• Published 15th Apr 2016
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Equestria Girls: Friendship Souls - thatguyvex



When dangerous supernatural creatures start to stalk the streets of Canterlot City, Sunset Shimmer and the gang become involved in events that will irrevocably change their lives. A crossover series with the Bleach anime/manga

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Episode 125: All Together

Episode 125: All Together

Sugarcoat was keeping her outward cool, but on the inside, she was screaming. There had simply just been too much for one day, and after witnessing the kind of carnage that could be wrought during these kinds of battles, the memory of the assault upon Las Noches still a fresh mark on her mind, it was impossible to not feel a powerful sense of dread, now.

Not that she had cracked or anything. As ever, she worked hard to maintain an objective, rational mental state of common sense and calm. Her friends and fellow Quincy were counting on her to be a rock, and a rock she would be, but damned if it wasn’t easy, especially given how little she or the others really knew about what was going on.

Camp Everfree was a mess. The attack of those strange creatures, the giant crocodiles and the massive worm-like monstrosity, had left the main camp center decimated and most of the other buildings damaged. Then the lake bed had all but exploded with that towering tree! Rocks the size of small cars and other debris had fallen onto the camp from that, and Sugarcoat and the other Quincy girls had needed to act fast to protect the students from Canterlot High. She’d blasted chunks of falling rock with her bow as fast as she could, and she would've missed at least one that could have killed a handful of students if not for the fact that Applebloom had been there to smash the boulder with that potent crimson whip of hers.

Sugarcoat still wasn’t sure what to make of the young Fullbringer girls, or their odd friend who controlled the giant stone bird, but at least they were on the same side for now. Then there was Diamond Tiara, who remained mostly in a state of shock. Fortunately Silver Spoon was proving quite competent and well trained for her age, helping guard both her friend and the other students.

Once the rain of debris had been survived with fortunately no casualties, the camp had found itself surrounded by walls of thick roots, some wider than train cars. The roots encircled the camp like the embrace of a protective mother’s arms, yet to Sugarcoat’s eyes they seemed more like prison walls. While she and her fellow Quincy could get over the root wall easily enough, the other students were trapped for the time being. Worse, it seemed like the roots were not in any way normal, for Indigo Zap had already tried to blast through the wall, only to find the thick roots quite resistant to damage.

“What do you think is going on out there?” Sunny Flare asked Sugarcoat, just after all of them had started to sense and hear the distant echoes of a clash taking place among the higher branches of the tree.

“How should I know?” Sugarcoat shot back, perhaps a bit too sharply. She quickly softened her tone, if only by a bit, and added, “I think one of the people up there is Sunset Shimmer, but I can’t be sure. For now, all we can do is stay here and keep everyone here safe.”

“This spot is anything but safe,” Sunny Flare replied, eyeing the root walls suspiciously, “And we have no idea what’s happened to Twilight.”

“What are you suggesting?” Sugarcoat asked, voice low.

“Nothing!” Sunny Flare snapped back, her voice gaining a slight waver, “I-I just don’t like sitting here waiting. Someone should go look for Twilight. Or... Or Sour Sweet. We still don’t know what happened to her.”

That was a worry that’d been gnawing at Sugarcoat, too. By all accounts, Sour Sweet had been replaced, and there was no telling for sure where or when that switch had happened. Was their friend even still alive? And it wasn’t as if Sunny Flare didn’t have a valid concern about Twilight as well. Sugarcoat had lost track of Twilight’s reiatsu amid all the chaos, and couldn’t clearly feel her now. Her visor didn’t have enough range for her to be certain of anything, either. She gave Sunny Flare an even look.

“I know it's hard, Sunny, but we have to wait here and keep guarding these people. That’s our duty, both as Quincy, and as Twilight’s friends. We can’t afford to send anyone looking for her, and there’s no telling what actually happened to Sour Sweet. The only thing we can do is stay here and do our jobs. Understand?”

“You all should stop worrying so much,” said a pugnacious young voice from behind them, and both Quincy turned to see the flaring purple hair and orange, confident expression of Scootaloo staring back at them.

Behind the young girl stood the imposing, stone form of Alerion, who stared at the Quincy with unblinking gem eyes. Sugarcoat was a tad unnerved by the being, her visor’s vision giving her a clear look at Alerion’s spiritual make-up. Whatever he was, he was certainly powerful, and part of his power came from the young lady in front of her, whom Sugarcoat still wasn’t entirely sure what she was.

“We’ll worry as much as we need to,” she said, “We’re not going anywhere, but we’ve still got friends out there who are in danger.”

“What’s got you so confident, anyway?” asked Sunny Flare, “And seriously, what’s with Big Bird?”

“Speak of me in such terms again, squalling one, and I’ll wet my beak with your entrails,” said Alerion with the matter-of-fact tone of someone talking about building a deck or making a sandwich. Sunny Flare closed her mouth and gulped, hands tightening a bit around her dart guns. Sugarcoat held up a hand.

“Don’t mind her. We’re just curious about you and Scootaloo. Not that it matters at the moment, considering we’re all stuck in this mess together.”

“Hey, it’s cool,” Scootaloo said, elbowing Alerion’s leg, “Ease up, big guy. We both know you’re awesome, no need to show off in front of me.”

“Hmph, I am not ‘showing off’ in front of you, hatchling,” Alerion said, turning his head up in an offended manner. Scootaloo grinned.

“That’s his way of showing affection, I think. But, uh, seriously guys, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t ask too much about me or him, ‘kay? Especially not if there are any Soul Reapers around.”

Sunny Flare and Sugarcoat glanced at each other.

“We won’t say anything,” Sugarcoat assured Scootaloo after a second, and just in time as the girl’s two friends came up, both of them looking varying levels of anxiety. Applebloom’s eyes were rooted to the tree that loomed over all of them, while Sweetie Belle kept giving uneasy looks towards the skyline to the north, where Rarity had gone some time ago.

“Ya’ll Quincy gals holdin’ a pow-wow over here?” Applebloom asked, hands twitching around the grip of her whip as if she wasn’t sure what to do with the weapon when not using it. Sugarcoat recognized the gesture as the same kind of jitters a lot of the raw Quincy recruits had, while waiting for the Arrancar to attack their position during the battle of Las Noches.

“Not really,” she said, “There’s not much to discuss. We can’t leave with these roots in place, and we can’t remove them with our level of strength.”

“What ‘bout havin’ Scoots’ Doll carry folk outta here?” Applebloom suggested, causing Scootaloo to wince and Sugarcoat to raise an eyebrow.

Doll? A strange term for him. Doesn’t sound familiar, but I wonder if I checked the archives... Sugarcoat dismissed the thought. Ultimately what did it matter? They were all in the same boat, now. Besides, it wasn’t a bad idea.

“Would your... Doll, be willing to do so?” Sugarcoat asked, looking as much at Scootaloo as Alerion.

Scootaloo gulped and turned a glance up towards the overhanging granite avian, who in turn managed to pour a distinct look of incredulity into his gem eyes and literally stone features.

“I barely tolerated being used as a mere beast of burden for your dearest friends, hatchling. I’m not inclined to lower myself to such actions for complete strangers, even for an entire orchard of oranges!”

“Oh come on, Alerion, it wouldn’t even be hard for you!” Scootaloo said, giving his leg a swift, encouraging punch, “Are you trying to tell me, with your incredible strength, that you couldn’t carry any number of people over these silly roots? I mean, are you about to let a bunch of shrubbery get the better of you?”

“Hmph, your appeals to my ego are transparent, but not incorrect. I could easily ferry these two legged pieces of helpless meat to the other side of this floral barrier. I just don’t know if I’m at all inclined to do so, even for bribes or flattery.”

“Someone has a high opinion of himself,” said a voice from above, at the top of the root wall nearest the group. All eyes turned upward to spot an elderly, brown skinned man in dark, oriental clothing and clogs, bearing a white and green striped hat upon his head. “Not that I’m one to talk.”

Sugarcoat almost raised her bow, sensing a peculiar aura from this stranger she’d never met before. She had recollections of Twilight mentioning a man who fit this one’s description, however, and the memory did not exactly put her at total ease as she recalled his name.

“Discord,” she said, and the old man smiled at her with a snaggle tooth dangling down from his lip. He hopped down from the forty foot tall wall of roots and landed in front of them, light as a feather, placing a hand on his hat and bowing.

“The very same. I take it Twilight Sparkle told you about me?”

“Just the barest details,” Sugarcoat confirmed, “What are you doing here?”

“Protecting my investments,” he replied, gesturing with his gnarled cane towards another portion of the root wall, “We’re limited in what we can do, but I doubt even... those who may be watching will object to us safeguarding a few innocent bystanders caught up in matters beyond them. Ditzy!”

There was a resounding crunch of thunderous noise as a garage door sized chunk of the root wall exploded outward. Stepping through the dusty opening was a tall, pale gray woman of generous curves and with a familiar set of gold yellow eyes and blonde hair. Sugarcoat blinked at the elder Doo, while many of the campers now started to gather in a bewildered group to see what all the commotion was about.

From their ranks a voice cried out, “Mom!” and came running out. Depry threw herself into her mother’s waiting embrace, Ditzy holding her youngster tightly for a moment before ruffling her hair.

“I’m so glad you’re safe, muffin,” Ditzy said, “You weren’t scared, were you?”

Derpy giggled happily, batting at her mother’s hands in her hair, “I’m fine, mom, really. You taught me how to keep my head in a tight spot, remember?”

“I did, I did. I just...” Ditzy’s eyes grew serious, and tinged with worry as she looked at the ruined camp, wounded campers, and the remains of the Tatzlwurm, “I... didn’t want you to see stuff like this. I never wanted-”

Derpy put a finger to her mother’s mouth, her own face growing oddly serious for her bubbly features, “Mom, it’s okay. I know. I’ve known for awhile. You. Dad. Not... everything, but enough to understand why you raised me like you did. We’ll talk later about it all, but right now all my fellow students, my friends, need help. Is it safe out there for us? Are there more monsters that need to be fought?”

Ditzy seemed momentarily taken aback by the simple maturity in her daughter’s voice, blinking away tears as the realization of how grown the young woman in front of her actually was hit like a truck. Soon, Ditzy nodded, “The way to the road back to the city is clear, and the city itself is roughed up, but no more monsters running around.”

“We’ve brought transportation,” Discord declared, smiling somewhat mischievously, “A few commandeered city busses, driven by friends.”

Deciding to check upon that, Sugarcoat jumped upward with Hirenkyaku, standing upon the air just above the root wall. Her visor picked up the faded distortions of reishi conforming to the shapes of a pair of busses sitting just outside Camp Everfree’s gates, and she spotted two individual’s behind the wheels that had the reiatsu of Soul Reapers, albeit a tad odd.

“Employees of mine. Screwloose and Screwball,” Discord explained, “They’ll ensure everyone gets back to the city safely.”

“Hmm,” Sugarcoat floated back down, “And what about the two of you? Can you do anything about... that?”

She gestured in the direction of the top of the tree, and Discord stroked the wisps of white beard dangling from his chin.

“Could and should are two very differing concepts, my young Quincy friend. Let us say that I and my compatriots here still have good reason to maintain a low profile. I’m certain Sunset Shimmer and her collection of close friends and allies can handle this... unexpected situation.”

Sugarcoat wasn’t sure if she bought that, and really didn’t know what to make of this old man, or the woman who apparently was the mother to one of Canterlot High’s students. She felt like she was certainly missing a good chunk of context, but as long as he was still here to help, and wasn’t hostile, she didn’t have a lot of reason to complain.

“Fine,” she said, “Sunny, get Lemon Zest and Indigo Zap together and start escorting the campers to the busses.”

“Uh... ye-yeah,” Sunny said, eyeing Discord nervously but hurrying off to do as she was ordered, since Sugarcoat had been given seniority by Twilight in the group’s chain of command.

“Um, Mister Discord?” spoke up a small voice as Sweetie Belle gulped and approached him, “Do you know what’s going on with my sister and her friends right now? Are they all okay?”

He turned to her, and the other two girls comprising the CMC. While the trio had more or less been made aware of things regarding Sunset Shimmer and the other girl’s involvement in spiritual affairs, they’d also largely been kept out of the messier details. Given circumstances both concerning them and their families, that was all likely to come to an end, soon.

“Their spiritual pressures are all still present,” he replied, “I can sense all of them. Your sister and most of the girls are together in one spot, and I suspect they’ll be trying to join up with Sunset Shimmer soon, who is currently dealing with a troublesome individual at the top of that overgrown shrub.”

He knelt down and offered Sweetie Belle a snaggle-toothed smile, “Don’t worry. Those girls are quite capable, your sister especially so. And since she wouldn’t want to worry about you, either, it really is for the best that you get on the bus and come back to the city. Your parents are waiting for you there, at my shop.”

“Really!?”

“Yes,” he glanced towards Applebloom and Scootaloo, “You all have family waiting there, in fact.”

“My aunts are there too?” Scootaloo said while blinking astonishment.

“They wanted to come out here themselves, but I thought it best they wait at the shop, just in case,” Discord said, and then he turned to the gathered students, many of whom were looking at him apprehensively.

“Hmm,” he muttered, “I must not have the same trustworthy face I used to.”

Louder, he cleared his throat and said, “Ahem! Attention students of Canterlot High. I’m a friend of Sunset Shimmer and her group of friends that I’m sure you’re all familiar with by now! I hope all of you can understand that I can’t really go into any details, but for the moment myself and my friends here are your one-way ticket out of this mess and back to something resembling safety! So, I’d appreciate it if you’d all follow the lead of Miss Ditzy Doo here and load up on the busses outside.”

From the crowd emerged Lyra and Bon Bon, the pair stepping forward together.

“We don’t really know what’s going on,” Lyra admitted, briefly biting her lip before going on, “But none of us want to leave.”

“Eh?” Discord raised a bushy white eyebrow.

“Those gals are our friends,” Bon Bon said, “Right now they’re fighting for us, like they have a bunch of other times. We all decided it was time we stopped making them take all the burden for protecting us.”

“I understand how you youngsters feel, but clearly you must understand that this is not a situation where you can do anything but be potential casualties for those girls to worry about, right?” Discord said, “It’s courageous to want to help, but there’s a huge difference between courage and crazy. Believe me. I know.”

“B-but it ain’t right!” shouted Bulk Biceps from the crowd, “We should at least cheer them on from here, even if that’s all we can do!”

“You’re all a good bunch,” said Ditzy, still holding her daughter, “But the best thing any of you can do right now is make sure them fighting for you means something by getting out of harm’s way. Any of you die, and then what are the risks those girls are taking even for? Get it?”

The students were all silent for a moment, looking at one another. Then Lyra stepped closer to Discord and stuck a finger to his chest, “Alright, we get it. But before we go, I got a condition for you!”

“Is that so? Well, Miss...”

“Lyra Heartstrings.”

“Miss Heartstrings, what is your ‘condition’?” Discord asked.

“You give us the whole picture. All of us. This is our city. Our school. Our friends risking their lives. We deserve to know why. And if there’s anything we can do to help, no matter how small it is, you clue us in! I don’t care what it is, even if it’s something as small as setting up a town watch or something, but we’re going to stop sitting on the sidelines while crap like this keeps happening in our town!”

“YEAH!” called out Bulk Biceps, and his sentiments were echoed among the other students. Even Diamond Tiara seemed a bit more cognitive and alert now, as if Lyra’s words were sinking into her as well.

Discord looked, if anything, only briefly taken aback before a pleased look entered his eyes, “Well, how can I say no to such easy terms? Very well, Miss Heartstrings, since you seem to have ‘taken charge’ of this situation, I’ll accept, and ensure that not only do you fully grasp what is happening, but ensure you and your fellow students can... in your own little ways, assist Sunset Shimmer and her friends in keeping Canterlot City safe.”

The entire time this exchange had been happening, Sugarcoat had been listening in and watching carefully. She didn’t precisely mistrust Discord, per se, but she couldn’t help but think that this turn of conversation had somehow gone exactly as he’d hoped it would. She wondered if Lyra and the other students really understood what they might be in for?

----------

Gilda’s foot obliterated a nearby stump with a booting kick of frustration. As the Tenth Espada stalked back and forth across the small glade, a bubbling, small Smooze watched her from atop a boulder that dripped and bubbled with runoff from his body.

“Why do you remain?” he asked, and Gilda turned flashing eyes of anger towards him.

“None of your business, you little snot-blob! I oughta blast you right here and now while you’re still all small and helpless!”

Smooze nodded his tiny head as if agreeing with the statement, his miniature arms folded over his oozing, plump body, “Then why don’t you?”

His voice was still strained to a degree. The pain of his body was a constant agony, but strangely ever since he’d received a hint of the blessings that the one called Fluttershy could bestow, he found himself better able to acclimate to it. Part of that might have simply been that the longer he was back to a semblance of proper consciousness his usual stoicism and ability to adapt mentally to his own pains was returning, but a part of him also knew that he was being sustained by something deeper. Merely thinking of that divine girl’s kind smile lifted him above the cauldron of pain within.

He certainly no longer felt much fear concerning Gilda, which the other Arrancar seemed to know, and scowled at him.

“B-because I... just don’t feel like it!” she snapped, turning away and resuming her stalking walk, “I mean, it’d be pretty pathetic to just kill some twerp who’s not a threat, right!? Hah! How lame! And I’m not lame! I’m the friggin’ Tenth Espada, and... you’re not taking that spot, you hear me!? You want it, we’ll wait until you’re at full strength, and have a proper fight over it! That’s the way it ought to be.”

“I have no interest in being the Tenth, or any other Espada any longer,” Smooze replied in a calm, sure voice that caused Gilda to halt her steps and shoot him a surprised look.

“Wait, what? Why not!? Am I not good enough to fight, is that it!?”

“I don’t care about fighting you. I didn’t care about fighting anyone,” he replied, “Not now, or even when I served Tirek. My actions were solely to escape my pain. I have a better path to follow for that end, now, and one I wish to serve besides Tirek, who only ever offered me a temporary salvation.”

Gilda stared at him as if he’d sprouted a whole pair of angel winds and started floating around with a gold halo. After a second her face scrunched up in a mixture of understanding and irritation, “It’s her, isn’t it? You plan to serve that crazy hugaholic!”

“If she’ll have me,” Smooze confirmed, “Once her present battle is finished, I intend to swear my fealty to her.”

“Oh that’s rich!” Gilda found another tree to punch, and did so with some gusto, “First Adagio goes and starts getting people joining her stupid revolution club left and right, and now the walking butter-stick is getting ex-Espada to simp for her!? Aaaaaarrggggggh!”

“...Your anger simply brings me back to my initial question; why do you linger here? Why have you not returned to Las Noches?”

Gilda paused, making a slight choking noise in her throat as if her brain was fizzling out on the answer to Smooze's question. Her face was a bizarre mix of embarrassed crimson blushing combined with genuine red anger, while her eyes darted around and her hands stayed balled fists, “I... I... just because, okay!? I’m not...”

She trailed off, and then lacking anything nearby to punch, she rather ineffectually kicked the ground hard enough to make a small crater.

Smooze, not particularly carrying about Gilda’s emotional state, simply shrugged, “Adagio Dazzle’s reiatsu is no longer present, nor is Grogar’s, suggesting both have already returned. Or were slain, but I think that unlikely. I can see no reason for you to remain as well, unless... you were concerned for the well being of another.”

“Pfft! Yeah right! Like there’s anyone here who’d I’d care about what happens to them!” Gilda said, then there was a distant explosion from behind them. Both she and Smooze turned to look at the gigantic tree. It had sprung up some time ago, but neither had any idea what it was or who had made it. Both cold sense a powerful Hollow spiritual pressure, however, and not too long ago they’d also sensed Fluttershy’s reiatsu, among others, in the same vicinity.

Gilda frowned, looking at the top boughs of the tree where the sensation of clashing spiritual pressures could be felt and the explosion had come from.

She was quiet, but Smooze spoke instead.

“Do not fear. I believe Lady Fluttershy shall be fine.”

“Grrr, who the hell cares about her!? I’m not hanging around for that.”

“Then why?”

Gilda’s lips tightened, her eyes going shifty as she looked to the side, “Maybe I’m being smart and still gathering intel so I can impress Lord Tirek. We don’t know who this new Hollow reiatsu belongs to, right? While Adagio and Grogar have bugged out, I’m staying here to see how this all plays out, so I’ve got something to report back. See!? I’m being smart!”

A rustle from the bushes to their left caused Gilda to draw her Zanpaktou and Smooze to look over, but Gilda’s stance relaxed as she saw a familiar female Arrancar emerge into the glade.

“Greta! I wasn’t sure you were still alive!”

Although she did appear to be roughed up, bearing bruises and tears in her clothing, Greta didn’t bear as many wounds as Gilda would have thought, but she didn’t really think about that much as she approached and fist bumped her ally.

“I tried to keep my head down until I found you,” Greta said, “Everything looks like it’s gone crazy around here. Where’s Grogar and Adagio?”

“Hmph, skipped out already.”

“What about him?” Greta pointed at Smooze, who stared back silently. Gilda shrugged.

“Nothing. He’s nothing. Just a wimp I don’t need to worry about anymore. Uh... look, Greta, you should go back to Las Noches. I’m hanging here a bit longer to gather intel on how things turn out here. Could you do me a solid and not mention anything to Guto about my fight with that Fluttershy chick, or Smooze being here? We’re... pals, right?”

Greta’s face went still for a moment, but then she smiled slightly and popped off a quick nod, “I hear you, Gilda. I’ll keep my mouth shut on any details. Not like I saw much anyway, so it’s not like I’ll be outright lying to Lord Guto.”

She turned and opened up a Garganta portal, “That said, don’t hang out here too long. Whatever goes down with that tree and whoever is fighting over there, the Soul Reapers and Quincy must know about what’s happening here by now. Before long this place is going to be swarming with both, so make sure you’re not around when that happens.”

After Greta disappeared into the closing Garganta, Smooze said, “She has a point. It’s risky for you to remain long.”

“Oh shut up. You got no say in what I do,” Gilda shot back, and turned to face the distant tree, looking up towards it’s vast canopy that looked like a deep green set of roiling storm clouds overhanging the tree’s monolithic trunk.

Gilda’s hands clenched tighter at her sides, and although she’d never admit it to the likes of Smooze, her thoughts were drawn towards Fluttershy.

----------

“Vice principal?” Gaia Everfree said with soft bafflement, then shook her head and shot a burning glare at Luna, “Don’t joke around with me, Soul Reaper! I don’t recognize your face, but I know that outfit. You’re a Captain.”

“Correct,” Luna held her scythes aloft, eyes locked on Gaia as she looked the human-Arrancar fusion up and down, “And you’re a Hollow occupying a body that doesn’t belong to you. I’ve met a few Hollows with possession abilities like that. Tell me, is Gloriosa Daisy’s soul still intact? Do I have any reason at all to hold back, or should I just exterminate you?”

“Uhhh, Luna?” Sunset called out, “Could you please maybe tone it down a bit? Not that I’m not happy you’re here to help and all, but far as i can tell Gloriosa and Gaia are kind of merged together, and I’m really trying not to have this end with having to bury anyone.”

“A noble sentiment, but is it one this ‘Gaia’ shares? From what I’ve heard from her own mouth, she doesn't,” Luna pointed out, her shadowy aura wrapping around her as she raised her scythes and took up a combat stance, “I didn’t come here to allow you or Clover to be killed. My sister and I both value your lives, the lives of all our human students. I won’t stand by while someone tries to bring those lives to harm.”

“Okay, yes, that’s cool, but me and Clover sort of had a plan going, here, and scythes cutting Gloriosa in half isn’t a part of said plan,” Sunset explained, “So if you’re going to help, don’t take this the wrong way, but I need you on the same page.”

“I can make no promises,” Luna said simply, “But I shall attempt to honor your desire for preserving this one’s life. Understand, however, that even if we subdue her, the rule of Soul Society may seek to dictate otherwise for her fate.”

To this, Gaia let out a peel off rough laughter, power surging from her body as she said, “You see, Sunset Shimmer!? The Soul Reapers can’t be trusted. Why do you think I’d rather just remove them from my home than contemplate trying to treat with them?”

“How can you say that, Luna, after you and your sister were nearly executed?” Sunset asked, and Luna shook her head.

“Don’t misunderstand. I don’t necessarily support what may be decided by Central 46, I am merely warning you ahead of time that this may not be as simple as just defeating Gloriosa. There are going to be repercussions for what has happened here today. The attack on Canterlot City, this rogue Hollow and her strange fusion with magic, both will provoke Central 46 and the Gotei 13 to action. I only ask that you be prepared for that. But first we must win this fight...”

“Yes, yes, don’t get ahead of yourselves,” Gaia said, spinning her double bladed sword around in a flourish, “I’m not about to just surrender to you and quietly accept whatever the Soul Reapers decide! Now... get off my land!”

Gaia flew at Luna like a hyper-sonic missile, her aura of spirit energy and magic flaring around her erratically. Her double blade sliced left and right in a spinning buzz of attacks, and Luna’s scythes twirled like jagged shadows to meet the blows. Gaia’s lips smirked deeply, her magic commanding the surrounding tree branches to grow a series of clawed, grasping wooden hands that flashed at Luna’s back. Luna dove down to avoid them, melding with the shadows beneath one of the larger branches.

“Clover, let’s do this!” Sunset shouted and rushed in as well.

“Right behind you,” Clover confirmed, following Sunset’s moves while holding out her right hand.

The clawed hands Gaia had summoned from the branches turned towards Sunset and rushed her, but Clover took careful aim and white lightning sparked around her fingers.

“Hado Number Four: Byakurai!” she called out, and much as she had with Sokatsui, was able to rapidly repeat the invocation and generated multiple lancing blasts of thin, pale lightning in an instant. These bolts cut through the wooden claws and cleared the path for Sunset.

Gaia easily turned to meet Sunset’s charge, catching Sunset’s blade with the shaft of her own double weapon. Sunset alternated between her sword and shield, striking with both Hokori and Hikari in a swift buzz of attacks that, while fierce and numerous, couldn’t get past Gaia’s guard.

“Are you slowing down, Sunset Shimmer? Or am I just getting faster the more and more power is restored to me?” Gaia said, letting out a short chuckle as she parried yet another set of Sunset’s strikes, “If this is it, you might as well run away while you still have legs to run with!”

To emphasize her point, Gaia lashed out with a wickedly fast and powerful kick that caught Sunset in the gut and propelled the young girl backwards into, and through one of the branches as thick as a car, shattering the branch and causing Sunset to continue on until she managed to flip in the air and land on her feet on another branch further along.

“And as for you!” Gaia said, pointing one of the tips of her weapon at Clover, “I’ve really had it up to here with you.”

Gaia vanished with Sonido, and Clover knew she wouldn't be able to react properly to the former Second Espada’s superior speed, barely feeling the wind at her back as Gaia appeared behind her to strike. However, just as Gaia did so, her weapon started to glow green from multiple small cuts along its shaft. Those cuts, small nicks really, stemmed from where Sunset had struck the weapon in her earlier assault. In her confidence, and the overwhelming magical power clouding her senses, Gaia hadn’t really noticed the reiatsu that Sunset had injected into the shaft of the wooden double-blade upon those strikes.

“Midorihi Hashira!” (Green Fire Pillar)

Sunset’s shout invoked the Zanpaktou technique in which the reiatsu mines she’d planted activated, green flames erupting from the double-blade’s shaft and detonating in a series of small explosions.

“The heck-!?” Gaia tossed her weapon as it exploded, more out of surprise than any real damage her hands took from the flames, although they did get a bit singed. Then a wash of shadows rose from the shade of the branches to her right and Luna, taking advantage of the distraction, shot forward and lashed out with her scythes, attempting to follow Sunset’s wishes and aiming to hamstring Gaia’s legs rather than go for a killing blow.

Gaia twisted away from the scythe’s deadly edges, turning a hamstring blow into a deep gash on her thigh instead, and the Hollow’s eyes turned vicious as she retaliated with a hammering punch that took even Luna off guard as it struck straight across her cheek and sent her reeling into the top boughs of the tree’s canopy. Luna might have been able to avoid that blow, but as she tried to shake off her daze, she realized she’d used up far too much power in her fight against Adagio, and hadn’t recovered as much as she had hoped. Her speed and strength were both lagging behind what they should have been if she was in peak condition, and to make matters worse, by now Luna could tell that Gaia was only getting stronger by the second.

Too much longer and they’d need her sister or one of the stronger Captains to deal with this, perhaps even the Captain Commander himself.

“Sunset!” she called out as she stood up, and had to dodge backwards as Gaia came crashing down at her from above with a devastating kick that Luna barely avoided, and smashed a craterous chunk out of the tree’s main trunk, “Now might be an exceptionally good time to stop holding back!”

Luna was too drained to use Bankai again so soon after using it against Adagio, but she knew Sunset Shimmer was still relatively fresh, and had access to that power as well. She wasn’t sure why Sunset had been keeping it in reserve, save perhaps out of hope to deescalate the fight before it got that bad. Well, that hope was fairly gone at this point.

“I know!” Sunset replied, appearing with Flash Step and intercepting a punch from Gaia that had been aimed towards Luna, catching Gaia’s fist with her shield.

“Huh? Holding back?” Gaia held out her other hand, and the tree responded by extending a branch that then gleamed with emerald energies and transmuted into a new wooden double-blade that flew into her waiting hand, “Feel free to throw whatever you want at me! Do I look like I need your pity!?”

Green and violet magic and spiritual power flowed through her double-blade as she swung it in an uppercut slice, one handed, while gripping Sunset’s shield with her other hand. Sunset blocked with her Zanpaktou, but the raw blast of combined magic and spirit energy surged into her and blasted her backwards, sending her bouncing and rolling along the treetop canopy.

Luna drove her scythes forward, shadows erupting from them in a series of spearing spikes, but Gaia twirled her newly forged weapon in a storm of magically infused strikes that severed or smashed aside the shadows. Yet Luna had only meant to momentarily tie up Gaia’s defenses, slashing backwards with her left handed scythe while still maintaining the frontal assault with her right handed scythe. The left scythe sunk into Luna’s own shadow, then slashed out of Gaia’s shadow and struck at the woman’s back.

Faster than lightning, Gaia back-flipped over the strike, soaring in a high arc at the apex of which she thrust out a palm and charged a swift Cero blast that shot out in a pulsing green and purple beam straight at Luna. The Captain instantly sunk into her own shadow, just managing to avoid the beam of destruction the coursed over the tree’s top canopy in a exploding arc that sent more branches as large as normal sized trees crashing towards the distant ground.

A flicker of orange movement to her right drew Gaia’s attention as she saw Sunset Shimmer coming at her again, and Gaia took her double-sword in both hands, cutting in a wide side slash at the charging girl. The blade passed right through Sunset Shimmer, and for a second the part of Gaia that was Gloriosa felt a moment of fear, having expected the girl to block or dodge the deadly blow. However that fear gave way to another instant of confusion as Sunset Shimmer’s body turned into hazy white flames.

Another flame clone!? Gaia realized, recalling from Gloriosa’s memories the technique that Sunset had used in the brief clash in the caverns below.

The clone of white flames vanished, and as it turned out the real Sunset had hidden herself right behind it, ducked low and with the shield of Hikari poised forward like a battering ramp which she smashed right into the surprised Gaia with such force that it produced a circular shockwave as Gaia was driven to the ground. Gaia landed roughly, but sprung to her feet using her hand to propel herself back to her feet with a swift flip, and after wiping a bit of blood from her lip, she swept her hand out towards Sunset.

The branches around her shook and trembled as deep green magical auras exploded across the, creating a swath of hundreds of sharp wood shards that levitated at Gaia’s command. With a snap of her finger she sent the barrage of projectiles firing towards Sunset in a deluge, each wooden spike infused with the crackling power of a Bala bullet.

Sunset saw the barrage coming, of course, but her eyes darted left and right, searching. Upon seeing that Clover was nowhere to be seen, she grinned. Good, Clover was following the plan. Gaia’s attention was entirely on dealing with Sunset and Luna, now. She just had to make sure Gaia’s focus remained on her. And Luna was right... it was time to stop holding back.

In a blinding hot flash, her reiatsu flared up around her, turning the air into shimmering heat waves and encasing her body in an aura of raging flames. Her shield gleamed pure white as she held it in front of her, and her sword grew to sun-like intensity with the fire pouring upward from it’s edge. The barrage of Bala infused wood spikes that Gaia had flung at her all but evaporated under the heat, and the handful that did make it through bounced off Sunset’s shield to only be burned to cinders half a second later.

Gaia narrowed her eyes at the display. It was impossible for her not to sense the massive uptick in the spiritual pressure stemming from Sunset Shimmer. Gloriosa knew very little about the girl, so no answer to what was happening was in her memories, but Gaia had many centuries of combat experience against the Soul Reaper and had fought more than one Captain in her time. She knew what was coming, and was surprised that a human girl could have obtained such power.

Was it due to the power of magic? Gaia had marveled at the strength to be found in that foreign world’s energy since she discovered it, and could feel that raw elemental power surging through her via the geodes even then. If magic was giving her such an incredible boost, it wasn’t strange to think it was doing the same with Sunset Shimmer. What bothered Gaia was that as Sunset’s spiritual energy flared up, so too did the sensation of magic inside her, and an unusual resonance from one of the geodes that Gaia was fused with.

These geodes... Twilight had an unusual reaction with them, too. I could never figure out just what they were or where they originated from. Why would they react to this girl? But they reacted to me when I was Gloriosa, too. It was her power, and now mine. I have nothing to fear. So then why do I feel...?

Despite Gaia’s thoughts, she did take up a more tense, defensive stance as Sunset Shimmer’s power struck a blinding peak, a potent and familiar word flying from Sunset’s lips that Gaia knew all too well from her previous encounters with Soul Reapers.

“Bankai!”

A gorgeous pillar of roaring flames spiraled both up into the heavens and down into the earth from where Sunset Shimmer stood. Gaia looked into the bright hot corona with a head mixture of feelings, Sunset’s reiatsu touching her skin like the light of a forest blaze. Her mind was both that of Gloriosa and Gaia, witnessing within their collective memories a host of images that brought forth sensations of protective drive, the sharp pain of loss, a burning hatred, righteous fury, and echoing fears of the future.

Gaia saw herself smiling as Lily and Rose played amid her garden during the rare quiet moments in Las Noches. This overlapped with Gloirosa laughing as a child, running with Timber through the thick forest trails of their youth.

She felt the cry of horror on her lips from finding what was left of Lily’s body after Chrysalis’ drones had finished with her. This was shared by Gloriosa’s small whimpers as she held her brother and tried to explain to him that their parents were gone, and not coming back.

Fury, hot as coals, as her blade clashed with Chrysalis in a battle she was destined to lose. Anger that was shared by the growing, fuming anger of Gloriosa as bill after bill piled up against the costs of the home she strove to maintain.

As Gaia and Gloriosa both she had known the joy of a home, a family, and the pain of losing it, the anger at being unable to protect it.

Her fusion with her now human self had been no mere accident, but a result of the things both had unknowingly shared with one another. Now, staring up at the pillar of flames from Sunset’s activated Bankai, those emotions crystalized in Gaia and reinforced her will to fight. On some level she knew Sunset was right, that this battle was... delaying the inevitable. The Soul Reapers, the Quincy, they would come, and drive her from her home. She’d lose everything, again.

But she couldn’t accept that! She refused to lose anything else! Not this time!

The pillar of flames burst apart in a sudden wave, billowing out across the tree top. Despite the tree’s magical and spiritual nature, the sheer heat of the fire had caused parts of it to light up, leaves and smaller branches withering.

Sunset stood in the air, her form now clad in the magnificent red and gold armor of her Bankai, wings of flame flowing from her shoulders and her hair dancing as if made of fire itself. Hokori, now a flamberge, crackled with flames so thick as to make the blade seem as if it were a solid bar of fire. Hikari’s ornate shield, like the swooping form of a diving phoenix, shone with brilliant white light.

“Mugen Hokori no Eien Hikari,” Sunset said, completing the last part of the ritual of bringing forth one’s Bankai. Strictly speaking, the naming wasn’t absolutely necessary, but much as with the naming of techniques upon use, it solidified the bond between Soul Reaper and Zanpaktou.

“I don’t get you,” Gaia said simply, “Whatever your story is, you clearly aren’t actually with the Soul Reapers. Why are you protecting them when I have every right to defend my home from those doing harm to it!? Do you have any idea what it feels like to lose the home you love and the people you care about!?”

“I know what it’s like to lose a home,” Sunset Shimmer said, “And I know what it’s like to fail to protect people, even when I tried my hardest. I might not know what you’ve gone through, but I know what pain and rage feel like. The way you deal with it is by finding others to help you through it, not by lashing out blindly at anyone you can find to blame.”

“Oh, but I know who to blame!” Gaia shouted, magic rolling up through her in a dark wave, “And once I’m done with the ones here, I’m going after her next! And as long as you’re in my way, you’re no different!”

Sunset breathed out slowly, raising her Zanpaktou, “You’re wrong about that. Me, my friends, we’ve fought the Soul Reapers to protect our own. It doesn’t matter to us who you are; human, Hollow, Quincy, Soul Reaper, anything else. I want to make this city a place for everyone to call a home, no matter who they are or what their past is. If you’d just open your damn eyes, you’d see we don’t have to be enemies.”

For a brief second Gaia’s expression twitched with doubt, but her eyes slid towards where Timber Spruce was still wrapped up in a cocoon of plant life, slowly healing his injury with vines creeping through his veins, pouring magic into him. Yet his unconscious, blood stained form sparked fresh anger inside Gaia, who cast aside her doubt with that anger, for it also reminded her of sweet, honeyed words that had once been spoken to her by Chrysalis.

”We don’t have to be enemies. We both want the same things, Gaia. Stand at my side, and I’ll open up the world for you. Stand in my way... heh, that would be a different kind of fun.”

“No!” the word tore itself from her in a roar, “The only person I can trust to protect what’s mine is me!

With spiritual and magical energies creating a torrential aura of clashing green and purple colors around her and tearing apart the air in a whirlwind, Gaia rocketed upwards at Sunset. She thrust her double-sword forward with a powerful thrust that shattered the sound barrier. Her strike touched only air.

Her eyes cut right as she saw Sunset Shimmer, who’s wings of flame had sharpened to thruster-like jets that had enhanced her Flash Step to thunderous speed. With skill born of many hours of training her Bankai against Discord and her friends, Sunset immediately altered direction with another boosted Flash Step that brought her cleaving towards Gaia with a spinning blow of her flamberge. Gaia grunted as she bent away from the attack, feeling the ashen white wood armor she wore heating up from the mere proximity of Sunset’s blade as it passed by her.

Gaia’s lips parted in a growl, altering her grip on her weapon to reverse it and slice at Sunset’s neck with the other end. Sunset struck upwards with her shield, bashing the attack aside, and Gaia felt her arm rattle from the blow.

It’d been so long, she’d nearly forgotten just how much more power a Bankai could produce! Sunset’s speed and strength had shot past the edge that Gaia’s own slowly building power had achieved. Now she was on the back foot, forced to throw herself backwards to avoid an arc of flames that poured from Sunset’s sword as the girl easily swung the flamberge one handed in a powerful horizontal slice.

Frustration mounting, Gaia made a sharp upward gesture with one hand and caused the entire upper boughs of the tree to shake and rumble with power. Growing in size and extending at a rapid pace, dozens of branches bent and twisted to rise to Gaia’s command, every leaf transmuting into sharp, razor edges, and deadly thorns, larger than surfboards, erupting across their wooden surface. The branches rushed at Sunset, seeking to surround her like the mouth of some massive forest predator.

Sunset swept her blade out and let fire engulf her, flowing out in a sphere with her at the center. The flames bathed the branches, but Gaia poured more of her spiritual energy and magic into them to reinforce them against the flames, forcing the branches to still strike inward at where she’d last seen Sunset. Though their surfaces were charred, the branches remained intact and speared into the flames, sharp thorn blades piercing the fire.

And from the dome of flames a dozen or so Sunset Shimmer’s came flying out!

Gaia’s eyes shot wide. More flame clones!? She hadn’t known Sunset could make so many. The numerous Sunset Shimmer’s rushed through the branches as the animated, lethal foliage flailed and stabbed about, trying to impale them. One or two were struck, bursting into motes of white flame, but many others struck at the branches, and showed that while mere clones, they fire they were made from still burned. Their power was minimal compared to the real deal, so all they could do was singe the branches, but it still proved a serious irritation, especially because Gaia had no idea where the real Sunset had gone!

The answer came swiftly, as Gaia felt a shadow pass over her vision.

The sun!?

Sunset had flown up, straight into the light of the sun, and had used the sun’s glare to mask her descent as she came flying down with her wings boosting her momentum to insane heights as she brought her Zanpaktou down at Gaia, blue flames flickering across it’s edge.

Gaia had no choice but to block, having not even the split second of time needed to dodge. Her double-sword caught Hokori’s flaming edge in the center of it’s shaft, and Gaia felt the combined branches forming the canopy beneath her buckle under the force of the blow, even as she stood firm against it. But then Sunset unleashed the azure flames from her sword.

”Aoihi Senko!”

Now empowered by Bankai, the technique struck with a cataclysmic explosion of neon blue fire that shattered part of the tree’s canopy and cut a swath down it’s trunk. Gaia, resisting with all her spiritual might and no small dose of magic, held against the torrent of flame that pushed her down the side of the trunk, and with an animalistic shout of fury that shook the entire tree she shoved back and broke the wave of blue flames.

She’d been pushed about halfway down the tree, the Aoihi Senko having left a black trail down the side of the monolithic edifice of wood. Gaia stood sideways on the trunk, hands painfully burned, the bark of her armor charred, and her anger rising to new heights as her dark eyes widened and her green pupils shrunk to shaking pin pricks.

Sunset heard Gaia’s furious cry and knew the woman would be coming right back at her in no time. Inwardly, Sunset was not half as calm as she was outwardly projecting. Even with Bankai, her Aoihi Senko hadn’t done a lot of damage to Gaia. Pushed her back, sure. Burned her flesh and armor a bit, yes. But damned if Gaia’s power wasn’t still surging.

At this rate, even with Bankai, I can’t take her alone. Damn good thing I’m not alone, then.

Despite the dire situation, things were going about as well as they could. Gaia’s fury was now solely focused on Sunset. She’d apparently all but forgotten that there were other opponents on the field.

Gaia returned like a storm, bursting up through the branches with her hair writhing around her akin to some demonic medusa. The branches she’d animated earlier now all turned and flared with power, pointing towards Sunset Shimmer and all but ignoring the clones, which had been reduced in number by more than a few hits.

“Sunset Shimmmerrr!” Gaia shouted, her hair pointing forward in mirror of the branch's movements. Power crackled around both the pointed ends of her hair, and the branches, and Sunset briefly gulped before Gaia Everfree unloaded a barrage of thin, green and purple flashing Cero beams both from the branches and the tips of her writhing hair.

Sunset flew straight up, bursting from one point to another in blazingly quick Flash Steps. The Cero beams tore up the top canopy of the tree, and followed Sunset in curving paths as Gaia kept trying to adjust her aim and fired off more trying to catch Sunset with one of them. By and large Sunset was fast enough to dodge most of them, but a few beams still managed to converge on her, so she whipped Hikari’s shield around and let the shield’s light flare, forming a spherical barrier of softly glowing spiritual light.

This deflected the beams, but it also caused her to stay in one spot for a moment, more than enough time for Gaia to capitalize on by soaring upward to Sunset’s level. Double-sword whirling with breakneck speed, Gaia struck. Sunset’s barrier cracked, but she didn’t back down, wings of flame spreading a spectrum of fire as she brought her Zanpaktou to bear against the assault. The air vibrated with their clash as both of them filled the sky with waves of force, zipping about and coming together in a storming symphony of strikes and parries that left both combatants as little more than blurs of light and flame.

Blood struck the tree canopy in small spatters as both women broke off from one another for a moment. Each bore slashing wounds upon their bodies now, having lost track of exactly when amid the torrent of attacks either one had injured the other. While Sunset still felt she had the momentary advantage, it was clear that wouldn’t last forever. Gaia was already adapting to Sunset’s new speed and strength, although she was forced to be extremely careful whenever she parried Sunset’s Zanpaktou. Sunset had noticed every time their blades had clashed, Gaia had made sure to pull her blade back in time to avoid Sunset’s Zanpaktou actually penetrating the wood. No doubt to avoid another instance of Sunset laying reiatsu mines in the blade to blow it up.

That was fine. It meant Gaia’s parries were a tad slower than they otherwise would be. Not wanting to let up on the pressure, Sunset didn’t take more than a second to catch her breath before making a move. She used Flash Step to come straight at Gaia, but feinted with a thrust that was never meant to hit as she changed directions and flew beneath the surprised Gaia. She made a cutting motion with Hokori and created a wide sheet of flames that rose up towards Gaia in a dome-shaped wave. Gaia, guessing Sunset was trying to confuse her again and block her vision, made a harsh cutting motion with her own double-sword to generate a pressure wave to scatter the flames.

She spotted Sunset on the tree’s top canopy, her remaining flame clones, four in total, standing around her. Immediately Sunset and the clones began to flicker about the tree, creating a dizzying display that left Gaia trying to pin-point which one was the actual Sunset Shimmer. Then with a harsh laugh, Gaia flung her hand down and made a grasping motion. Why bother trying to decide which Sunset was which when she could attack all of them at once?

Vines and branches filled with spinning thrones that became akin to buzz saws all rose up and rolled around the tree top like a mass of living barbed wire. They struck at every spot upon the tree’s canopy at once, filling the air above it with a dicing web of foliage. The flame clones were snuffed out by the huge area attack, bursting into crackles of white fire, while the real Sunset Shimmer had to defend herself by spinning around and slashing about at high speed with flaming strikes that incinerated the vines and branches coming towards her.

With Sunset exposed, Gaia charged her, coming down with a blink of Sonido that brought her sword slicing in a wide arc at Sunset’s back while the girl was focused on the vines. However, Sunset surprised her again, her wings blasting flame behind them and not only propelling Sunset safely away from the attack, but forcing Gaia to raise her blade in defense against the wing’s jets of fire that scorched her arm.

Then Gaia saw the tell-tale green glow of light beneath her feet and glanced down to see that carved out portions of the tree canopy were igniting with green flame. While she’d been focused on the clones, Sunset had been planting more reiatsu mines!

Gaia launched herself away from a series of detonating pillars of green fire, barely able to escape with a collection of a few more burns on her dark purple skin. She felt Sunset’s reiatsu before the girl appeared behind her, slamming her shield forward at Gaia’s face. Gaia bent back, displaying an incredibly flexible spine as the shield passed within centimeters of her chin. She was at an odd angle, but she still managed to plant her double-sword into the tree canopy for leverage and spun on it like a pole dancer, lashing out with a side kick that impacted with Sunset’s sword arm and sent the girl flying back.

Gaia flipped herself over and landed on her feet, while Sunset planted her own feet into a larger branch at the edge of the canopy and grinded herself to a halt. Sunset still had her grip on her sword, but her arm was twitching, and the armor was dented from Gaia’s kick. The girl’s face was wincing from the pain, but her expression remained resolute. Or rather, as Gaia looked at Sunset, the girl looked like she was smiling in satisfaction?

But why would...?

Gaia’s eyes shot wide as she realized what she’d been forgetting, and practically that same instant the shadows of the tree canopy beneath her feet turned to pure liquid blackness as they rose up around her in a oblong shell of shadow. Luna’s reiatsu, hidden until that moment, was not felt clearly as the Soul Reaper Captain struck as a true Stealth Corps member, taking full advantage of the surprise attack and using her Shikai’s manipulation of shadow to send both her scythes cutting out of the blackness to strike at Gaia from both front and back.

Despite being faster, and having a double sided weapon ideal for defending from multiple angles, Gaia had been taken off guard and felt the bite of Luna’s scythes as one strike cut a line across the back of her shoulder and another took a gouge out of her arm. Not letting up, Luna kept striking from the shadows she’d encased Gaia in, her scythes blending with the darkness to make them even harder to predict and defend against. Even so, Gaia’s speed started to make the difference, her form little more than a purple blur as she spun her double-sword to keep Luna’s scythes at bay.

Meanwhile, outside the shell of shadows, Sunset flew overhead and called out, “Clover? You ready yet?”

“Just about...” came the reply from Clover’s strained voice, a portion of the tree canopy back near where the cocoon Gaia first emerged from was, and next to where Timber Spruce was held in his own cocoon. The air shimmered and fell aside like a curtain made of mirrors, a stealth Kido that Clover had used to hide herself as Gaia had become distracted by Sunset.

On the thick canopy beneath Clover a circle of black ink had been drawn, and Clover had rolled up the sleeves of her Soul Reaper robes to paint geometric patterns of ink on her arms as well. She was holding her hands clasped in front of her, fingers interlocked in a complex sign as she chanted under her breath, the ink on her arms and upon the circle around her now glowing with intense blue light.

”Seek not breath, nor idle thought

Blood stills, the corpse of clay lays dormant

Within void, peace, within death, passion

Awaken ye jailors of the tormented

Bring forth your final chains.”

Suddenly nine identical circles of blue light appeared and surrounded the shadow space where Luna was keeping Gaia occupied, the circles each around ten meters wide. Sunset looked on, a bit amazed at the reiatsu she felt stemming from the Kido that Clover was summoning. She’d known Clover had learned a high level Kido from that Puddinghead fellow, but Sunset was still impressed with what she was feeling.

From the nine circles, forms started to merge amid swaths of blue light, and Clover’s face broke out in a sweat of concentration as she finished her invocation.

Sensing this, Luna knew what was coming, and faded into her shadows, the shell vanishing. She’d kept Gaia occupied just long enough for Clover to shout the final words of the spell.

”Bakudo Number Ninety Five: Kinben'na Chian Hanji no Gyōretsu!” (Procession of Diligent Magistrates)

Gaia was abruptly standing alone, surrounded by the nine circles of light, and thoroughly disoriented by Luna’s sudden disappearance. Yet she still sensed the danger she was now in, but too late to properly react in time. The Kido was already active.

From the circles had risen nine figures, each as tall as twenty feet. They were skeletal forms, yet bore a noble air about them, clad in white and black haori shirt hakama pants that were an inverted coloring to the traditional Soul Reaper clothes. They wore plated suits of samurai armor over these clothes, with simplified helmets bearing no decoration. Their faces of skeletal bone only carried a gleam of light within their eyes, which shone with faded blue wisps in their depths. Their dry death’s fingers clasped massive pole-arms that ended in split, barbed hooks, an ancient weapon for catching criminals called sasumata, used by police in Japan’s Edo period. Even as they’d risen from their summoning circles, the nine skeletal magistrates had already thrust these pole-arms forward in equal motions, and spiraling beams of blue light shot from their points and formed a translucent cube of energy around Gaia. The cube crackled with lines of power, and at each corner of the cube a ghost image of a kanji symbol appeared, eight in total, with a ninth stamping itself upon the top of the cube with a clarion ring of noise like the shutting of an iron prison door.

Lips quivering in fury, Gaia threw out a hand, “This won’t hold me!”

She fired a Bala at the Kido’s wall, but the bullet of reishi struck the barrier and rather than break through, the energy shuddered and then dispersed into the walls of the cage. Frowning, Gaia struck with her double-sword, and gasped as upon impact a small stream of spirit energy was drained out of her and flowed into the barrier.

“What is this!?” she shouted, striking again with similar results.

Sunset Shimmer blinked in surprise at the Kido’s effectiveness and glanced at Clover, “Good question. Just what is this Kido? This is the one Puddinghead taught you, right?”

“Yes,” Clover said, breathing heavily from the effort that the invocation had cost her, “It’s among the strongest Bakudo ever devised, but it’s deceptive in its strength, due to the way it saps spiritual energy from any prisoner’s attempt to batter their way free of it.”

“I’m familiar with this one,” said Luna as the Captain slid out of the shadows next to Sunset and Clover, her eyes keeping a wary gaze upon Gaia as the woman kept trying to smash her way free, so far to no avail. “I could never master it. It’s a testament to your talents, Third Seat Clover, that you were able to do so after such a short instruction period. I feel Captain Starswirl may well owe you a promotion after this.”

Clover gave a bashful glance away, “I can’t fill Lieutenant Meadowbrook’s shoes so easily.”

“Perhaps not, but with Platinum gone, the Sixth Division will need a new Captain, and that Captain a new Lieutenant. Perhaps once a Captain is found, you might consider the possibility,” Luna said, “And it does so happen I’d heard rumors that Fancy Pants was being considered for the position of taking over the Captain’s role for Sixth Division.”

“I...uh... I don’t know what to say to that,” Clover replied, and Sunset cleared her throat loudly.

“Kind of a topic for later anyway. Clover, how long will this Kido hold her?”

Gaia’s attempts to free herself were growing more desperate. Her physical blows started to grow faster and stronger, but so too did the Kido barrier as each strike siphoned more spiritual power from Gaia. Soon the cube was growing in size, and it started to float upwards. The nine skeletal magistrates floated upwards with it, blue cords of energy still flowing from their pole-arms to maintain the barrier. Some of Gaia’s strikes were creating cracks in it, but those cracks repaired themselves almost as fast as they were made.

Still, it was far from certain that the cage could contain Gaia indefinitely, and Clover confirmed this as she said, “I don’t know for sure. This tree is still transferring energy to her, but the Kido is designed to keep getting stronger too. It’ll just keep absorbing reiryoku from her. She can probably still overpower it eventually, but I think it’ll take awhile. Half an hour, maybe?”

“Normally that’s not much time at all, but how soon before we can expect the cavalry to arrive, Luna?” Sunset asked, turning to the Captain.

“Much sooner than half an hour,” Luna replied with a confident smile, “I can all but guarantee my sister will return with reinforcements before that time is up. Furthermore, that should be enough time for I and Captain Sweet Cider to recover a bit, and be more than a proper match for restraining our foe.”

“Right on,” Sunset said, reaching out and clapping Clover on the shoulder, her face brightening up with a warm grin, “We did it, Clover. I owe you.”

“I... thank you, Sunset, that means a lot to me,” Clover replied, unable to stop herself from sharing Sunset’s smile.

Not far away, the cocoon containing Timber Spruce stood. Within it, the boy finally started to stir, and his eyes started to crack open. His vision was blurred, and his memory quite fuzzy. His mouth was dry as sand as he tried to speak.

“G...Glori?”

As his vision started to clear, he felt strange sensations all over his body, and as he looked at himself, seeing the vines burrowing into his skin as he was surrounded by a semi-transparent cocoon of plant matter, he started to shout in fear.

Hearing him, Sunset, Clover, and Luna all turned. Sunset grimaced, “Crap, Timber! Don’t panic, you’re okay!”

“O-okay!? What’s happening!? Where’s my sister!?” Timber was yanking at the vines, trying to pull them out of his body, but given they were burrowed under his skin, this only led to sharp pain that caused him to cry out.

A cry that Gaia heard, and she turned to see her brother in pain, and Sunset Shimmer moving towards him. Her heartbeat started to increase tenfold, and a sense of overwhelming protectiveness and desperation flowed through her as she perceived a threat to her kin.

“Timber, calm down,” Sunset said, trying to make her voice soothing as she reached him and put a hand on his chest, setting aside her sword for a moment, and rather forgetting what she looked like in Bankai form. He looked at her in confusion and fear, which made perfect sense considering she rather appeared to be on fire. In his confusion he could only stammer.

“G-get away from me!”

His voice pierced through Gaia and Gloriosa’s combined mine and ignited a deep seeded fury and desire to protect that was rooted in a mutual sense of loss. Gaia’s pure hatred of Chrysalis surged up in a dark tide, her mind seeing the deaths of all her followers she’d loved at the hands of one she’d once tried to trust. Gloriosa could only feel the love she’d had for her only surviving family and the promise she’d made to keep both him and their home safe, no matter the cost, and the natural anger that came with the thought of all of that being under threat.

Spiritual energy rose within them, but couldn’t batter down the Kido that was containing them, as all of that power kept getting absorbed to reinforce the cage’s bonds. But Gaia realized she had another power to draw upon, a source of energy that thus far had appeared to be quite inexhaustible, and more importantly of a kind the Kido holding her wasn’t designed to absorb and make use of.

Magic.

She reached a hand down to her midriff where the seven geodes resided, and with a deep, guttural cry, she drew forth as much magic as she could from them. She cut off any magic she’d been sending through the ritual and instead drank deeply of the magic herself. At first Gaia tried purely to force it, but the part of her that was Gloriosa, that had made more use of the magic within the geodes before merging with Gaia, instead knew instinctively to call upon the magic. In her mind, in her soul, her need was great, and the magic always responded to that kind of need in the past.

Sunset knew something was wrong almost instantly. She turned from the frightened Timber as she felt the entire tree shake, and saw the tree’s branches all light up at once with deep purple and green light. Sunset’s heart lurched and she felt a strange point of pain in her chest, as if something inside her was crying out. She looked at Gaia, and saw that the entire Kido spell’s cube was filling with a blinding combination of flickering green and purple hues, all tinged with darkness as magical power poured out of the geodes and through Gaia’s body.

For Sunset there was little doubt of what was about to happen. She’d experienced it herself when she’d transformed with Twilight’s crown, and she’d witnessed it with the birth of Midnight Sparkle. Dark magic, the form of magic responding to desperate, dark emotions, was rushing from Gaia in a powerful wave. The magic from the geodes was filling her, a replacement for the spiritual energy she’d otherwise have tried to use to free herself. And somehow, Sunset could see one of the geodes flashing red in the darkness, as if it was calling to her, and she realized the cry of pain was not just from herself, but from the geode.

“Gloriosa! Stop!” she shouted, “The magic is going to overtake your mind at this rate!”

Clover stared in horror as the Kido’s walls started to crack, “Not good. The Kido can’t absorb magic. If this keeps up she’ll be out in minutes.”

“Faster than that,” Luna muttered darkly, readying her scythes as the cracks forming across the Kido’s barrier increased three fold and lines of crackling violet magic started to break free in beams that filled the sky.

Sunset grabbed her Zanpaktou and flew up towards the Kido, trying to call out to Gloriosa once more, but there was a stupendously air shattering explosion of magic and spiritual force that finally ripped the Kido apart, scattering both the cube of blue light and the surrounding magistrates. Sunset felt like she was hit by a cinder block to the gut by the resulting reiatsu, but worse the suffocating sensation of out of control magic pressing upon her.

The disorientating pulsations of magical light and swirling chaotic energies blanketed the tree top, fading only gradually and leaving crackling forks of green and purple lightning sparking through the air around Gaia Everfree. Sunset blinked to clear her vision and held her shield and sword ready, gazing at the silhouette in front of her.

Down below Captain Luna grit her teeth and Clover starred in pale amazement.

Timber Spruce, frozen stiff with fear and confusion, looked towards the being hovering in the air and while she may not have held the same appearance as the sister he knew, he still recognized her, perhaps from pure brotherly instinct.

“Gloriosa?”

A hand clad in dark green leaves with a metallic sheen, and ending in a hand bearing bone white claws, grasped the handle of a now longer double-blade of bleached white wood. The weapon’s ends were now wider and bore a deeper curve, lined with vine-like veins of pulsing green light.

“Yes, Timber, I’m here,” said Gaia, her voice unchanged, unlike her body.

Metallic green vines wrapped her form in cords of armoring, including up to her neck, while thicker growths of white bark formed plates across her chest and shoulders, all sprouting large thorns that gleamed like metal under the sunlight. Her lower body was surrounded by a large purple rose, as if her legs were sinking into the plant, which in turn grew down in a large, white bulb that in turn trailed off into a wriggling mass of several dozen root-like tubes that in turn were capped by large thorn-blades that glowed with more veins of green magical light. Two curved, thorn-like branches of metallic white bark grew from her back, and smaller thorns grew down her spinal cord. Her hair now moved like a living thing around her, grown longer and now bearing smaller purple roses like the one her body grew down into. Almost every inch of Gaia now exuded a continuous resonating aura of magical light that flicked between dark hues of green, purple, and outright black. The geodes remained embedded in her stomach, but each one was now surrounded by an aura of black magic that connected them all in a circle, almost like a Hollow’s hole.

Her eyes, at least, hadn’t changed, still with verdant green pupils on fields of black. Those eyes now regarded Sunset Shimmer, and Sunset could see the mad fury within them, stark in contrast to the calm tone of Gaia’s voice.

“Be a friend, and help me test this out, would you?”

“Gloriosa, I-” Sunset almost didn’t see Gaia move, and was only able to do so because she hadn’t actually dropped her guard and had been prepared to Flash Step away the instant she sensed an attack coming. Even then, she felt that enlarged double-sword’s edge scrape one of the thinner portions of her armor, nearly cutting through despite Sunset dodging backwards from the wickedly fast blow.

She wasn’t able to react fast enough to the way two of the thorn-tipped vines beneath the rose of Gaia’s lower body snapped out even faster than the sword strike had been and wrapped around Sunset’s ankles, yanking her down and throwing her to the tree top canopy with enough force to break the sound barrier.

Sunset used her shield to absorb some of the impact, but was still rattled, and had to take a moment to control herself as she broke through several layers of branches and almost smacked into the tree’s central trunk. Grunting, and biting back the pain, she flung herself back up, to find Gaia hadn’t moved and seemed to just be waiting for her.

“Not quite the same as my old Resurreccion from my Zanpaktou, Tierra Esteril, but I rather like it,” Gaia said, cracking her neck, “Hehehe, this magic is so... wonderful feeling. I could kill anyone with this.”

“Magic...” Clover breathed, “She drew on so much magic, it must have filled the part of her spiritual makeup where her Zanpaktou would normally be, and activated some kind of... magic-based Resurreccion.”

“Ooooh, nice theory, Soul Reaper,” Gaia said, laughing with a high pitched, off kilter tone, “Should we give it a snappy name!? Resurreccion Arcana? Mmm, I suppose it doesn’t matter. Not as if any of you are going to live to talk about it. Oh, except you, Timber. I’d never hurt you. In fact... let’s get you fixed up faster, shall we?”

“Glori, what’s going on!? I don't understand!” Timber said, his voice filled with fright as the cocoon he was in closed around him it started to sink, along with him, into the depths of the tree.

“Damn it Gloriosa, listen to me! You have to stop this!” Sunset said, her wings of fire flaring into thick bursts of propelling flame that sent her smashing straight towards Gaia.

Her flamberge crashed with titanic force and an explosion of concentrated fire into Gaia’s sword as the woman met Sunset’s attack. Flames burned around Gaia and broke around her aura, although Sunset’s strength wasn’t immediately overmatched as she pressed hard with her sword arm and then spun around and lashed out with her shield.

Three of Gaia’s thorn-vines rose up and struck like snakes, the thorns clashing point first with the shield and halting it dead. Sunset took the energy of that blow and transferred it to her blade, intensifying the flames shooting out of it and trying to concentrate the heat around the edge of her sword.

She still had one technique left available to her that she hadn’t used yet. She hadn’t come close to mastering it, however. She’d need more energy to work with to do it properly, more heat.

Luna and Clover cease to be idle, however, Clover rushing to chase after Timber Spruce, while Luna flew up into the sky, vanishing with several Flash Steps to rise behind Gaia and raise her scythes to bring them down at Gaia’s back, shadows sharpening around the scythes like hungry mouths.

The two large thorns on Gaia’s back grew and bent like putty, and their tips shone with strobes of green and purple light, as if being encased in destructive energies like a Cero, but not firing out but instead becoming sheaths of deadly magic and spirit energy. Luna was left contending with the two living thorns smirking at her at such speeds they essentially were a legion of blows. The Captain's scythes moved almost as fast, and their shadow wrapped blades held the assault at bay, at least for a few moments. One of her injuries from her fight with Adagio chose that instant to send a terrible lance of pain through Luna, causing her defenses to falter by just a millisecond, but more than enough of an opening for one of Gaia's super-charged back thorns to slip through and slice across Luna's chest with an impact that sent Luna plummeting into the tree canopy, smashing headlong into one of the thicker branches.

“Luna!” Sunset called, but had no time to check to see if the Captain was okay, since Gaia shoved hard with her blade, putting such strength into it that Sunset felt like she’d just been hammered by a meteor. Her armored feet dragged across the air as she halted herself, but found Gaia not giving her a hair’s breadth to recover, sending her lower thorn vines after her in a swarm.

Sword cleaving at the thorn vines, Sunset readied her shield and started to dodge about in bursts of flame born Flash Steps, but intentionally let a few of the thorn vines get past her blade so her shield could intercept them. She needed to build up more energy, and fast.

Gaia may have realized what Sunset was doing, however, because she pulled the vines back and instead came forward herself, taking Sunset off guard with just how fast that awkward looking body could move as she rammed right into Sunset. The blow staggered her and shook her in her armor, and cleared the breath from her lungs. In her daze, she saw Gaia’s blade coming right for her throat.

Then a bolt of lightning fell from the sky and met with Gaia, lighting the woman up in a incandescent blaze of blue.

“Guh!” Gaia stumbled back, briefly stunned, and looked upward, just in time for several blasts of gold energy to impact with her back as a sound like the world’s largest revolver went off, and something in gleaming gold soared past the woman.

Gaia turned to follow the form and looked ready to charge a Cero with a raised hand, but then a swarm of crystalline red weapons came from below and struck at her, scoring marks across her armor and causing Gaia to fire the Cero downward instead, although they hit nothing as the crystal weapons had flown up on their own while their creator was elsewhere.

“Sunset, darling, it looks like you might need the assistance of a professional gardener. The foliage around here has gotten clearly out of hand.”

“Ain’t the time fer quippin’, this gal’s clearly short a’ few nails in her barn door.”

“AJ, what does that even mean?”

Before Gaia could properly target her new assailants, a echo of giggling laughter filled the air and a pink balloon floated up in front of her face, with a cake tied to it’s string that had white and purple frosting with lettering that red ‘Happy Boss Day: Be Beating You Soon.’ The cake then exploded in Gaia’s face in a shower of spirit energy that burst like confetti.

“Just in time for the party. Oh, or maybe fashionably late? Is Luna alright?”

A soft gold light flared from below as a gentle voice called out, “She's injured but I've stopped the bleeding, I believe. It seems we have a bigger problem to handle before I can finish healing her.”

“ARGGGH!” Gaia roared, “Where did all of you come crawling out of!?”

A blue arrow of reishi, surrounded by a faint glow of teal magic, shot past Sunset and impacted with Gaia’s chest, driving her back a step.

“Gloriosa, I’m sorry I didn’t understand the danger of those geodes, but I promise you, I’m here to help make things right.”

Sunset looked around her, her breath catching, her heart suddenly feeling a hundred times lighter as she saw who was now stepping forward to join her on either side.

“Guys... you’re all here...” she said.

“O’ course we are!” said Applejack, hefting her drill cannon over her shoulder and pounding her chest with an armored fist, “Ain’t no way, now or ever, we’re gonna let our friend hang in the wind!”

“I mean, I know you’re awesome enough to probably have taken this crazy chick alone,” said Rainbow Dash, electricity sparking from all around her as she spun her spear and gave Sunset a wink, “But you won’t mind us getting a few hits in too, right?”

“Captain Luna will be okay, at least,” said Fluttershy, surrounded by an aura of golden, spiritual arms and hands that all took up ready defensive stances, “Although I don't know how she kept moving with all of those wounds. She's passed out from blood loss at the moment, but I stabilized her. How about you, Sunset? Are you all right?”

“I’m... heh, doing better now, with you all here,” Sunset replied, and Pinkie bounced up next to her, the white mask hiding half of her face shifting sides and turning black.

“Looks like you were trying to have all the fun without us, but I won't hold that against you, this lady looks like real pain in the ass,” said Pinkamena, the mask turning white again as Pinkie added, “But now that we’re all here we can make it even funner! Oh, did you see my new hammer?”

“I did. Very nifty,” Sunset said, and turned to look at the massive red gate that had appeared behind them, her eyes shifting to Rarity, “Yours?”

Rarity nodded, and Sunset couldn’t help but note she didn’t meet Sunset’s eyes fully, despite adopting a confident smile, “Why yes it is, and just wait until I show you what lies beyond it. Of course we do have the pressing matter of Miss Daisy to deal with.”

“Yes,” said Twilight Sparkle, hanging a bit back from the others, but slowly stepping up towards Sunset while she kept her eyes fixated on the seething Gaia Everfree.

“Whatever happens, we have to finish this, and make sure no more harm comes to anyone,” Twilight finished firmly, and Sunset nodded.

“We will. Together, we will, Twilight, everyone.”

With that, Sunset turned to Gaia, with her friends flanking her on either side. The human fused with an Arrancar faced them with magic still pouring from her transformed body in a powerful torrent, madness and rage equally filling her eyes as she faced down the seven girls from Canterlot City.

Author's Note:

The final battle of the Everfree arc has begun. One pissed off camp counselor fused with an even more pissed off ancient Hollow versus seven super powered high school girls. This will be the first time all seven of the girls have been together for a fight since... heck, I think it was when Sunset first used Shikai? Been a long time, one way or the other. If this were a manga, Sunset standing with all of her friends against Gaia would definitely be a double-page spread.

Hope you folks are enjoying and thanks for reading, and as always I appreciate any and all comments, questions or critiques. 'Till next time!

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