Crossworlds Guardian, Sailor Orbital!

by Masterweaver

Dangerous Energy Feeder! Woe of the Munarin.

For a brief moment, Ditzy's brain got jammed trying to decide between dinosaur and amazon when defining the creature. Its red eyes snapped to her, and she ended up settling for something else entirely that happens to be LUNGING AT ME!

Instinctively she brought up the purifier, batting away the thing's odd hands (claws?) and rolling under its orange arm. It contorted around, hissing through jagged jaws as it tracked her--and then the odd fronds on the side of its head twitched, and it spun around to swipe at Kikai.

"Kyrre!" The cat struggled in the creature's grip. "Put me down! 放して！Kerva nirani!"

The creature's tail swished as it extracted the small rod from Kikai's paws. "...Munarin..."

Ditzy narrowed her eyes, taking a careful stance. "Okay, put the cat down now." She didn't flinch with the thing twisted its odd spine to look at her. "Yeah, I'm still here."

"Krrrchari skrevanorin Ningen criv?" The pointed... things on the creature's shoulders began to roll, as it let out a hissing laugh. "Skrith!"

"I do not understand what it is saying," Kikai gasped. "I cannot--"

"Zrkvin carvenchi?" came a new voice, hissing up from the other side of the gate.

"Clarchivnor merquin clrch!" the creature shouted down. "Vaucoi sler crevma cernis Munarin!"

"Munarin?!"

"Veriqe Skrith!"

A blue head poked of the gate--a head with the same fronds and jagged jaw as the creature holding Kikai, but much more human in proportion. The pupilless yellow eyes widened. "Ningen.... veriqe Skrith!"

"Okay, I'm amazing," Ditzy allowed. "Now why don't we all calm down and--"

"Clarvin! Noerkth moraq crey carri!" The blue head retracted, footsteps rushing away.

The orange creature grinned sadistically, turning its attention back to the feline in its grasp. "Clervencharit, Munarin, skarin vorex va?"

Even through the helmet, Kikai's terror was palpable. "Oh stardust I'm going to die I'm going to--"

Ditzy narrowed her eyes and flung herself at the creature, wrapping her wand around the thick neck. It did nothing to disable the massive being, but apparently it was enough to startle it into dropping what it held into the ring. Its neck snapped around--this close she could see the strange markings on its forehead--and it snarled angrily at her.

"...I did not think this through."

The creature reached back and grabbed her by the boots, ripping her from its back and tossing her against the domed wall. She landed in a crouch, blindly kicking herself sideways to avoid its jump--and flinching as her attempt to trigger her lightbow only rewarded her with a lance of heat. "What--?"

"Mmmmrnnngh. Oh... stardust..."

"Kikai?" Right, the helmet had radio--the helmet! Ditzy slapped a hand to the back of her neck, feeling the uniform's collar. "Crap. Wait." She glanced at the sharp points on her purifier. "That could work."

"Miss Doo? Miss Doo!" The feline's voice returned. "I can see the control rod, but--"

Ditzy only just managed to dodge an orange swipe. "Bring it back up, I'll handle ugly!" She slipped forward, swinging her rod--a bit too much, accidentally spinning into a backwards headbutt. "Ow!"

The creature reeled back, clutching at the broken remains of a few of its fangs. "Skrith verin charit!"

That... hadn't been what Ditzy intended, but it seemed to work. Ditzy quickly whipped off her helmet while it was distracted, pushing her purifier against the back of her neck and carefully puncturing the uniform's collar. Her eyes screwed up more than usual as she tried to rip a small gash open as quickly as possible, and she let a triumphant cry out when she felt air against the feathers on the back of her neck--

--and then a startled shout as she rolled to the side to dodge the creature's fists (two thumbs! That was why the hands looked weird!). She gave it a cheeky grin as it snapped its eyes to her, and triggered her lightbow again--this time, the grey arc came to life swiftly, shunting her just out of range of the orange grip before she twirled into the air and hovered.

"Yeah that's right!" Ditzy jeered at its nonplussed face. "I've got all sorts of tricks, and I'm not afraid to--ow!" She rubbed her head, glaring behind her. "Right. Low ceiling. Forgot."

"Ningen vez carich margini..."

"Anyway, yeah!" Ditzy waved her purifier at it threateningly. "Keep looking at me! I'm totally the most dangerous thing here and am not secretly panicking and reconsidering this course of action!" She frowned. "...also, apparently I'm in a post-modern parody. Why am I rambling? I'm usually pretty quiet--"

The symbols on the creature's face lit up, and a glowing chain manifested in the creature's grip. It glanced at the weapon with an odd expression--then it grinned at the girl and flung it at her. She spiraled sideways with a startled squeak, but the creature merely flicked its wrist and wrapped the links around her ankle. With a yank, she was pulled in close enough for it to grab her--her face was inches from the gaping maw, the long tongue twitching as foul breath bathed her cheeks.

"Okay, this is bad." Ditzy struggled in the creature's grasp, trying to use her unique power to maybe twist a few dimensions, but an odd lethargy seemed to overcome her. Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw her lightbow flicker and shrink. "Oh, that's very bad."

A scrabbling sound caught her attention, and she caught sight of Kikai clambering out of the Gate. The armored feline took one look at her and gasped. "Miss Doo!"

That had the unfortunate effect of getting the creature's attention. Its neck snapped around, red eyes glaring.

In that moment, freed of the creature's draining effect, Ditzy realized she had to act. With great effort, she swung her purifier and jabbed the pointed tips into her adversary's skin.

The creature roared, yanking her out of range as it swung its thick tail at the armored feline. Kikai dodged with a yelp, rolling to the side. "That chain--it is Vaucoi! But that means--"

"SKARVEN MUNARIAN DAREICLA SKRITH VEE!"

Kikai jumped back as the creature whirled around. "Miss Doo! Your purifier!"

Ditzy didn't think. She swung the wand in her hand around, pointed the crescent at the creature's face, and press the button hard.

A line of glowing energy formed between the crescent tips, swirling into a sphere of light in the curve before shooting out as a great beam of rippling brightness. The creature shrieked and dropped her, falling back as its skin wrinkled and twisted like melting plastic; lines of green and purple formed on the surface, glowing more and more intensely as it wailed and scrabbled at itself. The shining crescendoed into a vague outline of the beast, before suddenly bursting outward; when Ditzy managed to blink away the flash, her eyes fell on the pile of orange dust, all that remained of her assailant.

"...Oh my god. Oh my god."

"Stardust." Kikai took a breath. "That was... that was a corrupted Vaucoi..."

"It had boobs. Was it a girl?" Ditzy let out a breath. "Oh my god I think I just killed a girl."

"How did it get corrupted? The Vaucoi are supposed to be smarter than--"

The sound of footsteps got their attention, and they looked at the ring in shock.

"Switch the Gate!" Ditzy shouted. "Switch the Gate now!"

"Right!" Kikai jumped for the control rod, jamming it into the ring. "This should only take a moment, it's a very easy--"

"JUST SWITCH IT I CAN SEE THEM!"

"I AM! I AM I--"

The runes on the ring glowed, the image within shimmering and warping. Ditzy swore she could see ominous yellow eyes looking up at her for the briefest of instants--and then let out a sigh of relief as a sidewalk and gravel road wavered into being.

"...am." Kikai let out a breath. "Okay. Now. I... I am going to get... everything out of the storage spheres that I can. And load it... into my pocket gem." The feline looked at her. "Could you... perhaps help me with that?"

"Huh?"

"Carrying things." A paw gestured at her vambraces. "The uniform comes with pockets, after all."

"Oh. Oh, I... yeah." Ditzy nodded. "I... we should... yeah. Let's do that, and then... we'll figure out where on Earth this Gate goes..." Standing up, the teen took a moment to brace herself against the wall. "That... that just happened. Yeah."

"Yes. It did. I... am sorry for that, miss Doo, I did not know..."

"No. It's... it wasn't your fault." With a deep breath, she wandered over to one of the spheres and put her hands on it. "Okay, so, does this just open when I think 'open' at it or..."

With a hum, the sphere collapsed into nothingness and released a mass of discs and other devices at least twice as big as it had been.

Kikai blinked in surprise. "That is... miss Doo, do you have some form of magical ability?"

"Yeah. Actually all humans do, what with the Saturation and all."

"The Saturation?"

Ditzy shrugged. "Like I said, it's a long story. It happened..." She paused, doing some mental calculations. "...wow. Has it been a year already? Anyway, basically the universe was going to explode, and Sunset Shimmer stopped it by... I'm not clear on the details, but now magic is back and we've all got some super powers."

"Really?"

"Yep. For instance..." With a mischievous grin, Ditzy activated her lightbow and levitated off the ground. "Ta-daaaah!"

"Hmm. Well. That... is certainly fascinating." Kikai tapped the surface of their helmet. "It would explain why the Vaucoi was able to drain you so easily--"

"Drain?"

"Yes. Vaucoi are known to feed on magic and incorporate it into themselves." The feline shrugged. "It was harmless, back before I went into my containment, but... if they filled themselves with tainted magic, they might have grown less careful or more..."

Their voice trailed off.

"...More sadistic?" Ditzy offered.

"How could they have fallen so far?" Kikai whispered. "They were one of the greatest allies of the Munarin kingdom. What dark force have they joined with to become such monstrosity? How did it corrupt them so quickly?"

"Quickly?" Ditzy frowned. "What do you mean quickly?"

Kikai took a breath and, after a moment, tapped a bead on their armor, letting the uniform sparkle back into the form of a disc. "When we sense magic fading from the world, those Munarin who were on your planet voluntarily entered confinement. Nullstorms are rare, but not outside the realm of probability; it would take a few years, perhaps a decade or two, before we would need to be released."

"Oh." Ditzy bit her lip. "Wow. Uh... Kikai. I don't know how to tell you this, but... we've got records going back centuries, and while I can't be sure, I'm pretty certain that any magic before Sunset Shimmer would have to have happened... maybe a millennium ago."

"What?"

"To be honest, we didn't even think magic was real until after the Saturation. And that was because there was magic from another reality seeping in, and..." Ditzy shrugged, awkwardly. "I... guess I didn't ever really think about where we got our fantasy stories, anyway."

Kikai stared at her. "But... but that would mean..." Slowly, the feline turned to stare at the Gate. "That... oh stardust. Oh stardust."

The teen glanced around for a moment. Then she leaned down, picking up the feline gently and wrapping her in a hug. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

"My clan... my siblings, my mates..." Kikai choked back a sob. "My, my kits..."

"I... I really am sorry, Kikai. I don't know what to say."

The quiet, simple mewling of the alien cat, and the gentle murmurs of the grey-skinned teenager petting them down, joined the constant thrum of the Gate and the runes around it.

Comments

[Malandy]

For a brief moment, Ditzy's brain got jammed trying to decide between dinosaur and amazon when defining the creature. Its red eyes snapped to her, and she ended up settling for something else entirely that happens to be LUNGING AT ME!

Interesting Opening!

Ningen

Human... in Japanese...

Stardust

That's an interesting curse... Perhaps as a reference to vaporization making what is effectively stardust, as all comes from stardust and all will return to stardust... Or a religious curse thing, as everything comes from stardust...

... Wait, did the Vacuoi turn into stardust, which is that orange dust, after being vaporized?

... That's a sad ending, if the Kikai's thoughts are true... But Is she the only one who survived the millennium? ... No, wait, she was one of the ones who stayed, her family and clan, I guess they didn't go into stasis.

Hmm... I guess the Vacuoi have been eating Equestrian magic?

It's been a year. Huh...

wrapping her wand around the thick neck.

Do you mean choking it? 'Cause wrapping makes it sound like the wand is bendy and is sort of forced to conform to the neck's shape...

More discs = More costumes...

Typos:

JUST SWITCH IT(!)

press(ed) the button

monstrosity -> monstrosities

sense(d)

[FanOfMostEverything]

Thanks for setting this a year after Oversaturation. That should be plenty of time to work with for anything I might have Ditzy do.

In any case, very thrilling second chapter, with a nicely bittersweet ending. I look forward to seeing where you go from here. Especially now that humanity represents a banquet to the Vaucoi.

[Masterweaver]

7646837

Well, it has been almost a year since the final chapter was published.

[FanOfMostEverything]

7646840
Oh wow. It has, hasn't it?

[shirotora]

Well, that was a depressing way to end this chapter. Now I'm sad, ya jerk

[mastermenthe]

Now that ive read all the shorts you and FOME made i am LOVING this excursion!

Tracking!

[Malandy]

Oh, forgot to comment on the names for the Aliens...

Munarin relates to Moon? Vacuoi relate to Vacuum, as in Vaccum of space and their being Vaccummers of magic? ... It's Vaucoi. Not Vacuoi. So that's another theory-thing down...

[My name is R]

"It had boobs. Was it a girl?" Ditzy let out a breath. "Oh my god I think I just killed a girl."

And that is significant because...?
Really, I think the gender of the person trying to kill you is irrelevant. Plus, for all we know among Vaucoi the females are traditionally the warriors. I can think of several real life species where the females are larger and stronger on average. The whole paragraph made me sad.

[UrsaMajor]

Ditzy didn't think. She swung the wand in her hand around, pointed the crescent at the creature's face, and press the button hard.

pressed

When we sense magic fading from the world, those Munarin who were on your planet voluntarily entered confinement.

sensed