Explaining
Sephiroth continued his escape through the Everfree Forest, eventually diving into the deepest trees. Recovering his energy through a few quick spells, he hid his sword and started walking.
Cloud had killed him. How? How could that inferior... human manage to do it? He didn't stress himself too much thinking about it though. His biggest question was how he had regenerated his original body. He could feel the power of the Jenova cells as they released their energy, so he was sure that he wasn't completely human.
He kept moving, stopping to slice through anything that dared get in his way, be the offenders ponies or some other form of monster. Their lives meant nothing to him.
After traveling for a while, he came across an odd stone structure. It almost looked like Stonehenge, except that in the center was a staircase leading into the ground. The structure resided in a clearing where sunlight could pierce through the dark trees.
Sephiroth slowly descended the staircase and looked around. The inside was dark, all except for the faint glow of green torches on the walls. "Fira," whispered Sephiroth, casting up a small ball of fire as light. He let the ball float next to him as he continued inside.
He seemed to be in a very long tunnel made completely of stone. A few odd carvings were etched into the walls, but Sephiroth ignored them, more curious about what could be deeper in the structure.
Finally, he came to a large room big enough to hold the entire Shinra army. He was surprised that the room seemed empty and dark, despite a strange buzzing sound that filled the air.
His first thought was, 'Giant bees.' He'd certainly seen stranger. He cast his ball of fire out into the room. As the fire sailed through the air, he could see the distinct forms of what looked like more ponies sticking to the walls. He saw that they all had insect-like wings and were full of holes through their bodies.
It didn't take long for the ball of fire to reach the end, striking something that wasn't rock. In fact, it almost looked like some sort of giant cocoon. The green shell jiggled a bit with the impact before coming to a complete halt. Inside, Sephiroth thought he saw something moving.
Before long, the sound of buzzing increased to a deafening noise, so much that Sephiroth had to cover his ears. When the buzzing died down, he found himself face to face with a large pony with wings and a horn. She looked like all the others that lined the walls. "Why have you come here, foolish creature?" asked the figure.
Sephiroth chuckled to himself at that last remark. He immediately struck out with his sword, attempting to slice the being in half with one blow. He stopped when he felt his blade come to a halt.
Looking where his blade had stopped mid-swing, he noticed a hoof that had caught his sword. Quickly, Sephiroth jumped back and launched three Firaga spells at the pony. She dodged the homing balls of fire easily and returned the blow to him, this time using green balls of pure magic.
Sephiroth had only a fraction of a second to guard. He did so, but was pushed back by the force behind the attack. Before the pony's magic could die out, he swung to send the balls back at her, causing them to find their mark and create a sizable explosion.
She cursed under her breath before surrendering, seeing his ability to stop her basic attacks. "So," she said in her sly voice. "Why have you come to the lair of the changelings?"
"I'm looking for Mother," he said, lying through his teeth. All he really cared about at this point was getting back to Gaia to settle his score with Cloud. His anger grew at the mere thought of the name. He was so close to gaining absolute power. To becoming a god. Now, he wanted -- no. Needed revenge.
The changeling couldn't help but laugh at his goal. She knew right away that it was a lie, so she decided to play off of it. "Well, we'll be happy to assist you," she said with a hiss. She could feel the energy leaking from his body. Or rather, the potential energy of magic. All she needed was some time to assimilate his form and power, and she could take revenge against Celestia for her banishment during Shining Armor and Princess Cadence's wedding.
Sephiroth smiled. Now he had another weapon he could use to help him escape this world. He planned to rob the changelings of their power to fuel a teleport back to Gaia(1). After all, materia held energy. Why couldn't he? Little did he know, the changelings were going to use him too.
"So then, lord..."
"Sephiroth," he replied, his head already overflowing with ideas. He paused for a moment to analyze the tone of the strange, insect-like pony. It seemed suspicious, so he stored it in the back of his mind.
"Sephiroth, what would you have us do?"
"There's a type of magic that I'm sure has arrived in your world recently. I need it."
"What is this magic you speak of?" asked Chrysalis curiously.
"Materia."
/)*#*(\
Twilight awoke in her bed the next morning. She was sure that all she had experienced was just some sort of lucid dream and that no ponies had died. She especially hoped that those two creatures weren't real. She'd never seen anything like them, so it peaked her curiosity. "I guess if it was only a dream, then there's nothing I can do about it," she sighed to herself pleasantly.
As she tried to turn over, she felt a nasty head ache. She let herself go limp, attempting to fall back asleep and gain the comfort of rest. "Spike," she managed slowly. "Will you get me some aspirin?"
No response. "Spike? You there?" Finally, she heard someone coming up the stairs. The footsteps are heavier though, she thought. Finally managing to turn herself completely over despite the pain, she couldn't believe who she saw standing at the top of the stairs holding a plate of pancakes in one hand and a plate of eggs and toast in the other.
"Morning," Zack said, setting the plate of eggs and toast on the side table next to her bed. "How are you feeling?"
"I- but you- and the dream and- but... what?" was all Twilight could manage as she took in the bipedal form standing in front of her bed.
"Yeah yeah, I know. It was just some crazy dream, right?" As she looked him over more closely, she noticed that he didn't have his sword on his back. "Listen, you probably have a terrible headache right now, but don't worry. I brought up that aspirin like you asked."
Without giving him another chance to talk, Twilight quickly sat up and used her magic to levitate him off the ground and slam him into the wall, ignoring the pain in her head. "What have you done with Spike?!" she yelled, fearing the worst for her baby dragon.
"Relax! He's fine!" yelled Zack back. "When I brought you here yesterday, he met me at the door. Trust me, he's fine!" repeated Zack desperately. As Twilight continued to glare at him, he asked, "Can you please set me down, now?" It took a second, but Twilight slowly lowered him to the floor. She kept a cautious stare at him and, just to be safe, she kept a small amount of magic in her horn for instant use.
She flopped back down onto the bed, levitating a small white tablet of aspirin and a glass of water over to her. After swallowing the medication, she turned to Zack. "So who are you? Who was that other thing?"
"Looks like I have some explaining to do." He sighed with annoyance. "I'm Zack, SOLDIER first class. That man that tried to burn down this town was Sephiroth, a traitor to SOLDIER. I guess I'm no better. I deserted them too, though I didn't go around killing every innocent person I saw, or pony in this case."
"What are you?" asked Twilight inquisitively.
"Like I said, I'm a SOLDIER," he responded.
"No, I heard that," protested Twilight. "I meant, what species are you? I've never seen anything like you before."
"Oh," uttered Zack in understanding. "I'm a human from a planet called Gaia."
"A human?"
"Exactly," said Zack. "Do you have any monkeys on this world?"
"Yeah, we do," replied Twilight.
"Then that makes this easy. A scientist theorized that we evolved from them."
"Weird," said Twilight to herself. "So what are you doing here?"
"That's what I want to know. I thought I was killed, but then I woke up to you holding me down in the middle of a fire." Twilight blushed in embarrassment at her actions. "So what's your story? Where am I?"
"You're in Ponyville, a town in the land of Equestria. Well, to be precise, you're in my library."
"Well, that would explain all the books," chuckled Zack. "Hey, when I appeared, you wouldn't happen to have seen a couple strange colored marble-like objects around me did you?"
"Well, not around you, though over the past few months, they've been showing up all over Equestria," responded Twilight, shocked to hear the human in front of her mention the magically charged crystals so suddenly. "The group of ponies that found them discovered that they contained magical properties, so some unicorns in Canterlot are currently trying to harness the magical power inside of them." That was music to Zack's ears. Materia had made it there! Not only that, it had been there for a few months. No doubt some of it had already developed from a little use. With any luck, he could find one that had been maxed out in power.
Twilight noticed the distant look on Zack's face as he pondered the thought of getting better materia. "So, I'm Twilight. Twilight Sparkle." Speaking to him seemed to break his trance.
"Oh, so that's what your name is. Hey, this is probably an awkward question, but could I stay here for a few nights? I just kind of showed up, so I don't have anywhere to stay," said Zack.
"I don't see why not," replied the purple alicorn, levitating the breakfast over to her. She took a bite of a piece of toast and swallowed it before saying, "You saved me, didn't you? Plus, you don't seem as bad as that other human. Maybe I could set this place up as a 'base of operations' for you."
"What makes you think I need a base?" asked Zack as he raised an eyebrow.
"Well, you said you're a soldier, and you seem to be wearing clothing fit for infiltration." Zack's jaw dropped as he realized just how right the purple pony was.
"You're pretty good," he replied, dumbfounded, "but I don't think I need some kind of military set up here. I don't even have the equipment I would need."
"Oh, okay," replied Twilight. "So if you're going to stay here, what's your plan?"
"I'm not sure. Sephiroth is extremely dangerous, so I've got to stop him before he can do any more damage. I just wish I had all of my equipment."
"Well, there may be a remedy for that. Ow," said Twilight, rubbing her temples with her hooves. "I can't think straight with this headache. Let's sleep for now, all of us, then I'll talk more when we wake up."
"I can't just sit here while I wait for Sephiroth to build his own strength. I gotta do something," protested Zack impatiently.
"Talk to Spike when wakes up then. *YAWN* I'm sure he'll have some good ideas." With that, Twilight turned over and closed her eyes, using all the energy she could to cast a sleeping spell on herself. "Oh, and thanks for the breakfast," she managed to say. Zack smiled to himself.
He began to move to the stairs, which he descended into the main room. From there, he made his way into the kitchen and began to clean up, putting away dishes after he washed them. After he was done, he pulled a few history books off of the shelves and began to read. He figured that if he was going to be stuck in this world for a while, then he might as well learn while he was here.
After reading for a few hours, he heard Spike come down the stairs, followed by a gasp at who he saw sitting on the couch, reading "Equestria: A History." "I- but you- and the dream and- but... what?" he said, echoing Twilight exactly.
"It's fine," replied the SOLDIER from the couch. "Twilight is upstairs sleeping. She saved me yesterday, but I think she used too much magic. That's how unicorns work right?" Spike sighed in relief before he nodded and walked towards the couch to sit by Zack, recalling the previous day's issue.
As Spike jumped up next to him, Zack began to ask him a few questions about Ponyville. He asked what places there were to eat at, where he could practice and train, and the best places to find materia that he could use. That last one stumped Spike for a few minutes, but he finally came out with an answer.
"Those are the weird, ball shaped ones, right?" he asked. Zack nodded, so Spike added, "I bet Rarity would have some. She's always a had a knack for finding gemstones. She's gotta have one or two."
"So where does this 'Rarity' live?" asked Zack.
"She sure is.(2)" It took a second but Spike suddenly exclaimed, "Oops," and quickly added, "I mean, she lives near the edge of town near the fields. I'll take you to her shop if you'd like."
"That would be great, Spike," said Zack with a smile.
"Okay then, follow me." With that, Spike jumped from his place on the couch and began to walk toward the door. Before Zack followed him, he closed the large tome he was reading, set it on the table, and grabbed his sword from next to the kitchen door, latching it to his back and locking the massive weapon in place with a clicking sound.
He then followed Spike out of the front door, stepping into the bright sun of Ponyville. He couldn't help but feel a rock drop in his stomach as he looked around at the burned buildings, their walls weakened from the flames that scored their surfaces the day before. He could see nearly one hundred worker ponies fixing the walls as fast as they could, but their progress was slow moving.
Spike and Zack made their way toward the Carousel Boutique, eager to see how Rarity was doing after the colossal fire the day before. Every now and again, Spike would stop to introduce Zack to the ponies that he saw every day. It seemed to Zack to be more of a way to take one's mind off of the events of the previous day than anything. But instead, he received some scared looks from the ponies he encountered.
When they finally arrived outside of Rarity's store, they couldn't help but become saddened as they looked at the burned window frames and outer walls. Thankfully, the fire hadn't gotten inside. However, the damage to the outside made up for the cleanliness of the inside.
As Spike and Zack walked through the door, they found Rarity making dresses as usual, wearing her red rimmed glasses and working furiously to fill an order that she seemed to be behind on. She looked up to see her visitors and said, "Oh, Spike! What a pleasant surprise! How are you doing?" she asked as she stopped her sowing and turned to face her guests head on. When she saw Zack, she added, "And who might you be?"
"My name is Zack," he introduced himself.
"My friend here was wondering if you had found any of those weird crystals around," said Spike casually.
"Why yes, actually," said Rarity. "I found a rather good sized stash of them not too far from here. Here are some of them that I gathered." Rarity used her magic to open one of her chests of jewels on the opposite side of the room, drawing out three round materia crystals before levitating them into Zack's hands; fire, ice, and bolt. Each one was the first level of their spells, but Zack didn't care. Magic was magic no matter the mood, and they would grow after enough use.
He immediately equipped the fire and bolt spells to the free slots in his buster sword, stashing the ice materia in his seemingly bottomless pocket. He always wondered why he could hold so much without adding more weight or shape to his person. Rarity immediately noticed the small capacity for materia that Zack could use at a time. "You know," she began with a smile, "I could make something to hold another of those with you at a time. I tried to use one, and I found it harder to use when it was in my saddle bag."
"That'd be great!" replied Zack, eager to try them out.
"However, it they are to be used in combat, you would need something sturdy that wouldn't come off during battle. You seem like the adventurous type if nothing else, so I'll need something like leather or nylon that could take some abuse. I don't have any at the moment, but I'm getting a shipment of some soon. However, if you're willing to look for the components for it, I could make you an outfit that is much stronger and that could protect you far more than a silly armlet." Zack thought about this for a minute.
"What 'components' do you need?" he asked. Rarity turned around and trotted back to her table. Taking a pencil in her magic grip, she started listing several items on a slip of paper, pausing every now and again to think before quickly jotting down more notes. After several minutes, she set down the pencil and returned to Zack, levitating the slip of paper over to him. He took it out of mid-air before glancing at it.
"Those are the materials I would need to make the outfit." Zack stared in awe at what was required. Dragon scales? The shredded skin of a hydra? Leaves from a plant called nirnroot? And those were only the first three. The list had about 15 different odd pieces ranging from magic infused diamonds to electricity charged cloud tufts. To Zack, it looked more like a list of ingredients to a witch's potion than anything else.
"Wow," he said. "This is gonna take some time to get. I don't even know where half of this stuff is."
"I'm sure you can find most of those things in the Everfree Forest. If you ask Twilight, I'm sure she would give you a map of the known area. But I'll warn you," she said with a darker tone, "that place is dangerous. Tread lightly."
"Right," said Zack nervously as he put the list away as well. Rarity gave him a smile when she thought he had understood before giving him more information.
"If you want to get your hands on more of those crystals, go to Canterlot. The unicorns there have nearly figured them out, so you might be able to get some."
"Alright. I'll head there some time," he replied. "Spike, we should probably head back to Twilight. She might be up by now and I could get some more info from her."
"Gotcha," said the baby dragon. "Thanks, Rarity."
"It has been my pleasure," said Rarity as she dipped her head slightly.
"Well, we'd better get going," said Spike as he gestured to the door. "Come on, Zack." With that, Zack pushed open the door as he and Spike began making their way back to the library, continuing to stop every now and again so that Spike could introduce Zack to more ponies along the way.
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meh its good but its not for me good luck my firend
2300477
Thanks.
Sorry but The ponies shouldn't even understand most of the things that are going on and separoth does not grimace he only remains stoic and smiles when he's about to kill or is in a fun fight. not to mention I would suspect zecora of having the idea's for the expansion slots not rarity... sorry but I cant continue this even if it is good and has characters I like.
good luck.
2304950
I understand what you're saying about Sephiroth. The main reason I'm having trouble with his portrayal is because his appearances in FF7 are few and far between, apart from the end. He was explained more in FF7 Crisis Core, though I only got to play the game once. Thanks for the feedback though. I'll try to go off of that. Also, Rarity has had a lot of experience with enchanting jewels and, as such, has gained some experience with binding them and their power to other items. Also, everypony is freaking out about Sephiroth's appearance, but we're not focused on everypony right now; we're focused on Zack and Twilight. Again, thanks for the feed back. It's much appreciated.