Kyōka Suigetsu, crumble!

by The Archiver

Chapter six: A (spooky) generational reawakening

Pov: Spike

---

"W-what the? What in the world did he just ask me?" I'm trying to search my brain for any mentions or ideas of what an Arrancar is in the first place. My mind comes to a grinding halt. I remember something that Twilight had 'educated' me all about Aizen during the "introduction" lecture.

I nervously rub my arms. Watching Aizen's eagerness from being so close in my personal space. His pushiness is putting me on edge right now... But he did say I'd be respected by everyone." The mental conflict rages on inside my mind. I do notice that Aizen is taking a few steps back. Probably in just as much thought as I'm in right now if his face is anything to go by.

Snapping his fingers he pops a smirk, telling me. "I can see that this is a lot to put on you Spike. Especially with it feeling so sudden as I assume. So that's why I offer you this. I am willing to give you a device, something I worked on with a fellow scholar who was like-minded in my goals for pursuing evolution. I or rather we called it the substitute Arrancar badge, original I know."

Throughout all of the books on history that Twilight talk about or just reading in general. I've never heard of a 'substitute Arrancar badge' and with Sōsuke leaving his sentence out like that. Now I've got no choice but to ask. "Um... What does it actually do though?"

He gives me a hearty laugh. Shortly after which he reaches into one of his dark sleeves. Pulling out a badge with a strange skull carved into it, with five weird teeth looking things on the bottom. The badge itself looks like it was made out of some type of white marble with a small, steel chain going through it like a necklace. It's kinda freaking me out but I know this'll be worth it. "It has to be." I reassure myself.

"This right here is the substitute Arrancar badge. It allows you to temporarily transform into an Arrancar while also allowing you to transform back into a normal dragon. Normally you'd have to charge Reiryoku into it but since your fire is magical in nature all you have to do is breathe fire into it and it'll work just as well." Aizen ended up sounding as though he was trying to throw a sales pitch to me which actually lightened the mood for me even if it was only for a little while.

Aizen walks over to me and grabs my palm, holding it close to his hand before placing the odd badge in my grasp. Then proceeds to walk past me. His footsteps never do seem to make noise, even on some of the spots where we have creaky floorboards. And opens cracks a curtain just enough to pear outside the nearby window, while crouching down so he can see through it.

"Spike..." Tilting my head I walk over to him and look outside the window as well. The badge is still held in my grasp. But what I see outside nearly makes me drop it. The entire town looks as if they're all fighting each other through the street. Squinting my eyes, I can see the reason why... It's all over a doll. "Things like this. I can promise you, you'd be able to prevent them. This is another incident done because of your older sister's carelessness. So tell me, are you going to just sit there and let her get away with doing whatever she wants? Or are you going to accept my offer? And allow me to train you to gain everyone else's respect and become one of the strongest?!"

Aizen's speech nearly rocked me to my core... The constant baby talk from my sister, the belittlement of whenever I'm even a second late to something as if I don't even have my own life? It all has to end at some point, and I've got a feeling that this is it. Glancing at the badge, outside, and back to Aizen I feel my decision bubbling in my chest. Ready to burst out at any moment. "Aizen... Just tell me when to start."

---

Time skip: 3 weeks later. Pov: Sōsuke Aizen

"I have to say, I am greatly impressed with Spike's determination. There have been many times where I thought he'd give up and disappoint me but each and every time I stood corrected. No matter where or when we trained, he has the determination to pull through. Truly he was right to be my first choice of many. But today shall be the day I reveal myself to all of Ponyville and not be forced to hide myself any longer!" Even through my mental excavation of the past it still feels as if my plain beige colored room is shaking with my own anticipation.

"Around two weeks ago I had requested that my captor ask when a good time to reveal myself to the public would be. And I guess Twilight must've still felt vulnerable because she complied. Much to my pleasure. Not much time passed before Spike spat out a letter and handed it to Twilight, stating that I'd reveal myself during Nightmare Night. A holiday that shares uncanny similarities with Halloween. Both princesses wrote that they picked this because of the fact that every "pony" was expecting to already be scared and Luna would be joining Ponyville for the festivities to double as a monitor for my behavior."

Hoping off from my bed I walk past my desk and wardrobe that were two sizes too small for me. The desk and chair were more akin to a table. The wardrobe can't even fit my clothing into it. I had to implant a small (the incantation was actually complex) Bakudō spell into it so that I could reshape a barrier into spatial distortion magic. But besides those two things there's not much in my room except a window that I occasionally look out of.

Walking past those two objects I finally open my door and head downstairs for the first time during library hours, although it is getting close to 8:30 Pm which is when Nightmare Night begins but it still counts in my book. And purposely choose to just lounge around the ground floor, looking at different pieces of literature and sitting down to read them on a nearby sofa that was, again, too small for me, while the occasional pony walks in to check out or return a book. Making me the receiving end of weird looks and amazed ones as well due to the illusion that I'm actually wearing a costume early.

One such pony was a gray pegasus mare, pale yellow eyes, one of them seeming to be a lazy eye of sorts, and a dull lightish green mane and tail. She actually chose to speak with me much to my surprise. "Oh, hey there I've never seen a costume where anything even resembles whatever yours. Do you also have a really late book to check back in or something like that?" The mare asks me.

"I would be more surprised if you did see any costume that even resembles mine before meeting me. Then that'd imply that people were here before I was. And no I don't have an overdue book that I need to return. And who might you be, miss?" I retorted. Not really paying attention to the conversation at hand and staring all around the various shelves of books, counting them to pass the time.

The mare seems to be embarrassed that she didn't outright give me her name if the blush and constant kicking at the libraries' carpet was anything to go by, ponies always were sensitive to their emotions. Although the mare does manage to bypass her embarrassment and give me her name. "Sorry, that was rude of me. My name's Derpy, what's yours?"

Shaking my head I hold a neutral expression. "It's nothing to work yourself over, a simple mistake is all. And you may call me Sōsuke. So run along now little one, I'm sure you have much to do." Attempting to shoo the pegasus off quickly I gesture over to the counter where Twilight is nervously standing. I've seen her trying to keep an eye on me this entire time for the first time in public. Must be tough on her. Though caring about her situation is something different altogether. The pegasus however still gawks at me for a little while longer while giggling to herself before turning around and going to the librarian's counter with a book in her hooves, saying something about a "really creative Nightmare Night costume."

Soon enough though the library finally closes up. Twilight moves away from the counter and trots over to me with a sense of uncertainty looming over her. "Aizen, you promise to behave tonight, right? No funny business of any kind because the moment you do we'll get the elements and put you back into stone for good."

The room around us goes dead silent, the usual sound of wood being knocked on from the constant hooves clattering against the floor is no longer present. One second, two seconds, three seconds pass. After letting the tension marinate for a bit I nod my head excitedly. "I promise I'll be good for you Twilight, you've got absolutely nothing to worry about."

The lavender mare still seems to be uncertain but she walks back, giving me a passing glance as she walks upstairs to prepare for Nightmare Night. Spike descends down the stairs the exact moment his sister does. His demeanor is a total 180 from hers, showing ambition, confidence, and an overall relaxed state. Spike moves over to sit across from me with a knowing smile.

"So... Todays gonna be your big day, can't wait to see it all happen huh?" My newest companion asks me to which I strongly agree. "Of course, I know how to be patient, don't get me wrong Spike but sometimes I just wanna snap my fingers and leave." I gave him an informal answer. "After all he's been through, he deserves it. To be talked to as an equal..." Anyway Spike must've noticed my little shift in thought because he speaks up once more.

"Hey man, I know that today isn't one of those days to be stressed. So why don't we just kick back for a while and have fun?" Releasing a hefty sigh I nod my head. "Yeah I know, and I'll definitely try. For now though? Let's allow your little sister to take her sweet sweet time stressing out as you get into your 'costume,' yeah?" Spike, hearing me signal that it's about that time, becomes even more pumped up than he already was.

"It's about time for this! I don't know about you Aizen but I'm feeling something. Something different that I wasn't aware I could feel before. It's nice, if you get what I mean anyways." Spike, grabbing the medallion from his chest. Hops from the sofa and lets me receive the confidence he, oh so clearly, wishes to present to the entire world. Much to my internal amusement which I obviously do not let show.

Instead I tell him something that I truly believe in. "That my scaled friend is called 'freedom' and you best get used to it..." "Because you're gonna be experiencing it a lot more from now on." I whisper the last part under my breath. Spike must've heard me mumble something passed off him looking at me funny. Though he couldn't have heard the exact contents since he chose not to address it and instead continue with his process of getting his 'costume' on.

"Alright no more delaying this. For new days and new freedoms!" He takes a deep breath before blowing out a stream of fire into his palm and subsequently into the medallion. Within seconds green tendrils slowly extend from the substitute Arrancar badge and wrap around the adolescent dragon. Seeming like chains at first that tie him down, until they form into clothing. A long white robe appears on the dragon with black lining acting as a defining feature. Part of Spike's face is obscured by the green tendrils until it reveals several scale like bones running down both sides of his face. And lastly the green tendrils all gather up on Spike's right side of his waist and condense, forming a larger than normal tanto that has a sheath to encase it. With that, the medallion finally goes dormant once more, the green glow completely disappears.

Spike immediately starts stretching his limbs, several pops and cracks are heard coming from him. "Ah yeah, now that's the stuff. It's been too long since I last transformed like this." Howeer I correct him, being that smart ass that I am. "It's only been a day and a half since you've last transformed." But then I furrow my brows a bit and add. "Spike, aren't you forgetting something?" It only takes a second for him to understand and change his Reiatsu's flavoring and strength back to how it was previously.

Nervously chuckling he looks up at me, apologetically smiling. "My bad Aizen, I'm just so excited for today. I've got a feeling that literally nothing could go wrong." On cue Twilight starts stumbling back downstairs with a very anxious look on her face. Her entire backside of her withers is covered with a cloak of a familiar design, holding several shades of blue, hosting jingling golden bells on the bottom of the cloak. Along with a nice blue wizard's hat that matches her cloak. Although I do notice that she hastily puts on a long fake white beard around the bottom of her chin.

"Did you two feel that? It was like a small magic tremor in the air. I thought I felt that it originated down here." The nerdy mare's eyes specifically wander over to face me with an expectant look.

"I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about Ms. Sparkle but it most definitely wasn't me. Spike can vouch for that, right?" Not even having to look at Spike he repeatedly nods his head in response to my claim. "He's right, Twilight. I was down here watching Aizen the entire time and he kinda just sat there on the sofa, talking with me."

Twilight turns her head around to glare at Spike for even agreeing with me in the first place but gets surprised by his costume instead. "Excuse me Spike but.... What are you wearing right now?" Her stern voice carries through the air and Spike is about to open his mouth but a knock on the door is heard. Snorting Twilight passes by both of us, giving a "this isn't over" look. Although it's obvious that the both of us just don't care.

Watching his sister interact with the ponies at the door I face down towards Spike, doing a little hand gesture to signal for us to get out of here, obviously he agrees. Probably not wanting to face his sister's wrath. So both of us rush past Twilight, collectively saying. "Hey we're gonna go do some Nightmare Night stuff, byyyyyye." At inhumane speeds, (both for talking and running.) As we do this I see her look incredibly shocked for a moment before becoming understandably angry at us both.

After getting a sufficient distance away from her and running past several ponies. Spike and I decide to stop a good bit away from the library while laughing to ourselves. Having a bit of genuine fun while we were at it. "Oh dude, we've gotta do stuff like this more often." My apprentice happily tells me.

"Well hey, the night's still young and I doubt princess Luna is getting her anytime soon if she's the shut in, I remember. So why don't we go have a little bit of fun for a while?" Spike's immediate answer is to look around at all the passing citizens of Ponyville and whisper.

"What did you have in mind?"

---

Ten minutes later.

"So you know how I said that ponies were kinda soft? Yeah I take that back. On Nightmare Night they're an entirely different state of matter. Might as well be liquid, hold on though let me explain. So me and Spike went up to our first victim Nightmare night enthusiast who was around 21 or so years old, based off what I read from the Reiryoku that was inside her. Spike initiated the conversation and it went something like this."

---

Flashback, Spike's Pov: 10 minutes ago.

Listening to Aizen's plan made me realize something. This guy's a lot more carefree than I initially thought. His entire plan is just to try and scare other ponies the best way we can. I don't object though so I look around for our first target and spot Pinkie Pie. I had noticed she was staring a bit longer than other passersby's just like this other stallion who was wearing this weird white suit with a strange white hat on his head. He only stared at us both. So thinking he was creepy I instead approached my friend who probably needed a good scare. Signaling to Aizen that I was gonna try and scare her.

He immediately nodded his head so I approached the unsuspecting mare and waved at her. "Hey Pinkie Pie, long time no see. I was just wondering why you were staring at us both-" Yet the dragon's friend doesn't even let the substitute Arrancar even finish. Instead choosing to loudly scream that. "Two of Nightmare moon's minions are coming to eat us all!!!" Galloping off at a frightening pace that I doubt even I could keep up with. This also had the unwanted effect of making every pony within a mile radius, panic and run towards townhall, leaving me completely flabbergasted.

I turn around towards Aizen to try and get some sort of advice on what we should do next. Yet when I look at where he previously was I can already make out a small blurb in the distance that's heading off back to the library. Using one of the techniques he showed me while training, "flash steps" as he called them. Sighing I utilize after Aizen, quietly chuckling to myself.

---

Present, Pov: Sōsuke Aizen

Only choosing to slow down after we arrive back at the library we both come to a screeching halt. Spike takes a couple of breaths before angrily yelling at me. "C'mon dude you basically left me back to fend for myself." I put my hands up defensively and attempt to reason with him.

"Spike, listen, you're faster than any of those ponies... Besides that pink one, she's a true anomaly in the making. The point is, you can outrun any of those ponies that were scavenging for candy. I have faith in you, so have some faith in yourself." I do my best to dissuade discord from forming between us.

Shaking his head he dusts himself off and looks at me. Some disappointment is visible on him but he still shrugs his shoulders and looks around. "Well since Twilight's probably out looking for us, do you wanna see if we can prank any other ponies before she can find us?"

I stop for a minute and weigh our options here and who am I kidding? Of course we're going to still go prank some more feeble ponies. Yet I do sense something in the mists that's around us. They actually feel absurdly familiar, though I can't quite pinpoint. *Flap* *Flap* but based on the sounds of wings flapping I don't think I'll have to guess any longer.

"From what I've heard you two have made quite the mess." A chilling voice is heard from behind us. Spike is the first one to face the not-so mysterious voice, I soon follow thereafter. Both of us looked at the princess of the night, Luna.

"So not even a day passes whilst you have your 'freedoms' and you already ruined it." The mare, slightly taller than Spike, walks up to both of us with an expectant look on her face. And knowing Luna I know she wants something, she always liked to hang things over your head when she had something on you.

Crossing my arms I stare at the witch without a costume. "Why don't you cut to the chase already? What do you want from us?" Spike seems to be little confused from the situation. Still, I simply gesture for him to keep looking at her.

"Ah good, finally, now you know how it feels whenever you dance around a question Aizen." Rolling my eyes I let her continue. "You see what I need from you both is a performance. A performance to help me scare the townsfolk. Are you all in?"

I give her an annoyed glare, Spike however looks more docile. So I decided to speak up on both of our behalves. "We, under no circumstances will we be working for you!"

---

Six minutes later

"I can't believe you gave us no choice." I quietly mumble to myself as Spike, myself, and Luna all walk over to the middle of the Town and stand dead center. The alicorn only smiled from my despair as she constantly reminded me that she could use this as an excuse to imprison me again if I didn't comply. I didn't let that stop me from observing my surrounding though, I had already noticed the large compiled amounts of Reiatsu inside the Townhall itself though. Most likely the ponies that Spike had scared earlier.

Luna steps forwards and clears her throat before releasing a near deafening roar. "Citizens of Ponyville, come from thy's hiding space immediately, there is nothing for you all to fear!" Clutching my ears I try to and block out as much noise as possible. Spike almost immediately falls to the ground in pain.

"Fuck me Luna! Did you want the entire continent to hear you?!" I shout, unable to control my volume. But instead of answering me this asshole of a mare decides to go over to spike, light her horn, and heal his internal injuries. Automatically stopping the ringing within his ears. After a few minutes I suck it up and bite the metaphorical bullet as I watch dozens upon dozens of ponies flood outside of the townhall, some still clutching their ears while others seem to only be a little disorientated.

"Ponyville Citizens." Luna hastily starts off. "This here is a strange being that was only now implemented back into our society. Please welcome your newest resident, Sōsuke Aizen!" Not a singular peep is heard from the crowd and Luna's expression turns into one of anxiety... Just as we planned. "U-um, we can see how thou make taketh some time to get used to. But rest assured, we have closely monitored Sōsuke and thou is extremely well behaved." Her return back to having some bits being in old Equus is a nice touch. So I guess this is where we come into play. I glance at Spike and he sees my signal. Unsheathing both of our blades I call to mine. "Kyōka Suigetsu, come forth!" A clear purple panel breaks behind me as I start to activate its illusion capabilities on the mass of ponies that see us. But changed to be a bit more PG for the children.

---

3rd person.

The crowd was utterly horrified. What they saw was a dragon piercing the lunar princesses' barrel from underneath her without warning. The princess looks betrayed, shocked, and scared all the same. While the terrifying malformed minotaur walks closely towards her and stands directly in front of the mare, cupping their face before pushing them further back into the temporary undead's blade. Seemingly killing her.

---

Pov: Sōsuke Aizen

After seeing their live reactions all three of us sit down and have a pleasant time being outcasts. Luna still retained that rebellious side over all these years, it's nice to see she hasn't changed. All of us share a bit of common ground together while strengthening the bond between student and teacher, between me and Spike...

Author's Note:

Hey this is past Archiver, if this chapter came out late it was because I'm sick and I'm pretty sure it was due to someone giving me something. (It was a sinus infection, no antibiotics for me since it wasn't that strong). Besides all that I'm happy to say that this chapter is out at whatever time it's out and that Spike is a substitute Arrancar now. Crazy ain't it? But uh... Who dat pony who wearing that dapper outfit?

Comments

[Haver]

More good

[Starlight Nova]

I thought that the activation phrase for Kyōka Suigetsu was “Shatter,” not “Crumble.”

[Starlight Nova]

11695958
OK, now THAT is how you show someone.

[The Archiver]

11696003
It actually is but since this version of Aizen has the Hogyoku and kept his physical Zanpakuto it's now Crumble