The V-Team

by Reizthefakebrony

Chapter 26: Fifth Member (EDITED FOR PLOT HOLES)

All of the eyes were directed at the half-violet crystallized gray pony that entered the scene. The demonic party, and Starlight, were mostly surprised to see him since they had recognized him as Theodore. The Mane Six, Sunset and Sweetie Bell looked really confused, not knowing what was going on or what his intention are. Fira, on other hand, was partially surprised, but only for a moment before she started to laugh.

"Seriously," Fira said. "Did you had realized what you were doing? You are actually in a pony form and you expected me to be intimidated by you. Right, Theodore?..." She then turned into a serious tone. "You are on the verge to get killed this easily."

"Can somepony explain what the hay's goin' on?" Applejack asked confused.

"I don't know what to think but you have to explain this," Zade said. "What are you doing here? And who send you there in this ponified demonic form."

"That should be the last of your problems," Theodore said as he turned his head toward the group. "This is the first time you were facing some foe like her, right?"

"I know!" Jace exclaimed. "We are ponies while she's two meter feet tall woman towering on us. Not fair!"

"I am referring to the fact that Fira is a Deplacer." Theodore said crudely.

"Theodore, you are seriously thinking that we didn't known that already?" Zade asked, unable to hide his nervousness.

What Theodore said was redundant but was relevant enough to reminde them of the first time they had met Virum, including Jace's reckless act to take on him. They weren't sent into Equestria yet, but at that time, they had felt the power of a Deplacer on their skin. That also reminded them of the petrified FBI agents being scattered on the ground nearby Zade's house. At the very end of that short memory lane, there was only a crude certainty: Defeat Fira was about to be a very hard task.

"Guys... I hate to admit, but that is gonna suck," Zade said with a grave tone.

"In a very tragic way if we can't defeat her." Sera said.

"I hate to ask a question since I already saw in Jace's memories what Virum can do," Starlight said, needing to justify what she was about to say. "But... How much powerful can she possibly be?"

"Look, we had a hard time battling Twilegion," Jace said nervously. "I can't even imagine battling a female Virum."

"Was that an unintentional joke?" Chris said sternly.

Jace shook his head as if he was trying to shake away the tension. "All right, guys. I don't think I am in condition to say that but we have to stay composed."

"Keep in mind," Zade explained. "I don't think that the strength of the number and our powers would be enough."

"Tsk, it looks like you weren't this reckless as I had imagined." Theodore said calmly.

"Hey," Zade retorted. "What do you mean with that?"

Theodore then looked at Twilight. "What are you doing here, anyway? You should have teleported away in this very moment. I don't want have any little brat being involved in this following massacre."

"I-I think he's referring to me." Sweetie Bell said reluctantly.

"Was this brutal remark even necessary?" Rarity said with a slightly upset tone.

"Oh, I forgot," Jace said. "Theodore can also be a grade A jackass when he wants to."

"You think we can't defend ourselves?" Twilight pointed out.

"Trust me," Theodore insisted calmly. "This woman is out of your league."

"You are not going anywhere!" Fira exclaimed as she unleashed a flux of lightnings from her hand.

Theodore promptly pointed his hoof toward the flux and created a barrier made of shadows that absorbed the blow and devoured the lightnings, much to Fira disbelieve and annoyance. Twilight and the rest of her group was left speechless. She was about to say something but Theodore prematurely interrupted her attempt.

"Get out of here, now." Theodore said with a commanding tone.

Twilight reluctantly nodded and glowed her horn. "All right."

With that, Twilight, the other Elements, Sweetie Bell and the injured Sunset disappeared in a flash of light. Theodore returned his attention to Fira, who silently glared at him.

"Tell me," Theodore said. "If you are so powerful, then why you were so surprised to see me?"

Fira gritted her teeth. "You arrogant fool. What really surprised me was you putting your own life on the line. Are you that stupid or what?"

"At least not stupid enough to have tried to take on a Deplacer when I was still human," Theodore remarked.

"Hey!" Jace exclaimed. "What was that for!?"

Theodore looked at Starlight and Kamahl's group. "You and your friends should had done the same thing. Why you are still there?"

"I think we should spare the details for later," Kamahl reminded as he wrapped his hooves with roots forming hands and feet and stood two legged, wielding his stone axe. "Depending if we can survive this or not."

"Fair enough," Theodore said. "But I don't want be responsible for your deaths."

"We died once, so that facing death is not a big deal," Jeska said.

"But is a big deal for US!" Chris retorted.

Thorax turned himself into a huge dragon, shielding the chained Chrysalis. "You better be grateful that Starlight didn't had took a drastic decision."

"Not giving me any chance to defend myself, huh." Chrysalis said with a slightly fed-up tone.

"Hey, you putted the whole Equestria into chaos, so shut up," Jace said.

"We better get ready for this storm," Sera suggested.

"It's not like we have a choice," Chris said with a grave tone.

"Let's get on!" Zade proclaimed.

"Tsk. You shouldn't had even said that," Fira said as her form dissolved in a massive swarm of locusts that covered the entire cloister, obscuring everything in front of the ponies' eyes.

Everything went dark.

Before anyone could even react, multiple screams echoed through the darkness, a moment before being replaced by silence. Nopony said any word as the dark created by the locusts began to dissipate and Fira regained her form, reappearing behind the group.

"Still blubbering about defeating me, losers?" Fira asked, getting their attention.

Zade, Theodore, Starlight and the others turned around to see her, only to find her towering on the injured and unconscious Chrysalis and Thorax. The whole group frozen up, intimidated by that display of power. A sense of awe and dread chilled their spine upon that. Theodore, however, was the only one who had maintained the calm.

"THORAX!" Starlight shouted as she approached the injured changeling, whose form has been reverted into his original one. "... What happened to you!?"

"Stop spacing out and stay focused," Theodore said to the rest of the group. "Your life depends on how much you want to survive."

"You are wasting your breath," Fira declared, launching multiple darts of dark energy from her hand.

Theodore reacted immediately by unleashing a barrage of electric spikes from his cape toward the darts, causing many explosion of lights during their impact. He then pointed his hoof toward Fire and charged it with a blue aura. A magical like circle appeared in front of the female Deplacer, who was narrowing her eyes in surprise, as if like she had already understood his move.

"VALAC!" Theodore exclaimed as a deformed, double mouthed dragon head appeared from the circle and breathed fire on Fira.

She shielded herself with her hand and formed a ethereal barrier in front of her. The flames were divided in two direction, unable to touch Fira. The dragon head and the barrier disappeared a few second afterwards.

"Zade, we need to escape." Starlight said worried. "Since I had Jace's knowledge about the Deplacers, if what Theodore said about her being powerful was true, then we have no chance against her."

"You are right." Zade said. "Teleport us away from here!"

"No, you don't." Fira declared as she waved her hand, materializing a red mist around the cloister. Starlight glowed her horn, but it's lights suddenly dissipated into sparks.

"What?" Starlight said dumbfounded.

"The bad news is that you cannot teleport away from my sight or even escape normally," Fira informed. "That mist serves as my personal force field. Although you can still use your other spells... Seriously, I cannot allow you to run away this easily."

A cruel sense of awe washed over the group of ponies upon hearing that. Starlight in particular was visibly taken aback from
that and felt the fear making it's into her mind. "That's not good."

Fira imbued both her hands with a red energy and shot multiple red waves that traveled toward the group of ponies. Starlight promptly glowed her horn and formed a barrier around the whole group. For Starlight that was a solid defense, but the waves collided with the barrier and shattered into pieces. Feeling the telekinetical impact, she was propelled away for a few yards before falling on the ground.

"Starlight!" Chris yelled.

Trying to ignore the pain, Starlight slowly rose up, looking baffled. "How much powerful is this human?"

"You have no idea how power I detain in this very moment," Fira commented with a crude tone.

"Answer me, asshole!" Jace shouted. "Why you were possessing Sunset?! And what you expect to gain by hunting us down?!"

"Possessing that mare is only a means to lure you out," Fira answered. "You cannot comprehend what was going on but I have to remove you from of the game. I can't allow anyone to face Deofordred, even if that means resorting to immoral methods."

"Huh!?" Jace looked confused.

"What?" Starlight said confused.

"Wasn't trying to kill us immoral enough?" Kamahl asked calmly.

"I thought you were only acting behind the shadows." Jace said nervously. "Also you said that you are unable to deplace anything. I call that bullshit since that wasn't entirely. If you are Deplacer, that will mean that you can actually deplace something. Even your... Weird eyes are pretty much telling otherwise. So why trying to eliminate us directly?"

"Unlike the others, I don't play by the rules," FIra said and the made a wide grin. "So you were unlucky enough to met my presence. I am sorry, but I need Deofordred's role in this whole mess of a story and I won't anyone to interfere with my plans."

"You are in co-hoot with that monster?" Jace said with shocked surprise. "Why!?"

"You don't need to know about that, actually." Fira said as she waved her hand, causing a force field. "After all, you won't get out of here alive."

"Say that to my axe!" Kamahl said as he pointed his axe at Fira. The weapon glowed in a light-blue light and unleashed a azure vortex of flames at her. Her figure was engulfed by the fire, but only for a moment as the flames instantly dissipated into small embers, much to Kamahl's shock. "Impossible..."

"Surprised, former hero of Dominaria?" Fira mocked. "You cannot drain the power of a Deplacer!"

That being said, Fira raised her upwards and charged her hand with a red aura and materialized huge asteroid that descended toward the group. Before anyone could even react, Theodore, pointed his hoof toward it and materialized a giant, hammer-shaped hand from a magical seal that smashed the asteroid into multiple pieces. The rocks rained down to the cloister, mostly destroying the pillars.

The demonic party, Starlight and the others were quite both surprised to see him valiantly fighting Fira without any fear, like he was in the same league as her. Kamahl turned toward the demonic party and pointed his root-made finger at them.

"Consider that he can't fight this battle alone," Kamahl stated.

"You tell that," Zade as he stood up two legged and charged his hooves with a purple energy. "DOUBLE REPPUKEN!"

With that, Zade unleashed a wave of pure energy that traveled toward Fira. The female Deplacer pointed her finger at the wave, causing a wall of granite to rise from the ground. The wave ended up partially destroying the wall, revealing that Fira didn't took a scratch.

"Please, don't embarrass yourself," Fira mocked.

"Try this!" Jace shouted as he breathed a barrage of lightnings from his mouth while Chris charged that with a dark energy and slammed it against the ground, unleashing a wave of destructive energy.

The other ponies followed suit. Sera glowed her horn in a dark violet aura, charged her own dark-violet flaming meteor and launched it toward Fira. Starlight shot her magical beam and Jeska, being also a Planswarker, tossed a massive fire ball from her hoof.

"Don't even think about that," Fira said unimpressed as she jumped very high, dodging all the attacks and landing gracefully behind Zade.

Chris immediately turned his head toward Zade "WATCH OUT!"

Exploiting his apparent distraction, Fira tried to deliver a roundhouse kick to Zade. Unexpectedly, he blocked her foot with both his hooves and tossed her body toward one of the pillars. Fira yelped as she ended up smashing through the piece of marble, much to the other ponies' surprise.

"WHOO-OH-OH-OAH!" Jace exclaimed.

"That... was unexpected." Kamahl commented.

"Zade... Did you had just grabbed and tossed her around like it was nothing?" Starlight asked.

"I guess having Geese's powers granted me, as you will call, a unequine strength," Zade theorized. "But we have no time to waste in this moment!"

"Don't stop now!" Theodore insisted.

Fira grunted almost angrily as she slowly stood up, looking partially astonished by Zade's display of strength. She lifted her head and found Kamahl leaping furiously in her direction in a attempt to slash her with his axe.

"Begone!" Fira shouted as she unleashed a shockwave that rejected Kamahl, propelling him away from her. The green marine pony fell on the floor abruptly, all of the while keeping his axe from flying away from his root-made hands.

"Kamahl!" Fira shouted worried.

"... Ugh... That's nothing. Just don't get yourself distracted!" Kamahl replied with an almost pained tone.

Fira was about to make her next move, but then stopped up seeing Zade jumping very high while charging his hooves with a purple aura.

"Really?" Fira said.

"SHIPPUKEN!" Zade shouted as he launched a flying wave of purple energy upon her.

The female Deplacer hoovered in the air to miss the blow and flew aggressively toward Zade. She grabbed his head in mid-air and tossed him toward the terrain below him. Seeing him falling down, Sera pointed her hoof in his direction and summoned a coil of skeletal ghosts that grabbed his body just in time.

As the specters were putting Zade down, Fira suddenly disappeared into a red mist and reappeared in front of Sera, looking menacingly at her.

"Yeah. Try to save him, if you can." Fira said cruelly as she glowed her hand in a white aura when a beam hits her from behind, making her almost losing her balance. Confused and furious, Fira turned around to see her aggressor, only to find a legitimately furious Starlight.

"This is for Sunset, you witch!" Starlight declared.

Fira glared at the whole group, widening her eyes. "You asked for it. Play time is over."

"In your dreams!" Jace shouted as he flew toward her and breathed fire.

Fira streched her hands toward the flames, gesturing them to stop, as so the flames did. She then twisted the flames and deformed them into a flaming globe, and then shrunk it in size, as if it was compressed. The globe vanished into nothingness. Jace didn't have the time to have a reaction that the tiny sphere bursts into a fiery explosion the propelled him away from her. The devilish pony ended up rolling abruptly on the stone floor.

"Jace!" Sera cried.

"... Argh. That hurts." Jace said weakly.

Starlight launched a purple beam at the female Deplacer and encased her body inside a crystal. She was about to glow her horn and use her telekinesis on Fira, but the crystallized cage suddenly exploded. It's fragments whizzed in all of the toward Starlight, hitting her in many parts of her body and burying her under a crystal mountain.

"Starlight!" Zade shouted.

Theodore rushed toward Fira. "Hey you! We have not done yet!"

Fira turned toward Theodore, who was launching multiple ice spear toward her. In a instant, her body turned transparent and the spear passed through her without even scratch her. The pale-gray demonic pony was about to use his powers again, only for him to be anticipated by Fira shooting a invisible force wave from her hand, striking his head and knocking him down. Theodore grunted fiercely as Fira looked down on him.

"So much for someone who knows how to fight a Deplacer," Fira commented with annoyance as she stomped her foot on him.

As Fira was making her own mocking lecture on Theodore, Kamahl stood up and hastily grabbed his stone axe. He then pointed his weapon toward the floor and imbued it with a green energy.

"Jeska." Kamahl called, getting her attention.

"Kamahl?" Jeska said.

"Time to put my own powers to use again," Kamahl said as the green energy flowed on the ground. Vines grew from beneath until their formed three huge, humanoid plant golems who roared ferociously.

Fira looked in his direction and saw both Kamahl, Jeska and the three vine-made creatures glowing in a vivid green aura as they were charging toward her. She charged her hand with a white energy and launched a huge disk of light at them. Kamahl tried to parry it with his axe, but when the disk collided with the weapon, it burst into a explosion of light that overwhelmed Kamahl's quintet. After that, the blinding light slowly faded away, revealing both Kamahl and Jeska being knocked down unconscious. As fore the plant golems, their bodies stopped moving and were reduced into ashes.

Zade, Chris and Sera, being the only ones left, were overtaken by fear upon seeing the attacks of their friends being thwarted in so many creatives and yet tremendous ways. They felt a great urge to escape desperately, but they know that they cannot escape. Sera was the first to snap out of it and took a brief look a her injured friends and then looked at Fira enraged.

"Oh oh oh. You had pushed the wrong button." Sera said, a second before going into full psycho mode,with a mad, sadistic expression marking her face. "What about a literal urban legend beating!"

Furiously, Sera hoovered in the air and flew at Fira with full speed, all of the while charging her hooves with a dark energy. Her magatamas detached from her body and circulated around her, forming a slashing barrier. Not only that, but she also summoned a horde of skeletal ghosts who followed her charge with a menacing pace.

"Unfortunately for you, I know how deal with desperate opponents like you."

As Sera was approaching her, Fira materialized two dark-glowing swords of energy from both her hands and tried to cut her down. Sera dodged the blow and tried to furiously hit the Deplacer with the slashing. Fira missed her but the slashing barrier created by the magatamas brushed her face, taking her by surprise. Fira didn't have the time lament about her wounds that the skeletal ghosts attacked her. Fira promptly slashed many of them, but she had a hard time dealing with both the ghosts and a pissed off Sera. Seeing this, Zade took that as a signal.

"Chris, we need to exploit that for a coordinated assault," Zade suggested. "Follow me!"

"Alright!" Chris agreed as he and Zade rushed toward the Deplacer.

"Take this, self-righteous bitch!" Sera declared as she tried to slash her with the dark energy imbuing her hoof, only to be blocked by Fira, who had unmaterialized her swords and blocked her hoof.

"Let me show you the means of the verb despair." Fira said with a calm and yet menacing tone as her body glowed in orange light and unleashed a huge, fiery explosion that overwhelmed Zade, Chris, Sera, the skeletal ghosts and the rest of the ponies. The explosion was so devastating that looked like a supernova.

Almost everything was burnt by the searing flames of the dome. After a couple of minutes, the explosion died off, leaving a huge crater in it's wake. The demonic party and the rest of the group, including Thorax and Chrysalis were utterly beaten down, with bruises covering their bodies. The skeletal ghosts were instantly vanquished, and Starlight was buried in a pile of ashes that used to be the crystals; a detail that acted as a testament of a Deplacer's power.

Fira was the only one being unscathed and the only one emerging victorious. She slowly walked toward the her defeated opponents with a slightly disappointed expression.

"Weird... Your attempt to defeat me should be laughable but it's not," Fira said. "It's not even sad either. Is just disappointing. And Virum put his faith into four literal idiots, thinking it's good idea. The same thing can be said for Kamahl and Jeska. As for the other three ponies, they met my expectation... Which wasn't so high whatsoever."

The female Deplacer was about to make another remark, until she heard someone groaning. She turned toward the source of the noise and found both Zade, Chris, Sera, Jace and Theodore trying to stand up forcefully on their hind legs, looking as beaten up as the others, who were scattered unconscious to devastated ground. Fira looked at them with annoyance.

"You don't know when you should quit, didn't you?" Fira said, almost laughing. "Now that is laughable."

"...... That's... Not.. Good...." Zade said with a weak tone, almost loosing his balance. "Seriously... I hate being in situations like this."

"Me too," Chris said with a pained tone.

"I have no intention to be taken down this easily," Sera said with her psycho mode died off. "Hehe... I can't believe I would had said that."

"I know, man," Jace said. "I don't even know what is humiliating: Being scared or get rekted by a psychotic Deplacer."

"You decide," Sera retorted.

"I told you, Fira." Theodore said. "We have not done yet."

"Theodore... Get off of you horse for once, because you are still a insect after all." Fire looked at Zade. "And you, Zade. You said you hate being in this situation. There's a hint for you. Why you can't simply die? And besides, weren't you afraid of me?"

"Yes... Yes I am," Zade's eyes widened. "Which is why you are pissing me off."

"Huh?" Fira looked perplexed.

"Zade, I don't think is the time for a speech, in the middle of a brutal fight," Theodore said.

"Oh, really?" Zade said. "It's not like we have nothing to lose anymore."

"What do you mean, you cretin?" Fira asked.

"This is not the first time we met an almost hopeless fight that we thought we cannot win," Zade said. "Hmph. To think that you had almost scared me for a handful of minutes. I am not afraid of you in this moment."

"Did you have lost your mind?" Fira asked sardonically. "You are not in position of talk this big. You are about to being pulverized by me. Besides, what are you blabbering about?"

"Let me tell you something, demented witch," Zade began. "It's since the start of this whole mess or game of power, as you want to call, that someone or something tried to kill us. Normally, since we just wanted to go home desperately without getting ourselves killed, we would have escaped Equestria in no time. But there's the thing. It's because we were tired of both escape and cowering in fear of foes like you that we had the courage to face you, despite all of the odd. Which is why... I fucking dare you... to face me... one more time."

"Tsk... All that talk seemed like the monologue of a arrogant warlord," Theodore commented. "You should had spared that... But you know what? I think I am going to like your current attitude."

"Was that sarcasm?" Jace asked.

"I don't think that is the case," Chris said.

"Have you done?" Fira asked. "Because I am about to lower the curtain... Permanently."

With the imposition of her hand, Fira imbued it with a dark-red aura and flooded the cloister with a massive wave of darkness that engulfed the bodies of the five demonic ponies, who shielded themselves with their hooves. Zade could feel a cold and chilling pain traversing his body as the darkness wrapped him. He felt his vitality being drained away and his body becoming heavy and numb. His consciousness was slipping away from him. Zade was on the verge to passing out.

But then something familiar awakened from his being. Something very arcane. As sense of deja vu washed over him. And that something renewed his determination, forcing to resist.

"I can't believe it's happening again." Zade murmured.

Suddenly, a violet energy erupted from his body in a burst of violet energy that engulfed his body and ripped the darkness that was overwhelming him and his group.

Fira flinched in surprise from what was happening. "What the hell!?"

Once again, that arcane that helped him to defeat Twilegion Spadeus had been emerged again. Zade made a few steps toward Fira, passing through the dark wave.

As that was happening, Starlight merged from a pile of ashes and lifted her gaze toward the spectacle. Upon seeing him in that state, Starlight couldn't help but feel both confused and amazed. She could feel the tremendous power by just perceiving that through her magic.

"What kind of power is this?" Starlight asked astonished.

Jace turned to Starlight. "Trust me. This is not the first time that happened."

"Is the same as the time with Twilegion." Sera said.

"Please, tell me that we have finally a chance against her." Jace said almost excited.

"I have a hard time to get used to it," Zade said. "But who cares. I am about to see if this works."

"... You think you are the only one?" Theodore's voice said.

Zade, Starlight and the others turned toward him and flinched in surprise upon seeing Theodore's body being imbued with a violet energy as him. The same tremendous power was flowing inside him. Zade was visibly disturbed by that.

"Theodore... You too?" Zade asked.

"Don't mind that." Theodore said. "We have a Deplacer to defeat."

"What is this power!?" Fira exclaimed confused. "How did you-" She stopped and froze with a surprised look, as if she had realized something. "I see... So Virum bestowed part of his powers on both of you."

"Hmm?" Jace looked confused at Zade.

"What are talking about?" Zade asked.

"Deus Ex Machina my ass," Fira retorted. "Nevermind. I will destroy you before you have even the time to unleash that power!"

Angered, Fira summoned multiple spears made of darkness from above her and thrown them toward the group. Theodore putted himself in front of the blades raised his hoof and created a transparent wall in front of them. The spears shattered into pieces during the collision. Fira looked visibly enraged by this.

"I knew it!" Fira said. "I should had killed you when I had the chance!"

"How does feel to loose your cool?" Jace asked.

"You better be prepared!" Zade exclaimed as he channeled his hoof with a destructive energy.

"No, don't tell me...!" Fira said incredulous.

"VIAEON REPPUKEN!" Zade said as he released it the energy into a giant dark violet wave.

"Don't even try!" Fira declared as she imbued her hand with red aura and unleashed a giant dark red wave.

The two waves ended up colliding, causing a double colored explosion of light that almost overwhelmed everything. It was so bright that was almost blinding Fira and the present ponies. The Deplacer shielded her eyes with her hand and channeled the other one with a dark green energy, ready to counterattack. Unfortunately, a huge dark violet blade ripped through the light and was about to slash her. Fira promptly flew away from it's trajectory, hoovered very high.

"What the-" Fira said and the looked down, only to see Theodore wielding a huge dark violet sword and Zade wielding his giant scythe of energy. "You shouldn't be able to detain such power! That is inconceivable!"

"That will be the last of your problems." Theodore said as he materialized a huge, dark violet, magic circle and summoned three dragon heads from it. "VIAEON CERBERUS!"

The dragon heads spitted a breath of fire, a torrent of water and a cylindrical tornado respectively, combined in a violent elemental symphony of destruction. Fira vanished into a red mist and then reappeared behind Theodore. She summoned her two dark-glowing swords of energy and tried to attack him but was then hit and electrified by Sera's magatamas.

Having resisted that, Fira furiously tuned around and saw a very calm Sera hoovering above her and glowing her horn. The pale-white unicorn had already charged her own dark violet flaming meteor.

"Time for round two!" Sera declared as she released the flaming dome, that descended toward Fira, who simply unmaterialized one of her swords and leaned her hand on it, disintegrating that into many, small black embers.

The meteor in front of her was crumbling, revealing Starlight and Jace already launching a magic beam and a electrified fire column respectively. Fira blocked both the attacks with both her hands, nullifying them. She then turned her attention to the other ponies. Zade and Theodore charging toward her with their energy-made weapons.

Fira was about to react when she noticed Chris flying above her, having turned into Night Terror. He charged his mouth with a destructive energy and shot a laser beam that traveled toward her. The Deplacer dissolved into a red mist and reappeared behind Zade, already attacking him, only to be stopped by Theodore shielding him with her energy sword.

"You tried." Zade said as he counter reacted, swinging his scythe toward her.

Fira parryed that with her only free hand, without getting a scratch. "Useless! You resistance is simply useless! You cannot pretend to win!"

Zade made a wide smile. "Let's see about that."

That being said, Zade released his grip from his scythe and raised his hoof. Taking that as a signal, Theodore promptly jumped away from Fira and created a barrier made of shadows around the injured, unconscious ponies.

"IMPERVIOUS STORM!" Zade shouted as he slammed his hooves on the ground, causing giant geysers of dark-violet energy rising from below and around him that sent Fira flying so high that she almost touched the darkened sky, overwhelmed and screaming for the pain.

Once she reached a very high height, the Deplacer's body dived toward the terrain and fell abruptly on the floor. She was really beaten up badly and apparently unconscious. Her face being stuck in a expression of disbelieve. With her defeat, the red mist that covered the cloister slowly dissolved. The violet aura that engulfed Zade and Theodore diminished and then disappeared after a couple of seconds.

As for Starlight, they went to check the unconscious ponies and used her magic to heal their wounds. Thorax, Kamahl, Jeska and the still chained Chrysalis slowly woke up with a pained groan. They looked around to see what had transpired and found Zade, Starlight and the others standing in front of the defeated Fira.

"They... Did it?" Thorax asked confused.

"Don't you see that?" Chrysalis said. "That creature is lying unconscious. Of course they had won."

"Speak for yourself, demon," Jeska said. "Fira managed to reject most our attacks and has most creative ways to overwhelm us. Although I don't understand how they did. Unless....!"

"I see," Kamahl said calmly. "Zade used that power again."

"You can tell that," Zade said. "And that worked."

"Guys!" Chris, still in Night Terror form, called with a almost demonic voice, getting the attention of Zade and the others. "I don't know you but..."

Chris realized that he was flying and his vertigo kicked in, causing him to fall. Sera promptly summoned a skeletal ghost hand that caught him on the fly and putted his body on the floor. Chris reverted to his ponified and yet metallic form. The whole group, excluded Chrysalis, rushed toward him.

"Chris, you were alright, man?" Jace asked worried.

"..... My head was just spinning," Chris said, looking partially dizzied. "Didn't I mention that I hate flying?"

"I understand that," Sera said.

"Can you get up?" Zade asked.

"Right," Chris said as he stood up and scratched his head.

"Guys, you know that already but I will said that anyway," Starlight said. "It's a miracle that we had survived that encounter."

"Yeah, that's pretty much it," Zade said.

"Hey, Zade." Jace called.

"What now?" Zade asked.

"You know... We need talk with Theodore but..." Jace gestured toward Theodore.

Chris noticed the pale-gray pony approaching him four legged. As his eyes met Theodore's, Chris glared scornfully at him. His expression looked very stern.

"Theodore." Chris said sternly.

"Chris." Theodore replied calmly.

"Without your help, we wouldn't had survived," Chris said. "But that doesn't remove one thing."

"I know what you are going to," Theodore said. "That time, right?"

"Exactly," Chris replied crudely. "You have real guts to show up in front of me, after what you did."

"Feel free to think whatever you want," Theodore said calmly and narrowed his eyes. "I will stay true to my choice.

"Oh, really?" Chris retorted.

The two demonic ponies exchanged a unpleasant glance, a moment before Theodore moved away from Chris. Starlight approached Zade, guided by a inappropriate curiosity.

"What was that all about?" Starlight asked.

"Chris and Theodore used to be friends," Zade explained. "But then something happened between them, resulting them to grew apart from each other."

"In theory, Theodore somehow screwed up their friendship," Jace said.

"We don't know what happened to them, so don't ask us why," Sera said.

"A friendship problem?" Starlight said. "Maybe-"

"No." Chris interrupted her. "I know what you were going to but I don't need that."

"But Chris," Starlight insisted.

"Do. Not. Insist." Chris said coldly.

That discussion was then interrupted by Fira groaning painfully. Zade noticed her awakening, a thing that reminded him of what has to be done before it's too late.

"Starlight, we need to get out of here," Zade said. "Do it!"

"Alright!" Starlight said as she glowed her horn and teleported the whole group away from the cloister, disappearing into nothingness.

---

Fira slowly stood on her feet and looked at where the ponies were supposed to be before disappearing. She groaned very angrily and putted her head on her head. Feeling something dripping on it, she looked at her hand, only to find blood on it. Her head was slowly bleeding, having took her damage from Zade's giant geyser.

".... Those damn brats!" Fira stomped her foot on the floor. "I can't believe they were able to detain such power. A Deplacer power!"

"Well, that was a precaution that I took against to whose who didn't play by the rules." A male voice said from behind her.

Fira turned around to see the speaker and found a very sneering Virum waving his hands at her. Her eyes grew wide and her anger became more accentuated.

"Virum..." Fira said almost angrily.

"I am not intended to apologize with you," Virum said frankly.

"I would had rejected that in any case," Fira said. "I don't need that from you. I am powerful enough to do things by myself."

"And yet you were defeated by my own champions," Virum said mockingly. "You know, I have my own ways to play this game. You see, I don't need to intervene unless there's another Deplacer being involved. However, this time, my intervention wasn't needed at all."

"You must be really insane if you had seriously done that," Fira said. "You would had fought this crisis by yourself, unleashed a very noticeable cataclysm or even turned your pawns into monsters instead of ponies. But bestowing part of your powers to these brats?... That is something I won't tolerate."

"And honestly, I don't care," Virum said, a moment before his face assume a very grim one. "What I really want to know is why going after Deofordred anyway? And why protect him."

"Tsk..." Fira glared at him.

"I am waiting your answer." Virum said.

"..... You won't even care about what I have to say," Fira said calmly. "But I guess letting you know that is always better than leaving the things unexplained."

"What is it?" Virum asked.

Fira took a moment to ponder and the began to speak. "I made a promise."

---

Inside a very large cave, a very bright light flashed for a moment and the whole group of ponies suddenly appeared. The ponies, excluding Starlight, looked around and watched at her in confusion.

"Starlight, what is this place?" Theodore asked.

"One of the many secret places that I had used as one of the many refuges of the Front of the Lost Harmony," Starlight said. "It has been unused for a long time."

"You mean during the rise of the insurgence and the whole Twilegion thing?" Sera asked.

"That's right," Starlight asked. "Well... To be honest, we used that refuge only once before we began to take the Castle of the Two Sisters as our new base. Nopony knows anything about this place."

"Are sure about that?" Chris asked.

"It was a good place to hide," Kamahl said. "However, due the needs of food of the refugees, the food shortage and Twilegion's forces being after us, there's no wonder if we decided to get out of there."

"Phew. At least we don't have to run anymore... For now," Zade said.

"Oh, trust me. You don't have to." A female voice said from their left, being no other than Celestia, being followed by Luna, Cadence, Twilight and the rest of the Elements.

"Girls!" Starlight said, surprised to see them. "How did you-"

"We have no time to explain that," A male voice said, and then Discord appeared out of nothing. "Seriously, the time is running out. And not in a good way."

Seeing Discord for the first time, Zade, Chris and Sera were visibly disturbed upon meeting him face to face. They didn't even know what they were looking at. One legit question came out from Sera's mouth.

"What in the Frankenstein name is that thing?" Sera asked disturbed.

"It's like a bunch of creature's part being stitched together." Chris said.

"Jace, can you tell me who is that guy?" Zade asked.

"Why, that's Discord, folks." Jace said.

Zade blinked. "You mean the Discord that Starlight mentioned in her story?"

Starlight nodded. "That's right."

"You don't have to worry," Twilight assured. "It's on our side."

"He may be a little bit chaotic," Fluttershy said. "But trust me. He's a good friend of ours."

"Although he can be... Well... Himself in most creative and yet scary ways," Pinkie commented.

"Thanks for the remark, Pinkie," Discord said with a deadpan tone.

"You had said that the time is running out," Theodore said.

"You mean Deofordred is already getting closer to the nexus?" Zade asked.

"Seriously!?" Jace exclaimed.

"Well... He's not so close," Discord said with a cryptic attitude. "But that doesn't mean that we are safe either. Right now he has the same influence as Twilegion. Only ten thousand times worse." He then turned toward Theodore. "And you must be Theodore."

"What?" Cadence said.

"You are Theodore?" Luna asked.

"Yes I am. So what?" Theodore asked.

Discord turned toward the demonic party. "You didn't know that, right?"

"I think you should tell them." Celestia said calmly.

"Telling us what?" Jeska asked.

"Wait!" Jace halted. "If you have something to say about Theodore." He then turned to Chrysalis. "I would appreciate if that sucker doesn't hear our conversation."

"Tsk. Is not like I am interested in this revelation anyway," Chrysalis said.

Celestia glared at her. "Chrysalis. This whole mess was Deofordred's doing, but you had played a major party into the aggravation of this situation. All because you wanted to conquer Equestria. I would had, honest to myself, destroyed you with my own power. Be grateful that I am still sparing your life."

"Wow. Never before you were this menacing, Celestia," Chrysalis said mockingly, a moment before Sera putted herself in front of her, in full psycho mode.

"Don't obligate me to kick your ass," Sera said.

"Chill out, Sera," Jace said. "She can't do any rats ass as long her chains prevented her from using her powers."

"Right." Sera said with a normal tone, and then summoned a tiny, skeletal hand, just to flip her middle finger at her.

"What does that even mean?" Chrysalis asked confused.

"Hey, folks!" Discord said, getting their attention. "There's a good reason if we are here." He then turned to Starlight. "Ehm, Starlight. I told Celestia about this place, so they are welcome."

"What about that revelation," Zade asked. "I-"

"Just let put a end to this farce already." Theodore said, chilling the demonic party.

"What farce?" Zade asked.

"Yeah, he didn't had said anything yet." Jace stated.

"Discord, can you please telling us what are you going into?" Sera asked.

"Alright, alright," Discord said. "I would had told you that anyway. You see? ... Theodore is Julius' brother."

Zade, Starlight, Twilight and rest of the ponies, except Celestia, Luna, Cadence and Theodore froze up upon hearing that. A sense of shocked disbelieve washed over them. They weren't expecting that and they didn't liked that a little bit. "WHAAAAAAAT!?"

"Allow me to tell you his story... But you won't like it" Discord said, having expected their reaction.