Sundered Universes

by Super Ponyman

Chapter 6: Luna's Inquiry

Author's Note:

I am doing two chapters back to back because Brady is a bit busy.

(Edited 1/30/18: Revised and wrote down missing lines. I hate it when things get lost in the format switching.)

So last time, Midnight Sparkle recruited the Pony of Shadows to her side...

Also a mysterious pony appeared and scared Celestia!

But today, Luna looks into the dreams of the three otherworldly beings to find out more about them, mainy... can they be trusted?

Oh yeah, gore warning here.

(Canterlot Castle, Guest Room)

Despite what Burning Star thought of Celestia, she was nothing but civil with him. He was shocked, to say the least.

He had just yelled at the princess, called her names he didn't wish to repeat now, and then stomped off. How was he not being blasted apart?

How tolerant was this Celestia?

Despite that tolerance, He still hated her, hated her with a passion... but he kept it to himself... for now.

Last thing he would want would be a blade through his skull courtesy of Freedom Fighter or any of the Guardians of the Sun.

Especially after seeing Freedom brutally end the life of that Nightmare Moon construct.

The room that the Princesses provided was an old servants room, fortunately, the beds were large enough to withstand the sheer size of Burning Star.

Everypony slept somewhat peacefully in their beds, dreaming of different things.

Princess Luna, being the governor of the Dream realm, missed the giant scene Burning Star made and was curious to find out about these three, and thus entered their dreams.

(Hiller's Dream, Manehattan)

Hiller stood atop the Equestrian State Building's balcony. Looking out over his home, even in a dream, was a pleasure he rarely got.

Luna appeared next to him and said, "So, this is your home, the other world's Manehattan? Seems a lot smaller than our Manehattan..."

Hiller turned around to speak to the Alicorn of Night, a hint of surprise in his voice from seeing the Night Alicorn standing behind him. "Yeah. This is Manehattan from nearly 2 decades ago... I'm having a flashback, Princess. I get these from time to time. I'm guessing you are here to chat? Find out more about the three of us since we didn't get properly introduced during our fight against that Nightmare Moon clone thing?"

Luna smiled, but spoke with a little unease in her voice, "Yes, your friends are quite powerful and since Celestia didn't get much of an explanation, I came to find out. I see you have powers, Hill Taker. Is this flashback because of your powers? You absorb life forms, you must also absorb their memory and experience as well. At least that's what I can find out from what's going on in your mind. right now."

Hiller suddenly turned around and growled, "What the hell are you doing poking around in my head?!" He created a set of his Viral Claws and pointed one of them at Luna, "No offense, Princess... but that is bucking rude!"

Luna responded as calmly as she could, trying to ignore the jagged claws protruding from Hiller's front hooves. "I am sorry, but it is my job as the guardian of dreams to protect ponies from their nightmares. And I'm guessing you're having one right now."

Hiller saw a pony jump from a window below him and start gliding with their hooves out, heading for the top of the train terminal. He had a little Earth Pony filly in a fleshy web of Tendrils on his back.

Hiller roared, "That's Mercury Blackhoof! He is the reason I'm like this! Come on, follow me after him!"

Luna asked the mutated pony, "Why should I follow you? I cannot change dreams, and If this is a flashback, then you can't do anything about it."

Hiller ignored Luna and jumped from the balcony and glided after the hooded pony, his eyes burning with hate.

Luna saw him soar off and she flew after him, following him from a distance. Saying to herself, "I hope this doesn't end poorly for Hiller."

The pair of ponies weaved between buildings and construction sites, dodging steel girders and concrete walls, Luna dived out of the way of an apartment building, Hiller crashed through the wall and began to run through the hallway at breakneck speed.

Luna watched in amazement as Hiller crashed wall after wall, then through the other side of the building and he landed on the roof of Grand Stable Station.

(Grand Stable Station, Rooftop)

She watched from above as Hiller tackled the hooded pony to the ground, then was thrown off him quite violently with a cannonball kick from the hooded ponies back legs.

Luna made herself invisible and hid behind a statue, it started to rain down hard, and the skies turned red, almost as if the two ponies that were about to clash were being cheered on by some heavenly being.

She heard the hooded pony that was called Mercury Blackhoof speak, it was a dull and groaning voice. "You just don't give up, do you? You take out the best of my evolved ponies, you stop the Whitehoof Project, you ruined everything I tried to do! And yet, you still want to kill me, even though I am so much stronger than you, Hiller."

Luna heard Hiller respond in a very angry voice, sending a chill down her spine.

"I have had enough of your f--king weird, f--king rambling, sh-t! Give me my daughter, now!"

Luna heard Mercury respond, "No. her genes are unchanged by my virus, they act as antibodies to it. If I let her go, she will destroy us!"

Hiller responded in kind, "I don't give a damn about our powers! I just want her back, now!"

Luna peered out from behind her hiding spot to see Mercury rear Up and stand on his back legs, Hiller did the same.

Mercury snarled, "Well then, let's get this over with then shall we?"

Luna watched in a combination of fear and intrigue as Mercury turned his right leg into a giant gulliotine-like blade, Hiller turned his hooves into claws, and the two lunged at each other.

Luna continued to watch the battle, Hiller stopped short and turned his hooves into large shields lined with Spikes, he parryed his opponent's Blade like how somepony would parry a sword, and spikes emerged from the shield, punching holes in Mercury's hide.

Hiller then ran up and picked Mercury, before jumping into the air and piledriving his head into the ground. The hooded pony made a sickening crunch as his body hit the

She heard him say, "That wiped that smirk off your face now didn't it?"

Mercury retaliated by spinning like a top, cutting into Hiller, spilling blood from a large wound, it healed almost instantly.

Mercury responded to Hiller's taunt, "Oh I'm sorry, did I hit you?"

Hiller changed up his attack and turned his right hoof into a bladed whip, which he lashed Mercury with, saying "You keep hopping around, I'm going to rip your spine out of your mouth."

Mercury responds with his own snarky comment, "You really are a crude pony, aren't you?"

Luna saw Hiller finally bring Mercury to his knees, Hiller turned his hooves into giant hammers and smashed them down on Mercury's skull.

He said, "You should have stayed home!" Before tossing him to the edge of the rooftop.

Luna watched as Mercury and Hiller clashed again, this time with Mercury using the whip, and Hiller using the blade.

Mercury shot his whip into the side of a building, ripping a large piece off it, he yelled. "HERE, Catch!"

Hiller jumped over the chunk of concrete and glass saying, "Too slow, asshole!" And the fight resumed, both ponies showing no signs of exhaustion.

Hiller landed a series of slashes with his blade and said, "Getting rusty are we?"

He spun into Mercury like a top, nearly cleaving him in half, "B--tch! You got nothing on me!"

Eventually, Hiller once again brought Mercury to his knees, and Hiller impaled him on the massive blade, before slamming it down with a massive chop, sending his opponent flying back. He roared at his opponent, "How you like me now, you emo F--k?!"

Mercury cried out into the air, and a swarm of what Luna assumed were giant birds dive bombed Hiller.

Then Luna saw something incredibly disturbing,

Hiller got to his knees, slammed his hooves down on the floor to brace himself, and then he just... exploded into giant spears of flesh that destroyed all the birds.

The two clashed again, with Mercury using the hammer hooves and Hiller using his Tendrils and Whip to pin his opponent down and lash him over and over.

Luna saw Mercury finally collapse to his knees, and Hiller speared him with the end of the Blades whip, before dragging him towards him.

Luna felt like she was going to be sick, Hiller then severed Mercury's front hooves, and severed them again, and severed them one more time, until they stopped regenerating.

Then Hiller turned his hooves into claws, and slashed Mercury to ribbons... spraying the surrounding area with blood, even Luna was covered in it.

She made herself visible again, and said, "So... you murdered that pony... to get your daughter back?"

Hiller responded to Luna's question, "Yeah. But he didn't stay dead, we had to lock him up, and I was locked up as well. I would do anything to be with my daughter, she is living with a new military friend of mine, Colonel Rooks."

Luna felt her presence being demanded elsewhere, and she said to Hiller. "I was wrong, you may have the powers of a monster, but you're not a monster."

Luna took off to another ponies dreams, the dream realm of Quickfire.

(Quickfire's Dream, Castle Nevermore (Burning Star's world))

Luna arrived in Quickfire's Dream, feeling the assassin was deeply troubled by something.

She was in a massive black and red castle, it bore a symbol she never thought she would see again.

It was two sickly green eyes with a red horn, the sign of King Sombra.

Luna thought to herself, "So... King Sombra must still be alive or was resurrected. Where am I?"

Luna heard a bang from the giant obsidian doors, and turned herself invisible to hide.

The doors finally crumbled and a single Alicorn walked in, she was staring at two unicorns at the seat of the throne room.

One of them was Quickfire, the other was King Sombra.

What Luna didn't realize about the Alicorn right away was that she was seeing Midnight Sparkle!

Midnight smirked and said, "Well, Well... I've finally found you, Sombra. How long has it been since you showed your evil face? 20 years? No matter, you aren't going to stop me!"

Luna heard King Sombra snap back, "Well, at least I still have my standards. Killing innocent ponies because you heard them speak out against you... even I'm not that heartless!"

Quickfire said to the Shadow King, "I'm ready to be sent back, can you Come?"

Sombra ignited his horn, "I can't, you have to go alone, Quickfire. I will hold her off as long as I can!"

Quickfire yelled, "No! I'm not leaving you behind Som-"

King Sombra roared, "Go! Just go!"

Luna saw Midnight charge up a spell that she thought that only Tirek could use.

The dreaded Horn Hyper Beam!

King Sombra unleashed a stream of purple lightning on Midnight, blocking her Blast and holding it back, he was looking back as Quickfire jumped through the portal and it slammed shut.

He then stopped the attack and was disintegrated by the beam.

Midnight ran over to the ritual Circle and screamed, "No! I will have the last laugh, Sombra! Quickfire will never succeed! Hahaha!"

Midnight teleported away and Luna heard the voice of Quickfire from behind her.

"Still think King Sombra is a monster, Luna? You're Dream reading skills are still great."

Luna turned around to see Quickfire watching the Dream play out as well, he had his mask off, but Luna couldn't see Quickfire's full face.

She asked him, "Who are you really? You seem way too familiar with me to just be a random mercenary. So who are you?"

Quickfire sighed, "Do you really want to know, because it may shock you."

Princess Luna shook her head, "Please. Not even the sight of a pony being brutally torn to shreds makes me wince in surprise."

Quickfire stepped into the light of the moon shining through the windows and Luna's jaw dropped.

Before her stood a white unicorn stallion with a navy blue and sky blue Mane. He had one single blue eye, the other seemed to be gouged out.

She was looking at Shining Armor!

Quickfire said to her, "You were going to find out eventually, so I decided to reveal myself to you since whatever is said here, stays here, right?"

Luna stood in shock for a good minute, before finally responding, "W-What happened to your eye?"

Quickfire shrugged, "Eh no big deal. I tried to take on Midnight Sparkle, ended up losing one of my eyes and nearly died from my wounds. the other eye is still working, though. King Sombra injected me with some of his own "super-blood" which was heavily irradiated with magic. It gave me abilities that made me stronger than any pony alive. I can easily lift 10 tons, run at nearly 50 mph, and survive wounds such as being nearly sliced in two, having my head blown to bits, even being impaled right through the heart. Why do you think Sombra was so hard to kill?"

Luna asked the Future Shining Armor, "So you're not evil?"

Quickfire smirked, "No. I am a bit of a jerk, but I have every reason to be one, after what you have seen here."

Luna sensed she was needed in another pony's dream, and she bid Quickfire goodbye.

(Burning Star's Dream, ???)

Luna entered Burning Star's dream with great difficulty, as Alicorn dreams were notoriously hard to enter.

When she landed down, it was just an empty void, all she could see was darkness in all directions. Apparently this was quite common for him, as Quickfire told her.

She called out, "Hello? Burning Star? I wish to speak with you... are you in here?"

Luna felt hot air on her neck, and turned around to see the jet black Alicorn's burning blue eyes in the darkness, he blended in extremely well...

All Luna saw of him was his fire-covered Mane and bright blue eyes, which seemed to be filled with fire as well...

Luna ignited her horn into a light, but she still couldn't see him. She called out to the pair of eyes, "Listen here, Alicorn of Fire. I need to talk to you face to face, if I'm going to trust you, you have to show yourself!"

Burning Star's response was a low growl, "Leave me alone, Luna. I understand why you want to see me, you want to find out more about me, find out who I was taught by, everything. I'm guessing you didn't hear Nightmare Moon say it did you... who my teacher was."

Luna shook her head, "I was being choked, I wasn't really paying much attention to her words."

Burning Star said in a rather rash tone. "I will give you a really big hint, then."

Suddenly, Burning Star's eyes glowed bright green and purple smoke began to billow out of them. Suddenly, a red aura materialized around him, taking the shape of King Sombra

His body seemed to melt out of the shadows, Luna could not believe it.

She stammered, "Y-Y-You were the student of King Sombra? That's impossible, we sealed him away 1,000 years ago and he was blown to bits by the Crystal Heart! What's going on?!"

Burning Star responded with an icy growl, "My world's Sombra survived the Crystal Heart barely, he regrouped and trained me after finding me out in the Frozen North. The things Sombra put me through we're so gruesome and painful, it would have killed even your sister Celestia, I survived because I kept telling myself that if I keep going, I'll prove those who mocked me wrong. I'll become to most powerful sorcerer in the world. King Sombra also was a father figure to me, since well my parents were dead."

Luna suddenly watched as the facade of confidence and charisma fall to pieces in front of her, as Burning Star sunk to his knees and cried.

He said through his tears, "I thought that I actually found a family with Sombra... but no... he was only interested in my magic. Nothing more, nothing less. He showed me that callous nature when he sent me to kill the Celestia and Luna of my world while he went after Twilight. He had no clue I was an Alicorn."

Luna backed away, but stopped when Burning Star said, "I'm lucky that the version of you and your sister from my world managed to break his hold over my mind. I was understandably angry, and I lashed out at them, blowing up the throne room of the castle in a fiery explosion. I also saved Twilight when I was running afrom you two, spearing King Sombra through the chest with my horn and flinging him out Twilight's window."

The Princess saw Burning Star begin to cry again, and put her wings around him.

"Sssh. It's alright, I'm guessing from there you decided playing the bad guy wasn't the best choice?"

Burning Star nodded, "I did... after I beat the crap out of Twilight when she cornered me at your old castle. She thought I was a unicorn, I usually hide my wings under a cloak and several invisibility spells, as to not reveal myself and start some sort of cult that worships me."

Luna chuckled at the thought of that, then said, "So why are you here, then? Midnight is off your world, why pursue her here?"

Burning Star's eyes narrowed, "Midnight is a threat to all worlds, my world, your world... everything out there in the vast Multiverse. Also, she threatened my family... no pony threatens my family and lives to tell the tale."

Princess Luna was getting real curious, but she sensed it was nearly daytime.

Burning Star blurted out, "You sense it's nearly morning, I do."

The princess raised an eyebrow, "How in Equestria do you that?"

Burning Star smirked, "Cause where I'm from, I have had to move the sun a few times when Celestia was off somewhere, or I did it just to annoy her, it's pretty easy since it is just flaming gas."

Luna giggled a bit, thinking of the sun spiraling around in the sky like an untied balloon and Celestia freaking out as Burning Star smiled, really was funny to think about, but still was a pretty serious thing controlling the sun.

Luna waved goodbye, saying "You and I must speak more about your home, it sounds interesting."

Burning Star gave the Moon Princess a salute with his left hoof, since he was dominant on that side.

Burning Star awoke to the rising sun, smiling for the first time as the giant ball of gas climbed into the air.

He muttered to himself, "Midnight cannot beat me, if I fail... the whole of the Multiverse will as well. I am no goody goody like Noble, but I'm what this world needs right now. A strong and stubborn hero who will not stop until his task is complete."

(Canterlot Castle, Dining Hall)

Luna was getting breakfast when Burning Star walked up beside her, not even noticing her, and began to shovel whole stacks of pancakes and entire bowls of fruit onto his plate, then walked over to the table and began to chow down.

Luna giggled at the sight of the giant Alicorn gobbling down his food, and she went to her chambers to sleep.

(Castle of Darkness, Stygian's Room)

Midnight had been kind enough to give Stygian a massive room to fit his Pony of Shadows form, and he often was found standing completely still, harnessing the magic of the castle to fill his reserves.

Midnight Sparkle meanwhile was planning her next move, she had made a few new pieces of gear for herself, including a set of dark pink and black body armor and a pair of scimitars, should she ever need to fight those pesky heroes up close.

She had been learning all she could about the Guardians of the Sun, their fighting styles, anything she could get her hooves on.

Which was very little, Celestia has had all memories of them ever existing wiped from the Royal Archives, The Crystal Empire Library, and the Old Library in her castle.

She needed something to distract Celestia and Luna while she got Stygian to Manehattan, as such a large concentration of magic would easily be picked up by them.

She thought for a moment, then said out loud, "Yes! That's it! Fear, ponies do not act rationally while afraid. So, who or what should I conjure up?"

She browsed through the crystal orb until she saw a massive Minotaur-Centaur, she smirked.

"Oh this is true irony. Me, Midnight Sparkle formerly Twilight Sparkle, loosing Tirek upon this world again right after I beat him. But, I'm not stupid, I'll remove his magic stealing powers. Oh, and buff him up to full size! That should be a sizable distraction for Celestia!"

Midnight Sparkle laughed, not knowing somepony was listening.

It was the same pony that carved the CM into Celestia's balcony.

That pony smirked under its mask, "Hmph. Recalling Tirek? Not if I can help it, Midnight... I'll deal with the big red bovine. The Guardians can deal with Stygian..."

With that, the masked pony flew off towards Canterlot.

Time to show the world that it doesn't take an Alicorn to beat a god...