Nazi ones. Wherein Sombra goes on to explain that the World Wars caused an insane increase in Hollow numbers, forcing the Soul Reapers and the Quincy to form a temporary truce, for the first and only time ever, until their numbers were back to manageable levels.
While the Quincy fully intend to influence world events after/if they win the spiritual war (explained by Shining Armor I believe), their attention being on the Soul Reapers and Hollows has prevented them from doing that up to now. So they did nothing to prevent the rise of the Nazis, or the World Wars.
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Yes, both World Wars still happened in the Friendship Souls timeline. It wasn't a good time for Soul Reapers or Quincy. It might be something I go into more detail with in story, but the basic idea is that Sombra's gone through various phases of how much or little he's had the Quincy directly influence the world. Initially he more or less set up his own feudal kingdom that he ruled over like any other king, but over time pulled back and had the Quincy function more like a secret society, as the actual war with the Hollows and Soul Reapers grew more intense and he could afford to put less resources towards trying to hold and govern territory in the living world. It was just easier and less resource intensive to have the Quincy function behind the scenes, and Sombra adopted a fairly "hands off" policy when it came to the way human society and nations developed. That, however, meant that when World War I and II came around, the Quincy were caught a tad off guard by it all. They were used to dealing with the influx of souls turning Hollow from various human wars, but the World Wars were on a new level. World War I was bad enough, and took up a lot of their time and resources to deal with the fallout of, and they were still dealing with that when the Nazi's came into power, and before the Quincy knew it WWII had kicked off, effectively forcing them to temporarily work with the Soul Reapers just to keep the influx of Hollows under control.
After that whole debacle, Sombra started to change Quincy policy and gradually started to maneuver Quincy into positions of influence and power in the living world, wanting to prevent another World War. Basically in Friendship Souls the main reason there hasn't been another World War, or indeed any major conflicts (chances are in this timeline there's been fewer wars overall post-WWII than in our real world) has been due to the Quincy stepping in more often. This is, admittedly, somewhat dangerous, as it's been impossible for the Quincy to do this without arousing some suspicions from the more powerful governments of the world. But basically Sombra's hope is to end the war with the Hollows and Soul Reapers soon enough that he can then put the Quincy's full resources towards a smooth transition to controlling humanity's governments and steering the future course of the species.
Hmm, I wonder if I should start doing some "world lore" blog posts to flesh out parts of the Friendship Souls universe that people might want to know more about, but I can't necessarily easily fit into the story itself?
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Could always put up a side story and fill it in with interesting tidbits. Kind of like the arrancar encyclopedia.
Twilight activate your Midnight powers
Are there actually laws preventing ghosts from applying for loans? That’s something I’m seriously curious about